Jetlag
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Everything posted by Jetlag
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NOAH vs. NJPW! Everyone acts like a heel! Liger is a disdainful prick! Kikuchi gives a top level performance! Tanaka and Kanemaru actually add to the match! I dunno, this was very enjoyable. Liger pummels the hell out of the NOAH guys and acts like a bastard, while Kikuchi is equally fired up and takes some murderous bumps and hits. The most amazing thing about the match is probably that it works while Minoru Tanaka and Kanemaru are in it. Those guy tend to be lousy, but they are effective here. Don't be fooled Kanemaru is still Kanemaru and has no presence whatsoever, while Tanaka falls into get-this-shit in territory at times, but Kanemaru hits his moves well and Tanaka heels it up nicely, so their stuff comes across as less dull than usual. The heel moves and chippiness aswell as some really fun, borderline Monterrey-like sequences keep it entertaining the whole way and they end the thing at the right time. I dunno if all that is merriting of all-time classic status but it's one of the better 2 vs. 2 junior tags I've seen in japanese wrestling that's for sure. -
Chaparita ASARI vs. Hiromi Yagi (Sky High of ARSION Title, 12/11) Common ARSION, give Yagi something to do! But they clip this to shit. We get to see all the spectacular moves, and damn these two have spectacular moves. Flash submissions and highspots. There seemed to be some selling going on between all the killer moves, but we just didn't get to see it. Travesty. Michiko Ohmukai/Magnum TOKYO vs. Mikiko Futagami/Sumo Fuji (12/11) Toryumon invades. Match was mostly hick comedy with Futagami and Fuji perving on their opponents. Yes, they clipped the previous Yagi/ASARI match so we get to see Fuji teaching Futagami the Sumo Stance and Futagami and TOKYO kissing! How's that for you fangirls! The rest of the match was pretty much Toryumon style. A bunch of pretty moves pasted together. The highlight of the bout was the Ohmukai/Tokyo double entrance, with them wearing matching fescennine outfits.
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I wish we had more Van Buyten in general. He was already in his mid 40s when the 80s came around. Also keep in mind he was paralyzed for a good chunk of the 70s, and looking at the way he flew over the top rope here kind of gives you an idea why.
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So so fun. I have no clue where these chunky japanese middleweights learned to do these graceful, floating moves, but I will watch and enjoy. I want to call this state of the art, but for all we know this kind of match could have been done 20 years before in Peru. Whatever. These guys have really great execution and work almost like luchadores, with the swank rope climbing takeovers and spaceman armdrags and whatnot. They also slap the shit out of eachother! Animal takes a painful looking bump! Nearfall-ladden finishing stretch! For a workrate juniors match this was quite a joy to watch.
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A trios from 1972! Easily one of the funnest matches ever. Whoever booked the near-midget Ali Bey on the same team as Andre had some serious saviness. We start off with some swank technical work between Van Buyten and Teranishi, but soon shenanigans from the apron involving Andre ensue. The interactions between Van Buyten and Andre are solid gold. The wrestling isn't much worse - Andre bumps big! Ali Bey has some hilarious selling, including constantly hitting his head against things! Sugiyama is another hilarious character, and only tagged in for about 3 minutes. Teranishi does the bulk of the work for his team (probably for the better) and gets to look really slick. But the dedication Andre and Franz have to miscommunication spots is something else here. Andre is just incomparable. At one point, Franz keeps getting flung over the top rope to the outside, onto Andre and then back inside. It leads to Franz taking a huge bump to the outside. I like how the foreign heels still remain dangerous despite being total knobheads, as Andre finishes opponents off in a matter of minutes. So yeah, great match that will have you in stitches if you have an ounce of humor in you. One of my favourites from Andre, good showcase for Teranishi, and so cool to see what Franz could do when he wasn't playing babyface. A must watch.
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This was long, slow and had a lot of holds, so not for the faint of the heart. However, I enjoyed this. It delivered the kind of big guy clobbering you want from a Gordy/Hansen match and was the type of hard fought bout I like. Gordy injuring his arm by trying to a elbow a charging Hansen was a nifty spot and lead to some strong limb psychology. A deseperate Gordy hammering away at Hansen was really good. Eventually Steve Williams runs in to help fix Gordy's elbow. You see, he is a doctor after all! It leads to some amusing bits where Hansen and Gordy try to catch an elbow pad, and Williams plays into the finish in a unique way. Fun match.
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Just the last 10 or so minute of what looked like a solid match. The highlight was easily Kawada and Kabuki waffling eachother. Also, Inoue gets the snot beaten out of him by the young punks but wins with flash rollup, which is one of my favourite things. Other than that this was mostly a flurry of moves.
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This was a good match where they feed off eachother well. A little slow in parts, but some good aggressive flurries and Kikuchi trying to overcome that bastard Fuchi. Fuchi, when he was kicking Kikuchi in the face and then laying in stomps, felt more like Kawada than Actual Kawada at this point. The boston crabbing near the end was solid as was the junior style finishing stretch. Still, I feel like the opening of the match and Fuchi roughing up Kikuchi hinted at something greater, but of course this was just the beginning of their feud.
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This was looooooooong and not exactly mindblowing. The feud and the New Generation was so hot at the time that these 4 hardly could do anything wrong, but the early going still left a lot to be desired. It seemed that what the youngsters had in mind for the body didn't quite mesh with the old guys. Kawada seemed especially disinterested in working with Yatsu. There are some blatant filler sections, until Kawada lands a series of stubborn stiff moves on Yatsu, whiffing half his kicks. Acceptable finishing run somewhat salvages the match. We get to see Misawa using his elbow combos and well timed interferences for maybe the first time.
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I was looking through JD'/Yoshimoto Pro match lists, and there are def. a lot of interesting match ups featuring Sakai, Yabushita and (my new secret favourite) Hiromi Yagi. I am def. going to obtain more of this stuff. Of course, it would also help a lot if some old joshi superfan came out and uploaded a bulk of cult joshi to the Real Hero archive or something. Seems that JD' gets a bad rep for the "athress" thing.
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This was quite the good trios match. In the first fall, everyone hits the mat and we get some nice lucha grappling. I especially enjoy Villano IV on the mat as he is such a beast. There were also some fun Pantera flying moves against both the Diluvios. The last two falls have some bad ol' brawling with Panther going after Villano III. It is that special kind of poetry you only get in lucha that years after being such a dick to VIII Panther would lose his mask to his brother. Panther rips III's forehead open with his bare fingers and then digs his fingers into his eyes, really grueling stuff. The third fall has awesome Villano punch combos and dives. Not a mindblowing classic, but they work really hard and deliver the goods considering this could've easily been mailed in.
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This was a great match from two completely random names. I really like the Sumi Sakai from around this period that I've seen, as she was really using her judo and mostly dumping opponents on their heads with uncooperative throws before killing them off with nasty judo chokes, but the roles were kind of reversed here, Yabushita was a lunatic always fighting for armbars and constantly attempting to rip off Sakai's arm. Match was worked kind of like a juniorish BattlARTS match, with the junior stuff being cool, they had some cool ways around springboard moves, nice unpredictable flying armbars, also Sakai has this cool Yakushuji style headscissor to the floor. Match gets really great once the fatigue kicks in, as Sakai's arm starts to become dead weight, so she dumps Yabushita with some hard suplexes, which Yabushita sells suprisingly great (considering how suplexes are usually sold in joshi), and always going back to the arm, until Sakai catches one of her many attempts and kills her off Fuchi style. Pretty great stuff and something I'd easily rate ahead of many joshi "classics".
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The rush of great Jaguar Yokota matches continues. This was frickin AWESOME. It was kind of a preliminary to the later, bigger Sato/Yokota title match and mainly served the purpose of building up Jaguar, but for a match that is essentially typical half baked young wrestler gets first taste against the star this is really outstanding. Jaguar was absolutely ferocious. Picture Hashimoto, except lighter, faster, girlier, and replace the brutal kicks with brutal matwork. The wrestling was as tight and on point, while still keeping a graceful note, but the struggle and fighting and wild-eyed determination from Jaguar is what pushes it over the top. People talk about Jaguar having ahead-of-her-time offense, but fuck that talking point. She didn't need any of it. The basic spots, such as boston crabs, body scissors or small package holds were made into holy shit spots here. I mean seriously the technique is flawless, but the timing and defensive use of the moves is stunning. Some might argue that structurally the match was messy and had the kind of meandering spots typical of young wrestlers in big matches, but the focus of the match was Jaguar Yokota sticking it to Jackie Sato with a vengeance and that was present at all times. Sato was somewhat reserved, but a great foil for Jaguar's fury and added a few slick moves to the match. Also, there is some arm work that gets paid off nicely, and the repeated leg attack stuff from Jaguar gets played up later in the match, building to an incredible last 5 minutes.
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Jaguar Yokota vs. Jackie Sato, 12/16/1980 The rush of great Jaguar Yokota matches continues. This was frickin AWESOME. It was kind of a preliminary to the later, bigger Sato/Yokota title match and mainly served the purpose of building up Jaguar, but for a match that is essentially typical half baked young wrestler gets first taste against the star this is really outstanding. Jaguar was absolutely ferocious. Picture Hashimoto, except lighter, faster, girlier, and replace the brutal kicks with brutal matwork. The wrestling was as tight and on point, while still keeping a graceful note, but the struggle and fighting and wild-eyed determination from Jaguar is what pushes it over the top. People talk about Jaguar having ahead-of-her-time offense, but fuck that talking point. She didn't need any of it. The basic spots, such as boston crabs, body scissors or small package holds were made into holy shit spots here. I mean seriously the technique is flawless, but the timing and defensive use of the moves is stunning. Some might argue that structurally the match was messy and had the kind of meandering spots typical of young wrestlers in big matches, but the focus of the match was Jaguar Yokota sticking it to Jackie Sato with a vengeance and that was present at all times. Sato was somewhat reserved, but a great foil for Jaguar's fury and added a few slick moves to the match. Also, there is some arm work that gets paid off nicely, and the repeated leg attack stuff from Jaguar gets played up later in the match, building to an incredible last 5 minutes.
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[2008-08-17-IWA-MS-We Are Family] Necro Butcher vs 2 Cold Scorpio
Jetlag replied to Loss's topic in August 2008
This was a fun match with these two doing their thing. Scorp gets the better of Necro doing wrestling early on, but the action spills to the outside and awesome reckless punch exchanges ensue. Then you get Necro working over Scorpio's kidney. Scorp has insanely sharp offense and really good selling. Strangely, when Necro was in control, the match felt more like a wrestling match than a crazy spectacle. He even busted out a convoluted Pumphandle move. The highlights were clearly the punches and Scorpio kicking the dogshit out of Necro. Good match otherwise. -
This was a damn good lightweight contest. If you like luchariffic freaked out grappling, awesome scarecrow spots and struggling in weird positions give this a shot. Boscik, like you expect a hungarian grappler named Zoltan to be is a tricky fox. Really loved his weird twisting of his body to shift the momentum when on the mat. Also, Cortez can do strength spots like a mini Cesaro, giving this a dimension beyond "grappler vs. grappler". Gets more aggressive from the 3rd round onwards, including some nasty strangleholds + great selling, awesome struggle over an octopus hold etc. Finish felt a little rushed, but that's a minor complaint.
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This was a quality wrestling match between two highly athletic heavyweights. There was no real hook or storyline to the match, so some might call it a dry technical bout, but there were enough nifty touches for me to enjoy it. Highlights include a dueling chickenwing battle, Veidor looking his arms in quirky fashion to prevent Moser from throwing him, and a few good submission and pin attempts. My favourite bit was a Moser armlock that nearly popped Veidor's wrist. Good match.
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This is interesting just because it's footage of Wright and Wanz from the mid 70s baby! The match wasn't much, because the japanese guys treated the europeans like nothing special at all. The match starts with the japanese guys working chinlocks on Otto which is not really what you want. Wanz and Wright tried to work as a heel team, double teaming the natives, but their attempts were thwarted. Wright didn't do any matwork or flashy stuff here, but you could tell from the way he moved and executed basic moves like a takedown that he was the real deal. Another interestig thing was Wanz throwing punch combos. He would bully his opponent into the ropes or corner, and then attack with shoulder blocks and fast punches, almost like a proto-Vader. Otto was a pretty good boxer before his wrestling days and still mobile at this point so he could throw some nice punches. A pity that none of this amounted to much of a match, but still cool to see the europeans in such unusual roles. Hopefully more of their 70s japan stuff can be unearthed.
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William Regal approves of this match! Intense as hell grappling match here and very unique match not just for World of Sport. After some light exchanges early on Trood catches Thomson in a headscissor which locks in around Clay's throat, causing Thomson to cough and wheeze as if he was dying. Thomson is badly injured, but quickly works his way back into the match and comes back going after Trood's bandaged leg with a vengeance, almost making this match a quasi-heelturn for the normally friendly technician vet. The holds and reversals here won't blow your mind but the selling and oozing intensity are off the charts. Great brutal fight with some smart touches.
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Johnny Czeslaw was a baldheaded polish toughguy who looked like a roman senator and survived a russian concentration camp as a boy, but seemingly enjoyed doing light hearted comedic technical wrestling a lot. Kellett is one of those 1 in 1000 characters that you have to see once in your life. This is easily the greatest comedy match ever. Even with all the jest going on here, they keep it highly competitive and do all these great moves and holds, especially Czeslaw who is such a wrestling master. Les Kellett, for a crusty old charlatan, wasn't afraid to take reckless bumps. The facial expressions, timing and body language on display here were incomparable. The jokes had an almost silent film like quality to it, and they never exposed the business. This match was funny, fascinating and impossibly british all at once.
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Ishikawa and Nagai had a match that year that was a pretty decent carryjob. Better than the Ikeda match IIRC. I remember this match being pretty fun but not blowaway. It was also one of the last Ikeda had in the company.
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This was a pretty rocking match. Tony Charles against the bigger Steve Veidor. It was a friendly old face vs. face match, but with a nice competitive edge and focus. Structurally the bout wasn't anything grand, but the match had a great pace, as they worked rock solid technical holds, building up, then doing an explosion and calming down again, all really stylish. Charles especially is a guy who has a real knack for doing nifty simple stuff without getting overly esoteric. Also, there are some damn great rope running exchanges here, building to some hot nearfalls.
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There were some fun, slick wrestling exchanges early on here. Nothing mindblowing but just nice entertaining stuff coming from a young guy wrestler like Barrie. You can forget about that though because the real money in this match was Cooper knocking the hell out of Barrie. Wily veteran against bland younger wrestler is a classic pro wrestling staple and this was really fun and well done. Fast paced the whole time and they get tremendous heat.The highlight was Cooper kicking Barrie while having him in a Boston Crab.
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This is just an excellent match which had both great wrestling and nice boiling hatred surges. You know it's gonna be good when a basic headscissor is reversed into a stretch muffler in the early going. The grappling was trippy and wonderful, like the greatest Negro Navarro vs. Black Terry match we never saw, and the match tells a nice story: the first two falls end in flash pins, setting up a cautious yet intense final round. Szakacs is like the most graceful wrestler ever, and Fallon looked pretty great too, totally up there as a maestro. He just went after Szakacs like a pitbull. However Fallon played a subtle and then not so subtle heel, adding more piss and vinegar to the bout, but they always went back to the mat. Szakacs uses a throat chop as finisher that KO's his opponent, and they do some really cool, unique stuff around Szakac trying to set it up and Fallon blocking it. The last round with Szakac uppercutting Fallon right in the jaw and then chopping him in the face was especially tense. Great unique match despite it being another match that feels like a teaser.
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[1977-06-11-AJPW] Harley Race vs Jumbo Tsuruta
Jetlag replied to Superstar Sleeze's topic in June 1977
This was a fun 70s style bomb throwing war. If you are phobic of matwork, this should be your match. Not the most mindful match, though. For example, Jumbo goes with his shoulder into the ringpost, which Race follows up with a leg submission. Race tries to do some legwork in the 3rd fall but Jumbo just no-sells his way back on offense. Race has a really great falling headbutt and kneedrops and it was alot of fun watching him try to explode Jumbo's head. This match didn't have anything clever or overly artful to it like some 70s classics and proves the limitations of both guys, but still built nicely and kept the crowd hot and pleased for Jumbo to take the title.