World's Worst Man

Shinsuke Nakamura. I doubt it happens, but it should.

That Almas-Alexander match, plz NXT. 1. Crowd favourite Cedric Alexander is nearing a victory and gets fired up 2. Low blow by Almas 3. Roll-up with a handful of tights for the 1-2-3 4. ??? 5. Profit. Such a perfect opportunity to turn Almas, who clearly isn't working as a face. Damn.

I'll throw in George Takano & Riki Choshu vs. Tiger Mask & Genichiro Tenryu from the February 10 1990 cross-promotion Dome Show. One of those salty, scrappy, uncooperative matches with insane heat thanks to Choshu and Tenryu.

Agreed on Dar. He's awkward and he actually kind of sucks. No idea at all why the WWE is interested in him. The Perkins-Swann match was alright. Swann wasn't embarrassing this time and I kind of liked the "friends mocking each other" bit. There's something sterile about Perkins though. He's not bad, he just doesn't seem totally natural.

Kenny Omega vs. Kazuchika Okada 1/4/2017 ****3/4 Tommaso Ciampa & Johnny Gargano vs. The Revival 11/19/2016 ****3/4 Kota Ibushi vs. Shinsuke Nakamura 1/4/2015 ****3/4 Kenta Kobashi & Go Shiosaki vs. Kensuke Sasaki & Katsuhiko Nakajima 11/5/2005 ****3/4 CM Punk vs. Samoe Joe 10/16/2004 ****3/4 Kenta Kobashi vs Toshiaki Kawada 6/12/1998 ****3/4 Toshiaki Kawada & Akira Taue vs Mitsuharu Misawa & Jun Akiyama 12/5/1997 ****3/4 Kenta Kobashi vs Mitsuharu Misawa 10/21/1997 ***** Bret Hart vs. Stone Cold Steve Austin 3/23/1997 ****3/4 Jushin Liger vs. Shinjiro Otani 2/9/1997 ****3/4 Kenta Kobashi vs Mitsuharu Misawa 1/20/1997 ***** Toshiaki Kawada & Akira Taue vs Mitsuharu Misawa & Jun Akiyama 12/6/1996 ***** El Samurai vs. Shinjiro Otani 1/21/1996 ****3/4 Akira Taue & Toshiaki Kawada vs Kenta Kobashi & Mitsuharu Misawa 6/9/1995 ***** Toshiaki Kawada vs. Kenta Kobashi 1/19/1995 ****3/4 Mitsuharu Misawa vs Toshiaki Kawada 6/3/1994 ***** Mitsuharu Misawa & Kenta Kobashi vs Akira Taue & Toshiaki Kawada 5/21/1994 ****3/4 Stan Hansen vs. Kenta Kobashi 4/10/1994 ****3/4 Aja Kong vs Yumiko Hotta 1/24/1994 ****3/4 Mitsuharu Misawa & Kenta Kobashi vs Toshiaki Kawada & Akira Taue 12/3/1993 ***** Stan Hansen vs Kenta Kobashi 7/29/1993 ****3/4 Toshiyo Yamada & Manami Toyota vs. Dynamite Kansai & Mayumi Ozaki 4/11/1993 ****3/4 Akira Hokuto vs. Shinobu Kandori 4/2/1993 ***** Manami Toyota & Toshiyo Yamada vs Dynamite Kansai & Mayumi Ozaki 11/26/1992 ****3/4 Mitsuharu Misawa/Toshiaki Kawada vs. Jumbo Tsuruta/Akira Taue 11/29/1991 ****3/4 Mitsuharu Misawa, Toshiaki Kawada, Kenta Kobashi vs. Jumbo Tsuruta, Akira Taue, Masa Fuchi 4/20/1991 ****3/4 Jumbo Tsuruta vs Mitsuharu Misawa 4/18/1991 ***** Genichiro Tenryu vs. Jumbo Tsuruta 6/5/1989 ****3/4 Ric Flair vs. Ricky Steamboat 5/7/1989 ****3/4 Ricky Steamboat vs. Ric Flair 2/20/1989 ****3/4 Stan Hansen & Terry Gordy vs Genichiro Tenryu & Toshiaki Kawada 12/16/1988 ****3/4 I'm a stingy son of a bitch apparently. Awesome work with the YouTube playlist. I'm grabbing a bunch of those as we speak. Updated May 11 2018.

Rhyno was incredible there. The long, nonchalant shoulder shrug is my kind of humour.

Gargano's leg selling was good. It seemed to mostly be related to the big strikes they were hitting yet not selling at all 5 seconds later. You're right though, I don't think this is anything new, I just seem to be noticing it a lot more lately. Or maybe I'm just watching more modern wrestling lately.

That Gargano/Perkins match, man. I know they're trying to get their shit into a shortish match, but the selling was just abysmal. Get hit by a big kick with a loud slap sound effect? Better pretend like nothing happened 5 seconds later. It's not even just them, Swann/Dorado was pretty crummy too. Actually, Swann just seems like the shits in general, I've been very unimpressed.Crap selling, ridiculous facials, bleh.

1985 - Chigusa Nagayo vs. Devil Masami 8/22 1986 - Akira Maeda/Yoshiaki Fujiwara/Osamu Kido/Nobuhiko Takada/Kazuo Yamazaki vs. Antonio Inoki/Tatsumi Fujinami/Kengo Kimura/Umanosuke Ueda/Kantaro Hoshino 3/26 1987 - Ric Flair vs. Barry Windham 1/20 1988 - Stan Hansen & Terry Gordy vs Genichiro Tenryu & Toshiaki Kawada 12/16 1989 - Genichiro Tenryu vs. Jumbo Tsuruta 6/5 1990 - Mitsuharu Misawa vs. Jumbo Tsuruta 9/1 1991 - Jumbo Tsuruta vs Toshiaki Kawada 10/24 1992 - Manami Toyota & Toshiyo Yamada vs Dynamite Kansai & Mayumi Ozaki 11/26 1993 - Stan Hansen vs Kenta Kobashi 7/29 (Sorry Akira and Shinobu) 1994 - Mitsuharu Misawa vs Toshiaki Kawada 6/3 1995 - Akira Taue & Toshiaki Kawada vs Kenta Kobashi & Mitsuharu Misawa 6/9 1996 - Toshiaki Kawada & Akira Taue vs Mitsuharu Misawa & Jun Akiyama 12/6 1997 - Kenta Kobashi vs Mitsuharu Misawa 1/20 1998 - Kenta Kobashi vs Toshiaki Kawada 6/12 1999 - Mitsuharu Misawa vs Kenta Kobashi 6/11 2000 - Kenta Kobashi vs Jun Akiyama 12/23 2001 - Jushin Liger vs. Minoru Tanaka 6/4 2002 - Masayuki Naruse & El Samurai vs. Tsuyoshi Kikuchi & Yoshinobu Kanemaru 9/23 2003 - Hiroyoshi Tenzan vs. Jun Akiyama 8/17 2004 - CM Punk vs. Samoe Joe 10/16 2005 - Kenta Kobashi & Go Shiosaki vs. Kensuke Sasaki & Katsuhiko Nakajima 11/5 2006 - Samoa Joe vs. Bryan Danielson 8/5 2015 - Kota Ibushi vs. Shinsuke Nakamura 1/4 2016 - Tomohiro Ishii vs. Kazuchika Okada 8/6 I really need a compilation of MOTYCs from 2007-2014.

Nakamura vs. Joe was a slow build using a lot of submissions and strikes and the crowd didn't seem that into it until Joe took that insane release German. I really liked the match, but I thought they were going to do something different with the finish. I was half-expecting something like a referee stoppage on Joe to build into the "management is screwing me" stuff while managing to get the belt on Nakamura and lead to a rematch at the next big show. As it is, the win was pretty decisive so it seems like those two are done together. Bayley vs. Asuka was pretty good although the botch did hurt the match quite a bit I thought. Bayley should not have gone right back to the same spot, which was again botched but at least salvaged. The problem was that Asuka basically no-sold it and went right into the rear naked choke which didn't really work at all. I wasn't that into the tag match until they did the extended FIP sequence, but after that it was off the charts. I'm loving Ciampa and Gargano now, they really have the "big brother, little brother" thing down. It's gonna be sad when big brother gets fed up with little brother and kicks the shit out of him.

I'd say Joe is acting like an entitled little bitch. Did he not lose two title changes to Finn yet was still given more shots? Whereas Nakamura has been tearing shit up and clearly deserves to be the #1 contender. I think it's been a pretty good build. Nakamura has been brilliant in his taunting of Joe, whom in his turn has been great being the on-tilt, salty as fuck entitled champion.

Senseless double selling is something I've been noticing a lot in the stuff I've been watching lately. A guy is in control, hasn't been hit by anything recently, hits a move and they both sell. The double selling should be used during a transition, but it seems like in a lot of cases it's just another shortcut used to create drama.

I'll throw the Hashimoto vs. Yamazaki 1998 G1 final in there.

Vader vs. Takada from August 1994.

I will second that 10-man from 3/26/86

I'll second Hansen vs. Kobashi 7/29/93

You want booing from AJPW crowds? Try Akira Taue circa '91-92.

This kind of hits upon my feelings. If there's a 30 minute match where 20 of it is kind of a boring "feeling out process" of unfocused matwork and it doesn't really "get into the next gear" until the final 10 minutes, why should I automatically hold it in higher regard than a great 10 minute match that is all out action? I realize that guys can't go all out for 30 minutes, but some matches are legitimately interesting and engaging for 15+ minutes while others pretty much only have the final stretch. So if I am judging that kind of match against a shorter match that's interesting the whole time, I'm not going to punish the short match. More likely I'd punish the long one for boring me for 20 minutes before giving me an awesome 10 minute match. I'd argue that the "20 minutes of boring work, 10 minutes of great work" wouldn't classify as a great match. A more accrurate comparison might be a match with an "average" first 20 minutes and a great last 10 minutes. I would probably think this was better than a great 10 minute match just due to the epic feeling one gets while watching a longer match.

Is a great 10 minute match as good as a great 25 minute match? I would say no. Having a well worked opening portion, a well worked middle portion and a well worked stretch run seems better than just any one of the three. Most of the really good short matches I've seen have felt like the stretch run of an otherwise great match. The problem is, a lot of good stuff happens in the earlier portions of a great 30 minute match and that is missing in those short sprints.

How late did the NJ Classics series get? It'd be nice to see some of the 98-99 Juniors stuff in full.

My first reaction to the main event was that it didn't hold a candle to their two big matches from 2012 or the Naito/Okada match either. I think it went too long for what these two bring to the table. Okada seemed to stall after every bit of offense in the early-mid portions of the match. The drama they built around the rainmaker lariat and the frog splash were good, but I can't think of anything else that stood out positively. Okada started selling his leg after almost no offense towards it. Then once Tanahashi did start focusing on it, Okada does his drop kick twice late in the match. Made no sense. The show was very solid, but a huge disappointment after hearing how much positive feedback it received.

Is it a cop-out to say any big Joshi show from 1992-1995? Some of these cards had two MOTYCs with the rest of the card being filled out with good-very good stuff. Dream Rush would be one example, with the classic Toyota/Yamada vs. Kansai/Ozaki tag match, a very good Bull vs. Aja match and a great Kyoko Inoue vs. Hokuto match. The NJ dome show wasn't bad, with 3 matches I'd say were good or very good, but that's about it.

Muto actually did 3 dragon screws and it didn't seem excessive really. The match made it rather apparent that Kojima and possibly Ohtani were the only ones able/willing to work though. The junior three-way was a decent spot fest. They set everything up fairly well and there were a couple neat spots, like the aforementioned top rope rana. The selling was generally good too, but this was nothing you'd watch again. The IWGP tag defence was completely rushed, which is a shame because they did a good job with the time given. Good heat segments on the Goto/Anderson team but when it's like 6 minutes into the match it's hard to buy it as an epic. Everything on the card has actually felt rushed so far, outside of the Nagata/Suzuki match. It's odd considering I'm 3 hours into the show with 3 matches left. It reminds me why I stopped watching full shows and stuck to watching the "important" stuff.

When I saw people comparing him to the AJPW group I thought it was crazy at first, just comparing the amount of super high end stuff that a Kobashi or Misawa produced as opposed to Hashimoto. But I think a lot of that has to do with the AJPW style being more conducive towards high end matches. I think after looking at the individual performances that Hashimoto absolutely belongs in the discussion with the AJPW crew, even though I'd say he produced many less high-end matches. Hashimoto had some brilliant performances in matches that were not "laid out" to be all-time classics. One example would be the Hashimoto-Yamazaki match from G1 98 in which both guys were absolutely incredible but the match as a whole didn't end up as good as the best Misawa/Kawada/Kobashi stuff. So yea, Hashimoto was pretty damn great, even if he doesn't have the amount of super high-end stuff that the AJPW guys were churning out.

I just watched this from the Hashimoto DVD set. I can't say I was too high on the match. I didn't like that the limb work went nowhere and nothing they did early had any effect on the later stages of the match (the german/dragon suplex tease never went anywhere for example). I wasn't a fan of the finish either, with Muto hitting a moonsault for a near fall and then immediately hitting another one for the win. It was still a really good match with some great selling and drama but not as good as I think it could have been.