KB8

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.

Brunzell fucking ruled. Gagne in cage matches climbing onto and jumping off of everything rules as well, but I generally agree with Matt that Brunzell has been the surprise of the AWA set (although I'm only 3 discs in at this point).

Not even Rey or Eddie? I thought those two would've been stone cold locks for most peoples' top 100 (but maybe you're not most people!). Those two would almost certainly be in my top 20, with Eddie likely top 10.

Man, the Patera/Backlund Texas Death Match from MSG might be my #1 when we get to the new WWF set. I recall the January match being pretty excellent as well.

1990 CMLL is fucking outstanding, yeah. I haven't watched any of it in about 4 years, but I've been waiting for this yearbook to drop so I can go back and watch it all again. All of the USWA stuff sounds tremendous as well, and I've more or less seen none of it. Zero. I might try and get through at least a fraction of the unwatched stuff I already have here before buying this, so I don't know if it'll be a first day purchase (although I'll wait until I see the final list first), but it'll be in my hands eventually.

Feels like there's a cooky 'team driving the car/team playing the music in the car and doing shit to make the journey fly by' analogy right there to be made re: the Demolition/Rockers match. Although I'm not creative enough to come up with anything that'd do it justice (if it even makes a lick of sense in the first place). FWIW I love that match to death. I actually last watched it about a year ago, which, funnily enough, was around the time of the 2011 version of the Demolition debate.

Koko/Race sounds like a blast. I had no idea it ever happened. I'll have to track that down for sure. Watched the Hogan/Funk series at the weekend there and thought it was pretty good. I liked the Philly and Toronto matches more than the SNME blowoff, but the SNME match was good as well (felt a little disjointed at points, though. Like they were trying to cram in TOO many of the better spots they rolled out together in the house show matches). After I finished watching it I wanted to give the Hogan/Race series a look again (pretty sure I've only seen the Texas Death Match), so I'll definitely do that soon.

Watching wrestling hungover might actually be my favourite way to watch it. I'm really weird when it comes to watching wrestling, in that I can only ever watch it before I go to bed or not long after I've woken up or I'll fall asleep after about 15 minutes. If I try to watch wrestling in the afternoon or the evening I end up falling asleep. Every time. When I wake up hungover I usually throw on some wrestling since I'm not really in any shape to be doing anything else, anyway. Watching wrestling hungover on weekend mornings is something I've done since I was, like, 18. I did it when I lived with my parents, and I still do it in my own place to this day. I honestly was not joking when I said I must've watched half the Mid-South set hungover on Saturday mornings. Shit, most of my wrestling watching in general these days is done on hungover weekend mornings since I have hardly any time to watch it during the week (although if I wouldn't keep falling asleep when watching it at normal times I'd have more opportunities). My hungover wrestling of choice today was 1990 CMLL, btw. El Dandy bodyslamming Angel Azteca on his head doesn't do Angel Azteca any favours, but it takes the edge off a hangover ever so slightly.

I tried to reply to this thread at 4 in the morning, but I was too hammered to be using an iPhone to type anything out. Thus I gave up. My buddy and I watched a shit ton of Randy Savage stuff wasted a few years ago. It was the greatest. His promos are hilarious enough when you're sober, but they're incredible when you're smashed. There's a promo from...I think it's World War 3 '95, where he randomly shouts "YOUR MOUSTACHE IS CROOKED!" at Gene, and we both completely lost it. If I come home drunk and end up watching wrestling then it's usually the Memphis or Mid-South set. I literally must've watched half of the Mid-South set the first time through when I'd come home hammered on Friday nights. The other half I watched hungover on Saturday mornings. Most fun I've ever had watching wrestling was the Michaels/Undertaker match at Wrestlemania 25. I used to have a Wrestlemania party at my place every year, and there was about 12 of us going nuts for that match. And we were all either hammered or on the way to being hammered.

I had no idea Loss was going to tackle this bad boy. That's awesome. Pretty psyched about diving into this myself. Busting open a new 80s set is always good times.

Watched this on the latest Schneider Comp this morning. Still amazing. Wrote about it on the old blog. Pretty much a master-class. Two of the absolute elite tier level guys in wrestling history wrestling maybe my favourite kind of pro-wrestling match (lucha title match)...I've seen it about 6 times over the last few years, and I always find something else to love about it every time. The first caida is about as good a fall as you'll ever see in lucha. It goes about 15 minutes, and roughly 12 are entirely filled with matwork. There's a moment where they both roll out to the floor and trade a couple slaps, but they quickly roll back in and take it right back down to the mat -- this is about who's the better wrestler, first and foremost. I don't even think they hit the ropes once in the first 10 minutes. The wishbone spot is the kind of thing people who don't really like or struggle to 'get into' lucha will maybe be turned off by, but other than that I don't think anybody could watch this and think the matwork is "cooperative" or that the holds are came by too easily (which is the criticism of lucha matwork one tends to read the most). Things like Casas reversing a Fujiwara armbar by turning it into a seated abdominal stretch look pretty spectacular to begin with, but it's the struggle that puts it all over the top. Dandy tries to hook Casas in a tapatia, but Casas is having none of it and won't give up his arms. Dandy tries to take another route and go for a camel clutch, but again Casas gives him nothing. When Dandy eventually hooks it in proper, it feels like a victory all of its own. They're having to fight for everything, and Casas is especially great at making it seem that way. Dandy doesn't put a foot wrong, but Casas looks like the best wrestler in the entire world here. He comes out in the second fall and goes straight for the jugular. My favourite moment of the match might be the low blow he sneaks in when the ref' isn't looking. The entire match is more or less wrestled clean, but Casas is who he is...it's in his nature. The fact it came out of nowhere after he'd been behaving himself up to that point made it seem even more like a dick move. And the slow-mo replay...that shit was NASTY. When Dandy makes his comeback and drops Casas with that extra bit of force, it really feels like a big "Alright, fuck THIS shit" moment. Third caida really brings it home like you'd want. If you want to nitpick there's a couple transitions that might be a bit dodgy, but other than that it's right on the money. Dandy coming out the gate the same way Casas did in the second fall (right down the to the running dropkick) was a great payback spot of sorts, but Casas' sell of the fatigue was out of this world. There's points where it looks like he'd rather lay down and die than keep fighting, but his pride wouldn't let him. The way he struggles to get out of the majistral...that motherfucker is a fighter right 'til the end. Just an incredible match. If I tried to come up with an all-time top ten, this would probably be there.