Ditch Posted July 17, 2013 Report Share Posted July 17, 2013 The thing about AJ '97 is that there's MORE total footage of it than any year the company had before, due to the Samurai footage. There just wasn't much good content on those shows, because the AJ undercards were reduced to utter trash at that point, and main event 6-mans didn't have "it" anymore. Lots of factors leading to that, such as the steep drop in the number of good foreigners available and the lack of good young lions following Akiyama's debut, Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loss Posted July 20, 2013 Author Report Share Posted July 20, 2013 Going into this yearbook with the majority of these sight unseen, these are the matches that I think have a real chance of being my MOTY. I'm usually (but not always) wrong on these predictions, so we'll see. - Cicloncito Ramirez vs Damiancito El Guerrero (CMLL 01/07/97) - Mitsuharu Misawa vs Kenta Kobashi (AJPW 01/20/97) - 14-Man Cibernetico (CMLL 03/18/97) - 16-Man Cibernetico (CMLL 04/19/97) - El Hijo del Santo vs Negro Casas (CMLL 09/19/97) - Bracito de Oro, Cicloncito Ramirez & Mascarita Magica vs Damiancito El Guerrero, El Fierito & Pierrothito (CMLL 10/03/97) These I think will be the next level down. - Jushin Liger vs Shinjiro Otani (NJPW 02/09/97) - Bret Hart vs Steve Austin (WWF Wrestlemania XIII 03/23/97) - Toshiaki Kawada vs Kenta Kobashi (AJPW 04/19/97) - Mitsuharu Misawa vs Toshiaki Kawada (AJPW 06/06/97) - Etsuko Mita & Mima Shimoda vs Kaoru Ito & Tomoko Watanabe (AJW 09/21/97) - Shawn Michaels vs Undertaker (WWF Bad Blood 10/05/97) I've always thought Eddy vs Rey from Havoc was a great match, but I've never quite understood the praise at the level it normally gets. We'll see if rewatching changes that. If I had to pick what might upset the apple cart here, I'd say it will probably be matches from RINGS and maybe BattlARTS or Michinoku Pro. I'd expect Bret Hart and Steve Austin to deliver the best interviews and promos. The biggest wild card is New Japan. I really don't know what to expect there overall. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goodhelmet Posted July 20, 2013 Report Share Posted July 20, 2013 I think it is dangerous to start placing matches in tiers before you see them. However, I trust you to go in to all matches with a positive outlook. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loss Posted July 20, 2013 Author Report Share Posted July 20, 2013 I do this every single time. I just usually don't post it. This is admittedly barely worth the screen space it takes up to read, but it's always fun to go back and see if the initial predictions were spot on or not. I thought Atlantis/Panther would be my 1991 MOTY and didn't care for that one as much as expected. Misawa/Taue was off my radar in '95 almost completely and ended up being my MOTY. I'm not married to this list by any means. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goodhelmet Posted July 20, 2013 Report Share Posted July 20, 2013 Good deal. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FLIK Posted July 20, 2013 Report Share Posted July 20, 2013 These I think will be the next level down. - Etsuko Mita & Mima Shimoda vs Kaoru Ito & Tomoko Watanabe (AJW 09/21/97) .....i'm going to predict Ito vs Toyota, the April LLPW 8 man or something from GAEA ends up as your highest ranking joshi match. 50/50 chance you don't even like the 9/21 cage match at all Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loss Posted July 20, 2013 Author Report Share Posted July 20, 2013 For anything you've seen, feel free to drop reviews in throughout the forum now. I always like reading those. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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