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Childs

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Everything posted by Childs

  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. 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.
  4. 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.
  5. 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.
  6. 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.
  7. 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.
  8. 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.
  9. 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.
  10. 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.
  11. 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.
  12. 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.
  13. 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.
  14. 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).
  15. 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.
  16. Childs
    I'm as cynical about politicians as the next person, but that's ridiculous Victator, unless you're going for some sort of abstract argument that they're part of a system that's evil to the core.
  17. Childs
    You didn't vote for Cena, Kris? Was that just a matter of figuring he'd get in anyway and apportioning your votes to those who needed them more?
  18. Childs
    No matter how much money you have, you have to give people some reason to vote for you. Linda's claim to fame is building a business that she didn't really build and that she's afraid to talk about. She had literally nothing to offer other than her ability to buy television ads without raising money. I'm amazed that people here think Vince's sins are anywhere within the normal range for an American political candidate. He's a sleezy death merchant whose television program is a 20-year advertisement for extremely troubling views about race, gender, health, etc. I agree that the CT political reporters didn't do the best job of digging on Linda, but I think the coverage would have ramped to a whole different level with Vince as a candidate.
  19. Childs
    Good lord, Vince would never have a prayer. They'd hang him with all the stuff they hanged her with x 10, even if he is more charismatic and more competent.
  20. Childs
    I respect your opinion, so when I disagree with you, it seems worth noting.
  21. Childs
    I actually don't think they would have had a better match sans eye injury. This was a hell of a fight and exactly what I'd want from this pairing. You had the crazy stiff shots from beginning to end. You had them rampaging around ringside like uncaged zoo animals. You had Vader unleashing a nasty attack on Stan's ribs and Stan selling it like a pro. You had Vader hitting that awesome dropkick as a counter to the lariat. I agree with Loss that the match is more remembered than it would have been without the eye injury. But the freak-show image has served to flatten our collective memory of the whole thing, and that strikes me as a disservice. It was my MOTN, which is saying a hell of a lot given the Choshu-Tenryu tag and the unexpectedly excellent AWA title match.
  22. Childs
    Cool discovery. This was not just a neat toss-off between two guys who have gained esteem in our little circle. It was an excellent match that built from nicely contested matwork all the way through some great near falls at the end. I loved Saito's expressiveness as a babyface, which really seemed to pull the crowd into the match. Then I got even more fired up by Zbyszko's series of punches near the end. Loss called this a short match, but it actually felt longer and more epic than I expected. Those who grew to love Saito on the NJ and AWA sets should seek this out.
  23. Childs
    I had never seen this and had a blast watching it. It certainly wasn't a deep match, but it fit the setting perfectly, with guys flying all over the ring and Tenryu and Choshu just blasting each other. I thought Misawa was fine, though it's amazing how much more presence he carried just a few months later. It's a shame we never got a full-on AJ vs. NJ program during the '80s or '90s.
  24. Childs
    The crowd for this was flat-out nuts. The match itself was good for something that appeared down the card and featured teams of mismatched rank. Kimura got in some really stiff shots, and the crowd went apeshit when Kido got Jumbo in the arm bar. It was about as competitive as it should have been and worth including for the atmosphere alone.
  25. Childs
    They went for a very different dynamic than in most of their matches, with Fujiwara actually landing more meaningful strikes and Maeda ultimately outworking him on the mat. I always mark out for Fujiwara's driving shootstyle headbutts, and they were on excellent display here. The finish, with Fujiwara seeming to pull out a desperation leg submission only to fall into the choke, was nifty. It left the live crowd flat but on tape, it was nifty. This is one of my favorite match-ups in wrestling, and I have to admit I find it a little more stirring when Maeda is stalking Fujiwara with kicks and Fujiwara is rolling away from the blows James-Toney-style as he probes for a submission opening. So, good as this was, it fell short of their peak.
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