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OMG Mayu has signed with Marigold ? Who would have thought ! Such an unexpected turn of events, wow... Yeah, I dunno if that will be enough for me to bother. I already only check out the biggest Stardom shows. What I've seen of Marigold hasn't been very impressive and the company was totally carried by Sareee. They also have the most annoying ring announcer ever.

Originally airing on 4/30/90 on HBO. *Unless stated otherwise matches were taped at the Coliseum in Moncton, New Brunswick, Canada* Match #1 (RAW) Tugboat defeats Joe Champ with the "Capsize" *We see highlights of the double header in Boston & Philadelphia* Match #2 "Big Cat" Curtis Hughes w/"The Doctor of Style" Slick defeats Mitch Ryder with "Cat-atonic" (Sit out Powerbomb) Match #3 The Fabulous Rougeau Brothers (Jacques & Raymond) w/"Le Commandant" Frenchy Martin defeat Sonny Blaze & Mark Frear with the "Quebec Crunch" on Frear. Interestingly The Rougeau's carried to Canadian themed title belts to the ring and insisted the match was a defense of the "WWF Cnandian Tag Team Championship". WWF Event Center: Due to their highly acclaimed rivalry which has been lighting up the tag ranks, it's announced that the Killer Bees & Badd Company will face off at SNME in a 2/3 falls match where the winners will challenge for the WWF Tag Team Championship at King of the Ring. Match #4 (RAW) Brutus "The Barber" Beefcake defeats Mike Williams with a running high knee which commentary dubs "A little off the top". Speaking of which, Beefcake pulls out a pair of scissors and begins cutting Williams hair and throwing it out to the crowd. An odd ritual perhaps but the crowd responds well to it. Back in the studio, Heenan tells Monsoon that Beefcake may be content to take a little off the top but at SNME Haku will take his whole head! Match #5 (Wrestling Challenge) Non title. WWF Intercontinental Champion "World's Strongest Man" Dino Bravo w/"Le Commandant" Frenchy Martin defeats Mario Mancini with a running Powerslam. *We see footage of the bg pull-aprt between the Texas Outlaws/The Rhodes & Duggan. We also see comments from both camps. The Outlaws say it ain't over til they've "run all those mangy dogs outta the World Wrestlnig Federation". A fired up Dustin throws down the challenge for any two Outlaws to meet him and his father at SNME. Dusty gets his some to calm down but says if any Outlaws do show up in Worcester, they'll get a whippin' they'll never forget!* Match #6 Dr Tom Prichard defeats Jim Long with a running Bulldog. Feature Match (RAW) "The Mastodon" Vader w/"The Devious" Mr Fuji defeats Bushwhacker Luke w/Butch with the "Vader Bomb". Butch gets into the ring to check on his "brother" and Vader plants him with a Powerbomb.

Don't diss Izumida!!!! For real through how does Taue have less chemistry with him than Giant Kimala lol

There are certain types of promos Bret is great at, and this is one of them. He's never been a great "hype" guy, but give him a few topics with some meat he can really bite into and he will give you a really sincere promo it's hard not to believe. Working in the shots at Shawn to show that he's not over that bitterness from WM is a great touch too. I kinda thought he was veering into the cheesy side of things before he mentioned the kid he was talking about was his nephew. One of Bret's best promos I've seen.

The body of the match was really good. I agree that Sid's selling here is surprisingly good. I didn't love the finish with Bulldog blatantly interfering on Owen's behalf for the DQ, but is is what it its. We get more of the "are Shawn and Sid still friends?" thing post-match, which is fine I guess. And probably the point of the whole thing.

One of my favorite Shawn matches of 96 before the run-ins. Well-worked by both and I want to see Shawn work SCSA a lot more.

Taker kills it here in the go-home segment for this feud going into the PPV. Easily the best built match for Buried Alive.

Unbelievably, Hogan had not one but two decent takes in that interview, talking up Toni Storm and AEW and also saying what a lot of people have been saying about the (lack of) follow-up to the Cena turn.

This was fun, also thanks to a hot crowd, even though Bill Mercer was trying to put this over like it was a masterpiece for some reason. I liked how the Adams/Kevin feud was the hottest pairing here, but Adams kept dodging the older von Erich until they finally collided and Adams finally got clawed. God bless Roberts, he tried and managed to look good, but he spent lots of his time (including the finish) trying to put Mike over which is a bit sad in retrospect ***1/4

Good match, but the booking and the referee kind of ruined it towards the end. The brothers stretching the champions for the first 10 minutes was fun, they were building a tight match with lots of snugness. Too bad that the heat segment on Jack didn't last long enough, as it was quite good while it lasted. The referee refused to disqualify the champions on a few occasions, which got Gorilla Monsoon to be a crybaby on commentary, until the official got tired and finally called for the bell for a dull finish ***

This was somewhat clipped or badly taped in general. Bock happily took Hennig to school here, but he gave the youngster quite a lot of space at the beginning, before taking over with his mat experience. Hennig's courage and stamina were put over with his performance, which will help in the future for longer matches. Fine rib work by Bock on Hennig, but his decent selling wasn't on par with the best workers of the business yet. He did well in the figure four later on, anyway, before the flashy finish which was perfect because it gave Hennig a clean win despite Bock being clearly the best worker in the ring ***1/2

A good match between these teams, which was quite expected given their skills, but even this time I felt like the bout ended right when it started getting interesting for me. Fun stalling at the beginning, and of course the heat segment by the MNX was quite good, despite not being particularly creative. You could tell Cornette's guys were going through the motions with the Fantastics at this time. Good energy in the Fulton hot tag, but unfortunately the match finished straight away, albeit in a quite flashy and convincing pinfall by the babyfaces ***1/4

Shoot style is not my thing, but this was great and it couldn't go unnoticed. This was slightly clipped, but still maintained a good pace at 25+ minutes. Very easy and effective story of a grappler facing a striker, as Fujiwara would try to limit the effect of Tiger's kicks by keeping him on the mat, to avoid getting fooled like he did in their September bout. Fujiwara kept the match on this terms for a long time, making Tiger sell the arm very well for once, but Tiger's comeback was incredibly stiff and violent, starting from a headbutt that was an all or nothing desperate risk. Amazing TKO finish, both for intensity and crowd reaction ****1/4

This had some great moments, but the initial matwork was dull and felt like a way to kill time because the holds went absolutely nowhere (the match went almost 25 minutes, so that beginning was unnecessary). Yamazaki showed a lot of fire, with stiff kicks used as a way to enhance his presence on the mat, resorting to those methods when Takada was getting the better of him. I liked the progressive climax they had and they sold well enough, but the first half of the match was too bland and disjointed from the rest to make this anything special ***1/4

I felt this went a bit too long at 30+ minutes, because it was great whenever Fujinami was involved (the first 10 minutes and later on, before the big hot tag), but Inoki kind of dragged the heels down, as they had to work around some of his contrived offense and it felt like a step back. This was still a good match and the gaijins were amazing bullies, but Inoki's stuff didn't feel organic, like they were pushing a reset button every time he got involved. Still, the crowd went crazy for him and he capitalizes on Fujinami's great performance ***

My favorite of the pillars (from what I've seen so far). He really pulls me jn. What really helps him stand out amongst the others to me is the range of stuff he is given. I think he might be the best at the undercard match of the pillars. He also is a fun/interesting in matches were he guest on in a smaller promotion. The NOAH run is so interesting because he can still go but, there is a sense of vunderabilty wall he brings. He's also in my favorite pillar vs. pillar match ever vs. Kawada in 1991 (that I think I was secret santaed here years ago. He's currently in my top 10 but, I can't see him going up and down depending on how much I connect to looking deeper into his career. Akira Taue & Kikutaro vs. Kuishinbo Kamen & Namazu Man is also fun times!

Speaking of Hogan, he apparently is a Toni Storm fan: https://www.f4wonline.com/news/aew/hulk-hogan-praises-aew-timeless-toni-storm/

I am seriously considering writing an academic paper on how professional wrestling carries the legacy of Greek theater.

Reportedly SmackDown will finally be going back to 2 hours as of June 6.

You can laugh all you want now, but when Real American Freestyle Wrestling is packing arenas around the country and getting record setting TV ratings, we will see who gets the last laugh…brother. Once people see that Hulk Hogan is involved, they’re going to automatically want to check out the product, because his brand isn’t at all toxic. This is an idea whose time has come, just like the original XFL.

I watched a fair amount of Taue on my AJPW watch (following Triple Crown and watching whatever interests me), and he was great, I prefer Kawada and then Kobashi, but prefer him to Misawa. Am up 2003 on my NOAH/AJPW watch and his NOAH stuff hasn't impressed me at all, unlike the others, bit he was fucked over a bit by the much worse NOAH tag division, and at least intially being paired with Jun Izumida. Like I would say he has a higher peak than Misawa as Taue has a five star match imo (No Fear vs HDM for vacant World Tag Titles 2000), and Misawa's lows were more visible and frequent (Hansen matches, especially that one badddd one).

I can see him making my list in the 90-100. Something that really stands out when watching The Rock is how loose he is at selling and great he is at bumping. Consistently fun to watch especially in tag marches. He brings such great big match feel and very adaptable. He's obviously very charismatic as a promo and angle worker but, I think he leaned on making to much on clowning on his opponents and making uncomfortable jokes. I feel like he als9 did harm maybe popularizing the comically roasting opponents promo battle style which probably has done more harm than good. He's also fun to play is video games and my moms favorite wrestler.

Going to use this opportunity since it's timely and shill for my buddy and fellow board member @GeneJackson95 who has authored a book about Eddie Gilbert with the help of Doug Gilbert that will be releasing next month.... https://www.tinyurl.com/EddieGilbertBook

HAAAAAAAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHA REAL PRO WRESTLING v2

(1) fantastic thread overall, love this and love Johnny (2) I liked this one. DK is actually bumping late into the match, and looks better than his tours to AJ in '89 and early '90. Maybe he's more pilled up. He's limited - he doesn't do anything massive or crazy - and other limitations mean it's not actually as good as, say, the Bulldogs/Malenkoes in '89, but he's actually better here than there.