Loss

That's the promo where Luger interrupts the tape and does the promo of his life, correct?

Misawa/Kobashi got ***** in the WON and was the WON MOTY. No way it gets left off.

Haven't seen Flair/Reed from Clash 13 in forever. How was it?

The NWA had its share of crap and stuff I didn't like too, but they also had better workers, talkers and crowds. I'd be equally annoyed with someone who only watched the NWA and refused to check anything else out. My favorite wrestling fans are the ones who watch and are interested in everything everywhere.

I'm referring to whatever the original star rating in the WON was. We wouldn't have included it if it wasn't minimum ****.

Good to see Gilbert doing something different than the King of Philly crap. Gilbert announces that he is re-forming the First Family in Global. Gilbert asks Barry Horowitz to join him and Horowitz is ecstatic. Gilbert presents Horowitz with a Winners belt as a gift.

So the action was good, but I wasn't getting the praise. Then Fuchi clipped Kobashi's knee out of frustration after Kobashi slapped him, and the match is on! Jumbo and company spend some time working over Kobashi's knee, which Kobashi sells masterfully. The hot tag to Misawa and subsequent slugfest had great heat. I love Kobashi's springboard bulldog, for lack of a better way to describe it. Really enjoyed the ongoing Kobashi/Fuchi mini-feud, climaxing with Kobashi's rolling cradle. Kawada finally puts Ogawa away with the stretch plum.Much simpler match than most of the 1993 classics, but that's kind of a nice change of pace after all the sprawling epics. If 1992 All Japan is a year of basic matches, I can go for that. I look forward to comparing the six mans on this set from All Japan, WCW and Mexico. From what I can tell of this match, WCW Dangerous Alliance six-mans aren't too far behind this, with the biggest difference being the much hotter finishing stretches in All Japan.

Presentation - I am generally a fan of the WWF presentation. I would rather watch 80s WWF than modern WWE if that is any consolation. But there were many groups running at the time who I thought put on a better TV show with more week-to-week continuity instead of running one angle every month or so. In general, most matches not involving Hogan felt like they had the exact same heat (polite and not much more). Commentary - We've discussed it. I'm not sure what else I can add. Booking - Not terrible. Again, the WWF booking during the 80s was much better than modern WWE. But really, it was pretty uneventful. I didn't like that all the feuds existed in their own universe and rarely overlapped (which was one of my favorite things about JCP). I didn't like that tag teams couldn't headline and were treated like a division. I didn't like that they left so many matches on the table, in that they may have happened once at a house show or something, but never had an extended program: Hogan/Jake, Savage/Perfect, Hogan/Rude, Savage/Rude, Savage/Piper. I didn't like they way they re-educated fans to think that only overly muscular guys were any good. The WWF did an excellent job putting together Hogan's programs. But even as a kid, I didn't like him all that much because I felt like he got away with too much and came off like an asshole at times in his angles. Paul Orndorff just wanted a phone call. Randy Savage just wanted you to stop putting the moves on his woman. Sid Justice eliminated you fair and square from the Royal Rumble -- take your loss like a man and accept it. Agreed. The IC title picture was also really fun at times. Not many times where they had really strong top-to-bottom lineups. Gene Okerlund was generally great at what he did, but I didn't really care for what he did. Announcers as characters in the show was never something I was a big fan of. The whole Craig DeGeorge/Sean Mooney/Todd Pettengill/Michael Cole lineage has always been one of the things people like the least about the company. Nothing. What's wrong with matching up guys on syndication that you have no desire to ever put in long programs, but would still be interesting pairings? The WWF had hot periods for sure. I don't think you'd find many people who considered that time abysmal. I just think my thought to most huge 80s WWF fans was always, and I'll say this as nicely as I can -- JESUS, THE NWA IS RIGHT THERE. WHY DON'T YOU GIVE IT A CHANCE? HOW CAN YOU POSSIBLY THINK THE WWF IS BETTER? I admit I have a bit of bias against mega 80s WWF fans, and it typically comes from not giving other promotions a chance. Nor can I. From a promotion and business standpoint, Vince is untouchable. From a quality standpoint, not so much. Watts was unable to adapt to the way wrestling was changing, for example, but Mid South TV at its best was better booked, more exciting and way more fun to watch than anything the WWF has ever done.

The move from the studio to Center Stage with the hotter crowd and new look made everything seem infinitely fresher. Have you gotten to the Luger heel turn yet?

Gorilla gave Bret Hart the "Excellence of Execution" moniker. I give him credit for that, and I think it played a small role in getting Bret over. If you're going to say it's wrong, it's on you to point to wrestlers who would have not be as over as they were if not for how Gorilla put them over on commentary. Are you really saying Hogan, Andre, Piper, Savage, Rude, Perfect, Heenan, DiBiase or anyone else may not have hit the level they did without Gorilla making them look good at the booth? I can point to Jim Ross doing things to get guys like Lex Luger over in a way they may not have gotten over otherwise. The WWF did a lot of things right in the 80s -- freezing competition out of big buildings, raiding talent from the territories, pushing an invincible top babyface, immaculate television production, great promotion and hype of their big events and probably more. Great booking, great matches, great announcing and delivering an entertaining presentation that withstands the test of time are not among the things they did do well. Not that they were trying to do those things, so that's not even really a huge criticism. Just pointing out that defending them on those principles is a waste of time.

Gorilla gave Bret Hart the "Excellence of Execution" moniker. I give him credit for that, and I think it played a small role in getting Bret over. If you're going to say it's wrong, it's on you to point to wrestlers who would have not be as over as they were if not for how Gorilla put them over on commentary. Are you really saying Hogan, Andre, Piper, Savage, Rude, Perfect, Heenan, DiBiase or anyone else may not have hit the level they did without Gorilla making them look good at the booth? I can point to Jim Ross doing things to get guys like Lex Luger over in a way they may not have gotten over otherwise. The WWF did a lot of things right in the 80s -- freezing competition out of big buildings, raiding talent from the territories, pushing an invincible top babyface, immaculate television production and probably more. Great booking, great matches, great announcing and delivering an entertaining presentation that withstands the test of time are not among the things they did do well. Not that they were trying to do those things, so that's not even really a huge criticism. Just pointing out that defending them on those principles is a waste of time.

Nash won me over when he asked why Ric Flair always wears his kneepads below his knees.

Yes, which was weird. It always felt like WCW promoting Omni shows -- most of your audience couldn't access it if they wanted to.

Savage loved to spell R-E-S-P-E-C-T, and it always amazed me that he could talk in his wrestling voice for that many hours without going hoarse.

I knew Vince ran the WWF, but because of PWI.

Yes. This isn't just a "best of" ... there's sprinkles of Wrestlecrap. I'm thinking a single XWF clip that sort of sums up the whole thing. Maybe Hogan-Hennig?

What XWF needs to go on?

Things that would be awesome: * IWA Mid South recommendations * OVW recommendations

Also, is '99 when Muto was doing death matches and had an absurd American businessman gimmick? Am I imagining things or did that really happen?

If there's any case at all for Yoshida being best in the world in '99, I'd be interested in maybe 5-6 more recommendations at a minimum, if they're out there. If she has no case, no need. Also, what Big Japan needs to go on? Any Osaka Pro? What about the smaller Joshi promotions, like Jd' and NEO? I've seen only one LCO tag in ARSION, but I loved it and I'm sure there's more where that came from.

Thanks, I definitely want to include plenty of Yoshida. Is there any additional second-tier stuff from her that you'd also recommend? Since '99 was a less stellar year than some others, we'll probably have room for some other footage too.

Feel free to use the match threads to post, even if you haven't yet picked up the yearbook.

Of what?

The picture isn't great and there's no sound, but by God, it's Santo vs Casas, arguably the best rivalry in wrestling history, so it goes on regardless. Because of the picture, it's hard to compare it to other matches, but there is some excellent action here. The full match is 45 minutes and we get about 18 minutes of footage that aired. Cool inclusion.

I personally don't think it is, but I think it's a waste of time to debate the merits. GLAAD targets sponsors of companies who are associated with stuff like this. WWE and Punk are smart to get in front of this. Punk's apology seemed genuine, and I think it's a smaller issue than the Cena comments, because Cena has moral authority in WWE while Punk has the total opposite of that. Punk's apology seemed genuine, while Cena's showed that he still doesn't get it.