EnviousStupid

Inoki is probably better at working more styles and has the better match catalogue, but Hash was never frustrating like I've found Inoki to be across the 80s. Outside of how other wrestlers were shafted by him, Inoki just is not as consistent as his contemporaries, and has a tendency of forcing matches to work in his favor, even at the detriment of everyone around him. Off the top of my head I can think of matches with Choshu, Saito, tags with Fujinami where he does this, and the best explanation I can give for him doing it is sheer vanity. Whereas with Hash, if he's working with guys who are limited or inexperienced but have some kind of martial arts background, he's making them look great and accentuating their strengths. He was arguably the highlight of both NJPW's interpromotional feuds with WAR and UWF-i. His rivalry with Ogawa in his final years with New Japan is an all-timer. I'm inclined to say that in-ring, he was doing Inokiism better than the originator.

Yesterday marked the 40-year anniversary of one of my favourite matches, so I decided to revisit it and, big shock, I still adore it. Very technical and mat-driven with all the holds applied being so hard-fought and gritty. Neat little ideas like Terry grape-vining the leg whenever Bock applies a hold to not give him much leverage, sometimes failing early on before it finally leads to him working over the leg. Or how Bock will apply a Headlock that's sold like it sucks the energy out of his opponent, with Funk having to throw knees into the back of the legs in an attempt to break out of it. Bock eventually starts doing his own knees to lead into working Funk's leg and he does a fantastic job of making it distinct from the way Terry worked over the limb: lot of cheap tactics and rabbit punches before really torquing it in painful ways. Of course, with these two kinds of wrestlers, you know the kind of selling and general reactions they'll have, all having a cumulative effect on moves done and choices made thereafter. I think it's a match that teaches one a lot about the kinds of wrestlers these two are; what they stand for and represent, the strengths they tend to lean on in matches, as well as what they're willing to do when put in desperate situations. It's also a match that had to end the way it did - in classic AJPW fashion - knowing where both Funk and Bock were at this time in their careers. Some might have wanted something more, but the work on display impressed me in so many little ways that I feel grateful that we have (most of) it on footage. Two of my all-time favourites putting on one hell of a contest.

While I'm in the camp who still hold his ROH run in high regard, I've been finding most of his other indie work pre-WWE to be disappointing. The FIP title reign as a Saturday morning cartoon-like heel worked against virtually all his strengths back then. The work I've seen of his NJPW/NOAH tours was often ordinary and at times outright wrong-headed for the situation (see the KENTA match in '06 NOAH). While the rivalry with El Generico did nothing for me, there is some great matches from him in PWG, but they tended to be against other greats from his generation who were consistently great back then too. That's kind of where I see some holes in his career. ROH over that period of time is so lauded and near-mythologized that it makes someone like Danielson, prominently featured from the start to his departure, appear head-and-shoulders above his contemporaries. But I think when you look at the scene in its entirety, you'll find guys like Low Ki, Chris Hero, Necro Butcher all having great runs and standout work over several promotions, and that's something I can't say about Bryan back then.

Gonna go with Rey-Rey, but they're completely different cases and workers to compare. When I think of Rey, I'm thinking of a guy who put so much effort into working around and adapting to opponents of all statures. That's a stark contrast to who might as well be the platonic ideal of his archetype, whether he be in WCW, WWF, New Japan, All Japan, UWFi, Europe, you get the gist.

THE guys from the 2000s/early 2010s North American independent scene.

If I were a booker, I wouldn't be putting that on free TV. But I am no more than a fan, so instead I'll appreciate the gifts thrown my way.

Guess who's back, back again. vs. Tajiri, WWF Jakked (25.02.2002) This is a bit of an oddity as it's broadcasted on March 2nd, after Goldust had won the Hardcore title the last episode of Smackdown, so he's recognised on commentary as champion despite not coming out with the belt. As for the match, it's not too different from their one I covered in an earlier post. Bit more fun with taunting early on, some work over the back from Goldust, but the broad strokes are roughly the same. Tajiri taking control of the match 10 seconds after taking a top-rope Bulldog was egregious, though the match is only a few minutes long and they don't establish much of a hook or story in that time. Goldust wins after a series of counters leads to a Curtain Call Neckbreaker. A tad lower than their Smackdown match, but I don't expect much more when they're given just 2 minutes on a C-show. Full match available here **Between this match and Goldust regularly teaming with Booker T, there's more than a handful of singles matches he has on episodes of Sunday Night Heat. Unfortunately I can't seem to find them available online, but if they do show up, I'll try and make sure to cover them later** _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ w/ Booker T vs. The Hardy Boyz, WWF RAW (15.04.2002) Starts off as a brawl that quickly shifts to Booker working a heat segment on Matt. Most of Goldust's time in the ring is spent taking hits from both Hardy Boyz, though he does manage to pick up the victory after one of Booker's Harlem Sidekicks. Commentary points out how weird it is to see Booker T and Goldust as a team, but there are moments of natural chemistry between them early on that can be seen as signs of a promising new duo. This is also the match where Brock ends up hitting an F5 on Matt onto the stage, building up to their PPV match which obviously takes precedent over a random TV tag. Full match available here _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ w/ Booker T vs. Bubba Ray Dudley & Spike Dudley, WWF RAW (22.04.2002) This is awesome. Spike dives over the ropes and the match officially starts with a flurry of fun offense from Bubba; punches, elbows, slaps, even a fucking Mongolian Chop to pop me. Goldust also feeds into and bumps off of it all so well. Then once Spike tags in, he's able to use his speed and manoeuvre around Goldust to maintain the advantage, only losing that when Booker T gets a cheap shot in. The match is a really good example of how great Goldust can work as a base, regardless of the size of his opponents. The unlikely couple pull off another victory when Goldust attacks Bubba while looking for a table, allowing Booker to hit Spike with the Scissors Kick. Steven Richards run out afterwards to attack Bubba, only to get Powerbombed through a table for it. Recommended. Full match available here _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ vs. Spike Dudley [c] - WWF European Title Match, WWF RAW (29.04.2002) It's under 2 minutes and all Goldust, which was probably for the best as both Spike and the referee were messing up. There was a neat idea with Goldust having an answer to Spike's speed this time around and cut-off any chances of a comeback. Sadly, it's never able to be properly fleshed out, as Booker T comes out to hit him with a Harlem Sidekick and Spike capitalizes off of that to retain. Hate this booking. Full match available here

I would put the Ogawa matches (excluding the shoot) and rivalry overall above Hash's stuff with Tenryu across the 90s. They were the peak of Inokiism and hold up tremendously well, even after the MMA craze that followed.

HACKSAW

I'd stick with Necro primarily for being a major part of the overarching CZW/ROH feud and having incredible work across multiple promotions compared to someone like Danielson. Rey is probably the most consistently great wrestler this year though. The title run isn't so fondly remembered, but goddamn if he wasn't delivering every time he worked on TV.

He's not the best in 93, but Hiroshi Hase had a fantastic run.

Joe and Kobashi are in the middle of all-time great world title reigns, along with Eddie Guerrero at arguably his best. Though I had to mention how incredible Randy Orton is in those Evolution tags and singles work against Foley and Benoit especially. It was like seeing a future GOAT and it sucks that he never fully turned out that way.

For my money, Foley had a MOTYC with all three of his gimmicks in 1998. Also had an incredibly fun team with Chainsaw Charlie for the first few months. Genichiro Tenryu is also pretty fantastic this year, as is Shinya Hashimoto with one of the best G1 runs ever. Need to see more from Santo but if the Felino match is any indicator, he's also in the conversation.

Not a favourite, but he's almost certainly the best wrestler of the 2000s in my eyes, and that's the decade I grew up watching wrestling in. Plenty of great stuff across singles, tags, multimans, main-events, undercards, sprints, 30+ minute epics and practically everything in between. He even participated in one of the best G1 Climax tournaments, concluding with an all-time finals match against Hiroyoshi Tenzan.

Steamboat stopped wrestling in 1994. If Rey is still active come 2026 his career will have covered twice the amount of time Steamboat's did. That might not matter to some, but I think the body of work is comfortably in Rey's favor. More situations, more settings, more opponents, more great matches and performances in general, almost all of which took place outside of WWE's best years

What is Bryan's peak work in tag settings? Excluding the big gimmick matches like Anarchy in the Arena or Cage of Death, I don't know if his best is in the six-mans opposite The Shield or if there's some major tags from the indies I'm forgetting. I'd love to see how it compares to someone like Terry, where a lot of their All Japan work is in tags and with him regularly putting on the best performances in those matches.

I feel like the lesser of great tag teams who never really went away to become singles stars are almost bound to be omitted in ballots, whereas their better halves gain all the credit. I know there's a couple title matches with Flair in 86, but does anyone know of other worthwhile singles work from Gibson?

I'm now of the opinion that Ogawa was Hashimoto's best opponent, and that their rivalry across the late 90s-2000 is an all-timer.

With almost every match I see from her Stardom run, the more I feel inclined to call her the best joshi ace I've ever seen, and that's against the likes of Aja Kong, Bull Nakano, Chigusa Nagayo. For the qualities and ability that kind of role asks from a wrestler, I think that Io covers the most ground.

I just think Punk has far greater highs, consistency, variety, adaptability, match layout, character work, rivalries, etc. over his career. Even in 2009, when Jericho had the big rivalry with Mysterio - arguably the BITW that year - Punk was getting quality stuff out of Jeff Hardy and The Undertaker. Then he went on to lead one of the best stables of that era and have a great feud with Mysterio the following year.

My expectations going into this were extremely low, knowing that both are well past their primes and how these two can tend to phone it in, but I completely dug what they were going for here. It's a match that takes into account their physical limitations and builds off of their collective charisma to make all the sparks and quick bursts (particularly from Mutoh) hold much more significance than usual. The matwork and limb targeting early on is kept to a minimum and that's for the best: Mutoh's a great face when his sporadic choices in pacing and offense come off like a necessary reaction to his opponents. Chono can't work like Vader in 1991, but somewhere along the lines of an older Tenryu is possible and that's the feeling I got while watching this. Chono is in control most of the time and is usually able to shut down those moments of hope from the champion and be disrespectful as hell while doing so. It's one of the few times I can recall finishers being blocked instead of just countered or avoided. The match also plays on the more recent parts of their rivalry; Chono had beaten Mutoh earlier in the year as well as the year prior, both times submitting to the STF. They milk that a couple times in the finishing stretch, however it's Chono's insistence of never really trying to win quickly that left the biggest impression. He knows that this matchup has been in his favor these last few years, so he's not rushing to a pin after most of his Yazuka Kicks land their mark. By giving Mutoh enough time to recover, he's quick and still agile enough to perform a flash Frankensteiner to snatch the win. Not a MOTYC, but it's one that I felt strongly enough about to post here.

That's awesome. Even though I'm a fan, Chono's always been a case of what could've been had he not suffered that neck injury early in his career, as until that point he would've probably been my favourite of the Musketeers. I always remember how in those early G1 final matches, he worked the finishes as though he were capitalizing on opportune moments to barely come away with the victory, which was really distinct from how most other heavyweights would go about their matches.

Watched this on a whim and once again I'm left thinking Orton is one of the greatest sellers in wrestling history. I could see some faulting him for a lack of fire here, but there's just so many minute details to his reactions and gait that it makes up for never really excelling as a face for me. Add in how rougher and less contrived this felt compared to standard TV wrestling, and it makes the work put in from both men stand out that much more.

I've worked myself into really digging this card, even though I do not care about the build for all of them. It's nice to see so many of the young, homegrown talent getting PPV matches against big names established elsewhere, and that so many of them have a decent shot of winning.

Watched this for the first time since it happened live and I feel roughly the same way about it as I do for the Ric Flair/Ricky Steamboat Spring Stampede match in 94. The attire of both champs dictates what the story will be. Unlike Flair though, Punk has no need to fight past demons and history from repeating itself. He won the title from Cena as the ultimate hometown underdog the year before at Money in the Bank, then won again at the following PPV. The rivalry has been in Punk's favor for a while now, so wearing Yankees-themed trunks in Boston is not only an incredibly heelish move, but one putting their feud into perspective. Punk is the dynasty here and has no problem showboating about it. He can still back it up in the ring though. The guy has Cena scouted like few others, having an answer for practically all of Cena's moves and attempted comebacks. Once Cena does get time to work on top, he's compelled enough to think outside the box, like going for a Tope or ditching the typical theatrics because of how they gave Punk the chance to counter earlier. Much like the aforementioned Flair/Steamboat bout, the finish is a double-pin where the babyface looked like they should've won, except they weren't able to properly capitalize on the opportunity. For Steamboat, it was not being strong enough late in the match to hold a bridge with a Double Chickenwing ala Clash of the Champions 1989, but here it's Cena going out of his wheelhouse again with a German Suplex off the ropes, either forgetting to bridge or not realizing where his shoulders are during the pin.