Let Me Tell You Something!: Recent Episodes
Chess Club Rebels
0:00 - Intro
7:40 - Chi-Town Rumble, 20-02-1989
36:15 - Landover, Maryland house show, 18-03-1989
1:01:53 - Clash of the Champions VI, 02-04-1989
1:37:55 - WrestleWar'89, 07-05-1989
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@0:00 - Intro
@9:00 - Wrestle Kingdom 11, 04-01-2017
@54:10 - Dominion 6.11 in Osaka-jo Hall, 11-06-2017
@1:45:35 - G1 Climax, 12-08-2017
@2:09:04 - Dominion 6.9 in Osaka-jo Hall, 09-06-2018
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227 - Will Ospreay vs. Josh Alexander (TNA, 14-01-2024)
228 - Bryan Danielson vs. Zack Sabre Jr. (NJPW, 11-02-2024)
229 - Will Ospreay vs. Michael Oku (RPW, 18-02-2024)
230 - Will Ospreay vs. Konosuke Takeshita (AEW, 03-03-2024)
231 - Will Ospreay vs. Kyle Fletcher (AEW, 06-03-2024_
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I'm so bad at this.
Go and seek out Sikisa. She's good at this.
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I can't sleep straight after I've eaten and you don't really want to conquer on an empty stomach, so I would say 'Eat, Conquer, Sleep, Repeat'
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We cut out a long conversation that covered beyblades and (somewhat inevitably) Dunston Checks In. So this is all the stuff that we thought was worth listening to.
...I know.
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How did none of us suggest Triple H tarring in a Sledgehammer video?
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Those who were there knew we were in the good old days before we left them.
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It's good, but it's no Butterfly Effect.
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It's a long one. But it's worth the investment.
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Who's zoomin' who? Well, we're Skyping the fantastic wrestling writer and journalist John Lister!
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The most upsetting thing about this match is that we're entering the era of Dad Bod Tanahashi
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After Lars von Trier saw this film, he immediately started work on a biopic of 'Fighting' Jake Fletcher.
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Ch-ch-ch-changes
222 - Katsuhiko Nakajima vs. Kento Miyahara (AJPW, 31-12-2023)
223 - Kazuchika Okada vs. Bryan Danielson (NJPW, 04-01-2024)
224 - Mascara Dorada vs. Templario (CMLL, 05-01-2024)
225 - Jon Moxley vs. Shingo Takagi (NJPW, 13-01-2024)
226 - Kazuchika Okada vs. Will Ospreay (NJPW, 13-01-2024)
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Things are getting sloppy around here
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See the match before the movie!
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MILHOUSE: I didn't know Adam Page is a gypsy!
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He had the whole wrestling world in his hand
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Can dogs actually suck eggs?
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Will things ever be the same again?
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Their manager? Larry N. Gitis.
He spits green mist at their opponents.
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The Zenith Data Systems Cup Final of this series
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We edited out a whole bit where we came up with gimmick matches for each anniversary year
1st (Paper) = A match where you can inflict papercuts on your opponent with pieces of paper and card of differing sizes around the ring
2nd (Cotton) = A version of the First Blood match where the wrestler who gets a jar full of cotton buds covered in their opponent's blood wins the match
3rd (Leather) = Leather strap match. Boring.
4th (Fruit) = A match where you have to smash a coconut over your opponents head (Maybe put it at the top of a tree/pole)
5th (Wood) = Tables match.
6th (Iron) = Iron Man match. Or Nigel and Danielson can use Nigel's iron he used to carry with him to the ring
Bet you wish you could just sit in on the full recording sessions, don't you?
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Richard Dawkins is an egg sucking dog!
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Who's gonna drive your head tonight? Who's gonna clean your drool when you eat?
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Isn't the chin part of the head?
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Not even Anadin Extra will cure that splitting headache.
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We edited out a few of the religious gimmick match suggestions. Probably for the best.
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I originally edited out the Get Hard discussion. But then I listened to our outro.
We need to sort out these digressions. Maybe Taz can help us out.
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In this modern world it's absurd to commit to just one five-star match for a whole episode. We're supposed to five-star around as a species.
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Spit on my face and tell me that you love me.
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We recorded this so long ago Adam Blampied was a topical reference.
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"I'm gonna start throwing stars around. And if you have to watch matches because of those stars it's your OWN fault!"
"Oh yeah? Well I'm going to start disagreeing with things to an extent. And if your opinions happen to be what I disagree with to an extent, it's YOUR own fault."
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Never kissed a Tory. Might have kissed a dickhead.
Not in that way!
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Dreams can come true. Look at me, dickhead, I'm with you. You know you've got to have hope. You know you've got to be strong (style).
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At least one person involved in this is smiling
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Children! Children! Future! Future! Children of the future! KIDS!
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"You can open one present on Christmas Eve. And don't just pick the bigge-- you picked the biggest one."
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He's a rebel, I tell ya. A rebel without a cause. Just like that boy in that popular movie we saw.
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Thank you for kneeing a friend.
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The collective shoe budget of these men would solve the housing crisis!
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Our drink of recommendation for this episode is a blackcurrant Ribena
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Gohon'noyubi wa kao ni nan to itta nodesu ka? Hirateuchi!
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Fifteen minutes of this recording was edited out of this for being too silly.
Think about that.
"Come over, quick! There was a game of beer pong between accounts and two of the warehouse guys and everything's gone apeshit!"
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Look in my eyes, what do you see?
A nacho tray with extra cheese
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Hook it to our veins. Shove it up our noses.
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"On the bass: Derek Smalls... he wrote this"
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The kids have started playing on Okada's lawn and Okada's started launching chairs at them! So one of the kids has brought his big brother and his big brother's even bigger mate to even things up.
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From piledrivers to screwdrivers, you'll get them all in this one!
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I think we're all surprised to be here for this match. Wato most of all.
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The original Superstar defends his title against Dusty Rhodes in front of a packed-out Madison Square Garden. The recently departed Graham is arguably one of the most influential figures in wrestling history, and this feud has been used as a key reference point in the main event of this year's WrestleMania. But don't worry, we don't get into that.
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Have you ever seen a one-legged dog making it's way down the street? If so, please send me video footage because there's no way you didn't film that.
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This could really blow up.
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Two of these four main evented a WrestleMania?!
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Ironically, we barely mention The Authority
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A symphony of violence. A ditty of destruction. A haggis of hard knocks.
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So what do you guys want to talk about?
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Pro wrestling crosses over with gritty US cable drama in the form of Lucha Underground. Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) discuss the match that first introduced Io Sharai and Kairi Sane (along with fellow Joshi great Mayu Iwatani) to American audiences as they are hired to attack the man who broke the arm of the group's titular leader, and the breakout star of the four seasons of the Lucha Underground show, the man with zero fear himself: Pentagón Jr., in his dark alter ego.
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Let's all shut up
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It takes an hour to talk about an hour, but Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) also take their time to not just address the first Iron Man match to get the five-star (plus) rating from Meltzer, and the first MJF match to also get one too, so you've got to talk about the Iron Man match concept itself, and MJF the character and performer.
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The first of two matches from the 2023 AEW Revolution pay-per-view that Meltzer gave at least five stars, we open with Jon Moxley inviting "Hangman" Adam Page into his domain of death matches. It should be pointed out that a large number of the weapons used in this match would fall under the umbrella of eligible as that Good Housekeeping match between Jeff Jarrett and Chyna. But Lorcan (@lorcamullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) failed to point this out in the episode.
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The wrestling landscape in 2001 was in a constant state of flux. With no ECW to draw in the more anti-mainstream wrestling fan there was a clear vaccum in need of being filled. All across the US, and even beyond, little scenes were forming. It came down to Roland Alexander's APW to bring together many of the top rated unsigned talents plying their trades in the north-east, California, the deep south, and even the UK, and have a two-night tournament to crown the "King of the Indies". The presence of Nick Bockwinkel led to a change in plans, and the final pitted recent Shawn Michaels Texas Academy standout "American Dragon" Bryan Danielson and the north-east's most popular shoot-fighting influenced diminutive badass since Taz in Lo-Ki (or Loki or Low Ki or later Senshi and Kaval, or to many others who came to know him "that p***k"). It was a rematch of that other talent spotter of the late 90s/early 00s indie scene, the ECWA Super 8 final.
This was the event that helped convinced Rob Feinstein and Gabe Sapolsky to start up their own Ring of Honor promotion less than six months later, with the first two events' main events featuring Dragon and Ki. And now, twenty-two years later, we are where we are now.
Quite the journey, huh? Well, join Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) as they go back to that APW show to see how things changed and what was happening in that moment to beckon all the changes that ensued.
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Parting is such sweet sorrow. We miss you, Red Shoes.
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Outrageous. Contagious.
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Tanahashi and Okada come on for an encore. Any requests?
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A battle of the knobbly knees
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There's more than one type of bump in this one.
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It's been nearly two years since Okada and Tanahashi last fought at the 2016 edition of the G1 Climax. It's been more than two years since they last fought for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship at Wrestle Kingdom 10. It's been more than three years since Tanahashi won a battle between the two at Wrestle Kingdom 9. Despite this, it was Okada who laid out the challenge to Tanahashi for them to once again battle for the IWGP Heavyweight title, and the reason that Okada made the challenge was if Okada defended the title successfully once more he would break the record for the most successful defences in a single title reign. The holder of that record? Hiroshi Tanahashi. And it was a cocky Okada who challenged Tanahashi at Wrestle Kingdom 6 which triggered this series of title matches.
So was Okada offering a title shot to Tanahashi due to his respect? Or to really rub it in his former Ace rival's face how much better he now is on the man who used to push him further than anyone else had done so on the New Japan roster? Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) are now back to the full conversational fitness and resumed their review of this great series of matches to find out exactly why this match is happening, and how it holds up to the previous nine matches where the clear status of who was the best had remained in question.
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Whilst Roman Reigns's title match against Kevin Owens at the 2023 Royal Rumble received a mere 3.5 rating, the ensuing actions that saw Sami Zayn finally turn his back on the bullying Reigns, suffer a beating but in the process give Jey Uso a moral conflict saw Meltzer describe the whole exhibition as 5.
This has led Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) to decide it would be a fun bonus episode to the Meltzer 5-Star Project to ask if there can be such a thing as a 5 angle? And if so, what are examples of that. And can a 5 storyline have no 5 angles? Or can you have a 5 angle in a terrible storyline?
These are the true moral quandaries we need to ask ourselves in the year 2023.
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A week on from winning at Wrestle Kingdom in the previous Meltzer 5-star (plus 1.25 extra stars), Kenny Omega was back in his home territory (although try telling that to the visa people) trying to reclaim the titles that he and The Young Bucks had been stripped of a few months earlier for reasons we won't go into now.
Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) have scaled the ladder of critical analysis to provide their thoughts and hopefully escalate the tone of debate in pro wrestling criticism. Because they're well intelligent, like.
The dream match happens and lives up to the hype.
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A match involving Taichi and for the King of Pro-Wrestling championship got five stars from Dave Meltzer.
Let that sink in.
The trilogy of FTR-Briscoe battles for the ROH World Tag Team titles reaches its bloody conclusion as the in-ring technicians of FTR enter the world of the Delaware chickenfarmers as brawling and weaponary is the requirement for this match, not frequent tags and cutting the ring in half. Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross) attempt to chain together words to form coherent sentences. Can they succeed? Anyone who has listened to this podcast long enough knows it's not a guarantee.
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Whilst it took El Hijo del Vikingo a mere week in participating in two matches that Dave Meltzer rated five stars, it took Meltzer a few months to watch both of them, so the LMTYS boys Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) are still stuck in 2022 before they can catch up with everything that's already been happening in wrestling in 2023 so please bear with us, and if you ARE frustrated, may we at least ask that you don't smash a glass bottle over our heads.
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2022? That is SO last year!
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We're just in a double down at the moment, we'll be back up on our feet before the ten count.
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Eight months after Okada finally cemented his place at the top of New Japan, he found himself once more across the ring from Tanahashi, but for the second time it was under the 30-minute time limit conditions of a G1 Climax match, meaning his IWGP Heavyweight title wasn't on the line, but there was still much for both men to gain by winning. Not just by getting another win over their greatest rival, but the winner would reach the Climax final. If they were unable to get the job done in time, then Hirooki Goto would claim the top spot in Block A.
And no one wants to see that, right?
One year on from Okada walking away defeated and failing to hold back the tears, he knows it's make-or-break time as he defends his regained IWGP Heavyweight Championship against the man who defeated him a year earlier. If Okada can't beat Tanahashi at a Wrestle Kingdom at the third time of trying, then he probably will never be the Ace of the promotion he already believed he was when he first lay down the challenge to the promotion's undisputed Ace Tanahashi only four years earlier.
Another match that has previously been covered as part of the Meltzer Five-Star Project
Apple Podcasts:
https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-meltzer-5-star-project-087-kazuchika-okada-vs/id1330423543?i=1000454635318
Spotify:
https://open.spotify.com/episode/1HgVtotZIO8lWCQ9MYvLQk
Just when Okada thought he was out, Tanahashi pulled him back in. Having lost his final challenge to Okada as the IWGP champion, Tanahashi ventured elsewhere and ended up challening Shinsuke Nakamura for the IWGP Intercontinental Championship and, in an insult to Okada and (particularly) his challenger Tetsuya Naito, ended up being voted by the fans as the match they wanted to see main event Wrestle Kingdom 8.
Now as we enter Wrestle Kingdom 9, Tanahashi found himself earning a title shot against the man that took the title from Okada, the new Bullet Club leader AJ Styles, and won the title again at King of Pro-Wrestling, setting him up to defend the title at WK9 against the winner of the G1 Climax. You guessed it, it's Okada!
Will Okada finally be able to lance this boil, and avenge his WK7 loss? Or will Tanahashi make the ultimate comeback and defend both the title and the title of Ace? Listen on to find out.
Tanahashi puts it all on the line in order to challenge Okada again for the IWGP Heavyweight title. If he doesn't win this match, he never gets to challenge Okada again.
Or does he?
Another match we previously discussed during the Meltzer Five-Star Project. Link to that episode below.
Apple podcasts:
https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-meltzer-5-star-project-082-kazuchika-okada-vs/id1330423543?i=1000454514535
Spotify:
https://open.spotify.com/episode/2If2Oz0AFJIj0o2inr6bwY
For the first time since Okada's return, he faces Hiroshi Tanahashi in a non-title match with a 30-minute time limit. Of course, it's still a highly important match, as both have recovered from a slow start to be in with a shout of winning the A Block of the G1 Climax. Will it be enough to contain them? Let's find out, shall we? Either by listening to the podcast or just looking up the results on Google.
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If Tanahashi thought that his successful defence of the IWGP Heavyweight Championship against Okada at Wrestle Kingdom had been enough to put the 'Rainmaker' back in his place for at least the forseeable future he was much mistaken. Just as he'd been with his first IWGP title challenge, and his first entry into the G1 Climax, Okada won the New Japan Cup on the first time of trying and here we are only three months later.
Clearly both have now learnt a lot about the other at this point, and in order to stay ahead they will both have to adapt.
This is the first of the Tanahashi-Okada matches to be given the five-star rating from one-time sceptic Dave Meltzer, and as a result, Lorcan and Simon have already discussed this match during the first year of the Meltzer Five-Star Project. Link below if you want to listen to that either before or after this one.
Apple podcasts:
https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-meltzer-5-star-project-080-hiroshi-tanahashi-vs/id1330423543?i=1000453641848
Spotify:
https://open.spotify.com/episode/1cQSOeQaCkRSpNo27UrvhL
The year-long rivalry that began at Wrestle Kingdom 6 with the returning Kazuchika Okada jumping the queue to challenge Tanahashi, and then back up his brashness by actually beating the undisputed top guy of the promotion. Tanahashi had to use every atom of energy in his body to reclaim the title, and now they are at Wrestle Kingdom 7, with Okada winning the G1 Climax at his first time of trying and insisting that their title match would take place at the biggest stage of the Tokyo Dome. Can Okada's self-confidence be justified once more, or will Tanahashi re-establish himself as the Ace of the promotion.
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Tanahashi received such a beating that he lost a tooth. Can he reclaim his championship against the upstart Okada? 'The Rainmaker' enters even more confident in himself now that he's backed up his bravado by defeating Tanahashi for the title and successfully defending it against Tetsuya Naito and Hirooki Goto. If Tanahashi reclaims the title it will mean fighting through a lot of damage. Can he do it? You'd assume so, because it would be weird for this podcast series to be done in three episodes.
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After breaking the record for the most successful IWGP Heavyweight Championship defences, Hiroshi Tanahashi was surprised at the ego on display from Kazuchika Okada who, having just beaten YOSHI-HASHI in an unimpressive return match, challenged him for a title match. Tanahashi accepted the challenge, but warned Okada that he was biting off more than he could chew.
Like doing fifteen podcasts in consecutive days just before Christmas that required you to watch wrestling matches that average at over half-an-hour each.
A new December tradition, Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) look back on one of the great rivalries in wrestling history match-by-match. They kick things off with the battle for both the IWGP Heavyweight title and the designated 'Ace' positino of New Japan.
But before we had a 'Rainmaker', Kazuchika Okada was a young prodigy picked up by New Japan to join their Young Lion dojo, and this first ever singles match against Hiroshi Tanahashi is his farewell match before his learning excursion. Where he learned first-hand how terrible a booker and person Vince Russo is.
Whilst Hogan and Flair were the stars of the WWF and the NWA, there was still a third major promotion in pro wrestling when the boom period of the mid-80s began. Unfortunately for those involved, its popularity and influence was waning. Despite this, some great wrestling - the foundation of the AWA and its owner Verne Gagne - was still taking place.
A textbook example of the young challenger attempting to dethrone the elder champion, a pre-Perfect Curt Hennig takes on the man who had beeen the perennial champion of the AWA for the past decade, and an LMTYS podcast debutant in Nick Bockwinkel. Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) have watched the match and read up long words in their dictionaries in the hopes of not being the wrestling pundit equivalent of an '8 to 5 humanoid'
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After watching the first season of the Netflix series, Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) have gone back to the original source material, commercials and all, to experience a full episode of the Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling. As well as the advertised main event, the LMTYS hosts also discuss the other matches on Season 1, Episode 22, which include a handicap match of Matilda the Hun facing the team of Ebony & California Doll, a singles match between Palestina (it's even worse than you think) and Suzy Spirit, and Ninotchka, the inspration for Alison Brie's Zoya the Destroyer, against future owner of GLOW, Tammy the Farmer's Daughter.
Along with the matches, there are sketches, ads, and a poorly maintained raps for your visual delight.
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Will Ospreay is now just one match shy of reaching Mitsuharu Misawa's all-time record of matches rated at least five stars by Dave Meltzer. His latest entry is also the first time he's appeared on this series against Tetsuya Naito. Having previously defeated Niato in the semi-finals of this year's G1 Climax, Ospreay is this time defending his United States title against a man who has made his feelings for secondary New Japan titles in the past. Also, Naito nicked Gideon Grey's coat and the United Empire's financier wants it back. To be fair, it's a nice looking coat.
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Taken from us before its time, the people behind 'Orange is the New Black' followed up that early Netflix hit with this series, inspired by the 2012 documentary about the mid-80s wrestling show for which this comedy-drama shares the same name and time period. Starring Alison Brie (Community, Mad Men), Betty Gilpin (Nurse Jackie), and Marc Maron (Maron, WTF podcast), the show uses the world of pro wrestling as backdrop to comment on women's roles and the moral grey area of real life against the campiness of pro wrestling and the moral vacuity at the heart of Reaganomic/Hulkamaniac 80s America.
Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) are here as always to provide a critical eye on things.
FTR continue their remarkable year with another five-star match, this time in the UK against an Australian team for Japanese tag team titles. In a dream match, Dax & Cash face the NJPW Strong Tag Team champions Aussie Open.
Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) try to cut-off the podcast from small talk and deliver an incisive and thorough critical assessment of the first IWGP Tag Team title match to gain the perfect score from Meltzer in thirty-five years!
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Hulk Hogan executing drop toe-holds? It happened in Japan, and that's where we are today as 'Ichiban' returns to the first country that he attained superstar status before becoming the face of the WWF's national and global expansion. He faces off against perhaps the most popular and longest serving Gaijin of all time in the tobacco spitting Stan Hansen. This bloody battle of burly American men in the Tokyo Dome in front of a rapturous Japanese crowd is what Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross)are encountering this week.
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One of the most important figures in the history of professional wrestling died on the same year the promotion he founded celebrated its fiftieth anniversary. Antonio Inoki was a lightning rod for controversy and creativity within pro wrestling and even the wider world of politics. Although known for pushing the notion of pro wrestling as the "King of Sports" and engaging in matches with high-profile figures from legit combat, even most famously Muhammad Ali, and as a result being one of the pioneers of what we now know as MMA, he was still a great in-ring technical wrestling. Therefore the LMTYS hosts have chosen to discuss a match from 1975 that is oft-cited as one of his best wrestling matches, and winner of multiple Match of the Year awards in 1975. It's against another innovative and influential figure in wrestling and MMA, Billy Robinson.Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) are here to provide their thoughts on this techinical masterclass, and even fitting in brief side discussions on matters including the recent scandals in the world of chess!https://patreon.com/lmtyspodhttps://facebook.com/lmtyspodhttps://twitter.com/lmtyspodlmtyspod@gmail.com
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Be it a manger or an agent, a bodyguard or a valet, or maybe your childhood ventriloquist dummy requisitioned from the remnants of your demolished housing estate, many a wrestler has had a ringside accomplice. Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) accompany each other in a thoughtful conversation about this very subject matter.https://patreon.com/lmtyspodhttps://facebook.com/lmtyspodhttps://twitter.com/lmtyspodlmtyspod@gmail.com
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Walter's second ever Meltzer five-star match was when he defended his NXT UK Championship in Cardiff's Motorpoint Arena in front of 3,600 fans against plucky underdog Tyler Bate.
Three years and three days later, he is now Gunther, he's defending the WWE Intercontinental Championship in Cardiff's Principality Stadium in front of just under twenty times that number. This time his opponent is the definition of 'picking on someone your own size' in the 'Celtic Warrior' Sheamus. Thirteen years into his WWE career may not have been when you'd expect Sheamus to gain his first five-star match from Meltzer, but here we are.
For the first time in The Meltzer 5-Star Project's history, one of the hosts was live at the venue when this match occurs. Simon (@simoncross3) is here to recount his first-hand experiences, and Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) is here to find a way to still somehow talk more than Simon in the episode.
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The final chapter of the Ospreay-a-thon sees 'The Commonwealth Kingpin' round out the month of August with his fourth five-star-plus match in a third different continent. Having just fallen at the final of the G1 to Okada, and then lost his RevPro title to RKJ, he's headed to the States with his United Empire partners (and five-star debutants) Aussie Open and hope to become the first ever AEW Trios Champions. To do so, they have to get past the trio many think the titles only exist for them, and the man that Ospreay has been sending messages of a subliminal, liminal, and superliminal kind throughout the month, in the recently returned Kenny Omega.
Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) are going to watch this melee in the hopes of making some bitingly trenchant points and hope not to get a flying chair into their face for making their feelings understood.
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It's the third of four Will Ospreay matches to gain at least five stars from Dave Meltzer. The previous one only occured three days earlier on an entirely different continent, but Ospreay has already defended the title once a day before against Mike Bailey (a mere 4.75 stars) and now it's the third and last shot for the third generation RKJ on RevPro's tenth anniversary show. Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) are here to arrange the party streamers and tin cups and give their own assessments of the action.
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So, what do you think we should talk about this week on our wrestling podcast? A match from a month ago? LET'S DO THIS THING!
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The first of (at least) four matches involving Will Ospreay that Dave Meltzer has rated five stars or higher. First, Ospreay faces off for the fifth time with Shingo Takagi, and continues the record they have achieved in all their singles matches for getting at least perfect score from the Observer. Does it match such lofty standards, and what is there left for the duo to do that won't feel unoriginal? Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) are here to find out.
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The re-match to what is currently the closest to a consensus pick Match of the Year for 2022, FTR look to continue their remarkable year of matches and triumphs by defending their ROH World Tag Team Championship against the team that they won the title from, looking to start their thirteenth reign as tag champs, and doing so in the 2 out of 3 falls stipulation that they have a history of dominating. Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) are here to provide two straight falls of opinion. Will they ever bring in a third thought? Almost certainly not. Listening to other people's opinion is not what podcasts are for. Now listen to us talk about a forty-five minute wrestling match for more than forty-five minutes.
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Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) discuss a not particularly important event that happened this week and it's potential immediate and longer consequences.
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It's a title vs. title match between the champions of the main two sister promotions of WWNLive, as the Evolve Champion Drew Galloway, in the middle of a reinvention after his unceremonious dumping from the WWE only a few years after being introduced by Vince McMahon himself as a future world champion, against Dragon Gate USA's Open the Freedom Gate Champion Johnny Gargano, a man who had carved a reputation over the previous years as one of the best wrestlers on the indie scene. Together they would both raise in stature and profile in WWE's NXT a few years alter. And many traces of those NXT matches can be found right here in front of a small-ish indie crowd. Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) compare the journeys of both men before and after this match and how certain aspects of the match ring differently today.
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El Hijo del Santo and Negro Casas face off in a lucha des apuestas match where the hatred is so intense you don't know if it's un trabajo o un rodaje
El Santo is arguably the most important a cultural figure that any wrestler has even been in a single country. A superhero who played his role, and wore his mask, in the ring, in public, and in over fifty films. For their first pick of this particular sub-genre that has a cult following to this day, Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) have picked a battle royal of a movie, with Santo and co-star Blue Demon, arguably the second biggest star in all of lucha libre history, battling a marauding band of supernatural horror villains that bear more than a striking resemblence to the Universal horror movie villains of the 30s and 40s. Although the costumes don't quite measure up...
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Before we had the PR campaign called the Divas Revolution, some women wrestlers in the default no. 2 US promotion post-WCW pre-AEW were putting on matches that were an equal to anything the men could do and were garnering praise and presenting a very different kind of story to what we were being force-fed with the narrow aesthetics requirements of the WWE's Divas division. Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) pick up their conversation from Blayze-Nakano to further discuss the shifting and changing role of women in pro wrestling and the stories they are allowed to tell, and what issues they may have that are part of their own struggles, and what fit into the wider aspects of wrestling culture. Still two blokes talking about it, though.
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For the first time since Cena-Punk at Money in the Bank 2011, Dave Meltzer gave a match on the main roster WWE a five-star rating. And all it took was for one of the participants to wrestle the entire match with a torn pec, with brusing covering almost half of Cody Rhodes's torso and arm. Meltzer considered it 'among the most compelling matches in pro wrestling history', but is there actually anything to the match itself beyond Rhodes's war wounds going in? Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) are here to find out one way or the other.
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For the third time in the three-year history of AEW, the two teams of brothers who so often wrestle as mirror images of each other, engaged in a match that Dave Meltzer gave the perfect five-star rating as a minimum rating. This time there are no championships on the line, and both are looking to rally themselves after recent defeats. Will Penta & Fenix continue to stretch out their lead on overall wins, or will Matt & Nick Jackson claim their first victory over their Mexican counterparts in their home promotion of AEW? Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) are here to find out
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Only the one five-star match from Meltzer for the latest AEW pay-per-view, this is a match that certainly lives up to its billling of 'Anarchy in the Arena'. The shit hits the fan before the wrestling even starts, and it gets a rocking soundtrack for a lot of the chaos too! Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) reach perhaps their most diametrically opposed when a point of contention rears its head in this episode. Let us know where you stand on this matter!
Outro music: John Foxx - Stars on Fire
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Before there were Divas and Women's Revolutions, there was a brief moment where two women wrestled some of the most exciting and state of the art matches in all of North America. For once, Alundra Blayze has an opponent who can keep up with her pace, as she faces Bull Nakano. Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) are here to help assess the fluctuating qualities of women's wrestling in the U.S, both in the past and the present, through a match and rivalry that has rightly been placed on a higher pedestal within the WWE, and wrestling fandom in general, in recent years.
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Max Oleskar and Ivan Gonzalez are a successful live comedy double act who created Edinburgh Fringe history with their bi-annual show at the Pleasance Grand that pit comedians alongside and against pro wrestlers. As a result of the success, Max & Ivan have now written and co-star in this new series set within the small town petty politics of low-budget wrestling promotions in North West England. Can they translate their comedy skills (and Max's experience as a one-time pro wrestler himself) into that most challenging of all mediums - the sitcom! Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) have go their analytical Goggleboxes on and discuss where the series goes and where it could go in the future.
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It's been two decades of news updates, feuds, factions, temper tantrums, face and heel turns, championship runs, and most importantly RKOing out of nowhere. Randy Orton is a man for whom it's almost impossible for any wrestling fan to have neutral feelings towards. His pluses and minuses are discussed on this episode of LMTYS to commemorate the recent twentieth anniversary of his TV debut on the 25th April 2002 episode of Smackdown. Has "The Viper" staked his claim as one of the all-time greats? Do his most ardent critics have a point? Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) are going to try to untangle it all whilst fitting in as many important landmarks in Orton's two decade on-screen that can fit into a somewhat reasonable length of time for a podcast.
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It's a tag team dream match that lived up to the hype and was close to a consensus choice for best match to take place at any show during WrestleMania weekend. FTR have a week to remember for the ages, first by challenging the perennial top dogs of Ring of Honor on their own turf in the first show of the Tony Khan era of that promotion. Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) deftly link up with quick tags of talking and double team moves of trenchant observation.
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It's the second half of a ZSJ double bill as the submission specialist faces off against the MVP of New Japan in 2021. Who will come out on top and reach the final of the New Japan Cup? Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) spoil that fairly early on in this conversation, but it's about the art of the match, not the result itself, that matters with the LMTYS lads!
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It's the first half (or maybe first third?) of a ZSJ double bill, as Zack Sabre's journey through the 2022 New Japan Cup tournament brings him to a quarter-final rematch of last year's second round opponent (and fellow Meltzer five-star rating generator) Will Ospreay. 'The Commonwealth Kingpin' won what Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) described as the most impressive fight outside of a Wetherspoon's they've ever seen. Can they live up to the hype again this year? Listen on to find out.
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Before Jon Moxley headlined WWE and AEW PPVs, before Nick Gage became a cult legend, and before Drake Weurtz started yelling crazy shit at school board meetings, they were all slicing each others' faces, backs, and whatever else was available on their bodies in front of two-figure audiences in the middle of nowhere in South Carolina. Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) exchange metaphorical light tubes of knowledge and opinion with each other to see what this says about all three men involved, and can it explain where they are now and how this style of match now sits in the modern context of pro wrestling.
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Before Jushin Thunder Liger became the centrepiece for the explosion of junior heavyweight wrestling in the 1990s, he learnt his craft in the New Japan dojo and on his learning excursions where he gained experience in a variety of styles and fused them together. One of those stops on the way was a time working on the UK circuit, and he faced off against a man who was no stranger to Japan and its wrestlng customs - the hot-headed Mark "Rollerball" Rocco. A state of the art match that wouldn't look out of place if watched thirty-five years later, as has been the case for this episode by Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3).
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Wrestling is a deep and wide world of matches, angles, promos, feuds, and botches, with decades and decades worth of the stuff. How to make senseofit all to someone with fresh eyes? Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) have picked up their notepads and pens and have crafted together some honourable mentions anddefinitive picks for a match in each of the five categories to help someone either introduce themselves to wrestling, or take adeeper dive into different times and promotions beyond current WWE, which you would assume would be the obvious choice for most.
The five categories we chose for our first of these episodes (hopefully more will come in the future) are:
- Introducing someone to wrestling
- Introducing someone to the 80s/90s "Golden Age" of wrestling
- Introducing someone to the WWF Attitude Era
- Introducing someone to AEW
- Introducing someone to modern New Japan Pro Wrestling
Feel free to add your own suggestions to these categories, or maybe pick some categories yourself for a future episode and send them to us.
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In anticipation of CM Punk's Dog Collar Chain match against MJF at AEW's Revolution PPV, Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) travel back nearly twenty years to watch the match, and what is usually cited as the peak of the feud, between Punk and Raven. Just as MJF projected so much of the scars of his youth onto Punk, so to had a young Punk against the recovering addict Raven. But instead of greeting him with sympathy, he views him with pure hatred, and the most heated feud in the short history of ROH at this point put both Punk and the promotion down a new path.
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NINE belts are on the line in this one. Dean Malenko has been the ace of cruiserweight division since its inception earlier in 1996, and now he caps off the year hoping to gain eight more titles to his colleciton by defeating J-Crown champion Ultimo Dragon. Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) talk about both this clash of experts in the grapple game and what led to perhaps the biggest belt collection in wrestling during this Golden Age of junior heavyweight wrestling.
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It's a comedy double bill as Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) watch an episode each of South Park and It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia that show the respective ensembles try to enter the world of pro wrestling, but both have a limited knowledge of what that means. In the case of at least one of these shows, it would appear that the creatives behind it didn't really know much about wrestling, either. Do they hold up? Let's find out!
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His belt collection may now be lacking the IWGP World title, but Will Ospreay is still a man with a lot of luggage to carry with him, and his longest-held championship is what's being defended this time, as 'Billy GOAT' defends against rising UK star Micahel Oku for the RevPro British Championship. Having recently beaten Oku by stoppage in the twenty-ninth minute of a match with a thirty-minute time limit, this time the rule has been made to not have any stoppages. Will this have an effect to the finish? Of course it bloody will, and Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) are here to state the obvious as well as anyone else. What did you expect?
Outro music: Tiny Deaths - Stop the Stars
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Only two five star matches in the eyes of Dave Meltzer during the first month of 2022? That's a bad sign if ever there was one. But despite all that despair and suffering, Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) have survived to watch and discuss AEW's opener for the final Dynamite of January, as Cody Rhodes defends his TNT Championship against the man who he beat to start this third reign, the current holder of Interim TNT Championship after the postponment of this match originally planned for Battle of the Belts, and a five-star debutant: 'The Spanish God' Sammy Guevara. This had also been the opening match of the first episode of Dynamite back in late 2019. A lot has changed since then, has one of those changes been Guevara maturing to finally get a win over the most divisive figure in AEW's short history? Let's watch and find out!
Outro music: 'Polvo de Estrellas' by Javier de Mabel
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In anticiation of the upcoming Owen Hart Cup tournaments in AEW, Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) are looking back at the legacy of the youngest sibling, but probably the best athlete, of the Hart family. Instead of going to his best known WWF matches, they are looking further back to the point where Owen was the top gaijin wrestler in New Japan's junior heavyweight division. Having recently won the IWGP Junior Heavyweight title, the first non-Japanese wrestler to achieve this, Owen defends it against Shiro Koshinaka, a perennial figure in New Japan despite receiving his training in All Japan only a few years earlier.
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It's the land of Extreme that Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) are venturing into this time, as Rob Van Dam faces the man he often cites as his favourite opponent of all time in Jerry Lynn. It's the Whole F'N Show against the New F'N Show, and perhaps where your alleigances lie tells a lot about the sort of wrestling fan you are.
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This time last year we were spoilt for choice with the number of five-star matches. This year it's a veritable drought with only one match producing a rating of five stars or above from Dave Meltzer. Fortunately for Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) it's a five-and-three-quarter-star match! Or is it? It's the match to finally decide the undisputed IWGP World Heavyweight Champion after Kazuchika Okada dethroned Takagi for the official championship, finally abandoning his beloved V4 Heavyweight belt, and now has to face his former protege, opponent at last year's Wrestle Kingdom, and the man who never officially lost the title before being forced to vacate due to injury, 'The Aerial Assassin' Will Ospreay.
Outro music: Nicola Conte - Quiet Star
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Another gap is plugged as Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (simoncross3) travel back to All Japan. The six-man tag matches between Tsuruta-gun and the Super Generation Army were maybe what made the LMTYS hosts fall in love with All Japan wrestling, so this being a prequel to that rivalry, with Jumbo's previous great rival Tenryu leading his army of disciples, including a young zebra-print wearing Kawada, against Tsuruta and his top two lieutenants, Yoshiaki Yatsu and the always welcome return of the Shithouse himself, Masanobu Fuchi!
Outro music: Samson - A Star Died
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2021 was a year, wasn't it? Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) are here to talk about it.
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Less than a month since his five-and-a-half-star (in the eyes of Dave Meltzer) title win over Kenny Omega, 'Hangman' Adam Page faces two different challenges. First the challenge of the reinvigorated 'American Dragon' Bryan Danielson in-storyline, who has had a fun time tormenting him in the build up to this match, but also Page faces the challenge of keeping up with the top names in all of wrestling as far as perception of their abilities as an in-ring performer. Can Page keep pace with another in-ring great? Will his title reign come to an ignomonious end at the first hurdle? Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) are here to find out.
Outro song: Maximum Sixty - Lost in the Stars
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I don't know whether this was accidentally deleted, or I just failed to upload it in the first place, but this is an early recording of Match of the Week that we're now reuploading in anticipation of Bryan Danielson achieving a second ever five-star match in the eyes of Dave Meltzer. A match we cite frequently in other episodes, this is probably as close as we got to Bryan Danielson in Daniel Bryan. Also, thanks to the five-star project, we notice some references to another smaller wrestler who is able to bully larger opponents like Sheamus and gain sympathy. Also, this is Daniel Bryan showing why he deserved more than eighteen seconds as the previous WrestleMania.
Adam Page vs. Bryan Danielson Meltzer five-star match review episode coming on Thursday 23rd!
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The last territory standing outside of the big two of WWF and WCW, Memphis was a little land unto itself with its own fanbase, its own style of wrestling, and its own top star - Jerry 'The King' Lawler. Drawing thousands of fans to the Mid-South Coliseum on a weekly basis, Lawler could be tangling with up-and-coming stars (making sure to repeat footage of him beating them when they do become national stars in the future), bizarre gimmick characters that would even make the Gobbldy Gooker look relatively realistic, or in this case a fellow showman able to work the Memphis style better than most, and maybe a man who never reached the full star potential he showed, Austin Idol. Accompanying him is the young man referred to by the commentator as "Paul Dangerly". Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) observe all this with 2021 eyes to see what worked then, what influence this style of wrestling has or doesn't have in today's climate, and whether it would still work now. Also, knowing Lawler mostly as a horny, squeaky voiced middle-aged man on Raw, how believable is it to see him as a Hogan-level unstoppable superhero babyface?
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2001 was probably the most tumultuous year in the history of pro wrestling. Not only were the three major promotions in North American being absorbed by the winner-take-all WWF, but in Japan the longtime top two promotions of New Japan and All Japan saw a splintering for the first time since their creation in 1972, when Misawa and the majority of AJPW talent departed to form NOAH. A threadbare roster called for desperate times for those left in All Japan, and that's why we see a match for the promotion's top prize be contested between a man who Giant Baba had said he'd never allow to return to the promotion after his unexpected departure in 1990, and one of the top stars of New Japan, and longtime fan of the 'King's Road' style of wrestling, Keiji Mutoh, who was halfway into his miraculous comeback when it seemed he was nothing but a shattered, broken down husk of his former self less than a year earlier.
The match was voted the best of the year by Wrestling Observer readers, and 2001 was a year of great matches around the world. Does it hold up? Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) are here to find out.
A five-star match, or a five-star storyline, or both? Or something more?! A multiple-year storyline reached its conclusion at the end of Full Gear 2021 as 'Hangman' Adam Page looked to exorcise every last demon he had to contend with after failing to become the first AEW World Champion by challenging the current champion, and his former tag team champion partner, Kenny Omega. It's about more than just a title. But is worth more than a perfect five-star rating as Dave Meltzer thought? Or is it even worth a perfect five-star rating. Or does that even matter in the first place?
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Chaos, action, and wheelbarrow racing are the topics of conversation this time as Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) cover the first of two matches from AEW's Full Gear PPV. Will the Superkliq continue to dominate trios action? Or can the unlikely partnering of the veteran Cage, the monstrous Luchasaurus, and the maturing Jungle Boy pool their talents together and score the upset under falls count anywhere rules?
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Two men currently in a no-man's-land of sorts in the WWE were, seven years ago, wrestling for the top singles prize in the hippest promotion in all of wrestling - California's Pro Wrestling Guerrilla. But whilst Ricochet and Kyle O'Reilly have gone onto greater heights as far as reaching a mass audience and making money, this might have been at a time when they were both approaching their cultural zeitgeist in the wrestling world. Have their talents been squandered? Is the best still to come? Is this a match that holds up when seen beyond the context of very drunk wrestling hipsters watching with a slightly detached irony? Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) are here to find out one way or the other.
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Chikara's King of Trios tournaments from the late 2000s to the mid 2010s were a major highlight in the indy wrestling calendar and matches like this are proof of why that was the case. Featuring three wrestlers who would go onto great successes today in WWE, AEW, and New Japan, alongside one of the top students to ever come from the Chikara training gym, it's a high-speed action fest from start to finish. But does it have enough grasp of the fundamentals to avoid the harshest critiques of Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3)? Listen to find out!
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An earnest attempt to give classic British wrestling of the 70s and 80s the 'Full Monty' feelgood cinema treatment. Does the ambition match the ability? Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) are here to find out.
As Lisa Simpson once told Homer, the Chinese use the same word for crisis as they do opportunity. Out of the ashes of tech issues, rises a new sub-genre within the LMTYS family, book club. We kick off with our resident wordsmith Lorcan talking about his book, Confessions of a Smart Wrestling Fan, as well as the dulcet tones of Simon reading out the first chapter.
It's spots galore this week as AAA hosts its first five-star match, at least in the eyes of Dave Meltzer, in a long time. Not happy with just tearing it up in AEW, the Lucha Bros. of Pentagon Jr. and Rey Fenix defend their other tag team titles, the AAA belts, against two of the top young stars of lucha libre, El Hijo del Vikingo and the Laredo Kid. Will they keep the double gold? Will anyone be able to keep up with it? Will you be able to hear your own thoughts over the air horns? Let's see if Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) heard and retained those thoughts long enough to talk about them in this episode...
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The mid-80s was the best of times for the American wrestling scene, and the worst of times for their counterparts in the UK. This match is often cited as a sign of the beginning of the end for the old 'World of Sport'-defined culture of British wrestling leaving the terrestrial television airwaves. However, it is also a match containing one of the most well-remembered figures of the British scene in Kendo Nagasaki, and two young men who would go onto fly the flag of their country's style of wrestling in both the States and back in what was left of the British scene. Now they are two of the key figures in the WWE's developmental program. So what were Steve (William) Regal and Robbie Brookside like when they themselves were still nearer their rookie years than attaining veteran status? Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) are here to find out.
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The first ever five-star match in the twenty-year career of 'American Dragon' Bryan Danielson, at least in the eyes of Dave Meltzer, is what greets Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) in this episode. His first match under his real name since his eleven-year run with WWE as Daniel Bryan ended, he enters the match with a smile on his face and a point to prove. This isn't your sports entertainer, this is the pro wrestler who was seen by many as the best in the world whilst he was working the U.S. indie scene. Has he still got what it takes against another man who is often cited, in both the recent past and the present, as the best in the business? Over twenty thousand fans in the Arthur Ashe stadium are screaming their lungs out to find out for themselves too...
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It's supposed to be the most blessed time of the year as far as the Meltzer five-star rewards go, but when the blocks were announceed for the 2021 iteration of the G1 Climax, it's fair to say positivity was not the outlook of most people on the Internet. Perhaps cognizant of this problem, New Japan made the sensible move of having their opening day of the tour be headlined by the IWGP World Heavyweight Champion Shingo Takagi against the man who went against the odds with his stature and outsider positioning to become a star within the New Japan ranks thanks to his MVP performances on many G1 Climax matches, 'The Stone Pitbull' Shingo Takagi.
A big beefy slab of meat colliding with an equally big beefy slab of meat, and Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) are at virtual ringside with a metaphorical pair of knives and forks to carve it all up, in an intelllectually manner...
This episode is long for a Match of the Week. But it's still not as long as this match. And if this match is remember for anything it's that. The length of the match, I mean. Not its length in comparison to this podcast episode.
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AEW's All Out 2021 is being touted as one of the best wreslting PPVs of all time, and this match is usually cited as the best on the card. It's a re-match from the Escaleras de la Muerte match at the first All Out two years earlier, but this time the Young Bucks are defending their AEW World tag team titles in a steel cage. Can they top a match that already broke the star ratings system in the eyes of Mr. Meltzer? He thought so, giving this match the equivalent of eleven and a half out of ten. Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) are here to offer a second and third opinion.
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The first episode in a new series on the LMTYS feed. Regular co-hosts Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) watch films and TV shows that at some point, whether it bet he premise or one particular episode, take place within the world of wrestling through the eyes of creatives who most likely have never been directly involved in wrestling. They discuss them both as works of art within themselves, and how they present pro wrestling, positive, negative, and anywhere in between.
For the first episode, it's the 2018 documentary that was a spritiual sequel to the 2000 "comedy" wrestling movie 'Ready to Rumble', which Lorcan and Simon discussed on Lorcan's 21st Film podcast a week earlier. The titular actor decides to return to the world of wrestling that shunned him during his first foray, to claim some sort of redemption, maybe more for and from himself than for or from wrestling fans.
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A rematch of what many considered the best match of 2020, the NXT UK Championship is on the line as WALTER looks to extend his two year-plus reign by once again vanquishing his longtime rival Ilja Dragunov. A style of wrestling truly unique compared to everything else we see in today's wrestling, Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) are here to wince and weigh in on their thoughts.
Despite all the joshi that Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) had to watch for the Meltzer Five-Star Project, what is somewhat surprising is that this MOTW is the first time that they were watching and reviewing a match involving Bull Nakano - perhaps the most famous female Japanese wrestler outside of Japan until Asuka joined the WWE. Whilst the majority of joshi that the LMTYS boys have had to watch often follows the David vs. Goliath model, this time it's the equivalent of a kaiju battle as the dominant monster of the promotion faces her young upstart rival in a construction designed to keep these matches contained, but both the match, and even the cage itself, often run the risk of falling apart!
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One of the more surreal moments of recent years in wrestling has been the appearance of Atsushi Onita on mainstream U.S. television hyping an upcoming exploding ring barbed wire deathmatch on pay-per-view. The increased prominence of deathmatch wrestling can ultimately be linked to this match, and these two men, in particular. Onita was retired from wrestling until he reinvented himself as the ace of ultra-violent wrestling in Japan's lower class world of puroresu. However, for him to reach the peak of the wild brawlers, he had to face the man he had idolised in his early years as a trainee in the All Japan dojo - the now-middle-aged and crazy Terry Funk. Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) are donning their hazmat suits and getting a front row seat to the spectacular special effects extravaganza.
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More than five seconds is required to cover the topic of double team wrestling moves. But should more than five seconds be allowed for them to be implemented? That's the point of contention for Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) on this episode.
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A podcast of two parts this time. Tanahashi challenges Takagi for another New Japan title, except this time it's the biggest title on the biggest stage, as Takagi attempts to make his first defense of his newly acquired IWGP World Heavyweight Championship at the Tokyo Dome. That is followed by a discussion between Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) about Dave Meltzer's controversial rating, and reasoning for it, to the Jericho-Gage deathmatch.
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1998 was a big year in wrestling. Among the major events of that year was the emergence of Chris Jericho. After turning heel in January, this match saw the end of the story of 'The Man of 1,004 Holds' against the cruiserweight division. Does it hold up? What of the Jericho we know now was already there, and what was yet to come? Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) are here to find out.
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Whilst a promotion having their title defended in a different promotion is quite the in thing in 2021, the WWF has rarely been one to loan their gold belts out to other promotions. This week, the LMTYS boys Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) look at one of these rare instances where the recently face-turned Shawn Michaels defends his Intercontinental championship in the Tennessee territory of Smokey Mountain Wrestling, as the promotion's owner and top heel manager Jim Cornette leads his top singles star 'Nature Boy' Buddy Landel in as the challenger. An unusual twist took place in the build-up to this match, as reality became a factor in the match, Landel's personal struggles becoming public knowledge and this match being fought with Landel vowing to not have any heel shenanigans on his part. This episode does a deeper dive on a man Dave Meltzer himself described in his 2015 obituary as "one of the great 'What if's' of professional wrestling
The hardcore wrestling movement came into being by taking inspiration from numerous sources, but when considering the true hub of activity, like New York was with the punk movement, Seattle was with grunge, Coventry was with British ska, etc., Philadelphia is probably seen as the most important location for its birth and growth thanks to its association with ECW. But a couple of years before there was ECW, there was the TWA, which hosted a series of bloody brawls between Cactus Jack and Eddie Gilbert that become the talk of the tape trading and newsletter world. Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) are at ground zero (almost literally with the single hardcam shot footage) to see what aged well, what didn't, and what led both to and from this event.
The only member of New Japan's legendary Three Musketeers that Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) had yet to watch in action for this podcast is the defending champion in this one. On the opposite corner to him is the soon-to-be politician Hiroshi Hase. Around this time NJPW's rival promotion All Japan were having matches rated five stars by Meltzer on a regular basis. New Japan could merely achieve 4+ stars. Lorcan and Simon refrained from gouging their eyes out before watching this one. Will that be their biggest mistake?
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It's been so long since Dave Meltzer rated a women's wrestling match five stars (or higher) that the defending champion in this match wasn't even born when the last one was wrestled. Utami Hayashishita has had a remarkable ascent to the top of the biggest women's wrestling promotion in Japan, but she's facing the stiff kicks of Syuri in this latest title defence. It's a battle of survival, and Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) are here to work it all out for you.
TAKE THIS example of interesting discourse centred around a particular aspect of many pro wrestling matches.
The era of wrestling where being obnoxiously certain of the superiority of your opinion could actually make you an OK living is where we're returning to this time. Yet again, Simon (@simoncross3) has picked an event that he attended live, but this time Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) doesn't have as many kind words to say about the promotion that it is, as opposed to 2016 NXT. What he does have many words for, though, are both WhatCulture and the fanbase that it cultivated. The match itself sees the once and future John Morrison face a young upstart who now is plying his trade in the New Japan's Young Lions division. And Simon knew him back when he was a member of Lads Vegas!
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With a mixture of trepidation and a very obnoxious sighing, Simon (@simoncross3) has to take another chance on watching the shoot-style pro wrestling of the late 80s and early 90s that was a prototypical presentation of what would eventually become mixed martial arts. This time it's Akira Maeda's debut RINGS show. The fall of the Iron Curtain saw an influx of Russian wrestlers, many of them trained in the sambo style that eventually would bring Khabib Nurmagamedov to the UFC. Volk Han, also of Dagestan, literally wrestled his first match and within the year was one of the most popular foreign workers in Japan. Let's see if the LMTYS boys are also as taken on first look.
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After the previous Match of the Week saw Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) recount his adventures around attending an ROH event, Simon (@simoncross3) takes his turn to recount his favourite live match wrestling experience. No disrespect to a theatre in the outskirts of Liverpool, but Simon's trip to Dallas for WrestleMania 32, including this NXT Takeover event, is a bit of a one-up. It's a debut and a farewell, as Shinsuke Nakamura wrestles his first match as a WWE employee against the departing-for-Raw Sami Zayn. NXT was as hot as a U.S. wrestling promotion had felt in many years, and the BOWOB lads are here to remind you why and see if the excitement was earned in hindsight.
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A pairing of episodes this time from LMTYS lads, as they take it in turns to discuss the favourite match they both saw live. It's Lorcan's turn (@lorcanmullan) this week, as we travel back to 2007, where a young Lorcan on a whim took a journey to Liverpool in order to see his favourite promotion live and a title match between the Delaware siblings Jay and Mark Briscoe, and the Dragon Gate duo of SHINGO (soon to regain his surname of Takagi) and Naruki Doi. It's non-stop moves and Lorcan lapped it up at the time. Will it be the same experience for him with fourteen years of hindsight? What will Simon (@simoncross3) feel about the match without having the live experience to affect his opinion.
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For the fourth time, Will Ospreay and Shingo Takagi have fought each other in a singles match. For the fourth time, it has achieved or surpasssed the five-star score for Dave Meltzer. This match, the first for a championship in the form of Ospreay's IWGP World Heavyweight title, is the top rated of all four, and sees Meltzer hand out the rare (but nowhere near as rare as it used to be) sixth full star. Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) are here yet again to see what made this one some much more specialier than it already is.
Wait a minute... specialier is not even a word. And six out of five isn't a rating! NONE OF THIS MAKES SENSE ANYMORE!!!!
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Has there been a single wrestling fan who hasn't dreamt of wrapping the same championship belt around their waist, or draped over their shoulder, that was held by their favourite wrestler? If they do exist, they're not the sort of people Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) want to associate themselves with during this conversation.
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It's the most recent MOTW by a long distance this week, as Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) travel back in time to March 2021. At first it appeared it might have been one for the Meltzer Five-Star Project, but after Big Dave gave it a paltry 4.75* rating, the LMTYS boys themselves decided there was enough within the match, and the entire build-up, reaction, and surrounding wrestling culture that it represented, to be worthy of discussion. Is it worthy for your ears? Listen to find out!
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The Young Bucks defend their AEW tag titles for the first time since making their attitude adjustment. Will the return of the heel Bucks mean a continuation of fantastic tag team matches? If they want to pick a team opposite them to have an action-packed bout, it would be two-thirds of the Death Triangle team, as PAC makes his five-star debut and in teaming with frequent perfect score achiever Rey Fenix. Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) are here to give verbal criticisms every bit as intricate as the high flying moves and strikes sequences you will witness in this match.
Outro music: Leah Andreone - Starstruck Bastard
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Before there was Progress, RevPro, Will Ospreay, Zack Sabre Jr, and all the other big names and promotions of the UK scene, there was Jody Fleisch and Jonny Storm. Out of the doldrums of the post-World of Sport world, their fast-paced, intricate, jaw-dropping matches were the first ones that started to put British wrestling back on the worldwide map, and they took those talents to a cold CZW crowd and ended it with the match that would be voted the promotion's best for that year. Does it hold up? Just how should Fleisch and Storm be placed in the context of modern wrestling? Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) are here to offer their opinions on such pressing matters.
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After spending so many episodes discussing great wrestling matches, whether or not they gained a perfect score from Dave Meltzer, Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) have decided to go down a different path and discuss a match involving electricity and underwhelming special effects long before Eddie Kingston had to explain his actions on a panic attack. Team 3D attempt to win the NWA World tag team titles to add to their collection, but they have to get past the original LAX team of Homicide & Hernandez and, loaded with symbolism, wrestling under the confines of an ELECTRIFIED STEEL CAGE!
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Last week's 5-Star match saw Will Ospreay defeat Zack Sabre Jr in the second round of the New Japan Cup. Ospreay proceeded on through two more opponents to reach the final, where he faced off in a second tournament final against Shingo Takagi, their Best of the Super Juniors 2019 final being that year's Wrestling Observer Match of the Year. Those are some pretty big boots to fill. Do they succeed with Ospreay's newly found (but perhaps surprisingly absent for large chunks of this match) heel attitude.
Outro music: Yoko Shimomura - The Swords Descends and the Stars Scatter
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It's another Battle of the Brits, and the first time that the same match-up has been awarded five stars by Dave Meltzer in two different promotions. The plucky babyface Ospreay of last year has been replaced by the arrogant leader of the United Empire, and he and Sabre have a battle not just of fast-paced reverals and limb work, but also verbal sparring you might expect on Broad Street rather than in a respectable New Japan ring.
Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) are here to provide some cultural context and experiment with some new nicknames that may or may not stick.
Outro music: Raul Hartinez - Red Star Pub
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In under ten minutes, Samoa Joe and Necro Butcher helped merge and reinvent, the indy wrestling scene by combining the world of technical and strike based serious wrestling with that of the world of garbage, weapons filled brawls. Perhaps if this match hadn't happened, a PPV in 2021 wouldn't have had an exploding barbed wire match be the main event. Whether that's something to proud of remains up for discussion.
Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) are going to throw whatever opinions they can up in the air and hope they don't meet a grisly landing. Also they will try to fit in as many Rob Naylor references as the commentary team of Dave Prazak, Eddie Kingston, and CM Punk
Time waits for no man, and whilst it's plausible that the man could still be running the company into the next decade, maybe even two, but at some point Vince McMahon will no longer have the final say on the day-to-day operations of the WWE. Whether that would be because his family has inherited the company, or it has been swallowed up by a larger corporate entity, it's something that Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) have plenty to say about it.
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It's here! It's finally here! The collision of the top two faces and the top face team of WCW sees big moves being thrown by all four men: Sting, Lex Luger, Rick and Scott Steiner. A much younger, more naive Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) at some point in the past discuss a match from even further in the past, but almost as far in the future.
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It's... it's Christian. Captain Charisma's recent return at the Royal Rumble has got Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) curious to reappraise the career of a man that often found himself playing second banana to his partners or rivals, but had a career that, taken as a whole, is truly impressive and well worthy of discussion.
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The final five-star match of January sees Shingo Takagi appear in his second match of 2021, and the year has barely begun! This time the former Dragon Gate ace defends his NEVER Openweight Championship against the 'Ace of the Universe' in the resurgent Hiroshi Tanahashi. Will the brawling powerhouse prove that Tanahashi's time has come and gone? Or will the IQ wrestler use his skills and strategy to overcome both Takagi's power and his own weakening body?
Outro music: Dakota Fighter - Dragon Star
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Now Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) have Wrestle Kingdom in their rear view mirror, they look with eagerness to get past the final days of the first week of January, as they tackle the fifth match of 2021 to gain the perfect score from Dave Meltzer, as Kenny Omega defends his recently won AEW World Championship against the man who he defeated for the first belt in his little collection (the AAA Mega Heavyweight Championship) in the form of the high flying Rey Fenix, a man so quick he could catch your jaw as it falls whilst watching him wrestle.
But, much more importantly, they do that favourite of all mental exercises and fantasy book Kenny Omega's championship run.
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The fourth and final match from Wrestle Kingdom to gain a perfect score or higher from Dave Meltzer has finally been reached, and despite their exhaustion, Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) still have plenty they want to discuss, particularly when it comes to 'Switchblade' Jay White, who hopes to poop yet another party. This time at the expense of newly crowned IWGP double champ Kota Ibushi.
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Whilst New Japan have been knocking out five-star matches in the eyes of Dave Meltzer for a few years now (this is the third of four in just the first week of 2021!), but less frequent amongst those matches has been clashes where matches contested for the NEVER Openweight Championship is concerned. Well, now it's in the hands of recent favourite Shingo Takagi things are changing. Takagi finds himself in the unusual position of fighting a squat powerhouse who is bigger and stronger than he is in the newly-turned Jeff Cobb. Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) are here to see his this hoss battle is worthy of a perfect score.
Outro music: Royal Hawaiian Serenaders - I'll Weave a Lei of Stars for You
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We're not even at the halfway point of the first week of 2021 for five-star matches, as Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) follow up the Okada-Omega clash with the very next match on the card as Naito defends the Intercontinental title he picked up at Night 1 of the previous year's Wrestle Kingdom, and the Heavyweight title he won on the next night, against the G1 Climax winner Kota Ibushi, who Naito granted a title shot to after he lost his entitled G1 championship match to Jay White a few weeks earlier. Will this act of charity undo Naito with two defences in as many days? If Ibushi wins, will it leave him too weak and limit him to a one-day reign? Will those factors and the tendency of these two men to crush each other's necks in their previous encounters provide a positive or negative effect on the final rating our LMTYS boys give their match? Listen to find out.
Outro track: Gold Stardust (unknown artist)
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The first week of 2021 was a record breaker for Dave Meltzer, as he handed FIVE perfect or above-perfect ratings out. Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) start their month-long journey to cover a week of Meltzer bliss with an attempt to gain vengeance for a betrayal, as 'The Rainmaker' Kazuchika Okada battles a man he saw as a brother in the newly renamed 'Commonwealth Kingpin' and leader of new faction The Empire, Will Ospreay at the Tokyo Dome.
Outro song: Hyperborean Skies - Betrayed by the Stars
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Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) are back to the drawing board as they continue to hammer out the story beats on a movie about the Monday Night War. How do you cover the fall of Nitro? How does Paul Heyman feature in this? When will there be a line of actual dialogue written?
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A special tribute to honour the death of Jon Huber, better known in AEW and the wrestling indie scene as Brodie Lee, and in the WWE as Luke Harper. Gone far too soon, but never to be forgotten by those who followed him throughout his career, Lorcan and Simon have chosen perhaps the best match of his career to discuss and see not only why Huber was so highly thought of as a performer by all thsoe who worked with him, but also his part in the greater story of one of the finest in-ring achievements for the WWE in years and years.
The year 2020 has happened. Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) talked about it, then walked away like cool guys ignoring an explosion in the background. You may choose to listen to this episode, we hope you do. After that, let's never speak of this year again.
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For the first time since 2004, Dave Meltzer has rated a match from NOAH five stars. What's perhaps even more surprising is that it comes from two wrestlers who have been a part of the promotion from either at or near its inception. The weight of history on both Takashi Sugiura and Go Shiozaki is heavy throughout this match, and it's an epic one. Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) are here to see if they can go the distance themselves.
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As his stable of wrestlers in AEW continues to expand, and he provides fun commentary during episodes of Dark, Taz has had a great year. But before he was a commentator, trainer, and overall amusing figure for internet wrestling, he was a pioneer in the MMA-influenced, Japan-influenced, more serious style of wrestling that now populates so many corners of the wrestling world. So Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) are taking a trip back in time to what is often cited as the best ever ECW PPV and watch Taz face off against the much larger Bam Bam Bigelow, one of the most talented big man wrestlers of all time, to both defend the (recently reactivated) FTW Championship and avenge a loss that was seen at the time as a huge upset.
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It's back to the days of smoky town halls and blue-rinse haired elderly ladies as Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) catch a bit of classic British wrestling that is half rough-and-ready Ken Loach working class social-realism, and half good old fashioned panto. The jester of the UK grappling scene (and all around menace to the locker room) Les Kellett gets under the skin of Leon Arras, better known as thespian of stage and screen Brian Glover.
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Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) get their creative juices flowing this week as they try to turn their hands to movie making and brainstorming ideas for what may one day become a full draft of a script about the Monday Night Wars, perhaps when wrestling was at its cultural zeitgeist.
As long as you aren't one of those who don't take kindly to historical liberties being employed when recounting stories from the past, you should have a fun time listening to two minds working together to start crafting something new out of something old and well-known to anyone who is passionate enough to be listening to a wrestling podcast in the first place!
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It's a superfist party! Not in that way, you sicko!!!
The match that has been many years in the making finally took place, as the two most talked about (for both good and ill) tag teams of the past decade locked horns for the first time, with not just the AEW tag team titles on the line, but the last time the Bucks will challenge if they fail again. Will high flying defeat ground and pound? Will spectacle defeat solid work? Will sizzle beat steak? Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) are here to find out.
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After thirty incarnations of the high workrate love-in that is the G1 Climax, Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) are returning to the very first tournament, as Keiji Mutoh faces off against Big Van Vader. It's the days before NJPW World so they were working from a fan-cam footage version, but given that this was a match that Brian Pillman once told Dave Meltzer is the greatest he's ever seen (and is often listed as a Meltzer 5* match, which we're not sure about either way) it's fair to say that, based on repuation, this should be good in nearly any quality recording.
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Der ouch! Two of Europe's finest battle it out in front of no fans, but it's certainly not a quiet encounter. For the second time, a WALTER title defence of his NXT UK Championship achieved at least a perfect score from Dave Meltzer, and Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) are prepping for their second lockdown and hoping the worst thing to happen to their chests are the occasional, but not constant, cough.
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You may have had to wait a week for another five-star match, but for the lucky people who saw the Ibushi-Suzuki match from last week, they literally only had to wait a minute or two before Kazuchika Okada and Shingo Takagi locked horns and had another match that Dave Meltzer gave a better-than-perfect 5.25 star rating. Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) are here to see what this clash of the New Japan ace against, until recently, the Dragon Gate ace in a battle of the Ultimo Dragon trainees.
Outro music: Horizun the Alien - Star Money
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I suppose we should have made a bigger deal about this being the 150th match to get rated five stars or higher. But we didn't, so there's that. A relatively barren G1 Climax as far as perfect scores go, but Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) are still being treated to a match with hard hitting and loud yelling in Japanese, as the Golden Star faces another challenge on his final end point of IWGP success. This time it's against Minoru Suzuki, in only his second five-star match as he shows that men in the 50s can still get the job done!
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We're back with another match of the week, and this time Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) return to the world of lucha libre to review the match rated as the best of the year by Wrestling Observer readers in 2000, and the match that is more often than any other cited as the greatest in the history of lucha libre.
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Part match review, part discussion on the current day wrestling crowd, Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) are in a more philosophical mood this time as they both try to understand how the situation we're in at the moment does or doesn't affect the artistic merit of a wrestling match. I don't know if I've sold this episode well...
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It's Simon's go this time, and he's decided to go into that most often derided sub-genre of wrestling: the celebrity match. In the biggest show of them all (and the one most associated with these matches) at WrestleMania XXIV as The Big Show battles arguably the greatest boxer of all time in Floyd Mayweather. The boxer vs. wrestler match is a gimmick almost as old as wrestling itself. Did they do this justice? Did the showmanship of Mayweather make him a natural at the theatrics of pro wrestling? Simon (@simoncross3) and Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) have gone back in time to re-watch and find out.
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Just before the world shut down and required a reboot that's been suffering from severe lagging issues, AEW had provided us with another five star match between two top tag teams. Six months later, another clash between two teams, but in a very different environment, has also earned a perfect score. So Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) have packed their lunches, been dropped off and podcast school, and are producing another episode, at long last, in their Meltzer 5-Star series.
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A new series sees the LMTYS lads Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) take it in turns picking a match from long and varied history of pro wrestling and discuss it for as long as they feel like discussing it. Lorcan's pick sees the man oft-cited as the greatest wrestler of all time, Lou Thesz, defend his NWA World Heavyweight Championship against the much more flamboyant, and first WWWF World Heavyweight Champion, 'Nature Boy' Buddy Rogers. A clash of personalities and ideologies whose echoes are still heard to this day.
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We went all over the place with this one. 200 episodes will get to your brain in some way, shape or form, so it was somewhat inevitable...
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"I condense it down to this. Those people who like professional wrestling, no explanations needed. For those who don't like it, any explanation would not be acceptable."
Max Crabtree - When Wrestling Was Golden (2006)
So the world went a bit crazy this year, didn't it? Well, thanks to an interim that wasn't intended to be quite so sparse on the upload front, Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) are here to give you an update on where they're going for the forseeable future, as LMTYS will now become a year-long weekly podcast with a series of different shows within the show.
To make that a sustainable, we are hoping that some of you will reach into your pockets and help us out by making a donation to our Patreon account. All the details will be found in the page in the links at the bottom of the description.
We missed you guy, we hope you missed us too, and we also hope we can keep in touch more from now on! Let's work our way past all the unpleasatness that we've been encountering lately and look forward to hopefully brighter future together.
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For the first time in a while, Dave Meltzer has gone beyond the five-star rating when assessing a match, and has even gone so far as to suggest this one may be the greatest tag team match of all time. With action, moves, and more hurt feelings than those poor saps who dress like the characters from Inside Out after they've been assaulted by numerous children at Disneyland, Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) are here to see whether they can hang onto this emotional rollercoaster.
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It's an all-British affair this time as RevPro Wrestling hosts its first five-star match in the eyes of Dave Meltzer as Zack Sabre Jr and Will Ospreay, not only possibly the two best wrestlers from the UK, but two of the best wrestlers in the world, clash again for the British championship after a match in New Japan a couple of weeks earlier that Meltzer awarded 4.75 stars. Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) are in their cricket whites, whistling 'Jerusalem', and crafting points-based immigration policies whilst sitting down to some more wrestling analysis.
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They screwed up a bit in not checking the fine print of the recent Wrestling Observers, but it's better late than never for Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) after the return from a well-earned break to go back to the two-night Wrestle Kingdom show that kicked off 2020 to re-watch the Double Gold Dash finale and possibly the end chapter to the greatest long-term story told in wrestling history. Can it suceed against such lofty expectations?
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It's the second of two matches to gain above-perfect scores from Dave Meltzer in one show, as we're now in the main event of night one of Wrestle Kingdom 14. Kazuchika Okada is defending his IWGP Heavyweight Championship against the man who defeated him in the G1 Climax block finals en route to earning this Tokyo Dome title shot. Can 'The Golden Star' win his first title on the biggest stage of them all and without anyone in his corner to cheer him on? Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) are here to find out and then wonder ifthey might just be able to get a proper break for a bit now...
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They're a bit punch drunk and were hoping not to necessarily be back on the podcast marshes so soon into 2020, but Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) have rejoined the playing field because New Japan has held its biggest event of the year and have taken pre-emptive measures to record an episode for the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship clash between 'The Aerial Assassin' and the returning 'Ticking Time Bomb' that they're assuming Dave has given it five stars at a minimum! Will they be correct? They certainly hope so, and they're pretty certain they'll be back in a week's time with at least one more match from the first weekend of 2020.
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It's been a decade of pipe bombs and bullet clubs, shoots and worked shoots, six and seven star ratings, and a whole mess of cultural steps forwards and backwards. Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) have been watching it all with a keen eye and are now here to impart their wisdom. If we can call it wisdom. Which we really can't. But it's out podcast, so who cares?
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Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) and the world in general have obviously had a year full of incident, but that's been matched by the wrestling industry. From the formation of a new promotion, the WWE starting a new lucrative TV deal with FOX, and many other events across the wrestling globe have happened this year. Can they cover it all in one year as well as provide predictions for the year 2020? Listen to find out!
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They only went and bloody did it. By they, we mean Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3), and here they are to provide some final thoughts, some final lists, and a final definitive five matches. Some stats are offered, some opinions have been switched, and some reflection on what they've been through is provided. Thank you for listening if you picked us up during this project, and we hope you stick with us to see what other exciting ideas we have in the future.
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A match happened that got five stars. It did a lot of the things that five star matches tend to do these days. Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) are offering their thoughts on the match.
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It's the second five (and a quarter) star match to happen in one day, but on a different continent as AEW presents its final PPV show before becoming a weekly TV show. It's one of the founders that yet again takes part in the match as The Young Bucks take on their non-union Mexican equivalents in The Lucha Bros. Add to a feud already known for its crazy high spots, they add ladders (and, as you'd expect, some other hardware that makes itself available) and you've probably got yourself quite the light show. Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) have fitted their viewing rooms with cushions on the floor to soften the impact of when their jaws hit it and are here to provide their own thoughts afterwards.
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Our final WWE match of the series, and our first one under the NXT UK brand. It's also the first match wrestled in the UK to gain (more than) the perfect score from Dave Meltzer. "The Big Strong Boy" Tyler Bate attempts to reclaim his WWE United Kingdom Championship from "Der Ring General" WALTER. So early into this latest WWE spin-off brand and they're already going beyond the five-star barrier. Is the rating justified? Fellow Brits Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) will have drink a cup of tea and nosh on a scone before seeing if they also consider this gentlemen's duel to be spiffy or not.
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It's the final of the G1 Climax and, as of time of uploading, the final match on this list to gain a perfect score (or higher!) from Dave Meltzer to be presented by New Japan. This time Kota Ibushi attempts to jump that final hurdle that eluded him the previous year and win the biggest tournament in wrestling. The man standing opposite him is the apple of Gedo's eyes (both on-screen and, many believe, backstage) in the five-star debutant, and fourth leader of the Bullet Club, Jay White. Rarely has there been so explicitly a match pitting good against evil, and Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) are both artistic and morality assessors in this one.
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Kota Ibushi's hopes to go one step further from the previous year's G1 Climax runner-up has the intimidating penultimate hurdle of 'The Rainmaker', recently reunited with his precious IWGP Heavyweight Championship. 'The Golden Star' is also burdened by the fact that whilst he needs to win the match within the 30-minute time-limit, Okada does not have the same problem with his superior points total going into the match. Can Ibushi overcome the odds? Will Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) be able to provide insightful commentary when describing it back after the fact? You'll have to listen to find out!
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It's a battle of the burly, brawny powerhouses as G1 Climax debutant Shingo Takagi has been tearing a path through New Japan with his chops, lariats, and bruising strikes. Now he's up against a man who made a reputation out of chopping, lariating, and brusing everyone in their way for the past five years of G1 show-stealing matches. It's 'The Dragon' against 'The Stone Pitbull' and it's Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) who have the duty to witness it all and see if they agree with the perfect rating.
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It's another faction civil war during the G1 Climax, as it's Los Ingobernables de Japon's turn to put friendships aside to battle it out. But this goes beyond faction friends, as there is a deep-lying story between these two wrestlers spanning twenty years! Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) are here to try to decide whether it gains full marks or not.
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A match happened again in Japan. A guy in America again gave it five out of five. Two guys from England called Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) watch it. This is what they thought.
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It's a return to Reseda, California, and another match of six men flying through the air, hitting high spot after high spot, and all in front of the notoriously rabid PWG crowd. This time it's six of Mexico's finest doing everything they can to steal the show and continue to push forward the Lucha Libre tradition of in-ring action. Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) are here to try to translate it for a more self-important audience. Y'know, people who listen to podcasts...
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It's another CHAOS civil war to gain a perfect score from Dave Meltzer. As is usually the case, the only reason stablemates are facing each other is because it's one of New Japan's annual tournaments, and the heavyweight ace Okada is facing the junior ace Ospreay. It's IWGP Heavyweight Champion vs. IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion and it's one of the earliest matches for a rivalry that could eventually become one for the ages. Conflicting inter-generational millennials Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) are here to see if this generational conflict deserved the rating and what this may be a harbinger for in New Japan's future main event scene.
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This is such good shit. Recently liberated from WWE and the Dean Ambrose moniker, Jon Moxley is reborn and has been travelling around many a promotion to pick a fight. He enters the G1 Climax with something to prove, and a man in Tomohiro Ishii is more than happy to provide the test he's looking for in a New Japan ring. Your wartime correspondents Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) are here to assess the damage and record their eye-witness accounts for posterity.
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It's fair to say that the first half of 2019 has been a remarkable six month period for Will Ospreay. He opened the year winning the Never Openweight Championship in the Tokyo Dome at Wrestle Kingdom, he claimed his second Best of the Super Juniors tournament, and followed that up with reclaiming the IWGP Junior Heavyweight championship only four days later. Entering the second half of 2019 he's got a brand new goal, to win the G1 Climax at his first attempt. Unfortunately for him, the damage he's endured has left a toll and a negative win record going into his re-match with the man whom he defeated in a slight upset at Wrestle Kingdom, and a man hoping to go one step further from his runner-up finish at the previous G1 Climax, Kota Ibushi. Both men come in severely damaged physically and both desperate for a win to stay in contention in the tournament. Will the physical limitations impact both their performances and the match itself? Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) are here to find out.
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It's been a mere four days since Will Ospreay both won the Best of the Super Juniors tournament and scored another five-star match in the eyes of Dave Meltzer. But here is doing it again in the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship match that his BOSJ victory guaranteed. Facing him on the opposite corner is Dragon Lee, one of the most exciting young prospects in wrestling who has already garnered many a prize and a lot of acclaim along the way. Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) are here to find out if it is all deserved, whilst pondering what Ospreay may have done to have such a startlingly successful year compared to what had already been a meteoric rise up the global wrestling rankings.
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It's the third consecutive Best of the Super Juniors to gain five stars, and it's between two men that were treading the fine line of the junior and heavyweight divisions of New Japan. Powerhouse and longtime Dragon Gate ace, as well as newest LIJ member, Shingo Takagi enters on a perfect group stage record of 9-0 whilst Ospreay battles through a pain and adversity to reach the first BOSJ final to main event Sumo Hall. Will they be able to put on a showcase worthy of such a grand stage? Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) are here to find out.
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After a last-minute booking for the previous NXT Takeover show, this time Johnny Gargano and Adam Cole have had time to develop their feud, and this was all about proving something. Gargano has to prove that he's not a flash in the pan, and Cole is challenged to prove he can win the big match without any interference from his fellow Undisputed Era team-mates. On the external level, however, the bigger question was how could they possibly match or even top their incredible match that they'd already had? Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) are here to hopefully help people decide one way or the other.
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From its official announcement on New Year's Day 2019, to its first five-star match less than six months later, it's fair to say this has been an impressive first year for All Elite Wrestling. What makes this even more unlikely is that it's a match between two brothers who had previously wrestled a disappointingly forgettable match with each other a few years earlier in the WWE. But the restrictions are not there anymore, and they put on a very different kind of match. Even more remarkable is the age of Dustin as he records his second Meltzer five-star match, after his previous one had happened more than half of his lifetime ago. Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) try to not to reflect on their own achievements and the inexorable march of time whilst deciding what are shortcuts and what is an extra layer of storytelling.
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It's Best of the Super Juniors time yet again, but for the first time in the tournament's history, it's a block match and not just the final that gains the perfect score from Dave Meltzer. If there's been a stand-out star in 2019 you can make a valid case that it's Will Ospreay, and this match with fellow hot up-and-comer Bandido is the start of a two-month period where Ospreay scored five matches rated five out of five. It's a battle in the skies as two men pushing what wrestling can achieve meet in front of an appreciative Korakuen Hall crowd. Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) are here as always to try to keep up with the pace and provide their own thoughts.
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After more than a year of build-up, the epic feud between Johnny Gargano and NXT Champion Tommaso Ciampa was supposed to finally blow-off in the NXT Takeover before WrestleMania. However, with only weeks to go, Ciampa required neck surgery and Takeover had lost its main event. With little time to get people interested, leader of the Undisputed Era Adam Cole steps into the Ciampa-shaped hole as he and Gargano battled for the now vacant NXT title. Will they be able to provide a match entertaining enough for you to forget that Ciampa was supposed to be there? Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) are here to find out.
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A match happened in Japan. A guy in America gave it five out of five. Two guys from England called Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) watched it. This is what they thought.
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So the Meltzer Five-Star Project has finally lapped itself with the first match to get the perfect score rating from Dave that happened after Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) had started this project and uploaded episodes. Appropriately enough, it starts with the main event of a match at the Tokyo Dome as Kenny Omega now enters a Wrestle Kingdom in the new role of defending IWGP Heavyweight Champion facing off against the man that bleeds New Japan more than anyone else in 'The Ace of Universe'. A very personal conflict of ideologies plays out in front of our two hosts, and, although unknown at the time, Omega was taking part in his final match for the promotion that made him a worldwide name.
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It's the final Debrief before Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) have finally completed their year-long five-star project. 2018 was when the five-star dam truly broke, resulting in twenty-one matches given the perfect rating that had only a few years earlier had gaps of over a year between matches. What changed? What non-five-star match is there for Lorcan and Simon to discuss? Has the individual top 10 and mutual top 5 changed? You'll have to listen to find out!
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With only two weeks left in a miraculous year of perfect matches, in the opinion of Dave Meltzer, New Japan were able to squeeze one last five-star affair before 2018 reached its conclusion. It involved four men who have all been involved in multiple perfect matches this year, and it was one of the final chances for the IWGP Heavyweight and NEVER Openweight champions and challengers to size each other up before Wrestle Kingdom. Tanahashi teaming with CHAOS member, and fellow title challenger, Ospreay to take on the seemingly invincible reunited dream team of Omega & Ibushi as the Golden Lovers. Will this makeshift team pull off an upset and get into the champions' minds before their title defences? Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) are here to find out.
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As we wind our way down to the end of the record-breaking year for five-star matches that was 2018, we have our one and only match featuring Kazuchika Okada to be a team affair, as 'The Rainmaker' teams up with his CHAOS cohort 'The Stone Pitbull' to face The Golden Lovers. It is, at time of release, the final in-ring encounter between Okada and Kenny Omega, and features four of the top performers in all of wrestling in front of an excited U.S. crowd as NJPW continues its global expansion. Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) are here to savour what they can whilst keeping up with the frantic pace of a match where everyone is accustomed to having a bit more time to get their stuff in.
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Hiroshi Tanahashi continues his miraculous journey back to the main event of Wrestle Kingdom to challenge once again for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship. In order to reach that match against Kenny Omega, though, he must first finally claim a victory over the man who replaced him as the Ace of the promotion in 'The Rainmaker' Kazuchika Okada. Whilst Okada has been in a different, more troubled mood since being vanquished for the title by Omega, it's obvious that whenever he faces Tanahashi he ups his game. So will Tanahashi be able to achieve something he hasn't done in more than four years? Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) are here to find out.
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After producing six five-star (and above) matches in the build up, it seems that once again they've saved the best for last as the G1 Climax final for 2018 earned a whopping five-and-three-quarter stars from Dave Meltzer. A generational conflict that sees the Ace of the Universe Hiroshi Tanahashi try once again to turn back time as he faces off against the younger upstart Kota Ibushi who entered the final off the back of defeating IWGP Heavyweight Champion and best friend Kenny Omega. With Omega in Ibushi's corner and Tanahashi's former fourth generation Three Musketeer ally/rival Katusyori Shibata in his, this is a clash you don't want to miss, and maybe you'll want to hear Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) and find out what they think too. Given you've read this whole blurb it really would be silly not to now...
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When Golden Lovers collide! It's a match everyone wanted but feared what would happen if it did. Having finally reunited a few months earlier, Kenny Omega and Kota Ibushi find themselves in opposite corners to decide who wins the G1 Climax B Block and faces Hiroshi Tanahashi in the final. Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) are still battling with the nastiest feedback they've ever received (thankfully not from listeners) but making sure to provide its listerns with the insight and analysis it has come to expect, and wish for more of but know better than to expect that of them...
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It's fair to say that losing the IWGP Heavyweight Championship has affected Okada. We're not explicitly saying he might be partaking in certain narcotics that has affected his behaviour, but he certainly seems to be a man feeling a since of liberty sincce he's no longer carrying the mantle of champion. In the other corner is his greatest rival, and a man who always seems to have stuck to the straight-and-narrow, and on a great run that puts him in pole position to reach another G1 Climax final with this block decider. Will Tanahashi hold out or can Okada just rely on his physical gifts when his mental discipline seems to have gone wandering? Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) are here to find out.
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It's the final match of the self-contained round robin in B Block of the 2018 G1 Climax. Kenny Omega and Tomohiro Ishii both have victories over Hirooki Goto that gained the full five stars from Dave Meltzer, they now go head-to-head themselves as the flash and spectacle of the leader of the Bullet Club meets the no-nonsense Stone Pitbull in a bruising and literally smash-mouth encounter. Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) have a nearly as fraught battle with the feedback issues in their studio hire, but will fight on regardless to provide another episode of discussion and analysis. In many ways we're the real heroes.
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According to Google Translate, the appropriate Japanese word to call this match is a Surobbānokkā (the equivalent of a 'slobberknocker'). Two big burly brawling bastards battle it out in a G1 Climax group match. Goto has already fallen to Kenny Omega in our previous five-star match, and just a few days later he's in another match (wrestled in an entirely different style) to get the perfect score from Dave Meltzer against many people's G1 MVP 'The Stone Pitbull'. Will Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) be similarly impressed?
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Apologies in advance, but somehow recording in a hired studio face-to-face (instead of the usual recorded Skype conversation) has somehow resulted in a lower quality audio recording and us having to contend with (and mostly edit out) issues with feedback. But Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) carry on regardless as they review another G1 Climax B Block match, as IWGP Heavyweight Champion Kenny Omega continues to be cock of the walk as he takes part in a champion vs. champion match against NEVER Openweight champion, and perennial bride of New Japan's main event scene, Hirooki Goto. Will the leader of the Bullet Club continue to stretch out in front of his competition, or will the determined, but often unlucky, Goto bring him down to size? And will they have a match worthy of the full five-star rating in the process?
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It's the start of the summer bonanza of five-star matches that is New Japan's G1 Climax tournament. The tour starts as it means to go on as the opening round of matches in B Block is headlined by the 2017 block final and the 2018 tournament final, as Kenny Omega and Tetsuya Naito battle in a G1 rubber match that sees Omega being cock of the walk with his newly acquired IWGP Heavyweight Championship facing off against a Naito who is trying to recover from losing the IWGP Intercontinental championship to Chris Jericho at the same show Omega won his seven-star match against Okada. Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) are here to see if their love for the first two encounters between these two will be matched a third time.
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Y'am goonay'av a bostin' toime tonoight. Moostache Mowntin are taykin' on them basturd Undispeowted Era for the tag toitles. Lawcun (@lorcanmullan) and Soimon (@simoncross3) are gunna tayk yow on thiz jurnay. Jump the wrestling buzz wiv uz!
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So here is the match that's so good it's 40% above a perfect score! In their fourth singles outing, a year on from their 60-minute draw, 'The Rainmaker' and 'The Best Bout Machine' face off in a 2-out-of-3 Falls match with no time limit. Can Omega finally win the big one for the title? Will Okada solidfy his place as a cut above everyone, even his biggest rival? Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) are here to find out.
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It's the time of the year where New Japan's junior stars take centre stage, and it's the top junior rep for Los Ingobernables de Japon and Bullet Club clashing for the silver glass trophy and an IWGP Junior Heavyweight title shot against Will Ospreay a week later. It's fair to say that both BC's Ishimori and particularly LIJ's Takahashi are willing to punish their bodies for the sake of having an entertaining match, but will Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) decide to give the match the perfect score, or maybe even exceed it as Meltzer did when he gave the match 5.5 stars.
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It's another chapter of the feud of the decade. Whilst Kazuchika Okada may have finally surpassed his rival Hiroshi Tanahashi in the last IWGP title match between the pair at Wrestle Kingdom, he still felt he had something else to prove by extending the challenge to his elder for this match. Because victory here would see Okada surpass Tanahashi with the most successful title defences in one reign, and there was no better opponent to beat to achieve this than the original record holder. Will Tanahashi be able to make the step up against a man that is seen by the eyes of all as his in-ring superior? Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) are here to find out.
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It's our first trip to mainland Europe as the world of wrestling continues to both expand and contract at the same time! This time Spain's hero, and hot young prospect, The A-Kid attempts to defend his home country's honour against the British technical wrestling abilities of Zack Sabre Jr. Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) watch on as they catch up on a match that took quite a while from its actual taking place to gaining enough praise to even reach Dave Meltzer's attention and for him to bestow his five snowflakes several months later.
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The second of two Meltzer five-star matches in one event (to this day the only instance of that happening) sees Johnny Gargano attempt to exorcise all the demons he's suffered for months at the hands of his former DIY partner Tommaso Ciampa. An epic of many acts in front of a rabid crowd, Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) reflect on a match that in many ways has provided the template for NXT main events since.
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The WWE usually has to wait ages for a five-star match rating from Dave Meltzer, and then two come along one after the other! The first in this one-night one-two punch is to decide who will be the first NXT North American Champion as a cross-section of indy stars, international imports, returning stars, and developmental talent clash under Ladder match stipulations. There have been numerous examples of this type of match held every year in the WWE for more than a decade, so Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) are here to try to figure out what made this match so special in the eyes of the Meltz!
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The first all-England five-star affair, but it's taking place in Japan! However, it is part of a storyline that started back in their days in the UK, as 'The Aerial Assassin' defends in IWGP Junior title whilst also trying to finally claim a singles victory over 'The Villain', who has made a living out of beating his Essex counterpart and claiming plenty of titles from those victories along the way. Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross) are here to analyse their Sumo Hall match-up whilst trying not to scream at every attempt by Ospreay to greatly shorten his in-ring career...
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So much conflict resolution abounds in this match you'd expect Dr Phil to find some way to get his publicity-seeking bald head to turn up at some point. Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) turn into gossipy soap opera obsessives this time as they try to figure out the emotional twists and turns the Jackson brothers and their erstwhile friend Kenny and reunited friend Ibushi try to sort out their issues with the use of hard palm strikes, superkicks, and table spots.
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It's the first match under the auspices of WWE to gain a five-star rating from Dave Meltzer for the first time since Cena-Punk at Money in the Bank seven years earlier, and its under the NXT banner for the very first time. Two men who had suffered periods of wilderness before reaching the point of main eventing a Takeover. Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) are here to try to figure out why it's this match that started the trend and what strengths both Andrade and Gargano showed and would continue (or not continue) to display in the future.
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Yet again, we recorded this before we realised our Tanahashi-Okada October 2013 omission, but the rest of the discusison still remains valid. Or at least as valid as you think Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon's (@simoncross3) opinions are on such matters. As in other debriefs, they return and revise their definitive lists, discuss a match that Meltzer didn't give five stars to, but others may consider a gross omission, and ponder a listener question.
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So at the time of recording, Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) believed that this was the 100th match to be given five-stars from Dave Meltzer and acted accordingly with grand statements about how appropriate this truly was and many profound statements. Unfortunately, they're both morons who can't read. But hopefully that won't stop you from listening to their ramblings about the all-Winnipeg clash as part of 2018's Wrestle Kingdom double main-event. It's a wild chaotic brawl the likes of which New Japan fans won't be so accustomed to witnessing.
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A huge milestone for the show. It's a shame Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) didn't realise it at the time because they'd missed one of the Okada-Tanahashi matches before recording and correcting! The second straight match to come from PWG's show in Reseda, but an all-European clash between the mouthy lad from Kent Zack Sabre Jr faces the stern Austrian WALTER. No conforming to sterotypes in the seirous world of indie wrestling!
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Before they were invading Raw and making waves in NXT, these two huge men were battling it out in the smark fan mecca of the Reseda American Legion Hall during the Battle of Los Angeles tournament of 2017. Big men exchanging big moves in front of a molten crowd, and Meltzer himself in the front row, Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) are here to provide whatever stands for insight.
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It's the final of the G1 Climax 2017 as last year's winner Kenny Omega faces the 2013 winner, and the man he defeated in the previous year's Block B final, Tetsuya Naito. Omega is coming in hot having finally defeated Kazuchika Okada the previous night. Naito is also in a better frame of mind, defeating Hiroshi Tanahashi two nights earlier and exorcising whatever demon he had left from losing the IC belt to Tanahashi two months earlier. Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross) continue to follow this unfolding saga!
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It's the final of Block B of the 2017 G1 Climax and it's the third in the series of matches to perhaps break Dave Meltzer's brain. Can the leader of the Bullet Club finally claim a victory over the Rainmaker, even if it's not for the IWGP title, but instead a berth in the final of the G1 Climax. Okada is walking wounded going into this match, and they only have half of the usual 60-minute time limit to work with to try and finish the other one off. Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) are here to find out one way or the other.
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It's a triple bill of 2018 G1 Climax clashes, and also the final chapter of a trilogy of 2018 bouts between the leader of Los Ingobernables de Japon and the Ace of the Universe. They have traded wins battling over the IWGP Intercontinental Championship, but this time it's an A block decider. Can Naito's tranquilo anti-establishment attitude trump Tanahashi's embodiment of New Japan's fighting spirit and can the two combine to provide a classic match worthy of the Dave Meltzer perfect score? Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) are here to find out the answer to all of these questions and more.
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After you break the wrestling world with your match, and then one person's review of said match breaks the internet wrestling world, where on Earth do you possible go from there to top it? If you're Kenny Omega and Kazuchika Okada you go long. Six months on from their six-star encounter, witness the match that Dave Meltzer rated a quarter-star higher. Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross) try to figure out what on earth the difference between a 6 and a 6.25 match is whilst giving their own opinions on the match itself.
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It took twenty years but finally another final in the Best of the Super Juniors tournament has earned the perfect score from Dave Meltzer and allow Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross) to discuss the aerial exploits of KUSHIDA and Will Ospreay, both with huge monkeys on their backs that they're hoping winning this BOSJ tournament will finally put to rest. But has the fact that huge moves utilised at a fraught pace no longer being the exclusive domain of the smaller wrestler meant they will struggle to make their presence felt in a rare main event for their division? Listen on and find out!
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It's flash against fundamentals, colour against monochrome, cockiness against resilience, as 'The Rainmaker' defends his IWGP Heavyweight Championship against 'The Wrestler'. Okada goes into this match full of confidence, to the point of dismissal against a man who has had to wait more than a decade to challenge for New Japan's top title against a man who has basically owned the belt since his return to the promotion. Lorcan(@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) are here to see which overriding ideology is successful and consider the career and character of Shibata.
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Usually a match for a championship is reason for a wrestler to be at the top of their game in order to achieve the pinnacle of their sport. Unless your name is Tetsuya Naito and you're defending the IWGP Intercontinental Championship. In which case, you're only hoping to defend the title in order to deny someone else happiness, insult your company, and physically abuse the physical embodiment of everything that has held him back and denied him his deserved place at the top of the promotion. Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) try not to damage their microphones like Naito does the IC belt and provide entertaining observations of this match where it is the gaijin as the defender of the promotion's integrity.
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Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) are here to adjust their list, discuss a listener's corrspondence, and provide an alternative five-star match to discuss. Obviously, we recorded this before we realised we screwed up about Okada vs. Tanahashi from October 2013. Rest assured it will be factored in as soon as we've caught up with ourselves!
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Here it is. The match that, perhaps more than any other, is responsible for the increased public profile of New Japan, Kenny Omega, Kazuchika Okada, the creation of AEW, and even the significance of Dave Meltzer's star ratings. This was also the match that maybe broke the system as we know it. It's not the first six-star match, but it's the one that changed the scale forever after. Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) still have the previous six-star match ranked as the best match of the series so far, so it's going to be intriguing to see how this affects both them individually, and how they perceive its impact on the rest of wrestling culture.
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It's our first foray into where Meltzer likes to hang out for some wrestling fun (but with his trusty pad and pencil with him) as he sits front row to watch a bumper collection of all the moves as three-quarters of PWG's main event faction Mount Rushmore (interesting name...) face off against the high flying dream team of Ricochet, Matt Sydal, and a young up-and-comer making waves from Essex called Will Ospreay. A true marmite match, let's see if Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) would spread it all over their baked products or chuck it in the bin!
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The leaders of the top two heel stables of New Japan, Bullet Club's Omega and Los Ingobernables de Japon's Naito, collided in the block decider for the 2016 G1 Climax and they went out of their way to tear the house down. The first of many five-star matches for both individuals, the changing fortunes of both Naito and Omega are charted both in their backstory and in the match itself. Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) are here to trade words with hopefully less spittle utilised compared to those taking part in this match.
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Okada may now be the Ace of the promotion, but that doesn't mean he has to face challengers, even within his own faction! It's G1 Climax time, and it's the only year where faction civil war takes place, and the 'Stone Pitbull' has risen in the ranks to become the de factor second-in-command of the group. Will that mean he can finally get a win over the 'Rainmaker' in one of his rare chances to take on the perennial IWGP Heavyweight champ. Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) are here to find out.
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We are back on the chronological track (at least in release order, it'll be a long time before we get back to the right record order!) but we're still with the great rivalry of the decade as Hiroshi Tanahashi and Kazuchika Okada once again battle it out for supremacy. Whilst Tanahashi is trying to once again reclaim the IWGP Heavyweight Championship, it's the defending champion Okada with even more to gain, as he now knows he must defeat his older rival on the biggest stage of his promotion's year and do it convincingly if he is to truly carry himself as the Ace of the promotion, and gain redemption for a loss the previous year that left him in such distress he wept as he left the Tokyo Dome. Will Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) need to bring hankies with them? And if so, for what exactly?! Listen if you dare to find out!
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So we made a little screw up. We're sure you're all shocked. We got a little mixed up with the multiple Okada-Tanahashi matches and which match was rated what. So we're turning back the clocks a couple of years to play catch up and watch another match in what may come to be seen as the greatest rivalry in pro wrestling history. Will Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) contain their embarassment enough to provide qualitative analysis on what was billed at the time as Tanahashi's last chance to win the IWGP title from Okada? There's always a first time for everything!...
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Whilst they main evented three separate Wrestle Kingdom events, this was the only time that the two top New Japan stars of the fourth generation both clashed in the G1 Climax final and had a match together that gained the perfect five-star rating from Dave Meltzer. It's Ace vs. King and Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) place all their cards on the table when it comes to combat critique.
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It's fair to say that Ishii and Honma are two of the most unlikely wrestlers to ever become stars big enough to find themsevles headlining a New Japan event, contesting a vacant title. Neither were a home-grown talent, both started at the lowest point of the pecking order you can be whilst not being a Young Lion, and both have an unconventional wrestling style. Yet, it all came together in an alchemical blend to create a five-star match in the eyes of Dave Meltzer. Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) are here to try to unpack both everything that went into the match and everything within the match itself.
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It's a debut for two of the top current stars in wrestling, as the 'King of Strong Style' Shinsuke Nakamura defended his beloved IWGP Intercontinental Championship against newly signed DDT 'Golden Star' Kota Ibushi. A clash of hard strikes and unusual haircuts, Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) take it all in and consider each man's respective place at the start of this match, the end of it, and in the late 2019 landscape at the time of recording.
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As much a family dispute in a soap opera as it is a wrestling match, the Ace who spent the past decade shouldering the main event burden of the promotion faces off against the man who should have been sharing that weight as part of the Fourth Generation's new "Three Musketeers", this is a very personal one. Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) are here to find out "what's gaing on!" and tell them to "leave it aahht!" before finding out if the match deserves the full perfect rating that it got from Meltzer.
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The first G1 Climax match to gain five stars, but the first of many as August becomes a hotbed of perfect wrestling in the eyes of one Dave Meltzer. To start things off we've got a quick, violent slice of strong style striking as The Wrestler faces off against The Stone Pitbull and everyone in the audience in the venue and watching at home starts to feel pain in their own jaw just watching the match. Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross) hope that the second-hand pain won't be too much to prevent them having a natter about the action they witnessed and to decide if they agree with the rating for a match that some may consider the pinnacle of their favourite version of pro wrestling.
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It's been a long time for everyone for ten five-star matches to occur. more than a full decade. So Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) have a long period of time to discuss in their alternative 5-star match, to the point that they've decided to cover both a highly-rated match and its equally lauded re-match that didn't quite gain a perfect score from Dave Meltzer. As well as that they attempt to answer a listener's question and reconfigure their top 10 lists to determine the best of the best.
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As the era of New Japan dominance in this list kicks off, this golden age of five-star matches wrestled on the cereleun blue mat was born from the epic rivalry for the role of 'Ace' of the promotion between the long-standing top star and 'Once in a Century Talent' Hiroshi Tanahashi and the cocky 'Rainmaker' Kazuchika Okada. Going into the fourth match of this series (and the first to gain a perfect score from Dave Meltzer) Tanahashi has recovered from the shock title loss in February of the previous year to regain the title at Dominion and successfully defending it at WrestleKingdom VII to currently holld the lead at 2-1. Surely another convincing victory and all talk of Tanahashi's time at the top being finished will be forgotten, and the arrogant 24-year-old upstart will learn his place in the pecking order. Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) get ready to watch the first of many Okada matches they will cover over the next few months and see whether that was something that fills them with excitement or trepedation.
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It's the first of many, MANY matches this decade from New Japan that Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) will be covering for the rest of this five-star series. This one sees the Ace of Universe defend his IWGP Heavyweight Championship against every Young Lion's worst nightmare, and a man who could steal your girl as a young man and steal one of your limbs now, Minoru Suzuki.
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When it burst on the scene in 2002, Ring of Honor quickly became the wrestling hipster fan's promotion of choice. A decade on and the praise was increasingly infrequent. Despite this, they achieved their fourth and final five-star clash during WrestleMania 28 weekend as Davey Richards defended his ROH Championship against "Unbreakable" Michael Elgin in what is frequently cited as his star-making turn. Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) have previously dished out five star ratings to all the previous three ROH matches in this series, will it be four for four? Listen to find out!
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It's been a long time, but you will be happy for the wait because we've got A LOT of audio to provide you with over the rest of the year. After Meltzer also took a long break from rating a match five stars, we took a little break from uploading. So we thought we'd make up for that with the longest episode in this series so far, and there's no more fitting a match to make Meltzer go the full five and for Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) for natter for over an hour-and-a-half to maybe the most culturally significant wrestling match of this century so far. Your hosts discuss the before, during, and after of this all-time classic and ponder just where the legacy of this match (and the infamous promo that set it up) is to be found in today's wrestling landscape.
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It's the final five-star match for over five years as Ring of Honor plays host to a six-man Dragon Gate clash between the rival facctions of Blood Generation (CIMA, Naruki Doi & Masato Yoshino) against the Do Fixer trio (Dragon Kid, Genki Horiguchi & Ryo Saito). Can Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) keep up with rapid fire move-for-move exchange? Listen to find out and then stick around to hear the co-hosts explain the planned course of action as the series enters the 2010s.
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It's a double conclusion for LMTYS as the Samoa Joe trilogy of five-star matches ends, at the same time it's the final of the twenty-two five star matches for his opponent, and obvious inspiration, Kenta Kobashi. In front of a rabid crowd in New York, the Japanese legend is given a reaction that greatly surprises him and inspires him to have the best possible match. He couldn't have chosen a better person opposite him in the ring to achieve this and Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) are here to analyse the match, the surounding environment, and the performance.
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It's the one and only entry in this series that came from the second biggest US promotion for around ten years. Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross) are here to discuss the only triple threat/three way dance match on this list and why those types of matches, as prevelant as they now are, only claimed one perfect score, and why it was this one match for the X-Division championship.
Seven years after Dave Meltzer awarded five stars to the first ever WWF Hell in a Cell match, he gave the perfect score to a match in a very different environment. Two-and-a-half years into its existence, and Ring of Honor had come to be synonymous as the crown jewel promotion on the US indy scene. The promotion's two top stars of the time were a couple of hungry young competitors by the names of Samoa Joe and CM Punk. In Punk's hometown of Chicago, they battle it out in an epic for Joe's ROH World title in the eighteenth month of his reign. Recovering ROHbot Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and his young co-host Simon (@simoncross3) watch a match that really started to put these two men on the map that would go on to become two of the biggest names in wrestling for their generation.
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After finally claiming the position of ace in NOAH, Kenta Kobashi already has the heir apparent snapping at his heels as he makes his tenth defence of the GHC Heavyweight Championship against Jun Akiyama at the Tokyo Dome where he had won the title from Misawa previously. Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) are here once again to assess the match and reflect on the slightly less prominent, but still impressive, Fifth Pillar of the great 1990s AJPW scene in Jun Akiyama as he makes his final bow on this series.
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Arriving an episode later than intended, Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) re-draft their top ten lists, answer a query about time and relativity with relation to five-star wrestling matches, and discuss a match that is oft-replicated but rarely duplicated.
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The twenty-fourth and final match involving Mitsuharu Misawa sees him one more time try to defend his position at the top of the perch, this time in his own promotion of NOAH, against his long-time heir apparent Kenta Kobashi. They have both gone through a lot to get to this endpoint, and Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross) are here to reflect on another five-star match, a changing wrestling landscape in the three years since the previous five-star match, and a final reflection on a man who can definitely lay claim to being one of the greatest wrestlers of any era and any part of the world. Join us to give tribute to the man of emerald one last time...
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STOP THE PRESSES! It turns out there's a match that wasn't in our initial list that was a disputed entry, with different issues of the Wrestling Observer offering differing ratings. In the end, Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) decided to go on the side of five stars, if only because it gives us one more chance to watch a match involving both Toshiaki Kawada and the one and only "Shithouse" Masanobu Fuchi, as they fly the withered flag for All Japan and step into enemy territory of New Japan to face up-and-coming star Yuji Nagata and perennial mid-carder Takashi Iizuka.
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After dominating this show with nearly 50% of all five-star matches at the end of the 90s, this is the final match at the day of this episode uploading that All Japan hosted to be rewarded the perfect score from Dave Meltzer. This time it's another tag clash, but in a sign of the changing dynamics, Misawa teams up with Ogawa to defend their AJPW World tag titles against his previous two partners, and now founding members of the Burning faction, Kobashi & Akiyama. How will this dynamic play out? Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) are here to have their own say on things.
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After the state Misawa and Kobashi left each other after their previous five-star encounter, you think they'd would avoid each other like Simon (@simoncross3) will avoid a Joshi match (he never reads these descriptions, so I can get away with this). Instead, they're back at it only seven months later. They've grown beards too! Let's see if Simon and Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) enjoy it as much as they did their previous one, or if this proves to be a bit of a disappointment along the lines of Misawa's five-star rematch with Kawada.
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After years of fighting side-by-side against Tsuruta's Army, the Holy Demon Army and an array of gaijin monsters, Mitsuharu Misawa and Toshiaki Kawada are now facing off against each other for the richest crown in All Japan - the Triple Crown. Kobashi is the defending champion, but has yet to defeat Misawa when the title is on the line, so both men have so much to gain. Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) are here to watch and report back.
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For the fifth and final time, a year-closing clash from All Japan's World Strongest Tag League is the setting for another five-star collision, as Misawa once again teams up with his padawan Jun Akiyama to face his bitter rivals of Kawada & Taue of the Holy Demon Army. It's also the last time that Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) watch a match in this series to feature both Demon Army members, and they take this time to reflect on what their differing qualities brought both them as a team and wrestling in general.
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The fourth WWF match to gain the perfect score from Dave Meltzer, this is one of arguably as much historical significance as the Hart-Austin submission match that took place just over six months earlier. This time it's The Undertaker and Shawn Michaels facing off in the first ever Hell in a Cell match. Famous not only for the work of both the match participants, but some the extracurricular activities. Controversially in the eyes of some, this is also the only Undertaker-Michaels match to be rewarded five stars, the only match in Undertaker's entire career, and the second of only two for Michaels. Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) discuss all of these matters and more in another bumper edition of this series.
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It's one thing to try to follow up a five-star match. It's another thing entirely to follow up on the only match at this point in the history of the Wrestling Observer that Dave Meltzer broke the star rating system and gave six out of five. Whilst they didn't necessarily go that far, Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) both currenlty have the 1994 iteration of Misawa vs. Kawada as their respective best match that they've seen during this series so far. But if anyone could pull off a match of even higher calibre, surely it's Misawa and Kawada?
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New Japan hosts this episode's five-star classic as Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) look to see if El Samurai's second appearance in this seriesis an improvement on his previous Best of the Super Juniors final that achieved the full rating from Dave Meltzer five years earlier.
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It's a deep dive this time as Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) not only analyse the third WWF/WWE match to ever gain five stars, but also study the surrounding culture that this match reflected, and figure out why the case can be made that this is the most important wrestling match of the modern era.
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It's back to All Japan, as another World's Strongest Tag League tour is capped off with a match that gets the perfect score from Dave Meltzer. Akiyama has proven himself worthy to be in such hallowed company, but do he and his mentor Misawa continue their winning ways against arguably the greatest tag team of all time in the Holy Demon Army? Do Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) agree with this particular rating? Download and listen to find out.
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It's time for another list, another debate, and another alternative five-star match as Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) have a little natter and we hope you find it entertaining enough to give it a listen.
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Whilst they were a relatively small, regional promotion, the only five-star match contributed by Michinoku Pro Wrestling was emblematic of the influence that it would have on high-spot intense tag team matches involving large number of participants that can be felt to this day. Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) are here to discuss the match itself and what it led to in the future.
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No rest for the wicked, as no more than two weeks after Misawa and his new partner Akiyama have wrested the All Japan tag titles away from the Holy Demon Army, they have to defend them against the top gaijin pair of 'Dr. Death' Steve Williams and Johnny Ace. Will they be up for the task? Will the match be of a quality that justifies John Lauranitas's smugness at the Bella family get-togethers? Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) are here to find out...
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It's a slight change of line-up. Whilst the Four Pillars of Heaven will no longer be contesting epic tag matches, the new "Fifth Pillar" of All Japan is starting to emerge in form of hot young prospect Jun Akiyama. He has replaced Kenta Kobashi as the partner of Mitsuharu Misawa. Will his lack of experience cost them defeat against the established Holy Demon Army? Will his inexperience also cause this match to result in a substantial dip in quality? Let's see what Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) have to say about all this...
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It's the end of an era on LMTYS as Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) watch and review their final Joshi wrestling match, as Manami Toyota makes her eighth and last appearance, facing off against heated rival Akira Hokuto, an important figure in the history of women's wrestling, but making her sole appearance on this series. The hatred is palpable and the wrestling is fought at a high intensity. Will it be enough for a full five stars, and what does this era of women's wrestling tell us about the modern context. Lorcan and Simon also ponder why this was the last match involving women to gain the perfect score from Meltzer, and how long we would have to wait until another one achieves this "feat" in the future.
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It's the penultimate Joshi match as the mainstay of these matches, Manami Toyota, teams up with the less experience Sakie Hasegawa to take on the agressive, bullying sister tandem of Kyoko & Takao Inoue. Will Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) help Simon (@simoncross) see the error of his ways and guide him out of his MRA forums and finally address the existence of the gender pay gap? Listen to find out!
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It's the final match on this list that featured Misawa and Kobashi on the same team. This time they partner up with Satoru Asako to take on the Holy Demon Army and their new partner Tamon Honda. Will these two new additions be a gain or loss to proceedings? Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) are here to decide...
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The WWE Network archives served up a real treat recently with their uploading of footage from the inaugural Crockett Cup event in 1986, and that means that for the first time in over thirty years, people have been able to watch the full match between The Fantastics and The Sheepherders (a/k/a The Bushwhackers) that Dave Meltzer gave the full five-star rating. Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) return to the early days of their podcast series and provide a re-appraisal of the previous highlights they'd worked from with the original episode.
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It's another gender swap of the old David vs. Goliath story as five-star mainstay Manami Toyota faces off once again with the monstrous Aja Kong. Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) are here again to give the long-awaited oft-sought after but rarely heard from opinion of the straight white male.
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It's the final tag team encounter to only include the Four Pillars of Heaven. Did they save the best till last? Let's see what Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) think...
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This one's an epic! Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) watch another Joshi match, and yet another one involving Manami Toyota, as she defends her recently won 3WA Singles Championship against Kyoko Inoue (another five-star veteran) over a long, long, loooong period of time. The debate that started with the recent 60-minute match involving the Four Pillars of Heaven of AJPW is continued here.
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Ringo gets his solo track! It's the final of the Champion Carnival, and everyone's favourite fourth banana gets his time to shine, as Akira Taue steps out of his role as one of the greatest tag team wrestlers of all time to have his one and only singles match to gain a perfect score from Dave Meltzer. Is it warranted? Does Misawa carry him to it? Does anyone survive a Dondon to the outside from the apron? Find out by listening here as Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) answer those questions whilst posing and answering many more!
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It's time for another debrief as we reach our half century of episodes. Some big matches have happened between matches 40 and 50. Will the list be affected? What's the alternative five-star match? Does blood actually make a difference in the quality of a match? Listen in and find out what answers Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) provide to these questions.
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Long before he was providing Monday Night Raw viewers with the popular People Power movement, John Laurainaitas was better known by his wrestling name of Johnny Ace, and probably lists among the most unlikely wrestlers to be involved in multiple five-star matches. Is that entirely because of the good company he keeps? Or does he actually manage to hold his own alongside the gaijin great "Dr. Death" Steve Williams against the ace All Japan native pair of Misawa & Kobashi? Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) are here to find out!
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It's another tag collision involving All Japan's Four Pillars of Heaven as Mitsuharu Misawa & Kenta Kobashi battle once more with the Holy Demon Army of Kawada & Taue. Whilst they try to find new angles and nuances to add to their latest encounter, see if Simon (@simoncross) and Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) can do the same with their analysis.
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It's back to AAA as the mid-90s craze for Mexican wrestling was taking California by storm and led to a full PPV co-produced with WCW. This 2 out of 3 Falls Luchas de Apuestas bout was the highest rated and most fondly remembered match from that card. The ultimate rudo foreign heels of Eddie Guerrero and Art Barr put their hair on the line against beloved technicos El Hijo del Santo and Octagon under 2 out of 3 falls rules. But there are way more than three falls in this match! Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) are here to guide you through as soon as they can figure out for themselves everything that's going on.
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Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) return to the joshi world as AJW puts on the biggest card in the promotion's history at the Tokyo Dome, with top face Toyota tries to reclaim the WWWA Singles championship from the monster Aja Kong.
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Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) wait ages for one WWE match to make it on this list, and so soon after the first one we have a second! Bret Hart defends his WWF Championship against his younger brother Owen in one of the most highly-rated steel cage matches of all time. It's a contest of scrambles to the door and tussles at the top of the structure.
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Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) encounter another match oft-cited when the Greatest of All Time is being debated. This time it's Misawa defending his AJPW Triple Crown against childhood friend Kawada, with Dangerous K desperate to claim both his first Triple Crown and his first singles victory over Misawa.
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It's another short mini-sode, unfortunately, as Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) have only a short portion of this latest Four Pillars of Heaven tussle to get the perfect score from Dave Meltzer. If you can a link to where we can find the full match then please let us know and we'll re-do this episode in the future.
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Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) have to cover a lot of ground with this one, not all of it the most comfortable to discuss. If there was one set text of becoming a "smart" fan in the 90s, it was watching a VHS copy of the Super J Cup 1994. Will Simon be as impressed as Lorcan and his peers were with an event infamous for its match quality, building up to the crescendo that was the final, and the first New Japan match that Dave Meltzer had given five stars to since two years earlier.
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Perhaps the most important match in modern wrestling, Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) finally get to discuss a five-star match to come from the biggest promotion in wrestling history. It is also the first Ladder match to gain a five-star rating, and its influence as to what consitutes a wrestling match and the physical demands on wrestlers (as well as the desire to "steal the show") going forward. The match that probably cemented Shawn Michaels as a main-eventer going forward, and perhaps the biggest match that rarely ever talks about the contributions of one of the two wrestlers involved. Does 'The Bad Guy' deserve more credit? Listen to see if you agree with our assessments.
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Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) again assess the lay of the land forty matches into their project. Lists are revised and combined and finalised. Their alternative five-star match is only a couple of hours before the next official match, so that must have been one hell of a card! Finally, Lorcan and Simon address another quandry about why every women's wrestling match to gain five stars were from Japan, and when and how a match from outside of the Joshi tradition can achieve that rating.
Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) have grown to love the All Japan six-man tag team main event. Will they love it as much when the promotion's owner Shohei 'Giant' Baba gets involved. It's fair to say that Baba's best days are behind him, and his pace of wrestling would be generously described if you were using the word "plodding".
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Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross) return to the interpromotional Joshi feud as Manami Toyota & Toshiyo Yamada attempt to reclaim the WWWA Tag Team Championship for their home promotion of AJW against the JWP outsiders of Mayumi Ozaki & Dynamtie Kansai. Lorcan loved the last one, Simon was a bit cooler towards it. WIll that be the same this time? Will they be able to keep the names of all the in-ring participants correct? Listen to find out!
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It's the final of the World's Strongest Tag League and our Kobashi-thon reaches its end and our hero continues to battle for that elusive big win to cement his place int he main event scene. Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) consider what the Four Pillars all offer and whether a top guy can be too strong compared to their peers.
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The Kobashi-thon continues as he follows up his battle with the big boss gaijin of Stan Hansen to another clash a month later with the Oklahoma wrestling machine that was "Dr. Death" Steve Williams. Strikes are flung, heads are dropped, and gobs are smacked as Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross) continue their love-fest for the man in the orange trunks.
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Our Kobashi-thon continues, as our hero continues to look for that elusive big victory to really cement his place in the upper echelons of All Japan's main event scene. This time he's taking on the big boss of gaijin wrestlers in the form of Stan "The Lariat" Hansen. Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) encounter a match a structured quite differently from what they expected, and consider what makes a great babyface and underdog.
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New battle lines are formed in the classic All Japan six-man battleground as Misawa & Kobashi are joined by rookie sensation Jun Akiyama to face off with Kawada & Taue alongside second-timer in the five-star club Yoshinari Ogawa. Can they live up to the high quality set with the veterans Tsuruta and Fuchi being replaced by two relative newcomers? Listen to find out.
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It's a truncated discussion this time, as Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) have to contend with a clipped version of the latest five-star clash, a singles match between Toshiaki Kawada and Kenta Kobashi during the bruising and brutal Champions Carnival tournament. They follow up the match review with a broader discussion about the potentially more troubling aspects of what now makes a match stand out in an era of star ratings and a need to one-up your peers and predecessors. It's all very intellectual, you know...
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Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) follow up the previous AJW Dreamslam I interpromotional Joshi match with a second interpromotional match at Dreamslam II. The WWWA Tag titles are on the line and the winning team has to get two falls to claim them. Will they also claim five stars from either or both of these reviewers? Could any of the four give anything close to a spanish flea's fart one way or the other? Listen and then get in touch with them to find out...
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A return to the world of Joshi as the mid-90s boom is in full swing as AJW sells out the Yokohama Arena for a series of inter-promotional matches. As well as commenting on this all-out sprint of a match, Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) ponder a number of aspects of wrestlng criticism, the validity of opinion, and even slip in a Brexit reference. Because we can't escape that dumpster fire, or as we Brits refer to it: a skip combustion.
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It's our first trip to Mexico, as Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) are treated to a bit of high-flying action and try to grapple with a different language of their shared love. Will the lack of comprehension at times affect how much they enjoy the match? Listen to find out.
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After a fairly contention-free first crack at a mutual Top 5 after their individual top 10s, Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) compare notes after watching another ten five-star and see which ones they like best, and what their definitive five should be. After that, they discuss another match that Dave Meltzer didn't rate five stars, but at least one of our hosts counts as their favourite match of all time. They also discuss another fan question about achieving broader horizons with what they consider to be good wrestling.
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Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and SImon (@simoncross3) return to the world of Joshi wrestling yet again as one of the most popular tag teams of the post-Crush Gals era ended up such heated rivals that they took part in this Hair vs. Hair match which had an end of match angle that many rate as one of the best in wrestling history. Will Lorcan and Simon be equally impressed?
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Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) loved the previous match where Kenta Kobashi and his lil' buddy Tsuyoshi Kikuchi challenged for the All-Asia tag titles. Now they are the defenders and encounter a previous enemy (for both Kobashi and Lorcan & Simon!) as Masanobu "The S**thouse" Fuchi brings up his own protege Ogawa. Will they hold up to the quality of the previous classic? Listen in and find out!
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After being the member of his team most likely to take the losing fall, five-star match mainstay Kenta Kobashi finds himself as the stronger team member this time as he partners with the Super Generation Army's junior heavyweight member Tsuyoshi Kikuchi as they challenge the perennial All Japan All-Asia Tag Team champions of the 90s in Doug Furnas and Dan Kroffat, and it's all done in front of one of the most consistently vocal crowd you'll ever hear in Japanese wrestling.
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Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) adored the previous match involving these six wrestlers in their three-man combos and it was only the second match to receive unanimous five-star scores from Meltzer, Lorcan, and (most surprisingly) Simon! Let's see if the last match involving these two teams can match such critical heights...
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The second War Games match to get the full five stars from Dave Meltzer, you'll rarely see a ring (or two) with a greater collection of talent than we see in this brutal clash between one of the greatest heel stables of all-time and an all-star babyface team looking to vanquish their hated rivals, even if buckets of blood are shed in the process. Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) as always provide the sort of analysis you can only expect on many, many other wrestling podcasts. But our voices are quite nice, according to our mothers, so there's always that.
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Whilst All Japan's heavyweight division may have been stealing all the five-star ratings from the main event scene, it was in New Japan that the best junior heavyweight matches were to be witnessed, and this final of the annual Top (later Best) of the Super Juniors was one to gain the full Meltzer five-out-of-five. Will Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) agree with that assessment? Listen to find out!
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Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) return to the ongoing feud between Jumbo's Army and the Super Generation Army as the two key trios of each group stand off again for faction superiority. The hits are flying, the submission holds are wrenched, the battle lines are drawn, and this epic encounter, often cited as the greatest six-man tag team match of all time, is the centre of a very passionate discussion
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It's the first ever War Games match to be given the full five-star rating, and Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) are here to review it and see if it holds up and whether the wild chaos was a better way of presenting this type of match, compared to the very produced, structured format it now has in NXT. It's also the final match featuring Ric Flair, with our hosts taking a moment to discuss his legacy as a performer. Because the final word can't really be said about arguably the greatest wrestler of all time until a couple of blokes from the Midlands offer their two cents...
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The first of three six-man tag team matches between the top two factions of early 90s All Japan to receive the full five-stars, Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) watch the Misawa-Tsuruta rivalry expand to include their team mates, and fought with every bit as much ferocity as last episode's all-time classic.
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Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) review a match that may be remembered more for its historical significance than its actual quality, so does the match itself hold up to a perfect score? Either way, they try to judge both the match and try to contextualise its importance to those of you who may not know that much about this. And by "those of you" we mean Lorcan and Simon before they did a quick bit of reading before recording this episode.
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Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) have now watched (or at least tried to watch) the first twenty matches that Dave Melzer has rated five stars. This also happens to take them to end of the 80s, so what better time is there to compare notes, see which matches they rate the best individually before creating a consensus top 5? Well, yeah, after ten matches, but that episode didn't record properly.
Lorcan and Simon also look at a pair of matches from around the time period of the first twenty that Meltzer didn't give a perfect score to and debate their merits and see if one or both of them would personally give them the perfect score.
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Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) round out the first twenty matches and the decade of the 80s with the first gimmick match to get the perfect rating from Dave Meltzer, and the last five-star match from Ric Flair's annus mirabilis of 1989 as he looks to gain final revenge on Terry Funk after he attacked him and broke his neck. In the words of Gordon Solie, it's five letters, two words - I Quit.
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Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) return to Japan to witness the early days of the championship that became a magnet for the Meltzer five stars, as Jumbo Tsuruta defends the recently created Triple Crown Championship against his perennial second-in-command Genichiro Tenryu. Can Tenryu finally usurp his superior? Like Robin beating Batman in a fight, Jamie Murray beating Andy Murray in a tennis match, or Simon outwitting Lorcan in a battle of wits!
Yes, it is me, Lorcan, that writes these up.
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Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) end their self-contained journey within the longer narrative, as the feud capper between Ric Flair and Ricky Steamboat produced not only another Meltzer endorsed five-star match at WrestleWar'89, but perhaps wrestling's closest thing to a definitive Citizen Kane-esque Greatest Match of All Time. Let's see if Simon dares to not give this one his own five-star rating!
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The venue may not be close to capacity, but that didn't stop Ric Flair and Ricky Steamboat attempting to tear the house down at the New Orleans Superdome. Steamboat defends his recently acquired NWA World Heavyweight Championship against Ric Flair under two out of three falls rules. This marathon match warranted a marathon discussion. Could Dave's five-star rating finally be a mutual opinion with Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3)? Download and listen to find out!
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Like Endless, Nameless, Her Majesty and Mr. E's Beautiful Blues we're in secret track territory here, as Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) discover a house show title defence between the first and second chapters of the televised trilogy of Flair-Steamboat classics that Dave Meltzer happened to attend in person. It was also the first match that really made Meltzer question whether a five-star system could limit the amount of love that he had for one wrestling match.
Will Lorcan and Simon agree? Let's find out!
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Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) embark on a short mini-voyage within their larger narrative as they watch the first of four (that's right, FOUR!) consecutive matches between Ric Flair and Ricky Steamboat that formed, in the eyes of many, the greatest rivalry and some of the greatest matches in wrestling history. Do our two hosts agree with that assessment? Listen on to find out!
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Lorcanc (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) return to Japan and watch their first match with a man with a perennial of five-star matches over the next decade, as the young and spunky Toshiaki Kawada teams up with Genichiro Tenryu against the monster gaijin team of Stan Hansen & Terry "Bamm Bamm" Gordy
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The third and final match between Ric Flair and Barry Windham. This time, Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) are reliant on a Good Samaritan who was willing to lug around a big 80s camcorder in order to capture the NWA World Championship match that main evented this year's Crockett Cup tournament. Will Windham finally be able to fulfill his potential and wrest the title away from the perennial champion? No. But he had another five-star match whilst attempting it!
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Sorry for the slight delay, a planned episode had to be aborted and we're back to the list as we return to New Japan Pro Wrestling for the first time since our first episode. Whilst Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) have already covered matches involving the great All Japan wrestlers of the 90s (Misawa, Kawada, Kobashi, Taue) this is the ONLY match in the series that includes a member of the other infamous collection of Japanese wrestlers to revolutionise wrestling in the 90s. Whilst Chono and Hashimoto never even got one, Keiji Mutoh of the NJPW Three Musketeers was able to take part in one perfect match in the eyes of Dave Meltzer only three years in his career as he and Shiro Koshinaka challenge the returning UWF shoot fighting team of Akira Maeda and Nobuhiko Takada to try to reclaim the IWGP Tag Team titles for New Japan.
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Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross) reach the double-digits as they return to the world of Joshi with a clash of tag team partners that felt every bit as seismic as when the Mega Powers exploded a few years later. Let's see if Lorcan and Simon's hearing has improved enough to hear themselves talk after watching a match that might have had the most rabid crowd in wrestling history!
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Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) watch the second of three matches between NWA World Champion Ric Flair and pretender to the throne Barry Windham that Dave Meltzer rated five stars. This time we're live and in colour for Mid-Atlantic's World Wide Wrestling show. The crowd was certainly pumped at the event, does that carry over to watching it more than thirty years later?
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Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) have a quick chat about the highlights package for the match with perhaps the most unlikely wrestlers to gain a five-star rating from Dave Meltzer.
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Apologies for the poor quality audio on this one. We had to rely on our backup recording. It's the first five-star match to take place outside of Japan as Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) get to watch Ric Flair, arguably the greatest wrestler of all time, in his prime defend his NWA World Heavyweight Championship against the Florida local hero Barry Windham in a clash of generations and the early stages of a classic rivalry.
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Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) return to AJPW to see an ultra-heated match in the feud between All Japan natives and the invading forces of Riki Choshu's Ishigun stable.
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Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross) dip their toes into the joshi waters for the first time in this series.
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Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) watch the first 5-star match to feature the wrestler to have taken part in the highest number of perfect matches in the eyes of Dave Meltzer - the late, great Mitsuharu Misawa. In his first match, Misawa still wrestled under the hood of the second incarnation of Tiger Mask to face Kuniaki Kobayashi, the "Tiger Hunter" from the invading Riki Choshu-led Ishin Gundan faction.
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Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) have a job on their hands trying to keep sense of the chaos going on in this one. It's the All Japan Real World Tag League and it's as close to a tavern brawl as it is a wrestling match.
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Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) enter the world of shoot-style wrestling, for a short period of time perhaps the hottest style in the entire industry. One of us really hated it! Listen to find out which one!
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Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross) begin their journey through the 5-star matches with a match that can be argued to be the most artistically influential in modern wrestling.
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Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) preface their year-long series of episodes based around watching and assessing every match it is possible to see that Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer has rated five stars or higher.
In this episode Lorcan and Simon discuss Meltzer and the nature of star ratings themselves, before stating their hopes for what will happen as they work their way through over a hundred matches, a heckuva lot of them from Japan!
Please get in touch with us on our new email address: lmtyspod@gmail.com. If you feel like going on this journey with us, we hope you enjoy it as much as we have so far in its early stages!
Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) do their third annual State of the Nation discussion after another eventful year for the wrestling industry has come and passed. Attendance records have been smashed, TV ratings have plummeted, wrestlers have left, others have returned. The hottest commodity in all of wrestling right now is arguably a female wrestler who has languished in the mid-card for several years, and everything seems to be changing on a nearly weekly basis.
Next year sees Lorcan and Simon embark on their most ambitious project yet, but let's see what they predict will happen next year along the way.
Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) take a final analytical look and the penultimate and last episodes of WOS Wrestling. Will it be a one-and-done? What went right? What went wrong? Who shone brightest? Our two hosts ponder all these questions and more.
Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) discuss the eighth episode of WOS Wrestling. With only two episodes left to go, are the people in charge making the right decisions to keep the show going after the tenth episode as an ongoing concern? Listen to Simon and Lorcan's assessment of the whole shebang!
Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) are past the halfway point with the new series of WOS Wrestling and this week they review a WOS Championship match, the final of the WOS Tag Team Championship tournament, a feud-ending submission match, and top face takes on two at once in a handicap match.
Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) continue to review ITV's return to the world of wrestling.
Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) continue their new voyage into the world of show recaps as they pick apart the third episode in the new ITV1 series of World of Sport Wrestling. There were promising signs in the product, but not so promising signs in the ratings. We try to pick apart all these topics and more.
It's been thirty years since British wrestling left the UK's terrestrial TV channels. But with the British scene in the rudest health it's been since those years, ITV have decided to take the plunge again and ride this wave, couple it with nostalgia, and hope that it turns into the latest unlikely subject matter to become a hit show that millions of Brits tune into watch.
Will it succeed? Whether it does or it doesn't, our regular 'Let Me Tell You Something' hosts Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) have decided to dissect each episode the new show to discuss where it works and where it doesn't.
Boy, oh boy, did the first two episodes give them plenty to discuss...
It sometimes feels that the amount of time people have spoken about restoring the prestige of the WWF/WWE Intercontinental Championship has now far exceeded the length of time when this title was considered 'prestigious'
In truth, it's a championship that has always had its ups and downs, and Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) chart those highs and lows before settling on their definitive champions out of the 80 that have now held the title.
And, yes, Lorcan can probably recite all of them off by heart, but isn't proud of that fact.
Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross) continue their discussion on the career of The Undertaker by discussing 'The Myth', or rather, the presentation. From his entrances to his costumes, The Undertaker's constant image reinvention is one of the main reasons he had such longevity.
Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) end their three-part discussion of The Undertaker by trying to place him in an historical context. What did he mean in the past, what does he look like in the modern context, and where might he finally be positioned as when the final chapter is written and the in-ring performer is only ever spoken of in the past tense.
To try to come close to summing up The Undertaker as a performer, a character, and his overall legacy in the WWE and the wider world of pro wrestling in only one episode would create an epic of such mammoth proportions very few would have the stamina to listen to it all in one go.
With that in mind, Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) have wisely taken the step to turn this one topic into a trilogy of episodes. In this first one they discuss 'The Phenom' as a wrestler. How he has evolved over the nearly thirty years wrestling as this character. From a wrestling zombie impervious to pain, to a badass biker brawler, to the MMA-influenced amalgamation of two decades worth of in-ring experience, they discuss his best and worst moments, and have a heated debate over what should be considered his definitive all time match.
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From The Mega Powers to The Bar, with the likes of The Brothers of Destruction and The Rock n' Sock Connection in between, many of the most popular, if often short-lived tag teams of recent years have come from taking two separately established stars and combining them into wrestling's equivalent of a supergroup. But which are the Crosby, Stills, Nash & Youngs and which are the SuperHeavys?
Leave it to Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) to figure it out. Whilst they may neither be megastars of the wrestling podcast world, hopefully their well-crafted tandem nattering will be enough to keep you entertained and engaged as we discuss an aspect of wrestling that can be argued as being either a help or a hindrance to a promotion's tag team division
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If anything can be art, it's fair to say that any item can be used as a weapon (as long as it's behind the ref's back) in a wrestling match.
Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) discuss the various objects used over the years for the upper-hand in an incident of chicanery, or in more recent years the basis of a number of popular matches.
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They strike fear in fans, they leave beloved babyfaces laying, and, if given appropriate time to mash, create quite a graveyard smash.
From the likes of Haystacks Calhoun in the mid-50s to current stand-up bass smashing Braun Strowman, and all the literal larger-than-life characters in between, puny Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and tiny Simon (@simoncross3) discuss the ins and outs of what makes a wrestler a monster, whether there are actual size requirements, and who are the greatest examples in the history of wrestling.
No, we're not talking about Tenryu's promotion, Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) are in that Valentine's mood, and want to discuss some of the great romantic storylines in wrestling history, and whether romance should be used more often as a source for feuds, rivalries, and defining characteristics for those Superstars of the ring.
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No commentator in the history of wrestling (perhaps all sport?) has received such a hostile, and prolonged, relationship with the fans as Michael Cole.
More than twenty years into his stint now, Cole has performed in roles as varied as studio recapper, backstage interviewer, website manager, play-by-play announcer, anonymous General Manager messenger, events coordinator, and TV producer.
Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross) review the career of the former war correspondent, ask if his critics are justified in their dislike, and ponder if Cole is long overdue to receive praise for his talent or, at the very least, his longevity.
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The Royal Rumble event has been a part of the PPV calendar since 1989. The match itself has been the main event for the vast majority of those shows, and when booked to its full potential is arguably the best presentation of "sports entertainment" wrestling you could have.
Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) try to break the match down into its constituent parts and try to understand what makes a good Rumble work and a bad Rumble fail.
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If 2016 was one wild, misjudged bender of bad decisions, 2017 has been the terrible hangover aftermath.
But in the wrestling world it has seen a long list of fantastic in-ring matches, continued expansions in the independent, UK, and Japanese wrestling scenes, and the WWE attempting to make a few new major stars whilst continued discussions into the future of WWE, and perhaps even Vince McMahon's role within, are all ripe for discussion between Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3).
Let Me Tell You Something! has made a triumphant return to the wrestling podcast world, and we hope that, whether you're an old or new listener, you will follow us as we attempt to provide a more regular output of episodes in 2018 and beyond!
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2016... it was quite a year!
Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) make mention of the larger-scale events that have surrounded the wrestling world, but do make sure to frame their discussions in what has been one of the more tumultuous years in wrestling history.
From the reintroduction of two separate Raw and SmackDown! brands and wrestlers, the ever-evolving nature of the women's division, and the ever expanding UK wrestling scene, they do the best they can to encapsulate a year for the history books as best as they can in an hour or so of conversation.
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If the 1980s and 1990s are the Golden Age of many modern day wrestling fans, then the relationship those fans have had with The Ultimate Warrior may be one of the more tumultuous ones.
A very polarising figure both in his time and afterwards, Warrior main evented WrestleMania, beat both Hulk Hogan and Randy Savage, participated in some of the most well remembered matches of that era, and disappeared and reappeared several times subsequent to his prime years as a draw.
Or was he ever that much of a draw? Should his posthumous status, at times bordering on saint-like, be challenged? Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) grew up a Warrior fan in his earliest years of following wrestling, whereas Simon (@simoncross3) only really knew Warrior as a "legend" figure from the past. Their differing perspectives on Warrior allows for an interesting discussion over how he should be perceived and remembered.
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If wrestling is truly "sports-entertainment" then the tournament is very often one of the best examples of the "sports" side of that description. From title tournaments, No. 1 Contender tournaments, annual tournaments in Japan and indy promotions,, it is very often the most popular annual show for many promotions.
Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross) discuss some of the most famous tournaments, as well as the different format these tournaments can take (round robin, single knock-out, one-night, etc.) before discussing their own personal favourites.
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In life it's often important to make a great entrance. To capture people's attention in a few moments of making your presence to them known. This may be more important in the world of wrestling than it is in any of walk of life.
Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) discuss the finer aspects of a wrestler's entrance, what they have to impart to an audience both in the venue and watching on TV, and what they both personally enjoy the most in the entrances they remember.
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The most Marmite figure in modern day wrestling, The Miz may be one of the few heels out there that will be booed regardless of how "good" or not he is in the ring.
Why does this one man provoke such a passionate response? Does he deserve his long-held position of prominence in the WWE? Does he get the respect he deserves? Will he be forever considered one of the weakest WrestleMania headline acts in the show's history?
Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross) both have ambivalent feelings towards the man, and together they try to thrash out those opinions, whilst looking through the man's history pre-WWE and, his run with the promotion before, during, and after his WrestleMania main event, and ponder what his ultimate legacy will be when he finally retires from the ring and either takes another role within the show, or maybe even makes a full-time move to Hollywood!
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This is an epic one!
Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) are both wrestling fans. In this episode, they are joined by another wrestling fan, Robert Duffin (bertie_itr) from the wildly popular Inside the Ropes wrestling podcast. Together, the three of them discuss... wrestling fans!
What influence does a wrestling fan have on the promotion they follow? Is it proportionate to the level of influence they should have? Do they have a role to play themselves? Are they entitled? Can they actually be a detriment in introducing new potential fans?
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The stereotypical image of a wrestler is not commonly associated with a having a handsome, maybe even pretty, face. The bumps and hits that one acquires along their career may have done long-term damage to what were once attractive features.
However, for many decades, the younger, more fresh-faced, wrestler can be used as either a babface draw, or a heel annoyance, depending on how they present themselves.
Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) discuss the finer points, and historical examples, of this particular gimmick, before debating who deserve to be remembered as the best examples to a newer fan.
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For the longest time, the Steel Cage match was the trademark feud-ending match in most wrestling territories. It has been used to main event many a pay-per-view, and is one of the more often used phrases by people who know little about wrestling but are asked to describe it, or enact what they think a wrestling show would include.
Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) discuss the history of the cage match, their usefulness in emphasising the importance and stage of a feud, and whether it has fallen from grace in an era of bigger and bigger gimmick matches, and a lack of blood and ultra-violence in most wrestling promotions.
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He has been the "face of the company", for at least a decade in the WWE. The inheritor of a mantle held by the likes of Bruno Sammartino, Hulk Hogan, and Steve Austin before him, but it's fair to say that none of those three other all time greats were greeted with as much hostility by such a large portion of the promotion's fanbase, whilst being presented as the ultimate good guy hero.
Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) attempt to understand why John Cena is treated in such a manner, whether that reaction is truly reflective what the average WWE fan thinks of him, and if this is the future for every future "Ace" in the WWE.
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It is the single biggest influence on human life in the past hundred years, and three wrestling fans discuss its evolving influence in the business.
Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) know that discussing the internet's effect on the wrestling business would be too much for just their two minds to try to grapple with such an immense subject matter, and so they have called upon the help of one of the biggest success stories in the world of online wrestling fandom, in Matthew Gregg, better known as Maffew, the mad genius behind the Botchamania videos.
Together, the three of them try to figure out how wrestling's relationship with the online world (and online fans) has changed, what the social media world does the product today, and what we can expect in the future.
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One of the few homegrown success stories in WCW's turbulent history, Bill Goldberg's entire first run in wrestling lasted less than a decade, but in those few years he revolutionised the squash match, the unstoppable babyface, and the shoot fighting/MMA influences within wrestling.
Simon (@simoncross3) had no first-hand experience of watching Goldberg in his WCW prime, so he and his older co-host Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) offer their differing perspectives on Goldberg, both as a performer and his influence, if at all, in the modern wrestling scene.
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One of the four main methods of victory in a wrestling match, the submission hold has become more and more popular with the influence of MMA and 'tapping out' becoming a part of common parlance.
Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross) discuss how submission holds are used within the context of a wrestling match, and what some their personal favourites are, both to watch and maybe use on an unsuspecting friend or younger sibling.
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As long as there has been wrestling, it has been a common practice for promoters to appeal to their audience's patriotic (or xenophobic?) character in portraying the "heel" as from a foreign country, whether the wrestler actually is or not, who has visited them in to prove their inferiority.
Whilst it has often been an effective method, in a more culturally integrated and sensitive time, do these methods work anymore?
Join Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) as they discuss the best and worst examples of this type of wrestling heel, and what the future lies for such a gimmick.
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The constant struggle between wrestling fans and their disapproving father Vince McMahon is the source of discussion between Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) in this episode of the pro wrestling discussion podcast.
So, what does Vince McMahon and his on-screen avatars mean when they describe the hundred-year-old practice of heels and faces battling in a ring with an agreed upon outcome as "sports entertainment"?
They consider what other examples there may be of the genre outside of wrestling, and does the expression actually serve a purpose in better explaining why we enjoy something so often decried by those who dislike it as "fake"
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In his twenty-plus years in the WWE, Kane (aka Glen Jacobs) may have been the most experimented on character, from a storytelling perspective, in the company's hero.
From unstoppable killing monster, to frequent odd-couple tag team partner, to everything in between, Kane has been in the ring with a who's who of wrestling legends.
Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) look through his ups and downs, and confront some of his harshest criticisms, to defend a character that at least one of the co-hosts considers one of the best in the business.
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One of the most frequently used match types in wrestling, the Elimination match has been the basis of the second longest running pay-per-view in WWF/WWE history.
Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) both talk about some of their favourite and least favourite elimination matches, and whether they are really that useful in an era of more over-the-top gimmick matches.
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Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) discuss one of the most effective and memorable moments in a wrestler's career - the heel turn.
From Hulk Hogan forming the nWo to Steve Austin shaking hands with the devil, a truly effective heel turn can change the way a fan views his love of wrestling, or a particular wrestler.
Together they discuss the pros and cons of surprise heel turns against long-running storylines with plenty of foreshadowing, and all the nuances in between.
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Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) hope that they made an impression with their debut episode of the pro-wrestling discussion podcast 'Let Me Tell You Something'.
For their sophomore effort, they discuss other debuts within the wrestling world, and argue over what are important to making an effective first appearance in a new promotion, and whether or not they actually make a major impression on a wrestler's entire run.
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The underpopulated world of pro wrestling-based podcasts receives a new addition in the form of Let Me Tell You Something!
Instead of talking about the latest week's wrestling activities, your co-hosts Lorcan (@lorcanmullan) and Simon (@simoncross3) choose a specific topic and discuss its importance, positives, negatives, and overall influence on the wrestling industry.
For their first episode, Lorcan and Simon go autobiographical, explaining how they each became interested in the world of pre-determined combat. Lorcan grew up on the classic late 80s/early 90s era of Hogan, Sting, Savage, & co., and came of age during the Attitude Era and nWo days.
Simon, on the other hand, didn't watch wrestling until both WCW and ECW were no longer a part of the present-day discussion.
We hope you enjoy their conversation, and join in on the discussion online by joining their Facebook page and following them both on Twitter!