anarchistxx

What a seedy match. Dimly lit, dirty arena, rabid crowd, gallons of blood, tinny sound, you've got to love it. I wouldn't put it up there as a real classic, it reminds me of a more athletic Slaughter/Sheik boot camp match. There's a bit too much repetition, what with the suicide dives and MS-1 in general. Otherwise, it's really good, from someone who knows little about the era or the wrestlers. ***3/4

Have to agree with Loss here. Without the first two falls the third fall just wouldn't work. From the constant outside interference against Sagrada you get the classic payoff of the dive near the end. The arm drags set up Sagrada's offence really well, and more than anything, the first two falls offer something to build on so when they finally start upping the ante even more and pulling out the bigger moves and dives, it means a lot more. I preferred the first two falls to be honest.

Three matches in and this is already one of the best comps of all time. It’s arguably the greatest US wrestler ever against arguably the greatest Puro wrestler of all time, and both at their peak, so you can’t get a better expectation level than that. Happily, this lives up to it, and is exactly the quality you’d expect. Speaking of quality, the VQ here is tremendous, probably the best looking in terms of picture of any 80’s match I’ve seen; if Jumbo didn’t look so young I’d place it at around 91/92. Anyway, this didn’t drag at all, and as an interesting point to the thread in the main section, the blood added tons to it, as it went from a technically great match, to violent and even hateful. You forget what a vicious motherfucker Jumbo really is; Flair is bleeding a gusher and he is just whaling in with wild shots. The peak of the hour if the five minutes after Flair gets bust, with him stumbling and swinging and trying desperately not to lose the fall which would end the match. The ending wasn’t as dramatic as it could have been; Flair locking the figure four to the time limit is a classic in these broadways, but the major drawback here is that he didn’t have a fall to his name, so he was fighting to stay in rather than to beat Jumbo. Once it became obvious Jumbo wasn’t coming back, it lost some excitement. Cool stuff scattered throughout, it’s pointless describing it all, let’s just say it’s a top draw wrestling match, and an absolute classic. Forgot to mention the classic moment of Jumbo rushing back in, covered in streamers, to fly off with a dropkick. I think I’d put it just below their respective matches with Kerry, which is ironic considering the stick he comes in for as a worker. ****1/2

One of those Lightning Kid/Jerry Lynn matches, haven't seen them in years. Or Yokota/Galactica 01/85, enough to get anyone into Joshi.

Yeah, at least one bag of coke has gone up his nose before they filmed this. Possibly several more, snorted off a girls chest no doubt. Absolutely bizarre.

Amazed how much I liked this, considering I never got into Lucha and was even less hot on minis. At first, I wished they had wrapped it up in two falls, as I was enjoying it much more as a sprint than an epic, but as the third fall pushed on, the brilliance shone through, and I honestly think if these two were bigger this would be seen as one of the classic matches. The speed and athleticism were immense, I was out of my fucking seat for the spot near the end where Espectrito dived onto his own corner man after the big save. Takes a while to get accustomed to stuff like a powerbomb a minute in followed by a hold...I can't see how anyone wouldn't consider this great though. ****1/2? Oh, and did I mention that some of the bumping was insane? Talk about dying for your job.

Man, this was a blast. Some general thoughts...It's amazing how little Austin changed his offence over the years, not just in what he did, but how he did it, if you watch the suplexes and clotheslines the body movements etc are exactly the same as in his later run. And he sure as hell still loves the clothesline, I wasn't sure if he was limited or was just building a story around it, either way Windham and Rhodes took it like chaps. Austin never had much luck with his ring attire, those are the shorts that time forgot. The first five minutes or so are a thing of beauty, the face team getting pure revenge, almost getting reversed, back on top, and delivering everything with anger and meaning. If you can make me believe you want to murder the whole family of your opponent within the first minute, and still have the crowd cheering for you wildly...well, openings don't get much better than this. The cool thing here is that everyone is on a decent level, definately no deadweight to carry, Windham looks as good as I've seen him. The ending was a bit abrupt, otherwise a great fucking starter for this set, first match I've sat down and watched in several months and it didn't disappoint. ****1/4?

There are no words enough to describe Rude's cheesy, sleazy smile. Needless to say, this is pure genius, it's like some low rent 80's pop video.

Judging by the way his self-written feuds have played out, Jericho would be incredible for TNA as a booker and a talent. He'll never do it though.

Is the Flair/Jumbo broadway available in good quality? I'm assuming it's on one of the AJPW Classics discs, but I've never actually seen it. Sounds like something that could pique my interest again.

To be fair, I haven't seen any of either guy for at least 18 months, but the only top class matches London has are 2/3 Falls v Dragon and the street fight with Michael Shane, and I'm not even sure how far they would hold up now, it's been so long since I watched them. I don't think I've ever seen Sydal have an actively bad match, and his match against Rave at Final Showdown is better than anything I've seen London involved in except the two matches I mentioned. Sydal is a much better sympathetic face, sells better and his execution is second to none. London can be pretty good, but he hasn't the personality or x factor to hold my attention. I don't think he ever had the potential of a big fanbase in WWE either, he isn;t as good looking as Sydal (women), his moves look less flashy (kids) and was never particularly 'cool', though to be fair on that count few wrestling characters are. I don't see what unique selling point he brings to the table, whereas I can clearly see that with Sydal.

Classic stuff, especially since from what I remember, Sydal is ten times the wrestler London ever was.

Which in turn is just another set up for Angle v former WWE star Foley.

Cena got tons of praise when he feuded with Undertaker in June 03, especially for his character work and aggression. The criticism's started when, a. His 'raps' became immature and cringe worthy, instead of edgy and aggressive b. He became face and won all the time I personally just find him really, really bland, both in what he does in the ring, his promos, his character. He's lost his edge that he had back in 2003.

On last nights Raw ending... It's still real to them, dammit!

To be honest, the two casual fans I know hate to watch Cena. They don't tune in to watch him lose...they don't actually want to see him at all. True, but he's only drawing as a face. I'd bet the majority of people who boo him didn't buy their tickets to see him lose. Obviously, there's no way of proving something like that either way, but just my opinion. And Hogan used them, Bret used them, Taker used them, all since 1985...there's no way anyone sees that as heelish anymore, or in the last twenty years for that matter.

People hate him, he's still booked as a face. He's not drawing as a 'heel' and a 'face', since there's never been any suggestion he's a bad guy. On the contrary, he's the whitest babyface in years. You are kidding? Since when are closed fists illegal in this day and age? WWE hasn't enforced this rule since forever.

Cena is a flat out babyface. There's nothing remotely heelish about him.

Just a squash, bascially, as I remember. It's from when the Radicalz got back together, Eddie gets about a minute of offence in with a chair and then gets killed. Might be wrong though, haven't seen it since I taped over it back in 2002 or something.

Not really about wrestling itself but...does anyone know what happened to the UKFF? I thought it was just down, but it seems like it's died.

Honestly can't remember. Haven't seen it for about three years, just remember loving it. Just checked...seems to be 04/21/83.

Complete oppsite for me, it's why I hate the match. Their one fall match was so much better.

Second I think. The McMahon's and Trips apparently gave Ric loads of help getting his confidence back, he ended up becoming good friends with HHH, and thus I imagine spent a fair bit of time with Michaels.

And Harley is by no means the only one. Watch the Dynamite/Sayama 2/3 Falls, and the no selling of the floor drivers is far worse than anything I've seen Harley do. In the 1/5/85 Yokota/Galactica there's another incident where Galactica takes a reverse piledriver on the floor and is back on offence a few seconds later.