May be time for a Bret v. The World thread after GWE

 

I'd like to respectfully request the "100 In-Ring Years Greater than Bret Hart's 1994" thread

After he updates the HHH comparison thread. Come on Dylan. We've been waiting far too long!

1. Bret Hart's 1997

I think it's perfectly fair to say this project was about the journey and not the destination. I agree wholeheartedly. That being said, we shouldn't use "It was a journey" as a blanket to protect from criticism and prevent discussion. If you took a two year long journey and didn't rank Negro Casas, you got a flat tire somewhere along the way.

 

Also, welcome shittylittleboots. I would love to see your ballot and hear you talk about some of your high votes!

In reality, what is so great about Bret's 1997 in-ring, other than the Wrestlemania Austin match?

In reality, what is so great about Bret's 1997 in-ring, other than the Wrestlemania Austin match?

 

One Night Stand is a great Taker match. I actually loved the Survivor Series match as well. Thought it was heading in a MOTY direction. The Austin rematch at IYH was damn good as well.

After he updates the HHH comparison thread. Come on Dylan. We've been waiting far too long!

Yea stop giving Dylan more projects to do before he gives me my comparison of HHH and Mr. Electricity Steve Regal.

The Taker matches are very good,the final 4 match where he wins the title is excellent, and I think the Canadian Stampede match is an all-time classic.

I can't count the One Night Stand match as a plus. It doesn't hold up in my eyes. Survivor Series was going pretty well before the 'abrupt ending.' I don't think I've seen the IYH rematch,

The Taker matches are very good,the final 4 match where he wins the title is excellent, and I think the Canadian Stampede match is an all-time classic.

 

Canadian Stampede and the 4 way are two of the most overrated matches in history to me. I don't think either one is particularly good, and Bret Hart's performances in them aren't anything special either.

Final Four, Sid title change from Raw the night after Final Four (which was better than the Shawn matches), Terry Funk retirement match ...

Good post CapitalTTruth.

Absolutely in 100% agreement here.

I actually like Bret WCW stint in hindsight, once you got past the fact he was booked like shit. He's got the best Luger matches in years on Nitro twice.

He made the Patriot seem like a viable opponent for a few matches.

 

In case it was missed, the point of my earlier post was this:

 

There are more than a few people whose negative reactions to the way the list has gone seems like it might give the impression that a lot of people voted "wrong." And maybe the process is bad because wrestler X couldn't possibly be ranked below wrestler Y. Think about it like this. Look at one of the other people whose reactions have been similar to yours on different wrestlers. Did you give those wrestlers the time and attention that this other person thinks they deserved over the course of the project? If not, does this make you maybe think this kind of reaction is a bit overblown? I'm not trying to take a shot at anyone, just trying to push the discussion away from the overly negative direction it's gone lately.

1. Bret Hart's 1997

 

I thought about picking Bret's 97 instead of 94. Its definitely his best all around year counting promos/angles and what not. I kind of figured most people would look at 94 as his best in ring year.

 

Can we challenge Dylan to do 94 based on in-ring and 97 based on "all around?"

1997 is a career yearfor Bret, I just don't see it as anything special in-ring wise. But then again, I see Bret Hart as the most overrated wrestler of all time and don't think he was ever that great for any consistent length of time.

His Vader RAW match sucked. So did his RAW match with Rocky Maivia.

Oh, you're preaching to the choir, I think Bret was completely abysmal and unredeeming. It's just that in 1997, he went from completely unwatchable to merely laughably bad.

Reminder to all lucha fans : Negro Casas actually gained 14 spots since last time. Meanwhile, Mayumi Ozaki, one of the best fucking wrestler ever, got dumped from the top 100. So yeah, all journeys weren't the same.

The Bret Hart hate is hilarious. Gotta love pro-wrestling revisionism. Bret Hart = the new Nobuhiko Takada.

Would you prefer we all slavishly adhered to conventional wisdom?

Fujinami seems like a guy that definitely benefits from a much increased awareness about 1980's New Japan beyond a comically small handful of matches. One of the things he always had working against him is that in the heavyweight ranks he is so rarely portrayed as New Japan's #1 guy; he was so often asked to be second fiddle to someone else. But over the course of his career the overall quality of his work really, really adds up. I like how a lot of his matches feature struggles over relatively basic holds or sequences that add a sense of grit to stuff that is otherwise pretty passe. He's definitely a guy that rose for me personally this time around from where I would have had him years ago. He really is pretty close to a true all-rounder in terms of his skills, though obviously the high flying stuff is significantly rarer the older he gets.

That's surely born out by his rating. This countdown started at 1, right?

I don't even know what is going on in this thread anymore.

I like Takada's 80s New Japan stuff more than most of Hart's stuff. Don't like either guy that much overall.