cactus
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Best of 1991: An Ongoing Retrospective by Cactus This is still a WIP. I'll probably expand the list to a top 50 once I've seen more. Top 20 Matches of 1991: Mitsuharu Misawa, Toshiaki Kawada & Kenta Kobashi vs. Jumbo Tsuruta, Akira Taue & Masa Fuchi (AJPW 4/20/91) ★★★★¾ Bret Hart vs. Mr. Perfect (WWF Summerslam 8/26/91) ★★★★½ Mitsuharu Misawa, Toshiaki Kawada & Tsuyoshi Kikuchi vs. Jumbo Tsuruta, Masa Fuchi & Akira Taue (AJPW 1/27/91) ★★★★½ Randy Savage vs. Ultimate Warrior (WWF Wrestlemania 3/24/91) ★★★★½ Vader vs. Keiji Muto (NJPW 8/10/91) ★★★★½ Kenta Kobashi vs. Stan Hansen (AJPW 9/4/91) ★★★★¼ El Hijo del Santo vs. Brazo de Oro (UWA 1/13/91) ★★★★¼ Arn Anderson & Larry Zbysko vs. Dustin Rhodes & Ricky Steamboat (WCW Clash of the Champions 11/19/1991) ★★★★¼ The Rockers vs. Orient Express (WWF Royal Rumble 1/19/91) ★★★★¼ Jumbo Tsuruta vs. Toshiaki Kawada (AJPW 10/24/91) ★★★★¼ Aja Kong & Bison Kimura vs. Manami Toyota & Esther Moreno (AJW 4/29/91) ★★★★ Rick & Scott Steiner vs. Hiroshi Hase & Kensuke Sasaki (NJPW/WCW Starrcade In Tokyo Dome 3/21/91) ★★★★ War Games (WCW Wrestle War 2/24/91) ★★★★ Jumbo Tsuruta vs. Mitsuharu Misawa (AJPW 4/18/91) ★★★★ Jushin Liger vs. Owen Hart (NJPW 4/28/91) ★★★★ Toshiaki Kawada vs. Akira Taue (AJPW 4/18/91) ★★★★ Stan Hansen vs. Kenta Kobashi (AJPW 1/2/91) ★★★★ Jerry Lawler vs. Terry Funk (USWA TX 1/5/91) ★★★★ Wayne Shamrock vs. Naoki Sano (PWFG 5/19/91) ★★★★ Toshiaki Kawada vs Akira Taue (AJPW 1/15/91) ★★★¾ General Thoughts: I don't think anyone can stop Kawada from being my WOTY. Whether he's feuding with Jumbo or Taue, he never phones in a performance and it's opened my eyes why certain AJPW fans have always preferred him over Misawa. On the subject of Misawa, he hasn't exactly blown me away. He might feature in some of my highest ranked matches of the year, but he's more of a supporting player. He's still a good wrestler, but I'd rank Kawada, Jumbo and Kobashi all over him from what I've seen so far. If you watching WWF for sheer workrate, then the likes of Ted Dibiase, Bret Hart and the Rockers are your only shinning lights. Bret really comes into his own as a singles prospect and it's hard to tell who will be the breakout star of the Rockers once they finally spilt up. Ric Flair in 1991 is a far cry from the Ric Flair of 1989. He's depressed about creative and his heart isn't in it anymore. Just look at his bomb of a match with Fujinami at the NJPW/WCW supershow. When he joins the WWF in the fall, he never feels like he fits in. He's still Ric Flair though, and he can still go when he wants to. His match with Scott Steiner and the famous War Games match have been highlights of my viewing. -
Kawada can do no wrong, but it's great to see Taue get a good showing here too. Kawada starts the match by going after Taue's arm. He swings the gangly one around by his arm and it's a painful sight. After getting juice from Kawada's kicks, Taue has the crowd in his corner and mounts an impressive comeback using a sumo rush. I really liked the small ref bump, with Kawada missing out on getting the 3 count after the ref is temporarily taken out by accidental kick being thrown in his direction. Kawada ends up taking the lost after being dunked onto concrete and taking the countout loss. Non-clean finishes were rare in All Japan during this period and they made it work here. ★★★★
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Kawada and Tsuruta facing each other in any combination is always going to be entertaining. They limit their interactions here, and this is more about Kobashi getting his knee ripped to shreds. Another Kobashi match, another knee mauling, it's not wonder he's in such bad shape nowadays! Jumbo doubles down on the hate is working extra stiff tonight. Mighty Inoue is here to take the fall and he adds some interesting offence to the mix. This is isn't essential viewing for those wanting to relive the Jumbo vs Kawada feud, but it's a fine little match nonetheless. ★★★¼
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Whilst I can give them credit for making all their matwork look realistic, I can't sit and say that I wasn't bored to death during most of it. This was at it's best when they were getting slap happy and landing suplexes on each other, which was sadly only 20% of the match. I would of enjoyed this a lot more if they trimmed a good part of the ground game. I could only recommend this is to catch wrestling fans, not pro wrestling. ★★¾
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Young Shamrock looks a bit like Henry Rollins. I've said before that I'm put off by any shoot-style that is too realistic, but this match is the exception to the rule. When these two are grappling, you could convince me this was a shoot! There's a struggle in everything they do and they keep everything moving at a frantic pace to stop the action from stagnating. The stand-up strike exchanges are even better. They wail at each other and Korauen reaches fever pitch. You don't see many shoot style matches go 25+ minutes, and this looked like an absolute war. ★★★★
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The first 15 minutes felt like an exhibition between two young lions (minus the fire) going through the basics. Flair does all his trademark spots, but you can tell his heart isn't in it. The match picks up ever so slightly when Flair gets colour. They start to up the intensity. I know both these guys weren't at their best so I was able to adjust my expectations accordingly, but I could imagine a naive fan who thought they were sitting down to watch a big title match between two of the best ever to come out actively disliking this. ★★½
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I don't think this classes as a spotfest. It's filled to the brim with big spots and bombs, but it has a classic tag team structure and tells a cohesive story. The Steiners steamroll Hase with a wide variety of suplexes. Seeing them throw the politician/nonce all over the place is a joy to watch. When Hase finally makes the hot tag, the place erupts. I wish they were able to have more of a finishing stretch, but the decisive win made the Steiners look like a million bucks, and Hase and Sasaki showed enough fire for this to not feel anything close to a burial. There's better matches in 1991 for sure, but this will most likely make my top 25 by the time I'm down with my watching. ★★★★
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Charisma and face paint! This match looks good on paper and on pure aesthetics. This has a hot start, but it's not long until the wheels fall off and this starts to feel unfocused. I liked the finish at least. Muta catches Sting with mist as he's going for the Stinger Splash. It was a smart way to protect both guys. ★★¾
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NJPW must of been high on Liger around this period. Every '91 Liger match I've seen so far has him feel like he's on another level than the guy he's facing. He does sell for them (as evident by his brilliant selling of the leg here, he never lets it become an afterthought), but he's the star. He's like a junior heavyweight version of John Cena in that regard! Nogami is a more interesting heel that Hogana was in his match with Liger a few days previously. My main criticism is that there's too much downtime, stopping this good match from becoming a great match. ★★★¼
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He goes over it briefly. I was wondering how he would justify it, but he just says he thought it was stupid, but did it anyways.
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Honaga acting as sleazy as he looks, blindsides Liger at start of the match and beats him down to gain an early advantage. Just when I was starting to tire of his offence, he hits Liger with a gorgeous looking piledriver. After his plan to slam Liger into the exposed turnbuckles backfire, Honaga bleeds a gusher and Liger mounts a comeback. Just when it looks like Liger has this won, Saito distracts him and costs him the match. I was not expecting that result. ★★★
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This was something special. Within the first two exchanges they establish everything you need to know about this pairing. Vader's a powerhouse, but Muto is one of the best around. Muto throws bombs at Vader during the second exchange and Vader slides out of the ring and puts over Muto as a threat. This felt like it could go either way, with Muto always finding something in his arsenal stopping Vader from squashing him like a bug. They do go into overkill with the nearfalls, but this was a super stiff, high stakes match that's a strong MOTYC. ★★★★½
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I wasn't too big on this either. They start the match off with some lockups that show that it's clear that these guys do not like each. Yatsu's good at getting in Tenryu's business and he lays him out with some beefy Enziguris. I felt like they were building to a hot finishing stretch that never came to fruition. I liked the finish with Tenryu slapping Yatsu about, but for the most part this wasn't all that exciting to me. ★★½
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Herb Abrams episode was a hoot. It's nowhere near as dark as some of the other episodes. Although I feel bad to the people close to him, he lived life to the full for the short time he was around. Brian Blair saying, with a straight face, that he died doing what he loved (cocaine and hookers) cracked me up.
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I've been making my way through the How2Wrestling podcast where the host tries to convert his girlfriend into a fan and it's great giving insight on what a new, modern fan might like. They've always said that starting off with the first TLC match or the 'Taker/Mankind HIAC match is a big no-no. It's just way too much to process for a new fan. Anything NXT from the last five years is a good starting point. It's modern, fast and has storylines that don't require them to sit through too many in-ring promos that might put them off. I also used to go to RevPro's big shows with a friend who would always bring along non-fan friends with him and they always had a blast. I don't too many of them follow the product nowadays, but they definitely came out of the venue with a newfound respect for this mental, fake sport we all love.
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It's got to be post-96 for me. I get a lot of enjoyment watching matches from before I was born or super young, but there's nothing like watching a Royal Rumble or Wrestlemania as it happens. I have a lot of nostalgia for anything WWE 1999-2004. I'd also miss out on the incredible first few years of NOAH and ROH.
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Pissed off Fujiwara is the best Fujiwara. Wilkins takes down Fujiwara early and this annoys Fujiwara, so he starts slapping him, headbutting him and all sorts of other things to try and get Wilkins to crack. Fujiwara striking a post whilst grappling on the mat was brilliant. There are moments in the later parts of the match that don't keep my attention and the finish isn't exactly exciting, but Fujiwara injecting a lot of personality into the usually dry world of shoot-style is enough for me to give this my recommendation. ★★★¼
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Lato's a big lad and he brings a lot of power, but he's no match for the pure skill of Fujiwara. Lato's only able to get an advantage when he out powers Fujiwara and when he rushes him near the end. Despite only goes shy of six minutes and being rather one sided, they cram a lot of action into this and worth a watch. ★★★¼
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Ha, I only read it because I couldn't get hold of the first one as an audiobook. I was aware that it was quite heavy on the religious aspects, but I still taken aback by it all. I haven't actually read any of the bottom tier books I've listened, I've just heard really bad things about them over the years. Although I'm quite interesting in reading Chyna's one after hearing your thoughts on it.
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Super entertaining hidden TV gem, even with the screwy finish. This is one of Hart's first big matches as a singles guy and he doesn't look like an out of place tag team wrestler about to get fed to a singles star. They work a fast pace until DiBiase cuts him off. Sherri keeps getting involved and my takeaway from binge watching 1991 WWF is how good of a second Sherri was. I'm less favourable to the distracting team of Savage, Piper and Vinnie Mac on commentary. That's just way too much charisma and cocaine for one booth! ★★★¼
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This was a perfectly acceptable brawl. Things being kept short helped matters. It's not until Paul Bearer wheels out a casket covered with the Warrior logo. The Undertaker, along with Slaughter and his cronies beat on Warrior until Hogan makes the save. Undertaker no-selling Hogan's belt shot was a cool moment and lays the groundwork for a feud later in the year. This could of been a lot worse, considering the talent involved. ★★
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This was hard to get through. Wrestling For My Life: The Legend, The Reality and The Faith of a WWE Superstar - Shawn Michaels I haven't read any of the bottom tier wrestling books (Chyna, Rock or Hogan), but this was the least I've enjoyed a book on wrestling. 75% of the book is about his faith and his approach to religion is almost cult-like. From his church freaking out because Shawn said 'damn' on an episode of Raw to his wife threatening to get a divorce because he looked at porn, this isn't going to sell you on Christianity. The parts where he discusses the circumstances around his last match and Bret Hart returning to WWE were the only redeemable parts.
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Kroffat lands that rolling wheel kick that doesn't land, but Kobashi sells it anyways. I think that's the only hokey spot you can find in 90's AJPW! Aside from that, this was a lot of fun. Kroffat's the cocky and brass gaijin who starts nail Kobashi with some illegal closed-fist punches, which riles the crowd up and adds fuel to Kobashi's comeback. A fun spirit that has more in common with junior wrestling than what you would expect for AJPW heavyweights. ★★★½
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Owen goes for Liger's arm and works on it until it's time to go home. The final five minutes are a fantastic finishing stretch that leaves you guessing which way things are going to go. With the exception of Owen's limbwork, you can take or leave the first half of the match as it feels inconsequential, but the last half of the match is the reason why this is held in such high regard. ★★★★
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They get a lot of time, and Flair shows a lot of arse for lower midcarder Tito Santana. It's great that he made Tito look good, but it doesn't help his case of being 'the real world champion' and potential threat to Hogan when he's struggling to beat a ham and egger like Tito. Anyways, the match was fun. It felt like a slower paced match you find on most house shows. Watching Flair trying to cheat his way to another victory is always going to be at least slightly entertaining. ★★¾