El McKell

Windham is great at this point of his career and is his usual self here. But Dusty in the early going of this gives so much more effort and works much harder than he normally does in this period. The fucking crossbody off the top caught me off guard and is awesome. The claw is definitely long but I think Dusty does a great job when he's in it of making it feel like there's always something happening, he's always trying to fire himself up out of it or falling deeper into it risking defeat (and does both of these things in an very very Dusty Rhodes manner). I really thought this was great until the shitty finish ***3/4 Also Barry Windham couldn't have dyed his roots before a PPV, c'mon

I'm starting to think Okada might be the best ever at execution of offense.

World class typo here, I wish Davey Richards called that move 'the alarm cock'.

There is also this: But yeah there's not much Beauty Pair you can watch out there

After being horribly disappointed with Onita's deathmatches against Tenryu & Great Sasuke this match being awesome came as a welcome surprise. I legit thought we were getting a time limit draw after the ring exploded but we continue with a new ref and just trade bombs. The tension before/build to the first explosion didn't come across as formulaic but actually built it for me emotionally. I cannot figure out why Hayabusa would try to reach for the exploding barbed wire cage like he was looking for the ropes when he was in the half crab though. ****

Imagine living in Okiyama, NJPW comes there only once a year and they give you a show like that.

I think he's a lot better when he's doing stuntshow stuff, whether that's flippy or deathmatchy, than when he decides to work like a b-rate version of an All Japan main eventer. I like how he looks but I don't think he carries himself well enough to maintain the mystique the look implies, the more I see him the less he seems like a larger than life figure

As amazing as the stuff before the bell rang was, calling it one of the greatest matches of all time is absolutely wild to me.

The gimmick is kinda cringe, he looks stupid in a brightly coloured gi especially when he has the headband on, but the matches aren't bad, I definitely like the Finlay match. But he absolutely rules in the 1970s, Steve Grey's best opponent and has really good matches with Kung Fu & Sid Cooper

In the USA definitely not, Peacock is retaining the rights to network content and netflix is just getting Raw. Outside the USA, we don't know but netflix is buying the rights to that stuff so we can only hope they'll actually put them up.

There is now, beyond the 3 Houston matches he had on NWAclassics we've got stuff here: Robbin Krotzer - YouTube & here: Nostalgic Dave Dynasty - YouTube All that Robbin Krotzer stuff is very recently uploaded. I'm not watching it, but maybe someone should

I'm going to nominate someone I know almost nothing about. Bobby Barnes: In the discord sever SAMS said this about him: He's a name I barely hear being mentioned, and while I'd solidly put him below the likes of Grey, Breaks, Rocco, Cortez, Jones, I'm not sure how many others I've seen that I'm certain he should be placed below. His aesthetic change almost parallels Freddie Mercury's in transitioning from the glam of the 70s to the short hair and moustache combo of the 80s, and in the context of '80 and '81 World of Sport he almost feels ahead of his time. Really good heel with the perfect deadpan face. If you enjoy this style of bending the rules and accruing as many public warnings without quite getting DQ'd, then he's your man. In The Beginner's Guide to British Wrestling Otani's Jacket included 3 of his matches in his list of recommended matches: Les Kellett vs. Bobby Barnes 1973-09-25 Bobby Barnes vs. Steve Grey 1978-07-26 Jon Cortez vs. Bobby Barnes 1981-03-31

I don't know that he is, by the time we're going to be voting he'll be 36 years old, I don't see what he could add to his case after that if he doesn't straight up leave New Japan and do something interesting elsewhere. I think it's far more likely he's made the vast majority of his case already rather than he's someone that'll add significantly to his case going forward.

I hate that the finish has Onita getting pinned while his partners double team a man already handcuffed to a cage. Then they turn on him for losing in the post match, like it's your own fault you morons.

Thanks for that