Other 1993 worth watching

[Loss]

Use this thread to talk about 1993 matches, interviews and angles that didn't make the yearbook that are worth watching for whatever reason.

 

Include an explanation of what makes the addition stand out. This will be considered if/when a supplemental set is made to fill in a few holes throughout the year.

[MJH]

Obviously the lack of Joshi was something both I and Flik brought up over the course of discussing the set. Realistically, 1993 Joshi should probably have its own set, and there're more matches out there that would make that set that I'd nominate as being just behind the level of stuff that I'd think should definitely be on the set proper. Anyway... (someone else could help with more JWP I've only got 1/15, 4/18, 7/31 and 11/18)

 

Plum Mariko vs. Commando Bolshoi - 01/15 JWP

A rare submissions/matwork based match for Joshi, and a very well done one at that.

 

All of these are Zenjo

 

Kyoko Inoue vs. Takako Inoue - 01/24

A far better structured match than you'd assume it to be, almost Kobashi-esque in how Kyoko is dominant until two big bumps on the floor changes the momentum around. Probably Takako's best singles match to this point, probably within Kyoko's top handful too, and very good.

 

Aja Kong/Bull Nakano vs. Manami Toyota/Toshiyo Yamada - 01/24

Another really, really good match, one of my post-title favourites from Bull and not far off the best Toyota/Yamada matches in a very different style than you'd associate with them.

 

Akira Hokuto/Etsuko Mita/Mima Shimoda vs. Eagle Sawai/Harley Saito/Miki Handa - 01/24

Kicks the LCO vs. LLPW feud off with a bang, just a great, intense six-woman match that caps a really good show in style.

 

Debbie Malenko vs. Terri Power - 02/28

A remarkable "carry-job" by Debbie, a great little hurrah for her before the injury. And, to be fair to her, Terri improved dramatically in the 6/8 months she was in the company and puts in by far her best performance here.

 

Manami Toyota/Toshiyo Yamada vs. Debbie Malenko/Sakie Hasegawa - 03/11

More for a 1993 Joshi set, I suppose, but this should've been covered in some form.

 

Aja Kong/Akira Hokuto vs. Eagle Sawai/Shinobu Kandori - 04/11

I don't like this as much as some, but it's certainly very good and a worthy follow up to the Hokuto/Kandori classic nine days earlier.

 

Aja Kong/Kyoko Inoue vs. Manami Toyota/Yumiko Hotta - 04/24**

This one I haven't watched in years - I'm going off the memory of a very old VHS version and had to check the date and workers - but it's in Toyota's hometown, in a pretty small venue, and they're going mad for her, and the match is really terrific fun as a result, kind of like a lesser version of the Kobashi/Kikuchi vs. Can-Ams tag.

 

Takako Inoue vs. Harley Saito - 05/08

Harley badly injures her ribs and fights through it to the draw. I don't think the pre-injury stuff is that remarkable, but the post-injury part of the match is great.

 

Kyoko inoue vs. Shinobu Kandori - 08/25

This is just great, the best singles match not to have been included, and probably a Top 10 contender for Joshi. They mesh together really well for being so disparate, the crowd are going crazy every time Kyoko gets caught, and both women are just great here. The actual finishing spot I'm not too sure on, but this is a great little contrast to Kandori's matches with Hokuto. One of the more shocking omissions.

 

Captain's Fall Match: Manami Toyota ©/Toshiyo Yamada/Etsuko Mita/Mima Shimoda vs. Kyoko Inoue ©/Aja Kong/Sakie Hasegawa/Kaoru Ito - 09/05

The best multi-woman sprint Zenjo put on all year. All kinds of fun; they were just on.

 

Akira Hokuto/Suzuka Minami vs. Yumiko Hotta/Takako Inoue - 09/05

Probably even better than Kandori/Kyoko, and maybe even a more glaring omission considering it involves Hokuto. I actually think this is her second best performance of the year and the second-best Zenjo tag behind the TLTB Final.

[Matt Franklin]

I just watched Bret vs Yoko from Survivor Series Showdown and I think it may be Yokozuna's best match, even better than the cage matches on the set. Everything is timed perfectly, the crowd is hot and even though the finish is screwy, it fits in with the future program with Owen perfectly. As far as a size vs skill match, I might like this even more than the KOTR final against Bam Bam, and I LOVE that match. Check it out here if you haven't seen it:

 

[Eduardo]

Volk Han's Sambo Submission demonstration is still one of the coolest things I've ever seen in professional wrestling. There is a fan in the front who is having an absolute blast and giving out fantastic reactions to what Volk Han is doing (especially a little after the 6:50 mark):

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9-KI5-o0z_A

[Frankensteiner]

I just watched Bret vs Yoko from Survivor Series Showdown and I think it may be Yokozuna's best match, even better than the cage matches on the set. Everything is timed perfectly, the crowd is hot and even though the finish is screwy, it fits in with the future program with Owen perfectly. As far as a size vs skill match, I might like this even more than the KOTR final against Bam Bam, and I LOVE that match. Check it out here if you haven't seen it:

 

Yeah, I listed this match in the 1993 nominations thread and agree with everything here. I don't know if it's better than their Cage matches, but it's certainly their best pro-shot match. Yoko has some really fun bumps throughout.

[Gregor]

Marty Jannetty vs. Bam Bam Bigelow (RAW, 5/31/93)

 

This one's notable for being Marty's only televised defense of the IC Title. It's not a great match or anything, but it's pretty good and, in a way, a highlight for Jannetty in his only big year as a singles competitor. It's interesting to see Jannetty as a champion and how they treat him; the announcers openly describe Jannetty as the underdog in this match. I think it would've been cool if he could have had a longer run of holding the belt against all odds.

[Loss]

Curious -- if we were to do supplements, what would be the most intriguing way to release them?

 

1993: The Missing Matches -- Matches from all promotions that year that didn't quite make the cut

 

OR

 

WWF in the 1990s: The Missing Matches -- Matches from a single promotion for a decade that didn't quite make the cut

[Ditch]

I think by the point where you're doing sets of marginal matches, people will already have bought the yearbooks and thus will know what they like and don't like. So promotions/groups of promotions makes more sense to me.

[smkelly]

I'd vote for the former unless all promotion themed "errata" sets were stereo released.

[KB8]

Watched the Jerry Estrada/Lizmark title match from AAA (6/18/93) again last night and it's excellent. OJ did a great write-up of it for his blog and it's definitely something worth adding to a supplemental set. It's probably a top 10 match of the year for me, actually.

[FLIK]

Marty Jannetty vs Doink 6/14/93

 

Besides being the set up for the 2/3 falls match that made the set, this is almost as good though it only goes around half the time.

[FLIK]

Kyoko Inoue vs. Takako Inoue - 01/24

A far better structured match than you'd assume it to be, almost Kobashi-esque in how Kyoko is dominant until two big bumps on the floor changes the momentum around. Probably Takako's best singles match to this point, probably within Kyoko's top handful too, and very good.

Re-watched this earlier today and I fully agree, my rundown

 

They do some fast paced highspots to early on, lots of arm drags and lucha style stuff, then Kyoko gains controll and goes into her usual array of wear down holds, dominating for a while. A little pedestrian but good stuff. Match goes to another lvl once Takako comes back and goes into submission queen mode, Kyoko makes her fight for every little hold early on which is a nice touch but Tak perseveres and goes to town on her leg. This is a strategy that has always been something Takako is good at, something that she can dominate with, something that gives her a fighting chance. Following her journey in 92 against bigger name opponents she always failed when she deviated from this, always failed when she tried to act tough, always got her ass kicked when she tried to stand toe to toe with an Aja or Bull or Hokuto. Here, the same thing looks to happen but Takako has other plans. Tak abandons the leg work and starts booting Kyoko upside the head, not enough to hurt, more in an insulting cocky way. Kyoko looks at her like "are you kidding me?" and elbows her in the face in retaliation, Tak fires back but it gets her nowhear and Kyoko regains the advantage for a bit. Awesome moment as Kyoko goes for her running back elbow and Tak catches her mid run and seamlessly rolls into a leg bad. Again though, Takako has something she needs to prove and she turns things back into a brawl again and the match goes outside. Takako surprisingly wins this encounter being really agressive and hitting Kyoko with her shoulder drop suplex on the floor. Nice bit of applause for Takako from the crowd in apreciation as if to say "holy shit we didn't exspect that, awesome, fuck her up". Of course, the Kyoko clap clap clap chants start soon enough as well so they're still with her. With a little help from a slow ass counting ref Kyoko milks the 20 count for all it's worth really putting over the pain. After getting back in Tak gets in another shoulder drop suplex, a top rope arm drag and a top rope superplex all for 2 counts. Kyoko counters Tak coming off the ropes with a powerslam to turn the tide and then signals for the Niagra Driver and I have never ever ever seen someone convery the look of desperation, the look of "please god let me end this" like Kyoko is here. Having taken so much damage Kyoko strugles to lift Tak and drops her on the 1st attempt, the 2nd attempt Tak escapes and they battle over a backslide which Kyoko wins. Still fighting out of desperation Kyoko gets in the airplane spin power bomb and Tak kicks out at fucking 1 with her near last bit of energy. The ref begins a standing 10 count which allows Kyoko to regain her composure and now starts looking less desperate and more like "come on bitch, i'll show you". Tak uses her very very last bit of energy to make it up by 9 and is met with a simple but stiff slap from Kyoko to knock her out and get pined to end things. Post match barely celebrates and doesn't check on her opponent either, she just walks away stoicly, she won but only just barely. Takako died a warrior's death and proved her point, proved she can hang with the big dogs afterall, proved she won't be a pushover any longer. I remember 1st watching this years ago and thinking it was a real good match but nothing special, re-watching it now, knowing more of the backstory I apreciated it a lot more. The finishing sequence is up thear with Aja/Bull as one of my fave endings to a match ever and overall this is an awesome match, great blend of story & pure workrate action. Def Takako's best ever at this stage.

[FLIK]

Debbie Malenko vs. Terri Power - 02/28

A remarkable "carry-job" by Debbie, a great little hurrah for her before the injury. And, to be fair to her, Terri improved dramatically in the 6/8 months she was in the company and puts in by far her best performance here.

Just watched this, even with all the hype I wasn't exspecting it to be as good as it was. Almost like a lucha title match whear you can really tell they're treating it as something special (even if this was for the #4 singles belt in the company) and going out of their way to work a more serious style and put on as good a match as they can.

 

Agree about Terri, she more often then not kinda stunk but it was more because she didn't have that much experience then it was she had no talent. She'd show little flashes of potential here and thear and had a few decent matches up to this point. This was a real good example of that she probably could have become really good one day had she not flaked out a few months later and then disapeared from wrestling for several years.

[FLIK]

Thoughts on other stuff from 2/28 AJW

 

Kyoko Inoue & Bat Yoshinaga vs Aja Kong & Kaoru Ito

 

Starts out pretty pretty average, Ito gets isolated and beat up for a bit then Aja & Bat tag in and all hell breaks loose. Big intense staredown between the two then Aja just hauls off and battering ram head butts her. Bat surprisingly does not get knocked out by this and even more surprisingly actually wins the exchange as things turn into a wild striking contest. Kyoko tags in and her & Aja continue pounding on each other but Inoue isn't as lucky as Bat was. Ito back in tries to get in on the fun but she's out classed in this area so things go back around to whear we started with her getting whoped on some more. This time around Bat & Kyoko are more amped up however which sees Ito end up with a bloody nose from the encounter. More Bat/Aja fun and boy, considering Kyoko's the one getting a title shot next month this match sure is doing a hell of a lot more to make me want to see Bat take on the champ in singles. Eventually things do get paired down to Inoue & Aja as they exhchange a bunch of near falls. Aja back fist everybody to hell but Bat recovers at the very last second to make the save, Aja then hits Ito on accident which spells her doom. A few minutes later after Bat makes sure to occupy the champ, Kyoko puts away the young Jungle Jacker with a modified rita romero special for the submission win. Another great match on what's turning out to be a really good card.

 

(3WA Tag Titles - 2 out of 3 Falls) Manami Toyota & Toshiyo Yamada vs Takako Inoue & Yumiko Hotta

 

1st fall starts out hot with Takako jumping Toyota, doesn't last long tho with Manami getting pissed and just blasting the hell out of Tak in retaliation with a punt to the forehead and a follow up series up stiff kicks. Jeez, pre show they had to have had a big roster meeting whear the Matsunaga's were all like "ok girls, we don't have Bull & Hokuto on the show tonight so our brutal ass whoop quota is going to be a little low, think you could step it up?" because everyone's been super amped up on this show. When you're in a match with Toshiyo Yamada & Yumiko Hotta and it's Toyota who's laying in the skull crushing blows you know someone's spiked the water. Things settle down a bit after that into a more routine back and forth match and and it ends with Hotta getting the duke over Yamada afer 3 powerbombs. 1st time in a long while that Yamada's been the one to eat a pin for their team. 2nd Fall we get start with more Hotta/Yamada kick exchanges which are always a highlight. Takako tags in and all of a sudden a boxing match breaks out which she loses getting droped on her ass by a straight Yamada punch to the dome. More Toyota/Tak follows and it degenerates into a hair pulling war with Inoue fairing better this time around. Really angry violent match this is. Hotta kicks around Toyota for a bit then Tak comes back in and ups the bitchyness factor going for revenge and really heeling it up on her. Things settle down a little bit again until the finish, funny botch as Toyota goes for a dive on Hotta but slips and falls right on her face. Shook her up a little bit as Toyota flubs another move or 2 but nothing serious and she recovers well enough. Few double teams from the champs and then Toyota drops Inoue with a double chicken wing suplex to even things up. 3rd fall Toyota & Yamada try to blitz Inoue and score a quick win but it's no go and then things break down into an ugly chair swinging brawl for a little bit. Back inside Takako starts tossing out lariats and then goes for a few leg bar attempts. After that the match becomes a war of attrition with everyone wearily going all out. By this point they're nearing the 30 min mark and given they weren't working a lot of time killing rest holds you can tell they're starting to feel it. Finally in the end it comes down to Toyota & Yamada again busting out a big array of double teams, they nearly kill Hotta with their fliping backdrop off the top rope, ironic given how many times the situation has been reversed. Finally after 32+ Yamada gets her win back from earlier and finishes off Hotta with the Gory bomb. Post match Takako gets on the mic and issues out some singles challenges, don't know what gets said back by Yamada but i'm sure it was nothing nice as Tak walks away dejected and in near tears. Not a great match, there were def some flaws. Went a little longer then it probably should have and if you're the type of person who's gonna be all "they didn't execute this or that to perfection - minus 1/4 *" then this may not be for you. Still, I thought the good far far outweighed the bad, this was a war and felt like it, ugly & nasty & gritty. For her part, Takako has been turning that corner from mid card technical wrestler into bad ass butt kicker with an attitude problem for a while now and for me this was the 1st time whear it really felt like she'd finally finished turning and was fully heading straight down that road. She may not have won every exchange but she gave as good as she got and dind't look outclassed, a step below or like the weak link here at all. A damn good match to end the night.

[FLIK]

Copying this over from the what are you watching thread

 

CMLL 7/16/1993 Chris Jericho & Ultimo Dragon vs Negro Casas & El Dandy

 

One of the better tags i've ever seen, lucha or otherwise. Heavy mat work based match which I love since that's my favorite kind of lucha these days and there were some awesome exchanges here. They were pretty strict about pairing off in each fall so you didn't get a lot of interaction between teams in this but that's more of a minor anoyance. It's a staple of a lot of lucha matches I know but with them going almost 40 mins here it was a bit more noticable. Casas/Ultimo continued their great rivalry and Dandy/Ultimo looked every bit as good as Casas/Ultimo. Jericho/Dandy was the least of the pairings as that saw Jericho mostly on top. He was still really early into his career at this point and really comes across like a boy among men in comparison. Not to say it was bad either, I actually thought that in a diffrent setting it would probably be something that would garner a lot of praise it's just that everything else around it was so much better that the Dandy/Jericho just came across as being noticably weaker. Casas/Jericho saw Casas take the lead and was a huge step up, another great example of why Casas is one of the best ever. Fans throw money into the ring post match and it was well earned.

 

Really surprised to see this wasn't on the set. Curious to know if it was a case of just not knowing about it, not having room (with intros and post match and other stuff it takes up about 45-50 mins) or just not thinking it was that good?

[MJH]

I looked through listings I have for that match after reading Jericho's first book and wasn't able to find it myself. Great to know it is, in fact, out there.

[FLIK]

Dunno who's selling it but it's up on youtube if anyone wants to check it out.

[FLIK]

AJW 3/20/93

 

Manami Toyota vs Takako Inoue

 

The big follow up from last months tag title match. Takako waste no time and jumps Toyota in the isle and they fight into the crowd. Toyota tries to take her out with a diving cross body off the stage but wipes out Numata instead, back near ringside Takako tries a dive of her own but takes out another young girl instead. Tak recovers quickly and follows by hauling off on Toyota with a big series of punches then just to be a jerk starts stomping on her hands and pulling hair once she's down. After that Tak makes the mistake of falling back into her old comfort zone, instead of continuing with more aggressive offense she goes back to her old standard of trying to controll the match with a bunch of submissions. She has some success at first but ultimately it fails her. Toyota gets controll of the match and we get a long stretch of her busting out a bunch of holds of her own and when I say her own I mean exclusively her own. At least 4 times during this part Toyota cranks on some strange hold i've never seen anyone do before and that I have no way of describing other then they look hurty as hell. I'm sure Toyota is a pretty clean living woman but if someone told me before some of her matches she liked to pop mushrooms injected with cafine and sprinkled with acid I wouldn't doubt them. It would explain so much Anyways, Tak eventually has enough of being made into a human pretzel and kicks Toyota in the chest a bunch of times to transition back in controll. Doesn't last long as Toyota counters a lariat attempt into the rolling cradle. Toyota hits a bunch of suplexs to follow up and Takako counters with a tombstone for 2 counts. Takako catches Toyota with a top rope choke slam for a mega near fall that wakes up the crowd who thought she had the win. Big Takako chant after that. Toyota getting desperate gets in string of suplexes, cradles and a moonsault all for 2. Last burst of offense from Tak sees her drop Toyota with a big backdrop suplex and then attempt a dragon but Toyota mule kicks out of it, hits 2 more moonsaults and then the JOCS to finally win. Awesome awesome match, between this, the Kyoko match in Jan and the big tags w Hotta, Takako has by far been the standout wrestler of the 1st quarter of 93 as her evolution continues to be one of the most interesting things to follow in joshi. Match had myself and the fans thear really hoping she'd FINALLY be able to get that big win to prove herself but again, she comes close only to fails and be left looking dejected.

[FLIK]

So uhhhh, hey, remember how in March W*ING Kanemura showed up in SMW and Kevin Sullivan stabed his ass in the arm for his troubles? 2 months later on 5/27/93 Sullivan shows up at a W*ING show in Japan at K-Hall, beats the fuckin dog piss out of Kanemura for 12 mins, paints the building with his blood and stabs him in the eye. It's pretty damn awesome

[FLIK]

W*ING 7/11/1993

 

(War Games) Freddy Kruger, Jado & Gedo vs Mitsuhiro Matsunaga, Kintaro Kanemura & Miguel Perez Jr.

 

W*ING 8/25/1993

 

(Captain Falls Elimination Barbed Wire Bat Scramble Bunkhouse Deathmatch)

Freddy Kruger, Jado, Gedo, Invader 2 & Invader 3 vs Crash The Terminator, Shoji Nakamaki, Masayoshi Motegi, Nobutaka Araya & Fukumen Taro

 

Looking at the lineups I exspect most would know what to exspect from these and they more then deliver. 2 really awesome brawls that i'd put up against any of the gimmick matches from anywhere else in 93 as the best of the year. Hugh Morris was over as hell in this match and just wrecking things up.

 

W*ING 8/25/1993

 

Kevin Sullivan vs Kanemura

......this has not been a good year for Kanemura. First Sullivan stabs him in the arm, then Sullivan stabs him in the eye, somewhear along the way, possibly in the Wargames he broke his foot. Mr. Pogo who they were building up to face Sullivan quit to go back to FMW a few months earlier because they threw a shit load of money at him. Matsunaga, the top face of the company & Kanemura's friend did the same shortly before this show. Kanemura gives a really emotional, teary eyed state of the union speach to start off the show. Sullivan has no sympathy for the man with 1 arm, 1 eye, 1 leg and a broken heart. Sullivan rushes into the locker room before their match, bust him open, drags him into the arena bleeding, caves his head in with a few dozen chairs or so and then threatens to cut up some more body parts before the rest of the W*ING roster runs in to save him. Add in that he got set on fire by Jado & Gedo a few months later and that the promotion was dead by the time he was ready to return....yeah not a good year for Kanemura but fuck if the scenery wasn't nice traveling the highway to hell for W*ING in 1993.

 

This is all on youtube BTW for the curious

[FLIK]

FMW 8/22/93 Megumi Kudo & Miwa Sato vs Aja Kong & Kaoru Ito

 

Perfect kind of match for a supplimental year book set. Real good match that's not very well known. Aja & Kudo is always a great pairing and this was the set up match for their 3WA bout a few months later. Rookie/Vet vs Rookie/Vet might be my favorite dynamic in puro and they worked it well here.

[Matt D]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SeNSBPi5e14...be&t=12m38s

 

I will be AMAZED if I come across a WWF promo in 93 I dig more than this.

[Mad Dog]

I wanted to throw in the Rockin' Rebel breaking a surfboard over the head of the Sandman on 4/20/93. Cool angle.

[rzombie1988]

Miracle Violence Combination vs Stan Hansen and Joel Deaton

Doc and Gordy, Doc and Gordy, Doc and Gordy, Doc and....Sorry, Perry Saturn moment there. Great opening here. MVC rushes their opponents from the start and it begins with chaos. Great! Gordy and Doc owned for the first part of this then Hansen made a killer comeback. MVC were so good in this with their aggresive attacks. Deaton and Hansen were both really good too. Gordy wins with the powerbomb. You want all of this. Rating: ****1/4

 

I think is from 6/3/1993 AJPW but it may be the month after.

[jdw]

The progression on TV is this:

 

June 20th 1993 (taped 6/1 Nippon Budokan, Tokyo) 3. Stan Hansen vs. Terry Gordy (19:42)

 

Hansen pins Gordy in the semifinal at Budokan underneath the first Misawa & Kobashi vs Kawada & Taue match.

 

June 27th 1993 (taped 6/3 Sendai) 1. Terry Gordy & Steve Williams vs Stan Hansen & Joel Deaton (6:47)

 

Back in the days when Budokan wasn't always the series ender, they had one more tv taping two days later. Gordy & Williams get their "revenge" on Hansen by generally kicking the living shit out of Hansen & Deaton.

 

July 4th 1993 (taped 7/2 Korakuen Hall, Tokyo) 2. Stan Hansen & Johnny Ace vs. Mark & Chris Youngblood (5:05)

 

First taping of the next series, Hansen shows up "in a bad mood" still pissed off over how the last series ended. He's like a caged animal stalking outside the ring, at times just losing his head to get mixed up in the action. Generally thought of as one of the more entertaining squashes of the era, though the context of having seen the prior two weeks shows help a bit. I can't go to ****1/4 on a 6:47 match that's largely just a beat down, Hansen's brief comeback notwithstanding. But it's an interesting, very different match from the usual TV matches.

 

John