SmartMark15

One of the best classic Survivor Series style matches in history. Austin's career is on the line against Bischoff's team. Everyone played their roles pretty much perfectly in this match. Steiner made for a great bully jock, Henry was a powerhouse. Van Dam made a good guy to keep the action moving throughout the early stages of the match. Jericho and Christian made for satisfyingly annoying heel stooges. 3D were great filling out the early half with action along with Van Dam but the second half was the Shawn Michaels show. Probably one of Shawn's best performances in his entire career. Once he gets busted open, everything in the match gets tense and intense. His selling is on point and he makes a fantastic vulnerable babyface getting in just the right shots to even the odds. Orton is a great heel and he still had a lot of energy to his offense here. Made for a nice foil to Shawn here. The second half really takes this to the next level. Wonderful stuff. ****3/4

Enjoyed this well enough. The finisher stealing of Jericho trying to one up Shawn made for a good story and there were some good spots like the Walls on the floor, the hurricanrana turned into a Walls, and the cradle to end it all. The connective tissue was a little weak but this was a generally enjoyable match. Some very memorable moments. ****1/4

Surprised Rick Rude 92 only got picked now.

The Midnight Express 1990 El Boricua is up.

NOOOOOOOO NOT THE WARRIORS!!!

Apologies. Was asleep because of the time difference here in the Philippines.

Cactus Jack 1992 Superkix is up

Elliot is up.

Jerry Lawler 1988

Just waiting on my turn, folks.

Honestly not planning too much strategy for this. Since I'm the last pick for the first round, I'm going to wait to see who's left for me to claim and then let that dictate the tone of my roster.

I agree with that sentiment Agreed as well.

Honestly, I think it's worth it if only for the fact that there are a lot of casual fans out there who will be exposed to a different style of wrestling thanks to this announcement. Regardless of how I feel about Jericho's work, his name carries a significant amount of weight in the wrestling world: enough to take someone who watches only WWE and make them at least want to check out the 1/4 show. Sure, the match probably won't be great but it was a surprising (truly) announcement that's got everyone talking. Creating a buzz and getting the product over in a way that makes people want to tune in. That's just good booking.

I'm actually quite excited for the top two matches. I'm invested in the Naito title win and Omega-Jericho is one of those freak show special attractions you just don't get to see anymore. It's exciting even though I don't expect a great match out of it.

Fantastic match up that really gets the slow build right with both guys really tangling it up on the mat. Bryan in particular with a targeted attack on Joe's leg that pays off in dividends later on in the match. Loved their strike exchanges especially when Joe batters his way out of a mat exchange by just wailing away at Bryan. One of the best moments was Joe chasing Bryan trying to get a strike in but Bryan just slipping away like a slimy bastard. The big spots were well placed and provided a nice break for the mostly mat-based affair we had. Loved how Bryan went to the leg early and used it as the key of his transitions later in the match. The finishing stretch was absolutely fantastic. Tight, exciting, and with a brutal and satisfying end. Those knees looked crazy good. ****1/2

Actually got worse on a rewatch. Where my first impression of it was a bloated spectacle that goes too long, my impression of it now is that it's a match where too much is unnecessary and what's good doesn't even serve to outweigh the bad. Of course, there are some actually great things in here. I'm a fan of Omega's knees, his big high spots, and even his over the top histrionics. But oh my god did this lack focus. It's so strange to see them move so quickly but just be so uninvested for so much of the first half. Things don't really pick up in this match until Omega goes through the table. And then after that, the fun sequences are too far spaced apart to gain any real momentum. What a drag of a match and I dread seeing their hour draw again. Goodness me. ****

Chicago!

These guys really do have a tough time getting the Tokyo Dome invested in these first two Dome matches. Especially for their opening sequences, even when the action shows hints of getting exciting, it takes a while to get them going. I thought that the first half was only marginally better than their last Dome match and it still suffered from generally slow pacing and an uninterested crowd. The ramp spots were slightly better worked at least and I did enjoy things enough that once things started picking up towards the end, it was a lot of fun. Not quite the same urgency I wanted in the finish as the selling segments did kind of stunt the momentum here and there. But, I liked Tanahashi going back to the leg and the final High Fly Flows really did look quite great. ****1/4

I thought this was fantastic. The opening segments didn't feel quite as bloated or tiresome as the past Dome matches and they carried the weight of the past encounters with them as well. By this point, Okada has really developed his own personality and has come leaps and bounds from the bland puffy haired nothing that he started out as against Tanahashi in their first encounter together. Tanahashi focuses on the leg in this match, trying to cut away both of them from Okada. Okada's selling of the leg is spotty in this match for sure but I think they're trying to go for the fact that he has godly Ace No-Selling powers. It's incredibly jarring when Tanahashi has him in cloverleafs and does a million Dragon Screws and five minutes later, Okada's running full speed and doing dropkicks (he still does this to this day and it's his worst habit). The thing is, that leg selling does come back in the latter portions of the match so I'm willing to take it as his new Ace abilities and progression allowing him to work through it but still have it trouble him enough as the match progresses. The finishing stretch really is something wonderful. The finisher steals are dramatic and exciting. Then you have the fantastic wrist clutch spot. Yes, it signaled the end of the Rainmaker as a protected finisher but the visual of it and the drama of Okada clutching that wrist to hit the final killing blow really is some very iconic stuff. I honestly believe that a lot of this match wouldn't have worked quite as well without the incredibly affecting sight of Okada weeping after his loss last year. This match truly felt like it had the highest stakes of any of their encounters. Still, you gotta stop no selling that leg though. ****3/4

So much better than their dragging G1 bout. The fire is back but without quite the same heat as the Invasion Attack match. I do love crazed angry wily Tanahashi. Might be my fave incarnation of his. He was willing to play dirty to put away Okada this time including that amazing possum spot which the director missed. Tanahashi fighting on top was really quite good throughout the match. Okada's selling was improved and consistent throughout the match as well. Particularly enjoyed his struggle to get his submissions locked in and to hold them. Made for some great drama. Thought the finish was hot and I'm actually quite a fan of the countering and dodging so it was incredibly entertaining all the way to Okada finally nailing that final crucial Rainmaker. Great match. ****1/2

Feel like Tyler Bate throws some pretty good ones. His fake out KO blow looks great and when he got into his slugfest with Pete Dunne, it looked and sounded great.

Gotta disagree. Thought this was actually their worst one yet. Despite the good leg work, I feel like there was a serious pacing issue. They never felt like they quite committed to upping the ante for the finish. I liked the crumble selling, the Rainmaker steal, and not much else. ***3/4

Hiroshi Tanahashi is currently this for me. Really enjoyed his two big G1 matches vs. Naito and ZSJ. Watching the whole series vs. Okada also helped me understand his charisma as well as let him show off some of the selling that I thought was missing from his other big matches.

I definitely think there should be some kind of honor system as to not just picking tag teams that were either part-time or just thrown together for star power's sake. However, one way to get around that might be that any team drafted must be booked (in our major show) primarily as a tag team.

No 6 star matches but if I were to pick a match that was a cut above the rest of my ***** matches, then 6/9/1995. It's kind of scary how everything just came together so perfectly in that match. Very much this. I had a (currently) futile attempt to rank my top matches and the only thing I could say with absolute certainty was that 6/9/95 stood above them all. Everything else was guess work.