Jump to content
Pro Wrestling Only

Graham Crackers

Members
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    699

  • Joined

  • Last visited

 Content Type 

Everything posted by Graham Crackers

  1. Graham Crackers
    I like FMW, I like ECW, I like violence and weapons and blood. I've never been able to get into Big Japan. All of the 2000s BJW I watched was disappointing and this is no different. It had some really exciting moments but it also had lots of the worst aspects of ECW. I'm talking about crowd brawling that is built on walking around holding the back of your opponent's neck and convoluted setups. I did like these matches from the early 2000s more than the later BJW matches that were nominated and I wonder if I might like 90s BJW more.
  2. Graham Crackers
    That's actually one of my favorite Misawa performances. I can't think of many matches after his first title reign where he looked that vulnerable. He was even moaning in pain like he was Ric Flair.
  3. Graham Crackers
    I'd prefer some sort of extension but I could probably have it done by August if I rushed a few things.
  4. Graham Crackers
    Nope, this is what came after that feud. NOW vs NEW had old UWF guys and NJPW guys teaming up. Other than Mutoh helping the old guys this was focused on young guys against the established older generation.
  5. Graham Crackers
    PWInsider is reporting that KENTA will be leaving NOAH and is making his last appearance for them on 5/17. Lots of folks seem to think it's a WWE deal.
  6. Graham Crackers
    Ware is an awesome squash match worker. I remember there being one squash of his in the extras of the Memphis set where he just brutalized this masked jobber before dropping him with a Brainbuster, much like you described. It felt like one of those Jushin Liger vs low ranked junior squashes.
  7. Graham Crackers
    Man, I still love this but it's not the MOTDC I originally thought it was. I wouldn't rank it as high as the very best NOAH singles matches, the NJPW vs NOAH jr tags, or the best heavyweight trios but I think it could still be a top 10 NOAH MOTD. It always surprises me how much people dislike Saito. I think most of his offense looks pretty stiff. His look is totally lame but in a goofy charming pro wrestling kind of way. If anybody's offense in here bothered me it was Ogawa. I'm usually a big Ogawa defender but I felt like his punches looked weaker than against Kobashi and his thigh slapping kicks were a bit more distracting here than usual. The story is obviously what really hooks me here. I love to see Inoue in over his head. He's the best lovable loser in pro wrestling history. Inoue's offense works because of the way that the hierarchies work. If Inoue does it and it looks weak nobody sells it.
  8. Graham Crackers
    I like Flair vs Vader but I like so many other Vader matches so much more.
  9. Graham Crackers
    This and the 4/7 version of this match are among my favorite matches from NJPW and NOAH respectively. I could easily see both in my overall top 20 so you aren't alone.
  10. Graham Crackers
    8/25/2007
  11. Graham Crackers
    As I said last night this was a great show because of the good matches and booking but the lack of great matches still keeps it behind WM 23 & 24 for me. The big surprise for me is how excited I am about the current creative direction. I haven't been this excited about what will come after Wrestlemania since Wrestlemania 23. I may even watch Raw live for the first time in about five years.
  12. Graham Crackers
    I liked that Undertaker quietly stumbled up the ramp after the match. The loss and that image humanized him. He looked pretty bad last night and I have zero interest in seeing him wrestle again.
  13. Graham Crackers
    Yeah, this was a great show and the triple threat was really fun. It had the right amount of bullshit and Bryan got revenge on everyone that wronged him in the last year.
  14. Graham Crackers
    The Rey vs Cesaro stuff was cool. They need to have a singles match.
  15. Graham Crackers
    Mr. T's speech is the funniest thing WWE has ever broadcast.
  16. Graham Crackers
    I make (very) rough MOTY lists for each year. Other than the top and the bottom matches those rankings usually get moved around pretty extensively when I combine those lists into one. When the lists are combined I divide it into tiers kind of like what Log was saying before I go over the list and move things around.
  17. Graham Crackers
    This is probably the most brutal match I've seen live. Finlay could still get rough in WWE but there was definitely more restraint than this and in the WWE there weren't many opponents who could withstand this kind of beating. It all starts with Sami running headfirst into a nasty forearm and continued in that vein. Finlay threw forearms, stomps, kicks, and an uppercut to Sami's throat. I love Finlay's headbutts here. Sami tries to return the favor but that was unwise. Sami does eventually make a little space with some really nasty chops and a backdrop but Finlay dominates the rest of the time. Sami also nearly decapitates himself on a missed tope. Fucking awesome. It definitely held up on tape and is my US MOTY. It's just as gritty and violent as I remembered plus there's a better vantage point to see Sami's knees getting picked apart than we had in person.
  18. Graham Crackers
    This is the most invested I've been in a new wrestling match since Blue Panther lost his mask. The combination of a great angle and the Chicago crowd lead to some amazing heat and that could have elevated a weak match but these two are charismatic enough to let the crowd responses fuel their work. They put together a slow building title match that rewards all of the rising action. I thought some of the early grappling looked good for the most part and was a thousand time better than the weak chain wrestling in the Cena vs Michaels matches. Cena is someone who I want to see taken to the mat more often. Not all of the execution was great but I never felt like my suspension of disbelief was being challenged. The selling and the timing that both wrestlers brought was great and made up for any flaw in the execution. Punk getting suplexed off the apron was the kind of cool bump you don't see much in WWE anymore and added to the match. The nearfalls were great and both men having over submission holds allowed them to get more out of the stretch run.
  19. Graham Crackers
    I can't say I feel robbed. This was a great match but damn it, this isn't where I wanted to see it. I've been hoping we would get a PPV main event between these two for a long time. Rey busted out some spots he hasn't used in a long time like the split legged moonsault looking thing and the corner somersault plancha. He has great leg kicks and they factored into an awesome story. Cena sold the leg really well and pulled off some awesome power spots. The finish and the opening of the match hit all of the right notes but with a little more time in the middle this could have been the MOTY. Without that, it's still close but ultimately won't beat something like Finlay/Callihan, Punk/Cena, or Panther/Casas.
  20. Graham Crackers
    I've been waiting for this to show up. The brawling in the first fall is superb. Flash submissions in shoot style are something I really like in that style so seeing Panther beat down for the whole first fall only to take the fall with the Fujiwara arm bar is sure to make me jump out of my seat. Casas' arm being hurt by the armbar made the perfect opening for Panther to take control. Casas' selling is great because he has some of the best facial expressions this side of Fujiwara but Panther's no slouch either, especially in selling the attack on his leg. There was even a really well done finisher exchange in the final fall so I got to see a Nudo Lagunero but the finish brought everything back to the limb work from earlier in the match.
  21. Graham Crackers
    Jamie Dundee is so awesome in this. He looks like the best wrestler in a match that has Lawler and Dundee in it. I don't know if I have higher praise than that. He's awesome telling Lawler that he doesn't care about Michael Cole and the WWF. He's awesome bumping like a lunatic for a chinbreaker. He's awesome on the apron and taunting fans on the outside. Brian's FIP is great and a hot tag that involves Lawler's strap coming down is always going to be satisfying. That school boy lasted a long time but that's minor compared to all of the excellent schtick that will always make matches like this work.
  22. Graham Crackers
    Wrote this on WKO in Battlarts RIP thread: I think the perfect way for me to kick off watching stuff for this project is by watching the match that first introduced me to this style all over again. It's as great as I remember and I could see it being the best Battlarts match ever (not that I wouldn't love to find something better). Usuda is probably the fourth best guy here but I forgot how great he looked. I didn't get too into Usuda until his '09 run and the foundations for that are here. This kind of big tag also does a good job of hiding some of the flaws in Tiger and Sawa's games. Ishikawa hitting the enziguiri on Ikeda's nose is one of my favorite moments. Otsuka applying the no hands scorpion on Tiger while catching Usuda in an ankle lock is up there as well. Usuda running back to his corner after he breaks free cracks me up every time. This was visceral and ugly and seeing it the first time was like the first time I saw Funk vs Sabu. Only better. It changed the way I understood mat wrestling. At the time I considered Blue Panther losing his mask to be the MOTY as it was something I was invested in after following CMLL regularly for a while but looking back it doesn't quite hold up to a match like this that defines an entire style for me.
  23. Graham Crackers
    Whoa, how have I never actually seen this match before? Misawa worked as hard as I've ever seen him work to put Akiyama over. At this point I assume that anyone who comes on this site and reads this is aware of Misawa and the stoicism with which he carries himself. Something I love about that stone wall he hides behind is how what little emotion he does show seems that much more important. I'm not sure I've ever seen Misawa this vulnerable anytime after his main event push, not even against Vader. From the point that Akiyama's attack on the neck intensifies on Misawa appears to be in absolute misery. I love when Misawa acts like he's not hurt but you can kind of tell he is (or is supposed to be) but here it feels like he's fighting through the worst pain of his life. He actually vocalizes his pain like he's Ric Flair or something. Akiyama is totally focused and makes you believe that this is the most important match he's ever been in. Up until this point I had been going back and forth between whether or not Hansen/Kea vs Kawada/Tenryu or Kawada vs Hashimoto was the best AJPW match of the decade but I think this might actually trump both of those. I may even like it more than any NOAH match I've ever seen. We'll see if that changes as I wrap up my NOAH watching and this match settles in. Is this the MOTD though? No, probably not though it's not too far off.
  24. Graham Crackers
    So I'd seen the heavily pimped Tamura vs Ito match before and it's a pretty awesome hard fought war with an interesting hierarchical angle. In many ways it felt like a shoot style Misawa vs Kawada match. It's a bout between rivals within the same generation of fighters, one of whom is a cool, calm, and collected ace and the other is a more emotional challenger. I'm a fan of Tamura from his best RINGS matches but he is out of this world as a shoot style ace at this point in his career. When he gets caught in holds he subtly sells pain while also remaining focused and actively looking out for his opponent's unprotected limbs or the nearest rope break if needed. I love the tense jockeying for position in the early going but this really escalates after the first rope break. Tamura coming back from that rope break with the high kick and Kohsaka's selling of it are incredible visuals. Despite a few cool moments during stand up this was mainly a grappling match and it was as spectacular as almost any grappling match I've seen from this time period. I'm not sure if I'm overrating this because I decided to watch this after I got bored with NOAH matches so we'll see if that impression sticks.
  25. Graham Crackers
    I'd seen clips of this before and I was pleasantly surprised this lived up to the promise of those clips. I like Akiyama against lower ranking opponents and this is one of the best of those matches because Akiyama seems more pissed off than usual after Shibata busts him open with a kick. This has more of a fight atmosphere than most of Akiyama's matches against similar opponents.
×
×
  • Create New...