Jetlag
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This ruled, kickass lucha brawl. I keep forgetting how awesome Bestia Salvaje is. He was on a rampage here, just waffling guys in the face left and right. Then you also have reckless kicker Fiera and Super Astro flying around as a wrecking ball and that's totally enough to carry the mediocre dudes in the match. I mean, just when Santana landed an elbow drop and I was thinking "okay this isn't so brilliant now" Salvaje came in and beat Fiera into the hospital. Goodness gracious. I'm so used to seeing Astro as a fun old man flyer in maestro tags that seeing him in a fast paced, competitive, heated match like this blew me away. I also loved how that obnoxious interviewer stuck a mic in Bestia's face while he was dumped with his head into the chairs. Bestia lays out Fiera and keeps stomping on his head while the doctor tries to get between them and a dude with a toddler on his arm laughs at the carnage. Fiera makes his comeback launching Bestia into the 4th row and the interviewer is back sticking a mice in his face. If this were WWE Fiera would talk about his feelings and pose or something but instead he just growls something unintelligible and chucks a row of chairs at Salvaje. Could have used a bigger standoff between Salvaje and Fiera at the end (Especially given that the first two falls got quite a bit of time and false finishes) but whatever. This made me salivate at the mouth to see a Salvaje/Fiera singles match with them kicking the shit out of eachother. -
Legendary match, atleast in my book. Just one of those battles I can watch, lean back and enjoy again and again. No rocket science here, just about 25 minutes of brilliant matwork and exchanges. The highlight obviously being the Dandy/Angel stuff to set up the title match. These two were always dynamite together. Dandy was in his shootstyle kickpads and meant business. Also a masterclass on punctuation and competitiveness: Typical spotfest/workrate driven matches tend to blend together and just build to bigger spots. Here, something as simple as a corner bump were treated as special and got big reactions depending on the momentum swing. Also, there was no standing there and just glueing moves together, people would dodge, bock and counterattack all throughout the match in meaningful ways. There is working spectacular exchanges and then there is working spectacular, logical, meaningful exchanges like here. I love how educated the crowd is, booing Dandy for throwing a clothesline, and how the rudos tease double teams, theatratically decide against it but then do it anyways. Also hey look it's Chavo in a lucha match!!!
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Jaguar Yokota vs. Monster Ripper, 1982 Wicked great match. I have to say, at this point, I think Monster Ripper really ruled. Maybe she's the next woman after Kandori who needs a rediscovery. It may have to do with seeing her against the likes of Yokota or Jackie Sato. But whatever. She was absolutely perfect against Yokota here. I mean just look at this matchup! Yokota is a force that can't be contained. But Ripper is an immovable object. Yokota would launch herself at Ripper and Ripper would just stand there and let her hit a brick wall. Repeatedly. Yokota would go for a submission and then Ripper would throw her off but Yokota would bounce right back. It was the coolest shit ever. Yokota is a total cat with the amazing speed and agility, and the skill. I loved her takedowns. You could argue having her get Ripper off her feet this often wasn't good for the big /little dynamic, but it made perfect sense. Yokota looked like an intelligent wrestling machine getting believable takedowns to get in the match (something that works on a monster as Inoki/Great Antonio told us), and Ripper would crush her anyways. When it was time to go to town Ripper just demolished Jaguar, throwing her around like a doll and dropping her weight on her. Ripper even hit the mat and showed Jaguar the business with some armbar work and surfboard holds. Ripper pretty much gave zero fucks in this match. Also, her resistance to anything Jaguar tried and really effective, unpredictable bumping allowing Jaguar to make smart comebacks picking at her weak spots were immensely fun. And Jaguar just kept coming and coming back at her. That was easily the baddest match ever to feature someone that looks like Messiah Marcolin in Bewitched. Quite the showcase for how incredible Jaguar could be, and how boss Ripper was in this environment.
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This was in the same style as their February title match. Meaning Ikeshita had her wrestling boots on and took Kayama to the pay window on the mat. This was one of those 20 minute time limit draws that AJW liked to do a lot on TV. It was also slightly clipped, but I'm not complaining about getting wrestling of this quality. It wasn't as grand as the match for the title but more compact and some damn solid pro wrestling with great armlock work, awesome rough tactics from Ikeshita, great comeback from Kayama and flawless lucha title match style run of nearfalls in the last couple minutes. Ikeshita was spectacular once again, totally didn't need the gimmicks at all. I mean Jaguar and Jackie Sato are the legendary workers and all that, but it's so cool to see how good these lesser known/talked about wrestlers were at the wrestling.
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I always go with the Dandy/Chavo/Rocca/Azteca one from 1990. It's a pure instinct answer though.
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Utterly incredible match. I've seen it before, and my impression hasn't really changed much, but I'm still sitting here thinking what a sensational fight. The first outstanding thing is of course that this is like UWF meets a lucha match. For an apuestas match in Mexico between two guys who have been feuding for a decade this really turns the usual tropes of that kind of contest upside down. I guess starting the blowoff to a bloodfeud with matwork is a weird choice, but in a way it underlines how unique their rivalry is. Santo/Casas matwork always feels like watching bullriding, and it was a fitting start to the contest. The next thing is that this is one of the most violent matches in history. Seriously, not much less so than Misawa/Kawada or any WAR or BattlARTS match. Every other minute in this bout, somebody was getting stomped on his head or kicked in the teeth. It was a total streetfight integrated into a wrestling contest and they sold accordingly. The fact that it was otherwise a clean match just made the battling in the ropes etc. all the more intense. Next, you had flawless build and style. Both guys going through multiple waves of attacks & counter attacks with the pendulum swinging and swinging and the tension rising and some moments burning into your head like glowing thorns. Santo smashing Casas' head into the edge of the ring apron while Casas' body went limp, Casas throwing desperation headbutts on the ground & coming up with a bloody face, an almost depleted Casas stubbornly twisting Santo's wrist only to be met with punches to the face from below etc. etc. All great imagery. Then you also had the story of Casas pushing Santo to the limit with Santo working nearly heelish but then making a triumphant comeback. So you have a match with great wrestling & tremendous suspense and build and swinging back and forth & and boiling with hatred and brutality. Really a totally amazing match and a GOAT contender.
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I looked through the thread and I'm a little shocked no one has dropped Santo/Casas from 1997. Mike from WKO picked that, and I just re-watched it and it really is a great pick. It has the same bar fight/two guys trying to murder eachother feel like Chicana/MS1, Lawler/Dundee or the best of WAR/BattlARTS etc., but mixed with modern athletic death moves and sports-like feeling and awesome "swinging pendulum" build like Misawa/Kawada. I really need to find their match from Tijuana again.
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The thing that most stood out to me was how violent this felt. Early on Bret was just knocking the dogshit out of the Kid, who bumped amazingly. Just how the Kid would get drilled into the mat by a basic back elbow made me think Kid vs. Stan Hansen would've been amazing. When Bret was throwing european uppercuts in the corner he was just mauling Kid. Waltman on the other other hand threw these highly precise kicks that wouldn't have looked out of place in a BattlARTS match. When his flash rollups didn't work, he would just attempt to kick Bret's head into the 6th row. Waltman repeatedly crashing and burning trying anything to crush Bret in the last couple minutes was highly entertaining aswell. Bret was almost Jumbo-like here as he came across as a pissed off heel but at the same time maintaining his ace status by repeatedly drilling the Kid. That Bulldog may have been the most brutal I've ever seen. I guess parts of the match were a little robotic.
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Naming ONE MATCH gets old. I think a top 100 matches ever project and poll similiar to the Top 100 wrestlers ever from last year would be really interesting.
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Semi Finals of the Sky Tournament Ayako Hamada vs. Mari Apache (7/25) I am stupidly excited for this match. It's the kids of Gran Hamada and Gran Apache battling it out, how can it not be cool? And this match really was that. I imagine some of the exchanges here weren't much different from what their papas would do. The flying and armdrags and dives and all that were above what your average tape watching indy yokel could do. Really graceful, swank and intricate stuff. They hit the mat aswell. Because Mari is chunky, her busting out a fast takedown or twisting around looks double cool. This pretty much ruled. Mika Akino vs. Chaparrita ASARI (7/25) Another nifty match. Less armdrags, more flash submissions vs. headscissors and pins type of match. Gotta give them huge credits for putting this stylistic cocktail together so well. Some creative spots and exchanges here, and they actually had me guessing who could take the victory home. Akino is the „project“ and seemed highly confident, but Asari didn't let the shooter walk all over her.
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I went with Garvin, mostly because I really love his style. Altough Microscopes post made me want to check out some Bret Hart matches.
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Sky Tournament 99 First Round Matches Ayako Hamada vs. Tiger Dream (7/25) A flyer's tournament! Kinda mean to separate the flyers from the grapplers, especially considering how awesome Hamada vs. Yoshida was before. This was clipped to shit. The editors still made sure we got to see Tiger Dream falling on her face trying a move. Classy there. Other than that it looked like a solid match. Ayako's always doing something nifty, and there was an impressive spinning headscissor type move. All the high spots looked great. And Ayako easily wins this with her impossibly convoluted, but always neatly applied Ayakita Special Move. Ayako Hamada 1999 Megapush continues. Mari Apache vs. Ring Star (7/25) Match only goes 5 minutes, and they show about 40 seconds of it. Ring Star is some mexican with good execution. The some of this match: swank armdrag and dives, Mari throws bombs and it was done. Full worldwide etc. Mika Akino vs. Gami Metal (7/25) Gami Metal is Futagami in a cheap mask, working kind of quasi-comedic heel, adding a little more character to this match to the previous two. They showed a little more of this match so you could get a sense of it. Some unusual moves, altough execution wasn't top. Ai Fujita vs. Chaparrita ASARI (7/25) ARSION really has fully turned into WCW Worldwide. Asari is the girl who did all the weird flips in some AJW tags and once had her nose broken by Aja Kong on Raw. Probably the most prolific name in the tournament. On the other hand, Ai Fujita had the 450 Splash, one of the hottest moves in wrestling at the time. This was all FLIPS and DIVES and also the first match they showed in somewhat full. They kept it together, and the match ended up being cool. Full worldwide point.
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They show about 25 minutes of 45 minute match + 5 minute overtime. The clipping is so seamless that you don't really notice anything missing. This starts out awesome with Ikeshita wearing gloves and working over Kumi with boxing punches and eyerakes like she's Takeshi Ono. Kumi scores a single leg and Ikeshita decides to take the gloves off and WRESTLE! I've come to learn that Ikeshita could go on the mat, but Kumi kind of kills it by being a total bore. Ikeshita would get a waistlock, and Kumi had to use the ropes. What the hell? Ikeshita, for once, wants to wrestle you and not stab you in the face, and you don't want to wrestle her? So Ikeshita starts stabbing her with a foreign object to get some fire out of her, but Kumi was like Tom Tyrone here. I'd say the majority of the match was a decent Ikeshita carryjob and they eventually do a nice, exciting end run with big moves and bumps that they sell really well. Kumi kind of redeems herself, but I can't forgive how lame she was earlier in the match. The actual finish when they go into overtime after the 45 minute draw was lame too compared to all the wrestling that came before, altough it fit their characters. I'd say this should go on your watchlist as it's a bonafide 70s joshi epic that brings the good stuff, but I can't help but feel Yumi Ikeshita deserved better than this.
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[1993-02-28-AJPW-Excite Series] Stan Hansen vs Toshiaki Kawada
Jetlag replied to Loss's topic in February 1993
I think this is the 3rd or 4th time I've rewatched this classic. May be the baddest slugfest ever. Any basic move like a stomp or kneedrop here felt like a potential KO and the fighting over basic holds and moves was awesome. Hansen gave this masterful performance of an aging behemoth who was slowly running out of energy but could still crush his opponent. Kawada's bumping was really great as he would just get drilled into the mat whenever Hansen smashed him. God damn Hansen's shoulderblocks were amazing. I guess some of Kawada's comebacks were a little easy, but what do you want. It's 24 minutes of some of the baddest pro wrestling on film. A Top 5 AJPW match. -
[1995-08-29-ECW-TV] Eddy Guerrero vs Dean Malenko (2/3 falls)
Jetlag replied to Loss's topic in August 1995
This was a pretty good match. These ECW matches usually have a kind of chopped up rhythm but they approximated an almost lucha title match vibe, starting with matwork into armdrags into bigger throws and then back to matwork again. It had a nice resistance to basic holds, learned spots and counter moves vibe that made it feel competitive enough. I don't see how the match was "even" - Eddie controlled standing, Malenko was better on the mat, later on Malenko had to make a comeback (and a nice one he made, ramming into Eddie's leg to create an opening). I hate it when wrestlers stand there and listen to the crowd chanting, so the working in a vacuum here was fine by me. Admittedly the finish to the 1st fall was kind of blown and poor, but most of the other work they did was pretty fantastic without going overboard. Didn't have a problem with the double pin ending because really who gives a shit when both guys left the company anyways. Navarro/Solar matches also end in double pins, so what? This was not Navarro/Solar but a lot better than your typical 90s junior stuff. -
The Most Ultimate of Warriors goes to germany and do battle for the Power Wrestling Trophy (amazingly pronounced by Manfred Koch). This is more fascinating than good - altough it's probably one of the more fun matches the Warrior has been in. If you are not familiar with Ulf Herman: he is basically the most pro-wrestler looking dude to come out of germany. I mean, if you had a sitcom or something where a guy who you look at and makes you go "Yep that is a pro wrestler" was supposed to appear as a spoof pro wrestler Ulf would be the guy. This is from some commercial tape - I assume the CWA organizers were getting desperate and trying to cash in on the WWF fanbase - this match didn't even have rounds, altough there are still fines. I am sure the Warrior immediately regreted smashing Herman's head into the announce table when he was given a fine of 200 Deutsche Mark. The Warrior is all energetic and Herman and the insanely hype crowd makes this really fun. Herman busts out dives and actually gets to have somewhat of a match against Warrior, but ultimately falls victim to the Ultimate Splash. Also the commentating Peter William does is hilarious, if you speak the language. You can tell when Peter is really hype for a match (e.g. Finlay vs. Mile Zrno) and when he is trying his darndest to sell something.
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Bob "UFO" Della Serra (the UFO nickname coming from his time when he wore a mask) is like Moose Morowski a dude from the canadian scene who has nothing but a handful of 5 minute TV matches available and then probably his longest matches on tape in germany. I know next to nothing about canadian wrestling but if somebody could find tapes of his long arena matches in their garage I'd appreciate that. Bob carried himself like quite the badass. He was Axel's tag partner in this tournament, so this was mostly a clean wrestling contest, altough a pretty tough one with a lot of intensity. The low end grappling early on reminded me of shootstyle as it had the kind of struggle and nifty little touches and leverage fighting I really like, and they do some really intricate work around a neck chancery and hammerlock. Those holds aren't exactly the most fancy but what they did with them was really cool. The bridge up spots (also seen in Yokota/Lioness) are especially impressive for a pair of heavyweights. Axel does some big time selling and Della Serra attempting to bash his skull in in the final round with Vader-like clubbing blows to the head and brutal european uppercuts was something else. Axel really was at his best when he was taking and selling a beating. Really good match for something that could easily have been a friendly throwaway bout.
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The Chain/Strap/Bullrope match (basically anything where it's two tough dudes tied together to beat the shit out of eachother) is really interesting because it may be the most universal gimmick match ever. They've had them everywhere: in the US, Mexico, Europe, Puerto Rico, japanese girl feds, etc... and a number of legendary workers, from Wahoo McDaniel to Fit Finlay to John Cena have been in them. And looking at the list of contenders, there's quite a few all-time great matches there: Greg Valentine vs. Roddy Piper, 11/24/83 - one of the ultimate gruesome wrestling bloodbaths. I remember thinking this is a top 10-20 match ever the last time I watched it. May be a little too simplistic for some however. Vader vs. Sting, 2/21/93 - may be my favourite WCW match. Another incredibly violent bout, with an all time babyface vs. heel peformance. Also may have the best power spot I've ever seen when Sting carries Vader which just turns me into an excited 10 year old anytime I watch it. La Fiera vs. Jerry Estrada, 1991?# - this is like two gangsters battling it out to prove something to their gang. Really awesome gritty, seedy brawl, only with a lousy finish. Carlos Colon vs. Stan Hansen, 1/10 - remember this being really sensational when I saw it, have to rewatch. The best from the awsome Colon/Hansen feud which speaks for the strength of the gimmick Shinobu Kandori vs. Bull Nakano, 7/14/1994 - I don't love this, but a lot of people are really into it and it's still two of the baddest ladies ever tearing into eachother. Franz van Buyten vs. Dave Taylor, 10/5/1986 - I dunno, for me this is like the Misawa/Kawada of european wrestling. The confusing clipping and lack of a great finish probably puts it out of GOAT contendership, but the work here is unbelievable. Isami Kodaka vs. Yuko Miyamoto, 3/19/2010 - this is one of those more hyperactive deathmatches, but the Strap gimmick makes it focussed and they do some innovativ stuff with it. One for the more modern type wrestling fans Raven/Stevie Richards vs. Pitbulls, 9/16/1995 - haven't seen this and can't imagine liking it, but I've heard a few people really loving this. Other (please name) - Missing anything? Drop in your recs.
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This was, I believe, the first time Mile wrestled in the Hannover tournament. So, this is the new kid taking on the aging heavyweight top babyface. In hindsight, Axel Dieter is a pretty good veteran technician. Not a master, but he could go in this type of high workrate "young athlete takes the old vet to the limit" match. He didn't have a problem going along with Mile's highly athletic moves. The structure in these matches is always a little rough, I assume because there was no TV wrestling or tapetrading in germany and workers were adjusting to the changing nature of wrestling that came with the new import wrestlers on the fly, but they are wise enough to tease an early finish,have Dieter be the one to start roughing Mile up (with interesting fan reactions) and then work an enduring contest that puts Mile over big time for going the distance.
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Finals of the Tournament Michiko Ohmukai vs. Hiromi Yagi (5/4) Yagi just went through a war against Yoshida, not mention her partner in the 1st round. Ohmukai hasn't even done 7 minutes of wrestling that night. This was Ohmukai's kicks and bombs vs. Yagi's flash submissions. Yagi was really the story of the match, as she tried her darndest to beat Yoshika in the Semis and now had to do it again against the fresher, bigger Ohmukai. Fine bout, altough Ohmukai is nowhere near as good as Yoshida at selling submission nearfalls. Rie Tamada/Hiromi Yagi © vs. Ayako Hamada/Mika Akino (Twinstar of Arsion Tag Titles, 6/30) The Hamada/Akino story continues. Hard for me to say how good this was exactly – the match had a nice pace, was unpredictable, and everything was hit nicely (aside from Akino falling on her head one time), so I'd say it was good. Hamada and Akino were the story of the match because D'aaaawww look at these little puppies going for the big gold! Akino has some pretty intricate rope climbing moves and Ayako looks like total star material at this point. I'm a little grumpy at the lack of cool matwork and Yagi, however. Mima Shimoda/Etsuko Mita vs. Yumi Fukawa/Rie Tamada (7/25) Las Cachorras Orientales enter. God lord how tall are LCO? Or, how short are Fukawa and Tamada? I suspect Mita is like 5'6, but she looked like Kevin Nash next to the other two. And this was kind of worked like Kevin Nash & Scott Hall vs. Dean Malenko & Billy Kidman. Or one of these NOAH opening tags were a pair of old geezers annoy two rookies. Except uhm, it was kind of... good? LCO's uncooperativeness added a lot to the match as it actually meant something when Fukawa and Tamada got a move in on them. Match was worked slow and stayed in the ring and was shockingly efficient for what it was, drawing big reactions from the crowd. It's crazy that Fukawa's flash armbars can still be this exciting after she has done nothing else for so many matches. Credit to LCO, I knew they were capable wrestler before, but they were perfect here in a completely different way than I'm used to.
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A great match! Feels like something that should be a staple for the "joshi for people who don't like joshi" pile. It has the legwork/tease the Figure 4-story that so many wrestling fans can understand, plus a classic story with Aoyama having a go at the ace. It also has that "Wow!" factor with state of the art flying moves and big time bumps used for great drama. Aoyama is pretty overzealous, but Sato is pretty much her ideal matchup and Sato has such a tremendous connection to the crowd that anything she's in automatically becomes above average. The matwork is all freaked out and luchariffic with a ton of indian deathlock work and a bunch of twisting around to escape the Figure 4. I imagine this is how they mostly worked big matches at big shows. Notice how easily they fill the time while still ending the match early enough to leave plenty on the table for the future. Just a great main event that would work anywhere in the world.
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The "no selling" of limbwork is something almost all AJW matches from the time period have. It simply was not what they were going for. They would "sell" as in acknowledge that a leg was being weakened, but didn't do the Rude/Steamboat Beach Blast 1992 style constant selling.
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A very fast paced big match. So fast paced that it almost feels rushed at times. First fall had some nice armlocks, mostly carried by Terry Funk being really great at making even a basic arm hold seem meaningful. He always adds so much urgency to his wrestling - and Terry was pretty on point here in general, throwing punches and doing his ridiculous selling including at one point being draped upside down over the announcers table. He added some much needed drama to the match with his in-peril selling, on the other hand Jumbo and Baba barely seemed to be in trouble. They use tag psychology and double team moves in pretty clever ways building the bout nicely with bomb throwing, toe-to-toe strike exchanges and character work. I don't find Baba to be a very exciting worker - yes I know we are supposed to look at him and remark how smart he is, but his matches always go back to him hitting his signature moves. Dory is mechanically sound, but I was glad his role in the match was limited. At one point, Jumbo grabbed him and launched him in the air with this awesome deadlift suplex, but seconds later Dory was back on offense. Dory really lacks some of the things Terry has to an obscene degree, while Terry is the complete package. Finish was funny in the way life will sometimes leave you on your back and we can all feel on bord with Terry's reaction to it. Good match and a piece in japanese wrestling history as the tag psychology here felt like the same that was at work in all those great 90s tags.
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This is for the vacated All Pacific title match and a hell of a fight. Wait, it's Yumi Ikeshita - surely there's gonna be a ton of cheating? Well, believe it or not, but Ikeshita actually left her foreign object aside for a few minutes and went at it with Lucy on the mat. And bah gawd Yumi Ikeshita was quite the skilled grappler! She had some swank arm locks and takedowns including a really rocking flying armscissor and was just as good at dominating on the ground as she as at dominating with cheating. Eventually Lucy gets the better of her leg and Yumi actually resorts to foreign object shenanigans while hobbling one one foot and making a comeback. They go back to the wrestling though and work some pretty spectacular spots including both of them crashing and burning on dives (Lucy Kayama surely was not afraid to die) and lots of nearfalls. If this had blood and maybe a bit more ideas from Lucy this would be a slam dunk MOTYC. Still you completists will want to note it down because it's Yumi Ikeshita grappling baby!
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Jaguar Yokota & Jackie Sato vs. Nancy Kumi & Jumbo Hori (AJW 1981) Utterly brilliant match. I've seen this before, but after watching a bunch of 70s/early 80s joshi, this kind of feels like the quintessence of the style. And it emphasizes how distinct the girl wrestling at the time was from everything else. So, this is like a lucha trios or one of those french tags: Graceful, unique wrestling. Just the stuff I like so much. Being that it's joshi the pace is fast, and being that it's the early 80s the match is built around cool throws and hard fought submissions. Tons of awesome flying headscissor work too (I don't mean that in the crazed wrestling fetishist way). This project is about Jaguar, but the standout is Jackie (like in almost any match she is in). You can tell she loved this kind of pure wrestling contest and was a total wrestling machine. Damn what a badass grappler. Jumbo Hori also looks really great, with her size advantage and power adding a different dynamic.Yokota looks like motherfucking Jaguar Yokota, doing some stuff vastly beyond the ability of most wrestlers. Hori and Kumi have to fight hard, and there's the sense that they don't stand much chance against the two women who would compete for the top belt the same year. I could see some people having a problem with the sheer speed and number of spots as well as flowing partner-in-and-out structure, but that was the style of the day and how hard they are sprinting here for 20 minutes and doing all this awesome no-bullshit wrestling is endearing to me. It's way better than the joshi sprints from 20 years later that's for sure. Also, the rhytm of the bout was right and there were a number of really well timed spots, proving that they were thinking on their feet as they went. Great match.