elliott

This is the only reason I would consider not voting for JYD but it would also mean I could never take the WON HOF seriously ever again and while you can't really take it seriously now, I still enjoy reading the discussions and listening to the podcasts about it. The HOF is as much about the WON as it is about wrestling history. But I'd rather pretend it was more about the wrestling and less about the observer.

Oh its definitely a critique on the HOF in general and not any specific voter. You said, of everyone in your top 20 for GWE, he's the only one not in the HOF. You ranked him the 9th best worker ever. That does seem like a good enough reason to vote for someone when work is a criteria. I just couldn't really do it. Tamura is tough because he is a total work candidate. His drawing would probably be worse than prime JYD's work But what makes him tough compared to other all work candidates like Benoit or Daniel Bryan is that those guys had the 10+ years of consensus at worst top 10 on average top 5 and at best #1 wrestler in the world. I actually think Tamura has roughly 6 straight years as the best wrestler in the world and then a few years later was the best in the world again. If that is how the majority of people viewed him, I'd be more encouraged to vote for him, if I actually voted. But his reputation has always been that he's a good young wrestler on the rise in UWFi and didn't reach his potential until RINGS. He has the benefit of the "master of his style" reputation that he shares with Volk Han, but as I said before, you could argue being the best shoot style guy isn't the same as being the best brawler or best lucha mat worker because shoot style promotions were around for such a small amount of time, there were so few shows and so few workers compared to the rest of wrestling. You could easily counter that by saying shoot style is the hardest style to master and so Tamura being the best at it is more impressive than being the best brawler. Etc etc. My point is, he's a tricky candidate if you take a step back from how guys like you and me who think he's a top 10 wrestler to ever live sort of worker feel about him and try and look at his candidacy, I think he ends up looking pretty weak. And like really that is not a criticism on you or anyone else who voted for him. It does seem insane to not vote for a someone you think is the 9th best ever. I think the gordy list is missing a couple of important questions: If you were writing the history of professional wrestling, could you do it without this wrestler? If you were writing the history of professional wrestling in their home country/territory, could you do it without this wrestler? I think you could do it without Tamura until you get to the part about RINGS transition from works to shoots and that's not really a period that reflects well on him outside of his performance in the ring. I'm glad you vote for Tamura and Han though. Even though I think Tamura is a better worker, I feel like I'd be more inclined to vote for Han, but it would really be a "Keep Han on the ballot/Keep People like Tenzan & Kojima out" sort of vote. Did you vote for Fujiwara? I would actually consider voting for him and actually a large part of that would be because of the footage reevaluation that you talk about above, but I do think Fujiwara has positives those other two don't have. If I voted, I would be really tempted to vote historical so I could vote for Bearcat Wright, but I'd feel weird about it because I don't know enough about too many people in that category. I would vote Lucha, and that would destroy my ballot so I couldn't justify a work candidate. If I didn't vote lucha, it is possible that I'd consider work out of a desire to vote for 10 people, but hopefully I'd just research the historical candidates more instead. If I were a voter who put the in ring work criteria on the same level as the others, I'd almost have to vote for Tamura. But watching his entire career and looking at it is basically why I don't think I could vote for a pure workrate candidate. No matter how great he was, I never watched Tamura and thought "this guy's a HOFer for sure" based on how I personally view/think of Hall of Famers. I get that feeling watching Dusty, watching Flair, Colon, Hashimoto, Tenryu, Baba, Choshu, Wahoo, any number of guys. I get the "This dude is a HOFer" feeling more from prime Kerry Von Erich than Tamura to be perfectly honest. I can't explain it, and it isn't a real criteria, but it is probably a factor. There's a talking point about how people often put too much emphasis on drawing. There's also a talking point about how people put too much emphasis on work. I think the third one is the most overlooked and should be the most important: "having historical significance in a positive manner. " More than drawing or working, I think that's the really interesting criteria that is all to often ignored. I think it is a flaw in obvious flaw in Dave's system that being a worker/having great matches is an equal to positive historical significance. Why Daniel Bryan having awesome matches in front of 300 people or in the middle of the card makes him a no brainer HOFer and Sputnik Monroe can't even get on the ballot is an indictment of the Hall of Fame, not the voters.

Real quick here's where I stand on voting for guys purely on work... I think it would be fine as long as all of the draws and historically significant people were already in. if work is being voted on, it should be the least important thing. I'm sure the tens of thousands of people who were paying to see JYD in the early 80s thought he was a great worker. I'm sure the 2,000-5000 fans that filled around half of the buildings Tamura performed in at his peak in 98/99 thought he was great too. I understand that ring work is one of the 3 main criteria for the HOF, but it seems weird to me to vote in people who are only strong in the one totally subjective category. It just seems like a way to get favorites in when there are obviously more deserving candidates. By all accounts, Big Daddy is the biggest star in the history of british wrestling and people are voting for Kiyoshi Tamura who probably isnt one of the 100 most historically significant Japanese wrestlers for a "Hall of Fame" strikes me as a silly odd. Are the people voting for Tamura voting for Red Bastien? Bastien was widely considered one of the best wrestlers of his era. This isn't to say we should discredit work entirely. Just mostly. Its hard for me to wrap my head around having the most subjective criteria by far be held up as the definitive building block. I mean, I think Tamura is the 3rd best wrestler of all time, best of the 90s, etc, but I make terrible decisions about everything so why would I assume I'm right about this? But I KNOW JYD was a major draw in the early 80s and was historically significant as an African American ace in the south. I find those qualities far more important as HOF candidacy building blocks than me really digging those 90 Tamura matches I watched. I also don't really agree with GOTNW about the Japan category being the most chaotic category. I think its actually the least chaotic category. THe Sharpes and Gordienko probably shouldn't be on the Japanese ballot at all and that kind of muddies things up. What makes the Japan category tough is that people feel they HAVE to vote for someone and the Japanese candidates are really weak compared to the rest of the ballot and other than Fujiwara I don't really think any of them should be in. Compare that to Mexico where probably 6 or 7 folks could have gone in already and then Meltzer adds Fishman who might actually be a legit candidate as well. That's a chaotic ballot. The Japanese ballot sucks because none of those dudes are HOFers yet everyone fees like they have to vote for a Japanese candidate. Anyway, Tamura. Sure, I could see voting for him in the future but there are at least 20 "absolutely better candidates" on the ballot and probably 15-20 more people I'd need to know more about before saying one way or the other. I'm not honestly sure he'd be a better candidate than Low-Ki. Tamura is definitely a worse candidate than Ultimo Dragon who practically everyone agrees was a terrible induction. I say ALL of this literally as I rewatch the 1/21/98 match against Ilioukhine which I think is one of the best matches ever. So. Yeah. I'm a weirdo.

There is an awesome Terry promo on the Extras building to a match against Invader I where he threatens to scoop out Invader's eyes. It is my new dream match. Terry was born to work PR.

Yeah, I have to be kind to Takada to keep it as true to "Dave" as possible. Takada is like the 14th best shoot style worker This show is them capitalizing on the Kitao match. Drawing a mil. Dave's a little swamped in this era

"Dave's" coverage of the 10/14/95 UWFi show.

Fujiwara is an interesting candidate because he has his hand in a lot of different pots. He wasn't a substantial draw and his God King Rep as a worker came after the fact and is really the work of a small subgroup of fans. He was a booker/promoter but his company wasn't a major deal all things considered. His biggest positives would be based around influence. He is one of the founding fathers of shoot style wrestling. Not just a member of the original company, but someone who was crucial in helping UWF find itself and define what it was going to be going forward. He also has the additional benefit of training wrestlers. I believe he was the primary trainer for guys like Yuki Ishikawa & Daisuke Ikeda and most of the dudes who would go on to form BattlArts. I'm under the impression the people voting for him are likely doing so because they view him having a big influence as a founding father of shoot style which would alter the Japanese wrestling landscape entirely in addition to being an all time great worker and one of the handful of best workers of his style. . He strikes me as a better candidate than Akiyama & Taue and he's definitely better than Tamura & Han. On the surface, CIMA seems like a similar candidate but I don't know nearly enough about Post 2001 Toryumon and All Dragon Gate to be able to speak to it. Someone should do a Fujiwara Gordy List.

I still need to read the Lorefice stuff but that TV Tropes page has some really cool stuff. I will only call him "The Aloof Genius" "The Red Baron" and "The Red Pants Wearing Determinator" from now on. I guess I never really talked about whether I see this Aloof Genius as a HOFer, even though reading through the results dump & gordy list it should be pretty clear. I really don't see him as a HOFer, especially on the current ballot. Even in the Japan Region I think he's a worse candidate than: Akiyama Fujiwara Volk Taue CIMA Kimura (at least on the surface he certainly seems more important, but I'd have to look at his career more to be able to get into specifics) The Sharpe's (Who probably shouldn't be on the Japan list, but even with their short time in Japan are probably still more important than The Red Baron historically, but again I'd have to look more closely at them) Gordienko (Also probably shouldn't be in Japan from the little I know, seems like a better candidate than Tamura in general, but I don't know nearly as much as I'd like. He seems like my kinda dude though) I'm not sure what to do with Minoru Suzuki and Pancrase. I'm under the impression that he's a better candidate than Tamura based on his freelance run, but not a particularly strong candidate. Is Tamura a better candidate than Takayama who isn't even on the ballot? As an overall candidate he's on that Nagata, Hayabusa, Kojima & Tenzan level. Obviously he has SOME positives. He has the 2 years at the end of the decade where he was generally considered one of, if not the best, wrestler in the world. He is often pointed to, along with Volk Han, as either the best or 2nd best shoot style wrestler. What that means is up to your interpretation. On the one hand, it is an extremely difficult style to master but on the other hand it only existed as a viable promotional style from the mid 80s until 1999 (I love BattlArts, its possibly my favorite promotion, but they were a small indy that folded anyway in 2001/02). We're talking less than 20 years. Its not like being considered the best luchadore of all time which goes back almost a century. I could frame a better case for Tamura if I was building it solely on my opinion: I think he's the best Japanese wrestler ever, the best wrestler overall from the 90s, the best wrestler in the world from 1994-1999, the best wrestler in the world in 2004, the best shoot stylist, one of the 3 best wrestlers to ever live. But I don't think "BECUZ I LIKES HIM THHHIIIIIISSSSSSSSS MUCH!" is a real building block for a candidate, especially when its such a different perception from what even fans of the guy have. I've watched his entire career at this point (I filled in gaps, i need to write up the rest of the stuff) and thought he was great basically from beginning to end, but still at no point did I think "this guy is a slam dunk hall of famer." Coulda, woulda, shoulda, but didn't. If he had the Daniel Bryan or He Who Shall Not Be Named career of 10+ years being in the best in the world conversation for people in and out of the business, then it'd be a lot easier to go to bat for Tamura as a candidate. Even if I think he has a more impressive work resume' than the work candidates that have/will get in, I get that its a singular opinion and that shouldn''t make him a HOFer. "CUZ I LIKES HIM THHHHHHIIIIIIIIISSSSSS MUCH" just suck as an argument. Honestly, as a worker, I'm the guy's biggest fan and I still don't see how any could vote for The Red Pants Wearing Determinator.

It depends. I'd rather watch Buddy Rose than Octagon. I'd rather watch El Satanico than Terry Taylor. I'd rather watch Nick Bockwinkel than Nobuhiko Takada. I'd rather watch Volk Han than Dean Malenko. Edit: But I think shoot style is probably the most difficult, but its also the most narrow. I've seen all time great workers and matches in every style.

600-700 people in Korakuen is brutal. Good grief! Tamura was voted 6th Most Outstanding in 1998. I understand someone might look at that and say "OHHHHH see, he's not even #1 how could you say people thought he was #1!" The folks who finished above him were Kanmeoto (winner), Otani, Misawa, Kobashi, and Juventud. Tamura finisehd above Liger, Akiyama, Benoit Kawada, Foley and Austin . I think we can all agree that if you look at: WWF WCW New Japan All Japan RINGS RINGS was, by a considerable margin, the least followed promotion and is going to have fewer candidates for the awards simply based on the nature of the voting so Tamura's placement is pretty damn impressive considering he wasn't nearly as watched as the dudes who placed around him. He's literally the only person to place in 1998 who didn't work in one of the 4 biggest company's in the world (WWF/WCW/NJ/AJ). Tim, since anyone considering voting for Tamura is probably going to be considering shoot fighting as part of his case, I was wondering if you could talk a little bit about his place in MMA and whether or not it actually matters on a HOF level. Obviously he's not Sakuraba, Takada, or probably even Takayama in terms of importance. Would he be in the next tier down? If he one of the 15 most influential people behind the rise of MMA in Japan in the early 2000s? I was never under that impression at the time and I feel like the fact that U-Style was barely able to fill KH even with Tamura on the card leads me to believe that he wasn't that important to the rise of MMA.

Glad you enjoyed the matches. Hopefully as I add some more context it'll add some more flavor to some of the ones you've watched (as well as allow you to enjoy the extras). I am basically guaranteed to rewatch this entire set all over again in order with all the extras after absorbing all of your history lessons. I wanted to go in as uninfluenced by external forces as possible in terms of thoughts on the matches. I watched every other 80s set after the voting process occurred so I could set where matches were ranked as I watched them which can always influence opinions on matches. This was an awesome opportunity to watch a bunch of stuff that I didn't know anyone's opinion of other than Colon vs Hansen. Getting hit over the head with something like the Colon vs Strong barbed wire match is pretty awesome. Watching this set reminded me of driving through the mountains in Utah. Each long bend in the road we had no idea exactly what amazing sight we were going to see with these incredible mountains looming over the highway and then we'd round the bend and say "Oh look, its the most beautiful thing than I've ever seen before." That's how this set was. "Oh Hercules Ayala vs COlon in a fire match, I wonder how this will be HOLY SHIT ITS BEAUTIFUL."

Finished the matches! Man, what a fucking set. I can't wait to see what everyone thinks.

Last match on the set gets an over the top silly review. Steve Strong cut his hair but somehow looks as dumb if not dumber than he did before. This is another really big crowd that is really really hot. If people had ever actually watched this shit and seen these crowds, Carlos would have gone in the WON HOF in 1996 like he was supposed to. There’s just no denying how big a star he was when you watch these matches. Carlos goes right after Strong’s leg with kicks, elbow drops and setting it up in the ropes and jumping on it. Oh fuck they have the RINGS style overhead camera they cut to during the leg work meaning Carlos not only should get credit for influencing Onita & FMW he should get credit for RINGS production style J Colon also goes for the back drop suplex (I realize now that’s what he won the last match with, not a German suplex), but Strong fights away going for the ropes. That’s learned psychology baby. Colon invented All Japan main event style wrestling too apparently. You can especially see that in Strong blowing off the early leg work because not every move actually matters…except seemingly in Puerto Rico where every spot anyone did to anyone was later paid back. AWESOME spot where Strong is selling and goes for his diving shoulder tackle but Colon gets out of the way again leading to Strong bailing out of the ring. Back in and Strong hits some really hard forearms to the chest and a jumping knee in the corner. He misses the 2nd one and Carlos pulls his pants down, because why not, before going back to legwork mixed in with punches and turnbuckle smashes. Steve Strong AGAIN does the Kawada sell of an irish whip just collapsing so Carlos goes back to the leg slamming it into the apron and kicking the crap out of it outside the ring. Great spot with Strong sloooooowly crawling halfway in the ring to break the count and then running as soon as Carlos gets close. I mean he was just inching in there. Colon continues after the knee with strong desperate to get away. HUGE pop as Carlos locks in the figure 4. Strong’s selling of the figure 4 is good. More of the stoic variety. He’s showing pain but not really flopping around like some guys do. Crowd pops huge as Strong attempts to turn it over. This is a really long figure 4 section and both guys leave it selling their legs in a major way. Strong hits some desperation clotheslines but Colon keeps getting up and stalking after Strong. Finally Colon starts getting out of the way of Strong’s big charges and keeps stalking after Strong. They repeat the DDT spot they blew in the last match but this time they nail it giving Strong the advantage. Great overhead camera shot of Strong leg and elbow drops. He blows off the leg selling, but you look at a guy like Steve Strong and don’t really expect him to sell anyway. They brawl outside the ring but that’s Carlos’ territory so he’s able to make his comeback posting Strong several times before we go back in the ring for Carlos’ signature comeback. At one point Carlos headbutts Strong so hard, Strong collapses to his knees and is leaning on the ropes selling as though he were being set up for the 619 which I’m told isn’t a way wrestlers sell so I guess in addition to Triple Crown Main events, RINGS Production, and all of FMW, we can credit this match for setting up the template for the 619. As Strong sets Colon up for a powerbomb or piledriver (it was a piledriver, and a GREAT one), a fan clearly does the “Raise the Roof” hand signal so we can credit this match also for Harlem Heat. This is all nearfalls down the stretch with Strong trying to put away Colon with whatever he can but naturally Colon manages to score the win. The fans immediately surround Carlos hugging him as little kids jump in the ring. Security immeidatley get in to surround Carlos and get him away and this is just a wild fucking scene. This is the perfect way to end this set. It started with Abby bleeding getting stitched up and it ends with Carlos, victorious and celebrating getting mobbed by fans. This wasn’t as good as the barbed wire match, but in many ways was a more impressive match. This was 20+ minutes against Steve Strong in a match with no gimmicks, no Chicky Starr or El Profe at ringside, no blood, no bullshit, and a clean finish and it’s a very good match.

This is JIP with Carlos hitting some headbutts on Strong and the crowd going fucking bonkers. Strong quickly gets the advantage shoving Colon’s head into the barbed wire and hitting Colon with headbutts and forearms. Colon is busted open already. His selling is really good early on too. I love the almost overhead camera angles in this. Way more than the low ringside shots through the wire. I am enjoying this early on so much more than the TNT barbed wire match. Colon’s selling is awesome and is really carrying this early making all of Strong’s basic power stuff like forearms to the back and shoulder blocks look really good. The pop for Colon’s comeback and especially his cartwheel is seriously one of the biggest pops on the entire set. I don’t know if the crowd is mic’d differently for this because on a set full of crazy crowd reactions, this is a truly remarkable reaction to Colon’s big comeback. They blow a DDT in about the worst fashion possible and go right back to it and manage to hit it. But you don’t even care because the crowd is so hot. I’m just about to make fun of Strong’s selling of the double clothesline knockdown spot but when he finally falls, seriously the crowd is so absurdly loud I can’t even make fun of it. You get your standard Carlos leg work where he just stomps and kicks the shit out of the leg over and over again. Strong is pretty awesome selling it actually doing the Kawada collapse on an Irish whip attempt. Carlos is pretty great just trying to get the figure 4 on but struggling because Strong’s legs are so big. Love the desperation shoulder block attempt by Strong that he misses. Colon finally gets the figure 4 onto Strong and I’m concerned by speakers are going to burst but Chicky is there to spray Colon in the eyes with hairspray I assume. Post match brawl with Chicky on the outside and TNT running in is crazy. Fans are throwing chairs and shit ringside. Match gets restarted, Carlos hits probably the worst german suplex ever but with the bright light shining directly in the camera and the crowd you hardly even have time to notice or care. WOW WOW WOW WOW. YOU’RE FUCKING KIDING ME. CARLOS FUCKING COLON! WOW. There is no way this was this good. I am hallucinating or something. NO FUCKING WAY. I fucking loved this. I don’t even really like barbed wire matches and Strong is so obviously an incredibly limited wrestler and this was still an awesome match. WOW. That came out of nowhere.

Abby jumps Strong from behind out in foul territory attacking Strong with a 2x4. Who is this Steve Strong and how did Vince McMahon not hire him? Abby is a beloved babyface here I guess (he’s an asshole, but he’s OUR asshole) because the crowd is loving it wit Abby choking out Strong and kicking his ass all over foul territory. It cannot be said enough how much the crowd and stadiums enhance matches like this. That is something you can count on throughout the set. The buildings are packed and the crowds are insanely hot. Rip Rogers encourages bootlegging tapes on commentary and goads Hugo into saying Terry Funk’s wife is uglier than most dogs, so I’ve turned around on him as a commentator. Strong finally gets in the ring only for Abby to maintain control with crazy headbutts and chops. Abby is freaking awesome in this. Even his selling when its time for Strong to take over is great. Abby gets busted open (big shock) and Strong works over the cut blasting away at Abby with his forearm guard thing. Crowd goes crazy for Abby’s karate chop based hope spots. Really. Steve Strong’s hair. Come on dude. Crowd goes CRAZY when Abby starts reaching for the fork and loves it when Abby stabs him in the throat with it. Abby takes the babyface pounding their chest during the comeback staple by STABBING HIMSELF IN THE FACE WITH THE FORK. YES. Ridiculous. As the double countout occurs, Abby literally stabs Steve Strong in the ass in one of the funniest spots ever. This was shockingly fun. I was expecting to hate these Steve Strong matches at the end of the set. That has not been the case. He’s no Hercules Ayala as a worker (Ayala also has AMAZING hair, Strong has ridiculous hair to just point out one difference) and I don’t yet feel compelled to seek out any Steve Strong matches. But this shit was fun and now I’m looking forward to these last two matches he has with Colon.

I don’t know who Steve Strong looks like or reminds me of but they’re an idiot. I am sure of this. I actually like Strong’s initial reaction to the wire as he almost bumps chest first into it. TNT shows he doesn’t give a fuck by grabbing onto the barbed wire and trying to pull it towards Strong’s face as he pushes Strong’s head towards it with the other hand. Steve Strong might MIGHT have the dumbest hair in wrestling in 1989 and think of the ground that covers. Early on the match is them taking turns trying to shove each other’s face into the wire. Between that they take turns chopping and hitting each other with forearms to weaken each other making it easier to shove the other into the wire. TNT eats the wire first and he is a bloody mess as we cut to commercial. Great spot where Strong whips TNT into the ropes and is expecting TNT to bounce back of course so Strong goes for a jumping shoulder tackle but, because he doesn’t want to hit the barbed wire, TNT never hit the ropes so he doesn’t bounce back so Strong airballs the tackle leading to TNT hitting some huge kicks. Strong’s stumbling around slow bump from the kicks is pretty great actually. Nice rope running spot leads to an insane super kick. This shit was Chris Adams level. I love the counter to the cobra clutch with Strong just forcing TNT into the wire. Finish is insane with Strong basically hot shotting TNT into the wire. That was obscenely dangerous. This picked up after the commercial break and was pretty damn fun from there.

Super Medico! My man! Where the fuck have you been?? Back in my early internet fan days when J-Cups and All Japan Heavies were all the rage, I wouldn’t have given this a shot because of a washed up dude like Rufus R Jones. But now I’m all, sweet, Rufus R Jones! Crowd is super into Rufus. His schticky dancing escape from the side headlock is phenomenal. Faces in control first with arm wringers and quick tags back and forth. This is very toned down from the last match but still super solid if not basic stuff. We go to commercial right as the heels get the advantage on Rufus and he’s still selling as we come back. Battens control Rufus with chinlocks, kicks, punches that sort of thing. Mostly chinlocky though. Hot tag and Super Medico comes in with a great punching barrage and a cross body block on both Battens. All 4 men in the ring but Rufus is able to clear out a Batten with his jumping headbutt as Super Medico hits the classic reverse of a cross body to pick up the win. This was fine. Nothing memorable and real short but nothing bad or anything. Its cool to have a Rufus match in my collection (I don’t think I have one, but I could be wrong) but he’s obviously WAY past his prime here.

Fantastic start with all 4 men brawling around ringside with the crowd going batshit insane. Batten’s must be heels now because they are just getting destroyed to the delight of the crowd. This slows down as the faces get back in the ring and the Battens continue to wander around outside selling. Finally the faces go back outside and continue beating the shit out of the Battens. God this opening brawling section is awesome. The Battens have been fun as babyfaces but this is a blast with them bumping around and begging off. This finally settles down back in the ring a little but the Battens are still getting their butts kicked. The faces are yet another underrated team. All of their matches on this set have been really fun at worst and great at best. Hilarious spot when we come back from commercial with both Battens outside the ring selling and both are clutching El Profe’s feet and he slowly does the tree falling spot because the Battens are attached to his legs. Hilarious shit. I need more El Profe in my life. Profe casually trips Miguel Perez Jr hitting the ropes to give the Battens the momentum finally. The Battens hit a jumping back elbow and then slow the match down with chinlocks, choking, double teams behind the refs back. They’re smart about not being too flashy and focus more on doing evil heel stuff like distracting the ref so the illegal Batten can continue the beatdown on Miguel Perez outside of the ring. Batten 1 hitting Batten 2 with an axehandle off the top rope leads to the hot tag. Castillo hits an awesome jumping knee which is I move I will seemingly always mark out for. Work to the finish is hot with all sorts of Profe shenanigans. This was a fucking blast. I know someone people might look at these tag matches and complain about the faces dominating most of the match with heel teams often getting a relatively small portion of the match to work face in peril segments. But the matches have all been typically good to very good with some great ones sprinkled in and insanely hot crowds bringing everything up a level. So I don’t really mind at all that the Battens didn’t work over Miguel Perez for 10 minutes of this match. I still thought it was a blast.

This starts JIP with Embry in control. Embry is all over Chicky with great punches. Embry takes Chicky’s fucking head off with a lariat and Chicky is fantastic selling it. The crowd is firmly behind Embry. And he is obviously loving it. Both guys are trying to out over the top sell each other and it’s a fucking blast. I’m not sure if I’m emphasized this enough, but Chicky throws an INCREDIBLE punch. He really should have led a Puerto Rican army into to take Memphis away from Lawler. He is just AMAZING going from begging for his life to strutting around like he’s the king within 5 seconds. Embry drops the strap as Chicky begs off giving us a little taste of what Lawler/Chicky would be like. Embry is al over Chicky with punches before planting him with a ddt. Embry makes a big deal about poking Chicky in the eye which is awesome but Chicky manages to win in the most Chicky way ever. I really enjoyed this. It needed 5 more minutes at least.

Rip Rogers. Man. He’s built up such bad will on this set as a commentator. The go right to brawling around ringside with Rogers getting the early advantage using a foreign object and posting TNT. Back in the ring and Rogers keeps on him biting TNT and kicking him in the balls. So obviously TNT is bleeding early. He takes a great bump when Rogers throws him over the top. Great as in crazy. He also takes another insane posting after more brawling around the floor. Jeez TNT. More stabbing with a foreign object by Rogers. God this is just a crazy back and forth brawl on the floor. TNT makes a comeback hitting a great superkick out there and going for a pin because apparently he’s an idiot. Back in the ring and a big chop by TNT from the 2nd rope and he pays Rogers back for earlier and throws Rogers over the top to the floor and kicks him in the balls for good measure. Back in the ring and TNT continues to command the match with chops, kicks and suplexes. Terrific finish. Rogers’ facial expressions towards the end are great. This was really good.

Rufus R Jones is the special ref. Oh and its Invader! So this should be good. We missed you Invader I. Welcome back. This starts off nicely with Invader getting the advantage with a side headlock and working stuff from there. Nice sequence leading to Abuddadein’s backbreaker and now he takes over. But its just a heel hope spot as Invader is able to take back over with his awesome charging offense and goes back to the headlock. We go to commercial right as Abuddadein is countering the headlock with a big backsuplex. We come back from commercial as he hits a neckbreaker. Abuddadein is a bomb throwing machine. He mixes in great heel stuff like chops and putting his pointed boot up in the corner and slamming Invader’s head into it. Invader gets busted open and Abuddadein works it over with more chops and turnbuckle smashes mixed in with more cool bombs. Ok Abuddadein’s pace is starting to annoy me. He is just all over Invader I nonstop not relenting. Everything he does is good but he’s not letting anything breathe at all and for the love of god, Invader might be the best seller in history if you just stand back and let him go. But Abuddadein doesn’t really give him the space to do it. The match is good and fun and I really liked it a lot. But at some point I’m like “dude, let the man sell he’s the best at it.” Invader’s comeback is fun with him working a sleeper to slow this crazy man down before giving up and just doing to Abuddadein what he did to Invader just staying all over him. ENORMOUS pop for the finish. Good match, could have been better if they let it go 5 minutes longer but didn’t add anything except Invader selling inbetween Abuddadein’s spot.

Total slugfest to start with Abuddadein dominating with punches, chops and a clothesline in the corner. They brawl to the floor and that’s Colon’s territory as he takes over. Crowd is super hot as usual so Colon and Abuddadein just running around brawling is awesome and super compelling. Especially the big bodyslam spot because of where that takes place. Abbudadein is busted open early. Back in the ring and Abuddadein takes over and it’s a nice back breaker and a shitty kick. He even plants Carlos with a ddt before pulling out a foreign object and nailing Carlos with it several times to get control. Abuddadein is just killing Colon with every move in the book. Swinging neck breaker, side suplex etc. He goes for the Vader bomb but Colon gets out of the way and makes his usual Carlos comeback which the fans are still going nuts for all these years later. This is ANOTHER surprisingly good Colon match. Jeez. At some point I’ll stop being surprised.