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Jetlag

DVDVR 80s Project
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  1. Jetlag
    Han looked godly, as he always does. Some really exciting moments but also some breaks in the matwork. Kohsaka looks tough just by surviving 30 seconds against Volk while he went 30 minutes against Tamura. Weird finish makes this look like a set up.
  2. Jetlag
    Really fun all star tag which delivers more of that Hash/Tenryu goodness. This time with the added dynamic of having Koshinaka ready to cheapshot Hash when needed. Not an epic showdown and not as heated as this would be in 1993, but a really well worked match with everyone playing their role. It's always so much fun to watch Hash and Tenryu slugging it out and Fujinami is also really cool here, knocking the taste of Tenryus mouth with a huge slap and working in nifty counters in this fast paced match. He is a great contrast to the heavyweight sluggers.
  3. Jetlag
    Another night of Hashimoto & Tenryu trying to slice through eachother with chops. It never gets old!! Really you always find something new when these guys are tearing into eachother. Hirata is one of the more non descript japanese guys but he is perfectly fine here getting kicked in the face by Tenryu and getting a nice run of offense near the end until he gets caught by a flying chair cause Tenryu knows no rules. W-A-R!
  4. Jetlag

    1994-09-24-NSPW

    Jetlag posted a topic in 1994

    Quality info: Pro filmed VHS comm tape. Every match except Yamada/Ito is clipped. Hiroshi Osuma vs. Katsumi Hirano Yukimasa Yokota vs. Shingo Shigeta Takashi Hara vs. Masamitsu Kochi Yoshiro Ito vs. Keisuke Yamada Koichiro Kimura vs. Fumio Akiyama Ricky Fuyuki/Jado/Gedo vs. Hiroshi Itakura/Hideo Takayama/Ichiro Yaguchi Ratings: Every match shown is FUN. Main event has a strong Fuyuki/Jado/Gedo performance. Ito/Yamada is the best match. Rec yes/no: Watch if you're a shootstyle or japan indy completist. Most of the fights were too clipped up to be assessed, but the fighters looked polished and worked plenty stiff, with Shigeta taking a pretty brutal beating in the second match but refusing to give up. Osuma vs. Hirano was a boxer vs. Wrestler match that was actually pretty good, which is a rare accomplishment. I assume most of these guys are from SAW given that Koichiro Kimura is also on this card, but that's pure speculation as I can't find any info at all on this fed. Ito vs. Yamada was shown in full and was a pretty cool little clash, like a poor man's Vader/Tamura. Lots of potatoe shots, and Ito, who could still move well at this point, was slamming the fuck out of Yamada with pro style powerbombs and suplexes. Yamada is the future Black Buffalo (of all people) and had some cool judo throws on Ito's roided ass. Yamada looked the most talented of anyone on the card and it feels like a waste that he went on to do garbage wrestling for the rest of the 90s. The main event was a typical Fuyuki/Jado/Gedo affair where they beat the shit out of the NSPW guys, bloodying and triple teaming them and waffling them with chairs. The NSPW all had kickpads (future face painted garbage brawler Yaguchi was doing a sambo gimmick at this point) and liked to kick hard, Itakura had a really nice dive aswell, but it seems most of their offense was clipped out which is a weird decision. They just got destroyed and the Fuyuki trio hit all their huge triple team moves including a powerbomb off the top and a huge assisted butt drop from Fuyuki. Fun stuff and Fuyuki is such a bastard in the match.
  5. Jetlag

    1994-01-02-W*ING

    Jetlag posted a topic in 1994

    Quality info: Mostly watchable grainy handheld altough not everything is caught. Crypt Keeper & Nightmare Freddy vs. Jason the Terrible & Shoji Nakamaki Shinichi Nakano vs. The Winger Head Hunters vs. Jado & Gedo Ratings: Every match is FUN. Nakano & Head Hunters had standout performances. Rec yes/no: watch the whole thing on YouTube if you can stomach a handheld or skip to the main event. Crypt Keeper & Nightmare Freddy vs. Jason the Terrible & Shoji Nakamaki - this was a tornado tag and some of the best stuff I've seen from the horror creatures. That doesn't say much, but the layout was right, as Keeper & Freddy were the heels beating down on the faces, while Jason & Nakamaki were your charismatic babyfaces bleeding, being charismatic and making fun comebacks. Keeper was really spry here, doing a flip entrance to the ring and then landing huge boots to people's faces like he was Kawada or something. I feel like a hypocrite for it, but Jason is really fun to doing his Undertaker stuff and hitting absurd spin kicks. Shinichi Nakano vs. The Winger - post-SWS Nakano matches are rare as hen's teeth, which is awful because he is such an interesting worker, as his basic technical stuff looks tough as nails, and then he will stand up and kick you in the kidney. This was an extremely basic juniors match (that was half missed by the camera guy) where Winger added nothing, but was still a decent Nakano carryjob. Nakano made Winger struggle for everything, and at one point popped Winger straight in the mouth with a huge punch and then proceeded to stomp and kneedrop the back of his head as if trying to give him brain damage. Japanese sleazy unprofessionality at it's best. Head Hunters vs. Jado & Gedo - this was pretty much a sprint and made me think the Headhunters might be one of the most underrated tag teams ever. This was not just funny sleazy pro wrestling, it was basically like a Twin Towers vs. Rockers match, except far seedier, blood-drenched and violent. Headhunters were absolutely pasting the Twins with chairshots, powerbombs and their combined FATNESS, and I loved every second of it. Meanwhile Jado/Gedo were hitting superkicks and flying around, and the Headhunters did a really good job setting themselves up for their offense and bumping around like huge bowling pins. Also, the guy operating the camera finally gets his shit together and we get a full picture of this match. The only bummer was that the camera missed a huge Headhunter dive outside the ring. Watching this grainy footage zooming in on a Headhunter rampaging about in the stands of Korakuen Hall felt kinda like a found footage monster movie. The finish - a giant Headhunter moonsault - was one of the most ridiculous spots I've ever seen as the poor little japanese guy lying in the middle of the ring basically disappeared underneath as this giant fat dude splashed into the ring like free willy. Fantastic match
  6. Jetlag
    Oriental Pro 12/3/1992 Quality: this was a very watchable handheld, the guy caught everything in ring and most of the brawling outside too. Wellington Wilkins Jr. vs. Katsumi Hirano Akihiro Mikada vs. Nobutaka Araya Brian Lee vs. Masahiko Takasugi Yukihiro Kanemura & Masayoshi Motegi vs.Kazuhiko Matsuzaki & Hiroshi Itakura Ryuma Go & Jesse Barr vs. Ron & Don Harris (Texas Deathmatch in a cage~!) Ratings: Every match except Lee/Takasugi was FUN. Rec yes/no: watch if you're feeling adventurous or a japan indy completist. Well, this show was super interesting to watch. Way more polished than you expect a handheld random indy show with a bunch of nobodies + Harris Bros (of all people) to be. The opener was pretty great because PWFG Wilkins showed up to school his opponent with awesome takedowns, suplexes and stiff headbutts and shotais. It was a postively Negro Navarro performance from old Wellington. His opponent didn't look like much, but he didn't look lost in a match with a lot of grappling and he had a nifty leg trip. At one point, Wilkins went for a kick and fell over, to which Hirano rushed for an Achilles Hold. It was a minor detail, but about the only way Hirano could see any land in this match. Badass stuff from Wilkins. The next match was an extremely young Nobutaka Araya (here's a guy who's been everywhere) and Mikada, a guy I've found no information on. Mikada had really sharp, stiff kicks and didn't let up. The match was pretty basic and two guys this green probably shouldn't have gone 15+ minutes, but they delivered a good finish with Mikada landing a huge crossbody off the top. Charming in parts. The next bout was veteran Takasugi vs. An ultra generic blonde Brian Lee. Takasugi was still pretty spry and they worked an IWE type match with Lee roughing up his opponent and then Takasugi fighting fire with fire. Basic stuff again, and they ended the match just as it seemed to get hot. The co-main event was another match where you have no idea what to expect going and then you end up being positively surprised. I'd never seen pre-deathmatch Kanemura or Matsuzaki before, only snippets of Itakura and Motegi is a guy who is a notorious fuckup. All 4 guys won me over, though. Matsuzaki was a black trunks rookie, but he had really nice sharp kicks and headbutts, and Itakura was a fairly athletic tubby guy. Motegi looked pretty sharp, and everyone worked stiff and got the crowd into the match. They did flaring tempers nicely, leading to 3 guys hitting awesome dives and then a double countout which they turned into a restart and then did a really nice finish with Motegi hittig his awesome triple german into Kanemura getting the win. The main event was a serious match and worked US style. Harris Bros came in with long flowing manes – and bah gawd they both look like Chris Hero!! Go and Barr were your babyfaces, and the Bros worked them over good. Harris Brothers had really nice punches and stomps, eventually hitting some huge double teams including a big powerslam off the top rope. Everyone bled, and eventually Go got the hot tag and ran wild on the nazi vikings as if they were space jews, hitting a bunch of flying clotheslines and eventually getting the win with an octopus hold. Barr didn't look like much, only hitting some stomps and kneedrops, but the crowd got into him when he refused to quit, and Ron & Don did a pro job here, knowing to fly headfirst into the cage when it counted. Won't make you forget Final Conflict and probably went a little long, but I thought it was a good little formula match.
  7. 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.
  8. 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.
  9. 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.
  10. 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.
  11. 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.
  12. 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.
  13. 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.
  14. 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.
  15. 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.
  16. 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.
  17. 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.
  18. 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.
  19. 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.
  20. 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.
  21. 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.
  22. 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.
  23. 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.
  24. 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.
  25. 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.
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