Matt D

The problem is that he was booked as a coward out of the gate. Fans were turning on him for the first time. I think a Kane feud made a lot of sense on paper. This didn't: I think it's extremely obvious in retrospect and it's been written in the Observer and elsewhere that Bryan was only getting the reluctant nod so that Lesnar could destroy him at Mania on the path to the eventual Reigns win. He was going to be a transitional champion.

Now someone tie this information to explain Adam Rose's main roster debut.

Or this:

This was linked off of the CNN.com main page: Kevin Dunn Executive Producer $4.8 million George Barrios Chief Financial and Strategy Officer $4.5 million Michelle Wilson Chief Revenue and Marketing Officer $4.5 million Vince McMahon Chairman and CEO $3.3 million Paul "Triple H" Levesque Executive Vice President of Talent, Live Events and Creative $3.1 million

You'd need the big names in matches people haven't seen. There are a couple of Andre matches, vs Spoiler and Stasiak I think. There's Harley vs Gino for the title. There's the Duggan/Dibiase cage match. There's the RnR vs Midnights match that was new to us, I think? There's a couple of Jake matches to choose from. One Dusty (Maybe the Lewin one, but the Funk vs Lewin one could be better), one JYD vs Reed. You want at least one Guerrero (or Guerreros) match to pay up on the name and there are a lot to choose from. That's the way I'd go. Then try to get someone to do liner notes to give everything some context and show the importance. Maybe see if JR or Cornette would push it on his podcast, that kind of thing.

What resonates with me the most is when he's selling a beating on the floor, maybe between falls, or just in the midst of a beatdown, and he's leaning on the apron. Sometimes a kid will come up and interact with him. I've seen it a few times now and it's just transcendent somehow, like he's channeling a higher level of wrestling reality that no one else can reach.

He is my first heart over brains candidate.

Cena having great tag team matches with The Shield and others and being a surprisingly good FIP, as Phil Rippa pointed out today, gets him a point. This, apparently, does not get JBL one:

There's such a discrepancy between him as a babyface and a heel.

He's in my top 20. I have 3-4 above him, depending on how you classify Rey.

Cubsfan posted this comment yesterday: 6) Ephesto, Luciferno, Mephisto © bBlue Panther, Blue Panther Jr., The Panther [MEX TRIOS] 13:24. Hijo del Infierno took 2/3 in a very good match. Hijos del Infierno 3rd defense Main event is the match worth watching; they worked very hard and they had the usual Blue Panther creativity in match layout. Someone actually on twitter should try to get him to expand those thoughts a little. It's not something that's been talked about here at all.

Chris Masters is the best ex-WWF Star Who Will Be Brought in to a Local Indy That Is Not a Super Workrate Indy ever. There's a range. On one end is Brutus Beefcake. On the other is Chris Masters. In TV matches, I don't think there's a huge gap between his best babyface work and that of the holy trinity to be honest.

Big Show needs +1 for moonsault

If I feel up to pulling apart another Henry match, I'll likely end up with a Show vs Henry one, and then i'd look at all the things Show does well too. Not sure though. The first one didn't exactly move mountains and I'm on borrowed time.

Guys I couldn't place right now that I might want to place: Joe, Ki, Styles, Saint, McManus, Dutch Mantel, Matt Hardy, Gino Hernandez, Perro Sr., Super Astro, Van Buyten, Jack Brisco (don't think I'm getting to him), Destroyer (kind of gave up there), Scorpio, Little Guido, Tajiri. I'm sure there's more. I'm not quite there with Rudge, for instance. Or Jones.

For me it's more about guys who I know should be there but I need to see if I can see enough footage in time.

I didn't want to spoil anyone on that, but they were great!

Sicodelico vs Gino was a blast. I liked it a lot. First of all, there were elements of a lucha title match, though obviously morphed a bit. It was more like whispers of one. And on top of that, at one point early on, Gino even did the lucha bump to get space, and he took over in the first fall with Negro Casas' back spin kick. I love how Gino straddles the line between vulnerable and getting clowned and being competent and cocky and dangerous. He reminds me of Buddy Rose that way even if he's not quite on that level. The finish had a fun bit of call back but really needed to be more vicious. I get what they were going for and it could have worked but it needed a little more. There was a lot to like here, I think.

"It's a Ring. They're contained. I don't have to be fast. I catch them. I squash them."

I think, even towards the end, he was a very smart wrestler. The 90-92 Freebirds just used their powers for evil and that's probably enough to keep Hayes off my list and it's definitely enough to keep Garvin off. This is what I wrote about Garvin vs Badd:

It only works if Roman costs Hunter the title. THAT solves so many problems. Roman would come off as hugely sympathetic, sacrificing his title shot so that his friend can go over and so that Hunter gets screwed just like he screwed Reigns in the past. Ambrose gets the rub but now has to deal with the drama of having to survive Brock to keep the title.

Not everyone is Jose Lothario, I guess.

Definitely. It's what they did in 2006 with Cena in Reigns' current position. Cena was just much better equipped and better established to handle the blowback. Plus, the company a decade ago at least had some strong heels being groomed for Cena to work with after the Triple H program was over. What would we even have in 2016? Reigns vs Owens? Reigns vs Jericho? I half bet they'd do Reigns vs Show or Kane.

I've been waiting for a Dale Valentine match. And hey, we get another Spoiler match too!

Really, I think it's more the year, year and a half of freelance work that led up to him getting signed that moved the needle. It wasn't an overnight thing.