Reel in Place

  vs Kerry Von Erich & Mike Von Erich (WCCW 11/26/1984) I went back and rewatched this like 5 times, because none of it really stood out, besides a few minor things: Mike Von Erich is bad, it is what it is, there's not a whole lot you can do with him, he can't even really sell compellingly. The Von Erich, by design, eat up a lot of any match they're in, so anything like this is going to have a certain ceiling on it. Chris Adams looks really good beating up Kerry. Outside of those things, this is a match, and I think so much of this team's resume being against the Von Erichs is going to put them at a disadvantage. vs The Great Kabuki & Scott Casey (WCCW 5/5/1985) Two matches in, and I'm starting to think Gino Hernandez is a guy whose reputation exceeds what you see in the footage. I just don't see it, in the ring anyway. On the other hand, Chris Adams is great. He is compelling in the ring, his stuff looks good, and he can get beaten up when it's call...

vs Raven & Saturn (WCW 4/5/1999)  This is all action early, big moves, mostly with Rey on the receiving end. Kidman gets a tag and attempts to turn the tide, they have some limited success, but eventually Kidman takes a belly-to-belly from the ring to the outside. From that point, Saturn and Raven really take it to Kidman, drop toe hold on a chair, bug top rope splash, but somehow Kidman reverses a Raven powerbomb and tags in Rey. Mysterio comes in with fire, but Raven kicks him in the junk when Rey attempts a broncobuster. Things quickly become lawless, and to add to the chaos, the ref gets bumped, and Malenko and Benoit hit the ring, attack Saturn, and Kidman gets the pin. This is pretty good. A lot of the big moves don't really seem to register, but it is short, and I guess over the course of five minutes, you can't expect much attrition.  vs ICP (WCW 8/23/1999) I didn't expect this to be good. It isn't. ICP will bump, not in a way that's always convincing or...

  We are in Toronto, last time we were in Boston. This is a TLC, so theoretically, the deck is stacked against Cena, and so is the crowd. The previous match saw Edge win by hitting Cena with a foreign object, so you can see why the elevated stipulation, plus Edge has now defended the title against Cena twice and won, so if Cena's going to get another shot, it is on Edge's terms. I've sort of been lukewarm on these matches, especially because they have this reputation of making Cena, or being Cena's best feud, and up to this point, I'd say JBL did more for Cena in one night than Edge has done for him.  So, of course, we're going to get a lot of plunder here, a lot of setting up of spots here, that's par for the course, but in a tag match, or especially a three-way tag match, you have a lot going on while someone is setting up some big spot. In a singles match, things have to stop to a certain degree. It changes the flow, but I think both guys do a good job of...

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...