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Jetlag

DVDVR 80s Project
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  1. Jetlag
    Ditch's website has the top two matches for download. The Tarzan Goto vs. Takashi Okamura (reckless karate kicker) match sounds fun too.
  2. Jetlag
    This also delivers the promise of an IWA Japan vs. Yume Factory match. Picture 4 sleazy heavyweights potatoeing the shit out of eachother, add a ton of blood and you have this match. You know it's an awesome match! Tarzan Goto is one of the most mean wreckingball wrestler dudes ever, and this match really showcases him both doing some cool actual wrestling, and fucking dudes up in really graphic ways. Motegi is very lovable as this legendary sad sack who tries really hard, and he takes a monster beating from the IWA guys, getting waffled with chairs, punched and bloodied and he fires right back with full force hits. Miyake is perfectly fine as a disdainful shitbag kneedropping and stomping dudes in their bloody face. Nakano fits perfectly in this kind of savage potatoefest as a hot tag with his eardrum shattering slaps and enzuigiris and awesome powerslam, also he comes in with a bandage over his eye resulting in some gross spots where he gets hit in the eye with chairs and headbutts that would make Terry Funk cringe. Finish was not as epic as the body of the match but kind of worked as a payoff. This pretty much ruled.
  3. Jetlag
    Uuuuhhhhh it's Fujiwara vs. A japanese Fake Undertaker. And they go to the mat! Shinigami counters the Fujiwara armbar by rolling through and locking in the stomach claw! Uh so Fujiwara actually sells a good deal for the living corpse and gives him a lot of offense. So you squash Masashi fucking Aoyagi, but this joker gets an actual match? Fujiwara, you're a mystery sometimes. There are some fun spots here such as Fujiwara countering the BRAIN CLAW~ with an armbar or Shinigami following up the stomach claw by working the stomach. But mostly this is a match of the „what the hell am I watching“ sort.
  4. Jetlag
    It's Karatekas vs. Wrestlers round 2. Another fun little gangfight that was a little shorter and faster paced than the previous match. The match was a little sloppy, but when a bunch of dressed in black karate punks and sleazy indy shooters get into a fight you don't want perfectly executed moves, you want reckless kicks and dudes getting dumped on their necks, and there was plenty of that here. So, the sloppiness added to the match, as you got plenty of crazy moments where a wrestler would go for a dropkick and get kicked in the kidney in mid air etc., also TARU did this crazy Undertaker dive where he falls on his head. The most violent part about the match were the saves as anytime there was a pinfall or submission attempt somebody would get kicked in the back of the head or punched in the ear, at one point Mochizuki unloads with short kicks to Kotsubo's face. Fukuda looked pretty great as he was just hurling around dudes again with suplexes, cranking in submissions and at one point hit a dropkick here basically jumped into the air and landed in the other guys face. This indy feud is a rush, exactly as good as it sounds on paper.
  5. Jetlag
    WOW! First of all: how fucking cool was Toshiyo Yamada in this match? Nobody ever talks about what Toshiyo Yamada was up to in the late 90s. She had a normal haircut here and with her bumblebee outfit looked like a Kill Bill character who prepares lunch for her kids and then goes to kick yakuzas in the eye. She was just a killing machine here as she was braining the other women with kicks to the skull left and right. Her timing was fantastic as you could basically track the crucial moments in the match to Yamada recklessly thrust kicking someone in the throat or the back of the head. Next is Aja Kong. I've said it like 15 times, but it's amazing that she goes in and you think "okay, this is her usual spiel" but still looks like a total force. I didn't like the brawl at the beginning, but for the rest of the match Aja was a wrecking ball. The most spectacular about Aja was how non-chalant she was about it all, casually abusing Meiko or walking up to Yamada and cracking her with a trash can like she goes to grab coffee in the morning. Then, Meiko and Amano. For a pair of relative newbies they got to look great. Just really breathtaking athletic workers with innovative ideas that they pulled off great, and a ton of fire to keep them going. Right at the bell they go at eachother with stiff headbutts like wild animals, fast and crazy exchanges. They both take big beatings and get stretched and fire back as is their role, and Meiko shows a lot of disdain especially when she takes the time to kick the shit out of Carlos before making the hot tag. Carlos was a little subdued in the middle portion but really came unglued during the big stretch run where she busted out all these Mysterio-ish counters, spinning into wild submission counters as if she was weightless. The opening of the bout may have been a little standard, but they kept the match getting better and better, and everyone looked fantastic during the finishing stretch. This was a long match from a smaller show and a pretty much just a damn good take at japanese tag formula wrestling.
  6. Jetlag
    Prepare to have your dreams shattered. Wow did that suck. You see a matchup like Fujiwara vs. Aoyagi, and you think „Why have I never heard of that“ - well the reason is that it was bad. Straight up. The one cool moment comes early on when the are both throwing wild bodyshots at eachother. The rest of the match is Fujiwara just eating Aoyagi up, and not even doing a very entertaining job at it. Aoyagi rushes Fujiwara with a nice kick combo in the corner reminding you who he is, the rest of the match is Fujiwara taking him down over and over again, sitting on him and slowly prying into submissions. You keep waiting for the indy promoter to turn the tables on the legend but it never happens and Aoyagi is forced to tap out at just the 10 minute mark. Don't know what Fujiwara's issue here was, maybe carried over hostility from NJPW or he thought Aoyagi was beneath him because he was shorter. Eitherway this is not the match you fantasy booked, move on with your lives.
  7. Jetlag
    Didn't watch it and just got a bunch of DVDs from Lynch so I'll be busy watching indy sleaze and joshi for a while.
  8. Jetlag
    This was ultra-generic videogame pro wresting.They tried to include some non-spotty work to balance all the Orange Crush and wristclutch into a tornado DDT moves, but the match never seemed to develop real intensity as they constantly had to move to the next spot. For example, notice how quickly Bate dropped his selling in order to hit his crowd popping dives, before the uninspired finish. While it wasn't terrible I have no interest in seeing more of this stuff.
  9. Jetlag
  10. Jetlag
    I for one am looking forward to all those 7 hour long ******** 3/4 classics we are no doubt going to see in the near future as wrestlers keep falling over themselves trying to beat the highscore.
  11. Jetlag
    Another forgotten match that is actually some damn good story driven pro wrestling. Well, it may not have enough wrestling for some people's taste, but I give them credit for selling their butts off. The early going was really nice joshi style work: unpredictable exchanges where they didn't do anything stupid, and there was a good amount of struggle. Then, an overconfident Hyuga got caught and crushed by Fukuoka's brutal double stomp finisher. This transitions into second half which is mostly built around Hyuga's pretty epic selling. Fukuoka follows up by working over her stomach area with nasty stiff toe kicks and knees. Pretty brutal and awesome stuff, and we get these almost Hogan/Andre like spots of Hyuga trying to body slam lift Fukuoka into position for her Michinoku Driver II. All the MDII spots where pretty great and the second half of the match felt like classic puro stuff built around simple moves, both wrestlers gutting it out and struggling for control. Really good stuff and another hidden gem.
  12. Jetlag
    Current favorite wrestler to watch: Mariko Yoshida Last fun match you saw: Murahama vs. Hoshikawa from the 2000s project. Wrestler you want to see more of: Carlos Amano Match you're most looking forward to watching: Carlos Amano vs. Aja Kong, Oz Academy 2008 Last interesting thing you read about wrestling: Apparently Mae Young used to rob and beat the shit out of men knowing they wouldn't go to the police Last worthwhile podcast you listened to: I don't listen to podcasts Most fun you've had watching wrestling lately: Watching 2001 JD', weirdly enough Favorite recent post on this board: I don't read much, but probably OJ's thread on Mile Zrno Favorite thing about the wrestling landscape in the past three months (if you live in the past, then go with your past three months of time-traveling): Meltzer rusing everyone with his ludicrous ratings. You go old man
  13. Jetlag
    Mima Shimoda/Etsuko Mita vs. Lioness Asuke/Mariko Yoshida (Twinstar of Arsion Tag Title, 7/29/01 Tokyo) LCO face their biggest challenge, maybe ever! This was a 30 minute draw and probably JIP for good reason. We get some basic LCO plunder brawling before they settle right into the finishing stretch. Yoshida was bleeding big which added something to her usual exchanges as she was pounding the heels angrily with her fists, and I actively liked everything involving Asuka, as she is so recklessly brutal and also not afraid to get smashed by LCO chairshots. As a result this was going good before Yoshida hits a nutso rope climbing dive as if she was her 1992 self again because why not? And instead of going for the win Asuka goes for another table spot. She got herself a custom made table, so she is using it, dammit! So the match is over and Shimoda gets the mic asking for the match to be restarted. That was a pretty poor idea considering Mita just got double stomped through a table. Another 4 minutes of bomb throwing and false finishes ensue and Yoshida picks up the win in a nice moment with a fucking rollup. To be fair the false finishes worked, and also did I mention you had Asuka spin kicking everyon e in the face like a madwoman. MAX Tournament Round 2 (8/12/01 Tokyo): 2. Lioness Asuka vs. Etsuko Mita A sprint. Bombs are thrown. Asuka kicks her in the face a bunch because that's all she does. Atleast it only toke one of her spin kicks to end the match. noki-A vs. Michiko Ohmukai AKINO in her goofy masked noki-A persona. JIP of a match that was only 11 minutes... they do some submission based stuff to keep things inoffensive before noki-A picks up the surprise win with a funny mexican stretch bomb. Mikiko Futagami vs. Mariko Yoshida JIP again. These two are counter-wrestlers each, so their matches are always interesting to watch. Some submission work on the ground before they settle into bomb throwing, with GAMI really throwing the bombs before securing a fast win. Ayako Hamada vs. Mima Shimoda Aaand it's another JIP bomb throwing match. Not much I can say here. There was some fast dodging and evading, and chairs came into play. Can't say these 1st round matches are worth checking out so far. Semi-Finals (8/12/01 Tokyo): 6. noki-A vs. Ayako Hamada This was their usual match... except kinda slow, and wooden, and not that good really? Weird how that can happen. Maybe Akino was inhibited by her mask. Lioness Asuka vs. Mikiko Futagami The funnest match of the tournament so far was, somehow, this. Turns out the trick is to hit Asuka with a paper fan. Asuka is totally game to go along with Futagami's bullshit and gets eyeraked and smacked in the face a bunch before the inevitable happens. Their moves were smooth and they never slowed down. FINAL (8/12/01 Tokyo): 8. Lioness Asuka vs. noki-A Aaaand I liked this a lot too. Basically Akino throws the kitchen sink at Asuka and busts out all these super-slick moves to keep her contained, while Asuka fires back with her usual stiff ass offense to bust her ass. Picture a shootstyle Rey Jr. vs. A shootstyle Psicosis... well maybe not like that, but noki-A was damn impressive. Could've used a slightly grander finish, but this slight noki-A push is giving me positive vibes. Let's hope there's more to come for the masked lady.
  14. Jetlag
    This is in the RealHero archive if you go to the GAEA section. Great little match. Not shootstyle at all, closer to lucha/IWRG if you ask me, as both of them just try locking in nutty submissions in on eachother, in between trading unpredictable shoot headbutts and punches to the face. Amano as a quick on her bare feet maniac grappler using her hard head as a battering ram really is awesome. I also loved her counter to Yoshida's finisher which would later be made famous in a certain UFC bout. Amano's quickness and inventiveness here was great, and her style fit Yoshida's like a glove. Perfectly good bantamweight 11 minute Ishikawa/Otsuka match.
  15. Jetlag
    So, this match. When I watched this for the Best 2000s Japan project, I thought this was pretty bad. Now that my mindset has grown and I'm not in the situation of watching and evaluating a gazillion mediocre 2000s puro matches in a short time period, I've made up a slightly more differentiated opinion. There is a ton of really good stuff going on here. In fact, I'd say for the first 25 minutes the match is very good. Solid matwork with some great holds displayed, and because they are going very long, they do a deliberate pace and build to their spots. Another positive is that they really don't make it obvious that they are going very long, always leaving the possibility on the table that the match could end now or atleast transition into the finish. After the 25 minute mark the match starts falling apart with a few hiccups, such a no-selling or a weak comeback here and there, but they always managed to do something that pulled me back in. Granted, some of the more Kurt Angle-ish spots here are also seen in more highly praised joshi bouts, so I guess big chunks of this come down to taste, and to their credit, many spots here are timed very well, and many sections (such as the work on the arm or back, or Tamura's long section of dominance where she tries to finish her opponent, creating a lot of tension) are done better than many other workers would have. Yoshiko Tamura looked pretty excellent, as she was very dominant, and she actually has the moveset to keep things compelling for such a long. Her elbow and knee combos were pretty great and had the feel of what Kawada or Misawa would do, I also really liked her chucking a chair at Hyuga to set up her big dive. She knew how to mix up her offense and be inventive. Hyuga, on the other hand, didn't seem to have enough moves to go this long. I mean, I've seen 20 minute matches where she ran out of ideas, so that was going to be a problem from the very beginning. I liked her cradles and the flash armbar was cool, but other than that she mostly relied on her suplexes, Michinoku Driver and endless running knees. The running knee is especially a way too cool spot to be done 20 times. On the other hand, some of her suplexes were damn good; at one point, she just caught a Tamura kick and dumped her on her head, straight out of the Alexander Otsuka playbook. The part that will probably kill a lot of people's estimation of the match are the last 10 or so minutes where they just go nuts throwing out a slew of death moves. You may hate or tolerate that depending on how much you can get into the fact that this was a rare promotion ace vs. ace match with a bunch of titles on the line giving them the permission to go super duper epic. Well, you can give them credit as they were frantic to go for the kill as the time was running out, and they ended the match with a classic spot. Also, they never lost the crowd. Overall this is a pretty difficult match to evaluate because it's part great and part pretty bad. I'd say if this went 30 or 45 minutes this probably would've been great. As it is I'd say it's still on the "good" side atleast for me and still a solid attempt at doing an AJPW style super epic. But you be the judge.
  16. Jetlag
    This was less of a great shootstyle match and more of a great balls to the walls fight. I didn't notice any great mat work and the rounds seemed to be interrupting the flow a bit, but they knew when to throw down and how to use their charisma. The little prick heel superior striker vs. larger wrestler was a unique story and they used it to good effect. Murahama did these disdainful stomps, not breaking in the ropes, complaining about a foul. I'm mostly familiar with Hoshikawa as a mediocre BattlARTS guy, and while he looked good here it's hard not to see Murahama as a really great foil for him. Last two rounds were pretty great and Murahama's combos looked just amazing.
  17. Jetlag
    Mikiko Futagami was full blown GAMI at this point. That means, paper fan and all that. And she gets a shot at the big gold! This starts out like a Monterrey match. Hell, it might be their Monterrey match worked as a puro epic. Somewhat comedic feel, tricky arm drags, rope walking joke and a paper fan hit. Then Hamada eats a tombstone on her belt and sell a huge a deal. This had that „overmatched loser goes for the gold“ feel with GAMI being tricky like Yoshinari Ogawa or Kendo Kashin, so the match was endearing, and GAMI absolutely has the slick moves, so if you like that type of match I'd say this match is recommendable, altough there were a few blown spots. Not as good as GAMI vs. Hyuga, altough this is a match closer to Hamada's lucha background building into a hard hitting finish.
  18. Jetlag
    Hey!!! Bionic J is getting a push!!!! AWESOME!! Well, maybe not exactly a push, but she got a lot of focus in the match, which was cool. And this was a pretty good match as it was just 4 fun workers having fun exchanges and doing stuff they are good at. Jesse & Ohmukai are at a disadvantage early on, with Ohmukai even doing a convincing job selling (!!!) and they end up doing a cool section with Jesse as face in peril. Everything with Jesse ends up being so much funner than usual because she is a cool bullish powerhouse which adds something new to Yoshida's and Asuka's stuff. At one point, Asuka hits some really dainty looking kicks to J, so she just slaps her in the face hard! How's that you lazy old time wrestler coasting on your name! Jesse actually gets some fun powerhouse exchanges going wAsuka and they lay into eachother with big damn lariats, and Asuka who seemed to be half assing stuff started laying it in. I also really liked all the facepunchy boxing exchanges Yoshida and and Ohmukai dished out, channeling their inner Takeshi Ono's. Ohmukai keeps getting back to my goodside as she was in-offensive here aside from one bit where she was trying these insanely inaccurate spinning backfists. The dominance of the Yoshida/Asuka early on added a lot to the second half of the match, really making YOU flip out for Jesse Bennett taking it to the big names and getting big offense and nearfalls until Ohmukai pointlessly turns on her and the match ends in a schmozz. BOOOO! Still, you owe it to Jesse Bennett and yourself to watch this match. It's fine pro wrestling.
  19. Jetlag
    Lioness Asuka/Mariko Yoshida vs. Michiko Ohmukai/Bionic J (7/21/01 Sendai) Hey!!! Bionic J is getting a push!!!! AWESOME!! Well, maybe not exactly a push, but she got a lot of focus in the match, which was cool. And this was a pretty good match as it was just 4 fun workers having fun exchangesand doing stuff they are good at. Jesse & Ohmukai are at a disadvantage early on, with Ohmukai even doing a convincing job selling (!!!) and they end up doing a cool section with Jesse as face in peril. Everything with Jesse ends up being so much funner than usual because she is a cool bullish powerhouse which adds something new to Yoshida's and Asuka's stuff. At one point, Asuka hits some really dainty looking kicks to J, so she just slaps her in the face hard! How's that you lazy old time wrestler coasting on your name! Jesse actually gets some fun powerhouse exchanges going wAsuka and they lay into eachother with big damn lariats, and Asuka who seemed to be half assing stuff started laying it in. I also really liked all the facepunchy boxing exchanges Yoshida and and Ohmukai dished out, channeling their inner Takeshi Ono's. Ohmukai keeps getting back to my goodside as she was in-offensive here aside from one bit where she was trying these insanely inaccurate spinning backfists. The dominance of the Yoshida/Asuka early on added a lot to the second half of the match, really making YOU flip out for Jesse Bennett taking it to the big names and getting big offense and nearfalls until Ohmukai pointlessly turns on her and the match ends in a schmozz. BOOOO! Still, you owe it to Jesse Bennett and yourself to watch this match. It's fine pro wrestling. Ayako Hamada vs. GAMI (Queen of Arsion Title, 7/29/01 Tokyo) Mikiko Futagami was full blown GAMI at this point. That means, paper fan and all that. And she gets a shot at the big gold! This starts out like a Monterrey match. Hell, it might be their Monterrey match worked as a puro epic. Somewhat comedic feel, tricky arm drags, rope walking joke and a paper fan hit. Then Hamada eats a tombstone on her belt and sell a huge a deal. This had that „overmatched loser goes for the gold“ feel with GAMI being tricky like Yoshinari Ogawa or Kendo Kashin, so the match was endearing, and GAMI absolutely has the slick moves, so if you like that type of match I'd say this match is recommendable, altough there were a few blown spots. Not as good as GAMI vs. Hyuga, altough this is a match closer to Hamada's lucha background building into a hard hitting finish.
  20. Jetlag
    I thought this was really nice. Sasaki looking like a U-Style guy is near surreal. It's a basic match, but their big moments look real good: Sharp dropkicks, Taro takes a sick bump on a german suplex, great looking DDT etc. They worked the match well enough to make you appreciate the more simple spots like the DDT or lariat. Also gotta give Taro some credit for being able to immediately salvage his blown spot with a beautiful flip dive.
  21. Jetlag
    This was the first clipped up match that looked real good. There was a bit of selling and neat transitions going on elevating this above your standard move exhibition. Instead you had Akino being all spunky underdog, pulling off all kinds of wonky complicated spaceman headscissor type moves and turnbuckle climbing dives. And well, Apache when on offense is just blasting her opponent and they kept things interesting with nifty spots. The best move was Mary countering a weird Akino rollup in mid-air by stopping her, pulling her back up and just splatting her with a fat powerbomb. Akino's a tiny girl but still looked like a freakish spot.
  22. Jetlag
    D'aaawww look it's the little cubs fighting for their first big win! And this was actually really, really good! You could tell this was their „young workers trying their ideas for an epic“ match. Except... their ideas worked? This was closer to a lucharesu match than anything and it had to have been the best singles match in that style since... since... Sasuke/Tokyo from the previous year? Oh whatever. The matwork was real good, the lucharesu exchanges looked great and most importantly, fresh. Ayako had great instincts – just little things like doing a kneedrop while working for a submission add so much. They also played up the fact that Hamada was pretty dominant in the tournament while Akino had gone by using her flash rollups. Making Akino's intricate rollups and wonky twisted headscissors into great nearfalls. That's economic working baby! Awesome nearfalls for ROLLUPS!!! Rollups that actually add to a match! Man fuck why can't we get more wrestling like this and less headdrops and thigh slapping. Terrific little match.
  23. Jetlag
    This was quite the badass little war. At this point they had matched up a few times, so to keep things interesting Mariko Yoshida had now started using GLOVES. Which means she absolutely goes nuts with stiff punches on Aja here to even things out a little. Aja also has a barrage of crazy stiff offense, altough that's nothing new. Still, she just ragdolled Yoshida around in ways that just had to absolutely suck and I winced at her brutal kick to Yoshida's hamstring. This had the usual cool matwork were Yoshida has to work hard in order to lock her holds on the beast that is Aja. Also really loved Aja's modified ankle hold here she just hugs and squeezes Yoshida's heel into her thigh. That is such an angry bear grappling move. This matchup is great everytime but this was especially compact, the selling was flawless and you get the usual neat, well timed, violent spots. Plus, punches to the face.
  24. Jetlag
    This was clipped but we get a good picture of it. I imagine this would have been really good if we had gotten the early build, because what was shown was really good. Asari is really sharp, and the contrast between her lucha headscissors and flash armbars and Akino's more basic style made for an entertaining match. They had great rhythm and Akino's arm selling was right on the money. The finish was really neat aswell. Even without the ARSION trademark gone these two are still a welcome antidote to the more overkill-y joshi workers.
  25. Jetlag
    Ayako has done it all in ARSION in 2000. All she has left to go for is the gold. Aja remains unimpressed and thrashes her like she was still a 1st year rookie anyways. Aja really may be the ultimate „do the same shit in every match“ wrestler. If you can get over that this was really good. Aja just gives Ayako a monumental thrashing. I thought it wasn't quite right to have Ayako work this match the same as she would have in her rookie year given how much she had achieved previously, and Aja no-sold her a little too much, but when you get past all that and look at this in isolation this was brutal and efficient pro wrestling. Ayako is just the gutsiest wrestler you've ever seen taking every painful shot Aja has to dish out and getting caught in the ribs with a chair while doing an Asai Moonsault. The finish was fucking brutal aswell and easily one of the best moments ARSION has produced so far.
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