General thoughts on 1990

[PeteF3]

I bet you were feeling really great when you passed me at the beginning of December.

[PeteF3]

WWF Match of the Year:

1. Roddy Piper vs. Mr. Perfect (12/28)

2. The Rockers vs. The Powers of Pain (1/15)

3. The Rockers vs. The Hart Foundation (10/30)

Honorable mentions: Hogan vs. Earthquake (8/27), Hart Foundation vs. Demolition (8/27), Warrior vs. DiBiase (11/23)

 

NWA/WCW Match of the Year:

1. The Southern Boys vs. The Midnight Express (7/7)

2. Ric Flair vs. Lex Luger (2/25)

3. Doom vs. Barry Windham & Arn Anderson (Street Fight, 12/16)

Honorable mentions: Flair vs. Eaton (1/7), Rock & Rolls vs. Midnights (2/25), Doom vs. Flair/Arn (10/27), Eaton vs. Scott Steiner (9/21). A lot of great wrestling to choose from even in a decaying promotion.

 

AJPW Match of the Year:

1. Mitsuharu Misawa vs. Jumbo Tsuruta (9/1)

2. Misawa/Kobashi/Taue vs. Jumbo/Kabuki/Fuchi (5/26)

3. Misawa/Kawada vs. Jumbo/Taue (9/30)

Honorable mentions: Misawa vs. Jumbo (6/8), Doc vs. Hansen (6/5), 8/18 6-man

 

NJPW Match of the Year:

1. Jushin Liger vs. Naoki Sano (1/31)

2. Keiji Mutoh & Masahiro Chono vs. Kensuke Sasaki & Hiroshi Hase (11/1)

3. 5-on-5 match (6/26)

Honorable mentions: Liger vs. Pegasus Kid (11/1), Zbyszko vs. Saito (2/10), Choshu vs. Hashimoto (5/28)

 

Lucha Match of the Year Besides the Two El Dandy Matches:

1. Pirata Morgan vs. El Faraon (11/16)

2. Rayo de Jalisco, Jr. vs. Cien Caras (9/21)

3. El Hijo del Santo, Satanico, & Eddy Guerrero vs. Los Brazos (9/14)

 

Women's Match of the Year:

1. Aja Kong vs. Bull Nakano, Cage Match (11/14)

2. Elimination Match (11/17)

3. Manami Toyota vs. Yumiko Hotta (6/17)

 

WWF Angle of the Year:

1. DiBiase buys out the front row to attack Dustin Rhodes

2. Rick Martel blinds Jake Roberts

3. Randy Savage jumps the Ultimate Warrior on the Main Event

 

NWA Angle of the Year:

1. Barry Windham returns as a Horseman/Horsemen attack the injured Sting

2. Teddy Long and Doom engineer a kidnapping of Ric Flair and hijack the Horsemen limo

3. The Midnight Express destroy Brian Pillman's throat

 

USWA Angle of the Year:

1. Eddie Gilbert and Jeff Jarrett argue over the Southern title, the Unified title tournament, and their personal lives

2. The Snowman debuts by hijacking the WMC studio

3. Leon Spinks costs Lawler the Unified World title

 

USWA-TX Angle of the Year:

1. Kerry Von Erich and Matt Borne brawl into the parking lot

2. John Tatum's nervous breakdown (throwing a jobber at the fans)

3. Austin & Jeannie assault Toni Adams with a kendo stick

[Loss]

Fantastic stuff, Pete. I think I agreed with almost every award you gave, along with the runners-up, to a point that I would put almost all of them in the same order even. I admire you having the capacity to make a post like this at the end of the run. I'm usually exhausted by that point.

[Kevin Ridge]

Wow, excellent work Pete to go into that much detail after plowing through the whole year. I like your Kendo pick for charisma as I would have totally overlooked him but agreed that the crowds just loved that guy. Compared to previous yearbooks I've struggled to really come up with my favorite match of the year. Could it actually be a Dandy match? I brought it up in my previous half year comment about watching this set after the 1994 year. Tough act to follow that year for me.

 

I don't want to seem like I'm criticizing the match selection but I just found this year to not have the sure fire top level matches that will become my favorites and deserve repeated viewings. I found the WWF to be lousy in the ring and I'm the big WWF fan growing up so this ended up being a big negative. There was some good matches but nothing I consider great. Hogan/Earthquake probably ends up as being my favorite match for WWF. There was some great angles though and I enjoyed the Brother Love segments which developed a lot of the story lines.

 

I was eager to see the whole Black Scorpion fall out and outside of some of the magic tricks that gave me a good laugh I found the angle to be pretty pathetic and the Starrcade match to be flat. But WCW did provide some great matches for the year though their booking didn't fully make sense at time.

 

What I will take away from this year the most if the angles/promos. But it was also nice to see the beginnings/rises of guys like Austin and Kobashi.

[DocSarpolis]

As I go through this set I've been assembling a 'Best Match', 'Best Promo/Interview', 'Best Angle', and Disc 'MVP'. I thought I'd share:

 

Sarp’s Pix: Disc #1:

Best Match: Ric Flair vs. Bobby Eaton (Main Event 1/7/90)

Best Promo/Interview: Jerry Lawler + Dirty White Boy + Soul Taker (USWA 1/13/90)

Best Angle: Arn Anderson-Buzz Sawyer confrontation (Power Hour 1/12/90)

MVP: Jerry Lawler

 

Sarp’s Pix: Disc #2:

Best Match: Ric Flair, Arn Anderson & Sting vs. Buzz Sawyer, Dragon Master & Great Muta (Power Hour 1/26/90)

Best Promo/Interview: Jerry Lawler Pissed Off (USWA 1/27/90)

Best Angle: Bill Dundee, Chris Adams & Eric Embry vs. Billy Travis, Gary Young & Skandor Akbar (USWA TX 1/19/90)…Embry-Adams split.

MVP: Billy Joe Travis

 

Sarp’s Pix: Disc #3:

Best Match: Jushin Liger vs. Naoki Sano (NJPW 1/31/90)

Best Promo/Interview: Jerry Lawler Interview (USWA 2/3/90)

Best Angle: Four Horsemen Interview (Clash 2/6/90)…my complaints about the booking decision, plus the tragedy that was the subsequent Sting injury aside, the Horsemen turn on Sting was well done.

MVP: The Black Crows….We get 2 tracks from The Black Crows for our menu music depending upon which page you’re on. ‘Too Hard To Handle’ and ‘Twice as Hard’. Love ‘em both.

 

Sarp’s Pix: Disc #4:

Best Match: Genichiro Tenryu & Tiger Mask vs. Riki Choshu & George Takano (NJPW/AJPW 2/10/90)

Best Promo/Interview: Jerry Lawler Promo (USWA TX 2/10/90)

Best Angle: Luger’s face turn (WCWSN 2/17/90)

MVP: Ric Flair…Flair had 2 great matches on this disc, but that’s not why I’m going with him. I could just as easily go with Ricky Morton or Bobby Eaton or Brian Pillman as they all had 2 great matches as well. I could also again go with Lawler as he continues to dominate the week-to-week with his heel greatness in USWA. Flair gets the edge for being the lead of the Booking Committee for WCW until he resigned in 2/22/90. In 5 months time, the Flair led Booking Committee (along w/ Jim Cornette & Kevin Sullivan) helped get WCW out of the low point it had been in the Summer of 1989 to its highest ratings since the company’s boom period in 85/86. They would not return to the ratings that they achieved on this disc until 1996. Sure, Flair pushed himself on top, but he was still easily the most talented all-around performer for the company and the reformation of the Horsemen and emerging feud w/ Sting was a boom for the company. Meanwhile, he added a couple of outstanding TV matches against Pillman and a tag w/ Arn vs. the RNRX.

 

Sarp’s Pix: Disc #5:

Best Match: Midnight Express vs. Rock & Roll Express (Wrestle War 2/25/90)

Best Promo/Interview: Jerry Lawler Interview + Furniture (USWA 3/3/90)….I’m going to cheat a bit and say the entirety of his mic work on the 3/3 episode. Plus, it’s not done yet as we go back to it at the start of Disk #6.

Best Angle: Jerry Lawler vs. Ben Jordan (USWA 2/24/90)/Jerry Lawler vs. The Destroyer (USWA 2/24/90)…I could go w/ the Fuller/Lee breakup, or the finish to Luger/Flair…but I have to go with the chaos that Lawler brings to the Memphis studio on 2/24 as he destroys the studio as well as several wrestlers. Some of the best stuff ever and a real find.

MVP: Jerry Lawler

 

Sarp’s Pix: Disc #6:

Best Match: Atlantis, Villano III & El Satanico vs. Pirata Morgan, Jerry Estrada & Emilio Charles Jr (EMLL 3/16/90)

Best Promo/Interview: Jerry Lawler + Chris Champion (USWA 3/3/90)

Best Angle: Midnight Express vs. Brian Pillman & Tom Zenk (WCWSN 3/10/90)

MVP: Tony Atlas? Really??

P.S. Quite the toll of dead guys on this disc. Misawa, Jumbo, Doc, Gordy, Chris Adams, Bravo, John Tenta, Pillman, Kerry Von Erich, Savage, Sherri, Henning.

 

Sarp’s Pix: Disc #7:

Best Match: Jerry Estrada vs. El Satanico (Hair Match) (EMLL 3/23/90)

Best Promo/Interview: Jerry Lawler Promo (USWA TX 3/31/90)

Best Angle: Eric Embry + Devastation Inc (USWA TX 3/24/90)

MVP: Jerry Estrada

 

Sarp’s Pix: Disc #8:

Best Match: Ryuma Go vs. Masaji Aoyagi (Pioneer 4/5/90)

Best Promo/Interview: Jerry Lawler + Studio Fans (USWA 4/7/90)

Best Angle: Billy Jack Haynes/, Rip Oliver & Larry Oliver vs. The Grappler, Brian Adams & Equalizer (Finish Only) (Portland 4/14/90)…Billy Jack Haynes heel turn.

MVP: Stan Hansen

 

Sarp’s Pix: Disc #9:

Best Match: Jerry Lawler vs. Jeff Jarrett (USWA TX 4/20/90)

Best Promo/Interview: Jerry Lawler Music Video (USWA TX 4/21/90)

Best Angle: Jerry Lawler vs. Jeff Jarrett (USWA TX 4/20/90)….the surprise return of Valiant on the 28th is fantastic as well, but this is a clear winner. The finish, the post match stuff with the beat down and Billy Joe Travis save is all just great stuff.

MVP: Jerry Lawler/Bobby Eaton….I can’t in good conscious not give it to Lawler. However, something has to be said for Eaton’s two performances here and making his case for the best in-ring competitor in 1990. I’ve always been an Eaton fan and would have him in my Top 20 of all-time, but I just didn’t know that he was delivering this many standout performances in 1990. Without question, Lawler and the Midnight Express are stealing this set.

 

Sarp’s Pix: Disc #10:

Best Match: Lightning Kid vs. Jerry Lynn (PWA April 1990)

Best Promo/Interview: Jimmy Valiant + Jerry Lawler + Ben Jordan/Jerry Lawler vs. Ben Jordan (USWA 4/28/90)

Best Angle: Ric Flair vs. Lex Luger (WWW 5/5/90)…The Horsemen wreak havoc as Barry Windham returns

MVP: El Satanico

 

Sarp’s Pix: Disc #11:

Best Match: Tie: Akira Hokuto & Suzuka Minami vs. Yumiko Hotta & Mitsuko Nishiwaki (2/3 Falls) (AJW 5/13/90) and Midnight Express vs. Brian Pillman & Tom Zenk (Capital Combat 5/19/90)

Best Promo/Interview: Jerry Lawler + The Snowman (USWA 5/19/90)

Best Angle: Jerry Lawler + The Snowman (USWA 5/19/90)

MVP: Tie: Jerry Lawler, Snowman, Eddie Marlin

 

Sarp’s Pix: Disc #12:

Best Match: El Dandy vs. Angel Azteca (EMLL 6/1/90)….This may be the best disk on the set so far. If someone would have told me that the Luger-Flair Cage Match from Capital Combat (which I’m a huge fan of) would be (at best) my 3rd favorite match on the disk then I’d be surprised.

Best Promo/Interview: Eddie Marlin + The Snowman + King Cobra + Jerry Lawler (USWA 5/26/90)

Best Angle: Kerry Von Erich vs. Matt Borne (Cage Match) (USWA TX 6/1/90)…The aftermath.

MVP: Riki Choshu…It could easily be Lawler again as he again dominated the disk, but I’m almost looking for an excuse to give it to anyone else at this point and Riki produced two quality matches.

 

...more to come.

[Stiva]

Just powered through January and this has been great so far. WCW clearly leading the way with some great TV matches and every interaction between Arn Anderson and Buzz Sawyer has been brilliant and Flair/Eaton is probably the standout match from the first disc. But, for me, the stuff I've been enjoying the most has been the USWA footage and, in particular, anything with Lawler and Billy Joe Travis. This Lawler stuff is new to me and god damn is he ever killing it as a heel. I love the phone gag running throughout the month and his constant back and forth with Dave Brown is awesome. But, Billy Joe Travis, holy shit. The Guitar on a Pole with Jarrett is incredible; the way he bumps around is crazy and he's not afraid to lay it in too. I haven't looked much further into the set listings but I'm way ready for more of him.

 

I'm disappointed by how little I like the WWF stuff though. It's what I'm most familiar with, along with All Japan and WCW, I'm not enjoying it as I am those. I've never seen the appeal in Hogan and Warrior so I'm not looking forward to the next few discs with their work. Still, WWF did have the Valentine/Garvin match and the Rockers/PoP tag and Savage, Roberts and Dibiase are all bringing the goods so it's not like they're not holding up their end of the bargain.

 

As an aside, did the supplemental sets ever get compiled? I'm interested in seeing what USWA matches made the cut, if any.

[stunning_grover]

I just wanted to mention that I can't find the thread for the 6/30/90 Owen Hart vs. Keiji Muto match from disc 15. Maybe there was never one created for that match?