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dawho5

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Everything posted by dawho5

  1. dawho5
    Oh, I'm not saying it was in no way enjoyable. But they have a much better match in 2001 that renders this moot. I've liked Taue in every big match he's been in since NOAH was started.
  2. dawho5
    This here was....if you take Battlarts and add MORE vicious punching and kicking with less suplexes and submissions...this is what you get. And oh boy, these guys know EXACTLY how to work this style. Want to break that nasty submission that your opponent has on you? Punch him in the face. He's down but not quite staying that way, run up and kick him a few times. Ikeda starts off by being a dick and presses his advantage. They go to more back and forth with Ikeda being a dick. Ishikawa brings the comeuppance just the right amount of stiff and brutal. Ikeda is getting his left arm worked over as we progress, which does come into play. Then we get to the end run. Ikeda brings the big, stiff kicks. Ikeda bumps HUGE for the suplexes. Both guys are punching themselves out. This is a war to the end and it's fucking amazing. Ikeda was wasted on NOAH. This is the kind of stuff he does best. I've always loved how he is such a dick with the big strikes and then bumps huge for suplexes and sells his ass off for the other guy's big strikes and submissions. This is number 3 for me right now.
  3. dawho5
    I'm with Steenalized here. It was fun, but Kawada's selling made the match better than it otherwise would have been. Why he gave Shibata that much offense I'm not sure. Shibata made the most of it, but that Tanahashi match blows this out of the water.
  4. dawho5
    Here's my thing with Saito. He has really good suplexes, slams and powerbombs. But everything else is average at best. And when you consider that his one method of building a match is strikes and strike exchanges, that is very, very bad. He normally doesn't sell other people's strikes worth a shit, but this is the boss. Saito does throw the best looking elbows I've seen him throw after taking a few from Misawa. Inoue certainly has lots of high end offense to bust out. But all he did early was...run Ogawa's face along a couple of ropes? And when Ogawa gets into strike-heavy mode he gets old pretty fast. So this match really doesn't go well for me. Both Inoue and Saito seem to me like guys who are capable enough of busting out big time offense during stretch runs, but A. don't have the right tools to build to said stretch run and B. have no idea how to use their big bombs effectively to create a good match. So yeah, I fall into the category of people who hated it.
  5. dawho5
    Too long, too much time between everything at the end. Misawa can't be bothered to even crank on his stepover facelock or sell Taue's legwork. Their match in 01 is far, far better than this.
  6. dawho5
    This is like some kind of hidden gem. Unlike the Takayama match, Koji has very little interest in wrestling the way Nishimura would prefer to. He is a complete and total dick for 90% of the match. And it leads to some amazing things. Nishimura throwing big elbows that rock Koji is so very unexpected and awesome. Nishimura's selling is tremendous throughout. Koji cutting off all of Nishimura's comebacks with his own counters to Nishimura's counters is all kinds of fun. The finish is off the charts good, and the crowd is hot and solidly behind Nishmura. Koji is gracious after the match, raising Nishimura's arm despite kicking the shit out of him for a good 10 minutes of the match. Really great underdog match that's on the bubble of top 50 for me.
  7. dawho5
    Some wild crowd brawling, lots of working over the ribs early. Nearfall sequence was pretty damn good. I liked a few of the payback things that came as the match went on. Might make the bottom 25.
  8. dawho5
    I went in with the expectation of lots of slick spots with no psychology. Low Ki worked over the arm after a big dive hit Kanemaru in the shoulder for a good long while AND Kanemaru sold it. So there was a smidgeon of psychology in there after all. Not voting for it, but it surprised me.
  9. dawho5
    So the first part of this match is awesome. I love watching these guys do basic holds and wrestling sequences because it is the best you will ever see those things done. The bad strike exchange aside, great early match. Then it turns into the NOAH that I am beginning to hate with a passion. See, late 90s All Japan had this tendency to go away from the reserved use of big suplexes and head drops that made early to mid-90s AJPW great. And as NOAH progresses, it seems like they take it ever farther. And that, to me is a sad, sad thing. Kobashi and Misawa seemed to really like doing stuff like that just to pop the crowd. Where Taue and Kawada were more likely to rely on smart wrestling to build to big spots. And you can guess which style won out in AJPW, as well as which one came over into Misawa and Kobashi dominated NOAH. I can't disagree more with SS on this, but to each their own.
  10. dawho5
    Early stuff was really, really well done. Everything had a sense of struggle and they really get over the idea that both men are beasts. Then they start beating the shit out of each other. In glorious fashion. The strike exchange was really well done. Even the lariat stuff didn't bother me at all. I loved how well they sold the fact that they were taking a massive beating in between big shots. Only a few nearfalls but they were HUGE. Can't say enough about how great this match was. Very likely top 20. For whatever reason, Takayama beings out the great worker hiding inside Kensuke Sasaki. Also, the hug at the end was great. Loving the short, Kawada vs. Hansen 2/28/93 inspired matches in the 2000s so far. Just get in there, beat the shit out of each other in a coherent manner for about 15-20 minutes then hit the finish.
  11. dawho5
    I liked this match a lot. Tamura brings that ace sensibility to it, waiting for the fight to come to him. Ito obliges and takes it to him handily. The quick takedowns into submissions surprise Tamura for a couple of early rope breaks. Tamura battles his way back patiently, but Ito isn't letting up because he knows once he loses control of this it's over. Tamura starts zeroing in on Ito's ribs with kicks during stand-up, then mixing in head attacks as well. The late match stand up reminds me of Kawada vs. Ogawa. Tamura has been put in a hole by the underdog, so he pitbulls his way back into the lead by focusing on a weakness. Only problem is, he keeps running into open hands to the head (not STOs) while doing it. Once he starts settling down and playing defense a bit more, he catches a kick and turns it into a leg submission for the win. Good story, great performance by both, but I like the TK match better.
  12. dawho5
    There is so much that works here. The beating KENTA takes right off the bat is stellar. Ogawa cutting off Marufuji's hot tag is the only way to save this match from early disappointment, because Marufuji's offense makes him the world's shittiest hot tag. Which really makes him a terrible partner for great FIP KENTA. Marufuji flopping all over the place for his beating is great. As are the Misawa/Ogawa double teams. As is Ogawa's always simple counter to all of Marufuji's contrived shit. Love how Ogawa just waits for the right moment and...goes for the eyes. Simple > contrived, always. Then the big turnaround and the first part of the chaotic ending is really well done. Right up until Marufuji kicks out of the emerald frosion. So vecause it wasn't Misawa covering the move loses all of it's devastating impact? Come on. I mean, that last few minutes wastes a perfectly good first 25 which includes a great KENTA impression of Kawada. This may make the bottom 25, but the way they finished it made me really, really unhappy. Also, Marufuji matches should be kept short of 30 minutes...no, kept short of 25 minutes. Too much Marufuji can only be a bad thing.
  13. dawho5
    This was an incredible underdog match. I loved the Ogawa match, which was very similar structurally. Just KENTA's offense is a bit more strike-happy and it works a little better as a counter to Takayama's bullying. The post match with Takayama giving a show of respect to KENTA for the effort is pretty sweet too.
  14. dawho5
    Honestly, this completely random and crazy character stuff reads way more entertaining than anything I've ever seen from the WWE. Does Vince not realize that off the cuff nonsense can come across as great entertainment given the right people?
  15. dawho5
    I thought that this was a great performance by both. Kobashi showed vulnerability and fire. Takayama was incredibly badass, but ended up burning up too much energy trying to weaken Kobashi's limbs up instead of focusing on getting the finish. If he'd have spent that time he worked over both legs to no real effect on the ribs and back, things may have been different. I thought that the lack of focus costing Takayama his shot was well done. He still looks like a beast and more than strong enough to go toe to toe with Kobashi, and Kobashi looks good for getting a win over a strong opponent. The beating both guys took was really brutal. It'll probably be top 20.
  16. dawho5
    I thought this match was really, really right place, right time, right opponents. I don't parcticularly care for Tanahashi. But against Fujita he shines really brightly. As the never-say-die, sympathetic babyface who is in way over his head, Tanahashi is great. And Fujita as the evil bastard amateur wrestling style shooter badass making fun of his smaller opponent along the way only helps. The knee lifts were all sorts of awesome. Tanahashi's slaps needed to be removed. Tanahashi's late match comeback offense was actually really compelling. Then he gets squashed like a bug again, only to not stay down and need more squashing. This will be around the middle of my ballot. And if you think I believed that would be the case going in, you'd be so very wrong. Also, I think this match was the signal to Inoki that his shooter fetish should stay personal. You have a really good shootstyle guy (Fujita) against a more juniors pro wrestling guy (Tanahashi). The fans very clearly make their choice.
  17. dawho5
    This was good, but not above that for me. The early matwork was well-done. Liger and Hashi both work their holds and have a sense of struggle to getting out of them. It's just a problem of not a lot of it being very focused. Some of it was there just for the purpose of being there. Both throw their strikes like they mean it, so that helps the match out as well. Ending run was okay at best, more like a succession of big bombs until the finish. Probably won't make my ballot, but not a bad watch.
  18. dawho5
    From the Brutal Instances of Color thread, both Mayumi Ozaki vs. Mima Shimoda from 1999 and the Mad Dog Vachon blade job gone horribly wrong do not disappoint.
  19. dawho5
    The structure of this match is what really sold me on it. The opening matwork stuff did seem a little too fluid. But then it came to the point where it was very clear that Kohsaka had the advantage on the ground despite Tamura's jujigatame being the focus of the match. He gets a few close calls on tamura needing to hit the ropes and finally forces it. Tamura switches it up and goes to stand-up to take away the advantage, but Kohsaka shows that he's got weapons there too. So Tamura starts trying to do quick takedowns into holds off of stand-up, which Kohsaka also counters. As the match progresses, you can see Kohsaka becoming a bit more vulnerable to Tamura's grappling on the mat and finally the jujigatame that Kohsaka had been fighting off the whole match happens and we have a finish. This was really beautifully done from the standpoint of fighting strategy as well as using Tamura's jujigatame as a focus for the build. Really good match that should make my top 50 or higher.
  20. dawho5
    Tenryu working over Tenzan's cut - fucking great on all levels. Tenzan's tepid comeback - not so much. And really, Tenzan takes 10 minutes of offense, gets in a minute's worth of strikes, does 3 finishers and we're done? Apparently Tenryu falls over at the mention of a light breeze. I wish I could rate this match higher for the first ten minutes, but the finish drops it down to bottom 25 for me.
  21. dawho5
    I thought Kawada's "fighting through the pain" selling of the leg, then having to break to sell it was good at first, but tapered off too quickly. The modification of the stretch plum to attack Hash's injured shoulder was pretty sweet. Actually, most of the mat stuff they did was incredible. Kawada's kicks near the end were definitely not up to snuff. He did carry on the leg selling even after the match, but I thought there should have been more during. As dream matches go, this was overall pretty good. There were points where it was amazing, but others where it fell short by a ways. Should make my ballot, probably somewhere in the bottom 50. Still better than Kawada vs. Kojima.
  22. dawho5
    Isn't there a pretty violent Cena vs. Umaga Last Man Standing match out there?
  23. dawho5
    I can live with Takaiwa being Takaiwa in tag matches. It's when he's in longer singles matches that it gets bad. Here he is mostly okay, with just a little bit of the invincible lariat and powerbomb machine version showing up. Togo is great. Hidaka is great. The thing I loved about this match was Hoshikawa's performance. He never stopped selling the leg, just tapered it back as the leg work got farther behind him and sold in between kicks and by climbing to the top a little slower. Another aspect I liked was the Takaiwa/Hoshikawa tenson and how it may have cost them the match by giving Togo and Hidaka the early opening to take apart Hoshikawa's leg. If Hoshikawa isn't isolated like that early, he's more effective late and that could have swung things the other way. Takaiwa working over Togo's cut was all kidns of fun, as is most Takaiwa dickishness. And Takaiwa really screws up the bump on the second rope pedigree. It almost looks like a tigerdriver 91 , just brutal. One f those mistakes that actually helps the match.
  24. dawho5
    Some of Akiyama's offense was great. Most of Tenzan's was not. Unless it was a Mongolian chop or a big signature it seemed like he was mailing it in.
  25. dawho5
    I liked this match a lot. But I don't think it'll get into the top 30. Kawada adapting to other worker's styles is always awesome, and it makes for really singular matches against shootstyle guys. I thought they should have stopped at the double countout instead of restarting and going to a double KO though. Resetting from an anticlimactic finish into another anticlimactic finish seems kind of wrong.
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