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So it's been asked for, and I kind of ended up stumped on how to present/OP a thread for just reacting to classic matches and shows. So welcome to a thread that asks a simple question: What classic wrestling are you watching? Let us know if it is good, bad, cool, dumb, or the wwf in the mid 2000s. What you think about it, and (if you can) where you are checking it out. Use as few or as many words as you want,  What to Watch: Classic in this case means like, older than a year I guess. cool matches from this year should be recommended in the respective threads talking about them I guess or the Match of the Year thread, but it doesn't really matter. Classic wrestling is whatever you think it is. Where to Watch: If you've got any regular sources of classic wrestling matches, also let me know about those and I'll put links to them here. (as people get information to me about stuff, like there is a Roku channel that I know people watch but don't know the details myself, maybe there are some twitch streams, or something like Tuesday Nitro being brought back that people know of. ) J-Ro's NOAH Journey: forums user J-Ro runs a show by show rewatch of Pro-Wrestling NOAH weekly. - Sundays 1pm ET: http://psp-tv.com/r/PuroForPyros
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Mar 24, 2021 19:42
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Gonna break this thread open with a super cool match from WAR in 1992 that is way better than you're thinking it's going to be https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pXE9OWyfSXs 25 minutes of stiff kicks and not much else
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Mar 24, 2021 19:57
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Les Kellet vs Leon Arras. One of the best comedy matches ever. Works best of you're used to the British style of wrestling, but benefits from having master thesspian Brian Glover as Leon Arras. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r_zPH3u65H8
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Mar 24, 2021 20:17
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I rewatched the incredible Aja Kong vs Bull Nakano cage match from Nov of 1990, it is an absolute masterpiece of two wrestlers just beating the absolute dogshit out of each other. Content warning: blood, some stabbings, moderate hangings https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ABIm0J9R6fc
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Mar 24, 2021 20:20
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I just watched the 2016 Rev Pro match between Chris Hero & Tomohiro Ishii & gently caress. Rules. Such a hot crowd, two great talents arguably at or near their peak, they beat the hell out of each other. Just a great sub-20 minute war.
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Mar 24, 2021 21:46
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apparently not everyone is as big of a fan of it as I am from when I mentioned it recently in a different thread, but I go back and watch the invisible man vs invisible stan match once or twice a year https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cslu7zFmPjM&t=22s it's the match where i went 'man, bryce remsburg is a treasure' and i still think it's a gimmick pulled off very very well
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Mar 24, 2021 22:01
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flatluigi posted:apparently not everyone is as big of a fan of it as I am from when I mentioned it recently in a different thread, but I go back and watch the invisible man vs invisible stan match once or twice a year That match is an absolute delight. Yeah, it's hokey, but as an entertainment for a wrestling-literate crowd it simply cannot be beat.
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Mar 24, 2021 22:03
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I have been watching both nights of ROH's Weekend of Thunder. ROH, like CZW, didn't have a deep enough roster for doubleheaders, but it's hard to blame them for doing them when fans were willing to buy tickets. Plus, I'm sure that it helped with the tickets and booking fee for Liger. The best match, by far was Daniel Bryan vs Jushin Liger. If you go into it expecting an epic match that would be the best you could imagine of the two, you would be bummed coming out of it. But if you go into it expecting a fun match between two guys who can go, it's a really good time: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eK5rwHdw4GE
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Mar 24, 2021 22:53
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McMemphis, the original dry run for the Mr.Mcmahon character https://m.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLED2fOPlTuwdvYw_ioMFYhr6L0XSx4Tz_ Lawler defends Memphis from Vince and his WWE guys.
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Mar 24, 2021 23:07
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El Gallinero Gros posted:McMemphis, the original dry run for the Mr.Mcmahon character I haven't seen that in ages. A dude online was kind enough to make me a burned copy of that on old CDRs in the late 90's, which was cool, since I never had poo poo to trade. I love interpromotional poo poo. Even when the power dynamic is skewed like USWA/WWE or AEW/Impact, it's just cool seeing people where they aren't supposed to be.
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Mar 24, 2021 23:13
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collocation posted:I haven't seen that in ages. A dude online was kind enough to make me a burned copy of that on old CDRs in the late 90's, which was cool, since I never had poo poo to trade. I love interpromotional poo poo. Even when the power dynamic is skewed like USWA/WWE or AEW/Impact, it's just cool seeing people where they aren't supposed to be. The promos once a certain cowboy hat wearing fellow gets involved are amazing. "3 things you can count on in life: Death, taxes, and Randy Savage
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Mar 24, 2021 23:18
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d0xXw7yjeVM i rewatched this Rikidozan vs The Destroyer match the other day. Rikidozan is alright but The Destroyer is the real star in this match, he's so incredibly good. Dick Beyer is one of those guys like Terry Funk that I think could get over in any company, any era.
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Mar 24, 2021 23:44
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El Gallinero Gros posted:McMemphis, the original dry run for the Mr.Mcmahon character I watched the Wrestling with Wregret episode on this and thought it was really well done. A piece of wrestling history I had no idea existed until recently.
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Mar 25, 2021 03:39
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El Gallinero Gros posted:McMemphis, the original dry run for the Mr.Mcmahon character this is fascinating
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Mar 25, 2021 04:22
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Lamuella posted:That match is an absolute delight. Yeah, it's hokey, but as an entertainment for a wrestling-literate crowd it simply cannot be beat. The best is the crowd booing when Bryce pulls on the gloves to check a cut. Also the hatred for Invisible Stan's entrance.
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Mar 25, 2021 04:59
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World Championship Wrestling Except its not that WCW This waa the Australian WCW dating back to the 50s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9jLd6Tym7zw
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Mar 25, 2021 06:05
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Lamuella posted:Les Kellet vs Leon Arras. One of the best comedy matches ever. Works best of you're used to the British style of wrestling, but benefits from having master thesspian Brian Glover as Leon Arras.
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Mar 25, 2021 12:45
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rwbgsrcBNik Midnight Rockers vs Buddy Rose & Doug Somers A brutal war with Shawn and Marty covered in blood and absolutely bumping and selling their asses off. it's always weird to say that a wrestling match looks like a fight because none of them actually do, but matches like this do really get close. It has such a chaotic, violent elegance to it while still not looking choreographed in the slightest don't expect a great finish tho
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Mar 26, 2021 16:53
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https://twitter.com/WCollector78/status/1244582785437691904 enjoy 2 minutes of Billy Crystal making Hogan and Mr. T absolutely lose it
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Mar 31, 2021 18:11
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I'm about halfway through ROH All Star Extravaganza II 2004 I'm sure that the Punk vs Joe match at the end will blow me away, but there are some neat little things on the relatively lowkey undercard. Colt Cabana gets to interview, rescue, and then be managed by Bobby Heenan, which had to be massive for him, as evidenced by his facial expression:  After watching another one of the early Lacey promos in which she bullies Special K, I'm convinced that she's top 10 promowise up to 2004 in ROH, possibly top 3-5. And I'm currently watching my favorite indy guy who didn't make it to "the majors", Trent Acid, wrestle Jerk Jackson who, had I not looked him up on Cagematch, I would never have realized was Bobby Fish. He was pretty drat aerial for his build at the time, but he literally looks like an entirely different guy: 
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Apr 3, 2021 10:21
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Everybody knows that Punk Vs Joe III was great, but Danielson Vs Homicide (II iirc) was loving amazing. It was possibly better and very much worth going out of your way to see.
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Apr 3, 2021 20:45
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I just watched the end of Samoa Joe's ROH title reign and, even ignoring everything that has transpired with the guy in the last few years, they seriously ended the 80 year reign with loving Austin Aries? This seems really underwhelming. Did it seem so at the time?
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Apr 8, 2021 19:14
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collocation posted:I just watched the end of Samoa Joe's ROH title reign and, even ignoring everything that has transpired with the guy in the last few years, they seriously ended the 80 year reign with loving Austin Aries? This seems really underwhelming. Did it seem so at the time? No. Gen Next were a hot act, whoever beat Joe for the belt was taking a huge scalp & was getting a lot of cred from it. It elevated Aries, it re-established the idea that upsets can & do happen in ROH a couple years after Xavier beat Low-Ki, & most importantly for 2004/5 ROH, Aries held up the high expectations for match quality. So yeah, I think the booking made sense at the time.
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Apr 8, 2021 19:28
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Yeah Austin Aries was over in the 00s, it wasn't really until his TNA run that things went sour
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Apr 8, 2021 20:21
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Rarity posted:Yeah Austin Aries was over in the 00s, it wasn't really until his TNA run that things went sour My first exposure to Aries was as Austin Starr, so that could be hurting my perception a bit. Do you think that they thought that he was a better fit than Punk or Bryan? Or was it possible that they felt that those two just didn't need the belt? It could be that I'm upgrading them in retrospect and that people didn't see as much in them yet. Aries was a better talker than Bryan at the time and a better worker than Punk, so I'm thinking that maybe he seemed like the best of both worlds to an extent. Thinking about it, I guess that there were way more fresh matches for Aries than for either of those two also. I didn't get to see much Homicide before I started my retro watch and I'm kind of wishing that he got a run. He just seems the most real out of everyone. It seems like operating against the constraint of having their guys constantly signed away worked for ROH for a certain amount of years. Now that they have some top guys that no one seems to want to take, it's given them consistency, but that hasn't entirely been for the best.
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Apr 8, 2021 20:31
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collocation posted:My first exposure to Aries was as Austin Starr, so that could be hurting my perception a bit. I dunno how much you've seen or aware of so don't want to go into it, but to go back to December 2004 mindset, Punk didn't need to be the guy to end Joe's reign, nor did Bryan. They were both already big deals in the company. Austin Aries was real good but not at that level in the crowds mind. Beating Joe for the title made him a big deal in the eyes of fans. It made real sense. Gen Next really were over.
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Apr 8, 2021 20:44
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forkboy84 posted:I dunno how much you've seen or aware of so don't want to go into it, but to go back to December 2004 mindset, Punk didn't need to be the guy to end Joe's reign, nor did Bryan. They were both already big deals in the company. Austin Aries was real good but not at that level in the crowds mind. Beating Joe for the title made him a big deal in the eyes of fans. It made real sense. I remember being shocked as I thought if anybody was going to get the belt off Joe from Gen Next it'd be Alex Shelley, but I've always thought Shelley could be a HUGE star. Two things stopped him: TNA being dumb as rocks and injuries.
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Apr 8, 2021 21:33
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forkboy84 posted:I dunno how much you've seen or aware of so don't want to go into it, but to go back to December 2004 mindset, Punk didn't need to be the guy to end Joe's reign, nor did Bryan. They were both already big deals in the company. Austin Aries was real good but not at that level in the crowds mind. Beating Joe for the title made him a big deal in the eyes of fans. It made real sense. I'm basically watching the shows in a vacuum, so any info that would be clear to someone contemporary is interesting to me. I've watched all of the ROH shows up until this one, aside from a really brutal seeming JAPW co-show and a couple trainee shows without commentary. I plan to go up to about 2012-2015 if I don't quit my weird watch everything (WWE, TNA, ROH, CZW, PWG, and, when I get there, AAW, Beyond, Evolve, and DGUSA) quest by then. At one point, I had a basic knowledge of who got the title and didn't, but I've managed to forget the details to enough of an extent that I was actually surprised that Punk didn't eventually take the title from Joe. El Gallinero Gros posted:I remember being shocked as I thought if anybody was going to get the belt off Joe from Gen Next it'd be Alex Shelley, but I've always thought Shelley could be a HUGE star. Two things stopped him: TNA being dumb as rocks and injuries. I only sporadically saw TNA when I tuned in to wrestling and was like "not for me" during his peak there. He seemed like the perfect answer to what they needed. A guy who would wrestle X division style and do comedy and promos. I don't know if the Nash stuff was ultimately helpful, but it seemed like he was being groomed for something. When I got back into wrestling while he was in ROH, it seemed weird that he was mostly just a straight workrate guy. I know that ROH was a more serious promotion, but they had other people doing fun stuff and character work, but whenever I saw him, it seemed like it was unfortunately just matches. I'll be able to tell better when I watch his career more comprehensively, but he seemed like a guy who could be a main eventer somewhere big when I caught him in the past. Even during my retro watch, when he first was doing stuff nationally and doing guest commentary early on while feuding with Jimmy Jacobs in CZW, he seemed way beyond any of the workrate/X/ROH guys on the mic.
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Apr 8, 2021 22:35
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Attitude Era definitely had lovely undercards and good main events. I'm re-watching Wrestlemania 14 and its mostly poo poo. I still really like Ken Shamrock's gimmick; could have been great if his "snapped" look didn't resemble a dog's after farting itself awake Taker-Kane is loving trash, but great build. It's amazing Kane ever got over and wasn't just a one-off Taker program.
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Apr 9, 2021 00:36
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This Takeshita comedy match linked by Dramatic DDT on Twitter is so well executed I would have listed it as an HM and conveniently shows why closed fists should be banned in wrestling https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GJrjVjuWwr4
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Apr 13, 2021 13:39
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Austin Aries v Alex Shelley at Manhattan Mayhem is one of the underrated classics of the 00s.
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Apr 13, 2021 13:44
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I'm currently watching the buildup to Nash Vs Jarrett in 2005 TNA: Not having ever seen the match, I think it's safe to say that I won't be recommending it after watching. However, the build is basically "this time Nash is going to try" because he's serious "this time." And, it kind of reminds me of a sort of proto-Orange thing, but without the requisite buys. (Oh yeah, and you can tell he's serious this time because he dyed his hair.) I always enjoyed Nash in WCW (and shoots), but I hadn't realized that it had gotten to the point where his not making an effort had entered kayfabe by 2005. He was the biggest (in a couple regards) star that they had at various points, but outside of some funny comedy segments, did he ever do anything that mattered in TNA? I'd like to see Nash in a 2021 feud with Orange over who cared less about their match.
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Apr 25, 2021 12:00
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Having received 4.75 stars back when that was a pretty rare thing, the real main event of the show will almost certainly be great, but I didn't know that it was possible to make match graphics this bad:
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Apr 25, 2021 12:08
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The early 2000 indies have some gloriously bad graphics, it's wonderful. Someone (abigfatbunny) post the poo poo CZW was doing for their shows in like 2003
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Apr 25, 2021 16:30
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Oh hey I was wondering if there was a thread like this. I searched up some really old golden era 1950's matches and it tuned my youtube algo to feed me a steady diet of classic wrestling which I'm just loving, especially the late 80's / early 90's WCW era, and the territories poo poo from the early 80's right now I'm watching this, which is incredibly striking because it's shot on film, which is an INSANELY loving COOL LOOK FOR WRESTLING, like even just regular wrestling, would love to see AEW do a filmed event in the ring https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=30CExpM6T2E
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May 28, 2021 18:48
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bumping this thread to tell you all that ive been watching a boat load of early 80s stuff and its the best. I watched these two matches with breakfast. This tag match could happen on dynamite and get 4 stars https://njpwworld.com/p/s_series_00030_4_1 this is the 1st Terry Hansen match not the best but the end is so good. Hansen is just fighting everyone! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PRuvEkanCYU
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May 16, 2023 15:27
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Suplex Liberace posted:bumping this thread to tell you all that ive been watching a boat load of early 80s stuff and its the best. I watched these two matches with breakfast. This tag match could happen on dynamite and get 4 stars  they're just beating the poo poo out of each other lmfao this should be the Mox / Kenny finale
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May 16, 2023 22:18
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speaking of beating the poo poo out of each other. Rewatched https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dk3g2EkFo00 maybe the best match from 1980 that ive seen. These two are brutal, Yokatas working over Satos hand and finger. Sato busting out some gnarly suplexs and backbreakers to destroy her in response. This feels like a fight and the crowd is loving it by the end.
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May 18, 2023 20:09
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