WingedEagle

Interesting. Was that the plan before they knew Flair was coming back?

Anderson talking about a leg inury from Erik Watts' STF. But he doesn't have a contract for 1993 because of Bill Watts. Seems to set up a Watts/Anderson feud, which is not a great use of Arn Anderson. On the other hand, there aren't many people I'd rather watch talk.

Bischoff reports Vader beat Simmons for WCW Title a few days after Starrcade. This needed Gordon Solie.

Lawler out talking about competition between companies rather than wrestlers. Talks about his role on WWF TV, but says he's not leaving the USWA. He then shows highlights of a Moondog Battle Royal where Mike Samples knocked him out and cost him $10K. Mike Miller out to throw a chair at Lawler and they brawl in the studio. Not a whole lot in Memphis is really doing it for me lately and this is no different. Not bad, just not particularly compelling.

Clips of Dundee against various opponents. Dave Brown says Bill has accepted an executive position with another wrestling company. Really great video package.

I can't say I was really stoked to watch a Steamboat & Douglas tag, but Barry Windham is awesome. Great punches, he moves so fluidly yet isn't some athletic freak and is the absolute stand out here. I wasn't digging Steamboat's antics on the apron which seemed hokey even for that type of babyface. Windham with a nice DDT to Douglas on floor and then a near fall after a rocket launcher. Dustin comes out to check on Douglas and take his place, which makes for a much better match. Dustin pins Barry after slugging him with the cast hand. Pillman & Windham have a promo after where Pillman is a bit out of control, but Windham is raging and awesome. Call me crazy but I wish they stuck with this pairing rather than moving to the Blondes. ***1/4

Heenan promo setting up someone truly perfect and in love with himself who will take out Mr. Perfect. Nice to finally start building Luger again. Refers to him as Narcissus. I know its not this simple, but how far are you going to get giving a guy a name that sounds like something you stutter? Narcissist is better, but its not good. One of those times where overthinking is a problem.

I also thought this was later in Bret's run but trusted our handy compilers. Either way, there is not a single wrong with seeing that little kid get the hitman's glasses in the hallway to start off the year with a bang.

Finally ready to start posting my thoughts on this bad boy. I'm quite a few discs in already but have letting my notes gather in a spreadsheet. Time to correct that.

Can't say they don't ever listen to fans.

Completely agree. But unless they air it live on the network, they only risk letting the live audience hear him without editing.

I was open minded to it, but I'm still waiting for one heel Bryan TV segment or match to be as good or better than any face Bryan segment or match last year. So far no action.

There are definitely good matches out there. The Cactus series (9/22/97 at MSG, Rumble, Retirement match), Austin 2/3 falls which holds up incredibly well, the HBK match at Summerslam. I know I'm in the minority at PWO but I enjoyed the Undertaker matches at Mania the first time around, though the 2nd one does not hold up that well. But hey, I enjoyed it the first time and I can't pretend that didn't happen. The Rock ladder match in '98, even the Batista hell in a cell wasn't bad. The dusty finish vs. Jericho on Raw in 2000. The HHH/Austin vs. Benoit/Jericho on Raw. You could put a comp together if you had to.

The text alert they sent also indicated a 9:30 start time.

I've never been to a Walmart. Preordered my PS3 from them back in the day and had no issues there, but unfortunately doesn't look like this deal is online.

Completely agree. Austin & especially Konnan are always a breeze to listen to, but unless he's on topic and not concerned with cracking himself up, Cornette can get pretty grating.

Good stuff, will have to check this out!

Just wanted to echo the thoughts already expressed. Whether its watching a yearbook, anything from the 90s in another context or even just reading about something that took place during this period, I'll always check in to see how it was discussed here. An incredible resource that is well worth preserving.

Really good points here as NJPW heads into what's unquestionably a pivotal year. They set a pretty high bar with the product last year, there's momentum behind Okada as champion, Tanahashi as a Cena-like ace who doesn't need the title to be on top and a definite sense of what the big shows are that they can build towards. But Tanahashi-Okada needs to be held off for a while, if not until the next WK, Okada-Nakamura is a marquee match that hasn't been done and can headline a big show -- and at least today, January 5, that's it. I've got no doubt they can put together quality main events that are good in the ring, and probably no worse than average as draws. But they'll have to elevate some people to create fresh matches on top, and I don't think its as simple as moving the belt off of Okada at this point. Should be very interesting to see what they build around and towards after their successes over the last 2 years, as you might've preferred to have those matches available at this point when pushing into larger shows and seeing business take off, but you can't time these things.

How have I never listened to a podcast with Rob Naylor before? Midway through I thought he needs to be a regular on WWTP, but by the end I concluded less is more and with 3 co-hosts you get less of each of Loss, Will & Naylor so I decided you guys need to put together round robin podcasts every month. Or at least that's what would go on my PWO wishlist if this place had that feature like Amazon. Just great, easy listening. Looking forward to the next one. You know a show is great when you're excited to listen to people not only talk about wrestling you otherwise wouldn't want to watch, but then want to go seek it out and join the party. Good times!

Awesome, I'm still behind and just finishing the Goodwill Wrestling Top 5 'cast, so I've got a lot of catching up to do. Can't wait to get to these.

Concur, Abrams puts together the kind of extended, quality profiles you used to get from SI. One could easily read Shoemaker's stuff in a couple minutes. I just haven't seen any reason to give it even that much time. There's enough quality out there to pass on what doesn't meet the grade.

Not exactly on point, but I strongly prefer Riki Choshu in tag matches to singles. The guy is fantastic when he can come in and do his thing in a sprint and then let others fill in gaps, then come back for more. Basically you want him running your 800m relay rather than your 400m individual.

So I rewatched a few where I wasn't confident in my rankings and have adjusted things ever so slightly, including at the very top: 1) Mitsuharu Misawa, Kenta Kobashi & Toshiaki Kawada vs. Jumbo Tsuruta, Akira Taue & Masa Fuchi (AJ 5/22/92) 2) Manami Toyota & Toshiyo Yamada vs. Mayumi Ozaki & Dynamite Kansai (AJW 11/26/92) 3) Jushin Liger vs. El Samurai (NJ 4/30/92) 4) War Games (Wrestle War 5/17/92) 5) Manami Toyota & Toshiyo Yamada vs. Aja Kong & Kyoko Inoue (AJW 12/13/92) 6) Genichiro Tenryu, Takashi Ishikawa & Koki Kitahara vs. Shiro Koshinaka, Kengo Kimura & Masayo Aoyagi (NJ 11/23/92) 7) Akira Hokuto & Toshiyo Yamada vs. Bull Nakano & Aja Kong (AJW 8/15/92) 8) Mitsuharu Misawa & Kenta Kobashi vs. Jumbo Tsuruta & Akira Taue (AJ 6/5/92) 9) Bull Nakano vs. Aja Kong (AJW 11/26/92) 10) Mitsuharu Misawa vs. Toshiaki Kawada (AJ 10/21/92) 11) El Dandy vs. Negro Casas (CMLL 7/3/92) (Poor VQ) 12) Doug Furnas & Dan Kroffat vs. Toshiaki Kawada & Tsuyoshi Kikuchi (AJ 2/22/92) 13) Kenta Kobashi & Tsuyoshi Kikuchi vs. Doug Furnas & Dan Kroffat (AJ 5/25/92) 14) Jumbo Tsuruta vs. Toshiaki Kawada (AJ 1/21/92) 15) Royal Rumble (Rumble 1/19/92) 16) Jushin Liger vs. El Samurai (NJ 4/16/92) 17) Jushin Liger vs. Pegasus Kid (NJ 2/10/92) 18) Rick Rude vs. Ricky Steamboat (Ironman Challenge) (Beach Blast 6/20/92) 19) Manami Toyota & Toshiyo Yamada vs. Aja Kong & Bison Kimura (2/3/ Falls) (AJW 3/20/92) 20) Randy Savage vs. Ultimate Warrior (Summerslam 8/29/92) 21) Vader vs. Sting (GAB 7/12/92) 22) Hiroshi Hase vs. Kensuke Sasaki (NJ 6/26/92) 23) Brian Pillman vs. Jushin Liger (SuperBrawl 2/29/92) 24) Stan Hansen vs. Toshiaki Kawada (AJ 4/19/92 actually 4/6/92) 25) Mitsuharu Misawa, Toshiaki Kawada & Tsuyoshi Kikuchi vs. Jumbo Tsuruta, Akira Taue & Yoshinari Ogawa (AJ 8/20/92) 26) Barry Windham & Dustin Rhodes vs. Steve Williams & Terry Gordy (WCWSN 10/3/92) 27) Mitsuharu Misawa & Toshiaki Kawada vs. Kenta Kobashi & Giant Baba (AJ 11/27/92) 28) Ric Flair vs. Bret Hart (Saskatoon 10/12/92) 29) Jushin Liger vs. Pegasus Kid (NJ 8/12/92) 30) Cien Caras, Máscara Año 2000, & Sangre Chicana vs. Konnan el Barbaro, Perro Aguayo, & El Rayo de Jalisco Jr. (CMLL 3/1/92) Its not as historical as Dream Rush or the Top of the Super Juniors final (which I originally ranked higher), but on a rewatch the 5/22 AJ 6-man stood out as my favorite match of the year. I haven't watched 4/20/91 in a while so I don't know how I'd compare them, but this never felt slow and built fantastically with a tremendous finishing sequence. It may be taboo in these parts, but I'm leaning towards preferring Dream Slam II to Dream Rush right now, though the little things that Oz brought to the table in this year's version make it a tough call. All Japan Women may not be on prevalent on the set as other promotions, but they delivered the goods with 4 of my top 10 matches on the year. Didn't expect to love Yamada so much more than Toyota coming out of this, but her and Nakano were easily my 2 favorites heading into 1993. I was surprised to see Liger pop up four times in my final list, but he's an all time great who happened to be involved in two classic feuds so it shouldn't be too much of a shock. Seems like I'm higher than most on the NJ/WAR 6 man tag from November, but that had be enthralled and on the edge of the couch like few other matches this year. Every single match in that feud in 1993 thus far has been no worse than good, and its the best thing going on in that year as well. Don't know how I slept on it for so long. I've finally seen the light on Tenryu and absolutely get the praise for him as a GOAT candidate. Absolutely loved going through this and am looking forward to completing 1993 and moving through the rest of the decade.

Wrestling fans are wrestling fans, and those watching the network will remain wrestling fans as long as you provide them with enough content. This issue is solely about the risk of generating incredible backlash for potentially highlighting someone who killed his family. WM20 was a a milestone event and incredibly fun. That doesn't mean there's any place for featuring that aspect of it in any fashion anytime soon. Its one thing to include in a list of results or title histories. Its another to air it.