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dawho5

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  1. dawho5
    Takayama is starting to look a little old. He comes through big in a couple of spots, but he's here for name recognition mostly it seems. Sugiura gets a few "strength" spots against the big guys early and it's cool. But they pile on with this and it becomes a little tired by the time it's done. The Takeshi's seem most at home working heat segments on smaller guys. The thing that gets me about this match is the one guy who has been in great matches with good finishing runs wasn't heavily involved in the last ten minutes. Finish is just a collection of impressive-looking stuff that doesn't ever coalesce. Somebody is gonna have to explain to me how guys with lariat finishers don't take a berak on the lariats for the majority of the match. Makes their finishers seem less effective and...the finishing version lacks that "cut above the rest of the moves" feeling to it.
  2. dawho5
    The early parts of this match were really, really good. Kanemoto tries to strike with Nagata, who really has upped his game since I last watched a match of his. Nagata kicks Koji's ass all over the ring for a good while. Koji gets some hope spots, going to the leg easily being the strongest. Then Kanemoto finally gets his big opening and he....goes into "I'm hitting all my spots" mode instead of working within the match and attacking the leg for all he's worth. Nagata hits moves that should put Koji away, but he kicks out anyway. Koji finally gets his big legwork segment that you knew was coming all along and it's good, but it's after the match should be over. Nagata takes advantage of Kanemoto getting cocky and hits the backdrop, but he's not able to cover in time to finish and you just know this is going to a draw. And whaddya know, there's the bell while nothing interesting is going on. A lot of the late nearfalls looked thrown together and without meaning. They had a really good underdog match with Koji doing great work during his heat segment, then pissed the match down their leg. Edit: Just to make a point about why "big finishing runs" are not necessary, here's how my finish goes. Koji attacks the leg after Nagata misses the corner knee. For a while. Without using the anklelock. He gets cocky, goes back to Koji mode and tries the moonsault to prove a point. Nagata gets out of the way or catches him on the ropes, whatever. Nagata hits some big elbows and an exploder. He can't get the cover right away because of the leg and Koji barely kicks out despite that. Nagat starts elbowing Koji again. who throws elbows back. Nagata gets into the exchange and Koji goes low with a dropkick. More legwork. This time, though, Koji isn't interested in anything else. Koji tries the anklelock, but Nagata is a step ahead and turns it around into the Nagatalock 3 (crossface). Koji scrambles to the ropes, Nagata follows up and looks like he may get the backdrop, but Koji backflips out and goes to the knee again. Selling by Koji before going back to the leg. Nagata's spirit kicks in after a while and he gets the big backdrop hold. But his leg gives out on the bridge. Koji is down & out, but Nagata is struggling to get him up becaus of the leg. Nagata starts blasting Kanemoto with non-kick strikes and has him leaning on the ropes barely standing. He pauses to tell the crowd he's going for the backdrop again. Koji explodes off the ropes and hits a low dropkick. He grabs the anklelock, but Yuji is grabbing the ropes. Koji tears Nagata off the ropes, falling down in the process, barely able to actually get the anklelock on because of it. Nagata is scrambling for the ropes, but Kanemoto pulls him back to the center and re-applies the hold. Nagata is on his way to the ropes and...bell. It tells the same story as the beginning of the match, is compelling, puts Koji over in a way that in no way degrades Nagata because his big setup weapon (kicks) is being attacked, AND sets up a rematch. Nobody's finisher looks weak, both look like they wrestled a smart match. I honestly don't get the need for just throwing bombs in a match when you could do something like this.
  3. dawho5
    How are we 20 posts in and 6/3/94 has yet to be mentioned specifically? Super J Cup 94 was pretty fun as well. I need to watch the finals and the semis again to see if they hold up. Didn't watch WCW or WWF at the time. I really want to hit WCW from 1989 on, but that's a massive project and I have other stuff on the table first.
  4. dawho5
    Youtube link was disabled due to AJPW. Honestly, from a highlight video I saw, it looks like the nearfalls were as overdone and way too much as any NOAH match just for the sake of the crowd reactions. May come back to this and look for full match but it doesn't seem like it would be worth my time.
  5. dawho5
    Starts off good. Rikio and Marufuji work some really nice exchanges and Rikio works a good headlock. Then Morishima dn KENTA decide to sprint to an early finisher tease by Morishima. Which somehow leads to a Morishima heat segment that isn't bad. Mostly not overdone by either of the two juniors. Then we end up with a KENTA heat segment, which blows the Morishima one out of the water for obvious reasons. Finishing run is filled with big moves and lots of lariats and crowd popping, but not much structure or reason. There's certainly lots of fun stuff to watch. Rikio comes off great. Morishima is still a big dude with lots of heavy hitting moves who doesn't seem to know how to use them. KENTA comes off as a tough little guy who can do some damage. And Marufuji works smart more than he overdoes things. Just the match itself was all over the place. Won't be getting my vote, but some of it is really good.
  6. dawho5
    This was a great, great match. Nishimura is incredible at matwork and takedowns. Also has wicked elbows. Saito looks to be a big bruiser with some technical skill. They work great long standing surfboard and headlock sequences. Saito looks to have an advantage when he starts beating on Nishimura, but Nishimura does this nifty takedown to the outside from just inside the ropes. Saito's leg hits wrong on the fall and Nishimura pounces. Can Nishimura finish Saito off by taking advantage of the leg injury or will the bigger man be able to physically dominate him to get the pinfall? Good story, excellent work. Also, and this is important....simplicity itself. This match makes extremely simple moves into highspots and it works. Easily top 20. Add a heated rivalry to this kind of match and it's probably number 1.
  7. dawho5
    And people wonder why I hate NOAH. Try watching Kobashi vs. Misawa or Akiyama and see how long it takes you to hate the match.
  8. dawho5
    Yeah, I watched a NOAH match from 2001 earlier tonight. Well, several, but the Vader tag stood out. The head ref was still fairly new and you could tell. He kept having to stop EVERY instance of somebody coming in when not tagged and try to keep the cornered guy from being attacked...every time. Very, loudly to the point where it was distracting. So Vader tosses him all the way across the ring, I think to make a point as well as just have a great spot within the match.
  9. dawho5
    You're right, ban the suplex! Also, how is every wrestler who throws closed fists the whole match not DQed???
  10. dawho5
    Wow did this match rule. Taue does this great set of spots where he mimics Marufuji's spots that came just before. Marufuji's flippy stuff comes right where it makes the most sense instead of all the time. The heat segment on Marufuji is great, then we get another amazingly timed (and well-executed) comeback. Finishing run is all kinds of incredible as they tie in the rest of the work and work between all the nearfalls. Finish is great on so many levels. This is my working number 6. 2004-2006 have been the years of Akira Taue.
  11. dawho5
    I liked this match quite a bit. Once Vader gets tagged in, the Vader vs. Kobashi stuff is really fun. Any time Taue and Akiyama were in the ring together it worked great. The finishing sequence was really well worked. I can see this somewhere on the lower half of my ballot. The finish is all kinds of brutal. Blown Vadersault that ends up being a vicious looking diving headbutt. Edit: Vader tosses the ref all the way across the ring when he gets annoyed with him during the match. Great stuff there. Still not sure this doesn't belong in my top 40 but it'll get a rewatch. Too much Kobashi nonsense to be higher, but it may yet make it higher than 40.
  12. dawho5
    So glad SS reviewed this because I had foolishly skipped it. Minoru Suzuki is great at heeling it up and doing small things that make a match better. Kobashi can be that way, but he usually needs somebody else who is willing to go that far to bring that out. The headlock sequence is incredible. I've written a lot of negative things about Kobashi, and I'm not taking any of them back. However, the man can work a headlock like few others. I just wish he would do it more. Hell, Kobashi the submission wrestler is incredible. If he went a whole match working mostly submissions, I would mark the fuck out. Back to this match. Suzuki forces Kobashi out of the usual gameplan (shout a lot and throw chops, then do a bunch of big suplexes to pop the crowd). This makes for a much better match, as Kobashi is forced to adapt, which brings out the superworker lurking within. Suzuki gets a nice sleeper out on the ramp, and Kobashi has probably one of the best counters I've ever seen. Crawling off the ramp, plunging both himself and Suzuki to ringside. That was some spectacular stuff. Kobashi finally has enough of Suzuki's shit and backdrops him. A lot. Suzuki does this great attempted nosell and throws some slaps that barely touch Kobashi before falling over. Kobashi knows what to do from there and we're headed home. This is pretty easily in my top 30-40 range. Also, it makes me want to find more Minoru Suzuki when I'm done with this best of the 2000s.
  13. dawho5
    This was good. Morishima's early offense consists of clubberins and lariats, but it works. Misawa, well, he uses lots of elbows. I thought the match relied too much on bombs, but only by a small margin. Morishima would need to drop tons of bombs to put away Misawa. I'm not a huge fan of the match, but I think it could show up in the 70-75 range. Edit: Morishima is huge in this match. He keeps up with Misawa in the stiff strikes, sells really well, delivers big with the bombs late and bumps his ass off. Also, he goes from the top turnbuckle to the floor. At over 300 pounds that is a feat.
  14. dawho5
    The finishing run is really good. It is a question of which is going to give out first, AKIRA's arm or Tanaka's leg? Only problem is, Tanaka has worked the leg quite a bit leading into it and AKIRA keeps going up top with no real slowdown from that or selling of it. Most of the match was really enjoyable, but it was about 5 minutes too long. AKIRA's tope is the highlight for me. Either he aimed wrong or Minoru moved, but AKIRA ends up going chest first into the railing with no real slowing of his momentum. Very nasty looking.
  15. dawho5
    Early parts with Kobashi and Tenryu are once again gold. Sasaki and Kobashi beating the shit out of an old man (he's what, 56 or 57 here?) and an undersized kid for no real purpose, not so much. I get the idea that beating the shit out of the youngsters gets them over in japan, and Nakajima takes the beating of a lifetime here. But I don't think it makes MOTYC or MOTDC caliber matches. Also, I don't particularly care for invincible Sasaki or Kobashi so this match drags for me a lot.
  16. 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.
  17. 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.
  18. 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.
  19. 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.
  20. 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.
  21. 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?
  22. 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.
  23. 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.
  24. 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.
  25. 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.
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