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Post by elliott on Jul 28, 2019 2:14:08 GMT -5
Now this match isn't just a top 100 contender, it is a top 50 contender. From the start it is more frenetic and violent than their January match. Jaguar takes more of the match and she is out of this world great. Brutal submissions, awesome looking uppercuts to the gut, dives, suplexes, a jackhammer from the 2nd rope, her badass hurricanarana etc. If you adjust for time period, she might be the most spectacular offensive wrestler of all time. Galactica is terrific in this match as well. She really ups her level of intensity and whips out more brutal offense & submissions. There's a great spot where Yokota is climbing back into the ring and Galactica steps on her hand to stop her. The Galactica reaches down and pulls up Jaguar's other arm and bites her fingers. Terrific and brutal looking heel spot. Since Yokota is more assertive in this match, Galactica has to rely on outside interference more for transitions and one eventually leads to Yokota hurting her shoulder. Galactica just goes after it like a crazy person & thats when this jumps up a level. Jaguar blades her shoulder and Galactica zeroes in on it and tries to rip it apart. She bites at the open wound spitting the blood in the air which is just a classic blood spot. Really awesome visuals with Galactica in a mostly white/silver mask with the blood stains all around her mouth. Finishing stretch is spectacular with both women exchanging bombs and 90s AJPW nearfalls. Classic match.
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Post by Cap on Oct 27, 2020 19:52:56 GMT -5
Anyone know if this is available anywhere? Shoot me a DM.
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Post by Cap on Nov 1, 2020 14:29:58 GMT -5
I finally got some time to catch up on some wrestling and updating my list and all that. This match is 100% on my list. This is like Joshi meets a lucha brawl meets Memphis. It is absolutely intense and wild without ever losing its flow. I think the match gets over the edge for me when they are on their knees just beating the piss out of each other near the end of the match. That pushed it to the full 5 and a lock for my list. I watched it during this year's rollout and then watched it again a couple days ago. Just absolutely fantastic pro wrestling, right in my wheelhouse. Elliott has turned me on to a lot a lot of wrestling, but this and the Otsuka/Matsunaga match are the two that speak to me most directly.
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Post by elliott on Nov 1, 2020 14:32:47 GMT -5
Oh im so glad you got your hands on this and dug it. 80s Joshi really deserved the DVDVR 80s set treatment
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Post by elliott on Jan 7, 2021 9:03:50 GMT -5
I watched this again and excluding matches with Dump Matsumoto (because what do you do with those?), this feel like a top 5 80s AJW match. I think it will translate more to non-Joshi fans. This is definitely a brawl and theres some liberal interference, but its not the wild spectacle like the Dump matches folks have been watching. This is more of a traditional pro-wrestling brawl with a structure and a feeling folks will be more familiar with than the Dump matches.
Jaguar is one of the greatest offensive wrestlers ever and she shows it off in this match. (2nd rope jackhammer, my goodness) I love unconventional blade jobs and they do a really great one here which adds to the richness and helps push this from a great match to an all timer.
Really looking forward to reading what folks think of this one.
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Post by Cap on Jan 7, 2021 23:35:50 GMT -5
Given how crazy everything is right now, I decided to treat myself to another watch of this with some scotch. I watched this not long ago for the first time and my review is above, so here are my stream of consciousness notes from this watch.
- Elliot brought up two things I wanted to mention. 1) To me, this is the right balance of spectical/chaos and wrestling for my taste to make something a "great match" in the sense of my list. This will make my list. None of the Dump matches will. I love the high profile dump matches we have all discussed, but they tip into something else for me and I don[t know what to make of them. This has all of the elements of that stuff to me, but tempered perfectly. 2) Jaguar's 2nd rope jackhammer > Goldberg's jackhammer (or probably anything he has ever done in wrestling)... I'll hear no rebuttable on the issue.
- If we were talking top matches in terms of creating visuals... this would be top 5 to me, easy. Maybe 1. There are so many moments that just sort of punch through the screen at you.
- Kinda random... but I watched Fenix vs Omega from Dynamite last night (1/6). It was a great match to me. Might not be a lot of people here's cup of tea, but I loved it. I liked this a lot more. Fenix/Omega has infinately more athleticism, is much more fluid, and I think sells the drama/emotion quite well... all while maintaining a strong story. This can't match it in terms of a lot of the ways we talk about wrestling broadly, plus there is all of this interference that doesn't make sense (do your damn job, ref!). This is a testament to hatred in wrestling. This is wonderful visceral hatred bell to bell that is elevated so well. Brawls are the style that most often do this, but its an example of a match sort of breaking any kind of attempt to quantify what makes wrestling great. You could point out all the little flaws in exicution or whatever and my response would be, "but... it was fucking awesome". It just sucks me. In reality, it is a style thing, but I think it is hard to create this level of hatred in modern wrestling. Long story short... the power of hate.
- I mentioned it in the first review, and maybe this is just the mask rip at the beginning, but this feels like one part joshi and one part lucha brawl in front of a face melting 80s joshi crowd (best crowds in wrestling history for making you believe this is important?). That equation spells greatness. I honestly don't think it is just the mask rip. I think there are some lucha-esque brawling mixed into this. La Galactica and Jaguar mesh some styles really well here.
- The arm biting... my god. It is not something you could ever do at this level today (see the Shida/Abidon match from the aforementioned dynamite). I am not really sure I would want to see this in 2021... but god bless these psychopaths for giving us this match all the same.
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Post by tetsujin on Jan 13, 2021 15:23:15 GMT -5
Loved this match. I've never seen Galáctica before, has she anything else worth watching? Her performance was great in a way only the best rudos mexicanos can do.
Great stuff from beginning to end: the start of the match, the vicious armwork, the palm strikes exchange, how Yokota managed to get the upper hand and the win at the end... I liked the way Cap's describe it: perfect balance between chaos and actual wrestling. A very intense fight overall, working both as a great joshi sprint and a great lucha brawl, that mix gives the match a cool identity, 100% behind that.
Judging by the Dump/Chiggy hair matches and now this one, I guess constant interferences and stupid referees were a thing in 80's AJW, but here it didn't bothered me that much for two things: first, they were paced way better, done only when Galáctica needed to come back and/or increase the damage on an already vulnerable Jaguar; second, all that heel bullshit had a great payoff at the end with that great Yokota's splash to the outside, right on top of Galáctica and her girls, and being able to win because of that (also, this was one of the rare times were I liked a dq/count out finish, it was pretty satisfiyng to see Galáctica lose the match like that after being an asshole, and the ref count was super dramatic).
I don't know if it'll make my list next year, but I really want to. Actually, it's one of those matches I want to rewatch as soon as I finished them, and that's always a good thing. Totally a 1985 MOTYC, at least.
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Post by Cap on Jan 13, 2021 15:42:11 GMT -5
I have wound up watching this match like 3 times in the back half of 2020. First on Elliott's rec. Second to make sure I really liked it as much as I thought because I felt much the same way tetsujin did after first watch. Third because of the weekly watch. I liked it just as much every time. It feels like lightening in a bottle. It's a stick to your ribs match, for sure.
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Post by elliott on Jan 13, 2021 17:41:07 GMT -5
Other La Galactica matches to watch: vs Jaguar 5/7/83 (Mask vs Hair) vs Jaguar 1/5/85 vs Jaguar 5/12/85 Mexico City (Galactica is Pantera Surena here) Hahaha Jaguar Yokota rules  |
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Post by tetsujin on Jan 15, 2021 18:31:20 GMT -5
Just watched this again as soon as I could, as I said. This is no doubt one of the most vicious matches ever, and extremely fun from beginning to end. There's no down time here, they give us almost a highlight for every sequence, more or less. I'm not sure it'll make my final list because I'm not very high on obvious cheating in front of the fucking ref like nothing happens, but, even with that, right now it is my highest ****1/4 ranked to date, and sits kinda comfortably at #66, so yeah there's a chance...
I still have so, so, so much to watch before 2021 GME comes, but damn I want this match to be on my list. I really do. At least, I'm confident at saying it has become one of my favourites ever. I'm so happy I can discover so much amazing wrestling here on this page.
I'll definitely have to check those other matches from this rivalry because god damn they had chemistry here.
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Post by elliott on Jan 16, 2021 3:35:49 GMT -5
The constant interference was a staple of the style of the 80s. Not making an excuse for it. Simply pointing out you'd see it in the brawls. When you watch stuff like Chigusa Nagayo vs Lioness Asuka or Crush Gals vs Jumping Bomb Angels, you'll get clean matches without the constant interference.
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Post by Kadaveri on Jan 16, 2021 15:28:17 GMT -5
Something you just need to accept in Joshi is that the referees are very lax in enforcing the rules compared to say WWE, but they're consistently like that so it doesn't feel like there's something 'wrong' after you've acclimatised to the style. You need to commit violations of Geneva Conventions to get DQed and that's how it is.
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Post by mvz on Feb 28, 2021 17:25:09 GMT -5
Like some comments have noted, no matter what style you are familiar with or prefer, this is match has a little something for you. Galactica was a heel encyclopedia, being sadistic like Abdullah the Butcher, then treating Yokota like Ron Garvin treated jobbers in TBS, then bumping huge when the time came. Yokota did have great offense, I also loved her selling when she ran into the ringposts. I was popping when they were slugging it out in their knees. Great chemistry and passion, this demands your attention from beginning to end.
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Post by violentbydesign on Oct 30, 2021 16:50:47 GMT -5
Anyone got a link? I see some matches on YouTube but not sure if it's the right one.
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Post by Kadaveri on Oct 30, 2021 17:35:11 GMT -5
Anyone got a link? I see some matches on YouTube but not sure if it's the right one.
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