Superstar Sleeze

Mitsuharu Misawa & Kenta Kobashi vs. Dr. Death & Big Bossman - AJPW 11/24/93 Real World Tag League Who says the Four Corners are NOT versatile? They work full-blown Southern tag style with a double face in peril like they have been working it their whole lives. Hell, they even busted out a Rock N Roll Double Dropkick at the end of this match. Mitsu Morton and Kenta Gibson would have gotten over huge in Greenville, SC. Bossman looks absurd in an All Japan ring with his prison guard outfit and night stick. Misawa vs Bossman is the All Japan Triple Crown Title defense you never knew you needed until you watched this. Anyone who has followed Bossman closely knows he would fit in 90s All Japan like a glove. He was filling in for Terry Gordy who had been out for quite some time due to drug related issues. Bossman was a great pick up as he is a similar wrestler. He is an athletic hoss who is a big bumper with a damn good punch. All Japan was the perfect haven for the Mid-South athletic hoss. Bossman got himself over huge with the Japanese crowd. It was a bit of a slow start for him, but after that first uppercut on Misawa and the way Misawa sold it like money, the Japanese crowd was all over him. Even the slightest heel tactics will get the Japanese up in arms because they are so used to everyone playing it straight. So closed fists, double teaming in the corner and dumping Misawa to the outside only to hit him with a nightstick had the crowd wanting Bossman's ass. Misawa looked so comfortable working the Southern Style tag. All the tropes were there and Misawa was selling it all so well. He took the Bossman stradle sold it, waited and got nailed by the signature uppercut. I know Bossman had some matches in All Japan on an early tour in October but Misawa was feeding like a champ. Bossman's uppercut really got over. Another really good Bossman sequence was right at the beginning. It looked straight out of 2019. Bossman does his signature powder runs around the post to come back in but Kobashi followed him and it becomes a foot race into a really cool dropdown sequence that I recommend everyone checking it out. Kobashi took the first FIP and Misawa took the second. After that the action really heated up. This became something really special in the finish stretch. Bossman/Doc looked so damn good that you started believing they would actually win. The Uppercut/Back Drop Driver combo was HUGE! The Double Oklahoma Stampede was also MASSIVE! I really started to bite on the finishes even though you knew the Natives were heavy favorites. I was really surprised how much offense the gaijin team got. Misawa hit some big nasty elbows. There was one to the back of the neck of Bossman that he sold like he shot in the back. Wicked good! I liked Misawa dropkicking Bossman and then Kobashi blasting him with a Lariat. The Double Dropkick towards the end had me marking out! Then they did a Suplex/Frogsplash combo that was awesome! Beautiful German Suplex wins it for our heroes! More Bossman & Dr. Death Please! I will be watching their match against Holy Demon Army and looking forward to it. It is too bad Bossman went to WCW, I get it travelling to Japan cant be easy but selfishly I would have loved to see Bossman stay in All Japan for a couple years would have produced some damn good shit. Misawa & Kobashi gelled with Bossman and the Southern style really well. A huge feather in Misawa & Kobashi's cap to all the naysayers that they could only work one way. ****1/4

I think all y'all are super underrating this match. Definitely a contender for Top 25 All Japan Matches of 90s. It seems like the boys over at Greatest Match Ever, know whats up. Just want to give them a shout out. Kenta Kobashi vs Stan Hansen - All Japan 4/16/93 Greatest rivalry of all time for my money. These two just have insane chemistry with each other. Kobashi has that "live by the sword, die by the sword" mentality. It is almost like he made a promise to himself "I am going to leave it all in the ring and throw everything I have at this Grizzly Bear". They do such a great job setting this tone right from jump. There is this wild brawl that breaks out and Kobashi just dropkicks him. Kobashi ends up outside the ring and he rushes back in and dropkicks him again. Kobashi would NOT BE DENIED! I really feel that is the story of this match. It is Kobashi's tenacity. He was absolutely relentless in his drive to move forward. Hansen tried everything. You named it Hansen tried it. Sleeper/facelocks, throwing wild strikes like bearpaws,elbows & kicks, he tried diving tackles, and he tried powdering, but for 15 straight minutes Kobashi kicked his ass. This was a fucking mugging. Only two things kept this competitive: Hansen's aura (the fact he is damn near unbeatable and that Kobashi has not defeated him yet) and Hansen's constant struggling. I loved during one pinfall attempt Hansen was writhing in pain so Kobashi actually had to wrangle a wriggling Hansen into a cover. (And yes I am proud of myself for getting three "wr" words in the same sentence :p) While Hansen was giving a stellar underneath performance and really making Kobashi EARN that offense, Kobashi was putting on a fucking offensive clinic. Early in the match while they were tussling in the corner, Kobashi snapped Hansen's arm across the top turnbuckle. Kobashi became laser-focused. I mean this was unlike any Kobashi I have ever seen. He zeroed in on that arm like he was an Anderson. Nothing was going to stop him. All those Hansen tricks I mentioned in the first paragraph, Kobashi mowed through them and then got right back on that arm. Dropkicks to the arm, strikes to the arm, holds, he was crushing it. He went for a cross armbreaker three times. Each time, Hansen got more and more desperate at making a comeback. The third and final time saw Kobashi kick his ass on the outside. Then a funny thing happened. It all went horribly awry. There was one weakness is Kobashi's full court press strategy. It left him vulnerable to mistakes. When you constantly pouring on offense, it cane be reversed or countered. Up until the 15 minute mark, Kobashi was wrestling not only a clean match, but a low-risk match. He had wrist control for the majority and his offense was being executed in close quarters. However, he took an unnecessary risk when he dove off the apron trying to shouldertackle Hansen, Hansen evaded and drove Kobashi to the cement floor. Then Hansen BOWLED Kobashi and cemented his advantage with a brutal chair attack. I fucking love this match! Now it is Hansen's turn to kick some ass. He just pummels him. Everything is to Kobashi's head. It is all LOW-risk offense: boots, exposed knee, elbows. Kobashi gets a quick hope spot, Hansen immediately quashes that. Grabs him by the hair and POPS him with an elbow. I love it. Kobashi gets a flurry going and hitting a dropkick. I have never seen Kobashi hit so many dropkicks, he started the match with a dropkick. It is explosive and generates enough momentum to set up more offense. I loved the next sequence. Kobashi wants to sap the Big Man of energy goes for a sleeper. Hansen sells desperation and grabs the hair and rips Kobashi over. Hansen starts throwing desperate swings. He looks like he is rearing up for a Lariat when Kobashi wrangles him into a sleeper! He really cinches it in this time. Way to make him earn it! Great series of nearfalls follows: off the sleeper, then off a furious onslaught of legdrops and then a DDT. Bodyslam->Fist pump->MISSED Moonsault! Again, this has been Kobashi match to lose. He was wrestling again very clean. "Live by the sword, die by the sword". Hansen bowls him over with his charging body weight and then busts out his own dropkick. Kobashi will not be denied and hits a Lariat for 2. Crowd is going bonkers. Kobashi comes charging in and Hansen uses his momentum against him to drive him into the top turnbuckle and then scoop him up into a VICIOUS Back Drop Driver! This is the second time Hansen has used Kobashi's overzealousness against him. He only gets two. Wants the powerbomb, Kobashi sits down on him! Kobashi looks to come off the middle rope. LARIAOTOOOOOOOO! HOLY SHIT! 1-2-3! The best part is that Lariat fits the psychology narrative perfectly. This was the third time Hansen used Kobashi overzealous offense against him. Kobashi dominated this match by full court press, suffocation offense. He was all over Hansen, but in doing so would often come in charging with reckless abandon. Three times Hansen used that against him. On third time, it spelled the end of Kobashi. Did Kobashi come closer than ever to beating Hansen? Yes. It proved it was going to take a combination of all-out offense and intelligence to beat one of the fiercest wrestler ever! Awesome, awesome match! *****

Kenta Kobashi vs Steve Williams - AJPW 8/31/93 Important match in the annals of All Japan lore as Doc has his coming out party. With Gordy's OD and Hansen's age, they strapped the rocket to Dr. Death and pushed him hard as the #1 gaijin. Doc would go on to have an amazing 1994 that single handlely makes him a Top 100 wrestler of all time candidate. It all starts here against Kobashi who was coming off a greatest match of all time candidate with Hansen at 7/29/93. Kobashi was at best #3 in the native pecking order, maybe fourth, we can argue his status with Taue at the time. A win for either man would propel them up the ranks for a Triple Crown title shot against Ace, Misawa. This is a Bill Watts' dream match. Just two big muthas bowing up to each other and daring to the to hit him hard. They were really slashing one another with those chops. I always like how Williams chopped. He just whip those arms like they were belts. He really slice and dice you. Kobashi returned fire with some murderous chops and lariats of his own. There were definitely some really impressive feats of strength in this match. The number one spot that stood out to me was Doc pressing Kobashi over his head. I have seen big, strong wrestlers have trouble doing a press slam if their opponent does not feed right coming off his feet. So for Doc to press Kobashi TWICE from deadlift position shows how FUCKING strong Dr. Death was. That was a gnarly bump Kobashi took when Doc just let him fall to the floor. Not to be outdone, Dr. Death decided to do a back handspring elbow out on the floor. All sorts of athleticism on display from the Boomer Sooner! It was definitely a very bomb heavy match. Kobashi loved DDT at this point in his career, lots of those. Lots of suplexes. Kobashi was using the legdrop a lot. Dr. Death was using a lot of slams. I would say there were three main stories to this match. Would Kobashi finally get a big win? Could Doc apply the dreaded Backdrop Driver? I think they did a great job selling this with two teases and how Kobashi scrambled for the ropes and railing. Each occasion the announcer really did a great job selling how it would be curtains for Kobashi if Doc hit this move. The last story was this big, dumb, jock meathead wrestling. A lot of the transitions were just them No Selling like there were Luger of Sting and bowing up to the other and then taking over. I think my major issue of the match wasnt that there were too many bombs. It is that they were too easy. Each man let themselves be ragdolled for a couple minutes. Then they would hulk up and take over. There were not a lot of missed moves or missed opportunities. It was too "my turn, your turn" for my tastes. This was especially cemented after Kobashi's lengthy sleeper and when it was over and Kobashi went to move to the next spot, Williams just broke and threw his arms up and hit his move. It felt like Smackdown Here Come The Pain where I successfully hit Square at the right time to break my brother's grapple and go on offense. That's how I felt about the body of the match, it was very Kurt Angle. The difference is the match breathes more because people stayed on offense longer, BUT the transitions were piss poor. The finish run was definitely the best part because they played into their characters a lot better than in the body. Plucky underdog Kobashi desperately going for covers after the superplex first with DDTs and then legdrogs then German then finally the fist pump moonsault 1-2-NO! When you first dont succeed, try, try again, this time the moonsault eats the knees. I thought this was the best part of the match because there was some meaningful struggle in who would gain the upper hand as Kobashi was still valiant. Doc counters with the Oklahoma Stampede. Kobashi tries to bring him down after the kickout with a sleeper, but Doc wrangles him into an insane Back Drop Driver on his fucking head. WOW! That should have been the finish, but this being All Japan we need two more, but goddamn those were wicked! Most people take umbrage with the finish, I loved it. I thought there was great escalation, awesome nearfall for Kobashi with moonsault, good competition after the failed moonsault leading to an cool way into first Backdrop Driver. My issue is with the body of the match, I thought it lacked struggle and the offense was NOT earned and it was too "my turn, your turn". Offense looked great and I love power offense but with so much good wrestling these things stand out. Fun match, but not an elite All Japan match. ****

Robert is definitely right. This is not a Macron issue, but scientists are struggling with the fact this is NOVEL and nothing is obvious. A lot of this has to do with can the virus be transmitted from inanimate objects and how long does it take for the virus to be inactivated without a host. I think the idea behind people not wearing masks was to keep the masks for the frontline workers. It clearly does not hurt to wear mask. I am pro-mask wearing but as a person in the scientific community for a shoot, nothing should be taken as obvious.

Hey Stacey, not a bother, dont be sorry! We will have plenty of time. Right now, pro wrestling is the low man on the totem pole no matter what the McMahons may think. If you need time to find your wrestling smile again thats fine. I have enjoyed our recording sessions. Nintendo Jesus dude! What is your major malfunction? Victim-blame much! Who are you to tell Drake Maverick how he should feel! It is fine if you feel that in that situation you would tell them to fuck off. I totally get that. But to call Drake Maverick, pathetic. I dont know man. That's pretty damn low.

Yoji Anjoh vs Kiyoshi Tamura - UWFi 7/3/91 God, I love shoot style. The little things like the way takedowns are EARNED. How many times have we seen a guy just passively follow on a headlock takedown (albeit a lot safer to got with the motion of the takedown)? Here each takedown either looks like a rip OR it is just straight up blocked. Like uh uh I aint going there. I love it. There was one time Tamura was selling a midsection kick and on the subsequent oo-soto-gari he collapses instead of following through on the takedown and it was great. I really enjoyed the takedowns and the takedown defense throughout this match. Takedowns are really an underutilized part of today's wrestling landscape and I would love to see them make a comeback. I thought Tamura was the feistier of the two. Apparently, this was only Tamura's ninth match and he is filled with piss & vinegar. He is the one slapping and more prone to wild strikes. Anjoh is forcing Tamura to take a lot of rope breaks. Some really good Tamura selling on the way he scrambled to the ropes on a submission hold. I think my favorite spot of the match was when Anjoh landed a Super Tiger-esque flying knee to the head of Tamura when he was in the ropes. Personally, I felt this was a dick move and UWFi should have deducted three points from Anjoh for unsportmanslike conduct but he was awarded the knockdown and Tamura was subtracted three points. Either it was a sick spot and made Tamura even more of an underdog. Oh yes, the crowd how I can forget the crowd! Molten crowd! They were popping for Tamura's first takedown within 60 seconds of the match starting like Austin's music had just hit. Holy shit this crowd loved Tamura! I loved how into every detail they were. This was a smart fucking crowd and not smart in the ECW mutant sense but smart in the sense they love pro wrestling and understand the craftsmanship. I loved the crowd. There was another moment I loved. You are watching the legs because Anjoh is going for some sort of leg lace/toehold but next thing you know Tamura traps the arm into a vicious double wristlock which could be a legit submission. Shit, like that is the fun of wrestling. You are watching something and then out of left field boom. It was Volk Han-esque rabbit out of his ass magic. I was 50/50 on the finish. Lots of Japanese wrestling is booked that they person that takes the majority of the match loses but also rookie/young lions tend to lose. So I couldnt decide when Tamura went down huge in terms of points I think it was 12-4 that he was going to get the flash submission or not. Ultimately Anjoh finished with a wicked single crab, tough toehold, but Tamura was clearly game and clearly over. Very fun and great shoot-style! ****1/4

Hulk Hogan vs Vince McMahon - WrestleMania XIX Street Fight This has been gotten some play recently as a surprisingly great match so I thought I'd check it out as on paper it is not something I have ever felt compelled to watch. It is two of the all-time great characters in wrestling history. They do a great job building the match bringing up Hogan testifying against McMahon is a great touch. McMahon is just one of the best heels ever. I love him stabbing the pen into Hogan's open wound and then signing the contract. He is so good at being the reprehensible corporate boss. He has such great facial expressions. I have always though McMahon's greatest redeeming quality is his intelligence to always show ass and let himself look like the fool at the end of the day. This is a bit different than most McMahon matches where he usually just gets his ass kicked the whole time. In this match, he does work on top quite a bit. It is funny that the man that I always assumed hated limb psychology uses it here. He is targeting Hogan's arm and he even works a hammerlock! McMahon's biggest impediment to being a great wrestler is that he is tremendously uncoordinated and stiff (stiff in the sense that he is not limber. He is not stiff in how hard he hits). Once both men start bleeding buckets, this picks up. Lots of steel chair shots. The one that popped me the most is Hogan hits Hugo the Spanish announcer in the head with a chair (stiff shot, unprotected) and busts him open. I've never seen anything like that before and totally caught me off guard. Vince hitting a legdrop off the ladder was pretty insane and unexpected. There is a classic Vince face when he has the Crimson Mask and is getting the lead pipe from under the ring. It was clear in the production meeting told everyone he would be doing a Vince face and make sure to get it as we get a close-up and Michael Cole screaming that "we are looking into eyes of Satan". I bet Vince believes "it is better to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven.". Hogan stops the lead pipe with a ballshot; McMahon was the first to used a ballshot for the record. Here's RODDY! Oh shit I forgot about this. Then Mr. America floods back into my head. I was like O Hogan must lose because they keep saying Hogan's career is on the line. Piper blasts Hogan with the pipe. Im like Ok this is it. 1-2-Kickout. That's weird. Here comes crooked ref Sylvain Grenier! Shit I forgot about him! Ok this must be it, Vince drops the leg. Still no! HULK UP! WHAT A FUCKING HULK UP! SEATTLE EXPLODED~! Hogan decks McMahon and then sends the evil Quebecois ref packing. Hogan drops the Leg not once, not twice, but THREE TIMES! 1-2-3! Huge pop! Weird! I thought for sure because of Mr. America Hogan would lose they must have gotten him fired some other way. The Hulk Up & Hogan win was clearly the right thing to do and almost always when Vince is in the ring he does the right thing, he is the one left looking up at the lights. This definitely overdelivered. Hogan was still moving around quite well at this point in his life. McMahon bled, made his heel faces and jumped off a fucking ladder through a table so you cant ask for much more. I think there could have been more gimmicks personally. My favorite street fights have cowboy boots, belts, and powder at least and they greats have fire balls. So I enjoyed this, but I thought it was still a bit tame. ***1/2

Best of WWE 2010-2014 Part 3...#12-#7 This period is such an embarrassment of riches and varied that no single man repeats once during any of the six matches. Usually when we think of great workrate eras, there is a dominant person(s), Four Corners in AJPW 90s, Lawler in Memphis, Flair in Crockett, Tanahashi & Okada in New Japan, or Bret & Shawn in WWF 90s. The WWE 2010-2014 had such a balanced attack that you really got a lot of different looks from the talent. In this volume, the 2010 WWE Match of the Year is unveiled, the crown jewel of the Hall of Pain run and the match that made me join PWO in order to defend its honor. This match is a hill I am willing to die on. Click on the link and check it & see. https://ridingspacemountain.blogspot.com/2020/04/pro-wrestling-love-vol-55-best-of-wwe.html

Best of WWE 2010-2014 Part 1...#18-#13 WWE was so damn good between 2010-2014 that we are breaking this down in 4 parts! This part is chock full of NXT as a whopping 4 out of 6 matches come from the "development" league, lets be real, its WWE's take on a "Super Indy". Sami Zayn was the heart & soul of NXT and was on a babyface run of life time. Find out what NXT matches made it and what two main show matches made it by clicking below. We are at the halfway point! https://ridingspacemountain.blogspot.com/2020/04/pro-wrestling-love-vol-54-best-of-wwe.html

NWA US Tag Team Champions Barry Windham & Ronnie Garvin vs Dick Murdoch & Ivan Koloff - NWA World Championship Wrestling 3/14/87 The short-lived tag team of Windham & Garvin had some great matches against the Midnight Express but here they are having another great match with the equally short-lived tag team of Ivan Koloff & Dick Murdoch. The fans were yelling "traitor" at Murdoch so Nikita's babyface turn has not bridged the gap for all Soviets. Uncle Ivan has a Nikita replacement named Vladimir Petrov. Stone Cold Steve Austin really broke the mold when he shaved his head. Up until that point it was only Commie bastards that shaved their heads. BW pretty much goes full Ricky Morton and wrestles the entire match and on his own and he is just fantastic. His combination of size, fire and power make the perfect lead babyface for a promotion. Cryin' shame he never got that main event run like he should have had. I have not seen too much of Uncle Ivan, but he is a pitbull in there. He gives Garvin a run for his money in terms of tenacity. Koloff vs Garvin began the match and there were some good fire fighting here. There is a lot of chinlockery on Garvin, but Garvin tags in Windham right before the commercial. Windham is rocking into the ad break. I loved how the Windham heat segment was so fluid. He was taking heat but he was fighting back too. He was not a ragdoll. There was a real sense f struggle but also definitive momentum shifts set up by either Windham missing moves (dropkick, or kneedrop) or catching Uncle Ivan on the top (first coming down and then crotching him). This leads to a great powerslam nearfall. Also Windham is able to get a great atomic drop on Dicky Murdoch sold like only he can and then catches him with the right. BW was his own house of fire, but on the same token when he missed move. They went right back to work. Murdoch rode him down the knee from the top. Windham's selling from his pummeling was top notch. WIndham hits his lariat. Tony says he needs to roll over. I wish David added "But which way?" does he roll over for the cover or the tag? He makes the tag! Garvin is a glorious house of fire, chopping everything in sight. HANDS OF STONE~! Murdoch and the big fakes Russian get involved but Garvin & Windham fend them off. What he cant fend off is Jim Cornette and Bobby Eaton. He gets a hold of Cornette but Eaton blasts with a racket. Koloff/Murdoch win the US Tag titles. Put some more heat on MX vs Windham/Garvin feud and keeps the MX hot. I dont really know what happens to Koloff & Murdoch as a team. Murdoch would go onto have an all-time classic that year with Windham in the NWA-owned UWF. This is a great exhibition of Barry Windham's talents. ***3/4

NWA World TV Champion Arn Anderson vs Ronnie Garvin - JCP World Championship Wrestling 3/1/86 Anderson, Garvin, Studio Wrestling for the TV Title with the Nature Boy on commentary sign me up. This is pro wrestling, daddy. I love the studio crowd chanting "Break it" when Garvin has AA in the arm wringer. Anderson controls with wristlocks and such. Garvin looks to chop his way out of trouble. AA puts over the danger of the Hands of Stone by taking a powder. It can be over in a snap of the fingers. Garvin has a puncher's chance. Garvin works his control segment with a lot of holds around the head. He really cranked Arn's head at one point. Anderson takes back over and works, the back with a bearhug. It starts to be finish time and Arn starts to milk that clock. Powders again for the Hands of Stone. Garvin puts on the ab stretch as time expires. Flair distracts and Anderson hits the Front Suplex to put Garvin down. Not as good as that 87 match but this is still good craic. *** I recommend the Flair promo from this show and his squash match. He pummels the jabroni and you get to see some good Flair offense.

I have no idea the correct date I am going off the youtube link. It is definitely 1987 as Luger hoists Dusty up in the torture rack and it is also before Garvin before won title. Ronnie Garvin vs Arn Anderson - NWA Superbouts 9/26/87 Garvin has not yet won the World Championship when this is taped but he was within a month of winning it. Classic warmup match as the challenger takes on the Enforcer. This match has such a great slow grind to it. They barely bump but they make every move mean something and feel like a struggle. Arn wrestles almost the entire beginning in the standup position with a headlock clamped on Garvin. Great use of JJ too to keep Garvin distracted. Garvin eventually mounts his comeback on the outside and he just tees off on Arn. Dusty was phenomenal on commentary. When Garvin is working over Arn's head, Dusty lets us know thats important because "Thats where the brain is!". That popped me. Then when Garvin cracked Arn with one of his right handed chops, Dusty says he smacked "his left titty off". Then Dusty apologizes because he is on national TV. I had a good laugh. Arn gets a hold of the arm and tries to tear it off. It makes sense because it was causing him a lot of pain. Arn takes the Flair press slam off the top. Garvin roars! I am surprised Arn took the Hands of Stone twice for a nearfall, first time was near ropes and second time was a straight kick out. Garvin goes for the figure-4 as an F-U to Flair. AA rakes the ref's eyes and here comes the Horsemen. Dusty leaves commentary to save but ends up in a Torture Rack. BW, Koloff and RnRs save. Very fun old school Southern bout thats really enhanced by Dusty's enthusiasm on commentary. ***1/2

NWA US Champion Lex Luger vs Barry Windham - NWA World Championship Wrestling 9/19/87 You can see how influence Lex Luger is by Ric Flair in both his working style and post-match promo. The babyface shine is all about him getting shown up. He is powdering constantly. He is getting thwarted constantly. He is making BW look like a million bucks. Luger tries to cheat, Windham overcomes. Luger tries to wrestle, Windham sends him on his ass packing. The Windham punch that has Luger scurrying was great. Both men are playing their roles so well. Windham misses a dropkick and Luger rolls Snake Eyes. We head to an ad break. I was disappointed Luger didnt get more of a heat segment. Bearhug and I really liked Barry's counter, a belly to belly suplex. The finish stretch is great. Windham has to EARN that suplex. We get the lariat and a big missile dropkick for the false finish where JJ intervenes. Windham coldcocks JJ to a HUGE pop. Here comes The Enforcer. He trips Windham and Luger hits a standing elbow drop and we are supposed buy that as a nearfall. Gimme a break. Horsemen beatdown. Luger hoists him up in the Torture Rack. Someone needs to bring that back. I love that move. Windham wins by DQ and the fans pop for that. Ahhhhhh the 1980s, a simpler time. Luger's promo is so Flair but he keeps stumbling over himself it's funny. I liked the work but it felt abridged these two have a great match in them, but I am not sure we ever get it. ***1/4

I guess I never posted my review. This review is from late 2013 or early 2014. I cant believe it has been over 6 years since I have seen this! Antonio Cesaro vs Sami Zayn - NXT 08/21/13 2 out of 3 Falls For my money, Cesaro has his masterpiece of his 2013 campaign against Sami Zayn (if you are like me and have trouble keeping straight all the WWE rebranding, Zayn is El Generico) on NXT in a blowoff to a series of four matches. I went in totally cold to this match and was only aware of it because places like the Wrestling Culture podcast pimped it so heavily. I believe that all matches are helped when placed in context, but in a testament to this match's greatness it is bitchin' even in a vacuum. Part of that is due to the announcers doing their job (fancy that!) and explaining that Cesaro is a pompous prick and had called anyone out of the locker room and Zayn responded and got a fluke win. In order to negate this flash pin scenario, they are having 2 out Of 3 Falls match to prove who is the better wrestler (fancy that a feud over who is the better wrestler!). Zayn's strategy from the outset is very similar to Ziggler's. It is full court press suffocation of Cesaro. He immediately dives onto Cesaro when he is making his entrance and then whips him in hits a Yakuza Kick in the corner and wins the first fall. This plays off perfectly the first match and demonstrates why Cesaro has requested 2 out of 3 falls because he falls prey to flash pins. Also, it establishes Zayn's strategy of suffocating Cesaro. Cesaro tries coming at Zayn and rolling away, but neither strategy gets anything going for Cesaro However, it only takes a couple of minutes before Cesaro is finally able to hotshot Zayn and just lay in some wicked shots. Cesaro has one of the best chinlocks since the 80s because of they way he grips and sells it, but it is Zayn who really makes it by how hard he is fighting the chinlock by trying to break up Cesaro's grip. It is NOT how many moves you have or what moves you do. It is how you do your moves that is what these two proved by making the chinlock an interesting point of the match. It makes sense that Cesaro wants to sap the energy of the dynamo, Zayn and contain him while he is rejuvenates. In some of his main show WWE matches, Cesaro is a bit too neutral. He wrestles sort of like a puro wrestler where face and heel lines blur, but here he really embraces his heelishness and just treats Zayn like a punk. Of course, Zayn shows him up on some of his strongman's spots like countering the gutwrench into a sunset flip. I have to say two of my favorite Cesaro spots (maybe someone has done it before) was the bridging fall away slam and the superplex with the opponent on the apron, just very impressive visuals. Zayn seems like he is going to mount a comeback with a dropkick, but Cesaro wrangles him in a chinlock swings him around and Zayn has no choice, but to tap. The third fall is the perfect climax to the story of Cesaro's strength versus Zayn's elusiveness. If Cesaro can catch Zayn, Zayn is dead in the water, but if Zayn can wriggle free he has a shot. Cesaro follows up his second fall win with a huge European upper cut in the corner and he trash talks Zayn. It becomes a war of chinlocks versus rollups and it is high drama throughout. Zayn mounts his big comeback hitting this crazy powerbomb that needs to be seen to be fully appreciated. Cesaro powders, but Zayn does not let up and dives through the turnbuckles to hit a tornado DDT on the floor. Holy shit, the kid might just pull this one off! They tease the countout victory. Back in the ring, Zayn goes for the tornado DDT again, then there is a finish to end all finishes with Cesaro running around and tossing Zayn up into an European Uppercut to win. This is a truly incredible match that embodies everything that makes wrestling great: Bully vs underdog, Strength vs. speed, struggle, playing off early matches, great build, bitchin' spots, awesome layout and a tremendous finish. ****1/2

Best of WWE 2010-2014 Part 1...#24-#19 I became a fan in August of 1997. I have two favorite times of being a fan from 1997-2001 (when I was a kid, everything is better when you are a kid) and from 2012-2014. For me my favorite time from WWE was 2012-2014. From an in-ring perspective the WWE was never and has never been as good as it was from 2012-2014. It was so good that normally I do a Top 12, but I could contain my excitement for this time period so we are doing a Four-Part, Top 24 to represent how glorious this period was. Shoutout to Jimmy Redman for her love of WWE and exposing to me to so much great wrestling. Her Top 100 List of the Best WWE Matches to take place in 2013 alone is the greatest list ever put together and is an invaluable resource in exploring this treasure trove of great matches. Also I would be remiss not to mention to not sleep on the honorable mentions. A lot of these honorable mentions are rated at ****1/2 and are excellent matches in their own right they just happen to occur in the most stacked time period in WWE history. https://ridingspacemountain.blogspot.com/2020/04/pro-wrestling-love-vol-53-best-of-wwe.html

Three matches from the year 2010 made my Top 100 Best WWE Matches of All Time: Undertaker vs Rey Mysterio - Royal Rumble 2010 Undertaker vs Shawn Michaels - WrestleMania XXVI Sheamus vs John Morrison - TLC 2010 Ladder Match ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- CM Punk vs Rey Mysterio - Over The Limit 2010 just missed the cut. This blog post I just published today should help people who are interested into digging into 2010-2014 era. https://ridingspacemountain.blogspot.com/2020/04/pro-wrestling-love-vol-53-best-of-wwe.html

I have found out by accidentally not posting out here the link to Pro Wrestling Love vol. 52 that the majority of the views come from here. So I want thank everyone for reading! This is the Top 6 Matches of WWE from 2005-2009! Can Cena stave off the career resurgence of Shawn Michaels to hold on the top spot? http://ridingspacemountain.blogspot.com/2020/04/pro-wrestling-love-vol-52-best-of-wwe.html?m=1

Rob Van Dam & Bill Alfonso vs Tommy Dreamer & Beulah McGullicutty - ECW As Good As It Gets 9/20/97 I have always heard about the fabled Fonzie vs Beulah match where Fonzie taps a gusher. But I have never been able to find it because I kept searching for it as a singles match. I never realized it happened under the guise of a tag team match with RVD and Dreamer. I am really unfamiliar with ECW in 1997 and onwards. I am pretty sure this is an offshoot of RVD as Mr. Monday Night wanting to work for WWF and Tommy Dreamer being the pious defender of all things EXTREME. I am pretty sure Dreamer is shoot injured because ain't nobody that good at selling. He is hobbling around with a significant limp. He kicks RVD's ass. RVD is a total load. He is terrible at bumping and feeding for Dreamer. Sabu comes out. Now the double team begins on Dreamer. They do a Legdrop/Frogsplash combo through the table. RVD & Sabu are gonna hit the showers and tell Fonzie take care of their light work. This is where the fun begins... Fonzie turns his hat backwards and he is total cocky prick thinking he has got this. I got give the ECW mutants credit they were 100% behind Beulah from jump. They were molten for her. I was afraid they would be a bunch of He-Man, Woman-Haters, but I am happy to be pleasantly surprised. Beulah CRACKS Fonzie with a steel pan that she was hiding under her shirt. Fonzie gigs himself real good and it is a Five-Alarm Bladejob. Beulah is a trooper for letting that man bleed all over her that's pretty gross. If they stayed away from Irish Whips, this would have been great. Beulah just has no strength. Fonzie makes up for it by throwing himself into each bump. They even let Fonzie get some heat. When he went for the low, blow I thought they play it for comedy, but she sold it. Choking with the whistle cord was great. Beulah blocks suplexes better than 90% of the modern roster. DDT->1,2,NO! They did a false finish I love it! Fonzie's selling is so damn great and gets cocky going for a moonsault. Tree of Woe with a dropkick into the chair into the face is great. These are the perfect Beulah spots! Great setup for the Beulah-canrana and 1,2,3! Awesome bloody spectacle. Beulah doing Dreamer's spots and working the crowd was great. Fonzie was the star of this show. He was the ultimate stooge! I cant believe it took me this long to see this match, but yes this deserves its reputation. A great piece of pro wrestling! ****

I dont know where you want to put this. This is the tag match from Orgy of Violence where PG-13 wins and Jason returns. This is not the one that made the Yearbook. This was aired on ECW Hardcore TV on 7/8 but it takes place on 6/28. I dont know if you are doing match date or air date for ECW. PG-13 vs Mikey Whipwreck & Spike Dudley - ECW Orgy of Violence 6/28/97 Unfortunately, this is clipped on ECW Hardcore TV. I need to track down the full version because this was a blast. I think I have a new favorite spot in wrestling. JC Ice thrusts his hips into Mikey's face saying "Mikey likes it, Mikey like it, Mikey really likes it" only for Mikey to grab him by the nutsack! JC Ice sells it like a million bucks even getting on the house mic to call for a timeout in a very high pitched voice! That was great. Tons of hell miscommunication. Tons of heat-seeking by PG-13. Great Frankensteiner by Wolfie that really spikes Spike into the middle turnbuckle. Great punches by Wolfie too. The babyfaces were fine but this was the PG-13 show and it was great. I know this is blasphemy to some but this is the first time I have watched a PG-13 match and I really enjoyed it. I need track down the full version. The finish is Jason returns and drags Mikey under the ring and PG-13 doubles teams Lil Spike for the win. I liked this, I really liked this!

Raven & Stevie Richards vs Tommy Dreamer & Mikey Whipwreck - ECW Enter Sandman 5/13/95 Ahhhh yes back when Heyman was actually a booking genius. I love how they weave Shane Douglas' grievances with the company & the state of pro wrestling into Fonzie storyline so that the Raven/Dreamer can have a match but not give too much away and then leads to Douglas cutting a great post-match promo trying to goad Dreamer into smoking Fonzie so that Fonzie can sue and shut the promotion down. Here's Catcus, pre-anti-hardcore Catcus, coming out to tell Shane to knock it off and Shane just gets right back up in his face. At the time, I think Sandman was the heel and these two were babyfaces. I dont know I need to go back and watch ECW TV. 1995 was such a great year for ECW. I love how the characters are all woven together. The match is nothing special. A lot of people seem to like Mikey Whipwreck but he is very meh to me. Stevie Richards is where it is at. I love a good comedic idiot act and Stevie's one of the best. I remain a Raven mark mostly for the character, angles and promos, but he was not as bad people make him out to be in the ring. I like how his sloth-like characters will get shown up by the DIY punk Whipwreck and then he would get pissed and immediately tackle Mikey because his pride got injured. I like how tried to really hurt Mikey by hurling him off the top onto the concrete. Then stereo DDTs by Raven and Dreamer on each other's partner on the concrete was a great mirror touch. In reality, the match was a backdrop to establish and get over the new mega-heel in ECW, referee Bill Alfonzo. ECW was all about disestablishment, anarchy, DIY, no rules. So Alfonso enforcing rules and AUTHORITY really pissed off the fans. So when Dreamer is going to give chase to Richards at the beginning of the match only for Fonzie to stop him drew HUGE Bullshit chants. The other thing they were trying to get over was that Dreamer wanted to beat Raven. He had Richards dead to rites with a DDT but refused the cover wanting to pin Raven, another important plot point. Imagine that actual plot points in the middle of matches! What happened to pro wrestling! After the mirror DDT spot on the concrete, they start brawling and Dreamer throws a punch and Fonzie calls for the bell. Disqualifying Dreamer for using a closed fist! YES! YES! A MILLION TIMES YES! Fonzie says he has "an open hand policy". I love it. As an angle this damn near *****, really genius stuff, as for a wrestling match it is very ok, pedestrian. But who cares? Give me a great damn angle with great characters any day!

Sabu vs Mikey Whipwreck - ECW Massacre on Queens Blvd 4/12/96 Mikey Whipwreck hits probably the worst German/Back suplex in history as he hugs Sabu to the mat at one point. I know Mikey's gimmick was that he didnt how to wrestle and that he was a rookie, but I think sometimes it was a bit too on the nose. The DIY, feel good, raw, unrefined, punk wrestler is a good idea for a gimmick because the fans can live their fantasies through him but if you are going to try a German/Back Suplex have it countered is all Im saying. This is better than their rematch as it is more balls to the wall, but there still sometimes when the match plods. Mikey tries from a weak armbar at one point after a hot stretch. After Mikey gets control towards, it plods again. I really liked the Sabu spots in this match. We get to see the Triple Jump Moonsault, the Slingshot Somersault Legdrop and some really spectacular table crashes. The first is really organic. Sabu sets the table up on the guardrail. They tease it a couple times. Then you kinda forget about it and Mikey just organically shoves Sabu off the top through the table! Excellent! I like how the match is symmetrical and even a hack like Joey Styles can see that. For every Sabu spot, Mikey gets in one of his own. They each trade dives into the crowd and moves off the top. They idea is to make a big deal that Sabu respects Mikey because he will refuse to shake the debuting Rob Van Dam's hand in the coming weeks. Heyman was an excellent booker at one point. The best spot in this whole match is Sabu goes flying from the ring over the top rope obliterating a table in the crowd with his ass. It was tremendous! Sabu's selling was spot on. Fan helping him up, using a chair to get over the guardrail. Then he finishes the match with his classic awesome right hand, horse collaring Mikey and then Top Rope Frankensteiner for the win. I love Sabu, Mikey is pretty lame in my eyes, fun match. ***1/4

Sabu vs Mikey Whipwreck - ECW Allentown 6/18/96 Lets get this out of the way, this is a psychology nightmare. The progression and transitions suck. However, this match is still fun because Sabu is just amazing to watch. He has such a great aura to him and his spots are wild. He is so good at selling general pain. He has the best punch that no one ever talks about. His right hand is great. I have not seen too much of Mikey but he's pretty good especially as far as ECW talent goes. Sabu is in the midst of his first feud with RVD where his neck got injured. So he has a neck brace on but that doesnt slow him down one bit. Each man dives into the audience. Sabu takes a tornado DDT on his injured neck but he's fine! What a trooper! The thing with Sabu you actually do believe him not selling it just because he is a freak. Whipwreck puts him through a table and hits another move off the top. Sabu's punch is a thing of beauty. Sabu hits a pop up powerbomb 20 years before Owens. The Sabu legdropping Whipwreck head into a chair was gnarly and he dented the chair. Sabu Springboard DDTs him through a table because he is Sabu. Great climax. Whipwreck did some stuff but this is a Sabu match through and through, so it has a lot of pitfalls of weird progressions and some Feng Shui wrestling, but the spots are great, his right hand is strong and he is just so cool. ***

Pro Wrestling Love vol. 51 is coming at you with the Best WWE has to offer from 2005-2009 part 1! This era sees Cena & Batista winning their first World Titles at 2005's edition of WrestleMania. I can consider this the First Wave of Cena Era. I think in 2010 he really became the Man. In 2005-2009, he had a lot of support from Attitude Era stars like HHH, Shawn Michaels, Undertaker, Kurt Angle (until 2006), Chris Jericho and Rey Mysterio. In addition, he had his contemporaries like Batista, Randy Orton and Edge to shoulder the burden. What I love about this era is that no real canon has ever been established! So there are a ton of what I believe head-turners and shockers on this list! So check it out! This era is a treasure trove of hidden gems! https://ridingspacemountain.blogspot.com/2020/03/pro-wrestling-love-vol-51-best-of-wwe.html

Omega or Cody is exactly who should win. The title needs to be established. The WWE has screwed up the secondary titles with 20+ years of terrible booking. The Intercontinental Championship used to be only on #2 face or #2 heel none of these midcard nobodies with 50/50 booking. Cody should win because he actually feels like a star. I say this as someone who loves Darby Allin. His time will come. Bret Hart was not pushed for 6 years, but was protected. The problem is all these start-stop pushes. Darby doesnt need a stupid start/stop push.

WWE Champion John Cena vs Shawn Michaels - RAW 4/23/07 Shawn Michaels wrestles his ode to the NWA World Championship match without being the World Champion. At first, this kinda miffed me. Why is Cena acting like an upstart challenger. Telling Michaels, he is the close to beating him with the STFU on three occasions or the FU. Then I remember Cena is still being established. Winning the Championship in 2005 is one thing, staying there is another. Cena needs to prove everyone especially the veterans, he is no fluke. I think thats what this match is about. Michaels is not wrestling as Flair or Race. This is not a big bumping performance. This is a subtle heel Jack Brisco or Lou Thesz performance that even his archrival and king of the subtle heel, Bret Hart would be proud of. Michaels begins as an aggressive challenger working wristlocks and fireman carrys to try to gain an advantage and each time it is summarily countered almost into STFU, three times to be exact and each time Cena lets HBK know he is this close to beating him. Shawn, frustrated, slaps Cena and Cena responds with a big right hamhock. Thats the end of Act 1. Establishes Cena is not a big, dumb oaf. That he will not be intimidated by the moment or by wrestling. He can counter and is sure of himself. Shawn's opening strategy of taking the fight to Cena almost backfired three times and he needs to switch gears. Act II really establishes the Cena power game. This is a much better version of the Butch Reed vs Ric Flair side headlock matches. Cena and Reed have a lot in common in terms of build, presence and offensive ability. One thing that I often am disappointed about in First Wave John Cena (2005-2010) is that he wrestles a Lawler or Savage babyface style meaning he rushes into taking heat and then just makes a triumphant comeback. The shine is so critical in getting the audience invested and fired up. Going right to the heat segment is like going right into the breakdown of a song. This match we really get to see Cena shine and establish that power game. You get the sense of Cena's strength advantage and that HBK is in for a long night. Cena works the headlock, clothesline and shouldertackles well and more importantly Michaels sells it well especially when outside of the hold. I like HBK using roughhouse counters like a reverse elbow sound well by Cena and Michaels sells the damage of the headlock well even at this point. This is not a strong enough transition and Cena hits a big, meaty clothesline. Michaels out of desperation tries for Sweet Chin Music but he is no position to surprise the dominant Champion who evades and hoists Michaels up and almost hits an FU if it was not for the ropes. Thats the end of Act II which is Cena's shine through the power game climaxing with Cena almost hitting the FU. Act III as one would expect is when we transition to a heat segment. One issue I have with First Wave Cena (2005-2010) is that he tends to oversell at the beginning of the heat segment. He does not have levels or a gradual way of selling. You would have thought Cena had endured 10 minutes of brutal torture after just a couple Michaels chops. This is unfortunate. A strong transition is what is needed. It turns out that they were not going into heat, but rather Cena was overacting. It is called a register, brutha. Cena uses that power game to catch Michaels and turn into a powerslam, then a Fisherman Suplex and then a Throwback. All gaining minor nearfalls to build the drama. Shawn Michaels hits a swinging neckbreaker which is a lame transition and they lose me going into some Boo/Yay, FIghting Spirit stuff for no reason. Flying Burrito. I guess they are just going for it. Double Count for drama which is good, kip up. Top rope elbow of course, it is too early for Sweet Chin Music so he settles for a backslide, which is odd. Cena misses a shoulder tackle. Now thats a strong transition. Cena takes a hard bump on the mat and skids to the floor. Michaels shoves Cena into the steel steps to cement his advantage and create a weakness in his arms. I like that Michaels did some of his normal comeback stuff early to make the fans believe this could end at any time and then organically create the hook for the heat segment proper with the shove into the steps. There were some efficiency issues (boo/yay) and Cena overselling issues, but some strong moments. Michaels hitting the big elbow signals to fans this could be over any minute. The Cena missed shouldertackle is a great transition and the steel steps sets up the effective heat segment. Act IV does not go as long as I would liked. Shawn did a great job torturing the arm. We werent quite at Dick Murdoch but that is in part due to the fact that it was cut short in my opinion. Shawn varied his attack and Cena did a great job selling. Before you know it we went into the typical Cena comeback sequence. I did like Cena yelling at his arm to fucking shape up before the Fist Drop. He even hit the FU and only two. Act V is Cena working the back with big power offense. Running the back into the post, bearhug. As is typical in big Cena matches when the FU fails he hits the Top Rope Leg Drop to the back of the head for two. Michaels gets a sunset flip powerbomb as the playing field is levelled and we enter the last phase of the match. Act VI is right after the double count by the ref...Cena goes for the STFU which Lawler lets us know is how Shawn lost at Mania. Good commentary King I had forgotten that. Michaels evades and shoves Cena off the apron onto the announce table. HBK wants to go to for that iconic spot from the Mania match where he piledrives Cena on the steel steps but Cena backdrops him on his bad back. Back in the ring, Cena finally locks in the STFU. Rope break. Good STFU, looked like a choke rather than two forearms across the face. Michaels goes for Sweet Chin Music but Cena has it scouted. Cena wants FU but Michaels creates separation for Sweet Chin Music! He does not cover immediately. Cena needs the ropes to avoid the 3 count. I liked the symmetry between the STFU and Sweet Chin music there. JR telegraphs the finish when he reminds us that this is non-title. I didnt know. As soon as I think I wonder if Michaels wins, he lands on his feet on a FU and BANG! Sweet Chin Music and collapses on top of Cena. This is a good representation that wins and losses to a certain extent dont matter. Shawn gets his win back from Mania. Cena never had the rubber match to go up 2-1 but Cena still is a way bigger star than Shawn ever was. Cena is a big star because he won when it mattered most and had a very high winning percentage. My point is that it is not that wins and losses matter or don't matter, it is context and the story being told that matters. The result of the match has long since been forgotten but what is left is a match everyone remembers as a classic. Now it is not like Dolph Ziggler going out proclaiming he is going to steal the show. This is a match where each man is trying to win and the by-product is entertainment as opposed to Ziggler whose goal is to entertain the fans. It is weird to call a 55 minute match rushed but it kind of was. I think theres a lot of things they could have flesh out. I think they did a really great job at the beginning. Michaels proved himself to be great at working on top in the 21st Century and I think he could have done more with the arm. I did like the story of Cena pummeling Michaels but Shawn always had a puncher's chance because of Sweet Chin Music. I watched this 2-3 times before and I knew I liked it but didnt think I loved it so I left it off my top 100 WWF/E matches of all time. This match totally belongs up there and I know exactly which match it will replace (Backlund/Valentine October 1981 that finish is dreadful). Awesome NWA Championship style match. ****1/2