Phil Schneider

Not 1989 Flair?

Steph was definitely the MVP of the match, she might have been the MVP of the whole weekend.

I went and reviewed a couple of matches from Wrestlecon and the Lee vs. Ohno HH http://segundacaida.blogspot.com/2018/04/wrestlemania-weekend-thursday.html

Great match and fitting swan song for Sabre's EVOLVE title reign (and his run in EVOLVE overall). Match was set up as Riddle's strikes and throws against Sabre's submissions and we got great versions of both. I loved Sabre torturing Riddle's feet and he was just twisting him up in some really inventive pretzels, Riddle's body is taking a beating this weekend, I can't imagine his knee felt good the way Sabre was twisting it. Sabre also took some pretty big shots to the jaw, Riddle's go to sleeps felt especially reckless. Loved the finish with Riddle attempting a twister, Sabre countering it into some sort of calf slicer, and Riddle able to re counter back into an arm trap twister for the tap. So much of the matwork was dominated by Riddle, it was nice to see the Ju Jitsu brown belt break out some tricks.

Eric jumped in and watched some of the intergender stuff http://segundacaida.blogspot.com/2018/04/wrestlemania-weekend-cherry-picking-lot.html

We reviewed Bloodsport over at Segunda Caida http://segundacaida.blogspot.com/2018/04/wrestlemania-weekend-thursday-matt.html Pretty much liked everything outside of Masada vs. Stone

This is another undiscovered Tony Halme masterpiece. I had no idea early 90s Tony Halme was such an awesome killing machine. This was a Karate vs. Boxing mixed match, and Aoyagi is great at these kind of hyrbid fights. First round had both guys working their opponents into corners, with Halme using his pulverizing body shots, and Aoyagi winging head and body kicks. Aoyagi takes over during the second round, really working over Halme's mid section with knees and kicks, Halme is great at selling fatigue and being winded as he is stumbling around the ring, however he is still able to drop Aoyagi with one body shot. Second round ends with a really cool back and forth exchange. Third round is what pushes this into EPIC territory. Aoyagi gets a quick knockdown with a spin kick, Halme barely beats the 10 count and Aoyagi flies at him to finish him off and leaps right into a huge right hand. Aoyagi beats the count, but a second monster right hand floors him for good. Great stuff, Halme doesn't have a lot of different songs to sing, but he sings the fuck out of this one song.

This was so good, Casas comes off a broken rib (which has to kill your endurance and effect your breathing) and works a just break neck paced match against some kid young enough to be his grandson. Nothing unusual about oldster luchadores having great matches, but how in the fuck does a 58 year old man work this kind of sprint, Casas looked like 22 year old Juventud Guerrera for shits sake. Aramis is obviously a little green, but I though he was pretty great in this, landing some awesome leglocks, which Casas would counter beautifully, he also breaks out a nutso tope, right into the stantion, and crushing Casas into the seats. Finish was super cool too, with Aramis making the fatal error of trying to Casita, Negro Casas and Casas rolling through and wrapping him up with a gorgeous Casita of his own. Absolutely loved every second of this.

Just a sleaze indy dream match. It is weird that this is New Japan and not main eventing a NOW or ZIPANG show. Aoyagi comes out jumps the rail, and spin kicks Kurisu right in the mouth, and it is fucking on! Aoyagi beats Kurisu around the ring a bit, and is really laying in to him, you know Kurisu is going to potato you, so you got to throw spuds at him. Kurisu fires back with those odd angle vicious headbutts, unprofessional stomps and chair shots where he digs the corner right into the throat, the whole Kurisu shebang. There is this great moment where Aoyagi blocks a headbutt with a karate forearm block and thrust Kurisu right in the throat. The match stays ragged and unprofessional throughout, lots of wince inducing shots and a DQ finish that has Kurisu violently chair shotting Aoyagi, the ref and multiple trainees. This is part of a batch of new NJ HH's unearthed by Pete over at PWO, this is what I was dreaming it was going to be like when I saw the match listing and it lived up to every second.

The treasure trove of NJ HH footage delivers us what seems to be a previously unearthed New Japan 10 man elimination match. The other Elimination matches finished very high on the NJ DVDVR 80s sets, and this might be a slight step below a MOTD level, it is still really awesome. This was worked at a super sprint pace which works well with all of these guys in this match, and with Choshu, Muto and Fujiwara we have some of the greatest sprint wrestlers ever. I actually really loved Takada in this, he was about as violent as I have seen him, he really kicks the shit out of Choshu and at one point mounts him and lays out some nasty ground and pound. I also love Sakaguchi as a big bruiser chucking people around, he kind of felt like a proto Akira Taue in this. Kind of an odd match structure as the Choshu team gets a four on one advantage on Fujiwara at the end. We get an awesome Stone Cold moment where the crowd in chanting for Fujiwara as he tries to fight everyone, but while he gets a near fall or two, it would have been cooler if he had gotten an elimination before going down. We did get a great Choshu lariat on the finish and Fujiwara sells a Choshu lariat better then anyone. Still that was a minor complaint for an otherwise awesome match. Had no idea this match existed until a week ago, and it was such a treat to have it show up.

This match came after a 4 hour show with one other averagish match, and some real stinkers, so it had to make the trip from DC worth it, and man did it deliver. They opened up with some leg work, but based the beginning of the match around a long knuckle lock where they threw a bunch of cool twists into a basic spot, including both guys showing crazy neck strength in bridges and Ki throwing elbows while keeping his fingers laced. Rey is totally nuts, I don't know how much he is charging for an indy date, but he made sure the promotion got it's money's worth. He does a Pete Rose slide to the floor splash, takes a couple of nutso bumps off misses 619's and lets Ki kicking him in the face. Ki maybe the 2015 wrestler of the year and he had three matches on tape, he works as Rey's base like he was 1996 Juventud and adds a bunch of his cool shit too. Ki is a JAPW original, and works simultaneously as a Rey Base and Fed Ace.

I have made an argument that this could be the greatest juniors feud in wrestling history, so it is pretty awesome to see these guys face off fifteen years later. This is worked very differently then their matches in the early 2000s, here Ki is working straight vicious heel, and is this is more like a Tenryu match then Rey Jr. vs. Psicosis. Ki seems to be trying really new things in his big singles matches, the awesome Callihan match had all of the crazy spots around Sami's broken jaw, and this match had a crazy kung-fu battle on a stage. The didn't open with the Wushu, they built to this really cool showdown on a stage which not only had their cool martial arts feints and counters, but also had Ki and Red having a weapons battle with a pair of sticks and a chair. I did think the Ki beatdown went a little long, and the ref stuff seemed a bit unnecessary (although Ki punching the chair into the ref's head was awesome), but this was a nifty spectacle and both guys are still really great.

It looks like Callihan was supposed to hit the chair and smash it into Edwards throat, but Edwards was moving the chair. I am pretty sure I have see Callihan do that spot before

Obviously the blown spot was bad, but he is a heel, of course he isnt going to act contrite and apologize on Twitter. I can just imagine bed wetter wining about Owen Harts I broke your neck T-Shirt too

Nifty discovery, basically a UWFI tag with Inoki and Fujiwara on opposite sides. This was 2/3 falls and mostly focused on Yamazaki v. Inoki, which is an odd on paper match up. We open with a long Fujiwara v. Inoki grappling section which was the highlight of the match for me, those two have such good charisma, and while Inoki isn't on Fujiwara's level he has the credibility to stay with him. Fujiwara tags in Yamazaki and he Inoki kid of bull rushes him for the pin. Second fall has some Takada v. Yamazaki stuff, which is well executed but not my thing, and they have another Inoki v. Yamazaki showdown which ends with a Yamazaki kick to the face and him pinning Inoki. During the break between rounds Hashimoto comes out and yells at Takada. I kept waiting for the third fall to kick it up a notch, but the second Inoki v. Fujiwara face off wasn't as cool as the first, and Inoki sits in a Fujiwara armbar a bit too long before reversing it into an Octopus for the win. Overall a nifty match which feels a bit out of time in 1995.

Demus deciding he wanted to leave CMLL to have filthy brawls in warehouses can't be good for his overall life, but it has made mine better. This is a nasty brawl with both guys spurting blood. It is falls count anywhere, while I don't remember any actual pin attempts there is a lot of brawling around this dirty floor with open cuts. There are some real grim visuals like Fuerza biting Demus's bloody head while try to close his nostrils and smother him. The lucha exchanges were a little clunky, which isn't surprising consider how old Fuerza is, but he wasn't afraid to fly into chairs and bleed a bunch. Sleazy lucha indy wrestling at it's best.

This is a HH from the LA Sports Arena and a stellar example of the beautiful music these two can play with each other. I loved the knuckle lock monkey flip spots, which they always pull of flawlessly. Santo does his awesome headscissors counters too, which are always great. We get Santo's beautiful tope which Negro takes right into the chairs. This felt like very much a Santo match, with Casas more in the role of rudo base, he is incredible at that role, but I like it when he is a bit more front and center. Match was really chugging along, but I am not sure the low blow finish really worked for me. It is classic rudoism, but didn't feel like it belonged to the same match I was watching, otherwise this was a really great example of their magic with each other.

Just a tremendous match, arguably the best Panther match I can remember, and right up there with Atlantis vs. VIII for Atlantis's career match. The stips of this match were a little strange it is the finals of a tournament where Panther need to win one fall, but Atlantis needed two straight falls. The match was worked mostly on the mat and is a true clinic. So many nifty adjustments by both guys. Atlantis wins the first fall with an awesome Fujiwara armbar takedown, when he goes for it in the segunda, Panther has multiple counters and blocks to keep him from executing it. There is another great spot where Atlantis applies an Octopus hold, Panther is able to free an arm, but Atlantis immediately locks on a kimura while keeping the Octopus. The fast sections of this were great too, Atlantis has some of the coolest armdrags in wresting history and Panther is a great base for them. Really exciting down the stretch too, with multiple holds and roll ups which I thought might end the match. Such a cool example of maestros wrestling and a great chance to see two legends at their best

Tremendous match. Modern day version of Fuchi v. Kikuchi with stellar performances from both guys. Out of this world stuff from Allin, he is a guy who made his rep for taking insane bumps, so it is pretty incredible he could pull off a main event match with basically no bumps at all. Not only did he not take some crazy spill, he basically took two flat back bumps all match. Allin comes out and tries to catch Sabre quickly with some lighting fast roll ups, but Sabre quickly takes control and starts torturing Allin. He was twisting his body in some vicious ways, manipulating elbows and wrist, I mean gross stuff. Allin is super flexible and a really charismatic seller, you totally buy the pain etched on his face, and the stubborn willingness to go farther then anyone should to get a win. I loved Sabre as a technician in this, he had awesome counters for both the coffin drop and last supper (Allin's Gibson leglock rollup), and I loved how that composure slipped as Allin refused to go down. We get a couple of really persuasive Allin near falls, and going into this match not knowing the results, I bit on the code red totally, and then the finish is gruesome with Sabre transitioning from submission hold to submission hold kicking a prone Allin in the head until the ref has to stop it. Great stuff, hell of a match for EVOLVE to start the year on.