Matt D

You can stick it out til you get to the Zack Ryder/Rosa Mendes dream sequence. I know you can.

I wish that Jannetty didn't have the Goldust match in 96 or else I could rationalize putting him higher than Michaels pretty easily.

Then you rush in angrily, distract the ref, and he does a blind switch with his partner, putting the abdominal stretch on.

I know you've been getting some stuff so I'd love to see some more reviews out of you on the 90s CMLL we haven't seen.

We're all older with more responsibilities too, and older/foreign footage is so much easier to watch.

He could have the world's best ***1/2 match with him though. Is the world's best ***1/2 match better than the world's worst **** match? That's a deep question if you think about it.

Do we have enough Dick Slater for him to be in contention?

15:30 mark on the Springer Bloopers thing from this week. The Burger King commercial is right before Bret comes on during this week's podcast.

1.) the look on Vince's face as he's blasting Ross in the ass with a fire extinguisher is the sort of thing that will stay with you, especially when you see Ross' expression which wasn't one of anger but instead of helplessness. 2.) Were there a 2015 yearbook, on it would be Ross' burger king commercial from his latest podcast. It was the most surreal thing I've heard in a very long time.

It's been two years since I saw the match. I'd have to rewatch it first. Moreover, you've never gotten a star rating from me on any other match so there'd be no basis of comparison. That said, I'm willing to do it if you give me a few days. I'd rather watch the Mesias one since you were much lower on that and I'd be curious if I was too.

You're very quick to question motives, conscious or otherwise, Parv. Context is important and maybe sometimes, there's something to that, but I find it disappointing, especially here, where most people put so much thought into everything, including their own biases. FWIW, here's what I thought in Sept 2013 about the Parka/Wagner match. I'd probably handle the third fall better now. I'd probably also not be as wowed by some of the early emotion, even if I'd appreciate it and be able to relate it back to other things I've seen:

I've not seen the Mesias one yet. I felt strongly about the TXT Wagner match but that was, admittedly, before I had seen a lot of lucha.

Same. Seems there are a lot of rubes on PWO, eh. HBK's rep as a GOAT contender in the WWE universe and online is one of the great mysteries of the world. It's really Scott Keith and Meltzer who drove the Michaels love. Plus he stood out in the WWF in 1994-1996 as someone unique. It's the post comeback love that I really don't get and those are the matches that are getting him to "greatest of all time level" even though for the most part, they aren't better than average to a little above average. The HHH matches in particular are matches I never want to see again. It's been said, but I think it can't be underrated how thoroughly guys like Austin and Flair support Michaels. The main take away I get from hearing them talk are "excitement" and "can do anything in the ring." Past a few Johnny Valentine stories and the selling of DDTs, most wrestlers seem to mainly value athleticism (especially stamina), legit toughness, and coordination.

His second banana has some issues but in general, I think he's good. He's knowledgeable for the most part, and there are times where he can chime in with a key focusing question. For instance, when Foley mentioned Gilbert, I barely wanted to hear what Flair had to say about him, even if it wasn't going to be that valuable, just the tone in which he'd talk about him, etc. And it was slipping away and Conrad (is that his name?) doubled back for it. I feel like maybe we'll never get another chance to hear Flair talk about Eddie Gilbert and we at least got 45 seconds of it.

This is one of my major issues in general. It goes back to the Taue thing. If I watch a hundred more matches with the four pillars, I'd probably flip my positioning around. I admit that. The holistic approach involves plenty of time. One good thing about what I've seen with Breaks, for instance, however, is that he matched up against a lot of different sorts of adversaries: young, old, face, heel, etc, just due to the nature of the shows he was on, so you do get to see him in a lot of different scenarios.

Mil's motivation could vary, to be nice. I certainly didn't like him in the Blue Panther/Arkangel de la Muerte match from 01 and I downright loathed him in the Brody/Hansen match from 83. That's one of my least favorite performances by a single wrestler ever. There are parts of the Abby match I like, but they're all Abby. I've never actually seen the Destroyer matches. I should at some point. I see Mascaras as a wrestling problem. He's interesting to watch wrestlers wrestle against to see how they deal with him, kind of like RVD, though for different reasons. You don't wrestle Mil Mascaras, you cope with him.

It's been a while since I watched any Buddy but I watched the Rose/Hennig vs Assassin/DK match, the one where the heels take the titles. (think it's 11/12/83) I have some takeaways: 1.) I think Rose was a great face. He moved in and out of things well. He was great working from underneath during the first fall King of the Mountain. I love how he turned some of the same tricks he used to get stooged as a heel to stooge the heels as a face. I think he was good on the apron and was a fun fiery hot tag. He made everything matter. 2.) Hennig was excellent working from underneath. He also has great snappy offense on a comeback or to cut off a heel comeback during a shine. I'd never seen that double monkey roll before. He sold well, he garnered sympathy. I thought he was much better a couple of years later at control offense, of keeping that compelling. He just had a wristlock on and he didn't move in and out of it as a face as well as, let's say, 1984 Martel did. There were moments I was outright bored, frustratingly so. 3. Dynamite is a great heel bully. One of my favorite performances I've ever seen out of him. All it took was him playing the right role. Things that he'd do that would be problematic as an undersized babyface worked great as a heel in a tag garnering heat. 4. I liked assassin here but it's sort of moot to talk about him too much. The match didn't have those fabled Dynamite/Rose workrate fests, so I'll have to watch more. I thought it was okay but not as good as many of the 79-82 tags I've seen so far in Portland.

I'm 3/4 in and laughed way more than I usually do listening to a wrestler podcast

I'm still having a hard time with this because of all of the Japanese watching I have to fill in.

We shall agree to disagree

The build is the Haku/Benoit match right? I wasn't too high on that either even though I wanted to be. I thought the other Haku match I saw was definitely better. This was pretty functional and had its moments though. (Edit: Just saw your review. The other haku match is way more fun: . I really need to write up the kamala matches at some point. I saw them in passing before I really knew what I was watching and enjoyed them but I probably didn't give them the credit they deserved at the time)

I think it's a different challenge for someone like Lawler or Rose to draw in the same arena week after week after week than someone to go town to town to town and draw based on national TV. Neither of those are Bruno who drew in the same arena every month. That doesn't seem as impressive to me as either of the above.

For WWF guys, Eadie had a better year than Dibiase and I wouldn't put him on this list.

My absolute favorite wrestlers when I was 9. No one except for Pillman was close, and even then, he was only close.

Is anyone going to have Charles Lucero? I mean the footage just isn't there, right?