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Post by KB8 on Oct 26, 2023 14:53:15 GMT -5
Terry Gordy v Dr. Death (UWF, 12/28/86) - I don't think 12/28/86 is the correct date for this but I'm going by what was listed on the DVDVR Mid-South set. Fun TV match version of the usual Gordy/Williams hoss fight. It's mostly Gordy in control while Ross screams like a madman on commentary about how physical everything is. Gordy works over the back and I liked how any time Williams started building up a bit of steam Gordy would just take him to the floor and chuck him into the barricade. He did that twice, then on the third attempt Williams reversed it and Gordy went flying. Both of them took blade to forehead and by the end they were throwing soup bones while some scrubs emptied from the locker room to break it up. They one and all were thrown around like bags of potatoes and Jim Ross was beside himself. There was a Sooners reference in there somewhere.
Ted DiBiase & Dr. Death v Terry Gordy & Michael Hayes (Badstreet Match) (Houston, 1/9/87) - My main takeaway from this is that Michael Hayes was fucking great. It wasn't even a spectacular Hayes performance, not a standout one, not one of the first you'd point to as a reason why people 30 years ago were on some bullshit when they said he was kind of crummy. It's just been years since I've watched any Hayes in Mid-South/Houston and this made me wish Watts especially decided to use him more in the ring. I also watched some 2023 AEW recently and I didn't really enjoy any of what I watched not involving Ricky Starks. There was something about the way Starks moved, how he was vicious and at times reckless and not all that graceful. It felt authentic and I bought him as someone who would poke you in the eye and wallop you with a shoe and then strut across the ring in celebration. Hayes is authentic, maybe even magnetic if you want to wax a wee bit poetic. He was not at all down to get punched in the face by DiBiase or Williams here and let me tell you, both of those guys really wanted to punch Michael Hayes in the face. Hayes didn't WANT to engage, because he knew getting punched in the face was a very likely outcome of doing so. But he still did it, backed into a corner - or at least the confines of a sanctioned match - as he was, and before long he leaned all the way into it. There's something satisfying about someone going fuck it and shedding all (most) caution and just whomping someone in the face with their cowboy boot. Maybe he was a craven at heart, but he was a vicious one and he didn't always need Gordy to bail him out.
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Post by KB8 on Nov 2, 2023 11:37:47 GMT -5
Genichiro Tenryu v Abdullah the Butcher (All Japan, 11/5/79) - I can't really think of anything more you'd realistically want out of Abdullah the Butcher v Tenryu in 1979. You pretty much knew that Abdullah was going to try and savage Tenryu and he did that, unceremoniously chucking him out the ring after about a minute. What you maybe weren't sure of was how Tenryu would respond. I struggle to even comprehend a time when Genichiro Tenryu was younger than I am now, but he was a mere 30 years of age in '79 and hadn't yet developed that jheri-curled mean streak. I guess he always had it deep down, and maybe if he'd spent more time wrestling Abdullah it would've flourished years before Choshu sparked it fully to life, because I wasn't expecting him to grab the ring bell hammer and clonk Abdullah in the head with it repeatedly. Obviously Abby took it from him and paid him in kind, using the handle of it to jab Tenryu in the throat. By the four-minute mark both were bleeding and all was right with the world. I also tend to forget how great Abdullah's elbow drop was. Maybe I'm so used to seeing him stab people in the face with stuff, but his regular pro wrestling elbow drop really was sensational looking. He absolutely flattened Tenryu with this and because he was still a little NIPPIER in '79 he could really build up some steam leading into it. I loved this for what it was.
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Post by elliott on Nov 2, 2023 16:15:48 GMT -5
That sounds like a lot of fun. Will check that out. Definitely an improvement over Jumbo's approach to Abdullah matches which was always: Grab an arm wringer and really wrench it in over and over and over again
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Post by KB8 on Nov 2, 2023 17:12:20 GMT -5
Yeah, I don't know why you'd ever want to do that. Let yourself SINK to Abby's level. Embrace it. Welcome it and be welcomed BY it.
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Post by KB8 on Nov 5, 2023 17:45:28 GMT -5
Butch Reed v Dory Funk Jr. (Florida, 2/20/82) - This might be a top 5 Dory match. It was almost a case of veteran technician versus young stud athlete. Reed's only about three years into his career, not quite fully formed or polished yet, but it felt like could use his raw athleticism here to make up for any lack of experience or technical proficiency (or, you know, whatever). This was like young Shaq. It didn't matter if he couldn't shoot a free throw when he could just take the ball on the block and bully any old white guy you threw at him. Early on Dory hit a shoulder tackle off the ropes and Reed just rolled backwards, popped up his feet again in one motion, and Dory had to take a beat to reconsider his next move. Reed might not have the mechanics totally down yet but when he wants to pick you up and throw you there's not a lot you can do about it. His gorilla press slam looked great and it was almost jarring seeing a former NWA Champion take a Butch Reed gorilla press slam and land in a regular flat back bump. Dory makes several attempts at a vertical suplex but can only get Reed halfway up, then Reed reverses it into his own through sheer strength. There was a great bit where Dory seemed to realise what he was really up against when Reed almost grabbed him for a body slam and Dory immediately scooted back into the safety of the corner. I thought Dory was really solid in his role, stoic and surly, working a great headlock early, and to his credit he obliterated Reed with a few forearm uppercuts. The headlock part was doubly cool because essentially it's a move where you're squeezing a guy's head as hard as possible, and as we've established that's something Reed could probably do better, which he eventually does as Dory tries frantically to shake him and Reed keeps hold of it the whole time. I'm not sure Dory had the zip for the rope-running sequence towards the end, but I like that he even tried it and the fact he couldn't jump as high as Reed might even have saved him on the double KO. It must be said, however, that the finish itself is very not good, even by early 80s standards. If you're Reed, what, you're just going to let Dory piledrive you? Silly ref'. Try doing the professional wrestling for five minutes, will you.
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Post by KB8 on Nov 6, 2023 7:55:41 GMT -5
PYT Express v Fabulous Ones (Memphis, 6/25/84) - The only Fabs matches I've watched over the last couple years are wild blood-soaked brawls with the Moondogs and Sheepherders, and that one match from the Crockett Cup '86 where they worked heel. So I guess I forgot how good they were as traditional babyfaces working a traditional southern tag. This was great and it's a crying shame we miss the first five minutes. The Fabs were a blast early on during the shine, my favourite part being Lane putting a toe hold on Koko and goading Austin into the ring, then as Austin tries to get a hold of him Lane keeps turning in circles while maintaining the toe hold on Koko. Some of the blind tag shtick was maybe a little EGREGIOUS as Lane and Keirn surely don't look enough alike that Calhoun couldn't tell the difference, and they weren't even making the clapping sound to sell it, but I guess at the same time the 1984 TikTok scene might've been even MORE rife with carbon copy blond-haired white guys doing silly dances so who am I to criticise anyone? I don't remember the transition spot being great or anything, but after the PYTs take over it gets awesome. Koko was so good here. I've watched a ton of him recently and I can't believe I thought voting him #70 in the 2016 GWE was too high. Stupid. I definitely had him at least 64 spots too low. Seriously, there's hardly anyone better at just swarming a guy, dragging a referee out of position so his partner can pick up from there, then reposition himself so he can go back to swarming as his partner deals with the ref'. He'll just leap out of nowhere off the top with an axe handle or whatever and he has grade-A Memphis punches and then he'll hit the dropkick and we all fall out the bed. Keirn getting fed up with it all and doing the switcheroo at the end kind of ruled, especially with how he popped up after playing possum and stared at Koko with murder in his eyes. I might have the Fabs top 5 in next year's tag teams poll. I might have two or three Koko teams on there depending on how many teams we're voting for.
Jerry Lawler & Austin Idol v Michael Hayes & Terry Gordy (Badstreet Match) (Memphis, 8/12/85) - Lawler as the only one wearing his actual ring attire in what's essentially a street fight is very Jerry the King Lawler. Obviously this ruled. Michael Hayes in a 10-minute bar brawl is just about as can't fail a prospect as you can get in the 80s and he was great here, bouncing around off Lawler and Idol punches, then taking his boot off and walloping people when the time comes. At one point the camera pans to a wide shot of Idol getting clobbered in the ring off Gordy and Hayes moonwalking across the apron. It was very tremendous. Idol was so good on the apron here, dropping down and banging the canvas from the floor to get the people behind Lawler's comeback, always animated and full of energy. Good apron work is worth talking about and Idol was always one of the best at it. He was also great when he got in the actual ring and I completely forgot about him pulling THE biggest pair of scissors you've ever seen out of his boot. These things were fucking garden shears and I fully bought him wanting to stab Hayes in the head with them. Hayes ending up with them and ACTUALLY stabbing the ref' in the head was nuts, then we get some carnage with folk flying over announce tables and Gordy trying to use Lawler as a human shield so he also doesn't end up getting stabbed with scissors.
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Post by KB8 on Nov 14, 2023 14:51:32 GMT -5
Negro Casas, Black Magic & Mogur v El Dandy, Pierroth Jr. & Chamaco Valaguez (CMLL, 8/1/93) - I stuck this on late last night because I wanted to watch something relatively short with Negro Casas in it before I went to sleep. I barely registered the participants until it started and oh it's Negro Casas v El Dandy I bet that'll be good. Honestly, it didn't feel like a whole lot actually happened in this. There wasn't a ton of actual wrestling and really the only pairing that seemed to get any consistent time together was Mogur v Chamaco Valaguez. Those two were the team captains and I guess it was setting up an apuestas, so that made sense. Ring time for the others was sort of scarce, and most of what they did was needling on the apron or around the ring without properly coming to blows inside it. So in that sense it wasn't much of a match, but it WAS 20 minutes of Negro Casas running around like an idiot. By the end I think everyone wanted to take a swing at him and that's including his own teammates. He and Dandy paired off, such as it were, and it was niggly and Dandy was ready to scrap and Casas really wasn't. At a few points he tried reasoning with Dandy, then for a brief second they started trading blows, then Casas patted him on the chest like "okay big man you win" and he just walked away. In the tercera Casas and Black Magic got into a shouting contest over something or other and Magic was ready to scrap in their own corner. Casas, of course, really wasn't. The best part was when Magic went down from a gut shot and started claiming he'd been fouled, and Casas just stepped in and wagged his finger in his face, calling out the bullshit for what it was. If I could've had anything here it would've been an extended Casas/Dandy section, one where they actually get to wrestle, or failing that, punch each other in the face for a while. If not that then some Casas v Pierroth. We never got either of those things and I'm not sure that what we did get was the next best thing, but I'll also never complain about 20 minutes of Negro Casas acting the fool.
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Post by KB8 on Nov 16, 2023 16:13:56 GMT -5
Negro Casas, Silver King & La Fiera v Rambo, Gran Markus Jr. & Mano Negra (CMLL, 1/1/97) - This was some nice whimsical lucha libre. The primera had its share of comedy without veering all the way into slapstick territory and all of the pairings were really fun. The tecnicos made the rudos look foolish and the rudos never responded by trying to carve the tecnicos' foreheads open, so things stayed fairly PG. Rambo yanked Casas to the mat by the hair, then when Casas tried to return the favour his hands came away with nothing, because you can't very well grab the hair of a man whose head has just been freshly shaved, can you? So Casas dropkicked him out the ring instead and Rambo flew up the ramp, stole someone's beer and started walking back to the ring with it - presumably to use as a weapon - before thinking better of it and handing it to a different fan, who was visibly delighted at obtaining free beer. See, whimsical. Fiera stands on the top rope and practically lifts Mano Negra, who was standing on the canvas, up to eye level by the hair. Fiera at this point looks almost too scuzzy to be a tecnico but who am I to judge a book by its cover? Gran Markus is DEFINITELY too portly to be slammed by Silver King (he is extremely portly) and reverses it into his own with almost absurd ease, then misses a splash and when they end up on the floor he boots the ring board by accident. Markus essentially assisting Casas with a double powerbomb to finish the fall was a hell of a comedy spot. The segunda starts a little less whimsically as Gran Markus literally grabs Fiera by the junk and won't let go, while Mano Negra chokes Fiera so the referee admonishes that and misses the junk-squeezing. Which...I don't think I've ever seen before to be honest. After that the story of the match is basically Silver King turning rudo on his partners. I don't even know what set him off but I think Casas bore the brunt of his sulking initially. I wonder what it says that of all the matches I've seen like this, where a wrestler shifts allegiances mid-match, a good many of them have ended with at least one of Negro Casas' teammates wanting to beat him to death. Casas gets isolated and repeatedly tries to tag out, but Silver King is having none of it and won't even acknowledge Casas. Neither Casas not Fiera can understand why Silver King has a stick up his butt. It never breaks down completely and Silver King doesn't go full rudo or anything, but I get the sense they pulled the trigger on that a few weeks down the line. The closest it came to proper blows was when the rudos triple-teamed Fiera and Silver King just watched on from the apron, one foot on the bottom rope, looking like he could not be any less arsed. In the end he basically throws the match for his team, submitting under relatively little duress, clearly not bothered about putting up much of a fight. I'd be down for Silver King against either of his partners if that's what this is leading to. I guess I'll have a look, won't I?
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Post by KB8 on Nov 18, 2023 17:35:22 GMT -5
Mariko Yoshida v Ayako Hamada (ARSION, 10/17/00) - This was the final of a one-night tournament and only went 11 minutes. A tournament final, even of one held on a single night, going 11 minutes and not 52 today feels damn near inconceivable. Shit even for 2000 it feels inconceivable, but then ARSION were all about doing things differently for a while there. A great little promotion. For a while there. These two were in a tournament final from '98 that I watched about a year ago now and at that point Ayako Hamada was in a very different place. That match didn't even last 11 minutes and Yoshida basically mopped the floor with the poor lass. I think she even beat her with a foot on the chest and then Hamada got carted out by three people like she was a carcass left in a ditch. Two years later and Hamada is now the grand old age of 19. I guess in pro wrestling terms you grow up quick because she handled herself much better here and at least felt plausibly on Yoshida's level. Yoshida was so fucking good. I don't just mean here, I mean in general. She can demolish you in a dozen different ways and she started this by jumping all over Hamada and trying to yank her into armbars and chokes and anything else she could think up. When Hamada tried to catch her in a bodyscissors, probably just for a tiny bit of respite if nothing else, Yoshida applied the fucking STOMACH CLAW and then threw some of the greatest body shots she's ever thrown. For a glorious 90 seconds she then worked the midsection with gutbusters and body blows and this was looking like a legitimate 12 star affair. Pretty quickly Hamada made a comeback and they never returned to the body work, but it was amazing while it lasted. You also make peace with them moving past it as Yoshida very soon punches Hamada in the face so hard she starts selling her own hand like she broke it. Yoshida's arm is already taped up so I'm guessing this plays off a previous tournament match, but even on its own it ruled. This was also just about the greatest punch Yoshida's ever thrown. It was largely a sprint from there, but they absolutely blistered each other and I never felt like they went fully into spotty territory. It felt frantic, like two people who've just wrestled twice on the night and know the adrenaline is going to wear off pretty soon. Some of the striking was exceptional and you had Hamada recklessly spin kicking Yoshida in the face and neck and Yoshida throwing haymakers. Hamada in particular worked with a real urgency, probably because she knew Yoshida needed to put away with some haste. She tried one preposterous rolling submission thing that she definitely learned from her old man and Yoshida reversed it into a fucking kimura and I fell out the bed. Give me one good reason why I shouldn't vote Yoshida top 10 in the '26 GWE.
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Post by KB8 on Nov 21, 2023 8:25:35 GMT -5
Negro Casas & Black Magic v Brazo de Oro & Brazo de Plata (CMLL, 2/21/97) - This was worth it alone for Casas v Porky. Casas was working stiff as a bastard in '97 and he was trying to roundhouse Porky's sternum in half with Danielson-style kicks to the chest. He hit Oro with an upkick at one point that was straight out the FUTEN playbook. Of course on the other end of that he was amazing at running into the brick wall that was Super Porky. He just bounced off the wee juggernaut several times and then Porky about decapitated him with a clothesline. Casas' bump off a shoulder block was quite frankly incredible and the best part was that it didn't look like he exaggerated it at all. The Brazos work Casas' leg for a little bit and it's good, then they go after his arm, and then Porky just tries to simplify the whole endeavour by smothering him with a headscissors. I expected some amusing Porky comedy and we got that in the back half. First he slips and falls off the apron while trying to come in and break up a submission, then he gets "stuck" climbing under the bottom rope because he's too chubby. His eventual tope was great but unfortunately nobody went careering into the first row.
Lizmark v Emilio Charles Jr. (CMLL, 5/20/97) - Lizmark is one of those guys I think of as a classic traditional technico. I'm not even sure what that really means, I just know it when I see it sometimes maybe. And I knew it when I saw it here, particularly in that opening caida. He was slick and graceful and all of his grappling was snug and focused and he just carried himself like a champion you'd want to be. Class, poise, whatever you like, he had it. The matwork part didn't last long but was really tight and Lizmark was absolutely on one, especially using the headscissors to escape and set up ripostes. On the other hand Emilio looked almost haggard, at least in a narrative sense, and continually struggled to keep up. Not much of what he tried came off and then Lizmark would just respond with the same thing of his own, only he'd do it successfully. When Emilio tried a monkey flip Lizmark damn near soared and landed expertly on his feet, then caught Emilio on the return with his own monkey flip and Emilio neither soared nor landed on his feet. Then Lizmark hit the tope and put him away with a powerbomb, about as emphatic an ending as you can get. It was a really nice opening fall. The segunda started with Lizmark picking up where he left off, going after Emilio's neck and hitting two big delayed neckbreakers. A couple times Emilio would be sitting slumped over on the mat, that haggardness from before even more pronounced, and Lizmark would just jump on his neck with his whole bodyweight. In the end Emilio comes back and levels it with his own powerbomb, but you're wondering how much he has left going into the deciding fall. The tercera never really builds to a huge climax unfortunately, but it has some moments. Emilio hits one really nasty looking dropkick to the knee and I thought he was going to go after it for a minute, but it never materialises. Emilio looks exhausted and only escapes defeat when he appears to submit to a tapatia and the ref' just...doesn't acknowledge it. Lizmark releases the hold thinking he's won the thing and the ref' is like "sorry, mate." It was kind of strange but also seemed deliberate rather than the ref' making a pig's ear of something. Eventually it spills to the floor and Lizmark hits a big dive off the top leading to the double countout, which isn't the most satisfying finish in the world but just about the only one that you could see not involving Emilio losing. I'm not sure he was entirely genuine with his dissatisfaction after the match.
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Post by KB8 on Nov 22, 2023 14:25:37 GMT -5
Damiancito El Guerrero & El Fierito v Cicloncito Ramirez & Panterita (CMLL, 9/17/96) - You may be shocked to hear that the CMLL minis never just got great in 1997. They were in fact out there doing all sorts of fun stuff the year before. At the very least this was another chance to see Damiancito El Guerrero and Cicloncito Ramirez, one of the all-time great pairings, do their thing. The first caida was really just excellent and I could watch these guys all day. Fierito and Panterita paired off and it wasn't always perfectly crisp, especially if we're comparing it to Damiancito/Cicloncito, but it was super nifty. Panterita looked really slick and worked some great stuff while maintaining wrist control through most of it. Damiancito and Cicloncito were spectacular yet again. Give me everything they ever did. Ramirez is a magician and I don't think it's a huge stretch to say he's about as smooth and graceful as any tecnico ever from the footage we have. Damiancito has that perfect mix of buffoonery and undeniable skill, where he'll fling himself into missed elbow drops and get splatted on throws but is always dangerous when he gets rolling. Plus he's a terror when contorting people. There was one extended sequence between him and Ramirez where they ran through a bunch of stuff and just kept upping the bar, Guerrero missing things and popping up for another run at it, Cicloncito trying to turn him in circles. Damiancito does a go-behind into a hammerlock and Ramirez pops him with an elbow, then later in the same sequence the roles are reversed but Cicloncito ducks the elbow and whips Guerrero across the ring with an armdrag. The finish to the fall was amazing. Damiancito accidentally dropkicks his own partner out the ring and Fierito follows up at 100 miles an hour with a flipping tope, Damiancito then turning around into the perfect hurricanrana from Cicloncito. After some rudo mugging in the segunda they return to Damiancito v Cicloncito in the tercera, this time with Guerrero coming out on top with his awesome Steiner-ish fallaway slam, although the ref' seemed to fuck up the count. A shame, because even a couple more minutes of that pairing would've been a treat.
Damiancito El Guerrero, Felinito & Pierrothito v Cicloncito Ramirez, Ultimo Dragoncito & Bracito de Oro (CMLL, 2/18/97) - It would be reductive to say this was a test run for the October match, but you could at least see them putting some of those intricate pieces together. Cicloncito v Pierrothito was really good in the primera and I always like watching the latter beat his chest like a shithead. The last 90 seconds were sort of spectacular and at least a precursor to the amazing stuff they'd do in October. The segunda was short and the rudos took it off the rails immediately, humiliated as they were by the ending to the previous fall. There was no way someone like Pierrothito wasn't going to stomp someone in the kidneys. The tercera was even shorter and ended when Felinito went a step further than kidneys stomped on Oro's willy. The slow-mo made this look like one of the nastiest ball shots ever and I don't know how much of Oro's selling was actually selling!
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Post by KB8 on Nov 23, 2023 14:15:13 GMT -5
Chigusa Nagayo & Chikayo Nagashima v Shark Tsuchiya & Miwa Sato (FMW, 8/25/95) - The first half of this maybe kind of perhaps felt a bit like a slightly less affluent woman's version of a mid-80s Dump spectacle. Chigusa was involved in that sort of thing a time or two so you can imagine she knew how to get the absolute most out of one. It had the crazy crowd heat and lots of brawling around the ring and endless interference. The FMW ghouls jump Chigusa right away and bust her open, then there's some walking and brawling but to be honest, even the Dump spectacles aren't really my thing so the walk and brawl version of it won't be either. There was one bit where Chigusa picked up a chair and whomped Sato in the forehead with it. She swung it like it was a regular chair shot, but it never hit Sato with the flat seat part of the chair and instead caught her with the rim around the back of it (when it would be unfolded) and I bet it hurt like a bastard. I enjoyed the back half much more. They settled into an actual match and the dynamic of Chigusa teaming with her trainees is almost always fun, so combine that with team FMW running over skinny Nagashima and we're onto a winner. The longer it went the more I got into it and Chigusa's eventual hot tag was molten. They even delayed it initially by having Nagashima fight back and even turn the tables briefly, but rather than tag out then and there she thought she could go it alone and...she could not. Shark is a cowardly wretch and runs out the ring the very second Chigusa gets in there, then some nuisance in an FMW shirt and face paint jumps in to interfere again and even *I* got annoyed watching it. I don't know who it was but I really wanted Chigusa to kick the shit out of her. Nagashima would go to hell and back for Chigusa and the moment she gets hold of a baseball bat and starts cracking the FMW louts was sensational.
Chigusa Nagayo, Meiko Satomura & Sonoko Kato v Combat Toyoda, Kaori Nakayama & Yukari Ishikura (GAEA, 1/28/96) - Chigusa as GAEA family matriarch Mags Bennett trying to run a wrestling company with all her unruly children(/trainees) running around is definitely my favourite Chigusa. The Chigusa/Toyoda pairing felt appropriately big and the people were ready for it whenever the two of them got in together, but you also had four teenagers in there as well and there was only so far the main matchup could carry things. The kids needed to bring it and bring it they did. It amazes me how good Satomura was at 16 years old. She's obviously rough around the edges, but she has so many of the foundational bits down already; bits that a lot of wrestlers who've been doing it for years don't seem to. There's also a charm - an AUTHENTICITY, if you will - about her crazy arms-flailing corner clothesline. She was a prodigy. She was not the only one who could bring the good, though. That GAEA kids actually bring it more often than not and this was no exception. They were willing to throw themselves in front of bullets for Chigusa, but Chigusa would never ask it of them and certainly wasn't afraid to do the same for them. She might chuck them in at the deep end at times, trial by adversity and all that, but she had their back as much as they had hers and she sure wasn't about to them let be feasted on by these FMW scruffs.
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Post by KB8 on Nov 24, 2023 14:37:40 GMT -5
Mariko Yoshida v Mika Akino (ARSION, 1/17/99) - An absolutely ferocious Yoshida performance. If you're Akino, a whole six months into your career at this point, you almost need to wonder what you can even do. Go head first at Yoshida and she'll catch you and tie you in knots. Hang back and let her come to you then Yoshida WILL come to you and that might be even worse. Yoshida is just about the greatest swarm in wrestling history and she was all over Akino from the bell, twisting her every which way while Akino had to frantically scramble to keep her head above water. There was an absolutely spectacular exchange where Akino managed to finally buck Yoshida off and they went into kneeling switches for waist control, then when they got up to their feet I thought they were going to do a show of respect and instead Yoshida just kneed Akino in the face and monkey flipped her into a cross armbreaker. The greatness of Yoshida's grappling doesn't necessarily lie in how much cool and inventive shit she does as opposed to the intensity with which she does it all. That said she had at least three holds here that I can't remember ever seeing before and the reverse figure-four thing had my jaw on the floor. None of those holds looked contrived though; they all had logical setups and felt organic. You couldn't see the wheels turning, couldn't see her working through the components in her mind as she was doing them, no "this crosses over this and I do this to put this limb here" or whatever. She snapped into them as quickly as she'd snap into any basic hold and they actually felt like appropriate responses to what the situation gave her at the time. It wasn't a fancy armbar setup just to be fancy, she did it because Akino's proximity and body position made it the most feasible at the time. Just because 95% of wrestlers ever couldn't think of it doesn't mean it's not the smart thing to do. Most of Akino's offence came in bursts but she got to look spunky and explosive and that's about all you can ask for. She also got to look resourceful at points with how she'd attempt one thing and Yoshida would counter it, then if she went back to it a second time she'd switch it up and connect on it. The cool part was that if she went to it TOO often Yoshida would inevitably bring it back around and find yet another solution. That's what Yoshida does and I guess if you're Akino you live and learn. I thought for sure the kid was tapping on at least two choke attempts so she got to look tough as nails by hanging in there and eventually making the ropes. Yoshida was a monster in '99 and I'm looking forward to watching all of it, some for the first time and some for a second time. This was a great way to start off a banner year.
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Post by KB8 on Nov 25, 2023 12:55:22 GMT -5
Meiko Satomura v KAORU (GAEA, 4/3/96) -This was a 16-year-old Satomura stepping to the 10-year veteran KAORU. There can't have been many wrestlers who have ever been better than Satomura at 16 years of age, although I guess not that many are on TV having actual matches at 16 either. Meiko was full of fire and CHIRP here and was for taking nothing lying down. She was also a dog with a bone, determined to grab KAORU's arm and twist it every chance she got. KAORU gave her more than I would've expected as well. She didn't sell the arm like it was hanging off or anything, never REALLY looked in actual danger, but she let you know that Satomura was landing some hits and that maybe before long they would cause some problems. Satomura's wild flailing-arm running corner block is pretty goofy, but also quite charming as she looks like a baby deer trying to run. I've worked with plenty of teenagers who are all gangly limbs trying to sprint as fast as possible and I guess that's what you get before those rough edges are pared away. KAORU's moonsault is always a thing of beauty and I love that she gave Satomura the kick-out on the first one, a brief look of shock before composing herself with a smirk, making certain on the second moonsault that might've been even prettier than the first (this time a springboard version off the top rope).
Chigusa Nagayo & Toshie Sato vs. Michiko Ohmukai & Shinobu Kandori (GAEA, 4/29/96) - We miss a few minutes of this, which is a wee bit annoying because the rest of it ruled and really why would you not want every minute? Kandori v Chigusa feels like a Big Fuckin Deal and when they first get in there together the place goes ballistic. Of course these two are amazing at milking that interaction. The first lock-up was electric and then Kandori snapped into a heel hook, Chigusa scrambling for the ropes immediately. It put over the danger of Kandori from the jump. This wasn't Chigusa absorbing blows from her trainees before shutting them down whenever she felt like it. If nothing else her desperation showed that Kandori was an equal, and in the world of GAEA Chigusa didn't have many of those. It also made the crowd even more rabid for everything they did together, and everything they did together was amazing, but so was everything they did beyond that matchup. There were moments where one of those two would come in and help their partner by taking a shot at the other star, usually with a grin on their face. At one point that distracts Kandori long enough for Sato to jump on her and grab a flimsy choke, and Chigusa is a riot cheering her on like "yes, choke her like that!" Kandori is an all-timer in this kind of thing and she takes Sato to the mat and just about throttles her while laughing up at Chigusa. When Kandori tries to hit a running boot Sato catches her and turns it into a dragon screw to an amazing pop, then when Sato applies a kneebar Kandori lounges on an elbow and tries to talk her through the particulars of how to properly do the thing. "No no you need to apply pressure HERE. Look, let me show you." Ohmukai hit a sick jumping knee to the side of Chigusa's head and I thought for sure she'd die for it, but Chigusa only killed her a little bit in the end and even helped her up afterwards.
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Post by KB8 on Nov 27, 2023 7:27:02 GMT -5
Mariko Yoshida v Yumiko Hotta (AtoZ, 11/9/03) - I guess these joshi promotions of the 2000s really liked running one-night tournaments. We know Tony Khan was a DVDVR poster back in the day, can we be sure he wasn't also one of the three dozen people still following joshi during those dark years? You'd assume he watched a lot of IWA Mid-South but do we know for a fact he didn't develop his fetish for wrestling tournaments from places like AtoZ (which I did not realise before was just a rebranded ARSION) and Ice Ribbon? This was relatively short and compact and had a real nice sense of escalation running through it. The first few minutes weren't anything special, because Hotta isn't the most compelling mat worker, but it didn't feel like they were simply going through the motions either. It got really good when tempers flared, though. I've watched enough 2000s Yoshida recently to figure that eventually she'd punch Hotta in the face at some point, and I've watched enough Hotta from any time period to know how she would respond to that. Yoshida was absolutely clobbering her with shots and Hotta would just punt Yoshida in the face, almost casually which somehow made it even more callous. It wasn't personal for Hotta, no more than the torturer cutting a confession. She just is what she is and this was no more than business. I don't remember ever seeing Yoshida take a shot like the roundhouse kick to the face while she was on her knees. Maybe that made it personal for her and the moment she ripped her glove off and fucking nuked Hotta with a straight right was biblical. You could literally hear this thing.
Mariko Yoshida v Sakura Hirota (GAEA, 11/3/04) - This was a comedy match and a pretty whimsical six minutes all told. I would assume Hirota is a comedy wrestler by trade, like your Kikutaro who does impressions of other wrestlers. She was dressed in a spider suit getup and credit where it's due, her Yoshida impression was highly amusing. She had the swagger down, did the perfect double biceps pose, and the moment where even Yoshida broke into a chuckle felt legit. 2004 was also a very different time than 2023 so I guess Hirota doing a bunch of creepy weirdo pervert stuff was less frowned upon. She tried to plant the lips on Yoshida at several points and then she broke a submission hold by jabbing her in the butthole with a finger, which is the sort of thing many a 90s message board poster would've paid obscene amounts of money for. Yoshida didn't even punch her in the face once but in the end she did tie her up in enough of a knot that Hirota couldn't sex pest her way out of it.
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