Jetlag
-
Posts
2346 -
Joined
-
Last visited
Content Type
Profiles
Forums
Blogs
Everything posted by Jetlag
-
La Gran Guerrera I: Carlos Colon, Invader I, Bruiser Brody, Dutch Mantell & TNT vs Abdullah the Butcher, Hercules Ayala, Chicky Starr, Kareem Muhammad & Grizzly Boone 12/12/87 WWC This is a match where the result is almost better than the match itself. The opening of this is a bit like a battle royal, guys lean against the ropes and punch eachother. Invader #1 is by far the most enthusiastic guy here, throwing hands and really punting Chicky in the balls with a vengeance, while Colon is the one who pops the crowd. The handcuffing stuff doesn't look great altough I dig that Abby has forearms too huge to be handcuffed easily. It comes down to Iron Sheikh vs. Colon and Sheikh is really hammering Colons forehead with his fist. The match feels almost tame for Puerto Rico standards but after the match Sheik tries mutilating Colon with the belt and all the heels beat on the handcuffed faces. I'll say that Rip Rogers is absolutely hilarious on commentary yelling about Domingo Robles.
-
Starr comes in in his pomp. The next thing that happens is Invader angrily beating on him with a stick and having to be restrained. About 10 seconds into the match Starr is a bloody mess and Invader proceeds to make minced meat off of him. Starr does pretty fun job hanging on by a thread and making narrow cheating comebacks. Very very minimalist pro wrestling though which depends on how much you like well executed face vs. Heel stuff.
-
[1975-07-25-AJPW] Giant Baba vs Fritz von Erich (Texas Death)
Jetlag replied to paul sosnowski's topic in July 1975
Fritz von Erich is one of the grittiest pro wrestlers of all time, and slotting him in a double juice last man standing from 1975 produces a suitably gritty result. Fritz may have the greatest grimace in wrestling, as when he is covered in blood he looks straight out of a horror move and when his claw of doom slowly descends on Babas face you can sense real terror. I enjoyed Baba stomping and chopping away at Fritzs arm and shoulder with his giant mutant hands and feet, altough the hand work didn't prevent him from getting CLAW'd. Baba gasping for air like a fish out of water after Erich put the stomach claw on him was an epic visual. Still I wish I could see Fritz having this match against someone a little more energetic than Baba and I thought Baba decimating Fritz with his trademark weak chops wasn't the greatest finish. -
I'm not the biggest Koshinaka fan, but put him in a heated brawl and he can deliver. This was similiar to Koshinaka/Tenryu, and for old sumo guy who will kick you in the face Ishikawa isn't much below Tenryu. Ishikawa kicks, stomps and lariats were obviously incredibly violent, he just circles his prey and drives his boots really hard into the eye sockets, also seconds start brawling at one point (Kitahara spits on rowdy NJPW fans), Koshinaka bleeds and has some crazy selling... the nearfall ladden finishing run is really fun, and at one point Ishikawa drops Koshinaka throat first on the ropes when he went for his goofy hip attack. In short, it was everything a WAR vs. NJPW main event needs to be.
-
I'm a Hiro Saito fan so him getting to work semi main event on a card full of nasty violent brawls is excitig. And this was another really fun nasty violent brawl. It needed some blood, but other than that this delivered. Just two dudes dropping each other with one nastier move after another. Some nasty as hell exposed turnbuckle bumps, and old man Kengo Kimura will still crack your ribs. Saito uses about 3 moves but all in about the stiffest possible variation. He does a nosebreaker which is like a jawbreaker except he breaks the other guys nose, he hits some stiff as hell thrust kicks and of course his senton is the greatest thing in the world. For a match that starts violent they continue to escalate the violence pretty well. Early Saito hits a standing senton – which looked like it absolutely sucked, then later a senton from the 2nd rope which almost knocks Kimura out, when he finally goes to the top rope for the big senton you think Kimura is going to die.
-
This was fun but didn't quite live up to the violent potential of the match, due to SS Machine not really living up to it. Mostly Machine works over Aoyagis bandaged arm while Aoyagi makes fun kick based comebacks. Machines rudo work okay but he really needed to bring a little more violence on a card that was full of violent braws, just don't buy his noodle arm lariats putting away Aoygi. Perfectly fine stuff and there was some good close quarter fighting at one point but feels like a waste of an Aoyagi singles in a heated feud.
-
Uuh what to you think happens in this match. Two thickly built japanese dudes have a tea party or something? No they beat the hell out of eachother. Hara starts this match working like Kurisu, trying to take the match to the outside and brain Saito with chairs. Meanwhile Saito just tries to cave Haras chest in with kicks. I've no idea why no japanese promotion (besides W*ING for a brief moment) has tried to do more with Saito in the 90s because he was a perfectly good b-side Hashimoto and the crowd loved him here. Lots of nasty kicks and lariats, Hara takes bigger bumps than you'd expect from a thick old dude, and they keep it short and sweet.
-
A nice reminder why the NJPW vs. WAR feud was one of the greatest things in history. A mix of great heat and messy out of control violence. This is really pro wrestling vale tudo, two guys trying to fuck eachother up, they would go to the ground, but there would be eye gouging there and as soon as they got up they would throw kicks and headbutts again. Kitahara was just killing Kobayashi here with brutal kicks to the eye and Kobayashi holds up his own just running into Kitahara with headbutts repeatedly. The rules in this were a little weird, there doesn't seem to be pinfalls and Tiger Hattori is watching from ringside like a super libre match. At the end one guy takes a series of brutal DDTs and is choked out and after lying motionlessly for what felt like an eternity they decide to stop the match. Pretty unique and stands out as one of the most brutal match endings in the feud which covers a loooooot of ground.
-
This post cannot be displayed because it is in a password protected forum. Enter Password
-
Double juice brawl with mask ripping. Some of this felt like typical joshi (lots of piledrivers and some slightly easy transitions) but the gritty fighting, brutal chairshots and some nice moments during the finishing run moved this into above average territory. There was a particularily nice dive from Cooga which felt out of a lucha bloodbath in terms of timing. Kimura was probably the most reliable worker in JD' and this was another good showing.
-
They show about 22 minutes of a 60 minute draw. Damn you to hell GAORA TV editors, because this looked damn great, potentially the greatest match Asuka has ever been in. Asuka was working different from her later 90s-early 2000s stuff, no cute stuff or table shenanigans, just straight no nonsense wrestling with little rope running. Most of the first 15 minutes was matwork and Asuka lacing up Bison with kicks. Bison get her in a Stretch Plum which she didn't like at all so she bloodied her mouth and demolished her with a series of brutal kicks. I'm not sure if Asuka was bloodied by Kimuras punches or simple by getting Bisons blood on her, but both of them struggling over a Scorpion Deathlock with the blood all over them was quite the epic visual. The middle portion of about 30 minutes is almost completely removed. The ending looked damn intense with Bison barely getting her shoulders up on a pinfall, Asuka countering Bisons Chop with a Fujiwara armbar and going mad with spinning wheel kicks etc. Really maddening to get robbed of a potential classic like this.
-
About 10 minutes of 15 shown. This starts out with a bang as Yokota misses a big dive to the floor and Cooga lands a Tombstone, then follows up with rabbit punches to the back of the head and Yokotas face, bloodying her. Cooga would continue to work over Yokotas neck, hitting another piledriver on a table and a big knee to the back of the head, while Yokota tried to make technical comebacks. This could've easily built to a classic but instead a wonky transition happens were Cooga apparently injures herself hitting a senton and Yokota just gives her the business hitting 2 kneeling piledrivers on the floor and then beating her with the double underhook kneeling piledriver. Maybe something essential was clipped out but yeah.
-
I love Bison here, cutting off Toyota and not allowing her to run through her usual opening bullshit. She also hit a cool dropkick to the knee while Toyota was in the tree of woe and then gave her a good stretching, really bending the leg while applying the STF, and also doing a cool amateur style leg stretch and carny choke hold. Really nice struggle over a Tapatia there too. Toyotas selling was obviously non existant and the match soon turned into her typical mindless affair, but I somehow liked how her blowing spots allowed Kimura to regain control at times. There really is a world difference between Bison and Toyota here, Bison stumbling around, looking disoriented etc. while nothing affects Toyota at all. There was one really good bit where they starting throwing high kicks with Kimura missing and getting caught in the ropes like Yamazaki, but other than that this was your standard Toyota match, with you rooting for Kimura. She gets to survive some way bigger moves than you expect too so I guess JD' got their moneys worth on this match.
-
This was shown somewhat complete (12 out of 14 minutes) so Bison Kimura working hard wasn't in vain. This was quite the good match between two talented workers you don't hear much talk about. Combat comes in with a bad arm and Kimura pounces right on that. Combat works this as the bigger, badder, tougher woman, using her good arm to swat Bison in the back of the head and hitting huge suplexes. It's really fun to watch these two clobber eachother, I really liked Kimuras well placed chops to the elbow and shoulder, and she was tenacious in attacking the weak spot to gain and keep control. Combat knew how to sell when it counted. It's infuriating that JD' only had a 1 hour TV spot because Bison was a beast.
-
7 minutes of 19 are shown. Early JD's was mad clipped. What was shown here looked good. Lola looked real good here, viciously assaulting and bloodying Yokota early on and then working her over good. She also hit some real heavy sentons and a cool powerbomb into a Giant Swing. The match turned pretty your turn my turn altough it's difficult to judge with so many clips. Yokotas ranas, suplexes etc. are pretty close to perfection in execution.
-
Typical Choshu match with all that entails. You get Choshu slapping the shit out of Chono, and Chono bleeding and trying to take the megastar down. Pretty rough around the edges in terms of layout and Chono isn't very compelling (though I loved his full speed yakuza kick to Choshus face) but the big moments of the match felt brutal.
-
Well, this seems like a no-brainer matchup. Williams is a aggressive and physical. Hashimoto may be the greatest ever at building a match around a physical challenge. And well this is a pretty sweet big burly guy fight in front of a molten hot crowd that was dying to see Hashimoto destroy this mutant. Williams is a little goofy at times but largely holds up his end. You some intense basic holds as well as the freak spots, such as Williams press slamming Hash and a great finish where they avoid the obvious in nice fashion.
-
Takashi Iizuka vs. Khabil Biktashev (NJPW 12/6/1989) It's Sambo Pro Wrestling baby~! Biktashev is yet another East European/Caucasian shooter who fought Naoya Ogawa in judo and is decidedly good at pro wrestling. At this point, can we say the Soviet Union produced the most natural pro wrestlers ever? This is really a hidden gem. It's a rounds match with both guys mostly working the mat and it builds to some really big drama. Biktashev wears a jacket, so Iizuka controls the first round dragging him by the jacket. The second round Biktashev gets some more amateur style takedowns on Iizuka. The 3rd round onwards Iizuka just gives Biktashev the business kicking the crap out of him. Iizuka really looks like he was made for this kind of match, busting out cool takedowns and matwork. He would've had a great career if he had more matches in this style. Biktashev sells really well, the problem with Pro Wrestling is it conditions you to view things like a kick to the ribs or spine as minuscule. Here Biktashev was really selling Iizukas knees and stomps as such, struggling to get up and looking anguished. He was selling so well a big Biktashev chant broke out! Japanese love themselves some soviet judokas when they are gutsy. Finish was pretty great simplistic pro wresting, with Iizuka trying to put Biktashev away with the sleeper and Biktashev trying to throw him off and failing. Really big drama for such a basic move and the failed escapes ruled.
-
Victor Zangiev vs. Osamu Kido (NJPW 12/6/1989) YES! I love me a Zangiev match and I love me a Kido match. And here they are, doing their thing. Some really cool matwork – Zangiev just goes into an unbreakable bridge whenever Kido puts him on his back, while Kido is constantly grabbing armlocks. Really nice finish with Zangiev coming across as this ferocious force only for Kido to trap him.
-
This post cannot be displayed because it is in a password protected forum. Enter Password
-
This post cannot be displayed because it is in a password protected forum. Enter Password
-
This post cannot be displayed because it is in a password protected forum. Enter Password
-
This post cannot be displayed because it is in a password protected forum. Enter Password
-
Uhm... it's these guys fighting eachother for 25 minutes in 2010 FUTEN. We get lot of really good exchanges throughout and an incredibly violent finishing run. The broken down version of Ishikawa/Ikeda is a pretty great matchup in itself, as all their exchanges have this continually exhausted Lawler/Mantell feel. Ishikawa was the far superior grappler by this point and would catch in Ikeda in all kinds of neat submissions, while Ikeda would come through with something incredibly stiff once in a while. It's a testament to Ikedas selling ability that even knowing he can take absolutely insane punishment he can make you believe he was seeing stars after a simple sleeper hold. Ikeda would also keep the grappling violent by just fishhooking Ishikawa repeatedly. Ono was incredible here and may have been the best guy in the match (and the world) at this point. He came across as this super dangerous striker early on (even in a match that has Daisuke Ikeda in it), pounding dudes really violently, flying stomps on the ground. The finishing run is between him and Usuda and it's just this amazing dangerous striker vs. Counter specialist matchup. The cool thing is Ono was avoiding all of Usudas signature spots but Usuda would still catch him, all while fighting for his life. Ono would go for a full force stomp that would likely cave Usudas face in only for Usuda to slip and lock in a submission. Increasingly violent saves were pretty gnarly with Usuda and Ono taking some sick headbutts and kicks while entangled in leglocks. Also, Onos lightning fast submissions were amazing.
-
Another really good match built around Hashi as a dangerous monster. For a junior he does that remarkably well. Largely strike based match, which as not a bad thing as these guys aren't pussies when it comes to striking. Lots of nice palm strike flurries, and they build the match pretty well. Hara is initially able to avoid the big Hashi strikes but Hashi grabs him and drops him with a big Ki Crusher which is a spot that kind of rules in the middle of a shootstyle strike exchange. Really good ultra stiff Mantell/Lawler exchanges for the finish, with the headbutts being of course insane.