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Finally Kanyon calls Raven out on his pity, this guy has promise.

My thoughts of these matches: Mitsuharu Misawa, Toshiaki Kawada & Kenta Kobashi vs. Jumbo Tsuruta, Akira Taue & Masa Fuchi (AJPW 10/19/90) My favorite 6 man of the year. May have not been as frantic or loose as the two previous but to me it tightened up the focus and hit all the high points of the previous 6 mans and then some. I think Kobashi has a lot to add to this series by this point in proving himself. ****1/2 (#10 match worldwide in 1990, #4 in All Japan) - I would recommend watching this one again Parv. I started it on first watch and had it below the May and August six mans, but on second watch I really picked up a lot of little nuiances and did think this had some good growth from Kobashi. Toshiaki Kawada vs. AKira Taue (AJPW 1/15/91) Agree with all the comments here. Really unique match for All Japan in the 90's and more of a blow off brawl. 12 minutes of going toe to toe. Kawada has fully transformed into the prick we know him as. ****1/4 (#32 match worldwide in 1991, #10 in All Japan) - I think this match benefits more from watching all of the All Japan stuff than just starting out as in Parv's case. It is a really different match than most of what you see throughout the decade and would feel at home in Techwood Studio in 1986. I think I am in the minority in preferring the 4/18/91 match to this one overall. Mitsuharu Misawa, Toshiaki Kawada & Kenta Kobashi vs. Jumbo Tsuruta, Akira Taue & Masa Fuchi (AJPW 4/20/91) Everyone else has written up why this is amazing but it really is a superb match that would be a top 10 90's AJPW candidate. This felt like the 6 man equivalent of the 9/30/90 tag as in that match Taue and Kawada belonged but here I really felt like they were the stars. Kawada vs. Taue have had some extremely dickish interaction with each other and Taue knocking him off the rope had me salivating and the ensuing brawl with Kawada headbutting him. Let's not forget about Kobashi and Fuchi either. In that skirmish between Kawada/Taue, Fuchi gives one dick kick that is amazing and the flicking off of Kawada as he delivers a dropkick is super. Kobashi took his first beating in one of these matches that felt like one of his performances that we would see in tags for years to come. Jumbo and Misawa were also excellent and stayed out of the spotlight enough but still felt integral to the entire match. 50 minutes that flew by. ****3/4 (#4 Worldwide, #1 In All Japan 1991) - Tim Cooke has an amazing write up on this match in the match discussion thread. This one is really close to the full five for me. I can already see Parv being pretentious about my top four matches of 1991, but here is how they landed. ***** 1. Randy Savage vs. Ultimate Warrior (Mania 3/24/91) ****3/4 2. Arn Anderson & Larry Zbyszko vs. Ricky Steamboat & Dustin Rhodes (Clash 11/19/91) 3. Masa Chono vs. Keiji Muto (NJPW 8/11/91) 4. Mitsuharu Misawa, Toshiaki Kawada & Kenta Kobashi vs. Jumbo Tsuruta, Akira Taue & Masa Fuchi (AJPW 4/20/91) I think that was a solution of watching all of 1991 in a vacuum. 1991 was stock full of really good ***1/2 matches but few stuff in the year really hit me at an emotional level like other years throughout the decade. I will be discussing the Clash tag soon on the next WTBBP but the simplified reason why those are #1 and #2 compared to the other two more technically proficient matches is my emotional connection to them. Each of those top two matches are my favorite of all time, but I also think they are executed perfectly in the template they set out to accomplish. One minor quibble for the 4/20/91 tag in why I don't have it at ***** is that it didn't hit on that emotional level, it was maybe 5 minutes too long, and Misawa took a little bit of a backseat. Still, between this and the great matches on the 4/18/91 AJPW show, they were on a good run. Stan Hansen vs. Kenta Kobashi (AJPW 9/4/91) Man, what an unheralded feud sometimes. Everyone knows about 7/93 but the other matches between these two seem to get shafted sometime. When the 96 match is probably their 4th best together, it is a great series. This started out well with the lariat and Joe Higouchi doing his best referee work refusing to work. Kobashi wisely rolls to the floor but of course Stan keeps on pounding him. Kobashi's comeback really had me going here especially with the moonsault nearfall. I don't want to make this a current wrestling debate and I do like Okada but the way Hansen hit the lariat on the outside to regain control was so much more believable and effective to me than some of the Rainmaker spots I have seen in the past two years. Kobashi was a defeated man once that happened but he took Hansen to the edge and Hansen knew it. My #4 MOTY so far. ****1/2 (#6 Worldwide, #3 All Japan 1991) - I was surprised that you didn't dig this one Parv although I was fearful on the "whiny" aspects of Kobashi based on you ideology of what a face/heel should act like. I do think this match showed Kobashi taking a step forward. These two had a fine, semi-competitive match on 1/2/91 but this was Kobashi getting beat up but not being put away so easy. Most point to the 5/91 Jumbo match as that tipping point, but I think this match exemplifies it more. I do hope you enjoy their later matches as this is probably along with Kobashi/Misawa as my two favorite rivalries in All Japan in the 1990's. Stray thoughts: - I had heard kitchen sink before but it isn't common - Dungarees...... Never ceases to amaze me how Parv thinks everyone knows Brit vernacular. The latest WTBBP talks about him being at an Open Day without skipping a beat and I still don't know what the hell an Open Day is - I like the ranking of the workers so far. I do think this series of matches slightly skewed your thoughts on Misawa because he wasn't featured as heavily and the 9/1/90 match was kind of a distant memory. Will be interested to see if you prefer the 10/24/91 Kawada match vs. Jumbo to that one.

Parv's Points having its own music is the most self gratifying booking since HHH at Summerslam 03.

Chad doesn't like two foods: 1. sweet potatoes 2. Pumpkins

For my money, the greatest wrestling game of all time.

Dumb finish and Douglas looks awful as champion. Bigelow and RVD are brawling again. Taz and Sabu are fighting again. Taz wants Douglas. This was the crux with ECW in that these guys have been interspersed with each other for over a year now and it is time to move on but they don't really have anyway they can do that in the main event picture.

I couldnt be bothered with much of this but the crowd popped big for the finish. Jeff Jones turning heel should surprise no one since he has been aligned with the Dudleys. Those are some hideous referee shirts. At least RVD and Sabus stereo dives looked good and Tanaka kicking out of the 3D put him over.

This was rambling Funk. He goes after Joey and Dreamer but the crowd doesn't seem to know how to take it all in.

Finally justice is served in a feud I couldn't care less about.

Danny Davis has a lot of Tattoos? I loved the HTM vs. Dr. X match.

I see this thread and the Honky Tonk Man one as my wind down wrestling right before I go to bed. Great stuff.

Fantastic match. The opening ten minutes is essentially a Kobashi squash. He is able to take over immediately and work over Misawa's arm which showed improvement from 1/20/97 when it was a Misawa mistake that Kobashi had to capitalize on. Misawa plays his role tremendously in this match and when he finally takes over after ten minutes, there is some great desperation in what he does. Misawa is doing twisting sentons to the floor, flipping cannonballs off the rope along with his signature spinning clothesline. It is quite sad really that Misawa tries to dazzle his way to the advantage and harbor back to his Tiger Mask days. The pupil has been schooling the teacher. This segment of Misawa on top is short lived as Kobashi comes back with bombs and gains even more of an advantage. There is a couple of sequences in the early going where Kobashi hits a running charge to gain back the advantage. This is countered and paid off beautifully later on when he tries again and eats a forearm smash from Misawa for a nearfall the crowd eats on. The crowd really got the sense that Kobashi is at worst even with Misawa in this match. This is why I honestly love the TD apron spot. Misawa needed something. The big dives weren't working, even his trusty elbow was falling short of the chops and attack of Kobashi. Kobashi had just unveiled a new super move in the Burning Hammer and Misawa knew that was the only thing keeping him in the match. However, the bravado of Kobashi for one fleeting moment got the best of him. Misawa didn't become the MAN resting on his laurels so he takes full advantage inflicting more damage than anyone has before. This apron spot was an equalizer. it wasn't supposed to be the death blow because up to this point Kobashi had consumed 80% of the match on offense. This was a super move by Misawa that turned the tide of the match and brought things back to a level playing field where he had a fleeting chance. The stretch run was sublime with now Kobashi having to reach down and kick out of the huge arsenal of Misawa. I appreciated the fact that the killer lariat wasn't used in this match. The ending stretch kind of caught the crowd off guard but showed that Misawa had been pushed farther than ever before and was relying too much on his old bag of tricks. Kobashi crumpling after the elbow flurry is beautiful and shows that he exasperated every bit of energy in his body and somehow it wasn't good enough. Misawa wins and regains his strap but he had to pull out some new tricks which is tough for an old dog to do. The rating of this match is conflicting to me. I am more convinced that Kobashi should have went over here than Kawada on 6/3/94. I also thought there were slight things in the match that were a tad annoying. Two backdrops were used by Kobashi and then kicked out by Misawa. I would have liked to have seen one and then Misawa do his desperate roll to the outside. The kickouts were used a lot which on one hand I can see from traditionally Japanese sense of a fighting spirit man that refuses to escape by reaching the ropes. However, coming in cold to the match, it could be presented as excess. I will again defend the apron spot because the match was completely changed after it occurred and that is all I ask for in a high impact spot like that. Of course, the scene after the match is scary with a towel wrapped around Misawa's neck backstage and him looking completely gassed. There wasn't really much of anywhere to go from this. I don't think this was as good as 1/20/97 which I am on record saying is the best match of all time. However, I do think this was better than 10/97 which is a match I also adore. Thinking and writing down my thoughts gave me more clarity to where I am prepared to do this. ***** and MOTY

Damn, if these don't always get me pumped up. I loved this one with the interspersed clips. This honestly may have made me order the PPV at the time if I had seen it live.

This article certainly shows that Hayes was a mustache twirling villain on this show that masked himself as a fan favorite.

I didn't care for this at all but at least New Jack gets what is coming to him for once.

Dudleys regain their straps finally which is a little odd that Sabu and RVD lose a big match heading into N2R, but this is ECW booking we are talking about.

Another match I was disappointed in. I still liked this a good deal but the first two falls felt like big afterthoughts. The third fall was excellent with crazy dives and probably more nearfalls than I can remember in a lucha match. Olimpico again looked strong here and it is kind of a shame he didn't become a bigger name. Negro drops his match when Olimpico revenges the loss from the week before. ***3/4

So frustrating. This match probably shouldn't have happened here and it could be used as evidence of Otani not learning from his mistakes but the action as a standalone match did look pretty hot and Liger is on a good run.

I wasn't as keen on this as Charles, perhaps it is worth a rewatch for me. I thought Bret didn't have the focus that he showed in the Luger/Sting matches and DDP didn't have the desperation. The bump Bret took on the Diamond Cutter finish was really odd as well. DDP wins which is a nice way to elevate the US title but I was left cold overall. **3/4

A little odd this is the last Warrior segment as it wasn't half bad and may actually be his best promo since his return. He also was getting a nice reaction from the crowd. Still, this is it for him in the wrestling business up until his HOF return this year.

News to everyone, never except an NWO B&W handshake as sincere. I hate seeing Nash fall for the same tricks he executed. He gets thrown through a wall here for being so gullible.

Bischoff says anyone tuning in will see Flair wrestling on their screen. Good way of being non committal to the bait and switch to come. Maybe they can juice this back up as between this and Thunder, things are getting slightly stale here.

This match disappointed me. Austin looked flabby and rusty. He gave a really sloppy performance and they didn't do any cool submission reversals and grappling that they could have. Cheap finish too. *1/2

Not as bad or illogical as I remembered. Shane suddenly turning his back seemed odd from him being the Vince cheerleader on Heat, but they gave him time to explain it and it made some semblance of sense. The crowd wasn't too happy about all of this though given their reaction.

Does feel like a bait and switch from Judegment Day but this did bring more realism to me than the previous week which was welcome to see. Another great Vince promo as he has consistently been the best person on the mic this year.