dawho5

Islanders vs. Strike Force 10/3/87 Boston Garden Tama coming to the ring is some kind of revelation as a heel. He's got so much energy and he knows how to turn that around and make it a bad thing. The shine to this match is all kinds of awesome. Tama takes a dropkick and bumps into the crowd from the ring. THAT is commitment to making the babyface look good. Martel gets choked to turn the tide after the Islanders have been cheating dicks but not gotten anywhere. Crowd is so into this matchup and it's not hard to see why. Ditch has remarked in his reviews of AJPW matches from the 90s that Kikuchi/Kobashi and Kroffat/Furnas were made for each other. These teams would fit that to a T as well. Martel's hope spots have this great energy and urgency to them. FUCK did that crowd love the tag to Tito. And Tito is all over the Islanders! Absolute must-watch great match. Islanders vs. Strike Force 10/16/87 MSG So Tito and Haku start this one off and I am so happy about that about ten seconds in. When they just start punching each other in the fucking face! Shine is even better than the last match. We're told this is two out of three falls. Oh, and instead of Alfred as sidekick, Gorilla has BOCK as a color man! I'm not sure how to express the amount of joy this brought me. Bock is such a great heel but not really heel color guy. Tito gets his leg worked over by the Islanders after trying for a figure four. Islanders take the first fall, but the equalizing fall comes quicker than you expect. Bock explains why that is a bad thing for Santana and Martel. Have I mentioned how much I love Bock on commentary? Now there are lukewarm tags, there are completely cold tags, there are hot tags and there are FUCKING NUCLEAR HOT tags. The tag to Martel fits the last category. If you've ever seen the Bock/Lawler match with the HOLY SHIT punch comeback by Lawler, the tag to Martel and ensuing Martel offense had that same effect. This was an absolute epic tag and I don't give out stars. If I did, this would be an upper tier ***** match instantly on watching. Santana's selling of the leg during the heat, his brawl-y comebacks, the ridiculous Martel comeback...just beautiful pro wrestling here.

That Daniel Bryan segment was something special. I really don't have the words to describe it. That final "YES!" chant had me in tears and smiling as big as I can all at the same time. Five words spring to mind now. Why I love pro wrestling.

Islanders vs. Can Am Connection 5/30/87 Zenk is not in the same league as the other three. Tama's evil laugh is pretty cool. Heenan is out and the Islanders take advantage. Martel carries the shine beautifully. Heat is on Zenk and the Martel tag is so worth it. Not a great match, but plenty of fun and the angle is essential to the rest of the viewing. Rick Martel vs. Tama MSG GREAT start for Martel after a double team by Haku and Tama. Tama puts just as much energy into being a heel as being a face. LOVE IT! Martel is great during the shine. Big bursts of energy to cut off Tama assaults really get the crowd behind him. Martel looks like a future superstar. Punching Tama in the face when Tama goes for the hair during a leglock is brilliant. One thing watching some late 90s Crazy Max footage recently that irked me was CIMA never getting his own transitions. It was always interference that got him back on offense. Tama finally gets himself back in control and Haku only attacks after Tama is firmly in charge. Big difference between the two and it does the match and both wrestlers a ton of good. Tama's long term leg selling is pretty good. Nice short arm lariat from Tama. Tama does a great job of making Martel earn his comeback. Martel puts every bit of effort into selling and gaining sympathy, always fighting back but just not enough. Tama ramps up the cheating as Martel gets closer to a real comeback, nice touch. And then Tama bumps HUGE for the Martel comeback. Some shenanigans threaten the comeback. Post-match we get the obligatory beat-down by the Islanders. What a great match and almost perfectly executed by two high energy guys. Absolute must-watch. Rick Martel vs. Barry Horowitz Martel with the squash win and the Islanders come out to beat up on Martel. Here comes Tito! Loving the fire from Tito as he clears the ring. Jesse puts it over in his unique way. The promo where they call the team Strike Force is cheesy 1980s fun. Rick Martel vs. Haku Tama and Haku won't let Martel into the ring. Martel back to the locker room and TITO is all over it. Tito and Tama forced to go to the dressing rooms and we can start. Another great shine and this match is more of a brawl. Haku with a really good heat, but not up to snuff with Tama's. Comeback is a bit mroe lackluster on both Haku and Martel's part. Huge falling headbutt by Haku. Tama figures in the finish and Tito is again out to clean house. Less a match and more a setup to the feud proper between the tag teams. If I was to judge it as a match it would be quite a bit lower than the Tama match, but still a fun watch.

I used to do long, long PBP reviews. I'm usually down to a short paragraph now where I include what I liked and what i didn't. Then just a sentence or two to summarize. I try to give a general feel to how I felt the match went rather than try to explain the whole thing in a review. I enjoy reading reviews of matches from a lot of people though. Marty Sleeze (note the spelling) tends to do a lot of PBP stuff in his, but he keeps it really entertaining. I like reading Chad and Parv's reviews a lot because their personality comes through in most of them. And after I've watched a match I always like to see a good amount of reviews for it. Everyone notices different details about a match and it's fun to go back and try to find the things you didn't catch sometimes.

Islanders vs. Rougeaus 2/14/87, Philly Jacque misses a dropkick completely early and Haku makes a nice save. Islanders are the de facto heels. Jacques is pretty athletic for a guy his size. Haku is extremely athletic for a guy his size. Tama starts the actual heeling for his side. Tama rolls Jacques up off a 4 man argument for a super quick 3 count. Rougeaus hold the ring after the match. Definitely skip this. Islanders vs. Hart Foundation 2/21/87, Superstars This one's for the tag belts. Danny Davis gets nuclear heat as the newest member of the Foundation. Extremely short shine. Great double DDT by the Harts. Short heat but good reaction for the hot tag. Haku hits the big kick and tags, but Davis interferes with Tama's splash. Tama tkes a pretty mean bump and gets pinned. Fun for what it was. Islanders vs. Demolition 2/23/87, MSG Demos don't want to give up the masks. Good shine on Ax. Tama tossed to the floor and Demolition goes to work. Tama bruised his back bumping. Ouch. Islanders are making this heat work with hope spots. Good hot tag for Haku. Tama hits a big crossbody off the top that gets broken up and it's looking grim for the Islanders. Demos hit their double team finish for three. Fun match. Islanders vs. Rougeaus 4/26/87, Wrestling Challenge Tama bumps big for a reverse monkey flip by Jacques. More heeling by the Islanders. All four arguing again and they end up outside. Both teams counted out. Skip this one unless you really like both teams. Islanders vs. Demolition 5/2/87, Boston Demolition is now with Fuji, not Johnny V. Alfred is on commentary, I wonder if he was ever good as a color guy. Tama's running crossbody is great, so impactful and visually impressive. Big clothesline by Ax on Haku. Tama's elbow across the arm from the top is incredible when he hits it good. Knee to the back from Smash sets up the heat. Tama hung in between the ropes by an ankle. Owie. Hot tag to Haku, okay work here. Fuji's cane catches Tama in the throat after things get chaotic and we're done. Some good stuff here, but these finishes are starting to irk me. Islanders vs. Demolition 5/16/87, Superstars Short shine. Demos push is getting a bit bigger, Islanders offense is treated as ineffective. Fuji hooks Tama's foot off the top. There it is. Not a squash, but not far off either. Essentially a shortened for TV version of their earlier bouts with less Islanders offense.

Yeah, juniors are the undercard guys. You put a top junior against a middling heavy and the heavy has a big advantage.

Not sure about this whole debate. Is it really about workrate or anti-workrate anymore? I've seen "workrate" matches I absolutely love. I've also seen "anti-workrate" matches I love (probably a little more). I tend to worry more about what is happening and why than whether or not a guy is busting out a ton of moves or keeping things moving at a brisk pace. Sometimes a match needs a slower pace. That's not to say I haven't gotten bored when wrestlers sit in rest holds for the first 2/3rds of a match. I can also say that I've seen guys throwing stuff out at a million miles an hour and found other stuff to do while that match wrapped up. It's all up to the workers in the ring to make the match they are having work. Maybe I just don't get it, but I don't see the need for extremes in either direction. And if you are somebody who likes one end of the spectrum or the other, I don't see a problem with that. There's enough wrestling out there to cover everybody's tastes.

I'm right there with JvK. I can't stand DX in any iteration and never could. Never liked Shawn or Hunter, and Road Dogg was a 100% channel changer as soon as he showed up. Only member of the group that interested me in the least was Waltman, but everything after 1-2-3 Kid was downhill with him.

You act like it was just early DoD that had those problems. 1996 DoD had Ray Traylor join and then defect to the NWO. And possibly the most memorable failure of the whole DoD weirdness, Bron the Leprechaun. I'd never read that story about appeasing Hogan, but it makes sense. It's even more cartoonish than the WWF when he was really big.

I always thought it was easier to book the TEW universe guys because you could fit them into the mold you wanted. Real world wrestlers in the random settings of the game could come up either way short or far too good compared to what they actually were. It was hard to see some wrestlers picked out as massive superstars knowing what they truly were.

Islanders vs. Dream Team 12/6/86 Boston Garden Tama is hot at Johnny V pre-match after the finish last month. Lots of stalling by Johnny V and Beefcake getting the entrance attire off. A lot. Valentine gets his arm worked over in the shine. Valentine getting his leg caught and protecting his groin is a great stooging spot. Now it's on the leg of Valentine. Valentine's selling of the atomic drop is also top notch. It's become a heel in peril on Valentine. BIG over the rope bump off a back elbow by Tama. Tama's knee is hurt and it looks like there's heat coming. Ref misses the tag twice on a good heat, Tama popping himself sideways to get the hot tag is great. Crowd is definitely into this hot tag. Haku does good with the hot tag, but Beefcake seems to fall over or out of the ring just as Haku is getting his momentum built. Tama hits the big flying crossbody on Valentine, but the time limit has been reached and we get no finish. Tama wants 5 more minutes and the heels are not having it. Lots of boos. Great match with as little of Beefcake as possible. Islanders vs. Muraco/Orton Prime Time Wrestling 12/17/86 Haku has such a great dropkick. Orton has some really good stooging spots. And punches. Heat on Tama looks clipped. Mild tag to Haku. Tama on the apron is exceptional. Tama takes a tag and goes tumbling over the top with Orton. DCO and the Islanders menace the managers. Pretty easily skippable. Islanders vs. Hart Foundation Prime Time Wrestling 1/14/87 Toronto Tama is fired up tonight. Bret avoids Tama's double jump chop only to get it a few seconds later when he's celebrating his own minor victory. Haku side kicking Bret on the apron is a fun spot they like to repeat. Bret with the cheapshot from the apron to set up the heat on Tama. Anvil hits a really big lariatand Bret sends Tama off the ramp onto the concrete. Johnny V. on commentary is awful. Bret slapping Haku on the apron is a great spot. Payback in a small way for the earlier side kick and something for Haku to work off fo later. Bret eats a dropkick from Anvil. Hot tag and Haku again paintbrushing Bret. And we have the exact same finish as last time with some different referee manipulation. I'm guessing the previous match was not televised in all of the markets so they can get away with it. Body of the match was great, but the finish makes it just a fun wrestling match. Haku vs. Greg Valentine Superstars 1/31/87 Stiff brawl early. Interference by Beefcake, interference by Tama that the ref sees and we're finished. Good enough that I'd want to see a singles match between these two, but this is an in-ring angle more than anything else.

Islanders vs. Hart Foundation 11/8/86 Philadelphia Spectrum Nice shine for both Islanders. Hart has a really crisp sequence with Tama. Haku gets to beat Neidhart at the power game. Some double teaming on Neidhart, but he hits a nice slam on Tama and shoots Bret into a Rick Martel slingshot splash. Good heat, Tama starts fighting back and it looks like a hot tag after the sternum bump, but that gets cut off. Then Neidhart whiffs on a dropkick that was supposed to hit Bret but it is recovered. Ref misses the tag to Haku. Haku is HOT about that and won't settle down on the apron. Another nice Hart Foundation double team. Hot tag! Or, relatively hot I should say. Haku doesn't seem like a great hot tag, but the paintbrushing he gives Neidhart and the headbutt to Bret from the wishbone position work nice. Tama with a BIG splash and chaos leads to Tama getting crotched on top by Neidhart behind the ref's back. Bret covers for the win, but Haku clears the ring. Nice way to put an underdog team over and a really fun match. Islanders vs. Dream Team 11/24/86 MSG Haku and Valentine lock it up. Fun brawling and a Haku atomic drop that Valentine makes brilliant. Valentine with the flop after a double chop by both Islanders. Haku is sporting some kind of cut on his right shoulder that looks half healed. Haku with a HUGE crossbody that Valentine is hesitant to break the cover and Beefcake barely kicks out of. Valentine seems like he's getting sick of carrying Brutus. Heel in peril on Brutus. Hammer in and hits some big chops on Tama, then a variation on a tombstone. Valentine beating up on Tama is great. Short heat, lukewarm tag to Haku. Same finish as the Harts match with Beefcake getting the finish. This was alright, but very easily skippable.

Continuing my Haku footage from 1986 after my brief look at the 1996 run. Islanders vs. Moondogs 9/22/86 Fun brawl with the 'dogs, but I don't like Rex much. Anything involving Spot in this match is great. Tama brings such great energy to the ring as a babyface. It's hard to not like watching him work. Haku dancing like he's Iceman King Parsons is such an odd comparison to him working scary heel. This is a very fun match. Islanders vs. Jimmy Jack Funk/Mr. X 10/4/86 Ugh, do both Mr. X and J.J. have to stink the place up? Mr. X tries to work with Tama on early exchanges but is too slow and just doesn't seem like he gets what Tama's trying to do. Funk takes a nice Haku corner lariat. The heat on Tama was awful. Haku's hot tag is tepid at best. Mr. X falling over three feet in front of him twice before getting hit doesn't help. Skip this one. Haku vs. Nikolai Volkoff 10/20/86 Koloff kills Haku with a couple of lariats. Haku has some nice "martial arts" moves in response. Neat little brawl until Volkoff goes to the trunks in a meaningless spot. Volkoff gets rolled up after missing a second corner lariat, but squirms both shoulders off the mat 3 times each during the ref's three count. Did Volkoff go into business for himself here? Announcers had to do a lot of covering up for that finish.

Why would they talk about anything else? Their purpose is to work the crowd. If a wrestler can consistently get the crowd to react the way he wants, where is the problem?

On the next WCWSN we get a Hart promo looking for a title match with the Outsiders at Starrcade. The next week's Saturday Night we find out it is on as the FoF make their entrance. And proceed to kill High Voltage, giving them not a whole lot of offense at all. Fun squash. Ron Studd and Roadblock on the next WCWSN. Studd can barely move. Luckily this is short. Basically the same promo as last week from Hart pre-match. FoF against the Outsiders on Nitro just under two weeks before Starrcade. Good enough brawling around for a few minutes before Traylor hits the ring and turns on the Dungeon. Because we need everyone possible in the NWO. And the locker room starts to empty with the rest of the DoD, then the rest of the NWO, then WCW. And Ice Train gets leveled by Norton on the way to the ring, with Norton fighting alongside the NWO. Because nothing says "this is important" like doing the same exact thing that just happened less than two minutes ago. And he wheels are already starting to fall off... Starrcade and the tag titles. Outsiders give the FoF a nice shine. Short beatdown on Barbarian goes into a heel-in-peril on Hall. Patrick is the subject of scrutiny by the announcers for not counting Hall out on several moves And not checking Hall on a nerve hold by Barbarian. I get what they are going for, but it isn't the early 80s. Even if it was I don't think a simple nerve hold on the side of the neck is putting a main event guy out. Barbarian hits a big boot after a Meng inverted atomic drop. But he never tagged so why is he covering? Nash gets the tag, hits a big boot on Barbarian and Meng breaks the count at 2. Hall and Meng tumble outside, Barbarian misses the big boot and Nash powerbombs him for the win. So basically Barbarian goes down after about 20 seconds of offense following the FoF controlling 75% of the match. But they are in main event territory now and that's the kind of thing that comes with that. The last Nitro of the year it's Faces of Fear and Harlem Heat. Fun match while it lasts, Booker hits his big spots, the FoF hit a few of theirs. Then Parker comes out and gets attacked by Sherri. Jacques Rougeau is out to throw something in the face of Booker T, who eats a big kick from Meng. And while Meng is pinning him, Stevie Ray comes up from the outside, touches Meng's head and the pile rolls over with Meng taking the three count. HUH? Did somebody screw up royal on that finish? Was there even any clue as to what was supposed to happen? Anyway, that's the end of 1996 and I'm tempted to see what i can find on 1997. Nothing great, but they tend to make their matches enjoyable with what they bring to the table. I still maintain that properly booked, these guys would have made great gatekeepers between the midcard and the main event.

I wouldn't call them my favorite tag team by any stretch. They would have been perfectly good as upper midcard enforcer or gatekeeper types though. You give them a good three or four year run in that role and they'd be pretty well-remembered. I could see them as transitional champs also, take the belts off a team on the downturn and have some up-and-coming babyface team come in and upset them leading to a few months feud. Easy way to get a new babyface team over quickly. Moving along, the RnRs are up next on Saturday Night. Robert takes the heat and Ricky comes in hot, but the match seems a little awkward all around. Dusty and Tony hype up the RnRs as contenders in the tag division in a rather comic bit of commentary. Then the American Males are back in the picture with Riggs coming back from an injury. They get more offense in but go down to way less punishment. You'd think that WCW would give the match a bit more time to let the FoF get in more offense if they wanted to make the Males look good. Hart gets on the mic and demands that his team be involved in the tag title match at World War 3. And the face turn that has been sneakily being done seems almost complete here. Th Outsiders have just taken out the Nasty Boys, their other opponent for WW3 on next week's Nitro. They threaten Tony and call out the FoF, who don't come running out. Cameras follow the Outsiders to the back and guess who attacks. They brawl out the back door of the building and the FoF get to look good against the champs. On Saturday Night right before WW3 Ciclope and Galaxy are the next victims. Both are in the ring for about two minutes straight until a big barbarian double lariat sets Galaxy up for a beating. I'd say it was a heat, except the FoF are the babyfaces now. Barbarian seems to excel in this role on offense. Ciclope gets in some offense off the tag before the finish and Hart cuts another promo. WW3 sees Nash and Hall getting jumped by both the Nasties and the FoF. Things settle into a Nasties vs. FoF brawl when the Outsiders cower away. This is actually a fun brawl with the Outsiders doing their best to tag themselves in strategically while letting the other two teams hurt each other. Eventually the other teams catch on and things start to even up. Strange spot where Barbarian and Meng are tagged in opposite one another and immediately tag out. Knobbs and Meng tag in both Hall and Nash and everybody drops off the apron. Nash lays down for Hall in the obvious spot that I suppose did have to be reserved for them. And a short bit of chaos ensues which leaves Nash powerbombing Knobbs and covering for the finish. I wish there had been a better finish, especially given that Hall and Nash were the legal men no more than 20 seconds before. Maybe them clearing the ring and getting their cheap and easy victory of one pinning the other. Fun brawl with a lot of good clubberins and some actual decent to good from Hall and Nash in bursts. When they didn't have to do a lot and just got more signature stuff in they didn't detract from the match at all. Edit: Meng and Barbarian are wearing those swank black leather vest/robes with the skulls on them now. Love that entrance gear.

Three more squashes, and each one has it's own flavor. Bunkhouse Buck and Mike Enos, with Bunkhouse trying to engage both Meng and Barbarian in a technical wrestling match. Odd that. The Fantastics, with Tommy Rogers doing a great little comeback spot before being crushed. And High Voltage, again getting more offense than last time. Until the really nice finish. They really wanted to get their Power Plant guys over. Which brings us to: Benoit & McMichael vs. the Faces of Fear McMichael looks good against Meng twice in the early going. Meng goes right to McMichael's strengths and makes him look great. Benoit and Barbarian brawl a bit and have a nice exchange that ends in Benoit northern lights. We go to a short McMichael heat after he gets some offense in on both opponents. Then a Benoit comeback followed by some major heat on Benoit. At one point Benoit takes a belly to belly off the top that has to be seen to be believed. Benoit ends up with his feet a few inches off the ropes in the opposite corner. That leads directly into McMichael using the briefcase on Meng (the guy you can't headbutt) to set up a Benoit finish. I had forgotten about McMichael using the briefcase to hit guys. I really wish it had stayed forgotten. Anyway, Sullivan, Traylor and the rest of the DoD come in from the crowd and take McMichael out. Benoit fights off everybody for a while, but the inevitable happens. Sullivan taunts Woman and starts beating up Benoit. Good tag match brawl with the right build to protect Mongo. Not exactly what you hope for on PPV as far as finishes go, but eh. Oh, and the purpose of this thread is more for me to keep my resolution for the year. I want to write more about what I'm watching rather than just watch it and forget it. So it's not meant to be a complaint about WCW's booking. Just trying to put down what I see.

I don't know. Meng seemed like he was getting at least a midcard singles push as a heel with the gimmicked finisher. Then he went straight to being a JTTS with almost zero momentum for months despite being in a new tag team. Either way, pushing forward. Next up the FoF take on John Tenta and RON Studd. Not sure if he's a relation, but he's big. I'm guessing Power Plant. Fun match with Tenta giving some back to both Barbarian and Meng before Meng sets up a nice variation on the Barbarian big boot for the win. Also, CLUBBERINS! Love Dusty on commentary. And we continue with a squash of High Voltage, but not before Meng does the staggered spot into finally getting knocked down, which he does real well. Almost seems like they are trying to convince the fans High Voltage really deserves a better push on commentary. Harlem Heat is out with the tag titles, and it seems like there is some confusion pre-match as to who is the face and who is the heel team. They get it sorted out and Booker does will as FIP. Then chaos starts, but only after the crowd has reacted to the outsiders coming in through the crowd (they have a tag title shot on PPV). And we get a "WCW united" moment where they stop wrestling and go out as four WCW guys to challenge the Outsiders to come over the guard rail. We're working towards FoF against Benoit and McMichael at Havoc and I'm pretty amped that they actually have something going other than "lets put them in there to look impressive so a big name comes off looking good." Even if the Horsemen are technically heels, and I'm not sure if the Heat were babyface by now. Also, the Outsiders are already getting as many cheers as boos, so who exactly are the heels here?

I recently started watching a comp of Meng and Barbarian in 96 and the booking surrounding them is pretty strange(if it's not WCW with Hogan around, that is). We start 1996 with Meng against Hogan. So Meng gets to beat up on the Hulkster for a short time and then you know what happens. Hulk is sort of getting pops for this, but it's not exactly 1980s level pops. Also, in the jobber match the week before and this one, Meng wears this sweet ring robe that I wish he hadn't gotten rid of. And Sullivan is passing him "the Golden Spike" for his thumb spike finisher. Interesting stuff and about two matches later both of those are gone. Meng wrestles Johnny B. Badd and it's really not memorable. Then the FoF do not one but TWO jobs to get the Roadies over on their return to WCW. Not bad matches, but that turned out really well didn't it? And right on the heels of the second job to the Roadies we have the Doomsday Cage Match. Incredible spectacle for that cage, but really? I'm not sure how many people in WCW were panicking about this time about how Hogan was killing them, but it had to be a lot. And next match out Meng and Barbarian are CRUSHING the American Males. And it's fun. Then there's some chaos and somehow illegal man Buff ends up getting the pin after both him and Riggs get beaten savagely for about 7 minutes. At this point, both Meng and Barbarian are JTTS. There's no way around it. Only people they have beaten this year, despite all the love the announcers show them, are jobbers. And hey, let's job Meng to Duggan in a perfectly good match up until the Duggan tape wrapping on the outside for the punch that finishes (the guy who can't be headbutted, but a taped up punch, HELL YES that works) Meng. Yeah, JTTS. But wait, now we have Barbarian and Benoit in another perfectly good match. And two weeks later Meng jobs to Sting after Barbarian boots him in the face. Meng returns the favor in Barbarian's match against Duggan to set up Battle Bowl where they face each other in the first round. Barbarian and DDP make it to the end with DDP doing the majority of the work. So then the next logical step is to have the FoF in a good tag titles match against Sting and Luger. Because they were built up so well. But it's a step in the right direction. The momentum continues with a team squash, Meng looking good against Sting and Barbarian getting matches with Luger and Eddie Guerrero and splitting them. The Dungeon of Doom becomes an 8-man squash machine for a while with Bron the Leprechaun running around ringside. Which is possibly the most insanely poorly thought out gimmick I've seen in a while. And Meng gets 10+ minutes with Ice Train to put the Train over in his return, which is not at all good. Ice Train can't keep anybody interested past his big spots to pop the crowd. Meng has been killed so much leading into this that nobody seems to care. And I can't tell if it's apathy or lack of ability to get the crowd involved on Meng's part. And this leads to two months straight of DoD squashes sandwiched around a brawl with the Horsemen that is very quickly swept under the rug in the wake of the NWO. So far I'm seeing a lot of really good punishment dished out by both Meng and Barbarian. Barbarian is sloppy, but his big spots are stiff and brutal. It almost seems like Meng got demoted for getting too much heat with the almost immediate small, but significant, changes to his gimmick after the Hogan match. Can't have heels getting too much heat now. And just when things started to swing their direction again the NWO was taking off. There's no way these guys are going to have any real heat while that's going on, especially given their lack of any political pull. Makes me wonder if Jimmy Hart didn't have a lot of interest in these guys despite being their manager.

I thought they should have taken it home about 5-7 minutes earlier. Wagner did way too much to not put Kanemoto away. Those Michinoku drivers should have been the end if not the splash mountain.

The first pinfall was pretty bad. JWP working from underneath down 2-1 was really good. I liked the setup for Kansai's powerbomb but thought that with that kind of build it would have been the deciding fall not the one to tie. Ozaki did seem like the one taking the beating early on and had to steadily come back as the match went on. Once the heat was over it became a big mess of bombs for nearfalls to pop the crowd, but again they did have the teases for Kansai's powerbomb. Loved Aja as the 1A and Kansai as the 1B in this match. Takako was a surprise, and did well as the victim for the heel in peril segment. She seemed right behind Kansai in terms of where she stood in the match as it progressed. Finish was good, but I think if Ozaki had tied it up for JWP and Kansai had fought off the second uraken to put it away with a powerbomb it works better.

I really liked the build to this match. The intensity keeps moving in the right direction, but never enough to boil over. I also liked the way Casas never resorted to mask ripping, it showed a confidence that he had the win despite the odds of that happening. Very gritty pro wrestling match in a setting you expect something different, which makes it seem even better.

I really enjoyed this as a slugfest. For me it's all in how the people involve make these kinds of matches work. While I hate most of the modern day strike exchanges for as empty and rote as they seem, this was done in a way that elevates it above that sort of thing. The selling by Tenryu was superb, as well as Hashimoto's dogged pursuit of the DDT. I also thought they used the slugfest nature of the match to really heighten the importance of the bombs they built to. The powerbomb and the elbow drop that follows really shine because of how much had gone into getting to that point using little but strikes. Even the corner lariat by Tenryu was a big deal with this build. It doesn't hurt that I'm much more likely to enjoy a good brawl than a well-worked technical match.

Mine are pretty simple. I need to watch more wrestling. I let it slide and it's a lot more difficult to sit through two plus hours of wrestling if I don't switch up styles along the way. Also, I need to post more about the wrestling I watch. I'm 100% certain that it makes me look at what's happening a lot more closely and pick up on details I might miss if I don't plan on putting my thoughts on the match I'm watching into words.

Ditch's 2000s project had a few U-Style Tamura matches on it. Really good stuff IIRC.