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Jetlag

DVDVR 80s Project
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Everything posted by Jetlag

  1. Jetlag
    This got **** 1/2 from Meltzer. As expected, the match was very fast and had a lot of slick moves. Also, Shiima had his heel faction at ringside, which added a semblance of a story to the bout, as TOKYO had half a dozen guys piling up on him when he ended up on the outside. The execution was fine and this wound up being a decent indy style match, altough the action was not the type that will leave a lasting impression on me.
  2. Jetlag
    Very cool match. Kakihara working over Ogawa with stiff shoot-like offense like a Mini-Kawada and getting the better of him with his shoot submission skills was pretty great. The legwork, aswell as the selling of it, were pretty sharp and because both guys are good defensive wrestlers, the finishing stretch was a ton of fun and not once bordering on overkill. I didn't think this was a classic or something but one of the more interesting junior matches of the 90s for sure.
  3. Jetlag
    This felt like a match of two halves. Kobashi, with the bloody mouth and bandage was a pretty great visual, and the match was really good when Vader was laying an epic beating on Kobashi. However, I felt Kobashi could have done much better to make Vader look like a monster. His comebacks were fairly easy, and aside from the great opening exchange, I thought he was offensively not as good as Sting. Kobashi just running through his moveset against Vader of all people was kind of poor. So, overall it amounted to a solid match. Afterwards Vader is backstage yelling about why the competition for the Triple Crown is a japanese only club with a sad look in his eye. Vader will not stand for these injustices!
  4. Jetlag
    HDA assaulting Kobashi's face was pretty great. The work on Kawada's leg was utilized smartly and all l the twisting and turning exchanges down the stretch were really well done. It almost feels a bit like a Greatest Hits version of an AJPW tag as it seems these guys can do this stuff in their sleep at this point. Still, a very good tag that was a breeze to watch and hit all the right marks. Agree about Taue, this felt like his formula performance and showcases his coolness very nicely.
  5. Jetlag
    A highly athletic 7 minute sprint that saw these guys busting out one spectacular, unique move after another. Psicosis and Juvi acknowledged their heel roles, so it wasn't a nonsensical spotfest either. Typical of these guys to work their butts off like this on a random Nitro, Psicosis even busting out his crazy legdrop to the floor.
  6. Jetlag
    Aw man, I'm not that bad. I understand there are limitations for niche events like this. However, the tournament had 3 matches that went 6-10 minutes, and everything else was 5 minutes or below, with 1 match going exactly 1 minute and Cobb/Walter going 2 and a half. So the combined time of all the matches on this card was 40 MINUTES. That kind of thing is a joke even for a sideshow and it wouldn't have hurt to give some of these bouts 5-6 minutes more time. As the matches with Thatcher showed you can have a very good match in 6, 8 or 10 minutes. Plus, Cobb and WALTER are far superior workers compared to Carnage and Rico. But doing anything special in a 2 minute match is near impossible. So this match was just a tease and nothing more.
  7. Jetlag
    Chris Hero and Homicide go 40 minutes in a seedy german nightclub. This was actually quite good when they stuck to matwork and basic stuff. They understood how to make their holds meaningful, and Homicide punishing Hero with stomps, kneedrops, headbutts etc. was pretty damn good. However, some of the reversal sequences they tried came across as sloppy and Hero may have oversold as he was acting dead for much of the 2nd and 3rd fall which reflected poorly on Homicide.
  8. Jetlag
    Nominating: Timothy Thatcher vs. Matt Riddle, wXw 3/11 Full review: http://prowrestlingonly.com/index.php?/topic/37567-timothy-thatcher-vs-matt-riddle-wxw-ambition-311/ I am no expert on current wrestling, but I wouldn't be surprised if this ends up being my 2017 MOTY. This is for all you shootstyle loving weirdos. The matwork looked great and they built a really effective narrative. Riddle the modern MMA douche vs. Thatcher the carny Robinson-trained catch wrestler. Riddle's desperation knees on the ground are the greatest thing.
  9. Jetlag
    I remember PCO being really cool when he was working indies, such as IWS. He looked like a class above everyone else. Feels like a guy who flew under the radars.
  10. Jetlag
    For those of you who don't know: AMBITION is a pseudo-shootstyle tournament wXw runs once a year. This was excellent. Grappling Riddle using his legit ability is so much better than PWG style flopping around Matt Riddle. One could argue that this was a little your-turn-my-turn-ish, but fuck that. This was some real wrestling and I won't say no to that. Riddle as a highly athletic, flexible modern MMA freak vs. the carniness of Thatcher with his nasty facelocks and toeholds was great. They are smart enough to stay on the mat and deliver the focussed, high end grappling you want from a shootstyle main event. Also really liked how they built a really great, edge-of-your-seat-type finishing run while sticking to their strengths and keeping it groundbased. Riddle desperately contorting his body to avoid Thatcher's wristlock and making an awesome comeback using his ground knees is easily the highlight of his career so far. The only problem with the match was that the actual finish looked like crap, but everything up to it was fine fine wrestling.
  11. Jetlag
    For those of you who don't know: AMBITION is a pseudo-shootstyle tournament wXw runs once a year. This was very good for what it was; WALTER clubbers Cobb, Cobb throws an absolutely hellish suplex and finishes with a nasty neck crank. The problem was that it went 2 minutes. Seriously, screw wXw for that shitty booking because this could have been great. Still, that Cobb suplex has to be seen.
  12. Jetlag
    For those of you who don't know: AMBITION is a pseudo-shootstyle tournament wXw runs once a year. This was quite good, like you'd expect from these two. The grappling was positively PWFG and had a ton of physicality, and they went to tell a story, with Cobb obviously being the surperior wrestler and just an impossible to move beast on the mat, while Thatcher could win with submissions. I loved all the spots where Thatcher was overwhelmed by Cobb's Cobbness, such as Cobb easily shrugging off his attempts at a butterfly suplex or Thatcher getting squished by a basic waistlock. Also, at one point Cobb just cradled Thatcher into a pretzel. He really should make that move his finisher because it was freakin awesome. The finish was actually exciting and they played off their previous matches in the tournament.
  13. Jetlag
    For those of you who don't know: AMBITION is a pseudo-shootstyle tournament wXw runs once per year. This was surprisingly good. Al-Ani is a talented german guy who can go on the mat, and Thatcher meant business. Al-Ani didn't do anything brilliant, but he could put up a fight against Thatcher, which was enough. Thatcher did all these neat little tricks and nasty holds. Twisting at the ankles, a nasty rolling clutch and a really painful looking grovit that he finished Al-Ani off with. This stayed on the mat and that was the right thing to do.
  14. Jetlag
    Dragunov is this schlubby dude whose stuff really doesn't look that good. However, the german fans took a liking to him and thus he gets a big push. This was good. Ilja isn't a spot guy, so they actually build to the spots and generate some drama. Walter just punishes the little guy which is what you want. The match went downhill a little when they did the endless chop exchange, but puro cosplaying comes with the territory I guess. I really liked how Walter just flattened Ilja when he tried to hulk up and the finish, even with Ilja's lacking execution, was good solid pro wrestling charm.
  15. Jetlag
    Walter looked good here. For some reason, he is easily the most talented guy to come out of germany/austria recently, but he is rarely put in a position where he can do what he does best. As usual he had to stooge a lot for his smaller opponent, who didn't look all that good. Walter's leg work was pretty great. Fuck knows why a giant austrian farmer boy has to work like Regal, but he does it well. Of course, Riddle no sells aaaaalll of it and just gets his shit in. I was glad when Walter crushed him with the powerbomb. Enjoyable match.
  16. Jetlag
    I didn't really like Starr in this. He had all this dweeby offense that didn't look good at all against Walter, and he was far too reliant on Walter feeding into him in convoluted ways, like leap frogging over Walter and all that dumb shit. Also, his Davey Richards-like "intense" facial expressions where really annoying. You are supposed to sell that you are getting the shit beaten out of you first, and not how angry or badass you are. This needed more Walter stomping the shit out of Starr to be good and less Starr popping up to get his shit in against the bigger guy. For example, Starr would just absorb a big spot from Walter like that huge dropkick, and then the next minute just hit a brainbuster type move.
  17. Jetlag
    Paul London wrestling in payamas is hilarious. Another moves match. These type of fights are okay once in a while, but when every match on the show is like this things get boring. Well, there was some semblance of a heat section in this, but in the end there were too many random transitions and throwaway moves for me to take this seriously. London hits the SSP for the big 2.99999 moment before Bones pops up and just finishes him. Lame.
  18. Jetlag
    Okay match. These first round matches have been essentially "cram moves into 5 minutes", so Donovan deserves some credit for actually selling a bit. I don't really like these "lift opponent into a convoluted position and then drop him into a knee strike" moves they did a bunch here and Riddle kind of looked like a feeble little kid against Dijak at times, which is the opposite of what you want from your MMA badass.
  19. Jetlag
    This was kind of mediocre. It was kind of like, Kanemoto on a WCW syndicated match vs., I dunno, Alex Wright? There was no real great matwork and Kanemoto didn't really lay in his strikes. I mean, I don't want him to concuss his opponent, but even his chops and slaps looked week. Also, Thatcher did all these goofy "I am evil" faces and Kanemoto seemed to threat the match like a light hearted affair, waving to the crowd and being all big smiles.
  20. Jetlag
    God damn that balding spot on Muto. Good match which was interesting due to Muto not yet having turned into the Shining Wizard spammer. Instead he spammed Figure 4 leg locks. Still, Tenryu carried this nicely. The opening technical work was actually good and then Tenryu just beat the hell out of Muto. Loved the spot where Muto tried his handspring move and got just chopped in the neck. Tenryu busted out a few unusual moves like a fucking Spider Suplex and an extra messed up version of his shitty brainbuster to drill Muto into the mat. Should have been a little more reliant on strikes than big moves in the last couple minutes as Tenryu just doesn't have a big enough moveset for that type of stuff, plus I was a little annoyed with Muto's popping up, but they kept things exciting and did the big move extravaganza very well. Extra-nasty finish too and this is easily one of the better Muto singles.
  21. Jetlag
    Indy sleaze superstar Orihara comes to NJPW to battle their resident sleazebag! Lots of Face Washes and blocked snapmares ensue. This was a ton of fun. Orihara uses rough tactics and Ohtani is not afraid to retaliate. Orihara looked pretty good, kicking Ohtani in the balls a bunch and laying in stiff chairshots aswell as bringing the highspots and some smart control spots. Ohtani took no crap and bloodied Orihara's nose. Meltzer's rating seems pretty high but this was a very good sub-10 minute match.
  22. Jetlag
    I didn't really think the matwork was outstanding or unique from what I've seen in joshi. They did the usual stretching holds and then moved on. They also teased (or should say "pretended") Genki working the back and Ran going for chokes but it didn't lead anywhere at all. The body of the match just struck me as average and not really building very well.
  23. Jetlag
    That's a crazy rating. I thought this match wasn't even good. It was above average in parts, but mostly it was just a deathly bland affair that didn't even have much crowd heat and was pretty sloppy in parts, that atrocious blown rollup sticking out the most. After some okay-ish time killing they just moved into the usual big move and 2.999999 trading without much creativity. No transitions or even nice reversals or exchanges, just pop and do the next move. Lousy match.
  24. Jetlag
    This was pretty epic for such a minimalist match. The main thing that these guys do is STARES. And these guys are the masters of staring. You get all kinds of awesome moments thanks to their facial expressions. The pacing and build is of the charts too and thus the crowd is on fire for the finish. The story of Hashimoto coming in, taking out Tenryu's leg and then just drilling him repeatedly in his own ring made for a really compelling match as you were wondering how Tenryu could come back. I don't want to glorify overly stiff moves but Tenryu bloodying Hash's nose was good way to remind you he is still Tenryu even when in trouble. The bomb throwing, and subsequently Tenryu pushing ahead to overcome Hashimoto was really great too. Great match.
  25. Jetlag
    Minoru Tanaka looked like he was cosplaying Tamura to get a gig in RINGS here. Tanaka actually tried to have a serious match here and went above his usual mediocrity, so this isn't quite "Ishikawa carries someone to his career match for the 3,000th time", but, still... you don't really see Minoru Tanaka matches this good against someone not named Ishikawa. Really good match with no cute stuff, just really good matwork and Ishikawa doing a great job playing outmatched veteran worker against younger athlete.
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