DR Ackermann

Why are all the kiddos ganging up on old man JVK?

I might be the only one, but I don't really like his hyped apuestas matches. The Ultimo Guerrero and Villano 3 matches in particular did nothing for me. I thought structure wise they were too your turn, my turn and they just kept going and going.

27 but I'm not involved in this discussion.

I just had network TV in Tulsa, Oklahoma and had access to Smackdown that whole time. Since I didn't have cable that was the only wrestling I was able to watch at my own house as a teenager. It was always on Thursdays at 7 until it switched Cable/Satellite. Actually I think it switched to Fridays towards the end. Don't remember exactly.

I'm actually in the process of evaluating Fujinami's work in the 90s and not he's not decent at worst. At worst he sucks. At best, so far, he can be really good. It seems so far that the further we get from his comeback, the better he gets, at least up to 93. I'm digging some of his stuff, but I don't think he could make a top 150 based on what I've seen in the just the 90s. Factor on his wholw career though, and you've got a number 1 contender.

If you read Bret's book, I think its clear that his ego is the biggest reason. Part of that is that he is so wrapped up in himself that he doesn't believe anyone knows better than he does. He's pretty oblivious to wrestling outside of his own bubble, as Loss has pointed out before.

Interesting question. YouTube and Daily Motion have made up only a small portion of my GWE viewing, but it has helped.

The problem with Inoki is that he doesn't do much of the little stuff at all. He has a big picture that he sticks to in his matches but he doesn't do anything interesting with it. For example his selling. He will sell in the sense that he's taking a beating and will stay down but it is so dry and lacking emotion as if he's just going through the motions. He has a match against Brody on the 80s NJPW set that I liked. It was well laid out, but both guys kind of suck in it. They don't do anything with the framework to make it more dramatic. World's best Ultimate Warrior.

I think you might enjoy and appreciate the first half more now. I know you've explored the 70s a lot since then and are more inclined for towards wrestlers working holds. They really don't hang out in the headlock that much. They go in and out of it and Backlund keeps one upping Valentine by catching him in it again, but there is a lot of stuff they do in between.

When did you last watch the match?

The thing about that 30 minute headlock spot. I don't rememberit that way. It seemed to me like it was no more than 15 minutes tops. Probably half that. If it was longer, then kudoes to them for making it seem much briefer than it was.

Watched the Backlund/Valentine Broadway for the first time this afternoon. Pretty awesome. It didn't really drag and I'm at that point in my life where I don't really want to invest a whole hour in a single match. Both guys were great in it and sold very well and kept things interesting. I don't think a whole lot of guys that will be on my list would be able to work an hour long match this well. Looking forward to the Inoki Broadway.

He's actually very lucky that he was put in a position to have the matches he had in the WWF. He didn't have his way like Hogan, but he got chances that played to his strengths as a worker that few others did at the time in the WWF.

Even if OJ is wrong, I think there is something to what he's saying. Bret was by far his own biggest fan and very much wrapped up in himself and I think the choices he made as a wrestler reflect that.

I hope that Anjoh gets more attention from all of this. Tamura is awesome and an all-time great, but I think Anjoh is a pretty underrated guy and deserves more consideration from people. He's a pretty awesome wrestler in his own right and you can see here that he continuously brings out the best in a young Tamura

Dustin Rhodes

Congratulations on the Sheety Awards! When you guys started talking about them awhile ago i thought you were saying the Sheeny Awards, which would be a very awkward name.

I think that is the only Fujiwara match that made TV that year. I would love to see more from him around that time.

You should check out some of his 90-92 tag matches with Sasaki. I cant point to any specific ones right now, but I liked a lot of them that made the yearbooks. Its also worth noting that he was very good very quickly. The guy debuted in 86.

I felt the same way with Lothario, Black Terry & Negro Navarro. Hase will make my list for sure, but I'm having trouble placing him.

Not to criticize, but two weeks ago was he even in your top 100? Based on your list from a few months ago that's a dramatic rise.

Yes. More Lothario please!

Going through the 1990 Yearbook, Satanico clicked with me much faster than El Dandy, and that is supposed to be El Dandy's prime year on tape. Before I saw what people saw in Dandy, I was saying to myself that this guy was a GOAT candidate if he had more on his resume like that year.

I tried to get tickets to TakeOver in Dallas on Wrestlemania weekend. Same thing.

In general its a match people really like. Its pretty well regarded. There are always going to be outliers.