soup23

I dug this at a look into M--pro in its infancy. Rudo and Signo were like the porky generic heels that come in and our taped by Black Terry Jr. Hamada did all of his signature spots and Sasuke showed real promise in delivering highspots with the same amount of grace we just saw in the AAA tag team. M-Pro has become one of my favorite 90's promotions from watching these sets and this was a good starting point to go by. ***

The blizzard show. Nothing match until the fun brawl at the concession stand. WWF still looks dated somewhat with the Nasty Boys and Bushwhackers around. I will be interested to track when the New Generation really clicks in.

JYD gives a promo here but this feels old and dated and not in a refreshing way. I don't want to continually being a negative nancy on the USA footage but nothing has grabbed me from it and it seems like rehashes of the territory greatest hits.

Completely conflicting match as it alternated between amazing to sloppy at the drop of the hat. I ended up throwing it into the very good pile but man the highlights of this really do shine and show Psicosis being the loon we know he is and Rey getting his timing down and becoming a great sympathetic tecnico. The development here is fun to see and the guys have no problems taking chances to prove their worth. ***1/2

I have been watching a lot of the 2015 NOAH vs. Suzuki-gun feud and that has been a lot of fun but damn if this WAR vs. New Japan stuff a clear step above and even guys I havent cared about or heard about like Ohara and Hara are bringing the goods. This show was awesome overall and it is capped with a heated brawl match that settles into a great storyline match of Hara and Fuyuki mauling Ohara. Fuyuki becomes one of my favorite grumpy old guys at the close of the decade in FMW and Hara gives an inspired performance here after he has been fairly middling since his peak All Japan days. I want to see every interaction of this feud. ****

I cant believe the opener was sub 6 minutes, felt much longer and I mean that in a good way. I wonder if Tharpe looks better in comparison due to no one else in wrestling in that stage doing this type of act currently. I'm not saying that his act is bad persay but it always strikes me as unique first. I'm glad you enjoyed the main event and I am baffled/disappointed in some of the criticism that has been levied toward the match. They may not have done as much stuff overall as in other IWGP matches but everything besides the back work in the back half of the match served a purpose and crafted an overall narrative.

That Flair story is great Lust Hogan. Incredible moment and shows sometimes how Flair can conjurer up an emotional jolt in me and others that few other wrestlers can.

Agreed with you both, Dawho5, correct me if you have seen it but the rib match from Taue in the 94 Carny is along the same vein of 4/18/91 and another Hansen performance I really dig.

After 10 days of no audio, it felt like it had been forever since I had heard Steven's voice. It was like some comfort food hearing it again. I think this crew has really begun to hit its stride and built chemistry with each other. I agreed with almost all of the points made here except I think I like this Bigelow vs. Taz match better than the one at Living Dangerously. Still, this is one of the better ECW PPV efforts from everything I have seen from the company.

Link to the reaction show: http://placetobenation.com/ptbn-reaction-show-nxt-takedown-rival/

http://placetobenation.com/ptbn-reaction-show-nxt-takeover-rival/ Will is joined by Johnny & Pete (Titans of Wrestling), Phil Schneider (Segunda Caida) and Kris Zellner to discuss the latest NXT special on the WWE Network. We discuss all of the matches, the futures of Itami, Balor and Owens in WWE. We discuss the differences between NXT and WWE in quality and presentation. We heap tons of praise on the main event and even argue a little bit. ENJOY!!!

2/11/15 Airing on Demand on New Japan World (1) Sho Tanaka vs. Yohei Komatsu Their usual rock solid opening match together. This featured a little more viciousness than usual in the early going and some good escapes at the end. Glad to see Tanaka win. **3/4 (2) Tiger Mask IV & Mascara Dorada vs. Manabu Nakanishi, Captain New Japan Bummer about White getting pulled as he has been one of the big discussion points of the tour up to this point. This had some good big vs. little spots but was ultimately forgettable besides Dorada winning and continuing his overall push. ** (3) Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Jushin Thunder Liger vs. Rob Conway & Chase Owens I didn't like this at all. The Conway vs. Tenzan sections was lifeless and Conway wasn't affective at doing anything. Owens wasn't much better. Top on LIger being and idiot at the finish and you have a ugh match. Liger being tricked by Maria is funny, him giving attention whore Tharpe the time of day when he has Owens beat was stupid. *3/4 (4) Tomoaki Honma vs. Kota Ibushi Great match that got better as it went along. The match wasn't a body part selling masterpiece and they may have thrown too many moves, but I was hanging on every hope spot of Honma and I loved how dominant Ibushi felt overall. This was a match this show really needed when it took place. **** (5) IWGP Jr. Tag Team Championship 3WAY Match: [39th Champions] Kyle O’Reilly & Bobby Fish vs. [Challengers] KUSHIDA & Alex Shelley vs. [Challengers] Nick Jackson & Matt Jackson ~ 2nd title defense Great spotfest. I may not rate this as highly as others but in this type of match, execution plays a bigger role in my overall enjoyment and the execution was nearly flawless here. Too many spots to name,, this was just tremendously entertaining and I liked it better than Balor vs. Neville as a spotfest match on the day as a whole. ***1/2 (6) IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Championship Match: [70th Champion] Kenny Omega vs. [Challenger] Ryusuke Taguchi ~ 1st title defense I hated the WK match and this was worse. Omega's gimmick sucks and I think most people should have come to that realization by now. The opening portion of this match was worked around inserting a flagpole into the wrestler's ass. Just dreadful and the worst New Japan match I have seen this year. * (7) Special 6 Man Tag Match: Kazuchika Okada, Toru Yano & Kazushi Sakuraba vs. Bad Luck Fale, Yujiro Takahashi & Tama Tonga There was nothing to this at all. Sakuraba was a non-factor, Yujiro and Fale are bad. Okada doesn't care. The highlight was legit Yano shrugging his shoulders which I wish I could do to this whole thing and Okada rehab storyline. He does get the win here so I guess he was only struggling for a month and he may be on the road to rehab. *1/2 (8) Special 6 Man Tag Match: Yuji Nagata, Satoshi Kojima & Tetsuya Naito vs. Shinsuke Nakamura, Tomohiro Ishii & YOSHI-HASHI Much better than the previous match although not all that good either. There is just something about these New Japan 6-mans that never deliver it seems. A spot show is more excusable but this is a PPV. I don't think Nakamura is as good as Misawa, Kawada but you really take for granted those roll out of bed ***1/4 six-mans All Japan was churning out in the early 90's. KOjima vs.. Ishii was much more engaging than the Makabe vs. Ishii interactions to me and man does Osaka not like Naito which made a nice dynamic of him going against Yoshi-Hashi. **1/2 (9) IWGP Tag Team Championship Match: [65th Champions] Hirooki Goto & Katsuyori Shibata vs. [Challengers] Karl Anderson & Doc Gallows ~ 1st title defense Disappointing considering their match at WK was really fun. This was worked in a trad tag strutucure for the first part but BC didn't do much of note on top. Then the finishing stretch happens where everything loses emphasis. How many times in this match was Shibata going to do the forearm into the corner spot. **1/4 (10) IWGP Heavyweight Championship Match: [61st Champion] Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. [Challenger] AJ Styles ~ 2nd title defense I have already seen some people including ALan 4L declare that these guys don't have chemistry. I thought this was a great match and refreshing in the overall NJ landscape. It took it's time to develop. The back work by Styles was good although Tana could have sold it more down the stretch. I wasn't bothered by the BC interference as it was minimal and led to the payback spot of the HFF on top of them. The dueling low blow stuff was fun and Tana is always most endearing to me when he shows a vicious streak. The finish played into the tour in regards to the styles Clash move and was succinct and brutal. **** Overall the matches I thought would deliver did and the matches I thought would suck did. The tag title match was disappointing. The booking is laughably bad and I think we can put to rest the Gedo/Jado are geniuses stuff for the time being. We will see how the Sendai show delivers.

Hey Marc, given you feedback elsewhere but want to state here how cool I think it is you plowing through these matches and exposing yourself to tons of new stuff. I think your criticisms of the Japanese and lucha matches are valid. Can't wait to see what you think of the top 10.

Thanks Mick If the baby will keep his regular sleep schedule and Parv will quit jet setting around the world like Ric Flair, we should be able to plow through 92 more easily.

Heel 123 Kid had a pretty high profile program with Razor that was only two months before he departed WWF. It is nothing to really hang your hat on for him as an overall worker but I think it is unfair to say he didn't play into any big storylines in early 1996 as that program was positioned as third from the top and he had house show matches vs. Piper third from the top in March. Anderson was pinning Hogan in early 1996 but was seen as Flair's clear #2 by this point as he was winding down. In ring for 1996, I would say Kid has the edge rather easily.

I would probably debate these two. Maybe we should do this in Arn's GWE thread? Arn over Tully because while Arn doesn't have the all-time classic with Magnum, I think overall his career was just plain better than Tully's. Not just longevity, but everything he did. I also think Arn overall is a better worker than Tully. Blanchard is great at selling, but not a whole lot else. He's 90% selling and stooging. Arn can do all that but also has killer offense and crisp execution. On top of that he has some GOAT-level facial expressions rivalled only by the likes of Regal. On top of all that I think Arn's an all-time promo, whereas Tully is a B+ on the stick. On top of that again, Arn could work babyface, whereas I don't buy Tully as one, even in his father's South West promotion. ------ The Steamer case is closer, but I think Arn is better working limbs than him, and has better all-round psychology. Yes, Steamer has "great matches" over Arn, but how many stinkers has Steamboat been in too? I've seen Steamboat matches I've actively hated, but can't think of too many of those for Arn. Arn is clearly a better promo than Steamboat. And better at all the character elements of in-ring work. First, promos are not being taken into account for me in this poll so that is non-factor. Tully was much more of a credible singles star than Arn for most of his career. Arn was a career lieutenant. Tully was asked and succeeded in being the #2 singles guy on numerous shows and even chip in for spot show main events. Arn from 93-95 is fairly inconsistent with some good, but also some bad. In watching the 1994 yearbook, I never thought Arn made much of a difference when he interjected himself into ECW and SMW for that matter. Therefore, Tully has 84-89 of high end work and Arn has 85-92 so we aren't talking about a huge difference and this is discounting the South West Tully stuff. The Arn and Tully team was great, but numerous times with them working together, I preferred Tully just as much as Arn. Add to that the high end singles stuff and Tully slots ahead for me. Steamboat has far more superior singles matches. He has the feud with Flair but also the feud with Savage. He has great stuff with Bret in 1986. Hell, he was great in 2009 vs. Jericho. Sure, Steamboat has had matches that weren't very good, but I think it is disengenious to say Arn didn't have a glut of ** level stuff. The key is within those matches. I watched the SSlam 1991 opener and while that match wasn't great, Steamboat was very good in it and as far as perfecting his FIP role, he did as much as you could ask of someone like Arn vs. The Patriots. Ditto on Steamboat in the Hollywood Blonds tag from 93 I watched. He made a green Shane Douglas look very credible and added weight to the tag division overall. Say what you will about Arn, he also was given good partners even when he was positioned as the leader such as with Larry.

1. Misawa 2. Kawada 3. Kobashi 4. Jumbo 5. Tenryu 6. Flair 7. Tully 8. Casas 9. Dandy 10. Satanico 11. El Hijo Del Santo 12. Liger 13. Hashimoto 14. Funk 15. Lawler 16. Steamboat 17. Mysterio 18. Bockwinkel 19. Jim Breaks 20. Hansen

End this shit now please.

I continue to the enjoy the build here as each segment is short enough to not overstay its welcome.

Wow, racy stuff but effective in getting the shock they were going for.

Here we go, a fun match that helped get me through this lull of stuff. Kid again allows HBK to be a great face and provides some great dick qualities while looking strong in defeat. This matches really needed to be more common on Raw by this point and HBK is on a roll heading into Mania in ring. ***

Big match for WCWSN in this era. Match was on the lower spectrum of a feud I am not that fond of to begin with. Flair in this run has been an interesting case study. His performances haven't been bad at all, but gone are the days of ***1/2 matches with the likes of Tom Zenk. Even the stuff that is allowed time, is below that mark for the first time. I don't know if it is a blemish to contemplate when discussing him as the best wrestler of all time, but it is worth mentioning. The finish here made Sting look a littler naive (shock I know). He did at least have a verbal spat with Luger about him coming in and blatantly interfering. **

Psicosis continues to be the most perplexing worker of 1996. I can't decide if he is the best bad worker or the most inconsistent good one on the set so far. Speaking of baseline matches that I have talked about with Liger vs. Tiger, here you go for these two as this was worked really slowly and featured hardly none of the dynamic spots these two can deliver. I am still struggling with aspects of 1996 when compared to 1999 and 1993. The top highlights have delivered but match after match has seeming fell short and this was no exception. **1/2

Wow, I don't have the hate Pete does but I also didn't see the praise either. Agree that Kosh was never one of my favorites and it resulted in this match being good in my eyes but missing something. I also failed to think Kosh had any chance in hell of prevailing here. I assume I was in the minority as the crowd was hot, and I will give Kosh credit as the butt based offense was toned down. Overall, not a bad middling title defense but nothing that retains a sense of being memorable to me. ***

Well, it wouldn't have been much of a main event if he'd dragged Diesel to Hell 30 seconds in... True but in the confines of wrestling logic, situations like these are a pet peeve of mine. Maybe he thought he could lay out the newly crowned champion or something, I dunno. I can get a heel having enough bravado that he doesn't want interference unless a loss is imminent, this just seemed like Taker hanging out and then deciding to rise from the ashes.