JAC

Does anyone not hate that? The sad thing is, much of what they show in the crappy Kevin Dunn version of instant would look good in proper slow motion. If it doesn't look good in slow motion, don't show it. Compare this with the great slow motion highlights that were shown at the end of All Japan's commercial tapes in the 1990's. Those were the ultimate "mic drop": our stuff's so good, it looks brutal--not phoney!--even in ultra-slow motion. Too bad WWE production can't extend the same courtesy to their talent.

I wish I had seen this before seeing their January 2016 match. The latter match had a few clever callback spots. Hojo hiding from Shirai outside the ring was pretty amusing. I thought this was a pretty good match for a one-night mini-tournament final. Their match-ups always have a "big match" feel. I thought they did a pretty good job covering up for Hojo after she rolled her ankle--she basically couldn't walk or run for a bit, but she fought from her knees until she could be a bit steady on her feet. There was one pretty rough botch near the end, but otherwise it was a very good match.

That seems like as good a guess as any. Such a shame. Her continued presence would have added some much-needed depth to the roster. It's too bad that Yoshiko's departure didn't assuage their concerns.

This is a tricky match for Shirai to pull off, as Koguma is so comparatively young and inexperienced. But pull it off she does. Shirai convincingly makes Koguma look like a credible opponent whilst never undermining her own position as a top star in the company. While I didn't personally think it was quite at the MOTYC level, it was a fantastic and giving performance by Shirai to make Koguma look like a star, and Koguma certainly carried her end of the bargain despite her tender age. Too bad she seems to have disappeared--she had potential!

The All Japan Excite series podcasts were a perfect length for a commute. Very easy to digest and always left me wanting more. That's is a good thing! I can't really play podcasts at work--my job requires a fair amount of attention, so if I play the podcasts, I'll miss three-quarters of what's being said. I don't like listening to them when watching wrestling--dividing my attention that way just diminishes my enjoyment of both activities. Realistically, I can get in about 2-2.5 hours if I listen to the podcasts on my commute to and from work and when cooking meals and performing other chores. That's a fair bit of time daily, but that means that a long episode of BTS or Exile is going to take two days to enjoy. I went on vacation last summer and barely listened to anything for three weeks. When I got back to my normal routine, it took me months to completely clear out my backlog. Now, try to be choosy about what I download. If I'm not overly interested in the topic going in, I skip the podcast or, in the case of a couple of recent long podcasts, delete the podcast if it doesn't really capture my interest in the first twenty minutes. It's a mistake to make oneself feel obliged to listen to everything. Which brings me to... I definitely got burnt out on the GWE podcasts. It's was like watching a comp tape of nothing but one-hour draws. Even if the matches are good individually, trying to wade through them all in short order just destroys you.

Her moveset is certainly more reminiscent of Tenta than Vader. It's probably more realistic to think of her as having the potential to be like a John Tenta for Stardom (or a Big Boss Man or One Man Gang). She's still got a ways to go, but she appears to still have some untapped potential.

This match reminded me a bit of the Sting v. Vader series from 1992-94. Whenever Viper uses her weight advantage to squash Shirai, Shirai sells it very well. The match is built around Viper using her superior size and Shirai using her speed and striking to even the odds. In particular, Shirai seems to know that she needs to hit a big bomb to take Viper out, but try as she might, she can't get Viper up for a suplex. After numerous teases, Shirai muscles Viper up and over for a beautiful German suplex hold (and a great false finish). From there, two moonsaults finish off Viper. Shirai was great in this match. She sold big to put Viper over as a monster and teased the suplex effectively until finally delivering in the penultimate spot in the match. I thought Viper's lack of dynamic offence held the match back a bit--she just wasn't at the level of a Vader or an Aja Kong. It also hurt a bit that Shirai looked so much stronger than Viper during the striking exchanges. That said, Viper has a lot of charisma and lots of raw talent. I'm excited to see more of her in the future. If she add some more high-end offence, she could be a top-tier monster heel.

This match was a happy revelation for me. I enjoyed joshi back in the day, but hadn't really kept up or watched any since about 2002. I have enjoyed Japanese men's wrestling since the turn of the century significantly less than in the nineties, and I had assumed that joshi puroresu had undergone a similar decline in quality commensurate with the decrease in attendance. Reading some of these reviews here (thanks donsem43!) prompted me to seek out the 1/17/2016 show and figuratively dip my toe back into the water. I was a bit underwhelmed by the undercard, but I really, REALLY enjoyed this match. It's hard for me to put this match in context having been checked out from joshi for so long. My natural instinct is to compare it to joshi from the nineties, but I honestly don't know how the style has evolved since then. To my eyes, this looked closer to an All Japan main event from the mid-nineties, with Shirai as Misawa and Hojo as Kawada. Shirai clearly came across as the ace--if you couldn't tell from watching her wrestle, she reminds you by having “ACE” written on her left kneepad. Hojo appeared to be her near-equal rival, trying to get over-the-hump and better Shirai. The match got off to a hot start, with the competitors exchanging hard elbows and slaps. Well, that escalated quickly! After showing some familiarity by each escaping one of the other's signature manoeuvers, there's a great double slap spot where Hojo sells getting smacked in the ear and Shirai sells hurting her hand on Hojo's head. So far, so good. For me, the only obvious flubs come when they go outside. Shirai sticks the landing on an Asai moonsault, but doesn't appear to make much contact with Hojo in the process. Shortly thereafter, Hojo hurts her shoulder when she misses a spear on Shirai when Shirai moves and Hojo instead hits the ring post. The bump looks great, but when Shirai follows up by bodyslamming Hojo onto the ring apron, Hojo stops selling the shoulder and starts selling the lower back. So much for the hurt shoulder--it never again factors into the match. But this is pretty much it for my criticism. For me, it's all good from here on in. Shirai takes control and it's fun to watch. I love how Shirai misses a missile dropkick to let Hojo take control, but Hojo can only maintain control for a brief moment--she puts Shirai in a Boston crab and leans back so far that she winds up on her back with Shirai on top of her. Shirai cuffs her in the ear to regain control. Nice! The actions soon spills out of the ring for a brawl through the crowd. I usually hate these kind of spots, where the wrestlers roam through the crowd--a favourite of old joshi matches and Steve Austin main events. This one gets a pass from me for what they do. Shirai sets up to dive onto Hojo from the balcony over the passage to the concourse, but after mugging for the crowd, she can't find Hojo. Hojo has crawled up the stairs and hits Shirai, then sends her head-over-heels tumbling down the stairs. Hojo them performs her own balcony dive, a mighty looking take on the Superman punch or phenomenal forearm (I think it was a punch, but it may have been a forearm). She then hits Shirai with the mother of all running spears, which Shirai takes like a champ. She looked like she got hit by a tank shell, and folded in half when Hojo the projectile slammed into her. Hojo's spear looks far better than any other spear I've ever seen, and Shirai seems to know how to make it look absolutely lethal. Wow. From here until the end, the match is quite heated and quite thrilling. A couple of sequences I really enjoyed were as follows: Hojo missing a wild hook and Shirai using Hojo's momentum to wrap her into a crossface. When Hojo makes it to the ropes, Shirai breaks. When Hojo tries to use the ropes to pull herself up, Shirai hits her with a 619, followed by a springboard dropkick. I must confess, I've always hated the 619; not because of the move itself, but because of the hokey setups leading into it. I'm tired of seeing someone thrown face-first into the ropes with a wrestling-physics-defying huracanrrana. This sequence was really pleasing because the setup looked entirely organic and uncontrived. Hojo tries for a Rainmaker but Shirai ducks and clocks Hojo with a nasty looking uppercut. Having recently rewatched Hokuto v. Kandori from St. Battle Final in 1993, I appreciate that it's hard to pull off a convincing looking uppercut—there's a flubbed one at the end of that match that completely misses. No such issue her. Shirai tries for a facebuster but loses Hojo and falls on her backside. Hojo quickly executes a diving forearm smash onto the seated Shirai to regain control. The whole thing came together quite fluidly and was a joy to watch. As a fan of Candy Okutsu, I very much enjoyed Shirai's rolling German suplexes. Her deadlifting Hojo from the mat brought to mind the great suplexes that Jumbo Tsuruta would execute back in the seventies. Having read the reviews of this match, I expected the match to wear out its welcome somewhat. I made a point of noting the point when I though the match should have ended, which was the tombstone followed by the capture German suplex. Happily though, while Hojo kicked out of that, the very next sequence put her away. Ultimately, if they went too long, I don't think it was by very much. At the end of the match, each of the competitors seemed to view the shortest path to victory as being by breaking her rival with a big bomb, and both seemed intent on hitting their most lethal offence to put the other one away. I can't complain about that. This came across to me like a big-time main event. Shirai looked every bit the part of an ace and Hojo appeared to be a worthy peer and rival. I intend to seek out a lot more from both women. This was honestly the most fun I've had in years when it comes to watching new-to-me talent.

Same. In beginning my dives into Lucha and Joshi and rewatching a lot of All Japan and some New Japan I realized I knew enough to know that I didn't know enough to be happy with my own list. My list would have been more or less obsolete already as I have been continuing to watch Lucha this month. I could make cases for a hand full of wrestlers in each, but just not enough. If they remained full blind spots that would have been one thing, but I was too much in process of falling in love with some wrestlers and styles and not in enough to know what to do with them. I guess the road to 2026 begins now!

There appears to be a significant bias in favour of WWF/WCW guys who worked during the 80's and 90's. Every voter has his or her blind spots, but 80's and 90's North American workers (well, North-of-the Rio-Grande North American) are absolutely nobody's blindspot. No surprise, they're the workers who practically everyone has seen. But the end result is that these workers are getting a boost over pre-boom wrestlers or foreign wrestlers who fewer people have seen. There are some really funny placements that illustrate this--one guys gets better average ballot placement but is outright omitted from more ballots, resulting in him falling behind someone with worse average numbers (but more ballots): 29. El Hijo del Santo (95 ballots, 22.5 avg ranking, 27 top tens) 28. Bobby Eaton (128 ballots, 41.4 avg ranking, 0 top tens) ----- 22. Negro Casas (108 ballots, 19.0 avg ranking, 52 top tens) 21. William Regal (138 ballots, 33.0 avg ranking, 8 top tens) ----- 16. Nick Bockwinkel (132 ballots, 21.4 avg ranking, 46 top tens) 15. Ricky Steamboat (144 ballots, 24.6 avg ranking, 17 top tens) ----- 13. Genichiro Tenryu (131 ballots, 17.5 avg ranking, 56 top ten votes) 12. Eddie Guerrero (146 ballots, 24.2 avg ranking, 29 top ten votes) None of this is surprising, but some people--especially the luchadors--are getting hosed. While it's perfectly possible that some of these omissions are intentional and considered, I suspect most are a result of lack of exposure. I wonder whether there will be any desire to find a way to counteract this in 2026. Full disclosure: one reason I didn't submit a ballot was because I knew my ignorance of lucha and some other styles would result in shafting those workers.

These podcasts have brought to light some interesting contrarian alternative perspectives from Matt D and Stacey. I find them very refreshing, and have agreed with quite a number of them. Stacey joins Parv and Charles as my favourite PWO podcast voices--she has what we'd call a "CBC Voice", although I suppose "ABC Voice" might be more appropriate in her case.

Poor Manami Toyota. I didn't submit a ballot because I never got around to the extra viewing I hoped to, let alone contributing to the discussion. As such, I felt like I hadn't done enough to eliminate my blind spots to be able to justify submitting a ballot. Luchadors, WOS guys and 1980s territorial workers probably benefited from this (being my blind spots). Joshi workers definitely suffered. Toyota would have been no worse than Top 15 for me. I'm already planning for 2026 and planning a deep dive into joshi before then. Glad to see that there are still some good women out there waiting to show up on the list.

I have compliments on the way for Parejas Increibles, have no fear! I liked the finish too. While Jumbo could never be less than a Top 5 guy for me, I think Dylan's placement seemed like a good spot for Tsuruta given Dylan's conflicted feelings about him. I'm curious to see how things shake out for the rest of the list.

That took a few days to get through, but I do want to say "thanks" for the great podcast and second the notion that you two never really betrayed your fatigue. You remained not merely coherent but outright eloquent when discussing your rankings. I came feeling energized to seek out some new things I haven't seen before. But damn you to hell for the Charles in Charge theme.

Good choice of expression there. I love these GWE podcasts, but there are not enough hours in the day to listen to them all. My eyes bug out when I look at the running times of these episodes. I got behind in my PWO podcast listening when I went on a three-week trip last summer. It took me four months to clear through the backlog!

I think your comparison with Misawa's elbow may be the most interesting possible point for discussion. Misawa can and does use his elbow strikes for the various reasons you outlined in relation to Flair's chops. But Misawa's elbow has one further use: it can be a match-ending strike. And not just as a secondary finisher--it's been used, when all else has failed, to end some of his most epic matches. I don't think a Flair chop has ever ended a match. Ditto a Kobashi chop. I'm a little hazier on Lawler, but I'm thinking that just about any match-ending Lawler punch has been augmented by a chain or brass knuckles. Another nifty thing that distinguishes Misawa's elbows are that he clearly throws them with varying degrees of effort to get different results. An elbow to stun an opponent so he can take control may more of less be thrown like a jab. Stronger elbows involve a little backswing of the arm, some rotation of the hips. The strongest elbows are accompanied by a running start, big-time hip rotation or even a cyclonic motion of the body to generate momentum. It seems that throwers of elbows nowadays don't work as hard to convey how hard a particular elbow strike is. Everything tends to look like a simple elbow jab.

Three-quarters done the podcast at this point. The coverage of Bret in the aftermath of losing the title was superb. I had completely checked out of wrestling for a few years at that point. The really serious tone to the WWF's coverage of Bret making a decision about returning was one of the things that sucked me back in. I found the story, and its presentation, to be incredibly compelling. It's very cool that you've been able to cover the AJPW Champions Carnival this week and last. Just by happenstance, a lot of the big AJPW matches in the 1990's seem to be falling just before or just after the weeks being covered. I know it's a small part of the podcast, but I always look forward to hearing how events from that promotion were being covered in the sheets back then and getting your takes on those events. Keep up the good work!

I'm only now getting through this podcast, as I've been O.D.'ing on the epic GWE podcasts. Great as usual, but as a good Bruins fan, I feel like I should point out that fans in Vancouver rioted in 2011 after they lost the Stanley Cup Finals to Boston. Vancouverites have a history of rioting whenever their teams lose: see 1994 v. the New York Rangers. Montreal's the city in Canada where people riot when they actually win something!

Nice collection of bios. Just a quick note, when discussing Dave McKingney in the Wolfman Farkus bio, the question was asked whether McKingney's Beast was the same Beast who was a big star in the Maritimes. That's a different Beast--Yvon Cormier, brother of Leonce (Leo Burke), Jean-Louis (Rudy Kay) and Romeo (Bobby Kay).

That was very cool. I can't believe you guys didn't laugh at his half-wit joke. I just about spat out my tea listening to that line this morning. I'll ascribe that to nerves. Too bad the whole thing didn't make tape, but kudos to you for tracking him down and getting a fun little interview out of him. Also, nice save on catching Buddy Rogers as the wrestler from Camden. I suppose it's like being on Jeopardy (or Brainbuster). These nuggets of trivia are easier to remember when you're not on the spot!

You beat me to it. The Misawa-Kawada dynamic mirrored that of Tsuruta-Tenryu. Both were sets of peers, similar in age (Kawada was only 18 months younger than Misawa, while Tenryu was actually over 13 months older than Tsuruta). Kawada and Tenryu were fighting to dislodge their longtime rival from his perch on top, but although each was destined to earn some victories, neither was to ultimately win the war. The Misawa-Kobashi dynamic was somewhat closer to Tsuruta-Misawa, with Kobashi being akin to the young Misawa. Kobashi was the man destined to be Misawa's successor, although he was really still part of Misawa's generation (being only five years younger). The relative nearness in age leaves the Tsuruta-Misawa comparison somewhat wanting. Kobashi vis-à-vis Misawa is more akin to Kojima and Tenzan vis-à-vis Mutoh, Chono and Hashimoto (recall that Hashimoto was only five years older than Kojima!) One cool thing about all of this was seeing Misawa trying to fend off challenges by his arch nemesis (Kawada) and his would-be successor (Kobashi) more or less concurrently from 1995 onwards, rather than consecutively (as Jumbo did by feuding with Tenryu, then Misawa, in succession). Getting back to the comparisons used on the podcast, rather than equating Flair-Steamboat with Misawa-Kobashi and Flair-Garvin with Misawa-Kawada, I would say that if Misawa is Flair, Kawada is Steamboat and Taue is Garvin (and recall that Garvin beat Flair for the title before Steamboat did!). Kobashi is more like Luger or Sting (but with less age gap). I think that leaves Akiyama in the role of Brian Pillman! I liked the points, but the My Little Pony music made me shudder. So creepy...

If you two are thinking of moving on to do a joshi match review or a NOAH match review, I'd vote for the former. I'm not sure how many would support me in that, but I tend to like All Japan Women more than NOAH. I'd gladly listen to some random picks episodes if that's on offer. Maybe even a listeners' request show? The other thing to think about is--assuming you haven't planned on going past 1999--covering the key matches in the first few months of 2000 prior to the split. There's at least one episode worth of interesting viewing in that period, and it takes you to the natural conclusion of that era of All Japan. Looking forward to episode #16!

As a lover of 90's AJPW, I continue to enjoy this podcast series. If you gentlemen are open to going on with the series after the GWE poll, you should go back to 1990 and go through the decade again, covering some of the other lesser-but-still excellent matches. There's still quite a number of really good and important matches out there that, if not all-time classics, are hidden gems worthy of being rediscovered. I'm going to re-watch the 6/6/97 match. I think you guys may have been a little harsh on it. While not a blow-away classic, I always thought it was still a very good match. I wonder if it suffered from elevated expectations. Also, it's placement in the middle of three of the all-time greatest ever matches pretty well guaranteed that it would pale in comparison. Keep up the good work! EDIT: Also, the brainbuster-->triangle hold combination that you said seemed weird... wasn't that a tribute or callback to the finish of the Hashimoto v. Takada IWGP title match from the previous year? With the difference being that, unlike Takada, Misawa is able to make it to the ropes to force a break.

And the finish to the main event sends everybody home happy. That's quite the marathon though. Good thing you only run the Forum once a month. That card must have run almost as long as AJW's Big Egg Dome show. Not that anyone would be complaining...

I just now noticed this. I'm kind of surprised to see Flair ranked so high, as I have long considered his knee drop to be one of the worst in wrestling--it's probably my least favourite thing about Flair. If viewed from a particular angle, if can look quite devastating, but from most angles, it's obvious to me that he's completely missing his opponent's head. It takes me out of the match every time I see it. In contrast, Race and Hansen look like they're absolutely killing guys when the drop a knee. However, since this is the pet perfections/utter love thread, I should be stating something positive. How about a beautifully performed double-underhook suplex (a.k.a. butterfly suplex)? Even if I don't love Flair's knee drop, I most certainly adore his double-underhook suplex!