soup23

From time to time, PWO gets accused of having one mind and one opinion in regards to certain wrestlers/styles/matches that are our favorites. I find this to be fairly astounding given the diverse opinion of the group of people I interact with about wrestling on a daily basis. Here was a quick listing that I thought of off the top of my head with prominent posters/mods here on things we disagree on: 1. I had the 8/24/94 Kansai/Hotta vs. Hokuto/Kong match as my #2 MOTY and *****, Loss didn't rank this on first watch at even ***. 2. Loss is generally a big fan of Hayabusa, I am not a fan and Childs especially isn't. 3. I rated Rage in a Cage from 1997 as *****, Childs hated the match. 4. Goodhelmet sees Murdoch as a top 30 worker of all time, he will have to fight to make my bottom 25. 5. I disagree with a lot of what MattD says/views wrestling. 12/25/86 Rockers vs. Somers/Rose. 6. Me and Parv have had our share of disagreements on matches, the current product, etc. 7. Grimmas and Will can dig the fuck out of minis, take them or leave them with me for the most part. 8. I praised a Nikita vs. Sting match on WTBBP, Shoe went the other way as did Parv. 9. Dylan digs ECW, I have been left cold by almost everything dealing with it. 10. Dylan highly praised Curt Hennig heel stuff on the AWA set, me and Parv thought it was middling. This is ten examples but it shows that this happens between moderators and people that share podcast hosting duties. I don't need to get into the arguments between Joe/Dylan and JDW/Parv that have occurred. All of the above examples are people I readily consider to be "friends" with. Certainly when building a leadership team for a website/podcast/etc, you tend to view people who are fundamentally like you from time to time, but true success usually comes from diversity, springboarding off of that facet, I know for a fact through personal facts, that the entity of PWO is a lot different outside of wrestling too religiously/politically/etc. Does this mean that Lawler may be considered the #1 wrestler of all time here and no where else? Sure, but don't take that to mean that everyone agrees with Will stating that and in fact podcasts have been conducted of counterarguments to that claim. We will agree on some and disagree on others but the strive of PWO is to bring intelligent, focused wrestling discussion. I don't want to stray off of that initiative. My plea is that we don't think of PWO as one thought but a community of minds discussing a hobby we all enjoy.

Another year in the books. This year transcended some pretty big moments in my real life in becomming a father and this was one of the more nostalgic years I have went through as I was completely locked in with both of the big two around this point. I don't think the consistent match quality is here as in other years in the decade, and each promotion has times where it dips overall but this was still an enjoyable time trekking through the year. Mitsuharu Misawa vs. Kenta Kobashi (AJPW 10/31/98) (*****) Kiyoshi Tamura vs. Tsuyoshi Kohsaka (RINGS 6/27/98) (*****) Toshiaki Kawada vs. Kenta Kobashi (AJPW 6/12/98) (*****) Kenta Kobashi vs. Jun Akiyama (AJPW 7/24/98) (****3/4) El Hijo del Santo vs. Felino (CMLL 10/18/98) (****3/4) Koji Kanemoto vs. Dr. Wagner Jr. (NJPW 6/3/98) (****3/4) Genichiro Tenryu vs. Shinya Hashimoto (NJPW G-1 Climax 8/1/98) (****1/2) Kiyoshi Tamura vs. Yoshihisa Yammamoto (RINGS 9/21/98) (****1/2) Kiyoshi Tamura vs. Mikhail Ilioukhine (RINGS 1/21/98) (****1/2) Steve Austin vs. Dude Love (Over the Edge 5/31/98) (****1/2) Kenta Kobashi & Jun Akiyama vs. Stan Hansen & Vader (AJPW 12/5/98) (****1/2) Atlantis, Mr. Niebla & Negro Casas vs. El Hijo del Santo, Black Warrior & Blue Panther (CMLL 4/24/98) (****1/2) HHH vs. The Rock (Ladder Match) (Summerslam 8/30/98) (****1/2) Mitsuharu Misawa vs. Toshiaki Kawada (AJPW 5/1/98) (****1/2) Chris Benoit & Dean Malenko vs. Chris Jericho & Eddy Guerrero (Brian Hildebrand Tribute 11/29/98) (****1/4) Mitsuharu Misawa vs. Jun Akiyama (AJPW 4/18/98) (****1/4) Olimpico vs. Halcon Negro (CMLL 10/23/98) (****1/4) Yuki Ishikawa vs. Carl Greco (BattlARTS 4/24/98) (****1/4) Kenta Kobashi vs. Akira Taue (AJPW 9/11/98) (****1/4) Reiko Amano & Chikayo Nagashima vs. Toshie Uematsu & Sonoko Kato (Oz Academy 6/21/98) (****1/4) Aja Kong & Mayumi Ozaki vs. Toshiyo Yamada & Meiko Satomura (GAEA 12/27/98) (****1/4) Kenta Kobashi vs. Jun Akiyama (AJPW 4/11/98) (****1/4) Serial Thrillaz vs. Death and Destruction (OMEGA 5/8/98) (****1/4) Genichiro Tenryu vs. Shinya Hashimoto (NJPW 8/8/98) (****1/4) Hayabusa vs. Mr. Gannosuke (FMW 4/30/98) (****1/4) Yuki Ishikawa vs. Daisuke Ikeda (BattlARTS 5/27/98) (****1/4) Manami Toyota vs. Shinobu Kandori (AJW 8/23/98) (****1/4) Toshiaki Kawada & Akira Taue vs. Kenta Kobashi & Johnny Ace (AJPW 6/5/98) (****1/4) Akira Maeda vs. Yoshihisa Yammamoto (RINGS 7/20/98) (****1/4) Ric Flair vs. Bret Hart (Souled Out 1/24/98) (****1/4) Sandman vs. .Sabu (Stairway to Hell) (House Party 1/10/98) (****1/4) Hayabusa, Daisuke Ikeda, Hisakatsu Oya & Ricky Fuji vs. Kodo Fuyuki, Koji Nakagawa, Kintaro Kanemura & Gedo (FMW 6/19/98) (****1/4) Jun Akiyama vs. Yoshinari Ogawa (AJPW 9/11/98) (****) Hayabusa vs. Kodo Fuyuki (FMW 11/20/98) (****) Chris Benoit vs. Booker T (GAB 6/14/98) (****) Ultimo Dragon vs. Shinjiro Ohtani (NJPW 1/4/98) (****) Masato Tanaka vs. Mr. Gannosuke (FMW 1/6/98) (****) Billy Kidman vs Juventud Guerrera (WCW Monday Nitro 11/16/98) (****) Shadow WX vs. Tomoaki Honma (Barbed Wire Baseball Bat and Barbed Wire Board Match) (BJPW King of the Death Matches 7/26/98) (****) Shinya Hashimoto vs. Kazuo Yamazaki (NJPW G-1 Climax 8/2/98) (****) Mitsuharu Misawa vs. Toshiaki Kawada (AJPW 3/29/98) (****) Super Delphin & Gran Naniwa vs. Naohiro Hoshikawa & Masato Yakushiji (M-Pro 11/8/98) (****) El Hijo del Santo, Felino & Negro Casas vs. Silver King, Villano IV & V (CMLL 12/18/98) (****) Booker T vs. Fit Finlay (GAB 6/14/98) (****) Jushin Liger, El Samurai, Kendo Ka Shin, Dr. Wagner Jr. & Hayato Nanjyo vs. Shinjiro Ohtani, Koji Kanemoto, Tatsuhito Takaiwa, Kaz Hayashi & Masakazu Fukuda (Elimination Match) (NJPW 6/5/98) (****) Mitsuharu Misawa vs. Jun Akiyama (AJPW 1/26/98) (****) Hayabusa & Masato Tanaka vs. W*ING Kanemura & Kodo Fuyuki (FMW 5/27/98) (****) Chris Benoit vs. Raven (Souled Out 1/24/98) (****) Toshiaki Kawada & Akira Taue vs. Kenta Kobashi & Jun Akiyama (AJPW 10/11/98) (****) Yuki Ishikawa vs. Alexander Otsuka (BattlARTS 8/29/98) (****) Diamond Dallas Page vs. Chris Benoit (SuperBrawl 2/22/98) (****) Ken Shamrock vs. Owen Hart (Lion’s Den Match) (Summerslam 8/30/98) (****) Tracy Smothers & Little Guido vs Chris Candido & Lance Storm (ECW 03/06/98) (****) The Undertaker vs. Mankind (Hell In A Cell) (KOTR 6/28/98) (****) Toshiaki Kawada vs. Jun Akiyama (AJPW 3/26/98) (***3/4) Etsuko Mita & Mima Shimoda vs. Meiko Satomura & Sonoko Kato (GAEA 1/15/98) (***3/4) Mitsuharu Misawa, Jun Akiyama & Satoru Asako vs. Toshiaki Kawada, Yoshinari Ogawa & Takao Omori (AJPW 8/23/98) (***3/4) Olimpico vs. Halcon Negro (CMLL 10/30/98) (***3/4) Yuki Ishikawa & Alexander Otsuka vs. Daisuke Ikeda & Carl Greco (BattlARTS 4/19/98) (***3/4) Genichiro Tenryu vs. Keiji Muto (NJPW G-1 Climax 7/31/98) (***3/4) Billy Kidman vs. Rey Misterio Jr vs. Juventud Guerrera (Starrcade 12/27/98) (***3/4) Jushin Liger vs. Koji Kanemoto (NJPW 7/15/98) (***3/4) Mr. Gannosuke vs. Jinsei Shinzaki (FMW 4/21/98) (***3/4) Diamond Dallas Page vs. Goldberg (Havoc 10/25/98) (***1/2) Eddie Guerrero vs. Billy Kidman (Starrcade 12/27/98) (***1/2) Meiko Satomura vs. Sonoko Kato (GAEA 8/23/98) (***1/2) Yuki Ishikawa vs. Alexander Otsuka (BattlARTS 1/20/98) (***1/2) Shawn Michaels vs. Undertaker (Casket Match) (Rumble 1/18/98) (***1/2) RVD vs. Bam Bam Bigelow (ECW 4/4/98) (***1/2) Aja Kong vs. Mariko Yoshida (ARSION 6/21/98) (***1/2) Eddy Guerrero vs Rey Misterio Jr. (WCW Monday Nitro 12/21/98) ***1/2 Yumi Fukawa vs. Candy Okutsu (ARSION 2/18/98) (***1/2) Christopher Haseman vs. Wataru Sakata (RINGS 9/21/98) (***1/2) Steve Austin vs. Dude Love (Unforgiven 4/26/98) (***1/2) Owen Hart vs. Ken Shamrock (Dungeon Match) (Fully Loaded 7/26/98) (***1/2) Sting vs. Diamond Dallas Page (Nitro 3/23/98) (***1/2) Eddy Guerrero & Juventud Guerrera vs. Rey Misterio Jr & Billy Kidman (Nitro 12/28/98) (***1/2) Yuki Ishikawa vs Katsumi Usuda (BattlARTS 03/06/98) (***1/2) Mariko Yoshida vs. Candy Okutsu (ARSION 12/18/98) (***1/2) Mens Teoh vs. Shoichi Funaki (M-Pro 1/14/98) (***1/2) Billy Kidman vs. Juventud Guerrera (Nitro 9/14/98) (***1/2) Hardy Boyz vs. Serial Thrillaz (OMEGA 12/4/98) (***1/2) Mike Awesome vs. Masato Tanaka (Heat Wave 8/2/98) (***1/2) Booker T vs. Chris Benoit (Thunder 5/27/98) (***1/2) Goldberg vs. Raven (Nitro 4/20/98) (*** ½) Terry Funk vs. Mick Foley (Falls Count Anywhere) (RAW 5/4/98) (***1/2) Chris Benoit vs. Fit Finlay (Slamboree 5/17/98) (***1/2) Genichiro Tenryu & Shiro Koshinaka vs. Masa Chono & Hiroyoshi Tenzan (NJPW 6/5/98) (***1/2) Goldberg vs. Sting (Nitro 9/14/98) (***1/2) Rey vs. Juventud (Thunder 11/12/98) (***1/2) Hayabusa vs. The Gladiator (FMW 3/17/98) (***1/2) Hardy Boyz vs. Venom & Shane Helms (OMEGA 7/24/98) (***1/2) Rey Misterio Jr vs. Billy Kidman (Nitro 11/23/98) (***1/2) Hayabusa vs. Hisakatsu Oya (FMW 12/13/98) (***1/2) Shawn Michaels vs. Steve Austin (Mania 3/29/98) (***1/4) Steve Austin, Cactus Jack, Chainsaw Charlie & Owen Hart vs. Hunter Hearst Helmsley, New Age Outlaws & Savio Vega (No Way Out 2/15/98) (***1/4) X-Pac vs. Jeff Jarrett (Hair vs. Hair) (SummerSlam 8/30/98) (***1/4) Shiro Koshinaka vs. Masa Chono (NJPW G-1 Climax 8/1/98) (***1/4) Cruiserweight Battle Royal / Chris Jericho vs. Dean Malenko (Slamboree 5/17/98) (***) (PERSONAL PICK) Ric Flair vs. Eric Bischoff (Nitro 12/28/98) (**) (PERSONAL PICK)

Watched this in full, I do think the opening matwork and stuff centered around the leg does help in the final stretch, but I also agree that some of Kanemoto's selling was wonky that took me out of the match a good bit at times. Perplexing match as all the elements were there for an absolute classic, but the leg work just slightly prevented it from reaching that level for me. (***3/4)

No one will argue that Tiger Mask II is some great shakes and Jumbo in his 70's was better than Misawa as TM but that is not where the debate should only lie between those two. I think it should be more Jumbo 70's vs. Misawa 2000's and Misawa 1990's vs. Jumbo 1982 -1992. This would give a more accurate picture of them head to head. I was only pointing out that the second portion of the statement seemed to be leaning towards a longevity argument for Jumbo and that isn't the case in my opinion.

Honestly you could probably do that for Misawa too for 1988-2009 minus maybe 1989.

This is generally the case, but I think that falls with most wrestling, no? The great stuff rises above and transcends the trends but the formula for most of the meat in generally there and it is up to the viewer to decide which style they generally prefer.

This really should have been the end of Starrcade along with Goldberg winning a title defense. I may just have to sneak this into my top 100 as I had a smile on my face thorughout and loved things like the Horseman coming to protect Flair, the random Savage appearance with Gorgeous George and the great celebration to close out the year. By far the best segment to end a year of viewing so far. (**)

This was bad as Nash decides to play the reluctant champion and offers a challenge to Goldberg for next week.

It is an absolute shame that Eddy has the car wreck on New Years Eve as the last two months were great for him and he will be well represented on my year end top 100. Kidman too has aged well and this is one of the better cruiserweight runs they had with focus and great action. The finish of this was good as Eddy and Juvi pick up a big win. (***1/2)

This is certainly more ridiculous Flair but damn if December 1998 wasn't a great month for him on the promo side that would be highlights for almost anyone else. This results in the match set up tonight that should have been the Starrcade match.

Raven's family has some nice digs. Raven doesn't like chocolate in his milk.

Vince fires Shawn and gets SCM as a result. This kind of sucks as I have enjoyed heel Shawn and this feels way too soon to switch.

This angle has been better than I imagined actually all due to Henry's acting. The look on his face when Chyna calls him her man was glorious.

This was amazing and underrated in time. Vince does a variety of workouts and fills up on the protein with eating raw eggs. He is looking ready for the Rumble.

Vince has a bone to pick with the way HBK conducted himself last week. He punishes DX as a result.

I liked the match too. They have done good not to fall into the trap of making Goldberg matches overstay their welcome. The crowd is electric too and they did a good job of giving each guy dominant stretches throughout the match. The ending is what it is and has been overanalyzed to death but it is a huge gaffe and I don't really see how more people didn't put pressure on Nash that this wasnt the way to go. Overall as a show, Starrcade 98 is probably better than 97. (***)

I liked this up until the finish. It was way shorter than the Bisch vs. Larry Z match from last year and Bischoff only got one good kick in to gain offense. I thought the crowd was pretty weak with Flair and I again question why shows like this werent being held in the Georgia Dome. The finish was atrocious. I understand the history with Hennig in the blue suit but it felt so played and Bischoff gets this win for no reason whatsoever. (**)

One of the better Hall promos in quite a while basically saying 1999 will be a reversal of fortune for him.

The three way was really good. i thought they cut a nice pace and didn't fall into many tropes of three way matches keeping the action intricate and fluid throughout. I liked how each guy got a chance to shine on a dive to the outside culminating in the SSP Kidman delivered. I also thought the commentary was really good for this match, even Hennan was locked in and interested in the action. Great start to the PPV. (***3/4) The Eddy vs. Kidman match was also really good. Eddy has really stepped up his game the past month and worked a great brawl style here kicking Kidman and knowing he has the stamina advantage. They really pushed Kidman over huge and I liked seeing Rey Jr. cause Eddy's demise. Brain again was great saying that this looked like two construction workers going at it on their breakd. (***1/2)

I thought this was great. Aja and Oz are such a great bully tag team that they made Yamada and Satomura work for everything. The pace was relentless and the finish felt appropriate while sprinkling in some great hope spots. Perfect length too. Chigusa and Lioness getting into in the post match made me look forward to 1999 GAEA. (****1/4)

I think you have taken the most enriching path overall Pete. There are a lot of times I wish I hadnt bounced around and went strictly chronological.

Each year I finish is filled with a sense of sadness, reflection and accomplishment. I get such reward from getting a feel for each year I plow through. It allows me to give structure and purpose to this hobby and discover tons of new stuff that I wouldn't otherwise.

Pretty good action between these two and ending with Taz giving him a fairly dangerous dragon suplex through a table. I couldn't care less about what Taz underlying intentions where.

I am not that severe on it but this is a match that has disappointed me throughout the years. I have found Kawada's selling to be spotty and feel like this match really was carried by rep alone. ***1/2 star match in my mind, not a classic.