AstroBoy

Kash and RVD do make a good team. It's a nice bit of rub for Kash while he can do some of the selling and heavy lifting. RVD gets to shine and work in quick bursts. Everyone wins. Justin Credible is impossibly bland and it's hard to buy into him here as Rhino is a million times more dynamic and works really hard here. RVD gets a hot tag and comes in and. . . does a snapmare in a moment that killed me for some reason. He and Fonzy have impeccable timing on a Van Daminator to Rhino. The overbooking at the end works really well and leads to a good finish. Good use of a TV main event. **3/4

Customary enjoyable Infernales beatdown to start the match. Great double teams, great attitude, and they finish off Mr. Niebla to end the first fall. Things get personal as Infernales go after the mask of Niebla and Niebla comes back trying to take the mask of Ultimo. Niebla was really put in a position to shine here and looked good. He got revenge spots on the Infernales after some miscommunication and Satanico gets some comeuppance outside the ring. This ends with Infernales removing the mask of Niebla. Olimpico looked pretty spry here, Lizmark was just kind of there. But a good match. ***

Totally skippable trios. Nothing big at play here and even the individual spots are just there. Everything looks fine and Safari threw a hellacious kick to Rancor Latino after the match but this was all very abrupt and by the numbers stuff. *1/2

I am in the camp that thought this was near-brilliant. The overbooking worked in this scenario and it worked really well, actually, to specifically shove the intensity of the match into a next level. It also pulled a greater sense of peril and involvement out of the crowd, so job done. I don't care how many flips Dragon Kid does, all his offense was executed well and he didn't come off like some floaty, showy, flippy guy. He was really selling and really scrapping and throwing himself into his offense (the running spin kick in the corner comes to mind). SUWA obviously was awesome bullying him, playing up his power over the smaller guy, trying to keep him down, cutting him off at opportune times and then getting caught with a flashy move and just letting him survive and survive. Big moves did have build to them and reversals and counters weren't egregious at all. It all added up to the desperation of each to put the other away. This was fabulous. ****1/4

Why is it impossible for me to find out what VOD content is on the service? I want to subscribe but only if they have a good selection of 2002-2007 stuff. The details on what this actually includes right now are pretty vague.

Typical really good match in the midst of a good run from Toryumon leading up to this. Taru was a mauler with a hellacious clothesline and a really nasty boston crab in this, a great enforcer type to complement his guys. Fuji getting worked over did mix it up and also led to CIMA's comeback with two great spots. The first being the perfectly timed miscommunication that led to Masaaki nailing the wrong man with the weapon. And then CIMA flashing the springboard dropkick turned into a moonsault mid-move. Such an awesome move. There are big nearfalls but they kind of serve to make the double countout finish feel even more "earned". If all that stuff wasn't going to end the match, then clearly the two sides have bigger things ahead and the countout only serves to beckon that. ****

I liked this quite a bit. When the clips pick things up Arai misses a headbutt but then cuts off Genki with a boot to the face which is a spot that I love -- a comeback tease taken away and then Genki gets over the hump and takes over for real. There are some really pleasing sequences they work together over Genki's finisher and Arai's piledriver that maybe fell a little too much on the cutesy side and I thought they maybe rose from one move too many at the end but it was not over the top.

Satanico was a total gem in this. The first fall he has these awesome quasi-comedy spots with Villano III and his facial expressions and charisma just go so far. I totally loved the extended heat sequence of the second fall that gradually builds to a worthy comeback. And throughout, again, Satanico is really a standout and just really impressive all the way. A really good entry as a match and as an individual performance for the year. ***1/2

This was fine but not setting the world on fire or anything. Hard to even find much to point out about the match other than some nice springboard armdrag spots worked into some of the pairings. They all seemed to be working hard, though, and this had a decent amount of time to fill and it accomplished that pretty well. Nice average match with nothing really memorable. **1/2

The clipping made this hard to kind of sink into. Some nice paced sequences between Parka and Dandy kind of hold this together in between all the other action. I really liked Dandy's performance in this as the match kind of wanders but he really comes off well. The action picks up, really, with the beatdown on Dandy to end the match. It's quite a mauling and Dandy is quite sympathetic as he takes weapon shots and even a whole case of beer over his bleeding head. I liked the angle. **1/2

I really like the energy of the tecnico team in the first fall. Fuerza takes an insane bump off a monkey flip from Lizmark, flying from one side of the ring to the other. Emilio looks pretty spry finishing the fall with a textbook rana. Second fall is good action and Fuerza executes an awesome low-blow in mid-move to steal the fall. Fuerza takes it to Rivera and Rivera valiantly fights back only to take more punishment. A Black Warrior and Charles standoff leads to a great right hand from Charles and a 100 mph tope by Warrior. Yet another foul by Fuerza steals the match. **3/4

This was pretty forgettable although business did pick up a bit more toward the end. There is also a pretty substantial section carried by the interactions of Parka and Dandy that is really enjoyable -- see Dandy throwing two amazing right hands to break up Parka's dance routine. Still I think this is pretty standard fare. **1/2

There isn't much of a match here but what is here is basic and good. Chicana takes a beating with the chain, sells big, then makes a comeback as Pirata lays out Satanico on the outside. Then suddenly we get a commercial break and when it comes back, Chicana is down and being attended to and all the extracurriculars start. It just becomes a mess at that point but the first few minutes were nice. *1/2

There was such intensity through this entire thing. All four brawl like they have just been shot out of a cannon to start the match and Perro gets brutal with Latin Lover, busting him open good with a metal sheet. The crowd is red hot as Lover takes a beating and tries valiantly to fight back into it. Lover and Garza turn into the lucha Rockers when they leapfrog each other and reverse the offense in an awesome moment. Lover takes such a huge beating early and then gives it back like a badass until the action kind of descends into a dive sequence and some nice individual exchanges. Convoluted ending but it's done well too and only added to the chaos. I really REALLY thought this was good stuff and I would have gone even higher if it had a proper resolution. As is, it's a fantastic brawl that cuts off before the resolution. ****

Natural Disasters vs. Rockers (11/3/91) Hey look at this -- a really fun brief match! Jannetty and Michaels work to their speed and use tricks to lead Typhoon and Earthquake around the ring into stooge situations. Just really sensible spots pitting strength and size versus speed and smarts that logically level the playing field. Jannetty is sliding between Earthquake's legs and running around, coming off the top rope with a cross body that Earthquake catches but of course Shawn dives off the opposite corner and topples Earthquake. Typhoon charmingly stumbles through, working a rope running sequence with Jannetty that culminates in him tripping backwards over him on all fours, thanks to a Michaels dropkick. Really cute stuff before Jannetty runs after Jimmy Hart and leaves Shawn to get crushed and beaten. Of note here, Typhoon just crushes Michaels with an elbow drop mid-match, coming down on him with so much of his weight and Heenan on commentary seems to get a real kick out of it. This is worth a quick watch.

I am going to take a few weeks off I think. The projects are piling up.

Yeah all the squashes have been pretty similar and by the numbers so far. I'm interested to see more how they work against legit opponents since I have very little memory of those matches of theirs. I'm trying to watch all their TV and PPV matches at the very least, so it may take a bit to get to late '92 but I'm looking forward to it.

Natural Disasters vs. Mark Thomas and Tony Diamond (10/6/91) Pretty boring by the numbers Disasters squash with no fun flourishes to speak of. Of note, though, Typhoon absolutely crushes one of these guys with his big splash at the end of the match. Also a fun showcase of Heenan and Monsoon's chemistry on commentary. Natural Disasters vs. Barry Hardy, Duane Gill, and Jim Arnon (10/19/91) This is a three-on-two handicap match, fun little mix-up in the middle of all these same-y squashes. Earthquake headbutts Hardy directly in the sternum. Typhoon skips the back elbow and throws a disdainful clothesline clobbering one of these guys. I'm liking it. Earthquake assists him in a pretty cool stacked sandwich in the turnbuckle on all three guys. They are building toward a Survivor Series match where Typhoon and Earthquake will team with IRS and Jake Roberts.

My review for WingedEagle, who assigned me Tully Blanchard vs. Tim Horner: http://prowrestlingonly.com/index.php?/topic/34967-nwa-world-tv-champion-tully-blanchard-vs-tim-horner-nwa-world-championship-wrestling-1387/ My pick for dkookypunk is: 2 Cold Scorpio vs. Necro Butcher from IWA-MS https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h6fzCGbpEgY

This was a real fun TV match. Tully is so good at flopping around like a fish out of water when Horner gets the better of him. And then Tully taking little shortcuts to assert his control over the match. Horner really has some spry and technically proficient offense as he executes some basic moves and uses some pin combinations that look neat. The run of nearfalls that he manages to put together get a lot of heat and Tully sells the situation well before rolling him up and using the tights to escape with the win. ***

I enjoyed some of the close quarters battling between these two guys, throwing short little shots at each other's faces. Regal looks impressive performing a somersault senton and also a blue thunder driver at one point, liked his matwork early on too. Reckless does a nice job cutting him off and finding opportunities to go on offense, and it builds to a nice quick ending off the missed moonsault. **1/4

These two are getting this down to a great pace of seamlessly building in and out of impressive spots while chaining the story of the match along and keeping the crowd with them. It feels like Dragon, in particular, is starting to shoot higher in these matches and try for some bigger things. Spanky is just really great at taking his offense and working with him all around. It's funny looking at this stuff in retrospect because my instinct is to say that Spanky is a little underappreciated for his role across from Dragon. But at the time I'm pretty sure it would have been the other way around. ***1/2

Strong match. They both really go for it with the grappling and locking up and it's just these little gritty moments that take this so much farther. There is an incredible intensity and legitimacy to all we're seeing between these two. I could have used a little stronger leg selling from Ki but that's deep nitpicking I think. The miscommunication spot with Reil and the chair also comes off pretty laughably bad but this was really good overall. ***3/4

Rock solid tag match. Russ and Charlie were so good on offense, a deep array of flashy and technical moves. Never dull when they were working over Mafia as they pull out all kinds of impressive moves both individual and double team. The crowd was pretty insufferable just constantly chanting lewd and unfunny stuff in an attempt to amuse themselves. Hit Squad sell the beating and make a nice comeback that leads to a kind of anti-climactic rollup finish. As solid as Hit Squad are, I thought the Haas Brothers looked like real world-beaters in the making here. ***1/2

Dixie and Quack stand out here with both displaying some fun offense and Dixie getting a chance to get beaten up and look good doing it. Some really shoddy stuff comes from Zieg and Wheeler the longer they go and I was legitimately surprised to see Hurtz win this. Homicide seemed so wasted as he hardly got a chance to be used to his full potential. The beginning of this was much better than what this turned into. **