Microstatistics

To be fair, people on the board do that as well.

The best of the series and one of the greatest matches of all time. Here Tamura combines his confidence and improved skill from the previous match with new found maturity and so is a much bigger threat. Han realizes this and is almost desperate in his attempts to end the match as quickly as possible. Probably the best Volk Han performance ever with the desperation, urgency, incredible submission assaults and even some arrogance. Tamura weathering the storm and cerebrally going for kill shots is excellent. That almost knock out blow from Han JKWebb mentioned rules and Han's reaction to it is the moment from the match that stuck with me the most. Just a last ditch effort from the maestro to salvage things as he realizes he has been surpassed. Sort of drew parallels to the Taue eleventh-hour eye claw on Misawa from the CC95 Final. Excellent, decisive finish. ****7/8

While the selling was fine for the most part, I agree that they moved from spot to spot a little too quickly and didn't let things breathe enough. Otherwise, this was really good. Nice heel-face dynamic and a very strong mix of modern high impact wrestling with stiff strikes and solid grappling and submission exchanges. As mentioned, some individual spots were pretty memorable. Clever finish. *** 3/4

In fucking INDIA ! That's why the WWE Universe suffered through this entire godawful Jinder Mahal main event push for months ! Awful matches, awful PPV main events, racist angles and whatnot. Because the fucking Indian Markettm. And in the end, Triple H beats the guy in Delhi ? Bwahahahahah ! Yeah this pretty much sums it up. While awful is a little harsh, it wasn't exactly one of the great title reigns of the modern era. And at the end of it, HHH goes over. HHH in the last few years was been really weird. Either he'll selflessly put someone over (Bryan, Shield, Reigns, Rollins) or he'll insert himself and win in situations where it's counterproductive or self-serving (derailing Lesnar, Sting, Survivor Series 17, this).

After a rewatch, this is the definite MOTY for me and in the Top 5 for the overall decade (along with 10/24/10 Futen tag, Shawn/Taker, Brock/Roman and Hechicero/Lucero).

Knee Lifts - Yoshihiro Takayama European Uppercuts - Daniel Bryan, Cesaro

I'm asking this earnestly - when did this "Brock is shot" narrative start? I thought he was the best performer in the SummerSlam match and he worked his ass off. Then he and Braun had a middling match (one I oddly liked still a good bit) and since he "allegedly" hampered Braun in this match (Braun looked just as gassed), i've seen this line of thinking pushed a lot more. Dylan Waco in the No Mercy thread was acting as though Lesnar was going to die in the middle of the ring vs. Braun due to exhaustion and in the process sabotaged Braun. I get not liking the match and Brock's performance but I thought that was quite an overreaction. I'm not blaming Dylan but I think that's where the narrative shifted from "Brock is lazy" to "Brock is physically done". Having said that and having enjoyed Brock's work vs. Goldberg and some others, I still agree with Boss Rock's point about Brock not being the same since 2012-15 (though I'll say it's more due to offensive laziness than poor conditioning).

After thinking about it more, I think these describe me as well. My tastes have definitely expanded in that I like more styles and types of wrestlers/wrestling than before but the stuff I consider to be all time great has substantially shrunk.

For some of us, yeah. But I'd guess there are more fans out there who mark out far bigger for the sick moves. I like violent looking strikes as much as anyone but I don't think it's that simple. Context is important. Sometimes a dragon suplex on the apron is necessary over an elbow strike so in that situation, the sick move is better. Also, I'm not a fan of stiffness for the sake of stiffness but I think the punches that actually land are usually better than worked punches. Not many people do worked punches well, the obvious exception being Lawler. Even Satanico (the GOAT puncher for me) punches seem like actual strikes to me based on the fact the you can actually hear the impact.

My favorite mini (and some full fledged) feuds, excluding many of the usual suspects. Jushin Liger vs. Naoki Sano Chigusa Nagayo vs. Dump Matsumoto Akira Hokuto vs. Shinobu Kandori Marty Jones vs. Mark Rocco Jumbo Tsuruta vs. Jack Brisco Megumi Kudo vs. Shinobu Kandori Eddie Guerrero vs. Kurt Angle William Regal vs. Dean Ambrose Yuki Ishikawa vs. Carl Greco Tatsumi Fujinami vs. Shinya Hashimoto Yoshihisa Yamamoto vs. Tsuyoshi Kohsaka Mariko Yoshida vs. Yumi Fukawa Kazushi Sakuraba vs. Hiromitsu Kanehara Genichiro Tenryu vs. Nobuhiko Takada Shinjiro Ohtani vs. Eddie Guerrero (as Black Tiger II) Brock Lesnar vs. John Cena Bryan Danielson vs. Nigel McGuiness Shinjiro Ohtani vs. Tajiri Shinya Hashimoto vs. Riki Choshu Shawn Michaels vs. Undertaker Volk Han vs. Mitsuya Nagai Volk Han vs. Tsuyoshi Kohsaka Volk Han vs. Yoshihisa Yamamoto Kiyoshi Tamura vs. Tsuyoshi Kohsaka Bret Hart vs. Davey Boy Smith El Hijo del Santo vs. Espanto Jr. Yoshiaki Fujiwara vs. Super Tiger Vader vs. Sting

Yeah, I'd say I'm comfortable with my Top 8 or so. After that, everything's a little iffy.

Maybe I have been watching the wrong stuff but AJ's New Japan run seems to be lacking in high end/great matches. Yeah the Suzuki match is awesome but there's not much more for MOTYC level stuff.

Surprised no one has mentioned it yet but Yuki Ishikawa vs. Daisuke Ikeda for me and pretty easily at this point. All time classic matches, great singles matches, diversity in terms of how their matches are worked, variety in terms of roles (face/heel), hierarchy etc + tons of tremendous interactions in tags and multimans and longevity.

One of my favorite things about WWE Bryan is that even with all the goofiness and yes chants and what not, he was still able to wrestle a gritty and violent style. Some vicious and focused legwork on Harper who turns in a pretty outstanding selling performance. Really impressive how they managed to construct a great match considering the circumstances: 1) they are given just a few minutes on free TV (including ad time), 2) this takes place in the middle of a larger gauntlet match, 3) in typical WWE fashion, the focus is on Rollins/Orton backstage stuff. Bryan also takes a Misawa bump on a half nelson suplex, which is insane given the condition of his neck. Beautiful, beautiful payoff and finish. ****

Shawn for me and pretty easily. Much superior tag work, his best matches are considerably better. IMO, the 94-97 is superior to any of AJ's runs including the 2014-current run NintendoLogic mentioned (maybe not week to week but high end matches wise). Similar versatility and adaptability with regards to different opponents and types of matches. Shawn has had disappointing and wildly overhyped matches but so has AJ (I personally hate the Cena series, the Nakamura match is not very good). I will say I'm not surprised Styles is winning by a landslide here. Though he did very well in GWE (39), the impression I have got is that his WWE run has really made people take notice and reevaluate him and the perception has gone from "oh that really good worker" to "one of the modern greats".

Wow, I am way off from the consensus on this one.

The main event was utterly bizarre and nonsensical but I liked HHH's terrified facial expression after the match. It really put Braun over the top.

I can see why someone might prefer the Goldberg match as it was tighter and more impactful. But I don't see how the Strowman match could top this or even the Joe match. Care to expound? Some specifics: The initial Brock domination of AJ was too deliberate for me, I much preferred how it was done in the Cena and Roman matches. Styles comebacks were also too sudden and not very compelling. I am a big proponent of spots not looking perfect, slightly uneven execution and even "botches" but here, it just came off as awkward rather than uncooperative or gritty. For example that tornado DDT counter spot looked pretty bad, I didn't think they redeemed it too well. But, overall, I preferred the pacing and structure of those matches. This probably had better individual spots but, as a whole, those matches were just constructed better. There was just something intrinsically iffy about the pacing in this match. Probably not a terribly helpful explanation but there it is.

"The Wife of Stephanie McMahon", there is no way that wasn't intentional

Good match but pretty disappointing overall. I preferred the Goldberg, Joe and Strowman matches for Lesnar. Brock toned down suplex city so I suspect people are going to like this the best. Something about the pacing was off and it felt awkward at times. Still, good individual performances by both. Some really great bumping by AJ and he got in quite a lot of offense. Neat leg selling by Brock. Him violently powering out of the calf crusher was the best, most memorable spot. *** 1/4

You might have already seen it but Fujinami vs. Ryuma matches from 78-79 have some of the best pro style matwork I've seen.

Kicks - Kiyoshi Tamura, Shinya Hashimoto Punches - El Satanico Palm Strikes - Jushin Liger, Volk Han Elbows/Forearm Strikes - Mitsuharu Misawa Headbutts - Yoshiaki Fujiwara Chops - Genichiro Tenryu, Kenta Kobashi Stomps - Negro Casas, Jumbo Tsuruta Knee Strikes - Jun Akiyama

That's a great point, I never realized that even though I've seen that 11/9/1993 tag match. This match really is on an another level when it comes to pure storytelling. I can understand the criticisms of the first 10-15 minutes (and even agree with them to a slight extent). Still think everything they did in that time was on point and built and advanced the narrative, they just had to tighten it up a little.

Some more I thought of Yoshiaki Fujiwara 1987-1991 Eddie Guerrero 1994-97 Jushin Liger 1989-1994 Yuki Ishikawa 1996-2000 Mick Foley 1996 - 2000

Yoshiaki Fujiwara 1984 - vs. Super Tiger, 9/7 1985 - vs. Super Tiger, 9/11 1986 - vs. Antonio Inoki, 2/6 (not including the NJ elimination matches) 1987 - vs. Riki Choshu, 6/9 1989 - vs. Akira Maeda, 8/13 1990 - vs. Nobuhiko Takada, 10/25 1991 - vs. Wellington Wilkins Jr., 5/19 1994 - vs. Shinya Hashimoto, 6/1 1995 - vs. Taka Michinoku, 8/26 1996 - w/Tatsumi Fujinami vs. Nobuhiko Takada/Masahito Kakihara, 6/26 1997 - vs. Genichiro Tenryu, 11/27