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dawho5

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Everything posted by dawho5

  1. dawho5
    Really fun brawl. Akiyama tossing chairs at Shibata several times is all kinds of great. Not sure if Akiyama was legit pissed or just acting it very, very well. Then again, I don't think Akiyama has the acting chops to pull it off, so he was pissed. Some of those running knees were just vicious. Finishing run wasn't exactly gold, but I have this sneaking suspicion that there was not 100% cooperation going on in this match. I'll give it points for being a chaotic brawl that you just have no idea what's coming next, and you have to wonder if the wrestlers in the ring might have felt the same way at times.
  2. dawho5
    This was great stuff by BOTH Kobashi and Ogawa. It's weird and fun to see flashes of the early to mid-90s Kobashi. He busts out staples like the rolling death cradle and the jackknife powerbomb. He works between nearfalls! Ogawa has this great sequence towards the middle where he slaps Kobashi in a taunting way as he's getting up. It's like he's lost the focus that got him this far and let his cockiness take over. Then Kobashi comes roaring back and Ogawa shoves him into the ref. Ogawa doesn't realize it at first, but once he does he takes full advantage with the ring bell. Ogawa's cutoff rollups are well-placed and the finishing run is really well-done. The match ends exactly when it should instead of going into pointless nearfalls. I'd say this is top 20 material.
  3. dawho5
    I tend to use "get over" or just "over" a lot more than I used to.
  4. dawho5
    I would agree on NWA World Title being the most prestigious. Being the All japan-ophile that I am I would put the Triple Crown right behind it.
  5. dawho5
    So at what point did puroresu entrances become longer and flashier than the WWE entrances that inspired them? Some of them are ridiculous to the point of disbelief.
  6. dawho5
    You know, the first 20-25 minutes of this were top 20 caliber. It looks pretty even, then Jado and Gedo start going to town on Inoue. They do just the right amount of heel tactics, beatdown and being cocky for it to be really, really entertaining. I loved when Jado smeared some of Inoue's blood (he bled a lot) on his chest and walked over towards Koji just to rub it in. Then, just as this part of the match is getting stale, Koji comes in, cleans house and drags Inoue most of the way back to the corner. Wouldn't you know it, though, Koji gets knocked off the apron just in time. Not big on the move Inoue uses to finally get the hot tag (CROWD!!!). Koji comes in and dishes out his offense while selling the earlier beating he took. Then we go to the finishing sequence and things really get bogged down. Jado doing his crossface thingy about 6 times really doesn't help matters. A lot of it is good, with the chaos and selling like they are dead that should be there. Finish is good given the story of the match, but I really wish they had built a little better to it instead of Jado doing a bunch of crossfaces. I can see this in between 50 and 75. Inoue was all kinds of incredible in this. I'd watch this again just for his heat segment and the parts of the finishing run he was involved in. Jado/gedo were awesome up until the ending sequence. Koji did a good job of staying out of the match and letting the other guys have the spotlight when he wasn't needed. I kinda wish he'd been a little more visible towards the end though.
  7. dawho5
    Well, it was. Didn't they get rid of those belts and replace them in the early 2000s? Or do they still call them by the same names, just with different visual belts?
  8. dawho5
    You know what this match had that most NOAH matches do not? Build between the big nearfalls. First big nearfall is the Dynamic Bomb after the apron backdrop nodowa. But Taue just doesn't get to go straight to the nodowa. For one, it puts over the idea that that nodowa could have won the match if he had gotten it. This is important in establishing somebody as a threat. Secondly, it lets the crowd build tension again. They go back and forth a bit, it looks like Kobashi may have something, but he tries the moonsault too early and misses. NODOWA! BACKDROP NODOWA! NEARFALL! Bigger than the first one because there was build in between. Because you thought, "Kobashi is coming back!" Then they go through more build with another Kobashi tease, but lesser as he just got killed. SUPLEX NODOWA!! HOW THE FUCK? HE KICKED OUT!! This is why Akira Taue is an amazing wrestler. Not because he has the best moves or the most athleticism. But because he knows how to build a match to get the most out of everything. The top rope splash out of pure desperation, just looking for ways to put Kobashi away, was great. Oh, this must be the Kobashi comeback. He's got that brainbuster he's been using hooke-wait, Taue rolled him up? No way, this could- NO! How often can Taue cut off Kobashi? Kobashi hits a big half nelson (used properly for maybe the 5th time ever) and gets a small reaction off the kickout because (5th time ever, but that's the past not this match). Big chops! BIG LARIAT 1!! 2!! NO!!! Taue just won't stay down. What's it going to take to put him away? He's got it hooked up....BURNING HAMMER! 1!! 2!! 3!!!!! And THAT is how matches are finished. That is the difference between the art of pro wrestling and spot fu. And that is why I love this match. This comes in just below Akiyama vs. Misawa 2/27/00, but being second to that is not bad at all.
  9. dawho5
    I love underdog matches. But this wasn't all that good. The best parts of this kind of match are the anticipation of the underdog's comeback while they are getting beta down and the actual comeback. The anticipation is there, because Akiyama lays it in good with some bad ECW leading by the head mixed in. Then Hashi gets his offense and...things fall apart. Eh, had to give it a try.
  10. dawho5
    Fun 6 man. By far not the best DG/Toryumon 6 man I've seen though. I'm glad I watched it, but it probably won't make my ballot.
  11. dawho5
    He was the "big man" for his promotion at the time among the natives. But I see your point, he wasn't overly large.
  12. dawho5
    Glad I'm not the only one who absolutely loved that match.
  13. dawho5
    As much as I don't care for the guy overall, Satoshi Kojima seems like a really good hot tag. His moveset is good for it, his personality and fire fit well. Kobashi was practically made for taking hot tags, as little as I care for how he does things a lot of the time. I really liked Rey taking hot tags even back in his WCW days. Based on the limited AWA viewings I've done, Jim Brunzell seemed like a contender here. I guess since I mentioned Kobashi, I may as well say Misawa. When he came in with the elbows swinging off of his partner getting beat down, he was pretty unstoppable. KENTA seems like he fits the bill. As much as DDP played the FIP, he could bring the fired up babyface comeback pretty good when he wanted to. This is something I never saw, but I always thought Waltman would have made a great hot tag if he was ever not the FIP or a heel. He had the right offense for it and could do "fired up" pretty well.
  14. dawho5
    Ogawa vs. Akiyama 9/11/98 is a great Ogawa performance. He's doing everything he can to keep Akiyama neutralized and work towards a huge upset. He also has a great match against Takayama in 2004. The 9/11/98 match is on Dtitch's AJPW chronological site. The Takayama is in best of 2000s project. If you decide to look up that Takayama match above, look into the Kanemoto vs. AKIRA match on 3/23/03. It's dickweed Koji vs. cheating bastard AKIRA in a legwork duel to the tapout. The sense of animosity between the two of them makes for good fun. A couple of the NJPW vs. NOAH tags with Liger have cool sequences built around Kanemaru's mule kick to the groin. And a shit ton of heat. Same goes for the 2000 Kanemoto/Tanaka vs. Ohtani/Takaiwa. Early offense for Ohtani and Takaiwa is basically corner heel stuff. Ikeda vs. Ishikawa from 2005 has a great heelish Ikeda performance. And if you've watched any Battlarts, you know Ishikawa isn't letting that fly. There's a few matches where Omori shines on that AJPW chronological listing as well. The tag where Kobashi is extremely pissed at NO FEAR has this great Kobashi slow burn on Omori and Takayama. If you're really in the mood for cheating, check out the Omori vs. Akiyama match that goes like 30 seconds. The match where Kawada "leaves an impression" on Misawa is all kinds of awesome for the heel stuff there. And the incredible payback. If you can find good Jado/Gedo tags, those dudes love to cheat something fierce. So much so that I've seen matches where it just degrades into them doing heel cheating over and over again until you wish they'd stop. The 1995 Flair vs. Chono match from the G1 has a really great story of Flair trying to come in and win clean, but having to go tit for tat with Chono's heel tactics. It's not the greatest match ever, but the way it plays out is pretty fun. I know there's stuff I'm missing, but a lot of the above are the more enjoyable things I've watched recently.
  15. dawho5
    I think Akira Taue deserves a mention. I'll also agree with Vader.
  16. 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.
  17. 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.
  18. 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.
  19. 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.
  20. 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.
  21. 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.
  22. 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.
  23. 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.
  24. 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.
  25. 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.
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