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Post by stunninggrover on Jan 5, 2018 1:39:41 GMT -5
The IWE was a Japanese promotion that existed from 1966 to 1981. This match was amazing. Everything they did looked like a struggle. Great old school wrestling. Gagne is best known for being the owner and promoter of the Minneapolis-based AWA promotion. Robinson was one of the greatest pro wrestlers to hail from England. It was great to see that the Japanese crowd really appreciated this great display of wrestling by two gaijin workers. Gagne won the first fall with a sleeperhold. Robinson won the second fall. Third fall ended in a double knockout. The match lasted approximately 40 minutes.
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Post by fxnj on Jul 28, 2018 15:48:21 GMT -5
Absolute masterpiece in working basic holds and making the most out of the little things. I've gone on before before that there should be a lot more in working than the guy selling making funny faces while the guy on offense changes things, and this is a perfect example of that. It might be the last great match worked in the style you can trace back to Londos and Thesz. Though the holds are all just basic armlocks and headlocks, they get tons of mileage out of them. Rather than just selling the pain, you see the guy put in a hold constantly looking for ways out of it and struggling to relieve the pressure. Conversely, and almost as importantly, the guy who applies the holds is always wrenching it in an looking for a way to improve his positioning. The headlock work in here is tremendous. You can see Robinson grinding his arms and smothering Gagne with his whole body, which is exactly how matwork should be in my view. It should be struggle involving every part of body with none of that bullshit with some dude grabbing an armlock while the other guy pretends he can't just use his other arm to punch out of it. The match also sidesteps the issues I had with the layout of the Jumbo in that they make all the big moves look hard fought and never abandon the matwork completely. There's a great spot in the middle of that headlock work I mentioned where Gagne momentarily escapes, and just when it looks like Robinson is gonna go for it again he ends up faking him out and hitting a neckbreaker. There's also a short section where Gagne suddenly hits a lightning fast a flurry of tackles in a moment reminiscent of weird speed ups at the end of the falls in the Jumbo match, except here it's worked in as if Gagne was just trying to catch Robinson off-guard and regain control.
Besides the quality of the matwork, this really is an excellent match in creating a sense of both guys having a clear strategy and there being logic underlying ever move. After getting dominated on the mat, Gagne catches Robinson off-guard with a sleeper to win the grueling mat battle that was the first fall, and he makes sure to press the action in the beginning of the second. Robinson does a great job selling the grogginess from the sleeper and it's really cool how he tries to back away and create space while Gagne keeps going for the sleeper again. Robinson scores a surprise backbreaker for the comeback second fall, and we get some great work around the bear hug in the third fall. Even the cop-out finish is kind of cool as they tease a double countout but manage to make it back in ring but soon end up in a double knockout from how spent they are from the war they just went through. ****5/8
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Post by jetlag on Oct 30, 2018 9:10:14 GMT -5
3rd
This is just a masterfully worked match between two wrestling masters. The early hold exchanges are textbook old school goodness - simple, tight, with both guys fighting in and out of them. At no point would one guy sit in a hold. Billy would put on a headlock, and the next thing was that Verne was pushing his knuckles into his face. Verne would get an armlock, and Billy would start maneuvering and shifting his weight. Because of Billy using his holds to set up impact moves and Gagne's dangerous sleeper hold, the hold for hold work never feels pointless. Billy is a wrestling machine, but Gagne looked really great too and at least as good. In the first fall, Billy would get the advantage in the grappling, so Gagne was forced to try and outsmart him. The shoulderblocks in this match were just awesome and Gagne's use of them so inspiring. Should also mention that Gagne's selling and bumping was worldclass. When he would get thrown into turnbuckles, he made it look like he was launched out of a car with his back to a steel post. The final shoulderblock bump looked like it would force a KO aswell. First two falls had brilliant finishes, each fall playing off the previous one, and the last fall had superb build with Robinson chasing his opponent down. That bearhug was one for the ages for sure. By the end of this the folks in the crowd are jumping up and down with excitement, smiling and going bonkers for ever false finish. Man I wish I had a bulk of matches from the 70s of Verne available.
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Post by mrjmml on May 4, 2023 19:51:09 GMT -5
My MOTY of 1974. A technical masterpiece that only the 70's could produce, truly a classic.
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Post by tetsujin on Jun 3, 2023 10:52:38 GMT -5
This feels extremely 70s while at the same time is a timeless piece of great pro wrestling. They worked around the basics perfectly, so each time some big moves or hold was applied, it felt important. It shouldn't be that hard to understand that nowadays.
My favourite part of the match is how Robinson sold the sleeper hold. One of the best selling performances I've ever seen, both at the moment of suffering the hold and, specially, during the whole second fall when he's not fully recovered. Perfect, perfect body language.
The last couple of minutes are a bit messy though, as Robinson starts to spam his signature backbreaker (that gave him the second fall, but bizarrely this time isn't enough). The double arm suplex false finish was kinda bad because they had to move towards the ropes in such an unnatural way, so Verne could make the rope break. But still, wonderful match that can be a MOTYC in a lot of modern years, for sure. Won't be on my list but it 100% deserves more consideration. Best Gagne match ever?
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Post by elliott on Aug 29, 2023 0:48:23 GMT -5
You've got to imagine these two had dozens of awesome matches together over the years. We're fortunate to have this look at what they can do together because they are fantastic. Just perfect chemistry. It's old slow mat work but it's so engaging the match just flies.
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