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dawho5

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Everything posted by dawho5

  1. dawho5
    I loved how fun this match was. And how Espectrito and Piratito obviously learned their punching from Satanico! The fact that there was great structure and substance in addition to all of the awesome spots really elevates this for me.
  2. dawho5
    I think I have Meltzer's hot takes and general lack of real content in his Twitter figured. He's trying to hang on to subscribers any way he can. Let's face it, what he does is no longer as necessary as it was in the 90s or early 2000s. You don't need the Observer or the Torch or whatever other newsletter whose writer you agree with on wrestling to tell you about what happened in this promotion across the world. It's all on a streaming service that at least 5 people who post on the same board as you do have. Writers like Dave Meltzer are becoming marginalized by the sheer availability of wrestling and he's just hanging on for dear life. I say this not as a commentary on Meltzer himself. I think the world has changed and pro wrestling changed with it. Meltzer just wants to keep doing what he loves and getting paid for it, which is completely understandable.
  3. dawho5
    The transition to Flair's offense is top-notch. Flair's control does drag when he runs out of new things to do and starts repeating himself. Should have known better than to give himself that much time on offense without a Savage mini-comeback. The finish was all kinds of weird with all the officials hounding Liz for no reason at all distracting from the issue at hand. I get that Liz was Savage's distraction, but it didn't even faze either of the wrestlers in the ring. It was just kind of there...for no good reason. Then the officials holding Savage down when Flair and Perfect started stomping away at him and not letting him defend himself was just stupid. The promos pre- and post-match were definitely great and I could watch these two feud forever.
  4. dawho5
    As face vs. face matches go, this was tremendously well-done. I'd agree that Piper has better singles matches (Buddy Rose, dog collar). This match is about as good as you're going to get from still-80s style WWF face vs. face. There was enough heat, small heelish actions by both in the heat of the moment and competitiveness to buy into. And then at the end Piper plays it classy, which is just the cherry on top. Bobby did do very well during the bell segments.
  5. dawho5
    I love seeing early Volk after falling in love with his later work as a younger wrestling fan. It highlights how much he grew as a worker. Later on he would drop a lot of the more effective striking and put a very big emphasis on being the stronger guy on the mat. It made for a better story dealing with Han surviving the other guy's strikes and taking it to the mat. This felt less like an exhibition than the first bout Maeda and Han had for sure. I also liked Han's reluctance to go after Maeda's taped knee and the way it showed when he was feeling threatened by Maeda when he did. Good second bout that sets up future encounters by presenting the question of whether Han would have won if Maeda's knee had been 100%. Edit: For those familiar with the Tekken series, the character Dragunov is very strongly based off of Volk Han. I didn't realize it until watching this match specifically.
  6. dawho5
    I didn't think much of Barr at all based on this match. I've seen very little of him and I didn't think his offense or selling did him any favors here. His rudo mannerisms and post-match promo salvaged this. Put me in the camp that doesn't think there was enough hate for a mask/mask match. Also seemed like Barr was working a very American/Japanese style while on top. Not sure if that was on purpose or not.
  7. dawho5
    Atlantis is easily one of my favorite luchadors. He's solid all-around and when he goes up top he is such a graceful and smooth high flier that it's hard for me not to love watching him. So few guys who do those really flippy aerial moves can do them in a way that doesn't leave the opponent standing waiting to catch them. It's one of the things that I appreciate most about Atlantis.
  8. dawho5
    I did like this, but for some different reasons. I will get to those. Jumbo took a LOT of this match though. He started hot after the countering sequence and really put Misawa in a hole. It never really seemed like Misawa got in enough to truly be a threat to take the match though. The reason Misawa got the facelock win was because he had worn Jumbo down. Here the facelock is used to wear Jumbo down to where Misawa has an outside shot at winning. Jumbo never really looked in danger of losing this. And yes, this felt like a 30 minute draw from the early going. One thing I liked was one of the callbacks to earlier matches. Jumbo crotching himself on the ropes when he went for the dropkick and finding a way to recover this time was a very nice touch. Another thing is the narrative that mirrors later ideas Baba used. This is the match after we have established Misawa can hang with Jumbo and push him, but not quite beat him. The match where Jumbo re-asserts his dominance and lets the kid know that it's not time yet with authority. We see this later on with Misawa and Kawada. It also gets across the idea that Misawa's basic offense is dangerous and even peppered in between taking a massive beating it is effective. That is the very base of Misawa's match-long comebacks, which we see here with him as the underdog instead of the top dog. Easily the worst of their singles matches, but it has a lot going for it nonetheless.
  9. dawho5
    Didn't care for the middle portion as much as the beginning and the end. It almost seems like Baba had that 1,4 vs. 2,3 idea in mind before Jumbo was out of the picture. Just Taue was a closer 4 who could conceivably put Kawada away on his own with enough of a run (like in this match) towards the end.
  10. dawho5
    I didn't think this was awful. I don't expect much from Sid and this was actually more on point than most of Hogan's promos towards Sid. If his job is to play a jacked-up on steroids crazy man, Sid could do far, far worse.
  11. dawho5
    A lot has been said about how good this match was. And I can't help but agree! Such a seamless match worked with great intensity all the way through. I was pumped as soon as I saw who would be wrestling in the match and I got more than I bargained for. Steamer taking out Rude and choking him was such a great way to get payback. I was surprised the Turner people allowed that on TV.
  12. dawho5
    I thought this was a great brawl. The out-for-revenge-jobbers at ringside was a really nice twist on the lumberjack theme. I do question the need to put over the Moondogs this strong continually. The babyfaces need a bit more left after the match to keep things hot going forward.
  13. dawho5
    Great wild, violent brawl between two guys who are great at them.
  14. dawho5
    I liked this as a cheeseball tribute to 80s wrestling. And it got under the skin of all the right people, including the fans, so it definitely works.
  15. dawho5
    Very good video package. Made me want to see more of both, so it did it's job.
  16. dawho5
    Great, great promo from DWB. He really gets the fire across without going into heel territory, which is hard to do.
  17. dawho5
    Great promo from Flair. I echo the concern over his wardrobe. It's just not Ric Flair at all.
  18. dawho5
    This was kind of like the Viper interview for me. Schticky wrestling fun. It's nothing brilliant, but I thought it was well-executed enough to work. The Sportatorium crowd, small as it might be, was buying into it too.
  19. dawho5
    This was pretty damn funny. I liked Craig's reactions to the Viper and the banter between the two just as silly wrestling fun.
  20. dawho5
    I for one enjoyed the matwork a lot, mostly due to how it was always work and not sitting in a hold for either. Kobashi's tactical error of giving up the controlling holds (he is well under Kawada at this point) and starting to try and beat him into submission is a key story point, so it's necessary to lay that groundwork first. Kawada on top and selling is great. The stretch run is tremendous and works up to the moonsault and powerbomb really well. So well that, having not seen this match in forever, I bit on the powerbomb nearfall. I did spot some awkward moments in the stretch run, but not near enough to bring it down very far. I would agree it's the best standalone singles match from 1992 so far even if it's not their absolute best. It doesn't hurt that 1992-1993 AJPW is my favorite era because the matwork still meant something.
  21. dawho5
    I really enjoyed Fujiwara's heeling here. The way he dumbed down his offense even more standing up and cowered away from any of Vales strikes was great. Great crowd to boot. Really good match and very unique.
  22. dawho5
    High Octane with the good building win. Sheik is a guy who can always piss off the fans. Oliver continues his unlikely babyface run. Oh man, I can't imagine this will help matters between Power and the Assassins. By the way, that would be a really good workrate feud. SBS busting Brickhouse open like that just ups the ante. I LOVE what you did on the 23rd with those tag matches. You tagged the heels from two singles feuds together against the faces from a tag feud. And the opposite. Then the tag feuds made sure to get involved in both matches. Good stuff there. Even sets up a tag match between the singles feud teams down the line. Oh man, Cooley pinning Fernandez when neither is the legal man is such a great finish. I can just hear DiBiase and the Twosome bitching already. Kerry with the good title defense. It's not quite on the level of the Funk and Nikita matches, but good match and it elevates Crews. Chris Youngblood can't quite prove himself against Crews. Honky with a nice squash. Link vs. Lewin!! St. Clair sure didn't look a gift horse in the mouth there. Good work keeping these feuds going without them facing one another on these two shows. Flame may be tough, but I'll give Bad News the edge in that match for sure. Big win for Casey with some help. I'm pretty sure that semi-main six man with the Honky run-in should have happened somewhere in Tennessee. Orndorff and Singh brawling with a sword involved. Gonna say that works. You always put on shows that would give fans probably double their money's worth. Not only that, but the way you handle a roster of guys that are not necessarily main event guys, with some notable exceptions, and give them things to do that would get them over is awesome. No wasted movement and everything builds towards something else. I told you a long while back that you needed to start finding your own way of doing things to shine and you ran farther with that than I ever could have anticipated. Great work all-around sir.
  23. dawho5
    Garvin talking himself into a corner is always something a crowd will love. Keith starting in on Bruce like that is definitely a sign of trouble. The battle of the Davises! Embry and Charland both with big wins. Gino stalling with the explanation, hmm. Bruce is finally getting to the point where he has enough of Keith. Maybe Owen too. Gantner proves to be a good loser. I will echo the likes for the "loser can't challenge" match. Dutch and Candido, what a team! A win for Martel, yes! Whoa, Invader 2 really killed Davis. Embry definitely needs something to do. He's too entertaining to be a midcard guy without a feud. Crews will be crowing about that win for sure. Brito is getting a bit of a push here. I like it. Rougeaus over the Harts, I'm sure that's going to go somewhere. Rough night for Medico 3. And I'm sure Garvin will put the blame squarely on him too, lol. The way you bring the entire NWA into your shows is such a huge boost for the game as a whole. It really gives a sense of teamwork and togetherness to the NWA that might not have actually existed, but it was fun to be a part of for sure.
  24. dawho5
    I like how MUTA is being put over in the States so far. Can't say I am super excited for Bravo/Atlas and the Russians. Maybe if Bravo is wrestling like he did in Lutte and not the WWF. Love the Rockers making sure everyone knows they are underdogs against the Horsemen, but they won't stop trying. The Harts and Demo should be a really good match. Nasties living up to their name, as they should. As always you kill it with the Horsemen. Great match between Hennig and Valentine with an even better post-match. When is the rematch? Savage with a great money promo to end the show and we are ready for SNME! The way you handle the WWF is absolutely awesome, from keeping all of the feuds hot to getting the tone right on the big promos to just finding the right way to build guys up. It's such an improvement on what the WWF actually did during that time. It's such a great mix of fantasy booking and the way things actually worked.
  25. dawho5
    I won't be continuing with the project. The recent change in formats for me was done out of a need to make things different for myself because it really felt like a chore writing for reasons not related to the length of my shows. For whatever reason I just wan't feeling it anymore. My original plan was to push through until September 20th, but not everything works out the way you want it to. It came time to write this weekend and I just wanted to do other things. I wish you all the best of luck. You're all fun to work with in something like this and I hope nobody thinks this is because of them.
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