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Jetlag

DVDVR 80s Project
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  1. Jetlag
    Michiko Ohmukai/Yumi Fukawa vs. Ayako Hamada/Mika Akino (Twinstar Tag League '99 Semi-Finals, 12/18/99) The Ohmukai/Fukawa team hasn't really set my world on fire so far. You'd think they'd complement eachother or something, but not really. This was clipped and looked like just a bunch of spots. I guess you can't have blood drenched awesome tags all the time. Mima Shimoda/Etsuko Mita vs. Aja Kong/Rie Tamada (Twinstar Tag League '99 Semi-Finals, 12/18/99) Another clipped match. These standard LCO matches are pretty crap, altough they have some amusing spots. The LCO double chop has to be one of the laziest spots ever though. Mima Shimoda/Etsuko Mita vs. Michiko Ohmukai/Yumi Fukawa (Twinstar Tag League '99 Finals, 12/18/99) More the same. Fuck this go go shit. This only went 6 minutes anyways. There was no real trace of the stuff that made the previous LCO/Fukawa stuff compelling. Ohmukai threw a few punches and Shimoda blows a spot where she is supposed to dodge an Ohmukai kick and gets kicked in the eye pretty badly. LCO win this in shockingly easy fashion and I'm kind of dreading the further LCO push. BONUS MATCH – Yumi Fukawa vs. Mariko Yoshida (9/26) You can call this a mat spotfest if you will, but fuck it. This ruled. This is exactly what makes Arsion so cool. Ultra smooth, tricked out matwork with plenty of freaky Solar-ish submission grabs, dreadful battling on the ground and Fukawa fighting the big bad spider lady like a fiend. Super enjoyable compact bout. So that, uh, ends it on a kind of whatever note for 1999. This year had some pretty great matches but overall was a bit of a step down from the super interesting stuff that was going on in 1998. Dropping the badass quasi shootstyle hurt for sure aswell as the lousy LCO run. Atleast we got a great bloodbath out of it. Best ARSION Matches of 1999 1. Mariko Yoshida vs. Hiromi Yagi (2/18) 2. Etsuko Mita/Mima Shimoda vs. Ayako Hamada/Mika Akino (12/11) 3. Mariko Yoshida vs. Mikiko Futagami (4/14) 4. Yumi Fukawa vs. Mariko Yoshida (9/26) 5. Mariko Yoshida vs. Hiromi Yagi (5/4) 6. Mariko Yoshida vs. Mika Akino (1/17) 7. Mariko Yoshida vs. Yumi Fukawa (5/4) 8. Mariko Yoshida vs. Aja Kong (8/6) 9. Mikiko Futagami vs. Michiko Ohmukai (5/4) 10. Ayako Hamada vs. Mari Apache (7/25) 11. Mari Apache vs. Chaparrita ASARI (7/25) 12. Mima Shimoda/Etsuko Mita vs. Yumi Fukawa/Rie Tamada (7/25) 13. Mika Akino vs. Chaparrita ASARI (7/25)
  2. Jetlag
    This match is a literal riot. St. Clair is your good old clean british technician babyface, but Bond just busts out every single cheating tactic he knows, causing a big fight to break out which was one of the more surreal images you could see on WoS. Bond's work over the midsection and his use of the wrist tape is the stuff of legends. I also really dug his elbow to St. Clair's face and weird rope balancing headlock. Really cool stuff that looks slick, effective and believable. St. Clair was exactly as good as he needed to be in the role he was in and gave Bond enough material to bump and stooge, but this was the Dave Bond Show. Also, Bond's facial expressions and body language were hilarious. However, I loved the abdominal stretch nearfall. Only in World of Sport. The finish was kinda lame, but the spot that lead to it was cool.
  3. Jetlag

    Carl Greco

    Jetlag replied to Jetlag's topic in The Microscope

    Greco/Ishikawa/Hidaka vs. Ikeda/Naniwa/Yone (Elimination Tag, BattlARTS 5/10/1998) When you see "BattlARTS" and "Elimination Tag", you think of that super classic from 2008. This wasn't that epic, but still a great piece of pro wrestling. The elimination stip adds a good deal of character and unpredictability to the match, and everyone here gets to look really good. The Naniwa/Ishikawa interactions are so much fun. Hidaka also looks like the most talented kid here, and not just because of his flying. Dude could really dish out the palm strikes. Of course, Ikeda leads his team as a bastard heel captain and it comes down to Team Greco ending up in a disadvantaged situation. Lots of double teaming and nasty boot scrapes ensue. Eventually Greco ends up being the focus of the match, and let me tell you he was tremendous. His selling and fighting back from underneath was world class. The fact that Greco always looks like he can finish an opponent in 2 seconds also adds a ton. After the match a brawl breaks out with all the jumpsuit kids having to separate the competitors, which you rarely saw in BattlARTS. Match started out fun and got really good towards the end, making you want to see all the potential single matchups especially Greco vs. Ikeda.
  4. Jetlag
    Shibata likes to play stiff shooter badass. Fujita is the actul legit shooter who you can hit as hard as physically. Naturally they're a good matchup. Them fooling around on the mat and working for submissions won't blow your mind, but you'll watch this match for Fujita mauling Shibata. Fujita really knows how to go Angry Bear when it counts and he just destroys Shibata with knees and soccer kicks. Crazy match.
  5. Jetlag
    This was a bonafide juniors epic. I mean, this is pretty much the match all those PWG nerds dream of having. It works because they put the ECW high spot mania into an AJPW match. RVD only blows about 1/5 of his spots and Kroffat absolutely manhandles him. Kroffat absorbing a series of cute RVD high spots, then making a comeback by nuking RVD with throws was pretty great. Everything Kroffat did looked awesome as if he was a prototype Super Dragon: big fat sentons, yanking by the stupid ponytail, knees to the face etc. The Hokuto(?) style headdrop move off the top was hellish too. Very entertaining match.
  6. Jetlag
    This was just a gritty old streetfight. Fujiwara was a total fiend here and him targetting Tenryu with punches aswell as torturing him on the mat was just nasty. I was a little annoyed with Fujiwara no-selling Tenryu so much and some of the uncooperative hard hitting exchanges near the end came across as awkward, altough that was what they were going for and the stubborn rolling kicks were great. Not a super classic but it delivers what you want from Fujiwara vs. Tenryu in spades. Also, I kind of enjoyed the finish mostly because I once heard an old carny german wrestler explain what makes these throat chops so dangerous ("the hyoid breaks, and you choke on your own tongue").
  7. Jetlag
    This was quite the shootstyle main event. A little long and directionless at times, but the matwork was good enough and when they threw kicks, they just sliced through eachother. A seemingly gassed Yamazaki nearly kicking Maeda's head off was such a spectacular moment. Yeah I don't have much to write about this. Solid in the first 20 minutes and pretty dope violent stuff in the last.
  8. Jetlag
    This is more like a classic title match. It's all about the struggle over holds and building to the big throws, making the simple work here very compelling. I just love the first nearfall for the surfboard hold. There is some meandering, but Chigusa knew to sell when it was on the money, and Devil looked like a devil. The fact that there's no choreographed spots, making it all feel like it was made up on the spot, adds a ton to the match too. My favourite bit may have been Devil blocking a Sharpshooter, taking out the leg and then both of them going into a greco lock up. Just a great battle of attrition. Chigusa isn't always on point but her UWF offense here was a lot of fun and because she is a megastar she added a ton of heat to the match. Then you have those fucking punches and huge exhaustion in the last couple minutes pushing this into EPIC territory. Magnificient match.
  9. Jetlag
    Mariko Yoshida vs. Aja Kong (12/11) This was the least of their matches so far. It was still a good match with plenty of neat spots, just underwhelmingly short and not a ton of tension. They didn't emphasize the skill vs. Power aspect much and some things felt like they had no consequence. Annoying because these two really should have a classic together, but I guess they just didn't feel like it that night. Etsuko Mita/Mima Shimoda vs. Ayako Hamada/Mika Akino (12/11) Way to salvage the show. For those of you who don't know: this is just out of nowhere turns into one of the goriest matches ever. I dunno how good LCO actually are, but they are pretty effectiv here abusing the young girls and their cheating and not giving Hamakino much offense added a ton to the match. Shimoda leaving a bloody handprint on Aja's shirt was probably the baddest thing she ever did. Ayako and Akino put on an unreal performance – really one of the best „outmatched babyface“ performances I've ever seen. They worked together, and when it was time to bleed, they coated everything in red. Ayako was stunning in particular with her selling of the blood: at one point, she ducked a clothesline and just collapsed, as if she slipped on the blood. When she busted out the scissors and her's Papas signature headbutts as if she was channeling his spirit you know you are watching a classic. Hamakino sticking to flash pins and submissions during the finishing stretch was perfectly believable and produced great nearfalls, especially due to the booking of past matches. Intricate structure and really a total classic of a match, and probably an easy candidate for the best match ever that has two workers in their second year of wrestling.
  10. Jetlag
    Yeah this is it. This is the stuff. A few things about this: 1. It's the first Fuchi performance where he acts like a vicious bastard. 2. It's also the first time where Taue really brings something to the table, from being the weak link, to acting like a dick, to having heated interactions with Kawada. 3. A previous six man had a finish involving Kobashi and Mighty Inoue, so they tease the same thing by having Kobashi go against Fuchi at one point. Another thing is the structure and them really making use of the length. In the opening they shuffle through all the matchups in some nice, fast paced wrestling exchanges, the best move being of course Taue kicking Kawada in the face to start their story. They tease Jumbo working the back but then Taue gets it. The in peril sections here are done better than in previous tags because they have slightly more showy selling. Still haven't developed better build to hot tags, but they are getting there. The section where Fuchi is stomping and punching a bloody Kobashi in the face was some beautiful violent pro wrestling. I also really dug how Taue just drove his face into the mat. Taue was getting it that night. His reckless dive also ruled. However, the section also kind of sets up the only problem of the match, which is that Kobashi wasn't vicious enough later on against Fuchi. I mean, dude, this guy chucked the edge of a steel chair in your nose. You sure a rolling pin combo is the best way to exact revenge? The end run was as great as these matches can have. Lots of awesome flurries of strikes and brutal shots, my favourite being Jumbo near decapitating Kobashi with a lariat and the crowd going wild for it. It had almost a boxing like feel where guys would throw but could get caught with a good surprise shot. I also actually liked the somewhat deplaced nearfall section with Kobashi and Taue. As these guys are so close in their standing that their exchanges actually felt like two young guys trying to prove who's superior. So yeah. Blood, hatred, heat, battling for supremacy, elbows to the kidney. The best AJPW match of 1990.
  11. Jetlag
    This was a good 6 man tag. Fast pace, no restholds, lots of stiff shots to keep you entertained. However, since Misawa & Friends where still somewhat green at this point, it still feels like they are running through their shit when they are in control. So the most interesting bits are when Jumbo comes in to interact with them. Taue took a beating but it didn't lead to much, on the other side Kobashi took the most punishment, including being on the bad side of some vicious lariats from Jumbo, and Mighty Inoue of all people stepping on him, attack him with punches, knee drops, double stomps and even a piledriver on the floor. The Kobashi vs. Inoue finishing stretch was thus pretty exciting because Inoue is old and feeble, but can win with a flash pin. That was some cool booking.
  12. Jetlag
    Again JIP to the MVC controlling. This was a really fun match where Williams and Gordy work over Kawada in stiff fashion. There were some great Kawada/Gordy interactions - Kawada laying into a big gaijin as hard as he can never gets old.The finishing run was pretty hot with Kawada and Misawa throwing the big guys around for impressive nearfalls, including Kawada dropping Gordy with a sick powerbomb. After the match a brawl breaks out, indicating somebody was pissed off with that result.
  13. Jetlag
    JIP to a control segment on Kawada. We get some stiff strikes and Kawada taking huge bump to the outside after eating a nasty lariat from Jumbo. The finish run had some cool exchanges and Misawa looking like a boss. This wasn't bad, but not really terribly exciting. The result was cool to see though.
  14. Jetlag
    Damn. I don't remember this being so brutal. I mean, BRUTAL, yeah, but this felt like one of the Top 10 most gruesome matches I've ever seen. The kicks and palm strikes here put any UWF match to shame. The opening with both of them pummeling eachother followed by a piledriver through a table followed by Aja chucking said broken table at Hotta was one of the best to a match that I can recall. The selling and transitions, as with pretty much any Hotta match, were lacking, but thankfully there was bit of a big vs. little story to add some semblance of psychology below the crash crash horror. Kong dominating Hotta on the ground using her weight was good. Then of course you get the work on Hotta's bloody stigmata hand. I was impressed with the struggle during the nearfall section and how they kept building towards Hotta getting the big powerbomb in on Aja as if it was Hogan/Andre. Smart finish. This is an MOTDC for all Lady's wrestling.
  15. Jetlag
    This was pretty much a shootstyle brawl with plenty of bitchslaps and stomps. So, exactly what it should be. Man, did Funaki just treat everyone like garbage then? It brings out Anjoh's inner dickhead tough to even things up. The grappling was fine enough and they kept things going for the entire 20+ minutes which ain't easy, but the highlight was clearly them kicking the crap out of eachother. Funaki's time in europe had clearly rubbed off on him as he went for stuff like mid section headbutts or cravate holds which he executes like a WoS wrestler. He sure loved his spin kicks, but the thing I most dug were his short low kicks. Really entertaining match.
  16. Jetlag
    This was good. Vader lays a Vader-sized beating on Mutoh, who fights back with athletic type moves, e.g. dropkicks, spin kicks, dives and so on, which was unusual for the time. I didn't think Mutoh was anywhere close as good as Sting as he didn't really have the selling or transitions down pat, but the match was fun enough and Vader beat him up in such ways that not much selling was needed. My favourite bit was the punch combo threw when Mutoh had him in the headlock aswell as the illegal punch right before the finish, that was such a dick move.
  17. Jetlag
    This isn't outstanding, but a really fun match and interesting because it's natives vs. natives with clear face/heel roles. Okuma and Kojika are fun stooging bruiser heels who work over the faces with nice punches and headbutts, cutting off the ring and doing extended beatdowns, while Hamaguchi and Inoue are really fun when they get fired up. I also dug their fast amateur wrestler movements. There is blood, brawling and they keep up the pace throughout, altough admittedly this match probably went 15 minutes too long. Still, I enjoyed this.
  18. Jetlag
    This was a little hesitant in parts, but when it got going it got going good. Misawa and Kawada are assholes to Taue, working over his bloody face and slapping him around, and the crowd gets behind him big time. Speaking of Kawada, he is now in the black and yellow and as asskicking as you all know him including sumo palm striking Taue in the face. Jumbo dishes out some big punishment as if to confirm his regained confidence from beating Misawa, and they keep the action really high until the very end. I actually felt they threw out a little too many moves with not quite enough urgency especially Jumbo. I mean, common, old man, this match has been going for 40 minutes, surely you can attempt a backdrop driver now and not a neckbreaker? But to hell with it. They have the crowd by the balls and they go nuts for some of Misawa's reversals. You could tell they were booked to go long, but they delivered a hot match and this was a great way to keep people guessing in the feud.
  19. Jetlag
    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.
  20. Jetlag
    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.
  21. Jetlag
    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. Jetlag
    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.
  23. Jetlag
    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.
  24. Jetlag
    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.
  25. Jetlag
    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."
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