RyanClingman

- Finish the 80s comps I have - Follow the indies more - Support South African indies - Get Jan Wilkens research done - Read as much as I can - Finish the 2000s puro list

I wouldn't consider myself a Prince Devitt fan, which probably makes me the wrong person to answer this question, but I do enjoy some of his work. As far as the style goes pre-heel turn Devitt was won of the best at it. From an execution, timing and instincts perspective he knew what to do and when to do them in front of a New Japan audience. His selling is pretty patchy a lot of the time though, which is an indictment of the style and Devitt to some degree. Still, Devitt on a great day is good, and Devitt on a bad day is very good at the mechanical aspects of flying. One of my favourite matches of his over the past few years is his match with Alex Shelley from 2013/04/05. Devitt in his current role is a different story given that I am really not a big fan of the act, and I find even some of the more highly praised Tanahashi matches pretty grating. However, he did have one very good match with Gedo on 2013/07/05 though.

Dean, I understand where you are coming from in terms of the Dome shows and have heard your thoughts on the 2013 show before, but could you please explain what you saw in the 12/21 show in particular. I personally found that show, with the exception of the main event, pretty bad when comparing it to major NJPW iPPVs and even other Korakuen shows over the past year. I know that you liked the Honma match, but what else was there for you? I felt that the Tanahashi/HASHI, Makabe tag and Nakamura/New Japan matches were all pretty bad. Naito/Gedo I also found really disappointing. I can see more of a case for the 12/23 show, considering that the main event, opener and Ishii tag were really good.

I'm pretty obsessive when it comes to the safety of the digital media that my wrestling is stored on. I will only use first class Mitsubishi disks (as far as I can tell from tests that I have done, Will's comps do fit the bill) and keep all my DVDs in plastic cases on a book shelf standing vertically. Everything that hasn't been burnt together with random matches, episodes of RAW, PPVs etc. are kept on two 2TB internal HDDs inside of an Xtreamer hooked up to the TV. For newer shows As far as ratings or thoughts go, for newer stuff I can look back at newsletters that I have written to keep track of everything so that isn't an issue. For each year I have a list for matches rated above *** 3/4 listed in order inside of a Dropbox directory entitled 'DATA'. For compilations I have documents in my Google Drive with the full match lists for easy editing. For random things that I may come across I have a spreadsheet in the dame DATA folder organized by region and then company in chronological order.

Volk Han had a ton of crazy submission holds that were really fun. Kawada's crucifix armbar and stomping Boston crab are also pretty great. I would also have to go with the cattle mutilation, Nagata's demon armbar, Suzuki's sleeper hold, the lion tamer and Taker's gogoplata.

All of the Shibata/Goto and Shibata/Ishii matches from this year seem to fit the bill.

EDIT: Looking through this thread I may have misunderstood the point by ignoring the dates, sorry about that. I don't know how many people will agree with me on this one, but from my perspective the crowning jewel of New Japan over this hot period has been the Tanahashi/Suzuki match from King of Pro-Wrestling last year -- honestly an all time favourite. The thing about that match is that it encompasses so many great things about all different styles of pro-wrestling. A lot of a the limb work and slap spots are what you would expect out of a big puro match, but the overall match layout reminds me of a classic North American match; it is something that should be at the top of your list. Some other great matches were Sakuraba/Nakamura from the January 4th Tokyo Dome show this year, which was a match worked in a pseudo shoot style manner, which was off the charts. Naito and Okada had a great, not close to the level of the other two, but still very good, on 2012/04/03. If you are looking to sample the top acts right now then you should probably go for the Okada/Tanahashi match from Invasion Attack, which from my perspective is the match of the year this year. Nothing major has been going on in the Junior division, but Taguchi and Ibushi had a very spotty, albeit very good for the style, match in the BOSJ a few years back, as did Taguchi and Low Ki in 2011. Another great match that you should probably seek out if you want to become familiar with the workers in New Japan is an outstanding heavyweight six-man from the 06/06 BOSJ show last year when it looked like they were building to Tanahashi/Naito. If you want to see men bludgeoning each other to death then Ishii/Tanaka from early this year/late last year is for you together with Ishii/Shibata from the G1. There is also a very a very good Suzuki/Okada IWGP title match that is incredibly underplayed from earlier this year.

My stance on crowd reactions has changed somewhat over time, but I do feel that it is one of the most important aspects of wrestling. I find it more relevant when watching older footage from time periods or regions that I am not all too familiar with, as it really helps me gauge the standards and feelings towards the specific product at the time. It also has a very strong influence on current matches for me too, as the CM Punk/Cena match from MITB can attest to. There are matches such as Okada/Tanahashi VI, which would have been an all time classic for me had the crowd been hotter, and there are shows that are made by the crowd and the heat that it provides. With that being said, there are matches that don't have nuclear heat, but are still all time classics for me. I was one of the people who adored Tanahashi/Suzuki from last year, and while the crowd were hot for it, there wasn't insane heat; still, that match was was an absolute classic in my eyes. Likewise there are matches that happen in places like PWG or Dragon Gate that have great crowd heat that I sometimes find my self rolling my eyes at. I am also not one of those people that things that the crowd cannot be wrong, as I have seen many a match in WCW, ROH, WWE and else where that should tear the house down, but don't. That often times isn't the fault of the wrestlers, or the way that they chose to work a given match, but rather the circumstances leading into it, how the workers had been booked, how the card worked out etc. Under normal circumstances for a match to click for me it needs to have great work and the right environment, and environment that the crowd plays an extraordinary large part in.

but I don't remember if Best TV Show is a one vote category or three. I believe it is a three vote category.

I may have missed out on a few things, but year on year it becomes more difficult for me to decide on the Best TV show award. There was a time where I used to vote for ROH TV, and last year I voted for iMPACT due to that run of quality shows (in hindsight I think that many people, including myself, greatly overvalued that run), but this year I can’t point to any promotion that really produced compelling television. I watched NXT on and off, and have been following the show when I haven’t been watching it, and it doesn’t strike me as a show that could win the award. I look at ROH TV, and while it has been good from what I have seen, I haven’t been watching the show as much as I probably should, and that is in many ways due to an emotional disconnect that I have with the product. I can’t really vote for SmackDown, as for most of the year it was pretty lackluster, and RAW has its obvious flaws. I haven’t been following Dragon Gate at all, and Mainevent was a show that I simply didn’t have time for. As crazy as it sounds I may be leaving that spot blank.

I only that someone was going to vote for him, but I just can't imagine how anyone with a ballot even voted for AJ Styles. I know a few did as it was mentioned on the latest WO radio.

I also think that some people are taking claims of numbers in the range of 100K with a massive grain of salt. John And while it's impressive if it's legit, I do find myself wondering if they would've done similar numbers proportionate to the overall level of business if such a service was available years earlier. Obviously it's an unfair comparison, but IMO there's a pretty decent argument for it just being proof that the market was always there and was untapped due to the lack of cable/satellite penetration, which would say more about the technology than anything else. The technology debate is a very difficult one, whilst this is a localized region you could make similar cases for traditional PPV, TV, merchandising etc. The fact of the matter is that New Japan was able to create a revenue stream for themselves from something that wasn't there in the past, and they used Tanahashi among others to turn that new revenue stream into a major one that is able to effect their business.

I was also pretty baffled by this when I saw it -- this guy had absolutely no clue what he was watching.

I find most of his matches to be very boring, and of the matches of his that I do like, most of them are due to him being in the ring with guys that I consider as either above his level, or simply harder workers. There are very few of his matches that I would choose to go back and rewatch, as nothing an Inoki does ever strikes me as particularly noteworthy. I wouldn't say that I hate him in the ring; that's too strong. However, I would say that I am mostly indifferent. On a personal level he is a far more interesting person to explore, as he is in many ways a pure embodiment of pro-wres insanity, between the peace offerings, crucifixions, MMA/pro-wrestling debacles, name changes...the list goes on.

For whatever reason I find Antonio Inoki to be very boring most of the time.

I started with these in chronological order from 2000 and have really been enjoying everything so far. Obviouslly a lot of these matches I have seen, but from the things I haven't (keep in mind I am only about a third of the way through 2000) is the Akiyama/Misawa match, that exploder spot was so great, and Kobashi/Vader, which was a fantastic, I am attempted to say "big man little man", match. I also liked the Hashimoto/Ogawa tag from the Dome, but I really think that it would have been better with context, although the crowd heat and emotion was certainly intense. I only left out Sasaki/Tenryu from the Dome, but that was simply because my download was corrupted.

Thanks everybody.

Does anybody here have the disk by disk match listings for the 80s All Japan set? I remember seeing it a while ago, but can't seem to find it. Any help would be very much appreciated.

I would also like to know this. Did someone translate it like they did like the Sakuraba books?

It would be pretty difficult not to notice such an anorexic elephant.

For some reason I thought that he had been gone for a few months, sorry.

Andy Leavine was wrestling for Carlos Colon up until a few months ago.

Punk/Cena is up there for me personally, as by my star ratings they have had a ***** match at MITB match, one ****3/4 match on RAW, a **** 1/4 match at Night of Champions and a *** 3/4 match at Summer Slam 2011. That is a pretty great run of matches over a two year period, but for me personally Tanahashi and Okada have still managed to top it. These are all subjective, but they had a ***** match at Invasion Attack, a **** 3/4 match at the Tokyo Dome, a **** 1/2 match last year (06/16), a **** 1/2 match at the G1 this year, and a **** match on 02/12 last year. So I would say that Okada and Tanahashi have had more great matches at a mainevent level, and given the fact that they have been having matches together for a shorter period of time than Cena and Punk I would have to put their program ahead for the best in-ring program of recent years (say 2002/3-2013). I can see the argument going the other way, but there is no question in my mind that Okada/Tanahashi has meant far more for New Japan business than Cena/Punk has for WWE's. Sure, you can say that the Cena program made Punk, but Okada/Tanahashi was the program to help elevate New Japan to the level it is at right now, so from a business stand point I would put Okada/Tanahashi ahead by far. Although, just to clarify, I did like the MITB match more than the Invasion Attach one, and I was also very high on their RAW match from this year.

The only humorous thing about the story was that Dave noted that two brothers bred with each other in the Observer in what was, quite clearly, a typo. People have also neglected to mention that he killed these puppies with a hammer, which makes the entire thing even worse.

Would this site suffice?