The Microscope

One of the projects I have always wanted to work on was a Giant Baba comp. I have never seen a wrestler, save for Bob Backlund, that has polarized wrestling fans so much. So, what do you think of this guy? How much have you seen from him? On a positive note, he has been in some of the best matches I have ever seen. His work with Destroyer, Robinson, Race, Hansen and Jumbo are all excellent. On the other hand, people will look to his weak strikes and awkward demeanor and that prohibits them from taking him seriously. What side of the fence are you on?

So one of the best decisions I've made in 2019 so far is getting a James Mason comp. Mason is the greatest wrestler to come out of europe in the last 25 years. Flashy graceful worker with enough substance to keep you entertained and has a long career of looking good on tape. So with that being said, let's get WATCHING!! James Mason, Johnny South & Ulf Hermann vs. Dale Preston, Dave Taylor & PN News (Caernarfon, taped 27/2/1995) RESLO TV WAS STILL AROUND IN 1995??? And WOW based on this I want to see all the 1995 Reslo TV. This was a blast in all the unexpected ways. You have Johnny South as a Fake Road Warrior, Ulf Hermann as a mix between Fake Ul…

We have our Funk threads and multiple Flair threads. I felt that Lawler needed a thread. This one is for the Memphis fans. Actually, it is to help me make sure I leave no stone unturned on the upcoming Lawler Mega Set. First, I want to start with Lawler's greatest strength ... having compelling feuds that sometimes last years, sometimes decades. These were the great Lawler feuds I came up with. Jerry Lawler vs. Jimmy Hart – 1980-84 Jerry Lawler vs. Bill Dundee - 1970s – 2000s Jerry Lawler vs. Terry Funk – 1981, early 1990s Jerry Lawler vs. Dutch Mantel – 1982 Jerry Lawler vs. Nick Bockwinkel – 1982 Jerry Lawler…

Does anyone have any recommendations for 2004-2010 joshi puroresu? The reason I'm asking this is because 2004-2010 seems to be kinda like the "dark ages" of joshi puroresu. It's an era nobody really talks about (when it comes to joshi puroresu), as far as I know. ARSION was gone and STARDOM had not started yet. It's also the era where I didn't really pay much attention to current pro wrestling in general (so maybe that's partially the reason why I'm not too familiar with those years). Any particular workers/matches/shows/promotions that stand out during these years? Ideally, I'd like to learn more about the best workers, matches, shows and promotions of eac…

Capture International is a shootstyle org founded by Koki Kitahara in 1997 and it's even weirder than Kitao Pro. They wrestle on a mat with a barricade around and you can actually grab the barricade to break a submission. They have 2 out of 3 falls matches and some kind of point system which apparently punishes tag partners when they run in to break a submission. It's roster is a pretty random mix of indy undercarers and martial artists. It's roughly 9000% japanese pro wrestling and produces some really violent and entertaining matches. There is not much footage of this... a total of 3 TV episodes and 2 old videos on Kitaharas YouTube channel. Maybe if I talk about i…

I decided this would be an interesting topic. I picked a handful of random wrestlers, what would you say their best year was, and why? Heres the list: Rick Rude Hulk Hogan Jake Roberts Stan Hansen Rey Mysterio Jr. Scott Steiner

I had a similar path with both guys. Didn't think much of them because most of my exposure to them was after they had lost a step and were in the WWF. I later go into WCCW, Mid-South and Memphis and saw younger, more agile versions of both guys. I tend to think One Man Gang was better in the ring and Bundy was a better promo.

I am not asking this question to troll my Canadian associates but I think this is a more worthy comparison than Flair-Bret (which isn't really close in my mind). For Hennig, you have a lackluster WWF run but when you take his Portland and AWA stuff into account, his high end stuff matches the high end Bret stuff. For Bret, you have the strong workrate run from 1992-1997 with several classics but the rest of his career feels bleh to me. His WCW run was ho-hum. I have no love for the Hart Foundation as a tag team so this comparison feels a lot closer to me than it might for others. Bret or Perfect?

Since there's been a trend of doing these comparison thread, I figured I'd ask another tough one. I'm interested to see how you people would rank these guys in comparison to each other? How would you rank their peaks in the 90's? Their pre peaks from before 1990? Their post peak work from in the new mellenium? Ranking these guys is proving very tricky for me in my GWE drafts.

Projects motivate me and I've been looking to take somebody totally random and do a deep dive on them to find. . . something. Mostly, just to give me something to pursue and I think it'll be fun. Typhoon popped into my mind as he so often does and so here comes a retrospective on the run of Typhoon in the WWF. Natural Disasters vs. Bill Sampson and Bob Abbott (6/29/91) This is on Superstars and it's right after Typhoon turned on the Bushwhackers and eschewed the Tugboat identity. Vince and Piper spend a lot of time recounting why Typhoon felt disrespected and call back to him getting thrown out of the Rumble by Hogan. I remember none of this. As for the m…

I picked up the 10 volume AAA Classics, which essentially covers mid 92 till the end of 93. Might as well hand out some thoughts along the ways. Volume 1 Mascarita Sagrada, Octagoncito, & Angelito Azteca vs Pirata Morgan, Jerrito Estrada, & Picudito (7/3/92) Yes we start with minis, so this set is perfect for me! Morgan and Estrada are pissed at each other and Picudito has to try to keep the peace with the rudos. Sagrada doesn't give a shit and goes right in there, hits a dropkick then a somersault plancha. The other two tecnicos do hurrancanranas to pin the other two. Sagrada gives a nice little slap after to end the first wonderful fall. …

So I won tickets from the local classic rock station to go see TNA's Slammiversary. Unbelievable softball: What was Hogan's name in Rocky III? I was toying with going because I do like AJ & Aries a good bit, but the card seemed so blase. I love live pro wrestling enough that free tickets are enough to get me and my brother to go. In order to get myself psyched, I am watching a ton of AJ Styles. I am reposting my earlier reviews from a different thread for ease of access. Final Resolution 2005: X-Division Champion Petey Williams vs Chris Sabin vs AJ Styles in an Ultimate X Match I watched this match because it made someone's Top Ten TNA matches and I have no idea w…

Shamelessly stealing this topic from Elliott @ GWE Forums because this forum has more activity and I thought this would be really interesting to discuss:

Sell him to me. Explain to those of us who don't get him why / when / how he was so great. So far in mid-late 80s stuff for the podcast and in both of his appearances on the All Japan set, I haven't been into him a whole lot. "Bland" being the word I'd use. I remember seeing a great tag match with him once in WWF when he was with Adonis. Where would you start with Murdoch? What are his good matches? Why isn't his greatness obvious to me and ol' NintendoLogic already?

Following their match with The New Day on the WWE Battleground PPV, there was a talking point going around Twitter that The Usos were one of the top five WWE tag teams of all time. They have certainly been in consistently good television matches during their WWE run and have a handful of really high-end PPV title matches under their belt too. As a babyface team, they got really hot in 2013 feuding with The Wyatts and The Shield and were a consistent factor at the top end of the tag division throughout the next couple of years. Jey's injury in 2015 allowed them a chance to rest their act but, although they remained consistent in-ring, there was a sense that their babyface …

I have enjoyed the comparison threads, but I think comparing wrestlers who are not usually compared to each other might be fun too. I'll put all of them in one thread. So here are the ones I'm curious about. Rey Mysterio or Yoshiaki Fujiwara? Randy Savage or Shinya Hashimoto? Jerry Lawler or El Hijo del Santo? Terry Funk or Negro Casas? Bobby Eaton or Virus? Bill Dundee or Eddy Guerrero? William Regal or Tully Blanchard? Atsushi Onita or Vader? Buddy Rose or Johnny Saint? Bret Hart or Ted DiBiase? Steve Austin or Riki Choshu? Jushin Liger or Volk Han?

Seldom has a worker inspired such visceral hatred in me as Antonio Inoki. I mean how boring was this fuck? Honestly, I'd take Dory Jr over him at this stage. As I've said, he feels like a guy who was perfectly content to just sit on the mat and run out the time if you let him. Seems like every bit of selling, every high spot, bit of excitement, or basically anything that isn't laying on the mat has to be dragged from him by his opponent. I've got this impression seeing him vs. both Hansen and Backlund now. But mostly he's been rubbish. Now, I haven't seen more than 20 Inoki matches in my life total, but how on earth was Inoki such a legend being as sickeningly dul…

To a nicer guy, a thread couldn't happen. Buddy needs some reviews to get his just consideration for the 100 Greatest poll. [embed] [/embed] Rogers vs Lou Thesz, 1-26-51 The new Chicago footage is going to be a huge boon to Rogers, Thesz, Gagne, and O'Connor, at least. In Hooker, Thesz claimed you could tell how good a match he had with Rogers would be based on the result. If Thesz was winning, Rogers would dog it. If they were going to a draw, Rogers would work hard. Given the running time I'm assuming draw here, which suggests Rogers will be on his best behavior. My favorite part about good Golden Age wrestling is how credible the matwork is. If you'…

Savage is my all-time favorite wrestler. I considered starting a thread on him before and never got around to it, but the talk of the ICW cage match with Garvin earlier today finally provided the motivation. I just watched that match, so we may as well start this examination with something from the early years... Vs. Ron ("the One Man Gang") Garvin, Cage Match, 1982 (?) Not sure of the date nor the place. Lexington perhaps? Anyway, this is ICW, Randy's dad's outlaw promotion. Haven't seen much of this at all. Lanny Poffo provides post-production commentary in the most monotone manner possible. Savage, prophetically, comes to the ring to "Fame", and he is wearing a…

Here you go Angle fans. This is your forum to make an argument FOR Angle as a great wrestler.

All week over at Segunda Caida I'll be watching and writing about every single Berzerker match I can find. I'm starting with his WWF debut as the Viking. Props to Matt D, who could be found on this very board telling people to go watch Berzerker matches back in 2013. It took me awhile, but I'm doing it. All of them. http://segundacaida.blogspot.com/2017/02/73-shockingly-great-berzerker-matches_20.html Please join me and comment along

It's been a while since we've had a good comparison thread, and it recently occurred to me that these two guys track each other pretty closely in terms of in-ring style, career length, and popular/critical acclaim. A year ago, I would've picked Shawn without a second thought, but now I'm inclined to give AJ the nod. His 2014 to whenever it ends is shaping up to be one of the all-time great runs by a US worker. It certainly smokes any comparable stretch of Shawn's career. Part of that is having better opponents, but he's also been able to produce quality matches with guys I normally have little use for like Kevin Owens and Finn Balor. I still think that Shawn's very best m…

I almost feel like this needs two separate topics in a way, because Tex Slazenger and Shanghai Pierce in WCW were so different from The Godwinns in the WWF (and later Southern Justice, but they weren't really around long enough in that role). I realize this team pre-dates their debut in WCW, but I'm going to start with their time there because that's where I first saw them. Nostalgia may be fueling my opinions, but I remember Tex Slazenger and Shanghai Pierce being a really fun midcard heel team during the era of WCW Saturday Night. Particularly memorable, for me, was their "crazy" (at the time) match against The Vegas Connection - DDP and Vinnie Vegas (Kevin Nash…

All the recent talk about Tito surrounding his alleged consideration for the WWF title in 1992 has been fun and has inspired me to create this thread. During the early years of my wrestling fandom (circa 86-89) there were a few wrestlers I really gravitated towards, like Steamboat, Owen Hart, and the Bulldogs. However, the wrestler I considered my absolute favorite during those formative years was the man billed from Tocula, Mexico--Tito Santana. I'm not exactly sure why I embraced Tito like I did, but his passion and emotion in the ring likely had something to do with it. So to begin, in honour of the man, and also as a romantic ode to my youth, I give you …

I have heard this threesome get lumped together for months on end here at PWO and it is time we settle in a good 'ol fashioned triple threat match (stop groaning, Stone Cold!). You have Will and Dylan every chance they get hyping the hell out of Santana vs Valentine, every chance they get. Also, Santana has the hot series of the IC title with the beloved Randy Savage in '86. The AWA set has propelled Martel to the point where he not only in this discussion, but may take the victory. On top of that, they both have the great Islanders feud and their work against each other. What is terra incognita for me and what could push either man over the top would be Martel's Portland…