Loss

Here is one you may want to check out, Jerry: Jack Brisco vs Jumbo Tsuruta, 8/28/76 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GlBZoi5br_s

I like the timeframe. Wrestling in the post-punk era!

I didn't like how this started, but when they slowed the match down and started working holds, it got much better. Hokuto makes a great comeback after being tied in knots for several minutes, with the building popping bigger for each nearfall attempt. This is really Hokuto's high flying against Bull's ground game, interwoven with the story of a capable challenger trying to take down The (Wo)Man. Hokuto gives Bull more of a challenge than anyone did in 1990, and gets herself over in losing. I thought this was a terrific match. There's blatant interference in one spot, which annoyed the hell out of me and hurt this in some ways because it added absolutely nothing to the moment, but I've never seen a DQ in an AJW match anyway.

In the first few minutes, Kobashi slaps Hansen. Hansen attempts to take him outside to atone. Kobashi immediately rolls back in the ring. This frustrates Hansen so much that he grabs a chair and starts beating the shit out of Kobashi. That really sets the tone for the entire match, not so much from a stylistic standpoint, but more from the point of Kobashi being willing to take some lumps in order to dish out his own punishment, and not backing off at all even when he knows he's pissing Hansen off. Winning wouldn't have been bad, but that wasn't really the point of this. It was more to show that Kobashi could go toe-to-toe without getting flustered. The match eventually settles into something way more mat-based than your typical Stan Hansen match, but the larger point is that Kobashi doesn't back down, regardless of the direction Hansen attempts to take the match. Kobashi works Hansen's arm like a champ, and Hansen ups the aggression even more so than usual to deal with him. They end up getting in quite the fight, with Kobashi punching Hansen in the face repeatedly until Hansen reponds by headbutting him from the male position. I think anyone facing Hansen at this point was in for a war, but Kobashi earned his ire more so than usual and lived to tell about it. I could watch these two wrestle all day, and that this is one of the least memorable matches these two had really speaks volumes for how well they worked together.

Interesting match to start things off. All of the elements were there for a great brawl, but it seemed to be missing something. I couldn't really tell if they were putting over the chain or if they were really just that awkward using it. But there were lots of long pauses with nothing happening where they were trying to untangle the chain from something, or take it with them wherever they were going, that knocked this down a peg. I think they realized this, because they worked the final 10 minutes in the ring and the match got much better. There's too much to love here to not call this a good match, but the first few minutes were kind of a mess. It's really cool to see a chain match in Mexico, and in a perfect world, this would have been the catalyst for it to become a staple of lucha libre, with the gimmick being improved over time. The double KO finish was fantastic.

I thought this might make for an interesting topic. I'm looking through New Japan footage for the year to find matches to include for the 1997 Yearbook. The multi-man tags are excellent (when you can actually find one complete) and while I'm not a big fan of Kendo Ka Shin, I do think Takaiwa had potential. They were building a strong division around a core group of guys and dividing them into two camps -- Liger and company, and Otani and company. I know Dave rated juniors matches pretty highly through the end of the decade. But I've noticed on things like jdw's top New Japan matches of the 90s, he doesn't really have anything listed after 1997. Was there something that wasn't liked about the next wave of stars at the time? And did the division experience its own decline with its own factors over time? Or was it just swallowed whole by New Japan's other problems?

Chris Cruise and Terry Funk on Worldwide in late 1989-early 1990 stand out for me. I love that Funk called him Crispy Cruiser, and that Funk purposely called the Z-Man "Zeaman" just so Cruise would have to correct him and let him know it was a nickname, and to stop saying it like a name. Funk's response? "That's what I said - Zeaman."

I'm not necessarily thinking someone from the WWF. Hansen probably would have worked Flair when he came in, instead of Luger. I could see them making a play for Terry Gordy for a short run too.

That's a great point. Flair vs Heel Luger still had legs. After that, they probably would have needed to bring in some new people.

I think you may have the wrong thread. This is the one you are looking for.

John, when are you going to start watching wrestling again?

This is what should have been here, just so we're clear:

Dr. Wagner Jr. vs Norio Honaga is tremendous, and not in the typical New Japan junior way. Watch Wagner's awesome lucha matwork where a lost Honaga has no response except to BITE his way out of it, watch them have eyepoke contests after Honaga mocks Wagner's showmanship, watch Wagner swing a chair at Honaga and scream "MEXICO!" and watch Wagner totally heel on the crowd and start screaming at them to shut up. Not a great match by any means, but too entertaining to not make a yearbook.

Agreed to a point where I would have believed the Luger injury was a storyline had I not learned that it wasn't. Luger was gutsy, but I really think Flair put on an outstanding performance. And Luger had a staph infection and is climbing the cage over and over while Flair is working over his knee, which I thought was impressive. It's definitely a hokey match that shouldn't work. I thought Austin's bumping really carried it, and it was the best match of their feud. I can definitely see that point of view. It didn't infuriate me. I think I saw it as a better version of Kawada/Kobashi -- there's a great match somewhere in there fighting to get out. The last four months of the year are definitely a turning point for the yearbook. The match quality picks way up. I look at that as a case of the promotions that actually picked the right people and were patient starting to reap the rewards. I'm really excited for other people to get to this match. Can't wait to see other reactions to it. We'll see how everything looks on rewatch when the decade is done, but it has a chance of being my MOTD. I loved it that much.

I liked the Hogan/Earthquake match at Summerslam and the UWFI tags.

Here are the other promotions: BattlARTS Yuki Ishikawa & Alexander Otsuka vs Daisuke Ikeda & Mohammed Yone (BattlARTS 01/12/99) Daisuke Ikeda vs Alexander Otsuka (BattlARTS 04/26/99) Yuki Ishikawa vs Mitsuhiro Matsunaga (BattlARTS 05/14/99, Bed of Nails Death Match) Yuki Ishikawa & Daisuke Ikeda vs Joe Malenko & Carl Greco (BattlARTS 06/09/99) Yuki Ishikawa vs Daisuke Ikeda (BattlARTS 08/29/99) Taka Michinoku, Yuki Ishikawa & Kazunari Murakami vs Alexander Otsuka, Mohammed Yone & Ikuto Hidaka (BattlARTS 09/26/99) Taka Michinoku vs Minoru Tanaka (BattlARTS 10/17/99) Alexander Otsuka vs Mitsuhiro Matsunaga (BattlARTS 11/09/99) Naoki Sano vs Maasaki Mochizuki (BattlARTS 11/09/99) Tiger Mask IV & Naohiro Hoshikawa vs Takeshi Ono & Daisuke Ikeda (BattlARTS 11/09/99) RINGS Volk Han vs Hiromitsu Kanehara (RINGS 01/23/99) Kiyoshi Tamura vs Tsuyoshi Kohsaka (RINGS 01/23/99) Akira Maeda vs Alexander Karelin (RINGS 02/21/99) Kiyoshi Tamura vs Hiromitsu Kanehara (RINGS 03/22/99) Kiyoshi Tamura vs Frank Shamrock (RINGS 04/23/99) Tsuyoshi Kohsaka vs Yoshihisa Yammamoto (RINGS 05/22/99) Kiyoshi Tamura vs Yoshihisa Yammamoto (RINGS 06/24/99) Hiromitsu Kanehara vs Wataru Sakata (RINGS 08/19/99) Michinoku Pro CIMA vs Minoru Fujita (Michinoku Pro 01/09/99) Naohiro Hoshikawa, Masato Yakushiji & Masaru Seno vs Shiima Nobunaga, Judo Suwa & Sumo Fuji (Michinoku Pro 01/10/99) Taka Michinoku, Gran Naniwa & Tiger Mask IV vs Great Sasuke, Gran Hamada & Pablo Marquez (Michinoku Pro 03/06/99) Alexander Otsuka vs Jinsei Shinzaki (Michinoku Pro 03/06/99) Great Sasuke, Taka Michinoku & Gran Naniwa vs Shiima Nobunaga, Judo Suwa & Sumo Fuji (Michinoku Pro 03/13/99) Great Sasuke vs Jinsei Shinzaki (Michinoku Pro 04/27/99) Taka Michinoku, Shoichi Funaki & Tiger Mask IV vs Shiima Nobunaga, Sumo Fuji & TARU (Michinoku Pro 06/19/99) Taka Michinoku & Minoru Fujita vs Shiima Nobunaga & Sumo Fuji (Michinoku Pro 07/17/99) Tiger Mask IV vs Gran Naniwa (Michinoku Pro 07/17/99) Taka Michinoku, Magnum Tokyo & Minoru Fujita vs Curry Man, Super Boy & SUWA (Michinoku Pro 08/02/99) Taka Michinoku, Magnum Tokyo & Minoru Fujita vs SUWA, Super Boy & Curry Man (Michinoku Pro 08/22/99) Taka Michinoku & Great Sasuke vs Tiger Mask IV & Minoru Fujita (Michinoku Pro 09/23/99) CIMA vs Minoru Fujita (Michinoku Pro 10/19/99) Tiger Mask IV vs Great Sasuke (Michinoku Pro 10/19/99) Great Sasuke, Gran Hamada, Maasaki Mochizuki & Minoru Fujita vs Sasuke The Great, Sumo Fuji, Curry Man & NANIWA (Michinoku Pro 11/07/99) Tiger Mask IV & Magnum Tokyo vs CIMA & SUWA (Michinoku Pro 11/07/99) Minoru Fujita, Shiryu II & Jody Fleisch vs CIMA, Super Boy & Curry Man (Michinoku Pro 12/21/99) BJPW Ryuji Yamakawa vs Tomoaki Honma (BJPW 06/20/99, 3 Way Board Falls Count Anywhere Death Match) Tomoaki Honma vs The Winger (BJPW 10/03/99, Barbed Wire Board Death Match) Tomoaki Honma vs Shadow WX (BJPW 10/17/99, Light Bulb and Barbed Wire Board Death Match) Tomoaki Honma & Ryuji Yamakawa vs Shadow WX & The Winger (BJPW 11/08/99, Light Bulb and Barbed Wire Board Death Match) Shadow WX vs Ryuji Yamakawa (BJPW 12/04/99, 4 Way Light Bulb Board Death Match)

Kevin Sullivan tended to always have great input into his own stuff, no matter who was booking. Flair had the booker title at this point, but wasn't really getting anything he wanted at all because of resistance from Hogan and Savage. Sullivan took the booker title officially in July, but was sort of doing the job before that.

Sullivan has explained the DoD as nothing more than an attempt to give a gimmick to Hogan's jobbers so the matches would be more interesting. I understand that, but this is what he thought of? Kevin Sullivan had so many great ideas. Kevin Sullivan had so many awful ideas.

Did Luger and Tully team outside of the Crockett Cup?

Here's the other Joshi (non-GAEA) I have for '98. How is this for a list? AJW Momoe Nakanishi vs Kumiko Maekawa (AJW 03/01/98) Shinobu Kandori vs Yumiko Hotta (AJW 03/21/98) (Finish only) Manami Toyota vs Shinobu Kandori (AJW 08/23/98) JWP Devil Masami & Hikari Fukuoka vs Manami Toyota & Kaoru Ito (JWP 01/23/98) Hikari Fukuoka & Tomoko Kuzumi vs Devil Masami & Cutie Suzuki (JWP 06/14/98) Mayumi Ozaki & Reiko Amano vs Dynamite Kansai & Tomoko Miyaguchi (JWP 07/31/98) ARSION Yumi Fukawa vs Candy Okutsu (ARSION Grand Opening 02/18/98) Aja Kong vs Michiko Omukai (ARSION Grand Opening 02/18/98) Yumi Fukawa vs Michiko Omukai (ARSION Starlet 04/11/98) Candy Okutsu vs Michiko Futagami (ARSION Starlet 04/17/98) Mariko Yoshida vs Mikiko Futagami (ARSION 05/05/98) Aja Kong vs Mariko Yoshida (ARSION 06/21/98) Rie Tamada & Hiroumi Yagi vs Michiko Omukai & Yumi Fukawa (ARSION 12/18/98) Mariko Yoshida vs Candy Okutsu (ARSION 12/18/98) JD' Lioness Asuka vs Jaguar Yokota (Jd' 01/11/98) Jaguar Yokota & Yoko Kosugi vs Lioness Asuka & The Bloody (Jd' 02/02/98) Lioness Asuka vs Kyoko Inoue (Jd' 04/26/98) Jaguar Yokota & Yuko Kosugi vs Lioness Asuka & The Bloody (Jd' 07/05/98)

Here's the other Joshi I currently have on deck for '99. How is this for a list? AJW Etsuko Mita & Mima Shimoda vs Kaoru Ito & Tomoko Watanabe (AJW 04/11/99) Lioness Asuka, Mima Shimoda & Etsuko Mita vs Manami Toyota, Kaoru Ito & Nanae Takahashi (AJW 07/11/99) Etsuko Mita & Mima Shimoda vs Momoe Nakanishi & Nanae Takahashi (AJW 09/29/99) Etsuko Mita & Mima Shimoda vs Tomoko Watanabe & Kumiko Maekawa (AJW 12/08/99) Manami Toyota vs. Kyoko Inoue (AJW 12/08/99) JWP Hikari Fukuoka, Hiroumi Yagi & Candy Okutsu vs Azumi Hyuga, Carlos Amano & Commando Bolshoi (JWP 03/28/99) ARSION Mariko Yoshida vs Mika Akino (ARSION 01/17/99) Mariko Yoshida vs Hiroumi Yagi (ARSION 02/18/99) Hikari Fukuoka & Mikiko Futagami vs Aja Kong & Candy Okutsu (ARSION 03/16/99) Mariko Yoshida vs Mikiko Futagami (ARSION 04/14/99) Mariko Yoshida vs Yumi Fukawa (ARSION 05/04/99) Mariko Yoshida vs Michiko Omukai (ARSION 05/04/99) Aja Kong vs Mariko Yoshida (ARSION 08/06/99) Mariko Yoshida vs Yumi Fukawa (ARSION 09/26/99) Aja Kong vs Mariko Yoshida (ARSION 12/11/99) Ayako Hamada & AKINO vs Etsuko Mita & Mima Shimoda (ARSION 12/11/99) JD' The Bloody & Fang Suzuki vs Sugar Sato & Chikayo Nagashima (Jd' 01/24/99) Lioness Asuka vs Kyoko Inoue (Jd' 01/24/99) Cooga & Sumie Sakai vs The Bloody & Fang Suzuki (Jd' 06/13/99) Lioness Asuka vs Yoko Kosugi (Jd' 06/13/99) Lioness Asuka vs Kyoko Inoue (Jd' 08/22/99) The Bloody & Fang Suzuki vs Sumie Sakai & Megumi Yabushita (Jd' 09/05/99) The Bloody vs Yuko Kosugi (Jd' 11/01/99) Lioness Asuka vs Cooga (Jd' 12/28/99)

The 6/3 match is definitely a great, worthy match that will be unlike anything else on the yearbook, so there will be something. The closest thing to something yearbook-worthy was Liger/Samurai vs Otani/Taijiri. The match is excellent actually, but every three minutes or so, they cut ahead. There are going to be plenty of Liger tags on this set, and I'd like to limit it to the stuff we have in full. Still need to go through the Ueda Tribute, Wrestle Dream Factory and the Kajiwara memorial.

I actually love the idea of it being Eddie Gilbert as well. The key, as is always the case with Gilbert, is to surround him with an entourage. Combining this and the gift box angle, Gilbert leading Cactus and Abdullah after Sting would have been great.

That's a Monsoon line?

Dusty would have been incredible. "I was forced out of this company in favor of muscleheads like you", sending various charges after him.