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Post by jetlag on Dec 1, 2019 6:46:01 GMT -5
Terry Rudge vs. Franz van Buyten (Hamburg - 10/1/1987) vs.
AJ Styles vs Christopher Daniels (TNA - 2/13/2005) Vote and discuss which match is better. Concept behind these threads:
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Post by Cap on Dec 1, 2019 19:18:27 GMT -5
I'm going to take Rudge vs Van Buyten here, fairly comfortably. It is a great, heated heel v face match with a lot of grittiness and excellent escalation throughout. It stands out in terms of the style/era to me. Styles v Daniels is good, but doesn't age quite as well. I think that era of TNA (esp the x division) lacks a little something, with the exception of the Joe/Styles match. Again, its still very good, but doesn't quite get to that next level where it stands out as in consideration for the all time greats.
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Post by jetlag on Dec 9, 2019 15:43:52 GMT -5
Styles/Daniels was very good, borderline excellent. While there were no high end exchanges, the opening matwork and back and forth was executed well enough to keep you entertained. For some reason, I was reminded of the matches NJPW started doing in recent years. A lot of the trademarks were there (standard front headlock reversal sequence, brief scuffle on the outside, some elaborate move and reversal sequences thrown in), but I thought Styles/Daniels did them decidedly better here. Made me wonder how many notes Tanahashi and Okada took working in TNA. Anyways, they trailed off here and there and got quite move-a-riffic here and there, but it was nowhere as annoying to me as US indy wrestling often gets. They attempted to do a clever structure, but I thought they should've gone longer with Daniels putting the heat on Styles more. Blood was a cool US psychology injection into this modern workrate match. Not a MOTYC but I'm glad I watched it.
Rudge/Van Buyten is a far more minimalist affair, so this comparison may be a good way to evaluate what kind of fan you are. The match had some insane heat and a truely violent beatdown. Rudge as an asskicking machine is fucking god-like. The opening exchanges were simple but highly entertaining and to the point. Van Buyten is a master at milking even simple holds and bumps; most wrestlers will just take a bump, but he will actually accentuate the split second before Rudge yanks him down. The finger manipulations Rudge does is something a lot of modern workers adapted, but I like the way Rudge does it more since instead of a showy "I'm a heel" spot he yanks the fingers really fast for a split second to gain an advantage, so it feels more like a foul. I have to emphasize again how crazy Van Buytens bump to the outside is considering he was paralyzed for years.
This was closer than I thought it would be. Daniels/Styles probably has the better ending phase, but the sheer brutality and highly detailled work in Rudge/Van Buyten edges it out. I'll put that much up against about any other face/heel match in history.
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