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Childs

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Everything posted by Childs

  1. Childs
    But was it as good as Abby vs. Wajima, Eric?
  2. Childs
    Another excellent trios with everyone in it looking good and the action flowing from beginning to end. Some of the Dandy-Atlantis exchanges were incredibly athletic, and the Satanico-Cruz stuff moved with a beautiful fluidity. I hope EMLL keeps its momentum, because all of these are real treats.
  3. Childs
    This was indeed the Satanico show. I loved his exchanges with MS-1, and like Dandy, he was so good at transitioning effortlessly between brawling and technical work. Those guys were probably the two best luchadores in the world at this point, and I think this yearbook will capture their greatness better than any other.
  4. Childs
    I remember their Nov. match being a good bit better. Guess we'll find out.
  5. Childs
    This was tremendous, a 10-minute distillation of everything that's great about the rivalry. Tim already mentioned Eaton's offense and boy was it great here. I'm not sure I've ever seen that slingshot backbreaker. It's a testament to Eaton that he still bothered to come up with interesting new stuff this deep into his career. As stated in the thread for the Flair match, he had all the tools for a strong singles run. And I still popped huge for the Patrick spot, even though I had read this thread and knew something was coming from him. I could have done without the Freebirds ending, but this was still among the most enjoyable matches of the year to date. WCW continues to own 1990.
  6. Childs
    This was great while it lasted. Sorry to be contrarian, but the one thing I really didn't like was the rapidfire sequence of hammerlock reversals. They came so easily that it struck me as kind of silly, like something from an indy mirror exchange in 2008. Anyway, Santana's legwork was great, and I dug the viciousness of Henning's strikes. That's the guy I love from Portland and AWA instead of the Henning who built most of his WWF run around overly theatrical bumping. I was just bummed when this ended. Given 20 minutes, these guys might have delivered a MOTYC.
  7. Childs
    It wasn't much fun to revisit this in the wake of the '80s set, which showed the Jumbo-Tenryu rivalry in all its glory. It's not a bad match. Tenryu got to hit his flash power bomb early, and they did a few nice counter sequences down the stretch. But yeah, Tenryu never felt like anything but a spent force, which is crazy considering the TC match they had 10 months earlier or even the 12/6/89 tag match. I get why Baba booked it that way; it's just a bummer to watch.
  8. Childs
    Best match on the show, thought it wasn't as dramatic as the Fujiwara-Yamazaki matches from the 80s Other Japan set. The matwork here came off as really hard-fought, which isn't surprising for a Fujiwara match but distinguished it from the other 4/15 stuff. They also staged the knockout quite well.
  9. Childs
    I've always liked Anjo, and he brought the energy I expected to this. I loved all of his knees to the body early and his desperate open-handed combinations as he tried to stage rallies later in the match. Takada also gave a solid performance. He landed some sharp counter kicks, and I liked the way he kept turning the momentum with suplexes when the smaller Anjo tried to fight inside for too long. I've realized that a lot of my irritation at Takada comes back to his leglock. I can't fathom why no one ever insisted that he torque on it a little more or work the heel and toes or I don't know, something. He should've taken leglock lessons from Fujiwara. Anyway, he did the lame-ass leglock here, but it wasn't such a momentum killer, because Anjo did a nice job of working to reverse out of it. These guys were both better standing and trading, so the ending probably would've been hotter if they had done that instead of finishing on the mat. But it was a good match, less lethargic than I expected based on Phil's description.
  10. Childs
    I had no problem with Maeda's performance. Wouldn't you expect him to think he was above Nakano? Granted, he was no Tenryu when it came to being a dismissive prick and selling a little at the same time. But I thought he played a fine ace, and his flurries of kicks came off as pretty vicious. Nakano also did well with his more glamorous role of doomed, feisty underdog. I agree with Pete; I'm good with this kind of match, where the energy is there for the upset attempt even though it's never treated as a conceivable reality.
  11. Childs
    I wasn't sure what to make of this. The blood and the desperate quality of the brawling, especially after the restart, were captivating. But the round breaks broke the flow without adding drama, and that restart took a hell of a long time. In all, it wasn't a cohesive enough experience for me to rate it as highly as Loss. That said, rareties like this add richness to the yearbooks, so big thumbs up for including it. Phil, this seems like a match you should see if you haven't.
  12. Childs
    This didn't strike me any differently that it ever has. It was a well-designed match that nonetheless highlighted some serious flaws in the guy who won. The wrestling itself was often poorly executed, but they hit most of the big-picture buttons they were supposed to hit. I liked the result at the time because I never liked Hogan and was tired of seeing him go over on all the big shows. But looking back, it's indeed obvious that he was the guy you'd want on top long-term.
  13. Childs
    I've always thought "Japan Hogan" makes the case for Hogan's intelligence as a professional wrestler. Say what you want about the man, but he knew how to get over in any setting. And as Loss noted, that puts a huge gulf between him and someone like Warrior. It would have been interesting to see the reaction if he worked a match like this on a big show in the U.S. during his prime. Would your average fan have noticed the difference? I do think he could have had a great series with Hansen in the U.S., because Hansen was the kind of larger-than-life character who could have dropped right into the WWF for a six-month run in 1987.
  14. Childs
    I've always loved this for the reasons you guys have already stated. It's a performance that speaks well for both guys in historical terms -- Savage because his act could get over in any setting, Tenryu because he could seamlessly fit into his opponent's show. I also have to give props to the crowd for rolling right along with it, even though it wasn't typical AJPW.
  15. Childs
    Yeah, this is how I want my wrestling brawls -- no overly elaborate bullshit, just blood and chaos with chairs and bodies flying every which way. I loved Goto's sweatsuit and Kurisu's cowboy get-up. I loved the way Dragon Master swung his chair at any body part he could find. I loved that this totally could have happened in Memphis. Not MOTY but one of my favorite matches on the set to date.
  16. Childs

    General thoughts on 1990

    Childs replied to Loss's topic in 1990

    No question. The consistency of their TV product is what really comes across with the yearbook format. They rarely went a week without delivering a really good match. And Wrestle War was a great early peak. I'm not sure the same will be true by the end of the year. But for the first quarter? Easy call.
  17. Childs
    I generally love Martel, but this was a snooze. The best part was Lord Alfred Hayes saying Bret had a rugged physical appeal even though he wasn't truly a good-looking man.
  18. Childs
    This was one of the better matches of the year so far with Dandy doing all kinds of nasty stuff to indicate that he was leaning in the rudo direction. There can't have been too many workers in history who could move so seamlessly from matwork to brawling to flying. He's one of the all-time naturals. I'm looking forward to the rematch.
  19. Childs
    If Jerry wants to push his Tully-as-all-time-great argument, this wouldn't be a bad addition to the dossier. Blanchard felt like a throw-in to a meaningless match in a dying promotion, and yet he still wrestled like a total star. Everything he did on offense looked great. His timing couldn't have been better. He did expressive heel things without going cartoonish. Just a great pro.
  20. Childs
    I was so amused by the idea of these guys wrestling each other that I honestly didn't care how good the match was.
  21. Childs
    I agree with Loss that Kobashi badly outwrestled Misawa for most of the match. Misawa's leap over the course of 1990 should be one of the more interesting stories to watch on the yearbook.
  22. Childs
    I agree with everything you guys have said about this being a quintessential Flair match and maybe the last gasp for the version a lot of us grew up watching. But I do want to give Luger some props. For a guy who faced a lot of criticism over the years about his lack of passion for wrestling, he worked his ass off here. He went 30+ minutes, took some crazy bumps, sold when appropriate (thought him blowing off the arm work fit the story) and gave the crowd really expressive bursts of energy when the match called for them. Flair might have carried him in the sense that Luger didn't have enough stuff to fill that much time. But Luger was a game dance partner. I also enjoyed the Sting melodrama at the end, even if it might have been smarter to just put the belt on Lex.
  23. Childs
    If I was going to show a new fan the perfect evocation of the Midnights/R'n'R rivalry, I'd probably pick this match. Tight but not short, lots of great spots, classic face-in-peril segment by Morton, well-done Cornette shenanigans. This had it all. It didn't feel as BIG as the Flair-Luger main event, but I probably enjoyed it more.
  24. Childs
    There was a moment near the end of this that epitomized why Takada pisses me off. He was rocking Fujiwara with kicks, and Fujiwara put them over with some great staggering around selling. So what did Takada do? He dropped down into one of his limp-noodle leg locks. Seriously, fuck that guy. This was an excellent performance by Fujiwara and a mostly lousy one by Takada (though I dug his receipt headbutt).
  25. Childs
    As someone who came to puro relatively late, maybe 2005 or so, I have to agree with OJ. I read a lot of stuff as I worked my way into that world, and though I saw some appreciation for Choshu's series with Fujinami and for his All-Japan run, I did not get the overall impression he was regarded as an elite worker. That's not to say he wasn't regarded that way in 1987. But his reputation seemed to have stagnated compared to those of some contemporaries. So for me, watching all of the footage for the NJ and AJ DVDVR sets, there was an element of "Holy shit, this guy was great." I'm not sure Gehrig is a good baseball comparison. He never stopped being the consensus choice as the top first baseman in MLB history. But think about someone like Lefty Grove. Sure, he was always regarded as great, an easy HOF guy. But until Bill James came along and presented his career in a new light, he wasn't widely discussed as a candidate for greatest pitcher ever. James certainly didn't "discover" Lefty Grove, but he kicked off an era of looking at him in a new light.
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