joeg

The other day I was thinking of something, if a heel either from a coastal city or from the UK, ripped into each city, not at the shallow levels we are used to heels ripping into towns, but at a deeper level. A heel goes in and says your sports team sucks, the crowd might cheer in agreement. But if a heel goes and cuts a promo about local systemic problems of a city or a region and really rips the city and its residents a new asshole it would be interesting... I don't think anybody has ever done that and I think it would get incredible heat. Like if a heel goes to Detroit and cuts a promo saying that 50 years ago the largest employer in the country was Ford paying a livable wage, but now its Wallmart paying a slave wage. And that his german car cost more than the average row home in Detroit. Then went on to talk shit about everything going on with Flint. That could get somebody stabbed on the way out the building. Or if the heel were to come to DC and cut a promo on the gentrification occuring currently in the city and how the city has the greatest income inequality of any city in the country. Those are just examples, but you get the idea

Smackdown 2002-2004ish is probably my favorite WWE stretch that I can remember. So I wouldn't mind a brand split. Gives a chance for some of the younger guys to get over the way Smackdown got Angle, Lesnar, Benoit, Edge, Eddy, Cena, and Mysterio over.

I'm not trying to troll or cause shit. I just don't see this first month as a strong attempt to set Styles up in a position to succeed. I've laid out why I feel that way. A feud with Jericho didn't do anything to get people over in the recent past, if anything it hurt their push. The feud with Jericho has no heat to it. Once Cena and Rollins and whoever else come back, Styles becomes the #5 or #6 babyface. Whereas if he debuted heel by doing something like beating the shit out of an over babyface there wouldn't be as much possiblity for him to get lost in the shuffle. In part because there isn't as much depth on the heel side. He has already lost and his finisher has already been kicked out of. His first announced PPV match was announced less than a week before the PPV. We are less then a month out from Mania, 3 matches have been announced. If/when he gets over, its because he's AJ Styles. Not because they gave him some monster main event push out of the gate. They gave him a half hearted, mid card push out of the gate.

After his incredible heel run in NJ, I would have thought that they would have brought Styles in to be a top heel to feed to Cena or Reigns or whoever. Instead they have positioned him to be at best the #5 babyface. This is my point.

I really, really enjoyed him before all the knee injuries in the early 2000s. All the injuries made him less mobile. He bumped really well prior to all those injuries. Even now in his mid 40s with two bad knees he still has had some great matches. The match vs Bryan was probably my favorite of 2014. The Cactus Jack feud was amazing. Good to great matches with Foley, Austin, Rock, Taker, Benoit, Orton, Angle, Cena, and HBK.

Multiple good to great matches with Hogan, Jim Duggan, Edge, Lesnar, HHH, Shawn Michaels, Foley, Bret, Batista, Kane, Orton and Angle. And a really good match with Punk. For the better part of a decade the biggest draw in wrestling has been Undertaker's yearly appearance at Mania. More times than not is a pretty good match. Even the recent Mania matches with all their excess have been fun. So yeah, he's on my list.

Every guy Jericho feuded with in the past 5-6 years came out way worse off then they went in the feud with Jericho. Don't know how or why that happens it just does. They aren't setting Styles up in a position to draw money for them. They are setting him in a position where they can say "well we tried, we put the IC title on him off the bat and it just never worked out" Am I wrong or instead of funneling in crowd noise during his entrance like they do with a lot of people, they are tuning crowd noise down, the way CMLL does for some reason? At Fastlane, his first PPV match, his finisher was kicked out of.

I've been thinking for awhile now, wouldn't the best thing for Reigns at this point be to win the title and turn heel for awhile? Feud with Brock and/or Cena as a heel champ? Then come back as a face feuding with a mid card heel like Owens before going back into the title picture as a baby face 18 months now? Thats pretty much how the Rock got over right?

It kind of reminds me of Luger and Scott Steiner and how they never really reached main event level when I was kid. They got monster pushes and then stuff just got in the way and they never really won the matches they needed to win to get over or certain people made them look bad in certain matches which hurt their push. And they never ended up drawing the money they were capable of.

I stand by the statement they don't want Styles to get over. They signed him to see some New Japan/ TNA guy fall on his face, not to have him make money. He's already lost in a singles match. His finisher has been kicked out of. Everything about his Jericho feud is shit, there is absolutely no heat in it at all. They have pointed out how short and how southern Styles is in the first month. Two things that if you want him over, you don't fucking point out. If you want somebody to get over do you put them on TV within a million miles of the Miz or the the crew from the social outcast? They've spent the entire first month making him to be some mid card guy. Every time they mention his accomplishments else where, Cole or Jericho or whoever deminishes those accomplisments. None of those things is something that you do if you want to make a guy successful. They see him as a midcard guy, they have spent the past month treating him as a midcard guy. his career there will be as a midcard guy.

I really think WWE only wants HHH, Lesnar, Cena, and Undertaker to be over at this given time. Its been obvious for awhile they don't want Reigns over. They don't want Styles over. Just compare Styles' first month in WWE to his first month in NJPW. Its night and day.

I always find the finishes to his matches (win or lose) to be very clever. There is always a clever little sequence at the end of his matches that sort of seperates him from other guys. An example would be when he grabbed Rey's mask mid 619. I can't think of a bad Jericho match.

I don't know, I have Hogan in my top 20, so I might have you beat.

he's had a lot of really great matches this decade in front of some really small crowds.

Yep. He's currently in the 70s.

I haven't seen that match in probably 5 years. Wasn't there another match he had in 99 with TK that was awesome? I remember my favorite match of his being his first match with Han (94ish?, definately before he fought Rickson). It was like he was the Kikuchi or Ricky Morton of RINGS going against Han in that match and with each match against Han or Tamura you could see him progressing, moving up the ladder becoming closer to their level.

Yamamoto was my favorite Volk Han opponent by far. He was just such a great fiery young underdog vs Han.

Rogers, Thez, Robinson, Pat O'Connor, Ray Stevens, Wahoo, Pat Patterson, Verne Gange, The Destroyer, Jack Briscoe, MS-1, and Sangre Chicano are all guys without a lot of matches from their prime floating around on the internet who are on my ballot. How many matches of a guy do you need to see to need to see to know a guy is good? I think 1 to know he's good and maybe a half dozen or so to know how good. As for guys in their prime. I think right now Cena, Lesnar, Styles, and Nakamura are all in their prime. All are on my list. Okada hasn't even reached his prime I don't think and he's probably on it. CM Punk and Danielson walked away in their prime and they are on it.

Kind of surprised nobody picked Inoki vs Saito Desert Island Deathmatch

RVD first one that comes to mind. He just oozed that cool confidence. He might have been the only guy in ECW who wasn't a good promo. Also the Von Erichs. They were tall, hansom, hometown heros. Also stuttering train wrecks on promos.

Danielson, Cena, Brock, Punk, maybe Styles, Japan wise... Nakamura, Tajiri, maybe Okada, maybe Takeshi Ono

Neither guy is going to be making my list. But I'd take Necro by a mile over Super Dragon.

Was there live. great match. And as great as it was I would say it was probably the 3rd best Danielson match I've seen live.

Whats the weight limit going to be? What was a cruiserweight 20 years ago is the average size for guys in WWE/NXT right now.

David Von Erich Kind of Surprised he isn't nominated. 3 matches- 7/4/83 Von Erichs vs Freebirds http://prowrestlingonly.com/index.php?/topic/31906-six-man-tag-team-champions-fabulous-freebirds-vs-von-erichs-wccw-7483-2-out-of-3-falls/ 2/18/83 Von Erichs vs Freebirds http://prowrestlingonly.com/index.php?/topic/31903-fabulous-freebirds-vs-von-erichs-wccw-21883-lumberjack-match/ 8/15/83 Von Erichs vs Gordy and Garvin http://prowrestlingonly.com/index.php?/topic/31917-gorgeous-jimmy-garvin-terry-gordy-vs-kevin-david-von-erich-wccw-81583-2-out-of-3-falls/