Loss

Let's talk about this on the other side. I started a topic about it.

We are already starting to work on 1998 (slowly) between other projects. Are you able to assist in helping form an All Japan list?

Could someone here who knows Dave well discuss this with him so he takes any requests seriously?

A fun, storyline-driven match. Ultimo is taken out, leaving poor Casas to get decimated by Santo's team. They stretch this out for a long time just because they can. I enjoy Wagner as the Bull Nakano to Santo's Dump Matsumoto -- this insane second lieutenant who is having a little too much fun carrying this out. The rudos can't be beaten; they can only beat themselves -- as Wagner shoving the ref to the mat is the only thing that costs them the second fall. I like the moment where Casas is lying on his back on the floor getting beat up where the referee raises his hand. Some winner. Ultimo makes his big triumphant comeback in the last few minutes and the crowd goes crazy. Santo takes his receipt like a champ. Ultimo even gets a pin on Santo, which seems like a pretty big deal. Santo and company will face Casas and company again in a week, and I'm looking forward to seeing all of this play out more.

Wow, this was the worst Misawa vs Kawada match I've ever seen. It's not a great match, but I didn't even really think it was that good. It has tons of down time. I'm all for slower paced matches built around selling, but these guys don't engage anyone the way they are doing it here. And that's probably because a lot of the downtime isn't selling, it's just aimless. Of course, an off night for these two is still going to have some redeeming value, but I was shocked at how mediocre I thought this match was. And on top of all of that, this match didn't really add anything new to the rivalry. Misawa beat Kawada again first of all, but also, it's not like the way the match was worked revealed anything new about either guy, except that Misawa is now doing the pop-up/delayed selling thing, which I pretty much despise in my wrestling. The end was just a bunch of headdrops to pop the crowd with not too much meaning beyond that and no structure to the spots. Just when I was going to at least give them credit for the KO finish, putting Misawa on a knockout streak in 1997, Kawada kicked out and Misawa half-assed him through a suplex to take this home. This match never really pulled me in, despite that I hoped to really like it. Anti-climatic in just about every way.

I agree that everyone has made their point. This is the reason we made this board what it is, to avoid this type of thing. Good call.

no one is born that way that's cop out garbage, its VERY much a choice, it's not comparable to your sex or race, those are things your born with, deciding you want to be in a relationship with the same sex is a choice period So you can train your dick to get hard when looking at a man? Deciding to be in any relationship is a choice, unless we are talking about a return to arranged marriages or slavery. Being physically attracted to certain things is much, much, much less likely to be a choice. I won't argue but your not born that way so it is a choice, but we all can believe what we want. I choose to Love women not men, its a choice that I made, I've been hit on in the gym & several other places by gay men, I choose to not go that route, I have several gay friends & never once has one told me they were born gay, they will openly tell you it's there ''preference'' which means its there choice, its the same thing Someone can be celibate and still be gay. Sexual orientation has nothing to do with sexual behavior. Sexual orientation is about sexual attraction. One can have gay sex and be straight. One can have sex with the opposite sex and be gay. Attraction is innate; it's not chosen. Behavior is a choice, but everyone knows that. This is reminding me why this board is Pro Wrestling Only.

What was Jeff Jarrett's motivation for hating WCW? I got the others, even though they never really fleshed it out and explained it as much as they should have, but the storyline for NWO2K looked to be just to fool everyone. That seemed to be the extent of the story.

Flair and Piper did feud over summer, but it had nothing to do with this. Piper came up with some lame excuse the next week, but I think they were toying with a heel turn initially.

I will be surprised if WWE doesn't mention it on RAW and try to make Darren Young their Jason Collins, in an attempt to garner publicity. Since they seem to be going back to sports comparisons in their marketing plans recently, I could see them saying they had an athlete come out before the NFL or MLB, and trying to hype it.

It's possible. I know the next week, Nitro was running really short so they ended up doing a brawl at the finish of the main event that involved almost everyone on the roster in order to fill time.

Samurai tries to take on the Liger role for a big part of this. I like Samurai, but he falls short. Still, there's lots to like about this match, with my favorite moment coming when Kanemoto grabs Samurai's ankle and bends it in an almost unimaginable position when he loses his temper. As a result, Kanemoto realizes he's created an opening for himself and goes back to it every time Samurai strings together any offense, with the highlight being the drama surrounding the figure four. That separates Koji from Otani as a strategist, or at the very least someone who can better channel his emotional outbursts into something that can benefit him in the course of a match. Koji starts ripping Sammy's mask and Liger goes to the apron in protest, and suddenly I remember 1992. That was a great call back. I also love Liger raising his hands and cheering when Sammy puts his knees up to counter the moonsault, followed by a powerbomb and cross armbreaker. At first, the idea that this match was a goofy spot-a-thon seemed like nonsense -- most of this match was on the mat and the work had been pretty focused and straightforward. But then the final few minutes happened, which were total overkill and felt really out of place with what they had done up until that point. What a shame after building the match so well. It's hard for me to call this a bad match considering how much I liked about the first 18 minutes or so, but the last few minutes left a weird taste in my mouth. They should have quit while they were ahead -- they were pretty far ahead. As much as I loved the first part of this, I really hated what they did at the end enough that it dragged this down quite a bit.

5-way Texas Tornado elimination tag I guess is the best way to describe this. Chaotic brawling spectacle with a weird collection of wrestlers. Taijiri is the superstar of this match, putting on a great one-man show against Gedo and Jado and later having a spirited brawl with Kimura. But there are lots of highlights -- so many in fact that this is hard to keep up with and a little overwhelming at times. Not sure who the manager in the suit is, but he's obviously a trained wrestler and looks familiar. Did Kimura and Ishikawa really do an old man version of the Total Elimination? In the end, this feels like a bunch of super heated matches all overlapping each other. Call it Pro Wrestling Bumper Cars.

Savage strongarms Gene into heading to the ring since he's got something to say. JJ Dillon is out to confront Savage and stop the incessant bullying, but it serves Gene right considering what a shit stirrer he has been for so many years. Savage finally attacks JJ and Bischoff is out immediately to beg Savage to stop. JJ, Savage and Bischoff are all good in this, but this segment was weird. I think they had the idea that they wanted Savage to assault a non-wrestler, but didn't really figure out why they wanted to do that or how it would advance the feud with DDP.

Nice little feature on DDP that shows how the guy is becoming a star. WCW production isn't as good, so this looks a little second rate after the immaculately produced Foley segment, but it's still effective.

The focus of this installment is on Cactus Jack. Some great photos here with excellent narration from Jim Ross. Lots of FMW and even ECW footage as Cactus explains his death match history. Mick quotes Shakespeare in full character, which is tremendous. He works in a great story about a woman paying twice the price to move from first class to coach to avoid sitting next to him on an airplane. I love these.

Austin and Shawn figuring out how to work as heels in this match and get an "LOD" chant going simultaneously amazes me and cracks me up; it's a really clever twist on the storyline that the top two babyfaces in the promotion can team and suddenly be the top heels. Shawn works the angle perfectly into the match and I have to give him credit. Shawn gets distracted by the Hart Foundation and Austin tries dragging him to the ring by the hair. Shawn reacts to that about like you'd expect and the LOD win by countout when both Austin and Shawn are thrown out of the ring. Not even really that good of a match, but some really good furthering of a storyline through work in the ring.

The Honky Tonk Man, The Headbangers and Jim Cornette have all felt Sunny's wrath and are out to avenge getting super soaked. But Sunny is prepared and takes them all out at once. I find these amusing.

Highlights of last week's segment with a teaser for this week's segment later in the show.

Bret is still on crutches. The Hart Foundation is in the ring and Austin and Shawn are both on the Titantron by split screen. The storyline is that Bret was re-injured by Austin the previous week and Bret is not be able to make it to King of the Ring now. Funny to watch Austin and Shawn stand there on the Titantron while Bret whines at both of them. God, Bret is amazing. Shawn cuts a fired up promo on Austin and blames him for reinsuring him Bret and costing him this match when Shawn could have made sure he never wrestled in the U.S. again. Austin doesn't give a rat's ass, of course. Things get heated and Shawn has enough of Austin's mouth and finds him elsewhere in the building and gets in his face. This side of Shawn is really good and what I wish we could have gotten from him more. In reaction to all of this, Bret silently plots in Pillman's ear -- Pillman gives up his spot to Shawn at KOTR and now Shawn vs Austin is set. I'm guessing the real reason this match didn't happen is because had Bret gotten his hands on Shawn, he might have killed him.

I'll take Lines That Taken Out Of Context Make Me Laugh Really Hard for $500, Alex.

I'll split my time between this and catching up on 80s sets between yearbooks. Especially since we have a year to submit a ballot. We'll see if I can somehow watch all 326 matches. I'll prioritize in case I can't.