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Zenjo

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Everything posted by Zenjo

  1. Zenjo
    This was the biggest show in the history of UWFI, drawing 46,000 to the Jingu Stadium. It was built up as well as a major world title boxing match. Several legends were there including Lou Thesz and they played the national anthems. Vader was perfectly cast as the unstoppable monster heel. Takada had grown into the Inoki role as the native hero fighting off the big bad foreigner. Yeah it was cheesy, but as a big show spectacle main event they got this just right. Vader was dominant with his huge weight advantage and would've won easily had they been using the 15 points system. Takada had to weather the storm and fight back with his potent kicks. He hung in there long enough for the big man to tire and then locked in the Jujigatame FTW. Epic sell job from Vader afterwards, acting like the arm was broken. For everyone else a feelgood moment.
  2. Zenjo
    That's definitely a AAA banner on the ring, but like Loss mentioned this was straight out of CMLL. Two guys I'd associate with that promotion and also the match style. Satan got the jump start and soon leaves his former teammate a bloody mess and one fall down. Both favours would be gladly returned in this gritty brawl. There was nothing fancy, just plenty of intensity and hatred. An old school wager match that I certainly enjoyed. However for it to reach higher levels for me it needs to have better action than this. It was a bit too stripped down and either needed some more power moves, dives or near falls. Maybe some matwork if they hadn't gone straight to the blood. Basically that something extra to bring the quality of the action closer to that of the psychology.
  3. Zenjo
    This looked awesome on paper, and they largely satisfied my expectations. It makes the stipulation all the sweeter when there's two amazing heads of hair on the line. One Adonis of the squared circle would lose his locks and make the chicas cry. The combatants had history and beforehand they showed clips of them both being trimmed after a DCO in 1989. The first two falls were quite brisk and then a longer tercera. Lively action throughout in addition to the strong rivalry. Dandy took some awesome bumps, particularly one to the ring post. It was Lucha dramatica with near falls. The ending was really fun as Charles used smart ring positioning to obscure the testicular squeeze FTW. Dandy got screwed and it was back to square 1 for the mullet. Really good wager match that just needed some blood to take it to the next level.
  4. Zenjo
    Joe Malenko - Charisma didn't exactly run in the family but Dean got what was going. Worked a really dry, technical style.
  5. Zenjo
    You need lots of holes in your head, but +1 to the sentiment.
  6. Zenjo
    Yes it was easy to keep track of the pecking order. I certainly couldn't tell you the chronology of most of the titles. A wrestler defeating a higher ranked opponent was more important than holding most of the titles. A number of them were just props that served little purpose as nearly half the roster would have one or two belts at any one time. Wrestlers wouldn't even bother bringing them out to the ring unless they were being defended, and they were forgotten about for months at a time. I'd have preferred it streamlined down to: AJW Junior - For rookies and 2nd year pros was fine. AJW Tag Titles - For midcarders to have something to fight over. The AJW singles title wasn't necessary. All Pacific Title - Upper card. WWWA Tag & Singles - Main eventers. This is for pre Summer 1997. After that I think they had more titles than wrestlers on the roster.
  7. Zenjo
    Mocha Cota - Fingers are overrated. Perro Aguayo Sr - Fluffy boots are underrated. Hiroshi Hase - In honour of Movember. Brazo de Plata - Perhaps I used to be slightly repulsed, but now I have fallen for Super Porky's charms. Shinya Hashimoto - He did it his way.
  8. Zenjo
    It's always nice to read about the good old days when wrestling was still real to 17 year olds.
  9. Zenjo
    The shoot style tag format is deeply flawed and I wasn't that into Severn or Berkovich. However there were some fun moments here and plenty of bad blood. Hashimikov looked like such a beast and Albright was impressive as usual. I was left wanting to see a singles instead of the tag match. Although I doubt that it would've been much good.
  10. Zenjo
    They should've stopped this feud after the second match. When wrestlers face each other multiple times in a short time period then the law of diminishing returns usually sets in. It's actually quite rare they would do this in Mexico, as singles bouts are generally well spread out. Flogging a good feud to death is more WWE booking. I preferred this to match #3 in the series but it never rose above solid level and the double pin was a wretched finish. It was more the level I might have expected from Metal in singles. He had a good reputation back in the day, but in my eyes Santo was carrying him to the 2 good matches they had.
  11. Zenjo
    Continuing on from the G1, this time period was the pinnacle of Hase's career. They went 27m here and gave it everything they had. Plenty of pure wrestling to enjoy as they worked the mat extensively. Both were highly proficient in this area and had me engrossed. Because of the focus the match felt quite epic as it progressed. Near the end I was going to tag this as very good with a couple of minor issues. There was an outside segment that felt out of place and then a short spell in the stretch when they lost cohesion. Then BOOM! Mutoh nails this ridiculously awesome Judo throw I've never seen from him, follows it up with two Dragon Suplexes and then the moonsault. A thrilling ending that had me jumping out of my seat! That certainly ratcheted the rating up. Excellent showing from both men in a match that reminded me of Hase vs Liger 5/6/91.
  12. Zenjo
    Okay I got the right review this time. So in the G1 Hase had a succession of high profile singles matches in which he was in the form of his life. Then in the next tour they're trying to recreate the magic by having him face Tenryu, Mutoh and Hashimoto in the space of 3 days! The good news is that HH continued ruling and all 3 were worthy additions to the Yearbook. More helpings of pleasing matwork. One thing I liked was how Hase had the majority of the offence, yet ended up doing the majority of the selling due to his bad wheel. Storyline-wise the previous bouts had taken a bit out of him as Hash always looked the likely victor. The IWGP champion couldn't quite get the win with a regular DDT, so he ascended the bottom turnbuckle for additional leverage. That made the marginal difference turning 2 into 3. NJ would often feature clever little touches of psychology like this in their finishes. Overall they achieved the good match that they set out to provide.
  13. Zenjo
    You had the relative youth vs experience and the home defender vs the outsider. This was a sell out in Yokohama Arena, back in the days before the Yokohama fans got zombiefied. They created a nice atmosphere as Tenryu continued his run through the NJ roster. Both tried to assert their manliness early on, which benefitted the veterans superior strikes. Hase's better athleticism allowed him to keep up in this keenly fought contest. He survived a lot of damage and briefly threatened the upset. With the pieces in place I felt like this should've reached higher than 'good' level. Yet there were times it was clear that they weren't on the same wavelength. One man would be waiting for a move and the other wasn't sure what they wanted him to do. They required more ring time together.
  14. Zenjo
    Edit: Entered a review for the wrong match, which may well be confusing.
  15. Zenjo
    They brought a strong intensity to the whole contest with plenty of rivalry psychology. It was nearly 30m although it didn't feel that long. There was certainly excitement as Kawada survived everything that Kobashi could throw at him. I certainly enjoyed it, yet throughout the whole thing something was bugging me. The structure was hard to follow. There were stages where I couldn't tell you where they were in the match. On the surface it was excellent, but the underlying work wasn't that strong. Still, 3rd tier classic AJ is still equal to or better than top matches from many other promotions.
  16. Zenjo
    Wow did this ever NOT deliver. I remember that I moderately liked it on first viewing. Not anymore. The work wasn't any good and the format sucked. The way they were trying to explain the rules beforehand was laughable. I can understand having pinfalls and then a 10 count immediately afterwards, but not with a 30 second rest period.
  17. Zenjo
    Around this time Regal used to be my favourite wrestler. I still like him but not half as much as 20 years ago. There were some nice reversal sequences early on with Davey displaying uncharacteristic technique. His Lordship then worked on the ribs for a while before a quick tease near the time limit. It was okay but nothing notable in the context of the yearbook.
  18. Zenjo
    It's Pavel Orlov. Not how I'd choose to spend Christmas Day. Still it was decent enough with a few highlights. Kopylov was a bit better and merited the win. The fans weren't sure who to root for in this all-Russian affair.
  19. Zenjo
    I enjoyed their previous two encounters this year, so found this to be a big let down. Santo let Metal dictate most of the time and it wasn't pretty. This matchup needed Santito at the top of his game to carry his opponent, and he was nowhere close on this night.
  20. Zenjo
    They clipped 6m off and I'd rather they hadn't. It was Heavies vs Juniors but Chono wasn't that much bigger than Benoit and Liger. They had a lot more success against him than against Hash. The Juniors put up a good showing and were holding off the eventual kill. Then Liger shocks Chono with a cradle for a huge upset! Very nicely done and the fans loved it.
  21. Zenjo
    Agree about the entrance themes, same with UWFI. NJ would sometimes have them as well but not all the time. It was clear that these two men had been sparring with a certain Mr Han. They were tying each other up in knots most of the time. There weren't many strikes, although they caught a couple of heavy blows. Overall it was quite impressive and they were well matched opponents. However this would've been improved by a shorter duration as neither had the best stamina.
  22. Zenjo
    Given that it only went 8m and was pretty much a squash it's surprising how much fun this is. Han had a decided height and weight advantage, manhandling his opponent. He ruled it hard on the mat and the hot crowd were behind the underdog. The Russian had all these innovative holds that would simultaneously neutralise one limb whilst attacking another, or even causing pain to both.
  23. Zenjo
    Great post pantherwagner. I've always been happy to accept Lucha title matches for what they are, but it's very interesting to learn about why they are that way. Was it just EMLL and the UWA that used to run the big arenas in the 80's? Was WWA in the Monterrey area the 3rd biggest promotion? How dominant were the top promotions in comparison with later years?
  24. Zenjo
    In a nice piece of long term booking this was the 4th consecutive year that Kong and Ito had a televised singles bout. Ito was her long time second before joining a group led by Toyota in 1995. Each year Ito would get closer and this time she was able to get a draw. She'd have probably won in 98. So the booking was strong but the match certainly wasn't. It was approached from the attitude of 'how do we fill the time?' It wasn't planned well at all, with slow pacing and too much outside stuff. The tag title match from this show is underwhelming too.
  25. Zenjo
    Kyoko forms the AJW Triple Crown, which really didn't mean much. A short while later she would vacate the All Pacific belt and the IWA title was abandoned. I could never see what the point was of having two second tier titles, as well as a third tier (AJW Title) and forth tier (AJW Junior Title). Plus there were always at least two sets of tag titles in circulation. Even hardcore fans of the promotion would have a hard time telling you who held them all at any one time. Early on the WWWA champion was in control and there was a nice underdog dynamic. Takako couldn't string anything together. Then Kyoko's bad shoulder became a factor. Takako should've concentrated on that but did some silly stuff with chairs instead. Generally it was solid before threatening to burst into life near the finish when it looked like the upset might be on. Unfortunately the momentum at the finish was hurt by Kyoko no selling the Destiny Hammer and especially the botched pinfall. I don't know whether the ref was to blame or Takako? If the ending had been good then I would call this an omission, but as it is I can't recommend it.
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