Yo-Yo's Roomie

Thanks for clearing that up. I must not have been paying very close attention during the introductions.

There was a lot of stuff I liked about this, even though at times, particularly in the first fall, it seemed a little bit loose. I really liked some of the funky submissions they were pulling out, especially the one that won the 1st caida for Mendoza. The Gori Special into a sunset flip was a real nice nearfall. Cartwheel into a headscissors smooth as hell. Chicana brought the match up a couple of notches with his selling in the 2nd caida. A real work of art. I liked this a lot. I didn't get the finish though. I thought Mendoza was the champ going in. I got Backlund/Bret vibes at the end, with Chicana basically doing nothing wrong, but kinda being a bit of a dick parading around with the belt in front of Mendoza, and Mendoza reacting to it. No crossface chickenwing though.

Just don't look, just don't look, doodoodoodoodoodoodoo. Can't be bothered to actually find the clip.

I'd love a return to all traditional Survivor Series matches, complete with goofy team names. My card would be: The Goat-Faced Killers (Daniel Bryan [c], The Big Show, Cody Rhodes, Goldust and Dolph Ziggler) Vs The Authority (Triple H [c], Randy Orton, The Shield) The Punkers (CM Punk [c], Big E Langston, Rob van Dam, The Prime Time Players) Vs The Heyman Guys (Brock Lesnar [c], Ryback, Curtis Axel, Wade Barrett, Damien Sandow) The Chain Gang (John Cena [c], R-Truth, Los Matadores) Vs The Essence of Excellence (Alberto Del Rio [c], Fandango, The Real Americans) The Miz-Fits (The Miz [c], Kofi Kingston, The Usos) Vs The Wyatt Family (Bray Wyatt [c], Harper, Rowan, Kane) Throw in maybe a comedy match or a divas tag and you've got a pretty good card.

This and Fast Times are my two go-to movies when my friends and I want to throw something on to chill out to. There're so many funny little things in it, little performance things, or throwaway lines that just make us howl. In particular, we have a friend who looks and acts just like the nerdy guy who hangs out with Adam Goldberg. How awkward he is when the freshman girl has to propose to him- that's exactly how our friend would be. I also love what a dick Ben Affleck is in this. This is so fucking good, and I'm pleased how high it finished (even though it dropped 10 places from the original countdown). The sumo scene on the beach is one of the best visual gags in modern cinema. Hana-Bi might be more emotional, personal and well-rounded, but this, for me, is the ultimate Beat Takeshi film.

Finally get to answer my own topic. My top five would be: Vader: I think Vader was probably the best WCW wrestler, all things considered. He always managed to come off like a total beast in his matches, but also make his opponents, no matter where they were on the pecking order, look credible. He worked well with other big guys like Traylor, classic US heavys like Dustin, Steamboat and, of course, Sting, and could go in there with a virtual jobber like Brad Armstrong and work a credible match. I'd have to reevaluate his WWF run before deciding how far up this list he should be, but he gets on it for the WCW run alone. Bret Hart: Probably the best of the decade for me, and another guy who worked well against a tonne of different opponents and styles. He had the great classic babyface run, where he was great working as an underdog, and also as a favourite against guys like Waltman, and then he turned around and had perhaps an even better run as a heel. The feuds with Austin, Lawler and Owen were all great for different reasons. One of the best at working babyface vs babyface matches, and also working against big men. Dustin Rhodes: Dustin is kinda like Vader, in that his first half of the decade in WCW is good enough to get him on the list alone. I'm sure he had a lot of solid stuff in WWF too, but that WCW run is virtually untouchable. Really great tag team worker as well as a great singles worker. Had some quality feuds, the best being the Studd Stable feud, of course, but also the Windham feud and his stuff opposite the Dangerous Alliance. Consistently high level worker, who might have been the hands-down best of the decade had he stayed in WCW. Chris Benoit: One of the most consistently good wrestlers I've ever seen. Doesn't have a tonne of great matches, but has hardly any that are less than good, and it seems his baseline performance is better than anyone else's from the decade. I really like the feud with the Dungeon of Doom (it somehow made the Dungeon not a cartoon), I think his workrate stuff holds up better than just about anyone else's because of that level of believability he brought to it, and he has quality stuff working up and down the card, singles and tags. My fifth spot is a lot more open to debate. I'm considering guys like Pillman, who suffers from being used poorly after the break-up of the Blondes, and falling off a cliff after the injury, Regal, who is another guy who was shunted to the side for long periods, but I think made more of what he was given, Shawn, who has high-end matches, but a shortish peak, and even guys like Anderson, Eaton and Windham, who were all solid gold at the start of the decade, but fell away for various reasons. Austin is another strong contender, as is Waltman. I think, for now, I'll settle on Rey Misterio Jr though. He was hands down the best of WCW's cruiserweight division and, when given the opportunity to work with heavyweights, and even to work other cruisers but in more storyline-driven situations than pure workrate/exhibition ones, he almost always delivered big. My ignorance of ECW, SMW and other indies should be obvious, and I'd love to hear about more contenders from those places.

Thanks for not disappointing by bringing the Survivor Series team pictures.

I was flicking through the newest WWE magazine the other day, and a couple fo things seemed worth mentioning. 1) There's a pretty cool pictorial of mock-up horror movie posters based on wrestlers that people here might dig. Stuff like The Boogeyman is an obvious one, but there're nice ones for guys like The Stalker and (my personal favourite) Skinner. 2) They have a tournament of Survivor Series teams, which is also a pretty cool idea. However, the article really sucks Shawn Michaels' dick, calling him Mr Survivor Series, and having his 1993 team with the Knights winning in the first round over the team of Edge and Christian and the Hardyz (the rest of the matches are put to public vote- not sure why that one wasn't). So I have a couple of questions stemming from this: a, What is the best Survivor Series team (I think we did something like this on the old board, but it's always worth revisiting)? b, Who is Mr Survivor Series? No obvious candidate is sticking out to me (maybe it is Shawn?), but I'll have a think about it.

This was chaotic as hell. I didn't have much of a clue what was going on, but I really enjoyed it anyway. With brawling this hate-filled, you don't really need to know all the personal stories at play. Mocho Cota looked like someone you really don't want to fuck with. MS-1 and Chicano picked up from where they left off in the last match. I loved the tecnicos saying enough is enough and just storming the ring for the second fall. They came off as real dicks at the finish though, isolating Espectro Jr and trying to take his mask. Shouldn't that be a dq? And then Satanico with the ball shot which totally came off like a babyface hope spot. Chicano had the best sell of a ball shot ever. This slips into second place so far.

Well, this is quite the bloodbath. Straight off the bat MS-1 is a great smarmy prick and I want to wrestling marry him. Tonnes of emotion and tonnes of blood flowing, and these guys do more with just a handful of moves than most wrestlers can do with dozens. It's a shame we don't get a really good camera angle on any of the dives. I love that as soon as Chicano finally gets on offence he goes straight to the well with a dive, like he knows he has to hit something big just to stand a chance of staying in the match. It's a real hail Mary move. Some of the punches are a bit suspect, and I would have liked to see Chicana transition to offfence after MS-1 misses the splash in the third fall, but these are minor quibbles. Great match.

This is more like what I was hoping for with this set. The rudos totally owned this match, with each of them doing stuff that made them stand out (which is great when you're not really familiar with the workers). Morgan had great bumping and stooging (I loved one bit where he gets his ass kicked, so somone else comes in to take over from him, and in the background you can just catch Morgan acting dazed and then taking a delayed bump from the offence), Coloso had that great Looney Toons-style wind up before charging at people, and Herodes was just a quality fat guy bumping around. I loved some of the slick move-countermove face-offs, usually involving Morgan, although they did look a little too rehearsed at times. Didn't give a fuck about any of the tecnicos really, and thought they came off as dicks all getting in their shots after the finish. I really enjoyed this anyway. Best match yet for me.

Just taking a quick look, and going off memory, I believe 42 of my top 100 have dropped so far, with the latest being The Ice Storm and Hana-Bi, which were also right next to each other on my ballot at #20 and #19 respectively. Going back a few places, I'm surprised that Out of Sight didn't rank higher than where it was. Easily the best piece of pulp fiction of the decade. Also, this countdown needs more Woody.

I thought the first couple of falls were wank, continuing the theme of the set so far. Third fall was getting pretty awesome, before the shitty finish. Fujinami is great, so I was expecting a bit more from this. Disappointing overall.

No, not for juniors only.

The Malenko discussion in the general natter thread put this in my head. I don't think he's in the discussion, but I assume others might. This isn't a Malenko thread anyway. I'd love to know who you guys would call the best US-based guys* of the 90s. Throw me top 5s or 10s or just some names in no particular order. *I don't wanna exclude guys who did a lot of wrestling elsewhere, but I'm just basing this on wrestling done in the States, or for US-based companies. For example, if you think Ultimo Dragon's WCW stint is enough to put him in the discussion, throw him out there.

I feel like Tarantino's involvement was solely based on the fact that he gets to drink from Selma Hayek's feet.

I think Dean was at his best as a heel against a smaller babyface, like a Rey Misterio, or Scottie Too Hottie, where he can be methodical, and break his oppoent down. He wasn't all that good at conveying emotion in his matches.

That main event was awesome, with a spectacular finish, but man, the camera work towards the end really took something away from it. We get it, it was a chaotic scene, but I'd like to enjoy it without having a seizure please. But still, can't be said enough how great a moment that was. I loved how much shine Goldie got in the match too. He was nobody's bitch tonight. I think Tensai's weight is just weirdly distributed to be honest. He just always looks really hard to pick up and do stuff with. Strange shaped man. I think Alberto's kicks look killer. What I like about ADR is how vicious he comes off in his matches. Like when he just jumped with a two-footed stomp onto Bryan's back. Or kicking people full in the face. Those are the kinds of things real bad dudes would do to win fights. He has a great look too, a real smug prick. I don't really get why the crowd doesn't really give a shit about him, but it isn't because he sucks.

I hate how hard they're pushing the 'sports-entertainment' line at this time. It just sounds so wrong in WCW, and shows how clueless Russo was about the fanbase. There's a point at Bash at the Beach where Hudson says "it's wrestling, read the marquee" in relation to something, and Madden corrects him with an "it's sports-entertainment". And then, to hammer it home, Tony says "let's go to our next sports-entrtainment contest" or something like that. Just, ugh.

What a pile of shit Dogma is. A little surprising that someone who wrote films as sharp and witty as Chasing Amy and Clerks could also write garbage like Mallrats and Dogma. Both Lone Star and Naked were middle of the ballot range for me.

I didn't vote for White. I would probably have it in the 150-200 range (I believe I had Red around number 15, for comparison's sake). Part of it may be down to the fact that I've only seen White once, whereas I've had the chance to rewatch the other two, but I don't think White has anywhere near the depth or scope of the other two. I would have liked Blue to have made the top 100, but being as it didn't make the countdown at all last time, I have to be pleased. Man, what a performance Bincohe gives.

Jennifer Jason Leigh never even being nominated is a travesty.

I'm surprised to be the high vote on Swingers. Man, I love that film. Probably seen it more times than any other film. So cool, and so many quotable lines. I'll forever be a Vince Vaughn fan because of this one role. Probably the only 90s film I like more than Swingers is Smoke. I can't remember where that ended up on my ballot, but I think it was top 20. Keitel (again) plays one of my favourite characters, and I love Hurt and Whitaker too. This film also has my favourite ending to a film ever, Auggie's Christmas Story, with Tom Waits' Innocent When You Dream. Just a perfect use of music. Blue In The Face, the improv'ed follow up is worth a watch too. A bunch of other stuff I voted for has dropped now; stuff like Shakespeare in Love, Three Colours: Red, Happiness (I love that Hoffman's character has sweat dripping off him in the poster), and other stuff I'm blanking on.

I don't really remember much about this, even though I only watched it yesterday. I did think it was pretty good though, and remember enjoying the early matwork a tonne more than in the Hamada/Negro match. Some really nice sequences. Both guys looked fine to me.

The first two falls of this were shit. I know this is the early 80s, but getting pinned by a back body drop is some weak shit. The matwork was dull too, and it just seemed like they were going through the motions before getting to the third fall, where things got bammed up a notch. The dives into the dirt were really cool. I don't think Negro looked very good here, pretty bland actually, but Hamada was as solid as ever. By the end I think it turned into a good match, but nothing great.