Rewatching and first time viewing

[Loss]

New matches in blue. Will continue editing throughout the set.

 

January:

Shinjiro Otani vs Yoshihiro Taijiri (NJPW Tokyo Dome 01/04/97)

Riki Choshu vs Shinya Hashimoto (NJPW Tokyo Dome 01/04/97)

Steve Austin vs Shawn Michaels (WWF Stockton, CA 01/04/97)

Eagle Sawai, Michiko Nagashima & Miss Mongol vs Michiko Omukai, Mitzuk Endo & Rumi Kazama (LLPW 01/05/97)

Megumi Kudo vs Shinobu Kandori (LLPW 01/05/97)

Owen Hart vs Mankind (WWF Monday Night RAW 01/06/97)

Cicloncito Ramirez vs Damiancito El Guerrero (CMLL 01/07/97)

Shawn Michaels vs Mankind (WWF Anaheim, CA 01/11/97)

Sonoko Kato & Meiko Satomura vs Chihiro Nakano & Makie Numao (GAEA 01/12/97)

Eddy Guerrero vs Dean Malenko (WCW Monday Nitro 01/13/97)

Dick Togo, Mens Teoh & Shiryu vs Great Sasuke, Super Delphin & Gran Hamada (Michinoku Pro 01/14/97)

Reckless Youth vs Don Montoya (GLW 01/17/97)

Mitsuharu Misawa vs Kenta Kobashi (AJPW 01/20/97)

Manami Toyota & Mima Shimoda vs Tomoko Watanabe & Kumiko Maekawa (AJW 01/20/97)

Aja Kong vs Kaoru Ito (AJW 01/20/97)

Kyoko Inoue vs Takako Inoue (AJW 01/20/97)

Jushin Liger & El Samurai vs Shinjiro Otani & Koji Kanemoto (NJPW 01/20/97)

Daisuke Ikeda & Katsumi Usuda vs Yuki Ishikawa & Takeshi Ono (BattlARTS 01/21/97)

Lex Luger s Scott Hall (WCW Clash of the Champions XXXIV 01/21/97)

Volk Han vs Kiyoshi Tamura (RINGS 01/22/97)

 

February:

Shinjiro Otani, Tatsuhito Takaiwa & Koji Kanemoto vs Jushin Liger, Norio Honaga & El Samurai (NJPW 02/02/97)

El Hijo del Santo & Bestia Salvaje vs Negro Casas & Super Astro (CMLL Japan 02/02/97)

Jushin Liger & El Samurai vs Koji Kanemoto & Shinjiro Otani (NJPW 02/08/97)

Devil Masami & Hikari Fukuoka vs Mayumi Ozaki & Reiko Amano (JWP 02/09/97)

Jushin Liger vs Shinjiro Otani (NJPW 02/09/97)

Daisuke Ikeda vs Carl Greco (BattlARTS 02/20/97)

Konnan, La Parka & Villano IV vs Juventud Guerrera, Super Calo & Ciclope (WCW SuperBrawl VII 02/23/97)

Rey Misterio Jr vs Juventud Guerrera (WCW Monday Nitro 02/24/97)

Ultimo Dragon vs Dean Malenko (WCW Monday Nitro 02/24/97)

 

March:

Mitsuharu Misawa vs Steve Williams (AJPW 03/01/97)

Owen Hart vs Davey Boy Smith (WWF Monday Night RAW 03/03/97)

Jushin Liger, El Samurai & Wild Pegasus vs Koji Kanemoto, Shinjiro Otani & Tatsuhito Takaiwa (NJPW 03/05/97)

Akira Maeda vs Kiyoshi Tamura (RINGS 03/08/97)

Yuki Ishikawa & Naohiro Ishikawa vs Daisuke Ikeda & Shoichi Funaki (BattlARTS 03/13/97)

Ricky Morton vs Tommy Rich (Gilbert Memorial 03/13/97)

Megumi Kudo vs Shinobu Kandori (FMW 03/14/97)

Ultimo Dragoncito & Cicloncito Ramirez vs Damiancito El Guerrero & Pierrotito (CMLL 03/14/97)

Akira Hokuto & Sonoko Kato vs Kaoru & Meiko Satomura (GAEA 03/15/97)

Bison Kimura & Alda Moreno vs Lioness Asuka & Ryuna (Jd' 03/15/97)

Taka Michinoku, Mens Teoh, Masayoshi Motegi, Dick Togo & Shoichi Funaki vs Great Sasuke, Super Delphin, Gran Naniwa, Gran Hamada & Masato Yakushiji (Michinoku Pro 03/16/97)

El Hijo del Santo, Shocker, El Texano, Mr. Niebla, La Fiera, Dr. Wagner Jr. & Mascara Magica vs Negro Casas, Black Warrior, Felino, Mano Negra, El Dandy, Scorpio Jr. & Silver King (CMLL 03/18/97)

Manami Toyota vs Kaoru Ito (AJW Queendom 03/23/97)

Bret Hart vs Steve Austin (WWF Wrestlemania XIII 03/23/97)

Akira Taue vs Jun Akiyama (AJPW Championship Carnival 03/29/97)

Kenta Kobashi vs Jun Akiyama (AJPW Championship Carnival 03/30/97)

Mitsuharu Misawa vs Toshiaki Kawada (AJPW Championship Carnival 03/30/97)

 

April:

Yoshihisa Yammamoto vs Tsuyoshi Kohsaka (RINGS 04/04/97)

Rey Misterio Jr vs Ultimo Dragon (WCW Spring Stampede 04/06/97)

Megumi Kudo, Shinobu Kandori, Michiko Omukai & Kaori Nakayama vs Shark Tsuchiya, Eagle Sawai, Sayori Okino & Miss Mongol (LLPW 04/07/97)

Dynamite Kansai vs Hikari Fukuoka (JWP 04/08/97)

Mayumi Ozaki & Rieko Amano vs Megumi Kudo & RIE (JWP 04/12/97)

Yuki Ishikawa vs Daisuke Ikeda (BattlARTS 04/15/97)

Megumi Kudo vs Mayumi Ozaki (FMW 04/18/97)

El Hijo del Santo, Felino, Black Warrior, Silver King, Dr. Wagner Jr., Satanico, Kevin Quinn & Scorpio Jr. vs Ultimo Dragon, Atlantis, Negro Casas, El Dandy, Shocker, Mascara Magica, La Fiera & Brazo de Oro (CMLL 04/18/97)

Toshiaki Kawada vs Kenta Kobashi (AJPW 04/19/97)

Lioness Asuka vs Bison Kimura (Jd' 04/20/97)

Bret Hart vs Steve Austin (WWF Revenge of the Taker 04/20/97)

Juventud Guerrera vs Syxx (WCW Monday Nitro 04/28/97)

 

May:

Shinjiro Otani, Koji Kanemoto, Mens Teoh, Dick Togo & Hanzo Nakajima vs Great Sasuke, Super Delphin, El Samurai, Norio Honaga & Gran Hamada (NJPW 05/03/97)

Hayabusa, Ricky Fuji & Ricky Morton vs Mike Awesome, Hisakatsu Oya & Mr. Gannosuke (FMW 05/13/97)

Toshiaki Kawada, Akira Taue & Takao Omori vs Kenta Kobashi, Johnny Ace & The Patriot (AJPW 05/18/97)

Koji Kanemoto vs Tatsuhito Takaiwa (NJPW 05/20/97)

Kiyoshi Tamura vs Nikolai Zouev (RINGS 05/21/97)

Toshiyo Yamada, Sonoko Kato & Meiko Satomura vs Akira Hokuto, Toshie Uematsu & Maiko Matsumoto (GAEA 05/25/97)

Chigusa Nagayo vs Kaoru (GAEA 05/25/97)

Koji Kanemoto vs Gran Naniwa (NJPW 05/25/97)

Mitsuharu Misawa vs Jun Akiyama (AJPW 05/27/97)

Mitsuharu Misawa, Kenta Kobashi & Kentaro Shiga vs Steve Williams, Richard Slinger & The Lacrosse (05/31/97)

[FLIK]

Manami Toyota & Mima Shimoda vs Tomoko Watanabe & Kumiko Maekawa (AJW 01/20/97)

 

There's others but just off the top of my head this & JWP 4/12/1997 (Street Fight) Mayumi Ozaki & Rieko Amano vs Megumi Kudo & RIE are the 2 biggest joshi matches missing from the set. JWP tag match is prob Kudo's 2nd best match all year.

[alexoblivion]

Im confused, some of these matches don't appear to be on the set.

[Loss]

That's the point. New matches in blue. This is a "to-do" list.

[alexoblivion]

Ah, I see. Strangely enough I interpreted it as a list of matches from the current set that you had not previously seen or were re watching.

[Loss]

I'll rewatch anything I rated 4* or better, or anything where other people think I really missed the boat. In addition to that, as other matches are mentioned throughout the yearbook threads, I'll add them to this. I have this in place for every year, and I'll start with 1990 when I finish watching the 1999 Yearbook.

[Gregor]

With 1997 being a banner year for Eddy Guerrero, I figured that I'd toss these out:

 

Eddy Guerrero vs. Dean Malenko (9/18/97, handheld)

Nothing like their stuff from 1995. This might be the best showcase of what Guerrero brought to the table at this point. He gets huge heat for his typical heel spots at the start, and when he's in control he has some good, unique legwork that keeps the crowd into it for the most part. There is a short "boring" chant from a couple of guys. Even if I'm overrating this match (I'd call it borderline great), it's worth seeing just to witness the way Guerrero riled up the crowd and got them behind Malenko.

 

Eddy Guerrero vs. Rey Misterio Jr. (11/23/97, World War 3)

This is more interesting than good. They try a lot of creative stuff - some of it's good, some of it's botched, and some of it's executed well but isn't really a good spot (I'm thinking of one where they switch places on a superplex attempt). In a way, it makes their match at Halloween Havoc even more impressive, as there they hit everything perfectly and made nothing but good decisions. Here, the crowd is really hot at the start and gets quieter as the match goes on. They don't reuse anything from Halloween Havoc, which is a testament to them even if it might have backfired a little. If nothing else, you can see how hard these guys worked and how much they wanted to put on a good match. I think that's something worth watching - the match that results when two talented guys can't drag a classic out of themselves.

[Gregor]

Hollywood Hogan vs. Jacques Rougeau press conference

It's kind of strange to see a press conference for a house show match that was never mentioned on WCW TV, but this happened and it was terrific. As far as I can tell, the issue here is that people (possibly just Carl Ouelett) are calling Rougeau the Hulk Hogan of Canada, which Hogan of course can't stomach. Hogan is nothing like his typical 1997 self here. He's more heel Hulk than Hollywood, if that makes any sense; he actually reminds me of Bret Hart in the build to WrestleMania XII. It's interesting to see a more serious and less cartoonish, less blustery side of him, and he's just as good as he is doing Nitro promos. Rougeau is good, too. He has a sort of standard face response for this sort of thing, but he gets in some good lines and Hogan does a great job selling them (my favorite is when Rougeau talks about how Hogan no longer looks people in the eye like a man, and then the next time the camera cuts to Hogan he's taken his sunglasses off, clearly affected by that remark).

 

I've seen the full match but don't really remember it. The last few minutes are on YouTube, and they're okay, but the crowd isn't good and they do my least favorite finish of all time (one guy gets cocky and picks up the other when he could pin him, the other guy gets a cradle to win, and they both look bad), so I wouldn't really recommend it. The press conference is awesome, though. Given that Hogan was carrying WCW on the microphone for much of 1997, I probably can't say that his best promo all year wasn't televised and was for a match that wasn't televised either, but I liked this a lot.

[ohtani's jacket]

Dick Togo, Mens Teoh & Shiryu vs Great Sasuke, Super Delphin & Gran Hamada (Michinoku Pro 01/14/97)

 

This was disappointing. Too much shitty crowd brawling. There are some good Shiryu vs. Sasuke exchanges throughout and the stretch run delivers some high octane stuff, but overall it's a massive step down from the multi man tags to end '96.

[ohtani's jacket]

Manami Toyota & Mima Shimoda vs Tomoko Watanabe & Kumiko Maekawa (AJW 01/20/97)

 

This style of Joshi tag wrestling is not something I'm really into at the moment, but if you can get into the narrative of the underdog team of Watanabe and Maekawa pulling off the upset against Shimoda and Toyota you might enjoy it on a different level from the classic Joshi tag style. The first two falls are short with the third fall making up the bulk of the match. They go quite deep into their movesets without being overly repetitive and it's certainly competitive. If I had the inclination to watch it again, I could probably figure out how Toyota and Shimoda lost. I don't really feel like watching it again, but I'm sure that narrative is in there somehow. Worth watching for the upset at any rate.

[ohtani's jacket]

Watched the 6/17 LCO vs. Toyota & Yamada tag. Not an essential bout, but it's something seeing the once great Toyota and Yamada team jobbed to LCO complete with Toyota bladejob.