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dawho5

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Everything posted by dawho5

  1. dawho5
    Glad this was short.
  2. dawho5
    I was unhappy with both Bigelow and Vader for letting themselves get suplexed around early. I agree that stuff should be special. I am always struck by how uniquely Mutoh even moves from one place to another. Such a ubiquitous wrestler. I found myself wondering early if we'd see a giant swing. Hase's slaps and lariat were really awesome. Once Hase's cut is exposed the match goes all southern tag, which is awesome because Vader and Bam Bam are both great. Vader not succumbing to Mutoh's half-hearted stomps when he is pinning Hase is great and I think that kind of stuff should happen more often. I thought we'd get a hot tag, but instead we get Hase staying in and a bunch of double teaming to take out the big guys. As surprising developments go, not the best but they make it work mostly. Hase is put over huge in this match for his toughness and spirit, and I would agree that there are 3 world-class performances here. I wouldn't quite say it was a MOTYC either, if they get the finish a little better and the big guys act like big guys early instead of shining up the babyfaces it might be.
  3. dawho5
    Man, I think Sleeze (2 es) hit it on the head for what I thought of this. I thought the first half was great. But the problem comes when it becomes a standard juniors finishing stretch and it is clear Liger has way more in the way of big offense than Samurai. I did love Liger losing his shit and going off, I missed that in earlier matches (since I had seen later Liger before that). My guess is the Samurai being carried comments stem from him not having the juice to keep up with Liger late. Maybe building Samurai up a little longer so he has a couple of significant bombs to throw in towards the end would have made the match better. My guess is they needed somebody new as Liger had run the table on everyone else so far. Very good to in the neighborhood of great match.
  4. dawho5
    Was Hulk officially out at this point? Good promo, even if I dread seeing even a minute of the Sid/Warrior match.
  5. dawho5
    Why were heels singing for charity? Doesn't that go against the cartoony heels in the company at the time? That 'Taker vs. Berzerker match they were hyping apparently didn't make the set. Shocker.
  6. dawho5
    This was sure forgettable.
  7. dawho5
    That was some burial of Luger. I didn't realize there was a war going on for freedom in Canada in the 90s. Another uncomfortable looking child in an interview.
  8. dawho5
    Great subdued promo from Embry. I suspect this came from the 1980s blinding of Carlos Colon by Abdullah the Butcher. Good way to turn Embry babyface though.
  9. dawho5
    Odd to say, but at this point Brian Christopher is farther along than Eddie Guerrero when we've seen him. As an aside, what is the deal with all the national TV networks not wanting all the "violent, hardcore wrestling", but Memphis had kids show up all the time and it's hard to find matches without foreign objects involved. And that whole Moondog thing.
  10. dawho5
    Beckley really took some shots here....wow. Are they wrestling against the Fantastics or the town?
  11. dawho5
    I thought Gordy looked really good here. He didn't lay on the mat in rest holds, but went after Misawa with varied (and big!) offense. I was a little concerned when he hit 2 backdrops a few minutes into the match, should have saved those for later. I will give Gordy a lot of credit for setting Misawa's offense up great by being in perfect position for the next move. I liked the callback to 6/8/90 for the finish.
  12. dawho5
    I was mixed on this one. I really like Toyota on the mat because she keeps things moving through different holds instead of just resting. Inoue does too, but is more willing to sit in something she has to keep Toyota grounded. As the match goes on Inoue goes back to a crab, which may seem odd in a match with this kind of pace. But I think it was more about her trying to sap away Toyota's momentum, which is her biggest strength. That triple dive by Toyota was super fucking impressive. In regards to the "feats" thing Loss mentioned, it did cross my mind that both of these two are insanely in shape and have motors that refuse to quit. And with Kyoko you wouldn't ever guess it looking at her. Manami Toyota doesn't really look all that athletic, just kinda average really. Both would have run circles around 85% or more of wrestlers given the ridiculous pace they can maintain when they have to.
  13. dawho5
    Bull is amazing. The more I see of here the more I think she is a top worker of all time. Kind of like a more agile Vader, but a woman? Anyway, loved this match. As an aside, why does this ref bother checking anyone? We know this is going to go into the stands and Aja is going to use her garbage cans. So do you, Mr. referee and there ain't shit you can do to stop it, so drop the pretense of control.
  14. dawho5
    I thought the Samurai long dive was way too long to actually connect, even if covering that distance was impressive. Eddie's springboard plancha is really unique and I honestly wish he had kept doing it. Lot of botches, but you can see flashes of brilliance from Eddie.
  15. dawho5
    That pre-match gear from Eddie was awesome. The match was good enough. Eddie did get to kick out of a Liger powerbomb, so there is that.
  16. dawho5
    I honestly thought this was a set-up for some kind of attack. Regardless, WCW's production could use some work.
  17. dawho5
    Just...why? Was this supposed to make money at some point?
  18. dawho5
    I was thinking WWF during this part too. Eh, everyone has misfires.
  19. dawho5
    My two favorite wrestlers in one place! Did Stone Cold steal his vest from Hansen? I was shocked they got the full intros done before Hansen attacked Kawada. One thing I always love about these 2 wrestling is every small thing is earned. Hansen and Kawada fight everything all the way to the finish and that adds a lot to the match. They even fight back (usually ineffectively) when they are on their back under the ropes trying to avoid what comes next. I LOVE that. A small thing I noticed was the official sitting next to the bell noticed Hansen eyeing it and moved it to a safer location. Hansen's powerbomb on the outside is an emphatic admission that Kawada's offense is worrying him and he needs to start putting him away NOW. That apron elbow was so great by Kawada. Loved when the crowd started to believe Kawada had a chance. Hansen's facial expression when he starts making his big push towards the end is incredible. Kawada kicking out of that powerbomb was absolutely huge. Great match that puts Kawada over as a contender.
  20. dawho5
    Yeah, I would agree. Adding them in did help the WWE in the short term and you can always cycle them in and out as you mention. The highlight of what you said for me is "how best to use them." Every wrestler has strengths (and weaknesses) that can be used to make compelling characters on-screen. It is just a matter of finding where they fit in the overall tapestry, not trying to plug them all into one singular system.
  21. dawho5
    I was actually thinking of it in a way that Kevin Sullivan described it when talking about mid-90s WCW. He didn't understand why people thought Benoit/Eddie/Malenko/etc. were thinking they should be the main guys. He understood why, but he talked about it in the sense that the whole thing was a circus and you had all these different styles of attractions for different people. The cruiserweights brought in some, as did some of the other non-mainstream types that populated the midcard. But you got a lot more people watching due to the Hogans and Flairs of the world because they knew those guys and would tune in despite the tendency towards less going on in those later matches on the show. I remember watching and wondering why Hogan and the NWO got all the love they did (this was towards the end of that run) and the more exciting in-ring guys who had more action in the matches weren't pushed more. I get it now and have for a whole, but I wonder if maybe towards 99-2000 they might not have gotten some benefit from putting some more active guys in the main event scene. I look back at that and wonder if maybe WCW management wasn't a little behind the curve in what would have sold to TV audiences at the time. Part of the reason ECW got so big was they had the more athletic guys in main event spots. They had a decent run on TNN before their talent was gutted.
  22. dawho5
    This was better than Eddie/Casas, yes. I thought there were a few miscommunications that they recovered from really well. What was the crowd laughing about in the early going? They really ramped this up towards the end with the big dives and near-falls. Finish was kind of anti-climactic, but you need roll-up finishes in sequences like that. Otherwise what is the point of using them as near-falls? Both guys did look great and I really like this matchup.
  23. dawho5
    Perfectly good match. Despite the stiff chops I was left thinking this looked more like an exhibition than a really competitive match. Maybe it was the abruptness of the finish?
  24. dawho5
    This last return to watching wrestling I am noticing things I was probably too set in my ways to notice before. I give a lot of matches a shot that I might not have before due to being more open to the changes that took place since (big surprise here) the early to mid 90s. I still retain the idea that national exposure breeds a certain kind of homogenization (I like your reasoning on why) and I tend towards liking wrestling that is less rather than more homogenized. 2 and 3 were more leaps that helped me reason out (using the same phenomenon under different circumstances) something that had long irritated me about AJPW. The 1990s AJPW model was never going to work long term, just like the territories. The worst part is Baba had a great talent (Takayama) sitting on his midcard that he had no interest in. Just goes to show that you can be a complete and total genius in some ways and clueless in others. My feeling on Kawada is that he was the guy always pushing for working with other companies to freshen things up. I know it got him in trouble when Baba was around and he was really active, as well as super adaptable in style, after everyone left and he started doing cross-promotional matches. Personally, Kawada has always been my favorite of the 4 Pillars. This last return to watching wrestling I am noticing things I was probably too set in my ways to notice before.
  25. dawho5
    I guess I do the short version since everyone covered my takes. Great selling by Savage. Great shine with selling throughout. HUGE bump by Sherri off the apron. Really good work by Shawn on the knee. Finish out of nowhere, but it makes sense given Savage's injury.
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