Loss

Does anyone know if Jim Ross resigned from the Talent Relations position himself, or if he was fired/demoted/reassigned? Also, did John Laurinitis resign from the Talent Relations position himself, or was he fired/demoted/reassigned? Also, is Lex Luger still talking to guys in developmental about weight training or was that a one-time thing? Sometimes, this stuff is hard to figure out because the reporting on it isn't really fleshed out.

Also pressured Shawn Michaels into drinking years after he had given up alcohol, supposedly.

Electriclarryland A mix of Atsushi Onita and Larry Zbyszko matches.

I just watched a Goldberg vs Jerry Flynn match on YouTube where Mike Tenay said Flynn was skilled in both pro wrestling and shootfighting. Think about saying that on a wrestling show for a second. How did this geek ever get a gig as an announcer?

Perhaps they are setting up a really high concept angle where the fans are turned heel, in an attempt to get them to boo themselves.

For anything you've seen, feel free to drop reviews in throughout the forum now. I always like reading those.

I do this every single time. I just usually don't post it. This is admittedly barely worth the screen space it takes up to read, but it's always fun to go back and see if the initial predictions were spot on or not. I thought Atlantis/Panther would be my 1991 MOTY and didn't care for that one as much as expected. Misawa/Taue was off my radar in '95 almost completely and ended up being my MOTY. I'm not married to this list by any means.

Going into this yearbook with the majority of these sight unseen, these are the matches that I think have a real chance of being my MOTY. I'm usually (but not always) wrong on these predictions, so we'll see. - Cicloncito Ramirez vs Damiancito El Guerrero (CMLL 01/07/97) - Mitsuharu Misawa vs Kenta Kobashi (AJPW 01/20/97) - 14-Man Cibernetico (CMLL 03/18/97) - 16-Man Cibernetico (CMLL 04/19/97) - El Hijo del Santo vs Negro Casas (CMLL 09/19/97) - Bracito de Oro, Cicloncito Ramirez & Mascarita Magica vs Damiancito El Guerrero, El Fierito & Pierrothito (CMLL 10/03/97) These I think will be the next level down. - Jushin Liger vs Shinjiro Otani (NJPW 02/09/97) - Bret Hart vs Steve Austin (WWF Wrestlemania XIII 03/23/97) - Toshiaki Kawada vs Kenta Kobashi (AJPW 04/19/97) - Mitsuharu Misawa vs Toshiaki Kawada (AJPW 06/06/97) - Etsuko Mita & Mima Shimoda vs Kaoru Ito & Tomoko Watanabe (AJW 09/21/97) - Shawn Michaels vs Undertaker (WWF Bad Blood 10/05/97) I've always thought Eddy vs Rey from Havoc was a great match, but I've never quite understood the praise at the level it normally gets. We'll see if rewatching changes that. If I had to pick what might upset the apple cart here, I'd say it will probably be matches from RINGS and maybe BattlARTS or Michinoku Pro. I'd expect Bret Hart and Steve Austin to deliver the best interviews and promos. The biggest wild card is New Japan. I really don't know what to expect there overall.

Works for me.

www.deathvalleydriver.com/forum The link has changed for the message board.

I don't know that I would. WCW seemed bad at times, but TNA seems both bad and irrelevant. I'm not sure on its worst day that WCW ever felt irrelevant in the big picture of the entire wrestling business.

I think it's more because of a greater appreciation of the more deliberate matches in Joshi, specifically when one can be found that's well-worked. This, Hokuto/Yamada and Kong/Kudo are the matches I remember the most from '93, and they all have that in common.

I have a feeling that when I rewatch this, it will end up ranked far higher for me.

We've done a lot of the work on the '98 set in parallel to '97. While this is still at least a few months away, I want to turn my attention here, so if anyone has anything else to add, please do so. The sooner, the better would be great so I can at least finalize a listing.

Sunshine, Precious, Bambi ... it's not even just a WWE thing. Wrestling promoters assume that male fans don't care what womens' last names are. I'm sad to think of how often they may be right. I'm also not sure how only giving male wrestlers last names -- Batista, Goldberg, Ryback, Finlay, Saturn -- fits into that, if it does at all.

That makes me think Vince is going to be the face in this feud, HHH the heel, when they've been building it the other way around.

It would be a somewhat understandable risk if they had a few house show runs where they drew bigger crowds than expected. I do agree that the TV would seem more major league if they were running an arena. But that type of move is more something that promotions do in response to an increase in interest instead of as an act to generate additional interest. Nitro wasn't booking domes in 1995 like they were in 1998, so you'd think Eric Bischoff might understand that.

Yes.

No.

Previous years' representation of All Japan tells an interesting story. Number of matches per year, including JIP/Finish Only jobs. 1990 - 41 1991 - 36 1992 - 36 1993 - 36 1994 - 30 1995 - 25 1996 - 22 1997 - 24 1993 and 1995 are the two years where I think we left the most All Japan on the cutting room floor. I feel like we have improved as editors over time. Maybe '93 would be closer to 45 or so, and '95 would be closer to 35 or so. 1994 would probably be around 35 if we didn't have to make a few tough cuts as well. Either way, there is a noticeable decline when TV goes to 30 minutes weekly.

Post them here.