Superstar Sleeze

I want to clear up some controversy. I do like the Rock N Sock Connection. I may not talk about them, but I do like them. I know that Titans listeners everywhere were wondering what the Teen Titan's feelings were on the subject. If you really wanted to relate to true neophytes, you may have wanted to mention Punk's and Bryan's recent teaming at Survivor Series. Still only 30 mins deep.

Dustin Rhodes , Sting & Davey Boy Smith vs Rick Rude, Vader & Sid Vicious - Clash XXIII Dustin doing an impression of his father was not half bad. I would want him to find his own voice, but that was better than I expected. For all the business troubles WCW was having in 1993, you cant blame it on lack of talent. They have a far deeper talent pool than the WWE has right now in 2013. There top 12 at the time were these six plus Flair, Anderson, Steamboat, Austin, Pillman and Barry Windham. That's a murder's row. As far as fun, popcorn WCW six-man tags go this was pretty good. Sting press slams Rude onto Vader & Sid early. Then Vader mistakenly splashes Rude. It is all good guys as Sid gets crotched by the middle rope. Dustin was on fire in this match and the best worker of the face team. He was really taking it to Vader early who was bumping all over for him. Vader comes away looking like a million bucks in this match. His run in 1993 is an all-time run in terms of quality work every time out. Dustin misses an elbow and eats a stiff clothesline. Dustin kicks out of a Vaderbomb, which was strange. Rude gets his licks in, but gets a gourdbuster for his troubles. However, Sid gets the tag, which was a great hope spot. Sid even works in his kip out of a headscissors. Vader goes for his corner punches, but takes his bodyslam from the middle rope, but still he is cut off. Rhodes/Rude work their tombstone reversal spot and finally Dustin tags out, but the ref does not see it! Melee ensues. Sting eats the railing on a Stinger Splash attempt that looked nasty. Vader clocks Dustin with Haliburton (holding the US Title) and Rude pins for the win. What a great performance from Dustin and Vader who just ran show in this match. There was no Davey Boy, which seemed odd, but hey more Dustin the better. I wish they ran Dustin/Vader on top in this part of '93 as opposed to Vader/Davey. This felt like it had a little more angle advancement as you want to see Dustin get his comeuppance against Rude and reclaim the US Title. The action was great and never really let up. ***1/4 --------------------------------------------------------------------- Dustin Rhodes vs Dick Slater - WCW Saturday Night 7/17/93 Dick Slater is a big blind spot for me. I really don't know much about his career arc. I just know him as the guy sells like Terry Funk. That being said, this was pretty good, but mostly Dustin carried things in this one. Slater is also rocking a ponytail that seems more appropriate for a 12 year old girl with short hair. O and the commentary for this is in German. The only English I can make out is "Tricky Dicky" or "Quicky Dicky", which got a chuckle from me. At first, they seem to be wrestling a respectful match, but things start to get heated as each gets a nearfall on the other. Dustin is a clubbering outside and it looks great. Dustin misses a dropkick and Slater immediately jumps on the leg. Dustin sells like a million bucks and really makes the match into something worthwhile. Slater goes for the figure-4 and it is immediately reversed. This affords Dustin the opportunity to attack Slater's leg and get his receipt. Slater tries a small package, but Dustin shifts his weight to win the match. It is a good TV match which allows to showcase Dustin's chops as a sympathetic face. **3/4

"Teen Titan" Marty Sleeze, how come you guys did not tell me you already had a moniker for me! I got a good kick out of that. Too bad I did not listen to Titans until now. O and Johnny, I listen to the podcast while getting laid. When you are putting out 3 hour podcasts and you watch as much wrestling as I do you have to learn to multi-task.

Off the top of my head from Goldust's initial run, I like the Razor match at Rumble '96, the Backlot Brawl, the first Taker match, the Mero match at Summerslam. I feel like there are other things I liked. I really liked the idea of a Goldust and Mankind alliance, but that was dropped. The Goldust promos were amazing. I will never forget "Is that Embalming Fluid No. 5 I smell?" to Undertaker on a Raw. WCW United States Champion Dustin Rhodes vs Rick Rude - Worldwide 05/15/93 From my understanding, Rude has been back for about 2 months claiming to still be the real US Champion since Dustin never beat him for the title. This is always a good angle to build to a hot match, but unfortunately it seemed like injuries prevented a good match. I loved that Rude had Capetta say his insults for him. Having dweeby Capetta call the crowd a bunch of "Montgomery Meatheads" was rich. The match begins with some dueling back psychology with Rude standing out in his selling as everytime he took a back bump into the turnbuckles he sold it like he was shot. Dustin bites out of a bearhug, which raises Jesse's dander. Neither one can pick the other up in a nice touch. I love Rude's top rope knee drop that should be a finisher for someone. They do a tombstone reversal spot to get a 2 for Dustin. I noticed too that Rude was starting to take bumps weird like the press slam off the top and back body drop. He was basically taking a header on both. Couldnt tell whose fault that was. The ref gets caught up in a Irish Whip and both get visual falls on the other. Before they do the double pin where both get their shoulders up, but the acting ref only sees Rude's shoulder up. I will say this match did display both men as equals to set up the rematch at a PPV for the vacant United States Championship. The match itself could have been a lot better, but it acted as a good set up for future matches. Hopefully, they will deliver in those matches. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Dustin Rhodes & Kensuke Sasaki vs. Rick Rude & WCW World TV Champion Mr. Wonderful - Slamboree '93 Rhodes and Sasaki sure are weird team. Larry Z doubts their ability to communicate because of Sasaki's limited English. Heenan or Ventura would have pounced and said well I dont know how much English Dustin knows either. C'mon Larry Legend got to step up your game. Rude mocks Sasaki's stature and style. Sasaki wins a shoving contest and gets a big pop after Rude's sell into the turnbuckles. The babyface shine consists of arm wrenching on Rude and Orndorff. Rude and Rhodes finally square off and it is on like Donkey Kong! In the heat of the moment, Rhodes goes tumbling over the top to trigger the heat segment. Orndorff rams Rhodes head into railing as Tony reminds us that it is Dustin that brought back the "Paula" chants earlier in the year. The heat segment is good, but not great a bit by the numbers. They do the tombstone reversal spot to give Dustin a two. Sasaki is a pretty good hot tag as expected with his lariats, but is totally lost during the finish. The finish is a bit clunky as no one seems to be where they are supposed to be. Sasaki eventually gets pushed off the top. In a very funny visual, Sasaki is too short to take the Rude Awakening properly, but Rude eventually gets it off to win the match. It was a perfectly fine tag team match, but I don't feel like it moved any issues forward or delivered a spectacular match so it feels like it did not accomplish much. It seems they wanted to get Rude/Rhodes to the next PPV and figured to just throw them into a midcard PPV tag match. Nothing you have to see, but not actively bad either.

I watched the full match and I would not say it was really good just kind of there. From my understanding, Rude has been back for about 2 months claiming to still be the real US Champion since Dustin never beat him for the title. This is always a good angle to build to a hot match, but unfortunately it seemed like injuries prevented a good match. I loved that Rude had Capetta say his insults for him. Having dweeby Capetta call the crowd a bunch of "Montgomery Meatheads" was rich. The match begins with some dueling back psychology with Rude standing out in his selling as everytime he took a back bump into the turnbuckles he sold it like he was shot. Dustin bites out of a bearhug, which raises Jesse's dander. Neither one can pick the other up in a nice touch. I love Rude's top rope knee drop that should be a finisher for someone. They do a tombstone reversal spot to get a 2 for Dustin. I noticed too that Rude was starting to take bumps weird like the press slam off the top and back body drop. He was basically taking a header on both. Couldnt tell whose fault that was. The ref gets caught up in a Irish Whip and both get visual falls on the other. Before they do the double pin where both get their shoulders up, but the acting ref only sees Rude's shoulder up. I will say this match did display both men as equals to set up the rematch at a PPV. The match itself could have been a lot better, but it acted as a good set up for future matches. Hopefully, they will deliver in those matches.

Mitsuharu Misawa vs Yoshihiro Takayama - GHC Heavyweight Title Tournament Final 04/15/01 NOAH has existed since August of '00 based on a hot Kobashi/Akiyama feud, but eventually they would need a champion of their own. We see trusty Misawa pitted against the best native heel in Japan in the early '00s, Takayama. Misawa delivers a quintessential Misawa performance pretty much getting his ass kicked for 20 minutes before making his comeback with his elbows to fell the giant. In watching Misawa vs Takayama and Kobashi vs Takayama matches so close together, I believe the reason why Kobashi delivered better matches with Takayama is because he is more of a prototypical face (histrionics, fire and selling). Whereas, Misawa excels better at the nominally face vs face matches, but Doc, Taue or Kawada plays a more subtle heel where Takayama plays a more overt heel. Thus the more overt babyface Kobashi seems to have more classic matches. I am not saying this is a bad match, but I don't think it was anywhere near the '00 Kobashi match because Misawa's stoicism limited him against Takayama. Takayama has such a great aura about him with the bleach blond hair and just how he carries himself. He feels like a big star. We get a slow start on the mat and it seems like Takayama gets the better of it at first and does his arrogant cover. Misawa elbows him out and hits his diving elbow. Misawa goes to his top rope diving elbow, but Takayama catches him with a knee lift and thus triggers the heat segment. They do a bit where Takayama is willing to take a countout or knockout victory to win the title instead of pinfall or submission. Misawa attempts to use the elbows as an equalizer, but ends up on the ramp where he eats a back drop and a huge knee to face back into the ring. That was a wicked, out of control knee. Takayama begins to trash talk Misawa and that incites a flurry of elbows from Misawa and a leg lace. Takayama cuts this off with a knee lift, but it is the wrong knee and he sells it! However, he gets a big boot and a roundhouse kick that totally puts CM Punk's to shame. Takayama looks to polish him off with two Everest German Suplexes but this is Misawa baby! The match picks up when Takayama kicks Misawa so hard in the neck that blood just starts pouring out of Misawa's neck/ear region. It is a nasty visual. Misawa is pissed and hits his double elbow connection that always looks brutal. Misawa decides he is going to attack the arm with some takedowns, which really went nowhere in the long run. Takayama hit a powerbomb out of a triangle choke which is always a cool visual. Misawa hits his Tiger Driver for 2 and we know that we are in the middle of Misawa's finish stretch, Takayama one-ups him with a release Tiger suplex but still only gets two. We get our first slugfest and it pits Takayama's big boot against Misawa's elbow. Is there anything more powerful than Misawa's elbow? Misawa hits this absolutely wicked elbow connection (the spinning back elbow was beyond sick) and then polishes him off with Emerald Flowsion. The '01 match featured more of a Misawa beatdown, but a more compact Misawa comeback. The arm work at the end seemed so strange. It did not add anything. I am not saying Misawa has to hit all his moves in every match, but this felt like a mid-90s Savage match where he just takes heat the whole match and hits three moves to win. The '02 match has more of a struggle to it, but they run out of gas towards the finish. This one starts slow, but gets to a pretty satisfying conclusion. If forced to choose I would say the '02 match, but they are in same class of match. ***3/4 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Yoshihiro Takayama vs Osamu Nishimura - G-1 Climax '02 Semi-finals I wanted to like this, but it came off feeling too much like exhibition to me. There was no real sense of struggle or urgency until the latter stages of the match. There is no doubt that Nishimura was over like rover with the crowd, but I did not get the sense he really cared about winning the match. He seemed kind of like a hot dog showboat. I love Takayama, but he sort of just let Nishimura do stuff to him to pop the crowd. Nishimura has some neat little mat stuff, but it is way too cute for my taste. What bugged me the most about Nishimura' performance is how he totally no sold the cross armbreaker while in the hold. Talking about killing the drama. Even though, the crowd loved Nishimura, there seemed to be something so detestable about him. He just seemed so smug to me. Towards the end when Nishimura did a knee drop on Takayama's knee and then the figure-4, Takayama's selling finally drew me in. It finally felt like two people trying to win a match. Of course, I am going to call a spade a spade and Takayama just dropped the knee selling after that, which bothered me because Takayama working from underneath was an interesting dynamic. I have never seen Nishimura before but something about him did irk me so I did take personal pleasure when Takayama said enough with this bitchy little kicks and chopped the fuck out of his chest. Then he just chucks him across the ring twice. God Bless Takayama! That was pretty much the end of Nishimura. Nishimura get an ab stretch pin for a false finish that crowd bites on. Takayama, undeterred, hits him with an Everest German to pick up the victory. Having only watched one match of Nishimura, I will continue to have an open mind about him that withstanding I was very underwhelmed by this match. It was a refreshing change of pace to see long stretches of matwork and no lariats, but I have seen better versions of this match and it really could have been so much more. There was plenty of good wrestling, but once again it felt like a Nishimura matwork exhibition. I thought Takayama supplied all the best parts and was the only one interested in selling during the majority of the match. It would have been cool to see Takayama work underneath if it was against a less self-indulgent opponent. It is a hard match to rate, but I will say ***1/4.

"How can you bury what was never above ground" - Kelly with fuckin line of the century. ---------------------------------- This is the best episode ever. In a 20 minute stretch, you get everyone no-selling a random Parkinson comment, Parv telling a story about losing an arm wrestling contest at 11, and Pete working Johnny. I am friggin' dying. You all should be baseball announcers. You could make any 3 hour game entertaining.

Im so slow. Kenta Kobashi vs Takao Omori - 2000 Champions Carnival Final I understand why this match has a big rep as you get well-executed leg work from Omori and then a gangbusters finish stretch from Kobashi with Kobashi finally winning the Champions Carnival, but I did feel everything connected and that this was a true classic match. I liked where they went with Omori hitting basement dropkick on the knee as a last ditch effort to avoid the match becoming a rout. He gave a great performance in destroying the leg, but rather than the constant callbacks and battling through the pain in the Takayama match we get the Kobashi fireworks show at the end. Dont get me wrong, I dig some high end offense, but it felt arbitrary and capricious. It was like Kobashi said ok no more leg work time to give the folks the grand finale. Judging by the reaction of the two good-looking ladies in the front row thats what they wanted. It just killed the drama of the match. The hook went from being Kobashi overcoming a knee injury to Kobashi's badass offense. Omori starts off with the weakest slap in history when he backed Kobashi into the ropes. I just shake my head. Kobashi overwhelms Omori with chops and kicks his ass on the outside. Omori takes a pretty wicked Bret-style bump into the railing. For all my criticism, Omori left it all in the ring for this match. I liked Kobashi's short knee lifts into an ab stretch thats really sound psychology and I like that he uses that as a routine spot. Omori tries a fishhook to get out and I loved that. There is an epic suplex struggle (common All Japan spot at this point, this one was the best so far) and Omori bails on it to hit a dropkick to knee. Immediately, the entire complexion of the match changes from Kobashi's domination to Omori consolidating an advantage. On the outside he basically throws Kobashi onto the announce table in a sweet spot. Omori does a great job working over the knee with an assortment of submissions (half-crab, figure-4, and Scorp Deathlock). Kobashi just chops him in the head to build his comeback. Omori cuts him off and hits a missile dropkick for 2. Kobashi misses a spinning back hand chop and Omori hits rolling dragon suplexes for 2. It is about here when I know we are just going for a bomb throwing finish. Kobashi starts throwing suplexes, but Omori actually cuts off the moonsault attempt by attacking the knee. He hits a monster knee drop. If you are an offense mark, you will love this shit. After Omori only get a 2 after a lariat, Kobashi just takes this muthafucker to the woodshed. At first Omori struggles, but Kobashi hits a sleeper suplex. Omori is struggling as Kobashi goes for a powerbomb, so Kobashi smites him with a Burning Lariat. Kobashi hoists Omori up and you can tell he is going for the turnbuckle powerbomb but misses. So he powerbombs him again onto the turnbuckle, but Omori's legs were under the rope. Omori's eyes tell the story: the lights are on, but no one is home. Kobashi hits a half-nelson suplex, crowd erupts for the Burning Lariat and then Kobashi hits THE MOTHER OF ALL BURNING LARIATS to win! Look, I don't think it is a transcendent match because of disjointed it is and that it felt like an exhibition of Kobashi's Godly Offense rather than a real struggle. However, as far as fireworks spectacles go this pretty fuckin awesome. Omori is totally game and plays his part well. Omori hit a monster top rope knee drop and did some great leg work. Kobashi is an offense god and if you love offense this is your match. **** ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Toshiaki Kawada vs Satoshi Kojima - All Japan 06/06/01 The last time I saw a Kojima match was about 6 years ago. I didn't like him then and I don't really care for him now. I will get the Devil his due in these upcoming matches he was over like rover. I would say he was more popular than Kawada and Tenryu with the audiences. From my understanding, he is even a spottier version of Mutoh and the number one Mutoh disciple following him from New Japan to All Japan and using a lot of 21st century Mutoh tactics. Also he fuckin loves the Ace Crusher. The beginning of this match was by far the best part. You have Kawada shaking off a tie-up and going into hamstring stretches. Basically, saying this kid is his light work before the big 06/08 Budokan card. Kojima, feeling disrespected, gives him some fuck up flip splashes and then mocks him and does his own hamstring stretches. I really liked that tit for tat interaction. The crowd hot for Kojima loved that he showed up Kawada there. Kojima catches one of Kawada's kick with a drag leg screw and then does his best Mutoh impression with dropkicks to the knee and a figure-4. So far, so good, so what because Kawada decides to basically drop the entire match and restart. One of my favorite things in wrestling is Kawada selling the knee and I was bummed that once he went back on offense he just no-sold it. We are talking running big boot and a knee drop. It also kinda made Kojima look like a chump. Of course, when Kojima dropkicks Kawada in the face Kawada sells it like he has really been hurt. So it is all the more frustrating because he is game in some points of the match and others he will just get his shit in. After this, it loses structure and basically becomes your standard 21st century bomb throwing match, but without the high-end NOAH offense. Kawada hits a pretty wicked back drop driver. Kojima follows up with a desperation Ace Crusher and then one off the middle rope that looked like shit. The lariat exchange was pretty decent. Kawada kicked Kojima's lariat arm -> Kawada could not take him down with lariats -> Kojima lariats Kawada's lariat arm and murders him with a lariat. This gets the biggest pop of the match. If I am the booker, I don't care Kojima can't work because he is over. Push this man. Kawada kicks lariat arm again. Kojima eats a wicked back drop driver, powerbomb and an enziguiri to lose. I thought Kawada's defensive performance (bumping and selling) in this was woeful. I am very disappointed by his work in this match. Kojima was ok. He could be carried to a great match, but this would not be the match. This match was pretty much a mess and lost its way after the knee work. **3/4 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Genichiro Tenryu vs Satoshi Kojima - Budokan 02/24/02 Kojima is still wicked over with the fans. I actually listen to wrestling podcasts while listening to these puro matches, but still have the volume up high enough on the match to hear sound effects. The only chants loud to hear are the Kojima ones. I have no problem tuning out Japanese commentary completely so that undercurrent does not affect my ability to listen to the podcasts. Tenryu is more game than Kawada it seems to carry Kojima to a great match, but still it does not reach MOTYC levels for me. Again, I thought the beginning of the match was the best part. Tenryu was so good at looking down at Kojima. The way he brushes aside one of Kojima's chops is awesome. Then he backs Kojima against the ropes and lets Kojima cover up waiting for the chop only to look like a tool when it never comes. Then the next times he chops the bejeezus out of him in the corner. Basically, Tenryu is awesome, but we already knew that. Kojima "proves" his mettle sending Tenryu tumbling to outside with some forearms and a diving forearm. He does his somersault splash. After a chinlock, Tenryu hits his own somersault splash on Kojima. In a weird moment, Kojima heads for the hilsl, but seems to be spooked by the specter of Giant Baba at the end of the ramp. It is weird because Kojima seems like a babyface to the crowd and because puroresu does not usually that device. Tenryu wrangles him back in and just punches and chops the shit out of him. Kojima resorts to his base instincts: Ace Crusher, Ace Crusher, Ace Crusher! Ok, it was only two, but one was a shitty one off the apron. In a really cool spot, Tenryu tries to enter the ring and Kojima lariats his knee. That spot should be cribbed. Once again, the knee work does not follow to a neat conclusion. Kojima really is a shitty version of Mutoh. Tenryu regains the advantage and hits his wicked sweet spider German/back elbow combo. Tenryu goes back to head games with some playful slaps and Kojima reacts with a scoop piledriver. I love how Kojima hits this weird neckbreaker and afterwards Tenryu just punches him to get the advantage. Tenryu brainbuster leads to a double KO. Tenryu wins a chopfest to get a powerbomb, but only gets 2. Kojima lets out a roar, but then Flair Flops. Huge Kojima chants! Tenryu polishes him off with a brainbuster. This was a big improvement over the Kawada match because of Tenryu's consistency. The whole match he was playing head games with Kojima about his inexperience and his inferiority. Kojima would power up, but he would never be able to sustain momentum because he lacked the experience. Why hit a weird move when you can just punch someone in the face? Kojima is a bit all over the place on offense, but is good at puro fighting spirit selling. He is a more expressive, but spottier version of Mutoh. I actually really dug the finish where he looks like he is going to do the fighting spirit hulk-up, but just collapses. It shows Kojima has a lot of heart, but does not have the brains yet. ***1/2

All Japan Triple Crown Champion Kenta Kobashi vs Yoshihiro Takayama - 05/26/00 All Hail Yoshihiro Takayama! Black hair Takayama is just as much of bad ass muthafucka as bleach blond Takayama in heeling it up. It is such a great change of pace from the typical King's Road style to have a native play a heel so convincingly. I have not re-watched the '04 Kobashi/Takayama (which is a favorite going into the poll), but I really dug this match a whole lot and would put it up there with Mutoh/Tenryu and Misawa/Akiyama as the best match so far. During the pre-match rules and bullshit, Takayama just kicks Kobashi in the head with a big boot and pounces. What a prick. That's the story of this match Kobashi has to overcome the fact that he has an opponent that is not above taking shortcuts and has his partner, Omori outside ready to assist. Kobashi fires up and lights up Takayama. If Kobashi ever worked America for a sustained time in the 90s, he would have been excellent at babyface shines. As he was great at beating Takayama from pillar to post outside the ring. Kobashi looks to finish it early or at least take a commanding lead with a back body drop driver. Takayama knows that could spell the end and dead weights him. He gets a double leg takedown and just will not let go of that cross-armbreaker. Takayama will constantly use arm attack cutoffs for the rest of the match now that he was able to debilitate a body part of Kobashi. Takayama does not relent in being a heel he uses the railing, he steps on his throat and does a cocky cover. Takayama just plain gets it. At some point, Kobashi's eye has swollen shut and I have neglected to mention how friggin' hard they are hitting each other. Kobashi fires up again and gets a flurry of chops in the corner, but Omori gets up on the apron and Kobashi hits him with a spinning back hand chop to teach him a lesson. However that distraction is enough time for Takayama to kick the arm. Takayama follows up with great arm work, but Kobashi chops out of the armbreaker and actually powders to put over how much damage was done to the arm. Now, Kobashi starts to string together a combination with suplexes and DDTs, but cant put Takayama away yet. Takayama is always cutting him off at the arm it is an incredibly focused performance. Kobashi is just in his element fighting from underneath. Kobashi hits a monster Fuck You Burning Lariat, but with the bad arm. Takayama gets his Everest German only for 2. Takayama frustrated begins to hit Kobashi with closed fists so Kobashi rallies with closed fists of his own, but with his bad arm just dangling at his side. It is an awesome visual. Takayama out of nowhere hits a German for two. This time Kobashi revved up hits Burning Lariat with the bad arm and wins! Kobashi battling through the pain to finally hit his Lariat bad arm and all is just the perfect finish to an incredible match. I loved the pacing of the match with Kobashi early on pissed off at Takayama's blindside followed by Takayama grabbing a hold of an appendage and ripping it to shreds. Everything followed from that hook. Takayama was the consummate heel and Kobashi consummate babyface. Just when you think Kobashi is making his comback, Omori distracts him. Just when you think he will do it again, Takayama kicks him in the arm. Just when you think Takayama will win with his German Suplex, Kobashi fires up with fists of fury bad arm just dangling. For him to actually win with the bad arm Lariat was perfect because he did not no-sell it. He battled through pain. Takayama would never be able to inflict the amount of pain to break Kobashi's fighting spirit. I LOVED THIS MATCH! *****

GHC Heavyweight Champion Jun Akiyama & Yuji Nagata vs. All Japan Triple Crown Champion Keiji Mutoh & Hiroshi Hase - Tokyo Dome 10/08/01 You have three hottest commodities in puroresu in this match and Hiroshi Hase. Of course, I thought Hase was the best worker in the match. New Japan is continuing to put over Nagata as their new pro wrestling superstar having him hang with All Japan's and NOAH's champions. NOAH followed up Akiyama's red hot 2000 by making him the second GHC champion putting him over Misawa in July. Mutoh resuscitated the crippled All Japan promotion by reinventing himself completely in the ring. Also Mutoh placed a runner-up in 2001 G-1 climax losing to rising superstar, Yuji Nagata. Mutoh is looking for some revenge and has his buddy, Hase as back-up. This match also served to hype the main event to 2002 01/04 Dome show where Nagata was going to challenger Akiyama for the GHC Championship. They were definitely trying to deliver a big Dome main even match, but I thought they fell short of the mark. The body of the match seemed perfunctory and an obligation before they started to bust out finishers in the grand finale. Mutoh wins an early chain exchange with Akiyama by hitting a dropkick and posing which got a pretty good reaction from the crowd. The Mutoh and Hase have much better continuity as expected and this affords them an early advantage as Mutoh scores his style elbow and begins some leg work. Nagata and Hase exchanged some pretty good slapfests when they needed to and Nagata was clearly the most protected wrestler in the match. Hase had a chip on his shoulder and he was working the hardest to sell and bump for his opponents even selling on the apron. Hase is supremely smug as he re-enters and then does the giant swing to a big pop. They tease the exploder off the apron, but Mutoh does the dragon leg screw off the apron and dropkicks the knee. I love that combination so much. All of sudden it is breaking loose in the Tupelo Dome as we get the double figure-4 for Mutoh and Hase. Mutoh hits his franekensteiner and moonsault combo for two. When I watched this, I could have sworn the match was more even, but reading my notes it seems like Mutoh and Hase dominated. Hase gets a little cocky after rolling Germans and a backbreaker. He slaps Nagata. Nagata hits an overhead belly to belly. Melee ensues. The spot of the match is Mutoh stepping on Hase's back to hit a Shining Wizard on a standing Nagata. Hase follows up by head dropping Akiyama and hitting his Northern Lights Suplex on Nagata. However, Nagata and Akiyama are able to wrangle Mutoh and Hase into double submission holds. The finish is Akiyama hitting his jumping knee twice and Nagata dropping Hase with a back body driver. Honestly, I watched this match twice once about a month ago and again two nights ago and this review does not really reflect my perception of the match. Akiyama and Nagata definitely struggled more and got in more offense, but my notes paint a picture of Mutoh & Hase domination. Neither time did I think the match was all great so I am not going to rewatch it again anytime soon, but I wanted to be honest about this review. Outside of a big Hase performance, it felt like Mutoh by the numbers with a fireworks finish. It was definitely most disappointing Akiyama match so far. ***

So why do people not like this Brusier Brody fellow? I'm being facetious, but in the two matches I have sat down to really watch I thought he delivered really good performances. I wanted to watch this match before I re-watch the tag match to see if I can glean anything from this brawl to add context to a match that really blew me away on first viewing. I learned that Brody and Dory don't exactly exchange Christmas cards. Dory, much like Greg Gagne, has a lot to overcome in the way of his image, but I buy his credibility as a wrestler a little more than Greg because of his sweet European uppercuts and generally coming off as tough as nails in his match. Brody can be a little goofy at times with his mannerisms, but I thought he worked a violent championship match. You really believed he was a madman. He took Dory right into the crowd and nailed with a metal rod. OW! Posts Dory to get the crimson river flowing. He punctuates the assault with his kneedrops, but Dory keeps kicking out. When Dory rebounds off the rope to forearm Brody the crowd pops huge. You gotta love the post receipt. The snapmare is goofy. The spinning toe hold will rip a knee to shreds so I buy it. Plus with the Funks I have come to accept that no matter how much of a brawl they are in they will are going to go for the spinning toe hold. I would have marked out like crazy if I ever watched a Funk Brothers bar fight and they busted out dual spinning toe holds. Brody seemed to sell well from Dory and cut him off with an eye-rake. Brody misses the knee drop and they just start slugging it out. Brody uses the ropes to hold himself off just kick Dory off of him, which I loved. Dory suplexes Brody onto the ref to trigger the finish stretch. Brody starts to march around and he has hold of his chain. Dory wrangles a portion of it and loses his mind. He is nailing everything in sight with the chain including the ref, which triggers a DQ and Brody wins the via DQ. Brody and some gaijin double team Dory until Terry makes the saves and Brody marches off with the International Title. I am still testing waters of 80s puroresu so I am still in shock when I see this match that seems like a high-end ECW or Attitude Era brawl taking place in 1981 All Japan! It does feel abbreviated and it is missing the intangibles to put it over the top. I thought it was an energetic and violent brawl that transitioned the title to Brody and really made you want to see the Funks vs Brody & partner. And wouldn't ya know they just so happen to have such a match in December. ***1/2

HOLY FUCK! I watched this match with some stops and starts because I am working, but what an awesome friggin match. Either based on rep or personal preference, I figured a match with Brody, Snuka, and Dory would not be that good, but this match has been one of the best I have watched in a long time. This is pretty much the only Brody match I have ever watched. Based on this one match, he looks awesome. Everything he did was snug and looked great. Snuka was so friggin athletic. Dory was awesome with his euro uppercuts. Terry in his movements diving off the top and just going to toe-to-toe. I loved the streamers after the double suplex on Brody. I loved Terry diving off the top. I marked out like crazy for Hansen's lariat did not see it coming at all. I love that kind of finish and so well-done. I will have to rewatch it more critically. Great, great match.

How have I never heard of "I Am Santa Claus" that's the most bitchin' thing EVAH~!

Growing up in the Attitude Era, Angle was definitely one of my favorites. He was a great character in the love triangle and just had great comedic timing. I may be alone in this, but I thought he was awesome with AJ Styles, Karen and Christian in like 2007 or 2008. My problem with him as a wrestler is that he very rarely brings the hate. Dont get me wrong, he can be intense, but he very rarely hates someone. I thought there was a lot of disconnect in the AJ matches because these are two in the build up that were bloodying each other, but would then just wrestle a straight match. Even the announcers would be like "What the fuck, I thought we were going to get a brawl". Also he tends to do Attitude style brawling as a opposed to Southern brawling that is my least favorite type of wrestling when he is faced with a street fight. I just watched his match with Roode from this past Impact. It was a 2 out of 3 falls match and I guess it is supposed to be a pretty heated, competitive feud. It just felt like any other Angle match. Both guys wanted to prove they could beat each other twice within one match, but Angle did not seem hard pressed at all to try sell this anything different. I will say the finish to fall #1 was pitch perfect. Angle kicks his ass so Roode pushes the ref to distract and kicks him right in the balls. What a great heel finish. The 3rd fall was Angle at his worst with all finisher reversal that make his Angle lock and slam so ineffective. Roode uses the crossface now so plenty of that style of matwork. I don't want to say that style of matwork is just so perfunctory. There is no struggle. Roode rolled through an AngleLock and grabbed the bottom rope for a pinfall. I would say it was a pretty bad match. Kurt Angle, to me, is the ultimate video game wrestler. There are times where he just presses "Square" and will just break your grapple and hit a move. Whats funny is the way he breaks out of a grapple looks exactly like in a video game. He lacks a sense of struggle and urgency. In a typical Angle match, it misses the intangibles. It just goes from spot to spot. In his mind and the minds of many, if I just string a bunch of good spots together thats a good match, but we know thats not the case. When you are that much of an athletic freak, you are going to have great matches and he has plenty. He just has so many lame or lazy ones too. It is too bad his ring timing is not as good as his comedic timing.

Demolition, WALKING DISASTER! Personally, I thought their babyface run was a walking disaster marred by gobbling up opponents, bad opponents and extended squashes. I surprisingly liked the Smash & Crush team and thought they had some good efforts against the Road Warriors and Rockers. Definitely, think Smash & Crush would have been a viable team well into the next year if they kept them together. http://ridingspacemountain.blogspot.com/20...aster-1989.html

He punches better. His dives are better. He sells better. He bumps better. He is a better wrestler. He works the mat better. He is a better character actor. He is better at match layouts. He is a better wrestler. Kofi can jump higher than him, I guess. Fuck, I can do worked strikes better than Kofi. AJ's swanton to the outside blows away anything Kofi has in terms of how pretty it looks. For selling from AJ vs. Joe at Turning Point 2005: "When Styles does a float-over off a Joe suplex attempt onto the apron instead of doing it fluidly he lands on the ropes to sell the exhaustion. I was in awe. Consequently instead of immediately following his forearm on the apron he sold more exhaustion before finally to trying to hit a springboard and ate a Joe powerbomb. Sublime. " You are lucky if Kofi remembers to sell the same body part through the match nevermind sell fatigue. The iconic flip bump off the Ultimate X to making Sting look like a million bucks via bumping. Could Kofi have a violent David vs. Goliath match in a cage as good as AJ? Fuck, no. Kofi does not even the work the mat. Still, AJ has proven he can go on the mat with Daniels and others at level that is at least on par with most modern American workers. I am a mark for AJ's work in the Christian Coalition & Team Angle. I like some comedy and light-heartedness in my wrestling. Kofi's character is that he moved from Jamaica to Ghana. AJ vs Daniels Final Resolution 2009 is an amazing layered match that builds on their previous matches, has hate and delivers a satisfying finish. When has Kofi ever shown any aggression ever. Kofi does not even come close to any of these matches: 1. TNA World Heavyweight Champion AJ Styles vs Christopher Daniels - Final Resolution 2009 2. AJ Styles vs Abyss - Lockdown 2005 3. X-Division Champion AJ Styles vs Samoa Joe - Turning Point 2005 4. X-Division Champion Samoa Joe vs AJ Styles vs Christopher Daniels - Against All Odds 2006 5. TNA World Heavyweight Champion AJ Styles vs Christopher Daniels vs Samoa Joe - Turning Point 2009 6 TNA World Tag Team Champions America's Most Wanted vs AJ Styles/Christopher Daniels - Slammiversary 2006 Those are just the ones I have seen that I would rate higher than 4 stars. Comparing AJ to Kofi is such an insult.

You all suck. As the lone AJ mark on the board, I should at least shill my thread for him... http://prowrestlingonly.com/index.php?showtopic=19786 . Give the man, some deserved love. Re-reading my own thread, I see there are other people who do like AJ including Redman, sorry for misconstruing 2013 AJ disdain with general AJ disdain. I would still be super pumped for AJ on the main WWE roster because I still liked his performances this year like against Aries 2013.

Fuck yeah. I got it at about ****1/2 and I think this is Hogan's best match. It is one of the best symmetrical, tit for tat matches ever with Backlund outpowering Hogan in the short-arm scissors spot. Finally his ego gets the best of him and he loses out due to try out-airplane spin Hogan. Just a fuckin tremendous finish to a great match. Bob Backlund is the fuckin man. If someone wants to send me Backlund/Inoki from Miami, I would be happy to arbitrate.

Thats what my money has been on ever since they announced this stipulation. If they do actually go through with unification, I am going to be bummed if they drop Big Goldy by the wayside. It is the last vestige of my beloved WCW. Thankfully, business dictates that those title belts they sell are cash cows and the match just reeks of a screwjob finish so I don't think they will actually go through with it.

Is Justin Credible on the board? That would be just incredulous. (faked you out, didnt I)

Was your dad, Mike Rotundo?

Covering Halloween Havoc '93 through Superbrawl IV, I found Steve Austin to be very inconsistent in his performances. He is someone who clearly knew his fundamentals and had a great grasp on psychology. I don't think he really knew who "Stunning" Steve was and that inhibited from putting on transcendent performances consistently. Some nights he looked like a cant miss main event others an interchangeable midcarders. I do think he needed so more go-to spots to get heat because sometimes his heat segments would drag. Like most here, I do not think it is the number of spots or moves that did him in. Sometimes, he just did not project the confidence to garner the heat necessary especially in the two clunkers against Dustin when we know they were capable of an awesome match from Havoc '91. Definitely check out his matches with Pillman in singles and tags and his tremendous performance in Thundercage at SuperBrawl IV. http://ridingspacemountain.blogspot.com/20...n-wcw-1030.html

WCW International World Champion Rick Rude, "Stunning" Steve Austin & Ron Simmons w/Col. Robert Parker vs WCW World Champion Ric Flair, Sting & The Boss w/Ice Train - WCW Saturday Night 01/21/94 Austin is very inconsistent in this time period. He is never bad per se. He just ranges from bland midcard heel to main event heel week-to-week (reminds me of Del Rio). This is one of those main event performances as he is the glue that holds this match together. He bumps around for Sting like a million bucks. His interaction with Flair is a tantalizing taste of what we never got. His missed kneedrop set up the babyface knee work. After Simmons holds the top rope down causing The Boss to go tumbling to the floor, Austin rammed Boss' head into the railing. He was the one always racing to cut The Boss off from tagging his partners. In a match with Flair, Sting and Rude, he was the lynchpin, which is a huge amount of respect by those guys to let the match run through him. The beginning was fun with Rude doing all his atomic drop stooging bits. Even in his limited fashion, Rude was awesome here. We got the Austin show as mentioned above and then a Boss heat segment. I guess that is one way to showcase the Boss? Yes, in this time period he was on a hot streak, but I think his partners would have been better faces in peril. The heat segment was not up to snuff with the rest. The Austin bits were good, but Simmons just recently turned heel and did not have it down yet. Sting gets the hot tag and a melee ensues. Simmons who had deck his buddy Ice Train before the match get his comeuppance when Ice Train distracts him and Sting gets the pin. . Austin was tremendous and Rude was great in small doses, which lends more credence to my hide Rude in tag matches would have made a great post-prime career for him. Weirdest thing about this match was how subdued Flair was. Flair usually takes over every match he is in. It was nice to let him standback and let others carry the load. Also, weird was they had all this starpower, but the match was a backdrop for the Simmons/Ice Train feud. WCW was always great for stuff like this.

"Stunning" Steve Austin w/Col Robert Parker vs "Flyin'" Brian Pillman - WCW Saturday Night 01/15/94 How can you hate Parker? He elicits "Foghorn" and "KFC" chants! It is funny I am doing a concentrated Austin viewing session and coming away thinking Pillman is just friggin' awesome. That is not a slight on Austin, but just how badass Pillman is as a babyface when he cares. This match starts off more tentatively than their war at the Clash. They hype Pillman's upcoming match with Parker and the loser must wear a chicken suit and thus they have transferred the heat from Austin to Parker. I think that hurt Austin more than anything else. Austin goes for the trick knee early. Pillman is like if you want a knee injury I can give you one. He applies the one of the most beautiful drop toehold into a toehold that I have ever seen. I am a huge drop toehold mark and that was downright Bockwinkelian. Incidentally, Bock is set to become the commish of WCW soon in the storylines. Pillman wraps Austin's legs around the ringpost and adds some chops for good measure. However, his obsession with Parker gets the best of him as Austin is able to clothesline him and ram his shoulder into the post. Pillman sells the arm the rest of the match like a champ and really makes the match. Austin works various arm holds while Pillman is in his element striking vicious chops from underneath while selling the bad left arm. Eventually, Pillman regains control, but a leverage move by Austin sends him careening to the floor. However, Pillman rolls through a powerslam attempt to win. That booking certainly spits in the face in the current style of the winner of the blowoff match losing the match before. Austin is very good at the fundamentals. He works the arm well and sells for Pillman's chops well. However, he could have done more to get heat in this match. Pillman was just in another league. In the pre-Hogan world, the babyface side was so much more stacked that Pillman breaking past Flair, Sting, Steamboat, Dustin and AA just seems like too much. Austin had the easier path on the thinner heel side with Vader and a broken down Rude. However, Hogan'a arrival renders all this speculation moot.

I have never watched the full show (I hardly ever do), but because all the upper-midcarders are in one match it does make for some strange undercard matches. You get the absolutely badass Regal/Anderson and the prototype match for the Spring Stampede match between the Nasties & Cactus/Payne. Payne almost wrecks Knobbs' shoulder on a belly-tobelly if I remember correctly. Still, you get Jimmy Garvin in 1994, The Equalizer, a random DDP/Taylor match and friggin Thunder & Lightning, just so WCW. I have never watched the Flair/Vader match, which has a rep as a debacle so I will have to watch that one before the podcast. "Stunning" Steve Austin w/Col Robert Parker vs "Flyin'" Brian Pillman - WCW Saturday Night 01/15/94 How can you hate Parker? He elicits "Foghorn" and "KFC" chants! It is funny I am doing a concentrated Austin viewing session and coming away thinking Pillman is just friggin' awesome. That is not a slight on Austin, but just how badass Pillman is as a babyface when he cares. This match starts off more tentatively than their war at the Clash. They hype Pillman's upcoming match with Parker and the loser must wear a chicken suit and thus they have transferred the heat from Austin to Parker. I think that hurt Austin more than anything else. Austin goes for the trick knee early. Pillman is like if you want a knee injury I can give you one. He applies the one of the most beautiful drop toehold into a toehold that I have ever seen. I am a huge drop toehold mark and that was downright Bockwinkelian. Incidentally, Bock is set to become the commish of WCW soon in the storylines. Pillman wraps Austin's legs around the ringpost and adds some chops for good measure. However, his obsession with Parker gets the best of him as Austin is able to clothesline him and ram his shoulder into the post. Pillman sells the arm the rest of the match like a champ and really makes the match. Austin works various arm holds while Pillman is in his element striking vicious chops from underneath while selling the bad left arm. Eventually, Pillman regains control, but a leverage move by Austin sends him careening to the floor. However, Pillman rolls through a powerslam attempt to win. That booking certainly spits in the face in the current style of the winner of the blowoff match losing the match before. Austin is very good at the fundamentals. He works the arm well and sells for Pillman's chops well. However, he could have done more to get heat in this match. Pillman was just in another league. In the pre-Hogan world, the babyface side was so much more stacked that Pillman breaking past Flair, Sting, Steamboat, Dustin and AA just seems like too much. Austin had the easier path on the thinner heel side with Vader and a broken down Rude. However, Hogan'a arrival renders all this speculation moot. ---------------------------------------------------------- WCW International World Champion Rick Rude, "Stunning" Steve Austin & Ron Simmons w/Col. Robert Parker vs WCW World Champion Ric Flair, Sting & The Boss w/Ice Train - WCW Saturday Night 01/21/94 Austin is very inconsistent in this time period. He is never bad per se. He just ranges from bland midcard heel to main event heel week-to-week (reminds me of Del Rio). This is one of those main event performances as he is the glue that holds this match together. He bumps around for Sting like a million bucks. His interaction with Flair is a tantalizing taste of what we never got. His missed kneedrop set up the babyface knee work. After Simmons holds the top rope down causing The Boss to go tumbling to the floor, Austin rammed Boss' head into the railing. He was the one always racing to cut The Boss off from tagging his partners. In a match with Flair, Sting and Rude, he was the lynchpin, which is a huge amount of respect by those guys to let the match run through him. The beginning was fun with Rude doing all his atomic drop stooging bits. Even in his limited fashion, Rude was awesome here. We got the Austin show as mentioned above and then a Boss heat segment. I guess that is one way to showcase the Boss? Yes, in this time period he was on a hot streak, but I think his partners would have been better faces in peril. The heat segment was not up to snuff with the rest. The Austin bits were good, but Simmons just recently turned heel and did not have it down yet. Sting gets the hot tag and a melee ensues. Simmons who had deck his buddy Ice Train before the match get his comeuppance when Ice Train distracts him and Sting gets the pin. . Austin was tremendous and Rude was great in small doses, which lends more credence to my hide Rude in tag matches would have made a great post-prime career for him. Weirdest thing about this match was how subdued Flair was. Flair usually takes over every match he is in. It was nice to let him standback and let others carry the load. Also, weird was they had all this starpower, but the match was a backdrop for the Simmons/Ice Train feud. WCW was always great for stuff like this.