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Childs

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Everything posted by Childs

  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. Childs
    Vince should have found a way to get Terry Funk in every Royal Rumble. That was my only real takeaway.
  4. 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.
  5. 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.
  6. 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.
  7. 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.
  8. Childs
    Definitely.
  9. Childs
    FLIK, do you concur with MJH's assessment of this as a miserable year for joshi?
  10. 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.
  11. Childs
    I've always liked this match-up, but they seemed a little off this time. Psicosis, especially, seemed to pause several times, deciding what should come next. And Regal had to stoop awkwardly to put his neck in the way of Psicosis' springboard to the floor. It's amazing to me that people were humorless enough to hate Dusty as an announcer.
  12. Childs
    These guys pulled off some beautiful wrestling, especially in the finishing sequences for the first two falls. The fluidity on the most complicated stuff hit a level we haven't seen often. The only thing that held it back from the pinnacle was a lack of rising drama. I know they moved to high flying in the tercera caida, but I never got the sense they were hitting a new level of intensity. The first two falls were sharply contested, so they didn't necessarily need to ramp it up. But at the actual finish, I thought, "Hmm, seemed a little easy given everything that came before." Great match regardless, and I loved the last bit of comedy when Guerrero wiped out on his celebration hop after flawlessly nailing so many tricky moves. They showed two replays of it, so the producers obviously found it amusing as well.
  13. Childs
    Compare this to the muddled build for HBK-Sid and it's obvious that WCW deserved its advantage in the Monday Night Wars at this juncture. I still viscerally hate Hollywood Hogan, surrounded by his toadies and peddling self-serving horseshit. What a great use of Hogan's reality to make an all-time heel. And they struck a really nice balance between the immediate issue with the Giant and the long game with Sting. In some ways, they probably just got lucky staying on that tightrope as long as they did. But it sure was compelling.
  14. Childs
    This match did, in fact, overcome my avowed joshi skepticism. I appreciated the pacing; they allowed me to take in the horror of some of the spots without racing on to the next thing. And Kudo did go through some horror. The chain hanging came off as particularly disturbing, with Kudo even appearing to go a little blue. The crowd popped huge when she rolled Kandori into a few nearfalls after that. The reaction was certainly well-earned. I also liked that when they set up something like a table spot, they didn't treat it as a given that the wrestler on the table would lie there and take the move. That's where a lot of garbage brawls lose their way and give in to contrivance. Not this one. I wasn't thrilled when they left the ring to ascend to the balcony. But they certainly paid it off with that image of Kudo, hanging there with half the crowd believing Kandori would drop her. Just top-notch spectacle wrestling -- a fact that becomes even more apparent when you watch that pointless BJPW barbed wire tag from a few nights later.
  15. Childs
    I also loved the opening lock-up, with them just bulling each other around the ring, unwilling to concede. For awhile after that, I thought the match might be a minor letdown in light of Loss' review and my own memory. But they just built and built, past the point where most of their previous matches would have ended. And the Dome crowd, which usually kind of sucks, went with them. These guys are the kings of keeping it simple and letting the intensity tell the story. This was the epitome of that.
  16. Childs
    Damn, Loss. You make a man feel inadequate in his wrestling watching.
  17. Childs
    Put me on the side of those who say the backlash against this match went too far. Others have outlined the reasons. Flair took the asskicking he needed to take from Vader and showed great fire during his rallies. I didn't love him using the three straight top-rope moves, because he always looked like shit on those. But that's a quibble. Vader's timing on his cutoff spots was excellent. Race's involvement seemed appropriate given his history with Ric. The idea of the ending worked, even if the execution was a bit weak. I really liked the post-match stuff, with the interviews of other wrestlers, Flair getting emotional and Vader going apeshit in the locker room. Not a transcendent match because of the hiccups in execution, but as a total spectacle, it was really well done.
  18. Childs
    Just watched this as a warm-up for the 1997 set and a few things struck me: 1) I know this is remembered almost entirely as an angle, but the match itself was surprisingly good. I loved the way Luger slapped Hall to start things off and then got taken out. Sting worked an energetic face-in-peril segment, with Hall and Nash doing solid work cutting off the ring. Savage went nuts off the hot tag. It was a very good "big stars" tag match. 2) The "which side is he on" line from Heenan didn't bother me. He always hated Hogan and frankly, it was a reasonable question to raise at that juncture, given the hovering issue of the mystery partner. I did think he stepped on the moment a little quickly once Hogan had actually begun the leg drops. Stunned silence would have worked better. 3) Schiavone was very good throughout, setting the "anything could happen" tone and then finishing with the appropriate disgust. 4) Almost every big-picture decision about how to stage this was correct, setting the tone for a hell of a run of booking, which didn't go off the rails for more than a year.
  19. Childs

    Current WWE

    Childs replied to Smack2k's topic in WWE

    What's he good at exactly? He's looked boring every time I've seen him on NXT, with his crappy, sluggish striking. He had a good match with Regal but it's Regal. He looks like shit, has no presence, can't talk . . Don't see it. Everyone on here watches NXT though right? Such a cracking show at the moment. Haven't watched him much on NXT, but that's a tiny sample compared to his decade-plus as a top indy guy. He threw all sorts of nifty elbow combinations (though he went overboard with them at times), was unusually agile for a guy his size, could go on the mat with a guy like Danielson, carried himself like a star. Basically, he was the complete opposite of what you're describing, though to be fair, it seems like I haven't seen most of what you're reacting to and you haven't seen much of his indy work.
  20. Childs
    Did Bryan hurt his arm or was he just selling?
  21. Childs

    Current WWE

    Childs replied to Smack2k's topic in WWE

    Not defending Hero's behavior in WWE, because I've heard some of the same criticisms from people who are major supporters of his. But to say he doesn't have an ounce of Punk's ability is absurd. If anything, he's a superior physical talent.
  22. Childs

    1997 Hype

    Childs replied to Loss's topic in Pro Wrestling

    That's a reflection of where All Japan was headed. The great matches were still really great, but with the loss of TV time and corresponding diminution of the midcard, the depth just wasn't there. There weren't many borderline matches that Will and Loss decided to drop. This set will definitely ride on WWF and WCW booking more than any of the previous ones. You look at a lot of the discs and they're as reliant on promos as matches.
  23. Childs
    I'm late to the game on this but enjoyed the podcast guys. You've built a rapport that resonates, and it didn't hurt that you were discussing a formative period for my wrestling fandom. As for the discussion questions: 1. I was aware of Piper/Valentine, even as a kid. There always seemed to be pictures of it in the Apter mags or the few wrestling books I owned. And it didn't disappoint when I actually saw it years later. It was my first exposure to bleeding from the ear in a wrestling match, and what better way to win a young man's heart? 2. I don't see a case for Bobby Fulton over Arn but then, I'm not a huge Fantastics fan. Arn was just so damn consistent and so adept at flipping the switch from stooge to badass. He wasn't on Flair or Tully's level in the '80s, but he was the perfect glue guy. 3. I agree that Funk carried the emotional/character side of the Flair feud. But part of the reason the GAB match is so good is that Flair wrestled pissed off, clearly shifting his usual tone to fit the moment. And he also gave a good performance in the "I quit" match as the vengeful guy trying to put a stake in the vampire's heart (though I rate the GAB match a good bit higher). Jerry, maybe you're just not used to Flair being the more subdued character in a feud? Anyway, when it was time for him to bring it in the big matches with Funk, Flair was all there. 4. Totally with you on Garvin. I loved him as a kid, perhaps because I desperately wanted someone to take the belt off Flair, perhaps because I saw Flair and Garvin go broadway in the main event of one of my first NWA shows at the Baltimore Civic Center. I only realized later on that people hated Garvin's title reign. But watching the matches now, I don't think there's any question he was an excellent worker and totally believable in his role as the tough, no-bullshit fighter. I also liked his stuff from the Memphis set and even the '89-'90 matches I've seen from WWF.
  24. Childs
    The first half of this was sooo slooowwww. I respect their desire to build a match from basic holds but fuck, toss in some flurries to keep me (and the crowd) from dozing off. From the mid-match headbutt exchange on, it was good. But they certainly did better on multiple occasions.
  25. Childs
    I don't think I would have liked the first match nearly as much without the second match as an emotional payoff. As others have said, the first one was a straight burst of action that sort of touched on the broader story of Hokuto breaking down but without an ultimate payoff. The second match was such an effective portrayal of perseverance that it cast a glow over both. Again, Hokuto had a rare gift for making everyone -- the crowd, her peers, a random American watching her 20 years later -- feel her pain and determination. And the other three fit themselves around that perfectly, from Toyota toning down her worst no-selling instincts to Yamada doing her best to give Hokuto a sour ending. Really good ending to a year of big Joshi matches.
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