Matt D

I can imagine Harley getting into one of those test of strength handshake deals with everyone he meets to prove who the bigger man is. (answer = Harley)

I'm not touching that iron man match for a while. It's an iron man match! No one quote me on this but this one time DO WHAT FSW SAYS.

You people are off in left field here. There's no rhyme or reason to this.

Or watching late era WCW apparently. http://prowrestlingonly.com/index.php?showtopic=19237&view=getnewpost

I am caught up on hulu to Jan. 16 of this year and I love the territory feel of Big E. The Shield restart was jarring and killed the bounty angle but Big E and his relationship with the fans reminds me of a guy Vince would poach in 1984-1986.

Actually, only Dolph Ziggler has to do it every show. Unfortunately he forgets all the time.

How so? Do they have like a globe on a desk or something? I guess I didn't need to work over the next ten minutes. Let me look at the NXT roster. Adrian Neville - New Castle Upon Tyne, England ALEXANDER RUSEV - Bulgaria Danny Burch - London Emma - Melbourne, Australia Leo Kruger - Johannesburg, South Africa Oliver Grey - Exeter, England Paige - Norwich, England Rick Victor - Calgary, Alberta, Canada Sami Zayn - Montreal SYLVESTER LEFORT - Nice, France Tyler Breeze is from Canada (though he's billed with a seasonal residence in Milan) And in the last year there was Sakamoto who got cut and Del Rio's brother and probably a bunch of people I can't think of. Plus, regularly featured have been the Usos, Primo and Epico (and Rosa), Yoshi Tatsu, Tyson Kidd, Justin Gabriel, etc. I realize this isn't quite like the japanese and luchador population of late 90s WCW, and some of the above is kayfabe or just Americans with diverse cultural backgrounds (The Usos are billed from San Francisco I think but I think on a kayfabe level they sort of count in the same way the Faces of Fear counted though yeah they were actually born in Tonga. You can give me shit for this if you want. It's a "feel" thing for me), but still. I feel like at least half of the matches in the back half of last year (which is as far as I've gotten in my rewatching) had at least one "international feel" wrestler in it.

I will say that NXT over the last year has had something of an international feel to it.

It's the year of the six man tag and the gauntlet.

They're all private now. Ah well.

People dancing at super fast speed is always funny. It's better if you have the Benny Hill theme in the background

I kind of hate it when you're funny.

Alright, that sorted the numerical issue at least. In both times I c+ped it the accursed women's singles match tried to hide on another row.Problem is on my end. Sorry, Will. I still don't have a good answer for the phantom Bock vs Hennig match I see on Chris' ballot. No one else saw it there when working on their ballots? "Nick Bockwinkel & Mr. Saito vs. Curt & Larry Hennig (11/8/84) Crusher Blackwell & King Kong Bundy vs. The Road Warriors (11/22/84) Nick Bockwinkel vs. Curt Hennig (11/22/84) Nick Bockwinkel vs. Curt Hennig (2/7/85) Rick Martel vs. Jimmy Garvin (3/7/85) Crusher Blackwell vs. Masked Superstar (3/7/85)" Since he only has 150 matches on that thing that has to be taking the place of something, no? EDIT: Looks like we've got it sorted. It's the 6/14/84 match on the set.

Hunter vs Rikishi - Smackdown 1/4/2000 Alright hopefully I have the right match here. I know they had a couple. I guess I will look for downward punches to... wait, defending against Big Show in April? That's not right. Let me try again. Ok fake Mick Foley. This sounds more right. Fink sounded so earnestly excited announcing Rikishi out of the rigged lottery and all the faces are chanting his name. It's not just Rikishi at this point but Rikishi Phatu. He has Too Cool leave from the start and it makes it all seem a little more special for some reason. Hunter's entrance has become so much of a parody of itself, culminating in the peeing-himself moment from a few months ago, that it's easy to forget how primal and potent it was in 2000. Hunter is Bockwinkelish in his gameplan attacking in the corner and i agree it was a good start. It makes him seem potent and dangerous and in doing so, it make Rikishi seem all the more of a force in coming back immediately. I don't know about a legdrop on the outside in the first minute of the match. Despite what FSW says about Rikishi moving better than Show and Henry I think both of them might have taken that stairs shot more spectacularly. He really does throw himself into the announce table, etc, though. Hunter has to keep shifting his offense as Rikishi is just too much for him. He goes for a pin after the knee-counter on the back body drop which I've never seen before, but I think he just wants to get out of there despite his aggression. He's wrestling this as desperate but not chickenshit. This is the opposite of Jericho match which was very focused for the most part. This is a vulnerable heel champion match and Trips is no Tully. Nothing Hunter does through most of this is particularly smart, but that can be played up with him not being prepared (And in fact being actively surprised) and also his exhaustion post Big Show. The end result is that Kish ends up looking like a million bucks. I didn't love the banzai drop kick out but only because it didn't look particularly believable. It might have been a camera angle thing. Steph actually does a great job as a distraction, giving the chair to Hunter and then running around the ring to distract the ref. The kick out afterwards is what makes the match as the fans explode. I've never seen a heel get an asshole chant after getting himself disqualified like that before and that's an lement of the crowds from the era but it's also proof positive of how the match was effective. I've seen this match better a bunch of times, but I would put a check mark on the "Good Year" category for Hunter here. The match did exactly what it was supposed to do; Rikishi came out looking better and it elevated him a ton and the Hunter-Steph pairing came out looking almost as strong as before for surviving it under the circumstances.

He kind of worked an Apollo Creed gimmick.

Question. i see Nick Bockwinkel vs. Curt Hennig (11/22/84 on the ballot but I'm not sure I have it on MY list and it wasn't a match reviewed on the Wrestling Party and I don't see it listed in general. Is there a question about this date?

my middle 60 or so are going to be fairly dubious but I'm just about done barring me giving things a week for the old board to come back up so I can tweak.

That would be great but, legitimately, the WWE could face insider trading issues from that. She could wear a mask.

I want them to do a parody of the Goldust angle where Road Dogg has to "fight for Scott's job."

Did Vince hire the road warriors just to get discounts on zubaz?

I wish Scott Armstrong came out to Brad's old music. Also it was kind of neat how bad the crowd was at chanting Daniel Bryan. it ended up being layered.

What's the payoff? Having Cody turn heel and winning it? It would be kind of hilarious if Orton was just Corporate Mankind all the time.

Congrats on your more swear-y Greggulator post.

My new theory is that he almost killed Lawler.

According to wiki Rowan's been wrestling since 2003 and definitely since 2007. That does not bode well.