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Jetlag

DVDVR 80s Project
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  1. Jetlag
    Reviewed Kandori/Hotta: http://prowrestlingonly.com/index.php?/topic/40274-shinobu-kandori-v-yumiko-hotta-llpw-32198/ @Jmare https://youtu.be/wK6wFgaimG0
  2. 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.
  3. 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.
  4. 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.
  5. 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.
  6. 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:
  7. Jetlag
    Would you perhaps care to share your thoughts?
  8. 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.
  9. 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.
  10. 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.
  11. 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.
  12. 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.
  13. Jetlag
    I've enjoyed 3 out of these 4 workers in the JWP that I've watched, but this was awful long and didn't exactly deliver in terms of Devil/Chigusa interactions. Match had it's moments, but there was nothing substantial going on and they kept losing the crowd with the constant restholds. It didn't build credibly into it's length, they just went "well, still got another 5 minutes to go, here's a half crab". The sleeper hold spots where a nice touch but after 10 seconds it was clear they were killing time. Then there's that butchered sequence where Devil wants Plum to hit another suplex for whatever reason, and Devil letting go off her pin before Chigusa was kicking out. Whenever Chigusa's involved things gotta be melodramatic so a slew of big moves being thrown out before the finish was to be expected, I guess.
  14. Jetlag
    Yeah, these two do a better heavyweight epic than current NJPW heavyweights. I don't remember Io Shirai working like a crowbar, but she was just wasting her young opponent here. The match may have peaked early with that and Watanabe kicking her in the face to retaliate. The finishing run was pretty overkilly with Watanabe landing every big move in her book on Shirai, but they pull me back in with a neat Chickenwing -> Suplex spot that felt straight out of 90s AJPW. Same for the hellish uppercut that bloodied Watanabe. Of the 4 matches that I've seen from 2018, this felt like the best.
  15. Jetlag
    I dunno. This was okay. Lots of cool individual moments, but as a whole this felt like a chore to sit through. Just awfully slow at times "now I'm waiting for you to stand up, now I kick you then wander around a little" and so on, so there was never any real urgency. Some of the spots looked weak, and Zack still moves goofy. I did like Zack's game and his reversals looked ultra slick, and he deserves some credit for making the crowd care about things like twisting the leg (of course Okada no sells all that, so fuck him). Also, what on earth was that transition that lead to Zack doing the Toby Imada spot? Zack eating that sick piledriver followed by the noodle armed lariat was a funny finish. Okada's still an embarassment, don't compare his CHIKARA holds to T2P.
  16. Jetlag
    I watched my first Not too familiar with Capture. Any details or matches you'd recommend? Sounds like a shoot style promotion? the promotion is not dead Tomohiro Ishii vs Nihao[ from the first show the promotion diid Kaoru Todori vs Yukihiko Koizumi [ctach wrestling festivle] Nobutaka Araya and Nobukazu Hirai vs Koki Kitahara and Daisaku [ show 23 ] 2017.09.06 Minoru Tanaka vs Sanshu Tsubakichi Do Capture release DVDs of some sort? I've found this YouTube channel, where they've uploaded some highlight videos: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYjaRcDrsX-lHVsZo6FtqtA That being said, I watched my first Tokyo Pro show: Tokyo Pro 8/25/96 TWA World Tag Challenger Team Decision Match: Yoji Anjo & Tiger Mask vs. Takashi Ishikawa & Yoshihiro Takayama Sabu vs. Black Wazuma NWA Light Heavyweight Title Match: El Dandy vs. Masao Orihara TWA Tag Title Match: Abdullah The Butcher & Daikokubo Benkei vs. Yoji Anjo & Tiger Mask This card was a total winner with every match being worth checking out. UWFi dudes and Tiger Mask looked great, Sabu and Scorpio had their best match together that I've seen, Dandy and Orihara delivered a fun WCWSN match and the main event was better than it had any right to be. Blood, stiffness, cool matwork, crazy high spots, this card delivered pretty much everything a japanese sleaze indy aims at.
  17. Jetlag
    Looking at this matchup taking place in a sleaze indy fed I was expecting a wild brawl but instead they stick to working a WCW Worldwide match. These are two guys with some fun snappy offense though and they trade some big suplexes, powerbombs and dives. They end up working some bullshit non-finish so they can do a restart with a few minutes overtime and then work a time limit draw. Lazy tricksters.
  18. Jetlag
    Way too fun. This was about the best match you can possibly get out of two dudes as limited as Abby & Benkei. First Anjo and Tiger take turns laying into pudgy old sumowrestler Benkei before Abby comes in for the old stab & chop. Anjo ends up bloodied and playing a really good Ricky Morton for such a natural dipshit heel before coming back by beating the shit out of Abby and bloodying him in return. Undeterred by the potential Hep infection Tiger Mask comes in and beats the shit out of a bloody Abby aswell. Tiger can't really do highspots against these fat dudes so he just throws a bunch of kicks to the face and kneedrops and it's awesome. Abby trapping Anjo with his blob physique was a great spot too. Tiger Mask & Anjo looked super here and Abby selling and coming back with a last ditch throat chop was genuinely exciting stuff.
  19. Jetlag
    Really good match which may be the best I've seen between the two. They start slow with a lot of matwork and cool rope running exchanges which added a ton to the build of the match. These two have wrestled each other many times especially on this tour but they did a good job making everything come together organically and not making the match look like an exhibition. Sabu hits a really nice low dropkick into a spin kick transition and I'm wondering when the hell did Sabu turn into a graceful junior wrestler but then he goes for a dive and Scorpio just hurls a chair into him and the match goes awry. They move into the spots and reversals you expect from a Sabu/Scorpio match. All the spots still look cool and everything made sense, the only minor upfuck was Sabu's slightly delayed bump on a headscissor. Sabu using the chair to crotch Scorp when he tried his extra flippy legdrop was a really smart spot to allow himself extra breathing space. I dug them going back to some cool mat stuff for a bit in the middle. Match went the right length. Feels weird how out of style Sabu worship is with the indy wrestlers of the last few years, I enjoyed this a lot.
  20. Jetlag
    This was a fun match with everyone dishing out stiff shots and Anjoh making jokes. Takayama was wearing biker gloves for some reason, but other than that his exchanges with Anjoh and Tiger Mask were the highlight of the match. Tiger Mask works best against heavyweights because it adds some restraint to his work and Takayama forces him out of his usual spiel by not going along and making him actually hit the mat and work exchanges instead of just hitting his spots.
  21. Jetlag
    WAR CUTY!!! I don't know what the hell it is about The Scorpion that brings out Cuty's inner asskicker like this, but it sure has produced a memorable match series. Match opens with Cuty posting Scorpion's arm and then just does her best Arn Anderson impression ripping the hell out of that arm and sinking into armbars at awkward angles. I was a little worried about Scorpion selling all that at first but it ended up being fine. Match was unexpectedly really gritty with Scorpion throwing headbutts and savage kicks and Cuty punching her in the mouth like she's Fuchi or something. Really enjoyed the tricked out finishing run once again which left quite a bit on the table for the rematches. Yeah these two rule together, let it be known that once in a while Cuty Suzuki would step up and be a gritty badass.
  22. Jetlag
    Plum Mariko & Cuty Suzuki vs. Mayumi Ozaki & Rumi Kazama (12/7/90) Mostly back and forth action in this one interespersed with Kazama kicking the living hell out of the prettygirls and some mean stomps and knees from Ozaki. Some good interactions between Kazama and Mariko continueing from their singles match the previous year. Match wasn't bad but the baseline for JWP is a little higher than this by now and I thought the finish was kind of cheap as a bazillion suplexes were thrown before a fluke ending. Perfectly good joshi though and didn't go long. Devil Masami vs. Madusa (JWP 8/8/91) We've had Cuty Suzuki work as Arn Anderson, now get ready for kickpadded shootstylist Madusa, throwing thudding kicks and going for kimuras!! This was quite the awkward mess, altough honestly Masami wasn't exactly pushing the action with her hair pulling and scratching. I imagine this Madusa has a fun match in her, but Masami isn't the one to produce it. Cuty Suzuki vs. The Scorpion (8/11/91) WAR CUTY!!! I don't know what the hell it is about The Scorpion that brings out Cuty's inner asskicker like this, but it sure has produced a memorable match series. Match opens with Cuty posting Scorpion's arm and then just does her best Arn Anderson impression ripping the hell out of that arm and sinking into armbars at awkward angles. I was a little worried about Scorpion selling all that at first but it ended up being fine. Match was unexpectedly really gritty with Scorpion throwing headbutts and savage kicks and Cuty punching her in the mouth like she's Fuchi or something. Really enjoyed the tricked out finishing run once again which left quite a bit on the table for the rematches. Yeah these two rule together, let it be known that once in a while Cuty Suzuki would step up and be a gritty badass.
  23. Jetlag
    You're crazy, right? Yatsu has all the really awesome offense in this match. This is one of my all time favourite fights. They just kill eachother. Copy and pasting tomk's review on this match because it has some of my all time favourite lines:
  24. Jetlag
    Great, unique match with tremendous pace and just an electric atmosphere. The opening is like a boxing match with Bryan dancing around Morishima and chopping into his legs with awesome low kicks and Morishima trying to push him into the corners. You wouldn't expect this kind of strategy to go over well with RoH workrate smark fans for several minutes but it totally does. Then Morishima catches himand just pounds the living shit out of Bryan, detaching his retina and not releasing that the eye injury was real for several minutes. I don't wanna go „Hey that dude almost getting blinded was awesome“ but in a way the injury added to the match. Bryan got in a ton of offense but he was also clearly in immense danger. The subsequent leg attacks and Morishima powering out of submission and ground and pound attempts were all great and Morishima may have his finest performance ever in this match as a giant tree who will also fuck you up. I don't remember Bryan doing so many fighting spirit spots though. Besides that the strike based parts of this match were just awesome and Morishima crushing Bryan underneath him is still one of the most god awful spots I've seen ever. This may honestly be my favourite RoH match because it's compact and I love the crowd going apeshit for Morishima simply buckling over as his leg finally gives out.
  25. Jetlag
    Looking at this matchup I was expecting a wild brawl but instead this starts with Nagasaki and Okumura exchanging knucklelocks. Hm, okay. After about a minute of that this delivers though as all the good guys in this match step in and bring the goods. Some really fun exchanges between Mochizuki and Fujiwara, and once Tenryu steps in Fujiwara goes MAD and goes after him like a pitbull, bloodying him with headbutts and biting. Now Araya is punching a bloody Tenryu while Nagasaki is throwing tables in the background. Match stays in the ring though and it's really good with Tenryu doing his best Terry Funk impression with wobbly selling and wild swinging chops and lariats, and Fujiwara is a mad bugger throughout, going after everyone and trading stiff headbutts with Nagasaki. The finish is between Okumura & Nagasaki which is the least exciting matchup here, but I guess Nagasaki was running the event so he gets to play star at the end. Still, this was a really good little match with Tenryu and Fujiwara as the centerpieces.
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