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I'm realizing now that good wrestling isn't what draws me to wrestling. Well, it depends on how you define "good." Movez aren't doing it for me. There was a younger me that would mark out for a Fisherman Buster from the second rope, but the current me sees it and just thinks "Why the fuck wasn't that the finish?"
Everything seems smoother -- not in a fluidity sort of way, but in a choreographed "soft" sort of way. I think the reason Zayn and Nakamura got so many people excited was because they called it in the ring, and a match like that could have very easily happened during yesteryear.
I've been going back and watching some things I missed from wrestling past. I watched Shawn Michaels vs. Mankind from Mind Games 1996 this week. Holy fuck was that match more dramatic, even without it having a modern context, than anything I've seen outside the Cruiserweight Classic recently. They "worked." Michaels sold the character of Mick Foley, and Mankind was on. I look for unique and organic spots when I am watching wrestling these days, and Mankind and Michaels delivered them in spades here. The spots with the mat, Michaels' nervous desperation despite being babyface, Mankind selling the leg despite being heel, HBK's response to the Mandible Claw, Foley getting caught up by the neck in the ropes (!), the back superplex counter through the table, the use of the casket, the Sweet Chin Music using the steel chairs -- I can remember that match based on the drama of the memories it has instilled in me.
Now I just know the big spots of the wrestlers and know that they're going to get a two count and they're going to sell it like they thought the move that has never won them anything would have surely gotten it done here.
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