Superstar Sleeze

September 1981 - Just getting a lay of the land by jumping around. September 5, 1981 Greensboro show (Courtesy: Cagematch): Jake Roberts defeats Jacques Goulet NWA Mid-Atlantic Heavyweight Title Match Leroy Brown defeats Ivan Koloff (c) by DQ The Grappler & The Super Destroyer defeat Frank Monte & Jay Youngblood Abdullah The Butcher & Roddy Piper vs. Ron Bass & Wahoo McDaniel - No Contest Texas Bullrope Match Ric Flair defeats Ole Anderson (17:00) Babyfaces Heels *Ric Flair Wahoo McDaniel Ron Bass Ricky Steamboat Jay Youngblood Jake The Snake Roberts Leroy Brown Ole Anderson Roddy Piper & Abdullah The Butcher Sgt. Slaughter The Grappler Super Destroyer Ivan Koloff *Wins NWA World’s Heavyweight Championship This Month 1. Ric Flair does not appear but is mentioned that he had been feuding with Ole Anderson. David Crockett & Bob Caudle are stoked to announce he has won the World Championship. He is clearly a babyface in the Carolinas at this time. 2. Ron Bass has just won the TV title. I would say he is the main spokesman of the babyfaces. He is paling around with Steamboat, Youngblood and Jake The Snake and Leroy Brown. Jake looks like a young Marlboro Man. Steamboat bless his heart tries to cut a promo and Bass bails him out. Bass is very adequate. The babyface side feels midcard. Steamboat is an awesome worker dont get me wrong, but with Flair off gallivanting winning the World Title and Wahoo kayfabe not around. They are missing some firepower. 3. Roddy Piper & Abby vs Wahoo. That sounds like a killer feud. David & Bob say they have banned both from the TV set because of all the hatred. Piper and Ole are aligned. What an oil & water odd couple. Ole cuts a great meat & potatoes promo. Piper is a killer on the mic here. This is damn good Piper. I dont want anyone to know just how bad I is until its too late. Damn straight. They tag together against Paul Jones & a chump. I am surprised Paul Jones was used a job guy as I thought he was a big deal in the Carolinas until the end. Also we get a really short, but fun Ole vs Jay Youngblood match that I watched. Ole is great against they young, workrate guys. The Grappler interferes. The Grappler is a legendary promo that people often forget about because he did not work in the big territories often. I could see his potential. I thought his conviction and cadence was great. 4. Sgt. Slaughter debuts. He does not have a dance partner yet but he promises to win a major title and he does. He wins the US Title in October in a tournament final since Wahoo had to vacate it due to Piper & Abby injuring him. 5. Heel side seems absolutely stacked. Ole, Piper, Abby, Sarge are all #1 heel candidates with Grappler, Super Destroyer and Ivan Koloff give great depth to the midcard. With Flair and Wahoo out, the babyfaces need to pick it up to keep up. I know Steamboat is over as a wrestler, but I want some good promos to match the heels.

Advancing One Year to December 1983, fresh off the heels of Starrcade 1983. Here is the card of Starrcade 1983, courtesy of prowrestlinghistory.com: The Assassins beat Rufus R Jones & Bugsy McGraw (8:06) when Assassin #1 pinned McGraw. Kevin Sullivan & Mark Lewin beat Scott McGhee & Johnny Weaver (6:38) when Lewin pinned Weaver. Abdullah the Butcher pinned Carlos Colon (4:27). Dick Slater & Bob Orton, Jr. beat Mark Youngblood & Wahoo McDaniel (13:50) when Orton pinned Youngblood. Charlie Brown (Jimmy Valiant) pinned The Great Kabuki (13:33) in a "no DQ, no time limit" match to win the NWA TV Title. Roddy Piper pinned Greg Valentine (16:06) in a "dog collar" match. Ricky Steamboat & Jay Youngblood beat Jack & Jerry Brisco (12:48) in a "no DQ" match to win the NWA Tag Title when Youngblood pinned Jerry. Angelo Mosca was the special referee. Ric Flair pinned Harley Race (23:46) in a "steel cage" match to win the NWA World Title. Gene Kiniski was the special referee. Here is the December 1983 Depth Chart: *Babyfaces Heels “Rowdy” Roddy Piper (outgoing) Wahoo McDaniel (kayfabe injured) Ricky Steamboat & Jay Youngblood Jimmy Valiant Angelo Mosca Rufus R. Jones & Mark Youngblood Greg “The Hammer” Valentine (outgoing) Dick Slater & Bob Orton Road Warriors w/Paul Ellering (incoming) Assassins w/Paul Jones Kevin Sullivan & Mark Lewin (Outgoing) w/Gary Hart Ivan Koloff & Don Kernodle (Incoming) w/Gary Hart *Ric Flair is travelling World Champion Key Takeaways: 1. Crockett does a good job memorializing Starrcade! I was kinda surprised that they were savvy enough to push how big of a deal Starrcade was after the fact. They had Piper hock Starrcade shirts and magazines. Instead of just moving on to the next card, by making Starrcade a big deal now, this investment will pay dividends the next year. A wise move from a normally unwise promotion. 2. Greg Valentine is still United States Champion. He cuts a pretty good promo at one. It feels like him and Piper are spinning their wheels. Piper cuts a good promo about sometimes it is about how you lose. It is important to get back up. Piper beat Valentine at the Dog Collar Match, but the title was not on the line. Valentine would lose the US title curiously to a heel Dick Slater who was gloating about beating Rufus R. Jones for the Mid-Atlantic Championship. After Slater won the US Championship, he relinquished the Mid-Atlantic Championship directly to an incoming Ivan Koloff. Neither his US Title Victory or the Mid-Atlantic Title transfer was mentioned on TV in December. Slater is a good promo and I like Bob Orton's voice a lot, good delivery. Oh, Slater & Orton injured Wahoo's arm, at Starrcade, I think and that's why Wahoo has not been on TV. It looks like once Piper and Valentine leave that Slater and Wahoo will be the top program. No offense, to Slater and Wahoo, but it does feel like they would need more oomph, so going out getting Tully Blanchard was a huge pick-up and shot in the arm. 3. Steamboat & Youngblood, thank God they were great wrestlers and good looking dudes, because they could not cut a promo to save their lives. Steamboat was fumbling. Youngblood made a weird joke that Road Warriors were only 20lbs heavier than them. Briscos did not appear at all this month. The sale of Georgia to Vince is soon so they will be headed North in 1984. The Road Warriors had a squash and one promo. Hawk and Animal looked "more normal" for lack of a better term at this point in their careers. I dont think they stick around long. 4. Jimmy Valiant vs Paul Jones: the Hatfields and the McCoys have nothing on The Boogie Woogie Man and Number One Paul Jones. Jimmy Valiant is mostly unintelligible but I gotta admit his energy is infectious. He defaces a portrait of Paul Jones. Boy, oh boy, Paul Jones would give Lana a run for her money in how fucking wooden he is. This should be so easy. Just get mad. Just get big mad. Nothing. Bob Caudle was awesome in these segments. I love Bob Caudle. 5. Angelo Mosca vs Gary Hart. Mosca saved McGhee & Weaver at Starrcade from Sullivan & Lewin, but in the process took a giant Golden Spike to his arm. I know Mosca has a rep as an atrocious promo, but as pissed of angry Italian dad he was a pretty good promo. I usually like Gary Hart, but his promos were just kinda annoying this time. Sullivan and Lewin were playing bodybuilders not Satan-worshippers which bummed me out. They were out of the territory in just two weeks and replaced by Ivan Koloff and "Pride of the Carolinas" Don Kernodle. He doesnt say it here but I fucking love when Uncle Ivan says "Pride of Carolinas". Don Kernodle got shunted down the card quickly 1985. I am surprised he didnt try to find greener pastures. 6. Kelly Kiniski. Oh boy. Talk about somebody who was not suited for pro wrestling. With no inflection, he tries to turn heel. The first week he says any parent would be proud to have as a kid. Then he calls Jay Youngblood a cheap imitation. If it was not for Bob Caudle pointing stuff out, you would just think he was going about his business. 7. No Ric Flair this month. 8. The majority of the promos were focuses on Valiant vs Paul Jones and Mosca vs Gary Hart. It feels like they were letting the midcard shine while they were getting all their ducks in a row for next year.

After just one episode of Mid-South TV, I am switching gears to Mid-Atlantic. I am bit of overwhelmed trying to squeeze years of watching the Network into a couple weeks. I was such a fool! I cant believe I took this treasure trove for granted. Instead of watching all these squash/competitive squashes, I am just going to watch the promos so I can get a feel for the characters & the angles of the timeframe. By understanding the roster, I can understand the possible permutations of the wrestlers in matches and then use different search tools to see what I can find. Starting randomly in December 1982: Depth Chart December 1982 Babyfaces *Heels “Rowdy” Roddy Piper Ricky Steamboat & Jay Youngblood Jack Brisco Sweet Brown Sugar Mike Rotundo “Cowboy” Bob Orton Jimmy Valiant Greg “The Hammer” Valentine (House of Hump) Sgt. Slaughter & Don Kernodle Paul Jones (House of Hump) Dory Funk Jr. Leroy Brown (House of Hump) Jos Le Duc (leaving)/One Man Gang (debuting) (House of Hump) Sir Oliver Humperdnk (House of Hump) Thanksgiving 1982 Card Greensboro (15.5k) Credit: Cagematch: Mike Davis defeats Masa Fuchi Bob Orton Jr. defeats Pvt. Jim Nelson Johnny Weaver defeats Ken Timbs Frank Monte defeats Ron Ritchie NWA Television Title 10.000 Dollar 22 Man Battle Royal (vakant) Leroy Brown defeats Bob Orton Jr. and Frank Monte and Gary Black and Bill White and Gene Anderson and Ricky Harris and Sgt. Slaughter and Jerry Brisco and Jim Dalton and Johnny Weaver and Keith Larson and Ken Timbs and King Parsons and Masa Fuchi and Mike Davis and Mike Rotunda and Pork Chop Cash and Pvt. Jim Nelson and Rick Rood and Ricky Harris and Ron Ritchie - TITLE CHANGE !!! Three On Two Handicap Steel Cage Match Abdullah The Butcher & Jimmy Valiant defeat Jos LeDuc, Paul Jones & Sir Oliver Humperdink Non Title Match Jack Brisco defeats Greg Valentine (23:00) NWA World Heavyweight Title Match Ric Flair (c) defeats Roddy Piper by DQ (24:00) Key Takeaways: 1. Roddy Piper was a really big fucking deal in Mid-Atlantic. Definitely there top babyface star from 1982-1983. Although I need to look back deeper in 1982. As a person born in 1989, became a fan in 1997, this is not something you think of at all. I thought of Piper as a Portland dude that catches fire in the WWF in 1984. I had seen the Dog Collar Match at Starrcade ;83 in my teen years in the mid-00s as a part of the Greatest WWE Stars of the 80s DVD comp. I loved the match but never thought much of it. Perhaps because Flair is such a big deal as the draw to Starrcade 83. Piper/Valentine had been going a 1+ year at this point and that clearly the week-in/week-out feud of the territory that was drawing the Carolinas while Flair was off gallivanting. It is very interesting to see that Piper is the one that gets the World Championship title on Thanksgiving night and even more interesting that Crockett was able to finagle getting the World Champion for their Thanksgiving show over all the other territories at this point. Learning about this stuff, definitely heightens my appreciation for Piper and makes him feel like a massive star. The Thanksgiving Night World Championship match up until WrestleMania was probably the highest honor in pro wrestling. This really speak volumes to Piper's status. Although, if someone wanted to undermine, they could say that Crockett was just awarded the match because Flair was a Crockett boy, which is plausible. Piper was still the #1 babyface of a major US territory for at least a year and that carries a lot of weight for me. The angle in December 1982 is that Flair & Valentine did the concrete face rub angle that they did with Steamboat in the the 70s and Ricky Morton in 86 to great effect. Piper's promos can be hit or miss with me, but I thought these from this month were effective. He was banned from the studio because of what he did to Humperdink and Valentine. Valentine sold his return really well and Piper clobbered him. Valentine did a great job shrinking from the moment when Piper was present like a cowardly chump and then when Piper leaves he becomes a real Big Man challenging Piper to a fight. Excellent heel psychology. Greg Valentine is the US Champion so the top week in/week-out champion and is aligned with Humperdink. Piper/Valentine would be linked for another entire year without losing any heat which is an amazing feat in any era. 2. Sir Oliver Humperdink - I have seen so little Hump. I know the Bam Bam Bigelow stuff and the Big Daddy Dink. I always associated Hump with Florida, which I have not really seen. I thought he was great. He is the top heel manager like The Brain in AWA or the Mouth of the South in Mempho. He manages all the heels save for Sarge & Kernodle. Hump is a great talker and has a great look especially the flaming red mullet. He also looks hipper than everyone else. It is 1982, but everyone is still stuck in the Disco 70s with the wide collars and no belts through the pants. Hump has the cool shades, leather jackets and 80s jewelry. He looks more in touch with the upcoming heavy metal revolution which would get going the next year. Very cutting edge for pro wrestling which is usually 2-3 pop culture cycles behind. The House of Hump is kinda rag tag motley crew. Valentine is a great centerpiece. Leroy Brown is a big, big man never seen him before, good promo too. What happened to him? Jos LeDuc shows up and then is replaced by a debuting long-haired One Man Gang. Paul Jones is still wrestling and is just as mediocre as ever on the stick. They are feuding with Piper & Friends. Piper does not use this term, but Bob Orton calls their group, Piper's Palace and he is building a Palace that will outshine the House of Humperdink. Orton is good on the stick. 3. Ex-World Champions in the Midcard - they are able to effectively use Jack Brisco (babyface) as the Mid-Atlantic Champion feud with #1 Paul Jones. I love Jack's voice, just so smooth. They use Dory Funk Jr as a heel against Sweet Brown Sugar, raving about conspiracies because some boxer is gonna be the Special Ref for their match. Junior is a pretty good heel better than I expected. I think it is harder to transition someone like a Hulk Hogan into this midcard role, but I like their use of Brisco and Funk in the promotion. 4. Sarge & Kernodle vs Steamboat & Youngblood - interesting they didnt have a match on the Thanksgiving. It could be that Sarge/Kernodle took Youngblood out before Thanksgiving. They show clips numerous times of Sarge "nearly killing" Youngblood with the Cobra Clutch in an arena in the post-match after a tag title match. This sets up the big Steamboat/Youngblood return on TV as they ambush the heels. Sarge & Kernodle are great. At one point Sarge starts quoting Don Henley's Dirty Laundry for no reason. Lol. That feud is red hot going into Final Conflict in March/April of 83. 5. Why does Mike Rotundo invariably always look like he has not slept for a month when ever I see him?

A smidgen higher than Pete, but yeah this is nothing you have to drop what you are doing to see even though Ric Flair vs Tommy Rich on paper caused me to do just that. NWA World Heavyweight Champion Ric Flair vs Tommy Rich - GCW Omni 12/4/83 On paper, this got me from six to midnight in a flash but ended with me right back where started after 20 or so minutes of action. It never quite reached OMFG RIC FLAIR VS TOMMY RICH~! levels. Flair has just won the World Championship at Starrcade. He is a babyface in Mid-Atlantic, but plays de facto heel here. He is more of a heel in the sense that he is the one getting thwarted & bested at the beginning and then in control in the middle. He is not super heelish until the end. The shine is fine. It is Rich working holds...headlock, headscissors, abdominal stretch as Flair gets bested. Flair 101. The only cool wrinkle is on getting out of the headscissors, Flair has an opportunity to go for the Figure-4 and he takes it only to end up in the Inside Cradle. I like that spot was in the first five minutes as opposed to the last five minutes as a change of pace. It is worth noting that Rich properly applies the abdominal stretch with his toe grapevining the leg. Since fucking Gorilla has beaten it into my head to look for it, I might as well mention it. One thing that irked me about this match and I dont think I have ever seen Flair do this before, but he was selling like he had been in a 25-30 minute war after only three holds and 5 minutes. It was really strange. I dont think I have ever seen oversell like this before. They tease heat but it is only after a Rich Sleeper that gets turned into a side headlock and then a kneecrusher does Flair take over. Good Flair heat segment, Butterfly Suplex, big Vertical Suplex back in the ring, a rare Boston Crab, the usual kneedrop and all that jazz. Not a chop heavy Flair match. I think there was only one, maybe two firefights in this match. If I had to classify which formula Flair was using, I would say this was sort of similar to how he would wrestle Magnum TA. It is very Flair 101. Rich is a solid hand, but I dont think this was a good way to get a feel for him. He has a decent punch in this, but nothing that stands out in the South where a good punch is a dime a dozen. A random headbutt was cool and he used the Bionic Elbow. Flair misses an elbow drop and back body drop out of a Piledriver. That's when we see what Rich has to offer which I mentioned before. Flair ends up wrenching the leg across the apron. Figure-4 on Rich gets good heat. Flair and Rich brawl on the outside. Flair gets cut and is bleeding. Flair tries to flee with the Championship. Lame finish. Rich gets the O'Connor Roll, but Flair lovetaps him in the back with the Belt for the win. Flair 101. Rich really did not add much to the match in my opinion. I thought Flair looked great on offense here. Flair's choice of selling big early and throughout was weird. I would say everything between Flair's kneecrusher to the Figure-4, which was about 15 minutes of action was really strong. The finish leaves a lot to be desired. Ric Flair will appreciate this analogy, he is like sex, even mediocre Ric Flair is pretty damn good.***1/2

Pro Wrestling Love is coming back at you with @dawho5 as we continue our countdown on the Top 25 Best Japanese matches to take place between 2000-2009. This was born out of Ditch's project in the early 2010s and we are here in 2021 to report back our findings. This is Part 2/5 and we are in the #20-#16 portion of the list. This is Mike's first podcast venture. He has been a valuable contributor on here for close to a decade. I am glad he was on and he could share his interesting insight. Plenty of great puroresu discussed and come listen to Mike pontificate. https://www.podbean.com/ew/pb-e7xtm-fd5d60

I was thinking what would be the best use of my limited time with the Network I think it to binge as much 1985 Mid-South as possible. I feel like such a fool for taking the Network for granted for so long. 6-Jan-1985 One thing I didnt notice (surprisingly mind you) until I watched some random Mid-Atlantic episodes was that there were NO promos at all on this show. It was all matches and Watts was narrating the stories for the viewers. It was an interesting style. Was Mid-South always like this? Was it typical? Or was this an atypical show? R'n'R Express regain the tag belts from DiBiase & Dr. Death a the end of 1984. Skandor Abar basically manages all the heels. The main heels are Kamala, Ted DiBiase, Dr. Death, Hercules, and Buddy Landell. I love the music video to get the RNRs over. They look so cool. We need more packages where babyfaces are just filmed doing cool things that people do in modern pro wrestling. Iceman Parsons is someone has only seen very little of. Good athletic babyface. I liked the second rope lariat finish. Watts tells us that Parsons has left Dallas to come here so that he can continue his feud with Akbar who has fled to Mid-South. I love that touch. The Guerreros are here and they being programmed with the RNRs. Great heels. They beat up Horner & Shawn Michaels in short order. It is pretty amazing that Horner looks like the prospect and Michaels looks like the dweeb. Michaels easily could have been the jobber whose name you can never remember based on his look here. The Guerreros are so crisp. The wrestling on this TV show is very similar to Crockett. It is 80s workrate heavy. It is slam, bang action. Perpetual motion pro wrestling. Everything is fundamental. It does not look overly cooperative which I like. I like that it is overwrought or over-chereographed. However it is not perfect. I think they could give time for things to breathe more. Let the wrestlers react. It is not very sticky wrestling like it does not stick with you. I thought the Guerreros finish a forward roll while the other traps the opponent was not as cool as they thought it was. Chavo looked fantastic here. TV Champion Buddy Landell vs Terry Taylor - This is the big angle of the show as there is a title switch. A very Watts/Graham finish in the sense that the devil is in the details and it is very tight. The ref has to duck to get out of the way an opponent running the ropes who hurdles the ref. The first time Taylor does it; Akbar trips Taylor. The ref admonishes Akbar and then counts for two. They repeat the spot with Landell doing the running and Iceman Parsons trips and this leads to the title change. Both times the ref couldnt see the trip because he was too busy trying not to get run over. A good finish that should be stolen. The work before was solid. I liked the hiptoss directly into a lateral press for two and how Landell sold it. That was one of the few times someone really reacted to something on the show. Buddy took over promptly smashing Taylor's face into the turnbuckle. Solid heat segment. Good match. ***1/4 Ted DiBiase/Dr. Death vs Hacksaw Duggan & Terry Daniels - Duggan is a fucking star! He is just dripping with charisma and he seems like a way bigger deal than anyone else on this show. Great Duggan performance. DiBiase bumps & feeds like a champ for Duggan and he is a strong #2 to Duggan's #1. Doc is fine here, Watts says his football helmet is banned. Another angle. Daniels is there as the fall guy and gets punked out with the Black Glove. Duggan looks like a rockstar. On commentary, it is noted that Butch Reed has turned face and his own man does not need Akbar. North American Champion Brad Armstrong vs Hercules - Brad Armstrong is kind of a bottom of the barrel North American Champion, no? He feels more like a TV Champion-level dude that should be mixing it up with Taylor & Landell while Duggan, Reed and DiBiase work on top of the card. What's up with BA as champion? Admittedly, I may have only seen one or two Herc matches before this. He seemed ok. Nothing stood out about him. How I feel about Brad Armstrong is how most people feel about Terry Taylor. BA was a fine mechanic, but he was NOT a cant miss prospect. Parsons/Akbar feud continues as they get involved and trigger a schmozz finish. Herc had a Cobra Clutch applied looked like is finish and the ref got bumped as BA was flailing. Nothing spectacular from BA. Quick Kamala and Jake The Snake squashes close out the show. Interested to see who Jake gets paired with. Kamala is with Iceman. Iceman was pushed pretty hard on this show as the new babyface in town, figuring into both title match finishes and winning his own match. Taylor vs Landell was match of the night. Duggan was the Star of the Show in my opinion. Looking forward to more.

How do they know? Is there a survey? I dont really know how ratings work honestly.

Didnt read whole thread so maybe this was raised? With people waiting longer and longer to have children, is it possible that these are just parents watching with their kids? We arent accurately capturing the kid market? Pre-Pandemic I went to a lot of shows in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Connecticut and there were always a ton of kids at the shows. I dont think they have lost their hold on the 5-12 year old crowd. They might not be retaining them, but kids are still coming to the shows from what I saw.

@BigBadMick your energy is keeping me going! Im glad you still found it enjoying even if you dont know much about Shoot-Style. As Mick mentioned the Shoot-Style series has come & gone, but Pro Wrestling Love is staying in the Land of the Rising Sun as we are counting down the Top 25 Best Pro Wrestling Matches to take place in Japan between 2000-2009 with first-time podcaster, long-time PWO contributor @dawho5 aka Mike. Mike & I were common voices in the discussion threads for the Best of Japan 2000s matches. The Best of Japan 2000s (2000-2009) was a projected headed up by Ditch. About 300 Puroresu matches from 2000-2009 were nominated and the intention was to have people watch them and then rank them up. The voting process did not take place however Mike & I learned helluva lot about Puroresu at this time and watched some great badass matches. This is the first of five installments (#25-#21) as we count down our Top 25 Best of Japan matches 2000-2009. https://www.podbean.com/eu/pb-68d57-fd5d59

@Tim Cooke I really liked Tamura vs Koshaka the worked version of 1998; I will definitely check out their shoot! Sounds interesting thanks for the trip! It is here another Season Finale on the Pro Wrestling Love Show! This is the final episode of the Best Japanese Shoot-Style Matches of All Time! It was a pleasure having @Cap aboard and I am sure we will hook it up again down the road. It is our Top 5 Shoot Style Matches of All Times. This is the easiest show to sell. The obvious hook is who finishes number 1! It is nothing but stone cold classics Volk Han vs Kiyoshi Tamura the Trilogy! Fujiwara vs Super Tiger! Takada vs Fujiwara! Tamura vs Kohsaka! What did you agree with? What did we have too high? What did we have too low? What did we miss? Tell us! https://www.podbean.com/eu/pb-zpxbg-f9d8f1

Matt dont sell yourself kid, I think you have a velvety voice. I love listening to you talk, brutha. @Tim Cooke thanks for listening and thanks for the recommendations I would love to see how UWF influenced MMA. RINGS was doing shoots as early as 1997?!? How sure are we that '97 fight with Kohsaka is not worked. Ugh, sorry I got slammed with work, it was my manufacturing trial week and forgot to make a post. This is the penultimate episode of the Best of Shoot-Style with Markout Mountain Matt. We break into Top 10! Matt loves PWFG, I love Shamrock's mullet! Matt gets freaky deaky with a BatBat-Death Match hybrid pick. Fujiwara vs Super Tiger makes its debut as I continue to freeze out Volk Han vs Tamura. The final episode which is out Top 5 drops tomorrow, Noon Eastern! Check both these episodes out! https://www.podbean.com/eu/pb-yka82-f9d8e9

Didnt realize you made the comment before the match. I thought that was after the match. I agree the content was not very good, but I think they were doing the whole purposeful ambiguity thing with not much foreshadowing because they had no plan in mind so the content was very nebulous. I liked her cadence and conviction. She has great presence. Admittedly, I barely follow ratings overall and do not follow quarter hour draws at all. This shocks me. She is like not good. She is very stilted in her movements, she always waits an extra half-beat before attacking which drives me batty and she does not look she can hurt a fly. I want to point this out because I thought about this on a walk recently. It really is her stilted movements. I love Kairi Sane who is not that much bigger, but is so much more explosive, really launches herself into everything and makes wrestling feel organic. Riho looks like she is doing some terrible, overwrought dance routine. More power to you brutha and all you Riho-Maniacs out there!

Read a quick article to jog my mind. Kurt Angle does sound reasonable, I forgot about him and would be a let down in my estimation. Batista crossed my mind, but seems unlikely. The article brought up Japan. It would have to be Tanahashi or Okada anything less would not make a splash in my estimation. Unless, somebody's contract is up that we dont know about, and this is a Luger Nitro jump. I am going to guess it is Kurt Angle for now. Didnt he just start a podcast? Was it with Conrad?

How about Rousey?!? That would be sickkkk!

I know, right? Outside Cena, Brock or Punk who is really that big of a deal?

Brock.

Hey! I was on WrestleLine when I was 9 years old, I will have you know! Also MoS sorry to pick on you brutha, read some of your posts after, you really enjoyed Tully/JJ and Onita, so youre cool, bro! Though you like Riho, which makes me unsure now.

Man I came in all jazzed up to talk about how awesome Dynamite was and how killer SHAQ VS CODY was, but man wrestling fans gonna be wrestling fans. For the rest of us, who remember what fun is, that opening tag match was killer! Cody bumping & feeding like a pro for Shaq! Shaq going all out, having fun and just being a big mutha trucker in there. His powerbomb was sick! You know what was so refreshing about this match. It was not a damn track meet. People actually took the time to milk the highspots and let the highspots breathe. They reacted to one another. Jade Cargill is gonna be a star. She is IT! Amazing look and effusive charisma. She gets that pro wrestling is about character work. She needs to work on her execution, but that will come with time. Cody just looked like a zillion bucks. The table spot was killer! Cody feels like a pro wrestler not some workrate mark hack. The rest of the show rocked too! Jericho/MJF had one of their better segments in a while. Bloodied Papa Buck last week esp. the blood smears came off great. Bucks prattled a little too long, but we got some retribution. Tully Blachard and JJ were awesome! I was marking out for the shoe and having Tony on the call! FTR vs JX is the best feud in wrestling! Ryo is awesome, she got a great match out of Nyla Rose of all people which I legitimately thought was impossible. Ryo was really, really good. More Ryo, less Riho, yes please! ONITA~! How badass was that! PAC & Fenix should wrestle that long all the time! That's literally all I want from them, just offensive exhibition. As soon as you ask them to sell or do anything remotely involving psychology or plot development, they suck. Keep it under 5 minutes I will be happy. I havent even finished Dynamite, but this was my favorite Dynamite of all time and one the best 2 hour wrestling shows in forever! Loved it!

Alright, brutha @soup23, but dont think Im bumping for you. I am a walking tall babyface :p What's going on, PWOites? It is @Cap & Marty Sleeze comin' at you live with Pro Wrestling Love on the dial. We bust out the Boss, our Hero, Yoshiaki Fujiwara as we heap loads of praise on him. We tackle two of the most polarizing shoot-style matches of all time, click the link to find out what they are...Chad has already gone on record for shaming me for not liking one of them. I am standing tall, baby! We even have a Bob Backlund sighting and it is not me who is gushing over Bob for a change! It is Pro Wrestling Love, give it a spin, let us know what you think. https://www.podbean.com/eu/pb-3guva-f9d8e4

Your spoiler alert is pretty misleading...I expected bitter Ric Flair bashing them all, but thats why I clicked because Ric for all his flaws is not the bitter type. He was sad and mournful. He commended them on their individual careers and recommended them to be HOF members on their own and commended Arn on a job well-done. I think Ric has a point to be upset when your "best friend" Arn Anderson does not even reach out in the 8 zillion ways you can reach out nowadays. Personally I am very forgiving, merciful person, I would eventually let it go, but I think Ric is justified in holding this against Arn as it is very bizarre. It is just one side of the story. Ric could have done something that really pissed off Arn and Arn felt the bridge is burned. However, this is the typical petty feud. This is pretty damn legit and pretty damn sad. Open & honest communication is so important and always a good lesson to take from stories like this. Hope for the best for Ric & Arn. EDIT: @C.S. sorry read your later post and it seems like you agree that Flair was not wrong to begrudge them. I will keep the above post just because it is my thoughts on the matter.

@BigBadMick thanks for listening and the kind words. I am glad you enjoy it. I hope you take a chance on Shoot-Style, it can be very satisfying. So @soup23 what do you think should we hook it up Bill Watts-style sometime? Pro Wrestling Love is back & kicking ass for a shoot on this second installment of counting down the Top 25 Japanese Shoot-Style Matches according to me & @Cap. The Tom & Jerry of pro wrestling: Yuki Ishikawa & Daisuke Ikeda make their first appearance and so does the "Soviet Maestro" Volk Han and the badass Masakatsu Funaki. Click it, download and listen and let us know what you think! https://www.podbean.com/eu/pb-rqedx-f9d8e1

Glad you got it to work, @BigBadMick ! How did you like it? We have put TNA & WCW to bed, so that means Pro Wrestling Love Volume #11 bring on a new guest @Cap aka Matt who is also an administrator for the Greatest Match Ever Project at gweproject.freeforums.net. We all submit ballots of our 100 Greatest Matches of All Time once a year, this year the voting will be at Summerslam 2021. We have voted in 2019 and 2020 so you can see the final lists at the website above. All are welcome to join the forum which promotes exploration, sharing and discussion around pro wrestling from anytime, any place and any genre. So please come and contribute if you are interested. Matt & I started our five-part journey on the Top 25 Matches in Japanese Shoot-Style History. Enjoy and let us know what you think! https://www.podbean.com/eu/pb-6tt2u-f9d8e0

PWF World Tag Team Champions Genichiro Tenryu & Ashura Hara vs Stan Hansen & Terry Gordy - AJPW 3/5/88 Wow, it was crucial that Tenryu not only won the PWF Championship a couple nights after but stood up to Hansen a couple weeks later because and I dont say this lightly, Hansen made Tenryu his bitch in this match. There is one point Tenryu is trying to save Hara. Hansen just swarms Tenryu and totally overwhelms, punks his ass out. Tenryu has the wisdom to get back in the ring and stand with fists balled up. At least, he looked like a man because that was some shit. It is in the post-match that Hansen just owns Tenryu. He bulldozes Tenryu in the stand. You can see why this got nominated it was for the chaotic finish. Good Gog Almighty, it is amazing, no one was seriously hurt. With more mature eyes, Hansen's wild man performance takes calculated risks. He is dangerous without being too dangerous. This was legitimately scary. He was hurling chairs full force at fans, ringside photographers and attendants. He looked legitimately pissed off. He was tearing shit up. Then to add insult to injury along the ringside area, he just CRACKS Tenryu with a slap. Tenryu & Revolution run to the back like a pack of dogs with their tails tucked between their legs while Hansen is throwing TABLES over the ringpost and chairs at photographers. It was lunacy and mayhem. It was uncomfortable and intoxicating at the same time. He was a man possessed seeing red. Tenryu needed that singles win and to stand up to him. Hansen owned him here. As for the match it was a very alright, All Japan workrate tag team match. Hansen & Gordy gave their usual energetic performance. Given the finish, I was shocked the Champs were given so little. Hansen & Gordy gobbled them up. First it was Tenryu, Hansen bulldozed him and literally kicked him out of the ring. Gordy wrestled a terrible tag match from a kayfabe perspective constantly leaving the path of his opponent to his own corner unguarded. Put a body between your opponent and his partner, bro. It didnt matter because Tenryu or Hara would get these flurries but then Hansen & Gordy would immediately extinguish them. I pointed out that one save that Hansen owned Tenryu on. There were no real highspots. It was just great, physical, active full court press suffocation work from the American bully team. The finish was pretty good. Hansen missed some sort of charge, it looked like he was injured maybe his arm. Revolution starts to double team and they nail an Enziguiri sandwich. Hansen sells this as death. Hansen usually does wounded bear selling where he is actively fighting as he is selling. He sold he was KO'd very rare. It felt like a huge moment. Gordy wrestled king-sized. Throws both Hara and Tenryu out to ringside and fends both off. Hansen nearly kills himself on a Suicide Dive as his feet almost trip on middle rope. Then absolute insane brawl I described above happens. I have no idea why Hansen & Gordy were booked so strong in the body of the match and in the aftermath, but it was bizarre because Tenryu & Hara looked like chumps, which is very rare in Japan, usually both teams get over. Tenryu does win the Championship a couple nights later and then a couple weeks later stands up and punches the bully right in the mouth. Maybe the idea was to heap a truck load of heat onto Hansen to make Tenryu really look good. Body of the match is solid and the brawl after runs it a little extra love. ***1/2

PWF & United National Champion Genichiro Tenryu vs Stan Hansen - AJPW 3/27/88 Forget everything I said in the previous review, this was a WAR~! Tenryu delivered; he matched Hasen's pugnacity and stiffness. I liked this even more than the Hansen/Jumbo match before it was red-hot, hate-filled from the start. Tenryu has a bandage over the fresh, raw cut on his eye that Hansen gave him about three weeks ago. You know that a bullseye for Hansen. There is some many good little details than I am going to watch this again live so I can capture them all: Tenryu charges at Hansen and they meet like two rams. One right punch square to the face from Hansne and ten two wicked pops from the left wing. It spills to the outside and Hansen keep firing away at the eye. Tenryu unlike on 3/9 keeps roaring back with chops. Hasnen fights through it. Tenryu tries for the bodyslam but keeps fighting. Enziguiri and Hansen immediately dives with an elbow drop on Tenryu. This is why I love Hansen. He is always moving forward. He is a fucking animal in there. I love the overhead elbow he throws smashing into the cut. Red-hot, hate-filled. Hansen is very literally out for blood and Tenryu needs to fight for survival. Hansen again with that elbow crashing down into the cut, rubbing the face into the ropes. Tenryu comes back with a Lariat but on the second he charges and eats buckles. Great facial expression as Hansen takes him over with a Back Suplex. Tenryu fights out of a tight smother and Russian Legsweep. I love that Tenryu is trying to press the issue and take control of his own destiny. Tenryu only gets one and immediately goes for the Powerbomb. Smart. In a fight for survival, go for your biggest bomb early. Hansen deadweights him. Tenryu moves with him into wrist control and trying to get an armbar. There's a great close-up of Tenryu at this point, you are so focused on how nasty the cut is and then BAM! all of sudden Hansen's left hand comes flying into the screen and pops him with precision into the cut. Great struggle over the armbreaker, but that moment was so damn badass. Hansen rolls to the topes. Hansen drags Tenryu outside like a bear to his lair. He rams him hard into the ringpost. Tenryu takes some time to regroup as Hansen looks great. Tenryu's eye looks all sorts of fucked up. Tenryu gets a half knucklelock and starts mercilessly and relentlessly kicking Hansen's left side and the crowd comes more and more alive with each rapid kick and this becomes Hansen's Achilles Heel, the monster's weak underbelly if you will that Tenryu can exploit later. Tenryu is overzealous with his running punt to the ribs and goes ass over tea kettle over the top rope. Typical Hansen fashion, he thrust kicks Tenryu from is back completely Tenryu's drop to the floor. Hansen is left clutching at his ribs and is having trouble standing. Tenryu fights from his back in the ring. Kicking at the injured ribs while Hansen is punching the cut. This is fucking badass. Tenryu toe kicks to the bad ribs. Hansen is selling so damn well. Resisting the Irish Whip so hard. Tenryu drives his shoulder into the injured ribs. Hansen collapses outside the ring ass first. In a rare moment, Hansen looks more battered compared to his opponent. Hansen rolls back in and is trying to protect his side. AWESOME! Toe kick and THEN BASHES WITH THE OVERHAND ELBOW! BRUTAL! Another one to sitting Tenryu this time. Hansen with these wicked short left jabs to Tenryu's cut. Hansen misses the running elbow eats turnbuckles and Tenryu toe kicks the injured side again. This is incredible. Tenryu is thinking Powerbomb so smart to attempt it now. Back to punting the ribs when he cant get him up. Hansen drags him down by the wrist. This is so Hansen just flailing with his kicks from his back and grabbing whatever bodypart he can get. Then driving the exposed bone on bone knee to the orbital bone of Tenryu. I love Hansen! Everything is a struggle with him. This is when we get a proper heat segment from Hansen after how hard fought the first ten minutes were for both men. Hansen seems to have weathered the storm and really rung Tenryu's bell with all these headshots. Hansen piledrives Tenryu! Tenryu gets a foot on the ropes. Nice gradualism on the sell. OH MY FUCKING GOD! Hansen rears back and just RIFLES Tenryu in the face with a kick. Not to be outdone, Tenryu FUCK YOU PUNCH FOLLOWED BY A FUCK YOU LARIAT! OH FUCK YEAH! Tenryu Enziguiri! POWERBOMB! 1-2-NO! Probably one of the best Tenryu powerbombs ever which is damning with faint praise. Hansen took it smartly. He went up in a traditional piledriver once steady, He did a sit-up and Tenryu dropped him. Everyone else in the world has a better powerbomb, but at least that one looked ok. Tenryu hits his Top Rope Reverse Back Elbow. That's his four big moves! Oh shit! Hansen lunges and pops him good with a left wing. WESTERN FUCKING LARIAT! HE DECAPITATED HIM! OH MY FUCKING GOD! Tenryu drapes the foot on the ropes at the last second. YES! YES! YES! Perect use of the ropes. Hansen Clobbers Him Again with the Western Lariat but pulls him up at two to start rapid fire punching Tenryu in the cut. He shoves the ref. Uh oh. Tenryu fires up and starts swinging wildly with headshots. Hansen tries to strangle Tenryu to death with his bullrope as he throws Higuchi and Hara around, Higuchi calls for the bell. Absolute chaos as Hansen should be tried for attempted murder! Fucking hell! This was a WAR~! Like I said it is ahead of the Jumbo match because it was kickass from smart. I imagine most people's issue with this if any is the finish. Not just because it is DQ but because he pulled him up. I agree that knocks it down from ***** for me, but not too much. The whole strangling with a bullrope is a perfect, chaotic DQ finish. Everything before that is manly, stiff, beefy, bloody, hated-filled wrestling. Hansen sees red from jump and is just merciless targeting the eye. Tenryu in order to fight fire with fire needs to create a weakness and attacks the ribs. You just get great dueling psychology, with great selling especially from Hansen and tremendous offense from both. When Hansen reared back kicked Tenryu hard as he could and Tenryu's response was to CLEAN HIS CLOCK WITH A FUCK YOU PUNCH AND LARIAT was so fucking epic! I am jacked to the Moon after watching this. Probably the best Hansen singles match between 1984 and 1992, killer. ****3/4

PWF World Heavyweight Champion Stan Hansen vs NWA United National Heavyweight Champion Genichiro Tenryu - AJPW 3/9/88 I would say this is an important match rather than a great match thought it looks like most disagree with me, putting this at #36 for All Japan of the 80s, which seems very high to me. So it begins, we are officially on the road to the Triple Crown! Tenryu defeats Hansen in a shocking, sudden upset with an Inside Cradle and becomes the first man to my knowledge to hold two of the three most important singles titles in All Japan at once. I think it is very interesting that it is Tenryu not Jumbo that has this honor. You could even make the case that this leapfrogged Jumbo as he was now a Double Champion with the PWF Championship being higher than International and a clean, in the middle of the ring victory over Stan Hansen. It will be interested to watch Tenryu vs Jumbo from this year. As for the match, I felt this match was incomplete, a truncated version of a championship match because the finish was so out of nowhere. Tenryu was not bombarding Hansen with Enziguiris, Stiff Lariats, Top Rope Reverse Elbows and Powerbombs in fact it was quite the opposite. He was getting his ass kicked for most of the match. Right before the finish was struggling to get Hansen up, he collapsed on a bodyslam attempt, he failed on a Fisherman's Suplex and a German Suplex. It was a running Inside Cradle that won the day, but the match did not feel finished. This is definitely intentional as it was a way to protect Hansen and build to rematches. It made the viewer wanting more. Was this a fluke? Can he do it again? What would happen if Hansen blasted him with the Western Lariat? The post-match is very interesting as Hansen got his heat back so to speak as he roughed up Tenryu and the announcer and poor Joe Higuchi. It looked like he was going to disfigure Tenryu with his Cowbell when Hara leapt across and puts his body over Tenryu. Hansen robbed Tenryu of his moment in the sun and robbed him a chance to revel in his newfound glory. The rematch is all the hotter now. As for the match itself, if you love a Grade A, Choice-Cut Stan Hansen asskicking served piping hot than you will enjoy this match. They start off red hot just smacking through each other's offense. Tenryu nails an Enziguiri, Hansen kicks and LUNGES AND BOWLS TENRYU OVER TO THE OUTSIDE! From there, the rout is on. I went through and read the Tenryu's thread in the Greatest Wrestler Ever section and it was only reading through OJ's comments that I realized what is often missing from Tenryu, he is far too giving. He is content to sell and play ragdoll for Hansen. I would have loved to seen more struggle and really make Hansen earn this badass offense. Just like how Hansen forces his opponent to earn theirs. In fairness, this was not even Hansen gobbling him up. Hansen was giving him openings. Hansen was eating knees on charges, missing elbow drops and eating offense, BUT Tenryu was not match his intensity on offense. Tenryu was not bringing the goods that Hansen was. Hansen was positively ferocious in this. Wailing chair shots to the back, Boston Crab, Gutwrech and a zillion Cowboy Kicks. He was kicking 50 yd Field Goals across Tenryu's back. There's one in my mind, where he got a running start and really punted him. Like I said Hansen did start to feed Tenryu hope spots, I didnt think Tenryu was doing much with them. It was very alright, solid from him. Hansen was bringing the heat. I went over the finish. I think that covers everything. I really liked their 1986 bout, this pales in comparison to that. The title change is momentual. I dont see it as an all-time great match. ***1/2 for Hansen's performance.