Reel in Place

  Place to be Nation did a list of the 100 greatest matches in WCW history, going back to 1981. I like making lists, and I've got plenty of time to waste, so I watched hundreds of matches and then submitted a ballot. Here's some stuff from that ballot that I put together.  After last year's Greatest WWE Match, I was really excited to watch a ton of WCW and NWA matches for a project like this. Admittedly, I haven't seen a ton of WCW stuff. We were a WWF household my whole life, and as far as  I can remember, I only ever watched WCW live once in my entire life and maybe because of that, I don't have a ton of positive memories about this stuff. In fact, my sense on the WCW, and especially the JCP, fandom is that it has a very strong "please like my sport" vibe. I'm a big hockey fan, and there's a subset of hockey fans who always want to prove how tough hockey players are compared to other athletes, how exciting hockey is, how more people should be wa...

Place to be Nation did a list of the 100 greatest matches in WWE history . I like making lists, and I've got plenty of time to waste, so I watched every match nominated and then submitted a ballot . Here's some stuff from that ballot that I put together.  I ended up watching close to 500 matches for this, most of which I had probably seen at least once before, but a lot of them, especially a lot of the 80s stuff, I watched for the first time. When I get to the stats later, you'll see the people who showed up on the list the most, and I'll talk about that a bit later, but there are some guys who aren't exactly heavily represented on here that bare mentioning.  The first thing worth mentioning is that not a lot of pre-Wrestlemania matches ended up getting nominated, and so I think its safe to say that there are big swathes of WWWF stuff that isn't represented here, and to be fair there's not a ton of 60s and 70s stuff around, but if a project like this comes a...

The whole playlist is here , for your continuous viewing pleasure.  Ted DiBiase vs Magnum T.A. - July 6, 1984 I'm slowly making my way through the DVDVR Mid-South set, and a lot of it is good, but nothing so far has struck me as great. This isn't great, but it's the best thing I've seen thus far. Stan Hansen vs Jerry Blackwell - June 28, 1986 Blackwell's a guy with a rep as an all-time great wrestler, which in my limited viewing I don't see, but Hansen rules, and he beats the shit out of Blackwell with a boot here.  Stan Hansen and Genichiro Tenryu vs Giant Baba and Rusher Kimura - November 29, 1989 Hansen and Tenryu assault senior citizens. An all-timer. Rey Mysterio Jr, Solar, and Volador vs Fuerza Guerrera, Juventud Guerrera, and La Parka - October 30, 1993 An all killer, no filler Lucha 6 man. Masahito Kakihara vs Yoshinari Ogawa - January 15, 1999 Ogawa trying to beat a UWFi guy with eye pokes and cradles, great stuff. Mariko Yoshida vs Megumi Fujii - May 2...

The whole playlist is here , for your continuous viewing pleasure.  El Hijo del Santo vs Negro Casas - July 18, 1987 I was thinking about Hijo del Santo early this week, and I'm not entirely sure, but if you asked me right now, I think I'd say he's the greatest wrestler off all time. His offense is perfect and he puts together great matches. Negro Casas would be the best luchador ever if Santo didn't exist. El Hijo del Santo vs Psicosis - May 3, 1995 These guys supposedly have a ton of great matches, but this is the only one I've seen. If this is any indication, I'd bet the rest are pretty great. El Hijo del Santo & Negro Casas vs Bestia Salvaje & Scorpio Jr. - March 19, 1999 I don't know a ton about Salvaje, supposedly he's a guy who shines in trios matches, and honestly I'm not going out of my way to watch random trios matches, so I don't know, but he's good here. El Hijo del Santo vs Blue Panther - April 9, 2000 Older Santo, older ...

The whole playlist is here , for your continuous viewing pleasure. Tatsumi Fujinami vs Chavo Guerrero - May 9, 1980 I downloaded a bunch of the old DVDVR sets, and have been jumping around between them. Fujinami in the 80s is really great, but I already knew he was great. Chavo, who I haven't really seen anything of, has impressed me, both here in NJPW and on the Mid-South stuff I've seen him in.  Super Tiger vs Marty Jones - March 2, 1985 A lot of stuff came out about Marty Jones being a racist piece of garbage recently, so if that effects you're enjoyment of watching him wrestler, that's cool. He's not going to make any money off of this though, and I like this match, so here it is. One of the few good Sayama matches from this period.  Mr. Gannosuke vs Leon Spinks - August 31, 1993 ' One of these guys beat Muhammed Ali, the other went on to be one of the stars of the Guts World promotion. Is it a good wrestling match? No, but for what it is, its great.  Abdull...

The whole playlist is here , for your continuous viewing pleasure. Carlos Colon vs Stan Hansen - October 12, 1986 There is a comp video of this entire feud on YouTube, I just started watching it. This is the first match on that comp, I really liked it. Atsushi Onita, Tarzan Goto, and Hijo del Santo vs Horace Boulder, Tim Patterson, and Negro Casas - May 16, 1992 Negro Casas and Hijo del Santo, maybe the two best wrestlers in the history of lucha, have a great lucha match, while the other 4 FMW guys brawl around the arena. Kensuke Sasaki vs Masahito Kakihara - October 9, 1995 This is from the first UWFi vs NJPW show. The entire show is fun, but kind of a dud. Takada/Mutoh stinks, Liger/Sano is good not great, and this match isn't great either, but they hit each other hard and the finish is cool.  Sheamus vs Daniel Bryan - April 29, 2012 Sheamus rules. Daniel Bryan might be the greatest wrestler ever. This is one of the best 2 out of 3 falls matches in modern history.  Roman Re...

The whole playlist is here , for your continuous viewing pleasure.   Terry Funk vs Stan Hansen - September 11, 1982 This is the precursor to a much more famous match, but that match doesn't break down into Funk and Hansen beating up referees, so how good could that match even be.  Rick Martel vs Terry Funk - September 20, 1986 More of me trying to get into Rick Martel. This is fine, but Terry Funk is the real star, trying to fight an entire baseball stadium. Terry Funk vs Eddie Guerrero - May 20, 1989 Terry Funk in 1989 WCW is one of the best years a wrestler ever had. Two matches with Flair, one with Steamboat, the Halloween Havoc tag, and then these wild B and C show matches with the likes of Cougar Jay and this one with Eddie Guerrero.  Alex Shelley vs Lee Moriarty - November 2, 2019 AIW uploaded this match a couple days ago. It leans a little bit toward a WHAT WILL IT TAKE indie match, but if you squint real hard at specific camera angles, you can see me in ...