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4 out of 22 people in the DVDVR 90s poll had it in their Top 20. I'm not saying that no one didn't like the match. Just that it wasn't that much pimped, and I was one of the few people banging the drum on it over and over and over again. If there's a probably about working two body parts, then eventually moving beyond them, I'm guessing that 6/94 is going to be a problem since Kawada worked on both the back/neck (which had Carny history) and the ear (which the genius that is Kawada happened to wisely pick up on). I don't think these two forgot what match they were working. Single note matches are extremely rare in All Japan. I suspect when you see Hansen-Taue from Carny '94 you'll realize that the Carny '95 Final *isn't* truly a single note, single storyline AJPW match, and actually is quite a bit closer to a normal AJPW Big Match where they mix in some storylines that are at hand (Kobashi's knee, Misawa's neck, Kawada's knee, etc) while going about having their usual match. Hansen-Taue is *extreme* in storyline focus. Misawa-Taue at Carny isn't... not even close. On the comp between this and Hash-Mutoh, my comments are more than Hash and Mutoh do their stuff early to kill time because they're going long for NJPW. When they pick it up and start building to the finish, they might harken back to it a bit here and there, but it plays no great role... certainly not at a 1996 Sammy-Ohtani level where they're going back to earlier stuff *is* the poin of the match. 9/95 Taue-Misawa like that is along those lines: they have their stuff to fill the match, go to bombs, might touch back on te eye or knee as cut off spot because they are damage points they've established either long term (eye) or in the match (leg), and then go back to throwing bombs. It's pretty much an All Japan thing. John

Fun, but probably not essential given how you cut the Yearbooks. The example I would give would be that you cut out both of the semifinals of G1 1995: Mutoh-Norton and Hash-Chono. Those are good matches, help round out the story of G1 and the Norton-Mutoh add to the notion that Mutoh is on a career-best run while Hash-Chono is good match of two big stars in the promotion. Space limitations means they got left on the cutting room floor. As far as not in the star ratings, Tenryu-Inoki is one that was mentioned. Historic match, the draw at a Dome show, Tenryu knocking off the Big Dog of New Japan before jobbing to Hash (which needs to be on if folks haven't pointed to it yet). The Hash-Liger probably has been mentioned, with folks perhaps mixed over it. A rare at the time match up of the top guys in each division in the company, in one of the companies big arenas rather than just a throwaway on a smaller card. John

There's your problem right there. John

Tito-Rude from Boston in 2/89 is pre-Warrior... and I thought it was a pretty solid, good match. John

I do enjoy how much credit Levy takes for his matches. I remember being in Korakuen Hall before an ECW joint card with a Japanese company and watch & listen to Paul going over the matches with the guys at length. Yes, Levy put a lot of thought into his shit. So did Paul... a hell of a lot. And hell, I'm not even someone who likes Paul at all. John

I'm kind of scratching my head why throwing bombs was okay in Kawada-Misawa and Kobashi-Taue, but here you're expecting a repeat of the Carny Final. None of the guys were working at this point the way you want Misawa-Taue to work in this match. We're five months past the eye injury... it's kind of hard to build an entire match around it again. Hell, 6/95 wasn't even entirely around the eye since Kawada & Taue were... yeah... that's right... Throwing Bombs down the stretch to Kill Misawa Dead to try to finally pin Zombiesawa. This struck me then, and still does, as the point where you could dump Taue into a Budokan singles and come to expect a great match on the level of dumping Misawa or Kawada into one. Not in the sense of needing Misawa to carry him (2/93) or being shocked to hell by it (4/95)... but instead *expecting* greatness. My thought would be that if you want "disappointing", pop in the 6/96 Taue-Kawada at Budokan. After all the great Taue-Kawada matches that you've seen on the Yearbooks, and knowing how great Taue is at that point, there is your disappointing match. Seriously don't know how one can watch this back-to-back with Mutoh-Hash and think that the NJPW match is better, unless one is cutting slack for the NJPW guys and knocking the AJPW guys for things that the NJPW guys do to an even greater degree. And that's coming from someone who has always loved and pimped the Hash-Mutoh for years when hardly anyone else did. John

Yes, yes and yes. Along with the Onita-Tenryu if it hasn't been mentioned. John

I'll agree that as entertainment it was fine, but as MATCHES it's hard to go above a Scott Keith-style "DUD" rating. DUD is a Meltzer rating going all the way back to the early 80s. Setting that aside... I could give a shit how That Idiot SKeith would have rated the matches. I enjoyed at least one of those Macho-Animal SNME matches. Didn't suck to me. I can't think of a single match that I would rate as a "DUD" that I also happened to enjoy. You lost me on the rest of your post, which doesn't strike me as relevant to pondering whether Macho-Animal sucked. John

I suspect I tossed out the Misawa-Kawada thing a decade or so ago.

"At this time, obviously conspicuous by his absence, is the Macho Man Randy Savage. I'd like to announce, unfortunately, that Randy Savage has been unable to sign a contract with the World Wrestling Federation, not... unable to, rather, come to terms with the World Wrestling Federation for a new contract. But Randy, I know you're out there listening, and on behalf of all of us here in the World Wrestling Federation, all of your fans, and certainly, me, the number one fan, I'd like to say, thank you for all of your positive contributions to the World Wrestling Federation, thank you, Randy Savage, for all the wonderful memories for so many years here in the World Wrestling Federation. We wish you nothing but the best. Godspeed, and good luck." -Vince McMahon, 11/07/94 Raw

I recall enjoying one of those SNME matches in the sense that Macho was fucking awesome in it in putting on a show and making Steele look good and getting the fans into the shit. I wouldn't say it sucked at all. John

Tenryu in New Japan caused the heat. It was a new thing, and New Japan fans always ate up interpromotional stuff if there was at least a Star anchoring it. I'm not sure how much AJPW fans would have eaten up AJPW vs WAR at this point. Tenryu had been in AJPW forever prior to leaving, which wasn't all the long ago. My recollection is that they looked down their nose at SWS and WAR, and felt they were proven right when it bombed out and the guys who stayed stepped up to become big stars. The guys who jumped from All Japan to SWS saw their careers hit a brick wall, other then Tenryu in the long term. There's also the booking question. Tenryu over Kosh Tenryu over Choshu Choshu over Tenryu Tenryu over Hashimoto Tenryu over Hashimoto Fujinami over Tenryu Tenryu over Hase Tenryu over Chono Tenryu over Fujinami Tenryu over Inoki Hashimoto over Tenryu There probably aren't perfect analogies here, but perhaps something like this: Kosh = Kobashi Choshu = Hansen (since Jumbo went out) Hashimoto = Misawa Fujinami = Williams (since Gordy OD'd) Hase = Taue Chono = Kawada Inoki = Baba Which creates: Tenryu over Kobashi Tenryu over Hansen Hansen over Tenryu Tenryu over Misawa Tenryu over Misawa Williams over Tenryu Tenryu over Taue Tenryu over Kawada Tenryu over Williams Tenryu over Baba Misawa over Tenryu Uh... yeah... that never would happen. John

All three of them went down to the surf between some of the matches, and of course before the show. Dave is/was the true beach guy of the bunch, hitting the beach all the time back then up in NoCal. John

Steamboat-Snuka was pretty split on how people saw it over on the DVDVR boards. Some people liked it a decent amount, and others thought it was dogshit. I never was much of a fan of it, and think the 12/82 Race-Steamboat from All Japan is a better match. I enjoyed the Mil-Steamer the last time I watched it. Thought it was nice to see Steamer out of his element, and thought his ability to work holds with Mil reflected well on him. John

Hogan-Rude had a lot of bullshit early, but turned into a pretty passable Hogan Match. Rude's late 1987 matches that I haven't seen but are of interest are: * 09/20/87 and 11/06/87 against Orndorff in MLG and Houston respectively * 12/26/87 against Steamboat in MSG I suspect the MSG matches against Steamboat is better than the Rumble match. PPV matches in the era tended to be over "controlled" by what Vince/Pat/whomever wanted, while house show matches tended to have the wrestlers do their thing to fill the time. There definately were PPV matches helped by that heavy hand, such as Rude-Warrior at Summer Slam '89. But there were house show matches where the guys doing their on thing led to a more watchable match than the two might do on PPV. An example would be the enjoyable 02/11/89 Rude vs Santana that pretty much was something they'd never really luck into on a PPV. Rude's big feud in 1988 was with Jake, and there are a lot of matches between the two available. Don't know if you ever ran across a decent one. As far as Tito in 1988, you liked the match with Valentine. I liked the one Strikeforce vs Harts match from 1988 that exists (two others from 1987 were around when I reviewed them, including the title change which was a very good Nitro Style match). John

Alright... let's give it a go. Former national champs who hit a high peak early then fade. Olympians. Stars from other sports who joined wrestling at an older age. Mongo would actually be a better comp for Wajima since he wrestled morethan Greene. Did I miss Stevie getting murdered? Mistaken belief that they're both second generation wrestlers. John

Totally agree on this. I'm not sure if it was even a 50/50 thing where half the time he was on, and half he wasn't. He'd start feuds like the one with Snuka like a house of fire... then quickly the quality would fall off in future matches. The entire Steamboat feud is wildly disappointing, with just short flashes within matches of what could be... then lots of crap. Hard to blame on Steamer since we've seen him game against so many opponents. I suspect that Buddy Rose fans could point to him as being pretty damn consistent in his prime. Probably not by doing the same match all the time, since he probably worked a different match against Pedro Morales in the WWF than he did working with one of his favorite opponents doing a 2/3 fall match in Portland. But... Buddy had so much of his own bumping stooging selling spots to fall back on that he could have a match with Pedro that probably fit into what his fans would see as, "Yeah... that's how Buddy could put on something passable against someone like Pedro." One could say Flair was pretty consistent because he could/would fall back on the Flair Match, had lots of his stuff he brought to the table and could move it along. I don't view consistency as *not* bouncing between **1/2 and ****1/2 all the time, because opponents often dictate stuff like that. Working with Barry Windham is different from working with Dusty. **1/2 against Dusty might be a perfectly watchable match: they laid out a decent arc, worked the crowd, did their shit. It might not grab you as much as his best against say Barry, but you got a different type of consistency from Flair: he worked hard, he worked up the crowd, he made the face look good, etc. He did that night after night, year after year, for a decade or more. I'd say there as also a long stretch like that out of Kobashi in the 90s. Not always my cup of tea, but you do have to give him credit for pretty much always bringing it when he could. There were times where it's clear others were taking it easy, while Kobashi was almost always putting on the Kobashi Show. Again, it might not seem consistent when one night he's having a ***** match while earlier in the series he's having a *** six man tag. But it's likely that you'll find Kobashi in the six man is working hard, probably is getting as much reaction from the crowd as anyone, and not exactly blowing shit left and right. John

"The beach was nice. The wrestling sucked." -Dave Meltzer & Wade Keller & Bruce Mitchell about the day at Huntington Beach John

It's kind of funny that they put Lawler over for the SMW title earlier in the year, but couldn't have done a turn around with Buddy in Memphis. John