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dawho5

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Everything posted by dawho5

  1. dawho5
    I would agree on everything said about Akiyama. He just never had his own big rival to make his place special. Both Misawa and Kobashi had Kawada there to really push them hard to (in Misawa's case) never let up despite being on top or (for Kobashi) keep doing more and more to get the fans on his side. Overrated I would go with Kobashi, for many reason I feel no need to repeat. Underrated, I'm gonna go a little off the beaten path and say Katsuyori Shibata. The guy brings a completely different dynamic to every match I've seen him in and tends to get the other workers involved fired up one way or another. He's probably not a great worker, but what he brings to the table has made my limited viewings of him entertaining.
  2. dawho5
    This could have been really good. Nakamura's continued selling of the leg for 3 seconds into his offense pretty bogus given the focus on it. Nearfall sequence was just a little overdone on what was kicked out on, but it seemed really tame compared to most. Tanahashi hit the best sling blade I've seen countering a landslide. It's not overlong, right around 25 minutes, which goes hand-in-hand with the finishing stretch not having lots of laying around and useless strike exchanges just so it could be an epic match. Early stuff was really nice, had a good Misawa vs. Kawada feel to it in the rope-running and teasing of big spots early. Too bad that didn't last.
  3. dawho5
    So many things I'm not sure of here. Why is Misawa vs. Nakamura a big deal? Why Sugiura? Can Hirooki Goto throw an elbow that looks like it hurts? Sugiura gets old pretty fast whenever I see him wrestle. Too many pissing contests to "build the match". Same few power spots, sometimes done later to be reversed. Then when he does do things besides that, it makes no sense. He grabs an ankle lock on Nakamura after nobody has touched a leg and they spend a few minutes making it into a big spot. Did I miss parts of this match or something? Nakamura gets put over really well. And he looks good for the most part. Misawa has stretches where he looks old and worn out. And damn, how many years did he wrestle with no major breaks? I'd say that's deserved and not in any way complaint-worthy material. Misawa still wrestling in 2009 had to take a superhuman effort. Goto gets his weak strikes and a few suplexes, but is mostly an afterthought. Nakamura catches Sugiura with a flash armbar and gets the submission in 3 seconds. I get that it can do that, but that was a weird finish. Oddball match, not awful, but not getting a vote.
  4. dawho5
    I remember watching this. but I guess I never posted anything. 4-way is better as spotfests go. Honestly I never look at Toryumon or DG as something I need a coherent story to enjoy the match. It's not like NOAH where it's supposed to be a big, serious wrestling company. But then, I don't rate Toryumon very high when it does get a vote, so there are drawbacks to that as well.
  5. dawho5
    And Regal lived up to the in-ring requirements for sure.
  6. dawho5
    Anyone using Skynyrd as their entrance music rules, period. I think that goes for any of the old blues music I've heard as entrance music as well.
  7. dawho5
    I learned a long time ago to stay away from Japanese deathmatches. Some things just are not for me, and that's one of them.
  8. dawho5
    I didn't think this was as good as the tag on the same night. But it was still up there as far as the whole of the 2000s go. Yano is a clear underdog here, but he holds his own on the mat. Usuda starts in with strikes just to drive the point home that he doesn't have to play Yano's game and takes a big lead. Yano manages to get it back to the mat and then does some pro wrestling style striking to get his own standing ten count on Usuda. Once Usuda gets over the shock of that he starts taking Yano apart with kicks. Vicious kicks. Please don't let that ever happen to me kicks. Can Yano capitalize on the damage to Usuda's arms before the kicks take their toll? Finish is....well, it looks like something to avoid anyway.
  9. dawho5
    These guys definitely did a lot of things right. The rib work by Yoshitsune was exceptional early. Hayato's comeback was really well-done. They work this incredible apron sequence where Yoshitsune backflips out of a German and lands perfectly on the apron. That is some fucking precision right there. Then they do some ECW stuff, which is okay. Then they work a 18 minute finishing run that goes way too far over the top. Don't get me wrong, lots of it was really impressive stuff, but these long sequences of false finishes just for the point of having them have gotten more out of control as the decade wears on. Dial it back about ten minutes and get a few good nearfalls each and I would have voted for it.
  10. dawho5
    The teacher/student relationship between Ishikawa and Sawa comes through pretty strong in this one. It was sorta there in the last two matches they were both involved in, but this one cements it. Great tag match, with Sawa playing the face-in-peril really well before Ishikawa has to try and make up all the lost ground. It's like a Battlarts version of the Misawa/Akiyama or Kobashi tags. Only there's more. Ishikawa beat Tiger in a match just about a month earlier and it seems like Sawa and Hara have a rivalry. If you pay attention to how the match is built, you get the idea that the finish from last match isn't happening here. And it doesn't, but it's still damn good. I'd say it's better than the lead-in singles bout by a ways. This will be around the 30-40 range.
  11. dawho5
    First twenty minutes or so were good. Marufuji is figuring out how to build a match without flipping all over the place and Kondo seems like his early match is usually pretty good. Neither is great at it, but they are better than passable. Then we get to the finishing run. Kondo has this repertoire of power moves that is ridiculously big, and they all look like finishing moves. Which is a problem because 95% of them are only used as nearfalls. Marufuji seems to have developed some big nearfalls and near-submissions that can be used in a finishing run without looking too overdone. Then he starts hitting all his flippy shit and kills that train of thought. Not the worst match by far in this project, but probably not getting a vote.
  12. dawho5
    I came pretty late to the game to pro wrestling. I was already old enough to know it was fake, but didn't care. Entertainment is entertainment, I know that movies are fake but I like those. As for the internet stuff, I was one of those "elitists" who liked watching Japanese wrestling from the mid-90s right around 1998-2000. And I did have that "you won't see this stuff on Monday night" attitude about it, so maybe in truth I was a bit of an elitist. But I think that's a stage that you go through on the way to being aware that all wrestling has it's merits, you just have to find the stuff that works for you. That's one thing I think a lot of people fail to recognize, both in relation to themselves and others, that as you watch more wrestling and see different things, your views on it end up changing over time. You could apply that to these so-called "smarks" or any group of wrestling fans that you may have a particular dislike for. Or any one of the people that post here. I can guarantee you that their opinions on a match they haven't watched in ten years will have been changed, however slightly, by matches they have seen and things they have read, be it on here or anywhere else in between.
  13. dawho5
    Brutal BatBat tag, but without the overarcing story of the 6-man or the Otsuka vs. Super Tiger 2 match. This one is just 4 guys beating the shit out of each other with a rivalry (Sawa vs. Yoshikawa) playing out at the end. It's still loads of fun and will get a vote, but I liked the others better.
  14. dawho5
    Early match is really, really good. When KENTA is working slow and steady to build a match he's very fun to watch. Then we do the dives, which goes on a bit too long, but that's forgivable. And then we do the big long "we have to have a billion nearfalls" part of the match that always kills me. Not to mention KENTA goes into million miles per hour mode too often to truly be selling the earlier damage. You cut ten minutes off of this and just work to a finish instead of all the excess and it's a really good match.
  15. dawho5
    I am loving these 08 Battlarts matches. Once you get to the end, the competitors are all looking like they've been through Hell and back and are on their last legs. They start with grappling, which puts Otsuka at an early lead, but not by enough. Tiger starts getting wise to this and goes to strikes, which leaves Otsuka in a lot of trouble. he struggles thrugh some big flurries to get some suplexes in, but is barely able to stand before the count himself. Can he finish off the upstart Super Tiger, or will Otsuka get KOed before he can get to that point? One thing I liked a lot about this match was the long-term selling by both. Neither comes back "fresh" and gets in big offense. When Otsuka gets back to what has been working for him after taking a quick but brutal beating, he never truly seems like he's recovered, just on top for the moment. When Super Tiger starts hitting his big late flurries, he collapses in the corner afterwards as if taking Otsuka away from grappling is in fact something that requires a lot of effort. Well done match, should show up on my ballot somewhere.
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  17. dawho5
    I'm still in shock as to how amazing this match was. Everybody comes up big when they need to. The above reviews have a lot of my sentiments about this match covered, but I'll try to add more. For one, the STORY that takes place from the first elimination until the end of the match is god damn incredible. Yes, they are brutally stiff to the point where you're wondering how they do it. But once the first elimination takes place, it becomes this great struggle for survival by that guy's team for quite a while. They have to scratch and claw their way to something that might end the match only to get hit by some ridiculously stiff shot to break it up because they have one partner while the guy they are slapping the submission on has two. Once they even things up, it's this intense battle to keep afloat after that superhuman effort. Then the next elimination occurs and we get the same thing all over again two on one. And then, just when you think it can't get any better...the fourth elimination, one on one. Holy shit do they ever have one of the best mini-brawls you will ever see. Nobody is backing down, the shots are so god damn brutal, but neither one can allow themselves to get knocked down. Then they go into submission attempts, very likely because if they had continued there would have been a legit KO very soon. I was so blown away by this match, it's gonna make my top 5 easily. I'm really looking at how my top 3 or 4 are configured lately, but this will be in my top 5. I'm trying to figure out whose performance was best out of the six, but I have to be honest. Tiger and Sawa brought it for sure, but they are clearly a level below the other 4. Between the other four, I have a hard time choosing. Let's just say everybody involved in this match hit it out of the park.
  18. dawho5
    There is actually some good psychology to this in addition to the fun juniors spotfest. Shingo is looking like a monster early until Yoshino and Doi go to work on the right (lariat) arm. This evens things up a bit and slows the pace down, but they work their way up to a finishing run that defies description. It goes way too far on kickouts and big setup stuff, but for a spotfest it's just fine. Shingo ignoring the arm to hoist his opponents into powerbomb or fireman's carry position over and over is a bit off. Dragon Kid has some nice impact on his ranas. Doi's versatility comes in handy here. He can overpower DK, but he's speedy enough to keep up with him. And Shingo has the power advantage on Doi, so when Doi can manage to hit a power move on Shingo it's an accomplishment. Yoshino is good as FIP and his armwork is interesting to watch at least. Not gonna get a vote, just a fun match.
  19. dawho5
    Okay, that just freaked me out. My kung fu teacher uses that "putting things in a box" thing jdw used all the time in the same context. Took him about 9 months to get me to stop thinking that way.
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