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Chess Knight

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  1. Chess Knight
    Ok so if I have this right, Bull is your monster ace, Kong is your hopeful monster ace and Grizzly and Bison are on either side for some reason I dunno. And they all have animal names. They probably did a bit too much in this match, I lost track of piledrivers and I'm not sure that cane had much use considering Grizzly and Bison couldn't even take each other out with it. Kong and Bison are at one point whacking Bull with it and she's showing how much it doesn't bother her, which may have been great, if we hadn't already seen the lower ranked women also not get taken out by it. The good, though, was extremely good. I liked every match up here, and the Kong/Bull hostility trickled down well to Grizzly and Bison. Bison was screaming while attacking Grizzly like they were dating and she caught her cheating. Lots of hair pulling early and the four of these women certainly had a lot of combined hair to pull at. Bull was mostly dismissive of Bison, shrugging off a lot of what she did and bloodying her up. She throws her to Kong's corner at one point, Kong tags in, and we get a stare off before this incredibly awesome moment where Bison dropkicks Bull out of thin air....which Bull of course shrugs off and proceeds to kick the shit out Bison for. Kong kinda tries to stop Bull but eventually just lets it happen, maybe to leave Bison in the deep end and see how she swims. At the time of watching, I had wished that the outcome of that was an actual Kong/Bull interaction, but it leading to Grizzly/Bison round...3 or whatever, at least allowed Bison have some offense again, and we got our moment upcoming so maybe it was better this way. Kong vs. Grizzly didn't feel like quite the slaughter Bull vs. Bison did, but I think maybe the point was that Kong was using Grizzly as a punching bag to shove it in Bull's face, instead of actually being as enthusiastic to kick the shit out of someone the way Bull was. Bull doesn't even try to stop the double teaming against Grizzly until Kong and Bison are both biting her bloody face, which results in them getting to bite Bull's face when she tried to intervene. The small sliver of double teaming against Bull worked, until it didn't, and then we finally get the proper Kong vs. Bull 1v1. It starts off AMAZINGLY as Bull hits a follow up clothesline, and Kong does the weeble-wobble stumble-bumble selling as well as I can possibly imagine it ever being done, at least in this context. She stumbles all the way to a turnbuckle corner and we get a rad shot of Bull's reaction and Kong's smile before they clash more and Kong does go down again. Kong catches Bull with a spinning backfist though which popped people big, and then struggles to get Bull up for what you may possibly call a suplex (but Kong might not as she slams the mat and screams in anger on the kick out). The frustration between the teams builds from there and we start getting more weapons, some arena brawling, and kick out interruptions. I thought it built very naturally (even if, like I said, not every interaction is great), so I think they missed a bit of opportunity for the match to end and its highest heat point by getting back in the ring and working a little too 'normally' after too brief a moment of real chaos. The finish was fine in booking I thought, at least with the little information I have about this promotion in 1990, but the energy was at its flattest of the entire match. All in all I think I'd say like 80% a really great match?
  2. Chess Knight
    One of the thing that separates this from other similar tags I think is how much of a bruiser team the (Wild-Eyed!) Southern Boys come across as in their shoulder tackle, kick-heavy offense. Smothers is so fun to watch here, landing several awesome kicks but somehow making most of them unpracticable in some way. Catching Eaton on the outside with a bit of a fakeout was a huge highlight. The karate bit is perfect, Lane getting those successful shots in only to have his leg caught - and have a look on his face like he forgot that maybe he's not in the dojo right now - not only got a reaction, but actually worked as a tiny bit of 'different style fight' amongst the wrestling (albeit in a humorous way). Smothers wanting to kick everything that moved after that and almost knocking Cornette's teeth down his throat until Cornette bolts it off the apron was the cherry on top. The blind tag during the roll up was terrific and Smothers takes some great barricade smacks, including one where Lane just straight up shoves him off of the apron recklessly. MX were especially tenacious and hasty on top. Eaton's selling after his Alabama jam was awesome. Loved Lane taking some time to taunt Smothers whenever he could. Smothers pulling the ropes so Eaton somersaults to the outside was a great little hope spot. Armstrong's bump on the rope ruled. Great heat on the nearfalls. Cornette looked like a kid who failed a Dracula Halloween costume. If you mentioned everything good about this match you would just have to run a play-by-play of it. Endlessly rewatchable classic.
  3. Chess Knight
    Muto is much more engaging working holds than I remember, and busted this awesome tricked out armdrag out of a collar and elbow while kicking his legs in the air that I can't justify with words. There's a sternness on his face when just keeping basic holds on too that helps take them seriously, instead of assuming he's time-wasting. Sasaki avoiding holds to focus on explosive power moves of course made sense, and also made him stand out as the hungry youngster of the four out to prove himself. It helped add a different flavour to the first ten minutes too since the other three were mostly grappling with the odd stomp or elbow. My favourite bit with Sasaki came when Chono holds the ropes to avoid his dropkick, and its prime opportunity for Chono tag out - he's shaking his head in pain and taking a bit of a walk - but maybe he doesn't need to against such a lower ranked guy and so just stomps directly on Sasaki's head a bit. that is, before crumbling toward his tag corner selling his head more, realising, yeah maybe he needs to get out of there. It's pretty much here where the grappling ends and the genuine attempts at submission really begin. Hase trying to save Sasaki from the STF with a defending Muto was awesome, awesome stuff and the reaction for the rope break was big. So was the one for Sasaki planting Chono in a reversal. Muto getting booed after frustratingly breaking submissions also. Hell the crowd in general started becoming unglued and made for a bastard of an atmosphere in the closing stretch. I think my top 2 New Japan matches of 1990 are pretty unfuckwithable by now, but this is likely #3. Am a little surprised at how great I thought it was.
  4. Chess Knight
    I don't think I've ever seen Mogur outside of trios. If you asked me about Pierroth I would have said I was a fan but it's been so long that I couldn't tell you why aside from the cool mask. I will say this about these two, I pretty much knew just looking at them that Mogur was the tecnico, thought maybe its because he kind of looks like Tito Santana from a distance. The roles were confirmed for me pretty quickly when Mogur's second turned out to be Mascarita Sagrada, not to mention Pierroth's second (Hijo del Gladiador) distracting the referee so Pierroth could break some rules. The first fall was good on its own and great in setting the ground work for a longer match. Pierroth tried multiple times to get a good position going but Mogur just kept one-upping him. Favourite moment being Pierroth getting some awesome armdrag slams down and slapping on a hammerlock to keep pressure on the same arm, only for Mogur to have a badass counter where he rolled up and basically powerslammed Pierroth while on his knees. Maybe could have sold the pain of the arm a bit more but we're talking about a couple minutes of work if memory serves correctly. Pierroth was great in the second fall, he looked almost hopeless for most of it (he struggled to even begin it, really) until delivering a PHENOMENAL low blow headbutt while he was trapped in a head scissors. Awesome rudo move. The third fall was a really good back and forth momentum shifting bout, with the kind of full circle drama that a lucha title match should do well.
  5. Chess Knight
    I said to myself "of course" when Toyota started this with a sprinting dropkick. Little did I know she would follow that up with some of the more aggressive offensive outbursts I've seen in the 1990 viewing so far. Hotta was already bleeding a little by the time she tried to mount an offense of her own, and that she did, by delivering several violent palm strikes and kicks (at least a couple to the face). Hotta tries to put Toyota away with some disgusting looking Boston crabs before the five minute mark and Toyota struggling so early made for a great context that maybe her early hastiness was ill-thought. There was one single leg Boston crab where Hotta was leaning in such a way on that it almost looked like a Fujiwara armbar. Toyota took a beating with of course more than just Boston crabs and, despite all that, I liked the bridge up kick out as a sign of defiance. Hotta was clearly tiring herself out too which to me, added some believability for a potential opening Toyota could find to work her way back. That moment of course did come, and while Toyota was her go-go-go sprinty self for some of it, I liked how she initially just tried to choke Hotta out because it put over her own punishment. This did however fall kind of into the trap of spotty sell territory, though both women were also clearly exhausted which made me see them as mostly pushing past pain and fatigue instead of ignoring it. Mostly. Could have done without that much running from Toyota. I still thought this was pretty great overall.
  6. Chess Knight
    Misawa hasn't entirely washed the Tiger Mask away from himself, but he certainly feels like a guy ready to climb to the ace position. Obviously the focal point of the match was him vs. Jumbo, in fact it's basically beginning of their feud, and correct me if I'm wrong, might be the actual first match where All Japan starts heading into a different era, instead of just planning for it. Not all of the Misawa/Jumbo interactions in this were Tenryu/Jumbo-good, but there was a pull apart where Jumbo dashed over to Misawa after everyone had thought it'd cooled down that lit things all the way up. They got some stiff shots in when they saw an opportune moment if the other was on the apron, too. For it being their first real heated interaction with each other, it was about what you ask for considering the feud was about a torch passing (or taking) and not really about 'disdain' per se. Kobashi, being like two years a pro, took a pretty large beating in this and regularly looked like the weak link, yet a resilient ride-or-die one. Jumbo levelling him really violent body slams was a highlight, I always forget how nasty he was with them sometimes. Kabuki and Fuchi liked to target different limbs of Kobashi's and of course tensions are high enough that Taue and Misawa come in to interrupt things. There were at least two moments where one of them came in while Kobashi was taking a beating, and the other signalled Kobashi over to tag in, which I liked a lot. Hot, loud end stretch as you'd expect. Maybe a questionable selling choice or two but that's one or two among 20+ minutes. Great match.
  7. Chess Knight
    You'd maybe think with 20 minutes there'd only be so much that can be done when you need to get at least two falls in and allow everyone to shine, to justify this match even having this many people, but that memo was thrown in the trash. Choshu is obviously the star, but other than maybe Kobayashi I wouldn't say anyone took a backseat and didn't get appropriate highlights. Saito takes some of the most lunatic back-first spills into a barricade from the apron I think I've ever seen. Hamaguchi has a body like a shrivelled Ivan Putski but unlike Putski has as much energy as anybody in the match. Was delighted to see Hoshino again after all these years removed from the NJPW 80s set; he's such a fun and energetic offensive wrestler. Kurisu becomes furious out of nowhere when Koshinaka gets spilled to the outside and drills chair shots into his head and might even try to spit at the referee when reprimanded. Kurisu actually was the most booed guy in the match which ruled and made every moment with him memorable. Koshinaka kind of felt your New Japan Kikuchi by taking a shit kicking and needing to tag out to someone else on the more babyface-feeling team, before later getting the second fall for his own group. We get moments of bedlam and anybody breaking the rules at any given moment pretty much through the whole run time. The set up for the finish was phenomenal, with Kurisu getting struck by surprise to a massive reaction. Must-see.
  8. Chess Knight
    Awesome as hell 13 minutes. Takano surprisingly takes the first five, catching Tenryu off guard mostly with palm strikes until Tenryu dodges a plancha (which came after a terrific surprise drop kick on a teased test of strength). Tenryu gets most of the match from there until Takano evens the match out a bit again when actually hitting a plancha, this time from standing atop the turnbuckle inside of diving over the rope. The end stretch is really hot and Tenryu sells his leg in the last few minutes because of how he'd been kicking Takano, really adding to the escalation of drama. It especially made for a fantastic closing moment where Tenryu wasn't able to try for a cover on a powerbomb.
  9. Chess Knight
    Everyone is billed as tecnico here on the title cards but that doesn't stop the two teams almost coming to actual blows several times. Cruz almost gets stuck into Chavo when Rocca takes a spill to the outside thanks to him and the Dandy/Azteca exchanges lead to the other four guys coming in to provide a possible cavalry if need be. The Dandy/Azteca battles were all really good to the shock of no one who knows anything about 1990 EMLL, and I loved Dandy adding to the near-rudo style of his team by getting violently pissed being shown up in the second fall and throwing a big clothesline that gets a negative reaction. There's this one bit too where Chavo has Cruz and is ready to let Texano level him, until Chavo lets go of Cruz's arms, because they're like, really trying to play fair, man. It's hard! I liked Texano in the match a lot, he was really aggressively going for Cruz's arm when he first got in and seemed to arrogantly enjoy showing him up in exchanges later. Two fall win for Azteca's team was the right move to create intrigue around how (especially) Dandy would take that kind of loss after how he'd almost lost it a couple times, and not to mention that he'd almost beat Azteca at the end. Really good trio. I only just realised I skipped the match with the same six guys from the previous week so maybe I go back and watch that and maybe get even more context because lord knows what I've forgotten since 2012 or whatever.
  10. Chess Knight
    Lacks the Tenryu/Jumbo interactions since one of those guys is missing, but I think as an overall match I liked this more than Tenryu/Kawada vs. Jumbo/Takagi. It's more kept on the ground, especially thanks to Inoue wanting to suffocate the opposing team, but also has plenty of impatient Tenryu breaking things up when it isn't necessarily entirely legal to do so, and a hot last few minutes. Also this one has Great Kabuki, who's an awesome madman throwing those blows to Tenryu's ear (who sells an ear better than anyone in history), and I can only assume a Tenryu/Kabuki singles match a week later would have been a MOTYC. Kawada is much, much more intense in this tag; he's throwing such a force behind everything that he about trips over Inoue's knocked over body when he an Tenryu deliver a double shoulder block. He also does get almost choked out about twice too, to be fair, and he does a great job balancing that with trying to be fresh after tags by moving slower, holding palm to jaw, etc. I might question why the tags between Tenryu and Kawada are decently frequent after Kawada almost gets his windpipe closed, but I think that would just be projecting my own idea of this being a 'trapped protege' match when it wasn't really that. The last five minutes are really exciting, I thought, and Tenryu takes enough shots to the face within one of those five minutes to justify him not breaking last pinfall even after going out of his way to break almost every other (and a bunch of holds). Bonus points to Inoue ending things with a pin combination after keeping things to the ground most of the match. I really liked this a lot.
  11. Chess Knight
    I thought this was a great, great master vs. underdog match. Yamazaki can be a charisma vacuum but he can also bring a lot of tenacity and hits hard enough for shoot style. And I mean you have to be doing something right to get the kind of reactions he was getting in this match. Being "the underdog" isn't going to do it on its own. Loved the little surprise hits he would get in on Fujiwara, even if it resulted in Fujiwara knowing to counter the hold that followed them. Fujiwara favours Yamazaki's leg for a bit, and you can't help but notice its mainly because Yamazaki keeps foolishly giving it to him. There's one moment where Yamazaki has this poorly applied hold on, and Fujiwara is like a chef sleepwalking through a recipe to show his students how its done, in just standing up and grabbing Yamazaki's leg again with smug look. Yamazaki is on multiple rope breaks before Fujiwara evens hits one and there's this awesome moment where Yamazaki closes in on Fujiwara and tries to drown him in shots, like he's desperately pushing Fujiwara to get an official break count for once. It doesn't pan out as the ref just forces a separation, presumably because Fujiwara was already in the ropes before Yamazaki approached. About ten seconds later Fujiwara floors Yamazaki out to get his, I think, fourth rope break and second Down. It seems about over for the underdog when Fujiwara locks in the armbar named after him, until Yamazaki rolls over and says enough rope breaks, I'm going to knee old man in the head until he lets go. It doesn't immediately work out, but there's at least a sense of struggle coming from Fujiwara, and Yamazaki gets him in at least one uncomfortable position. Even if Fujiwara gets a couple good ones still, you can see the look on his face by now that's he knows he probably won't be dancing circles around the guy any more. Great final moments, even if Fujiwara having his first rope break could have used a bigger reaction, and the high drama didn't last as long as it could have. With more time I think they could have built to a MOTYC but I'm all thumbs up on this one either way.
  12. Chess Knight
    Some pals and I did a top 100 WCW matches poll a long time ago and I can't find any mention of this in any of our posts, and I certainly don't remember watching it, which is wild, because the crowd for this is ballistic. Surely one of us had to know about it? This is maybe not the hottest crowd I've heard in wrestling, but probably at least the hottest crowd I've heard from WCW, other than perhaps Goldberg's biggest reaction or two. They were already hollering like mad people when the match started, but when Sting tagged in and did anything it was like Elvis Presley in the 50s. Sting was great egging them on too, amping them up with yelling (he woo'ed and clapped during a leap frog which was amazing) and milking the build up to moves, like the timing on gorilla pressing Muta to the other heels outside. I liked Flair a lot in this, he's as good a puncher as anyone here and mostly sticks to that plus his chops, leading to him trading blows with Sawyer at a couple points which ruled. The heels cut the nuts off the faces (and therefore the audience) at a couple points by stopping a couple submission attempts, and we get a nice Flair FIP out of it when they break up the figure four. Flair's Irish whip bump over the top rope looked really awesome and I'm not sure how many times he did it exactly like that. You just know the audience is blowing the roof off if Sting gets tagged in and guess what buddy. DQ finish isn't the most gratifying finish but these six have an upcoming Clash match so dangle the carrot and all that. HOOT of a match and a prime example of how working off of the reaction you already have, and keeping it, can help argue a case for a wrestler.
  13. Chess Knight
    Gotta love when everything goes wrong for a stooging Midnights until the FIP. You could nitpick a poorly executed move or two here but structurally this is pretty much flawless classic Southern tag wrestling with some of the most enjoyable double team shine ever. Its a great Jim Cornette match too, I had a lot of fun with the teased fight with Nick Patrick and loved when he yanked Morton's leg and dashed the fuck out of there before getting sprung. Also an insanely fun moment where Cornette turns his back while on the apron, the Midnights get their heads bonked together, and he turns around to find neither of them there but instead Gibson sprinting at him to deliver a punch. I don't really want to potentially open up a can of worms, but this is what I wish 'comedy' wrestling was - just legitimately funny beat downs of heels that doesn't involve people wrestling in slow motion or some shit. The transition from that to the Morton FIP was great with the double bump over the top rope and then the sneak slam by Lane, ending the question of who got the worst of it. The mood changed as the (obviously) mostly pro-RNR crowd went from having fun to having something to yell about. Morton is Morton on the sell, the Midnights frequently tag and keep it interesting, Cornette gets his cheap shots in and Eaton looks incredible especially when dropping his weight down from above. I suppose you can say this could have used some more time after the hot tag but they still got that fantastic tennis racket near fall on Gibson in, and the actual finish rules. One of those matches I hadn't seen in over a decade and I never assumed it wouldn't hold up.
  14. Chess Knight
    One of those dangerous spectacle FMW matches that has plenty of actual collapsing into The Dangerous Thing, but also teases the 'Almost' moments extremely well. Helps a lot that whenever someone got near the barbed wire mats (they're just laying on the floor outside the ring) you heard some high pitch squealing from the audience. Naturally this doesn't take more than a few seconds to become two guys trying to push each other out, and it's like watching a set of attempted royal rumble eliminations, but the actually decent ones where the guy is trying to use his chin strength to push back against the boot. Onita gets dropped out pretty quickly and it was done so suddenly, and with a bit of a slip-looking fall, that I wouldn't bet my life it wasn't an accident. There were a couple awesome moments where Kurisu comes Onita again to stomp on his head while Onita's outside trying to stand, and Onita catches the leg and they tease Kurisu dropping down into the wire. It was I guess a little anticlimactic that on that first one he had a soft fall, and fell mostly between the board and the ring, but it still got a response and Onita's selling is good enough that I liked that it didn't level the playing field yet. I think doing these drops into the wire early was a great move, because after that every blow is rattling someone who's probably bleeding from at minimum six different places. Onita after his second drop alone has at least two visibly nasty gashes. Really felt the weight of the suplexes and powerbombs as a result. Well as a result of that and as a result of these just being two thick dudes. Enjoyed this a lot.
  15. Chess Knight
    I'd like to check this in sequence with the rest of the Tenryu/Jumbo feud but I'm doing 1990 MOTY, and, to be fair, I'm not sure how much I needed to know other than "these two really did not enjoy sharing a locker room," which came across very unsubtly in the match. Kawada looked a little lost throughout and isn't near a world beating striker yet but he sold hard for Jumbo to show the hierarchy imbalance. He and Takagi also had one great moment where Takagi fired off elbows and Kawada fired off headbutts, almost like the disdain between Tenryu and Jumbo was rubbing off on them in a gang war kind of way. But yes this is the Jumbo vs. Tenryu show, with every exchange between them being violent and spiteful and disrespectful and endlessly enjoyable. Tenryu assaulting people on the outside unsurprisingly was also an occurrence. But hey this time they fought back. Maybe would rate this like 3*1/4 if I was a star giver so could have been better given what program its a part of, but a very worthwhile watch.
  16. Chess Knight
    I had two main memories from this from my previous viewing. #1 - it was a great first half and then tapered off a bit in the second, and #2 - Kurisu may have the greatest stomps of any wrestler ever. Not in terms on them looking particularly violent, but just, as natural looking as stomping on someone's head can look. It's like he clips the opponent with tip of his boot to make this great visual. It probably helped that here he was dressed like a wannabe country singer and had those flat toe boots. #2 is definitely still true, but #1 I'm less convinced of. There's some questionable selling and sloppy (the bad kind) moments but unless you're super bothered by street fight tags having tag rules, then I can't see why I necessarily thought the quality dropped too much. The rules are similar to a Texas deathmatch where there's a 10 count after a pinfall but that doesn't come in to play very often, and thankfully there's no "rest period." They replace the resting with a hundred and fifty absurdly violent folding chair shots and this one awesome moment where Kurisu escapes Onita by pulling one of his (flat toe!) shoes off and beating him in the head with it. Dragon Master is the same Dragonmaster (sans space apparently, bare with me I'm going on wikipedia) who was in Gary Hart's corporation thing in WCW, and also helped trained Bret Hart, and this made me want to track down some of that WCW work if only to see if he throws the same amazing clubs in the US that he did here. Match does have its down moments for me but is still awesome.
  17. Chess Knight
    I was surprised how quickly the heat in this match seemed to die down after the bell. It wasn't exactly Hansen vs. Andre but they were exchanging blows and scraping each other's face and shit, I'd expect the audience to not quiet down that much after the bell rings and these two went at it. The match itself could have used more of a reaction, the crowd mostly lived and died with Hansen's offensive opportunities once he started bleeding and trying to survive Doc's onslaught. Williams wasn't reallllly the most engaging on offense but did have several memorable moments like pulling at Hansen's head while they were in the ropes and landing that drop kick on the outside. Hansen showing this much vulnerability is compelling in and of itself so it was definitely enough to carry me through it. And at least we ended things on likely one of the greatest lariat finales of all time like a few in the thread have already said. I would probably appreciate this more on a second viewing.
  18. Chess Knight
    The perfect blend of popular Southern Rock n Roll Express-style glam metal boys against a villainous Mad Max beefhead duo. It's just one of the most purely fun matches of all time and as I've grown older I've become way less inclined to use "fun" as some shorthand for "three stars" or "less than very good." It's a seriously outstanding match. POP aren't remembered as a great team and I can't go to any lengths to prove anyone wrong on that, but you'd be hard pressed to criticise them here or say they wasted any motion. The match had heat from the opening shine and it stayed the whole way through, with POP during the FIP sticking to awesome power moves to show off the strength difference between the teams. And adding a dash of cheating to even add to the heat. There's THE back body drop in this match where Jannetty gets absolutely ludicrous height like he can't figure out how to work one of those bounce rope thingys and tries to stop a non-existent fall....but then he actually falls. There's THE boot that sends Jannetty over the top rope. There's THE sunset flip reversal where Warlord poses and then gets reversed himself by a dropkick. One of my favourite little touches in any FIP probably ever is Jannetty trying to grab the rail to stop being driven into the ring post. The post-hot tag is actually pretty remarkable given the size difference; easily it could have come off as silly that Michaels was firing on such big guys but once he was in, everyone bought POP were in more trouble than a minute prior. Good thing Fuji was there for them. To me this is a top 50 WWE match ever.
  19. Chess Knight
    Well shit, why didn't this get more traction over the years? I watched this because of how great Liger was selling for Sano, but I got the inverse where instead of trying to survive, Liger is the one trying to kill. They don't accomplish much in the first round and a half but the tentative approaching, coupled Liger trying to quickly get a victory through limb holds was enough to carry it. It's not exactly a Kiyoshi Tamura main event but for post-UWF invasion NJPW shoot style...style...ish it definitely works. Things pick way up though when Liger forgoes a clean break while Aoyagi is prone in the ropes and slaps him in the face. A couple stomps later and Aoyagi is bum rushing Liger, punching his head to the ground and tearing at the mask. All the hesitation in Aoyagi's earlier karate kicks (he was a legit karateka) are gone as he swings into Liger full bore. While watching I had a thought that I probably would have preferred him to keep more of an offense after that, but it being a rounds match helped accept Liger fighting back so early. Then the third round starts and I couldn't have cared less if it became a complete squash. Liger is fully unmasked, as in no torn mask they just take it off between round 2 and 3, and he takes Aoyagi down and bloodies him with headbutts. Most of the rest of the match is Aoyagi getting struck continuously in his bloody head with only brief moments of respite, like grappling Liger close, or even when the doctor checked him. Liger basically figured out that grounding a karate fighter who's already bloody made the match a wash. I think it was rife for a rematch too, that I'm worried never existed, or existed but was never taped. Great, great spectacle.
  20. Chess Knight
    All these years later after last watching it, it's still an excellent fight. You'll barely find a more hateful juniors match; it takes a hell of a lot to make a leg drop or a surfboard look like a spiteful move. The first thing that really struck me is how exceptionally good Liger is at using body language to convey his selling, so you see through his mask (his mask was torn for most of this but work with me, the vq doesn't allow to see his face much anyway). There's especially a lot of stumbling, keeping his head low, wobbling his arms that goes a long way in putting over what Sano was doing to him. Speaking of which, I didn't remember so much of the match being so one-sided. It's a great, great mauling from Sano; they do not waste time to get to the mask ripping and bloody faced Liger, while Sano does what he can to keep him in place. Though I'll probably never get fully used to the piledriver being so throwaway in Japanese junior matches but that's how it goes I guess. I thought Liger's big moments of hope were all outstanding. That first dive he got in, where he crawls back in the ring, struggling to capitalise while the audience chants for him was an incredible aesthetic. He about drops himself on his own face reversing suplexes mid-air as well. Want to mention there's a big boot sell from Liger in this that has to be one of the greatest sells of the move ever and it didn't even hit his face but instead the chest. Still an awesome, awesome match and a world class bloody sell from the ace.
  21. Chess Knight
    I would need to rewatch many more matches from the 80s to really find out, but I wouldn't be surprised if I thought these 15-20 minute Flair on TV matches manage the Flair formula better than the 35+ minute arena ones. This one having Flair as a face means it was inherently different to begin with, versus most of the 80s, though. I really liked that because of Flair being face, it lacked Flair taking any shit to start the match off. He got to take most of the first half of the match, enjoying himself and throwing in some violent moments like the ring post shot and chucking Eaton from the apron to the guardrail. Eaton was probably the best wrestler in America in 1990 (more to come on that) and even if he wasn't, the 'worst' Bobby Eaton I can remember is still good at everything he needs to do. I loved how Flair came back near the end, too. he gets a basic stomp and chop in, but the chop sends Eaton outside the ring, who then tries to drag Flair out and go after him before a big ass back body drop reversal on the concrete. Babyface Flair means his Irish whip bump over the top rope actually lets him run all the way across the apron and he can hit a strike off the top rope. Flair getting a revenge tennis racket shot on Cornette really put the cherry on top. Super satisfying tv wrestling.
  22. Chess Knight
    My brother and I used to replay Motorhead's performance on the DVD again and again just to make fun of it. IIRC Lemmy actually missed multiple words.
  23. Chess Knight
    I LOVE that Andre/Slaughter match. I'd recommend Hogan/Andre from the 3/21/81 Philly show as well (same night as Slaughter/Backlund in the cage). Almost couldn't imagine they have a better match against each other. Also Andre/Patterson vs. Patera/Bobby Duncum Jr 3/24/80.
  24. Chess Knight
    Bruno/Patera 3/7/77 is the best Bruno match we have on tape imo. I prefer a few of the Bruno/Graham matches, the 86 Savage/Adonis vs. Bruno/Tito cage, and most of the Zbyszko feud to this Bruno/Hansen as well. I do like it, though.
  25. Chess Knight
    I thought these two ruled here and am at a point where I might have to be talked out of Valentine being top 50 all time. He's an excellent seller, especially bouncing against the ropes, and feels like he has the secret to making it look like a smaller opponent is actually driving him in a direction he doesn't want to go in. This is obviously to say nothing of the no-nonsense stiff elbows, clubs, knees, etc, which can kill the opponent's momentum immediately and believably. The first fall naturally starts tentatively and I don't know how many times I've rewound the first move in any match, but that dive Valentine made for Conway's legs made me. They also got a little "!" moment from me when Valentine threw Conway to the outside and Conway landed hard on a table. I loved the second fall, Conway was mostly fighting upward with a bad leg while peppering Valentine with punches, but the use of the targeted leg was either strangely brilliant, or a happy accident (it could be a signature thing he does?). He was pushing himself forward with his arms/body so the leg didn't have too much pressure put on it, but was still what was mainly being launched at Valentine. The third fall was unfortunately pretty rushed with a weak finish but at least we got Conway biting Valentine in the face. Would have been an easy 'great match' with a better third fall but I'd put it on the borderline as it is.
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