Zenjo

Each man started with 15 points. They lost 1 for takedowns and rope breaks and 3 for down counts. It can get a bit confusing watching shoot style on the Yearbooks when you're bouncing around different scoring systems. Allbright was a beefy dude, yet was competent on the deck. Of course it was his fine array of suplay that brought him to the main event picture. Takada maintained control for the most part with his deadly arsenal of kicks and submissions. That was before the American stormed back with a couple of Release German's for the KO. A very impressive debut and a strong bout. It was dramatic and had narrative.

I can certainly see why this would've been overhyped back in the day. I can't add to that without sounding even more condescending. A 25m encounter spread over 3 falls, thanks Bill Watts. All the guys worked hard and it never got bogged down. Koloff was best suited to a tag environment for protection. He did look like Goldberg. I do like Steamboat, but some of his selling makes The Rock look subtle by comparison. It was all Larry's fault for both falls as the dissention grows. Good stuff.

A slow burner with plenty of matwork. Generally solid if unspectacular. Ground based matches were never Choshu's forte. Unfortunately once the pace picked up they horribly blew a series of spots which killed it stone dead. Both men were culpable.

Liger had a superstar entrance and Samurai initially wasn't that over in the Ryogoku. In a surprising turn of events the underdog fought dirty from the bell, which shocked his opponent during the early stages. Liger fought back with furious anger and kicked Sammy's ass, nearly ripping his mask all the way off in the process. Like Sano and Aoyagi found out in the 1990 Yearbook, you piss off Liger at your peril. I felt like a blade job would've been beneficial and it's not often I say that. The changes in momentum here were very clear cut before they went to a more traditional Junior stretch. Though there were impressive moves it felt a little disconnected to what had gone before. In the end Liger went over strongly and there was no doubting he was the ace. Put me in the really good but not a classic camp.

I'd agree with much of what has been said here. Not an elite WWWA TT bout, but it was really good. All four wrestlers performed well and brought something different to the party. The first two falls were strong. Toyota downed Bison with the JOCS to go 1-0. In the 2nd the challengers got beaten to a pulp. Unfortunately things did slow down and falter a bit in the final fall. Yet the finish brought it back to life as Aja gets dumped right on top of her head with the double team finisher. They used it in future matches, but it was never as brutal as that again. As an aside I remember a GAEA match where Yamada's kicks knocked out Toyota's teeth as well. Nobody ever claimed pro wrestling was conductive to good dental health.

At this point in time you could split the roster between wrestlers who debuted in the 80's and those who debuted in the 90's. There wasn't so much a status gap between them as a chasm. None of the 90's girls received any sort of push during the 90-95 period, even to the middle of the card. In 96 they started to pay some attention to the youngsters with themed Junior shows and teaming them up with veterans for feature matches. They were generally too inexperienced to pose any sort of credible threat yet as rookie recruitment was minimal until 94. The only survivors from the classes of 90-93 were Kumiko Maekawa, Rie Tamada and Chapparita Asari. They actually dumped Maekawa and Tamada during their rookie year, but brought them back later as they couldn't find anyone better. I like both Maekawa and Asari quite a bit, although other Joshi fans might not rate them highly. As for Shimoda you probably haven't seen the best of her from the Yearbook project. She'd been in plenty of good matches by this stage but not the high profile bouts that generally make the sets. Her peak came in the late 90's once she'd reformed LCO with Mita and went on a rampage. She'd previously teamed with Toyota in their early days. By this point in time they didn't have much chemistry as a unit. Unlike Toyota/Yamada and Mita/Shimoda who were perfect for each other.

It's not so much the athleticism and moves. Good Lucha is more about rhythm and flow. It's a uniquely beautiful style to watch. When you're transitioning from US & Japanese wrestling you're naturally judging it by the criteria that you've previously used for matches from those styles. Things that you like to see aren't there. Certain aspects such as the choreography and dual pinfalls seem quite alien. I can only advise you to stick with it, because the potential rewards are worth the effort. There's no quick fix, it takes time to truly understand the style. At first when I started watching it was solely through the eyes of a puro fan. There are some matches you can enjoy this way but it's a limited range. After a while I started watching it as more a Lucha fan, and began looking for different aspects than before. Determining if it's good or bad based on its own unique merits rather than a trans-national approach. When you know which move is going to lead to a fall over 90% of the time and wouldn't want to change it, all will start to seem right with the world.

I'm so glad I don't speak Japanese or Spanish. That way the commentators don't distract me from the wrestling.

Don't tell me that trying to climb up a ladder over and over again, only to be pushed off each time for 20m+ until one of the five opponents wins (unlikely) or you rage quit as nobody has even got close yet (likely) isn't an entertaining way to pass the time. In real life if I never saw any variation of a ladder match ever again it would be a good thing. It's more like watching a game show than an actual wrestling match. The MITB cash in at any time concept is retarded and only serves to devalue the world title.

I'm just coming off my traditional Christmas/New Year's break from all things wrestling. This is more a viewing plan than resolutions. - Watch all my outstanding 1993 footage and finish off my top 100 match list for that year. It's mainly AAA and AJW. '93 Zenjo is the greatest year from any promotion ever so I've been saving it as a treat for 2k15. - Pick up the 1999 Yearbook and complete that year. - Watch Shimmer Volumes 45-53 at a minimum. Preferably more as I'm like to catch up eventually. - Continue with the 1994 Yearbook, although finishing it isn't a priority. - Keep up my record of having watched every WWE PPV ever. When I say "watch" I mean download it and FF through the whole thing at 8X speed except the Divas match. I can find enjoyment in women's wrestling irrespective of whether it's any good or not. - Keep writing match reviews and contributing on PWO. - Remember that watching wrestling should never feel like a chore.

I never got around to doing an introduction for my top 100 list this year. 1996 was a fantastic year for wrestling and I had no problem coming up with 100 matches to recommend. Out of the five years I've completed so far it ranks only below 1992. It may end up only being a mid ranking year for the decade as the 90's was so strong. All Japan was the best promotion of '96 and took MOTY honours with it's final attempt. New Japan was strong as usual, reaching it's financial peak at this time. A resurgent CMLL was a high point as it became the top Mexican promotion again. The plummeting AAA was a dismal low. Both WWF and WCW ended the year in stronger shape than they began it. The Monday Night Wars having a positive initial impact. AJW markedly declined with JWP and GAEA picking up some of the slack. For the first time there was no clear answer who the best Joshi promotion was. Rings was the number one shoot style promotion with UWFI sadly closing it's doors in December. Finally you had the legendary Michinoku Pro 10 mans and the best Death Match of all time. To the initial list I've added: Jaguar Yokota vs Lioness Aska (Jd' 4/14/96) Mayumi Ozaki vs Hiromi Yagi (JWP 3/3/96) Panterita & Super Munequito vs Espectrito I & II (AAA 4/18/96)

Wrestling viewing is absolutely not a competition. I'm someone who does like to plan out and structure my viewing, but it's entirely based around maximising my enjoyment from wrestling. If it ever starts to feel like a chore or I'm zoning out during matches then I'll take a break. It may be a day, a week or several weeks. However long it takes before I can't wait to watch wrestling again. Feeling obligated to watch X amount of wrestling every week is the thing that burns out fans. By all means have viewing objectives for yourself, but any approach based solely on maximising volume is the wrong way to go.

I'm 34 and my first exposure to wrestling was the dying days of World of Sport in the 80's. Unfortunately my abiding memory from that time is of an obese middle aged man named Shirley belly butting people. I first became a fan of American wrestling in 1991 when I started getting WWF videos, action figures and magazines. Plus I would go to the live events whenever they toured over here including Summerslam 92 of course. WCW Worldwide began airing at around that time so I became a fan of that to. By early 94 I'd lost interest and watched nothing for the next few years. 93-95 killed off most of the casual fanbase. That was until September 1997 after I finally convinced my parents to get satellite TV. It was for the sport, but I decided to try wrestling again and found a much more appealing product than before. I started to watch Raw and Nitro every week and was hooked. I gave up watching WCW a couple of weeks before the Russo era as I was going off to Uni and it was complicated enough getting my Dad to record Raw whilst I was away. What a wise decision that proved to be. That was good for me until 2001 when I started to get tired of the WWE. I wanted more workrate and less BS. So I became one of those fans who didn't particularly enjoy it and complained about wrestler X not getting pushed and all that tiresome message board crap. I was ready for something else but had no wrestling knowledge outside of it, and wasn't aware of the alternatives. It was in early 2003 that I got my 1st taste of Japanese wrestling. Before the end of the year I'd stopped watching WWE entirely as I started buying tapes of all the Puroresu classics that I could find. Even before 2003 I'd stopped watching Raw and only followed Smackdown. Believe it or not it used to be the better show. So I guess you could say the HHH 20m promo era killed it for me as well. Since that time my WWE viewing has never been more than sporadic, and I've never joined the Cenation. From 2003-08 I watched hundreds of Puro videos and DVD's as my appreciation reached new levels. I followed the current scene in Japan as well, but that got worse by the year and I haven't seen that much since the time. I never stopped watching but my viewing had certainly dipped in my late 20's as other interests took over. Then in mid 2011 I discovered Goodhelmets comps. With the 80's sets and the Yearbooks project my interest was revitalised once more and is as strong as its ever been. I don't envision my life circumstances changing dramatically in the upcoming years. Whatever happens I hope there'll always be a place for wrestling. Sorry, I should've said Sports Entertainment at least 10 times by now.

I've just had a scan through the match listings. I'm sure it's great if you follow the modern NJPW. They're going to have to substantially increase the amount of archive footage to make it worthwhile for me. For a promotion with 42 years of shows in the vault there really isn't much up there yet.

For the majority of the bout it was decent enough action but a bit below being listworthy. Ito and Kuzumi held their ends up in the #2 roles and allowed the focus to be on the Toyota vs Fukuoka rivalry. I agree that Toyota's heel act was annoying, the dreaded red outfit. What made this for me was Fukuoka, and in particular the way she absolutely killed it at the finish. Her two big moves looked stunning when they were hit right. She was the star player and got rewarded with a major win in her career over somebody she'd never beaten. I agree that Toyota's heel work was in general terms not good, yet in this case it made the ending even more satisfying. I wanted to see Hikari kick her ass, and that she did in spectacular style.

There would be occasional blade jobs but it was never a regular thing. That applies across all Joshi promotions through time. Female wrestlers are a lot less willing to have their foreheads turned into chess boards. Not that they were overly concerned about more serious injuries mind you.

I like La Fiera. A cool, cocky rudo with a funky outfit. He also impressed with his in ring skills as he showed he could work technically in the title match confines. Whilst I've viewed numerous good performances from Atlantis I haven't yet seen why he's rated by some as an upper tier all time Luchador. It's the same story with Lizmark. My mind remains open as it's quite possible I haven't seen the right matches yet. The matwork early on was excellent, with the smart usage of leverage in the holds and counters. Fiera then showed superiority in the air which wouldn't normally be the case. The tercera featured body part work. Nobody could complain about a lack of variety from the three different falls. With an injured shoulder a modified Argentinian Backbreaker is not the right finisher to utilise. It was a quality match yet slightly disappointing. They'd given themselves the base to go higher but it didn't quite happen.

A fancam of a watchable house show match. It passed the time but wasn't Yearbook worthy.

Given that I hate brawling tornado trios in Lucha, this was one of the better examples of the genre. Even with the godawful Konnan involved. It took a while for me to come to like any of the brawling style and that only extends to singles. It's fun up to a certain point but always seems to get bogged down and messy. When I'm screening trios to download off youtube I'll look at the names first, the duration second and then check to see if they're wrestling or fighting. If you enjoy the style then good for you as it sure isn't hard to find.

I've seen this type of match plenty of times and this wasn't stand out or particularly memorable. Which isn't to say that this wasn't solid work and easy to watch. The build was adequate. Nothing went anywhere and there were 3 separate head scissor spots. That was the Junior rest hold du jour. The stretch was a little short. I think they had more in the tank.

A rare title vs title bout here, and as a featured Junior contest it certainly brought the goods. Honaga was a solid, unspectacular wrestler. He won't often be the centre of attention but it's great to have workers like that on the roster. Liger had his ribs worked over and did an excellent job of selling the damage. An enjoyable battle was finished with conviction by the new double champion. This shaded their 1991 matches.

I have been to fanboy forums where 'fun' is the catch all term that describes every match between * and *****. Not that they would rate matches in this way. The only analysis is deciding if something is either fun or not fun, with most matches from their chosen promotion/wrestlers falling firmly into the first category. Elsewhere fun might mean that whilst entertaining it's too short to be a notable match. Or it lies somewhere between solid-good or between good-very good. It's hard to know where you stand on a one-off basis. It is funny the use of differing terminology to describe match quality. When I first started posting on the Yearbook threads I was wondering if I was enjoying the matches as much as everyone else? It turns out I was, it's just that I use less effusive phrases to describe the same things. Anything solid level or above to me means it's well worth a watch and good is a hearty recommendation.

I couldn't argue that Saturn vs Goldberg was technically good. It was the intensity and the contagious excitement from the crowd that made it special. How often do you see a match of that length where every single move from one wrestler gets a pop? The weirdest match that I've ever put on one of these lists also featured Saturn (1996 #47). Everything about it I usually hate, apart from this one time only. Edit: I've added some really good CMLL to the list and expanded to a top 85.

I definitely agree about the ECW being a low point. It's true that I don't like the promotion at all, hate the atmosphere, don't think there were any really great matches, think that anyone who was any good just passed through and most of the guys who were left were bad garbage wrestlers. Even given my slight bias it still felt like the promotion had little relevance to the American wrestling scene anymore. The Attitude Era had stolen their philosophy and the big 2 had stolen their best wrestlers. Its time had been and gone. All Japan was the best promotion for me in terms of match output. Over the course of the 90's I'd guess the distribution of their matches in top 100 lists would be a lot more top heavy in the second half of the decade. Which is ideal for capturing in a comp. Year in year out I think New Japan is the most consistent promotion through the Yearbooks. Never the absolute best, but can always be relied on to produce plenty of strong matches. I found a handful of Lucha bouts that I liked. I'd hoped to find more but there isn't much footage online compared with earlier years. Hardly anything from the late 90's ever get pimped. AAA was generally terrible and CMLL had cooled off after 96-97. There's plenty of good Joshi about from this time, it's just harder to find than before as it's so spread out. GAEA had the best of it, Arsion was refreshing and everyone else had some highlights. AJW was depressing yet still produced two matches that I absolutely loved. This year was certainly the most fun I've had following the WWF through all the Yearbooks so far. At the time I preferred Nitro because the matches were a bit longer. These days neither 2m or 6m matches are of any relevance to me so I go with whoever has the better booking and storylines. And WCW lost that battle big time. Rings was awesome, it's such a shame that shoot style basically died the following year. I found a Big Japan and Battlearts match I liked which is some progress. Late 90's FMW is overated. It didn't feel like a major promotion anymore.

Zenjo's Top 85 Matches of 1998 85) Mitsuharu Misawa vs Toshiaki Kawada (AJ 5/1/98) 84) Sting vs Diamond Dallas Page (WCW 3/23/98) 83) Shinjiro Ohtani & Tatsuhito Takaiwa vs Koji Kanemoto & Dr Wagner (NJ 8/8/98) 82) Booker T vs Chris Benoit (WCW 5/27/98) 81) Atlantis, Mr Niebla & Negro Casas vs El Hijo Del Santo, Black Warrior & Blue Panther (CMLL 4/24/98) 80) Kenta Kobashi & Jun Akiyama vs Stan Hansen & Vader (AJ 12/5/98) 79) Momoe Nakanishi & Nanae Takahashi vs Miho Wakizawa & Kayo Noumi (AJW 10/10/98) 78) Masahiro Chono & Hiroyoshi Tenzan vs Genechiro Tenryu & Shiro Koshinaka (NJ 7/15/98) 77) Shawn Michaels vs Undertaker (Casket Match) (WWF 1/18/98) 76) Mayumi Ozaki & Sugar Sato vs Kyoko Inoue & Yoshiko Tamura (OZ 6/21/98) 75) Mitsuharu Misawa vs Jun Akiyama (AJ 4/18/98) 74) Mariko Yoshida vs Reggie Bennett (ARS 8/31/98) 73) Aja Kong vs Toshiyo Yamada (GAEA 11/23/98) 72) Scorpio Jr vs El Hijo Del Santo (CMLL 7/31/98) 71) Hayabusa vs Masato Tanaka (FMW 3/13/98) 70) Manami Toyota & Kaoru Ito vs Hikari Fukuoka & Tomoko Kuzumi (JWP 2/11/98) 69) Masahiro Chono vs Manabu Nakanishi (NJ 7/31/98) 68) Meiko Satomura vs Sonoko Kato (GAEA 8/23/98) 67) Kenta Kobashi vs Jun Akiyama (AJ 4/11/98) 66) Octagoncito vs Mini Abismo Negro (AAA 6/5/98) 65) Kenta Kobashi vs Jun Akiyama (AJ 7/24/98) 64) Ultimo Dragon vs Shinjiro Ohtani (NJ 1/4/98) 63) Johnny Ace & Kenta Kobashi vs Akira Taue & Toshiaki Kawada (AJ 1/25/98) 62) Mitsuharu Misawa vs Jun Akiyama (AJ 1/26/98) 61) Ken Shamrock vs Owen Hart (Lion's Den Match) (WWF 8/30/98) 60) Kaoru vs Meiko Satomura (GAEA 10/29/98) 59) Terry Funk vs Mick Foley (Falls Count Anywhere) (WWF 4/28/98) 58) Yuki Ishikawa vs Daisuke Ikeda (BAT 5/27/98) 57) Shadow WX vs Tomoaki Honma (Barbed Wire Baseball Bat and Barbed Wire Board Match) (BJ 7/26/98) 56) Steve Austin vs The Undertaker (WWF 8/30/98) 55) Sonoko Kato & Meiko Satomura vs Toshie Uematsu & Rie (GAEA 7/19/98) 54) Olimpico vs Halcon Negro (CMLL 10/30/98) 53) Mikhail Iliokhine vs Tsuyoshi Kohsaka (RINGS 9/21/98) 52) Shinya Hashimoto vs Satoshi Kojima (NJ 8/2/98) 51) Jushin Thunder Liger, El Samurai, Kendo Ka Shin, Dr Wagner Jr & Hayato Nanjyo vs Shinjiro Ohtani, Koji Kanemoto, Tatsuhito Takaiwa, Kaz Hayashi & Masakazu Fukuda (Elimination) (NJ 6/5/98) 50) Yumi Fukawa vs Candy Okutsu (ARS 2/18/98) 49) Ric Flair vs Bret Hart (WCW 1/24/98) 48) Kaoru vs Toshie Uematsu (GAEA 12/27/98) 47) Alda Moreno & Miss Janeth vs Rossy Moreno & Xochitl Hamada (Relevos Suicidas) (AAA 9/18/98) 46) Diamond Dallas Page vs Chris Benoit (WCW 2/22/98) 45) 14 Man Torneo Cibernetico (CMLL 3/31/98) 44) Sugar Sato vs Meiko Satomura (GAEA 3/15/98) 43) Cuty Suzuki vs Mayumi Ozaki (JWP 11/15/98) 42) Chris Benoit vs Booker T (WCW 6/14/98) 41) Aja Kong vs Michiko Omukai (ARS 2/18/98) 40) Goldberg vs Perry Saturn (WCW 4/19/98) 39) Kumiko Maekawa vs Yasha Kurenai (AJW 11/29/98) 38) Yoko Kosugi vs Sumie Sakai (Jd' 12/29/98) 37) Mayumi Ozaki & Sugar Sato vs Kaoru & Toshiyo Yamada (GAEA 3/15/98) 36) Mima Shimoda vs Chapparita Asari (NEO 5/6/98) 35) Genichiro Tenryu vs Shinya Hashimoto (NJ 8/8/98) 34) Jaguar Yokota & Yoko Kosugi vs Lioness Aska & The Bloody (Jd' 2/2/98) 33) Kiyoshi Tamura vs Yoshihisa Yamamoto (RINGS 9/21/98) 32) Sonoko Kato & Meiko Satomura vs Sugar Sato & Chikayo Nagashima (GAEA 3/29/98) 31) Etsuko Mita & Mima Shimoda vs Meiko Satomura & Sonoko Kato (GAEA 1/15/98) 30) Billy Kidman vs Juventud Guerrera (WCW 11/16/98) 29) Michiko Omukai vs Yumi Fukawa (ARS 4/11/98) 28) Olimpico vs Halcon Negro (CMLL 10/23/98) 27) Reiko Amano & Chikayo Nagashima vs Toshie Uematsu & Sonoko Kato (OZ 6/21/98) 26) Jaguar Yokota vs Chapparita Asari (NEO 2/15/98) 25) Diamond Dallas Page vs Goldberg (WCW 10/25/98) 24) The Undertaker vs Mankind (Hell In A Cell) (WWF 6/28/98) 23) Koji Kanemoto vs Dr Wagner Jr (NJ 6/3/98) 22) Mariko Yoshida vs Candy Okutsu (ARS 12/18/98) 21) Akira Maeda vs Yoshihisa Yamamoto (RINGS 7/20/98) 20) Mitsuharu Misawa vs Toshiaki Kawada (AJ 3/29/98) 19) Genichiro Tenryu vs Keiji Mutoh (NJ 7/31/98) 18) Dr Wagner Jr & Emilio Charles Jr vs Mr Niebla & Shocker (CMLL 1/23/98) 17) Kenta Kobashi & Johnny Ace vs Vader & Stan Hansen (AJ 5/1/98) 16) Toshiaki Kawada & Akira Taue vs Kenta Kobashi & Johnny Ace (AJ 6/5/98) 15) El Hijo Del Santo vs Felino (MTY 10/18/98) 14) Mr. Aguila, Olimpico & Pantera vs Rey Bucanero, Ultimo Guerrero & Zumbido (CMLL 7/3/98) 13) Kenta Kobashi vs Akira Taue (AJ 9/11/98) 12) Hikari Fukuoka vs Tomoko Kuzumi (JWP 3/6/98) 11) 14 Man Torneo Cibernetico (CMLL 4/28/98) 10) Kiyoshi Tamura vs Mikhail Ilioukhine (RINGS 1/21/98) 9) Shinobu Kandori, Rumi Kazama & Yasha Kurenai vs Eagle Sawai, Michiko Nagashima & Sayori Okino (LLPW 2/15/98) 8) Momoe Nakanishi vs Kumiko Maekawa (AJW 3/1/98) 7) Genichiro Tenryu vs Shinya Hashimoto (NJ 8/1/98) 6) Shinya Hashimoto vs Kazuo Yamazaki (NJ 8/2/98) 5) Steve Austin vs Dude Love (WWF 5/31/98) 4) Manami Toyota vs Shinobu Kandori (AJW 8/23/98) 3) Kiyoshi Tamura vs Tsuyoshi Kohsaka (RINGS 6/27/98) 2) Toshiaki Kawada vs Kenta Kobashi (AJ 6/12/98) 1) Mitsuharu Misawa vs Kenta Kobashi (AJ 10/31/98)