Loss

As great of a match as this is, I don't think it was the right match to work in this setting. This is Kawada's first defense with the Triple Crown, and he's going to a draw against Kobashi. Kobashi, a guy who doesn't win big matches very often. When writing this, my initial plan was to get that gripe out of the way, then move on to the match itself, but they aren't mutually exclusive points. This reminds me in many ways of a classic world title match with Kobashi cast as the local hero. He's clearly the crowd favorite and Kawada is happy to give them what they want. He puts Kobashi over in pretty much every sequence in the early going. They start with an extended, old-style collar-and-elbow tie up, which, when done right is always awesome. And it's definitely done right here. A shoving match follows this, along with a dramatic staredown. They make it clear pretty early that they're working big, but again, this is about putting over Kobashi. He's the challenger. He's the crowd favorite. He's getting in Kawada's face. In some ways, this is Kawada working Kawada's version of The Flair Formula: * He overly celebrates a small victory -- a shoulderblock -- and Kobashi quickly responds with a backhand and a great lariat. * They lock hands and have a great struggle for control, which Kobashi wins. * Kawada goes after Kobashi's knee for the first time awfully early in the match, putting over his desperation. * Kawada can't hold his own against Kobashi when they work holds early and pulls out a desperate release German just to get out of a test of strength. * Every time Kawada strings a few things together, Kobashi comes back quickly. But where he's different is that as much as he puts over Kobashi, he also gets in his own time to shine. Kobashi tries some chops, and Kawada does his best Hulk Up. And through all of this, he gives the crowd exactly what they want -- heeling it up big time when he mounts Kobashi and starts slapping the back of his head. In terms of the ability to work holds in compelling fashion, these two are phenomenal. The staredowns, dramatic collar-and-elbow and test of strength stuff is huge and would play well in a dome setting. When Kawada gets the chance, he goes after Kobashi's taped up knee, which might as well have a big bulls-eye on it. Kawada bends it over the guardrail and grinds it into the mat. Kobashi responds at first by going after Kawada's neck and upper back, but shifts focus at some point and starts going after Kawada's knee too. But before that, he's working headlocks and what I can only call a figure four necklock. Maybe it's because Kawada kept being such an asshole. Case in point -- did he really need to counter a chinlock with a kick to the face? Kobashi goes into a stretch plum, maybe to make a point, but Kawada goes to the ropes. More champion desperation. Kobashi locks in a sleeper and Kawada frantically starts backing up into the corner in an attempt to break the hold. Even more champion desperation. Everything is a struggle. Fighting over who gets to land a vertical suplex takes nearly a minute with Kobashi finally winning out. Kobashi starts using all the same tactics against Kawada that were being used against him just a few minutes earlier, but Kawada cuts him off with his version of the Ric Flair Thumb To The Eye -- a chop to the throat. Kobashi sells it like death and Kawada gets a warning from the referee. Kawada lands a couple of double stomps from the apron as this match continues to go into Best Possible Starrcade '88 Main Event territory. Kawada gets his own sleeper and Kobashi quickly reaches the ropes, so Kawada pulls him to the middle and locks him in a bodyscissors. There's a fight over the powerbomb. Kawada is the first to pull one off, but he barely hits it. He tries again, and this time Kobashi fights back a little more. He drops to one knee and finally backdrops him over the top rope. For the second time in the match, Kawada does an Irish whip into the guardrail, but this time, Kobashi comes back with a clothesline. This really is a super high-end Ric Flair-Lex Luger match! Kawada is back in the ring first, having taken less of a beating at this point. When Kobashi tries to come in, Kawada tries to clothesline him back out. But Kobashi sees it coming and blocks it. In a big turning point for the match, Kobashi jumps off the top rope, but Kawada kicks him coming down. It hurt Kobashi, but Kawada grabs his ankle and starts screaming in pain, so he seemed to have taken the worst of it. Kobashi wastes no time in going after Kawada's knee. He gets in a figure four and I love all the scooting back and forth. I WILL REACH THE ROPES. YOU WILL NOT REACH THE ROPES. I WILL REACH THE ROPES. You get the idea. At this point, both guys have bad wheels, so they're both going after each other in an attempt to create space. Kawada tries the powerbomb a few more times, but still can't pull it off. Kobashi isn't worn down enough yet. In fact, even when Kawada is in control, he seems lucky, while Kobashi seems to have inevitability on his side. To demonstrate this, Kawada can't even stand up when he's Irish whipped. Now they're nearing the final stretch. I don't know if I agree with Ditch that the match fell apart at this point, but it wasn't consistent with what led up to it. The match was built around a back-to-basics approach, working a Fuchi style where they cranked holds and told a really basic, easy-to-follow story. But then, we get a bunch of nearfalls that seem a little out of place, even if they are well-worked -- the best of which is Kobashi's two count after a rolling cradle. In the last few minutes, after working even up until about 55 minutes, suddenly they change the flow of the match. We're supposed to think Kobashi has taken the worst of everything and that Kawada has been the one in control. Kobashi suddenly gets really defensive, trying to run down the clock and keep his distance -- he knows he can't win, but he's just trying not to lose. And that's what he does. As a way to spend an hour, this was mostly awesome, and when I say awesome, I mean REALLY awesome. In spite of any flaws toward the end, I think everyone currently in wrestling should watch this if only to see how well they work holds, get simple gestures over and time spots to get a massive crowd reaction. It's also notable that they keep things really basic and don't do very many crazy highspots, yet still keep the crowd engaged the whole time. So those are major positives. Rating Kawada/Kobashi matches, I'd probably put this a little ahead of their 60-minute draw the following year, but it falls behind their match in October of '93 for me. We'll see about the others as time goes on. Ultimately, the things in this match that didn't work well were self-contained at the very end of the match, and the things that did work well worked really, really well. All in all, a classic.

Perhaps in a tribute to the douchiness of his previous gimmicks, Raven walks on a snow-covered street while wearing shorts. He stands around looking all 90s slackerish while "Come Out and Play" by The Offspring provides a background. We get zooms in and out of a Dead End sign that seemed designed to cause an epileptic attack, but kidding aside, this is pretty cutting edge for wrestling by the standards of the time, just because it's different. The WWF and WCW weren't pushing guys with gimmicks that were routed in the pop culture of the time at all. (Grunge was probably over by this point, but work with me.) He quotes Cobain to show how deep and philosophical he is before threatening Tommy Dreamer.

Bret Hart's hair surprisingly looks like it may have been washed. He ensures that he has ZERO ring rust as he prepares to face Diesel at the Rumble and Jarrett tonight. Announcer Shawn Michaels grills William Shatner about who will be watching his back if he is watching Bret's back. Shatner responds that Roadie's name will be Road Kill if he gets near him. Sadly, that line predates amirite jokes.

I don't remember this house music intro for Action Zone. The 1995 WWF aesthetic was stuck in 1990 pop culture, which seems about right for wrestling. They pretty dramatically -- and wisely -- play up the size difference, which manifests itself in some really fun ways. Both have some nice athletic spots, and both are probably at their best at this stage. Kid's baseball slide on Bigelow looked terrific, as did Bigelow's missed Koppo kick into the corner. Kid takes some ridiculous bumps, including a hiptoss from inside the ring to the floor, a crazy press slam (which made the camera shake at a time that I'm pretty sure pre-dates camera shake as a production value), and all of his kickouts are timed really well. Kid's selling is also top notch. I love him slowly getting up from Bigelow's best stuff and then asking him to bring more, only for Bigelow to respond in kind. Bigelow busts out an honest-to-God ARGENTINIAN BACKBREAKER as a hope spot, and Kid's half bomb into a pin when Bigelow was about to jump off the top was the best nearfall of the match. If anything holds this back, it's that it was really the best possible competitive squash. The crowd was ready to explode for any hints of a big offensive flurry from Kid, but it never came. At the same time, that was part of Kid's appeal at the time -- he lost more than he won, but he could occasionally pull off an upset. He benefitted more from losing. Still, I wish this could have been a tad more competitive. A few months before this, Kid was pushing Bret Hart to the limit on RAW, he could have done the same for Bigelow here. Also, treating Kid like any other jobber by stuffing cash in his mouth in the post-match was a bit much. I also can't help but notice how the WWF audience is pretty lean at this point. The fans that are left are clearly the hardcores, which is evident by the really loud "1-2-3" chants, and the spots they pop for. It's not a typical WWF TV taping crowd reaction, and this is far more heated than you'd expect. Really good stuff.

Last few minutes of Harlem Heat winning the tag titles. Pretty decent wrestling. As down as people were on the tag team scene throughout all of wrestling in 1995, it was much, much better then than it is now. Gotta love Tony Schiavone plugging Prodigy. The finish sees Booker pin Patriot to win the tag titles. For heat, Bagwell was the legal man but the positioning had Patriot's head covered. That's a pretty dated finish for 1995, and it doesn't work in an environment like '95 WCW where the rules aren't really talked about and enforced on a regular basis.

Yes, Bull/Kyoko was not forgotten. We just had no space to include it.

Jimmy Del Ray is having palpitations. It turns out it's SUPER SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER! Then, we cut to the ring with Jim Ross (!!!) interviewing Jim Cornette. The Gangstas interrupt him and corner him before he can say much. Bob and Steve Armstrong are out quickly to run them off. Cornette makes an awesome plea to Bob Armstrong to allow the Bodies to come back and exact revenge, which Bob approves, and Cornette closes us out by quoting "Only The Good Die Young" by Billy Joel. Great segment. Can I just say Ross looks absolutely thrilled to be in SMW?

"You see that, Boo? That's the road of a free man. Let's walk it." We get played out by "He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother" with a montage of Cactus and Boo footage. Weird, but fun.

Clip of Rich & Gilbert winning the USWA tag titles at Mid South Coliseum after Rich decks JC Ice with a chain. Scott Bowden really, really doesn't want this footage shown. PG-13 wants them to come back out and they finally do. And PG-13 immediately regain the belts a brief second match. Amazing after all those years that people can still sneak chains in the ring in Memphis.

Cactus fires off another awesome promo before this match, and within Disc 1 has showed up in three promotions. Impressive. This is my first exposure to NWC. It's pretty well-produced for an indy. The ring announcer takes forever running down all the weapons that are in each corner of the cage. Cactus' entrance music is Snap's "The Power"! Pretty hilarious. The announcers also love to mention that Sabu is bleeding "profushely" ... I think it's funny in a match like this when the fans are clearly expecting craziness and they spend the first few minutes of the match working traditionally. The weapons shots start about five minutes in and the heat picks way up at that point. This sort of thing was still novel at the time, so you can see why people liked this stuff. But really ... it's pretty bad. Cactus/Funk was still compelling garbage wrestling years later. But this doesn't hold up well.

Joey Styles hypes up the newly re-designed ECW Arena and brings out Stevie Richards. Stevie is dressed like Scotty Flamingo! The previous week, Stevie promised he'd have Johnny Polo on ECW TV this week, but Joey says he's nowhere to be found. He says the man he is about to bring out had to give up a double date with Eddie Vedder. He brings us the birth of The Raven! Considering how they hyped us his old gimmicks in this, I'm surprised he wasn't laughed out of the building. "The" Raven quickly puts Stevie in his place over his sleeping arrangements the night before, and Stevie bails. I think the point of this is that Raven has had a rough few months and it's changed him, which is why he has a new gimmick.

Pamela Anderson has messages from Shawn Michaels, Diesel, Lex Luger ... and DOINK ... wanting to sex her up after winning the Royal Rumble. Soft saxophone music plays in the background and we get a sultry woman fast food commercial voice to narrate.

Nothing really memorable about this segment to me, but people do remember it, so it's on here. Vince's fake laughing is farther over the top than in any segment I can ever recall him in.

Last few minutes. Bret runs in to attack Owen and get sweet revenge for Survivor Series, but Jeff Jarrett quickly comes to the rescue. Huge heat for Bret's run-in.

Last minute or so of the match sees Arn win the TV title after liberal interference from Col. Parker. Bischoff is announcing and he's devastated by this. Gene is so distraught over Johnny B Badd losing the TV title that he asks fans to call the Hotline to share ideas on preventing something like this from ever happening again. Gotta love Gene's carny dedication to that hotline.

Both pre-match promos are great. Cactus is classic, mentioning that Brody and Funk are the only two legends in wrestling and telling Funk there's not much he can do to him -- his teeth are already gone, his ear is already gone, and his heart is too big to carry. He then lays down the ITSU-DEMO. By contrast, Funk is the tender-hearted, lovable grandpa, saying he'll say a prayer before this dangerous match, but not for Cactus. And away we go. These are two guys who know exactly how to work a match like this -- Irish whip teases, starting by brawling outside, all to build to the barbed wire. But the early boxing stuff was cool too. I forget how much I liked Cactus Jack before Mick Foley became overly humanized. He throws a flaming chair at Funk after he's tied upside down in the barbed wire by the ankle -- wow. Cactus also takes a hiptoss directly on the flaming chair and takes a flaming branding iron to the chest. The match is obviously filled with spots like that. But what makes it tolerable is that these two sell, time their spots well and give their audience what they want. There is still a thinking aspect to it all. I wouldn't want to watch very much stuff like this back to back because of the brutality and because of what we know wrestling to be in 2011, but this was fun. The post-match promos are even better than the pre-match ones.

Seriously, announcer guy. Blink. Cornette managing Morton and Gibson is just weird, especially when Morton uses the racket as a weapon. The Gangstas aren't happy about the title change and attack the Rock & Rolls post match. Cornette teases turning on the R & Rs, but ends up popping both Gangstas with the racket. It always amazes me how Cornette pushes himself as a near equal to the wrestlers, but he also does a heck of a sell job getting laid out. Cactus and DWB finally run the Gangstas off, but Cornette is covered in blood and down by this point. The Rock & Rolls do an interview from the locker room saying Cornette proved himself and he's welcome to be in their corner anytime. Then, we get Cornette laid up at home. In a nice touch, he doesn't have the ability to take down his Christmas decorations because he's so injured. Cornette is truthful about his motivations -- he wanted to be in the corner for the Rock & Rolls because he wanted to help them win so they'd always have to owe him one. He would have taken greater satisfaction in that than in turning on them. All said, now his focus is on the Gangstas. He called his friends the Heavenly Bodies and they have agreed to come into SMW. However, the problem is that they lost a loser leaves SMW match last year. He pleads with Bob Armstrong to make things right and says he'll talk to him next week. Episodic TV, and a strong promo.

This announcer is seriously creeping me out. Blink, dude. Finish of a house show match to set up Boo's face turn. Candido blames Boo for the loss and slaps him around after and Boo fights back, but Tammy is holding Boots the Cat hostage and runs off to kill him. What the fuck? I'm guessing the '94 yearbook will make me see this angle as something more than a feud over a cat in what is supposed to be an old school territory. Right now, this feels very Bobby Heenan kidnaps Matilda. Candido and Tammy do a fun promo explaining that Tammy has been suspended, and then we see a Cactus promo from Boots' grave. Okay, so this is oddly enjoyable, but it still feels like a WWF angle.

When in SMW, I wish Lawler would do his Memphis heel act instead of his WWF heel act. It would play better in SMW. Still, this is a great promo and it's fun to see him in this environment. Here, he talks about Dirty White Boy being a homeless drunk. He also channels his inner Kaufman, doing this whole "I'm from Memphis" schtick.

I left too soon. Then we get a PG-13 interview. Wolfie D is such an awesome babyface. Not to be outdone, JC Ice gets in a great line, calling Rich a bleached-blonde has been and saying his own mama is the finest woman who has ever graced this earth. Take note, Rick Rude and Big Boss Man, THIS is how you build a compelling feud around yo mama insults.

"Oh yeah, here comes a real thrill." -- Lance Russell I've missed him. Scott Bowden comes out with Rich and Gilbert and talk smack about PG-13, with Rich calling them "two boys that don't even have no business." BURN. PG-13 finally had enough of this trash talk and we have a good, old-fashioned studio brawl. We almost never get pull-aparts anymore, which I miss.

Watching the 1995 Yearbook, and about halfway through the first disc. From the 1/4 Tokyo Dome show, Samurai/Otani was strong, Steiners vs Muto/Hase was very good, Hashimoto/Sasaki was excellent, and from the same date in a different location, Toyota/Hasegawa vs Double Inoues is one of the greatest matches I have ever seen. My thoughts on each match: El Samurai vs Shinjiro Otani Rick & Scott Steiner vs Hiroshi Hase & Keiji Muto Shinya Hashimoto vs Kensuke Sasaki Manami Toyota & Sakie Hasegawa vs Kyoko Inoue & Takako Inoue

I can only guess that the reason this isn't talked about at the same level as Thunderqueen and Dream Rush is that not as many people have seen it. It wasn't released commercially, and in fact, we almost missed putting it on here. Thank FLIK and MJH for catching it. After just finishing 1992, this is a breath of fresh air. They still do all of the things that make them great, but because they're more seasoned, there's more meaning behind everything because the pacing and match layout is superior. In 1993, Akira Hokuto, Devil Masami, Bull Nakano and Megumi Kudo were the most psychologically sound wrestlers I could find in the world of Joshi. In 1995, Toyota and Kyoko, who don't exactly have that reputation, are just as good, and Takako and Hasegawa are on another level. I love everything here, from the payback spots on the Inoues from Takako bootscraping Hasegawa, to the way the nearfalls built in a way where they weren't just doing action for action's sake. In fact, I'd compare the layout of this to a big AJPW match. That's not to say it loses its context in AJW, because it doesn't. But Hasegawa's somersault to avoid the lariat reminded me of Akiyama. Takako's jumping DDT a few moments later reminded me of Taue. Does that make Toyota and Kyoko Misawa and Kawada? Probably not. But they both look as good here as I've ever seen them, maybe better than ever in some ways. Had this been a one-fall match, I'd still consider it great, because the first fall is so good. But the finish to each fall was outstanding, especially Takako's flying Jumbo knee from the top rope that closed out the second fall. I also like that Toyota and Kyoko are at a point where they are familiar with each other and work spots accordingly. All the failed attempts of Toyota to apply the rolling cradle to Kyoko were awesome, making the moment when she finally did it a great payoff. Hasegawa and Takako, as mentioned before, are sensational. Takako seems to relish any opportunity she gets to be a heel. There is this moment between the second and third falls where she is standing over a Hasegawa who can barely stand just smiling. Hasegawa is also great at applying small touches, like grinding her fist against Takako's knee, or her elbow against Takako's neck. The only thing keeping this from Best Joshi Match Ever status for me is the moment where Toyota decides to channel Sabu. The brawling outside was unnecessary, and she does a moonsault on a table, misses the move, is visibly frustrated and starts seemingly telling others to get in position, then tries again. It's a shame because up until that moment (and after that moment), Toyota looked great. Every bit as good as Thunderqueen for me, and just slightly below Dreamslam. I'm hoping there are more matches in this vein in 1995.

This was everything you want in a Dome main event. Just an incredible spectacle with lots of big, dramatic movements, slapfests and awesome facial expressions, and Hashimoto making Sasaki look like a world beater, even though Hash took the win. Both guys pull off some tremendous desperation spots, with Hash's surprise spin kick being the highlight. Hash has a bloody nose and looks pretty worse for wear. The best match of the night, and maybe the best Sasaki singles match I have ever seen.

Not having seen the Hase/Sasaki match from '91 in many years, I can pretty safely say this is the best Steiners match I have seen in New Japan. I also would be surprised if it's not the last really good match the Steiners ever had. I wish the match had taken place at a smaller arena, because there are so many points where the crowd is dead where they would normally be going crazy. I'm assuming that was Hase's wife at ringside. Her kissing Hase and making faces at the Steiners rocked, but sadly for Scott, she turned down the chance to become one of his hooches. Funny moment when Rick grabs the woman next to her and kisses her, and she's absolutely mortified (but laughing later). The early minutes have some other gaga too, and I always enjoy when Muto mocks Rick running in circles and howling. Intentional or not, there's a nice little call back to the '92 Dome match, where Rick again tries countering the handspring elbow with a German suplex, but Muta is prepared and elbows him to get out of it. I always hate the running clothesline on the ramp, but that stuff gets over on big shows, so I understand why they do it. Scott countering it this time was fun. I thought the matwork was solid throughout. It was fairly focused, with Muto and Hase spending most of their time working over Scott's leg. But while this was pretty stiff at times, I think what it was lacking to put it over the top was more aggression and heat. It's still worth watching to see what the Steiners were still capable of as late as 1995 and to see Muto start his career year off right.