Loss

The Japanese and American styles also have a lot more in common than the American and Lucha styles.

This is long and boring. I don't think the BattlARTS stuff came into its own for another year or two, as most of the praise I hear is for '98-'01 matches. Ikeda and Ishikawa both have awesome kicks, but that's not really a revelation. Nice finish.

I'm not sure who would want to see that, or why a pregnant woman would be in the ring.

Kind of a boring one, as most of this is Joey Styles hyping an October 26 show. There's also a Shane Douglas promo in the shower and the Eliminators (who it seems like now that the year is starting to wind down get a disproportionate amount of face time on these things). This is basically an old local house show-style promotional thing with inserts, with the Pulp Fiction music playing in the background. Joey Styles as announcer doesn't age well, as he tried so hard to be clever that he really wasn't.

Revised to include September: #1 - Megumi Kudo vs Combat Toyota (FMW 05/05/96) #2 - Mitsuharu Misawa & Jun Akiyama vs Toshiaki Kawada & Akira Taue (AJPW 07/09/96) #3 - El Hijo del Santo & Atlantis & El Dandy & Lizmark vs Blue Panther & Felino & Dr Wagner Jr & Negro Casas (CMLL 03/15/96) #4 - Shinjiro Otani vs El Samurai (NJPW 01/21/96) #5 - Wild Pegasus vs Black Tiger (NJPW 06/11/96) #6 - Volk Han vs Tsuyoshi Kohsaka (RINGS 08/24/96) #7 - Ultimo Dragon vs Shinjiro Otani (NJPW J*Crown 08/05/96) #8 - Shawn Michaels vs Mankind (WWF Mind Games 09/22/96) #9 - Stan Hansen vs Kenta Kobashi (AJPW 09/05/96) #10 - Kenta Kobashi vs Akira Taue (AJPW 07/24/96) #11 - Aja Kong vs Kyoko Inoue (AJW 08/30/96) #12 - Rey Misterio Jr & Ultimo Dragon vs Heavy Metal & Psicosis (World Wrestling Peace Festival 06/01/96) #13 - Mitsuharu Misawa & Jun Akiyama vs Steve Williams & Johnny Ace (AJPW 09/05/96) #14 - Dynamite Kansai & Kanako Motoya vs Mayumi Ozaki & Reiko Amano (JWP 06/16/96) #15 - Mitsuharu Misawa & Jun Akiyama vs Steve Williams & Johnny Ace (AJPW 06/07/96) #16 - Nobuhiko Takada vs Genichiro Tenryu (UWFI 09/11/96) #17 - Mayumi Ozaki vs Takako Inoue (JWP 05/18/96) #18 - Steve Williams vs Akira Taue (AJPW 04/20/96) #19 - Manami Toyota & Mima Shimoda vs Mariko Yoshida & Kaoru Ito (AJW 09/28/96) #20 - Mitsuharu Misawa & Jun Akiyama vs Toshiaki Kawada & Akira Taue (AJPW 05/23/96) #21 - Genichiro Tenryu vs Yoji Anjo (WAR 07/21/96) #22 - Toshiaki Kawada vs Akira Taue (AJPW 03/31/96) #23 - Nobuhiko Takada & Masahito Kakihara vs Tatsumi Fujinami & Yoshiaki Fujiwara (UWFI 06/26/96) #24 - El Hijo del Santo & El Dandy & Dos Caras vs Blue Panther & Apolo Dantes & Emilio Charles Jr (CMLL 02/16/96) #25 - Volk Han vs Kiyoshi Tamura (RINGS 09/25/96) #26 - Mitsuharu Misawa & Kenta Kobashi & Jun Akiyama vs Toshiaki Kawada & Johnny Ace & Gary Albright (AJPW 04/20/96) #27 - Keiji Muto vs Shiro Koshinaka (NJPW G-1 Climax 08/05/96) #28 - Hayabusa & Masato Tanaka vs Terry Funk & Gladiator (FMW 09/24/96) #29 - Chris Benoit vs Dean Malenko (WCW Hog Wild 08/10/96) #30 - Masa Chono & Hiroyoshi Tenzan vs Kazuo Yamazaki & Takashi Iizuka (NJPW 09/23/96) #31 - Mitsuharu Misawa vs Kenta Kobashi (AJPW 03/31/96) #32 - Great Sasuke & Tiger Mask IV & Shiryu vs Taka Michinoku & Super Delphin & Gran Naniwa (Michinoku Pro 03/16/96) #33 - Shinya Hashimoto vs Shiro Koshinaka (NJPW 09/23/96) #34 - Toshiaki Kawada vs Kenta Kobashi (AJPW 05/24/96) #35 - Dynamite Kansai & Takako Inoue vs Mayumi Ozaki & Kyoko Inoue (JWP 04/20/96) #36 - Rey Misterio Jr vs Dean Malenko (WCW Great American Bash 06/16/96) #37 - Ultimo Dragon vs Great Sasuke (NJPW J*Crown 08/05/96) #38 - Black Tiger & El Samurai & Gran Hamada vs Shinjiro Otani & Koji Kanemoto & Dean Malenko (NJPW 02/25/96) #39 - Rey Misterio Jr vs Juventud Guerrera (AAA 07/15/96) #40 - Masato Tanaka vs W*ING Kanemura (FMW 08/01/96) #41 - Shane Douglas vs 2 Cold Scorpio (ECW Matter of Respect 05/11/96) #42 - Steven Regal vs Shinya Hashimoto (NJPW 09/21/96) #43 - Yoshihisa Yamamoto vs Buzariashville Ramazi (RINGS 05/25/96) #44 - Rey Misterio Jr vs Psicosis (WCW Bash at the Beach 07/07/96) #45 - Manami Toyota vs Sakie Hasegawa (AJW 03/20/96) #46 - Nobuhiko Takada vs Shiro Koshinaka (NJPW 03/01/96) #47 - Psicosis vs Ultraman (AAA 03/16/96) #48 - Jushin Liger, Gran Naniwa & Gran Hamada vs Dick Togo & Taka Michinoku & Shoichi Funaki (Michinoku Pro 08/18/96) #49 - Riki Choshu vs Shinya Hashimoto (NJPW G-1 Climax 08/02/96) #50 - Bret Hart vs Shawn Michaels (WWF Wrestlemania XII 03/31/96) #51 - Masahito Kakihara vs Yoshihiro Takayama (UWFI 09/30/96) #52 - Jushin Liger vs Shinjiro Otani (NJPW 03/17/96) #53 - Vader, Owen Hart & Davey Boy Smith vs Shawn Michaels, Ahmed Johnson & Sid (WWF International Incident 07/21/96) #54 - Rey Misterio Jr vs Dean Malenko (WCW Monday Nitro 07/08/96) #55 - Shinya Hashimoto & Junji Hirata vs Kazuo Yamazaki & Takashi Iizuka (NJPW 06/12/96) #56 - Bas Rutten vs Masakatsu Funaki (Pancrase 09/07/96) #57 - Taka Michinoku vs Super Delphin (NJPW Skydiving J 06/17/96) #58 - Shiro Koshinaka vs Satoshi Kojima (NJPW G-1 Climax 08/06/96) #59 - Mitsuharu Misawa vs Akira Taue (AJPW 05/24/96) #60 - Shinya Hashimoto & Junji Hirata vs Yoshihiro Takayama & Yoji Anjo (NJPW 02/25/96) #61 - Rey Misterio Jr vs Juventud Guerrera (AAA 03/16/96) #62 - Shawn Michaels vs Owen Hart (WWF In Your House VI 02/18/96) #63 - Vader vs Antonio Inoki (NJPW 01/04/96) #64 - Chris Jericho vs 2 Cold Scorpio (ECW Doctor Is In 08/03/96) #65 - Jushin Liger & Black Tiger vs Shinjiro Otani & Koji Kanemoto (NJPW 02/15/96) #66 - Shawn Michaels vs Diesel (WWF Good Friends Better Enemies 04/28/96) #67 - Masa Chono vs Keiji Muto (NJPW G-1 Climax 08/06/96) #68 - Steven Regal vs Fit Finlay (WCW Uncensored 03/24/96) #69 - Rey Misterio Jr & Konnan vs Juventud Guerrera & Jerry Estrada (AAA 08/19/96) #70 - PG-13 vs Tracy Smothers & Jesse James Armstrong (USWA TV 02/17/96) #71 - Jushin Liger vs Dick Togo (NJPW Skydiving J 06/17/96) #72 - El Dandy & El Hijo del Santo & Silver King vs Negro Casas & Apolo Dantes & El Satanico (CMLL 02/10/96) #73 - Hayabusa & Masato Tanaka & Koji Nakagawa vs W*ING Kanemura & Mitsuhiro Matsunaga & Hidoh (FMW 01/10/96) #74 - Steve Austin vs Marc Mero (WWF King of the Ring 06/23/96) #75 - Shawn Michaels vs Owen Hart (WWF Monday Night RAW 08/12/96) #76 - Hulk Hogan & Scott Hall & Kevin Nash & NWO Sting vs Ric Flair & Arn Anderson & Lex Luger & Sting (WCW Fall Brawl 09/15/96) #77 - Jushin Liger vs Great Sasuke (World Wrestling Peace Festival 06/01/96) #78 - Jerry Lawler vs Jeff Jarrett (USWA TV 04/20/96) #79 - Undertaker vs Mankind (WWF Summerslam 08/18/96) #80 - Rey Misterio Jr vs Juventud Guerrera (ECW Big Ass Extreme Bash 03/09/96) #81 - Ric Flair vs Eddy Guerrero (WCW Monday Nitro 05/20/96) #82 - Cactus Jack vs Mikey Whipwreck (ECW Big Ass Extreme Bash 03/09/96) #83 - Mitsuharu Misawa & Jun Akiyama & Satoru Asako vs Toshiaki Kawada & Akira Taue & Yoshinari Ogawa (AJPW 09/28/96) #84 - Sabu vs 2 Cold Scorpio (ECW 04/19/96) #85 - Mayumi Ozaki vs Dynamite Kansai (JWP 08/10/96) #86 - Shawn Michaels vs Davey Boy Smith (WWF King of the Ring 06/23/96) #87 - Manami Toyota vs Yumiko Hotta (AJW 01/22/96) #88 - Black Tiger vs Shinjiro Otani (NJPW 06/05/96) #89 - Manami Toyota vs Kyoko Inoue (AJW 03/31/96) #90 - Psicosis vs Ultraman (AAA 01/18/96) #91 - Sting, Lex Luger & Randy Savage vs Ric Flair, Chris Benoit & Steve McMichael (WCW Monday Nitro 07/29/96) #92 - 2 Cold Scorpio vs Sabu (ECW Cyberslam 02/17/96) #93 - Genichiro Tenryu vs Naoki Sano (UWFI 08/17/96) #94 - Rey Misterio Jr & Perro Aguayo vs La Parka & Ultimo Dragon vs Cibernetico & Pierroth Jr vs Heavy Metal & Psicosis (AAA 06/02/96) #95 - Jushin Liger vs Koji Kanemoto (NJPW 01/04/96) #96 - PG-13 vs Tracy Smothers & Jesse James Armstrong (USWA TV 01/20/96) #97 - Shawn Michaels vs Vader (WWF Summerslam 08/18/96) #98 - Manami Toyota & Mariko Yoshida & Kaoru Ito & Yumi Fukawa vs Takako Inoue & Kyoko Inoue & Chapparita Asari & Tomoko Watanabe (AJW 02/12/96) #99 - 1-2-3 Kid vs Hakushi (WWF Monday Night RAW 02/05/96) #100 - El Dandy & Silver King & Lizmark vs Negro Casas & El Felino & El Satanico (CMLL 06/28/96) #101 - Jushin Liger vs El Samurai (NJPW 06/11/96) #102 - Genichiro Tenryu vs Tatsumi Fujinami (NJPW Battle Formation 04/29/96) #103 - Jushin Liger & El Samurai & Gran Hamada vs Shinjiro Otani & Koji Kanemoto & Taka Michinoku (NJPW 04/05/96) #104 - Shawn Michaels vs Marty Jannetty (WWF Monday Night RAW 07/01/96) #105 - Dean Malenko vs Steven Regal (WCW Monday Nitro 08/19/96) #106 - Steve Austin vs Savio Vega (WWF Beware of Dog 05/28/96) #107 - Rey Misterio Jr vs Juventud Guerrera (AAA 01/31/96) #108 - Wild Pegasus vs Shinjiro Otani (NJPW 03/20/96) #109 - Chris Jericho vs Pit Bull #2 (ECW Hardcore Heaven 06/22/96) #110 - Shinya Hashimoto vs Kazuo Yamazaki (NJPW 01/04/96) #111 - Shawn Michaels vs Davey Boy Smith (WWF Beware of Dog 05/26/96) #112 - El Dandy & Atlantis & Hector Garza vs Apolo Dantes & Dr Wagner Jr & El Felino (CMLL June 1996) #113 - Ric Flair vs The Giant (WCW Monday Nitro 03/25/96) #114 - Yoshiaki Fujiwara vs Dick Murdoch (PWFG 05/23/96) #115 - Ric Flair vs Randy Savage (WCW SuperBrawl VI 02/11/96) #116 - Mitsuhiro Matsunaga & W*ING Kanemura & Hido vs Masato Tanaka & Ricky Fuji & Tetsuhiro Kuroda (FMW 02/23/96) #117 - Nobuhiko Takada vs Shinya Hashimoto (NJPW Battle Formation 04/29/96) #118 - Aja Kong vs Combat Toyota (FMW 01/10/96) #119 - Rob Van Dam vs Doug Furnas (ECW Natural Born Killaz 08/24/96) #120 - Shawn Michaels vs 1-2-3 Kid (WWF Monday Night RAW 03/04/96) #121 - Steven Regal vs Fit Finlay (WCW Saturday Night 04/27/96) #122 - Atlantis & Lizmark & El Hijo del Santo vs El Felino & Bestia Salvaje & El Satanico (CMLL 40th Anniversary Show 04/19/96) #123 - Jushin Liger vs Black Tiger (NJPW 02/03/96) #124 - Shawn Michaels vs Hunter Hearst Helmsley (WWF Monday Night RAW 05/13/96) #125 - Road Warriors vs Rick & Scott Steiner (WCW Monday Nitro 03/11/96) #126 - Juventud Guerrera & Psicosis vs Volador & El Mexicano (AAA 01/12/96) #127 - Jushin Liger vs Dean Malenko (WCW Monday Nitro 05/06/96) #128 - Shawn Michaels vs Leif Cassidy (WWF Monday Night RAW 03/25/96) #129 - Dean Malenko vs Disco Inferno (WCW Bash at the Beach 07/07/96) #130 - Ric Flair vs Randy Savage (WCW Monday Nitro 02/19/96) #131 - Sting vs Scott Steiner (WCW Monday Nitro 05/27/96)

This is a LOOOOOONG series of vignettes of the NWO hanging out at a hotel. I like Hogan's little "not anymore" sound byte, as WCW now has to allow the NWO free TV time. Announcement #1 Nasty Nick makes a cameo! Nash: "This is a little off the page. But isn't it amazing how you never see Bill Marriott and Ross Perot in the same spot?" He also says Debra wants him. Announcement #2 The Nasty Boys show up. Nash: "I had a pina colada with [Nasty Nick] at Trader Vic's in Zurich and his hair was perfect!" Announcement #3 The Nastys make pigs of themselves eating all the food. Kyle Petty from NASCAR makes a cameo. Hogan has completely mastered his new gimmick by this point and is great. Announcement #4 Elizabeth is around, seemingly against her will. Just when I'm about to talk about how they never explained that, they do, as Liz signed a deal with Hogan to get movie deals in exchange for doing whatever he wants her to do, and now, she has changed her mind and wants out, but can't. The story here is that Savage shows up at a hotel with the NWO, where Hogan made Liz call and invite him to work their issues out. Savage sees them and is livid, saying Liz set him up yet again, and she's saying it's not what he thinks. The Hogan/Savage build with Liz's involvement makes way more sense rewatching than it did at the time.

Bischoff does a pretty decent serious promo saying that what happened last week was unacceptable, and that the NWO's antics will stop. This would have been a good time to slowly start building some babyface momentum, and this seemed like it was setting that up, but nothing of the sort ever happened.

Sadly, it's painfully obvious how much momentum Shawn has lost by this point. He's still over, but has lost a lot of heat from earlier in the year, and now, it's obvious they're pondering a move in a different direction as they make references to the schedule starting to do him in on commentary. Shawn and Vader seem to have lost some of the chemistry they had at Summerslam too.

Joined in progress. Diesel runs in to Razor's rescue. I still don't understand the logic in reminding WWF fans that two of their biggest stars jumped ship, and outraging them by doing this stuff. Just really, really dumb.

Do they really think anyone cared that Jeff Jarrett didn't sing "With My Baby Tonight"? This is one of the worst things the WWF did that year, and they did some stupid stuff.

The match is almost just an excuse for Lawler to make alcoholic jokes, but at least most of them are really funny. Jake is older and slower, but his in-ring timing and ability to read the crowd is still as good as it ever was, and really, 41 years old by current standards is not old. Jim Ross mentions that he talked to Bret earlier today and Lawler says, "Tell me, was it the real Bret Hart?", which was great. They promote Vince on Livewire, and Ross says if he says something interesting, it would be the first time he had ever said something interesting that wasn't scripted for him in advance. Some of his surly comments are funny at first, but they get old really fast. Lawler spit booze in Jake's face, leaving an opening for Austin to pin him after a stunner. Austin and Lawler double team Jake after the match until Savio makes the save wielding a leather strap. After the match, we get an awesome creepy video with Mankind and Paul Bearer hyping the Buried Alive match.

I like both of these guys quite a bit, but Takayama looks sensational here. Kakihara lays in some wicked kicks on Takayama to break free, while Takayama really outclasses Kakihara on the mat. So it's matwork vs footwork. Each guy is no slouch in the other area, but it's not as much the calling card. Super stiff, dramatic, lots of good selling and pacing makes a great match. Takayama finally takes the match, but Kakihara looks great in losing. I have to admit the post-match music is terrible and made me laugh because it was so inappropriate given the epic nature of the match. How come no one ever talks about Kakihara?

Thanks for the recommendation for '97. Regarding Ito, Toyota was at her best here. I liked her. Ito was less familiar to me, and thus she stood out more. But I did like Toyota a lot. There are definitely things she does well. She's much more tolerable when she hits all her crazy spots clean. Yoshida doesn't really stand out to me until she goes to ARSION and shows herself as a really awesome mat worker. She holds her own in this spotfest, but it's hard for her to be special here when I know how much better she is in a different role.

I would think there's more money in WWE, plus maybe there's the outside possibility that if WWE ever gave up on FCW, that they would have him run developmental out of Houston. That Booker spent a lot of money on it, and had Austin and Undertaker living close and willing to volunteer time and they snubbed him, is something where I can understand why it angered him. I also think King Booker has more legs as a gimmick than Booker T at this point, especially if they bring in Sharmell too. But I'd wager his days on top are over. I'd expect more of a Goldust-type role if he gets signed.

Wasn't Clash always free? I thought that was kind of the point -- a PPV supercard but on their regular channel, 4x a year. Yes, the Clash was always free. They were promoting January as "We're not going to have a PPV this month, as a thanks for making 1995 our most successful year ever. Instead, we're going to give you a PPV quality card on free TV." It's smart, relatively inoffensive, and perfectly fine. Implying that the WWF is a scam operation for putting the Royal Rumble on PPV was the funny part.

This isn't really reflected in the yearbook, but it's something I noticed going through '96 stuff to prepare the yearbook. January '96 was promoted as kind of a fan appreciation month in WCW. As a thank you, they were going to air a free Clash on TV. That's actually not so bad on its own. But Schiavone would say things while announcing like to be leery of any wrestling promotion that wanted you to pay to watch one of their shows. Bischoff said similar things at times on Nitro. Humorous.

What other Ito do I need to see? She was my favorite here.

Tony Schiavone interviews Rey. Dean walks over to Rey after beating Brad Armstrong. Dean offers a handshake then beats him up and steals his mask. I should mention that Tony is great here, really explaining the key points of the feud and stepping in to cover Rey's head with his jacket.

Pretty spectacular match. Nothing but a spotfest, but as good a spotfest as you'll ever see. Ito specifically does a lot of double stomp stuff from all angles that is pretty cool and looks pretty painful. This is a Toyota that I like also. It's more of a midcard style though, which is probably why I don't care for so many of her main event matches in '96. The nearfalls here are on par with the best close calls in Flair matches, and there are dozens of them.

Rapid forearm trading that is overdone and never sold just completely kills it for me.

We get about 18 minutes of a 22 minute match. Asako and Ogawa try, but they just aren't as good as the other four. I wouldn't say the match suffers when they are in, but it does lose something. Very good match. It's probably the worst near-full length All Japan match on the set, but it's still very good. Glad to see some stuff here that isn't big show All Japan, just to have some representation of the smaller shows.

The FBI dance to "California Love" as a dedication to the death of a recent Sicilian, 2 Pac! The Gangstas come out to beat them up for this, as Styles says wherever 2 Pac is, he must be smiling. Sal Bellomo takes a few nice bumps. This whole segment felt more than a little shameless.

This is ridiculously great, and it's really hard to keep up with all the reversals. The early struggle for whatever leglock they were both trying is probably the hardest I've ever seen two people ever fight to lock in the same hold. This seems to be a case of dominance vs surprise, as Tamura is on defense for a big chunk of this, but also has the ability to catch Han by surprise when he least expects it. Tamura's kick when Han is walking toward him for a lock-up is case in point, and is one of my favorite spots of the match. Really an epic battle with lots of dramatic momentum swings, and my favorite RINGS match to this point.

Yes he did. This surprised me, as I thought he was Jewish for some reason.

Wild match. Too bad the production values suck, as the camera work misses or barely captures a lot of cool stuff and the super hot crowd is reduced in volume so the low-key announcers can be the loudest thing you hear. Like with most FMW, just under the surface of chaos is a pretty solid, structured wrestling match. Hayabusa, Gladiator and Tanaka look like future superstars here. This is really an ECW-style tag brawl with the weapons shots and crazy stunts, but there's also more internal logic and way better wrestling. The powerbomb off the top rope that secured the win for Funk and Awesome is a ridiculous spot and I'm glad it didn't become a regular thing.