Loss

I've seen this before and it hasn't really resonated with me. Maybe that's because I didn't see the buildup and get a chance to anticipate the match. This time, I thought it was excellent. The heel in peril stuff early on with Pritchard you think is going to eat up too much time of the match before they start beating up Ricky Morton, but you appreciate it when the match is over. There was so much at stake that each team had to show they could overcome adversity to get over the finish. The FIP on Morton works extremely well, just as you'd expect. 20+ minutes into this, every nearfall is being saved by the guy on the outside, which is great and makes complete sense, considering the stipulations. Gibson doing the hiptoss on Morton get him closer to the corner was terrific, and Gibson's Indian deathlock is always great. I love the drama of tying Robert Gibson to the corner so they could beat up Ricky Morton and Gibson having to break free. Morton's desperate kickouts after a lot of the staple finishes (racket shot, moonsault, etc) work well in this context and the finish was really good. The additional ref coming in teased that there would be a screwjob, but then the fans got a clean finish. And now the Bodies must leave SMW. This had to have been SMW's best show ever, just on the strength of this and the ladder match.

Smothers and Candido have had good matches up until this point, but this was on a completely different level. It honestly blew away Shawn/Razor at Wrestlemania. I know taking on a point of view like that makes some people hostile because they assume that it's being said just to come across as cool or contrarian, but nothing could be further from the truth. I think if you watch the matches side-by-side, it's a fairly non-controversial point of view. Shawn/Razor deserves credit. It introduced the concept on a major show and they had a great match that was highly influential for years, both in the WWF and on the independent scene. They deserve credit for what they accomplished and I don't want to take away from that. But this is better. The ladder isn't used as much as it is at Wrestlemania, but the use of the ladder in general is probably smarter. I would also say the quality of the match leading up to use of the ladder is better than the WM X match. Really, some of the best highlights of the match have nothing to do with the ladder. Candido's pescado to the floor and top rope Frankensteiner are both beautiful spots. He tries it a second time, but Smothers holds on to the ropes and Candido takes what could have been a very scary bump head first onto the ladder. I also really enjoyed the finish of this, because they kept the outcome in doubt until the very end. Give Mark Curtis credit, as the ladder broke, but he held it still so Smothers could climb to victory. Without him in there, I'm not sure what they would have done. I think part of the difference is that kayfabe was stronger in SMW than in the WWF, so they didn't have to kill themselves quite as much with the ladder to get a reaction. They were still able to pull off some impressive spots, like Candido's missed splash from the top, but they spaced them out to make them more special. One of the best matches of the year so far, and without a doubt the best SMW match I've ever seen.

Just don't call it "The E". That's douchey.

After the match even.

Cool, thanks!

Could you provide dates on all of those matches that fill in the gaps? I want to ensure that they all make whatever supplemental set we put together. Thanks.

March: #1 - Aja Kong & Bull Nakano vs Akira Hokuto & Shinobu Kandori (AJW Queendom 03/27/94) ***** #2 - Espectrito vs Mascarita Sagrada (AAA 03/12/94) ***** #3 - Bret Hart vs Owen Hart (WWF Wrestlemania X 03/20/94) ****3/4 #4 - Angel Azteca, Volador & Winners vs Misterioso, Solar I & Super Calo (AAA 03/19/94) ****1/4 #5 - Steve Williams vs Toshiaki Kawada (AJPW Championship Carnival 03/29/94) ****1/4 #6 - Shawn Michaels vs Razor Ramon (WWF Wrestlemania X 03/20/94) **** #7 - Genichiro Tenryu & Ashura Hara vs Atsushi Onita & Tarzan Goto (WAR 03/02/94) **** #8 - Kenta Kobashi vs Akira Taue (AJPW Championship Carnival 03/24/94) ***3/4 #9 - Steve Austin vs Ricky Steamboat (WCW Saturday Night 03/12/94) ***3/4 #10 - Ric Flair & Steven Regal vs Sting & Ricky Steamboat (WCW Munich 03/12/94) ***3/4 #11 - Toshiyo Yamada vs Sakie Hasegawa (AJW 03/03/94) ***1/2 #12 - Manami Toyota & Aja Kong vs Bull Nakano & Kyoko Inoue (AJW 03/03/94) ***1/2 #13 - Rey Misterio Jr, Heavy Metal & Winners vs Fuerza Guerrera, Jerry Estrada & Espectro Jr (AAA 03/12/94) ***1/2 #14 - Tracy Smothers vs Tom Pritchard (SMW TV 03/05/94) ***1/2 #15 - Sato vs Super Delphin (Michinoku Pro 03/04/94) ***1/4 #16 - Jerry Lawler vs Jimmy Valiant vs Brian Christopher vs Austin Idol vs Terry Funk vs Tommy Rich vs Moondog Spot vs Koko B. Ware vs Eddie Gilbert vs Doug Gilbert (USWA Memphis Memories 03/07/94) ***1/4 #17 - Chris Candido vs Tracy Smothers (SMW TV 03/19/94) ***1/4 #18 - Ultimo Dragon & Masao Orihara vs Great Sasuke & Sato (WAR 03/02/94) *** #19 - Rock & Roll Express vs Heavenly Bodies (SMW 03/12/94) *** #20 - Toshiaki Kawada vs Johnny Ace (AJPW Championship Carnival 03/27/94) *** #21 - Steve Austin vs Brian Pillman (WCW Main Event 03/06/94) *** #22 - Manami Toyota vs Plum Mariko (AJW Queendom 03/27/94) *** #23 - Mitsuharu Misawa & Kenta Kobashi vs Stan Hansen & Giant Baba (AJPW 03/05/94) #24 - Vader vs Cactus Jack (WCW Munich 03/12/94) #25 - Konnan vs Jake Roberts (AAA 03/12/94) In terms of the top matches, this is the best month on any yearbook so far. The top two matches are two of the best ever. You know it's a loaded month when something as strong as Bret vs Owen is only #3 for the MONTH. I don't think overall it was the best month though. 22 matches at ***+ is nothing to sneeze at by any means, but there were some matches with reps that disappointed me. I know the Queendom tag has a rep, but it doesn't have a rep as being better than the Dreamslam and Dream Rush matches, which I think it was. So that genuinely surprised me. Espectrito/Sagrada is the best minis match I have ever seen and is also a classic wrestling match worked in the traditional mat-based style that I love so much.

The Eagle tag was talked about as Doc's "Wow, he has really stepped up" performance when seeking recommendations, but for me, it was this match. He really looks like the best American born wrestler in the world and even sort of outworks Kawada. He targets Kawada's injured knee, which we have already seen a little of and I expect to see more of as the year progresses.

Well, that was quite the rollercoaster. Where do I begin? I don't think I can review this match and do it justice, but I want to try my best. Kong just wipes the mat with Hokuto to start. Hokuto makes a comeback, and ends up tagging in Kandori with a slap to the face! Kandori says two can play that game, and that's how they end up tagging each other in and out through most of the match. Aja and Bull realize the dissension and act as the ultimate opportunists. An opening is created for Aja to try to take Hokuto out, which she does with a nasty vertical suplex on a ringside table and a series of piledrivers back in the ring. We all know the history with Hokuto's neck and they are pretty obviously playing on it. Hokuto eventually fights back from this, and you just think if she would tag Kandori, they could work well together as a team. But she seems intent on fighting this battle alone, to a point where I'm just begging this idiot to tag Kandori in, but it seems like her pride will be her downfall. Hokuto doesn't stand a chance against these two, but she keeps on fighting anyway, even getting in her own shots that are probably the result of her stubbornness and instincts as much as anything else. She insists on doing things her way. Her emotions are overtaking her. When she takes Aja outside to do the piledriver on the table, it has nothing to do with winning the match or regaining control, and everything to do with getting back at Aja for the suplex spot. It backfires against her. She's in Kong's domain and is getting decimated on the floor. Kandori decides Hokuto is hopeless, but she doesn't like Bull, so she figures she might as well go into business for herself. She ends up fighting Bull back to the entrance. After things settle down, Hokuto is getting tended to by trainers. Kandori decided Hokuto made her bed, and she won't even look her way to see if she's okay. To this point, Aja and Bull have worked together as a team, but they haven't really been taking this match as personally as Hokuto. But Hokuto taking liberties on Kong pissed them off, so now, they're going after Hokuto's knee, which was shattered a few months earlier and is still taped up. Hokuto is her own worst enemy, because she angers people who have a level of respect for her into wanting to beat the hell out of her because she's so frustrating. Kandori is now trying to fight the good fight on her own. She applies a cross armbreaker to Kong and Bull climbs to the top rope to save her teammate. At first, Hokuto just casually looks on, but then she seems to have this "What am I doing?" epiphany moment and comes to her partner's rescue. She gets brutalized for a few minutes on her own, and she and Kandori are both being systematically destroyed by this well-oiled machine. In an amazing moment, she gets to her feet and distracts Kong *just* long enough for Kandori to apply a sleeper. Yay, they're working as a team! Yay, the match is turning the tide! Not quite so fast. You forget that Bull Nakano is still very much in this fight and is RIGHT THERE. All she has to do is casually strike Kandori to turn the tide back in their favor. Now it's Hokuto's turn again to get destroyed. Kandori tries desperately to help her, and ends up making a big mistake, going for a tope on Bull on the floor, but ends up eating air. Hokuto seems beaten, but she somehow finds a way to always do one *tiny* thing that ensures her survival at the exact right moment. Sometimes it's skill, sometimes it's intelligence and sometimes it's just luck. I'm not sure what this moment was, but taking a small step to the side saves her from quite the onslaught. Bull and Aja aren't stupid and realize that while they're in control, Hokuto still has some fight in her. From there on, their strategy seems to be a simple one: keep Kandori isolated and finish the job on Hokuto. But it's not as effective since now -- finally -- the two are on the same page. They could have saved themselves so much trouble had they been from the beginning. So the only question now if it's too little too late. They are tagging in and out so quickly. Neither can take a beating very long if they have any chance of winning this thing, but at the same time, neither has enough left to fight for very long. After Hokuto does a somersault plancha to Bull on the floor, Kandori neutralizes Kong in the ring and literally hands her off to Hokuto to finish the job. But she can't! You think you've seen this nice moment that you can wrap up in a bow, and then you remember that Aja and Bull haven't taken nearly the punishment and it's going to take more than that. That kickout was brilliant. Hokuto finally hits the ARC and gets the win for her team in the most triumphant conquering of the odds in wrestling history. It was incredible storytelling that saw Kandori and especially Hokuto mature emotionally when faced with a conflict. Dreamslam between Hokuto and Kandori is such a key piece of the puzzle, but I think they topped themselves here. This is the best example I have ever seen of working a storyline into a match. I am putty in the hands of these four. They are smarter than me and know more about wrestling than I could ever hope to know. This is art. It's also the best match of the decade for me at this point. Only the '96 tag final is in the same conversation.

In the two matches I have watched so far on this set, Mariko has been a go-go-go type and a high flyer. The way you're describing her sounds more like Yagi or late 90s Yoshida, which intrigues me. What do I need to see?

Stiffness has never been particularly important to me, but it has been such a noticeable difference in American and Japanese styles that I can't help but say something about it. It's something I pay more attention to than I did before I started watching yearbooks for sure. I think more than stiffness, the element of danger and the idea that wrestling looks like it hurts and the guys are tough is probably an even bigger deal than how much they are laying shots in. Japan has more asskickers at this point. The WWF has fun characters, but not really a ton of scary guys who will knock you into next week. So the aggression is amped up a lot in Japanese matches, and the stiffness is just one way that manifests itself. Lucha guys work even lighter than American guys, but the style still feels more credible much of the time because of the heavy emphasis on matwork. I'm finding a shift in the guys that I like more toward guys who feel imposing or seem like a threat -- not just in how they look, but how they work. Not to keep going back to Shawn, but I think that's exposed him more than anything. He's a great exaggerated bumper and he's excellent at pacing a match. But he has almost no offense. There is more than one way for a wrestler to be great, but the angriness and aggression -- or at least the ability to tie someone in knots on the mat -- tends to be what I favor the more wrestling I watch. Shawn Michaels isn't a tough guy. He's an exciting guy. Owen Hart isn't exactly a tough guy either, but Owen Hart has more offense that looks like it hurts and is better at working holds. Michaels gets compared to Flair a lot, but Flair had great fundamentals. His punches always looked really good, so did his kicks and his chops. He also sold himself and his programs so well as an interview that he was still worth watching. Steamboat doesn't have a ton of offense either, but his gracefulness gives him credibility. And most of his matches have him working from underneath, so because he can sell, outpace his opponent and surprise them with pinfall attempts from so many directions, that's where his cred comes from. More than anyone, Ricky Steamboat is always three seconds from winning a match. Austin at this point was a guy who would take his opponent down to the mat and punish him. Vader -- yeah, Vader was a monster. So yeah, I really like that in guys these days more than someone whose primary gimmick is that they dazzle and excite.

This was probably a strong match, but it didn't really appeal to me personally at all. All of my least favorite things about the Joshi style were on display pretty prominently throughout. Mariko and Toyota are both great athletes, and their similar styles created a dynamic that seemed to work with the crowd. So the match was effective. But it's not something I ever care to watch again, even though there were some cool things here.

Whatever form this might take - if it takes one at all - is forever away, but have fun making recommendations now.

Whatever form this might take - if it takes one at all - is forever away, but have fun making recommendations now.

It's forever away, but feel free to start recommending things now.

It's forever away, but feel free to start recommending things now.

It's forever away, but feel free to start recommending things now.

It's forever away, but feel free to start recommending things now.

It's forever away, but feel free to start recommending things now.

It's forever away, but feel free to start recommending things now.

It's forever away, but feel free to start recommending things now.

It's forever away, but feel free to start recommending things now.

It's forever away, but feel free to start recommending things now.

It's forever away, but feel free to start recommending things now.

This will be the last chronological yearbook we do. Have at it!