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Jetlag

DVDVR 80s Project
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  1. Jetlag
    I was surprised by how intense the opening exchanges felt, with Bret easily besting Flair and slapping him like a bitch. The rest of the bout was solidly worked, even if a little bit by the numbers. I disliked Hart kind of no selling his leg.
  2. Jetlag
    Small show BattlARTS tag, but all 4 guys had their working boots on. The Ishikawa/Ikeda exchanges are very good, as you'd expect, but don't take a big focus in the match. Tanaka and Hoshiakwa are two iffy guys at this point, but don't drag the match down. Hoshikawa is a guy who plays shooter in his lucharesu home promotions, but looks really pro style in BattlARTS, so that's always a little weird, but he was pretty good in parts here and didn't look lost wondering what to do. Lots of cool, sometimes slick and always competitive grappling throughout and the finish actually felt like a big moment. Not a huge adrenaline rush like the greatest BattlARTS matches but it delivers everything you want.
  3. Jetlag
    Well, here's a match that people just can't seem to agree on. You see a 20 minute Satanico/Lizmark match pop up on YouTube, from the time when Lizmark could still go, and Satanico is always Satanico, and you hope it's some kind of hidden maestro style classic or something. But this is not that. Lizmark utterly dominates Satanico for the first half, before Satanico hits a low blow that looks like shit. Weak payoff, and the 3rd fall wasn't exactly high end action either. I'm a Lizmark fan and he looked very good here, his wrestling is just poetry, graceful and ultra-tight stuff and he sold as well as humanly possible in the second half, while Satanico was servicable at best. Probably his weakest performance in a singles match that I've seen.
  4. Jetlag
    SPOT and GO! Tajiri is super hyped about getting to show off all the stuff he learned in mexico! Tanaka is worthless at BattlARTS style matwork, but in this kind of mindless match where he can just hit spots and the pace is pushed, he's tolerable. Tajiri's lucha pin combos and submissions were ridiculously smooth and more interesting than the usual impact moves and flying, especially his setups. I guess his thigh slapping was embarassing. Also, because submissions are actually threatening in BattlARTS, the match never got dull. MOVEZ~! match done right.
  5. Jetlag
    See, even back then they had long, slow, overwrought forced epics. This had some nice weapon shots and spots, but structurally this did absolutely nothing for me. Lots of meaningless back and forth, pointless poor man's Shawn/Razor work on the leg, and of course plenty of dancy looking punches and execution. Triple H loved popping back up for no reason – for example, he would take a huge Estrada-esque bump to the outside early, but start going back on offense immediately, the insecure little buffoon. This also had egregious amounts of both guys laying around, and of course the constant slow climb/fall off and repeat. The crowd pop great for a few key spots, however there were also multiple times where the heat noticably died down. I think it's stuff like the quickly forgottten legwork or HHH's meaningless bump that conditioned audiences not to care for those moments between the big spots and this kind of match was something that would go on to plague WWF wrestling for decades to come.
  6. Jetlag
    Heh, remember when Hero was in shape? The first EVOLVE show was main evented by a Davey Richards/Ibushi match which had some of the crassest, dumbest overkill I've ever seen in a wrestling match. Davey who was supposed to be the poster boy of EVOLVE turned his back on Gabe and we get this matchup as a random main event for EVOLVE 2 which was crass in the opposite direction. The first half of this was fantastic and the best US indy match I've ever seen. Just super matwork, hard fought and gritty, with every movement making sense, and every hold having a direction. Hero towers over Hidaka so he gets a chance to work dominant for large portions of the match while Hidaka gives a great underdog performance. Minor details such as Hidaka's leg twist or Hero stomping his arm came across as important and the arm work vs. leg work story was really well executed and added to the match. Hidaka's arm selling was probably close to on par to the greatest selling performances in the japanese wrestling catalogue. Hero was punishing him with his trademark elbows and some mean sentons and dropkicks, while Hidaka was always fighting from underneath with nice looking body shots (while selling his arm!), headbutts and low kicks to chop Hero down. Hero throws a wad of elbows and at this point had figured out a bunch of different variations to clock his opponent. Some may be irked by how many elbows he hit (weird to have a smaller guy like Hidaka absorb a ton of punishment) but I thought it was done in such a way so the match felt like Hero could possibly KO his opponent anytime. Hidaka finally cutting him down with a cool looking combo was impressive too. This could've benefitted from having 1 or 2 pots less in it but it's probably a career performance from either guy and the best indy match a couple years in either direction AFAIC. Should admit that Hero trying to speak japanese was kind of cring though.
  7. Jetlag
    This was a good match that could have been a lot better. First of all, Kuragaki rules on offense. Her flippy shit looks really graceful, and she was just launching Hyuga around with her power moves and lariats. Those back suplexes were all kind of crazy. Hyuga did a really good job working as the ace and preventing Kuragaki from attacking her bandaged leg, including just stomping on her face when she went for a kneebar. I also dig the out of nowhere knee attacks. On the other hand there were some awkward/blown spots and I disliked Hyuga's lazy no selling transitions during the finishing stretch. Kuragaki hit a brutal shoot headbutt, and Hyuga would act unphased and just continue her offense. This had a really good layout opening with some nice matwork and the leg story, so it has that going for it.
  8. Jetlag
    JIP. Only 5 minutes are shown, but there is some awesome shit here. Dean does all sorts of athletic moves. This Dean still has that boyish body, but facially looks the same as Dean always does. Dean is really exaggerated here, flippin' and playing to the crowd. When he goes to the top rope, he poses to pose, then pauses to pose AGAIN, the takes a breath before climbing... he may aswell be carrying a sign that says „I am going to get military pressed off the rope“. The match is a junior's match for sure but they go for pin combos and submissions rather than impact stuff, which I like a lot. Then it really looks like there's no way Fuchi can turn it around and then he pulls out that badass little finish. Great clip.
  9. Jetlag
    JIP into Kikuchi taking an assbeating. So, it's another tuesday for Kikuchi? Kobashi gets the hot tag and the crowd is MAD HOT for him! Jumbo & Fuchi draw MAD HEAT! Kikuchi eats EVEN MORE sickening abuse at the hands of Jumbo! Great finish. Kikuchi > all.
  10. Jetlag
    Austin went for that Ground Octopus Hold though, which I still find a hilarious choice of hold for a southern redneck character. Austin mentioned Al Snow showed him that hold because he didn't have any submissions before the match.
  11. Jetlag
    High end BattlARTS epic. The grappling between these two is always really great – just ridiculously slick, inventive stuff. Otsuka's Jason Nolf/Wade Schalles amateur style where he pulls of insane moves in plausible fashion rules, but you already knew that. Otsuka ducking Ishikawa's punches, throwing sudden fast combos and then nuking him with massive suplexes for comebacks was excellent shootstyle stuff. Match was probably a little excessive near the end but the comebacks were good enough and you'll be too busy yelling at Ishikawa to tuck his head to notice anways. Also, those kimuras were insane. Ultra tight stuff, brutal, great wrestling, just a classic betweeen two all time greats.
  12. Jetlag
    You look at this match up and you go „Well, these are two guys who are not afraid to kick somebody in the face“. And that's what happens in this match. It's also NJPW vs. WAR (or Seishinkaikan vs. WAR?), so it had the kinda heat those matches have. These guys were just crushing eachother, Saito was hitting some really devastating mid kicks aswell as knees to face, and Kitahara in return kicked him in his face and bald head a bunch. Kitahara pouncing on Saito with mount punches, leaving Saito to come out with a big red spot of blood on his bald head is something that only happens in 93. The referee blew the finish a little on this one but for two mean asskickers stepping up and kicking the shit out of eachother this delivered.
  13. Jetlag
    Ahh... junior wrestling! People may say that this flash-over-substance style hasn't aged that well, and it's true. Altough it would be unfair to pin this on Ultimo alone, because Otani was just as guilty of popping up and lazy transitions. Perhaps even more so. Ultimo Dragon looked like you your formidable cool masked wrestler guy – nice sequences, awesome dives, cool lucha submissions, moving fast as a cat when it counted. Still, the best moment was when Otani sold a punch to the jaw like an actual punch to jaw, allowing Dragon to follow up with a stiff kick and look like a badass for a brief moment. Also, Ultimo got people to flip out for his rollups, which has to be smarter wrestling than Otani with his bajillion headdropping suplexes. It's also true that Ohtani's shtick felt like old hat by 1998. Ah well, this was still alright. Not very bright but not a dull moment either. The perfect „brain off“ kind of match.
  14. Jetlag
    Reviewed Kandori/Hotta: http://prowrestlingonly.com/index.php?/topic/40274-shinobu-kandori-v-yumiko-hotta-llpw-32198/ @Jmare https://youtu.be/wK6wFgaimG0
  15. Jetlag
    Just a savage, savage fight. Hotta is certifiably insane, but her desperation selling for Kandori's submissions was on point. Of course Kandori also brings some great mugging and superstar charisma to the match. She was basically the world's best modernized Fujiwara here. Some of these kicks looked like legendary KOs in MMA fighting. I don't wanna tout all that violence too much, because this was a really well put together match. Agree about the greatness of Kandori's guard work and the build to the finish was excellent. Just an awesome slice of high end japanese pro wrestling, viscerally brutal and intelligent.
  16. Jetlag
    JIP 10 minutes in. Kobashi rocks the low kicks like a fiend! Crowd is white hot for the natives! Gordy lariats dudes' faces off! A sneaky finish! This was a solid match with some great moments. I liked the structure of Misawa & Kobashi quickly getting cut off and isolated by the MVC repeatedly and having to think and act fast to get something going. I'm always baffled at how little Misawa tends to insert himself into matches but Kobashi was fine as the focus there and I dug the MVC just waltzing in and crushing the little dudes, again and again.
  17. Jetlag
    JIP but this match is white hot fire baby! It's all about Kawada & Taue killin' eachother. Kikuchi gets thrown around as a human weapon! Ogawa dishes out nasty shots! Taue and Kawada beat the shit out of eachother some more! At one point, Kawada goes for a save and Taue just decks him in his face. Only early 90s puro delivers this kind of action. Sumo slaps = the best.
  18. Jetlag
    Both matches are insanely overrated, however Austin/Hart may be the better match, while Villano/Atlantis is the more epic moment. FWIW Villano III's performance smokes anything the WWF match had. I'm not sure either will make my Top 100 since I'm still hemming and hawing about what my actual criteria will be. Maybe V3/Atlantis because fucking hell that ending. Watching Austin/Hart with Austin's commentary is quite the experience. Austin was right that he could have, should have done a better job drawing in the audience. On the other hand his idea for changing the finish was rubbish. They already crammed too much into what should've been a much simpler match. He could've done a far better job selling the leg. Austin looked worldclass selling the finish. Bret Hart is always such a workman without any frills it's nearly impossible to comment on him. V3/Atlantis may have set the blueprint for every shitty modern apuestas match. They fumble around in the opening with Atlantis probably having the blood rush into his head cause the rudo fans all got on his case. Then there's that fucking spot of the decade contender and they go on and do 2,99999s and near submissions back and forth for 20 minutes. Not going to play that card but how would modern workers not get grilled over doing something like that?? Still, match had that awesome intensity throughout. V3's punch combos and resistance carried the match. He also saved the opening by firing up and ripping Atlantis open when the referee admonished him. I'm not sure the blood and finish was better than Hart/Austin. V3 could probably carry Ultimo Guerrero to a really good apuestas match.
  19. Jetlag
    Shamelessly stealing this topic from Elliott @ GWE Forums because this forum has more activity and I thought this would be really interesting to discuss:
  20. Jetlag
    Would you perhaps care to share your thoughts?
  21. Jetlag
    4 MINUTES 27 SECONDS! I must've have watched this match a dozen times, and it never stops being awesome. They just THROW DOWN and the world explodes. Awesome savage punch exchanges, general recklessness, Ikeda going for any weird move he can think of, while still keeping a general sense of defensiveness/evading. The counterwork is just stellar. The selling is sublime, and kind of different - guys would get hit, and sell he trauma of getting hit, but straighten themselves out and stop themselves from buckling "DAMN he got me good... but I'm not going down now, fuck you", like you would when the adrenaline is rushing, and then swing back and try to crush the other guy. Most matches are lucky to have 1 or 2 great moments. I counted 4 great moments in the first 35 seconds of this.
  22. Jetlag
    Violent 5 minute eruption. If it weren't for one or two moments of no selling from Kato, this would've been really great. Lots of violent bombs are dropped, stiff lariats, kicks and knees to the face, but what was most important was that Kato was basically a pesky little fly to Chigusa and does working hard to evade her and topple her. The Sleeper Hold is put over, and Kato looks great because she doesn't just get squished immerdiately. After the match Chigusa beats Kato further and bloodies Satomura's mouth (CURSE PASSED!!!), berating them both.
  23. Jetlag
    Still the baddest fight ever. People are talking about how BRUTAL this is, and it is brutal, but as far as the psychology and WORK goes, this is one of the finest showdowns in wrestling history. I recommend everyone read Mike's review on WKO, because he has done a great job summarizing the story of the match. I don't think this is the most violent match ever, you can find more brutal stuff on joshi cards, however, it is easily the finest match ever at creating a flair of violence. It is a testament to these two's ability to create a feeling of escalating violence throughout every exchange. I mean you watch the opening exchange and how the hell can this escalate even further? But they manage to work you into feeling that by telling the story. This was one of the first puro matches I watched online and re-watching it so many years later, it's almost mindblowing how much this is worked like a classic grudge match/brawl. Some of the greatest receipt/payback spots ever, and the match layout would work just aswell for a Lawler/Funk match. Even the mat stuff serves to further the story and is fueled by their personalities. Needless to say, both guys sold flawlessly and displayed tremendous instincts. An almost spent Ikeda trying to crush Ishikawa with everything he could think of, only to be caught repeatedly, leading to what may be the greatest 15th round exchanges ever is as good as pro wrestling gets. Hell, this whole match is pro wrestling done right. Take away the stiffness and it would still be an amazing battle. Also, I should mention that with the quite crowd, this feels like an alley brawl at times. They did get a few great reactions for simple spots, proving that they had their audience by the balls all the way.
  24. Jetlag
    I think SPWF (Yoshiaki Yatsu's fed) specifically started that trend of turning backyarders into pro wrestlers. The most prominent documented early example of a backyarder turning pro is probably Onryo. Also, Mikami and Sanshiro Takagi completed their training in PWC... no offense to Shunji Takano, but you do wonder how much they learned when the promotion was mostly about sleazy monster gimmicks. Wouldn't be surprised if much of the early DDT crew came from that student wrestling background.
  25. Jetlag
    Hahaha oh wow, Kansai and Hotta stepping up and just killing everybody was awesome. This followed that simplistic action -> hold, action -> hold ad nauseum formula a lot of early 90s joshi matches did because there was no extended selling or anything the result was largely mindess, but the restholds were pretty vicious and they kept dropping the bombs. I was still amazed that this never dragged altough it could have 10 minutes shaved off. The finishing run was something today's workers would probably get grilled over and they also hit those shitty dives, but it worked in the 90s cause things were heated and urgent.
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