I've been watching a lot of mid 80's WWF stuff that I have after all this WWE 24/7 talk. Guys like Valentine, Steamboat, The Bulldogs, Hart Foundation, Savage tearing shit up. Yeah. You?

I watched the DoFixer vs. Blood Generation match from RoH. Probably the best RoH the company has ever done that didn't involve Samoa Joe. My only real complaint is the sucky camera work and how they'd go to a wide shot as the ref was doing the count a few times. I'd give it ****1/2.

Just to add to the DG match. I know a lot of people gave it ***** but the first 10 minutes bugged me. They overdid the "all three partners repeat the spots" thing. Though it was a very good lucha match and they managed to not get too contrived.

Really it's not that much better than any of the other DoFixer/Blood Gen tags, in-ring wise. The crowd reactions are what put it over the top to most people rating it 5 stars. Really, I liked Strong/Danielson from the same show better...

Yeah, the fans not knowing enough about the guys was good for keeping the douchey chants to a minimum.

Just watched the first part of WCW Souled Out 1998. Opener was a very fun 8-man lucha match, then a good match between Benoit and Raven and then decent one with Rey and Jericho. So it's been a lot of fun though, WCW was a monster back then.

Ikuto Hidaka and Minoru Fujita versus Alex Shelley and Chris Sabin - Zero-One MAX - 8/25/06
This was really fun. They go about thirty but it seems like ten. Gotta love matches where you see stuff you've never seen before, and with Shelley matches you get that a lot. Tons of innovative stuff, nothing botched at all. Hidaka and Fujita are one of my favorite teams to watch nowadays anywhere. Great stuff.

Davey Richards versus KENTA - Ring of Honor - 8/5/06
This was alright. Started off slow but picked up big time down the stretch. Lots of false finishes as the Tiger Driver and Go 2 Sleep are easy moves to work cool reversals off of. They kicked the shit out of each other too. Davey reminds me a lot of Austin Aries from a couple years ago. He's gonna be really good.

Shuji Kondo versus Kaz Hayashi - AJPW - 8/27/06
This was fucking fantastic. Big fight title match atmosphere, made even better by a Stan Hansen appearance. Just a great, great match with tons of awesome and sick spots. Kondo is so fucking underrated at making flyers look good. Kaz held his own pretty well here, and looked better than when I had last seen him. Some overkill near the end (Kondo hits a fucking INSANE top rope flipping DDT that you need to see, and Kaz kicks out at two), but it was fun as hell. Find it.

CZW versus ROH - Cage of Death
Fuck was this awesome. I've followed the CZW/ROH storyline, but never really picked up any shows within the midst of it other than 4/22. I still felt the hatred. The booking is fantastic with Danielson cheapshotting Joe and leaving and Homicide's arrival, and there were WAY too many sick spots to mention. Just an awesome fucking match and one of the best I've seen all year.

Shuji Kondo versus AKIRA - AJPW - 1/8/06
This was pretty decent. Didn't have the complete overkill that Kondo/Kaz had, but it also didn't have as much drama. The ref bump and interference also brought it down a bit but this is still pretty good. Kondo is great.

Owen Hart and Davey Boy Smith versus Doug Furnas and Phil LaFon - Raw - 1/20/97
This was a perfectly fine way to kill 10 minutes. Good TV match between two of my favorite teams. Furnas sure has a nice dropkick and hurricanrana for a decent-sized guy. Funny how JR mentions that Furnas and LaFon (as Dan Kroffat) used to team in AJPW while in AJPW this very night Misawa and Kobashi are putting on a classic.

Geez man. What led to this sudden splurge of watching?

No job plus high speed internet equals me watching lots of wrestling.

I have that show coming to me shortly in the mail. I bought the show blindly because I'm a mark for "Death Before Dishonor" but since I made the order, I've heard so many wonderful review for that match, and the show in general, that I'm foaming at the mouth.

You'll love it Rowe. And I'm definately hitting up some early 90's WCW before getting completely burnt out on watching wrestling again. Then I plan to GO OUTSIDE.

KENTA versus Samoa Joe versus Bryan Danielson - ROH - 6/17/06
This was pretty good, although nowhere near the level it could have been. Injuries took their toll in the match, with Joe concussing KENTA with a slap 5 minutes in which resulted in KENTA lying around for most of the first half of the match while Joe and Danielson worked around him. KENTA was finally able to recover and finish the match strongly. Although not quite up to expectations, this is still 3 of the top workers in the world going at it, and a great match.

Bret Hart vs. The Barbarian, WWF MSG 11/24/90

Short, 4 minute match with Barbarian working Bret over for the first couple minutes, then Bret fighting his way back before Barbarian then catches him with a hard powerslam but Bret kicks out and comes back with a sunset flip for the win. Not much here, but it was alright for for the time it was given.

The Steiner Brothers vs. Money Inc, WWF SummerSlam Spectactular 8/22/93

This turned out really good. Lots of low blows, lots of running back and forth to save eachother's partner, lots of escape teases and a lot of unique spots. One has DiBiase choking Scott on with the cage when Scott was about to escape the cage by pulling his head through the bars. Another has IRS holding Rick over the top of the cage by tying his tie to Rick's neck. The finish is great too as Rick stopped IRS from coming off the cage by being right there and holding him over his shoulders. Around this time DiBiase comes over to beat up on Rick so he can drop IRS, but luckily before Rick breaks down Scott escapes the cage and they keep the titles. ***1/4.

I watched ROH It All Begins this week. It wasn't the greatest ROH show I've seen, but it had some moments. In particular, I enjoyed Danielson/Homicide, the Joe/Foley confrontation, Joe/Nigel, and it was fun seeing Austin Aries' first title defense. The match against Colt Cabana wasn't that great, but the ending was dramatic, and it has me looking forward to watching their match at the Third Anniversary Celebration.

What site are you guys finding these matches on?

Ray from the Smarkschoice forums is fucking awesome. He was doing requests from his huge matchlist, not sure if he still is.

Well, I got that particular show from DK during his last big sale, which was an excellent deal, btw.

I get a 30 minute Women's Extreme Wrestling show on tv now. I don't think there was even an official match on the show that I saw this morning.

Alex Shelley versus Claudio Castagnoli - UWA- 2/17/06
This was a really good match from two of my favorite indy guys. Lots of armdraggery and weird matwork but it was super innovative like most Shelley matches. Claudio is really fucking good. One of the better bases for smaller guys in wrestling, up there with Ultimo Guerrero and Shuji Kondo.

I put up the awesome Shuji Kondo versus Kaz Hayashi match I talked about earlier in the Wrestling Media section. Check it out.

Awesome!

Also, my Death Before Dishonor IV dvd arrived the other day. I've been too busy to watch more than the opening match, but I will have my thoughts up later.

Just watching a Delirious vs. El Generico match on YouTube from IWA-MS. Hilarious. God I love Delirious.

Holy shit, Death Before Dishonor IV is the best wrestling show I've seen all year. Seriously, the heat from the crowd along with the culmination of an epic feud, and the all around chaos just made this show virtually perfect!

Notable matches:

Embassy vs. Colt Cabana and Jay Lethal ***1/4
Nigel McGuiness vs. Roderick Strong ****1/4
Sonjay Dutt vs. Bryan Danielson ***3/4
Cage of Death: ****3/4

In between that were some awesome promos by the Cage of Death participants, most notably by a convincingly insane Ace Steel, and some other good matches.

Ace Steel was the highlight of the entire COD match for me. Him with his crazyness and cowbell and bleeding. Love that guy.

Been watching recent Big Japan lately. The newer guys might not be Yamakawa or Honma, but they're just as fucking crazy. Sasaki, Ito, Numazawa, Kasai, Sekimoto all completely insane. Plus Yamakawa and Winger are suppose to be headed back to the company. Now if they can get Honma back they'll have the whole '99 gang back together plus some really good new guys...

Never cared for Big Japan at all or any of the Japanese deathmatch feds for that matter.

Dude Big Japan in '99 was on a whole other level than any other fed back then or currently. Guys like Honma, Winger, actually wrestling within the actual deathmatch element.

Plus I go on these kicks where I just want to watch two dudes kill each other for my enjoyment. Big Japan in 2006 is as close as they've been to recreating the "magic" of late 1999. Ito's the new Honma, Sasaki's the new Yamakawa, Kasai plays a decent Winger and they're even more insane than the guys of old.

I'm gonna review 2 Big Japan shows I've watched recently soon in the Reviews section, and I'll add a link to the download as well. If deathmatches aren't your cup of tea though, I completely understand. I hate the "two guys wander around hitting each other with random objects" style too, but when actual wrestling is fused with it, it can be goddamn entertaining.

I'm not a deathmatch fan. I consider it to all be crap for the most part.

Watching an old NWA/JCP World Championship Wrestling from April 1985.

Of note: Superstar Billy Graham beats the crap out of a black jobber named.... Rodney King

I totally forgot i had a membership to this board. Oh well, good times. I just got DSL and have been watching a lot of wrestling since i don't have a job at the moment.

Joe vs Kobashi
- This is the first ROH match i have ever seen. Just Great stuff all around. These guys kill each other and not even the crowd can kill the greatness.

El Dandy vs Emilio Charles Jr. 1989
- I'll make this bold statement, The greatest Lucha match ever. This is very different than any lucha match i have ever seen. It's perfect if you want to see Lucha worked with an American 80's style and Japanesse Junior Style.

85-08-28 Chigusa Nagayo vs Dump Matsumoto:
I've only seen a handfull of Joshi Matches in my life. This is just amazing. Dump just destroy's Chigusa while the schoolgirls and Chigusa friends are crying. The haircut cermony even had me in tears and i don't cry for matches often.

BJPW Kobayashi-Ozaki-vs-YMiyamoto-Kimura

This is Man/Woman vs Man/Woman deathmatch. Usually i hate these types of things, but the japanesse just know how to do it. Kobayashi for those of you that don't know does an abdullah the butcher gimmick. The man is insane. He eats lightbulbs. Miyamoto kinda looks like Hayabusa. He takes a beating in this match. Kimura has a afro and Ozaki caries a chain. I was in Awe watching this match. All four bleed and hit each other with lightbulbs like steel chairs. Just amazing stuff.

Chris Benoit vs Dave Finlay Judgment Day 5-21-06
- My match of the year so far. Great, Great match from these two. That's pretty much all i can say. You guy's have probably watched it so i don't need to go into details.

Foley/Edge vs Dreamer/Funk from ONS
Foley vs Edge from Wrestlemania 22

These matches are great. Especially Foley/Edge. Foley is the master at putting these types of matches together. Watching these two matches made me respect Edge even more. And we even get a Beulah appearance during the ONS match.

King of The Ring 2001 Shane McMahon vs. Kurt Angle
- Shane Mcmahon should be a full time wrestler. I remember watching the PPV live and being in awe with shane taking those neck bumps but my god. This was insane. I'm surprised Shane is still standing after this match.

The Vader Gauntlet match from Japan 06

Vader wrestled in a small indy in japan a couple months ago. It was him vs 5 guys. He beat the first 4 guys with ease. The 5th guy turned out to be NISE ANTONIO INOKI!! Well Inoki pins him. They do an interview and Vader shakes Inoki's hand. He then turns on him. Just great stuff.

More later.

Hell yeah, Finlay vs. Benoit is my WWE match of the year thus far. At this rate, I don't see much hope of anything else topping it.

Good stuff, Timmy. I really need to re-watch Angle/Shane sometime. That match is sick.

I watched ANOTHER episode of NWA's World Championship Wrestling. Feature match was Buzz Sawyer vs. Ivan Koloff with a non-finish.

Dammit, I don't think I'm going to record another episode of this crap. All jobber matches and the interviews are generic with no real build-up or point. Everyone says they're after the various champs... with no real date or place for WHEN they'll get him. It was a different time and all, but these are leaving me painfully apathetic.

And great googly poop, I had forgotten how ass-bubbling AWFUL David Crockett was as an announcer. "Watch him! Watch him! He picks the man up.... what's he gonna' do?! He......drops him down!"

--Also watched the RAW episode from September 1996 where Jim Ross brings back "Razor Ramon". Heel Jim Ross could've been something..too bad he was sort'a portrayed as a tweener and was reverted to "good ol' JR" by the end of the year. Thw show also had a cool match with Marc Mero vs. Faarooq for the IC title.

It's amazing that Crockett was the most entertaining shitty announcer of all time. He sucked, but I always found his shit to be unintentionally funny.

Heel JR was fucking awesome. I have the heel turn interview with him on tape somewhere and it's fucking brilliant.

Some of my wrestling matches I've written about before. Be forewarned though that I mostly only talk about stuff I like since I feel bad about being negative so these reviews will mostly only concentrate on the positive sides of the matches.

Jake Roberts vs Big Boss Man Wrestling Summit 4/90

Wow, this was a very good match. Roberts is really smart in the ring and Bossman once again brings the wrestling effort. The work from Robets comeback late in the match was done really well with Roberts knocking Bossman with several hits to the face. Bossman avoiding the kneelift was a cool spot as well. Someone so needs to make a Best of the Big Boss Man comp.




I've been watching a few matches lately. Some classics and even a match that's said to be one of the best of all time but there was nothing that was really hitting home with me. One of the ways I judge matches is how they make me feel. If they can make me come out of a bad mood or get me pumped up mentally than it gets some extra stars.
I was watching a few matches there last night and like I said I haven't been feeling much as of late. 3 matches into my viewing and I was worried that I was starting to become jaded to absolutely everything. One match started to bring me out of this mindset and than other totally did so and reminded me of why I love this art we call professional wrestling. Ironically, it was a match I already knew I really liked but a match that didn't hit me as hard back than as it did now.

That match is the Chris Benoit/Dean Malenko vs Eddie Guerrero/Chris Jericho bout from the Brian Hildebrand show from 1998.

I now think this this is the best match Benoit and Malenko ever had together. In fact, it may be the best tag team match of the various tag team combinations we had in the late 90s WCW even surpassing stuff like the Benoit/Saturn vs the Triad PPV handicap match.
Perhaps before I wasn't into the tag team formula present here as I am now. Perhaps I wasn't into the great work around the sleeper that was here. Perhaps I wasn't as happy at the offence as I am now. I don't know but what I do know now is that this match is brilliant.

The match is handheld and not televised. The handheld is perfectly fine but a television production would probably be better for the match as Benoit's offence at the time comes off better when you have a camera close up.

Jericho and Eddie are your classic heels in this and do a great job of portraying that. Benoit and Malenko are of course the faces. Everything done after that is spot on.

Benoit is super agressive on Eddie and he cowers in the corner.
Jericho like the coward he is takes over with a eye poke. Eddie and Jericho proceed to work over Benoit while concentrating some on the throat making the sleeper spots that more effective.
Benoit does a great face in peril job that is not predictable at all. In fact, the number of times you think he's going to get it but than ends up with Benoit not getting the hot tag is truly refreshing. I LOVED how when he got first opportunity for a tag it makes sense on why he can't get it. I loved on how when Eddie and Benoit were going to get another double tag team effort on him that Benoit than senses the urgency of the situation and than fights backs with everything he's got like only he can. The comeback spots in here were just spot on and than at the end of the face in peril segment where Eddie like a good heel does cheats on the outside by going back to a sleeper yet again. That puts the face back in the "most peril" possible before making the tag (something I always like in my tag matches) before in an awesome bad guys get what's coming to them spot Benoit gets the hot tag. Really great work in there that gets the emotions brewing.

Than they have a sweet ending stretch where a battered Benoit who appeared to have been taken out by Eddie on the outside comes back and makes the save. Following tht we got a nice payoff at the end where the heels get their just deserts which was a very satisfying way to end the whole bout. If I had to give a rating I would say it's over the 4 star mark.

I also watched Rip Rogers in a ladder match against the Hardy Boys. Lots of fun in that one as well with what looked to be a reallly banged up Rogers still bringing it in the ring like only he can.



HULK HOGAN vs KING KONG BUNDY WRESTLEMANIA II


I enjoyed this one as it had a big feel to it and I'm a mark for the "little" guy against the big guy. Good action throughout with Bundy being the indestructable monstor and Hogan being the superhero like he was back in the day. I marked for the bodyslam story and Bundy's avalanche in the corner. I always felt sorry for Heenan at the end however and this is one of the reasons why I could never become a Hulkamaniac in my youth. Fun match.




BENOIT vs 2 COLD SCORPIO WCW SUPERBRAWL


Well, I finally got the Benoit DVD which is quite a feat considering where I live at. Watched Benoit vs Scorpio for the first time in a long time and enjoyed it throughly. Than I decided to watch it in its original form and was amazed at how much more fun I had. 2 Cold's dancing, Benoit's entrance, Jesse and some extra Schiavone commentary and I think a "hotter" crowd. This was a great match with a great starting that showed how technical the two superstars were (remember they were doing different stuff than other wrestlers on the card) from the get go while still making sure that 2 Cold was the face. I've always liked matches that start like this and Benoit/Scorpio did a great job of keeping things interesting like say for example with 2 Cold's counter to the wristlock along the ropes. Than we got the middle portion of the match with Benoit beating down on 2 Cold with various offence. A few short chinlocks which were interesting because they only seemed to be there as an adaptation of North American wrestling. Benoit hits some high end offence with the powerbomb and the belly to back suplex which was big back than on and put over beautifully by Ventura who is so fun to hear as commentator because he's such a mark for Benoit. Scorpio finally get a comeback at the end and hits some nice offence to try to put away Benoit. (Benoit and Scorp were actually cut short by a mistimed clock during this match) Benoit goes for his finisher at the time - the dragon suplex only for Scorp to counter - only for Benoit to counter - only for Scorp to counter into a pinning predicament right at the 19:59 mark -- one second before time elapses. Although not known by everyone this was actually a cool finish for hardcore fans at the time becasue the house shows were always constantly going to 20 minute draws as seen by the PWI house show reports. Afterwards I believe they went to some draws too but the difference was Scorpio would win bouts here and there after Superbrawl. Overall a great match that Benoit and Scorpio timed perfectly for the finish. There really was 1 second left to go.


BENOIT vs 2 COLD SCORPIO WCW HANDHELD 1/15?/93

Obstructed view in this and it comes in at about the 12 minute mark but man oh man does this rule. This took place before Superbrawl and taking the logical guess that the beginning of this was about the same as Superbrawl I'd say I liked this match more as it had more intriguing counters and more action than the Superbrawl bout. You see a couple of the same sequences here that were in the Superbrawl match but by no means was this the same match as Superbrawl. The one thing Superbrawl had on this was more of an ending but I don't hold it against this match because the purpose of this was to go to the 20 minute mark to display how great these two wrestlers are. Neither could pin the other and it leaves a certain aura around the two after you're finished watching. They actually leave some high end offence in this such as the dragon suplex, top rope belly to back, powerbomb, Scorpio's tumbleweed and his 450 so this is kind of an unfinished match. If they had gone another 2 or 3 minutes and hit some of this stuff complete with an ending this could very well have been my favourite Benoit match of all time. I really wish I could see some of their matches after Superbrawl because they just may have done that since Scorpio was winning at least some of the bouts instead of the matches going to time limit draws. Bottom line here is that we have Benoit and Scorpio wrestling their heart out on a nontelevised show doing tons of fun counters and wrestling sequences. There is no taking a day off because cameras aren't there and when I see wrestlers doing that it makes me love this profession all the more.





Sting vs Lord Steven Regal Great American Bash


This was a good, solid little match that was pretty fun. It goes a fair length of time and features Regal pitching and Sting catching for the most part. Nice counter here to the Stinger splash which I don't remember seeing before.




Chris Benoit/Patterson vs Karl Moffat/Mike Hammer Late 1985 Stampede


Benoit's debut match from Calgary. Okay match joined in progress which features a young/smaller but still very well built Benoit getting his first victory and participating in his first angle with JR Foley afterwards. In a telling of the future Whalen already helps Benoit out after he gets attacked and piledriven. Young naive Benoit refuses to turn to the darkside.




Benoit/Ben Bassarab v Ron Starr/Honkytonk Man 2/28/86 Stampede

A really good and exciting match. I like Bassarab as a wrestler and this match here was much better than I expected coming in. JIP late in the match we see the Honkeytonk man kicking some major league but as brings out a UWF/Yoshida like in some ways moveset!!!!! That is not a misprint. He really did. Shootstlye like takedowns, a belly to belly suplex and some nice arm submissions back in 1986 in North America!!!! I would guess here he was taking stuff from the dungeon and just using it the ring. Very interesting match and lots of fun.

Benoit vs Black Mephisto JIP Early 1986

Mephisto was two guys. One of them was Kawada who's a dungeon survivor. I'm not sure which guy it is here because the other superstar under the mask would have had a similar stlye to Kawada. Anyway this is a good match overall with some nice action and some sound physcology which has Mephisto busting out a manuever similar to the stretch plum.

Benoit/Bassarab v Steve DiSalvo 2/14/86

A handicap match where Disalvo tries to beat Benoit and Basserb as a tag team. Okay to good I was afraid Benoit and Basserb would look bad here in a kayfabe sense but it wasn't that bad at all in that sense. I guess they wanted to put the massive Disalvo over big.