World's Worst Man

He likes to challenge people's opinions, and doesn't let them get away with going on and on without posting any sort of argument, about subjects they don't really know a whole lot about. Tends to end up as a "you either love him or you hate him" thing. Of course, that's only when he posts, which isn't all that frequently. He just wants to talk about match quality and wrestling ability as opposed to the booking or the business side of things. He also likes people who can have rough, in-depth debates with getting offended or making things personal. He is not averse to telling someone off if they have it coming, though.

Pretty much. Lower card matches shouldn't have to be "lesser", but they should to be somewhat different than the other matches on the card. I guess all that really means is not doing any "important" spots that certain other matches might be doing. Anything else should be acceptable in the time given. If two guys steal the show (according to the majority of the viewers) in the first match, maybe their talent doesn't belong that early in the card.

Unconvincing story elements that don't seem to be really fit into the match. Lazily attacking a body part that doesn't go anywhere or seem to serve any purpose is a good example.

I watched this match the day after it originally aired, with, based on what I had read, the expecations that it was going to be a stiff, scrappy match. When I didn't get even close to that, I was disappointed, and it probably lessened my opinion of the match more than it should have. So I rewatched it today, with a clean slate and no specific expectations. The story of the match was vaguely defined (ie. not told all that well). As far as I could surmise, the main story elements were Benoit's comebacks after being controlled for stretches. Neither the "dominant control" portions by Finlay nor the comebacks by Benoit were particularly well done. They were solid enough, there just wasn't that extra something in them that allows for a clearly defined story. The wrestling style itself was something I'd seen many times in New Japan in the last few years, so I wasn't overly impressed with it. The matwork wasn't scrappy or hotly contested, nor were the strikes particularly stiff. The execution wasn't bad, it just wasn't even close to being good enough to gain any points. The finishing submission hold was well fought for, but came out of no where. There really wasn't much work to the finish, and that's generally something I look for in a high quality wrestling match. What it all amounted to was a good match, that wasn't any better than what one might see in a really good RAW or Smackdown match. Maybe I've been spoiled by seeing so many recent matches in a similar style that exceeded this match, but I can't in good faith rate this particular match over those, just because the promotion this match took place in doesn't normally feature that wrestling style. *** I cannot for the life of me see anything special in this match. Even when I was actively looking for story (generally something that shouldn't be necessary), I didn't find a whole lot. Were people just impressed by a different style in a WWE ring? I know it's happened in the past. Anyone who disagrees want to hit me up with a good review of it? (or at least some bullet points)

Thanks, I'm downloading it now. It'll probably be added later today

Coming from a critical point of view, I'd tend to put him somewhere in the middle. Both sides of the argument have good points. Punk is a smart wrestler. He knows story-telling and he knows selling. The problem is, in many instances he forces the story in his matches, which makes things come off as unnatural and "fake". His best matches were with Samoa Joe, who was able to supply quite a bit of the good work himself, so the tendency for Punk's wrestling to come off as forced wasn't there. The matches also had a built-in story, which further helped the authenticity of the matches. Punk also tends to be a bit sloppy with his execution, something that I take into account when looking at a wrestler. But I don't imagine it's a big complaint among some of the anti-Punk crowd, as many of them seem to disregard execution when judging a wrestler's ability. Outside of the Joe matches, he's hit or miss. When he's on, he's usually capable of having good-very good matches (but not much more) with guys who are around his own ability, or just beneath him. When he's off, he tends to have those "fake, forced" matches that people talk about. I think what he would be better in an enviroment with a larger emphasis on character and angles, as then his matches would have more of a built-in story, which would cancel the need to forcibly inject story into a match. I suspect the anti-Punk hyperbole is due to how much he's overrated in some circles, combined with a general dislike/jealousy of indy wrestling in general. And the pro-Punk view is simply due to people not caring or "getting" that forced, unnatural story-telling is a bad thing.

Agreed, especially when they use it as a reason to discredit the wrestling product.

Angle works into other moves from the headlock, Orton's chinlock is just a lazy rest hold. Angle is the king of slapping on a superfluous chinlock late in a match because he doesn't know what else to do.

Kayfabe needs to be maintained insofar as allowing people to suspend their disbelief, even when they know it's not real. That pretty much means that hinting that things aren't real or outright saying it is a no-no, as it puts the audience out of the moment and forces them to watch as if nothing is real, which in turn makes it somewhat of a joke. Bad wrestling can achieve the same thing, when the laws of logic are stretched to such a degree that it becomes impossible to believe. Blatant no-selling, bad looking offense, contrived spots/setup to spots, etc.

He is a sell-out yes, and a hypocrite. But it doesn't matter because he's Terry god damn Funk and he's earned the right.

After having seen the first two Strong/Danielson matches, I'd be inclined to say the 2nd was better. It had more weaknesses (mainly some selling problems and lack of direction at times), but it undoubtedly had a better stretch run then the first. Oddly enough, I thought that Daniels vs. Joe from Vendetta was better than the first Strong/Danielson match. It seemed to be more focused from start to finish and it was a masterful performance by Joe, as his selling was off the charts.

Kid's Return Hanabi Aoi Haru Jin-Roh Shura

Aoi Haru - 9/10

So when does Joe get his title shot, and how great will that match be when it happens?

Stratovarius Iron Maiden X Japan In Flames Loudness Helloween

4 weeks worth. Godfather - 9.5/10 Godfather II - 10/10 Godfather III - 7/10 Goodfellas - 8.5/10 Donnie Brasco - 8.5/10 Platoon - 9.5/10 Enemy At The Gates - 3/10 Full Metal Jacket - 8/10 X-Men 2 - 6/10 Stalingrad (1993) - 9/10 Shura - 9.5/10 Searching For Bobby Fischer - 8/10 House of Flying Daggers - 6/10 The Hidden Blade - 8/10 Patton - 8/10 Das Boot - 8.5/10

There's also Prodigy, who was introduced in 2004 or there abouts.

No, that's Franklin Richards. Although Cable is definitely Omega level though. The whole idea was that his powers are the only thing keeping the techno-organic virus in his body from taking him over, although I think that's no longer true. He got rid of the T.O. virus, which led to him gaining full use of his power and then it was hinted that he was the most powerful person on Earth. Although later they claimed the virus came back, but there was some weak explanation that he didn't have to use so much of his power to control it this time, and was still uber-powerful. This was during the Cable/Deadpool stuff. Either way, you could probably assume he was just as powerful as Nate Grey, and probably more so due to his experience and training.

I'm disappointed at the way Cable gets treated. For a guy who's supposed to be the most powerful being on Earth, he sure gets screwed around by people who shouldn't be a threat to him (Weapon X program for instance). The Cable/Deadpool stuff was pretty good though, because finally Cable was being treated as the uber-powerful person he was supposed to be. The crew that started the "riot at Xavier's" was pretty lame. I don't know if they ever re-surfaced after that, since I'm not up to date on the comics yet.

I don't know how many people actually talk about Japanese wrestling without having seen any. I'd say it's more a case of people spouting off about "best this and best that" despite not having even seen the really high end stuff in the world of wrestling. But people definitely do like to throw *'s around despite not being able to adequately support their opinions. It's more down to people who don't understand that * ratings aren't some mathematical equation. They're just another and more precise way to call a match good, bad, average, etc, which comes down to the person's own tastes.

Ok, Mr. Sensitive was pretty neat too. I just did not enjoy the spirit of what that series was about.

Probably every X-Statix character outside of Dead Girl and U-Go Girl.

The two that are far and away ahead of the rest. X Japan - Silent Jealousy X Japan - Art of Life The fast approaching and somewhat new entry. Nightwish - Ghost Love Score These have been on the list forever. Big Life - Cry Johann Pachelbel - Canon D-Dur All somewhat recent. Nobuo Uematsu - To Zanarkand Noriko Matsueda & Takahito Eguchi - Kuon Hikari to Nami no Kioku Lost Horizon - Think Not Forever The candidates of the moment. BEAT CRUSADERS - Moon On The Water Insomnium - The Day It All Came Down

Based on my full name, "Awesome Love". Based on my shortened name, "Enormous Clown". Toshiaki Kawada - Diamond Kong. Mitsuharu Misawa - Abdullah the Dragon. Kenta Kobashi - Enormous Tornado. Jun Akiyama - Ivan Piper. Leon White - Kid Snake. Stan Hansen - Diamond Barbarian. Dick Beyer - Shocking Burglar. Good stuff.

For Joshi, the 11-26-92 tag on WR 16 is fantastic. All of the stuff listed as Dreamslam or Dreamslam II is real good. The Joshi stuff from September on the WR 25 tape is really good too. Those are all multi-promotion super shows. Oh, and the NJPW G1 stuff from WR 24 is probably good too. The G1 tournaments tend to always be entertaining.