Jetlag
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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. -
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. -
I actually know a crazy guy who claims this match is the best that AJPW ran in the 70s. It is a pretty fun gory little spectacle. Ohki lands a series of headbutts on Abdullah, using his skull as a battering ram, including ramming Abby in the back and the side of the neck. Abdullah gets big bloody and has some crazy selling, but spills the match to the outside and chaos ensues. Unlike other japanese garbage brawls they actually fight while wandering in the crowd. JJ Dillon is narrating match and points out that while there is no winner, the match is a reminder that Abdullah brings chaos and madness wherever he goes.
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We only get the last couple minutes of what looks like a really good match that plays off of previous matches, starting with two move that ended previous matches in a flash. Common, this is for the belts! How can you JIP this? Gordy really lays into Hansen with some shots. Hansen selling and working underneath here was really great. Loved his desperation rollup and the sick collapsing spot where he gets squished underneath Gordy. Plus, Hansen nearly takes Gordy's head off with the lariat.
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The best part of this match was the opening where they get into eachothers face and slap eachother like a pair of angry schoolgirls. The rest of the match wasn't much. Kobashi gets in some surprising moves against Doc and Doc chucks him around a bit in return. I can't really get into early Kobashi with his pasted together random moveset, and Doc, while a wrestler who' built like a dishwasher with a good moveset and ability to get aggressive, can be pretty dull. Not much to see here unless you wanna familiarize yourself with the rankings in the company at the time.
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This is such a neat match. Regal is right when he's telling young wrestlers to aim for the technical standard of Terry Rudge matches: the holds in this bout were simple, but executed in tight and clinical fashion, and the focus on competiveness is awesome. It's almost all holds above the waist so it's like a greco roman style pro wrestling match, which is double cool. Rudge was not the shaven headed asskicker yet but looked like the real deal, and this is the most impressive I've seen Thornton look. There were some great forearm smashes in this match too, and I loved how Rudge sold them yanking his head back as if he was about to get decapitated.
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Misawa was so fascinating to watch here. Athletic and graceful like Super Astro, but equipped with razor sharp strikes. Jumbo was really great getting Misawa over here. He just ate one dive after another, sold his elbows like death and stooged for his spots like a seasoned rudo. However, Jumbo's eventual comeback was little lacking: Misawa had totally one-upped him in the opening and then to add insult to injury slapped him like a bitch, so he was in need of a real assbeating, but Jumbo just went his usual route. Maybe that was part of the story, that Jumbo didn't have the fire or inventiveness to put Misawa in his place that night, and in a way the somewhat dry routine middle portion adds to the match as it feels like a necessary testing for Misawa. When Jumbo went for the 2nd rope kneedrop the match started getting really good and gained a unique flair that was befitting for a build to a legendary moment. Some sequences here, such as the desperation elbow that knocks Jumbo outside or that fucking dropkick into the ropes felt really magic, and outlining Jumbo's defeat. The criticism for the match is deserved, but acknowledging all that there is still a strong match here.
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Fairly generic bomb throwing contest. It is fun to watch these two big dudes clansh into eachother, but it was a fairly uneventful affair overall.
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This was really fun big guys clobbering the hell out of eachother type match. Williams is solid but not super compelling when in control of a match here, but he had some nice moments of aggression and knew to go at Hansen with everything he had, leading to some really good telephone booth fighting. Hansen did his usual great selling performance and making these desperate comebacks. However, the match went about 5 minutes too long, considering the story was that Williams was this tough new badass who would push Hansen to the limit. In a way this feels right inbetween 80s and 90s AJPW. There's blood and it's just a big brawl, but the match is kind of clinical and there are no countouts anymore, and the feeling of wild and out of control isn't as present as it was before.