SirSmUgly

I'm not really a Devitt fan, but Aries has been disinterested all year after TNA booked him into the ground. He's like a smaller Samoa Joe at this point. I think Devitt's output at the big NJPW shows is better than the Aries from this year I watched, even if I think Aries is definitely better than Devitt in terms of his offense, timing, and general look. I vote Devitt here.

The argument against Sting is that he was never a draw and doesn't have the sheer amount of quality to overcome it, correct? Is Sting's involvement in shows leading up to Starrcade '97 enough to give him at least some credit as a draw? Sting's body of work is one that tends toward "really good" with only a little "great," just thinking offhand. This would be a really good debate, probably for more informed people than me on the business side.

My favorite Badd/DDP match is Badd/DDP from Havoc '95. I'm not splitting hairs, though, because Badd/DDP was never any worse than "very good" in any of those matches they had between '94 and '96. I remember not being a fan of the ending of Badd/Saito at Starrcade '95, but I do remember liking the match quite a bit as Saito cheated to ground Badd each time Badd would try to get something going. Otherwise, yeah, Badd/Honky is the only non-good PPV match from Badd during that time period being talked about.

KOTR '93 is one of my favorite PPVs ever because as kids, we bootlegged it by hooking up two VCRs together, renting the tape from Blockbuster, and playing it in one while also recording it on a blank tape in the other. We did this with the Rumble from 1993 too, so I know these two shows like the back of my hand. I'm watching KOTR '93 now - it's comforting like chicken noodle soup on a cold day, and it will help me get this work done that I'm procrastinating on a bit. I have an odd love of the Luger/Tatanka draw from this show. I love Hart/Perfect, of course, but Luger/Tatanka might be my second-favorite match of the show over Hart/Bigelow or Michaels/Crush (both awesome).

Here's their chance to put Bryan in the WWE Championship match! I can live with Punk being back if Bryan gets the hell away from HHH and into the match he should have been put in after winning the Rumble in the first place. If this is true, of course.

I still have GAB '95 going, and Sting/Meng was really fun! The end was great. Meng eats the post and Sting puts him in a Scorpion Deathlock. Schiavone claims it over, but Meng somehow powers out and everyone is shocked. Sting hits a splash...still only gets two. Sting finally puts Meng down with a DDT, but that last few minutes where Sting is just throwing out whatever he can think of to put Tha Monsta away was cool. Sting seemed desperate and Meng seemed utterly world-destroying even in a loss.

...so basically WWE = the whole plot of American Hustle? I can buy that. Yeah, I think this covers it. Punk isn't Triple H scheming for the top and being the biggest social climber in the business in order to get himself into a position of power. Punk is more like Bret Hart: delusional about what he means to wrestling and the fans and wanting to "protect himself" because he's a hero, except instead of Bret being a hero to kids and the country of Canada, Punk is a hero to disaffected teens and twentysomethings that are mad at the establishment for their not having a girlfriend or a car or their own apartment or what-have-you. So Triple H is like Becky Sharp, but Punk is more like Baron Munchausen.

Watched Canadian Stampede '97 yesterday, and a few quick observations: Mankind/HHH is going to give you at least a solid match every time. Great chemistry between those two. They had a fine little opening brawl until a double-DQ that felt like a terrible finish until it ended up that they fought around the arena for two more matches before getting broken up. That was cool. This might get me kicked off DVDVR, but Chyna was really enjoyable. She played the role of the ringside muscle in general really well, actually, and she did so here as well. Taka and The Great Sasuke did some cool high spots and was enjoyable. Taker/Vader started out slow, but I feel like Paul Bearer was the star of this one. First, in the interview he cut with Vader, he was over the top and funny, but at ringside, he was cheating like mad and doing the wimpiest kicks to a downed Undertaker in between bouts of yelling MURDERER at Taker and various insults at the referee (CAN'T YOU COUNT TO THREE DAMMIT COUNT TO THREE). The match really picked up in the last few minutes, and the second rope chokeslam was nice, as was the Tombstone. Ten-man tag was a great brawl that barely contained remnants of a regular wrestling match. The Hart Foundation stomping the shit out of Goldust hanging in the corner was awesome. Austin just basically jumping guys down on the floor while the actual match was going on was awesome. Austin destroying Owen's ankle ------> Bret doing the same to Austin except adding on the figure four around the ringpost was great, too. Also, I have to give love to Brian Pillman going for a pin attempt not so much to win, but to taunt Shamrock by grabbing his hand and making him "tap out" while cackling maniacally. It genuinely made me laugh out loud. By the way, just saw Pillman carry a solid, but green Alex Wright to a solid opener on GAB '95. I am reminded while watching WWEN of a guy that should have had a better career before he passed. And now Dave Sullivan just came on TV. Fuck that guy.

Casas = awesome. I had never seen him before this morning, though of course I had heard his name for years. I put in "Negro Casas 2013" and watched the first few matches that came up. He can stretch guys, he can brawl, he can do basically everything and do it really well. He immediately became one of my favorite guys to watch, period. I have the same issues with Okada as you. People are rightly getting on Bryan for forgetting that he's hurt, but watch Okada and the dude is dropping selling to do a move and then going back to selling. I don't buy it unless your gimmick makes it somehow fit. Also, watching NJPW makes me realize that I am either biased or I prefer the pacing of WWE-style because sometimes those matches feel too go-go-go to me. Tanahashi has many of the same problems as Okada, but I find him to be much more charismatic. For some reason, he reminds me of Cena in that way, but I can't put my finger on why. I love the guy, though, somewhat irrationally.

This is surely an idiotic question, but I'll go ahead and ask it: How do I watch Lucha? I mean this in the sense of, especially for trios matches, what is the basic structure(s) that I should be on the lookout for? I just don't want to watch a trios match and look at it like I'm watching a Shield/Wyatts match. On the other hand, the one-on-one matches make structural and narrative sense to me. I'm having a blast looking up some of these competitors, especially watching and re-watching NJPW. It's not my favorite style, but I do have an appreciation for Tanahashi's work this year.

The kid was totally crestfallen! I still laughed, though.

I have to think about how I want to vote; I am thinking that some combination of "matches/output this year" and "general quality of the wrestler" should suffice. I want to be at least a little bit consistent in my voting.

The quality of this show was astonishing. And this is the WWE's feeder system! Life is going to be great for us as wrestling fans going forward if this is the high-level quality of wrestling we have to look forward too. Neville playing the daredevil vs. Dallas being the wily dude who uses the ladders and ring to his advantage as much as possible was a great contrast for this match, and high-flying won out this time around. Great, great match to end it.

I just looped back to see Cesaro/Zayn. That double-stomp to the face! Oh man, it's only February and the matches we have received from WWE this year are already insane. I was leaning toward voting Cesaro over Bryan in March Madness if it came down to those two even though Bryan is my personal favorite, but I don't see how I can vote otherwise anymore at this point. Bryan was GREAT this year - and Cesaro was clearly better than that! EDIT: Also, the second-rope Ricola Bomb ----> top-rope hurricanrana part was so wonderful. I yelled in my kitchen while making dinner. I think my significant other might leave me, but I do most of the cooking, so maybe she'll put up with it.

How is the search set up? Just by PPV/show, or do they have it where you can search by wrestler, or anything similar? You can search by show or by wrestler (the latter if you use the search bar), but I don't see that you can search by year, which is annoying when you want to watch shows chronologically. Roku also offers an option to resume from the last point you watched, though I haven't actually tested it because the VOD always timed out for me before I could try it.

Their underestimation of how much people also enjoyed their competition never ceases, I suppose. The PS4 app is working perfectly and has been since yesterday for both streaming and VOD. The only thing that I don't like about it is the UI (I don't see a way to search by year like on Roku 2 XD or on a laptop, only by PPV), so if the PS3 UI is better and PS3's app is working, use the latter.

I turn on the stream during a lunch break to see a random Attitude-Era RAW where Dan Severn comes out to face Owen Hart, which of course immediately justifies any and all money that I have spent, am spending, or will spend in the future on this service. I really enjoyed Severn in his short WWF run. He was a good striker and a very good mat wrestler. I am conflicted about this Attitude-Era crowd, however. They chant and are active, and they do politely applaud for Severn during a worked-injury angle. On the other hand, all the middle fingers. loud cursing at wrestlers coming down the aisle, and creepy signs about wanting to plow Divas are not a good look. EDIT: Then Vader comes out to wrestle Al Snow, and the reaction and chants for Snow/Head have just reminded me of the days when people actually cared about midcard wrestlers, which I miss quite a bit. There are so many midcard guys nowadays that people don't really care about as much as they could if those wrestlers were packaged correctly (Big E comes immediately to mind).

Any of the stuff where Barry Windham turns heel and starts using the Claw and being U.S. Champ and feuding with Luger. Wait, no! If you can find Windham and Luger winning (and losing) the tag belts first, that stuff is super awesome. The problem is that most of Windham's best stuff weren't on PPVs proper. But they'll put the Clashes up at some point I'm sure. True. I actually saw most of this stuff via YouTube. Someone had up every NWA Worldwide for 1989 and most of the Saturday Nights, so I saw quite a few clipped versions of '89 NWA matches (and had to search for awhile just to find a fan-cam version of the end of Midnights/Arn + Tully). I wonder if some of this stuff comes up if you search Barry Windham? I'll have to try it when I'm able to access the Network.

Any of the stuff where Barry Windham turns heel and starts using the Claw and being U.S. Champ and feuding with Luger. Wait, no! If you can find Windham and Luger winning (and losing) the tag belts first, that stuff is super awesome.

Post-WCW, I stopped being cynical about Hogan. Hogan in '02-'03 had the very best "old superstar who has lost his fastball, but can still beat you if you're not careful" veteran run ever. I even enjoyed one month of Hulk Hogan, Undisputed Champion and the random Hogan/Flair match for the title on RAW. It wasn't good necessarily, but it was amazing to watch just for what it was. I'm glad he's back. I want to see more of him on TV and less of him on Twitter being depressingly weird or creepy. Leave the memories alone, Hulk.

My Roku 2 XD streams, but it won't play VOD for longer than about five minutes. I have been streaming/doing VOD off the PS4, which has a terrible UI, but which also works with no hiccups.

I'm watching Spring Stampede '94. You know who was really good before his knee injury before he left WCW? Johnny B. Badd. He and DDP had great chemistry. The variety of matches on this card is amazing. We've got garbage matches, brawls, scientific bouts, etc.

If you like tag teams recklessly throwing bombs at one another and damn match structure, '95-'97 WCW is for you. At one point, the Road Warriors, Steiners, Harlem Heat, and Public Enemy are all on the roster and being reasonably pushed. Basically every tag match is just spot after spot of dudes throwing each other around without a care. Unfortunately, most of this stuff is on Nitro and not PPV, but maybe you can find it through the search engine.

I think Rick Rude is one of my five favorite wrestlers ever. He was good in his early NWA stuff, very good in his WWF stuff, and legitimately great in his WCW stuff before his injury and retirement. It's a damn shame he got hurt because he was pretty much amazing.

I think WCW in 1992 is my favorite year/promotion combination ever. Just saw Pillman kill himself going face first into the ramp as he whiffed on a over-the-ropes splash. I love this service so much.