strobogo

Ok. 1984 to 1989. Also 1990. And 1991. And 1992. And 1993. Every year is great if you have the right attitude. But I have a bad attitude and I'm going to say whatever the Guest Host Raw era was was dreadful worldwide, too.

I feel like the greatest eras have to be 1984-1988 and like 1996-1998, globally each time.

Ted is too good to not have more great matches to his record. It's kind of weird. He does everything right, he's very good to great at everything he does, he worked with some of the greats in the US and Japan, but I can't think of many or any truly great DiBiase matches. I think his character work outshines his ring work especially in America, both in Mid South and as the Million Dollar Man. He has what feels to be 50 matches against Tenryu and I have no idea why Baba kept booking it because they had next to no chemistry. The Hansen/DiBiase team was probably more consistently solid than Hansen/Brody, but he certainly did not bring anything extra out of Hansen like Brody did. I think the matches of his I enjoy the most are Mega Powers vs DiBiase/Andre at Summerslam 1988, Macho vs DiBiase at the SNME right before WM 4 where they basically did the entire WM match but it was much better than it was at WM, a Bret vs Ted in 1991 at MSG, and a whole gang of real fun stuff on Mid South TV in 82/83.

I feel like pretty much all NWA champs that I've seen from Thesz/Dory/Harley/Terry/Flair all probably gave too much to their opponents. Brisco, too, in the few NWA Championship matches I've seen with him. I suppose that's because they're almost always in the role of a heel or heelish going up against whatever territory's top face.

When I was a youngster, god damn did Harley bore me. Thought this dude could not have been more boring and ancient as a manager in WCW and anytime I'd see old matches I couldn't believe how slow and boring he was at everything. Of course I was a dumb kid. Harley rules. There are so many small things he did so perfectly. Like his knee drops. Those things look fucking brutal every time. Much, much more violent and brutal but also simpler than the Flair/HHH roll through type. Also the classic 70s style punch through/off your chest that looks like a million bucks every time. But the thing that has really stood out to me over the past few years is that dude took the flattest back bumps possible damn near every time, for every bump, for every opponent, on every move. It's almost like magic. It's almost cat like, except for landing completely flat on your back. It's really just fascinating to me for whatever reason. I also see now that he was basically the Kurt Angle of his time in terms of GO GO GO borderline spotfests, and also Flair took most of his spots for himself. I've seen a lot of good-great Harley matches in the past 4-5 years. Really enjoy his work now and he'll definitely get a spot somewhere on my list.

Good point

Yeah definitely lucha brawls are the vast bulk of lucha I've liked, but also some of the weirdo technical stuff and guys like El Canek/Dos Caras in Japan in the 70s/80s, and of course the WCW cruiser crew. It also could be most full lucha shows I've seen are AAA shows and they're the either absolutely horrible or hilariously sloppy in ring and production wise. I've liked a lot of lucha guys doing good lucha things outside of lucha. It's definitely a big blind spot for me.

I left out the second part I meant to type out which was that it's such a broad scope that it could include every type of wrestling, including lucha.

I don't need stuff to look "real", but I do need things to feel like a real contest and struggle as opposed to holding hands doing stunts, which is why I've never given lucha a fair shake because every time I do tune in, it's the most messy and choreographed nonsense and I hate it. Which is certainly not to say I haven't seen good lucha matches or great lucha guys.

Even if they did it to the guys it's pretty wtf. This is a billion dollar, publicly traded company. I think you can be assured the NBA or Google do not throw shit in trash bags and mail people their stuff.

It really sucks that NJ kept him at such a mid card role for so long after his return to the company. He should not have been in the tag/NEVER netherrealm for the majority of his time back with the company. Even if you didn't know his career was going to end in 2017, he came back in 2012 and it was 5 years before he got to an IWGP match. It didn't at all feel like he was rising up the ranks but that he was still being punished/humbled for leaving in 2004.

On a very low key level, La Parka vs Disco Inferno from Superbrawl 1998 is one of my favorite WCW undercard PPV matches. Shit really came out of nowhere and had absolutely no reason to be as good or as fun as it was. Lucha in general is a very huge blindspot so for me I've really only seen his WCW (and I guess ECW) work, and a handful of post-WCW fat bloody guy throwing hands and chairs and he's still a favorite of mine. Gotta dig into more of his work.

I've come to really enjoy him (and Ishikawa). Just consistently fun mid card dudes being angry and hitting hard usually in short matches that don't wear out their welcome and are able to keep up the energy. Neither belong on a top 100 list, but both would make a top 100 mid carders list.

If Ishii is roiding he's not doing it right

Imagine any other publicly traded company doing something like this

Low Ki easily I blame Aries' rise for a lot of the issues that have gone on to plague indie style I also think Low Ki is cooler and more likely to KO someone with a cool kick or some shit in a real fight than Aries who no doubt fights with no honor

The Brock squash at Survivor Series and the hoss bomb battle at WM definitely help him, everything else he's been involved with in the past 5 years has been garbage. If we're talking actual matches and not just rad squashes: Goldberg vs Saturn Spring Stampede 1998 Goldberg vs Saturn Slamboree 1998 Goldberg vs Sting Nitro 9/14/98 Goldberg vs DDP Halloween Havoc 1998 Goldberg vs Kevin Nash Starrcade 1998 (which I think is actually a pretty solid match) Hogan/Nash vs Goldberg/Flair Nitro 3/15/99 Goldberg vs Sting Slamboree 1999 Goldberg vs Sid Halloween Havoc 1999 Goldberg vs Sid Mayhem 1999 Goldberg vs Scott Steiner Fall Brawl 2000 Goldberg vs Satoshi Kojima AJPW 8/30/2002 Goldberg vs The Rock Backlash 2003 Goldberg vs Christian Cage Match Raw 5/12/03 Goldberg/Booker T vs Christian/Chris Jericho Raw 6/16/03 Goldberg vs HHH vs HBK vs Kevin Nash vs Randy Orton Elimination Chamber Summerslam 2003 Goldberg vs Naoya Ogawa HUSTLE 1 Goldberg vs Brock Lesnar WM 20 (also I think a pretty solid match even though it was weird as hell and the crowd was shitting on it hard) Goldberg vs Brock Lesnar WM 33

Nah that style was a throw back to early 00s NJ and puro in general and he and Shibata brought it back after it had really dropped off after Inokism bullshit

I think you can be certain she's going to get a million more chances to put on good matches in high profile situations over the next 5 years

Even if it wasn't an audience of one, I think "never look at social media" is probably good advice for anyone in any role on TV

He's also said really all he had left that he wanted to do was work in Arena Mexico and he's accomplished all he's ever wanted to in wrestling and could retire happy after that.

For all your fantasy booking ideas to come true and all bad wrestlers banished to some promotion you never watch

Are you sure you're a wrestling fan?

I completely skipped everything except WK and G1 last year and probably will this year as well. The breaking shows into 2 or 3 things for even non WK events made me not even want to seek out individual matches anymore. Still haven't even seen Ibushi vs Ospreay and I was actually interested in it.

That's the thing, its never in his eyes, he's just adjusting to make sure it is properly feathered at all times