supremebve

Yeah, there is an obvious difference between Michael Hayes and Bruce Prichard casually using the n-word in everyday conversation and the same term being an official designation for black people in the wrestling business - similar to the way the term jobber might designate a person who loses the majority of his matches. It's still horrible and fucked up either way, but I can see why he'd argue that some people are racist and others aren't - as warped as that may sound. There is no difference. It was the culture in wrestling, because the culture in wrestling was/is racist. This is the only correct answer. You can't separate the people who are racist from the people engaging in the racism. The actual racism is what matters. It doesn't matter if the institution is racist, if you decide to engage in that racism you are then a racist. You can't have it both ways. You can't claim that all this racism exist without people actually engaging in the racism. The culture of wrestling is racist, the people who keep those racist traditions going are by definition are racists. We don't have to pretend that they are not racist, because we like them and what they do. The only way this racism persists is because people keep being racist. You can't have racism without racists, you can't have racist institutions without racism. Dave's issue is that he thinks people can do racist things without being racist, which excuses people of their racism. The reason this type of shit keeps going is because people get to be racists and claim to not be racist. No one ever holds them accountable for their bullshit, and then next thing we know I can't listen to "Real American" without feeling like I'm betraying myself. Calling someone a derogatory term because of their race is racism. Sure, we've all said or done something like this, but we were all wrong when we did it. Trying to justify it is not doing anyone any good. All of it is destructive, and none of it is excusable.

I actually enjoy watching good to great wrestling more being hypercritical than I would just watching it for pure entertainment purposes. As I post more, you guys will probably notice that I analyze even the smallest things to the furthest detail. My personality seems to revolve around the ever repeating asking of "why?" Why do Jumbo Tsuruta's matches always seem to feel so epic. What is it about Randy Savage that makes me buy into everything he does? Why can't I take my eyes off of Steve Austin whenever he is on my screen? I think trying to figure out the answers to those questions is much more interesting than sitting down just for mindless entertainment. With that said, if I'm watching Raw I don't really ask myself those questions. I don't watch Raw weekly, and when I turn it on it is generally for mindless entertainment. If something great happens, I may rewatch it with those questions in mind, but in the moment I'm probably giving it less thought than most people. It is very common for me to watch the same match back to back when I'm watching it critically. I've often find myself so enthralled with a match that I want to go back and understand what it was that hooked me. I wonder what was the tipping point, that took a match from good to great. Some matches do something I've seen thousands of times in a way I've never seen it. Some matches do something I've never seen. Some others do things I've seen thousands of times exactly the same way I've seen, but somehow do it better than anyone else. That discovery is what keeps me coming back. I can watch a match I've seen ten times before and still get something out of it. I get to come to places like this and discuss wrestling with people who may have watched the same exact match and experienced it completely differently than I have. I may have asked why Misawa was one of the greatest offensive wrestlers and someone else could wonder why he didn't sell more. Neither opinion is wrong, but the next time I watch the match it could give me something else to look for. Wrestling is as much about discovery to me as it is about entertainment. My absolute favorite thing about wrestling is when it surprises me. If you were to just watch wrestling and take it for what is shown, you may miss out on a lot of really fun stuff. How many times have you heard someone from WWE or WCW say how much Luger sucked? If you go back and look at his work, Lex Luger was a very good wrestler for a large part of his career. Until about a year ago I had never watched a single Jumbo Tsuruta match, but now I'm pretty sure he's one of the five best wrestlers of all time.

The damning thing is that there's really not all that much new information that led to today's indictment (although that's not the way the DA spun it). The forensic information was there (although not public record). Snuka's rapidly changing story was known. If they didn't discover during their first investigation that Snuka had been arrested for attacking Nancy in a hotel room a few months earlier, then that would be shockingly bad police work. I don't know why you don't believe that this is just police work. The first time I heard about this story was probably 10 years or so ago and wasn't really all that surprised he didn't get arrested. This is kind of just how these type of cases work. The police don't really do as much investigating as people think. If there is a reason for them to stop looking into a case, they generally just move on to something else. The only reason people think that the cops are out here solving crimes is television. In the real world they kind of just arrest the first suspect, if they don't feel like they'll get a conviction they just kind of drop it and move on. That is why the vast majority of people in prison are there on petty drug crimes, it is easy to prove you caught someone with a bag of weed, but if there isn't a witness to a murder it is hard to prove someone killed someone. The cops get to act like they're fighting crime and the people get to pretend that they're safe, but in reality the vast majority of violent crimes don't lead to a conviction. That doesn't even take into consideration that a lot of crimes aren't even counted. This woman's death was never even officially ruled an accident or a homicide. As far as the law was concerned she died of natural causes. Jimmy Snuka most likely killed that woman, but since no one really bothered to investigate he was never charged with anything.

Him making excuses for them is enabling racism. My point isn't that Meltzer is racist, or that he in any way thinks that these people are racist. My point is despite what he thinks, what is going on is racist. I'm sure all of these people would claim to be completely against racism, but that doesn't mean that their actions are not racist. That is what I meant by "Intent doesn't matter." Just because you think it is OK to do something, or that you don't have malicious intent behind your actions, doesn't meant that your actions aren't racist. There is a book called, Racism without Racists, that basically chronicles all of the racist institutions that are perpetrated because people don't feel like they are racist for taking part in those practices. The problem is that those practices are racist, and people justifying these racist practices because they don't feel they are racist are just pushing that racism forward. The entire wrestling business could be completely and totally free of people who feel that they are racist, but if they are going around calling people racial slurs they are actively participating in racism. It is kind of like Bill Watts claiming he isn't a racist, because he made Junkyard Dog a big star, and put the title on Ron Simmons, when almost every other thing he's said about and/or done to black people has been racist as hell. Everyone claims that they aren't racist, but that all goes out of the window when they start actively engaging in racism. His point is oxymoronic, because he believes that these people can do racist things without actually being racist.

Yeah, the problem with what Meltzer said is that it is giving people an out for something that is clearly racist. Intent doesn't matter, you can't have a workplace where people are calling people of other ethnicities racial slurs. Saying that these people aren't racist is dumb, one because he doesn't know all of these people, and two, because what they are doing is clearly racist. You are singling out people of another ethnicity and calling them a derogatory term based on their race. At the very least it is dividing the workplace racially, which is wrong, and at the worst it is creating a hostile work environment. Just because they've been doing this for decades doesn't make it right, it was just as wrong on day one as it is now. The entire issue is that people like Meltzer think it is OK, because that is how it has always been. So essentially his point is, people were racist, but now they aren't because they're just doing what those old racists did. That is not backwards ass thinking at all.

So, I've heard a lot about Valentine as a great worker, especially his series with Tito Santana. Does anyone know where I can find those matches? I'd be interested in his Flair matches too.

It really doesn't help that Hulk Hogan may be the most full of shit person of my lifetime. The fact that he's told the WrestleMania III story about him slamming Andre approximately 51,816,518,416,519,856,156 times and all of them have been a different story makes me skeptical about everything else he says. I'm willing to bet that he wasn't greeting anyone in his neighborhood with a, "What's up my N----" during his childhood. He grew up in a time where that was not only unacceptable for a white person, it wasn't really all that popular between black people. He expects people to believe him, when everything he says is unbelievable. Even if that was believable, we weren't talking about him calling his friend that as a sign of solidarity, we're talking about him calling the person who is dating his daughter a racial slur. I forget where I heard it, but it was someone talking about Hulk Hogan and Steve Austin. The gist of the story was that Hulk Hogan was always working, even in his personal life, but Steve Austin was never working, even in his professional life. Steve Austin, for all his flaws, was someone who found it easier to be himself than a character. Hogan on the other hand made up Hulk Hogan, so he didn't ever have to be Terry Bollea. Terry Bollea seems to be an asshole, a liar, and a racist, and I think enough of us realize that not to totally forgive Hulk Hogan.

Except that doesn't make it any less racist. Just because a person's racism was accepted, doesn't mean that they weren't being racist. Slavery was legal and acceptable for hundreds of years, but it was also really fucking racist. Just because someone grew up racist, and did a bunch of racist shit, when racism was a more socially acceptable doesn't excuse them from being a racist. Sure if someone who has been raised in a more tolerant time makes us think worse than the people who were raised in the less tolerant time, but their social crimes are exactly the same. One of the reasons that racism, sexism, and homophobia won't go away is because people always make excuses why someone's prejudice is acceptable. If we treated it all of it the same for everyone we'd probably be better off, but instead we pick and choose who we want to give an out.

Nikita should have been much bigger, he probably should have jumped to WWF at some point. He was working with a better crop of wrestlers in Crockett, but Vince would have made him a bigger star. A Hogan vs. Nikita program would have made huge money. His limitations as a worker would have been covered up more, and he just had a look that was perfect for 1980s WWF. My favorite thing about Nikita is that he legally changed his name to Nikita Koloff. Live the gimmick brother.

Last August on the DVDVR Message Board somebody posted a list of every single match Dave Meltzer rated 4 stars or better. I decided when I saw the list that I was going to watch as many of those matches as I could, and write a bit about them if I feel inspired. So it has been a year, I have 20 files on my computer, and I’ve watched as many of these matches as possible from 1983 through 1992. I’ve since decided that this list wasn’t nearly complete enough for me, and I’ve expanded to watch as many great matches as possible. I've posted most of this on another board, but I think this board will lead to more conversation about the matches. You can find the list here...http://deathvalleydriver.com/forum/index.php?/topic/2528-the-definitive-observer-star-ratings-list/ I've also created a spreadsheet with links to places you can find these matches here...https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1mQEPDOO_SEkMjt1dwqVKrNh69cOXJXQJwYDcQJaKJF8/edit?usp=sharing If there is a match that you'd like to see me review let me know. I'm trying to do these in mostly chronological order so if you have a suggestion before my current position on the list I'll get to it as soon as I can, but if it is after my current position I'll get to it when I get to that point. I'll probably post one of these once a week or so, but this project is ever evolving so who knows where it will ultimately lead. 7/28/78 - Tatsumi Fujinami vs Ryuma Go I've posted 20 of these at the DVDVR Message Board, but just for you guys, I've given you a brand new review. I’ve seen exactly two Fujinami matches, and those were the two against Flair in 1990. Around WrestleMania I told myself I needed to watch a few, but I kind of got caught up reviewing matches on Meltzer’s 4+ Star list and never got around to it. So, since I’m going to be reviewing a much more comprehensive list of matches, I decided to give this one a shot. Also of note, this may very well be the oldest wrestling match I’ve ever watched. In general my wrestling fandom has been pretty contemporary, though I often check out the archives of some of my favorites. This match starts with some of the smoothest mat wrestling I’ve ever seen. Neither man really does anything I haven’t seen, but their execution is what is noteworthy. This is built on a foundation of rock solid chain wrestling, whether it be Go working a side headlock series or Fujinami working from an STF to a hammerlock. There is a really cool sequence where they trade snapmares. Fujinami hits a snapmare, and Go bridges up to hit one of his own. It is a fairly simple sequence, but it is an interesting spot in a match that is 75% matwork. The beauty of this match is in those type of sequence. This is a Jr. Heavyweight match that doesn’t have any dives, it has one flying head scissor, and one attempt at a top rope move. The fact that this match kept me engaged throughout is a testament to how good their work is. I’m not someone who needs a high spot a minute in my wrestling, but this is a match where no one even hits the ropes until the finishing sequence. This is kind of like the first time you eat sushi, and you really don’t know what to expect going in. I was watching this thinking, “Oh, this isn’t too bad.” Then I thought, “This isn’t what I was expecting at all.” Eventually I kind of just went with it and realized I kind of liked it, but don’t know if this is something I want to watch every day. Now I’m sitting here thinking, “Hmm, I wonder if that was a good 70s Jr. match or if that is just me liking something I’ve never encountered more than I thought I would.” I guess I’m going to have to eventually get some soy sauce and wasabi and give this another try. I can’t rate this, because I don’t have enough context to what was happening at the time. I could rate this against more modern wrestling, but I feel like that would also be inaccurate, because I don’t know if I really understand the nuances of what I just watched. I’ll just say I’m more than intrigued to watch more Fujinami from this era, and maybe I’ll look for more late 70s wrestling in general going forward. 4/21/83 - Dynamite vs. Tiger Mask (NJPW) ***** This is the first match I watched for this project. I started this mostly as a way to watch great wrestling matches in my free time. It quickly turned into something I took more seriously. I’ve enjoyed writing for years, and I’ve loved wrestling even longer, so I decided why not combine the two and use this as a writing exercise. Not knowing what this project was going to evolve into, I didn’t give some of these matches much of a review. So I’m going to rewatch some of these early matches and give more comprehensive thoughts. Any time you see italics it will be my first review of a match, that I’ve since revisited and/or had some other comments about. (From August 2014)This was a super fun match that would have been considered great in the Jr. Heavyweight heyday of the mid '90s. The fact that it happened in 1983 is amazing. You hear about people being before their time, but these guys were doing stuff in this match that didn't really become widespread until 10 years after. The ***** rating was well deserved. These two have experienced a bit of a backlash on the internet over the last few years, but this match still works in my eyes. It isn’t perfect by any means, but this match seems like I’m watching the foundation being set for the NJPW Jr. Division. There are a couple of things that seem to be out of place in 1983 for me. The first sequence of the match is a stalemate worked off of a wristlock, that wouldn’t have looked out of place in a mid-2000s Ring of Honor match. It was something you wouldn’t see in the States until the mid-90s with guys like Eddy Guerrero and Dean Malenko. Then there were the dives that took this mostly mat based match to another level. Tiger Mask and Dynamite Kid would have fit in the glory days of the NJPW Jr. Division of the 90s with Liger, Benoit, and Ohtani, except I don’t know if any of those guys exist without these two guys to pave the way. Tiger Mask’s offense seems like a Jushin Liger starter kit. Tiger Mask doesn’t do any Ligerbombs or fisherman busters, but Liger’s matwork is essentially identical to Tiger Mask’s. It is well documented that Chris Benoit idolized Dynamite Kid and it is very apparent watching this match that Dynamite’s offense became the foundation for Benoit’s entire career. You can’t watch Dynamite’s clothesline or snap suplex and not think of Chris Benoit, they look almost identical. This match is really good, but I think the real story here is that these two are creating a style that influences wrestling for years to come. Think of this like the Mike D'Antoni Phoenix Suns. Those teams played a very fun, exciting, style of basketball that wasn’t unsuccessful, but never won a championship. This last year the Golden State Warriors played a very similar style that was influenced by the Phoenix Suns, and won the NBA championship. They took Phoenix’s system based on offensive versatility and expanded it to the defensive side of the ball. They built their team full of players who could shoot 3s and get to the basket, as well as players who could guard multiple positions. The Warriors probably don’t win a championship if those Phoenix Suns teams didn’t exist, just like the NJPW Jr. Division probably doesn’t reach their peak without Dynamite Kid and Tiger Mask. Upon rewatch I wouldn’t give this match *****. I fully understand why it was rated that high in 1983, but it is kind of a strange match. The match has multiple false finishes, where the match has to be restarted, but somehow it still ends in a double count out. The finish just left me cold. I’m going to give this one ****1/4, it is really entertaining, but I can’t rate it any higher with all of the starts and stops. 12/5/84 - Takada vs. Yamazaki (UWF) ***** (From August 2014) This match is on YouTube, but it is clipped to shit and is a worked shoot. I didn't know there was any such thing as a worked shoot in 1984, so I guess that is something, but I've never been a fan of this style. For what I watched I can't say it is worth the *****, but I'm also the exact wrong person to ask to rate something like this. I really wanted to rewatch this to see if my thoughts had changed, but I couldn’t find a version that wasn’t just the last six minutes. I’ve watched a couple of worked shoots since I originally watched this one and I’ve liked them more than I expected. This one still falls flat to me. First of all I don’t know if this can even be described as a worked shoot, or if this is just a pro wrestling match that is worked in a style that is a precursor to the worked shoot style that would come later. I don’t know if the disconnect is because I can’t see the entire match, so I don’t really have any context for what is happening or if I just don’t like the match. The issue I’m having is that nothing seems to mean enough. The strikes don’t really do enough damage that I feel like they are a legit threat to end the match. They struggle and fight over every submission, but they don’t seem to have any consequence on what happens later in the match. They kind of go from working strikes and submissions and start hitting wrestling moves out of nowhere. Even those don’t feel like they’re doing nearly enough damage, especially when Takada hits two tombstone piledrivers only for Yamazaki to kick out. I can’t rate this, but if I ever come across a complete version I’ll give it another try. 12/8/84 - Brody/Hansen vs. Funks (AJPW) ***** This is my first exposure to Brody, and it is safe to say that I'm not overly impressed. He is clearly the worst guy in the match, but then again so would almost everyone else. Brody is one of the worst bumpers I've ever seen, he just plain sucks at it. He does come off as wild and crazy though. Dory is pretty good here, but this is the Terry Funk and Stan Hansen show. So Stan Hansen throws an insane running dropkick early in this match that would have looked great if he was 75 lbs. lighter, but I honestly was shocked when I saw him do it. He did it as casually as I tie my shoes. Terry takes a back body drop over the top rope to the floor harder than some guys take them in the ring. This eventually just breaks down into a brawl and Terry gets a chain and chases Brody and Hansen off. This was great, the Funks look like they are a total combined age of 756, but they are total pros (The fact that those two have wrestled fairly recently is absurd). Hansen is masterful, and Brody is just crazy enough to not drag this down. The ***** is so worth it, the only problem is there isn't a real finish. 12/8/84 - Tiger Mask II vs. Pirata (AJPW) ****1/2 I don't think I've ever seen Misawa as Tiger Mask, but I have to say he is a pretty fun Jr. Heavyweight. I've never seen Pirata Morgan, so I decided to google him…and apparently that eyepatch is not a gimmick. I really wish I didn't read what happened to his eye and I'll be forever thankful that I haven't seen it. My god that has to be the most horrific injury of all time. Oh, the match…Misawa wins with a tiger suplex. This was pretty short, but fun. I wouldn't give it **** 1/2, but that is only because it wasn't long enough to really build into anything. There is nothing wrong with it, but then again 30 years ago this had to be fucking revolutionary. 3/9/85 - Kobayashi vs. Tiger Mask II (AJPW) ***** Quick question before the match starts…When did the Freebirds start with their entrance music? I've always heard that they were the first, but these guys had entrance music in '85 all the way in Japan. Did it catch on immediately? OK, so this is the first time I've even heard of Kobayashi as far as I remember, and only my second Tiger Mask II match. This starts out pretty fast, and Kobayashi clearly hates Misawa's guts. Tiger Mask II hits what has to be the strangest looking piledriver I've ever seen, he jumps and instead of keeping his head between his thighs his head lands down by his feet. There is a pretty nifty rope running spot that ends with the two guys trading spin kicks. This is a pretty nifty little match, they trade holds, fly, hit some suplexes, and wrestle in a style that is more reminiscent of 1995 than 1985. The only problem is that it ends in a count out. I'm sure if I was watching this feud from week to week I'd appreciate it more, but watching a 30 year old match that doesn't really have an ending takes a little away for me. With that said, based on what was going on at the time ***** doesn't seem off at all. 2/14/86 - Flair vs. Windham (NWA) ***** This is Flair vs. Windham in 1986 if this was less than ****1/2 I'd be disappointed. The thing that I notice immediately is the style of this match compared to the two previous matches I watched. This is basically the best example of 1986 American heavyweight wrestling. There aren't going to be any planchas, topes or tiger suplexes, but then again I don't remember seeing stuff like that until the early to mid '90s(Those Misawa matches were insane for the time period). This is the most dated match I've watched so far, but it is also the best match I've watched so far. They fight over every single hold, bleed all over the place, and both guys fight like hell to overcome their opponent. The part that really sets this match apart though is the pace. They work at a pace where there is constant action, but they give everything a second or two to breathe. This also ends in a double countout, but it worked because they were fighting so hard to make it back in. They should make everyone at the performance center memorize this match and tell them to go home and pray that they can one day be this good. This is excellent. 11/27/86 - Andersons vs. RNR Express - Cage (NWA) ****1/4 Arn Anderson should teach a masters course in goofy stanky legged selling called, "Course Study on How to be a Bad Ass While Looking Like Your Drunken Uncle). This starts off with the Rock n Rolls beating the shit out of Arn and Ole. Arn staggers around like a drunken pirate and makes the RNR's offense look credible. Then The Andersons take over and put the beatdown on both guys and instead of us thinking Arn is a dope we think he is the baddest motherfucker on the planet. Ricky Morton is at his Ricky Mortonest in this match too, taking a beating and bleeding like the proverbial stuck pig. This is probably the worst match I've watched on this list so far, but it's still pretty good. ****1/4 sounds about right for 1986. 11/27/86 - Flair vs. Koloff (NWA) **** Flair is out first, which I hate. Then there is a long ass video of Magnum T.A.'s chest hair, a seagull, and the back of some old woman's head. Magnum's running shorts make me extremely uncomfortable, not only are they tiny, they have about a 3" slit on each side so we can see even more of this dudes thighs. The 80s had no self awareness. Nikita's entrance looks really cool, and the fans love this big goofy, non-Russian. Say what you want about Nikita, but that dude looks like a wrestler, the huge shoulders , the bald head, and the look on his face make him look like a dude who could rip your arms of and beat you to death with them. Flair is pretty much masterful here, and Nikita holds up his end by just beating the shit out of him for the first half of the match. Nikita makes one mistake and Flair is on his leg like a great white shark. I have to say the ref bumps in the 80s were way more realistic than they are now. Tommy Young took a pretty good shot here, and the ref took a hard shot in the Flair Windham match as well. As I type this Nikita hits the replacement ref with a Russian Sickle and I'm surprised his head is still attached. He absolutely killed him with that clothesline. This match ends with a DQ, because the match turns into a brawl and they decide to kick the shit out of the referees for trying to break it up. This was damn good. **** may be a little low for this one.

I can't support any make believe scenario where Sasha Banks is dating anyone other than me. I think the best thing for him would be for him to go heel and take advantage of the boos he's getting already. There really isn't any good reason they've kept him babyface this long. He has been working his ass off and putting on good matches, but the fans still don't like him. His work isn't going to get his current babyface character over, he's going to have to change his character to have any chance at winning over the crowd.

I think Diamond Dallas Page, Rey Mysterio Jr., and Dean Malenko were the best TV workers of the Monday Night Wars. DDP got over from having entertaining matches with everyone on the roster, and finding a new way to hit the Diamond Cutter. His matches were always a topic of conversation during me and my friends Tuesday morning wrestling conversations. Dean Malenko was another guy who could work with everyone on the roster and have an entertaining match. His style doesn't hold up as well as Rey's, but he was just as instrumental in the success of the cruiserweight division as Rey. His style let everyone get their moves in while holding the match together so it didn't turn into a spot fest. Rey Mysterio Jr. could be argued as the best wrestler of the last 20 years. He delivered no matter where he was on the card. He was as great in the six minute opening television match as he was in the 20 minute main event. He worked a style that was almost totally unique in that it was fast paced and high flying, but could adapt to any opponent. Most of the guys who work that high flying style have a fairly low ceiling that doesn't translate when pushed up the card, but Rey could make it work with everyone. I think the most underrated part of WCWs domination during the Monday Night Wars was that they had matches people wanted to watch every week. Me and my friends talked about Mysterio, Malenko, DDP, Eddy, and Benoit, just as much if not more than the NWO. They won't get the credit, but they were a huge part of their success.

DDP in 97-98 was probably second only to Steve Austin when it comes to being over with the audience. I LOVED DDP at that time, and I didn't know anything about his friendship with Bischoff. He got over by being one of the best TV workers of his time, which is saying something with guys like Rey, Eddy, and Benoit being around, and having the most over finisher in the business. Not only do I not think that his friendship with Bischoff was too big of an advantage, I think they kind of missed the boat by a year. He was actually cooling off by the time he won the title in April of 1999, Goldberg had overtaken him with the audience. Starrcade 97 kind of ruined everything at the top of the card for WCW. Sting kind of failed as champion, and they gave the belt right back to Hogan. Hogan, who probably wouldn't have put DDP over, should have put DDP over for the title. They could have still had the feuds with Rodman and Leno and DDP would have been super over as champion. The Halloween Havoc match should have been where DDP dropped the belt to Goldberg, because that is where their careers intersected. DDP, who was the #1 face for the last year fighting Goldberg who was ascending to the #1 face spot, would have been huge when they were quickly falling behind in the ratings...but this was WCW and doing the smart thing wasn't really their part of their program.

Hi, I'm supremebve. I'm a lifelong wrestling fan, I honestly don't remember the first match I watched. I think I've been pretty hardcore since 1988, which is when the whole Mega Powers thing started, but I remember watching wrestling before that. I missed a good bit of the mid to late 2000s, but I've followed almost all of it vicariously through the internet. I've been around the DVDVR message boards for a while, and while it is great for what it is, it doesn't satisfy my needs for in depth conversations about matches. I'd say I joined this board because I started a project where I've been trying to watch every match that Dave Meltzer ranked 4 stars or better and write a bit about them. Sometimes they're full recaps, sometimes they're a breakdown of the story of the match, and other times they are just a discussion of one interesting thing I noticed during the match. Recently I've been thinking of expanding this project from matches Dave ranked to any and all matches that are considered great(I know this is going to be impossible) and are available on the internet. I'll still be using Dave as a guide, but he just has too many holes for me to feel like this project is anywhere close to complete. He didn't really review many AWA matches, any prime Fujinami matches, and he seemingly underrates a lot of matches that are considered great elsewhere. I started in 1983 with Dynamite vs. Tiger Mask where I wrote 5 short sentences and the last match I've watched was Ric Flair vs Genichiro Tenryu (SWS 09/15/92) where I wrote 500 words. This project has taken on a life of its own, and I'm trying to figure out how to watch the most great wrestling matches and discuss them in new and interesting ways. I try to discuss them as personally as possible, because I'd much rather talk about how a match appeals to an individual than how it appeals to the wider audience. The most interesting part of this project has been finding the matches that I'd never have watched otherwise. This is hopefully a place I can post my thoughts on these matches and have a conversation about what makes them great and how fun it is to discover new matches and wrestlers that have somehow been lost along the way. I hadn't watched a single Jumbo Tsuruta match before this project, and now I'm pretty sure he's one of the top 5 wrestlers I've ever watched. My hope is that I find more Jumbos and find more matches like Kobashi/Kikuchi vs. Fuchi/Ogawa from 7/5/92 that I would have probably never watched. I'll be bringing my perspective, and I hope I can hear the perspectives of everyone in this community. I've been compiling a list of all of the great matches you can find online which you can find here...https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1mQEPDOO_SEkMjt1dwqVKrNh69cOXJXQJwYDcQJaKJF8/edit?usp=sharing This list is a work in progress, and I would love for it to be a shared work in progress. I'm going to try to update it as much as possible, but I also want to hear from you guys. So if you have any suggestions, just put them into a reply to any of my review posts. Note that I'm trying to do this close to chronologically so if you have a suggestion before my current spot on the list, I'll probably review it sooner than if you suggest something after my current spot on the list. If I'm in 1993(where I'm starting this week) and you suggest 1995, I'll add it to the 1995 list and get to it when I get to that date, but if you suggest 1989 I'll probably get to it in the next couple of posts. Thanks for having me and I look forward to discussing some classic wrestling with you guys.