1996

Will update at the end of each month, listing matches I feel are particular worthy of MOTYC recognition. November finished: Mitsuharu Misawa & Jun Akiyama vs Toshiaki Kawada & Akira Taue (AJPW 12/06/96) Shinjiro Otani vs El Samurai (NJPW New Year Special 01/21/96) Mitsuharu Misawa & Jun Akiyama vs Toshiaki Kawada & Akira Taue (AJPW 11/29/96) El Hijo del Santo & Bestia Salvaje & Scorpio Jr vs El Dandy & Negro Casas & Hector Garza (CMLL 11/29/96) El Hijo del Santo vs Negro Casas vs El Dandy (CMLL 12/06/96) Steve Williams vs Akira Taue (AJPW 04/20/96) Bret Hart vs Steve Austin (WWF Survivor Series 11/17/96) Mitsuharu Misawa & J…

Steve Austin won this in the WON awards, and I can't argue that too much, but my personal pick would be Hulk Hogan. Hogan is interesting to track as a promo after his heel turn. He's full of piss and vinegar in the month or so immediately after turning, and it feels overdone. He seems to realize this and relaxes quite a bit and really embraces the Hollywood role for all its worth, leading to the best interviews of his career. I guarantee you the Savage and Piper feuds would not have enjoyed the success they did without Hogan's tremendous interviews. He hit every point perfectly and was such a great, get-under-your-skin heel. It stands out even more when you…

Date Promotion Match. Ranking 12/06/96 AJPW Mitsuharu Misawa & Jun Akiyama vs. Toshiaki Kawada & Akira Taue ***** 10 05/05/96 FMW Megumi Kudo vs. Combat Toyota ***** 9.9 12/16/96 Michinoku Pro Great Sasuke, Gran Hamada, Super Delphin, Gran Naniwa & Masato Yakushiji vs Dick Togo, Mens Teoh, Taka Michinoku, Shiryu & Shoichi Funaki ***** 9.8 01/21/96 NJPW Shinjiro Ohtani vs. El Samurai ***** 9.8 12/06/96 CMLL El Dandy vs El Hijo Del Santo vs Negro Casas ****3/4 9.7 11/17/96 WWF Bret Hart vs. Steve Austin ****3/4 9.6 09/22/96 WWF Shawn Michaels vs. Manki…

NWO vs WCW won in the Observer, but I feel like that's too vague, and I'm not sure it's what I would pick anyway. It had some great moments, but the players on the WCW side rotated too much. Sting, Savage, Flair and Arn were all major players in the early days of the angle and fell out of the picture over time. It was a success and I enjoyed it, so I don't mean to downplay it. I just think of a feud as something more concrete. My pick is probably Mitsuharu Misawa & Jun Akiyama vs Toshiaki Kawada & Akira Taue. They had a series of matches which were all great, there was a clear progression from match to match, and the year ended with a nice payoff in perhaps t…

Post them here.

In 1996, the voters decided Kenta Kobashi was the Wrestler of the Year. This is head-scratching to me, even though Kobashi did have a very good year. Kobashi won the Triple Crown in July by beating Akira Taue in an excellent match. He also had excellent defenses against Kawada and Hansen. Earlier in the year, he lost in a great match against Misawa as well. But during this time, it seems the focus was less on the Triple Crown and more on tag teams. Maybe it's just hardcore revisionist history based on the workrate and not what the biggest focus of the promotion was, but in some ways, Kobashi seems like sort of an MIA guy for 1996. The hottest feud seemed to be Misawa/…

I should have done this as an ongoing thing like I am doing for 1993, but I will post it retroactively: January: #1 - Shinjiro Otani vs El Samurai (NJPW 01/21/96) ****3/4 #2 - Vader vs Antonio Inoki (NJPW 01/04/96) ***1/2 #3 - Hayabusa & Masato Tanaka & Koji Nakagawa vs W*ING Kanemura & Mitsuhiro Matsunaga & Hidoh (FMW 01/10/96) ***1/2 #4 - Manami Toyota vs Yumiko Hotta (AJPW 01/22/96) ***1/2 #5 - Psicosis vs Ultraman (AAA 01/18/96) ***1/2 #6 - Jushin Liger vs Koji Kanemoto (NJPW 01/04/96) ***1/2 #7 - PG-13 vs Tracy Smothers & Jesse James Armstrong (USWA TV 01/20/96) *** #8 - Rey Misterio Jr vs Juventud Guerrera (AAA 01/31/96) *** #9 - …

Shawn Michaels won. Um, no. No one touches Shinya Hashimoto and Hulk Hogan.

This will be fun to revisit after watching some years prior to 1996. DDP won, and that seems like the perfect pick to me. I am a big fan of this award in general, so we'll see how coming back to this goes after watching 1990-1995 sets.

There are probably two dozen wrestlers that have a case here. I'll chime in, but let me throw this out to everyone for discussion. Who was the most outstanding wrestler of 1996? Keep in mind that this is just focused on in-ring work with no other factors. Rey Misterio Jr won in the WON poll. He definitely has a case, but he's not who I would pick.

Honorable mentions! #105 - Volk Han vs Masayuki Naruse (RINGS 10/25/96) #104 - Jerry Lawler vs Jeff Jarrett (USWA TV 04/20/96) #103 - Jushin Liger vs Great Sasuke (World Wrestling Peace Festival 06/01/96) #102 - Hulk Hogan & Scott Hall & Kevin Nash & NWO Sting vs Ric Flair & Arn Anderson & Lex Luger & Sting (WCW Fall Brawl 09/15/96) #101 - Steven Regal vs Psicosis (WCW Monday Nitro 12/16/96)

Use this thread to talk about 1996 matches, interviews and angles that didn't make the yearbook that are worth watching for whatever reason. Include an explanation of what makes the addition stand out. This will be considered if/when a supplemental set is made to fill in a few holes throughout the year.

January: Chris Benoit vs Steven Regal (WCW Monday Nitro 01/01/96) Mitsuharu Misawa & Kenta Kobashi & Satoru Asako vs The Patriot & Eagle & Johnny Ace (AJPW 01/02/96) Manami Toyota & Kaoru Ito vs Kyoko Inoue & Takako Inoue (AJW 01/03/96) Vader vs Antonio Inoki (NJPW 01/04/96) Nobuhiko Takada vs Keiji Muto (NJPW 01/04/96) Chris Benoit vs Alex Wright (WCW Monday Nitro 01/08/96) Daisuke Ikeda vs Hisakatsu Oya (FMW 01/10/96) Hayabusa & Masato Tanaka & Koji Nakagawa vs W*ING Kanemura & Mitsuhiro Matsunaga & Hidoh (FMW 01/10/96) Daisuke Ikeda & Katsumi Usuda vs Yuki Ishikawa & Shoichi Funaki (BattlARTS 01/13/96) Eddy Guer…

With tag wrestling kinda dead in the U.S., the only real candidates I see stateside are PG-13. And they worked a breakup angle and spent a great deal of the year apart, so I don't want to pick them. Misawa and Akiyama won the award. Kawada and Taue are right there too. I think you could pick either team and do just fine, so I have no qualms with the WON pick. I do wish at some point that the best tag team of all time (Kawada and Taue) would have won tag team of the year at least once though.