just found the wrestling forum, looking forward to this.

not a fan of any of the new stuff. but i watched that 1000th episode of raw (used to watch every mon night for first 7ish years of raw) and it got me to go back to my childhood and watch old ppvs.

been sick the past few days and watched a bunch of stuff. a few matches stand out though.

kevin sullivan vs chris benoit (no, not ____ or any other ****) falls count anywhere from GAB 96: match infamous for going into the mens bathroom. when this match happened and i was 15 i thought it was the best thing ever. now i think this match is total garbage. sullivan at this point was in probably the worst 5 workers. def. not recommended but it is short (that's what she said).

benoit vs eddie on 10/16/95 edition of nitro: benoit's debut match in wcw (not counting his 92 tag match). as you can expect with these two, it is tremendous and a highly recommended match. 8-9 minutes of good wrestling with a good story throughout despite the short time.

anderson/zbyszko vs dustin rhodes/steamboat on 11/19/91 cotc event: voted second best tag match ever in wcw by another wrestling forum and for good reason. pretty standard and by the book tag match but it's standard because it works especially with these four guys. highly recommended.

benoit vs angle in a cage from 6/11/01 raw: without a doubt one of the best cage matches ever.

jumbo tsuruta vs genechiro tenryu on 6/5/89: for god's sake if you haven't seen this do yourself a favor and go watch it. this match turned the corner for wrestling as we know it today. yes lkj it's in japanese but it features one of the hottest crowds and hottest action (esp from heavyweights) you'll ever see. it would be a sure MOTY if it happened today which is incredible. for one mans thoughts on this go here and perhaps you'll want to watch it.

Please dub your own commentary over it.

watched wrestlemania 6 this weekend, it was in the skydome in toronto, and maybe the worst crowd i've ever seen in one of the major 4s.

WrestleMania V had a pretty hideous crowd too. Worse than WM IV, but both were bad. Trump Plaza was a brutal wrestling venue. I think too high a percentage of the crowd weren't really wrestling fans.

ya i think the huge events at that time were attracting some fringe/casual fans who only came to see the hogans, macho's, warriors. they seem to erupt when those guys entrance music starts to play, which is cool, but for the rest of the matches they're really quiet and it takes away from the product.

i also watched hbk/bret hart rivalry on netflix last night and it was awesome. i never knew about the montreal story (even tho i was watching wrestling at the time) and how it affected their personal and professional relationship. overall it was just a great watch, i couldnt turn it off.

i started the stone cold documentary right after (about 3/5ths thru it now) i think i like him more now, than i did as a young teenager, and i was basically mancrushing then.

Watching Shingo Vs Yokosuka from Dragon Gate:UK Invasion 3. Cracker of a match live, and the atmosphere comes across on the DVD, making it a Dragon Gate classic! Mega-hyped for February's tour now as DG is easily the top company going in terms of entertainment.

Okada Vs Naito from June for the IWGP Heavyweight Title, MOTYC for this year, with a huge chance of winning MOTY. 30 minutes of thrilling storytelling with a great finishing 5 minutes at a perfect pace. Crazy to think Okada was being wasted by TNA 15 months ago!

that match got 6* from Meltzer. Okada vs Tanahashi from 6/16 and that triple threat ladder match i had posted are probably the 3 most talked about matches so far this year. HHH vs UT is up there to but good gawd that match sucked.

Takayama vs KENTA - 6-27-04: ***1/2. Very fun to watch but was nothing more than a competitive squash match.
Takayama vs KENTA - 1-15-11: ****1/2. Very very good match. You can't ask for much more out of these two. Nearly the full five for this. Needed a title on the line, better finish, better crowd to get the 5* vibe.

These are really fun to watch when you see 04 and then flip right to the '11 match imo. Takayama puts on a better performance in the '11 match despite slowing down a whole helluva lot after having a stroke in august of 04.

Obv brain fart on my part, Tanahashi Vs Okada is what I meant. NJPW are going through a good period right now since the takeover at the start of the year, once they get the Jnr title back on Devitt and set up his feud with Taguchi, if the Heavyweights are still rocking, their iPPV business will be huge. 25k viewers with no international access and no promotion offline was crazy!

Will report back with my views on Takayama vs KENTA - 1-15-11.

NJPW has been ready to blow up for a while with what is easily the best roster in the world. It's a shame their was no access to their stuff for a few months but since they've started releasing again it's been top notch stuff.

I got into NJPW last year when they had the G-1 tourney and watched every single day. Disappointing only 3 days were recorded this year. It's such a fantastic tourney.

Ya, they've got a great blend in the roster of the experienced guys like Devitt working with the youngers guys in the Jnrs like Taguchi (who's now elevated himself in the last 2 years), and the Hvys have a handfull of legitimate main eventers who could carry the title and have MOTYCs, mix in the way that they know how to get talent over (see Karl Anderson at G1 this year) and the future is bright for NJPW, NOAH while they still put out some good stuff are still struggling from the Yakuza deal, and will take some time to recover.

IF only the top Puro companies like DG, NJPW, Zero1 etc put out their stuff online (TV for free, PPV via iPPV), they'd blow the business back open, but while international fans are relying on imported DVDs going to dodgy sites like GainjinPuro (IIRC), we're screwed. But this is another conversation for another thread (The Indy/Puro Thread). I might take it over there.

Watched the 2011 Takayama Vs KENTA match, nothing special to me. But I can chalk it down to my dislike of Takayama, he's not what I look for in a star in Japan, when he had that stroke his mobility was bad enough, but since, he's clearly just a pity card to me. Good match, but not 4 snowflakes.

Watching Okada Vs Naito again since I botched and mentioned it. Loooooove it.

Gonna watch Okada/Tanahashi from June since you mentioned it. The whole show has gotten great reviews so will probably watch that then watch the under card.

I love Big Tak since there's really not many monsters around anymore. His older matches (01 and 02 matches vs misawa, 04 match vs kobashi, among many others) are refreshing change for me when the last 20 matches I've watched at any given time have had either Hansen, Kawada, or Misawa in them but I think he should just hang it up now.

TBH, the problem for me is that I can't take him seriously as I now associate him with his comedy role in Dragon Gate where he feuded (sort of) with Stalker Ichikawa for the Owari Gate Title. Although I'd pay to see Don Fuji Vs Takayama in a slugfest.

Seemingly there is a 10 and a half hour video on YouTube of Kobashi's Triple Crown history. I might watch that to sleep tonight.

Edit - Funnily enough the 15th and final match is against...Takayama.

Double Edit - Here it is - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=emYq...eature=related

had never seen that takayama/stalker stuff. i don't keep up with DG for the most part. i do seek out stuff from bxb hulk though.

holy crap. thanks for that, i'll get around to that periodically.

that tanahashi/okada match was incredible. i thought tana was gonna win with the HFF after he hit it to the back but to my shock okada wouldn't let that happen. tana constantly going back to the leg trying to get the advantage again was awesome and the realistic way they did the tombstone spot was A++. has to be the best performance i've seen tana put on which is really saying something since every defense last year was 4*+ (perhaps only exception is vs Yano which is the only one i didnt care to watch). gonna have to rewatch naito/okada but my feeling is this blows that out of the water.

I preferred Naito/Okada due to the fan reactions (largely due to it being in the Korakuen Hall) as it built it up more, but I say this, and I'll re-watch Tana/Okada tomorrow and say I prefer that. Two great matches, hard to put one much higher than the other.

I've also decided I'm getting an Okada haircut later this month too. King of a man in the King of Sports.

Watched Naito/Okada again and it's better than I had remembered it. Not gonna bother saying whether it's better than Tana/Okada till I give that another watch in a month or so to see if it's still as good as I think it is after one watch.

Nagata vs Tanahashi - 4/15/05. Interesting match. The ending of this is quite odd esp in 2000's puro. Badass Nagata was out to kill the rising Tanahashi. Not sure what I'd rate it but I'd recommend it...it's just interesting the way it plays out.

Seikimoto vs Suwama - 2/1/12: watched because somebody put it as his #6 moty. this was one of the most boring matches i've ever watched. i haven't seen much of either guy but enjoyed little of seen of them. this was just terrible.

Not a match but just finished ECW WrestlePalooza 97. This was a great card. Had some solid under card matches with Chris Chetti vs Shane, Pitbulls vs FBI. Had a passable world title match with Funk (c) vs Candido. Then it got into the meat of the event with Raven vs Dreamer in their final encounter (Raven was leaving to WCW) in a wild all out brawl with an incredible finishing 5 minutes. What happened after the match has to be considered one of the best post match angles of all time. Tazz vs Sabu which was an lol botchfest but still exciting enough with another awesome post match angle. Finally the main event featured the Dudleys challenging the Eliminators for the tag title by virtue of defeating Sandman and Balls Mahoney earlier in the card. Fine for what it was because Saturn was injured and it was mostly a 3-on-1 match but the ending is quite good.

post match of Raven/Dreamer

/walloftext

watching wrestlemania viii, final match hogan v sid justice. after seeing this ppv like 5x as a kid, i just noticed it was the texas tornado dressed up as the ultimate warrior.

oh ffs just read that the texas tornado shot himself.

Just watched a bit of HHH/Taker from KOTR 2002 to try and put myself to sleep. It worked.

You're asleep?

anyone remember a 30 man battle royal that razor ramon and rick martel ended up being the final 2 left? if so, is there a link to watch it?