Loss

I get the feeling sek is not so much calling Storm someone great as he is calling Benoit someone overrated. Is that accurate?

He tried, anyway. It hasn't really worked, because 2006 WWE fans don't really give a shit about Tommy Dreamer and Terry Funk.

He sums things up pretty well here, actually.

From Meltzer: Yes, sek, it's true that Flair could have possibly stopped it, but what does that really mean? Meltzer has also said in the past that any rumors of Flair grooming Austin himself, along with telling Scott Steiner he'd drop the belt to him immediately, aren't true. It's like criticizing HHH for the Eddy Guerrero stuff on WWE TV right now. Sure, you can make the case, but it's a stretch because there's such a disconnect.

I just e-mailed Meltzer to ask him to explain the whole situation between Austin and Flair in full. I'll post his reply.

You do realize you are the only person who has ever alleged that Ric Flair broke up the Blonds, right? He wasn't even booking until a few months after they were already broken up. Everything reported at the time was that Dusty broke them up. Flair couldn't have broken them up when they were broken up, because he didn't start booking for another three months.

It's very unfortunate. Joey Mercury is really good, and Johnny Nitro was starting to get really good. They looked like a tag team, had a doubleteam finisher, had a valet, were over, got to wrestle in TV main events on a fairly regular basis, had a great gimmick and for most of their run, unfortunately, had no rivalry. Then, WWE actually builds up a babyface tag team for the first time in years that beats MNM on Sunday night, which got a big pop. They killed it just minutes later by breaking up the heels. What's saddest about the breakup is the timing of it. After a year of facing whoever WWE could put together to challenge them, they finally had an actual tag team to feud with, and Sunday night is really when the program should have only begun to take off. I know what happened between Melina and Sharmell and all, but they really need tag teams right now, and they're punishing themselves just as much as they are punishing Nitro and Melina by breaking up the team. Now, they're back where they were before, with tag team champs with no opponents. Mercury, a talented guy, doesn't stand a chance in singles of getting over, and Nitro may fare only slightly better just because he's a homegrown talent that WWE wants to see succeed. Melina will be fine in the long run most likely, which is ironic, considering that the heat on her was one of the main reasons they were broken up in the first place. Oh well. I guess the tag team dream is over.

Added: Kyoko Inoue v Shinobu Kandori (AJW 08/25/93) ***1/2 Kaoru Ito & Mariko Yoshida v Tomoko Watanabe & Kumiko Maekawa (AJW 08/30/95) *** Akira Hokuto v Mima Shimoda (AJW 08/30/95) ***1/2 Aja Kong v Dynamite Kansai (AJW 08/30/95) ****1/2 Manami Toyota & Sakie Hasegawa v Kyoko Inoue & Takako Inoue (AJW 08/30/95) ****1/4

Added: El Dandy v L.A. Park (ENESMA 10/29/04) ****

El Hijo del Santo, Scorpio Jr & Bestia Salvaje v Negro Casas, El Dandy & Hector Garza - EMLL 11/29/96 This blew my mind, and is easily the best trios match I've seen thus far. Incredible heat, out of control brawling, tons of blood and Santo is out of this world, teasing walking out on the match to nuclear heat, sacrificing his partners when the technicos turn up the volume and still working in some great wrestling. Casas is awesome here too as someone trying a little too hard to pick his spots. Santo ends up catching him (and pretty much everyone in the arena) off guard with that dive outside the ring. Dandy is the most pure and virtuous guy in the match, and I like Hector Garza far more here than I have in any other match I've seen him in. Everyone involved in this match rules, but make no mistake -- this is definitely the Santo show, and he's the main reason this is worth watching. Imagine if Hollywood Hogan - at the peak of the NWO days - was this amazing wrestler capable of putting on great matches and there you have Santo.

I Yes I did. A lot of bad stuff has soured me on Muto, and I don't love him as much as I used to, but I was at least able to remember when I was a huge fan of his watching these matches. I think he was the least worker in the tags (I prefer saying that to worst in this case), but he was still great. All four of them were here.

Added: El Hijo del Santo, Scorpio Jr & Bestia Salvaje v Negro Casas, El Dandy & Hector Garza (CMLL 11/29/96) ****3/4

Meltzer is speculating that Melina is currently suspended. I have no clue what happened, but she's in the doghouse and the MNM breakup is because of whatever happened. Too bad, they would have been a great tag team with a long term rivalry and a better tag division. Now, we're back to square one, as London and Kendrick are champs and have no opponents. I don't know what's being planned between Rey and Chavo, but I'm sure there are going to be some angry people as a result of whatever they do. I like Booker as KOTR a lot. Really good decision to have him go over and have Lashley as the wronged babyface. I actually think he gets more elevation out of that than he would have by winning, as Booker is great at getting heat at this stage of his career and making interesting feuds, but beating him really doesn't mean much.

I guess they're intent on making Khali a star. Honestly, if he has a good attitude, there are more reasons to push him than there are not to push him, no matter how bad he is in the ring. He's way too big to be jobbing in the midcard, and honestly, someone being that big sort of means they don't have to do very much to get over anyway. It's not necessarily a push I'm going to enjoy unless he suddenly improves, but it makes sense.

I don't see Nakamura in WWE. I forget who it was, but a while back, when someone suggested bringing in a Japanese wrestler, Vince said they already had too many Mexican wrestlers on the roster.

Added: Nobuhiko Takada v The Cobra (NJPW 08/17/86) ****1/4 Nobuhiko Takada & Akira Maeda v Keiji Muto & Shiro Koshinaka (NJPW 03/20/87) ***1/2 Nobuhiko Takada & Akira Maeda v Keiji Muto & Shiro Koshinaka (NJPW 03/26/87) ****1/4 Nobuhiko Takada v Hiroshi Hase (NJPW 03/11/88) ****3/4

Nobuhiko Takada v Hiroshi Hase - NJPW 03/11/88 Wow. This match is absolutely amazing, and is now easily the best NJ juniors match I've ever seen, trumping Liger/Sammy from 04/92 and Otani/Sammy from 01/96. What I love most about this match is the meaning behind everything. NJ juniors matches often get criticized for having the first 5-10 minutes serve no grand purpose and containing mainly filler, but this match doesn't fit that bill at all, with Hase charging at Takada like a madman as soon as the bell rings, and Takada wrestling the first half of the match as the underdog. The structure of this match actually reminds me greatly of Hansen/Kobashi with the characterization being so strong and all the big offense being put over as being something of utmost importance. The crowd screaming for Takada to make his comeback is quite awesome. Liger/Samurai is the only other juniors match from NJPW that I think would work as a main event match on a show, but whereas that's more of the start of a journey (for Liger), this match is more the culmination of one (two great workers settling a score). I also love the booking style employed here - sure, we tire of ref bumps when they're used all the time, but this is the first ref bump I've ever seen in New Japan and it works really well, with Takada getting a moral victory, which plays right into what they're trying to accomplish. I've watched tons and tons of Takada lately. The guy is amazing, and I could see a case for him being the greatest wrestler of all time, and that's not even including the strength of his work in UWFi, which I haven't even seen. When I first started watching him, I compared him to Maeda and found him favorable. Then, I compared him to his peers like Koshinaka, Kobayashi and Hase and found him favorable. Now, I'm starting to compare him to guys like Liger and Jumbo and while I'm still not sure how I feel about that, I can definitely say he doesn't seem out of place next to those guys. Things will change, as they always do with me, but at this moment, Nobuhiko Takada is my favorite wrestler. I shouldn't ignore Hase, though. The guy is awesome because he does everything everyone else does, but does it in so much more convincing fashion than most of his peers. A takedown looks like a real struggle, he looks like he's trying to kill his opponent when he locks in a headlock and he's every bit as intense as Chris Benoit. He also understands the art of selling a match to the masses better than a lot of guys who are considered better than him. I've always liked Hase, but until a few months ago, he was just another good-great wrestler who wasn't really on my radar. He's now one of my favorites as well. The more I watch, 80s juniors are starting to look far superior to 90s juniors overall. Don't get me wrong, Liger, Otani, Samurai, etc were great, but at times, with Liger probably being the exception, a lot of the guys in the division pigeonholed themselves too much into that style. It's easy to forget when watching Hase, Kobayashi, Takada, Koshinaka, Cobra, etc. that they're juniors and not headliners.

Yeah, they were two separate matches. The '83 one is great as well, but a little harder to find in such great quality, and only 40 minutes of the 60-minute draw exists.

Added: Akira Maeda & Osamu Kido v Antonio Inoki & Yoshiaki Fujiwara (NJPW 12/10/86) ***1/2 Akira Maeda & Nobuhiko Takada v Yoshiaki Fujiwara & Kazuo Yamazaki (NJPW 05/25/87) **** Riki Choshu v Yoshiaki Fujiwara (NJPW 06/02/87) ***3/4 Riki Choshu, Super Strong Machine & Kuniaki Kobayashi v Nobuhiko Takada, Osamu Kido & Yoshiaki Fujiwara (NJPW 06/12/87) **** Nobuhiko Takada v Kuniaki Kobayashi (NJPW 08/20/87) ***3/4

Thanks. Damnit. Lots of mistakes on that damn goodhelmet match list for his 2005 MOTY comps I keep running into.

Added: Adrian Adonis v Andre the Giant (NJPW 06/08/84) ***1/4

Added: Volk Han v Kiyoshi Tamura (RINGS 01/22/97) ****1/2 Volk Han v Yoshihisa Yamamoto (RINGS 08/13/97) ****1/4

I'm pretty sure the Flair/Piper match is available as a handheld. I'm not sure about the rest.

Good question. I'm not entirely sure.

The tag match is MOTN by a longshot, but Rude/Sting, while short, is something I'd still say is worth seeing, just because of the incredible heat and Jim Ross's brilliant announcing. Not necessarily a great match, but really well laid out.