Richeyedwards

He worked 35 matches last year https://www.cagematch.net/?id=2&nr=758&page=4&year=2017&promotion=1 I can't remember any of them getting anything above "that was decent" as thoughts on the matches. He had the festival of friendship and one video on an njpw show that was about it in terms of things of note in the voting period the brawls with omega were after the voting period.

The observer readership is so heavily skewed towards njpw that this year's awards went pretty much as expected. With raw being worst show, and being he elite being 4th best TV show. Reigns second most overrated????? Njpw having the top five matches, four of them being omega matches, young bucks winning best tag team over he usos which is stupid but expected. Roh comming in second for company of the year is head scratching. But not really a shock seen as it is njpw USA. But hikeki Suzuki got a mention for best technical wrestler and my boy Kento got 5th place for wrestler of the year. Rusev got most underrated/underused which is a good shout.

On a wrestle 1 show today mutoh has done his last ever moonsault, he will have one more match in DDT before getting knee replacement surgery. He wants to comeback after that but will not be able to do the moonsault again.

It was announced today that Kawada will be running a self produce show on 24/4 in Shin-Kiba he talked about wanting tamon honda and marufuji for the show. Maru has said that he would like to do the show and minoru Tanaka has been tweeting about it so he is a possibility.

Since I couldn't find an exact date for this one I didn't post it in the Match Archive but I'll post it here. First let me say thanks to Rah for a great choice as I loved Evan Bourne in that era and Regal is always great. So the atmosphere was enthusiastic. Evan was pretty over and Regal plays the villain tremendously like always. Evan played as clean cut white meat babyface as you could get in today's world and the crowd was all for him while Regal came off as the perfect balance between a bullying sneering heel blended with shades of cowardliness. Everytime Evan managed to get something going or build any momentum Regal went through his bag of underhanded/rough-handed tricks to stop and stifle him. Finally once Evan started to put it together he caught Regal with his nice jumping knee and got him into position to hit the Air Bourne for the clean pin and big pop. This was black and white heel/babyface and a great crowd for it as they were into it the whole way which speaks to how well both played their roles. It was a quick match that told the story and I'd give it **3/4. Good stuff and would recommend it as a fun watch. The date I found for that match on cagematch and history of the wwe.com was 21/04/11 in the romexpo dome in Bucharest

I guess limp bizkit are no longer "wwe's favourite band in the whole world"

The greatest artist of our time kid rock is going to be inducted into the hall of fame. https://twitter.com/WWE/status/973244094670663680?s=19

It's mildly amazing to me that Braun hasn't had some of that treatment tbh. He did get that treatment widely from the beginning of his push with squash matches through to around summerslam. There are still those who go on about him being boring and repeating the line 'vince wants to fuck big sweaty men' very mature.

Review of the match migs sent me: http://prowrestlingonly.com/index.php?/topic/41261-the-briscoes-vs-the-young-bucks-23-falls-roh-040217/ It was decent and better than I dreaded it would be given the people involved and the length of the video. For migs I have taken a look through his past posts and many of them center around the early 2000s indies from the 2000s project. My match for him features one of the top guys from that period in Indie wrestling in NOAH in 2004 a promotion that i have not seen you talk about (at least in the last year) Low Ki vs Yoshinobu kanemaru GHC junior title 10.09.2004

This was a match given to me in the secret santo project by migs The Briscoes vs the young bucks roh honor reigns supreme 2017 tag titles 2/3falls So a two out of three falls match with a team of bullet club members vs a team of massive homophobes in roh. This could be really dreadful it has the makings of a really long boring match. First fall: this goes about ten mins, we start off with some back and forth, it is fine then we have a nose to nose stare down which looks silly when the partners join in. One of the young bucks gets worked over for a few mins, complete nothing section of the match no real sustained heat and his comebacks are not good. There is no sympathy elicited. We then quickly move into the finish of this section with the Briscoes going for a doomsday device and the bucks going for the Meltzer driver multiple times. Finish with a roll up by mark Briscoe. This fall was fine it was not all that good but it was not outright terrible as I was fearing. If this was the whole match it may be around **3/4. Fall two, this was completely stupid. This is fought under “lucha rules” but I don’t think it ever started as Jay goes to the outside and gets a mic and asks what is lucha? At this point mark hits the bucks with a chair and the Briscoes get DQ’ed bringing the teams level, WHY? You were already ahead and by what the commentators were saying the Briscoes are the faces so why do this? But on the bright side at least this means the match will be shorter. Fall three No DQ rules: jay hits a running knee to matts head in the corner into a rope hung chair. This is followed by a chair dropkick to the face. Some outside plunder brawling by the Briscoes. The young bucks hit a moonsault off the barricades followed by double apron powerbombs and stereo suicide dives. Chairs to the head of mark with no protection, there are about 7 superkicks in a round on the entrance ramp and then everybody falls down. Strike exchanges in the ring more superkicks, yet more superkicks to Briscoes on their knees. Briscoes come back with belt shots, Tiger driver 98 followed by elbow drop pin broken up by generic white guy bullet club member number 4. Ref down, 450 onto chairs 2 count, more superkicks to more refs, 2 count on more bang four your buck, tomb stone on the floor where nick Jackson tries to do a spike version but misses completely. Meltzer driver got the three. The first fall was meh the second pointless and the third was quite good, it was standard plunder brawling that you would see from someone like Kevin Owens in wwe just with more shots to the head Things took time to set up and there was not any hatred in what they were doing. There was no real sustained heat in this match or really any team that came off as the faces both teams were unlikeable. It was just there but thankfully it did not go anyway near as badly as it could of gone, the plunder stuff really saved this match. In the end maybe ***

Will be interesting to see what the winner gets, or if it will be for "bragging rights" or something like that. It is a week before backlash so I can't imagine that it would be for a title shot there as that gives them one show to prepare while summerslam seems to far away, maybe for money in the bank or whatever other shows are in that period? Edit: the king Abdullah sports city is apparently a new 60,000 seat stadium which would make this show the second biggest (in terms of attendance) show of the year.

That is what people said about mania 31 and we got a classic. So there is hope right?

He actually worked 2 tags for Baba in 1996 the year before this, https://www.cagematch.net/?id=2&nr=1223&page=4&year=1996&promotion=6 So he did, I looked it up on cagematch and must of missed the ajpw logo when I first looked it up.

For Nintendo logic I have an interesting one off appearance of fujiwara in ajpw from 1997 teaming with kikuchi to face off against fuchi and Kawada. This is his first ever appearance for Baba and will not appear for ajpw again until after the noah split. https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Bwpbsa8C2iSmVkdmLUIxX1dWMTA/view?usp=drivesdk

Headcheese, I have little idea of what you are into outside of what was on the moty thread. I am giving you Steve Williams Vs keiji mutoh for the triple crown from 2001, a match I was reminded of earlier today by bierschwale. Maybe Steve Williams last great match. http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x5udtus Sorry for being so late

By checking this list on Reddit, it says it was done via cagematch ratings system and votes from people, also the posts were not upvoted much so I would suggest one reason for the seemingly random placements of Danielson Vs hero etc is that it was there based off its very high rating on cagematch, not people voting for it.

My thoughts on this match, this was a good pick as i have seen everything on tape for AJPW from 1989-2000 and a large amount of the 70s, the only baba lead AJPW time period I have not done a deep dive on is the late 70s through mid 80s. http://prowrestlingonly.com/index.php?/topic/34313-terry-funk-vs-nick-bockwinkel-ajpw-071283/

Terry Funk vs Nick Bockwinkel 1983 This was given to me by Matt D in the secret santo review trades. Most of my experience of Bock is from his work in AJPW such as his matches with Jumbo and RWTL runs the 83 match with jumbo is one day after this match. I have only seen the really big matches of his in AWA such as vs Hennig vs Wahoo etc. Funk I have seen much more of and I like. This would be just before Terry’s first retirement and he is very over with banners declaring him forever number one which is nice. We start with a couple of mins clipped off with some nice rolling on the mat dueling hammerlocks, leglocks and the like. Lots of struggle here, there are no ‘restholds’, there is clear effort put into every hold. Bock has a mean headlock in really looking like he is crushing Funk's face. Funk starts to attack the leg to get out but bock is in complete control and brings him back to the mat still holding on to the headlock. Several attempts at a backdrop and Funk gets free with leg pick and he begins working the right leg. The work on the leg is not very violent but more methodical and precise. Bock starts clubbing Funk's back while in a Funk leg lock but then we get a cut and now Bock has a leg lock. Backdrop, so odd for me, a largely 85-onwards AJPW fan to see a back drop that is not screamed about by the commentators here they don’t even mention it. Funk bails and is on the receiving end of some nasty knees and is pushed back out. King of the mountain and bock goes to work on Funk's right leg, unlike in the first section Bock is nasty with his leg work, no carefully applied leg locks just stomp and clubbing blows while in holds. Funk's transition into a Russian leg sweep is neat really, great counter. Funk collapses on an attempted brainbuster leading to screams from the crowd, Texas cloverleaf rope break. Bock locks in a figure 4 good facial expressions from Funk's putting across the pain without being hammy, roll to the floor and if you have watched any AJPW from this period you know what is happening next. Funk wins by count out. After some annoyance from Bock we get a handshake. This felt like a bit of a singles exhibition for Funk on his farewell tour and a show of how mean and tough bock can be before his AWA title match with Jumbo. I thought it was as the other reviews on the page have said a match with a clear set divide, the first half is very mat based exchanging of holds with bock having the advantage most of the time. This leads onto the second half with a backdrop and from there it is not a full-fledged brawl but is far more brawly with nearly all of the strikes and attempted throws coming in this section of the match. The finish was what it was but that was AJPW at this time. The selling of both men was good with Funk's leg-selling being very compelling. But to me the star of this was Bock who in everything I have seen of him impresses me more. He has the air of superiority and brilliance around him and everything he does looks good. The thing that hurts this match is the cuts but even then they are only a few mins. This was a great match ****

For Matt d I have decided to go with a match from noah last year between marufuji and kaito kiyomiya a big hope for Noah's future and at the time of this match just 1 year into his career. It is a match between the older ace at the end of his tenure as top guy and a young boy. http://prowrestlingonly.com/index.php?/topic/36925-naomichi-marufuji-vs-kaito-kiyomiya-noah-012117/ https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=At9B4o4E0jQ

Got a link or date on that, could be an interesting listen.

When war games for NXT was announced he talked about it a bit saying it was really easy to work and that he got great colour. But not really playing down the match all that much

But guys as u/spankmemommy said war games 1992 could really do with better fight cheorgraphy. So naturally it is left off the list.

This was a disappointment. In the build up to this match miyamoto (a part time deathmatches wrestler part time normal wrestler) had been using some more hardcore gimicks to be able to hurt kenou and even beat him by ref stoppage after a fire thunder driver off the apron through a table that caused a nasty gash on kenou's head. Kenou a grumpy man at the best of times was expected to be ruthless in this match attacking Yuko and going by the match time of just over 15 mins that is what I expected. A 15 mins ghc title match is a godsend after the past few years of every major title match having to go 30+. The first half of this match is exactly what I wanted they don't bother with any sort of mat Wrestling and kenou just starts blasting Yuko with kicks and throws him out of the ring. They follow this up with some brawling around ringside and back inside using the guardrail, the ropes, a chair and the ring post. All so good so far. Yuko manages to hit the fire thunder driver again through a table but kenou manages to just get back inside to break a count. From here the match goes downhill and fast. From here it just turns into a bunch of moves not built to and not sold. Worst of all kenoh hits a top rope dragon suplex and miyamoto is up first, hitting a fire thunder driver in the ring less than ten seconds after taking a top rope dragon suplex. The match does have a good finish where kenou beats up Yuko relentlessly and hits a double footstomp from the top to the floor through a table on miyamoto before another one for the win in the ring. But really this match really had something going for it, it was heated, stiff and had some hate there but they ruined it by throwing in 5 mins of big moves that meant nothing and no sold them because that is what a world title match has to have apparently. *** Huge shame.

http://prowrestlingonly.com/index.php?/topic/30164-jun-akiyama-vs-steve-williams-ajpw-championship-carnival-041094/ My thoughts on Akiyama vs Williams spoiler: I loved it

This is a match given to me in secret santo by Jetlag Steve Williams vs Jun Akiyama 10.4.94 My data base says I gave this ***3/4 last time I watched it but I have no memory of it and no notes from back then This is from the 1994 champions carnival. Jun Akiyama is one of my absolute favourite wrestlers of all time but here he is just a few years before his peak years. Steve Williams here is at he zenith in maybe the best run by a gaijin star ever in his post Gordy run from 1993 up until 1997 (anyone who says he falls off a cliff in 1996 has no idea what they are talking about), On top of that this is in my favourite promotion during its best run so I am now feeling really quite bad for giving jetlag a dragon gate match. We start with some quick mat work, both guys are ex amateur stars, Akiyama being a freestyle champion I think? Baba is on commentary with his absurdly low voice. Williams having to rush to the ropes to get out of an Akiyama grapple is really small but puts over Akiyama’s skills without making a show of it in an indie respect spot. More mat back and forth with Williams just throwing Akiyama away to finish with pure power. We transition into more traditional pro wrestling with a head lock and body tackle where Akiyama lands right on his head. Akiyama avoids a charge and hits a German suplex for a two-running knee gets a one count, Poor young Jun has only succeeded in pissing the monster off. Williams starts torturing Akiyama with a couple of holds before throwing him into the corners and slapping him. Crowd are now big into Akiyama, Williams cuts off a comeback and hits a calf branding (top rope pushing kneedrop). Big bodyslam from Williams, goes to the top and gets dropkicked out of a cross body, big nearfall from Akiyama on a northern lights even though I don’t think I have ever seen him pin somebody with it. Scoop powerslam from Williams before a kensuke sasaki style arm drag and backdrop for the finish. I am a little predisposed to like this but not to the level that I thought I would, looking at the two guys at this time and the match length I was thinking I must have overrated it a lot last time I watched it. No it was that good, this match did several things at once, it put over Akiyama big as a future hope in a great starmaking performance, it showed how much Williams had progressed in a few years, at the 91 carnival for example I would not expect Williams to build a match this well in a lower level cc match third from the top. On top of all of this great stuff it has some of the best matwork in ajpw in the 90s, maybe the best of the decade. ***3/4