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1999 MOTY List


tim

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Will update ongoing, probably after each month, just adding matches that struck me as particular MOTYCs.

 

Year completed:

 

  1. Kiyoshi Tamura vs. Yoshihisa Yammamoto (RINGS 6/24/99)
  2. El Samurai vs. Shinjiro Otani (NJPW 6/3/99)
  3. El Hijo del Santo & Negro Casas vs. Bestia Salvaje & Scorpio Jr. (Hair vs. Mask) (CMLL 3/19/99)
  4. Jushin Liger & Dr. Wagner Jr. vs. Shinjiro Otani & Koji Kanemoto (NJPW 3/6/99)
  5. Hayabusa & Jinsei Shinzaki vs. Tamon Honda & Jun Izumida (AJPW 1/16/99)
  6. Kenta Kobashi & Jun Akiyama vs Stan Hansen & Akira Taue (AJPW 12/03/99)
  7. Daisuke Ikeda & Mohammed Yone vs. Alexander Otsuka & Yuki Ishikawa (BattlARTS 1/12/99)
  8. Etsuko Mita & Mima Shimoda vs AKINO & Ayako Hamada (ARSION 12/11/99)
  9. Yuki Ishikawa vs Daisuke Ikeda (BattlARTS 08/29/99)
  10. Shinjiro Otani & Tatsuhito Takaiwa vs Koji Kanemoto & Minoru Tanaka (NJPW 10/11/99)
  11. Mitsuharu Misawa vs. Toshiaki Kawada (AJPW 1/22/99)
  12. Tsuyoshi Kohsaka vs. Yoshihisa Yammamoto (RINGS 5/22/99)
  13. Sting vs. Diamond Dallas Page (Nitro 4/26/99)
  14. Alexander Otsuka vs Mitsuhiro Matsunaga (BattlARTS 11/09/99)
  15. Atlantis, Emilio Charles Jr & Felino vs. Black Warrior, Blue Panther & Dr. Wagner Jr. (CMLL 1/22/99)
  16. Daisuke Ikeda vs. Alexander Otsuka (BattlARTS 4/26/99)
  17. Taka Michinoku vs Minoru Tanaka (BattlARTS 10/17/99)
  18. Hardy Boyz vs. Serial Thrillaz (OMEGA 1/29/99)
  19. Atsushi Onita, Shigeo Okamura, Sambo Asako & Mitsunobo Kikuzawa vs. Tenryu, Shoji Nakamaki, Ichiro Yaguchi & Hiroshi Ono (No Rope Barbed Wire Street Fight Double Hell Death Match) (Onita Pro 6/27/99)
  20. Yuki Ishikawa & Mohammed Yone vs Daisuke Ikeda & Kazunari Murakami (BattlARTS 11/09/99)
  21. Mitsuharu Misawa vs. Toshiaki Kawada (AJPW 7/22/99)
  22. Mitsuharu Misawa vs. Kenta Kobashi (AJPW 6/11/99)
  23. Mariko Yoshida vs. Hiromi Yagi (ARSION 2/18/99)
  24. Yoshinari Ogawa vs. Masahito Kakihara (AJPW 1/15/99)
  25. Kenta Kobashi & Jun Akiyama vs Yoshihiro Takayama & Takao Omori (AJPW 10/30/99)
  26. Aja Kong vs Meiko Satomura (GAEA 09/15/99)
  27. Katsumi Usuda & Carl Malenko vs Yuki Ishikawa & Masaaki Mochizuki (BattlARTS 12/05/99)
  28. Vader vs Mitsuharu Misawa (AJPW 10/30/99)
  29. Mitsuharu Misawa & Yoshinari Ogawa vs. Kenta Kobashi & Jun Akiyama (AJPW 3/6/99)
  30. Jerry Lynn vs Yoshihiro Taijiri (ECW TV 10/30/99)
  31. Mitsuharu Misawa & Akira Taue vs. Kenta Kobashi & Toshiaki Kawada (AJPW 6/4/99)
  32. Alexander Otsuka & Mohammed Yone vs. Yuki Ishikawa & Carl Greco (BattlARTS 3/12/99)
  33. Bubba Ray & D-Von Dudley vs. Balls Mahoney & Spike Dudley (ECW 6/17/99)
  34. Yuki Ishikawa & Daisuke Ikeda vs. Joe Malenko & Carl Malenko (BattlARTS 6/9/99)
  35. Yoshihiro Tajiri vs. Little Guido (Hardcore Heaven 5/16/99)
  36. Genichiro Tenryu, Nobutaka Araya & Shoji Nakamaki vs. Atsushi Onita, Sambo Asako & Shigeo Okamura (Street Fight Tornado Death Match) (WAR 6/20/99)
  37. Genichiro Tenryu vs. Keiji Muto (NJPW 5/3/99)
  38. Super Delphin, Masaru Seno & Masato Yakushiji vs. Violencia, Black Buffalo & Dick Togo (Osaka Pro 5/4/99)
  39. Meiko Satomura & Sonoko Kato vs. Aja Kong & Mayumi Ozaki (GAEA 4/4/99)
  40. Hayabusa, Masato Tanaka & Tetsuhiro Kuroda vs. Mr. Gannosuke, Yukihiro Kanemura & Hido (FMW 6/15/99)
  41. Great Sasuke vs Magnum Tokyo (Toryumon 2/7/99)
  42. Tomoaki Honma & Ryuji Yamakwa vs Shadow WX & The Winger (BJPW 11/08/99)
  43. Satanico, Zumbido, Valentin Mayo, Virus & Rencor Latino vs. Starman, Astro Rey Jr., El Oriental, Tigre Blanco & Mr. Aguila (CMLL 7/18/99)
  44. Jushin Liger, Dr. Wagner Jr. & El Samurai vs. Shinjiro Otani, Koji Kanemoto & Kendo Ka Shin (NJPW 7/20/99)
  45. Vader vs. Mitsuharu Misawa (AJPW 5/2/99)
  46. Kenta Kobashi vs. Jun Akiyama (AJPW 4/4/99)
  47. Yuki Ishikawa vs. Daisuke Ikeda (BattlARTS 7/29/99)
  48. Hayabusa & Jinsei Shinzaki vs. Masato Tanaka & Tetsuhiro Kuroda (FMW 3/19/99)
  49. Ryuji Yamakawa vs. Tomoaki Honma (Death Match) (BJPW 6/20/99)
  50. Mike Awesome vs Masato Tanaka (ECW on TNN 12/31/99)
  51. El Hijo Del Santo & Negro Casas vs. Bestia Salvaje & Scorpio Jr. (CMLL 2/26/99)
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1999 done! It has the reputation as one of the worst in ring years that we have extensive footage for but really it's a hell of a year. That top 20 I think is very strong, the top 10 has some real classics and the MOTY is something that would probably be in my top 20 matches of all time. Lots of variety in terms of promotions and styles putting out great stuff -- in fact, maybe what gets 1999 its bad rep is the fact that there's not really a dominant "scene." The glory days of 1990s AJPW are clearly over, the NJPW juniors isn't as hot a scene as it was earlier in the decade, shoot style is a very minor player, the best days of Joshi are clearly behind us ring work in WWF is in the garbage and WCW is falling apart, there are some indie promotions doing great stuff but they're not too prominent. The US indie boom hasn't taken hold yet and so for smart fans following US wrestling, ECW isn't lighting the world on fire despite its new national TV platform and of the top two promotions one is stunningly financially successful but critically (in terms of ring work) at an all-time low and WCW is falling apart and with the arrival of Russo clearly turning its back on having strong ring work also. It's easy to understand the pessimism coming from fans looking for great wrestling. With the internet taking off, "smark" culture really starting to take shape and tape trading surely growing at huge rates, I can imagine that a lot of fans picking up the classic 'smark' gateway stuff like NJ juniors and mid-90s AJPW are feeling like they're coming in at the wrong end of some amazing pro wrestling scenes of the 90s.

 

But although some of the major scenes are declining or clearly have declined, there was still great wrestling coming out from all over if you looked close, and it's a great thing that this project looked close and got it all together. It was a hell of a year for matches, very possibly in the top half of the 1990s years, and the boom in the US made following week to week stuff very interesting. Great project and big thanks to Loss and goodhelmet for the work to put it out.

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Nice Top 50 (+) list Tim. I keep hoping more people will put these out after watching the Yearbooks. Keeping track of the better matches enriches the experience by making you more focused whilst viewing. It's also great for looking back at down the line when things might otherwise become forgotten. Pretty much all the matches I really liked from '99 do well on your list. It's funny how a match I can't recall hearing about in 15 years seems to have become a consensus MOTY here. Your tastes seem to be more Junior centric than a number of the regulars in these threads.

 

1999 is definitely an underrated year. '98 and '99 tend to get grouped together and I think that's fair. The match output between these years is remarkably similar. There isn't a whole lot of difference when compared with 1990 either. Taking 1999 away from a strictly 90's context makes it even better. It was a year where you can find good to great stuff in a huge range of styles. Apart from the WWF that is, which had it's worst in ring year ever. I was wondering if I missed something and then saw Loss had his highest ranked entry from them at #88. With the horrors of WCW booking and the gradual decline of Puroresu as well, general impressions tended to be unduly negative.

 

Do you have plans to do this for any of the other Yearbooks?

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