Tim Cooke
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Kanehara --- > Shibata --- > Dave Meltzer Two guys that Dave Meltzer loves but I could do without and be just fine. By January 1999, even Volk Han matches were trying to be more realistic, to fit with the legit shoots of RINGS and the increasing “realness” of the works. For Tsuyoshi Kohsaka, Kiyoshi Tamura, and even Yoshihisa Yamamoto, this isn’t a problem, but for a guy with as many awesome mat high spots as Han, it can create a quality drop, especially considering the high quality output from 1995-1998. In the early to mid-90’s, Han was able to take almost all the Japanese, most Russians, and some European kickboxers and produce their career match. But as Han’s age kept creeping towards 40 and RINGS continued their slow evolution from all works to no works, something had to give. This match is an example of something giving. It certainly isn’t bad. But it also isn’t great. This is disappointing since I’m not sure there has been another wrestler in history who produced such high quality almost every time out. Volk Han – meet Barry Bonds. They aren’t able to go through a lot of points, something Han specialized at doing extremely well and very logically within the psychology of the RINGS style. Kanehara is okay on the mat and is a decent striker, but it was very clear Han was guiding him through anything that wasn’t elementary. Kanehara has a chance to redeem himself in March when he goes against Tamura in a match that I am fairly certain I have never seen (“if you haven’t heard it, it’s new to you, if you have, shut up and listen anyway” as the Don and Mike sweeper says). But this and the two Sakuraba matches from Kingdom tell me it will be a solid, if completely unspectacular match. Edit: Also agree with Loss on the top down camera. It's excellent and really helped give the mat work another perspective.
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I love southern tag team matches. Midnight Express vs. Fantastics from the first Clash of the Champions. Rock n Roll Express vs. Midnight Express from Jim Cornette’s recently released MX Rarities set. Arn/Zybisko vs. Dustin/Steamboat from the November 1991 Clash. Windham/Dustin vs. Austin/Zybisko from Superbrawl 1992. Andersons vs. Rock n Roll Express from NWA TV during the Great American Bash 1986 tour. I could go on and on. I’d always liked the Serial Thrillaz vs. Death and Destruction match from OMEGA in May 1998. The heat for the Serial Thrillaz in their hometown is great. On December 5, 1998, the Thrillaz and Hardy Boys have a match, with the Thrillaz working heel as OMEGA was running the Hardy’s home town. It was a solid match and well above all non-OMEGA 1998 indy matches. But something was missing. I couldn’t put my finger on it until finally re-watching the 1/29/99 Serial Thrillaz vs. Hardy Boys match from OMEGA on the 1999 Yearbook. This is an absolutely tremendous match, with the Thrillaz returning to their home town (where they defeated Death and Destruction at on 5/8/98) and being Steve Austin level over for a gym that can only hold around 500 people. The Hardy’s are fantastic heels, stooging and bumping early for all of Shane Helms flying offense and Mike Maverick’s power spots. Helms hits a sky high, assisted plancha on to both Hardy’s on the floor that looks as spectacular in 2014 as it did in 1999. Helms is the FIP and the Hardy’s do a nice job mixing in high spots while making sure the crowd doesn’t cheer them. Jeff Hardy hits a top rope rolling senton and then an asai moonsault in one smooth movement and proceeds to go hug Matt afterwards. In 2014, that would have got some boo’s but also would have started a “this is awesome” chant. That’s not the case in North Carolina in 1999. Finish has the WWE Attitude, ‘98-‘99 level pop and crowd reaction, with everyone from the high school kids front row who were jawing with the Hardy’s the whole match to the strange older guy in the white sweatshirt opposite the hard cam all jumping up and down like their team just won Game 7 of the World Series. I haven’t seen an indy tag match from the 2000’s that comes close to this. I haven’t seen many tag matches period from the 2000’s come close to this either. If this occurred after January 1, 2000, it would easily make my top 10 indy matches of the 2000’s. Can’t heap enough praise on this. Helms, Maverick, and the Hardy’s do their forefather southern tag teams proud.
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<Split> NJPW World - their version of the WWE Network
Tim Cooke replied to Sean Liska's topic in Pro Wrestling
Apparently there was a Masato Tanaka vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi match from 7/22/12 that never made it over though Lynch has it on his Japan TV list so even if it was clipped (which it most likely was), it still made its way over. Will have to go through the site after work to see if anything else stands out -
My favorite spot: https://www.dropbox.com/s/ejji2avhs3va5gq/1999-01-12_BattlArts%20Russian%20Leg%20Sweep.gif?dl=0
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I didn't follow Yakushiji after MPro started to decline in late 1997, so I didn't know he kept improving to the point that he was able to hold up his end in a good southern tag. Delphin and Naniwa have their rudo schtick down from their pre-KDX days as the promotions top heel stable. MPro seemed to have trouble getting over in Korakuen Hall. A lot of other companies could get heat in Korakuen Hall but would be silenced in the small Northeastern towns that MPro ran.
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I was slightly disappointed with this but a lot of that has to do with my inherent bias against BattlArts tags, as the no pinfalls plays strongly in the singles environment but definitely hurts tag matches. Overall, strong match. This is maybe the best Yone ever looked. I really liked the Ikeda/Ishikawa russian leg sweep reversal (gif coming soon) and the finish was well booked (maybe one dragon suplex too many).
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If Finlay and Taylor advanced in the first round of the tag team tournament on Thunder, how did Disorderly Conduct make it here? This was the type of match that made WCWSN an intriguing show to watch from week to week when I first started watching in late 98. Of course, that was dead in the water by July but going back through the WCWSN archives, these little, fun matches happened a lot from the fall of 1997 through spring of 1999.
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Liked everything about this post match, from HHH helping Mankind with Shane to the stretching of Shane and that being the reason McMahon gives into the title shot to Rock being pissed - rightfully so - about the NO DQ title shot tonight.
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Crazy Max got so good, so quickly that by the end of 2000, they were in desperate need of something new. The T2P guys provided a little bit of that in late 2001/2002 but by that time, Toryumon had already run through Home Team vs. Crazy Max, Crazy Max vs M2K, M2K vs. Home Team. It's no wonder Dragon Gate guys who split from Ultimo Dragon in 2004 figured the best way to get reactions was to just up the moves and work rate. Bad idea for having good matches. This has some awesome crowd reactions for the nearfalls, where the Northeastern Japan MPro towns may have been the last territory crowds in US and Japanese wrestling.
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If Nash followed up on this promo with a well booked angle on Nitro taking the NWO down a peg or two, maybe, just maybe, things could have not spun so out of control in the quick fashion that it did. This is an excellent promo and combined with Flair's promo on the 1/21 Thunder is one of the brighter moments for WCW in January 1999.
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Like Loss said, very acceptable promo and if WCW booked what Goldberg preached at the end of this about not making the same mistake twice, they would have had another opportunity to try to turn around this sinking ship.
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15 years later and still as infuriating as ever. And Flair kind of gives them a way out of this with his interview three days later on Thunder but it just wasn't meant to be.
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Didn't like this at all. Looked like a clear work and a terrible one at that. Looked like they were trying to imitate a Pride fight, which isn't wise for numerous reasons around this time period - mostly due to Pride having almost no good heavyweight fights up to this point in their history.
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[1999-01-04-NJPW-Wrestling World in Tokyo Dome] Keiji Muto vs Scott Norton
Tim Cooke replied to Loss's topic in January 1999
Not good and I really enjoyed their 1991 and 1995 G-1 matches. -
Fantastic moment with Foley winning the WWF Championship after Austin screws over McMahon in the biggest way possible. The match was pretty bad as Rock and Foley seemed to meander through the opening of the match and never got completely in sync down the stretch.
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Re-watched this yesterday. Besides Choshu, the other nine wrestlers were mid card wrestlers at best, some washed up, others just never better than okay, yet everything in this match works and works really well. This is a prime example of why I can't and don't buy into the hype of modern New Japan "classics." The best New Japan matches of the modern era don't come close to the heat generated by this match. I acknowledge it is a different time period but I also know that these weren't the 10 most over guys in the company, none the less the best workers who by pure force could get a good to great crowd reaction for almost every big spot. The match is 2/3 falls and since it is Choshu who is running things, it is done sprint style. I'd be willing to argue that this match was worked at a faster pace than most modern day tag matches, which is something that bothers me about today's matches. Here, the fast paced is used to do a quick rope running sequence and then quick tags in and out by both teams. They use an average set of moves for 1990. Nothing particularly high end, although if you like regulars sentons you will be happy, but nothing that reeks of "these guys are still stuck in the 70's." It's the little things here that really make the match. Kurisu is the old man outsider and his first move is a stomp to the chest of Choshu (or one of his team mates). He gets boo'ed instantly. It may be a product of its time, great booking, attentive crowd, or a mix of all of those but he retains that heat throughout. This also has an aura that is missing today. There are two to three times the match looks like it is going to get out of control and then things are reigned back in organically and the match continues. It was a riveting 25 minutes with heat and story that is missing from 2014 New Japan.
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Sandy Koufax pitched 9 complete seasons for the Dodgers. In terms of baseball history, that is a relatively short stay. It was a completely dominant 9 years but still just 9 years. I'm not making a direct Goldberg to Sandy Koufax comparison because that comparison has flaws. But in an era where TV matches were shorter, getting over wasn't always easy due to politics, and fresh, unique, high energy wrestlers were in great demand, Goldberg stands out as someone who could make my list and would be willing to go to bat for. Completely understand the opposing viewpoint and wouldn't think less of anyone who didn't vote for Goldberg or even consider putting him on their lists. But the 5 really good matches all carried by his opponents is hyperbolic or at the very least, a very subjective way of looking at things.
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Rewatched the Takayama 2002 G-1 Semifinal match over the weekend. Hadn't seen it in years. The way Nishimura has the crowd with him throughout all of his old school work is amazing. They could have taken the easy route and worked his around Takayama and his brutality since he was the hot commodity at the time. They don't go that route and are greatly rewarded. Most wrestlers/performers and even athletes can work well within their own bubble. Nishimura working his own style in MUGA is much less impressive to me than getting over big time in New Japan, at a time where Inoki and his MMA influence were sending the promotion spiraling out of control. Absolutely great match that any Nishimura fan (or Takayama fan) should seek out immediately.
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Goldberg may make my list. It would be in the upper 90's most likely. Watching the 1998 Yearbook, I came away with Steve Austin vs Goldberg possibly being the biggest dream match in US wrestling. I always liked Goldberg since I was a WCW fan but the Yearbook made me like him even more. You have him going against Jerry Flynn on Thunder, working a quick shoot style squash (check out their 2/98 WCWSN match for an even longer and better version of that match). He got tremendous heat out of a match with Rocco Rock on Nitro. Spring Stampede against Saturn was reminiscent of a Mid South "hoss" match (for lack of a better term). The Raven match the next night on Nitro was a lot of fun. He doesn't have lengthy matches nor the quantity of matches to make most people's lists and I wouldn't argue that. But sometimes shorter matches that are higher quality, plus other intangibles such as getting over so incredibly fast, being pretty naturally gifted right off the bat, and understanding how to work to his strengths until the booking ended up fucking him by early 1999. After that is when he started looking lost and getting exposed a little more. But even then, you have the Fall Brawl 2000 match against Scott Steiner, which for the first 6 minutes was an excellent power match until Russo's bullshit just wasted that excellent effort.
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Noble was at least good from the get go. I haven’t watched his pre-WCW indy work (I think there is at least one match on You Tube) but from his debut in the fall of 1999 through the end of the company, Noble went from good to very good in a company that was spiraling out of control and didn’t want to feature any lightweights until the last three months of its existence. His fall 99-spring '00 matches on WCWSN and WWW are worth seeking out just to see how much more advanced he was than almost any of the other power plant guys. WCW matches worth watching include: 8/13/00 Jung Dragons vs. 3 Count (New Blood Rising - Ladder Match) Not a great or even good match, but interesting to see 6 guys try to steal the show despite being saddled with a fairly ridiculous storyline 12/16/00 Jung Dragons vs. 3-Count (Starrcade) Another ladder match and better than New Blood Rising but not blow away. Still though Noble was a standout with Helms and Hayashi. 1/14/01 Hayashi/Yang vs. Noble/Karagious (Sin) Evan Karagious was terrible. He made Prince Iakeau look like a master ring general. Jimmy Yang is very green here. Should have been a recipe for disaster but Kaz and Noble decided to work the match primarily with their opponent’s weaker sides and thus made Yang look great and made Karagious passable. 2/18/01 Noble vs. Helms vs. Moore vs. Hayashi vs. Yang vs. Karagious (Superbrawl Revenge) Noble’s feather in the cap (ditto Helms and Hayashi) from the WCW run. 5/6’s of this match is really awesome and 1/6 is horribly blown spots by Karagious and Yang, some of the worst blown spots I have ever seen. But those 5/6’s of the match that works, really works. Noble and Yang doing the lucha arm drag out of the power bomb spot automatically adds a half star to this for me. WWE 5/1/04 vs. Rey Jr. (Velocity) By far the best Noble match in WWE. One of Rey’s top 5 WWE matches (Summerslam ’02 vs Angle, March ’04 vs. Eddy Guerrero, June ’05 vs. Eddy Guerrero). This gets a great amount of time, especially for a WWE syndie show featuring an upper mid carder and a jobber. Some mat work, mixed with all of the spots you expect from these two. ROH I emailed Gabe the morning Noble was released from WWE to bring. He was skeptical that Noble was really worth bringing in and if he would work hard in ROH. I was thrilled when he decided to bring him on in Feb. 2005. When he resigned with the WWE later that fall, I was also happy because Noble in ROH was a terrible disappointment. Gabe’s worries about not working hard were unfounded because Noble worked really hard. Almost too hard. Gone were the swinging neckbreakers and tombstone piledrivers. In their place was upping the work rate to mesh into the ROH style. It’s probably in my top 10 “what if’s” in wrestling if someone would have told Noble that his WCW work was so solid that all he needed to do was go back to that formula and combine it with his 2005 wrestling knowledge. He most likely won’t make my list but I can watch the SIN tag, Superbrawl Revenge 6 way, and Velocity match any day and always come away with a smile on my face,
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Rey's 2004 bouts were considerably better than his 2003 work. The Eddie Guerrero bout was the best match he'd had since the end of the Smackdown Six era and his best singles showing in the WWE to date. That was partially because Eddie did such a great job working over his shoulder injury, but Mysterio's selling was also brilliant. To me that was a legit four star match. The Chavo bout was good, but I got a bit tired of Mysterio hitting a move and selling the knee. I know people applaud that type of sustained selling, but the repetition and the fact that he kept hitting the same leg based offence bugged me and wasn't as clever as it seemed. I also hated the finish, which should have at least tied into the narrative. The Jamie Noble bout was really good. I thought it was Rey's second best match of the year and definitely a feather in the cap of those who think Rey's the best television worker ever given he had a stellar match tucked away on Velocity. The Angle matches weren't as good as the original ones, though the more stripped back style of the first one was interesting. And while he seemed to have ironed out some of the kinks with Tajiri, they still failed to knock one out of the park. Nevertheless, if those are your weaker matches of the yesr, you had a good year. Good thing to look forward to is in my opinion, the 6/23/05 Rey vs. Eddy Smackdown match is even better than the 3/28/04 match. The rest of the Eddy matches that summer are fun but they peak (and probably should have ended the feud) in June on SD. Noble match from Velocity has always been a favorite. As close as WWE came to WCW in terms of telling two capable guys to go fill some time and they hit it out of the park.
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"The first live event I ever went to was the Great American Bash in Charleston, WV on 7/17/88. Best moment of the night was Ron Garvin knocking out The Mighty Wilbur in 10 seconds and some drunk behind me yelled "Ain't so mighty now, motherfucker!" That is fantastic!
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2000 Inoki Bom Ba Ye New Years Eve show and 2003 All Japan. Did Lucha sequences with Great Sasuke in 2000 and even more with LA Park in 2003
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Tzuki, Espectrito I, and Mascarita Sagrada 2000 are all making my list. Dark horses include: Kazushi Sakuraba, Goldberg, and Caol Uno