Impromptu Mailbag!

My top tag team today, but who are their dream opponents?

I'm bored, so I took to social media to solicit questions. Here they are!

Tom Warren of Tom Watches Wrestling asked...

Which tag team from the 80's would you want to see have a match with a current tag team that's going now? Both teams in their prime, of course.

Good question. Tag teams are on the verge of becoming the new hotness in WWE, but we have yet to see where they can go. The Ghan-Am Connection, The Awesome Truth and the Usos are all good (and the New Nexus isn't as bad as you think), but the real established teams are in the indies and in Impact. Among those teams, I'm going to go with the Kings of Wrestling because I'm an unabashed superfan of Claudio Castagnoli. Chris Hero's pretty damn good in his own right.

So, who matches up with them? There are a few teams that stand out, but only one that seems perfect. Rick. Scott. The Steiner Brothers. I think you have two teams in the same milieu, only in different eras. They're both big teams that have really good wrestling chops. The Steiners obviously bring the amateur style, and the Kings go with the indie strong-style (although the Steiners in Japan certainly hung with the puro legends). Tell me you wouldn't love to see a pre-blown up Scott and a pre-insanity Rick go up against Claudio and Hero right now? That's the biggest dream match for me.

Next up, Tommy Siegel wanted to know...

Where do you see Punk going angle-wise after he's done with Nash?

The thing about WWE right now is that it's so unpredictable. No one knew that Nash would even show up, so maybe they're proving that they have aces up their sleeves. Here's the overarching point. This is leading up to the reveal of the person behind the text. That's where the angle will go next probably. Now, who'll end up behind the text? It could be Triple H, which might lead to a match between him and the Straight Edge Savior at Survivor Series or WrestleMania. It could be Stephanie McMahon, Larry Middleman or even Vince McMahon.

I talked about it on the podcast, and it's doubtful because he has hepatitis C. However, if they're bringing people from Triple H's past back, Sean Waltman would be the best option from a match quality standpoint. However, if I'm going to put my fantasy booker hat on, I'm going to guess that there'll be some kind of resolution in time for Punk to win the Rumble and claim his first really long hero's title reign at WrestleMania.

Andre Harrison of The Harrison Analysis up next, and he asked...

Do you think Night of Champions is going to fall flat after the big hypes for MITB and Summerslam?

Depends on falling flat. I mean, if you think they're going to do huge buys or have as much buzz for this event as the last two, well, then no, it's not going to measure up. Punk was the new hotness, just breaking through. Him being away from the title and having a distraction may or may not be necessary from where you sit. Personally, the chase is better than the catch, and having a big momentous title win would be way better for Punk at WM than at, say, Night of Champions, ESPECIALLY when it's the culmination of an 8-month story where Punk finally sticks it to the man and gets back what was wrongfully taken from him.

If you're talking match quality? I wouldn't say it's a lock to be worse. That being said, it's not as much of a slam dunk as Money in the Bank was. Cena/del Rio could be great because they're both great workers. That being said, Cena was a lock to have a great match with Punk because the narrative was that the two had so much respect for each other. With Cena blatantly showing disrespect to del Rio in character, there's the fear that we get a SuperCena title win, or some screwy finish where SuperCena is thwarted by MASSIVE interference. Orton/Henry could be alright, but then again, it might fall flat. There'll be some kind of tag team thing, whether it's a straight up tag match or a gauntlet like what is being rumored. I don't know, but generally, WWE has delivered on PPVs from a quality standpoint. So I'll say, if you order it, there's a good chance you'll be happy with it. And that's all that matters.

Jeff Paternostro of Amazin' Avenue chimed in with...

Who's the wrestler on the indy scene right now that you think has the best chance of being successful in the WWE?

This is hard because of all the rumors swirling about the Kings of Wrestling coming to WWE. Obviously, Claudio and Hero are super ready for WWE, so if they're not coming to WWE soon, they're my answer. But for the sake of expediency, let's assume they're coming. Also, Austin Aries is a valid answer, but he's in Impact, and depending on what you think of Impact, well, they have national television on a grander scale than limited syndication.

So, with those guys disqualified, I'm going to have to go with Chuck Taylor. The Kentucky Gentleman is one of the most gifted people at getting fans to hate him that I've ever seen. He's a natural at making children cry, and WWE is keying in on kids. He'd pretty much get boos from the skirts-'n-tykes crowd, although his antics might make him a hit with the CM Punk crowd. His facial expressions too, especially when he's scrunching his face up to look like he's reacting to a smelly fart, are just primo. He's a solid worker as well, and about the only knock he has against him is his bulk. He's 6'1" though, so adding muscle or mass is an easy task.

Plus, I'd totally pay money to see him shank Alex Riley for stealing the idea of working a grenade into his moveset...

Jamey "FATSEXY" Litton came up with this one...

Do you feel sorry for Ric Flair?

He's referring to this article at Grantland today. Anyway, no, I don't feel sorry for him, because he made his own bed and had to lie in it. That being said, while I don't feel sorry, I do feel sad. I mean, it's pathetic to see a guy who is a legend dodder around because he needs cash. I feel for him, and I wish he could just hit the lottery or something, but there's no denying that it is his fault.

Finally, bookending with a question from Twitter user @OkoriWadsworth...

Dream Campeonatos de Parejas match for Chikara?

An a propos finish for the first question. If we're talking about the current Campeones, Mike Quackenbush and Jigsaw, then I'm going to have to say the Young Bucks are a dream match for them. Much in the same way that the Steiners and Kings would be great matches for each other in that first question, the Bucks are very much a similar team to QuackSaw, except that the Campeones are a bit more grounded in terms of the basics. I think you'd get a lot of really cool fireworks in this match, and the Bucks have proven that they can totally go rudo to give the affair an added measure of heat.

Photo Credit: Scott Finkelstein - Please visit his site to view the plentiful amounts of pictures he's taken for DGUSA, ROH and other indie feds: Get Lost Photography

Your Favorite Wrestlers Ever: Jake Duvall

Now that my own favorites list is out of the way, I posed the question to some of my colleagues in the fan/writer community. Who are your favorite five wrestlers?

Today's list comes to us from TWB superfan and Twitter enthusiast Jake Duvall. He's from the South, but that hasn't stopped him from being a huge Chikara fan or indie wrestling fan either (although with RPW and NWA Anarchy, it's not like the Peach State has a dearth of good indies to work with). Here's his list, which is very comedically tinged.

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Two of the greatest
Photo Credit: WWE.com

5. Chuck Taylor - One of two professional wrestlers that have ever inspired me to purchase a t-shirt of their likeness, and one that I finally had the pleasure of seeing in the flesh during WrestleMania weekend. While
I'm not giving much of a TOOT concerning his wrestling ability (although anyone will be hard-pressed to debate that he and Gargano have the potential to be one of the best teams of all time if ever given a shot at the big leagues), his antics are absolutely hysterical. After watching his "training montage" and several clips of him scaring the shit out of children, I was in love. Chikara and DGUSA have him to thank for me even bothering to check them out (and have since become a huge fan of both promotions.) He's easily one of the most entertaining wrestlers on the indy circuit, and hopefully he won't decide to go the route of a "serious" gimmick anytime soon.

4. Norman Smiley - Norman Smiley's WCW Hardcore title reign was one of my favorite periods in wrestling…not to mention when he threw Chavo Guerrero's toy horse into a wood chipper, demanding that the correct pronunciation of his name was "Smi-LEH," etc. And he invented the Big Wiggle, which is something I automatically resort to doing when dragged into some awful dance club. It's hard to be a character that's NEVER boring, and anytime Norman was on, it was always worth watching. May possibly be my next write-in for the 2012 presidential election.

3. Chris Jericho - Even though my love of him diminished a bit when he got offended by the handsome and talented Jim Norton making a joke about Christopher Reeve, how do you not love him? Wrote the most entertaining wrestling book out there, and has played pretty much every role possible and played it to perfection. Jericho was also responsible for by far THE funniest WCW moment of all time: the 1,004 Holds List. (Honorable mention: Ralphus) Aside from his comedic exploits, I remember the first time I ever saw the Lionsault and almost shit. This was pre-Internet, and always a fan of the high-flying stuff, I was so amped to see someone do a moonsault by catapulting off the ring ropes.

2. Santino Marella - I will defend this man to the death, and have threatened home invasions involving my own urine and feces for those who talk negatively about him when they comment on this blog. He portrays a half-retarded Italian with a unibrow, plays a fake trombone to celebrate his victories, and was responsible for the Honk-A-Meter. His finishing move is a fucking two inches away POKE. And does anyone remember his promo as a heel against "Rey Mastrio"? Me and my wrestling friends are all huge marks for him, and I think one of us petitioned WWE Shopzone to actually sell his proposed WWE Magazine cover from that segment.

Bottom line, if you don't enjoy this guy, you are a fucking moron.

1. Ricky Steamboat - The only non-comedic pick of mine, and it trails back to the fact that I pretty much worshipped the guy as a kid. Some young's had an Ultimate Warrior phase, some loved Hulk Hogan, some were into Sting… I always cheered the loudest for the Dragon. When I wrestled a bean bag chair on my trampoline, I always mimicked his hip toss, and regularly broke out flying body presses solely because I'd watched him do it a million times. Plus, he blew fire, which makes him better than any wrestler that's ever existed.

My Favorite Wrestlers Ever: Announcement and Honorable Mention

He frightens small children, and for that, I own his shirt

For those who don't keep track, this is post number #2,500 for The Wrestling Blog. In honor of reaching that plateau, I'm going to roll out a top 25 list of my favorite wrestlers of all-time. I did this for my then-current favorites last year, but that was all in one post. This list will be rolled out in the style that I did the Wrestler of the Decade posts back in Aught-Nine.

The list will be compiled by my own arbitrary standards, because DUH, it's a favorite wrestlers list. If I had objective criteria, then it wouldn't be a "favorite" list now, would it? I will say that the standing on this list will be geared not towards how I feel about the person now completely, but towards my admiration of their work and how I felt about them at certain times in my life.

So, without further ado, here are the ten wrestlers/entities who didn't make it but almost did. My honorable mentions:

- Sara del Rey is the first one I'd like to mention. She's also the only woman to appear here, so that means she's my favorite female in wrestling history. That's more a reflection on how poorly women have been treated in wrestling than it is my fandom of the artform. Still, the Queen of Wrestling kicks major ass.

- The Eliminators, Perry Saturn and John Kronus, were an ECW staple for me. ECW had a lot of really good tag teams with their own unique flair, and the low-down, dirty ass-kicking of these two really exemplified that for me. Plus, TOTAL ELIMINATION.

- Ric Flair is in this category, most likely because I wasn't exposed to his greatness all that much until the mid-'90s. Hey, I was a WWF kid growing up. Don't shoot me!

- One of my favorite current wrestlers is the high-flying Evan Bourne, a guy who wows me every time he's in the ring nowadays. This is true even if he's not doing a high spot. The guy knows how to sell and be enthusiastic. Those are two great qualities.

- Chuck Taylor frightens little kids and throws grenades. Plus I own his t-shirt. How could he not be at least in the honorable mentions?

- This is a really old school guy who is listed for stuff he did in the later years of his career. Bob Backlund's clean cut, white bread babyface run was way before my time, but when he came back in the early '90s as the kooky old-man psychopath, he had me hooked. Plus I'm a mark for the crossface chicken wing.

- As a fan of comedic wrestling and podcasting, Colt Cabana sates my needs for both. He's awesome at both, and he's a cool dude to boot.

- Mr. Perfect was always a guy I liked for what he could do in the ring, even if I was compelled to root against him as a young fan. He and Bret Hart were guys who made me the fan I am today in some respects. Plus, I always wanted to pull for him, so that run against Shawn Michaels in 1993 was certainly a high point in my life as a fan.

- The Osirian Portal, the time-traveling Egyptian tag team, is on here mainly because they're a time-traveling Egyptian tag team. Very fun tag team who always worked entertaining matches and were able to weave dancing into the foray. I'm gonna miss Amasis a whole lot.

- Finally, the Woo Woo Woo Kid himself, Zack Ryder, rounds this honorable mention section out. I hate to pull the wrestling hipster card on all y'all, but I liked him even before he blew up Youtube. WWWYKI.

Photo Credit: Scott Finkelstein - Please visit his site to view the plentiful amounts of pictures he's taken for DGUSA, ROH and other indie feds: Get Lost Photography

The Wrestling Podcast, Episode 5: Tom Ford Talks PWG

Vol 5: Paul London Calling

This episode is an all-PWG affair, as Philly ex-pat Tom Ford and I talk about All-Star Weekend 8. We run the card down and talk about the stuff that happened, as well as veering off into other conversation during it, among them, who the best women wrestlers are, why Akira Tozawa is awesome and whether I’d pay money to see Claudio Castagnoli give a 100-rotation airplane spin to Evan Bourne on WWE PPV (spoiler alert, I totally would). We finish by talking briefly about TV, since Ford is a HUGE TV nut. LISTEN!

Remember you can contact TH and ask him questions about wrestling, life or anything else. Please refer to this post for contact information. He always takes questions!

Weekend Wrap-Up: Hey Now, You're an All-Star... Weekend

Chuck Taylor, shown upside down here, injured this weekend

- The big story from this weekend obviously is PWG All-Star Weekend. The two day event was marked by major shuffles to the card on both days. I noted the first day shuffling, but the second day had to be rearranged as well due to Chuck Taylor suffering an injury in his match against Kenny King. Other than him missing Night Two, I don't know how serious it is, but obviously, I wish a very speedy recovery to the Kentucky Gentleman. I own his tee-shirt, for crying out loud.

Anyway, both Championship entities made it out of the weekend unscathed. Claudio Castagnoli successfully defended against Chris Hero on Night One thanks to a broken top rope into a European uppercut. Night Two, he defeated Low Ki. The Young Bucks defeated both the RockNES Monsters and the team of Austin Aries and Roderick Strong on consecutive nights. Night one was interesting for the tag teams as after their match with the Cutlers, Generation Next got sneak-attacked by the Bucks, eliciting Alex Shelley for the save. Shelley called out the Bucks and challenged them to a six-man tag with a partner of their choosing, completing the GenNext reunion as far as it'll go without bringing Jack Evans back into the American consciousness (and seriously, who wants that?) Shelley wasn't done challenging yet, as after jobbing to Eddie Edwards, he proposed a dream tag match between the American Wolves and the MCMGs. Alex Shelley, man of the people.

Night Two's other matches were rearranged by Taylor's aforementioned injury. Willie Mack went from wrestling Hero to Ricochet (Ricochet won), which freed Hero up to wrestle Akira Tozawa (!!) in what was said to be the match of the weekend. I can dig that. Also reported to be amazing was Edwards going over Generico. Sounds like PWG really delivered, but is that a surprise to anyone? Hopefully, TWB and PWG superfan Tom Ford was able to go to both shows so we can do a proper podcast with him about the weekend this week.

- In the "news item that isn't news at all" department, apparently Jay Leno not knowing about the connection between the Graziano family and Hulk Hogan is news enough to make the F4W site's daily update:

Again, it's rough when you have to rag on the best news site for wrestling out there, but at the same time, Alvarez deserves it. This, much like reporting that Evan Bourne was looking for UFC tickets, is NOT NEWS, GAWD.

- Apparently, some douchenozzle out there didn't like that John Cena wished all the troops out there a happy Memorial Day. It all started with this innocuous tweet from Cena:

CeNation. I know most have a long weekend this week. While you're having fun remember those who have kept this country free.

It got a profanity-laced response from a guy whose handle is @shmikemike. I'm not going to relay it on here, but I fully endorse replying to this waste of sperm and telling him what a dick he is. I mean, yeah, you don't have to like John Cena, and you also don't have to agree with everything our military has been used to do. Lord knows a huge chunk of I've disagreed with both George W. Bush and Barack Obama over the last 10 years has stemmed from use of the military. However, that's what politicians are doing. Unfortunately, the soldiers who signed up for this gig don't decide where we go and stick our noses in, and thus they go into conflicts, whether justified (Afghanistan) or personally unjustified (Iraq), and risk their lives for whatever reason. To me, they deserve our respect and our support with very little condition attached....

...sorry, I'll step off the soapbox. I just really have no patience for people with misdirected angst regarding the wars our country fights.

Photo Credit: Scott Finkelstein - Please visit his site to view the plentiful amounts of pictures he's taken for DGUSA, ROH and other indie feds: Get Lost Photography

Remember you can contact TH and ask him questions about wrestling, life or anything else. Please refer to this post for contact information. He always takes questions!