Badlittlekitten Posted January 25, 2014 Report Share Posted January 25, 2014 Just dumped a load of stuff into my list. Haven't got much to say about them right now except: I LOVE the Midnight Express. Always guarantee you something that's at least exciting, fun and often classic. The redneck kung-fu stand off between Lane and Tracy Smothers is one of my favourite moments in wrestling history. They were such a valuable act, especially when WCW went to shit during 1990. Miraculously, Mike Rotunda appears on the list. I have a soft spot for Rick Steiner's mentally challenged rough house act and him beating Rotunda for the TV title was a genuine feel good moment. Jimmy Garvin bores me as much as Rotunda but Flair pulled a wonder out of him (anyone know the date for the 87 cage match?). Flair has just jumped ship in my WCW viewing. Will miss him greatly. Rick Rude's just shown up . . I've hit a roadblock in my All Japan watching. I got up to 1995 and had to give it a break. The matches are tremendous if you're in the right mood but I'm fed up of watching the same bunch of inexpressive guys going at it over and over. Jaguar Yokota really was something special. I used to be fond of the wacky 80s AJW booking style. Still am for the most part. But you see Yokota, Masami and Yumi Ikeshita robbed of potentially great matches and it can grate. -ADDED Nancy Kumi vs Yumi Ikeshita (AJW ?/?/79) Jackie Sato vs Jaguar Yokota (AJW 12/16/80) Mimi Hagiwara , Jaguar Yokota & Jackie Sato vs Yumi Ikeshita, Mami Kumano & Leilani Kai [2/3 Falls] (AJW 1/4/81) JYD vs Nick Bockwinkle & Bobby Heenan (Mid South 11/6/82) Ric Flair vs Jimmy Garvin (Cage NWA GAB Tour 1987) Midnight Express vs The Fantastics (NWA GAB 07/10/88) Ric Flair vs Lex Luger (NWA GAB 07/10/88) Ric Flair vs Hawk (NWA 01/24/88) Midnight Express vs Randy Rose & Dennis Condrey (NWA 12/26/88 Starrcade) Rick Steiner vs Mike Rotunda (NWA 12/26/88 Starrcade) Jerry Lawler & Bill Dundee vs King Carl, Don Bass & Black Prince (Memphis, Evansville Dressing Room Brawl ?/?/88) Midnight Express Vs The Southern Boys(NWA 10/27/90) Midnight Express vs Brian Pillman & Z Man (NWA 05/19/90) Ron Simmons & Butch Reed vs Arn Andrson & Barry Windham (12/16/90 Starrcade) Arn Anderson vs Brian Pillman (NWA 7/8/90) Ric Flair vs Scott Steiner (WCW Clash of the Champions XIV 01/30/91) Vader vs Stan Hansen (WCW Wrestle War 02/24/91) Ric Flair, Barry Windham, Larry Zbyszko & Sid Vicious vs Sting, Brian Pillman, Rick & Scott Steiner (WCW Wrestle War 02/24/91) Ric Flair vs Brian Pillman (WCW Saturday Night 04/13/91) Barry Windham vs Brian Pillman (WCW SuperBrawl I 05/19/91) Sting & Lex Luger vs Rick & Scott Steiner (WCW SuperBrawl I 05/19/91) Arn Anderson vs Bobby Eaton (WCW SuperBrawl I 05/19/91) Lex Luger vs Ron Simmons (WCW Halloween Havoc 10/27/91) Steve Austin vs Dustin Rhodes (WCW Halloween Havoc 10/27/91) Bobby Eaton vs Terrance Taylor (WCW Halloween Havoc 10/27/91) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Badlittlekitten Posted February 22, 2014 Report Share Posted February 22, 2014 Will say something more later. 92 was an awesome wrestling year wasn't it? Sting/Vader is my favourite pairing in all wrestling ever. Fujinami was AMAZING. I'm still in a weird place with my All Japan watching - there's moments of complete brilliance but it's usually a chore to get there. The quality of the promotion has been slowly declining since 1993 and there's things creeping into the style that are beginning to bug me. Super Sexy Stuff = BOLD. MOTY = BOLD RED. ADDED Harley Race vs. Barry Windham (CWF 07/04/83) Ric Flair vs. Barry Windham ( NWA World Wide Wrestling 01/13/87) Barry Windham & Ron Garvin vs. Dick Murdoch & Ivan Koloff (NWA World Championship Wrestling 03/14/87) Jaguar Yokota vs Wendi Richter (AJW 10/05/82) Lioness Asuka vs Chigusa Nagayo (AJW 01/04/83) Jaguar Yokota vs La Galactica (AJW 07/17/83) Mimi Hagiwara vs Chigusa Nagayo (AJW (9/?/83) Yumi Ogura & Kazue Nagahori vs Chigusa Nagayo & Lioness Asuka (AJW 02/87) Lioness Asuka vs Yumiko Hotta (AJW 03/26/95) Jaguar Yokota vs Bison Kimura (JD 07/30/96) Jaguar Yokota vs Chapparita ASARI (NEO 02/15/98) Tatsumi Fujinami vs Dynamite Kid (NJPW 02/05/80) Gran Hamada vs. Babyface (4/3/80) Antonio Inoki vs. Stan Hansen (4/3/80) Antonio Inoki vs Stan Hansen (NJPW 2/8/80) Tatsumi Fujinami vs Tony Rocco (NJPW 09/11/80) Tatsumi Fujinami vs Tony Londos (NJPW 09/19/80) Tatsumi Fujinami vs Kengo Kimura (NJPW 09/25/80) Barry Windham & Dustin Rhodes vs Steve Austin & Larry Zbyszko (WCW SuperBrawl II 02/29/92) Jushin Liger vs Brian Pillman (WCW SuperBrawl II 02/29/92) Rick Rude vs Ricky Steamboat (WCW SuperBrawl II 02/29/92) Lex Luger vs Sting (WCW SuperBrawl II 02/29/92) Rick Rude, Steve Austin & Arn Anderson vs Ricky Steamboat, Barry Windham & Dustin Rhodes (WCW Pro 04/04/92) Sting, Ricky Steamboat, Barry Windham, Dustin Rhodes & Nikita Koloff vs Rick Rude, Steve Austin, Arn Anderson, Bobby Eaton & Larry Zbyszko (WCW Wrestle War 05/17/92) Rick & Scott Steiner vs Tatsumi Fujinami & Tayayuki Iizuka (WCW Wrestle War 05/17/92) Brian Pillman vs Tom Zenk (WCW Wrestle War 05/17/92) Rick & Scott Steiner vs Steve Williams & Terry Gordy (WCW Clash of the Champions XIX 06/16/92) Rick Rude vs Ricky Steamboat (WCW Beach Blast 06/20/92) Sting vs Cactus Jack (WCW Beach Blast 06/20/92) Vader vs Sting (WCW Great American Bash 07/12/92) Jushin Liger & Brian Pillman vs Ricky Steamboat & Nikita Koloff (WCW Great American Bash 07/12/92) Vader vs Sting (WCW Starrcade 12/28/92) Sting, Dustin Rhodes, Barry Windham & Ricky Steamboat vs Rick Rude, Arn Anderson, Larry Zbyszko & Bobby Eaton (WCW Saturday Night 02/22/92) Barry Windham & Dustin Rhodes vs Steve Williams & Terry Gordy (WCW Saturday Night 10/03/92) Mitsuharu Misawa & Kenta Kobashi vs Toshiaki Kawada & Akira Taue (AJPW 01/24/95) Kenta Kobashi vs Akira Taue (AJPW 03/21/95) Toshiaki Kawada vs Akira Taue (AJPW Championship Carnival 04/08/95) Mitsuharu Misawa vs Akira Taue (AJPW Championship Carnival 04/15/95) Mitsuharu Misawa & Kenta Kobashi vs Toshiaki Kawada & Akira Taue (AJPW 06/09/95) Kenta Kobashi vs Akira Taue (AJPW 07/24/95) Rey Mysterio vs Kurt Angle (WWE 23/1/03) Bray Wyatt v. Daniel Bryan - Royal Rumble 1/26 Daniel Bryan vs. Randy Orton - (WWE 2/3/14) Cesaro vs. John Cena -(WWE 2/17/14) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dawho5 Posted February 22, 2014 Report Share Posted February 22, 2014 I haven't fully embraced Misawa quite yet. He's obviously a great worker and his offence is off the charts but he's just not connecting. Kobashi draws me in with his selling and expressiveness, Kawada can sell the leg like no other and has that aura of violence about him. Misawa is more someone that I admire than truly like, for now, and I don't think he's as good at working from underneath as them two. Misawa in 94 was The Man in AJPW and had been for at least a year and a half. Watch Misawa vs. Jumbo from 90 to see him working from underneath in a big way. Kawada's violent nature, as well as Kobashi's overdramatic style, are (to me, anyway) very much because of Misawa. When they started getting more attention, they were always in Misawa's shadow. ITo me, it's partially their need for a hook to not just be a subpar variation on Misawa and partially an expression of their wrestling personas in reaction to Misawa always being one (at least) up on them. Kawada would do anything and everything to overtake Misawa. There was no obstacle he wouldn't go through to surpass his rival, which from what I've read led to darker aspects of his character coming out later. Kobashi was the fiery, never-say-die alternative to Misawa's always calm, never-say-die ace persona. It didn't hurt that he milked every bit of drama he could out of pretty much everything. There's a reason that Kobashi and Kawada were better at working from underneath than Misawa, they had to do a lot more of it. Personally I think his offense is one of the reasons he works from below so well. I love Misawa's offense and how pared down it could be for large portions of the match. Jumbo put over Misawa's elbows huge. Then when Misawa beat Hansen by effectively KOing him with an elbow in 92 for the Triple Crown, the elbow was pretty well lethal. So for big parts of the match, he will just be hitting elbows in between his opponent's offense and be seen as doing pretty good damage. Then when he gets to his bursts of offense, the other guy isn't unrealistically worn down for them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Badlittlekitten Posted February 22, 2014 Report Share Posted February 22, 2014 Misawa is tremendous, no doubt,, but I just don't care about him. I think that's generally my problem with 90s All Japan. There are times when it's firing on all cylinders and delivers exceptional matches . . but I'll forget about them ten minutes later. I can't quite connect with the 'four'. I miss Baba and Funk and Choshu and Killer Khan. It's like the opposite to 80s WWF and AJW. Them promotions are full of crap and silliness but they involve a bunch of folk I enjoy watching and have an emotional connection to. I need to watch more New Japan. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dawho5 Posted February 22, 2014 Report Share Posted February 22, 2014 Funny, I have a similar reaction to a lot of New Japan heavyweights. I know that for the style they wrestle they are putting on very good to exceptional matches, yet I can't bring myself to care overmuch. That's part of what got me thinking that New Japan wrestling style just isn't for me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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