Kenta Kobashi vs. Bison Smith - 8/30/04
-I must say that I heard lots of good stuff about this one before I ever watched it and I would agree with most of the good stuff I heard. At first I was really worried that the crowd would be dead as I didn't know if they would take Bison (who I am becoming more of a fan of recently) seriously and Kobashi really worked his ass off and made him look damn good. But honestly, it wasn't as much of a carry job as I make it sound like. Bison did very well for himself in this one even hitting his own version of Kobashi's half nelson suplex on Kobashi! But in the end it was cool to see Kobashi put him away with a sick ass brainbuster in a really fun, well put together match.

rating - ***3/4

TNA Xplosion. I'm the guy who gives them the 0.0000001 cable rating every week. So far a pretty crappy AMW/Shane & Kazarian match (from Impact), a squash between Monty Brown and Glenn Gilberti, and coming up next A.J. Styles vs. Hector Garza.

CBF, this should be for only international wrestling. I would encourage you to maybe start this thread in the TNA folder though.......

Also, I don't want to come off as a dick, so please don't take it that way.......

No problemo...whoops, I thought I clicked general. (slaps self with frying pan)

Uh...(waits patiently for my Best of Ultimo in Japan tape)

No need for that, there's already a "What are you watching?" thread in the general wrestling forum. I think two is enough:

General Wrestling's for American wrestling and whatnot
International's for Puro and Lucha.

It's all good, just try and keep the respected match types in the respected thread.

Edit: You can pin this if you feel necessesary Kido.

I have about a million New Japan tapes the Champions Carnival 95 and some NOAH stuff sitting around that I need to watch sooner or later.

This is the good shit right here. I love these tapes, especially the finals. Go and watch~!

Yeah, that's for sure. I wouldn't sit on these too long MadDog.......it's THAT good.

Kido, did you ever watch the whole 92 G-1 Climax?

MD, everything but the third tape. I'm saving that for a rainy day.......I really liked it though, I thought it was a lot better than the review I read for it on RollingGermans......

I really like the Steiners vs. Mutoh/Sasaki and Pegasus vs. Liger matches from those tapes. Tony Halme's constant use of the word "fuck" got irritating during the first match.

I did like the Steiners vs. Mutoh/Sasaki and I saw Pegasus/Liger before so those where bright spots for me though. I must admit as much as he sucks, Halme was fun to watch in a OMG, he's gonna kill someone kinda way.

Yeah, he was acting like a roided up freak during that match. The finals with Chono/Rude are excellent as it was probably the best match Rude ever had.

I've heard quite a bit of people shat all over Rude/Chono.....but I'm sure I'd be into it. I'm a big Chono early 90's guy......

People needlessly shit on New Japan heavyweights.

In all fairness though MD, it's mostly the newer NJ heavies. I've seen Hash, Chono, Choshu, Muta, etc... get plently of love all over the place.

I don't understand the Choshu love at all. That's the only puro star that I DO NOT understand how people can be such huge marks for the guy.

Nor do I. We've had this convo before many times too MD, and I still don't get what people love about him. I will give him credit as a draw years ago, but that's about as far as I'll go with him.

Strong Style Spirit went to all New Japan coverage. Can't say I'm surprised as he had been cutting back on everything else for a year or so.

Damn, that sucks. I wonder why?

Just saw an Ultimo Dragon vs. Chris Jericho match (from probably 1995). The comp has no match list so I'm feeling around blindly. Finish was ruined for me, as Jericho was set up for a top rope hurricanrana, then screams out "Powerbomb?", then behold, he blocks the hurricanrana with a powerbomb to get the win. Still a pretty good match. Ultimo drop-kicking Jericho mid-lionsault and having Jericho land on his head looked nasty, and Jericho doing his hop to second rope and dove over ropes-plancha is alsways cool to see.

Watching the 96 Skydiving J show.

Jumbo Tsuruta vs. Harley Race -9/19/85 - All Japan Pro Wrestling

-I was really impressed by the early arm work that Jumbo does on Harley and how it all plays together. Not their greatest match by far, but the work is solid and even though it's a double CO ending....they really put over the fact that they aren't finished as they fight like crazy after the finish. Solid match - ***1/4