I select the only wrestler, as far as I know, to have wrestled in seven different decades, which is quite useful in a career draft. He held the world title for almost four thousand days total. He's credited with inventing a number of moves including the power bomb, the German suplex, the STF, and the Lou Thesz press. A man who many still consider to be the greatest ever, Ba...Lou Thesz.



Roster:
Randy Savage
Chris Jericho
Lou Thesz

Just stopping by to chuckle at you people for thinking IRM might not be back.

Thesz > Sammartino in pretty much every aspect from what I've seen/read.

was debating between piper and edge but the chance to have this

was too much to pass up

You should probably name the multiple people who thought that.

I wanted to wait until Thesz got taken but I didn't really get this. If Bruno's ring skills (which were never world class according to all sources) would translate then Thesz's easily would. Thesz wrestled into the 80s too*. It always surprises me when Bruno goes before him.

If Bruno would be "carryable by good workers" in the modern day then Thesz would most likely be putting on 5 star matches with those workers.

All that said I'm not too fussed on missing out on Thesz since I had him last time. Would have probably taken him if he dropped though.

I have nothing against Bruno fwiw, he just seems to have a reputation as the best "old-timer" here which I disagree with.

*Edit - Actually Thesz had his last match in 1979. My bad.

Fwiw I knew SRM would be back but I felt it would have been unfair to kick rightdeal out without acknowledging there was someone else who had been skipped too.

Meh maybe I'm wrong about Bruno/Thesz. Were the 60s/70s really that further advanced than the 50s though, style wise?

Think I'm gonna take a huge facemelter next btw.

Thesz actually wrestled his last match in the 90s but was mostly retired after 79.

To watch them both work on YouTube, it looks significantly different to me from my recollection. I'd have to study more to better comment though.

I think Thesz would hold up better stylistically just because he was training wrestlers into the 1990's, most notably Masahiro Chono. That's not really scientific reasoning, but it at least shows some ability to adapt.

Honestly I think they'd both adapt fine ringwork wise, as would anyone who was at the top of the industry for a prolonged period of time. My only issue was with the suggestion that Bruno would adapt while others would not, especially when he's not known for being a world class worker.

I mean I'm sure Thesz had to adapt his style at some point between the 30s and the 70s so there's no reason to assume he couldn't do it again.

What about Mae Young.

Well Bruno wouldn't really have to adapt in the way I'm thinking. He worked a much faster style than Thesz did (I just looked at videos again; can't really post anything because of undrafteds). Bruno obviously wasn't doing hugely impressive high spot moves; he was operating more like [a number of undrafted main event brawlers]. Not overly far from how Hogan worked, though he leaned on different signature moves. You watch a Thesz match and it only vaguely resembles the same activity...it was a "sport" where seemingly both wrestlers pretty much kept their feet on the ground all the time, which I'm guessing is why the Thesz Press was so revolutionary (and why it was just a throwaway move Austin used in his prime).

I certainly won't claim that he couldn't have adapted, because it's obviously true that he could have. But we're pretty much only left to guess at that, and with Bruno we aren't (at least IMO). I guess this still brings me back to the same position that it's easier to transplant Bruno into a modern-day organization than it is to transplant Thesz or others in the 50's.

None of this is to bag on the pick by moorobot here because I think it was good, but while I'll grab for older wrestlers if I see enough value, I'm going to give serious points to those who worked the modern style just because I feel that I can better utilize them/come up with a creative vision for them.

I also think it's a much different draft if we tried to take the most historically significant group of wrestlers possible vs. trying to build the best federation for ourselves. I would be in for doing something like that in the future.

I will be looking to draft more modern guys this time too. For me it's more about promos and other non-wrestling stuff. You can't really have Lou Thesz cut promos or do any acting because it's something he never did (to me knowledge anyway). I guess you could use similar logic for ringwork (that he's never worked the modern style), but I dunno, I just don't have any problem accepting that the greatest wrestlers of their times would be able to adapt in the ring. Most of this stuff is pretty subjective anyway, there's no real way to judge who has the best roster.

I'll definitely be looking at getting some old timers at good value though.

According to Wiki, Thesz actually was a manager and commentator after he stopped wrestling. I had the same thought about promos, but considering that he did those things you have to think he would have been passable in that regard. Bruno's mic work was always terrible to my ears, but it was still seemingly over somehow. Guess it was just about natural charisma or something.

Yeah I guess that's true. We don't really know that he'd have been world class in that regard though, and most of the really top wrestlers these days are.

He's still a great pick though obviously and I'd have almost certainly taken him this round.

I guess we should figure out what to do about rightdeal.

It probably won't be very popular but my vote goes to "give him his full window again and if he hasn't picked by the end of it, find someone to take over his spot" (littlekeed gets first choice if he wants it, if not then DWetzel)

(his full window would be 5 hours btw)

I'm fine with that ruling.

Guess I'm not sure why we wouldn't keep him on auto-skip. The whole point of being alive is to exclude people from stuff. But it will be Super Bowl Sunday so it doesn't matter much to me.

If we keep him on autoskip then he'll probably fall behind and end up with a ****ty roster or just stop picking.

I'll go with the majority though, I want this to be a democracy, I just started the thread because I wanted it to happen.

From a moment's investigation, giving another full window is foolish IMO. These problems (slow drafting) never really get better.


(mid-day yesterday)


(less than 10 minutes ago.)

Oh I wasn't aware that he'd be online, just seen that he hadn't posted. I sent him a PM when he was up and after he'd been skipped so yeah, that changes things a bit.