gordi

I hope that Gagne vs Simmons time limit draw was basically 20 minutes of Gagne getting rag-dolled.

You are just teasing the hell out of your fans this week.. They keep thinking there's a new champ, but...

I love Abby's Elbow Drop. He really throws a good one. What a trio, having him with the Funks!

JWA Live in Fukuoka: February 4th, 1986 Keiji Mutoh and “Thunder” Yamada vs Kuniaki Kobayashi and Black Tiger Both teams fought hard to earn the honour of facing the Fantastics on the JWA Rumble show. Mutoh and Yamada used speed, athleticism, and technical wrestling. Kobayashi and Black Tiger countered with hard strikes and blatant cheating. Yamada had a very nice “Face in Peril” segment and the hot tag to Mutoh drew a good pop from the crowd. Unfortunately, Mutoh’s revenge got cut off when Kobayashi poked him in the eyes, setting up a tag to Rocco and a Black Tiger Bomb for the finish. Dos Caras and Shiro Koshinaka vs Masa Fuchi and Samson Fuyuki Fuchi and Fuyuki tried to use similar cheating tactics to win their match, but the superior experience and ring savvy of Dos Caras and Koshinaka allowed them to turn the tables. This enraged Masa Fuchi, and in his anger he made a crucial mistake, getting trapped in the Baba Corporation team’s corner. A series of hip attacks from Koshinaka set up a Flying Cross Body from Dos Caras that pinned Fuchi to end the match. Super Strong Machine vs Anoaro Atisanoe Atisanoe and Hirata fought a hard-hitting, clean, back and forth battle that saw several momentum changes and a couple of close near-falls. Umanosuke Ueda and Tatsutoshi Goto came out to ringside to tip the odds in Atisanoe’s favour, but an ironic “Malfunction at the Junction” spot gave Super Strong Machine the advantage instead. After Atisanoe crashed into Goto, he fell victim to a Machine DDT as Sumo Machine and Very Tall Machine rushed to ringside to prevent Ueda and Goto from interfering to prevent the pinfall. Atisanoe didn’t look very happy, but he walked to the back with his teammates without incident. Senpai and Kohei Grudge Match: Choshu and Kensuke vs Fujinami and Chono The younger wrestlers started out and they went back and forth, but Choshu interfered every time Chono gained the slightest advantage. A few minutes of watching this was enough to set Fujinami off, and he went after Choshu with fury in his eyes. As the ref was struggling to break that up, Masa Fuchi ran down to ringside. Apparently still angry after losing his match, he charged into the ring shoved Kensuke aside, and nailed Chono with a pair of Backdrop Suplexes behind the referee’s back. Fuchi rolled out of the ring and charged off into the crowd. The referee, having managed to separate Fujinami and Choshu turned around just in time to see Kensuke roll Chono up for the pin. ***BREAK*** No-DQ Blood Elimination Match: Yoshiaki Yatsu, Cactus Jack, Nord the Barbarian, and Hiro Hase vs Rusher Kimura, Phil Hickerson, Umanosuke Ueda, and Tatsutoshi Goto The rules of the match are fairly simple: If the ref catches you bleeding, you are out of the match. Eliminated wrestlers were allowed to remain at ringside. Referee Verne Siebert was inside the ring and was the main official when it came to making calls on elimination. Kyohei Wada was tasked with maintaining order outside the ring. The first elimination came quickly, as Hiro Hase got caught in the Choshu’s Army corner and Umanosuke Ueda carved up his forehead with a foreign object. Eliminated, but still at ringside, Hase grabbed a spike from under the ring and used it to bloody the first member of the opposing team to be tossed outside. That turned out to be Tatsutoshi Goto. Ueda then went after Yatsu and there was a long struggle while Yatsu defended himself from the foreign object attack. A brawl erupted, and Big John Nord managed to grab the object out of Ueda’s hands. Nord went after Rusher Kimura and managed to open a small cut, but Phil Hickerson wiped the blood away with a towel before the ref could see it. Things spilled out of the ring, with Yatsu and Hase going after Ueda while Goto and Kimura went after Nord. Inside the ring, Cactus Jack and Phil Hickerson went toe to toe, exchanging hard punches to the head. Cactus busted Hickerson open, but the quick-thinking Tennessean wiped the blood from his own forehead onto Foley’s face, and Verne Siebert called both men eliminated. Nord and Ueda both fell victim to the double team attacks outside and also got eliminated. That left Rusher Kimura and Yoshiaki Yatsu as the last men standing. Yatsu threw a nasty elbow at Rusher’s forehead, and his cut from earlier in the match opened right up. However, Kimura “accidentally” ran into referee Verne Siebert and knocked him out of the ring. As soon as Kyoei Wada came into the ring to check on things, Kimura rolled outside. Once again, Hickerson tried to wipe the blood away with a towel. Nord the Barbarian put a stop to that by hurling his body into both men, knocking them over. Cactus Jack then climbed up on the ring apron and ran off at full speed, dropping a huge elbow on Rusher. Finally, Hase picked Kimura up and threw him back into the ring. Wada saw the blood, and eliminated Kimura. There was a stare-down in the ring after the match, but Siebert and Kyohei somehow managed to maintain order. Special AWA Challenge match: Chris Adams, Dave Taylor, and Marty Jones vs Yoshiaki Fujiwara, Nobuhiko Takada, and Masakatsu Funaki In contrast to the wild brawling of the previous match, this was a battle of two highly technical styles: The British Catch Wrestling style exemplified by Adams, Taylor, and particularly Jones (who was trained by Billy Robinson, and who was in turn William Regal’s trainer), and the Japanese UWF style, exemplified by the JWA team. Fujiwara trained under the legendary Karl Gotch, and Takada and Funaki were both trained by Fujiwara. The bout started out cleanly, but after a while it became apparent that the Japanese team had a clear advantage in the striking department, and the British Bullies started to cut corners in an attempt to re-gain the momentum. This set off the notoriously grumpy Fujiwara, who absolutely clobbered Adams and Taylor with vicious head-butts, busting both men open the hard way and knocking them dizzy. He then allowed Taylor to get back to his corner, and tagged his protégé Funaki into the ring to face Marty Jones. The much younger Funaki gained an early advantage and earned a close near-fall with a Roundhouse Kick, and almost forced the English fighter to tap out to an Ankle Lock, but Jones fought back bravely and eventually caught Funaki in a Cross-Face Chicken Wing. Fujiwara made no move to break up the hold, and indicated with his eyes that Takada shouldn’t interfere either. Adams and Taylor also stayed in their corners, recovering. Funaki managed to escape, but Jones stayed on top of him and managed to hit a Belly-to-Belly Piledriver. Once again, Funaki’s partners made no move to break up the pin, and this time it cost them the match. Fujiwara, however, didn’t seem to mind. In fact, he seemed rather pleased that Funaki had fought well against a tough veteran like Marty Jones. JWA Trio Tournament Semi-Finals Re-match: Baba, Jumbo, and Misawa vs Tenryu, Hara, and Kawada So, the film revealed that Jumbo had, in fact, illegally pulled on Tenryu’s tights to secure the pin in their match on January 24th. As a result, the JWA Board of Governors decided that there should be a re-match, with the winner facing off against The Machines to determine the Tournament winner and new JWA Trios Champions on February 24th. All of the wrestlers were pretty poker-faced as this one started out. Nobody seemed particularly angry or embarrassed. Jumbo, however, was clearly pushing as the match went on, apparently eager to make up for his faux pas by winning the match by himself. Of course, that led to some mistakes and Jumbo ate a couple of near-falls before finally gaining control with a huge Lariat on Hara around the 20-minute mark. Jumbo then tagged in Misawa and instructed him to hold Hara up for a double-team move. Tsuruta ran full speed into the ropes and came flying at Hara with an attempted Knee Pat. However, Hara moved at the last second, throwing Misawa into the path of danger. Tsuruta’s knee hit Misawa right on the chin, knocking him flat. Hara quickly tossed Jumbo out of the ring and covered Misawa for the one…two…THREE!! After the match, Tsuruta was inconsolable.

Love the set-up for Robinson vs St. Clair. Classic booking with The Soul Patrol pulling a fast one on The Stud Stable. And, excellent set-up for Flair vs Magnum.

Man... I am not at all comfortable with the "Funk kisses Precious... and she likes it!" angle. On the other hand, I love the "Ronnie Garvin alone against the world" angle. He is just the right guy to be put in that kind of situation.

The no DQ match is a big one for us. If it goes over well, maybe Baba will allow more matches like that in JWA moving forward. That would give us a greater degree of flexibility in working with guest wrestlers from overseas. Yep. If they want a title shot in JWA, they will have to earn it. I like the idea of British Catch style vs Gotch-influenced UWF style. I hope I can do that mach justice when I write it up. I enjoyed reading Kevin and LowBlow's Rumble matches too much. I had to give it a try myself. Again, hopefully I can do it justice.

I love Madril and Chicky just blatantly discussing their plan to set a trap for Hercules Ayala. Hopefully for their sake he wasn't watching the show I love how you write up Brody here. A true monster, constantly on the verge of going out of control.

1986-vintage Hacksaw vs Doc in a lumberjack match is going to be intense!

I like how you gave Gino a big run before he passed away. The whole thing was handled with class and tact.

Your young guys are looking good in Lethbridge. And: There is no bullrope like an Alberta bullrope.

Also: That's a sweet-looking title belt.

Very well-booked show with every match being entertaining and every segment building to something in the future. I am particularly looking forward to Armand vs Gordy.

Good booking with that opening match to heat up the crowd. Hopefully somewhere down the line we'll also get a straight-up technical wrestling match between Bock and Adams, but the way you booked it here did fit with "the theme of the night."

I love the use of the simulcast gimmick. I watched WMIII on closed circuit and it was an absolute blast. Glad it all came off without any technical hitches! (Comment simulcasted from the AWA thread).

I love the use of the simulcast gimmick. I watched WMIII on closed circuit and it was an absolute blast. Glad it all came off without any technical hitches! (I'm gonna simulcast this comment on the Lutte thread).

Sullivan being irritating, getting irritated, and losing his match... Scorp getting a big upset win... Zbyszko getting on Bock's nerves... I like the subtle ways you are building to the future here. Also, with Blackwell and Patera and Rose and Somers you have two very good and very different heel tag teams to build the division around.

If they claim that Hogan, at WMIII, was the first to slam Andre, it will kill the whole thing for me regardless of how good the rest of it is.

Yep. Reading that post was just as much fun as watching the match.

Yep. What a happy surprise that was.

Shultz over Garvin was a title change, I always add "to WIN the championship" rather than retain the championship in hopes of making it clear but I'll put a list up on the champions page in the next day or so. Ah, yes... I see that now.

Apologies, but I'm finding it hard to keep track of who your champions are. Do you have a list posted? I couldn't find it. Was Dr. D vs Ronnie Garvin a title change? Were there any (other) changes on the show?

I like how you wrote those matches up. Descriptive, realistic, and appropriate for the time frame. It was very easy to imagine the action. I also liked how you varied the finishes: Bad guy cheats to win, but a good guy runs in to punish him. Bad guy wins clean but acts arrogantly. Underdog steals an upset. Good guy wins, but bad guy takes cheap revenge. Good guy gets screwed by the ref. Match goes out of control... The sheer variety is awesome.

Announcement of upcoming cards: February 4th, 1986 in Fukuoka: The Board of Governors of the Japan Wrestling Association, after reviewing tape of the JWA Trio Tournament Semi-Finals, have ordered the following re-match: Baba, Jumbo, and Misawa vs Tenryu, Hara, and Kawada Special AWA Challenge match: Chris Adams, Dave Taylor, and Marty Jones vs Yoshiaki Fujiwara, Nobuhiko Takada, and Masakatsu Funaki No-DQ Blood Elimination Match: Yoshiaki Yatsu, Cactus jack, Nord the Barbarian, and Hiro Hase vs Rusher Kimura, Phil Hickerson, Umanosuke Ueda, and Tatsutoshi Goto ***BREAK*** Senpai and Kohei Tag Grudge Match: Choshu and Kensuke vs Fujinami and Chono Super Strong Machine vs Anoaro Atisanoe Dos Caras and Shiro Koshinaka vs Masa Fuchi and Samson Fuyuki Keiji Mutoh and Thunder Yamada vs Kuniaki Kobayashi and Black Tiger (for the right to face The Fantastics on February 14th) February 14th, in Yokohama, airing live on Asahi TV: The Fantastics vs (The winner of Keiji Mutoh and Thunder Yamada vs Kuniaki Kobayashi and Black Tiger) (if the Fantastics win, they get a shot at Riki Choshu and Rusher Kimura for the JWA Tag Titles in Tokyo on the 24th). Inspired by the success of similar events in the WWF and UWF recently, JWA is proud to present the first ever JWA Rumble Match. Participants will include: Giant Baba Jumbo Tsuruta Genichiro Tenryu Ashura Hara Riki Choshu Rusher Kimura Tatsumi Fujinami Yoshiaki Fujiwara El Canek Super Strong Machine And 20 other wrestlers!

My basic method was to make a huge list of matches that I believe qualify as "objectively" pretty great (I.e. 4.5 stars plus), then try to narrow that down to 100. My first attempt, I went with "What matches do I think belong on everyone's list?" as my main criterion for ranking. I think that was a pretty great list... but it wasn't MY list. There are a few matches (Billyken vs Togo, Harada vs Kotoge, Ebessan vs Kuishinbou) that I sincerely believe are in the "pretty great" range that probably resonate more with me because Osaka Pro is my local indie promotion and I know and like the people involved. There are some matches that I rank in that range that may fly a little under the collective radar where maybe others might rank them more like 4 1/4 stars or whatever (like Vader & Tenta vs Albright & Yamazaki, that one Tenryu & Hara vs Jumbo & Yatsu match where I felt like all the pieces came together perfectly, or that Usos vs New Day match that is the only recent WWE match that really blew me away). I tried a list where I put those matches at or near the top, but it felt disingenuous. Finally, I decided to take my list and rank it by "how much did this match make me personally mark out?" That list felt right to me. No "objectively great" match made me mark out as much as 6/9/95. Hokuto and Kandori vs Bull and Kong came pretty close... #3 through #19 are all pretty much tied for third, but I did my best to put them in some kind of order. I've got Savage and Steamboat from WM3 at #20. I watched that on closed circuit with friends at Pacific Colloseum and it was the greatest mark-out moment of my life. Adjusted for circumstances, though, 20 seemed fair. There was a pretty great match at WMXX that was also, at the time, a massive mark-out moment for me. But now, I don't wanna think about that match or that wrestler. It's not on the list, nor are there a lot of matches where Misawa gets dropped right on the top of his head. Also: there are no HBK or King matches on my list. That is pure, inexplicable, personal taste. I can recognize their greatness as wrestlers and understand why some of their matches get all the stars... but for whatever reason I just don't like those guys and their matches don't do it for me. Taste is a very strange thing. I love Neil Young but I don't like Springsteen. I love Dvorak but I can't get into Brahms. I dig Bret and Jumbo but HBK and King just leave me flat. Who can say why... and I don't even think the why is all that important. If you fall down and skin your knee while eating a hot dog, when you are 5 years old... it's quite possible that, as an adult, you will hate hot dogs. You might be all, "I don't like hot dogs because they are greasy and salty and bad for you" but really it's some long-forgotten childhood trauma that's at the root of it. Doesn't matter, though. No use in pretending to like hot dogs if you really don't. Grab a burrito or a hamburger instead , and enjoy it.