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Post by Kadaveri on Jul 22, 2020 11:44:56 GMT -5
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Post by Cap on Jul 22, 2020 19:18:08 GMT -5
Ok... I gotta rewatch this match before submitting.
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Post by Cap on Aug 18, 2020 6:35:50 GMT -5
From my rewatch project on 7/18 Shinobu Kandori/Akira Hokuto vs Bull Nakano/Aja Kong (3/27/1994) Current Rank: 10 Trending: Even Just a perfectly orchestrated tag match. The level of difficulty here is through the fucking roof and they knock it out of the park, providing compelling dynamics between every single competitor that somehow work in concern to tell a cohesive and complete story. The thing that really struck me on this watch was how patient this match is. It could have been great and 10 minutes shorter, but they milked the drama, slowed things down, and heated things up perfectly. This match delivers on all fronts: nuance, brutality, storytelling, emotion, drama, finish. It may be #10, but I sort of think of my top 14-15 as my top tier. That is where the cutoff is for me and this is a lock for that tier. I could see this getting bumped a spot or two if something falls a little, but it isn’t dropping from here this year. Full Post: gweproject.freeforums.net/post/8466
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Post by marksman on Feb 28, 2021 21:14:55 GMT -5
That completely blew my mind and is going to be very close to the top of my list. Incredible. (And great to read the history to get more of a context, big thanks Kadaveri for that awesome post!
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Post by makaiclub on Apr 9, 2021 19:44:09 GMT -5
We've seen this story two years prior with Aja Kong and Bull Nakano teaming against Akira Hokuto and Toshiyo Yamada. Bull and Aja sorted out their differences while Hokuto and Yamada didn't and they got torn apart. Would history repeat itself here with the tensions between Hokuto and Kandori even more tense? From a narrative standpoint, this was pretty perfect. Kandori and Hokuto fought amongst themselves, and while they were fine individually, the cohesiveness of Bull and Kong overwhelmed them, forcing them to get together and make a comeback as one. All great. But I wasn't captivated like many are by this. There were a lot of moments in this match where I was flat out bored. Kandori slamming Bull into the entrance equipment felt forced. Bull just got up and went back to the ring almost immediately after Kandori left herself. It stood out as totally pointless. Aja Kong hit a piledriver on Hokuto at the bottom of the ramp taking the shine away from that spot immediately. There was a big stretch of the match where Kandori and Hokuto got some momentum against the other two and that was the first point where they lost me. Particularly Hokuto in control. Kandori was always a delight to watch as she usually was - any time she and Kong were together, it was magic - but Hokuto doing submissions doesn't have the same appeal. The match got back on track when Bull and Kong were in control but even those parts felt too long. There were high points and low points. The closing stretch had the charm of Hokuto and Kandori gelling together and getting the win so the match ended on a high point. I don't even know how to rate this. It's good but when you expect a classic and get good, it can come off much worse. ***1/4 is a decent rating for this match I think due to the story, the rest didn't hit as well for me.
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Post by tetsujin on Dec 19, 2021 20:41:12 GMT -5
Just rewatched this because I felt guilty for not voting for it. That is something that always happens to me with this match: it makes me feel guilty for not seeing it as good as I would like to.
I mean, I LOVE this match. Like, I REALLY love this match. It's one of my favourite matches ever and it always puts a big smile on my face, specially at the post match with Hokuto and Kandori signing peace. Everytime somebody refers to this as one of the best storys ever told in a ring, or one of the most ambitious matches, things like that, they're god damn right. That's obviously the strongest part of the match: how undeniable the quality of the storytelling is.
BUT-
The pacing and action of this match are... Kind of all over the place. I know joshi has a spamming tendency, but here sometimes they repeat so much stuff that it actually devaluates what they're doing, instead of adding to the epicness. Take those infamous five in a row piledriverse from Aja to Hokuto, for example. They also happen to brawl at ringside at two different times, with not really big consequences: they just stop brawling and act like nothing happened. I really don't like the spot where Kandori drags Bull through the whole ramp and then they both just walk calmly to the ring. The action doesn't seem to have any focus quite often.
Then, the characters. The Hokuto-Kandori dynamic is perfect and we all know that, as well as both girls' interactions with Aja. But man, Bull Nakano wasn't quite at their level here. She's a great wrestler overall, and had a few great moments, so obviously she did well, it's just that she didn't add as much as the other three. Considering her current rivalry with Kandori, and her history with both Hokuto and Aja, I expected a much more complex performance from her part. Like, there's this one time where she has Hokuto on a kneebar and that should have been a huge spot of the match because she's literally going for Hokuto's main weakness throughout her career and should have been a turning point for the tone of the match, but they didn't gave any focus to the knees ever again. Crowd didn't buy it either, like most of the first half of the match.
I know the story was complex and needed a long time to be told. That's why I love most of the long matches I love. But here, I still think the match could have been a bit shorter. Just don't brawl outside, don't spend too much time on pointless restholds and work a really solid FIP segment on Hokuto instead, do some nasty teamwork with Aja and Bull instead of just taking turns to spam some useless bombs. The action could have been so much more clear and precise, the offense better ordered.
Once Hokuto and Kandori start to cooperate, things got as good as any pro wrestling match ever. The ending is super fucking amazing and the post match even more. As I said, definitely peak pro wrestling storytelling. But sorry, everytime I watch it again, I always see the same flaws that don't let me rank it higher. This is "just" a great match, with an all-time great angle implemented, so something like a 4'25*, maybe 4'5* ranking seems pretty accurate to me.
Definitely a contender for a top 100 best matches, but not a lock. If we're talking about personal favourites or overall greatness (like, in a larger than life sense, not as synonymous of ringwork quality),this match will forever be one of the very first coming to my mind. It is truly special and I'm glad it exists. It helps me to draw the line between "best" and "favourite" pretty clearly.
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Post by gramsci on Mar 12, 2022 4:32:30 GMT -5
The structure of telling a compelling story while they throw bombs to each other reminds me of a Young Bucks match, and I mean that in a good way. I'm reevaluating my wrestling and it was one of the first things that came to my mind after rewatching this. I love how Hokuto and Kandori don't add too much drama in their transition from hating and ignoring each other to cooperating to win the match. Hokuto is the MVP of the match, his performance is the glue that holds all the parts together and keeps the match from falling apart in some sequences.
*****
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Post by Kadaveri on Apr 6, 2022 11:45:11 GMT -5
I must have always been too overwhelmed with emotion to notice this till now, but at the end Akira Hokuto is awarded with a Sony stereo as a winner's price. How hilariously cheap.
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Post by silverwidow on Apr 6, 2022 13:19:41 GMT -5
Giving Hokuto a boombox really is nonsensical.
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Post by Cap on Apr 6, 2022 14:23:36 GMT -5
I must have always been too overwhelmed with emotion to notice this till now, but at the end Akira Hokuto is awarded with a Sony stereo as a winner's price. How hilariously cheap.
That is pitch perfect absurdity to make me love this even more.
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Post by elliott on May 21, 2023 21:59:29 GMT -5
Remember when you're voting for Hokuto/Kandori DreamSlam in your top 5 (and deservedly so), that this match is even better.
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Post by mrjmml on May 22, 2023 5:31:21 GMT -5
One of the greatest matches in wrestling history.
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Post by puropotsy on Jun 27, 2023 10:25:57 GMT -5
This match had four legends and they put a lot out there but it didn’t speak to me a whole lot. It might have to do with my mood at the time and could be revisited later. That being said there was lots I liked. The repeated piledrivers of Hokuto by Aja was particularly badass. And Hokuto delivering a piledriver on a table. The finishing stretch was quite heated as well.
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