Loss

Akira Hokuto v Manami Toyota - 01/11/91 Holy shit, Toyota ROCKS in this match! She's the Bill Dundee of AJW here, attacking Hokuto's injured arm like a vulture and immediately fighting and clawing to completely remove the cast from her arm. Hokuto then rolls outside and tries to at least get back in the ring and create some space, but Toyota is relentless and is giving her nothing, immediately driving her knee into Hokuto's arm as hard as possible and attempting to do more damage by simply laying her arm flat and stomping on it repeatedly, dropping elbows and just wrestling with an incredibly vicious streak. The best part of it is watching Hokuto writhe around at ringside screaming in pain while Toyota casually brushes her hair out of her face in the middle of the ring. Hokuto fakes Toyota out by making her think she's far more weakened than she really is, and then proceeds to attempt to pay her back for everything by beating the shit out of her, but Toyota will have none of it, as she knows all she has to do is go back to the arm. The next time Hokuto rolls outside, even her trainers get a plancha from Toyota, but karma rears its head as Toyota injures her knee on the way down and ends up getting an immediate payback plancha from Hokuto. Both are virtually crippled at this point and surviving on adrenaline, and Hokuto proves herself no more a gentlewoman than Toyota by immediately zoning in on her knee. This is all in the first five minutes or so of the match and is really impressive. Then, Toyota proceeds to get silly and completely stop selling her knee and just throw dragon suplexes and missed moonsaults and it's full-blown 2.9 wrestling from here forward, with Toyota having no problems whatsoever going to the top rope with a bum knee and Hokuto not struggling at all to hit German suplexes with an arm that has miraculously healed. Remembering it's time for the finish, Toyota suddenly destroys Hokuto's arm for the win, and we have a match. A shame that they threw out all the awesome stuff they built early on just so they could do nearfall-nearfall-nearfall. Still, very good match with lots of energy, heat and emotion. ***1/2

Akira Hokuto v Bull Nakano - AJW 01/04/91 The good is that this is the best TNA iMPACT match I've ever seen. The bad is that this is very much a TNA-style match, with the main difference being the world class submissions from both Hokuto and Nakano. Of course, those submissions mean precious little when they each keep voluntarily releasing them just to apply other holds, or to do an Irish whip sequence for virtually no reason at all. And the momentum shifts constantly, to a point where it's really hard to gain any kind of connection with the match and see what they're going for. This reminded me so much of Styles and Daniels working with Joe, with Bull being Joe, in that they wrestle as equals despite the size difference. In fact, in some ways, Hokuto is the bigger badass of the two, busting out the German suplex right after the bell rings and landing a piledriver for a close call mid-match. There were things they did right -- in addition to the submissions, the desperation on display here is unparalleled in almost any match I've seen, from both, but that also works against them, because I don't understand why Bull Nakano has to wrestle in so much despair against Hokuto. Vader/Sting or Liger/Hash was what they were teasing early on in terms of match layout, but they didn't go that direction at all. ***1/4

I think he's greatly overrating Ross, although I will admit that Styles is not at the level Ross was even at his worst. Cruise was a stiff as an announcer, and not one whose style I enjoyed all that much, so I'm not sure where he's coming from. I don't think Styles is doing that terrific of a job myself, but it's interesting that he's being criticized by Chris Cruise.

This isn't going anywhere. If you want to participate, do so. If not, don't. The thread was started as an invitation for anyone who wanted to join in to join in. That's all there was to it.

I'm sure if you asked Vince, he'd say that this storyline is a tribute to Eddy Guerrero and is not a disgrace in any way. Sadly, he'd probably believe it.

Yes, I believe that is why Jericho got the feud with Rock. It's just that you hear so often about management not being very high on certain people, which makes you wonder how they even keep their jobs at all. Obviously, Vince saw something in Jericho, but only to a certain degree, because he was consistently getting more TV time in 2003 than anyone on either show and he had high profile feuds with Michaels, Goldberg and Nash.

What I've often wondered is ... with Vince being as down on Jericho as he reportedly was, who was pushing for Jericho that allowed him to achieve everything he did manage to achieve? I know he only won the belt so HHH would have a heel to go over, but why was the feud with Rock even started? Why was he kept in a fairly strong midcard position for most of his time there? Was it a case where certain people were pushing for him or did he impress management, but only to a certain point? He was the first top guy to get a raise in contract renewals after the death of WCW, he was given the program with Michaels, for better or worse. They obviously thought something of him to let him get to the level he did. My guess is that after he lost the belt, they saw him as someone who added a lot to the show in the upper midcard, but not as the top guy, but who knows?

You know, I rewatched and that's still the one bone of contention for me, but I also think in retrospect that I was a little too hard on the match. The beautiful things they do throughout the match are enough to overcome the powerbomb build, which as you said, isn't without merit. A rewatch has me putting this a bit higher ... at about ****1/4 or so.

The rumor also at the time was that HHH didn't want someone else with long blond hair who was a heel becoming a main eventer, because it would have hurt his heat. I guess he felt two blond heels on top would make them both ineffective because they wouldn't be unique or something, but that's really all that Jericho and HHH had in common. There were also rumors at the time that since WCW had misused him so badly, Nash asked his friends to make sure Jericho didn't take off right away because it would have made him look bad as a booker for not pushing him in WCW. Who knows if there's truth to that or not.

Well, HHH once suggested that Chris Jericho do programs with X-Pac and Kane so they could teach him how to work a match. He also said to a homeless person on the Thanksgiving '99 Smackdown -- "You're just like Jericho. You don't know how to work" when they were both heels and weren't even in a program together. I guess this is the first time ever that Jericho has been in a position where he could publicly confirm some of the stuff being said and that was going on at the time.

Check out this interview he just did for Ring Of Honor. Just awesome, awesome stuff. http://www.rohvideos.com/

Just wondered if you could scan/post it if you get a chance. It's my understanding that he talks openly about some of the things HHH did to undermine him in his time in WWE and talks pretty honestly about a lot of subjects. Thanks.

Toshiaki Kawada v Akira Taue - AJPW 03/31/96 There are so many things to love about this match. Kawada is so convincing in his performance here, and spends the majority of the match pulling out every trick in the book (and possibly even inventing a few new ones) to get Taue over as his superior, even with the match going to a draw. The story is communicated that Taue has an advantage over Kawada offensively, but that Kawada has only one major advantage over Taue -- his footwork. And that comes into play several times, as it's the only way Kawada is ever able to create an opening. And most of Kawada's openings are given instead of taken, which puts Taue over even more. Kawada is lucky enough to duck out of the way of a Taue lariat on the floor that would have killed him, but Taue goes crashing into the ringpost and now Kawada has a bit of an advantage. At first, Kawada can only put the hurt on Taue's arm by using the ring as a weapon, whereas Taue is able to fight back with wrestling moves. Kawada's total despair is obvious, and the point is made effectively that even when he's in control, he can't really rest on his laurels. That point is only rarely forgotten, as even in the final minutes of the match, Kawada is attempting pinfalls constantly, even after failed submission attempts. The build throughout the match from sequence to the next is pretty great, with the storyline of familiarity being the theme early on, with each blocking the other's chopping attempts and Taue knowing to try to avoid Kawada's kicks. It then escalates into a Taue ass kicking until Kawada has just enough timing to move out of the way when Taue is about to move in for the kill. The nods here are also pretty cool -- the battle for the vertical suplex is reminiscent of the Funk/Brisco series, and the powerbomb battle is much like Jumbo/Tenryu. Other matches have done it better, but this match finds its relevance just fine. I'm also a fan of the crowd control on display here. On the surface, Taue is the underdog, and the crowd reacts accordingly early on, but as the match progresses, Kawada has put Taue over so brilliantly that Kawada starts getting the reaction befitting an underdog when Taue is back in control. How they put Taue back in the driver's seat is pretty cool as well. Earlier in the match, Taue had attempted a powerbomb on the floor, which Kawada countered by kicking Taue in the face. Now, later in the match, after Kawada has been dominant for some time, he attempts to powerbomb Taue on the floor himself, perhaps to win that particular battle of stubborn wills, but Taue counters by kicking him in the face himself! Arrogantly, Taue starts to believe he's Kawada's equal in that department, but he loses that game in quick fashion. There are a few things working against the match, the draw ending being the most frustrating. Taue going over here was something built and teased all throughout the match, and the performance of both suggested that was going to happen. Yes, he was about to finally get the nodowa in the center of the ring when the bell rang, but at that point, the match was back and forth anyway, and some of the goodwill from earlier in the match had been undone. Also, they spent the entire match fighting over the powerbomb, and after all that build, Kawada is the first to successfully execute the move, and Taue kicks out? There was so much build to it that it was almost guaranteed to be the finish. And from that point on, the match is little more than a series of moves with no relevance, with admitted cool points going to Taue for using Misawa offense to try to put him away. Overall, I'd say this was a match that was laid out to be great, but wasn't great because it wasn't planned to be great. They reached the pinnacle of what they could do when given a 30-minute draw to work with and what would appear to be a lack of booking direction. Still, nice match with too much good stuff to write off. ***3/4

New month, new topic. I'll have some stuff to add here soon.

Meltzer said it a couple of months ago. I believe there was even a thread about it here.

Pillman? That's surprising. What happened to Flair Volume 2 I wonder?

When did Kawada become a wrestler not exclusive to AJPW?

I think a lot of the confusion can be blamed on Kensuke Sasaki popping up on everyone's show at some point. Is he a free agent not under contract to any promotion or what? His freelancing gives the impression that the promotions are somehow working together.

Because they want to move him to RAW to feud him with HHH to get the RAW ratings up on Telemundo, which is owned by NBC. So, they don't want him in the SD main event.

So I didn't cancel, but I'm not posting on the boards anymore either. Anyway, here's the news: -- Vince is considering Flair v Dusty for Wrestlemania, but is still adamant about Flair v Steamboat not happening. -- Vince wants to move Rey to RAW in this year's draft so he can feud with HHH. HHH wants the feud as well. The reason for the move to RAW is because he's wanting to boost RAW's numbers on Telemundo, which is owned by NBC, to give him more stroke with NBC. They also want to do a Rey/Carlito feud, which they actually think will be a recreation of Rey/Eddy. -- Lots of heat on Randy Orton for this Friday's SmackDown promo, with the mindset that he should have turned it down. -- The basis of Warrior's lawsuit against WWE is that there was a clause in their last suit that stated that neither side would publicly defame the other. -- Pre-RAW photos are no longer being posted because HHH believes WWE.com should maintain kayfabe -- Matt Hardy's relationship with Ashley Massaro has already ended due to him moving to Smackdown

I'd say NMB has done a good job historically capturing Vince's meltdown.

Stephanie's probably upset that it wasn't her getting groped.

Well, goodhelmet may not be up to that right now since I know he's busy, so let's not expect him to do it unless he says he can and wants to. I'd be happy to take the responsibility, but for some reason, I'm cursed and every DVD I burn has some type of fatal flaw, so I have no idea what I'm doing basically. We'll figure it all out in time.