cactus

Sadly that seems to be the case. Timothy Thatcher just gave Finn Balor his best match since Balor joined WWE.

This starts in half hour and looks like it might be fun even if the last Takeover was probably weakest one yet. I'm curious to see what they are going to do with the Adam Cole versus Pat McAfee match. This is probably the most I've been intrigued by an Adam Cole match. Karrion Kross fights for the NXT title in the main event against Keith Lee. I have no idea who's winning this as Keith's just won the title, but they seem very high on Kross.

Jim's comments on the Sonya Deville attempted abduction on this week's Experience are seriously messed up. He complained how Deville and Rose were insulting kayfabe by hanging out when the guy tried to kidnap Deville and Corny said he would fine them if he was in charge. I thought he was joking, but he doubled down on his comments. Even Brian Last called him out for it. Jim can't seem to wrap his head around the idea that some things are bigger than wrestling.

Here's my ballot for the 2021 GME. I only had a few months to put together a list for last year and I wasn't completely pleased with it. I've had over a year to fix that and I've discovered so many great matches since then. I could probably put together a list of 100 matches that I wish I watched/revisited, but I'm still happy with my 2021 list. Since 2020, I've finally been able to get into stuff like shoot-style and World Of Sport. Discovering how mental wrestling was in Puerto Rico has been another highlight of my wrestling viewing over the last year. 6/9/1995 is still the greatest match ever and I can't see that ever changing. 1. Toshiaki Kawada & Akira Taue vs Kenta Kobashi and Mitsuharu Misawa (AJPW - 6/9/1995) 2. Bret Hart vs Steve Austin (Submission Match - WWF - 3/23/1997) 3. Brock Lesnar vs John Cena (Extreme Rules - WWE - 4/29/2012) 4. Antonio Inoki, Tatsumi Fujinami, Kengo Kimura, Umanosuke Ueda & Kantaro Hoshino vs Akira Maeda, Yoshiaki Fujiwara, Nobuhiko Takada, Kazuo Yamazaki & Osamu Kid (Elimination Match – NJPW – 3/26/1986) 5. Daniel Bryan vs Triple H (WWE - 4/6/2014) 6. Nick Bockwinkel vs Curt Hennig (AWA - 11/21/1986) 7. Brock Lesnar vs Roman Reigns (WWE - 3/29/2015) 8. Kiyoshi Tamura vs Tsuyoshi Kohsaka (RINGS - 6/27/1998) 9. Katsuyori Shibata vs Kazuchika Okada (NJPW - 4/9/2017) 10. Kenta Kobashi vs Mitsuharu Misawa (NOAH - 3/1/2003) 11. Bryan Danielson vs Nigel McGuinness (ROH - 8/12/2006) 12. Toshiaki Kawada & Akira Taue vs Mitsuharu Misawa & Jun Akiyama (AJPW - 12/6/1996) 13. Shawn Michaels vs Mankind (WWF - 9/22/1996) 14. Megumi Kudo vs Combat Toyoda (No Rope Explosive Barbed Wire Death Match – FMW – 5/5/1996) 15. Kenta Kobashi vs Mitsuharu Misawa (AJPW - 1/20/1997) 16. Mitsuharu Misawa and Kenta Kobashi vs Toshiaki Kawada and Akira Taue (AJPW - 5/21/1994) 17. Kenny Omega vs Tetsuya Naito (NJPW - 8/13/2016) 18. Jumbo Tsuruta vs Genichiro Tenryu (AJPW - 6/5/1989) 19. Terry Funk & Dory Funk Jr vs Terry Gordy & Stan Hansen (AJPW - 31/8/1983) 20. Ric Flair vs Ricky Steamboat (WCW - 2/20/1989) 21. Terry Funk vs Atsushi Onita (No Rope Explosive Barbed Wire Death Match - FMW - 5/5/1993) 22. Sgt Slaughter vs Iron Sheik (Boot Camp Match - WWF - 6/16/1984) 23. Kenta Kobashi vs Jun Akiyama (NOAH - 7/10/2004) 24. Sting, Ricky Steamboat, Dustin Rhodes, Barry Windham & Nikita Koloff vs Rick Rude, Steve Austin, Arn Anderson, Bobby Eaton & Larry Zbyszko (War Games - WCW - 5/17/1992) 25. Bret Hart vs Mr Perfect (WWF - 26/8/1991) 26. Kenta Kobashi & Yoshihiro Takayama vs Mitsuhara Misawa & Jun Akiyama (NOAH - 12/2/2007) 27. Toshiaki Kawada vs Mitsuharu Misawa (AJPW - 6/3/1994) 28. Cody vs Dustin Rhodes (AEW - 5/26/2019) 29. The Hardyz vs The Dudleyz vs Edge & Christian (TLC Match - WWF - 4/1/2001) 30. Bret Hart, Owen Hart, Davey Boy Smith, Brian Pillman & Jim Neidhart vs Steve Austin, Goldust, Ken Shamrock & The Road Warriors (WWF - 7/6/1997) 31. Kenta Kobashi vs Samoa Joe (ROH - 10/2/2005) 32. Jumbo Tsuruta vs Mitsuharu Misawa (AJPW - 6/8/1990) 33. Stan Hansen vs Carlos Colon (Bullrope Match - CWP - 1/6/1987) 34. Necro Butcher vs Samoa Joe (IWA Mid-South - 6/11/2005) 35. Clive Myers vs Steve Grey (JP - 11/20/1975) 36. Bryan Danielson vs KENTA (ROH - 9/16/2006) 37. Daniel Bryan vs Brock Lesnar (WWE - 11/18/2018) 38. Francis Sullivan & Albert Sanniez vs Bernard Caclard & Tony Martino (France - 10/21/1967) 39. Yuki Ishikawa vs Carl Greco (Battlarts - 6/1/2008) 40. Volk Han vs Kiyoshi Tamura (RINGS - 1/22/1997) 41. Randy Savage vs Ricky Steamboat (WWF - 3/29/1987) 42. Jerry Lawler vs Terry Funk (No DQ - CWA - 3/23/1981) 43. Jushin Liger vs Great Sasuke (NJPW - 4/16/1994) 44. Daniel Bryan vs John Cena (WWE - 8/18/2013) 45. Akira Taue vs Mitsuharu Misawa (AJPW - 4/15/1995) 46. Gilbert Cesca vs Billy Catanzaro (France - 5/2/1957) 47. Volk Han vs Kiyoshi Tamura (RINGS - 9/26/1997) 48. The Midnight Rockers vs Doug Somers & Buddy Rose (AWA - 8/30/1986) 49. Sgt. Slaughter vs Bob Backlund (Cage - WWF - 3/21/1981) 50. The Four Horsemen & JJ Dillon vs The Super Powers & Paul Ellering (Wargames - JCP - 7/4/1987) 51. Mankind vs The Undertaker (Hell In A Cell - WWF - 6/22/1998) 52. Andre The Giant vs Stan Hansen (NJPW - 9/23/1981) 53. Jushin Liger vs Great Muta (NJPW - 10/20/1996) 54. Andrade Cien Almas vs Johnny Gargano (WWE NXT - 1/27/2018) 55. Steve Austin vs Kurt Angle (WWF - 8/19/2001) 56. Brock Lesnar vs CM Punk (WWE - 8/18/2013) 57. Antonio Inoki, Yoshiaki Fujiwara, Seiji Sakaguchi, Kantaro Hoshino & Keiji Muto vs Tatsumi Fujinami, Riki Choshu, Akira Maeda, Kengo Kimura & Super Strong Machine (Elimination Match - NJPW - 8/19/1987) 58. Chris Benoit & Chris Jericho vs Steve Austin & Triple H (WWF - 5/21/2001) 59. Bayley vs Sasha Banks (Iron Man - WWE NXT - 10/7/2015) 60. Mitsuharu Misawa, Toshiaki Kawada & Kenta Kobashi vs Jumbo Tsuruta, Akira Taue & Masa Fuchi (AJPW - 10/19/1990) 61. Adrian Street vs Jim Breaks (JP - 2/12/1972) 62. Mitsuharu Misawa vs Jumbo Tsuruta (AJPW - 9/1/1990) 63. William Regal vs Cesaro (WWE NXT - 11/21/2013) 64. Samoa Joe vs CM Punk (ROH - 12/4/2004) 65. Shawn Michaels vs Undertaker (Hell in a Cell - WWF - 10/5/1997) 66. Hiroshi Tanahashi vs Kazuchika Okada (NJPW - 1/4/2015) 67. Yuki Ishikawa vs Kazunari Murakami (Battlarts - 11/26/2000) 68. Shawn Michaels & Diesel vs Razor Ramon & 123 Kid (WWF - 9/28/1994) 69. El Hijo del Santo vs Negro Casas (Mask vs Hair – WWA – 7/18/1987) 70. Bret Hart vs Mr. Perfect (WWF - 6/13/1993) 71. Mitsuharu Misawa & Kenta Kobashi vs Toshiaki Kawada & Akira Taue (AJPW 12/3/1993) 72. Kenta Kobashi vs Yoshihiro Takyama (AJPW - 5/26/2000) 73. CM Punk vs John Cena (WWE - 7/17/2011) 74. The Shield vs The Wyatt Family (WWE - 2/23/2014) 75. Hiroshi Tanahashi vs Kota Ibushi (NJPW - 8/12/2018) 76. Volk Han vs Kiyoshi Tamura (RINGS - 9/25/1996) 77. Hiroshi Tanahashi vs Kazuchika Okada (NJPW - 4/7/2013) 78. Hiroshi Tanahashi vs Minoru Suzuki (NJPW - 10/8/2012) 79. Mitsuharu Misawa vs Jun Akiyama (AJPW - 2/27/2000) 80. Bryan Danielson vs Chris Hero (PWG - 9/4/2009) 81. Shawn Michaels vs Undertaker (WWE - 3/28/2010) 82. AJ Styles vs Bully Ray (Last Man Standing - TNA - 6/12/2011) 83. Kiyoshi Tamura vs Hiroyuki Ito (U-Style - 8/18/2004) 84. AJ Styles vs Roman Reigns (WWE - 5/22/2016) 85. Bret Hart vs Owen Hart (WWF - 3/20/1994) 86. Carlos Colon vs Stan Hansen (Cage - WWC - 3/14/1987) 87. Dick Togo vs Antonio Honda (DDT - 1/30/2011) 88. Orange Cassidy vs PAC (AEW - 2/29/2020) 89. Ric Flair vs Ricky Morton (Cage - JCP - 7/5/1986) 90. Kiyoshi Tamura vs Yoshihisa Yamamoto (RINGS - 6/24/1999) 91. Al Perez vs Invader I (Street Fight - WWC - 10/26/1986) 92. A-Kid vs Zack Sabre Jr. (WWW - 14/4/2018) 93. Lex Luger & Barry Windham vs Arn Anderson & Tully Blanchard (JCP - 3/27/1988) 94. Dump Matsumoto vs Chigusa Nagayo (Hair vs Hair - AJW - 8/28/1985) 95. Tyler Bate vs Pete Dunne (WWE NXT - 5/20/2017) 96. The Undertaker vs Brock Lesnar (WWE - 8/23/2015) 97. Samoa Joe vs AJ Styles (TNA - 12/11/2005) 98. Genichiro Tenryu & Stan Hansen vs Giant Baba & Rusher Kimura (AJPW - 11/29/1989) 99. Mitsuharu Misawa vs Kenta Kobashi (AJPW - 25/10/1995) 100. Giant Baba vs Billy Robinson (AJPW - 7/24/1976) My list for 2020:

I get that I'm in the minority here, but I prefer their '87 match over this. Casas extreme bumping and those insane lucha spots left me speechless, but this is a damn fine brawl that felt like it had more in common with a hockey fight than a wrestling match. Casas setting the tone with a single leg kick to start the match made a lot of sense. Santos sells his leg and Casas tries to go after it, so an intense mat wrestling war ensues. Santos' attempts at armbars look a tad bit shit, but the brawling is solid enough to ignore the weak technique. Crowd erupts for the Casas submission to end this lucha classic. ★★★★¼

Highly enjoyable apuesta match. Santo really sells the idea that he might be unmasked when he spents a minute on the outside regaining his composure after losing the first fall. Kids rush up to him for encouragement and it's a sweet moment. Santo takes back control after Espanto is given the Chris Hamrick bump. Espanto partially ripping Santo's mask made for a good visual. The poor quality of the tape might of put a damper on my enjoyment of this, but this is definitely worth making time for if you are a lucha fan. ★★★★

Both wrestlers put in a hell of a shift here. Santo reminds me of a Mexican Shawn Michaels because of his style of wrestling and how he milks the crowd for sympathy when he's selling. Negro Casas shone here because of his cocky demeanour and insane bumping. I'm surprised Casas didn't suffer any serious injuries from that mental crash and burn failed dropkick attempt that sends him violently snapping back from the ropes. The third fall sees them cram in more nearfalls than the Steamboat/Savage classic from a few months previous. Like that match, every single one of them felt like they could end the match and they never once felt excessive. I've always had a complicated relationship with lucha. I enjoy it to an extent, but I feel like I'm missing something when I watch some of the most celebrated lucha brawls. I had no issue enjoying this one and it's easily the best lucha match that I've ever seen. I think I just need more than good punching in a lot of my wrestling. ★★★★¾

Maeda being a shoot dick translates well into him coming off as a kayfabe dick. Guy looks smug as hell and he looks like he's having a total blast stretching out poor Fujinami. The way they treated Maeda's spinning wheel kick really put that move over as a match ender and made Maeda look dangerous as sin. He ends up cutting up Fujinami's face with a rolling koppu kick and Fujinami just pisses out blood. It's a gruesome sight, but Fujinami has a lot of fight in him. He wipes out himself and Maeda by countering a Maeda flying wheel kickand both guys are unable to make the 10 count, causing the ref to throw this one out. The crowd is molten hot for everything and it felt like NJPW were set on pushing Fujinami as the next Inoki. ★★★★½

This was a good lesson on how to brawl, but I didn't find this particularly great. The finish blows and there's too much downtime for a fairly short match. After they react a stalemate when they try to actually wrestle, Chicana headbutts Satanico and the brawling begins. The final fall felt like they were building to something much greater than a countout draw. I'm starting to think lucha brawls aren't for me. ★★★¼

Great list. It's good to see HBK vs Mankind and Lesnar vs Reigns rated so highly. We have quite a few shared matches, so I'll try and watch some more of the ones I haven't seen from your list before I submit my ballot at the end of the week.

I rewatched the classic Cesca vs Catanzaro the other night for the first time since the footage surfaced and it still rocks. Is there any other French catch that's as good (or close enough) to this match? I'm submitting a ballot for the GME project and it'll be great to get some more French catch on my ballot.

Sad, sad news. I've only seen a few of his early ROH matches, but 43 is no age.

Those stipulations sound like the kind of shit I'd create in match creator on the WWE 2K games when I'm bored. I haven't kept up with NJPW since Wrestle Kingdom, and it looks like I'm not missing much. The card on that stadium show looks pretty tasty, if it even goes ahead.

I've only listened to his ones on Halloween Havoc 94 and Wrestlemania 3, but they are no way as in depth or serious as the watchalongs that Corny does. Tony gets bored quite easy and starts bullshitting and going off topic. They can be entertaining though, as Tony can be a funny guy when he's not being too irritating.

Rewatched this for the GME project and I didn't like this match as much I did the first time I saw it. They try way too hard to make this an epic, with them taking forever to set up spots. The stare down they do when the crutch is in the middle of the ring was way too cutesy for me tastes. There's good stuff to be found here though, with Ciampa's crazed heel performance still standing the test of time and the big spots generally deliver. ★★★½

This was an NWA cage match trapped in 2005 WWE. I've never been as high on Matt Hardy as others have been, but he put in a hell of a performance here. His punches looked snug and he sold his head trauma convincingly. Edge is able to reign in his hokey facials and Lita played her part well. That legdrop from the top of the cage wasn't anything too new as we've seen plenty of big cage spots during the Attitude Era, but they built up to in a way that gave them a reaction like when Undertaker tossed Mankind off the top of Hell In A Cell. This has it's flaws, such as Edge's punches weren't as nice as Matt's and the strong undercurrent of misogyny the storyline had rubbed me the wrong way.While not perfect, this might be the best match WWE put on during the 2000's. ★★★★¾

The pre-match video package is the 6/9/95 of video packages. Incredible stuff that makes Limp Bizkit listenable! The match itself is all the best components of the Attitude Era coming together perfectly. You got brawling, big kickouts, weapon shots, blood, using a lot of finishers, using your opponent's finisher, Rock, Austin and Vince McMahon. Austin having to use his old submission shows how desperate he is to win the title. They never go overboard with the finisher trading or the kickouts for me. They used exactly the right amount for a big stadium main event. The Austin turn might of bombed long-term, but as a standalone angle, it's shocking and executed perfectly. ★★★★½

Imagine that feeling you got when you first saw Dynamite Kid vs Tiger Mask and multiply that by 10. That's what this 60+ year old French match did for me. Some of these exchanges are so ahead of their time, it makes you think how the crowd back then would have reacted to them. Every hold feels like a struggle and you are left on the edge of your seat wondering how they are going to get out of the hold. They trade some neat uppercuts that get more intense as the match goes on, until one of them gets fed up and starts headbutting like they think they're Zinedine Zidane! We see them bust out hurricanranas, monkey flips, powerbombs and even a motherfuckin' Ganso Bomb! After every big exchange they would shake hands, but you can tell they're each getting frustrated at each other for not being able to score an advantage. I went into this with zero context, I don't know which one was Cesca and which one was Catanzaro, but I was still enthralled with this. ★★★★★

I'm still up for submitting a ballot. I have a serviceable top 100 ready now, but I'll keep watching until the deadline as there's still a fair amount of stuff that I want to see before I wrap everything up.

On paper, this pairing is completely laughable. There's no way that junior weasel can hang with the GHC defending tank that is Kenta Kobashi. Ogawa has to cheat by any means necessary to gain an advantage and he puts in a career performance by being a slimy creep who wants to cripple his opponent and take home the GHC title. I love how he gained back control by playing dead. Kobashi eventually comes back around and punches Ogawa until he's bleeding. I thought this was where the match loses some steam as it felt like Kobashi could of easily disposed of Ogawa and that they were just filling time. I also felt that the result was never in jeopardy. That being said, this is still a great match with a smaller heel realistically being to hang with an overpowered babyface. Watching Kobashi chop Ogawa all the around place will never get old! ★★★★¼

This was the world's best game of Fire Pro. Usually calling a match would be an insult, but them busting out of the big bombs straight was very logical as they went to a 60 minute time limit during their last bout and this has a time limit that is half of that. Omega works on Okada's neck and Okada sells wonderfully for Omega. Okada not being able to hit his kip up flawlessly put over well that he was in bad shape. This was a explosive sprint without any of downtime of the first two matches. ★★★★½

Ishii forces Okada to work his style of match after he gets two very convincing nearfalls seconds into the match. Okada trying to land his moves of doom and set Ishii up for a Rainmaker in an Ishii bombfest made for compelling viewing. I think I'm starting to reach a point in my fandom that I'm done with these big NJPW main event counterfests as they do not hold up on rewatches, but these guys made this style work for me by having a great narrative of the midcarder Ishii trying to hang with the IWGP champion and with the sheer emotion involved. ★★★★½

incredibly engaging and competitive technical classic with an all time brilliant heel performance from Bryan. McGuinness is the hometown hero and Bryan wants to rain on his parade and the crowd might respect Danielson, but they don't like him. The rule with the rope breaks was a great bit of psychology. When Nigel uses up his third and final rope break, he has to pray that he doesn't get caught in another submission as the ropes can't save him anymore. The ring post stuff might be a bit much for a post CTE world, but I'll be lying if I said it didn't hook me into the match even further. ★★★★★

This was originally meant to be just a 2 on 2 with the men, but after Beulah calls Lita a slut, she challenges Lita to make this a 3 on 3 match. Neat. The women don't really add much aside from Edge being able to score maximum sleaze points by pinning Beulah in a sexually suggestive pinning combination. They're mostly here to play off the ECW fan's misogyny and do the dreaded catfight spot. Mick Foley was on fire in 2006, and his pre-match promo shitting on ECW was brilliant. 61 year old Terry Funk can still go, he gets wrapped up in barbed wire, takes a fall of a ladder and even does a callback to his legendary empty arena fight with Jerry Lawler 25 years prior by selling his eye after he gets cut up. He plays off against Foley well and is adored by the ECW fans. The man's the GOAT for a reason. This was a chaotic hardcore brawl that's probably one of the best ECW matches out there, and it's under the WWE name! ★★★★½

Super fun heavyweight clash between two of the biggest faces of the time that doesn't wastes zero time. It's a shame they didn't pull the trigger on this pairing sooner. This is mostly a Cena carryjob, with Cena selling his arse off when Batista worked over his leg. Batista using the Figure Four as a reference to his Evoultion days was a small touch that went a long way. Cena DDTing Batista's leg to soften him for the STFU was a neat transition move. There's a lot of finishers and finishing attempts here, but they all make senses and there's no overkill. This was the kind of match that I wanted Cena vs Rock to be like. ★★★★¼