Chess Knight

Loved the Akiyama/Omori test of strength at the beginning, No Fear going wild on Kanemaru, and Burning focusing on Asako's leg (esp. Akiyama torquing it before locking in the STF). But I disappointed with this one, because honestly I thought the selling was so spotty. I wound up staring through the screen for a lot of it, because I could expect out of nowhere the guy selling to just be like "time for me to stop" without any build. I hate Kobashi's trade-off stuff.....I really do. I nearly fast-forwarded through a lot of it, and I'm getting to the point in my wrestling viewing where, when I see him do it, I start to wish somebody else was in the match instead. At one point in the match Takayama boots him to the mat and Kobashi just literally stands up and starts chopping him. The rest of them kind of did it, too. Akiyama and Takayama have a forearm trade off where Takayama goes down, but then just winds up on top of the match anyway four seconds later. Omori did this amazing slap to Kanemaru that felt like a momentum changer, but Irish whipped Kanemaru to the corner where Kanemaru greeted him with a boot. Those "fighting spirit" trade-off bits feel so damn useless most of the time. I've never liked Kanemaru but I don't think I've ever seen him this young, and.....thought he was even worse. When Omori went for the test-of-strength and he just kind of gingerly kicked him, I actually said out loud 'Fucking hell, you're terrible." His weird bursts when he would just forearm all three No Fear completely out of the blue after being at the bottom came off as really forced. Groin headbutt was great, though. This isn't "EVERYTHING I dislike about 21st Century puro", but it's not the best welcoming card for what's to come, honestly.

I seriously watched the Kendrick promo nearly 20 times. Deliciously 90s, if you asked anybody on Earth when it happened, with no context but just those 12 seconds, they would bet their life it didn't happen after 2001. Boyyyyyyyyyyyyy. Ok the matc---WAIT SPANKY COMES OUT TO BRITNEY SPEARS. AND HE'S DANCING! I would pay for a comp just filled with the first 90 seconds of this on loop, like 25 discs worth. The match can only disappoint, now. Hell I liked this way more than I'd've thought. Kendrick brought more personality and felt more natural, but I think I preferred Danielson's offense to anything. Needed perfecting, but I can think of a few shots he delivered that definitely don't look rookie level. Great snap suplex, and he took a hell of a tumble to the outside, too.

Holy crap, that was fast. Day 1 into the decade and there's an awesome match I probably might've never otherwise watched. Felt like pure good against pure evil with no shades of grey in between. First fall was tremendously fun set-up and I adored Tarzan Boy laying on the ground while trying to lay kicks in, just taking any chance he could reasonably get. Loved how the next two falls played out. If I didn't know any better I'd guess Tarzan Boy would be the #1 guy in the company just based off of this. Satanico manages to be one of the best parts of a match without even being a competitor in it. I probably would have called this ****3/4 had I watched it in 2010.

I don't even know if I'm exaggerating when I say this is the first time I've seen Solar in a match without Navarro or Blue Panther. For that reason my memory of Solar (been years since I watched anything of him) was a mat-focused guy in totality, who basically always worked like a maestro. So it was cool as hell so see him do the little explosive stuff at the beginning, I really like his arm drags. The shoving match with Mr. Mexico in the 1st fall was so great. I love when lucha workers get that "oh no you don't, eat this!" attitude behind them. Zumbido's a totally wild bumper, you know he and Psicosis never worked a ladder match together because they're both still alive in 2017. I know it's pretty standard formula for a trios to give fall 1 to the tecnicos, fall 2 to the rudos, and then either continue rudo domination or have both sides go out on fall 3, but it's a formula I've not grown any less fond of. I thought the way this was structured was good, if not special, is what I'm getting at. Thought this was well worth the watch and not just for curiosity's sake. Not a super super really good trio or anything but if a weekly wrestling show had a match similar to this every episode, I'd probably make sure to tune in for a good few months at least. Except I didn't do that when the Shield were hot so completely ignore me. Mr. Mexico's dive. Mr. Mexico's dive.

The video I'm watching this on implies the uploader has a video series called "muscle rookie hunks", and Mark Jindrak is one of the first that came to mind for that label apparently. Skipper's a fun seller and I really liked the headlock reversal thing he did, but I didn't think much of anything Jindrak did here looked any good. I'm pretty heavy on offense looking good sometimes so maybe that's it but man his looked really light to me. I thought during the failed suplex that it looked too much like Jindrak fell down instead of Skipper being the aggressor. His selling was awkward and strange. Could just be that he was green, I don't remember feeling this way when I watched him in CMLL. I love seeing short tv matches with wrestlers I rarely watch, though, so I regret nothing. And the basketball gimmick is kind of hilarious. Imagine someone like Cesaro having it. I dunno why but I wanna see that.

I adore both the 2/7 ten man and the 2/21 six man so finding out there are more early 2000 WWF multi-man tags I never even thought to look for, was a bit of a Holy Crap moment. I love this type of wrestling so much. Even when the work isn't totally brilliant there's just something awesome happening at every moment. Faarooq did a crotch chop! If I have to take away anything in particular from this it's that I need to see X-Pac get beat up by wrestlers more, because I don't remember his selling being this fun to watch beyond the 1-2-3 Kid run. I don't think Foley is a very good puncher, nor do I think HHH is very good at selling punches, but for some reason they click really well when Foley starts punching HHH. DX abandoning HHH was really well done, and HHH's mini tantrum bumps his 2000 up more than half of the PPV matches he had. JR: "oh that's just too bad." I love that you get a little glimpse of Steph arguing with Gunn, too. If you told me before I watched it, that this would turn into basically a Foley/HHH singles match, I'd probably express a bunch of disappointment, but that actually turned out to be the best part. One of Foley's knees looked like it took a hell of a hit against the monitors during the announce table pedigree. Foley being out-brawled only to rip his mask off and get the leg up on the post-match is the kind of thing you wish happened in front of a late 80s WCW crowd because the pop'd probably give you goosebumps. Really awesome build to the Rumble overall. This isn;t amazing or anything but it's really really fun, and I almost can't believe it's as under-the-radar as it is.

I've seen this approximately five billion times, and last watched/wrote about it in 2013. I'm lower on it now more than ever before, but I do think the match is really great. Thoughts from 2013: Whenever I reference a "where it should finish" or a "top whatever" in there, I'm referencing a top 100 matches of the 2000s list. I didn't finish the list. This probably would have finished in the 50s. Top ten WWF/E match of the decade, I think, though probably like #9 or 10. It's true I've "gone down on it" over time, but that doesn't say too much considering I used to think it was basically the best thing ever. I can watch it any time.

Seen: Rey/JBL 5/13/04 Rey/Noble 11/2/07 Rey/Knox 2/18/10 Rey/Gallows 3/9/10 Rey/Taker 5/28/10 Rey/McIntyre 8/6/10 those? And really any match he had w/ Tajiri, but 9/25/03, No Mercy 03, and 1/1/04 are the ! ones.

I'm not one for any kind of "Great Match Theory" but Michaels having less than five matches I'd fit in that mold in his entire 21st Century run would hurt a hell of a lot. I think I'd only definitely say the Cena hour match and Taker match at WM09 would be the only singles I'd count. Maybe the best match w/ Benoit, and the Orton stuff could use a re-watch. I've always thought Austin was good in the early 90s. Much better than Michaels, too. I do tend to be surprised how much I like 92 Michaels (I really loved the Hart ladder match last time I watched it), but I don't really find him good in 93 at all. Peak singles Michaels (94-97) I think is a great run, but even in his best singles year of 96, I thought Austin was seriously almost as good, and that was probably Austin's third best year. I love Austin's WCW run. I'm constantly surprised every time I expect the Blondes not to hold up, and that Steamboat feud is awesome. Fits in tag matches with guys many years his senior in experience. I consider it a feather in Austin's cap that he was even able to do really well in a more sountherny setting of 92 WCW, considering how different he was by even 1996. EDIT - Drawing a blank on Austin's 1991, but that Dustin match at HH has always been excellent to me.

Literally nothing in the ring I think Jericho does better than Hardy. Maybe he's a better heel, I guess, if that counts. Even then I find him overrated there. Guy has a fuckton of charisma and personality and for some reason he really just likes yelling "come on, _wrestler_". Match-wise I'd put Hardy's stuff against Edge, Henry and Finlay pretty much next to anything of Jericho's career. I think I thought the Finlay 6/07 was Hardy's career match - where he put on a terrific "sell the leg" showing - and I'd prob only put the Eddie FB97 and Austin/HHH v. Vanilla Midgets tag over it. Maybe not even the latter. And Hardy was just as good, if not better, than his opponent in those. Best-In-The-US level wrestler; totally serious. I've always thought Eddie made that Jericho match, and I loved Jericho as an apron boy in the tag but still thought it was Austin/Benoit making the match. I think a bunch of Jericho's best stuff is against guys who outperformed him pretty obviously to me (Eddie match in 97, Rock match in 01, Best matches w/Austin). Watched the Bash Rey match in 2013 or something; didn't LOVE it, but did think it was good. Though I also thought Jericho could have been replaced by a handful of people. Hell I'm not positive I'd put it ahead of the best Rey match with Mike Knox. Like, he was fine, and I had to explain to people that I didn't think he sucked because I was talking him down, but this is his "BITW" period for people and I didn't get it. Hardy's a fantastic seller, builds up an offense at the right times, knows when he's getting cut off v. when he's making a full comeback, appropriately injects big spots matches even if they're small, is awesome at flash/hope spots, can work a tag team even with a random partner like Tatanka, can work a brawl...really, just anything he does I think he's pretty super at. He just had a ridiculously great, consistent run from 05-08. Maybe further than 08. The best Hardy/McIntyre (from June 2010) is excellent, for example. Not sure I've ever seen Hardy look actually really bad. Seen Jericho look bad a bunch. That Edge feud especially. Good Lord. Mania match is probably one of my ten least favourite matches ever now. Thought it was just the most awful, dry, irritating, emotionless, terrible wrestling. And they had an angle to play off of with Edge's ankle, but kept running lame backyard shit for the whole match instead. Then Jericho taps the ankle for two seconds at the end and Striker on commentary calls him a genius. I absolutely think Jericho's typically a good worker with a couple creative spots and good timing on 'whoa' stuff like Lionsault > knees > Walls, but he's definitely a guy I've been really disappointed with on re-watching. Re-watching the Michaels feud a few years ago I really liked the GAB match, and thought JD was good, but every other match they had together in 08 I honestly thought just totally sucked. And, again, he was WOTY for a lot of people in '08. I came out of a lot of his late WCW run wishing Juvi/Finlay/Rey/others had a different opponent to face instead. Even stuff that I still think is good I think is just way less good than so many others do. 03 Michaels stuff, WWF Benoit series, Christian in 04, Rock in 01, that Rey match (would need to see the whole feud again but it was never my favourite thing), etc. I don't dislike Jericho ('98 Jericho is one of my favourite characters but I'm a bell-to-bell guy), and I think his career is mostly pretty good, and sometimes I talk him down to this level where people think I honestly hate his guts - where I have to correct them b/c I'm just saying he's massively overrated even if still good. But I can't honestly think of many Jericho showings I'd call really, really, really good. I don't need really, really, really good, but do if I want to stick a person next to Matt Hardy. The gap between the two to me is immediately apparent. Jericho tagged w/Christian against Booker & Goldust for a good bit of 2002. Awesome series of tags. Might actually be my favourite point of Jericho's career, and actually I don't remember thinking he looked really outclassed in any of them.

I was a week away from grabbing all of the 2009-2012 IWRG from Youtube before Black Terry Jr made it private. Sucks less now knowing I can still access it, just for some money. It was a panic for a bit there wondering if he'd ever let anybody see the stuff again.

Fujiwara/Tiger 12/5/84, Fujiwara/Choshu 6/9/87 and Fujiwara/Yusuke Fuke 2/24/92 would be my three Fujiwara starting recommendations. You get to see him in more than one setting and view how he's the goddamn best in all of them. Really any 80s match with Super Tiger could be one of there instead of 12/5/84, but why not start early.

I watched that Orton I Quit for the first time last year and was shocked like a motherfucker at how hilariously awful Orton was in it. I saw him (barely) roll his eyes in the back of his head and rolled my eyes to the side. It was almost funny. He was like an eleven year old trying to act like his favourite anime character or something. Unbelievably terrible, probably worse than any instance of Edge over-acting I can remember seeing. Adding something positive, I was surprised at how much I liked this one: The Umaga LMS will almost certainly always be my favourite Cena match, but that might be in second place for a long while.

There's a really cool Badstreet/Pillman from 1991 (I think 91, anyway). Armstrong left a bad taste in my mouth when I saw him finally get a chance at a longer, fuller (tag) match in NJ on the 92 yearbook and no sold a bunch of leg work.

It's not that he doesn't sell, it's that he stops selling to hit his shoulder block > shoulder block > shoulder block > duck clothesline > five knuckle shuffle, which may be the most tiresome set of signature spots I frequently see. The SuperCena talk is exaggeration, but I have seen him ignore selling that he was doing pre-shoulder block/FKS, even if the selling was really friggin great. Call me crazy but I think one of my problems with Cena is that he actually sometimes sells too much. He's dead on the floor, tired, and struggling to get up and I'm sitting there there like "dude, he stomped you twice". The fact I see him do that makes the shoulder block burst even more 'sigh-worthy'.

Co-sign the robotic thoughts. A lot of this matches feel like he's just displaying a set of moves that he's capable of. Sometimes it becomes completely unbearable to watch. Though, I did think he got pretty good in mid/late-2003. And then there was this Ki match that had me shocked at how much I liked Daniels in it: There's a good Daniels/AJ from 2012, too IIRC.

There are so many more Rey matches that can be added, as well. I'm going to watch them again soon b/c I've been making a 2010 WWE list, but I remember his matches with Luke Gallows being excellent. Lovvvvvved the Mike Knox match from February. He had an awesome match with McIntyre in 2010, as well. 2010 may be my favourite Rey year. I love these big lists. Obviously if one for every wrestler is made, then not everybody involved will be able to watch everything for every wrestler, but the fact they're there is nice. Probably only truly unneeded for wrestlers who have something like a goodhelmet comp out, I guess? Damn, I should make a big list for Mark Henry.

Kind of annoying how the indy guy who's formula I thought would most fit into WWE TV hasn't actually been on WWE TV. He was my favourite wrestler in the world a couple years back when Mark Henry was out of action. Wish my youtube account didn't get fried because I had a lot of Callihan on there.

Watched as much post-Memphis Koko as I possibly could a couple years back. Thought he looked awesome basically every match he was in. Really, really liked a match with Valentine in 1987 from SNME. The Koko/Rude matches rocked, too.

I'd add the first Henry match from 2011, maybe the second match as well (length only got in the way of that being spectacular); leads to the cage. Their little feud was great and my favourite thing on TV at the time.

Thought he was great as early as 1989 v. Choshu and Hashimoto.

Doesn't matter to me as long they didn't spend annoying amounts of time outside what they're good at. Jake Roberts did what he was good at, and if he tried to be a high flyer he almost assuredly would have made a mess of it. He probably thought that and stuck to what he knew he was capable of. I think versatility is a positive (and a bonus), but I don't know if I'll ever consider lack of versatility a negative. That is unless the wrestler's matches get repetitive, but I don't think you always have to change up the 'style' of wrestling to get around that. A wrestler can be "pretty good" at five things, and another wrestler can be "amazing" at one of those things and never tries the other four. If the latter always sticks to that one thing, I won't fault him for it and will still rank him ahead of the former.

Not that I should be the guy to attempt the whole thing, but I'm assuming you're asking for a match list that would be a decently complete look at this career, and not *all* matches that the person making the list thinks are full of necessarily good matches? An example of what I mean is that the Roddy Strong hour match from 06 is a pretty big match in Dragon's career, so I'd tell somebody who wants a big look at Danielson to check it out to get the complete picture. But I thought the match itself was total shit. I don't like Danielson from 2004 but I'd recommend people watch his stuff from there to get a look at 2004 Danielson, etc.

Not sure I can post links, here, but the three minute Tajiri/Mark Henry match from 2002 is probably one of my favourite matches of all time. Tajiri bobbing his head up and down while trying to grab Henry's leg for the tarantula is Planet Earth's best moment.