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Post by tetsujin on Aug 21, 2023 4:08:53 GMT -5
Well, some of the matches aren't online so until I find them anywhere, I'm just gonna continue through the matches I can find. But I'll be back.
Kevin Von Erich vs Harley Race (WCCW - 6/17/1983)
This was decent. I'm not really into Harley, but the pairing with the explosive and athletic Kevin Von Erich caught my attention. It is indeed a back and forth match as I expected, but with weird pacing and not really anything memorable besides maybe the very first sequence, when Kevin nails a beautiful dropkick + diving crossbody combo to send a message to the champ. The match felt unfocused most of the times, with them just exchanging blows with little to no meaning, and Harley letting his opponent do to much stuff with him just waiting awkwardly to receive some punishment, as usual. I know part of the story is Harley going for the shoulder of Kevin, but it wasn't the most interesting storytelling I've seen, I guess he could haven been much more vicious with it and force Kevin to sell it more. Also, Kevin often went for a scissors-like submission that looked ugly as fuck and couldn't even hold properly without Race losing his balance. Playing around the Von Erich's Claw is always cool, although this match only had a couple of spots with it. Then David Von Erich gets attacked by Harley so he snaps and attacks him, costing his brother the match and therefore the title. Huh. Idk, the pieces are there but they didn't connect them properly for me to call this a real GOOD match, you know? I wasn't bored though, mostly just barely interested. So,
Rating? ***, decent match but nothing more. Deserves consideration? Hell no. Harley doesn't have any of his dangerous aura here, but I would say at least that it's a good showcase for Kevin. Will I vote for it next time? Obviously not.
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Post by tetsujin on Sept 13, 2023 18:24:35 GMT -5
Back after some holidays!
Yoshihisa Yamamoto vs Tsuyoshi Kohsaka (RINGS, 22/05/1999)
Oh RINGS, it's been a while. I've seen the more famous matches of both guys against Tamura and Volk Han, but never against each other. Obviously, this delivered. I wasn't mind-blown by anything, unlike the best shoot style matches I've seen, but it comfortably sits among great matches nonetheless. Kohsaka was the best grappler while Yamamoto was the best striker, and sometimes you just don't need more story than that one. I was really surprised by the ending and quite bothered about some referee's decisions throughout the match, but other than that this is like your standard RINGS match. It just happens that the standard in RIGNS was so fucking high.
Rating? **** Chance of making my list? Nope, but if shoot style is your very favourite style I can see this on your list anywhere between #100 and #20 or so.
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Post by tetsujin on Sept 13, 2023 18:54:41 GMT -5
Jimmy Snuka vs Roddy Piper (WWE, 15/07/1984)
It seems this was just a week after the super famous coconut shot at Piper's Pit. And man, this was super fun. Piper's body selling as a heel might be a bit too overacted, and I've seen some people like Terry Funk or Rick Rude doing it better imho, but his facial expressions are top tier. He just tells the whole story, from him beggin for mercy, to his viciousness, to his extreme fear while Snuka fucking realizes that he's been busted open and is ENRAGED... Such a fun performance on his side. And Snuka is great in this too, honestly, he plays his rol really well, and Hotta admit that tope suicida made me mark a bit, totally unexpected. The finish sucks but in a clever way, in order to set up more stuff between the two. A really good chapter of one of the most iconic rivalries in WWE history.
Rating? ***3/4 Chances of making my list? Obviously not, but this is a sprint that represents perfectly what 80s WWE looked like, in a good way.
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Post by tetsujin on Sept 14, 2023 4:46:57 GMT -5
Bull Nakano vs Yumiko Hotta (Steel Cage match, AJW 23/1/1991)
This is handheld from a fan in the crowd, so not a very good start. It looks and sounds far better than expected though. The match was good for a Steel Cage, one of the most overrated gimmicks by the wrestling industry ever. It's basically worked the same way as every other "escaping the cage" Cage match, but with people throwing weapons to the inside, which makes it a bit cooler. Although Hotta has great kicks (who could have thought), it's Bull who makes the most with the match, playing with the cage from very early on and having some creative offense with it and other weapons sometimes, but I gotta admit, some of her moves looked like shit (specially those weird flying penalty kicks she likes to do, those were straight bad). Some weird selling moments, as well, but that goes with the style. Hotta was never close to win this, sadly, but she didn't look bad in defeat either. Nakano escapes after the always amazing super Leg Drop from the top of the cage.
Rating? ***1/2 Will make my list? No. Belongs in the top 100 conversation? Nah I don't think so, sorry. There's nothing special with this match, nothing that wasn't already seen or that wasn't made better later on in history. It's a fun Bull performance and a good showcase for Hotta, but it's not ambitious at all and some of the offence and selling in this match CAN BE a bit annoying. But just sometimes. Still a good, fun match, just nowhere near greatness territory.
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Post by tetsujin on Sept 16, 2023 16:05:44 GMT -5
Kyoko Inoue vs Akira Hokuto (All Pacific Title, AJW DreamRush 1992)
This was pretty cool once they dropped the pointless matwork (it took them ten minutes or so, though) and focused on either bombs or surprising pin attemps, both things providing the match with a beautiful sense of urgency. They had good chemistry, as there were some sequences I couldn't help but thing how awful most of modern wrestlers would make them look, like for example when Kyoko is on the high rope and Hokuto climbs up in order to get her and try to drop her. It's simple stuff but it's done without any sense of cooperation, while nowadays a spot like that is always hurting the pace of a match because the wrestlers are too busy keeping each other in position for the upcoming spot. These ladies did that for themselves.
This would have been great with more focus on what made it good, but the matwork exchanges are... There. It's not bad, but it simply doesn't fit in this particular match, they didn't build anything with it nor set the tone of the match with it. But hey, when it's good, it's hella good. So overall pretty cool.
Rating? ***3/4 Top 100 contender worthy? I don't see it, but it had the potential.
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Post by tetsujin on Sept 18, 2023 8:09:03 GMT -5
Giant Baba vs Bruno Sammartino (NWA International Championship, 2/3 Falls match) - JWA, 7/03/1967
I was really looking forward to this because It sounds like a super fun combination, but man, 60 minutes with these two felt like 120.
It was worked like any other 60 minute match of this time, which was a shame because Bruno had to wrestle like any other generic guy, instead of being the Bruno I love from the Graham or Zybyzsko rivalries. The 2/3 Falls gimmick isn't precisely my cup of tea either, because usually what happens (and It happened here) is that you can go to the mat for 20 or so minutes, but when the time comes the wrestlers will boost the pace of the match and suddenly a fall is decided with just two or there basic wrestling spots. It also bothers me the fact that these big matches always had a non-finish in order to protect both guys, but, what's the point in doing that if Baba already pinned Bruno clean early on the match?
So yeah, this was everything I didn't like about 70s wrestling (I know this is late 60s but you get me)... Until the third fall. Inmediately, Bruno goes all out on Baba in the corner. And, in one of the best Giant Baba moments I've ever seen, he pushes the ref aside when he tries to keep Bruno away from him, smiles with gratitude accepting Bruno's proposal of getting more physical, and started to give him big kicks to the guts. That poped me. Then the fall went too long endlessly exchanging some blows and futile pin attemps, abut it was super entertaining (or would have been if I hadn't already watch 40-something minutes of boredom).
The thing is, while this match was definitely not for me, I can still appreciate that it worked. The crowd went nuts everytime Baba managed to reverse a Bruno hold. The chops were wonderfully sold by Bruno, well, in fact everything had really good, realistic selling behind it. The matwork itself, while generic as fuck, was well executed. But man, It was just too long, too generic, and by the time It became properly good it was a bit too late for me (and then the match still went for 20 or so more minutes).
I would recommend anyone to just watch the third fall of this, as on its own I believe it can be kinda great, but the whole match was something I know I won't revisit in a long, long, long time. Maybe not as long as the match itself, though.
Rating? ***1/4. Worthy of top 100 consideration? Fuck no. This is nowhere near Baba/Destroyer, Robinson/Inoki, Funk/Jumbo or similar matches in style. It's just bland.
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Post by tetsujin on Sept 20, 2023 17:38:53 GMT -5
Akira Hokuto vs KAORU (GAEA, 12/04/1997)
Holy shit this ruled. So. Hard. KAORU attacks Hokuto before the bell rings, but she's quickly put on her place by the living legend, who basically throws the title to her saying "bitch you will need more than that in order to get this someday". The match is full of viciousness, great bombs and submissions, and wonderful selling without turning down the pace at any point (yes! Wrestlers can sell while working a spotfest, who could have thought?). Hokuto playing with the crowd, even though I don't have any fucking idea about what she's saying, makes them to nuclear at some point, which definitely contributed to the match's aura. That and Hokuto's cockiness coming back to bite her sometimes made me slightly believe a couple of nearfalls in KAORU's favour, although she definitely wasn't close to put Hokuto away... Yet.
Rating? ****1/2
Top 100 worthy? Man, this feels like a better version than the September 1990 Jumbo/Misawa match. We all 100% need to have it in strong consideration for next time's GME.
Will I vote for it? I might do it! I believe this is slightly better, or at least as good as but with better crowd, than KAORU/Aja from 2000, which made my list last time, so it feels right to have this new super underrated gem in my list next time. It would be on the latest positions, so maybe It still falls out of the top 100 when I watch more stuff. But yeah, right now, it's in.
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Post by tetsujin on Sept 28, 2023 14:43:42 GMT -5
KENTA/Taiji Ishimori vs Naomichi Marufuji/Kota Ibushi (NOAH, 15/07/2007)
After the very first sequence, a cool exchange between Marufuji and KENTA, this became a surprisingly slow, uninspiring match. Nobody was bringing their A game. But then it turned into the fast paced, intense, well sold kind of spotfest you would imagine between these for guys, and it stayed that way through the rest of the match until the super ultra cool final sequence. So much amazing stuff condensed here in a perfect way, with clever nearfalls and even learned psychology from spot to spot.
Sadly the first ten minutes of this match are kinda meh, but the second half is awesome. So, overall, a great match. It's not like they're building something in the first minutes that needed slower pace, it felt more to me like they wanted to fill time but didn't want to work a sprint. Which is a shame, because all these four guys are very young here, they're at their athletic peaks, and even started the match with a super cool fast paced sequence, so it was a disappointment to see them promise me something that they didn't pay off. Until the second half, that is. Anyway, I'm so glad I watched this after so many years, as I can see their style isn't aging bad at all for my taste.
Rating? **** Top 100 worthy? Too inconsistent, but it definitely had the potential. The good is as good as any MOTYC for almost any other year.
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Post by tetsujin on Sept 30, 2023 18:10:35 GMT -5
Eddie Kingston vs Chris Hero (Last Man Standing - IWA-MS - 9/29/2007)
This was fucking brutal. When it comes to weapons, they only needed one little table spot, some chairs and a fence; everything else was done with their bare hands, legs and heads. And they crafted one of the most violent, vicious and intense brawls I've ever seen, even with not-so-much blood. They never missed an opportunity to give some sort of pain to the other, it's majestic, and made the match flow wonderfully. And it becomes better and better as it goes, going from a 50/50 ringside brawl to a face-in-peril tale with Eddie becoming more and more the guy for the crowd to root for. Something a bit bizarre is that Hero never had a serious false finish, Eddie always got up at 8 at worst, mostly at 7. The selling was good but not great, although in this match that element wasn't as needed as the superb, perfect display of offence both guys do. I still can't understand how brutally they worked this match just with strikes alone most of the fight, it was pretty stiff and I loved it, and also, it made the few objects spots matter a lot more.
Rating? ****1/2. Spectacular match.
Top 100 worthy? Quite posible, yeah. I feel It might be a liiiittle step below Hokuto/KAORU and that is on the lower side on my list right now, so if this is in, I'm not sure it will remain there by Next time's GME. However, this DEFINITELY needs more consideration. I would say it's better than Joe/Necro, Bryan/Nigel at Unified, Bryan/Morishima and some other more acclaimed 00s indies matches.
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Post by tetsujin on Oct 1, 2023 14:17:32 GMT -5
Aja Kong vs. Meiko Satomura (AAAW Single Championship, GAEA - 9/15/1999)
It's fucking insane that Meiko had such a great performance at just nineteen years old. NINETEEN!!! That's even younger than Devil and Chigusa were at their 1985 instant classic.
Yeah this is pretty great. It starts off slow, with your predictable Aja Kong beating of a rookie. It was great obviously, because Aja working on top might be among the best who ever did it, but nothing special. Meiko had some clever selling details like neck selling after bridging out of a pinfall attempt, or when Aja had her in position for a piledriver for a good amount of seconds before hitting it, and Meiko tried to break free shaking her legs instead of just staying steady like every other woman who has received that spot.
While Aja cut many comeback attempts at first, Meiko finally built momentum, thanks mostly to her arm submisions and Pelé kicks. Those couple of Death Valleys felt HUGE. There was a lot of tension in the air during the climax of the match, because they established that Meiko can actually win this, but all Aja might need is a good ol' Uraken to finish the job. Meiko avoiding and blocking it had me on my nerves, but the most exciting moments were the submission false finishers, my god.
While I was watching it, I thought this was gonna be great, but sadly "nothing more". But they kept building and building, and in the end I was heavily invested. Two all time greats showing me why they deserve such recognition. One of the best monster/veteran vs underdog/rookie I've seen recently.
Rating? ****1/4
Deserves top 100 talk? Hell yeah, a lot of people would enjoy this.
Will I vote for it? I don't think so because It feels more like a top 200 match to me, but still. Fucking great match.
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Post by tetsujin on Oct 1, 2023 16:05:02 GMT -5
Hijo del Santo & Eddie Guerrero vs Negro Casas & Blue Panther (Juárez - 1987)
This had super strong matwork all way through and a 21-year old Eddie didn't look out of place at all among these three big names. He basically works with Blue Panther almost the whole match, and he goes 50/50 with him, that's impressive. Santito and Casas had some fun and golden little details in their hold exchanges, and there was a moment when Negro wanted to work with Eddie and it ruled so much, too. What I don't like about this match are the stupid sequences at the end of each caída, something very common in lucha libre. They often work some kind of match, but when the time for the finish comes they all four rush into the ring with no set up at all and do an over-choreographed sequence with bad timing between the four of them to get a pin.
That asside, this is very enjoyable. I will repeat myself here, but when lucha matwork is done right, it's the best matwork ever produced... However,it goes a bit too long while not changing the form of the match at any time at all, which makes it just a tiny bit tedious to watch sometimes.
Rating? ***1/2
Worthy of top 100 talk? Nah, this match is just good. It's mostly an exhibition matwork session and a showcase for a very young Eddie, but he's obviously far from his peak still, and the other three don't bring anything truly special to stand out among other very good/great matches. But it's good, you won't regret watching it if you're not going with a "GME project" mood.
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Post by tetsujin on Oct 6, 2023 8:37:56 GMT -5
LA Park vs el Mesias (AAA - 12/5/2010)
This was awesome. While I love Mesías' work as Mil Muertes in Lucha Underground, I'm ashamed to confess that I haven't seen anything from him outside of that, so I was really looking forward to this, also because L.A. Park is the only mexican brawler I'm always, and I mean always, 100% sure he's gonna deliver. Last week I rewatched Chicana/MS1 and had a huge letdown (still good though), and yesterday I watched this one and, my god, I cannot even start to try to understand why anybody would think the earliest is better.
They beat the shit out of each other with such hatred an intensity behind everything they do, and oh boy, they do a lot of things: chairshots, powerbombs onto trash cans, the most fucking brutal tope suicida you'll ever see, and the usual mask-ripping and forehead-biting that, while most of the times feels cliché to me, here was really well implemented, having in mind that Mesías went for it right as he started to come back for the first time, as a desperate move to equalize the fight.
The selling is also very good. There are moments were I thought the fight was getting a bit too long, but the good long-term selling helped me stay interested during those few awkward pacing moments. And, while as I said they never stopped beating each other as much as they could, there is still a sense of hierarchy and progression in the violence of the lucha: the Martinete, lowblow, Park's spot with his brother's mask on Mesías, everything felt huge and more important than the regular violence of the fight. Some fucking great nearfalls as well, from both guys.
As I said in the proper match's post here, I don't understand why suddenly the ref decides to look away and let Park cheat all he wants to finally secure the win. Is it because Mesías' accidental spear earlier? The ref didn't have any problem with that until the very end of the match, but maybe I'm missing context (although the commentator didn't give me any exposition either, so I'm not sure). Is it just because this was a rudo referee and he just took a side at the end? That would be bullshit booking. It's a shame, because this match had everything to be a contender for my list, but the dumb finish ruined the chances.
Rating? ****. Would have been 4'25* with a better finish.
Top 100 consideration worthy? Absolutely, even with the finish. This should be included among the greatest lucha brawls of all time (even more than other more canonized luchas) when discussing this kind of stuff for projects like this one.
God I can't wait for the 2011 rematch.
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Post by tetsujin on Oct 7, 2023 18:04:14 GMT -5
Lola Gonzalez vs Pantera Sureña (Hair vs Hair EMLL - 12/9/1988) Finally, a Pantera Sureña match. I can presume of being spanish on here by using the letter "ñ" Man, this was frustrating to watch. I was really loving this match at first: Lola's beatdown at the primera caída was among the best I've seen, she's super ruthless and even builds one of the best "king (queen!) of the mountain" sequences ever, not letting Pantera get back to the ring until she finally got enough of playing nice and dragged González out with her to start her bloody comeback. This match, however, is a perfect example of how a referee can ruin a match. His body language is all time levels of awful here, to the point that he makes the audience so confused at key moments of the match: the first one at the end of la primera caída, when he implies Pantera Sureña is submitting to González... Only for him yo raise Pantera's arm right after, to make clear he disqualified Lola. Booking wise, I also didn't like that in the segunda caída the same happened but flipping sides, it made Pantera look stupid. I *get* the point they were trying to make, showing Pantera's being blinded by rage, but the execution of it could have been much better. La tercera caída goes to fucking long. It's almost fifteen minutes of nearfalls, (badly structured as well, for example a tombstone is aplied five minutes in -awesome fucking tombstone by the way-, which is forbidden in México and considered a match-ender, but they continue fighting ten more minutes, selling lesser moves as more dangerous than the fucking tombstone), and with terrible ref counting. There's a point where he fucking botches a pinfall and he makes literally everyone believe his second palm was the third, so the fans started to celebrate Pantera's win an they all surrounded the ring (AMAZING visual, though), but the match kept going. I was so furious with the ref, man. Terrible performance. Idk, guys. The hatred is definitely there. The cool, brawl-oriented, twisted offence was legit awesome. Some of the spots of this match are directly legendary. But the resolution of the falls, the ref, and the super long and repetitive third fall hurt this match a lot. I'm so mad, and so sad. Rating? At it's best, this match is closer to ****1/2. Sadly, the bad stuff hurts It a lot, and I mean a lot. ***1/2 it is. I'm so sorry. Should be considered for a top 100? The final product itself is what it is, but you won't find much better mexican brawls than this one at its peak. Like, the first two falls are fucking awesome, and there's some glorious moments in la tercera caída as well. So I would say everyone should watch this match to, at least, enjoy its best moments, because those can compete with a lot of overall top 100 worthy matches.
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Post by tetsujin on Oct 12, 2023 18:48:55 GMT -5
Samoa Joe vs Bryan Danielson (ROH - 10/2/2004)
So I finally rewatched this thing. It was a match that I was afraid to rewatch, but now that I did, I can say that I'm dumb and I should never doubt myself again. This was fucking stellar.
A fantastic modern title match, long enough for both guys to play to their strengths as much as possible while also adding fresher layers to their usual dynamics. What I mean by that is that we can see both Joe being Joe and Bryan being Bryan, but web also see Joe trying to outwrestle Bryan on the mat and Bryan trying to outstriking Joe later on. They both try to win by playing each other's game, but they also have to stay loyal to what they do best at the end of the day, because this is a title match and you wanna wrestle as best as possible. I'm explaining myself so badly, I know, so tldr: throughout the match, Bryan and Joe have to both wrestle how they want and how the opponent wrestles.
The offence is tremendous and diverse, also perfectly executed from beginning to end, with magnificent attention to detail in almost every hold or strike. There's also excellent subtle selling like Joe's leg or Bryan's ribs, although they don't stand for the whole match (which makes sense as well because neither one focuses a lot in any body part anyway, and that's a failure in both guys' strategies that comes to bite them at the end, specially Bryan). Both displayed everything they could to beat the other, and it felt so satisfying to have a proper winner.
Also, incredible commentary work analyzing the strategies and tactics of both guys, as well as providing context for why they're doing everything they do. Man, I miss 00s ROH so much.
Rating? ****1/2. It doesn't get to *that* all-time great level but it's as close as it gets.
Will I vote for it? I believe this is the best match I've watched yet in this "GME honorable mentions" run, so yeah, most likely this will be on my next ballot. I believe it's even better than Joe/Punk 1, a match K'm a huge fan of and that I've voted for last time.
Please everyone rewatch this match!
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Post by mrjmml on Oct 13, 2023 8:31:49 GMT -5
Finally, a Pantera Sureña match. I can presume of being spanish on here by using the letter "ñ" That's the greatest thing about being spanish.
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