East Bay View (a blog about several things)

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Tuesday, December 02, 2008

Ten favourite wrestling matches of the year, part 2

6. Chris Jericho vs Shawn Michaels, WWE No Mercy ladder match, October 5th
It's really not that hard to innovate within even the simplest, most seemingly played-out forms, like the sonnet. But it take both talent and discipline to make the innovations meaningful by respecting the conventions you're not subverting, or what's a form for? There'll never be a ladder match that subverts the form like Berrigan's Marilyn Monroe sonnet, but I find this as satisfying.

5. Bryan Danielson vs Tyler Black, ROH New Horizons, July 26th
4. Nigel McGuinness vs Tyler Black, ROH Take No Prisoners, March 16th

Black, though deservedly the breakout star of 2008, still has his limitations: occasionally ineffectual spinny offense and shaky match structure. These problems are solved against McGuinness with a simple storyline: Black as the underdog in survival mode. Against Danielson, the problems are made irrelevant, because Danielson's just that good.

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