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Everything posted by Jetlag
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Rimi Yokota vs. Tenjin Masami (early/mid 1980) Rimi Yokota vs. Tenjin Masami (early/mid 1980) Two matches without an exact date. The first is from what seems like a bigger show that had Jackie Sato taking on Chabela Romero in a bloody match in the main event, the second takes place outdoors in the middle of a field at night with only crickets making any noise. Well, the first match is a good example of the downside of watching early AJW. A bunch of cheating, outside interference and chaos due to Masami's heel posse being at ringside. It mpsumay be fascinating at first to watch girls in jumpsuit get thrown around but it gets tiresome very quickly. Also, the match was booked to go to a 30 minute draw and that was too bloody much for these two especially Masami. Masami controlled with a bunch of eye rakes, and while Yokota sold with dedication, the match just wasn't exciting The highlight was easily Masami assaulting Yokota with a lemon. A lemon! Monthy Python warned us about this! To be fair, they don't teach you how to fight lemons in wrestling school. The lemon got a big reaction too. Actually, I faintly remember Mami Kumano attacking someone with apples in a previous match. Maybe it was their gimmick. The acids in these fruits will melt your teeth away sooner or later! The second match was slightly better I guess but it was just a short, basic houseshow-ish match, with Masami working the throat about, Yokota controlling on the mat some and then a quick Cobra Twist finish.
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This is one of my favourite 70s tags. Hell, it may be my very favourite. A long match that just flies by, because every section has some neat aspect to it. These stumpy legged IWE guys really knew how to hit the mat and get aggressive in entertaining fashion in between cool looking proto junior offense that doesn't look fruity. Takachio is the Great Kabuki, and he already had his great looking uppercut which is all I need. Kutsuwda is a big trollish looking dude and it was really cool to see Mighty and Hamaguchi use their skill on this brute. Another thing that I like is that these guys weren't afraid to lay it in, so you also get some stiff kicks to the chest etc. Every hold was really wrenched in too and my favourite thing is that the selling was really spot on, so the hold work doesn't feel like time killing. In the 2nd fall we get more cool matwork where Hamaguchi and Mighty really twist the hell out of Takachio's leg. He does this really cool selling where is punching his own knee as if to stop it from popping out. Eventually he makes a comeback by throwing punches on one leg which was awesome. The nifty little touches kept coming and from now on it feels like all guys are trying to finish this all the time. The 3rd fall is short but cool as hell too where they all really go at eachother, throwing wild punches and slaps, totally laying it in. I also like that all three falls ended in a flash. I would've really liked a bigger Inoue/Takachio showdown as these are two guys with the greatest punches but you can't have everything. Great match.
- 1 reply
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- Akihisa Takachio
- Great Kabuki
- (and 5 more)
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[1990-09-01-AJPW-Summer Action Series II] Mitsuharu Misawa vs Jumbo Tsuruta
Jetlag replied to Loss's topic in September 1990
Yeah this match is no joke. My favourite thing about this was the continuous game of one upmanship. Something that would become a theme with the Misawa/Kawada series later on, except here it was about the dominant guy avoiding a loss rather than the other guy chasing the win. The clobbering throughout is nice and the pace is really strong with impeccable build towards bigger and bigger moves, but the either guy keeps edging just ahead of other aspect is what makes it so compelling. As it has been mentioned before Jumbo does a monster job here selling for Misawa's elbows. The progression though is remarkable. Early on he's not troubled much, but Misawa getting the better of him is clearly bothering him, so he throws the Regular Match Wrestling out and just really beats the hell out of Misawa as if to shut that door entirely. But Misawa comes back and starts landing bigger blows including the type that sent Fuchi seeing stars before and this is where shit gets real serious. After that it's just boiling with Jumbo being pushed to the edge and fightig back for dear life. Seeing Misawa with gritted teeth was something else too. Really, truely great match. I can see why one would prefer the previous match as it shows this incredible new athlete breaking onto the scene, but this is long, excellently worked and eliminates the problems from the previous match while playing out like a boxing or lucha title match. Great stuff, deserves it's rep.- 22 replies
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- AJPW
- Summer Action Series II
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What makes this fun to watch is who is doing this match. I mean, I am not super familiar with the Fantastics, but I assume they normally did more safe Southern Tags, and that dry shooter type Malenko is there too. So they go ahead and wrestle like a bunch of lunatics popping the crowd with big damn moves and taking bumps to the floor. You'd expect that stuff in a joshi tag but I honestly can't remember the last time I watched a joshi tag that was this out there. Poor Kikuchi. Him getting dropped with his throat right on the guardrail directly after falling from the top rope was so harsh. Guess the other guy didn't like him no selling the body slam to the floor either.
- 14 replies
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- AJPW
- Summer Action Series II
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[1990-08-31-AJPW-Summer Action Series II] Jumbo Tsuruta vs Kenta Kobashi
Jetlag replied to Loss's topic in August 1990
Jumbo takes on Kobashi one week before his big rematch against the Man in Green. I dunno, Kobashi keeping Jumbo at bay with very basic moves was fine, but the match didn't have a ton of fire and they kind of lost me in the second half. Jumbo was really generous, almost too generous, as I was wondering why he doesn't just chuck Kobashi around a little. He does that some, but Kobashi just gets in pretty much aaaall his moves against Jumbo (maybe lacking 2 DDTs and a cradle) and then Jumbo just beats him. Could have used a little more valiant fighting, really.- 10 replies
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Just a 9 minute clip, but a really fun, energetic little fight that showcases what made this crew so fun in 1990. Inoue throws fists and gets the shit kicked out of him (seriously he always took a nasty spinkick from Misawa), Kawada does very un-Kawada like flying around, some impressive double team moves and Misawa showing Taue the business with his elbows. Fuchi at one point lays in some vicious stomps and pays for it when Misawa KO's him with that big bad elbow smash, which is sold perfectly.
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- Mitsuharu Misawa
- Masanobu Fuchi
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Why does puro get so much love? Why does lucha get so dismissed?
Jetlag replied to Grimmas's topic in Pro Wrestling
Nope. Do you even notice people sit down and debate his ratings? How many fucking people sat down and watched that Okada/Omega abomination and questioned his authority, let alone all those snowflake classics of his? At this point his ratings are more notorious than anything else. I still don't unterstand what you are trying to say or what you want. "Hey guys, I think Dave Meltzer ratings actually aren't always right." Is that it? Is it his duty to assign more 5 star ratings to matches so people don't get upset? Let's say he really thinks there's only one 5 star match from Mexico, and someone asks him: "Hey Dave, how many are there?" What is he supposed to answer? "I can't tell, because it would reflect poorly on lucha." -
Why does puro get so much love? Why does lucha get so dismissed?
Jetlag replied to Grimmas's topic in Pro Wrestling
I'd say his bar isn't low, it's just different. He really likes spotty shit with a hot crowd and has no problem giving **** 1/2 to a shitty Volador Jr. spotfest and *** 1/4 to the Blue Panther mat wrestling match. Just like he rated those Hansen-Misawa matches lower than Kobashi/Williams. He freely admits that his ratings are subjective and he forgets about them half the time. Anyone who takes his ratings dead seriously is a moron. So I just can't understand why you call his opinions part of a "problem". Keep in mind fucking Bryan Danielson doesn't have a single Meltzer rated 5 star match. -
Why does puro get so much love? Why does lucha get so dismissed?
Jetlag replied to Grimmas's topic in Pro Wrestling
Cool. So what if Meltz thinks these matches aren't 5 stars? Is that a problem, or is he allowed to have an opinion? -
Why does puro get so much love? Why does lucha get so dismissed?
Jetlag replied to Grimmas's topic in Pro Wrestling
This exactly. If you have a problem with his answer, I'd like to know which lucha matches you consider to be surefire 5 star affairs. Because I don't know more than one either. -
Why does puro get so much love? Why does lucha get so dismissed?
Jetlag replied to Grimmas's topic in Pro Wrestling
No he didn't. -
FOR THOSE OF YOU WHO DO NOT KNOW THIS: The "robots" are mexican wrestlers dressed as rip-off R2D2 and C3PO from Star Wars. Thank you Baba for booking this, and thank you japanese TV editors for showing us. AJPW could have some quite trainwrecky matches then, but this was, thankfully, also a really enjoyable match. The robots do this wonderous freaked out lucha grappling, and Fuchi/Onita are a quite good team of rudos. Come for the wrestling robots, stay for the majestic wrestling and giant swings. Also, it is nice to know Masa Fuchi can add "I punched C3PO in the face" to his list of wrestling achievements. You did god's work there. That was a nice punch combo he threw also.
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- Masanobu Fuchi
- Atsushi Onita
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(and 6 more)
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This was quite the fascinating bout. A long fine handheld tag match. Jumbo was a lot more menacing here than the stooging character he played on TV lately, as he clobbered Kawada and Misawa mercilessly. The parts where Fuchi is in are solid, and Kawada looks real good as he sticks to his kicks, to the point where Fuchi is almost sympathetic as Kawada kicks the snot out of him. But what will stick the most in your mind is the way Jumbo assaults Misawa here, beginning with a forearm smash that leads to Misawa taking huge bump to the floor. Eventually Jumbo hits his big backdrop driver, but instead of going for the pin Jumbo goes into mount and beats Misawa like a dog. Jumbo beats Misawa to the point where Misawa can't get to his feet anymore but refuses to quit, and Jumbo keeps picking him up and refusing to pin him. Both Kawada and even Fuchi run in to calm Jumbo down but he kicks their asses too. You'd except this kind of grit and hatred in a heated US bloodfeud but it worked here aswell. Great match.
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- Mitsuharu Misawa
- Toshiaki Kawada
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(and 4 more)
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Man, where did all the great 6 man tags go? They don't seem terribly hard to do. Just throw a couple guys in who can go while keeping things logical, maybe one or two to give the match some backstory, and let them go at it. Kikuchi takes a big beating including getting manhandled and kicked in the face by Jumbo, Kawada and Taue have a standout interaction, and Misawa gets to look like a world beater whenever he's in. The Jumbo/Kikuchi interactions are especially compelling because Jumbo can believably finish Kikuchi off in 30 seconds. The white hot finish speaks for itself. These days people associate multiman tags with excessive spots and action, but they had the crowd flipping out over a powerslam or dropkick. Quality shit from the AJ crew.
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Man, I forget what a great fight this was. Crazy UWF grappler Backlund was so cool to watch. Easily the best stuff he ever did. Basically Backlund irritates Cool Guy Funaki a bunch so Funaki tries to beat him to a pulp, including knife edge chopping him in the face. Supposedly the UWF people didn't like Backlund's pro style spots (altough Funaki starts working more pro stylish himself), and it almost felt like Backlund was being intentionally goofy to piss Funaki off. He even seemed to be smirking for a few moments. The best part is that Funaki can't seem to crack Backlund. I loved how Backlund would take a beating, but seemingly toy around and then fuck Funaki up with a single blow. Also dug how easily he threw Funaki off and reversed his holds. The non-finish is a bummer, but I can't really imagine a proper finish for a match this bizarre.
- 2 replies
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- Bob Backlund
- Masakatsu Funaki
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(and 2 more)
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This was quite the clash of the titans style match. Picture it like the scene in a western where a big gunfight breaks out and lots of stuff breaks and lots of people get shot. Takada is kind of a slug, but Maeda carries him fine on the mat, and both guys go into standing exchanges as if ready to die. Not the most pure or artful fight, but brutal and dramatic to the max.
- 4 replies
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- Akira Maeda
- Nobuhiko Takada
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(and 2 more)
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This was such a gruelling battle. Maeda maybe a more compelling matchup for Fujiwara than Sayama, because he can go on the mat, and is larger, so we get all this compelling matwork were Fujiwara has to control or defend against him with double concentration. This was slow, but dripping with intensity right from the start. Fujiwara teaching his opponent a lesson on the mat and coming back through barrages of kicks was so awesome. He came across as the toughest, most determined man on the planet. Both guys wincing while in the double leg lock was such an epic visual. The finish I didn't see coming at all, but this is why shootstyle rules: it fit the story of the match, and both guys came out looking like the baddest dudes alive.
- 2 replies
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- Yoshiaki Fujiwara
- Akira Maeda
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(and 2 more)
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[1985-09-11-UWF] Yoshiaki Fujiwara vs Super Tiger
Jetlag replied to Microstatistics's topic in September 1985
This is less experimental and outlandish than their previous matches. At this point they knew how to use the nuances of the style they created to full effect. The wrestling wasn't anything mindblowing or inventive like in the match a little more than a year before this and there were a few parts on the mat that felt like window dressing to the more showy stuff in the match, but the tightness of the fight was great as usual. Sayama altough unmasked looked a little more lunatic than usual with how he was throwing himself at Fujiwara to kick him, and they used the new 10 counts to full effect. One thing that irks me is that the story wasn't as sharp as before. For example, in both the previous matches they tease Fujiwara getting a german suplex, which ST desprately avoids, in this match Fujiwara gets it really easily and Sayama just no sells it to sit on Fujiwara some more. That was something that really irked me along with the matwork being not quite as compelling as before. Still, a really good fight that lays out the blueprint for the style. -
[1984-12-05-UWF] Yoshiaki Fujiwara vs Super Tiger (Death Match)
Jetlag replied to GOTNW's topic in December 1984
The previous match saw Fujiwara mangling Tiger for the entire match before getting caught in a whirlwind of kicks. If Fujiwara has learned that Tiger has the edge standing, he tries to even things out a little here by using Sayama as a punching bag. That corner punch combo is easily the greatest I've seen in a worked match. He also mangles Sayama even worse than in the last match. Sayama doesn't have quite the mat skill to really be a great matchup for Fujiwara on the mat besides a nice move here or there, it's pretty much irrelevant as Fujiwara is so great at working holds. Eventually though Fujiwara gets what's coming to him as Tiger discovers that he can just kick him in the head while he's down over and over. He dishes out such a savage beating that it's almost hard to see the two halves of the bout as one match as they are so distinct. It really gives out the vibe that the ruleset (and referee) that UWF was using at the time was not prepared for this kind of dangerous violence, and Fujiwara is very believable at selling that he's at a point human beings previously haven't been at and therefore close to getting killed on his not so easy mission. I did love the two Fujiwara comebacks though, one of which involves him stepping on Tiger's toes. So yeah, in a sense this the original BattlARTS match. Really good wrestling and savage street fighting.- 5 replies
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- yoshiaki fujiwara
- super tiger
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(and 4 more)
Tagged with:
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[1984-09-07-UWF] Super Tiger vs Yoshiaki Fujiwara
Jetlag replied to bradhindsight's topic in September 1984
This was such a beautiful bout. The great thing about shootstyle is that it is japanese wrestling with high end matwork. Gotch's vision was to bring back the focus on wrestling, and this gave Fujiwara the opportunity to go nuts. The grinding, super intense submission hold work here was fantastic as was the use of throws and strikes. So many great moves. This was total peak level performance from Fujiwara. One might have their issues with this kind of prehistoric shootstyle which naturally had some stylistic experimentation, but at no point did they get cute, and the heavyweight vs. junior story was executed in really compelling fashion. Sayama redeems himself for his years of being a spotty gymnast by delivering a strong selling performance. Still, this was all Fujiwara tricks and magic.- 8 replies
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- September 7
- UWF
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(and 2 more)
Tagged with:
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People's perception of wrestler's sizes.
Jetlag replied to Memphis Mark's topic in Megathread archive
I don't mean to prod you further, but (according to wikipedia) Crosby is 180 cm and has 91 kg. Chris Hero is 196 cm and (supposedly) 120 kg, Owens is 183 cm and 121 kg. If someone wants to argue all 3 guys are overweight by some standard, they will have to consider that all 3 are overweight to a different degree. Besides that it's never a good idea to use an athlete like Crosby, an extreme outlier compared to the general public, as an example. It's also debatable whether the athlete is a great role model at all considering athletes often end up with shot bodies after their careers. The same also goes for extraordinary tall people let alone wrestlers. I'm sure Kevin Owens joints and body will eventually tell whether he lived at his ideal weight, altough he's a guy who got slammed into mats, dropped on his head and had ladders chucked at him for years of his life so it's probably ridiculous to argue about health risks anyways. Eitherways it's ridiculous to argue that people who call a dude that's 40 kgs above the average male weight fat are somehow feeding into other people's eating disorders. -
People's perception of wrestler's sizes.
Jetlag replied to Memphis Mark's topic in Megathread archive
If you think wrestling fans being mad at wrestlers for being fat is wrong you should seriously reconsider your worldview. RoH fans being mad at Morishima for squashing their kickpadded heros with his fat butt made his RoH run so much better. Don't even get me started about Buddy Rose trolling rubes with his weight etc. If a wrestler is being heckled for anything, and the guy has any brains at all he will use it for great effect. This is not exclusive to weight. Is fans booing a guy for being too old age shaming? Is booing wrestlers who are too queer homophobic? It sure is, but I'd still rather watch Rene Lasartesse than RJ Brewer. -
Ha, this was pretty much a Volk Han blockbuster. The crowd reactions may have carried this match. Parts of this could be found the exact same in a Negro Navarro match. This was the typical native vs. foreigner match where the russian maestro freaks out the young native with his crazy submissions while the hopeless japanese guy tries to make a rally with strikes and some desperation submissions. Could have used a bit more extensive matwork, but they hit all the marks in that formula. I don't think Yamamoto is great like some people, but he did fine here and Han is Han. The best part was really the finish where Yamamoto almost gets his arm snapped, then makes this heroic comeback before getting squished like a bug again. Yoshihisa Yamamoto, this was not your night.
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I like this fine, but probably wouldn't recommend it. It was pretty slow and didn't have a any great story to it to keep things together, but Race put a good beating on Jumbo, and there were a few funny bits and bumps. Also those deadlift suplexes. Jumbo seemed to have issues with his selling here. Somehow I get the feeling that they didn't clip anything too exciting from the match.
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This took a loooong time to get going. Most of the early exchanges are built around your-turn my turn stuff and no selling, which was kind of tedious, and Misawa not doing much. The most interesting thing was Nagata going at it with the Kings Roadians, but Nagata is not the type of worker who can salvage a match. Finally we get a decent heat section on Kobashi leading into a big ol' ending run with all the big moves and cool counter work you want. Still it's hard not to look at this and point out things that went wrong with japanese wrestling in the 2000s. Big moves like Kobashi's sleeper suplex or orange crush are used as throwaway spots, and the story around Kobashi's leg is merely a side note.
- 10 replies
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- NOAH
- February 17
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