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Hang this post in The Louvre

Sid is one of the best pro wrestlers ever. Can't agree that he sucks. I don't give a shit how bad his punches are, and yes, I know that's sacrilege here at DVDVR. He has intensity, he just makes you want to run through a wall when he comes out and starts fist-bumping folks, and he knows how to harness that to get over anywhere. He's one of those guys who would get over in 1970, 1990, 2010, or now. Dudes like that are pro wrestling. Though he's probably number one on that ol' "coasted on charisma and a dope finisher" list I mentioned earlier.

Poor Shawn could have came out with the entire Knicks starting five and the 96 Yankees that just won the World Series three weeks earlier, and he still would have been booed.

Sid is another one of those guys who is enhanced by the fact that he absolutely 100% never winks through the 4th wall. Sid always behaved as though he completely believed wrestling was real. This is why he is the guy who was able to drag the Shockmaster debut back on track and avert further disaster.

Jacques Rougeau [Jr.] is absolutely an all time Top 5-10 guy for me because few things better encapsulate pro wrestling and what I enjoy about it than the semi-delusional obnoxious loudmouth jackass heel who, while mostly ridiculous and in over his head also remains just dangerous enough to remain an infuriating menace. And who never goes away no matter how badly his ass gets kicked. Yet is hilarious all the time. Jacques was pretty much the first iteration of that I saw. And probably still the best. Darsow is another guy who always completely commits to the bit and never allowed himself to be so cool as to wink through the fourth wall. "Comedy Jobbers" yet with some legit threat to win. i think this goes a long way towards explaining why I'm such a booster for Jessie McKay as well.

The whole thing is weapons grade awesome...

It's unreasonable not to be happy about Terry Funk matches

I think I read 4 pages without comprehending a word because I could not believe that folks named DiBiase, Roberts and Rude for their least memorable workers. I don't want it to be my only gimmick, but y'all make me feel OLD. Watch any of those ICON's matches (or especially feuds) BEFORE the WWF and you will learn. Dibiase was over and a workhorse, Roberts was a master of psychology as heel or babyface or tweener, and Rude -- well, he did cruise on charisma, style and a finisher there for a bit, but the man could work and had presence, especially live. Now I like Mike Rotundo but I will not dispute his pick for some. He is of that class of workers that it wasn't that "you had to see his early stuff", it's more that he was more effective, I believe (esp. as a babyface), when he was younger. He grew up, and never really evoved. A young'un who uses veteran moves (the whole technical amateur wrestler gimmick) is great, a vet who wrestles like a vet irregardless of most-recent-gimmick is less charming. The man could go, tho'. As a passionate human, there are not too many wrestlers that I don't have a bit of a reaction to, but I would be hard-pressed to recall when Slick, Axl Rotten, Gangrel, Teijo Khan, or Warlord stirred a feeling from me. However, for workers that delight & inspire & enervate me, I can rattle off many, and then be overwhelmed with regret an minute/hour/day/week later at the many I forgot: The Sheepherders Kevin Sullivan Capt. Lou The Grand Wizard Fred Blassie Stevie Richards Horsemen Era Ric Flair Terry Funk Mike Jackson Eddie Guerrero Jimmy Valiant Sabu Buxx Belmar Perry Saturn Patti Pep Big Van Vader Midnight Express (any iteration, bonus points for JC) Oleg the Usurper Mike Jackson The Great Kabuki w/Gary Hart Claudio Castagnoli Cactus Jack Tully Blanchard w/JJ Dillion Ron Bass w/JJ Dillion Muta (esp. in the USA) Tajiri The Wild Samoans Umaga ... I could go on ...

Minnesota trying to bury this

Most of the crew that worked chikara makes me happy. The new day are all time favorite because i can relate to all three of them, being a black nerdy dude myself. I know im in a minority but i always loved the various degeneration x reunions.

Sid

I’ve told this on the forum years ago, but I love Naomi because of Total Diva. I was on a short life break from wrestling and my gf (maybe fiancé at this point / currently happily married to) was watching Total Divas. I got sucked in and Naomi was about to marry Jimmy Uso. Well, there was issues with Rikishi. Potential issues with his approval but he gave his blessing. Then the day before the wedding he chose a booking over going to the wedding. Naomi and Jimmy cried, then Jay gave a speech about how much he loves his brother and new sister and then I cried. I will always enjoy Naomi because of this. Terry Funk is a legit GOAT but how he will flop around like a golden retriever falling off a couch when he runs into the turnbuckle brings me joy. Same with Buddy Rose’s selling. I just love original selling. How a worker’s body can move and react unlike other’s. Evil UNO’s body folding over as he crumbled to kicks of Bryan Danielson made that a spectacular viewing. Billie Kay holding her ear and dropping down after a head kick was the right move for that moment, because it happened organically. The Rock, Ken Shamrock, and Mankind were my favorites as a kid. The Rock made facial expressions like Jim Carey. Shamrock was intense and I was an aggressive spaz. Mankind talked with a sock. I love Giant Baba on commentary. I don’t know what he is saying but it is like when Tom Thibodeau would yell at the Timberwolves when he was couching here. Deep barely audible tones. I just want to watch Kenta Kobashi repetitively chop people all day. Obviously, great though. Same with Desuke Sekimoto suplexing fools. Darius Martin was Air Wolf at the local fed, F1rst Wrestling, so seeing him and his brother kill it is beautiful. Abdullah Kobayashi looks huggable until he eats lightubes. It is sad that Quackenbush is weird. I loved so much about his weird voice. Black Taurus has a cool mask.

Me: "Brace yourself. Tom Brady just unretired." Cindy: *does legit spit-take I will take to my grave* ?????

I still love that Sid looked genuinely surprised by the 10 foot tall S I D as he enters the ring.

Big Boss Man and William Regal. Both are pretty much guaranteed to do at least one thing a match that makes me smile.

HOLY CRAP!

I can hear Eddie Kingston dedicating his inaugural, two-week reign to Larry Sweeney.

That guy should be Regal. 40 years in the business, long runs with WCW and WWE, years of backstage experience, trainer, etc. Regal is someone Vince should have kept on payroll just to keep him away from the competition.

Bruce Sutter has been getting a million a year from the Braves since 1991. This is the last year and there is a balloon payment check of $9M. He's actually going to end up with something like $15M more off his deal than Bonilla is on his. Sutter's original contract was something like $9M over 5 years and he retired 2 years before it ended. To end up with $47M when all is said and done is wild.

LOVE this shot. So damn happy to have Gori-chan back.

Absolutely. If I was to choose between Cody and Regal to run a promotion- I would be betting my last cent on Regal to make it work. Regal would respect the tradition of ROH and not use it for ego stroking.

Doubling back here, I'd almost argue that it's like god creating a rock too heavy to lift. Even with someone like Randy Orton, he's so beloved by so many other wrestlers that I kind of want to get to the bottom of it, you know? I want to dig in there and make sense of just why they value him so? Is it mechanics? Is it footwork? Is it pacing? Is there something to his strikes that make them particularly easy without actually looking that way? If I'm watching a Randy Orton match, which again, I'm never obliged to watch a Randy Orton match; no one is forcing me; I am not a completionist here... then I'm almost paying more attention and not less because of it. Same with a Rotunda match. I get his background. He wasn't a fan but he had legitimate skills and he was trained by The Destroyer! I want to figure out what he's trying to accomplish in there, how he thinks it's going to move the fans, where it goes right and how it goes wrong. Some of that's me and the brain not shutting off, though. If I'm watching a match and reviewing a match especially, a big part of what I'm looking for is what new thing I can learn that I didn't already know. What does this match tell us about the wrestlers or the moment in time or the promotion or the crowd or wrestling in general? And I don't think the answer is ever "nothing."

Love this question, too. In the spirit of overthinking everything, I wanna focus on "unreasonably" There are a whole lot of wrestlers where I think it's reasonable if they make you maximally happy: Liger, Eddie, Kobashi, Bryan, Savage, Terry Funk, Andre, and on and on. Then there's a special sub-category of pro wrestlers who, if it were not for the Death Valley Driver Video Review, you might think you were alone in loving their work (and at least in my case, might never otherwise have discovered): Johnny Saint, Negro Casas, Volk Han, Shinobu Kandori, and so on. in my case, there are also wrestlers with whom I have a personal connection (like John Tenta, Asian Cooger, Daisuke Harada -basically anyone who was in the Vancouver territory in the 1980s or the Vancouver indies from 2005 through 2009 or Osaka Pro from 2009 through 2012 - and so on) and I mark out unreasonably any time I see any of them. And the famous wrestlers I have met who were unusually kind to me: Abdullah, Hokuto, Chono, Akiyama, Bryan, Bob Sapp, Onita, and so on... So that narrows my list down considerably, if I eliminate all of them. But my list is still at least as long as the good reverend's So, a top 5 of pro wrestlers where I think I mark out more for them than most of you do: El Felino Manabu Nakanishi Bear Country Kantaro Hoshino Les Kellett

I want to say (write) Terry Funk, but him always putting a smile to my face is not unreasonable, is it?

This is also behind my love for New Day. Woods hitting the Final Fantasy victory theme before they introduced themselves is an all-time wrestling moment. In general, I feel like black nerds are having a Renaissance and getting out there and being their best selves. De'Aaron Fox being an unabashed Dragonball fan is another example. I don't even like anime, but I like people living their truth, dammit.

Sid sucks, I acknowledge that he sucks, I recognize that he sucks, but for pretty much my entire life I was happy when he was on my television. For me all time, it is either Randy Savage or Eddy Guerrero. I will never be as big of a fan as I was as a kid loving Randy Savage and jumping off my porch dropping elbows on imaginary opponents. I'm pretty sure Macho Man's elbow drop did more to make me a fan than anything else in all of wrestling. Something about him jumping off the top rope and dropping an elbow spoke to my motherfucking soul. The only other point in my life where wrestling that important was my high-school years which pretty much coincided with the Monday Night Wars. Steve Austin is probably 3rd on this list, but once I got into the wrestling discussions on the internet Eddy Guerrero is the guy who really stood out to me. When he was a generic babyface with the white and red singlet, I wasn't that big of a fan. He was good and all, but nothing felt special about him. Then, he turned heel and everything changed. Instead of having the big bushy mullet, he wet that shit and looked bad ass. He looked like he was standing outside in the rain all damn day, hoping some poor asshole walked by so he could beat their ass and steal their shoes. Not because he didn't have any shoes, but because walking home after you just got your ass beat during a rainstorm would suck even worse if you weren't wearing shoes. My favorite match of all time is Rey vs. Guerrero from Halloween Havoc '97. Fun fact, that is the first PPV I was ever allowed to order. I taped it of course, and watched that match at least 150 times, and it still feels special to me. I used to pack that tape in my suitcase when I went to visit my grandparents, so I'd have it in case I got bored and wanted to watch it again. It's the perfect wrestling match to me, and probably always will be.

Eddie Guerrero Eddie Gilbert Eddie Kingston Southern cult leader Bray Wyatt KO Sami The Four Horsewomen JJ Dillon sliming it up with Tully The Rock circa his Toronto heel turn Stevie Richards FTR Best Friends Miro

What wrestler makes you unreasonably happy? Just seeing them in a match and you can help but smile. Whether how the act or their personality or even nostalgia, just the idea of them brings you joy.

the wife and I watched Loki this week. Damn, what a good show. the interactions between Loki and Owen Wilson were grand. Loki and Sylvie being so narcissistic that they could only fall for another Loki was fantastic, as was the fact that they couldn't trust each other and betrayed themselves. The end of time with all the Loki variants was superb (Alligator Loki FTW). i popped big for the Thanos Copter. Had to pause and explain it to my wife because i was laughing so hard. a Kang who is literally out of his mind with boredom wasn't what i expected, but i'm ok with it because of what it sets up. The Kang statue in the TVA base was aces. Season 2 can't come soon enough.

There’s a lot of concern trolling about dangerous spots in AEW and the indies, but the biggest wrestling company in the world always has to have at least one big goon on the main roster named like Lurch Amsterdam or something who routinely nearly kills themself or someone else doing the basics.

Bobby Bonilla

Bonilla, or is there another one I'm forgetting? Nobody loves FA more than the mediocre. . . .

Someone saw the state of NFC QBs

Doing show prep last night, I was watching 1984 Crockett and seeing The American Starship made me think just how weird the careers of Hall and Spivey ended up after that start. That and why is a team named Starship coming out to Prince?

Savage, Bret, Perfect

And Sabu

Please pull through Scott

I haven't spent money on a wrestling PPV in about 25 years but damned if I wouldn't drop some dollars to watch Dorado stretch Izzy's dad.

My favourite takeaway is curry. Keema Saagh is what I get from the curry restaurant I go to. Yesterday there was a small festival with a stall that has a restaurant I've read good things about. I had curried goat, a first for me with chips and sauces squirted on. I went with that as it was the most popular dish by far. Right enjoyed it and will have to get something from said restaurant. Thought it funny eating goat and not that GOAT I always refer to in Bryan Danielson!

I can't agree with Orton or HHH since both guys have a good amount of high-end stuff. Yes, they also have long bad/boring stretches, but I've enjoyed both at various points. Most of the other guys brought up would kill have to something as awesome as HHH/Austin 3 stages of hell or Orton/Foley on their resume. Or even something as good as their LMS against each other at No Mercy 07. I rejected bringing up Ziggler on similar grounds. No matter how many boring years in a row he can string together, he'll always have the Del Rio double turn match and the Survivor Series 14 tag. I can't think of a single Miz match I would want to re-watch.

Orrrrrr my completely unfounded theory that tickets to NXT are cheaper than a hotel, so it's mostly people trying to sleep on the cheap ?

Not if they're all the same lol. Ultimo would have looked like an absolute tool if he had 9 WCW Cruiserweight Titles with him. Easy math equation to follow. Being a champion of more than one division / company = cool. Carrying multiples of the same exact title = tool.

More cool stuff from Montero (Montoro?) vs Bordes exchanges: AM with the Conjuro: The fall ended shortly thereafter and the next one more or less began with this crazy Bordes bump into nowhere:

I hope their tables are close to each other.

This is a superb film: while there are unavoidable elements in the genre (i.e. costuming - which is also mitigated here to a large extent with a streamlined combat suit for Pattinson, Riddler's Zodiac-killer get up, Kravitz' body suit and subtle semi-balaclava etc.), they almost unequivocally manage to avoid carny-ness. If you want a campy carny blockbuster fest, this isn't going to be the 'superhero' film for you. Instead you get the World's Greatest Detective in his element, and you have to work as an audience to keep up and decipher the mystery with him. It is a great character film.

We all smiled because it was the second of the two Hush easter eggs, the first being HUSH? in big ol' white letters on the evening news. The swerve being that it began to look like he had solved the Hush riddle (The greatest riddle of them all! "Who is the Batman?) when he actually hadn't. Amazing film. Loved the transformation of Batman from a brooding Dark Knight to a man of the people and realizing with the help of the mayor that the vigilantism he thought was philanthropy was actually done out of the selfish desire to uphold his family name in a constant war to avenge his father. We got the "You see, I'm both Bruce Wayne and Batman, not because I have to be, now, because I choose to be," moment from Batman Forever (which also featured The Riddler) without the campy Val Kilmer line delivery. I liked Zodiac Killer Riddler more than I thought I would. Also loved the liberal license of making Bruce's mom an Arkham and giving her family a tie to the infamous Arkham Asylum. In the comics, Bruce's mom comes from the well to do Kane family and that's how Bob Kane snuck his name into the mythology. Bruce and Alfred mending their fences in the hospital made the theater a bit dusty. Oh and the end credit scene? I have been waiting for years for a Batman movie where he gets to be a detective instead of a ninja. Finally got it and it was totally fucking great. You can see the wheels turning in Bruce's head as he relished the challenge of matching wits with the Riddler. Colin Farrell was pretty great as The Penguin as was John Turturro's minimalist menace as Carmine Falcone. How appropriate that Cobblepot may be the biggest beneficiary of the Riddler's scheme? Pattinson and Zoe Kravitz had MOLTEN CHEMISTRY~! which made the dynamic of Batman & Catwoman's relationship and his battle for her morality even more awesome. "HE HAS TO PAY!" "YOU DON'T NEED TO PAY WITH HIM!" The score was a mixed bag. At some points it was painfully effective and in other points it had no gravitas. The intro of the Batmobile needed something heavy like Zimmer to give that scene some weight.

In Florida with my parents and they were randomly completely stoked to go see this, so instead of waiting a week with my friends, i watched now. My thoughts in no particular order: It is fantastic. It's a Year Two story (which is even shown in a diary he keeps). Pattinson is great as this disconnected nut driven by vengeance above all. I didn't expect Penguin to be in it as much as he was. But I guess if you get Colin Farrell you keep him there as much as you can. Plus it definitely looks like he's going to be a massive problem in movie 2 or 3. Bludhaven name drop! Boy oh boy the mayor's kid may as well as had a giant neon "ROBIN" sign pointing at him whenever he was on screen. I really liked this fucking psychopath Riddler. The reveal at the end that shocked me was that he actually doesn't know about Bruce. That was a terrific misdirect, well done Matt Reeves. But you know, he frankly does win in the end. Which is a very nice turn on the superhero story. I do love how everyone in the movie who has lines, is there for a reason, has clear motivations, and a significant arc. This version of Bruce is very interesting. A much younger version of The World's Greatest Detective, which matches very well with Riddler. Oh and I'll spoiler one thing because I had no idea this was happening in this movie: Happy to say I'll see this again soon. You should go. Like now.