FLIK

Closer analogy would be more the AAA to AJW's CMLL. New company that had a more modern exciting style, tried a lot of new ideas, some completely unique, some just not done in joshi before. Created a new generation of stars & stole a bunch of other top ones from the established companies. Fans of Memphis or other similar styles would both recognize and probably love angles like the formation of the OZ Academy with Chigusa's students turning on her to join her hated rival or SSU vs GAEA with Chigusa's long time friend & partner Lioness joining the company only to betray her and try to take it over.

Yeah, I really need to re-watch this. First viewing a few weeks back I thought it was pretty good but wasn't blown away by it at all and didn't get the hype. To be fair it was probably hurt by the fact that I was exspecting a much diffrent style & I was also partially distracted while viewing it so upon 2nd look maybe i'll dig it more.

Hmmm, so how'd this end up making the set? A match other ppl considerd really good/great? Something historicly significant no one's mentioned yet?

Watching the Timeline ECW 1994 shoot w Shane Douglas, hilarious quote from him regarding the 3 way "it just felt like a crap match to me". Does say he got why ppl loved it after re-watching it on tape later on however. Also said most of it was called in ring and credits Funk for leading a lot of it. Re Funk/Douglas it's been too long since I last watched it to go into much detail but yeah I def recall thinking it was really great the last time I saw it.

Okay, so on the subject of fake can someone give me an answer to this. Why, in this day & age do so many non fans not realise that most wrestling fans do know & accept that it's not real now? Like NOTHING makes a non wrestling fan happier then to tell you "you know it's all fake right?" if you reveal that you're a fan to them. Don't get it at all....well, I do, but it's stupid....

Giant pet peve of mine, so many show posters and DVD covers today rarely have anything to do with the show itself. Like if you didn't allready know who those two were or saw & recognized the tiny WWE logo up top you would literally have a 0% chance of knowing that was supposed to be a poster promoting a pro wrestling event and even if you do, this poster tells you nothing about the event so how can it get you excited or interested in the product?

I get why this one became famous but the Douglas vs Funk 45 min draw from just a few weeks earlier blew it out of the water I always thought. I like both of the Funk vs Sabu vs Douglas 3 way rematches better then the original too. Actually, their 2nd is my fav ECW match ever.

He talked about it a bit on one of the radio shows. Didn't really say much other then most of the class had very little interest in MMA and none of the students asked him about pro wrestling at all.

FMW 4/4/1996 Combat Toyoda & Chigusa Nagayo vs Megumi Kudo & KAORU So yeah, didn't even know this show existed until a few weeks ago when I was flipping through Lynch's list so I had to get it right away of course. It starts a bit slow and the crowd kinda sucks but otherwise this is quite the rockin tag match.

It's funny, I always thought Mita was hotter when they were younger but Shimoda aged better and was hotter when she got older. Maybe early on but Shimoda def developed the bigger personality by the late 90's early 00's. Mita got more reserved/quiet over time. I think it was because they went full on super heel in 97 which they'd never been up to that point and that style favors Shimoda more. Still, for their overall career i'll still slot Mita ahead, it's especially noticable if you look at their singles work apart from each other. Like i've seen some great Shimoda singles but never anything as good as say Mita vs Ito in 01

Heh, I think you may be the first person in history to lable them that way. Usually it's the other way around with most thinking Shimoda is the charasmatic one and Mita being the workhorse.

Weird, I have no memory of heel Ron Simmons being in WCW this late. I remember the angle whear he turned on Ice Train for being an idiot but not much after that. Especially odd to see him teaming with those two given how many Dangerous Alliance tags he was on the opposite end of.

It'll be interesting to see how you compare this one to their September 91 match as they work a really similar "Bull gets desperate to survive the match & win" theme. I've seen 4 singles between them (and shit, this just reminded me that i've got a 5th i've never watched) and the 9/91 & 1/94 are the 2 best.

Not quite sure I understand your question. Regular as in non mask match in lucha? Sure, they do that finish all the time. Either guy gets his mask ripped off behind the refs back and then cradled for the pin as he covers his face or gets it ripped off for the DQ in front of the ref. Ocasionally they'll try and get cute with it and even do a double one whear both oppoenents rip the others mask off at the same time so they end up scrambling and have to put on their opponents mask to cover up. In any case, the guy is only unmasked for 1 or 2 seconds so it never kills the mask match appeal. It's pretty common for guys to get their mask partially ripped open as well, especially if there's gonna be blood and sometimes half or more of their face will be exsposed from that too. Surprisingly that doesn't kill the mask match value either.

Bastard shoulda taged, all he had to do was reach out his hand but stupid kids always gotta get their shit in.

Heh, I actually remember this promo and the one where Owen & Bret were excited after they learned it would be a title shot after all and promised to give all the teams in the WWF title shots. I didn't see the turn coming at all myself, watching live I tought for sure they'd win the belts.

Yeah great match, nothing to add on that front but a few random bits of info for context Worth noting that this is a 2 count to win match Yeah, Cutie had her moments whear she'd play up to her gimmick but sometimes just as often she was a little mini pitbull who'd try and rip your face off. Her feud with Takako has that fun "hot chicks who will murder you" dynamic to it. In terms of the heirarchy, Plum was the oldest (26 at the time of this match) but her, OZ & Cutie all debued in the same class (1986, Kansai was also same class too). OZ was the highest booked at the time on her team however but Cutie wasn't that far behind and until recently they were about equall. Plum was always behind in terms of push but not by much. Cutie & OZ were also the JWP tag champs at this point (their 2nd reign) and had been a reg team for years. Between this, Plum & Devil vs Chiggy & Cutie 2 months earlier and the awesome Plum vs Chigusa match in Feb (hands down Plum's best singles ever, on the tv after she passed away this is the one they chose to air highlights of), Plum was on the biggest hot streak of her career at this point. Yeah, 94 was the start of the Chigusa vs Ozaki feud that would last on and off for the next 10-11 years. They had a match on 1/11/94 which i've heard is great but never seen since it's only available via a hard to find fan cam. And they had an amazingly great blood bath match on 5/22/94 which along with Chigusa vs Plum i'd consider 2 of the top 10-15 joshi matches of the year.

Mentioned it in a daily update but didn't directly link to it, just said he had a column up on grantland.com and left it at that

Wish i'd gotten actual details of this but my Grandmother on my father's side once briefly told me a tale about how an uncle of mine tried to become a wrestler in the 70's down in Texas and some Mexican wrestlers who were runing things as she described it "beat his ass and ran him off". For myself personally it wasn't until I was probably 12 or 13 when I finally accepted wrestling was fake. I recall getting in arguments in 6th grade with other students and staff, defending the business against their claims that it was.

Copying over from DEAN's thread at DVDVR SPW 4/22/2012 (SPW Tag Titles) The Reno Scum, Adam Thornstowe & Luster The Legend © vs Virgil Flynn & El Chupacabra Best match i've seen in Nor Cal in about half a year since Fit Finlay vs Timothy Thatcher. Great use of the traditional tag formula, insane bumps, crazy highspots, stiffness, hot crowd. Can't imagine anyone not loving this match. Starts about 9 mins in if you want to skip the entrances and barely audible promo stuff

There's a reason "what's my motivation" is the classic actor stereotype. The audience needs to know why they should give two shits about someone. If they're a hired gun by the boss to take out the annoying babyface who foils his plans, then say so. If he wants to be world champion, say so. Leaving things up to the fans to figure out is lazy booking at best and at worst you damage your promotion by not giving your fans a reason to be emotionally invested in anything. He is a wrestler in a wrestling promotion. His motivation goes without saying. Just as an example off the top of my head, early NXT Daniel Bryan stuff was built entirely upon "he's so boring and needs to be more charasmatic" nothing to do with making money, wining matches or championships. Things like that long ago stoped being important, "well duh" motivations for ppl in wrestling. Guy who wins a match goes to the pay winda and makes more money then guy who loses or guy who wins a lot of matches can challenge for a title which will make him the most money isn't really stressed anymore.

Not sure but i'd assume so. They did one on the first show after her death I know. I've never actually seen the 97 memorial show but Plum was one of the best wrestlers of her generation and her dying in the ring was a HUGE story that year in wrestling period not just joshi. Both JWP & OZ Academy still do yearly tribute matches/shows to this day.

So yeah, one of the biggest omisions of the 96 set is the joshi world getting ignored outside of AJW, JWP & 2 or 3 FMW matches. Especially sucks nothing from GAEA made it. Not sure how much of it lends itself to the year book format actually since a lot of it's strength comes from the show to show booking. I spent the past 2 weeks or so re-watching their 96 tv set and really, except for the early run of the NWO I don't think there was anything going on in the world of wrestling in 96 that was as compelling as GAEA in terms of episodic tv. Real big growth year for the company with quite a lot happening - Early in the year sees the feud with FMW winding up & the LLPW & JWP feuds continue. - 3 new rookies debut, most notably Sakura Hirota. - Their rookie class from previous year starts really getting established and a few start picking up wins over the older talent for the first time - Later in the year they get a 2nd tv show on Samurai to go along with their GAORA champ forum slot. - Sakie Hasegawa stops by on her retirement road for a big match vs Chigusa - Sakie later joins the company as the host of their Samurai show doing commentary and back stage interviews & special features Mean Gene Okerlund style - Mima Shimoda who'd play a big role in the company in a few years stops by for the first time. - Toshiyo Yamada shows up for the first time, working a fair number of shows and having a series of tags & a single vs Chigusa. She'd join the company officially in 97 - Akira Hokuto joins the company which they make a big deal out of dedicating an entire tv episode to it to show press confrences, interviews and training footage. - Kyoko Ichiki joins the company from IWA Japan - The LLPW feud spins off into a nice little mini feud between Kato & Nagashima - Nagashima & Sugar Sato turn heel to join Mayumi Ozaki & Carlos Amano forming the original OZ Academy in one of the all time great angles in joshi. 16 years later OZ Academy is still going strong with 3 of those 4 as anchors. - The tag division gets established with Nagashima & Sato, Meiko & Kato and Chihiro Nakano & Makie Numao being the 3 cornerstones - Nagashima & Sato win the AJW Tag Titles - Meiko & Kato become the first GAEA 3AW tag champs beating Nagashima & Kato - Chigusa becomes the first 3AW singles champ beating Devil Masami - They do a tour of Singapore & score the deal with WCW - The Hokuto vs Kaoru feud gets set up for next year after they lose to Meiko & Kato Best matches, one's in bold are MOTYC lvl stuff 2/16/1996 Eagle Sawai, Jen Yukari & Michiko Nagashima vs Chigusa Nagayo, Bomber Hikaru & Sonoko Kato 2/16/1996 KAORU vs Combat Toyoda 4/3/1996 Toshie Uematsu vs Sonoko Kato 4/3/1996 Michiko Nagashima vs Chikayo Nagashima 4/29/1996 Sugar Sato & Aki Kanbayashi Miss Mongol vs Chihiro Nakano & Makie Numao 4/29/1996 Toshiyo Yamada vs Meiko Satomura 4/29/1996 Chigusa Nagayo & Sugar Sato vs Shinobu Kandori & Michiko Omukai 6/16/1996 Yasha Kurenai, Carol Midori & Mikiko Futagami vs Bomber Hikari, Sugar Sato & Chikayo Nagashima 6/16/1996 Chigusa Nagayo & Makie Numao vs Toshiyo Yamada & Meiko Satomura 7/31/1996 Mayumi Ozaki, Reiko Amano & Sugar Sato vs Kaoru, Toshie Uematsu & Chikayo Nagashima 7/31/1996 Toshiyo Yamada & Sonoko Kato vs Chigusa Nagayo & Meiko Satomura 8/18/1996 Mayumi Ozaki, Reiko Amano, Sugar Sato & Chikayo Nagashima vs Chigusa Nagayo, Sonoko Kato, Toshie Uematsu & Sakura Hirota 9/16/1996 Chigusa Nagayo vs Toshiyo Yamada 9/16/1996 (Handicap Match) Chihiro Nakano & Makie Numao vs Kaoru 9/16/1996 (AJW Tag Titles) Sugar Sato & Chikayo Nagashima © vs Sonoko Kato & Toshie Uematsu 11/2/1996 (3AW Tag Titles) Sonoko Kato & Meiko Satomura vs Sugar Sato & Chikayo Nagashima 11/2/1996 (3AW Title) Chgusa Nagayo vs Devil Masami 11/16/1996 Mayumi Ozaki & Sugar Sato vs Reiko Amano & Chikayo Nagashima 11/16/1996 Akira Hokuto vs Meiko Satomura 11/16/1996 Chigusa Nagayo vs Sonoko Kato 11/18/1996 (AJW Tag Titles) Sugar Sato & Chikayo Nagashima © vs Chihiro Nakano & Makie Numao 11/18/1996 Chigusa Nagayo & Sonoko Kato vs Kaoru & Meiko Satomura 12/1/1996 Sonoko Kato vs Chihiro Nakano 12/13/1996 (Handicap Match) Chigusa Nagayo vs Sugar Sato & Chikayo Nagashima 12/13/1996 Sonoko Kato & Meiko Satomura vs Akira Hokuto & Kaoru

Shit, completely forgot about this (taking place in 97) Sad as it is, Plum Mariko's death is something that must be covered in some form http://www.quebrada.net/columns/old/30.htm For sure the Oz vs Kansai & Cuty match should go on from the 10/30 memorial show http://www.quebrada.net/columns/issue53/que53a1.html If possible the Plum & Cuty vs Devil & Fukuoka tag title match from 5/10 as well since that was Plum's last real match (not counting the swiming pool tag) to make tape.

In Japan all his best matches were vs smaller fast guys or ppl who'd slug it out with him in brawls. In his first WWE run he was pretty mediocure working as guy named after a penis pearcing or wrestling as the Hip Hop Hippo. Outlandish gimmick & slow paced squashes just don't play to any of his strengths. Course, things could always be worse, just had a flash back to Dr Death Steve Williams debut in the karate gi & kabuki mask....shudder...