Tim Cooke

I had no idea about the Flair vs. Morton match on Pro. I am watching this when I get home tonight.

Brief thoughts on some matches: #10 - Midnight Express v Rock & Roll Express (NWA 02/24/90) ****1/2 I watched this on Saturday and while it was great, I thought the face in peril segment went a little too long as they started so hot and built really well but ended with Eaton having to use the hammerlock spot on the mat twice. But good god can those 5 guys (6 if you add Nick Patrick) roll out some awesome spots. #12 - Eddy Guerrero v John Bradshaw Layfield (WWE 05/16/04) ****1/2 Watched Austin/Rock from WM 17 yesterday. It is better than this match but not by much. Austin and Rock are on another level in terms of being wrestling "stars" and while Eddy's character was awesome, JBL just can't hold to Austin or Rock. So my #2 pick for WWF MOTYD 2000's. #14 - The Rock v Chris Jericho (WWF 10/21/01) ****1/4 After watching Rock/Austin, I was dying to see this. I have never seen it and need to ASAP. #18 - Arn Anderson & Tully Blanchard v Lex Luger & Barry Windham (NWA 03/27/88) ****1/4 Two 10 minute tag matches should block each other out on the same card. But no when you have Cornette, MX, Fans, Tully/Arn and Windham laying out matches. Fantastic match, which went perfect for the time they allowed. #20 - Steve Austin v Kurt Angle (WWF 08/19/01) ****1/4 Started watching this yesterday and then Angle started with the german reversal sequences and I got bored. Maybe a bad idea to watch right after Austin/Rock. #24 - Vader v Sting (WCW 07/12/92) **** I think this is MUCH better than Fall Brawl 1994 and Starrcade 92. #25 - Steve Austin v The Rock (WWF 04/01/01) **** See Eddy/JBL. #34 - Eddy Guerrero v Rey Misterio Jr (WWE 03/16/04) ***3/4 Beautiful. #35 - American Dragon v AJ Styles (ROH 11/09/02) ***3/4 Saw this live and it blew my mind. Doesn't stand a chance as ROH greatly improved over the next 3 years but this was the first great match until London/Danielson 12/7/02 decided to work a match based around story rather than moves. #39 - Eddy Guerrero v Big Show (WWE 04/13/04) ***3/4 #40 - Rey Misterio Jr v Jamie Noble (WWE 04/27/04) ***3/4 The first is Lawler vs. Monster from Memphis, done tremendously. The second is a match that could be ****1/2+ if they gave it 17 minutes instead of 11:14. #44 - Eddy Guerrero v John Bradshaw Layfield (WWE 07/13/04) ***3/4 Need to watch again in the good quality Smackdown comps. #59 - Midnight Express v James Boys [Dusty Rhodes & Magnum TA] (NWA 05/03/86) ***1/2 Is this from the TBS studios? #68 - Ric Flair v Ricky Morton (NWA 04/12/86) ***1/4 I watched this a month ago on vacation. Morton brings a lot of great moves and quickness that he sometimes left at home during tag matches. I wish he worked like this all of the time. #71 - John Bradshaw Layfield v Rey Misterio Jr (WWE 04/05/05) ***1/4 Started watching this though had some glitching problems that I hope is just a little dust as the rest of the DVD works great. #84 - Midnight Express v Sam Houston & Nelson Royal (NWA 05/10/86) ***1/4 It is sick how over Sam Houston is. His cartwheel and monkey flip are beautiful moves for any time period. Great match. Tim

Awesome. I am going to go with picks that have already been released commercially interspersed with matches I would like to see. 1984 - Ricky Steamboat vs. Tully Blanchard 1985 - Magnum TA vs. Tully Blanchard 1988 - Ric Flair vs. Lex Luger 1990 - Doom vs. Windham/Anderson 1992 - Steamboat/Douglas vs. Windham/Pillman Christ, they really need to do a Best of Great American Bash/Beach Blast/Bash at the Beach. And then a Misc one with Wrestle War, Clash matches, Capital Combat.

Undertaker - never a big fan but also haven't seen more than 20% of his work so my comments with him are useless. Arn Anderson - I liked the stooging Arn so much more than "Technical Anderson" Arn. So 1987-1992 is incredible. Juventud Guerrera - Fuck him from after 1999 but before, so much talent and so much potential. Blue Panther - best Lucha mat worker ever probably, just topping Negro Navarro. Keiji Muto - I like 5 of his matches. The other thousand suck. Tim

I had Chavo/Rey there before but after watching the Eddy/Rey match as well as re-watching Chavo/Rey over vacation, it is fairly easily #2 with Eddy/Show at 3, JBL/Eddy GAB at 4, Rey/Chavo at 5, and JBL/Eddy in the cage at 6, Brock/Eddy at 7, and then I don't know what. I def see the Otani/Samurai comparisons, at least in regard to sticking to the arm throughout. I need to learn to never write off matches as I was sure this wouldn't be too good and then was blown away. Tim

Add this to the "Eddy Guerrero is the best wrestler in the world in 2004" list. I don't want to write too much because I don't want to spoil this. Usual story of Rey being the flyer and Eddy being the wrestler. Since the WWE Title is on the line, Rey brings everything he has. While Rey brings the flying, Eddy is content to work the arm with basic wrestling holds, which only makes Rey's flying seem all the more spectacular. Eddy almost starts getting boo's when he beats up Rey too much, which is how incredible he is that as a full blown drawing babyface at this point, he has such great ability to dictate to the crowd certain responses. There are one or two small botches. They try a variation of the flipping ddt from the Havoc 97 match and half way hit it. This is one time where crafty WWE camera work helps. More after I re-watch it again but this is better than Chavo/Rey from GAB 2004 and is a great example of a modern day Face Champion vs. Face Challenger. Almost reminded me an old studio match where two faces woud face each other in a "scientific" match, since that is what faces did. Of course, this wasn't a scientific match.

From what I understand, he was at that ONE taping, just for the Sting match and then gone. But I would have to double check Friedlanders list. Tim

Before ROH on Saturday, Paul, Tom, Phil, and myself watched a few matches. The first was a great TV match from Fall 1994 between Sting and Steve Keirn. This is after Hogan came and you would figure this would have been a 3 minute squash. Nope. This is basically worked around a hip toss early on before Keirn takes over beating on Sting and using some mat work I have never seen anywhere else. Sting wins with a Scorpian Death Lock, right? How about a Stinger Splash? Nope. He hits a friggin GERMAN suplex for the win. ASnd this isn't against Vader, it is against Steve fucking Keirn. Second up Dustin vs. Terry Funk from Florida in 1989. 20 minutes, with Funk dominating for the most part and letting Dustin get in some hope spots. This was 2 months before Funk's famous 1989 run and you can see it here. Third was an even longer Dustin v Jake Roberts TV match from Fall 1992 that is easily Jake's best match ever. Seek all of this out if I can't get the tape borrowed before it gets passed around the horn. Tim

I voted Best Match but would be up for WCW as well.

You need to post this review elsewhere. It is excellent.

Eaton and Condrey were very good stooge bumpers. Lane was a level down from them but he even had his good stooge bumps, though his all around bumping was as good as those two. I think Tommy Rogers brought some very nice face in peril bumping to his matches. I need to really think through what I want to say about bumping and how when done right, can almost carry a match without any big moves (i.e. Duggan/DiBiase in the cage). Tim

I re-watched both Magnum v DiBiase matches from the Mid South Vol 1 collection last night. This was after watching the 7/18/05 Misawa vs. Kawada match and while the match was great and a MOTYC, I was disappointed with the Tiger Suplex '85 on Kawada, as Misawa grinded Kawada into the mat (ala how he would do it with Kobashi) instead of Kawada taking it with a huge head bump like he would in their classic 7/24/95 match. Watching DiBiase put over Magnum's most offense with a variety of bumps was a treat. A punch early in the match would get a basic back bump. A dropkick would get a roll over on the neck. Magnum's powerslam on the concrete was very protected (as it should be) but still looked good. It was easy to see DiBiase's bumping is superior to Magnum's. When DiBiase came off the top rope with an axe-handle, Magnum took a standard, hard back bump. It looked nice and didn the trick, but was tame in comparison to DiBiase. DiBiase used his FULL bumping ability in the cage match against Duggan. Every bump was different to get a different reaction from the crowd. The most memorable non head drop bump was when Duggan finally hit him with the Coal Miners Glove. DiBiase took the best bump with the perfect dramatic effect for the punch. Jerry Lawler was a great bumper and did some big, dangerous bumping way before E Cee Dub. One moment in particular is during his Loser Leaves Town match (6/83) with Dundee. It is early on and they do a rope running sequence that ends with Dundee giving Lawler the most beautiful back elbow I have ever seen, with Lawler putting it over with a tremendous big bump to shift the momentum. Dundee was no slouch either as he could take really nice bumps and do them well to garner the best reaction. Dundee and Lawler were also the master of punching bumps and knowing how to build them. They would first take th eheadshots by flicking their necks back in the direction the punch was coming from to make the already solid looking shots look AMAZING. When it came time to take the actual bump off of a "devastating" bump, they would take it so well. This isn't the "punch, bump, get up, rinse, wash, repeat" that often happens. Along with the above mentioned "back elbow" Lawler/Dundee, my favorite other bumps include: - Kawada on 7/29/93 vs. Misawa selling Misawa's 3 released german suplexes - Kawada on 7/24/95 vs. Misawa selling the release tiger suplex '85 right on his head - DiBiase vs. Duggan from 3/24/85 with DiBiase's overall bumping the whole match - Jerry Lawler being thrown over the top rope by Joe LeDuc on to a table in 1980 This is all over the place but I figure could spark some decent discussion. Tim

If Benoit works without the WWE style (ala his match with Regal), it should be at least very good. Crazy/Rey could go either way, but it is enough for me to watch it. Eddy/Rey at GAB could be awesome.

Fantastics

Fantastics I watched Gordy/Roberts vs. DiBiase/JYD from 1981 with the piledriving angle over the weekend and loved it. But I can't think of any other top notch Freebirds tag team matches on tape. I need to see more of them but the Fantastics get this one. Tim

Back to Fuck me again. Going head to head, their Mid South matches were disappointing. Their World Class matches were excellent though I like the Fantastics performances better. Eaton/Condrey did a lot of great things but Eaton would add so much to his move set within the year (1985) that his World Class matches are often a tad disappointing if you are expecting lots of his great flying. While Eaton/Condrey were able to work w RnR in Crockett in 1986 (as well as Magnum/Dusty and Road Warriors), Fantastics were in Memphis making poor teams look good and then having that long feud with the Sheepherders (who I don't really dig). Fantastics but I can easily understand Condrey/Eaton winning.

Ah, a bit easier this time. For me, Steiners matches age badly, both from the US and Japan. Fantastics matches don't age badly for me. Fantastics