goodhelmet

The Piper-Adonis feud was greater than anything Bad News Brown produced in the WWF.. anything. Adrian Adonis

PLease name the good-great matches Valentine was having at this point. I can name one.. the Bulldogs-Dream Team match from WM 2. I am going with Don Muraco. His feuds with Tito Santana and Steamboat were far and away better than anything Valentine did in the fed as a single.

I gotta go HonkyTonk Man seeing as how I was the one who said he should be on the list. also, Lawler in the WWf is an announcer and I think his long-term damage in the color position outweighs any benefit from any feud he had with Doink or Bret Hart.

Tajiri

The only thing I could see keeping the LOD from being considered is that they were already past their prime as draws and monsters in thier first run... and their second run was a complete abortion.

"Bad" as in bloody or "bad" as in "Oh GOD this match sucks..."? Bad as in this match sucks a big fat dick... in this case, Raven's.

Dude, the matches you have reviewed can only be experienced through the written form. Trust me, if Loss, Nik and I ever put together the resource site we have been discussing, your reviews of Worst Matches Ever will have its own shrine!

I completely overlooked this portion when I skimmed through this week's Observer the first time... All Japan notes... ---Kensuke Sasaki becamse the 2nd person in history to win both the G1 Climax tournament and the Champion Carnival. He had wins over Toskiaki Kawada and Jamal. Keiji Mutoh is the only other wrestler to achieve the feat of winning both tournaments . ---Meltz calims the tournament was the best one in years and, from a booking standpoint, created two new Triple Crown title contenders. Sasaki not only pinned Kojima in the tournament but won overall. Jamal also pinned Kojima and Taiyo Kea went to a thirty minute draw with Kojima. All-Time World League/Champion Carnival History --Acc. to Meltzer, the Champion Carnival is the direct descendent of the World League. It dates back to 1959 when Rikidozan won the tournament. 1959- Rikidozan def. Jesse Ortega 1960- Rikidozan def. Leo Nomellini 1961- Rikidozan def. Mr. X 1962- Rikidozan def. Lou Thesz 1963- Rikidozan def. Killer Kowalski 1964- Toyonobori def. Gene Kiniski by COR 1965- Toyonobori def. Freddie Blassie 1966- Giant Baba def. Wilbur Snyder by COR 1967- Giant Baba def. The Destroyer 1968- Giant Baba def. Killer Kowalski 1969- Antonio Inoki def. Chris Markoff 1970- Giant Baba def. Don Leo Jonathan 1971- Giant baba def. Abdullah the Butcher 1972- Giant Baba def. Gorilla Monsoon In 1973, the tournament becomes the Champion Carnival under All Japan Wrestling 1973- Giant baba def. Mark Lewin 1974- Giant Baba def. Mr. Wrestling (Tim Woods) 1975- Giant baba def. Gene Kiniski 1976- Abdullah the Butcher def. Giant Baba via DQ 1977- Giant Baba def. Jumbo Tsuruta 1978- Giant Baba def. Jumbo Tsuruta by COR 1979- Abdullah the Butcher def. Jumbo Tsuruta 1980- Jumbo Tsuruta def. Dick Slater 1981- Giant Baba def. Bruiser Brody via DQ 1982- Giant Baba won via points over Brody, DiBiase, and Jumbo From 1983-1990, there was no Champion Carnival 1991- Jumbo Tsuruta def. Stan Hansen 1992- Stan Hansen def. Mitsuharu Misawa 1993- Stan Hansen def. Mitsuharu Misawa 1994- Toshiaki Kawada def. Steve Williams 1995- Misawa def. Akira Taue 1996- Akira Taue def. Steve Williams 1997- Kawada won a three-way round-robin w/ Misawa and Kobashi 1998- Misawa def. Jun Akiyama 1999- Vader def. Kenta Kobashi 2000- Kenta Kobashi def. Takao Omori 2001- Genichiro Tenryu def. Taiyo Kea 2002- Keiji Muto def. Genichiro Tenryu 2003- Satoshi Kojima def. Arashi 2004- Keiji Muto def. Kensuke Sasaki

Damn, you completely no-sold my initial review of the match! You suck.

News from NOAH... Meltz commented that the joke was that HHH wasn't lying the day after Wrestlemania when he said there would be a rematch coming up soon of the greatest match in wrestling history... because... ---The main event of the 7/18 Tokyo Dome show will be Mitsuharu Misawa vs. Toshiaki Kawada!!! ---At NOAH's 4/24/ Budokan show, the fans were chanting Kawada's name before his music started playing. Kawada came to the ring and asked Misawa to come out. Kawada said he was a professional and wants to do the match people want to see. The two agreed to a no time limit match. ---Another match scheduled for the Dome show is Kobashi vs. Kensuke Sasaki. The two have never faced each other in the ring. ---Meltzer said the two main events will help this show become a guaranteed success and will draw no less than 40,000. ---The GHC title match on the show will probably be Takeshi Rikio (champion) vs. Jun Akiyama but it has not been announced. ---Meltz compared the Rikio win over Kobashi to Garvin;s win over Flair in the late 80s. He felt the crowd supported Rikio in the chase but turned against him when the belt was around his waist. ---The 4/24 show was supposed to be a strong show with a weak main event of Rikio v. Akitoshi Saito. --Notable matches included Kobashi & Go Shiozaki vs. Akiyama & Tenryu- During this match, Kobashi supposedly chopped Tenryu 45 straight times leaving Tenryu's chest bloody. Later in the match, Kobashi hit Tenryu with 105 straight chops. (Talk about overkill.) Misawa & Kotaro Suzuki vs. Minoru Suzuki & Naomichi Marufuji Kenta vs. SUWA- this was a grudge match that only lasted 6:23.

It's a cage match with a bunch of "weapons" in the ring. CM Punk & Raven had one that was so bad that they trimmed the match in half on the DVD release. Needless to say, you didn't get that match on the CM Punk-Raven feud DVD.

--- 3 pages worth of Pride notes. I don't know much about Pride so I skipped it for now. Lots of TNA notes... ---Frank Dickerson, long time member of the Panda Energy Board will act as both Cheif Executive Officer and Cheif Financial Officer for TNA. He hasn't paid attention to wrestling for over 40 years. However, he has been reading books such as Sex, Lies and headlocks and The Death of WCW to get familiar with how the business ended up where it is today. ---The two key contracts coming up in the upcoming months are AJ Styles and Monty Brown. ---Sean Waltman has been talking with HHH in bringing him back to WWE. If he goes, he could bring Kevin Nash, Ron Killings and B.G. James as possibilities. ---B.G. James and Konnan have gone to Dusty Rhodes to break up 3 Live Kru because they feel they will never get a real push and are holding Killings back. ---Meltz feels you need to either lock the talent up with long-term contracts (Nash, DDP, Matt Hardy if he joins, Styles and Brown) or not feature them at all. ---Meltz feels the company is exactly one good time slot from success. ---There is tremendous heat on Dusty Rhodes as booker and he was overly nice to everyone at the 4/24 PPV, read as a sign that he is on thin ice. ---Dutch Mantel is pushing to get the head booker spot back. ---Behind the scenes, Rhodes has been trying to get a title change off Jarrett even though publicly he has stated he is against it. ---The Lockdown PPV drew 775 fans with hundreds turned away at Universal theme Park. ---Meltz mentions Candido's broken leg. ---Nash just signed up to do a movie role and will be off TV and PPv for six weeks of filming in China. ---The next PPV is called Hard Justice and will feature the following matches so far ... -Jeff Jarrett v. AJ Styles w/ Titto Ortiz as referee -Chris Daniels v. Shocker for the X-Title (Shocker was scheduled on the same day to appear at the AAA Triplemania show) -Raven v. Jeff Hardy (Clockwork Orange House of Fun match) (God, I hope it isn't close to the one he had in ROH *vomits) -The Naturals v. AMW (Since Candido was part of this angle, who kows what they will do now) -20-man Gauntlet Battle Royale -DDP & James v. Outlaw & Brown -MIchael Shane & Trinity v. Chris Sabin & Traci -Team Canada v. Team Mexico 6-man tag Lockdown results and star ratings: -(Pre-game match) Konnan & Killings def. Lovett & Young & Douglas & Stevens **1/4 -1. Apolo & Siaki def. Candido & Hoyt *1/2 -2. Dustin Rhodes def. Bobby Roode *1/4 -3. Shocker def. Michal Shane, Sonjay Dutt, & Chris Sabin ***1/2 -4. Jeff Hardy def. Raven ***1/4 -5. Harris & Storm def. Williams & Young ***1/2 -6. Christopher Daniels def. Elix Skipper ***1/4 -7. DDP & Waltman & B.G. James def. Jeff Jarrett, Monty Brown & The Outlaw * -8. AJ Styles def. Abyss ****1/4

More info... Message from Chris's brother sent to DOI... ROH and TNA comments... From IP and PWTorch...

From da Meltz: Details are still sketchy regarding the death of Chris Candito (Chris Candido) earlier today at the age of 33. There are conflicting reports regarding the cause of death, and the police in Matawan, NJ, where he lives, were not able to confirm his death. Candito suffered a broken leg on Sunday's Lockdown PPV from TNA, and underwent surgery on Monday. He appeared as a manager at the TV tapings Tuesday night before returning home. Candido was a prominent part of tomorrow's TNA Impact TV show, interfering and leading to The Naturals winning the NWA tag titles over Chris Harris & James Storm.

When I dropped these names yesterday, I really didn't have time to elaborate on why they mean that much to me. Now I do, so... 1. Ricky Steamboat- Steamboat was my favorite wrestler as a kid. I don't know if it was his style or his "exotic" look or what. I was just drawn to the way he presented himself in the ring. Mabe I was too naive to recognize his comic martial arts skills. Either way, he was the only wrestler who's poster hung on my wall. When Savage-Steamboat happened, as I watched it live, I knew it was the best match I had ever seen even if I couldn't articulate that feeling. Today, I feel validated, almos, to know that there are thousands of people who also give Steamboat glowing reviews. I never knew. I thought I was the only one. 2. Toshiaki Kawada- The ability to break through to another culture. The ability to convey meaning in every move without knowing a word of Japanese. This is what Kawada does for me. He is the reason I continue to hunt down Japanese wrestling. The first time I saw him was the Ganso Bomb match. I read on the net he broke his arm in that match. Then I saw him take and dish out ungodly abuse. I didn't know there were matches out there that blew this out of the water but I had to find out. Hundreds of All Japan hours later, I still seek out anything that has Kawada's name on it. 3. Mick Foley- Foley's book coincided with my wrestling "smarkdom". I read Foley's book and I automatically connected with this guy. Maybe it was the cheesy humor or the honesty I felt in his words. Then I saw him terrorize the ring and, for good or bad, his work affected me. Then I watched the ECW promos or the Cactus Jack promos leading to his retirement or the Christian and Edge comedy skits and now it is a must that I watch Foley anytime he is on TV... even in retirement. Some say he is a joke, that he is working the smart fans. If h is, then he has been successful because I believe in Foley. 4. Bret Hart- I have a special place in my heart for Bret more for the stuff outside the ring than inside it. I appreciate his wresting ability and his work made it easier for me to watch all of the old WWF stuff I missed when I took a wrestling hiatus. With that siad, he was the first wrestler I ever felt sorry for. It wasn't his fault that he was tortured in his father's basement as a kid. It wasn't his fault wrestling was in his blood and he believed his own hype. It wasn't his fault he was screwed (and I side with Bret here). It isn't his fault he has to continue to fight to prootect his legacy as Shawn and Flair try to undermine it. The only falut was giving a shit about a business that cares for nobody. 5. Eddie Guerrero -Overcoming demons and deaths and drugs ca be a painful thing to do. I know, I have been there. Everytime Eddie is in the ring, I root for him. Maybe not vocally but most certainly in my head. He has given us the best matches WWE has had to offer in the last few years and some of the best matches on North American soil. He is a great heel to boo and an easy babyface to cheer for.

jdw said it best when the best NJ Heavies match of the 90s was blown away by a Taue-Misawa match. New Japan Jrs? Of course, Ohtani-Dragon, Liger-Samurai are def. in that range. I haven't seen nearly enough lucha to assign that rating to any lucha match I have ever seen inc. Santo-Casas. the closest match I think that would hit it is Atlantis v. Villano III. THat is about to change as I hope to collect a huge amount of lucha in the next two months or so. Let me clarify... when I say All Japan stuff, most ****3/4 matches I have seen are from All Japan. That is just the nature of the beast when you are the best promotion in the world for 6+ years. I couldn't really have said another promotion (although there are matches that obtain that level) that would have been as effective in my point... When you give a match that rating, are you comparing it to the best the world has tooffer? If so, then I am not questioning the rating. Hell, I can't even remember seeing the match so how would I know? I just wanted clarification to make sure that wasn't a typo. Easy... look at the criteria that someone would use when dishing out stars and compare that match to that criteria. Like I said, I wasn't criticizing the rating. I just wanted to see if you were that confident in the match. If so, then I need to get it ASAP since our opinions on matches usually are side-by-side with one another. In fact, I have only openly questioned two star ratings that I have ever seen you give... Canadian Stampede and Savage-Warrior. Stampede, we ended up agreeing in the end as we analyzed the match. Savage-Warrior, we clashed and will probably always clash on it. No biggie. Also, I don't usually give star ratings because I think people tend to rely on them too much. However, when searching for good matches, I think they can be a valuable tool. Look at my favorite ECW match... Corino v. Tajiri. If I were to give that a star rating, would it really be a *** or even a **** match? Hell no, but I thought it was more important for people to understand it is one of my favorites than to give it a star rating. If we were doing a list of five-star matches, I could easily contribute to that list even if I have never officially given a match *****.

I guess I am accustomed to reserving most of the matches in that range for high-end All Japan stuff as well as the very best of American matches. For you to speak so highly of that match and for me to not remember seeing it or actually seeing it is killing me.

Whoa Whoa Whoa.... Is this really one of the best matches you have ever seen? At first, I thought you had it down as ***3/4.

Sadly, I don;t think i have seen the WW3 match unless I have it on a comp from teke. I think a comparison between the two is definitely in order.

Loss, have you seen their matches from Japan? They had one in 1996 that was pretty damn good IIRC. It is on one of Socha's Best of 1996 comps but should be found in better quality somewhere else.