KB8

That match is nuts. I thought Dragon broke his femur at one point on a bump across the edge of the stage (I think that was it anyway, it's been a couple year since I watched it), and the double stomp on Necro's face was fucking disgusting. That's one of the nastier things I've ever seen Necro take, and that is a sky high bar.

Man, Bock v Reed about did me in. If it actually exists... Of those there I'd be geeked for Reed/Dusty and Reed/Wrestling II. Pretty much anything with Reed, actually.

I'm a big fan of the Cruz and Felino matches, but that's all I've seen from him that struck me as being memorable. As in, I've seen other matches where he's been involved, but I don't remember a thing about what he did in them other than the very obvious thing you remember from every Ciclon Ramirez match which is him fucking torpedoing someone with that tope. It's a hell of a tope.

Awesome. I've absolutely loved Hector in all this stuff, so I'm looking forward to that.

October is in the books. 1. Yuki Ishikawa & Alexander Otsuka vs Daisuke Ikeda & Takeshi Ono (Battlarts, 10/30/96) 2. Volk Han vs Masayuki Naruse (RINGS, 10/25/96) 3. Genichiro Tenryu v Great Muta (WAR, 10/11/96) 4. Toshiaki Kawada vs Kenta Kobashi (All Japan, 10/18/96) 5. Dick Togo, Shiryu, Taka Michinoku, Shoichi Funaki & Mens Teioh v Super Delfin, Gran Hamada, Tiger Mask IV, Masato Yakushiji & Gran Naniwa (M-Pro, 10/10/96) 6. The Undertaker v Mankind (WWF In Your House 10: Buried Alive, 10/20/96) 7. Daisuke Ikeda & Takeshi Ono v Yuki Ishikawa & Naohiro Hoshikawa (Battlarts, 10/2/96) 8. Aja Kong v Maanami Toyota (AJW, 10/6/96) 9. Steve Austin v HHH (WWF In Your House 10: Buried Alive, 10/20/96) 10. Jushin Liger & El Samurai vs Shinjiro Otani & Yuji Nagata (New Japan, 10/25/96) 11. Devil Masami & Kyoko Inoue v Dynamite Kansai & Aja Kong (JWP, 10/13/96) 12. Dick Togo & Mens Teoh & Shiryu vs Great Sasuke & Gran Hamada & Masato Yakushiji (M-Pro, 10/19/96) 13. Billy Scott vs Kenichi Yammamoto (UWFi, 10/23/96) 14. Rey Misterio Jr vs Dean Malenko (WCW Halloween Havoc, 10/27/96) 15. Keiji Muto & Rick Steiner vs Manabu Nakanishi & Satoshi Kojima (New Japan, 10/25/96) 16. Great Sasuke & Tiger Mask IV & Hikari Fukuoka & Hiromi Yagi v Super Delphin & Gran Naniwa & Candy Okutsu & Commando Bolshoi (JWP, 10/13/96) 17. Ultimo Draagon v Great Sasuke (WAR, 10/11/96) 18. Shane Douglas v Mikey Whipwreck (ECW, 10/18/96) 19. Jushin Liger v Great Muta (New Japan, 10/20/96) 20. Rey Misterio Jr. v Psicosis (WAR, 10/11/96) 21. Shawn Michaels v Steve Austin (WWF RAW, 10/14/96) The 10/30 Battlarts tag was so great. Thought it was a tremendous amalgamation of that kind of shoot style and a US/southern style tag match. Ikeda and Ono were an unbelievable pair of assholes and the moment where Otsuka finally drops Ono with that German suplex to leave Ishikawa to finish Ikeda was one of the best spots of the month. I have no problem calling it a strong MOTYC. Han/Naruse was a totally different kind of shoot style, but awesome in its own right. It's got a clear story to it as well, which makes it a match I'd maybe point to if someone was trying to get into RINGS. Muta/Tenryu was a killer spectacle. I love those kind of Tenryu matches and this one ruled. Kobashi/Kawada is something I would call very good at worst, but I really struggled to stay engaged for the whole hour. That's just where I'm at as a fan at this point, though. I certainly didn't dislike it, and it had some great stuff in it, but as a whole I have no interest in re-watching it any time soon

I liked him enough as a poor-man's SUWA a few years back ('09-ish, I think), but there isn't a ton else. Granted, I haven't watched him in a good long while and junior heavyweights don't work a style I really want TO watch, but yeah.

Was there ever a Reed/Wrestling II singles match? Their interactions in that 12/83 tag were great (hugely fun match, btw) and I loved them up against each other in the cage match on the Mid-South set.

I watched a ton of WWF TV matches from 2000 a few years back and I found Helmsley that year to be mostly fun in a TV match setting (on Tim's point: I don't even remember anything about the Taka match). "Bloated" is definitely the word I'd use to describe him in a PPV setting, but his TV stuff was much tighter. There was some PPV stuff that year I enjoyed as well, though. The Rock match from Backlash is crazy overbooked Attitude Era ridiculousness in the good way (if you're someone who thinks there is a good way, at least), the Foley match from the Rumble is good (though I would say it's very much a Foley show), and the last man standing match against Jericho is one of the only times where I actually like him working methodical, primarily because him and Stephanie are a great pair of assholes and fill in the downtime with goading of Jericho. Thought Rock was better than him that year, though. I took part in a best match of the 00s poll on another forum a couple years ago, and while I'd still say 2000 is Hunter's best year, I certainly wouldn't put him in the same bracket as Kawada for WOTY (also thought Tajiri was WOTY in the US and Helmsley wasn't all that close).

I thought his singles matches with Flair and Race in '83 were pretty great. He does such an awesome sell of the arm in the Race match that it makes all the other occasions where he smothers opponents even more disappointing. If he spent more time on defence and selling than potatoing guys he might have a shot, but as it stands, no.

There are a couple Eddie/Malenko handhelds from WCW that are pretty great, actually. Eddie's my favourite wrestler ever and Malenko is probably one of my least favourite of his opponents (I admittedly haven't watched any of their ECW matches in about eight years), but once Eddie turned heel in '97 they had a run of really good matches. Going through Will's monster Eddie comp (to this day I think that's still the only 30+ disc comp I've gone through from start to finish) I came out of it thinking the guy was no worse than good from pretty much start to end of his career (you know, as good as he can be expected to be two/three years into his career in '90/'91). I don't LOVE him in Mexico/AAA, but he was involved in some stuff I really did like (trios more than Gringos Locos tags). In '95 he transitions to working in the US, and there's some fun WCW stuff there - along with the great Benoit match from Nitro - to go with what he's doing in ECW. I wouldn't say he was great yet, but he was comfortably really good. '96 was when I think he started to really put it together in-ring. He seemed to be less comfortable as a babyface and struggled to really project his charisma, but I'd say he was right around "great" level that year, primarily because the Benoit match from the BOSJ is so good that I have a hard time thinking a guy who wasn't great would be involved in something like it (I say that half-jokingly, because I know plenty of not-great wrestlers have been involved in great matches, but this felt like an instance where the match was as good as it was because both guys were clearly working at a very high level). He got the heel turn in '97 and I thought he was incredible in that second half of the year. Like, about as good as anybody else in the world at the time. That was the point where I think everything came together. He obviously never stayed at that level for the rest of the WCW run, but he had charisma out the wazoo even once he'd turned face again. The first WWF run isn't really much, at least not compared to '02-'05. He was a lot of fun, but he spent the majority of 2000 with Chyna and then was gone halfway through 2001. From the comeback in mid-2002 until his death I thought he was at "great" level for pretty much the entirety of it. He dragged RVD to something really good, was my favourite guy during the Smackdown Six run, had an awesome short-lived tag run with Tajiri after Chavo went out, had the parking lot brawl with Cena, the feud with Show at the end of '03 - thought he was great in all of that (the tags with Tajiri against Team Angle are some of my favourite tags in company history). '04-'05 is his peak. He was unreal in the first half of '04. Had the Rey and Big Show matches on Smackdown that are tremendous, the JBL feud that produced three outstanding singles matches (Judgment Day, Great American Bash and Smackdown cage match), and the Lesnar match from No Way Out. I thought the Angle match from Wrestlemania was really good, and Angle in '04 isn't someone I have much interest in watching. He has less to do in the second half of the year (well, he's feuding with Angle), but then into 2005 he picks it back up again. He was great in the '05 Rumble that year, has the fun tag run with Rey as the precursor to the heel turn, then the slow burn turn itself, which is pretty much masterful character work from him. Then the turn comes and he hits Best Wrestler in the World level. He's a different kind of heel in '05 than he was in '97. In '97 he was kind of a snivelling little douchebag. In '05 he's an obsessive psychopath who continues to be consumed by his need to finally beat Mysterio. You can visibly track that deterioration in his "mental state" from Judgment Day in May, to the Smackdown match in June, to the Great American Bash in July. The Dominic storyline got ridiculous, but Eddie's character work was so great during that feud. Honestly, I would put Eddie's very best performance during that run in '05 (Smackdown against Rey in June) up with just about any single performance from any other wrestler in history. He died as the best wrestler on the planet. I guess where you rank Eddie in the end might depend on your take on 'peak versus longevity.' I think Eddie at his very best ('97, '04-'05) is really special, but if you take the amount of at-minimum "great" years he had (and your mileage will vary on that) and compare them to someone like Flair who had probably double that, or even someone like Benoit who on average probably had more "very good" output, do you favour that fairly short peak? I'll be honest, I prefer Eddie to Benoit by a fair bit and I would rather watch him than Flair without any hesitation. I think Eddie at his best is better than Flair at his best, but that might have something to do with me just flat out being bored by a lot of Flair at this point (I'll probably still have Flair ahead of him, btw. I think in that instance longevity - and longevity at a very high level - is such an obvious factor that it'd be hard to dismiss). Like Clayton, there's a time where I almost certainly would've had him top 10. I won't now, but I can't imagine dropping him out of my top 20, either.

I actually thought this was an absolute ton of fun. Hector is pretty much Eddie fired back in time, right? Like, 1997 Eddie Guerrero and 1984 Hector Guerrero are pretty much the same person, and considering Eddie's my favourite wrestler ever I am allllllll over that. Seriously, Hector is so fucking awesome (so is Chavo, tbf, but I already knew that well enough). Some of the Guerreros' shticking and stooging was outstanding in this, and all of it was done at such a quick pace. Lothario is more or less all punches and selling, but my god is he great at both. That uppercut on Hector is legitimately one of the best punches I've ever seen in a wrestling match and the spot where he takes on both Guerreros at the same time with left and rights was amazing. Absolutely loved this.

I'm not a massive AJ fan or anything, but the Joe match from Turning Point '05 really is excellent (and the best TNA match I've ever seen, which I wouldn't call a particularly high bar but that's whatever) and it's as much to do with AJ as Joe. Haven't watched any of his ROH stuff in about seven years, but I remember liking him in plenty of that. I watched the Suzuki and Naito matches from last year as well and thought the Naito match was good pretty much entirely down to Styles, while the Suzuki match was every bit the MOTYC it was pimped as. I plan on watching more of him during this, particularly stuff from the last couple years.

I'm on a totally different side of the fence on Duggan (though I'll probably have Hansen, Funk and Kawada top 5 as well...). Thought he was awesome going through the Mid-South set the first time, almost in a "holy shit, THIS is the 'HOOOOO, TOUGH GUY' Jim Duggan from the WWF?" state of shock, and going through it again over the last few years I maybe like him even more. Love him as walking tall babyface, brawling like a demon and making his lunatic caveman comebacks. His timing on those comebacks has always struck me as being great as well. I mean, I might not even have him top 75, but I think he'll make my list somewhere.

Dr. Death/Gordy Texas Death Match was so great. Might be my favourite Williams performance in the US, from the dead on his feet selling to the wild animal comeback. Gordy's blade job was outrageous. At one point he tries to piledrive Williams and he bleeds so much that the back of Williams' yellow trunks are practically turned bright red. Even liked the finish for what it was. Yeah, this feels like it would've been a top 10 contender for the Mid-South set, and that is an AWFULLY high bar.

I'm not a Tanahashi fan, but the Fujita match from '04 is excellent and he played scrappy underdog in that about as well as you could possibly hope. There's a short Tenryu match from the G-1 that year where he played a similar role, and while neither performance or match is at the level of the Fujita match (and performance), but it's really fun as well.

I actually remember a few points where Barbarian was adamant he had things in hand (in a "he caught me once, but I've got it this time, don't sweat it" sense), though at the time I read that more as him wanting to "prove himself" rather than miscommunication or them not being on the same page*. Some of the things you mentioned might've stuck with me a little more if they never wound up winning in the end. Then I might've read it as "Jake's mind is elsewhere and he and Barbarian aren't on the same page, but the DDT is the DDT and got them out of trouble." *by miscommunication I assume you mean that in a "working miscommunication spots" etc. sense?

That spot with Jake tied up in the ropes while the RnRs pepper him with shots and the Barbarian scrambles around chasing shadows has stuck with me since I first watched this on the Mid-South set back in '08. It's an awesome spot, and I also don't remember seeing it any other time, which is weird because why would you not want to do that spot all the time? Loved Jake in this. All of his nasty sleazeball touched ruled, like stamping on Morton's fingers and yanking the tassels on Morton's tights so he couldn't scoot away to the corner. He was clearly directing traffic and carrying things for his team, to the point where I thought it was obvious enough that it might've been intentional. As in, Nord was blatantly looking to Jake for direction at points and made no real attempt to hide that, while Jake worked the whole thing as team leader directing his meat head buddy. I mean, Nord is obviously green as hell, but I thought it in a way it actively added to the match. Hectic finish run was really good as well, and you can't really go wrong with the finish. Pretty great match.

Fuck, Duggan/One Man Gang totally ruled. Only goes about six minutes, but by the end it feels like both guys just came out of a war. Duggan was a total nut job in it throwing incredible punches and stumbling around the ring (or both rings, as it were) and ringside like a bloodied up caveman warrior. Gang hurling himself in between the two rings to get away from Duggan swinging the chair, Duggan tossing Gang over the top rope by the beard(!), the assisted splash/sit-up/punch sequence between both guys and Akbar -- for six minutes they sure managed to cram in a good deal of awesome shit.

Some that I don't think have been mentioned yet (though I'm probably and they have): Rockers v Powers of Pain (MSG, 1/15/90) (I think this is dead on ten minutes long. I've been saying it's maybe my favourite 10-minutes-or-less match ever for the last six years, anyway) Arn Anderson & Barry Windham v Doom (WCW Starrcade, 12/16/90) Stan Hansen & Ted DiBiase v Genichiro Tenryu & Jumbo Tsuruta (All Japan, 12/12/86) Rock 'n' Roll Express v The Guerreros (Mid-South, 2/13/85) Daisuke Ikeda v Yuki Ishikawa (Battlarts, 8/4/96) Eddy Guerrero & Chris Jericho v The Faces of Fear (WCW Nitro, 2/24/97)

Had to finally get in on this as well. Needless to say it looks like an absolute gold mine. Those previously unreleased Butch Reed matches alone are enough for me to part with £7 a month.

Yeah, this was fun. Gilbert is full on stooge-weasel and does nothing in the first five minutes but whine, stall and take one huge pinball bump off a punch. Reed's stuff looked killer here; meaty punches, skull-cavey forearms, a big Vader-style clothesline, big suplex and an awesome flying shoulder tackle. Gilbert's shtick wasn't totally perfected yet (compared to '87 when he REALLY turned up the douchebaggery), but this was a fine way to spend ten minutes. I also got a kick out of Boesch referring to Reed as Hacksaw Duggan the entire match.

The deadline is Wrestlemania next year? Cool, I'll probably end up submitting a ballot then. My problem is that - with most of my hobbies - I can be really into watching and writing about wrestling for six months, then I'll end up dropping it for another six months without watching a thing. That's pretty evident by the 1996 yearbook section, where I've been plugging away at that since 2011 (and every year I seem to say, "maybe I can finish the set before the end of the year," without ever actually doing it). I also have a few blind spots (Puerto Rico, WoS and modern indies, basically) that I wanted to do something about before the deadline, but I assumed I wouldn't have enough time. But if there's still about six months (and I'm starting to watch stuff again) then I feel better about getting together a ballot I'd be content with.

I should preface this by saying that I'd be happy if every Tenryu match made every yearbook, but I thought this was really great and kind of a lost classic. The Tenryu/Yamazaki exchanges are all excellent, and I'm not sure if Yamazaki deliberately plays off the IWGP tag title match from June, but the rib injury comes into play again (which Yamazaki also sells great again). Tenryu going fucking postal with a chair while the cameraman almost gets caught in the crossfire was amazing. Iizuka and Araya were both really good understudies here, Araya with his shithousing and Iizuka stepping up to Tenryu in a big way. There's a great sequence towards the end where Iizuka relentlessly goes after a leglock - after ducking a home run chop and an enziguri - while Araya casually comes in and breaks it up to a chorus of boos. This really had everything I want out of a Tenryu tag - hate, the main match-up ruling, every other match-up working, PERIL, bunch more hate, etc. Hell of a match, and definitely something that belongs on a supplemental set.

September had some really awesome, high end stuff: 1. Shawn Michaels v Mankind (WWF In Your House 9: Mind Games, 9/22/96) 2. Stan Hansen v Kenta Kobashi (All Japan, 9/5/96) 3. Genichiro Tenryu v Nobuhiko Takada (UWFi, 9/11/96) 4. Kiyoshi Tamura v Volk Han (RINGS, 9/25/96) 5. Terry Funk & Mike Awesome v Masato Tanaka & Hayabusa (FMW, 9/24/96) 6. Mitsuharu Misawa & Jun Akiyama v Steve Williams & Johnny Ace (All Japan, 9/5/96) 7. Shinya Hashimoto v Steven Regal (New Japan, 9/21/96) 8. Toshiaki Kawada, Akira Taue & Yoshinari Ogawa v Mitsuharu Misawa, Jun Akiyama & Satoru Asako (All Japan, 9/28/96) 9. Masato Tanaka, Tetsuhiro Kuroda & Koji Nakagawa v W*ING Kenamura, Hideki Hosaka & Hido (FMW, 9/1/96) 10. Shinya Hashimoto v Shiro Koshinaka (New Japan, 9/23/96) 11. Masahito Kakihara v Yoshihiro Takayama (UWFi, 9/30/96) 12. Hollywood Hogan, Scott Hall, Kevin Nash & nWo Sting v Ric Flair, Arn Anderson, Lex Luger & Sting (WCW Fall Brawl, 9/15/96) 13. Masa Chono & Hiroyoshi Tenzan v Kazuo Yamazaki & Takashi Iizuka (New Japan, 9/23/96) 14. Manami Toyota & Mima Shimoda v Kaoru Ito & Mariko Yoshida (AJW, 9/28/96) 15. Shawn Michaels & Jose Lothario v Vader & Jim Cornette (WWF RAW, 9/30/96) 16. Ric Flair, Arn Anderson, Chris Benoit & Steve McMichael v Kevin Sullivan, Big Bubba, Meng & Barbarian (WCW Nitro, 9/2/96) 17. Steve Austin v Marc Mero (WWF RAW, 9/6/96) 18. Hayabusa v Hisakatsu Oya (FMW, 9/20/96) 19. Jushin Liger v Wild Pegasus (New Japan, 9/23/96) Really strong month. The nWo stuff is getting better and better and I really loved the big 9/2 angle with the first real huge brawl. Top four matches there are some of my favourite of the year so far. Shawn/Mankind is still probably my favourite match ever, actually. Hansen/Kobashi is one of the best match-ups ever and really a can't fail prospect. Tenryu/Takada was something I had massive hopes for and it lived up to them completely. Super excited for the rematch. Still think Tamura/Han is the "weakest" of their three matches, yet completely awesome in its own right. I wasn't really sure what to expect from the Funk in FMW tag, but I thought it kinda ruled. The crazy head first bump Hayabusa took on the apron was totally nuts and somehow didn't kill him.