WingedEagle

I love Hash. Think Hase remains one of the more underrated workers of that era. Never a big Muto guy but appreciated that he sometimes brought it. Choshu almost always found ways to keep things interesting. But if those guys were on a level with the AJPW crew they should've produced matches at some point that equal the best we saw at Budokan from Baba's crew. Nothing I saw from that era was on the same level in a New Japan ring.

Is that what great match theory is about? Making a case that someone with a few good matches is better than someone with a ton of good matches? I don't think there are any absolutes, but I think in most cases, the better wrestler has the better output. But as Matt said himself, it's a starting point, not the end of the conversation. I'm interested in seeing how other concepts or factors can fill in the gaps, but would hope output would be a pretty decisive factor. We've got no way to determine who's calling all matches, who's dragging things down unless its blatant, or so many other little things. Just not sure where any of those can overcome the output.

Is that what great match theory is about? Making a case that someone with a few good matches is better than someone with a ton of good matches?

Where are Earthquake's points and cups? When the hypothetical is not merely hypothetical but goes so far as to distort, make up or ignore reality I'm not sure what it serves.

Interesting take, I thought Hash was always pretty consistent in his intensity and going toe to toe with Tenryu in the badass department. Will have to see if it stood out to me anywhere.

Bret/Austin, Cena/Punk and Cena/Brock give that building a pretty big top 3 without even going into the depth at all.

If that's the handheld I'm thinking of it was so much better than I expected going into it. Totally with you on Aoyagi -- feel like the book on him is that he's incredibly limited and not capable of delivering for more than a spurt here or there. But that's a guy who has his routine down and stays within himself to always keep things interesting and wild. Like a better, more focused but perhaps less charismatic Murakami.

LOL Jerry that is the most eloquent and hilarious, yet fair, haymaker you could throw at the style. I'm still a sucker for it, but I appreciate the sentiment.

Ha not bad. Very arguably a NJPW vs. WAR dynamic, with Tenryu more than picking up the slack for his role playing crew against a Hash/Muto/Choshu etc. collection of all stars.

This is like the Camp David Accord of PWO.

If you put prime Tenta in All Japan in 93-96 would that still be the same? If you take any average or better worker in their prime and put them in 93-96 AJPW with main event opportunities they will almost assuredly have a few great matches or classics under their belt. If not, they're pretty awful. Not sure traveling time to All Japan does anyone any favors. This was really the talking point on the show. I asked "Who could you replace Williams with in that match with Kobashi and still have a similar result?" We ran through some alternatives. And then Steven randomly brought up Tenta. For the record, I don't think Tenta could have had a ****1/2 match with Kobashi. I can't imagine Kobashi pulling out 4.5 stars from Tenta, because I can't see Quake in any way delivering the type of performance Dr. Death did. But do I think Kobashi, Kawada, Misawa & co. could put together the best match we'd have ever seen from Tenta? Absolutely. They were that good.

If you put prime Tenta in All Japan in 93-96 would that still be the same? If you take any average or better worker in their prime and put them in 93-96 AJPW with main event opportunities they will almost assuredly have a few great matches or classics under their belt. If not, they're pretty awful. Not sure traveling time to All Japan does anyone any favors.

Dusty is an absolute conundrum. He's not one of the best wrestlers I've seen when watching his matches. But he's one of the very best examples of being the total package whereby his promos and angles make the matches that much meatier and more enjoyable. No clue how to rank him but he will rank. Just too special to be ignored.

I'm with soup here on just about everything, but OJ, glad you dug Tenryu/Kosh as things do pick up once some bigger NJ reps get going. That being said, perhaps I fell hard for the heat and atmosphere as I was all in on the early multi man tags in the feud. Crazy heat, felt like huge, special deals 20+ years later and I thought the NJ mid carders held up their end of the bargain a lot better than would be expected. Plus Tenryu's lieutenants are no slouches either and more than capable of keeping things stiff and hot. The best is still yet to come.

Come on, people! Top 5/10 matches / moments from each spot!

I may not go with exactly the same picks but my gut was that every year is a nod to AJPW. Not as varied a field as the 80s then? You can certainly make cases for non-AJPW guys, especially if you prefer a Liger, Vader, Hashimoto to this style. I think there's a stronger argument for someone outside of Baba's group post-96 when the hits were fewer and further between than earlier in the decade. But you don't have Flair putting together the kind of years he did in the 80s where he's clearly on top of his game, while this crew just felt so far ahead of everything else going on in the ring.

Let's play Monopoly. Budokan, Korakuen, Tokyo Dome, MSG and Greensboro are all in the discussion. What other buildings have seen the best matches, most historic matches/angles?

Cena's the only one who would get any consideration from my wife. Not a fan of ink, which rules out many, and the others are too freakishly big for her taste.

I may not go with exactly the same picks but my gut was that every year is a nod to AJPW.

Also interested in any singles recs for Mark as I can't imagine there'd be different recs for tags.

Can we get a list of must see matches for Jay? Singles or tag.

LA ParV would've been INCREDIBLE. Nonetheless, sorry to hear you didn't dig those. The Wagner Jr. bout is one of my favorites from recent years with the Mesias ones not terribly far behind. Violence!

Delonte West. Never forget. One of the greatest, most fun urban legends of our time.

I also wouldn't worry about the Cavs future without Love whatsoever. Salary cap will be taking a big jump shortly and they'll have plenty of space with LBJ's contract coming due at the same time allowing them flexibility that summer. Put that around an LBJ/Irving/Thompson/Mozgov core -- forgetting about Love for a minute -- and they'll at worst be prohibitive conference favorites for a few years.

Sting is a pretty good call. The Vader matches are all great, I still enjoy a number of the Flair matches and there are other goodies to be found, but 100 GOAT list is tough even if he's a childhood favorite.