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Childs

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Everything posted by Childs

  1. Childs
    Things I love about this match: 1) Everything Pillman. 2) Everything Windham. 3) Pillman vs. Windham. 4) The fact it didn't just end 30 seconds after the last guy entered. 5) Lots of blood. 6) Heels winning in a format that generally favored the babyfaces. Things that bug me about this match: 1) The complete lack of comment on the reasons for Larry Z replacing Anderson or the impact of that switch. 2) Sid's audible spot calling. 3) The fact El Gigante was allowed to stop a submit-or-surrender match he wasn't in. It would have made great drama for one of Pillman's teammates to surrender reluctantly because he was just that fucked up. But this finish really shat on the War Games concept. Overall, this featured some of the best moments of any War Games, but the flaws were substantial enough to keep me from calling it a truly great match.
  2. Childs
    This is probably the second best Spivey singles match I've seen behind his match with Kawada. I know we've all said it plenty, but Luger was damn good from 1989 until right about this point. He worked hard, made his opponents look great with his bumping and selling, showed a lot of fire on his comebacks, stayed over regardless of the booking. He's clearly a guy whose rep in the business seems way out of line with what the tapes show.
  3. Childs
    This was good while it lasted, but I'm not sure why they had to cut them off so quickly. The crowd seemed willing to get behind Vader based on their reaction to his flying clothesline after the bell. The ref's performance really irritated me here. I mean, why the fuck did he need to get between them when they were slugging it out on their knees? The crowd really hated that as a set-up for the double DQ, and I can't see how it did anyone any good.
  4. Childs
    Solid match, as others have said. I like Tommy Rich, a lot, but he has yet to establish any kind of identity in his tags with Morton. I don't know if it's just the feeling that he's holding down Gibson's spot or what. But his superiority to Gibson (pretty undeniable overall) has not shown up in these matches.
  5. Childs
    Hash vs. Tenryu 6/17/93
  6. Childs
    This was boring, inexcusably so for guys this good. But it continued a pattern from 1990 of fairly lackluster Triple Crown matches. The crowd's reaction confirmed it. They were more excited to see the young natives vs. veteran natives than they were to see the more traditional Jumbo vs. top American.
  7. Childs
    This is a desert island match for me -- loved it the first time I saw it and have only grown to love it more. Kawada was great, but Taue was the revelation with his headbutts, kicks to the spine, etc. You'd have thought he was the Tenryu protege. All-Japan would have been better off keeping short, hot brawls in the mix for the balance of the decade. As it stands, I'd probably rank this in the promotion's top 20 for the '90s because it stands out as so unique.
  8. Childs
    I always love it when Santito bleeds through his iconic mask. Such a great visual. I've seen this match several times, and it is outstanding. Santito hit all of his normal highspots but did an excellent job integrating them into his rally from Brazo de Oro's beating. Oro's struggles to avoid the camel clutch also stood out. I don't think this was quite on the level of the Dandy-Satanico matches. Those guys were just better at conveying viciousness in their strikes and holds. But that's hardly a complaint. This is a top-10 career match for Santito.
  9. Childs
    Put me in the corner of really enjoying the PPV. Miz-Cesaro was excellent until the finish. The chamber was well laid-out with the awesome beast run by Henry and a finishing run that kept me engaged even though I cared little about any of the three guys. The six-man was a solid WWE MOTYC. And the main event was probably about as good a match as we're going to get from those two, given current Rock's limitations. I get all the questions about the booking for Mania but in terms of delivering on the big matches, this was a very good show.
  10. Childs
    Inoki vs. Fujiwara 2/6/86
  11. Childs
    I had a similar reaction to Pete in that my attention drifted during the outside brawling section, which featured a lot of wandering around and weak weapon shots. I did like Kyoko's energy during the first half of the match. The in-ring climax was a lot more focused, but the execution was sloppy, with Kyoko the main culprit. Maybe Chad didn't notice any big botches because she botched basically everything. The haircutting was really the best part of the whole scene.
  12. Childs
    I don't know if Hokuto was legit hurt (probably was) but that cast was an amazing prop. The rigidity of it suggested a broken arm or a dislocated elbow, and then she did a great job of working the match as if she was badly fucked up (which she might well have been.) And yes, Toyota kept her performance amazingly focused. I didn't find this quite as exciting as the Hokuto/Nakano match, but if you want a focused narrative, this is your ticket. Either way, 1991 Joshi has been a pleasant surprise.
  13. Childs
    Will, given the speed of Matt's response, I think he's eager to blow up your head. That's how they deal with Demoliton doubters around his parts.
  14. Childs
    Owen was a great talent who didn't have that deep yearning to be an all-time great. That's not a knock on him. Actually, it means he was more sane than most guys on his level, including Bret.
  15. Childs
    This was a level down from their best matches on the '80s set but still plenty good. I agree that Vader was the guy who made it go, from the early asskicking he delivered to the blood. Fujinami at least delivered the requisite fire in going after Vader's cut. These guys had really good long-term chemistry, delivering strong matches when Vader was still quite green and after Fujinami had begun his fade.
  16. Childs
    As someone who watched every bit of AJPW that made tape from the 1980s, I can attest that Tiger Jeet Singh is a great pick.
  17. Childs
    I haven't really gotten into these Pillman/Rogers matches. I respect the effort, but there's something about Rogers that doesn't quite connect with me. I get that he's playing a moron. Yet I still cringe every time he does the fucking airplane spin. They handled the stip oddly, with Pillman going for a bunch of pins in the opening five minutes. I get doing it once to make it seem like he was thrown off, but again and again? And why did the ref just count them instead of making a show of not counting them? The whole thing just felt off despite some cool stuff from Pillman that got the crowd going.
  18. Childs
    Funk threw great punches against everybody, but he seemed to take them to another level against Lawler. Maybe I just prefer his offense in psycho mode to his babyface offense. This felt like 2/3 of a match, which is the only reason I'd put it below their 1981 outing in Memphis. But it was a great scene.
  19. Childs
    These guys were gold together, and this was their best match yet. I think Memphis babyface Jarrett is easily my favorite version -- just a perfect blend of fire, athleticism and grasp of structure. Gilbert was also at his absolute peak. Loss put it well in a previous thread when he said 1990-91 Eddie was out-Lawlering Lawler. Like everyone else, I loved the stuff with the boot laces.
  20. Childs
    It made sense to me that Hokuto would try a fast opening against Nakano. I really liked the way this built, with Nakano's sheer force pitted against Hokuto's resilience and resourcefulness. Nakano did a lot of impressive things for her size, and that dive to the floor without benefit of a turnbuckle certainly goes on the list. Hokuto was probably the best Joshi worker ever at staging a huge rally, and we got an early glimpse of that here. They walked right up to the line of overkill in the finishing stretch but never jumped across it. I was with Loss in disliking the random interference to set up Bull's second-rope tombstone. At least the ref refused to count the fall. Overall, I liked the match a lot.
  21. Childs
    I loved the opening of this with Kobashi trying to play cat-and-mouse and Hansen dealing with it by just crushing him with a chair. After that, it was a good little match, albeit a minor chapter in their rivalry. I always get the sense that Hansen really respected Kobashi's effort and gave him a lot of offense for that reason.
  22. Childs
    The ring was actually one of my favorite parts of this when I first watched it with Phil -- just disgusting and the perfect setting for a gritty brawl. My reaction to the match was standard -- terrific fight with a cartoonishly bad finish. But I didn't like it quite as much on second viewing, probably because I was comparing it to the great wager matches from the end of 1990.
  23. Childs
    As much as Mr. Perfect was a disappointment compared to Portland and AWA Henning, he was still one of the company's better workers in 1990. And this was probably his best match of the year, given that the Tito match I liked was so short. In both cases, Henning eschewed showy bullshit and sold that he was a guy trying desperately to endure the fury of inspired babyfaces. Really liked Piper here as well. I often find that he's a better brawler in theory than in practice. But in this case, he brought a real fire to everything he did. Definitely on the short list for WWF MOTY.
  24. Childs
    This was just unbelievably bad for the main event of the year's biggest PPV. I mean, you have to give Ole credit for devising an angle that bored the crowd, cut the balls off the babyface champion and restricted the company's best big-event worker into a cardboard performer. On the other hand, I like all the fantasy booking scenarios in this thread.
  25. Childs
    I don't know why people were always so meh about this series. Hansen brought out a whole different side of Luger, who never looked like much of a brawler against anyone else. I loved the way Lex adapted with stuff like the headbutts and the desperate kicks from his back. Also a really good screwy finish, with both guys essentially getting to win the match in ways that reinforced their personae. Luger teased the possibility of more Hansen matches in his post-victory interview, and I wish they had happened.
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