Superstar Sleeze

I'll check that one out then. Did you not like the '79 one? I have no plans to watch any of the 80s ones because they didn't make the set and I trust if they are not in top 175 that it is probably not worth my time.

WWF World Heavyweight Champion Bob Backlund vs Stan Hansen - NJPW 9/30/80 Stan Hansen with a sunset flip in this match! These two just never had the classic they should have had together. I remember liking this a lot more before than this go around. The beginning of the match is all about will Hansen ever successfully execute an elbow drop on Backlund who is always moving. He goes for the Lariat early, but misses and Backlund almost cold cocks him on the ropes to show he will brawl. Backlund uses technical acumen and speed tat first until Hansen runs backwards into him with an elbow and finally looks poised to take control. Backlund uses his strength to sit him down on the top rope and slaps him. Usually, I say this is a bad idea, but Bob Muthafucking Backlund and he can do what he wants when he wants. It breaks down into a great brawl trading eyerakes and slugging it out. Then a Hansen armbar happens, which is pretty boring. If they just brawled this could have been an all-timer. I loved the Backlund high knee then piledriver combo. They knock heads and they do a series of cover kickout with the other man covering now, which is a favorite Backlund spot. Hansen shotos him in and crowd gasps thinking Lariat, but it is a High Knee. They brawl on the outside with Hansen Lariating the post, OW! The brawl continues and the ref throws the match out as a double countout. Backlund hits Hansen with a chair and chases him off to make sure everyone knows he is the Man! Very good match, besides the armbar every entertaining just never gets to that next level. ***1/2

My regret losing my smile in regards to wrestling with three months before the deadline of the project. I would have had Fujiwara, Fujinami and Andre on my list. I love wrestling again, but too little too late. C'est la vie.

WWF World Martials Arts Champion Antonio Inoki vs Andre The Giant - NJPW 10/7/76 At one point, Inoki & Andre 69 each other. ***** Seriously though this is an incredible spectacle and another fabulous Andre performance. Vince McMahon Sr. sighting for Parv! It was like he was wrestling two men, Inoki and the ref. Andre was probably the best at ref interactions until Flair in the 80s. I loved the little bit at the get go when ref goes to check his boots so Andre lifts his leg and then pulls it down taking the ref with him. Then does it again with the other leg! He was shoving the ref around. The ref got his little digs whenever Andre was using the ropes he would kick his arm off, great spot during Inoki's short arm scissors. Inoki came out of the gates with a dropkick. Andre, unphased, just had this sinister smile on his face and even the Almighty Inoki did not seem that confident. That was the beauty of this match was Andre was able to make the shoot badass, Antonio Inoki, a sympathetic underdog. Andre was just toying with his early until Inoki got a nice armdrag into a short arm scissors. I thought they did a really good job of grabbing a hanging limb. Anytime Inoki was attacking Andre, Andre would just grab a hold of that limb and then start to work it and same for Inoki. It led to some really interesting passes, Inoki slapped Andre! What a reaction by Andre just a perfect "Muthafucka, tell me you did not just do that" and then only to slam his hand against the ring post and bellow. There was the aforementioned 69 incident where they both headscissored each other. Some Indy sleazeball must have stolen that spot by now, but I think it would make for good comedy now. Andre took some great bumps into the turnbuckles. I loved when he was holding onto the ropes for dear life and the ref kicked his hand off. Andre did a BOW & ARROW! I didn't like the cross armbreaker no matter your size that is a legit dangerous flash submission hold and for Andre just lay there was lame. Andre got up and then tried to choke Inoki out with the bottom rope by standing on it. OW! The finish is Andre has Inoki in the cobra clutch and Inoki hops over the top rope to escape and drags Andre out with him. They brawl on the floor and Andre headbutts the post and busts himself open. The wounded Giant throws everyone away the ref, Inoki and even his handler, which causes the match to be thrown out and Inoki awarded via TKO. Pretty lame finish. Inoki goes over, but really does not look like a winner. Double countout would have been more satisfying. Great Andre performance, but not at the level of Khan performance. I thought Inoki added and subtracted from the match from Khan. He has a lot more presence than Khan and I thought his offense looked really credible. You also cared more about what happened to him. The negative was a lot more time on the mat. I thought Inoki was great in some holds really selling the drama and in others I found myself drifting away. Also, I am finding this more and more with New Japan is that are not much in the way of overarching narratives. Everything exists in the short run. Attack the limb that is attacking my now and then reset. So there is not a real feel of progression. However, still an awesome David vs Goliath match, which felt very different with all the matwork and a great heel Andre performance. ****1/4

Which Andre match? I just watched the '76 one and I thought it was incredible! Maybe the best Inoki match I have ever seen. I have not seen the Backlund draw (which I also love) in a while though.

I have him a little higher. We'll talk about him in a bit. I lol'd

they sell the dvd on their website. That's how I saw it, actually ordered a dvd in 2015. Thanks. They have it in Blu Ray as well! Strange 'Shop' section on the site, two decades of events and they have only four DVDs for sale. Do they routinely tape stuff? I'm sure their matches used to show up on comps around 2004/2005. Still prefer inserting a disc into the player to loading up some stream. Feels more of a commitment somehow, I'm less likely to start flicking around. I should have went to that show. Could have been somebody.

Amen, brutha! Hogan is an irresistible force! Hulkamania Forever!

I'd chock it up to blood in this match? I'm on the fence about watching the rematch. Too much wrestling to be watched! Tatsumi Fujinami vs Dick Murdoch - NJPW 7/6/82 Murdoch punts the flowers he is given. Then rips more flowers out of the ref's hand and punts those! ***** Murdoch just gets wrestling! I loved the beginning Murdoch punching Fujinami right in the face in a chinlock and then grinding those knuckles in his chin just like my Dad would do when we were wrestling. We then get the usual Murdoch arm torture that's the hallmark of all his performances. Fujinami fires up in the corner. Fujinami is great at throwing strikes. Now we go to Fujinami's hallmark the side headlock. The cravat by Fujinami and Murdoch repeatedly punching him in the midsection to get out looked great. It was definitely Murdoch's punching against Fujinami's technical ability. The Texan roughouser looked like he had this one in hand until Fujinami got a back heel trip into a toehold. Fujinami rides high and leads to Murdoch choke. Murdoch goes right back to punching and strikes to set up a piledriver, but is back dropped over the ropes. This leads to the BIG high spot of the match the wicked Fujinami suicide dive. Then he bashes Murdoch's head into steel to draw blood. They seem well on their way to classic at this point, but a quick finish robs us of that. Fujinami blasts him right in the cut and then hits a suplex, but only gets two. The Abdominal stretch even in 1982 New Japan seems lame to be a part of a finish run. Fujinami runs into a big reverse elbow and Murdoch rides him down with a knee for his big nearfall before the finish. Oklahoma Slam by a Texan??!? Will wonders ever cease? Fujinami rolls to outside. I will give you three guesses at a finish. Double countout. Murdoch gives him the Brainbuster on the floor to set up the rematch. Flower punting could not save this match. Two all-time great wrestlers, but just a very good match. Nothing really to hook you in. Just when it was getting good with the dive and blood, it was time to end. The finish run was not very memorable. Good, not much more. ***1/4

Andre The Giant vs Killer Khan - NJPW 4/1/82 Holy shit! Andre was amazing in this. The best individual performance I have ever seen him have. The spot where he has Khan in a chinlock then Khan complains of a choke only for Andre to demonstrate the move on the ref and then blatantly choke Khan in the corner is great. I love Andre complaining to the ref he is not counting fast enough. The spot where he big boots Khan while coming in the ring is cool as fuck (saw it against Hansen too). The first half of the match you don't understand how Killer Khan even has a chance against Andre who is killing it. Khan just starts letting out these Rebel Yells and going for the eyes! At this point he just needs to survive. He then goes after Andre's left leg with kicks and wrenching it against the ropes. Andre delivers an all-time great selling performance. He is a wounded grizzly the rest of the match. He lets out these bellows and just will randomly swipe at Khan. He has enough strength to still dish out the punishment. He will just chop to keep Khan back and he is so naturally powerful this keeps him back. Andre moves to a lot of ass-based offense just using his weight to crush Khan. Khan's only hope is to got back after the leg at every turn. My one complaint is that the match does kinda spin its wheels. Andre is not really trying to defeat Khan, like I see no progression in his offense down the stretch. Khan can always go back to the leg, but Andre does not seem to have a game plan to beat Khan. I love the moment when sits on Khan and tries to get up only to bellow and fall back down. The crowd is so invested in every single time Andre falls down. It is great! Andre log rolling to the outside to buy time is awesome. I love Andre in Japan what a great heel! He just sticks Khan's head in the ropes and chokes him out. No offense to Khan, but he was totally overshadowed by Andre's performance in this. Andre big boot and attempted splash shows some progression in offensive strategy to put Khan out of his misery. I loved the double chop sequence with Andre covering up only for Khan to go up top. Andre lowers his hands slowly as if to say "is it over" and here comes Khan. Khan tries again this time Andre slams him off the top and then drops his ass on his head! Awesome finish! Dusty gives him a beer and he is pumped! My two issues with the match is they kinda spun their wheels in the middle of the match and that Khan's performance is just kinda there. I don't think he had anything much unique. Wow! One of the all time great selling performances from Andre coupled with an all time great offensive heel performance. That is pretty incredible because for a heel to give such an amazing selling performance. Cant praise Andre enough in this match. ****1/2

I have had fun ragging on Parv today, but he led me to this match and when the man is right, he is damn right! Dynamite Kid vs Tiger Mask - NJPW 1/28/82 Vacant WWF Junior Heavyweight Championship Big, dumb fun! I enjoyed this way more than I expected. They don't overstay their welcome. If Fujinami was innovating shoot-style, these two innovated the modern spotfest. This felt like the best possible version of modern WWE workrate. I thought this was even better because there was more of a sense of urgency and missed & blocked spots. It does feel like match where the spots are weirdly laid out. Like why do the violent railing spot only to have a very cool Tiger Mask gymnastics spot after. Save that for later for the heat! I hate when I feel like when I am watch a men's floor routine for a wrestling match, but I gotta admit Tiger Mask was pretty damn fun. I loved him sweeping the leg as a counter. Dynamite took some great nutty bumps to really sell Tiger Mask's offense. I did not think Dynamite was as violent as he was win the Fujinami match. He was more interested in going spot for spot with Tiger Mask like WWF Dynamite Kid would. I have really enjoyed Tiger Mask in Original UWF, he has enough knowledge on the mat to keep this interesting and multi-faceted. I really enjoy how audibly he sells choking. In what I thought may have been spot of the match was his bridge out of a headscissors and in one fluid motion converting to a Texas Cloverleaf. Gorgeous! I loved the leg work by Tiger Mask, but Dynamite totally blows it off immediately using his legs to make a comeback. The selling is a problem much like the modern style, but the match also lacks any sort of progression. They just go and go. It feels like nothing is being advanced. The cool moves at least feel like a part of struggle, but there is no heat is what I am trying to say. There have been Fujinami matches' without a proper heat segment, but this one feels different than those. I feel like this review is all over the place kinda like this match. I am having a hard time remembering, which spot went before which. I think that's really telling. There is no consequence. It is very slapdash, but highly entertaining at the same time and I am a structure mark. It is a spotfest that is really fun because the execution is so good, the spots are actually breath-taking and there are misses (two diving headbutts were huge) and urgency (loved the crazy dive to the floor by Tiger Mask). They went balls out for this match so I am giving this my standard rating for what I consider one of the best spotfests of all time. ****1/4

Shaking my head. Luger is so much better than Sting. Ridiculous. Is it just me or HHH better than Angle? I can't believe he has a chance at the top 100.

Parv gave this **?!?!?!? Nevermind, he can keep what he is smoking. WWF Junior Heavyweight Champion Tatsumi Fujinami vs Kengo Kimura - NJPW 9/25/80 Outstanding grappling match early on. Proto-shoot style. Hell that's more shoot style than a lot of the Original UWF I was watching. I love how things we take for granted in pro wrestling like an arm drag where not given, they were earned in this match! Excellent! I really did not get a sense of a narrative in the match, which hurts it, but I thought this was incredibly engaging mat wrestling. I like how things got heated, but they get back down to business. Wrestling should have a lot more missed and BLOCKED moves. This match had that in spades! The finish run started with a crazy flurry of dropkicks. When they dropkicked each other, they went for it! Never did get to see Fujinami hit a Dragon suplex. The finish run feels like a pro wrestling match as they start going for wrestling moves and the typical tropes are realized. Kimura hits a fucking near-Ganso Bomb on Fujinami! Holy Shit! Dropkicks him off apron and then comes crashing down on him. Love it! Kimura rushes Fujinami head first and slams his head into the post busting him open. Great countout tease. Fujinami looks to hit his suicide dive, but he crashes and burns and busts his head open on the railing. I love the symmetry of all this. Fujinami nails a dropkick to Kimura perched on the top rope. Both men are out and they call the match a draw! Great grappling early on, hot finish run, the finish itself was perfect. This was a match of equals throughout and ends that way. Just did not feel that overarching narrative that I love. Really strong outing. ****1/4

I thought Jimmy did a very nice job on Owen Hart.

Parv, gave this ****1/2??? I want what he is smoking. WWF Junior Heavyweight Champion Tatsumi Fujinami vs Chavo Guerrero - NJPW 5/9/80 Good little technical babyface vs babyface match. Very symmetrical match. Loved the pair of dueling headscissors. Chavo gets the Upside down surfboard then Fujinami gets the bow and arrow. Those were microcosms of the match them really establishing eveness. Unlike the Keirn match, Chavo never really heels it up nor does he have the stiff offense of Dynamite to really get this going into second gear. His ass based offense seems to be his best offense. Even his piledriver does not get much heat. Chavo's punches pale in comparison to Dynamite or Teranishi at least in this match. Keirn was just so much meaner. They both tease dives (Chavo does the proto-619) to the outside, which does get the crowd going. I got a lot of Fujinami left to watch, but he did not show much to carry match. He seemed content to let the match sit in first gear. So far it feels like his opponent dictates the match more than he does. This is only my fourth match I have seen him in so plenty left to watch and definitely keeping an open mind. Fujinami gets a big crossbody for two. He looks for the Dragon Suplex, but Chavo knows that would be the death knell, but Fujinami is able to wrangle him into a German Suplex bridge to win the match. Lukewarm match. Kinda disappointing given the talent, but this perfectly acceptable, good wrestling. ***

WWF Junior Heavyweight Champion Tatsumi Fujinami vs Isamu Teranishi - NJPW 10/8/81 Is it just me or does Fujinami kinda look like Japanese Marky Mark? Never heard of Teranishi before this match, but he brought it here. Best I have seen Fujinami look in a single match. I really thought he was fierce throughout this. The early matwork was intense and hard fought. It was fast-paced, but without ever feeling like it was exhibition. Teranishi came to play with strong wristlocks and a combination of dropkicks. Fujinami actually looked outpaced by Teranishi in a kayfabe sense always one step behind. It felt like when an underdog team in sports has really come to play and overwhelms the favorite early on. Pride gets the best of Teranishi and he holds onto wrist control, but takes an incredible amount of punishment as Fujinami brutalizes his chest with strikes. Eventually, Teranishi nails him with a headbutt, but Fujinami fires back with his precision dropkick. He looks for the Dragon Suplex, big pop, but Teranishi uses a leg trip to block and goes to work on the legs. Great tease! Teranishi fucking starts wailing on the side of Fujinami's head so Fujinami just fucking unloads. That's what a strike exchange should be! That was brutal. Dragon leg whip by Fujinami and I thought he looked awesome working over the leg. Everything (toeholds, figure-4s) was intense and painful. Really, really friggin' good! Teranishi's comeback does ignore Fujinami's awesome legwork as he is throwing Fujinami around and using dropkicks. That was probably the biggest blight on the match. Fujinami rolls through an O'Connor Roll into a German Suplex to win the match. Move this man up to the Heavyweight Division! Short, but explosive match. I just loved the perpetual motion of both men always attacking. I loved the strike exchanges and the mat work. Fujinami looked awesome here going just unloading his offense. Great finish, a little short and could have used some more selling, but badass match. ****1/4

WWF Junior Heavyweight Champion Tatsumi Fujinami vs Dynamite Kid - NJPW 2/5/80 I thought this was even better than the Keirn match. I love how loud Dynamite is. On offense every move has more impact from his sound effects and every blow he takes feels that much more painful from his verbal selling. I thought Fujinami sold even better and his comeback felt like an even bigger deal in this match. Dynamite came out to play. His buzzcut in 1980 with everyone else rocking medium-to-long hair gave him a crazed look. He set the tone early with no matwork and focusing on strikes and throws. He definitely wanted to lock in the Octopus, the first time he was met with the Dragon Screw Legwhip and the second time they tumbled out of the ring. Dynamite was persistent, headbutting him during a test of strength. In general, he was such a sadistic prick. This was the big difference between his bomb heavy WWF work and this. This had a lot more grit. He was elbowing, kneeing, headbutt, it was intense. He still threw his suplexes, but it was a lot meaner. He reopens Fujinami's cut with a nasty headbutt. Fujinami sells really well. I like Fujinami trying to fight fire with fire with huge European uppercuts and some of the best dropkicks this side of Jim Brunzell. We are talking pinpoint accuracy right to the head. Dynamite always had a response either attacking the cut or casually walking away from a dropkick or plancha. So that's where Samoa Joe got the idea from! Love that spot. Dynamite gets the Octopus, but Fujinami powers. He also gets his big finish, Diving Headbutt, but Fujinami kicks out! His second try ends in disaster. Great selling from Dynamite! Fujinami is able to get him in quite pinning predicament to win the match. I really enjoyed the strike vs strike battle. The Keirn match felt like your standard face vs heel match where Fujinami focused more on selling. This had face vs heel dynamics with a strong Dynamite control, but it also had more Fujinami fighting back and struggling to win. Dynamite's offense and verbal selling made this special. Fujinami bleeding and roaring back definitely met him at Dynamite's level. A little short and anticlimactic to be a true classic, but highly entertaining. ****1/4

WWF Jr Heavyweight Champion Tatsumi Fujinami vs NWA Junior Heavyweight Champion Steve Keirn - NJPW 2/1/80 Time to see if Fujinami is all he is cracked up to be. This is a double title match as the announcer points out a dozen times. Florida & WWF guys work NJPW so we get to see full head of hair Keirn. I remember loving Keirn vs Saito in Georgia. I thought Keirn was the worker I was more drawn to in this. The opening matwork was fine. There were a couple nice counters I liked Fujinami figure-4'ing the leg of Keirn while he in a toe hold to reverse into his own toehold for instance. Overall, it was not like the best matwork either. I really liked Keirn's reaction to Fujinami getting a one count by powdering and resetting the match. Keirn is tired of being in a Fujinami headlock and backs him in a corner and lays in some stiff shots. Keirn as a vicious prick heel was great. He worked over the midsection with huge kneelifts and a great double stomp. He threw Fujinami into the seats and into the post. He was DQ'd for excessive blows to the head on the apron after he opened up Fujinami. Fujinami got in some nice hope spots and showed some fire, but this was Keirn all the way in the first fall. Fujinami 1-0. Keirn was on fire in this fall. Fujinami may have won the first fall, but Keirn is in command. He clubs away at Fujinami and throws him around at will. Piledriver! Lackadaisical covers by Keirn. He is throwing bombs. Goes for bulldog but slammed into corner. Gets into a firefight with Fujinami who is coming back. Fujinami nails a German Suplex to win the second fall and BOTH titles! Loved Keirn as a heel in this and thought Fujinami was a good babyface. Great once Keirn went full heel. ****

The fact Luger finished behind Okada is everything that is wrong about this world. I did my part and voted for Takada. The only reason I did not vote him higher is because I have only seen a limited sampling of his 90s stuff, but I really enjoy him.

LETS GO BLUE!

Correction: Jimmy Redman's Sheamus Rant is the best thing to come out of all these podcasts. WOW! I thought I loved Sheamus! That's devotion. I want to go back and watch every 2012 Sheamus match now.

After hours and hours of listening to these podcasts, my favorite line so far is "I got a lot of time for Hogan". I love that! Hogan is the best!

Just watched the Great Antonio match. Was he drunk. I was laughing pretty hard when Inoki goes for a shoulder tackle and just goes flying off the fat guy. It is self-serious Inoki so it is pretty funny. Then Great Antonio starts hitting him pretty hard in the back of the neck and I was like this is not going to end well for him. Inoki beats the living shit out of his face for like a minute and he is a bloody pulp. Inoki was a bad muthafucka.

NWF Heavyweight Champion Stan Hansen vs Antonio Inoki - NJPW 4/30/80 Huge improvement over their first match! It was not worked at a Hansen pace, but he was allowed to be more of himself by kicking more ass and taking more of the match. He was clubbing Inoki very hard in the arm on each tie up and then just start blasting him in the back of the head, neck and back. Inoki was trying to go for the Lariat arm, but the barrage from Hansen proved too much and he had to roll out of the ring twice. Not often, we see Inoki fight from underneath. Hansen goes for the Lariat, but misses. Inoki hits an Enziguiri which feels like a huge game changer as Hansen has to powder. Hansen is wounded and Inoki is fired up. Inoki goes to the mat, but Hansen just starts drilling with elbows and knees to the head. Hansen regains control. Inoki does get a cross armbreaker on the Lariat arm, which may have saved him as soon after...Hansen clobbers him with a Lariat, but Inoki falls on the apron and Hansen is in pain. He suplexes Inoki on the apron! Impressive spot! I thought Inoki was going to lose by countout, but instead Hansen goes flying out the ropes when Inoki dodges him. Inoki hits a FLYING KNEE FROM THE TOP ROPE TO THE FLOOR ON HANSEN!!! Wow! I totally would have bought into a countout finish and been just fine. Inoki pins him in the ring and ref starts the count early and counts fast. He knows where his bread is buttered. Much better with Inoki working underneath and Hansen looking huge here. Hansen was kicking so much ass and Inoki really felt he was facing a grave challenge. The Lariat miss was great and the Enziguiri felt huge. The finish stretch was awesome. Cross armbreaker setting up that Hansen could not get all of his Lariat. Setting up the countout finish tease only to have Inoki hit a top rope flying knee to the floor. Really cool stuff. ****1/4

NWF Heavyweight Champion Antonio Inoki vs Stan Hansen - 2/8/80 Stan Hansen wrestles very un-Stan Hansen-like in this match. He is a more traditional hell, bumping and selling to shine up the babyface early. Could be him going up against the promoter or maybe how he worked in 1980? Basically Hansen is a very good heel in this match, but if he wrestled like this he would be a wrestler fondly remembered like 40-60 in the GWE poll. It is Bull in the China Shop that is special and that's not what we get. Inoki is fine. He definitely has a connection to the crowd, but he does have any moves early that really pop the crowd. He bests Hansen early on the mat. He even slaps him, but Hansen tags him back. Overall, Inoki outwrestles Hansen early and uses a lot of holds. Hansen starts clobbering, which gets him an advantage. Inoki begins his comeback with a dropkick and then Hansen hits his lariat out of nowhere. Inoki KICKS OUT! I bit on that. Then they go out on the floor and I totally bit on the double countout finish. Inoki brings him back in and nails a back drop driver, bit on that finish. Hansen decks him on the apron with a lariat to win the match via countout and apparently the championship. The finish run got this to be a pretty entertaining match. It was a strong over babyface versus rugged heel that is willing to sell. So it was very good and the finish run which had be biting three times on false finishes was pretty exciting and the real finish was badass. Totally makes up for Inoki kicking out of the Lariat. ***