RyanClingman

At the moment I have a problem getting through the backlog of everything that I follow, whether it is wrestling, anime, manga or games. I have about 8 or 9 comps to get through, not to mention shows that have been sitting around for ages. What I normally do ( although this hasn't been in effect for a while due to exams), is I have a "leisure list", and on that list is a list of all the things that I "need" to get through in terms of the things that I follow. If I don't then I tend to panic, as I always want to make the most of free time. Then whenever I have free time I focus on tackling something on one of those lists. I also place comps on my phone and keeping them with me for easy watching on the go, which helps too. Like many I am too busy watching wrestling, reading about wrestling, listening to people talk about wrestling and writing about wrestling to watch as much wrestling as I would like .

One of the strangest points for me as a wrestling fan, and I am sure many others, is when I realized that JR isn't the "sweet 'ol grandfather" that I always thought he was as a fan simply watching the product.

Try http://prowrestlinghistory.com/ it should have a lot of the results that you are looking for -- just look under the Mid-South Coliseum logo.

That puppy killing story in the Observer a few weeks ago really freaked me out.

Gran Hamada is certainly a guy that would be near the top of my list.

Gran Hamada is certainly a guy that would be near the top of my list.

Basically what happened was that Triple H did an interview with the Grantland website, and at one point brought up Wade Keller. He said that Wade Keller used to call DDP "a waste of skin" and was always burying him this was still while Hunter was John Paul Levesque in WCW). He said that DDP was very upset about this, and so he eventually called Keller and the next week Keller flipped his tune talking positively about Page; he then followed that up with a generalization of the "sheets" and so on. Dave was upset with this, as he has been reading the Torch since it started and not once did Keller flip his tune in this manner, and it was Bruce Mitchell who used to do all of the DDMe stuff and note Keller anyway. The whole interview was pretty annoying. From this week's Observer

"We were selling out every single night for ______".

I take a middle of the road type of approach. While I don't think that context and back story is completely necessary it does help. I know that when I watched the June 9th Kobashi/Misawa versus Kawada/Taue match for the first time it was a tremendous match, perhaps one of the best that I had ever seen, but when I went back and watched it in context with the entire Kawada/Misawa feud, there was no longer a "probably" statement in my though process -- it was one of the greatest matches of all time. However, I do have a counter example, as the one match that really got me into puro, the June 8th Jumbo/Misawa match, was a match that I went in relatively blind for. Sure, I knew about Japanese pro-wrestling, I knew that the match had been given 5* by so many people, and I knew about Misawa, and for whatever reason had an emotional connection with him. I also knew that it was a star making performance, but nothing else, and when I saw Misawa walk to the ring I literally got goose bumps, and it is something that still gives me that same reaction to this day. Then there are matches like Aja Kong/Toyota from Big Egg Universe, and I came in completely blind there. I thought that I would like Joshi, had scene a Toyota match or two, and decided to order a best of and fell in love with that match. Other matches like Bull/Aja needed some context for me. I guess it all depends. If I were you I would look at the Tiger Mask II unmasking and the Jumbo wars, because that really helped me get into Japanese pro-wrestling (although it really was a love at first site kind of deal for me). Starting with the Keith h Kawada/Misawa set is also a great idea, as the story telling throughout that saga is very clear. I also agree with what some other people have said in that you should probably mix the classic up with other matches, not necessary dull or boring, but a change of pace is good, at least for me. I know that I would be completely burnt out if I were to watch a 5 disc Holy Demon Army set all in one go or something. The Kenta Kobashi 2003-2005 NOAH title run is also a great place to start from my point of view, and I would mix it up with some New Japan Juniors stuff, together with Kawada/Misawa and maybe a Jumbo/Misawa comp. It also could be a good idea to experiment with some Joshi or M-Pro if you aren't too big on the mainevent strong style matches, you may find something that you really like.

Hi Everybody, I am Ryan, and I live in Johannesburg, South Africa. I have been lurking around these parts for a while now, until I finally decided to register the other day. I have been a wrestling fan since I was seven years old, and things have stayed that way ever since. My favourite periods in wrestling history from what I have seen, are late 80s/early 90s All Japan, early 90s AJW, later 80s NJPW, early 90s NJPW, mid 2000s ROH, early 2000s WWF/E, RINGS pro-wrestling era (HUGE Volk Han and Tamura mark), I would like to add current era New Japan to that list, but I can’t really do that without the benefit of hindsight. I would like to post my top five performers, but like with my favourite promotions and eras, my lists change as I am exposed to more. However, on my list are Misawa, Kawada, Kobashi, Tamura, Volk Han, Tsuruta and Tenryu among others. I really hope to learn and get into more lucha, as I feel that I really lack knowledge in that area, and I guess I will grab the 80s lucha set once I am finished with a couple of other sets I am trying to work my way through. During my years as a pro-wrestling fan I have dabbled in a few things, but over the last couple of years my main focus has been my newsletter, which I will not shamelessly promote here like I do on other sites...at least I will try not to anyone. I look forward to participating on the site.