EL DANDY~!

Eugene needs to go do 9000 squats for his big match! You're gonna win!!!

Eugene has a penis. Therefore...CC>EugeneMark

Bigger doesn't mean better, dude...

Aww...The Kid's a Teddy Hart mark...I'm guessing he gives him hairdressing tips...

Don't MAKE ME READY MY POWDER! I WILLLLLL USE MY PIMP HAND STRONGLY...

I've already been bought. It will be named in the draft thread...

Everyone knows that whatever team I get on, I become a big time player...

Kotz, you may proceed to do something with me. I'd love to see what you come up with.

hogan-muta 5/3/93-Good for the spectacle of Hogan actually having to wrestle. He even busts a flying juji-gatame that he used to use when he was in NJPW regulary back in the early 80s. flair-tsuruta 2/3 falls 4/24/84-The only match I saw of these two was from 6/82 when it went to a draw, but I imagine that this match is just as good, if not better. misawa/kobashi-kawada/taue 6/9/95-Classic. Might be the apex of professional wrestling as a whole. misawa-tsuruta 6/8/90-Classic. misawa-tsuruta 9/1/90-Classic as well. vader-inoki 1/4/96-Greatest ass whooping ever, even if the ending was never in doubt. hansen/gordy-kawada/tenru 12/16/88-Great match. After Kawada gets taken out, it's pretty much 2-on-1 and it's a great story to tell. misawa/kobashi-kawada/taue 12/3/93-Like in 88, Kawada's knee is the focus, and it's the greatest sell job I've personally seen, ever. This will sell you on Kawada being the best seller on the planet. kerry voneric-tsuruta 5/22/84-One of the reasons why Jumbo is the very best. The fact that the Claw hand of Von Erich is the focal point of the third fall and the fact that Kerry sells it so well is just outstanding. rude-chono 8/12/92-Rude's best match ever, and one of Chono's greatest carry jobs to date. kobashi/misawa/hansen-kawada/taue/baba 3/24/95-Not the greatest match in the world, but certainly not the worst. Hansen going nutso near the end of the match is probably worth it. Also, the selling Kobashi, Misawa, and Hansen do for Baba's old man offense is comically appealing.

Well, I think Mutoh has that "HHH-syndrome" where he thinks he can draw even though numbers are down and such. It's really gonna be something if Kawada drops the straps to Hash, because then that means...yep, you guessed it, another Mutoh reign as champ. At least, that's what it means to me. And at that point...I'm not sure if AJPW will be able to pull itself out of the hole it's currently in. Mutoh will probably not hand the reigns of AJPW over to Kawada unless Kawada makes enough money off his beer to get the money necessary to buy the shares.

Being there, the match came off just as well as it did on tape. I was simply amazed that Brock was able to put on as good a match as that, which so THOROUGHLY smoked the Angle match from XIX, and that because Eddie was so damn over, that Brock just did what he was used to, and that's tossing somebody around like a rag doll. These two put together one of the best matches in YEARS for the WWE, and if I have to think back to anything that touched this, it MIGHT be the Austin/Benoit match from Edmonton on SD! in 2001, but even that I have to go back and look at. The rest of the card looked like this to me. Scotty/Rikishi vs. Bashems/Shaniqua-* Nidia/Noble-DUD APA vs. TWGTT-*1/2 Holly/Rhyno-3/4* Rey/Chavo-***1/2 Angle/Cena/Big Show-**1/4 Brock/Eddie-****1/2, with the run-in taking this down from 3/4, but the run-in made sense. In all reality, a good show, nothing too outstanding outside of Rey/Chavo and Eddie/Brock, but it's worth it to see those two matches.

Ahem. That list is forgetting Vader, who's over NO MATTER WHERE HE GOES. Of course, Vince totally tamed him, which kinda made him not so over, but this man is a big name wherever he is. No story necessary.

Well, if this helps, I have a live report since I went to the show. Not exactly play-by-play, but it's got a good little synopsis on every match, so this can help you out for now, I guess. I just got back from NWO at the Cow Palace. Aside from traffic (the same traffic that made me miss the trios match, grrrrr), I was able to get to the PPV just in time for the beginning, so here goes. Scotty 2 Hotty and Rikishi d. The Bashem Brothers and Shaniqua when Rikishi Banzai Dropped Shaniqua to retain the WWE Tag Team Titles -This match was nothing too special, although it did signify the "Ode to the Horsemen" theme that was recurring through the night, as the Bashems pull out the neato double Slingshot Suplex that must have had Tully Blanchard smiling somewhere. Shaniqua got to throw the good lariat she has, and I could TOTALLY dig her in the woman's division as the Shaniqua Hansen, although she needs to put an elbow pad over that elbow, STAT. Also of note is Doug almost getting KILLED on the headscissors by Scotty. Jaime Noble d. Nidia in a Blindfold Match with a Front Necklock -GOD. You never realize how big Nidia's fake boobies are until you see them in person. I was sitting on the side of the ramp, and DAMN. Those things are HUMONGOUS. Even the people in front of me were saying, "Those don't look that big on TV." This was nothing and gets nothing from me. The World's Greatest Tag Team d. The APA when Benjamin superkicked Bradshaw -Blink and you'll miss TWGTT turn back the clock to the dirty south in the 80s, working over the arm like Shelton Anderson and Charlie Blanchard. Bradshaw's lariat arm is taped up already and he's selling it pretty good when he uses it, and Simmons remembered how to sell after taking time off, and this was a perfectly good tag match, albeit unexciting at times. Bradshaw had the AWESOME lariat, but sold the arm well enough and this gets into that area of "somewhat watchable." Hardcore Holly d. Rhyno with the Alabama Slam -I don't really remember too much about this match, but I do remember it being somewhat unexciting and it was about this time that my brother went for the bathroom break. Rhyno hit the Anderson spinebuster so I was happy, but there wasn't else much to notice. Chavo Guerrero d. Rey Mysterio with a school boy to win the WWE Cruiserweight Championship -This was a direct ode to Dean Malenko match with all the work on the stomach. Chavo did all the great gutbusters, including the AWESOME AWESOME Quebradora Gutbuster. Wasn't too much lucha because the WWE loves dumbing down stuff like this, but this was a great little match that got 18 minutes or so to build on and they kept up good with the stomach psychology and then Chavo CHEATS TO WIN~! when Chavo Sr. knocks Rey off. Good match, finish wasn't exactly great, but there were some really good moments. Rey looked off, and Chavo looked up to the task of carrying the bulk of the match. This also had the great spot where Chavo rolled through the bombs away into the half crab. Lance Storm should steal that. Kurt Angle d. Big Show and John Cena when Cena submitted to a heel hook -Good little match that was actually not too bad considering Cena isn't Brock and he isn't hitting Running Ligerbombs on Show or anything. The knee psychology (which harkens back to Royal Rumble, therefore making this some kind of modern record for WWE) was very good and Cena was up to the task of selling. Show did his part and didn't mess anything up, and his chops ECHOED throughout the arena. The spot where he slammed Cena into the turnbuckle was particulary nasty and I was totally it. Cena with the heel hook to make sure Cena tapped was a nice little bit of psychology as he didn't want the big man coming in again to interfere. Eddie Guerrero d. Brock Lesnar to win the WWE Championship when he hit the Frog Splash -You know, I'm not really sure this match will be matched for the rest of the year, really. Unless somewhere down the line, Benoit and Eddie get 30 for a unification bout. An absolutely outstanding match that's melded from the New Japan style and the style brought forth by Angle, Eddie, Benoit, and Brock on the SmackDown! side of things, where focus is on a body part and it stays that way for the bulk of the match. On top of that, you have the monster heel vs. the small babyface and that makes the drama better, and then, on top of THAT, you have about 10,000 Latinos in the Cow Palace screaming at the top of their lungs (10,001 if you include me as the honorary Latino...yo se que hablar espanol, putos) waiting to see if their hero goes home a champion. Eddie goes to the knee like a regular Keiji Mutoh and Lesnar sells BUNCHES. Lesnar even does the one legged suplex. Lesnar fucks Eddie REALLY GOOD Kensuke Sasaki Eddie HAS to sell because it just HURTS. He also has the neato ground submisssions, like the rear naked choke and the crossface chickenwing and the gutwrench bearhug, which Brock seamlessly transitions to other moves in all cases. Eddie makes like Chono with not only the STF, but then the Deathlock STF after locking in the Lasso from El Paso, which just made me freak out, ESPECIALLY when I came home and watched the tape, where I got to see the focus on the psychology instead of marking out for Eddie (which I still found time to do). I think if Eddie Dragon Screwed into the Figure-Four, I would have lost my shit. Brock made sure that the moves he did hit hurt Eddie enough to where Eddie has nothing else he can do other than selling, simply because Brock hit so many great high impact moves. The suplexes were great, the lariat was REALLY stiff, the spinebuster was HARSH, and the spinning powerbomb out of the rana attempt was just outrageous. The ref bump and the interference worked GREAT because of the Goldberg Jackhammer earlier, and then you have the GREAT false finish, which had EVERYBODY going nuts, and then you had Eddie's great counter to the F-5, and then he made Art Barr beam when he hit the Frog Splash to win the title, and the celebration begins. One of the best singles matches I've seen in recent years from the WWE, and WWE is 2-for-2 with the Royal Rumble and this match as MOTYCs. The pop at the end does you no justice unless you're there in person, and it was nuclear, to say the least. A spectactular match, made even better by the hardway juice Brock sported after the turnbuckle shot, and I want rematch after rematch after rematch between these two. This is the new Sting/Vader, because Eddie is SUCH a believable hero that the crowd is always behind him, and Brock is the monster Vader who beats you to death and then beats you up some more, except he uses the big high impact throws and the submissions as opposed to potatoing the fuck outta somebody. I want this feud to run until the end of time. -Overall, a good show, with nothing REALLY bad outside of the first two matches and the Holly/Rhyno match. The other four are good matches, but track this mutha down for the Eddie/Brock match. Life is just too short to argue with me about it. It's REALLY good.

RAY! I'm gonna pull a Coey or a Cooke or a Wolvie without being a dick, so listen closely. If you know the backstory to this match, you'll love it even more. Basically, you got Kandori on one side, who is a legit badass, one of the toughest in the business, against Hokuto, who's the biggest risk taker in all of AJW, willing to put her body on the line, evolving to the point where she is called "The Dangerous Queen." The match itself is a summation of Hokuto's career: the armbar at the beginning where she probably should have quit, the HUGE gusher that's tapped, and the tombstone on the table are all symbolic about how her career has gone to that point, where the gusher can't get a tourniquite, and where the tombstone, which Aja Kong used to break her neck 3 years earlier, are things that should generally stop her, they instead feul her. From there, you got yourself one of the greatest physical displays ANYWHERE. The only match I think that might be able to rival this on a pure "I'm a monster and I'm gonna whoop that ass scale" is Hansen/Kobashi, because if you watch the offense, Hokuto ONLY gets the offense in on Kandori in spurts. She basically waits for a mistake to be made by Kandori, and then she pounces. Kandori knows that Hokuto's hurt and so she uses all the armbars and chokeholds and even goes high flying herself with her dive to the outside. The fact that 27 minutes into that match, when both women have lost a lot of bled (especially Hokuto), they do a CHAIN WRESTLING SEQUENCE leading to the Tiger Driver by Kandori is absolutely insane. Then you have the NLB sequence at the end, where Kandori could pull off the greatest win of wins by pinning Hokuto in the middle of the ring with HER move in front of HER fans, and then you have the shoot punches at the end... It's one of the best 5 matches I've personally seen, ever.

Well, I just felt that the Kawada/Tsuruta match didn't have the same drama that the Jumbo/Misawa matches had. I mean, I loved the story, I thought it was well played how Kawada used a lot of Misawa's strategies with the headlocks, and the corner counter off the backdrop, but I'm gonna have to go look at this again. Maybe I'm missing something. And that tag match isn't goofy. It's one of the better tag matches I've seen, and frankly, anytime you get JOHHNY F'N ACE to come out and put on the match he did when he frankly could have gotten SMOKED, I'm definitely proud of it. But I'll go back and watch the Kawada match to see if I can't find something that'll boost that rating a little bit.

Might as well put in my two cents: All Japan (in chronological order) 4-82-Harley Race vs. Jumbo Tsuruta-****1/4 12-83-Real World Tag League Finals-Bruiser Brody and Stan Hansen vs. Geni'ichiro Tenryu and Jumbo Tsuruta-****1/2 12-88-RWTL-Toshiaki Kawada and Geni'ichiro Tenryu vs. Stan Hansen and Terry Gordy-****1/2 10-24-91-Jumbo Tsuruta vs. Toshiaki Kawada-**** 3-4-95-Johnny Ace and Steve Williams vs. Kenta Kobashi and Mitsuharu Misawa-****1/2 10-28-00-Toshiaki Kawada vs. Geni'ichiro Tenryu-**** New Japan 9-21-83-Stan Hansen vs. Andre The Giant 4-21-91-Owen Hart vs. Jyushin Lyger Super J Cup-1995-Ultimo Dragon vs. The Great Sasuke That's all for now. More will be coming up soon enough.

Well, Mutoh has certainly pissed on the ashes, that's for sure. RIP Baba. Long may you ride and hit those ropes in heaven.

Well...it's about time I made my contribution to this topic. I gotta make me cameos, ya know. Zack Malibu...he's just the fuckin man. Mack pimp daddy of the motherfuckin millenium. The Man to many, a good firend to some, and my Rhode Island home boy. Dude deserves a fuckin TV show devoted to him. I personally suggest a montage of all his most cherished moments in life. It would rock, just flash from scene to scene.

Kawada probably will never leave All Japan simply because he owes every success he's had in All Japan to Baba, and even though Baba is dead, he wants to do his best to try and make All Japan big again. Frankly, I don't think he gives a damn that much anymore. Oh, and Mike, he's never beaten Tenryu directly before. First time the student has defeated his mentor.

The greatest pure wrestling match I've ever seen is Jumbo/Funk from 6/11/76 that tells a great story about the mentor taking the student to school and the student using every trick he knows to get his teacher to lose. Just great psycholoy as Jumbo works the arm and Funk works the neck, and it's just a beautiful story told by both guys.

Nak's injuries have forced him to relinquish the belt until his injuries are healed. A tournament will be created so that there can be a temporary holder of the belt until Nak's return. My vote for the winner of the tourney? Sasaki, because Nak's return to face Sasaki would be astronomical, and him defeating the hated outsider to win the belt is going to be HUGE. Count on that shit...

What you talkign about? You mean Tak going after the face, a weak spot, showing PSYCHOLOGY from him taking a beating on New Year's Eve? Tak just went out there and did his job. If Nak wanted to be protected, he would have worn protections, simple as that...

My only argument is the Race match, simply because I'm a big fan of that late 70s-early 80s NWA style that was very methodical and hard hitting. There were SO many little things about that match that made it so great, specifically the point where Kiniski gets in Flair's face about using a closed fist, and then while Kiniski admonishes Flair, Race comes back and CLOBBERS Flair with one of his own... I'm not bashing how you watched the match or anything, but I'm guaranteeing you that if you watch some more early 80s NWA up to that point or you can find some late 70s stuff, and you take the time to look for the little things...it'll make you REALLY appreciate that match, Dames. Great review though. I always like reading them.

That match sounded like it was non-stop action, too. There was a lot neat moves and stiff shots that got the crowd into it.

Awesome AWESOME idea here. I totally love this...