Tim Cooke

Fuck again. I know i would get trolled by some trolls for this statement but Bobby Fulton > Robert Gibson. Morton and Rogers are on the same playing field, though I have seen Morton turn it off where as I haven't seen Rogers produce lackluster performances. And when Rogers doesn't work most of the match, Fulton usually delivers in a big way (4/26/88 vs. MX / 6/10/88 vs. MX). Personal preference = Fantastics

Damn, it gets hard here. Eaton and Lane's best matches were against the Fantastics in 1988. Fantastics have the benefit of being together from 1984-2004 (with some time off) while Eaton/Lane have 4/87-10/90. I really wish there was a Fantastics vs. Nikita/other mediocre heel match as Eaton/Lane do a fine job working with Dusty/Nikita in late 87 (and face Nikita makes me hate wrestling where as heel Nikita makes me love wrestling). Eaton/Lane win but I'm not happy with it.

Rock n Roll Express

Condrey/Eaton

Eaton/Lane

On American Classics #8, there is a Fantastics v Eaton/Condrey match from St. Louis. No idea on the date, promotion, etc. And it cuts out after 9 minutes. But it is ALL of the Fantastics great spots and the MX stooging so well including lots of hugging each other. At one point Condrey picks Rogers up to set up a backbreaker but Rogers countered by almost doing a Rey Jr. like tilt-a-whirl headscissors except once he grabbed Condrey's head with his legs, he did a more traditional headscissors takedown. All of the WCCW matches tend to run together for me but this opening is as good as any of their WCCW and better than the Mid South openings. Just as I was starting to really get into the RnR again, Rogers and Fulton pull out this. Tim

Fantastics. Double team moves, awesome babyfaces who learned how to be a decent heel team in the mid 90's in AJPW.

Booker T - I liked his WCW work and his early WWF work. Haven't cared since he broke up with Dustin. Tito Santana - don't like but haven't seen enough to really give a decent opinion. Jun Akiyama - love his 1993-1997 work. Could care less afterwards. Necro Butcher - his 6/11/05 match against Samoa Joe is a crazy brawl which sold me on Necro. His 6/25/04 KOTDM against Toby Klein is fun but the Joe match made me want to see the re-match instantly. Hulk Hogan - the Backlund match from 4/12/80 in Philly is a favorite of mine but I could be the same without ever seeing a Hogan match again. Mike Awesome - People always talk of the great Paul Heyman protecting people. I never see it except in Awesome's case. He made Awesome look 20x as good as he is and might have been the best working ECW Champion (well, he probably is after thinking about all list of champs) Kyoko Inoue - she annoys me Fuerza Guerrera - my FAVORITE luchador of all time right now as he bumps big, has a terrific schtick, and is the ultimate rudo. The Rock - if only he had better punches...other than that, I have always liked the Rock. Edge - Back in 2000 when he was fresh, I liked him, could care less now. Tim

I liked it. My brother taped it for me as I didn't watch it live so I had the commls cut out. I liked Eddy/Rey from 6/23 Smackdown better as face vs. face matches aren't doing anything for me these days. That and watching about 5 hours of Memphis stuff that I was indexing yesterday probably made the match not stand out as well as it did for others. Tim

I taped it Loss. I'll shoot it down to Will. Tim

Bodies destroy Dudleyz in match quality, promo ability. Dudleyz probably drew more money with the whole Tables/Ladders/Chairs WWE gimmick, but is it.

I would want him to slap around a couple of the guys who can't do more than spots.

Now now now, TNA is just as big of a mess as WWE is in their booking department politics. Tim

My thoughts when my brother called me on the way to work with the news was to get Cornette in ROH on a more regular basis and have him be a co-head booker (or Head Booker altogether but I doubt that would happen). That could also get ROH in Kentucky and have a show that really feels southern. Tim

Match #13 - Hardy Boyz v Hart Foundation - Hardy Boyz. Nothing against the Hart Foundation but Bret in singles always worked better for me. Match #14 - Harlem Heat v Fabulous Freebirds (Hayes/Gordy/Roberts) - Freebirds easily, though Heat against a lot of other teams woud have advanced for me. Match #15 - Heavenly Bodies v Dudley Boyz - Bodies. Match #16 - The Russians (Ivan/Nikita/Kruschev) v Brainbusters - Russians. For me, this comes down to two matches. Russians v RnR from 7/85 and a tremendous 20 minute draw from 10/86 vs. Lightning Express. I like Tully and Arn a ton but the only tag match they have that comes close to those two matches is the Clash I against super worker Windham and mega over, motivated Luger. The Rockers series is the same spots in each match. I may be the only one to pick the Russians but at least I won't get trolled like at the Oratory. World Powers Colliding is still one on my favorite wrestling angles. Tim

Match #9 - Raven & Perry Saturn v Rockers - Rockers easily. Raven/Saturn had one great match. Rockers had at least 5 that were better and 100's that were as good. Match #10 - Eliminators v Rick & Scott Steiner - Steiners. Eliminators are a product of ECW cultism. Match #11 - Smoking Gunns v Miracle Violence Connection (Williams & Gordy) - Williams and Gordy, even though I don't care for them a lot as a tag team. Match #12 - Strike Force v Midnight Express (Eaton & Condrey) - Condrey/Eaton. Tim

http://www.deathvalleydriver.com/dvdvr/dvdvr147.html Jon Cortez vs Jim Breaks- 2/4/1981-(DEAN RASMUSSEN):It's 7 in the morning on a Sunday. Being the sabbath, I can only assume the Lord wants to get closer to me and to bless me and have his shine upon me bacause there is a Jim Breaks match from 1981 on this dvd. Phil Rippa- who is on sabbaticcal or who has turned heel or is plotting our deaths- sends me all these fucking awesome British wrestling dvds that he gets from Batboy. I have like ten of these now and I feel disingenuous by starting with a collection of a great British wrestler because you really need to know that for every masterpiece of weird ass matwork you get, you would also get a 7 round Kendo Nagasaki tag match with two guys who appear to be former Harold McMillan cabinet ministers. Let me say that Jim motherfucking Breaks is your motherfucking DADDY, motherfucker. He is sooooooo motherfucking great. Breaks is this scrawny, hateful, high-pitched whiny British asshole heel who is sooooooooooo much better than anybody else on any of these dvds. Johnny Saint and Fit Finlay and Steve Regal and Clive Myers and Sayama and Marc Rocco and whoever else you can conjure- Jim Breaks gottem beat. So fucking carney and he can just enrage an audience by being a whimpering ninny one minute and being a bonecrushing shooter in the next. He does every trick in the book: taunting the crowd while spindling Cortez' arm on the mat, feigning a charge on Cortez as he is walking to the corner between rounds, the Fuerza Guerrera handshake spots- sheer genius. Cortez is all elegant and graceful and Breaks gives him the business and calls him a pansy before Breaks rudos a snapmare like fuckin Blue Panther. Breaks does all these carney armholds that everybody needs to steal. They look fucking NASTY. He augments the carney holds with the carney baiting of the rubes. It's like if you had a clown in the dunking booth be able snap all the tendons in your shoulder. He is all insults and violence- like a real heel does, and he does it all in the ring. The audience is just completely captivated. Guys at computers typing at 7 in the morning 24 years later are captivated. Breaks was the British Ric Flair. God, the same round where he does the Snapmare Challenge, he does a molten headlock sequence that ENRAGES the rubes and plays to the strength of Cortez grace as Cortez escapes. He then sells Cortex bizarre Santo headstake variation like screeching 6 year old. Between round 2 and 3, he points at people in the audience and threatens them. Cortez with the cravate and Breaks responds by reversing into a headlock and sneaking in a punch to the head. Breaks goes on the offense and mixes in legal open hand strikes with other strikes when he can get the ref behind him- all the while denying everything to the crowd in his astoundingly annoying voice. He fishhooks Cortez while arguing with the ref and the crowd goes molten in hate. Finally Cortez freaks out and starts slamming Breaks head on the mat and the babyface pop is straight out of Memphis 1976. Then Cortez gets the public warning after Breaks has broken every rule in wrestling. SOUTHERN AS A FUCKING COUNTRY FRIED STEAK. Breaks should been a fucking British Freebird. So Breaks goes back to taunting the crowd while cheating in a headlock and the crowd at this point is popping like Sting has just propelled down from the rafters in 1999 whenever Cortez gets anything in. Fourth round, Cortez is too fast for Breaks, hitting all these beautiful armdrags. Breaks taunts Cortez' bouncing on his toes and Cortez headbutts him in the stomach. Breaks being Proto-Rudo, points directly to his dick and yells un foule. Cortez does a shoulderwrench and Breaks sells it like Ray the Crippler Stevens. He tries again and Breaks forearms him in the head and wrenches in his arm-shattering submission hold and Breaks wins. There is nothing else I can say. Jim Breaks is GOD. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Seriously, I need this and all of Jim Breaks matches asap. Has anyone seen any of his work? Tim

Midnight Express squash matches with or without Cornette on commentary are better than 95% of the regular TV matches going today. If a guy is limited, he gets 1 minute, does his 3 big moves, and is out. He gets over, everyone see's his big moves, and he proceeds to keep learning while doing the quick squashes. The key is to have good squash matches, not bad one's. Tim

Match #5 - Midnight Express (Eaton & Lane) v Chris Benoit & Dean Malenko - MX easily. I love the Spring Stampede '99 tag but it wouldn't be in the Top 10 best MX matches. Match #6 - Demolition v Owen Hart & Davey Boy Smith - Owen and DBS, by default. Fuck Demolition. Match #7 - Doom v Road Warriors - Tough. I like Doom vs. Arn/Barry from Starrcade 90 more than any Road Warriors match but beyond that, I can't think of many other great Doom matches where as I can think of a shitload of watchable-good RW matches. Warriors. Match #8 - Rock & Roll Express v Dream Team (Valentine & Beefcake) - Never seen the dream team and Valentine in his prime wasn't great so past his prime, yuck. RnR without a thought.