WingedEagle

Nice to give Perfect his own entrance after a year away. He looked good early and his interactions with Flair felt big. After that this was pretty weird. You've got Savage selling his knee for both heels and Perfect teasing a walk out just after turning face. Savage goes out of his way to sell for and make Razor look like a star here. For some reason this just didn't really click as no one seemed to be on the same page. The visuals of Perfect pinning both heels only to lead to a nonsense DQ was just awful. At least the heels showed some emotion in their promo afterwards. Definitely a disappointing match. **1/2

Pre-match promo recapping the Prime Time angle.

Yeah this is a great, great match. One of the best of the year. Definitely one of Oz's best performances, as while Yamada stood out on her side, this was definitely the Oz show. Responsible for so many little things throughout the match as others before me touched on. What I loved and noticed here: Barely a few minutes in you can see why Toyota often fares better in tags, especially against these opponents as they keep her focused, slow things down and there's ample time and opportunity for effective selling. Kansai applies a dragon sleeper and Oz comes in to make it a double teamer in just one moment where she amps up the heel schtick. Contrast that to the 1/93 tag in JWP rings where she's the fiery babyface. What an incredible worker. Yamada's hot tags and trading kicks with the bigger Kansai are phenomenal. Kansai & Oz hitting flying headbutts for a spectacular near fall that felt like the finish, as did Kansai's inside out lariat on Toyota. For my money, AJW do the quick fall better than lucha. I liked the first fall at better at Dream Slam II and second fall here a ton for the purpose they serve. Love the JWP team resorting to brawling and chairs in the third as they get frustrated with how things are going and look to literally tear the Toyota & Yamada apart limb by limb. The home team work a quicker pace with tags and big moves down the stretch, including their double headbutts for a near fall as well as some high spots in and out of the ring before the finish. Just an incredible match that never felt like a sprint but also never got bogged down in restholds. The finish was a little shoddy with Oz appearing to kick out before the count. Its absolutely a MOTYC, but falls a hair below Bull/Aja because the stakes and story there were so much greater and pushed it over the top. This didn't have that significance and was "just" an excellent workrate match and the beginning of a story rather than an epic culmination. This was one hell of a night. ****1/2

Love it! Will might've nailed it with WCW's early offerings in 1992. I'd also be open to the WWF's start to that year with Flair winning the Rumble, then Savage/Flair and Hart/Piper at Mania followed by the double main event at Wembley for Summerslam. Since I like cop outs I'm also going to throw a bone to early WWF 2001. Awesome Rumble with Austin going over, the Benoit/Jericho IC Title ladder match and a decent Angle/HHH title match while that feud was still hot. Then you've got HHH/Austin in a legit MOTYC and Rock/Angle at No Way Out, followed by the climax of the era at WM17. Not a bad run. Full results to save anyone a google search: Royal Rumble - New Orleans Arena; New Orleans, LA 1/21/2001 - World Tag Team Title: The Dudley Boyz beat Edge & Christian to win the belts - Ladder Match for Intercontinental Title: Chris Jericho beat Chris Benoit to win the title - Women's Title: Champ Ivory beat Chyna - WWF Title: Champ Kurt Angle beat Triple H - Steve Austin won the Royal Rumble last eliminating Kane No Way Out - Thomas & Mack Center; Las Vegas, NV 2/25/2001 - Hardcore Title: Big Show beat Raven to win the title - Intercontinental Title: Champ Chris Jericho beat Chris Benoit, Eddie Guerrero & X-Pac - Stephanie McMahon-Helmsley beat Trish Stratus - Best-of-3 Falls Match: Triple H beat Steve Austin in 3 falls. Austin won fall 1, Triple H won the last 2 falls which were street fight & cage match rules - Steven Richards beat Jerry Lawler. Due to pre-match stipulations The Kat is forced to join Right to Censor - Table match for Tag Team Title: Champion Dudley Boyz beat Edge & Christian, and Kane & The Undertaker - WWF Title: The Rock beat Kurt Angle to win the title WrestleMania X-7 - Astrodome; Houston, TX 4/1/2001 - Intercontinental Title: Champ Chris Jericho beat William Regal - The APA & Tazz beat The Right to Censor - Hardcore Title: Kane beat champ Raven & Big Show to win the title - European Title: Eddie Guerrero beat Test to win the title - Kurt Angle beat Chris Benoit - Women's Title: Chyna beat Ivory to win the title - Street Fight: Shane McMahon beat Vince McMahon - TLC match for the World Tag Team Title: Edge & Christian beat champs The Dudley Boyz & The Hardy Boyz to win the title - Gimmick Battle Royal: The Iron Sheik by last eliminating Hillbilly Jim - The Undertaker beat Triple H - WWF Title: Steve Austin beat the Rock to win the WWF title

With Dusty, you effectively take away this idea, unless you can see Dusty working "subtle heel" in a lot of towns. Can you? I can't. But between Flair, Race, Dibiase, Patera, the Freebirds and others, I think you've got a pretty decent mix of heels to match him with. And that's before contemplating how any face/face matches might work with the likes of Steamboat & the Von Erichs.

This was awesome. How awesome? Will save that for a minute. They open with some bombs -- Bull with her lariats, Aja some strikes and headbutts. Then its worked very slowly, each respecting the other and methodically looking to wear her opponent down rather than go for a quick kill that surely won't work. After a quick foray into the stands Aja gets the near falls rolling with a piledrover and 2 backdrop suplexes. That doesn't work so she brings things outside and throws a row of connected chairs onto Bull. Bull misses the flying legdrop as they start breaking out the bombs. The one spot I didn't love was Bull's sloppy jump kick off. Just not in her wheelhouse. After a plancha that takes out a ring girl, Bull hits a legdrop and then the somersault legdrop but that's only good for 2. She then misses the moonsault and its clear we're getting a new king. Aja can taste it but has taken a ridiculous beating at this point. A German only gets two as they're both selling the bombs to this point. Three Urakens later we get a near fall that I was sure was the finish. But Aja busts out her own guillotine legdrop to win the title. Nakano sells it like a boss afterwards, and I'll be damned if she doesn't come across here as one of the most sympathetic babyfaces you'll find. Both are crying while Bull's on the mic, then they hug, and it is awesome. You don't even know what they're saying and you're near tears. Aja bows to her, and Bison joins. I can't appreciate this anywhere near the level I should as I've never gone through the years leading up to this in depth, and its still arguably the best moment on the yearbook thus far. You can say this match ended when the bell rang, but combining the match and the post-match this definitely trumps the main event and is my favorite match of the night, and one of the tops on the year. ****1/2

Note to self: check out FLIK's writeups before watching any joshi to make sure you don't miss any context. I liked this, but it didn't register as anything particularly special for the year or the night. Things I did love: Hokuto's almost wristlock German early to start things with a bang, even if the crowd didn't really react. That giant swing -- quite gigantic and always fun. Hokuto's jumping piledriver was nasty enough you'd hope its part of a hot stretch rather than this early in the match. Really enjoyed Kyoko's focused attack on Hokuto's back, including a long scorpion. But then they seemingly dropped that aspect for the stretch run. Hokuto's somersault plancha looked super risky as she almost flew right past Kyoko. The finish was awesome with Hokuto nailing Kyoko in the back of the head when she came off the top with the Tenryu elbow. We get the great sportsmanship moment afterwards with Hokuto checking on Kyoko. Then comes Kandori in the Cosby sweater to get them involved as we head into 1993. So what didn't I love? I liked what they had in mind with the back selling, the big moves and the hot finish. It just came off to be as incredibly rushed and trying to pack in as much as they could. One of those cases where less would've been more, at least for this guy. Not that this was a bad match. Its just why it doesn't rate much higher for me. ***3/4 feels about right.

Best friends sitting in the grass talking Survivor Series. Loss really covered it all -- these outfits and the setting are just fantastic to watch 20 years later. They talk about losing at Summerslam and then wining the title in Saskatoon. Hart says he's the best technical wrestler when asked to compare himself to prior champs. At least a solid effort to push him heading into the PPV.

Razor certainly held up his end of the bargain with his promo here. Great fire fire from Flair, to go with the right look in a suit as we get some vintage NWA Flair here.

What about Dusty as more than a transitional champ? He could certainly work with many of the names above in a host of territories. You'd think Japan would have interest in renting the dream for parts of a tour every now and then, and imagine him coming to town to work with the Freebirds in Texas or Mid South? Teaming with the Von Erichs, paired with Dibiase or Flair in their hotbeds? Definitely curious how a couple years of Dusty on top plays out on various stages.

*slow claps* There may be hope for you yet!

This is the kind of backwards thinking I might expect from Inoki's fascination with shooters era. No matter what wins the poll, why devalue your world title by giving fans the option to put a secondary belt ahead of it on the biggest show of the year? If you're that down on Naito, book him out of the main event and be done with it. Just don't see how Okada, Naito or the title come out stronger from this type of scenario.

What he said, plus a few if you've got something really compelling to talk about. 45 minutes at the gym in the morning, then another 35-45 to get to work. Not a whole lot that can't be covered in that time.

Boring Dean is like like Fight Club and that dish the wife makes that gets you sick. First rule is SAY NOTHING.

This reads like it was designed to make El-P kill himself. But have to respect what you want to see.

Suzuki needs to go into the hall so he kick Alvarez off the apron while entering the ring to accept his plaque.

Wasn't the tag with Savage/Warrior (and then Perfect) vs. Flair/Ramon pushed ahead of the title match on that show, or does it just feel like a bigger match in hindsight?

Definitely more respectful. They won't crap on you unless you literally crap on them, and that basically means over the top insulting booking rather than poor work. But a hot match? They'll blow their tops.

I was recently looking at an old Observer talking about Lawler's book and went into some detail about the Funk feud. Apparently he burned the hell out of his eyes and spent days trying to get the oil out of his hair. And then somehow the match didn't draw as well as previous versions!!

A hot crowd can definitely get you more into a match, or sometimes make you wonder why you're not loving something quite as much as the live audience is. Are we looking for some kind of validation that a match is great, or is it a small part of what makes it awesome? Dolph cashing in the briefcase was nothing special as a match, but how do you not get amped for it with a crowd like that? Same with Rock/Hogan as Coffey mentioned. No clue why why it can help so much, but man is it awesome to go along for the ride. On the other hand, you go and watch Volk Han or something similar with politely respectful crowd that only turns up the volume for a finish or maybe a couple key spots, and it doesn't drag things down at all. Variety baby!

So basically you are a coward. Good riddance scrub Looks like the Dolphins have found their new guard! Bud, it doesn't make your arguments any stronger or you a better or cooler person to couch all of your points in sweeping generalities, profanities and personal attacks. Somebody needs a HUG. Maybe from Tanahashi. I hear he works pretty lightly.

EDIT: LOL. Had a lot more to say, but I forgot I was arguing with the arbiter of honesty, credibility and all other virtues in these parts. I'm comfortable with what I've read. Sorry if you're not.

How are their cases at all similar? No one is crediting Bryan with any period as a company's ace but rather an incredibly long and sustained period of work. I don't remember seeing anyone suggest that Tanahashi's candidacy and election this year was solely due to his work but rather his work in tandem with his run on top and impact on business, primarily over the last two years. Leaving aside whether you think they belong, because that is irrelevant, I don't see any way to pretend that their resumes for inclusion are remotely comparable. The people most actively defending Tanahashi here and elsewhere are defending him on work. Bryan is a work candidate. Most people don't want to engage the idea of Tanahashi's drawing power, because it's largely a myth of perception manufactured by those who really enjoy him. That's not to say he was a bad draw from beginning to end, but the idea that he is an HoF draw is transparently comical on it's face. Not going to reread every post here on Tanahashi, but it strikes me as inaccurate to say that people defending him here have done so while staying silent on him as a draw. I don't care what you think of him as a draw as its irrelevant. But it is relevant to plainly ignore that facet of his candidacy in arguing for or against him for any reason, much less because it lets you slot Bryan somewhere. Especially given that Bryan is hardly someone who needs such tenuous shortcuts to support him based on work.

How are their cases at all similar? No one is crediting Bryan with any period as a company's ace but rather an incredibly long and sustained period of work. I don't remember seeing anyone suggest that Tanahashi's candidacy and election this year was solely due to his work but rather his work in tandem with his run on top and impact on business, primarily over the last two years. Leaving aside whether you think they belong, because that is irrelevant, I don't see any way to pretend that their resumes for inclusion are remotely comparable. Tanahashi was voted in by many just for his workrate from comments I have seen, so I can see how Dylan is drawing a comparison. The jury is still out for me on HIS impact on NJ becoming 500% more profitable. Like others have said, right place, right time. I heard a bit about folks commenting to that effect, but didn't see that his candidacy became one resting on work. Particularly in the pages of the WON, he was also getting significant credit for the rise of iPPV as a significant revenue stream for the company. If we're attributing the newfound love for his work to his hype there over the past couple years, I don't see see how one also dismisses his run on top for business. If I'm missing a piece of the puzzle as to how those voting in the Japan category view things, I'm definitely eager to see that. Again, I'm not looking to get into it about the merits of his candidacy. I'm a huge fan of his work in-ring, and think he probably deserves credit for being top while PPV business sees this kind of rise, but also think its premature to definitively state that today. I'm just not a fan of dismissing that aspect of his resume or dismissing his role by saying it didn't matter who's on top. With that kind of logic you can argue it doesn't ever matter who was on top. If you stretch things enough you can always point to macroeconomic and other environmental factors any outcome. EDIT: Point is I don't see where all of a sudden Tanahashi's candidacy became that of the Japanese Daniel Bryan. This was the first I've heard anyone even attempt to argue that Tanahashi is a strict workrate candidate.

How are their cases at all similar? No one is crediting Bryan with any period as a company's ace but rather an incredibly long and sustained period of work. I don't remember seeing anyone suggest that Tanahashi's candidacy and election this year was solely due to his work but rather his work in tandem with his run on top and impact on business, primarily over the last two years. Leaving aside whether you think they belong, because that is irrelevant, I don't see any way to pretend that their resumes for inclusion are remotely comparable.