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Graham Crackers

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Everything posted by Graham Crackers

  1. Graham Crackers
    I've don't remember hearing it on the Mid South set but I remember someone around here saying that on commentary during Kamala matches Joel Watts would try to get over the idea that Kamala's savage gimmick was all mind games because he was clearly uncomfortable with the gimmick's racial implications. I like Kamala and I like savage gimmicks. It may be campy but isn't wrestling kind of campy?
  2. Graham Crackers
    You get so used to Togo working heel that it's easy to forget how much he resembles Super Astro in both build and agility. His high flying is always impactful but there is a lot of grace as well and when he's involved in beating down babyfaces you don't really get to admire that. Delfin is a good smarmy heel too.
  3. Graham Crackers
    This is a match up of cult favorites and everyone lives up to those expectations. Is Sasuke going to get himself killed? This time it'll be blood loss. Is Pogo going to stab someone? Is the sky blue? Tarzan Goto is as awesome as you'd expect. He destroys Toi. The stuff with the ref building toward the hot tag had me laughing out loud but in a Michinoku Pro/FMW production I could definitely see a ref being a lot more vigilant about enforcing tags than stopping someone from being stabbed. If you don't like this you have no sense of fun.
  4. Graham Crackers
    If you are having a tag match with as much hate and interpromotional beef as this then it better be chaotic and it better be violent. This delivers on all of that and then some. Fujinami was pretty good in the 3/23 tag but Hashimoto really brings this to another level. This would probably be the first time he and Tenryu had squared off and you'd think they were born to beat the shit out of each other, Choshu/Tenryu never gets old, and Ishikawa is great as the outclassed tough guy who won't quit. There's not much more I can really add to the discussion of this match.
  5. Graham Crackers
    This was great. The mat wrestling was great and the intensity built in a logical way. Hase's big spots and appeals to the crowd fit in here really well and I'm a sucker for the little amateur stuff he busted out early on. The sequence with them fighting over positioning on the apron was great and really felt like it could go either way which made it a great transition. I usually think of Fujiwara as someone with great selling but I don't usually think of him as a big bumper but his bump to the floor looked good and the nasty looking uranages were really memorable. The version I saw was a fan cam. Is that the same version on the set?
  6. Graham Crackers
    I'm really surprised you guys left out the AAA 8/1 trios where Love Machine and Eddie Guerrero turn on Santo and Blue Panther joins the tecnicos. I figured that kind of big double turn would insure it had a place on the set. I know I pimped it in the DVDVR thread.
  7. Graham Crackers
    Here are two wrestlers working a simple match in front of a huge crowd and using their charisma to make it into a spectacle. I guess the explosions and barbed wire don't hurt either. Both guys have great looking offense and sell in a way that the crowd really eats up, from Onita eliciting sympathy to Funk's punch drunk stooging. The match takes a minute to get going but when it does they tease all of the barbed wire spots just like you expect them to. The intensity is out of control when the countdown starts and both guys seem desperate to survive. The only slights I have against it are that one weird bump Onita takes early on and the ring explosion isn't as good as the future FMW ring explosions. It's still better than the IWA-Japan ring explosion.
  8. Graham Crackers
    This match is definitely weaker than it's NJPW incarnation that occurs two months later but it's still a blast. The body of the match mainly revolves around limb selling (Tenryu's leg and Hashimoto's shoulder) but there are still plenty of potatoes for the sadists.
  9. Graham Crackers
    "This may be my favorite match they've had together. It has consistent limb selling like the WAR match. Hash attacks the leg again but switches focus early and instead goes after Tenryu's lariat arm. I appreciated that this had great limb selling but didn't focus on guys "working over" a limb and instead saw Hash targeting Tenryu's arm with submissions attempts like a shoot style match. The hate was there in spades too. There was one intense stare down that ended in one of Tenryu's most brutal flurries of chops to the throat and face sending Hashimoto to the corner. This even had some bomb throwing and big nearfalls towards the end that were sold perfectly." I wrote that when I first watched the match and now that I've watched it again I think it has a serious shot at being my MOTY (which is impressive in a year like 1993) and one of my favorite matches ever.
  10. Graham Crackers
    Vale has nothing on Malenko when this goes to the mat which adds this great striking and takedowns vs mat technique dynamic. Vale was really good at this point so whenever he was throwing strikes or using his strength it looked awesome.
  11. Graham Crackers
    Han always manages to make dominating an opponent really interesting. I always love that spot where Han grabs a wrist and drags someone around the ring and here it looked devastating. Naruse had some good desperate selling that made this seem really dramatic. I'm not very familiar with Naruse but here he looked like he would be good in a similar role to that of Kazuo Takahashi in PWFG.
  12. Graham Crackers
    This is like a really cool showcase of everything Volk Han. It's a decent length but Han dominates most of the way (with enough of Nagai to prevent this from being a complete squash). I love that hold where Han is stepping on Nagai's foot and bars his arm with Nagai's own leg.
  13. Graham Crackers
    Is this the best UWFi match ever? Sano is wrestling on the same level he was working at in 91 for PWFG and Anjoh is one of the best, if not the best worker in UWFi. Sano is one of the best at throwing in pro style offense into his shoot style matches and here is no exception where he goes for an great looking fisherman's suplex that doesn't feel out of place even though he can't really capitalize on it. The mat wrestling was intense and Anjoh dicking it up and complaining to the ref made it even better. The awesome finish is icing on the cake.
  14. Graham Crackers
    This is a lot like Ishikawa's match against Bart Vale except Kozlowski uses wrestling and big throws instead of striking and Kozlowski is a little closer to Ishikawa's level. The throws look incredible and Kozlowski's knowledge of "real" wrestling is put to fantastic use. This the only match of his that didn't seem like an exhibition. Kozlowski struggles for those takedowns and Ishikawa puts up a big fight.
  15. Graham Crackers
    If I was talking about what I like about watching Ishikawa in the 2000s I'd probably mention how good he is at coming back from taking punishment. I'd probably mention his tenacity when it came to working a hold. Modern Ishikawa is probably better known for his matches where he works even with his opponents but in 1993 he is an underdog against Bart Vale. Vale was really good at this point and when he's on offense it looks brutal but Ishikawa is the real story here. He's taking shots and making comebacks like I would expect him to nowadays and while it takes him some time to obtain an advantageous position he uses that tenacity to hold on. One of my favorite PWFG matches.
  16. Graham Crackers
    Fujiwara stepped out of the spotlight for the majority of his time in PWFG but by the time 1993 came along he had lost a number of his students when they left to form Pancrase. Joe Malenko was already well established in the company's hierarchy at this point but in 1993 he was looking like a star attraction (at least from where I'm standing). In a lot of ways this match showcases Malenko's position in the company and allows him to demonstrate just how incredible his mat assault could be. Of course Fujiwara is no slouch and there is some incredible struggle in here but Malenko still feels like the aggressor. If you love high end mat wrestling there is a lot to love here and a lot of detail to observe.
  17. Graham Crackers
    That's awesome news.
  18. Graham Crackers
    I didn't realize people disliked Choshu's drawn out application of the Scorpion Death Lock. It creates an impression that he is always trying to win a match rather than wasting time, even if it really is filler.
  19. Graham Crackers
    I love all the photos of her collection of masks and hairs in that Lourdes Grobet book and I always think of this quote from her interview when I watch wrestling: "We go to the matches because we like to see Christians killing each other."
  20. Graham Crackers
    If my memory is correct, after the match both Dandy and Casas challenge Santo to apuestas matches. The real goal for both of them was taking Santo's mask and the triangle match is worked like that. In the triangle section of their lucha de apuestas Dandy and Casas double team Santo early and eliminate him, ensuring that he will have to defend his mask. Then it comes down to Casas and Dandy with the loser having to defend his hair and the winner being immune. That section is heated but mostly clean.
  21. Graham Crackers
    Thanks a ton for this. On the topic of the wrestler's strike, there is a lot of information about it in the later pages of this old DVDVR thread: http://board.deathvalleydriver.com/index.php?showtopic=26950
  22. Graham Crackers
    Jumbo & Tiger Mask vs Tenryu & Fuyuki, 1/14/90 Is this the best Tenryu match of the year? I haven't watched enough SWS to be sure but I can say that this is pretty awesome and definitely in the upper tier of AJPW tags from that year. Tenryu and Jumbo take turns beating up each other's lower ranked partners and boy, Tenryu really beats the fuck out of Misawa. Misawa and Fuyuki work pretty even and only ever dominate each other when capitalizing on what their partners have done like when Fuyuki continues the beatdown that Tenryu started or when Misawa capitalized on the damage to the leg that Jumbo has done. It's a great structure and it builds to some great moments like when Misawa knocks Tenryu to the floor and hits him with some baseball slides. All that really does is piss Tenryu off more and he takes it out on everyone. The finish is nice as well and features the kind of post match drama that you don't expect from AJPW. Tenryu & Kawada vs Jumbo & Isao Takagi, 1/20/90 Whoa, something was really pissing Tenryu off in January of 1990. I had already seen his singles match with Takagi and he beats hum just as bad here but what's even crazier is when Tenryu starts to fight with random people at ringside like Masa Fuchi. The ring crew has had it with Tenryu before the match is over and so they all gang up on him while Kawada takes the losing pinfall in the ring. When Tenryu escapes the dogpile he's been busted open and then Jumbo starts brawling with him. Awesome. The Kawada/Takagi section in the middle kind of dragged for me but the surliness more than makes up for that.
  23. Graham Crackers
    I think Apter has a regular column these days for one of the British magazines. Probably "Fighting Spirit" but I can't remember off the top of my head.
  24. Graham Crackers
    I've got to agree with you on Santo's AAA period. I've been watching goodhelmet's Hijo Del Santo comp and those AAA discs were a chore to get through. I think the only highlights of that period were the 8/1/93 trios where Gringos Locos turn on Santo, the 3/16/95 trios, and the Triplemania III atomicos. Lots of heavily pimped matches like the 11/93 tag were really disappointing. It's amazing how refreshing his return to CMLL was. I know you're not as crazy about Santo's rudo period as others and I think you're criticisms of how he acted like a rudo are spot on but it's amazing just how much better his work was compared to 93-95. The Casas vs Dandy vs Santo hair match is probably Santo's best rudo performance and easily outshines anything he did in AAA.
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