Feb 6, 2018 22:24:57 GMT RT said:

I'm thinking. The only other match I had in mind was Tanaka vs Awesome. Didn't expect you to take it.

Just ball bustin'.

Ball bustin' and AWESOME-BOMBING MOTHERFUCKERS FROM THE RING TO THE OUTSIDE THROUGH TABLES!!~

One thing that's really surprised me. Mr Perfect didn't get used until just now. I'm not the biggest follower of his older work but he's someone I thought would've been gone earlier.

Man that was a tough choice. Now I hope I can dodge Baker  and Kilgore 's, picks especially. I thought I better nab Lawler while I could.

I was aiming for Perfect vs Bockwinkel or Lawler vs Dundee on my next pick. Figured I might get one of them. Not happening.

Feb 7, 2018 4:19:35 GMT Shootist said:

Man that was a tough choice. Now I hope I can dodge Baker  and Kilgore 's, picks especially. I thought I better nab Lawler while I could.

You made the right choice. I was picking between Awesome/Tanaka and Lawler/Dundee and thought that the latter might stand a better chance of slipping back to me somehow. Not really surprised that it didn't.

Why Baker, Why? I could have sworn I asked everyone nicely not to take my picks. I was literally two picks away from getting it, and you took it from me. Why?

The Dazz taking all the Japanese wrestlers! Not cool! I wanted Ibushi!

Blame Baker for taking that Christian/Orton match. It made me re-arrange my picks.

Shit's getting real now! I wanted Orton vs. Regal from RAW in 2008.

FUCK, Kilgore, that's twice in a row with you! I was torn between the Alley Fight with Pat or the Boot Camp with Sheiky Baby for my next match. Gurdimmit!!~

I'm kicking my own ass, how could I forget about William Regal.

Feb 7, 2018 22:56:56 GMT 🤯 said:

FUCK, Kilgore , that's twice in a row with you! I was torn between the Alley Fight with Pat or the Boot Camp with Sheiky Baby for my next match. Gurdimmit!!~

I went back and forth on the order. I feel lucky I got both.

Even with Tajiri, I didn't know if I was going with the Corino match or the Mexican Death Match against Super Crazy on TNN.

I only recently saw Sarge-Sheiky and goddamn I loved it. The crowd is bordering on Canadian Stampede hot for the entire match.

Wow, all 3 of my options are still on the table, nice. Problem is I only have two spots left.

Feb 7, 2018 23:32:05 GMT Kilgore said:

Feb 7, 2018 22:56:56 GMT 🤯 said:

FUCK, Kilgore , that's twice in a row with you! I was torn between the Alley Fight with Pat or the Boot Camp with Sheiky Baby for my next match. Gurdimmit!!~

I went back and forth on the order. I feel lucky I got both.

Even with Tajiri, I didn't know if I was going with the Corino match or the Mexican Death Match against Super Crazy on TNN.

I only recently saw Sarge-Sheiky and goddamn I loved it. The crowd is bordering on Canadian Stampede hot for the entire match.

Woof... I haven't seen Corino/Tajiri, but it's hard for me to imagine them having better chemistry than Tajiri/Crazy. Both Tajiri and Crazy are individually mega mark PI favorites. Love their stuff working together. I'd put it over Tajiri's WWF/WWE stuff with Rey/Kidman/Noble even (all of which I frickin' LOVED).

Well Call made my final match decision a bit easier by taking Kid off the board. Not the match I had in mind for him but still a memorable moment. Now I just have to hope my final pick lasts.

Feb 8, 2018 0:09:07 GMT 🤯 said:

Feb 7, 2018 23:32:05 GMT Kilgore said:

I went back and forth on the order. I feel lucky I got both.

Even with Tajiri, I didn't know if I was going with the Corino match or the Mexican Death Match against Super Crazy on TNN.

I only recently saw Sarge-Sheiky and goddamn I loved it. The crowd is bordering on Canadian Stampede hot for the entire match.

Woof... I haven't seen Corino/Tajiri, but it's hard for me to imagine them having better chemistry than Tajiri/Crazy. Both Tajiri and Crazy are individually mega mark PI favorites. Love their stuff working together. I'd put it over Tajiri's WWF/WWE stuff with Rey/Kidman/Noble even (all of which I frickin' LOVED).

I obviously love the Super Crazy matches, but just by the Lucha influence, they had a lot of waiting around for the a dive, and stuff like that, where Corino was just a straight up bloodbath. 

SPOILER: Click to show

Can't believe I overlooked Ramon vs Kid. Didn't they have more than one match on Raw in 1993?

They probably did but i'm in a slight rush, to be clear i'm referring to the match where he got the big upset win the first time.

Feb 8, 2018 0:36:01 GMT Emperor said:

Can't believe I overlooked Ramon vs Kid. Didn't they have more than one match on Raw in 1993?

They did. I think there second match was better as far as a match goes, but nothing really tops the moment of the initial upset.

Feb 8, 2018 0:30:46 GMT Kilgore said:

Feb 8, 2018 0:09:07 GMT 🤯 said:

Woof... I haven't seen Corino/Tajiri, but it's hard for me to imagine them having better chemistry than Tajiri/Crazy. Both Tajiri and Crazy are individually mega mark PI favorites. Love their stuff working together. I'd put it over Tajiri's WWF/WWE stuff with Rey/Kidman/Noble even (all of which I frickin' LOVED).

I obviously love the Super Crazy matches, but just by the Lucha influence, they had a lot of waiting around for the a dive, and stuff like that, where Corino was just a straight up bloodbath. 

SPOILER: Click to show

I'm actually really looking forward to voting. My plan is to watch the matches I've never seen before or in some cases even heard of to see if I discover any new personal favorites. Revisiting old personal favorites to draft and populate my short list has been a blast too. Beyond the challenging fun of the drafting itself, I'm really looking forward to the discussion hopefully generated in the voting rounds.

I'm really glad you guys are having such fun with this idea. Like 🤯 i'm really looking forward to the voting phase as well

Feb 7, 2018 16:10:19 GMT The Dazz said:

Why Baker , Why? I could have sworn I asked everyone nicely not to take my picks. I was literally two picks away from getting it, and you took it from me. Why?

Don't blame me. Blame 🤯 & Shootist for stealing Perfect and The King. 

Sorry sorry sorry. My boss was in town and work was fucked. I'm good now and will pick shortly.

Except Emperor and Oncall stole my next two picks. Need to think a moment.

Oh my god... I had no idea how stressful final picks would be.

For what it's worth, I think there are definitely major legs to this concept, and think a future iteration of the draft could likely be expanded to more participants and perhaps 10-match cards per drafter.

I'm still wrestling with myself about whether I made the right calls along the way, and I'm kicking myself for matches (whether heralded greats or personal favorites) that I left on the table.

Feb 9, 2018 1:57:14 GMT 🤯 said:

I'm still wrestling with myself about whether I made the right calls along the way, and I'm kicking myself for matches (whether heralded greats or personal favorites) that I left on the table.

I thought the biggest decisions were in choosing either the highest quality match possible or the best match from the biggest name remaining. Does a 3 Star match from a huge name trump a 4 star match from an Indy card? I don't know the answer. 

There are definitely legs for a second iteration. So much could be determined from early round picks. As a result of the first two alone it meant that so many matches weren't able to be picked. HBK vs Taker matches went away, Rock vs Jericho, Austin vs Bret etc.

Maybe next time, Bret vs Austin should be snagged asap, perhaps it's a better Bret match then the one vs Owen or vs HBK in terms of getting votes, who knows.

It's not often I have good ideas on PW, there was this and 1313 Hangman Road which is lost to the archives of the old shop of horrors.

That went pretty well. My only switch for what I had available might have been Kid/Hakushi for Neville/Balor for my cruiserweight match.

In the same way that I kept waiting for someone to snap up Slaughter/Sheik, I couldn't understand how people were not grabbing Duggan/DiBiase and started thinking everyone must have forgotten about it until 🤯 just picked it in his last slot there.

Feb 9, 2018 4:55:38 GMT Kilgore said:

Feb 9, 2018 1:57:14 GMT 🤯 said:

I'm still wrestling with myself about whether I made the right calls along the way, and I'm kicking myself for matches (whether heralded greats or personal favorites) that I left on the table.

I thought the biggest decisions were in choosing either the highest quality match possible or the best match from the biggest name remaining. Does a 3 Star match from a huge name trump a 4 star match from an Indy card? I don't know the answer. 

Yeah, my mindset has morphed throughout this whole thing. A lot of it was rooted in questioning what's a quality match? I'm not sure I necessarily agree with ol' Dave's star ratings. So what am I left with? My own research? Trying to develop a consensus based on articles, blogs, internet posts, etc.? Or, do I just limit it to my personal reserve and memories? But does that create a collection of matches that maybe only I enjoy?

And I think to your point about the indy match, how much does crowd reaction and stuff like immediately pre/post-match stuff affect a match's perceived quality?

Ultimately I tried to achieve something that blended together matches that I like or love and hopefully covers enough ground in terms of eras and styles to appeal to voters. Definitely curious to see how this plays out! :lol:

I pretty much went for best matches with the biggest guys remaining. I generally tried to avoid niche matches (modern NJPW, anything indy, older Japan matches) because they will probably be a non-factor in a lot of people's thought process when voting. My last pick was purely personal. Not convinced anyone besides myself has watched Tenryu vs Tsuruta. I don't herald it as an all time great match like some do, but I couldn't resist grabbing some old AJPW and one of my favourite wrestlers in Jumbo.

I'm generally happy with how my draft went. I was never robbed of anything I really wanted and could reasonably expect to get.