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Post by [Darren] on Nov 13, 2021 16:09:47 GMT -5
I want to love this match, especially considering some of the enthusiasm on this board and the participants in this match but I’m not even sure if I like it.
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Post by elliott on Nov 13, 2021 18:36:47 GMT -5
everyone likes what they like no worries!
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Post by cactus on Nov 13, 2021 18:57:21 GMT -5
This match fucks! I can see this making my list.
Both Baba and Kimura are way past their prime and should be in the opening matches facing the other faded stars of yesteryear, but they aren't going down the card without a fight! Tenryu takes out Baba with a violent suicide dive before the match even starts. Hansen and Tenryu double-team Kimura and he gets his head cut open during the assault. Kimura can't do too much and his headbutts are pretty ineffective. Although he lacks any major physical talents, he more than makes up for it by being very charismatic and pulling out some deranged facials whenever he tries to power up. Baba is finally on the apron and makes the building shake with excitement when he finally gets the hot tag. Baba is also broken down physically, but he's as popular as he was during his prime and he's still got a fantastic wrestling mind with impeccable timing. He sells his beating fantastically well. Every time the veterans would make a comeback, they would have me marking out as if I was in the arena. Jim Ross would describe this match as 'bowling shoe ugly' and he wouldn't be wrong. Sometimes wrestling is more than just flawless execution of highspots and this match is a great example of that. ★★★★¾
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Post by makaiclub on Dec 14, 2021 16:13:45 GMT -5
I thought this was cool. Kimura and Baba teaming together in the tournament is huge by itself and the generational divide with them and Tenryu and Hansen elevates this. But I don’t honestly think that this is an all time classic, but this does have some shockingly great performances from Rusher Kimura, who wasn’t exactly a great wrestler in his prime. Kimura bleeds almost instantly with Tenryu not shy about punching the cut. Baba is hurt on the outside for most of it, leaving Kimura alone with Tenryu and Hansen who did exactly what is expected of them. The crowd rallies behind Kimura, who is a great FIP with his selling. Kimura is limited but it works in sparse moments like these. Baba is able to make a comeback and fares better offensively thanks to Tenryu willing to bump for the boss. Even Hansen struggled but they were able to just get the win via a Tenryu Powerbomb. A massive feat even in 1989. That’s Baba pinned, Inoki’s turn would come around 4 years later. . ****
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Post by KB8 on Aug 23, 2022 18:02:57 GMT -5
Watched this for the first time in over a decade and fuck me is it an amazing bit of the pro wrestling. I had it #7 on my All Japan 80s ballot and that feels about 5 spots too low, even compared to the matches I had above it that all made my GME ballot last time.
One of my favourite match-types in wrestling is the one that has you going from "these guys have no shot at actually winning this thing" at the beginning to "wait a second here, do they ACTUALLY have a shot at winning this thing?!" the deeper it goes. An awesome riff on that match type is one featuring at least one broken down semi- or fully-retired wrestler. Lawler/Miz from 2011 and Flair/Edge from 2006 are obvious WWE examples, where by the end of the match the audience is drawn in completely and they have you believing the old fella might just pull it out the bag. And this is the best version of that match ever, with two guys at their absolute peaks as wrecking balls against two guys who look like they struggle to even exist, where that crowd is just living and dying on every single fucking thing the old guys do.
I thought everyone in this was legit incredible. Every performance. If Baba only had one good night left in him then he was going down emptying the clip and this might be the best example of his chops working on a level that very few strikes in history ever have, whether they look ropey or not. A thousand wrestlers today throw chops that sound like a shotgun blast - and probably hurt like one too - but none of them elicit the crowd reaction of Baba palming Tenryu in the head here. The Tenryu/Baba stuff works even better after having gone through pretty much all of Tenryu's 1989 again in recent years. They matched up a few times throughout that year in six-mans and regular tags, and Tenryu showed nothing towards Baba but disrespect at best and contempt at worst. He didn't care for Baba's legacy and he showed it any chance he could, yet Baba would almost never rise to any of it, would never stoop to Tenryu's level no matter how far he was pushed. That tope at the beginning was one of the best "you fucking WILL acknowledge me" moments ever, paying off about a year's worth of build. Obviously Baba's selling on the floor and then on the apron was amazing, rolling around like he's taken a gut shot from a cannon, but for a while there Rusher got to take centre stage. For a guy who can really only headbutt folk and eat chops you can't ask for much more. There were points where he was too broken down to actually move out the way of something, so instead he just braced himself as much as possible, grimaced and took whatever shot was thrown his way, sometimes defiant, sometimes too beaten to know where the shot had even come from. I love how the headbutts worked for a while until Hansen and Tenryu tried to just break his head open, and there was an unreal bit in the middle of the beatdown where he blocked a Tenryu chop, grabbed him by the hair to throw another one of those headbutts, but this time Tenryu blocked that and walloped him with an overhand to the neck. It was a little thing but it was an amazing touch. Then Tenryu tries to lariat him in the corner and Rusher just lowers his head and Tenryu runs face-first into it like a fucking maniac. Which was basically the perfect setup to the hot tag, but also highlights the broader point of Tenryu being absolutely world class at eating strikes in this match. He made every headbutt, chop and big boot look like death, largely because he had no compunction about leaning ALL the way into them. There were four moments where he about lost teeth because he was determined that those strikes weren't going to be telegraphed, so when Baba brought the foot up to counter the lariat Tenryu was hitting that thing square in the face at fifty miles an hour. Tenryu and Hansen working the ribs was probably more compelling than it had any right to be, and partly it was down to Baba selling like a motherfucker but also because Tenryu and Hansen went full crowbar and tried to punt him up and down the place. The bit where they were taking turns dropping elbows on him was almost disturbing. Baba stumbles into his own corner at several points after managing to survive onslaughts only to find his partner still incapacitated, so the longer he needs to go it alone the less you believe he has a chance. Then Rusher goes down in a blaze of glory by first tripping Hansen as he hits the ropes (straight after a double powerbomb, which means Baba doesn't need to kick out of a death move immediately), then getting beheaded as he finally crawls back up onto the apron. When Baba ducks the lariat and Hansen goes hurtling to the floor the people think he might actually have a by god chance at doing the impossible and the nearfall off the powerbomb reversal is biblical.
What a match. Selling, timing, NARRATIVE~, offence, heat, workrate, whatever the fuck else -- it ticked all the boxes.
EDIT: I went and read elliot's long review of this and while I knew we were on the same page in a "this match is amazing sense," there was so much stuff he highlights in that review where I'm reading it going "YES, that fucking DID rule!" Tenryu cutting off Rusher's headbutt attempt and how he'd generally run face first into strikes being the two main points he made that I would very much agree with.
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Post by elliott on Jun 10, 2023 21:38:30 GMT -5
@musgrave, I know you're going through stuff chronologically right now & it seems you missed this one
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