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Post by tetsujin on Oct 13, 2023 13:18:17 GMT -5
Ordering dates like "day/month/year" is up there as well hahaha
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Post by tetsujin on Oct 13, 2023 17:40:35 GMT -5
Carlos Colon vs Hercules Ayala (Fire Match - WWC - 9/10/1988)
Aha. Yeah. I know the match says "Fire match" but when I saw the visual of all those balls of fire surrounding the ropes, man that's as hard as any pro wrestling visual can ever go. Legendary.
The match itself is good enough, but sadly too short and with little focus on the fire itself. Not early on, though, both guys try to make each other burn as soon as possible. Sadly that only lasts for a couple of minutes because then they start throwing shots like a regular old school brawl, and It was cool but yeah, less impressing than the spots with literal FIRE. Then the Figure 4 stuff was too basic, Carlitos didn't have any problem with it and he overcame it pretty easily, tapping out Ayala in mere minutes.
The match left me wanting to see a proper fire spot as a payoff, like somebody going out of the top rope through the burning ropes or something like that. Yeah, I might be a maniac, but so were they for putting themselves in that insanity of a match, so for them to finishing things off like in a regular singles match was kind of a letdown.
Still, the visuals, the fire spots and the NUCLEAR crowd as always in Puerto Rico, are enough to make this unforgetable.
Rating? ***1/2. Can't help but feel this is a good example of wasted potential.
Deserves consideration? Just for how unique It feels for the first half, totally, yes. However, it fails at continuing with the premise and takes some steps back instead of forward.
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Post by elliott on Oct 13, 2023 17:47:06 GMT -5
Carlos Colon vs Hercules Ayala (Fire Match - WWC - 9/10/1988) Aha. Yeah. I know the match says "Fire match" but when I saw the visual of all those balls of fire surrounding the ropes, man that's as hard as any pro wrestling visual can ever go. Legendary. The match itself is good enough, but sadly too short and with little focus on the fire itself. Not early on, though, both guys try to make each other burn as soon as possible. Sadly that only lasts for a couple of minutes because then they start throwing shots like a regular old school brawl, and It was cool but yeah, less impressing than the spots with literal FIRE. Then the Figure 4 stuff was too basic, Carlitos didn't have any problem with it and he overcame it pretty easily, tapping out Ayala in mere minutes. The match left me wanting to see a proper fire spot as a payoff, like somebody going out of the top rope through the burning ropes or something like that. Yeah, I might be a maniac, but so were they for putting themselves in that insanity of a match, so for them to finishing things off like in a regular singles match was kind of a letdown.
Still, the visuals, the fire spots and the NUCLEAR crowd as always in Puerto Rico, are enough to make this unforgetable. Rating? ***1/2. Can't help but feel this is a good example of wasted potential. Deserves consideration? Just for how unique It feels for the first half, totally, yes. However, it fails at continuing with the premise and takes some steps back instead of forward. Have you watched the Funk & Ono vs Nakmaki & Araya Hair vs Hair Barbed Wire Fire Match? www.youtube.com/watch?v=NyUWMlogf9A
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Post by tetsujin on Oct 13, 2023 18:38:14 GMT -5
... I have no words right now and I haven't even watched it yet. My mouth is watering.
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Post by elliott on Oct 13, 2023 18:42:04 GMT -5
2 sides of the ring have barbed wire. two sides have fire. They shoot some weird sparkler nonsense from above. It's so much fun.
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Post by tetsujin on Oct 16, 2023 13:22:39 GMT -5
Bryan Danielson vs Nigel McGuinness (ROH - 2/23/2008)
This is one of my favourite matches since I've been a teenager. It just clicked with me in a way not many matches do for the first time. And I've voted for it both times I submitted a ballot, although this is the first time I watch it since forever. So, I was nervous.
Nigel's progressive heel turn during the first act of the match is perfectly done, he's totally outwrestled by Danielson and his frustration grows and grows: he kicks ropes, he looks annoyed at the crowd, stuff like that. Bryan promised to not attack Nigel's head because of a previous concussion, but the moment he accidentally bounces Nigel's head on the mat after a back suplex, Nigel tries to quit.
After that, the initial 50/50 crowd went totally against McGuinness, and he becomes more and more evil. While Bryan wrestles fairly, Nigel plays with the limits of the rules, goes for Bryan's injured leg once or twice, and later on even attacks his infamously injured eye. The climax of this story comes when Nigel is so against the ropes that he starts to give Bryan headbutts, showing that his head wasn't as bad as he said. He uses that element of surprise to knock Bryan out, finishing with a fucking vicious elbow to the eye.
The storytelling aspects of the match are still as good as I remember. This is a complex story, one of the most clever heel turns ever done, told almost entirely with un ring action. The ringwork itself, while great, isn't as amazing though: some of Nigel's main spots always felt forced, and I've never liked how early he does the Tower of London and how it's just another nearfall (same at Unified). However, the character work is a piece of art, maybe Nigel's best performance ever, and it's so cool to see Bryan going from dominant challenger to underdog babyface.
Rating? ****1/4, really great but not excellent.
Will I vote for it next time? Honestly? I don't think so. There's just too many awesome matches, and this one didn't hold up as much as I wanted it to. That said I can 100% understand why anyone want to put it anywhere on their list.
And yeah it's still better than Unified.
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Post by microstatistics on Oct 16, 2023 19:44:19 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. Hell yeah. I've voted for this every time around.
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Post by tetsujin on Oct 19, 2023 13:19:22 GMT -5
Akira Hokuto and Manami Toyota vs Toshiyo Yamada and Kyoko Inoue (AJW - 12/10/1993)
I deleted the post I was making about this one by mistake, so tl;dr: two good matches that for storytelling purposes should be considered as one single act. The first match is a great sprint and the second one has amazing nearfalls, although the selling was kinda hit or miss for me.
Rating? While the first match would be ***3/4 and the second one ***1/4, let's say the overall experience is a ****. Great thing that I'm glad it exists.
Top 100 worthy? Nope but it's cool.
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Post by tetsujin on Oct 21, 2023 17:59:12 GMT -5
Rey Hechicero vs Charles Lucero (Monterrey - 8/4/2013)
I didn't like this. It almost didn't even feel like pro level wrestling at the times, with all those awkward "I stay completely still while you do your overcomplicated hold or sequence" moments. The technique itself wasn't as good as expected either, they couldn't keep the grabs most of the times. The referee was very bad as well but I'm used to those in lucha libre anyway.
There were some neat ideas, for sure. The performances weren't very good, that's all.
Rating? Something around **3/4-***. I believe it can be even decent with generous eyes.
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Post by tetsujin on Dec 2, 2023 16:37:58 GMT -5
Back from holidays!
Watched Toyota/Inoue. Super long, yet super cool. Wasn't as spotty as I thought it would be, although it still was a great spotfest with clever pacing most of the time. Neat set ups and payoffs throughout the whole thing. Some selling issues but they don't ruin the match as a whole. I would go for ****1/4, I won't vote for it, but I'm glad I watched it and I understand the praise It gets more than its criticisms.
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Post by tetsujin on Dec 2, 2023 17:29:42 GMT -5
Hijo del Santo vs La Parka (Monterrey - 12/23/2001)
Fucking unbelievable bloodbath with one of the dumbest, more annoying, poorly executed, overbooked finishes of all time.
Seriously, these two are my two favourite luchadores of all time and they gave us here what's probably the greatest bloodbath ever done in a wrestling ring. I gotta check Eddie/JBL and Hase/Muta, but nothing else comes to mind, and I would say this is the most violent and intense brawl of all. Total nonstop grittiness.
If not for one if the worst finishes ever, this would have been -at least- a clear contender for my list. Sadly, I believe it hurts the match quite a lot and I have to go for a (still great) ****1/4 rating. Both guys gave one of the best performances of their careers here, and the match helps them more in a GWE project than in a GME project, if you know what I mean.
Please watch this match everyone.
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Post by lemming on Dec 3, 2023 6:03:16 GMT -5
one of the dumbest, more annoying, poorly executed, overbooked finishes of all time. The curse of Monterrey! It is a great match though for sure.
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Post by tetsujin on Dec 19, 2023 16:05:43 GMT -5
Genichiro Tenryu and Koki Kitahara vs Kengo Kimura and Shiro Koshinaka (NJPW - 10/23/1992)
I just wrote what I thought in the match's own thread, so whatever: super fun, SUPER chaotic interpromotional tag war. Tenryu with one of his best performances ever. All time level crowd.
Rating? ****1/4 Will I vote for it? I don't think so. While it's definitely a special match and something I wouldnt be surprised if somebody votes for it, for me It doesn't get to that next level. It's definitely one of the best Tenryu matches and performances, but the match being focused around him, while great and understandable because... duh, limits the match's candidacy. The other three don't shine *enough* for the match to feel complete, to me. At least in a "best matches ever" talk.
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Post by tetsujin on Dec 27, 2023 8:31:23 GMT -5
Bryan Danielson vs Low-Ki (ROH - 3/30/2002)
Didn't want to finish the year without rewatching this. I watched it for the first time in 2015 I believe, due to Bryan's first retirement. I inmediately went full five on it and thought it was one of the, idk, maybe 5 best matches I've ever seen in my life. As years passed, I've always wanted to rewatch it one day, but I thought "heh, maybe it won't be as good, at the end of the day this is 2002 Bryan, not at his peak yet, and I prefer to keep the memory of my first watch, as a teenager who didn't nitpick shit". Recently I've been a fan of their Submission match too, and I voted for that on GME, but I didn't want to include Round Robin Challenge because it didn't feel fair to me... But on the other side, I remembered it being so good...
Holly fucking hell was I dumb. It is even better than I remembered, and yes, it's the best Dragon match ever. Crazy considering he was only three years in his career and had like, 21 years old or something, but hey, prodigies are prodigies man. And mostly the same can be said abut Low Ki, although sadly he never had the longevity and overall attitude to be at the level of Bryan or other all-timers. But man, back in 2002 for this match, the potential was there for both guys. They were clearly the best wrestlers in the world for that night, simply everything clicked.
The match is technically perfect. Everything is worked in a super legitimate way, while also being fluid as fuck, varied and creative as fuck, full of details and little gestures and stuff that makes you smile while you watch it and think "man I do love wrestling". The build up everything so nicely, and they get the crowd invested in their styles and omg I could go on and on and on. There's no "but" I could say here. Everything is perfect, from beginning to end. Perfect pacing, perfect technique, perfect selling, perfect nearfalls, perfect character work in its own simplistic, sport-focused way. I'm not sure if this counts as shoot style but to me this is the best shoot style match I've ever seen, the absolute pinnacle of the style. The perfect balance between old school and newer tendencies. As good of a "greatest of all time" definition as it can be.
Hell it might even be my #1 next time. I have to seriously consider it.
*****.
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Post by tetsujin on Dec 29, 2023 18:30:44 GMT -5
Great Muta vs Shinya Hashimoto (AJPW - 2/23/2003)
This had a lot of elements for it being awesome, but I didn't like the (otherwise understandable considering their health/shape at this point) slow pace. A 20 minute match between these two that drags is a shame. However, it's still really fucking cool when it truly needs to be, and definitely one of the most unique Hashimoto performances of his career, so the match is worth watching just for that.
Rating? ***3/4 Won't vote for it, but considering the names involved and the amount of cool spots throughout the match, everyone should give it a try.
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