Uncle Coaster

I'm 41 and still love WWE, but... - Long talking segments. The most glaring flaw of the 3-hour era of Raw, imo. I don't want to watch people talking this long on a wrestling show. King Kong Mosca didn't need 15 minutes to break a water pitcher over Pat Patterson's head. Piper's Pit never went nearly that long. Say what you want to say and get it over with. If you want to talk about wrestling, start that nightly studio show on the Network that was first mentioned back in January. - Commentators ignoring matches. I know that commentators have been entertainers since Ventura and even before, but at least they focused on the matches and the importance of winning the matches. It's been mentioned before, but there is so little emphasis on winning that it seems like the only ones who care are those who bitch and moan online about someone not getting a push. This should be the commentators job. - Lack of style clashes. Somebody mentioned this in another thread recently (and it too has been mentioned often throughout the last few years), but nearly every wrestler is the same now and wrestles the same way. Where's the variety?

Not sure why, but every time I see that picture of Neidhart I think it's Rick McGraw at first.

Attended night 2. It was my first Chikara show since night 2 of the last Tag World Grand Prix, so it has been several years. I didn't really know most of the wrestlers or much about the storylines other than what I read over the last few weeks. Overall, I enjoyed myself and thought it was easily worth the $20. Seemed to be a bit too much comedy for my tastes, but it did make the main event featuring Eddie Kingston that much more different and exciting to me. Match of the night for me was the opening four-way. I'm not a huge flippy fan, but when it is done well it can be great. I liked that a lot. The second four-way, I though, came across as a bunch of people doing stunts, so it was a clear difference between how to do it right and how to do it poorly. I may try to follow Chikara a bit more closely now and see if I can get back into it.

I had never seen him, either. Only knew his name from reputation. Now I've seen him and am already invested in his character. Seems so simple when it is done right. Bull Dempsey has the potential to some day be my favorite wrestler. Not sure what his potential is as far as moving up the card, but I dig the guy. Reminds me of the older vets that would come in as heels during the 1979-1983 WWF when I was just a wee one. Not much more I can say about Bayley that hasn't already been said. She stands out. I want to give her a hug so bad...and I say that in a purely clean and innocent way. Between the main roster and NXT the WWE has Paige, AJ, Emma, Bayley, Charlotte, and Sasha...all women I enjoy watching immensely. Best time to be a fan of women's wrestling in the US in a long time.

I felt like a kid at the Smackdown taping last night. I was giddy over high fiving Michael Cole, Big Show and one of the Colons, and then topped it off by fist bumping Roman Reigns.

"I'm over here" actually had me look up from what I was doing and take notice. A great line. Also, Belly-to-Bayley is the best name for a finisher in a long, long time. NXT has really been doing good by women's wrestling in the last year.

The most amazing thing about this is that just about a year ago the WWE embarked on one of their most amazing journey's ever (the Daniel Bryan climb to the title). Whether it was what they planned or not, that was the ultimate example of southern style wrestling. EDIT: I should say the ultimate example of the "journey" not just the generic term southern style wrestling.

I used to enjoy the Tag World Grand Prix but always had something come up to prevent me from going to a Trios tourney. Hoping this year I get to go. My dream team: Crime TIme and Akeem

At one time my favorite wrestler was "Dangerous" Danny Davis...by a wide margin. It was my first experience with an evil ref that was actually a ref (not a guest referee turned bad) and I bought into him hook, line and sinker. I vaguely remember a match on Action Zone pitting Mantaur against Aldo Montoya. I am pretty sure it was them. I also remember going to class the next day and telling people, "This is a great example of why the New Generation is going to be just fine."

I always thought of myself as a guy who appreciated Malenko, but now I look back and can't think of a match I want to watch. Keeping the list confined to the Network, what match would be the best example of a straight Malenko match?

My older brother and I wrestled very much like Smelly McUgly and pals. Our only injury came when we tried boxing. My brother approached it with a, "yeah, this should be fun just like our play wrestling" attitude. I went into it with, "this stuff's real, bro". Needless to say my first punch to the temple landed without him even trying to block it. I ran like hell and we never boxed again.

Some great answers already. I'll add the first David Von Erich Parade of Champions. Regardless of the ickyness behind the scenes, Kerry beating Flair in his hometown to honor his brother was an amazing moment.

That was a great post. I watched Wrestlemania III via closed circuit at a local high school. Upon exiting, I tried to convince everyone I ran into that the main event for Mania IV would be Hulk Hogan vs the next big thing...Dangerous Danny Davis.

I forgot they could have met up then. I figured out it was Reed on viewing #6.

I watched that five times trying to figure out when Tito wrestled Hogan.

I watched Starrcade '93 last night. Probably the first time I've seen it since the original airing. I had remembered it being one of my favorite pay-per-views of the era, mostly for the emotional Flair win, but man were there a lot of awkward finishes in that. The not-so-entertaining stuff was kept short, which I liked, with the exception of the Nasty Boys vs. Sting/Hawk, which was brutal. Favorite part was Shockmaster vs. Whichever Kong for all of the reasons you could imagine including Capetta's drawn out announcement of Awesome Kong only to have King Kong "wrestle" and then the great Awesome Kong splash on his own partner, which made me laugh for some time. Austin/Dustin was not their best encounter and it seemed like Austin was ignoring Col. Parker for most of the match, but it was still okay. Flair/Vader wasn't as dramatic as I remembered, but it was cool to see Flair's family and the crowd loved him, so there was that. Will probably be watching Shockmaster's match again tonight for kicks.

Just ended.

Perhaps it is the mark in me, but when I think of Ric Flair, my first thoughts go to 80's NWA World Champion Flair when I was rooting for guys like Von Erich, Garvin and Steamboat against him. When I first saw the question my thoughts were "who did I root for more than anyone else?". I always loved watching Flair and thought he was the best forever, but I didn't start rooting for him as a fan until he came to the WWF in 1991. Yes. Tag team would be an easy one for me and it would be the Steiner Brothers.

Tough call, but in the end I think I'll go with Steve Austin. Not just because of his incredible run as Stone Cold, either. He is one of the last wrestlers I can recall coming up through the territory system, he wrestled multiple styles and did them all well, and he always seemed to be in the promotion I was watching most closely at the time. He was a favorite of mine when he was first coming up in Texas, a definite favorite of mine throughout his incredible WCW run, he gave me a "nod of acknowledgment" at a WWF event the night before he debuted as the Ringmaster, and of course there was Stone Cold when he made wrestling cool again. An amazing career.

Great Raw. Xavier Woods, Kofi and Big E are already doing MVP, King and Lashley better than MVP, King and Lashley. For the love of God, just give Paul Heyman a Glenn Beck/Rachel Maddow style show on the network and let him put over each storyline and watch the subscriptions soar.

The apparent cancellation of the Raw post-show and the moving of the pre-show out of the arena and into the studio are the first real disappointments I've had in the network. The pre-show doesn't have the same atmosphere in a studio it did at the arena. Also, suddenly it looks like Alex Riley is looking off to the side when he talks to Byron Saxton instead of looking at him. Not sure if its the angle of their chairs or if he actually is looking at something, but it distracts me.

Thanks to you both. I'm not available tomorrow, but might give Excellence a shot in August. I've enjoyed what I've seen of Chikara, so both sound like a place to start.

I've never been a huge follower of any indies. I started when Dino Sanna used to bring names in to every show in the mid-90s, then I followed Afa's training school when he was still up here in PA. Outside of that I've seen a handful of other shows like some Chikara, JAPW and Corino-promoted stuff. However, I'd like to start following a group that I can go see in person. I live in Eastern PA (Lehigh Valley) and am willing to drive an hour or a little more to see a show. Any recommendations?

I made one of MGFanJay's Screencaps! Don't know if that is good or bad. fwiw, top picture I am the salt-and-pepper-haired guy in the red shirt who looks like he could use a little more sleep.

I don't watch much TNA, but I attended the Bethlehem tapings a few weeks ago. Rockstar Spud emerged as the star, imo. I'm not saying he can be the biggest thing in the business, but with the WWE having Heyman and Zeb with some success, I'd love to see Spud come in and take on the Jimmy Hart role. I know I'd have been more invested in Rybaxel if they had Spud running around in their corner.