Loss

I thought this was really, really good. There's lots to like and I think some people will find it really easy to get into. The only problem for me is not the way this match is worked, but more the amount of time it got. It should have been 10 minutes at the most. The punches and headbutts and mat wrestling are all pretty awesome, but after a while, I felt like I had seen everything they were going to do and there was no reason for the match to keep going.

This was pretty sad to watch. Yoko could still do a few good things, but for the most part, he was shot by this time. WAR obviously had no confidence in him to work a good match, because they take lots of shortcuts -- blood, interference, foreign objects -- in an attempt to disguise him. In fairness, he hadn't worked since November so he may have been rusty, but this is not the same guy who was the monster heel in the WWF in 1993 and was more than capable. In 1993, this match would have been worlds better. In 1995, Yokozuna takes a bump outside and someone has to put a chair on the ground so he can step on it to get back in since he's too big to roll under the bottom rope.

The '93 and '96 singles matches between Misawa and Kobashi have really disappointed me. I enjoyed Kawada/Kobashi and Misawa/Kawada both way more. But this was different. This is an incredibly stiff match with tons of great moves, and at this point, it's my favorite match I've seen between the two of them. I think I said regarding the 03/96 match that there are things Misawa and Kobashi can do that won't happen in a match with Kawada, and this is proof of that. Where I think this match is better is that they go all out and they tighten up the layout. It's 22 minutes of bomb throwing with both guys showing all their cards, and it's a great, mid-range MOTYC. To this point, it's my favorite All Japan match of the year.

You won't, although when the gauntlet concept starts in fall, you'll at least have that. Which WCW shows are you watching? Power Hour? Worldwide? Pro? Saturday Night?

Now you're knee deep in Ole Anderson booking. Ole brought in JYD, along with a few other guys like Buddy Landell and Paul Orndorff who were names a few years before this but hadn't meant anything in a while -- mainly because they worked cheap. It showed how out of it Ole was that he still thought race-baiting would draw this late. They got rid of Woman because they decided that they liked Missy Hyatt better, and the thought was that there wasn't room to get two women over at the same time. They wrote her out by suspending her over bringing a foreign object into the ring at Capital Combat.

Hogan and Savage have come to Nick Bockwinkel requesting for Ric Flair to be reinstated. Bockwinkel has to go to the ever present EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE and says they will vote next week.

Eaton shows up in a cheap suit and Regal is appalled. This supposedly takes place in "England", but it's clearly a soundstage. Regal decides to give him a makeover. Regal ordered for them and says he hopes Eaton likes beef, and he says yeah, cheeseburgers are great! Regal suggests a wine, and Eaton says Boone's Farm or Ripple would be great! Eaton puts his bib on his neck, which Regal calls him on, then he blows his nose while eating. Funny.

Dirty White Boy does a great hype job for the Bluegrass Brawl match coming up with Landell. Then, New Jack talks about the Undertaker at Bluegrass Brawl, which is good. I like Undertaker being around because it takes the focus of this feud off of race-race-race. Next is an interview with Al Snow & Unabomb, with Snow wearing a Rock & Roll Express t-shirt. Unabomb does the worst Robert Gibson impression ever (well maybe it's a little accurate) while Snow wears a long blond wig and plays Ricky Morton. They make fun of Robert Gibson's deaf mom, and Snow says Gibson is so cross-eyed that when he cries, the tears run down his back. Snow isn't really a great promo, but he's a guy who is clearly trying and he's far from bad. He's definitely putting things together. This definitely made me want to see a match with these guys.

Dundee is back out for an interview. He surprisingly stumps Lance Russell on who the youngest NWA World champ of all time was. He makes his intentions toward Tommy Rich clear when Rich interrupts. Rich doesn't like that Russell didn't know he was the youngest NWA champ ever. He then cuts quite the promo on Dundee and tries to challenge him to get into the ring. Dundee is too smart for this and won't get in the ring because he's afraid he's being led into a sneak attack. He finally goads Dundee in, but ends up taking off. I like smart babyface Dundee.

Wolfie comes out with his hair freshly cut after getting demulleted recently. Big improvement. He has the surprise return of JC Ice, wearing a neckbrace to sell a recent attack from Rich and Gilbert and promising revenge. They announce Dundee is with them now too, to help them even the odds and fight off Gorgeous George III and the Spellbinder. Dundee gives some fatherly advice about thinking with their hearts instead of their brains. I enjoyed this because it was plausible -- it's probably how a dad would react if all this were real. I don't count Cornette since he's in kind of a weird place, but PG-13 are the best babyface interviews in wrestling at this point.

This was the beginning of the weird angle where Jerry Lawler was accusing Bret of being a racist who hates Japanese people. Bret was being presented with an award by the Japanese media (no, not for hating Japanese people) and Hakushi attacked him after. The WWF ran two angles with Bret being accused of racism, so I guess Vince enjoyed poking fun at him over it. That, or this was a response to the "Japanese political groups" Dave mentioned for coming after the WWF for their stereotypical portrayal of Yokozuna.

Cactus says he has no idea what a charlatan is, but he's guessing it's not someone from North Carolina. Funk has targeted the two things that he's a little sensitive about -- criticism of his family, and criticism of his credentials in wrestling. He also responds to Funk's allegations that he hides behind the name Cactus Jack by saying his name is Mick Foley, he was born in Bloomington, IN, and he has no idea what New Mexico looks like. He cracks on Funk for doing a job for Patrick Swayze and even makes a Tequila and Bonetti reference! Great promo.

Terry Funk can't stand Cactus Jack's "flatulating family" ... okay then. Funk keeps coming up with all these things he wants to do to Cactus Jack -- castration, torture, vehicular homicide and probably other nefarious things I mentioned. He then switches gears and gets serious. He struggles for words a few times, but he's believable -- I'd rather see promos like that than promos where everyone seems to always have the perfectly crafted response in every scenario.

I'm terrible with this. It just took me 10 minutes, a Google search, looking through Rev Ray's book of moves and an IM conversation to figure out that a sitout powerbomb is a dynamic bomb. And until Bix explained it to me, I couldn't see how the niagara driver was any different. In the age of You Tube, I think it would be a worthwhile project for someone to transfer/update the book of moves and add some things to it. If something like this already exists, please point me to it.

I thought this match layout did a great job of putting Taue over strongly. The first 15 minutes of this are a stalemate, but a really great stalemate. It's less "My turn, your turn" and more that each guy is prepared for the best the other guy has to offer. Taue looks worlds better than he did in January, so I suspect jdw's theory is correct. One thing they establish early in the match that they continue to pay off is that even if Taue takes his lumps from Kobashi, he's insanely determined to overcome whatever Kobashi throws at him. I love how decisive the last 10 minutes are. Kobashi hangs on as long as he can, but Taue gets in three nodowas, a powerbomb outside the ring and then closes the deal with a dynamic bomb to seal the deal. I didn't see this as Kobashi dominating prior to the last few minutes as much as it being pretty even. Like I said, it was pretty compelling because it was well-worked and they were putting over familiarity and struggle.

Yay Carnival! I'm really looking forward to watching all of these matches. This was a war. They had 15 minutes and they went all out, throwing bombs and stiffing the shit out of each other the whole time. While Kawada understandably goes over, he gets quite a bit of offense on Kawada in the process. Considering that the last yearbook I watched was 1993, and the Kawada/Akiyama match on that didn't have Akiyama taking the fight to Kawada to the same extreme it did here, it put in perspective how much he progressed during those two years. I could go through all the spots they hit, but why bother? It is really impressive how much they packed into a fairly short match.

Apologies for this being way too long, but there's lots worth talking about. *** This was pretty awesome. What a match! The heightened sense of urgency surrounding the one-count stipulation makes for some superb drama, and because of the stip, I'm not sure I've ever seen a match where every single thing the wrestlers do has so much meaning and potential consequence. This match is a collection of strategies -- some successes and some failures -- that makes for a nice hypothetical. What if it only took a one count to win any wrestling match? Maybe wrestling would be more like this. The match starts with Dynamite Kansai and Sumiyo Toyama. Toyama is the ultimate, plucky underdog, so it's fitting that she is on the receiving end of an immediate clothesline and pin. This brings in Cutie Suzuki for the second part of the match. Kansai is still dominant, but she gives Suzuki come incredible close calls, including one off of a high-crossbody that nearly gives the crowd a heart attack. Surely Suzuki isn't about to beat Kansai, right? Well, suddenly she found something that works and she sticks with it. Kansai figures out what she's doing and is just too strong to go down. Finally, Kansai tries a powerbomb and Suzuki manages to get her in a sunset flip for the mother of all upsets. Kansai is ELIMINATED! One of my favorite things about this match is that it spotlights wrestlers who aren't featured on the yearbooks as much. I've seen plenty of Mayumi Ozaki and Dynamite Kansai, and a fair amount of Devil Masami. But the stars of this match -- by design -- are Candy Okutsu, Cutie Suzuki, Hikari Fukuoka and Hiromi Yagi. Speaking of Devil Masami, she's in next. The arena is still buzzing over the Kansai loss, and Devil is awesome. She is suddenly the vet who has wrestled everyone and seen it all, and she has this "I got this!" look on her face. Suzuki tries to circle her and Devil just casually stalks her before slapping her in the face and slowing down the pace considerably. She tries a cross armbreaker, but Cutie hangs on. She then tries a powerbomb, but Cutie still hangs on. Now, Masami is very visibly pissed off because she thought she had outsmarted the whole match concept and she hasn't. In frustration, she goes to the top and misses a butt drop, but lucky for her, Suzuki is still worse for wear. While Devil is still focused on keeping things slow, she ends up eating a surprise headscissors over the top rope. Now she's really pissed and starts dragging Suzuki through the crowd. She attempts a press slam on the upper level, but Cutie manuevers her way out, pushes her to the lower level, then catches her with a high knee! At this point, they have been out of the ring a long time. Devil knows she can't beat Suzuki so she goes for the next best thing. She decides that if she's going down, she's taking Suzuki with her and grabs her leg so they're both counted out. Tremendous stuff. So now we have Candy Okutsu and Hiromi Yagi in the ring. She's down two teammates, and their approaches haven't worked, so maybe chain wrestling will? All of the counters have a higher sense of urgency because Yagi keeps trying to wrestle Candy into a position where she's on her shoulders and Candy manages to get away at the last second. Finally, Candy gets in a giant swing and Yagi is out! Now, Hikari Fukuoka realizes she is the team's only hope, so she's incredibly cautious. We get the mother of all collar and elbow tie ups. Candy is still confident about her win over Yagi in the previous round and Fukuoka manages to catch her off guard. She misses a second moonsault after hitting the first one, Fukuoka gets her in a rolling cradle and now she's evened the odds. Candy is out. Finally we're down to Fukuoka against Mayumi Ozaki. If Ozaki loses, her team loses the match, but if she can beat Fukuoka, they'll at least have a tie. Truth be told, this is probably the least interesting part of the match, although I do enjoy Fukuoka's cartwheel-induced offense really throwing Ozaki off her game. Finally, Ozaki manages to get the win and we have a tie. Now it's a regular tag with everyone involved. The first team to score a one-count wins. Kansai's team immediately targets Toyama because she was such an easy pin, and there are all sorts of payback spots in this part of the match based on earlier falls. Candy at one point tries a giant swing on Kansai in what would have been the most heroic part of the match had she pulled it off. Toyama throws everything she has at Kansai and nothing makes a difference. But she ends up surprising Masami, who again is taking her lightly. Again, the point is being made that Devil Masami has been her own worst enemy in this match because she seems to be underestimating everyone on the other side. This attitude allows Suzuki to get the best of her for a while too, until she finally puts her game face on and starts a team building activity that I hope we never do at work -- everyone takes turns doing the giant swing on Suzuki. No one is having any luck with Kansai, so Oz comes in. She's not a guarantee either, but she's the only one who stands a chance. We quickly realize that isn't going to work and after a few other pairings, we end with Yagi avenging the loss from Candy earlier. But it literally takes everything she has in her arsenal to make it happen, so in doing the job, Candy was probably put over more strongly than anyone in the match. Great finish! I'm probably the only person in the world who thinks this, but I enjoyed this more than Thunderqueen. The one-count stipulation opened up more possibilities and they leveraged the idea pretty cleverly. I think this would make a good comparison to the epic 5 x 5 match from 1984 New Japan. I don't think I'd have this one quite at that level, but it's not a significant gap. Choosing between this and the January tag feels like choosing between children, so we'll see how I feel about that later. For now, this is a classic match, and the only 1995 match so far that even compares to it is the January AJW tag.

Bret was already a wrestler without a gimmick years before he was champion, though. Diesel was a new star created during the era that was humanized. Bret being pushed on top was a departure from the norm in itself, but they went farther from their usual style than people typically remember. That's my point.

I see your point. It does tie in in some ways because I think it was beginning of a period where the WWF primarily booked for its hardcore audience for the most part. My point is tied more to having announcers discuss the impact of holds, wrestlers talking strategy in their interviews, and the angles being a lot more toned down and even subtle at times. Diesel was humanized, and Vince was never really a fan of humanizing his top guys. Unless being a family man was part of the gimmick, how often do you hear it mentioned that someone has a wife and kids at home, or that their gimmick name is not actually their real name (Not in a RUSSO SHOOT way, in a "let's help the audience get to know this guy" way). There are also things like the RAW that was an episode of upsets (1-2-3 Kid and Jannetty beating Razor and Michaels), and the Crush turn on Savage, which were pretty Memphis-influenced, and then you have the Steiners/Money Inc feud with all the back-to-back title changes on house shows, which is something that usually doesn't appeal to casual fans because it's too hard to follow, even if hardcores love it. The Crush angle in particular has quite a few Memphis staples, and it's not usually how Vince books heel turns. Crush comes out to announce his turn and Savage comes out to try to reason with him. They have a long conversation. Other heels are in the background. Savage suggests going to the back to talk things out (which happens ALL THE TIME in Memphis angles), then gets jumped. The Bam Bam/LT feud didn't feel like territory booking to me as much as it felt like WWWF booking -- not because Vince Sr. was known for football vs wrestler angles, but more because Vince's announcing style was more the late 70s/early 80s Vince announcing style and not the bombastic "I'm-in-a-rhythm-with-Jesse-Ventura" stuff that we had grown to expect.

I actually meant for the intention of this thread to be more about the booking philosophy and overall presentation of the WWF as more serious (or at times booked more like a territory) than specific booking decisions that were made. I hope that makes sense. Would it be possible to steer this thread back in that direction?

Yuki IS Sakie Hasegawa Pretty much. Hasegawa has great facial expressions and body language. This getup neutralizes both of those things.

Sakie Hasegawa may be the most likable wrestler in Joshi. This match misses her. There's not much inherently wrong with this match, but Hasegawa is such a good babyface, and Takako in particular plays off of her so well, that I can't help but compare that match to this one. The lack of Hasegawa to play off of makes Takako less interesting, even though she is still excellent. I thought the match layout hurt this one too. Blizzard Yuki, who I had never seen in another match -- is completely useless for the first half of this and doesn't get in a single bit of offense. She also doesn't sell in a compelling way that adds to the match, so it just feels like the Inoues running through their spots, of which there are admittedly quite a few. When Toyota finally makes it in the ring, she doesn't fare much better, so the point being made is that Kyoko and Takako are too good of a team to get much of a challenge from a makeshift pair of wrestlers. Kyoko gives Toyota maybe the most insane giant swing I have ever seen for its sheer speed, even though it didn't last very long.Toyota can't beat them with just anyone on her side. Great drama in the last few minutes, but I don't see this as much more than a solid match, and it's not something I would have pushed to make this set had I watched everything in advance. YMMV.

HIV/AIDS fundraiser featuring Magic Johnson and most of the WWF top guys. Magic Johnson mentions that he used to play basketball with Diesel???

Always fun seeing wrestlers cut promos on Jack Tunney. Razor is not happy about the Jarrett/Backlund match for the IC title right before Wrestlemania possibly taking his shot away. Now I see why Scott Hall stayed away from angry wrestling promos.

During the period when WWF wrestlers were doing Slim Jim commercials after Savage jumped. Not sure when/how they finally worked things out to get Savage doing the commercials again, but they did.