Pro Wrestling Chronicle

Match # 46: Steve Regal vs. Psicosis (Nitro 12/16/96)

Psicosis is out in a great white costume. Regal is the TV champ. A hot crowd there. Bischoff and Ted Dibiase are doing NWO heel commentary for this one. This is either going to be a complete train wreck or a neat meshing of styles. With Regal I expect a great match. (more…)

We kick off our second half-century of shows with a quick re-cap of last weekend’s Midwest shows. In addition to discussions of the top matches and their implications, we speculate on what might be next for Jimmy Jacobs now that the Age of the Fall is apparently dead.

 

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Match # 45: Chris Benoit vs. Eddie Guerrero (Nitro 11/18/96)

This is break neck speed work from the onset. It’s all really good tight work, but neither guy is at the point where they are given the air time, nor do they have the experience, to fully engage the crowd in all the great stuff they are doing here. They just move from place to place, and while the movement is good, the crowd doesn’t get emotionally involved. I don’t fully commit either, but it is really good action. (more…)

Match # 44: La Parka vs. Juventud Guerrera (Nitro 11/18/96)

The opening to this match is hilarious. Something has happened to Tony Schiavone, so Larry Zybysko is running solo trying to give background on the Lucha stars. It’s like listening to him give his son “the talk”. Priceless. (more…)

Back on April 3rd I finished up my Memphis Diaries participation with my final ballot. You can find my ballot here, or by searching Memphis Diaries on the site.

Well a day or two ago the good people over at the Death Valley Driver Message Board released the final voting, so now for the first time you can see where my ballot put the matches, while finding out where the consensus vote landed. I’m pretty happy with the top ten myself, and thought the right matches were reward. Here’s the DVDVR Memphis 80s Final Results:

BEST OF THE 1980s MEMPHIS – Final Results

1. Jerry Lawler vs. Bill Dundee (Loser Leaves Town) (6/6/83) [EWY-6] = 6966 points
2. Jerry Lawler vs. Bill Dundee (No DQ, Loser Leaves Town) (12/30/85) [EYETIGER-10] = 6901 points
3. Jerry Lawler vs. Terry Funk (No DQ) (3/23/81) [BADNEWS-9] = 6670 points
4. Jerry Lawler vs. Dutch Mantell (Barbed Wire Match) (3/29/82) [BLUESKIES-8] = 6664 points
5. Jerry Lawler vs. Dutch Mantell (No DQ) (3/22/82) [BLUESKIES-6] = 6516 points
6. Jerry Lawler vs. Austin Idol (Hair vs. Hair, Steel Cage Match) (4/27/87) [MEMPTENN-4] = 6434 points
7. Jerry Lawler vs. Bill Dundee (No DQ, Loser Leaves Town) (7/14/86) [EYETIGER-13] = 6313 points
8. Koko Ware vs. Ric Flair (11/18/85) [EYETIGER-9] = 6216 points
9. Jerry Lawler vs. Bam Bam Bigelow (Texas Death) (9/7/86) [MEMPTENN-1] = 5808 points
10. Jerry Lawler vs. Randy Savage (Loser Leaves Town) (6/3/85) [WARMACH-14] = 5745 points (more…)

Match # 43: Rey Mysterio Jr. vs. Ciclope (Nitro 11/11/96)

Ultimo Dragon is at ringside for this one. This match is better than the Psicosis-Eddie stuff (Matches # 39-41) as far as opening it up early. A great mix of high spot dives and arm-oriented mat wrestling. Rey does a missile dive outside, and a minute later gets power bombed to the floor. The down side is fitting a bit too much into a short match that won’t have a heaping helping of selling moves, but it’s a trade off for the flow and action you do get. (more…)

One night before the big HDNet debut taping, ROH kicked off a rare three-show weekend with Eliminating the Competition in Connecticut. Was it a “D-show” as Austin Aries claimed, or was the competition at least C-worthy? We’ve got our answers to this and ratings for each match on the four corneriffic Competition Meter.

 

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Match # 42: Rick Steiner vs. Chris Benoit (Nitro 10/7/96)

Benoit is full heel here and really has his intensity boots on like usual. Much of the fun of the first several minutes of the match is Steiner either throwing suplexes and/or throwing Benoit a beating. A lot of big spots in ring that pop the crowd and are well contained, like the suplexes. They go to commercial and we come back to Benoit in control, with Steiner battling back from underneath. As strong and stiff a match as you’d expect. (more…)

Match # 41: Eddie Guerrero vs. Psicosis (Nitro 7/22/96)

This is a rematch from earlier in the set (Match # 39) so we’ll see what the difference is in this match. Can’t say the first one had too much personality, other than Eddie as the big face and Psicosis being super Lucha. Psicosis is rocking the Liger-esque gear. A big step up from his AAA and ECW wardrobe. (more…)

Taped 5/29/09
Original Air Date 6/27/09 (more…)

Match # 40: Eddie Guerrero vs. Chris Benoit (Nitro 7/15/96)

Cute little trick that gets me right into this one: Benoit makes the ref check Eddie’s boots for paraphernalia then attacks his occupied opponent. The kind of tricks Guerrero would use later in his career in his “cheat to win” mode. (more…)

Match # 39: Eddie Guerrero vs. Psicosis (Nitro 7/8/96)

I’m realizing as I get older and see more wrestling – perhaps too much – that while I respect the art of the Lucha style, I’m not a huge fan of Lucha. I like moves within the style, but as an overall style I like less matches from Lucha than I do from other styles. I’m more of a hybrid fan, though I lean towards the 90s Japanese strong style as my “favored” style. (more…)

Six more TV shows are in the can, and with Brian having attended the tapings as usual, we run down some of the matches and highlights to expect when they hit HDNet (spoiler-free). We also cover some health news and look ahead to preview this weekend’s Midwest double shot, featuring KENTA and Nigel McGuinness’ return to the world title stage.

 

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[Note about the music - As I mentioned in the comments recently, it’s becoming really hard to find entrance themes online, particularly now that most guys seem to be using their TV themes on regular live shows. If anyone has suggestions for a permanent show theme or some other approach, I’d love to see it in the comments section. We’ll come up with something eventually.]

Our latest DVD discussion focuses on Proving Ground 2009 Nights 1 & 2. Find out which new talents proved that they belong in Ring of Honor and which proved that they belong in front of small crowds in Florida. We also pay tribute to Misawa once again by bringing back the Misawa Meter.

 

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Taped 5/29/09
Original Air Date 6/20/09 (more…)

Just got home from tonight’s tapings (front row again, and in a far more comfortable position too), and with nobody to text to, here’s what went down.

First big piece of news was Bryan Danielson coming out to talk to the crowd. He told everyone that he had a staph infection and couldn’t wrestle tonight, nor is he likely to wrestle next week at the midwest shows. A real bummer, but he assured us we’d still be in for a great night. It was funny in that he initially said he had bad news, fans wanted to hear good news, so he gave us some good news of how the nurse at the hospital today said it wasn’t herpes.

Also, even earlier while waiting outside The Arena to go in, a car drove by us, Eddie Kingston popped out the passenger side, yelled out, “Break Yourself!” and fired off a marsh mellow gun. Kyle Durden was the wheelman. Hilarious stuff. Prince Nana and Jimmy Rave also popped outside, going around the corner of the building to presumably film a promo. (more…)

Brian is at The Arena and in his front-row seat, which is under the crane camera. He says that the sheet metal barricades have protective tape on the edges. The first taping starts at 8:00. (more…)

The king is dead, long live the king. In the latest edition of BSWH, we mourn the passing of Japanese legend Mitsuharu Misawa and discuss his influence on Ring of Honor, and celebrate the crowning of a new Ring of Honor World Champion. We also re-cap the rest of the events from last weekend’s shows in Virginia and Manhattan, and look ahead to yet another TV taping in Philadelphia.

 

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It’s time for another Ring of Honor pay-per-view DVD review, with Caged Collision next on the list. Albright’s army takes on Sweet & Sour Inc. in the cage, Nigel defends the belt against El Generico, and two-on-two becomes one-on-one-on-one-on-one. And one more thing…

 

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Taped 5/29/09
Original Air Date 6/13/09

First of all, after being out all day, I was very much shocked to hear of the death of Mitsuharu Misawa yesterday. My heart goes out to his family and everyone at Pro Wrestling NOAH. Chris Hero, one of the many wrestlers there the night he passed, posted a heartfelt blog on MySpace about this that you should check out. Now, more than ever, do I feel lucky to have seen him wrestle in person two years ago alongside John, Alyssa, and Bob Dolezil. RIP. (more…)