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dawho5

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Everything posted by dawho5

  1. dawho5
    As far as spotty lower-tier juniors go, I'll take Naruse any day over Kanemaru. He works this great grounded headlock on Kikuchi early that I really, really loved. And he has nice, smooth, almost Minoru-like ability to chain into different holds from things. His strikes need work, but he's entertaining. Kanemaru used a top rope diving DDT as a transition to offense. Kikuchi vs. Damurai is pretty damn good, very gritty and more in an older style of puroresu that I really dig. It's not as good or as heated as Liger vs. Kikuchi, but I doubt much NJPW has to offer will be. This will probably be just short of the cut due to the crap finish, but it was a lot of fun up until then, for the most part.
  2. dawho5
    Hayashi is the strawberry blonde incarnation of the bland masked wrestler from KDX, Hiryuu. And he's just as bland with the bleached rudo hair and middle fingers. Hirai is an old school All Japan type guy with nice suplexes and power moves that lack snap. Given time and the right environment (which I doubt he gets, given who gets over in 2000s Japan) he could be something. Tenryu's interactions with both members of the other team are incredible. Kojima is still a step behind the old man. And Hayashi...well, Tenryu really wants to hurt Hayashi. He tosses a chair right at his face on the outside at one point. Then while Tenryu is pinning Kojima late, Hayashi stomps on his head. Tenryu gets up and gives him this look as if to ask, "Haven't you learned yet?", then proceeds to destroy him yet again. Hayashi gets a revenge dive just as Kojima pins Hirai. This was all sorts of fun for the Tenryu vs. young blond-haired fancy guys aspect. It'll be somewhere in my bottom 50, probably in the 50-60 range.
  3. dawho5
    Only reason to watch this is Shiga vs. Akiyama. Saito is so very awful here and drags this down to the point where I don't think it's gonna be on my ballot. Shiga is insanely good though, especially against Akiyama.
  4. dawho5
    Great, great build up until about midway through the finishing run. Misawa really puts Takayama over as a huge threat and Takayama sells when he needs to. Not sure if Misawa, Takayama or both started blowing a lot of the spots, but there were at least 4 over the last 8 to 10 minutes. Still loved the first 3/4 of the match and it'll probably make my ballot somewhere in the lower 50.
  5. dawho5
    I'm probably gonna be in the minority here, but I loved this match. Ogawa gets a brief (very) shine before Takayama tosses him off on a cover. And starts beating him mercilessly. Ogawa turns things around and finds a weakness, and exploits it to the very very very fullest. Takayama gets the crowd believing Ogawa can put him away after a few near-falls, hits a HUGE knee followed by a big German that Ogawa kicks out of, then pulls down the knee pad. Ogawa rolls him up a few times, then eats a massive knee to the face. Kickout again! Takayama is done with this and hits the German for the win. If you can show me another match where a junior gets that much heat for a series of believable nearfalls on a heavyweight (Takayama!!!) all without ANY dive/top rope moves at all, I'd be very surprised. Crowd was tepid for early Ogawa comeback, but by the end they were nuclear hot. This probably makes my top 30. Reminds me a lot of Akiyama vs. Ogawa 9/11/98.
  6. dawho5
    Not much to say about this that's good. Rikio, Morishima and Saito all have some good late match offense. The work on Saito's ribs and most of the selling of it is good. So that's about it. Probably not making my ballot.
  7. dawho5
    This was all kinds of fun. Minoru and Liger turning the tables on Kanemaru with the ball shots was great. Kanemaru getting revenge using Liger's head via drop toe hold was better. The mask ripping and HATE in this match were off the charts. I still think the New Japan rematch in August is better so this won't be getting a vote. But damn is it one great match.
  8. dawho5
    Man, this match was all sorts of incredible. Minoru in peril from the outset rocks. Kanemaru's offense when he's a dick is great. When he gets all flippy floppy it's not. Kikuchi brings the never say die attitude to everything, including holding on to a submission while Liger bodyslams Kanemaru right on top of him! Liger puts on the best camel clutch I've ever seen and Minoru decides a boot to the face is needed to make it better. Minoru aping Kanemaru's mule kick to the groin spot then getting it right back is soooooo fucking great. the Liger vs. Kikuchi finishing run is great in front of a super hot crowd. This will probably be top 10 or 20 for me. Only thing to knock it out of that range is Kanemaru's incessant going to the top.
  9. dawho5
    This could have happened in late 90s ECW easily. I'm confused as to MPro rules, was the ref supposed to ignore the chair being brought into the ring? Togo early on heels it up great. TM4 can't take a pedigree to save his life, so why they did 4 I'm not sure. And how the pedigree sets up the senton is yet another mystery. Some matches I've liked TM4's offense, but it doesn't work well here. Even with him completely noselling the leg. Probably won't make my ballot.
  10. dawho5
    Kanemoto starts out by beating the shit out of Hashi. For a while. Hashi's hope spots are gritty and violent, matching Koji's tone. So is his eventual comeback. The crowd starts to believe that Hashi can pull this off as he gets some good nearfalls. Koji's cutoff attempts get more frequent and he gets his big nearfalls. Hashi gets his last gasp, but Koji's not gonna lose the IWGP Jr. belt to this NOAH punk. Hashi FIGHTS his way out of two ankle locks, but eats Koji's kneelkick thingy for the flash KO and a 3. Finish may seem kinda weak, but Hashi wasn't going to give up and was scrappy about fighting off the tiger suplex. Makes sense that Koji would just go for blunt force trauma to put him away. Hashi comes across as a tough motherfucker with a never-say-die attitude. Also, his offense is spottier than you may think. It doesn't detract too much from the match and this is one of the better singles matches between juniors I have seen in the 2000s. Should make my bottom 50 pretty easily.
  11. dawho5
    I like Nishimura's wrestling style a lot. And you know, a part of me wants to say that Takayama is "trying to beat Nishimura at his own game" as part of the story of the match. But the realist in me says that the match was booked the way it was so that Nishimura didn't get crushed in 7 minutes. It may end up on the bottom 1/4 of the ballot for me because Takayama is actually pretty good at the slow old school matwork. But the match is lacking in terms of any kind of drama for the majority.
  12. dawho5
    This is my Sasaki match of choice so far. Just two big dudes duking it out and actually selling where it makes sense. I really, really, really love how Takayama makes his knee lift, dropkick, double arm suplex and legdrop into big moments in the match. Those are not things you would expect to find as "big spots" in 2002 but they rock. The Vader hammers by both at the end were fun, especially Kensuke swinging away after Takayama has been knocked down. Great way of giving the idea you're just swinging away on instinct after taking a beating. Only thing I didn't care for was the lariat thingy, but I'm getting used to mentally editing that out.
  13. dawho5
    Early on both are trying to get something going and it looks like Nagata might get the advantage with his grappling. Until Takayama goes to his bread & butter striking. Nagata takes an ass-kicking before he ends up getting back in it with grappling technique. Then he hits some big suplexes after working the leg over. Takayama hits his own big suplex and we go to strike exchanges. Once they start throwing punches they lose me as Nagata cannot throw a worked punch. The double high kick to end it by Nagata was weak. Say what you will about Nagata's grappling, it's better than his striking. And him kicking out of a German early at 1 was kinda iffy. May make bottom half of the ballot for the Takayama beatdown.
  14. dawho5
    All Japan needs to stop having their guys at ringside throw bundles of streamers. You can tell it's not fans throwing them.
  15. dawho5
    While it's true they can become great performers because they are great athletes, that's not always the case. It's very easy to use that sort of thing as a crutch early on, get over based on that and really have no way of actually learning everything you missed because you could just rely on your natural talent. Whereas someone who has to work at everything is required to pay attention to the small details that the better natural athlete can just gloss over if they so choose.
  16. dawho5
    Looked to me like this match had a very specific purpose in mind. Make it look like Kea could hang with Tenryu for short periods of time. So Tenryu/Araya would beat the shit out of Miyamoto with the youngster getting his hopespots in, then Kea would come in, look great for a few minutes and leave Miyamoto to his beating. Everything works fine, except I don't think they planned for Miyamoto being as game as he was and really making it the Miyamoto show. Won't make my ballot, but a fun watch nonetheless.
  17. dawho5
    This was not a great wrestling match. Hell, in terms of wrestling matches it wasn't even that good. BUT it was all kinds of fun watching Hashimoto beat the shit out of Masato Tanaka. The pre-match stuff with Tanaka pissing off Hash was pretty helpful. because this match looks like Tanaka pissed off Hash and is getting the shit kicked out of him for it, plain and simple. He sells the beating really, really well too.
  18. dawho5
    I think you're mistaking athleticism for cardio JVK. Athleticism is more how physically capable a guy is of doing, say, a 450 splash or some twisty moonsault or even how far away they can start something like a corner splash (Sting). Cardio is how long they can go without getting gassed. I don't know that wrestlers in general are more athletic, but most wrestling styles put that kind of thing to more use than before the mid-90s.
  19. dawho5
    Kojima having to prove himself to Tenryu makes for a good match. Tenryu being condescending makes it even better. Then Tenryu decides that condescending to the punk kid with blond hair isn't enough and starts doing Tenzan spots just to fuck with him. Kojima eventually makes good, pushing Tenryu a bit before the old man decides he's had enough. Tenryu knows he can outlast Kojima in a striking contest, so he does. Kojima wants to use his fighting spirit to get through the pain, but no, he falls right back over. Tenryu puts him away with a brainbuster. This was so much better than the Kawada match. Maybe it was the whole young upstart vs. old man asskicker dynamic that put this one above that match.
  20. dawho5
    So Kobashi as senior guy in the ring AND Nagata all in the same match. But you know, this was pretty damn great. Misawa vs. Nagata right away and he actually puts Nagata over instead of shitting all over him like NJPW did with Akiyama. Class act that Misawa. Early on, Kobashi and Akiyama have one of those strike exchanges that made me love All Japan. Then Akiyama and Misawa trade nothing but elbows. Oh well, Nagata decides he's gonna slap Kobashi across the face twice during rope breaks. This works out for everyone not named Yuji Nagata. Kobashi uses the spirit wisely in this match, as well as his two common head drop suplexes (late match nearfalls, what a concept). Akiyama and Kobashi get kickouts at 1 off of big stuff, but they balance out, so I'll not make a big deal of it. Finish is really hot, and I found this to be a really good All Japan style tag.
  21. dawho5
    This was a really fun invasion tag. I really enjoyed Liger and Inoue skipping the shine altogether and going right into the heat segment. Liger heeling it up is all sorts of fun and he seems to enjoy himself doing it. The NJ team cuts off the Kanemaru comeback off the tag and he has a heat segment of his own. NOAH finally gets some good offense in during the finishing stretch. Kanemaru is really, really flashy and I'm not sure if he backs it up with much substance yet. Kikuchi is all elbows. The submission offense from the NJ wrestlers has an odd feel to it. There is never any one limb targeted, but for some reason it doesn't seem to drag down the match. I can see this right around the 50 range or lower. Also, Minoru starting the brawl was a highlight.
  22. dawho5
    So looking at 2002 a lot of the matches look like they are gonna be hard to get through. Definitely looking forward to the Liger tags in NOAH, but most of the rest looks really, really questionable. Especially the Nagata stuff. I am trying so hard to like Nagata, but it's not coming.
  23. dawho5
    Nice, 2 in a day. Seems like the last show was a bit of a dud though.
  24. dawho5
    I have very little good to say about this match. Hase was fun, as always. Mutoh getting pissed when Akiyama hits a dragon screw on Hase was pretty cool. Akiyama hitting a shining wizard, akward as it did look, on Mutoh was alright. The rest was...ugh. Early match was filler. More than that it was bad filler. Akiyama was pretty much made to look like he couldn't handle himself all that well on the mat, while Nagata had counters to the old guys stuff more often. And we wonder why Akiyama ended up falling flat when this is the kind of crap he had to deal with. The story, seemingly, was that the old wily vets weren't taking the young guys' shit. After a really long snoozefest of a match with a few bright spots, some chaotic stuff and a really short finishing run. How did this match make the list?
  25. dawho5
    This match is a challenge to describe. The shine is all kinds of fast-paced and high flying, with Tiger Mask landing a big top rope knee drop within 2 minutes. Then Jado and Gedo start the heat segment with, of course, some illegal interference during rope-running. Tiger Mask takes a really deliberate and stiff beating. We're talking between 1/3 and 1/2 of the earlier pace. I mean, they take their time even between strikes. So then the comeback starts and after one suplex Sasuke has Jado set up on a table on the outside and goes up top. And he completely misses his dive and the first thing he hits is the guard rail with his leg with the rest of him crash landing behind it. A few minutes later he is back in the ring for the chaotic, hyper-fast paced finishing run, so at least he's moderately okay after trying to kill himself. Jado and Gedo get the better of this for a while, and just as TM and Sasuke start building some steam TM misses a dive judging by trajectory. TM and Sasuke get their nearfalls and Sasuke is interrupted going up top by a chair thrown by Jado. Gedo finishes him off. I doubt this match makes my ballot, but it was definitely an experience. Also, Gedo and Jado surprised me in two ways. One, they are all gangsta in 2001. And two, they realty rock at heat segments.
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