Superstar Sleeze

ECW World TV Champion Rob Van Dam vs Jerry Lynn - ECW Hardcore Heaven 1999 Kinda crazy to think a mediocre series of matches made Jerry Lynn a star and extended his career for another decade. Jerry Lynn is just so damn generic. This was pretty terrible. It was exacerbated by how fucking long it was. It just dragged and dragged. None of the spots really stood out like the Living Dangerously match. The sunset flip powerbomb through the table and Fonzie taking a chair throw were probably the best spots. The spots just were meaningless. There was no selling at all. It was a total my turn, your turn match with none of the fun spots. There was a tumbling sequence in this that reminded me of the tumbling sequence we saw during Owens/Rollins that got a huge pop and so did this one. It is amazing this is what people associate "wrestling" with. This a barrage of rollups. I thought they were cosplaying Misawa/Kobashi/Kawada, but I think it all stems from that Eddie Guerrero/Dean Malenko series. I think that may have been one of the most influential series of matches of all time. Anyways this sucked.

ECW World TV Champion Rob Van Dam vs Jerry Lynn - ECW Living Dangerously 1999 Never seen this series before been meaning to for a long time. I was prepared to hate this, but you know what, it was not half bad. Some of the spots were actually pretty nifty and I was really enjoying them on their own. I think the most frustrating thing about RVD is that he could have been a great wrestler. He has the best balance I have ever seen out of any wrestler. He is a great bumper; he really throws himself into every bump and is the best DDT/piledriver bump taker ever. He is super underrated in his feats of strength. Dude was ridiculously strong. His non-chair related offense is actually pretty good. He just has zero sense of psychology. Like it is incredible he has no grasp on why things should happen in pro wrestling. I thought the beginning story of the match was pretty damn good that if they continued with this could have been legitimately. It was cocky RVD constantly getting caught hot dogging. First it making fun of Lynn for being double over, then it was trying to duck using his split and then with a springboard. Each time, Lynn would make RVD pay and it was a great way to get Lynn over and RVD was a really effective heel as a great bumper and hot dog. Then they did five straight minutes where the chair was involved in every spot. The Mexican Surfboard throw him up in the air and land on chair made MARK OUT! Insane! The sequence with all the missed kicks and then Lynn legdropping RVD's head into chair actually felt organic. This was spot, spot, spot with no transitions but the spots were good. It was RVD as Carrot Top at its best, weirdly enough. Once the chair went away, I thought it got boring. They kinda just hit a bunch of spots. RVD was consistently better than Lynn in terms of bumping and cool offense. Lynn felt very basic. RVD's little back heel kick to Lynn's head on a suplex attempt was awesome! Draw outta nowhere was weird. Ref was going to award the belt to Lynn. Um fuck no. That's not how this works. Tie goes to the champ. Lynn wants five more minutes telegraphing his loss. At least they made it quick afterwards. Lynn gets his nearfall with a piledriver. Horrible setup for Van Daminator and Five Star Frogsplash finishes it. I thought first half was pretty good, got worse without the chair weirdly enough. Not a classic, but hey it was not bad. ***1/4

I think Shane's point was that he was NOT tapping out; HE WAS REACHING FOR THE ROPES! HE WAS REACHING FOR THE ROPES! Fuck The World Heavyweight Champion Taz vs Bam Bam Bigelow - ECW Heat Wave 1998 Fun fact when "FTW" became an popular acronym in the mid-00s I thought everyone was saying "Fuck The World" because of Taz not "For the win". Way better than the Loving Dangerosuly match. Bigelow has a great powerbomb. I actually like Taz's no-sell to really add some fire to his babyface shine. I think a well-timed no sell can really add to a match. The crowd brawling ranged from very good and heated to stupid that cross armbreaker was horrible. An actual proper heat segment was nice with Bigelow looking like a monster. The table shit was stupid, but it is fucking Taz. They crash through the ramp playing off the Living Dangerously finish. They really milked it and got a great crowd reactions. Taz's no sell was perfect and exactly the fired up spot to really put the finish over. The submission was not great and the tap out was not existent. I agree with Douglas: "HE WAS REACHING FOR THE ROPES!". I didn't see a tap out. Odd way to put over their monster babyface character. Good match. ***

Mike Awesome vs Masato Tanaka - ECW HeatWave 98 That table bump was INSANE! The table did not really break his fall and his head looked like it hit the concrete hard. Awesome should have been a bigger deal in the US. I don't think he had much charisma, but with that size and coordination he could have been at least a top level heel (thanks, Vince Russo). I thought this was an awesome offensive exhibition for the big man.. For Masato Tanaka, he of course takes a lickin' and keeps on tickin'. I have never seen an FMW match before, but it seemed like a pretty good ECW match. Awesome was hitting his spots perfectly. He was really showing off his balance on the top rope. Those dives were great. The steel chair war was fun, which I know is their trademark. Those exposed steel chair shots to Tanaka's head made me cringe. Love the Awesombomb! Thought for sure Tanaka was going through table on the floor, pretty crazy Awesome took it. Surprised Tanaka went ove but strong finish with the Tornado DDT on steel chair. Very good garbage brawl. ***1/2

Chris Candido vs Lance Storm - ECW Heat Wave 1998 Watched this before and thought it was pretty good. Did not age well. Storm lacks any sort of fire or pizzazz. Like just nothing. So mechanical and cold. Everything feels thought out, artificial and mechanical. I can see him being a good trainer for technique, but lacks that attitude. This is supposed to be a grudge match of two tag partners that hate each other, but instead when Storm rips off Candido's head gear (Candido's ear was injured by Sabu/RVD in their title loss) nothing. No heat. Just nothing. Candido for his part was definitely too 80s Southern stoogy for a grudge match BUT at least it was entertaining. A lot of the moves lacked consequence. I did think Candido had a lot of good offense and took some really nice bumps. He clearly was a very good worker, just never really in the right environment. I will tell who was awesome and salvaged the entire match: SUNNY! From the opening strut to AC/DC with Candido to losing her top at the end, she was incredible in this. So entertaining. Loved the ring introduction. Loved the trash talking of the ref. The cheating. The interference. All great. Candido wins with the Blond Bombshell, a top rope powerbomb that is pretty cool. Just a collection of moves and Sunny being all sorts of awesome in this.

I need to rewatch Charlotte/Sasha I think this one of those matches better seen on TV to get the details. Crowd heat was great. Rollins/Owens was the better live experience match. Wrestled bigger. Finish to women felt abrupt

I know! That was drizzling shits. As a lifelong wrestling and soap opera fan bad acting does not bother me, but I thiought that was atrocious

Great spotfest. Match of the night. Suicide dive into cage was great. Table spot was insane, fun finish. The wicked annoying WWE finish run of "my turn, your turn" was ever present but spots were fun.

At the show live Thought Roman/Rusev was great. Romam selling was great. Meaningful momentum shifts using cage. Not an MOTYC but a great match a little slow lacked urgency. Women -characters are over but not work we will see during main event. Dana, take me to Flex City BABY! Enzo & Big Cass got one of the loudest pops I've heard live in a loooooong time.

ECW World TV Champion Taz vs Bam Bam Bigelow - ECW Living Dangerously 1998 So Bam Bam turned on Douglas to get the championship and then lost the title. Taz is on the hunt for world championship. Taz and Bigelow team up so now Bigelow turns on Taz and rejoins Triple Threat. I have never seen this match. Thought I had, but I have just seen the Heat Wave match. Taz is legitimately one of my least favorite wrestlers. It is not just the horrible monster face character, it is his horrible selling, his horrible ring movements, the ridiculous suplexes that aren't cool in a Steiner way. But I always go into any match with an open mind (see Bigelow/RVD). In fact, I thought the first five minutes of this were very good. Not as good as Bigelow/RVD because they were wrestling without urgency and moving at a crawl. However, I thought Bigelow bumped well for Taz early then caught him and played the monster heel really well. Once they did that STUPID, STUPID bump where Taz suplexed Bigelow off the ramp into the crowd causing Taz to nail the back of his head on the railing. It went downhill in a hurry. They were already plodding, but this turned into an incredibly pedestrian brawl around the outside. There was just no rhyme or reason to anything. Bigelow slipping was funny. The spot that everyone remembers is going through the ring when Taz locks in the Tazmission and Bigelow falls back, which was a badass spot legitimately. Bigelow crawls out, drags Taz with him and wins the match and the belt. Shitty match. Between this and his actually pretty awesome couple months in WCW at the end of the year, this may have been Bam Bam's best year as a monster heel.

ECW World TV Champion Bam Bam Bigelow vs Rob Van Dam - ECW 4/4/98 Awesome monster heel performance by Bam Bam I don't know if he ever looked this monstrous. He was this Creature of Black Lagoon that would keep rising and rising and all of RVD's crazy bombs couldn't not keep him down. Loved RVD's offense here too it was all about creating space to create a chance for an aerial assault. Great shit! Like really impressive how good escalation was and how committed each was to his role. RVD's dives into crowd were insane and Still Bigelow keeps coming loved that leg drop on railing. RVD full court press! Bugelows clothesline was great. Feels like a horror movie. RVD reopening BAM BAMs cut was great. If the finish was the missed moonsault into Five Star frogsplash. I'd probably go scary high on this match but the finish is overwrought and fucking stupid. RVD is here to soften up Bam Bam for Sabu for upcoming PPV. However RVD is a cocky prick and has kinda been an asshole to Sabu. So Sabu comes out helps RVD win the title and then is all pissed when it happens. Wouldn't it make sense for RVD to win on his own look selfish and get Sabu pissed? But a match without run-ins is passé ugh! Up until the run-in incredible match just total commitment to a monster vs aerial assault of RVD. Shocked how good this was, highly recommended! ****1/4

ECW World Tag Champs Chris Candido & Lance Storm - ECW Waltham, MA 3/6/98 For those keeping track at home Candido & Storm hate each other but are tag champs. Storm was turfed from Triple Threat in favor of Bam Bam (upgrade to me). If they purposefully lose the tag titles they are both fired. FBI are already awesome. Even though Candido is technically a heel his chemistry with Smothers it never drags the match down. I like the fake into a heat segment ok Storm with a blind knee and jumping karate kick by Smothers. The real one is Rich pulling down top rope and critching Storm on railing. Heat segment is too short. Candido house a fire ending with a Powerbomb and Lance Storm leap was great. Finish was a little long in tooth but got the we hate each other but protect each other damnit over. SUPERKICK into a German was a good finish. Take most of the end and stick on heat and this is a great match. FBI are such great heat-seeking heels. ***

Sandman vs Sabu - ECW House Party '98 Of all the ECW matches I've seen, I would say this and Sabu/Funk Born to be Wired are the two best. But I'm a Sabu Mark. Great straight right, love his way of selling, he always seems like he is in pain, I love the sense of danger and urgency and his of course his mystique. I believe this an offshoot of the WWF (RVD & Sabu) vs ECW (Dreamer & Sandman) where Sabu used a fireball. At November 2 Remember they apparently they had the worst match ever and then turnaround and have a legitimately great match ever. Insanely violent. I think the big positives are how organic this feels and the urgency and how legitimately violent this is. I am not too into overt violence and part of me wonders why I even liked this because it is disturbing two humans put themselves through it. I thought it was well-segmented and flew right by. I loved Sandman's drunk staggering selling. No reasons for snap back bumps. He has been knocked loopy. Sabu was violent and urgent. He set up his spot and went no waiting to make sure Sandman was in a safe position. Even the crowd brawling wasn't bad with good Sabu punches. Would've liked more Sandman struggle and a better Sandman transition. I think a long Sandman transition was great like the table Suplex and leg drop across ladder but thought Sabu started selling too early. Still an incredible war of attrition. Perfect timing for Sandman to go for barbed wire but he takes a MASSIVE BUMP from top of ladder to floor through table. Holy shot indeed! Not to be outdone Sabu tries to leap on him and breaks his jaw on the railing! OWWWWWW! Two massive bumps! Sandman has time to set up the barbed wire in corner so he goes through it. There are some stupid things like Sandman holding the barbed wire on his face and other contrived barbed wire spots. Still drop kick chair into barbed wire into the face is another OW! Sabu goes face first into barbed wire and then CANED in the face! Broken jaw! Shit! Fonzie tapes his jaw. Sabu actually gets in some more offense before a wicked cane shot to the broken jaw polishes him off. I usually don't like brawls over ten minutes but this was an excellent war of attrition. This was like the Mutoh/Tenryu '01 of ECW. Sandman gets knocked loopy at the beginning and sells loopy throughout and in this case needs weapons and a major mistake by Sabu to win. Fittingly violent for these two ECW stars. Contender for best ECW match ever and great brawl. ****1/4

I popped for this.

I just watched them. They were all very good, cage match flirted with greatness. I think we can do something.

Low Ki vs American Dragon - APW King of the Indies 2001 I am always impressed by how mat based the early 2000s indies can be. I really think it was a true smorgasbord of pro wrestling unliked the homogenized WWE product (I don't watch much of the indies anymore so I don't want to generalize). The first 15 minutes of this was an excellent mat work clinic that was just dripping with struggle. The highspots were all interesting escapes and holds. Very like in the way of throws and flips. I loved the symmetry of the blocked shots on the ropes and how each man was going for chokes, but the other found escapes. I loved Low-Ki's escape out of the Texas Cloverleaf with his feet and the way he broke down Bryan's bridge was incredible and drew Ooooohs and Aaaaaahs. Liked Dragon stealing the Tidal Wave only to piss off Ki, who hit with more tremendous force. Everything was earned like the test of struggle, which turned into a battle of headbutts. Everything was sold well. I really liked that upside down contortion that ended up in with them slapping each other. Or stuff like Ki holding onto a suplex after hitting it to go for the choke. They felt very evenly match and that first one to make a mistake would cost them. I thought both felt fully invested in the match. Even at the 15 minute mark, it still felt even, but it was not due to move trading, it was just that these were just two very equal wrestlers and both were wrestling hard to be King of the Indies. As the time progressed, I realized what they were attempting to accomplish a match without a shine-heat-comeback. A departure from that formula is very rare and can be very rewarding but it can lead to a match that feels like it has no rising action and no build to climax that's how I felt here. Bryan gets an arm drag and then a deep double wristlock. Ki is able to get a Kappo Kick to the head, but no Phoenix Splash. A kick to the head on the break of the Full Nelson on the apron allows Ki to hit a Phoenix Splash (waits a little too long) on Bryan on the outside. Then Dragon is the first up doing moves, strange. He hits a super back suplex for two and then a Dragon Suplex, but cant cover because his knee is hurt when did that happen. He goes for a second one, but Ki shifts his weight and ends up with the Dragon Clutch (that's how he won the Super 8 against American Dragon in February). Even when Danielson makes the ropes, he is tenacious about putting it on. Nice counter into Cattle Mutilation, but back into the Dragon Clutch. KI KRUHER~! But his arm is messed up, Ki is selling that arm quite a bit. The selling and struggle has been how the charts. Just does not feel much in the way of progress. Ki goes for the Tidal Wave and Danielson meets him with a baseball slide to the arm. SICK! Cattle Mutilation, Big time Low-Ki chants as the crowd gets into it. But Dragon is too exhausted to hold it. Another Dragon Suplex into a Cattle Mutilation. Cattle Mutilation is a visually impressive submission at first but the way Ki is selling it (not moving) is boring as fuck. Needs to be a quick tapout, no drama in that hold. Ki gets his one big hope spot a top rope Ki Krusher before on a Tidal Wave he gets Dragon Suplexed and then taps out to Cattle Mutilation. Loved all the struggle and thought the first 15 minutes was excellent. They went for something unique with the competitive start and a finish run with no shine or heat. Never fault them for that. It just did not click for me. It felt pretty heatless (regardless of the crowd) because it did not have that sense of build. Cattle Mutilation is a bad, boring submission when it is not a quick submission. On the strength of the beginning, I give this a good rating and it should be checked out because of the novelty of the layout. ****

Kurt Angle vs Shane McMahon - WWF King of the Ring 2001 Street Fight Call me crazy, but I thought this was a really great match, haters be damned. I had never actually seen it before and was totally prepared to hate it, but I thought they pretty much hit this one out of the park given the circumstances. Lets get to the main criticism: Kurt Angle, Olympic Gold Medalist Wrestler has a pretty even struggle with Shane McMahon the pudgy, untrained Greenwich-born boss' son. First I think people hype up the Olympic Gold Medalist thing too much to unnecessarily widen the gulf to prove a point. If you take it to its logical conclusion, the only person with enough credibility to stand in a ring with Angle is someone like Brock Lesnar. On top of that, Angle very rarely uses his amateur mat background. He wrestles like a pretty conventional pro wrestler. It just so happens that in this match he acts more like Olympic wrestler than usual, but I think they cover that well. I think the story of the plucky underdog trying to survive against the wrestling machine was really well-executed from an offensive standpoint. Now MY main criticism: I think there is a ***** match lurking in here, but this falls very, very short of the mark because Shane McMahon is absolutely atrocious at eliciting sympathy from the crowd. If he could sell how in over his head he was, this match would have shot up the charts. Still, I think the good far outweighs the bad in this match. This is an all-time great Kurt Angle performance and I don't even like Angle as a wrestler that much (see how much I trash him in my reviews of his TNA matches, he is pretty much the only person alive who cant have a great match with AJ Styles) Lets bear in mind, Angle has already had two matches going into this match. Angle totally overwhelms him to start. Taking him down with ease and generally manhandling him Olympic freestyle. I think Shane getting the Dragon Leg Whip and the slaps to the back of the head (which he could have done way better) was just your routine fun babyface shine where the babyface shows up the overconfident heel. So Angle being an overconfident heel doubles down and leaves himself in a prone position to have Shane see if he could wrestle him and Angle just totally overpowers him. So Angle again lets himself be ridden, but this time Shane-O Mac is wise enough to just punt him in the abdomen and then mount him and reign down the haymakers. Angle bucks him off and Shane turns it into a track meet and from there he uses the barricade as elevation to use an aerial assault to gain more momentum from his moves. With this all working for him, he now goes for the Kendo Stick and brains Angle. PERFECT! Totally credible. If Shane McMahon had any chance in hell, it was to do that use Angle's overconfidence against him, turn it into a track meet, use his surroundings and weapons. Angle was totally on fire as a wrestling machine. If Shane could have just sold, this would have been an insanely great opening. I loved the Angle bridge outs on Shane's covers. Such a cool, macho hot dog thing to do. Shit on Shane the wrestler all you want, but he has a better Sharpshooter than the Rock. I was not in love with Shane being this dominant, but I think it was more than covered by the amount of weapons shots. Shane knows he needs a home run so he goes for a Shooting Star Press on a trash can on Angle, but only gets the trash can, OW!!! Great transition. Angle then leads Shane up to the entrance way. I had seen one of the Belly To Bellys where he goes through the glass because it was on the don't try this at home, but I had no idea the first time IT DID NOT BREAK AND HE LANDED RIGHT ON HIS HEAD! HOLY SHIT! Then when he went through, he and Angle got cut up bad. I was hooked. It was some Foley-level crazy shit, but it worked for me. Angle's pride was severely wounded this punk kid was spitting in the face of Superman and he had snapped was going to destroy him. Then again inside the Gorilla Position, I had no idea about this section. Two more suplexes into the glass and didn't break, landing with a thud before Angle chucks him through the glass. Nasty, nasty, nasty. Angle is so beat up, he needs a cart to wheel him to the ring. I would have loved it to the end there, but I have no problem giving Shane one last hope spot with a LOWBLOW (another great setup for Shane Offense) and an Angle Slam. Angle beating the tar out of him with a piece of table and then the Super Angleslam to finish was great. If Shane was any way at all sympathetic, I would say this is a serious MOTYC. One of the all-time great Angle performance, total sadist on top, but looked vulnerable when he needed to. All the Shane offense was very well set up and led to his big chance on the trash can, but he missed. Gets destroyed in a violent fashion through glass, one last hope spot set up by a low blow before a nice finish. Really could not have been better laid out. Awesome, awesome match. ****1/4

AJ Styles vs Christopher Daniels - NWA 53rd Anniversary Show 10/13/01 Christopher Daniels with short spiky blond hair. Wild! Never seen that before. AJ Styles has repeatedly said this is the match that put him on the map. I think Nitro had a little bit to do with that. He says that this got him the deal to go to Australia with Jarrett and then ultimately end up in TNA. Basic 90s workrate influenced spotfest complete with nearfall barrage at the end to applause. Just two guys doing all they can to get noticed and throwing out all their moves willy-nilly. It was pretty fun for what it was worth. AJ's springboard shooting star press to the floor was INSANE!!! HOLY SHIT! You could tell AJ clearly had something this early because when it came to hit strikes, do highspots, sell, bump and just basic movement he was already great. He just had not put all the pieces together, but he clearly had all the pieces. Daniels was fine. To me he was always be in that tier below your AJs, Kis, Joes, and Bryans, he is good, but never really all that great on his own. The finish involving Styles' manager made it feel like you were watching pro wrestling after a spotfest. Daniels hits Angels Wings, but is distracted by the manager (who was actually a pretty decent promo, surprised he did not get picked up) and then tripped by the manager into Styles Clash. Felt like a good tryout match and that's what it was ultimately and glad AJ got signed because of it. ***

IWGP Heavyweight Champion Kazuyuki Fujita vs Yuji Nagata - NJPW 6/6/01 I love asshole shooters in pro wrestling. On paper, Fujita should be my favorite wrestler ever. Loved him in the Tanahashi match, but I have really never found a really great Fujita match. Again this disappointed. It just did not have that energy you get usually when a shooter is in the ring. It just felt like a very decent MMA match. I liked Nagata getting the early back drop driver and Fujita hitting an uppercut to the abdomen so he could take a breather, but then it was back to the clinch again and again. Lots of blocked shots. Lots of choke, cross armbreaker attempts. I liked Nagata countering the rear naked choke by using an inverted Indian deathlock with his body as the fulcrum and his legs as the lever. Very cool. Nagata gets a head drop German and Fujita just pops up and throws him down with a slam. Fujita gets an arm triangle and clearly Nagata taps, but ref ignore and pulls Fujita off by the hair when he makes the ropes. Fujita gets some punches that don't look great hits a barrage of knees to a prone Nagata to win by knockout. Akiyama was there and shook Nagata's hand to set up Nagata/Akiyama presumably, but then Nagata jobs weird. Good but not great pseudo-MMA match. INOKI BOMA-BA-YE~! ***

ICW Champion Low-Ki vs Amazing Red - ICW 9/14/01 Just three days after 9/11 in NYC, this match takes place, which is just very strange to think about. AWESOME OPENING SEQUENCE! HOLY SHIT! It was like an action movie sequence come to life. I loved how explosive and quick it was. Low Ki looked like he was going to stomp the hell out of Red, but the kid was too quick and evasive. Once he caught with that kick , Red sold and bumped his ass of and Low Ki beat the living shit out of him. Really strong opening. Liked Red's comeback starting with a tornado DDT, good impact and Red had some nice punches and chops. For an Indy Rey Rey, Red was pretty good. DragonRana by Red gets a Holy Shit chant as it deserves. Red hits Infra-Red off the top but basically lands flush on Low-Ki's hard head and sells his own leg. Nice use of rope breaks on these big falls like the Infra-Red and Ki Krusher, way to protect the finish. Really contrived ending with Low Ki taking forever to set up the Ki Krusher from the top rope for the win. Highly recommended to watch for the first 5-6 minutes. ***1/2

Low Ki vs Tajiri - ICW 1/26/01 "What was that? Green Tea? Wasabi?" "I think it is green mist." The crack announce team calling this one. Oh Lord! Wicked short, not much time to develop. Disappointing. Low Ki seemed more into this, which is to be expected he is the young gun trying to make a name for himself. Diving Misawa elbow from him which I had not seen before, plus a really nice butterfly suplex right into the butterfly stretch. Weird moment where Tajiri blasts him in the head with a kick right off the bat and slowly downgrades to lesser strikes should have built to the bigger strike. Tajiri was content to slap Low Ki in the back of the head, but there was no fired up comeback from Low Ki. Tajiri wins with a brainbuster. No reason to watch this.

ICW Champion Low-Ki vs Eddie Guerrero - ICW 11/30/01 This was during that short spell between WWF runs in 2001-02 where Eddie was working in the indies. Total dream match and very excited to see this exists. Not a total classic, but definitely a great match. It is not great because of Eddie's character work, which is pretty minimal, but Eddie really delivers a strong performance based on mechanics and fundamentals. The opening matwork is so explosive. I had forgotten what I loved about Eddie as a mechanic, it just the snap, pop and explosion on very basic stuff like a snapmare or a fireman's carry. Low Ki has tremendous balance and coordination. The opening stuff is all about proving Low Ki can hang with Eddie. Eddie was over huge with the crowd and thus there was none of that heel charisma. Low Ki was pretty over too. The middle part of the match was just Eddie stretching the hell out of Ki, Gory Special and a nasty Texas Cloverleaf. I loved Eddie the counterwrestler in this match. For ever Ki hope spot (usually a kick), Eddie had a counter, Mexican Surfboard, STF or double brainbusters. Hell, Eddie got in on the head drop trened with a nasty back drop driver. He even outsmarted Low Ki on the rana from the top by holding onto the ropes. It was an excellent counterwrestler, veteran performance. Ki to his credit just kept coming and coming looking for those openings to land his kicks. The finish was Eddie missing a frogsplash and then Ki missing the Phoenix Splash only for Ki to roll up Eddie for three. Kinda lame finish but protects everyone. Eddie outshone Ki and it was all based on technical mechanical work. Ki looked very athletic, but cant say he did one thing to make me go Wow, which is unusual as I am big Low Ki fan. Eddie was just killing it as this counterwrestling genius. I thought the match lacked a strong hook besides it was OMG EDDIE VS KI~! I thought it progressed nicely to the finish. Felt like a really good first match in the series with maybe Eddie getting frustrated and turning heel leading to the classics. As is great technical Eddie performance, but leaves you wanting more. ***3/4

American Dragon vs William Regal - MCW 05/05/01 Regal was the current commissioner on WWF TV and was doing a courtesy shot for Memphis TV and does the usual big star degrades young rookie and crowd. Says Bryan has a helluva career ahead of him, prophetic. Bryan stands up to him. Really fun, short technical arrogant veteran vs plucky energetic rookie. Great technical exchanges early, big bump to the outside transitions into a more violent affair (Regal really starts cranking away) into a wicked hot finish stretch. Definitely check this out for some prime Regal and Bryan. ***1/2

Low-Ki vs American Dragon - ECWA Super 8 Finals '01 Daniel Bryan in red karate pants coming out to Offspring is quite the sight. Short, but action-packed match. Felt a bit compressed and they were putting very thing together quickly like the tests of strength into a strike exchange into a dive happened really fast. Bryan's leg work on Low-Ki was awesome and during that stretch Ki sold it well. Even this early on, Bryan had really good offense that was varied on the mat and with strikes. I really like all of Low-Ki's karate kicks to the back of the head and thought he still sold the leg well. The Phoenix Splash to the outside was HOLY SHIT AWESOME! Pretty much after that they just threw a bunch of bombs for four minutes, but both have great offense. Dragon catching Ki when he went for Tidal Wave into a Dragon Suplex and then into Cattle Mutilation was a sickkkk sequence. Dragon actually looks like he has this won after winning a strike exchange with some vicious elbows, but Ki catches him with a knee on a Roaring Elbow attempt, quickly hoists him into the Ki Krusher and the Dragon Clutch gets quick tapout. Really enjoyed this, thought it had a little bit of everything. Loved the urgency down the stretch. Especially Ki wasting no time to hit Ki Krusher and then Dragon Clutch. Love that quick bursts. Little all over the place and definitely tried to squeeze as much as they could in like 10-12 minutes. Tons of fun, both were already awesome wrestlers at this point. ***3/4

I have watched 10/98 and was blown away on re-watch, but did not have time to write up a review. So I am going to rewatch that again tonight. This is the last major Misawa/Kobashi match that I have not seen before. AJPW Triple Crown Mitsuharu Misawa vs Kenta Kobashi - AJPW 6/11/99 Misawa comes into this match the newly minted champion defeating Vader for the title at the Baba Memorial Dome Show (last really great Vader singles match). Since their last meeting in October of 1998, Misawa had lost the titles to Kawada in the infamous Ganso Bomb/Kawada's arm breaks match and Kobashi lost in the Champion Carnival Finals of '99 to Vader. Kobashi is 0-4 in Triple Crown match against Misawa at this point. A decidedly slower build to this 43 minute epic sees Kobashi start off with a quick flying cross armbreaker before settling into a headlock sequence. If you are going to go long, I prefer the slower, NWA-style build they opt for and in addition Kobashi is taking a much more conservative approach. After losing 4 times, I think he realizes him taking chances had cost him so if he could wear Misawa down to set up his bombs he would have a better chance. Kobashi works his way into a hammerlock targeting the arm, which all Misawa opponent know is the bets strategy. I like the teasing of the headrops here, but with nobody landing any. They do some really nice tests of strength here, which I always enjoy as a way to show each competitor's manliness. Misawa is nominal in control and Kobashi invites him into a strike exchange, which is an interesting strategy. Against pretty much anybody else, Kobashi and his chop would have a definitive edge, but Misawa with his elbow is his equal If not his superior. Kobashi does win the strike exchange with a blistering barrage of spinning back chops. That first one was particularly nasty. Kobashi begins work on Misawa's midsection using his knee lift as the primary weapon. He gives Misawa a little too much room to breathe and he fires back with an elbow and Kobashi ends up on the outside. Now this has been where a lot of the turning points in the previous matches have happened. Lo and behold, Kobashi catches him in a power slam off the apron. No Misawa diving head first into a steel railing, but it will do. Kobashi goes for a move off the apron, but when Misawa starts to back sass him with some elbows, he grabs his wrist and JUMPS FROM THE APRON TO THE RAILING WRAPPING MISAWA'S ARM AROUND THE GUARDRAIL!!! OH! That's the turning point. The match actually gets really interesting here and actually had the potential to be the most interesting match of the series in my opinion. It seemed like it was asking the question "What if Misawa did not have his elbow to make the comeback?". Kobashi destroyed the arm, ramming into hard objects, nice hammerlock DDTs, GREAT heat on the cross armbreaker (sold very well by Misawa). Misawa trying to mount a comeback with only kicks was great. Misawa busted up Kobashi's mouth with one of those kicks to the face. Only for Kobashi to start dumping him on his head to set up a Nagata-style armbreaker. Misawa finally stuns Kobashi enough by a wicked kick to the face. Kobashi sells like he has been knocked loopy outside. Misawa is still in a pretty bad way. Outside, he cements his advantage by elbowing Kobashi's bad leg and suplexing him off the apron (successfully doing what he intended to do at 10/97). Then he hits his diving elbow. I don't mind these one-off uses of the elbow and he is selling pretty big. Misawa runs through his stuff: missile dropkick, flying bodypress and then on the Tiger Driver, he releases very quickly because his arm is shot. I love it. He has made most of his comeback through kicks, but when it came time to polish off Kobashi he couldn't. Then he makes a strange decision on the surface. He goes for a Tiger Driver off the apron. Seems silly after not being able to hit the first one properly, but that move was the key to winning 10/98 so if he does hit it, it would seal victory. Showing that Misawa felt he needed a home run now or never. Kobashi backdrops Misawa onto the apron. He goes for the Half-Nelson Suplex, but Misawa blocks, but on second attempt Misawa eats it. This is actually when my intrigue was piqued. Misawa had to make the first comeback completely without elbows, what was going to happen here. Kobashi went through dumping Misawa on his head a bunch (the powerbomb, powerbomb hotshot was pretty cool), the moonsault was sweet, I LOVED THE CALLBACK TO 7/29/93 with Misawa as Kobashi & Kobashi as Hansen. Whats Misawa's second greatest defensive move after his elbow, well it is the Misawa-rana out of the powerbomb and that's what he nails on the floor sending Kobashi crashing into railing. Misawa creates a lot of space here, but is in a really bad way. Kobashi is actually the next to hit a move being a jumping high knee in the corner. Misawa stakes his defensive position in the corner. He ducks the lariat. Hits a German. Awesome! Kobashi charges again, Misawa gets double elbows up on the lariat arm (1/20/97, but this time needs two elbows). At this point the match loses its luster for me, Misawa makes his typical comeback elbows included. It just became so routine. I really thought arm work that completely destroyed Misawa's elbow was novel. We had seen Misawa fight through the pain, which I love but making that comeback with kicks was great. The Kobashi finish run was nice and Misawa transition to the real finish run was great, but at the end it became very All Japan same-y. That Tiger Driver '91 was nasty. Cant believe Kobashi kicked out. Nice flash Kobashi hope spot with the sleeper suplex. It was elbows, head drops and Emerald Flowsion. It was awesome, nothing that had not been seen before (well I guess Emerald Flowsion was new, but I was never impressed by that much). First 15 minutes are well-worked NWA-style championship match that I think sets the table as each competitor as an equal and Kobashi trying to be more conservative in setting up for the win. Loved the transition off the apron into the arm work, great drama with both arm-based submission. Misawa making a "no-elbow" comeback was very cool. Thought the half-nelson suplex transition and Kobashi run was tons of fun (7/29/93 callback popped me huge). The Misawa transition to comeback was again very interesting, but the finish run was same 'ol same 'ol even if it was a great fireworks display. I would say this is the fourth best Misawa/Kobashi match, but one that should get praised more and discussed more. ****1/2