Jump to content
Pro Wrestling Only

dawho5

Members
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    5025

  • Joined

  • Last visited

 Content Type 

Everything posted by dawho5

  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. 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.
  4. dawho5
    All Japan needs to stop having their guys at ringside throw bundles of streamers. You can tell it's not fans throwing them.
  5. 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.
  6. 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.
  7. 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.
  8. 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.
  9. 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.
  10. 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.
  11. 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.
  12. 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.
  13. dawho5
    Nice, 2 in a day. Seems like the last show was a bit of a dud though.
  14. 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?
  15. 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.
  16. dawho5
    I never got to see much Honda after he stopped headbutting people over and over. This is something I have to remedy. Honestly this match wouldn't have been out of place in Battlarts at all. Honda getting the better of it early until Ikeda finally scores a small victory on the ground. Ikeda's pride is put to rest now and he goes to his bread & butter, kicking Honda over and over. The only part I don't care for are the lariat nosells. Dammit I hate those.
  17. dawho5
    This here was way, way, way, way better than any of those 4 names could ever make you think it would be. Early match is tepid and not a lot going on. Then the gaijin start to take apart Kojima and the fans are just waiting for the tag to Tenzan. Tenzan comes in looking like he's gonna clean this mess up, but wait. Double heat and the Tenzan segment lasts longer. Kojima takes the tag and IS a house on fire, but he ends up running into trouble again. The gaijin are worn down enough that Kojima can get a tag in to Tenzan, who is not near as good at the fiery babyface comeback as Kojima. They work around that and put together a really good ending. Barton/Steele play the role of dominating gaijin superbly here and Kojima, while not great as a singles wrestler, is really, really good as the guy taking the hot tag. In that situation his fired-up, spotty offense really works. Top 30 more than likely.
  18. dawho5
    I didn't care for this match much. Mutoh and Nagata both ignored the massive amount of work done to the legs midmatch right after it happened. Mutoh nosold an exploder 98 to do a delayed sell after a SW? Really, the wrist clutch variation and you're popping right up? Yeah, I don't see this making it past 75 if it makes it at all.
  19. dawho5
    I would disagree that it is a cop-out. I think that standards do change as far as what the structure and psychology of a good match are. For one thing you can go back to really old (1950s-1970s) matches and see that it didn't matter what somebody was working bodypart-wise. Just that they were weakening their opponent for the eventual coup-de-grace. The whole point of that psychology was getting your opponent to the point where they were worn down enough, and if you did enough damage overall you had achieved that goal. Whereas now, we want to see somebody work the leg if they are going to finish with a figure four. So yes, standards change. As far as the idea of pioneers being judged for how cutting edge their work was at the time I agree. There needs to be some sense of "they made the stuff ten years later possible" involved. I'm sure it's easy looking back to call it dated and point out all the flaws. But I think you have to compare it to other work that was being done at the time to get a good idea of what else was going on. And the whole modern/in the past argument that some people will put forward with emphasis on one side, I don't get. I like what I like, not because of what time period it came from or promotion or wrestler. And that bias comes out a lot when I write about wrestling. But don't think for one second if I watched a match from 2013/14 that I truly enjoyed I would immediately knock it down for when it happened. I would guess most here are like that as well. What I think it comes down to is you have to watch enough of the wrestling in that style/from that promotion to really get a feel for the quality of the individual matches within their context. Every promotion has very unique aspects to it during certain time periods that will work their way into 99% of the matches. So it makes things a lot more difficult going forward to watch, say, a 1990s match from All Japan or two and immediately say how it compares to the other thousands of matches that came out of the promotion while they wrestled that style (coming from personal experience). And I think it's something that we'll all find as we go along that it takes more than just watching the highly pimped stuff from X promotion during the Y era. And I think it's important to keep an open mind remembering that wrestling has evolved and will keep evolving. So when you go back or forward, look at it as it's own animal that is either closely or distantly related to the one you're used to. And if it doesn't strike your fancy, stay away from that promotion at that time and look elsewhere. Find something that appeals to your tastes. Because as much as we'd all love to be fair and balanced in judging different wrestling styles, none of us are. We have stuff we like and stuff that drives us nuts. That's the beauty of having all the different wrestling styles that continually fuse themselves into more hybrid versions of past styles. If you like this stuff in any way you'll find something you want to watch. Seems like I rambled a bit towards the end, but it was all driving towards the one point I want to make. I think the one true standard in any wrestling match is how entertaining it is to the viewer. Everything else is up to you, the viewer to make your choice about.
  20. dawho5
    This was not a great wrestling match. It was lots and lots of fun with really great work from all four, but it was not a great match. The opening segment was kind of weak with some of the matwork going nowhere. Fuchi transitioning everything to a neck hold on Araya was good. Kawada and Fuchi fighting over every positional change was also good, but the arm stuff needed to go. Araya running straight into a big Tenryu right hand starts the good stuff. He's bloodied up and Tenryu is smart enough to tag in Fuchi, who concentrates all of his offense on the bloody eye. Araya gets the tag to Kawada after a short in-peril segment and Fuchi starts selling a Kawada beating like a champ. Not to be outdone, Kawada sells the Fuchi comeback punch and Tenryu beating like a champ. Araya gets another face-in-peril segment, this one a bit longer and takes a big Tenryu beating. Kawada hits a massive punch on Tenryu. Araya goes on offense big time for revenge on Fuchi, but makes the mistake of hitting Tenryu on the apron. Tenryu cuts him off with another punch when he goes for the finish, so Kawada takes care of Tenryu and Fuchi to set Araya up for the win. Really solid stuff. Give me an extra 5-10 minutes for those Araya in peril segments and this is top 20 easy.
  21. dawho5
    This was a mostly fun spotfest. Crazy Max triple teams are so worn out for me by now that seeing them in this just makes me unhappy. There's more to do than that in this match, save it for the regular matches. Magnum Tokyo gets real sloppy near the end. Otherwise, lots of fun spots and zaniness. It may make my ballot.
  22. dawho5
    I thought their 2/27/00 match was far, far better. Misawa comes out a lot more aggressive here and Akiyama..goes to the left arm inexplicably for a bit. That was completely wasted time. Akiyama's big early offense comes after a calf branding from the apron to the rail, and he focuses on the neck of Misawa. Misawa comes back with elbows and Akiyama engages him in an elbow contest for some reason. Really, after that early beating from elbows he's just gonna volunteer to take more elbows without at least trying to move or hit a jump knee or anything? The ramp shenanigans are really starting to make me wish they had never started going with entrance ramps in puroresu. It's just another distraction from the actual wrestling match if you ask me. Finish is well done, but again, their match a year and a half earlier was far, far better and more meaningful. Probably won't make my ballot as the 2/27/00 match is my working #1. Edit: I think the main thing I dislike about this match is that it felt like it was Misawa's match all the way through until Akiyama hit the exploder 98. If you're going to have a passing of the torch, it can't feel like the old guard (here Misawa) got one-upped at the wrong time and lost after dominating the match. It worked for Misawa vs. taue in 96 because we were never supposed to think that Taue was the new ace. We just had to believe he could beat Misawa given the right circumstances. For this match, if they wanted Akiyama to truly be the new ace, they had to make it Akiyama's match and a definite win for him.
  23. dawho5
    This match fucking rocked. I loved the simplicity of the work as well as the slow build to not many nearfalls at all. Tenryu gets rocked early and never quite recovers. He chips away at whatever Mutoh leaves him, hitting a few big, BIG spots along the way until he hits the low dropkick. The second low dropkick was possibly the best , "FUCK YOU!" move I've ever seen in terms of how it was built to and executed. You wouldn't think something so simple could qualify, but it's the spot of 2001 in the 4 or 5 matches I've watched from that year. Tenryu works over Mutoh's leg for a bit and we hit the finishing stretch. After Mutoh recovers from the legwork (which makes sense given match length and the amount of time Tenryu spent on it) enough, he starts to mount his comeback. Tenryu can't quite stay away from getting cracked right in that same spot on his skull and it is his eventual downfall. The level of work here is absolutely incredible. Tenryu is the perfect candidate for long, long legwork because he's not really all that much of an athletic wrestler in terms of what he does. He sells the leg really well here also. Mutoh's offense looks great in this match, everything seems to happen when and where it ought to. The SWs need some work on looking impactful, but that's a small complaint. As is each of them briefly going to an arm early. I get the Tenryu armwork right after the initial shining wizard, just to buy himself some time. But the Mutoh attempt at a Kimura is out of place. It's gonna be in my top 20 or 30 I am thinking.
  24. dawho5
    I was wondering as I watched if Kawada was supposed to nosell the leg work as some kind of "I'm better than showing that kind of stuff hurts." Then I stopped caring about that and wondered why Kojima was noselling lariats. Then Kawada nosold a lariat. Early on was good despite Kojima's complete lack of any sort of impact on the shoulderblock or dropkicks. Kawada beating on Kojima was fine if he didn't have the leg worked over. Kojima's late match offense is well-executed anyway. Not a big Kojima fan especially if this is one of his "good" matches.
  25. dawho5
    This is similar to their 96 Triple Crown match in a lot of ways. It's all about Taue knowing Misawa's strengths and doing his best to stay away from them while playing to his own. This time Misawa comes away with the 3, but he takes Misawa to his limits within 15 minutes. Taue is definitely looking old, but the ring smarts make this a damn good match. It'll probably be right around the 50 range.
×
×
  • Create New...