El-P

Atsushi Onita.

Arn Anderson. Shiro Koshinaka.

Good match, bordering on very good thanks to Tenryu's performance. I fail to see how this can be called great, or even top tier in a year like 1990 (if only in Japan). Gotta love George Takano's tights with his initials on : JT. Those wacky Japanese… Takano really isn't very good, he's a buffed up junior at this point, with a bunch of semi-spectacular highspots, but really isn't much of a solid worker. Does a bunch of kicks and dive, looks strong, some goofy palm strikes. He actually was outworked by his usually shitty and fat brother the night before during the tag tournament final, which was a better match too. Tenryu sold his ankle after he used it to prevent Takano from using the german suplex. Takano beat Tenryu with that hold during the tag tournament final, so that was a good element of psychology of having Tenryu volontarily "sacrifying" his ankle by having Takano crumble onto it instead of allowing the german suplex that already defeated him the night before. So yeah, Tenryu was ace during that match and carried that goofball Takano to probably his best single match as a heavyweight (haven't watched the Cobra stuff in years, but I'm not sure Takano was ever that good of a worker). Welcome to "Money Puroresu", presented to you by Megane Super, a freaking glass company. It would be like Afflelou promoting catch in France. Odd. That fed was goofy as hell and not as supremely random as WAR would be, but it had its cool moments.

Typical SMW random match, the kind of like WAR would proudly deliver on regular occasions. Orton looked really good here, actually better than during most of his WWF stint. The match was fine, but the final with Tenryu & Kabuki vs the Takano brothers is really good, with Kabuki showing he had quite a bit left in the tank, and Shunji surprisingly having a solid showing (actually better than his brother).

Hum… just watch that Fuji vs Tenryu match from that WAR show in 93, and if I could find a bunch of matches as good as this, there's a case to be made for Fuji actually not being as dull as fuck as I thought, at least in big matches. This is excellent, and Fuji has some tricks up his sleeves, as this terrific counter for Tenryu's rolling kick. Tenryu's execution really can be problematic at points though, and Fuji was much better in that respect. Honestly, this gives me the urge to revisit a lot of NJ from the 90's to see if Fuji was not actually as good or better than Flair in the 90's after all. Yeah, I'm kind of eating my words after watching this match, but I have no problem doing so if means I'm watching good stuff I wasn't expecting. I still have bad memories of Fuji during that period, including his nostalgia reign in 98 or so. That Tenryu match was only in 93 though, but it smokes pretty much any Flair match/performances from that year apart from the Vader match.

Because some people miles past their prime still deliver good or even better stuff. Piper was godawful, and he was not that old either. So yeah. But really, even isolated peak Piper would have no shot, so in the end, it makes no difference whatsoever to me.

Like shootsyle ?

DItto. He's been on a roll lately.

Thanks for the laugh.

Kansai at her peak (mid 90's until the health problems) was a terrific worker.

Still. It's like Goldy had never existed and they went back Hogan like the previous year when they basically erased Sting from the top spot after a 14 months build (with the amazing evil Hogan promo). The Flair/Hogan deal was a last drop of nostalgia. It couldn't be sustained. Really, in term of symbolism, the Fingerpoke was it.

How's he wrong? The Raw rating that week jumped an entire half a point from the week before, from 3.48 to an even 4.0, the highest number they'd scored in six months. They fell again the next week and wavered for a while, but immediately following Wrestlemania the ratings leaped higher and higher than they'd ever been before. It's pretty widely agreed that the whole Stone Cold/Mike Tyson angle was what drew new fans to watch the WWF in large hordes. No, my post was confusing, that's what I meant. HHH is usually in denial about his own importance, but the Austin/Tyson deal is just too historicaly significant for him to deny *that* one. That would be insane.

I think the fingerpoke and what it represented meant a whole lot more to WCW than Mankind winning the title did to the WWF. Agreed.

Yeah, but the combination of this and the Fingerpoke of Doom at the exact same moment really was the point where there would no be looking back. The triomphant moment of Mick Foley over the new young megastar and Steve Austin getting one of the biggest pop ever. Meanwhile, you had Hogan killing dead the remainders of WCW's last ray of hope, who already had been damaged by losing the title, and by forcing a reboot two years in a row and erasing whatever good the Sting angle and the Goldy push had produced. So yeah, in a way, that moment really was the turning point, also WCW would win one last battle with, oh irony, Hogan vs Flair on PPV a few months after.

There's being in denial, and there's being at Hogan level insanity. Really, there's no way they can rewrite history to *this* extent.

Yep. It was such a bizarre situation. And if you've never seen Hashimoto vs Kanemura from Fuyuki's tribute show, it's the most surreal thing ever in pro-wrestling. Things always were more real in Japan, but this takes the cake.

And the King of the Ring PPV. Yeah, apparently, tournaments never drew well anywhere.

From the Divas special on the Network : Vince McMahon invented the valets with Savage & Miss Elisabeth.

Well, Meiko was kinda clumsy at this point. Those flailing arms. Still, this kind of match on TV. And you wonder why I miss WCW ?

There's not a lot about Hase that I like. I don't really like his look, I don't like his selling and mannerisms, and I don't like his moveset. He's not a guy whom I actively dislike, but he's not exactly an ideal opponent for Tenryu and I think that came through at times during this bout. Having said that, as a professional wrestler you can't always spend your time wrestling guys you match up well with. Sometimes you've got to take on opponents outside your bubble. I liked pretty much everything Tenryu did here on defence and attack, although after commenting on how easy it is to ignore his execution, he went ahead and did one of the worst sunset flip attempts on record. God it was bad. The bout in general was a mix of good looking stuff and questionable offensive choices. I'm still not sure what that running body press thing was that Hase did and why he didn't just do a baseball slide, and the counter to his Golden Arm Bomber was a flat moment. On the plus side, the Scorpion Deathlock was great and the Golden Arm Bomber he hit was a fantastic moment. The punch drunk selling and refusing to stay down is the kind of thing that would get shat on if it happened in a New Japan ring today, and you could say the same thing about the chop exchanges no matter how hard they were. The finish was unique. It's the kind of finish you wish you'd see more of because it was a different point of attack from the usual finishers, but at the same time the crowd didn't get it, which makes it clear why workers use signature finishers in the first place. Still, as a hardcore it was cool. Watched it for the first time. Loved it. It's been so long, I forgot how good Hase was. I have no issue with the body press through the ropes, it worked like a charm and Tenryu took a good bump outside. The punch drunk selling didn't bother me, it was like Hase was all "hey, you're flat enzuigiris don't hurt that much, I ain't going down for that weak shit". As far as the finish goes, no idea if the WAR Special was established in NJ as this point, but it was one of Tenryu's main offensive weapon. I'm pretty sure he never beat Hash with it though, as Hase was one or two steps below the top stars, but here he looked just like one. The sasorigatame spot was cool as hell. Great match.

Through the Yearbooks reviews : Koki Kitahara (the WAR Hash/Kawada-like, also named Tatsumi at points)

A reverse BodyDonnas gimmick ? That's way too meta, even for 2015.

Hum… I respectfully disagree. Hero's look is not "outside the norm". He's sadly very representative of something that's slowly becoming a norm in occidental countries. And he's what, 35 ? I mean… And don't get me wrong, I always enjoyed fat wrestlers, but he doesn't look like a "fat" wrestler. I mean, at least dress up the part like Dreamer did all his career. It's pro-wrestling, you're projecting an image out there. I doubt the "skinny-but-fat" look works in 2015. Thats' not even talking about the health issues coming up.

I agree with your main point and WWE's ridiculous obsessions with body (and it's even worst with female, let us all remind the fact that Molly Holly had a "fat ass" and that Mickie James was downright "fat", which is legit insane sounding), but there's clearly a diffence between looking like Daniel Bryan, who's perfectly fit and looks like an athlete in shape, and looking like this : (I'm not quite sure what to make of that "body shaming" stuff though, I'm afraid I might not exactly with the whole concept, but that's another matter entirely I guess)

Indeed. Love your new avatar BTW.