Jetlag
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Everything posted by Jetlag
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One of the best 70s workers, really fun as a proto-high flyer who can throw a punch, and criminally underrated as old guy in AJPW tags who gets the shit kicked out of him and wins by a flash roll up. Right now I can't come up with 100 workers I like more than him.
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Seems like a really underrated worker to me. You could argue Tenryu took his trademark style from Kabuki - as you can find the nasty kicks to the face, stiff punches and general recklessness in his matches before. Looked great in a 70s style tag in IWE and is really good as tough old tank in AJPW and WAR tag up until 1993, so ideally he has about 15 years of being really good. I need to take a closer look at his career but right now he's already above Mutoh for me.
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I'd like to nominate Mighty Inoue and Great Kabuki via 80s set
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If you haven't seen any Breaks, go and use OJ's list as a starting point, eg: Jim Breaks vs. Adrian Street Jim Breaks vs. Johnny Saint Jim Breaks vs. Vic Faulkner Jim Breaks vs. Young David (Davey Boy Smith) Are all online. If you have seen everything OJ listed, go and watch everything else you can find (like with any other worker, really).
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El Dandy vs. Pirata Morgan https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6WIc62hVvGw vs Angel Azteca https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l0fLKAa3QFU vs Satanico https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uMpe0N7GRvg vs Negro Casas https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G2HM7e2I-hs vs Negro Casas vs El Hijo del Santo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ga7GQP0R8U0 Yoji Anjo vs Norman Smiley https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7YZ_ZvmEt5s vs Masakatsu Funaki https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZSABUJNAjA vs Tamura https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DkMf0YTDowY vs Sano http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?9tlioo64yhjd511 (thanks Ditch) vs Tenryu (thanks Ditch) http://theditch.us/TenryuVsAnjoh7-21-96.avi Alexander Otsuka vs. Daisuke Ikeda (thanks Ditch) http://theditch.us/OtsukavsIkeda11-5-97.avi vs. Sugiura https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Dc6h-zIXmw vs. Yuki Ishikawa (thanks Ditch) http://theditch.us/IshikawaVsOtsuka9-11-05.avi vs. Yujiro Yamamoto http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xa4wjb_alexander-otsuka-vs-yujiro-yamamoto_sport vs. Hikaru Sato http://lenny.theditch.biz/20100318-RJPW_AlexanderOtsuka-vs-HikaruSato.wmv Marty Jones vs. Terry Rudge https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B6YW9Xcp07s vs Dynamite Kid https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MLyO790es-I vs Mark Rocco https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ZbSfSe5NUw vs Finlay http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x9bzuq_fit-finlay-vs-marty-jones-england-4_sport vs Johnny South https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tj72Fh0zSVE La Fiera vs. Babe Face https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OXH2Dt0bj30 vs. Tiger Mask II https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WMLArroZpxU vs. Jerry Estrada https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wVvPiNvOEyM vs Atlantis https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TxSfUcExs0E vs. El Dandy https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=91lNwe06y8I
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This definitely exceeded expectations. Joshi is this weird style where two no-name workers can have a kickass match out of nowhere and rookie/vet matches tend to be better because of the difference in ranking, and that was the case here. Kagetsu is a butch looking rookie* in the vein of Toshiyo Yamada while Kuragaki is a powerhouse, with a cool moveset who throws these nasty Tenryu-ish "Fuck you, punk" lariats. This does a tremendous job avoiding all the usual pitfalls of joshi while building a match that gets better and better and leads to some real dramatic selling. Even the usual pesky little brawl on the outside wound up leading to a meaningful transition and set up some great (and neatly sold) armwork. Loved Kagetsu bouncing off the mat after taking the Yokota/Asuka superplex bump off the top, loved the reckless flying over the guardrail armbreaker, loved Kagetsu attempting to murder her opponent by landing repeated BattlARTSian rotten melon kicks to her head. Also worth pointing out that while Kagetsu got in a lot of offense on Kuragaki, it always felt like an uphill battle for her. This on first watch feels like a slam-dunk MOTY for japanese wrestling. *actually, she made her debut in 2008 but is 22.
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I watched the full match. Haven't seen the previous match in a while, but while this didn't have the blood it felt shockingly great. Izumida looked great as a tough bruiser cutting off the flying team. Him and Honda trying to crack Shinzaki's skull throughout the first half of the match was great, loved his ultra stiff bicycle kick and diving headbutt. Builds to a really great finishing stretch with some extremely well timed spots and a slightly different structure than tag matches usually have, Honda's selling was just amazing and his suplexes were killer, but that's not news. Hayabusa was a little annoying but mostly relegated to hitting high spots which he does well. That Shinzaki feint leading to Hayabusa hitting a springboard moonsault across the ring was one of the best I've ever seen. Nice symmetry finish to conclude their feud. -
Great little 6 man with lots of hatred going on here. Asako and Ogawa had some sort of feud going on and the match begins in a chaotic fashion with Team Misawa even triple teaming their opponents. Kawada ends up getting shafted by Akiyama and eats a super nasty exploder, but Akiyama is quickly isolated and made to pay dearly. Tons of nasty shots in that section, and Kawada does this awesome heel spot where he steps on Akiyama's head as he reenters the ring, such a simple but effective dick move. Ogawa continues to be really aggressive by working over Akiyama's mid section in really violent fashion, then later on turns into Mini-Kabuki and decks Asako with a wad of stiff looking punches to the face. Aggressive bully Ogawa is weird to watch. This was a good way to spend 20 minutes.
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[1999-01-22-AJPW-New Year's Giant Series] Mitsuharu Misawa vs Toshiaki Kawada
Jetlag replied to Loss's topic in January 1999
This was Kawada as Kyle Reese and Misawa as terminator. Or just their usual beef. Misawa somehow keeping the selling while walking straight back into a match may be the main reason why he looks like the baddest dude on the planet. Pretending to not be hurt while looking like you're not hurt is stupid, Misawa pretending to not be hurt while walking like a beaten dog is an entirely different thing. Anyways, this feels almost one sided with how Kawada seals the deal on this match by taking out the legs. Actually liked the Ganso Bomb thing as it looked like Misawa fucked himself there with no comeback possible after that, and it wasn't one of those stupid deals where they do a shocking kickout of a deadly move and end it immediately after. -
I remember Alex Wright mentioning that his dad taught him some catch techniques so he would be able to hold his own in NJPW. I'm still curious about what exactly he did there given that Steve is all about cartwheels and stuff. I like Steve as a worker though. He helps out at Alex's wrestling school these days, wonder if he could do catch wrestling seminars ala Billy Robinson?
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I watched a bunch of 70s AJPW years ago and after being done with it I never wanted to see Dory again. I wouldn't say he's awful, at his best he's solid and rarely a detriment to any match as he usually plays the right notes, at his worst he's every bad cliche about "technical wrestlers" in one and grinds a match to a halt. Of course he works well teaming with Terry as the Anti-Terry, but it exposes his lack of selling, emoting and context. Terry will make you give a shit about throwaway opening hold exchanges, makes you believe he is trying to finish the match, basically everything he does establishes an arc to a match. With what Dory is doing, there's no way to tell whether you are 5 minutes or 35 minutes into a match and your only indicator to what is happening is his opponent's ability to tell you that. I also think his technical ability isn't sufficient. He is compared to a chess master, but to me he seems to be solving his own conflicts when in a hold. He will wait in a hold for 20 seconds, then change position, wait another 20 seconds, etc. All that without any selling or emoting that would make you give a shit about the position change. I would say it's more like he was doing a mathematical proof, except without the inventiveness. In the end you are told something you already know, which isn't necessarily a problem as lots of 70s sequences are "basic", but Dory doesn't exhibit any high end technical chops doing so. Something like Destroyer vs. Mascaras or a Jack Briscoe match will give you neat uncooperative amateur stuff you don't see anymore. Dory doesn't really give you anything. Also, I think OJ once commented NWA style title matches were a bunch of filler leverage holds leading nowhere until a flick is switched and they move to the finish, and I think this problem is really evident in Dory matches. Again, I think Dory is solid. Problem is it takes a little more than solid to stand out among all the really talented workers that were around then and I think there's a lot of workers you could've slotted into Dory's place in those Funk tags and they would've done just as good or better. With all the long epics Dory has on tape he has a huge advantage, but even with all that stuff he never once truely stands out the way random british technicians would do in single TV bouts.
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Really good match but not as good as the hype promises, I thought. Opening technical work was solid but not really next-level stuff. For example, I thought Chono could've done more to struggle against Mutoh's holds. Mutoh appears to work on the arm a little which makes sense considering it's taped and Chono uses moves like a powerbomb and an STF, but it's not really a factor afterwards. It wasn't blatantly no sold but I thought they could've done more. The finishing stretch was big and well done, Mutoh evading the counter dropkick was really cool, but I think I prefer the more intense, uncooperative NJPW matches, like Liger/Aoyagi. Maybe I'm just jaded and fed up with japanese matches that have a lot of nearfalls. Top 20 match for 1991.
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To be honest, he doesn't seem to be that different from the people who browse these boards. He probably uses cubsfan's site too. Do you think that is representative of a typical japanese smark?
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[2009-09-21-NOAH-Exceeding Our Dreams] KENTA vs Atsushi Aoki
Jetlag replied to Loss's topic in September 2009
Would be a pretty good match if you clipped the last 5 minutes or so away. Aoki wasn't exactly your typical "do all the moves" junior and instead spends most of the match avoiding the big bombs of his higher ranked opponent and works over the arm, allowing KENTA to hit his sprint across the ring-kicks without looking like he was no-selling. After Kenta makes his comeback the match gets progressively dumber and they throw the good work they did throughout the body out the window. -
[2001-01-04-NJPW-Wrestling World 2001] Toshiaki Kawada vs Hiroyoshi Tenzan
Jetlag replied to Loss's topic in January 2001
Man, is there a more annoying wrestler than Tenzan? Naoya Ogawa STO'ing people over and over till they fall unconscious is cool. Tenzan wandering around and hitting these crummy headbutts and chops that look like they do nothing is just the worst. Anyways, Kawada could carry a dead man to a solid match, and this wound up being good, but I couldn't help but feel like I was watching Dick Murdoch carrying an untrained dude with a horror movie gimmick or something. -
Pretty solid southern style tag. Ishikawa slugging with Tanaka may be infinitely more interesting than Tanaka slugging with anyone else, except maybe Hashimoto. Wasn't too hot on the face in peril section, I enjoyed Gedo working over Yone's face with nice punches and twisting the nose, but Tanaka was just running through his usual stuff and Yone, who is a real hit-or-miss type wrestler, wasn't hit here. Enjoyed Ishikawa's ferocity and twisting the fuck out of the garbage wrestlers, but this ended early and just felt like another match to further a feud.
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I've grown a strong dislike for Minoru Tanaka over time, but Sano easily drags him to a perfectly good junior style match here. This wasn't PWFG Sano or potatoe machine NOAH Sano, this was Sano as a maestro carrying a young all flash-no substance flier to his career highlight. Him constantly twisting at limbs and reversing Tanaka's submission attempts was a pretty spectacular show, and Tanaka's flashy moves are timed perfectly. Tanaka has flashy submissions and kicks and really nothing else between the flashyness, so this was pretty much the ideal match to make him look like a killer.
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[2008-10-25-BattlARTS] Yuki Ishikawa vs Super Tiger II
Jetlag replied to Superstar Sleeze's topic in October 2008
I think this was the first Ishikawa singles I saw. I really liked this years ago and on rewatch it almost feels shockingly epic. This is ST2's career match, and while still clearly ST2, he brings it. This is in the style of their teachers and a total out of control fight, right at the get go Tiger flips out and knocks the shit out of Ishikawa, kicks to the face, punches to the throat, the whole deal. Match is frantic with both guys going head to head and moving swiftly on the mat, reborn BattlARTS changed it's style quite a bit, with Ishikawa working almost like a lucha maestro, and he definitely did some nifty stuff here, but Tiger was holding his own, and also constantly potatoeing his opponent. There's moments where Ishikawa reverses a move, but is too beaten to follow up. At another minute he breaks out of a Triangle Choke by raining hell with a taped fist. Match is worked like that, with Tiger always being slightly ahead, always landing blows, Ishikawa gets eaten when trying to go toe to toe, but he is always dangerous with his submission grabs. The last minutes are all about that, with Tiger trying to safe and kill him off, so he does these moves where he sprints across the ring, including an absolutely unreal savate kick square in the face and a similiarily terrible knee, until Ishikawa makes a grab then turns it into a suplex to even things up, then is able score his bombs and put the puzzle together. Don't get me wrong, this match isn't flawless, but it has the neat story, nifty execution, and insane violence, just a good example of what a breath of fresh air BattlARTS was in 2008. -
I remember this being one of the first puro matches I watched. It blew my mind back then and it's still an absolutely brilliant match, with all the gestures and hatred of an interpromotional war, and plenty of really great exchanges mixed in. I don't think I've seen a match where Nagata looks better than he does here. When he tags Hashimoto in the place seems to catch fire. Akiyama was so, so great in this. He really makes a perfect foil for Hash's fury, everybody knows he's not a chump but Hashimoto kicks him like a piece of shit, but what really puts it over is Akiyama's reaction, he gets this crazy rush of frustration and pissed-offness, like he cannot believe this shit is happening to him. Another great moment is when Shinya and Misawa exchange chops and elbow, like the two most dangerous predators facing off. Misawa and Akiyama fit into the Choshu-tag formula of the NJPW stars- at the end, you have dramatic kickouts out of moves like elbow drops and DDTs, with maximum resistance to the bombs, well-timed submissions, etc.. All-time great moment with a raging Hashimoto as the finish and everybody running in as the situation goes haywire. This kicked ass.
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Teioh comes in with an eye bandage. Hido pulls it off and stabs him with a scissor, everybody acts concerened as Teioh is carried to the back. Neat 3 vs 2 segment with Kasai as FIP before Teioh comes back as TERRY BOY with a big bandage and does his Terry Funk impression throwing punches and locking in abdominal stretches. Abby Jr. does neat impression of a funny Abby Sr. sell when he eats a roaring elbow from Teioh. Aside from putting a little highlight on Teioh (who is a really cool overlooked worker) this was your standard BJW lighttube tag. These are usually fun as they have no down time and neatly put together finishing runs, but really lose their luster after you watch a few of them because they are, in the end, incredibly samey and don't really give you anything to sink your teeth into. If this is your first, you will either find it neat, or be repulsed.
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Yeah, M-Pro style it is. I think this may be one of the last really great Super Delfin superstar performances. I dug that the Osaka Pro team was all in rainbow tights. Tremendous heat, characters that play each other off well (Tanaka and Murahama, Liger and Tsubasa), and the first half is exciting because the underdogs get the better of the established NJ stars in believable fashion. Could've used something a little more to really push it over the edge, like a pissed off comeback from the NJPW talent after being embarassed, Liger and Delfin doing a face off, or just pissed off Liger manhandling the tiny guys a little - I mean Liger was great here as he usually is in interpromotional matches, but I wanted him to dish it out a little more. The juniorish finale was very solid though.
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Pretty fucking stupid match, but probably the best stupid match in this project. They trade these ultra-stiff beatings that ultimately mean nothing because there was very little selling or transitions. Ohtani spin kicking Tanaka directly in the face meant nothing as he would just make a comeback hitting strikes of his own seconds later. Just completely random. Stiffness kept this interesting, but it never reached the level of transcendental violence you see in BattlARTS or WAR tags, not because they didn't hit hard enough, but because they didn't emphasize the punishment being dished out. Finishing run was neatly put together and didn't go overly long. Good match.
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I remember clips of Daisuke Ikeda and Takahiro Oba punching eachother in their bloody foreheads airing on a random Occupation of the Indies episode that looked pretty amazing. I like to hope Ikeda is saving all those unreleased tapes somewhere and will be selling them from his garage once he retires. Also, there's the finish of a Fritz von Erich/Joe Blanchard 2/3 falls match on youtube that is insane.
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I thought this was really great. Kawada gave an amazing performance. I think most of the criticism posted in this thread could also be applied to many of their other matches, so I don't see how this is their "worst". Kawada mixing in shooty offense, including some nifty judo trips and a great deadlift german to get Misawa was different and Misawa's selling was flawless. As usual, they got huge reactions with really simple stuff like the corner position switch at the beginning or Misawa countering the submission attempts by almost crushing Kawada's face with a knee drop. There were lots of nifty little things like that - the arm work being set up by Misawa blocking a kick, Kawada hurting himself countering a flying attack, Kawada not quite being the same after eating the Tiger Driver on the floor and tanking, etc. Also, the match never felt repititive. I've noticed that in other matches, it would seem like Kawada would hit a dozen Yakuza kicks and then another dozen gamengiris, here everything was varied with both guys figuring out how to get past eachothers guard, and each big blow being extremely well timed. Too bad about the finish, but aside from that I thought this was tremendous, and easily better than their match earlier in the year or their 2000s matches.
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Dory has nowhere near the presence or sense of timing that Nish has.