#137 overall: Larry Zybyszko



I also think Larry Zybyszko's a steal this far down. He's also really solid in the ring and was a legitimate main event presence throughout the entire decade of the 1980s. I'd been targeting him for a round or so as another big main event presence on my roster that can actually draw money and can feud with any of the top stars. In addition to his in-ring skills, he's also really solid on the mic, as evidenced by the years he spent after his career as a commentator for WCW. Really, I just feel like he's the total package and a really solid addition to my roster.

Career highlights:

* American Wrestling Association
o AWA America's Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
o AWA World Heavyweight Championship (2 times)[2]
o AWA World 6-Man Tag Team Championship (1 time) - with Chasyn Rance & Seth Springer

* Pro Wrestling Illustrated
o PWI Match of the Year (1980) vs. Bruno Sammartino in a cage match at Showdown at Shea
o PWI Most Hated Wrestler of the Year (1980)
o PWI Rookie of the Year (1974)
o PWI Tag Team of the Year (1991) with Arn Anderson
o PWI ranked him # 105 of the 500 best singles wrestlers of the "PWI Years" in 2003.

* World Wide Wrestling Federation
o WWWF Tag Team Championship (1 time) - with Tony Garea[9]

* Wrestling Observer Newsletter awards
o 5 Star Match (1991) with Ric Flair, Barry Windham, & Sid Vicious vs. Brian Pillman, Sting, Rick Steiner, & Scott Steiner (February 24, WarGames match, WrestleWar)
o 5 Star Match (1992) with Rick Rude, Steve Austin, Arn Anderson and Bobby Eaton vs. Nikita Koloff, Barry Windham, Ricky Steamboat, Sting, & Dustin Rhodes (May 17, WarGames Match, WrestleWar)
o Best Heel (1980)
o Feud of the Year (1980) vs. Bruno Sammartino
o Most Improved Wrestler (1980)

Roster so far:

Rob Van Dam
John Cena
Bob Backlund
Sandman
Trish Stratus
Matt Hardy
Larry Zybyszko

-After seeing Assani's first three picks, I'd thought he take Val Venis cause Val's the stiffest guy in wrestling.

-I was planning on giving Val a main event run, cause we all know he can rise to the occasion.

That's all I had, Val is so much better at writing these.

I totally forgot about Kanyon. I actually think if used better he could have been somebody.

According to Lance Storm he had to do it the crap way due to guys having bad backs the Y2J faced in the WWE right away.

It's borderline impossible to roll the guy unless he helps you, I'd always say screw it and put on an ankle lock or move to get on the Crippler Crossface, Rear Naked Choke, guillotine choke, or dragon sleeper.

ftr, today is tuesday. not thanksgiving. i dont see how thanksgiving has anything to do with this.

i know for a fact that the holiday doesent hold up pog until late wenseday, thursday. dont know why it would be different here.

Oh man, aejohnson is going to be pissed about Kanyon, he'd mentioned taking him since the start of this.

POG exists without me? WTF???

zybysko seems like great pick if there's respect for pre-boom wrestlers.

but this draft seems like recent WWE/WWF draft. i'm sure he hasn't been picked, but the crusher had amazing support from fans. has the original sheik been picked? not sure a heel has ever upset the audience as much... although how do you reconcile pre- and post-kayfabe?

where can i see the listing of picks? i do remember a link, but now we have 3,000+ contributions

anyway, great thread!!

Here's a Larry Zbyszko note.

In early 1983, Zbyszko bought the Georgia territory's top title, the National Championship, for $25,000. The NWA President stripped him of the title shortly afterwards and ran a tournament to determine a new champion. Zbyszko won the tournament.

Five years later the WWF did the same thing with the Million Dollar Man Ted Dibiase.

Except DiBiase didn't win the tournament. But cool note :-D

shocking, aint it.

you should come to the pog pub. good times.

and drinking videos.

Very solid roster thus far, you have complimented Hogan very well

Well, today and tomorrow are huge travel days. I'm going back home and I doubt I'm the only one. Plenty of people take this whole week off and could be out of town. The draft is moving plenty fast. Quit bitching about it.

And comparing SE to POG is LOL.

this is fun -- anyone have a draft recap?

Mets: Check the OP and click on the link for the spreadsheet.

thx dan

good lord, this would be brutally fun to watch. My suggestion with muta, is have him be himself (keiji mutoh) a fair amount, as he does wrestle a fairly stiff style when not doing the muta gimmick. His matches are a ton of fun to watch and track down.

Love the Funk pick, its beyond value at this point

what I like about everything you have here, is with all of these guys' longevity for the most part, you really do have a lot of different long term feuds here.

If there is only one real critique, is that its weighted too much to the heel side of things as far as top talent goes. Foley is the only one who is usually best as a face. You could probably push mutoh as a face since he can speak english (don't know if he'd be confident enough to do promos with it, but he does speak fluent english). One can book around this, but you may have to be creative to get some faces that would work to balance off the big time heels that you have

greatest move in my wrestling career was definitely double ddt-ing my brother and buddy off the couch on to the futon at age 12 (they were 11 and 10)

Goddamn, get off a 7 hr flight and iggy took BOTH the guys I wanted.

Tired and my list is blown up, so gimme a few to look some guys up.

Well ****, Natural Disasters and KANYON gone in the same ****ing pick. SMD JACK BANDO, SMD!

Good timing, I was about to go to sleep.

For the 142nd pick, I'm gonna a bit more old school than I have and take: