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Greatest commentators ever The guy who did the Chicago NWA matches in the 50s/60s Lance Russel Tony Schiavone Ed Walen

It's just such a ridiculous thing to say because in the same little interview he brings up the Dusty and Dustin and Cody legacy with the match. That's a lot of AEW shit I guess, though. Want to do as many JCP/Dusty/WCW things and nostalgia as possible but don't want people to think they're just strip mining all of Dusty's ideas at the same time.

Could have sworn there was a long stretch on the internet where Natalya was hyped up as an all time great female worker

I would put Tully/Arn in my top 20, top 10 if I could include them as one entry.

Jericho doing some great media work this week First saying they shouldn't be doing an invasion angle with TNA, but should be doing it with NJPW. They shouldn't be doing an "invasion" angle at all. It's talent exchange and for mutual benefit, not something to win, but also pretty poor form for one of your top stars to openly shit on a partnered promotion and want to be working with a different one instead. Then saying Blood and Guts definitely isn't War Games, they can't go back to those matches to look for inspiration because there's never been a Blood and Guts match, which definitely isn't War Games and they're not calling it Blood and Guts because of trademarks and copyrights with War Games, but because it's a unique thing that's never been done before.

His TNA run is excellent and that WWECW and beyond run doesn't exist without it. Christian vs Monty Brown Turning Point 2005 Christian vs Jeff Jarrett Against All Odds 2006 Christian vs Abyss Lockdown 2006 Christian vs AJ Styles Genesis 2006 Christian vs Abyss vs Sting Turning Point 2006 and Final Resolution 2007 Christian vs Kurt Angle Against All Odds 2007 Christian vs Joey Samoey Destination X 2007 Basically without exaggeration, almost all of his singles/triple threat PPV matches in TNA are worth watching outside of some of the extra gimmicky multi man matches that are skippable in general. Dude's run in TNA was every bit as good as his return to WWE. I think he actually has better matches with Joe and Angle than they had against each other, great matches with AJ, carrying Sting to probably his best TNA matches. Definitely at least watch Christian vs Kurt/AJ/Joe matches.

Steve Austin had gigged in the past, but not bladed. A very distinct distinction, you see, so Bret is correct.

There's all these Tiger Mask matches and Misawa is throwing the weakest, shittiest, most awkward looking elbows and it is so bizarre every time.

What I remember of the WK tag was Nakamura absolutely smoking him with a wheel kick or some shit that looked absolutely gnarly

What's the last great Misawa match?

Was there any specific reason why Baba never had Jumbo get a win over him, even as Jumbo was very clearly the ace as early as like 1980-1982?

I don't think this was particularly good. In fact, I'd say it completely falls apart in the second half, with frequently blown spots and miscommunications. Just real ugly, which sometimes can be great and work to a match's benefit, but I don't believe it did in this match. I'm also annoyed that, much like the Killer Khan match, the build up that seemed like it would be involved in the match is nowhere to be found. In the Khan match, it was Khan spending an entire month literally trying to hang Choshu with a noose on every show and then they have a death match where the noose doesn't make an appearance at all. In the case of this match, Choshu's ribs are all busted up because Tenryu beat the shit out of him with a chair a few days prior, and for it to end in a DQ and have a post match angle but no chair from Choshu bugged me. I would recommend it in that it's a pretty interesting spectacle match in a way that not many other matches are on AJPW at the time, but it's not even close to the best singles match either guy had in 1986. It's also not the best match they had against each other, either in a singles or tag. It's not even the best match they had against each other in 1986.

There's some real interesting discussion back in 2015 about who viewed who as heel or face in the 90s and it is pretty baffling to me. I've never even seen discussion that Misawa was a heel, or Kawada was a face. Granted, I did not have much puro exposure in the 90s as all this stuff was actually happening. However I did know most big names from video games and a handful of tapes in the early 00s before it became much easier to see stuff online. But even then I knew Misawa was the super face and Kawada (and Taue) was a real dick head, grumpy heel. But just because a wrestler is a heel doesn't mean they can't have a chase and have fans think it is cool when they achieve their goal. Particularly in puro, where heel wrestlers generally aren't cartoonishly evil guys like they were in American wrestling for so long. Kawada finally being Misawa is a lot different than say, the Million Dollar Man buying the WWF Championship. Tiger Misawa mostly sucks, tbh. Starts off pretty hot with some lucha dudes to make him look great, then he goes on a years stretch of mostly bland boring shit with the occasional burst of someone pissing him off and getting some fire out of him. As he bulks up to heavyweight, he's even slower and more bland for quite a while. There's no way anyone watching Tiger Mask Misawa could see that guy and think future GOAT. Except Baba, I guess.

I have trouble watching Tana these days because he's so hobbly and broken down, but Jay White-O has been a revelation in the past year after everything finally started to click for him. However, it also feels like there's been 200 Tana/White matches in the past 2-3 years. I bet Shingo/Ospreay was a lot of fun.

My thought was more there wouldn't be a Val Venis because Rick Rude would have been doing that gimmick and role.

Wow this mf really gonna talk about The Juice like that? Phil ain't juicy.

He's so good in 1992 that it's really hard to figure out why he could never fully pull it together before or after. Not that he was bad by any means. Even in his early Memphis days where he was so young his voice would still occasionally crack during promos, he was obviously very talented and had a ton of potential, but it never really fully came together as "oh shit this guy is fucking amazing" type performances until that period in WCW. If I had to guess, it was probably because he was able to rely on the gimmick and schtick more than having to worry about the ring work, and the WWF just simply wasn't doing the type of matches he would be doing in WCW in the Watts era. Even by 1993 he's not a shell of himself, but he's definitely not the same worker he was in 1992. I guess it was probably the first neck injury that kept him out of action from the end of December 92 through March or so 1993? I do wonder what could have been had his career not ended when it did. Gotta feel like he would have had a real strong run in the Attitude Era as ultra raunchy version of his established character. Basically the ECW Rick Rude if he could still work. I do really enjoy his matches with Steamboat and Jake in the WWF, though. Although the Jake ones are really completely because of Jake, and the Steamboat matches are very very different to the WCW matches, the iron man which is maybe the most perfect encapsulation of what American pro wrestling is. An absolute master class in what a heel is, what a face is, what selling is, what psychology is, what selling is. Anyone in the industry should study it, anyone wanting to explain wrestling to a non fan should show it.

He's been better the past 5-6 years than previous 15, imo. Really fucking hated that super long Okada match, though.

Regal was always a delight his entire WCW run. Didn't matter if it was 10-15 minute TV draws, 20 minute PPV matches, or 2-3 minute matches on Nitro. Even his not so healthy period in WCW is still a treat to watch him in nothing matches against nothing talents. I wish there was more of a premium on good TV matches in WWE during his time, as there was a good 5 year chunk where he was featured constantly but rarely got more than 5 minutes in the ring when the roster was so incredibly stacked and it's a real bummer. So many classics he could have had. It's really not until he gets moved to Smackdown in 2005/2006 that he's able to start really having some quality matches again, most of them all also involving Benoit or Finlay. I'm also still baffled at a Bluebloods reunion on Smackdown in 2006/2007.

Lol that match would have sucked. Maeda almost assuredly would have sandbagged Jumbo the whole match.

The real interesting thing about King to me, promo wise, is how completely different his face and heel promos were. Most of the big names when you think of top promo guys generally kept the same energy as heels or faces (thinking of the Hogans, Flairs, Savages, Pipers, Austins, Rocks), but Lawler's heel and face promos are so far apart in both energy and tone that it might as well be two different guys. The only others I can think of that can really flip the switch so drastically are Foley and Terry Funk, who depending on if they were heel or face could be either a shrieking insane person or kindly friendly grandpa type who wouldn't hurt a fly. King's heel promos were ultimate cheap heat corny as hell almost whiny shitbag, but his face promos were just normal guy casually talking like a regular human.

Jumbo has his best matches with Flair, Harley, Bock, Hansen/Brody (singles and tags), as well as some classics with Kerry, Martel, and the Funks during the 1981-1984 period. Anyone thinking that was a stale or boring time for Jumbo or AJ is a stupid shit. He has more classics in that period than he does during the Choshu period.

I just found out there was a Terry Funk vs Lou Thesz match from 1975 that I desperately wish existed on tape somewhere

It really is absolutely nuts how many all timers and promotions he worked. Almost every major champion from every major company from the mid 60s up to the late 90s and a few guys who who would be come champions into the mid 00s or even up to this year. He worked with or against every NWA Champion from Kinski through the end of the WCW/NWA relationship (and also Lou Thesz and Pat O'Connor, as well as a number of the post WCW and TNA era guys) He worked with or against every WWE Champion from Bruno through DiBiase, as well as Bret/Sid/Foley/Austin/Taker/Nash/Rock/HHH/Bradshaw/Eddie/Benoit/Punk/Edge, as well as a battle royal with Show/Mark Henry/Lashley/Kurt Angle. He worked with literally almost every single AWA Champion besides Verne, Mr. Saito, and Larry Z. He worked with nearly every ECW Champion besides Mikey Whipwreck. He worked with or against every Triple Crown holder from Jumbo all the way through Muta in 2002 with Hashimoto being the first guy to hold the Triple Crown that he didn't work at some point. Despite very rarely working NJPW, he still worked with or against nearly all the people who would hold the title from 1987 to 2000. The only handful of guys he never seemed to match up with at some point were Randy Savage (although he did face both Angelo and Lanny), Rick Rude, HBK, Hashimoto, and AJ Styles. Terry Funk seriously has matches that range from Lou Thesz to Steve Austin to CM Punk to Tomohiro Ishii. There's probably never been a guy in wrestling that has worked with as many father/son duos in the history of pro wrestling. He worked all 3 generations of Ortons. Dusty and Dustin. Gory and Chavo/Mando/Eddie Guerrero. Larry and Curt Hennig. Eddie and Mike Graham. Fritz and Kerry/David/Kevin. Blackjack Mulligan and Barry Windham. Peter Maivia, Rocky Johnson, and The Rock. The entire Armstrong clan. Johnny and Greg Valentine. Tommy, Eddie, and Doug Gilbert. Jerry Lawler and Brian Christopher. Boris Malenko and Dean/Joe. Mike and Ted DiBiase.

I feel like there being defined sections of his career where he's working very different styles at a very high level in various stages of his career should be a plus, not a negative. Not just for him, but for anyone, really.