CheapPop1999

Anyone have a great 5-7 matches to make me understand the appeal of Nomura? Have never seen him work but heard a lot of good.

1/26/1980- Championship Wrestling Tito Santana and Ivan Putski vs Jose Estrada and Davey O'Hannon- FUN Wildly, wildly fun squash where the heels exploit Tito for a second and as soon as Putski comes in, they panic and just get completely laid out, Sweet lil thang. 2/2/1980- Championship Wrestling Pat Patterson vs Jose Estrada- FUN Big time punchy punchy match. Very fun. 2/9/1980- All Star Wrestling Hulk Hogan vs Joe Mascara Another stinker Hogan squash. So slow it's crazy. Tony Atlas vs Jose Estrada Pretty slick for 1980 WWF, Atlas moves really well and has some fun stuff early and Estrada can saw them off, but lacks the interest down the stretch for me. Wild Samoans vs Steve King and Dominic Denucci Long nerve hold, lots of rough stuff, standard fare for Samoans so far.

1/21/1980- WWF from Madison Square Garden Hulk Hogan vs Domenic Denucci There's a version of this that kind of rules but Hulkster is really stinking up the joint right now. The work is slow and for him, strangely, devoid of much character and charisma. He's just a big hunk of muscle out there and it is thoroughly uninteresting. Wild Samoans vs Tito Santana and Ivan Putski- FUN Tito is a sweet little sawed-off babyface with this giant wild punches and big bumps for the savages. Putski is a complete roid freak but he's nimble enough to create some interesting spots early on. The Samoans are a little clunky here still, they need to hit a little harder and not focus so much on eye gouges for me to really buy into them as big dangerous monsters, but this is fun enough for what it's worth. 1/22/1980- Championship Wrestling from Allentown, PA Larry Zbyszko vs Bruno Sammartino- GREAT One of the most famous matches in history, I feel pretty confident in saying, at least one of the most famous angles in history, and boy oh boy does it deliver on all fronts. The story so far has been all about Larry Z's frustrations about being in Bruno's shadow and wanting to finally prove himself. It plays out beautifully in the ring. Bruno counters out of all of Larry's holds in this exhibition, and Larry never can, but Bruno lets him out because he doesn't want to embarrass his protege. Bruno grabs on the bearhug, maybe by instinct, and quickly lets it go but Larry finally snaps and yells at his mentor about why he's treating him like a kid still. He slams the mat with great expressiveness and finally has enough, hauling off on the world's hero and cracking him with a chair and leaving the Living Legend buried in a pool of his own blood. That shot from the hard cam of Bruno, face down and covered in blood, alone in the ring, while the fans throw trash and spit at Larry as he flees is a fantastic visual and sets up everything for the rest of the year perfectly. The rare match from this decade that I have heard so much about and actually delivers. Bravo.

1/12/1980- Championship Wrestling from The Spectrum Pat Patterson vs Captain Lou Albano- FUN Standard but super fun babyface vs heel stoogey manager, underscored by Albano saying he's getting back into ring shape, when he obviously looks exactly the same. Lots of shtick and good punches. No complaints here. 1/18/1980- WWF at the Capital Centre in Landover, MD Hulk Hogan vs Gorilla Monsoon This was very clipped from some sort of news story about wrestling but the bits we got were fun. I can imagine this match ruling with Monsoon as a real old man babyface against the ultra-dick new kid Hogan. 1/19/1980- All Star Wrestling from Hamburg, PA Pat Patterson vs BB Coleman Patterson throws a great punch, and the local guy looks like someone they pulled right off of Rudy's dad's factory line in PA. Solid little thing. Hulk Hogan vs Bill Berger and Steve King Probably the best Hogan handicap so far, but that low is about the height of an ant. The jobbers actually try to take Hogan on instead of just struggling with his arms. 1/21/1980- WWF from Madison Square Garden Bob Backlund vs Ken Patera- GREAT An AWESOME title match between my two favorite guys in the watch-through so far. These guys have what amounts to an 80s grapplefuck that is built on such simple ideas. Backlund has the amateur wrestling-style pedigree that plays in perfect contrast to Patera's massive pythons and strongman skillset. Based on that idea, Patera comes out trying to utilize his same big power submissions that he kills the jobbers with and Backlund easily counters out of them. Backlund brings his own heat, essentially doing the rowing machine on Patera's shoulder trying to just rip it off like he's an an action figure. Patera keeps getting caught in this hold and the people are all in on Backlund. We then get an awesome bearhug series when Patera gets back on top where Backlund struggles to get his arms underneath the vice grip and ragdolls around while in the hold, with the two alphas just constantly struggling for leverage while standing up in what amounts to a pro wrestling replication of an MMA clinch fight. Eventually, the ref goes down, both men are DQ'd and there's a monstrous pull apart brawl where Patera drags four other wrestlers across the ring just to take a swipe and Backlund. A perfectly paced and epicly built arena match that showcases the best of both men. The first true stunner from the WWF that I have seen.

1/12/1980- All Star Wrestling from Allentown, PA Larry Zbyszko vs JoJo Andrews Not much as a match, really just an easy win for Larry Z. Great Larry Z promo about his career thus far and wanting to get out of Bruno's shadow, and he issues a challenge to the man himself for a TV exhibition match. Interesting. The Wild Samoans vs Steve King and Dominic Denucci This was trash, just wildly uninteresting wrestling, except for the fact that Denucci headbutted the Samoans TWICE and lived! Hulk Hogan vs Angelo Gomez and Johnny Rivera Slightly better handicap match than last weeks, the bumps are a bit bigger, but Hogan is still very boring.

1/5/1980- All Star Wrestling from Hamburg, PA Tito Santana vs. Hussein Arab Decent enough little match, I'm sure these two would have a tremendous time doing something longer, but it doesn't get in its own way at all. One thing I've liked about territory stuff so far is how often the faces get to be scumbags against the heels to massive applause, and there's a great spot here where Tito uses Sheiky's headdress to choke him. Ken Patera vs Bill Berger- FUN Patera is awesome here. Is he the first ever bully jock heel? He's such a smarmy prick and the swinging full nelson is an incredible spot before he wrenches the life out of Berger with his Olympic pythons. Great Patera promo after with Grand Wizard and Vince about his KILLER INSTINCT! Hulk Hogan vs Angelo Gomez and Ben Ortiz Real boring squash. Some fun stuff at the beginning, but took way too long to finish up. Hogan promo where he says he's the new king of professional wrestling for the 1980s. Interesting. Larry Zbyszko vs Johnny Rodz Match with the most meat on the bone today, but kinda just meh. Nothing super interesting or showing chemistry between these two. Bobby Duncam vs Ron Lee Nothing squash. Hot start for the Fed!

I'm just going to start watching through WWF starting in 1980 and I wanted some place to document it.

Necro match was far more my speed, and showed another really fascinating look at how talented Homicide is in the fusion settings. The match felt like a heated studio brawl crossed with an ECW-style angle-driven match that still got a bit too ROH for me by the end but maintained a pretty solid sense of heat throughout. I like Homicide as a Puerto Rican Funk at his best, and it's a shame that he doesn't just do that all the time.

Working through this list tonight. Really loved the Corino match, I felt like it was a really nice blend of a lot of different match structures; it was a great double juice territory brawl with some creative weapon work and a couple of nasty cutoffs, but it had enough of that Homicide/ROH strong style to still fit in that realm. The Homicide tope into the guardrail was one of the more brutal versions of that spot I've seen and felt legitimately like something that would knock a guy out of a match, but also felt valiant in a very Santito way. Match was a little bit long in the tooth with the kickouts though. The Joe match was a lot more muddled for me, although it was a dynamic performance from Homicide. Joe seemed a little bit less threatening than I would have anticipated or liked and the finish was really campy in a way that took away a lot of the credibility.

I tried to do a thing tonight where I randomized the entire list of candidates and watch some matches of somebody and with all due respect, why the hell does this guy have a thread

Pretty impressed by the Lightning Kid match on first viewing, but again, it seems to be far more about Waltman than Wilkins. Now, that being said, it was fun to see Wilkins work as basically Lesnar against the scrawny but electric beanpole that is Waltman. I was surprised by how focused it was and how relatively high-concept it is; it's not afraid of itself as a clear face/heel match and also as a clear power/speed match, and in fact, it relishes in both of those ideas. I would've liked to see a little bit more bomb-throwing or highspots from Waltman down the stretch, even out of desperation, but Wilkins attempting to wrench Waltman's limbs off of his body was a pretty decent substitution. The first Wilkins match deserving of GREAT status.

Starting to work through these tonight. Suzuki match was really interesting, Wilkins definitely seems like the old man tomato can fighter against the young upstarts, but the cagey veteran is always a character I have a soft spot for. He was great on the ground at trying to rip Suzuki's arm off and had a decent amount of charm to his very simple offense and look. I am intrigued. Sano match felt like more of the same formula, although this time pro-style, so we get to see a little bit more bluster from Wilkins. He has a little bit of Boss Man in him in terms of how well he gets over his bewilderment at big flippy offense, and he also visually looks a little dumpier here, which kind of adds to everything that's great about him so far. Fujiwara match obviously ruled. It's two old burly boys throwing it down old-school style. Fujiwara does a lot more to make the match great than Wilkins does, but he's a more than worthy adversary as someone who can get mean and throw some stiff pot shots to make Fujiwara get really riled up and come back even harder. Pretty impressed so far. I'll start with the Lightning Kid match tomorrow.

FEBRUARY 1999: Mariko Yoshida vs Hiromi Yagi (ARSION 2/18) ****3/4 Bret Hart vs Booker T (WCW 2/22) ****1/4 Blitzkrieg vs Juventud Guerrera (WCW 2/25) ****1/4 Super Crazy vs Yoshihiro Tajiri (ECW 2/12) ****1/4 Aja Kong and Carlos Amano vs Meiko Satomura and Toshiyo Yamada (OZ 2/28) **** Great Sasuke vs Magnum Tokyo (Toryumon 2/7) **** Meiko Satomura vs Toshi Uematsu (GAEA 2/3) ***3/4 Blitzkrieg vs Rey Mysterio Jr. (WCW 2/8) ***3/4 The Rock vs Mankind (WWF 2/15) (ladder) ***3/4 Blitzkrieg, Juventud Guerrera and Psicosis vs El Dandy, Hector Garza and Super Calo (WCW 2/15) ***3/4 Ric Flair vs Hulk Hogan (WCW 2/21) ***3/4 Scott Hall and Kevin Nash vs Rey Mysterio and Konnan (WCW 2/21) (Rey's Mask vs. Elizabeth's Hair) El Hijo del Santo and Negro Casas vs Bestia Salvaje and Scorpio Jr. (CMLL 2/26) Christopher Daniels vs Steve Bradley (ECWA 2/27) Mayumi Ozaki vs Mima Shimoda (OZ 2/28) The Rock vs Mankind (WWF 2/14) (Last Man Standing) El Hijo del Santo and Negro Casas vs Bestia Salvaje and Scorpio Jr. (CMLL 2/5) Chris Benoit and Dean Malenko vs Brian Adams and Horace Hogan (WCW 2/18) (steel cage) Kevin Nash vs Rey Mysterio (WCW 2/22) Steve Austin vs Vince McMahon (WWF 2/14) (steel cage) El Dandy vs Fit Finlay (WCW 2/20) Bam Bam Bigelow vs La Parka (WCW 2/6) Magnum Tokyo vs Shiima Nobunaga (Toryumon 2/5) Bret Hart vs Will Sasso (WCW 2/15) Chris Benoit and Dean Malenko vs Curt Hennig and Barry Windham (WCW 2/21)

JANUARY 1999: Mitsuharu Misawa vs Toshiaki Kawada (All Japan 1/22) ****3/4 Mariko Yoshida vs Mika Akino (ARSION 1/18) ****1/2 The Rock vs Mankind (WWF Royal Rumble 1/24) (I Quit) ****1/2 Kiyoshi Tamura vs Tsuyoshi Kohsaka (RINGS 1/23) ****1/4 Naohiro Hoshikawa, Masato Yakushiji and Masaru Seno vs CRAZY MAX (Shiima Nobunaga, Judo Suwa and Sumo Fuji) (M-Pro 1/10) ****1/4 Jushin Thunder Liger vs Koji Kanemoto (New Japan 1/4) **** The Hardy Boyz vs The Serial Thrillaz (OMEGA 1/29) **** Atlantis, Emilio Charles Jr. and Felino vs Black Warrior, Blue Panther and Dr. Wagner Jr. (CMLL 1/22) **** Volk Han vs Hiromitsu Kanehara (RINGS 1/23) **** Kenta Kobashi and Jun Akiyama vs Toshiaki Kawada and Akira Taue (All Japan 1/7) **** Yoshinari Ogawa vs Masahito Kakihara (All Japan 1/15) **** Mr. Gannosuke vs Hisakatsu Oya (FMW 1/5) ***3/4 Kensuke Sasaki vs Atsushi Onita (New Japan 1/4) ***3/4 Kenta Kobashi vs Vader (All Japan 1/15) Scott Hall vs Goldberg (WCW 1/17) (stun gun ladder) Yoshihiro Tajiri vs Super Crazy (ECW 1/10) Hiroyoshi Tenzan and Satoshi Kojima vs Genichiro Tenryu and Shiro Koshinaka (New Japan 1/4) Daisuke Ikeda and Mohammed Yone vs Alexander Otsuka and Yuki Ishikawa (BattlARTS 1/12) The Rock vs Mankind (WWF Halftime Heat 1/31) (empty arena) Super Delphin and Gran Naniwa vs Naohiro Hoshikawa and Masato Yakushiji (M-Pro 1/13) Scott Hall vs Bam Bam Bigelow (WCW 1/25) (stun gun ladder) Juventud Guerrera vs Rey Mysterio vs Psicosis vs Billy Kidman (WCW 1/17) Sid vs Skull Von Krush (ECW 1/16) Fit Finlay and Dave Taylor vs Disorderly Conduct (WCW 1/9) Magnum Tokyo, Dragon Kid and SAITO vs CRAZY MAX (Shiima Nobunaga, Judo Suwa and Sumo Fuji) (Toryumon 1/31) The Rock vs Mankind (WWF RAW 1/4) Hayabusa and Jinsei Shinzaki vs Tamon Honda and Jun Izumida (All Japan 1/16) Jerry Lawler vs Brian Christopher (PPW 1/2) Rob Van Dam vs Lance Storm (ECW 1/10)

I figured I would post my own monthly rankings in here too, since I'm rewatching 1999 currently.

I think this was an amazing match and a very character-driven spectacle brawl. The Attitude Era main event style can get a little bit stale for me, but these guys injected so much life into it that it made it massively entertaining. I would compare this to this era's version of the Mind Games match, with Foley taking another dumb pretty boy down into the gutter with him to teach some valuable lessons about a person's violent capabilities. The first half or so of this is your textbook Foley brawl, complete with the nasty bumping and real breathiness, but I really enjoyed the trash talk and animosity between these two polar opposite characters. The Rock continues his cocky attitude when Foley gets thrown off the balcony into the electrical area, with all of these officials coming out to beg him to stop but he needs the validation of Foley giving up. That fire and line-crossing that Rock experiences culminates in the really brutal chair shot sequence, which was as tough to watch as I anticipated, especially the parts where it is clear that Foley is feeding Rock his back and he still cracks him in the back of the head with the harder edges of the chair. It's not quite Jay vs Mark Briscoe on the beach in Maryland in 2005, but it's certainly in the ballpark. The shoddy finish leaves a lot to be desired, but I do like that the audience doesn't know right away and Rock celebrates to the people while knowing deep-down that everything he promised was a lie and Foley was right about himself and Rock. The characters at play here are two of the best ever at invoking emotion and I think they knock it out of the park here. Excited to see their feud develop. Not quite the mechanical high of Kawada/Misawa, but my favorite story of the year so far, undoubtedly. EPIC

There’s some things in wrestling that I just enjoy, and one of those things is really good shoot-style like this match. RINGS is known as being a pretty great fed for the kind of shoot that I enjoy; the ultra-serious mechanics coupled with piecemeal physical narratives to elevate the matches. Volk Han, the old Soviet cowboy, faces a spry little buzzsaw in Kanehara here, and it’s a great style and strategy clash right away. Han has the power and snap advantage, but Kanehara is more athletic, quicker, and a little bit better at striking. What this leads to is a lot of mind games from Han, baiting Kanehara to fall into traps on the mat where Volk can utilize his advantages. Sometimes, the young man bites and Volk gets to stretch him out. Sometimes, he gets angry and punches Volk in the mouth. It’s a constantly swinging pendulum of momentum that culminates in the wily veteran sneakily applying a submission on the ground out of nowhere and grabbing the victory. A tremendous little slice of athletic shoot. GREAT

This was all really entertaining stuff and the matchups they focused on all really worked. Black Warrior was not a factor for me, but he paired well with Emilio for quicker-paced offense, which stood nicely in contrast to the Atlantis/Panther maestro segments and the Felino/Wagner shticky stuff. I don't feel so in the dark on lucha when I watch this match, as it seems to really get to the core of what makes the style fun with the colorful characters and meaningful interactions. Not much more I can say, but one of my favorite trios I have ever seen. GREAT

A real forgotten classic of King's Road canon, in my estimation. I like the inversion of Kawada and Misawa's roles from their previous matches here after Kawada finally beat Misawa the last time out. Kawada gets to be the confident one that's in control and Misawa has to be the desperate bomb-thrower. The nastiness and slickness on display here are both at near-transcendent levels in a way that really portrays rivalry. Kawada beats the piss out of Misawa and they also counter each others' signature spots in very natural ways that really shows the familiarity these two have with one another. The overarching story of these two aging and Misawa's athleticism advantage starting to wane and Kawada's striking staying as tough as ever was also on display and a nice little note. The broken arm thing just makes everything more impressive, as it's not super noticeable until the Ganso Bomb and honestly, even the Ganso Bomb seems like a sort of likely finisher that a King's Road guy would come up with. Mechanically excellent, structurally sound, and not bloated, so this is a personal favorite All Japan match for me. Working match of the year thus far. EPIC

This felt like a perfect meld of BattlARTS, joshi, and lucharesu concepts to create something comparable to BattlARTS on speed. It's super tight and tough, especially the mat work that feels like a legitimate struggle most of the time. Yoshida is the dominant force but gets overwhelmed a few times by the relentlessness of Akino, which is a pretty standard rookie vs. ace story, but one that I really enjoy, especially when the work is this good. As a joshi match, this style of work certainly stands above a lot of the other things I've seen from the style as a lot grittier and more impressive. AWESOME match. EPIC

Big fan of both guys here, and they put on a pretty great midcard match for Ogawa's junior title, in what is sort of a precursor to Ogawa's GHC title match against Kakihara's former partner, Yoshihiro Takayama, a few years later. Both guys do what they do best; Kakihara gets to be a high-energy little buzzsaw and desperately try to chase down the slimy Ogawa, who is the master of every pro-style trick in the book. It's a great character-driven finish too, with Kakihara trying to counter out of Ogawa's roll-up and not being able to. Kicks are stiff, Ogawa yelps a bunch, so I got my money's worth. GREAT

I loved this. Crazy Max was a wildly entertaining heel unit and each member had their own moments to shine here. The future CIMA is certainly the best performer here, for my money, though. He feels like he's moving at double everyone else's speed and he is such a cocky prick because of it, a really great formula for an M-Pro heel. I like that Crazy Max comes out guns blazing and it takes the home team guys a little bit to knock the rust off and start putting together some combos. Yakushiji is great in a conductor role, instructing Hoshikawa and Seno when to double-team with him a few times like a really fun uncle who dresses like the Elf on the Shelf. Another test to see how far an equally good formula (the M-Pro multiman) can be stretched when the actors are given some leash. Awesome, awesome match. GREAT

A good exercise in how far the King's Road formula can get you when you let the characters fill their natural roles, like everyone does here. Akiyama gets to be the youthful and athletic pest, drawing the ire of the Holy Demon Army with his ability and getting punished for it based on his inexperience. Kobashi gets to be worked over and pseudo-play underdog, before working to a big desperate and powerful comeback. Kawada gets his leg worked over and gets to sell it and play the maniac wolverine with an Achilles heel that he is so great at portraying. Taue my hero gets to play dirtbag monster with intent to kill Kobashi and Akiyama. The face work here is really great, not quite '95 Carnival Final but very focused and brutal nonetheless. No blood for Kobashi makes me sad, especially given the gusher that Vader opened up on him in the battle royal setting. I shouldn't hold that against the match we got, but I do, subconsciously. Still, plenty to love here. GREAT

This had an exceptionally strong first 10 minutes or so. I like Gannosuke gutting it out on the mat with this guy clearly aping shoot-style in Oya. Then, Oya gets busted open and has to sink into Gannosuke's domain of garbage brawling. I found the bomb fest King's Road-y parts a lot more like cosplay than a really great replication of the same ideas, but the styles clash and stiffness made it a good watch. Marginally great for me. GREAT

Takayama will be in my top 15. He's got a solid list of really entertaining UWF-i matches, including a great draw with Kanehara from 94 that feels like the best Ultimate Fighter finale ever, just these two hungry young dudes going to war. There's also a Sakuraba match from 96 that feels really crisp and fresh. He's awesome as an invader of WAR with Yoji Anjoh, showing his dickish comedic chops. He's a great bruiser tag guy in All Japan against their main eventers and a great bully to their young guys. The 10/9/99 six man of No Fear/Fuchi vs Kobashi/Akiyama/Shiga is a standout example of that, along with the 2/28/98 tag of Takayama/Kakihara vs Akiyama/Kobashi. When given rope in All Japan in singles, he always delivered something interesting. The 97 singles with Kawada is a great invading shooter match, their 99 rematch is almost a simulated kickboxing contest. The 2000 sprint with Akiyama and the title match against Kobashi both deliver really fast-paced hard-hitting matches that pop in All Japan. He goes to NOAH and dyes his hair and the monster awakens. Basically every big match from 2000-2009 is must see and he works in a lot of different styles within them. He can come in and slaughter your top guy like in the Nagata, Kobashi and Misawa matches. He can work as a bully against KENTA, Ogawa, Suwama, Nakamura, and Sugiura. He can get some egg on his face and get confused by different styles against KENTA, Ogawa and Nishimura too. He bleeds well. He escalates violence well. He fits my kind of wrestling I like to watch perfectly; "stiff, thought-out, intense, fast, and a little angry." I have no idea why people don't have him higher. Greatest monster heel ever, for my money.