Loss
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Everything posted by Loss
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Talk about it here.
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Jake made my list last time around, right between Inoki and Baba. There's a good chance he will this time, but not between Inoki and Baba. I feel like the body of work is actually there for a low-end case, it's just that it wasn't typically in pay-per-view main events where it's easier to remember.
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I think it makes sense to be most excited about Gallows, because he has the best chance of being used well.
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Hey everyone, remember when WCW had Ric Flair fake a heart attack on Nitro to draw a rating?
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Absolutely. There is a difference between a crowd predisposed to react to the personalities and a crowd that reacts because the workers are toying with ideas of what they want and using that to generate a specific, desired reaction. Sometimes, you get a crowd that reacts to the work in the ring *and* they are predisposed to react to the people involved. In most (but not all) cases, those are the matches we consider the classics.
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Consequence, weight and meaning are all important. At the same time, I think we can't allow our ideas of what good wrestling is to become religion.
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I feel like the end point of that sort of checklist approach to reviewing wrestling is that the Highest Honor we can bestow upon a match is remembering to sell the leg. Like regardless of the emotional impact of the work or the visceral excitement level, none of that can come close to remembering to sell the leg. Of course, match structure should have some value and it's something important to me as well, but placing it above its ability to connect on a broader level is a tone deaf way to critique wrestling.
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I'm with supremebve on this one. I'm also with Matt D on this one, with the caveat that I think you can call something "good" (rather than "effective") and still admit that you don't like it. There's nothing wrong with liking or not liking anything, but I also think it's important to separate arguments of good or bad from arguments of it worked for me vs it didn't work for me. It's a conflict that will always be present and I think it's okay that it's unresolved. I feel like the best wrestling writers capture that struggle more than they lean too much in either direction.
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Well, the whole idea of psychology in wrestling is to manipulate a reaction from an audience, so if they got the desired reaction, the match had psychology, assuming it was a reaction to the work in the ring and not just two guys living off their name entirely. But still, I see what you're saying -- perhaps it's a really cheap, unimaginative way to engross the people. I haven't watched this show yet (ran out of time yesterday and hope to see it today) but I'm going to try to go in with an open mind.
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Hey everyone, remember when they did Austin/Benoit on Raw from Calgary with Stu Hart at ringside and re-enacted the Montreal screwjob while Bruce Hart picked up his dad's hand and forced him to wave at the camera?
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Hey everyone, remember that time management knew that Bob Orton had hepatitis and kept it private, then he bled all over Undertaker?
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Hey everyone, remember that time they booked HHH vs Jim Ross on RAW so HHH could rough him up (and actually permanently injure his eye) as a receipt for lowballing him on a pay-per-view payoff a few years earlier? The story was that Ross was specifically told to stay low on the payoff and not budge with HHH, and then when HHH went to Vince, Vince said, "Oh, I can't believe he did this. We'll take care of it."
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You're leaving out the worst part of this. This was after Austin got in trouble for domestic abuse with Debra. It was also the same day the court order forbidding Austin from drinking alcohol was lifted. Everything was wrong with that.
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Reigns should win and remain champion, thus earning a title match against himself at Wrestlemania.
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They had to have opened their wallets for Styles in a big way in order for the jump to make sense for Styles.
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It's late and I don't have a ton to say about it, but I thought this was another great match on this show. I really liked the way this built like a world title match with the slow crescendo to the string of big moves and nearfalls at the end, and once again, it didn't seem bloated or anything. I know that's not a rave review, but I'm tired. -
[2015-01-04-NJPW-Wrestle Kingdom 9] Shinsuke Nakamura vs Kota Ibushi
Loss replied to Superstar Sleeze's topic in January 2015
I just rewatched this and Nakamura clicked with me a lot more this time around. I think the issue the first time was that I didn't understand his offense very well so it wasn't clear that he was actually going for a move instead of just having a spastic event. So yeah, I thought this was a classic, and I liked how they made use of Ibushi's tremendous athleticism to build a strong match. Not a lot of excess to be found here, as is the criticism I hear a lot of for New Japan in general. -
Was Tanahashi-Okada intended to be the final chapter of their feud?
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I noticed there was no thread. Has anyone watched the show yet? I plan to watch at least the high points of it at some point today.
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This is worked like a title match on fast forward and would have benefitted greatly from more time. Casas still looks great in 2015 and Titan is a worthy opponent, but it seemed like they were cramped for time and had to rush to get everything in. Now the work itself is excellent, but they go from zero to sixty way too quickly for my tastes. I don’t mean to bash it too much, as they really made good use of the time they had and built a full match, but it would have been even better with twice the time at half the speed. Setting aside the issue of time, Casas has great offense by any standard, but considering his age and time in wrestling, it’s extraordinary how well he moves around the ring. Someone needs to steal the vertical cross armbreaker over the top rope thing that Casas did too. ***3/4
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I’m used to seeing Maeda in more of an elder statesman role based on 90s watching, and Maeda-Takada tends to go long in their 1990 series. Many of the matches are great, no doubt, but seeing them do a 10-minute version of their match with Maeda more grounded in his actual heyday makes for a really nice contrast. It’s easy to see why this style got over as something new and different at the time. It’s really just a modernized version of 70s style matwork, but it feels fresh because of the dynamic personalities and the faster pace of the matwork. Not in the top handful of matches these two have had against each other, but maybe their most accessible match, and a nice addition to their series. ***1/2
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[1981-01-03-Portland] Buddy Rose vs Jay Youngblood (2/3 falls)
Loss replied to Loss's topic in January 1981
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I didn't realize until today that he was the New Jason The Terrible in IWA Japan. He might make my list just for being a Neoconfederate Italian horror film character turned Black Panther wannabe from Wyoming.
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Ask mookieghana about balloting. He's done that for DVDVR in the past with the 80s sets, and I think he used Excel.
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Jumbo Tsuruta | Great Kabuki | Isao Takagi vs Genichiro Tenryu | Toshiaki Kawada | Samson Fuyuki January 2, 1990 All Japan Pro Wrestling New Years Giant Series 7.5 Even if we concede that the Jumbo-Tenryu rivalry, which was nearing the three-year mark at this point, was getting old, there is no denying that the work in the ring is still excellent, whether it comes from Tenryu and Kabuki trading chops and uppercuts or Isao Takagi's inspired underdog babyface performance, capped off by a five-alarm blade job. The entire match builds to Takagi getting a close, believable nearfall on Tenryu. Regardless of Tenryu's imminent departure, perhaps it was a sign that the rivalry was running out of steam when coming out of this match, Tenryu programs with Kabuki and Takagi seemed more urgent than big Tenryu-Tsuruta match. Availability All Japan Pro Wrestling Special on NTV - Aired January 15, 1990