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Loss

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  1. Loss
    Didn't even get *** in the WON, and I have never heard a single person talk it up as a good match. The finish was here because it was an important match, and we understood the value of it. If we could do it all over again, I'd put this on in full and completely toss the Doc/Eagle vs Misawa/Akiyama tag everyone pushed for in its place.
  2. Loss
    Pretty great spectacle. Got really sloppy toward the end, but the atmosphere is enough to overcome that. The Onita/Tenryu teases of a lockup early on are done really well, and you can tell these fans are clamoring to see these two go at it. Hara and Goto were both terrific. This is a headbutt centric match, but they also work really stiff. I enjoyed this quite a bit and can see why it got the accolades that it did.
  3. Loss
    This has a reputation, and I thought it had its moments, but I didn't really love it. Lots of time killing where it seemed like nothing of any consequence was happening, and there was no real coherent narrative from the beginning of this to the end. For guys hitting exciting spots cleanly, this was good, but nothing special. Ultimo is a great highspot guy, but he doesn't really work holds very well. I sound like Dave Meltzer, but 20+ minutes with large chunks of it lying around on the mat isn't really what people want to see from these guys. Sasuke blew the Space Flying Tiger Drop pretty badly by being out of position, which just killed the heat that they were starting to build, which is a shame. They get the crowd back and the last few minutes of this has some great moments, but this would have come across better with about 10 minutes shaved off.
  4. Loss

    Matches of the month

    Loss replied to Loss's topic in 1994

    February: #1 - El Dandy vs Javier Llanes (CMLL 02/22/94) ****1/2 #2 - Jushin Liger vs Shinya Hashimoto (NJPW 02/24/94) ****1/2 #3 - Arn Anderson vs Steven Regal (WCW SuperBrawl IV 02/20/94) ****1/4 #4 - Genichiro Tenryu vs Shinya Hashimoto (NJPW 02/17/94) ****1/4 #5 - Great Sasuke, Sato & Shiryu vs Super Delphin, Jinsei Shinzaki & Gran Naniwa (Michinoku Pro 02/04/94) ****1/4 #6 - Terry Funk vs Sabu (WWN 02/28/94) **** #7 - Manami Toyota & Toshiyo Yamada vs Aja Kong & Sakie Hasegawa (AJW 02/27/94) ***1/2 #8 - Kenta Kobashi & Satoru Asako vs Toshiaki Kawada & Takao Omori (AJPW 02/17/94) ***1/4 #9 - Chris Candido vs Tracy Smothers (SMW Sunday Bloody Sunday 02/13/94) ***1/4 #10 - Vader vs Ricky Steamboat (WCW Saturday Night 02/26/94) *** #11 - Rock & Roll Express & Bobby Blaze vs Heavenly Bodies & Killer Kyle (SMW TV 02/26/94) #12 - El Hijo del Santo vs Psicosis (AAA 02/16/94) #13 - Mitsuharu Misawa & Jun Akiyama vs Steve Williams & The Eagle (AJPW 02/19/94) #14 - Sting, Dustin Rhodes & Brian Pillman vs Rick Rude, Steve Austin & Paul Orndorff (WCW SuperBrawl IV 02/20/94) #15 - Jushin Liger & Power Warrior vs Rick & Scott Steiner (NJPW 02/17/94) #16 - El Hijo del Santo & Angel Azteca vs Psicosis & Fuerza Guerrera (AAA 02/13/94) #17 - Rock & Roll Express vs Heavenly Bodies (SMW TV 02/05/94) #18 - Dirty White Boy vs Brian Lee (SMW Sunday Bloody Sunday 02/13/94) #19 - Bret Hart vs Tom Pritchard (WWF Monday Night RAW 02/21/94) 38 complete matches on this yearbook in two months, and the top two matches of the year to date both took place in February. I'm surprised at how well-booked WCW was at this stage. Lots of matches I wouldn't even call good in February, but there's something to like in each of them.
  5. Loss
    I liked this WAY more than I expected. There was a real intensity to the match, something more violent and dangerous-seeming than arbitrary table breaking. Of course there is table breaking, but it's set up so naturally and enhances the match instead of acting as the centerpiece of it. The central focus is on the mayhem and unpredictability. This was in the tradition of Abdullah, the Sheik and Kevin Sullivan. One of Sabu's best matches, and one of the best matches from Terry Funk's second career too. Give Paul E. credit for taking a piledriver on the floor!
  6. Loss
    Stan Lane tries to interview Shawn in his locker room, but he was naked except for a towel, so he asked for a minute to get ready. I am humored by Shawn sitting there cutting a promo wearing nothing. This is edited really weirdly. Watch and you'll see what I mean.
  7. Loss
    I've about had enough of the Manami Toyota two-out-of-three-falls tag. Some of the matches are great and among my favorites ever, while some are anything but. Still, eventually, they start running together, and you start to think they've done just about everything they can in this format. The good news is that 1994 should be the last yearbook with a lot of these. This is a good match, but it's difficult for me to care, and it doesn't feel like it's breaking any new ground. The good stuff has been done better in better matches, while the annoying parts are as annoying as ever. I do like Kong in this "sprinty" style and Hasegawa continues to impress, though. I like Toshiyo Yamada just fine, but she seems exposed here as someone who doesn't have a ton of stuff in her arsenal. She repeats herself a few times. We also get Japanese commercials for Mrs. Doubtfire, the Janet Jackson world tour and the upcoming Queendom card, among other things, mid-match!
  8. Loss
    About as heated and good as a sub-10 minute TV match can be. Steamboat brutalizes Vader with a chair. Sometimes, Race interferes in Vader matches to a point where it's overkill and this is definitely one of those matches.
  9. Loss
    Fun, 10-minute TV match sees the Ricky Morton get BUSTED WIDE OPEN in the post-match. Cornette gets in some shots on Morton, and it looks like this is the beginning of the slow build to the FINAL CONFLICT between Cornette and the Rock & Rolls.
  10. Loss
    Mama Cornette has offered Dick Murdoch a lot of money to come back to SMW. For once, it wasn't Bush or Reagan on the line! Bob Armstrong should look in his car, his closet and his house to make sure Murdoch isn't there waiting to ambush him.
  11. Loss
    The Thrillseekers are in the woods to intro this video for some reason. This is priceless. Jericho and Storm play bumper cars, feed bears (and later, Storm feeds Jericho in the same way), bungee jump, ice skate, ride horses and participate in other wholesome activities while Danger Danger's "Rock America" plays. I love that this exists.
  12. Loss
    Shawn is so current with his Dwayne Wayne sunglasses! Even in 1994, I'm pretty sure those weren't in style anymore. I'm not really a fan of Shawn promos during this time period at all, but this gets the job done. He has a ladder with him in the ring, sits on top of it and sets up the WM match nicely.
  13. Loss
    This was an amazing match. It's not the best match of 1994 so far, but it is close, and it is probably my favorite match so far. Liger took pretty much exactly the amount of offense he should have, and Hashimoto did a ton to put him over, including taking a huracanrana while sitting on the top rope and eating a Liger bomb! The execution of both of those spots was also so well done because it wasn't hit as clean as Liger normally hits it, to show how much of a struggle it was to do those moves. I love when Liger tries to apply all of his signature spots to Hashimoto and can't do some of them because of the size difference. I also love how they both sold exactly as much as they should have. Hash's offense was much more powerful than Liger's because of the size difference, and Liger figured this out and tried to counter by hitting him three times as much. The crowd screaming in support for Liger when he's trying to lift Hashimoto in the surfboard is pretty fantastic too. Phenomenal stuff.
  14. Loss
    The grittier younger sibling of the '92 El Dandy vs Negro Casas match. If Dandy/Casas was smoother in execution -- and even if it was, the gap isn't huge -- this was more of a competitive fight. I love how there was a battle for pretty much every hold. The way the match is worked, the holds have a huge impact on the momentum of the match and are mostly inescapable, which is why each guy fights so much to both stay out of and apply holds. Nothing came easy. Dandy applies what is probably the most snug headscissors in wrestling history. Each fall has a perfect finish. A classic match -- one of the best I have ever seen. The shenanigans with the finish were NOT welcome and cheapened the match a little, which is a shame, as it is pretty flawless outside of that bit of needless booking. This is deserving of a more in-depth review than I am able to give it at the moment, but this is a beautiful mat clinic. My working MOTY.
  15. Loss
    Goodhelmet liked it.
  16. Loss
    This was okay. My personal highlight: Savage: "Nice suit, Nikolai. It looks like one of yours, Vince." Vince: "Thank you very much." Savage: "Some people you just can't knock these days. Sarcasm goes right over their HEEEEEEYAD."
  17. Loss
    Last few minutes. The Boss tries to handcuff Harley Race to keep him from interfering, but it backfires and he ends up being the one handcuffed, which opens the door for Race to come in. Arn and Steamboat come down to try to even the sides, but Flair has to fight this battle alone, as they can't get in. Terrible finish. Too much booking and not enough Flair/Vader.
  18. Loss
    This should have been tornado rules and had everyone wearing street clothes and using weapons. Enforcing rules with these six in a cage match limited them more than it helped them. The cage was also way too big to be as much of a factor in the match as you'd like it to be. Austin seemed to be the only one who was really trying to work it into the match. Even with the cage there, this should have felt more special - like more than a decent free TV match. Yes, there was some juicing so there's that, but I wish they hadn't been so limited by the format. Not enough brawling.
  19. Loss
    I will admit that even though Phil and goodhelmet have talked this up recently, I was a little skeptical, I think because I was expecting a meandering match with some decent matwork and no real build or flow. That turned out not to be the case at all, and my skepticism was unfounded. This has clear beginning, middle and end archs that keep it progressing and moving along, clear and focused strategies from each guy and near-constant moving around and switching of holds. Jim Ross recently spoke at CAC about the difference between grabbing a hold and applying a hold, and I think this provides a nice example of that. They aren't sitting in one place for too long at any point -- Arn is scrambling to counter everything Regal applies, and Regal is doing the same. I enjoyed this far more than I expected, and the pinfall in the last 10 seconds was excellent too. Check out the heat Arn gets for finally going after the leg. It has a big bullseye on it because Regal has it taped up, but Arn keeps focused on Regal's arm for the first two-thirds of the match. Finally, 20 minutes in, he realizes Regal still has too much in reserve and switches strategies in an attempt to bring home the gold. The crowd comes unglued, showing the value in making people wait to see the moment they're clamoring for. It was interesting to watch this so close to Tenryu/Hashimoto, because I kept thinking while this was a great WCW undercard match, this could have headlined a New Japan show and sent everyone home happy. I'm not surprised that it hasn't gotten more love considering the style on display and what people tend to like. Usually your pimped Regal matches are the ones with stiff shots fired back and forth the whole time. That is fun too, but this is different. In the U.S., it's a throwback 1970s-style match and would make a good case study/counterpoint for anyone who argued that you couldn't re-educate fans to the importance of wrestling holds in 1994, and in Japan, it could be viewed as contemporary. This is something that deserves a revisit.
  20. Loss
    Another outstanding Ric Flair promo. Everyone who clamored for Flair to have a final run on top for years after this and how great it would be couldn't hope for more than the first half of 1994 delivered.
  21. Loss
    In a just world, Flair/Vader would have drawn tons of money since it was such a great feud. Vader's interview before the workout is great and he makes mincemeat of three jobbers, one of whom takes a horrifying bump from the ring to the Center Stage floor. Just a tremendous piece of business.
  22. Loss
    "Hello, and welcome to Down and Dirty with Dutch. I am John Bobbitt, and WHAT ARE YOU DOING WITH THAT KNIFE?" The Thrillseekers officially sign a contract to wrestle for SMW in a press conference setup. They didn't do a Q & A, but we know how annoyed Lance Storm always seems by those. Jericho is thrilled by how nice the REFEREES and everyone have been to them so far, and they're looking forward to proving themselves against the top teams. Massive hype coming.
  23. Loss

    Quotable 1994

    Loss replied to Loss's topic in 1994

    "Hello, and welcome to Down and Dirty with Dutch. I am John Bobbitt, and WHAT ARE YOU DOING WITH THAT KNIFE?" -- Dutch Mantell, SMW TV 02/19/94
  24. Loss
    1994 All Japan hasn't really been much better than "good" so far. I anxiously await the Carnival where I am hoping things will pick up. Yes, Doc gives a good performance, but it didn't really stand out to me in a huge way. Maybe watching '93 then '94 would make it resonate more. This match felt like the setup of a Misawa/Doc match, but it didn't really seem like something that is essential viewing on its own. I'm a little surprised that so many people felt it needed to be here.
  25. Loss
    It puts in perspective how good Kawada and Kobashi are when you see the difference in how Omori and Asako work from how they work. My early thoughts were that I wasn't sure why this was something that anyone thought was yearbook-worthy, but by the end, I understood. In addition to being a really good match, it really highlights the disparity in talent. That's not even so much an insult to Omori and Asako. It's more a compliment to Kawada and Kobashi. Uneven match, but an interesting one to watch. They're also not really dropping tons of highspots or bombs, but the pacing makes it seem like they are killing it. Pretty cool.
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