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Childs

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Everything posted by Childs

  1. Childs
    I guess I get why Savage felt he had to go NWO. But there was something intriguing about him hanging with Sting, and they never developed it. Savage became marginalized in the NWO, despite his inherent charisma.
  2. Childs
    No doubt that BattlArts lacked atmosphere all too often. But Otsuka was such a purely fun wrestler, the kind of guy who might try anything at anytime. And Ishikawa was already into his next-gen Fujiwara role, with all of his nasty little punches and his ability to hit a submission at any moment. So this was a pretty engaging 10 minutes.
  3. Childs
    Yeah, that suplex spot was nuts. I had no memory of this, but it was super fun, with Meng and Barbarian looking badass and the cruiserweight intrigue advancing.
  4. Childs
    Ozaki had more in the tank, but I wouldn't say Chigusa was along for the ride. She was certainly believable as a sadistic hoss. It still felt like a big deal when Ozaki beat her. Ozaki always brought a ton of passion and expressiveness to the table. She's definitely one of my three or four favorite joshi wrestlers of the decade. I enjoyed this.
  5. Childs
    I had always found this a bit underwhelming in the past but liked it a lot on this viewing. It took them awhile to get going because of all the shenanigans with the seconds. Once they did, the technical display was as smooth and impressive as you'd expect from these guys. I liked the way Santo ramped up the physicality when he needed to seize the advantage and the fight Rey showed to avoid the camel clutch. I was surprised how heavily the crowd favored Santo down the stretch. In the end, probably just a notch below a lucha MOTYC.
  6. Childs
    I agree that this was more effective than great. They kept everything moving and got everyone where they needed to be in storyline. But the match didn't build to many great moments on its own terms. Vader rightly gets credit as the performer of the night. Not only did he work through that gnarly cut, which added a tone of seriousness to the match. He took most of the biggest bumps despite outweighing everyone else by at least 100 pounds.
  7. Childs
    Excellent arm attack by Yamazaki and selling by Hashimoto. I loved the moment when Hash said fuck it and just wailed on Yamazaki with five chops from the devastated limb. That would've come off poorly from most wrestlers, but he had laid the groundwork with his selling and was so good at working with emotion. Just a classic Hash moment. This was sort of the perfect New Japan counterpoint to Misawa-Kobashi.
  8. Childs
    Never loved the pairing, but this was an excellent match. Kanemoto almost tried to punk Liger in the early going, acting cocky and swarming him with kicks whenever he tried to get up. I didn't think Liger was overly giving. Kanemoto had been a major rival for two years, and Liger had looked ready to go down only a week earlier against Koji's tag partner. This match was a cool demonstration of how Liger had come to use the palm strike as Misawa did the elbow. It was not only a potential finisher but his go-to when he needed to reset the action. In the end, Liger put Kanemoto away pretty decisively and looked great doing it.
  9. Childs
    Taken out of context, this was a hell of a segment, with Michaels channeling what seemed like real emotion to discuss some fairly nuanced ideas about his position. Of course, you can't really watch it out of context.
  10. Childs
    This match worked so well, both as 27 minutes of exciting action and as an important chapter in their rivalry. Liger was great. Everything he did looked great. And yet, Otani was better. Technically, he had an answer for everything Liger could throw at him. But he wasn't mature enough to take it home. He had to dangle his chin out there like proto-Anderson-Silva, and that shit wasn't going to fly with a proud champion. The finishing sequence was so great, with each palm strike resounding as a nail in Otani's coffin of hubris. One of my favorite things in sports is watching a team or athlete gradually learn how to be a contender. Liger-Otani has always struck me as one of the best wrestling dramatizations of that dynamic, albeit without the perfect payoff win for Otani. For me, this is probably neck-and-neck with Liger-Sano for best juniors match of the decade.
  11. Childs
    Well, this was about as far from Han/Tamura as you can get! But hey, that's wrestling. It was a lot of fun watching two chunky, over-the-hill Southerners get a Philly crowd this riled. I liked Funk battering Rich's knees with the chair and then taking the receipt spot a few minutes later. Rich's control segment dragged a little, because as Loss said, he just couldn't do much at this point. But they took it home with a nice burst of action.
  12. Childs
    Never had much use for Taz, but this was a hell of a promo -- really nice use of refrains.
  13. Childs
    I agree that Waltman has been more impressive than Eddy on the yearbooks overall. But I didn't see him outworking Eddy here, and I do think Eddy had probably passed him in 1996 with stuff like the Benoit match in New Japan. Ditch is right about Eddy's true peak coming in WWE. But I remember getting pretty excited about him when he turned heel in 1997. We'll see if that holds up. This was not a memorable ladder match, though it was fine. WCW in-ring has not kept up with the promos and angles so far.
  14. Childs
    This was almost reminiscent of a great lucha match in the sense they were doing such complicated stuff at great speed. It really was a pinnacle match for shootstyle -- full of cool stuff that you couldn't quite do in a shoot but pretty far from anything you'd see in traditional pro wrestling. It's very cool that this and the Misawa/Kobashi match happened within 48 hours -- so totally different, yet almost equally great. Hurray wrestling!
  15. Childs
    I remember thinking the Savage/Sting pairing was intriguing but then feeling disappointed with the payoff. After 16 years, I still enjoyed this segment. We'll see about the rest.
  16. Childs
    I saw no good reason for them to be running this match seven months after the superior version at the Bash. Totally unmemorable other than Benoit's bump down the stairs.
  17. Childs
    Misawa-Kobashi has never been my favorite Four Pillars match-up, but this match is undeniable. You start with the dynamic of Kobashi entering as champion. It's interesting to watch this after jumping from '91, because right off the bat, he did everything with so much more weight and purpose. With his early attack on Misawa's ribs, he tried to establish himself as the boss of the match and nearly succeeded. But Misawa still had the great equalizer -- that elbow. And they did a great job establishing its importance in the first 1/3 of the match. Which made Kobashi's long attack on the arm that much richer. First off, the spot where Misawa missed his diving elbow to the floor just looked sick. Then Kobashi did a masterful job going after it, climaxing with a few submission attempts that really had the crowd going. I also can't say enough about Misawa's selling of the elbow. He showed how much harder it was to counter Kobashi without his ace in the hole, and he showed how much it hurt to do anything with his arm, even after he had gained some control. Anytime, he fired the elbow down the stretch, it felt like a huge display of commitment. And fuck, the frankensteiner counter off the apron! Great set-up to the finishing run. Both guys were incredible in the last few minutes, showing how deep they had dug. It always feels true to Kobashi's character when he kicks out of one last huge move, even though his chance to win is gone. And there was a poignancy to him kicking out of the Tiger Driver '91, even as his first Triple Crown run slipped away. These guys had to feel as if they had been through a car crash. In recent years, I've come to love simple, intense matches. But this is a reminder that complexity can be pretty great too. They put on a fucking symphony, and it's hard to imagine anyone topping it, even with 11 months to go. P.S. I've always found it strange that Dave didn't go five stars on this one. Seems like the perfect match for him.
  18. Childs
    Vince should have found a way to get Terry Funk in every Royal Rumble. That was my only real takeaway.
  19. Childs
    I liked Ozaki and Nagayo as the veteran cruise directors for their respective teams. But this match lost its dramatic tension for me. I sort of zoned out on the treadmill and looked up after a few minutes to see that small women were still running around doing things.
  20. Childs
    This whole Shotgun Saturday Night thing has been a bizarre peek into the McMahon psyche. But this took the cake. Elmo has quite the sexual biography, banging Sunny and later facing charges of pedophilia.
  21. Childs
    These guys seemed to be on completely different pages in building for the match. Sid was fine as the disconcerting psychopath. But what were they thinking shooting a semi-stoned Shawn at a nightclub? The Lothario as mentor thing was always a stretch, but given that they had gone this far with it, we should have at least gotten an emotional Shawn talking about vengeance.
  22. Childs
    The discussion spun off in a more general direction, but this was a good little match. I especially liked the early matwork, which was a good bit more creative than the norm. Nothing profound overall but brisk and fun to watch.
  23. Childs
    Definitely.
  24. Childs
    FLIK, do you concur with MJH's assessment of this as a miserable year for joshi?
  25. Childs
    Like every crowd brawling sequence in ECW, this could have been half as long. Setting aside the best matches, that's my overwhelming feeling when I watch ECW now -- tedium.
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