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I don't know how much play Morishima will get in the upcoming GWE debate, but if you are looking for his first great singles match, I would seek this one out. He has shown a lot of signs of life in 2001 and is stretching things out more with the 30 minute draw with RIkio and longer shingles match in the GHC tournament. Still, this was a match that would have been sub 10 minutes a year or two earlier and was stretched to 17 here. Morishima has his head shaved and I am unsure if that is some sort of punishment given the culture or just a new look. I had been waiting on Akiyama to deliver a performance that felt like a successor to his WOTY output from 2000 and this was the closest so far. He grinds Morishima down with a nasty combo or leg scissors and headlocks. The torque and crank on Morishima's neck looked impressive and it was a great strategy by Akiyama in doing things in a heelish way without actually breaking the rules. Morishima's comebacks were well timed and he got the right amount of nearfalls before the finish calls back to the earlier neck work and revisist the front face lock of Akiyama as a lethal finisher. Overall, a very sucessful match. **** (7.9)

Certainly a half baked death match with random ideas such as Necro lighting his leg on fire for a legdrop and Page lighting his head on fire for a headbutt for the finish. What this lacks in overall logic though, it did make up in violence and energy. Necro continues to gain that cult following among the IWA hardcores and has injected a great sense of enjoyment in the main event death matches they have presented. That along with Punk, Cabana, and Hero being able to stretch out their legs on the undercard has made IWA MS into my favorite indie to watch currently sans NWA WIldside. They have more consistent booking than CZW and the show features good variety. This was a good primer for next week's KOTDM. ***1/4

Low Ki and Xavier continue to have great chemistry with each other and is so far, Ki's best consistent work of 2001. The rest still shows how the booking of Ki has been pretty awful since the Super 8 breakout. He is in a big angle here in ICW instead of messing around with the likes of Elax like he is in JAPW. However, the heel owner bit is so played on the indies and ICW should be thankful that USA PRO is around so they aren't viewed as the most desperate Attitude era nostalgia act indie. Tammy Sytch and MIssy Hyatt had an awful segment on this show and it was main evented by another mundane ECW alum main event involing Balls and Dreamer. Ki and Xavier both deserve better than this and I hope the ladder match is a wake up call and change in direction allowing the young indie talent to get their due.

Good match but this speaks to some of the booking problems I have with GAEA. They have crafted a perfect underdog storyline of Meiko rising up the ranks and culminating in the 4/29/01 HOkuto match but other picking up upset victories like Nagashima here lessen than affect. Nagashima and KAORU are more evenly matched but even on this same exact show, you had the champion go down in a singles match to Yamada. Getting up for 1-3 big upsets is something that can be exhillarating as a viewer. Watching this match and seeing Nagashima win, my reaction was more shrugged shoulders that of course that happened and she won based on everything else that has happened in GAEA so far.

I thought this was awesome and gripping from the start. In the middle of a BOSJ tournament, Samurai and Liger are here to rain on the Tokyo parade of the Osaka contingent. Samurai's best role is as the underappreciated, fuck you wrestler and he shows that off here trying to bully Murahama and giving him that great piledriver in the middle of the heat. LIger of course is awesome as the cocky ace and Murahama is again building a top 10 WOTY case. His strikes are pristine, his speed is intoxicating and beyond that, he has all the storyline elements down to a science. He tags in Delphin with the right amount of desperation. THe leg lock sub on Samurai feels like a bonafide finish. The guy is incredible. Delphin is also a fav of mine but he was the weakest here. Still, it was really nice to see him get the victory and kudos to LIger for doing the job. ****1/4 (8.4)

Hansen is first person that came to mind. Have the WWWF stuff, Puerto Rico, AWA, NJPW candidates like Inoki, Andre match, AJPW 80s and 90s and then even candidates like Luger with the WCW stuff.

Yeah, I think the chances of something "good" is high with those two or someone like Hansen but I do feel the random match theory really plays up more the variety and that is where it may lack from those type of workers. THey are all strong enough that they have aberrations but I fee like 90% of the matches they compete in follow some sort of template that I can visualize. My thinking would be with those type of workers, instead of bouncing around with a random match theory, a more chronological watch would be rewarding.

A match where the end rating can be deceiving. This was a very good match that featured good grappling, brawling and some excellent highspots. The downside were that the finishes were disappointing and the face team seemed to gain the advantage too easily and then take it home with the finish in fall 1. Similarly, Devil is a bloody mess in fall 3 but gets the win easily after a mundane move compared to the crowd brawling on the ground. Overall, a good match but also one where with people like Jaguar and Devil and looking at them through GWE prisms, this didn't really elevate either in my eyes. ***1/2 (6.7)

Starting the Freebird run in WCCW with the most microscopic look I have given it and one match in, we have some flaws. I understand Buddy is the loss post of the Birds and he didn't lose here (match is a draw), but there is no reason he shouldn't have pinned Adias in the later stages of the match. Adias is up and coming and the narrative of him lasting 9 minutes with Buddy could have been built up effectively on commentary. Bad booking aside, the match was fun with Buddy as the ring general. Simple stuff like asking the ref to check the pinfall allowing him to cheat and other underhanded tactics that are revolved around him working a hold and feeding into the comeback and hope spots of Adias effectively. Good showing for Buddy and he deserved better than having the match go to a draw. **3/4

I thought this was the best match in the first week of 1983. Hot pre bell spot with Kobayashi attacking and tempers flaring and then everything calms down for the Japanese National Anthem to play. The match settles in and it struck me as a good contrast beginning of Kobayashi working the mat and grinding TM while TM showed more flash and flurries. It provided a good contrast to the two and then escalated into a finishing run that was exciting and intense with a lot of close calls. The finish sucks but it is 1983 Japan so that comes with the territory. ***3/4

Been thinking about Random Match Theory since it was presented on the kickoff pod. One thought I have is that it certainly seems to help individuals that worked a variety of roles (heel/face, tag specialist but singles star, different gimmicks) more so than what I would refer to as Template workers. Two high profile template workers that I think Random Match Theory would probably penalize for me is Rey Mysterio and Ricky Steamboat. On the surface, a random match theory generator would produce mostly good results and matches in a variety of different promotions but I am unsure at the variety of the matches that would be presented or how that would help raise these candidates overall. Contrasting to someone like Funk or Jumbo where you could go from NWA title match era FUnk to Hardcore plunder and be amazed at how entertained you are from two striking different performances from two eras from the same man. Ditto for 70's Jumbo and then jumping to 1991 grumpy Jumbo due to the random match generator. The other beneficiary of this theory seems to be the high profile indie stars too. I think it is no secret that more time is put into crafting matches nowadays than in the past where you were just working with opponents night in and night out and sticking to familiarity. Workers like Hero, Generico, Danielson, Strong, Cesaro all have distinct eras from a multitude of promotions and have been consistently good throughout their entire career. This is a double knockout blow in random match theory as the quality and uniqueness would both be high for each of those listed above. Overall, this isn't a theory that I am sure will carry much weight for me as I do think it is stringent on both consistency and uniqueness which aren't my highest points of criteria when evaluating wrestlers overall.

It won't penalize him per say but Id o think it is an interesting case for what Matt is saying that Steamboat is likely to be a top 20 finisher for most and when it gets to that high on the list, any glaring flaws would have to be weighted against the other strong upper quarter contenders.

Barbed wire bat match was fun spectacle but I was kind of shocked to see it show up on people's year end list last year. The Saori Anou match I thought was really great with an awful finish and in some ways shows the worst of late era Ozaki as she bulldozed the entire match, set Anou up for a courageous comeback and then pulls the rug out from under her feet in a finish that doesn't do anyone any favors. Ozaki is a tough candidate for me. She has been in some of my favorite matches in history but also has been in some absolutely maddening matches that I have loathed.

Having read through Matt's 1989 thread on DVDVR on the way home from Disney, the Steamboat discussion was the most striking to me. I really disliked the Snuka match that made the AJPW DVDVR set and had it in the bottom ten and this doesn't sound like anything more promising even though I have not viewed the matches myself. This was striking to me because in watching the JCP/WCW stuff for PTBN last year, Steamboat was my 3rd favorite overall worker behind Flair and Tully.

Will be ranking numerous bad humans including Benoit. I get the struggle for some but always something I have been able to compartmentalize and don’t feel it is honoring anything besides their contributions in ring.

2001 has not been kind to Shimoda. LCO is still dominating but the act has become extremely tired with the crowd brawling, weapons shots, LCO mostly winning. I was looking forward to the NEO matches in the Violent Storm tournament but they in general left me pretty cold and overly long.

Bryan vs Cena from SummerSlam finished 10th when PTBN ranked the greatest WWE matches in history. That is a strong showing.

Thank you for the 80s Hokuto recommendations. I think she clearly is better than Rude and the comparison played that out. I would like to see more detailed arguments on her as #1 candidate as has been presented because while she may have great stuff outside of 92-94 to pad the resume, I would still say the case is strongly built on those years. If not and Hokuto has WOTY cases from 89-91, I’m all ears but don’t see it based on the footage I’ve watched.

Interesting candidate that I like but really need to invest into.

Dusty is a ball hog

Brock vsReigns from Mania 31 is first one that came to mind. Crowd was cheering for Roman And they had delivered an amazing match that probably was the best main event in history. Then Rollins cashes in, the internet mostly rejoices in the shock factor and WWE has been rehabbing for 6 years unable to find a star that had the breakout potential Roman had at that very moment.

This is one of the best matches I have ever seen. The emotion and performances from both is absolutely majestic. Brutal, emotional and the cementing of a star as an icon starts to fade into the sunset.

We should be able to arrange something

OJ and myself have certainly been if different opinions on puro in 01 so far. I don’t think it has been any grand year but I’ve certainly been higher on most of the matches so far. This is the opposite of that. They certainly didn’t over reach but Duk was slow as molasses here and took70% of the match. Kea vs Tenryu continues to be a mice feud but as a semi main in Buddokan, this was a poor match. **1/2

Powers and Giovanni make their entrance and I thought they had some promise as a shindie tag team I could get behind like Bad Crew in 2000. Then they introduce Feinstein and this falls right off a cliff. Mikey has been one of the laziest workers of 2001 and Corino is just lost in the wilderness right now.