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I saw the HH years ago. John

They did a 3.1 the week before Hall showed up. They'd done 3.5+ serveral times earlier in the year, and a month worth of 3.1+ earlier in the year as well. 3.1 05/20/96 2.8 05/27/96 3.0 06/03/96 2.6 06/10/96 No a massive jump leading to the PPV 3.4 06/17/96 Post PPV 3.3 06/24/96 3.3 07/01/96 The angle with Eric did well. 3.5 07/08/96 Post PPV 3.4 07/15/96 2.6 07/22/96 3.1 07/29/96 3.0 08/05/96 The 2.6 drop was on a show where I don't think Hogan was on the show. 3.3 08/12/96 Post PPV 3.5 08/19/96 4.2 08/26/96 4.3 09/02/96 3.7 09/09/96 3.7 09/16/96 Big bumps over 4.0 are the US Open weeks. The point at which they started really sustaining ratings was after the turn, and after Hogan won the title. Then MNF kicked in, taking them down into the 3.3-3.7 range until November where they had another dip. Again, I think most of that is simply MNF as they were still beating Raw well. 1995 vs 1996 PPV's * = Hogan PPV SuperBrawl 0.95* vs 0.63* Hogan-Vader vs Hogan Giant Uncensored 0.96* vs 0.70* Hogan-Vader vs Hogan & Savage Clusterfuck Slambore 0.57* vs 0.44 Hogan vs Non-Hogan Overall, the year is down quite a bit. Great American Bash 0.51 vs 0.48 Outsiders Debut for "War" with Eric. Even opposite a non-Hogan PPV, there's not much there. Bash at the Beach 0.82* vs 0.71 Hogan-Vader III vs Outsiders It's a bump up from three bad non-Hogan buyrates. It's not much of a bump over Hogan's poor buys earlier in the year (+0.08 & +0.01), and pretty much gets its clocked cleaned by all of the Vader-Hogan, even the third in an incredible poorly book feud. My strong recollection at the time is that this buy wasn't a Holy Shit Things Are Hot moment. Road Wild --- vs 0.62* A brand new PPV at a time when they're starting to go monthly, and against someone Hogan has faced a lot... this wasn't wildly disappointing. Fall Brawl 0.48* vs 0.65* This event had sucked in buys for years relative to other shows in the year. This is the *first* PPV all year that topped 1995, and we have a direct Hogan to Hogan comp. This was pretty much when you knew they were doing well. Havoc 0.60* vs 0.70* Another bump above the prior year, again a good buy. For a match that everyone had seen tons of times over the years, this was thought to be a big positive. WWII 0.43* vs 0.55~ Another bump on what another poor non-big PPV. I'd take this as comperable to GAB earlier in the year: that had the Outsiders in a non-wrestling role and went -0.03. This had Hogan in a non-wrestling role (contract signing with Piper) and it went +0.12 and also topped the Outsiders earlier in the year. Starcade 0.36 vs 0.95* Not the highest buyrate for WCW ever to that point. But they were charging more, and there were more homes with PPV... as I recall, this set record that would be broken the next year. This was a really big buy at a time when the WWF did a 1.1 and a 1.2 for Rumble & Mania in 1996, and would fall to .7 and .77 the following year. Huge. I'm not saying that the Hall & Nash were a bomb. They weren't. But the angle took off when (i) they promised #3 at BatB, and (ii) that #3 turned out to be Hogan. Then the angle (i.e. WCW) really took off when Hogan got the belt and became The Focus of WCW. Hall & Nash were his sidekicks, his backup... but there was little doubt that they were Arn & Tully to his vastly bigger Flair. John

Agreed about 50%. If they're bringing back Punk for Cena-Punk II at SummerSlam, and: * it's actually MITB more than Greatest Promo Ever that gets Punk over * SummerSlam is the one that does the big buyrate, not MITB Then Punk might be a hot property. It's backwards logic to us hardcores: we loved the promo. But perhaps with the fans what plays more is winning MITB and coming out of it as a Big Star that takes him off. Outsiders didn't really draw huge. Despite all the myths and the historical hype after the fact, the intial angle didn't send things through the roof, and the first PPV didn't do a big buyrate relative to WCW's numbers at the time. But what happened at that first PPV *was* huge, and coming out of it is what made the Outsiders (now nWo) HUGE: Hogan turned Before anyone says it... I agree that it's a major stretch to say Punk is Outsiders/nWo II. Not suggesting it, nor predicting it. But... The Outsiders Angle played then, and now, to hardcores. "They don't really work here!!!" It plays now historically to WCW Fans of the era because it's been treated as a turning point, and lord knows there are a number of people involved in it (Hall, Nash and Eric) who have vested interests in it. Hogan Turn... that played much more to WCW Fan and Wrestling Fans. "A big fucking deal." -Joe Biden Punk's Promo *might* be something that is really inside baseball that plays to hardcores. Punk beating Cena and fucking over (long time major heel character) Mr. McMahon *might* play more to WWE Fan and have more of a gateway impact if they sustain it. Of course they need to sustain it. If it's Cena-Punk at SummerSlam, they need to build the fuck out of it... and perhaps recall what the WCW did on their first PPV after Hogan Turned: Monster push of Hogan continued, winning the title and going off on a run with the belt. So perhaps folks might put too much into the MITB buyrate, whether it's high or low or the same. Really it's the equivs of Hog Wild, Halloween Havoc (good buy opposite Savage) and Starcade (company revenue record at the time against Piper) that showed it was working. Is that an optimistic, none negative enough post? John

That's generally what I said, though I was trying to be more specific: Long Term If we're past that point and they're just looking at popping a few ratings and Summer Slam with not a clear thought on the long term, then it's the usual WWE. Hayes turning on Kerry and Gordy slamming the door on Kerry popped the territory. But it did it in a long term fashion by the standards of the time (i.e. heel talent could move out of the area when cooling down and be replaced by fresh big heel talent moving over from some other territory). Long term now with generally closed promotions is best when it's more than a year. Being able to get several years out of Cena on top has been pretty important to the WWE as the talent around him has been a bit in flux. John

WWFish matches: #6 - Ric Flair vs Genichiro Tenryu (SWS 04/18/92) **** #10 - Randy Savage vs Shawn Michaels (WWF Munich 04/14/92) ***3/4 #14 - Bret Hart vs Roddy Piper (WWF Wrestlemania VIII 04/05/92) ***1/2 #16 - Ric Flair vs Randy Savage (WWF Wrestlemania VIII 04/05/92) ***1/4 I actually liked Hart-Piper the most out of this bunch. Don't know why other than it's a match that has always hit the spot and feels better than it had any business being. Tenryu-Flair is a match that I wanted to see at the time, but when finally seeing it I felt kind of flat. Felt like a perfectly solid match, but didn't grab me. That kind of goes for all of the them other than Bret-Piper. That's sometimes the problem with rankings and star ratings. I look at those and think, "Which of these would I rather watch again in 5 years." It's always been Bret-Piper over Flair-Tenryu and Savage-Flair. I'm glad I saw Savage-Shawn online a few years back, but when I get the 1992 set it's not something high on the list to rewatch. Whereas Bret-Piper is something that is easy to go, "Hey... let's check this out again and see if it holds up." Hence the word "liked". Don't know if it's technically better, but I've always liked watching it. Don't know if that makes sense. There are better Jumbo matches in the 70s than Jumbo-Brisco for the UN Title. But I like it more than just about all of them because in addition to being loaded with the usual good stuff, Jack starts losing his cool. There's a certain extra dynamic there that draws me into enjoying it on repeated viewings. John

So week 2 of Trip Takes Over Raw. How is this coming along? John

The big question is / has been whether this angle will make Punk a sustained breakthrough star in the mode of Austin, Rock and Cena who can draw strongly on PPV (and impact other revenue streams) over a number of years for a company that badly needs newer, long term Big Stars. Not short term, but long term. If we're past that point already with a "no" (and I'm *not* saying we are), then this is little more than the same WWE of the past 9 or so years, and we're stuck with all the usual questions. John

After the PPV and before the first Raw you were talking about "Montreal Actualization": Punk winning the title on the PPV and "leaving" with the belt bringing Vince's worst nightmare to life. There wasn't a thing in that post that got across the notion that you thought in a Montreal actualization that Punk would show up on the Raw after the PPV, nor could there have been because it wouldn't have fit in with what you referred to as your Montreal Manifesto. Bix: when did Mike Johnson start reporting/predicting that Punk would be back on the 7/18 and then 7/25 Raw? John

That may sound a bit coy, but leading into the last PPV it seemed that most people were still trying to figure out "leaving" vs Leaving. Going into the PPV, I don't think there was a lot of "he'll be on Raw the night after the PPV" comments. John

I must have missed a good amount of those comments in this thread. John

I'm going to have to go back in the thread to find all the people who were predicting he'd be back on Raw on 7/25 in this fashion and that Punk-Cena would be the SummerSlam match, because it sure sounds like a lot of people are now saying this is the thing the WWE was always going to do with this angle. Or is it simply justifying it now that it's happened? I'm echoing Loss: I'm not saying it's a dead angle. But was anyone fantasy booking The Greatest Angle In Years to take this turn? Or are we at the stage each week of hitting this mental button: "Okay, they did that... let's now try to figure out how this might work." If that's the case, that's basically the past 10 years of the WWE. John

Just about every praised TNA match. 95% of the praised ROH matches, and 100% of the praised DGUSA matches. I would take a guess that Yohe has dragged out every massively pimped NOAH match at KOC's, and I've groaned my way through all of them except for Kobashi-Suzuki (before groaning at the finish). So other than a major NOAH pimped match in 2010-2011 (he tends to catch up slowly), I probably have seen them all. Don't quiz me on them: I hate all those NOAH Jr's matches people lose their shit on. Ton of lucha. 99% of Europe. I'm guessing any pimped NJPW match in the past 8 or so years. A ton of Memphis and Wattsland, so most of the Crown Jewels of those promotions. I cop to having a lot of holes. John

You're not alone. Dave gave it ***** back in 1992. In the entire Jumbo & Co. vs Misawa & Co. feud, he only gave out four ***** ratings. The first singles match, and three six man tags between these six guys: 1990 nose bleed, 1991 long match, and this. John

I didn't expect Rey --> Cena. I didn't expect Punk returning tonight. I didn't expect him to return in the rather "normal" was he did (others pointed the normal items). I wasn't optimistic about WWE Creative sustaining it, but this is... kind of wow. It's so Russoific that it's almost giving me a reverse psychology vibe now: A. "Well that's totally ruined." B. "Anything good now would be a postive." C. Underpants Gnomes D. "This angle is starting to be cool again." Strange. PPV finish was good. Raw last week wasn't the best, especially the uncreative watered down title tourney and the return of Trip. Comic Con was a pretty damn good start to "free agent" Punk being a burr in the ass of the WWE, even better than the trip to the ball game and putting the belt in the frig: it was a more direct slap at the WWE. This... a quick return to normalcy. I'd be interested if this always was the plan (he'd be gone for just one week off TV), or if they changed gears for some reason. If so, I'd love to know the reasons. [sidebar: I do wonder now thinking about it how from a storyline standpoint they could have gotten the Comic Con footage onto TV. A mole in WWE Creative? Don't know where you go with that... hadn't really thought about that. The WWE officially wouldn't want it on, so there'd have to be a hook there. Good writing could come up with something.] Going back to Cena-Punk at SummerSlam, if that's the plan... wow. John

Just watched this for the first time in 17 years. This 100% *must* go on the set. About 26:50 of a 27:03 match aired, which makes you wonder why they bothered JIP'ing it. Let me put it this way: * this isn't the best six-man of the era * if this was on Raw tonight with the WWE equivs of these six guys (beats the shit out of me who they are), and they put on this match (i.e. did their equiv of the spots at this pacing, selling, and drama), people would give it ***** and call it one of the greatest TV matches of all-time, if not the greatest TV match of all-time I'm not shitting on the second point. That's the level these guys were working at: they could fall out of bed, have a match that isn't even one of the best in this genre they mastered (tv taping six-man tags) and it was at a level way up there in the sky. And we fucking took/take it for granted. Seriously... as you watch this match image the 1994 WWF equivs in here. Bret & Razor & 1-2-3 Kid vs Shawn & Diesel & Owen. Admitting that Owen is above the level of Akiyama and Omori, but what the heck... I can't think of another lower ranked 1994 WWF guy who can work a bit to slip in there. Then imagine them doing their 100% best possible in a straight, non-gimmicked match where your exchanging things the AJPW six do for things the WWF six did regularly... on the best level they could do it at where things are clicking... it would be an amazing match especially if the fans stuck with it, got into the beat down section (which is amazing since in this one it was the young *heel* getting beat down), then were losing their shit (and I mean LOSING THEIR FUCKING SHIT) down the stretch. People would cream over it. This is an amazing match, but just one of many so we take it for granted. The reason it needs to go on if for what I said in the earlier post, and have talked about many times. This is the clearest glimpse at what could have been. Omori hangs. He more than hangs: he fits in. He works well with Jun. He takes a monster sized ass kicking from Kobashi and Misawa, who seem to be channeling their Jumbo to payback Kawada & Taue for all the ass stomping they did of Jun the year before. Taue, Misawa, Kobashi and Kawada are as good as you would expect, with Misawa and especially Kobashi being roughter than you'd expect... and that Misawa-Kawada magic dynamic that was so regularly there early in their rivalry. What's great as they don't take away from the fact that Omori is in there and a big part of the story... but inturn, Omori doesn't take away from the fact that this is Four Corners with their junior parterns involved. Things just naturally fit together. Pretty simple structure: 9 minutes of standard spots to suck the crowd in 9 minutes of kicking then shit out of Omori 9 minute ride to the finish If you've watched enough All Japan six mans from this era, as you will have by the time you get this (thanks to the 1992 and 1993 and probably 1991 sets), you know that there's about an 80% chance that one of two people is eating the pin in this one. Bonus points in this one: the obvious two don't eat the pin. One of the Four Corners does, and the folks pinning him kick the living hell out of him to finally put him down. This is one of those where if you didn't know the finish you'd be thinking they set up for the finish right before* the very final run: "Well, X is back in. He'll probably look good, then get cut off and they'll let him kick out of a few things before pinning him." [jump ahead] "Well... he's out... maybe Y? Or are they going to cycle through back to him." [couple seconds later] "Wait... they're really kicking the shit out of C... could it be?" Real good match. In no way pimping it as a MOTYC since AJPW produced any number of better matches in the year. The six-man on the closing night of the series is the famous one, which Ditch rightly pimped earlier. But holy shit... better than I remember and better than I expected when popping it in. If something like this took place on WCW Saturday Night, people now would be thinking they found the Holy Grail of Lost Matches. The loss of 60 minutes of AJPW TV a week was a tragedy because we stopped getting "****1/4" matches like this. Omori getting sent over to be Hansen's partner was a tragedy: the first of many bad booking decisions by the Babas after the Four Corners starts. #1 Misawa & #4 Kobashi & #5 Akiyama & #8 Asako #2 Kawada & #3 Taue & #6 Omori & #7 Ogawa World Tag: Misawa & Kobashi vs Kawada & Taue vs Doc & Ace All Asia: Can-Ams vs Akiyama & Asako vs Omori & Ogawa Yeah... that would have sucked in 1994. I don't know about anyone else, but I also certainly could have done a better job of using the 20+ minutes a week of TV to showcase that talent. Fewer tapings, getting the crap off TV time, getting the All Asia matches onto TV, and doing a better job of using commercial tapes. Can we blame this one on Baba's cancer? Make sure to get the Akiyama vs Omori Cup final from the same series, then the Kawada & Omori vs Kobashi & Asako to start the next series. John

It was a 30:00 draw. Just checked: it's JIP and the last 22:34 airs on TV. If there's a HH, I'd strong recommend: * using the HH up to the point the TV starts, with possibly some overlap (similar to how great they did the 06/03/94 on TV) * using TV from where it picks up to the end. Reason: the camera work on TV is really good in catching all that's going on, the call is really good... and it's freaking heated as all hell. I'd also strongly recommend this makes it. Down the stretch is quite good, and even with the draw coming up, the fans are really buying the last pin attempt until it's broken up. For those who think this is the best tag series of all-time, this one needs to be added to the mix with the other seven. John

The change I would make to that would be dumping the Sting match and instead showing the whole Hawk match. There are lots of Mutoh/Muta-Sting matches over the years, even ones on bigger settings. This is it for Mutoh-Hawk IWGP Title Matches. And since it's right before G1 where he took off, it tends to be important to show exactly where he was at. I think I'd also add the Tenzan match prior to winning the IWGP. That gives a little context. It's a lot of singles matches, but in a sense this is Mutoh's Career Year up to that point. He won all the Wrestler Of The Year Awards in Japan that year over Misawa. As a side note, that's another reason to make sure to toss in Misawa's singles matches such as Carny. We very much have a Misawa vs Mutoh thingy going on this year. Mutoh has the advantage of (i) variety of Opponents, and (ii) his opponents aren't Kawada, Kobashi and Taue. Misawa has the advantage that his opponents *are* Kawada, Kobashi and Taue. I a bit way, Misawa's year was semi-robbed of not having his rematch with Doc where he'd get his win back. That likely would have been good as Doc was very much at his peak when he went out. In turn, Mutoh got the gift of Takada: he just happened to have the belt when it came down. If UWFi his a financial crisis in Feb 1996, it would have been Chono with the belt... and that would have been odd. John

Mutoh? TV dates and looking at Dave's ratings... 01/21/95 Hase & Muto vs. Steiners (World Tag) ****1/4 Dome show. Of course it goes on. 02/04/95 Enos & Norton vs. Yasuda & Muto *** 02/11/95 Norton vs. Muto ***1/4 04/29/95 Tenzan vs. Muto ***1/4 Don't remember these much. I'm sort of remembering Tenzan beat Mutoh in the Big Tenzan Push. 05/20/95 Muto vs. Hashimoto (World Title) **** I wasn't enthused about this at the time. Fukuoka Dome... not really a great setting for anything, let alone Hash-Mutoh. That said, it needs to go on in full. End of Hash's first run of dominance. 06/24/95 Muto vs. Sasaki ***1/4 Blank. 07/08/95 Muto vs. Tenzan (World Title) ***1/2 This was a really heated match if I recall. Moonsault vs Moonsault, and the peak of Tenzan's initial push. I'd make sure to keep this. 07/15/95 Hell Raisers vs. Iizuka & Muto *** Mostly leading into the title match. 07/29/95 Norton & Enos vs. Hirata & Muto ***3/4 Wow... why am I not remembering this. ***3/4 NJPW tags are typically the level of a keeper. 08/11/95 Muto vs. Hawk (World Title) ***1/4 From a historic standpoint, Hawk getting a World Title shot in Japan is worth keeping. It's not like they go 25+. Also one of the unintentional storylines of 1995 is that Mutoh wasn't Hash, and it "felt" like Hash was still the man at this point. Defending against Hawk doesn't do Mutoh a lot of favors. G1... let me just say that this is one of my favorite G1's, which is saying something since I went to the 1996 one. 08/19/95 Hashimoto vs. Norton (G1) ***1/4 They had a singles IWGP title match earlier in the year. Not sure if they both need to be on, by I generally liked Hash's ability to have good matches with Norton. Not off the charts, but they felt pretty tough. 08/19/95 Tenzan vs. Sasaki (G1) ***1/2 Better than one expected. 08/19/95 Koshinaka vs. Muto (G1) ****1/4 Good match, and pretty much *every* Mutoh match from G1 needs to make the final cut. It really is where Mutoh became The Man (at least in this run). 08/26/95 Norton vs. Tenzan (G1) ***1/4 Watchable, but perhaps not Yearbook material. 08/26/95 Sasaki vs. Hashimoto (G1) ***3/4 Keeper. 08/26/95 Muto vs. Chono (G1) **** Chono leaves his "mark" on Mutoh. 09/02/95 Hashimoto vs. Tenzan (G1) **** This, along with Hash's match earlier in the year against Tenzan, helps gives some context to the match the next year. Plus since Hash-Mutoh is the Final, it's worth tracking their path. 09/02/95 Norton vs. Sasaki (G1) ***1/2 Another one that was better than expected... but I hated Sasaki at the time. 09/02/95 Muto vs. Flair (G1) ***3/4 Flair takes advantage of Mutoh's "fresh cut" from the match against Chono... and Mutoh BLEEDS ALL OVER THE MOTHERFUCKING PLACE!!! Okay... all-cap-o-rama. But Mutoh is a faucet, it's actually dramatic as hell for a mid-90s Flair-in-Japan match (since he typically blew), and it's damn watchable. TV is JIP. Don't know if there's a commercial version, or in NJ Classics showed the whole thing. I *doubt* that the whole 23:33 minutes is better than the JIP TV version. They pick up before Mutoh has been re-opened, so all that early Flair stuff that might have sucked is cut out... Hell, what am I saying. If there's a full version, put it on. People deserve to see what Flair-Mutoh could do to fill 23 minutes and not just the blood. Plus, I suspect that most people have only seen the TV version... I know that I only have. So get all this. Anyway, one the blood starts flowing, it's damn watchable. Even goofy things (like Flair scooting along on his ass because he thinks he's too far out for Mutoh to hit the moonsault) are entertaining. 09/02/95 Chono vs. Koshinaka (G1) ***1/2 This got Chono into the knockout stage. Only 11:10. Another sign of how NJPW valued Kosh: this was another time they rolled him out to main event Sumo Hall as a trusty hand to entertain the fans. His matches with Mutoh and Chono main event two of the five nights. 09/09/95 Muto vs. Norton (G1) **** My recollection is that this was damn watchable. Mutoh and Norton had worked pretty watchable back in the early 90s when Norton first got over. This was good, with the cut opening up again... though not as bad as against Flair. 09/09/95 Hashimoto vs. Chono (G1) ***1/2 This was essentially a 10 minute Nitro match sprint for these two. Good as well. 09/16/95 Muto vs. Hashimoto (G1 Final) ****1/4 I've yammered about this before. That's one of the nice things about the 1995 G1 for a Yearbook: other than the Flair-Mutoh, Flair-Chono (30:00) and Hash-Sasaki (21:46) and the Final, the matches aren't massively long. They won't eat up a ton of disk space. 09/30/95 Muto vs. Sting ***1/4 Not-so-hot. 10/07/95 Muto vs. Hirata (World Title) **** The **** reflects that this was better than expected. Mutoh's TV defense after beating Hash in G1. It's worthwhile to see how over he is with the fans relative to earlier in the year, and prior to Takada. 10/14/95 Muto vs. Takada (World Title) ***1/2 Yeah... keeper. 12/09/95 Muto vs. Gotoh *** Don't even remember. 12/16/95 Muto vs. Tenzan ***1/2 Might be Mutoh-Tenzan overkill. But worth checking out to see if it's watchable. 12/23/95 Muto vs. Koshinaka (World Title) ****1/4 Needs to make the final cut. Payback for the G1 loss, and another time Kosh is slipped into his Utility Player role. I suspect that what will come out of the yearbook is people will think he had a GREAT~! year. It was a bit more mixed than that, but the highpoints are more in number and overall better than the stuff that are up his first IWGP reign. John

Dan G is your man: AJ Selection #31/32 Champion Carnival #5/#6 1. Jumbo Tsuruta vs. Mitsuharu Misawa (4/2/92) 3000 complete 2. Stan Hansen vs. Mitsuharu Misawa - Champion Carnival FINAL (4/17/92) 2006 complete 3. Toshiaki Kawada vs. Kenta Kobashi (4/13/95) 3000 complete 4. Mitsuharu Misawa vs. Akira Taue - Champion Carnival FINAL (4/15/95) 2443 of 2703 There isn't a ton of rhyme or reason to AJ Selection. Sometimes you get something like that. Other times you get the 15th re-reairing of Jumbo vs Brisco. There are a few gems like that which come out. John

Yep... that's my recollection. There was a "stepping it up" vibe in 1993 with Gordy gone, than a "holy shit this guy has gotten REAL GOOD" vibe in early 1994. Having the Yearbooks be able to catch some of that would be great. John

Lynch Bootleg #492. Hansen vs Jun is also on it. That might be worth taking a look at. Only 10:46, if it's a ***+ match it might be work keeping as I don't think any other Hansen vs Jun match will make the yearbooks, and that might be worthwhile. Date is 4/13/95. Edit: use the AJ Classics that Ditch referenced for Kawada-Kobashi. But still take a look at Stan-Jun to see if it warrants yearbook inclusion. John

There's also this: 11/05/94 Misawa & Hansen vs. Kobashi & Taue That's the semi of the Kawada-Doc Budokan. Dave gave it ****1/4. I recall being disappointed by it since it didn't take off as much as one would have hoped. Might be worth taking a look at since it's never mentioned in the usual suspects. John

Yes. John

From AJPW's first two series: I agree with all that. I'd also add, with TV dates: 01/30/94 Misawa & Kobashi & Akiyama vs. Kawada & Taue & Omori This is the one time to see what potentially could have been the six-man tag. Not an off the charts six-man, but good and Jun & Omori worked pretty well together at the time. 02/13/94 Omori vs. Akiyama Finals of Cup. There was a singles between the two earlier in the series. I think this one was pretty completely relative to the other one, and perfectly good. 02/20/94 Misawa & Akiyama vs. Williams & Eagle On the same show as the Kawada & Omori vs Kobashi & Asako. I thought this was one of those matches where you start to see Doc as *really* starting to look like The Top Gaijin, even though Stan technically was above him. Since TV goes to 30 minutes in April, there really weren't any good Doc-Misawa "television tags" leading into the their Triple Crown match. Looking at the old ***+ star ratings list, this is in fact their last ***+ match on TV before the TC change. Meltzer had it at ***3/4, and I think when Doc is in it's very much at that level. He's improved since 1993. 1994 Carny Tape has: 3/27 Kawada vs Ace 3/27 Kobashi vs Taue Don't recall either all that much. Might be the only Kawada-Ace singles out there. Kobashi-Taue doesn't get run again in 1994. Both are worth you taking a look at and seeing if they warrant inclusion. 4/1 Kawada vs Akiyama 4/10 Williams vs Akiyama 4/11 Kobashi vs Akiyama Young Akiyama. The TV year, much like in 1995, is really absent of singles matches for him. Kobashi is pretty much his "favorite opponent". The Kawada match is a comp for the one the prior year, and it's a rivalry they pretty much hit an airball in singles matches after 1995. Don't have a clear memory on the Doc match other than it was watchable. 4/11 Taue vs Hansen Taue's first win over Hansen, and it really should be gotten across on the set that Hansen got pinned in back to back nights. 4/11 Misawa vs Kawada Annual Misawa vs Kawada draw. Needs to be on there It's also "non-Carny" as Misawa pulled out due to the kneck injury. BTW: the highlight on NTV of him coming to the ring injured and being announced as being out of the tourney should be in the set. It's a short item. 4/14 Hansen vs Williams Another one that's been a long time, my recollection is that at the time I thought it was the best Doc-Hansen match. Stan was all fired up because of the two jobs. It's also really the one time where they're near-equals. Stan the long time top gaijin and Doc a couple of months away from winning the TC. 4/14 Kawada vs Taue It's Kawada-Taue. In back-to-back years, the Path To The Finals saw them go through each other. This is their first singles match since Joining Hands. The 1995 match was a bit more of Taue earning Kawada's respect by taking an ass stomping and coming back. This one is where there's the drama of whether the Old Hate is going to bubble up 4/15 Williams vs Kobashi It's Korakuen Hall, something of a unique setting. Doc wins and he gets in the finals. I seem to recall liking this better than the 1993 match and the TC later this year... but that might have been lower expectations. Non-singles: 4/1 Kobashi & Kikuchi vs Taue & Ogawa 4/10 Baba & Misawa & Kikuchi vs Kawada & Taue & Fuchi No strong recollection of those. Make sure to get the commercial version. They also had a League draw on the first 30 minute show: 04/02/94. I liked it quite a bit, but I'm a Doc-Kawada fan (other than their title change). Hansen vs Kawada was on the 3/27 NTV. Dave gave it ***1/2. I'm just not recalling it enough to confirm. Possibly a contrast to Kobashi-Stan and Stan-Taue, but there are a lot of other Kawada-Stan matches out there. 5/18/94 4 vs. 4 Survival Tag Match: Toshiaki Kawada / Akira Taue / Masa Fuchi / Yoshinari Ogawa vs. Jun Akiyama / Takao Omori / Tamon Honda / Satoru Asako This might have been the one where Kawada & Taue cleaned the clocks of the Kids. Haven't watched it in long time. It might have the value of show how from the first two series where they had Omori with Kawada & Taue that just two months later they were screwing things up. Main event on that commercial tape was Hansen & Doc & Ace vs Misawa & Kobashi & Kikuchi. Defer to Ditch on that one. Yep and Yep. Comercial versions of each. Drawing a blank on that one. 10/15/94 TV has Misawa & Kobashi & Akiyama vs. Kawada & Taue & Ogawa which got more pimpage at the time, but neither stand out in the mind 17 years later. Lynch Bootleg #334 has: 07/22/94 Tag Titles: Misawa & Kobashi vs Williams & Ace This hasn't been as widely circulated as all the usual suspects, so it's the chance to get something fresh for a lot of the viewers. Wasn't on NTV, and instead seems to have been on local TV or on a Special. Even Dan's 1994 TV set doesn't have it. It's the early version of the match between these teams, and will make for an interesting comp with the Tag League and 3/95 versions before Doc went bye bye. Yep and yep. Again, commercial versions. Good match. One of the reason I would like to see Can-Ams vs Kawada & Taue from 1/95 on the next set as a comp. Real good match. I'm not as enthused by this as other good 1993 & 1994 tags, but it is The Final Match Of The Year... so it needs to go on. If it's not, people will think the prior match was the last one. TV: 11/25/94 Misawa & Kobashi vs. Kawada & Taue (Tag League) I'd include that as it will mean that the 1993-95 sets will have 8 of the 9 matches between the teams. The only one missing is the 1995 League match, which actually looked more interesting than the 1995 Final. The Misawa & Kobashi vs Hansen & Baba from the 1994 RWTL is available on commercial tape. I've never seen it, so that's an idea of how "fresh" it would be for many people. Only 4 other Tag League matches on the set, might be worth tracking down. John

The full Kawada-Kobashi Carny 30:00 draw was a special TV show. Buried somewhere on Lynch's list. The version Will references on his Kawada set: Toshiaki Kawada vs. Kenta Kobashi (5/13/95 TV) That would be the chop-o version of it. The full version was much less circulated at the time. Kobashi-Akiyama was on the 4/2 NTV: 4/2/95 - All Japan: Kenta Kobashi vs. Jun Akiyama Akira Taue/Masao Inoue vs. Mitsuharu Misawa/Satoru Asako I suspect JIP to a degree, but since it ties in with Jun's other matches, it will do. Meltzer had it listed as 4/1/95 TV, so it might be reference as either. When you get down to the final list and before Will burns it, shoot me a list of the AJPW/NJPW matches you're looking for actual dates of and I'll look them up in the WON. For 1994 and earlier, I have the JWJ which is reasonably easy to look dates up for the non-joshi matches in Japan. John