Tim Cooke

This was the best match in AEW history. Masterful performance from Danielson and Page was as good as he has ever been. This may be the best Danielson 30+ minute match. I loved his ROH 2002-2007 run but some of those matches suffered from the typical "this was 10 minutes too long." This match felt right, from start to finish. Couldn't be more excited for a return match.

Wins and losses are based off of real sports (Kahn has said as much). Are soccer draws horrible? I'm not an NFL guy, but games can end in ties. Same for NHL. For the big four, it's really only baseball and basketball that play until you win.

The old Eddy vs Benoit spot

"Kohsaka vs Kiyoshi Tamura (4/22/97)" I still argue this is a shoot but it's a great match regardless. It's one of those matches where you see UWF style turning into something real. This isn't the greatness shoot style match or fight ever, but it is one where the blurring of lines was able to lead to something real - Sakuraba vs. Vernon White and Sakuraba vs. Newton where the fights are real yet you could see it being worked as a UWF style match.

3 up - Danielson continues his week to week dominance in terms of wrestling and promos. Gave enough to Angels while still making clear about the hierarchy - Sting/Darby vs. Gunn Club was a match worth making, if just because both teams are undefeated and that's a solid 9 pm Dynamite storyline to run. Add in Georgia for Sting and the match being fun and it's a win. - The back half of Statlander vs. Soho. Took them a few minutes to get the crowd but then they did and had a pretty good match. 3 down - MJF on commentary and subsequent promo - The layout of Punk and Wardlow face to face one and a half segments prior to Wardlow wrestling. Just needed better spacing. - Soho winning. She is slow in the ring. Like no natural speed at all. If she faces Nyla, that could be a real mess. Still enjoyed the show greatly. Most weeks I don't have more than one thing for a three down list, so that speaks to the consistent quality of Dynamite.

You bring WAY too much to the table. Unless you're a tape list scourer or we're around at the time, it's not easy following all of these releases. The 2019 JWA did bring a few new matches, most notably the 12/01/70 Baba/Inoki vs. Kininski/Johnny Valentine

Good show especially being taped. Opener is not my cup of tea but Baker vs Rhio and Kingston vs Garcia were fun and worth watching.

The promo was too long. It was good but this was not Flair returning in September 1998. Not sure it was even Bret Hart/Goldberg from March 1999. Could have easily shaved 7 minutes and made it tighter, which also would have helped lessen MJF's rambling/not have to use filler that ultimately didn't get over (and yes, you don't know what ultimately gets over until you are out there but he's been doing this long enough that it should have helped.)

Pretty excited for Romero vs. Danielson. Their 2004 NJPW LA Dojo match is a lot of fun. I don't think this will get that time or be as mat based, but still looking forward to it regardless.

The 80's DVDVR Lucha set is great but I wouldn't recommend it as a starting point. I think the matches that are the easiest to appreciate from a higher worldview are the 8/31/86 Santo/Espanto Mask vs Mask match, 7/18/87 Santo/Casas Mask vs Hair match, 4/10/88 Santo/Espanto title match, and MS1 vs Chicana 9/23/83 (which you need to almost view through a lens of 1970's US in terms of using fewer moves but getting everything out of them. For the 90's, the easiest entry is 1990 CMLL trios matches. The best 1990 trios matches are better than almost all of the trios matches on the 80's set. Then you get to Dandy/Casas from 7/5/92, Panther/Atlantis 8/11/91. AAA is all over the place in the 90's (and really throughout it's entire history) but there are some excellent trios and atomicos matches from 1993-1995. Rey vs. Psicosis from 9/22/95 is also a good gateway into a lucha title match but with elements of Japan thrown in.

I've watched almost every Jumbo single match on tape. Think I have seen probably 60-70% of his tags/trios match. This isn't selection bias. This is saying a guy in my top 5 may go down to 10-11 because of a very underwhelming four year period.

1980 - 1984. Wasn't a great period for All Japan anyway but couldn't find anything that really moved me. Could also be too hard on him right now as well.

RISING: Yoshiaki Fujiwara. He made my list in 2016 and I appreciated his famous matches (June 1987 vs. Choshu; July 1989 vs. Yamazaki) but in doing a deeper re-dive into his 1984-1990 work, he's got a shot at the top 10 and easily in the top 20. Akira Maeda. Special wrestler, who admittingly was very lazy at times and could be quite an asshole, but it's clear watching 1984-1990 why he was able to open the most obscure of the three offshoots of UWF 2.0 and have success with almost no wrestlers of any name value in Japan until they came and worked in RINGS. FALLING: Jumbo Tsuruta. By falling, he is out of my top 10. Probably still makes top 20. So not a dramatic fall but he's not quite hitting the top 10 vibe with what I have re-watched of him lately.