jdw

Tenta was paying homage to the great WWF fat man storylines of such visionaries as Bundy, Monsoon and Calhoun.

Probably a good deal. If we carve out the NWA Champs, Baba seemed to go with Top Gaijin who were of size looking at the last four guys he pushed to that level: Brody Hansen Gordy Williams Hansen was pushed to that level instantly. Brody push to being the top gaijin is probably less clear and quick that it's sometimes been described. Gordy was a long time coming, and kind of blew up with the dope when given the chance. Doc's was interesting in that he got a chance to move up when Gordy had the second OD, and stepped up beyond what anyone could have expected. They're all big. Spivey was Hansen's partner for a good stretch, and he was big. Ted wasn't small, though Stan makes one look smaller. Albright was big. Ace was "tall". In turn, the smaller gaijin hit a ceiling. So yeah... Baba appears to have been looking for big guys to be at the top on the gaijin side. He wasn't going to sign a Shawn Michaels in 1993 and push him as in the spot Doc got into. Scott Hall was tall enough... not really as "monster" sized as Hansen, Gordy or Doc, but had a height element. Don't think it would have to be 300+, but you're looking for something that has "size" in a combo of height and/or weight. Can't be skinny like Kendall Windham.

Where are Earthquake's points and cups? When the hypothetical is not merely hypothetical but goes so far as to distort, make up or ignore reality I'm not sure what it serves. I also wonder where Quake's two Hart Trophies and two Ross Trophies are. That's also setting aside that at the same age, Crosby has more points. That was a critique on the system of judging people by the amount of great matches, instead of talent. Notice I didn't mention Earthquake in my statement. If people judge Crosby on talent, he'd have more than two Harts. Instead, they actually do judge him on the equiv of "great matches": he won his Harts in the same years that he won his Rosses. In the end, Kuri was judged on his great matches as well: his honors line up with them, and he had enough of them to get in the Hall of Fame.

As you say, I'm the one that points out that we're doing the same shit now that we've done for years, just with more stuff to look at. Of course in 2005 we had more stuff to look at than in 1995, and in 1995 we had more stuff (if we cared to chase for it) than in 1985, and 1985 was light years ahead of 1975 in what was available to collectors / hardcore fans. It just part of a continuum. As far as Enlightenment, to consider us or the nonsense we're talking about to be the Locke or Voltaire or Kant of pro wrestling is pretty much up there in the Kerry Von Erich Delusional Zone.

Where are Earthquake's points and cups? When the hypothetical is not merely hypothetical but goes so far as to distort, make up or ignore reality I'm not sure what it serves. I also wonder where Quake's two Hart Trophies and two Ross Trophies are. That's also setting aside that at the same age, Crosby has more points.

Vader... and Vader... er... and Vader. There wasn't a gaijin from 8/93 - 12/96 who could have stepped into Doc's role other than Vader. Bigelow could have worked All Japan, but it's not clear how well, whether Baba thought he was reliable enough, or whether he could hit the level that Doc did (i.e. a non-flukey Triple Crown Champ). Gotta recall that Bigelow was available at the end of 1995, and Baba would take him. He was sitting there until August 1996, and Baba wouldn't take him. He ended up doing some tours with WAR, then was done by the end of 1996. He didn't work Japan in 1997, and instead went to ECW. Sure, Baba had a pecking order and didn't want someone to rock the boat of the returning (in March 1996) Doc and Hansen's spot. But... wait... He did sign Gary Albright in late 1995. So... there likely is a reason that he knew from New Japan or from Bigelow's brief "payback loan" to All Japan in 1990 that made him not make an strong effort to sign someone who, for a Big Fat Guy, could have more easily worked the style. Beyond them... There really weren't big or semi-big men in the US would could work it in 1993-96. Maybe you could get lucky and someone could pick it up over the course of 6+ years like Johnny Ace, but (i) Ace was there as the style escalated/evolved going all the way back to 1988, (ii) he never was over to Triple Crown Champ level, and (iii) he never really was over to serious Triple Crown challenger level. He got one Triple Crown challenge a decade into his time with All Japan, in a filler spot as Misawa had run the table and then some in that reign, and then never got another TC challenge in his two and a half years remaining with the company. That probably isn't the kind of luck the company would be looking for in 1993. We all like Austin, but his stuff with New Japan was so-so. Given how his body held up in the WWF, it's a bit scary thinking of him in All Japan. Pretty blank of gaijin candidates.

I'm saying they didn't give a shit about the Great Match Theory. They really were no different from Flair and the MX+Corney who went out trying to perform at a high level. I suspect if you rolled out the Great Match Theory to Ric, he'd think you were an idiot. There are matches available of Tenta in Japan in 1993. By all means tell me how that guy could hit the upper cards of All Japan. His offense looked great? In an All Japan context, exactly what elements of his offense looked great? I just watched a match of his with Haku from Japan in 1993. His offense was dropping a lot of elbows. Basically Abby's 1993 offense. As far as his selling, it really isn't All Japan selling and bumping. I'm not entirely sure why we would take away someone's run where they peak when doing a comp of work. I mean... if you took away Kawada's All Japan work, I'd take Ric Rude any day. Where does stuff like that get anyone?

Wait... have we gotten so full of ourself that we're claiming to be the Enlightenment of Wrestling Fandom? I've long been called an arrogant condescending fan, but even I won't go there.

Agreed. I had a longer post pointing out that it's a concept that goes back long before hardcore wrestling fandom to sports and other forms of entertainment. Ernie Banks is a great SS? Folks would point to 1955 + 1957-60 as Great Seasons for a SS. Why did some pimp Sandy Koufax as the best left ever? Great Seasons. Jack Morris for the HOF? "Great" 90s and Great Post Season Games. It's not surprising that wrestling fans, many of whom are fans of sports and other forms of entertainment where this is common, would use it in talking about work and workers. In turn, sports and other forms of entertainment have exactly the same group of people on the other side who will argue: Fan On A Barstool #1: "I'm telling you that Bucky Dent was a great fucking player. I ain't pointing to great seasons, since that's not what being a great player is about. It's about that home run in Game 163 in Fenway to beat the fucking Red Sox..." Fan On A Barstool #2: "Fuckin' A!" Fan On A Barstool #1: "... and about that 1978 World Series where he kicked that candy ass of the Dodgers." Fan On A Barstool #2: "Damn straight!" Fan On A Barstool #3: "Silly rubes..."

Who knows. The theory doesn't even have a good origin story.

One could say that Great Match Theory at this point is Self Indulgent Epic Criticism by hardcore wrestling fans.

In an mid-90s All Japan context? Sure. I could really give a shit about great match theory meme. I mean... was the match I pointed to a Great Fucking Match? No. But it is an All Japan Match (the promotion being talking about in the subthread) in the mid-90s (the period being talked about) against Kobashi (one of those pesky natives). I picked a relevant match within a month and a half of Doc's most famous match (among idiot hardcore fans like ourselves). If I wanted to go Great Match Theory with Bossman, I'd roll out some non-sequitur match like Bossman vs Hogan in their cage matches that was in a different promotion in a different period against someone who wasn't Misawa, Kawada, Kobashi and Taue. How many wrestlers career goal was Great Match Theory? Seriously, who comes up with tropes like this. It was idiots like ourselves who came up with nonsensical terms like Great Match Theory (or My Turn, Your Turn to be equal opportunity in mentioning nonsensical terms) to explain some bullshit that *we* are seeing, be it in the Work or in our own circular discussions about Work. The vast majority of wrestlers that we're talking about would see us tossing out phrases like Great Match Theory and wonder what in the fuck are we talking about. So no. Tenta, Doc, Bossman and the lot of them didn't have the goal of Great Match Theory because it's a meaningless concept to them. That good. So exactly how many main eventers in All Japan in the mid-90s were Big Fat Guy Dicks Who Sat On People? Before someone points out, "just because there weren't any doesn't mean that All Japan Marks in the mid-90s wouldn't eat it up if the were fed it", does anyone seriously think that? I'd again point to the Bossman-Kobashi match: in his second tour in All Japan in that era, Bossman is working an All Japan match. Why? Likely because it's what people told him, be it the gaijin who were over (Hansen, Doc, the Can-Ams), or the promotions, or the natives communicated it with him on what they could do together. Bossman worked that same style on his third and last series of that run, and fans seemed to like it. It doesn't seem very likely that in 1993-96 that Tenta could have worked the Fay Guy Stylings that Vader, Bigelow and Boosman did. He just didn't have the athletic ability to do it. Really? People who have looked at all of Bossman's career tend to give him credit for his 1993 trip through All Japan: http://prowrestlingonly.com/index.php?/topic/12606-mitsuharu-misawa-kenta-kobashi-vs-steve-williams-big-boss-man-ajpw-real-world-tag-league-112493 http://prowrestlingonly.com/index.php?/topic/12622-toshiaki-kawada-akira-taue-vs-steve-williams-big-boss-man-ajpw-real-world-tag-league-120193 And are still talking about it when he gets back to the US: http://prowrestlingonly.com/index.php?/topic/12658-rick-rude-vs-the-boss-wcw-saturday-night-121893 He has another 12 tv matches from his three series in All Japan that year if people want to check him out. Some good, some not so good, but against a variety of guys. Anyway... people who watched Bossman at the time and were seeing his 1993 All Japan stuff perceived him better for it. With Doc, of course people perceived Doc's work better for his time in All Japan. Are there people who think that his work peaked at some point other than 8/93 - 3/95 after Gordy overdosed and before the Narita Nightmare? As far as Ace, does anyone give a shit about his career in the US? It largely was a joke. Most perception of Ace being in good matches and at least carrying his end of the bargain tends to come from his All Japan work in the 90s. So... maybe you mean something else with that sentence.

If you put prime Tenta in All Japan in 93-96 would that still be the same? If you take any average or better worker in their prime and put them in 93-96 AJPW with main event opportunities they will almost assuredly have a few great matches or classics under their belt. If not, they're pretty awful. Not sure traveling time to All Japan does anyone any favors. This was really the talking point on the show. I asked "Who could you replace Williams with in that match with Kobashi and still have a similar result?" We ran through some alternatives. And then Steven randomly brought up Tenta. For the record, I don't think Tenta could have had a ****1/2 match with Kobashi. Bossman had the match with Kobashi that I linked to in the other thread. It was a month and a half after the famous Williams-Kobashi match. Go watch that Kobashi-Bossman match. It got just ** from Dave, though I happened to enjoy it more both then and now relative to that snowflake level. That's level of work is kind of what the promotion expected out of a Upper Card Fat Guy in the mid-90s in All Japan. Does anyone think that peak Tenta could have had that match with Kobashi? Bumping, selling, as active as Bossman? It's also worth remember: Kobashi was the easiest of the Four Corners for a big fat guy like Bossman or Tenta to work with, especially at that time. That setting aside that Tenta was "available" in this period, and had a background in All Japan. He actually was younger than Doc. All Japan didn't make a big push to get him. * * * * * Have no idea who could have replaced Doc at the time, but it wouldn't be someone like Tenta. Vader of course could have, but Baba seemed to not want to disrupt his gaijin hierarchy at that point.

There's no business issues yet. Jan. 4th Tokyo Dome drew the largest paid crowd since the mid '00s. Ibushi vs. Styles sold out Sumo Hall (lower set-up than in the past, but legitimate sell-outs for non-G1 shows had been a thing of the past until very recently). House shows have been regularly selling out too with the Bullet Club on top. The Dominion show in July is a big test, as they run the 16,000 Osaka Jo Hall for the first time ever, and the G-1 too, as they run Sumo Hall for three consecutive days for the first time since 2004. The booking is conservative and predictable, which doesn't suggest any behind the scenes issues. So JCP 1986 is more likely a better analogy than 1987. Not that either is likely a good analogy.

Well, it's not like Kawada had a short career of putting up great matches on the Tenryu Great Matches Scale. People at the time thought he was putting up "great" matches in 1988 against the likes of Nakano & Takano and of course in The Last Match of the Year. And I have a pretty vivid memory of a mountain of snowflakes being piled onto his jobbing the Triple Crown to Kojima in 2005. Tenryu has him be a few years in the beginning, and depending on how deep one goes into the Tenryu Great Matches Scale has his a bit on the back end. Though I do recall seeing the name "Kawada" in one of those Great Tenryu Matches that happened in 2008... so that would stretch Kawada out another three years. Again, that's no saying Tenryu doesn't have him on longevity. But it's not like the number of years Kawada was having "great" matches was Yatsu-long or Doc-long or Austin-long. Kawada was having what people saw as really good matches for a long time.

If we stretch the term "great" to the lengths it would need to be to cover "everyone under the sun for 20 years", then it's not like Kawada only had great matches with great wrestlers. He had a great match with Albright, who was far from a great wrestler. Given the standards that I've seen applied to some of Tenryu's "great" matches, then I got to see Kawada wrestle a great match with Johnny Ace, who wasn't remotely close to great at the time. If Tenryu had the exact same match with a rookie like Kawada had with Akiyama in July 1993, it would be called "great" and losing their shit over how awesome Tenryu was working with a rookie (and I'm completely confident that we could sift through the Tenryu Great Matches Lists and find one that is the same type of match). Rookie Akiyama was a pretty good rookie, but let's be honest and admit that people were still arguing whether Jun was great when the decade was *ending*, and no one thought he was in 1993. So it's a bit spurious to say that on Tenryu Great Matches Scale that Kawada only had them against great workers like Jumbo, Misawa, Kobashi, Taue (when he was Great), Hansen, Doc (when he was Great), etc. He had some "great" matches against less than great wrestlers, and with some guys before they later got great. That doesn't have anything to do with the Longevity issue.

I'm not entirely sold that Misawa gave All Japan's style it's final form. It really was more Kobashi's style. It got pops, both the office and a chunk of the wrestlers humored him on it because it worked with the crowd, and over time pretty much everyone followed including Misawa. Other people had their influence. There's certainly a strand of Hansen in it, though in his book he overplays the degree to which he kept things moving along earlier in his career. Certainly Misawa had an impact since if he chose not to follow Kobashi, and wanted to balance out the style, he certainly could have and probably would have had support of some others. He didn't, and over time drifted further in that direction. But... What All Japan over time became, which would could call NOAHism since the path was completed there, really is much more Kobashism than Misawaism. * * * * * On Hash vs Misawa, Hash seems to age better. Lower expectations, he was later in getting praised (1994-95), them later in getting Really Praised (1996-97 run), and even then wasn't praised like the All Japan guys. He works a less generic style, and elements of All Japan / NOAHism have become pretty generic over the past 20 years. Hash brings a certain emotional level that's not really there with Misawa. You're more likely to find something fresh with Hash than with Misawa. Hash also has the advantage of a good heated **** match feeling really satisfying, while a good heated Misawa one in that range (say 2/93 vs Taue or 9/93 vs Williams) are more like: "Well... that's not bad... good non-Kawada match for Taue at that point... nice to see Doc improve... good performances by Misawa... well... he's only had 30 better." 30 might be an exaggeration... or not... just pulling a number out of my ass. With Misawa, you tend to put it instantly on the Misawa Career Scale. With Hash, if he has a good heated **** match, you're not really getting too worried about how it matches up with one of the Tenryu matches or the 1995 G1 Final with Mutoh. You watch something like the 11/90 match with Choshu and go, "Well fuck it... that was a motherfucking war!" Here's what I mean as an example: Loss' Top Matches of 1990 #77 - Riki Choshu vs Shinya Hashimoto (NJPW 11/01/90) #33 - Mitsuharu Misawa vs Jumbo Tsuruta (AJPW 06/08/90) #6 - Mitsuharu Misawa vs Jumbo Tsuruta (AJPW 09/01/90) Misawa has that baggage: 6/90 ends up being comped not just with the rest of the decade of Misawa putting up snowflakes, but his re-match that year with Jumbo which people have debated back and forth for 15+ years. Hash has none of that baggage. You can just enjoy the fuck out of that match he had with Choshu. Style, emotion and expectations... Hash does age a better. It's even the case with me. I'd probably rather watch that Hash-Choshu tonight that slog through a Jumbo-Misawa and have to get all deep thoughty about it. Bit odd to feel that way.

Business in JCP was in decline in 1987 off 1986. After Mania, especially with Rude's jump, a person realistic about JCP was worried. I certainly was. The going back to Flair vs Ron Garvin, regardless of how much some of us now like Garvin, wasn't a great sign and did problematic business. The Starcade bombed thanks to Vince's power play. There was just a lot of horrible stuff going on with Crockett in 1987. One could look at the product in the ring and try to pretend everything was okay. But if you were at a live show, watching a good match, then looking at the crowd and seeing mediocre/poor attendance... it was worrisome. Then of course there was nothing at all gained from UWF. JCP is a hard analogy for New Japan unless there are similar behind the scenes and business issues already.

Yeah, a pretty good run going back to 1925. It's a little tricky since they did run some outdoor stuff for big cards in the 30s, and Hollywood Legion had it's own promotion of interesting stuff going on in the 30s and 40s.

Having watch Hansen in there with everyone in 1993, Hansen-Kobashi is a credit to both. Hansen's at an unbelievable peak, but the match is as much Kobashi as it is Stan. You can watch Stan's singles matches that year against Gordy, Doc and the two sleepy/dogish (out of four) matches against Misawa. Stan couldn't magically pull great matches out of anyone that year, even someone as good as Misawa who he actually had one really great match against. I love the Kawada-Hansen match, but their match the year before was pretty damn close to the same thing. I'm not totally sure why we all lost out shit more over the 1993 match. Probably a bit due to most of us not overly enthused about Stan As Champ in 1992, while Stan As Non-Champ Target put us in a different mindset. Kobashi had a very watchable match with the Ghost of Gordy where Kobashi was the whole show. Stan couldn't pull off later in the same series. Kobashi had the match with Doc that we've gone around in circles about for decades, but even those of us critical of parts of it don't think it's a dog. Stan had a dog with Doc. Stan had a very watchable match with Taue in the Carny, but it also had exactly half the match left on the cutting room floor. I'm not sold that if we saw all of it that it would rate as highly as Kobashi's match with Taue, which felt at the time like Taue's best non-Kawada singles had up to that point and a good building block leading into his TC challenge. It's not just an issue of seeing Kobashi's matches that year. It's also the other folks. There are some things about the yearbook that make you weep at time constraints: Taue-Kobashi was the first big singles match of the year, and the undercard had more than half of the first Kawada-Akiyama tv singles match. There's loads of interesting and enlightening stuff that hit tv. Again, I would love to argue that Kawada was the Worker of the Year for the promotion. I am the long noted Kawada Fan/Pimper online. If I can't and find it disingenuous to do so, it would be a tough one for anyone to make. It's akin to if Elliott came on here and had to say nice things about Coach K being greater than Dean Smith. It's one think for me to say it, since I'm a biased Duke Fan. But if Elliott, a true blue UNC man, were to say that's he'd love to put Dean ahead of him but begrudgingly has to give the nod to Coach K... that's something you put some weight on. Or... If Will have Duncan > Kobe, he's a Spurs Fan, so you weight it one way. When Lakers Fanboy JDW says that Duncan clearly has had the greater career than Kobe, and that he would have much rather built a team around Duncan, that's something different. JDW might have his head up his ass on it, but... probably not.

Here's a look at the Cavs cap issues from earlier in the year: http://www.waitingfornextyear.com/2015/01/explainer-cleveland-cavaliers-salary-kyrie-irving The movement of the cap in the coming years: 2015/16 Cap: 67.1M Tax: 81.6M 2016/17 Cap: 89M Tax: 108 2017/18 Cap: 108M Tax: 127M They will let Love wander off since it eases a lot of the burden. But they still have issues with Thompson (given what he already turned down) and Mozgov (who is he and/or his agent have a brain grasp that he's more valuable than Thompson and should be paid as such). If either sign for "cheap", they'll likely work in an opt-out that gives them total free agency in the coming years. As said, Varejao's contract sucks: it's $9M+ a year of wasted money. Shumpert is another qualifying offer. He might sign for "less" but work in an opt-out as well. The Cavs will quickly be in the same boat as the Heat: stars eating up the Cap, and having to build around them on the cheap. The difference is: * Bron isn't as good as he was in his four years with the Heat * Irving's ceiling and regular health issues (going back to college) are unclear * Mozgov or Thompson isn't Bosh The benefit remains that people want to play with Lebron, and he's better at bending them to his will than say Kobe. So they can get a certain type of player for cheap. The problem is that NBA Money is going through the roof, and players rightly feel they were screwed on the last deal. Players want to get PAID, and that's only going to increase as we heading into another round of labor strife. So the quality / age of "players on the cheap" might be different in a few years than it was when the Heat we picking up guys like Shane. It's going to take some work. The Cavs would have avoided a lot of this mess if they kept Wiggins rather than going for Love. They made a major "save" in picking up Mozgov. Shumpert & Smith were more flyers, once that might pay off this year but in turn cause the players to be price prohibitive to retain long term. In the case of Smith, who cares as he's a type that likely might be replaceable with less of a headache. With Shumpert, you'd king of like to hang onto him. But the more he plays with Bron, the more other teams would like to sign him away.

The personal life stuff in Dave's piece was sad to read.

Kawada is the Great Match Theory / Great Performance Theory guy where one can cherry pick. I'm a Kawada Fan. I was critical of Kobashi before anyone else was. But even I would find cherry picking my way into saying the Best Worker in All Japan that year was Kawada to be disingenuous on my part. It's not really as if Kawada's best performances run circles around Kobashi's anyway. We're not talking about the difference of Kawada's work compared to Shawn Michaels that year.

People never put up Kobashi's 1993 campaign as an all-time great campaign because of Great Match Theory bullshit. If it were due to Great Match Theory, people would have pointed to Kawada. This is outstandingly ignorant given the cherry picking you and Steven have seen. Watch the Kawada/Taue vs. MVC title change to see Kawada give a disappointing performance. And that isn't saying that Kawada wasn't outstanding in 93 and could be a viable pick for WOTY, I am just saying that you have seen 6 Kobashi matches of the 20+ that have made tape. He was in 39 matches on TV that year, out of 51 weeks of new AJPW TV that year. Then there are handhelds, like the Carny match with Hansen. We had a similar discussion during the 1993 yearbook and how "best of" doesn't remotely capture why people were amazed by his campaign at the time. I liked to point to this match: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o57rfqqWUIE It was one of the 3 to 4 *lowest* rated matches he had in 1993. I was a bit surprised seeing how low it was rated when looking back through the 1993 ratings, since I recalled it being pretty watchable. Sure enough on rewatch whenever the Yearbook discussions were going on, it was still pretty watchable. As it was when I just watched it again when searching youtube for it. If Mutoh/Muta and Bossman has this exact same match on a WCW or WWF ppv in 1993, it would be long remembered as one of the best matches of Bossman's career, and a terrific performance by Mutoh. It happened in All Japan, with 1993 Kobashi who had all those other matches, and with Bossman having to be judges against the gaijin standard of 1993 Hansen (rather high on the gaijin list of campaigns), right as Doc was really picking up his game with Gordy out, and with "beloved-by-hardcores" gaijin like Kroffat & Furnas working for the promotion. It pretty much got lost, and strangely rated. That's 1993: his throwaway TV taping match against Bossman, which was one of Bossman's more entertaining matches, is lost in time. * * * * * Before someone cares to point it out: Yeah, Bossman is really good in this match. It's high on the list of really good performances out of him, and he's busting shit out to fit into All Japan. If one wants to say Bubba "makes the match", go for it. I dig his performance in at as well. But... Here's the fun one gets out of watching the shit as it happened, and watching all of it. Bubba faced Taue in a singles match at the July Budokan. It was third from the top, behind Hansen-Kobashi and Misawa-Kawada. It was on TV, so maybe it's floating around the interwebs somewhere. I didn't easily find it on youtube, though it might be there. Perhaps someone can talk Ditch into putting it up as a comp to the match with Kobashi. Then one can judge the performance Bubba had against Kobashi against the one he had against Taue. It would get a bit uncomfortable for Taue Fanboys. * * * * * If you asked me at the time, and if you asked me now, who at their very best was the best worker in All Japan in 1993 was, I'd say Kawada. One can point to 12/03/93, and plenty of us have over the years, but it was more the crystallization of what I'd been thinking all year. When on, when in the right setting, when he needed to be, or when he was inspired, he was the best. The thing is... he wasn't always bringing it. Not that he was dogging it, but at times he was stuck opposite folks like Hansen & Dibiase, where he and Stan could light things up, but then Ted would be in... and it just wasn't any good. Ted's fault for no longer fitting in, but Kawada also couldn't figure out how to do much with him. In contrast, Kobashi pretty much every night (i.e. every match) went out there to perform. If he could figure out that you could bring some cool stuff, like Bossman did in the match above, he was more than willing to let you get your shit in and take the ass kicking. In turn, when it was time for him to go, he had all sorts of shit he could bring to the table. There were TV tapings where people were going through the motions, including his high quality teammates and opponents. When Kobashi came in, he pushed things and performed. All the bullshit we've used through the years to pimp Flair for bringing it every night, wanting to put on a show, it not mattering who he was against... that's Kobashi 1993. Much like Flair, some of his "great" stuff frankly was overrated, partly because of the name attached (Flair or Kobashi), and partly because he did brings "action" and "excitement" to the table all the time. The thing is, while people have circle jerked over the years far too much about the the "five star matches" that Flair has had, the real greatness of Flair is the mass of good-to-very-good matches he's had over the years. You see Flair-Garvin at a house show (as I was lucky enough to), and while it's not really a ****1/2 classic, it is a very good match with lots of good shit in it that had the crowd into it. I was a Flair Fan, so perhaps at the time I overrated it. But reflecting on it, and the bajillion Flair Matches that I've seen over the years, it was a good match. That's Kobashi 1993. Is Bossman-Kobashi a great match? Nah, though I suspect some might watch that and dig it. I can be hyper critical and point out some things, but I can (and have) pointed out even more in Flair's matches. But here's Bossman and Kobashi as "new" opponents to each other (half dozen tags prior to that), having to go out and fill a 20 minute match on TV, with the desire to make Bossman look good before he jobs in the end (that old who got over with the fans despite jobbing thing that was in some other thread), and in turn come up with a convincing All Japan way for him to job. They kind of nailed it on all counts. One can compare it with the prior Taue-Bossman to see how well it did relative to Bossman's first time of having to job in a singles in 1993 in the company. So if you asked me which worker in All Japan had the "best year", I'd go with Kobashi easily. Not really close. One can try to point to Hansen, but the Yearbook also covers up quite a few Hansen performances that just weren't good at all. Including one that very month that was the most disappointing match that All Japan tossed out the entire year. One could try to point to Misawa, but the same goes for him. Kobashi was the Worker of the Year in All Japan in 1993. I'm a Kawada Fan, was at the time, and thrilled when he was at his best. But Kobashi was the Worker of the Year for the promotion. * * * * * That's a different question from Wrestler of the Year. The Wrestler of the Year in All Japan in 1993 is obviously Misawa. Obvious in the sense that one would be obtuse to point to someone else. Like those WON voters who had Kobashi ahead of him in the Wrestler of the Year award voting. People are stupid sometimes.

They likely believe they have the replacement inhouse: Thompson & Mozgov as the C/PF combo, then Bron moving to PF when they go "small". We all know Thompson is represented by GM Lebron's agent. Lebron wants him there, and Thompson already turned down $13M a year well before he had the post season run. They'll resign Thompson, probably at an overpay range since the $40M the cap will move up in the next two years will make what's overpay be regular pay. They can qualifying offer Mozgov. They'll likely try to sign him long term in the post season rather than risk that. They're love to have someone take Varejao off their hands, but that's not happening. They likely hope he can stay healthy enough to caddy for Mozgov. Smith might opt out thinking there's more money out there for him, or try to leverage that to get more money out of the Cavs. Players out there are seeing what Lebron has done for Shumpert, Smith, Jobberdova, Thompson and Mozgov. There are a number of players who will be happy to play "cheap" with Lebron for two years to become free agents when the cap goes through the roof and they can cash in. My guess is that there might be a class of guys younger than Marion and Miller this time around. A lot of players always want to cash in, and seeing people's wheels blow up like Wesley Matthews always scares people. But if your option is $1M playing with Bron and $3M a year for two years elsewhere, you might take the Bron deal thinking that in two years you can cash in like an limited but hard working player such as Thompson is going. Or think of what might happen if people see Smith pull in a multi-year deal for decent money after a few months with Bron when in December he looked like a guy playing his way towards a minimum salary on some shitty team. The Cavs will be fine next year as long as Bron doesn't make "friends & family deals" like the one Thompson is going to get a major habit of how the Cavs are run. I also think the End Of Days stuff with Lebron is a bit overplayed in some circles. He's a year younger than Magic was in his final season, with the same "mileage" on him in terms of years played in the NBA and playoff times, etc. Magic's odometer was actually higher: two years of the NCAA, including one run all the way to the title game. He also played more often deeper into the post season that Bron did, right from that very first season: 9 trips to the Finals. Anyone who watched Magic in his final season could see he was far from washed up. Smart player who could adjust to the changing times and the wear on his body. The team already knew that they wanted to spot him around at PF and SF in the coming years, and look towards getting a bench PG to support some of the duty (they'd signed Sedale Threatt in the off season). Bron is more Magic than Kobe was, ending up being the true merger of Magic and Mike. Like both of them he'll have a sense of the body slowing down from some of the athleticism of his youth and adjust. He'll have an easier time of it that a lot of folks.