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dawho5

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  1. dawho5
    Very slow start. Crowd isn't into a lot of early Takayama nearfalls and it makes sense. Misawa decides to fix that and start the finishing run by attacking Takayama's leg to weaken the kicks/knees. This may seem trivial but it is HUGE. Misawa very rarely attacks a limb. He throws lots of elbows until he can tigerdriver/suplex an opponent. When he attacks limbs, it means he's feeling the damage and wants to contain it. Up until that point it was standard Misawa vs. way lesser opponent match number whatever. Watch your Akiyama vs. Misawa pre-2000 to see what those look like. So Takayama tries a few kicks and doesn't like how that's working on the leg and switches to big Germans. A busted open Misawa counters by going after the arms, further putting Takayama over as a threat. Misawa's nearfalls are interrupted by a big Takayama tiger suplex for a nearfall. Takayama does the most invisible kickout ever on a Misawa running elbow that makes me love him so much. Misawa busts out the emerald frosion or however you spell it for the win. Really great match with Misawa doing a little work to put over Takayama instead of just handing him big suplexes and head drops before he finishes him.
  2. dawho5
    This match was holy shit kinds of awesome. Until right before the end when Murahama completely nosells the leg and kicks out at 1 after a high kick he ran into. But besides that, this match was so fucking awesome. The early parts were easily the best worked shootstyle juniors match you could ask for. The Tanaka heat segment was so very, very incredible. Especially the selling of the armbar on the way to the ropes. Then when Tanaka puts on the leg submission (you know the one I mean), Murahama is freaking out trying to make the ropes and keeps getting pulled back by Tanaka. Man, if this isn't the juniors match of the decade there's some really good stuff coming up. This should make top 30 for sure.
  3. dawho5
    I thought that Akiyama and Hashimoto had the best exchange outside of the Four Pillars + Akiyama I've ever seen. They mixed up what they threw and had all the intensity you could ask for. Akiyama throwing on a Nagata lock with Nagata doing a DDT into a front choke shortly after was fun. Misawa vs. Hash was not as intense as the earlier tag in NOAH. Nagata wasting time with useless early match armwork hurts this a lot. Pretty weak finish after a short Misawa heat segment. Then hash decides he's gonna get a piece of that dickweed Akiyama. Somehow Naoya Ogawa decides that's his moment to come out and challenge Misawa, who starts elbowing him on the apron and they have to be separated. I guess somebody had been watching their WWE at the time.
  4. dawho5
    I would say anything that adds a lot more risk to the wrestler taking the move is unacceptable. Safety has to come first.
  5. dawho5
    I really liked Kawada working over the neck early. Mutoh's strikes are pretty weak, but they actually worked that into the story of the match which is nice. The early matwork avoids a lot of the filler stuff and targets things that come in later. Mutoh working the leg and arm at the same time was a little odd but it worked. Kawada deciding to lariat Mutoh just to say "your armwork was useless" is pretty nice. Wish there had been a bit more leg selling on kawada's part after he had it worked over. Kawada made the SW's look as good as possible, I'd say it's gonna be in the 30-50 range somewhere.
  6. dawho5
    I really liked Ogawa having to prove himself early to both Hash and Otsuka. Then the later vertical suplex on Hashimoto was epic given the struggle it took to get even that. Misawa vs. Hashimoto was all kinds of awesome. This will make my ballot somewhere most likely.
  7. dawho5
    So the early build is nice, then Kobashi does a half nelson roughly 15 minutes into a 35+ minute match. Because those head drop suplexes are nice turnaround spots, not necessarily big nearfalls. And then the match continues to unravel for me as Kobashi uses a sleeper suplex to turn things around later and follows it with a ramp half nelson. Lets review. Akiyama has been dropped on his head twice in the ring and one on the ramp. He's fucking dead. Match is over. But that's not how it works. Finishing sequence is similar to the last big Misawa/Kobashi singles match where they just cycle through their big stuff until Kobashi hits the burning hammer. Exchanges were all top notch. Early stuff was great, with Akiyama playing the dangerous underdog role really well and pouncing on any mistake he can. Even after the first half nelson this worked, but then we got to the way overdone part and I stopped caring. May make the bottom half of my ballot. Depends how bad things get by late 2000s.
  8. dawho5
    This has oh so much going for it. One thing I noticed early was that Iizuka or Nagata vs. Fuchi on the mat is odd because both the NJPW guys work a faster pace than he does there. It doesn't work incredibly well, but it can be overlooked. Iizuka in peril is fucking gold. Fuchi is incredible as the Japanese Ric Flair. Only a bit more aggressively dickish. Iizuka, by some stroke of genius (not sure if it was booked this way or somebody came up with it on the fly, but it worked so very well) turns things around in a completely unexpected way. Kawada tags in, but Iizuka starts hitting elbows on both. Instead of focusing on Kawada, Iizuka puts a sleeper on Fuchi and holds onto it until Kawada knocks him out of it. Kawada has to go check on Fuchi, who is pretty essential to him winning the match. This gives Iizuka time to tag. Kawada ignoring the leg during the finishing run loses some points for me. The NJPW guys working over the leg was very good, especially the Iizuka sweet revenge on Kawada. I don't like strike exchanges involving NJPW guys. There's no variance or thought put into it, just two dudes hitting each other. Awesome match, this has to be top 20.
  9. dawho5
    As 6 mans go, this was pretty stellar. Most of your 6-man matches don't really do much besides set things up (unless you're in Mexico, MPro or Toryumon), so that's all they really needed to do. Murahama vs. Tanaka was all kinds of fun. Delfin getting cocky after outsmarting Makabe on a few moves then running into a spear was pretty nice. The dive train on Liger and subsequent face-in-peril segment was really good. Liger knocking Delfin out of the shotei pin was basically a fun way of saying, "If anybody gets a 3 off of that it's gonna be me." Tsubasa's confusion kills finishing run a bit, but match will probably still be lower half of the ballot for me.
  10. dawho5
    This turns out to be a fun shootstyle match. Murakami shines when he's striking or showing his athleticism on the outside. Otherwise he comes off as a guy who is trying real hard to look like a heel instead of just being a heel. Ishikawa is great in the role of grappler, struggling through the strikes to get where he wants to be. I think this will make my ballot, can't say where just yet.
  11. dawho5
    I wanted to love this match so much. Both guys in it are personal favorites and they do so many things right here. Complaints first. The leg heat segment was, I think, misplaced. They took a match where Tenryu the former mentor was absorbing all of Kawada's best strikes and making his former protégé pay in spades, and then had Tenryu decide to attack the leg to weaken it. I get the idea that he is "wrestling smart", but I think within the narrative of the match it actually makes Tenryu seem the weaker of the two since he has to resort to that. Most of the time in All Japan matches, Misawa was the guy taking the bodypart work rather than giving it out. When he did, it was always seen as him starting to really feel what was coming at him and need to do something about it. So if it was going to have a place in this match, Kawada should have had his big offensive run, hit the stretch plum (huge victory for him and excellently done), the backdrops and kicked Tenryu off the apron, THEN when Tenryu gets back on offense he works the leg over as he just got blasted with some big stuff and needs to slow Kawada down. The no-selling of lariats by not going down is pretty off to me. But there was so much more that was good about this match. Kawada's strike sequences going progressively longer and leading to bigger things at the end was great. Tenryu's offense was pretty spectacular with the exception of a blown abisegiri. The kick off the apron was so very...it's the spot of 2000 so far. Kawada having to struggle mightily to even put on a stretch plum or hit a backdrop was so very worth it when he did. This was right up next to great without reaching it.
  12. dawho5
    Match was good enough, put Akiyama (and the front choke) over as dangerous and made sure we all knew he was now a prick. Kobashi did some of his usual stuff that I'm gonna not write about.
  13. dawho5
    This was working for me up until the 1 count off the stretch plum. The lariat contest strikes me as pretty ridiculous. The finish is good, but I've seen it cap off far better wrestling matches. It's not that I'm missing the subtext there, just the way they did it seemed off to me. Then again, maybe with more Sasaki matches I'll warm up to the guy and have a rewatch. Edit: After the Kawada/Fuchi tag against NJPW, this match takes a dive for me. Nagata was fighting just as hard for NJPW and bothered to fall down and do a late kcikout for a Kawada lariat and stretch plum. Big match =/= you don't nned to sell the other guys' big moves. Kawada/Tenryu suffers from the same problem in a more minor way.
  14. dawho5
    RF I can tell you from sparring that yes, sometimes when you throw something really light and effortlessly, it comes out really hard. It's one of those things that takes your expectations of how fighting works and makes you question the reality of it a bit. The more "stiff" something is in a muscular sense, the less it hurts if somebody knows how to throw it. Also, the higher pitched sounds of impact mean less penetration. So all those big, high pitched cracks are indications of surface hits. A dull thud hurts way, way, way more.
  15. dawho5
    Really dug the finishing run with Makabe getting the big comeback bid with his spears and Germans. Crowd really wanted him to get the pin on Minoru with that northern lights, but it wasn't happening. The leg work was well done in a way that made you think that Makabe was going to tap while Liger was taken care of. Crowd made it better by being so damn into it. I'd say it's a well-worked juniors match that ends up somewhere in the lower half.
  16. dawho5
    Not the biggest Sasaki fan, but he plays his role fine in this match. When Tenryu starts chopping, Sasaki decides he's going to outchop him. When Tenryu starts punching, sasaki's going to one-up him there too. Come finish time, it's brainbusters we do this with. Better than I expected, but most of the heavyweight matches in the project work a lot better for me.
  17. dawho5
    Yeah, this match has a lot to love. Murakami's KO of IIzuka illegally almost sets off a brawl between the shooters and the NJPW guys who are trying to break up Ogawa and Hash when Ogawa and Murakami are a little dickish with them. Hash wants him some Ogawa, and Iizuka says he's up for it. Big shootstyle brawl ending with Iizuka's revenge and hash/Ogawa not caring about anything but brawling on the floor. Then Ogawa tries to start another post-match brawl because one isn't enough. Awesome stuff.
  18. dawho5
    So Dragon Kid is 95% flippy shit. Some of it is impressive flippy shit, but come on, man. Develop some normal offense. How does the Toryumon ref have a job? Every Toryumon match I watch, the heels are pulling illegal shit right in front of his eyes, but they point the opposite direction at somebody over on the apron or at ringside and he SPRINGS INTO ACTION TO STOP THE DANGER OF THE MATCH BEING COMPROMISED BY INTERFERENCE! Glad he does such a good job of that. They really, really needed to find a better way of dealing with that than they did. SUWA as asskicker heel is pretty good. His late match offense that builds to his really big nearfall/finishers is pretty incredible. His 75% cheap heat act early is a little tired, but he brings it late. Also, very good at bumping around when he needs to be.
  19. dawho5
    This is the first time I have seen this. Mossman/Kea seems to have figured out how to make his strikes look like they mean it. And he's showing a ton of fire, which is nice. I have this feeling most of the people watching these matches are familiar with the other 3. Right off the bat Hansen and Tenryu are eyeing each other up like they want to get it on before the intros. And once Tenryu is tagged in he goes straight for illegal man Hansen. Awesomeness ensues and the brawl is on. Kawada disregarding Mossman's offense with one counts is a little on the iffy side, but the crowd seems to not buy into it either so it works. Finishing run is marred by some blown spots on double teams, but crowd is still hot and the match is still very, very good.
  20. dawho5
    Narrative is pretty simple for the first 12 minutes. Ohtani/Takaiwa are dicks. And they like slapping the piss out of Kanemoto. Kanemoto takes the challenge and feels he is dickish enough to trump both of them and outslap both of them. Tanaka joins the slapping party and it turns into a beat the shit out of each other contest. Finishing run is really hot, if a bit of a departure from early match stuff.
  21. dawho5
    It was more Ditch pointing me to his chronological website. After I had access to all of that I wanted to hit all of it, because it would fill in the details going into big matches. I'm gonna go back and hit all the early 90s stuff too, just to fill in the blanks. One day I will get to the AWA stuff I teased myself with the first 8 matches of. Bobby Heenan the worker is fun, the High Fliers are freakin awesome, but it's gonna be months before I get to any of it.
  22. dawho5
    Yeah, reading some of this and thinking about it I wonder if that would be anything they actually wanted to do. Appealing to a more broad demographic (i.e. lowest common denominator) is going to make you way more money on attendance, merchandise, pay-per-view, network, etc. than going for the smaller percentage with more money. It's very likely that's the erason the business model is what it is. Sure, it may cost them in advertising and TV dollars, but Vince is a smart guy. Despite being trapped in his own worldview, he wants to make money. And I imagine if he felt that the revenues would be higher marketing to fewer, wealthier people and getting the better TV/advertising revenue he would.
  23. dawho5
    Hashimoto/Iizuka vs. Ogawa/Murakami NJPW 1/4/00 This is as awesome as I remember it being. 100% fight with several near-riots. Oh fuck yes. Ohtani/Takaiwa © vs. Kanemoto/Tanaka 6/25/00 IWGP Jr. Tag Titles Narrative is pretty simple for the first 12 minutes. Ohtani/Takaiwa are dicks. And they like slapping the piss out of Kanemoto. Kanemoto takes the challenge and feels he is dickish enough to trump both of them and outslap both of them. Tanaka joins the slapping party and it turns into a beat the shit out of each other contest. Finishing run is really hot, if a bit of a departure from early match stuff. SUWA vs. Dragon Kid Toryumon 8/24/00 So Dragon Kid is 95% flippy shit. Some of it is impressive flippy shit, but come on, man. Develop some normal offense. How does the Toryumon ref have a job? Every Toryumon match I watch, the heels are pulling illegal shit right in front of his eyes, but they point the opposite direction at somebody over on the apron or at ringside and he SPRINGS INTO ACTION TO STOP THE DANGER OF THE MATCH BEING COMPROMISED BY INTERFERENCE! Glad he does such a good job of that. They really, really needed to find a better way of dealing with that than they did. SUWA as asskicker heel is pretty good. His late match offense that builds to his really big nearfall/finishers is pretty incredible. His 75% cheap heat act early is a little tired, but he brings it late. Also, very good at bumping around when he needs to be. Hansen/Mossman vs. Kawada/Tenryu 7/23/00 This is the first time I have seen this. Mossman/Kea seems to have figured out how to make his strikes look like they mean it. And he's showing a ton of fire, which is nice. I have this feeling most of the people watching these matches are familiar with the other 3. Right off the bat Hansen and Tenryu are eyeing each other up like they want to get it on before the intros. And once Tenryu is tagged in he goes straight for illegal man Hansen. Awesomeness ensues and the brawl is on. Kawada disregarding Mossman's offense with one counts is a little on the iffy side, but the crowd seems to not buy into it either so it works. Finishing run is marred by some blown spots on double teams, but crowd is still hot and the match is still very, very good. I still think the NJPW shoot tag is absolutely amazing for the execution and the booking. I'd put that at least top 20 at this point, with the AJPW and NJ juniors tags somewhere under that. SUWA/DK is probably not going to make my ballot.
  24. dawho5
    90s NJPW would get old really fast for both me and anyone reading. I held back quite a bit on the Kobashi bashing because it wasn't something that came up every match. Same with Omori. Also, negativity isn't something I put a lot of value in, so I just try to stay away from that stuff. But with 90s NJPW I'd run into a lot of things I dislike in a majority of the matches. I can see it going downhill fast. I can see doing 80s AJPW at some point. Right now I was gonna do Ditch's 2000-2009 puro stuff and then revisit some of the favorites to maybe do a top 20 or 30 AJPW 90s list afterwards.
  25. dawho5
    Boy, pre-split All Japan ended kinda....iffy. Holy Demon Army vs. No Fear No Fear target a shoulder injury Taue picked up in the earlier match. Kawada leads a big comeback and eventually pins Omori after a...bodyscissors sleeper? I guess, it's only Omori. Maybe I just don't get the big push for Omori, but it seems like a huge waste. If every success he has involves cheating or somebody getting injured or just a happenstance advantage, is it really a push even? He throws a nice axe bomber and has some good stuff to throw into nearfalls, but up until that point of the match he's average or worse. Not sure why, but two dangerous backdrops and a gamengiri net Kawada a 2 count on Omori during the nearfall sequence. Kobashi/Shiga vs. Akiyama/Kea Akiyama must have had some beef with Kobashi before this match. Kobashi is back in 100% Spirit mode, which kind of kills this for me. As well as the mid match half nelsons. Shiga plays the never-say-die role he was born for well enough to salvage the match. So that's it. Except for one more thing. I've talked about 3 of the 4 Pillars. I think Akira Taue is the least appreciated so I saved him for last. Yes, he was far more physically limited and awkward than the other 3 (and Akiyama). And his strikes looked weak in comparison. But him knowing that and working around/through/with those limitations as the match demanded was one of the things that made him great to watch. If anything it forced him to be a very intelligent worker, very focused on how and why he was doing things. Pre-95 his offense was lacking, but he was so good at the small stuff like selling, facial expressions, and making simple submissions look vicious that he made up for it. He was the best of the big four at making a late nearfall look great by kicking out at the last possible moment (followed by Kobashi in that regard). I would put him right up there with Misawa and Kawada in terms of consistencty of performance post-95 also. And he really upped the ante with his big kicks (enzuigiri, jumping front kick) when he needed to. I think that to appreciate Akira Taue you have to be able to look at how much he does with far less than Kawada, Misawa, Kobashi and Akiyama bring to the table. He's nowhere near their athleticism or striking ability of the rest. He manages to not only hang with them in 99% of the matches, but actually adds to the match in meaningful ways. There aren't too many pro wrestlers who could have done that when you look at the accomplishments of his contemporaries. And finally, thanks to all who read this. And to those who chimed in and helped me see things I might have missed. I hope you all enjoyed this as much as I did. Also, huge thanks to Ditch, without whom I'd never have seen a lot of the less hyped AJPW matches. Some of which actually trumped the matches they were building to. And fxnj I have to thank for that disturbing behind the scenes look after Kobashi vs. Misawa. That still gives me the willies.
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