My big stupid ****+ matches thread

[Hellowhosthat]

I used to be an obsessive wrestling fan, I ran my own wrestling nerd website, got the observer, waited for my 8 hour Japanese wrestling tapes from Jeff Lynch to arrive in the mail.

I fell out of love with wrestling around 2004/5 and I'm not really sure why, but I started checking it out again a bit this year with the WWE Netflix deal and listening to a few Jim Cornette podcasts.

I enjoyed some of the WWE well enough but I was always a workrate nerd back in the day and WWE was never the workrate promotion really so I figured I wanted to check AEW out as that's supposed to be the workrate promotion as I understand it.

Anyway since I started going through that chronologically I rediscovered my probably autistic need to stick star ratings on everything and it also made me want to go back and re-watch a lot of the good shit I haven't watched for 20+ years.

So I'm gonna do what I used to do and keep a list and talk a bit about some matches I really liked as I watch them. It'll probably be me talking to myself but it's not like it takes up much room on the forum and if anyone gets anything out of it then cool.

I'm also assuming there must have been some decent shit in the last 20 at some point.


Ratings wise I was never exactly Dave Meltzer and I'm very much of the belief that if everything is 5 stars then nothing is and I think I gave out probably less than 30 5 star ratings back in the day so a list of 4 star plus matches probably isn't gonna be as long as that sounds.

I'll try and keep the first post (or two if I need to expand it) as a chronological list with links to the post of the match review and if the promotions have deemed to allow their stuff on Youtube I'll try and post a link to the show I'm talking about.

Anyway I'll shut the fuck up now

1987

Randy Savage Vs Ricky Steamboat - WWF - 19th March - ****1/4

1988
Bobby Eaton/Stan Lane Vs Bobby Fulton/Tommy Rogers - NWA - 27th March - ****
Ric Flair Vs Sting - NWA - 27th March - ****1/2
Ric Flair Vs Lex Luger - NWA - 26th December - ****1/2

1990

Jumbo Tsuruta/Tiger Mask II (Misawa) Vs Genichiro Tenryu/Samson Fuyuki - AJPW - 14th January - ****1/4
Genichiro Tenryu/Stan Hansen Vs Steve Williams/Terry Gordy - AJPW - 6th March - ****
Mitsuharu Misawa/Kenta Kobashi/Akira Taue Vs Jumbo Tsuruta/Masanobu Fuchi/Great Kabuki - AJPW - 26th May - ****1/4


1991

Randy Savage Vs Ultimate Warrior - WWF - 24th March - ****

1992

Royal Rumble Match - WWF - 19th January - ****1/4
Randy Savage Vs Ric Flair - WWF - 5th May - ****1/4
Bret Hart Vs Davey Boy Smith - WWF - 31st August - ****1/2
Akira Hokuto Vs Kyoko Inoue - AJW - 26th November - ****
Manami Toyota/Toshiyo Yamada Vs Mayumi Ozaki/Dynamite Kansai - AJW - 26th November - *****

1993

Manami Toyota/Toshiyo Yamada Vs Aja Kong/Bull Nakano - AJW - 24th January - ****1/2
Akira Hokuto/Mima Shimoda/Toshiyo Yamada Vs Eagle Sawai/Harley Saito/Miki Handa - AJW - 24th January - ****
Kyoko Inoue/Takako Inoue Vs Mayumi Ozaki/Cuty Suzuki - AJW - 2nd April - ****1/2
Akira Hokuto Vs Shinobu Kandori - AJW - 2nd April - *****
Manami Toyota/Toshiyo Yamada Vs Megumi Kudo/Combat Toyoda - AJW - 2nd April - ****
Sakie Hasegawa Vs Hikari Fukuoka - AJW - 11th April - ****1/4
Akira Hokuto/Aja Kong Vs Shinobu Kandori/Eagle Sawai - AJW - 11th April - ****1/2
Manami Toyota/Toshiyo Yamada Vs Dynamite Kansai/Mayumi Ozaki - AJW - 11th April - *****
Akira Hokuto Vs Toshiyo Yamada - AJW - 3rd May - ****1/4
Manami Toyota/Kyoko Inoue Vs Aja Kong/Bull Nakano - AJW - 3rd May - ****
Bret Hart Vs Mr Perfect - WWF - 13th June - ****1/2

1994

Bret Hart Vs Owen Hart - WWF 20th March - ****1/4
Shawn Michaels Vs Razor Ramon - WWF - 20th March - *****
Jushin Thunder Liger Vs Great Sasuke - NJPW – 16th April - ****1/2
Chris Benoit Vs Vs Great Sasuke - NJPW – 16th April - ****1/2
Bret Hart Vs Diesel - WWF - 19th June - ****
Ric Flair Vs Hulk Hogan - WCW - 17th July - ****
Manami Toyota Vs Aja Kong - AJW – 20th November - *****
Aja Kong Vs Dynamite Kansai - AJW – 20th November - ****

1995

Chris Benoit Vs Chris Jericho - WAR - 13th December - ****
Rey Mysterio Jr Vs Psicosis - WAR - 13th December - ****
Bret Hart Vs Davey Boy Smith - WWF - 17th December - ****3/4

1996

Shawn Michaels Vs Diesel - WWF - 28th April - ****
Mankind Vs The Undertaker - WWF - 23rd June - ****1/4
Shawn Michaels Vs Davey Boy Smith - WWF - 23rd June - ****1/4
Owen Hart/Davey Boy Smith/Vader Vs Shawn Michaels/Sycho Sid/Ahmed Johnson – WWF – 21st July - ****1/4
Shawn Michaels Vs Mankind – WWF – 22nd September - ****3/4
Bret Hart Vs Steve Austin - WWF – 17th November - ****1/4

1997

Bret Hart Vs Steve Austin Vs The Undertaker Vs Vader – WWF – 16th February - ****
Bret Hart Vs Steve Austin – WWF – 23rd March - *****
Bret Hart Vs Steve Austin - WWF - 24th April - ****
Bret Hart/Owen Hart/Davey Boy Smith/Jim Neidhart/Brian Pillman Vs Steve Austin/Ken Shamrock/Goldust/Hawk/Animal - WWF - 6th July - ****1/4
Shawn Michaels Vs The Undertaker - WWF - 5th October - ****3/4

1998

Steve Austin Vs Dude Love - WWF - 31st May - ****
Mankind Vs The Undertaker - WWF - 28th June - ****1/2
The Rock Vs Triple H - WWF - 30th August - ****1/2

1999

Edge/Christian Vs Jeff Hardy/Matt Hardy - WWF - 17th October - ****

2002

Bryan Danielson Vs Low Ki Vs Christopher Daniels - ROH - 23rd February - ****1/2
Bryan Danielson Vs Low Ki – ROH – 30th March 2002 - ****1/2
AJ Styles Vs Jerry Lynn Vs Low Ki Vs Psicosis – TNA – 26th June – ****

2013

Hiroshi Tanahashi Vs Kazuchika Okada - NJPW - 4th January - ****1/2

2014

Cesaro Vs Sami Zayn - NXT - 27th February - ****

2019

Cody Rhodes Vs Dustin Rhodes - AEW - 25th May - ****3/4
Kenny Omega Vs Pac - AEW - 31st August - ****1/4
Penta/Rey Fenix Vs Matt Jackson/Nick Jackson - AEW - 31st August - ****1/2
Pac Vs Adam Page - AEW - 9th November - ****

2020

Kenny Omega/Adam Page Vs Penta/Rey Fenix - AEW - 19th February - ****
Cody Rhodes Vs Wardlow - AEW - 19th February - ****1/4
Kenny Omega Vs Pac - AEW - 26th February - ****
Kenny Omega/Adam Page Vs Nick Jackson/Matt Jackson - AEW - 29th February - ****3/4
Dax Harwood/Cash Wheeler Vs Jungle Boy/Luchasaurus - AEW - 19th September - ****
Trent/Chuck Taylor Vs Santana/Ortiz - AEW - 19th September - ****1/2
Brodie Lee Vs Cody Rhodes - AEW - 7th October - ****1/4
Adam Page/Alex Reynolds/John Silver Vs MJF/Santana/Ortiz – AEW – 30th December - ****

2021

Thunder Rosa Vs Britt Baker - AEW - 11th March - ****3/4
MJF/Wardlow/Dax Harwood/Cash Wheeler/Shawn Spears Vs Chris Jericho/Jake Hager/Santana/Ortiz/Sammy Guevara - AEW - 5th May - ****1/4
Adam Page Vs Brian Cage - AEW - 30th May - ****
Matt Jackson/Nick Jackson Vs Jungle Boy/Luchasaurus - AEW - 18th August - ****
Penta/Rey Fenix Vs Jungle Boy/Luchasaurus - AEW - 25th August - ****1/4
Dax Harwood/Cash Wheeler Vs Santana/Ortiz - AEW - 1st September - ****
Miro Vs Eddie Kingston - AEW - 5th September - ****
Matt Jackson/Nick Jackson Vs Penta/Rey Fenix - AEW - 5th September - ****1/4
Kenny Omega Vs Bryan Danielson - AEW - 22nd September 2021 - *****

2025

Chad Gable Vs Penta - WWE - 13th January - ****

 

[Hellowhosthat]

AEW Double or Nothing - 25th May 2019

Cody Rhodes Vs Dustin Rhodes - ****3/4

I was getting the feeling AEW couldn't really decide what kind of promotion it wanted to be during their debut PPV, it seemed like a bit of a hodge podge of Puroresu, Lucha, US Indy type stuff and more goofy comedy shit and I'm still not really sure what to make of it yet at time of writing.

This match was different though, it felt straight out of a classic 80's Southern US setting (with more modernised movesets) and the video packages they'd done in the run up to it had me far more interested in it than anything else on the card. Very classic little brother coming into his prime thinks veteran big brother is past it and it's time to put him out to pasture vibe.

The execution was great. Cody dominated most of the time as he should have, but they had plenty of spots where Dustin got some hope and started picking up steam to where you really felt he could pick up the victory and show little brother he wasn't quite ready to go away just yet.

I even thought Brandi worked well in her role here. I haven't been a fan of her work at all from what I've seen so far but her bits of interference here were pure Sherri Martel and her getting thrown out was genuinely gratifying (she hit a fucking nice spear too to give her credit)

The juice was handled great, set up nicely and Dustin got it when everyone was paying attention to Brandi getting thrown out. Dustin got some really good colour and it really added to the drama of the match going down the stretch.

I really enjoyed Dustin whipping Cody's bare arse with his own belt too, felt like a very big brother putting little brother in his place moment.

The stretch was great, really good near falls and a few of them genuinely felt like Dustin might be getting the win and they didn't need to hit any crazy spots to have the crowd eating out of the palms of their hands.

Cody had to go over ultimately and he did but they played it in a way that showed Dustin still had something to offer and had him re-earn his brother's respect even in defeat even if kayfabe wise the next time they had dinner with Brandi might have been kinda awkward.

Instant classic of American style wrestling and would have justified what was a pretty up and down debut PPV on it's own for me. (although I did like a couple of other matches, just not anywhere near this level).

 

[Hellowhosthat]

AEW All Out - 31st August 2019

Kenny Omega Vs Pac - ****1/4

I'm not 100% sure what I make of Omega yet. I know he's been the consensus greatest wrestler in the world for at least some of the time I haven't been watching though so hopefully I'll get on well with him. His early AEW stuff has been a mixed bag for me although from what I understand he was a little past prime when AEW started and I'm looking forward to checking out that New Japan series with Okada that everyone seems high on.

I think my biggest criticism of him is that he's way more cartoony than I expected the darling of the anti-WWE workrate gang to be. The dude absolutely loves pointing and emoting to kind of a silly degree.

Pac on the other hand is probably my MVP of early AEW and is kind of the opposite of Omega in that he seems serious as fuck and everything he does is intense. He has great flying shit but he can do the technical stuff, his striking looks great, he paces himself well and he's got really good facials.

This was Pac's AEW debut and he seemed determined to impress and bring his A-game. I think he works really well as a foil for Omega in that he kind of seems like an evil version of him that can match him in everything he's good at that he has to try and overcome.

They worked at a really good pace, it made a lot more sense than a lot of these matches with the big spots mixed in do and for me everything looked snug and there wasn't any obvious co-operation to set things up. It's kind of unfortunate that the one thing they did botch was down the stretch and took a bit of a steam out of the finishing sequence but other than that I thought they did a great job here.




Lucha Brothers Vs Young Bucks - Ladder Match - ****1/2

One of the best ladder matches I've ever seen. I think these teams are pretty much perfect for this format. They can both hit high spots and bump like motherfuckers and this kind of match takes away a lot of the dilly dallying around they often do. Even the Ciero Miedo spam was kept to early in the match (Penta sure did over do the fuck out of that at this point in his career as a general rule).

A problem I find with a lot of these type of matches is that the workers spend more time setting up the spots than actually doing them and I kind of feel more like I'm watching some guys prepare a plastering job than I am watching a wrestling match but I thought they got around that pretty well here and I didn't really notice too much set up downtime.

The spots were fucking spectacular and although a few of them probably should have been career enders that didn't break the immersion for me really, the destroyer off a ladder through the tables I thought looked insanely good and I can't remember any of the spots being botched really.

Pleasantly surprised that I thought this one was as good as everyone else does as I kinda figured it would be thoughtless spotfest but it was pretty fucking great.

 

[Hellowhosthat]

WWF Wrestlemania III - 19th March 1987

Randy Savage Vs Ricky Steamboat - Intercontinental title - ****1/4

The first real classic Wrestlemania match I think. Savage famously meticulously planned this one out in advance and although I'm sure he and Steamboat could have put on a classic without doing that I think that given they didn't really have that long a match time to work with it's a good thing he did.

Pacing wise this was on a different stratosphere to anything else on the early Wrestlemania cards which were generally pretty slow faced plodding affairs. These guys upped the speed and upped the ante and had the crowd going wild as a result.

Steamboat took some great bumps over the top during the period where Savage was making it his mission to launch him outside the ring as much as possible and the speed they were hitting the back and forth near falls was done with a panache that US audiences wouldn't see until probably the RVD/Jerry Lynn stuff in ECW.

I'd probably have preferred a slightly cleaner finish to put the face over but given that they were pushing the heel into the world title scene immediately afterwards I suppose it kind of made sense that Savage lost due to his own stupidity really.

I think probably some of the high spots would look a little tame to newer viewers judging by modern standards but at the time they were something.





Side not for this show, while I wouldn't say Hogan and Andre was a **** match it was certainly a great moment and I still give Hogan credit for giving something that was still good as a match overall out of an Andre who could barely move at that point.

 

[Based God]

I'm not 100% sure what I make of Omega yet. I know he's been the consensus greatest wrestler in the world for at least some of the time I haven't been watching though so hopefully I'll get on well with him. His early AEW stuff has been a mixed bag for me although from what I understand he was a little past prime when AEW started and I'm looking forward to checking out that New Japan series with Okada that everyone seems high on.

I think my biggest criticism of him is that he's way more cartoony than I expected the darling of the anti-WWE workrate gang to be. The dude absolutely loves pointing and emoting to kind of a silly degree.

If you want some recent Kenny Omega matches that are amazing you should check out his two matches with Will Ospreay in 2023.

The first one on January 4th 2023 at NJPW Wrestle Kingdom at the Tokyo Dome

Edit: Apparently Daily Motion auto plays on Sherdog, so I'll throw this under a spoiler tag.

Spoiler: Omega vs. Ospreay Tokyo Dome

The second one on June 25th 2023 at AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door

 

[Hellowhosthat]

If you want some recent Kenny Omega matches that are amazing you should check out his two matches with Will Ospreay in 2023.

The first one on January 4th 2023 at NJPW Wrestle Kingdom at the Tokyo Dome

Edit: Apparently Daily Motion auto plays on Sherdog, so I'll throw this under a spoiler tag.

Spoiler: Omega vs. Ospreay Tokyo Dome

The second one on June 25th 2023 at AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door

Cheers brother. I'm intending to work through AEW chronologically. Is it best to check out the NJPW match about the time I get to that in AEW lore?

 

[Caesar_Of_Uranus]

Problem with modern wrestling is it's supposed to still be simulated combat but how many times have you ever used gymnastics, a male cheerleader routine, or an exhibition of figure skating to kick someone's ass?

 

[Based God]

Cheers brother. I'm intending to work through AEW chronologically. Is it best to check out the NJPW match about the time I get to that in AEW lore?

Yeah you might as well wait. AEW and New Japan get a pretty deep partnership in 2022 and Ospreay makes some AEW appearances throughout 2022 while still a member of New Japan's roster before he wrestles Omega. That match is Kenny Omega's first New Japan match since January 2019 when he left to start AEW.

 

[Hellowhosthat]

AJW Dreamrush - 26th November 1992

Akira Hokuto Vs Kyoko Inoue - All Pacific Title - ****

Hokuto is kind of coming into the period of her career where she can do no wrong at this point and Kyoko is a fast improving athletic babyface. Hokuto I guess I'd describe to those who haven't seen her as a bit of an ass kicking tweener whereas Kyoko is like a friendly more high flying version of Ultimate Warrior who can actually work.

It's pretty solid stuff in the early going with the back and forth stuff you'd expect with these two and then when Hokuto dives to the outside it picks up into a series of really fun near falls which the crowd are really getting into. Really good changes of monentum and very good fast paced work.

All gets topped off by Hokuto calling out Shinobu Kandori at the end to set up the Dreamslam classic.

Kind of overshadowed by what came later, but I think it would stand out as a great match on most cards.




Manami Toyoyta/Toshiyo Yamada Vs Dynamite Kansai/Mayumi Ozaki - 2/3 falls - *****
Amazingly this was the first time these two teams had worked together as far as I'm aware. Insane that they had the kind of chemistry that they could just rattle off one of the best tag team matches I've ever seen on their first try.

The teams just worked so well together. You had one ass kicking striker on each team and one high flyer. They built up the rivalry for best striker between Kansai and Yamada really well, with Kansai being bigger than Yamada but Yamada being plucky as fuck and doing everything she can to stand up to her.

Toyota is probably the best bumper ever and she's bumping all over the place as usual, Ozaki is an incredibly good bitch during the feud and just simple things like standing on the hand when an opponent goes for a rope break work great.

The first fall is an epic tag team match in it's own right, the second fall is a quick one to get to the third fall which is fucking amazing and probably a ***** match in it's own right littered with great action and exciting near falls which had the crowd going absolutely nuts.

Got to give a shoutout to the cardio of the girls too, to work with as much intensity and speed as this for as long as they did even in a tag match is impressive.

Incredible start to the inter promotional wars that would dominate 1993 and lead to some more incredible matches. One of my all time favourites for sure.

 

[Hellowhosthat]

WWF Wrestlemania VII - 24th March 1991

Randy Savage Vs Ultimate Warrior - Career Vs Career - ****
Wrestlemania Randy Savage is a fucking genius. Nobody has a right to get anything this good out of Warrior but Savage manages it. Some people give Savage shit for laying stuff out in advance but I doubt he could have pulled this off without doing that.

The career vs career stipulation gives it additional gravitas which has the crowd super into it and Warrior's stuff actually looks fine for a change, even his clotheslines looked okay.

Sherri I think is one of the best managers ever at believable interference and I like how when she does interfere she sometimes fucks it up but it always comes off as something that could actually happen and the ref doesn't have to be down for an absolute age for it to work.

Even the cartoony stuff with the comebacks is mostly handled well and doesn't really take me out of it. Although I think my only two complaints would be that I think five top rope elbows before the kick out was overkill (surely two, three tops would have done the job) and the final pin being a foot on the chest was a little bit of a damp squib for me as after going through everything he went through in this match Warrior should have wanted to make sure.

Still excellent stuff. Amazingly I think Savage was well on track to repeat the feat with Warrior the next year at Summerslam but I think the Perfect/Flair interference was way overbooked which leaves it just short of greatness for me.

 

[Hellowhosthat]

AJW Dreamslam – 2nd April 1993



Kyoko Inoue/Takako Inoue Vs Mayumi Ozaki/Cuty Suzuki - ****1/2

I think this is a pivotal match for a lot of people. I’d read about Dreamslam being one of the best cards ever but given the state of women’s wrestling in the US I didn’t really believe it and worked through all the All Japan classics and Super J Cup stuff everyone works through first before giving it a go.

I was pretty impressed with most of the stuff on the card up to this point but this is where it turned up a notch from “This is good for a girls match” to “Actually this is really fucking good for anyone”

Just a fast paced tag match which goes at breakneck speed a lot of the time but without descending into chaos where everyone is everywhere doing everything like a lot of faster paced tag matches do. Everything makes sense, everyone is able to get a bit of personality across in their work and although it’s not the greatest AJW tag match of 1993 it’s quite possibly the best introduction before getting to the classic 2/3 falls stuff which Ozaki is also a part of.







Akira Hokuto Vs Shinobu Kandori - *****

One of the absolute classic blood filled wars for me, for sure one of my favourite singles matches. They really managed to build these girls up as fucking hating each other and when they fought their willingness to put themselves through hell as long as they put the other girl through slightly more hell was apparent.

Kandori was over as fuck as a legit sub threat and every time she’s attacking Hokuto with a kimura or similar the crowd is going nuts. Hokuto aint tapping for shit and she keeps scrapping back, getting some of the best colour I think I’ve seen in the process.

As the fight gets towards it’s climax they start hitting their big moves on each other and just clawing to get to each other even when they’re fucked to try and somehow do the next thing.

I’ve read some people say they dislike the finish after all that had come before it but to me it’s the perfect end to a war of attrition where just one shot can make the difference when both girls have put themselves through so much.





Manami Toyota/Toshiyo Yamada Vs Megumi Kudo/Combat Toyoda - ****

Toyota and Yamada were just incapable of having bad matches at this point of their careers. Kudo is quite good to be fair to her but Combat Toyoda is kind of plodding, awkward and looks a bit like a rooster but they still manage to carry the FMW girls to the tag match of their lives.

Toyoda outside this just isn’t particularly good but Toyota and Yamada have her looking like Aja Kong for parts of the match here as they work around her limitations to make her look like a monster. Toyota bumps all over the place like she usually does, Yamada is kicking the shit out of everyone like she usually does and they build to one of those ridiculously exciting near fall after near fall stretches that they were the absolute masters of at this point.

LCO had a decent go at it at Dreamslam 2, but realistically nobody else is getting a match this good out of Toyoda. These girls in their prime were just one of the best tag teams ever.

 

[LEWIS540]

Problem with modern wrestling is it's supposed to still be simulated combat but how many times have you ever used gymnastics, a male cheerleader routine, or an exhibition of figure skating to kick someone's ass?

Every generation says this.

Karl Gotch and Lou Thesz used to criticize Harley Race for being too comedic and branded his stuff unbelieveable......

Universal things in wrestling, like bouncing off the ropes or going to the top rope would never happen in a real fight, neither.

 

[Hellowhosthat]

AEW Full Gear - 9th November 2019

Pac Vs Adam Page - ****

These two have really good chemistry together. They had three matches in close succession with a couple on Dynamite with this one sandwiched between them. They were all good but as it probably should be the PPV offering was the best.

Both guys have pretty believable and stiff looking offence and they both bump well for each other without going over the top. They're good at doing little callbacks to previous matches without going ridiculously over the top with it. They've got good looking offence like the Pac pump kick and the Page big boot which lets them quickly change momentum in a believable fashion.

They had the Brutalizer over nicely as a deadly finisher at this point and any time Pac is getting close to it you feel like Page is in jeopardy. There's a few big moves on the outside but not a bunch of time off TV spots like there were in the mess of a main event on this show.

Good shit, Pac continues to be the 2019 AEW MVP ring wise imo and Page is probably only behind him and Cody.

 

[Hellowhosthat]

WWF Royal Rumble '92 - 19th January 1992

Royal Rumble Match (WWF Championship) - ****1/4


Rumbles are a weird one in that I generally find them enjoyable but at the same time I think they usually have limitations in terms of becoming truly excellent matches just because you usually end up with decent stretches of time where not much is going on and it's just a bunch of dudes hanging onto the ropes, going over and rolling back under before another guy walks over and whacks the guy trying to throw someone out in the back rather than helping throw them over etc. As a result they're usually more about big moments than the match as a whole.

1992 is one of a couple I think are different. This has the advantage of being the first one where the title was on the line and as such it's by far the most star studded Rumble at that point and they had a number of major guys with issues going into it.

It's also the first time they went for the ironman winner so Flair going on the run before it became more likely to win from 1-5 than it is from 16-20 was a big deal at the time. Flair performs great throughout, barely taking a rest and getting involved with just about everyone who came in at some point, dude had insane cardio.

I thought Davey Boy, Michaels and Piper had great performances too. Loved the energy Piper came in with when Flair had just cleaned the ring out. Also randomly absolutely loved the bump Slaughter took when he got eliminated, I'm not sure he meant it to be quite that hard but it looked fucking cool.

I also thought they paced it well and there weren't really too many stretches where there wasn't anything interesting happen, so good booking/agenting there.

Shoutout to Bobby Heenan for one of the all time great commentary performances too. The brain was on absolute fire throughout.

No shoutout to Hogan for having to be an attention whore and take Flair's moment though. What a dick.

 

[Hellowhosthat]

Every generation says this.

Karl Gotch and Lou Thesz used to criticize Harley Race for being too comedic and branded his stuff unbelieveable......

Universal things in wrestling, like bouncing off the ropes or going to the top rope would never happen in a real fight, neither.

Generally speaking as long as it doesn't ruin the flow or suspense of the match I'm fine with the spots. It does take me out of it when they do spots where guys have to just stand around for ages waiting for someone to jump on them for example.

I also think people have gotten a lot worse at dealing with botches. Watching back the AJW stuff compared to now it's noticeable how if they fuck something up a bit they just turn it into something else and move on. Nowadays people just seem to look confused when they botch something.

I think overall I'm kinda surprised that from when I watched watching the most influential promotion of the ones I watched then seems to have turned out to be Toryumon though.

 

[LEWIS540]

Generally speaking as long as it doesn't ruin the flow or suspense of the match I'm fine with the spots. It does take me out of it when they do spots where guys have to just stand around for ages waiting for someone to jump on them for example.

I also think people have gotten a lot worse at dealing with botches. Watching back the AJW stuff compared to now it's noticeable how if they fuck something up a bit they just turn it into something else and move on. Nowadays people just seem to look confused when they botch something.

I think overall I'm kinda surprised that from when I watched watching the most influential promotion of the ones I watched then seems to have turned out to be Toryumon though.

Sure, the toothpaste is out the tube.

Honestly barely watch matches any more.

I stopped being a regular fan 15-20 years ago.

Remember one of the annoying things to me, even then, was the spamming of finishers/kick outs.

Apparently that’s 645 times worse these days.

When it’s Undertaker vs Shawn Michaels in a retirement match at WM, it’s okay. When it’s Stevie Richard’s vs Paul London on the opening match of Sunday Night Heat…..not so much.

 

[Hellowhosthat]

Sure, the toothpaste is out the tube.

Honestly barely watch matches any more.

I stopped being a regular fan 15-20 years ago.

Remember one of the annoying things to me, even then, was the spamming of finishers/kick outs.

Apparently that’s 645 times worse these days.

When it’s Undertaker vs Shawn Michaels in a retirement match at WM, it’s okay. When it’s Stevie Richard’s vs Paul London on the opening match of Sunday Night Heat…..not so much.

Yeah, that's definitely something I'm noticing. It's probably my biggest issue with Kenny Omega is that he's letting low card guys kick out of everything and he only has one move that actually ever finishes anyone so it takes away from the near falls for me.

I don't so much mind the kick outs I don't think if the guys are on the same level, it's when I'm expected to believe that some lower mid card guy is able to eat everything the champ can throw at him.

 

[LEWIS540]

Yeah, that's definitely something I'm noticing. It's probably my biggest issue with Kenny Omega is that he's letting low card guys kick out of everything and he only has one move that actually ever finishes anyone so it takes away from the near falls for me.

I don't so much mind the kick outs I don't think if the guys are on the same level, it's when I'm expected to believe that some lower mid card guy is able to eat everything the champ can throw at him.

Yeah, selling is a dying art by all accounts.

 

[Hellowhosthat]

All Japan - 14th January 1990
Jumbo Tsuruta/Tiger Mask II (Misawa) Vs Genichiro Tenryu/Samon Fuyuki - ****1/4

Great AJPW TV main event. The feud between Jumbo and his gang and Tenryu and his minions was in full swing at this point and there was a genuine excitement whenever they came together in any of the tags or 6 mans they were in.

Misawa is still in the Tiger Mask gimmick at this point and after he and Jumbo work on Fuyuki's leg he ends up being the guy in jeopardy as Tenryu and Fuyuki both go after his mask. Dunno if taking it off and unleashing one of the GOAT's is the best idea but there we go. While he's not exactly Sayama in the Tiger Mask gimmick he does work a faster paced and more flying style than he would do when he was more grounded at his peak.

I like the way a hot tag in Japan isn't always a hot tag and a guy can tag in to save his teammate only to get the shit kicked out of him instead.

Even though Jumbo and Misawa are generally thought of as two top ten all timers I think Tenryu shines the most in this match for me as he's at his grumpy stiff shit kicking best all fight and although he's not on the level as the rest of the guys here, Fuyuki holds up his end of the bargain and hangs pretty well with them.

I also really want one of those Tenryu adidas jackets.

 

[Based God]

AEW Full Gear - 9th November 2019

Pac Vs Adam Page - ****

These two have really good chemistry together. They had three matches in close succession with a couple on Dynamite with this one sandwiched between them. They were all good but as it probably should be the PPV offering was the best.

Both guys have pretty believable and stiff looking offence and they both bump well for each other without going over the top. They're good at doing little callbacks to previous matches without going ridiculously over the top with it. They've got good looking offence like the Pac pump kick and the Page big boot which lets them quickly change momentum in a believable fashion.

They had the Brutalizer over nicely as a deadly finisher at this point and any time Pac is getting close to it you feel like Page is in jeopardy. There's a few big moves on the outside but not a bunch of time off TV spots like there were in the mess of a main event on this show.

Good shit, Pac continues to be the 2019 AEW MVP ring wise imo and Page is probably only behind him and Cody.

Since you're going through AEW chronologically. Want to hear the story on why that yearly PPV is called Full Gear?

When AEW first started, before it officially had a name, they held an event in Jacksonville in the parking lot of the Jaguars stadium to officially name the company. Throughout the night some of the people AEW signed showed up and talked to the fans, then when Hangman Page came out and talked to the fans, PAC showed up as a surprise while he was still under contract with Dragon Gate in his wrestling gear to confront Hangman.

After that on the Young Bucks Youtube vlog Being The Elite, Cody and The Young Bucks kept roasting Hangman for looking doughy and not "full gear ready" while PAC was jacked and "full gear ready". The bit ran for months until finally Cody cut a babyface hype promo on Hangman saying he was always full gear ready and always had it in him.

So basically AEW named their new yearly PPV event after a silly bit on a Youtube show and it ended up essentially becoming Hangman's PPV.