Phil Schneider

Ultimo is such a shitty pick that it is a mistake to use him as the new bar, sure if Ultimo is in, Sasuke is in, Hamada is a no brainer, Sano, Samurai, Ohtani, you got to let in damn near everyone

Jesus you would think that someone who hates black people would be able to tell them apart from Italians.

I call bullshit on the "they never hit me" stuff. What kind of woman gets in multple relationships with wife abusers, who never abuser her? She must actually be a pretty big cunt if the next woman takes her beating.

The plan always involved losing money and shit's really expensive in Japan. I had no idea the tours lined up like that, I just had it in my head from the original idea that they'd be losing money. Shit being expensive in Japan would include wrestling tickets and wrestling DVD's, so I imagine their gate and merch sales were bigger too.

Do we know exactly how much the ROH show cost to put on? Main added expense would be plane tickets, but Briscoes, American Dragon, Davey Richards, Rocky Romero, Nigel, Jimmy Rave,Sydal and Jack Evans were already on either NOAH or DG tours before or after the show, so I assume trans was paid by the Japaneese promotions. So they flew over Delerious, Strong, Whitmer and some office guys. They drew pretty well in both places, and I assume they sold a bunch of merch, so why do we think they lost much money at all?

Wouldn't more accurately be called the "racist" card, I mean you are a racist not a black guy.

Matt Sydal is really short, like 5'1 or 5'2

So Sid is being managed by a guy named Johnny Rotten? Is he going to have a valet named Nancy he smacks around?

Necro worked Euro catch style against Chris Hero, and faux MMA style against Drake Younger. Still isn't what he is about

He had a nice backslide, pretty good small package, but Steamboat wasn't about technical wrestling at all.

What basic wrestling did Ricky Steamboat do? He was a guy who did some armdrags, a bodypress and shitty looking karate. He wasn't Blue Panther, he was amazing at selling, pacing and simple bumping. I would say that Steamboat would actually be a great guy to compare both Necro and Cena too. Phil

2.9 has become an overused talking point? That was something Tomk and I made up after reading a Zach Arnold translation of a Gong article. Man alive does that Kawada guy have shitty taste in wrestling, KENTA v. Morishima? That match utterly sucked cock

Meltzer does a great job reporting on this, but it is Meltzer so it is pretty poorly written and jumps all over the place, including a random shift into italics. While I think your piece is much better reported. Loss when you feel like you are done with this I would like to post it over to Segunda Caida, I want to restart work on that, but don't feel like I should write anything with out addressing this, and I don't want to write about it.

Just to add to this threads based on the WON article I just read, Kevin's points about paranoia are really spot on, apparently Benoit believed his family was being stalked and wouldn't let his wife leave the house after 6pm. He also apparently believed that the move to ECW was a sign that his career was over and he was being shoved out the door, this was true despite the working plan being an ECW title run leading to Helmsley program on RAW. Also the last paragraph of you article Loss seems pretty wrong based on the stuff in the WON. Apparently Nancy placed a letter in a safe deposit box saying something like "If something happens to me, Chris did it." also he says many wrestlers have noticed his paranoia and were worried about his health. It doesn't appear to be as out of character as it seems. You might want to also add a paragraph about the "family annialahtor" trend, the profile seems to fit Benoit to a tee. Great piece though, easily the best thing I have seen written on this.

A really good 70's Andre the Giant match, I will have specific suggestions soon

Harley Race v. Jerry Lawler 12/10/77 You don't hear this match mentioned along the classics of American wrestling, but I think this maybe as good as any long Flair title defense, and is the best Harley Race match I have ever seen. Race is great here but this is a Jerry Lawler match, he looks on another level here, like he should be the guy touring with the belt. The opening part of the match was built around Lawler grounding Race with a headlock, you don't really think of either guy as a matworker, but they ran through some spectacular reversals and counters. Lawler really controls large sections of this match and it actually exposes a bit of a flaw in what Race does. Race has a big arsenal of athletic bumps, and he is backflipping and diving on all of Lawlers early punches. This is a sixty minute match, when he is twirling on a punch in minute five, it doesn't mean as much when he does it in minute fifty. Lawler in contrast is really amazing at long term selling, his bumps really are much bigger as the match goes on, and he is spectacular at digging down for one last shot. One of the things I have noticed in watching Jerry Lawler matches, is he is a master at building to a big spot in a match. Race keeps cutting Lawler off with headbutts to the belly, after four or five times, Lawler dips back and kicks Race right in the face when he tries it. It is a great big of in match strategy, and is awesome because they set it up for so long. Of course one of the great things about any Lawler matches is the punches, and they are amazing. Jabs, uppercuts, straight rights, hooks, punches on his knees, punches from the mount, diving punches, jumping punches. Lawler has more variety on his shots then anyone, ever, and they all rule. Race also has great punches, but he never goes toe to toes with Lawler, all of his shots are kind of sneaky. He also throws some amazing headbutts, just killing Lawler with a standing headbutt on a rope break, and his diving headbutts look like he crushes Lawlers orbital bones. What makes the diving headbutts so great too, is that Race misses it the first couple of times he tries it, so when he lands it, it looks even more spectacular. Your finish was a little weird for a touring champ ending. Flair would often end his draws on defense, escaping with his belt at last minute. Race is on defense at this end of this match too, but Lawler almost throws too much at him. You don't get the sense Lawler was moments away from winning the belt, it almost more like Lawler doesn't have enough in his arsenal to finish Race. http://segundacaida.blogspot.com/

If you are talking about the Mexican mask v. mask match, the only video of it is pretty much unwatchable

Sounds good to me, I might even send you some DVD's of shit to put on.

Loss where fore art though

Here is my review off of Segunda Caida 4. Shawn Micheals v. John Cena WWE 4/23 I was shocked at the greatness of the Wrestlemania match, which I figured would be a clusterfuck, and I also figured the ubiquitous "Michaels gets his pin back on TV" match would be even worse. Instead the Wrestlemania match was great, and the TV rematch was even better. Shawn was the real surprise here. The opening chain wrestling section was embarrassing, and I don't know how a guy who has been wrestling for 20+ years can't execute a fireman's carry, and there was a section where they were going toe to toe with strikes which is a terrible idea made worse with Shawn's awful knife edge chops. However outside of those two things he was basically inoffensive. After all of the back work and bumps near the end of the match, I kept waiting for the heat killing Resurrection (you think the Romans could have drawn money after Calvary?) and his long offensive run. It never really happened, instead of dominating, you got the sense the match ending superkick was a last gasp effort, he is guy who has the equalizer in his feet and is never out of a match. It almost felt like Diego Corrales's big comeback in the first Castillo fight, a guy who looks dead landing that one big flurry. I also really loved his crawl for the ropes in the STFU, one of the first times his desperation selling didn't come off as cartoonish. Okay enough of that shit, because this match was still 1000% John Cena. Starting with his awesome reversal of a go behind, his crazy Dustin bump to the floor, selling the hell out of the arm, talking shit to the ref, ropes course crawling after the first chin music and right up to his KO selling for a 1/8 Chris Adams superkick, he owned it here. The catching the plancha spot is pretty standard, but Cena made it look like he was Charles Atlas. He also really came off like the top guy, like he was the man that needed to be dethroned, while Michaels was the underdog trying to dig deep for one more unlikely win. It was subtlety heelish, but if they keep it subtle it will continue work. I they need to finish with Micheals and put him in a feud with Mark Henry or Orton, someone he can really be a total face against again, but I like how he can play both roles so well.

He does kind of work a rapper gimmick. Maybe he thinks he is a race traitor?

You are slacking on the Lucha 64 tourney too.

Some thoughts on Loss's rankings overall -I have mentioned before how much I think Loss is overating the lucha tag, I overrated it intially too, although not this much. It wasn't really a lucha match, much more of a spotfest tag, and in that category it wasn't nearly as good as your high end Briscoes matches, still haven't watched the super pimped Super Dragon/Davey Richards spotfest tags, but I wouldn't be suprised if those were better too. Just in 2007 I would rank Briscoes v. Marvin/Suzuki and Briscoes v. Generico/Steen above it. Not as good as high end Briscoes in a sub genre doesn't equal top match of the year. - Finlay v. Benoit and Akiyama v. Inoue are my 1 and 2, and Loss has both much lower. Those are both my type of matches though, and I can see not liking them as much. He also has Benoit v. Regal way low, below some matches which I thought it smoked. Way more interesting then either MUGA match IMO for something worked very similar. -I am suprised that Cage of Death comes below the six man. Really thought the six man was a nice set up, but Cage of Death was really an amazingly well put together match. -Looking forward to seeing how Loss rates the rest of this stuff.

Yuki Ishikawa v. Hiroyuki Ito Big Mouth Loud 5/4 These are my two favorite wrestlers in Japan, working my favorite Japanese wrestling style. It probably should have ended up higher on this list. This was a lot of fun, but was really hurt by my expectations of it. Ito works a really agressive style, where he will either knock you out or make a mistake. Teddy Atlas would call him a TV friendly fighter. Ishikawa is the crafty veteran here who counters Ito's agression and tears him up on the mat. Some nasty shots by both guys, and some great tricky mat counters by Ishikawa. Ito gets two knockdowns and looks like he has the match won with a choke, but you don't want to take Ishikawa to the mat, as he outmaneuvers Ito and gets a sweet ankle lock out of knowhere. Great match, although I really think these two guys have a classic in them. This is a second match on a card, and the guys work it like a second match on the card. Ishikawa v. Otsuka from the first BML show was a semi-main event, Ito v. Tamura was the main event of the show it was on, and thus both matches should have been as good as they were. This wasn't set up to be that and it wasn't, although fans of both guys would still really dig this. American Dragon Brian Danielson v. Nigel McGuiness ROH 4/29 This was a title v. title match and the first match of their trilogy. This has the long opening mat section which is your basic Danielson opening. Nigel brought alot more to the mat stuff then most opponents do, and I was really engaged with all of the early stuff. I especially dug the early headscissors escapes by Danielson, as I am mark for a good headscissors escape. I also like alot of the little things, the elbow to the small of Danielsons back, the grabbing and twisting of Nigel's ear ect. All of the stuff leading to the rope breaks was fun, especially Nigel going behind the refs back to piss off Danielson and make him snap and throw a punch. It was actually one of my old favorite Rugby moves, cheap shot a guy when the ref isn't looking, and then take the penalty when he swings on you. I imagine that the rope break shtick might get tiresome if I watched more Nigel Pure title matches, but I liked all the stuff here. I also really loved the finish, I like a good countout finish alot, and the second row crazy Danielson dive headfirst into the chair was awesome. It was exactly the kind of loony spot the match need I also liked how it was set up by Nigel trying for the countout earlier. The reason I have this a little below the Samoa Joe match is that the hot near fall section before the finish was a big step below the Samoa Joe match, seemed kind of cursory to me, while the last ten minutes of the Joe match were insane. I really dug how these guys match up with each other, and I am really eager to see their other two matches now. American Dragon Brian Danielson vs Nigel McGuiness ROH 8/12: This match reminded me a lot of Austin Aries v. Samoa Joe when Joe dropped the title. In the sense that the body of the match was nothing exceptional, but it built to an absolutely brilliant finish. The stuff pre the floor, felt a little perfunctory. They went through the rope breaks and it felt a little like killing time, it was fine, but I think the early work was better in their first match. Everything after they go to the floor is amazing. Nigel is certifiable for letting his head get mauled like that, but it lead to an amazing visual, and incredible heat for the finish. He had a lump on his head the size of a grapefruit and was covered in blood. When he comes back in he is just has a great babyface scream. He doesn't get in a ton of offense, but he does hit this amazing lariat. He does a spot where he bounces off the ropes to hit a lariat, the first attempt he fails because of the blood loss, but he gets his energy back tries again and just kills Dragon. It was such a great variation of a signature spot, and was one of the better near falls in company history. Danielson is such a killer, and the Gary Goodrich elbows have never looked this good. I really think after this match that Nigel could carry the promotion as champ, and that is something I wouldn’t have thought before this. KENTA vs American Dragon Bryan Danielson: KENTA is a guy I don't really like but who brings something to a match, he is really athletic and he has a decent dickish charisma. He is a guy who can have a good match if his opponent brings some order to the match. SUWA brought the SUWishness, Sydal brought some great underdog babyface charisma. Danielson had the bad shoulder coming in, so the early parts of the match (which can be a weak point in both guys matches) was really strong here, as KENTA had a target and just kicked the hell out of his shoulder. The middle section with Danielson working the leg, did feel a little time killish (although I did love Dragon's improv on the semi-blown tapitia.) The finish stretch was your normal Danielson hot finish stretch, and it really built into both Danielson's shoulder injury and KENTA's big winning streak. KENTA going back multiple times to the Fujiwara armbar after every move, Danielson being completely reckless to keep his belt, and the incredible near fall for the Go 2 Sleep. The last run was totally awesome with Danielson throwing everything at KENTA before getting the win. Easily the best KENTA match ever, and up there in the Danielson oeuvre.

L.A. Park/Marco Corleone/Johnny Stamboli v. Dr. Wagner Jr./Dos Caras Jr./Lizmark Jr. CMLL 5/19 Man alive is primed up L.A. Park just about the best thing you are ever going to see. This was an absolutely insane brawl with Parka flying across ring and just beating the holy shit out of Wagner for the first couple of falls. Really reckless stuff, Parka would just fly through the air and it really looked like he had no idea what he would do when he landed. He ties tape around his face and hands. One of the recent additions to Arena Mexico is Tony the caracturist, he draws little pictures of Mistico and Dr. Wagner, so Parka just beals Dr. Wagner Jr. right into Tony, grabs his easels and just smacks Wagner with it. After getting pounded for a two caidias , the technicos take over when Corleone hits his partners with a running dive from the ramp to the ring. Wagner comes back and just starts wailing away on Parka. Including ripping off his mask and apparently breaking his nose with a narsty enzigiri to the face. The third fall briefly turns into a match with Lizmark and Stamboli actually doing some nice exchanges, before going right back into Wagner and Parka killing each other. After this match both Parka and the two refs got suspended by the commission. There were parts of this that were really awkward looking, but it really just contributed to the insanity of the whole thing. American Dragon Brian Danielson/Samoa Joe/B.J. Whitmer/Adam Pearce/Ace Steele/Homicide vs Nate Webb/Chris Hero/Claudio Castognoli/Necro Butcher/Eddie Kingston ROH 7/15: This was the Cage of Death finale of the ROH v. CZW feud and was one of the best "loads of booking" matches I have ever seen. This was a match loaded with storylines, and was a War Games match which didn't follow the formula, and usually both things are recipes for disaster. I mean on paper the match layout reads like Vince Russoism, insider smark joke (J.J. Dillon winning the coin toss), in match heel turn (American Dragon jumping Joe), multiple surprise entries (Kingston, Homicide), in match face turn (Homicide), feuding tag partners (Hero and Kingston), random rule change (allowing Homicide in), then a post match heel turn (Cornette) complete with insider smark joke (Low-Ki being mentioned without any intention of him coming in.) I mean there is no way this should have been anything but a clusterfuck disaster. However it worked, the booking of the match actually led to a great high point with Homicide coming in, and never felt like it distracted from the match, and the match was just filled with excellent performances. Your seconds were great, Cornette was super getting furious at Danielson when he turned, and he owned the final angle, it is too bad that Homicide v. Cornette angle fell apart because it started great. Julius Smokes was his usual great self, I especially loved his furious attempt to get into the cage when Cide was being jumped. However J.J. Dillon, was the king second, just incredible, his awesome ring jacket, his look of disgust when CZW was winning, his backing away from Homicide when he came into the cage, and his rubbing his hands together in glee when Cornette called him in to whip Homicide. ROH really needs to find a regular role for J.J. Dillon, he is the fucking man. The ROH team was pretty fun, Samoa Joe was awesome as you unstoppable face monster, wasting Claudio in the opening and coming off like a superstar. I enjoyed Ace Steel running in with the cow bell and just acting like a complete nutter, and of course Homicide came off as a total superstar. Rocking the old school JAPW deathmatch gear, pulling forks out, and just killing everyone, this was his match and he stepped up. I had no problems with Pearce, he was fine and kind of a non entity. Whitmer took some bumps, but he was the one guy in this match who made me groan, he would be throwing around shitty exploders when they weren't needed, everyone else was beating the shit out each other, and Whitmer would throw crappy elbows to the stomach or his fake Misawa elbow exchanges. They should have just gotten the Carnage Crew for those two rolls. The CZW team however were the stars of this show. Nate Webb shows he is a complete fucking loon as he wins a bumpathon match with Necro Butcher in it. Kingston and Claudio were both fun, if a little in the backround. I especially loved all of Kingston's goofy facial selling. Necro also comes off like a huge star, this wasn't really a Necro showcase match, although his couple of big spots (running through the tacks, getting suplexed on the chair) were amazing, I would have liked to see a little more Necro offense though. Chris Hero may have been the MVP of this match he is such a hateble little prick, that you just want him to get killed. The crowd taunting cravates, his little speech in the middle of the match, running away, probably the match of his career. American Dragon Brian Danielson v. Samoa Joe ROH 8/6 You can't really go wrong with the two best wrestlers in your promotion wrestling in a main event for a title. I really enjoyed this match, I haven't seen a ton of 2006 ROH so this was my first chance to watch heel champion Brian Danielson, and he was a blast. The opening had Joe just dominating and Dragon kept bailing out to regroup. His regrouping stalls were really great, as he would do deep knee bends or slap himself in the face. He eventually takes over on Joe, by smacking his knee with a chair and working over that knee. This may have been the one part of the match that dragged a bit, you are going to have down spots in a 60 minute match, and I did enjoy Dragon's shit talking, him starting the "boring" chant was pretty inspired. Still it was obvious from the start time of the match, that it was going 60, and this part felt a little like a time killer. Last 20 or so was pretty spectacular. Joe's tope was as good as I have ever seen it, it was almost Popetekisish like some one dropped a couch out of a four story walk up. Dragon's springboard into the crowd is the craziest highspot on a show with Jack Evans on it. The near fall section was great, I especially loved the head and arm amateur takeovers by Dragon into the cattle mutilation. Joe powering out of the Big Daddy elbows, into landing his KO knees was sweet as well. Final spot of match was great too, as Danielsons goes for a roll up off the ropes which Joe counters right before three right into the choke. Just great timing on the spot, and made the crowd go ballistic. This was probably the best 60 minute draw ROH has run, but I do think that these two have a better 25 minute match in them. Still it had three separate "This is Awesome" chants, so Meltzer really should drop the 5 on it.