dawho5

The crowd reaction and Pillman's reaction to the slap were absolutely amazing. Really fun little angle. Bischoff as a play-by-play man is not very good, from the very beginning of the show.

Owen did one where he got the arm bar, turned it into a kind of hammerlock and used the leg to secure that one before going at the other arm like that. Perhaps a variation on the original?

Really fun match that has a lot of comedy early on. I kind of get the idea of each man going for pinfalls in the final round, as they are both well aware that they don't have much time to put the match away. That arm trap abdominal stretch variation says to me Owen spent some time in Mexico before this as that seemed like a very lucha flavored submission.

This is actually the most technical I've ever seen a Moondog. Certainly a fun match, but I wasn't a huge fan of the transition to Moondog control. What was Wright thinking going for a victory roll with the ropes right there? Also, for a guy like Wright these are the kinds of matches that would make him a little easier to get behind in a "big guy" promotion. He's a smallish technician, and if he only ever beats the guys his size who fight similarly he won't get near as much respect. If he can translate his technical skill into a way to beat a big bruiser despite getting beat up, he is at least a threat to everyone he may face.

I always enjoyed that aspect of British wrestling. Just the idea that the punch was a HUGE weapon makes so much sense and the heels absolutely should have to hide it when they do it. It goes back to that thing I heard Al Snow talk about when he was instructing young wrestlers. "What is one of the few things you do those people know anything about?" It just makes sense that if a big dude punches somebody at the bar and can knock him out, how are these guys taking so many? As far as Faulkner goes, I think it's kinda cool that he was as good at comedy as he was despite being a serious technician is what I'm trying to say. He could have easily been a comedy wrestler with his skill, but was able to be a triple threat at any point in a match. I also think the idea of the "super serious technician" gimmick kind of ruined the idea that wrestlers are people. Yes, there are some super-serious wrestlers who were technicians. Not everyone has to fit into that box though. I want to think that at some point people decided technical wrestling was boring and that somehow played into the way that whole thing worked out and killed the idea that you could have a guy who was a serious technician, but liked to have fun with it and hated the idea of the heel cheating excessively all at the same time. Would have made the dean Malenkos of the world a lot more fun as a wrestling character and allowed them more freedom.

Oh, I appreciate Faulkner both for the humor and the great technique. He's an incredible worker in that he can mix both without skipping a beat, plus go completely red-faced and believably go off and throw a punch at a guy. Being able to have all three of those is not something the majority of workers in the history of the business can claim.

I just watched 2 Jim Breaks vs . Vic Faulkner matches that pre-date the one I was aware of. The drive I have has no dates attached to any of the matches for the Faulker stuff, so I can't say when they happened. The first seemed to be the initial meeting of a feud, with Faulkner doing his funny guy stuff and pissing Breaks off immensely. Breaks gets a quick fall by tying Faulkner's arm up in the ropes and putting on the Special, then Faulkner quickly pulls a trick on Breaks to even things up. Faulkner is a little more heated, but still very much the prankster. Breaks eventually gets caught throwing a punch (many were thrown before) by the ref, who seemed pretty lenient throughout, and the ref promptly DQs Breaks. The second match opens in round 3 with Breaks really trying to go to town on the arm and Faulkner finding ways to slow his momentum. There was a great sequence in there with breaks actively working against a rope break while Faulkner is tangled up, all the while screaming at the referees to get Faulkner out of the ropes. Not long after Breaks gets his feet tangled in the cloth drop hanging just off the ring apron and does a great comedy spot trying to untangle his feet. Faulkner gets one of his trickster/funny falls, Breaks gets a sneak attack fall and we go to a draw. They two actually both punch each other after the match and Faulkner gets really angry during. The previous match I'd seen there was a story going in of Faulkner losign a match by DQ for punching Breaks. My hope is the next one I come across is that one, so I get to see the whole evolving story of Breaks getting pissed at Faulkner, Faulkner getting pissed at Breaks because of that and then the fallout.

I thought this was really good. I really liked the struggle throughout as even when somebody was taking offense, they were grabbing for a handful of hair or whatever they could get between the other's offense. Very fun stuff. I still struggle to accept the need for 5 straight backdrops, but that's a regular joshi thing.

Really great 10-man that hits all the right highspots without going too far. I will say that Shiryu is consistently missing cues and sloppy as Hell around this time period, and this is no exception. He does hit a nice corner lariat tho. Double dive by Yakushiji & Hoshikawa was legitimately one of the most ridiculous things you've ever seen in wrestling with the timing they had to have at that speed.

Ikeda and Ono as bully shit-kicking (literally kicking here) heels are amazing. I really dug that first bit with Otsuka proving he could neutralize everything Ono threw at him right away. Before Ikeda gets involved anyway. And that pre-match is amazing. If you know anything about the 3 famous Bat Bat guys, you know Yoneyama is in for the beating of a lifetime. He clearly is in over his head, but in no way backs down. The perfect Japanese underdog against a horrifically overpowered heel team. Not the brutality you would get 9 years later in FUTEN, but still all kinds of fun. If not "years off of your career" dangerous for the participants.

That lariat off the apron was definitely the highlight, but this was a wonderful slugfest. How is it Britain is better at both technical wrestling AND Brawling?

I really liked this one for a couple of reasons. 1. They didn't do that "spend 7-10 minutes on the mat" opening that NJ juniors always seem to do to prove they can mat wrestle. It's great that they can, but it very rarely has anything at all to do with the finish. Or the story leading to the finish. 2. What they did instead was get right to Samurai stealing some of the very key Ohtani spots, tree of woe and face washing to be particular. Clearly there has been some buildup that has some spice to it as Samurai is a guy who gets that way in response, not as the instigator. 3. After Samurai rips off the face washes, Ohtani does not try to respond in kind. He tries to hit bigger stuff to advance the purpose of winning the match. He's not just trying to get his shit in. He is trying to play to the story being told in the match. 4. The finishing sequence is not overblown like the previous matches Samurai had with Takaiwa and Kanemoto. It builds the moves up in a much more logical order with a lot more struggle to hit big moves in sequence. Overall, really good match that has to be one of the better NJ juniors matches as far as showing some restraint and staying within the established story of the match.

What I have is clipped to the finishing stretch. Samurai hits a dive he has to hit or he piles the top of his head into the guard rail. Takaiwa (probably not often favorably compared to Kanemoto) is much better about keeping this finishing stretch sane longer compared to Kanemoto's blatant "I'm getting my big shit in" attitude. Samurai counters some of the really well-known Takaiwa offense and hits most of his stuff. I'd argue against the one Samurai bomb as it wasn't used as a nearfall, but a build to a less satisfying nearfall. Also, it kind of detracts from the 2 minutes later Samurai bomb that is a nearfall. Samurai takes two ridiculous bumps here. The first is a powerbomb from the second turnbuckle where Samurai's back hits, then his head hits in a nasty way off the bounce. The second is a second turnbuckle DVD that looks nasty as Hell. If I am getting this right, you have to pretty much commit attempted murder to finish a NJPW juniors match properly. The second one leads directly to the finish, but is not the finish, which may suggest some sort of excess.

Koji bullying Samurai and targeting the leg early was indeed awesome. I'm kind of with a lot of folks in that the ending killed a great, great thing. And it's not Samurai's fault really. Koji brings in that reverse rana from the top that really has no place. Where do you go from there that is bigger? Then he does the moonsault to tiger suplex, which should be the end. That's not bigger than what he's already done to Samurai AND he has had about 2/3 of the offense in the match. Something about almost killing your opponent for the first non-submission big nearfall of the match just rings superbly untrue for me. Was stoked Samurai had that moment with the fans, but I wish they had not done a few of the things along the way. BTW, there was another wrestling heavy website with this awesome guy who made compilations. This was on one with 3 other El Samurai matches. Part of how the comp was described was several NJPW juniors having a contest to see who could kill El Samurai.

On rewatch, the scrambling by security once Butch goes into the crowd is the best part. You know that lead security guard in the dark jacket was just about having a heart attack when that happened. I thought the stalling did go on a bit long this time. I'm sure the live crowd was pumped for it and if you can get away with that for the live audience, why not save a little wear and tear on your body?

Goulet was announced as from Quebec. That is not saying he never spent any time in France though.

Dennis Goulet vs. Terry Rudge was a fun match. I totally get why you prefaced it the way you did. It was a basic shineless-heat-comeback kind of deal. Nothing overwrought that you wouldn't have seen on TV in Crockett with a few different holds used and maybe a better part of the match as a shine. Still good stuff though as Rudge really does some good heel work through most of it. That one arm hold he was using early is probably not used anymore because ofthe proliferation of high knees. A good high knee would pretty much neutralize that thing in about half a second. I think where Rudge really shines is playing King of the Mountain. That really got the crowd going too, set them up well for the comeback.

I'd agree this stopped at being "fun". It's cool to see Bobby work and he does as much as he can with it. Twelve minutes is simply not enough time for Dusty to get a shine and a comeback AND give Bobby enough time to convince the audience that Dusty is actually in trouble.

On rewatch I stand by earlier thoughts and have a few more to add. Having Hugo (I think? The hair looks right) need medical attention post-match adds some way for Brody to recoup any manhood he may have lost losing to Colon here. Then having Carlitos chase Brody and the heel manager (not sure who) out to get the fans riled up and leaving on a high note is just a great call. As far as the match, it is easily the most vulnerable I've ever seen Brody.

From a wrestling standpoint, SUWA always had to take the majority of the offense in this match. And he did, which is not a bad thing. For being one of the resident bruisers, he is surprisingly athletic and has a lot of interesting offense between the low blows and cheating. The false finish may have gotten me the first time I watched the match, but I know very well that DK has a mask much later on, so......not so much. DK did show some good fire, it's just hard to believe some of his strikes would faze SUWA much with the huge size difference. Post-match was really entertaining. One thing that I will say about the Toryumon (and future DG) ref. He is 100% useless unless somebody is making a cover or submission. The times you see rudos actually forced to stop cheating you can count on one hand after 5 matches. And they are doing it blatantly in front of him. All you need to do is point in the general direction of the tecnicos at ringside and he will be gone for about 5 minutes. Either it's a comedy bit or he was actually supposed to be on the side of the rudos.

I was never a big Joshi guy before. Well, when I was into the flash of it upon first discovering it I was. Then I started to see some of the tropes that get way overused. Like the screaming and the using finishers over and over and over again. I kind of get that second part for Aja's backfist. It's more of a "progressive" finisher thing. Really good action in this match with the Crush Girls really bringing the spunk to counter the big girls. I liked how they used a lot of double teams to keep things going their direction as a point of the psychology. I'm starting to see joshi in a better light again BTW.

So I LOVE Koji Kanemoto. Once I've said that, he wouldn't come close to sniffing a top 200 pro wrestlers list. As an explanation: This is a clipped match. We come in with Koji slamming Takaiwa down and doing his second turnbuckle tumbleweed and missing. Selling is not his strong point. He pops back up and does it again. Misses again. Didn't hurt a second time. Works to two of them (because I guess since he missed two before, he needs to hit two). Then misses a top turnbuckle version. That one he gets up fast, but Takaiwa has had enough. He gets in some offense, then Koji goes to the moonsault, because that has won him so many matches and high flying has proven to be so helpful in the last few minutes. He is 2 for 5 at this point. The point of all of that is that Koji is going to get his shit in. However he has to. Fuck you if you don't like it. A part of me wants to love him for that, but another part of me likes common sense in my wrestling. Then the part that really makes me love him. Takaiwa and Koji are boys . When they fight, they are going to bring it 100%, but once it is done it's all done and they are friends again. To prove this, Koji helps Takaiwa up after the finish, they slap each other full force once each and then hug. How can you possibly not love that?

That Finlay vs. Zyrno match was great. I jumped back into my Best of British Wrestling stuff and hit that 1981 Jon Cortez vs. Steve Grey match again. Every bit as good as every time I've ever watched it. After trying all the modern stuff for about a month that was a really nice return to wrestling I actually like. I'm probably going to start mining this thread for good European/British stuff. And that there French Catch thread. That combined with what I have and the Puerto Rican stuff (how is it I love Puerto Rico and WoS style wrestling?) should be good. With some other old stuff I have that is worldwide, it will make for a good cross-section of good wrestling from across the world.

That wide-eyed face is one of my biggest issues with the current style. Hard to believe people kick out of anything in a wrestling match, I know. Gunther seems alright. So does Dragunov, also Cody and Drew McIntyre all seem pretty good as workers. They are just trapped in a style that makes me want to vomit watching it. A couple of other issues I had were: 1. Clash at the Castle had two champion-as-underdog matches back to back. Bayley at least accepted her role and wrestled it as such. Even if she completely stopped attacking Piper after it took a lot of effort to subdue the bigger woman, only because the interference was getting kicked out of ringside. And then was selling for the next 10 minutes because of it. Also, the help wasn't really kicked out. Utter nonsense. And Priest seemed to be defiant of the underdog role despite every attempt by the announcers to get it over. 2. When they do Michinoku driver/falcon arrow bumps, the wrestler on offense throws out the victim way early. And I know why, they want to make it less of a neck/head bump. Only problem is it usually results in a completely uncontrolled, awkward angle back bump that probably does just as much damage to the spine as the alternative. Just don't do the damn move at that point.

After watching a few matches over the last few weeks I would say this. It's lucha dives, Japanese moves, no-selling and strike exchanges, ECW garbage wrestling and attitude era stylings, plus every WWE trope you can think of turned to 11. Not to mention they very rarely get any of the outside influences right in terms of what they are or why they exist. McIntyre's dive on Priest in Scotland was a great use of a dive as part of a shine, I'll give whoever put that in some props. I'm not sold on a lot of the workers either. Even a main event guy like Damien Priest seems more interested in popping the crowd than actually working towards something big for any amount of time. I was not sold on him from the opening moments of that match and felt like he was less by the end. Nothing to do with missing on the dive, just not at all impressed on the psychology side of things. As an example, Priest felt the need to do a LOUD slap after...what 75% of his strikes? McIntyre had the good sense to at least save it for his named moves. I will say both are tremendous athletes. Priest is going to have a fucked left knee later in life after that one-legged Razor's Edge. Leaning with the knee in front of the foot with another guy on your back and that is your only support? It may not show up right away, but that did some damage. I did think the kneeling strike exchange (if it was ad-lib) was a good idea and a nice way of selling the injury. And you know, out of the three matches I did watch on that show, my earlier feeling that strikes in the modern WWE are really weak remains. It's just shy of snug and somehow jumps out at me. Priest vs. McIntyre was better than the 2 ladies matches. I won't watch that abomination of an I Quit match because I sullied it with the highlights. Magnum/Tully spoiled me. That 3-way tag was okay, The taller half of the tag champs coming in is beastly strong for sure. Bayley's match was a pretty good not-quite-underdog story. I will also say that they need to tone down the intricacy of the spots leading to a top rope move. Way too much repositioning going on. Very obvious repositioning.