KB8

That Hansen/Kea v Kawada/Tenryu tag from July 2000 is fucking awesome as well. So four decades. And yeah, right now he's my GOAT.

Some of my friends have been trying to get me to go with them to ICW shows for a while now. I think I should stop saying I'll go and then not go and actually go for a change, because a Scottish World of Sport match might be the best idea for a gimmick match ever. Pretty sure more than a couple people have pimped Mikey Whiplash to me as well. Friend of mine went to the ICW Royal Rumble show (I'm not sure what it was called, only that they ran it at The Garage in Glasgow before the WWE's Rumble PPV was shown in the same club) and it sounded like it was nuts and definitely something I'd enjoy getting smashed and watching in person.

I agree with the rest hold point. He's still one of my favourite wrestlers ever, though. And having the best sell of an atomic drop of any wrestler in history kind of makes up for the crappy rest holds.

I think I wound up liking this as much as I did because I read this thread first. My expectations were lowered, but I wound up thinking it was a blast. Not on the level of the truly transcendent WAR v NJ matches, but I'll take pretty much anything I can get from this feud (which I'm convinced is the best in-ring feud of all time at this point). Tenryu/Mutoh exchanges were all great, and I really dug Mutoh constantly taking shots at him. Loved the bit where he runs across the ring and chucks the ref' out the way so he can beat on Tenryu some more. And holy shit does Tenryu throw one of the loudest chops I've ever heard on Samurai.

So it's almost been a year, but I got through May! 1. Mitsuharu Misawa & Jun Akiyama vs. Toshiaki Kawada & Akira Taue (AJPW 5/23/96) 2. Megumi Kido vs. Combat Toyota (FMW 5/5/96) 3. Shane Douglas vs. 2 Cold Scorpio (ECW 5/11/96) 4. Steve Austin vs. Savio Vega (Caribbean Strap Match) (WWF 5/28/96) 5. Yoshiaki Fujiwara vs. Dick Murdoch (PWFG 5/23/96) 6. Shawn Michaels vs. Hunter Hearst Helmsley (RAW 5/13/96) 7. Toshiaki Kawada vs. Kenta Kobashi (AJ 5/24/96) 8. Ric Flair & Randy Savage vs. Arn Anderson & Eddy Guerrero (WCW 5/19/96) 9. Yoshihisa Yamamoto vs. Buzariashvili Ramazi (RINGS 5/25/96) 10. Mitsuharu Misawa vs. Akira Taue (AJ 5/24/96) 11. The Gangstas & Tommy Dreamer vs. The Eliminators & Brian Lee (ECW 5/11/96) 12. Ric Flair vs. Eddy Guerrero (Nitro 5/20/96) 13. Sabu vs. Rob Van Dam (ECW 5/11/96) 14. Sting & Lex Luger vs. Meng & Barbarian (Nitro 5/20/96) 15. Volk Han vs. Hans Nyman (RINGS 5/25/96) 16. Mayumi Ozaki vs. Takako Inoue (JWP 5/18/96) 17. Cactus Jack vs. W*ING Kanemura (FMW 5/5/96) 18. Sting vs. Scott Steiner (Nitro 5/27/96) 19. Brian Christopher & Flex Kavana vs. Jerry Lawler & Bill Dundee (USWA 5/25/96) 20. Bill Dundee & Jerry Lawler vs. Cyberpunks (USWA 5/18/96) 21. Dean Malenko vs. Jushin Liger (Nitro 5/6/96) 22. Shawn Michaels vs. Diesel (Cage Match) (MSG 5/19/96) 23. Terry Funk & Mr. Pogo vs. Hayabusa & Masato Tanaka (FMW 5/5/96) Honestly, I've forgotten about half of the stuff there at this point, but I can at least remember enough about the best/my favourite stuff for the purposes of a top 100 of the year if I do one (whenever I finish the whole thing...could be a while). The 5/23 All Japan tag is my #2 MOTY right now behind Hashimoto/Takada and is just a killer tag match. Shawn/HHH probably looks ludicrously high and some people will think I'm nuts for having it above Kawada/Kobashi, but I thought it was a super cool TV match and the best thing they've ever done together. That Flair/Savage v Eddy/Arn tag is just a blast. Only goes about 6 minutes bell to bell, but the whole thing is one of my favourite "overall packages" of the year. I've always enjoyed the hell out of it. Touched on Sabu/RVD in the RVD thread -- I was stunned at how much I got out of those matches going through this yearbook. They're trainwrecks, but they're awfully entertaining trainwrecks. Hopefully I can knock June out in less than 11 months. Hopefully I can knock the whole thing out in less than 11 years.

I'd probably agree with most of this. Guy was not afraid to take absolute lunatic bumps, and was far more enjoyable to me when he was fighting from the bottom (how were the Lesnar matches? I haven't seen them in years, but on paper they sound like they could at least be decent) since his offence was generally pretty rubbish. He'd throw a nasty looking kick now and again, though. Going through the '96 yearbook and watching the Sabu matches for the first time in forever, I was stunned at how much I enjoyed them. It's because of the "spectacular trainwreck" thing, yeah, and most of it was because I wanted to see how much insane shit Sabu would try, but years ago I hated them...so that's at least something. Haven't seen the Smothers/RVD matches (or match...I don't know how many they had), but I've always hated the Lynn matches.

Was that six-man on the disc along with the promo, or was it on one of the discs from the first Memphis bulk? Or was it on a different disc completely? Because I got the discs from the Memphis bulks yesterday and that tag just sounds out-of-this-world fun.

Honestly, while the 4/26 match is excellent, I thought the rematch from a week later was practically just as good. Both are pretty different, too.

Martel is pretty fucking awesome. Going through the AWA set, I thought he was really good in everything but didn't get truly great until the '84 match with Jumbo where he wins the belt. Then I watched the Portland matches with Buddy Rose from '80, and he sure as shit looked like he was already truly great at that point. Makes me think the pre-'84 Martel stuff on the AWA set was just overshadowed a bit by the awesome Blackwell stuff, the Bock/Wahoo match, Brunzell, etc, as opposed to my original theory (really good before '84, great after it).

I really haven't seen a ton of Corino, but that Tajiri match from Hardcore Heaven 2000 is fucking great and one of the better borderline extended squashes I've ever seen.

Traylor was great in the Vader series in '94. The Spring Stampede match is honestly a top 20 match in company history to me, and everything I want in a slugfest between two beefies. They just knock fucking lumps out each other and Vader bleeds from his eye, and it could've been the result of about fifty different things. Their other matches don't quite reach that level, and I recall them being brought down by something silly in each of them (even if I'm blanking on specifics), but that is a match-up that I could watch all day.

I suspect would've had Michaels in a top 10 about 5 years ago. I wouldn't have him near that now (although I still love him in tags and think he has a strong case for being top 10 if this was a list for US tag workers. Shit, I might have him top 30 overall based on the strength of his tag work alone), but I still like an awful lot of pre-comeback Shawn a good deal. I'm about halfway through the '96 yearbook, and right now the only guy from the US I've enjoyed as much as him in Scorpio. I always go back and watch 90s Michaels thinking I'll like it less than I used to, and that kind of depresses me since he was the guy that got me hooked on wrestling in the first place and I have a huge soft spot for his 90s run as a result, but I always come out of it either liking it just as much or even more than I used to (in the case of the Diesel match from Good Friends, Better Enemies...which might actually be one of my ten favourite matches ever at this point). I haven't really revisited much of his run post-comeback, but by that point my tastes were starting to shift, anyway. There were matches I liked a lot at the time that I doubt I'd like nearly as much if I were to re-watch them right now. Anyways, my top 10 off the top would probably be: Hansen Lawler Funk Eddie Flair Mysterio Murdoch Steamboat Rose Savage Some of those would change tomorrow, I'd guess. They're not in order there, either. Really? I'd never heard about this.

If I had to put together an all time top 10 right now, Hansen would be my#1. I'd never even heard of those Colon matches. Gonna have to check those out whenever I get motivated to actually watch something.

The Demos match is one of my favourite tags ever. That's what I wrote about it a couple years ago. Apparently during one of the many Demolition run-arounds we've had here (might've even been the first).

I'm a fan of that Conquistadors Mach as well. I watched a bunch of them a few years back and most of them sort of blended together in my head, but then I watched the MSG match again and thought it was probably their best. I'll have to re-watch the 7/15 match from LA. I haven't really been motivated to watch anything in a few months, but I usually stick on a Rockers disc to get me out of a wrestling slump (I'd go to bat for them as the best team in WWF/E history as well, btw).

I don't really have much of an opinion on them either way, but yeah, that Nasty Boys match from Halloween Havoc '90 is fucking awesome. The Gordy/Williams match from the Clash is, too. Shit, they might be my top 2 tag matches in WCW history. So...I guess when I like them, I really like them.

Agreed with Loss on Dandy. After watching all of Will's Dandy set however many years back I thought he was the clear WOTY for 1990. I can't see myself going with anybody else whenever I finally get around to watching this. You've got the amazing title match with Azteca, the lead in where they both get real chippy with each other, the Satanico brawls, the handful of excellent trios...phenomenal year, and definitely up there as a "best year any wrestler has ever had" pick.

Memphis and Mid-South are pretty much right on the same level as my favourites. They're by far the two best sets of wrestling footage I've ever spent money on. Honestly, I don't think I've ever had as much fun watching wrestling as I had going through those sets. New Japan kind of wore me down at a few points going through it, but there was an absolute shit ton of great stuff on that set. So much of it was new to me as well, and in general I thought it had way more variety than All Japan. Nothing has more re-watch value to me than Memphis or Mid-South, but there's still a boat load of stuff on the NJ set I've went back to watch again, and there's plenty more that I'll go back to at some point in future. All Japan had huge highs, but it also had the most amount of matches that kind of ran together and didn't really stand out when it came to finalising a ballot. Thought Texas had the least amount of "great matches," but it was still a bunch of fun and had a ton of nifty shit on it. Only 3 and a bit discs into AWA right now, but that set's been every bit as good as I was hoping it would be. More or less every match so far stands out in my mind for one reason or another. Need to get back to watching it, actually.

This is probably my favourite tag match of all time. I probably watch it about 3 times a year and love it just as much every time. This and the Rockers/Demolition match from MSG are usually my go-to matches for getting me out of a wrestling slump. I'm so glad y'all decided to include this.

Last thing I need is another reason to cave my liver in, but this is a way better excuse than "I had nothing better to do," so I'm in.

Awesome. I got back to watching the '96 set this week and had somehow forgotten how great these things were. Definitely going to pick up this one before the end of the year.