Matt D

It depends on how big a Tito Santana fan you are.

I mean the video in the article is named "Billy Jack Haynes - Go Fund Me request."

So, I'm not even sure where to begin here. Maybe with this disclaimer: Billy Jack Haynes is probably never truthful.

Far out of my wheelhouse. Looking forward to checking it out. Thanks. You haven't been with us all that long, so I only have some sense of what you've seen and what you haven't, so here's something from my wheelhouse, but set in Japan. It's slightly JIP after the entrances, but you only lose two minutes. Terry Funk vs Nick Bockwinkel (07/12/1983) http://prowrestlingonly.com/index.php?/topic/34313-terry-funk-vs-nick-bockwinkel-ajpw-071283/

Week 7. Slow week for us as a bunch of people are taking a week or two off. I've made sure that there are no doubles for the last three weeks. Jetlag Jmare007 HeadCheese fxnj Richeyedwards Matt D Kronos Rah SPS dawho5 Nintendo Logic Tim Evans WingedEagle concrete1992 southofheavy We had an odd number. southofheavy, if no one jumps back in by the morning, I'll double up and pair with you too.

Didn't Austin just downplay War Games 1992 a few months ago?

Where did this person get that talking point? Where are the lists of pimped 70s Onita? I'm trying to remember which Onita tag I really love. Is it: 6/6/82 Ric Flair & Dick Slater vs. Giant Baba & Onita It might be?

Ive been reading back. The moment, in my view, where people went from jokingly upset to actually frustrated, was when Negro Casas hit. (Though there were moments when the biggest shootstyle worker, female, or WoS guy hit too).

And I respect that. Here he is crushing entire style of pro wrestling. That is pretty impressive when you think about it.

Sometimes when I leave this place it feels like this:

What do we do? Try to find someone on Twitter who's watching this and send them a few bucks a month for them to send it to us? 1992 WON letter pages?

It's funny that we don't have anyone from Memphis in the community despite all of us loving Memphis Wrestling so much.

Yep. Ospreay reminds me of Styles at that age. I really look at Ospreay and see a guy who isn't good right now, but is very naturally gifted, very athletic, and just naturally talented. I think 10 years from now Opsreay could be one of the best in the world. There was an echo chamber in 2000, and more so in 2003, but I don't think it's entirely like what young wrestlers have to deal with today.

Kronos, http://prowrestlingonly.com/index.php?/topic/36602-stan-hansen-dan-kroffat-vs-rock-n-roll-express-ajpw-10261988/ So, I don't want you to take this one personally. It's a very cool, novel match in a lot of ways. It's just that those ways add up to defeat the otherwise unquestionable purpose of Morton/Gibson, the glorified ideal of southern tag team wrestling, and the shine/heat/comeback formula. I'm glad to have had a chance to watch it again and to actually write about it this time and thank you for that, but it's the embodiment of why we can't have nice things.

This is the worst Rock 'n' Roll express match of all time. What if you take everything that makes the R'n'R work, everything that makes them great, and then you put them in an environment where none of that matters, against an opponent who won't allow any of it? That's what you get here. Look, the match has a few things going for it. One, if you want to see Stan Hansen destroying people, this is a match for you. He has smaller opponents but is still in the AJPW setting, close enough to his physical prime that he has the wind and the dexterity to hit stuff cleanly. There's one point of the match where he has a face-vice on Morton, just literally has his hands over Morton's face, and that's basically the whole match. Kroffat stands out as the most exciting wrestler of 1988 offensively. He hits a ton of interesting things, none of which seem contrived. By 1992, he'd be the total package, with an almost memphis-like ability to work the crowd and his opponents and the ref as a heel yet still making it seem 100% to fit in AJPW. Here he just has spatterings of that, but he's still fascinating to watch. You get the feeling like he could have a Meltzerian six star match with 1988 Owen Hart or whatever. It's also immensely cool to hear the crowd chant "rock and roll" at the start. But this is a hot mess, a hot, hot mess. The Southern tag formula is the greatest gift god ever gave to us through pro wrestling. The Express are heavenly angels of that style. And Stan Hansen is basically the devil sent to tear it all to shreds. It starts off well enough with Kroffat eating the R'n'R fast offense. The fans are into it. They're chanting. Kroffat's game. It's a shine and it's working, at least right up until the point where Hansen storms in for no reason and starts to kill both guys. It's pretty much all downhill from there, with Morton looking as lost as I've ever seen him. He repeats spots (dropkicking Kroffat twice into the corner which comes off as very weird), has just weird comeback attempts (he does a small package 2-3 times, including once on Hansen and it's absolutely NOT what the fans want to see; at another point, his big comeback move is an armdrag on Hansen, which basically just lets Hansen get enough distance to destroy him again), and basically is put in a position by Hansen's relentlessness where he can't breathe enough to sell. If the guy is constantly hitting you, you can't sell. Hansen doesn't let anything breathe at all. Let's say Morton gets a kick in on a back body drop attempt. Ricky would normally drop to the ground, sell, and move to get another shot in, to really build up tension for the eventual cut off. The second he turns, Hansen's back on him again. Nothing. Just a guzzling. Probably the worst thing was when Hansen missed a Lariat on the outside early on and hit the post. In a normal match, that would have been a big moment and would have set up a very believable shine and built into the overall flow of the match. Here? Well, Hansen lets them double team him for about twenty seconds and that's that. It's basically their only offense on him all match. If wrestling is about moments and making them matter, this is just so much noise. It's vaguely amusing to watch Hansen kill these guys, sure. It's novel. I don't think it's good though, not at all. There's no comeback. There's no hot tag. How do you do a R'n'R match with no hot tag? Even in Japan. There was still room for it. Instead of a comeback and Gibson coming in to at least try to clean house, there's a cutesy spot with a missed shoulder block and a trip by Morton and a Flying Body Press by Gibson and both R'n'Rs trying to pin Hansen. It's a mercy to all of us when Hansen follows this up by turning around after a missed kick to hit the lariat on Morton. In isolation, there are a lot of cool little bits here. Something as simple as Hansen dropping the kneepad to flatten Morton as Kroffat holds him down is innately cool. The match is full of stuff like that but none of it adds up. The crowd started the match by chanting Rock 'n' Roll but there wasn't a single thing in there that made them want to chant when Morton was in that facevice late on. Gibson was standing on the second turnbuckle on the outside. Morton was waiting for the crowd to fire him up, but the crowd didn't care. The fire never came. Not even the greatest babyface tag team of all time could survive Stan Hansen stomping out the flame of pro wrestling beauty.

I like him a lot more as Prince Puma. I think he wrestles at least somewhat differently in that role. Granted, the matches that all stand out the most are the Muertes matches and that might just be a case of him having a base to work with instead of someone with a similar style to force a lot of overall excess.

And thats a perfect example of people not getting that performer means the whole package, not just work. I really like some of his promos from that year. Its a truly great performer who doesnt need to talk to be that over, dude. Unless Ive missed the existence of Sabu promos, anything is possible.

And thats a perfect example of people not getting that performer means the whole package, not just work. I really like some of his promos from that year.

I'm shooting for Weds again this week. Anyone else want back on/temporarily off for the week?

Theyre way more fun as babyfaces. If you stick it out, youll see.

The best squash that they had was on the 10/3/92 superstars vs Horowitz and Bob Bradley, btw.

I am looking forward to reading that review.

I actually kind of like this idea if that's what they're going for. It'd create a very strong association.

Kane one spot ahead of Rollins makes me happy, at least. Also, I'm not sure who David Clare is but he comes off as a scholar and a gentleman.

The hour long Bock/Hennig match, yes. https://sites.google.com/site/chrisharrington/mookieghana-prowrestlingstatistics/top80s_awa_results