Superstar Sleeze

Taue is the greatest apron wrestler of all time. I think he should be in all three and the one you mention in 6/9/95 would be my number one. In the inevitable Cesaro/Rey match, how fuckin bitchin is it going to be when Cesaro catches Rey doing the 619 and does the Giant Swing. BOOK IT VINCE!

Fuck the Wyatts, Sheamus should be in The Shield. Sheamus as a badass, leather-clad "IRA" solider was the role he was born to play. Plus I think I would lose my mind for a Sheamus/Roman Reigns feud. Sheamus as the new leader of The Shield would be beneficial for all four parties involved too. Personally I would have Champ Daniel Bryan successfully defending over HHH Brock vs Taker (Heyman's second guy to go after streak) Cena/Punk vs Orton/Batista (I think Batista is more useful on the heel side. Reunited Evolution against Megapowers 2k14) Sheamus vs Reigns (SHIELD EXPLODES~!) Daniel Bryan did knock HHH out with his knee to end one RAW and Show also knocked HHH out. They are giving face heat back to faces it is just they either dont follow up on it (Bryan) or it bombs (Big Show). I have greatly enjoyed Stephanie as a promo, but yeah it is hard to see what her comeuppance would be as of today.

O shit, from the commentary I thought there was just that one where Zayn beat Cesaro on a fluke and thats what the first fall played off of. I didnt realize this was a whole series.

Cesaro/Zayn is fuckin mind blowing awesome. Cesaro/Regal is great, but do have some quibbles. Can I just say how much the commentary was a boon to both those matches because I was going in cold and in both instances the commentary helped justify the work in the ring. Plus I loved the fact Tensai sounds just like my cousins from Dorchester.

I agree he was never positioned as the Ace because Misawa and then Kobashi still had enough drawing power to warrant staying on top. Part of the loss to Kobashi was that he was positioned as the heel thus necessitating the loss to Kobashi in the blowoff. Regardless, he still choked him out in the lead-up and they were presented on an "equal" footing except in wrestling the number one face and number one heel there is a slight uneveness in their relationship. I don't think the loss to Misawa in the semis hurt because he won the next encounter. I thought it was weird that he headlined two Dome shows for NJPW, but did not have any high profile defenses in NOAH. I agree his lack of peers his age really fucked him. By the time they decided to go with Kobashi and thus having him drop the title to Ogawa it hurt him, but I don't think it was over per se. The Rikio switch, which I have not gotten to yet seems to death knell. Misawa versus Jumbo felt like a changing of the guard and even though Akiyama got huge wins (two over Misawa in the Budokan in 2000 & 2001) it just was not enough. Reevaluating I agree he was a victim of circumstance of having a lack of challengers.

SUWA vs Dragon Kid - Toryumon 08/24/00 Hair Vs Mask This was different thats for sure. It was like someone took ECW/Lucha/Japanese Juniors put in a blender and out came this oddly fun match. There was a lot leaving me scratching my head. Was it 2 out of 3 Falls or did Ultimo Dragon just restart the match? Maybe if I spoke Japanese that confusion could have been avoided but that was 2000 WCW at its worst there. Still maybe it is because I grew up in the late 90s, but there is something about gratuitous interference that does not bother me as much as other wrestling fans. It is entertaining its own way. Actually most of my problem with this match was with Dragon Kid. His offense was so Indy-riffic and pointless. I thought Kojima was bad with Ace Crusher variations, Dragon Kid was killing me with all these setup spots for his stunners. Then add that he will get his ass kicked and just pop up. You are the tiniest dude on the roster you can butter your bread selling. Like for instance SUWA makes a big deal that he is going to elbow Dragon Kid in the balls and he does. Immediately Dragon Kid avoids his next move and does a somersault off the top rope onto the floor. It was a ball shot, dude. Given the two other reviews I read for this match I agree that SUWA was very good and could have been something more if he ended up in a different promotion. Though my disagreement with the previous reviewers is I liked the first/fake fall (?) more. Dragon Kid leaping out onto SUWA during his entrance. Then SUWA as his only defense chucked a chair at Dragon Kid when he tried coming off the apron. I loved SUWA throwing him into the chair and punching young boys. Even though he is bigger than Dragon Kid he still rakes the eyes as a cut off and then goes and rips the mask. At that point, I was just thinking this maybe a fun lucha brawl. I was not buying Dragon Kid's hope spots at all. I was glad SUWA pinned him with a powerbomb, but I think Ultimo Dragon restarted the match because his feet were on the ropes. Dragon Kid tries the only strategy he seems to know and that is bullrushing, but SUWA just uses his momentum against him. I actually dug the dropkick spot where SUWA dropkicked him and Dragon Kid went halfway across the ring. It is worth checking out. Kid hits a rana off a splash mountain attempt. Ref bump. Melee ensues with what seems like the entire roster in the ring. I was digging the chaotic feel of this. I thought the ending was the weakest part, but others seemed to like it. Dragon Kid should stick with hurricanranas because he hits those a lot more wickedly than those awful Stunner variations in his comeback. They hit this convoluted powerbomb that looked like it should be an gymnastics routine where basically does a 360 front flip. I will say the Dragonrana was pretty fuckin bitchin'. Evil Dragon Kid beats up Dragon Kid, but Dragon kid still has the wherewithal to shave SUWA's head. SUWA extends the hand in respect. The audience applauds and then SUWA kicks a field goal right through the uprights. He fuckin destroys a chair around this young boy's head. SUWA is pretty awesome. I didn't hate this. I actually found it a breezy, entertaining 25 minutes. I would not want all wrestling like this but SUWA gave a pretty good heel performance and Dragon Kid was not too cumbersome a piece of luggage. ***1/4

So I thought I would posit another reason why Akiyama did not "make" it so to speak that is to say he never felt like The Man the same way Jumbo, Misawa or Kobashi did at times. I think among other things that were noted was that he was portrayed as a heel during his first major push of his career. It was one thing to make a statement by suplexing your partner after winning a match. It is whole another thing to choke him out the next night and beat up those trying to administer aid to him. Akiyama was clearly positioned as a heel, but I believe Japanese fans were conditioned to see the native Aces as a babyfaces. Thus Akiyama would always play second fiddle to Kobashi & Misawa because they are an Ace Faces. I don't think that could be underestimated in how that inhibited Akiyama's rise to absolute tippy-top of the card. I have not seen the rest of his work from the decade yet (I have seen '04 Kobashi match but it has been forever) and I would imagine there are more booking botches, but I thought it was interesting they positioned him as a heel when usually the next big thing is positioned as a babyface. Anybody agree with me or think I am way off base?

Jun Akiyama had some of the worst birth timing ever. Ten years in either direction, maybe just five years and he would have been golden. Instead, he is in-between generations of superstar unfairly compared against his more popular predecessors and too gold to be effectively used as an ace against his successors. During what I would argue as his drawing peak between 2000-2002 where he was positioned with wins over Misawa and Kobashi, given the first headlining feud in NOAH history, the second GHC champion, two NJPW Dome main events and then the ace of the tag division, he still did not feel like the ace. When Kobashi beat Misawa in 2003 and went on his epic run it finally felt like Kobashi had superseded Misawa as the Man. If you think about it that took about 9 years because Misawa still had something to give. In a lot of ways the fact that Misawa and Kobashi could still draw hampered Akiyama's ability to be the Ace. In the aftermath of 2002, which I have not familiarized myself with yet, there may have been some booking botches as others have pointed out to me. I will say that the fact he was positioned as a heel during this big push hurt him. Misawa was a face squaring off against Jumbo and people were cheering him. Japanese fans are conditioned to see their Aces as a babyfaces so it hurt Akiyama in his build to being an Ace to be portrayed as a heel in my opinion. I highly recommend both the 02/00 Misawa bout and the 12/00 Kobashi blowoff both are spectacular matches with great visual fireworks, but substantiated by great stories (I would say that Misawa match is a bit more story driven which is why I prefer it). Akiyama has excellent performances in both as a cold, relentless force looking to exploit any weakness to grab the torch from the two All Japan standard bearers. http://ridingspacemountain.blogspot.com/20...-heaven-or.html The rankings for the Best of Puroresu from 2000-2009 thus far: 1. Mitsuharu Misawa vs Jun Akiyama - Budokan 02/27/00 2. All Japan Triple Crown Champion Kenta Kobashi vs Yoshihiro Takayama - All Japan 05/26/00 3. All Japan Triple Crown Champion Genichiro Tenryu vs Keiji Mutoh - Budokan 6/8/01 4. Toshiaki Kawada & Masa Fuchi vs Yuji Nagata & Takashi Iizuka - NJ PPV 12/14/00 5. Kenta Kobashi vs Jun Akiyama - Budokan 12/23/00 6. IWGP Champion Kensuke Sasaki vs Toshiaki Kawada - 10/00 Tokyo Dome Non-Title 7. Keiji Mutoh vs Toshiaki Kawada - Champions Carnival 04/01 8. Genichiro Tenryu & Masa Fuchi vs Toshiaki Kawada & Nobutaka Araya - AJPW 6/30/01 9. Kenta Kobashi vs Takao Omori - Champions Carnival Final '00 10. GHC Champion Mitsuharu Misawa vs Jun Akiyama - Budokan 07/27/01 11. GHC Tag Champions Jun Akiyama & Atikoshi Saito vs Kenta Kobashi & Kentaro Shiga - 10/19/02 12. Toshiaki Kawada & Genichiro Tenryu vs Stan Hansen & Taiyo Kea - Budokan 07/23/00 13. IWGP Heavyweight Champion Genichiro Tenryu vs Kensuke Sasaki - 01/04/00 14. Genichiro Tenryu vs Toshiaki Kawada - Vacant All Japan Triple Crown 10/28/00 15. Kenta Kobashi vs Jun Akiyama - NOAH #2 08/06/00 16. GHC Champion Yoshihiro Takayama vs Mitsuharu Misawa - Budokan 09/23/02 17. Mitsuharu Misawa vs Yoshihiro Takayama - Vacant GHC Title 04/15/01 18. Genichiro Tenryu vs Satoshi Kojima - AJPW 07/07/02 19. IWGP Champion Yuji Nagata vs. Yoshihiro Takayma - Tokyo Dome 05/02 20. Keiji Mutoh vs Yuji Nagata - Sumo Hall 08/12/01 G-1 Climax Final 21. Mitsuharu Misawa & Kenta Kobashi vs Jun Akiyama & Yuji Nagata - Budokan 02/17/02 22. Mitsuharu Misawa & Akira Taue vs Kenta Kobashi & Jun Akiyama - NOAH #1 08/05/00 23. Genichiro Tenryu vs Satoshi Kojima - AJPW 02/24/02 24. Yoshihiro Takayma vs Osamu Nishimura - G-1 Climax Semifinals 25. Yoshihiro Takayama vs Kensuke Sasaki - G-1 Climax Round Robin 26. Keiji Mutoh & Hiroshi Hase vs Jun Akiyama & Yuji Nagata - Tokyo Dome 10/08/01 27. Shinya Hashimoto & Yuji Nagata vs Mitsuharu Misawa & Jun Akiyama - Zero-One 3/2/01 28. Toshiaki Kawada vs Satoshi Kojima - AJPW 06/06/01 29. GHC Tag Team Champions Wild II vs Jun Akiyama & Akitoshi Saito - Budokan 9/23/02

The Daniel Bryan 7/22/13 Gauntlet Daniel Bryan vs Jack Swagger I enjoyed Zeb's little rant about how Daniel Bryan had to take a handout from Cena. Nice little dick statement. All of Swagger's matches should be held in Texas and Oklahoma only surefire way to get him heat. I feel like I am one of the few Swagger fans left after his nice initial ECW run. I love his size, agility and moveset, but he is missing the intangibles. He establishes the power game early and Bryan takes heat. He mocks the Austin fans sticking his tongue out and with horns down. He cuts Bryan off for the diving elbow and hits Swaggerbomb, but gets nonchalant and gets caught in the Yeslock. It puts over Bryan ability to strike anywhere and his need for a quick victory. Daniel Bryan vs Antonio Cesaro When I first watched this live, I thought this was a bit underwhelming and did not consider it a MOTYC. I thought Bryan's encounters with Ryback and the Orton street fight at this point were better than this section of the gauntlet. Watching it again, I don't know what my major malfunction was because this match rocks. Now, I will have to watch the above matches to see how this compared. I did prefer Cesaro/Sheamus to this match, but not my much as that was just that much more physical. I like how Cesaro works a back and forth style that does not devolve into an exhibition. His matches feel like real struggles. The beginning of the match felt like the lesser version of the Pegasus/Black Tiger '96 Super J match where Cesaro is trying to contain the dynamo, Bryan, with chinlocks. I liked Bryan's hope spots: dragon leg screws, standing on Cesaro's hammies and pulling his nose, his criss cross sequences. Cesaro for his part uses a mixture of his strength practically deadlifting Bryan into a suplex and some help from Swagger as cutoffs. Cesaro double stomp after a quick rollup by Bryan was a thing of beauty and God Love Cesaro for his gutwrench suplex. This is one of the best firework spectacles the WWE has put on in years as both wrestlers are so explosive. Bryan's release German and Cesaro wicked European uppercut while Bryan is on the top rope are awesome visuals. Then they just go to town on each other with European Uppercuts until Cesaro fuckin pours it on and gives Bryan a shellacking with a ton of Euro Uppercuts. Still can only get 2. Bryan grabs a dragon leg screw and goes into that Liger inverted figure-4 and drops the fuckin hammer on Cesaro. Those are some nasty elbows. When Cesaro disrupts the Bryan diving headbutt, Bryan is able to counter Cesaro lifting Euro Uppercut seamlessly into a small package. From the european uppercut exchange one that was one of the best finish stretches they have put in on in years. I thought the match was a bit disjointed since they never really paid off what happened before the commercial break it came off as a bit boring, but once they decided what they wanted to do and just rock it, this became something special. The Cesaro vs Sheamus match was more violent and felt like a ruthless fight that worked Cesaro's nasty tendencies and Sheamus' fighting spirit. I thought this match lacked drama it felt more focused on entertaining through offense Still a very good match. ***1/2 Daniel Bryan vs Ryback I am an unabashed Ryback mark, but much like Heenan I have a moral obligation to be objective. Seriously how boss is Ryback in this match? The difference between Ryback and Cesaro in these back-to-back performances is Ryback ratchets up heeling. Cesaro is violent and explosive, but he does not do anything that heelish. Ryback is a cocky bully. You just want to see Bryan punch him in the mouth. Ryback is just as good as Cesaro at cutoffs and I think they do a better job building heat to the finish by having more prolonged heat section. I loved that Bryan went flying at the outset with his knockout flying knee. Ryback just keeps shrugging him off. He digs his thumb in Bryan's eye, throws him by his beard, yanks at his nose and trash talks him "Little man in a big man's world". "You cant wrestle" chants. Go fuck yourself, smart marks! RYBACK RULEZ~! Ryback hits a sweet vertical suplex and floats over. Drink your tall glass of shut the fuck up juice audience. Ryback hits a Thesz Press but Bryan rolls into a wicked half crab. Ryback throws Bryan down, but Bryan wont stay down and a knockout knee staggers Ryback. Bryan keeps dropkicking him, but Ryback throws him down again. Ryback goes for a table, but while he is setting it up he gets hit with a suicide dive. Really nice camerawork on that one. Back in the ring after some tussling, Bryan goes for the Yeslock, but Ryback grabs by the hair and just flings him halfway across the ring. RYBACK RULEZ~! Bryan finally rattles off some offense: drop toehold into the middle turnbuckle, missile dropkick, YESLock, but Ryback gets too the ropes. Ryback bails. Bryan goes for the knee off the apron, but Ryback catches and throws him down in a powerbomb onto floor. Nasty. Ryback picks him back up and powerbombs him through the table. Great finish. It preserves Bryan's appeal as the ultimate underdog without him having to job. Ryback is awesome as a monster in this match. Bryan uses his speed to try to best the beast with a half-crab, dropkicks and suicide dives, but nothing seems to phase the monster. Ryback just keeps swatting him away and badmouthing him, but he seems to grow arrogant everytime he gets on offense. Bryan has a never say die attitude and just when you think he is going to knock Ryback the fuck out, he gets caught and slammed onto the floor. I liked this match slightly better than the Cesaro match because of more defined face/heel dynamics and oh yeah because RYBACK RULEZ~! ***1/2

Wild shot in the dark: Cena wins the title, HHH is ripshit (who knows why, but he is. See I can book for the WWE too. ). He takes out #30 in the back. Wins the Rumble. Bryan wins the title at Elimination Chamber. We hopefully get Bryan going over HHH at Mania. Also in an ideal world, #30 is Roman Reigns and HHH also does jobs to Reigns in the aftermath. The least the guy could do after years of being invincible is give back to these two. My booking maybe off, but I think HHH winning the Rumble is not outlandish. I would not call him a favorite, but I can see it happening.

Antonio Cesaro vs Sheamus - Main Event 06/05/13 "Think shoot, but work" - "Stone Cold" Steve Austin These two had to work for every inch of this match. From the outset, Cesaro worked so hard to overcome Sheamus' resistance to have a headscissors applied to him out of his headlock. That is pro wrestling. Once Cesaro was in a control, he bit Sheamus' hand. That is pro wrestling. Sheamus has a Cesaro in a tight wristlock so he covers Sheamus' mouth to back him in the corner and hit a monster European Uppercut. That is pro wrestling. Everything was so gritty from Cesaro and Sheamus is no slouch himself. In fact, I would argue until recently Sheamus was the best offensive wrestler in North America (Daniel Bryan may have earned that mantle now). He throws a great punch, a mean elbow and hits a great flying shoulderblock. Cesaro is able to run Sheamus' shoulder into the post and then running kick his head into post and followed that up with a double stomp from the apron. He would pull Sheamus up by the ear. Sometime they throw around physical in WWE, but this match was physical. Sheamus begins to run through his offense beginning with the Irish Curse backbreaker and getting his receipt on the outside by running Cesaro's arm into the post. Cesaro is still able to grab the crossface chickenwing on Sheamus' bad arm, which is just such a painful looking move. Sheamus elbows out, but these aren't WWE elbows that is a MANS ELBOW that rocks Cesaro's head. Sheamus again looks to go high with a flying shoulderblock, but eats a European Uppercut. It does not look pretty, but nothing looks pretty in this match. Cesaro hits a Bombs Away knee drop, but still get a pin in this fight Cesaro locks in the crossface chickenwing again and man Cesaro needs to bring it back full-time. There is an urgency to every action because each knows the other can hit a knockout shot at anytime. Sheamus goes for White Noise, but Cesaro is still struggling and rams him into the corner and this creates the opportunity to hit the Brogue Kick for the win. My current two favorite wrestlers did not disappoint in delivering one of the best physical contests in the WWE. There was not a lot of typical Southern selling. I am hurt, but if I don't power through this I am going to fucking hurt and that may cost me time down the line. The selling in this resembled something akin to a real fight. Even though, they were a lot of momentum swings, it never felt like an exhibition quite the contrary it felt very much like a war. These guys were really fighting like their careers were on the line. ****

I always love this show because during the year I pretty much only watch RAW and this show only had great recommendations for the rest of 2013. I can already thank Tim for a badass Cesaro/Ziggler match. The one omission I thought was the Cena/Punk Free TV match, I thought that was a great blowoff match for one of the longest running feuds in recent history. It would make my top ten, but I have barely watched the amount of wrestling from 2013 you all have, Just wondered what your thoughts were on that one.

I have really grown to love Cesaro this year as a weekly presence on RAW, but I don't make it a regular habit to watch anything besides RAW so using the Wrestling Culture Year In Review I decided to go back and watch some Cesaro I missed. Antonio Cesaro w/Zeb Colter & Jack Swagger vs Dolph Ziggler - Superstars 8/30/13 If Antonio Cesaro was the NWA traveling champion, I believe this is how the match would look. Ever since Ziggler turned babyface, he seemed content to wrestle the mid-90s Savage formula take heat for most of the match and then hit the finish. Beside the fact Mr. Livingston recommended this match, I knew something was up because the commentators were saying Ziggler was boasting that he was about to deliver a Mania Main Event level performance. Ziggler all of sudden remembered he had a shit ton of offense that Cesaro gladly bumped and sold for in this match. Cesaro establishes he has the strength advantage early, but Ziggler has the speed when he snaps off a quick dropkick (Ziggler's usual one early offensive move). Thanks to some Swagger distraction, Cesaro throws Ziggler with a gutwrench and when Ziggler tries catch him with a roll-up he double stomps him in a great spot. This is when the match departs from the Savage formula as Ziggler starts rattling off moves like cross-body, roll-up, a facebuster and climaxing with a tornado DDT out of a back body drop attempt. Ziggler's speeds seems to be overwhelming Cesaro. However, Ziggler cant seem to find a way to neutralize Swagger as another distraction allows Cesaro to shake the ropes. Then in the spot of match and maybe spot of the year. Cesaro hits a delayed superplex after grabbing Ziggler from the apron. WOW! Cesaro nonchalantly covers and Ziggler reverses. Ziggler goes around the world to grab a sleeper. Swagger looks to interfere and Ziggler dropkicks him off the apron. Great Payoff! Ziggler gets a fameasser for two. (Why has that not been renamed?) Cesaro shrugs off Zig Zag attempt and true to form Ziggler rushed right back in, but this time ate "throw him up, catch him with a Euro uppercut" and the nastiest Neutralizer I have seen to lose to Cesaro. I don't think is a Match of the Year Candidate, but definitely one of the best free TV matches of the year. I loved the use of Swagger as he was key in both Cesaro's transitions and finally he was knocked out. This was Ziggler's best match of the year as he was just relentless. He knew speed and willpower was all he had. He just kept coming and coming. He pressed every advantage. It felt like a full court press in basketball, but that ultimately cost him because he ran into a huge European Uppercut to set up the Neutralizer. ***1/2

GHC Heavyweight Champion Mitsuharu Misawa vs Jun Akiyama - Budokan 1st Anniversary 07/27 The crowning achievement of Jun Akiyama's career as it finally seems like he is going to be the man. All of 2000 was leading to this climax where he defeats Misawa to become the GHC Champion. The aftermath would turn out differently as NOAH would reset and go with Kobashi as their big drawing ace. However, for this one night Akiyama looked like he fulfilled his potential and had become puroresu's new big star. In their last big match at the Budokan, Misawa lost to Akiyama and he comes out elbows blazing. He will not be deterred and elbows through everything. Akiyama tries to powder. Misawa keeps elbowing. Akiyama ties to take it to the mat. Misawa elbows out. Akiyama tries to go elbow for elbow well that is just preposterous. Akiyama finally kills this onslaught by dropkicking Misawa off the top rope onto the floor in a sweet bump. Akiyama drives his knee into Misawa back sending him crashing into the railing. Misawa is not the only who remembers their previous match as Akiyama goes for Misawa's neck with a tombstone piledriver and some neck submissions. All of sudden we are transported to the Greensboro Coliseum where the "Total Package" Mitsuharu Misawa no-sells "Nature Boy" Jun Akiyama's strikes in the corner and cleans his clock with some more elbows and Akiyama has some great webble-wobble, ropes holding me up sells of it. The one of the biggest stylistic differences in this match from the 02/00 match is that Misawa gets way more of his offense in this match. I don't if it is due to his age, but Misawa almost looks demonic when he slaps on the front facelock the way his eye-brows are arched. Misawa gets his trademark diving elbow to the floor after doing a rana out of a powerbomb and a butterfly suplex after he cant get his Tiger Driver. Then out of nowhere Akiyama applies a crossface. Here come the fireworks! Akiyama DDTs Misawa on the ramp and teases an Exploder and a German off the ramp onto the floor, but Misawa elbows him off. Similar to Misawa's fatal mistake in 2000, Akiyama dodges an elbow from the ramp and drives him to floor. He capitalizes on this mistake with an Exploder on the floor and in the ring. Then in a perplexing move, Akiyama goes to the top? They tease a superplex until you realize that they are actually going to do a SUPER TIGER DRIVER~! It did not look as great as it possibly could have, but the audience and announcers all collectively lost their shit. Misawa sells his own damage thus it takes him too long to cover. Misawa follows up with the Roaring Elbow and a Tiger Driver both getting two. Hence he looks to finish off Akiyama and hit the Emerald Flowsion, but Akiyama wriggles free to hit two Exploders to level the playing field. They are both in their respective corners and charge at each other, but it is Akiyama's high knee that finds the mark. The end is nigh for Misawa. The brainbuster and choke fail to polish off Misawa, but the combination of an Exploder and a Wrist-Clutch Exploder ultimately finish Misawa and Akiyama wins his first major singles title. Unlike the first match, Akiyama feels like he is overcoming Misawa's onslaught of elbows and bombs. In the first match, he builds a huge lead and needs to weather the inevitable comeback. In this performance, he proved he does not have to be a front runner and he has big time comeback ability. I loved Misawa's presence in this. He was not going to lose to Akiyama again and just elbowed through everything. He would not be denied. The problem was that when he tried something high-risk it paid off with him crashing and burning (yes he pulled off the SUPER TIGER DRIVER~!, but more often than not he ate concrete). Eventually, it came down who was quicker at pulling the trigger Akiyama's knee or Misawa's elbow and the younger Akiyama won that battle and ultimately the match. My major issue with this match was the transitions were pretty lame and did not weave a complete story. The Akiyama crossface and the SUPER TIGER DRIVER~! were poorly set up from an in-ring action perspective. I don't think they made the most of their big spots. Nothing seemed to have any consequence until about 2 minutes to go. I liked the story, but I thought the plot devices could have been better combined to deliver a more complete match. **** ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Jun Akiyama & Yuji Nagata vs Mitsuharu Misawa & Kenta Kobashi - Budokan 2/17/02 The two combatants in New Japan's 01/04/02 Dome show team together to face Misawa & Kobashi in Kobashi's return match from knee injuries to draw a sell out at the Budokan. Not only is it Kobashi's return match, but was this the first time he had teamed with Misawa since 1995. NOAH played two pretty big drawing cards there to ensure a sell-out. There are big Kobashi chants to start and you know Akiyama's days as champion are numbered with such a big time reaction. Misawa and Nagata start with some decent chain wrestling. Nagata seems to get the best of Misawa on the mat and fights through Misawa's trademark elbows. They both tag out and there is a big pop for the Kobashi vs. Akiyama showdown. Kobashi looks pissed and is ready to light up some muthafuckas. That is the theme of the beginning of the match, the people want to see Kobashi kick some ass so he delivers. He chops the shit out of Akiyama and hits a delayed vertical suplex then brutalizes Nagata with high chops and then does his short knee lifts/ab stretch combo on him. Nagata kicks Kobashi knee during a struggle over a suplex to buy his team some time and Akiyama capitalizes with a jumping high knee. That is the risk Misawa and Kobashi took with having Kobashi take a bulk of the offense early. Akiyama applies a Boston Crab, but Kobashi makes it to the ropes. Kobashi starts to hulk-up and throws down Akiyama in the corner, but a drop toehold stymies him and Nagata applies the crossface. Nagata get back to the legs and drops down for his version of the figure-4 and Akiyama cuts off Misawa this time. Kobashi's selling including verbal selling has made this heat segment one of the better ones so far in my 00s puroresu watching. Kobashi is able to fire off a suplex to finally tag Misawa. Misawa will not be denied and his elbow find its mark on Akiyama and Nagata. However after repeated attempts for the Tiger Driver, Akiyama nails him with an Exploder. Akiyama wisely tags out to Nagata who hits a Northern Lights Suplex and applies a crossface, but now Kobashi saves. Here comes the Misawa comeback with the Roaring Elbow and Tiger Driver, but only gets 2. Kobashi comes in to the joy of the crowd and delivers his string of crowd-pleasers: Spinning Back Chop, Half-Nelson Suplex, but powerbomb gets countered into a triangle choke by Nagata. Nagata aint holding down Kobashi, who gives him a sleeper suplex for his troubles. Nagata is able to kick Kobashi's leg one last time to give his team the advantage. Akiyama and Nagata are able to do a double submission spot with Nagata applying the STF and Akiyama his choke. Huge Kobashi Chants. Kobashi is still struggling, but to my surprise a wrist-clutch exploder does him in while Misawa is detained by Nagata. I am so used to American psychology, I often forget it is customary for wrestlers to lose their return match to put over ring rust and build their comeback to a more satisfactory climax. This is a fun popcorn match. The beginning is just giving the fan what they want Kobashi killing bitches dead. Then they add the drama with Akiyama and Nagata targeting the injured knee. After that it just becomes a bomb fest with everyone hitting their best hits before Nagata gets one last ditch kick to knee and you see Kobashi putting over the new champion Akiyama. While this is yet another big win for Akiyama, soon after he would be shunted to the tag division and the process was begun to get the strap to Kobashi by getting it to Misawa first to set up a big money gate at the Budokan. ***1/2

The Wrestling Culture Podcast has done a great job explaining why Dustin Rhodes rules the school by a career retrospective and saying he has about 3 MOTYCs this year (two against The Shield and the TLC 4-Way). Thus Riding Space Mountain also gets timely by looking at an overlooked point of Dustin's career his 1993 US Title feud with Rick Rude. I argue that he is a victim of circumstances that WCW's woefully 1993 inept booking and Rude's injuries are too much for him to overcome. Still, they managed to put together a couple good matches on Saturday Night. Of course, the vast majority of fans have only seen the rather boring Iron Man Match. In the second Saturday Night match, Rude pulled a classic 1992 performance out his ass and in the tag match with Flair and against Rude & Sid Rhodes pulled out one of the better face in peril performances. These are the recommended match not because they are great matches per se, but displayed the positive attributes of teh combatants. Dustin Rhodes , Sting & Davey Boy Smith vs Rick Rude, Vader & Sid Vicious - Clash XXIII Dustin Rhodes vs Rick Rude WCW Saturday Night 08/28/93 Best of 3 Series VACANT US Champion Match #1 Dustin Rhodes vs Rick Rude WCW Saturday Night 09/4/93 Best of 3 Series VACANT US Champion Match #2 Dustin Rhodes & Ric Flair vs. Rick Rude & Sid Vicious - WCW Saturday Night 09/18/93

O Hell Yeah! Depeche Mode is pretty bitchin' also to be fair to Bix. What I thought was one of the more genius things of this is the subscription contract length. There is no permutation that will be get to get the Royal Rumble, Mania and Summerslam in one subscription thus forcing the 3 PPV watchers to pay the full $120. As a person that usually purchases 2-3 PPVs a year (Rumble, Mania, and SSlam) the fact I can get all 12 PPVs for the cost of 2 means in my mind as a fan I am getting 10 for free. So as long as they build 3-4 PPVs strong than I think the purchase is justified. Since each PPV is not being sold on its merits, this will introduce the risk of creative laziness (though I think their lazy anyways) as Charles points out. I don't think its the length of the contract that mitigates the risk of creative laziness, but the fact they will continually want to generate new revenue from new fans. This will continue to keep the TV and "PPVs/Supercards" strong. Now on the "Nitro " Model (great name, Will) vs. "Supercard" Model, it can go either way, but I think if you assume the vast majority of fans will have PPV results at their fingers and they see a trend of non-finishes and building to the TV they will not subscribe. Since they are seeing the finishes on TV. I don't think anything has changed since day one of pro wrestling, if you want to see the big matches you have to pay. However, the counterpoint is well they have your money already so in reality they can shit the bed on about 8 PPVs and as along as they have about 4 strong ones I could see them being fine. In a lot of ways, I see WWE actually going back to the early to mid 90s model of 4 big shows with other 8 shows being more Clash or SNME style shows. The incentive of strong creative on TV will always be necessary for new fans and at least 3-4 PPVs will still need to be strong in my opinion. That being said I dont think WWE knows what "strong" or "lazy" creative is so I don't think we actually see a change in styles Why do people think that WWE won't end up putting up as much content as they did on their 24/7 channel. Is it because they are hosting it rather than a cable company? Would they have not had to pay the cable company for the server space? I really don't understand because to me if you did for one on demand service why would you not eventually do it for this one. I agree with Charles that re-releases make business sense so yes they will not be add stuff at lightning speed.

Post of the year. I grew up in Boston, but no way could I do a podcast on it. I will say i was there live for breakup of the APA that led to push for the "Wrestling God" John Bradshaw Layfield. I will be pumped for the Boston episode.

They pulled off the spot pretty damn well so more power to them. What I have read about Rick Rude's injuries seems ambiguous. So what was his injury in lat '92 that forced him to relinquish the US Championship? Was it the same bacnk injury that ultimately forced him to retire in 1994? Are there particular matches where these injuries are known to have happened? Thanks.

Skipping the GHC Title Change with Misawa and the Misawa & Kobashi tag because I have seen them before and have notes and am deciding between watching them again or reviewing based off notes. Onto Akiyama as the Ace of the tag division GHC Tag Team Champions Wild II (Takeshi Rikio & Takeshi Morishima) vs Jun Akiyama & Atikoshi Saito - Budokan NOAH 9/23/02 You know all those touring 80s metal bands with only one original member (looking at you, Quiet Riot) that's what this match felt like. It was a wicked bad All Japan tribute match that had one of the original members of the band performing. You know what this match is good for, though. You see why Akiyama is a cut above the rest. The way he throws himself into every bump and into every move makes you believe. Don't get me wrong, Rikio and Morishima had potential, but they were so tentative. Not tentative in a I am selling that match as a big deal let me be cautious, but tentative more like I don't want to hurt myself or my opponent and still pretty green. Atikoshi Saito is a lost cause and just a pretty atrocious wrestler. I have no idea how Akiyama got saddled with such a chump. He was apart of some of the slap exchanges and double clothesline spots ever. Jesus, in Japan, it is not like work their slaps just friggin' shoot slap him. Rikio and Morishima were not much above him in terms of laying it in, but they did try a bit harder with Akiyama. The Morishima side slam on Saito to transition out of his heat segment was pathetic and Saito visibly hopping into Rikio's arms for a bearhug was sad. I'll give credit where it is do, Wild II was effective in working Saito's ribs with lots of double stomps and Saito actually sold pretty well, but that part was merely decent. The best parts of the match were of course when Akiyama was in. The way he just bumped for Morishima and Rikio made them seemed so much more credible. When he slapped them, it definitely woke them up. Morishima finally started hitting some big clotheslines and because Akiyama is a total nut he took a wicked Doomsday Device. Akiyama gave as good as he got because he messed Morishima's face with his jumping high knee. The finish run features Saito and Rikio and it is about as anti-climatic as one can imagine. Saito wins after a bunch of jumping enziguiris. Easily the worst match I have seen so far in my 00s puroresu watching. It is full of trite slap exchanges and poor offense. How far has the once mighty All Japan has fallen! I am not even going bother rating it. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- GHC Tag Team Champions Sterness (Jun Akiyama & Atikoshi Saito) vs Burning (Kenta Kobashi & Kentaro Shiga) - NOAH 10/19/02 The undisputed and unlikely star (at least from my perspective) was Kentaro Shiga. I had never seen Shiga, but with that frame he looked like as if I stepped into the ring. He is not a shorty like Saito, but a tall-ish, lanky fellow. So when Akiyama waves him off dismissively at the very beginning as if to say "Listen chump, it is time for the big boys to play" and then promptly cheapshots him off the apron Shiga comes in and tries to retaliate, but this is not Akiyama's first rodeo and he backs off the apron and gives him a wag of the finger. , I was like "Fuck Yeah!" Shiga then proceeded to prove me wrong the rest of the match that he did belong. Shiga just screamed "Face In Peril", but lo and behold he was one helluva hot tag. Shiga gets a hold of Akiyama and slaps him in the corner. You can imagine what happens next as Akiyama just brutalizes Shiga with a barrage of slaps. Akiyama goes to finish the job on the ramp, but Shiga gets a tornado DDT off the ramp that almost decapitates Akiyama on the railing. HOLY SHIT! He does it two more times off the apron onto the railing and I think Akiyama is dead. Akiyama can only get a foot on the ropes and collapses on the Irish Whip attempt. Kobashi is in and get hits his delayed vertical suplex, but Saito saves drawing boos. One other thing I love about this is match is that there is actual heel heat for Sterness. When Saito saves Akiyama he actually draws boos. Interference is pretty liberal in puroresu tags, but rarely draws boos. The facts the crowd was in unison for Kobashi & Shiga and there was an actual build to a finish improved this match tenfold over the previous Sterness tag. Saito draws more boos by breaking up a sweet ab stretch with crossface. Kobashi tags Shiga, but outside of his on bomb he just does not have the offense to take it to Akiyama, who wrangles Shiga into a vicious crossface while Saito restrains Kobashi. This has been a perfect use of Saito so far. Now the real fun begins as Akiyama busts open Shiga's nose with a high knee and they just brutalize his face during the heat segment. Saito, who throws a pretty good kick, kicks him in the face and steps on his face. Akiyama slaps Shiga in the face while Saito holds him as the ref is admonishing him Saito stands on Shiga's face. This is friggin' awesome. Shiga gets a lariat to tag in Kobashi. I have to say I was bit underwhelmed by Kobashi. It was a pretty tepid hot tag when I was expecting molten fire. He chops the fuck out of Akiyama, but they go into finisher tease. Saito hits a real sweet axe kick on Kobashi and a German. Kobashi lariats Saito and tags Shiga, who is a fuckin house of fire. He is out for blood and just crushing anything that moves. A Saito jumping enziguiri stymies his run. Now it is Kobashi's turn to rattle off offense: he throws Akiyama down on the knee to corner and half-nelson suplexes follow, but Saito saves. They tease the Burning Hammer, but Saito the Personification of Buzzkill breaks it up with a jumping enziguiri. Don't worry Kobashi, Shiga has this on lock. He applies an STF on Akiyama while Kobashi detains Saito and the crowd is rocking for Shiga. Shiga does for his big bomb: the tornado DDT, but Akiyama hits a brainbuster out of it. Akiyama goes to choke a bitch, but Kobashi saves. Shiga gets one more hope spot with a roll-up outta of an exploder, but Akiyama proves too much for him hitting a brainbuster, exploder and a fisherman buster to polish him off for a successful defense of the tag titles. The match does run pretty long and can be a bit excessive at times would be my quibbles. I would imagine this is Shiga's match of a lifetime. Everyone loves an underdog and this is a story anyone can get. The underdog punking out the bully, getting his ass beat, taking it right to the bullies, but coming up short. Kobashi, who lets face it can be a bit of a glory hog, really let Shiga shine in this. Akiyama played a great heel prick in this much better than any other match I have seen from him. ****

I may buy the charisma argument. Nobody is going to be as effusive as Kobashi, but Misawa and Kawada have their own special charisma. We will see how I feel about Akiyama. I am not buying the moveset argument at all not even for a dollar. Jun Akiyama vs Kenta Kobashi - NOAH #4 PPV 12/23/00 The story of Akiyama's two monumental victories is focus, focus, focus. Take what it is given to you and don't let up. Weather the inevitable comeback and unleash a barrage of Exploders to win. In this match, he has three things working against him: he falls into an early hole, Kobashi's half-nelson suplex levels the playing field in the middle and then pride at the end. In the previous matches, Misawa's elbow and Kobashi's lariats and suplexes were rendered powerless by Akiyama's tenacious work. In this match, Kobashi shows tremendous fighting spirit in working through his arm injury to hit a half-nelson suplex to knock Akiyama out. Akiyama is able to recover from this, but when he had Kobashi knocked out on the outside after an Exploder instead of taking the victory he wanted the decisive victory. Thus was the great, long fall of Akiyama from the top rope onto the back of his head. Kobashi is ripshit to start the match and is lighting Akiyama up. Akiyama vacillates between retreat and standing tall with neither working. On the outside, he is able to use Kobashi's overzealousness against him ducking out of the way of a chop. He drops him across the railing and Kobashi is really selling the cheat. As a viewer, I thought this was clearly the opening Akiyama would exploit. However, Akiyama deviates and instead goes high-risk on the ramp hitting a DDT on the ramp and a running elbow (ala Mutoh). He looks to end it early with an Exploder, but Kobashi plants him with a DDT on the edge of the ramp. Akiyama deviating from the gameplan did not work out too well. Instead, Kobashi takes a page out of Akiyama's playbook and is absolutely relentless on Akiyama's neck. It really climaxes when Akiyama goes for his knee in the corner and Kobashi throws him down. Akiyama really sells that neck making you believe Kobashi had turned the tables on Akiyama. I actually believed I could buy Kobashi's headlock as the finish after the neck work and Akiyama selling and how tenacious this headlock was. In a callback to the August match, Akiyama saves himself with two desperation dropkick to Kobashi's knee. Different day, same story? Not so fast, Akiyama drops a boot on Kobashi's arm from the apron and drives his knee into Kobashi arm riding into the railing. Akiyama is looking to take away the Burning Lariat and the lethal chops of Kobashi. The following arm work is so textbook, but so well-done with Akiyama using everything available (ropes, post, railing, his own shoulder) to hit to inflict damage on the arm. Kobashi makes you believe that arm is totally useless, but just when end seems near he snaps off a sleeper suplex. Kobashi continues to sell the arm, but hits a half-nelson suplex on Akiyama that knocks him the fuck out. That is not something Akiyama had to weather in his previous victories. Kobashi is still injured, but in a lot of ways the entire playing field had been levelled. Kobashi, ever the sportsman, stops the ref's count and drags Akiyama back into the ring. Kobashi still sells the arm doing moves like the powerbomb and the lariat. You believe it is arm that is allowing Akiyama to kick out because those moves don't have their usual power behind them. Kobashi goes for a move that does not use the arm: the moonsault. However, Akiyama gets up to powerbomb him off the top rope. It is even stevens. It really feels like it is a tied ball game going into sudden death overtime at this point. Akiyama goes for the kill with the exploder on the apron, but they both jump off the apron. Akiyama is able to hit an Exploder on the exposed concrete and he is fuckin out. Now, Akiyama stops the ref's count to drag Kobashi back into the ring. In Akiyama's mind, a pinfall the ring must mean effacing all doubts and securing his place in the Sun. He hits a double-arm DDT, a diving elbow to the back of Kobashi's head and then a exploder, but only gets two. Akiyama goes for his choke, but they get wrapped up in the ropes. There is a great struggle over the wrist-clutch exploder where you actually feel bad that Kobashi is about to be hit with this move. Then Kobashi kicks out! So Akiyama figures the only thing more he can do is hit the Exploder off of a higher place. Kobashi still has enough struggle in him to send Akiyama crashing onto the back of his head. Kobashi just collapses onto the mat in a great visual. Kobashi hits three lariats, but he knows what he must do. Akiyama puts up a perfunctory struggle before the inevitable BURNING HAMMER~! Both men shake hands and all is right in the Kingdom of NOAH. At 35+ minutes, this match continues the lineage of dramatic, epic Kings Road matches. I loved the symmetry of both men having the other knocked out at different points, but wanting to finish it in the ring. I liked the callbacks to their previous encounters. I do think this match is a little overly self-indulgent and could have benefited from trimming. There is plenty of gratuitous suplexes and such that left off because I did not want to write a novel about this match and because I thought they were insignificant. I am strong believer moves like that should not be. In the February 2000 classic with Misawa, there were no wasted moves. Still, it showcased Akiyama and Kobashi at their finest with Akiyama working the arm over and Kobashi fighting through it. There is no slight in not being as good as that Misawa/Akiyama 2000 match. It was a great, great blowoff match and excellent example of both men's resumes. ****1/2 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Mitsuharu Misawa & Jun Akiyama vs Shinya Hashimoto & Yuji Nagata - Zero-One 3/2/01 The decentralization of puroresu continues as the disenchanted Hashimoto forms his own promotion known as Zero-One (started in the year 2001) and brings in three of the biggest stars of puroresu for his debut show. It is the fastest rising stars in New Japan and NOAH on either side and of course the main attraction is to see the Ace of 90s New Japan mix it up with the Ace of 90s All Japan. I did not expect such a snoozefest of a match. Everything felt so tepid until the end. The match did make Hashimoto look like an absolute monster, but other than that it was pretty uneventful. Nagata is just not a very submission wrestler, which is a problem since that is his gimmick at this point. Akiyama does his best to make it interesting by heeling it up and taunting Hashimoto. After Nagata catches him with a German, Misawa says "Kid, let me show you how it is done." and Nagata gets some kicks in before it is elbow city. Misawa gives him "Now you do something" tag. Akiyama piledrives Nagata while taunting Hashimoto. This match undercut Akiyama pretty bad, but hey at least he was a total prick during it. Nagat kicks Akiyama's leg out from under him and is going to do his Nagatalock while saluting Misawa, but thinks better of it and tags Hashimoto. Hashimoto rips through Akiyama, who bails. Akiyama thinks about it on the outside before coming back in and just being taken to the woodshed. It really feels like Akiyama was playing the same role as Nobutaka Araya in the tag match I watched earlier. Akiyama is not Araya. Hashimoto overhand chop is pretty sweet and he looks like a beast. Finally, we get Misawa vs. Hashimoto. Misawa hits a spinning back elbow up against the ropes. Hash with a huge overhand chop sends Misawa to his knees and then floors him with a kick to the chest. Then tags Nagata. Awww is that it? Tease. Nagata applies a shitty armbar and then a crossface. Misawa can't be bothered with this shit and just elbows out of it and tags Akiyama. Take care of my light work, Akiyama. They trade exploders, you know it was coming. Akiyama applies a crossface. Akiyama goes for another, but Nagata drops down into guillotine choke. I liked the symmetry of that. Here comes Hash to murderize Akiyama, but Ak cuts him off with a high knee. Atta boy! He puts his foot on his throat and makes the ref count. Glorious. Misawa goes for the Tiger Driver, but Nagata interferes. Hashimoto disposes of Misawa and tags Nagata. Misawa gets the Tiger Driver for two. On the next one he elbows Hashimoto, but it gets reversed into a triangle choke. Akiyama saves Misawa after a Nagata back drop driver with a pin. Hashimoto is in for the kill and hits a couple DDTs, but cant put Misawa away while Nagata detains Akiyama. Akiyama breaks free and slaps the shit out of Hashimoto while he is trying to suplex Misawa. This wakes up Hashimoto who now has murder in his eyes and goes to town in the corner. This allows Misawa to hit a German Suplex from behind for the win. After the match, Hashimoto makes a beeline for Akiyama and tries to kill him. Melee ensues. It was nice to see Akiyama heel it up and Misawa in a back to basics match, but it felt like nothing happened. Hashimoto would come in kick ass and then leave. Why leave? Why not just win? Misawa was not much better with Nagata either. He let Nagata hit moves, but then no sold them and just would elbow. Akiyama was at least interesting, but treated like Hashimoto's bitch. I get the appeal that it is Misawa vs. Hashimoto. It did not do anything for me. The ending was good with all of Akiyama's antics finally getting him in hot water with Hashimoto. The payoff with Misawa sneaking away with the victory was cool. I'm giving it *** because it was a decent match with a very good payoff and finish.

Some high praise, I did not put him in my top 50 because I have not watched nearly enough, but I am definitely excited. Mitsuharu Misawa & Akira Taue vs Burning (Kenta Kobashi & Jun Akiyama) - NOAH Debut Show 8/5/00 2 Out Of 3 Falls Pyrotecnics, a ramp and a post-match angle immediately NOAH signals that it is going to be different than All Japan. The booking builds on Akiyama's big victory over Misawa and pushes him as the center piece of the new promotion. From August through December, NOAH relied on the Akiyama/Kobashi feud to carry the shows. What a way to kick off this money feud then with Akiyama taking out Misawa and Taue in two straight and then laying out Kobashi after the match. Thats how you make a new star! Within 2 minutes, Akiyama chokes Misawa out and had young boys tending to him. I will say that Kobashi did hit a half-nelson suplex right before, but I don't think it lessens the impact of Akiyama winning the first fall in such decisive fashion. Misawa made a career out of takin a lickin and kept on tickin. It is elbows for everyone and Taue slaps the shit out of Akiyama. After a exchange Misawa/Kobashi, the Akiyama show begins again with Akiyama getting whipped by Taue. Taue hits his Nodowa on the ramp (excellent first use of the ramp) and Akiyama is just a heap. Taue heaves him back into ring. Misawa and Taue get nearfalls on Akiyama. Akiyama rolls through a Nodowa. Kobashi with a spinning back chop, but Taue gets a knee lift to tag Misawa before things get too out of hand. Misawa hits a missile dropkick to swing it back in their favor. Misawa blocks the half nelson suplex, but Akiyama blinds tags himself in. Young hotshot just looking for action or is he looking to prove himself as the new ace? Taue and Akiyama tease the apron Nodowa, but Kobashi breaks it up (buzzkill). Taue hits a nodowa in the ring and a Dynamic Bomb, but Kobashi saves again. Kobashi powerbombs Misawa into the corner, which always looks sick. Kobashi hits the Burning Lariat on Taue, but walks into Emerald Flowsion. Akiyama hits the Exploder twice on Misawa and a knee and an exploder on Taue. After the match, the real fireworks begin when Akiyama hits a back drop driver on his long-time partner, Kenta Kobashi. Thus setting up the main event for the next night. The match is really a vehicle to propel Akiyama to the top as I stated he wins two straight falls over two of three of his biggest possible opponents and then dropped the other on his head after the match. I think there was subtle ways to make Akiyama the heel besides the fact he was the one who turned Kobashi. He choked out Misawa, which is a pretty violent way to beat someone. Also, he was getting saved a lot by Kobashi. He did ultimately win and he did not look weak, but maybe the story is that he is biting off more than he can chew. Only way to find out is watch the next night's main event. ***1/2 Jun Akiyama vs Kenta Kobahi - NOAH #2 8/06/00 Now that they positioned Akiyama as a force to be reckoned with it was time to consolidate that and they went a long way towards doing that by having Akiyama choke out Kobashi to win NOAH's first single main event. My biggest issue with this is that it was not wrestled that much in the vein of blood feud, but more along the lines of an All Japan epic and I think if NOAH really wanted to depart from the past then have an out of control brawl could have cemented that image. No matter this is still a very good match just a bit disconnected from the storyline set up the night before. It actually began as I wanted with a heated exchange and Akiyama powdering, but once he got back in everything became tentative they went into the test of strength and sort of slowed it down. The first big highspot is Kobashi hitting a powerbomb on Akiyama to the outside. Akiyama really milks for everything it is worth. That separates the great wrestlers from the chumps because plenty would be right back up hitting moves and taking bumps. Kobashi is now doing ab stretches and a full nelson. I don't have anything against that, but I think storyline necessitates a more violent layout. Akiyama hits a pair of basement dropkicks on the bandaged knee to take control and Kobashi selling of these dropkicks is so damn good. "Ko-Bash-i" chants ring out as Akiyama has him in the scorpion deathlock. Akiyama is relentless on the knee very similar to his hyper-focus in the Misawa match. Akiyama goes for an Exploder and a great struggle before Kobashi snaps off a suplex then his own sleeper suplex. Kobashi is still selling his knee as he tries string together some offense: powerbomb and half-nelson suplex. However, it seems like the injuries have sapped too much of his strength and energy as Akiyama hits FIVE exploders and chokes him out to win. After the match, the young boys are tending to Kobashi and one is giving him CPR so Akiyama to be a prick gets into a scuffle and there is even a hip swivel on the ramp. Watching this match, I thought I came in with the wrong expectations. It was a dick move to drop Kobashi on his head the previous night, but maybe it was supposed to be more symbolic then start of Akiyama, the super heel. Then the finish and post-match happened where Akiyama chokes him out, attacks those helping Kobashi and is a cocky prick on the ramp. I think antics are truly emblematic of what is trying to be achieved. It is just that the All Japan guys are so rooted in their ways they only know that way to wrestler a match. It is a very good match, but falls short of being on the level of other All Japan epics, but that's why they have rematches, folks. ****

You guys briefly touched on the attempt to generate new stars at the turn of the century: Akiyama, Sasaki, and Nagata. I think the common theory floated was that Akiyama just did not have the charisma. I just wanted to see if anybody had further thoughts as Akiyama's career in 2000-2002 is so interesting to me because it really seems like a rocket is strapped to his ass until he gets beat by Ogawa (granted he becomes the rock of the tag division after that with Saito). I posited in the Akiyama thread that: "I think my major hang-up with Akiyama is I don't think he ever found his personality in the ring the same way the others did. " I'll ask the same question here: "Who is Jun Akiyama? Maybe someone can flesh out who Akiyama is for me. Maybe it will come in time with watching more footage. Now, Akiyama's 2000-01 is so intriguing to me because from a booking perspective he strikes me as the absolute hottest wrestler in puroresu. " Feb '00 - Pins Misawa Aug '00 - First NOAH show, chokes out Misawa, pins Taue and drops tag partner Kobashi with a back drop driver. That is a huge friggin' angle. The next night he chokes out Kobashi to win. They are giving Kobashi CPR after the match Dec '00 - Kobashi gets his win back, but needs to use the Burning Hammer July '01 - Pins Misawa to win the GHC Title Oct '01 - Headline NJPW Dome show against Mutoh & Hase with Nagata Jan '02 - Pin Nagata headlining 01/04 Dome show Feb '02 - He pins Kobashi in a tag match against Kobashi & Misawa with Nagata April '02 - Drops title to Yoshinari Ogawa, WHAT THE FUCK!?!? He beat Misawa and Kobashi within six months. He choked out Kobashi. How was he not a made man? Ditch gave a similar answer to Charles, "Akiyama and Nagata both suffer as a result of who they're compared to. How do you follow the Musketeers? How do you follow the Four Corners? I think the same thing happened with Jumbo (comp to Baba) and Fujinami (comp to Inoki). Jumbo and Fujinami were the 'pause that refreshes'. NOAH didn't have anyone to follow up with after Akiyama, but in Nagata's case I think he and Tenzan were needed to clear the stage for Tanahashi et al. to be seen as a success on their own terms rather than the terms of the golden days." Basically that there has been diminishing popularity ever since Rikidozan, but while that is what we are seeing. It does not explain why we are seeing it. I happen to agree with Mike Campbell that when Misawa and Hashimoto rose to prominence they had other rivals with them. Akiyama just did not have anybody. So I was curious if anyone thinks it is Akiyama's fault, a lack of credible challengers or NOAH's booking (Ditch and Campbell both slammed the booking.)

I loved the conspiracy theory that Will was Tiger Mask. I got a good kick out of it. I was just about to post the crazy six-man lineup Mil Mascaras, Bob Backlund, & Jimmy Snuka vs The Eliminators & Hector Garza and Charles said it. WAR is crazy. Another huge blind spot for me. I have seen the great Tenryu/Hash matches and the crazy brawl with Mutoh and with Takada, but have no seen much WAR. I need to remedy that. Fujiwara vs. Abby in '97 sounds weird as hell. Even though I have watched plenty of puroresu, this was still plenty informative.

Fucking awesome. Texted a buddy the same while watching Raw tonight. I love that dude. I have not marked out for modern wrestling in forever. My brother and I were working on his calculus homework when it happened and we both lost our minds. Roman Reigns is a fuckin' beast.

80s New Japan in general is a huge blind spot for me. The information about New Japan/UWF feud was much appreciated.