Tim Cooke

That Taylor match from Jan 1994 on WCWSN was excellent. Something you would never see again on weekly television once Nitro and Raw hit.

I think you could add Dundee's best match to Lawler's resume, though the same could said for Lawler's best match being with Dundee.

5/3/86 Tully vs Garvin from Worldwide - my favorite Tully match, best Garvin match I've ever seen

Ric Flair Jerry Lawler Stan Hansen Destroyer Eddy Guerrero Vader Rey Misterio Jr. After those guys, Tully, Arn, Austin, Eaton, Morton would be in the next category for me.

This is the height of the Misawa and Co. vs. Jumbo and Co. feud. That's not to say that there wouldn't be anything else worth seeing over the next 18 months but from an ring perspective, they peaked here. I hadn't seen this match since 2007/2008 when Dan Ginnetty unearthed the "Midnight Special" version, which airs 48 of the 52 minutes. Having gone through the 1990 yearbook, you can see the growth in working a trios match over the 10 months leading into this match. I always remembered the 5/26/90 Misawa/Taue/Kobashi vs. Jumbo/Kabuki/Fuchi match as being more about the Misawa elbow angle on Jumbo than actually being a great match. Revisiting it during the 90 Yearbook, you can see the seeds being set to take the standard trios match and make it multi-layered and as good as most single and tag matches. Step two comes on 10/28/90 when we get the first pairing of the regular six, Misawa/Kawada/Kobashi vs. Jumbo/Taue/Fuchi. Just under 30 minutes, it is a great "first" match of the regulars that brings out the other rivalries in the feud (Kawada/Taue, Kobashi trying to hang, Fuchi as a crazed veteran trying to earn his keep). It's what I thought of as the definitive version of this match until revisiting the 4/91 match last night. ****************** I'm not a fan of long matches these days. Well, I can be a fan of long matches in the right circumstances with the right wrestlers but I don't have the time or patience anymore to sit through long matches that don't serve a purpose. So I went into this re-watch with extreme hesitation. 48 minutes? They are going to lose me at some point. My cynicism even lead me to watch the match WAITING for the moment where they lost me, so I could turn it off and go to sleep. Not a good way to go into anything. They never lost me. These guys had so much they could do and do well, while stringing the crowd along the entire time. I've been going back through the late 90's/early 00's WON's recently and a re-occurring theme with Dave is when a match runs longer than 45 minutes, even if it is smartly worked, he will always mention that you can tell they were going long because of how they worked the early part of the match. Not necessarily the first five minutes, but from that point to the 30-40 minute mark. And that was said in respect to his "favorite" 60 minute match of all time, the 1/19/95 Kobashi vs. Kawada. I was always of the mindset that if you work smart, I can ignore that it is clear you are going long. I watched Christopher Daniels and CM Punk do a 60 minute draw in July 2005 that live, didn't feel like they were working a different match. At about 40 minutes into that match, I turned to Phil and Tom and we all agreed they were actually going 60, something that might have prevented us from wanting to attend the show if we that booking beforehand. But it worked live and on tape, watching it again in 2012, it never had the blatant time killing spots. The 4/91 trios match has no dead time. Every submission attempt is with a purpose and even if it is to rest for a few seconds, it always fit the flow of the match. Taue cheap shots Kawada THREE times early on, each one more aggressively until you are on the edge of your seat waiting for Kawada to finally get into the ring with him. Misawa and Jumbo deliver a few sequences to satisfy the crowd, but this match is more about Taue/Kawada, Kawada/Fuchi, and Kobashi/Fuchi than the number rivalry in the promotion. When Kawada finally gets his head clear, he charges into the ring and they do a shoot/is this real brawl with him and Taue while the other four try to break it up. Writing it, it sounds hokey but it comes off completely naturally. The 30 minute call comes really fast, especially against my expectations. This is when I have convinced myself that they will lose me. Fuchi is doing something really dickish and Kawada stops him and gives him the finger as he returns to the apron. The crowd pops huge for this and Fuchi is pissed. Kobashi is in with him and Fuchi points at Kawada and then dropkicks Kobashi's knee. The crowd erupts. The problem with some of the later trios matches if that they will do work like this, Fuchi works on Kobashi's leg, Jumbo goes after Kawada's back, but in a more technical sense. Here, it is done to get over the escalation of this feud. Fuchi is a master at stretching guys, so even when it doesn't have the great in match storyline to go with it, it is usually very good but it's also the time where I can often drift away. That doesn't come close to happening here. 10 solid minutes of ramming Kobashi's knee into the mat, into the guardrail, into chairs, and into tables. Kobashi gets cut off from the hot tag numerous times and when he finally makes it, it it to Kawada. And guess who is in the ring? Fuchi. Kawada goes nuts on Fuchi with forearms and the crowd erupts again. The mini in-match story is paid off completely and they go to the home stretch of nearfalls before Misawa takes it with a Tiger Suplex on Taue. Outstanding match. ****************** The feud produced more good stuff after this match, no denying that. The 10/15/91 Misawa/Kawada/Kikuchi vs. Jumbo/Taue/Fuchi is three southern tag matches and an injury angle all wrapped into something really great. But this is really the high point of bringing together six wrestlers together and making everything in a 52 minute match work so well.

Is this the Resident Evil #1 WCW Match of the 90's?

I have this above the 6/95 TenChono v HashHirata and 6/96 HashHirata vs Yamazaki/Iizuka. I think this is a jdw point, but this is better than the tags AJPW did in 1990. After that, All Japan guys would improve and leave the New Japan crew in their dust. Sasaki is particularly good, along with Chono. Everything really clicks. Great TV show. I have a 7/92 trios match from New Japan that Meltzer gave **** and said was comparable to the typical NJPW trios match coming soon. Be very interested to see it because I haven't seen any New Japan trios matches coming close to 10/90, 4/91, or 7/93.

Is there a site out there that has RAW vs. Nitro quarter hour breakdowns for 1998 (or the whole Monday Night Wars)?

Would like to compile a comprehensive list of NWA TV that centered around 1 match taking up the entire one hour program. 7/19/85 Rock n Roll Express vs. Russians 5/3/86 Tully Blanchard vs. Ron Garvin 1/20/87 Ric Flair vs. Barry Windham 5/14/88 Midnight Express vs. Fantastics Can anyone fill in the gaps (if there are any)?

I think what Tom meant was that by wanting Lesnar to squash Cena more or less/work the same match and still have Lesnar win, it could be similar to the start of the Hash/Ogawa feud.

Will Sasso wrestled on Nitro

1/8 Helms vs. Moore (Nitro - #1 Contenders Match for shot at Chavo Jr. at Sin) 1/14 Hayashi/Yang vs. Noble/Karagious (Sin) 1/14 Helms vs. Chavo Jr. (Sin) 2/14 Air Paris/AJ Styles vs. Jung Dragons (Thunder) 2/18 Helms vs. Moore vs. Noble vs. Karagious vs. Yang vs. Hayashi (Superbrawl) 2/18 Chavo Jr. vs. Rey Jr. (Superbrawl) 2/18 O'Haire/Palumbo vs. Jindrak/Stasiak (Superbrawl) 2/18 Kanyon vs. DDP (Superbrawl) 2/18 DDP vs. Jarrett (Superbrawl) 2/26 Booker/DDP/Cat vs. R. Steiner/Buff/Luger (Nitro) Need to fill in the rest when I get some time to look up dates

1/4 Goldberg vs. Naoya Ogawa (Hustle) 2/4 Tamura vs. Kohsaka (U-Style) 2/22 Tenyru vs. Fuchi (All Japan) 2/22 Hayashi vs. Taka (All Japan) 2/22 Hashimoto vs. Kawada (All Japan) 4/25 Takayama vs. Kobashi (NOAH) 6/25 Necro Butcher vs. Toby Klein (IWA-MS King of the Death Matches) 7/24 Collyer vs. Romero (ROH) 8/13 Santo vs. Perro Jr. (CMLL) 8/18 Tamura vs. Ito (U-Style) 9/10 Taue vs. Kobashi (NOAH)

RINGS 1/22 Tamura vs. Han (Battle Dimension Final) 3/8 Maeda vs. Tamura 4/4 Kohsaka vs. Yamamoto (30:00 draw at Korakuen Hall - fantastic) 4/22 Tamura vs. Kohsaka (might be a legit shoot - haven't got the WON yet with Dave's thoughts. There are two spots where it looks like Tamura is working but everything else looks like it is legit) 6/21 Tamura vs. Zouev (fantastic mat work) 7/22 Tamura vs. Tariel (The Takada/Vader of RINGS) 8/13 Naruse vs. Haseman 8/13 Han vs. Yamamoto 9/26 Kohsaka vs. Frank Shamrock (legit shoot but I think it is worthy of inclusion) 9/26 Tamura vs. Han 12/23 Han vs. Mikhail 12/23 Maeda vs. Tamura

I always laughed at Gabe screaming "Dangerous!!!!!" but I don't think that was the intention. Caudle and Ross struck me as the most solid team in the NWA from 1988-1990. I think Ross and David Crockett circa 1986 would have been a lot of fun.

Punches aren't legal in NJPW. Palm strikes are. Saku is old and slow now, but expecting RINGS style standing exchanges with open hands from a broken down Saku and a guy like Nakamura is only going to lead to disappointment.

Super brawl 1992 as Loss and Jerry have said is a good pick. There are some TV shows in Japan that are better. The 11/1/90 NJPW TV puts this card to rest.

Listened to Meltzer's audio show this morning. Wanted to see Sakuraba/Nakamura and decided to check out the three way juniors match. This isn't a bash on Meltzer because his enthusiasm really made me want to go check out some of the show, knowing that like his TV reviews, I can ascertain a decent level of what I will/won't like. He praised Sakuraba/Nakamura as being close to a Volk Han style match, so I was intrigued. The three way juniors match was okay. Low Ki was far and away the best guy in the match, making a lot of the tedious three way spots kind of work. Ibushi has some nice looking high spots but Devitt is completely useless. The pinnacle of the match was Ki going for a tree of woe footstomp on Devitt, only for Ibushi to springboard and rana Ki off the top. Awesome spot, got a great reaction, and it was kicked out of with five more minutes of the match afterwards, with most of those nearfalls getting no heat. Sakuraba/Nakamura was fun. Admittedly, I don't follow NJPW closely but Nakamura's "I don't care" look on his face throughout the whole match was distracting. There was some decent mat work in the middle, but it was very low level RINGS circa 1996, not Tamura/Kohsaka/Yamamoto 1997-1999. The knee Saku landed looked amazing on the replay but in full speed, you really couldn't see it that much. Sakuraba's palm strikes were *really* slow, but he is 42 and almost zombie like, so I can live with that. Not sure Nakamura needed to give Saku all of those head shots in his condition. ***1/2. Also dug Otani and Hashimoto's kid coming out to his New Japan music. Meltz pointing out that Mutoh did 12 dragon screw's with each one getting less heat was more than enough warning to not even check it out for a second. Felt no need to watch the main event or Nagata vs. Suzuki.

Daisuke Ikeda & Mohammed Yone & Gran Naniwa vs Yuki Ishikawa & Ikuto Hidaka & Carl Greco (BattlARTS 05/10/98) - This could drop off

The Muto G-1 1995 final is the match of the year in a world without All Japan. I also like it better than the 9/10 Misawa vs Taue match but it doesn't compete with the 4/15 Misawa/Taue, 6/9 tag, or 7/24 Misawa vs Kawada

Top 5 New Japan heavyweight match of the 90's (with the other four being 8/11/91 Chono vs Mutoh; 8/15/95 Mutoh vs. Hashimoto; 1/4/96 Vader vs. Inoki; and 8/2/96 Hashimoto vs. Choshu). This is the archetype for the Sting vs. Vader matches, with Vader dominating and Mutoh getting small comebacks which popped the crowd big. Vader brings out a release german suplex as a counter to Mutoh's handspring elbow, a powerbomb, and a couple of stiff lariats. Lots of nearfalls, including getting the most out of the mid match nearfalls since Vader was taken very seriously as a threat to Mutoh by the fans at Sumo Hall. Strong MOTYC.

1. Keiji Muto - I recently started going through New Japan 1990's heavyweight matches that I had neglected for so long. Muto's best efforts are really strong, especially the 8/91 matches vs Norton, Vader, and Chono. The 8/15/95 G-1 Final against Hashimoto is currently my favorite match that I haven't watched too many times. On his lazy days, he is fairly useless, but at his best, he did a lot of cool stuff with a variety of opponents. 2. Shinya Hashimoto - more of the 90's NJPW heavyweight viewing. His 8/10/91 match against Choshu is 9:00 of criminally under rated action. The Muto match from 8/15/95, plus the 8/2/96 G-1 Choshu match are all excellent as well. I wish the Kawada match from 2/22/04 would have happened 8-10 years earlier. Still, an excellent battle based around limb selling, not something you would expect to see in an All Japan main event in Budokan. 3. Tsuyoshi Kohsaka - been watching all of his RINGS works recently and while not as flashy as Tamura, he brings a lot of substance to the table. He even had the better match with Yoshihisa Yamamoto (4/4/97). Very much a pioneer in taking the worked shoot as far as it could go before the all shoot format had to take over. 4. Jushin Liger vs. Pegasus Kid 1990-1992 feud - lots of heat throughout the bodies of these matches, something that got lose even when New Japan started promoting the juniors on the level of the heavyweights. It's not wonder Benoit was fucked in the head; he did a missile dropkick from the top turnbuckle to the floor on 11/1/90, a super powerbomb to Liger on 8/12/92 (even though he wasn't on the receiving end, there isn't a good way to protect either guy) and the ridiculous diving headbutt from the top turnbuckle to the floor on against Liger in August of 1993. 5. Tsuyoshi Kikuchi - the 7/12/90 match vs. Fuchi and his awesome selling in the 10/15/91 trios match skyrocket him up the list for me. Both matches occur in Korakuen Hall which is always a plus.

I'm very excited for the 1991 Yearbook as a follow up to 1990 and because 1991 is one of my more neglected years in terms of viewing footage. Over the past couple of weeks, I have went back to re-evaluate and see some some matches for the first time from New Japan heavyweights. The 1991 G-1 was really eye opening in terms of the career matches several wrestlers put on and is in the running for the best tournament ever. Choshu did a great job handling the booking and worked against Hashimoto in my second favorite match between the two of them. Vader and Scott Norton had an excellent big man's match, with a cleverly booked finish. Muto and Norton had their best singles match against each other, though the 1995 G-1 semi-final comes close. Hashimoto and Chono's 30 minute draw is really good and better than their semi-final match. Muto and Vader work the prototype for the Sting series, which even borrows the Starrcade 1992 finish from this match. And then Muto and Chono have a top NJPW match of the decade candidate. In terms of G-1 finals, it is either this or the 8/15/95 Muto vs. Hashimoto match that stand out as head and shoulders above the rest. The big disappointment was the first Pillman vs. Liger match, which like their Superbrawl 1992 match, doesn't hold up and is a big step down from what Benoit and Liger were doing in singles competition in New Japan.

From the 6/18/90 WON: June 8 Budokan Hall show, which Dave saw live Fuyuki and Kikuchi beat Taue and Orihara in 11:41. Taue got a big pop coming out and ke kind of reminds fans of a younger Giant Baba. High praise, indeed. Fans hate Fuyuki though I don't know why. He works hard, although he's gained a lot of weight since he got married and is nothing compared to what he was last year. Kikuchi is over strong in the Tokyo area and they threw a lot of streamers when his name was announced but he means nothing outside of Tokyo I'm told.

Kendo did work MPro tours from 1993-1995. He's in the mixed trios match from December 1995 that gets some talk.