WingedEagle
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Everything posted by WingedEagle
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Rey with some nice spots outside with Heavy Metal in the first fall, which the heels win with Psicosis & Parka taking falls. Parka catches Rey on a dive, but misses charging at him in the corner and goes to the floor. Volador sends Psicosis to the floor but no follow up dive as heels regroup. Misterioso & Volador with tandem tope suicidas on Parka & Psicosis. This allows Misterio to pin Heavy Metal with a rana off the ropes for 2nd fall. Cool spot with Parka throwing Misterio onto Psicosis's knee. Parka with a nice throw of Misterio onto the mat out of the corner with Heavy dropping an elbow in a cool spot. Rey killing it in the hot pink tights. Parka loses his mask at one point. A ton slimmer than today, but I enjoy the LA Park of recent vintage a hell of a lot more. Parka with an awesome flipping tope through the ropes. Psicosis pins Misterioso with a splash off the top for the win. Parka dancing with a ring girl between falls is great. This was fun but way too long, as is usually the case here. ***1/2 -
Super heated. Even the WAR crowd seems to be behind Hashimoto. Hash's kicks on Hara while he has Ohara in a crab are awesome. Hash is the ultimate tough guy. Is there any sense of how instrumental this feud was to his rise as a star? Hara is an ultra all time tough guy. Why does it seem like you don't hear much from him after NJPW vs. WAR. Ohara's face bloodied. Hash breaks up a Fuyuki near fall off of a lariat. Hara with another, awesomely impactful lariat that Hash breaks up. Crowd seems to really be behind Ohara but was still hot for WAR's near falls. Hash breaks up another near fall for Fuyuki off of a backdrop suplex. Ohara finally hot tags Hash after he's been out for a while, and he brings the ruckus to Hara before finishing him with a high kick. I also love that Hash can finish a match in so many ways. Mr. Hashimoto graces us the WAR crew with some choice words on the mic afterwards before heading out. I could watch this feud forever. ***3/4
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[1993-03-07-WAR] Koki Kitahara vs Kuniaki Kobayashi
WingedEagle replied to Loss's topic in March 1993
Kitahara goes after Kobayashi as he walks to the ring. Nice! Trading slaps, chops and spitting at each other! Kitahara misses pretty blatantly with a kick that Kobayashi sells as a KO. Crowd seemed oblivious but that was bad. More brawling outside, stiff kicks and Kobayashi with a chair shot. Kobayashi eats another big kick, but back with fisherman suplex for near fall before Kitahara is on top again. Kikahara back with a kick to the head of a kneeling Kobayashi, then a couple stomps and a punt, and ref declares it a knockout. Kitahara attacks again after the match, then gets on the mic and into it with someone else from NJ, and its awesome. These were some violent junior heavies, and heated in a very different way than Dragon/Samurai. Best. Feud. Ever. ***1/2 -
Really terrific video quality for a handheld. Love the heat and clear heel/face structure this takes on a WAR show. Samurai with some nice, stiff kicks and elbows, then a jumping tombstone for a near fall. He works for an extended body sleeper as he goes for a submission. We then move into the flying part of the match and this does not disappoint. Dragon really does contort himself pretty spectacularly on his Asai moonsault. Great, quick countering and pinning attempts down the stretch. Everything is so fast and smooth which requires such a high skill level. Dragon takes it on yet another nice reverse while Samurai refuses to shake hands afterwards. I love that even on the junior heavyweight level WAR/NJPW is heated and doesn't disappoint. ****
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[1993-03-06-USA Wrestling] Junkyard Dog and Boris Zhukov
WingedEagle replied to Loss's topic in March 1993
Clips from last week of JYD at a boys club, then in studio to get an award, then the finish of a JYD squash and being attacked by Zhukov afterwards. Zhukov delivers a completely unintelligble promo. -
[1993-03-06-SMW-TV] Tracy Smothers vs Dirty White Boy
WingedEagle replied to Loss's topic in March 1993
Now this is punching and brawling I can get behind. Dirty White Boy is busted open and bleeds a lot. Smothers got a hell of an offensive run to start this one out until missing a dive which opens things up for White Boy to bloody him up. Just love the sight of these two bloodied and throwing punches and bombs at each other. It doesn't produce a classic or anything, but this is hot and at the high end of what they're going for. This feels like a great way to jumpstart and build a feud coming off of what feels like a non-finish waiting to happen. After Smothers hits a superkick and jawjacker, White Boy distracts the ref which lets Ron Wright get out of his chair for the first time and KO Smother. AWESOME ***1/2 -
Still 5-6 weeks or so until the Rumble, but after last night I think its possible Cena wins at the Rumble. I think this would make for a much better Mania at this point, which certainly isn't something I imagined saying a while back. Still too late to heat Reigns up to that level, but him vs. Cena I think makes for a more interesting card, and lets you do do Lesnar/Taker again (just don't see him being paired with Bryan, who we don't yet know if he'll be back at all, unless Taker is truly out) along with HHH/Sting. If somehow Bryan is healthy and and the Bray/Taker rumors are legit, that would open up that match up as well. Just a lot more options with no Lesnar/Reigns on the books.
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I think it definitely mattered from inception with the Owen/Davey final. As noted above it legit headlined and sold a PPV. Sure it was a European show, but it was integral to the promotion of that show. It also probably officially died as anything that mattered shortly thereafter where it was handed over to HHH.
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Seconding the nominations for Hase & Akiyama.
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Now that is how you do it. Make it clear he's a part of the shows you're selling but hold off on delivering him in the ring.
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Er, 2 Scorpios and a super, super fractional Bagwell?
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Sullivan feeding the birdies on the beach in therapy paid for by SMW. Then he pulls a spike out of his trunks for a bird named Brian Lee and goes to kill it when the video cuts off. Awesome.
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Clips from the Omni with Pillman taking out Douglas' knee post-match. Bagwell is not good here. Over the top facials, illogical offense and just poor working the crowd. Didn't dig him at all. Scorpio can't come in quickly enough. Crowd is pretty hot for Scorpio's selling. You can see Pillman & Austin settling into their act and character here. Bagwell hits the fisherman suplex finisher but Austin lays him out and Pillman covers for win. Simple but nothing special due to MAB. **3/4
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Hot opening with the Blondes taking a powder and Steamer & Douglas following them out. We get both Blondes in peril for an extended run as they're selling very well. We get the same spot here from the 8 man of Steamboat looking to the wrong corner for the hot tag, which he finally gets after flipping out of an Austin atomic drop. Douglas pins Austin on a roll up after the Blondes run into each other. Good but not as great as their other stuff this year. ***1/4
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Bret does a good job painting Yoko as a threat who's undefeated and took out Duggan. Sounds like a lot of crowd noise is piped in. Hart says he'll make Yoko respect him. Very strong vanilla babyface, feels out of place here but obviously good choice to be on top.
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Duggan the family man and patriot talking about being attacked by Yokozuna, which he repeatedly says incorrectly. Says he let his family and the country down. Lots of pandering.
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Setting up Wolfie vs. Miss Texas after JC Ice retained the middleweight title (?) against her previously. They're a great act. Love Wolfie trying to interact with Corey Maclin.
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Clips of Savage in the ring and at various media appearances set to pomp & circumstance. Then he comes out to the WMC studios. Setting up a match vs. Lawler at MSC. He calls out Lawler, and its striking how much work he's had done when you see him here even 20 years ago. Lawler finds his stride at the end saying how Savage is one in a long list of names who've come to take his unified title.
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Jarrett with one of the Hanson brothers behind him. Looks similar to the ones from '92. Mixed in with patriotic clips. Awful. Can't imagine how this worked. Are those actual family clips or random people?
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Why isn't there room for both? Some wrestling matches / movies are fantastic the first time you see them and don't hold up as well years later. Others age incredibly well. Acknowledging 10 years down the road that something sucks doesn't take away from your enjoyment on day 1.
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These are very, very big minis. Nice sequence of choreographed spots in the second fall as well as a couple cool dives that result in a countout with the faces taking two straight falls. Would like to see that in more big matches. Nothing about this was particularly great but they did enough to keep it fun and it was different from the rest of the set. **3/4
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Really enjoyed working American style with more character work and antics. Really interesting to see these guys with more pronounced changes in momentum with a babyface/heel dynamic as opposed to give and take. I liked the spot where they fought over a tombstone that saw Benoit connect only for Liger to get his knees up on the splash that followed. Liger finishes it Muto style with a backbreaker & mooonsault combo. ***1/4
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If Tenryu doesn't have the all time greatest facials, he's right there with Kawada & Kobashi. Love the early struggle with him and Choshu. I also like how the lariat is Choshu's finisher, but he can bust it out at any time. Everything here is so impactful and heated. You're not getting a 20+ minute AJPW epic, but you also know this could end at just about any time so you're basically on the edge of your seat from the word go. Tenryu tossing the ref aside to continue kicking Choshu & then tagging Ishikawa to let him pummel Choshu is great. Kido on a hot tag is unexpected but also great and when he catches Tenryu in an armbar the place comes unglued, and again the second time. These are submissions you absolutely buy as potential finishers because of how these matches play out, even if Tenryu is unlikely to tap to Kido. Choshu saves Kido after one powerbomb, but putting Ishikawa in the scorpion allows Tenryu to deliver another for the win. The fun isn't over yet as we get a solid brawl post-match with the seconds from both promotions involved that sees Tenryu & Choshu held back from going after each other while Hashimoto/Tenryu is still pushed as the big clash of the titans. Not the best match in this feud, but a great one in its own right and yet another example of why this *feud* trumps any other in wrestling. ***3/4
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Akiyama gets a chance to look good against Misawa early, but he quickly tags Taue who is then paired with Kawada. Ogawa/Kikuchi always feels like real equals here and while I'd like to see them have some kind of 3rd from the top, extended singles match, I understand that that's not exactly how Baba did things. Akiyama kills Kikuchi with a lariat which sets up Taue working him over on the floor to great heat, which continues back inside as Taue may not be at the Misawa/Kawada level in the ring, but he's right there at projecting his character. Misawa really had such great rotation on his dropkick. Awesome stiff kick from Kawada to Akiyama after a bodyslam. Taue goes to power bomb Kikuchi, but stops to cut off a saving Misawa with a kick to the throat in a really well timed spot. Misawa's team then rebounds and take turns running through Taue before Akiyama & Ogawa break up a facelock. Akiyama gets a near fall on Misawa with a northern lights in his big spot, then a German as well, but but Misawa flips back from a tiger suplex and puts him away with a couple tiger drivers while the others are tied up. Just another relatively insignificant, but great outing from the best crew in the world. These guys are just so awesome and these matches structured every time out to give each participant a few meaningful moments. ****1/4
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Of course it could get over. So could the US or IC Titles if they were presented as something meaningful week in and week out. But they're not.