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I have to admit the length and lack of pimping put me off on watching this for years, but I was a fool. This is basically the match that Jumbo/Funk 1976 gets pimped as being. That is to say this is a tremendous long form world title match that's primarily worked on the mat and features Jumbo being great in the role of the fired up challenger and the champ gives a masterclass in working as a touring champ. As mentioned, this match has a unique feel to it and the camera style and venue do contribute to that, but I'm surprised no one has mentioned the main thing that makes this unique in the fact that it takes place in a boxing ring. There looks to be literally no give in the mat and both guys look apprehensive to taking big bumps on it as result, hence them mostly sticking to the basics. They definitely make the most out of what they're given, though. Both guys display selling that not only makes up for the lack of flashy moves but puts this in the upper echelon of world title matches from the 70's or 80's. Much of the first fall is built around Jumbo working a hammerlock and Bockwinkel is so good at selling it. When it comes to matwork, I've always been in the camp of preferring to watch guys do a good job of working a single hold over doing a ton of different flashy holds, so this was right up my alley. I love how Bockwinkel is constantly squirming around while in the hold, always looking for some counter or trying to get up off the ground while Jumbo just keeps sticking to it. Bock keeps it up even during his great body punching comeback, also showing some desperation as if he realizes he's gotta do something drastic or he's on his way to leaving with a banged up arm and no title in hand. That drastic thing comes when he starts working over Jumbo's leg en route to the finish of the first fall, and the match takes a turn towards epic in the secondnd fall. As mentioned, Jumbo's leg selling on his comeback is incredible and really nice dueling bodypart work story develops as he goes to work on Bock's back. Things get a bit more rough and tumble, but Jumbo adapts just fine showing some great punches and chops to work over Bock. The finish to the 3rd fall is really silly even by 70's standards, but Jumbo comes out looking really strong there's so much good stuff this match is still pretty damn great. I really appreciated how these guys wrestled such a long match while always keeping it focused and never making it seem like they were just filling time. I'd go ****1/2 as the finish does bring it down a tad and I'd have liked for Bock to have gotten in more offense down the stretch, but I might go higher on rewatch as this seems like a match that would get better with repeated viewings for all the details the guys work into their selling.

Smackdown in summer 2009 was quite good with the Punk/Hardy feud and the new Smackdown 6. The whole 2007-2009 Smackdown period was pretty great, though, with lots of solid matches and great long-term storylines. ECW in the same period was also very good.

I enjoyed Sayama wrestling in a gi just for the silliness. I think the gear was these guys trying to ape MMA fights, since it wasn't really out of the question for guys to wear gis to fights in this period (see Sakuraba/Gracie). I think they were going for a more realistic version of the 80's matches, which is to say that this is a glorified squash with the striker who is clueless on the mat (Sayama) getting destroyed by the veteran grappler (Fujiwara). That might not sound like the most engaging match layout, but Fujiwara, even at this stage, is one of the most entertaining guys out there in picking apart opponents and fat man Sayama is pretty fun to watch as well. Nice companion piece to their 80's matches.

Look for any of his singles matches with Atlantis, Super Astro, Villano V, Santo, and Negro Casas. Should be enough to get you started.

Great pick. That was the feud that made me a wrestling fan.

I was interested in seeing where different views are on watching older stuff compared to newer stuff. What do people prefer and what do they end up watching more? I used to be all about watching stuff from current year with just a little archival footage on the side. Now I almost only watch older stuff and I've seen a total of 2 matches from 2017. It's not that I dislike newer stuff as I loved both the matches I watched, but there's a few reasons I simply prefer to watch older stuff. Main reason is there is so much great historical footage popping up online these days I just can't find the interest to watch a full show as it airs. There's always been wrestling on TV or popping up soon after it airs, but historical footage has really exploded online in the past few years, so it's a lot more exciting for me to watch these matches or wrestlers I'd heard pimped for years but which hadn't been online before. A lot of great older stuff also gets taken down all the time. There's been so many matches I'd put off watching until they got taken down. In comparison, just about any new stuff is gonna go up on a streaming service and stay there for the foreseeable future. It simply feels more pressing to me to watch older stuff than newer stuff. Another thing is that match recs for newer stuff are often heavily influenced by the hype. When I look at reviews for a new big match I often see people buying into the hype and calling it the best thing ever or people giving some backlash to the hype and saying the match sucks without much middle ground. Criticism of recent NJPW seems to revolve around the question of if viewers are watching the greatest match ever with people going in on their first viewing and trying to pick apart reasons why a match shouldn't be 6 stars. That's an utterly shit way to watch wrestling. I prefer to wait until the hype has died down and watch the stuff people are still talking about a year or more later. One more thing I'll note is that I don't really see much difference in watching a match as it airs and watching it years later. There's always gonna be a tape delay whether it's a few seconds, a few hours, or a few match. Further, you'll always be watching some TV producer's sterilized version of the footage. The only way to truly watch a match as it happens is to be there live. I remember going to AJPW shows regularly when I lived in Japan in 2015 and it was easily the greatest thing about being there. I had such a great experience that I still haven't watched the airings of any of the matches I saw as the TV versions just can't compare to the magic of being there. I completely understood why a lot of Japanese fans only follow one promotion and lose interest in watching tapes from other promotions. If I could still attend AJPW live events regularly, I would probably just be watching that and nothing else. But I am stuck with taped matches that don't have the live magic, so just watching the best available taped matches seems the next best thing.

I'm surprised no one has noted the awesomeness of Fujiwara arrogantly resting with his head on his hand while going for an armbar. This is a match I've seen numerous and have never really gotten tired of as there's just so much cool shit to watch for and this is so different from anything else out there. Joe has had only a few PWFG matches at this point and this is by far his biggest opportunity yet, so he's seems eager to prove himself by pressing the action. Malenko has more of a background in pro-style matwork than in shoot-style matwork, but he does an excellent job adapting to the setting and even bringing in adaptions of pro-style moves. Watch for him to go for stuff like a hammerlock takedown, an armdrag, and a crossface. Even though he's the aggressor, it's mostly Fujiwara who ends up controlling the early action on the mat and getting his opponent in real danger. After making Malenko use up two rope breaks, Fujiwara gets a bit cocky with the aforementioned moment of arrogance and ends up having to use a rope break himself. The camera unfortunately doesn't catch exactly what Malenko did to make Fujiwara use up a rope break, but I love Fujiwara's selling of disbelief in the aftermath. Following that, the match settles into a size vs. technique dynamic with Malenko trying to use his larger frame to repeatedly takedown Fujiwara and keep him grounded while Fujiwara fights back with some slick counters. I really appreciated the constant movement and struggle from both guys throughout all of it. Thought the crowd was great with them quietly watching the match and then rewarding the guys with a loud applause whenever a break happened. Finish comes when Malenko gets a bit too cute by doing a front chancery and Fujiwara sinks in a classic flash armbar. Great look of smugness on Fujiwara immediately after the victory. One of my favorite mat-based matches overall and I think this smokes a lot of highly pimped lucha stuff like Dandy/Azteca.

Full match is available on the Super Tiger UWF comm that's on the Real Hero Archive. The video above has enough stiffness to have made me want to seek out the match, but I don't really think it does justice to the match overall. The first 10 minutes of this are some off the charts stuff. There had been a lot of backstage animosity between the two building before this match over what direction the promotion should take, and this match feels like the boiling point. Maeda throws an insanely stiff slap at the beginning off a rope break and it's off to the races from there with all kinds of rough shots. They also have some hard fought mat exchanges with the highlight being Maeda getting in a painful looking kimura from guard that forces Tiger to take a rope break. Lots of drama with Maeda as the noticeably bigger man just shrugging off any of Tiger's kicks and Tiger trying whatever he can to survive. My favorite moment is when Tiger tries that spin kick he used to do in NJPW only to fall down and eat some hard kicks on the ground for his troubles. The match is really an amazing spectacle with things constantly looking they're straddling the line between work and a shoot. Honestly thought I might have been watching a shoot fight during the first half of this. Things eventually settle down a bit with them seemingly beginning to gas out and cooperate more in the 2nd half. They work less aggressively and it becomes obvious that they're feeding each other limbs. Towards the end, Maeda decides to just start laying around in a prone position and playing defensively while Tiger seems clueless on what he can do to press the advantages. It reminded of when I was a white belt in BJJ and the blue and purple belts would do the same thing to play around with me. I got the impression Maeda was trying to embarrass Tiger by showing the crowd he was clueless on the mat, though it seemed the crowd had no idea what to make of the whole thing. Anyway, this leads to Maeda getting bored and hitting Tiger with a hard knee to the mid-section for the finish. I've played back the finish a shitload of times in slow motion and honestly don't think it looked like a low blow, or if it was it was nowhere near as bad as Tiger was selling. I think the low blow sell might have just been Tiger's way of saving face after being so clearly outclassed for the match, hence Maeda leaving the ring frustrated like he does. Not everyone's cup of tea but I loved the hell out of this. Impossible to rate, though. This match didn't really kill UWF. Lack of a TV deal did. Maeda quitting after this match was just kind of the nail in the coffin. The UWF was originally set up by Inoki as a scheme so he could get TV money by running both UWF and NJPW. He got found out and whole thing fell apart, hence Maeda et al being allowed back to NJPW so easily.

Fucking great big match that came out of nowhere. I've heard not a peep of pimping for this and didn't even know it happened until I opened up the video of this event, but it absolutely delivered. Match starts a little slow with them working the mat, but I enjoyed it. Kawada's gameplan initially is to ground Mutoh and work over his arm. Mutoh's selling is interesting, initially just seeming dumbfounded by Kawada's strategy but then progressing into selling legit pain as Kawada keeps going after the arm. There's this great little hope spot where Mutoh tries to stand up and turn it into a striking match, but his hurt arm means there's not enough behind his strikes and Kawada quickly takes back over. Eventually, Mutoh decides he's had enough of that and starts making a comeback by going to town on Kawada's injured knees, and that's when the match really kicks into the next gear. There's this great explosiveness behind everything Mutoh does and Kawada's selling is incredible. Really needs to be seen to be believed as I think it might be his best leg selling since the RWTL 1993 finals. The match reaches its high point during an extended figure four spot where it looks like Fuchi might throw in the towel for Kawada, but Kawada digs deep and gets to the ropes. I was popping right with the crowd for that one. Kawada gets a lucky break when Mutoh seems to injure his own knees off a moonsault, which gives him just enough of an opening to string together some big moves (while keeping up the awesome leg selling) and just barely do enough for a 3 count. ****1/2 A shame this didn't get nominated for the best of 2000's project as I imagine this sort of match would have done quite well among the people who got burned out by the NOAH stuff.

Let's not pretend Floyd could have drawn 4m buys against any random chump. His "retirement" fight against Berto only did 400k buys. McGregor's fights with Aldo and Diaz also outdrew every fight Floyd ever had with the exception of the Pac, Canelo, and DLH fights, and Diaz and Aldo are nowhere near the stars of any of those guys. These are all numbers Cena and WWE can only dream of. People are confusing name recognition with ability to make money, which is the main thing Meltz is concerned with when he talks about drawing and popularity. If he keeps fighting at a high level in MMA and does a few more freakshow boxing matches, McGregor is on track to being the biggest money maker in combat sports history.

This match might be a victim of the hype for me. It probably didn't help matters that I watched this right after Fujiwara/Tiger from UWF 12/1984, but I really didn't see this as anything near ***** and was actually left left feeling pretty underwhelmed. I'm not really a fan of sitting in a hold. I like seeing guys going back and forth on the mat, constantly on the move and looking for counters while selling the progressive weardown. With this, we got some cute ways of getting into arm locks from Funk, but it just got tiring for me to see them spend so long with one guy on top with little in the way of counter attempts from Race. The issue I had was with the selling. I'm not usually one to care too much about unsold limb work but if you're gonna spend 1/4 of a 40 minute match working an arm it just feels like time killing with Race working a headlock with no issues a few minutes later. I thought it also detracted a lot from the finish of the first fall. It felt like very backwards psychology to have Race as the guy fighting through the pain while Funk is the one who ends up submitting to a hold. I watched it without knowing the finish to the falls, so it really caught me off guard. Since Race came through all that arm work unscratched I didn't see much special about an abdominal stretch in making Funk submit. Third fall is great but I wish it was longer. It kind of feels like an abbreviated version of their Toronto title change with the epic war selling and leg submissions, but here there's also a blade job added on for a cheesy stoppage finish. I pretty much hate blood stoppages, but I think it would have been more appropriate if they had some crazy brawl either before or after the finish. I'm not completely down on this. I'd still put it at around ***3/4 as it did have its moments even with the issues I had with it. For historical significance this match definitely is a treasure and I'm glad I watched it just to see what a 70's NWA title match looks like stateside. I'd be open to rewatching it sometime later with adjusted expectations.

Bit surprised to see the Sting match on there. When I saw it with the rest of the PPV I thought they were just sleep walking through the match. Maybe time for me to rewatch it?

Inoki vs Roland Bock is another epic in line up there with the rest of his best stuff. http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x4mlsgv Also dig his stuff with Andre. Not the flashiest work, but they're pretty creative in getting over Andre's size and Andre also gets a great opportunity to showcase his unique charisma. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=NgAkM-SIXE8 I think the Inoki ego talking point gets way overstated. He puts over his opponent big in both of these matches.

I've always saw Inoki/Robinson 1975 as the gold standard for NJ mat epics. Inoki/Fujinami 1985 and 1988 are also really good.

Been on a shoot style matwork kick lately so this was pretty much my match. I don't think the easy flowing grappling style on display here would fool many MMA fans, but it is still pretty beautiful to see. It seemed like Greco kept taking Ishikawa's back and going for a choke, but Ishikawa's kept finding ways to slip through and capitalize on openings. I kept looking for Greco to get in a body triangle, so I popped when he finally got it in during the 2nd half. Ishikawa sold the exhaustion as Greco kept trying to choke him out, but I think that may been partly playing possum as he usually seemed to find a way to gain the upper hand whenever Greco pounced on him afterwards. I'm surprised no one has commented on how great the finishing stretch was. Shit was just epic with them both giving up their rope breaks and going hard on each other. Loved Ishikawa's string of submission attempts, especially him nearly choking out a frustrated Greco after he had been choked out himself so many times throughout the rest of the match. Greco weathers the storm, though, and gets the win with a cravat. Kind of funny a classic pro wrestling hold got the win for the MMA fighter over the pro wrestler after all his MMA stuff didn't work. ****1/2

Surprised no one's done Akiyama yet. 1992: w/ Taue vs. Misawa/Kawada (AJPW RWTL Finals) 1993: w/Ogawa vs. Kobashi/Kikuchi (AJPW 1/24) 1994: vs. Steve Williams (AJPW CC) 1995: vs. Toshiaki Kawada (AJPW CC) 1996: w/ Misawa vs. Kawada/Taue (AJPW RWTL Finals) 1997: w/ Misawa vs. Kawada/Taue (AJPW RWTL Finals) 1998: vs. Kobashi (AJPW 7/24) 1999: w/ Kobashi vs. Misawa/Ogawa (AJPW 3/6) 2000: vs. Mitsuharu Misawa (NOAH 2/27) 2001: vs. Mitsuharu Misawa (NOAH 7/27) 2002: w/ Nagata vs. Misawa/Kobashi (NOAH 2/17) 2003: w/ Saito vs. Kobashi/Honda (NOAH 6/6) 2004: vs. Kenta Kobashi (NOAH 7/10) 2005: vs. Katsuyori Shibata (WRESTLE-1 4/8) 2006: vs. Akira Taue (NOAH 1/22) 2007: w/ Misawa vs. Kobashi/Takayama (NOAH 2/2) 2008: ? 2009: vs. KENTA (NOAH 5/17) 2010: vs. Kensuke Sasaki (NOAH 4/10) 2011: vs. Suwama (AJPW 10/23) 2012: w/ Kobashi vs. Sasaki/Kitamiya (Diamond Ring 2/11) 2013: vs. KAI (AJPW CC Finals) 2014: w/ Omori vs. Shiozaki/Miyahara (AJPW RWTL Finals) 2015: w/ Omori vs. Shiozaki/Miyahara (AJPW 8/29) 2016: vs. Kento Miyahara (AJPW 7/23)

First time watching this as it's one of the few widely pimped WWE matches I hadn't seen and I have to say I'm a bit perplexed by the ****+ praise this is getting. It was a good Raw main event, but I never felt like I was watching anything more than a showcase match before a PPV. Guys constantly tagged in and out, which was good for giving guys a chance to shine but bad for building the sort of intramatch storylines and rivalries that is key to having truly great multi man matches. It never seemed to evolve beyond just guys hitting their signature spots. The finish also looked botched with Foley standing there while HHH hit the pedigree and Benoit hit the diving headbutt then trying to break up the finishing pin. There was plenty of good stuff for what the match was, though. The crowd was hot, there was never a dull moment, and everyone looked good. It served as a good showcase for all the mid-card guys while also keeping HHH/Cactus as the clear focus and building to the PPV match. ***1/2 seems right.

Binge watched a bunch of indy Jannetty matches and this really stuck out. Badass southern style brawl with both guys taking some hard bumps. Jannetty plays the role of the seasoned veteran cleaning house against this indy bum. Most of the other matches I watched were pretty underwhelming with Jannetty basically running through his signature spots with guys who weren't that talented, but this match shows he could could still go when he cared to at least up until a few years ago. I wish he was more reliable and could have gotten a run working like this in a big promotion.

Is Funaki the best short match wrestler ever? Was just thinking that he's got the 1989 Nakano match, 1994 Suzuki match, and 2012 Akiyama match to his name. All those are completely different styles yet still amazing and the Nakano match is probably the best short match ever. I also enjoyed the Aoki match from this year even though it wasn't at that level. I'm interested in taking a deeper dive into his work and seeing if he has anything else.

Good post. I really appreciate the recs for shoot fights as it's difficult to find that kind of stuff for these early Japanese MMA promotions, especially non-PRIDE stuff. I think the folks who dig the worked RINGS stuff would really enjoy those as it far more closesly resembles that style than it does modern UFC. It's already a pretty great list, but I think you could flesh it out more by going into 90's Pancrase. I've said it before but I am strongly in favor of viewing it as a pro wrestling where guys just happened to be shooting. It's very unusual for an MMA with the pro wrestling inspired ruleset and most of the top stars being former shoot stylists who put more emphasis on having a great fight over winning. Funaki/Suzuki would probably be regarded as the best 2 minute match ever if it was worked and Frank Shamrock/Rutten had a great trilogy with sweet matwork.

I like the 10 vote limit for the sort of detailed critical analysis it inspires on individual candidates that would likely be lessened if switched to a yes/no format. I have no ballot, so just watching the discussion from the sidines is far more interesting to me than seeing who actually goes in. Making serious comparisons to the baseball hall of fame is silly as Dave's hall of fame holds nowhere near that level of prestige. None of the guys up for discussion are losing sleep over whether or not they get inducted, if they're even aware of it. The whole exercise is little more than an excuse for hardcore fans to get together and think about wrestling history with a critical eye, and the 10 vote format is perfectly adequate for that.

People are sleeping on this match big. It doesn't have the crazy stunts of the HBK/HHH match from before this, but I've always found this to be a far more engaging match due to having a much more cohesive structure. Rock takes it to Lesnar early, trying to sucker him into a brawl and it just doesn't work as Lesnar seemingly effortlessly throws him around like he's a gorilla in there. The cool thing about this match is Rock never beats Rock in any of the exchanges or overpowers him. I've often thought that Brock's first WWE run was a great missed opportunity with how you often had him pinball bumping around for guys half his size and playing the chickenshit heel, but there's none of that here. Rock gets over Brock as this monster from the beginning and never strays from that, only ever gaining the advantage by capitalizing off some mistake from Lesnar. The crowd is also incredible and gives this match an unparalleled big match feel. This match represents an important turning point in WWE as they finally made a pronounced effort to move away from the Attitude Era stars and bullshit in the main events, and the crowd is up for the occasion as they cheer on Next Big Thing while he ascends to the throne. As great and fitting as the crowd is, though, possible even more important for the match is how The Rock acknowledges and responds to the crowd turning on him. It's a short moment, but it's really a sight to behold his look of shock as the crowd erupts into the first "Rocky sucks" chant of the match. There's some other cool moments of him jawing with the crowd throughout the match and even a low blow that was probably called on the spot. Another cool moment of the match would be the spot with them both kipping up at the same time to really get across Lesnar as more than the monster of the month. They also have Lesnar hurting The Rock's ribs for a little bit to set up for a bearhug that actually functions as a really good callback to the finish of Lesnar/Hogan match. I think it's pretty impressive that they found a way to get the crowd to buy a bearhug as a credible near fall going right after HBK did all kinds of crazy shit. I do have a few nitpicks, though. When Lesnar took the bump to the outside, I thought it looked a little too obvious that he was taking a jump over the top top and would have liked for something a little more impactful from Rocky to set it up rather than just a regular slap. I also thought they missed the peak of the match doing a couple shitty looking reversal attempts. I think it would have been a bigger exclamation point on the story they were telling if Brock just hit the F5 after murdering Rock with a clothesline off an attempted People's Elbow. But those are just minor flaws and do little to diminish what these guys did here. This is actually a really good example of WWE making a star and following up on it well. Lesnar comes out looking like a beast whose only real issue is his inexperience, which is great to set up for the next feud against Undertaker. Meanwhile, Rock gives us shades of the Hollywood heel he would return as in a few months. I think this is a real feather in The Rock's cap as he plays off the crowd perfectly to give this match a big fight atmosphere that WWE has only rarely matched, getting Lesnar over big in the process. This is a match that never gets old for me no matter how many times I see it. ****1/4