The Microscope

This was wrestling love at first site. I had never seen Kawada wrestle until last month when I watched Kawada/Fuchi v Nagata/Izuka. I thought that match was very good, but one guy stood out substantially to me. Kawada. I ran into Kawada again when I was doing my Stan Hansen viewing. Their match was certifiably great to me. And once again, Kawada really stood out. I decided I had to watch more of him, because he was too god damn awesome to be ignored. I've FINALLY got around to watching 3 matches. i picked these 3 because a poster in the Kawada GWE thread said that his best years were 94 to mid 95. Kawada v Misawa 4/11/94 Good match completely held down by M…

I wanted to just do the streak, but ended up doing his whole career. WINS - 308 LOSSES - 27 NC/DRAW - 18 Most of the losses were 3-Way, 4-Way matches, Battle Royals or some other type of multi-man match. If anyone is interested in the raw data, I'll be happy to send you the excel file. THE STREAK SOURCE: THEHISTORYOFWWE.COM and DDTDIGEST.COM 20 Wins - The Giant (*21 counting handicap against him and Hogan) 10 Wins - Jerry Flynn, Perry Saturn 7 Wins - Curt Hennig 6 Wins - Brad Armstrong 5 Wins - Scott Hall, Yuji Nagata 4 Wins - Fit Finlay, Glacier, Meng, Steve McMichael 3 Wins - Bobby Eaton, Hugh Morrus (*4 counting handicap…

Low Ki vs. KENTA (12/17/05) This is from ROH. Elbow and collar tie up to start. Clean break. Roundhouse kick attempt by Kenta. Crowd bust out duelling "Let's Go Kenta" and "Let's Go Low Ki" chants immediately making me hate them. Headscissors by Low Ki. Arm wrenches. Kenta into a hammerlock. Reverse knife edge by Low Ki. Several stiff kicks by Low Ki now. Kenta comes back with several of his own. Some disrespectful kicks by Kenta now. Increasingly stiff chops back and forth now. Series of elbows in the corner by Low Ki. Spinning DDT-looking thing by Kenta that ends up as a gullotine over the top rop. Lariat from the top by Ketna for a 1 count. Snapmare and a kick to …

So someone raised him as the worst wrestler ever. Let's find out. We'll keep these quick. HTM vs Bam Bam Bigelow - PTW - May 9, 1988 Lots of stalling, working the crowd. He does it with a lot of energy though.I really like the way he doesn't just leave the ring every time Bam Bam advances, but he dives out in a big way. I have a feeling a lot of his IC title matches are going to be heavily focused on being a vulnerable champ. Lots of heel in peril. It's a bit more tolerable for a mid card heel, but it might get old, no matter how passionately he dives out of the ring. I think his selling/bumping is actually pretty good, way better than I was expecting. There'…

Nakajima is my favorite Japanese wrestler to have debuted in the 2000s. He wrestles way beyond his years as he was just 18 when he debuted in 2004 and by 2005 he was winning MOTYs (w/Sasaki vs Kobashi/Go, Purotopia), In 2007, he was crafting well-laid out matches against Shuji Kondo at a level that few wrestlers ever reach. In 2008-09, he was essential to the Kensuke Office vs. Burning feud that could have culminated in the greatest series of juniors of the decade had KENTA been a bit more cooperative. Nakajima is a prodigy in every sense of the word. His basic fundamentals and commitment to sound wrestling psychology make him stand out in the decadence of the 2000s. It b…

Same deal as with Jim Breaks. Marty Jones vs. Marc Rocco (9/13/78) This was the third of the Marty Jones/Marc Rocco matches that aired on The Wrestling Channel. I've been wanting to see this for the longest time as the Rocco/Jones matches are what turned my curosity over British wrestling into a wrestling love affair that's spanned a couple of hundred matches now. This was title vs. title, Rocco's British Heavy-middleweight title vs. Jones' British Light-heavyweight title, which was a pretty rare stip as far as I'm aware. The angle was that Jones dropped down to Rocco's weight but that was all kayfabed bullshit as far as I know. Mind you, not having seen Jones' 70…

I watch TNA. May the wrestling gods be merciful. Christian vs Samoa Joe, No Surrender, 2007 I don't do star ratings but I think if I did this might hover right under 4 stars. It might even hit it. Maybe it'd make it slightly over? Okay, to hell with star ratings. Let's go with "So, this was actually pretty good," instead. The video package would have me believe there was heat, with Christian feeling that Joe cost him a title shot and Joe pissed off because Christian gave a con-chair-to to a Samoan dancer or something? Anyway, Joe came out super intense and his stuff looked great and Christian sold it like death, getting beaten around the ring and ringside area. He…

One of my favorite japanese guys of the last 7 years. He's far from perfect and I get why a lot of people aren't into his matches sometimes but I don't know, there's something about Daisuke smashing little dudes or going all Hulk on people that grabs my attention every time. Hopefully Alan4L can come here and help make his case too. Random quick reviews I've done of some of his matches. Maximum Tag League - Semi Final: Masato Tanaka & Daisuke Sekimoto vs. Yuko Miyamoto & Takashi Sasaki (BJW 4/28/09) Another great tag match in Korakuen Hall. Miyamoto gets distroyed at the begining by Daisuke and Dangan, so it's up to Takashi to level things up. Still, that…

Jackie Turpin Jr was from a famous boxing family in the UK. His father Jackie Sr was a successful featherweight boxer, his uncle Dick a former British and Commonwealth middleweight champion, and their brother Randy Turpin a household name in England after defeating Sugar Ray Robinson for the World Middleweight Championship in 1951. Jackie Jr fought 32 professional fights between 1967 and 1975 and went 24-7 with one draw. He was British Rookie of the Year in 1971 going 12-0 on the year with 11 knock outs. According to his father's autobiography, Jr didn't train hard enough and got caught up in the limelight. After a pair of bad losses, the Board of Control withdrew his…

As some of you might know, Mal Sanders is among my least favourite World of Sport workers. It's not really Sanders' fault, it's just really hard to like a genuine blue eye. But with footage drying up and Sanders having so many matches against workers I either like or want to see again, I decided to bite the bullet and get a Mal Sanders comp made. I know, I can hardly believe it either. Welp, without further ado... Mark Rocco vs. Mal Sanders (6/25/80) This was a stock performance from Rocco. He started off a little subdued and Sanders got the better of him with some flashy counters and a nice dropkick, then started with the rule bending and the inside moves. He g…

Okay, I'm starting this thread because people seem to question me everywhere online when I mention Titus as a top guy in the world in 2014. I think a lot of this stems from the general disconnect between what I think constitutes quality wrestling and the long held belief that someone is only a quality wrestler if they are on the main stage and having 20+ minute long epic matches every night. I think plenty can be found out, perhaps even more, about a wrestler in his 8 minute matches than in his epic matches. Either way, I decided to make this topic to go into why I think Titus has been great in 2014 and has developed into easily the most underrated worker in the world at …

I've read the Kamala talk in here. I enjoy some of his stuff. I don't enjoy other stuff. JvK doesn't like him so shit on him here. Let's discuss the Ugandan Giant here.

When I first started watching puro back in 2006-ish, I, much like most, was all about Misawa, Kawada and Kobashi. I have grown to love Taue and how focused he is. Everything builds to Nodowa and he may be the greatest apron worker of all time with the great teases. His 1995 is one of the best calendar years in wrestling history. However, Akiyama was just someone who never stood out from the other four. He was good, but in a serviceable type way. In watching his matches for Ditch's poll, I have grown to like his in-ring work more from a lay-out and execution perspective. He is not as focused as Taue, but he tends to be more focused than Kobashi and less get all my shit in…

I think the Bret Hart thread is steering towards Ric Flair vs. Bret Hart territory so lets split that discussion off from the Bret Hart love.

Pretty darn underated as a singles performer in the 1980s. I think the WWF had big plans for him as the Widow Maker, but then he left suddenly when I think his brother and father got arrested. By the time he got back to WWF he was pretty well past his prime. Still, he's a HOFer and deservedly so.

Whenever I go through my annual "I'm going to try and get back into WWE" phase around Wrestlemania, Randy Orton is always one of the wrestlers who eventually forces me to throw in the towel and give up hope. Why is he always at or near the top of the card? He never gets any type of pop or heat. He never has a good match. His promos are awful. His mannerisms are unintentionally comical. Nobody says, "We gotta buy tickets for the WWE show, Randy Orton is wrestling!" And nobody outside of regular WWE fans has any idea who he is. Why does Randy Orton remain near the top of the card when it appears that nobody gives a shit about him? Or do I just happen to tune in duri…

I haven't had time to listen to the new Wrestling Culture yet, but it looked like one of the talking points was about whether or not there weren't good Dustin matches from 96-97 that fell through the cracks. I'm working on a Dustin thing myself and that's a blind spot for me, so I'm going to run through a few quickly. There wasn't a general note for him so I'm making it. Goldust vs Ahmed Johnson KOTR 1996: I'm a little worried about Dustin filling up 15 minutes with Ahmed. This is for the IC belt and the issue, in part, was over Goldust giving Ahmed mouth to mouth the month before. First few minutes are well put together and all about Ahmed trying to kill Goldus…

Yumi Ikeshita vs. Mami Kumano, '79 Battle of the Black Pair with the general theme being that these girls were even nastier against each other. Kumano stood on Ikeshita's hair while putting her in a submission and Ikeshita choked her out, then they brawled all around ringside and used the house mic to maim each other. We've all seen better brawls, but this was still pretty cool. Yumi Ikeshita vs. Rimi Yokota, late 1980 This was worked as more of a Jaguar style match than a Black Pair vs. Idol match, though Ikeshita did cheat in tandem with Devil Masami, which the older fans didn't like. Ikeshita could go, so there were some nice exchanges and one nearfall that…

I've been watching some Alabama wrestling from 1982 and became a big fan of Bullet Bob. First, he's a heel which I think he only did twice in his career(here and in late 95 in Memphis during the SMW feud). He's teaming with the Flame vs Ron Fuller and Jimmy Golden. He's a different type of heel as he doesn't bash the fans but just tells the truth while smoking a cigar. Then later in the year, he turns babyface and has a feud with the Original Midnight Express(Randy Rose, Ron Starr, Norvell Austin and Honkytonk Man). Bob has to one of the best interviews ever in wrestling.Watching the SMW set, he basically carried the whole babyface side with his mic work. Of course, it ra…

Results thanks to Clawmaster http://sportsandwrestling.mywowbb.com/forum2/10387-2.html Late 72-73 12/10/72 Minneapolis, MN @ Auditorium Superstar Billy Graham beat Wahoo McDaniel dq when Wahoo hit Graham over the head with a chair Dusty Rhodes beat Don Muraco dq 10:21 Ivan Koloff beat Lani Kealoha via pin in 10:27 Ken Patera beat Rene Goulet via pin in 7:09 George Scott beat George Gadaski via pin in 12:22 Farmer Pete & Cowboy Lang beat Little Tokyo & Billy The Kid First date I have for Patera. Notable quirk is that Flair worked the tiny spot show the same day. This would launch a brief run v. Goulet in mid-cards with Patera getting what looks l…

How would you guys rate Steve Austin's performance as company ace? By this term, I am excluding the time in 2001 when he was WWF heel champ for most of the year as I strictly want to talk about his babyface run. Most people, when talking about great company aces, (this excludes drawing) talk about Shawn and Bret as great, consistent main event aces. Dylan said he might consider Cena to be the best company ace. I think Austin is unfairly shunted and excluded in these discussions. True, if the sole metric is matches, then he does not hold up as well as others. His time on top was short, and his body was broken down by them. However, analysing his performance week-to-wee…

Curt Hennig is a wrestler who is never condemned by anyone but where the consensus about his work has a lot of variance about whether he should have been a guy to carry a promotion. In that sense, I think Hennig is overrated. Meltzer argues he was one of the top 5 workers for a good three-year stretch. Bix showed that that was not the consensus in Hennig's time. I find Hennig's work to be a mixed bag of good to great stuff. One match that struck me was against Hogan at MSG in Jan. 1990. You can really see he was capable of being "great" as his work was just as dynamic as Flair's. But a lot of his work in that era was lackluster for a great worker. What does that m…

I think in the end, the best big man comes down to these two. Lets decide this PWO poll style!!!!

I searched to see if there was previously a Microscope Thread on Buzz Sawyer and didn't see it so I thought I'd go ahead and start one. I've been watching a little bit of 1983 Georgia that I came across and Buzz comes off as seriously dangerous and unhinged. I'm not sure there are too many other people in wrestling who come across as just plain DANGEROUS as Buzz during this time period, probably because it wasn't much of a work. Other than the now widely known Jim Duggan match from the Mid-South WWE DVD, are there any really good Buzz Sawyer matches to seek out? I know the Last Battle of Atlanta match with Tommy Rich is kind of the holy grail of unearthed (most likely…

Does anyone actually like Piper after his big heel run? If so, why? Honestly, my whole life, I've just found him to be a massive irritant whether on commentary, doing stupid coked up promos, or doing whatever he does in the ring. So if you're a big Piper fan, talk me round.