Coffin Surfer

The looking to get into the Puro Scene thread is still stuck to the top of the folder. Plenty of tape dealers listed up there.

Uh, I would go with 93 televison is the best way for a novice to go. Cheap as hell, lots of great matches from the top to the bottom of the cards so there's more exposure to a larger variety of excellent workers. Endless great stuff from Hansen and Kobashi, and the start of the Kawada and Misawa fued.

12/3/93 is another classic Misawa/Kobashi vs. Kawada/Taue match. Any pretty much every Misawa/Akiyama vs. Kawada/Taue match from 96 and 97 is great or at least worth seeing. Yes, tons of great Baba out there. From what I've seen: vs. Destroyer 69 -Fantastic overmatched stooge vs. bigger athletic face match. Lot's of great mat work, stooging, and buckets of blood. Don't expect alot of big time offense though, it is the 60s. vs. Race 75 -Great selling from Baba. vs. Robinson 76 -Classic match. all the early 80s Hansen matches are fantastic -Hansen is very smart in how he works with the no longer athletic Baba. w/Hansen vs. Kobashi/Misawa 12/93 -Classic tag. Baba plays up to his frail appearence with some of the best sympathy selling ever. w/Hansen vs. Kawada/Taue 11/94 -Geat tag. Baba takes a huge shit kicking from Kawada and Taue, busts out a DDT and Piledriver at one point. There's a ton of highly regarded stuff I haven't seen though. Keep in mind that Baba got by with facial expressions/mannerisms, mat work, story telling, selling. He always used the Northern Chops, and had a large but not exactly high impact by today's standards offense(though the Neckbreaker Drop is brutal and his Dropkick was impressive.) In other words, your not gonna come across Baba wrestling like Benoit anywhere. He was at his best when he played up to his odd look instead of working against it. I wouldn't hesistant to put him in a top 50 greatest workters I've ever seen. Of course he was so over because of his humble gentle giant persona, his hard ring work, and from my understanding was very friendly with the fans.

" I've been praising Hulk Hogan vs the Macho Man at Mania V as well. Man, if this keeps up we're going to be best buds soon." Hogan/Macho is excellent though watching more Hogan kind of exposes it, namely Macho who is somewhere below Shultz and slightly above Bossman in terms of Hogan opponents(not really that good). They were saving most of his signature throat offense for the finish so he appears to have trouble filling his time until then, the arm bar is o.k. because it's timed well and has a nice pay off but his last run with the chinlock can be patience testing. Hogan always seemed willing to bump for things like Piledriver and protected Suplexes so it's odd he didn't mix up his second run a little more. Still, I love how animated Hogan and Macho are at the beginning, both playing up to the angle and their characters so well. It might also have some of the best stalling ever, I think five minutes pass before Hogan is able to get a punch in, letting Savage really get under your skin before the payoff. I also like how Hogan makes sure everyone understands why he does the things he does, like pointing to his bloodied eye after boot scarping Savage's face just in case the fans couldn't connect the dots. Really fun excellent match that's better than it's often credited for, Hogan especially. Some people complain about the Hulk Up, but I've seen worse from Savage. I saw one match from Memphis where he let Austin Idol hulk up out of it in the first minute, leaving them dick to build towards for the rest of the match. "Did you do the Deathvalley top 100 project? That was one of the most controversial bouts on there. Big differences in the opinions of it." I stayed clear of that one. Even during the Scott Keith phase I'm sure most of us went through, I always enjoyed Hogan/Andre. The urgency in Hogan's actions, Andre's subtle character arc, the incredibly smart progressive selling(when Andre's finally down and selling like he's finally hurt, you feel like something really monumental happened and that the match is coming to a finish ), and of course the epic build to the one move Andre can take. I recall Hansen rolling out the bodyslam in his match with Andre a few years prior with little build and a modest reaction but Hogan turned it into one of the most memorable moments of all time. I can understand people not digging the low end aspect of the match but calling it crap is something I can't understand. I'm sure you've seen me pimp them before but I would highly recommend you check out Hogan's work against Shultz, Race, Funk, and the 91 Garden matches against Flair.

That's actually one of the better descriptions, "the off/on day." Yes, the whole match is a carefully laid out bait and switch designed to convince the viewer that Kawada HAS to be going over. Though I wouldn't say Misawa escapes by the skin of his teeth. He survives all of Kawada's attacks in reasonable good health and comes back to elbow him back into his cage. The killer move is there to reinforce the doubt Kawada created in Misawa's mind by coming so close to defeating him earlier. It's also there to show how Kawada had came further than he ever had before and it would take something special to keep him down for good. And most importantly, anything else would have been anti-climatic.

Kawada vs. Misawa 6/3/94 not standing on it's own, is actually one of the biggest wrestling myths of all time. Truth be told, it's a fairly straight forward stand alone match. The way they scout each others' moves in the opening suggests a rich history. Kawada's more aggressive, driven, attacks implies he's the one with something to prove. His dickish assualt on Misawa's apparently injured neck and later his ear, puts him over as the heel. The only tricky part is the leg angle. The nice guy that he is, Misawa never attacked Kawada's injured leg before and him doing it here suggests he's been pushed further than Kawada has ever pushed him before. A rich spot that first time viewers probably wouldn't get. It's also used to play up to the sympathetic nature of Kawada's heel character, something U.S. fans more used to clear cut black and white(cheer/boo) roles may not fully grasp. Kawada breaking up the Germans with a series of Koppo Kicks plays up off his 94 Carine win against Williams but you don't really need to know that. It's obvious that Kawada stopped Misawa's momentum and is building towards a comeback. Other than that, there's nothing else you really need to know. I still wouldn't recommend it as a first time watch though as it does water down some of the drama. But that's not to say it's not a dramatic match in it's own right, some of the most enduring, powerful moments in wrestling history easily.

Glad to see you liking Andre/Hogan, WP. Finally, something we can agree on. I don't know how long I've been pimping Hogan/Andre as a pretty good match and it's nice to see even a handful of people enjoying it as well.

Deltron 3030

Yes, I want to say 10/94.

Steiners vs. Nasty Boys Havoc 90 **** -A rare face in peril match for the Steiners and it's actually incredibly effective. Offense heavy with scary spots. Express vs. Southern Boys GAB 90 **** -One of the best comedy matches of all time, tons of fun. Dustin vs. Arn 92(Date later) ***3/4 -Incredibly smart match with Arn displaying his full range of heel personas while Dustin is his usual great self, watch out for the clever inventive finish. Very low end but so damn smart. Sting vs. Luger Superbrawl 92 ***1/2-***3/4 range -Wild big offense heavy sprint with solid character work from Luger, not to mention he takes a release German on his head. Sadly, the last transition seems botched with Luger looking blown out. Windham/Dustin vs. Zybsko/Austin Superbrawl 92 ****1/4 -Windham and Dustin bring the hate and big bumps, Zybsko seemlessly blends over the top stooging with serious dickery. Austin simply doesn't screw up, though his cheap heel spots near the finish clash with the tone the other three set. Still on of the best US tags ever. Sting vs. Vader GAB 92 **** -Often mislabeled a Vader squash from people who probably never seen it, the match is actually a testiment to Vader's ability to carry smaller lesser workers by bumping and selling for them in a credible way. Brutal Powerbomb at the finish though. Steamboat/Douglas vs. Windham/Pillman Starrcade 92 ***3/4 -Nice long dramatic face in peril with the heels destroying Douglas over and over again. Windham vs. Scorpio Superbrawl 93 ***1/2-***3/4 -One of the rare U.S. matches where the heel Champion wrestles on a hiearchy as Windham has no problem fending off the lower ranked Scorpio, though he does break away a few times for some nifty high flying. Windham's moveset is endless and the way he gives Scorpio openings and teases comebacks keeps things exciting despite the one sidedness of the match. Vader vs. Dustin 94 **** -Just as excellent if not better in some ways than the Sting meetings. Short match but they still manage to cram in almost all their trademark bumps and spots while still telling an effective bully vs. pissed off kid story.

Does anyone know what happened with the "reissue" rumors that started up again last year or so? Was it just the Gaiman issues?

"The only thing I didn't like about the film was the subplot with the son. I don't like the idea of his son having this violent streak because his daddy is Joey." I don't think that's what they were going for. When were introduced to the son he's passive, it's not until after Tom/Joey kills the criminals that we see him attacking his bullies. I think that's significant. It's as if the "heroic act" opened a door for violence in the family or town even, regardless of the genetics. What previously seemed impossible now seems a little more real. I think it has more to do with influence, the son was obviously very much influenced by Tom's passive teachings and when his father peforms acts of "just violence" the son was more open to it. Also, did anybody catch the faint smile on Vigo's face while he's comforting his son after the shotgun blasting? Nice touch.

"Hey, I'm not saying that I'm not being completely unreasonable about this. I probably am. I just can't work out how you thought that was a good portrayal of my character. " This has all done been covered before. "Or how when he was stringently non-cheating for all of his mega-heel run, considering hitting someone with a chair is a signal of a FACE turn." Wrestling is nothing but low brow visual story telling. The spot puts a visual to Toxxic's competitive drive, something a crowd and the reader would be able to sink their teeth into and look at in a positive light. I think it's something that would have been cheered, and that's how I wrote it so that's how it was. Not cheating is a positive characterstic and since I wasn't in a position to actually change your character I thought putting one of his face characterstics on the spotlight would be a good idea to foreshadow his turn. But when you already have a character that already plays fair and for the most part uses a high flying face offense, there's not much room to foreshadow a face turn. Again if you feel I didn't nail your character, I can't really argue since it's your character afterall. "That being said you should still come back, although I don't know whether Williams has run his natural course. Even if I have issues with how you portrayed me in that one match you're still a damn good writer and a valuable asset to the fed (if perhaps not so much in the promo department but come on, we can't all be Muzz or Flesher)." It would be nice to make yet another comeback but I just don't seem to have the time these days.

I recall you complaining about a basic whip reversal making Toxxic look stupid as well. Again,Williams didn't work the ribs in the match. He hit one move that aggrevated it a little but that was it. The other time, Toxxic was playing possum. I couldn't work all your silly hard to write signature moves into the match. The chair spot was building toward your face turn and I figured it would be a good idea to play up to your charcter's positive attributes. Axe Bomber doesn't need video game headwork to be a finisher, especially if you leap into it from the top rope. Like I said before I'm sorry you feel I didn't nail your character but yeesh. It wasn't my attention to your character as a tool and you know that, I took great pains to try to nail your character.

Oh come on, the Final Battle in the Five Deadly Venoms. One of the few fights that manages to be surreal without being camp or too serious. Gordon Liu vs. Pai Mei (all three times in Fist of the White Lotus.) The scroll writing fight in The Magnificent Butcher as well anything with the drunk embarressing people. Creative stuff. Funny Sammo isn't in none of the movies best fights.

Again, I'm not gonna rip somebody's list so I'll just post my top ten to offer more food for thought. NWA top 5 1. Tully vs. Steamboat Starrcade 84 ****1/2 -Tully is perfect as the scheming overmatched heel, the look on his face when he spots Steamboat favoring his ribs is one of those brilliant small touches that seperates classics from great matches. Oh yeah and Steamboat wrestles like he gives a damn for once. 2. Fantastics vs. Midnight Express Clash I ****1/4 -Elevating their fued to the next level, they cross up their usual formual with brawling, tables, and chairs. Even Cornette turns things up by replacing his comedy routine with vicious brutality during the post match beatdown. 3. Tully vs. Magnum I Quit ****1/4 -Tully is still very much the overmatched heel but instead of using comedy stooging to put over Magnum he works the match as an out of control surreal brawl that he's on the losing end of. Yes, the ending is also famous. 4. Flair vs. Steamboat Chi-Town **** -Wrestlewar is a bore, and while Clash has some fantastic moments where they turn it up and elevate the fued they still have a bad habit of falling back on the routine, especially in the worthless final fall. This match is routine as well but it make sense as their first major match in years. Both guys are in their element, doing what they do best. It's also the fastest and most exciting of the bunch. 5. Flair vs. Lugar Starrcade 88 **** -Both guys are so animated here that it's easy to forgive them for the repeated sequences and cliche spots. It's Flair's match of course but Luger had such a great sense of his character he could still add to the match with things like reacting to a hammerlock with a confident smile that says,"Is this all you got old man, hah countering this is too easy." And of course Flair isn't shy about small details either with his cry of "Old God!" at the five minute annoucement being one of the best comedy spots ever. WCW top 5. 1. Wargames 92 ****1/2 -You know the deal. Everyone bleeds, brings the hate, brings attention grabbing spots, bumps nicely and there's a cute little story involving a Russian and Sting. Oh and the Dangerous Alliance crumbles over a miscommunication. 2. Dustin/Windham vs. Zybsko/Austin Superbrawl 83 ****1/4 -Windham and Dustin bring the hate and relentless bumping while Zybsko proves you can stooge and still be aggressive. Austin is basically a prop and his generic act leading to the finish couldn't be more anticlimatic but hey, everything else is gold. 3. Eddy vs. Rey Havoc 97 ****1/4 -Eddy oozes arrogance and bitterness, the action is top notch, the face in peril rules, and Rey has always been an excellent sympathy seller and bumper. 4. Midnights vs. Southern Boys Bash 90 **** -The Express at their comedy best with plenty of time to try various stratgies on the superior faces who always seem to have their number. The match feels like a constant battle for momentum and oh yeah, it has a red neck Kung Fu shodown. 5. Dustin vs. Vader 94 **** -Vader bullies Dustin who snaps and gives the big guy a run for it. Dustin was a better worker than Sting and it shows as this just barely edges out the Bash and Strap match despite it's considerably shorter length.

"21. RIC FLAIR VS HARLEY RACE STARCADE 83 Harley was great in his day.Maybe a little slow but great wrestling otherwise.Flair dominated the 80s and this was one of his better matches.It is also a pretty historic match if you care about that stuff.If you haven't seen it,check it out." Race was great back in the day but you certainly wouldn't know it from this match. The guy could bump like HBK and even at this point could get around better than most, still had one of the biggest movesets around, was still an excellent storyteller and of course you wouldn't know any of that from this match. Bad disappointing match that doesn't show either guy in a good light nor does it even give you a taste of what their capable of. I recall Race had issues with the guest ref gimmick among other things. Sorry there have been more than twenty better NWA/WCW matches than this, hell Flair and Race might have had twenty better matches than this on their own. "32. STING VS VADER GREAT AMERICAN BASH 92 This is my favorite in the series.I didn't know about vader before wcw so I was expecting a win by sting here.Instead we got a classic vader squash.Sting put vader over huge in this match and vader was a made man afterwards.Highly recommended." Once again I'm baffled that this match is labeled a Vader squash, Sting controls for most of the match, get's in most of the offense, it's also made to look like the German would have did Vader in, and of course Sting loses by his own stupid mistake. Vader gets in some good licks but he's mostly bumping and putting over Sting in this one.

For the sake of food for thought, the best ten WWF matches I've seen: 1. Bret vs. Henning KOR 93 ****1/4 -Henning steals the show with his unique ability to give a reason behind all of his shortcuts. Great face in peril segment and a smart finish. 2. Hogan vs. Shultz 84 Clipped ****+ -Like Liger/Samurai 91 with Lariats,Legdrops instead of Powerbombs,Moonsaults and alot more blood. An exciting match that builds and builds the tention until it finally explodes with one of the best face payback runs ever. 3. Eddy vs. Bradshaw (sorry I don't have the date on me, the very bloody one)****1/4 -Eddy takes the WWF to Memphis. 4. Bret vs. Owen Wrestlemania X ****1/4 -Bret finally has someone that can do more than keep up with him. Owen's over the top performance steals the show. 5. Jericho vs. Rock No Mercy ****1/4 -Some of the best timing to take place in a WWF ring, great character work from both men as well. Nice touches like the Rock picking up the elbow pad to show his motivation for the table spot. 6. HBK vs. Angle Wrestlemania Whatever ****1/4 -HBK's most inspired performance, Angle doesn't understand his role but when has he ever? 7. Race vs. Hogan 86 Gardens ****-****1/4 -One of the rare payback matches where the heel has just as much to do as the face. 8. Adonis/Savage vs. Santana/Bruno Cage Gardens Clip ****+ -Adonis/Savage bumps, Bruno kicks ass and Santana bleeds everwhere. Nice. 9. HBK vs. Hall Wrestlemania X **** -HBK makes sure this is more than just a spot fest. A good payback match that just happens to have ladder, Hall's kind of bland but what are you going to do? 10. Rock vs. Austin Wrestlemania 17 **** -Sometimes loses focus but very few pull off dramatic finishes like Austin.

I've gotten lots of laughs out of the unintentional humor in "Lord of Illusions."

Sam Raimi's smooth exciting and often innovative camera work in the first Evil Dead is better than most movie's with ten times the budget. Not a bad movie.

Commando has too much clever wit to be bad. "Don't disturb my friend, he's dead tired." Agree about Wild Zero, even badly made for what it is and yet the coolness of Guitar Wolf still prevails. Hell Comes to Frogtown comes to mind as does Final Justice. Oh yeah and the Kid with the Golden Arms starring the Venom Clan in a less serious outing. Love the last line. "What now?" "I'm gonna go get drunk." walks off.

Hogan vs. Warrior and Hogan vs. Andre are both GOOD WRESTLING matches. I fail to see how either are terrible, both are really smart truth be told. What more could you want? Psychology, story telling, character work, and in Hogan/Warrior's case even a decent moveset for it's time and place. It's all here. Hogan had better matches with Race, Flair, and Savage but the other two are still very good. Anyway, I don't see this list going anywhere good or remotely interesting. Sorry, nice to see somebody at least take the time to describe their choice though.

Thank you! I thought I was the only person whoevever saw this. what's that line? "Were not just two big dumb guys, were two really big dumb guys." Pure gold.

"I guess I didn't see it. They weren't great actors, but they weren't bad. They came off as real high school-aged kids. " I don't think anybody in this movie could be mistaken for a human being. "Yeah, that nerdy girl with the glasses and awkward curly hair was hawt. " I figured the cliche nerd would be an obvious exception. "There were some "beautiful" people in the movie. But unless you're real unfortunate, there's a fair mix of them in just about in any high school you may frequent." Oh come on, outside of the "nerdy girl" everyone is nice looking to the point that it borderlines on the surreal. This is not the High School me or I don't think anybody remembers. The Fast Times at Ridgemont High cast looked more plain for crying out loud. Let's also not forgot the most important thing, it's simply a shit movie. Even if you want to call these stoic cardboard cut outs realistc, it's one of the most boring, uninvolving messes, I've ever seen put to film. Until they release a movie about paint drying this will take the cake. I at least respect your not trying to argue the movie has strong character or narrative, I don't agree about the realism thing but I doubt I can convince you otherwise so I'll just leave it at that. Truth be told I don't think the reality Gus was searching for can be recreated on film, it's like the ultimate overreach.

It's been a while since I watched the movie and I have no plans on re-watching it so bear with me. "You don't think it was realistic? You cite it not being realistic and then, almost in the same breath, talk about people walking down the halls, horrible improv, and no characters. " No I don't think it was realistic just distant, too distant. This is not an unbiased look at a high school before a shooting, Gus just chooses to show us the most unrevealing and cryptic moments he can for the purpose of being vague because I suppose he thinks it makes it realistic and more unsettling that way. It's a fairly common practice in most sub b level shock/fake snuff horror movies actually, and they fail for similar reasons. You can't get attached, it's also just as manipulative as it's trying not to be. Though at least they can repulse and make you feel dirty and empty where as this one just puts you to sleep. However I will say that colorful characters, wit, inimate exposing conversations, meaningful interaction and real emotion weren't invented by hollywood. Simply removing them from a story or lack there of doesn't make it realistic. Not to mention that people in real life don't appear to be bad actors, that's the whole point of good acting to be convincing. "Do you know any high school where people go around and have conversations that are succinct and sound like they're out of a movie?" How many highschools do you know of where everyone including the alienated outcasts are beautiful could be models with nice hair? I know this is superficial to complain about but if were gonna be treated to five minute walks to nowhere for the sake of realism you open yourself up to complaints like this. Honestly, there's never a moment in movie where this doesn't fill like a production.