They Call Me Mr Dynamite

Davey Boy Smith/Dynamite Kid VS Genichiro Tenryu/Jumbo Tsuruta - AJPW RWTL 7/12/1985

CJD: One of the aspects of 80s wrestling I find most fascinating is All Japan and New Japan sniping talent from each other. And still to this day there's a quality to watching the British Bulldogs in AJPW that makes me think "did this really happen??" But they fit in seamlessly and this match is a great example. Both teams cut off the ring nicely and both teams wrestle to their strengths. I feel like we've been bringing that fire back and forth with our match selections and this might be a bit more of a refreshing mint to cool the palette. But I'm all about those ebbs and flows and while this isn't a MOTY kind of encounter, it is a dream match that I was very satisfied with. And am still kind of amazed even happened in the first place.

JJZ: So I'm gonna start this with a question that I know I could just look up but I'll act like it's the 80s where that wasn't possible. Did Dynamite Kid hurt his back in AJPW or NJPW? Davey Boy really has had a crazy career. Having successful runs in 80s WWF, AJPW and NJPW. Then early 90s WWF and WCW. Then again in late 90s WWF. Dude has been around. Definitely have a classic build starting out here. Gotta point out real quick that this match gets extra points for being in my favorite AJPW ring. Love the red and blue split. Very nice tag match. Told a good story and everyone came out looking strong. I like the finish because honestly I didn't see it coming in the RWTL. Also love the connection between the two matches from Dynamite against a top NJPW star last week to Dynamite against top AJPW stars.

Transform From Koi Into A Beast, Dragon

Tatsumi Fujinami (c) VS Dynamite Kid - Stampede Wrestling WWF Junior Heavyweight Title 8/17/1979

JJZ: I've never been one to pretend to know more than I actually do, and late 70s early 80s wrestling is an area I'm not super knowledgeable in. So from my perspective this match is way ahead of it's time. A big reason I picked it besides it being very good is I'm eager to hear your thoughts. I do know that Dynamite was a trendsetter in the world of wrestling so that isn't much of a surprise to me. But what is a surprise is Fujinami in this match. If I had to describe him to someone it wouldn't be like this. So again CJD your point of view is something I'm excited for. Great back and forth in this match with a pumped crowd. The pops for little things really got me in this one. The quickness matched with the aggressiveness made for a captivating watch.

CJD: Trading voicemails back and forth leading up to finally making time for this match, I could hear a level of excitement in your voice that I knew meant you found something special. So first off big thanks to Nik Bali for the upload and an entire treasure trove of Stampede and AJPW goodness to explore. And yes, I think no matter what your familiarity of wrestling from this era, this is indeed a special kind of match. It immediately transports you to a moment in time. Fujinami's jacket! Dynamite's mop of hair! That crowd! This match rules. They are so hot for Fujinami and Dynamite is such a sly grimey heel. I wonder how he projects a believable grumpy bastard so effectively. Huh. Fujinami was definitely a bit of a different beast as a junior heavyweight but that babyface fire that we saw VS Vader is still very much his strong suit here. There's so much that stuck with me about this match that it's hard to recap. But I'll close my thoughts out with this. Consider when you watch this, that every bit of the psychology is built around beating the other man, and beating him badly. This is such an exciting, workrate focused match, which I think is what you're getting at John with how ahead of it's time it was. But they didn't lay this out to impress the crowd with the depths of their talent as performers, they executed this match to impress with their skill as competitors. They just happened while doing so to deliver a gangbusters spectacle of a performance. There's a lot to be learned in this one! And a lot to enjoy as fans.

Mason-Dixon Tri-state Outercontinental WWKD Champions #101-110

What crazy times we're all living through. Play It Forward started almost as a form of social distancing, to fill the gaping hole left by CJD and JJZ no longer getting to join each other in person for monthly wrestling viewing late night hang outs. As such it feels all that much more rewarding to us during times like these to keep that perpetual motion machine of pro wrestling positivity going, to maintain some semblance of normalcy that was already intended to help nurture a lifelong friendship turned long distance. And with all that in mind, this run of epic matches and imaginary champions was especially therapeutic for us the past few months!!

101. G-Raver
102. Matthew Justice

Not sure if these two are about the same age but they definitely are peers in terms of experience. And they're two of the best at what they do going right now. I was really happy to feature them back to back.

103. Nick Gage

How do you bridge the gap between two of the top current indy talents to an epic run of 90s greats? The motherfucking king, MDK all day, Nick FUCKING Gage, that's how!!

104. Psicosis
105. Eddie Guerrero
106. Tajiri
107. Rey Mysterio Jr
This is a dream Survivor Series team right here. We got into such a run of perfect TV matches with this group of all-timers, that it's easy to forget to the road that paved the way in was a Mexican DeathMatch where Psicosis and Gage bashed lighttubes over each other. And as always it's worth repeating, Eddie Guerrero is such a joy to watch perform. 

108. Dean Malenko

Is there a more fun wrestler to play as in video games? Dean is such a bad ass. I've seen some criticism over the years that he was more the product of working a technical gimmick that protected him rather than being a great technician himself. Bullshit. Give me a random Malenko match any day of the week. And twice on Sundays.

109. Steven Regal
110. Arn Anderson

Two of the rare technicians that can match Malenko mechanically. And boy do they match up beautifully against each other. Two great minds, two great performers, two great coaches, two greats, period.

Make The Masses A Mastadon Path

https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x7k8vrt

Tatsumi Fujinami (c) VS Big Van Vader - NJPW IWGP Heavyweight Championship 6/26/1988

CJD: I have a Vader/Fujinami match I want to play for your from the '90s when we can hang out again in person someday, but this will do nicely to set the table until then. This match requires a bit of an intro itself, as it's a rematch from a month prior where Fujinami won the vacant IWGP title. Vader ran roughshod and got disqualified for slamming the ref. Fujinami is going into his first defense with something to prove after winning the championship in a less than definitive manner. This has that classic Vader VS athletic, fiery, whitemeat, not too big not too small but juuust right babyface vibe that works so well. You gave me so many great options to pick from with your last match that it was hard to decide which direction to go in. This might not be the most dynamic response but I was thoroughly satisfied watching it. Curious to hear your thoughts.

JJZ: Why in the holy hell haven't you shown this to me back on one of those nights we stay up way too late watching wrestling?! This was fantastic. Right off the bat I must say that I know Vader has a bad rap for being stiffer than a teenage boy on prom night, but damn he bumped his ass off these last two matches. That crossbody that took both guys over the top was crazy. I think this match was worked in a way that made both wrestlers look better afterwards. Vader was such a monster while Fujinami kept the pass and worked to his strengths, selling for Vader so his offense looks even more devastating. Great pick.

The Horsemen Are Drawing Nearer

Ric Flair/Arn Anderson VS Big Van Vader/"Stunning" Steve Austin - WCW 11/13/1993

JJZ: The amount of great matches from WCW Saturday night seems endless. Now this match was billed as Flair and Sid vs Vader and Austin. Vader attacks Sid before the match starts and hurts him to the point that he can no longer compete in the match! Flair says he's hardcore he'll take them both on! But former friend apparently AA comes to join the fight! Now seeing all of this I had a zillion questions. I guess I always thought Flair and Arn were in the Horsemen when they were in WCW. Never knew Sid had a feud with Vader. Also never realized AA was a babyface at any point during the early 90s. All of that being said. This match was straight fire. Killer crowd, great heat between the four wrestlers, good tag team psychology and four men beating the shit out of each other! I had to check twice to make sure this was a WCW Saturday Night and not a Clash of Champions. This is one hell of a TV main event. And according to the commentators this is Arn's second match of the night. The MDTSOCWWKD champion was pulling double duty that night!

CJD: What a match! There's so much going on that I had to drop watching it twice to make sure I didn't miss anything. After finally giving it my undivided attention I loved it, but would have loved it even more if WCW hadn't given it away for free as an afterthought. But what else do we expect? This is where the big boys play and these are some big boys. Arn must have been having flashbacks to staying on the Road Warriors to get them to sell. By the same token, Flair really made Austin work for everything in this match and it added great realism. This match would be a great pick in wrestling school on a day where you're learning how to throw back elbows and take gnarly bumps over the ropes to the outside. The non-finish knocks this down a peg and it definitely went to the Well of Vader Corner Punches among other spots  one too many times. However we did get one of the all time great Flair post to post spots, straight out of a ROH match. Someone steal that superplex sequence!

Oh yeah, and Arn was great! That spinebuster! This was such a blast, thanks for sharing baby.

On The Throne Of The Regal Zone

Steven Regal (c) VS Arn Anderson - WCW Television Championship 10/9/1993

CJD: I know you have a great Regal VS AA match on an Anderson comp you got from Good Ol' Will. But I also know it ain't this one. And I hope you haven't seen this one, because it's a treat. This reminded me of your Rey/Tajiri match in a weird way. These two are such great opponents for each other but it's still almost a pleasant surprise to see them matched up with something substantial to work with like this. There are moments here that I had to rewind, tight hold for hold counters and transitions that are on par with any great UWF match. But with a heavy dose of the jingoistic Americana TV pro wrestling that we know and love. They also talk about your point of the 10 minute VS 15 minute TV title time limit which was a happy coincidence. Watching a match like this makes me think about star ratings and how they're irrelevant when watching pro wrestling purely for what entertains you. I wouldn't call this a five star match but at the same time I think Steven Regal and Arn Anderson were the perfect opponents for each other this Saturday Night.

JJZ: This is the second match I've watched with these two and I wish it was my 22nd. I'm not really surprised that they work so well with each other, I just never would've thought to have them matched up. The first thing I want to highlight is Arn's selling. You'd think he was having internal bleeding with the way he was selling his ribs. All the way till the end even playing into the finish. Second, Regal's facial expressions were fantastic. It looked like he was sucking on something sour for the entire match. Also they were able to take little turns that I didn't see coming. There were times that I thought Arn would get his shine then Regal would pop out with something to cut him off. And then there were times I thought Regal would keep his heat and Anderson would cut him off. Just a great television match.

Also! Sir William added some great heat that pissed you off, but since this match seemed like a one off Arn got his receipt afterwards. I liked that booking. Gotta stay strong brother.

I Used To Be An Iceman, Living In An Iceman Town

Steven Regal (c) VS Dean Malenko - WCW Television Championship 12/23/1996

JJZ: Yumma dum dum. Fun fact about JJZ. I used to fucking HATE Regal. I thought he was flat out boring when I was younger. In this match alone I see how much he influenced Chris Hero. And I fucking LOVE Chris Hero. So this match is exactly what I thought it might be and I'm so happy it was. Ever since Danial Bryan VS Drew Gulak from Elimination Chamber, I've been in the mood for some gritty technical wrestling. And these two bring that in spades. This is a TV title match and at one point they mention it's only a ten minute time limit. Now Chris, wasn't it always a 15 minute time limit? Maybe I'm wrong. Either way, this match was exactly what I was looking for.

CJD: 15 minutes on PPV I'm pretty sure. Heenan sounds like he's on his fifth or sixth scotch of the night, and still gives better insight into this match than Schiavone. And sneaks a choice dick joke in there. I'm not going to lie, I wasn't big on Regal until I was older either, and it's safe to say we both had our heads up our collective teenage asses on that one. I did love Stinko Malenko though, and one of the things I loved about WCW in general in this time period was how the Cruiserweight, Television, and United States titles always produced such under the radar high quality matches. So a Champion VS Champion match between those titles like this would have been right out of my *Prodigy message board fantasy booking playbook, but I have no recollection of this match. And it's not the most memorable, but damn it's good. This is one where they are so similar stylistically I wasn't sure how it would play out. It made for some awkward moments in a good way. It always felt like they were fighting each other for control, even when they were trading flips and cartwheels. They fit a lot into this match and I liked they way they finished it as well. Very nice find.

(SPOILERS below...)

Mr Mysterious Is Serious And Delirious

https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1ba2bl

Rey Mysterio Jr VS Dean Malenko - WCW 6/21/1997

CJD: You know I have weird wrestling dreams pretty often. And I completely forgot until I was awake for a few hours this morning that I had a dream about a Dean Malenko shoot interview last night where he talked about a match (that I'm sure never took place) he had VS Jerry Lawler once. But the dream came back to me as I sat down to find the Rey match I was going to play forward to you. I don't think we'll ever find that Dean VS Lawler match, but it did motivate me to try to find a great Mysterio VS Malenko match we hadn't seen before. Well sometimes dreams do come true John. This had ups and downs and some of Rey's execution wasn't perfect. Those German ropes and all. But what was perfect was his selling, as he used every inch of his body to tell the story of his heart and spirit refusing to let him quit when Malenko had beaten him well past the point any of us would keep fighting. I love the chemistry these two had (especially with Hildebrand in there with them) and I love that we have footage of this gem of a match.

JJZ: This match was very different for a WCW cruiserweight match but not in a negative way. Usually it's a fantastic car crash but not this match. I think they knew the crowd wouldn't get bored with the layering and build to Rey's hope spots. I don't think Dean was a heel around this time but he wrestled with such aggressiveness that it came across that way. He didn't do anything underhanded but just worked like the baddest mfer in the room. I can't imagine someone watching this and not pulling for Mysterio when he sprung to life. The commentators mixed with the way it was filmed made for a hidden gem feel indeed. Loved the pick baby. Excited to see where this takes me.

Would You Kick Me In The Face, Please?

https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x3ims4n

Rey Mysterio Jr (c) VS Tajiri - WWE Cruiserweight Championship 9/4/2003

JJZ: Staying with the shorties. Staying in 2003. Staying with Smackdown. Staying in the Ruthless Aggression era. This was the first match I watched for our new MDTSOCWWKD Champion, then I watched about 7 more matches and nothing was this good and highlighted how well Tajiri could hang with the greats. This car crash of a match kept the crowd on the edge of their seats and made you feel like you got your moneys worth. For me there was a couple "I've never seen that before!" moments which still shocks me with the amount of wrestling I've watched in my lifetime. These last 3 matches have really shown the art of having a great TV match. And damn, Tajiri was over. His spots got huge pops. He'd be worth a deep dive during this time. Excited to see where you take us next.

CJD: Something about this match existing puts a huge smile on my face. I was watching blue trunks Yoshihiro Tajiri in BJW in the late 90s thinking "this guy is going to be great," and Rey wasn't exactly a diamond in the rough but to go from the Filthy Animals to this in less than 5 years is remarkable. We've pretty much covered the blueprint for how to have a great 10 minute TV match in the past few weeks and it's no surprise considering we've had 3 of the best TV wrestlers of all-time between Eddie, Tajiri, and Rey. I'm sure one of those spots that popped you here was that tope Rey uncorked. Jesus. Sometimes I feel like calling a match "fun" is a cop-out because you don't have to get any deeper than that, but what can I say, this match was really fun. If every week could be a Cruiserweight Championship match between Rey Mysterio Jr and Tajiri the world would be a better place.

Got A Average Of Being Excellent, The Median Just Dope

Eddie Guerrero (c) VS Tajiri - WWE US Championship Match 7/31/2003

CJD: We're sticking with the short and sweet theme this week. It's refreshing after featuring some big, violent, plunder-filled matches recently. As with most Eddie matches, there's so much to love here. One of the qualities that made him an all-timer was that he was much more than the sum of his parts. There's great character, there's great action, things that surprise you, things that play out exactly how you're hoping. I didn't want to stop watching him wrestle and pick a match, but as soon as I saw how this one started, and that it was given a chance to shine, I knew it was going to win out in the end. But man do I hope we double back this trail on our journey. When it comes to Ruthless Aggression these guys might not be the names you first associate with it. But this Smackdown crew was absolutely the reason WWE was still worth watching in this time period.

JJZ: Hot start with Eddie getting a taste of his own medicine. Loving all these refs with the early 2000s blonde highlights. Tajiri had some great matches in WWE. Well, again Eddie shows why he is among the greatest. A complete story with flawless psychology, a call back to the beginning of the match, and a great finish. All under 10 minutes. Jesus. And Tajiri adds great high spots and excellent strikes that made me believe he could win the match beating Eddie at his own game. Loved this match. No matter if anyone is in the seats I wish Smackdown would produce this kind of stuff today.

Editor's note: This match has been taken down since we originally shared it. We'll check back periodically to see if we can find a new link. We apologize for the inconvenience!