And now introducing…

Hello everyone, I’m the new guy here!  My name is Rob Bonnette, and I’m a wrestling fan just like all of you.  I’ve been watching since 1985 and blogging about it in various spots since around 2013-2014.  I have a bunch of stuff over at my own site Stroke of Genius and I do some stuff at Rant with Ant when I have time.  I watch all things WWE, the New Japan show that comes on AXS TV every Friday, and I’ve been trying the Ring of Honor TV show every week for the past few weeks as well.  I’ve been to a bunch of house shows, a few pay per views, and I’m going to ROH Best in the World this June.  I try not to get too crazy with my takes on various topics, but to give you a quick idea of where I come from here are a few of mine:

• Long matches (30 minutes plus) are ok sometimes, but the ideal length for me is 20 to 25 for a main event and 10 to 15 for midcard stuff.
• My favorites right now are AJ Styles, Roman Reigns, Minoru Suzuki, Becky Lynch, and the Usos.  I’m also a big fan of Seth Rollins, Sasha Banks, Testuya Naito, Charlotte, and a few others.
• My pick for best worked match I’ve watched is Ric Flair vs Ricky Steamboat from Wrestle War 89.
• Flair is the best worker I’ve watched.  He got very good matches out of limited guys like Nikita Koloff and when you paired him with someone like Steamboat it was absolutely magical.
• Hulk Hogan is very underrated as an in ring performer.  No he didn’t have 100 different moves but his timing was impeccable as far as when to sell, when to counter, when to get countered, and when to make the big comeback.  Give me one of Hogan’s greatest hits over somebody trying too hard to have an epic 45 minute match.
• Streaks are bad.  They never start on purpose (no way Vince decided in 1991 that Undertaker would go undefeated at WrestleMania until 2014), and before you know it they take a life on their own and can’t end in any way that satisfies people.  That’s true for Goldberg, Taker, or Asuka.
• The Attitude Era was highly overrated.  You had a couple of all time great sports entertainers (Rock and Stone Cold) and a few other guys that papered over a lot of crap.  The wrestling itself was downright mediocre night in and night out before 2000.

OK, so there’s your brief introduction to me.  I look forward to sharing more with you here, and hearing back from you sometime.