Loss

Highlights of Lee winning the SMW title. Orndorff and DWB beat him up, even though he was already wrestling the match bandaged up. This did nothing for me. Surprised to see Bob Armstrong get physically involved so early on. Were we supposed to forget that?

I know there was a match around this time that went 74 matches in full, but they only showed 34 minutes. I am assuming that is this one. If so, I think that's a good case of JIP. I loved this, but considering they did three wrestler-in-peril segments within 35 minutes, I don't need to see them just keep trading off guys for double the time. The amount of time they showed was just right.

No need to worry about me, I'll be fine. I am going to return to all of this after all the yearbooks are out by the way.

This was spectacular. I think what's interesting about it on one hand is how much when people talk about All Japan six-mans, the first six-man I've always heard the most about has been the 7/2/93 six-man. I liked that match. This is so, so much better. Jumbo and friends heel it up quite a bit while Misawa and friends are put in positions to make great comebacks. You could really divide this match into three parts before the final stretch: * Misawa in peril * Taue in peril * Kawada in peril Of them all, I think I liked Misawa in peril the most. I'm not sure if that was because it was the *best* or just because it's not as often during this era that you see him in that position for an extended amount of time as it is that you see Kawada in that position. M/K/K do have fun working over Taue's knee though. After the (tremendous) triple pescados to the floor early on, you see Taue grabbing his knee. I wasn't really watching him on the apron, so I'm not sure if he was really selling the whole time. But I liked that Kawada seemed so eager to get in the match because he had the secret to bringing victory to his team. He ends up dragging Misawa to his corner and tagging himself in and goes right after Taue's knee. Keep in mind that this is several minutes later. So Kawada noticed something that either no one else on his team picked up or had the opportunity to capitalize on. I also like how Kawada and Kobashi are having too much fun working Taue's knee and Misawa is slow to come along, but eventually does. Another guy that I need to acknowledge is Jumbo. Jumbo doesn't make a big production of a lot of simple transition stuff where he is the one who comes out ahead because he doesn't have to. But he always makes sure to put it over strong when someone else does it to him. Case in point: Misawa cutting off his offensive flurries gets a big pop and he sells it big time. Toward the end of this match, he knocks Misawa outside the ring to clear things for Kawada and Taue to work the finish, and it's just another spot. It's really terrific timing to do something logical within a match that moves it in the direction it needs to go, but because it's not the story, he's able to execute it in a way where it doesn't take away from the Kawada/Taue finish. Kawada and Kobashi are also put over big by a few key kickouts where Misawa is isolated and they have to save themselves. This is one of the most "feel good" finishes I can recall in All Japan. All three members of Jumbo's team are being held in holds while Kawada has the stretch plum on Taue. Taue gets the superhuman kickout after the first time is broken up, then finally succumbs the second time to give Misawa, Kawada and Kobashi the win. I'm not sure I've seen too many other matches ever where this many people came out looking this good -- not just the winning side but also Taue for withstanding the knee attack for so long and holding on at the end when he was in the same position as Kawada and Kobashi and couldn't be rescued. Best AJ match so far without question.

Madusa threw Paul E.'s phone inside the cage, then Sting chased her back down. I was always annoyed by the way Paul E. played to the television cameras instead of the arena audience, in a way where he's very obviously acting/trying to be funny rather than enhancing the atmosphere, as you said. It takes me out of the moment. Here, he does it with the big map of the ring and their strategy, but the fake phone conversations have always been annoying to me too.

I'm with jdw. The ultimate test is Punk in the long term. The PPV buys for MITB and Summerslam are important now, but they shouldn't be treated as make-or-break by anyone. To create a legitimate star at this stage is going to take a long-term outlook and promotional backing that doesn't go up and down with week-to-week television ratings. 6-12 months from now is the true test. If WWE can't stick with this push that long regardless of the success or failure of these two PPVs, then this is doomed to fail. Simple as that.

I'm guessing most of his print subscribers are people in the business. I've often wondered if those people lurk at the board and if so, what they think.

After sitting on this a little while, I think the best way to describe this is wrestling taking place above a shark tank. Santo and Casas are doing the wrestling. Only instead of sharks surrounding the ring, it's FMW wrestlers brawling around the ring.

So pretty much everyone loves this match. It's a pretty established classic, and rightfully so. In an attempt to break down the match, I'm going to focus on each person in the match and what they brought to it: STING Sting was the top babyface. He had a title run where he was being booked competently, he had good opponents, he got a great crowd reaction. It's a shame that by the time the booking caught up to him, WCW was cold and not really in a good position to capitalize on it. Anyway, he's excellent in this match. There's the memorable spot where he climbs the cage and chases Madusa down, which I always liked. There's the really awesome press slam on Rude into the top of the cage. And I thought the spot with Nikita that was a call back to SuperBrawl I was really well done, and I'll talk more about that later. RICKY STEAMBOAT Steamboat was a man possessed during this time. He had become super aggressive thanks to the storyline. I remember Sports Review Wrestling magazine doing an article about how Steamboat should be ashamed of himself for losing his temper so much because he was rapidly not becoming Steamboat anymore. I made my thoughts known in other threads about the Rude/Steamboat feud. Rude whipping him with a belt is good. Accusing him of not being the family man he made himself out to be was a good idea to enhance the Rude feud until it became the centerpiece of it. But I really like this aggressive Steamboat. He's still selling a broken nose from a Rude attack. I enjoy the stereo DDTs on Austin and Rude when he entered the cage. After a strong start, he began to fade into the background, but he still delivered a strong performance. Every spot where he needed to be the center of attention, he executed very well. DUSTIN RHODES Dustin bled a gusher here. Like, a ridiculous amount. You could barely see his face. He worked really hard. I love when he cuts off Zbyszko's entry to the cage by getting in a slugfest with him that gets the crowd going and leaves Jim Ross speechless. I wish he could have spent more time in the match, but in this gimmick, and especially when you have a match full of guys who can go, someone has to go first, second, third, etc., so Dustin ended up in the spot he did. BARRY WINDHAM The #2 star of the match for me. I'll get to #1 later. I thought the first five minutes were the best first five minutes of War Games ever. Windham and Austin had the issue with the TV title, so it made sense for them to start. Windham dominates, and I'll talk more about Austin later. Settings like this are almost tailor made for Windham -- a little wrestling mixed in with a little brawling. Aside from Arn, he had probably worked more of these matches than anyone involved, so it made sense for him to go in early. Biting Austin's cut was crazy shit. NIKITA KOLOFF Didn't have to do much, but pulled off what he needed to do really well, which was ensure that he could be trusted and do the spot with Sting where he'd push him out of the way of an attack. Sting, because he's Sting, trusted him, although to his credit Nikita never made him look stupid for it. Anyway, he's the last guy in the ring and by that point, the match is already awesome, so not much for him to do. RICK RUDE Tremendous. Rude was at a career peak. The best Rude stuff is really about feeding babyfaces. Rude is amazing at setting up spots for babyfaces to shine. There's the Sting press slams. There's Sting and Steamboat trying to drive him through the middle of both rings. There's taking big bumps for Steamboat. Rude was the top heel in the company at this point and had his act really down. STEVE AUSTIN The best guy in this match. It's amazing how sometimes a new look can help a guy get to the next level, because Austin just really blossomed as a worker after chopping the bad hair. He's in the entire match for his team, is a bloody mess, takes crazy bumps, wrestles a super fast pace ... it may be the single best performance in the history of all War Games matches. I always love the back body drop into the cage spot. Sting's on Austin is tremendous. He's juicing within minutes of entering the cage and is thrown around like a ragdoll for most of this match. Gotta love the spot where Dustin sets him up for an atomic drop and his head bounces off the top of the cage. Not sure if that was planned or not, but give Austin credit either way. This is probably the first truly great performance of his career, and it's one of his best. ARN ANDERSON Arn is Mr. Reliable in this setting, much like Windham. The match wasn't really about Arn. I don't think most Arn matches were, for that matter. But he does everything he needs to do exactly how he needs to do it. The DDT and spinebuster look great when he first enters the cage, and he does typically fun Arn stuff that we've all seen before. LARRY ZBYSZKO Zbyszko, like Koloff, is there more for storyline than action. He pulls it off well. I'm not sure how I feel about dismantling the ring to this day. It may have been a slight overreach. My favorite Larry moment in this is probably the exchange with Dustin when Dustin first enters the cage. BOBBY EATON Kind of a non-factor. He was working hurt, or else he probably would have been motivated to give a great performance, as this seems like an environment where Eaton would have shined. But he really didn't. Not blaming him as much as stating a fact. I also think it would have been cool for Sting to debut some new submission on the arm for the finish instead of an armbar, but not doing so doesn't make the match worse or anything. Pretty sure this is the WCW MOTY. Has a strong cases as the WCW MOTD, and possibly the U.S. MOTD. There are some things I wish had been slightly different, but you can say that for pretty much every match ever.

Yes.

This is a great post, and I would love to hear Dave's response to all of it if the question was presented to him. He is as much set in his ways as the wrestling promoters he typically criticizes for being too set in their ways.

The match is a really brutal, spot-fu spectacle, which is what makes it hold up.

I remember Dave mentioning once that fans in Japan knew the score with this match. They had a rematch that I don't believe was televised -- we looked for it because we hoped to include it -- where I think Dave was there live and said the fans understood the storyline, so it had a unique heat about it.

I looked at it like juicing in this context. Wrestlers juice to get over the brutality of a match. Samurai wrestled with his mask torn to shreds around his neck to get over the brutality of the match. Liger kicked his ass.

One thing I will give Bryan credit for is that he has done a great job of making money in the Internet age by not really doing anything except putting his opinion out there . He doesn't really break news or do what Dave does, and now, he's just covering other topics because he can. It's impressive self promotion.

There's not really a style I haven't had exposure to, but there are hundreds if not thousands of matches that I want to see and never have. I will point out that I have never seen a match from Chikara or Osaka Pro.

They had a tendency to purposely under-promote shows that didn't feature Hogan most of the time, which I think was an attempt to make the Hogan shows even bigger.

I think jdw made the comparison between this and Piper/Hart once, which is apt. Both are babyface matches that are really well-scripted. I think this is the better wrestling match, while Piper/Hart has more heat and emotion.

Gilbert. When you work as hard as I do, mistakes occasionally happen.

What the FUCK? I know the story of this match, everyone does, but I haven't seen this in several years, and Good Lord. It's a hell of a match, but I felt bad for Iizuka. Scott was wrestling his normal physical style, but it looked like Rick was getting joy out of stiffing Iizuka. There is some seriously brutal matwork, headdrops and strikes in this. Give Iizuka credit for hanging in there despite being injured like this. Great match, but really beyond the pale. Someone should post Bruce Mitchell's column about this match if it's still out there.

Wow, nice match. Last time I watched this it did nothing for me, but it's held up really well. I wish they could have upped the aggression a little more, but as far as match layout and execution, this was really, really good. One of those matches that's easy to get lost in the shuffle and shouldn't -- everyone should see it.

"10,000 people will tell 10,000 lies." That's Savage's response to Gene Okerlund saying that Flair and Perfect have promised to unveil even more damaging information about Liz soon. Savage says titles are temporary so regardless of what the future brings, Flair should remember that "My WWF title was mine before it was yours!" GREAT line! This is really good.

It's early in the decade, but at this point, this is the best I've seen Choshu look in the 90s. I am unsure if I'd call it his best match, but it is my favorite performance from him. I love the early matwork because it has the feel of an old-style classic world title match, and Choshu really caught me off guard when he did the flying headscissors into the takedown out of nowhere. There's a really struggle and authenticity to the matwork that is rare. Muto falls short, but makes a strong showing, and the match just really hits the right note in Choshu winning but giving Muto just the right amount of offense. I'm guessing this is the highlight of Choshu's IWGP title run.

Once again, WHERE IS THE WAR GAMES BUILD UP? Good interview in spite of me not being a fan of this angle.

Ricky Steamboat is here to respond to all these allegations. Seriously, WHERE IS THE WAR GAMES BUILD UP? Steamboat is still healing from a broken nose at the hands of Rude. I understand what they were trying to do to enhance Steamboat/Rude, which was the hottest program in the company, but they almost drowned it in the extracurricular stuff.