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dawho5

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Everything posted by dawho5

  1. dawho5
    A few things stand out early. Minoru's gimmick has changed wholesale. He even works the arm in the opening minutes, which is a nice touch. And in 2006, New Japan had small crowds. This is a small building for the BoSJ finals. Match is perfectly fine. TM works over the injured shoulder as expected. Minoru sells it well to the end, but TM needs to go back to it more to get back on offense. Make it look like less of an obvious ploy to get the fans behind Minoru 9which they were already). Finishing run is surprisingly well laid-out. Minoru's gimmick may have changed, but the flash armbar submissions are still there. For whatever reason, the match never really made me care about either Minoru or TM4. They both had perfectly good performances, but I just never got into it.
  2. dawho5
    I'm not too far from the above review. I liked the lucha hair vs. mask brawl feel to it early. It was chaotic and fun. Then they switched to the standard 6-man chaos finishing run. If you're going to start the match that way, end it the same way. That being said, lots of fun stuff and at times it is incredibly entertaining. It's probably going to make the very bottom of my list. Then again, if enough good matches come up it may not get a vote.
  3. dawho5
    This match was amazing. I have one small quibble with it, but I'll get to that later. Taue does the opening control segment simple and effective. Love Taue's early match offense and how brutal it looks despite not being anything big. Akiyama's comeback is great for a few reasons. One, it comes a little earlier than expected. Taue seems to like to milk the comeback until right about the point where you figure it was a tease and then take the big opponent comeback. Here it comes right after Akiyama starts fighting back a little more and it catches you off-guard. Secondly, Akiyama's comeback is absolutely brutal. And focused. It's brilliant stuff and Taue taking that first bump at his age should get a fucking medal. And the second big knee is just...that looks like it hurt. The finishing run is incredible. All kinds of momentum shifts in between falls and a few teases of them. My only problem is I think Akiyama should have went right from the first exploder to a front neck lock instead of the nearfall in between. The exploder has been so devalued as a finisher that it needs a lot of setup at this point. Taue's last nearfall is absolutely incredible. He crawls over to Akiyama and drapes an arm over, and you get the sense that if he could just have made a full-on cover he may have had this match. This is a firm number 5 and both Taue and Akiyama at their very best.
  4. dawho5
    Looked like the point of the match was to get Wagner and Silver King over both as wrestlers and as threats to win a major title. And it did do that, because right towards the end the crowd really got into their bigger nearfalls. It probably won't get a vote, but it accomplishes what it sets out to do. Can't have big title defenses without opponents that the crowd thinks can win the titles off the champs.
  5. dawho5
    Some good stuff, decent dueling limb work. Lots of outside interference, which works against it. Finish is okay, but it seems like spot fu with some of them blown.
  6. dawho5
    This plays out like an exhibition to me. It gets across that Minoru has a great armbar for sure. Also, and this is the more definite thing it gets across, Naoki Sano knows lots of submissions and wrestling moves. He knows all about how to properly execute them and they all look real spiffy and nice. What he seems to have missed is allowing for a sense of struggle and selling the leg late in the match. Honestly, I don't understand how this match made the best of 2000. Was it that bad a year?
  7. dawho5
    This is 15 minutes of these four doing the coolest spots they can think of at the time. Very little rhyme or reason. Some of them were perfectly good spots, just not a match for me.
  8. dawho5
    This was pretty damn good. Taue gets his ass handed to him early by Morishima in convincing fashion. The comeback is great and the match never loses it's sense of struggle. One thing I miss about the 2000s is a nice, slow build with more building block type moves in the first half than bombs. This match definitely falls in the former category. I do wish Morishima hadn't done 3 pinfall attempts in a row twice during the finishing run. It made it more of a "my bomb, your bomb" style match. Morishima's offense is better than Rikio's, and Taue sells it great. One thing I liked about these matches is Taue putting over the younger generation while still winning. The finish was pretty cool given the trouble Taue has had lifting Morishima. I'd put this just above the Rikio match.
  9. dawho5
    Yeah, was thinking about this and Hijo del Santo has to be in this discussion. He is an absolutely amazing worker and easily one of the most over workers in his home country ever.
  10. dawho5
    Yeah, read that somewhere else on here. Joe was Stan Hansen's nemesis referee in late 80s early 90s AJPW also. Really wish Higuchi had started going off on SUWA.
  11. dawho5
    Between Liger and Mysterio for me. Having a hard time deciding which one I would pick.
  12. dawho5
    This is a fun brawl, Takayama and Nakanishi kick the crap out of each other and both sell it. It's not on the level of the Sasaki matches, but it's damn fun and worth the watch.
  13. dawho5
    This is an odd match. I like Shibata because he tends to bring out a certain intensity in opponents, and he does here. He also has great offense throughout. Yone's comical overselling works well during his heat segment. He is the weak link with his offense and it's not even overly bad. Just a few things completely whiff is all. Crowd doesn't seem to care even when he does hit it good though. Morishima is all kinds of great on offense with the stiffness and power. And variety. He throws probably the biggest missile dropkick I've ever seen. KENTA, well I think we all know what he does. Thing is, nothing seems to gel even with everybody bringing a good to great performance. Finishing run is all over the place, going from dead to hyper speed back to dead. In addition, it's poorly laid out. Most of the moves hit are big and look great, just nothing comes together as a whole. Won't vote for it, but a good one time watch. Finish is ridiculously brutal. KENTA is a tough little bastard to take that.
  14. dawho5
    Going in, I expected a lot of Hashimoto offense with Kojima making fiery comebacks. Instead I got Kojima controlling with Hashimoto making...tepid comebacks until about 5 minutes left. Way too much Kojima, not enough Hashimoto asskickery.
  15. dawho5
    Rikio is pretty limited. He doesn't seem to have much in the way of early match offense. His mid to late match offense is mostly lariats. That being said, Taue gets the most out of every impactful Rikio move the way he sells throughout. He really puts it over that the guy hits like a truck despite having about 5 moves. Taue isn't laying anything in either. Finishing run is mostly worked really smart, with a few quibbles. I didn't like the three backdrop nodowas, but Taue's look of disbelief after the second was only a nearfall was all kinds of awesome. Same for the suplex nodowa. I can't in any kind of seriousness put this in my top 30, but it could barely make 40. Taue got more out of what I saw from Rikio than I would have thought possible. edit: Rikio's turnaround early comes at such an opportune moment. It's another example of the genius of Akira Taue that it happens right there.
  16. dawho5
    Yeah, Japanese commercials are wacky. I always like when they show up.
  17. dawho5
    One of the things I love about Battlarts is the constant battle for body position in relation to counters and submissions. And these guys all bring that kind of sensibility to the match, even TM4. The thing about TM4 is, his kicks are one of his weaker offensive weapons. He's got good punches and is really, really good on the mat. So to me, Battlarts is the perfect showcase for him as a good worker. Hidaka is great in this kind of setting, and he and TM4 have some incredible exchanges both on the mat and in standup. His late run with Otsuka is one of the big highlights of the match. Malenko is really great on the mat and gets to show it off a lot. He's got good kicks and knees too, but I really like his matwork. Otsuka is incredible. He brings so many different styles into one package. He'll bust out pro wrestling style suplexes and amateur wrestling takedowns in the same sequence. He's got great headbutts and is a master of well-fought matwork. And (not in this match though) he's got some nice dives. Here he is a suplex and mat wrestling machine. His early deadlift German is absolutely phenomenal. The finish is great as it plays off of the legwork that has been done to Otsuka through most of the match.
  18. dawho5
    There's good and bad here. Shiozaki vs. Nakajima is lots of fun. It's pretty clear they both have lots of work to do before being great wrestlers, but they put together some solid exchanges early and late. Sasaki is actually pretty damn good in this match. He's not overbearing like a certain other heavyweight that's in this match. He even gives Shiozaki some decent hope spots when they are in the ring together. Kobashi vs. Sasaki very often ends up as an awful chopfest that I fast-forwarded through. More than once. Finish is pretty good, Shiozaki looks like a million bucks coming out of it. Not getting a vote, but worth watching for the non-Kobashi stuff.
  19. dawho5
    This was a throwaway watch for me. Liking a lot of these NOAH matches vs. people from other companies, so I thought I'd give this a try. The length threw me at first and I really thought I was in for an unhappy 30+ minutes. OH BOY was I wrong. First and foremost, the crowd is so very behind Fujita and Hidaka. To the point where they boo KENTAfuji. Second, KENTA and Marufuji eat that shit up and make sure they play to it. I had a quibble with some of the flippy shit between Hidaka and Marufuji early (and late), as well as Fujita taking over from some good Hidaka legwork on KENTA and ignoring the leg. But then Fujita's heat segment starts and I forget all about that because this shit is off the charts awesome. Marufuji works really simple through the whole thing. I know, seems highly unlikely. He hits this great DDT on the ramp, then proceeds to face Fujita at some of the crowd and puts on a camel clutch. As if to say, "Take a look at your boy now." Marufuji heeling it up >>>>>>> Marufuji otherwise. KENTA gets in on the act, hitting some boot scrapes and then playing to the crowd really nicely. Finishing run is really good, Marufuji's overly flippy stuff gets countered a lot. Hidaka still goes a bit too far with it, but most matches have flaws. I wish KENTA would sell the leg a bit too. They do good setup work between falls, end is super hot and this is probably top 30. Edit: Forgot to mention the great figure four Hidaka works on KENTA. Really well done.
  20. dawho5
    The one vs. Ikeda will give you a feel for how Honda works. Also, it's very close to Battlarts style, surprising for NOAH.
  21. dawho5
    This is a comedy match, but there are a few reasons it beats out most NOAH main event style matches for me. For one, when Marufuji's not on offense, they keep it SIMPLE. Secondly, both teams have some good heel moments during the match, which makes it kind of fun. Marufuji as Akiyama's plaything is kind of fun, especially the back body drop. Suzuki and Koshinaka interact really well. Suzuki is great at facial expressions and small heelish things thrown in seemingly on a whim. I can easily see this making somewhere in the 75-100 range.
  22. dawho5
    This is your brain. This is your brain on drugs. Any questions?
  23. dawho5
    Seeing the alternate CIMA and Fuji performances (completely different wrestling styles), I'm more than a little unhappy that CIMA chose the direction he did with his wrestling style. This was a mostly fun match with some WTF-inducing stuff in the middle. The Italian Connection triple corner stuff in the 6-sided ring was well done. Won't be getting a vote, but interesting to say the least.
  24. dawho5
    This match is all about KENTA vs. Suguira. Suguira is okay in this, but he still seems really, really limited. Marvin and Kanemaru are perfect opponents because they like to jump and flip and do all kinds of intricate shit. That's not saying it's anything good but they match anyway. And Misawa vs. Kobashi has gotten pretty damn tired, especially with Kobashi in 100% SPIRIT mode and lazy Misawa. There's some fun interaction between Misawa/Kobashi and the youngsters, but this won't be getting a vote.
  25. dawho5
    One of two things needed to happen for this to be more than good. Saito needed to not work over the legs or Mochizuki needed to act like somebody had worked over his legs. His offense is 90% kicks, so maybe the former. Saito impressed me again with his performance here. Mochizuki throws nice kicks for sure and hits a massive dive. Saito teasing the dragon suplex over and over works really well when it comes out. Finish is pretty well-worked, maybe a bit rushed. I'd put it in the 50 range.
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