elliott

How did everyone like the Lioness match?

Ha! I just checked to see if KAORU was nominated!

I just watched the match against Kintaro Oki and holy crap was it awesome. Looking for more 70s recommendations. I'm familiar with the usual stuff like Backlund, Dory Jr, Robinson matches. But what else is out there like this Kintaro Oki match or the Chris Markoff match? I think Jetlag said he really liked a match against Tiger Jeet Singh? Which one was that?

I agree with Loss here. I always agreed with your old point that Liger would have likely been an all time great if he'd gone to UWF 2.0 and been a shoot style worker instead of going the route he did and becoming an all time great. He was always going to be great. Too talented and too hard a worker. There's also some awesome stuff like the Aoyagi match and the Hashimoto match that occurs in his prime that are definitely not just mindless bomb fests.

Same. That was brilliant!

I forgot about that Sonny King match, its really good! Like RINGS flavored Memphis. I added it and some other links to some of the Rock & Roll matches to watch in the Recommendations drive.

Of course!

I really thought one of the great victories of 2016 was that Liger finished 6th behind only that murders row of a top 5. Ahead of Kobashi, Kawada, Lawler, Jumbo. These are some big names. I didn't have him that high, but its a result I was happy with. A lot of folks seem to think he doesn't have the peak, but I think 89-97 Liger is about as good as it gets. Cool that he really survived the juniors backlash unscathed.

Morton was awesome before the RnR's formed and were having very good matches well into the 90s so he's got great longevity. But he's the quintessential 80s Babyface & tag worker and that's going to be the bulk of his case. Unlike most tag team specialists, he actually backs it up with high end singles matches when given an opportunity. Incredible bumper & athlete. His hand eye coordination & body control are extraordinary. These things combined to make him one of the all time sellers. Wasn't just a guy who got beat up though. Was awesome on the hot tag and underrated offensively. He'd do topes and hurricanranas when those were mind blowing spots hardly anybody else in the territories was doing. Great puncher. Incredibly consistent in the 80s with a high floor. Ricky Morton didn't have bad matches in the 80s (this continued well into the 90s). Played his role so well decades after his prime, the role is named after him. What other roles are literally named after wrestlers? When someone is brawling around the crowd we don't say they're "Playing Bruiser Brody" or "playing Terry Funk." When he finally got the chance to be a heel, he was good at that. Childs mentioned this back in the 2016 project. Ricky Morton just understood pro wrestling better than most. In terms of matches excluding the Midnights, I would recommend: the trio of matches against the Arn & Ole Anderson from 86. THere's a Worldwide, GAB and Starrcade match. If you don't like these matches or the Midnights rivalry, you can probably just skip 80s US Tag Team Wrestling altogether The 7/9/85 match against the Russians is probably the best RnR's match and funnily enough its Gibson in the Ricky Morton role for much of it, but its still awesome. Matches against Rick Rude & Manny Fernandez vs Dirty White Boys 5/11/85 vs Savage & Lanny Poffo vs Nightmares 1/85 Memphis

Do that.

Yessss. Lets do it. I watched Mariko Yoshida & Akira Hokuto vs Bull Nakano & Kyoko Inoue 6/5/91 - GOOD Yoshida is playing the role of way way way way way out gunned wrestler and she looks great getting beat up and bumping around. Honestly there's not much we can learn about her here other than that she was a great athlete capable of taking some really great bumps. There's a fun little storyline of Yoshida trying to monkey flip Bull and it goes poorly each time except when she turns it into a sunset flip. Yoshida looks good here but its a super limited role. Looking beyond Yoshida, I would recommend the match and call it good because Nakano is in full on Best in the World mode and looks awesome. She casually destroys Yoshida and the Bull vs HOkuto matchup is always great.

Not sure what there is left to say about Ricky Morton in 2021 but I really hope he makes a run to the top 35 again. I don't think he'd be out of place in the top 20.

Check out the 96 Carnival final against Dr Death if you havent.

That's one of the key points about Stan. He never did something that didnt make sense for Stan Hansen to do. Consistently logical

Who are they and what are the matches?

TAKA managed to stand out during the peak of Junior heavyweight wrestling. He was a really good mat worker early in his career and seemed to have the skill set that would age well. The 90s Junior stuff I've revisited he still really stands out as an awesome wrestler and insanely great athlete. I've always wanted to look at his Post WWE return to Japan. Looking at match lists, he it looks like hes in a bunch of potentially interesting matches but 2000s Japanese indies is a big blind spot for me outside of the various Battarts incarnations.

I put up the Al Perez match in the Google Doc for recommendations under Invader 1. Really a must see match. Added some other really good Invader 1 stuff as well. Anyone who is a fan of brawls should definitely check him out.

Maybe my highest ranking Japanese wrestler. Definitely my highest ranking Japanese male wrestler. The sort of wrestler that you want to see against everyone (Shit, is there a Fujiwara vs Abdullah match?) anywhere on the card because he's always going to do something interesting. During his peak he's as great as anyone.

I think the Choshu invasion is a good dividing line

Oh we fundamentally disagree on the quality of the matches then. I think the Funk matches are all timers, the Andre match is a candidate for greatest match ever, the Colon matches, I think he had multiple great matches with Inoki, Backlund, and Misawa.

I guess the Austin Idol matches are disappointing.

Is there a boring Bobby Heenan match?

Other than Jumbo, what do you think are the big Hansen mismatches?

Awesome recommendation! I wanna check that match out later. Big fan of both guys and that wasnt on my radar at all.

I still view him as a top 10 contender warts and all. Dunno if he'll get there but hes in that range. I suspect he wins or finishes 2nd to Bryan.