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Post by fxnj on Aug 23, 2018 0:11:15 GMT -5
19801127 Masami vs Sato
Thought it would fun to watch some 80's joshi after something from the Golden Age. I appreciate how they preserved that 50's mat-based working style and just used a few of the bells and whistles to spice it up, rather than building around said bells and whistles like the men had already had already started doing by this point. All the holds are worked very snug and there's a clear effort to make it all look like a struggle. I love how aggressive Sato are in trying to maintain the advantage when in control of the early portion. She constantly moves forward and puts on holds to incapacitate Masami and leave minimal breathing room. Masami has some of the greatest facial expression in wrestling, and she doesn't disappoint with putting an great look of sadistic pleasure when she's in control. Loved Masami's vocalized taunts at Sato as well. Not sure if it's either because of the struggle behind the matwork or me just getting used to it, but the signature joshi screams didn't bother me here and I thought they added to the feeling of brutality. Kicking someone's back while you have them in a surfboard isn't some groundbreaking, but Masami made it look pretty brutal here with how she slid her boot across Sato's back and off the back of her head. The rope running and suplexes were built to well tastefully with them slowly escalating the action. None of that bullshit with almost the whole match being done on the mat and then suddenly all rope running out of nowhere in the last few minutes. The sudden knee injury finish isn't an ideal ending, but it almost feels fitting with how hard they looked to be going at it. ****1/4
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Post by fxnj on Aug 23, 2018 2:10:56 GMT -5
19921021 Misawa vs. Kawada
The opening of this with Kawada reversing a headlock into a backdrop and then backing off when Misawa tries to comeback with an elbow is pretty famous, and for good reason. In two moves, the match firmly establishes that Kawada is here to win and isn't going to be fucking around just because he's Misawa's partner. After that, Kawada starts to take over by working over Misawa's arm with some hammerlocks, and they do a good job of making it look hard fought though it's not going to make you forget Lou Thesz. They also mix it up pretty well with Kawada getting some nice looking takedowns and Misawa really putting over Kawada's kicks when he throws them. It seemed they were playing off of both guys' amateur backgrounds by spending so much time on the mat. Misawa tries to fight back with elbows and does some holds of his own to work over Kawada's back. I'm definitely not against the idea of guys spending a long time on the mat, but I thought the mat stuff kind of ran out of steam after a while as it didn't look like they were putting as much energy into counter-wrestling as they could have and the lack of meaningful limb selling kind of made it feel pointless. It seemed it was right there for them to play off the work on Misawa's arm while they doing a test of strength on a surfboard, but instead they just played it like the work was a non-factor. Anyway, they start to move on from the mat stuff around when Misawa hits this beautiful dropkick square in Kawada's jaw and it's pretty hot from there. Kawada gets a nice run of his big offense with some kicks and a powerbomb, and the crowd pops huge when he follows it up with a stretch plum. Appropriately for a match between tag-team partners with a senpai-kouhai relationship, they work in some nice oneupsmanship for the stretch run. Misawa gets a run of his own that includes a german suplex and a facelock, Kawada comes back with a german of his own and his facelock that he turns into a rear-naked choke, and Misawa returns with a Kawada-esque jumping shin kick. Somewhere in there is also a fantastic Misawa flying elbow onto the outside where, not only does he perfectly hit Kawada's chin, but he does it with such insane speed that he sends Kawada flying and his own body slams into the railing. The crowd for all this is molten and makes it all feel huge. I love the big pops they gave for all the facelock and stretch plum attempts, and I can't help but feel the pops wouldn't have been quite as big had they not spent so much of the match on the mat already. Quite a few people in crowd also couldn't help but jump up and pump their fists when Kawada kicked out of the first tiger suplex. Though the overall match is a little uneven, it just might have the best stretch run of an AJPW match up to when it occurred. The actual finish comes when Kawada's legs seem to give out on him, which gives Misawa the opening he needs to score a sick release tiger suplex that gets sold like a knockout blow. Damn great match and I can't help but feel I'm being a little too harsh on the first half, but they've just had so many other incredible matches. ****3/8
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Post by fxnj on Aug 24, 2018 23:09:17 GMT -5
19930505 Onita vs Funk
I'm gonna be the outlier on this match. The first half or so was alright. I didn't think the lock-up at the beginning looked that great compared to what I'm used to, but the explosion bumps Onita ended up taking looked brutal and I liked how Funk wasn't wasting time in throwing in him into the barbed wire every chance he got. After Onita makes his comeback, the match takes a turn for the ridiculous in my mind as Funk goes full clown mode in his selling. Burst out laughing during the part where Onita did a bunch of sloppy as hell headbutts while Funk is doing the most ridiculous punch-drunk selling. Onita pins Funk out of nowhere, which makes Funk mad, so he refuses to leave the ring and knocks the headpiece off the referee who's dressed like a Power Ranger villain. The ending is some of the cheesiest forced wrestling drama I've ever seen. There's one minute left until the ring explodes and Funk is layed out. Onita exits the ring at snails-pace like he's moving through water, but has a change of heart and gets back in to cover Funk to protect him from the explosion. Then when we get some Kane entrance pyro and they play 80's action movie guitar music. Enjoyed it for the camp factor rather than as the sort of epic others seem to view it. ***1/2
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Post by fxnj on Sept 4, 2018 3:18:26 GMT -5
19940903 Kobashi vs. Williams Feels weird to say this as this has always been one of my favorites and the slo-mo highlights of it is still probably my favorite highlight video ever, but this didn't really do it for me as much as a thought it would. It's really impressive for these guys to have gone as hard as they did for as long as they did here, but it was hurt by the lack of a hook. This sort of match would have worked great if it went a similar length to their 1993 match, but not 40 minutes. I need more to sink into than just two big dudes trying to out-macho each other all the way through. On that note, Williams is a guy who straddles the line of comedy with his macho posturing, but I thought he crossed it here with some of his expressions while no-selling Kobashi's stuff and it took me out a bit. Still, it is a few notches smarter than Angle/Benoit and Elgin/Davey. They're careful to respect each other's finishers with Kobashi hitting the powerbomb being a huge nearfall and Williams hitting the backdrop pretty much being the finish. They might have been a bit too conservative, though, and could have made the match more interesting by teasing their big moves more. By my count, Williams teased the backdrop driver one time about 20 minutes in and that was it until the finish. It's clear they put thought into how they could pace the match with the action never feeling too far away and intensity really picking up for the stretch run. There were some really nice counters as well, my favorites being Kobashi turning a tackle into a hanging neckbreaker and Williams blocking a lariat to score a knockdown punch. I also enjoyed the effort they put into the matwork with them doing some really good test-of-strength stuff in the opening and then some dueling bodypart holds in the middle, though the bodypart work didn't really go anywhere. On the whole, I think there is more good than bad here and it does hold up pretty well, but it's not the classic I wanted it to be. ****1/8 That Kobashi elbow from the slo-mo highlights is still legendary, though. i.imgur.com/A3KajY8.gifv
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Post by fxnj on Sept 4, 2018 18:26:12 GMT -5
19800925 Fujinami vs. Kimura
What a war this was. I was surprised to look back on my old 80's NJPW ballot after watching it and found it didn't even make my top 20 as it probably wouldn't have had much difficulties getting in there if I redid it today. As I've said before, if you want to understand shoot-style you shouldn't watch MMA but instead the old Fujinami and Inoki matches that came before it, and this is the perfect match to point to in bridging the gap. Though it's clearly grounded in the pro-style matwork tradition, there's a lot of emphasis put on positioning work and bodypart submissions are respected. Comparing it to the Inoki matches from the time period, this showcases the differences in Fujinami's grappling philosophy as he works a faster pace and tends toward more complex holds than basic headlocks and hammerlocks, yet it still manages to maintain a great sense of struggle to it all. Further, the high risk moves actually are treated as high risk moves in that they seem to end up failing more than they do in succeeding. There's a great moment where Kimura tries to showboat by deadlifting Fujinami to get out of an armbar, but he just ends up falling over and sells it like he sprained his arm. Fujinami plays a Thesz-esque crafty champ, slipping in some cheapshots to try to bait Kimura into making a mistake without heeling it up too much. Kimura keeps up just fine as the intensity ramps up and eventually has Fujinami reeling after he scores this sick gonzo bomb. They do a great double count-out tease and both guys juice before doing a double KO as the finish. The camerawork doesn't make it that clear exactly what busted open either guy, but otherwise felt like a fitting ending that put over Kimura big. ****1/2
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Post by fxnj on Sept 6, 2018 3:59:04 GMT -5
19901019 Misawa/Kawada/Kobashi vs. Jumbo/Fuchi/Taue
Might need to rewatch this one in proper context. I saw it get praised for being the match where everyone starts to come into their roles, but for me it kind of struck this uncanny valley where they were getting there but weren't quite the characters I know them as. You've got Kawada doing a weird sandbag thing against Taue in the beginning, Taue playing a fired up young lion with no hints of his later character, and Fuchi throwing some nice stomps but not really there yet as the sadistic stretcher of limbs and master of outside cheap shots. Aside from the insane crowd heat, the first half didn't really do a whole lot for me as it just seemed like these guys running through their signature offense without the same level of intensity or fluidity that they'd later achieve in their 4/20/91 masterpiece. You can pinpoint the exact point when the match picks up into high gear, that being when a seemingly pedestrian punch from Jumbo ends up breaking Kobashi's nose. Not sure if it was just really good acting, but I got the impression the nose thing was an accident that they made the best out of given that there was nothing in the work prior to foreshadow such a thing and there seems to be a pause while Kobashi is selling the damage where Jumbo doesn't seem fully aware of what he's just done. In any case, the energy ramps up pretty much intermediately as Jumbo's team starts brutalizing Kobashi's nose and Misawa's team responds by upping their own energy. Though the first half didn't do much for me, I also felt like without it being there to set things up the beatdown on Kobashi's nose wouldn't have seemed quite as sick. I love how Jumbo went from throwing these basic lariats to the chest in the first half to throwing hard ones straight to Kobashi's bloodied nose in the second half. It seemed the story underlying it was Jumbo's team initially going in with hot young lion Taue trying to rally the fans on their side, but then revealing their true nature after the big opportunity of Kobashi's broken nose presented itself. Kobashi gets put over big in the stretch run with two excellent near falls off a powerbomb and later a backdrop from Jumbo before before finally succumbing to a backdrop from the top rope. Great match in developing the characters and overarching story of the Misawa/Jumbo feud, though it can't quite match the 4/20/91 match for action. ****3/8
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Post by fxnj on Sept 20, 2018 18:12:44 GMT -5
20020317 Rock vs Hogan
Seen this one tons of times, though it's been a while since my last viewing and it pretty much holds up how I remembered it. The crowd going nuts for Hogan during the initial stare-down is an all-time great moment, but the actual work isn't really anything special and Rock's offense looked pretty bad at points. It seemed they were afraid to fully commit to a clear face/heel dynamic as they had a match laid out that involved Hogan doing heel spots whipping Rock with his belt but the crowd clearly wasn't gonna accept him as a heel. It's cool how Hogan played to the crowd with his usual schtick, but there aren't any memorable moments like what we got with Rock telling the crowd off when they also turned on him against Lesnar later in the year. Also felt the wrong guy won. Hogan has the crowd in the palm of his hands, controls most of the action, and easily overpowers Rock, but then Rock just wins after hitting his finishers. That always kind of deflated it for me. It's still a very entertaining match just for the crowd heat, but there's a limit to how far that can carry a match and I found the McMahon match to be smarter in working around Hogan's limitations. ****
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Post by fxnj on Dec 31, 2018 5:06:14 GMT -5
20050522 Cena vs JBL
Thanks to shodate for reccing me this. I was kind of surprised I couldn't find any glowing reviews as I've got it pretty close to the Eddie/JBL match from a year prior. Whereas Eddie/JBL is a classic for how it combines the visceral hatred of class differences a sick as fuck bladejob, this one takes that and throws some bells-and-whistles into the mix. Since it's an "I Quit" match, they're able to make excellent use of the mic to tell the story, and there's also a nice variety of weapons that come into play as the match progresses. We see things like Cena's chain, JBL's limo, wires, and a flat-screen TV all worked really well into the match. I talked in my Eddie/JBL review that Eddie's odd-looking punches took me out of it a bit, but all the strikes in this looked snug and the presence of the mic seemed to add a nice and audible thud to everything. The match makes excellent usage of sound overall, not just in JBL's mid-match promos but also in how hearing things like the static sound from the mic shots and Cena's sick gurgling sounds in the choking spots give the match this raw feel.
Similar to the Eddie match, probably the most memorable part of this is when JBL nails Cena with a hard chairshot from behind the announce table and Cena ends up hitting a gusher of a bladejob. I kind of wonder if that was meant as a callback to the Eddie match. Anyway, Cena's bladejob isn't quite on that level, but it's pretty memorable in its own way for how the blood spurts all over his body. I love Cena's comeback as well. Hell of a visual of him smiling with his face covered in blood while he has JBL in the F-U position. Cena does some really good punch-drink selling for JBL's offense, and I dug how the announcers worked in the idea that Cena might have to quit just from the blood loss.
The finish seems like it could be a love it or hate it thing. I personally loved it, but to explain why I need to back up a bit. A common dynamic in wrestling is a younger wrestling getting forced into the deep waters by a veteran. Usually, we either see the younger wrestler digging deep and finding the strength to pull through, or the younger guy unable to handle it and folding. This match plays that dynamic a bit differently. JBL is the wealthy veteran who's proven himself both in the ring and on Wall Street, having gone through his fair share of bloody wars in his career. To JBL, Cena is some random thug who doesn't even deserve to be regarded as champion despite having already won the belt at Wrestlemania. JBL goes in knowing that he's going to punish this kid and make him bleed, but then a funny thing happens. Instead of Cena folding as the match goes on, him tasting his own blood only seems to make him grow stronger. JBL's mid-match end up promos tell a story of JBL shifting from blind arrogance to shock at the brutality of the match. JBL's limo serves the book-end to all this. In this beginning, JBL is so confident that he's going to wipe the floor with Cena that just having Cena walk on the limo is enough to piss JBL off. By the end, JBL is so desperate that he doesn't seem concerned about destroying the whole thing. For the finish, JBL's ego has taken such a beating that he manages to act smug about quitting just for how it stops Cena from inflicting further damage on him. ****3/8
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Post by fxnj on Dec 31, 2018 20:00:36 GMT -5
20181118 Lesnar vs Bryan
I saw this live and didn't think it was much more than standard Lesnar formula, but I was also deep in the nosebleed seats and I've seen it get MOTY praise since. So, here we are. The stalling stuff at the beginning definitely comes across much better watching it on tape than it did watching it from the back row. Really fun seeing Bryan taunt Lesnar. The Lesnar beatdown really comes across as brutal with the TV production and the somber commentary. Borderline disturbing head bumps and selling from Bryan as well with the match playing up his history with concussions. Lesnar reminded everyone that he's one of the best offensive wrestlers in the world today between how was throwing Bryan across the ring and working some great jock heel antics. I cracked up at him telling the crowd "goodnight" before hitting the F-5. Fuck this crowd, though. They tried their hardest to undermine the tone of the beatdown with some "boring" and "same old shit chants." They probably should have cut a few minutes from the beatdown as the crowd clearly wasn't on board with it. Match kicks into next gear with Bryan's comeback. I appreciate how all of Bryan's offense came from finding openings or catching Lesnar off-guard rather than overpowering or out-striking him. Kind of a missed opportunity that he didn't try any punch-drunk selling or rubbery legs like Cena did in the JBL match, though. Just doesn't seem right that he's able to run around and do all his moves with no issues after pretty much being knocked out for the first 10 minutes of the match. Lesnar sold great, though, and he ate some really hard shots from Bryan as well. By the end it felt like Lesnar won by the skin of his teeth, which is quite a feat given how half the match was wrestled like a Lesnar squash. ****1/4
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Post by fxnj on Jan 2, 2019 3:39:35 GMT -5
20010727 Misawa vs. Akiyama
To appreciate the work of the 90s AJPW crew, I think it really helps to sometimes take a break and watch other stuff. Even in a lesser regarded match like this, Misawa and Akiyama's fundamentals felt like they in a different league of skill from the other wrestling I've seen lately. Misawa's elbows are simply a thing of beauty. I'd go as far as saying that this is a fantastic title match on its own that I don't think has gotten its proper due. Big match feel, layered psychology, vicious exchanges, and a great sense of escalation. The story of the first half centers on a conflict in Uncle Jun on the difference between just beating Misawa and proving himself as worthy of the top spot. He already knows that he can beat Misawa, but this time he wants to do so by taking him head-on rather than relying on the neck-work strategy he used last year. Thus, he begins the match by engaging in an elbow exchange with Misawa and predictably ends up getting destroyed. He's forced to return to his old neck work, but he later lets his ego get the better of him when he goes back to striking, which gives an Misawa an opportunity to get grumpy on him and regain control of the match. In the latter half he starts to find his groove with a combination of returning to the neck work and looking for openings to land exploders, but Misawa definitely doesn't go down without a fight. I loved Akiyama's selling of Misawa's elbows, even when he was on offense. There's an excellent reversal sequence they do on the ramp with Akiyama teasing an exploder off of it that kind of foreshadows the big spot in 3/1/03. The Super Tiger Driver kickout is a spot I've seen people dislike, but I actually thought it added a lot to the match. Firstly, you kind of had to have a big kick-out like that to make it clear Akiyama deserved the win given how they were running with the story about Misawa smoking him in the strike exchanges. Secondly, it serves to conclude a theme behind Misawa's prior title matches with Kawada, Misawa, and Akiyama on 2/98 where it seemed Misawa always had some new trick up his sleeve whenever it looked like he was in danger. Misawa thinking that all he needed to finish Akiyama after that were a few elbows sort of seemed like a callback to how he finished Kobashi on 10/98, complete with Akiyama doing the crumble. Similar to Kobashi surviving the ramp Tiger Suplex in 3/1/03, Akiyama surviving the Super Tiger Driver serves to show that he's deserving of being the new ace and gives the last few minutes this epic passing of the torch feel. Loved the last few minutes between the molten crowd, Misawa's sick bumps on the flash Exploders, the guillotine near-fall, and the slow build to the match-ending Wrist-Clutch Exploder. Really can't ask for much more from this dynamic. ****1/2
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Post by fxnj on Jan 2, 2019 5:16:01 GMT -5
20180619 Okada vs. Omega
I haven't seen the match, but while watching this I was kind of reminded of how I'd heard others describe the Toyota/Inoue broadway as a match where two people tried to put the brick on the gas pedal for 60 minutes. It's an incredible feat of cardiovascular endurance that these guys were able to go this hard for this long, especially with such elaborate sequences and with no noticeable botches. Lots of hard shots as well. A jumping knee from Omega on an Okada cross-body attempt to the guardrail was an early highlight. Having followed Omega since he was wrestling as a junior in AJPW and wrestling Ibushi in DDT, it is pretty cool to see him bringing that same balls-to-the-wall style to NJPW. The 2/3 falls format also gave some nice structure so it didn't feel like a spot fest, and the English commentators were great in explaining the match from Omega's perspective. They really got across what a huge upset it would be for Omega to win two straight falls after Okada surprised him with a cradle to win the first. I dug how they reused the surprise cradle as a near-fall in the second fall, and there was some nice storytelling involving both guys' finishers in the third. Very creative how, towards the end, Okada went for the rainmaker and just ended up crumbling onto the mat from exhaustion. I really enjoyed some of the visuals with the guys selling exhaustion as well, and the match felt like it ended exactly when it should have. Definitely a great match, though I wouldn't go along with the GOAT level praise it's getting. Firstly, the 30 minute first fall was athletically impressive but there wasn't much of a story behind it besides Omega just trying to outlast Okada and some minor work on Okada's chest. I feel like if you're going to go this long, the key to keep things interesting is to have a variety of different storytelling hooks. Misawa/Kobashi 1/20/97 and 10/31/98 have loads more storytelling complexity behind them, for example. The mostly tepid crowd for the first fall didn't really help it either. Secondly, there wasn't much of a sense of escalation. 5 minutes in these guys were running around doing a bunch of elaborate finisher reversals. 50 minutes in they were still running around doing elaborate finisher reversals. The reversal sequences were definitely cool to watch, but it felt numbing to see so many of them. Something the AJPW guys were really good at is to avoid spamming those sequences and to actually treat them as huge deals when they did use them. These issues are relatively minor, though, and only really relate to people ranking this up with (or above) the best AJPW matches. ****3/8
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Post by fxnj on Jan 4, 2019 9:20:37 GMT -5
19890724 Funaki vs. Nakano
Features one of my favorite match openings ever as we see a crowd go from normal levels of hype into a goddamn explosion when Nakano kicks away a handshake from Funaki, and a vicious slapfight ensues. Nakano scores a takedown by hanging onto Funaki's leg like his life fucking depended on it, and the crowd erupts into a deafening "NAKANO" chant as Funaki tries to cinch in a triangle choke. The match could have ended right there and it already would have been awesome. Funaki lets go of the triangle a bit too easy for my tastes, but there's so much hype going for these guys to get onto their feet that it barely even matters. We see some failed throw attempts by Nakano (followed by vicious punishes by Funaki) before he scores a hard headlock takedown after softening up Funaki with some vicious knees. Nakano makes his way to controlling Funaki's back, but a momentary doctor stoppage for a bloody nose forces him to give up his dominant position. Great way to build some tension for the crowd favorite. Another great moment follows when Nakano, cleared to compete, blows a mix blood and snot out his nose before Funaki blindsides him with a beautiful flying leg takedown. They lose the crowd as they work their way into a double-leg-lock spot, but gain them right back when Nakano gets out and scores a knockdown on a brutal punt to the back of Funaki's head. Funaki's chicken leg selling on the knockdown makes this feel so epic. They go right back into brawling and Funaki scores a receipt with a series of stomps to the back of Nakano's head while they tussle around on the mat. It's at this point that the timekeeper announces 5 minutes have past and I'm in shock as this match has already had more epic moments than most 20 minute matches. Next epic moment comes when they get back up and Funaki scores a knockdown with a hard and fast german suplex, and I love how Funaki then spends a few precious seconds on his hands and knees looking at Nakano's motionless body to savor the damage. Funaki next gets in a deep single leg boston crab, and we're treated to some excellent close-ups of Nakano's face as he calmly goes for a rope-break, whilst blood freely trickles down his nose and the crowd wildly cheers him on. Another blood stoppage follows, and Funaki dives in to beat Nakano down, but Nakano comes back to score a knockdown on a headkick. He pumps his fists into the air like he just won the world title, and the crowd reacts accordingly. We get a minute after this of insanely stiff brawling in front of an equally insane crowd that sees a brutal brainbuster from Nakano. Just when it looks like Nakano has things under control, Funaki pulls the rabbit out of his hat by scoring a surprise double leg slam, which he quickly follows with a full boston crab for referee stoppage. The once extremely pro-Nakano crowd erupts into a "FUNAKI" chant afterwards, the young prospect having proven his worth in the war he just went through. This match has the feel of a coming out party for Funaki, but really the MVP might have been the crowd knew how to explode at exactly the right moments to make Nakano's comebacks feel that much more dramatic. Great usage of blood stoppages as well to build tension and further add to the drama. Also helps that the wrestlers weren't afraid to lay into each other almost non-stop and eat some hellacious beatings. Best sub-10 minute match ever. ****1/2
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Post by fxnj on Jan 5, 2019 19:56:46 GMT -5
20050611 Necro Butcher vs Samoa Joe
I watched a shoot with Necro Butcher on this match and he described it as a very simple structure built around three key points. 1. Necro gets busted open nicely 2. Necro sells his ass off for most of the match 3. Necro attempts a comeback but fails. I’d add a 4th point to all that in the crowd getting worked into a near-riot from seeing these guys get in the ring together and brawl all around the bingo hall. This is the quintessential indy dream match, and even if you weren’t around back then to understand the sheer gravity of these two guys meeting in the ring, it’s kind of hard not to get sucked into it just by listening to CM Punk losing his mind on commentary over it. The action itself more than lives up to the spectacle of it all as well with both bringing bring a large helping of added energy and stiffness to suit the occasion. The most talked about moments of this match come in the form of two absolutely ridiculous bumps by Necro, the first being when a botched Samoa Joe powerslam on the outside leads to him getting spiked right on his forehead, and the second being when a botched exploder from the apron also leads to him landing on his forehead. There’s also another spot not far behind those that involves Necro getting powerbombed on his neck onto a guard rail that had been set up horizontally. Honestly, those spots disturbed the hell out of me and left me shocked that Necro didn’t get knocked out. Despite how uncomfortable it is to watch, I’d be lying if I said those spots didn’t do hell of a lot to reinforce Necro as a larger-than-life character. Taken with how the blood covers his whole face, Necro comes across as a real life zombie in this match for how it seems impossible for him to stay down from things that would kill a normal man. Even when Joe scores his victory on a referee knockout, all it takes is a momentary provocation by Joe during his celebration to get Necro right back on his feet and swinging. Joe, of course, bails because no one wants to stick around a zombie longer than needed. The fans came in to see a dream match and they fucking got it. ****3/8
20180804 Omega vs. Ishii
I don’t think “frustrating” is the right word to describe this as these guys definitely delivered up to the standard that I’d expect of them, but at the same time I can’t help but shake the notion that this would be a classic if they had tightened things up just a little. All the elements are there for an incredible match between some excellent character work from Omega, an engaging story of an underdog pulling off an upset, and a crowd that’s right there with them, but the devil is in the details. I really liked how they built up the first half of the match with Omega disrespecting Ishii and refusing to take him seriously, and Ishii forcing Omega to take him seriously by refusing to respect Omega’s offense. I also felt a nice sense of escalation until they got to the big move spam near the end. I dug how Omega dominated large portions of the match with some brutal neck work, which created the feeling that there was no way Ishii was gonna work out of that hole. That said, though I’m not one to usually complain about “excess” ruining matches, I think these guys definitely got diminishing returns on some of the things they did. Having Ishii no sell Omegas offense for the first few times was great, but having him do it on every comeback gets kind of numbing. It felt like Ishii had only two modes of selling: Either no sell Omega’s offense or sell it like death. On a similar note, I am surprised more people don’t have problems with Omega spamming V-Triggers given what a hard time Lesnar got for spamming germans and F-5’s. When Ishii has already survived 5 V-Triggers, there’s not as much drama in the 6th and 7th, let alone the 9th and 10th. I will acknowledge, though, even if I think the repetition hurt the drama, it still played into the story of Omega not wanting to take Ishii seriously and not wanting to believe that he'd need something bigger to keep Ishii down. Also, even if I wasn’t as into the stretch run as I’d have liked, I was still definitely on board with the come-from-behind story of Ishii pulling the win out of nowhere, and I thought they executed that part of the story about as well as they could have between the crucifix bomb reversal and the flash brainbuster leading to a pin. ****1/4
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Post by fxnj on Mar 1, 2019 22:24:07 GMT -5
Been a while since I watched some of these, so can't give comments as detailed as I'd like.
19500621 Thesz vs Rogers
I really underrated this on first viewing. I've generally enjoyed Russ Davis a lot more than the folks over at Wrestling Classics, but I have to admit his commentary did distract from excellent work going on. These guys were delivery some of the most hard-fought mat-work ever caught on film and brutalising each other with strikes and heard bumps to the outside, but Russ Davis just called it like it was another day at the office. Coming in with 80's US eyes, you'd say Rogers is the heel in this. Really, though, Rogers's performance in this is a different beast from the sort of cartoony bullshit that would come as he's treated as simply an aggressive challenger who can keep up with Thesz but who prefers taking some cheapshots to be safe. He delivers some stiff as fuck uppercuts at one point that I can only imagine made the referee, former heavyweight champ Jack Dempsey, blush. When Rogers does his strut late in the match, it comes across less as Rogers being a cartoon character trying to get fans to boo him and more as him being a badass psyching Thesz out. Rogers really brings the fight to Thesz throughout and Thesz sells really well as the champ in trouble, and he's also really good at picking just the right spots to comeback. Beautiful execution of his toehold. What makes this memorable is the ending, which sees Rogers taking a risk too many and winding up hanging himself on the ropes off a crossbody attempt. Really has to be seen to be believed. Great image in the post-match as well with Thesz as the battered champ posing for pics with his father. ****1/2
19510126 Thesz vs Rogers
Pretty similar to their first match. Rogers is again the aggressive champ taking cheap shots, though he seems to have learned his lesson and wrestles more cautiously for the first half. Some really good headlock work in the first part of this match that people should really watch if they want to see how that hold should be worked. This also features some stiff uppercuts from Rogers that Thesz sells differently than he did in the earlier match, which I appreciate. Turns into a brutal striking match towards the end with both guys going back-and-forth trading hard shots. I've got this just a smidge below the earlier match, though, as this doesn't have an epic ending like the earlier one did and I'm just naturally inclined to go for shorter matches over longer ones. ****3/8
19830709 Piper vs. Valentine
I've soured on a lot of 80's stuff as I've grown tired of the tropes and cartoony heel/face storylines, but this delivered. I'm a mark for unconventional match lay-outs, so this really hit the spot as it feels more like a bare-knuckles boxing match than it does a traditional wrestling match. Great tension building at the start with them cautiously walking around the ring and some nice close-ups of Piper's face with this look of total hatred. I don't know why these guys hate each other, but I got into it anyway. When the finally explodes, it lives up to expectations. Like I said, it feels like a bare knuckles boxing match as they throw all kinds of great looking punches at each other with barely a wrestling move in sight. Piper's unique charisma really makes it work, both when he's selling and on his comeback. The all-time violent ending also helps put this over the top with Valentine getting hanged on the ropes while white foam comes out of his mouth. Pretty disturbing stuff (in a good) and really nothing like the cartoony bullshit I've come to expect from 80's wrestling. ****1/2
19901214 Dandy vs Satanico
I tend to be more down on lucha than others here, though my favorite matches have generally been the brawls so I was still kind of disappointed that I didn't love it as much as others. There was some really good moments of this I really dug the beginning with Dandy getting sent into the ring post and all the blood. Dandy is a great bleeder. I also thought some of the offense looked pretty stiff by lucha standards and they built to a pretty hot stretch run. It was interspersed with some of the usual CMLL bullshit, though. After that great beginning, Satanico followed it up with this weird meandering control segment where he spent so much time just wandering around the ring and fucking with his hair instead of pressing the advantage. The end of the second fall looked silly as hell with Dandy just shaking his head during the ref's slow count instead of making it look like he was trying to fight out of the pinning combination he was in. I also wasn't big into the storyline at all with Dandy repeatedly selling fake low blows. I thought them using the fake low blow for the finish was horrible and really brought the match down, especially for how they set it up with Dandy repeatedly attempting it throughout the match and the ref calling his bluff. Not sure what drove him to believe Dandy that one time. I get the storyline in play with Dandy getting revenge for Satanico doing the same, but it felt like something more fitting for an angle-match you'd do at the mid-point of a feud rather than a heated blow-off. ***3/4
19931203 Misawa/Kobashi vs. Kawada/Taue
Still the best limb selling performance ever. The match is already awesome just as the opening bell rings with Kawada favoring his bad leg during the entrances and Taue having to start the match to cover for him. There's an amazing storyline told throughout the match of Kawada desperately wanting to be his usual badass self but his bad knee stopping him from doing so. The match is kind of famous for how it showcases the hierarchal nature of AJPW with Misawa refusing to go after the knee and Kobashi attacking it as he pleases. I thought they built really well to that moment when Kobashi goes for Kawada's knee as a great equalizer for how the match kind of sets him up as the weak man in the ring. I love how Kawada's selling slowly progresses from just having the odd stumble during a control segment to him barely being able to use his knee and getting pinned by Kobashi of all people during the finish. Such a heart-wrenching moment seeing him unable to even follow up on his successful offense towards the stretch run, like when he attempts a german on Misawa only for his knee to give out. The match is shorter and doesn't quite reach for the same ambitious offense as some of the later famous AJPW matches, but that kind of works to its advantage as I appreciate the comparatively minimalist of this match and Kawada's performance is more than enough to carry it to its own epic heights. ****7/8
19940320 Bret vs Owen
Possibly the best WWE match ever until that theater version of Reigns/Lesnar came out. I can only imagine how proud Stu must have felt watching his sons go out and put on a masterclass in pro wrestling such as this. The matwork at the start might the best ever done in a WWE ring, not only for how it features such great struggle and impressive execution, but how they manage to work in character with Owen as the jealous sibling and Bret as the big brother putting him in his place. Mat-work doesn't prove to be Owen's strong suit in the match's storyline, as he gets handedly beaten by Bret and has to dig into his juniors offense to gain the upperhand. Bret attempts a mini-comeback, but ends up injuring his leg off a crossbody to the outside, which is where the match really picks up. I forgot how great Bret's selling performance in this is. I love the figure spot and way he limps while on offense. He really sells it as preventing him from working his usual comeback. Bret still insists on going for moves like a superplex and piledriver even with a bad knee as he just can't help with getting shown up by his brother in the flashiness department. This actually plays into the finish as he attempts a victory roll, but his legs aren't strong enough to get Owen all the way over, so he just sits down and gets the upset win. ****5/8
19940728 Steve Williams vs. Mitsuharu Misawa
A worthy follow-up to 6/3/94 and deserving of sitting in the pantheon of great matches. Williams has learned his lesson from their earlier match and comes in with the gameplan of slowly grinding down Misawa. Misawa manages to make his comeback anyway, but can't finish Williams off and ends up getting caught with a backdrop driver, which he does a famous sell-job for. Great crowd, great escalation, lots of hard shots and a great moment with Steve Williams winning the title to cap off the best year of his career. ****3/4
19970120 Misawa vs. Kobashi
This was already on the list, but I rewatched it as it's just that damn good. It may be 40 minutes, but I don't think there's a match out there that I've seen more times. The attention to detail and complexity here is just off the charts. There's so many different story threads that are brought together flawlessly. Firstly, there's how the match deals with the concept of what it means to be the ace and question of if Kobashi has overtaken Misawa as the ace. This leads to one of my new all-time favorite calls when Misawa kicks out of a powerbomb late in the match and the announcer says something to the effect of "Kobashi asked before the match what it means to be an ace. He's finding out right now." As the match goes on, the dynamic slowly shifts from Misawa being the challenger pushing the action early on to Kobashi getting dragged into the deep waters and having to endure brutality the likes of which he's never experienced before, including becoming the first man to ever kick out of the Tiger Driver '91. There's the speed vs power dynamic with Kobashi using his size to initially bully Misawa around the ring, and Misawa having to dig into his juniors moveset to keep up. There's the body part work from Kobashi does early on to try to slow Misawa and that excellent spot of him throwing hard punches to Misawa's body as if it were a boxing match. There's the element of Kobashi's inexperience in play, which ultimately proves to be his death knell as he makes progressively more costly that lead to him losing the match. And there's Kobashi's armwork, which is the best arm work I've seen in any match both for the brutality of it and the psychology surrounding. The usual psychology with arm-work AJPW has always been that you can work over Misawa's elbow or Hansen's lariat arm all match, but that's still not going to stop them from fighting through the pain and elbowing/lariating you right in the face after you've tired yourself out doing that. Hell, that's even what happened to Misawa against hansen during his first shot at the Triple Crown on 7/90. Here, Kobashi understands that and mixes in some head drops to further incapacitate Misawa even in the midst of some armbar attempts. Truly next level shit. Even better than the story elements in play are the fundamentals. Transitions like Misawa hitting his elbow on the guardrail from an apron jump, Kobashi hurting his arm off a lariat to Misawa's elbow that he'd worked over, and Misawa reversing an apron powerbomb with the most beautiful hurricanrana ever seen are as good as transitions ever performed in a match. The detail work following up those transitions is excellent as well, with things like Kobashi showing his inexperience by rolling to the outside after injuring his arm, which leads to him getting hit by a plancha from Misawa. You can't take breaks when you're fighting to be the ace. There's also another thing I'd never noticed this viewing, with how Kobashi hurts his back by taking off the hurricanrana by landing on the outside on his butt/lower back region, which stops affects his mobility when back in the ring and leaves him open for some vicious elbows from Misawa. The offense is off the charts great as well, especially from Misawa. He throws some of the most brutal elbows of his career on his comeback in this, and he works in some really nice details to sell the arm like in how he can't properly execute a german suplex and in how he has difficult hooking Kobashi's arm for a tiger suplex on his bad side. The thing that's always stuck out to me most about this match, though, is Kobashi's selling on that final Misawa comeback. In his face, you can see the disappointment and anguish of a man having the dream he's worked so hard for swept right out from under him owing to a few stupid mistakes he's made. The finish is one of the best I've ever seen. Misawa, pushed harder than he's ever been in his career, can't help but let out a primal roar before delivery a running elbow on Kobashi who, though beaten and battered, can't help but wish for nothing more than to go out on his feet like a true fucking ace. *****
20041002 Joe vs Danielson
This seemed to get a lot of play as one of the best matches for either guy, though it fell a little flat to me. I'll give them credit for telling a pretty ambitious story. You had Danielson initially trying to tire Joe out through matwork and playing cat and mouse, and then going after Joe's leg when he saw an opening for it. Joe fought back with his usual stiff offense and forced Danielson into a bomb throwing match, which Danielson came out on the losing end of. The execution was a bit lacking, though. The crux of it was in Danielson's matwork. Some of the holds looked painful, but I just didn't find the struggle very compelling watching this straight after the Thesz/Rogers matches. I wasn't too big into the lucha-y neck bridges than Danielson threw into his shit. One moment I wasn't a fan of was when Danielson worked Joe over in a toe hold for a bit and, after adding in a bridging facelock, Joe just casually grabbed the rope next to him without even having to move or struggle out of it. That means Joe could have grabbed the ropes any time he wanted during the whole segment. Both guys also did the guy-sits-in-chair-while-the-other-runs-to-the-other-side-of-the-barricade-and-hits-a-move spot, which is something that's always going to look ridiculous to me. More broadly, I had an issue with the pacing of the match. At 40 minutes, it felt too long and I didn't really feel much urgency on either guys' control segments until the finish. On a positive note, I did dig the finish and I really dug Joe's lariat near fall in particular. The actual finish with Joe catching Danielson in a choke was also really good stuff. ***3/4
20150222 Bryan vs. Reigns
I have to admit to being a little skeptical of the Danielson as GOAT hype train after him not really looking the part in some of the ROH I'd watched, but he lives up to the hype here. Funny thing how much a few extra years of experience and the WWE agents can help a guy. Bryan ditches the cutesy neck bridges on his ROH matwork that he'd learned from his lucha tapes, and he instead just comes across as dangerous technician out to hurt Reigns with painful looking submissions that can he can slap on at a whim. I popped for the flying armbar, though his execution on the armbar seemed kind of sloppy. There's a great story in play here with Bryan as the grizzled vet out to break the young Reigns, but he ends up getting broken himself when he finds that he can't put away Reigns with even his stiffest offense. Lots of brutal kicks from Bryan in this, including some to Reigns's liver that did not look fun to take at all. Loved the transition with Bryan scoring the liver kick to counter a Reigns Superman punch and JBL putting it over as akin to the Bernard Hopkins punch that dropped De La Hoya. Really dug Reigns's selling on the liver shots with him just sitting in the corner in too much pain to really do anything else, just as you'd expect from a shoot liver shot. I felt great sense of urgency on Bryan's control segment. Reigns responded in kind with his comebacks as he scored some stiff as fuck forearms and a great powerbomb triangle counter. I also dug the stretch run as well with how they did some really hot Bryan near falls and Bryan unloaded on Reigns with some ungodly kicks to his head. Bryan also did a great job of selling his doubt in himself as Reigns survived his best shots, which led straight into the finish of him running right in a Reigns spear. ****1/2
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Post by fxnj on Mar 14, 2019 23:11:01 GMT -5
20030816 Corino vs Homicide
Been busy lately nominating, but I got to this one on my list and realized I hadn't seen it before so I went and watched. It did not disappoint and is now my running best match in ROH history. ROH is generally known for trying to work ambitious, but this is just a violent brawl from start to finish that doesn't aspire to be anything more than that, and it's amazing for that. They waste little time getting into the meat of the match, starting off with an intense lock-up and some leg holds before Homicide decides to grab some barbed wire to blade Corino's arm, and he proceeds to bite the cut for good measure. Corino comes back and busts Homicides forehead open as well. Not exactly clear what busted Homicide open, but it barely matters as Corino quickly opens it up even farther using his hands and some barbed wire, and we've got a cut that would rank pretty high on the Muta scale. This leads to all kinds of great visuals, one of my favorite being them both lying on the ground while the blood drips from Homicides forehead, leaving a puddle of blood beneath his head. The crowd is great in getting on Corino's case and he plays to them just enough to add to the spectacle without overdoing it. Nuttiest spot of the match comes when Homicide attempts a lightspeed tope that misses, resulting in him crashing and burning off the top of the guardrail and into the crowd. Brutal. Great shot of Corino standing in front of a hole in the crowd while everyone is standing up and cheering for Homicide. They work some great nearfalls as well. I loved how Corino worked that chickenwing. Homicide comes back by scoring a series of moves on Corino's bad neck, including a stiff lariat. Dig the finish with Corino having to throw in the towel after Corino spent some time in an STF and refused to tap. Epic post-match with Homicide slowly making it to his feet and then standing triumphant over a Corino who can barely even move. ****5/8
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