Microstatistics

Not as good as the WM 13 all time classic but this remains an excellent match. Very minimalist match, reminds of Choshu/Hashimoto in some ways. Austin was the key figure here as the aggressive in your face rising star attacking with great focus while Bret added lots of cool little veteran touches. An outstanding, really clever finish with Bret pulling a Fujiwara and using Austin's bullheadedness to beat Austin. **** 1/4

Probably the best WWE match of the year at this point. Great armwork from Asuka, great and really consistent arm selling by Moon. As mentioned, I liked how Asuka went from cocky at the beginning to desperate at the end as the challenge mounted. Excellent, clever finish. ****

A truly fantastic match. Super intense and gritty work here as there is struggle over everything. I liked how compact it was, really well paced and put together. It was built around some really interesting strategy from both and the finish was great. ****5/8

How great is Fujiwara at pro wrestling? Having great matches at 68 vs. a guy relatively new to pro wrestling. Awesome match with some really nifty attention to detail matwork and an interesting experience vs. skill dynamic. I am unusually high on shoot style so I suspect not everyone is going to like it nearly as much as I did but I would definitely recommend it to fans of the style. ****

Truly amazing Ohtani performance as the dismissive prick higher ranked junior vs. an indie nobody. Great offense, top notch facial expressions and acting ranging self-satisfied smirking to pure panic and worry as he almost gets caught out a bunch of times. Yasuraoka was good as the resilient underdog but this was the Ohtani show. Excellent stuff overall. ****

A really good TV match. Nice bruiser vs. monster narrative with Finlay simply getting overwhelmed for the majority of the bout and, after an opening, violently attacking Henry's arm to get himself back into the match. Strong selling by Finlay and offensive work by Henry. Neat post match selling of the arm by Henry too. Probably the best Henry match (and performance) I seen outside of maybe the 2006 Rey ones. *** 3/4

After an incredible 2016, Black Terry still just keeping on giving. Another great match against a youngster filled with excellent storytelling, slick matwork and intense exchanges.

Ron Garvin - I just don't get the hype. Some strong offense but I just find him bland in every other respect. This is probably reductive but I don't really get the appeal beyond he hits very hard. Harley Race - Boring is probably a weird word to describe considering his bumping style but man are a lot of his matches boring. Chris Benoit - Has been involved in some good/great matches against great workers but the majority of his matches/style do not age well at all. Too much emphasis on workrate, too much working in a vacuum, no hook. Hell, I'd take Dean Malenko over him, atleast the no nonsense shooter approach was sort of cool and he was a good technician. Jon Cortez - Really dislike is a little extreme but he is by far the least of the top world of sport guys from what I've seen. Super Astro - Super graceful aerial stuff but his matches/performances leave me cold. Satanico dragged a borderline great match out of him but that's about it. Really dislike is too harsh though. Keiji Mutoh- Some really high highs but in between a ton of mediocre/bad stuff. Masa Chono - Same as Mutoh except with even less high end stuff

Blading is banned but shoot headbutts busting a 72 year old non wrestler open hardway are ok? WWE is weird.

Also they incorporated the ladder into their match instead of building it around ladder spots. The best description of the match I have read was that it is a match with a ladder rather than a ladder match.

Very good match (*** 1/2 ish if you want to talk star rating wise) but almost entirely thanks to Murdoch.

Bret vs. Davey Boy SS92 is my pick. Incredible Bret performance playing the subtle heel vs. the hometown boy. Bret vs. Savage SNME 87 is excellent too. Also agree with the comments that Bret/Owen > Shawn/Razor. Shawn vs. Razor is a great match but Bret vs. Owen is one of the best matches of all time and my #2 US match ever.

Which will get shit on. Again. And Cena will remain the Man in the company, no matter what. I mean it is likely he is eventually going to leave permanently like the Rock did in 03/04. They are going to have to do the changing of the guard type match at some point. Maybe not at No Mercy but eventually.

Glad they booked Lesnar vs. Braun. That is an actual dream match and could be the best singles match in the company since Brock/Reigns. Cena vs. Roman also sounds interesting. I'm guessing they will work it as a passing of the torch type deal where Cena gets overwhelmed and realizes his time as the ace is officially up.

I thought it was really intense, well constructed and had a very interesting dynamic . Murdoch was the bull, adding cool heelish touches and throwing amazing strikes and just trying to pulverize Fujinami. Fujinami tried to control him with holds and technique but was more than willing to fight back with fire. Even the finish and post match were super intense. The match had a lot of energy. I have it around **** - **** 1/4. Probably wouldn't be a MOTYC in most years but I thought 1982 was kind of a weak year in general so it was good enough. I updated 1982 to Lawler vs. Mantell 3/29 by the way.

This was the only part of the match that was a little iffy for me. Hokuto shrugged that high impact offense off a little too easily. But atleast it was at the start of the match and was basically like a "fuck this, I'm taking over" moment so it wasn't too egregious. The rest was amazing though, to the point that I thought this was one of the best matches of the year (which is really really saying something given the quality of 1997). Great narrative with Hokuto the arrogant bully champion getting more and more desperate and barely pulling through in the end. Stuff like the viciousness of strikes, the hair pulling, the biting, the competitive drive and the general action were all top notch. Excluding the start, Hokuto's selling was the rest of the match was pretty outstanding. Kaoru grabbed an armbar at some point in the middle of the match and torqued it in nasty fashion and Hokuto continued to sell the arm till the end of the match (even though Kaoru never went back to it). Super overall performance. Kaoru was great as the never say die fiery underdog as well. Underrated classic. **** 1/2

Maybe this explains why I didn't like it, even though Cena is way better at selling than Hogan. I agree with this assessment.

Fair enough.

I thought Trevor Lee vs. Chip Day seemed to perfectly fit the self-conscious epic definition described on the first page. It had a really strong start, a solid middle but in the finishing stretch, they just went on and on and on with a ton of manufactured drama and a real "we are trying make this feel like one for the ages" vibe which killed the match for me. If you have to force the epic feel, then it's not epic. Which directly relates to authenticity point. Atleast in something like Okada vs. Omega II, regardless of whether you thought it was dramatic/epic or not, everything felt genuine and real. That's where I disagree about applying the term self-conscious epic to modern NJPW (or 90s AJPW for that matter). I get disliking the style and the matches but atleast they don't have that overt "we are trying to create an all time classic/have a 5 star match" feel unlike certain US indies or some WWE matches. Part of that is the difference in crowds I feel.

All big matches from 2009-2012 Futen are must see, the 10/24/2010 tag especially.

Would you say it's a quality or personal taste thing? There are a lot of times where I can sit there and say that was a good match but it really didn't do much for me. I guess quality wise. What hurts Cena for me is a lack of great matches. Plenty of good (even very good) matches over the years but very few truly high end ones.

I'm in shock. I am going to assume you made up that rating to smear Dave's name. Any fans of the match willing to defend it? I had reviewed it in the MDA a while ago and gave it 1.5*. Didn't get the hype at all.

Is the Lawler vs. Mantell 3/22/1982 match online? 3/27/1982 (LLT) and 3/29/1982 (Barbed Wire) are but I couldn't find the No DQ one.

Yeah, Cena on PPV is sort of hit or miss for me. Maybe it's because I have soured on his big match formula so some of the matches I used to really like, I don't have the same fondness for. It'll be interesting to see how his work holds up years from now. The unique stuff (vs. Brock, vs. Umaga) is probably timeless but not sure about standard Big Match John.

Great Thread. RINGS is one of my all time favorite promotions but I haven't seen too much of early RINGS (pre-1993 or so), especially stuff not involving the usual suspects. Good to see it get some exposure.