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Everything posted by Jetlag
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This was a fun match but it was more like two pros having a solid match on a small show rather than something outstanding. I was hoping for some violence, but lazy heel Ishii was in full swing here, and Hidaka is the first to land a stiff shot when he caught Ishii with a surprise leg kick that was probably the one great moment of the match. I liked a lot of this as both guys have nice offense without being predictable and the finishing stretch was cool with Ishii making use of the WAR special and Hidaka working his leg over.
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Not as epic as their match 2 weeks later but still tightly worked, smart professional wrestling. It was a pretty different match from their later match which shows these guys aren't one trick ponies. Once again the match had lots of cool matwork. Quance dominated more here and looked good doing that but obviously it wasn't as exciting as Super Dragon crushing a dude. The match was a 20 minute ironman and they do a nice job going 20 minutes without a fall. In total it feels like a setup for the postmatch angle altough not in a bad way.
- 1 reply
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- 2002
- october 11
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(and 3 more)
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Another good match between these two. Man the folks going to this garage got to see a lot of great wrestling. This had a bit more traditional layout with Quance dominating early on the mat and hitting armdrags before Dragon takes out his legs with nasty dropkicks to the knee. Quance looked good again working snug nelson holds and leg trips on the ground. His limping leg selling was also pretty good. Super Dragon did a nice job saving 1 or 2 sloppy moments of his technico opponent, smacked him around while applying leglocks and hit a brutal double stomp to the leg. This did not have as many nearfalls as their other matches which is probably a good thing. Instead of your-turn-my-turn stuff Quance tried to comeback and failed, then Dragon finished him off catching a rollup attempt and hitting a Dragon Suplex into a Psycho Driver for the badass finish.
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Really fun indy tag. I liked the opening exchanges, lucharesu armdrags and nice fireman carry takeovers, and Quance & Frantz sticking to working a basic hammerlock control segment while the crowd amused themselves heckling Disco Machine was a nice change of pace. They also hit some great flip dives. Super Dragon was obviously the best guy in the match as he was crushing dudes anytime he stepped in the ring. B-Boy was fine hitting random big moves and he had one pretty great dropkick and submission nearfall. They go pretty overboard for the finishing run and I thought Frantzs comeback looked too easy but there were also plenty of crushing big moves such as a pretty great Doomsday Device variation with Super Dragon hitting a UFO to the back of the guys head. Also lots of guys flying into the ring to break up pinfalls.
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Borderline great match well worth powering through the absolutely awful commentary. They worked a slightly more intricate version of their usual match here, adding some especially cool counters and cut offs to the mix. The main reason the work between these two guys ages well is that instead of building to thigh slapping flying knee strikes or Go 2 Sleep variations they add stiff kicks to the chest and nasty turnbuckle bumps to the mix. Note how violent something like Kis hair pulling toss felt not to mention the headbutts. Could've gone longer but I guess that's a good thing.
- 1 reply
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- 2002
- november 10
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(and 3 more)
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Okay now, seems like Sakata was really getting it at this point. Sato has looked solid all year doing shootstyle matwork, but he wasn't really capable of creating great moments on his own. Here there were a number of great, well timed moments, most of them involving Sakata almost KO'ing Sato. Every movement counted here. Most importantly, Sakata looked like he was ready to snap this pasty nerd in half.
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Rutten has been quite the consistent worker in NJPW. His strikes are so crazy that you buy him just caving in Nakanishis face any second. Rutten has such an aura that anytime Nakanishi can get a move in on him is impressive. There are a few spots that they pull off much better than you'd think, and Rutten gets thrown around. Nakanishis selling in the last couple seconds was shockingly good, not something I thought he had in him. Also loved him trying to power out of the flying armbar a split second after getting caught.
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@NintendoLogic https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HT23HUwYNHE
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I finally got to watch the Sabre/Strong match I was given. Pretty fun match, altough it's jarring how Sabre does the same couple spots and holds in this match as 3 years later. He's like Flair in there making all kinds of different opponents put the same holds on him. Strong is someone I like and nothing more as too often he is basically playing mini Dean Malenko. His vicious stomps are great, but there's not enough of them, plus he doesn't show any charisma.
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Stiff, uncooperative shootstyle pro wrestling. Apparently this was Yokois first match ever and he looked good right from the get go. Whenever Sato & Sai got too uppity he would start throwing punches. I also loved how he kept blocking Sais irish whip attempts and, once he had Sai prone, ran the ropes himself and blasted him with a huge dropkick. Sakata is at his best when he acts like a dick and there was plenty of that here. I also liked how he acted like he was a class above all these greenhorns. There were some brutal saves in this match aswell. Sai took a big beating, getting bloodied by a Sakata spin kick and punched in the face by Yokoi. Sato & Sai were effective underdogs here, never getting in too much offense, and when they got something it would hit with a thud.
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Hernandez is next on the list of Big Massive Gaijins for Hashimoto to destroy. Hernandez didn't do any of the cool amateur moves that he did when he fought Koichiru Kimura 2 years before this. This had one or two neat moments and of course Hashimoto annihilating a fool but was basically just a sub 5 minute squash. Altough it was decidedly cool to see Hashimoto not play nice guy trying to carry some dullard for once and just taking it home.
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- zero1
- shinya hashimoto
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(and 3 more)
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BattlARTS vs. ZERO1 feud continues. And this was a real good match! I mean, that shouldn't come as a surprise, but I was expecting something fishy to happen here. But nope, they get to do their thing for 15+ minutes. Plenty of hate, stiff shots and neat moments, of course. There was lots of back and forth, altough nothing egregious. I guess this was the Z1 guys giving a shot at working a BattlARTS style rhythm. No shootstyle matwork besides a few counters, but lots of nice snug work. Tanaka was pretty efficient working with the BattlARTS dudes and Ohtani kept the crowd into it with his charisma.
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- masato tanaka
- yuki ishikawa
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(and 4 more)
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Sakata had the vibe of someone who was just getting the hang of how to pro wrestle here, but after a somewhat tentative opening this turned into a shockingly good match. Takaiwa has been efficient against shooters and this was no exception. Sakata had it all over Takaiwa here, basically making him his punching bag, working submission counters and throwing him around with massive suplexes. Takaiwas only chance was to crowbar Sakata into oblivion. Muscling Sakata into the Death Valley Bomb may have been Takaiwas finest moment ever here. We get lots of brutal lariats (obviously), but Takaiwa really earns his salt eating one nasty kick from Sakata after another, getting double stomped and almost submitted a couple times. Awesome jaw breaking finish.
- 2 replies
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- wataru sakata
- zero1
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(and 3 more)
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[2002-04-27-ZERO-ONE] Shinjiro Ohtani vs Yuki Ishikawa
Jetlag replied to Microstatistics's topic in April 2002
YO! This match is two sided. First of all, they level some epic beatings on eachother here. No doubt about it. Ohtani goes at Ishikawa like he just caught him with his daughter. Just punishing him with kicks, slaps, bloodying him, some nasty as hell face grinding, and he slaps the ring boys too for good measure. Ishikawa makes one or two epic comebacks, including one where he just punches Ohtani square in the face and another where he hits one of his stiffest enzuigiris ever and then tries to break Otanis arm in several places. So you feel like you are watching an epic fight, but then the match seemed to be lacking in well thought out transitions or some kind of twist and also it's all over in less than 9 minutes. For that there is plenty of asskicking going on here, but other than that – I guess I just expect deeper material from Ishikawa who is a master of the neat touch even in a short wild brawl. Then again this was largely the Otani show. But – if you want to tune out and watch two surely elderly japanese men throw the kitchen sink, this is your stuff.- 1 reply
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- Shinjiro Ohtani
- Yuki Ishikawa
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(and 2 more)
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More meth lab BattlARTS. This starts out with some somewhat conventional, good lock ups and grappling, altough quickly devolves into a gritty seedy fight. Watching these two fight over pin attempts and submissions is way more interesting than skinny juniors running through choreographed reversals. Hero looked good working over Ian with stiff strikes and Ian once again just pasted him with european uppercuts and crossfaces. There was some nasty as hell legwork with Hero wrapping tape around his leg to protect himself. The vocal selling was pretty outstanding too. Great post match with Ian having his knee popped back in place. The IWA MS crowd proves they are true connoisseurs by giving this a standing ovation.
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Two of indy wrestlings greatest asskickers level epic beatings to eachother. Virtually every blow in this match landed with a major thud. The match lacked in transitions, but the sheer assbeating will keep you watching till the end. Ki looked amazing as not only was making minced meat of his bigger, menacing opponent with rapid fire Kawada kicks and flying kicks to the face but also locking in crazy armbars. Joe countering the Dragon Sleeper into his Island Driver was inspired. Pretty great finish.
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[2002-03-30-ROH-Round Robin Challenge] Low Ki vs American Dragon
Jetlag replied to Loss's topic in March 2002
Not as great as the JAPW match, but still insanely tightly worked, stiff pro wrestling that blows away all the current wannabe shooters (and everyone else too). They mostly struggle over holds while pounding the daylights out of eachother. Kis stiffness was just crazy as he would rough up Danielsons already bruised face with out of nowhere kicks. At one point he just grabbed Bryans head and went loose with Kawada kicks sending him to the outside. Most of this match was both guys fighting over holds or working eachother over with stiff kicks and chops. Ki blocking a Dragon Suplex only to be thrown with a back suplex was like something out of 80s NJPW. I also loved how Ki, after choking the air out of Danielsons lung would immediately follow up with double stomps to the stomach. Unfortunately Danielson made an easy comeback soon after that and the finishing stretch was not as great as the body of the match as they mostly stick to throwing big old bombs back and forth for like 10 minutes. Still, match felt like a classic in large parts. -
[2002-01-04-NJPW-Wrestling World 2002] Kensuke Sasaki vs Naoya Ogawa
Jetlag replied to GOTNW's topic in January 2002
I love Ogawa as much as anyone, but this should have been an angle to set up their Dome match and not the dome match itself. The brief flashes where they fight were great: Kensuke headbutting and punching out and pummeling Ogawa, who came back just as dangerous as always and kicking Kensuke like a dog is the stuff an epic match is made of. However this was like 2 minutes of wrestling and another 2 minutes of guys in tracksuits jumping in and out of the ring. Kensuke blindsiding Ogawa while like 20 dudes were pummeling in the corner was cool. But yeah, as a setup this would have been great, as their only match it was just a disappointment. Better than Ikeda/Ono my ass.- 5 replies
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- kensuke sasaki
- naoya ogawa
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(and 2 more)
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[2002-01-04-NJPW-Wrestling World 2002] Yuji Nagata vs Jun Akiyama
Jetlag replied to Calvin's topic in January 2002
Really underwhelming match considering how great Akiyama can be and Nagata being passable around this time. This was largely boring your turn/my turn stuff. I know it can be difficult to work with a guy you are not used to, but I expected more from Akiyama than just chinlock his way through a neck work segment. Nagata just isn't good enough to make this stuff compelling. Akiyama using the Emerald Frosion was a cool touch admittedly. -
INDY KINGS ROAD! It's almost needless to say this was very good, stiff pro wrestling between arguably 2 of 3 most talented US dudes in 2002. Match had good build and Super Dragons arm selling was excellent, textbook stuff. He was struggling to hit his signature move, even intentionally fucking up a springboard dive and whiplashing into the ropes. Outside interference was a little goofy but lead to a huge double stomp from Dragon. Danielson in this early stage was a pretty fun wrestler of his own, busting out a lot of things that will come unexpected if you are used to the later WWE or RoH version.
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Exactly the kind of fun weirdo spectacle you want from a sleazy boxer vs. B-movie action character match. Howard hits all kinds of fun offense including a fucking flip senton to the outside and magistral cradle, and Dempsey punches him really hard. Not exactly well rounded pro wrestling, but you don't want well rounded pro wrestling from this matchup. Also, just the right length at 5 minutes.
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DAMN I wish we got this in full. Sean McCully still rules here hitting all kinds of awkward and unexpected stiff offense. Fugofugo has worked CAPTURE so he totally can go against Sean. This match was a bit of a strange mix, on one hand you had Sean McCully punching dudes really hard in the face and Fugofugo busting him open hardway with headbutts, on the other there was lots of Corino comedy, miscommunication spots etc. There was also lots of amusing Fugofugo hard head and human cannonball shtick, one spot where Wagyuta tombstones Fugo onto Corinos chest etc. For a clipped undercard match this gets the full point in terms of sheer entertainment value.
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After watching this I am pretty sure Sean McCully would be Top 30-20 in the world in 2018. His crowbar spin kicks and knees ruled and he was always grappling, keeping this moving. Takaiwa can handle himself in this kind of trainwreck, muscling up a clueless McCully for Powerbombs and Death Valley Bombs. At one point he just leapt forward and forearmed McCully in the throat. Only about 7 of 10 minutes are shown but this will give you everything you want in spades.
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Hey... I'm doing a best of 2002 project. That's an excuse to watch ARSION again, right? Asuka & noki-A vs. Ayako Hamada & Ai Fujita (ARSION 1/6/2002) This wasn't anything great, but they wrestled a straight match without any bullshit or awrygoings an that alone is noteworthy. Match was going along fine altough there were no moments in the 1st half that made me ge „this is GOOD“. It does pick up nicely for the end run which had some well timed spots and both Ai Fujita and noki-A getting to look good, with Ai looking especially funky hitting cool submissions, rollups and punches. Will be interesting to see what these two are able to do in dying days ARSION. Michiko Ohmukai vs. Lioness Asuka (ARSION 1/13/2002) Both these two can be good, but they are also prone to bullshit and taking lazy shortcuts. The first few minutes of this were actually inspired, as they hit eachother hard and Ohmukai actually tried preventing Asuka from just getting her shit in. A couple minutes in the match Asuka started going for her lazy crowd „brawling“. Ohmukai took some huge double stomps in this, what a weird way to celebrate your lengthy pro wrestling career. It was pretty fun to watch these two kick and punch each other in the face, on the other hand there was also some goofy/blown looking stuff. Asuka being so non-expressive while rumaging around with her tables doesn't help. I guess this was good overall. Mariko Yoshida vs. Michiko Ohmukai (1/25/2002) It was fun watching Yoshida hit the mat and this had some cool punches. Ohmukai was lazying it up in this match though making this nearly a 1 woman show, which sours me because this could've been real good with Ohmukai caring. Also, it's kind of painful how no one is buying Yoshidas submissions anymore.
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@ joe g: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7pJlz_reGD8