Ditch

Yes, WAR. Update: I have it and it seems to be complete, or at least considerably more so than the TV version. Now to see if it's worth showing the first 2/3rds...

You sure it wasn't the fans yelling out his "weeeeeee" sound?

Really? This deep in and you're using "they influenced a lot of people so they must be good"? C'mon, nobody's disputing that. The question is whether there's enough to those matches beyond the athleticism that makes them hold up to standards that are used to judge wrestling from across time. Things like selling and transitions and execution aren't controversial standards. People were willing to overlook those things at the time because of the novelty. Now that TM vs DK is watched through something other than rose-colored glasses, it seems like they aren't holding up. "The matches were influential" is at best a very weak appeal to authority.

So much for 'what I can tell'!

You should re-watch this one. I'm no fan of lazy/uncooperative Hotta, so trust me when I say she isn't in this.

I'm a huge Taue mark but I don't think he was top 20. He was barely even top ten for AJ.

The set is an incredible value and gives one plenty of Sayama, DK, Fujinami and Hamada to mull over.

One of the classic slugfests in wrestling history. It's not perfect, but then the roughness sometimes adds to it. I had this 24th from AJ in the '90s, JDW 16th, and it finished 15th in the overall vote I ran. I don't think I've seen substantial disagreement about its quality, only a matter of to what degree people like it.

I don't think anyone called this a 'classic', and it's REALLY hurt by having to follow Hansen vs Kawada. What I like is the solidness of it. Taue seems a bit sharper than he was in '92, a bit more in control of his own body. You get a sense that he's not 'there' yet, but coming along. Definitely agreed on Misawa in this.

So the burning question after TNA's PPV is whether their champ is a physical wreck, or their top draw is drug-addled, or both. T-N-A! T-N-A!

MPro: Togo, Teioh & Shiryu vs Sasuke, Delfin & Hamada, 1/14: One of only two multi-man tags I think stood out for the company in '97. Three if you count the ECW one. Minoru Tanaka vs Hoshikawa, UWA middleweight title, 9/14: Good intro to Tanaka. He and Hoshikawa are great at the juniors/shoot-style hybrid that became so popular. Sasuke & Delfin vs Teioh & Funaki, MPro tag league, round robin Sasuke & Delfin vs Teioh & Funaki, MPro tag league, final: These matches do so much. They put over Teioh and Funaki, two of the 'lesser' KDX members, as being able to handle the MPro aces. They tell a story with Sasuke's leg injury. And they're good matches individually but are even better in unison. Taka vs Funaki, Indy junior title, 12/18: Continuing the "hey look how good Funaki is" trend from the above. Sasuke & Delfin vs Togo & Teioh, 12/18: Continuing the "hey look Sasuke's leg hurts" story. And that finish... Misc Puro: Devil Masami & Jaguar Yokota vs Kansai & Candy Okutsu, JWP 6/15: You don't get many JWP rec's. I dig this because of how good Jaguar looks in it. Probably marginal. Tanaka, Kuroda & Nakagawa vs Kanemura, Hosaka & Hido, no-rope barbed wire & barbed wire spidernets deathmatch, W*ING 7/13: I liked this combo twice in '96 and like it again here. The 6-man format helps reduce the sluggish nature of 1-on-1 deathmatches. Tenryu vs Anjoh, WAR 7/21: I'm surprised this was over considering that they did it a year before and KINGDOMS was such a bomb. But, it's these two so it's good. Down year for Tenryu. Ishikawa vs Ikeda, Battlarts 9/1: Brutality as only these two can do. NJ: Hashimoto vs Yamazaki, 2/16: Must-have. One of my favorite IWGP title bouts, and it's considerably better than the more-known match they had in the '98 G-1 final. Also a level above the 1/4/96 match. Kanemoto vs Naniwa, BOSJ: Probably the standout Naniwa singles match, and it's JIP so it doesn't take up space, and it sets up a lot about the final. Liger vs Samurai, 7/6: Payoff to BOSJ, and the JIP TV version is very efficient. Hashimoto vs Tenzan, G-1 semifinal: Not great, but good, and a huge win for Tenzan heading into... Sasaki vs Tenzan, G-1 final: Short, intense, and huge from a historical standpoint as it marks the beginning of Sasaki's uberpush. Samurai vs Ohtani, 8/10: I think this is a good payoff to both Ultimo vs Ohtani '96 and the '96 and '97 Liger vs Ohtani matches. Liger & Samurai vs Ohtani & Kanemoto, 9/13: The NJ juniors got into this Jumbo vs Misawa "any tag combination is good" groove, albeit not at the same level. This particular pairing was nothing special in '95, but by '97 they know how to keep it interesting throughout. Ohtani does a fantastic bump while standing on the apron. Team Liger vs Team Ohtani, 10/31: The highlight of the feud, at least the tag portion of it. Pity it's never been shown in full. GREAT payoff. Ohtani vs Kashin, 12/5: Again, the JIP-ing makes this easy to include. Best singles of Kashin's career. There's lots more good Liger vs Ohtani tags worth checking out but these are the highlights. RINGS: Kosaka vs Yamamoto, 4/4: 'Standout RINGS matches without Han or Tamura' is a very limited thing. This belongs in that category. Some good striking to bolster the usual RINGS matwork. Tamura vs Zouev, 5/21: Tamura vs Russian mat-guy. Again. And it's high-end. Again. Tamura vs Tariel, 7/22: Tariel is a bear trained to do kickboxing. Okay maybe he's not but it's close. Size & style contrast! Han vs Tamura, 9/26: Han vs Tamura is the Misawa vs Kawada of shoot-style.

Pretty sure ANY economics school will teach that fewer employers = worse for employees.

I recently re-watched Hotta vs Kansai and thought it was a mess. Hotta isn't good with things like structure and holding a match together.

Yeah this is 'good' Takada. Tamura had a big-ish match vs Yamazaki in late '92 but that wasn't nearly as important.

Tamura vs Peeters, RINGS 7/16: Peeters seems to have Tamura's number throughout, with better strikes and plenty of good counters. And he's COCKY AS HELL. Aw yiss. Tamura vs Ilioukhine, RINGS 10/25: Ilioukhine is yet another Russian mat wizard who meshes wonderfully with Tamura. Tamura vs Yamamoto, RINGS 12/21: I think Yamamoto is a much better Tamura opponent than TK. Yamamoto is better on his feet, and still high-end with RINGS-style matwork. More energy and excitement.

All Japan nominations: Taue vs Akiyama 1/20. An easy pick, since it's short, good, and continues the Akiyama story from '96. Kobashi vs Akiyama, CC. This is the first match where I think it feels like Akiyama can do a big-time AJ-style main event. From '93-'95 it was the usual young lion match, and in '96 I don't think he had any singles matches on TV. Misawa vs Kawada, CC round-robin. My pick for the best of their CC league matches. Not flawless, but there's more urgency/intensity than we got in '94, '95, '98. And ultimately it's Misawa vs Kawada. Kobashi vs Hase, 8/26. Really strong performance from Hase, and I think he clearly outwrestles Kobashi in it. Williams & Albright vs Misawa & Akiyama, 8/26. Last title shot for Misawa/Akiyama, and very compact. Kobashi & Shiga vs Hayabusa & Shinzaki, 9/6. Kobashi vs Hayabusa is darn good. Taue vs Ace, 10/21. Two guys with iffy athletic ability put a lot of heart in and the result is a nifty Budokan battle. And I'll close by saying that the RWTL stuff JDW pointed out is worthy. Misawa/Akiyama vs Smith/Wolf is one I really love but I have yet to see the full Samurai TV version.

This is right there with the AJ July 2nd tag for 6-man of the year, hell it might be better. Hardly any flaws, tons of heat and energy, everyone plays their role to perfection, and plenty of 'peaks'. Because from what I can tell it only came out on the rare section of NJ Classics.

This is tremendous and I think is the kind of joshi match that ages well and should have broad appeal. I'd put it in the top 5 from '93 joshi and top 10 overall.

I watched this just a few weeks ago, for either the second or third time, and don't get the love for this at all. Sloppy, unfocused, and it drags quite a bit. The rematch blows it away.

I think this aged horribly, much worse than some other big-show juniors matches. Especially the NJ vs WAR junior tags from around this time; those hold up fine.

Interesting that one of the trademarks of a top WWE babyface is kicking people in the head so hard they get a concussion.

While mulling over who from the usual suspects I'd put on par with Choshu, Bret Hart came to mind. He's someone who is often mentioned as either a top-tier or second-tier wrestler, and I think is quite overrated in that regard. If he was somewhere other than WWF post-Hogan boom he wouldn't be remembered nearly as fondly. smkelly's post above is a perfect example. "one of the finest in-ring workers to compete in a WWF ring" is really not the biggest accomplishment; the promotion is about bodybuilders and gimmicks more than wrestling. If you're going to look at the whole package (ie. ability to draw, ability to work, charisma/promos), no way is Bret top ten material. Bret was good but not overwhelmingly so in the '80s. He was inconsistent in WCW. And when you dig into his WWF singles run, by the time you're even ten or twelve matches deep you're talking about matches that are only notably good by WWF standards. Comparing him to Choshu, who was second-tier at best, is quite instructive. Choshu was able to keep himself hot for longer (even pre-injury Bret's star was tarnished), he's got way more charisma, and when you combine Choshu's work in NJ and AJ in the '80s, Choshu's part in the NJ vs WAR feud, and a few other '90s highlights, his body of work is a lot more impressive. Choshu was a waaaaay better draw, too. When all was said and done Bret had plenty of opportunities to wrestle good opponents so it's not as though being in WWF meant he never had the chance to shine, compared to someone in Japan. I think both of them were prone to being repetitive. This isn't to say that I think Choshu is a top 20 guy. More that Bret isn't.

Choshu moves up to be sure, but there's just so many matches where his limitations get in the way. The inability to structure a match of significant length (especially after the Fujinami feud), have interesting control segments, and the Flair-like progression to "does exactly the same 4-5 moves every match" really hampers him. When did Choshu ever carry someone? How many times is he responsible for someone's "career" match? I think there's a decent case for him in the top 40, but top 20 gets really tough. Though I suppose people in the 30s are still pretty elite.

Inoki's investments made WWE Films look like a conservative bond fund. Wish I could ask Simon Inoki if his father-in-law is crazy or just eccentric, but I'm pretty sure I wouldn't get a response. edit: Someone named Jack Thompson in the April '84 letters section touts Hoshino as underrated and Tiger Mask as overrated. Guess we didn't need the NJ Set after all

Mindboggling details about the NJ/Sayama split on page 22 of the March '84 issue. Shinma was the power broker behind UWF, yet he's the reason why Sayama got pissed off and left. Stuff like Shinma refusing to let Sayama marry, then scheduling the wedding without discussing it with Sayama. I'd love to know the details on that.