Childs

I love this match-up because Anjo always tried to out-prick Tenryu, who is not a man to be out-pricked. Anjo was a shootstylist who could've worked in just about any setting, because he was such a naturally smarmy dickhead. A smirk seemed to be his natural expression, and I loved the dirty little shit he did, like standing on Tenryu's hand to prevent him from getting up after a rope break. Tenryu, of course, answered with his usual brew of closed-hand punches and reckless lariats. The match featured a great finish, with Anjo hooking a flash submission after eating a nearfall off Tenryu's power bomb. Tenryu then decimated him with a lariat for his insolence and finished it with a second powerbomb. Yoji, asshole to the last, tried to kick Tenryu during the post-match handshake. Love it!

I know nothing about these wrestlers, but I know they put on a hell of a match here. They established their desperation to compete and win from the first moments. They attacked with a bunch of interesting offense; Tamura, in particular, delivered some nifty variations of leg work and that badass suplex at the end. And they sold enough to make it all mean something. The highlight of the match, in fact, was probably Uematsu punching at her own leg and screaming after she hit her big dive to the floor. Sometimes, the screeching gets to me, but in this case, it sold how unhinged she was about keeping her title. Anyway, yeah, this was terrific.

They did an awesome job building the really simple stuff involving Rodman into big moments. I mean, it's sort of ridiculous to think that an armdrag carried that much meaning. But everyone, from Luger to the announcers, sold the shit out of it. I thought they struck a nice balance between making Rodman look competitive and giving him some comeuppance. For NWO matches involving pro athletes, I'd still take the Slamboree tag. But the evidence suggests that WCW was surprisingly good at staging these types of matches in 1997. EDIT: The announcers buying Nash as Sting was fucking stupid.

I had never seen this before and it was a total blast. Wrath shocked me with his agility, especially on that somersault off the apron. Say what you want about WCW but they brought the diversity.

Kris, you seriously think Michalczewski is a bigger hole in RJJ's record than Pacquiao is in Floyd's? Sorry, but that's nuts. Manny and Floyd were the No. 1 and No. 2 guys in the sport and their fight would've been the biggest boxing had seen in at least a decade. I mean, if Sugar Ray Leonard had refused to fight Tommy Hearns, would we look at his career exactly the same way? And Manny is not the only example. The boxing public wanted Floyd to fight Cotto back when Miguel was undefeated and wrecking top fighters with body shots. But Floyd waited until last year, long after Cotto had been diminished by terrible beatings from Margarito (probably assisted by loaded gloves) and Pacquiao. He never sought a fight with Paul Williams when Paul was a massive/stylistically tricky welterweight. He never considered moving up to face Sergio Martinez at a catchweight. Again, I'm not saying we should consider Floyd anything less than an all-time great. I'm not saying he's fought bad competition. But I think it's terribly revisionist to say he's always sought the best competition. He definitely has not. As for Will's question about Canelo -- he was as good an opponent as Floyd could've picked at this moment. But I think Floyd knew full well that Canelo lacked the speed or sophistication to hang with him. So it was the perfect choice, one for which he'd get a lot of credit without much risk. That's Floyd in a nutshell and really, more power to him. He's great and smart about his business.

I don't think he's a fucking joke. I think he's a supremely talented guy who is wired to care more about controlling every situation than about testing his talent to the utmost. The Pacquiao thing is the best example. I'm pretty sure that Floyd would've beaten Manny two years ago, when they were both near their primes and everyone wanted them to fight. But instead of saying damnit, I need to fight this guy no matter what, Floyd dicked around over minutiae until the moment had passed. I don't think he ducked Manny exactly. But he didn't push for the fight at all costs. Look, Floyd is an amazing talent who has nurtured his ability far better and longer than most. Guy is never out of shape, never flat come fight time. He has fought a lot of good opponents and continues to do so in his late 30s. It's an extremely impressive resume. But there is a caution in him that keeps him from saying I need to fight the absolute best guy out there, right now.

It's not strange. He only fights guys he knows he can beat. That's not to take anything away from his greatness. But he's always picked his fights carefully.

The subhed of Shoemaker's column on Night of Champions includes the phrase "nexus of unreality." Dude just has no other mode for writing about wrestling.

That is one where I strongly suggest you read through the yearbook threads and get a sense of what people liked and didn't like. A few highlights for me: * The WAR/NJ feud, which went from late '92 to early '94 and climaxed with tremendous singles matches between Hashimoto and Tenryu on 6/17/93, 8/8/93 and 2/17/94. But really, Tenryu vs. anybody in New Japan, singles or tag, is worth watching. * The Liger/Sano juniors feud, which started in '89 and ended with a classic on 1/31/90. Just great action and heat in all their matches. * Liger vs. Otani in '96-'97, probably the greatest version of Liger as junior ace vs. young guy on the rise. Their 3/17/96 and 2/9/97 matches are classics. * Rise of the Hashimoto/Mutoh/Chono generation of heavyweights. You start to see this with the Hash/Choshu singles matches in '89 and '90 and the 11/1/90 heavyweight tag. But you must check out the '91 G-1 Climax tourney, which features great matches involving all three and climaxes with a brilliant final between Chono and Mutoh. * The 4/16/94 Super J Cup, often cited as a puro gateway drug. Lots of action and a wide variety of wrestlers, some of whom you'll recognize. * The 1/4 Dome shows. These aren't always great, especially for juniors. But it's a cool setting for a big spectacle match, like the '96 showdown between Inoki and Vader.

I'm probably at 10-12 hours a week, down from 15-20 pre-kid.

Some people seem to like the matches with Steamboat, but I haven't seen them in a while. Are they just all Steamboat? Not that that would be surprising. I hated those matches. Worst Steamboat feud ever.

I know I've seen a full 60-minute version of Jumbo-Choshu, but I can't remember where if it's not on the Classics. Maybe on a commercial tape called Jumbo Legend? Or on the G+ Classics as opposed to Samurai? EDIT: I checked and it looks like the version we watched when working on the '80s set was, in fact, from the Jumbo Legend comm. tape. Vol. 3, disc 1. There's some other cool stuff on there if you can track it down, like the interpromotional match with Rusher Kimura from 1976.

I think it'll be worth having more Joshi discussion come the '93 and '94 podcasts. Hard to avoid talking about some of the most acclaimed matches in the world, especially given how highly Loss rated them.

Yeah, it exists in full on Classics.

It's not bad. But a 60-minute singles match just wasn't ideal for Choshu. There was a lot of down time. It won Tokyo Sports MOTY though, so if you become interested in Choshu's Army, it's worth watching.

Yes, 11/4/85. Honestly though, the tags are what you want from that feud.

Old Andre was a really smart, expressive worker who knew how to get around his limitations. Younger Andre, say pre-1983, was an unbelievable force of nature. He was just as charismatic but with exceptional agility for a man his size. He was one of the stars of the New Japan DVDVR set. The Hansen match from '81 and the Killer Khan match from '82 are two of my favorites from the '80s. If we had more '70s Andre on tape, he might be widely regarded as a great worker. Based on what I've seen, he was.

Can I vote Arn? Absolutely. I felt a little bad about not mentioning him after I posted. He'd be No. 3 for me.

One of the questions I can never resolve in my own mind is whether Morton or Eaton was the greatest U.S. tag team wrestler of all time. Do you give Morton more credit for lugging Gibson or do you give Eaton more credit for being great with multiple partners? Do you like Eaton's offense or Morton's selling/fire? It's one where my answer changes repeatedly.

That's what I meant. Sorry.

I give him credit for booking a promotion that built a truly loyal, long-term audience, even if I have loathed most of my experiences with it. As a wrestler, he can be overly self-aware, which would be similar to my criticism of the whole Chikara product. But he's technically very good and has appeared in some great matches. I'm thinking of the 2009 KOT match with Saint and Skayde against Danielson, Claudio and Dave Taylor and the 2009 tag with Ricochet against Danielson and Claudio. Also the trios we saw live in Delaware where he matched up with Negro Navarro. He wasn't the best guy in any of those matches but certainly held his own. His 2011 blowoff with Kingston was very good as were some of his matches with Hero.

Do we have a sense of how many voters take their HOF selections seriously? Or more specifically, how many would go beyond their gut impulses (that guy was a star!) to read something like Dylan's Patera research?

I have never quite gotten the love for this as a match. As others have said, it was a tremendous event with one of the best crowds in WWE history. The Hart Foundation's entrance was as captivating as anything in the match. All of the stuff with Austin clicked. But god, when Austin wasn't there, the match just died. At least half of it featured wrestling of the meh, Raw-main-event variety. Tim compared it to the Slamboree match, but I thought that featured more energetic work with better build to the big spots. Shit, give me Kevin Greene over '97 Jim Neidhart any day of the week. The yearbook context made me appreciate this more than ever as a spectacle. The match itself? Still not buying.

I loved all the shenanigans around this match, especially the bit with Goto's second cutting Tenryu's boot and Tenryu kicking the shit out of Goto with his bare foot. What I've always liked about Goto is his ability to come off as a straight-up, ass-kicking tank in the middle of all the spectacle that comes with FMW. He certainly did that here. He's one of the last people I'd want splashing me from the top. And Tenryu was great selling the beating, then finding a new level of nastiness with his comeback. This was all I wanted from the pairing.

I was actually surprised they moved into the high flying so quickly. You usually don't see Santito hit his tope in the first fall. But in this case, it created a cool sense of urgency -- a lucha title match on amphetamines. I didn't want the match to end when it did, but hey, at least we get more later in the month.