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KB8

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  1. KB8

    Matches of the Month

    KB8 replied to Loss's topic in 1993

    July: 1. Stan Hansen vs. Kenta Kobashi (AJ 7/29/93) 2. Ciclon Ramirez vs. Felino (CMLL 7/9/93) 3. Mitsuharu Misawa, Kenta Kobashi & Jun Akiyama vs. Toshiaki Kawada, Akira Taue & Yoshinari Ogawa (AJ 7/2/93) 4. Genichiro Tenryu & Ashura Hara vs. Masa Chono & Tatsumi Fujinami (NJ 7/14/93) 5. Toshiaki Kawada vs. Jun Akiyama (AJ 7/9/93) 6. Kazuo Yamazaki vs. Yoji Anjoh (UWFI 7/18/93) 7. Mitsuharu Misawa vs. Toshiaki Kawada (AJ 7/29/93) 8. Mitsuharu Misawa & Jun Akiyama vs. Toshiaki Kawada & Masa Fuchi (AJ 7/19/93) 9. Great Sasuke vs. Super Delphin (M-Pro 7/24/93) 10. Sakie Hasegawa, Takako Inoue, Kyoko Inoue & Aja Kong vs. Hikari Fukuoka, Cuty Suzuki, Mayumi Ozaki & Dynamite Kansai (JWP Thunderqueen 7/31/93) 11. Bart Vale vs. Yuki Ishikawa (PWFG 7/21/93) 12. Shawn Michaels vs. Marty Jannetty (RAW 7/19/93) 13. Rick & Scott Steiner vs. Ted DiBiase & IRS (Superstars 7/17/93) 14. Ric Flair, Arn Anderson & Paul Roma vs. Hollywood Blonds & Barry Windham (WCWSN 7/3/93) 15. Marty Jannetty vs. Mr. Hughes (Challenge 7/18/93) 16. Steve Austin & Brian Pillman vs. Arn Anderson & Paul Roma (Beach Blast 7/18/93) 17. Great Sasuke & Sato vs. Super Delphin & Gran Naniwa (M-Pro 7/26/93) 18. Yokozuna vs. Crush (RAW 7/12/93) 19. Jerry Lawler vs. Brian Christopher (USWA 7/10/93) 20. Road Warrior Hawk vs. Eddie Gilbert (NWA Grand Slam 7/10/93) This might have been my favourite month so far. Really, there is just so much good stuff from July. I'm probably in the minority in liking Hansen/Kawada from 2/28 more than Hansen/Kobashi, but both are in my top 5 for the year and both are tremendous matches that flat out smoke most things in wrestling history. Felino/Ramirez was as great as I remembered it being. Does anybody have a better tope than Ciclon Ramirez? The 7/14 WAR v New Japan tag is probably my straight up favourite match on the whole set at this point. Tenryu was incredible in it; just a total prick to Chono and Fujinami at every turn. Heading into August, knowing what's still to come, I really can't see anybody knocking Tenryu off as my WOTY. Kawada and Hansen round out my top 3 at the moment, but Tenryu has just been phenomenal in everything and is also in 6 of the matches in my top 20 (including my #1). I spoke about the Thunderqueen match in its thread already. I "get it" as a match...it's just not a style I care for all that much.
  2. KB8
    I understand why people love this, but I've said it before -- this style really isn't for me. I mean, I was surprised by how much I dug the AJW Captain's Fall match from February that made the '96 set, but this went twice as long, and an hour of it was more than I could handle. Don't get me wrong, I didn't think it was "bad" or anything. Kong was fucking MENACING and I really liked practically everything she did here. The back fist on Kansai right off the bat ruled. The way she'd just shut people down like a monster ruled. She'd come in from time to time and tee off on someone for no apparent reason and THAT ruled. If nothing else, this made me want to see the Kong/Kansai match much more than I did beforehand. I liked Cutie Suzuki as the girl that was pretty clearly fighting an uphill battle (especially the times she wound up in there with Aja). She tries and tries and seems to really want to step up to the plate, but she is just so far out of her depth at points. Aja worked this as "dominant force." Cutie works as huge underdog. Nobody else's role seems as clear cut as that (although I guess Kansai is working as less dominant Aja Kong to her team). I liked Ozaki less than Loss. I'm pretty apathetic towards her in general, and she never really did anything for me here, either. Most of what she does seems pretty scrappy, so I can get behind "Ozaki feels like she's in a war or fight for survival instead of just a normal wrestling match," but I never find myself caring all that much. I have no clue where this'll end up if I get around to making a top whatever list of matches when I get through the whole set. The good was really good, but there's just so much stuff going on at other points with so many momentum shifts that it doesn't leave much of a lasting impression on me at the end. There's a bunch of WAR v New Japan matches that don't have NEARLY as much "stuff" and aren't nearly as ambitious, but the big moments in those matches stick with me. Choshu walking across the ring just so he can stomp Tenryu on his injured arm is a moment that felt bigger to me than any gigantic suplex or spot in this match, including Ozaki's pin with 5 seconds to go.
  3. KB8
    Muraco's a really good shout. The TDM and hour draw against Backlund from MSG and Philly respectively are GREAT matches. Then he wrestles Steamboat a a few years later and they mostly bordered on awful. Muraco's performances basically reflected the quality of the matches in question.
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  6. KB8
    There were a few moments where nothing was really happening, but I'm not sure that wasn't deliberate in order to draw the crowd in for the next big flurry, because they'd often burst into a short spell of rapid sprawling and countering and the crowd would just erupt. There are a few GREAT Anjoh moments in this. I remember the STF spot from the Sano match later in the year, but the STF spot here was just as good, the way he managed to put it on as quickly as he did. Moment of the match for me is where Yamazaki has Anjoh's back and is trying to take him down, so Anjoh grabs hold of an arm, stomps on Yamazaki's foot, and as Yamazaki lets go Anjoh shoots around and tries to lock in a chickenwing. Found myself really hoping Anjoh would get back up at the end. Loved this.
  7. KB8
    I agree, Marty was fucking awesome around this time. There's a bunch of really neat stuff in the Doink match, but I put that down to two really good wrestlers coming up with ideas and running with them. Here though, other than Hughes' big bumps off of armdrags (I love Hughes bumping around like that, because he's super athletic for a guy that big), this is a total Marty show and he has a lot of fun stuff to eat up time. Would it be a stretch to call him a top 5 guy in the company that year?
  8. KB8
    Man, was Rotunda's drop-toe hold in this the best drop-toe hold in the history of forever or what? The seamless float over into an STF (that Scott scooted away from) was super slick. I really dug this as a whole, but I rewound the drop-toe hold spot a bunch of times.
  9. KB8
    Holy shit, this was amazing. This might be the most pissed off and grumpy I've seen Tenryu in this feud, and that covers a whole lot of ground. He walks up to Chono before the bell and cuffs him on the side of the head, and there's a point later where Hara is in full control but Tenryu comes in anyway just so he can full force boot Chono in the face. His riling up of Fujinami is spectacular, spitting on him and flicking sweat at him while Fujinami is standing on the apron minding his own business. Team WAR are such a great pair of cheapshotting bullies. Chono is a good whipping boy and everything, but it could've been anybody in there and it would've been worth it for Hara mauling them with headbutts and Tenryu's nasty short punts right to the eye socket. Really, this was just loaded with moments that I loved -- Hara throwing coconut headbutts, Fujinami's tope, everything Tenryu did, the set up to the finish with Fujinami flying off the top rope with a knee to Hara's head...great stuff. Not my MOTY, but I don't think there's been another match so far that I've flat out enjoyed as much as this one.
  10. KB8
    I'll basically echo MJH 100% here. This was one of my favourite matches a few years ago, but I've liked it less every time since then. I'd still call it "really good," but the style just isn't for me anymore.
  11. KB8
    I watched this about 6 months ago and thought it excellent. My thoughts haven't changed from then:
  12. KB8
    I had never heard the actual match being talked about before, which is weird, because I also thought it was really good. Some of the bumps, especially from Foley, really looked nasty as all Hell. Post-match bit was good, too.
  13. KB8
    This might be my favourite Rey/Juventud match, primarily because it doesn't have the clusterfuckery that the AAA match later in the month has. They don't do much that you won't have seen out of them by this point, but it's still pretty impressive stuff. The crowd dives will always look super reckless and crazy.
  14. KB8
    Man, Kid really blasted Shawn with a few of those kicks. I thought this was an awesome TV match. Bunch of really cool spots, nice build, nice finish...I remembered liking it a lot, and it definitely held up.
  15. KB8
    I agree that this was building pretty well until the Luger run in cut the nuts off it. Before that it's largely the same Sting/Flair match you'll have seen before, but that's not a match-up I hate, so it was fine for what it was. Great Dusty moment on commentary: "You're EVIL. EEEEEEEEVIL." Talking about Woman, of course.
  16. KB8
    This was sort of just...there. They always have a bunch of neat tricks that they can bust out, and they did that here, but there were goofy moments with a chair and it never really felt like a coherent match.
  17. KB8
    I couldn't really get into this, but I'll probably re-watch it at some point since I liked the idea of Koshinaka being a pro-wrestler in a shoot style world. This is a match-up I don't much care for in general (didn't particularly like any of their matches on the New Japan 80s set), but I came around to Koshinaka again when he was potatoing people in the WAR feud.
  18. KB8

    Matches of the Month

    KB8 replied to Loss's topic in 1996

    Finally finished February, although it's been ages since I watched some of the matches and remember next to nothing about stuff like Liger/Black Tiger, the shooty multi-man match from 2/3, Flair/Savage from Superbrawl, etc. If I rip off Loss and do a top 100 at the end I'll have to re-watch some stuff, anyway. From what I can remember: 1. 2 Cold Scorpio vs. Sabu (Cyberslam 2/17/96) 2. Shawn Michaels vs. Owen Hart (PPV 2/18/96) 3. Shinya Hashimoto & Junji Hirata vs. Yoji Anjo & Yoshihiro Takayama (NJ 2/25/96) 4. Manami Toyota, Mariko Yoshida, Kaoru Ito & Yumi Fukawa vs. Kyoko Inoue, Takako Inoue, Chapparita Asari, Tomoko Watanabe & Kumiko Maekawa (Handicap Captains Fall Match) (AJW 2/12/96) 5. El Hijo del Santo, El Dandy & Dos Caras vs. Blue Panther, Apolo Dantes & Emilio Charles Jr. (CMLL 2/16/96) 6. El Dandy, El Hijo Del Santo & Silver King vs. Negro Casas, Apolo Dantes & El Satanico (CMLL 2/10/96) 7. PG-13 vs. Tracy Smothers & Jesse James Armstrong (USWA 2/17/96) 8. 1-2-3 Kid vs. Hakushi (RAW 2/5/96) 9. Jushin Liger & Black Tiger vs. Shinjiro Ohtani & Koji Kanemoto (NJ 2/15/96) 10. Lex Luger vs. Eddy Guerrero (WCWSN 2/3/96) 11. Black Tiger & El Samurai & Gran Hamada vs. Shinjiro Otani & Koji Kanemoto & Dean Malenko (NJ 2/25/96) 12. Ric Flair vs. Randy Savage (Nitro 2/19/96) 13. Mitsuhiro Matsunaga, W*ING Kanemura & Hido vs. Masato Tanaka, Ricky Fuji & Tetsuhiro Kuroda (War Games) (FMW 2/23/96) 14. Hulk Hogan vs. Arn Anderson (Nitro 2/12/96) A few matches really shocked me from this month. I didn't know what to expect out of Sabu/Scorp, but it was awesome and definitely my favourite Sabu match ever...probably my favourite Scorp match, too. That joshi tag is something I didn't have much desire to watch beforehand, but I totally dug it. Maybe it was just a "stars align" type thing where I was in the right mood to watch it, I don't know, but I really liked it regardless. Hashimoto was amazing in the 2/15 tag. Wasn't necessarily "big match" Hashimoto, but he looked like the baddest motherfucker walking and it's mesmerising watching him take no shit from anybody. shoe made a point in Dylan's Buddy Rose thread where he said Buddy had the "Jordan factor." You're just drawn to him and want to watch him because there's always the potential for him to do something amazing. I love that analogy, and I'm stealing it and applying it to Hashimoto, because that dude fucking HAD it.
  19. KB8
    Oh fuck, this ruled. Hashimoto already looks like the best wrestler in the world after only two matches. The way he'd just shut Takayama or Anjoh down with those brutal overhand chops was awesome; he comes across as such and un-fuck-with-able dude and has charisma out the wazoo. Loved the chippiness between him and Anjoh. Anjoh became a real favourite of mine this year, and I get a huge kick out of him acting like a douchebag, coming in to break up submissions or pinfalls before sprinting back to the corner and egging Hashimoto on to come get him. The Hirata/Hashimoto double stomp at the beginning looked like it would explode your lungs. There was one "reset" in the second half that seemed out of place and kind of took me out of the match briefly, but they drew me back in with the stiffness and such soon enough. Really looking forward to all the Hashimoto still to come.
  20. KB8
    This isn't the best match I've watched on the set so far, but it might be my favourite. Michaels' entrance and striptease while McMahon verbally blows him on commentary went on a bit long, but after that it got REAL good. Loved all of the early stuff with Michaels just fucking around and having a good time making Owen and Cornette look stupid. I suppose one could argue that shit doesn't really fit into a rivalry where the guy screwing around almost had his career ended by his opponent, but I never saw this as the kind of feud where you'd need Tenryu-level hatred, anyway. Owen was really good on offence once he took over, and Shawn's sell of the enziguiri where he just collapses and tumbles out of the ring was great. I understand the criticisms Michaels gets, and shit, I agree with almost all of them, but I still get a ton out of his matches (more so pre-comeback). They're generally laid out really basically (when he's working babyface it's the standard: babyface shine --> heel transition spot --> heel workover --> nip-up comeback --> short-ish run to finish --> finish), but I like basic. The Mankind match is an obvious exception, and I think that's the best match of his career, but every time I watch something like this or the Diesel match from In Your House, they always hold up. The nip-up is a problematic spot, but it just doesn't bother me much at this point.
  21. KB8
    I dug the Hell out of this. Baxter is such an obnoxious shithead, it's awesome. Match itself is pretty boss, especially the run to the finish with all the shenanigans and "so this is the finish...wait, no, THIS...okay, they're going with THIS, then" moments.
  22. KB8
    Thought this was pretty great. Like the match from the 10th I was a bit disappointed that it only went two falls, but the rudos saying "fuck it" and just stomping the shit out of Santo while Panther tries to rip his mask off was a finish that kept me happy enough. I mean, Panther biting Santo's fingers as he desperately tries to keep his mask on was fucking awesome. The Panther/Caras section in the first fall was too brief, but man was it good. Emilio Brody Jr. was as great as I was hoping he'd be too, especially his bullshit in the first fall. Slightly prefer this to the 2/10 trios, but I enjoyed both quite a bit.
  23. KB8
    Yeah, this was good. I find myself sort of tuning out when watching a lot of this junior heavyweight stuff (on this and the '93 yearbook), but I can get behind Ohtani and Kanemoto acting like punks and Liger/Tiger putting them in their place. Didn't go too long, had enough moments of someone acting like an asshole, strong finishing run...good stuff.
  24. KB8
    This was worked and paced exactly like I thought it would be. I was kind of dreading watching it since something like that for 30 minutes isn't exactly my idea of a party, but I was stunned at how much I wound up liking it. I don't know half of the women in this, but the skinny girl on Toyota's team that Tim mentioned took quite the shitkicking. Toyota winds up wiping her out accidentally with a plancha and that leaves her with a busted nose, and then she takes that giant swing from Inoue where she spins around so quickly it looks like she's having to hold her own head in place for fear it'll pop off. Takako Inoue also ragdolls her with this Boston Crab sequence where she bends her like a slinky, flips her over, sits down HARD on her lower back, and bends her in two again. There's some super nasty looking shit in this. Couple DDTs that spike the receiver right on the top of their head and a few crazy reckless neck bumps. Then the skinny girl whose name I don't know gets kicked square in the beak a BUNCH of times. Takako standing on...some other woman whose name I don't know's head and flipping off the audience for booing her was my favourite part. I'm not sure what the story between those two were, but that was the final pairing and Takako looked awfully glad to be beating the shit out of her any time she was in there. I couldn't watch this kind of thing very often without getting sick of it, but this was a real surprise and I'm glad I didn't skip it.
  25. KB8
    I'm somewhere between Tim and Loss on this (although it seems Loss liked this less after a re-watch). I was kind of bummed it only went two falls, but the ending to the second fall was unexpected and pretty great. Loved Dantes putting the boots to Santo while Santo was lying on the mat showing the ref' how his shoulder was up. The Dandy/Satanico pairing was really good here, building from the sportsmanlike exchanges in the first fall to them both agreeing to get back in the ring so they can punch each other in the face some more in the third. Didn't think this was spectacular or anything, but I still dug it a lot.
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