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Jetlag

DVDVR 80s Project
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Everything posted by Jetlag

  1. Jetlag
    This was a match to showcase the frenzy of Tenryu. Kawada kicks hard and has strong execution, but doesn't have the same contempt and madness down yet. Tenryu assaulting Takagi and repeatedly kicking him in the face was something else. And the Jumbo/Tenryu sections are just cool as hell because it's these bears just erupting and working fast, intricate sequences and clobbering the fuck out of eachother. That Kawada and Jumbo still deliver a strong finishing sequences while Tenryu is out there getting into bloody fights with the whole world says it all.
  2. Jetlag
    This is such a drastic improvement from the July match. It keeps the high end move selection and intensity and upgrades with great selling and brutality. Liger comes in with the goofy shoulder protection pads and Sano goes at them immediately. Panic mode for Liger from the start and from then it's all fantastic desperation selling from him for the rest of the match. Essentially his arm becomes useless, so he has to try different things, but Sano blocks the big Liger highspots, so Liger switches to a simpler tactic and just repeatedly drives the point of his boots into Sano's bloody face. The sections were Liger is trying to kick and piledrive Sano into a coma are indescribably great. Sano also has great comebacks with perfectly timed submissions to the arm. Finish plays off a previous match. Great match, can't remember seeing a better Liger performance.
  3. Jetlag
    Their first match. Kind of an introduction of the style they came up with, meaning they hit aaaaaall their death moves, reckless dives in rapid succession. Starts out with some fast matwork and hints at aggression including Liger pummeling Sano on the ground, but quickly turns into a pure move exhibition. They would go on to have better and more intelligent matches in the future, but there's still plenty of death and drama to be seen here.
  4. Jetlag
    This was such a fun action packed match. Young, somewhat athletic, scrappy Tenryu is spectacular. Everything he did was brutally violent and he went at Jumbo and Misawa like a madman. The whole match was pretty violent and alway tipping there - you'd have somewhat regular sections and then somebody would get stomped in the face or dish out a painful looking kick to the tendon. Jumbo also brought the pain here and he is really fun when he is booting somebody in the face or making use of the kneecrusher. The little guys were fine and the match never lost steam. Great introduction to 90s AJPW with the hierarchies, impulsive layout, teamwork and counter-moves inplace that make the style what it is with an extra bit of hatred and chippiness to make it even better.
  5. Jetlag
    Abe Ginsberg wrestles half this bout wearing a leather helmet. Seriously one of the strangest gimmicks I've seen. This is one of the funnest WoS matches. These are two burly heavyweights doing all these cool takedowns and matwork. Not only that, but you get a neat story. Walton keeps talking about how Ginsberg likes to break the rules, even attacking Walton, but Ginsberg wrestles a clean match, shows off his skills doing all these cool tricks and eventually takes off his helmet. In a way it feels like an in-match face turn from Abe which helps make this bout special. And then they forearm the snot out of eachother anyways! Strange to watch considering this is the only WoS bout of Abe on tape (that we have), but it's an example of how much character and story you can put into a seemingly throwaway technical bout on TV. Walton does a great job aswell. This is in a way The Abe Ginsberg show altough Pete Curry ain't too shabby either.
  6. Jetlag
    This was a dope match. Just the kind of random World of Sport bout you can turn on and get lost in. Jon Cortez was so great at crafting these throwaway matches as intense struggles. Pete LaPaque is a cool, chubby rudo, but this is all about Cortez who is such a graceful, awesome wrestler. Starts of with some slick grappling, then great arm work from LaPaque, Walton talking endlessly about how to tell wrestlers apart, and then lots of niggle and head to head wrestling with plenty of neat spots. One might complain about the kind of flat endings but don't forget this was just an undercard bout to the bigger Saint/Grey match later. As such it was real good.
  7. Jetlag
    Johnny Saint is the World Champion here. Steve Grey has beaten him the year before, can he do it again? Something I love about old european wrestling: the weight classes that protected these lighter guys. This is an utterly incredible match. Easily the best Johnny Saint match ever. Part of why the match is great is the high speed, super athletic, tricked out technical stuff they do, but how they build it into an intense contest is magnificient. This is not the smiling, funny Johnny Saint who does jokes and tricks, it's Johnny Saint as the focussed, skillful champ against the most determined guy in the world. Walton puts over how impressive it is that Grey can even throw Johnny. They also map out the action beautifully, with some spots teased early on that get played off later, repeated sequences leading into transitions etc. Always with the focus on the challenger trying to topple the champ. Then you also have all these insane fast and intricate rope running exchanges. Another thing I like about this bout is that it's not nice. It's an all technical match with no strikes, but they were punishing eachother here. Each hold or takedown would be really wrenched in, Grey was constantly trying to snap Johnny's wrist. Grey would also claw his hand in Saint's face, Saint would smash his shoulder into the mat, elbow on the face when trying a pin, etc. I also really liked the use of the arm wringer bump or missed dropkick, these simple bumps look great in World of Sport and were timed perfectly. Grey is a crazy good babyface. He is great at putting over how fierce the bout is and how he was pushing himself to the limit to beat Saint. His selling was fantastic: He would slump over exhausted but then get up, or get Saint in a basic hold so he could regenerate his injured leg. Saint was less expressive but perfect for his role. All time great match. May be a serious GOAT contender even. But that's up to how much one can enjoy this kind of face vs. face technical match. For what it is I can't recall many instances where it's been done better.
  8. Jetlag
    This was another awesome piece of french greatness and completely different from the previous Cesca/Cantanzarro match. I'm assuming the "Peruvians" are mexicans or Peru is the next forgotten pool of wrestling greatness that we need to unearth. This was like 60s Michinoku Pro. The Peruvians are bump freaks, just incredible as they launch themselves all over the ring and over the ropes for the french guy's offense. I think they took about a dozen different variations of over the top rope bumps in this one, my favourite being the skinnier launching himself over the rope, doing a backflip and tying himself up Andre style, all super fast, just incredible. When they are not bumping all over the place they are working over the faces with nasty punches and knees, including several of the top rope which was wild for a 60s match. Match wasn't as technical as the stuff we saw before but there was still plenty of cool shit such as a really beautiful backslide reversal. Cesca is kind of nondescript, but Chemoul is super athletic and charismatic. At random points they just decided to paste the heels with punches. The finish may have been a botch, just brutal looking as Cesca decides to do a flying headbutt and their heads collide at full speed knocking the peruvian out square. It didn't build to an epic finish but it was still a hell of a show.
  9. Jetlag
    ZION Tournament 1999 First Round Matches Michiko Ohmukai vs. Rie Tamada (8/22) Short match that they clip. Still get the gist of it – mostly Ohmukai kicking the dogshit out of Tamada. The action was fun, but pretty inconsequential. I don't mind these spotty matches because they are kept short. Hiromi Yagi vs. Aja Kong (8/22) About 40 seconds of a 5 minute match shown. This actually annoyed me as what was shown looked quite good. They worked a sprint with a few unique spots. Aja wins with a fucking Magistral Cradle and the mistreatment of Hiromi Yagi continues. Mima Shimoda vs. Yumi Fukawa (8/22) This matchup was interesting due to the previous LCO vs. Fukawa/Tamada tag being so different. However, it didn't have the same allure going for it as Fukawa pretty easily controlled Shimoda most of the match with her flash armbars. They still manage to build some drama for the finish. Solid bout. Mikiko Futagami vs. Rie Tamada (8/22) They show Tamada, Yagi and Fukawa pulling straws and Rie gets another shot in the tournament. This was another clipped sprint. Futagami chokes Tamada out. Kind of pointless.
  10. Jetlag
    This was mostly hold-for-hold wrestling so of course it was impossibly cool. You kind of forget that outside of all the flipping around and piledrivers on the floor, Dynamite Kid could really go on the mat. And Mr. Wrestling lived up to his name. This was DK before all the roids, and he was this skinny long haired punk, who was fast on the mat, but could also get aggressive and go nuts with the dropkicks. The announcer rightly points out the dynamic is DK is a snotty brat and Mr. Wrestling is the old school class act teaching this rascal some manners, including a funny spot where he slapped him like the uppity little shit he was. There is some niggle with guys being aggressively shoved to the outside, and it actually plays into the finish which was sneaky and cool. Really fun match.
  11. Jetlag
    Hahaha! Forget about this being the best Warrior match or something. This was like the best WWE style main event ever. Essentially they worked it like a joshi match without any holds. Just BAM! BAM! BAM! impact moves and drama the whole time. Savage was a lunatic. You gotta give the Warrior some credit too, as he always kept moving forward at Savage, was never lost, and got over the fact that Savage put him in serious danger (in his own Warrior-ish way). The confusing interferences and character acting from Savage was gold too.
  12. Jetlag
    This was extremely goofy pro wrestling. They did a nice job doing a bloodbath, especially dug Slaughter's selling performance, and milking great reactions, excellent timing - but in essence it's still a match built around booth guys tipping their boots into the canvas. Some of the brawling was also kind of pedestrian - lots of unimportant punches, eye rakes, too many transitions. Good for a cartoon match, but I couldn't get into it much.
  13. Jetlag
    Watching Billy Goelz is quickly becoming a ticket to awesome match of the day. This was all friendly grappling, not a single punch being thrown, and you can see it must have been pretty state of the art for 1958, with even some british influenced spots on display. Russ points out there are about 7 holds in wrestling, but my god what you can do with these holds. Fantastic arm work here. Nichols also looked real good, but Goelz had the more outstanding selling. I sense these 20 minute draws were a staple of the time and Goelz executed them like a total pro.
  14. Jetlag
    Man, how fucking cool was Billy Goelz? You can tell this would be good from the first minute on. So much cool wrestling. Goelz even did the sneaky dropkick off of the 2nd rope after the clean break (which I love) and they teased getting surely, but went right back to the wrestling. And damn what wrestling it was. Hernandez looked like a decent wrestler too, but Goelz just twisted him into pretzels. Some of the best use of indian deathlock/tied up legs I've seen, great use of monkey flips and twist and evade rope running, and Goelz's spinning armlock finisher is cool as hell.This was moving fast and really they didn't let up for one second.
  15. Jetlag
    This was a seriously great match; naturally, these 1950s bouts have a high degree of intensity and struggle over basic holds, so it feels like you are watching a shootstyle match built around hammerlocks and headscissors. Then you also have Billy Goelz in the match, who looked like a master grappler in the vein of a Blue Panther or Ken Joyce, adding all these cool little touches. Such as turning himself into a turtle, constantly going for Verne's arm from any position, breaking Verne's arm over his own leg to keep control etc. The running and leapfrog spots where also fantastic, honestly. Verne is a former football guy, and Goelz would do these awesome bumps where it looks like Verne just ran right through him. At 20 minutes this also a pretty trim match, and they show a great sense for the subtleties of wrestling; Verne lands a big flying headscissor after being controlled by Goelz that gets a huge reaction, and the battle fiercely over the pinfall just as the time runs out. Excellent, pure wrestling match.
  16. Jetlag
    This was a fascinating match. Yes, it's a 60 minute match from the 1950s, so prepare for long holds, but the intense struggling over the whole duration made it interesting all the way to the end. The wrestling moves, altough extremely basic, were incredible. Gagne looked like he would rip right through Thesz if given the chance. There were also some greatly timed spots, such as an abdominal stretch cradle that made me jump. Then you also have the story of Thesz acting like a dick and dealing out some serious punishment on Gagne: punching at the cheek, grinding on his head, hitting him in the back of the head, etc. When Thesz is throwing those knees to the head it's a total assault. The work around the sleeper hold is quality and you can see the NWA title match structure was already perfectly in place. Gets a little repetitive/primitive at times, with the constant repetition of the cheap shot in the ropes, and I felt it could've delivered a little "bigger" considering how amazing it was when Verne was hammering Thesz with punches or when they were struggling on the mat, but other than that this was a tremendous match regardless of all.
  17. Jetlag
    Hey, thank you! That's great info. I see there's a few matches of Bob working as Karl Steiner in Portland on YouTube. Should be cool. Also, in germany, Bob was always announced as being a "strength sports trainer". That may have been true, but one of the weirdest tags I've heard given to a guy to make him seem tougher.
  18. Jetlag
    This is a beautiful bout. Great rhythm and pace, maximum use made of simple spots, and a story is told. Also, the match looked like a WoS bout transcribed to US setting. Great first fall with Buddy fooling around and getting caught, then you get Hennig turning Rose into a vegetable with those fucking headlocks. Buddy morphing from cocky athletic dipshit to stumbling around not knowing where he was, selling his ears and making fun comebacks, including making use of the steel ringpost again and pouncing on Hennig's back out of thin air, was really great. Great back and forth wrestling exchanges, and the pinfall reversal is such a simple, cool spot. Hennig is damn great in his role, up to speed and spot on selling. The commentators point out Curt isn't a rookie anymore and in a way this feels like a starmaking performance. Great nearfall for a vertical suplex here. For how simple this match is, it def. deserves to be tagged as "flawless".
  19. Jetlag
    This was a really fun fast paced match where Buddy pinballs like a motherfucker for Hennig. I mean, he was bumping for him while in an armbar! So many energetic spots and exchanges. And the usual clever spots from Buddy. Curt is a really good basic babyface here, awesome dropkicks, getting nice height on kneedrops, and totally going into those exchanges at full speed. The finish and angle with the deadly dropkick is great too including a sick cheer from the audience when it is declared Buddy may be paralyzed.
  20. Jetlag
    This was a very good TV match, but left a little bit to be desired. The match from the previous week was bloody and violent, this didn't really feel like the right followup. Altough Buddy gave a nice babyface performance, he is such an athletic energetic wrestler and very compelling from below, and Dynamite Kid is a good opponent as Kid is such a psycho. Kid's flying and throwing you around actually feels like he is seriously out to hurt somebody - his flying kneedrop is great. Also loved Buddy clawing at his face and then just mauling him with a fucking running thumb to the eye and then that series of fist drops. They get the fans really excited for the last couple of moves and do the usual bait and switch routine from these US title matches where the face comes sooo close but gets screwed. You've seen it before, but this was a nice, quality, mostly clean wrestling match to add to the canon, just a hair below your all time classics due to some wonky transitions.
  21. Jetlag
    This was a really good match; starts of with some really pretty 80s not-quite junior wrestling, and gets all bloody and grizzly. Rose adds a ton to the match, as his selling of his wounded back kept things very compelling and he always adds clever layout and smart spots to a match. to a match.The story where they kept breaking up pinfalls was cool and well done. At one point, Rose gave DK a low blow, and Kid sold it well, clutching his groin after hitting a legdrop, so it was believable that he was pissed off and wouldn't pin Rose and instead just keep stomping on him. The blood was tremendous, loved Buddy throwing punch and the finish to the 2nd fall was fucking great with Buddy bashing the back of DK's head into the steel before giving him the superplex as a fuck you. Damn that finish. They work a big nearfall or two for the finish going off the rails. with Rose getting spiked by a back suplex, DK even busting out a foreign object in the last 20 seconds, and I didn't mind the time limit draw as DK was a bloody mess and Rose was beaten up badly and they were just two beaten up men flopping around at that point. Pretty wrestling, intricate story, violence and pissed-offness and drama, this was fairly great overall.
  22. Jetlag
    Vader makes his entrance with the badass elephant helmet that spits smoke. Then Vader proceeds to just kill Fujinami, throwing him around and demolishing him with his patented shots. Pretty good way to introduce how destructive Vader can be. He was just crushing Fujinami at points, including hitting a lariat with his tree trunk sized arm that sent his opponent into spasms. Fujinami gets some of his technical wrestler comebacks - kicking at the leg, body shots, surprise backslide and submission hold etc. - I think Fujinami got a few comebacks too many and it kind of took Vader's badass destroyer vibe away. I also disliked that Fujinami couldn't get proper height for his enzuigiri. Other than that this was a nice big vs. little title match where the slower paced parts added to the match.
  23. Jetlag
    Finals of the SKY Tournament Mari Apache vs. Chaparrita ASARI (7/25) Another match that was enhanced by context. Mari has the skill and power advantage and the bombs to put anyone away, but Asari can win via flash pin. Could have been a little more grand, but what we got was fun and made me want to go back and check out more Mari as she has good execution, nice matwork, snug clotheslines, the whole deal. Another swank match. Seems that the title will be mostly used for these types of bouts, which is a nice change from the usual shoot submissions and suplex moves deal in ARSION, but I hope they do a little more with it than just Worldwide matches. Mariko Yoshida vs. Aja Kong (8/6) They only show 10 minutes of a 20 minute match. Weird considering it's a title match. What was shown was really good, though. Yoshida's submissions vs. Kong's hard hitting and power moves. Adds some new touches to their 1998 encounter. Great timing and they both do some quality selling to add to it. Feels like a MOTYC if we had the first half – still a great clip.
  24. Jetlag
    These main events look awesome. Should send an email to Lynch maybe?
  25. Jetlag
    Check out the Real Hero google drive.
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