At the end of the month Play It Forward turns 2 years old! We've crowned our 100th imaginary Mason-Dixon Tri-state Outercontinental WWKD Champion, which means it's time for our second annual Head Droppies awards. You may remember from last March that the Head Droppies are a chance for us to look back and the last year of matches we've shared with each other and reflect on some highs and lows. Talk a little inside baseball, share a laugh, a tear or two, a drink, and get ready for another wild year of the matches every Tuesday!
Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, I present to you the second annual, highly prestigious, most coveted awards of all weekly pro wrestling match sharing blogs with imaginary Championships like a couple of 10 year olds fantasy booking in a spiral notebook... here are your 2020 HEAD DROPPIES!!
...the Punk Monkey Award (Favorite Match Played Forward To You)
CJD: Koji Kanemoto VS Kota Ibushi - NJPW Best Of The Super Juniors 5/30/2009
This was a match that I had penciled in to watch for years and just needed to make time for. John forced me to do so and god damn am I glad he did. This was everything I wanted and expected and then some, while still taking a less is more approach overall.
JJZ: Tarzan Goto (c) VS Cactus Jack - IWA Japan World Heavyweight Championship 5/10/1995
It was a literal shock how good this was. Honestly it might be my favorite match we've had on the blog.
-Honorable Mentions:
Chris Hero VS Necro Butcher - IWAMS British Rounds Match 1/21/2006 (CJD)
Ric Flair VS Kerry Von Erich - World Class NWA World Championship Cage Match 12/25/1982 (JJZ)
...the Intergender Lightweight-Who's-A-Heavyweight DeathMatch Award (Most Hidden Gem Played Forward)
JJZ: Kotaro Suzuki/Yoshinari Ogawa VS Dick Togo/Yasu Urano - NOAH Jr Heavyweight Tag League 10/15/2010
Loved this match. I've watched so much NOAH and this match was never on my radar. PIF has made me a fan of Ogawa. And as always, Dick Togo for life homie!
CJD: El Hijo Del Santo/Atsushi Onita/Tarzan Goto VS Negro Casas/Horace Boulder/Tim Patterson - FMW 5/16/1992
If I had to rate this match it wouldn't be especially high, but for pure entertainment value it stuck with me as much as any we've shared here. I'm just so happy it exists. Pro wrestling is so beautifully bizarre.
-Honorable Mention:
Christopher Daniels (c) VS Samoa Joe - TNA X Division Championship Match 4/13/2006 (CJD)
...the Eerie Dragon Award (Most Difficult Quest Playing A Match Forward)
CJD: Necro Butcher
There are certainly plenty of great Necro matches available for free online that I could have shared. But I feel like anyone who has a passing interest in Necro has seen these already, and if they haven't, then they need to immediately (VS Joe, VS Ki, VS Klein). I wanted to dig deeper, and in the process discovered a dream match I never knew existed. And it required some serious digging to finally find a version that would stay up to share with everyone but it was well worth the effort.
If I had to rate this match it wouldn't be especially high, but for pure entertainment value it stuck with me as much as any we've shared here. I'm just so happy it exists. Pro wrestling is so beautifully bizarre.
-Honorable Mention:
Christopher Daniels (c) VS Samoa Joe - TNA X Division Championship Match 4/13/2006 (CJD)
...the Eerie Dragon Award (Most Difficult Quest Playing A Match Forward)
CJD: Necro Butcher
There are certainly plenty of great Necro matches available for free online that I could have shared. But I feel like anyone who has a passing interest in Necro has seen these already, and if they haven't, then they need to immediately (VS Joe, VS Ki, VS Klein). I wanted to dig deeper, and in the process discovered a dream match I never knew existed. And it required some serious digging to finally find a version that would stay up to share with everyone but it was well worth the effort.
JJZ: Super Smash Bros.
It blew my mind how hard this was. I rewatched their match with Sumerian Death Squad several times before playing it forward. Honestly it was the first time I got frustrated searching for a match.
...the Animal Rat Award (Most Surprising MDTSOWWKD Champion)
JJZ: Tarzan Goto
I never would have ever picked a Tarzan Goto match to watch to play forward. I was shocked how much I fell in love with his matches here.
CJD: Danny Dominion
I had no idea who Danny Dominion was before John played him forward to me. Clearly he's an important footnote in pro wrestling history and it was fascinating diving into some of his career for two weeks.
...the Stone Phoenix Award (Greatest MDTSOCWWKD Champion #51-100)
CJD: Greg "The Hammer" Valentine
http://pifprowrestling.blogspot.com/2019/07/catch-spirit-catch-spit.html
http://pifprowrestling.blogspot.com/2019/06/waiting-for-hammer-to-fall.html
Last year I let the numbers factor in to my choice for this award pretty heavily, but the unfortunate truth is traffic was down most of 2019 for PIF. We had some solid draws, but it was like bringing in a decent house during the New Generation era. Nobody set the world on fire. So instead I'll go with a Mason Dixon Tri-state Outercontinental Champion who was a real revelation to me. A wrestler who I went in with an established "eh" opinion of and came out realizing I need to reassess that opinion. Valentine's matches were an unexpected treat for me and I'm glad to admit I was wrong about the Hammer.
JJZ: Satoshi Kojima
http://pifprowrestling.blogspot.com/2019/05/youve-been-thunderstruck.html
http://pifprowrestling.blogspot.com/2019/05/koji-outta-nowhere.html
He wrestled two of the greatest of all time in his matches with Liger and Misawa. He shined just as bright as those diamonds. Another wrestler I've come grown to appreciate more as I've gotten older. 'Jima brought some Ace quality matches to the blog.
-Honorable Mentions:
Darby Allin (CJD)
http://pifprowrestling.blogspot.com/2019/12/still-today-i-hear-pain-we-made-death.html
http://pifprowrestling.blogspot.com/2020/01/im-just-drivin-nails-in-my-coffin.html
Greg Valentine stole my heart. (JJZ)
And that's all for the second annual Head Droppies. Thanks for joining us folks, check back next March to see who grabs those brass rings here at PIF in our next 50 matches!
CJD: Greg "The Hammer" Valentine
http://pifprowrestling.blogspot.com/2019/07/catch-spirit-catch-spit.html
http://pifprowrestling.blogspot.com/2019/06/waiting-for-hammer-to-fall.html
Last year I let the numbers factor in to my choice for this award pretty heavily, but the unfortunate truth is traffic was down most of 2019 for PIF. We had some solid draws, but it was like bringing in a decent house during the New Generation era. Nobody set the world on fire. So instead I'll go with a Mason Dixon Tri-state Outercontinental Champion who was a real revelation to me. A wrestler who I went in with an established "eh" opinion of and came out realizing I need to reassess that opinion. Valentine's matches were an unexpected treat for me and I'm glad to admit I was wrong about the Hammer.
JJZ: Satoshi Kojima
http://pifprowrestling.blogspot.com/2019/05/youve-been-thunderstruck.html
http://pifprowrestling.blogspot.com/2019/05/koji-outta-nowhere.html
He wrestled two of the greatest of all time in his matches with Liger and Misawa. He shined just as bright as those diamonds. Another wrestler I've come grown to appreciate more as I've gotten older. 'Jima brought some Ace quality matches to the blog.
-Honorable Mentions:
Darby Allin (CJD)
http://pifprowrestling.blogspot.com/2019/12/still-today-i-hear-pain-we-made-death.html
http://pifprowrestling.blogspot.com/2020/01/im-just-drivin-nails-in-my-coffin.html
Greg Valentine stole my heart. (JJZ)
And that's all for the second annual Head Droppies. Thanks for joining us folks, check back next March to see who grabs those brass rings here at PIF in our next 50 matches!
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