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Everything posted by Zenjo
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There were a couple of commercial breaks, about 10m shown in total. Because of the breaks certain segments of the match felt compressed, like they were trying to fit too much in. As Loss said the TV format of the time wasn't helpful for producing strong matches. This was one of the better efforts of the year I would imagine. It was evenly fought with some funky moves from Hakushi. Bret must have been dispirited in 1995, but didn't let it affect his performances.
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One of those occasions where the end result was less than the sum of its parts. It wasn't the wrestlers fault either. The quality of their work was impressive. Everybody brought something to the table. Malenko was weak at striking but highly skilled on the deck. The others were more balanced shoot style combatants. The ever reliable Sano being best of all. The problem was the format holding them back. It's so hard to transfer the heat after a tag, particularly with an over zealous official demanding clean breaks all the time. They did their best to keep the action flowing, yet it was inevitably disjointed.
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A breezy title bout that was fun throughout. The AAA minis from the era are something I always look forward to. They had a strong crop of workers, with Espectrito being the best of the bunch. Munequito is as cute as a proverbial button, particularly when accompanied by his father. There were a few miscommunicados in the opener, before they tightened up thereafter. A 2-0 was briefly threatened before a longer tercera with plenty of near falls. There were some Tirantes shenanigans, but it never overshadowed the action. It was a real feelgood moment when the tecnico prevailed, much as I love Espectrito.
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Several cuts above your average AAA trios. No 3m stall to begin, high workrate throughout, good focus and things don't go to shit in the 2nd half. Not having a long beatdown appeals to me as well. The interactions between Misterio and Panther were a real treat. Panthro towered over him but Rey was greased lightening. Strong contributions from the others too. Does Super Muneco have a shitty rep? I've just got him down as one of those okay midcard guys who were overshadowed by their mini counterpart, like Espectro or Mascara Sagrada. The execution was pretty good, though not flawless. The finish was the best part. You think you know what's about to happen and then BANG, 180 reversal.
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13:30 of 24m aired. The JIPage might have been beneficial, who knows? An ideal 6 man because it provided a highly entertaining contest in itself whilst also developing storylines. I loved the interactions between Misawa and Kawada. Likewise with Taue vs Kobashi. It's no coincidence those were the two big singles bouts at the end of the tour. You also had a fun cameo from the fired up Honda. He was a headbutting Wildman. Sambo wore bright green, but did not bleed this time. Really fun action. I'd say this was the best AJ 6 man from the second half of the decade.
- 8 replies
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- AJPW
- Summer Action Series
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I think that they clipped a few minutes off the beginning. It was a little on the short side as a result. They just about stuck to the title rules. At one point it almost descended into fisticuffs. Real solid stuff for the most part with consistently decent action. The quality was that of two midcarders having a big match. Nothing standout, but they gave it their best shot. Dantes showed some roguish charisma. I'm not sold on Kain as a singles competitor.
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I'll stick to wrestling original themes, or at least songs not known otherwise. Good taste in music - not likely. Corporate Ministry Demolition 3 Count (Threeeee!) Goldberg WCW Rap is Crap Jive Soul Bro Lex Luger - Slammer NWO Wolfpac Ultimate Warrior - Unstable Simply Ravishing Chuck Palumbo & Sean O'Haire Lord Steven Regal Blue Blazer Evil Doink the Clown AJW Theme of Red Corner Arsion Theme - Aqua Chapparita Asari - Space Flying Soldier Shinsuke Nakamura - Subconscious Chikayo Nagashima - Born to Win Great-o Sasuke Hayabusa - Fight With Dream Io Shirai - Drama Sambo Oishi Jumbo Hori - Star (Trek) Lady Keiji Mutoh - Hold Out Kenta Kobashi - Grand Sword Meiko Satomura - Rock Your Life Away Queen Angels Tomoko Watanabe - Non-Stop Bomber UWFI Theme Mitsuharu Misawa Yumiko Hotta - Assault Machine Yumi Ogura - Heat
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Very sad news. It's hard to imagine suffering a worse injury than that. Life is Strange and unfortunately all too real. He was one of my favourite wrestlers back in 03/04. Hopefully he can have some sort of recovery.
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An interesting one because Anjoh's best bouts usually rely on his strong personality creating a dynamic to play off. This was straight up shoot style. The pacing was tight with no time wasted. There was a nice balance of striking and holds. Very stiff work, particularly from Sano near the end. He crushed him to gain an ultimately convincing victory. A fine effort.
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Initially it looked like a Volk Han exhibition and demonstration was in store. Which is no bad thing as the guy can practically have an entertaining match by himself. Instead the longer it went the tougher the Japanese challenge became. There have been occasions when I've seen Han have a harder match than was necessary because of overconfidence and showmanship. Here it felt like Yamamoto earned every success. It wasn't a case of the youngster being given the rub, he was actually better than people thought he was. The way they achieved this narrative with selling and structure was masterful. It felt so organic. They got everything they wanted out of this. For sure this will be one of the best shoot style bouts of 1995.
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An intense encounter with strong rivalry psychology. Fun moment early on when Chono wanted Hash to tag in and Hirata told him in no uncertain terms not to diss him. All four men performed well and brought something to the party. Super Strong Machine was faring well before his leg was injured. Hash was left to fend for himself 1 vs 2 and was bloodied to boot. His valiant efforts weren't enough as ChoTen begin their dynasty. Very good match. I felt like a lot of the elements were in place for a classic with a few tweaks here and there.
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I do mark out for Pentagon, although I think it's just ironically. You have to appreciate the imagination that goes into EVIL doppelgangers. Usually the bad guy has the darker attire, although Pentagon's costume is still mainly black to be fair. Anyway I wasn't crazy over this. For the most part the tecnicos were on top. They were shining more because of showmanship than great wrestling. The execution was inconsistent. Having just praised Pentagon (well kind of) I should say that I find La Parka's shtick really annoying and think he's overated. He was the principal character here early on. The mask ripping I don't like to see either unless it's a mask match or building towards one. There were positive moments too. Like a lot of AAA matches I enjoyed parts of it rather than the whole.
- 4 replies
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- AAA
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Una sola caida and only went 10m. From an action perspective this had some positive things going down. Very quick paced. There was a decided lack of structure however, which goes back to the wrestlers unfamiliarity with working one fall matches. The kind of thing that would probably have gone down well on a WCW show if they'd given minis a chance.
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This was taped on 5/14 for those of you keeping score at home. 13m of the 15m draw was shown. These two always combined so well as both partners and adversaries. Some nice exchanges that had the purpose of making the face look good at the end of them. It would increasingly become forgotten by both bookers and wrestlers that heels are actually supposed to make babyfaces look impressive. The time limit kept things moving without ever feeling like they were rushed. I liked how the desperation escalated over time as the end loomed nearer. The closing stages were strong. A neat little undercard match, good fun.
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There may be others, but your first retirement match is always the most special. One of those occasions where a veteran goes out of their way to put over a youngster before beating them. They were confined to the ring by explosive barbed wire ropes. I liked how they milked the tension before the first explosion. There were lacerations yet it didn't turn into a bloodbath. Very much Onita formula with him controlling everything. After 15m the ring blew up with debris and smoke everywhere. Hayabusa survived a surprising amount of punishment before finally falling. Emotional scenes in the aftermath. Onita had to be the #1 man for promos in Japan. The fans worshipped him. He was responsible for so many of FMW's finest moments and this was a fitting way to bow out.
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[1995-04-15-AJPW-Championship Carnival] Mitsuharu Misawa vs Akira Taue
Zenjo replied to Loss's topic in April 1995
This was great from the bell. Even before the bell considering the atmosphere. They began with a counter sequence to reference only having met 3 days beforehand. It didn't look choreographed like such things normally would. It's all down to the split second timings of the counters to make yourself look reactive rather than following a set pattern. As Indy wrestling shows this actually takes a fair amount of skill. I loved how the bout was structured with meaningful periods of domination before the momentum switched. The timings of each segment and the transitions were excellent. Whenever Taue got desperate he'd go after the injured eye, drawing heel heat. The crowd couldn't keep up dai boo-ing for long as he was such a fucking boss all tournament. The ring apron nodawa again caused devastation. Just like Kawada and Kobashi before him, Misawa was fighting defensively to survive. The difference was that he was able to cling on and then launch a glorious fightback. Some killer near falls down the stretch. They absolutely could've gone with a Taue win. Any criticisms would be nit-picking. An all time classic.- 23 replies
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- AJPW
- Championship Carnival
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Tagged with:
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Many times, but hardly ever because of sorrow.
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[1995-04-16-NJPW-Battle Rush] Shinya Hashimoto vs Steven Regal
Zenjo replied to Loss's topic in April 1995
An enjoyably different type of title bout. It was a very stiff and spiky encounter where things got heated between the wrestlers. Regal really worked over the champions face, busting his nose early. Hash fired back with vicious kicks and could compete with anyone on the deck. The matwork emphasis along with the breaks and resets gave it a Muga type of feel. With added potatoes. Aside from a few nice holds it sure wasn't pretty. But it sure was brutal and captivating. They also met on 9/21/96 but it wasn't as strong as this.- 15 replies
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I loved the first two encounters in their famous trilogy. I didn't care for this third instalment. There was some entertainment value with the big match atmosphere and natural dynamic between them. The flaws are numerous and severe however. Let's see. The theatrical start was horrible. Takada's selling absolutely sucked. It was too pro style, even for Vader in UWFI. The narrative and structure had been so strong before. Not so here. Vader had lost some of his aura and Takada was also in decline. A big disappointment.
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[1995-04-16-NJPW-Battle Rush] Shinjiro Otani vs Koji Kanemoto
Zenjo replied to Loss's topic in April 1995
The general outline of this was in keeping with the standard Junior structure. The composition of the matwork wasn't particularly captivating in itself. Yet the key difference here was how they interspersed the holds with strikes and touches of rivalry psychology. So they always held my interest. The theme was very much a battle of equals and contemporaries. Ohtani's big match nerves and choking tendencies proving the only difference. The stretch was nice and compact. The finish itself could've been better. Comfortably the best I've seen from Kanemoto this year. -
[1995-04-15-ECW-Hostile City Showdown] Eddy Guerrero vs Dean Malenko
Zenjo replied to Loss's topic in April 1995
As it's ECW I was anticipating that something would happen sooner or later to make me dislike the match. It never did. The early exchanges were quickly paced with indyriffic parity spots. Take a bow. After that it became surprisingly grounded with Deano working over the knee. The latter stages became fairly epic with plenty of close calls. Neither man could quite keep his opponent down for the three. 26m was shown. Possibly there was clipping although I didn't notice it. There are minor flaws you could pick out, but the overall structure is sound and this was a commendable effort from both parties.- 17 replies
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[1995-04-13-AJPW-Championship Carnival] Toshiaki Kawada vs Kenta Kobashi
Zenjo replied to Loss's topic in April 1995
The early stages had the good ol' test of strength and spots rather similar to earlier matches. Then after 10m Kobashi had the dodgy knees worked over. He responded in kind because Kawada's lower limbs were also a vulnerable area. Wrestlers should sometimes think twice before attacking a weakness. It may give their opponent an idea. After the body part work they moved onto the stretch. For me this felt like a draw all the way. If an hour between them can't produce a result then why should half the time be any different? This was a pretty good match, but the least of the Four Corners collisions from this Carny. The execution wasn't all that crisp. The stiffness wasn't full on. Kobashi's mannerisms grated. Low end top 100 for the year probably.- 15 replies
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- AJPW
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There was a topic recently on Unicorn gimmick matches. This would qualify. The one count rule is the main thing to remember, and the wrestlers did very well not to forget. Right Deano? It begins with singles elimination. Kansai crushes the youngster Toyama in 7 seconds. The next period is great as Cuty is able to defeat Dyno, a result that would never happen without the stipulation. They go through the teams and the final matchup is rather conveniently a 5m draw. So it's a deciding 8 person tag. The time with Cuty in the ring was definitely the highlight of the first phase. The Fukuoka periods were weak. Moonsaults can't get a one count, seriously? There were numerous positives to the wacky rules. It was a great leveller as any result was possible with only one count required. Early on it created a lot of urgency. This was best seen when Candy and Yagi were exchanging zero count pinning combinations. Like Loss pointed out there was also a focus on the lower ranked competitors. So I did like the rules, but found the 41m length to be counterproductive. Logically it should be a shorter match. It wasn't just a case of stretching believability, it also exposed a fundamental problem. With no 2 counts they couldn't escalate the damage and the tension. No move could be more effective than any other move. The longer it went on the less tense and dramatic it became. Overall it is a tough one to rate. Plenty of positives yet heavily flawed. It's certainly worth checking out as a unique viewing experience.
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2K18 is only going to be on PS4 and XB1. I usually get the games a year later as the price plummets once the newer version is out. The servers stay open for 19 months so you can still get the 100 CAW's. I'm not that inspired to get 2K17 as there's no story mode and MyCareer is probably still a tedious grindfest.
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[1995-04-12-AJPW-Championship Carnival] Mitsuharu Misawa vs Akira Taue
Zenjo replied to Loss's topic in April 1995
The Carny continues to deliver. Taue dukes it out for 30 minutes with the top dog, competing as an equal. I actually think this is one of those occasions where a countout victory would've worked well. There was good quality wrestling throughout, but the draw was clearly signposted. About 10m in they halted the momentum and did a reset, which was a clear signal to me. Still the crowd were supportive and it's well worth half an hour of your time.- 8 replies
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- AJPW
- Championship Carnival
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