Loss:

Something I mentioned early: maybe a General Subform where all of these can go for easier finding when it comes time for the Errata set?

Anyway, here's one we just talked about:

10/23/92 - Korakuen Hall - WAR Card (11/21/92 NJPW TV)
Tenryu & Kitahara vs. Koshinaka & Kimura (19:46) ****1/4

May be available in better VQ on a later Classics type airing. Dan would know. I would think all of it aired on TV since just two matches were on that show: the tag and Akitoshi Saito vs Orihara. The pre-match and post match are all keepers for the batshit intensity of it all.

John

Thanks. Yeah, during the downtime between this and the '95 yearbook coming out, I want to peruse all the match threads to make sure anything recommended in passing gets compiled in a single place. I'm still not sure what form a supplemental/Errata set will take, but we'll figure that out later.

Taue, Fuchi & Ogawa vs Misawa, Kobashi & Kikuchi, July 21st

Unique match because of how it plays out; a bit more intensity/drama than the standard 6-man; sets up a lot of the psychology of the Hansen vs Misawa match a month afterwards.

Michaels/Snuka: 1/31/92: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Icr8oGE7lYY

Definitely not set worthy but a surprisingly good late career Snuka match and Michaels finding his own as a heel.

There's a good Shawn Micheals vs Virgil match from MSG too. I don't know the date, but it happened before Mania 8 I remember.

Saito vs Orihara from NJ 10/23 has insane heat for D-level stars. What a feud.

edit: Oh and the tag is tremendous. Maybe even more heat than Can-Ams vs Kobashi/Kikuchi.

I'll add that Lynch has a comm version of NJ 10/23 with just those two matches. Saito/Orihara is slightly clipped on TV and lacks the entrances. The entrances there REALLY set the table for how insane the crowd is. For instance there's a shot of a random guy giving the double-bird towards the ring and just losing it. Unreal.

WTF caused all that heat in that feud?! Who cared enough to hate SWS and its offspring, especially from the NJ point of view? I can see if it was All Japan. Oh man... WAR vs AJ would have caused riots.

Tenryu in New Japan caused the heat. It was a new thing, and New Japan fans always ate up interpromotional stuff if there was at least a Star anchoring it.

I'm not sure how much AJPW fans would have eaten up AJPW vs WAR at this point. Tenryu had been in AJPW forever prior to leaving, which wasn't all the long ago. My recollection is that they looked down their nose at SWS and WAR, and felt they were proven right when it bombed out and the guys who stayed stepped up to become big stars. The guys who jumped from All Japan to SWS saw their careers hit a brick wall, other then Tenryu in the long term.

There's also the booking question.

Tenryu over Kosh
Tenryu over Choshu
Choshu over Tenryu
Tenryu over Hashimoto
Tenryu over Hashimoto
Fujinami over Tenryu
Tenryu over Hase
Tenryu over Chono
Tenryu over Fujinami
Tenryu over Inoki
Hashimoto over Tenryu

There probably aren't perfect analogies here, but perhaps something like this:

Kosh = Kobashi
Choshu = Hansen (since Jumbo went out)
Hashimoto = Misawa
Fujinami = Williams (since Gordy OD'd)
Hase = Taue
Chono = Kawada
Inoki = Baba

Which creates:

Tenryu over Kobashi
Tenryu over Hansen
Hansen over Tenryu
Tenryu over Misawa
Tenryu over Misawa
Williams over Tenryu
Tenryu over Taue
Tenryu over Kawada
Tenryu over Williams
Tenryu over Baba
Misawa over Tenryu

Uh... yeah... that never would happen.

John

Came specifically into this forum to recommend the 10/23 tag. I watched that match off of Ditch's site tonight and it was incredible. I never thought I would experience that type of crowd heat in Japan.

The 5/2 Ottawa Bret vs Shawn match is really good but I'm not sure how it compares to, let's say, the 4/29 Syracuse match on the Bret vs Shawn dvd

Beverly Brothers vs Disasters at Summerslam 92 is slept upon as it's a pretty smart match, and both Earthquake vs Dibiase and Jannetty vs Skinner are good relatively short matches from PTW in November. I think Undertaker vs Haku from Japan (SWS I think) is a fun novelty too.

I think of the pre-survivor series TV Bret Title defenses (Berzerker, Shango, Kamala, Virgil), the only one really worth watching is Kamala. There are better Bret vs Nord matches, but it's a rare 1992 Kamala match where they don't portray him as a moron. The Michaels IC title defense vs Virgil is more fun since Heenan is inexplicably rooting for Virgil until he catches himself. There's a fun Bossman vs Michaels match from right around this point but it's a bit anti-climactic.

Jannetty/Skinner is a pretty sweet little match. Definte reccomendation.

Of the Bret matches, I liked the Kamala match but the Shango match was decent too. Maybe Shango's best ever (setting bar real low)? It was just an energetic match. The Berzerker and Virgil matches are meant to be total squashes so there's not much there. The Bret/Virgil match is slightly notable because it's worked like a proto-version of Bret/Kid. And you gotta check out the pre match hand-shake.

Not necessarily GOOD per se but..

The Fancam of Warrior vs Flair is hilarious just because when Warrior is doing all the foot stomping and rope shaking as part of his final comeback, he sells the leg Flair had been working on ONCE, for just a second, and it's the most disjointed thing. Then Flair keeps trying to give it a little kick as Warrior stomps around in a big circle and he keeps missing it as Warrior warriors away. He eats the clotheslines big time though.

World Wide 1/11/1992
Arn Anderson, Steve Austin & Bobby Eaton vs Ricky Steamboat, Dustin Rhodes & Ron Simmons

Follows the usual Dangerous Alliance vs Random group of Sting's Buddies formula but as far as those go I thought this was a really great example of it and they got a little more time then usual going 14-15 mins.

Thought this was better then the Rude/Austin/Eaton vs Sting/Steamboat/Bagwell and Arn/Larry/Rude vs Steamboat/Dustin/Simmons matches from Jan 92 that did make the set

Loss' Re-watch & 1st time viewing thread reminded me I haven't gotten around to doing a joshi list for this thread

Stuff from my top 20 list that didn't make the set
I'll post other recomendations later on when i'm not lazy.....

#5 AJW 7/15/1992 (3WA Tag Titles - 2 out of 3 Falls) Manami Toyota & Toshiyo Yamada © vs Aja Kong & Kyoko Inoue
#6 FMW 9/19/1992 Megumi Kudo & Combat Toyoda vs Bull Nakano & Akira Hokuto
#11 AJW 8/30/1992 Bull Nakano, Yumiko Hotta & Suzuka Minami vs Akira Hokuto, Etsuko Mita & Mima Shimoda
#13 AJW 5/24/1992 Aja Kong & Bison Kimura vs Akira Hokuto & Etsuko Mita
#18 AJW 6/27/1992 (AJW Title) Mariko Yoshida © vs Etsuko Mita
#20 JWP 10/7/1992 (JWP Tag Titles) Cuty Suzuki & Mayumi Ozaki © vs Dynamite Kansai & Hikari Fukuoka

There's reviews on my blog for anyone that wants actual detailed thoughts
I'd copy them over but the post would be gigantic & the spoiler feature on this board is lame

God damn was this one awesome, top 10, possibly top 5 match of the year for me. Figured it would probably be pretty good but largely went in with no exspectations and it just completely blew me away. So much hate, so much heat, so much greatness

Keiji Mutoh vs Steve Austin (NJ 10/8/92)
My 2nd favourite bout from the G1. OK so it's nowhere near the final, but this was a decent match as Austin was coming on leaps and bounds in 92 and Mutoh was used to working with gaijins.

Blue Panther vs Ultimo Dragon (CMLL 1/31/92)
Doragon was almost as comfortable in Mexico as in his native Japan. Little matwork as the emphasis was on high flying. Consistantly good quality and worth checking out.

Debbie Malenko & Sakie Hasegawa vs Mariko Yoshida & Takako Inoue (AJW 4/25/92)
It's always fun to see young wrestlers levelling up. They weren't there yet but this was a good effort at a big title match. Frenetic action from the start with barely a pause for breath. High quality at times and sloppy at others. It was Malenko who impressed me the most here with her wicked moveset. Her partner Sakie was most culpable of mistakes. Takako & Yoshida made both good friends and enemies at the time.

Etsuko Mita vs Mariko Yoshida (AJW 6/27/92)
It's criminal that the AJW belt was the most prestigious title that Yoshida ever held in Zenjo. Well structured build with Mita attacking the shoulder and Yoshida working over the knee. I loved Mita showing her true colours as she heeled it up with chair usage. They gave themselves a base to go higher but didn't move to the finish soon enough. Bad blood afterwards.

Akira Hokuto vs Takako Inoue (AJW 12/13/92)
Exciting offense from Akira early on. She then had her leg attacked and sold it magnificently. Takako should've used more variation. The Dangerous Queen came storming back and went over with conviction. Tightly paced and Hokuto was gearing up for next year with this one woman show.

Takako Inoue & Mariko Yoshida vs Debbie Malenko & Sakie Hasegawa (AJW 1/5/92)
It's clipped but that probably didn't make a huge difference here. High energy and exuberence with exciting action all the way. Hasegawa and Malenko had great chemistry, trying out new double team moves and copying moves the other had taught them. Sloppy at times but plenty of fun.

Mariko Yoshida vs Sakie Hasegawa (AJW 7/15/92)
The Yoshida show as she continues her great year. Her knee, shoulder and elbow are all taped up her. Oh yeah and she'd just worked the previous match on the card! And this was a physical and gruelling match on a hot summers night. Both were sweating buckets and for Yoshida in particular it was gut check time. A fabulous performance by her in all departments. Impressive technique on offence, great selling to put her opponant over and she took the lead in constructing the match. Sakie was reasonably good here but not on the level of her opponant. At this stage of her career she lacked calmness and sometimes chose the wrong option.

Yumiko Hotta & Suzuka Minami vs Manami Toyota & Toshiyo Yamada (AJW 10/17/92)
Not for the tag titles but make no mistake they were going full out. High octane action with thrills and spills down the stretch. They went for high end though there were a few minor problems that held it back. Yamada was in amazing form and delivered the best performance. Hotta and Toyota were also impressive. Minami was certainly the weakest worker and was banished back to the midcard.

Aja Kong vs Toshiyo Yamada (AJW 8/30/92)
From the bell Aja attacked with ferocity and viciousness, working over poor Yamada's face. She also hammered her with various objects and threw her down stairs to leave her opponant a bloody mess. Kong looked remoreseless and sadistic in a great demonstration of the monster heel role. Yet Yamada was able to come back firing with some nasty head kicks in this brutal contest. Really good stuff.

Combat Toyoda & Megumi Kudo vs Akira Hokuto & Bull Nakano (FMW 9/19/92)
An historic occasion as the interpromotional era begins. Great crowd heat. Action packed bout, tightly paced and fun to watch. The FMW team didn't get a lot of change out of Nakano but were able to put up a decent fight. The clipped version on the comm made it look a more even bout than it actually was!

Suzuka Minami vs Akira Hokuto (AJW 9/15/92)
Marine Wolf explosion. Intelligently planned and well worked match with a fresh feel about it. Back and forth early on with both trying a few new moves and submission techniques. Then Minami hit her former partner with everything but the kitchen sink, unloading all her finishers. Beforehand you wouldn't have given her a prayer but they made the upset seem possible.

Eriko Tsuchiya & Yoshika Maedomari vs Bat Yoshinaga & Tomoko Watanabe (AJW 10/17/92)
Doesn't look at all promising on paper. Yet this is shockingly good and a testament to the magic of the interpromotional era. Bat Yoshinaga gave an extraordinary performance. She had only been wrestling a few years but played the role of a proud veteran defending her company against outsiders. It reminded me of Kikuchi in the 2002 NOAH vs NJ feud in some regards. Yoshinaga was so full of intensity and anger that Shark barely knew what hit her. Their two partners were in the 'B' role. I really liked the dynamic of Bat having to protect her weaker partner who got bloodied and beaten. I just wish it had gone on a little longer. Normally a compact length would be smart, but nobody would have known this would get so hot.

Takako Inoue vs Mariko Yoshida (AJW 4/29/92)
One of those type of matches that made Zenjo so special. It was fought with such heart and passion with both girls giving it their all. It was a well planned match revolving around body part work from both. Yoshida writhing around in pain during submissions was fantastic. Exciting climax too with plenty of near falls and the result in the balance. Okay you could pick holes in some of the selling and execution but that's small change compared to the joy Yoshida brought. And Takako always made everyone else look good.

Aja Kong & Bison Kimura vs Akira (Hokuto) & (Etsuko) Mita (AJW 5/24/92)
Both LCO members wore warpaint and lost a name for the evening. It was a real battle, high quality and very intense. So many fun moments as both teams tried to out-heel the other. Aja was Aja, Bison was beasty and Hokuto's offence looked devastating. Excellent performances from all 3. But what stood out was midcarder Mita delivering a breakthrough performance as she showed the great wrestler she would become. She was like a wild animal and showed no fear, looking like she belonged in the main event. It was super fun throughout and well structured. Kong wasn't going to get beaten, but there were times Bison got isolated and the upset was on.

Sakie Hasegawa vs Mariko Yoshida (AJW 6/21/92)
It may have been mentioned how awesome Yoshida was in 1992. Again here she looked like a future superstar. And for one night only they upgraded Sakie '92 for Sakie '94. Her finest performance of the year. Nicely thought out matwork to start as both women had clearly focused areas of attack. Yoshida's shoulder and Hasegawa's leg were the targets. As they stepped it up it looked like a regular length match. Great action and the fans were super into it. It proved to be a false stretch as neither would stay down.
At this point they returned to the mat and it's a valid critisism to say they got the pacing "wrong". It would normally bother me, but I've watched this match several times over the years and this is a big exception. The key is how they returned to the body part work from earlier. From a psychology perspective they'd both taken a lot of damage so going back to the injury may well lead to a submission, whilst also allowing you to recover your strength. From here they were able to launch into the 2nd stretch in the closing minutes. This was even more thrilling than the 1st as the exhaustion selling was incredible. Plus Yoshida sold the shoulder the entire match. So many near falls before it went to an epic 30m draw. It wasn't a polished 30m match with every segment timed just right. They'd never done it before. How they coped with the situation and the organic structure meant it never looked like a draw. It felt like a voyage into the unknown as both wrestlers pushed themselves to the absolute limit. One of my favourite matches of the year.

NJPW 9/23/1992

Tatsumi Fujinami, Riki Choshu, Osamu Kido & Takayuki Iizuka vs Kengo Kimura, Shiroh Koshinaka, Masashi Aoyagi & Akitoshi Saito

One thing i've always liked about New Japan is that 8 & 10 man tags are a pretty big staple of their booking as i'm always a huge fan of those. This isn't an elite lvl one or anything but it's really good. Everyone's fired up for this as Koki Kitahara & Masao Orihara are at ringside with the WAR feud about to kick off. Pre match Choshu gets in their face and they bow in respect, Kimura steps up to em on his way to the ring and isn't so nice slapping Kitahara in the face and a mini pull apart breaks loose.

Interesting match layout to this one with the Karate Army/Skinheads clearly being the more heelish of the teams but they basicly ended up working babyface by the end. After starting out with your typical multi man back & forth action things settle into a long FIP section on Saito with the NJPW team taking turns destroying his arm. Koshinaka finally tags in but gets cut off and we get a 2nd FIP with him getting bloodied up leading to a big Koshinaka chant as he fights back. Kimura gets the hot tag but they cut him off too and it looks like he's also about to take a beating until Saito who has his arm wraped up in a makeshift sling they made out of Aoyagi's belt swoops in to save the day knocking down Kido long enough for Kimura to pin him with Choshu a half a second away from breaking it up. Post match Choshu & the rest prove to be sore losers continuing the attack and then beating the dog crap out of the referee. Fun times

Blue Panther vs. Angel Azteca from 9/4/92 is probably worth a look, given how well received the match with El Dandy was. Not that this match is on the level of that one (I've never actually seen Dandy vs. Azteca!), but it's another chance to see Azteca in a title match against one of lucha's greats.

I haven't watched it yet but the Eddie Gilbert and Vic Steamboat vs Kevin Sullivan and Tazmaniac match from the Century Wrestling Alliance that showed up on YouTube feels like the kind of thing that should be represented.

...why?

There's a Steamboat promo from mid-April right after his nose got busted which is one of the best I've ever heard him give. He invokes young Ritchie and it's all pretty epic.