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Hype for two cage matches. Lawler has a good collection of personal graphic shirts this year. Certainly better than his faux Affliction shit he wears now.

Pretty good tv main event match. Unless I am blanking on something, what would be considered the highest profile singles match between these two? Seemed weird that they were in the promotion for so long together but on the surface don't have that one marquee match.

Sting does again look really weak as they insist on talking about Flair as the GOAT. How many hair styles has Flair blown through in 1990?

Loved everything I have seen from Embry as a real sleazy prick. Sort of a shame that he sometimes leaves the promotion right as the angles start getting going. Him having Percy Pringle as his manager fit well for me on the 90 yearbook.

Just got to the Will vs. Dave inappropriate joke competition and it may be the funniest I have ever laughed at a wrestling discussion. Like the best freestyle rap battle I have ever seen.

Pretty great slugfest. I can see the compliant the Choshu didn't get much offense in but to me that just made his comeback more glorious. Choshu is the master of the short action packed match as this felt like a complete war in the time it ran.

Very good match. The opening matwork was tight and interesting and the highspots were great like usual and well timed. Ending was sloppy but didn't detract much from match overall.

I thought the exact opposite actually, and enjoyed the contrast on the show between the two monsters. Vader was really all about athleticism, quickness, with lot of spots and quick shots, bumping a lot (his detractors would say too much and too easily), while Tenta was much more traditionnal in his approach, kinda like a more offensive minded version of the One Man Gang, with tons of percussion spots (hey, he's a former sumo), a mix of deliberate style with a few heavy spots, and milking the hell out of his bumps (not as much as OMG, but much more than Vader). Anyway, I enjoyed it quite a bit, although his matches with Savage are even better. That's actually one of my favorite talking points ever. Because Sting vs Avalanche was one of the big matches later in the night, Vader works a completely different match with Duggan than he might have otherwise. It's a perfect example of how you have to think, at least a little, about card placement when you're trying to really understand and analyze a match. My reminiscing for comparing to Vader was mostly based on how the match structure was built and how Sting bumped against both opponents. The variance in their offense is different and interesting.

His match vs. Sting at Starrcade was really good. Tenta was bumping around well for Sting and did his best Vader impersonation. It is also one of the few Hogan run ins that don't make Sting look like his bitch and served a purpose. Speaking of Vader, if you havent seen the two UWFI tags from 1994 as Gary Albright & Kazuo Yamazaki vs. Vader & John Tenta (UWFI 10/8/94), I would recommend those as well. Big time atmosphere for the matches mainly featuring Albright vs. Vader but Tenta is a great partner and enforcer teaming with Vader and has good exchanges with Albright and bullies Yamazaki. Tenta is an underrated worker overall as even in the fn Oddities he knew his role and made it work ok.

Would rather watch paint dry. Made show grind to halt for me.

I posted my thoughts without listening to the last section as I listened to football talk and thought yall were wrapping up, the Brawl for All talk was interesting and I have a perverse desire to rewatch all that stuff. Steve Williams was pretty washed up in 1998 I think even if Brawl for All wouldn't had been on the table.

Kelly has some interesting perspectives on things. Sometimes I just disagree and disregard what he says and other times I think something he says sounds 'off" on the surface level but could be accurate with thorough evaluation like the NAO being the catalyst for DX opinion. I did really enjoy the Yamaguchi San story. Also thanks to Scott for keeping the faith for the Falcons.

Some quick thoughts on rankings that intrigued me based on where I have stuff ranked through the end of August. #100 - Ric Flair vs Lex Luger (NWA Capital Combat 05/19/90, Cage Match) Great rating for this match and one that may be lifted by me. I would only categorize this match as good but I will feel bad if I end up leaving it off my top 100 because I think they had to overcome a lot to make the match watchable. #96 - Steve Austin vs Chris Adams (USWA Dallas Sportatorium 08/03/90, Come As You Are Match) I will be having this way higher as it is my USWA MOTY up to this point and I liked how they used the gimmick effectively even though it looks so hokey with them coming out for the intros. #87 - Manami Toyota vs Akira Hokuto (AJW 08/19/90) Will be surprised if this ranks for me. As much as Lex and Flair overshot the potential of their matchup this match had a wonderful story that was squandered by spotty selling and the wrestlers insisting on getting their shit in. This match infuriated me. #33 - Mitsuharu Misawa vs Jumbo Tsuruta (AJPW 06/08/90) #32 - Rick & Scott Steiner vs Nasty Boys (NWA Halloween Havoc 10/27/90) The ranking on these two matches back to back made me smile. #17 - Riki Choshu, Kantaro Hoshino, Kuniaki Kobayashi, Kensuke Sasaki & Shiro Koshinaka vs Animal Hamaguchi, Super Strong Machine, Tarzan Goto, Hiro Saito & Masanobu Kurisu (NJPW 06/26/90) Kind of surprised to see this drop to #17 even though it is surrounded by great stuff. This match is clinging to my #3 spot currently and if it drops out of the top 10, I am in store for some amazing stuff in the last 4 months. #2 - Lightning Kid vs Jerry Lynn (PWA 10/90) Amazing showing for these guys and Lightning Kid in generally. I can't wait to get to his matches later on in the year. #1 - El Dandy vs Angel Azteca (EMLL 06/01/90) Was there ever any doubt? It is going to take a lot for something to knock this out of the top spot for me.

Yeah that Liger tag was the one I had my eye on when you posted the matches. Stupid editing, good to hear there will be plenty of LIger to compensate.

I unfortunately decided to watch that Perez match last night and review on the PTB board. I am safely chalking up my Perez fandam as placing him in the "could occasionally rise to the occasion and have a very good performance" category. He was dreadful in that match.

Thats mildly disappointing especially that it was clipped. I was hoping for a diamond in the rough amongst that stuff.

Interesting thoughts on how well Vader would have done in 1995. We would have missed out on the Hogan Superbrawl match but an extended Vader vs. Bret feud in 1995 sounds pretty good to me. Also didn't remember Val Venis debuting this late.

Dammit didn't see this thread either: I will need to rewatch both the Fans stuff from Midsouth and Texas and the Rockers from the AWA to decide for sure but I may have the Rockers slighly ahead of them. After the RNR, MX, Tully and Arn, maybe the Fabs, and maybe the Rockers though I would slot the Fantastics for tag teams of the 80's. I say this to as someone that has not seen the High Flyers stuff.

In some ways reading this makes it more impressive to me how Cena has stayed on top for so long. Obviously a lot has changed with the way wrestling as a business is presented and run since the 80's and Cena has lost some steam in the past year but he is still unequivocably the #1 guy in his promotion and we are almost seven years past when he got booed like crazy against heel HHH in the Wrestlemania 22 main event. I will need to rewatch both the Fans stuff from Midsouth and Texas and the Rockers from the AWA to decide for sure but I may have the Rockers slighly ahead of them. After the RNR, MX, Tully and Arn, maybe the Fabs, and maybe the Rockers though I would slot the Fantastics for tag teams of the 80's. I say this to as someone that has not seen the High Flyers stuff.

Thanks for the feedback brain and welcome aboard!

This encapsulates my thoughts on Rotunda completely.

Sid really only put it together for one night in his career in my opinon and that is Survivor Series 1996. He was awesome in that match in every facet. The atmosphere in MSG was amazing as well.

Shoe, what are your general thoughts on the Fantastics overall since it seems like this was it for Fulton and Rogers in North America essentially?

Just relistened on the way to work and I think by my tone throughout the show it gives and indication of how bad the show was overall (also recorded this one early my time so I was a little groggy in the beginning). Still hopefully we tried to interject some interesting tidbits as I think the Flair vs. Steamboat feud is an interesting dynamic on the surface level, based on their real life personalities, and how it drew as an overall feud and what that says about the NWA viewer at the time. Also enjoyed being able to share my wrestling stories as me getting someone in the full nelson was one of the highlights of 7th grade that still is brought up sometimes to this day.