dawho5
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Everything posted by dawho5
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This was the finals of a tournament as far as I can tell. CIMA's back & neck are taped, apparently that helps besides telling the world that hurts already. Horiguchi gets an early rush in and both look to be going for the finish off the bat. CIMA works a leg for a good amount of time. I am absolutely not a fan of juniors guys working a leg if the guy taking it is going to ignore it to do junior-y things later and guess what happens. CMAX is not the asshole heel stable here, Do-Fixer is and they interfere some. At least it's just some and CMAX kind of evens things up when they need to. CIMA does a great job selling the neck even when it's not being worked on. Horiguchi starts working over the neck and acknowledges the leg once late-match. Finishing sequence is kind of NJPW/WWE-ish in that the set-up moves are used and the finishing part of the sequence gets countered. I get having sequences to add to the impact of things and that has been a part of puroresu for a while. HOwever, you would think alternate ideas would also appear given the predictability of what is always coming next after say an Iconoclasm. CIMA was really good in this match selling the neck. If you can ignore blatant no-selling of a significant portion of the match spent on a leg, this was a really good match. I can't and that knocks it down to good in parts and lacking in others. Still glad I watched it, just wish some things had been done differently.
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Watched this with only the announcing to guide me through the history. Okada kind of comes across as the ace, but it's a little wierd that he goes to the floor DDT to start the heavy bombs given that he is the ace. Normally it is the challenger/younger up-and-comer that is going to start out big to try and make his mark and show the passion/desperation. The deliberate pace following the floor DDT makes way more sense, especially given the points going in. The fact that Ibushi had neck issues helps the case for the floor DDT, but I'm still not 100% buying. I also don't love the elbow duel on their knees. I am not a fan of those exchanges in the first place and it really seems like a replacement (shitty one for the wrestlers) for a rest hold when they need to slow down and figure out what comes next. Finishing sequence is pretty good, with both showing they know the other's offense well enough to get out of the way when it counts. Everything that they hit is earned and I really like that. No-selling is kept to reasonable levels. Ibushi's glassy-eyed selling is really good. I wouldn't call it a great wrestling match for a few reasons, but really good. The pacing is kind of odd, really slow at points with bursts of action then slowing to a crawl. I'm not quite sure if I am unhappy with that or not, will take time to decide with more matches. -
Starts off really good with both teams attacking the injured arm of first YASSHI and then K-Ness. Both teams take turns doing some very smooth double teams. One thing I do appreciate about Toryumon/DG is that the teams have very cool and fun double teams. Good popcorn fare. I kind of wish they had stuck with the arm theme though. Finishing run sees YASSHI & Shuji go after K-Ness's arm with a vengenace to get Yokosuka isolated and eventually it works. After an over the top lariat exchange anyway. Not a great match, too many different things going on that don't tie into a coherent story. Also, more liberal interference from YASSHI/Shuji's teammate. And bringing in the foreign objects right in front of the ref. It's kind of a strange issue for me with the Toryumon. I love the advancement of juniors (and tag if you look at it a certain way) wrestling. It does seem like it is losing essential things like a good through line of the story through the whole match due to the need to hit certain tropes. As entertaining as those tropes can be. Then again, there was a cool moment late where K-Ness comes in to break up an attack on Yokosuka and rolls into a senton with his good shoulder to do it. So there is some attention to detail there.
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Saito starts off hot with a nice dive and follows up. Sumo turns it around using his power. I have never liked the liberal interference of TARU in early CMAX. I guess it got them over as something difference. I wish Saito would fight back a little more, just get a few shots in and get cut off instead of taking it over and over. Brutal looking apron nodowa by Fuji. Korakuen seems to want to like Saito (the underdog), but he's just not doing enough to grab them. His two comebacks both seem kind of tepid. Upset win for Saito as he gets a special move rollup thingy, pretty sudden but I guess most roll-ups are. Crowd dug the finish. Underdogs going over in Korakuen is always going to get a reaction though. Honestly Sumo looks like twice the wrestler Saito is in this match and my thoughts on Saito even a few years later put him closer than that. Decent match but disappointing.
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This was bad to the point of being impossible to not watch. So I guess mission accomplished.
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This series of vignettes has flaws.
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This was completely insane. Santo and Casas ripping it up in the ring while the other 4 brawled around the arena and occasionally came back in. As far as pure spectacle goes, this is up there for me. Can't say it is great, but definitely memorable.
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There were times when this went absolutely nowhere. And then there were the Santo/Casas exchanges, which were amazing. Goto and Onita had some fun exchanges as well. When the wrestlers in the ring are confused about what is happening it tends to take away from any kind of narrative though. Fun moments and worth seeing once.
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That mat was all kinds of awful. Do low end indy guys have to deal with that kind of deal? The crowd was super rowdy and really helped the match. Santo bouncing off the mat from the Espanto snapmares was a really cool touch. I thought Espanto went a little rudo on Santo at the beginning of caida 3. overall very good, not the best lucha I've seen but good. Oh, and I didn't know Santo did jobs, even for hometown favorites.
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I questioned Austin in a long match before even watching this. That step over a doubled over Austin into a dropkick is a great spot for Windham. First fall was GREAT for TV wrestling. Fall 2 Austin does bring a lot of aggression and it flows pretty well for how green he still is. I was a fan of Paul's taunting too, good work there. Owen loses steam as the match goes on, but there are 2 things I like about him here. First, he doesn't try to talk about anything he doesn't know about and come off like a moron. Second, it seems like he gets along with JR and JR tries to set him up when it fits. Barry's camel clutch counter was different. Austin slowing things down in the third fall makes a lot of sense even if it gets a little too slow. He wants to use the clock as an ally. The finish was a little too out of nowhere, but otherwise I really liked the match. Austin's best singles so far.
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War Games is coming up? Good thing they are hyping their PPV enough that I know. Also, isn't the whole DA a conspiracy against WCW? IF you were Kip Frey wouldn't you fight back against that? I think a slightly different tack is needed on Paul's part.
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Perfectly good heavyweight match. Nothing reals special though. The transition with Hughes missing the rope spot and crotching himself was pretty telegraphed, but good nonetheless.
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I was thinking Jerry Springer too. Cheesy and I wonder how much this whole angle hurt the DA in the eyes of the company. It is pretty ridiculous.
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Great promos by both and I can't wait to see the arena highlights! A pissed off, vengeful Embry should be super entertaining.
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Not bad, not good. Did they actually get people to sign this petition?
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Great segment. Heels are better when they have at least some credibility, and Eddie has a lot going for him here. Even if he is being a dick about it. Pritchard vs. Gilbert sounds like a great match!
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I don't know about ordering moms to have a good Mother's Day, but it is in character for him I guess. Decent enough match for the shape Sarge was in. That bump to the floor was freaking insane. 3 press slams is a bit much too.
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Good local hype, a little low key but still effective.
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He was burning pictures of Warrior, oh my! What will he do next?? Also, if he hates the living so much why was he helping Sid?
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Fun shootstyle match with the big suplex guy vs. smaller striker/grappler dynamic. I was a little worried after the very first ground exchange that went nowhere, but they put on a pretty good show after that was over. Even if the matwork was a little lacking in excitement. Not a huge Takada fan and his matwork being a little on the side of listless is one of the reasons. I will agree that this is one of his better bouts I have seen. I wonder if the suplexes aren't supposed to look a little less flashy than their "pro-style" counterparts?
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Bas was really giving for a non-pro-wrestler. And way better than you would expect. He had Koji at every turn on the mat, but makes him look just credible enough to buy the finish. Is BAs Rutten truly a world class grappler like he looks to be or is there just that much of a difference between the wrestling and MMA guys? I am going with the latter, I would guess the wrestling guys learn enough to be effective against your average joe. Where the MMA guys would get murdered in a real fight if they weren't up to snuff. As an example, most pro guys when they throw kicks leave themselves way off balance. If you watch you'll see where a good fighter could step out-step in real quick and clobber them with something in between. Bas is able to throw a side kick to knock Koji off the apron before putting his leg down from a high roundhouse and 100% balanced through both kicks.
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[2001-04-20-NJPW-Strong Energy] Minoru Tanaka vs Takehiro Murahama
dawho5 replied to Loss's topic in April 2001
On rewatch I loved this just as much as I did the first time. They respect the submissions enough to sell them big. I did like Murahama forcefully demonstrating why real fighters don't go for greco-roman finger locks at the 9 minute mark. A quasi-shootstyle/juniors promotion would have kept me watching wrestling if these guys were in it. -
Well, you could put a positive spin on it, wrestling-wise. We all have backlogs of stuff we have wanted to watch. Now with less new wrestling coming out you can go back and watch whatever it was you were saving for a rainy day (or stuck-at-home-three-months). I plan to acquaint myself with modern wrestling while working through the 1990s. And maybe hit up some of the old World of Sport I have laying around, love that stuff!
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I was hoping for more Liger killing Murahama late given how they built that rivalry up early. Same for Delfin and Tanaka, wished they would have had a late run of near-falls on each other with some hate there. It really is a fun match but it could have been a lot more too. Probably due to not wanting to burn the crowd out. Either way, there *is* a Murahama/Tanaka singles match that I will be rewatching soon. I am not well-versed on Osaka Pro, but I wish they'd have had somebody besides Tsubasa in this one.
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I was blown away by how great Embry is here. Also, how FAST he became a babyface.