Reel in Place

This is 3 years overdue, but I saw it in my drafts and figured I'd finish putting this together. It has been a while since I filled out this ballot, and my thoughts on the results are mostly based on going back and looking at what I tweeted at the time, but I think there are two things that my ballot reflects that the list doesn't. The first is the sort of modern C and D shows like Main Event and 205 Live, which no one else really factored in. The second is pre-Hogan WWF, chiefly including Ernie Ladd, the 3 Wisemen, and Tony Garea. I would love to watch more of that stuff, because I really liked the All-Star Wrestling I watched, and generally feel that era is incredibly underrepresented.  Wrestlers I was the high voter on: Mustafa Ali My Vote: 81 Finished: 249 Buddy Murphy My Vote: 80 Finished: 245 Ilja Dragunov My Vote: 79 Finished: 218 Nikki Bella My Vote: 72 Finished: 170 Lou Albano My Vote: 64 Finished: 169 John Cena My Vote: 1 Finished: 4 Wrestlers I was the low voter on: ...

vs The Hollywood Bondes (6/5/1993) Bagwell starts things off, and Austin and Pillman don't let him do much of anything.We go to commercial, and when we come back, we see Bagwell got dropped on the steel railing, and Bagwell is escorted to the back. Scorpio has to wrestle the rest of the match himself, and he does his best, but he can't offer up much more than occasional offense. Scorpio starts fighting back, and hits a big corckscrew senton on Austin, and it looks like it is over. Pillman comes off the top with a move of his own, to break up the pin. He kinda sorta clips the ref, who throws out the match. In the aftermath Flair and Arn hit the ring and we move on with our lives.  vs The Wrecking Crew (4/10/1993) A bit too much of Bagweel working the mat for my test in the beginning parts of this. When Scorpio tags in, he seems keen to work on the mat, also, which is not exactly what I want out of Scorpio either. Things only really pick up when The Wrecking Crew gets in there; t...

  vs Minnesota Wrecking Crew II (WCW 4/15/1990) This is pretty basic get the face team over stuff. Pillman sells for a great big chunk of this; Zenk tags in and is just perfunctory. Pillman can sell well enough to keep up his end, and Zenk can do a little hot tag offense, but it doesn't really rise above tepid. Pillman tags back in and gets the win. It is what it is.  vs The Galaxians (WCW 4/21/1990) The Galaxians don't offer much here other than to bump around and showcase Pillman and Zenk. Pillman really shines, his offense looks good, and he is convincing as a fan favorite. Zenk, on the other hand, well, it seems like he's going through the motions and doing all of the stuff he was supposed to do, and not in a way that is at all convincing.  vs Samu & Outlaw Deaton (5/4/1990) Jim Cornette hired Samu and Deaton to injure Pillman or Zenk in advance of a match with the Midnight Express. For most of this, Samu and Deaton don't really wrestle like that; they just sort...

vs The Rock N Roll Express (Memphis 1/13/1985) There's a bit of stereo offense and stereo stooging, early in this match, which is never really going to win me over. After the Nightmares pout on the outside, things are tentative. Eventually, Wayne tosses Robert Gibson to the outside, where Danny Davis is waiting and when Gibson is rolled back in the ring, Wayne takes over and The Nightmares are in control. They work over Gibson for a while, until Ricky Morton gets the tag and he is on fire. Things seem to be going the Rock N Rolls way, but Jimmy Hart throws his care in the ring, and Morton gets crumpled. Ken Wayne goes to the top rope, but misses a flying headbutt, and Morton and Gibson get the win.  vs Steve Armstrong & Tommy Rich (Continental 6/17/1985) Rich and Armstrong hit the ring and are all over The Nightmares. Wayne and Davis do a great job of stooging and bumping around in the opening part of this. We got to commercial, and when we come back Rich and Armstrong are stil...

vs The Killer Bees (2/21/1988) The Bees do everything right. They work hard, they make tags, they do what they can to win the match, but they just can't. Demolition does some of their standard pummeling, but this is a lot of Bees, and when they really start to get somewhere, Ax hits Brunzell in the neck with a cane, and the match is over shortly thereafter.  vs The Brain Busters (7/18/1989) Demolition are the champions here, and this is two-out-of-three falls. Demolition wins the first fall. Tully stoogets around early, but eventually the match evens out. Smash pins Arn, and we're onto the second fall. This match is like a playoff hockey game. Both teams are constantly committing penalties, the ref isn't really interested in calling them, and one team, Demolition, is getting cheered because they're the home team. The Brainbusters get a little extra grimy and take control of the second fall, but only for a bit. Things break down into a brawl, and the ref throws the fall ...

vs  Andre the Giant & Giant Baba (11/20/1990) This is Taue and Jumbo's first real time in the ring with Andre. Jumbo was in a battle royal in 1974, but this is real virgin territory for Taue. This is fine. You get all of the Andre stuff you'd expect, Baba does everything he needs to do to make Andre's moments meaningful, Jumbo plays his part, but fiery underdog Taue slapping the shit out of Andre is the highlight of this match. That isn't the highlight of a great match, but it certainly makes this one worth watching.  vs Mitsuharu Misawa & Toshiaki Kawada (AJPW 9/4/1991) There's a lot to like here. I would say that over the course of these matches, Taue has stood out more to me than Jumbo, and he's fine here, but Jumbo is great, in particular, the exchanges with Kawada are great. The shame of this match is that the Kawada/Jumbo sections aren't the main trust of the match. The main conflict is Jumbo and Misawa, which is fine, but it doesn't really...