100 Matches You Really Should See...

[ShortOrderCook]

I agree with the assessment Ian and Tommy have made of Sabu. Particularly the first impressions anyway. When I first saw him I was totally fascinated by him from how he looked, how he acted and how he wrestled. I like my wrestlers to seem other-worldly quite often and Sabu seemed far, far away from just any old bloke. I loved the feel in the build to the big Taz vs Sabu match.

[Devon Malcolm]

I was fascinated by him initially as well and for a while that Doctor Is In stretcher match with RVD was one of the best things I ever saw in wrestling. But then, pretty soon, I started to utterly detest him and his matches.His 2006 run is fascinating, I agree. Amazing to look back not that long and see him given a couple of main event spots in the WWE.

[Loki]

I have that "Best Of Samoa Joe" DVD they released, and thought it ironic at the time as he'd only been there a couple of years, however it genuinely does contain most of his best matches.I'm not sure anyone really knew how to bottle that lightning, when he and the incoming Angle got that big buyrate. I think Joe himself should shoulder a big chunk of the blame, as when he stepped up to start wrestling BIG heavyweights (people taller than him) his style really came apart at the seams. Getting fatter wasn't the answer to that, and constantly changing his look/attire just helped sink him.Still and all, he's been looking his old self recently in TNA; he still can't cut a promo but he looks mean again. Maybe there's still time for them to do something with him?

[ShortOrderCook]

So who's matches should you really see most that you might not have seen!? I hear your cries and here's some truly fascinating facts regarding the numbers and votes for your perusal.As mentioned Joe was a popular choice, but does he have the most matches you really should see? No, not quite. Apparently Kurt Angle does with matches of his receiving 8 separate votes. That doesn't mean all of them will necessarily feature though. Samoa Joe matches were submitted 5 times as were Bret and Owen Hart and Danny Bryan. Undertaker received 7 and Hogan and Benoit had 6 each.

[Sixteen Degrees]

Did you have many Andre the Giant submissions. If I got up off my lazy backside Andre vs. Killer Khan would have been one of my submissions.

[ShortOrderCook]

#90 - Ayako Hamada vs Meiko Satomura, Sendai Girls, 22/7/07 WATCH IT HEREWHY SHOULD YOU WATCH IT?Tell 'em Raid;

I imagine there are lots of UKFFers that remember Meiko's match with Akira Hokuto on the GAEA show that aired on TWC, and a few that saw Hamada in TNA and wonder what she was truly capable of. Watch this match, they are two of my favourite wrestlers ever. Not favourite female wrestlers ; favourite wrestlers.

WHAT DO I THINK OF IT?This match marks our first appearance from the ladies and what a match to represent them. Yeah, this is pretty fantastic. As Raid mentions, I remember Hamada from TNA and quite liked her there, but very much had the impression she was capable of some pretty cool shit beyond what she was doing there. And that she is, highly recommend viewing this match, I was very pleasantly surprised by what I was presented with. Top wrestling, great technical chain wrestling and submissions busted out in the first half making the message clear that these two are very well matched. That point is driven home even more at around the half way point where there's a neat spot that is reminiscent of a spot I've always loved from Rock vs Brock, it symbolizes a stalemate tremendously but just looks bloody great too. From there they start to really bust out the big meaty offence and for a short portion resort to simply kicking each other in the head as hard as they can in a variety of different ways before going for (what I imagine to be) their signature offence that wins most matches. Of which I really like Hamadas cross-armed sit-out powerbomb. Tremendous match, builds really nicely. Definitely one you really should see.

[Shane O' Mac Version 2]

Did you have many Andre the Giant submissions. If I got up off my lazy backside Andre vs. Killer Khan would have been one of my submissions.

The Stretcher match? God that was boring. Really slow and plodding with no commentary, felt like well over half an hour when watching it but I'm sure it wasn't that long. It was an extra on the Judgment Day 2003 DVD.

[Thunderplex]

#94PCW RUMBLE, NEVER GIVE UP

Not a fan of the british scene over the last couple of years at all, but I really enjoyed this match. Lots of fun, and the whole thing just had a good vibe about it.I've loved the selections up to now, keep them coming!

[The King Of Swing]

#90 - Ayako Hamada vs Meiko Satomura, Sendai Girls, 22/7/07

Good match but the almost constant shouting at ringside (not sure if it was the fans or other wrestlers) did my fucking head in at times.

[air_raid]

Good match but the almost constant shouting at ringside (not sure if it was the fans or other wrestlers) did my fucking head in at times.

Insane fangirls. The psychotic girl fans of the Joshi stars go nutsier than any male fans on any continent that I've ever really watched wrestling from. The level of hero worship/living vicariously through their heroes is pretty disturbing at times.

[The King Of Swing]

Good match but the almost constant shouting at ringside (not sure if it was the fans or other wrestlers) did my fucking head in at times.

Insane fangirls. The psychotic girl fans of the Joshi stars go nutsier than any male fans on any continent that I've ever really watched wrestling from. The level of hero worship/living vicariously through their heroes is pretty disturbing at times.

I'm guessing Hamada fangirls because it seemed to get more intense whenever she was in trouble. It almost gave me a headache it was just an almost never ending load of high pitched noise even the Crush Girls fans on 80's AJW shows didn't annoy me that much.Good match though.

[Mr Butternut Squash]

They're girls from the roster giving 'support' ain't they? They're always hanging about in joshi matches.The Crush Girl crowds were the greatest crowds in wrestling history if you ask me.

[The King Of Swing]

The Crush Girl crowds were the greatest crowds in wrestling history if you ask me.

It was only really the constant name chanting that got on my nerves. The Fans were great during and after the first Chigusa/Dump hair match which reminds me I have to watch their second one some time.

[Egg Shen]

and even got a good match out of that idiot Sabu.

Sabu gets a bit of a bad rap. Very few have ever been able to walk that line as well as Sabu for me. I remember the first time I saw him I was in awe, and it's not just what he does but the character and the way he did it. There are loads of people who can do what he did, but few who can do it how he did it.I love the spontaneity of him, so often things feel on the fly and anything can happen even when they aren't.

agreed! Sabu is probably the main reason that i became a die-hard fan back in the day, i always loved the WWF, but watching ECW is what turned me into a 'fan', and although i loved all the old ECW guys, Sabu was the main man for me. If you wanna break down his matches and look at all the blown spots i think you kinda miss the point of what made him so dangerous and exciting. Sabu is the man.

[Forrest]

Quite the eclectic bunch there. Reminds me of the MLW War Games match which seemed to put anyone they had free that weekend in the match:

War Games Cage Match: Terry Funk, The Sandman, Steve Williams, Sabu & Bill Alfonso vs. Steve Corino, Simon Diamond, C.W. Anderson, Justin Credible & Barry Windham

One of the most uneventful matches ever as well. It takes some doing having a boring 10 man war with a fire spot at the end, but this lot managed it. That in itself is quite an achievement.Court Bauer may wax lyrical about it now but I remember the tagline people made up for it was "MLW - The Promotion Where Great Workers Have Bad Matches". I remember Samoa Joe (him again) was set to wrestle Mike Awesome, and Awesome set out this match where Joe would play the part of Masato Tanaka and take all this ridiculous punishment and Joe said "fuck that" and they had a awful bout. Joe was considered one of the worlds best at the time, but this really made him look like a plonker.

I've been listening to the early MLW podcasts recently and the way they go on, you'd think MLW won the Monday Night Wars or something. They go on about that War Games match all the time and the Extreme Horsemen and talk about how they were the spiritual successor to ECW. I swear to god, they would probably rate their WarGames match over Wrestlewar '92.The thing that really annoys me is they act as if they were doing shows week-in-week-out for 2/3 years, when in actual fact they only ever did 10 bloody shows. I love it when they ask a guy how they felt about being a part of MLW when they did 2 shows, and probably did their bit, got paid and fucked off like every other two-bit Indy show,Mind you, CW Anderson throwing about Steroid allegations willy-nilly was fun.