ohtani's jacket

Hennig is never a guy I'd go into bat for, but I think he has enough highs in his Portland, AWA and WWF work to justify being this high. I'm not a territories first kind of guy, but one of the added benefits of that is that I don't care that his career petered out or he failed to deliver on his early promise and can just enjoy a good Curt Hennig match without any of that baggage. I fucking love the Hammer. I mean I really love the Hammer. While people are reflecting on Flair and Funk, I'd sooner spend my time thinking about the Hammer. Remember that old Shirley Doe story about Valentine? The one where they they had been drinking all night and Valentine suddenly asks Doe, “What’s this BattlArts shit all about, anyway?” How can you not love the Hammer? I know a lot of people like Buddy Landel's real Nature Boy act, but to me the real Nature Boy was always Greg Valentine with the same robes, the same hair style and the same bumps. He just wrestled a little bit more like his father and you won't find many who think that's a bad thing. I'm a huge fan of his stuff from the late 70s through to around '85 but will watch any of his random shit from '86 onward. If that's not love and dedication, I don't know what is. Valentine dropped the elbow on the rest of this list.

The first bit of tag wrestling I saw from Schmidt was pretty awful. I wasn't sure whether it was because of the era or if it was just a bad match. Then I watched a super fun tag match with Pat O'Connor and Bob Konovsky against Schmidt and Angelo Poffo. Lots of great shtick between Poffo and Schmidt with O'Connor right there ready and willing to scrap. A shitload of fun.

Man, if you search for Inoki in Japanese, YouTube becomes the Random Inoki Match Generator. Wanna see Inoki vs. Brute Bernard (you don't), search in kanji. Inoki vs. Murdoch from '71 was disappointing. Dickie was a solid mat worker but not a great one, and they spent a long time working the same body part. But it was the layout of the falls that made it subpar. Really lame booking to end the second fall. Took a lot of the shine off the bout. Murdoch had some nice touches in the third fall as he became exasperated and tried to cheat but even that made the bout uneven as he'd worked so cleanly up until that point. That was a common trope with foreign heels where they'd flip out in the final fall, but the better matches have the heel sow the seeds much earlier.

So it turns out that the 8/95 Aja/Kansai match is still their best. It trims most of the dead time and is built almost exclusively around strikes and selling, which is what you want from this pair. Aja puts in a tremendous performance and does a brilliant job of selling down the stretch as her title reign begins to wilt. More of a great Aja performance than a Kansai one, but a good bout for people looking to get into Joshi. A lot of the sequences are based on things they tried in their previous bouts but it's still accessible as a slugfest and the bomb throwing is kept to a minimum. It's too bad the Matsunagas didn't have a clue what they wanted to do with the big red belt after building to this high point.

Finally I watched the right Kansai vs. Kong match, and I'm not talking about their 1995 bout. The 5/94 match is the closest thing I've seen to a perfect Kong vs. Kansai bout thus far. Even I'm rolling my eyes as I type this like "sure, the match everybody forgets they had is their best, Daniel," but bear with me. The first 15 minutes sees Kong dominate Kansai and cut off every single comeback she makes. There's some typical Joshi resthold work, but Kong tries to keep it short and pick things up again. Kansai digs a little deeper and starts making her run, and the finishing stretch is full of shit I'd long forgotten about and got a legit reaction out of me. I love biting on near falls. Being the cynical jackass I am it doesn't happen that often, but man was I into this. The finishing stretch went back and forth the way all dramatic bouts should, and even though in the back of mind I knew who won this a combination of not remembering how it panned out and half thinking it was 1994 all over again and happening in real time had me hooked. Fun bout.

So it turns out that the 8/95 Aja/Kansai match is still their best. It trims most of the dead time and is built almost exclusively around strikes and selling, which is what you want from this pair. Aja puts in a tremendous performance and does a brilliant job of selling down the stretch as her title reign begins to wilt. More of a great Aja performance than a Kansai one, but a good bout for people looking to get into Joshi. A lot of the sequences are based on things they tried in their previous bouts but it's still accessible as a slugfest and the bomb throwing is kept to a minimum. It's too bad the Matsunagas didn't have a clue what they wanted to do with the big red belt after building to this high point.

Fujiwara's dazed no-selling in the corner makes Takada's leglock the equivalent of A Love Supreme. (I totally feel like I'm in the insult contest of Monkey Island now. ) Why are we comparing Fujiwara's poetry to the most useless invention known to man? The Takada leglock, it's like a pair of splintered chopsticks

Fujiwara's headbutt is the Sistine Chapel compared to Takada's leglock. Takada's leglock is the Rick Rude resthold of signature holds.

Rey's 619 isn't half as bad as Takada's leglock. At least it's over in a few seconds.

I would put Jumbo, Misawa, Kawada and Kobashi comfortably ahead of Hansen. Tenryu, Hansen and Taue would be on the next level then Robinson, the Funks, The Destroyer, Baba, Steve Williams and Akiyama. I don't think Hansen's work in the 80s is good enough for him to be the number one pick. Lots of mediocre tag work and disappointing matches with Jumbo and Tenryu.

I agree with you, but different workers are at different stages. Looking at the list right now, I bet more people can point out the shortcomings in Curt Hennig than Jim Breaks and that's basically because people have been taking about Hennig for longer than they have Breaks. Reading the arguments that folks have, and taking a side, is kind of an unspoken aspect of smarkdom, but it plays a huge role in how workers are perceived. In the case of Breaks, nobody is arguing about him.

People have a hard time scrutinizing the workers they like. The only reason that Flair gets more scrutiny than others is because people have gone off him. It's easier to scrutinize something you don't really like or you're tired of. With a worker like Satanico most people are still discovering him. People haven't gotten tired of him because there's still a lot to see. A handful of people mentioned that they had a hard time getting into him as opposed to other lucha rudos, but they didn't really elaborate on why, perhaps in fear of a full blown argument. Really, unless you find a Devil's Advocate for each of these guys it's difficult to have a discourse that even approaches the discussions people had about Flair.

Man, after giving Owen, Dundee and Breaks some thought it's hard to get excited about this top 10.

I was surprised Joe finished this high given the wasteland that is TNA. I guess people really like Samoa Joe. That inspires me to put him on my playlist going forward. A childhood favourite of mine. The number of times my buddies and I imitated Owen was insane. Lines from his promos or television commentary would creep into daily conversation and anything remotely heelish would get the full Owen treatment. This was in the days before memes, but it was basically the same thing. And I think that's a testament to the fun, twisted, but incredibly consistent logic that Owen brought to his heel turn. It was a heel turn that lasted for years not weeks or months, and like all good villains, Owen believed that he was the hero. Even when he reunited with Bret, he still believed he'd been right all long. For my money one of the great wrestling characters. I actually credit him with getting me back into wrestling after a long lay-off between 1991 and 1995. It was the Bret/Owen feud that really sparked my interest in wrestling again and I never looked back after that. If Owen hadn't captured my imagination I probably wouldn't be here today (blame Owen folks.) The line on Owen used to be that he was better before the knee injury, or whatever it was, that robbed him of his athleticism, but I don't like his early stuff at all. I don't know if it's directly attributable to Owen or not, but I once read an interview where he talked about not liking the "Mexican style" because of how flippy it is and shit (and I think Bret has said similar things.) If you watch Owen's early stuff it's the flippiest shit out. It's some of the most dated late 80s-early 90s stuff around. But as soon as he becomes the Rocket, gold. With this guy I don't even care about the matches. The matches are just gravy. I could watch Bill Dundee do nothing but talk all day long. Promos, vignettes, interrupting other people's matches, you name it. Another of the great wrestling characters. He's one of those guys where it's hard to draw a line between where the real Bill Dundee ends and the character begins. An incredibly energetic guy. Tireless self-promoter. Complete motormouth who could talk a guy's ear off and fire off comeback after comeback. Oh, and he wrestled too. Love Bill Dundee. Holy shit, Owen, Bill Dundee and Jim Breaks all in a row? Like brothers in arms. Could you imagine the arguments those three could get into? Or how much fun it would be to watch them all pile on Lance Russell or Kent Walton? 56 was an okay finish for Breaks. During the voting period it dawned on me that it's still early days when it comes to Breaks. A lot of people have seen his stuff on YouTube, but we're not at the stage yet where people can compare his early, more athletic work to his older, more heavily shtick based stuff. I'm not sure whether people could say with much certainty which Breaks they prefer, his work against other top lightweights or his carry jobs of teenagers. Whether they prefer slightly serious Breaks or full on comedy; technical bouts or playing to the gallery. You don't see any discussions about which of the Young David trilogy is the best, or any sort of analysis of post-prime Breaks. None of the stuff you see with the serious candidates. Not that many people wade into the Breaks vs. Grey argument either. Breaks remains that funny little British guy in the bumblebee tights who whines a lot and hates being called crybaby. I remember Ditch once saying if you've seen one Breaks match, you've seen them all. I've seen them all and can comfortably say folks haven't scratched the surface of what Jim Breaks is all about and until that happens 56 is about as far as he can go.

I'm sure if we apply auteur theory to Strongbow vs. Fuji everything will come up roses.

Maybe the Ass Splitters, but that may require me to crawl back underground. I'm sorry, but Taue you're old hat. If somebody can pull a revisionist twist on Chief Jay Stringbow you'll step up and get my attention.

Taue revisionism predates this board by a fair number of years. There may be posters here who came to Taue late and thought they'd split the atom, but there's nothing folks can possibly say about Taue that hasn't been said before. If someone had had a new idea about Taue during this project I would have spat on my drink and fallen ass over backward.

Finally I watched the right Kansai vs. Kong match, and I'm not talking about their 1995 bout. The 5/94 match is the closest thing I've seen to a perfect Kong vs. Kansai bout thus far. Even I'm rolling my eyes as I type this like "sure, the match everybody forgets they had is their best, Daniel," but bear with me. The first 15 minutes sees Kong dominate Kansai and cut off every single comeback she makes. There's some typical Joshi resthold work, but Kong tries to keep it short and pick things up again. Kansai digs a little deeper and starts making her run, and the finishing stretch is full of shit I'd long forgotten about and got a legit reaction out of me. I love biting on near falls. Being the cynical jackass I am it doesn't happen that often, but man was I into this. The finishing stretch went back and forth the way all dramatic bouts should, and even though in the back of mind I knew who won this a combination of not remembering how it panned out and half thinking it was 1994 all over again and happening in real time had me hooked. Fun bout.

The shoot style master. If shoot style were a wuxia film then Tamura would be like the main protagonist: young, bold, impetuous, full of passion, fire and emotion. Volk would be the wise old master. The one who's more at peace with himself and has a deeper understanding of his art. And the one who conceals it behind a trickster's guise and adds comic value to the piece. But above all, the one who can really kick some fucking ass when the situation absolutely calls for it. I don't think anybody worked shoot style finishes better than Volk. I still get a shiver done the spine thinking of that finish to the '95 Yamamoto fight and wanna go blast his theme music every time I do. But the best thing about Volk Han is that there's only ever been one Volk Han and only ever will be. What a legend.

Inoki vs. Superstar Billy Graham was pretty awful, but it was amusing how the more Graham sucked, the harder Inoki worked to make him seem like a threat. Worked harder than against Dusty, Patera and Masked Superstar combined. Also, you never really hear much about it, but the angle where the IWE guys were jumping Inoki and cutting his hair is a strange bit of booking. Apparently, it led to a Rusher Kimura vs. Inoki hair match, which seems surreal to me.

Well, the Big Egg match pretty much sucked. Dome Show matches usually do, but this was Kansai and Kong going through their shit in the least imaginable way possible. It took forever tor them to start throwing bombs, and when they finally did, they threw too many. The only cool bits involved Aja's uraken and Kansai's kicks. They should have built a match around strikes and selling instead of trying to condense an entire 25 minute match into half that time. Kansai sold fairly well but in terms of the total package of putting a match together this was pretty much her at her worst, and Kong was overrated as usual.

Tap out early like I did because the exact same thing is gonna happen in 2026.

Clearly one of the best talents of the 90s. I'm not as high on his early work as elliot and others are but that's mainly due to the promotion he worked for. And I still maintain that the turning point in his career came when Tamura and Sakuraba put together a series of matches that was closer in look and feel to what was happening in Japanese MMA than the sports entertainment version of shoot style his promotion peddled. From all accounts, the pro-wrestling world came pretty close to losing him to MMA but fortunately he went to RINGS and eventually produced some of the most exquisite worked shoots known to man. For all that, he was never better than Volk Han. That would be like arguing that Funaki was better than Fujiwara because he was more athletic and had a better body. No. There's been two geniuses in shoot style. One of them was Yoshiaki Fujiwara and the other was Volk Han. Still an exemplary worker, though. I was surprised she did this well. I guess people remember her for her look, but she was a versatile worker who was good for pretty much her entire career. She was good as a rookie, good as a midcard heel and good as the girl on top who took over during the most difficult transitional period in the company's history. She carried the young 90s stars when they were still greener than green tea then stepped aside and let Kong take the spotlight during the biggest boom period of her prime. And that was in spite of being the senior talent and in many ways the spiritual leader of the promotion. But she travelled and took the opportunity to do things she'd wanted to. And when it came time to retire she did so without fanfare or a send off of any kind. Really a girl who rocked to the beat of her own drum.

I think I tolerated the feeling out process in the Kong/Kansai 8/93 match more than I would have in the past. I can't say I enjoyed it, but I was able to step outside of that and see what they were aiming for. It helps that I was eating, drinking and listening to a Feelies album at the same time, and if I'm honest with myself my priorities at the time were probably eating, drinking, listening to the album and then watching the match, but the match was all right. Aja is never going to be a worker who appeals to me, but I like her in big match settings. This was their first singles match together and it showed with some moments of awkwardness, but it half delivered on what you'd want from Aja vs. Kansai and was pretty good for a first try.

I think I tolerated the feeling out process in the Kong/Kansai 8/93 match more than I would have in the past. I can't say I enjoyed it, but I was able to step outside of that and see what they were aiming for. It helps that I was eating, drinking and listening to a Feelies album at the same time, and if I'm honest with myself my priorities at the time were probably eating, drinking, listening to the album and then watching the match, but the match was all right. Aja is never going to be a worker who appeals to me, but I like her in big match settings. This was their first singles match together and it showed with some moments of awkwardness, but it half delivered on what you'd want from Aja vs. Kansai and was pretty good for a first try.