Grimmas

I've been wondering, Eaton was so great at tags, how was he at singles? I Know he had some good matches and he is a great wrestler. What is his definitive singles matches?

I go 1 Funk 2 Lawler 3 Flair Mostly due to Flair sucking pretty bad for such a long period. Actually he sucked pretty much as much as he was good. I know everybody loves the Macho Man, but does he ever get a GOAT talk? He was great as a babyface and heel. Had amazing matches and some of the best ever. His promos and charisma is off the charts. Where does he rank?

Someone mentioned a Valentine-Anderson tag team and now I am furious that never happened. They would had been epic.

Some reason I always thought The Rockers were over-rated in the WWF. It probably all stems back to an MSG match versus the Brainbusters where The Rockers do a long heel in peril segments on Arn and I hated it. Probably should re-evaluate.

Good right ups John, some real good matches in there. I think I'm biased towards charismatic guys who are bigger and brawl, but can be technical. Muraco had a lot of focus on his character during matches, I really appreciate that. For example, see Demolition.

\ vs. Jimmy Snuka from the Spectrum 7/16/83 for the IC Title. The first section of the match is Snuka killing Muraco, and Muraco just selling this beating great. He is basically a pinball here. He turns the tide by throwing a cup of some drink in Snuka's eyes, that is really the only way he can get the advantage is by cheating. He brings out some of his fun offence, like the Russian Legsweep and the thumb. I love that he doesn't punch or kick or forearm, he more uses his thumb and tapes it up to make it more effective. He hits a great suplex gets two, then tries the one armed irish whip, but it gets reversed to the tree of woe where Snuka hits a nice headbutt on and busts him open. Snuka is back to destroying Muraco with intensity and shoves the referee to get DQ'd. Snuka continues the beatdown after the bell until jobbers pull Snuka off of Muraco. Although Snuka escapes and dropkicks Muraco over the top. Muraco slumps away. Kind of short and not a great showcase of his skills, but Muraco is really awesome in this intense match. You can see why this feud was so hot. I seem to remember loving their Strap match and I know their MSG matches are longer, have to rewatch those.

Muraco is one of my favourite wrestlers ever. However, Muraco is one of those guys that never gets talked about. I think this happens due to lack of footage. There is almost no footage of his San Francisco, Hawaii or Georgia runs. There is promos that are amazing, but not much in the ring. Even the matches with Jack Brisco are clipped. What does exist is a few great years of him in the WWF, then the period of him getting fat and lazy and horribly miscast as a babyface. You can find some great matches in that period, though. The Backlund matches were pretty awesome, as well as the Snuka matches. Watching him at his best, he is great though. His selling is awesome, he plays a great chickenshit heel and is also really great at getting over the intensity of the matches. He could be really crisp in the ring too with more technical matches, or he could be in awesome brawls. He did some nice unique stuff too, like his single arm whip. Of course, something that always stands out is his charisma and promos. He may had been one of the best of all-time. He was funny, but also made things important and serious when needed. There is also the great comedy like Fuji-Vice or eating a sandwich while beating a jobber. Is there more footage out there? If there was more stuff from the 70's, where he was such a great babyface he would team with Andre the Giant, there would be more talk of Muraco, I think.

Bret Hart - with the new DVD and all the talk on the board, I've been watching a lot lately and he's just as good now as he was watching him in the 90's. His stuff doesn't age. Yoshihiro Tajiri - I watched a lot of Tajiri in December and it was a joy. Even his shorter WWF matches were real fun. Negro Casas - For a guy who is getting old, he certainly is still really great. All of 2012 he had just great matches with Panther and others. Tyson Kidd & Justin Gabriel - I love tag wrestling and Superstars is the show I watched. They have had some real good stuff on that show. Dean Ambrose - Really should be the future of the WWE.

and Flair was the Race of his day.

I have to go with Bret. Flair was great and had so many great matches, but there is just something about him that makes me lose interest. His matches often feel like they are filled with great moments and parts, but as a whole are kind of lacking. While Flair was a master at selling and working the crowd and looking good doing everything, he was not a master storyteller. Bret was a master story teller and to me, story telling is the most important part of a match. Story telling and logic, that is. While Bret was taking the time to make everything make sense. For an example, instead of just taking an Asai moonsault and standing around and waiting, he'd brawl with the manager and turn around at the last second. Those little touches, make the match feel more like a sport and less like a show. On the other hand, Flair would always try the top rope jump and fail every match. It was so dumb. Also, everybody would put him in the figure-four, even if they never used the figure-four. It's stuff like that, that Bret would never do and, to me, makes Bret the better in ring wrestler. Flair is kind of the Angle of his day, at times. Worried more about getting his stuff in, then telling a great story.

There is a promo on tv by Onita promoting an Explosion Death Match with Chono on NJPW TV that is the best promo I've ever seen on Japan TV. He was intense and he was blowing up watermelons to show how dangerous the explosives were. That has to be on the 99 set.

To me, that seems pretty spot on. You can tell Bret had put thought into his matches. There is a story and a logically ending that fits the story of the match. On the other hand, Flair's matches often seem like disconnected parts thrown together, which sometimes equal amazing matches and sometimes are just great parts thrown together.

The first Super J Cup could be on this list as well. With the Sasuke-Lyger and Sasuke-Benoit matches both being awesome and the rest of the card all pretty solid. A great overall show. I seem to remember a Judgement Day from a few years ago that was great. Upon looking it up, it was 06 with London/Kendrick vs MNM, Benoit vs. Finlay, Helms vs. Crazy, Henry vs. Angle, Booker vs. Lashley, Khali vs. Taker and JBL vs Rey. Those I remember all being good with some of them being really good. Not all time great, but one of the better ones of that time period. My absolute favourite show of all-time is Survivor Series '89, not great or even that good, but I love it for nostalgia and fun factor and the main event being the best Survivor Series match ever.

Top to bottom, Canadian Stampede is pretty spectacular. Every match is good to great and the atmosphere is off the charts.

This is so spot on and I would have the Survivor Series match as the best in WWF history. I have watched that match more than any other and I still go back to it often.

I tried watching his shoot interview, but after 20 minutes of talking about how Sarah Palin is going to change the world, I stopped watching.

Bret Hart is one of my favourite, if not my favourite, wrestler ever. The thing I love about Bret Hart matches is that the selling is always great and the finish is usually pretty awesome too. If I think of some of my favourite finishes in wrestling history, a lot of them involve Bret Hart. From the two first Austin matches, the Diesel Survivor Series match, the Bulldog matches, to the 1-2-3 Kid Raw match. They are all unique and so great. His matches were filled with logical spots, he didn't go out and expose the business as most of the guys around him. When he does a table spot, its in the Diesel match where it makes complete sense and comes out of nowhere. When he is taking an Asai Moonsault he is brawling with the manager and turning in the last second to take it, instead of standing around and waiting. The guy just filled his matches with great little details to keep things making sense.

Part of it is that I'm an unabashed mark for both guys. But even setting that aside, the match is everything that's right with wrestling. Great action plus great psychology means it's the kind of match that's timeless. Plus, the buildup led to what is probably my favorite promo of all time. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3DV0RHVteLs Because it's the last of an old school style that ended around that time. Tells an amazing story. It's really one of the greatest WWF matches ever!

Strangely, one of my favourite shows. Besides Taka-Pantera and the Main Event being awesome, you also have a Bradshaw-Jarrett singles match that I remember really liking.

It would had been fine with all screwy finishes, that is, until Starrcade '97. If Sting went over clean and the new world order fell apart at that time, things would had been fine.

I think most of the issues come from having to keep up ratings and having to have monthly PPVs (sometimes with themes). Even if they kept 12 PPVs, but turned 8 of them to 2 hours, I think things would be different. It's insane to try to keep everything important and exciting all the time. Even great TV shows have a few weeks episodes where not as much happens and they are more filler, it keeps the important stuff more important. Also, they have an offseason.

I was wondering if I was the only one who was so crazy about this match. The whole thng is Bobby Heenan gold, with the final fall and postmatch being ridiculously awesome. I remember wearing out the old VHS tape. I couldn't tell if it was nostalgia or just awesomeness that makes me love that match. Gorilla and Jesse are at their best in this one too. Heenan pinning a Rocker and never wanting in the ring was so great. Really, this was about the best booked match in WWF history. Definitely, the best booked Survivor Series match. Especially when you consider they replaced Tully with Bobby shortly before the match.

Coming up with 50 would take too long, however I can make up a top 10. 10. Heenan Family (Andre the Giant/Arn Anderson/Haku/Bobby Heenan) vs. Ultimate Warrior/Jim Neidhart/Rockers, Survivor Series '89 9. Kainentai Deluxe vs. Great Sasuke/Gran Hamada/Super Delfin/Tiger Mask IV/Gran Naniwa, 10/10/96 8. Don Muraco vs. Jimmy Snuka, Fijian Strap Match 10/7/83 7. Rey Mysterio Jr. vs Eddie Guerrero, Halloween Havoc `97 6. Randy Savage vs. Ric Flair, WrestleMania 8 5. Akira Taue/Toshiaki Kawada vs. Mitsuharu Misawa/Kenta Kobashi, 6/9/95 4. Steven Regal vs. Belfast Bruiser, Uncensored `96 3. Stan Hansen vs. Andre the Giant, NJPW 9/23/81 2. Randy Savage vs. Ultimate Warrior, WrestleMania 7 1. Steve Austin vs. Bret Hart, Survivor Series '96

I have heard so many times how a match was ruined or brought down, because the finish wasn't clean. Is it true the only good finish is a clean finish? I tend to think there are many great finishes that aren't clean. Was the first Hell in the Cell really ruined by Kane running in? How about that Inoki-Hansen match ending in a count out after Hansen Lariated Inoki to death? I'm just really tired of hearing about clean finishes being the only good finish. Am I wrong?

I'm in for the Smash show. I love the idea of getting in on a promotion at the very start and also following a promotion that isn't the WWE. The last time I was able to attend monthly shows to a promotion was in St. Catharines for Neo Spirit Pro. Those were really fun with Derek Wylde, Eric Young, Tyson Dux, Angel Williams, Beth Phoenix and JT Playa. Jerry Lalwer even did a show.