NintendoLogic

Randy Orton: How dare Soulja Boy call WWE fake Also Randy Orton:

He's actually said the exact opposite. He says he's given high ratings to matches he personally hated, the Taker/Foley HIAC and the Omega/Moxley lights out match being perhaps the most prominent examples.

For a complete change of pace, here's Kobashi working a thoroughly Americanized title match and bloodying up that weasel Ogawa. My second-favorite GHC title match behind Kobashi/Takayama.

The only renaming I want to see is for Worst Match of the Year to be renamed the Bray Wyatt Award.

This match is a prime example of what I'm talking about. When Neidhart is the legal man, he supplies nothing but generic big man offense. And it's not like he does anything special on the apron. In fact, there are a couple of spots that look like clear setups for him to interfere, but he either runs in late or doesn't run it at all because he's asleep at the switch. It forces Bret to practically wrestle for two. This is actually one of my favorite matches of all time, so it being so awesome despite Anvil's contributions (or lack thereof) is a testament to how great Bret was even then. I will grant that Neidhart turns in a much better performance in the Killer Bees match (another one of my all-time favorites).

I mean, you can buy used schoolgirls' panties from vending machines in Japan. So probably not. Anyway, I've seen my fair share of Hart Foundation matches and rank a few of them among my favorite matches of all time, and I consider the idea that Neidhart contributed at least much to the team as Bret to be thoroughly worthy of derision. More often than not, he was either actively detracting from matches or clearly being hidden so he wouldn't drag things down too much.

6/9/95 as 1995 MOTY is probably the closest thing to a universal consensus as exists among serious wrestling fans. But just as somebody had to face the 1927 Yankees in the World Series and the 1985 Bears in the Super Bowl, somebody has to challenge it for the throne. And there are plenty of matches from 1995 that would be strong contenders in most years. For example, the you have the best singles match of Taue's career: The second-best Misawa/Kawada Triple Crown match: Outside of All Japan, you have my pick for the best title match in the history of the WWWA red belt. I think that last match in particular would be right up the SC crew's alley. It's almost like a joshi version of Battlarts.

Here's what I wrote about the All Japan tag a few months ago: "The story here is Ogawa’s attempt to prove he can hang with the big boys. He makes no pretense of being able to go toe-to-toe with Kobashi and Akiyama. Instead, his gameplan is centered around baiting them into making mistakes so he can catch them with one of his trademark sneaky flash pins. He’s also not above going for his opponent’s eyes. And if all else fails, he has Misawa as the ultimate insurance policy. I love the Misawa/Ogawa pairing because they basically work like an American heel tag team. One sequence in particular is a textbook example of high-end American-style heel work. Akiyama tries to fight his way out of the corner, but Ogawa cuts him off with an eye rake. Misawa then stomps on him from the apron while the referee is admonishing Ogawa. That’s in addition to all their kickass Midnight Express-esque double-team offense. I guess they figured that Misawa being such an icon and Ogawa such a natural underdog gave them carte blanche to heel it up. With all that said, this absolutely did not need to go 30 minutes. With the story they were going for, 20 would have more than sufficed. I also thought the closing stretch was a bit too competitive. But the crowd popped huge for all of Ogawa’s rollups, so what do I know?" I would add that I thought Kobashi did a great job as a Fuchi-esque dungeon master. I especially loved his abdominal stretch on Ogawa. This is only my third-favorite Burning tag of 1999, but it's still a worthy selection. With Phil as a gatekeeper, though, most All Japan matches are going to be fighting an uphill battle.

If you like Austin in 2001 and can bring yourself to watch Benoit matches, Austin/HHH vs. Jericho/Benoit (aka the torn quad match) is even better. I revisited it recently as part of my rewatching project, and it definitely holds up as one of the top handful of tag matches in company history as well as almost certainly being the greatest match in Raw history. And I'll reiterate my Angle/Austin suggestion.

I just rewatched the end to see if I missed something, but I didn't pick up on anything like you were referring to. Murakami does apply a sleeper after Kantaro Hoshino distracts Nagata on the apron, but Nagata breaks it by going after Murakami's legs. And shortly afterward, Murakami throws punches with his injured arm with no apparent difficulty. The end comes when Nagata counters a judo-style takedown with a German suplex and finishes Murakami off with exploders.

I decided to rewatch Nagata/Murakami due to gordi's comments because I had no recollection of it being a body part psychology match at all. Upon rewatching, I'm still not quite sure what he's referring to. Nagata does work over Murakami's arm a bit, but it's a pretty minor part of the match and it doesn't play into the finish. Perhaps we're thinking of different matches? Regardless, even though it wouldn't be my pick (I'd go with Misawa/Takayama in what was a pretty weak year overall), I wouldn't argue against someone else picking it. It's the kind of match that sticks with you because it's so unique.

@EricR, Nagata/Murakami is on Youtube, but it's an unlisted video. I'll PM you the link.

I saw a cute little dog almost get run over today. My dog and I were coming back from a walk, and the folks in the house at the intersection of the street I live on had their dogs (two papillons and a mutt of some kind) in their front yard. Right when were about to turn the corner to head home, two yorkie-type dogs came running out the door of a house on the other side of the intersection and ran over to greet the papillons. The lady who owned them came over to retrieve them and was able to grab one of them, but the other one kept running away from her. It then started running back to its house right when a car was coming down the cross street. Thankfully, the car was able to stop just in time, because my day would have been pretty well ruined otherwise.

Let me put it this way: Kudo vs. Toyoda is the greatest match I never want to see again.

Looks like Cornette's career just went up like the Challenger.