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Chess Knight

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  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. 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.
  4. 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.
  5. 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.
  6. 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.
  7. 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.
  8. 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.
  9. 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.
  10. 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.
  11. 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.
  12. 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.
  13. 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.
  14. 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.
  15. 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.
  16. 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.
  17. 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.
  18. 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.
  19. 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.
  20. Chess Knight
    If Fulton had actually been able to use the bullwhip to finish both heels instead of just one spot before the bell rang, I might be calling this a classic. As it stands I think it's still a tremendous match filled with memorable moments. First ten minutes are mostly four guys constantly making a mad dash for the bullwhip, and if you're gonna make a mad dash for something you make a mad dash like these four. There are a lot of tag matches where you can say "this didn't take long too break down", but this one legit took about ten seconds before all four guys were in the ring and two were sprinting for the bullwhip - and it basically never recovered. There wasn't even really a "hot tag" at the end so much as just Rogers getting violently pissed off and coming in to throw dropkicks. Rogers was absolutely awesome in this, with his noodle-bodied bumping, especially up on that pole to start the match, flinging himself left and right and not being afraid at all to tease falling off onto every surface. Even the way he hit the floor to sell a punch. My God though, Dundee was just an outrageously great wrestling personality, stirring up all kinds of shit before the bell had even rung, trying to climb the pole behind the ref's back when not legal, hiding foreign objects, sneaking a low blow in to drag Fulton off the top rope, the way he sold his hand after punching the pole. I really felt the exhaustion as this went on; there was a clear difference in how these guys looked two minutes in trying to run for the rope, and eight minutes in trying to do the same. Shout out to Fulton selling his nuts from the low blow after punching Dundee in the mouth. That finish did kind of fall a little flat, but I really thought this was 'holy shit' great.
  21. Chess Knight
    Found the first 5 minutes pretty pedestrian with Doc's 5/10 punches and the focus on collar and elbow/headlocks, but after that this picks up like nothin. They got so much mileage out of that first near-ten count alone; even after Gordy got back into the swing of things, he had to drape himself over the top rope in exhaustion. I don't remember the last time I watched much of Gordy, but I can't remember enjoying him this much outside of MVC's little run with the Steiners in WCW. He really came off like a violent force running Doc into the turnbuckles or getting that surprise piledriver for Doc's first near-ten count. And that blade job was NUTS, his torso had a huge set of splats like someone threw a peach onto concrete. I wasn't big on the finish/double count, I think Doc winning with the revenge piledriver would have been perfect, but everything else post-Doc comeback was still super great. Hell of a match.
  22. Chess Knight
    I was actually going to mention Claudio but I think his defining performance is vs. Kofi in 2013, the absolute ideal one man show vs. almost a total non-entity. Several awesome moments that made Claudio look incredibly smart while targeting the leg, like the one-legged swing, and double stomping it. I like the best Cena match a lot (2/17/14) but I have no enthusiasm for it when thinking about it. It's maybe the best example of how he could easily be planted in a main event scene without a hiccup, though.
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  24. Chess Knight
    This is maybe purely stylistic preferences talking but I can envision a universe where Jamie Noble goes full Battlarts and has a total classic. What about Matt Sydal? He was always a great underdog babyface worker but has maybe one match I can think of (vs. Chavo) that could be put beside dozens of babyface-from-beneath WWE matches. On the opposite side (heel-from-atop), I'm a huge Mark Henry fan and he has way more really good matches than people give him credit for, but I dunno if I could name THE Mark Henry match that hit the highest possible ceiling. Maybe I need to rewatch some of that 2008 ECW I loved so much. I don't wanna make this thread about Raven discourse and I'm really not a fan of him, but his match with Rhino at Backlash is like pretty much a perfect WWF gimmick match to me. I could theoretically see him having better with an Austin, though.
  25. Chess Knight
    My mind bugged the fuck out when Van Buyten was trying to get a hold on and was doing so by pushing down on Andre's leg like he was trying to force a log down a wood chipper. Simple thing and I've never seen anything like it. The amount of desperation he had trying to do as much as possible before Andre threw him away - while still balancing it with slow paced wrenching - was incredible. The ranas were a great way to throw Andre off, and Andre was visibly huffing after taking them, showing that they were waring him down. Andre eventually kicking Van Buyten's ass with uppercut blows that Van Buyten just couldn't really come back from was just the perfect peak. Like a black and white grainy camera version of a superhero being constantly flattened by a giant. Andre being basically unaffected by the dropkick was a great moment too. IL N'A PAS BOUGÉ! IL N'A PAS BOUGÉ!!
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