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Zenjo

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Everything posted by Zenjo

  1. Zenjo
    Did anyone watching the yearbook not turn the sound right down for this? The sirens were deafening. Matches like this were what Onita built FMW upon and it drew some huge crowds for major shows.
  2. Zenjo
    Pretty much the opposite of Summerslam 92 in the career of the Bulldog. I remember hating this back in 97. In retrospect it's more evidence of how out of control HBK's ego was at the time.
  3. Zenjo
    You know the punchline is coming, it's the way they do it that's great here.
  4. Zenjo
    A Wargames with Mongo, Konnan, Bagwell, Nash and no blood? It sounds promising, but just needs a great angle to make it perfect.
  5. Zenjo
    This was absurd with a commentator pretending he was a referee. The Hall vs Zybyszko feud did seem very popular with the fans so fair enough.
  6. Zenjo
    I remember liking this angle at the time. Who knows where it would've ended up going if Pillman hadn't died?
  7. Zenjo
    You sound suspicious. Austin was such a great character that he could be entertaining for months on TV without having to work a match.
  8. Zenjo
    Goldust is crazy, and wrestling storylines aren't always logical. So let's go along with it for now.
  9. Zenjo
    Stiffness is all about appearance to me as a viewer. How safe and painful the move actually is, that's an issue between the wrestlers. My issue with punches is that it's hard to make them appear stiff. For a strike based match to engage me then the moves need to appear like they might hurt. Watching so much historic puroresu has set my perceptions as a viewer for this. You rarely see punches because they look weak compared with other forms of striking. A lot of US wrestling over the years just has guys using some weak strikes and a few signature moves. It's such a lazy, shallow, limiting style.
  10. Zenjo
    I just dislike punches in general. For a start the closed fist is an illegal move. You can't safely follow through with it like you can with a chop, forearm or kick. So very often the punch is making barely any contact at all and appears phony. A match reliant on two guys throwing weak looking right hands is a huge turn off to me. Stylistically it's one of the things I dislike most about a lot of US wrestling. No stiffness, no skill and no artistry.
  11. Zenjo
    Williams was certainly justifying his push, stepping it up big time once more. Having great opponents doesn't hurt either. There was a world title feel, although it took a while to really get motoring. Doc presented a serious threat with his Backdrop Driver. He hit the Dangerous Backdrop, but not the move he needed to win. There was a long and winding stretch. It amused me how Misawa's elbow went over in every exchange, so it's only appropriate that it won it for him. Forget head drops, the most deadly weapon in all of Puroresu is Misawa's forearms. It didn't have the problems of the Kobashi match, but lacked the high end feel of that contest. So it ranks a bit lower.
  12. Zenjo
    Both men brought such intensity from the start, and it never let up. They layed into each other with brutal strikes and high impact bombs. The Doctor had majority offence but took plenty of damage in return. There was back and forth action and the 28m flew by. Kobashi got so close to victory without quite doing it, the theme of his year. At the end there were the two infamous Backdrop Drivers. It was an insanely dangerous move that could've easily broken his neck. Kobashi should never have got up after the 2nd one. There were also occasional move selection and execution issues that held it back from being top tier AJ. A potentially great match with flaws.
  13. Zenjo
    'Human Cage' sounds like a Lumberjack match I thought reading the listing. But maybe it's not? I kept hoping until I got to the chapter. Oh crap, it's a Lumberjack match. I fucking hate Lumberjack matches.
  14. Zenjo
    I've never been able to understand why the Japanese fans loved Inoki so much as he comes across as such an unlikable person to me. But it's not like I'm ever going to meet the guy, and he did build my 2nd favourite wrestling promotion of all time. As a worker I'm definitely a fan. Sure he was in a load of bad matches and was lazy sometimes. I prefer to judge wrestlers by their positive contributions to the art form. If it's good I'll watch it, if it's bad I'll skip it. Inoki had some of the most famous matches of the 70's. My experience of this decade is thin. A 70's Decadebook or two would be awesome down the line. Just looking back at my 80's NJ set rankings it's surprising how well Inoki comes off. My number 1 match was him vs Masa Saito. He also had strong singles bouts vs Vader, Fujiwara, Choshu, Hansen and even Hogan. You don't even need to have any appreciation for matwork to enjoy some of these.
  15. Zenjo
    I watched the 99 G1 earlier this year and it certainly doesn't warrant this much space. I would go with: Hiroyoshi Tenzan vs Shinya Hashimoto (NJPW G-1 Climax 08/10/99) Yuji Nagata vs Satoshi Kojima (NJPW G-1 Climax 08/10/99) Keiji Mutoh vs Yuji Nagata (NJPW G-1 Climax 08/11/99) Hiroyoshi Tenzan vs Manabu Nakanishi (NJPW G-1 Climax 08/14/99) Keiji Muto vs Manabu Nakanishi (NJPW G-1 Climax 08/15/99) - Finish Only
  16. Zenjo
    The 91 & 92 G1's had the best match as the final. If this had been the 93 final then it would get the praise that it deserves. You'd be hard pressed to find more cerebral bouts than this. For most of the opening 10m Hase worked on the neck area. Unlike other body parts there isn't a list of frequently used moves and holds to select from. If the resultant work is of high quality then the wrestler deserves praise for ingenuity. HH was more than equal to the task, using stunners before they were cool. As it progressed there were clear shifts in momentum and Chono focused on the pre-injured leg. Hase inflicted some leg damage of his own in retaliation. Both men held on to figure-fours outside the ring to try and gain a countout victory. Pursuing such a dishonourable objective showed that victory would be attained by any means necessary. The closing stages were very dramatic with near falls and superb selling. The finishing move was perfection itself. It brought together the neck work and the leg work. It referenced the finisher against Hash where Hase got an upset by using a new move that his opponent couldn't have scouted. And finally by using a variation of Chono's own move it also put across what a big deal it was ending his 11 match unbeaten run in the G1. A highlight in the careers of both men.
  17. Zenjo
    Hase was the star of the tournament by far. Fujinami was a tiresome washed up veteran. The Dullragon wins. It was watchable enough, but not close to being a worthy G1 final. It felt like they were never on the same wavelength. Early on Hase was stunned by a german but Fujinami displayed a lack of killer instinct as he didn't capitalise. Hase came back with some well thought out work on the old timers back. Fujinami's leg work in contrast was uninteresting and poorly executed. The ending could've at least had HH coming close to victory, even if they had to give the 80's legend his G1 win. It sucks that they didn't demote the Dragon down the card, as he only had midcard ability following his bad injury in 1989. Yeah I know that usually doesn't happen to past their prime stars. Except in WCW. Like 1992 this was a G1 notable for one outstanding match, and one wrestlers surprise run to the finals. Overall it was a fairly weak tournament with little to see in the first 2 rounds and an unworthy champion.
  18. Zenjo
    The first 15m of this was leg work from both. The pacing was sedate. Decent enough although I didn't find it particularly captivating. Then Hash began to take control and set him up for the kill. I thought they were setting up for the closing stretch but Hase caught him with a surprise move to get the upset. I was hoping for a bit more from this. I should definitely recommend Hase vs Kengo Kimura as my second favourite match from this tournament. It was a terrific veterans performance from Kimura, the best I've seen from him in the 90's. And Hase was at his peak around this time.
  19. Zenjo
    I would never have guessed this was a main event. It had a midcard kind of feel. This further reinforces my opinion that PWFG was a poor relation to UWFI and RINGS.
  20. Zenjo
    I usually really enjoy this rivalry but the Great Muta gimmick in Japan tilts the hell out of me. Rather than concentrate on having a good match he always feels the need to interject some wacky shit every so often to differentiate it from the regular Keiji Mutoh.
  21. Zenjo
    This is one of my golden memories from my early years of fandom, and 20 years later I still love it. On commentary Heenan was on top form all match. Lawler was comic gold as well during the promo. Explaining how he'd been in a pile-up on the I95 and barely survived the fiery wreckage. Unfortunately due to a horrific knee injury he was barred from competing and Doink was his replacement. The first match was decent enough as an appetiser. Then the King comes in and nails Bret with a crutch. His knee has healed, it's a miracle! He's unfairly forced into fighting and the Hitman gains some initial revenge before tiredness sets in. Quite a hardcore edge to it with some ECW officiating from Bill Alfonso. It only went 7m and who knows how I should rank it? Afterwards Bret refuses to release the Sharpshooter and long live the King. Sports entertainment at it's finest.
  22. Zenjo
    Early on Kaneharu racks up a big points lead and looked impressive in doing so. The beast would fight back and turn it around. Solid stuff. It's always a good sign for a promotion when your undercard workers can produce matches at this level. Takayama may have been unpolished at this stage but the big man always had a big ring presence.
  23. Zenjo
    My proverbial cockles are practically roasting. 37m shown with just one commercial break. It was like a throwback to Flairs glory days of the 1980's, a classic style NWA title bout. For once we had some good commentary until Sid arrived in the booth. They were talking about the history of the rivalry, wrestling strategy and potential outcomes of different results. Some of Jesse rubbed off on Shuhvonny. Flair was past his physical prime yet could still go better than most. He had the 1975 back injury worked on. All the old favourite moves, I never got bored. Okay there were problems with the work. Sting was good rather than excellent and his moveset got exposed. Didn't have a clean finish either. But I applaud their ambition and it's not easy to keep me entertained for north of 30m. At times Sting could barely contain how much he was loving it out there.
  24. Zenjo
    Some nice production during the intro's. Well, by the standards of the time anyway. Caras has cool musica. The booking was fantastic as it covered for Cien's average in ring ability. The first two caidas MS-1 worked over the arm, yet the main action took place outside of the ring. Satanico was getting away with murder helping out his Infernales teammate. The one eyed ref was only concerned with stopping CC's outraged second, Mascara Ano 2000. Eventually he DQ'd him and sent him back to the locker room. This meant Satan had free reign as he and MS-1 manipulated the official. They went to the well once too often though as Satanico also got DQ'd and banished! This was all hugely entertaining and put a big smile on my face. It was now a straight up tercera. By itself it was reasonable enough, although you're not going to get great action with Caras. In this case the smart booking had given them the base that they wouldn't have gotten from working the first two falls straight up. The final fall in a wager match has plenty enough inbuilt excitement once you've arrived there. This wasn't a great match or even close, but it was way better than I anticipated.
  25. Zenjo
    Oh man the primera was rocking the joint with Espectrito ruling it so hard. He's such an amazing worker, I've got to seek out more of the green dude. I love both the lil' tecnicos too. Jerrito was okay. The remainder of the contest was up and down so it didn't fulfil its early promise. There was enough goodness here for the minis to steal the show.
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