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Jetlag

DVDVR 80s Project
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Everything posted by Jetlag

  1. Jetlag
    Terrific match. RINGS at it's finest. Always get a kick out of Yamamoto trying to beat that clown Tamura, in this case by going after him palms swinging. Opening mat exchanges were very good and the 2nd half had some of the most exciting standup exchanges and counters you'll ever see. I guess some of the mat stuff near the end wasn't as exciting as it could have been.
  2. Jetlag
    Really cool match which saw the future Ran Yu-Yu trying to take down Kansai. Kansai was past her prime at this point but could still bring it and kick you in the face hellishly. She works nice, simple and snug and doesn't allow any sprint work, so this match was a nice change of pace for joshi. I'm a Miyaguchi fan as she has solid simple spots (stiff european uppercut, enzuigiri that kills, big Samoan drop) and she works well against Kansai here. There is some weirdness early on with Miyaguchi working some armbars on the arena floor and refusing to let go, but it lead to a funny moment where Kansai grabbed a random umbrella and used it to hook Miyaguchis leg. While the arm work ended up being not important I really liked Kansais selling of Miyaguchis subsequent leg attack and a few suitably great, well timed spots ensued. This had a good story, never got silly, was plenty violent and solid all the way through.
  3. Jetlag
    Stiff match with plenty of neat moments. Unfortunately the structure was kind of a mess. Kato was wearing a bandage from her match against LCO and got bloodied again, but simply refused to be face in peril and no-sold through the attacks against her. Ozaki & Sato looked good when they got to work the cut and Satomura and Sato have really nice chemistry together. The nearfall section was good when it was Satomura and Kato trying their darndest to pin that witch Ozaki but I thought it went too long. Ozaki is hit or miss but she looked got kicking a bloody Kato in the face here and she threw a rotten backfist at one point. I'm all for experimentation in wrestling but this would've been really great with a traditional structure.
  4. Jetlag
    East Europeans were pretty much carrying the RINGS undercard in 1998. This was a genuinely great Ilioukhine performance as he basically manhandles Naruse for your amusement. I wouldn't say Naruse was carried but he wasn't doing anything super exciting either. Atleast he has a nice backhand. Some really good exchanges in this one.
  5. Jetlag
    Hey look, it's an ECW match which uses some psychology. Right away Sasuke is blasting Credible with dives. Later Sasuke is working an armbar and immediately „Boring“ chants are breaking out. Sasuke goes for the dives again but Jason trips him and he ends up missing a plancha to the floor, bumping his knee in absolutely horrific fashion. Credible proceeds to beat the fuck out of his knee with chairs and splashing the leg. They even work a classic Figure 4 tease. Sasuke gets a brief, awesome one legged comeback before missing a huge Phoenix Splash and eating Credibles brutal looking finisher (better than Okada). Sasuke looked great and Credible (aside from not knowing how to defend against an armbar) didn't look half bad either.
  6. Jetlag
    It's another chapter in the series of Improbably Great Usuda vs. Indy Scum matches. I wish Usuda had worked IWA Japan so we could see what he could do with the Great Takeru. I think Honma was already doing regular deathmatches at this point as he looked sleazier and seemed to have forgotten about the finer intricacies of pro wrestling. He just went for big fucking bombs and looked noticably worse during stand up sections than he did earlier in the year. Aside from some slight lack of direction on Honmas part this was a real good match, let me tell you: Usuda pretty much held the whole thing together with his selling, ability to come up with exciting counters and absolutely blasting Honma with brutal kicks. Anytime Usuda was on offense you felt the match could end at any moment. Honma is good enough as your crazy highspot machine. All-time brutal finish.
  7. Jetlag
    Norton was getting some bad reviews from smarks in 1998, but then so did Fujiwara and Tarzan Goto. This was of course an IWGP title match that was worked like a WCWSN semi squash, but still thought Norton looked really good. He did a great job selling for Nakanishi, including bumping big over the top rope and selling accumulated damage. He also absolutely blistered him with chops, so he was kind of your 1998 Walter type. That they got the somewhat quiet crowd to go bonkers for Nakanishi over the course of 7 minutes was great too. Wouldn't mind checking out more Norton.
  8. Jetlag
    Volk destroys the legend. Has anyone made locking in an armlock look as triumphant as he did? Good in the same ways as the previous match, altough in this case it's a little sour that it ended so quickly. Being the main event and all that.
  9. Jetlag
    Here's a rare creature: a bad Tamura match. There's a few injuries happening in this match, but it wasn't even good up to that point. I blame Naruse, who was way too limited at this point to be going 20+ minutes. Pretty dull opening matwork as it was mostly both guys moving from positions in not partiularily interesting ways. Nothing felt hard fought and I think there wasn't a single submission attempt in the first 14 minutes. Then Tamura injures Naruses leg with a kneebar. Ironically the following short stoppage woke up the crowd and produced some hot striking exchanges, but the match quickly fell apart again as Naruses knee started buckling. The leg injury may have been an abstract work to keep folks believing in the realness of RINGS. Eitherways Tamura beats easily Naruses after 24 minutes of mostly dull shootstyle. See, not all shootstyle is great. Supposedly Tamura got his nose broken too but I didn't notice when.
  10. Jetlag
    The wild ride that is 1998 continues as now Kanako Motoya of all scantily clad joshi fairies is stepping up to provide the kickass grapple oriented pro wrestling. Shockingly great performance from her as she did a great job selling a bandaged leg and also worked that cool convoluted submission based style that was so en vogue then aswell as throwing in some nice high kicks for good measure. Amano is another girl who does the flash submission based style and she does it exceptionally well as she has really cool looking and natural ways to get submissions. Both of them sold extremely well and they did a really nice job working a 50/50 type contest without things getting silly as the selling and fire was in place. Highlights include a gritty palm strike exchange, great sleeper hold spot and whacky La Magistral into armbar. Only nitpick – which might be pretty major depending on what type of person you are – was that they showed the last 9 minutes of what seemed to be a 30 minute contest, so that has to make you think a little. Still what they put together was exceptional & great.
  11. Jetlag
    Bigger and better version of the dome match earlier in the year. Man alive Vader and Hansen are killing machines in this, anytime Vader swings his fist it looks like a potential KO, and Hansen is such a bastard in this too, almost knocking out Kobashi with his punches and kicking him in the face for good measure. Kobashi & Akiyama trying to fight out of this was quite the epic struggle and they ever got their shit in. Vader falling on top of Akiyama when he tried a Northern Lights suplex may be one of the craziest spots of that kind ever. Finish was perfectly executed and filmed. One of the funnest bouts of the year, and that's something that's sorely been lacking in AJPW... fun.
  12. Jetlag
    Wouldn't be shocked if his was the best heavyweight match from a US main promotion in the late 90s. Just a perfectly worked clash of the titans style match which rightfully had the fans flipping out. Opening wrestling exchanges were really entertaining as it was basically DDP trying anything and everything to chop Goldberg down and Goldberg just destroying him. Goldberg tackling him through the ropes and backflipping out of a leg trip is why he's special. He also made an indy-ish twisting suplex move look brutal. Last few minutes were just great as Goldberg sold his vulnerability (including knocking himself out) just right while still retaining his dangerous aura and finishing DDP off quickly.
  13. Jetlag
    Only 4 minutes, but what a great 4 minute match. Volk Han is an undeniable wrestling god, even when he is not on the offense his movements are poetry. I also always get a kick out of Maeda hitting the mat with anyone who's not Takada. I really liked how Volk sold his demise, you'd think how can you sell your demise well in a fluke match, but him howling when Maeda breaks his grip and grabs the kneebar is how you do it.
  14. Jetlag
    Oof. This was a big stepdown from their 1997 match. Just the most generic, needlessly long junior match you can imagine. Including filler legwork and all that. The type of build and selling they did didn't really justify the epic proportions they tried to stretch this to.
  15. Jetlag
    These ultra minimalist Hashimoto epics are the perfect antidote to that overly convoluted AJPW trash. Yamazaki targets the leg and this is just another freaking great beat-him-till-he-goes-numb Hashimoto trademark spectacle. Kingsized selling from both guys. Also loved Yamazaki constantly tackling the knee. Folks flip out for an achilles hold and elbow drop. This is how you do pro wrestling. A nice low kick and stiff neck chops will get you further than 10,000 headdrops. So in the span of 48 hours Hashimoto pretty much had the ideal clash of the titans sprint against Tenryu, the ideal youngster beatdown and now a textbook epic performing as a wounded beast, man I should have put him #1 on the GWE ballot.
  16. Jetlag
    Classic, well executed slow burning epic which is only marred by once again overreaching with the absurd length (for a bombfest) and whacky overkill. I want to say they still did the best job they possibly could keeping things believable, as Misawa is the master of the comeback and Kobashi sold his downfall very well and the match never felt dragging, try-hard or overly bloated, so if it happened in 2018 it would probably warrant about 9 ¼ stars. Really enjoyed the early build with both guys busting out some more grounded wrestling moves such as a cool chickenwing crossface into russian legsweep or Misawa turning his facelock into a double armlock, liked Kobashi teasing an early fish with the Backdrops, liked Misawa getting caught hard when he went for a second dive sequence, liked how both guys would eat shit when they tried no selling a suplex, REALLY liked the consisent use of the turnbuckles and Misawa countering the Burning Hammer. Excellent pro wrestling that made sense but was ever tinged with absurdity and madness and that shade of self destruction you always get from watching Misawa get dropped on his head a bunch and lying motionless on the floor backstage.
  17. Jetlag
    Another AJPW match that feels way too damn long and played out. At this point I admit late 90s AJPW might be the most unwatchable good wrestling recorded. That being said this was a fine match with lots of quality exchanges throughout. Kawada hit some huge kicks and did some amusing selling which almost feels Terry Funkish at this point. I especially liked how he would axe kick Akiyama repeatedly as if getting out of bed. Taue worked his usual magic. There was some quite vicious legwork on Akiyama which he blew off easily to undermine himself further in my book. Also really liked Kobashis sleeper for an obvious filler spot. It's kind of amazing how a match like this with this much excellently timed moments and good exchanges can be kind of boring.
  18. Jetlag
    Fun big boy tag at the Dome. Vader is EXCITED to be relevant again! Hansen beats the BRICKS off of these punks! Ace looks good & the Dome crowd gets really into him! Kobashi gets squished like a bug! Everyone gets thrown over the guardrail! Vader looked great here, just beastly, and so did Hansen to be honest. It's too bad Ditch didn't upload more 98 Hansen matches because I refuse to believe he wasn't great week in week out. Loved him going to town on Ace with the table aswell. I thought some of Kobashis and Aces comebacks looked too easy and prevented this from being something more special. For example Ace just hit an Ace Crusher and tagged out after absorbing a ton of punishment. Surreal finish.
  19. Jetlag
    Really solid, simple match built around Booker T. Benoit laced him up good with stiff chops and clotheslines and worked some decent cutoffs. I'm still not sure he was better than Motegi though. Booker T looked really good, selling his butt off, bumping big and hitting some great kicks including one to the back of Benoits head (hm... probably not a cool thing to praise in a Benoit match). Crowd going bonkers for the Dragon Suplex was a nice moment. Hell of an opener.
  20. Jetlag
    I'll watch Inoki destroying a legit guy in 5 minutes everyday. Inokis grappling looked great as usual. IIRC Frye commented that he broke Inokis ribs which is why the match was cut short. If that's try we can officially classify Inoki as the baddest dude to ever live because he completely nosells that, altough you can tell there might be something wrong when he gets up after the finish.
  21. Jetlag
    Ultra-minimalist bar fight between the two baddest dudes in japanese wrestling history. Great in the same way as Lawler/Mantell or Flair/Wahoo. The early going is so awesome as it's all about them throwing a whirlwind of nasty chops and selling „FUCK this is overwhelming“. The leaning against the ropes becomes a plot point, as both refuse to go down. Despite them constantly pounding away, there are some nice subtleties: Tenryu gets an advantage when he rolls out the punches at first, so Hash is quick to cut him off when he tries it again for a second time. Tenryu sells his shoulder, not because Hash was setting up a submission or explicitly targetting that body part, but because he just took 97 chops to that shoulder. Hashimoto catching Tenryu with the spin kick may be the greatest spot in history. It's greater than anything Kobashi and Misawa tried in their annual murderfest for sure. Short, primitive and to the point like a sledgehammer.
  22. Jetlag
    Team UWFi finally steps up. Holy Demon Army are more than willing to threat them as kickpadded jobbers early on, but Takayama decides he's had enough and the kick the shit out of Taue. Unlike what you might expect Taue has the funnest interactions with the shooters in the 1st half, quite similiar to what Tenryu might do with a shooter if he were ganglier and not quite as good. Taue eats a good beating and the 2nd half has some nice stiff moment. I'm a little unsure what to make of this match as it's Takayama & Kakihara finally looking like threats but also Kawada seemed to be mailing it in aside from his obligatory 1 great sell and the match was dry here or there despite not going very long anyways.
  23. Jetlag
    Damn, I didn't expect this to be so good. I mean, I did expect Hashimoto to absolutely beat Kojimas ass, but didn't expect him to build such a genuinely exciting match around that little chump. The first half of this is solid with Hash administering said assbeating and beating Kojima so bad he looked blown out about 7 minutes in. This also includes a gritty unexpected kimura. Kojima is fine giving and taking stiff smacks altough for a chubby guy his elbow drop looks a little weak. I liked how he would turn to the crowd to pose only to turn around and get his chest caved in again. Kojima strikes gold when hits a huge elbow drop to Hashimotos leg which sets up the great 2nd half with Hashimoto doing some great desperation selling and basically dragging Kojima to a poor mans version of his Choshu matches. Kojima has one annoying moment where he just pops up without bothering to transition or anything but Hashimoto makes it all good by beating the pop tarts off of him with crazy chops and DDTs. Especially liked Kojima grabbing his arm and clutching it like his annoying little brother. Absolutely great finish. Best Kojima match ever? I certainly prefer in this kind of unpredictable, exciting little clash over Tenryu trying to carry him through a drawn out epic.
  24. Jetlag
    Motegi is surprisingly effective as surely vet carrying skinny indy juniors and this was no exception. The match had a simple layout that worked: Fujita would get the advantage through a flashy move or highspot, and Motegi would repay him with a gritty stiff receipt. Highlights include a brutal lariat, some nasty as hell work on the stomach and making Fujita faceplant on the floor. Fujita is so skinny the beating looks double brutal and Motegi can just manhandle him. One goofy no selling spot, but this stuff ages better than your average 90s junior match.
  25. Jetlag
    I enjoy this match, but I'll admit that it was more of a fun clash of styles than an epic match. Toyota gets a lot of shit (and rightfully so) but she does a nice job adapting to her opponent here, coming up with a few cool counters of her own and throwing palm strikes . The layout in theory did a good job in hiding Toyotas weaknesses, but there were a few awkward moments and I thought Kandori basically shrugging off Toyotas huge opening barrage took away from the match. Still the bomb throwing and Kandori finding ways to twist Toyota up on the mat was hugely entertaining.
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