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soup23

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  1. soup23
    89. Manami Toyota & Toshiyo Yamada vs. Aja Kong & SFakie Hasegawa (AJW 2/27/94) I enjoyed both of the early Toyota/Yamada tag team matches early on in the set and this gave a good glimpse of how dominant team they are at this point in time. It is great to compare with the Hold Demon Army and Kobashi/Misawa tag teams. The comments of these match centered around Toyota doing her "thing" and Yamada's limited offense. I take no offense to both of those criticisms but feel like they were maximized well here. Aja looked like a monster but may have been my least favorite performer in this match due to here using devastating moves and then acting nonchalant. Sakie was kicking off a really fun 94 here as an up and comer and she really hangs with the big guns in AJW for the first time. Breakout performance for her. 88. Steven Regal vs. Larry Zbyszko (Slamboree 5/22/94 " A perfect feud starter match with each person playing their role well and Zbyszko really fitting into the , "I may not be as good as I once was, but I am as good once as I ever was" Zbyszko in this limited feud with Regal played the grizzled veteran role better than Funk in his ECW appearances in my opinion on this set. Cocky over eagerness by Regal and a clever finish with Larry being able to pick up the win. This feud will be featured prominently upcoming in my top 100. 87. Bret Hart vs. Bob Backlund (SStars 7/30/94) Speaking of returning legends, we have Bob Backlund. Backlund was so different from everyone else in WWF at this time and this match is amazing at telling a story of him increasingly getting frustrated and eventually snapping at the end. Lawler was really good on commentary to as you could justify Bob's actions even though he was taken the handshake gesture the wrong way. This may not have ever been a big money feud, but it was so well put together and really works in retrospect viewing also. 86. Manami Toyota vs. Sakie Hasegawa (AJW 6/3/94) Sakie steps up another level and has a great match with Toyota on this loaded day in wrestling. Less non stop action than many Toyota singles and tag matches and Hasegawa shows more aggression than in previous efforts. The upset win was such a feel good moment. 85. Jushin Liger, Shinjiro Otani, El Samurai & Tokimitsu Ishizawa vs. Great Sasuke, Shiryu, Sato & Taka Michinoku (NJPW 6/15/94) Junior wrestling has come to have been hated in modern times by me. This set only re-confimed by hatred for current matches because all the junior matches ranked here featuring good spots and some comedy but also include great transitions, wrestling, and structuring. This is a great Mich Pro vs. New Japan battle worked in some of the same vein as War vs. New Japan. More brawling is mixed in that usual for juniors and Sasuke and Liger continue their amazing years. 84. Steve Austin vs. Ricky Steamboat (Clash 8/24/94) A final farewell for the Dragon in a great match with Austin. I have criticized Steamboat in some ways of being overated as far as GOAT discussions are concerned, but he was an amazing wrestler and really went out with a nice match. One of the more frustrating commentated matches of the year with the Hogan push in overdrive and negating the effort going on in the ring. 83. Jushin Liger vs. Super Delphin (NJ 5/30/94) Knew I would love this the second Delphin showed up on my screen with the outfit. Delphin is able to play up the comedy so well and then shove that aside for great wrestling. Liger bullying the other juniors around also is interesting and leads to a dramatic finish for the BOSJ. 82. Dustin Rhodes vs. Bunkhouse Buck (Bullrope Match) (Slamboree 5/22/94) One of the few real good bullrope matches. I think this match got 1.5 stars in the Observer which is absurd. Didn't have the fun, garbage style brawl aspect of Spring Stampede but used the gimmick real well and featured plenty of stiff punches and shots with the cow bell. A ruthless brawl that had more psychology than most of the ECW matches at this time. Fitting that this match was in Philly. 81. Toshiaki Kawada vs. Akira Taue (AJ 4/14/94) A good to great match every time out is guaranteed when these two match up. This had more prominent stakes than previous matches due to the winner advancing to the final of the Carnival. They performed accordingly with more tentative action and built the match up to a great finish. Taue only showed glimpses in 1994 of what his 1995 breakout year would bring and this was an example. 80. Gary Albright & Kazuo Yamazaki vs. Vader & John Tenta (UWFI 10/8/94) This really had a big time match feel and while it certainly didn't feautre the best action from the top 100 or probably 150 matches of the year, the characters and charisma of especially tenta, albright, and Vader carry the lack of action. Everything is built up that each payoff feels like a really big deal. Just an awesome main event spectacle type match.
  2. soup23
    Honorable Mentions: 101. Kenta Kobashi & Jun Akiyama vs. Akira Taue & Tamon Honda (AJ 6/3/94) 102. Shawn Michaels vs. Razor Ramon (RAW 8/1/94) 103. Fit Finlay vs. Doink (Germany 12/17/94) 104. Steven Regal vs. Larry Zbyszko (Clash 6/23/94) 105. Genichiro Tenryu vs. Tatsumi Kitahara (WAR 11/29/94) ***3/4 100. Vader vs. Kiyoshi Tamura (UWFI 6/10/94) Short match really maximized by story told by Tamura and Vader. Made Vader look like a monster going into the big showdown with Takada but also made Tamura look strong as he threw everything he had to Vader and had him reeling due to his aggressiveness at the beginning of the match. Match is also helped by card placement and is a perfect semi-man. 99. Kobashi/Misawa vs. Fuchi/Kawada 1/7 AJPW Starting out as a puro fan getting into All Japan, I really appreciated the epic style matches featuring a ton of head drops. i still think I am bigger fan of those matches as some (as evidenced by some matches to come on this list) but one of the things I have really begun to appreciate is the lower level, "house" show All Japan matches. They didn't try to reinvent the wheel with this match, it just featured great work from Fuchi/Kawada, Misawa looking like the ace of the company, and Kobashi pushing his momentum from 12/3/93 with another fairly big win here. 98. Vader vs. Hacksaw Duggan (Starrcade 12/27/94) Vader really had to make chicken salad out of chicken shit in 1994 and this is his most shining performance. I would not call The Boss a bad wrestler, but he is someone that has to have a high effort from someone else in order for the match to be good. Duggan may have not been in a good match this decade at this point, and yet here with Vader, he relives his old Mid South glory days. Vader again looks so great at taking offense from opponents but still looking like a monster. This win and the final angle with Hogan on the show feels like WCW telling him "were sorry" for how bad he was portrayed throughout much of 1994. 97. 1-2-3 Kid & Marty Jannetty vs. The Quebecers (MSG 1/17/94) For one glorious month in January, WWF had the best tag division in the world. Fun matches were abound and this was one of the best ones. Marty and Kid were such a good team together and it is a shame how fast it disappeared. The quebecers heat segment in this match was better than in the other matches featured on the set. 96. Heavenly Bodies vs. Thrillseekers (SMW 8/5/94) Bodies make a return to SMW and pick up a fresh looking feud working with the Thrillseekers. Jericho gives a truely great babyface performance with a broken arm and bleeds buckets. it is easy to see his potential in matches like these and it also nice to see him show up huge for this match which was up to this time probably the biggest of his career. Great southern style match and quick snapshot on SMW in 1994 for these two teams. 95. El Samurai vs. Great Sasuke (Super J Cup 4/16/94 Sasuke starts off one of the best one night performances of 1994 with a great match vs. El samurai. Some of the best junior wrestling on the set from Japan is featured in this match and the dives and nearfalls seem believably built to instead of just thrown out there. 94. Vader vs. Sting (Fall Brawl 9/18/94) A fitting end to a great feud. This match didn't reach the highs of their 1992-1993 matches but still was a great back and forth battle with Vader finally being positioned as a contender for Hogan for the first time. 93. Cactus Jack & Maxx Payne vs. Nasty Boys (Stampede 4/17/94) Growing up as kid whose main frame of reference was 1990-1994 WWF at this time, I thought this was the damnedest brawl I had ever seen. It still is pretty great and out of control for the 10 minutes they fight. Stiff shots, concession stands, shovels, and tables malfunctioning. This is also one of the few times where WCW production stepped up as the camera for this match helped set the frantic tone but we also had a split screen that for one of the few times was not annoying. 92. Kiyoshi Tamura vs. Naoki Sano (UWFI 5/6/94) As I said in the comments, it is hard many times to talk big picture on a lot of shootstyle stuff due to the groundwork and reversals involved. 1994 was a great year for the style and matches like these really show the depth of UWFI in 1994. Sano is one of my most underrated wrestlers of the 1990's as the more I see, the more I enjoy. 91. Cactus Jack vs. Chris Candido (SMW HH 12/26/94) Cactus/candido was a great mid to upper card feud in SMW in December. Cactus really cut some amazing promos and based on what we saw in the yearbook, was vastly superior both in ring and out in SMW in my opinion than in ECW. Candido really meshes well with him also and this was great around the arena brawl with a big payoff in the Boo angle. 90. Gene Lydick & Steve Nelson vs. Kazushi Sakuraba & Masahito Kakihara (UWFI 6/10/94) Really interesting technical style shoot tag featuring Lydick and Nelson who really impressed.
  3. soup23
    Good match but agree not as good as the 12/26 match. Decent brawling mixed in with some interesting spots like Cactus kissing Tammy. 1994 is a wrap.
  4. soup23
    Really schitck oriented match. Would have been really fun live. I enjoyed the chemistry Buddy and DWB had and this felt like an appropriate first run version of this match and made you want to see DWB gain revenge.
  5. soup23
    This was really fun and feels like it may be a career match for Pantera. Great working of holds and each finish was built to nicely and had a great finishing run.
  6. soup23
    Real good match and these two definitely have good chemsitry with Cactus doing crazy spots and Candido willing to be right there along with him. I thought this was much more successful than the tag in escalating from good wrestling to brawling.
  7. soup23
    I thought this was good but liked it less than Loss and didn't get much of an intensified feeling from the brawling. The spots were done nicely though and the ending payoff with Boo was good.
  8. soup23
    Holy shit this was great. There was not a wasted second in this match. Davey Richards and Kyle O Reilly need to quit complaining and set down and watch Volk han in this match to see how to have a dangerous, believable hybrid style of wrestling.
  9. soup23
    Good little studio match for USWA 1994 standards. USWA 1994 as a whole was fine but I really love Memphis style booking so while I enjoyed what I watched, I can safely say it was pretty by the numbers and nothing was extraordinary or transcendent for the year. It also is a shame how many few matches we have from the promotion in a whole that was given time on their tv show.
  10. soup23
    INteresting match up and really a lot of mixture of styles within the match. I thought the match was really good and especially liked Doink doing his heel bit but it went on too long and the finish was too abrupt from Finlay being in the sleeper to hitting the tombstone.
  11. soup23
    Yeah the random paired stuff really affected my watching of the last match and I even liked the opening double Inoues section. 10/9/94 just felt like such a big overcoming moment for them finally conquering over Toyota/Yamada and less than two months later, Takada gets to celebrate a big tournament win with someone she just overtook? Joshi has probably been my biggest eye opening in 1994 (with shootstyle a close second) as it was a style I had extremely limited knowledge on and had only watched the cream of the crop shows before. This year I looked forward to joshi matches toward the second half of the year as much as All Japan matches but the ending of this tournament while featuring good work seemed really reckless booking wise.
  12. soup23
    Vince's face at the toupee line was great. The diesel segment is ok but he looks goofy as hell with the crown on. Brets low key promo is good to reintroduce him and get him on the road to the title. Vince promoting boxing seemed destined to fail.
  13. soup23
    This was amusing to see and I love Hogan throwing in little comments while reading.
  14. soup23
    This was amazing to see especially when cornette brings out two more rackets and the crowd is going nuts with Cornette and the Rock N Rolls waving them around. The promo was also good with them not totally buying in yet but are more certain than before.
  15. soup23
    Buddy talking about low battle royals pay offs saying he spills that much money in liquor in a year was great and he is a welcome character to SMW. Cactus is so intense in this feud and is bringing a lot of hatred and believability to the Boots/Boo storyline that could have been incredibly goofy if not played correctly. Gangsters are still awesome and have a presence and New Jack cuts a good promo on Cornette and the Rock N Rolls
  16. soup23
    I think this is better than the other Diesel promos we have seen as champ except the first Monday Night Raw one. The production was goofy and Vince does look like a cheerleader conducting a interview for the yearbook with the quarterback but the cheese factor was toned down and the Bret/Diesel Royal Rumble match is getting more hype than I remembered.
  17. soup23
    Butcher looks like an idiot waiting 15 seconds before pinning a lifeless Hogan only for him to Hulk up and that is all she wrote. This also may have been the most heatless Hogan segment up to this point. I do wish savage would have went heel and I think a heel Savage and Vader going after Hulk and him resulting to reaching out to Flair and reinstating him would have been a great angle with a lot of different possibilities and legs to it.
  18. soup23
    Jimmy wins the award but you might as well give it to Hogan since his speech is more lip service to him. Everyone knows this guy is one of the biggest wrestlers of all time, please lay off the hype
  19. soup23
    Fitting to have one of these dumb promos on at the end of the year, maybe it was ok at the time but Public Enemy was overall my least favorite act of 1994 and something I couldn't get at all.
  20. soup23
    Best thing about King's Court was the kevin Nash exchange and Shawn and Vince have some chemistry on commentary. Diesel's promos are so bad and it is real easy to see where he failed to connect based on these promos.
  21. soup23
    Hulk is such the humble bastard here receiving the award.
  22. soup23
    It is so weird to see HHH wrestle in a ring with WCW in the middle of it. His high power offense looked pretty good here I thought. Fun thing to see in yearbook setting.
  23. soup23
    Great match and Duggans best post Mid South match. Vader is great at looking vulnerable and a monster at the same match. Duggan mixed in some spots you don't see him do often at all.
  24. soup23
    Opening matwork is fine but forgettable. If it would have been engaging or the leg work would have been played up, this could have been a top 10 contender of the year because I thought the closing stretch was one of the best ones we have seen in the year with the crowd buying a lot of spots as finishes and both Hase and Hash looking strong. Ending angle to set up Tokyo Dome was nice
  25. soup23
    Again too goofy to have any importance.
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