Control21

Yeah, it bugs me when people say Ishii has the match quality argument when the likes of Takayama, Hayabusa, Fujiwara, Volk Han, and Tamura aren't even in the HOF.

I mean the Tokyo Dome is on pace to sell over 35,000 tickets right now. I know SANADA has a reputation among internet fans for being boring but that's where the subjectivity of pro wrestling comes in. I think he's actually a great wrestler and has had a pretty solid title reign while reinventing himself. There's a pretty lazy narrative about SANADA for some reason and it's one of those cases of the popular narrative being horribly incorrect

I'm a fan of the Zenk/Koko pairing...that sounds like a very fun team on paper. The random tag matches are a great concept...that should be fun as well. Rick Martel is probably someone who never got quite got the run he deserved, so I'm rooting for him as we head into 1989. Perhaps he can get something going here. Good to see Duggan get the huge moment at the end of the show with Andre helping out. I'm sure that will stick with a lot of people as a cherished memory.

I enjoy the short format as well. Keeps things concise and informative in absence of the more traditional route. An angry Terry Funk is not something people will want to deal with...Dusty Rhodes should proceed with caution!

I think the WK card is pretty good. Naito vs SANADA is a big match, especially after Muto's retirement last year. There's a good story there. The WTL is looking pretty good with the inclusion of CMLL talent. As far as I know, this is the first time NJPW has booked CMLL talent in a heavyweight tournament so hopefully that means we'll get CMLL stars in the G1 down the road.

Wahoo McDaniel vs Loe Lightfoot sounds like it is going to be a war. Ron Garvin looks set to take the title from Blanchard. Will it happen?

I smell a JT Southern/Reno Riggins feud brewing...or maybe my sense of smell is off...either way, Riggins and JT Southern are two very promising wrestlers and of course they all want the same thing. Nightmares vs Renestos would be an interesting feud as well. I'm loving the Miss Kentucky storyline here. It will be interesting to see if her guys can finally take down Jamie Dundee and Tojo. A surprise is coming to Music City? I love surprises! Can't wait to see what it is.

Two great shows back to back. A bit of a schmoz with the main event between Windham and Haynes, but it leaves you looking forward to more. First night in particular was the highlight for me with all of those matches like Hennig vs Steamboat and Rose vs Pillman.

Card Announcement: UWF Newborn – “Chiba Super Bout” November 16th, 1988 Tokyo Bay NK Hall Chiba, Japan Tatsuo Nakano vs Shigeo Miyato Masakatsu Funaki vs Naoki Sano Norman Smiley vs Mark Fleming Yoshiaki Fujiwara vs Kazuo Yamazaki Dennis Koslowski & Duane Koslowski vs Gerard Gordeau & Chris Dolman Satoru Sayama vs Yorinaga Nakamura Nobuhiko Takada vs Dick Vrij Different Style Fight: Akira Maeda vs Don "Nakaya" Nielsen

I'm definitely getting the "Smokey Mountain" flavor with these results. Candido and Fytch's promo is very easy to imagine. Looking forward to Thanksgiving Thunder with the "Turkey Trot!"

Great job with the Funk promo. Really nailed it with his voice. I agree with Lowblow, things are shaping quite nicely in WCW and I'm looking forward Clash of Champions and Wrestlecade.

Kokina and Dave Taylor both looked impressive in the opening bouts. Mongolian Stomper was probably too afraid to wrestle Canek 1v1, but with the money, it doesn't matter I suppose. Orndorff vs Zbyszko should be a great match, looking forward to that one. Great job as always giving us a very entertaining and detailed show. Lots of good stuff happening in AWA this month!

I think if someone wanted Chick Donovan beyond 1989, that amendment could be made rather easily since evidence of his career beyond that year is clearly there (I mainly use Cagematch since that seems to be a better website for historical records). That shouldn't be an issue. As for Beulah, I'd say the cat went out of the bag when Dan Severn was somehow introduced a few years ago (how this happened, I don't know. It's not a big deal to me but I think the precedent has been created for early introductions. Hell, I'm bringing in Volk Han three years early). Naturally, as the game grows and reaches the 1990s, there's going to be some growing pains with new wrestlers coming in. Who qualifies and who doesn't is something that will probably be discussed as cases arise. Some wrestlers have wrong debuts attached to them on the internet (like Taijiri), so some cross-checking should be encouraged. And in cases like Rey Mysterio, they "debuted" when they were like 15 years old, but didn't actually start their careers a few years later. I know this can be annoying to some people who may have had to sacrifice wrestlers to deaths or retirements that happened in real life, but I think we're doing fine. I think a reset over these issues would be silly and unnecessary. Just my two cents of course, which probably doesn't mean much.

The new NJPW World app is a vast improvement over the old one. The Apple TV app in particular is a lot smoother than the old Firestick app. The video quality seems better too.

I'm fascinated by the Ric Flair vs Steve Williams match. It's a shame we never got that in real life. NWA Power looks good, with some tasty matches on the card. Ric Flair is the man, and everyone wants to beat the man.

Muta and Warrior feuding is going to be very interesting...that's definitely a dream match. Survivor Series is looking very interesting with the 20-man match and the stacked teams as well....fans are getting their money's worth there!

Yeah, I always liked EVIL as a brawler type, which seemed to be his style in LIJ. When he turned heel, he resorted to Bullet Club-esque tactics which weren't particularly interesting because that was something we had already seen before. I've never been big on House of Torture because of that. I think they were going to go for a Bullet Club civil war with House of Torture splitting off from the "gaijin" group, but maybe they got cold feet over that. I think Bullet Club either needs to be disbanded or broken up, so it's too bad we didn't get that outcome.

Good stuff! I like how the main event aftermath sets everything up for the EVIL heel turn we all loved back in 2020....

I noticed Jerry Flynn is on the list but he didn't debut until December 1989 and that was for FMW. He didn't wrestle again until 1991 where he worked primarily for PWFG (Fujiwara's promotion) until 1993. He doesn't hit the 10 match requirement for North America until 1995 by my count. He is someone I am interested in bringing in at some point but probably not until later next year of course.

One of my favorite "Different Style" matches and probably one of my favorite matches of all time too. Maeda and Nielsen both worked very hard to make this an exciting match and the hot crowd carried it to the next level. The story here is that Maeda is more dangerous when he can get Nielsen to the canvas, but Nielsen outclasses Maeda whenever they engage in a traditional striking contest as Nielsen is a good-to-very-good kickboxer who is at the peak of his prowess here. Nielsen's reach gets him out of most situations and seems to be heading to a victory until Maeda gets him with a very well-timed takedown that he quickly turns into a single-leg Boston crab. Excellent stuff all around. ****1/2

UWF Fighting Base Tokushima (2/27/1989) Yoji Anjo vs Shigeo Miyato A pretty good opener all things considered. Nothing that will blow you away, but the work here was very solid and Miyato put on display a lot of his potential that he never quite tapped into in his wrestling career. Anjo had a good performance too, and pulled off some nice moves. Better than some of the other UWF openers we've seen so far. ***3/4 Norman Smiley vs Tatsuo Nakano More of a Smiley showcase than anything else. Nakano was pretty much there to have Smiley demonstrate all of his cool moves. Nakano did put up a fight at times but never had a chance. It's a shame we didn't see more of Smiley in UWF as he had moments that made you go "wow" in a very Volk Han-esque way. ***1/2 Akira Maeda vs Bart Vale Pretty much a squash match for Akira Maeda. Nothing too exciting or decent here. Vale did have a good stretch at the end but didn't offer anything of note outside of that. A very dry match all things considered, and nothing to write home about beyond the last few minutes. **3/4 Nobuhiko Takada vs Kazuo Yamazaki A decent main event but it could have been better. Yamazaki did have moments of brilliance here, but this was mostly about Takada launching a comeback after being down 2-0 on points in the last few minutes. These two would had better matches, but this isn't too bad. ****

AWA with the big-time signing! Vader is a great fit for AWA. Sgt. Slaughter vs Nikita should be a great match.

I forgot to mention this in my previous post. Ryuma Go has been dropped from my roster.

That would be awesome! Ishii vs Naito would have been an interesting match in 2020.

Good stuff. Cornette knows how to deliver a promo and make me laugh at the same time! Chris Candido is making enemies and he might be barking up the wrong tree with Debbie Combs and Brian Lee.