EricR

I appreciate you going back and watching the match again, even if we disagree. While it did seem like there were moments where Eddie looked in genuine pain (it was crazy how much size he was carrying around at this point), I still thought he really turned in a great performance in a not great match.

They really need to stop having heel vs. heel matches. Crowd had no idea who was the good guy in Maverick vs. Hurtz. Still, enjoying this. Also I don't really notice ring announcers much unless they're especially bad, like monotone Torrie Wilson bad. I don't know if I could name a "favorite" ring announcer, for some reason just something I think about a lot in my wrestling production. (This is to explain an earlier comment left on my episode 2 review). I hadn't liked Shaul's growly read of "New Orleans" but honestly hadn't noticed her announcing before that. Outside of Finkel I'm not sure who is even considered an all time great or all time terrible ring announcer. https://segundacaida.blogspot.com/2019/02/wow-women-of-wrestling-2119.html

I disagree re: Eddie during that final run. I think using that ECW match to somehow say he wasn't up to performing is really disingenuous or misleading. The fans were getting obnoxiously into the role of asshole ECW fans, as WWE foolishly had Eric Bischoff come out into the crowd with a bunch of RAW wrestlers right before this match, so everyone in attendance is being kewl and chanting shitty Lita chants at Edge while the RAW wrestlers taunted back. Eddie looked awesome in the match, he did everything he could to try to get their attention back, but fans were too excited to be a part of an angle. Eddie looked pissed the entire match, which is pretty understandable considering a minimum of 2/3 of the fans were focused on the balcony the entire match. Go back and watch the match. Due to the circumstances it's not a great match, but Eddie looked awesome.

That tag match is spectacular. I loved it so much I watched it again right after watching it the first time. Rey/Eddie was sooooo good. I saw the match a month earlier at the Cow Palace, this is the only time I've seen anything from that run since seeing it live.

I'm really, really enjoying WOW. It's bringing back a bunch of fond memories of college years, although I wish it were more campy like the original. But it's nuts how many little things they're doing right so far. https://segundacaida.blogspot.com/2019/01/wow-women-of-wrestling-12519.html

I like most TakeOver's and this was no different. I loved Riddle/Ohno, totally delivered everything I wanted to. The tag was awesome, and Hanson was a guy who was always underwhelming to me, but he's really put everything together the past year. He's better every time I see him. really dug Baszler/Belair too. The other two matches weren't always my thing but were executed well for their thing. I had a blast the whole show. https://segundacaida.blogspot.com/2019/01/nxt-takeover-phoenix-12619.html

He wasn't really a guy making AJPW Comm tapes in the 90s, outside of the infamous Honda/Izu vs. Hayabusa/Shinzaki match where Shinzaki gets busted open and bleeds everywhere. So there wasn't a ton of Honda to judge by until he got to NOAH. And once he started getting more viewed matches in 2001 he looked really good. I've seen a decent amount of his mid 90s stuff and he was still raw and hadn't developed some of his best 2000-2005 traits, but I bet if I had access to and watched any '96-'99 Honda out there that it would come off really favorably. A ton of those AJPW undercarders age really well. Seriously, go back and look at how much better IZU was than anyone remembers.

There was Berzerker/Papa Shango vs. Taker/Ultimate Warrior (but Berzerker mostly pairs off with Warrior, and it's great), and Flair/Berzerker vs. Taker/Savage (which I also remember having mostly Flair/Taker pairings). BUT, I'm pretty sure there is a Berzerker/Taker match on an Undertaker Coliseum Video. I have the tape, haven't watched it, so it could just be the awesome sword match that set up their house show run. I've kind of been saving it as I like knowing there's potentially a Berzerker match on this VHS that I haven't seen, and that VHS is just staring at me, right next to my TV. It's weirdly more exciting to me not knowing what match COULD be on that tape. Maybe I'll wait to watch that tape when I turn 40 (24 months away!) so if it turns out to be the Superstars match, it won't be as disappointing because I will have already spent the day confronting my own journey closer towards death.

I have too many fond memories of watching the original WOW in my gf's basement apartment and being excited all week for it. Times have changed a lot since then, but I still really liked this episode of WOW I watched on Friday night. https://segundacaida.blogspot.com/2019/01/wow-women-of-wrestling-11819.html

You couldn't possibly be calling us ageist. There are so many elderly men that we feverishly champion.

This week we have Gypsy Joe clonking heads with Ashura Hara, Matt calling out 20-year deceased footage-absent legend Ray Stevens (and just wait for a future post for his thoughts on The Streak and Gitarzan), and a go go go Stampede 8 man featuring a fantastic babyface performance from British wrestler Chic Cullen, and really one of the longer looks at Stampede main event format that we've seen. https://segundacaida.blogspot.com/2019/01/new-footage-fridays-gypsy-joe-hara.html

Nice grab bag this week, with a great 70s tag with prime Ernie Ladd and Beatlemania popularity Dick the Bruiser, Lawler and Rude throwing 50 or so perfect punches, and one of the worst matches we've ever reviewed/best on paper matches we've ever seen: a USWA vs. SMW 10 man with PG-13, Smothers, Tommy Rich, Koko B. Ware....and it's awful. So you need to watch it. I wrote 900 words on it, and it's awful. https://segundacaida.blogspot.com/2019/01/new-footage-fridays-lawler-rude-pg-13.html

Well we kinda forgot about this challenge but remembered before the new year, and it's a late year treat. This is arguably Mick Foley's best performance of the last decade of his career, and I don't even know if there's a better Kevin Nash performance out there (but would love to find out if there is). It did not beat the FUTEN tag, champ retains, but this was a much closer fight than I think either of us would have ever thought going into it. It's a 10 minute match, and it should be watched by everyone. https://segundacaida.blogspot.com/2018/12/all-time-moty-list-head-to-head-futen.html

This week we go to some different corners wrestling world with a weird fun long lucha trios from late 70s LA, a wonderful 90s Jersey indy snapshot with Funk/Abby, and whatever some tag with Dusty, Dibiase, JYD, and Matt Borne. https://segundacaida.blogspot.com/2018/12/new-footage-friday-funk-abby-big-ms.html

That Dynamite Kid kneedrop is literally the greatest kneedrop ever executed in wrestling history. It's impossible to make that move look more violent than that without caving in an eye socket. The match ended with a roll up.

Disappointed in the results as Meiko/Ripley was the match I wanted to see more than any other by the time this was over, but even without checking spoiler results I had a hunch that was not the direction they were going. Shirai was a major letdown the entire tourney, but Ripley came off awesome, just looking stronger and better every match. Problem is Ripley came of like such a monster that it looked a little silly to see her flying around for light elbows and a love tap 619. Still, 4 Meiko matches and 4 Ripley matches, and I still liked the overall presentation of everything, so can't be too mad. https://segundacaida.blogspot.com/2018/10/mae-young-classic-2018-episode-8.html

It's a nice looking moonsault even if it doesn't hit? That logic makes little sense to me. I have a nice looking microwave that stopped working. It's not presently doing me a lot of good. https://segundacaida.blogspot.com/2018/10/mae-young-classic-season-2-episode-7.html I liked this episode, although I thought Shirai looked mostly bad. Ripley and Nox made the best possible lemonade out of their lemons, have tons of respect for Nox for going as long as she did, and was hugely impressed with Ripley not missing a beat after Nox got hurt. I wish we got more Meiko/Lane as with just a couple more minutes that could have been yet another great Meiko tourney match (as it was I still dug it).

This week we have ANOTHER spectacular Killer Karl Kox match from 1981 AJPW, Bob Roop vs. Mr. Wrestling II from the recent WWE Network Omni upload, and Dream Machine working Jumbo (I didn't even know Dream Machine worked Japan). PLUS, TomK follows up his surprise ROH Road Report from earlier this week with a pop in appearance on a couple of the matches. https://segundacaida.blogspot.com/2018/10/new-footage-fridays-kkk-harley-baba.html

I fell a week behind, but I thought Kaitlyn/Yim was easily the best non-Meiko match in the tournament so far. I really liked all of it, loved Yim punching the mat and was shocked at how vicious Kaitlyn looked going after the hand. After that first Yim match where the announcers talked non-stop about her hand injury while Yim didn't pay any mind to it, it was nice to see some major focus. But the whole match was really cool, felt like the layout a lot different than the rest of the tournament. I wasn't expecting to want to see more Kaitlyn when this started, but I was bummed when she was eliminated. https://segundacaida.blogspot.com/2018/10/mae-young-classic-2018-episode-6.html

WWE weirdly aimed to surprise with their releases this week, coming out of nowhere with Danny Hodge clips and dancin' babyface Karl Gotch, as well as give Phil flashbacks to all the Dibiase matches he watched for the Mid-South set. Bullet Karl Gotch

Episode 5 So that was the best women's match in WWE history, right? What a killer match. The episode as a whole was good, even though Storm/Matsumoto underdelivered.

Agree that for someone who is 19, Xia seems to already look really comfortable in the ring.

This is some of my favorite writing we've done this year, with a 2010 match featuring a class Jerry Lawler performance, teaming with Beau James and Dutch Mantel against a still great Jimmy & Eddie Golden (available on Beau James new streaming site), and two rare early 80s All Japan with Bobby Heenan teaming with Larry Z, and a glorious 2/3 falls tag with Killer Karl Kox & Dick Murdoch taking on Jumbo & Giant Baba. It's my favorite match of the year, a fantastic performance from all 4 guys, something we really need to circulate. Killer Karl Kox and Friends

Episode 4 Another only decent episode. First round had a lot of good individual performances but not a lot of very good matches. Evers/Matsumoto was the best non-Meiko match of the first round, made me want to see a lot more Evers. This is my first time seeing Elaban and I cannot remember the last time I was this turned off by a try hard phony personality. That "I'm SUCH a clumsy NERD!~" thing made me want to see Conti snap her arm. Also, I believe they said that this was Robbie Brookside's first time seeing his daughter wrestle (I assume live). But does that strike anyone else as strange? If I was someone who had been involved in wrestling for 30+ years, I think i'd find a way to see her wrestle some time over the 3 years she's been wrestling. I can't imagine a former MLB pitcher, still involved in coaching, been in the game for 30 years, not seeing his son pitch until he was debuting in the majors.

Epiode 3 I thought that Kay/Yim match was pretty bad. It felt like they were doing a random collection of moments they pulled from other matches. No flow, some lazy execution, and that weird hand story that nobody would shut up about. That's what made the whole thing feel like a "best of modern indy wrestling" impression, spots like that. "It looks cool when someone chops the ringpost!" So they do it, and all three announcers keep talking about it (even after the match!) and Yim forgot about it seconds after it happened. First time seeing Jinny, thought she really impressed and I'd be much more interested in seeing her throughout the tournament than Storm. But I have a feeling I'm getting a LOT more Storm. Ki/Q was really fun, great use of 4 minutes. Kaitlyn looked better than I expected, considering she spent many years not wrestling.