Childs
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I'm unclear on the context of this thread. Did it get pulled out of Bret vs. Flair? Anyway, arguing that stiff shots are unnecessary seems pointless to me, because nothing about wrestling is "necessary." Stiff shots are one kind of tool that can be used to amp up drama in a match. Flair's chops didn't come off as directly useful in winning a match, but his exchanges with Garvin, Pillman, Steamboat, etc. helped convey the intensity of competition in those matches. I don't care if it's unimaginative. It worked. Many others have used stiff shots to great effect, from Hansen to Tenryu to Kawada to Finlay to Danielson. Then there's a whole other level of wrestling violence -- say Ishikawa vs. Ikeda in BattlArts/Futen. Stiffness is intrinsic to their brand of performance art. And if you find it off-putting, that's fine. But I find it compelling and harrowing.
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I had never seen this and couldn't wait when I spotted it in the set listings. You take your biggest native stars and throw them against a quintet of freaks and monsters -- that's pretty much the essence of pro wrestling right there. Keep things moving quickly and fill it with broad gestures and big shots. How can you go wrong? Well, the actual match mostly met expectations. I agree with Loss that Yoko and Savio Vega were the standouts on the invaders team. I wish that Yoko, especially, had gotten a longer run in New Japan when he still had his mobility. They didn't build to any of the falls particularly well, with the last one coming quite abruptly. So yeah, I couldn't place it near the top of my beloved New Japan 10-mans. Still a neat thing to have on the set. -
Two of my absolute favorites, but I liked this match more than I loved it. They started by exchanging nasty slaps, which established Hashimoto's willingness to stand and trade with the big man. I loved the intensity of the mid-match ground-and-pound stuff and Hashimoto's attempt to destroy Vader's arm. But when Hash caught Vader in an armbar later on, I didn't think the hold was applied or sold with the proper intensity. Same with the chinlock Hash tried at the end of his last rally. Those were the key payoff moments in Hashimoto's attempt to chop down the bear, so it bugged me that neither quite popped. The actual finish was better, with Vader seeming wounded but still too powerful for his challenger. Overall, they did get across the lion vs. bear vibe they sought.
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I also enjoyed the pre-match analysis between Ross and Schiavone; made it feel more like a heavyweight title match. But the match itself carried no sense of bigness. They put together a few nifty sequences and none of the work was bad. They just didn't show much desperation or use the cage to add to the show. Luger's heel turn felt way understated. He finally won the belt after three years of chasing but had to embrace the dark side to do it. That should have been a huge moment. It wasn't.
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Excellent match and more proof that Ricky Morton grasped pro wrestling like few others. He slipped on the heel role like a pair of worn-in loafers. I loved the way he not only went after Gibson's injured knee but ripped the tights open so we could see the brace. Gibson also performed well, selling the hell out of the injury and showing fire during his taesed comebacks. The dueling dropkick spot near the end was a clever play on one of their signature tag-team moves. And I liked Morton using the computer as a weapon, as if to say regardless of the York Foundation facade, heels are heels. This all should have meant a lot more given the duration of the R'n'Rs. But it just wasn't the right time or place.
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Garvin did appear to have plenty left in the tank. I thought it was ridiculous that he kicked Invader's ass for 95 percent of the match and then went down to a so-so "heart punch." I'm not opposed to an occasional flash knockout but at least make the shot look devastating. I guess it was something of a PR staple for the local babyface to eat a major beating and then pull out a victory with a late flurry. But Colon was a lot better at the formula from the little I've seen.
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Another good match between these two though unlike the 1990 matches, it did not feel like a chapter in a blood feud. Waltman should have written a guidebook on how to be a spectacular indy wrestler while also behaving like a scummy heel.
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I actually think Grantland has hit a pretty good stride overall -- less pointless navel gazing than at the beginning. I'm a big fan of Zach Lowe, their NBA writer, who mixes advanced statistics, video and more traditional reporting in a really insightful way. Jonah Keri and Bill Barnwell are strong on MLB and NFL, respectively. Their movie and TV writers are solid. I've loved their oral histories. Shoemaker is one of their weakest regular contributors. I agree that Dave wouldn't be a perfect fit stylistically, but he is a lot more readable when working with a real editor. The one MMA piece he did for Grantland was pretty good as I recall.
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He's awful. He can't get past his whole reality-unreality-postmodernism schtick.
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OJ, my feeling was not that a lot of the Brody-Hansen tags were good but that Hansen was usually pretty good in them. Regardless, if you want to call that the weak point in his resume, I won't argue. God knows, I endured them all when we were prepping the All Japan set.
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What 70s Flair matches are great? Truth is we don't have a good representation for either guy. As for building feuds, he clearly had great rivalries with Inoki, Baba, Funk, Tenryu, Carlos Colon, the new generation of All Japan. Not sure it matters how much of a role promos played in creating them. Hansen would be my No. 1 if we did a poll right now -- incredible mastery of his character, large volume of great matches against very different opponents, lots of excellent performances in matches that were merely good, always came off as a star. I think I've seen the vast majority of Hansen matches on tape at this point, and he was almost never less than good until he broke down physically. At the very highest level, the rankings do come down to personal preference, and Hansen fits what I'm looking for almost perfectly.
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Austin definitely carried a star presence and worked extremely hard. It's a little weird that he needed several years to round out the package, given his tools. But he was working in an extremely flawed setting. Eaton looked good as always -- sad to see him lose the TV belt so quickly.
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Yeah, good action here and a little chance to see Ogawa showcased, but this isn't one that will stand out in the memory.
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The rising stars of All Japan were probably more expressive than their New Japan peers, but the New Japan guys were damn good at stringing together action. And this match was a great showcase for that. They managed to do a long, all-action match that still featured a natural sense of build and never felt overcrammed. That's not easy to do. Taue-Kawada was a great rivalry, but otherwise, the All Japan guys weren't yet hitting this level in peer-vs.-peer match-ups (some of that was due to booking choices).
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I get that a mask stip in Japan ain't what it is Mexico, but this lacked any sense of being different from their typical match. Liger and Benoit were always going to deliver a well-executed, state-of-the-art showcase. They just never seemed interested in going beyond that when matched up. God, Benoit was jacked to the gills at this point. And that missile dropkick to the floor was an unbelievably stupid spot to roll out match after match. Of course, one could make similar comments about Liger's unhealthy commitment to the craft.
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Between the jittery camera and the Jersey smark commentary, this was pretty hard to watch. This really did feature an odd mishmash of wrestlers, which undermined the idea of War Games as the ultimate grudge match. As Loss said, very WCWish. Windham appeared to be the best guy in the match but it was hard to judge given the viewpoint. Still glad it made the set as an oddity.
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This was a fine cartoon match, built around which guy could no sell more dramatically. I'm not sure I'd trust Warrior to piledrive me three times in a row, but I guess a neck injury is less frightening if you're undead. The sit-up in the bodybag was a clever way for Taker to retain his aura in defeat.
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I love the storyline of Kawada emerging as a Hansen-level prick against Hansen himself. There was a lot of fun stuff in this one, from Hansen using his good arm to hurl Misawa over the guard rail into a table to Kawada's counters into the late-match armbars on Hansen. They fell into a few dead spots but this is one of the more overlooked gems from '91 All Japan.
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This could have been a great match if Yatsu and Tenryu had squared off after Yatsu went nuts with the chairshots. Instead, it felt like a protracted tease, diverting but unsatisfying.
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Great little gathering of future somebodies and also a fun three minutes of action. They did a fantastic job throughout this broadcast of making you want to see Lawler get his hands on Embry. And Embry was such a delicious scumbag, creating so much chaos without ever removing his hideous turquoise warm-up pants.
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Enjoyed the match whenever Aja and Bull were the focus. Would have been perfectly happy if Inoue wasn't there at all. The crowd seemed surprisingly subdued given the drama of Nakano falling to her ascending rival. I have this pretty far below the 4/29/91 match. Overall, the '91 joshi continues to be a real positive for the set.
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This actually had more action than I expected based on its reputation as a masterful piece of bullshit. I also thought Garvin looked surprisingly good. The speed-of-the-count comedy ruled, and I enjoyed them treating Badstreet as some kind of hidden weapon held in reserve. It's funny that this match came to light through Dustin of the Day, because Dustin neither played a huge role nor looked particularly great when he entered. Anyway, it's an entertaining match.
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Well, there are upsides to flailing promotions. More speakeasy scenes, please!
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Very good match, though not put together as well as their 1990 match. As Loss said, they didn't have enough time for three falls. So they rushed the Eaton countout, and Flair crammed some of his shit in fairly egregiously. That said, Eaton,like Pillman, brought out the best version of Flair, because he really wanted to go hard with him. I'm a broken record, but their strike exchanges were awesome. Give this match 25 minutes instead of 15 and it might have been special.