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Jetlag

DVDVR 80s Project
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  1. Jetlag
    Semi Finals Michiko Ohmukai vs. Mikiko Futagami (8/22) This was a cool match. Ohmukai's always no-selling her way back on offense, so hard to call it more than that. There were still a lot of neat touches and these are two wrestlers with very good offense. They also did a bit of matwork which was nice to see again and played off previous tournament finishes. Mima Shimoda vs. Aja Kong (8/22) This was a bog standard Aja match with Shimoda adding nothing. Shimoda has to be one of the vocally most annoying wrestlers, as she does this constant wailing in her raspy voice. Finals of the Tournament (8/22) Michiko Ohmukai vs. Mima Shimoda (8/22) Battle of the beauty queens. This was horrible. Just mindless bombthrowing. Not even the punches to the face could salvage this mess. Mima at this point was wheezing like a throat cancer patient. This was by far the worst tournament ARSION has done so far.
  2. Jetlag
    This is (I believe) one of 3 Adrian Street singles matches from WoS that we have at the moment and a total super classic. Not only do you get that special sort of great british grappling, but also a great match story with a ton of aggression and pissed off-ness. Adrian Street was not as bizarre as later on, but already a surely, vivacious exotico. He starts the match prancing around and trying to get a rise out of Breaks. After Jim gets fed up with the antics he just tries to snap Adrian's wrist. Street gets a serious chip on his shoulder, drops the antics and goes after Breaks like a demon. Since they are both heels (getting mixed reactions in this match), there is nothing off limits for them and they just try to fuck eachother up the whole match. The grappling in the match was fucking great. It was not fancy or pretty (despite the nature of Street), just a brutal amateur style scrap. Both guys are really great at making simple moves look painful, and were utterly vicious. I especially loved all of Street's headlocks including an almost D'Arce choke like neck chancery, and how he would just yank at Breaks' chin or fishhook him when he tried a move. When Breaks goes for his trademark armlocks you can see his fingers clawing into Street's arm, and he shows some spectacular variations. Despite the rough nature of the bout, there were also a handful of swift go-behind or takedown wrestling moves, all done very neatly. Just great wrestling. Then you also get these great Street comebacks to get that weasel Breaks. Attacking his face by shoving his fist into it, bashing the nose with the forearm and just plain stomping on Breaks face aswell as his aggressive armwork were all great. Breaks was a total fucker including handing his irate opponent a towel in really condescending fashion and Street is almost like a 50% babyface with how he sells and he gets some nice reactions accordingly. By the end Street looks like a beaten dog, his pretty hair in a mess, and he just starts prancing again and that last desperation assault. Great great stuff, absolutely at the top of the list of great WoS matches and a serious MOTDC. The best exotico performance ever, technically brilliant and snug like a shootstyle match and heated and violent like a top flight US grudge match.The weirdest thing is that it goes 25 minutes and still feels like it ended early. Never slowed down and kept the tension up while still leaving plenty on the table for a rematch.
  3. Jetlag
    JIP into the 2nd round. This was one of those friendly WoS bouts where it's all holds and grappling and we get 6 rounds of tricked out matwork. For those of you who don't know, Ken Joyce was this british maestro who wrestled like a british Solar. He had all these awesome crazy holds. Also, Grey was the world champion of his weight class here, but taking on a larger man, which plays into the match. At one point, Joyce was whipping the smaller Grey across the ring like he weighted 20 points. Grey fought hard as he usually does and had some really impressive escapes where he contorted his body. Also, the match had one of the best surfboard spots I've ever seen. It was like something from a Negro Casas/Blue Panther match except better. Great bout.
  4. Jetlag
    Peter Szakacs is the brother of Tibor. He is not as charismatic, but on the mat he was fast and graceful like a panther. Baron is one of the more freaky WoS workers and this a terrific contest full of wonderful and outlandish matwork. Great moments include awesome body scissor work, Szakacs countering a roll up by just dropping on Baron's legs in really painful fashion, and some really dreamy luchaesque pin attempts. It almost resembled carny BJJ (which is how I fantasy booked brazilian wrestling in my mind to be). The bout also got a wee bit temperamental towards the end and then Peter busts out this nasty Volk Han-like choke hold. Great great match, may have the best matwork in a 70s WoS match I've seen.
  5. Jetlag
    This is for the vacant CWA Intercontinental title. A fancam from germany where the crowd is hot for Fujinami as the babyface. Really awesome savage massacre. Vader was just obliterating Fujinami, like only Vader can, just trying to bash his skull in for the entire duration of the match, but eventually Vader ends up with a bloody eye and Fujinami gives it back to him, punching and chopping the cut, including a big leaping forearm smash right to Vader's eye. Vader is great as a wounded monster who can come back and crush his opponent anytime, and they work a nice finishing run where Fujinami looks really great, landing a GAEA Girls missile dropkick on Vader and catching him in believable fashion while remaining an underdog. This went 20+ minutes with no rounds and really could have been worked the exact same anywhere else in the world and would have worked. Best 90s Fujinami match I've seen and maybe the best Vader has had in Germany, depending on how much you like Otto Wanz.
  6. Jetlag
    Formative match that does a great job setting up what's to come. Kobashi gets clobbered, Jumbo and pals are mean bastards who will make fools out of themselves, Taue shows off all his fun sumo spots, and Misawa gets to look like the coolest dude on the planet. Watching Misawa transform from a solid junior into this badass super athlete that just cleans house and sets everything on fire with his sheer ability is amazing. Jumbo can't be praised enough for his selflessness as he is constantly feeding and just taking every chance to get elbowed in the face. The intense Jumbo/Misawa scuffles were off the charts and the kind of stuff that is sorely missing from current wrestling.
  7. Jetlag
    You'll look at these names and wonder how the hell can this match be anything more than good? Here's how. Bruiser Brody does a sit in protest before the match, having just lost a match against Bockwinkel under fishy circumstances. I wouldn't have expected Brody to act like a leftist college student protester, but Harley comes in and kicks him like a dirty hippie, so Brodie kicks the shit out of Harley. Harley is rocked before the match and Halcon gives his all to win the title. A bleeding Harley hanging on by a thread while a voluntarily unmasked Halcon was really pushing himself and wrestling like it was the match of his life was highly entertaining. Halcon busts out all this cool stuff like a beautiful arm trap suplex or punching Race's cut, while Race does his stooging and over the top selling that somehow fits him very well. I also really liked how they kept the hierarchy in tact. Without Race being banged up Halcon probably wouldn't stand a chance against the champ, and they remind you of that by how easily Race fends off Halcon at times. Race would be rocked, but then devastate Halcon with a basic knee drop and remind you who he is. Then you have that 3rd fall which was worked like a lucha title match. This is a little clunky at times and obviously not as good as the previous Race title match, but at minimum a really good, smart match that makes the most of it's resources, considering these are two limited workers.
  8. Jetlag
    This is a historic match due to Misawa unmasking but fairly dull otherwise. The unmasking is great and there is some nice chippiness and stiff blows, but the rest is just a kind of plodding match. For some reason, after Yatsu is taken out, it takes them forever to beat Fuyuki 2 on 1.
  9. Jetlag
    The first 9 minutes or so of this are just Mil eating Gino alive. Gino (who is now Gorgeous Gino) stooges like a motherfucker and Mascaras does all this nice flying and wrestling. You can say about Mil what you want, but his grappling was legit. I also really dug his slipping around on the mat to avoid Gino unmasking him. Gino gets some brief offensive bits in on Mascaras and actually puts him in peril. Gran Markus gets involved for the finish, leading to Gino taking a really nice bump into the ropes. Jose Lothario comes in and a big fight breaks out after the match. Really fun match and a good way to fuel the feud.
  10. Jetlag
    This was good solid pro wrestling that the crowd was hugely into, marred by the fact that both guys are just not quite at the skill level to go this long. Al Madril is a pretty solid babyface and has nice punches, but will do something goofy once in a while. In this case outstretching his arms as if he was Christ on the cross while Krupp had him in his claw. Another moment he tried to land on his feet to counter a monkey flip, but just awkwardly landed on his ass and went back to his leg lock. There were also some pretty long dire parts. Krupp did precisely nothing of note beside being big and scary looking.
  11. Jetlag
    This is a great match up. Brody is a mythical King Kong like force of nature, but The Spoiler is this cold, unrelenting killer. The result is lots of angry bears fighting and mask ripping. Brody is solid and actually sells a good deal for his opponent, but The Spoiler was absolutely fantastic. I imagine him vs. Andre would be epic, because he worked a tremendously smart match around Brody. Really liked how he chopped the beast to pieces and just kept increasing the pressure without mercy. He also sold Brody's fairly basic clubs and kicks in spectacular ways and had great sense of ring positioning. Brody emerging back after taking a huge beating to strangle the Spoiler with the cable was actually a great comeback and Spoiler sold it perfectly. Nice finish and this was just a really good brawl between two big scary men.
  12. Jetlag
    Umanosuke Ueda maybe?
  13. Jetlag
    Really? The booking made this interesting. Hansen blitzes Tenryu, but Tenryu can still slap Jumbo like a bitch. Tenryu is blitzed and hanging by a thread while Jumbo puts a huge beating on him. All the desperation comebacks were great: Tenryu makes use of his athleticism! A basic leglock is actually of importance! Even a half-spent Tenryu can still kick the dogshit out of Jumbo! Fun match.
  14. Jetlag
    This was another fun as hell match. Young, lanky Taue gets in some fun nifty spots on Tenryu, and Tenryu just beats his ass. Even with this being a handheld you can tell how rough Tenryu's shots are. Ideal layout where Taue upsets Tenryu early, is made to pay by Tenryu and then keeps coming back with fun surprise moves. Short and to the point.
  15. Jetlag
    I think Race is merely good and can be kind of a slug, but there's no limits to what Terry Funk in the 70s could do. His aggressive, rough and yet innovative matwork in the first fall was just brilliant pro wrestling. Constantly stepping on and twisting Race's face, while still wringing the hell out of his arm. Funk both on offense and defense always kept the match focussed and building, and altough they kind of lost track in the last third of the 1st fall, they get back to it nicely when Funk takes a huge bump to the outside. This of course leads to a bunch of drama centered around Funk's back, which Race does a nice job going after. The work around the arm/back here is so nice that I'm almost a little sour that it ended up being an afterthought, but I'm not complaining about a match this good. Quick, heated 2nd fall leads to the blood drenched epic 3rd centered around Terry's Spinning Toe Hold. Terry came across like the most determined motherfucker on the planet and the punches were great. He also flat kicked Race in the face at one point. Race is mostly fine throughout this but the part I most dug was him repeatedly headbutting a blood Terry while laid out helplessly on his bad leg. This match had impossible hype behind it. I didn't think it was a GOAT contender or something that told anything new but still a great title match that had all the trademarks. Great matwork, drama, blood, build, anything you want. The best Race match I've ever seen and another to add to the Funk resume. He looked even better in the Jumbo match.
  16. Jetlag
    This was such a fun pro wrestling spectacle. Technical classics aside, you gotta have something like this once in a while to spice things up. Aside from the nonsensical rules they did very well. Boesch talks about Koloff having talked about burying the american wrestlers and bringing a red shovel to the ring which sounds fantastic. Dusty is so electric and Koloff is cool too. The early going with the standing exchanges built around Dusty's elbows and the falls for psychological effect was fun and the second half with the double blood was really good. You get Dusty throwing punch combos, and just when I wanted to complain that he wasn't in peril enough for the match to be dramatic Koloff bashed him in the face with the boot. Dusty's really good at selling blood and drama and Koloff bashing his head into the casket was great. Then there's that great finish. Extremely entertaining match.
  17. Jetlag
    This is such a funny match to watch considering what they'd do later. They wrestle like a bunch of X-Division chumps and people laugh at their blown spots. Kobashi does some legwork, to which Misawa of course comes back by landing some kicks and then a dive where he sprints across the ring. Pretty slow in parts and really just an average junior match, but I did get a kick out of Kobashi busting out the Calf Slicer.
  18. Jetlag
    This is an awesome, heated 6 minute eruption where they waffle the shit out of eachother nonstop. Continues from the previous tag - Isao hasn't forgotten, so he goes at Tenryu like crazy. Tenryu, accordingly, treats Takagi like a piece of shit again. Tenryu's selling was utterly brilliant here, as it was between being pained and annoyed by the little punk. Quite possibly the greatest Arashi has looked in a match.
  19. 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.
  20. 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.
  21. 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.
  22. 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.
  23. 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.
  24. 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.
  25. 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.
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