I Think We Should Split Up

La Parka/Psicosis/Villano IV v Juventud Guerrera/Hector Garza/Lizmark Jr. (WCW 13/7/97)
--Thought this might be nothing more than a pile of moves (which admittedly I probably wouldn't have had a problem with), but I thought the little sub-stories involved were good. Started with Psicosis trying to get the upperhand on Lizmark but being foiled every time, and that kind of thing only lasted like 90 seconds, but it's kind of thing I can get into for that short time. Garza comes in to get Psicosis and Villano gets in and just cleans everyone and starts punishing Garza. Didn't think that would last long since I expected a whole lotta tecnico domination, and I was right. I could tell they going to win and control most of the match, but if knowing who wins is going to bother me in a match I wouldn't enjoy 75% of the stuff I watch. Just enjoyin' the ride. A fair bit of this felt a little choreographed, but I kind of got the impression if it was a Mexican crowd with Mexican commentary and shitty VQ I wouldn't have criticized it, so I won't. And actaully i thought some of the "you know this is coming" shit was really good. I knew Psicosis was going to miss that bump (love his bumps, btw), I knew Sonny Onno was going to accidentaly hit La Parka, I knew everyone was going to miss the top rope splashes after the second person, but it's all great. Didn't like the spinning top rope-to-the-outside-jump-on-everybody spot though, reminds me of Money in the Bank ladder stuff. Thought the rudos might have actually had a chance at winning after Villano V came out, which was a nice cherry on a tasty lil' sundae. Won't be surprised if this is somewhere from 90-100, and at the same time I won't be at all upset if it fell off completely. honestly when it comes to lucha in WCW I can be a guy who says sarcastically "lucha libre is short matches on Nitro", but this isn't actually at all far off from what AAA would be doing, and about as good an example of lucha libre in the US that I can think of.

Eddy Guerrero v Chris Benoit (WCW 20/10/97)
--I love how Guerrero comes to ring all mopy and curve-mouthed only to be yelling his fucking head off at his opponent when the match goes on. Thought Eddy himself was fantastic here, I mean there's onyl so much you can do in the amount of time they had, but they nailed it and Eddy was the star. It's awesome how he's been eating everything Benoit's got and after actually get into offense he taunts the crowd to make it look like Benoit's recovery was because of wasted time on Guerrero's part instead of Benoit being superman. I really, really doubt Benoit would have put himself off a superman, or anything similar, but in under six minutes to work with there's only so much offense a shitcocky heel shoudl get in whether he's reatining or not. Love how Benoit's chops played a role throughout, like in getting Eddy from the apron to the barricade so he can dive on him. Finish made Guerrero look like a dickhead who could've won without giving Benoit more punishment but he does anyway because he's Cruiserweight Champion and you piece a shit will count his shoulders down. What was the longest match these two had in WCW?

Steve Austin/Brian Pillman v Dos Hombre #1/Dos Hombre #2 (WCW 23/5/93)
--Okay Cage match that I've never really loved. Dos Hombres are apparantly Ricky Steamboat and Shane Douglas, but one of them is injured or something so they put the both of them in masks so the crowd couldn't tell, or something, I'm not sure. Either way it was stupid and I'm calling them both Hombres. So, basic face > heel formula to begin, Austin was the best guy in the match by far I thought, taking bumps intot he cage and yelling offensive slurs all over the place. Hombre #1 "Steamboat" was all right, and Pillman & Hombre #2 just felt kind of "there". There was a spot where Austin had his leg hooked on the top of the cage and Hombre #1 goes for a crossbody and Austin drops (as if he's supposed to avoid it, and drops too late or something so they both fall on each in a big messy heap. Dumb spot anyway. By the offence on Hombre #1, I knew it wasn't Steamboat and he was the one replaced by some guy with the same eyes as him or whatever. Then Steamboat's replacement climbs to the top of the cage to do a crossbody on both Blondes, takes off his mask, and, it IS Steamboat. Shit. So he hits this gigantic crossbody, the refs counts Austin or Pillman or both down for two, and WCW moron on the outside decides it's three and dings the bell. Blah blah blah Austin gets the pin on the guy who's still masked. *******1/2

Steve Austin v Brian Pillman (WCW 10/11/93)
--this was more like it. Nine minutes of two former partners beating and cheating each other to a piss (well Austin was cheating anyway). Crowd weren;t that great but they created a good reaction when Austin would grab the ropes only for the ref to slightly see it, so the ref tells him off and Austin goes "yeah, yeah I got it" "OKAY", and he's got that Texan I-permanently-have-a-carrot-stuck-in-my-throat voice that made him famous. Obviously he grabs the ropes again. First half of the match was the two guys crushing each others backs and stuff on the outside and Pillman trying to manually remove all of Austin's teeth with his fists, and it was awesome. Finish is one of the most bizarre things I've ever seen.

Chris Benoit v Booker T (WCW 14/6/98)
--Booker had a bothered leg that Benoit ignored the whole umpteen minutes of the match. The announcers chalk it down to a few things, Benoit going for the upper body so Booker would be weak as a whole, or Benoit targeting that to hit the crossface. WEll, I don't think he even did hit the crossface. Pretty confusing that I thought Booker might have been better than Benoit here. Benoit wasn;t terrible or anything and maybe he was told NOT to go for the leg b/c Booker was facing Finlay later on and maybe Fit had to go for it, but it kind of bugged me that he didn't even HINT at touching. I won't say this was a bad match at all though, it was pretty damn good. I liked the sub-match story (if that's what you can call it) of Booker wanting to hit his Missile Dropkick and Benoit preventing it at all costs. Benoit using a Full Nelson Suplex was awesome and they played off their previous match with this one being the 8th of the best of 7 series b/c they were tied. They had some count-out stuff, or something. Won't nominate or vote this, even if Benoit did go for the leg (did I mention he didn't?).

Bret Hart v Chris Benoit (WCW 4/10/99)
--At the moment I think I'll have this in my bottom ten and I'm glad it held up okay, but it felt like a bit of a weirdly structered match. What i'm about to write is going to make it sound like I disliked it, which I definitely didn't, but, well, just read on. First batch of minutes were great, I thought, it was a good "technician vs. technician" portion that didn't have any crap that would've been unfitting in a tribute match. I don't necessarily think Hart in his peak is as close to a "technician" as even Benoit was in 2006, but you got to look a little kayfabe to appreciate some things. After the techy stuff was where the match kind of, well I don't want to say took a turn for the worst, but it's where I was a little confused at how it was built. It was basically a match where they each took turns in offence and I liked what they were doing quite a bit, but the shifts of offence were pretty weoird, like the attacks came out of nothing. I'm not being a guy who's sitting with a pad and paper to ananlyse this either, I just noticed that t was a little off. Hart's first segment was perfect, though, target the back to get ready for the Sharpshooter, brilliant. After that though it;d be like Benoit getting in control, Hart getting in control, Benoit getting in control, with no "body" I guess. Then Hart finally goes to lock the Shooter in and it's reversed into a Crossface, which I thought was a little silly considering Benoti went for the Crossface later and Hart turned it into the Shooter. I really thought it should've been done the other way around, with Benoit being on offence, trying to hit the Crossface, and Hart reversing it to make the back-work come 360. When it's said and done this will probably be in my 97 spot or something.

Just Splitting A Post In Two

Owen Hart v The 1-2-3 Kid (WWF 19/6/94)
--Really fun 4 minute sprint but nothing more than that. The opening dropkick looked like it came literallt out of nowhere since the lights were dimed for Waltman's entrance, probably my favourite dropkick. Had some okay stuff after that but half the match seemed like a small bunch of nothing (and half the match was 2 minutes). Owen countering the spinkick into a German was great, though. Finish came pretty much DURING that whole middle part. Wouldn't say this is ***1/2 like I thought it was before, or even close, but it was pretty cool.

Rey Misterio Jr v Jack Swagger (WWE 11/6/10)
--Wow what a great match. I wouldn't with anyone if they called Rey the best seller ever, he can make the most stupid obvious spot look legit and unpredictable. There were few times in this match where that happened, like Swagger *almost* countering Rey's swingy arm drag thing, and not doing it, and the old "make the heel run towards you so you'll pull down the rope for to fall out of the ring" trick. Match started off with Jack trying to cripple Rey in a headlock, which was great, and the 619 being hit early was cool too, it created a "that it? good booking, fuckheads" moment that got killed when Jack got his foot on the rope. Got weary when i saw Jack put Rey on the top rope, I was convinced it was gonna be some dumb spot, but they mad eit awesome. Rey went for headbutts, and Swagger sold it really well, falling on his feet instead of flying to the canvas like an overselling idiot. That set up probably the best top rope german I've ever seen, because, y'know, Swagger actually made it look like he *could* recover from what he got hit by. Best part in the match came after the commercial break, when Swagger had Rey wrppaed around the fucking ring post like a snake. Double 619 spot thingy was pretty nifty. Again, great match, maybe better than Rey/Punk 12/2. One thing that mostly annoys me about current WWE, though, is their fuckign camera amgles. They just HAVE to move the camera up and down whenever someone does a suplex or top rope jump. That's WHACK.

Bret Hart/Jim Neidhart v Shawn Michaels/Marty Jannetty (WWF 25/11/89)
--This really made me want to track down a Neidhart/Michaels match. A small portion of the match was Shawn bumping like a fuck for all of Neidhart's moves and I'd just love to see that for fifteen straight minutes. Loved how this whole match panned out though, there were pretty clear-cut sections of it that went from fast-paced/hot tag/cheating, etc. Favourite part in the match in the match happened near the beginning, where The Rockers were double teaming Bret with crazy tricks & hip locks & arm drags & shit, then Neidhart comes abruptly from the corner of the screen and wipes them both out with a clothesline. Greay visual. He got a good pop for that iirc, but HF eventually turned to the heels of the match (both teams were babyfaces) after they were both using illegal tactics and crowd mocking. They eventually got Michaels grounded in a hot tag too and they were laying it in to him pretty thick. Bret gave him the two most stiff uppercuts I've ever seen him give too, and the third was reversed into a backslide. Time limit running out was (N).

Found a lot more...

Pardon whatever spelling errors there might be..Blush smiley.

Riki Choshu v Shinya Hashimoto (NJPW 2/8/96)
--Just became one of my favourite matches ever, so damn HARD HITTING and STIFF. It had a certain atmosphere like these two were evenly matched or something and they started off with a few collar & elbows tie ups which lasted not a minute before they started belting each other with palms and chops, to say the very least it was great. I was surprised by how much these two took in, seemed like they had made some mutual agreement to not hold anything back at all because from what I remember every hit landed stupidly hard, no thigh-slapping, no dumb stomping, nothing. The lariats near the end were one of my favourite sequences of any match ever, Choshu keeps laying them in to take Hashimoto down, and Hahsimoto wasn't going down after like five of them. When I say "lay them in" I don't mean "they looked awesome" I mean he honest-to-God swung at him and hit him borderline as hard as he could. Finish wasn't long after that; Hashimoto gets ready for the last lariat and yells "CHOSHUUUU" and finally goes down. 1996 match of the year contender.

Tiger Mask v Black Tiger (NJPW 26/5/82)
--Nothing special but as far as Tiger Mask matches go it was good. First few minutes had the usual TM formula where he'd squeeze in as many spinny arm reversals and stuff as possible, and as usual his opponent sells it like a punch to the face. Black Tiger tried working the arm after that and Sayama seemingly shurgged some of it off but still managed to not ignore it and make it look hurtful.Small finishing stretch was neato with Sayama winning with a crooked looking moonsault. If you like Tiger Mask's style a lot then definitely watch this, otherwise it's nothing above "good".

Hulk Hogan v Abdullah the Butcher (NJPW 26/5/82)
--Oh man I liked this a lot. Hogan's been one of my favourites ever since I first watched him, and this is good for an example of how he can put a really good little match together. His execution isn't too sharp but it's satisfying enough. Abdullah, despite looking exhausted after the first five minutes, put a great effort in right down to the awesome post-match brawl. He did his usual routine, poking and jarring Hogan with a spiky foreign object, leaning outside to run his head into the post, etc. then Hogan retaliates by chewing parts of his head so the both of them are bleeding good. Unsurprising double count-out finish aside, I could watch this over and over, I think.

Dick Murdoch v Tatsumi Fujinami (NJPW 6/7/82)
--If Murdoch kicking the flowers given to him into the crowd isn't the best thing I've ever seen, then his grounded shots on Fujinami are. He was laying his knuckles straight into the corner of his forehead, and without trying to sound evil, it was awesome. Fujinami's a guy I can really get into as far as coming back from huge amounts of pain goes and he was tops here as usual. Really well put together match. Little surprised after everything Murdoch had done he got face reactions, though.

Tiger Mask/Kengo Kimura v The Dynamite Kid/Bret Hart (NJPW 16/7/82)
--TM and DKid are a hit and miss to me, and Bret sucks shit in Japan, so I wasn't planning on paying close attention to this at all. I got the basics of it, it looked to be almost a little version of the No Mercy 2002 tag or something (which I'm not a fan of at all), with plenty of big moves and stuff. Didn't look bad or anything but this making the NJPW 80s set over Inoki/Fujinami 8/8/88 is a real head scratcher.

I'll find more as well, you watch. Actually I know for a fact I wrote something on Fujiwara/Choshu from 87, Danielson/Strong Vendetta (which was actually my longest one ever, WarGames 92 is probably bigger, though), and more Santito stuff. I have others from earlier years but I don't plan to post them anytime soon. Another blush smiley.