ohtani's jacket

Eddie Guerrero defends the WWE Heavyweight Title I'm surprised that this doesn't have a thread yet. Great match, and a great feud. Easily the best feud of the year to date. It's mindboggling that this feud didn't crack the top 10 for the Observer Awards. I guess the Observer voters had a hard time accepting JBL in his new role despite the fact that he's amazing at it. Perhaps there was some resentment toward Eddie dropping the belt to Bradshaw. Whatever the case, this has stood the test of time as one of the great feuds in WWE history. The bullrope match isn't exponentially better than the Judgement Day bout. They work better as a one two punch than viewing one as better than the other. Judgement Day is more of a straight brawl whereas the bullrope match is built around the gimmick. The highlights are JBL's bladejob and Eddie's table bumps. Eddie continues to prove that he's arrived in the WWE after those difficult early years, and manages to sell a pretty convoluted finish like he blew it. I'd hate the finish under most circumstances, but Eddie's acting was top notch. Should have been feud of the year.

Today sucks already.

I finished Terry Moore's Strangers in Paradise (and amazingly managed to do spoiler free.) Despite the fact that I hated a lot of the prose text and song lyrics, completely skipped the Molly and Poo stuff, disliked many of the plot turns, and even some of the characters, and wasn't 100% satisfied with the final issue, it was still a hell of a journey with two incredible central characters. There was one issue during the final stretch that was so amazingly well told that it had me in tears. Moore poured 14 years of his life into SIP, which is impressive given how so many creator owned series wind up abandoned and left to collect dust. Thanks for the ride, Terry!

So, we've seen Eddie vs JBL, and Benoit vs Kane, and now we get KENTA vs Takayama. Unlike American wrestling, the Japanese are under no illusion that the smaller guy is going to beat the bigger guy. What matters here is how much KENTA can withstand and how much heart and fighting spirit he shows. That means more to the crowd than the result. The fact that we get to see some awesome strikes along the way is gravy. Those knee lifts at the end were brutal. It wasn't as great as the JBL vs Eddie theatrics, but they were going for something a little more standard and as a random match-up it was more than solid.

Chris Benoit defends the WWE World Heavyweight Title So after a couple of months of Benoit vs. Evolution, and Benoit vs. Michaels, we get Kane as the number one contender. Still, if Eddie can turn his matchup with JBL into one of the feuds of the year then surely Benoit can do something with Kane. There's a surprisingly strong wrestling focus to this match. Instead of brawling like Eddie and JBL did, the match is built around the fact that Kane had powered out of the Crippler Crossface on RAW and that he was too strong for Benoit to submit. Benoit channeled his performance against Sid in WCW, and classic Bret Hart performances against big men. He tried to take Kane's legs from under him to set up the Sharpshooter, and so on and so forth. Kane used his strength to focus on Benoit's surgically repaired neck. It was decent stuff, but they couldn't quite put it over like Eddie and JBL, who managed to produce magic. The commentary was decent, and I enjoyed a few of the digs Lawler took at JR,. Lawler was trying to sell some kind of promo Kane had cut about wanting to step out of the shadows and have his moment in the sun. I don't know who booked the finish, but it was straight out of Bret Hart's playbook. Kane had a weird reaction where he cried. The match was devoid of dramatic nearfalls, and needed extra intensity and better selling from both men, but it was better than a Benoit vs. Kane match sounds in theory. It just wasn't great.

This was an exciting shot of adrenaline. It was careening to a DQ finish where Tarzan Boy injured Perro Jr, but there was a lot to enjoy in the time they were given. Shocker reignited his rivalries with both Tarzan Boy and Vampiro and finally looked like his old self, and the Casas vs Pierroth strike exchanges ruled and made me wish those two had some kind of minimalistic house show match somewhere where they just continuously slapped each other. It was over too quickly, but fun while it lasted.

Because you wanted to see it again, it's Canek vs Wagner. It's actually kind of cool. I know Canek doesn't have a great reputation, but I dug his rough and tumble style here, and it was freaky seeing how much bigger he was than all of these middleweights. Satanico vs. the Infernales has revived my interest in Satanico, and who better to bring to this sort of fight than a fired up Atlantis? I was settling in for a fun one when it ended. Okay. Thanks.

It's so weird to me that Dr. Wagner and Canek are having a match against each other in CMLL in 2004. I can't be bothered looking up the ins and outs of it, so I'll just say it's weird and leave it at that. I can't imagine that there's anyone, anywhere on the internet, who's interested in watching Wagner wrestle Canek in 2004, but I'll give you a short write up. It's a typically short, mano-a-mano match from this era that would have been better in the 80s but is truncated in the 00s. Wagner has the potential to be one of the best wrestlers in the world in the early 00s, but rarely delivers. I really dug the second fall, especially the way Canek put Wagner away, and I was into the tercera as well until they ran a WWE finish where Dr. Wagner Sr hobbled to the ring with a cane and distracted Canek so that Wagner could shatter a glass plaque over Canek's head. Sports entertainment lucha isn't really my bag, and to make matters worse, Canek had no idea how to time the spot. Can't say I blame him really since it was never really a thing in his day. Canek was stretchered off, which I guess is the lucha solution for everything. My main takeaway from this was how good Canek's deadlift spots looked.

Thanks, guys!

Anybody got match recommendations (with dates)? I've been thoroughly digging the Bruno and Dusty matches.

You'd struggle to make a shortlist of people who've had a better career match than Thesz vs Gagne, and we don't even know if that was Thesz' best match., It's simply the best match we have on tape.

All of the momentum is with RAW, and then we get this match for the ages. I've got to give Bradshaw a ton of credit here. The whole J.R. Ewing, Million Dollar Man gimmick could have fallen flat on its face, and completely derailed Eddie's title run, but Bradshaw made the entire thing work. In fact, he was such a good talker than this feud went from "WTF, Eddie is feuding with Bradshaw?" to a legit feud of the year contender. It wasn't just his Trump-like promos about Mexicans, either. I really liked the way he kayfabed the gimmick change )and heel turn, presumably.) Great promo package. Herlinda's heart attack was a little dicey, but hell, the entire feud was about as anti-PC as it got in 2004. The best thing about the match, aside from the fact that it's an amazing brawl, is that the payoff to the promo package. The WWE is at its best when they deliver a payoff. Bradshaw backed it up in the ring too. It's no surprise that Vince, and/or his leeches, wanted to see Eddie wrestle a big man. This was some great big man/small man stuff amongst the blood and carnage, and while I'm sure the road agent played a large part in laying out the match, JBL was old-school enough to make it work. Eddie was phenomenal. His selling was incredible, and his gusher reminded me of Hokuto in the Dreamslam match. I don't know what made Vince change his mind about blood, but the workers are blading like there's no tomorrow. I guess they figure he's likely to change his mind at any moment. Somehow we get a payoff to the pre-match hype and a screwy finish that allows the feud to continue and nobody feels short changed. This was extremely well-booked. Eddie inches ahead in the race for WOTY.

Best tweener -- either Bret Hart or Liger

I'm only up to May in my 2004 viewing, but Kobashi, Eddie and Meiko are the workers on my radar. Benoit and Styles round out my top five. The best worker in Mexico is probably Ultimo Guerrero, though Santo and Blue Panther are looming on the horizon.

Excellent midcard action. This wound up being a very good show by CMLL. Easily the best show they've ran in 2004 so far. Forget about the rabid wolverine, Violencia is sporting the best Wolverine outfit possible in this bout (though I was never a big fan of the yellow outfit having growing up on the brown one), and his facial hair is phenomenal. In my ignorance, I didn't even know he'd unmasked. In my defense, they lost me with that endless Boricuas feud. But that's besides the point. This is what happens when you give six good workers a decent amount of time and you don't edit the match. Now, if I can only find the main event.

Kikuchi came into this match with his shoulder heavily taped. You'd think that would be like a red flag to a bull with Liger, but they actually beat the shit out of each other for a while before Liger snapped and went after Kikuchi's shoulder. Great selling, as you'd expect from Kikuchi. Great heel work, as you'd expect from Liger. Seriously, aside from maybe Bret Hart, has there even been a better tweener than Liger? I don't love this feud like a lot of people do, but even I enjoyed this. Get on it, if you haven't already.

Christopher Daniels is a guy I should probably watch more of (along with Chris Hero and Steve Corino) as he was a pretty decent worker for this era. A little indy-rrific at times, but hard-working and genuine. This was a long indy match, which is something I was actively seeking as ROH hasn't been putting on the same blockbusters as they did in their first year. It was a hard fought match. A little cute at times, but that has a lot to do with the trappings of the style and something you just have to accept. Despite the fact they went long, I was keen to see more.

This didn't have quite the same intensity as some of the Satanico vs. Averno matches we've seen, however I can safely say that Satanico is having a better year than 2003 and the Averno feud is a big part of that. Bestia was awesome, as always, and for the briefest of moments we got Satanico vs. Bestia, which was a mark out moment for me. Most notably, we got a lively performance from Felino, who was bubbling about being cheerful.

Another RAW, another quality match. This Evolution era stuff doesn't get enough praise. It's not at the WCW Dangerous Alliance level, but it's producing consistently good matches week in, week out, without cutting anyone off at the knees. Benoit's title reign continues to be a thousand times better than I thought it was. There's a storm on the horizon, as I think Kane is about to become the number one contender, but so far, Benoit's run has been one of the highlights of the year (in a year I thought would be all about Eddie.) It's interesting how a few guys jumping from Smackdown to RAW has revitalized the flagship show. I also liked the dynamic that Orton brought to this match, especially his youthful and exuberant bumping and selling. Benoit vs. Orton has a done of potential, and even Edge vs. Orton looked compelling at this time

This was a pretty average Homicide vs. Joe match. Joe didn't dominate Homicide offensively in the way that we know he can, and I didn't care for Homicide busting Joe open with a fork. It surprises me that so many people thought ROH was better than the WWE in 2004.

I finished Matt Fraction's Hawkeye. It wasn't really a series I loved as I was reading it issue by issue, but it all came together in the end, and I thought the ending was cool. I can understand why it was well-received as the storytelling is completely different from a typical Marvel book, and Aja's art is stylish and chic. I really liked the character of Kate Bishop. I'm not sure if other writers can write her the way Fraction does, but she was the most memorable thing about the series, to me, and had the best lines.

Gibson was a perfectly good singles match worker. There's a 1990 match against Flair where he busts out the Gibson leglock and a bunch of other cool shit with JR and Solie on commentary. Definitely agree that he was more than just Rocky Morton's tag partner.

The Backlund match from '79 is an excellent match even if the Sheik can't show off his full wrestling prowess since he's a heel. Interesting proto-WWE finishing stretch with both men using a chair sans any sort of ref bump or knock out blow. Backlund using an atomic drop as a finisher is so great, especially the height he gets on it. Huge ovation for Bob too. Vince on solo commentary duty is as good as ever. He's frigging Howard Cosell compared to the coke years.

I had a blast watching the Chicky Starr vs Invader I hair vs. retirement match, but my biggest takeaway is that it was so cool that it was Invader who cut his hair afterward. That should happen in every hair match. Invader even went after Chicky's chest hair and moustache,.

I've got a lot of time for Dick Slater, but I don't think he's charismatic enough to make a top 100. His heyday was in Florida where he was a proper star. In most of his 80s footage, he's a journeyman. He is a bit of a poor man's Terry Funk at times, but if you're gonna ape anyone then Funk's not a bad choice.