TheBean

Loved the European Championship back in the day...

AAA 04/21/09 Mascarita Sagrada, Octagoncito & Mascarita Divina vs. Minis Abismo Negro, Psicosis & Histeria: An absolute moves filled blast! I see Triple A minis, I watch them. Rarely do they disappoint! Aero Star, Súper Fly, Argenis vs. Tigre Cota, Río Bravo, Tito Santana: More spectacular high speed lucha action. Aero Star & Super Fly continue to "wow!" Pimpinela Escarlata, Gato Eveready & Crazy Boy vs. El Brazo, Decnnis & Black Abyss: Another really entertaining match. This has a bit of comedy but plenty of action. This card/show is shaping up to be a very good one! Classic UK wrestling Ian McGregor vs Bernie Wright: This is from an England vs Scotland tournament. It's edited down to 10 minutes or so. Technical bout as I had hoped. Really like how Wright was rolling through the snap mares. Ian does a wonderful counter move where he applies the headscissor from a back breaker, rolls Wright over (flying headscissors) and goes for the pin! Good stuff! ECW Terry Funk & Stan Hansen vs Abdullah the Butcher & Kevin Sullivan (09/18/93) Ultra Clash '93. This was a lot of fun. Not so much a match as a brawl and no real direction as the "match" actually got better after the bell rang to declare the winners. It's hurt by just the one fixed camera angle but Joey Styles does a great job keeping us in the action even though this style really benefits from up close shots. Tempted to explore more ECW '93 after this one 🙂 Natural Born Killaz (08/24/96) Mikey Whipwreck vs Little Guido: I didn't remember them meeting this early but boy this was a lot of fun. Mikey gets hurt as some giant lug who was part of the Full Blooded Italians blew one of Whipwreck's spots...I think he was supposed to catch his diving frankensteiner to the floor and uh...maybe Mikey over shot him but the crazy tee shirt wearing junior hit the guy in the head and dived from the top right into the crowd. It's ECW so I'm not sure what was supposed to happen! 😄 Terry Gordy vs Brian Lee: A fun, quick big man brawl. They went outside, busted a few tables, hit some clotheslines and yeah nothing to complain about 👍 Rob Van Dam vs Doug Furnas: Good stuff...rough around the edges even by '96 ECW standards at times but Furnas' raw strength saved it...like turning a god knows what move from RVD into a kneeling pile driver on a chair! This would have been better as a straight match between the two with chair shots sprinkled in but still cool to see. I probably should look for more RVD in All Japan one day? NJPW Vader vs Shinya Hashimoto (08/08/89): Two bovine sized brawlers bashing about for 12 minutes. This is the best period for Vader and Hashimoto might be his best opponent. Size, chemistry, intensity... it's all there. This is a very good-great match with a great, wild finish. RECOMMENDED 1992 Shinya Hashimoto vs Shiro Koshinaka (08/06): joined in progress but really good stuff. 8 of 12 punishing minutes. And a bit of post match melee as well! All hail Hashimoto! Jumping elbow drop of death! +-+-+-+-+ Jushin Liger & Tatsumi Fujinami vs Pegasus Kid & Jim Neidhart (08/06): Very fun, all action tag match. The teams were excellent pairings and everything felt really good although I can't recall if they teamed before or since. Liger was in the ring for his team a majority of the time so, you can't go wrong there. 10 minutes of excellent tag wrestling 🙂 Shinya Hashimoto & Osamu Kido vs Shiro Koshinaka & Kengo Kimura (08/11): 10 minutes of chaotic wrestling goodness. Akitoshi Saito & Aoyagi are at ringside and are jacking Hash & Kido up! Dusty Rhodes is in the stands (in official context) and is enjoying this one. Super Strong Machine vs Arn Anderson (08/12): Good meat & potatoes wrestling by two of the best big enforcer type wrestlers, in my opinion. Big impact moves at the end. Nice stuff at 8 minutes.

Highspots posted this:

Highspots' YouTube has been posting some PWG Good Shit recently: AJ Styles vs Roderick Strong BOLA 2014 Zack Sabre Jr VS Kyle O'Reilly BOLA 2014 Young Bucks & Adam Cole VS Matt Sydal, Ricochet, & Will Ospreay BOLA 2016

"This community always had a hipster edge to it. So now it's cool to state the fucking obvious that Stone Cold was awesome." I think PWO has had a wrestling nerd edge to it. Just look at the 2016 GWE project or the Yearbooks of the 1990's/DVDVR 80's projects. That is hardcore nerding. That's not hipster-trendy shit. Maybe retrospectively it appears that way??? I've read & re-read your point so maybe your referring to the Internet Wrestling community at large? Regardless, the obvious thing about Stone Cold has been stated on both 2006 & 2016 GWEs. He's been in the top 25 all 3 polls. #16 in 06 & #24 in 16. So if you're being serious or sarcastic with your point, the numbers tell a different story. Stone Cold has done well whether it was cool or not...for better or worse.

08/07/11 Ikuto Hidaka & Takafumi Ito vs Takuya Sugawara & Kaijin Habu Otoko: Fun, fun match! Suwa is out there as the guest official NWA referee looking like Joe Higuchi in his all red outfit & white belt. Unlike the venerable Joe, Suwa is a heel ref 😄 So he's making trouble for Hidaka & Ito (who is new to me). But it doesn't detract from the in ring action. Everyone looked great but Hidaka put on a show but I am partial. 14 minutes of enjoyment. Shinjiro Otani & Yuichiro Jienotsu Nagashima & Daichi Hashimoto vs Ryoji Sai & Kamikaze & Munenori Sawa: OK 6-man match. Nagashima didn't do much for me but I looked him up & he's a kick boxer & cosplayer...and has some backstory with Hashimoto & Otani so...it makes sense. The team of Sai, Kamikaze & Sawa was much more entertaining. Masato Tanaka vs Daisuke Sekimoto: Great-Near Classic. Remember the phrase "subverting expectations?" It was that kind of bullshit that ruined the Game of Thrones TV show. But here it's not some ploy. Here they actively (and actually) surprised me for more than shock value. I can say that because they similarly did "what you expected" ... lots of beastly stiff chops, elbows & lariats... macho stuff and so forth. But they added twists and even when I thought I figured the twist out... those sneaky two would add something else. It's not a clever match though. This the equivalent of a gorilla fight...but that's what you want. Here in 2011, Tanaka is showing his age (I was watching '08 Zero One last) so Daisuke Sekimoto definitely seems at an advantage. It's up to Dangan to hang in there. As an old time Masato Tanaka fan there's a few moments that got me jazzed - pulling out old moves and/or reminding me of his battles with Mike Awesome. I'm going on, aren't I? Anyhow, RECOMMENDED stuff especially if you like these two. Glad I got this on DVD but it's on the web, I bet. +-+-+-+-+-+ Daisuke Sekimoto vs Kohei Sato: Fire Festival Finals. This was definitely hard fought as it was hard hitting AND the second match of the night for both. I didn't like the pacing on this...it's that deliberate strike trading where they just take too long between hits. It just feels like killing time. And a lot of the match felt like that...hit me then I hit you...we do that for 8 times then do a move or two then we reset to hitting each other. This would be OK for a lower match in the tournament but this couldn't hold a fucking candle to Sekimoto vs Tanaka earlier tonight. THAT match was the finale in my book. It felt epic like a finale should. One other thought: Sekimoto doesn't have a ton on tricks up his sleeve so this match just felt "less" in simple comparison. Sato, I like as a tag wrestler but, he doesn't bring much to the table as a singles wrestler. This was his opportunity to instill some character, variation, intensity etc. but he did little... I think other people like Hidaka, Otani, Kamikaze & Munenori Sawa would have had more inspired & interesting matches...even if they would have been "underdogs." I just think this was a bland final.

W*ing Kanemura vs Masato Tanaka (FMW 08/02/97): Electrified Barb wire match. 13 minutes of death match wrestling done right! They had a great match and worked in some nice spots with the gimmick. They weren't crazy with most just being whipped or knocked back into the stuff. Personally, I think taking the turn buckles away from these two hurt what could have been... you're taking away Tanaka's Frog splash & tornado DDT as well as W*ing's senton splash. A minor quibble... Still great stuff and Recommend it to fans of either!

BJW YouTube has posted the 12/24 Abby Jr. vs Ito match:

Classic UK wrestling Ritchie Brooks vs Ian McGregor (08/27/88): Not familiar with either guy but this was a scrappy contest. A single pin or submission match so the near falls went a long way. I REALLY LIKED this one. Going to keep an eye out for both. FMW W*ing Kanemura vs Masato Tanaka (08/02/97): Electrified Barb wire match. 13 minutes of death match wrestling done right! They had a great match and worked in some nice spots with the gimmick. They weren't crazy with most just being whipped or knocked back into the stuff. Personally, I think taking the turn buckles away from these two hurt what could have been... you're taking away Tanaka's Frog splash & tornado DDT as well as W*ing's senton splash. Still great stuff and Recommend it to fans of either! Monterrey Damian 666/Nicho el Milionario vs Pierroth Jr/Veneno (Monterrey August 4th, 2002): Fun, janky barb wire, weapons & light tubes death match 😋 NJPW Tatsumi Fujinami vs Greg Valentine (08/13/82): Fujinami vs Valentine in '82? Hot damn! Sign me up! And this absolutely delivered! Both guys were beating the sweat off of each other. The Dragon used his drop kicks but Greg was definitely "The Hammer." He was pounding Fujinami with elbows, over hand chops & clubbing fists to the sternum. To make matters worse, Dick Murdoch was his ring second. The Texas red neck wasn't shy about interfering (but not too much). I LOVED this match. A near classic battle! HIGHLY RECOMMENDED for fans of either. Steven Regal vs Satoshi Kojima (08/01/97): Oh yeah! Where's this match been!? Regal and Kojima actually wrestling 80% of this bout. Regal isn't messing around either so many palm strikes and forearms pressed against Kojima's nose. It's fantastic. Cozy can hang in there with Lord Steven but you know he wants to lariat. The Brit is down like a pound and eats some nasty clotheslines to the side of the head. And that Regalplex...🤕🤘 10 minutes of awesome. Really Recommend this one! Hiroshi Tanahashi vs Prince Devitt (08/12/10): G1 match. Wow! Holy cow, that was a great little match! Nice wrestling to start. Tanahashi works Devitt's leg which they actually come back to later (although wish they would have revisited in the final third). Great finishing stretch nonetheless and an excellent wrestling match. RECOMMENDED

2010 In my normal fashion, I have cherry picked matches from my DVD collection and a few online to get a decent sampling of the year. I'll post official ROH YouTube videos if I have them 🙂 • El Generico vs Davey Richards (02/13/10 8th Anniversary): Great match that played off of 2009's top feud (Wolves vs Steenerico). They showed a lot of intensity. These two were on fire in the ring at this point of their career. Great start! • Kenny Omega vs Davey Richards (03/20/10 Epic Encounter III): These guys worked their asses off ALL MATCH. I appreciate the aggressive Richards hunting Omega throughout. He kept lighting the Canadian up with kicks. He wanted the Cloverleaf hold early but switches to his arm. Kenny is fighting to stay in this one. He's got to use his big moves to even this up. And damn, Kenny's got plenty of those in his arsenal. This match had a great pace, providing top notch action for a little bit under 25 minutes. I think what hooked me were the surprises and counter moves. This absolutely is worthy of the 'Epic Encounter' title and is a classic in the full speed ahead junior style. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED • Davey Richards vs Kenny King (Big Bang - April): This was the opening match and damn! this was very good - great. ROH gave them time to work. This had some nice touches, big moves and believable near falls... plus a great post match. • Steen & Corino vs Colt & Generico (Big Bang): A good match but a great segment overall. This awakens the Generico that fought the Age of the Fall & Briscoes. Plus Steen & Corino are made out to be dastardly heels. An appetizer. • Kings of Wrestling vs The Briscoe Brothers (Big Bang): Both teams have truly come into their own by 2010. True professionals who paced this out excellently. The action was there but that steady handed pacing is what made this a classic tag match. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED (plus stick around for Jay puking after the match. Not sure why we get that filmed but...it's there!). • Austin Aries vs Tyler Black vs Roderick Strong (Big Bang): This is what you want! All kinds of cool spots and fierce strikes. I do think there's some excess but it's well established that everyone hates each other so I'll make an exception...especially when some of the moves breaking up pins/submissions are so neat. Aries and Roddy are better than Tyler Black. Chalk it up to experience and familiarity. Near classic gimmick title fight - RECOMMENDED

Regal vs Kojima (08/01/97): G1 match. Oh yeah! Where's this match been!? Regal and Kojima actually wrestling 80% of this bout. Regal isn't messing around either... so many palm strikes and forearms pressed against Kojima's nose. It's fantastic. Cozy can hang in there with Lord Steven but you know he wants to lariat. The Brit takes some nasty clotheslines to the side of the head. And that Regalplex...🤕🤘 10 minutes of awesome. Really Recommend this one!

If AEW/ROH is gonna keep posting classic shows then, I'm gonna keep sharing them:

Found this one while looking for Kotaro Suzuki recs: Ikuto Hidaka & Masao Orihara vs. Tatsuhito Takaiwa & Yoshihito Sasaki (02/08/03): In a NOAH ring but this is a Zero-one match. And that is pretty cool. The familiarity is there and they were able to do some really good stuff. Hidaka never ceases to amaze me with some move or sequence. Orihara (who I hadn't seen much at this time other than Fire Pro Returns) can still go. This was all action and a great match. Yoshihito Sasaki looks good even this early.

More Kotaro recommendations! KENTA & Takuma Sano vs Jun Akiyama & Kotaro Suzuki (07/26/02): Nice junior offense to open up with! I don't know if this is the first instance of surly KENTA vs veterans but it's a damn good one. Akiyama is so good in knowing when to no sell and when to sell here...he's probably the best of the big guys from AJPW in working with younger guys. Sano doesn't make a giant impression here because he knows that's not what the match is about. He does his job well in neutralizing Akiyama and,putting the hurt on he & Suzuki when he needs to. This is a great tag match. We really get to see the KENTA we come to know here both in attitude and move set. Suzuki really shined here as well. Kotaro Suzuki, Mitsuharu Misawa, Takuma Sano & Yoshinari Ogawa vs. Akira Taue, Daisuke Ikeda, Masashi Aoyagi & Takashi Sugiura (10/19/02): Oh man this was a lot of fun! The last few minutes were especially good. Not top tier but there's some really exciting sequences that had me cheering. I liked the early focus on Aoyagi and by the end everyone was going off. I really dug this one. KENTA & Kotaro Suzuki vs Great Takeru & Kappa Kozou (02/08/03): Was going to skip this since I'd never heard of the IWA Japan team. But then I thought - I'm going to end up watching the whole event (mostly) so I should just check it out. So glad I did! Its shown in full as it features the home NOAH team and frankly it is a great opening bout! Both teams were smooth and exciting which surprised me. Perhaps it's a case of low expectations but I thought the teams gelled well enough that the IWA-J team would be invited back for under card jobs at the very least. Not thinking they were though...

September '87 Jumbo Tsuruta/Tiger Mask vs. Joel Deaton/Nick Bockwinkel (September 11th, 1987): Good simple yet exciting tag team wrestling. These are the types of matches that make me sure of my love of pro wrestling. There's nothing spectacular but there's a true entertainment derived from viewing this bout. Four professional wrestlers knowing what to do and when to do it for the amusement of the crowd. Toshiaki Kawada vs. Shinichi Nakano (5:10 of 7:52 shown) Sept 12 87 special*** Really good, spirited stuff. This is joined in progress so we lose a few of the first few minutes but if you're looking for a quick, exciting young Kawada match - look no further 🙂 Jumbo Tsuruta vs. Nick Bockwinkel (September 12th, 1987): A heck of a bout! 10 minutes or so of intense action. They distilled their previous encounters in this match for the late 80's. And I think it's a great one. There's nice teases on the possible finish and Nick has a lot in the tank. If you're fans of either guy, watch this one! +-+-+-+ Toshiaki Kawada vs. Masa Fuchi (9/15/87): You really only need to watch half of this. I think that's when it gets good. It's an OK match. Fuyuki comes into help Kawada & in my eyes joins Tenryu's group & form the Footloose team. I think that's more the point of this match.

AJPW Gladiator (Mike Awesome) & Maunakea Mosman vs Kenta Kobashi & Jun Akiyama 08/21/99, 08/22 TV): 9 of 13 minutes shown. What an AWESOME release German suplex!!! Big moves & believable near falls. RECOMMENDED Classic UK Wrestling Vic Faulkner vs Steve Grey (08/25/76): 15 minutes of technical wrestling and humor. People use the term "work rate" as a pejorative but I don't think about it that way. So when I say this is a work rate match, I mean that as a testament to Vic & Steve's athleticism and technical ability. I LOVED This!! +-+-+-+-+ Pete Roberts vs Wayne Bridges: Not sure on the date...so I will add it in 😋 17 minute match. Good to Very Good fight with the bigger Bridges trying to rough house Pete Roberts. Pete is no push over and employed his technical prowess (and a bit of roughness) to stay in the match. Liked this one. CMLL Torneo Cibernetico (08/20/99 TV): 9 minutes of TNA X-Division-like action. Not a ton of depth but plenty of entertaining wrestling. Some eliminations came a lil too quickly though. Participants include: Olimpico, Satanico, Rey Bucanero, Ringo Mendoza, Shocker, Solar, Super Astro, Tony Rivera, Ultimo Guerrero & Zumbido. Mephisto vs Sagrado (08/07/09): Lighting match, 1 fall. Definitely Recommend this one for old TNA heads (again). Under 10 minutes of crazy moves & fun action - this one had a sweet finish too! FMW Hayabusa vs W*ING Kanemura (08/25/95): 11 minute match but this was good stuff. Kanemura was working over Hayabusa's back with holds, chair strikes, you name it. Bird Boy found an opening but W*ing wasn't going to give up that easily. Fun stuff. They would go to top this but there's something fundamentally good about what they did here. There's no bloat and they excellently incorporate chairs, tables and wrestling moves into their match. Definitely Recommend this to ECW & FMW fans if you're still out there! Gladiator (Mike Awesome) vs Masato Tanaka (08/25/95): I didn't know that they fought each other so soon. Nevertheless Awesome's explosive power and Tanaka's iron toughness were on display. I didn't recognize any sequences that they'd develop so this is refreshing if you've seen most of their matches (Japan and US). If you're interested, then go check this out! You won't be disappointed. 8 of 11 minutes shown. UWA Enrique Vera/Villano III/Tigre Canadiense vs Signo/Black Power/Negro Navarro (08/22/92): 2/3 falls where the match just kept on moving along - good action, comedy and a nice pace. Good times 👍 Seems like folks nowadays want to watch wrestling that they don't like and tell you how much they don't like it. What a bummer & a drag, man. Makes you feel stupid for liking what you like 😕 If you're not having a good time watching wrestling then watch something you like!!! Life is too short. If you dug some of the stuff I've recommended or at least enjoy reading my takeaways, thanks! I appreciate it! Hope you are having a good time!

Go Shiozaki vs Austin Aries (6th Anniversary - 02/23/08): Holy shit! This was awesome! Aries knows how to work with NOAH guys. The size difference made for some fantastic counters & reversals. The story is the smaller Austin chipping away at the larger Go. I'm glad that they don't pretend that Aries is the same size as the NOAH native. But don't misunderstand, they still beat the crap outta each other! This is exactly what I hoped for with this bout. It's a hard hitting match with great, great pacing. It's a match that reminded me why I love ROH. And this one is a classic - HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!

AEW/ROH has posted the ENTIRE Death Before Dishonor VIII (2010) show recently! That's awesome! Here it is: My 2010 ROH watch project is in the final quarter so I will start putting reviews/recs up on the ROH Good Shit thread & on wrestlingdreambattles.blogspot.com shortly. Keep your eyes peeled 🙂

They did an awesome job capturing intensity and building the spectacle without having a ton of matches. This was a grudge match without a big build up. Anyhow, they just beat each other up all match. Joe was vicious and Morishima is a rhino. His hip attacks and lariats were especially brutal. On top of this, these two slammed and suplexed each other all over the ring. Helluva ROH debut for Takeshi Morishima. Great match! RECOMMENDED

15 minutes of technical wrestling and humor. People use the term "work rate" as a pejorative but I don't think about it that way. So when I say this is a work rate match, I mean that as a testament to Vic & Steve's athleticism and technical ability. I LOVED This!! Read GSR's match rundown if you want an idea. I think the disappointment was more due to expectations rather than actual quality but that's just my opinion of an opinion 🤔

WCW vault puts up interesting stuff in between end stage slop:

Super Dragon has these up on his YouTube page so I can't see AEW/ROH asking him to take em down anytime soon: Super Dragon with Team CZW invades Ring of Honor! (ROH Arena Warfare) (03-11-2006) Team CZW vs. Team ROH (Names in description) (ROH Weekend Of Champions - Tag 1) (04-28-2006) Super Dragon vs. BJ Whitmer (ROH Weekend Of Champions - Tag 2) (04-29-2006)

AAA Cruiserweight Tournament 2009 Joe Lider vs Nicho (Psicosis): Absolute bonkers move fest where at least 3 of the moves should have ended this. That said, both guys are known for this style so this truly was a battle of two crazies. Super fun! Xtreme Tiger vs Crazy Boy: Fun stuff, Tiger does a Corkscrew super Quebrada to the floor & hits it perfectly! Super Fly vs Laredo Kid: Actually resembled traditional lucha libre 🙂 Plus it told a good story with a post match angle. Good stuff! 03/22 Aero Star, Fabi Apache vs. Billy Boy, Sexy Star: Great match! This is an excellent feud because there's a thread of reality with Fabi & Billy being a divorced couple. Beyond that they transfer that heat, intensity into the matches...The addition of Sexy Star, who can actually wrestle well (the name makes me think otherwise), as well as Aero Star elevate these matches. All 4 are excellent talent in ring and are making this feud a must see for me. Also Aero Star is nuts! 🤘 Marco Corleone, Elegido vs. Electroshock, Black Abyss: Actually a really, really good TV match. They hit a perfect mix of wrestling action & comedy...all with timing and pacing. This didn't drag one bit. I've mentioned this in previous posts but, AAA '09 gives Attitude Era vibes in the best way. La Parka vs Silver King: Yeah, is Vince Russo booking? I mean before he completely ran out of ideas. They are just punching each other all match. Masks are ripped and guys are bleeding from bite marks. Then like its 2000 all over again, they are taking a tour of the arena - up in the stands, in the concessions, then out in the parking lot. Lighttube smashed over a guy's head!!! Yeah it's not a great match but its a great spectacle and keeps the feud alive. I enjoyed this! IWA Japan 10/16/94 - Glass Graveyard Tajiri vs Gran Apache: Young Tajiri keeps up with the veteran luchador. Nice stuff from both. Wish we got a few more years of Tajiri as a junior heavyweight in Japan. Good stuff. Takashi Okano vs Gran Apache: I guess they wanted Apache to wrestle twice. This is 15 minutes.. It's a more developed wrestling match and Okano (Winger btw) is getting more offense than Tajiri. Apache is stiff in both matches. Very good Headhunters vs Nakamaki & Ono: Headhunters are awesome as usual. They go ape-shit doing fat boy splashes while their opponents are stuck in the wire boards. Lion/Takashi Okano/Yoshihiro Tajiri vs Silver King/Super Astro/Tortuga (05/01/95): We get the last few minutes but this was a lot of fun. Tajiri, Silver King & Takashi Okano were best.

Just wanted to bump this one for folks looking for Dory Funk Jr. to watch. Also will be posting some match recs of my own here shortly. Thank you Dory, R.I.P. vs Jack Brisco NWA World Title (01/24/74) This is possibly one of the top 5 greatest matches that I've seen. Excellent mat wrestling for an hour with each fall being a little bit different in style and in story. I can see people not liking this but, one has to appreciate wrestling and not necessarily a load of moves. vs Horst Hoffman (12/15/75) This match is another one of those ones where you can't really rate it. It is simply a treat to watch two masters go at it. A true wrestling fan would want this match to never end. Sadly it does but it rather clever fashion. If there was more of a story to this, then I believe it would be quite phenomenal. Re-Watch: Just a slight re-watch of five minutes or so and man alive, this is a classic. Its got that same chemistry like Bockwinkel vs Robinson. These two are great and this match is a must see for a Dory Funk Jr. fan. You can just see it in his eyes. This is what a world champion looks like. vs Jumbo Tsuruta (12/18/75) The teacher and the student go head to head possibly for the first time in Japan. If this ever shows up in a complete form it may be up there in the short list of top matches of the 70's. The action is there and the story is there to back it up. Dory knows after the bell rings just how good Jumbo is. You have to know your wrestling to "get" this one but, man is this good. Great? A classic? Take your pick. vs Terry Funk - NWA International Title (04/30/81) This was a 50 minute technical wrestling match in the old style. There were plenty of long mat sections of grinding holds and attempted escapes. The only portion I thought was a bit long was the very beginning when Dory had Terry locked in a series of headlocks. The match went long so it didn't seem necessary to milk 6 minutes at the front. Also there was nothing too explosively exciting with this match like something Terry would do on his own or maybe Ric Flair or even the stuff going on in NJPW at the time. This was good old mat wrestling NWA style and if one can't appreciate the holds and the escapes then this was a good hour to do something else. They picked it up and brought it down a number of times and gave the fans their money worth. More dynamism would have been great though but I think Terry wanted to show that he could hang in there with his older brother. Also to note very few rope breaks were used on holds, which is why I mentioned all of the escapes. Those holds & escapes were the majority of the match. I also would have liked some of the stuff to be a bit smoother but that's ok. It adds to the realism. Great stuff! vs. Bruiser Brody - NWA International Title (04/21/82) It's not necessary to dwell on a match like this since it is so basic. This is the primal kind of stuff that transcends styles, moves, eras. It is how wrestling should be done. If you really watch, this type of wrestling provides the base for those 1990s classics and most every classic since. Great match! That match versus Billy Robinson above and the match below versus Sakaguchi are on my watch list. Here's some tags with guys other than Terry 🙂 Jim Brunzell & Greg Gagne vs Dory Funk Jr. & Kerry von Erich (04/24/84, aired 04/28): These next two are Roy Lucier's 1984 AJPW TV episodes and not the Retro Classics that were broadcast in the late 90's. These technically should be with Part #2 but I'm putting these here. I'll try to work new ones in chronologically as I go on. A big reason for expanding beyond just my DVD set was I noticed that there were a couple omissions that I was missing out on. A big omission was Tenryu footage. But there's a bunch of neat tags like this one as well. Cool fact, 3 second generation wrestlers all sons of promoters. All that said, this was a great tag match! Excellent control wrestling from the Highflyers on Dory. Kerry was a great bit of energy for his team (wish we got more of Kerry and Dory Jr.). There's some exciting spots here and excellent wrestling as well. Probably the best tag match that I've seen so far in '84. Not sure why this didn't make the Classics. Brody & Hansen vs Baba & Dory Jr. (08/26/84): This was fought like a gang fight more than a wrestling match. Absolute furious pace with a stiffness you could hear. A near classic match but with the post match brawl this is a classic. There's a part of me wants to call this an all time classic if you're counting entrance to exit. Did I mention Terry is at ring side? Shoehi Baba/Dory Jr. v. Stan Hansen/Ted Dibiase (12/04/85): Quiet crowd but they pop during this match at least This bout is great though because it is well paced. It is simple yet well executed and well Hansen beats on Dory Jr. like he owes him money. Holy cow, I can't believe he didn't induce a heart attack with those clubbing blows to the chest! One of the main reasons that I bought this DVD set was for the abundance of Hansen/DiBiase tag matches and they do not disappoint. Shoehi Baba/Dory Funk Jr v. Jumbo Tsuruta/Tenyru (12/12/85): Holy cow! I wasn't expecting this to be as great as it was. But frankly it was a classic. The in-ring work was amazing. They didn't do the craziest moves of course but used what they had to take us through peaks and valleys. I think it's an excellent example of pacing and layout being more important than dazzling attacks. But don't get me wrong the offense is here as everyone takes some big bumps and in later AJPW fashion dusts some classic moves off the shelf to get the win. On top of that we have the stories of Dory being Jumbo and Tenryu's teacher, Baba being Jumbo's old partner and mentor, and the beginning (?) of something that becomes one of the best things going later in the decade Baba vs Tenryu. I wasn't expecting them to have that here but oh no...it's here and maybe starts here as by the end Baba & Tenryu are really going after each other. I don't recall seeing this in earlier matches. Anyhow, this felt like a quintessential AJPW tag match...maybe I'm crazy but if you like these guys it's at the very least a "great" match...but in my book it's a classic.

WCW YouTube vault posted this one.