Got day drunk and am rewatching the Summerslam 4-way main event.

Prematch thoughts during the entrances:

Michael Cole is the worst.

Remember when Braun was a Wyatt? And now he's light years ahead of the boring one Bray Wyatt.

As a fan, my main issue with Roman is that his move set sucks and his stupid magic moves that incapacitate people look stupid.

Samoa Joe is the best and can do no wrong.

Edit. lol. Brock is the 4th guy and sorta boring at this point.

I'm still surprised that they just had Braun maintain his Wyatt look, pushed him as a totally separate monster, and it's worked beautifully.

I advocated at the time that they should have tweaked his look to separate him more from Bray, but their choice not to do so seems totally fine now.

Kawada vs. Kobashi from 1989 as part of theditch.biz AJPW chronological archive. Kobashi is a rookie, Kawada barely more experienced and in 12 minutes they show everyone the future of puroresu. Amazing.

The archives are amazing, BTW.

love those sites from theditch.

I watched Kobashi/Misawa from 3/1/03 a few nights ago while drunk. I liked it even more while drunk. A few spots where the match could legit end and still feel like a GOAT contender. This match makes me feel sad about what Big Dave did to his own rating system. There's no doubt this is >>>> a few matches rated over 5*...

Is this the match that you nominated for the greatest match ever bracket we had a while back. If not which one was it, because that match was awesome

That'd have to be the one. They have a couple of incredible matches in 1997 but I don't think anyone compares to the above.

Gotta pimp this match...If you like the younger days of the future four pillars, watch Kawada vs. Taue from 1/15/91. It's reviewed on theditch site here. This match is great by itself and in context. Long story short, Misawa and Jumbo were feuding and having many great tags and 6-man matches in 1990. Kawada and Taue were the young lions and always beat the **** out of each other in these matches. This match is the culmination of 6-7 months of build between the two. There is quite a bit of blood in this match. A rare blade job in AJPW and it works very well here. Of course, they'd feud for another two years before they became The Holy Demon Army

Another match that's rarely talked about: Taue vs. Misawa on 4/15/95 in the Champions Carnival final. One of the showings of pro wrestling ever. This match is an absolute masterpiece. If you couldn't tell, it's one of my absolute favorites. It is violent without any outside the ring work or any weapons. Taue picks a body part, doesn't relent, and Misawa sells.

I swear I'm not going to post every match I watch from thevault.biz but had to post props for this one ... Kawada/Fuyuki vs. Can-Am Express, 1989. I almost skipped it but the description had it as a famous match so I tried it. So happy I did. First and foremost, an amazing crowd. The Can-Ams (who I didn't know much about) absolutely bring it. A must-watch.

Can Am Express? Is that Furnas and LaFon?

Well If Antidan liked them in that match, he needs to scroll up a few posts and watch the match that both me and you posted. That was a great match

I will get to it eventually, I am working through the AJPW archive in chronological order. In late 1989 right now.

I just realized that match happened the same day as Jumbo vs. Tenryu (6/5). No comment on that amazing match? Jumbo was so so good. In the upcoming 6-mans he always brought the fire. Too bad his career got cut short by cancer in late 1992.

Also, I have no recollection of this:
What the ****? I realize TMNT were huge in those days but jfc

Obviously great match, but I did say I'm not going to post every great one I see in this thread. I'd be posting something from those archives on a near-daily basis.

Also, it was one of those matches that underwhelmed me just a little because I had read the testimonial and I think got overhyped for it. I wish I hadn't read the testimonial. It's clearly a great match.

I got lost in the world of YouTube and found this theme again. It's from New Beginning in Osaka (2014). I do believe this is the only time he used this version of his theme. imo The Golden Boy would benefit a little bit from the minute long intro before the pin drop to his music. It's so so good.

Audio:


The entrance (complete with sword and dinosaur):


How has this not been his music ever since?

Two must-see additions as I keep (slowly) working through the AJPW archives (theditch.biz):

Tsuruta vs. Misawa, 6/8/90
Historical because of a bit of a changing of the guard.


Kawada vs. Kobashi, 6/30/90
The future of the company. This is amazing considering the length of time each has been wrestling (2-3 years for Kawada, 1-2 for Kobashi)

Tsuruta vs. Misawa - . This match may be the match that I've watched the most times in my life. I've seen it easily 30 times. Misawa being the young gun going after the top guy and slapping Jumbo was one of the best things I've ever seen....and then he did it again!

Hope you enjoyed the 5/26/90 6-man. The tension between those two is palpable. 10/19/90 is possibly the best of the lot of 6-mans on the ditch's list.

I'll have to check out that Kawada/Kobashi match. I've never seen that one.

The 6-man was great and set the stage for the singles match beautifully.

This is an episode of Championship Wrestling from Florida which aired on February 8, 1972. The show has just one match- Dory Funk Jr defending the NWA World Title vs. Jack Brisco. It's edited for the broadcast and has after-the-fact studio commentary by Gordon Solie and Brisco.

Funk Jr. had been champion for about two years (and would hold the title for two more years). Brisco would eventually succeed him (with Harley Race as an intermediary champion) and hold the title about 2 1/2 years.

I've heard Funk Jr. and Brisco called the "Ric Flair and Ricky Steamboat" of their day"- meaning they put on the best technical matches of the time.


Dory Funk Jr. (champion) vs. Jack Brisco

I've never seen this match

It's good but nothing worth really finding time for.

I must have been distracted while watching that match - I know I had a bunch of friends over - but somehow it didn't actually strike me as a screwy finish as I watched it live, and nobody else at my party mentioned it either. It wasn't until everyone went home and I jumped on the internet that I saw the story of it being a screwjob blowing up, and nobody really knew for sure that it was a shoot until the nWo strolled out on Nitro the following night waving Canadian flags.

That's interesting that it didn't strike you as off when watching live, since the bell rang as Bret was actively countering the hold.

Yeah it's bizarre, I obviously wasn't paying much attention for some reason since there was weirdness all over the place and then they rushed off the air. I can be terribly unattentive at times.

I knew about the news that Bret was WCW-bound, so I wasn't surprised by Michaels winning, which I think may have caused me to just look past a lot too. Also, to that point a shoot double-cross seemed like such a far-fetched thing that I'm not sure it would have entered my mind; I was basically disinclined to believe shoots ever really happened in general, let alone huge ones like that. Obviously had no idea about that Wendy Richter thing before my watching days.

Misawa vs. Gordy, June 1, 1991. i respect Gordy but have never been a huge fan of his. This, however, is a fantastic effort. Guessing most have not seen this. You should.