Matt D

We know. We know you value action and a visceral, gripping feel in matches and suplexes. We even know you value cardio now. Other people here still do too, but not everyone values those things as much as they used to, as much as we were supposed to in years' past. I think the story of this poll compared to the last is the freedom from old dogmas due to the rise of the post-workrate paradigm and people who have come to value smart over hard. Even then you are arguing AT people who will still have him at 3 or 6 or 15 out of every wrestler ever because they still see him as the best at certain aspects. They just have come to value those aspects less than others (some of which they still rate him highly in, just not highly enough) which along with the discovery and propagation of new footage is one of the only reasons to even do a poll again. So you can do another project on why workrate still matters and why our growth as viewers and people thinking about this stuff over the last 10 years is just relativistic bullshit that has no basis in reality or you can let go and accept that some people's metrics have shifted before you drive all of us insane.

I got a kick out of Bosch talking about Gilbert.

I've made this point before, but I really think that it wasn't Flair that changed, necessarily. We knew what we were getting five, ten, fifteen years ago. It was us that changed, what we value. At least a lot of us. Workrate, bumping, cardio, energy, even stiffness and execution. All of those are things that a lot of us valued much more ten years ago.

I do think there's something to say about having to work in front of the same crowd every week or every other week. We just so rarely see have that level of footage from the territories except for in a studio setting with job matches which isn't the same. In Memphis, somewhat, and certainly in Portland for 79-81 or so, where we have week to week big matches. Also, a bunch of guys at Arena Mexico every week throughout the years. I'd love to have that sort of footage for every wrestler on this project.

Mark Henry uses negative space as well as anyone I've ever seen, if we're talking about making moves have impact.

They ran Neidhart vs Genius in Nassau on Dec 13 and Bushwhackers/Neidhart vs Beverly Brothers/Genius for the next few days, then for all of January and most of February ran New Foundation vs Beverly Brothers until it became High Energy vs Beverly Brothers.

It's a real apples and oranges thing here. Or at least sympathy and disdain.

We've seen a couple of Conway matches now and I'm wondering if we're not going to end up rating him highly before this is all said and done.

One-fall lucha is just relatively crummy.

I can see why someone might feel hesitant. It's more than possible for someone too invested in this to be ridiculous in one's tone. Insulting, pretentious, petty and overly serious for something that should be subjective, fun, and about our shared love of wrestling, not about forcing forth some sort of cosmic truth. That said, the place is the best out there and it's my first home on the internet, the site I check the most on any day. The project has been great and ALMOST everyone has been forgiving and understanding about people and their potential gaps, helpful in suggesting wrestlers and matches, and interested to hear what other people have to say. THAT said, there isn't a single person on this website who I would value a list from more than Loss, due to what he's watched and how he thinks about wrestling. I'm self-conscious about my gaps, especially because they are important in the canon. If I had to send one person's list out into space in order for aliens to take a look at it and spare us due to the breadth and quality found within, I'd probably pick his, even if we certainly wouldn't agree about everything. So yes, everyone should do one.

I do watch a lot of wrestling on the elliptical. I could feel resentment.

Cardio is one of the least important things in wrestling to me.

I think the thought is that if someone has no lucha it'll counterbalance my no Japanese ballot. I have so much UK watching to do though.

Alexa Bliss can be the CEO.

The problem is also not the curtain call in and of itself. It's the combination of the curtain call and all of the backstage stuff they now reveal. The ground is shaky underfoot because of what they're doing. Don't stomp around on it.

Is some of the issue the subtitles?

I thought that was implied in the "from Texas" part of your character's name.

I'm way behind here but Will getting all offended that people doubted his history knowledge and then when he started to bring it, everyone just no-selling him and moving on, cracked me up.

I found Bayley directing traffic before the match so that she could do her pose in the side of the ring Sasha and the ref were in kind of amusing. That just brought it to mind. Sasha was very agreeable to that.

Vince would love ol' Johnny. Salt of the Earth. Target Audience.

The moment that the internet gave Hunter a fruit basket was the night the line was crossed.

In the set up promo to the Sasha vs Bayley stuff it bugged me a bit how much they hyped being the best at "woman's wrestling" instead of just wrestling, if that made sense. It didn't seem real to their characters.

Also, they can make a delineation on screen. Sasha giving Izzy her flowers is okay. Them showing it as part of the live special would not be not ok. Them showing it on a backstage special is maybe ok. The curtain call was okay. Them showing it on a backstage special was probably okay. Them showing it on the live special was probably not ok.

I would have bitched if they had showed Sasha giving Izzy the flowers. What they did show, I was okay with.

Maybe he heard Ray Stevens tell it once.