MrMoonlight

Oh boy, I didn't really have expectations for this one even though I love both men. I just thought their respective strength wouldn't match except for the grumpy attitude colliding. Actually it's more Tenryu as grumpy as usual against witty Anjoh. They also didn't a great job at blending the high volume selling of shoot style with pro wrestling moves and play on psychology and drama. Tenryu gives here one of his finest performance, and that's saying a lot considering the amount of greatness he has piled up over the years. His blend of grumpyness and smart veteran tactics, his punches, both in how they are executed and when is pure gold. I actually had in mind a top 5 of the decade for Japan with Misawa, Kawada, Kobashi, Taue + Hashimoto, but boy with this kind of amazing performance, Tenryu is making a solide case to rob on those spots (to Taue or Kobashi I guess). Anyway, I loved that match and its uniqueness makes me want to go further than most of you guys with a nice 4.5 (aka **** 1/2 )

I’m totally on board for that fight as worth watching for 1994. Onita and Sasuke were both quite fresh phenoms of the indies. FMW basically went from small quiet crowd with karatekas facing pro wrestlers to those graphic absurd scenes before hot crowds in 2 years. Onita even went on winning a tag match with Tarzan Goto against Tenryu & Arah (in an awesome match btw), when Onita pinned Mr Pro Wrestling. Now he’s no longer a crazy dude, he’s a badass with limitation but such a will to find a way. Sasuke and M pro became a thing in 1993, Sasuke being the fresh new star; an underground ninja, a new tiger mask type sensation. The fight is very nicely put together, it feels like what pro wrestling would be if you had to watch out for the ropes as your first priority. Both ended up in the explosives and the barbed wires, and without the countdown this time, we have once again the final explosion with unreal shots of a ring covered in smoke, the weird overdub music as we see Onita coming back to life, the screams and the tears, with one unique thing this time though: Onita carrying Sasuke to the back until Jinzei steps on his way and grabs the body of his fellow M-Pro friend. Definitely the kind of stuff that is more tasty when you can suspend your disbelief to the point of feeling the set and age and what it was like at the time. Really cool and memorable fight. ****

I'd choose PRE '96 by a fair margin. To me Joshi peaked before,, puro peaked before, US peaked before and I'd have actual european wrestling (both French and British). I don't really know about Lucha though but it feels like the stuff I would like the most would be from the 80's and early 90's. It's pretty crazy to think that but the only way I'd choose post 96 is to think that eventually, after some years, the amount of great stuff will be at least even at some point. But to be honest, the current products feel less organic and more repetitive so I would not cut myself from what is likely to remain the highest points of most of the styles in my book and the stuff with the highest rplay value to me.

First, I don't separate "in ring" from the rest, I mean, if you build good characters/storylines... that will help the match if done well, which is part of the whole point. Now it's still pretty hard if we stick to WWF, where it's sooo clear if you think US wrestling as a whole was better in the 80's imo. I'll write down some thoughts as I process this question and I may have a definitive answer at the end. I agree with the fact that 80's have more depth. That comes from all the MSG, Spectrum, Boston Garden... shows we have compared to mostly skippable TV and uneven PPV cards. I mean, it's not fair to compare at least 3 big house shows every months in the 80's to what? 80 PPV for the whole decade of the 90's. So I guess in terms of sheer amount of nice stuff to watch, the 80's definetly have more. Now, How about high end stuff? Well, without looking that much into it, it feels quite even, and even if I end up counting more, say, ****+ match in the 90's, it won't be significant. How about the product? In both cases there are some weak years and some pretty interesting or even exciting ones. I'd say the 90's may have the highest and lowest, because 99 is still 90's. So no point awarded here, the 80's still have the lead on depth. Star power and talents? Ok, one thing has to be said, the tag division was sooo way better in the 80's (Bulldogs, Dream team, harts, killer bees, demolition, islanders, strike force, rockers, brainbusters...), or, if you will, who's the best Tag Team of the 90's overall? I won't give you an answer but I'm pretty confident you'll realize trying to answer what I mean. Now I have to say the 90's had better workers as their main event, but their mid card stuff doesn't feel better, so overall, I'd give the edge to the 80's here again. How about what now? It feels like other criteria could be atmospheres, crowds... and even though people were hot for Austin, The Rock, overall the 80's squash the 90's here. I like the "raw" (no pun intended) production of the 80's house shows, the promos felt more real, the crowd helps the suspension of disbelief. So yeah, there may still be a bunch of criterions to cover but my goat cheese/spinach lasagnas are ready and it feels the 80's have made themselves a strong enough case in my book, so there you go.

Really cool in a rather simple way kind of match. Greg Valentine in the zone here, I strongly recommend this one if you’re a fan of Greg. Beefcake not really strong on some important moments, including the big transition toward Martel’s hot tag. Zenk not so great either, I would I like to see stiffer dropkicks from him here as an example. The finish is quite weird, so ok the referee didn’t recognized Martel… I like it better with the killer bees putting their mask on. So yeah, a nice match, makes me want to see more from Martel tag team run in WWF, and Valentine in high profile match please. *** ½

Ok so after a couple of match I thought a little were overrated in ’86, here, I have to agree. I mean, I’ve never thought anything special regarding Carlos Colon, not that he’s bad but his fire or his selling doesn’t add that much from what I’ve seen from him before. Here it works, Carlos is believable in his offense, even against such a bull. Hansen gives him a lot here, and it’s all for the better to me.I love Hansen semi selling, always trying to react but fighting from the bottom. The atmosphere is something special here as well, especially when there’s no commentary. The cutoffs are good, the false finishes from a fingertip kind of thing are all well done, either in execution or timing. The best bullrope finish hence the fact that we’ve all seen it way more often than any other match with this kind of gimmick (bullrope, leatherstrap, Caribbean strap…), I wonder though how famous this finish was back then. If anybody knows? Anyway, really among the best bullrope kind of thing I’ve seen, thanks to Hansen’s selling and character work, the atmosphere and the overall execution. ****

It not really misses, but do you guys know if there's a "other territories" 80's set planned? As I went through 80-86 (I stopped and went back to Japan 98) I noted down some good to great matches from teritories not covered by the DVDVR sets. (other than MACW/JCP => there again, is there a best of JCP planned? and WWF). Don't think too much about my ratings, there were there just for me and I just copied paste withiout getting them out. 1980 (1) 10-?? -ICW- Bob Orton Jr vs Pez Whatley - *** ½ - 1981 (14) 01-09 -SWCW- Tully Blanchard vs Tiger Conway Jr (2/3 falls; Houston) - *** ½ + 01-16 -Houston- Dory Funk Jr vs Billy Robinson (Houston) - *** ½ 02-22 -StLouis- Ted DiBiase vs Big John Studd - *** ½ - 03-?? -SECW- Condrey & Rose vs Norvell Austin & Mike Jackson - *** ¼ 03-21 -SECW- Paul Orndorff & Norvell Austin vs. Mr. Saito & The Shadow - *** ¼ + 04-12 -StLouis- Butch Reed & Rufus R Jones vs. Mike Kelley & Pat Kelley - *** ¼ 05-03 -StLouis- Ric Flair vs Pat O’Connor - *** ½ + 05-04 -Maple- Ric Flair & Dewey Robertson vs Roddy Piper & Jimmy Snuka (No DQ) - *** ½ - 05-22 -Houston- Gino Hernandez vs Chavo Guerrero (2/3 falls) - *** ½ 07-18 -GCW- Ted DiBiase & Steve O vs Jimmy Snuka & Terry Gordy - *** ½ - 08-02 -StLouis- Ken Patera vs Kerry Von Erich - *** ½ - 08-?? -CWF- Dory Funk Jr vs Mike Graham (Australian Rules - 6 rounds) - **** - 11-20 -Houston- Nick Bockwinkel vs Tito Santana (2/3 falls) - *** ¾ 11-29 -StLouis- Ken Patera vs. Dewey Robertson - *** ¼ + 1982 (12) 01-01 -StLouis- Ric Flair vs Dusty Rhodes (2/3 falls) - *** ½ 01-?? -ICW- Randy Savage vs Crusher Broomfield - *** ½ - 04-04 -StLouis- Harley Race vs David Von Erich - *** ½ 04-24 -SECW- Terry Gordy vs Michael Hayes (Cage; clipped) – NR (great) 05-14 -Houston- Wahoo McDaniel vs Tully Blanchard (Indian Strap) - *** ½ - 07-04 -StLouis- Ric Flair & Jerry Blackwell vs Ken Patera & Dory Funk Jr - *** ½ - 08-15 -SWCW- Jerry Lawler vs Bob Sweetan - *** ¼ - 05-14 -Houston- Nick Bockwinkel vs Junkyard Dog (2/3 falls) - *** ½ + 10-06 -CWF- Barry Windham vs Kevin Sullivan (CWF title tournament final) - *** ¾ - 10-27 -GCW- Tommy & Johnny Rich vs Ivan Koloff & Iron Sheik - *** ¼ 11-10 -GCW- Tommy Rich & Paul Orndorff vs Masked Superstar & Super Destroyer - *** ¼ - 11-10 -GCW- Tito Santana vs Buzz Sawyer - *** ¼ - 1983 (8) 02-11 -StLouis- Kerry Von Erich vs Greg Valentine - *** ¾ 04-26 -CWF- Bobby Duncum & Angelo Mosca vs Brad Armstrong & Ron Bass - *** ½ + 05-26 -SWCW- Terry Funk vs Bob Orton Jr - *** ½ + 07-04 -CWF- Barry Windham vs Harley Race - *** ¼ + 10-23 -GCW- Buzz Sawyer vs Tommy Rich (Cage) - *** ¾ 10-23 -GCW- Ole Anderson vs Paul Ellering (Cage) - *** ¼ + 11-06 -GCW- Brad Armstrong vs Joe Lightfoot - *** ¼ 11-06 -GCW- Jake Roberts vs Ronnie Garvin - *** + 1984 (4) 04-07 -GCW- Ric Flair vs Jack Brisco - *** ¾ - 07-03 -AGPW- Rick Martel vs Leo Burke (2/3 falls) - *** ¾ - 10-?? -CWF- Ric Flair vs Scott McGhee - *** ¾ - 11-16 -StLouis- Billy Robinson vs Kevin Von Erich - *** ½ - 1985 (13) 01-18 -Houston- Kevin Von Erich vs Chris Adams - *** ½ 02-12 -PPPW- Ric Flair vs Kerry Von Erich - *** ¾ 02-24 -WPW- Ric Flair vs Harley Race - *** ¾ 04-13 -CWF- Rick Rude vs Brian Blair - *** ½ - 05-05 -IWA- The Road Warriors vs. Dino Bravo & Jos Leduc - *** ½ 05-27 -IWA- Animal & Paul Ellering vs Rick Martel & Jos LeDuc - *** ½ + 07-29 -IWA- Les Rougeaus vs The Garvins - *** ½ - 08-16 -PWUSA- Ric Flair vs Sgt Slaughter - **** ¼ - 08-26 -IWA- Les Rougeaus vs The Garvins - *** ½ - 09-02 -CWF- Ric Flair vs Wahoo McDaniel (2/3 falls; Battle of the Belts) - *** ¾ 09-14 -CCW- Ron & Robert Fuller & Jimmy Golden vs. Brad & Steve Armstrong & Dick Slater - *** ¼ 10-26 -CCW- Bill Ash vs. Roy Lee Welch (loser leaves) - *** ¼ 11-02 -CCW- Brad Armstrong & The Bullet vs Robert Fuller & Jimmy Golden (I quit; Cage) - *** ¼ + 1986 02-14 -CWF- Lex Luger vs Jesse Barr (Battle of the Belts 2) - *** ½ 02-14 -CWF- Road Warriors & Blackjack Mulligan vs Kevin Sullivan’s crew (Battle ot belts 2) - *** ½ 02-14 -CWF- Ric Flair vs Barry Windham (Battle of the Belts 2) - **** ¾ 05-24 -CCW- Brad Armstrong & Tommy Rich vs Jimmy Golden & Robert Fuller (No Dq) - *** ¼ - 09-01 -CWF- The Ninja vs Tim Horner (Battle of the Belts 3) - *** ¼ - 09-01 -CWF- Ric Flair vs Lex Luger (Battle of the Belts 3) - *** ¾ + 09-13 -CCW- Roy Lee Welch vs Tim Horner - *** ¼ - 09-27 -CCW- Brad Armstrong vs Kevin Sullivan - *** ¼ 10-31 -Stampede- Owen Hart vs Makhan Singh - *** + 12-20 -CCW- Roy Lee Welch vs Tom Prichard (Bullrope) - *** ¼

I finally watched this one, as I heard Scott Norton saying in a shoot interview it has been his best single match ever. First, I've got to say: what a weird choice for a vacant title figh!. Nagata had just come back from us excursion, and won a tag tournament with Sasaki and looked great since his return, but not a signle big win in singles. Actually, I don't recall having seen one single match (I'am actually going through all the njpw tv + some other stuff for '98). As for Norton, he was just this dominant dude in 6 men tag nwo japan vs njpw guys. Then again, without a big single victory as of late. In the meantime Hashimoto was freh out his first G1 win... Anyway, It's a weird blend of strong style (as in "on his way toward shoot style" style, not being stiff or any other nonsense definition of it), so blend of strong style from Nagata with Hulkster like over the top no sell entertainment from Norton. On paper it seems there's no way this mix will end up with some good nugget, and, in a clumsy way at time, it does. It's basically a David vs Goliath dynamic, you know this works when the most brief glimpses of hope for the David gets big reactions from the crowd, and from you I guess. We definitively have that effect here, but they didn't do that much with it because the Nagata hope spots where not that many nor that big. So overall a nice match, pretty unique and though not a great match, something worth experiencing.

As I read this thread, I thought it would be nice to have an overall view, so here are the overall combined tendencies of MOTY for each year. I added the amount of votes with +xx and some honorable mentions when another match ended up with a fair amount of votes which may makes you think of a MOTY change someday for those years. I didn't want to count for years with few amounts of votes. The list is quite killer, and with a nice range of styles. 1969-05-03 -JWA- Giant Baba vs The Destroyer +7 (...) 1973-05-05 -WoS- Jim Breaks vs Johnny Saint +3 1973-09-10 -AJPW- The Destroyer vs Mil Mascaras +2 1973-10-14 -NJPW- Inoki & Sakaguchi vs Lou Thesz & Karl Gotch +2 1974-07-25 -AJPW- The Destroyer vs Mil Mascaras +3 1974-01-30 -AJPW- Jumbo Tsuruta vs Jack Brisco +2 1974-11-20 -IWE- Verne Gagne vs Billy Robinson +2 1975-12-11 -NJPW- Antonio Inoki vs Billy Robinson +7 1976-07-24 -AJPW- Giant Baba vs Billy Robinson +7 1976-06-11 -AJPW- Jumbo Tsuruta vs Terry Funk +6 1977-03-05 -AJPW- Jumbo Tsuruta vs Billy Robinson +8 1978-12-15 -AJPW- Jumbo & Baba vs The Funks +4 1979-02-19 -WWWF- Bob Backlund vs Greg Valentine +3 1979-02-04 -AJPW- Jumbo Tsuruta vs Nick Bockwinkel +2 1979-04-21 -Houston- Wahoo McDaniel vs The Spoiler +2 1979-07-15 -AJPW- The Funks vs Adbullah The Butcher & The Sheik +2 1979-02-10 -NJPW- Tatsumi Fujinami vs Go Ryuma +2 1980-05-19 -WWWF- Bob Backlund vs Ken Patera +7 1981-09-23 -NJPW- Stan Hansen vs André the Giant +12 1981-04-06 -CWA- Jerry Lawler vs Terry Funk +7 1982-03-29 -CWA- Jerry Lawler vs Dutch Mantell +10 1983-09-23 -EMLL- Sangre Chicana vs MS-1 +8 1983-06-06 -CWA- Jerry Lawler vs Bill Dundee +6 1983-11-24 -MACW- Roddy Piper vs Greg Valentine +6 TIE 1984-12-05 -UWF- Yoshiaki Fuijiwara vs Super Tiger +5 TIE 1984-06-16 -WWF- Sgt. Slaughter vs Ion Sheik +5 1985-12-30 -CWA- Jerry Lawler vs Bill Dundee +8 1985-11-28 -MACW- Magnum T.A vs Tully Blanchard +6 1986-11-21 -AWA- Nick Bockwinkel vs Curt Hennig +7 Note: 1986 is one of the most spread out years with 17 different matches nominated, with 6 of them with +2 votes, the rest with only one. 1987-06-09 -NJPW- Yoshiaki Fujiwara vs Riki Choshu +6 1987-01-06 -WWC- Stan Hansen vs Carlos Colon +4 1987-01-20 -JCP- Ric Flair vs Barry Windham +4 1988-12-16 -AJPW- Tenryu & Kawada vs Hansen & Gordy +12 1989-04-02 -JCP- Ric Flair vs Ricky Steamboat +8 1990-01-06 -EMLL- Angel Azteca vs El Dandy +7 1990-12-17 -EMLL- El Satanico vs El Dandy +5 1991-03-24 -WWF- Randy Savage vs Ultimate Warrior +4 (tie) 1991-01-13 -EMLL- El Hijo del Santo vs Brazo de Oro +4 (tie) 1991-08-11 -NJPW- Keiji Muto vs Masahiro Chono +3 1991-04-20 -AJPW- Jumbo, Taue & Fuchi vs Misawa, Kawada & Kobashi +3 1992-11-26 -AJW- M.Toyota & Y.Yamadavs Dynamite Kansai & M.Ozaki +6 (tie) 1992-07-03 -EMLL- Negro Casas vs El Dandy +6 (tie) 1992-05-25 -AJPW- Kobashi & Kikuchi vs Furnas & Kroffat +4 1993-07-29 -AJPW- Kenta Kobashi vs Stan Hansen +7 1994-06-03 -AJPW- Mitsuharu Misawa vs Toshiaki Kawada +19 1995-06-09 -AJPW- Misawa & Kobashi vs Kawada & Taue +19 Note: these two years (’94 & ’95) are the biggest plebiscites 1996-12-06 -AJPW- Misawa & Akiyama & Kawada & Taue +13 1997-01-20 -AJPW- Mitsuharu Misawa vs Kenta Kobashi +11 1997-03-23 -WWF- Bret Hart vs Steve Austin +9 1998-10-31 -AJPW- Mitsuharu Misawa vs Kenta Kobashi +5 1998-07-24 -AJPW- Kenta Kobashi vs Jun Akiyama +4 Note: ’98 is another one of those very spread out years with a large amount of nominees and several with +2 votes 1999-11-06 -AJPW- Mitsuharu Misawa vs Kenta Kobashi +6 1999-06-24 -RINGS- Kiyoshi Tamura vs Yoshihisa Yamamoto +4 2000-03-17 -CMLL- Atlantis vs Vilano III +11 2000-02-27 -AJPW- Mitsuharu Misawa vs Jun Akiyama +7 2001-04-01 -WWF- The Rock vs Steve Austin +4 (tie) 2001-12-23 -Monterrey- El Hijo del Santo vs L.A Park +4 (tie) 2002-10-20 -WWE- Brock Lesnar vs Undertaker +5 2003-03-01 -NOAH- Mitsuharu Misawa vs Kenta Kobashi +12 2004-07-10 -NOAH- Kenta Kobashi vs Jun Akiyama +6 2005-06-11 –IWA-MS- Necro Butcher vs Samoa Joe +4 2005-04-24 -Futen- Daisuke Ikeda vs Yuki Ishikawa +3 2006-08-12 -ROH- Bryan Danielson vs Nigel McGuiness +3 Note: another year with a lot of different nominees, several at +2, nowhere near secured by this ROH match. 2007-01-28 -WWE- John Cena vs Umaga +10 2008-02-23 -ROH- Bryan Danielson vs Nigel McGuiness +3 (tie) 2008-07-26 -BattlArts- Ishikawa, Otsuka, Sawa vs Ikeda, Usuda, Super Tiger +3 (tie) Note, then again too many other fights at +2, MOTY 2008 likely to change someday. 2009-04-05 -WWE- Shawn Michaels vs Undertaker +6 2010-03-28 -WWE- Shawn Michaels vs Undertaker +5 (tie) 2010-10-24 -Futen- Ishikawa & Oba vs Mashimo & Hashi +5 (tie) 2010-12-05 -AAA- L.A Park vs El Messias +4 2011-07-17 -WWE- John Cena vs CM Punk +15 2012-04-29 -WWE- John Cena vs Brock Lesnar +11 2013-08-04 -NJPW- Tomohiro Ishii vs Katsuyori Shibata +6 2014-08-01 -NJPW- AJ Styles vs Minoru Suzuki +6 (tie) 2014-04-06 -WWE- Daniel Bryan vs Triple H +6 (tie) 2015-03-29 -WWE- Brock Lesnar vs Roman Reigns +5 2015-01-04 -NJPW- Shinsuke Nakamura vs Kota Ibushi +4 2016-11-19 -WWE- The Revival vs DIY +4

Classic material. The entrance with views of people in the audience... you can capture the atmosphere that’s already great before it starts, and oh boy, when it gets going they turn great into something special. I’ve never heard such a big pop for a kick to the chest as an example. There’s a lot of back and forth exchanges, none really gets to control the match for more than 3 minutes, but the selling is just brilliant. Quite like what Ishii has done over the last 10 years when he’s on, but ever better and from two guys with cult like aura. Really the kind of fight you should try to feel more than observe, if that makes sense to you. Anyway, pure gold, quite unique, moty candidate at least for njpw. **** ½

Another good match between these two, it always click quite well but never gets to that level of greatness. It’s interesting how they built Chono here, he is no longer always cheating dirty heel but more of a fan favorite trying not to yield to cheating but failing at that on desperation. Chono escaped a german suplex position from back elbows, but after the couple of big bombs from Koshinaka, he escapes the dragon suplex position with a low blow. The crowd reaction is great on that one btw and overall the atmosphere is special right from the entrances. Chono is also built like THE man in G1, having won 3 of the first 4, but none of the last three with the idea that he gets there thanks to his in ring style mat wrestling, not too much damage, orientated. He gets plenty of damage here and sells it really well afterwards toward the end of that match. Anyway cool match, like bottom of NJPW top 25 for ’98 or close to it, not great but worth my time. 3.5*

I only have the jip version from NJPW TV show, that second half is pretty cool but I'd love to see that first half, anaybody knows where I might get a full version of this one?

Here is mine, though I’d need quite a lot of rewatching and it’s also, obviously, subject to change with all the things I still haven’t covered yet. I allowed myself bunch of draw where I couldn’t decide yet. And I thought it was cool to read comments from some of you so I added mine.

Overall, the only two moments I feel they kind of lost their thing is early on after they built how difficult it was to take control or get a big move… and with the transition from the big domination over Kobashi’s knee and him delivering a not so good looking lariat that is sold as strong as giving Kobashi too much time to recover. Aside from those two moments, it was pretty much perfect. Akiyama’s selling after the suplex outside, for at least 5 minutes, is brilliant. The dragon screw to the outside with the crowd buzzing is great. I really dig the fact that they didn’t go for that many big bombs and most were very meaningfull and we still get some very good transitions from these bombs. At one point in the match, Akiyama goes back to the figure 4 and Kobashi comes close to be pinned, it feels like Akiyama could tell that Kobashi will never quit, and it’s as close as he could get to victory. Basically, then he will just try to put Kobashi out, who’s not stunned but “only” badly injured to the leg. This where we’re at after 25 min that flew by real quick, without too many big bombs and with, a lot of details which added a lot to the viewing pleasure. The last 10min ar as good, with a nice finish, then again without theuse of many big bombs. Clear MOTY contender, pure classic of what 90’s AJPW can do when their top 1 on 1 click on a very good night. 4.75*

I'm wandering through this amazing forum these last couple of days, having discovered you guys a couple fo years ago, reading almost only 1980's nwa/wwf reviews but man, this whole part with one thread for each wrestler where you debate about how great they are with so many views that I can appreciate even when I disagree is just amazing. So thank you all, really! Now, from what I read so far, if it was about the GTWE as in the Greatest Thread Wrestler Ever, this may be it: Jun Akiyama. I also felt like wrtitting my own stuff because some of you asked for a great Akiyama as a grumpy old veteran. There's one match I couldn't find on line (but I'm pretty sure I have it somewhere) but if you can get your hand on: 02-11 -Diamond Ring- Kobashi Kenta & Akiyama Jun vs Sasaki Kensuke & Kitamiya Mitsuhiro All the Akiyama vs Kitamiya interactions are Tenryu in a pretty damn good day like. I'll see if I can upload it and share, I'd love to hear some reviews of you guys on it. PS: it was nowhere to be found so I uploaded it, here's the link: