Flair Region, St. Louis Subregion, First Round: (14) Mil Mascaras vs. (19) JBL

[JGlass]

JBL lost to Rey in both of his retirement angles. It's completely unreasonable for both of you to act like it was just a commonplace thing. This was the end of his career and he left on his back just like almost every guy who's ever stepped foot in the ring. A more comparable situation is JBL beating Eddie Guerrero when he was on top of the world in the biggest push of his career. JBL would've done the same to Mil Mascaras, ESPECIALLY since we're in the U.S. and not in Mexico.

I see three issues with this argument.

1) You can't really compare Mil Mascaras to Eddie Guerrero in terms of prestige. They wrestled in two radically different times. Eddie Guerrero may have been an international star, but not in the same way Mil Mascaras was. When Guerrero was international, there was still video footage of his accomplishments that could be shared across boards. Not so with Mil Mascaras. Mil Mascaras mostly had to rely on reputation alone to make his name internationally. Which he did.

2) I don't think JBL ever scored a clean win over Guerrero. I'm not going to pretend I know the outcome of every single match JBL had with Eddie, but of the ones I can remember, none of them came cleanly.

3) You act as if JBL's only significant losses came when he was at the end of his wrestling tenure with the WWE. That's not true. JBL played the very important role of being the legitimate guy that developing talents could beat to put them in the legitimate role. But when it came to facing the big name talents, JBL was almost always on the ass end of an ass kicking.

 

[Bernkastel]

JBL lost to Rey in both of his retirement angles. It's completely unreasonable for both of you to act like it was just a commonplace thing. This was the end of his career and he left on his back just like almost every guy who's ever stepped foot in the ring. A more comparable situation is JBL beating Eddie Guerrero when he was on top of the world in the biggest push of his career. JBL would've done the same to Mil Mascaras, ESPECIALLY since we're in the U.S. and not in Mexico.

Mil Mascaras was a big star in the States. If he could defeat Billy Graham I'm sure he would have zero problem whipping JBL's ass. JBL was not a strong world champion and outside of that he was mostly a tag team mainstay. Mascaras was one of the first luchadores to tour the world and introduce the style of lucha libre to different audiences. You may not appreciate the significance of that, but it doesn't matter. Mascaras was such a huge star both in the ring and as a crossover phenomenon, that his accomplishments easily outweigh Bradshaw's.

A vote for Mil Mascaras is the correct decision.

 

[enviousdominous]

I'd argue that JBL had many more "not that great" matches than Mil did. Even in his run at the top, he wasn't exactly burning the place down with 5-star match after 5-star match. His job to Rey was because he was retiring. Any other circumstance, and I don't think that happens.

This is one of those arguments where I really have to pick my words wisely, because I end up disagreeing with myself before I can finish a sentence.

JBL was an extended transitional champion, that much I'm able to see. But when it comes to outwaiting your welcome, nobody comes close to Mil.

I've watched countless Mil Mascaras matches as I usually pay more attention to the people I hate, and I've thus watched every match after Bradshaw put on a suit and a cowboy hat and thus evolved into JBL.

I hate Bradshaw less because at least he knew when to bow out for the sake of the show. Mil was behaving like a spoiled rotten eight year old well into his 70s. If the Undertaker could take a loss at WrestleMania, then Mil can finally lose to someone via pinfall in his entire life.

 

[nightmare]

Mil was brave enough to fight a mummy. He definitely had some balls on him.

Dude, a mummy is lower on the card than a zombie. You know how to beat a mummy? Walk around the block & wait for him to get snagged on a bush. When he unravels, go about your day unharmed.

JBL climbs mountains for fun in his spare time. Mil spends his time fighting a mummy that nobody is scared of. Now he is an actual mummy & JBL is not threatened in the slightest.

 

[stblink]

I voted for Mil Mascaras over JBL because after watching each of them wrestle I found that Mil was the better overall wrestler. I found that Mil was better at telling a story and better at making me care about him.