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Zenjo

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  1. Zenjo
    This wasn't able to recreate the magic of the Hasegawa vs Yamada match from earlier in the month. It was good stuff nonetheless. Both participants delivered some hard kicks to the head. Solid enough for the opening 10m before clicking into higher gear. The status gap wasn't apparent before the finish, where Kansai went over with something to spare. It felt like it was cut short a little as the upset wasn't threatened. There was potential for more.
  2. Zenjo
    Kyoko wins the All Pacific Title. Everything else that happened here is better best forgotten. A total misfire with a myriad of problems. Poor execution and some flat out terrible ideas.
  3. Zenjo
    Marinepiad was a major event with four successive title matches. None of them were classics, though all four are worth checking out. No other promotion was putting out cards with so much depth. It's always fun to see young wrestlers levelling up. They weren't quite there yet, but this was a good effort at a big title match. Frenetic action from the start with barely a pause for breath. High quality at times and sloppy at others due to unfamiliarity. It was Malenko who impressed me the most here with her wicked moveset. She didn't lack for talent. Her partner Sakie was most culpable of mistakes. Takako & Yoshida made both good friends and better enemies at the time. Alliances in Puro were often loose.
  4. Zenjo
    It's clipped, although that probably didn't make a huge difference in this case. The AJW TV clipping was so expertly done that it would often pass unnoticed. High energy and youthful exuberance, with exciting action all the way. Hard hitting as well. Hasegawa and Malenko had great chemistry, trying out new double team manoeuvres and copying moves that their partner had taught them. Communicating through the language of wrestling if they couldn't find the words. Sloppy at times, but plenty of fun.
  5. Zenjo
    The Yoshida show as she continues her great year. Her knee, shoulder and elbow are all taped up here. Oh yeah and she'd just worked the previous match on the card! It was a one off event along the lines of Night of Champions with five titles being defended in succession. Both Yoshida and Kyoko found themselves on double duty, ending the night with one title apiece. This was a gruelling and physical battle on a hot summers night. Both were sweating buckets. For Yoshida in particular it was gut check time. A fabulous performance by her in all departments. Impressive technique on offence, great selling to put her opponent over, plus she took the lead in constructing the match. Sakie was reasonably good here, though not on the level of her opponent. At this stage of her career she lacked calmness and sometimes chose the wrong option. The repeated kicks near the end were poor work. Overall a borderline top 20 Joshi match in this great year for women's wrestling.
  6. Zenjo
    From the bell Aja attacked her bald opponent with ferocity and viciousness. Yamada was choked, punched, kicked, stretched and bitten as she had her face worked over. Kong also hammered her with various objects and threw her down the stairs to leave Toshiyo a bloody mess. Aja looked remorseless and sadistic in a great demonstration of the monster heel role. Yet Yamada was able to come back firing with some nasty head kicks in this brutal contest. She just kept swinging. It wasn't enough as Kong advances to the Grand Prix Final. An impressive contest.
  7. Zenjo
    It may have been mentioned how awesome Yoshida was in 1992. Again here she looked like a future superstar. And for one night only they upgraded Sakie '92 for Sakie '94. Her finest performance of the year. Nicely thought out matwork to start as both women had clearly focused areas of attack. Yoshida's shoulder and Hasegawa's leg were the targets. As they stepped it up it looked like a regular length match. Great action and the fans were super into it. It proved to be a false stretch as neither would stay down. At this point they returned to the mat and it's a valid criticism to say they got the pacing "wrong". It would normally bother me, but I've watched this match several times over the years and this is a big exception. The key is how they returned to the body part work from earlier. From a psychology perspective they'd both taken a lot of damage so going back to the injury may well lead to a submission, whilst also allowing you to recover your strength. From here they were able to launch into the 2nd stretch in the closing minutes. This was even more thrilling than the 1st as the exhaustion selling was incredible. Plus Yoshida sold the shoulder the entire match. So many near falls before it went to an epic 30m draw. It wasn't a polished 30m match with every segment timed just right. They'd never done it before. How they coped with the situation and the organic structure meant it never looked like a draw. It felt like a voyage into the unknown as both wrestlers pushed themselves to the absolute limit. One of my favourite matches of the year.
  8. Zenjo
    Okay so he did make it, but I wish he hadn't.
  9. Zenjo
    I know it's not being fair, but I couldn't help comparing this to the main event from the last AJ show at Budokan Hall... Choshu vs Hash matches are a lot down to interpretation. Two guys exchanging simplistic and repetitive moves for 10m and an elbow drop finisher. Or a psychological masterpiece telling tales of rivalry, generations and the shifting sands of time. Take your pick.
  10. Zenjo
    Ishikawa is someone I vaguely remember having seen before. Obviously he never made it. There were two clear highlights in this one. Firstly was the red hot exchange between Ohtani and Taka. Later on there was the dive train. It was certainly an enjoyable match, but also really frustrating. That's because it could've been a whole lot more. With just 5m extra they could've gone on and produced a memorable encounter. Instead they were cut short and not given the opportunity. As such it's forgettable midcard fun.
  11. Zenjo
    Three Legends against three of the top stars from the present generation. The early stages were the pairing off segments that you'll so often see begin 6 mans. It them became more fractious with some fun combinations fighting it out. Decent bout without being anything standout. I found the finish bewildering. Choshu gets pinned by Hase a week before he's due to challenge for the IWGP title. On the surface that makes no sense at all. And Hase reacted to the win like he'd just pinned Hiro Saito. No celebration or expression of surprise. Weird.
  12. Zenjo

    1999 MOTY List

    Zenjo replied to tim's topic in 1999

    Nice Top 50 (+) list Tim. I keep hoping more people will put these out after watching the Yearbooks. Keeping track of the better matches enriches the experience by making you more focused whilst viewing. It's also great for looking back at down the line when things might otherwise become forgotten. Pretty much all the matches I really liked from '99 do well on your list. It's funny how a match I can't recall hearing about in 15 years seems to have become a consensus MOTY here. Your tastes seem to be more Junior centric than a number of the regulars in these threads. 1999 is definitely an underrated year. '98 and '99 tend to get grouped together and I think that's fair. The match output between these years is remarkably similar. There isn't a whole lot of difference when compared with 1990 either. Taking 1999 away from a strictly 90's context makes it even better. It was a year where you can find good to great stuff in a huge range of styles. Apart from the WWF that is, which had it's worst in ring year ever. I was wondering if I missed something and then saw Loss had his highest ranked entry from them at #88. With the horrors of WCW booking and the gradual decline of Puroresu as well, general impressions tended to be unduly negative. Do you have plans to do this for any of the other Yearbooks?
  13. Zenjo
    Kevin Owens is a guy who pisses me off whilst I'm FFing through his matches. I sure don't hate on wrestlers for carrying some extra padding. His conditioning seems fine. His ring style appears to be the contemporary hit bombs, 2 count, OMG I can't believe I haven't won yet expression, run to next spot rubbish. His promos sound as scripted as the next guy's. None of that is the problem. The problem with Kevin Owens is that he looks like a complete bum. I absolutely hate to see any wrestler compete in a T-shirt or sleeveless Tee in this case. It feels disrespectful, like he's shown up and forgotten to pack proper ring attire. The leggings and shorts combination just look ridiculous. His hair and beard are best suited to toilet cleaning. If someone who looked like that sat down near you you'd check your pockets and try to move away before the stench of BO becomes too overpowering. Now looking like a complete loser in the wrestling ring is no problem if you get treated like one. To see such an obvious jobber get pushed hard however feels so, so wrong.
  14. Zenjo
    Yes he had a series of terrible gimmicks. No, none of them ever got over. Yes he had a terrible mullet. No it wasn't as bad as his ringwork. Yes he was Hogan's manservant. No he could never find employment without the Hulkster's help.
  15. Zenjo
    Nobody took care of their Independent Contractors quite like the WWE. Apart from the Mafia perhaps.
  16. Zenjo
    Doesn't look at all promising on paper. Maedomari was generally terrible. Tsuchiya was the subject of much vitriol from Joshi fans back in the day. Watanabe was nowhere near her prime. Yoshinaga was limited. I was wondering why on earth they chose this matchup for the first FMW appearance on an AJW show? Yet this is the most shockingly good match of the year and a testament to the magic of the interpromotional era. Bat Yoshinaga gave an extraordinary performance. She had only been wrestling a few years but played the role of a proud veteran defending her company against outsiders. It reminded me of Kikuchi in the 2002 NOAH vs NJ feud in some regards. Yoshinaga was so full of intensity and anger that Shark barely knew what hit her. Their two partners were in the 'B' role. I really liked the dynamic of Bat having to protect her weaker partner who got bloodied and beaten. I only wish it had gone on a little longer. Normally a compact length would be smart, but nobody could have known this would get so hot. A little preview of the mayhem to come.
  17. Zenjo
    Not for the tag titles. Make no mistake they were going full out in this Tag League The Best '92 encounter. High octane action with plenty of thrills and spills. They aimed for high end, though there were a few minor problems that held it back. Very good rather than great. Yamada was in the form of her life and delivered the best performance. Hotta was also impressive. I always love to see the two kickers squaring off. Toyota brought the goods as well, selling better than normal. Minami was certainly the weakest of the four on this day. She was always a fine worker in the midcard, but lacked the ring presence to make it at main event level. Takako Inoue would become Hotta's regular partner after this and they'd go on to have some special matches. Talking of special matches, they rounded off the tape by having a preview of Dream Rush.
  18. Zenjo
    One of those type of matches that made the promotion so enjoyable to follow in depth. It was fought with such heart and passion, with both girls giving their all. It was a well planned encounter revolving around body part work from both. Yoshida's knee was damaged. Her writhing around in pain during submissions was fantastic. Takako was briefly in trouble with an injured ankle but had it taped up. Exciting climax too with plenty of near falls and the result in the balance. Okay you could pick holes in some of the selling and execution, but that's small change compared to the joy Yoshida brought. And Takako always made everyone else look good. Prolonged body part selling through to the end of the bout wasn't a high priority in AJW. Would it be worth trading off big moves and exciting near falls for more consistent selling in an instance like this? I'd argue that it would've resulted in a lesser bout overall by taking away from areas of strength.
  19. Zenjo
    Marine Wolf explosion! An intelligently planned and well worked match with a fresh feel about it. Back and forth action early on with both trying out moves and submission techniques that you didn't often see then utilise. Then Minami hit her former partner with everything but the kitchen sink, unloading all her finishers. Beforehand you wouldn't have given her a prayer, but they made the upset seem possible. A crunching NLB allowed Hokuto to complete the comeback. These two had a similarly high quality bout on 4/29/91 which made the set.
  20. Zenjo
    Exciting offense from Akira early on. She then had her leg attacked and sold the damage magnificently. Takako should've used more variation in her attacks. The Dangerous Queen came storming back and went over with conviction. Tightly paced and Hokuto was gearing up for next year with this one woman show.
  21. Zenjo
    It's always lots of fun seeing the 3 Orientales teaming. They're all such entertaining characters. There was one time when Mita was tepidly getting ready to square off against Bull. Shimoda just stormed into the ring and sank her teeth into the monster! For a 6 man this was strong and was going along very nicely for the most part. I always feel like good 6 mans are despite of, rather than because of the format. This should've been a top 100 match for the year rather than say top 150. garretta hit the nail on the head about the excess broken pinfalls in this one. The stretch went on too long and eventually outstayed it's welcome. It could sometimes be one of the downsides to the style. By no means essential but worth checking out.
  22. Zenjo
    A lengthy bout that I wouldn't recommend. Despite being for the tag titles it doesn't feel like a big match. The major problem was that the ring ropes came loose. That's always a bad thing, more so than ever with the AJW style. It caused numerous errors and hurt the wrestlers performance levels. It also went on for way too long, particularly for poor Kyoko who had already worked earlier in the card. The most interesting thing was FMW women showing up afterwards in a precursor to the interpromotional conflict.
  23. Zenjo
    So the WWE issued an apology for something that happened 17 years ago. That's a ridiculous modern trend, the idea that people should have to apologise for events that happened in previous centuries. Like when politicians are called on to apologise for slavery or wartime atrocities that occurred before the person in question was even born, much less in power. It may have been a terrible thing at the time but fucking get over it seriously.
  24. Zenjo
    Last time out was the infamous Backdrop Driver match so you knew full well they'd reference it at some stage. It was pretty cool that they left it until the very end. It was one of those matches that starts off poorly and then gets better and better the longer it goes. Before the bell they were all in each others face and I'm anticipating a hot start. Instead they have a lengthy and tedious test of strength. Add in some goofy no selling and things weren't going so great. Then they started to show why they had such good matches together. They were two bulls with heavy artillery colliding head on. Kobashi had more of the offence and when he hit the moonsault it seemed like another upset could be on the cards. Williams survived and only brought the Dangerous Backdrop into play at the death. That was the only move powerful enough to get the job done. If they're going to use head bumps then that's the way to utilise them. In the end it was a worthy follow up to 8/31/93.
  25. Zenjo
    Ditch has this. The start of an interpromotional WAR and man were the fans scorchio. Wild scenes that have to be seen to be believed. Most of the bout was brawling style with both of the home fighters busted open. There was also fighting between the seconds on the floor which enhanced the chaotic nature. Kitahara was lowest ranked so the NJ boys whipped his tail. Kimura became relevant for the first time in years in this feud. He was a semi big name in the 80's before his career had drifted away. The biggest focus, and indeed most of the moves were between Tenryu and Kosh. They established a strong rivalry as GenTen downed his adversary to score the first blow for his promotion. I wouldn't even say that this was a style of wrestling I'm all that fond of normally, but this was an example of how best to do it.
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