Tim Cooke

I'm leaning towards voting for Mistico

At least two more matches from 1993 that are amazing with Hansen and Kobashi on opposite sides.

Yup, they are brothers. Heavy Metal is also a Casas brother

I like the idea in theory but ROH has never figured out how to run tag team matches so I have little faith in the ability to book the trios titles in interesting matches.

Dataincash is awesome but for everything he is putting up, only 15-20% is actually new footage.

Meltzer has covered MMA since 1993. UFC is now usually half of the Observer. UFC202 was one of the bigger shows this year. All pretty clear. You don't lose anything on tape delay with wrestling. Live sports is a different animal.

Paul and I rewatched this last night and damn, it may be better than both 1997 CMLL matches (which we also really liked). The only downside is a complete audio shit show as there is a constant hum throughout the match and you can hear the crowd get excited occasionally but the poor mic'ing of lucha tapings continues. But move for move, psychology wise, this was terrific.

Kazushi Sakuraba vs. Frank Shamrock (circa 2001)

Rey vs. Puma was amazing. My MOTY and really could/should be Rey's swan song unless he works the Mexican Indies with the maestros

Dan Ginnetty found a handheld of this show a year of so ago, so the full 30 is out there. Full 30 is really good, while the full Misawa/Kobashi match was slightly disappointing

Tad disappointing but Pirata was very good in it but MS-1 had seen better days. Love that we keep getting an new lucha match never seen almost once a month via You Tube

Brisco/Spoiler is a decent comp to Baba/Race from October 79. Both use a side headlock to kill a decent portion of the match and both have some interesting offense. I love basic work but there wasn't a heck of a lot going on with the Brisco side headlock. Not to steal a jdw talking point but it's not like Race was great with a side headlock yet the Baba match felt like it kept moving, even if it was worked at a slightly slower pace. I also don't get Brisco making his comeback, getting a nice reaction, and then using a snap mare right into a chinlock. Spoiler has been okay in the footage from Houston but hasn't been a stand out like Lothario. Also, Gary Hart has not been impressive at all in this footage. Besides Cornette, Jimmy Hart in Memphis and possibly JJ Dillon in the NWA, I'm not huge on managers but Hart has done not anything to put himself remotely close to those guys. Heck, even Paul Heyman was able to have two interesting heel manager runs with the OMX and then the Dangerous Alliance and I wouldn't say Heyman was anything other than average. Bull Curry vs. Johnny Valentine was fun. For 1969, I thought they actually worked at a better pace than Brisco/Spoiler did. Looking forward to watching Dusty vs. Patera later today.

Rounds generally are a detriment to US wrestling but World of Sport (England), they bring an extra piece of storytelling that helps elevate good matches to great sometimes

I love how the leg break basically occurs on a UWF style leg lock or something out of RINGS. Fun match, though much more of a deal for the angle than the actual in ring work

The 5/15 Lucha Memes show on paper looks like a Show of the Year Candidate. Can't wait to get the matches from Terry.

Check the lucha rules thread and read Steve Sims write up on shoulder bump - actually talks about why it is done

11/18/02 Tamura is very upset about the making of the Randleman vs. Yamamoto match because he hates Yamamoto and had no idea they would be appearing on the same card until the announcement was made publicly. I'm upset with that matchmaking as well, as Yamamoto has had serious concussion problems in the past and it was recommended years ago that he retire, and he's a much smaller guy than Randleman as Yamamoto fought at a UFC show at 169 pounds a few years back. The reason for the hatred by Tamura is that Yamamoto revealed publicly that a lot of Tamura's most famous matches in RINGS were actually pro wrestling matches and not MMA matches. There was talk over the weekend that Tamura may pull out of the show, which would wreck it completely from a marketing standpoint. Pride officials claim the story is overblown and internally they never knew of any problems until the story broke in the papers, and don't believe the match is in jeopardy. ------------- I imagine they weren't best buds in RINGS based on how they worked together in RINGS as well

Tamara and Yamamoto legit hated each other. I'll pull quotes from the WON tomorrow.

September 20, 1986

Dundee bulldog (Santo also does one on the floor against Felino in July 1997 that was terrific) Rey Jr. flip over top rope into a rana (2/95 vs Eddy, 3/95 vs Psicosis, 10/97 vs Eddy)