World's Worst Man

I don't feel like filling everything out Best Wrestler in the last five years: 1. Chris Benoit. Self Explanatory. 2. Eddie Guerrero. Ditto. 3. Brock Lesnar. Doesn't have the longivity, but his top form was good enough to land him here. Best match in the last five years: 1. Eddie Guerrero vs. Brock Lesnar (No Way Out 2004) 2. Kurt Angle vs. Shawn Michaels (Wrestlemania XXI) 3. Benoit & Jericho vs. Austin & Trips (May 2001 RAW) Best High Flyer in the last five years: This is like asking who the best shoot-style wrestler in Mexico is. Most Overrated performer in the last five years: 1. Kurt Angle. Probably the most overrated wrestler I've ever seen. Just a complete lack of ability in the later stages of matches. 2. Shawn Michaels. Another guy who is terrible later in matches. Not as bad as Angle, but it's close. He's probably overrated by more people than Angle is, but the people who overrate Angle do so to an unbelievable degree. 3. Steve Austin. Limited brawler, and some people actually claim the guy was a very good worker? He was good until 1998, then he fell off the planet.

Nana insulting the TNA crowd would be gold. Also, who wouldn't love Tenay trying to sell Nana as the big, evil dictator of Ghana, West Africa? Make it happen TNA.

Wrestler of the Year - Satoshi Kojima - I'm just going based on his historic 4-Crown title reign, along with holding the TC for most of the year. He's also a good worker, who had really good matches with a few different guys. There are guys who've had better years in the ring, but I'm assuming this category is an overall type of deal. Feud of the Year - Akiyama & Hashi - This wasn't really a feud per se, as it's more of a running storyline between 2 guys who are supposedly close. Even so, this story was just very well played out. The basic premise is a master vs. student kind of deal, where the master is a complete prick and the student is a hard-luck, sympathetic guy. Both guys are brilliant at playing their role, and their matches have been accompanied by some high-quality wrestling.D Match of the Year - Naomichi Marufuji & KENTA vs. Ikuto Hidaka & Minoru Fujita (5/8/05). Yes, this was better than Joe vs. Kobashi. Don't believe me? Ok Best Brawler - Stan Hansen. I don't know, I can't really think of anyone who's been having good-great brawls. Best High Flier - If this is about who has the most spectacular spots, then Jack Evans in a walk. If it's which high flyer has the best wrestling ability, then it's hard to say. I can't think of any pure high-flyers that are also really good wrestlers. Maybe I'm forgetting someone, but most of the good juniors I can think of, aren't really high-flyers. Best Tag Team - If it's based on ability and success, I'd probably go with Nakamura & Tanahashi, as they held the IWGP tag titles for most of the year, and had pretty good matches along the way. Most Underrated - Makoto Hashi - This guy gets credit from those who closely follow NOAH, but otherwise he's basically unknown. He was a large reason why the 8/19 tag match was a strong MOTYC, and his ongoing "feud" with Akiyama has been excellent. He's always been a solid worker, but this year he's picked up his game due to the Akiyama storyline. Best PPV - The best shows this year have come from NOAH and ROH, and none of them have been on PPV. Likewise, New Japan's best shows have also not been on PPV. So I'll go with TNA Sacrifice, which had a really good main event, and another 3 solid matches on the undercard. TNA actually had a good 2nd half, as they had a couple other PPVs that were fairly good (Unbreakable and Genesis). Honorable mention to Wrestlemania XXI as well.

The network TV wrestling shows suck, as they're fairly short, and the matches are very often heavily clipped. The best stuff would be on G+, BS-Asahi, Samurai TV and Sports-I ESPN, all of which are cable stations. Then of course there's PPV stuff. That being said, I'd still watch it, as it would provide a good opportunity to see the latest Japanese wrestling as it airs, as opposed to waiting a month or 2 for a DVD of the show. It'd also be a good way to see which shows are good enough to buy in full on DVD. It wouldn't really curb my DVD buying habits per se, as I'd still get the good shows on DVD. I'd just be able to skip the stuff that looks good, but didn't turn out very good.

Bull is busy playing golf these days. But yes, she was good looking when she was in shape. She could also outwork a sizeable portion of the WWE roster, but that's neither here nor there I guess

Makes me think that it's a work even more. Why would some guy insult pretty much every single one of his fans with one broad statement? He's either really, really stupid, or it's a work.

Are people so blinded by fandom that they can't admit a guy was on the juice? Seriously, what the hell? Guerrero talking steroids doesn't make him any less of a wrestler, so there's no point in getting defensive about his steroid use.

Yikes... I actually had no idea. I've followed wrestling for fifteen years, but I've never gotten into the Japan scene. How many competitors does each team typically use in these matches? And about how long do they go? Have there been scenarios in these matches where some of the members from the winning team never made it into the match? I agree that without factions they are useless. "My" idea partially came about because I was thinking about how to end the Raw/Smackdown split. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> They're generally 5 vs. 5 matchups (sometimes 4's or even 3's), and the matches usually have 15 minute time limits. There's actually one NOAH show that has 3 seperate 3 vs. 3 elimination series. The 5 vs. 5 matches I've seen usually go about an hour, 4 on 4 45 minutes or so, 3's went about 25-30 minutes. I don't remember if I've seen a match where one wrestler doesn't get the chance to participate. Sometimes they'll do a 15 minute draw or double count-out where both guys get eliminated though. The elimination series really provides the means for some good story-telling, as there's a lot of easy-to-spot story paths they can go down. Usually, the individual matches aren't that good (due to being short), but as a whole the series is usually pretty good. I'd like to see one where the matches have 30 or 45 minute timelimits, so you get more of a "genuine" match.

You've just described an elimination series, which has been used in Japan for years. Teams are decided either by drawing lots or with each side setting their teams in secret and revealing them right before the match starts. They're also pointless without factions, so after the RAW vs. Smackdown thing, there's nothing for the WWE to use it with. Promotions that actually have factions and groups should definitely use it though.

Black Tiger vs Wild Pegasus (6/11/96) New Japan was the best Guerrero match I've seen. This was a bit better than the Rey match at Halloween Havoc, and one of the best NJ juniors matches I've ever seen. Guerrero also had a great match a day later vs. Liger in the finals of the super juniors tournament. That might even be my #2 Guerrero match.

I don't think the fans care. The WWE made more money riding Steve Austin than they did with anyone else. Austin wasn't exactly jacked up. And really, for every Batista, there's a Warlord or Hercules, who were jacked up, but had no charisma or personality. That's ultimately what gets the guy over. The steroid freak trend is here because Vince and others with the company have a hard-on for it. And they will only present what THEY think passes for entertaining wrestling, not anyone else.

The steroids are "required" to have the look that Vince and co. love. The painkillers/stimulants are "required" for some wrestlers to get through the brutally demanding schedule. I don't really want to put the blame on the WWE, but god damn. These deaths wouldn't be so numerous if they simply stopped pressuring guys to have freakish bodies, and started running a lighter schedule. Less steroid abuse speaks for itself. A lighter schedule means less wear and tear on the wrestlers, which translates to less of a need for stimulants and painkillers. It's kind of sad that a lot of WWE guys are working a much easier style of pro-wrestling than the guys on the indy scene/in Japan, yet the injuries in the WWE seem more much plentiful. The WWE needs a huge overhaul. People talk about needing to re-tool the product, but this is more important. It's hard to not single them out, because they're essentially the only promotion that I know of, that has these problems.

The funny thing is, the 2 guys headlining 1/4/06, are both under contract to Inoki, not New Japan. This has the potential to be a really screwed up situation.

The shift from Joe being a "tweener" to being a full-blown heel is so silly. The only way it would have worked is if he gave that brutal beatdown to AJ. And even then, he'd still get cheers from the indy fan demographic of the audience. The crowd was dead for that segment, other than the bunch that were chanting "Joe is gonna kill you" and "One more time" after the muscle buster on the chair.

The steroid trend needs to end, but nothing short of government intervention will do it. I'd imagine that Vince is fully aware of the harms of steroid abuse, but he just doesn't care. The WWE will continue to push big, no-talent, roid freaks, which will force smaller guys to hit the juice. Steroid abuse is bad enough by itself, but add cocaine, painkillers and other drugs? It's almost like suicide. But hey, if the WWE hasn't shaped up yet, after many other deaths, they're not about to start now.

Terrible ending. Anti-climactic to be sure.

I did and I loved it. Even though wasn't Douglas gone from ECW by the time Rhino started there? <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Maybe, not sure. If they were there at the same time, it probably wasn't for long. Yea it's been entertaining. If they did a typical WCW-style clusterfuck, it would have been unwatchable. Smart match booking.

Did anyone else catch Douglas mentioning "extreme" in the pre-match promo? Funny stuff.

Because it was a one shot deal, and it was presented as a dream match. As far as I know, they put over Liger as a legend, and showed some video packages. Why make up some ridiculous stuff about wanting an X-Division title shot, when pretty much everyone knew it was a one shot deal? The match was built as a dream match, and it was done to draw the people who actually know who Liger is. For people who don't know Liger, they would either see those packages and say "well maybe I'll check out his match", or they'd say "Liger who?" and change the channel. And for the latter example, it wouldn't matter what kind of half-assed story they added to the match.

He was often lazy. Even when in with top-notch guys. When he was willing to actually work, and was in with a good opponent, he was real good.

Japan Hogan and post-1984 Hogan is night and day, but Hogan still wasn't very good in Japan. He wrestled a different style, and was clearly better than he was in the US, but he still wasn't good, or even average. AJPW and Tiger Mask - The unmasking is just what they do when a masked wrestler is booked to drop the gimmick and wrestle under a different name. In Misawa's case, it was done so he could start being pushed to the next level of stardom. Also, think outside the box when it comes to AJPW in the 90's. There really was no heel/face structure. Although some guys did heelish things in the ring, it really wasn't played up at any other times. Brody wasn't great. It's actually quite a myth that Brody is "the best big man of all time". He was a very capable worker who could work the crowd really well, but he was no super-worker. Some of his stuff is still worth checking out though.

Gee, I wonder if Joe vs. Aries will be as balls out and competitive as their 12/26/04 match? Hopefully it's a bit more than an extended squash, but I doubt it.

Why did they have to add some "story" to that match? It was clearly there to draw the workrate fans and no one else. What's wrong with that? It's not like the fairweather fans even know who Liger is, so even if they ran some angle, those people wouldn't care anyway. TNA still has to appease the smart/workrate fan segment of their fanbase. And generally, those people won't care if a match has no story, as long it has the potential to be well-wrestled. They can draw the casual marks with other things.

Hardcore eh? If you want really in-depth recommendations, it would take forever to list them. So here. www.otherarena.com/z_jdw/ajpwlist.htm Every ****+ match in that link. Meltzer's ratings are goofy, but you won't get anything less than about *** if you go by his ratings. Just get everything listed at ****+. It's an absolute ton of matches, but you can't go wrong with AJPW.

If you were right, how come you didn't respond in the other thread, when I thoroughly trounced your argument?