Mattsdmf

Not sure if I had seen this match before but this is a masterpiece of a match. This was definitely the Jun Akiyama show but Misawa was phenomenal in his selling. I think I've seen clips of the exploder on the outside as I've seen that before. The drop toe hold to the railing was incredible. I love the pacing and structure was awesome and didn't have the excess of the Misawa/Kobashi matches and I do love those. There was barely any downtime which is amazing how they were able to keep that level of intensity for nearly 30 minutes. This will be the match to beat in 2000.

I haven't watched SmackDown since the brand split but I've seen a couple episodes of CWF MA which I really enjoyed.

I'm not really one to comment in detail about the current wrestling scene as I haven't been watching carefully but I thought I'd throw my 2 cents in. While wrestlers are more athletically gifted than before and there is more wrestling going on now than before, what hurts it in my eyes from being "great" is the lack of being emotionally invested. They could do all kinds of innovative moves and cut a great pace but if there's no reason or good reason why they're fighting, I tend to not enjoy it. The current wrestling that I do love is Lucha Underground. While it does have some of the trappings of modern wrestling but it's the writing, albeit cheesy but that's the nature of the beast, that hooks me. What wrestling is lacking IMO are characters and decent writing/booking. What I'd love to see is something in the vein of LU but more in a Memphis or SMW style.

I thought this was a fine match besides the really weak conclusion. I have soft spot for early 2000s pre ROH indies and this was fun to watch. It's weird to see Daniels with hair. I can't wait to get to seeing Low Ki and Danielson really break out later in 2000-2001.

I got a kick out of Honma's entrance. I really dug the action in and around the ring as it was really nasty and hard hitting but the crowd brawling kinda brought it down IMO. The finishing stretch was fantastic!

This was a great bloody lucha brawl. I never really watched these two but look forward to watching more of them. It wasn't too long or too abbreviated to enjoy the story that they were telling. I do love that the interference from Satanico is paid off by the end.

I still remember the build to this match like it was yesterday. I loved the transformation angle from Mankind to Cactus Jack and it felt like something really violent would happen during the match and it lived up to expectations. It still holds up as one of the very best WWE matches. The booking was great with Triple H sending Stephanie to the back which really raised the feeling that it was going to be a big match. I believe this was one of the first big matches that Triple H bled in? I might be wrong but it might have been one of the first few times. Even though a lot of brawls happened at this time but the use of barbed wire and thumbtacks were something else and was great hearing the crowd gasp. I really really love this match. Damn near perfect!

This was a first time watch for me. This was quite incredible! I love the out of control nature of this match. I'm not too knowledgeable about this feud but from what I've read, it seems really interesting on paper. I love the nuclear crowd heat. I also dig how everything seemed like a struggle and the strikes looked very stiff. Very much a MOTYC.

I have a scale of 10. I use the standard 5* method everyone else uses but also the Netflix style of 5* in how much I enjoyed it. I do add 1/2* to the latter. The reason is that I've given matches 5* before without actually enjoying them and it seemed wrong.

1. Watch even more territory footage especially NWA, Memphis, Florida and Continental. Been collecting as much TV as possible. 2. Watch all of SMW that's available. 3. Watch more WOS.

2016 was a very important year for me as a wrestling fan as I have watched more wrestling now than ever. While I've seen very little new wrestling, I have seen a lot of older wrestling. Here are my Top 30 first time watches: 1. El Dandy vs. Pirata Morgan [EMLL 9/23/88] 2. Aja Kong/Bull Nakano vs. Akira Hokuto/Shinobu Kandori [AJW 3/27/94] 3. Kenta Kobashi vs. Yoshinari Ogawa [NOAH 11/1/03] 4. El Hijo del Santo vs. Espanto Jr. [WWA 8/31/86] 5. Tommy Rich vs. Buzz Sawyer [GCW 10/23/83] 6. Ted DiBiase vs. Hacksaw Jim Duggan [Mid-South 3/8/85] 7. Ted DiBiase vs. Dick Murdoch [Mid-South 12/31/85] 8. Barry Windham vs. Arn Anderson [WCW 6/6/92] 9. 2 Cold Scorpio vs. Shane Douglas [ECW 5/11/96] 10. Negro Navarro vs. El Dandy [iWRG 11/18/01] 11. Atlantis vs. Ultimo Guerrero [CMLL 9/19/14] 12. Eddy Guerrero vs. 2 Cold Scorpio [ECW 4/8/95] 13. Bret Hart vs. The 1-2-3 Kid [WWF 7/11/94] 14. Mitsuharu Misawa/Yoshinari Ogawa vs. KENTA/Naomichi Marufuji [NOAH 4/25/04] 15. Trevor Lee vs. John Skyler [CWF Mid-Atlantic 9/8/16] 16. Negro Casas vs. Mocha Cota [CML 9/23/94] 17. Yoshinari Ogawa vs. Yoshihiro Takayama [NOAH 9/7/02] 18. Invader III vs. Eric Embry [WWC 1/6/86] 19. Stan Hansen vs. Carlos Colon [WWC 10/12/86] 20. Taka Michinoku/MEN's Teoih/Dick Togo vs. Great Sasuke/Gran Hamada/Gran Naniwa [ECW 2/15/97] 21. The Invaders vs. Los Pastores [WWC 9/21/85] 22. Ted DiBiase/Dr. Death vs. Hacksaw Jim Duggan/Terry Gordy (Texas Tornado Match) [Mid-South 1/21/85] 23. Terry Funk vs. Barry Windham [WWC 9/19/86] 24. Chicky Starr vs. Invader III [WWC 5/86] 25. Dr. Wagner Jr. vs. Koji Kanemoto [NJPW 6/3/98] 26. The Fantastics vs. Midnight Express [Mid-South 9/28/84] 27. Dick Murdoch vs. Butch Reed [Mid-South 10/14/85] 28. The Fantastics vs. Dutch Mantel/Bill Dundee [Mid-South 9/20/85] 29. Terry Gordy vs. Dr. Death [uWF 12/28/86] 30. The Fantastics/Terry Taylor vs. The Sheepherders/Jack Victory [uWF 5/25/86]

I've been tossing around ideas of booking an indy fed that's more in the territory system like what Smoky Mountain or the USWA was. I want to use more modern guys but would fit in the style of promotion. I want to use guys and gals that are good on the mic and have a variety of styles. I want to book a lot of old school gimmick matches and the like. I was thinking of using John Wayne Murdoch as a top face maybe in a Lawler type role (unless there's someone better for that role). I also wanted to have Jimmy Rave, Chris Hero, Kongo Kong, Trevor Lee, Andrew Everett to be top contenders for the title as well. I thought it would be interesting to have the tag division really centered around trios/factions. I know it's done to death but I like the idea of a 6-man tag title as I want to use Reverend Dan Wilson and his Devil's Rejects as the top heel faction and have a group of trios work them. It also gives me a way to use more luchadores. I need to do more homework on certain guys so that I could write better shows and storylines without it feeling like I don't know what I'm talking about. What I would like to ask is for some suggestions on what promotions to really look at for wrestlers that could fit this type of promotion.

I really enjoyed this match. This had a bit of everything. You had great stooging by Embry starting off, some great control segments, Invader 3 putting on some nice submissions and it had great pacing. I loved the desperation moves that Embry had to throw out to prevent being steamrolled like that sloppy piledriver and his selling afterwards. This had some blood and a beauty of a tope by Invader which led to a "cheap finish" that made sense. This is probably my favorite match of the set so far and I just started disc 2.

I finished disc 1 a week or so ago and here's my rankings: 1. The Invaders vs. Los Pastores (Barbed Wire Match) [9/21/85] 2. El Gran Apollo vs. Dick Steinborn [2/83] 3. Carlos Colon/Invader I vs. Los Pastores (Ambulence Match) [12/21/85] 4. Los Pastores vs. The Youngbloods [spring 1985] 5. Ric Flair vs. Carlos Colon [10/16/82] 6. Carlos Colon vs. Bruiser Brody (Chain Match) [summer 1984] 7. Hercules Ayala vs. Killer Tim Brooks (Taped Fist Cage Match) [10/85] 8. Gino Dellaserra & Pierre Martel vs. Los Mercenarios [11/27/82] 9. Abdullah the Butcher vs. Carlos Colon [9/81] 10. Carlos Colon vs. Tully Blanchard [1983] 11. Randy Savage vs. Hercules Ayala [3/2/85] 12. Ric Flair vs. Dusty Rhodes [12/21/85] 13. Abdullah the Butcher vs. Andre the Giant [9/17/83] 14. Ric Flair vs. Tommy Gilbert [9/4/82] 15. El Gran Apollo vs. Buddy Landell [5/8/83] 16. Carlos Colon vs. Abdullah the Butcher [9/21/85]

I really love this discussion. I find that many different approaches to discussing and dissecting wrestling will be very helpful. I don't like to use any kind of rating scale when viewing whole shows like when I'm watching SMW, ECW, Memphis and such. I think one of the only programs you could dissect like a typical TV show is Lucha Underground. It seems like most episodes have an overall arch including the matches. It will be interesting if they or someone else could even evolve the format even further.

Hello, my name is Matt. I've had a tad bit of trouble getting onto the board but I'm finally here! I also post on the DVDVR board as New Blood. I'm excited to post here as I've been lurking on this forum for the last couple years. I've learned so much and discovered so much wrestling from you guys by just reading the threads and listening to the various podcasts. I'm really excite to contribute! My introduction to wrestling was through video games in the mid-90s. One of my aunts ex-husbands had a Playstation and the WWF In Your House game and wrestlers like Undertaker, Goldust and Shawn Michaels fascinate me. I didn't really watch wrestling much other than seeing an odd episode of Superstars and Live Wire after cartoons on the USA Network. I was never a big sports fan so what appealed to me for wrestling were the characters and the angles. I was a big fan of comics and cult films and I would come across the WWF Colosseum Home Videos at my local mom & pop video store so that helped plant the seeds. It wasn't until the Attitude Era that I became a massive wrestling fan. It was on an episode of Raw in April 1999 where Rock threw Austin off the bridge and then the following Raw in which Rock had a funeral for Austin and then he came to the arena with a monster truck. Believe it or not, that's what cemented me as a wrestling fan. I loved wrestling so much that I found out about other companies like WCW which I also really dug. Finding ECW was a revelation or me and I watched it on TNN every week. From that I found FMW comp tapes/dvds at my local Sam Goodys. When ECW and WCW folded, I was really bummed but began to find out about indies that would come around like ROH which I became incredibly passionate for until 2010 which I felt became stale. I became very jaded about WWE in 2002 with the Katie Vick storyline which my fandom never did totally recover but would watch occasionally. Since all that, I've really rediscovered my love for wrestling in watching a lot of lucha, territory wrestling and various old puro, British wrestling and whatnot. I used to be a big, big fan of the 5 star/Meltzer way of rating matches until I saw Andre the Giant vs. Stan Hansen from September 81 and that transcended all of that and I think it's in my #1 spot of what I consider wrestling perfection. With that, I was led here and discovered so much more. I hope this isn't too rambling but I really enjoy this board and looking to be a good part of it.