Tim Cooke

I agree, but if we do this, I want to do it right and that will mean almost going week by week. So we will have to track down a LOT of TV, but I am very willing to go forward. I say we just start in 1990 with Jumbo and Co vs. Misawa and Co and work through 1994 with the focus being on Misawa and Kawada. Tim

Multi-layered actually. First, you have Kawada who was Tenyru's protige, in the same role in 1994. You have Misawa in Jumbo's role of "The Man" which he won from Jumbo. Second, for Jumbo and Tenyru, this was their "5th" major match in the late 80's. It was only their 2nd Triple Crown match though. For Misawa and Kawada, it was their 3rd TC match and their 5th major match of the early 1990's. Third, in both matches, the challenger was ready to defeat in the Champion. Fourth, you have the Triple Crown being defended in Bukodan in June. Fifth and most important, Tenyru defeats Jumbo with 2 powerbombs. Against Williams in the 1994 Carnival Final, Kawada needs 3 to put away the #1 Gajin. Let's forget that they fucked up and in the 3/27/93 match, Kawada hit 3 powerbombs. So 3 powerbombs will defeat Misawa on 6/3/94. Kawada hits the first at the 25:00 for the Nearfall of the Decade. The second comes 2 minutes later but Misawa kicks out unlike Jumbo who couldn't against Tenyru. A third will definetly put Misawa out. Kawada never is able to hit a third and accomplish his mission. Tim

I haven't seen this since October 2001 when I got the Barnett "K" tape it was on. Back then, I was still new to anything not Junior Heavyheight in Japan. I liked the match, but not enough to keep me from trading it off after a while. The same could be said of their 10/88 match. Watching both again this week, I have new appreciation for both matches and they rapidly move up my Best of the 80's list. The 10/88 match is very long. Around 36 minutes, it is a Jumbo masterpiece as he makes the match a rollercoaster of peaks and valleys, picking it up at the appropriate times and then settling down. It is interesting to see Tenyru as a close challenger as opposed to Jumbo's great work with lesser challengers in Kawada, Kobashi, etc. in the early 90's. Tenyru is always a step away from fully gaining control but once he tries to go all out, it usually fails him. From trying to ground Jumbo with the great AJPW side headlock early on to trying to outstrike him, it just keeps failing. The 6/89 match is Tenyru as the equal. So what does Jumbo do? He beats the crap out of him from the get go (after being surprised by an early german suplex). This makes the crowd boo for almost everything he does the rest of the match, even if he isn't heeling it up. A simple abdominal stretch gets boo'ed and Jumbo being the king he is, does heel it up on that move after the boo's start. The final two powerbombs and overall themes of the match make this an easy must see on not only its own but also in the realm of what Misawa and Kawada would do 5 years later. Tim

My copy looks great. Looks like it was recorded right ot the DVR. The production is ECW style so it doesn't look WWE clean but the picture is as perfect as all WWE PPV's.

You bet Kawada/Foley sucked. They both looked like crap that day.

Get Death of WCW from Alvarez for more on what Loss was saying. I can shoot that down to you if needed. Good stuff and the Nash "work" in late 1998 about political power sounds too funny to be true yet it is.

Trevor Rhodes = Stan Dupp if you saw him in IWA-MS or on early TNA PPV's. Dawn Marie was def pregnant at ECW ONS. Rumor has it that it is Chuck Palumbo's. Tim

Saw 3/4's of the show last night (via DVD which will be coming to Will next week for those of you who get stuff from him). Unintentional hilarity- * The mutants chanting Chris Candido at a random point during the Jericho/Storm match. It wasn't like Jericho & Strom were doing a tribute spot or anything. * Joey Styles "acting" when he came out. His choked up act was HHH level bad. * Rey & Psicosis couldn't have done anything to make the match work. When they first worked ECW in 1995, they worked JUST spots and through away the mat work since the mutants couldn't be bothered by it. In 2005, they could have worked a WWE match or a quasi regular match. They did a bit of both. Psicosis wokring Rey's spots at the beginning was a role reversal that shouldn't have happened. My question is, would the mutants boo Mistico when he would attempt the 619? * If ECW ever got launched again, JBL for lead heel. I think ECW fans would buy PPV's to see him get beat. Re-inventing Kayfabe through real life. That said, his assault on Meanie was an asshole move. * Takana/Awesome was fun. "Now that they have Awesome, all they need to do is bring in Tanaka and this could help turn WCW around." - me to my brother in 2000 after WCW got Awesome. What a mess that turned out to me. Awesome's tope con hilo is still majorly impressive and Tanaka makes him look like a million bucks. Stopped there. Tim

1/17/00 - Watching Nitro open with Kidman and Psicosis going more than 2 minutes and knowing something was terribly wrong. As much as Russo totally sucked his first time around, he did push Benoit. Those next 11 months were absolutely pitiful for WCW. 3/19/01 - when it was realized that Bischoff wouldn't be buying WCW and McMahon would. 2001 - the WHOLE Invasion angle. Crap outside of Austin/Angle from Summerslam. 2002-present - the regression of Chris Benoit 2002-present - Old Man Flair hanging around with Trips 2004-present - reading the Oratory's love affair with HHH

Loss is right. Huge archive of reviews during the late 90's boom. He did make me laugh in his ECW ONS review that Rey Jr. should have been replaced by London. I love London but that isn't the solution. The solution would have been to have a 15 minute, 2/3 falls match, with just spots, fucking off WWE spots. And Rey was still injured, so who knows how that would have turned out. Tim

When Konan and Pena split in 1996, Psicosis went to WCW/Promo Azteca with Konan. Pena has the Psicosis gimmick trademarked and gave it to a local guy Leon Negro. Psicosis used the gimmick in the US because it wou dbe too hard and too much money for Pena to bring his lawsuit to the US. But that is not the case in Mexico. It didn't end up mattering as Psicosis (original) lost his mask in September of 1999.

The Elmer Fudd promo is fantastic as well. Cornette is great throughout his career but 1986 when he had all those great babyfaces to make fun of was his peak on the mic.