Friday Five Answer Compendium

On a Monday, no less :) Still, Monday is a slogging day, and we need any reminder of Friday to help us through. Without further ado:

After the jump...Tag Teams

1. What is your favorite all-time tag team?

It would be too easy to say the Road Warriors, but I only really saw them after their real heyday in the NWA in the 80s. So my answer is Edge and Christian. Great comedic heel workers, and they're two of my favorites now that they're singles workers as well.

2. What has been the best tag match you've seen in the last year?

Claudio Castignioli, Bryan Danielson and Dave Taylor vs. Eddie Kingston, Grizzly Redwood and Brodie Lee at Chikara King of Trios night one.

3. Could a six-man title work nowadays?

In Chikara, yes. In the WWE or TNA? Only if they learned how to manage their rosters instead of being lazy and future endeavoring everyone who doesn't get over right away. This goes double for the WWE, since they have THREE FUCKING BRANDS that they could feature a trios belt.

4. Is the "enemies winning the Tag Titles" angle played out?

It was great for Austin and Michaels back in the day given the circumstances. Every time since then, it's been played.

5. If you could take anyone in wrestling today and create your own "Smackdown Six" to build a program around, who would it be?

Tyson Kidd and DH Smith (heel) vs. Evan Bourne and Bryan Danielson (face) vs. CM Punk and Colt Cabana (tweener)

PPV Extravaganzas

1. What was the first PPV card you remember watching?

WrestleMania VII. I was amped for it too because of Hogan/Slaughter.

2. Should they bring back brand-exclusive PPVs in the WWE?

YES! Advertising and making people care about the product was more the issue than Smackdown or ECW being "inferior" brands. That way, you can have prolonged feuds with guys wrestling for three PPVs in a row without it seeming like overkill.

3. What PPV main event do you remember thinking "Man, there's no way this is going to be any good," and then were suprised at how good it was?

No Way Out 2009, which had two really good Elimination Chamber matches and a pretty cool HBK/JBL match. I thought the card would have been donkey shit. Oh yeah, and Travis Beaven brought that Obamatized Santino sign.

4. Would you consider buying a PPV from a company that didn't have regular, widespread American TV coverage? (ie, Chikara, ROH, NJPW, AAA, etc.)

Fuck and yes. If Chikara were to announce a PPV, I'd order it yesterday.

5. Predict WrestleMania XXVII's main event (not 2010, but 2011).

The cynic in me says John Cena vs. Randy Orton. The optimist says Triple H vs. MVP with MVP going over.

Heels and Heeldom

1. Do you root for heels, and if so, when in your wrestling fandom did you start?

Sometimes. I root for wrestlers, not alignments. The first heel I sorta rooted for was Yokozuna, but the first one I really started getting into was Chris Jericho

2. What is your favorite style of heel?

Chickenshit

3. Do you think that that the roles of face and heel are too blurry today?

Yes and no. I think that too many faces do heelish things and that they also don't have the heels act any differently. I would love to see things go to a place where people didn't root for someone on alignment and that wrestlers acted a certain way all the time instead of having several turns over the course of a career. That would allow people in, say, Philadelphia to give a face reaction to someone who'd get booed out of the arena in, say, Dallas.

4. What was the dumbest heel turn of all-time?

Rikishi after it was revealed that he ran over Steve Austin.

5. Best heel of all-time... who is it?

Ric Flair, with Roddy Piper and Ted DiBiase close behind and the Dudley Boys having an honorable mention for getting every East Coast crowd to want to kill them in their ECW days.

Tournament Time

1. What was your favorite tournament in wrestling, all-time?

Suepr J-Cup 1994, with the first PPV-televized KotR as a distant second.

2. Aside from Steve Austin, do you think there was anyone who really used King of the Ring to vault themselves further than what they already were?

Bret Hart and Kurt Angle are the only ones that you can make a good argument for. Every one else was either a bad choice or cursed in some way.

3. True or false: There definitely needs to be a good, tag team tournament in one of the big feds.

FUCK YES! If the WWE were really serious about revitalizing their tag team division, they'd run a tournament to establish it.

4. Should the WWE bring back King of the Ring as a PPV event?

I'm on the fence on this one. I like the idea of one-night tournaments, but KotR denotes that one of the top names should win. I'd say they need to bring back a one-nighter, but rename it as "Breakout Cup" (lame name, short notice, bite me) or something and try to elevate someone with it.

5. Eight men, one night, one venue. Book your dream tournament.

Chris Jericho, Austin Aries, Mike Quackenbush (whom I forgot to mention in the sorting bin and would put as one of my favorites), Rey Mysterio, CM Punk, Claudio Castagnioli, Bryan Danielson and The Great Sasuske. ECW Arena. Jericho d. Mysterio, Quack d. Punk, Danielson d. Castagnioli, Aries d. Sasuke. Jericho d. Quack. Aries d. Danielson. Jericho d. Aries.

Fussin' and Feudin'

1. What makes up a good feud in your mind?

Three things: both guys seem evenly matched to the point where you can realistically believe either guy can go over, the matches are good, and the storylines associated aren't ass-tarded.

2. What two wrestlers do you think would have had a great feud but never had the chance to back in the day?

Michaels and Savage. If Michaels' singles push started a year earlier, he could have had a raucously great feud with the Macho Man.

3. What was the feud you had the highest hopes for but ended up fizzling out?

Jericho and Benoit vs. Trips and Austin, through no fault of any party involved though

4. Does the WWE overkill feuds today with having the same match happen at four or more PPVs in a row?

Yes. Part of it is the schedule, but part of it is that they act like no one has a memory longer than three weeks. Nothing's memorable because they do it to death and there's too much sensory overload.

5. Best feud ever. NAME IT!

Flair/Steamboat

Puroresu

1. Are you an avid watcher of puro?

No, but I want to be. I've seen enough of it to want to get into it.

2. If you answered yes to 1, what is your opinion of it, and if you answered no, what is your preconceived notion towards it, be it ignorant or informed?

Head-dropping, intricate psychology and a bad rap for no-selling that's only partially true.

3. Who was your favorite Japanese wrestler to cross over to America?

Full-time, Yoshihiro Tajiri. Part-time, The Great Sasuke.

4. Do you think their style of big moves, clean finishes, emphasis on strikes, varied match finishes (i.e. not just finisher or flash pin to end a match) and closeness to "real sport" would fly in America? If not all of it, what aspects?

All of it can work, especially in pro wrestling where there's limitless potential to create unique matches between two of the same individuals.

5. Does the fact that Misawa died in the ring turn you off to becoming a puro fan in the future?

Not at all.

Dub-See-Dub

1. Who was the closest WCW original in your opinion to reaching the level of Hulk Hogan, Steve Austin or The Rock?

Ric Flair at the beginning, Goldberg near the end.

2. What was your favorite WCW match?

Benoit/Hart, Owen Tribute Match

3. Where did WCW ultimately start go go wrong in your opinion?

Sting/Hogan at Starrcade with the fast count that wasn't fast

4. Would they have benefitted from having a better PBP guy than Tony Schiavone?

YES! If I had to hear "This is the greatest night in the history of our sport" any more than I did, I'd have thrown a brick through my TV.

5. Was WCW a vanity project for Ted Turner?

It started out that way, but later on, the vanity was passed on, to Hogan, Bischoff, Dusty, Russo, anyone who could get their hands on the book and push themselves. If they had spent more time building new stars and their own identity (which they started to with the cruiser division and the "invasion" storyline), they'd be around today.

USA~! USA~!

1. Who was your favorite United States Champion?

That I've seen? Probably MVP, who did a lot to legitimize the belt recently. Old-school WCW, I'd go with Raven.

2. Is the foreign menace still a good way to get a heel over to the main event?

If booked smartly, maybe. The majority of wrestling crowds seem to skew conservative, so it could work. Still though, America's getting smarter, and I think a better heel that has been virtually untapped would be a Democrat/Liberal.

3. When you were younger, did you try to do wrestling moves in the pool?

Fuck yeah! That was about the only opportunity I had to do them without hurting myself trying to perform them :p

4. Lex Luger, Hulk Hogan, Hacksaw Jim Duggan, "The Patriot" Del Wilkes or Kurt Angle (or other): Which one was the quintessential all-American face and why?

Hacksaw Jim Duggan, because he's the only one who made it a part of his gimmick and did it so well.

5. If you were going to invite five wrestlers to a cookout, which ones would you invite?

Chris Jericho for the awesomeness, Steve Austin for the beer, Ted DiBiase for the Kobe beef burgers, Jim Ross for the BBQ sauce and Jimmy Wang Yang for the fireworks

Women in Wrestling

1. Who has the best women's scene today, TNA, WWE or the indies?

I don't follow the indie scene as much, but I will say TNA's women are overrated while the WWE's... well RAW's are underrated, but Smackdown's suck

2. What is your feeling on man-woman violence in wrestling?

Domestic abuse should never be depicted. That being said, as long as the women are portrayed to at least look like they belong in the altercation, I see no problem with it.

3. All-time best valet. Name her.

Sensational Sherri

4. All-time best women's wrestler. Name her.

Bull Nakano

5. All-time hottest woman in wrestling. Name her.

Tammy Lynn Sytch, circa 1996 or Trish Stratus. Take your pick.