Superstar Sleeze

Just got text from WWE that Jerry Springer will be on the "season premiere" of RAW. If this week is the "season premiere", then last week's "season finale" was one helluva shitty, boring "season finale".

Martin, Once we hit January or so, let's do a mini joshi project or something. I'm game. I have never watched a Joshi match in my life and really ought to have by now. We can use yearbooks to help us in the 90s and I am sure there is a way to figure out the most famous 80s matches.

I suck at ranking wrestlers. I feel much more confident ranking matches. I am more inclined to do a GOAT match list. Maybe we could do these in parallel. As for me, holes are Lucha Libre,, Joshi, World of Sport, and most shoot-style. After all this 00s Japan watching, I am going to need a looooooooooooooooooong break from puroresu even though I absolutely love it.

I was going to foresake this match based on Sano's shitty, lazy performance against Minoru Tanaka. If you had a bad match with Minoru between 2000-2002, you are pretty bad in my opinion. Between your review and the reviews over at puroresu.tv, I gave this a shot. I am happy I did, it was very good and it will most likely make my ballot in the lower half. Mitsuharu Misawa vs Takuma Sano - NOAH 6/6/03 Forget Chuck Norris, Sano is the God King of the Roundhouse Kick. I loved his use of it as a cutoff and Misawa always sold it like he just ran into a stonewall. Misawa really put over Sano as a threat even thought he was quite the underdog as a newcomer to NOAH and perpetual midcarder. Sano really made the most of it and delivered his best performance of the decade working very tight and energetically with Misawa. Sano used the roundhouse kicks to gain control early and with a scouting report avoided a Misawa missile dropkick. He then hit his own and took another page out of the Misawa playbook with a suicide dive. Misawa showed this punk what was up when he hit his own suicide dive and missile dropkick. I liked the symmetry of the match especially the roundhouse kick versus elbow aspect. Sano nails a well-timed roundhouse kick and hits a wicked double stomp to the midsection. I really wish he stuck with the midsection, but he decided to go legs with a pair of figure-4s. Misawa just did not sell this well at all. They just looked like they were laying there. Then Misawa just blows him away with elbows. This was the section that really dragged the match down because it was both inconsequential and boring. I loved Sano's reaction to the elbow to start throwing nasty closed fists. When that does not get the job done he starts throwing kicks to the head. Misawa hits a quick, but wicked German suplex so Sano to keep the match in his favor nails a roundhouse kick. I loved Sano's tenacity, he knew he was the underdog and could not let Misawa build momentum because he would be a goner. These roundhouse kicks, which no Misawa really ever used, really threw Misawa for a loop. BRAINBUSTER! 1-2-NO! Sano applies a weird submission, but looks gnarly. Sano's mouth is bleeding, but that should be expected because Misawa was throwing vicious elbows. Misawa Tiger Driver and here comes Misawa! Frogsplash! Sano looks fucked. Misawa selling the midsection. ROUNDHOUSE KICK! Misawa with fuck you elbows. Emerald Flowsion! I absolutely loved the Misawa selling the long term effects of the roundhouse kicks and then BOOM one last desperation one, but Misawa fights through it to hit nasty elbows and win with Emerald Flowsion. If Sano stuck with the midsection throughout, this match would be a sleeper for top 50. I say that it is lock for the top 100 still. ****

AJPW Triple Crown Champion Toshiaki Kawada vs Takao Omori - AJPW 7/18/04 Omori rocking a trendy 2014 hipster haircut in 2004. Who knew all hipsters were ripping off Takao Omori. In two marquee matches (Tenryu and Hashimoto), Kawada just blows off knee selling and then here he just starts randomly selling the knee, but who I am to complain Kawada selling the knee is always badass. In fairness, Omori did hit one dragon leg screw, but it did not seem like it would be followed up on. Then Kawada after hitting his back heel kick and axe kick started selling the knee and the match got real interesting. Omori did an admirable job working the knee, but this was the Kawada show and I was loving it. Kawada mounts comeback on the outside with a yakuza kick over the railing. He retreats to the high ground of the ring. Omori tries to get back in and Kawada yakuza kick again. Then they work a mini-scaffold match out on the apron that is really great drama, which ends with a Kawada enziguiri. The difference between Kawada in this and the aforementioned matches is night and day. You can really feel the struggle to overcome the pain to hit his basic offense. Kawada nails two back drop drivers and goes for a third, but Omori holds onto ropes for dear life. Omori goes back to knee and drills Kawada with a wicked piledriver. Knee drop gets two. Omori overcomes a barrage of enziguiris with lariats. After this match, falls apart into a bomb throwing fest, but not as fun as Kobashi/Omori. Kawada is awfully small to be hitting a powerbomb against someone like Omori. Kawada wins after elbows, back drop driver and a Shining Wizard. Tack on a hotter finish and this is a mortal lock for the Top 100. Kawada's great selling keeps thing interesting early, the mini-scaffold match was fun and Omori false run were great, but then they were just missing that extra gear. It will probably make the Top 100, but not sure. ***3/4

Mitsuharu Misawa vs Satoshi Kojima - AJPW 7/18/04 Is Kojima sponsored by a Japanese furniture company called Cozy World? Thats badass. Misawa's age really, really showed in this match. By the end, he finally broke the match open, but the first 20 minutes or so was painful to watch one of the greatest wrestlers of all time sleepwalk through his style of match. Kojima, who is usually rover like over with crowd, could not seen to get them behind him until the latter half of the match making for a dead crowd and overall boring match that is probably more famous for a hilarious blunder. The beginning was the match was well-worked with good basic work involving top wristlock and headlock with you few highspots. Then they just sat this chinlock forever. Kojima looked to pick it up by doing a Tiger Driver (O NO HE DIDNT) and then kicking some ass on the outside. In the spot of the match, Kojima went for a powerbomb on Misawa, but you cant powerbomb Misawa and took a wicked bump into the railing. Misawa ran through basic mid-match offense, but was just going through the motions. Then in one of the funniest botches, Misawa goes for his pump fake diving elbow and basically flips into the ropes and falls back on his ass. Kojima, way more professional than me, continues on as I would have been laughing my ass off. After that match finally gets going with them trading bombs, the Tiger Driver to the floor was a good highspot and actually believed Kojima had a chance once he kicked out of Emerald Flowsion and hit a couple big lariats. It was not to be because a spinning back elbow and a Tiger Driver '91 polished him off. Was Kojima supposed to the Kawada of the 00s? Just never could win the big one. The guy could not buy a victory before his February '05 Triple Crown victory, but hey he was still over. Misawa sadly looked old and washed up. Kojima did not know how to bring him out of a funk. The finish pulls the match into the good territory, but nowhere near a top 100 match. ***

Satoshi Kojima vs Shinjiro Ohtani - Budokan 9/06/03 Another good Kojima match will wonders ever cease! I should let this girl know the effect she has had on me. Making me like Kojima, craziness! I was totally shocked by the finish, but I should not have been given the layout. This was the first time since Kojima joined All Japan he was not the underdog (Mutoh, Kawada, Tenryu and Hashimoto) and I was intrigued what he would do. I actually thought he worked an energetic and hot match from on top. I would liked to seen more dickishness and heeling from Ohtani since this is part of the AJPW vs Z1 feud. I liked the opening with them hitting finishers early to kick off the match with a bang. They reset to a more standard opening with Kojima dominating Ohtani for the most part except when Ohtani was able to rake the eyes and get his facewash. Kojima teases doing the Ohtani facewash and he really should have! I liked how they had each other scouted Ohtani dropkicked Kojima going for his elbow drop and Kojima returned the favor when Ohtai went for the springboard dropkick. Kojima nearly kills himself with a wicked suicide dive into the railing. Kojima is really throwing himself into his spots. Kojima destroys Ohtani with an elbow and he does the lifeless sell. I should have realized once Kojima was destroying Ohtani with Ace Crushers, but was not finishing him off that Ohtani would win because that is Japanese Match Layout 101, but I presume this was when Kojima gets his victory over a veteran and bring his ascent. I didn't like the finish because I thought Kojima killed Ohtani too much. Thus it made Kojima look weak and the Ohtani comeback look unbelieveable. I really bit on Ohtani getting two Dragon Suplexes to counter the Lariat and then Kojima nailing him with a Lariat. If that was the finish, this match would have finished a bit better, but it would have been more of an extended squash. Ohtani mounts his comeback with a spinwheel kick and springboard dropkick to the back of his head. He cant get the powerbomb and Kojima knocks him out of his boots and again a perfectly good finish for a Kojima victory. Ohtani powerbomb and then a Dragon suplex brings it home for Ohtani. My two knocks against this match is that if you want Ohtani to win the whole match ought to be restructed or at the very least not have Kojima totally annihilate him and that finish run did not fit the rest of the match. They were working a fun upper midcard match to establish Kojima on top then they all of sudden tacked on this "epic" finish run. It is still a good match, but did not think the complete package will make my top 100. ***

AJPW Triple Crown Champion Shinya Hashimoto vs Satoshi Kojima - AJPW 6/13/03 I don't know if I am so burnt out on the NOAH style or because I got a wicked hot chick's number last night (toot! toot!), but this was damn entertaining. That was one of the most exciting finish stretches I have seen in some time. I was hanging on every move as Hashimoto The Destroyer looked to put down Crowd Favorite Kojima. The "STOP HITTING ME WITH THAT LARIAT" punches had me going bezerk and you did not know when Kojima was going to strike next with his lariat. The beginning was so refreshing with two wrestlers just struggling over basic holds and working a classic championship style build. A spot like the early cross armbreaker, which Kojima sold well by immediately getting to the ropes and powdering, gives the crowd a quick highspot and demonstrates how important is not to make a mistake. From a kayfabe perspective, I feel like Hashimoto was not really trying to win the match just sort of playing defense then he dropkicked Kojima to the outside and the match really picked up. Hashimoto starts to kick ass on the outside with a DDT on the outside. Kojima hits a desperation lariat to the knees. Hashimoto hits a Fuck You knee lift and then a HUGE double stomp from the top rope. SWEET! Kojima hits a bad bad looking back drop driver. Then PRO WRESTLING LOVE Shining Wizard, but kick out! Kojima gets the figure-4 and signals for the LARIATO! HASHIMOTO THE DESTROYER CHOPS AWAY THE LARIAT ARM! KICKS TO THE ARM! Hammerlock DDT, STO and Inverse triangle choke, but Kojima makes it to the ropes. HASHIMOTO IS PISSED AND IS GOING TO DRILL KOJIMA WITH A BRAINBUSTER! Kojima slips out and LARIAT! Kojima has his lariat, but Hashimoto knows it is coming so you get these great Hashimoto destroys arm, but Kojima just sucks it up and nails lariats because he nothing else. Then Hashimoto just starts punching the fuck out of his arm to set up THE BRAINBUSTER~! Hashimoto The Destroyer wins, but Kojima shows he can compete with the big boys. A more interesting thread or hook earlier in the match would make this a MOTYC, but it falls just short. I need to rewatch the Tenryu matches, but as it stands this is my favorite Kojima match. He unquestionably always brings the crowd to his matches, but here he was focused and worked hard as an underdog.. This was Hashimoto's best pure singles performance from the 00s where he just looked like a world beater, but still gave Kojima enough to make the match competitive. Most importantly, they peaked with a super hot finish. ****1/4

WAIT! Ricky Marvin is good? I distinctly him being my least favorite in the junior tags when I watched in like 2008. Then I watched Briscoes vs Marvin/Suzuki and thought it was one of the worst matches of the decade so I just wrote him off. Is he actually good? Can you drop some matches to be watched?

IWGP Jr Heavyweight Champion Koji Kanemoto vs Makoto Hashi - NJPW 8/29/02 Is Hashi the junior version of Tenzan? Kanemoto was in Team 2000??? He has pretty similar hair to Kojima. TENKOJI EXPLODES~! This match is much better I would presume than that series in 2005. The most of the transitions in this match are dogshit, but the overall story is well executed. Hashi is tough underdog from NOAH going up against New Japan's junior heavyweight champion. Kanemoto overwhelms him with kicks early and I love how Hashi tries to use any little opening like the ref pulling Kanemoto off to take it to Kanemoto. Kanemoto is in general control, but misses his flip splash (a good transition) and Hashi capitalizes. Hashi hits the Slop Drop on the apron and diving headbutt from apron. Kanemoto just comes in and hits an Owen Hart style belly to belly. Lame. Hashi blows a suplex and then does it again. They runs through a bunch of spots foregoing anything resembling a transition. The endgame is the heel hook with Hashi desperately trying to get out of it and restoring to biting, but not as cool as AKIRA. He misses a diving headbutt from top rope. Of course, Kanemoto kips up and finishes with a kick. It was a fitting end to a match that had no transitions. It had some good heat and Kanemoto is a great prick, but ranks far below the other NOAH vs New Japan matches of 2002. ***

Go Shiozaki & KENTA vs Kensuke Sasaki & Katsuhiko Nakajima - NOAH 6/22/09 I may getting burnt out on the NOAH wrestling style because I found myself constantly zoning out through this match. Up until this four match stretch (two tags against KO and two matches against Nakajima), I thought the hate towards KENTA was overblown, but he is just insufferable now. He is like a mini version of Kenta Kobashi, but a million times worst. He has gone from plucky underdog that runs a million miles an hour to world beater and I don't sell for nobody, brutha. Whereas, Sasaki versus Shiozaki rocked it in 2005 the magic just was not there with Shiozaki as the newly crown GHC Heavyweight Champion. Don't get me wrong, Shiozaki has come a long way, but he was not there yet. Nakajima just could not manage to carry three people all at once into telling a cogent story. The match felt like one big finish run. Everybody was just running around hitting moves with seemingly little to no consequence. I enjoyed how contested the Shiozaki/Sasaki matchup was. Sasaki was making him earn it and Shiozaki was slowly overcoming him, This shows how much Shiozaki has grown since 2005, but other than that I did not find many threads. They teased a Nakajima FIP segment by dropping him on the railing, but instead we got a KENTA face in peril segment. KENTA just let himself be ragdolled, but was not selling that hard. It was not a particularly brutal beating. It was a perfect microcosm of the match: well-worked, but nothing memorable. It was just a lot of action strung together with no hook. If you are an action or MOVEZ~! mark you'd love this, but there is very little weight. KENTA surprisingly sells a seemingly random kick as a knockout shot and I thought we had out hook, but two minutes later he was running around again trading suplexes with Nakajima. The finish stretch was really well-done in giving Nakajima a little love before Shiozaki crushed with lariats a suplex. It is a match I will not remember tomorrow because nothing stands out, but from a pure action point there was at least never a dull moment. ***1/4

There should be a thread dedicated to this in the forum Part of what's interesting with efforts like this is that people define GOAT differently. I don't know that you'd want everyone using the same rubric. I agree that's what makes it interesting, but I think there has to be some understanding of intent. I maybe interpreting Matt's post wrong, but to me the question is this a "Hogan" List or a "Flair" List. By that I mean a list that looks at greatest from drawing and starpower would historically most likely have Hogan finish number one. Whereas one focused on more subjective criteria like being entertaining and ring work would historically most likely have Flair finish number one. I presume this GOAT list is a "Flair" list rather than a "Hogan" list, which would be more about numbers and is generally less fun in my opinion.

GHC Jr. Heavyweight Champion Katsuhiko Nakajima vs KENTA - Budokan 3/1/2009 Fuck you, KENTA! This is not a very apt comparison for everybody (ok, nobody, but me), but this match reminded me of Hogan/Savage Nitro match from 1998. As a child, I was a huge Macho Man fan and begged my parents to buy Spring Stampede 1998 because he would be challenging Sting for the Championship, which was my first PPV. Savage wins albeit with interference, but I don't care because he is the World Champion, BABY! Next night, he has to defend the title against Hogan. I can still remember Tony exclaiming "Savage can only get flurries of offense in". It was so damn frustrating. How come Savage could not string together any offense? He never made a comeback. He just friggin' lost. Flash forward 18 years, I still watch wrestling and my main man Katsuhiko Nakajima has won the GHC Jr. Heavyweight Championship and has to defend against KENTA. Fucking KENTA just absolutely blows off any of Nakajima's offense constantly cutting him off and not letting him tell his story. It was so damn frustrating. Again, the fuckhead won the championship instead of the better wrestler. This match is up there for one of the most bizarre matches I have ever seen. They were even reading the same book nevermind being on the same page. It was almost like KENTA was saying we did it YOUR way on the Kensuke Office, this is NOAH we are doing it MY way now. Nakajima was just stubbornly pressing on while KENTA was ignoring him. KENTA starts the match off hot and uptempo to set up his usual chinlocks early. It is a solid strategy to kick ass and then sap the energy of the opponent. Nakajima looks pretty overwhelmed to start, but needs to weather the storm. Nakajima catches a kick and dragon leg screw. Immediately, I am thinking this is risky business. I hope Nakajima talked to KENTA before building an entire match around KENTA selling the knee. What followed was just fucking bizarre. Nakajima would work the leg and KENTA would just fly around like nothing happened and this was the entirety of the first 15 minutes. Neither was responding to the other. It was a huge clusterfuck. Even once Nakajima drops the knee work and starts spiking KENTA on his head with tombstones and brainbusters. KENTA is like FUCK YOU! He just starts cutting him off again. Nakajima's response seemed to be I don't playing that game and I am going to kick your ass, but that only made it worse. Nakajima was going to lose so you would think KENTA would want to make the final comeback, but he seemed pretty intent on squashing Nakajima, but Nakajima would not let him. Good for him! Way to stand up for yourself! This is all predicated that I believe Japanese matches are still called in the ring. If this was planned out WWE style, this is fucking awful. As bad as the first 95% of match was, the finish was incredibly awesome and played off the first match so well. So KENTA goes for Go 2 Sleep, but Nakajima rana'd out last time so KENTA is prepared and Powerbombs his ass, but for two. He goes for G2S again, but this time Nakajima pulls out a victory roll counter. The surprise of this allows him to his rainbow spinwheel kick that I don't like, but did win him the title for two. KENTA G2S gets two and then kicks to head for two. Nakajima roars back and tags him with some great superkicks. KENTA catches one kick in from a wicked awkward position hoists him up for G2S for the victory. The finish is really good, but fuck what a clusterfuck. What is funny is when I watched these in 2009, I absolutely loved them. Thats why I became a Nakajima fan. I went to ROH in Detroit specifically to see Nakajima and I loved it. Watching these Nakajima matches I had not seen, I felt totally validated in my fandom. Between memory and what I have seen from Nakajima, I projected at least one KENTA/Nakajima match making the top ten. Instead, there was fabulously infuriating match and a giant clusterfuck. Memories ruined.

That's exactly what I was going to say. KENTA can work a great match, but you have to impose your will. Nakajima did that in the first match, but lost his way. The rematch was one of the most bizarre matches ever. Nakajima was trying to work his style and KENTA just did not give one single fuck. After that match, I fucking hate KENTA. I would totally shit a brick if 2001 Minoru Tanaka wrestled 2009 Katsuhiko Nakajima. I believe it could be the greatest juniors match of all time. They really had it in them. Did they ever wrestle at any point?

That first KENTA/Nakajima match is one of the most infuriating matches I have ever seen. The first 30 minutes were fantastic. I wold argue match of the decade contender based on the trajectory. So many interesting match storylines, great work and pacing. Then the last 15 minutes is just typical 00s finish garbage. Fuck, so disappointing.

GHC Jr Heavyweight Champion KENTA vs Katsuhiko Nakajima - Kensuke Office 02/11/09 Disappointing. For about 30 minutes, they had something truly special. I would say with ease they were on pace to have the best junior heavyweight in Japan of the 00s and a strong match of the decade contender. Then they pissed it all the way in the last 15 minutes. Nakajima matches are so well-layered. You had the obvious ribs versus neck psychology. You had the conservative, counterwrestling of Nakajima against the offensive dynamo of KENTA. You had the veteran, established presence of KENTA against the rising star Nakajima trying to prove himself. Then on top of all that they interwine a one upmanship dynamic to establish Nakajima as his equal. These layers were 90s All Japan-esque. Then POOF we get faceless strike exchanges, barrage of pop-up suplexes, senseless spots and an overkill finish.God I hate the 00s. KENTA tries to rev the match up early at the tempo he loves, but Nakajima counters with a Go 2 Sleep that hits the ribs, which shakes up KENTA who has to retreat to the outside. Nakajima presses with knees to the ribs and great headlock work. He knows that KENTA loves that uptempo pace and he just content to grind on the headlock. However, KENTA suckers him into a game of one upmanship with kicks and that is a game KENTA will win. KENTA goes for his usual guillotine DDT, springboard combo, but Nakajima has it scouted and counters. He suffocates KENTA with strikes and once KENTA powders. Nakajima takes a breather then goes back to work where he hits a DDT on the floor that causes KENTA to bleed from the mouth hardway and make KENTA's neck an issue. Nakajima has successfully implemented a counterwrestling strategy using KENTA's offense against him and hurt his neck. This time when KENTA makes ropes on a headscissors Nakajima can control with elbows to the neck showing he has made headway. However, Nakajima knows he will have to start to escalate his offense. Nakajima is not the only one who can counterwrestle as KENTA picks him out of the sky with a kick. KENTA takes a breather follows him to outside and consolidates his advantage with a drop toehold to railing and then Go 2 Sleep on railing. Now Nakajima's ribs are badly hurt and Nakajima shows KENTA how to sell as he really milks it. KENTA is great working over the ribs especially a double stomp from the apron to floor and then from top rope to the floor!!!! That's the kind of high spot that is awesome. Now you get the sense the veteran has one upped the upstart, but Nakajima has some fight and is able to counter into a Tombstone that spikes KENTA on his bad neck. EXCELLENT!!!!! KENTA getting desperate tries to speed up, but Nakajima traps in heel hook. KENTA makes ropes and speeds up again with more success gets STF. Nakajima gets heel hook then KENTA gets STF continuing trend of one upmanship. You get the sense KENTA underestimated Nakajima is getting a bit desperate after Nakajima did not go away from the ribwork. NAKAJIMA BRAINBUSTER~! KENTA has to escape to the floor and the neck is now really in a bad way. Nakajima tries plancha, but ribs eat a kick and he sells like a million bucks. More one upmanship. I am loving this symmetry. KENTA goes all 2013 Daniel Bryan, but in 2009 with high speed dropkicks and a powerbomb. KENTA is relying more on bombs. They tease a superplex to the floor, but settle for a KENTA driver off apron to floor. They milk it. Nakajima prevents KENTA from getting back in with a wicked German on the floor. The match ends in a double countout. If KENTA sold a bit better, this is 5 stars, but I am going ****3/4. This was like the Tenryu/Mutoh of the juniors or a better version of Nakajima/Kondo....wait the match did not end. They got back in the ring. NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!! Kick exchanges that anyone could have. Pop-up suplexes. Nakajima setting up KENTA on the top rope to do a spinwheel kick. Stupid! Stupid! Stupid! KENTA kicks out of the German Suplex! Nakajima kicks out of the Go 2 Sleep! KENTA kicks Nakajima in the head brutally, but picks him up. Nakajima counters second Go 2 Sleep. A shitty spinwheel kick wins the GHC Junior Heavyweight Title for my boy, Nakajima. The finish was just overkill. There was just no believeable way that could win that match after all that punishment. It does not make him look resilient it makes KENTA look weak or just plain takes you out of the match. This is so damn hard. I absolutely love the beginning, but the finish sucks. Yes, the spots looked fine, but they just were such a departure from the match. I'll give it **** and hope that the real classic is the rematch.

Genichiro Tenryu & Nobukazu Hirai vs. Satoshi Kojima & Kaza Hayashi - AJPW 10/06/02 Hirai looks like the nicest wrestler in the world. He just has a very pleasant aura about him, which is very peculiar in wrestling. I did not think match was nearly as good as the earlier Tenryu AJPW 2002 tag, which had the great work from Miyamoto. This match had great energy, but it was almost too much energy. Everybody was running around, but there was not much purpose or consequence to the action. I will say the Tenryu/Kojima interactions make me think I underrated their 2002 series because it was easily the best work in the match. Kojima coming in with tunnel vision to attack Tenryu leaving him prone to the double team was really well executed with Kojima showing some of his best fire of all time. The problem was transitions in and out. Kojima gets his ass kicked outside and then casually takes over on Hirai and tags in Hayashi. I hate inconsequential sequences. Tenryu was out of fucking control in this match. Tenryu lines up to hit Kojima with a chair, but instead decides to whip it into the audience and attack Kojima. Anybody care to explain what the hell that was about? Then Hayashi cheap shots Tenryu on the apron. So Tenryu gets another chair and flings it at him when he is in the corner. It goes flying off the ring post into the crowd. He could have really hurt Hayashi or somebody. It reminded me of the recent cinder block throw that almost hurt Lawler and you could see how displeases Lawler was at the segment. It adds to the chaotic nature, but is almost too dangerous. Tenryu killing Hayashi is fun, but I have seen better. Just like before the transition out sucked as it was just Hayashi doing a backspring elbow on Hirai. For as bad as the transitions were, Kojima looked great and the Kojima/Tenryu work was electric. It felt much bigger than Tenryu/Kea because how over Kojima is and how much effort he was putting forth. Kojima is able to hit the lariat, but has to tag out. By contrast, Hirai/Hayashi just seems so unimportant like RAW 10:30 segment unimportant. Kojima back in hits a lariat to win the match. What is weird about this match is that it feels like it is building to a major Tenryu/Kojima singles match except Kojima/Tenryu already happened twice. Kojima/Tenryu is great and I will go back and watch their singles series. Hayashi/Hirai is not. Tenryu is crazy dangerous in this match. In about a month from now, I guarantee the only thing I will remember is Tenryu throwing chairs in the audience. It is a good match with plenty of energy, but not great. ***

Genichiro Tenryu & Nobutaka Araya vs Taiyo Kea & Kazushi Miyamoto - AJPW 4/27/02 Tenryu excels in these environments with three career midcarders and making a special and memorable match. Araya goes from taking a beat from Tenryu to joining him in dishing one out on poor rookie, Miyamoto. Cant beat him, join him. Kea is a potential next big star in the shallow All Japan roster and wrestles at an urgent pace to prove himself to Tenryu. Without a doubt, the star of the show is plucky underdog, Miyamoto, who takes a licking, but keeps on ticking. Miyamoto actually shows up Araya early for a hot second, before Tenryu comes in and chops him. Araya busts Miyamaoto's nose open with a wicked reverse elbow. The story just tells itself. Tenryu comes in immediately and kicks Miyamoto right in the nose to a big reaction. What a prick! To Miyamoto's credit, he is not just selling magnificently, he is putting one of the best underneath fights. Bringing it right to Tenryu. After all, sometimes you just got to punch the bully in the mouth or dropkick him in the knee. If that does not work, jump on the announce table and elbow smash him. The constant struggle between the hope spots and cutoffs builds great drama and add the bully/underdog dynamic you have molten heat that I just love. When Kea does come in, he works with a great sense of urgency and Tenryu is very giving. Unfortunately, it seems Kea cares more about proving that he is Tenryu's equal rather than winning the match or Miyamoto's health. Kea does get to hit the TKO on Tenryu, but Araya saves. To Miyamoto's credit, he does not just fold up shop when he gets tagged back in twice. Tenryu goes for a punch to the face and Miyamoto traps him in a Triangle in an awesome spot, but Araya saves. Tenryu slaps the fuck outta Miyamoto and he is just humiliating him. Finally Kea saves him in a Texas Cloverleaf, but God he should not being throwing kicks. Miyamoto looks like he is about to get the best of Araya, but Tenryu punches Kea right in the face and throws a chair at him ruining Miyamoto's chance of tagging out. Araya goes for the moonsault, but Miyamoto hits a wicked GERMAN!!! PIN HIM, KID! 1-2-NO!!!!! Araya drills him with a brainbuster to end the Cinderella story. Kea was supposed to look great against Tenryu, but Miyamoto stole the show with one of the greatest single match underdog performances. This performance was only enhanced by one of the best, mean-spirited bullies of all time, Genichiro Tenryu. It all combines for an easy top 100 match of the 2000s in Japan lock. ****

Jun Akiyama & Takeshi Rikio vs Kensuke Sasaki & Katushiko Nakajima - Budokan 4/27/08 The year 2008 much like 2005 seems very tag team focused from Pro Wrestling NOAH especially featuring Kensuke Office (Kensuke Sasaki & Katsuhiko Nakajima). This was a part of a round robin tournament for the GHC Tag Titles with Sasaki & Nakajima in the role of spoiler as Akiyama & Rikio have a chance to win the titles otherwise the winner of Bison Smith & Saito vs. Misawa/Ogawa would be the new champions. I am a huge Nakajima fan and am excited to continue him get featured in this project. However, Sasaki has started to show in these recent matches I have watched and much like Kobashi is devolving rapidly into a self-parody. Nakajima has not seemed to figure a way to overcome this anchor in these matches to deliver a real classic. I was excited actually for the Rikio/Sasaki showdowns because Rikio seems like the younger, slightly taller version of Sasaki. I preferred the Rikio/Takayama showdowns however as those seemed like heated clashes of a couple bulls. Akiyama also seemed to have this one in cruise control. The match was rock solid, just a bit uninspiring. The opening was the best part with the bullrush and Akiyama hitting two Exploders early to try to win the match because a victory would be pretty much secure the tag titles, but it almost backfired as Sasaki recovered and blasted him with a lariat to almost win. The rest of the opening before the Nakajima heat segment was pretty tame with the only highlight being the nostalgia surfboard spot. Nakajima came in looking to pick apart Akiyama's arm. Akiyama sensed that and pulverized him with knee lifts. Akiyama & Rikio did a really good job pummeling Nakajima (the curb stomps in front of Sasaki were an especially nice touch), who sold like a million bucks (rolling into the wrong corner after a guillotine choke), but it needed some more hope spots peppered in to make the hot tag that much more heated. Sasaki came in and right off the bat seemed like he was a step off botching his armdrag and he would later dangerously botch a couple Germans. Sasaki is a actually a red herring as Rikio is able to slow him down enough that Sasaki has to tag Nakajima back in. Nakajima is awesome trying to get revenge on Rikio swatting his lariat out of the air with a kick then delivering some badass suplexes. The German looked pitch perfect, but Akiyama toppled him on the bridge. Now Akiyama & Rikio take advantage of Nakajima's smaller stature to double team him and look close to winning the tag titles. Sasaki says enough is enough is enough and he wants Rikio out, he wants Rikio out. The dangerous Germans follow. Nakajima tags out and this time it is the real hot tag. A Northern Lights Bomb spoils Akiyama & Rikio and Bison Smith & Saito would win the tag titles. It is just a standard tag team match, but an added wrinkle of having a standard heat segment on Nakajima followed by a false finishing run on Nakajima before Sasaki cleaned house. Sasaki looked pretty bad for an execution standpoint in this match and really did off much. Akiyama, Rikio and Nakajima did enough to entertain me and sustain my interest, but not enough for me to say this is great. ***1/4

I don't know the context of what you're talking about, but I find WWE hard to dvr because they always run over and I miss the last five minutes of the show. And on the WWE app they do a lot of "two screen experience" stuff where you didn't get to see the ending of a match unless you were using the app (implying you had to watch the app live, the tv show live, and not dvring it). So I'm just speaking to WWE's claim of being dvr proof, they do at least try to make it so the viewer gets more out of it if they watch the show live. I dvr it myself and couldn't sit through a 3 hour Raw live. I have just set my DVR to run 20 minutes over. I agree it is an extra step in the advanced settings. It is hardly insurmountable hurdle, but Lord knows there are people who won't do it. I have never ever seen them miss the finish of a match and just play it on the app and I have missed one RAW in like the last 2-3 years. I can see your point about how the App "enhances" the live experience. To take it further, if you want to be apart of the Twitter conversation or vote for whether you see a "No Holds Barred, No Dq or Falls Count Anywhere" stip then yes you have to watch it live. These are all things they can point to. They don't hold water with me as a fan, but with others maybe they do.

I was reading about a mark (I mean shareholder) lawsuit about how WWE worked (I mean made claims) him into investing in their company. Anyways, apparently one of the claims was that their programming "DVR-Proof" BWHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAAHHA!!!! Thats the biggest joke ever! Their programming is perfect for DVR. Who the hell can actually sit through 3 hours straight of that! With all the commericals and video packages, you can get it done in a tidy 1-1.5 hours with the magic of fast forward. RAW is unwatchable in its current state. You NEED the DVR. That may be the funniest claim I think a wrestling company has ever made.

I have said it before and I will say it again. Cena is a great wrestler in the ring. The way they book him is so incredibly counterproductive and about 75% of his promos are absolute garbage. In some ways, Cena should take some personal responsibility and say "Hey this is fuckin stupid", but that being said WWE still has to take a lot of the blame. Kris, I think it was you, who actually said it on the Summerslam recap show is their a top star that has been such a Yes Man. He does not help out his buddies. He does not really seem to balk at anything. I guess he may have gotten a couple guys fired (Kennedy comes to mind, but wasnt that mostly Orton). You listen to his interview with Austin and he can sound like a WWE programmed robot. It is scary. I can't tell if this is his personal reaction to Hogan, Austin and the Kliq and consciously not trying to emulate them or if that is really who he is. I think it is the latter. It is just so infuriating because I think a lot of Cena's qualities are admirable both on and off camera and I hate seeing him get booed, but God is his character just so fucking annoying sometimes that I really can't blame anyone booing the John Cena who is portrayed on TV for the most part.

Nagata/Murakami '02 watch it and love it!!!! Murakami is a cocky, mean, out of control maniac and that Nagata finish run is the pitch perfect ending. I got to get up for work in 4 hours, but instead of that match bringing me down to go to bed. Im fuckin WIRED!!!! Loved that brawl!

IWGP Heavyweight Champion Yuji Nagata vs Kazunari Murakami - NJPW 12/12/02 This, my friends, is why you watch all the matches. On paper this looks innocuous with boring Nagata against the wild card Murakami, but they produce an absolutely crazy, hate-filled brawl. Have this right neck and neck with Takayama/Ogawa for 2002 MOTY and with the 2007 Togi Makabe as Yuji Nagata's best match of his career. The best match to compare this to is Kawada/Naoya Ogawa, but Murakami brings an even crazier energy to this match. Murkami just has that face that looks like he is a total mean asshole. He wrestles like an out of control shoot fighter. I have only seen three of his matches, but much like Naoya Ogawa he just has this undeniable presence. Right from the get go he makes Nagata wrestle a totally different style match. Murakami brullrushes him and just starts stepping and stomping on him like a maniac. Nagata to his credit never looked out of place and really did well with a sprint shoot-style beginning. The matches goes from interesting to great once Murakami won't let go of a cross armbreaker when Nagata is in the ropes. Nagata powders, but is pummeled outside by Murakami's entourage and is left battered and bloodied trying to respond to ref's count. Murakami is perfect mixture of cocky and mean that is so instantly unlikeable. Murakami focuses on the arm applying a cross armbreaker and crippler's crossface with the blood really oozing. Murakami licks Nagata's blood off his forearm. I think to forgot to say he is BATSHIT INSANE~! Nagata kicks Murakami's lariat arm and knees to the head and the crowd is rocking. I liked Nagata going for the "arm for an arm" route it i just he sat in the armbar a bit too long to call this a match of the decade contender. Nagat gets distracted by Murakami sleezy manager and Murakami gets a rear naked choke, which was a great last gasp for Murakami. Nagata turn Murakami's STO into a crazy suplex and then rains down knees. He does not hit one, not two, but three wrist clutch exploders!!! Crazy hot start, badass hook, Murakami excellent heel heat, Nagata's comeback, last Murakami gasp and then a finish run that showcased Nagata did not just want to win a match he wanted to punish and destroy Murakami. No lazy strike exchanges, no nearfalls, just hot, non-stop action. Everybody needs to watch this! ****1/2

IWGP Heavyweight Champion Yuji Nagata vs Kensuke Sasaki - NJPW 6/7/02 I am more glad this exists then I am about how it was executed. The two biggest NJPW stars of the early 00s clash for supremacy. I am partial to Sasaki, but I understand given Inoki's preferences why he choose Yuji Nagata: Super Counterwrestler Extraordinaire. Besides the fact that Nagata has the charisma of a potted plant, what bothers me is Nagata tends to do all this counterwrestling early, but then always ends up finishing with suplexes and kicks. Contrast that to Minoru Tanaka, who uses his other offense to set up his counterwrestling and look how much more invested the crowd is in his submission wrestling. Not to mention that Minoru Tanaka is just a more entertaining and charismatic wrestler. Nagata matches tend to be very disjointed and this is not much different. I like Sasaki, but he is someone who is more of a follower than leader. So when Nagata or Kobashi is leading, then his matches tends not go too well. Early on, they spend a lot of time on the mat, which is a nice change of pace from NOAH. Sasaki does admirably holding his own, but overall I would say Nagata wins the early portion with a stepover toehold. Nagata gets a bit cocky and starts kicking Sasaki repeatedly so Sasaki responds with a slap and Northern Lights Bomb. Nagata powders. I love that about Japan. It is an excellent way to hit a big move, but protect it. Sasaki starts using power wrestling to set up for lariat, but Nagata kicks the lariat arm. Nagata is not really building to anything just hitting some signature moves. Sasaki is able to lariat his knee while he is on the apron. Sasaki does well to use this as an opening to hit a power move, work holds on the knee like the Scorpion Deathlock, but Nagata just won't sell it. Nagata kicks lariat arm. Nagata runs through suplexes and head kicks to polish him off. I enjoyed the change of pace in the beginning compared to NOAH, but they did not follow through in any interesting way and ended in a similar fashion. Oh well.