1997 Recommendations

[Ditch]

There's definitely some gaps that weren't aired on Samurai. For instance, 11/27/99 had some bits aired on NTV, and Samurai skips from 10/25 to 11/30 with no gaps in the Samurai airings. They SHAMEFULLY skipped 3/11/00, which NTV barely aired and was headlined by Misawa/Kobashi/Kikuchi vs Kawada/Taue/Fuchi, and it's because they went back and aired some crappy NYGS footage after airing Excite Series. Whoever made that decision... *shakes fist*

[MikeCampbell]

Loss or Will, do you guys have any sort of idea what all years will be covered with the year books?

 

If you intend on doing the year 2000, then I'd advise the Misawa/Akiyama TC match from this year. It'd be an interesting comparison to Akiyama's first win over Misawa in 2000. Standalone, though, it didn't do much for me.

[Loss]

Loss or Will, do you guys have any sort of idea what all years will be covered with the year books?

 

If you intend on doing the year 2000, then I'd advise the Misawa/Akiyama TC match from this year. It'd be an interesting comparison to Akiyama's first win over Misawa in 2000. Standalone, though, it didn't do much for me.

If they keep selling well, we will eventually do every year.

[Ditch]

Not sure how I forgot about...

 

Ikeda vs Otsuka, Battlarts 11/5. There's a good chance this is my favorite '90s Battlarts singles match. Good technique, plenty of bombs, plenty of brutality, 'big' feel, it should definitely be in.

[smkelly]

Loss or Will, do you guys have any sort of idea what all years will be covered with the year books?

 

If you intend on doing the year 2000, then I'd advise the Misawa/Akiyama TC match from this year. It'd be an interesting comparison to Akiyama's first win over Misawa in 2000. Standalone, though, it didn't do much for me.

If they keep selling well, we will eventually do every year.

 

Are you guys planning on sticking with the 90s first - then moving on to the 00s, then the 80s? That is, if everything sells well

[Loss]

Probably 90s, then early 00s, then we'll alternate between the rest of the 00s and the 80s after the DVDVR project is wrapped up.

 

The 80s yearbooks will have plenty of gems not included on the DVDVR 80s stuff also.

 

We'll eventually do a "decade book" for the 70s, and maybe one for pre-70s also.

[Robert S]

I hope this set contains some of the absolutely random on air tryout matches WWF did to find some guys for their lightweight divison.

[smkelly]

Mitsuharu Misawa vs. Kenta Kobashi (AJPW, Triple Crown, 01/20/97)

This is the match I call the greatest of all-time.

 

1/22/97 – Volk Han vs. Kiyoshi Tamura RINGS

3-3-97 Owen Hart vs. Davey Boy Smith

One of the best matches in Raw's history.

 

3-16-97 Dean Malenko vs. Eddy Guerrero WCW

Nearly as good as their ECW matches. This match, to me, is only behind their first ECW match and their last.

 

Bret Hart vs. Steve Austin (I Quit Match) (3/23 - Chicago) (WWF)

Unarguably one of the best WWF matches of all-time.

 

Toshiaki Kawada vs. Mitsuharu Misawa (04/02/97)

Half hour draw at the carny. Good match, but obviously nowhere near 6-94 or 6-97.

 

Toshiaki Kawada vs. Mitsuharu Misawa (06/06/97)

Explode Misawa's head theory was tested sternly in this match. Man, explanations for All Japan are redundant.

 

Mitsuharu Misawa vs. Akira Taue (Triple Crown - 7/25/97)

Taue's second best TC match with Misawa.

 

Sabu vs Terry Funk (8/9/97, ECW Arena)

Best barbed wire mess/match ever.

 

9/26/97 – Volk Han vs. Kiyoshi Tamura RINGS

The first RINGS match I ever watched. Also the best that I've ever seen.

 

10/5/97 – Undertaker vs. Shawn Michaels WWF

First Hell in a Cell and HBK got his ass kicked for a long time.

 

Mitsuharu Misawa vs. Kenta Kobashi, 10/21/97

Misawa kicks the dog shit out of Kobashi in all of their matches ever but Kobashi has never stopped coming back for more. Nine months after losing his title Kobashi shows he's not a little kid anymore.

 

10/26/97 – Eddy Guerrero vs. Rey Misterio Jr. WCW

Mask vs. Title.

 

 

Never seen these: (but have read good things about them)

2-16-97 Jushin Liger vs. Koji Kanemoto NJPW

5-25-97 Koji Kanemoto vs. Gran Naniwa NJPW

6-1-97 Jushin Liger vs. Koji Kanemoto NJPW

6-3-97 Shinjiro Ohtani vs. El Samurai NJPW

7-6-97 Jushin Liger vs. El Samurai NJPW

8-10-97 El Samurai vs. Shinjiro Ohtani NJPW

8-10-97 Jushin Liger vs. Koji Kanemoto NJPW

9-10-97 Jushin Liger vs. Koji Kanemoto NJPW

10-19-97 Jushin Liger vs. Shinjiro Otani NJPW

[Ditch]

Bumping this...

[Loss]

OMEGA becomes OMEGA in '97 while the wrestlers start improving a lot. Some of them end up in Music City Wrestling which ends up taking over the USWA's syndicated slots. MCW had some pretty good stuff early on and is worth looking into. I have some in really nice quality I should go through and get dates for. I think Prentice promoted under North American All-Star Wrestling too in '97 and what I've seen from there is also good.

Where can I find listings of OMEGA stuff with dates?

 

And I'll close by saying that the RWTL stuff JDW pointed out is worthy. Misawa/Akiyama vs Smith/Wolf is one I really love but I have yet to see the full Samurai TV version.

Do you have a date for this? Lynch's Samurai TV listings for '97 really are a mess.

 

MPro:

 

Sasuke & Delfin vs Teioh & Funaki, MPro tag league, round robin

Sasuke & Delfin vs Teioh & Funaki, MPro tag league, final: These matches do so much. They put over Teioh and Funaki, two of the 'lesser' KDX members, as being able to handle the MPro aces. They tell a story with Sasuke's leg injury. And they're good matches individually but are even better in unison.

Do you have dates for the tag league?

[Ditch]

MPro: 11/2/97 and 11/9/97. The latter re-aired in better VQ on a Gaora MPro classics ep (that I have and can trade Will for)

 

AJ: 11/16/97. I got the full Samurai version, so (see above)

[Loss]

Was Kingdom worked?

[Bix]

Was Kingdom worked?

Yes.

[rainmakerrtv]

The 80s yearbooks will have plenty of gems not included on the DVDVR 80s stuff also.

Why is it I get the feeling the 1989 set will be 60 discs? Just an epic year all round.

[FLIK]

10/31/1997 (ECW TV Title) Taz © vs Sabu

 

Watched this earlier today. Great match, probably the best i've seen between these 2, goes 30, almost all non stop action with and only maybe 1 short segment whear it felt like they were just tryig to kill time. Inbetween all the crazy brawling and big moves they mixed in some nice wrestling stuff with a cool little sub story of Sabu trying to break Taz' leg and Taz trying to break Sabu's arm.

[Loss]

That's a fancam, right?

[Dylan Waco]

Vic likes that match a lot too. I thought like all the longer Taz v. Sabu matches it got repetitive at times and wasn't terribly engaging though I would be inclined to agree that it is there best match together.

[FLIK]

That's a fancam, right?

yup

[Loss]

I talked to Dan Ginnetty just a moment ago, and learned something new. In 1997, All Japan had:

 

* The 30-minute NTV show weekly, which I knew

* A 1:25 show on Samurai TV, weekly, which I knew

* A 60-minute NTV satellite show which featured different footage, which was news to me

 

Was anyone aware of this? Does anyone know what Dave watched at the time that he talked about in the WON?

 

Has anyone ever gone through this stuff and tried to separate the good from the bad?

 

If not, we'll use the '97 Yearbook to do it, but I was curious if anyone else had already done some of the leg work. It might save me a little time.

[Ditch]

It would depend entirely on the matchlists, but it's news to me. Much like the complete NJ Classics I found out about via. Will.

 

C'monnnnnn 6-man with Patriot pinning Misawa! No whammies!

[jdw]

Dave only watched the NTV AJPW 30 show.

 

Dan has mentioned this in the past on CrazyMax. I think we've talked about the Sammy stuff in the yearbook threads as something that needs to be sifted through. The NTV satellite stuff hasn't been fully matchlisted, and last time it came up in a conversation with Dan, I believe it was still on his list to track down.

 

Wouldn't get the hopes up that the NTV satellite churns out much of interest beyond the commercial tapes, Sammy and NTV AJPW 30. The exceptions to that general rule would be Carny and the RWTL if they taped any cards that didn't end up on the other outlets. That might pick up a match between top teams that didn't wash up on the other outlets.

 

John

[Ditch]

Not sure how much 'sifting' there is to be done on the Samurai eps. I've gone through them pretty thoroughly in terms of matches with serious high-end potential and there wasn't much.

 

Look at Kobashi's matches: http://www.purolove.com/noah/kobashi/kobashi97.php

 

Other than the big matches that we've known about forever, you typically have a Mossman or an Asako or Omori or Johnny Smith or someone else who is average to poor. There's not many notable AJ '90s matches with a scrub in there. Several good-but-clipped NTV matches aired in full on Samurai, which is nice. Misawa vs Kawada and Kobashi vs Akiyama from the Carnival are solid choices for the yearbook but they didn't fall through the cracks.

 

As far as the hour long NTV show, here are good-looking Kobashi matches that might have been taped and weren't on NTV/Samurai:

vs Kawada, Carnival, 4/12 at Korakuen

w/Ace & Patriot vs Misawa, Akiyama & Asako, 5/24 at Korakuen (Patriot pins Misawa)

 

That's it. MAYBE a couple of the decent-looking 6-mans at odd venues were taped. Not much potential unfortunately. The AJ midcard was really week, as JDW as discussed in great detail.

 

I think the '97 yearbook would be better served by paying attention to the Liger & Co vs Ohtani & Co feud, as opposed to sifting through AJ Samurai eps for three star matches.

[Loss]

The Liger/Otani stuff will be covered very well.

[jdw]

To be clear, I think the focus on alternative sources for AJPW in 1997-99 would/should be:

 

* Carny Series

* RWTL Series

* complete versions of Big Matches

 

I think most of the last item has been figured out by people like Ditch, but there are a couple of items probably to keep an eye out. I think Ditch referenced one Tag Title match that was JIP on TV but a full Sammy version didn't turn up. It's worth eyeballing an NTV satellite list (whenever it gets put together) to see if it's on there.

 

Carny and RWTL are obvious places where original NTV doesn't cover things well or in complete fashion in 1997-1999, similar to 1996. I think everyone saw in the 1996 Yearbook the bonus of having Sammy for finding non-Usual Suspects matches. 1997-99 are very similar.

 

Taking 1997, for example, one would want to check on these two cards:

 

11/23/97 Miyagi Sports Center (NTV Only?)

1. Steve Williams & Gary Albright beat Barry Windham & Justin Bradshaw (12:35)

2. Toshiaki Kawada & Akira Taue beat Hayabusa & Jinsei Shinzaki (18:09)

3. Mitsuharu Misawa & Jun Akiyama beat Kenta Kobashi & Johnny Ace (29:50)

 

11/27/97 Nakajima Sports Center (NTV Only?)

1. Steve Williams & Gary Albright beat Stan Hansen & Bobby Duncum Jr. (18:53)

2. Toshiaki Kawada & Akira Taue drew Kenta Kobashi & Johnny Ace (30:00)

3. Mitsuharu Misawa & Jun Akiyama beat Hayabusa & Jinsei Shinzaki (21:34)

 

Those are off a RWTL list I put together more than half a decade ago, looking at NTV, Sammy and commercial tape lists available *then*. I've never bothered to scan tape lists since then the see if complete versions have popped up anywhere. Obviously complete versions of the top two matches on those two cards are pretty much what the yearbooks are all about.

 

Ditch probably knows if Sammy versions of them turned up, or if there looks like there's a gap in Sammy that perhaps Dan could go hunting for fill-ins. But it's also an area to eyeball the NTV satellite for.

 

Carny is similar. My recollection is that there's a fair amount of 1998 Carny out there.

 

Anyway, it's probably a reason to load 1997-99 into the back end of the Yearbook process. With all the WCW and WWF and ECW material, it's going to be a heck of a set to boil down.

 

John

[Loss]

Next will be '95, then from there on, we will release the remaining years of the 90s chronologically. So yes, those will be the last three yearbooks we do.