Tim Cooke

"I find what causes a reaction in RINGS every bit as fascinating as the style itself." Very, very true.

Worldwide was a week late from 1998 until the end. Don't know why.

Hw was at that show.

If this doesn't need it's own thread, feel free to merge but I watched some really cool stuff this weekend and wanted to write about it somewhere. Lawler vs. Snowman worked-shoot Mid South Colosseum match from June 1990 Phil's review: Jerry Lawler v. The Snowman USWA 6/11/90-GREAT Totally bizarre spectacle. This is set up by a shoot angle with Snowman coming out of the audience at the TV studio and interrupting a Lawler interview. He accuses Lawler of ducking him because he is Black and they have a really frenetic pull apart. That leads to this match and it was one of the most realistic "guys aren't cooperating" matches I have ever seen. Lots of wild swinging awkward punches and cool Lawler takedowns, there are parts where both guys are going for the eyes which is kind of what you would expect in a racial tinged street fight. Crowd is totally electric, you get the sense they really got the crowd to buy into the whole angle. Reminded me of a Southern Fried version of Onita v. Aoyagi. Match is pretty short (about five minutes, although the footage maybe clipped) and that keeps this from the Epic pile, but it is definitely worth seeing, and something unique for Lawler. -------------- Fucking amazing find by Loss. I think everyone is pretty familiar with the Snowman/Lawler angle, but to find this match and have it be great is what makes the current age of DVD trading so awesome. Loss told me this was a PWFG style match in Memphis. That description is just about perfect, as it feels very organic, your typical Fujiwara versus Olympic Russian wrestler 7 minute match. I was compiling my personal ***** matches list this weekend and the fundamental flaw with star ratings is how do you rate something this awesome, but compare it to regular 15 minute matches or epic 30+ minute matches? On my short list, this has to be one of the greatest sub 10 minute matches. Right there with MX/Fantastics (Clash I - though that might be 10:30, close enough); Windham/Luger vs. Tully/Arn (Clash I), Jindrak vs. Basham (Velocity), etc. More later on some other stuff I watched --- including Juventud vs. Perro Jr. from 7/15/95, Santo vs. Espanto 4/10/88 (which I now believe is the greatest of the 3 singles matches we have available on tape), Damiancito/Pierrothito vs. Cicloncito/Dragoncito from April 1997, and Gotch vs. Yoshimura from JWA in 1961.

For nationally televised baseball, Yankees, Red Sox, and Phillies dominated the Fox Saturday afternoon slot, Sunday afternoon TBS, and Sunday Night ESPN games. The league championship series teams -- Texas, Detroit, Milwaukee, and St. Louis don't even finish ahead of teams like the Cubs, Giants, Dodgers, and Mets in terms of those games. Winning helps to a certain extent, but what's hot now goes much further.

Has Dave ever written anything definitive on the history of All Japan Women? Been watching a lot of Dump & Co vs. Crush and Co this afternoon and the heat, wild, out of control, non-stop pace they keep is absolutely amazing.

I'm reading the Jerry Jarrett book on the first year of TNA and he copies a lot of emails he would send to Jeff, Wade Keller, etc. and he uses LOL in caps a lot in these emails. So I wouldn't be shocked if it was Jerry Jarrett, especially since he was just on the WON Radio show.

I agree with the sentiment but the Indies haven't dramatically shifted in the 2000's - just worse wrestlers than the mid '00's.

Where was that posted at?

September 1999 - Sullivan/Taylor/committee October 1999 - 1/16/00 - Russo/Ferrera 1/16/00 - 4/1/00 - Sullivan/Taylor/Ferrera/committee 4/10/00 - a week after Halloween Havoc (I think) - Russo/Bischoff 11/00 - 3/26/01 - Ace/Taylor/Ferrera

Add in Lawler, Tommy Rogers, El Hijo del Santo (best comeback), MX (hope spots - since they basically set up the opposing teams hope spots in their matches).

I don't hate and I certainly appreciate his work but Negro Navarro doesn't do it for me most of the time. The contradiction is that he was in one of the best matches I've ever seen live and I really like his 2001-2002 IWRG stuff with Dandy. Think he falls into the Dylan-Jumbo category for me: he is good, no doubt about it, but I don't need to watch another match of his.

Cornette's spin bump on an RnR Express double drop kick is an amazing spot for most wrestlers, needless to say a manager.

Alan4L has a ballot for the WON HOF. Can't wait for the first Dragon Gate wrestler to get on to the eligible list.

I think Rey's hardest and most innovative flying moves blow away Evans and Pac. Mascarita Dorada might be. Rey's flipping plancha into a rana > any 630 or whatever the highspot of the month is these days.

I imagine Cena/Punk III would be at the HIAC PPV.

http://www.rspwfaq.com/2011/08/07/greatest-reign-ever/ He wasn't watching WWF until at least 1984 if I remember correctly. So this is just going off of what he has heard.

So Bruno has the greatest World Title reign of all time according to Keith. But then a commenter one up's him by saying that Misawa was booked as an equal to Kobashi/Kawada/Taue in AJPW.

Loss - sometime in the future, you need to watch a 2001 RINGS Lithuania shoot between these two, which is basically a real version of the match they would hone and refine in RINGS.

I know Loss has been adament about keeping real stuff on these comps, but I think an interesting comparison to the best 1998 RINGS matches would be Sakuraba's fights against Vernon White (Pride 2) and Carlos Newton (Pride 3). For as "realistic" as TK/Tamura may have been at the time, Saku's real fights are much more entertaining and if you didn't know, you could probably trick yourself into thinking that they were working.

"I do have to say, though, that Cena immediately punching Punk after the Yankees comment was nice. Very appropriate response from a Bostonian." But also typical of a Bostonian not recognizing that the Red Sox are the new Yankees, maybe even worse.

Danielson v Ki from JAPW is their best singles match. Shoot style.

From vague memory, this is worked a lot differently than the other Santo/Casas matches on tape. I almost got a UWF 2.0/PWFG'ish feel from it. Great match.

"If you train the audience to buy something, they will buy it." Very true. The conviction that Jim Ross uses during the Chi Town Rumble match between Flair and Steamboat when referring to Hiro Matsuda as "the evil, evil man from the Orient" is presented in such a way that I imagine the 1989 WCW audience bought the stereotype completely.