[WOOLCOCK]

Originally Posted by Yeah1993

Where WAS Dragon in 2003? Watching 2003 ROH I'm up to November and he's shown up like 3 times. Where did he work? I assumed he was doing NOAH, was he in the US?

I recall a few ROH matches I liked tbh, the London Ironman from Epic Encounter being the pinnacle of the year. Truth be told not many guys jumped out to me from America as WOTY (maybe Eddie for his tag work with Tajiri and then the lie, cheat, steal gimmick) and Danielson was a guy I remembered from a few matches (I want to say there's a Joe match from 2003 that I quite enjoyed) and figured was the best shout I could think of at the time. Pretty sure he was relegated to Japan for a lot of the year and maybe the odd Indy show, never been too enthralled with his early Japan work but he was stuck in a lot of tags with guys who were pretty shit and even the best match from that time (a Kanemoto match from 2004) barely reaches 10 minutes.

Good shout on Benoit for 98 and 99, he's probably the only guy from America I'd consider match wise. Honestly though trying to think of someone even from Japan/Lucha was a nightmare for those two years. BattlARTS was pretty great from the little I've seen, but aside from the odd Misawa and Kawada match, I can't think of too much New Japan/All Japan I've watched from that time frame.

EDIT:

If we're discussing bad finishes/matches that disappoint us, I want to find the agent who layed out Angle/Rey/Orton from WM22 and shoot him. Fuck it was probably Angle directing traffic in there. Clueless bastard. I mean we get Orton/Mysterio NWO being very good, Smackdown 4/7 being AMAZING and Angle/Taker NWO being a top 3 Angle match ever...and yet on the grandest stage we get one of the most dire choreographed matches in existence, with the added bonus of the underdog babyface looking like a little bitch to Angle. I want to say Rey even taps to an Ankle Lock when the ref is down? If I'm not mixing it up with another match they had..that just makes the entire debacle even more absurd.

[Yeah1993]

Dragon had maybe two fun matches with Joe, then the really good London and Styles matches. IDK, doesn't feel like a Best in America catalogue, but I see some argument because there doesn't seem to be too many to contend with him. I think I prefer Corino and Homicide to Dragon that year, though. But I wouldn't call them Best in US guys either. There's other Indy guys like Ian Rotten that get a lot of praise, but I've seen none of it. Eddie's a good pick. I'd say Lesnar is probably fucking with the best of them but I don't really dig the Angle matches. That's a series I should re-watch soon. 2003 kind of sucked worldwide, didn't it?

I'd say Ishikawa was the best wrestler in the world in 1998. Maybe 1999 as well but I want to watch the Tajiris and Yoshidas and other peeps that get talk as WOTY first. 98-99 NJ/AJ is a bit of a blind-spot for me as well, but I've seen the big Misawa/Kobashi Misawa/Kawadas from then, and they're not really great at all.

[Obfuscation]

Whenever I look back on 1998 and try to sum up the wrestlers that had a good year all that comes to mind was WCW's awesome midcard: Benoit, Jericho, Finlay, Raven, DDP, Saturn, Kanyon, Guerrera, Kidman(more in the latter half of the year)

Sadly I don't recall Eddie having too much strong stuff at that time. '98 was nothing compared to his '97.

[Yeah1993]

Yeah WCW had some really good shit. Eddie had some awesome tags that year. His feud with Chavo wasn't too great, but they had a really good match at a house show. Liked the Kidman match a Starrcade.

[WOOLCOCK]

Lesnar isn't a bad shout tbf, even if you discount the Cena series he's got the Mysterio and Benoit Smackdown matches as well as the really good Judgement Day match vs Big Show. Couple of really outrageous heel performances against Spanky and Gowen in the build up to Summerslam as well. Truth be told I'm not terribly high on the Angle series, I'd call them better than your average Angle match but they're a long mile away from his best matches against Austin, Taker and Mysterio.

Aye Danielson really was just about the only guy that came to mind when I tried to think of best US wrestler. Homicide and Corino I've seen nothing of from that timeframe, though I hear good reports from Jawbreaker and others about their series. Think its the Best Friends, Stiffer Enemies match which gets a ton of praise.

Joe was someone I considered but aside from the awesome Jay Briscoe cage match (you seen that btw? awesome sub 15 minute title match) I couldn't think of many matches from 03 of his I've seen and enjoyed immensely.

Rotten/Hero is probably the most overlooked match from 2002, and I really want to watch that other Rotten match Andy wrote about for the poll which he said was better than Hero/Rotten. Think its on a Schneider Comp if memory serves me right.

Yeah Ishikawa stood out from some of the Otsuka and Ikeda matches I've seen from 98/99, seems like wrestling as a whole was pretty subdued in those years.

[Choke2Death]

Lesnar is the guy I wanted to shout for 2003 from WWE. I even liked his match with Cena. The stuff with Big Show were great as was the matches with Kurt Angle. And he closed the year on a great note with the Benoit and Mysterio matches.

[Yeah1993]

Originally Posted by Segunda Caida

Joe was someone I considered but aside from the awesome Jay Briscoe cage match (you seen that btw? awesome sub 15 minute title match) I couldn't think of many matches from 03 of his I've seen and enjoyed immensely..

Nup, haven't seen Joe/Briscoe. I think I just watched the last show before it where Cornette teamed with the Briscoes and attacked Joe. Cage match is probably next. Good call on Joe, btw. Had really fun stuff all year and I don't think him being USWOTY is out of the question. He is kind of missing those big matches. He's probably the most consistent I've seen, I guess.

[JOAL.com]

Lesnar's iron man match with Kurt was pretty kewl

i like how he used the steel chair to fuck up kurt and then easily make up for it

[WOOLCOCK]

Originally Posted by Yeah1993

Nup, haven't seen Joe/Briscoe. I think I just watched the last show before it where Cornette teamed with the Briscoes and attacked Joe. Cage match is probably next. Good call on Joe, btw. Had really fun stuff all year and I don't think him being USWOTY is out of the question. He is kind of missing those big matches. He's probably the most consistent I've seen, I guess.

I think you'll really dig it. Briscoe blades a ton and it gets pretty sick by the end (including a pretty disgusting visual of his skin hanging off his forehead), but during this you have Joe excelling as the Champion dominating only to grow frustrated by Jay's resiliency and eventually he shifts into a fearful and apprehensive champion who starts to believe he might have underestimated Briscoe. Jay's terrific working as the disrespectful heel who's tough enough to keep fighting and hit his spots for a comeback, and they even work a really nifty escape the cage attempt by Mark on the outside who then eats a sick bump on the hardwood floor.

Any Joe matches you can recommend? Aside from a Danielson match and that one his 03 is a blank spot for me.

[JOAL.com]

anyone seen the final punk title defence four way at ROH?

that match was great