I miss the British Bulldogs.
During my “training days” I watched/studied a match between them and the Malenko brothers filmed, I believe, at the Korakuen Hall in Japan in January of 1989.
Dynamite, who discussed the match in his autobiography, mentioned that he and Davey didn’t find out who their opponents were until they arrived at the hall that evening.
Upon confirmation, they sought out Joe & Dean (who favored the Karl Gotch “shoot” style), to figure out what they would do later that night.
Deciding that a mix of amateur and professional work would be best, they went to put on one of the best matches I’ve ever witnessed with a perfect balance of styles.
Most guys can’t seem to do that today.
They either do highspot, highspot, highspot…or they can’t work at all.
There’s no pacing, no story told within the match, and when they spend the whole time flying around the ring doing only high-risk stuff, it doesn’t mean anything.
The above match should be Pro Wrestling 101 required reading.
I think it would make the product a lot more interesting.