Graham Crackers

I'm always glad to find someone else who likes that match.

We can agree they're all better than Dean, right?

Carl is the best Malenko.

When watching stuff for Ditch's 2000s project I found myself wondering if Tenzan or Kojima was the better half of their team. Then I realized that was like determining which turd was shinier.

If people want to tout the "variety" in Jumbo's resume they need to try Tenryu's oeuvre. Tenryu's wrestled NWA champs, AJPW regulars, New Japan wrestlers, Hulk Hogan, martial artists, brawlers, deathmatch freaks, and luchadores. He's also made his act work in every one of those settings.

Agreed. I keep meaning to figure out what lucha trios need to be nominated. Maybe I'll get to that before the weekend is over.

First instinct was Hart but then I remembered how much I liked Hennig on the AWA set. I don't think Hart has ever had a match as good as the Hennig/Bock Broadway, the heel turn against Bock, or the Hansen match. I really need to watch that Portland stuff. I'll come back to this.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JmhPQhCV9LY Seems relevent. Get a load of that baby's name.

The first two that pop into my head are the Dutch Mantell vs Jerry Lawler match where Dutch challenges Jerry to a spur of the moment Loser Leaves Town match and the Bill Dundee handicap match where he uses stalling as a babyface tactic and keeps asking Lance how much time is left on the clock.

I'm imagining he whispers "Crushed leaves..."

The Onita/Aoyagi feud is one of the greatest in wrestling history and if it was the only thing he did we'd probably still be talking about him. Some people do act like it's the only thing he ever did but he has had a decent length career with other good performances albeit under the radar. I really like him in NOAH, especially in his match against Tsuyoshi Kikuchi. I've got a soft spot for the old NOAH midcard though. I'm aware that he also wrestled in New Japan and WAR so I'd like to dig into that stuff too.

I'm under the impression he didn't get a lot of opportunities in the 80s but I remember loving Genichiro Tenryu & Samson Fuyuki vs Great Kabuki & Takashi Ishikawa AJPW 2/20/1988. He's also in the really good Tenryu vs Choshu 6 man tag from 1/10/1985.

Man, 2010 IWRG and FUTEN were the last runs that made me really excited about wrestling. I think Terry, Navarro, Dr. Cerebro, and Trauma II are all gonna make my list. Maybe Chico Che?

Everyone knows this was Wile E. Coyote's greatest feud, before Road Runner ever buried him.

The Saito vs Honda match from 2003 is the first one that jumps out to me.

I don't really assign star ratings but the matches that, to me, are obvious classics are as follows: Gilbert Cesca vs Billy Cantanzarro 1960s? Jim Breaks vs Adrian Street 2/12/1972 Gypsy Joe vs Mighty Inoue 4/27/1977 Jerry Lawler vs Terry Funk (Empty Arena Match) 4/6/1981 Andre the Giant vs Stan Hansen 9/23/1981 Jerry Lawler vs Dutch Mantell (Barbed Wire Match) 3/29/1982 Tatsumi Fujinami vs Riki Choshu 4/21/1983 Nick Bockwinkel vs Wahoo MCDaniel (No DQ) 8/28/1983 MS-1 vs Sangre Chicana (Hair vs Hair) 9/23/1983 Mocho Cota vs Americo Rocca 1/27/1984 Cadetes del Espacio vs Exoticos 2/24/1984 NJPW vs Choshu and his pals (Gauntlet Match) 4/19/1984 Gran Cochisse vs Satanico 9/14/1984 Yoshiaki Fujiwara vs Super Tiger 12/5/1984 Yoshiaki Fujiwara vs Super Tiger 9/11/1985 Jim Duggan vs Buzz Sawyer 11/11/1985 Jerry Lawler vs Bill Dundee (Loser Leaves Town) 12/30/1985 Akira Maeda vs Yoshiaki Fujiwara 1/10/1986 Jumbo Tsuruta & Genichiro Tenryu vs Riki Choshu & Yoshiaki Yatsu 1/28/1986 Akira Maeda vs Yoshiaki Fujiwara 2/5/1986 Antonio Inoki vs Yoshiaki Fujiwra 2/6/1986 Perro Aguayo vs Sangre Chicana (Hair vs Hair) 2/28/1986 NJPW vs UWF (Elimination match) 3/26/1986 La Fiera vs Babe Face (Hair vs Hair) 8/15/1986 Hijo del Santo vs Espanto Jr (Mask vs Mask) 8/31/1986 Yoshiaki Fujiwara vs Riki Choshu 6/9/1987 Bucaneros vs Atlantis, Angel Azteca & Ringo Mendoza 3/1988 Genichiro Tenryu & Toshiaki Kawada vs Stan Hansen & Terry Gordy 12/16/1988 Sangre Chicana vs Satanico 5/26/1989 Jumbo Tsuruta vs Genichiro Tenry 6/5/1989 Emilio Charles Jr, Fabuloso Blondy & Pirata Morgan vs El Dandy, Atlantis & El Faraon 7/21/1989 Ric Flair vs Terry Funk 7/23/1989 Yoshiaki Fujiwara vs Kazuo Yamazaki 7/24/1989 Masakatsu Funaki vs Tatsuo Nakano 7/24/1989 Akira Maeda vs Yoshiaki Fujiwara 8/13/1989 Super Astro, Atlantis & El Faraon vs Fuerza Guerrera, Blue Panther & Emilio Charles Jr 8/18/1989 Los Brazos vs Los Bucaneros (Super Libre) 11/10/1989 Angel Azteca vs El Dandy 6/1/1990 Akira Maeda vs Masakatsu Funaki 10/25/1990 Mitsuharu Misawa, Toshiaki Kawada & Kenta Kobashi vs Jumbo Tsuruta, Akira Taue & Masa Fuchi 4/20/1991 Wayne Shamrock vs Naoki Sano 5/19/1991 Blue Panther vs Atlantis 8/9/1991 Los Brazos vs Los Infernales 11/22/1991 Trio Fantasia vs Los Thundercats (Masks vs Masks) 12/8/1991 Hijo Del Santo vs Espanto Jr 5/14/1992 Ricky Steamboat vs Rick Rude 6/20/1992 El Dandy vs Negro Casas 7/5/1992 Vader vs Sting (Strap Match) 2/21/1993 Genichiro Tenryu vs Shinya Hashimoto 8/8/1993 Mitsuharu Misawa vs Toshiaki Kawada 6/3/1994 Mitsuharu Misawa vs Akira Taue 4/15/1995 Mitsuharu Misawa & Kenta Kobashi vs Toshiaki Kawada & Akira Taue 6/9/1995 Mitsuharu Misawa vs Toshiaki Kawada 7/24/1995 Mitsuharu Misawa & Jun Akiyama vs Toshiaki Kawada & Akira Taue 12/6/1996 Hijo Del Santo vs El Dandy vs Negro Casas (Mask vs Hair vs Hair) 12/6/1996 Mitsuharu Misawa vs Kenta Kobashi 1/20/1997 Volk Han vs Kiyoshi Tamura 1/22/1997 Hijo Del Santo vs Negro Casas (Hair vs Mask) 9/19/1997 Bracito de Oro, Cicloncito Hernandez & Mascarita Magica vs Damiancito El Guerrero, El Fierito & Pierrothito 10/3/1997 Kiyoshi Tamura vs Tsuyoshi Kohsaka 6/27/1998 Mitsuharu Misawa vs Jun Akiyama 2/27/2000 Atlantis vs Villano III (Mask vs Mask) 3/17/2000 Kenta Kobashi vs Tamon Honda 4/13/2003 Kenta Kobashi vs Yoshinari Ogawa 11/1/2003 Kiyoshi Tamura vs Tsuyoshi Kohsaka 2/4/2004 Eddie Guerrero vs JBL 5/16/2004 Kiyoshi Tamura vs Hiroyuki Ito 8/18/2004 Misioneros De La Muerte vs Cadetes del Espacio 2/10/2005 Necro Butcher vs Samoa Joe 6/11/2005 Tatsumi Fujinami vs Osamu Nishimura 9/25/2006 Yuki Ishikawa vs Carl Greco 6/9/2008 Yuki Ishikawa, Alexander Otsuka & Munenori Sawa vs Daisuke Ikeda, Katsumi Usuda & Super Tiger II (Elimination Match) 7/26/2008 Makotot Hashi & Kengo Mashimo vs Daisuke Ikeda & Takahiro Oba 10/24/2010 Virus vs Guerrero Maya Jr 6/7/2011 John Cena vs Brock Lesnar 4/29/2012

If we're doing evil karate guys who fought Onita then I nominate Masashi Aoyagi. Segunda Caida reviewed a bunch of Aoyagi over the years as seen here: http://segundacaida.blogspot.com/search?q=aoyagi

I love Goto. Not sure if he has enough meat to make my ballot but I guess it's possible. That wild tag from 1990 is possibly my favorite FMW match. You know, the one with Dragonmaster and Kurisu wildly throwing chairs around trying to kill Goto and Onita, ending with Onita weeping and calling out Goto's name. He's also the best worker in the 12/12/93 Mpro vs FMW tag which is so demented and sleazy and wonderful.

Favourite style of wrestling? Lucha, shoot style, Battlarts, classic New Japan, and a great American brawling. It's impossible to pick one. Favourite way wrestling is presented? Either Memphis style TV building to big arena shows or New Japan/EMLL style sports TV with storylines being carried out during matches. Favourite type of match? Tag or trios match with a bunch of characters. Favourite gimmick match? Mask vs Mask Favourite wrestler? No idea. Favourite match? Uh, Fujiwara vs Yamazaki from 89, the big New Japan vs UWF elimination match, Santo vs Espanto, Dutch vs Lawler, 6/9/95, Atlantis vs Villano III, Casas vs Dandy, Satanico vs Gran Cochisse, our something else I'm forgetting. Favourite feud? Lawler vs Mantell or New Japan vs UWF Favourite angle? Inoki kicks Fujiwara in the balls and the UWF and New Japan locker rooms brawl. Favourite promotion/period of wrestling? New Japan 1986 and 1989-1990 EMLL Little things that happen in wrestling that you always love? Wrestlers giving their all in matches they lose.

There are few things in wrestling I hate more than that moment in a long match where the wrestlers run out of steam/ideas and it falls apart. Like the last 10 minutes of your average Broadway.

I'm glad to see this. I'm new to Atlantis and lucha in general. I've just finished watching him vs Satanico and was about to post a rant about how Atlantis' constant need for crowd approval and his awful backyarder selling stopped a good match from being fairly great. I hope he turns me round cos I kinda hate him at the moment. You're gonna HATE that El Faraón match.

I love everybody talking about their dads marking out. When I talk wrestling with my dad all he wants to talk about were his favorites from when he was a kid in the 50s but he has occasionally enjoyed the wrestling I've shown him. He was really into a Tenryu vs Anjoh match I was watching and flipped out when Tenryu was finally able to land a punch. Now he asks me about Tenryu all the time.

I wish I was a little more familiar with New Japan in the 90s but I'll still say that they had so much variety during that era that even in weaker years there'd always be a few things to look forward to. I hate Mutoh and Chono too but Hashimoto is out of this world great. The interpromotional feuds are awesome, particularly NJPW vs WAR which also leads to Tenryu being part of the main event scene for much of the decade.

I'm partial to ECW champion Vince and his "mental breakdown" after losing the title.

Guys using boxing movements when brawling.