Jetlag
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Went Misawa - Styles - Bryan without thinking much. Bryan vs. Benoit is a squash. Bryan is far more expressive and versatile. He also has that crowd control. Benoit is pretty much a wrestling robot and while he's not bad you get the same stuff everytime whether he's in mexico, japan or elsewhere. Also, not really a great matworker. Iffff you wanna see the gap between the two compare Benoit vs. Big Show to Bryan vs. Big Show. Also, gotta say it again: Motegi did the multiple german suplexes better than Benoit too.
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Why doesn't this get brought up among „passing the torch“ type matches more often? It's quite the epic destruction of Inoki.Choshu immediately catches Inoki in a nasty headscissor and almost cranks his neck. Now Inoki wants a fight, throwing fists and all, but Choshu immediately nukes him with suplexes. A lariat should finish the job, but Inoki narrowly escapes and hangs on by a thread. Choshu is totally the dominant force in this though. Inoki hits some fast enzuigiris and they trade awesome punches and headbutts and this is great. Choshu ain't selling crap from this fossil though and another back suplex later he starts hitting the lariats. Choshu is like an airplane flying around Inoki now and just dropping him again and again. After like 20 lariats even Inoki has had enough. If you wonder why Inoki worshipper Yuki Ishikawa wrestles the way he does check out this match. Inoki's time had come, and Choshu was the cold blooded killer to put the old gunslinger down.
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Man Choshu is sick of doing hold for hold wrestling. Anytime he gets the chance he is stomping Inoki's ass. Inoki is not having it and... removes the turnbuckle pad? Choshu also agrees to remove 1 turnbuckle pad and this is now an Onita deathmatch with the exploding barbedwire boards replaced by exposed turnbuckles! They do some cool phone booth fighting throwing punches and trying to be the first to smash the other guy into the corner. Inoki dominates for a bit, but Choshu finally catches him and... breaks his own hand doing a backdrop. Choshu bloodies Inoki and works over him with nice punches but they are forced to do a quick finish with Inoki choking Choshu in the ropes and getting DQ'd. This was looking good until the unfortunate finish. Admittedly a bloody Inoki was really crazy looking, his face was turning very pale and he did these creepy groans and growls. When all the jumpsuit trainees jump on him and he erupts it looked like something from a 60s horror schlock movie.
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A sprint! Inoki stalls to begin with, then tries a leg trip to the outside and Choshu is fighting for dear life against that damn leg trip. Earth to wrestlers: this is how you tell your audience why your moves are important – by creating STRUGGLE. Choshu immediately blitzes Inoki and just tries to run him over basically, but Inoki takes it to the ground and dominates him there for a while, also hitting some great enzuigiris and Ali kicks. Inoki seems to have the upper hand for a few exchanges, but then Choshu clocks him with a lariat out of nowhere! Inoki is seeing stars and narrowly avoids another one, but Choshu connects another to the back of the skull and that's it. Choshu does the impossible in less than 10 minutes! Ferocious stuff and the equivalent to something like Dundee/Rich. Two guys doing what they do best, sticking to their roles and putting eachother over.
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So wait, this was you? Don't feel bad about your ban, happpened to me too. People running that site are comically uptight.
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Yeah, like Inoki hasn't buried those IWE dweebs enough!! How about burying them all in a single stroke! Admittedly, this was some highly entertaining pro wrestling. The IWE boys couldn't really play the number's game at first, so Inoki just ate them all up, busting out lots of cool shit in the process. We also got to see referee Kotetsu Yamamoto tackling guys trying to run into the ring like the world's greatest security guard. Inoki slowly tires out and the IWE dudes go to town on him. Kimura hits some really stiff chops and Hamaguchi is just a dynamo in this match, attacking Inoki's leg like a terrier and taunting him. Hamaguchi ain't backing down from anyone. Inoki looked convincingly tired and wounded by the end (check out that leg selling) which helps even the dull Rusher Kimura to a heated finish. The only thing about this that bugged me was how quickly Teranishi was eliminated. Ah, can't win em all, or in this case, pin em all. -
Man, you gotta give some credit to these guys for understanding how to work these exciting matches. You won't get any workrate or high end grappling in a Rusher match, but they knew how to set the crowd into a frenzy. Man Inoki blocking Kimura's chops is about the coolest basic thing nobody ever does. Lumberjack stip didn't come into play match except to force wrestlers back into the ring. Inoki trying to snap a bloody Rusher's arm repeatedly probably would've been better if Kimura knew how to sell, but the crowd sure went wild for that armbar. This is why you don't mess with Inoki.
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I think the better analogy would be poor CGI, or visible strings during a special effect.
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It could also mean Cagematch. They're pretty ban-happy around there.
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This is just a gem of a little high end heavyweight clash. SWS has ridiculous high end production values too, overhead camera and all. Takano makes short work of Tenryu early on with fast submissions and cool palm strike rushes, but torches himself on a dive leading to Tenryu working over his ribs with nasty stomps and knees. Takano evades Tenryu soon enough though and shortly they start firing all their bombs. Awesome chunky guy dives and spin kicks ensue, and the last couple minutes had great drama thanks to Tenryu countering a german suplex and selling his twisted ankle in the process. Just a breeze to watch, it's a bit of a bummer Takano pretty much retired after SWS. But then, his brother moved on to fighting aliens too.
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I'm probably stretching it by now, but if you saw a wrestling match, and then the exact same match again except this time with extremely loose moves, punches and dropkicks that miss by a mile and the other guy still bumps, visible cooperation for the moves etc, would both matche be equally good?
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Man, there were a lot of wrestlers in the ring before this match. You had Inoki's crew, Rusher Kimura and his IWE boy's and even Abdullah the Butcher coming in wearing a badass suit and working the mic. This was a fun match which kind of had the feel of refined martial artist vs. Tough street brawler. Inoki destroying Kimura with superior standup and ground work was pretty fun and Kimura's headbutts and chops to the throat were solid enough. Inoki eats a posting and comes up bloody (Inoki is a blade addicted maniac, boys) but hits a fast enuzigiri and snaps Kimura's arm. IWE boys jump in to attack Inoki and this interpromotional madness alright. Not a ton to this match but the heat was great and the spectacle was to the max.
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Hey, look... it's two ultra charismatic dudes in a hot battle! This was exactly the kind of uncooperative high-resistance technical contest I like so much. Nothing fancy, just two guys who can grapple hitting the mat hard and battling it out. Give Inoki credit where it's true, there are not a lot of aces who could believably hang with Fujiwara in a match like this, let alone come across as the dominant force. When not on the mat, Inoki would constantly increase the pace by attacking Fujiwara with great looking punches and kicks. It's almost needless to say but Fujiwara's selling and was flawless and he had a ton of great facial expressions and thus came across as the most tenacious dude on the planet taking on the legend. Amazing how he can go from a smirking dick to that. Last few minutes were great with Inoki downing Fujiwara with an epic punch and Maeda taking offense to an Inoki kick leading to a near riot. But we still get a decisive finish, so it's all great. Hell of a thrilling contest and one of the finest 80s japan singles matches I've seen.
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Dude, times were different. Back then few people had any idea about what "real fighting" looks like outside of stuff like Shooto or SAW, and the UFC wasn't exactly full of high end grapplers. Volk would also bust out all kinds of wonky leglocks and cross heel hooks, which are still a main weapon of the Craig Jones' of this world, and you do see many of these esoteric/weird moves in sambo competitions still. A banana split is a legit move. Not one that works on everyone, but just because you don't see it in high level fights doesn't mean it's not realistic. A lot of people wouldn't think of doing a twister/wrestler's guillotine in a submission match either until Eddie Bravo came along. Aside from that, a match doesn't have to look like a real fight in order to look more realistic than another; I can award Jerry Lawler realism points based on his strikes actually looking hurty compared to some thigh slappy indy wrestler with silky soft strikes.
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Actually most of this stuff has been made avialable before. Since that Andre stuff isn't on the website I assume the guy uploading this stuff must have worked some serious voodoo magic to obtain it from the archive. There is a bit of talk about the french footage and the difficulty in getting it from the archive in the french catch thread. Slightly off topic, but what the hell is up with video archives not wanting to give out ancient wrestling footage? I contacted an austrian archive about video footage from Graz they supposedly had and they didn't even bother to respond further. Atleast we got all the Chicago archive stuff.
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2 stories in 1 with Ogawa trying to hang with the big dudes and No Fear trying to keep Misawa at bay. Largely strike based match which I dug a lot because you had 4 guys who can throw strikes. So instead of suplexes you get guys pounding eachother with elbows, kicks, lariats and punches. This match largely works because No Fear's stuff feels fresher and you get fun moments such as Misawa selling Takayama's knee to the body, or Omori swatting everyone with lariats. Agree about the great finishing sequence as Takayama's interference backfires and Omori looks strong in defeat as he is able to survive for a while without his partner.
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Anytime people talk about how great AJ supposedly was back in those days, I go back, find he's essentially the world's greatest video game wrestler and stop bothering.
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Hooooly shit @ this showing up! Man, young lion Andre is something. He did come across as pushed beyond his ability here, but that uncanny force of nature vibe was there for sure. Anytime Andre put his giant hand or boot in Francis' face was scary, and his bear hug looked like it would break you. Van Buyten is guy who always struck me as a hidden world class worker, and he does look world class here, as he really makes his hold look like there's a ton of pressure in them and clashes into Andre with big european uppercuts and flying headbutts. Franz adds these neat touches as always such as dropping his weight on Andre's leg to bend it, countering a european uppercut into a wristlock or rolling up Andre from the gutbuster aswell as hitting plausible huracanranas on the Giant. Really neat discovery, and DAMN do I ever want to see every french match that was ever filmed show up!!
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Oh, how some things can change in just over 2 years:
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I can't remember where I put him on my GWE ballot. I do consider him a 2nd tier worker though, outside the Top 10-20. Better than Kobashi, but below Kawada. About the same level as Misawa. It is curious that I don't remember his best match. I always say Danielson/Morishima, but I dunno how well that holds up. FWIW, he is likely the best overall guy from 2002-his first retirement in a cakewalk.
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This had a GREAT opening with Kansai and Harley facing off only for Yamazaki to step in and smash Kansai into the guardrails. Those guardrail bumps are about the manliest thing. This was a fast paced workrate tag, but another piece in Kansai/Saito rivalry with plenty of boss exchanges between the two. They meander at times and I dislike how Kansai would no-sell all the clever work that Yamazaki and Saito were doing. Ah well, Saito sells well enough and Yamazaki stepping up and kicking Kansai in the face is pretty much the greatest thing. Unpredictable match with lots of well timed transitions. I have no idea whether other folks can warm up to this type of stuff but I'm really enjoying it.
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Well you look at this matchup and you go „These are 4 ladies who are not afraid to hit hard and get hit hard in the ring.“ And you are correct. This had plenty of asskicking, but I would've liked them to fire it up a little more and bring that trademark intensity Kandori is famous for. Maybe it was cause they were working a title match so they wanted to keep things cool. Anyways this had enough good stuff to keep you entertained and they delivered another strong finish. They worked the match in such a way that you couldn't tell when and what the finish was gonna be and it paid off with that ending. Not as epic as it could have been, but then the baseline for JWP matches is fairly high and this would be a standout match on any other promotions card.
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Very good tag which was mostly built around the veteran team of Devil & Yamazaki rudo'ing it up and cutting off their younger opponents who were firing back with plenty of spunk. This was probably the best Devil has looked as she was quite the thrashing machine here throwing stiff headbutts and punches and dropping the girls with massive Gorilla slams and powerbombs. She did some cool „monster“ selling aswell and reminded me a bit of Andre. Yamazaki wasn't in the match much but she did work a few cool exchanges and she once again acting like an even girlier Takeshi Ono, running in to kick people in the head and stomp on their hands to break up submissions. Kazama was laying into folks with brutal kicks again and there were plenty of violent exchanges in the process. Kandori was probably the most subdued but it was established that she could end the match at any time so that resulted in a few neat moments. Really effective match with some strong double team work from Devil & Yamazaki and a clever finish.
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Cool JWP style match. It's a little hard to discern where the line between your average cool JWP match and the great stuff is. The work isn't exactly high end and there's no overarching story, but then the work is GOOD and you get all kinds of neat spots which set these two apart from your average girly spotblower. I really liked the wrestling they did here – nothing high end, but just well executed basic stuff, such as Plum resisting a toe hold, or Kazama turning an Achilles Hold into almost a figure 4 spot by extending the leg to block the pressure. Here Plum gets the better of Kazama with some impressive counters and Kazama almost breaks her jaw with some whack spin kicks in return. I was also impressed by how they did set up the dive in this match. Yeah, I'm a sucker for a good dive set up. Kazama ends up high kicking the steel ringpost and they do a double countout into a restart and Mariko goes after Kazama with her leglocks like the other Mariko. I thought Kazama's selling was good altough it wasn't overly dramatic as she is not that kind of worker and it was just a good trick to get the crowd all hot and behind Kazama for the crazy 2.9 run. One might frown and say this was just another junior match, but I did enjoy it tremendously. Good layout, some cool wrestling and stiff blows, smart thinking, and they never overreached.
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The first half or so of this was just amazing and easily the best JWP tag I've ever watched. They basically did away with all the cute stuff and just went for the kickpadded joshi version of a Choshu/WAR tag. The Kansai vs. Saito/Kandori interactions were just magic. Stiff blows, lack of cooperation, flash submissions, general frantic pace... this may be my favourite style of wrestling. Kandori had superstar written all over her here as she had amazing presence, disdainfuly kicking Scorpion in the face and standing toe to toe with Kansai. The second half drifted more into a different territory, whichwas still solid, but I was hoping for the sparks to fly a little more of that opening. It was basically a WAR tag that turned into an AJPW tag, and I like the WAR style better. Still, they pulled through with a good story as Saito and Kandori worked a good underdog+major badass team. Saito and Kansai kept brawling after the finish, keeping me excited for their further interactions throughout the year. Ah screw it, this is still the best JWP tag by a landslide so far.