Biz Smarkie Posted March 17, 2014 Posted March 17, 2014 Toughest match in the tournament. By far. I don't know who to vote for yet. Dustin coming back in 2013 and being absolutely awesome made the inner 10 yr old Dustin fan mark the fuck out, but Luke has been a beast for quite sometime. He really makes you feel that he lives the gimmick, and the fact that he murderizes fools with lariats and big boots makes me want to vote for him. I dunno..I guess Luke.
JRGoldman Posted March 17, 2014 Posted March 17, 2014 I keep typing up arguments for why I voted for Harper, and when I read them back I inevitably say 'shit, you could say the exact same thing about Goldust'. I don't begrudge anyone a vote either way, because this match up is very clearly just going to come down to personal opinion.
DylanWaco Posted March 17, 2014 Posted March 17, 2014 Voted for Goldust. What hurts Harper to me is that for all the talk of Dustin not really doing anything other than random indies for half of the period covered by voting, I really wasn't impressed with Harper in NXT outside of the Sheamus match and the Ohno match and the Ohno match was after Dustin was already in the promotion IIRC. It's not that Harper was bad, but he was really just a guy for big chunks of last year. When I stack him up next to Goldust and factor in this year it is close though. Where Dustin has the advantages are, I think he has more quality matches under his belt during the time frame, and also the fact that I thought Dustin was the best guy in the world for at least three straight months (Sept, Oct, Nov), and he may have been the best guy in the world in Dec. (Casas is right there). I love Harper, loved him as Brodie Lee too. Honestly I think he's a top five guy in the world so far this year at absolute worst, and wouldn't argue with someone if they had him at one. But I think for the time period he doesn't have quite enough to surpass Dustin.
DylanWaco Posted March 17, 2014 Posted March 17, 2014 Side note, but I think if anyone is going to benefit from the "what have you done for me lately" voter it's going to be Harper
JohnnyJ Posted March 17, 2014 Posted March 17, 2014 This is very difficult. I really like both these guys. I'll go with Dustin because his journey this year feels like the original ending to The Wrestler that they pulled because it would insult the audience. How is it even possible that a guy who seemingly ran out of chances years ago, rejoins WWE in his mid-40s looking better than ever before and making an arguable claim to best wrestler in the world? 2
just drew Posted March 17, 2014 Posted March 17, 2014 Yeah, you don't see many guys in their mid-40's start doing "Code Reds" as setup moves in WWE. Goldust is wrestling like a man with no future, and it's probably because he knows this is it. I like Harper, but Goldust has been damn near "True Grit" in his final moment in the spotlight...
offspring515 Posted March 17, 2014 Posted March 17, 2014 I'm gonna be honest and say the tipping point for me was the spinning clothesline Harper uses. That's honestly how close this match was for me, who has the move I like the most.
Jrag Posted March 17, 2014 Posted March 17, 2014 Old people voting for old people. Should have expected this one.
MushroomJones Posted March 17, 2014 Posted March 17, 2014 Gotta go with Harper. Voting for the future as I think WWE will only be using Dustin in an on screen role for a few more months. And the fact the WWE forces Harper to shave that bald spot in.
Matt D Posted March 17, 2014 Posted March 17, 2014 Side note, but I think if anyone is going to benefit from the "what have you done for me lately" voter it's going to be Harper I don't know. There was a week where Harper had the Ohno match, a Bryan match, and maybe a Punk match too, something else high profile. That was back deep into last year. I think I'm still going with Dustin for "level of difficulty."
Matt D Posted March 17, 2014 Posted March 17, 2014 Let me figure out what I'm talking about. Looks like the first week of November is when he had a Punk match on Monday, the Ohno match on NXT, and then a Bryan match on Smackdown. So not THAT back deep into the year. I didn't realize Ohno was around that late.
Stevie Ray Von Erich Posted March 17, 2014 Posted March 17, 2014 Goldust is doing sentons and second rope hurricanranas that make sense in the layout of the match and build heat for hot tags to Cody. It's such a masterful use of moves he's not done since now that it's really hard for me to vote against him. Harper is really good, but I have yet to see something from him that makes me think he is head and shoulders above other people on the roster, and I LIKE big boots and clotheslines. His dives are a lot of fun, though. 1
Cristobal Posted March 17, 2014 Posted March 17, 2014 This is the only one of today's matches that was hard for me to decide. Bryan and Cesaro were no-brainers, and Reigns isn't on Cena's level yet, but Harper has been arguably the biggest reason for the success of the Wyatts, and he's only been getting better, while Goldy's stagnated a bit since the Rhodeses lost the title, but in the end that's the booking, and I can't penalize him for that. This is Goldy's final moment in the sun.
AND THE BEAT GOES ON! Posted March 17, 2014 Posted March 17, 2014 Was I the only one who thought orton/dust was overrated? I felt it was overly long and lost fire in the second half, and a sprint would have suited the story better. I feel like they're kind of inseperable in tags and liked harper's singles better
Cristobal Posted March 17, 2014 Posted March 17, 2014 Was I the only one who thought orton/dust was overrated? Yes. 1
Hagan Posted March 17, 2014 Posted March 17, 2014 Goldie is a better babyface than Harper is a heel. I'm basing it on that. Every Goldust match has such a great story and emotion to it. Harper, because of his character, plays a secondary role in matches and Bray kind of gets the great character moments.
IpponDropkick Posted March 17, 2014 Posted March 17, 2014 Goldust is doing sentons and second rope hurricanranas that make sense in the layout of the match and build heat for hot tags to Cody. It's such a masterful use of moves he's not done since now that it's really hard for me to vote against him. Harper is really good, but I have yet to see something from him that makes me think he is head and shoulders above other people on the roster, and I LIKE big boots and clotheslines. His dives are a lot of fun, though. This is a great point. It's easy to impressed by Goldust breaking out the acrobatic junk because he's old as hell, but what puts it over the top is how much it makes sense with what he was doing this year. In his most memorable stuff, he was fighting for his family or defending the tag belts he got from the defensive of that family. You really believe this dude would be throwing his body at things like he was going to kill himself becaue he's got no other choice. It's a fitting reason to put him over Harper for me.
TimLivingston Posted March 17, 2014 Posted March 17, 2014 Harper on NXT was fun, had the great Ohno match, some decent tags, but didn't really come out of his shell until the end of the year. Goldust getting a few months to really be a part of some great tags helps him take the lead. To me, it almost comes down to the Battleground Tag vs. the EC 6-man. That tag was one of the best things I had seen in the WWE in quite some time, and then a few months later, the EC 6-man became almost the stamp on what the Wyatts were about. The one thing I don't like is that we don't have a lot of Goldust singles matches, whereas Harper got a chance to work solo a bunch more and looked great in doing so. In the end, I think the sheer quality of the work starting with the Battleground tag going forward was really just incredibly high.
Paco Posted March 17, 2014 Posted March 17, 2014 Voting Goldust over...well, everybody. Such a great comeback story. It was the best part of my wrestling fandom this past year. Harper was indeed awesome and I'm not even mad he beat my boy Sami. But Goldie's my guy this year. Cesaro 2nd. Zayn was 3rd. Bryan 4th, I guess. Meh...same ol', same ol'.
MORELOCK Posted March 17, 2014 Posted March 17, 2014 Harper has been arguably the biggest reason for the success of the Wyatts I'd love to hear this argument. I like Harper, but saying his ringwork was more important than Bray's promos/the entrance/the gimmick itself seems pretty bold.
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