Ditch

I assume that's Naohiro Hoshikawa.

I don't get how double footstomps aren't dangerous. Granted, most are done in such a way that it isn't landing with all the weight vertically down on the victim's stomach, but sometimes there are. I mean, at BOSJ '09, Devitt did one to Danshoku Dino's groinal region. http://sportsnavi.yahoo.co.jp/fight/photo/...0091224013.html You could not give me enough yen to take that.

If anything, shows were popping up faster and more reliably in good quality three years ago than they do now. Maybe it has to do with DGUSA, doing shows in Europe, and directly appealing to western audiences?

Once again, my thoughts exactly. "Guess what fans, we own these trademarks!" And the response is "okay, but that doesn't mean I want to watch someone else doing it". Impossible to see the upside, and unlike 'The Real JJ', this one has a stark downside.

I vividly recall watching this at the time and saying the same thing. I figured that maybe it was a country music thing, trying to appeal to rednecks, but even that doesn't make much sense. This is an angle where there's absolutely no way to end up making money on it. None. What were they thinking?!

Yeah but it's okay for ECW to be shameless, because they don't take themselves seriously. Or something.

Kakihara was never a 'top 20 in the world' type, or someone involved in a bunch of MOTYCs. Add to it that he was always a midcarder and there's a reason why he flew under the radar. I'll have to re-watch this. It didn't do anything for me the first time. Random Kaki recommendation: vs Yamazaki from 11/30/94. Good shoot-style with a story worked in.

It's fascinating that Alan is so wildly divisive while at the same time being friendly and positive about almost everything. Typically someone is controversial by having strong positive AND negative opinions/actions. I don't see how Alan is more a driver of the pro-DG-style movement than Meltzer, regardless of how many boards he's on. WON star ratings are exponentially more influential. And at least in Alan's case, I'm able to give the "stop watching Dragon Gate and watch more early-decade NOAH" alternative on a WON audio show. All that said, I share the confusion over why Davey Richards, Prince Devitt and Shingo Takagi are suddenly all the rage. Perhaps part of it is that for people looking for MOTYCs, you have: -WWE, where the wrestling is generally competent but rarely hits that 'next gear' -Lucha, which lots of people ignore altogether -TNA (lol) -US Indies, where the most hyped matches tend to be in the DG-style mold -Dragon Gate -Lackluster Japanese heavyweight promotions -Japanese indies, which also tend to lack that 'next gear'. No matter how much I think that Big Japan has the best heavyweight-style wrestling in Japan, I still wouldn't call it exceptional. Since Dragon Gate and wrestlers in that mileu are the ones who come across as fresh and are able to excite crowds, there's an attraction. Plus they're doing the most cool moves, the most "epic" finishes, etc. And if it makes sense, even though I think a match like Strong vs Richards isn't quality pro wrestling, it makes more sense on a MOTYC list than a match I much prefer like some small show Big Japan tag that hits the right notes but is more 'competent' than 'jaw-dropping'. It would be much easier to make the case against Dragon Gate if there were a lot of easy alternatives to point to. But there aren't. On a side note, to smkelly: Kondo vs Marufuji was a 'dream match' between people in different promotions. Somewhat hard to do a slow build there, though I agree with the 'they did too much' sentiment.

Um... that seems like a fairly common and well-understood phrase.

Since you enjoyed Yamazaki & Iizuka a couple times, I'll recommend you check out them vs Tenryu & Araya in WAR from November '96. It's the match I most regret not having suggested for this...

Howard Brody says it was an elaborate work in his book, and he hates her so I don't see why he would lie about it. But why would Dan keep kayfabe about it long afterwards... hmm. Just spoke with Brody. He says Severn is just kayfabing it still, in part because the work was so effective that mos everyone there bought it. Reading the book, the scenario is such that the odds of it being a shoot are pretty low, and plus why would Brody *de-sensationalize* something for a book (ie. turning a shoot to a work). The goal was a Severn vs Dory match in Japan, but they couldn't sell the match to anyone to make it worthwhile.

New Japan was done for the month after the G-1 finished on the 6th, so this might well have been the last match.

I am the king of Caring About Leg Selling and that is garbage for someone to say. Thankfully it's a the exception; this match is pretty much universally loved and deservedly so.

It's All Marti Funk, All The Time this week.

Not really, to the extent that Rikio was expected to win coming in, whereas Garvin was a low-tier challenger that only won for the sake of convenience. edit: If anything, Misawa vs Akiyama 7/27/01 would be the comparison. A match that wasn't bad but wasn't as good as it could/should have been. Done with to take an experienced wrestler to the next level, and not really accomplishing it. But, I don't think in either case the title reigns were doomed by the title win.

That you're a lucky SOB. I liked it best of what I've seen of the year. How'd you like it?

I have no idea where this is coming from. The Hogan/Sting build, while not flawless, is generally considered good booking and a financial success. I've yet to see anyone defend how Rikio's reign started. I can't recall this offhand. Was he shown watching the match from the arena floor or something? Because he'd done absolutely nothing of note between his October title shot against Kobashi and the announcement of him as Rikio's challenger. Saito had no momentum whatsoever and was just six months removed from a mid-sized-venue title shot; putting him against Rikio screamed "we're giving Rikio an easy title defense and can't think of anyone good so we're putting in someone random". It's not like Saito is a big name or a draw, or known as a reliable tear-down-the-house singles wrestler, so it was completely unappealing. Saito and Rikio were darn good tag wrestlers, which is not the same as singles. The match ended up the biggest title match bomb since the Ogawa reign, and even there Ogawa's matches weren't considered disappointing in the context of being Ogawa matches. It was a huge blow to Rikio's confidence and the fans' confidence in him. Offhand, I'd say the following people on the March card would have been better: Akiyama, Tenryu, Morishima, Ohtani, Honda. Granted there's the political aspect of Tenryu or Ohtani, so let's remove them. Morishima would have been credible and interesting as a challenger for obvious reasons. Akiyama was further removed from a title loss than Saito. Honda was even further removed than that, and his previous title shot was a huge success. Honda would be quite a bit below the others I mentioned but you'd still have the 'going for revenge for his partner' storyline. Naturally one would change the booking to give Morishima or Honda momentum... but heck why didn't they do ANYTHING for Saito to make it seem less random? Anyway, enough about that one. Whoa, hold up. Nakamura wasn't positioned as future ace in '05? Because he was the overwhelming favorite going into the G-1 a month later, to the extent that fans at Sumo Hall on the final night were throwing negative vibes at him because they thought he was going to be forced down their throats. Tanahashi also got some of the same vibes. Granted, Tanahashi was going to be an IWGP champion in the future, that sort of thing, but I don't think he was clearly ahead of Nakamura at that point. Plus, Nakamura was a former IWGP champ and had multiple Tokyo Dome main events under his belt. That would have been a MUCH more interesting challenger. Nobody gave Tanahashi a chance against Rikio and it meant the match had no buzz going in. Nakamura would have been better, and if not him then Nagata. Rikio vs Misawa was the best possible matchup, I have no bones about that one. Ultimately I don't think Rikio had it in him to be anything close to Misawa or Kobashi as champion. But getting him off on such bad footing soured much of the fanbase on him, and it hurt his heat going forward. He's had two title shots since dropping the belt, instead of one or two more and maybe a reign. If he hadn't been damaged goods, maybe they wouldn't have felt the need to have Misawa keep the belt so long. Or maybe Rikio's eventual heel turn would have been meaningful instead of desperate. So much of this reminds me of discussions of Tenzan mid-decade. No, he was never going to be Chono. But everyone KNEW that, which made it indefensible (IMO) to pull crap like having him job to Nakamura in December '03, or have him look awful in an awkward non-title 3-way on 1/4/05. When the company needed Tenzan to draw in '05, the fans weren't there for either Tenzan or New Japan. Maybe it wouldn't have mattered had the booking been better; maybe he would have flopped regardless. But someone with his limitations simply can't afford to also have to deal with sandbags in the form of how he's booked. edit: As for the Kobashi thing, no way, the title match (especially the second half) was fine and had good heat. I'd prefer it if Kobashi was pinned one or two moves before he was, but that's not the sort of thing casual fans worry about. Rikio won convincingly and credibly, and that's what Kobashi was called on to do. If anything I think Kobashi laid out the match such that Rikio was in the Kobashi role, which is appropriate. The match could have been better but it wasn't bad. Rikio vs Saito *was* bad.

Nothing says 'peak of the financial bubble' quite like that website.

I'm guessing Baba was trying to figure out how to book Kobashi as his own man. That didn't happen until fall when he started teaming full-time with Patriot, which later led to him forming Global Energy Team (Kobashi/Ace/Patriot/other gaijin). In a sense the Triple Crown win was a shortcut to finding something to do with him. http://www.purolove.com/noah/kobashi/kobashi96.php The August/September tour was the transition point. My favorite thing about GET was the 5/24/97 6-man that never aired where Patriot pinned Misawa. That has to be the lowest-ranked dude to beat Misawa in the last 20 years of his career.

Late '90s All Japan was not the best-booked of companies but it wasn't nearly at the lows of late '00s NOAH. And heck, late '90s All Japan did do some damage in terms of somewhat bumbling the transition of Akiyama from Misawa's #2 to viable headliner, and he could have been bigger at the start of NOAH, as opposed to still being in the "future superstar" mode. With the declining popularity of wrestling, less wrestling on TV, and fewer Japanese babies, a talent decrease was inevitable. That's why extra-tight, extra-focused booking was needed more than ever. The lack of it in NJ and NOAH did irreparable harm, furthering the downward spiral. Damn but I get depressed writing about it. *dives into the Lynch catalog for comfort*

Yamazaki used the UWFi theme as his entrance.

I do agree that Misawa/NOAH repeatedly tried to get the next generation over. But the steady decline of the product from 2004 on, even granted that Kobashi went out, was stark despite having almost entirely the same wrestlers. In an environment where the booking became increasingly lazy/unfocused, the wrestling headed in the same direction. The hardcore fans that supported the company from the beginning largely gave up, and I really believe it's because they weren't getting the show quality they were used to. I could go through Budokan-by-Budokan with where I think they could have improved main events, but much more important would be re-doing whole tours and giving direction. There was very little sense of rivalries and continuity. I couldn't put a % on it because it's impossible to measure how important booking is.

New Japan's model was as much about 'opposition' groups as anything. Going against the heel stable or outside fighter group or enemy promotion. Chono was doing okay in the early '90s but he really took off as a stable leader. Hashimoto was also doing well but I think he went to the next level fighting WAR, and Chono's stable, and UWFi. Plus, NJ 'gave away' more singles bouts, so a guy could blossom on his own. I don't see the current NOAH haphazard style of booking being helpful in KEEPING Misawa over had it been the way Baba booked. Baba had Misawa constantly fighting Jumbo & Co, giving him direction. In NOAH, the Rikio vs Kobashi or Rikio vs Misawa or Rikio vs Akiyama tags on TV were few and far between after he won the title. That's the sort of thing I'm talking about. It adds something to the matches and for fans who follow the product. To say nothing of the fact that Rikio started off defending against no-momentum midcarder Saito, and pre-relevance Tanahashi. Or they have Morishima start off against pre-relevance Sugiura and a no-momentum Rikio. Misawa had so many things going right for him in the booking; the NOAH guys have had next to nothing. It's the worst possible Baba-ism booking.

One wonders who decided to follow that up with having him go against the already-established Fedor. That one didn't do any damage that wasn't already done with the CroCop fight, but it didn't help either.

I can see it appealing to people from roughly early-20s to mid-30s, which covers a fair amount of both the video game and WWE demographics. Savage was still a significant presence in late '90s WCW, and the gameplay doesn't look THAT outlandish to me relative to what's been around for the last decade. And yes, that post was a joke.