Tim Cooke

No, the double shot was Ok City/Tulsa. The Houston match that aired was 7/6/84 (which was also on the DVDVR Mid South set)

I think his matches with Fujiwara were in the upper echelon for UWF 1.0. Kicker versus Wrestler, almost like a worked version of the original UFC.

So now we just need the 12/83 MX vs. Poffo/Rood and we will have the first five MX matches in Houston. Bracero/Poffo match had more heat before the bell than most modern day matches. Bracero and Poffo worked as enhancement talent, with just enough offense to keep the crowd with them. Poffo and his flying along with Bracero, the 50's-60's French stuff we have, dismantles the argument that 2015 and every year forward are the most athletic times in pro wrestling history.

I love big bombs. Misawa/Kawada from July 1995 and Misawa/Kobashi from October 1998 (and even their March 2003 match) are big bomb matches that get excellent crowd responses. Maybe the 2015 standard for heat is just much less than it has been in the past

www.mediafire.com/download.php?yq17lhafshlw5tj via Ditch

He certainly took a spin bump as good as any wrestler.

I'm not voting for him but the two Memphis RnR Express matches are really good and Poffo is a big reason, with his flying that was definitely state of the art in the US at the time and his stooging, When I saw those 15 years ago, I looked for more Poffo footage and his WWF run is just not very good. Still hoping NWAClassics delivers on the MX vs. Poffo/Bracero matches as I think those could be hidden gems, especially from Poffo's end.

Rey Jr., Juventud, and others incorporated Japanese spots into their matches in the mid 90's. But it was really the Shocker/Ultimo Guerrero era where you saw some very stiff work and a lot of Japanese influence. But that occurs with any style, outside of maybe worked shoots.

Ordered mine last night. DVD put it over the top but Cornette's books have been really good regardless (MX Scrapbook being awesome).

There is a Shocker/Ultimo Guerrero singles match from sometime in 2002-2003 (can't remember date off the top of my head) that has a lot of arm work as well. The 4/5/97 CMLL minis tag also has some of the more sustained arm work that I've seen in lucha (in addition to being an amazing match).

The guy who taped this was Steve Friedlander. He was a HUGE tape trader back in the day and still has one of, if not the biggest, tape collections in the world. No idea who his friend was but you are right, they were both snarky and I can easily see that distracting from the match.

Looks like this is 4/6/84 and not 4/15/84. This was on the DVDVR set but nice to have a quality upgrade

The first Foley match is good but I'm not sure HIAC holds up. The Taka match is a myth in that it's nothing special at all, especially for Taka matches. Patterson/Briscoe did a much better job with the Mean Street Posse a year earlier in terms of carry jobs.

Arn and Porky could work comedy spots until they are blue in the face (including the Porky fake heart attack spot)

That's an interesting take

Lack of scoring system on screen is valid issue. Most PWFG was post produced since they didn't have TV (Commercial Tapes) so it's not like they couldn't have added that in.

Bill and Dylan - what are the personal issues you guys mention in your posts?

1999 was a pretty good year for quality fights. With MMA still in its infancy, 1999 had a lot of high quality fights between big name fighters at the time. The emergence of Frank Shamrock as a top lightweight at the time, along with Kazushi Sakuraba, set the stage for an interesting LHW division worldwide. Shooto continued to produce excellent fights from the smaller weight classes and RINGS went from a mix of works and shoots to all shoots by the end of the year. Rumina Sato vs. Charles Taylor (1/15/99 – Shooto) - For my money, the best finish in MMA history. Tsuyoshi Kohsaka vs. Gilbert Yvel (4/23/99 – RINGS) - Classic Striker versus Wrestler that is lost in today’s cross trained sport. Yvel was at one time thought to be at the level of Vanderlei Silva. Kiyoshi Tamura vs. Frank Shamrock (4/23/99 – RINGS) - A dream match that delivers on being a really good fight within the rules of RINGS. Kazushi Sakuraba vs. Vitor Belfort (4/29/99 – PRIDE) - Sakuraba destroys Belfort and begins creating his MMA move set with a double stomp and a cartwheel to pass the guard. Caol Uno vs. Rumina Sato (5/29/99 – Shooto) - The best fight of 1999 and one of my top 5 fights of all time. Almost 15 minutes of non-stop, state of the art MMA from two of the pioneers. Carlos Newton vs. Daijiro Matsui (7/4/99 – PRIDE) - If a good fight is determined by effort, these two win the prize for 1999. Newton is always good on the ground and Matsui, while a journeyman, is always up for a challenge. Kazushi Sakuraba vs. Ebenezer Fontes Braga (7/4/99 – PRIDE) - Sakuraba continues his ascent to the top of the LHW with a win over a quality fighter who had several wins under his belt, including Masakatsu Funaki in 1998. BJJ vs. Japanese Pro Wrestling storyline continues to evolve. Frank Shamrock vs. Tito Ortiz (9/24/99 – UFC) - The best UFC fight of 1999 with the added value of having a storied history of issues between the two fighters and their respective camps. Kazushi Sakuraba vs. Royler Gracie (11/21/99 – PRIDE) - The Gracies vs. Sakuraba feud begins. If you like Sakuraba, you will like this fight. Rumina Sato vs. Phil Johns (10/29/99 – Shooto) Rumina Sato vs. Rafael Cordero (12/11/99 – Japan Vale Tudo Open) - Two more fights with two big time finishes from Sato who closes out what is arguably his best year of top level fighting.

Georgia Dome July 1998 was 36,506 paid for $906,330. Meltzer says with the configuration they had set up, there were actually 41,412 and about a 100 people were turned away.

Going to try to do this five days a week for the next couple of months. Today's tidbit: Here is a little known tidbit from the fall of 1998. Beginning with Nitro on September 7, Arn Anderson was in the highest rated segment six consecutive shows in a row covering: Nitro 9/7 Thunder 9/10 Nitro 9/14 Thunder 9/17 Nitro 9/21 Thunder 9/24 The 9/10 Thunder rating was particularly interesting since it was for a segment that replayed the Nitro reformation and an arm wrestling angle between Anderson and Eric Bischoff with the stipulation being if Anderson won, Flair would be reinstated and if Bischoff won, he wouldn’t be back with WCW. Bischoff “won” the arm wrestling match, playing off the storyline of Arn’s left hand still being messed up from his spinal issues, which lead to him retiring as a wrestler in August 1997. As WCW continued to book Flair and the Horsemen so poorly, especially after failing to follow up on the dynamic return on Nitro, the ratings streak was over fairly quickly. Flair would give WCW another quarter hour win on the December 21 Nitro from St. Louis but he was already damaged goods by that point, almost entirely from the terrible booking that occurred throughout the ranks in WCW in 1998 and into 1999. WCW drew its three biggest gates ever on December 7 at the Astrodome (31,460 paid; $755,995 with $257,339 on merchandise alone), which set the state of Texas pro wrestling record at the time; December 21 at the TWA Dome in St. Louis (28,959 paid; $914,385) and at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta on January 4, 1999 (34,788 paid; $930,735). These big gates were signs that WCW still had life. But with so many people attending and watching these shows, the atrocious booking would wreck any positive impressions and kill subsequent returns to these cities and many others throughout 1999 into late 2000.

Looks like a new Baba vs. Destroyer match https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RCAlbgiCcB8

Brazo de Oro vs. Pirata Morgan from November 1989 may not be for a title (don't remember) but it is worked title style. The Santo/Espanto Jr. match from 5/92 is a terrific title match, as is their 4/88 match.

Going through the Cornette Scrapbook to see the full MX Houston run: 12/30/83 vs. Rood/Poffo 1/13/84 vs. Poffo/Bracero 1/27/84 vs. II/TA (RELEASED) 2/10/84 vs. II/TA (DVDVR MS Set) 2/24/84 vs. II/TA (RELEASED) 3/9/84 vs. II/TA 3/23/84 vs Bracero/Hector Guerrero 4/6/84 vs. Dundee/Chop (DVDVR MS Set) 5/11/84 vs. RnR Express 6/8/84 trios (RELEASED) 6/22/84 vs. RnR (JC tied to Steve Williams) 7/6/84 vs. RnR (JC in cage) 7/20/84 trios (RELEASED) 8/2/84 OFF 8/17/84 OFF 8/31/84 vs. Fantastics (RELEASED) 9/9/84 vs. Fantastics 9/28/84 vs. Fantastics 10/12/84 vs. Fantastics 10/26/84 vs. Master G/Brickhouse Brown 11/23/84 vs. RnR [scaffold] (DVDVR MS Set?) 4/7/85 4 Way Elimination Match: The Rock n Roll Express vs. The Dirty White Boys, The Fabulous Freebirds, The Midnight Express I think I have everything straight but please let me know if there are any omissions/matches that have/have not been released. Edit: Added in matches from below

I saw the ones from 91-93 that was in puropotsy piece on PTBN. For some reason, a lot of shoot style stuff has vanished from the media sites in the last few weeks. RINGS went after anyone with their stuff on YT so my guess is it will be gone for a while. PM me if you need something specific

1/7/97 vs Cicloncito Ramirez 4/5/97 w Pierrothito vs Cicloncito/Ultimo Dragoncito Those are far and away his best two matches as a mini