WingedEagle

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.

It really is a lose-lose. I don't think they'll have too much of a problem if they run shows where Benoit is involved and its streamed as such, much like if an old Bills game is on NFL network and OJ Simpson happens to be at running back. But I'd be shocked if they aired the WM20 main event, the 2004 Rumble or anything similar that puts a shining light on Benoit. What good reason is there to invite that kind of scrutiny?

Yeah that part is definitely disconcerting, but again, need to see how it translates to the product and plays out. I get it to the extent that they feel fans will react how they want to certain wrestlers regardless of how they're pushed, but if you don't provide fans with that base to either agree with or react against, you may come dangerously close to inviting apathy.

Cena/Rollins from Smackdown last week was a damn good time, and really stood out compared with Punk's showing on Monday. I thought the closing angle with Bryan & the Watts was well done, but am just not feeling it. I don't know why you take a face who has a crowd that engaged and cut that out of the experience, especially with a lead heel who they seemingly don't have a ton of confidence in inside of the ring. Fortunately this is obviously still in the very early stages of whatever the big picture is, so there's plenty of time to see where it goes. Just hope that the goal is making Bryan an even bigger babyface star than he was coming into this.

Yep, the podcast is generally great.

Loving this. I always enjoy looking back and comparing your rankings with my own where applicable (a couple yearbooks, Memphis, AJ and a few straggler matches here and there thus far). Can't wait to see you make your way through the next few years.

I've been a big Simmons fan for over a decade now, dating back to my early years in college. At this point I'm really only interested when he writes about basketball, but the football stuff is sometimes interesting. Unfollowing Grantland on twitter has allowed me to avoid everything I can't stand about the site as I'm really not into most of what is produced there now. I can get everything I might need between Simmons & Lowe without subjecting myself to anything else produced on the site. The very fact that they have a pro wrestling columnist qualifies them as "above the curve" on wrestling, but that doesn't mean I need to subject myself to what is produced there. Its not interesting, the writing isn't compelling and there is no perspective on wrestling provided that I need as part of being a fan. Much happier without it.

1) Finish the 1993 and 1994 Yearbooks. 2) Post more here outside of the threads relating to the above. 3) Send some dude named Will more money upon completion of #1 above. 4) Go to bed wearing my new winged eagle title belt while proclaiming "The Champ Is Here" and correctly predict the ratio of shame vs. laughter on my wife's face. To be continued. Most importantly -- Happy New Year to everyone in the PWO community. I hope its a happy, healthy and safe new year for everyone with good times, interesting discussion and intelligent debate.

Nice! Stay on this roll and I'll be a happy man.

I listened to the first half of this on a run today, and wanted to let you guys know just how much I enjoyed it. Neither of you dominate the conversation or talk over each other at any time, you're both incredibly engaging and whether you're talking about things you like or dislike, you make want to watch more wrestling. Its a shame this isn't weekly like MLW or the Austin show because its one of the more engaging shows out there. Keep up the great work.

2 last Nyets notes and then back to rasslin. 1) I've stopped watching Nets games this year because I actually want to enjoy the other 29 teams and not let their sideshow bring me down. We're headed for an epic ECF that should be as big as any series since Indy/Chicago in '98 or Chicago/PHX in '93 (I was never keen on Utah in '97-'98). 2) Richard Jefferson is the man and will always be so. One year at an event for season ticket holders he was signing a jersey for my family, told me I was a dead ringer Lawrence Frank and called Frank over so we could all have a laugh with it. Then at my wedding, through some connections, the wife surprised me with a personalized card congratulating us and signed by RJ. Pretty damn awesome. ***** Off from work today and watching AJW Dream Slam 1 highlights on '93 Yearbook. For. The. Win!

3x is not the charm for this Nyets fan. That KG jersey I bought is already the worst purchase I've made in forever. I was looking forward to this NBA season more than any in quite a while, including when we had season tickets, and now its just depressing.

I've got a fantastic Christmas lined up, one that will make my people proud -- disc 7 of the 1993 Yearbook, basketball and chinese food. To keep things on topic, this year I got the WWE Winged Eagle belt for hannukah. I may have had to order it myself, because how the hell is the wife supposed to know about that? Anyways its cool as hell and fun to have around the house. I've got no idea what to do with it, but I love it. Happy Holidays to all!

You don't believe TNA would do something foolish and fiscally irresponsible? Sounds plausible to me. I can believe a lot of insanity about TNA. But it is beyond implausible that anyone other than Hogan (and possibly Sting and Hardy) saw that kind of guarantee from them.

Finally finished the entire set. It closed out with a bang from WCW and was just an absolute blast from start to finish. From my notes I've got a pretty good idea of where I rank things but will probably rewatch a few that are close together before finalizing a top 25 list or so. Loved this!

My biggest takeaway from this is a need to see Steamboat vs. heel Liger in a singles match. Liger is significantly more over than Muto at Starrcade. Steamer's fire on the apron while Douglas was kicking out of near falls was superb. Awesome jobs by the Liger/Sasaki duo working Douglas' knee, including some great double teem heel spots. Liger with a figure four as we hear chanting for Flair. Steamboat in on fire after hot tag. Sasaki counters leap frog into a big powerslam. Liger then off the top in a modified version of the LOD finisher. Sasaki spike piledrivers Steamer while Liger holds him as finishing strech kicks into gear. Champs hit double dropkicks and then Hart Attack finisher on Douglas. Meanwhile Steamboat rolls up Liger with rolling reverse cradle while Douglas/Sasaki outside to retain. Watching this, there's a ton of combinations you want to see more of. ***3/4

Williams, Muta, Rhodes & Windham as final four. Couple Japanese photographers at ringside are a pretty good tell who wins this. Crowd is super hot for Muta, and somehow this didn't lead to anything other than a big win for him going into the Tokyo Dome and a long, not so hot match at Superbrawl. Muta skins the cat like HBK and wins by eliminating Windham with a couple dropkicks. Pretty anticlimactic. Should've resulted in something much bigger.

This was great but I still think I prefer the Bash match. No matter how many times I see their matches it always amazes me how well Vader bumps for Sting, who never looked like a better babyface than when in against Vader. I loved when Vader hit his splash off the ropes and Ross says he wanted to cover him but bounced so far away that he couldn't. Great match, just not quite up to the Bash or Superbrawl. ****