I totally forgot this match until now. I just loved the atmosphere and crowd when too cool would be in the ring. It was just a whole different era but they were over with the crowd so much.

Interesting that Scotty too hotty mentioned they were never really guys who hung out, travelled together or spoke out of the ring but in the ring it was always just pure magic. That is what it's all about, creating that magic.

Here's the Road Warriors' All-Japan Pro Wrestling debut vignette from 1985.

That was fantastic. It started off with a Superman 2 type feel and only improved from there

Not a match, but stumbled into this bit of youtube awesomeness ...



I still think young Scott Steiner is the best we've ever seen to never wear a (singles) world title ... although with good reason as by most accounts he was bat-**** crazy.

(I'm out of my AJPW archive marathon for the moment.)

Scott Steiner was WCW Champion. He jobbed the world title away to Booker T on the last Nitro.

I did not remember that. And for good reason. By that time WCW didn't exist to me.

(Plus, I completely block out the whole Big Poppa Pump era.)

The birth of a rattlesnake

Teach me how to do this.

My God I hated that character.

I had never seen this 1994 Triple Crown title match, although I knew going in who won because there's another title match shortly after this one that I've seen a bunch. This isn't "blow me away" stuff but it's still very, very good.

Enjoyed this quite a bit. An early match from All Japan Champions Carnival 1995. Akiyama makes a great "young up-and-comer underdog" and Kawada is, well, Kawada.

Kawada makes a great pissed off veteran ready to kick heads off .

This match is also just before what I consider the GMOAT on 6/9/95 so Kawada's focused and ready to murder.

You know what dream match I'd love to see? Kawada-Ishii. That would be all kinds of fun.

I now want to make a dream card with NJPW/AJPW 80's/90's and NJPW/AJPW from 2000's . I think this card will come to fruition after some sleep.

I've never been a huge fan of Misawa (least favorite of the 4) but I think him vs. Tanahashi would be amazing. But let's be honest, Misawa vs. any great NJPW guy would be. vs. Shibata? THE ELBOWS!

My dream opponent for Tanahashi is ...

Fixed.

But yeah, prime Eddie would be 1997, right? That would be pretty good but I think 2004 Eddie might be slightly better. Hard to really say when Eddie's prime was. He was constantly amazing with noteworthy matches/angles.

edit: took me at least 5 minutes to realize they have the same finisher. that'd be intriguing as well.

1990s AJPW vs. 2010s NJPW is tough to really match up, a lot of those AJPW mainstays (including the gaijin) were big heavyweights, whereas the modern NJPW guys (including most of the gaijin) are notably smaller. Tsuruta, Kobashi, Taue, Hansen and Williams are hard to find matchups for that are really appealing (not to say that you can't make great matchups for them).

I also struggle with Taue in particular because he's not my favorite and he's pretty unique. Maybe Taue Miracle Run 95 (which I'm just getting to) will help me appreciate him more. The early-90s Taue/Kawada feud was sweet, so I will give him that.

I would go with 2003-04 Eddie.

Plz for a trip report with the Carnival Finals? One of my favorite matches of all-time. In my top 20 for 90's AJPW for sure. Possibly top 10 or 5. It's impossible for me to come up with a reasonable list because I enjoy everything from that time.

I was putting together a list to do something with tomorrow:
80s/90s:
Misawa
Kawada
Taue
Kobashi
Jumbo
Stan Hansen
Can-Ams
Jun Akiyama
Terry Gordy
Steve Williams
Vader
Benoit
Liger
Eddie
Shinjiro Otani
Fuchi

2000s:
The Young Bucks
Shibata
Okada
Tanahashi
KUSHIDA
MiSu
Omega
Ishii
Naito
Nagata
Kojima
Tenzan
AJ Styles
Nakamura
Goto
Prince Devitt
Bad Intentions (Albert/Anderson)
Ibushi
Takayama

Mostly put on guys that were full time which is why I left off Andre from the 80's. The only guy who could be considered not full time here is Ibushi and I think he's had a big enough impact to warrant a spot.

edit: most of that 2000s list is just 2010-current (what I've seen) and that's an amazing list of people who have passed through NJPW.

I'll try to remember to post my thoughts on the final.

Gotta put Takayama against one of the 80s/90s gaijin brutes for sure.

I think my main event would actually be a "battle of the eras" tag ... Misawa-Kobashi vs. Tanahashi-Okada.

Benoit-Omega for sure. Jesus that would be insane.

And I'm sure it's happened before, but Nagata-Akiyama is tasty.

Takayama vs. Hansen for sure.

Really 2000 Takayama vs 83 Andre would be a site to behold.

Ditto. Misawa/Kobashi would just beat the **** out of them.

I tried to do the card earlier this afternoon. It proved to be very difficult since the styles really don't seem to mesh to well together outside of the top 4-6 guys in AJPW. I don't buy NJPW's guys having a shot at beating guys like Jumbo, Kobashi, etc.. Even putting Williams/Gordy against a team wouldn't work because NJPW's tag scene has been lackluster since Chono/Sasaki were champs in ~01. Though I do have some dream matches but I wanted to make a card .

They had a match in NOAH in 03. I've seen that before and it's pretty good.

Holy Demon Army (Kawada and Taue) vs. Misawa and Akiyama for the AJPW tag championship, May 23, 1996. After a bit of a break, I resumed my trip through the AJPW archives and this match was great. The feeling-out process lasts about half a minute, and Akiyama (Exploder) and Misawa (Tiger Driver) hit big moves on Taue in the opening minutes. Akiyama (huge underdog) is especially aggressive early (Taue looks at him like, "WTF???" at one point), and when the tables turn mid-match, Taue and Kawada absolutely BLAST him. There's a 5-6 minute stretch that's just "good" as opposed to "insane" before Kawada hits a Pele kick (what?) and Akiyama's left clinging for his life again. I also love Misawa's spinning plancha on Taue (easy to miss, it's on the far side of the ring while Akiyama lies in a heap). That's about the time Kawada starts selling an ankle/foot injury that might have been real (I have no idea but it sure seemed legit) and Akiyama is all over it (which makes it more likely to be a work, actually). The finish is incredible, more because of the story behind it than the actual moves/sequence involved. Enjoy.

My slow grind through the AJPW archive continues. Here, Kenta Kobashi wins the Triple Crown for the first time.