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Jetlag

DVDVR 80s Project
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  1. Jetlag
    Hey, now here's a match that slipped under the radars! Have YOU seen this match? Go boast to your hipster friends about it. One can't help but wonder how this match up will go down. Hashimoto is the heavyweight mega star. Sano is a junior and at best not even the 3rd highest ranked guy in UWFi. Also, Hashimoto represents NJPW... at a UWFi vs. WAR show? Let me say that this match is very slow, and 100% true to their characters and hierarchy. Hashimoto can beat Sano in 30 seconds, and the finish drives this home. But Sano is skillful and hard to kill. This is like an NJPW match dressed as UWFi match, with grappling and hard fighting over the throws. I'm a fan of Hashimoto grappling. Everything he does feels like a big deal, and he is such a bulldozer even when he's not striking. His takedowns and throws just flatten Sano. At one point he randomly bends Sano's arm all awkwardly and it's awesome. They really work the skill vs. size AND skill narrative effectively; Hash is a behemoth, but he can't do what he wants to Sano, and Sano can barely move him. There's a really cool bit where Hashimoto tries to stomp on Sano's leg, but Sano blocks him and tries a leg trip, but can't achieve it either because Hash is Hash. Another where Sano gets past Hashimoto's guard and tries a suplex, but Hashimoto just lands on top of him, crushing his chest. It all builds very well, leading to both guys throwing HUGE suplexes, Sano getting chopped in the neck and kicked in the face really really hard and Hashimoto getting spin kicked in the throat REALLY hard. Even the somewhat un-shootlike armbar nearfalls kind of make sense as it seems that Hashimoto's arm wasn't in quite the correct position while Sano was only a short movement away from getting it properly, getting the crowd worked up good. I also dug the finish. I could unterstand if some people found that a disappointing ending, but I felt it was really the only logical outcome considering the gap in ranking between the two and I loved that it was basically Sano getting all cocksure and Hashi ending him right there. Really loved this match for what it was and thought it was another testament to Hashimoto's greatness considering this could've easily been a throwaway nothing squash and instead we got total Hashimoto styled fascinating match with so much rad stuff. Oh and to reiterate: Sano's solebutt is still the most awful thing possible.
  2. Jetlag
    Hey, I'm also a 1993er! And I think GOTNW is even younger. The future belongs to us! And now I've been reminded that I need to watch Thatcher/Graves. Thanks!
  3. Jetlag
    YUJI YASURAOKA OF THE DAY #2 This was a clipped match which is annoying as the stuff that is shown looks really good. Tons of brutally stiff blows. The match was centered around the Kitahara/Mochizuki interactions. Mochizuki is Kitahara's boy, which means Kitahara is legally obliged to murder him, which the crowd also senses. Yasuraoka mostly gets kicked in the face, but busts out his really spectacular dive in an awesome moment right after Mochizuki blows his fancy springboard attack and gets mauled by Kitahara for it. Even Arashi busts out a reckless spinkick in this! WAR was a magical place.
  4. Jetlag
    JD STAR KILL EM ALL!!!! I had stupidly high expectations because it's BIG MATCH HIROMI YAGI!!!! and naturally as such this was underwhelming. I'll put the blame on Sakai as she seemed to be kind of going through the motions. There were still a few cool little moments mostly thanks to Yagi who had developed a cool veteran aura. Some nice matwork, neat armbar work, getting a cheap takedown from the ropes etc. Sakai, on the other hand, looked kind of poor. I guess she just didn't feel like it that night, because, you know she had very good matches with Yabushita, a judo girl with an armbar-centric moveset, what's stopping her from matching up well with Yagi? But it just didn't happen. Then just as it seemed that the match got going it ended. The finishing move itself also felt like a total burial of Yagi. Hiromi Yagi, you deserved better.
  5. Jetlag
    YUJI YASURAOKA OF THE DAY #1 This was a really fun junior's tag as you had guys flying around recklessly plus all the awkward painful violence that WAR entails. Problem with the match was obviously Lance Storm who is such a terrible wrestler. Half his stuff looked really out of place soft and he didn't have a clue about how to sell, or really add any substance to what he was doing beyond just executing one move after another. However, I'd say Sayama carried him okay with his shoot techniques (boy you are in trouble when Sayama has to carry things). Tiger Mask I is fat here and like Mil Mascaras meaning he is on offense whenever he is in, and really recklessly kicks the little dudes. No wonder Storm is such a pussy about working stiff, he probably still wakes up at night dreaming of fat Tiger Mask awkwardly spin kicking him in the liver. Mochizuki and Yasuraoka are really the best guys in the match as Mochizuki really really REALLY brings the nasty shots from all angles and positions including axe kicking Yuji in the face and Yasuraoka is maybe the only guy in the match who actually sells properly between the moves making everything a lot more meaningful when he is in there. Really dug his desperation lariat after almost crumbling and super fast double jumping dives. Also because this isn't Dragon Gate these guys aren't super polished so sometimes you get junior moves like a moonsault turned into a nasty backflip kneedrop. Super enjoyable match.
  6. Jetlag
    The two most relentless strikers BattlARTS had in 1996 face in a big deciding match, so this was a quality match up. There was some shootstyle matwork but this was mostly brutally violent standup, Usuda may have out-Ikeda'd Ikeda here. Ikeda's selling was absolutely fantastic. He got in some good shots, but Usuda was just relentless sending Ikeda into desperation mode and you got the sense the match was a hair away from being done. This was a brutal and great sub-10 minute war.
  7. Jetlag
    Katsumi Usuda was rampaging through BattlARTS in 1996. He lays an absolutely murderous beating on Ishikawa. Ishikawa comes back with his excellent grappling technique and throws, but Usuda just crushes him with kicks to the face and blows on the ground. Short clip but both guys looked awesome.
  8. Jetlag
    JIP to the juicy part. They trade some big damn beatings like this is BattlARTs or something. Ono didn't have the elaborate punch technique he developed later, but made up for it with sheer force kicks to the face. Ono actually gets the advantage over his bigger opponent but falls to Ikeda's power advantage. Fun clip.
  9. Jetlag
    This exceeded my (low) expectations. Mostly because the amount of Shimoda/Omukai was limited, while the champs were in attack mode throughout. Which meant, big ol' bombs from Aja and twisty submission work from Yoshida. I thought Nu-LCO (Omukai had graduated to „Cachorra“ status at this point, right?) getting control was well done and things were difficult enough for them from that point onwards to keep the match interesting. Omukai landing her big crucifix bomb on Aja was a pretty impressive spot for a skinny girl. They timed their stuff fine, and while the action here wasn't anything new I thought it came together very well. Shimoda kind of redeems herself with her performance her by going at it with the submission queen.
  10. Jetlag
    I am stupidly excited about this match! And this was really, really fun. Mostly because, it was, I dunno, 4 insanely sharp wrestlers matching up very well? Everything they did looked great, awesome dives, unpredictable exchanges and great stumpy legged athleticism. The match went 8 minutes, so there was a ceiling to how good it could be, but as far as crowd pleasers/popcorn matches go this was very good. The intergender stuff worked because both Papa Apache and Papa Hamada are barely taller than their daughters (in fact, Gran Hamada seems shorter than Faby and Ayako... you know you are short when your daughter has to get her height from your mexican wife) and added some character to the bout. Fun fun lucharesu action.
  11. Jetlag
    For a match with Yoshida and Yagi on opposing sides, this was pretty disappointing. Part of that was the clipping, as the opening of the match was completely chopped up. Second, this was built around Tamada and Yagi as heels, with their second GAMI interfering very liberally, including hitting fucking double stomps and top rope frankensteiners right in front of the referee. Yagi didn't match up very well with Aja either. I guess story wise this was interesting because Kong and Yoshida had previously gone against Hamada and AKINO in a high end wrestling contest and now faced a bunch of cheating witches, but in execution this did very little for me.
  12. Jetlag
    Aja Kong/Mariko Yoshida vs. Rie Tamada/Hiromi Yagi (3/15) For a match with Yoshida and Yagi on opposing sides, this was pretty disappointing. Part of that was the clipping, as the opening of the match was completely chopped up. Second, this was built around Tamada and Yagi as heels, with their second GAMI interfering very liberally, including hitting fucking double stomps and top rope frankensteiners right in front of the referee. Yagi didn't match up very well with Aja either. I guess story wise this was interesting because Kong and Yoshida had previously gone against Hamada and AKINO in a high end wrestling contest and now faced a bunch of cheating witches, but in execution this did very little for me. Ayako Hamada/Gran Hamada vs. Faby Apache/Gran Apache (4/7) I am stupidly excited about this match! And this was really, really fun. Mostly because, it was, I dunno, 4 insanely sharp wrestlers matching up very well? Everything they did looked great, awesome dives, unpredictable exchanges and great stumpy legged athleticism. The match went 8 minutes, so there was a ceiling to how good it could be, but as far as crowd pleasers/popcorn matches go this was very good. The intergender stuff worked because both Papa Apache and Papa Hamada are barely taller than their daughters (in fact, Gran Hamada seems shorter than Faby and Ayako... you know you are short when your daughter has to get her height from your mexican wife) and added some character to the bout. Fun fun lucharesu action. Michiko Omukai & Mima Shimoda vs Aja Kong & Mariko Yoshida (ARSION 04/07/00) This exceeded my expectations. Mostly because the amount of Shimoda/Omukai was limited, while the champs were in attack mode throughout. Which meant, big ol' bombs from Aja and twisty submission work from Yoshida. I thought Nu-LCO (Omukai had graduated to „Cachorra“ status at this point, right?) getting control was well done and things were difficult enough for them from that point onwards to keep the match interesting. Omukai landing her big crucifix bomb on Aja was a pretty impressive spot for a skinny girl. They timed their stuff fine, and while the action here wasn't anything new I thought it came together very well. Shimoda kind of redeems herself with her performance her by going at it with the submission queen. Aja Kong vs. Etsuko Mita (Queen of Arsion Title, 4/20/00, Tokyo) Big title match that is clipped beyond recognition! Awww man. Aja makes jokes about Gran Apache before the match. Clip to Mita's heel minions pushing Aja into the ring. Clip to Mita working chokes on Aja. Clip to Aja being rolled into the ring again. Yada yada... Aja throws a damn stiff backfist. The finishing stretch is slow but seems dramatic. Can't tell anything about this match really.
  13. Jetlag
    Hey look it's Viktor Krueger! For those of you who don't know: Krueger was this big austrian guy who for some reason showed up in BattlARTS and looked like a behemoth next to all those tiny half-juniors. Even more obscure: Krueger got BattlARTS a TV deal in GERMANY!! It was only on mini regional TV, and like a couple minutes of a highlight show once per month or something, but it counts! Maybe it's because I haven't seen this stuff in years, but I was surprised by how much I enjoyed this. Krueger didn't really have a clue, but he was highly efficient as he was willing to get to the mat and clobber it out aswell as bring a little personality. He and Greco made a very good „you're fucked if you have to face these guys“ gaijin team. One is twice your size, and the other is a mat genius, and you really can't beat either of them. Greco was a barefooted fiend here, and when Greco goes barefoot into a match he really is at his best. Lots of top tier mat stuff involving Greco vs. Ishikawa and Greco vs. Otsuka, in which the BattlARTs guys really look better than they have most of the time. The natives were naturally good at „outmatched but fighting like a pitbull regardless“, and you get the sense everyone here gave it their all.
  14. Jetlag
    This is a little more interesting than the previous match (gaijins vs. Ishikawa/Otsuka) for 2 reasons: Ikeda and Ono can strike. Ikeda and Ono aren't afraid to act like total dicks. The result was a super cool little match. Krueger was smart enough to leave the juicy part of the bout to Greco, who once again was a whirlwind of swank and unpredictable matwork. I love that the Ikeda/Greco sections are just as good as the Ishikawa/Greco sections from before, but because Ikeda and Ono aren't afraid to cheat they actually end up coming out on top (for a moment). I also loved Ono trying his hardest to embarass Krueger. Thankfully Krueger was able to defend himself using his shoot knowledge of BACK CLUBS~! He has good clubbing blows so I'm not crapping on him. An enraged Krueger crawling towards Ikeda while Ono was still climbing around on his back was pretty great. But yeah watch this for the Greco twisting.
  15. Jetlag

    Carl Greco

    Jetlag replied to Jetlag's topic in The Microscope

    THE QUEST FOR THE CARL GRECO OF THE YEAR: 1996 Carl Greco & Viktor Krueger vs. Yuki Ishikawa & Alexander Otsuka (BattlARTS 12/4) Hey look it's Viktor Krueger! For those of you who don't know: Krueger was this big austrian guy who for some reason showed up in BattlARTS and looked like a behemoth next to all those tiny half-juniors. Even more obscure: Krueger got BattlARTS a TV deal in GERMANY!! It was only on mini regional TV, and like a couple minutes of a highlight show once per month or something, but it counts! Maybe it's because I haven't seen this stuff in years, but I was surprised by how much I enjoyed this. Krueger didn't really have a clue, but he was highly efficient as he was willing to get to the mat and clobber it out aswell as bring a little personality. He and Greco made a very good „you're fucked if you have to face these guys“ gaijin team. One is twice your size, and the other is a mat genius, and you really can't beat either of them. Greco was a barefooted fiend here, and when Greco goes barefoot into a match he really is at his best. Lots of top tier mat stuff involving Greco vs. Ishikawa and Greco vs. Otsuka, in which the BattlARTs guys really look better than they have most of the time. The natives were naturally good at „outmatched but fighting like a pitbull regardless“, and you get the sense everyone here gave it their all. Carl Greco & Viktor Krueger vs. Daisuke Ikeda & Takeshi Ono (BattlARTS 12/4) This is a little more interesting than the previous match for 2 reasons: Ikeda and Ono can strike. Ikeda and Ono aren't afraid to act like total dicks. The result was a super cool little match. Krueger was smart enough to leave the juicy part of the bout to Greco, who once again was a whirlwind of swank and unpredictable matwork. I love that the Ikeda/Greco sections are just as good as the Ishikawa/Greco sections from before, but because Ikeda and Ono aren't afraid to cheat they actually end up coming out on top (for a moment). I also loved Ono trying his hardest to embarass Krueger. Thankfully Krueger was able to defend himself using his shoot knowledge of BACK CLUBS~! He has good clubbing blows so I'm not crapping on him. An enraged Krueger crawling towards Ikeda while Ono was still climbing around on his back was pretty great. But yeah watch this for the Greco twisting.
  16. Jetlag
    I am pretty sure Michiko Ohmukai is in this match, not Etsuko Mita. Unless you got the date wrong.
  17. Jetlag
    Wrestling pirates invade BattlARTS! Yes Gulliver X and Gulliver XX are indeed wrestling pirates. They come in wearing bright neon outfits, hockey masks and carrying big goofy weapons. They have a manager with them who is dressed in hat, coat and eye patch. He also has a rifle that he likes to bash people with. I won't bore you with in-depth analysis of this spectacle so let me give you the highlights. Ishikawa goes all shoot matwork on the buccaneers asses! Sasuke busts out an insanely stiff spin kick & jumping headbutts! Pirates love announce table spots! Their manager loves to bear hug! Ishikawa literally kicks ass before stuffing the smaller pirates corpse under the ring (What?)! Larger Pirate acts like Brody! Great Sasuke is INSANE! Ishikawa busts out a flip dive! Smaller Gulliver takes a huge corner bump! All in a days work. I will say I appreciate that they didn't run this joke into the ground. If the Gullivers were to debut today they'd probably become a running joke for months/years. Gullivers getting lengthy programs with Danshoku Dino. One Gulliver getting an appearance in the BOSJ before becoming a serious wrestler and challenging Okada in Tokyo Dome. And so on, South of Heaven, etc. But no, they had one bizarre, funny and highly entertaining Christmas time match and left it at that. Pirates were fun competent pro wrestlers and Sasuke and Ishikawa were a blast in this. I have no idea why this match isn't famous.
  18. Jetlag
    Man I forgot how good this match was. DAMN. The first 30 seconds alone are utter brutality. This was a total shootstyle gangwar, which plays to their strengths. Lots of guys piling up and kicking and stomping the crap out of someone 2 on 1. If you know anything about BattlARTS or these guys you will know those kicks and stomps were no joke. Between the hitting and getting hit there were a bunch of fun, slick as ice mat scrambles. Hell, even Minoru Tanaka's shit looked good! Even Yone's shit looked good!! My only problem was the slight clipping, robbing us of 2 or 3 minutes of BattlARTS goodness. Still, the rest of this was great trademark BattlARTS violence & grappling at an awesome pace with a killer finish on top of it. Great sprint.
  19. Jetlag
    Team Taco once again are total bastards stretching and smacking the shit out of the M-Pro guys. So, just doing what they do really well. Ikeda of all people ends up being in peril, which makes no sense from a US psych standpoint but perfect sense from a japanese quasi shootstyle indy standpoint. The legwork from TAKA/Sho was a little lacking but other than that they did fine and didn't infuse their pro style too much (altough this is def. a hybrid match). Super enjoyable match due to all the guys sticking to their roles and what works for them.
  20. Jetlag
    Man, BattlARTS wasn't afraid to bring the badass shootstyle in 1996. The rhythm of this wasn't exactly great, but the pace was frantic and the match felt like it could end at any moment, which is exactly what you want from a shootstyle brawl. The Ono/Usuda team constantly going back to heel moves despite being able to hold their own doing pure wrestling was a nice touch, as was Team Taco EXPLODING and the AJPW flavour that some of the interference/double teams had. The first half had lot of great mat moves, while second half was intense as hell with stiff shots raining down. Everything after Ono tanged Otsuka up in the ropes was just fantastic, intensely violent pro wrestling and the finish was a finish. Easily one of the better 90s BattlARTS tags.
  21. Jetlag
    Mari's outfit here was the stuff of nightmares. So many tassles. This was another match that was all chopped up. Wish they had shown us more of the matwork. Mari continues to look really damn good: forceful on the mat, cool power spots, generally great on offense with her chunky flying moves and lariats. She is quickly becoming my most wanted wrestler to see in a real match. There wasn't a ton of selling her but for a 6 minute clip this was fun.
  22. Jetlag
    Oh look it's another LCO tag to add to the last dozen we had. The first half was the typical LCO action, but finally, Ohmukai and Fukawa remembered they were in ARSION and salvaged things with a great finishing run full of slick submission counters, deathly suplexes and stiff soccer kicks. It won't blow your mind if you've watched BattlARTS and seen those punches to the face before, but it was nice to see that after so many skippable matches the real ARSION was still left in there somewhere.
  23. Jetlag
    Speaking of the real ARSION: These 4. Total corker of a match, easily one of the best tags ARSION has ever done. It was kind of their „roll out of the bed match“ as no one did anything extraordinary here, but they put their stuff together beautifully. Hamada and AKINO faced their biggest test against the top 2 ladies in the promotion, so aside from the numerous cool exchanges and nifty reversals, you also had a story and a game plan going on here. Akino and Hamada had to work together aswell as target Aja's arm and use their quickness to avoid both the deadly bombs from Aja aswell as Yoshida's submissions. Akino may have had her finest performance so far as she matched up great against the veterans, holding her own with a few shooty submissions of her own, while Ayako once again relied on blinding athleticism. Aja worked stiff and Yoshida was demonstrating the top of her submission game, and the counter-and-avoid nature of the match kept it from drifting into overkill. I also really liked how they saved up the big dives for near the end of the match. Great stuff, the first really good ARSION match of the 2000s.
  24. Jetlag
    Mima Shimoda/Michiko Ohmukai vs. Etsuko Mita/Yumi Fukawa (2/18) Oh look it's another LCO tag to add to the last dozen we had. The first half was the typical LCO action, but finally, Ohmukai and Fukawa remembered they were in ARSION and salvaged things with a great finishing run full of slick submission counters, deathly suplexes and stiff soccer kicks. It won't blow your mind if you've watched BattlARTS and seen those punches to the face before, but it was nice to see that after so many skippable matches the real ARSION was still left in there somewhere. Ayako Hamada/Mika Akino vs. Aja Kong/Mariko Yoshida (2/18) Speaking of the real ARSION: These 4. Total corker of a match, easily one of the best tags ARSION has ever done. It was kind of their „roll out of the bed match“ as no one did anything extraordinary here, but they put their stuff together beautifully. Hamada and AKINO faced their biggest test against the top 2 ladies in the promotion, so aside from the numerous cool exchanges and nifty reversals, you also had a story and a game plan going on here. Akino and Hamada had to work together aswell as target Aja's arm and use their quickness to avoid both the deadly bombs from Aja aswell as Yoshida's submissions. Akino may have had her finest performance so far as she matched up great against the veterans, holding her own with a few shooty submissions of her own, while Ayako once again relied on blinding athleticism. Aja worked stiff and Yoshida was demonstrating the top of her submission game, and the counter-and-avoid nature of the match kept it from drifting into overkill. I also really liked how they saved up the big dives for near the end of the match. Great stuff, the first really good ARSION match of the 2000s. Chapparita Asari vs. Mari Apache (3/15) Mari's outfit here was the stuff of nightmares. So many tassles. This was another match that was all chopped up. Wish they had shown us more of the matwork. Mari continues to look really damn good: forceful on the mat, cool power spots, generally great on offense with her chunky flying moves and lariats. She is quickly becoming my most wanted wrestler to see in a real match. There wasn't a ton of selling her but for a 6 minute clip this was fun.
  25. Jetlag
    This was one of the more interesting matches I've seen in a while. This match was different from the Sakai/Yabushita match they had in March of 2001 as this was a grudge match. Yabushita comes in wearing street clothes and this is a fight from the get-go. However, due to their unique styles, this ends up being far weirder than your typical joshi brawl. The pace is very good as they avoid overly long wandering brawling and instead go back to the wrestling while keeping the story in tact. Also, even though Yabushita's heel faction was at ringside, there were no intereferences, which was a nice change of pace from what I'm used to in joshi. It was really neat to watch Yabushita going back and forth from busting out flash submissions to going for weapons and illegal chokes. It sounds like a mess, but you gotta trust me when I say this actually works because the timing and pacing is on point. The wrestling exchanges here were super nifty and almost lucha-esque in their rhythm at times. Stuff like Yabushita reversing a pin attempt by sweeping on top of Sakai, the ultra-quick springboard moves or a few extremely well timed transitions made me think these two are far above your average worker. Execution-wise they weren't quite as sharp as I like, for example Yabushita has a weak chain punch and Sakai kind of blows a missed punch, but there was nothing that hurt the match too bad, and both girls also have good offense, Yabushita especially rocks her flash armbars and there were a few very cool, believably used suplex variations. Most importantly Sakai was a very good babyface here adding a lot to the match with her charisma and timing. There was one spot where Yabushita is fed up and attacks her arm with a series of nasty chairshots, leading to Sakai making a desperation comeback by giving Yabushita a fisherman buster on the chair, but the referee refuses to count because she used to chair. I have no idea if the referee was a heel or just trying to do her job, but I thought that was a seriously great moment. Her selling of the arm was again pretty much impeccable and I thought they did a good job with the long, dramatic finishing run that could have easily killed the match but didn't. Very good, unique match. Fucking joshi of all things keeps surprising me with shit like this.
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