soup23

Ok watched this once really early on in my wrestling watching and enjoyed it but didn't appreciate lucha nearly as much as I do now. I agree with Loss that while this is a long match, its kind of tough to describe in review match form. Especially for a match that is my #3 match of the year. All of the performances were very good and the match never let up. While that would probably put it on par or maybe having a slight edge over the March Cibernetico. The thing that ties all this together for me is the Santo vs. Casas hate and the emergence of Felino in a huge spot. Can someone more lucha versed explain to me how established Felino was previous to this? Shocker was the big standout to me as I had only watched his post mask run and he was bumping like a loon and had some nifty mat work to. Ultimo fit in and we get a neat encounter with him vs. Santo. Just 50 minutes of awesome wrestling.

THis flew by and the shoot style stuff for 1997 has been great. I know these guys have a huge history (Childs, anyway you can fill me in on the dates of their big matches, I know about the 1998, 1999, and 2005 hyped ones). Watching these two go for the first time was like seeing a Misawa vs. Kawada match for the first time in the sense that you know these two are married to each other and if this is just their first big match, I can't wait to see what else is in store. The work here appropriately escalated but their was so many logical touches which really set the match off for me.

Nash looked in good shape and worked hard in the clips here. I don't know if he was extra motivated based on what was going on with Hall or what but its refreshing. I liked the NWO attacking immediately when luger showed any signs of life. DDP again gets the glory of being the first person to help the cause and he gets his ass kicked. The Giant comes out to stare down Nash. Sting walks out from the entrance with three bats that he hands to all the WCW members. Team WCW again cleans house in a cool finish. Nitro definitely won this night even though both shows look cooler than usual.

I don't know what Piper is talking about and I'm starting to wear on these crazy man promos talking about skateboards and whatever else. Kvein Greene talking about Flair/PIper kicking ass while the NWO was still sucking mothers milk is a good line. Flair gives us a history lesson talking about him being there the night Bruiser Brody died. Sorry, wrong thread. He does give us the story of quitting wrestling camp twice, wrestling Dick the Bruiser, and apparently he fought Macho in 1993 and he acts like he won the match. Flair then does his jig as Reggie White looks on.

Pretty big sex appeal move for the WWE.

Interesting really in retrospect that they gave power to Russo. We are of course only seeing bits and pieces of WWF on the yearbook but what we have seen is some of the greatest storytelling they have done and WWF has had plenty of crappie standalone raws in foreign places. Austin and Vince do an interview. "You can't hold me down no more son, nobody can." Interesting interview with what they are talking about.

I thought the three way was a lot better than the last couple minutes made it look. Sandman especially was embarrassing. Funk wins after his moonsault. Raven comes out and I like his attack as it was focused. Then the shenanigans start up. Reggie Bennett comes out and the crowd is completely befuddled. We also get Big Dick Dudley attacking Dreamer but ended up falling through the stacked up tables which he comically jumps into the spot when Tommy can get him up. Joey was able to scream his oh my god. Funk ends up winning the title with an inside cradle in a cool moment to sort of salvage it all. I don't think this PPV really holds up at all.

I really liked the opening portions of the match. The middle portion with the crowd brawling and big spots were a little eh but they kept me around for the finish as Taz made the taz mission look deadly and it was smart after the work was done on the neck. Of course the post match is a trainwreck. You get the respect spot which the crowd boos. RVD and Sabu then beat up Taz with some blown spots and Alfonso turns on them because he bet money on Sabu. This made no fucking sense to me and it seemed like they over thought themselves.

Anyone else read this and get a weird visual of JDW doing a vulgar dance to Slow Ride as a teen?

Bret Hart vs. Lex Luger (5/22/93 Superstars) This feels like the quintessential PWO match. Luger is way better than Bret here and actually Bret the amazing technician is the first one to make this match a brawl while Luger tried to keep up his matwork attack.

Dusty, this feud has been going on longer than Paul Jones vs. Boogie Woogie man.

Ill say with the first part that I think most everyone that is going through the yearbooks and is commenting on almost every thread is receptive to the style. I know for me, Joshi is one of the things along with lucha I have looked forward to most since it is the style I have seen the least of. Some can be amazing ( I had the 8/24/94 tag match as my #2 match of the year in a loaded year) and the majority that makes the yearbook is good. However, there are tendencies in joshi that can irk me based on the pace they work the match with.

Just watched Okada vs. Ibushi. Check it out Dylan. I will say I think its one of my favorite Okada performances. He remains focused on the work on the neck, busts out a lot of different stuff while on top, and does less of his "looking to the heavens" or constantly going for the rainmaker which annoys me in other matches of his. The finish even pays off that work well. Ibushi of course does bridges on his neck immediately after it getting worked on but I would probably go YES for if it was nominated at WrestlingKO and have no problem ranking it around 3.5 to 3.75 stars overall.

Blue Panther/Negro Casas/Atlantis v. Black Terry/Negro Navarro/Solar 8-16 CMLL I thought this was great maestro style action. I know Dylan in his comments said he was fairly low but I think he would still consider it a good match. I would have this as one of 4-5 lucha MOTY so far and it is a good candidate for Casas being one of the top workers with his exchanges vs. Terry and Navarro. Blue Panther, Rush, Super Porky vs Averno, Felino, Negro Casas - CMLL 8/17 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hx29hfHLnhY Casas vs. Rush has been a super feud and actually Joe I think a FOTY candidate that you guys were talking about on the pod. This I wouldn't classify as great but was a lot of fun and a worthy addition to padding the resume for August 2013.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vcMnLmT5Vi8 They had a match the week before that was very good to. This match has the first caida which is some brillant mat wrestling and a third fall with my spot of the year and them throwing bombs at each other.

Charles Lucero vs. Rey Hechicero, Monterrey 8/4 This is at worse the third best match of August. I was the one that offered up both April 1992 and 1994 as contenders. I did those because those two months have a wide variety of really great stuff from all over the place. I think August 2013 being a contender lives and dies with how into the New Japan product you are currently.

I thought this was very good even if it didn't reach the great level of other stuff. Interested to see the other touring matches if this is on the low end. I again found it amusing that Styles talks about WCW calling Ultimo Ultimate all the while mispronouncing Sasuke's name. The crowd was fairly respectful but I wouldnt say they were extremely hot for this match.

I think the amount included was worth it. It showed that a match is not just about doing cool shit. The elimantors hit everything almost perfectly here but it looks awful in retrospect with no transitions. Styles on commentary was grating. Sad to see the Dudley's get jobbed like this after their promo work.

Big upset for the shooting stars but not much else to this. I forgot to mention in the Dundee vs. Razor and Diesel interaction but Stacy carter is doing commentary now.

I was fearful the copyright would come up with Raven blabbering on. Instead we get the the amazing Desperado video. Do not stand at my grave and cry, I am not there; I did not die.

In a year filled with great promos so far, this was one of my favorite. You got everything about the Taz character and tone right. he was given a chance to have 5 minutes to sell his match and did a wonderful job.

Good promo by the Dudleys especially Bubba Ray. I'm still annoyed by Sign Guys presence.

I thought this was a ton of fun and Ogawa being a little awkward only added to the theme of shooter in a unique setting for me. The finish was spectacular as Ogawa locks in a choke and the ref calls for the bell. Choshu and Sasaki loss their shit and the crowd goes nuts. Ogawa celebrates as we get a bloody nose Hash standing up looking pissed and taking out his frustrations on the ref. This really got over the danger that any New Japan wrestlers could face vs. Ogawa.

I liked this a good deal as they cut a quick pace and had a ton of desperation but the finish seemed abrupt. I'm not in favor of constant kickouts but I was legit shocked when Hokuto got the win after essentially one high impact suplex. It made Kaoru look pretty weak in my eyes. Post match was a wild scene that I liked how the camera followed to its conclusion. Thanks for the context to Filk as i was really confused.

Crowd did suck but I was enchanted with the work. Great storytelling from Kansai and her strikes looked vicious here. Kansai is one of my favorite joshi workers I have seen. The emotional impact of the win really resonated with me and I did like the two double stomp moonsaults as the finish.