And just to keep them together here's the top Wrestling Observer MOTY voting for the 90's:
1990
1. Jushin Liger vs. Naoki Sano (1-31) Osaka
2. Jumbo Tsuruta vs. Mitsuharu Misawa (6-8) Tokyo
3. Bobby Eaton & Stan Lane vs. Tracy Smothers & Steve Armstrong (7-8) Baltimore
4. Hulk Hogan vs. Ultimate Warrior (4-1) Toronto
5. Steiners vs. Nasty Boys (10-27) Chicago
6. Atsushi Onita & Tarzan Goto vs Dragon Master & Masanobu Kurisu (4-1) Tokyo
7. Keiji Muto vs. H
I'm running a Best of the 2000's (00-09) poll over on another forum so I'm watching as much 2000s matches as I can. I'm trying to watch all the majorly suggested ones but also following the Wrestling Observer's yearly best match awards and trying to watch them all. For anyone else interested in the results from the last 10 years and maybe something to watch here ya go:
Wrestling Observer Checklist ho:
2000
1.) Atlantis vs. Villano III (3/17 - Arena Mexico)
2.) Triple H vs. Cactu
The guys over at WrestlingKO published a list of their Top 100 Wrestlers for 2009 and one of the points raised (amongst many it must be said - these lists always bring forth a myriad of opinion) was Shawn Michaels' abscence (on a list that featured, amongst others, Jerry Lawler [68], Bill Dundee [67] and, of course, Mark Henry [36]). Now, of course, as one of the seemingly few Shawn fans around on the internet (and, no, I don't think he's remotely in discussion for "Best Ever") it's par for the
IWRG 2/25
Dr. Cerebro, Trauma I y Hijo del Signo vs. Pantera, Hijo del Pantera y Zatura [captains hair]
This was another solid match from the month of February. No-one gave a particularly outstanding performance, but it reminded me of those old-school trios matches that were used to set-up Satanico/Dandy and other such feuds. Dr. Cerebro wasn't able to impose himself on the match to the degree that Black Terry can, but Terry is a big lynchpin to remove and I thought they did fairly wel
I've often thought the greatest barometer for how good or bad a wrestler is isn't necessarily how good a match they can have when they go all out, but rather how good a match they can have on auto-pilot. Watching Misawa/Kobashi/Akiyama vs. Kawada/Taue/Omori (January '94) last night - a 25/+ six-man that's available on Ditch's site, it's really staggering how strong a match it was considering how much stuff they left in the bag and how casual they seemed to work. This is about as far removed from
I downloaded Jericho vs. the Rock 10/21/2001 and skipped through the match making sure it was a legit file, which it was. A spot in the match caught my attention; it was when the Rock gave Jericho a dragon screw. He did the same unusual fall in that match as he did against Danielson on NXT.
I went through and watched the match anyway, and here are my thoughts:
Chris Jericho vs. the Rock 10/21/2001
• Match is for the WCW World Heavyweight Championship – a title that hasn’t had any c
WWF’s first episode of NXT aired last night, and it was an entertaining show for two reasons – Bryan Danielson…erm…Daniel Bryan, and Chris Jericho.
I was pleasantly surprised to see Danielson being showcased right off the bat to begin the inaugural show. His interactions with Miz were humorous, but I wonder what direction they will take with the angle they started. Will the Miz end every show pummeling Danielson after he stole the show with the match of the night?
Matt Striker and Mi
IWRG 2/18
Los Oficiales vs. Freelance, Angelico y Angel
Freelance is back and appears to be out of shape. I assume he's been injured as he struggled to get into his usual groove here. Not that it made much difference. IWRG has wiped the slate clean this year with great booking and I don't see the point in continuing with a feud from their muddled past. It's high time they did something different with Freelance, whose career has stalled of late.
Obviously, when a guy's been out in
IWRG 2/11/10
Trauma I y Trauma II vs. Samot y Maldito Jr.
Can't say I was too enthused by this this. Trauma II had difficulty working his mat routine against a larger opponent; he should really know by now that you don't have to work the mat in every match, especially if your opponent has no skill in that area. There was enough stiffness in this to keep the punters happy, but it seemed lke a repeat of the Traumas match against Zatura and Suicida, only this time against a poor man's v
Blue Panther vs. Atlantis, NWA World Middleweight Championship, 8/9/91
I thought I ought to do something a little special to mark my 200th entry, so since I've been talking about Blue Panther vs. Atlantis lately, I decided to go back and watch their match from '91. This match was part of the first batch of lucha I ever bought and is a large part of why I became hooked on lucha. I'm not particularly fond of watching matches I've seen before, particularly when I'm comparing it to the exciteme
IWRG
Las Nuevas Figuras FIL vs. Los Gladiadores IWRG, 2/4/10
IWRG has been on a roll of late, thanks to an influx of new talent and some much improved booking from the men in charge. This was a
cibernetico match between the IWRG regulars and the young guys they've been using to fill out the undercard; not a great match, but it serves to illustrate why IWRG has been on an upward swing since the beginning of the year. The first run through was stronger than the elimination half for th
In 1997, CMLL had one of the greatest single year runs of any promotion in wrestling history, but what about 1998?
It's not a year you hear a lot about. I don't think too many people could tell you what the match of the year was or which workers were on their game that year. Most of the CMLL I've seen from '99 has the company heading down the path of no return, so I thought I'd sample some matches from '98 and see what sort of state the company was in.
El Hijo Del Santo, Blue Panthe
I've recently started to gradually collect all AJW releases from mid-1990 through to the Dream Slam interpromotional era. I had a fair few to begin with; but prior to the summer of 1992 they were very sporadically spaced between events and, as I guess would be obvious, the idea is to see and plot the development of the top talent of that era; Hokuto, Aja, Toyota, Kyoko, Yamada... I mean as a twenty-three year old it's actually rather daunting to think of the ages of those girls at that time. Eve
Black Terry/Dr. Cerebro vs. Gringo Loco/El Hijo del Diablo, 1/24/10
This was pretty cool.
Of all the styles Terry works, brawling suits him best because you get a caricature of Black Terry the man. There was nothing pretty about this match; it was about as scummy as you'd expect from two guys working the Gringo Locos gimmick in a lucha indy backwater. They brawled all over the ringside area in a match that never really got going in the ring since neither side wanted to settle it prope
IWRG
Avisman vs. Bushi, 11/26/09
This was the lightweight title switch the Segunda Caida guys wrote about recently. Avisman definitely showed what he's capable of on the mat here. Bushi couldn't follow suit, but I guess he wouldn't really know how. The match peaked with Avisman's final action on the mat, which was a counter into a ankle lock of his own if I recall correctly. Great intensity from Avisman to match his angry little man demeanour. He was like a little Napoleon with his mat
Los Terribles Cerebros vs. Los Oficiales, Campeonato de Trios IWRG, 12/25/09
Another poor Cerebros match. They look about done to me. Lazy matwork, weak transitions, unimaginative spots and some terrible finishes of late. I wouldn't mind if they broke up actually, because IWRG really need to run a Black Terry singles feud.
Los Traumas I y II vs. Suicida y Zatura, 1/14/09
I'm not sure what to make of Trauma II's new look, but his work here was some of the better stuff I've seen ou
Bushi vs. Dr. Cerebro, IWRG Intercontinental Lightweight Championship, 1/10/10
Black Terry Jr's handhelds are fast becoming the only way to watch IWRG. Give me Terry's handhelds over their TV production any day.
This was nothing like a lucha libre title match, but I've decided to stop caring about that this year. If someone works a decent title match, I'll praise them for it, but it's painfully obvious that these matches are the norm now. They kind of remind me of WWE matches, but I g
IWRG 1/07/10
Black Terry/Dr Cerebro/Cerebro Negro vs. Pantera/Suicida/Zatura
This had some of the lousiest matwork I've seen in a Terribles Cerebros match. It was like they were trying to do old-school Los Temerarios/Fantásticos exchanges, but they're all a bit too portly. Things picked up in the second fall when the Cerebros started brawling and I dug the camera angle on the technicos' comeback (and the topes in particular), but this was largely forgettable.
Angelico/Solar/Ultra
Satanico vs. Shiro Koshinaka, hair vs. hair, EMLL 7/30/84
One of the things I discovered while watching the New Japan set is that I hate Shiro Koshinaka. I don't know why this is, since he's never been a worker I've felt strongly about one way or the other. I think Dylan Waco may have referred to him as a blackhole and that's as good a description of him as any. It did pique my interest in this match, however. It's not a match I remember liking particularly much, but it's Satanico so there
El Hijo del Santo vs. Felino, CMLL 7/25/97
This was a revancha for Santo's title loss to Felino on July 4th; a match that ended with one of the great screwjob finishes of all time. If you've never seen that bout, I highly recommend it. It's one of the best lucha matches of the 90s and the finish is pure Casas.
This revancha didn't offer much in the way of revenge, and I should've known by the number of times they showed Casas at ringside that they were just furthering the angle, but a
Time for some lucha awards.
2009 was a frustrating year that saw a lot of sources for IWRG and Arena Puebla appear and disappear, but at the same time a lot of random lucha indy footage made its way onto the internet. These awards are unashamedly based on the Tapatía Awards at cubsfan's site, and this year I asked Raging Noodles to give us his thoughts too. Don't bother reading them if you like CMLL and AAA.
Best Wrestler:
RN -- Negro Navarro
This was one of the best years
El Hijo del Santo vs. Felino, Mexican National Middleweight Championship, CMLL 4/5/96
This was a good match. It wasn't a mat classic like the Blue Panther vs. Atlantis Copa Victoria final, but it had a lot in common with how I think lucha should be wrestled these days, i.e., if you're not going to wrestle close to the canvas, you should at least be clever about how you put a match together.
This started off on the mat, but didn't really go anywhere because Felino wasn't able to work fr
Solar/Black Terry vs. Negro Navarro/Rambo, UWE, 10/17/09
This continued the trend of matches failing to be anything special, but it did feature some high end Solar vs. Negro Navarro.
In all of their recent matches, they've shown that they're not content to rest on the laurels of local MCs hyping them up as maestros extraordinaire. The 10/5 Misioneros vs. Space Cadets match from Futrap de Nuevo Laredo and the 11/22 Solar/Platino/Perro Mastin vs. Negro Navarro/Fishman Jr/Arcanos trios fr
