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Childs

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Everything posted by Childs

  1. This was a hell of a match and another notch in Jarrett's case as one of the best wrestlers in the U.S. Pritchard was terrific as well. Even the simplest stuff seemed tightly worked, and they did a great job with the finishing stretch. Strictly in terms of matches, 1991 USWA has outpaced 1990 USWA.
  2. I can't say enough about the virtue of simplicity in these early Onita matches. Here, he came out on fire, took a huge beating from Goto in return and, after a few nasty cutoffs, staged a spirited, to-the-point rally. These weren't really death matches, just brutal, straight-up battles that played to Onita's penchants for selling, eating punishment and connecting to the crowd. And I still think Goto was his best opponent. They had great timing together, and Goto came off as a tough motherfucker. As great as '91 has been so far, this is near the top of my MOTY list.
  3. I'll second the 8/30/95 Kansai match.
  4. I have a good 12-disc Luger comp from a guy who used to trade as BNewt. Starts with some Florida stuff and runs through the Superbrawl match with Sting in '92.
  5. 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.
  6. 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.
  7. 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.
  8. 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.
  9. Hash vs. Tenryu 6/17/93
  10. 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.
  11. 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.
  12. 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.
  13. 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.
  14. Inoki vs. Fujiwara 2/6/86
  15. 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.
  16. 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.
  17. 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.
  18. 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.
  19. 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.
  20. 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.
  21. 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.
  22. 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.
  23. 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.
  24. 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.
  25. 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.
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