Robert S

A couple of random thoughts: - Spanky here has a physique like 2004 Jack Evans - The ring here is huge for an indy promotion. Did HBK buy an old ring from the WWF? - Considering both guys are three months pro (and probably did not train much more than 3 or 4 months before that) they try a lot of things. Of course they don't hit everything but enough that it does not make them look bad or kill the match. - Danielson is throwing some pretty stiff stuff here for a rookie. I thought that he picked that up later on training in the FMW dojo and at MCW with Regal.

About that 5 match New Japan vs. All Japan series: apparently the plan was for the series to end 3-2 for All Japan but Nagai accidentally knocked out Iizuka (well, completely smashed his face would be the more correct term, Iizuka was out of wrestling for more than a year following this match; by the way the first two Iizuka matches I had ever seen were this match and Steiner Brothers vs. Fujinami & Iizuka, needless to say I assumed Iizuka was some kind of a whipping boy).

I would suppose cities like New Orleans and Orlando are just offering WWE more money than other cities are.

Basically the Rock'n'Roll Express were past their prime when the Hardys were wrestling on a trampoline in their backyard.

Listening to Parv's explanation why he uses Jerry von Kramer instead of something like his real name I am wondering if Herb Kunze has regrets about using his real name of RSPW.

And they hit some of the points that I would have assumed would be swept under a rug like the crucifixion angle. The only obvious stuff they left out that I could think of from the top of my head was the Mass Transit incident, the "December to Forget" (as Mick Foley called it in his first book), Vic Grimes' scaffold bump and the Tanaka vs. Awesome and Tajiri vs. Super Crazy vs. Little Guido rivalries.

That's correct, one half of the Motor City Machine Guns main evented the first ECW PPV. ;-)

I have watched the first half hour so far and so far it is almost sad. While Funk's is still a pretty good storyteller it is becoming obvious that is getting really old now. His memory is going and he is repeating himself all the time. I am not saying that he is becoming senile, but is talking like a 82 year old, but not a 72 year old.

Apparently Tim Wiese, who played six times for the German national football team (as goalkeeper), who started training at the performance center half a year ago, had his pro-debut yesterday in Munich teaming with Cesaro and Sheamus beating the Shining Stars and Bo Dallas. This is all over the sports news over here currently.

If that's the case (if I did not miss anything) you skipped the 12/23/00 Kobashi vs. Akiyama match which was actually the heavily hyped match, not the one from August.

Kobashi was out with a knee injury between 12/23/00 and this match. Well, injury sounds a bit like the wrong term, his knees were basically gone so he took off 14 months and went through multiple surgeries. In this match he went too far and had to take another five months off.

Repost from the Village Green Preservation Society: My rankings for Disc 1: Buddy Rose vs. Rick Martel (2/3 falls) (4/26/80) Buddy Rose vs. Rick Martel (2/3 falls) (5/10/80) Roddy Piper & Rick Martel vs. Luke Williams & Butch Miller (2/3 Falls) (5/31/80) Harley Race vs. Rick Martel (2/3 Falls) (1/12/80) Buddy Rose & Ed Wiskowski vs. Roddy Piper & Rick Martel (2/3 Falls) (8/2/80) Roddy Piper & Rick Martel vs. Luke Williams & Butch Miller (2/3 Falls) (5/3/80) Ed Wiskowski vs. Rick Martel (2/3 Falls) (7/12/80) Buddy Rose vs. Butch Miller (2/3 Falls) (6/7/80)

If that Diamond Global section does not make it to the "best of year 2" special I don't know what is.

The guy attacking Akiyama was Takeshi Rikio (who debuted one or two months before the All Japan - NOAH split), I think.

Regarding T.H.U.G. I just saw this: https://twitter.com/wwegraves/status/780168438123638784 Samoa Joe and Corey Graves rule

12.5 years too late

After a quick view on Ditch's list here is a list of 23 matches from 00-06 that I would consider the must see stuff (either because it is that good or it was hyped back then) from that period (probably not complete as I did this in 10 minutes and I haven't seen most of this stuff since it happened): Kobashi vs. Akiyama 12/23/00 Liger & Inoue vs. Kikuchi & Kanemaru 2/17/02 Misawa & Kobashi vs. Akiyama & Nagata 2/17/02 Ogawa vs. Takayama 9/7/02 Takayama vs. Misawa 9/23/02 Misawa vs. Kobashi 3/1/03 Kobashi vs. Honda 4/13/03 Taue vs. Nagata 6/6/03 Akiyama & Saito vs. Kobashi & Honda 6/6/03 KENTA & Marufuji vs. Kanemaru & Hashi 9/12/03 Kobashi vs. Ogawa 11/1/03 Misawa & Ogawa vs. KENTA & Marufuji 4/25/04 Kobashi vs. Takayama 4/25/04 Morishima vs. Ikeda 6/1/04 Takayama vs. KENTA 6/27/04 Kobashi vs. Akiyama 7/10/04 Akiyama & Tenryu vs. Kobashi & Shiozaki 4/24/05 Kobashi vs. Sasaki 7/18/05 Misawa vs. Kawada 7/18/05 KENTA vs. SUWA 9/18/05 Sasaki & Nakajima vs. Kobashi & Shiozaki 11/5/05 Taue vs. Marufuji 3/5/06 Misawa vs. Morishima 3/5/06 There were more junior matches that was hyped pretty much but I don't think you are the guy who would enjoy long Marufuji vs. KENTA matches or MaruKENTA tag matches. Furthermore I did not add any six man tags, mostly because I don't remember which were the great ones.

Forgot that UT-Mankind was on the same show. Was this their first match and the one where Foley shockingly went over after Bearer turned on Taker? Yeah, that was good. Bearer turned on Summerslam, though Mankind won after Bearer accidentally (?) hit Taker with the urn.

Repost from DVDVR: My Puerto Rico disc 1 rankings: Ric Flair vs. Carlos Colon (10/16/82) Carlos Colon & The Invader vs. Los Pastores (Ambulance Match) (12/21/85) Ric Flair vs. Dusty Rhodes (12/21/85) The Invaders vs. Los Pastores (Barbed Wire Match) (9/21/85) Carlos Colon vs. Tully Blanchard (1983) Ric Flair vs. Tommy Gilbert (9/4/82) Carlos Colon vs. Bruiser Brody (Chain Match) (Summer 1984) Abdullah the Butcher vs. Andre the Giant (9/17/83) Randy Savage vs. Hercules Ayala (3/2/85) Gino Dellaserra & Pierre Martel vs. Los Mercenarios (11/27/82) Abdullah the Butcher vs. Carlos Colon (September 1981) El Gran Apollo vs. Buddy Landell (5/8/83) Carlos Colon vs. Abdullah the Butcher (9/21/85) El Gran Apollo vs. Dick Steinborn (February 1983) Los Pastores vs. Jay & Mark Youngblood (Spring 1985) Hercules Ayala vs. Killer Tim Brooks (Taped Fist Cage Match) (October 1985)

From what I remember Okinawa Pro was promoted by Super Delfin who of course also acted as the ace of the promotion.