Loss

I would also love for someone to make Meltzer flip his lid and ask him if UFC could sell out Ford Field.

The thing about Meltzer allowing boxing updates on his site is that there's a lot of wrestling he doesn't have time to cover, so I don't understand the mindset. In the 90s, there was no real US indy coverage, no BattlARTS, Michinoku Pro or WAR coverage, scattered Joshi coverage ... how can you not have time to cover those things and add an entire genre to what you do anyway? It's Dave's newsletter, I just don't get it. MMA outdrawing pro wrestling on PPV is a pro wrestling story. But beyond that? It also feels a little odd to considering any form of fighting, real or fake, to be your area of expertise.

Disc 4 Anthony W Mori, Dragon Kid, Ryo Saito & Naoki Tanisaki v Magnitude Kishiwada, CIMA, Naruki Doi & Masato Yoshino - Dragon’s Gate 01/27/06 A little better than the ROH match because it seemed to have more purpose, but I still think going longer than 15 minutes or so for spotfest guys is too long, because everything starts running together and you lose track of what it is you're watching. Most of the good and bad of the ROH match would also apply here. This is just more guys involved going longer with elimination rules. Really too much of a good thing. Make that an okay-ish thing, actually. Yuki Ishikawa v Hiroyuki Ito - Big Mouth Loud 04/19/06 If 10 minutes somehow could have been shaved off of the previous match and added here, we'd probably have two really strong matches, instead of two okay to good ones. Now, Ishikawa and Ito got a lot accomplished in not much time, but I've seen better from Ishikawa, and while I liked this, it wasn't really an overwhelming favorite for me. Good syndie TV-style main event, though. Bryan Danielson v Nigel McGuinness - ROH 04/29/06 The second match trumped the first one between these two pretty considerably, but the first match was pretty great also. Lots of fun matwork, as you'd expect, with little twists like Danielson giving McGuinness a noogie while having him in a side headlock. It bugs me a little that most Danielson matches have him on offense for 90% of the match. He's a great talent, but it creates a sameness to a lot of his matches. I'd like to see how he'd work a match when his opponent was the one calling spots and leading sometime just to see how different it is. I liked the false finish with Danielson getting in at the 19 count and Nigel choking Danielson with the table was awesome. This match was mostly pretty stationary, which isn't an insult, as things that may not get a huge reaction like the lariat get a huge pop because the high-impact moves aren't too frequent. Nigel holding up the chair to block the springboard plancha into the crowd was great. And about that spot -- I've seen Danielson do it so many times on this set. It's not really a good signature spot, it's more of a bigger match than usual desperation spot. Undertaker does a big floor dive rarely and gets a lot more milage from it. Still, I'm nitpicking. Good match. See it. Bryan Danielson v Nigel McGuinness - ROH 08/12/06 This was a classic, with a finish that will be easily remembered and a hot crowd. That ringpost spot where Nigel juiced was just incredibly brutal, and really set the tone for an awesome final stretch. This was ROH's Bret Hart vs Steve Austin match. I don't really care to argue about which match was better between the two or anything like that. What I'm arguing is that the finish of Nigel passing out without giving up in front of a crowd that really wanted to see him win reminded me of that. All sorts of cool stuff like headbutt battles and standing on your opponent's face during an armbar that you aren't likely to find with too many other wrestlers. One of the top five ROH matches ever for my money. Bryan Danielson v KENTA - ROH 09/16/06 This is the third consecutive Danielson match on the set. Every match is better than the one before it. Danielson/KENTA was just really awesome and may be the best singles match I've ever seen from either guy. It was nice to see Danielson on the defensive so much since you usually see him schooling his opponent and not being put in a position to sell all that much. Here, he exploited the injured shoulder and it worked really well. The whole finishing stretch run was the stuff of legend, really. Some great kickouts that didn't feel overdone at all. Just really great. John Cena v Edge - WWE Unforgiven 09/17/06 (TLC Match) This was pretty good. The pre-ladder bumping part of the match was surprisingly good, with both guys wrestling really stiff and Edge pulling off a hell of a neckbreaker. They teased the weapons a long time before they actually brought them into the match. The whole story is that Edge has stacked the deck against Cena as much as possible -- he's the defending champion, the match is in his hometown, he's undefeated in TLC matches and Cena has never even been in a TLC match. The first time the ladder is brought in, Cena tries to push Edge off to make him crotch himself on the top rope, but Edge is the vet in these matches and manages to avoid it. Even the stuff that's a little messed up is covered so well that it doesn't really matter. Edge messed up a powerbomb through the table at one point, so they improvise and he ends up doing a powerslam through it instead, which is a much better spot anyway. Cena tripping Edge to avoid the conchairto, doing the blockbuster on the chair and the STFU with Edge caught inside the ladder were all great spots. Edge always does the spear from the top of the ladder in these matches, and he did it here, and Cena sold it like he had a major rib injury, which was cool. Cena wins, the crowd hates it, and the look of disgust on Cena's face afterward that he had to get so violent to get the belt back is great! Osamu Nishimura v Tatsumi Fujinami - MUGA 09/25/06 (2/3 falls) Even better than the earlier MUGA match on this set, as promised. This isn't two guys doing old school, it's two old school guys, kind of like going to a kosher deli versus a kosher-style deli. There's this incredible moment in the second fall where both guys are totally hesitant to make the first move, and Nishimura basically says "Fuck it" and kicks Fujinami's knee as hard as humanly possible. From there, Fujinami does a great limping sell where he's about to collapse. Nish is up a fall and Fujinami's future looks a bit gloomy, but he manages to get his revenge and destroy Nishimura's knee to the point where he submits to the figure four in the second fall, evening things up as they start to take it home. Fujinami is still working over Nishimura's knee, and in another great moment, Nish puts his leg on the middle rope and dares Fujinami to attack it again. One of the best matches of the year, and I'll be actively seeking out all MUGA ever now. I've finished watching everything now. Will comment on the rest this weekend. At this point, here's how everything ranks overall. #1 - Mistico & Negro Casas v Mephisto & Averno - CMLL 04/15/06 #2 - Samoa Joe, BJ Whitmer & Adam Pearce v Necro Butcher, Chris Hero & Super Dragon - ROH 04/22/06 #3 - Bryan Danielson v KENTA - ROH 09/16/06 #4 - Osamu Nishimura v Tatsumi Fujinami - MUGA 09/25/06 (2/3 falls) #5 - Kenta Kobashi v Naomichi Marufuji - NOAH 04/23/06 #6 - Bryan Danielson v Samoa Joe - ROH 08/06/06 #7 - Samoa Joe, Adam Pearce, BJ Whitmer, Ace Steel & Bryan Danielson v Chris Hero, Necro Butcher, Nate Webb, Claudio Castagnoli & Eddie Kingston - ROH v CZW Cage of Death 07/15/06 #8 - Chris Benoit v Fit Finlay - WWE Judgment Day 05/21/06 #9 - Bryan Danielson v Nigel McGuinness - ROH 08/12/06 #10 - Osamu Nishimura v Hiro Saito - MUGA 08/02/06 #11 - Jun Akiyama v Masao Inoue - NOAH 04/23/06 #12 - Bryan Danielson v Nigel McGuinness - ROH 04/29/06 #13 - John Cena v Edge - WWE Unforgiven 09/17/06 (TLC Match) #14 - KENTA & Naomichi Marufuji v Takeshi Morishima & Takeshi Rikio - NOAH 07/16/06 #15 - KENTA v Naomichi Marufuji - NOAH 01/22/06 #16 - El Hijo del Santo & La Mascara v Blue Panther & Tarzan Boy - CMLL 01/01/06 #17 - Mitsuharu Misawa v Takeshi Morishima - NOAH 03/05/06 #18 - Kurt Angle v Undertaker - WWE 02/19/06 #19 - L.A. Park, Marco Corleone & Johnny Stamboli v Dr Wagner Jr, Dos Caras Jr & Lizmark Jr - CMLL 05/19/06 #20 - Dragon Kid, Ryo Saito & Genki Horiguchi v CIMA, Naruki Doi & Masato Yoshino - ROH 03/31/06 #21 - Abdullah Kobayashi v Takashi Sasaki - BJPW 03/31/06 #22 - Yuji Nagata v Giant Bernard - NJPW 04/30/06 #23 - Yuki Ishikawa v Hiroyuki Ito - Big Mouth Loud 04/19/06 #24 - Anthony W Mori, Dragon Kid, Ryo Saito & Naoki Tanisaki v Magnitude Kishiwada, CIMA, Naruki Doi & Masato Yoshino - Dragon’s Gate 01/27/06 #25 - KENTA v Kenta Kobashi - NOAH 03/05/06 #26 - Chris Benoit v William Regal - WWE 05/08/06 #27 - Kaz Hayashi v Shuji Kondo - All Japan 08/27/06 #28 - Shadow WX & Mammoth Sasaki v Abdullah Kobayashi & Daisuke Sekimoto - BJPW 01/27/06 #29 - LAX v Christopher Daniels & AJ Styles - TNA Hard Justice 08/13/06 #30 - Samoa Joe v Scott Steiner - TNA Slammiversary 6/18/06

It would have been like Brian Pillman in 1996-1997, only stretched out over a longer period of time.

Oh, and ranking the matches: #1 - Bryan Danielson v Samoa Joe - ROH 08/06/06 #2 - Samoa Joe, Adam Pearce, BJ Whitmer, Ace Steel & Bryan Danielson v Chris Hero, Necro Butcher, Nate Webb, Claudio Castagnoli & Eddie Kingston - ROH v CZW Cage of Death 07/15/06 #3 - KENTA & Naomichi Marufuji v Takeshi Morishima & Takeshi Rikio - NOAH 07/16/06 #4 - L.A. Park, Marco Corleone & Johnny Stamboli v Dr Wagner Jr, Dos Caras Jr & Lizmark Jr - CMLL 05/19/06 #5 - Kaz Hayashi v Shuji Kondo - All Japan 08/27/06 #6 - LAX v Christopher Daniels & AJ Styles - TNA Hard Justice 08/13/06 Overall: #1 - Mistico & Negro Casas v Mephisto & Averno - CMLL 04/15/06 #2 - Samoa Joe, BJ Whitmer & Adam Pearce v Necro Butcher, Chris Hero & Super Dragon - ROH 04/22/06 #3 - Kenta Kobashi v Naomichi Marufuji - NOAH 04/23/06 #4 - Bryan Danielson v Samoa Joe - ROH 08/06/06 #5 - Samoa Joe, Adam Pearce, BJ Whitmer, Ace Steel & Bryan Danielson v Chris Hero, Necro Butcher, Nate Webb, Claudio Castagnoli & Eddie Kingston - ROH v CZW Cage of Death 07/15/06 #6 - Chris Benoit v Fit Finlay - WWE Judgment Day 05/21/06 #7 - Osamu Nishimura v Hiro Saito - MUGA 08/02/06 #8 - Jun Akiyama v Masao Inoue - NOAH 04/23/06 #9 - KENTA & Naomichi Marufuji v Takeshi Morishima & Takeshi Rikio - NOAH 07/16/06 #10 - KENTA v Naomichi Marufuji - NOAH 01/22/06 #11 - El Hijo del Santo & La Mascara v Blue Panther & Tarzan Boy - CMLL 01/01/06 #12 - Mitsuharu Misawa v Takeshi Morishima - NOAH 03/05/06 #13 - Kurt Angle v Undertaker - WWE 02/19/06 #14 - L.A. Park, Marco Corleone & Johnny Stamboli v Dr Wagner Jr, Dos Caras Jr & Lizmark Jr - CMLL 05/19/06 #15 - Dragon Kid, Ryo Saito & Genki Horiguchi v CIMA, Naruki Doi & Masato Yoshino - ROH 03/31/06 #16 - Abdullah Kobayashi v Takashi Sasaki - BJPW 03/31/06 #17 - Yuji Nagata v Giant Bernard - NJPW 04/30/06 #18 - KENTA v Kenta Kobashi - NOAH 03/05/06 #19 - Chris Benoit v William Regal - WWE 05/08/06 #20 - Kaz Hayashi v Shuji Kondo - All Japan 08/27/06 #21 - Shadow WX & Mammoth Sasaki v Abdullah Kobayashi & Daisuke Sekimoto - BJPW 01/27/06 #22 - LAX v Christopher Daniels & AJ Styles - TNA Hard Justice 08/13/06 #23 - Samoa Joe v Scott Steiner - TNA Slammiversary 6/18/06

Disc 3 L.A. Park, Marco Corleone & Johnny Stamboli v Dr Wagner Jr, Dos Caras Jr & Lizmark Jr - CMLL 05/19/06 I don't think I quite buy this as a MOTYC, but it's still a pretty good match. Total chaos in the rivalry between Parka and Wagner, and I like the dynamic of Jindrak and Stamboli acting as Parka's American muscle. Jindrak and Stamboli seem to have both come a long way since leaving WWE, especially in terms of charisma. Jindrak's showboating was really one of the best parts of this match, and I liked his boxing punches early on. You think the babyface comeback is never coming, and it finally comes later in the match when Parka takes off running when Wagner is angry and has had enough. Lots of mask ripping and tons of heat. Fun match. Samoa Joe, Adam Pearce, BJ Whitmer, Ace Steel & Bryan Danielson v Chris Hero, Necro Butcher, Nate Webb, Claudio Castagnoli & Eddie Kingston - ROH v CZW Cage of Death 07/15/06 Great match, obviously. I prefer the six-man tag on the earlier disc to this match, but this isn't too far behind, and the angle and storyline here are probably slightly better. Great job setting up Homicide as the savior, and also building future ROH matches like Joe/Danielson. I've really tried to ignore the audience for the most part when discussing ROH since that argument is pretty played out, but JESUSFUCKINGCHRIST stop coming up with clever chants. That died as the match went on because the match was so good and the fans became lost in what was going on, but it's frustrating as a viewer, because you're spending time trying to decipher what the hell it is being said while all this overly clever bullshit is being spewed, and you start missing things going on in the ring. Anyway, enough about that. It's down to BJ Whitmer and his annoying hairstyle against three CZW guys after Joe and Danielson walk out, and Adam Pearce comes out to make it three on two. As far as hot babyface intros, I really think Pearce and Ace Steel were surprisingly better at that than Joe, Danielson and Whitmer, three guys who get a lot more play. Pearce is totally underrated for whatever reason and doesn't even get a lot of heat on himself in this match or the 4/22 match, which is sad considering he was bleeding all over the place and gave one of the best performances in both matches. He has some more fun stuff with Necro Butcher. Another great part of the match is Chris Hero is holding the house mic running his mouth about how great CZW is when Ace Steel just nails him. Awesome stuff. All hope looks lost for ROH till Homicide shows up with force (and forks) and the asskicking commences. Necro Butcher is a masochist of course, but chances are you already knew that, so him having barbed wire stuck to him shouldn't come as any surprise. The post-match with Cornette ordering the officials to throw them all out of the building was awesome. I'm still not quite sure what the point was of giving the coin toss advantage to the babyfaces, but the match worked just fine anyway. Nice conclusion to a great feud that seemed to mix in some fresh faces with some of the bigger names. KENTA & Naomichi Marufuji v Takeshi Morishima & Takeshi Rikio - NOAH 07/16/06 I liked this one quite a bit as well. There are some really good exchanges early on between Marufuji and Rikio to put over the size difference, and make the point that WILD2 can overpower Kenta and Marufuji and also keep up with them on the mat. Pretty nice up and down tempo, mainly built around the pairings. Things stay a bit calm when Marufuji and Rikio are in, but KENTA and Morishima are the combustible elements here and the energy level goes up every time they're in and calms down a bit when they tag out. That's by design, as they build most of the match making you want to see Morishima and KENTA go at it, and the heat is great when it's basically the two of them going crazy the last few minutes. There's also some fun spots with Morishima destroying both of his opponents at the same time. This is really the match for me where Morishima starts living up to the hype surrounding him. KENTA and Marufuji both slip off the ropes a few times, but to their credit, they didn't really get rattled from it, although in both cases, Rikio or Morishima was right there and could have easily covered the spot. LAX v Christopher Daniels & AJ Styles - TNA Hard Justice 08/13/06 Not really all that good a match for me at all, although the matching tights from Styles and Daniels are cute, and Hernandez looks really great. Anyone make any recommendations for some good matches from him worth tracking down? Bryan Danielson v Samoa Joe - ROH 08/06/06 This is the best 60-minute draw I've seen in ROH. It had a nice face/heel line in the sand clearly drawn that was missing from Joe/Punk and just had better wrestling than any of the others. This is paced really well, and they do a great job of not telegraphing early on that they're going the full hour. Danielson keeps rolling outside to keep the match at a reasonable pace, but they play it like Joe is all about finishing quickly and Danielson is just trying to survive the match. It wasn't your typical hour layout with all stationary holds for 40 minutes followed by nearfalls for 20 minutes. Great job mixing things up. The best sequence for me was halfway through the match when Danielson tries the most desperate series of moves humanly possible to escape Joe's first muscle buster attempt, which finally leads to him clipping Joe's knee and working it over predictably well. Later in the match, Danielson did an amazing dive into the audience, maybe the best move of that kind I've ever seen. The final few minutes were also pretty awesome, with lots of big momentum swings where you'd buy a finish coming at the 58 or 59 minute mark. The only bad thing I could even say is that there's too much facewashing, but aside from that, everything here is on the money. Kaz Hayashi v Shuji Kondo - All Japan 08/27/06 This didn't work for me at all. Pretty unoriginal and second rate juniors wrestling, with a few cool dives from Hayashi and not much else. Also a little annoying that he's selling a severe knee injury for the entire match, but it doesn't affect his ability to do any of his spots. Maybe my least favorite match at this point, or at least pretty near the bottom.

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It's the layout of the match that put it over the top for me. I'm typically a big fan of tag matches where one guy gets injured and they isolate the other guy. This match worked that concept really well, better than in just about any match I've ever seen. I agree that it's not something most people (myself included) really watch lucha libre for, but it's still a tremendous match. After I finish making my way through all of these discs, I'll come back to it and see how it holds up.

Disc 2 Abdullah Kobayashi v Takashi Sasaki - BJPW 03/31/06 Holy hell. I could probably nitpick this match to pieces if that's really what I wanted to do, but it's not. There's a time to just say, "You know what? They worked really hard, they bled all over the place for my enjoyment, they took an incredible amount of punishment and they put out something pretty spectacular" and leave it at that. And that's what I'm going to do. Even doing that though, this is still pretty good as a wrestling match with death spots mixed in. There's a point later in the match where every time they make contact, debris goes flying of of their faces and torsos all over the place and it's an incredible visual. Each nearfall toward the end had more suspense than the one before it. Abby ate a light tube and Sasaki wrestled a big part of the match with a spike stuck in his skull! That's living the gimmick. God bless both of these guys. Mistico & Negro Casas v Mephisto & Averno - CMLL 04/15/06 Once again, holy hell. Not only is the best match I've seen on this set so far, I'm pretty sure this is the best match I've seen this decade. It starts off with some really awesome matwork between Casas and Averno. Mistico and Mephisto then tag in and while it's obvious Mephisto is really carrying the exchanges with big motions and body language, it's still an awesome exchange and Mistico more than holds up his own end. When Casas and Averno come back in, we are treated to some really great Midinght Express-style doubleteaming from the heels. The whole sequence with Casas getting tripped from the apron and hitting his head, leading to Mistico getting a double Hogan-and-friend style boot, leading to Casas getting cornerned is so, so good and was the first real rewind moment I've had since starting this set. The first fall comes quickly, but they do such a great job in establishing the pace and the nature of what the match is going to be. The Midnight Express tributes keep on coming as we start the second fall. Mephisto and Averno take turns chopping (and those chops make Kobashi's look pretty pale by comparison), lariating and generally torturing their opponents, and then start pulling off even more cool doubleteam spots like the double bulldog and the stereo missile dropkicks. The way I'm describing this sounds like it's pretty much just a spotfest without a lot else to pull it together, but what elevates it from exciting to great is how stiff everything is and how skilled everyone is at selling everything at just the right moment in just the right way. Casas and Mistico get a lucky second fall out of nowhere to take us to the third fall after losing the first fall pretty conceivably. At this point, they really don't seem to have any chance of winning. It's really awesome that Casas, despite being quite a bit older than Mistico, can outperform Mistico in his own style. Casas' dives and frenetic pacing hardly looks out of place next to that of the younger Mistico, and if anything, it's the opposite. Mephisto and Averno are still no slouches in this area either, with Mephisto doing an awesome somersault plancha to the floor. This sets the stage for the match to basically turn into an All Japan tag, with Mistico injured and Casas being left to fight for his team alone. The odds seem pretty insurmountable, as a physician is at ringside tending to Mistico, Casas is getting his ass kicked and they pin him with ease. At this point, pinning Mistico seems like child's play, but the technicos somehow pull off the impossible and manage to come back and win the match. I personally loved this match. Again, I don't think I've seen a match this good since at least 1999, and maybe even further back than that. They really did an incredible job creating doubt over the finish, and every nearfall in the last 10 minutes of the match really seemed like it could conceivably finish. Just as fast-paced as the Dragon's Gate match in ROH, with the main difference being that this match is far more coherent and has a really great in-ring storyline going, and they don't overkill the false finishes. I can see why some wouldn't like this match, as the match layout is a bit smoke and mirrors and isn't really a typical lucha layout, and you obviously have three tremendous wrestlers making a style choice designed to make Mistico look like an equal. But in that regard, they definitely accomplished what they set out to do. Good for them. Yuji Nagata v Giant Bernard - NJPW 04/30/06 So Albert has really improved quite a bit. I don't think this is really a great match, but I do think it's a very good babyface versus monster match that deserves the positive vibe it's gotten. What keeps it from getting to the next level for me is Nagata's overselling of everything, to a point where it makes Ricky Steamboat seem subdued by comparison. Bernard having to dead lift Nagata to get him in position for the powerbomb and struggling to hit it was either a really badly botched spot or a really cool struggle. I couldn't figure out which. Samoa Joe, BJ Whitmer & Adam Pearce v Necro Butcher, Chris Hero & Super Dragon - ROH 04/22/06 Having not yet watched Cage of Death (very soon), I feel comfortable calling this the best thing I've ever seen ROH put together. Just a wild, emotional rollercoaster with great heat. It was a throwback as much as it was perfect for the era and audience it was performed for. You can't really talk about this match without acknowledging how great Joe Zandig and especially Jim Cornette were at the beginning of the match in their debate. I don't know if the match would have come across quite as well without the lead in, but that doesn't really matter, because everyone involved delivered in a big way regardless. Adam Pearce and Necro Butcher were really the stars of this match for me. I'm becoming quite the Pearce fan after seeing this and recently seeing him play a great mid-80s heel in NWA Pro. That blade job was pretty gory, and Pearce/Butcher really provide the best stuff of any of the pairings in the match. I really want to see a singles match between the two of them, and am hoping one happened at some point that I just don't know about. Claudio's turn seemed either messed up or mistimed or something, I couldn't tell, but it also worked and helped advance the overall ROH/CZW feud. The battle between the refs was also really cool. Amazing match and atmosphere with more emotion than I've ever really seen in an indy match period, not just an ROH match. I wish it could be like this all the time. Jun Akiyama v Masao Inoue - NOAH 04/23/06 I loved this match as well. The heel versus heel thing really works to the advantage of both guys. Inoue's incessant stalling and complaining -- after being the one to rush the bell in the first place -- is so hypocritical and I love it. The face rake across the mat was also really cool, but what really put this over the top for me is the constant teasing of cheap/copout finishes, because of the sleazy nature of both guys involved. The figure four on the ramp was a great false finish. Akiyama is also really reliable for great knee use spots. The spot where Inoue jumped from the middle rope to be caught in mid air by that Akiyama knee to his face is nasty looking. Also like Inoue DDTing Akiyama, breaking the count and then piledriving Akiyama on the exposed floor. Awesome match that stands out from the pack pretty well because it's pretty far from the usual Kobashi/Misawa/Morishima/KENTA/Marufuji fare. Kenta Kobashi v Naomichi Marufuji - NOAH 04/23/06 I loved this one also. This group of matches is pretty much all great. This is a nice contrast to the Kobashi/KENTA match because Marufuji seems to be working Kobashi's match, as opposed to Kobashi working KENTA's match before this. Kobashi does a great job really putting over Marufuji strong as a contender while saving just the right amount for himself as well. This was more resembling of Jumbo's matches with Kawada and Kobashi than anything I've really seen in NOAH. Early on, Kobashi easily wins a chop battle, and every time Marufuji tries a big offensive move, Kobashi retaliates by doing the same move in better fashion. He's pretty relentless, so Marufuji changes strategy and goes all Owen Hart in Stampede with the armbar kipups and the fancy headscissors spots. Kobashi ends up in that predicament twice, and the third time, he casually shoves Marufuji away, causing him to land pretty hard on his knee, which is a pretty awesome transition spot. Marufuji eventually works his way back and then turns the tables on Kobashi by working over his knee. From here, the match goes back and forth a few times, but each guy is in control a little bit longer each time the momentum swings. So now, they're starting to seem more like equals, where early on, Kobashi was just better on every level. They go back to one of the early spots later in the match with Marufuji attempting to block Kobashi's chops again, and failing again, but deciding he was tired of being an underdog and just kicking Kobashi in the face as hard as he could and then practically killing him with a somersault plancha to the floor. Really awesome spot, because he had Kobashi easily beat at this point, but he was outside the ring. So Marufuji had to expend most of his energy just to get Kobashi back in to pin him, and by that time, Kobashi had recovered enough to kick out. So now, we know that Marufuji is capable of beating Kobashi and that's followed by some pretty convincing nearfalls. Kobashi finally pulls out a brainbuster, which is not a common move for him and is totally out of desperation, to win the match. Best Marufuji match ever for me, and best Kobashi match for me in a really long time. I liked this much more than his stuff against Samoa Joe, Kensuke Sasaki and Minoru Suzuki. Chris Benoit v Fit Finlay - WWE Judgment Day 05/21/06 As far as two guys having chemistry and knowing how to work with each other, it doesn't really get much better than this. There's not really a lot to say here. Just watch two pros that know how to do all the big things right and work in more subtlety than anything any of their peers pretty much anywhere in the world are doing at this point. So much wrestling here that is so basic, but manages to get over strong because it looks so good. I really loved the submission with Finlay stepping on top of Benoit's head and torquing his neck, but the match is full of things like that. Man, picking a match of the year after I've watched all this stuff is going to be harder than I thought. Samoa Joe v Scott Steiner - TNA Slammiversary 6/18/06 One of the weaker matches on this set so far, but that's not really a major insult, considering the quality of everything I've watched so far. Joe gets more out of Steiner than anyone did in WWE a few years back. Ranking the matches on Disc 2: #1 - Mistico & Negro Casas v Mephisto & Averno - CMLL 04/15/06 #2 - Samoa Joe, BJ Whitmer & Adam Pearce v Necro Butcher, Chris Hero & Super Dragon - ROH 04/22/06 #3 - Kenta Kobashi v Naomichi Marufuji - NOAH 04/23/06 #4 - Chris Benoit v Fit Finlay - WWE Judgment Day 05/21/06 #5 - Jun Akiyama v Masao Inoue - NOAH 04/23/06 #6 - Yuji Nagata v Giant Bernard - NJPW 04/30/06 #7 - Abdullah Kobayashi v Takashi Sasaki - BJPW 03/31/06 #8 - Samoa Joe v Scott Steiner - TNA Slammiversary 6/18/06 OVERALL: #1 - Mistico & Negro Casas v Mephisto & Averno - CMLL 04/15/06 #2 - Samoa Joe, BJ Whitmer & Adam Pearce v Necro Butcher, Chris Hero & Super Dragon - ROH 04/22/06 #3 - Kenta Kobashi v Naomichi Marufuji - NOAH 04/23/06 #4 - Chris Benoit v Fit Finlay - WWE Judgment Day 05/21/06 #5 - Osamu Nishimura v Hiro Saito - MUGA 08/02/06 #6 - Jun Akiyama v Masao Inoue - NOAH 04/23/06 #7 - KENTA v Naomichi Marufuji - NOAH 01/22/06 #8 - El Hijo del Santo & La Mascara v Blue Panther & Tarzan Boy - CMLL 01/01/06 #9 - Mitsuharu Misawa v Takeshi Morishima - NOAH 03/05/06 #10 - Kurt Angle v Undertaker - WWE 02/19/06 #11 - Dragon Kid, Ryo Saito & Genki Horiguchi v CIMA, Naruki Doi & Masato Yoshino - ROH 03/31/06 #12 - Abdullah Kobayashi v Takashi Sasaki - BJPW 03/31/06 #13 - Yuji Nagata v Giant Bernard - NJPW 04/30/06 #14 - KENTA v Kenta Kobashi - NOAH 03/05/06 #15 - Chris Benoit v William Regal - WWE 05/08/06 #16 - Shadow WX & Mammoth Sasaki v Abdullah Kobayashi & Daisuke Sekimoto - BJPW 01/27/06 #17 - Samoa Joe v Scott Steiner - TNA Slammiversary 6/18/06

Oh, I agree, I just wish WWE would book him in a way that would let him do that. There's a good chance this could be his last big run as champ, and hopefully they'll make the most of it and push him strong so he can drop the belt convincingly.

Taker was the star of the match, no question. I don't know if he has it in him or not, but it would be great to see a full year's worth of matches (both on PPV and TV) at this level from him. I think he's capable, but Undertaker has almost always been a guy who really shows up once or twice a year. I'd like to see him have an extended run of lots of this sort of thing at some point with a variety of opponents.

Picking up where I left off before ... Kurt Angle v The Undertaker - WWE No Way Out 02/19/06 There were definitely lots of things to love about this match, and lots of things I thought they did really well. There are also a few things that completely went against what they were trying to do here. Still, I think the good outweighed the bad by a healthy bit, and this was still pretty excellent. Taker puts together a hell of a performance. I really enjoyed him taking Angle to the mat and schooling him early on, and also thinking a step ahead with his offense in the early stages. One of the best spots in the first few minutes is when he goes for the big boot, Angle ducks and he comes within inches of hitting the ropes and crotching himself, but pulls back just in time. He loses a little of that for me as the match goes on. The first apron legdrop looked really awesome, and the second one was SUCH a telegraphed indication that Angle was about to move out of the way. In fact, one of the things that I really think knocked this match down a peg or two is the amount of time it took them to set up their big stuff. The apron legdrop is one example, and another is when Taker goes to the top rope to set up the Angle slam. There was a good two minutes of stalling for time and dead space - or at least it seemed that way - before the spot actually happened. This match also could have easily done without the announce table spot. They were obviously trying to break the mold and put out a match that WWE fans would enjoy, but not necessarily in the same style they were used to seeing in main events. That spot just put a sour taste on the rest of the match because it was so cliche and unnecessary. But because this is WWE, that's the spot that gets replayed several times and that gets the most announcer hype, because WWE has always been about putting inanimate objects over wrestling offense. All the cool triangle choke attempts, the apron legdrop, Angle's really great-looking knee clip ... all good looking stuff that wasn't going to get a lot of play because it wasn't such a hyped part of the style. And on that note, if I never see Kurt Angle hold on to the Angle Lock through every counter imaginable again, it will be too soon. It's cool the first few times it happens, and I guess I do have to give credit for them milking it for a great reaction in his matches when he was in the company, but every big show Angle match (or every extended TV match) included that same sequence again and again. People talk about Randy Orton being too in love with RKO attempts, but Angle is really the same way with the Angle lock. But enough negativity from me. Undertaker's triangle choke is terrific and the photo finish with the move being reversed comes across really well and gets the desired reaction. This was the better match from either guy I have seen in a while. For all of the (sometimes justified) complaining about Undertaker being overpushed, him being as protected as he is really comes in handy in a match like this. When the Austin style took over main events in the late 90s, WWE main events became ALL about finishers. There was no reason to think the match was over until the finisher had been hit. Undertaker can bust out new submissions that are credible because he's credible, and the chokeslam, Last Ride and tombstone all really seem like they could end the match. Overall, I don't think I'd call this a MOTYC, but I'm glad it was on this set, because for the environment it was in, it was really good. KENTA v Kenta Kobashi - NOAH 03/05/06 For once, KENTA really seems to have a look of purpose, and I really like him better in this match than I did anything on the 2005 set, or the Marufuji match earlier on this disc. Had KENTA acted a little more like this instead of just kinda following along in the SUWA match, the match might have gone from great match to classic. Here, he's this surly little punk determined to rip Kobashi's arm off and feed it to him, and it's pretty frightening and surprising. I like the story at play here, as Kobashi plays nice for almost all of the match until he finally has enough and wins the match in seconds. For teacher versus student matches, this one seems to look pretty good next to Larry Zbyszko versus Bruno Sammartino, and even feels a bit like a Nightmare/Dick Murdoch match in Mid South. It's a LONG build to Kobashi finally snapping and having enough, and there are times when you think it's never going to happen, but when it finally does, it's pretty glorious. Good match. Not really "great" to me because it's largely pretty one-sided, but lots of fun and I liked the way the match played out when all was said and done. Kind of wrestled like a match designed to create a rematch, which I wouldn't mind seeing if it ever happened. Dragon Kid, Ryo Saito & Genki Horiguchi v CIMA, Naruki Doi & Masato Yoshino - ROH 03/31/06 I can see why this got the praise it did. I enjoyed it too, and could see myself watching it again. The rope running is pretty fun because it's so fast paced and spirited, and the overboard nature of all the nearfalls at the end went from great to annoying to enjoyable again, because they overkilled the two counts to a point where it became a little comedic. Still, when I think Match of the Year, I'm not really thinking a showcase match from another promotion with no real storyline that just exists in a vacuum in relation to everything else going on. It's enjoyable, don't get me wrong, but no one argued the Michinoku Pro 6-man at Barely Legal as the match of the year, did they? And speaking of that, comparing Dragon Gate to M-Pro, there are very few similarities, fewer than I would have expected. The Michinoku Pro guys tended to work more complex wrestling sequences, work in more comedy, do more showboating and emphasize the differences between all the wrestlers on each team. This is more guys who can wrestle really fast, but it feels more like the Big Japan style of catching a guy in a suplex as he's coming off of another move and doing rapid fire offense, which isn't really what I usually go for in my wrestling. Osamu Nishimura v Hiro Saito - MUGA 08/02/06 This match is ridiculously good, and totally caught me by surprise. I don't know if this match is all that indicative of the typical Muga style, but if it is, sign me up. This was a good match to watch after the Big Japan tag and the Dragon Gate 6-man, because it's pretty much the opposite of what those matches are. They take the time to really put over the big offense and submissions, which pays off, because Nishimura bridging out of a hammerlock gets a far bigger reaction than Abdullah Kobayashi killing himself because it's built up so well. Really simple, basic, stiff wrestling that's accessible and heated. I can't complain at all. Hiro Saito is really an unlikely underdog babyface in any environment, but he plays one for most of this match and is shockingly effective at that role. He sells Nishimura's headlocks and figure fours and Indian deathlocks so well. Any fans who really fell out of love with Japanese wrestling after 1998 would probably enjoy MUGA better than NOAH from what I can tell here. This is really a great late 70s/early 80s style All Japan or New Japan match, and both guys are awesome. Nishimura doing the rapid fire arm switching headlock thing is the greatest spot Bob Backlund never did, and hearing the crowd erupt when Saito catches Nishimura with a jawbreaker to counter a sleeper hold is really surreal for 2006 wrestling. The finish came completely out of nowhere and was really my least favorite part of the match, because it was such a quick comeback without much build, but at the same time, they got over the point nicely that Nishimura was better, but Saito was more resourceful. My favorite match off the first disc by a pretty big margin. Ranking the matches on Disc 1: #1 - Osamu Nishimura v Hiro Saito - MUGA 08/02/06 #2 - KENTA v Naomichi Marufuji - NOAH 01/22/06 #3 - El Hijo del Santo & La Mascara v Blue Panther & Tarzan Boy - CMLL 01/01/06 #4 - Mitsuharu Misawa v Takeshi Morishima - NOAH 03/05/06 #5 - Kurt Angle v Undertaker - WWE 02/19/06 #6 - Dragon Kid, Ryo Saito & Genki Horiguchi v CIMA, Naruki Doi & Masato Yoshino - ROH 03/31/06 #7 - KENTA v Kenta Kobashi - NOAH 03/05/06 #8 - Chris Benoit v William Regal - WWE 05/08/06 #9 - Shadow WX & Mammoth Sasaki v Abdullah Kobayashi & Daisuke Sekimoto - BJPW 01/27/06

When Meltzer says that, isn't it more of a criticism of the heavyweights? NOAH is really the first promotion I've ever seen that gives juniors 30 minutes on a regular basis, excluding all juniors promotions.

One thing that I think will help me out when I watch the other KENTA and Marufuji matches on the set -- is there a storyline with a breakup with them or is it more that they're just tag team partners who have a bit of a rivalry and occasionally face each other? I didn't know if it was a Misawa/Kawada circa '92 thing where they're slowly drifting apart to prep them for a big feud or not. Obviously, Marufuji proving to not be a draw with the GHC title probably affected whatever the long-term plans were, but I was curious. The reason I asked is that they went at it pretty aggressively in the January match, and it's possible I blocked it out, but I don't remember pre and post-match handshakes.

It's not a horrible idea. It was a really good one and I hope it's successful for you. Meltzer is always dancing with completely jumping over the line to MMA, and it's taking more and more of the newsletter space every week. Keller is ... Keller. Alvarez has his good and bad. I say you'll do a great job, and you'll basically ensure that the wrestling fan isn't forgotten in the Lessons of 2006 if you stick with it. I was pretty impressed with the debut issue.

I decided to make a thread for this, so Gordi, if you'd like, feel free to post your stuff you posted in Match Discussion here. Also, anyone else who has picked up the set and wants to talk about it, please feel free to post. So, let's get started. I'm watching these matches slightly out of order due to time management issues. First, let's post the full match list. El Hijo del Santo & La Mascara v Blue Panther & Tarzan Boy - CMLL 01/01/2006 What an awesome way to start this thing. Blue Panther and Santo are in first of course. Would you expect anything but? They do their typically great matwork exchanges with each other, as I realize they're probably doing similar matwork in some hole in the wall with no cameras somewhere as I type. It's all about the macho oneupmanship. They shake hands after coming to a stalemate at one point, and there's subtext galore going on, as it feels much more like a backhanded compliment than any genuine type of sportsmanship. Santo's headscissors from the ground up early on is awesome, but what made it even more awesome was that they slow-mo'd him using it to take Panther down. It's not even a highspot, but it's a good clue that whoever produced this thing understands wrestling. Some great familiarity spots here, my favorite of which is Panther challenging Santo to run the ropes and then dropping an elbow on him instead. Santo hasn't really aged at all here, and the Tommy Rogers-style avoidance of heel doubleteaming, the Super Astro tribute headbutt and senton/tope suicida combo just make that point way better than I can. Santo also has a tendency to play to my inner wrestling nerd, as I feel the need to start bitching about him being overly dominant and showy right when Tarzan Boy catches him with a powerbomb to take the second fall for his team. I'm a bit spoiled on great trios matches because I've watched far too much 1989 EMLL, so I wouldn't call this a classic or anything, but it's still very much an excellent match. There are other matches I've watched so far that objectively are better matches, but this one is way more fun to watch. I'm excited that there's more Santo to come! KENTA v Naomichi Marufuji - NOAH 01/22/06 I have no idea where to really start here. This is a great match. It's the best match I've watched on this set so far. Yet at the same time, I really hate it and think it represents a lot of what I don't really like about wrestling these days. Maybe it's the Lessons Of 2006 stuff with Marufuji doing the ground and pound, maybe it's the overly careful construction of this thing, I have no idea. It just really feels more calculated than a Madonna publicity stunt and flows like a match that was planned and practiced for weeks ahead of time. To their credit, they do a tremendous job building drama from beginning to end, Marufuji does some really awesome legwork on KENTA, and there is this really great moment late in the match where KENTA is making a comeback with his kicks, and Marufuji does this awesome sell where he leans right into every kick so he can fall back bigger and make them look more visually impressive. I think I would have enjoyed this more had it been a little shorter. Meltzer directed a rather infamous rant toward Eddy Guerrero and Rey Misterio a couple of years ago for being 15-18 minute guys trying to work 30 minutes that really would have been better served going toward these two. At the same time, I think there's a benefit to especially Marufuji working these matches now. He strikes me as a guy who is going to peak when he gets old and fat, and at that point, he'll probably be a moderately successful heavy working on top somewhere. He'll be used to going long, and he'll be better for it. And maybe then, some of the things being attempted here will play a little bit better for me. Sadly for these guys, NOAH isn't St. Louis, so a match between warring partners with lots of huge nearfalls and double TKO spots doesn't come across as well as it deserves. It sounds like I'm hating on these guys and bagging on the match I know, but I'm not. I thought this was a great effort with two talented guys (although Marufuji smokes KENTA in every way possible), and I felt bad for them because it really deserved to take place in a different era and environment to be fully appreciated. Shadow WX & Mammoth Sasaki v Abdullah Kobyashi & Daisuke Sekimoto - BJPW 01/27/06 I wanted to like this and tried to enjoy it, but sorry, no dice. I probably would have enjoyed this match more if it wasn't being talked about as a MOTYC. It's really more of a wacky comedy match with 2-3 minutes of hot nearfalls tacked on to the end of it than it is one of the best matches of the year. Garbage matches really require a lot of heat and atmosphere for me to get into them; otherwise, they just come across as pathetic. And this match didn't have much in the way of audience love until the final few minutes, which is a shame, because they were working pretty hard. Chris Benoit v William Regal - WWE Velocity 05/08/06 It's Benoit/Regal and it's everything you'd expect from Benoit/Regal. All the great spots are here, and while I still think the stuff they were doing a decade before is better, there's a certain charm to this that maybe wasn't there in their earlier matches, and it's interesting to see what's similar to and different from the Nitro specials they used to do. This is the second match in a row (and not the last) that really needed to be transplanted in another promotion or town or something to play to full effect. It's a bit weird watching all these awesome and totally-not-WWE-style spots in a WWE ring. Mitsuharu Misawa v Takeshi Morishima - NOAH 03/05/06 I really enjoyed this match quite a bit. My view is probably a bit skewed in an odd direction though, as I watched (and loathed) their January match before getting around to seeing this one. All that watching the two matches that way does is totally expose Morishima as a green spot guy being carried by a pretty formulaic Misawa match layout. And that match layout does wonders here to make Morishima look way better than he really is, as he has some great, stiff lariats and stuff, but can't really put together a match for shit. But he can follow, and he does that much better here than he did in January. That's probably because Misawa was concussed in that match and Morishima had no idea what to do, so he just dropped Misawa on his head another half dozen times. He's not the new Terry Gordy, he's more the Rob Van Dam version of Terry Gordy, if that makes sense. Still, the somewhat crippled Misawa deserves credit for being a hell of a pro, taking a vicious beating to get over a rising star and carrying the match mentally while letting Morishima carry it physically. Impressive, and probably not terribly easy to pull off. I wouldn't call this one of the best matches of the year, but I really enjoyed this as a Misawa performance. It's hardly an endorsement that he has lots of gas left in the tank. It's more of a statement that even as a shell of his former self, he remains pretty good when he really needs to be.

Re: Matt Hardy, I think he's having the best and most consistent year of anyone in wrestling right now. He seems to have a decent to very good match every week on Smackdown. By far, the best I've ever seen Kennedy look is when he was working over Matt Hardy's knee a few weeks back and Matt was selling it like a champ. I also think he does a really good job at portraying himself as a star without much of a push, and he has the ability to feel like an odds-on favorite in matches you know he has no chance of winning. Honestly, reuniting the Hardyz seems like a slight step backward, considering that both seem to finally have unique identities and be somewhat over as singles stars after years of failed attempts. I think the idea of them teaming on a part-time level is fine. In a perfect world, WWE would use their most established tag team to rebuild the belts, but I've given up on that happening. I just really think they're at a point where they could strap a rocket on either guy -- Matt or Jeff -- and they're finally at a point where it would work.

I really need to see this match quickly.

I can sort of understand that. Just try to watch with reasonable expectations, but don't let the expectations be the destruction of you. I had that problem when I watched Misawa/Kobashi v Kawada/Taue from 6/9/95 the first time. It had been hyped up as such an amazing match for so long by so many people that I think I was going to be disappointed unless spaceships dropped into the ring and every single second of the match was filled with surprises and twists and turns and "holy shit!" moments. I was disappointed that there wasn't immediate "wow" moments the second the bell rang to start the match and thought this would be a match that really transcended wrestling. It was a great, classic match, among the best to ever happen, but it wasn't much more than that. Just remember, it's not something otherworldly, it's still pro wrestling. Don't let the net hyperbole (for everything -- good and bad) affect you. I'm a little hypocritical here, since my favorite way to watch wrestling these days is to jump around constantly between styles/eras/promotions so I don't get tired of a particular style, but it may help to watch the matches in chronological order, since that is the way they were intended to be viewed. Also, I find that the All Japan style starts bugging me if I try to watch too much of it at once, so space it out. My biggest problem with the style has always been that I'm a fan of flash pins, inside cradles and rollups. Not all the time, but I think works in any style and adds a lot to the drama and suspense. All Japan is more big offensive move to pin attempt to next big offensive move to next pin attempt most of the time, so I don't catch a lot of surprise finishes. There are obvious exceptions to this, but no style is perfect, regardless of what the net hyperbole says.

I could add another 200-250 names to this list if I wanted. I'm debating whether or not I want to try.

It was last night. I followed the results online and found occasional streaming, but didn't get to really watch the show. MITB, Undertaker/Batista and Michaels/Cena seem to be getting a lot of praise, and MVP is also getting a lot of praise for keeping up with Benoit on the mat, which shocked everyone. The one thing I really had to see as it was happening -- Vince freaking out and getting his head shaved -- I got to see through the streaming I was watching at the time, and Vince didn't disappoint there. From all feedback, it appears to have been a good big show where everyone worked hard, and it also looks like most of the finishes were right on the money as well. The important question now is if they can sustain the buzz they've had lately. I'm sure Backlash will have a bunch of Wrestlemania rematches, as it always does, and I think Kennedy is a better future opponent for Cena than he is Undertaker, but it will still be interesting to see what direction they take, and how they'll hold over the top of the card until the currently absent big names (HHH, Foley, possibly Jericho) start returning.

You tend to think almost all wrestling you see is disappointing/bad/overrated. Maybe wrestling just isn't for you.

The problem with that logic is that Bruiser Brody is no different than Kevin Nash if that's what makes a great worker, and last time I checked, Meltzer didn't think too highly of Nash.

This seems appropriate for this thread, since this was the theme of 1988. Vince McMahon performs "Stand Back" ... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JjFFoy3tg4s