Superstar Sleeze

Ditto. I just wrapped up a year in technical service (finally a real engineer now. WAHOO!!!), but the experience was really eye-opening being on the other side of the phone. Respect and kindness always made me more inclined to help the customer.

The spinner WWE Championship shows up in the latest Katy Perry music video. I think thats even stranger than the Blue Panther mask ending up in XTina music video from the turn of the 21st century since wrestling was at least popular then.

So um there is this blog that someone writes and has way too many words in it, but it is kinda sorta cool guess, but not really. It is called ridingspacemountain.blogspot.com, but Im not sure like I said just a passing interest. So um yeah, it might be cool to link to that, but totally up to you, dude. I checked it and it is ridingspacemountain.blogspot.com. Yeah...

After a kickass trip to Toronto, I am finally back with a compilation of my reviews regarding the Junior Heavyweights of Japan in 2000-2002. Minoru Tanaka really won me over as I originally planned to watch only 6 matches, but couldn't get enough and upped it to 10 after watching his amazing performances in the IWGP Junior Tag Championship match with Kanemoto vs Ohtani/Takaiwa that was one of the stiffest, most brutal matches I have ever seen. Don't ever put me in the ring with Ohtani or Takaiwa. Some other highlights from Minoru include his great shooty-style match with Murahama which features one of the best cross-armbreaker segments ever in terms of generating real emotion for a submission and his tags with Liger against the NOAH crew and probably what is the best display of testicular psychology in history. The rankings for the Best of Puroresu from 2000-2009 thus far: 1. Mitsuharu Misawa vs Jun Akiyama - Budokan 02/27/00 2. All Japan Triple Crown Champion Kenta Kobashi vs Yoshihiro Takayama - All Japan 05/26/00 3. All Japan Triple Crown Champion Genichiro Tenryu vs Keiji Mutoh - Budokan 6/8/01 4. Toshiaki Kawada & Masa Fuchi vs Yuji Nagata & Takashi Iizuka - NJ PPV 12/14/00 5. Kenta Kobashi vs Jun Akiyama - Budokan 12/23/00 6. IWGP Jr Hvywt Tag Champs Ohtani & Takiwa vs Kanemoto & Minoru - NJPW 6/25/00 7. IWGP Champion Kensuke Sasaki vs Toshiaki Kawada - 10/00 Tokyo Dome Non-Title 8. Keiji Mutoh vs Toshiaki Kawada - Champions Carnival 04/01 9. IWGP Jr Heavyweight Champion Minoru Tanaka vs Takehiro Murahama - NJPW 4/20/01 10. Genichiro Tenryu & Masa Fuchi vs Toshiaki Kawada & Nobutaka Araya - AJPW 6/30/01 11. Kenta Kobashi vs Takao Omori - Champions Carnival Final '00 12. GHC Champion Mitsuharu Misawa vs Jun Akiyama - Budokan 07/27/01 13. New Japan (Liger & Minoru ) vs. NOAH (Kikuchi & Kanemaru) - NOAH 4/7/02 14. GHC Tag Champions Akiyama & Saito vs Kobashi & Shiga - NOAH 10/19/02 15. Toshiaki Kawada & Genichiro Tenryu vs Stan Hansen & Taiyo Kea - Budokan 07/23/00 16. IWGP Heavyweight Champion Genichiro Tenryu vs Kensuke Sasaki - 01/04/00 17. Genichiro Tenryu vs Toshiaki Kawada - Vacant All Japan Triple Crown 10/28/00 18. Kenta Kobashi vs Jun Akiyama - NOAH #2 08/06/00 19. GHC Champion Yoshihiro Takayama vs Mitsuharu Misawa - Budokan 09/23/02 20. Mitsuharu Misawa vs Yoshihiro Takayama - Vacant GHC Title 04/15/01 21. IWGP Jr Tag Champions Kanemoto & Minoru vs Liger & Makabe - NJPW 9/12/00 22. Genichiro Tenryu vs Satoshi Kojima - AJPW 07/07/02 23. IWGP Champion Yuji Nagata vs. Yoshihiro Takayma - Tokyo Dome 05/02 24. Keiji Mutoh vs Yuji Nagata - Sumo Hall 08/12/01 G-1 Climax Final 25. Mitsuharu Misawa & Kenta Kobashi vs Jun Akiyama & Yuji Nagata - Budokan 02/17/02 26. Mitsuharu Misawa & Akira Taue vs Kenta Kobashi & Jun Akiyama - NOAH #1 08/05/00 27. New Japan (Liger & Inoue) vs NOAH (Kikuchi & Kanemaru) - NOAH 2/17/02 28. IWGP Jr Hvywt Tag Champs Liger & Minoru vs. Kikuchi & Kanemaru - NJPW 8/29/02 29. Genichiro Tenryu vs Satoshi Kojima - AJPW 02/24/02 30. Yoshihiro Takayma vs Osamu Nishimura - G-1 Climax Semifinals 31. Yoshihiro Takayama vs Kensuke Sasaki - G-1 Climax Round Robin 32. SUWA vs Dragon Kid - Toryumon 08/24/00 Hair Vs Mask 33. Keiji Mutoh & Hiroshi Hase vs Jun Akiyama & Yuji Nagata - Tokyo Dome 10/08/01 34. NJPW(Liger, Minoru , Makabe) vs Osaka Pro(Delfin, Murhama, Tsubasa)-NJPW 12/14/00 35. Shinya Hashimoto & Yuji Nagata vs Mitsuharu Misawa & Jun Akiyama - Zero-One 3/2/01 36. Toshiaki Kawada vs Satoshi Kojima - AJPW 06/06/01 37. Naoki Sano vs Minoru Tanaka - Battlarts 01/30/2000 38. Dick Togo vs Tiger Mask IV - M-Pro 08/25/02 39. GHC Tag Team Champions Wild II vs Jun Akiyama & Akitoshi Saito - Budokan 9/23/02 http://ridingspacemountain.blogspot.com/2014/02/minoru-special-japanese-juniors-2000.html

Put me in the friends & family know, but I am very hush hush about it at work camp. Having lived with my family my whole life except my stints away at college there is no way for them not to know. My dad and brother are pretty good natured about it. Whenever, I was at college, they never watched a minute of it, but at soon as I came home my brother would watch with me and my Dad would pop in when he was home (all wrestling is watched DVR style). My dad is more interested in the backstage aspect how people get pushed and what people are making money for the company. My brother prefers character work and promos, but enjoys the wrestling now. We all went to Survivor Series together, my dad has been to Wrestlemania and my brother has to two. Still if I moved out tomorrow, they would never watch another minute of wrestling I would suspect. The women of my family don't mind it and have always loved the luchadores and Jericho. One favorite razz in my household is whenever my sister is watching to ask one another "Are they friends in real life?" because that was her common question when she was a lot younger. I used to be pretty reserved about it with my friends. People knew I watched, but it never got brought up. I bought a TV solely in college to watch wrestling. I'll never forget the amount of nerves I had when I sent an email to my three freshman year roomates to say you can you use my TV whenever you want except at these times so I can watch wrestling. I took a ton of shit for that, but I lived through it. Again, unless you lived with me, there was no way of you knowing. I do remember as one of my roomates way to razz me in front of this girl from the dorm hall to say I watched Japanese wrestling. She was like "sumo wrestling"? I was like no it is American wrestling, but in Japan. She was like you watch fake sumo wrestling? I just quit explaining after that. She was pretty hot so she had that going for her. Recently, as I have been trying to get this blog off the ground, I decided to post it on facebook and I have gotten minimal feedback, but Im pretty open about it. Other than, I usually don't publish any thoughts on wrestling. The weirdest thing happened this past week when I found out one of my really good friends from high school has started watching wrestling and he wanted the lo-down, but I explained to him it would be like the Federation culturally contaminating a planet that has not achieved the same technological level. He needed to figure it out himself because in my opinion the first 2-3 years of fandom are always the best. I find it so weird because he is 24 with no previous wrestling watching and this is not exactly a conducive period to become a fan in my opinion. There are no strong promos, barely any storylines and a strong focus on wrestling. I am actually shocked that they are making new fans over the age of 10 because it feels like they are just playing it so safe. At my old position in the company, there was a guy was an out and out wrestling fan. We are talking wearing "Funkasaurus" and Zack Ryder shirts to work. He was definitely the epitome of the smart mark that just sucks. Once, I knew he was a fan I made doubly sure that know one find out so I would not have to deal with this moron. I went so far as to not add my co-worker friends on Facebook until I got this new role. He was actually at Survivor Series near me, but thankfully did not see me. He proved himself to be as much of a smart mark ass as I expected. Anyways, I don't have to deal with him anymore. At my new role, there is no reason for it to come anymoreso than my love for Ke$ha and General Hospital. I am the youngest person by far on this team so sports and my love for classic rock and heavy metal make it so that I seem like a well-rounded enough person that we don't need to go into my other passions. If you are ever in a Boston Metro club and see a 24 year old with jet-black huge 80s hair kid in a Dolph Ziggler shirt with bright pink zubaz doing the Alex Wright dance don't be shy. I don't bite...much.

I would say Ohtani/Takaiwa vs Kanemoto/Minoru match is best Juniors match I have seen from the 2000-2002 stretch, but it is very close. Independent Junior Heavyweight Champion Naoki Sano vs Minoru Tanaka - Battlarts 01/30/2000 Almost ten years to the day of this match, Naoki Sano put on his most heralded performance against Jushin Liger for the IWGP Junior Heavyweight match. On this night, Sano looked like he was moving in slow-motion and just plain old. Minoru Tanaka did the best he possibly could, selling all of Sano's holds like he was in agonizing torture, but he could not carry this match far past average. I read another review of this from Puroresu.TV promoting this as a slow matwork masterpiece. I want to clarify it is not the pace of the match that bothered me it was the fact that Sano would take down or transition in and out of holds like a snail. There was no struggle. It was just a slow-motion exhibition of catch wrestling on the mat. Then you add the first time Sano goes for the leg lace he just kind of holds MInoru foot and he just starts screaming in pain. It would be great selling if he did not look like a total tool because of Sano was applying literally zero torque or pressure. When Sano lazily applies a rear naked choke, Minoru sells like he is about to pass out and just makes it to the ropes. Everytime, Sano would even touch Minoru's leg or foot, he would immediately scramble for the ropes and scream. There was a clear inequality in effort levels throughout the match. Eventually, they drop the shoot-style stuff and just go full bore into pro wrestling, Sano tombstones Minoru and missile dropkick, but gets kicked in gut on a plancha attempt that did not look too good. Minoru hits his own missile dropkick and applies the cross-armbreaker, but Sano makes the ropes. Minoru grabs the heel hook, but Sano touches Minoru's foot, which sends flying out of the ring. Minoru is sure as hell selling that leg. Sano follows him out with a suicide dive in his best spot. They tease the countout finish with Minoru making it in at 19, which I thought was the best part of the match. Sano hits a Tiger Suplex, but Minoru is too close to the ropes. Minoru goes for his bread and butter again, but Sano makes the ropes. They trade nice head kicks before Minoru lands a Dragon Suplex for 2, but the immediate cross-armbreaker gets a submission and the Independent Junior Heavyweight Championship. I had high hopes for this shoot-style affiar, but Sano just did not show up. I thought Minoru did the best he could given what was dealt to him. Very disappointing match **3/4 New Japan (Jushin Liger & Minoru Tanaka) vs. NOAH (Tsuyoshi Kikuchi & Yoshinobu Kanemaru) - NOAH 4/7/02 In my opinion, this is the best match of the trilogy with great intensity and payoffs. As always the match starts with a melee as Liger greets Kikuchi on the ramp with a PALM STRIKE~! In a great early spot, Liger shoots Kikuchi into the ropes on the ramp so he just walks right through into the ring. Crowd pops! I love it! Kikuchi grabs a double wristlock on Minoru is going for the early submission and is relentless on the arm. The NOAH ref actually has to pull him off, which affords Minoru the opportunity to tag Liger and for Liger to palm strike Kikuchi. Looks like the fix may be in and the ref has some Yakuza bookies to pay off. Liger applies a cross armbreaker to Kikuchi, who sells it well, but it was not sold like in other Minoru matches the urgency to get out it. They went for more of a dramatic, long-term sell. Jushin "Nature Boy" Liger and NOAH Official Tommy Young get into a heated argument. Then Minoru comes in hits a dropkick, kips up and flips off Kanemaru on the apron. Minoru does the one foot pinfall attempt. This is great heel work from the New Japan boys and everything is focused on the arm throwing it into the post and kneedropping it. Kikuchi back drops out of a Ligerbomb attempt to tag Kanemaru, which was a bit of unsatisfying transition. What happens next is some of my favorite stuff to ever happen in a wrestling ring. I have come to realize that Kanemaru' has a penchant to low blow with his leg when he being attacked from behind. You have to get up pretty early in the morning to get one over on Liger, who avoids Kanemaru's natural defense mechanism and then kicks Kanemaru in the balls. Kanemaru sells it like death. The NOAH young boys are red hot and take to the apron to protest. Liger taunts them and palm strikes one off the apron. LIGER RULES~! Minoru sets up Kanemaru in the corner for Shattered Dreams, but first he hits two dropkicks and then casually walks over and kicks him in the balls. Minoru hops around in the ring grabbing himself taunting the crowd. I love it! Minoru kneedrop and does the one foot cover again to no avail. Kanemaru hits a dropkick to tag Kikuchi, again kinda lame transition. Kikuchi is red hot and is just tackling everyone and forearming anyone he can get his hands on. He tags Kanemaru in and then in the payoffs to end all payoffs: Kanemaru knocks Minoru on the ground and drop toeholds Liger so that he headbutts Minoru in the nuts. TREMENDOUS!!!!! In turn out after having his manhood abused Kanemaru grew a fucking set because he rips Liger's mask and goes after Liger's eyes. Liger kicks out of his moonsault at one and just lets out what can only be described as a roar! Now you gone and done it, boy! Liger absorbs a palm strike and lets loose with one of his own for two. They trade brainbusters to level the playing field. Minoru flies all around Kikuchi making him look foolish. Minoru heel hook does not do it and Kikuchi rattles off a German, but on the second attempt Liger palm strikes him in the head. Liger tells Minoru to take care of his light work. Liger piledrives Kanemaru on exposed concrete. Minoru gets a two with a head kick and the immediate cross armbreaker gives New Japan the victory. I thought the first 3/4 of this match would give the Midnights/RnRs a run for their money in combining drama and comedy in a match. The New Japan heel work was awesome and the testicle psychology was off the charts great. Kanemaru taking it to Liger was awesome and really should have figured into the finish. Instead, the finish was the usual stuff with Minoru winning with the cross-armbreaker. There was definitely a lot more to explore in terms of Kanemaru going to town on Liger. In addition, the babyface transitions were not the strongest, but still overall a super fun and excellent match. ****

No Charles??? He was killing it with "Suspense in a Fence" and being a P.I.M.P. in 1st grade. I am sure this power trio still brings da funny.

I would argue that I'm the biggest Minoru Tanaka fan in the world (outisde of Yumi Fukawa). I think he's one of the most gifted wresters ever. He makes everything look so easy, it's ridiculous. I think what hurt him was that they put him under a mask as HEAT in late 2002 just as he was getting into his prime years. It was such a dumb move. When he became Minoru again in 2006 it revitalised him. His last few years in New Japan were really strong and he played a huge role in Devitt's rise. Since he joined All Japan, he's elevated his game again and he's had some of the best matches of his career against guys like Kaz, Kondo, Omega and Yamato. Make room for me, brutha! I had heard of HEAT, but did not know how that was received. Good to hear he upped his game again once he went backing to being Minoru Tanaka as he really felt like a world class performer in early 00s. IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion Minoru Tanaka vs Takehiro Murahama - NJPW 4/20/01 This match did not disappoint given my high expectations after seeing them square off in the December trios match between New Japan and Osaka Pro. I was very excited when I found out they had a match nominated for this project. The way this match builds is really why it stands out as one of the better matches I have seen so far. It begins fast and furious with each man trying to find a hold that will weaken the other man. It is not mindless grappling. It really feels like they are looking to pick something a leg, arm, anything they can get their hands on and then wrench it. Murahama went for the cross armbreaker early but Minoru powerbombed out of it. From there, they just ramped up their intensity on the mat. Minoru is able to pop off a quick back drop driver, but Murahama powders before he can press his advantage. Murahama comes in and hits a huge flash kick to the head, which was treated like a KO shot and got a big reaction, but only got two. I like how everything is so quick in this match. Blink and you miss something crucial. Murahama works over the arm and then applies the cross armbreaker this was the best presentation of the cross armbreaker I have ever seen. From the announcer, to the crowd to Minoru's wriggling and selling, it felt so frantic and I could actually feel myself becoming anxious given the confluences of all these reactions. Minoru makes the ropes and powders. So Murahama dives on top of him. Sweet! Great way to press the advantage and have a nice highspot. Now Muraham goes for the crossface chickenwing, but never quite gets his fingers locked and there is such a great struggle here. Murahama coming off the ropes eats a dropkick to the knee and crowd pops because they know the heel hook is coming. Minoru keeps pulling Murahama back on the heel hook, but cant wrangle the submission. I liked how they whiff on big kicks. It was very believable how they absorbed a kick and kept going on. I have seen enough MMA to know that not every kick or punch to the head is a knockout shot. Minoru finally catches Murahama with a kick to the head and heads to the top. Murahama follows and there is a great struggle atop the turnbuckle with Minoru throwing headbutts that actually bust himself open. Eventually, Minoru hits a missile dropkick and when he fires up you see the blood covering the right side of his face. What a war! Huge release German and a kick only get two. Minoru wastes no time and applies the cross armbreaker for the finish. This was a great blend of the en vogue MMA-styles at the time. Even the typical pro wrestling spots like the dive to outside or missile dropkick made total sense in the scheme of the match. Everything in this match was so quick they were looking for a flash KO or flash submission, but still everything built. I loved the frenetic feel during that cross-armbreaker attempt by Murahama just so perfectly executed. The finish stretch was great at putting over Minoru's fighting spirit and of course his deadly cross armbreaker. ****1/4

Good guess, but it is Satinee Capona (at least I think that's her name. I am at work so I am not about to figure that out). Just when I thought Masa Fuchi had stolen my heart was not giving it back, I think Minoru Tanaka has stolen it from him. So much to love so far in 00s puroresu. Another run that I absolutely love is the Brian Pillman run from 1991. He is such a vicious, revved up babyface throughout this entire run. I think we and a lot of wrestlers/announcers get stuck on "Flyin'" moniker and forget how adept he was in violent confrontations going chop for chop with anyone. In addition, I think this was the peak of Pillman's star power as he is feuding with the Horsemen (prominent single matches with Flair, AA and Windham all within April) and an entire midcard angle built around him in the form of the Yellow Dog. I argue that the Yellow Dog should have been a star making angle, but it was 1991 WCW so they dropped the ball and shoehorned Pillman into being the keystone of the DOA Light Heavyweight Division. Check out all the great Pillman matches in Wargames, Taped Fists and Yellow Dogs. http://ridingspacemountain.blogspot.com/2014/02/wargames-taped-fists-yellow-dogs-brian.html

I want to post these questions separately so it does not get lost in the shuffle of all those words above: How did Minoru not become a junior's superstar on the level of Liger, but KENTA and Marufuji get all this press? Was the business in general just so down? Am I the only Minoru Tanaka fan in the world and I am just an idiot for seeing all this potential?

Time for a Juniors dump IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Champions Shinjiro Ohtani & Tatsuhito Takiwa vs Koji Kanemoto & Minoru Tanaka - New Japan Summer Struggle 6/25/00 The next time a hot chick asks me in a club the two guys I would least want to wrestle I have my answer "Shinjiro Ohtanu and Tatsuhito Takaiwa". Holy shit were their strikes gnarly. That is how you fuckin heel yourself with stiff offense. I was feeling bad for Kanemoto & Minoru just because these ornery hombres were trying to fuckin kill them. I very rarely root for wrestlers in puroresu, but I was pulling for Kanemoto & Minoru big time. Early on the game plan for Ohtani and Takaiwa was trap their opponent in a corner and just slap, claw and punch the shit out of them. It was a violent mugging in those corner.s When Ohtani first came in and he just started punching Kanemoto in the head, it just set the tone: Kanemoto and Minoru were going to have survive. Minoru & Kanemoto has faces these bad muthafuckas before they knew they had to use movement and submissions. When they got a chance, Kanemoto yanked their noses, but they just incited them further Takaiwa yanked on his. Takaiwa gives the biggest slap I have ever seen to Kanemoto. It has to be seen. Ohtani says you thought that was a slap and slaps him even harder. Kanemoto somehow fires up and hits a true axe kick on Ohtani to tag in Minoru. Minoru goes for his bread and butter: the cross armbreaker, but Ohtani makes the ropes. I love the part where Kanemoto has a slight advantage and tells Minoru to get his ass in because it shows how much in survival mode they are. Usually, tag rules are loose enough that people make saves at will, but rarely does a team double team when on offense just really puts over the story of this match. Minoru goes for a cross armbreaker again, but Takaiwa is NOT HUMAN and powerbombs him onto the ropes. It really felt like a scene out of a slasher flick. They can't keep these psychopaths down. Ohtani dropkicks Minoru in the head twice while hanging in the tree of woe and makes sure to taunt Kanemoto each time. Minoru & Kanemoto return the favor on Ohtani only they dropkick him in the balls while in the tree of woe. I friggin love this match. The finish stretch is one of the hottest I have ever seen. Ohtani regains controls with a wicked eyerake and then low and high facewashes in the corner on Kanemoto. Kanemoto no-sells hits his weird flippy move and goes for his moonsault, but no one home. Takaiwa hits a lariat and Ohtani with a springboard dropkick on Minoru. However, it is overhead belly to bellys for everyone courtesy of Kanemoto. Kanemoto goes for a top rope frankensteiner and Ohtani holds on and he takes a nasty spill. They tease the Doomsday Device, but Minoru breaks up with dropkick. Takaiwa hits his death valley driver, but Kanemoto hits a dragon leg screw and Ohtani saves his partner. Minoru is a little quicker than the older Ohtani and applies a heel hook. Kanemoto and Takaiwa eye each other while Ohtani is squirming for the ropes. After all the punishment Ohtani has dished out to see him doing his temper tantrum selling makes you want to see Minoru kick his bratty ass even more. Ohtani is on jelly legs, but hits his Dragon Suplex for two. Ohtani blocks Minoru's superkick and hits two massive powerbombs one of each of his opponents. He threw them down! Ohtani hits a massive palm strike and goes for it again, but Kanemoto pushed Minoru out of the way and hits an overhead belly to belly on Ohtani. Minoru hits a springboard dropkick to back of Ohtani's head then follows up with the Dragon suplex and the cross armbreaker for the immediate submission. This match is for stiffness marks everywhere. The beginning of the match is almost uncomfortable to watch with how badly they are kicking the shit out of each other. Then not to be outdone the last 5 minutes or so is absolutely crazy action with bodies flying everywhere. Ohtani & Takaiwa are trying to get the Doomsday Device going and stiffing the shit out of their opponents. Kanemoto and Minoru are trying to survive with movement and flash submissions. Beat juniors match of 2000-2002 ****1/4 --------------------------------------------------------------------- IWGP Junior Tag Team Champions Koji Kanemoto & Minoru Tanaka vs Jushin Liger & Shinya Makabe - New Japan 9/12/00 Not to be outdone by the previous Junior Tag Title Defense this also had a great closing stretch, but the beginning of the match was pretty ho-hum. The story of the match was the development of Makabe into a man. At first, he was never able to press the advantage against his opponents even though Liger, the God King of Juniors, would set up with some great advantages like tilt-a-whirl backbreakers/surfboard on Kanemoto or powerbombing and piledriving Minoru. It is not that Makabe was so incompetent that he get his ass beat it was just he didn't do much. He threw a lot of lame dropkicks. Liger finally says fuck it and is going to take the match over and hits a big palm strike in the corner on Minoru. Minoru clings to the ropes for dear life. Liger gets cocky and Minoru quickly applies a heel hook. Kanemoto stomps Liger's leg and dares Makabe to try something. Makabe being the putz he is does nothing. Liger makes it to the ropes and Kanemoto & Minoru just kick the shit out of his leg. Where's Makabe? Liger gets a desperation palm strike, but Kanemoto from the ground applies the heel hook again. Minoru throws Makabe out. Makabe is friggin' useless. Liger needs to think about getting a new partner. Liger avoids Kanemoto's flip splash and tries to get the leg woken up, but eats an overhead belly to belly. Makabe breaks up a pin?!?!?!?!?!?!? He is learning! Kanemoto hits his moonsault for two and now has a standing anklelock. Makabe hits a nice German suplex on him. Liger palm strikes for everyone. Ligerbomb on Kanemoto only gets two. Liger tags in Makabe who runs in and spears Kanemoto. That was pretty cool. Minoru stymies Makabe with a dropkick and Kanemoto hits a bridging Tiger suplex, which Liger breaks up. Minoru applies the heel hook on the outside to Liger. Makabe hits another spear on Kanemoto and a bridging Germans get two. I have come to find out Makabe has two moves at this point: the spear and German suplex. Kanemoto grabs a heel hook out of the German, which allows him to tag Minoru who dropkicks Makabe's knee and applies his own heel hook. Liger saves Makabe from what should have been a submission. Minoru starts to kick Makabe, who starts to fire up with fighting spirit. I have become a pretty big Minoru fan and was actually worried this moron might beat him. I began to actively root for Minoru and the cross armbreaker, which may color why this ending was so exciting for me. Makabe spears Minoru and hits rolling bridging German suplexes for two. Minoru takes a wicked bump off of a lariat and Kanemoto saves. Liger detains him and tells Makabe to finish him off. Ruh roh. Makabe hits a Northern Lights 1-2-NO! MIN-OR-U! MIN-OR-U! MIN-OR-U! Ok so the crowd was not chanting it, but I sure was in my living room in Massacusetts 14 years after the fact. Makabe looks to be on fire, but the dumb oaf eats a kick to the head and Minoru applies the cross armbreaker to get the flash submission. What a great finish to get me so invested in the outcome. They have done so much to get Minoru's flash cross armbreaker (which is how Del Rio's move should be treated) that you knew it was going to be the finish, but it was smart to have Makabe make the fighting spirit comeback to have him show a good outing. They used the vets tastefully as Liger hit all his sweet offense and played a good FIP. The story was to really let the young lions shine and Minoru looked like he was ready for primetime. ***3/4 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- New Japan (Jushin Liger, Minoru Tanaka, Shinya Makabe) vs Osaka Pro (Super Delfin, Takehiro Murhama, Tsubasa) - NJ PPV 12/14/00 On the same show where All Japan invaded and had a classic, Osaka Pro invades to take on the best of New Japan's juniors division. Liger is rocking the EVIL~! all black outfit again and is ready to best some Osaka pro ass. Super Delfin has crew dressed up as ridiculously as usually as they are in matching rainbow outfits. I could not really get into this match. It was not a bad match. It was a match that was just there. I did not think it had that much heat, which is strange because it had an awfully chippy start. My interest piqued at the prospect of a Minoru/Murahama shoot-style match that was teased at the beginning. There were some nice spots, but I did not think it built too much. I liked the symmetry where Tsubasa showed off with some gymnastics after sending Liger to the floor so when Minoru clears the ring he does the same as an FU to the Osaka team. Minoru plays FIP early taking a Hart Attack dropkick-style and then being put in a Boston Crab. Murahama plays a great watchdog while this is going on. In the spot of the match, Minoru jumps over an Osaka guy, ducks under an Osaka leapfrog only to run into a Murahama palm strike. Minoru creates separation (Vintage Cole!) with a dropkick and tags Liger. Tilt-a-whirl backbreakers for everyone, but whiffs on a palm strike. The dive train onto Liger was my second favorite spot. Murahama works over Liger's arm, but he able to hit a desperation powerbomb and tag out to Makabe because he is too injured to follow up. Is Delfin mocking Liger by using the palm strike or is that one of his moves? I did not care for Tsubasa offense late in this match felt bush league and weak. The finish sees Minoru dropkick Tsubasa as he comes off the top to give Minoru command of the match. He hits a missile dropkick to the back of the head and a Northern Lights, but broken up by Delfin. Liger detains Delfin and Minoru hits another Northern Lights and gets the submission with his cross armbreaker. The massive push of Minoru Tanaka continues and I would say he was the star of the match. I am excited that him and Murahama ended up having a match in 2001. It is a serviceable match, but nothing to write home about. *** ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- New Japan (Jushin Liger & Minoru Tanaka) vs. NOAH (Tsuyoshi Kikuchi & Yoshinobu Kanemaru) - New Japan 8/29/02 A big brawl erupts and looks like NOAH has smartened up to New Japan's tactics and meets them at the pass. A really good early spot sees Kikuchi having a figure-4 on Minoru's head so Liger bodyslams Kanemaru on Kikuchi three times before he releases the hold. NOAH beats the piss out of Minoru early as Kanemaru drops a boot on Minoru as he hands over the edge of the apron. Kanemaru is even puts his feet on the ropes during a pin. NOAH heeling it up that's what I like to see. Minoru is selling all the suplexes and splashes so well. How did this guy not become a junior's superstar on the level of Liger, but KENTA and Marufuji got all this press? Kikuchi taunts Liger by holding out Minoru's hand to have him tag in and when Liger gets chippy he boots him off the apron. This is some good stuff so far. Minoru grabs his flash cross armbreaker. WAHOO~! Kikuchi gets thrown to the outside and eats a Ligerbomb on exposed concrete. He is just deadweight now. I love the puro deadweight sell on the outside. Liger applies camel clutch on Kikcuhi and Minoru puts his foot on Kikuchi's face for more leverage and the crowd pops. So do I! Minoru covers Kikuchi with one foot. This is glorious! Kikuchi catches the Liger palm strike and tags in Kanemaru. Kanemaru does some flippy shit so Liger kappo kicks him. Sit down, bitch! Minoru and Kanemaru trade ballshots in a funny exchange, which is sold for comedy. Liger and Kikuchi in and guess who wins that strike exchange. Ligerbomb is broken up by Kanemaru. Liger goes to town on Kikuchi with palm strikes and brainbusters, but Kanemaru keeps saving. Kikuchi is sucking air, dude. Somehow he catches the Liger palm strike and reverses into a German for two. He keeps hitting Germans, but Minoru saves. Kanemaru hits a brainbuster on Minoru and tells Kikuchi to finish him. Kikuchi with a modified Protobomb wins the match. BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! This match was more heated than the Osaka match and was about at the level of the earlier NOAH/NJ match. I liked Wataru's performance for the stiffness and Minoru's for the cockiness. I did not think either NOAH/NJ matches transcended into all-time classic status mostly because I did not think the NOAH guys were on the same level as the NJ wrestlers in offense, selling or bumping. NOAH was pretty good at heeling it up early, but then lost that feel towards the end. It is a very good match, but not a classic. ***1/2

Am I losing it or did the New Age Outlaws and Curtis Axel just have their best ever matches this past Monday? Sheamus and Goldust truly are miracle workers. Orton/Bryan was awesome my WWE MOTY so far. Even with all the great in-ring stuff, booking is just so blase.

Here are a couple turds for the HHHaters to feast upon. Triple H w/Chyna vs The Rock - RAW Steel Cage Match 7/5/99 What a piece of monkey crap this was! The only thing saving this match was the fact The Rock was just so damn over it didn't matter that this match made no sense because the crowd just wanted to cheer for The Rock. There is a real disconnect between the angle and the way the match is wrestled, which is a pet peeve of mine. Rock cost HHH the title and then HHH cost Rocky the title and JR is blithering how this is so damn personal so Rock tries to escape three minutes in after he punches HHH a couple time. WHAAAAAAAAATTTTTTT???? HHH knocks him off and he does a great bump off the turnbuckle. Also, I don't know if 1999 in general has short shine segments, it was the evil HHH holding people down that caused short shine segments or the fact Rock preferred taking heat right away, but HHH is in control pretty quickly. Then there is weird bit with handcuffs. HHH is in control so it is not like he desperately needs the handcuffs. So I guess he wants to really kick the Rock's ass, but he never uses them and at the first sign of trouble (low blow by The Rock) he heads to escape (HHH cutoff via swinging neckbreaker) and the handcuffs are never used. WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAATTTTT??? Rocky throws HHH off the top turnbuckle and this levels the playing field. Chyna, who is the best worker in this match, knocks Tim White out with the cage (finally someone used the cage) and drags HHH out. Rock follows and catapults HHH into the cage, who does a pretty good sell. Rock drags him back in and shuts the door. I was half-expecting that he would just start climbing give the rampant non-psychology at this point. Rock actually starts throwing him into the cage and hits a Samoan Drop. He tries to escape again?!??!?! Seriously dude that's all the anger you could muster. Chyna actually sells her anxiety better than Rocky is selling anything (anger or injury). HHH hits a facebuster and sends him into the cage and levels the playing field again. They battle on top of the cage and HHH with the spot of the match pokes Rock in the eye and cracks him with a chair. To be consistent with how inane this match has been, Triple H decides to go through the door which is diagonally opposed to him and he staggers and crotches himself of the ropes and tied himself up albeit stupid it was a good heel spot. The race is on and Rocky wins. Personally, I think the onus for this pile of shit needs to fall on The Rock as the avenging babyface he needed to be the one that wanted to stay in that cage until he kicked some ass, but he never seemed too inclined to kick ass as he was ready to leave as soon as possible. Triple H was adequate as a heel he did some things well like show ass at the finish and worked good cutoffs like his high knee, but he too needed to show better aggression, but I think Rock is more to blame. There you have it Chyna out worked the both of them. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Triple H w/Chyna & Vince McMahon vs The Undertaker w/Paul Bearer - RAW 7/19/99 No. 1 Contender's match The winner faces Austin for the WWF Title at Fully Loaded in a First Blood: End of an Era Match. It is an End of Era because if the Corporate Ministry member loses then Vinny Mac is off TV and Austin loses he will never get a shot at the championship again. This angle got me off WWF TV until I started watching again for HHH/Steph marriage because I was such a huge McMahon fan at the time. Then Russo ruined my beloved WCW and I had to start watching WWF simultaneously (I never gave up on WCW until about Fall of 2000). So McMahon is having this match to see which Corporate Ministry member is best fit to defeat Austin. I don't know based on what I have seen from Taker this muthafucka could still go in 1999. I know he had a rep for being lazy in this era, but he was flying around and that was an excellent shine sequence (Taker was the de facto face). I thought they did a good job using Chyna to transition to HHH's control. HHH using the high knee as a cutoff is just fantastic. Seriously, I think these two had a kickass match in them in 1999 it is too bad we never got it. Steve Austin hits the ring after Taker chokeslams HHH and a melee ensues with Rocky joining the fray. Austin locks Taker in an ambulance and busts McMahon open for old time's sake. Taker comes back and busts Austin open to sell the stip for Fully Loaded. I wish Taker/HHH had a chance to have a match in 1999 because I think they could have rocked it. This was solid, fundamental angle building, which I enjoyed. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Triple H vs The Rock - WWF Fully Loaded '99 Strap Match No. 1 Contenders HHH has since cut the famed My Time "shoot" promo. I didn't think it was that shooty. It used some real-life backstage stuff to feed the fire of HHH's rise, but it was not a super shoot promo or anything. The last Rock/HHH match was just nonsensical this match was plain fuckin boring. It was a typical Attitude Era brawl and there just so happened to be a strap connecting them. Even Lawler was begging for someone to use the strap either to choke or whip somebody. The Rock cuts a promo and with promos like that there is a reason why his in ring work could be shit. Rock does not even get strapped in he just lays the Smackdown on HHH's candy ass. He even takes a picture of this with a hot broad's disposable camera (damn she had nice toned arms). HHH, having been disrespected, takes over with punches and it is all down hill. There is some boring brawling by the Spanish Announce Table. Then some boring brawling in the ring. Then some boring brawling in the crowd. Then some boring brawl by the entrance area. Hey HHH finally whipped The Rock! I don't care if this gimmick was arbitrary and capricious for the feud the onus is on the wrestlers to use it. Rock starts to mount a comeback, but HHH high knee stymies him. The high knee cutoff is the best spot in HHH arsenal at this point. Chyna is out to signal that finish is starting. Thank God! HHH is all like "I want to do this myself" and Chyna is all like "That is not what you said last night in bed, tune changer". Rock Bottom! Rock is all like "Let me take a deep breath through my nose for the umpteenth time" and HHH cracks him in the People's jewels. This apparently the first time People's Jewels was coined because Lawler found it hilarious. HHH throws Rock to outside and says to hell with the strap. JR's indignation about this is hilarious. To paraphrase his tone: "That's not right. That's just not right. The ref should give him a stern talking to. I am going to write a polite, but tough letter about this." Rock hits the DDT, but Billy Gunn in see through tights is bethonged and hits Rock's head with a dong. Ok it was a club, but I couldn't miss that rhyme. HHH is pissed that he has had all this help! I bet he is going to be super passive aggressive about who should clean the hotel room that night. Rock somehow manages to find and hit HHH's shrunken testicles so that he can hit the Most Electrifying Move in Sports Entertainment. Gunn pulls Rock off via the strap and HHH hits the Pedigree to win. The first half was wicked boring. HHH was just punching and punching. The Rock's go to move was to breathe deeply through his nose. The finish was pretty funny with all the Attitude Era hijinx. Total dogshit match and one of the worst matches I have watched in a real long time.

Taking a break from puro, I take a look at Antonio Cesaro's tremendous 2013 campaign with inspiration from the fabulous Wrestling Culture Year In Review podcast. Cesaro is great at meshing strongman spots with gritty work that incorporates a sense of struggle to it. His matches never feel like exhibitions or performances, but contests. One of the last practitioners of the Austin mantra "Think shoot but work" Match listing includes Sheamus, Daniel Bryan Gauntlet, Ziggler, TLC PPV and NXT matches against Zayn and Regal. Check out my thoughts on the Swiss Superman here: http://ridingspacemountain.blogspot.com/2014/02/swiss-superman-antonio-cesaro-in-2013.html

Triple H is a lot of things, but a mark aint one of them. The McMahons are his marks. O I think I get what you mean now, he has gotten high off his own supply, so to speak. That's meta on meta in meta, baby! WWF World Champion The Undertaker w/Paul Bearer vs. Triple H w/Chyna - RAW 6/21/99 You can say what you want about this era of TV, but I always enjoyed the episodic nature of the TV with strands of continuity connecting each episode. Too often, now, the episodes feel like standalone shows. Triple H and The Undertaker butted heads in their match against The Rock last week and ultimately Triple H wants to be the Champ so it is natural for them to have a match even though they are both heels. That is the appropriate booking in my mind. This match shocked the hell out of me. I came in with the preconceived notion that 1999 Undertaker was absolutely awful, but he wrestled great from underneath with great selling for HHH. Taker plays the babyface because he is the more natural face and that HHH is being positioned to be the new ultra-heel. Undertaker wins an early slugfest, but HHH slipped in a kick to the knee during a goozle that has Taker favoring it. Taker seems to further jam it off his Ropewalk and HHH is all over it. He wrenches the knee and even Chyna gets in on the action. Taker attempts to mount a comeback nasty headbutt, all this hair adds to the match. HHH tries to stymie him by attacking as he returns to the ring, but to no avail he goes for the ride and takes his corner bump. Taker still moving gingerly so HHH scoops his legs up and wraps his leg around the post. HHH applies the Figure-4 on the CORRECT leg can this man do no wrong? Taker goozle in the figure-4 and I am getting excited for this closing stretch, but it is 1999. Chyna get nervous and is in with the chair Taker stops her and here comes The Rock to lay the Smackdown on his Dead Roody-Poo Candy Ass. HHH hightails out of it. The Rock and Bossman (they teased a Bossman face turn!?!?!?!?) beat off the Ministry and tie Paul Bearer to the Brahama Bull symbol and Rocky has some choice words for the Lord of Darkness. It is too bad they went with that finish because this match was well on its way to being the best RAW match so far. It does set up the reason for HHH to cost Rocky the World Title because he cost him the title here and one can argue Trips was in pretty good shape having softened up Taker's knee. It is surprisingly good match until the Attitude Era finish.

Thanks Matt, I'll respond in turn when I get to them. Triple H w/Chyna vs X-Pac - Backlash 1999 Backlash is a lone beacon of light in the tempest of shit known as 1999. The best Rock/Austin match of 1999, a surprisingly good Undertaker/Shamrock match and a strong fundamentals match between the Kliq members. For those keeping track at home, Triple H & Chyna have gone corporate and X-Pac is fighting the good fight to change the world one crotch chop at a time with his new BFF, Kane. Since they worked this pretty straight, the Attitude Era crowd did get a bit restless at times, but X-Pac gave a great babyface performance and is such an excellent worker. He really was one of the few great workers the WWF had in the Attitude Era. Helmsley slaps him early and X-Pac is on him with full court press and HHH cant escape his wrath. The kids start an "X-Pac" chant, which warms my heart even though X-Pac and kids should not mix, but then the adult males chime in with "Sucks!". X-Pac, two previous neck surgeries under his belt, takes a ridiculous bump over the top rope. Sit down and shut the fuck up while a master works. HHH looks to come off the apron and still X-Pac catches him with a punch to gut. They are working a great shine sequence establishing X-Pac is pissed off and came here to fight. Chyna trips him up going for the Bronco Buster and that gives HHH time to dodge and the impact causes the fragile neck of X-Pac to be injured. Helmsley immediately rocks him with a clothesline. He is just equally relentlessly as X-Pac was in the shine on working over the neck. He lets Chyna get a lick in to draw some more heat. I loved his punches to the back of head/neck area because you know how fragile that part of the body is. JR is on fuckin point selling this match and the risk to X-Pac career and how HHH is a sadistic son of a bitch. Those moments of righteous indignation towards Lawler were awesome that's how you "Think shoot, but work" on commentary. The crowd does get restless when Trips works the neck holds (I enjoyed HHH asking the ref loudly for a time check), but I thought they kept things moving with X-Pac timing his hope spots and HHH using cutoffs like pulling him down by the hair or sending him out for Chyna to press slam neck-first on the barricade. Neck psychology is not the easiest to work, but I thought this was one of the more effective efforts. HHH grabs a sleeper and X-Pac reverses into his own, but this did not get the pop that it would have even just two years earlier in 1997. It must have been strange wrestling in the Attitude Era. HHH rams X-Pac's back into the corner, but X-Pac is firing up and hits a tornado DDT. Chyna distracts the ref while X-Pac goes low with a headbutt. HHH uses a leverage move to send X-Pac crashing back to the outside, but you cant deny X-Pac and he sends HHH into the steps, but in his overzealousness wipes out the ref with a baseball slide. He is able to hit the X-Factor, but there is no ref. Chyna hits the low blow and the Slop Drop (NECK PSYCHOLOGY!) this triggers Kane. Chokeslams for everyone and he sets up both of the heels for the Bronco Buster, which is the feel good moment before HHH hits the Pedigree and wins. HHH going over is clearly the right call, but I would have loved a better finish. They were working this great fundamental match with X-Pac the plucky overachiever with the bad neck versus the sadistic bully that may have underestimated his opponent, but was now showing no remorse in dissecting him. You slap a finish on that story and you got yourself a MOTYC, but with the Attitude Era finish it is just feels disjointed. ***3/4 ----------------------------------------------------------- Triple H w/Chyna vs Mankind - RAW 5/31/99 Falls Count Anywhere No one is going to confuse this with their classic '97 RAW Falls Count Anywhere match, but it was fine. I actually thought HHH was a lot better in this than Foley. Foley just kept no selling to get to the next spot whereas Helmsley sold the wear and tear of the match. Helmsley also out-bumped Foley in this match which is saying something taking flat back bumps on chair and his trademark corner bump (which got the biggest pop outside of the finish). I did like Foley's backslide on the floor even though the crowd did not bite. Is this first appearance of the sledgehammer? I know Foley mentioned that HHH Tonya Harding'd him at the at last PPV, but sounded like he used a pipe in that match. Foley no-sells a chair shot and a sledgehammer low blow with the endgame being to put Socko on Chyna (Chyna had been checking on Mankind's Manhood in the shower) to pop the crowd. HHH blasts Foley's knee with the sledgehammer to win and the comes back beats up the officials and further works over the knee only to have The Rock make the save. Is that the birth of the Rock n Sock connection? This was a pretty good Triple H performance that continued to his trajectory to being the top heel in the company. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Triple H w/Chyna vs The Rock vs The Undertaker - RAW 6/14/99 This is a glorified handicap match as Corporation and Ministry of Darkness have merged to form the awkwardly named Corporate Ministry. I cant wait for the Wyatt Authority and the inevitable Randy Orton & Bray Wyatt vs. Daniel Bryan match. The more things change the more they stay the same. Ten year old Martin was deathly afraid of The Undertaker (and The Brood for that matter) and was not happy that his hero, Vinny Mac was in cahoots with the Lord of Darkness. I love Steve Austin now, but at the time he seemed so mean-spirited, loud, unruly to me while Vince was just trying to keep decorum and run his company in peace while Austin kept ruining things. I was an interesting ten year old. Anyways, beyond reliving my childhood, this match is pretty fuckin boring. I will say The Rock being so friggin' over is the only thing that saves this because this is ten minutes of clubbering and random brief hope spots for ten minutes. I will say HHH does not get enough credit for his high knee. It is up there with Jumbo Tsuruta's it is a really nice looking high knee. Undertaker does the ropewalk (finally a highspot!), but HHH inadvertently crotches him. Mergers can be so difficult. The Rock finally has isolated HHH and unloads, but the ref gets caught in the crossfire. Now Taker accidentally bumps HHH out of the way and he takes the Rock Bottom and People's Elbow, but Chyna pulls out the ref and HHH breaks it up. The endgame sees Chyna accidentally trip Taker, who is hot at her and gozzles her so HHH does not take too kindly to that (he did quit for her when he had the WWF Title in hand back in January so this is internally consistent) so Taker gives him a Stunner via the ropes and HHH walks into the Rock Bottom so that Rocky can face Taker for the title at KOTR. It was the first real boring Attitude Era style match with lots of clubbering and a little bit of arena touring. The takeaway was The Rock was really fuckin' over.

Brian Pillman & El Gigante vs Arn Anderson & Barry Windham - WCW Clash XV Loser of Fall Leaves Town No 1991 Brian Pillman retrospective is complete without the sprint that triggered what should have been an awesome Yellow Dog angle. Clocking in under 4 minutes, this match was not given much time to develop, but still it was a real fun 4 minutes. Pillman, Anderson and Windham put over how important a loss here is by all going for pinfalls early so as to get this over with. Pillman would attack both Windham and Anderson with chops to set up an early pinning predicament. Windham got a huge right out of headscissors and a big DDT, but could not pin Pillman. Pillman dropkicked AA off the top rope sending him careening to the floor and follows that up with a springboard splash to the outside. AA is disoriented and ends up in the wrong corner and gets choked by Gigante. El Gigante is a BIG dude. Pillman with a rocket launcher off of Gigante's shoulders onto Windham and the crowd is rocking, The Enforcer breaks it up. Windham trips Pillman while he is top rope causing him to crash and burn. In typical WCW fashion, the camera is on EL Gigante putting AA in a head vice while Windham kicks Pillman in the head to send him home packing. WCW does have a replay to show us the finish so I can't complain too much. This was a fun sprint with plenty of action and put over the nature of the stakes. It just did not have time to develop.

Triple H has always been someone who was just there. When I was younger, I just accepted he was "great" because they told me he was. No doubt, Triple H has been in great matches. For example, I consider the Royal Rumble street fight one of the better matches in WWF history, but even then I never had a really strong attachment to him. When I got back into wrestling in 2003, I believed the story that it was not HHH's fault that 2003 sucked something fierce, but it was his opponents. In retrospect, he definitely needs to take a lot of the blame for 2003 with his long, long promos. The reincarnation of DX was pretty friggin' awful, but still I never really hated HHH. Maybe, I gave him a pass because he was in some matches I liked. Maybe it was the Kliq sense of humor. I know that Kliq's humor ain't over in these parts, but I have always enjoyed their sense of humor. I have watched like 8 million Nash and Hall shoot interviews because they always make me laugh. One of my favorite pick me ups is just to watch Shawn Michaels in late 1997 and just laugh at all his silly antics. Hell, the funniest thing of this past year was HHH singing "When you wish upon a star" to Daniel Bryan. That being said HHH can fall flat on his nose in promos see 2003 and D-X reunion. Everyone always seems to have a strong opinion on him and I don't, which is weird because usually I have pretty strong opinions. He just seems like a solid B wrestler. A solid B Now, this was inspired by the great HHH Debate on The Place To Be, but I am not a total masochist and I will only be watching "prime" HHH from 1999 to his quad injury in 2001. For those braver than I, they can tackle 2002 on. My one running hypothesis is that HHH being a "student of the game" actually hurt him in the ring because he became a wrestler that understood "how", but not "why" a. He saw something he liked it, but did not fully understand why it worked and thus caused half-ass implementation b. Made him more mechanical. He knew that a babyface should shine, take heat and make a comeback, but this caused him to go through the motions rather than feel it. c. He tried to emulate others and especially tried to be everyone at once. God, I love Ric Flair, but damn being invincible like Hulk Hogan is pretty cool so why choose, why not be both. I don't doubt that HHH watched and watches as much or more wrestling than all of us. He just interprets it a lot differently. I would love to talk to him about 80s wrestling because I want to be able to pinpoint where that departure is from how I view wrestling. WWF World Champion The Rock vs Triple H w/Chyna - RAW 1/25/99 I Quit One night after my pick for the 1999 WWF MOTY, The Rock has another "I Quit" match, but this one is against the leader of the babyface D-X, Triple H. The main takeaways from this match was HHH understood what he had to do, but did not connect as well to the crowd whereas sometimes I would question The Rock's decisions, but he had such undeniable charisma that he came off as such a natural. Also note to Cena, track pants >>> jorts, just saying dude. The beginning of the match is some really well-timed HHH offense, his punches look great, he uses the high knee really smartly and punctuates the corner punches with a crotch chops. Even with Rocky bumping and selling the chin, there was not a lot of popping and I think HHH needed to go that extra mile. My biggest fear of going back to this era will be the "tour of the arena" segments, but this was kept short. I did not like some of Rocky's cutoffs, but he had a good one ringside when he used HHH's trunks to pull him into timekeeper, he talked some trash on his monkey ass and then delivered the Corporate Elbow with the bell hammer onto the bell onto HHH. That was a fun spot. The Rock berates HHH to get him and HHH tells him to "SUCK IT". Big pop for that and atta boy, Trips! Rock feeds and bumps for Triple H like a champ, facebuster on knee into the Pedigree. HHH says it ain't over and Pedigrees him on the floor and now he is talking some trash to The Rock is about to do it on the announcer's table until the Corporation hits the ring. Bossman (it is so weird to think how high up the card he was in 1999 WWF) tells HHH to say I Quit or else his chicky poo gets it. Triple H bows down and says I Quit. Of course, Chyna promptly gives him a low blow and she is in the Corporation so that kinda sucks for him. Thus begins probably the most complicated WWF storyline Russo ever ran with 8 million turns between HHH, Chyna, X-Pac and Kane. As for the match, I enjoyed the hell out of The Rock with his selling and bumping. He was a great stooge in all of this. HHH held up his end of the match was starting to show some fire after he told him to "Suck it". Maybe there is some hope for Mr. Helmsley. It was a pretty entertaining short RAW match. **3/4 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Triple H vs Kane - RAW 2/1/99 Steel Cage Match Do you believe in miracles? It is not a MOTYC (well it is 1999 so it might be), it is not great, but gosh darn it these two had a good match. No wrestler elicits apathy from me quite like Kane, but seeing him back in his original costume definitely made me nostalgic for my childhood. They treated him like a monster the whole match. Kane was booked way stronger in this match than HHH to the point where it was almost shocking that they would book any babyface (HHH is the face in this match) like this. You had HHH crawling for the door just to escape the monster and X-Pac liberally interfering at the finish. Yes, HHH wins the match, but as wrestling fans we know it is whether you win or lose, but how you are presented and HHH was presented as escaping by the skin of his teeth. At first glance, I thought this was a disconnect from the story as HHH should be fired up to get revenge, but his heat is not with Kane it is with Chyna so it is easier to explain why HHH just wants to survive. Short of drawing blood, Kane did a pretty good job being an imposing, invulnerable force of nature. Hell, he kept things moving as well. He had his working boots on for this mauling. HHH did well to time and escalate his hope spots. He realizes that wrestling moves were not cutting it and he became focused on ramming Kane's head into cage, or using a steel chair (nothing has changed the zombie sit-up is still badass) or he kicks Kane's leg out during a top rope chokeslam attempt to crotch him. HHH had to use tricks to get out from underneath the monster. He actually showed some good fire once he had Kane crotched ramming him into the cage, the big high knee, but Kane back body drops out of the Pedigree and hits the Chokeslam. This triggers X-Pac slamming the door in Kane's face and holding him at bay while HHH climbs over the top (has to kick Chyna off first). My issues with match were that Kane sometime forgot his role as a monster and would act like a normal wrestler just trying to win. Kane should want to destroy HHH before leaving because he is a sadist and eviscerates people for his own personal pleasure (Big Pop! ) and sometimes he would make attempts while HHH was still up. HHH did not sell very well for Kane, who from an offensive standpoint looked great. HHH could have really taken this to the next level if he made you believe he was fighting for his life in there against the Big Red Machine. The way the match was laid out with Kane in control for the vast majority, HHH escape attempts to the door, X-Pac interference it is clearly the story they are telling, but HHH needed to go that extra mile and really sell it. I came in expecting the most boring match ever and came away thinking maybe there is hope for 1999. I know for a fact that I do like the next match I am going to review: HHH vs. X-Pac so this may not be so bad. ***

Whats the date on the Kofi Kingston match? This has been long time coming. Antonio Cesaro vs William Regal - NXT 12/25/14 This has to be one of the better Christmas presents anyone has ever given me. To think I did not get anything with Regal and Cesaro in turn! We get the big build to the match with Fink on ring announcing duty and Tensai sounding like my cousins from Dorchester on commentary. There is some announcer who is all in huff because Cesaro kicked his skinny fat ass and Regal is out avenge him. Regal basically gave this match to Cesaro as a platform to showcase himself and what he brings to the table. Don't get me wrong, it was Regal's selling during the leg work and his constant struggling that keeps them from becoming an exhibition and there is plenty Regal brings to the table. However, the match is clearly structured to make Cesaro look like the next big thing and some might say the heir apparent to Regal. The important thing to note is when I say heir apparent to Regal I don't mean carbon copy as Cesaro brings a strongman's aspect to the ring, but rather the gritty and intricate nature of how he grapples. This is demonstrated early on when he suplexes Regal while Regal is on his knees. He is just so impressive. My favorite Regal spot is he knocks Cesaro down in the corner with forearms and then distracts the ref while he mule kicks him as he is down, classic Regal. The ref continues to admonish him and Cesaro takes the advantage to clip the knee. This is where regal kicks into overdrive in order to do his part to make Cesaro. He sells that knee like he may never walk again and Cesaro is just relentless. The struggle over getting the knee brace off so Cesaro can inflict more damage is why I am a pro wrestling fan. It is all about working for every inch. Regal would usually win a battle of European Uppercuts, but it does not look good against the younger Cesaro, who puts him in the Giant Swing. I will say that move will be great when he is a babyface, but I think it is too much of a babyface move for a heel to do. Cesaro looks to polish Regal off with the Neutralizer, but Regal back drops out and in a moment of desperation drops a knee on the bicep. Now it is Cesaro turn to sell like he will never use that arm again. Regal goes after both arms and attempts to submit Cesaro via the Regal Stretch, but Cesaro escapes. Cesaro puts over how debilitated he is as he does a dropkick but with his arms wrapped around himself. Awesome! In a nasty, nasty spot, Cesaro double stomps Regal's head and Regal is just rendered motionless. At this point, the match goes off the rails in my opinion and gets way too cinematic for me. Cesaro all of sudden does not think he has it in him to finish off his "hero" and Regal does the crawl up Cesaro stop ala HBK/Taker WM 26. Cesaro hits a monster Neutralizer. To complete the cinematic experience they shale hands on the ramp. I don't necessarily have a problem with the cinematics of recent Wrestlemania matches (I liked the HBK/Flair finish), why I didn't like this one is because it felt so out of place in this match. Cesaro is a bully and Regal is going to smarten him up through a beatdown. They have a hard-fought, sporting-like contest and I wanted to see sporting-like finish then all of sudden it goes from an gritty 80s feel to the overproduced 21st century feel and it is just too jarring. Then add the handshake of respect how does that add heat to Cesaro. Unless in NXT Cesaro is a babyface, if that is the case then the finish makes more sense and I would have enjoyed the match more. Overall, the first 95% of this match is great and is a master's class in selling, working holds, meaningful spots and taking wrestling from an exhibition to a contest by struggling for everything. ****

"He is not Johnny B. Badd. He is Johnny B. Gay" - Brian Pillman. smh. Yellow Dog vs. Johnny B. Badd - WCW Great American Bash '91 What a difference four years make! This is nowhere near as good as their Fall Brawl classic from 1995. It is mechanical, emotionless, stiff and awkward. Badd is very unsure of himself in the ring. He has the athletic ability as shown by his sunset flip from the top, but he waits around too much for Pillman's offense. Pillman does not seem to give a fuck on what is generally considered the worst PPV in history. The character work was all great from Pillman chopping Badd and him retreating into Long's arm or using Long to distract Pillman to get the advantage, but the rest looked like green as grass. I liked the little touch from JR stating that the Yellow Dog is Brian Pilllman's number one fan that why he emulates him so well. The finish was pretty lame with Long saving Badd from his first loss to a Pillman cross body. Pillman was able to take out Long with a clothesline to get a pop, but fell prey to Badd's Tutti Frutti punch. It was lame 50/50 booking reminiscent of today's product. At least Badd's robe was bitchin' as all hell. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Yellow Dog w/Zeman vs Diamond Studd w/DDP - WCW Saturday Night 7/27/91 Haters be damned, the Yellow Dog angle was a great mid-card angle. It gave all the mid-card heels something to do gunning for Pillman's mask and could have made Pillman into even a bigger star as he outwitted all these heels. Of course, the payoff would have been Yellow Dog beating Windham or AA to get his favorite wrestler, Brian Pillman reinstated. The promo with Brian Pillman thanking the "Yellow Dog" for always believing in him and getting him back in WCW would have been over like rover (pun fully intended). Not only did WCW miss this, but holy shit Diamond Studd and DDP were a great pairing. DDP is such a great carny on the mic and the whole bit with a woman coming to pull off the Studd's pants was gold. It would not be WCW without all these missed opportunities. As for the match, it is not anything awesome, but it showcases how great Pillman could be at selling and bumping as he made Studd look great. Hall has a great working punch, but outside of that did not have much, but Pillman led him through a pretty decent match. Pillman frustrates the Studd early with his quickness and getting in some disrespectful slaps to the face. Studd gets caught up in going for the mask and not focusing on the match, which he pays for. Diamond Studd composes himself and throws Pillman up in the air and lets him fall. Hall hits the bearhug and ab stretch, but he does his best to work it, but it is pretty tame. Pillman bumping like crazy for everything for Hall and he is really milking the heat for his comeback. Studd thinks he has thrown Pillman over the top, but Pillman skins the cat. He hits a missile dropkick on Studd and a dropkick for DDP. It is breaking loose in Tulsa! DDP trips Pillman and Studd with a Nodowa and HE TAKES OFF THE MASK~! I did not see that coming. Zeman is there to cover his face with his shirt and Studd takes exception to that because he wants them c-notes. Pillman rolls him up for the win and hightails it. It was a close shave for Pillman, but he was able to escape and Hall is left holding his dick in his hand. It really feels like they were building to something with great teases, but instead WCW just reinstated Pillman with limited fanfare to start the ill-fated Light Heavyweight division. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- WCW World TV Champion "Stunning" Steve Austin w/Lady Blossom vs Yellow Dog - WCW Pro 7/27/91 The mask has forced Pillman to sell even better through body language I think it is a useful exercise for babyfaces to wrestle with masks on to improve their non-facial selling. Early on, we get a fun spot where Austin is in rhythm leapfrogging over Pillman and Pillman breaks that pattern with a dropkick. After kicking out, Austin dives to the outside to the very warm, very welcoming embrace of Lady Blossom. Lord Have Mercy! Back in, Austin had been complaining of Austin pulling the hair, but he pulls the mask to get Pillman down. The Dog is able to snap off a headscissors to send Austin to the floor. He chases Lady Blossom, but I can't blame him for chasing that skirt, Of course, he eats a clothesline. Austin hits a double axe handle off the top and whips him into railing. Lady Blossom gets in on the action going for the throat and the eyes. Pillman is selling pretty well and we have Capetta counting down the minutes before the time limit. I am usually a sucker for race against the clock gimmicks, but this was not too well executed. At about 4 minutes, we just get a lot of generic heel wasting offense from Austin like choking him on the top rope chinlocks and sleepers with a smattering of rollups. Pillman has some of the best babyface fire ever. Where are the chops and the cross bodies? With about a minute to go we finally get some chops, but it is too little too late. Lady Blossom trips Pillman and Austin drops down with elbow, which actually would not have been a bad finish. However, Pillman tries to get a crucifix pin, but time expires and Austin retains the title. Diamond Studd is out to take the mask of Yellow Dog, but Zeman is out to save. It is a pretty blase match outside of the cute leapfrog/dropkick spot and how foxy Lady Blossom looked there was not much that stood out. Just an average match. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Brian Pillman & El Gigante vs Arn Anderson & Barry Windham - WCW Clash XV Loser of Fall Leaves Town No 1991 Brian Pillman retrospective is complete without the sprint that triggered what should have been an awesome Yellow Dog angle. Clocking in under 4 minutes, this match was not given much time to develop, but still it was a real fun 4 minutes. Pillman, Anderson and Windham put over how important a loss here is by all going for pinfalls early so as to get this over with. Pillman would attack both Windham and Anderson with chops to set up an early pinning predicament. Windham got a huge right out of headscissors and a big DDT, but could not pin Pillman. Pillman dropkicked AA off the top rope sending him careening to the floor and follows that up with a springboard splash to the outside. AA is disoriented and ends up in the wrong corner and gets choked by Gigante. El Gigante is a BIG dude. Pillman with a rocket launcher off of Gigante's shoulders onto Windham and the crowd is rocking, The Enforcer breaks it up. Windham trips Pillman while he is top rope causing him to crash and burn. In typical WCW fashion, the camera is on EL Gigante putting AA in a head vice while Windham kicks Pillman in the head to send him home packing. WCW does have a replay to show us the finish so I can't complain too much. This was a fun sprint with plenty of action and put over the nature of the stakes. It just did not have time to develop.

Brian Pillman vs Rip Rogers - NWA World Championship Wrestling 11/10/90 Action! Brian Pillman's wrestling acumen is put to the test against the dastardly tactics of Rip Rogers and they cut a furious pace. Rip Rogers has a mean streak a mile wide, hot damn. He may have been yelping "Timeout" and "Shut Up", but don't let the George Washington hairstyling and razzmatazz tights fool you, he chops fuckin hard. Pillman gives as good as he gets. Pillman establishes himself as the better wrestler (armbar base) and the better fighter (winning an early violent chop exchanges). Rogers takes command with eye gouges, fishooks and wicked chops. I love a heel like Rogers he is a total roughhouser and makes Pillman that much better because he can prove that not only can he outwrestle Rogers, but he can be even more physical. Pillman uses his aerial tactics to keep Rogers at bay (headscissors out to the floor and beautiful cross body to the outside) and then lights him up with some brutal chops. Rogers regains control by throwing himself at the ropes to crotch Pillman. Everything Rogers does is underhanded and Pillman always looks better. Pillman blocks the superplex and hits a cross body to win. This is one of the best superstar vs JTTS matches I have ever seen. This had some of the most brutal chopfests you'll ever see. Rogers got enough offense to make it competitive, but it was all dirty tactics and mean. You knew in a fair fight Pillman would win, but this force Pillman to draw on different aspects of his arsenal: aerial and brutal strikes thus demonstrating the different aspects of Pillman. It is an absolutely great showcase for what makes both men incredible in both their roles. ***1/2

I am a sucker for the knee/ankle injury when you tumble out of the ring. If you don't "sell" it with screams, but you have some trouble moving I am sold. Especially the women, I am conditioned at this point to be so scared for women falling out the ring given so many injuries that happen. So I was at a RAW in Detroit where there was title switch between Beth and a Bella and I thought for sure Beth's knee had gotten fucked up. Another one, recent one was Rollins looked he hurt his knee tumbling out of the ring and I thought for sure he was hurt. He was not selling that much, but limping a little. Of course, he was totally fine and my brother mocks me relentlessly for this anytime somebody takes a bump to the outside now. Given Rollins' massive wipeout this past RAW, we were laughing so friggin' hard at the whole ordeal.

The only thing I remember about last week's RAW was Rollins wiping out in the opening segment and his pissed off reaction. Just thinking about it is making me laugh again. That was a pretty boring RAW.

Just to be clear, are we supposed to go through in order to create a thread in these new forums or can we create threads in the appropriate year? I do see that if I wanted to I could create a thread, but I don't want to step on any toes. I dig this idea. Personally, I rather group by the wrestler/tag team like done in Microscope, but this maybe easier to search and will definitely be easier to compare against contemporaries.

I am listening to the HHH promo that is spliced into podcast and I think one of the more egregious ball-cutting feuds was the Cena feud in 2006, which I am pretty sure cemented the special reaction forever because HHH basically called Cena out as a bad wrestler when he was not and that validated all those morons' opinions. We all agree that smart marks are easily worked into believing Shawn Michaels and HHH are great machines because they are presented as such so having HHH shit on Cena's wrestling ability (calling him uncoordinated and kids only like him). Of course, Cena blows on the mic so bad that he could present himself as a working man that "Hey maybe I don't look pretty in the ring, but I get the job done because I am a fighter." He basically works a modern version of the Dusty gimmick that what I lack in wrestling ability I make up in heart. I think that is what he goes for sometime but he is so fucking bad at conveying that message. A more recent example was when Daniel Bryan called him out before Summerslam and Bryan said he was a Wrestler (Ooooooooh he used the "W" word) and that Cena was just an entertainer. I was like Cena tell this fuckin clown "You might be a wrestler, but Im a fighter" and then punch him in his pompous mouth. Of course, fuckin Cena caved and once again looked like a shit head. Yes, HHH should have played his role as a heel and not tried to indulge a certain part of the audience in order to stroke his own ego, but some of the onus has to be Cena to overcome it and get himself over and connect with everyone. I know I just debated myself on that and hell I don't even if it gets brought up in the podcast. But I just wanted to bring it up and see what people thought about the HHH/Cena interactions. Just to be clear Cena in the ring is awesome he totally gets it. Cena on the mic is just atrocious. He is so, so bad. EDIT: I just realized that promo was from 2008ish, but Cena didn't do a bad job standing up for himself here, but sometimes he just looks a fool with his dick in his hand.