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2002 Recommendations


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Use this thread to post recommendations for the yearbook.

 

I don't want to put requirements on making recommendations necessarily, but I will kindly ask a favor -- if you recommend something, if you could, maybe just include a brief reason that you're recommending it. It doesn't have to be elaborate, but just something for us to see why it should go on.

 

If you make recommendations that pique my curiosity, I will do my part to ask more follow-up questions to make sure I have a good understanding of why it was recommended.

 

In addition, I will use this thread to list matches I come across when looking through various lists that look interesting on paper to ask if anyone has seen them.

 

Thanks!

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Chris Hero vs. CM Punk 2/9/02

55 minutes worth of bumps, bruises, highspots, awesome selling, and risk taking.

 

2-23-02 Low Ki vs. Christopher Daniels vs. Bryan Danielson ROH

Best three way match ever.

 

3-30-02 Bryan Danielson vs. Low Ki ROH

Danielson is showing signs of future best in the world worker here.

 

4-27-02 AJ Styles vs. Low Ki ROH

AJ Styles, along with Danielson, Ki, and Punk really shined in the early 2000s because of matches like this.

 

6-23-02 Yoshihiro Takayama vs. Don Frye PRIDE

7-20-02 Kaos vs. Chris Hamrick vs. Psicosis XPW (Ladder)

1 of 2 XPW matches that deserve to be on a yearbook set.

 

8/25/02 – Shawn Michaels vs. Triple H WWF

I've always thought this was an excellent match.

 

8-28-02 Low Ki vs. Jerry Lynn vs. AJ Styles TNA (Ladder)

These three had some awesome matches together.

 

8-31-02 Kaos vs. Chris Hamrick XPW (Ladder)

#2 XPW match.

 

9-21-02 Paul London vs. Michael Shane ROH (Streetfight)

Please don't die indeed.

 

10-2-02 AJ Styles vs. Jerry Lynn TNA (Ladder)

TNA could use matches like these nowadays.

 

Never seen:

6-7-02 Bryan Danielson vs. Low Ki JAPW

6-7-02 Steve Corino vs. Homicide JAPW

6-29-02 Jay Briscoe vs. Marc Briscoe NWA-Wildside

7-19-02 Nick Dinsmore vs. Doug Basham OVW (Last Man Standing)

8-3-02 Jeremy Lopez vs. Quiet Storm NWA-Wildside

8-24-02 Jay Briscoe vs. Marc Briscoe ROH

9-4-02 Chris Benoit vs. Doug Basham OVW

9-29-02 Bryan Danielson vs. Samoa Joe EPIC

10-25-02 Super Dragon vs. Bobby Quance APW (2 out of 3 falls)

11-2-02 Backseat Boys vs. Lost Boys NWA-Wildside

12-21-02 CM Punk vs. Chris Hero IWA–MS

12-27-02 Super Dragon vs. Jardi Frantz vs. Bobby Quance APW (Iron Man)

12-28-02 Bryan Danielson vs. Samoa Joe vs. Low Ki vs. Steve Corino ROH

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Daniels-Ki-Dragon should be on there if only for the historic value.

 

Angle vs. Rey from Summerslam 2002, perhaps my favorite PPV opener of all time.

I also really dug the tag title match on that show. Red-hot crowd, and Goldust working the tag formula at his best.

Rock vs. Lesnar, again, for historic value. At least include the finish.

 

Another definite Taker vs. Lesnar HIAC from No Mercy that October. Still my favorite of the Cell matches. Just a great cage match without relying on the "bump off the top" gimmickry.

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Purotopia:

http://board.deathvalleydriver.com/index.php?showtopic=52920

 

 

Bonus nominations:

 

Tanaka vs Kanemura, Zero-One July 30th: This would be ahead of all but maybe two or three FMW singles matches IMO, because it has plenty of hardcore action without getting stupid, and it blends the hardcore with good nearfalls.

 

Togo vs Tiger Mask 4, MPro August 25th: Hey! A big juniors match that's under 20 minutes long! And it's not as though this is lacking for build in the slightest. Neat counters, big finishing run, and TM4 shows some hate!

 

Kong & Toyota vs Satomura & Hamada, GAEA September 20th: In my top 5 joshi matches of the decade. It avoids the downtime and overkill of big joshi singles matches while keeping the intensity YOU want.

 

Kobashi, Shiga & KENTA vs Akiyama, Saito & Kanemaru, NOAH November 20th: I love this feud so much, maybe the most of anything in the decade that went over 10 matches. This is the first 6 or 8-man of the feud to air reasonably complete, and you have the ever-progressing KENTA added to the already-good Kobashi/Shiga vs Akiyama/Saito matchup.

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IWA-MS: I would include Tarek/Ian from 10/4/02 and Hero/Ian from a show in May. I would also include the Tracy Smothers riot from No Blood No guts No Glory. After that it gets more selective. The Eddy IWA-MS matches are good but nothing extraordinary. The 4 way match from night 2 of the TPI would be a good comparison to the Scramble Madness match in ROH from around the same time. Hero/Punk had 3 matches that all have merits (the 55 minute tables, the TPI match, and the 60 min draw). Of those three I actually like the TPI match the best but would probably include the T,L,C match first for historical purposes.

 

Other fun stuff you might want to include:

Tracy/Bull 6th anniversary

Mdogg/Hero 6th anniversary

Drunken Death Match

Ian/Mark Wolf vs. Ryder/Corp Robinson Bloodfeast

Riot from Bloodfeast

Ian/Bull I quit from Christmas Carnage

 

2002 IWA-MS was an interesting year where they still was a lot of shit, a lot of death matches, and more "workrate" style matches that really set the stage for the "peak" of IWA-MS that most people remember from 2003-2006 of great wrestling, bizarre match ups, new talent uprising, a token death match, and a true territory promotion feel.

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"Some Things I Haven't Seen But Cannot Doubt It Being Awesome":

 

2/8/02 CM Punk vs. Ace Steel, Colt Cabana, & Chris Hero in a gauntlet match IWA-MS

5/4/02 CM Punk vs. Colt Cabana - 30 Minute Iron Man Match IWA-MS

7/6/02 "Spyder" Nate Webb vs. Chris Hero - 30 Minute Iron Man Tables & Ladders Match IWA-MS

7/13/02 Chris Hero vs. Colt Cabana vs. Tracy Smothers IWA-MS

7/13/02 Necro Butcher vs. "Spyder" Nate Webb - No Rope Barbed Wire, Electrified Light Bulbs, Electrified Light Tubes, Barbed Wire Boards, Carribean Spider Web Glass, House of Pain, Lobsters, basically anything you can think of Death Match (King of the Deathmatch 2002 Finals) IWA-MS

8/3/02 Chris Hero vs. Colt Cabana - Street Fight IWA-MS

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Someone mentioned Best of the Best in (I think) the 2001 thread, so I would like to recommend Jodie Fleisch vs Jonny Storm from CZW BOTB2.

 

Storm and Fleisch did a tour of North America and wrestled in ROH, CZW, PWF, NECW and some others, and of the three matches of theres that I have seen from said tour this is the best by a mile. Lucha style, with a bunch of highspots and they nail them all perfectly (Wallunit, Shooting Star to the Floor, Rewind Storm Insider, Springboard 720 DDT). Meltzer gave their ROH match a highish rating and I didn't think it was anywhere near as good as this match, as they botched several spots in the ROH match. The CZW match garnered Match of the Night honours, and received a standing ovation after they had finished.

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Agreed on the ROH three way from the first show, and the Dragon/Ki Round Robin final. I'll also throw out the Dragon/Daniels Round Robin match, and I guess you may as well include Daniels/Ki, although it's nowhere near as good as the other two.

 

Both of the Jarrett/Killings NWA Title matches, Jarrett's win and Truth's rematch.

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The more I've thought about this, the more I realize that 2002-05 yearbooks are gong to be very Eddie Guerrero-heavy in regards to the WWE content. Here's what I got for 2002.

 

Eddie vs. Super Crazy from the first ROH show

Eddie's return to RAW where he attacks RVD

Eddie vs RVD from Backlash and Judgment Day

Eddie/Red vs. SAT from the 3rd ROH show

Eddie and Austin at the karoke bar

Eddie vs. RVD from the RAW in Edmonton in the ladder match. If possible, the orignal airing that shows the fan running in.

The three Edge/Guerrero matches (Summerslam, Unforgiven, TV match)

Pretty much anything from the Smackdown six period,

Los Guerreros vs. Edge/Kidman (although I'm not positive if this was 02 or early 03)

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Thanks to all for recommendations.

 

I think I'm good for WWE and the Big 3 companies in Japan, but I have really not seen any recommendations for the following:

 

* Michinoku Pro

* Osaka Pro

* ARSION

* AJW

* Any U.S. indies that are not ROH or IWA Mid South

* OVW

 

We want to get a really good feel for what's going on in every wrestling promotion that year, so even if a group is disappointing, but has one solid match, we can include that match just to show that we didn't forget they existed. I'd like for each of the above groups to have at least one match represented at a minimum.

 

Also, I have yet to receive any lucha recommendations.

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You might want to include one of the first Chikara show matches with the pop ups on the video screen to show how much the shows have progressed. I didn't get into Chikara until around 2004 so I don't know what would be the most appropriate match from both a quality and time standpoint.

 

 

For CZW I would include the following:

Cage of Death Zandig vs. Lobo- a decent deathmatch and really ended the era of the first 3 years of CZW

NIght of Infamy - Wifebeater vs. Zandig

BOTB JOdy Fleish vs. JOnny Storm

I may include one thing with the Backseat Boyz, Justice Pain, Nick MOndo, or Messiah since they were all prominent during this year but nothing stands out and I think 4-5 matches from CZW would be good enough and show how much ROH really took over the indy scene in 2002.

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For the moment these are more rolling thoughts:

 

I haven't revisited them since they happened - and I've got the entire 2000-2002 run to work through - but Maekawa/Momoe and Ito/Toyota 2/24 got a lot of talk at the time. Maekawa/Momoe does go ~45 though. There's another Ito/Toyota match later in the year, IIRC, which was Toyota's last match in Zenjo? That and something covering her entry to GAEA should be covered. There's Momoe winning the red belt from Ito. There's a NanaMomo/LCO tag title switch late in the year too. Kong/Hotta in the cage is short and might be of interest to people as well.

 

There's the Ran/Hyuga feud in JWP. I'm drawing a blank on anything else...

 

Hokuto's retirement in GAEA as well as the LCO reunion match around the same time I remember really liking. Little else comes to mind in GAEA, Flik's a bigger fan than me, I guess Meiko/Nagashima? There's the joshi "Kawada/Muto" with Toyota/Nagashima too.

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Lucha Nominatons:

 

Dr. Wagner Jr. vs Nishimura 5/14

Mascara Magica and Shocker vs Takemura and Masada hair vs Hair 5/31

Santo and Negro Casas vs Rey Bucanero and Ultimo Guerrero 5/31

 

Those are the only 3 CMLL matches I can remember from that time. I think Zumbido vs Ricky Marvin from October was also good. Lots of Los Capos vs the Puerto Ricans in 02 and don't know how you guys feel about that.

 

For AAA, You have the first LLL tv taping with some good skits in the old west like May Flowers destroying Billy Boy's skateboard or Albrieje kicking Chuky into a tree. Triplemania from that year is declared one of the worst but I remember enjoying the 4 way mask match with Octagon, Pentagon, Mascara Maglina and Sagrada. Also had a 4 way hair match at VDE with Dandy vs Perro Jr. vs Metal vs I think Electroshock. And 2 good Hector Garza vs Latin Lover title matches. Then there's the Black Family vs Barrio boys feud. Anything with those guys is nomination worthy. And Mr. Aguila's return.

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The main event from the first show is one of the few matches from chikara 2002 that I have seen but I don't know if I would necessairly recommend it for this project as I thought it was just a decent 6 man tag from workers that were already established and having better matches in other areas. I think something from the students that is relatively short and decent would be more appropriate to see the roots of the wrestle academy and how even now, Chikara is way more rooted based on its students that many other indies such as ROH.

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Not really going to bother with secondary nominations, most of these would be what i'd consider the very best, must see matches from each promotion

 

JOSHI

 

AJW

 

1/19/2002 (Wakizawa Retirement Match) Kayo Noumi vs Miho Wakizawa

2/24/2002 Eagle Sawai, Rumi Kazama & Takako Inoue vs Tomoko Watanabe, Nanae Takahashi & Kayo Noumi

2/24/2002 (Vacant All Pacific Title) Momoe Nakanishi vs Kumiko Maekawa

2/24/2002 (3WA Title) Kaoru Ito © vs Manami Toyota

 

I stoped watching 02 after the feb show but I know based on rep these would be considered the best matches that happened in during the rest of the year

 

5/26 Momoe Nakanishi vs Kaoru Ito

6/16 Momoe Nakanishi vs Kumiko Maekawa

7/6 (3WA Title) Manami Toyota © vs Kaoru Ito *Toyota's final AJW match*

9/8 Kaoru Ito & Yumiko Hotta vs Momoe Nakanishi & Nanae Takahashi

10/15 Nanae Takahashi & Fang Suzuki vs Momoe Nakanishi & Kayo Noumi

10/20 (3WA Title) Kaoru Ito © vs Momoe Nakanishi

11/29 (3WA Tag) Momoe Nakanishi & Nanae Takahashi vs LCO

 

Also somewhear in the later part of the year Amazing Kong debued, would be cool to include something from that, even if just clips for historical value. I think her vs Hotta from Oct is the earliest she shows up on tape but not sure if that's her 1st match or now.

 

GAEA (listing most of these by air date)

 

1/25/2002 Aja Kong & Akira Hokuto vs Mima Shimoda & Etsuko Mita

2/15/2002 Akira Hokuto, Mima Shimoda & Etsuko Mita vs Mayumi Ozaki, Dynamite Kansai & Toshiyo Yamada *Last LCO trio match ever*

4/27/2002 (Hokuto Retirement Match) Akira Hokuto & Meiko Satomura vs Chigusa Nagayo & Ayako Hamada *Would include the retirement ceremony & other post match footage too, the match itself is clipped to hell, about 9 out of 22+ aired*

5/24/2002 (3AW Title) Meiiko Satomura © vs Chikayo Nagashima *also cliped but should be included as a lead up to the re-match*

6/21/2002 (3AW Title) Meiko Satomura © vs Chikayo Nagashima *great match, helps to know that they were kind of purposly trying to kill off their old finishers here to get the new ones over*

7/12/2002 (Day show) Mayumi Ozaki & Kaoru vs Meiko Satomura & Aja Kong

7/12/2002 (Night show) Aja Kong, Devil Masami, Toshie Uematsu, Mima Shimoda & Etsuko Mita vs Dynamite Kansai, Toshiyo Yamada, Ayako Hamada, Sugar Sato & Carlos Amano *GAEA's MOTY up to this point, the 7/12 day show match and following angle HAS to be included for this one to make sense though*

8/23/2002 Aja Kong vs Dynamite Kansa *Manami Toyota shows up post match and shit's on*

8/23/2002 Aja Kong & Manami Toyota vs Dynamite Kansai & Toshiyo Yamada

9/20/2002 Aja Kong & Manami Toyota vs Meiko Satomura & Ayako Hamada

10/17/2002 Chikayo Nagashima & Lioness Asuka vs Manami Toyota & Mima Shimoda

10/20/2002 (3AW Title) Chikayo Nagashima © vs Manami Toyota

11/22/2002 (3AW Tag Titles) Meiko Satomura & Ayako Hamada © vs Manami Toyota & Aja Kong

 

OZ Academy

 

11/24/2002 Chigusa Nagayo, Meiko Satomura, Sugar Sato, Chikayo Nagashima & Toshie Uematsu vs Mayumi Ozaki, Dynamite Kansai, Devil Masami, Carlos Amano & Ran YuYu

 

JWP

 

3/10/2002 Ran YuYu vs Azumi Hyuga

5/19/2002 (JWP Title Match, Wild Dress Up Fight) Azumi Hyuga © vs Ran YuYu

6/16/2002 (2 out of 3 Falls) Ran YuYu vs Azumi Hyuga

10/13/2002 (Thunder Queen) Azumi Hyuga & Ran YuYu & Commando Bolshoi vs Yoshiko Tamura & Misae Genki & Carlos Amano

11/3/2002 (JWP Tag Titles) Azumi Hyuga & Ran YuYu © vs Misae Genki & Yoshiko Tamura

 

Hopefully someone else can chime in for ARSION, NEO, JD, etc...

I know more or less what would be considered the better matches from those feds in 02 but I haven't really seen any of them personally

 

PURO

 

BJW

 

8/?/2002 (Barbedwire Board Deathmatch) Homicide vs The Winger

8/4/2002 (Thumbtack Death Match) Ruyji Yamakawa vs Hido

 

Michinoku Pro

 

5/06/2002 Tiger Mask 4 vs Ikuto Hidaka

 

Osaka Pro

 

6/20/2002 (Osaka Pro Tag Festival Finals) Super Delfin & Super Demekin vs Daio Quallt & Big Boss MaGMa

 

Toryumon

 

1/2/2002 (Hair vs Hair Lumberjack Match) CIMA vs Masaaki Mochizuki

2/22/2002 (UWA 6 Man Tag Titles) Masaaki Mochizuki, Susumu Mochizuki & Darkness Dragon © vs CIMA, TARU & Big Fuji

 

T2P

 

1/23/2002 (2 out of 3 Falls) Milano Collection AT, Masato Yoshino & Stevie "brother" Tsujimoto vs Ryo Saito, Anthony W. Mori & Takayuki Yagi

6/28/2002 (NWA Lightheavyweight Title, 2 out of 3 falls) Milano Collection AT © vs Don Fujii

 

WEW

 

11/19/2002 (Kaori Nakayama Retirement Match) Shark Tsuchiya vs Kaori Nakayama

 

Z1

 

3/2/2002 Naohiro Hoshikawa vs Naomichi Marufuji

7/11/2002 (NWA Intercontinental Tag Titles) Shinjiro Ohtani & Masato Tanaka © vs Kintaro Kanemura & Tetsuhiro Kuroda

8/8/2002 Masato Tanaka vs Kintaro Kanemura

8/9/2002 Shinjiro Ohtani vs Masato Tanaka

8/11/2002 (Fire Festival Final) Shinjiro Ohtani vs Tetsuhiro Kuroda

9/12/2002 Spanky & Naohiro Hoshikawa vs Low Ki & Yoshito Sasaki

12/15/2002 Tetsuhiro Takaiwa & Masato Tanaka vs Low Ki & Frankie Kazarian

12/15/2002 Satoshi Kojima vs Shinjiro Ohtani

 

US Indies

 

APW

 

3/16/2002 American Dragon Bryan Danlieson vs Jardi Frantz followed by Battle Royal

10/25/2002 (2 out of 3 Falls) Super Dragon vs Bobby Quance

11/22/2002 Bobby Quance & Jardi Frantz vs Super Dragon & Rising Son

 

ECWA

 

1/12/2002 (Steel Cage Match) Low Ki & American Dragon vs The SAT vs The J-Team

4/6/2002 (ECWA Tag Team Title Match) Low Ki & American Dragon vs Christopher Daniels & Xavier

 

JAPW

 

6/07/2002 (Tap Out Match) Low Ki vs American Dragon

 

Millennium Pro Wrestling

 

3/23/2002 Adam Pearce vs Spanky

 

MLW

 

9/26/2002 Christopher Daniels, Dick Togo & Ikuto Hidaka vs The SAT & Quiet Storm

 

PCW

 

6/1/2002 (WARGAMES) Zane Morris, Martin Styles & Jarred Steel vs Action Jackson, Chris Chronic & Iron Eagle

8/10/2002 (Elimination Match) Jarred Steel & Paul London vs Chris Chronic & Mike Foxx

 

Other

 

CMLL

 

6/22/2002 Ultimo Guerrero, Rey Buccanero & Tarzan Boy vs Shocker, Mascara Magica & El Hijo Del Santo

 

FWA

 

2/09/2002 Doug Williams vs Eddy Guerrero

2/09/2002 Doug Williams vs Jody Fleish

 

WWA

 

4/14/2002 Jerry Lynn vs AJ Styles

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