Childs
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Everything posted by Childs
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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. -
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.
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Yes, it's hilarious that they couldn't even find a good 15-second clip of Black Blood. Even better, Ricky Morton went corporate, yet could not be bothered to trim his mullet one iota. This Clash has been perversely entertaining.
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I imagine Chono would have been surprised to hear that Hase was the leader of their team, as Ross claimed. Not that it mattered. I don't know about "realistic," but the match was a heck of an adrenaline shot. The crowd was way into it, demonstrating that all-action was the right path for the NJPW import matches. And frankly, the Steiners were better off without a lot of time.
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Jesus that was short for a loser leaves town match from your promotion's best in-ring feud of the last two months. The action was hot. I loved the spot where Pillman jumped off Gigante's shoulders. And of course, fucking WCW missed the brutal kick that put Pillman down, only showing it on replay. Aside from the wrestlers themselves, this promotion was such fucking amateur hour. Honestly, if they had gone out of business, the fate would have been well-deserved.
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I found this segment deeply sad as a kid. Andre was bigger than life to me when I became a fan and to see him move this way ... just dispiriting.
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Weren't Pepa and Spin kind of slumming it by appearing on a Clash in Knoxville? They were pretty big stars at this point.
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Yeah, it's a shame we didn't get to see Heyman smack him around for longer. I loved the Wonder Years as a kid, but Hervey was always the turd in the punch bowl.
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This lacked the hatred of their 5/31 match and the "big" feeling of their 4/30 match. But it was still good, with Liger reeling off all his offense to get his win back. Even without the nastiness, this felt less exhibitiony than some of Liger's other stuff from the period. Between this feud, the Owen match and the Nogami dome match, Liger has been more consistent in 1991 than he was in 1990.
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I love these kinds of matches -- just two big bulls going hard until one of them falls. The blood certainly added something as did the struggle over the big moves. I guess they could have milked a bit more drama out of it with a few extra minutes, but I was quite happy with this.
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And we see how much better this match got with Pillman in place of Big Josh. No shock there. Actually, Flair and Eaton picked up the intensity as well. Their chop vs. punch exchanges looked absolutely vicious. The '90 and '91 yearbooks have enhanced my love for Bobby Eaton but have also made me sad that he never got a significant singles run in a healthy promotion. He had the tools to be a top-20-all-time guy.
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Josh really didn't need to be there. But Eaton-Flair remains a terrific match-up that never got its moment in the sun.