Jetlag
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Heeeyy it's the one really good WWF TV match in 1998 and of course I have to watch a grainy version with spanish commentary. Bradshaw gets to look like a badass, Too Much stooge perfectly, and the Lawler/Funk interactions were just awesome. Apparently this was the only time Lawler made a TV match in 1998. Travesty. -
[1986-10-05-Heiligengeistfeld, GER] Franz van Buyten vs Dave Taylor (Chain)
Jetlag replied to Jetlag's topic in October 1986
Catch auf dem Heiliggeistfeld, promoted by Sven Hansen. -
This is a match which really has everything going against it. It's 60 minutes clipped down to 25, mainly centered around a beatdown on Jaguar, with two green girls and one very limited crowbar in it, most of what is shown is bombdropping and there is oodles of outside interference (at one point like half a dozen girls jump in the ring to stomp Jaguar). HOWEVER even despite all that due to a good Jaguar performance this is mostly watchable and even pretty great in parts. Jaguar bleeds and takes a huge beating getting shoot kicked in the face by Lioness, absolutely launching herself through the ropes to put a lariat over, taking a big spill down the Korakuen Hall stairs etc. Her blood loss selling was spot on and her desperation counters reminded me of Morgan/Faraon. I don't know whether to praise her because she looked great or to belittle her because she booked this mess.
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For some reason the GAEA girls are at their best when working "Pat O'Connor grappling with someone for 10 minutes in the studio" type matches. This was another one of those and a goody. They do really nice work building from a headlock to a bulldog and from an armlock to a tiger suplex etc. Nice to see Kato keeping it simple for once. Numao is one of the lesser featured GAEA youngsters but she handles herself quite well in this type of match. Some great spots and counters down the stretch. Full GAEA point
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Boy, why is there no wrestling like this anymore? Fun basic opening match. I can't tell whether Matsumoto is any good but you can slot her into a more technical match and it'll all be fine. Chikayo of course wrestles like the lightest, skinniest Tamon Honda and it's all wonderful. Fun takedowns and throws and some neat spots. Good enough that I feel slightly agitated that they clipped 2 minutes from this 9 minute match.
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Some great exchanges between UG and Angel Azteca here. Cool to see Angel still hanging and banging with the kids. Man did CMLL have a roster of amazing athletes in the late 90s, Ninja de Fuego and Oriental are two pretty random names but each looks like the most spectacular dude in the world at various points. It also helps when you got a pair of professionals in Virus and Rencor stooging for you. Another super fun match in a stream of quality lucha material from CMLL.
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This was going shockingly well in the first half. I'm as sceptical against these two guys as you can get, but they did a nice job building a traditional title match. Nothing mindblowing but really solid executed slow mat based type work mostly built around arm attack vs. Leg attack stuff. Then as I was ready to declare this a miracle match Muto grinds the whole thing with a bunch of long figure spots that go nowhere. The crowd is amped though and they proceed to take it home in fine fashion. Should say that Sasaki looked good, even doing a decent job selling his leg, also his judo throw is one of the best moves.
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Way better than the crap that was their July match. Essentially Kanemoto makes Liger his woman in this one. Kanemoto is great as a violent bully and he just kicks the snot out of Liger from start to finish. Unfortunately Liger lacked his usual fire. Add a pissed off Liger comeback to this and you'd have a minor classic on your hands. They went to the usual bomb throwing in the last 3rd, altough it wasn't egregious.
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The matwork here won't make you forget your top level RINGS stuff, but I enjoyed the skill vs. Power dynamic with Frye constantly pushing Ogawa. His ground headbutts also ruled. Of course you have that big time feel especially when the big throws drop. Great finish.
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[1998-09-23-NJPW] Scott Norton vs Yuji Nagata
Jetlag replied to Superstar Sleeze's topic in September 1998
Norton does his best Goldberg impression and just steamrolls young Nagata to become the IWGP champ. Really great Norton performance and Nagata looked good too even though this was almost a squash. Norton just blasts him with power moves repeatedly and Nagata tries to string some kicks together which are mostly blown off by Norton. Also loved how Norton would use his shoulderbreaker and go straight into an armbar. This was pretty much to establish Norton as an absolute beast with the japanese audience as he would go on to sell a lot more for his opponents in future title matches. -
Fun match between Yokota and a girl who will actually grapple her. Not epic due to Yabushitas lack of experience but it moves by swiftly and there's lots of nice moments. Yabushita always goes for the armbar utilizing various cool throws and it's a nice contrast to Jaguars traditional holds. Jaguar is so damn slick. Classy finish.
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I've watched quite a bit of Asian Cougar from 1998 IWA Japan cards and really enjoy the guy. He is a total spot freak and just crushes the other dudes with spin kicks and leg drops from improbable angles. The senton to the floor with the chairs also probably the most insane thing a wrestler did as a regular spot. Good on the dude for still being well 20 years later.
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Ozaki is questionable, but she may have given Amano her overall best match of the year in this one. Solid layout with Ozaki mostly stepping on Amanos face and roughing her up while Amano worked her submission game. Amanos is really great at rolling in and out of submissions. The whole thing had a somewhat early 90s JWP feel to it as they kept it simple and to the point. Somewhat slow in parts early on, but the 2nd half is peppered with cool stuff without going overboard.
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Man it's weird that they had probably their longest match together at teenagers. This matchup should've been the Ishikawa/Ikeda of joshi for years to came, but alas... a few great sequences and counters in this one as is their modus operandi. Opinions may vary on how great this actually was as a match, as the clipping kind of chops it up and there was not a ton of direction. I was not a huge fan of the over dramatic last couple minutes. Generally I think anything over 20 minutes tends to get excessive for joshi.
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Pretty decent 2/3 Falls match. I want to say „shockingly“, but knowing that Motegi and Nakamaki are better than their rep it's not really a huge shock. Of course Motegi has been carrying Wingers ass since W*ING so he is the one guy who gets some decent exchanges out of him, and Nakamaki is way better at wrestling than you expect. He hits some nice stiff lariats and can actually sell, he also hit a really nice takeover into armbar. This had a good structure with the technico team of Motegi/Nakamaki getting the better in the 1st, a fluke rollup in the 2nd and finally Nakamaki bleeding in the 3rd to even the odds. Probably needed a big Nakamaki comeback to be more than a fun match but yeah, I enjoyed it and getting something good out of Winger and WX is an achievement.
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Pretty excellent Cibernetico with mostly undercard workers busting their ass. One good exchange after another and they used the dives sparingly which made them feel more important. They do a really good job building and teasing the eliminations and the last 10 minutes or so felt suitably epic. Also, this was before superkick and backcracker mania, so when it was time to drop bombs everyone was hitting cool suplexes, powerbombs and sentons. Olimpico looked super sharp again and it's a pity there's so little Damiancito online because he looked great. Also really liked Axxel/Sagrado who was like a Mini Santo hitting super athletic moves.
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Quality trios action. Everyone had their working boots on and they didn't struggle with the one fall format. Everyone hits the mat to start with highlights being Arkangel busting out an awesome gutwrench throw in the middle of a mat exchange and Atlantis stretching old Fishman. UG & Arkangel did some expertly stooging including an awesome spot where they accidentally set up a Doomsday Device and end up posting themselves. Just one cool exchange after another in this. Huge dive from Mano Negra Jr. which got a big reaction from this community center crowd. Great stuff altough you wonder if it was just one of 20 great matches of this kind they had that year.
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Super fun M-Pro signature tag with the addition of Super Boy who is an awesome tubby luchadore. Pretty long face shine segment to open the match with Gran Hamada looking super spry. Kai En Ta + SB did an expert job taking their opponents apart with great looking double teams. Togo always looks especially great lacing dudes up with punches and chops in between working exchanges. He also hit a really great La Parka style twist senton. Super Boy was easily the 2nd best guy on the rudo team, squishing dudes with fat sentons and an awesome moonsault. Of course it's a 1998 Sasuke match so he gets his leg torn up again. Finish was pretty unique and great. It really looked like it would force a ref stop.
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Damn, I forgot what a good little match this was. This was a match between two young guys who normally lean more towards pro style than shootstyle when they are working BattlARTS, but they do a shockingly great job approximating PRIDE imitation serious shootstyle. Just a loaded 6 minute sprint with awesome suplexes and some big exchanges. Really the perfect opener for your shootstyle fed.
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This was a fun undercard match that they actually showed in full. I liked the opening basic hold exchanges with both guys doing something nifty – Fujita hitting a cool STO from a front headlock and Yamakawa with a nice leg trip. The rest of this was mostly a Fujita showcase. His basic offense is much more vicious than your average junior – dropkick to the head, hurty looking headbutts, kneedrop to the back of the head etc, while also mixes in innovative stuff. Yamakawa didn't look quite up there as he seemed nowhere near as in shape as Fujita and was struggling to get into position at times, but he got it together for the finishing run, hitting some huge kicks. The win actually felt like a nice achievement. Really fun unpredictable match.
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Hugely entertaining match. Kinda surprised this hasn't gotten more play. DDP was probably the smartest worker on earth in 1998, mixing up the left right punches and working really interesting exhanges against just about anyone. Him blocking a Giant punch with a trashcan is one of those rare moments that look visually impressive and make perfect sense. DDP sells great and Giant looks like a killer when controlling, dropping some big elbows on DDPs leg and hitting a crazy huge backbreaker. I also loved him kicking out at 1 even after eating a massive chairshot. Perfectly executed, smart finish which is the kinda stuff DDP has a knack for.
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In 1998 Nagayo was mostly working short bomb throwing sprint, but in October, she for some reason decided to put on wrestling shoes and work some 70s style more grappling oriented matches against her student, perhaps MUGA inspired. This is a fun match kinda like an old studio TV squash where the jobber gets some offense. Matsumoto is a forgotten worker and not a standout in any way but she can add some fun touches. Highlights include a nifty out of nowhere leg trip, a surprise uranage and a great struggle over a neckbreaker. Nasty looking finish.
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Here's a rare creature – a slow paced GAEA match. Yamada looked really good dominating with her superior striking early on and Kaoru would only get minuscule offense. A superplex and sleeper spot end up being important and setting up the stretch run. Both sold well down the stretch and KAORU avoiding Yamadas finisher was really good. I wasn't sure how these two would click in a singles match but they did just fine.
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I gotta say, Hirotas underdog act was highly entertaining in 1998. If she had kept working like this she might have become a really good rich girls Masao Inoue. She took some big bumps and kept the hip attacks coming. Ozaki of course relishes in stretching and smacking lower ranked opponents and did a good job carrying this. Also, she wasn't required to sell too much, so that is also a plus. Some fun moments where Hirota gets the better of Oz and some pretty brutal stiff backfists in this.
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A lot of these GAEA sprints have the tendency to go into mindless back and forth. That was not the case here as they did all these clever, unpredictable transitions. Surprisingly good opening exchanges involving Sugar Sato, who is far better than her rep for sure. You also had Yamada kicking people in the face. All the cut play spots where well timed and added to the match (not something that is the case in every joshi match). Enjoyable stuff despite 1-2 missed spots.