Scott's Blog of Doom
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Kings Road

By Scott Keith on 3 July 2022

Hey Scott!
18 year reader here. Thanks for all the entertainment over the years.

Email for your thoughts – I've been trying to dig up and watch the Cagematch top 100 this year to round out my own top 100 with (I've watched around 50 so far), and it's made me realize that I must be more of a fan of showmanship than “sport” when it comes to pro wrestling, b/c I have a really hard time getting into the 90s AJPW matches. The tag-matches are fun enough (increased action), but as for the singles, I'm finding them to be a fairly tedious watch.

I get that they're legitimately knocking each other's blocks off and dropping each other on their heads more than we would ever tolerate in a modern context, but that's not enough to make them entertaining for my tastes.

What say you, Blog King? Do they hold up, was it a time & place thing, is there maybe some key piece of info I'm missing that's necessary to enjoy them more, or is it nothing more than a minority opinion on my part?

Thanks and hope the summer is treating you well thus far.

I'm with you, my brother. For the 90s Japan stuff, my interests really only ever came from the New Japan junior heavyweight stuff. I could appreciate the technique of the All Japan fellas dropping each other on their heads and I love a good lariat comeback sell, but I just couldn't get into the matches. And not for lack of trying, I had a LOT of All Japan tapes. That said being, I goddamn LOVED Muta's 2000 comeback and his plodding matches with Tenryu and those guys where it was “dragon screw, figure-four, Shining Wizard” for 20 minutes and I'm unapologetic for it. I'm complex that way.