BigBadMick

Thanks Chad. Worth putting these in as food for thought - WON Wrestler of the Year 1990 Ric Flair World Championship Wrestling 1991 Jumbo Tsuruta All Japan Pro Wrestling 1992 Ric Flair World Wrestling Federation 1993 Vader World Championship Wrestling 1994 Toshiaki Kawada All Japan Pro Wrestling 1995 Mitsuharu Misawa All Japan Pro Wrestling 1996 Kenta Kobashi All Japan Pro Wrestling 1997 Mitsuharu Misawa All Japan Pro Wrestling 1998 Stone Cold Steve Austin World Wrestling Federation 1999 Mitsuharu Misawa All Japan Pro Wrestling WON Most Outstanding Wrestler of the Year 1990 Jushin Thunder Liger New Japan Pro Wrestling 1991 Jushin Thunder Liger New Japan Pro Wrestling, 1992 Jushin Thunder Liger New Japan Pro Wrestling, 1993 Kenta Kobashi All Japan Pro Wrestling 1994 Kenta Kobashi All Japan Pro Wrestling 1995 Manami Toyota All Japan Women's Pro-Wrestling 1996 Rey Misterio Jr. Extreme Championship Wrestling, 1997 Mitsuharu Misawa All Japan Pro Wrestling 1998 Koji Kanemoto New Japan Pro Wrestling 1999 Mitsuharu Misawa All Japan Pro Wrestling

Chad, just to clarify - 'Hansen had his best singles matches of his career with each of the big three in All Japan in 1993. He performed well almost every time given a chance (Misawa Carny final could be the exception).' Are you saying that Hansen v Kawada (2/28), Hansen v Kobashi (7/29) and Hansen v Misawa (???) are the three best singles matches of his career? Or that they are the best matches he ever had with each of those opponents? If the former, in what order, and what date was the Misawa match? Just checking - value your opinion and keen to get cracking on these soon.

Do you cover early RoH?

Thanks Chad. Couple of things - Liger - I know you're only basing it on the years you've covered in detail, but generally do you feel 94 and 97 were his best years in the 90s? He was injured in Sep 94, so I assume your high ranking there is based on the Super J Cup and Sasuke rematch? I remember loving an Otani-Liger match from Feb 97, seemed like a real return to form after his health scare the previous summer. Vader - Again, based on what you've watched outside the yearbooks, were would he rank in 1991-95? I've a ton of AJPW tv from the early 90s. I was going to watch it all in order but might have to pick and choose to get some rating done for next year.

I may not go with exactly the same picks but my gut was that every year is a nod to AJPW. Not as varied a field as the 80s then?

1995 - Really not sure here either. No-one stands out in WWF, and WCW was only starting to get back on track at the tail end of the year. 1996 - Michaels. 1997 - Bret Hart (he wasn't great every time out, but WM, SummerSlam and the UK ppv were exceptional. Held the promotion together in many ways. BTW such is my lack of certainty on all these that based entirely on v Misawa 20/01 I'm tempted to give this to Kobashi) 1998 - Really don't know. Rewatched a lot of Raw very recently and the best there (Austin, Foley, Rock later in the year) really doesn't feel WOTY worthy to me. WCW had the usual story - great midcarders, mostly inadequate main eventers. Actually, DDP could take it for trying his best when top spots came his way. 1999 - Again, nothing in WWF seems worthy. Liked a lot of WCW in first half of the year. Benoit seems the pick there. Again, I'm fully aware that I've a lot to rewatch closely both in Japan and the US. And none of these are set in stone at all.

I should start this. With the caveat that I've a lot of Japan to watch. And I've rewatched a lot of US matches from this decade in the past 2 years or so. 1990 - Hansen (just awesome, moving into his old grizzled but deadly veteran stage) 1991 - Really don't know yet 1992 - Rude (liked his run years ago, it held up very nicely recently) 1993 - Bret (enjoyed his ppv - KotR and SummerSlam particularly - and Raw matches) 1994 - Dustin Rhodes (really great feuds most of the year, improved tremendously)

Or has this already been covered somewhere in the Yearbooks?

Any Harley matches in particular? I agree it's not commonly mentioned.

Neither guy has a shot at my list but Kerry Von Erich would have to rank higher if I was doing a top 500 or something, Kerry has the big longevity advantage, in the great multi-man matches that they were both in, Roman feels less integral to them than Kerry and outside of the Brock match Roman has never looked great in a singles match. The Bryan match in February? Big Show at Extreme Rules?

Just to get it out of the way - Austin/Bret WrestleMania 13.

Ok, I can see the broader issue that bothers you. Fair enough.

Then he doesn't understand anything about probability at all. Some chance is WAY MORE ACCURATE than making up some number that can never be known. Oklanomics makes someone sound as stupid as someone who uses astrology. Does this really mean that much to you Steven?

New material... http://www.powerslamonline.co.uk/updates/152/Power-Slam-Years-eBook-release-date-September-4-2015.htm

Ummm...rereading this, I see I wasn't kind to FSM on first sight. My opinion has changed drastically in past 12 months, really enjoy it now. Sorry Bix!

Bump this to point out his ebook on the Power Slam years is set for Sept 4th release. That has been knocked back several times already, however.

I was completely baffled by that also, goc.

That could be the mission statement for this site. Very well put.

Of course he does. If you were trained by Ric Flair, which you couldn't be, because only Stan Lane was trained by Ric Flair, then why wouldn't you constantly brag about being trained by Ric Flair? Like Stan Lane, the only wrestler ever trained by Ric Flair. Cool. Funny stuff.

If I was in control I would had had Bossman/Tenta as the tag champs into of Shamrock/Bossman. Bossman & Tenta destroying everybody would had been awesome. I dunno Steven. I know you love your nostalgia but geez..... Actually, another point - was there ever a time when mainstraem US wrestling styles changed as much in 7-8 years than say, 1988 to 1996? I can't imagine any headliner from 2006-07 - or quite a bit earlier, having difficulty fitting in today - Jericho, Rock, HHH get away with it. Is Bossman/Tenta worse than Bossman/Shamrock? 83-90 was just as much. So was 73-80. I think the better question may be was there ever a time with less change than 2003 and on? I agreed with Will on the podcast - Bossman was perceived as still being able to go in 1998. He didn't look out of place there. I think 'quake would have. You're right - it's more about the lack of change since 2003.

If I was in control I would had had Bossman/Tenta as the tag champs into of Shamrock/Bossman. Bossman & Tenta destroying everybody would had been awesome. I dunno Steven. I know you love your nostalgia but geez..... Actually, another point - was there ever a time when mainstraem US wrestling styles changed as much in 7-8 years than say, 1988 to 1996? I can't imagine any headliner from 2006-07 - or quite a bit earlier, having difficulty fitting in today - Jericho, Rock, HHH get away with it.

Wasn't he rather dated looking by 1996? And the idea of a feud with Austin in 1998, as suggested by Justin on Dangerous Alliance podcast, sounds preposterous to me. Really can't see the Attitude era WWF accepting him while mocking Hogan, Piper and Savage as over the hill.

Interesting little info about Valentine, Piper and One Man Gang possibly defecting in '88, I was unaware of that. Another great show - obviously. Bix, what was your point about Stan Lane being trained by Flair - does he go on and on and on about it or something?

Yeah, looking back Power Slam definitely had a Keith-ist workrate mentality. To be fair though, WWF seemed to really need dragged kicking and screaming out of the 80s and into anything faster paced in the 90s.

He seems very popular on this site. I'm remembering him being lambasted as a poor talent in Power Slam in the early 90s, and Meltzer didn't go out of his way to heap praise upon him at the time either. What happened? Is it nostalgia? Hipsters? Was it that the overall talent was stronger back then and he didn't standout as much as he might now? BTW I have watched some of his matches here and there recently and consider him perfectly acceptable.