Resident Evil

Bulldog Bob Brown

Nattie Neidhart

Hercules Hernandez

Arrgh! I was too late. Since we're now at Fred Ottman I will say Orlando Jordan

Buddy and I used to play this game at work. I find what makes it even more fun is if you say you get someone like Ravishing Rick Rude or Bulldog Bob Brown the next person has to find 3 wrestling names that would start with R if you picked Rude or 3 names that start with B if you said Brown. And for someone like Hulk Hogan you would find two peoples names that would start with H. As for my answer to Terry Funk -- I'm going with Flash Funk.

The end of Mania 9 always made me quit the WWF. Booking wise it just deheartened me in so many ways. They didn't believe in Bret and the ending was way too sports entertainish/fake. Just when you thought you were safe from the old they go right back to it again. Loss, you gotta watch the cage(s) match between the two!! It's super and Bret puts on a performance that I don't know if anyone else could've matched that night. Yokozuna's has a thumbs up performance too. Treat yourself to an excellent match with terrific heat to beat too. They had the crowd in the palm of their hand.

Benoit seems to be untouchable as a face right now. If you're a betting man right now you got better odds of there being some kind of Benoit chant in a match than there not being one. He seemingly has the respect of the fans and I don't see that going away.

Right, I gave credit to Suzuki. I blame Kobashi for the shortcomings. Also, I marked for the ending of the WM20 main event. Doesn't mean the match was actually great. Just making sure... is this the 11-5-05 match? Yeah, it's that match. Do you ever go to sleep???? They didn't have two matches? Did they? I gotta start keeping better track of NAOH as I'm having difficultly remember what I've seen and what I haven't.

I remember Suzuki being a really good heel in that one. So much so that I had to tell my casual wrestling fan about it. I remember marking for the ending. Oh man, I just watched Kobashi & Shiosaki vs. Nakajima & Sasaki from NAOH and oh my goodness. You talk about your ring a ding dong dandys. Super match that's going to be a top candidate for match of the year. Shiosaki and Nakajima were athletic in there and looked like they belonged in the ring. I loved all the kicks and I've alway been a mark for tag matches where you have the old guys with the up and comers. Everybody should check this one out.

Hey, I did watch that match. I remember the headlock spot. I assume that was intentionally written like that. Good one! I got a laugh out of it.

I don't know how one could be unimpressed with this match. Care to explain? I think I saw this before but I'm not too sure. However, if it is nominated I think we should keep it on to let everyone decide because if we don't it's simply not fair. We all got different opinions on the wrestling matches and I think this has really been demonstasted the last couple of years on the IWC where opinions are getting more mixed than others. I hate CM Punk vs Samoe Joe and Dragon vs London but I wouldn't protest if those matches were on a best of set because I know there's something in them that makes people like them. Plus Kawada appears to like it as well and he's a hardcore fan whose opinion I respect. Not sure if I've seen the bout but I think we should still keep it on.

Here's an interesting Bif Wellington article. Wellington was a talented superstar in Stampede wrestling who was jobbed out way more than he ever should've been. After that I believe he became a dominant star in westren Canada. He was also a superstar that should've gone further than he did. BIFF WELLINGTON HAS NO GRUDGE AGAINST BENOIT Originally printed on Slam! Sports, July 2004 By Greg Oliver It's impossible not to draw parallels between the careers of Biff Wellington (Shane Bower) and Chris Benoit. Both Albertans worshipped The Dynamite Kid, and broke into Stampede Wrestling about the same time, and later excelled in Japan. They also tagged up on a number of occasions, most notably a run with the Stampede tag titles in 1989, and, on June 22, 1992, against Jushin "Thunder" Liger and "Flyin'" Brian Pillman at WCW's Clash of the Champions XIX. But only one of them is world champion today. The other wrestles a few times a month while awaiting back surgery that might just end his career for good. "It definitely could have been me. ... I made some wrong decisions, got steered by some people I shouldn't have listened to, being young," Wellington told SLAM! Wrestling recently. "As far as Chris, I don't have any animosity or nothing. It's great that he's doing what he's doing. But, oh yeah, I could have been there. No problem." Now 39, Wellington has a number of skeletons in his closet, complete with full servings of 'what ifs?' He entered the Hart Brothers Training Camp at a young age. "I was always an athlete. I was a big Dynamite Kid freak. It was just something that I wanted to do. I always wanted to do it," he said. His primary trainers were Mr. Hito and Hiro Hase. The Harts saw something in him, and gave him a break. He debuted in December 1986, a year after Benoit. "I got lucky. Out of about 60 guys, just me and one other guy got work out of it. I was lucky to get on with Stampede when I did," he said. "Even before TSN, I started there. I'll tell you, it was next to impossible to get a spot." Biff Wellington (or sometimes the tastier Beef Wellington) grew into a solid hand in Stampede, working as a heel for his first months in the territory, then going babyface all the rest of the way. His only Stampede title was the tag belt with Benoit, and he shared some of his frustrations with the way the Harts ran the promotion. "I broke in with them, and in their eyes I was a nobody to them, because they trained me. Bruce never liked me, Owen was jealous. It was just a bad spot to be in. I still got to work and got the same pay, anyway. I don't really care about that," he said. "They screwed with Chris [benoit] too, all of us mid-heavyweights at the time because of Owen. But that's the business. They owned the office." But Owen Hart was extremely talented, Wellington will admit, and was destined for big things. "But when you had to go make Bruce look like a million bucks, it was kind of hard some nights." After just a couple of years in the business, Wellington got his first chance to go to Japan. He figures he did 28 tours or so from 1988 to 1994. "I did all my best work in Japan, by far. I had some great matches with Liger, Jushin Liger. That would probably be the highlights," he explained. "Actually, one time me and Chris Benoit had a match. We were always tag partners. We were on TV and something happened in Sapporo, Japan, and they put me and Chris against each other and gave us 15 minutes of live TV. I'll tell you, that was probably a highlight. We had a hell of a match." His training with Hase in Calgary would come in handy as New Japan brought in some Russian amateur wrestlers to learn the professional version of the sport. "[Hase] showed me a lot of Olympic style and everything. In New Japan, we had to work a lot with the Russians, eh? ... They were full shooters. They didn't know anything about our style of wrestling at all. It was a fight for your life, let me tell you, every night. Those guys were serious." By his own admission, Wellington had a spot for life in New Japan. He considers his decision to leave the promotion the biggest mistake he ever made. "I won't mention any names, but this other office was starting up. They had dreams. The money they offered me was just, I think I was 26 years old, 24 years old, maybe, they were just promising me the world. I was listening to guys who were supposed to be working for me as agents and stuff, guys that I trusted that were telling me, 'This is a good deal, switch offices.' I ended up switching and it was the worst mistake I ever made in my life. I went over to SWS and I went once, and they paid me what they said they were going to pay me, and then they folded. I never heard from them again." Over the years, Wellington was smart with his money, and is still living off past income. "It's not going to last forever. I've got another 30 years before I have to retire. It won't last me forever. I did well in Japan. I was pretty smart. I saved most of it." Unlike many of his contemporaries, he didn't travel to countless countries, as he was secure enough with his finances to be able to turn things down. For example, he always said no to South Africa. "I'd just heard too many horror stories about that. I didn't think it was worth it, especially the money they were paying me. It wasn't worth the risk the way I looked at it." "I know guys who have gone around the world. I can't believe what they went for as far as money and stuff. Guys will do anything to get into this business," he said. "To do it on your own dime isn't the way to go. I know guys who have bought their own tickets to Japan, their own plane tickets. I know guys who have gone over there and owed the office money." Besides Japan, he worked across Canada, including the Maritimes, where promoter Emile Dupre dubbed him Bobby Hart, and Mexico. In 1997, he worked for Paul Heyman's ECW promotion for a number of shots. Recently, he's done the occasional show for Michelle Starr's BC-based ECCW promotion. Wellington is still recognized around Western Canada. "I still have a good following around here, especially, for some reason, in Edmonton. I don't know why, but Edmonton was always a good town for me. But these spot shows I go to, it's hurting. They're lucky if they have 100 people." At the end of July, he is going up to Whitehorse in the Yukon Territory along with tag team partner Steve Rivers and headliners Jim "The Anvil" Neidhart and The Honkytonk Man for a pair of shows. Wellington has been told that 2,500 tickets have been sold already, a sell out. "But there's nothing up there. This is the first wrestling show they've had in about 12 years." It may be the end of the line for Wellington. "I'm waiting for an operation on my back," he said. "Until I get my back operated on ... I may be done already. I don't want to do be, but we'll see how it goes after the operation."

Did you watch Perfect vs the Bossman from Saturday Night's main event Loss? I remember liking that one when I was young. Since I went through a good deal of trouble looking for this on a different board I thought I'd post it here so I'd have a backup. I also like stirring the pot a little bit on "controversial" matches. BENOIT vs ANGLE ROYAL RUMBLE 03 Thought I'd give my thoughts on this. Beware though, it's going to be long winded. I liked this more the 2nd time I watched than the first time. A lot of what someone gets out of this match is the way you look at it. Looked at from the perspective of what the match is and not what someone wants it to be makes it a better match. Basically it's about a technical/oneupmanship battle between the top two technical superstars in the WWE and one man's quest to obtain this championship. If you watch the match looking at it from that perspective which I believe you should because that's what they were going for I think everybody will enjoy it more. The match starts off well enough and turns into a good solid bout. The highlights being some good work by Benoit trying to obtain the sharpshooter on Angle so he can test out his knee which to this point had not really been tested since Angle was only in one bout since recovering from his injury. Similar to the sharpshooter work in Benoit vs Kane from Bad Blood here we have Benoit going for the sharpshooter three times before obtaining it. First time - Angle completely avoids it, 2nd time -- Benoit gets closer to getting it in and the 3rd time he's succesful. Good work there. As a result of all this we now see Angle's knee is indeed healed up which we suspected from the previous Smackdown where Angle was using it with no problems and the rumours from the lockerroom which said Angle was milking the injury. So now it's time to swith battleplans. Good storytelling there. A good start but I don't think it was a truly great start. So now we're at the part of the match where ANgle is dominating Benoit in a heel control segment. Benoit starts to come out of it with a real nice double clothesline spot and this is the point where the bout's excitement proceeds to pick up. As RRR is fond of saying this is a spot that forced the crowd to get involved. A short comeback which is than stopped by Angle's Kyoko Inoue like belly to belly off of the top rope. Right here is probably the first part of the bout where people have trouble with it. Benoit hits 2 germans, Angle hits 1 and than Benoit finishes off the trifecta with his own german suplex before going up for his 2nd headbutt attempt off of the top rope. No selling is the common complaint here but it's not as bad as people tend to think it is. First off in wrestling we are often told that this is what happens when a certain move is used. For example we have to shut off our minds when a frontfacelock is used and pretend it's not a move that is lethal and is a move that can be countered easily. Other days we have to pretend it's a finisher. We also have to shut off our minds about irish whips. Why? Because prowrestling has taught us to do so. We accept it and don't complain too much about it. It's the same thing with the german reversal as Benoit and Angle beforehand told us several times that they can reverse suplexes the way they do (I might also add for people who don't think this spot is believable to reming them that they toned down the amount of suplexes and the sequence wasn't hit too late in the bout and henceforth they were still full of energy). It's not like they're cheating and making a new rule of wrestling. They've already solidified the rule. Angle's belly to belly off of the ropes after the first german sequence is also a sore point with some viewers. Yes, it's a little controversial selling but one also has to remember again that Benoit did take a little time going up to the rope and we still weren't too far into the match. This is the part of the bout where we really start to see the oneupmanship deal come into play which is a big theme of this bout. Benoit says "Fu** you Angle" and Angle does the same thing to Benoit. Their pride about who is the best technical wrestler is on the line as it's always been displayed both in the ring and in backstage skits. Angle's german also serves as a nice momentarily break in Benoit comeback. Angle's belly to belly off of the top rope does fight into this mentality a little bit as well. The match after this point is a long finisher segment with Benoit getting the better of Angle at first and than Angle turning the table and proceeding to get the better of Benoit. An interesting way of doing things. Back to the match, Angle than goes for a second Angle slam with Benoit countering it yet again by landing on his feet in a cool spot. Angle goes for a clothesline immediatly with Benoit countering into a crossface. Angle makes it to the rope. Benoit uses an anklelock to get Kurt off, Kurt than counters to his own anklelock with Benoit than countering to another crossface by turning his body around and using his other leg on ANgle's arm to drive him down to the mat. An improtant spot which will have importance later on in the bout. This was a real cool sequence which keeps the oneupmanship/technical battle going between the two. The first crossface starts the Benoit onslaught and starts to get the crowd thinking that Benoit just might win. Than in one of my favourite spots of the match. Angle holds on to the ropes -- So what does Benoit do? Put an anklelock on which makes perfect sense since that's a move that'll make you let go of the ropes instinctively. A perfect excuse to go from point A to B and to give Angle a chance to counter into his own anklelock with a sweet counter. With Benoit's counter into his 2nd crossface we see the crowd starting to buy the possability that Angle might submit even more. One other important thing here is that Benoit and Angle's anklelock were brief. If they were longer it would've been a problem with the match in my opinion but they kept them short which was smart. It allowed the emphasis to stay on Benoit making Angle submit by not allowing Angle too much time to recover between the crossfaces. That way the hope of seeing Angle submit is kept strong. The sequence here once again excelled in the oneumpmanship story they had going on during the bout. Back to the match again we have Angle countering the crossface in a brand new spot. The bannana split. Than senconds later Benoit once agains has Angle in a crossface before we see Angle attempt a peterson roll. Benoit rolls through but Angle counters that into an Angle Slam. Benoit kicks out. Awesome sequence here made better by the fact that they're playing off of their previous work. With the Benoit countering into yet another crossface after the bannana split it really makes the crowd believe that Benoit's going to do it here and bring home the gold. Like I mentioned earlier it's important that Angle only counter briefly here. It does two immediate things. It keeps the oneupmanship deal going and at the same time makes the crowd's belief that Angle might tap out grow extreamly strong. Angle never has a chance to legitimally recover. It's boom, boom, boom, boom! I mentioned the playing off of their previous stuff. Benoit had already developed the roll through to the attempted peterson roll by Benoit but Angle had never countered the roll through of the peterson roll. And here he does in big time fashion with an Angle slam. Enough to get an exciting pinfall on Benoit because the match has been going on for a while. Also enough to get Benoit down for awhile because ANgle was in big time trouble beforehand. Here though we see probably the biggest problem of the match. Missed clothesline attempts into the crossface. Done too often. Back to the match. Angle hits the anklelock. Benoit counters with a forward roll which causes Angle to hit the turnbuckles. Benoit attempts a german but Angle counters with an elbow to Benoit's head. Angle goes for a german but Benoit counters with a great looking roll up. Once again the oneupmanship deal. Another great sequence which nobody should have any problems with it. Angle has gotten the anklelock a couple of times now but never for too long. Enough to get the fans a little worried and to start wearing down Benoit's energy health meter. Still, nothing too serious. So far during the finisher segment which has been going since the belly to belly off of the top rope it's been Benoit dominating with Angle holding on but still hitting enough stuff to weaken Benoit's health meter and put him in trouble. (also helped out by the fast pace of the match) Back to the match. Benoit hits a german, Angle hits a german and than Benoit hits the tout de gras. An awesome overhead german suplexes which ends with Angle face down on the mat. Benoit goes up to the top rope and hits a flying headbutt. Angle kicks out only for Benoit to attempt a standing crossface. Angle rolls through, proceeds to hit Benoit with an innovative two hit combo of an inverted powerbomb into the top turnbuckle followed by the 2nd angle slam of the match. Fantastic sequence here. First off the oneupmanship deal in never more obvious than it is here. Benoit hits 1 german, Angle hits 1 german but than in a hunongous screw you to Angle; Benoit hits the superb overhead release german suplex where I bleieve Angle and Benoit clunked heads. Now my favourite part of the match. Benoit who's now worn out from the match "crawls" over to the turnbuckles and proceeds to hit one of the longest headbutts I've ever seen him do. What makes this so great is a couple of different reasons. First off, it took Benoit three attempts to hit the headbutt so by the time he hits it the crowd HAS to pop for it. Real nice wrestling physcology there. The second reason goes back to that tremendous interview Benoit did on Smackdown where he talked about how much the title meant to him. See, it's one thing to say you're going to do somethnig. I'ts another thing alltogether to say you're going to do something and not only do it but do it with so much recklessabandon and enthusiasm that it becomes contagious to the viewer. Benoit proved through a herculean feat of athleteic prowess that he REALLY wants the title. It doesn't get better than that. Now after Benoit hits the headbutt off of the tope he goes for the crossface on Angle who's down on the mat getting up. Benoit I believe did the same thing at Unforgiven so this time Angle's ready for it and counters by rolling through. Now with the 2nd Angle slam we have the most believable fall of the match where a lot of people were scared to death that it was over. A second Angle slam which was proceeded by work on Benoit's head with the release german, Benoit's own headbutt which hurt him more than usual, a turnbuckle planting and an Angle slam. definitely a tremendous nearfall made even more dangerous and believable by the previous damage to Benoit's head. You can't help but pop like mad for the pinfall when Benoit kicks out. Angle also does a good job displaying Benoit's determination here by pounding the mat with his fist. Benoit's proving beyond a shadow of a doubt that he wasn't bluffing when he did that backstage interview segment on Smackdown. Back to the match. Benoit hits the crossface one last time. Angle counters into the anklelock once again. Benoit trys countering but Angle holds on. Eventually, Angle wins with a laying anklelock. At this point Angle has taken over the momentum in the finisher segment that started with the belly to belly off of the top rope abouts. This part of the bout is similar to the parts proceeding it where Benoit had the advantage on Angle. This time however it's Angle constantly taking it to Benoit. All right, Benoit hits the crossface one last time. He's hit it a lot and ANgle is bodering on sustaining too much finisher damage but I don't think they went overboard here. Anway, I felt the crossface worked here because it just seemed that Benoit would have to win with it this time and it showed that Benoit was always a constant threat. The whole arena was chanting "Tap, tap, tap" so obviously it worked! The crossface also served as a great excuse for Angle to go from working on Benoit's upperbody to working on his ankle since at that point of the match it wouldn't have made too much sense for Angle to voluntarily go after the ankle. So the crossface represents a logical way to get from A to B and give the match even more time to show Benoit's determination to win this thing by not giving up to Angle's onslaught. After Angle gets Benoit into the anklelock we find ourselves watching some emotionally charged smart wrestling. A couple things I loved about this. First off there's learnt match physcology here. Remember Benoit countering to a crossface by turning his body around and using his other leg on ANgle's arm to drive him down to the mat earlier in the match? Well Benoit does it here once again in a desperate attempt to get out of the anklelock but Angle's learnt that trick and refuses to go down to the mat! And he maintains the anklelock! Also during this sequence Benoit turns around and kicks Angle off of the anklelock momentarily getting Angle off of his foot. Angle though goes right back to the foot like a shark smelling blood. So what does Benoit do? Kick him off again of course but this time in a tremendous looking visual Angle maintains his grip, rolls over and gets Benoit right back into the anklelock! Once again, in ring learnt physcology! 2nd thing I loved about this was the way constant pressure was put onto Benoit's ankle. This is an advantage that submission wrestling has over non submission wrestling. With non submission wrestling you'll often find wrestlers can recover a bit inbetween moves so for me anyway the sympthany is not as strong as it could be with submission wrestling like we saw here in this match at the end and the part of the match where Benoit was constantly putting Angle into the crossface. The constant pressure that Angle had on Benoit's ankle at the end of the match never gives me a chance to breathe. I feel Benoit's pain level going up and up with no real break (though there were teased breaks which I really liked) so my smpthany just climbs and climbs for Benoit getting me more involved into the bout. The ending was a sure bet highlight of this bout too. It set up a rematch down the line beautifully as the laying anklelock just screams for a Benoit reversal. It also capped off Angle winning the oneupmanship game that was being played throughout the match. The laying anklelock also plays into the interview piece Benoit did on Smackdown a few weeks beforehand. There was no way Angle was going to beat Benoit using conventional means. He had to bring something new out to take Benoit down. Something he wasn't expecting. And of course as we all know he did. So in conclusion, although this match isn't perfect I think it's strong enough to be a classic. The counters, the moveset, the oneupmanship, the technique, *the drawing of the fans in via wrestling (when they had some odds stacked against them), the learnt physcology, the emotion and the workrate all make it very memoarable. At least 4 1/4 ** though I'm not a big fan of the star rating system at all. *About drawing the fans in -- I think I'll talk some more about that. Once we get into that extended finisher sequence I think what works is that the match does a great job of making you think Benoit can do it over and over again when he hits the crossfaces. The momentarily interjections of Angle getting out of those only to get back in again work well in that respect too. It obviously worked because the fans were chanting "tap, tap, tap". Than we got the ending of the bout which is the same and the opposite of Benoit putting Angle in the crossfaces. This time it's Angle putting Benoit into the anklelock only for Benoit to get quick breaks of relief. This like earlier in the bout causes the fans to go "no, no, no" followed by "yes, yes, yes". But personally perhaps my favourite suck the fans bout in moment was when Benoit finally hit the headbutt as I described earlier

I'm going to nominate match #4 of the best of 7 series between Benoit and Booker T. Action packed with one of the most believable near falls in a long time that played off of the match where Booker won the title. It had a lot of "Oh f***, Benoit's really going to get swept" moments.

Benoit and Sammy is one of my top 20 matches of all time. One of the hardest working bouts I've ever seen and a testament to condition. The counters/moveset are enthralling and it builds so well. Than at the end, they go a different route and switch it up. They've done a lot of their big moves and now because the time limit is starting to approach they go to more pinning type holds hoping for a pin. But here and in yet another part I really like they make sure to sneak in some powerful shots just in the hope they might get a pin. The ending of the match is a perfect example of them switching over somewhat to get a pin attempt. Benoit snatches on one of the more convincing inside cradles I've ever seen. It's done so well that it's hard to believe Sammy kicked out of it. To be able to pull of such a believable near fall in a bout that had so many of them was a tremendous feat and made sure the match didn't leave itself from being anticlimatic. The small package was also a great reminder of the work ethic of the bout which is up there among the best ever in that category. This is one of the main reasons why I watch wrestling. Loved it, loved it, loved it, loved it. Still can't get over Benoit's conditioning here which may be the best I've ever, ever seen. He could've gone another hour at this rate. And props to Sammy here too who worked his butt off as well and could've gone for longer too. MisawaGQ says the tourney was dissapointing but I can't really say it was. We had the excellent 7/4 and the 7/13 Benoit vs Eddie bouts, Benoit vs Ohtani from earlier in the tourney and Benoit vs Sammy which was super. Kanemoto vs Ohtani and the finals were dissapointing (although the match was still very good) but besides that I don't think we can be too dissapointed at this tourney.

I like that too. Stuff like that doesn't even cross my mind though because I just can't see the WWE doing something that fun. Tis a shame. When I first started reading it I was worried Benoit might look a little weak for having a leave of absence but the stuff from the hospital would make up for that.

Booker has been using the bookend. He hit it on the highly reccomended match #2 and he went for it twice in the most rescent match. However, it's been the axe kick that's been Benoit's weakness as he's gone down to it several times so far. This sucks for Booker's health. I've had my own groin injuries in the past and it's not fun. I think what they got to do is delay, delay and delay until Booker is ready to go. Have Booker being booked as a coward and avoiding matches because he wants to stop Benoit's momentum or something. He should also send out various hit men in the mean time to soften up Benoit before match #5 It's a shame this had to happen from a fan perspective because the series so far was kicking all sorts of but. The most fun I've had watching WWE in a long time.

Snow vs Benoit reminds me Benoit and Johnny Smith (which had a similar structure) had some long control segments in their matches. Percentage wise it was a high portion of the matches. What got me thinking about this was Steamboat's comments in the interview rescently posted on the board.

The question is simple enough. What's the longest beatdown of a face you've ever seen? What's the most amount of time you've ever seen before the face makes his comeback?

One of the main reasons I like this board is that there is talk about old school stuff discussed by some hardcore fans. I love to see people spread their passion for the product and see if it spreads. Even if it's Memphis which I currently do not like I will want to read it. That's why I'm looking forward to the best match project - to see if my mind will change. I talked some here about Benoit vs Johnny Smith in the hopes that I could spread the love of their work around. Even though I don't believe I got any responses I know people read what wrote and hopefully I planted a curiosity seed in their head that will blossom in the future and force them to watch their said work. There's point to that just like there's point to anyone talking about oldschool wrestling. If nobody talks about it at all than nobody gets interested and nothing happens. Great work goes unaccomplished and that's a negative from anyone's book. On smarkschoice the love for Benoit and Smith managed to spread some. If I say had never written anything there maybe those matches would've been missed. And here once the best match project gets underway that love will be hopefully spread just a little bit more.

The effect will be minimal.

Just matches from the 90s? I wouldn't put anything over Hokuto vs Kandori. There are matches among others like Hasegawa vs Yamada 3/3/94 that have moved me just as much but I can't go out on a limb and say any match is better than this. Maybe tied but not better. Thunderqueen is up there. Kobashi/Misawa vs Kawada/Taue? Probably a few. I too am a fan of 10/95 and a bunch of other matches. Not too many matches are better than this though. Kawada vs Williams I liked better as well as a couple of Kobashi vs Williams matches. 12/96 -- I haven't seen 6/4/94 -- This is a great match but I'd put tons of matches over it as like I explained on smarkschoice awhile back I don't care for the beginning of this too much. 12/96 -- haven't seen 11/92 -- I'm going to have to watch this again just to make sure because I know I like some matches over it. It is a great example of the passion of joshi which is something joshi wrestlers are great at portraying. If people like this I think they should also check out the Owen Hart/Basserb vs Viet Cong Express matches which are in many ways the equivalent of the strong charactaristics of this match here particulary the passion.

Hmmm, I'll play even though it's been awhile since I've seen the 11/92 tag. Out of these matches I'd go Kandori vs Hokuto Toyota/Yamada vs Kansai/Ozaki Misawa/Kobashi vs Kawada/Taue Misawa vs Kawada -- Don't believe I've seen 12/96.

That's just not right.

Benoit vs Booker was a lot of fun with the most believable near fall I have seen in a long, long, long, long time but it still wasn't on the level of match #2 of the series. That was a classic. I got shivers and I think I might've even been a little bit teary eyed when Benoit kicked out of the axe kick (Booker brawling, Sharmell lowblowing Benoit and Booker winning with the axe kick was exactly how Booker won the US title) so they must've been doing something right. Benoit is still in the game baby! It's not over yet.