AstroBoy

This was a solid garbage stunt show. The carving with nails and scissors was pretty gruesome and the big layered glass and light tube spot came off well. Wifebeater runs in for a fuck finish, continuing the overly complicated and needless finishes CZW has been giving us. All three guys brawl to the back. At least it was crowd pleasing while it lasted and the reveal of Pondo was actually pretty well done. **

Okay so it's go go go and there are so many spots that none of them get a chance to mean that much. Ric Blade botches some stuff and a lot of stuff comes off as awkward, I'm thinking mainly of the Total Elimination with the ladder being held by Kashmere. WAY too much stuff is kicked out of and there are some insane things done in this match. But this was a really awesome and wild indy spotfest. The opening sequence is kind of business exposing but a legitimately hot opening and felt modern even today. Some of the spots in this are just brutal and unreal. Acid taking the moonsault with a chair over his face while being held in a surfboard. The swanton which was truly death-defying. The Acid Drop wedging Blade's head into the open ladder was crazy. There is a lot of wow factor here and I'm likely to watch this sometime when I just want a crazy spotfest to enjoy. And that counts for something. ***1/2

This was a bizarre sight. I was convinced that wasn't actually Shibata until I really looked. And out of the two of them, I came away from this thinking that Tanahashi looked more natural. At least on the mat. They worked together well and fit in fine within the match and Shibata is more convincing as a striker here, but Tanahashi looked smooth when he was in the match. Ohtani targets Shibata and brings a veteran presence but also a disinterested vibe. This was just kind of there, but Shibata and Tanahashi are clearly hungry and trying to make the most of their opportunity here. **1/4

Strong Nishimura performance portraying skill, savvy, and real toughness around a monster in Nakanishi. Nish comes off like a real fighter and tough guy for surviving some big shots and finding openings for his octopus hold and he DRILLS Nakanishi with those missile dropkicks. Only real downside here is that Nakanishi just kind of shrugs all of it off and puts him away. I would have preferred at least some sense of effort or exhaustion on Nakanishi's part.

I loved Sasaki just punching Kojima in the face and battering him while tossing the ref around. The trading of lariats fell a little flat for me past a certain point. It never really felt like overkill, it just felt unnecessary. This worked a lot better with Sasaki bullying Kojima and him fighting to stay in it than it did as a 50-50 toughman contest.

Liger looked awesome here and unfortunately Nagata sort of was just along for the ride. Nagata slaps his knee and stomps it out a few times to ultimately blow off Liger's great leg attack. And again Liger is just sort of bowled over by the heavyweight in pseudo-dismissable fashion. It wasn't bad, just more of an overarching problem I'm having with these clipped G-1 matches so far. Especially these with juniors and/or underdogs trying to topple someone.

Natural Disasters vs. Chris Michaels and Sonny Blaze (9/1/91) Awesome. Earthquake with a nice dropkick early on here. Typhoon just tosses Michaels I believe with a snap suplex and splashes him in the corner. Then he takes him to the other corner and hits a leaping splash to the torso that looks even better. This had a little bit more of a mean streak than some of the previous squashes. Also, this aired following the Summerslam match and Heenan alludes to the Natural Disasters taking on Legion of Doom in the future. Natural Disasters vs. Brian Donahue and Mike Fury (9/14/91) Jimmy Hart helps these squashes along with his ringside candor. Come on, Typhoon. You can throw a better back elbow than that. He throws such a bored back elbow. But he later connects on a kick to the torso that looked like a spastic child throwing a tantrum. And I mean that in a good way. Like, it was a moment of real anger and bad intentions from a relatively docile monster. Typhoon is not the most emotive.

Yeah I'm also in. I currently have Club WWN, Powerbomb, Highspots, and WWE Network.

This was a very very enjoyable sprint tag from IWC Socal. I don't know what became of them but Matlock and Willis are an exciting team and look really polished as a unit, finishing the match with a sort of proto-Shatter Machine. Both guys kept up their end of the bargain while Kazarian flawlessly busted out some great springboard spots and really looked like a big-leaguer in the making. Sakoda was probably the least impressive in this but he didn't stick out terribly. This match feels like a step up from IWC Socal's previous offerings and also a much better look at Kazarian. ***1/4

Natural Disasters vs. Bushwhackers (8/26/91) This is the grudge match at Summerslam. Surprisingly the Bushwhackers run wild early on and Typhoon and Earthquake bump for them. I actually was a little disappointed that they bump so easily for them considering how they were being built up to this point. Bushwhackers stand around like jackasses and just let Earthquake take over on offense. We get little new on offense from the Disasters. Both use backbreakers and work over the back in general and it's fine. Typhoon is pretty unconvincing trying to do a wobbly sell job before finally going down and giving the Bushwhackers a nice nearfall. Earthquake cuts them off and gets the finish. This was awfully stilted and not a great outing from either team but I'm not exactly expecting hidden gems here. It should be noted that Andre the Giant was ringside with the Bushwhackers here but did essentially nothing. Bonus: Western Pacific typhoon season yielded 17 typhoons in 1990, including 4 of the super typhoon variety. Did this in any way inspire Vince to slap the Typhoon gimmick on Fred Ottman? Unlikely.

I want to make a better effort at keeping up with the current indy scene. Absolutely have to attend at least one show, if not a few shows, this year. Finish viewing of pwo2k year 2000 at the very least. Finish my Microscope project on Typhoon. Get back into Puerto Rico and Portland sets. Continue traditional year-end awards with my girlfriend for the third year in the a row.

Natural Disasters vs. Doug Carson and Stan Saxon (8/3/91) Natural Disasters vs. Hutch Thomas and Mike Russell (8/11/91) I'll just group these together as they are both TV squashes that go under 3 minutes again and they are largely the same as everything that's come before. They run through their stuff -- splashes in the corner, body slams by each, some clobbering, and double splash for the finish. Nothing standout but it's early in their run and they are in the process of building to the Bushwhackers match with Andre at ringside. I don't remember Andre being part of this at all. Natural Disasters vs. Russ Greenberg and Ray Garcia (8/18/91) This is the Summerslam Spectacular. Typhoon comes through for me here as he busts out his elbow drop again, flattens one of these jabronies with his most emphatic splash yet and best of all pulls out a dropkick! It was a strange dropkick that looked almost like the predecessor to what would become the codebreaker these days but it was just refreshing to see him sprinkle in some panache here. Made this squash a lot more fun

Thanks for the support. Tenta has been far more interesting to me so far but I figured he has his fans out there. Hopefully Typhoon will give me something of interest along the way.

Wagner just relishes his vicious low blow on Villano III to steal the win and milks it for so much in a glorious theft of the second fall. Black Warrior comes like a projectile missile and almost flies into the crowd on his tope, just totally insane. Villano III delivers a receipt low blow on Wagner with extreme vigor and falls to the mat, convincing the referee that he is the one who took the foul for the win. Villano is openly gleeful about this, excellent stuff. This did indeed look like an awesome matchup but what is here is good stuff. **3/4

Cool project on one of my personal favorites as well. Enjoyable read, thanks for doing this. Makes me want to go back and watch some Bret matches now.

Projects motivate me and I've been looking to take somebody totally random and do a deep dive on them to find. . . something. Mostly, just to give me something to pursue and I think it'll be fun. Typhoon popped into my mind as he so often does and so here comes a retrospective on the run of Typhoon in the WWF. Natural Disasters vs. Bill Sampson and Bob Abbott (6/29/91) This is on Superstars and it's right after Typhoon turned on the Bushwhackers and eschewed the Tugboat identity. Vince and Piper spend a lot of time recounting why Typhoon felt disrespected and call back to him getting thrown out of the Rumble by Hogan. I remember none of this. As for the match there is hardly anything here except Earthquake throwing an ugly knee to the gut and Typhoon dropping a nice hearty elbow to the chest. Natural Disasters vs. Matthew Burns and Scott Carlson (7/7/91) From Wrestling Challenge. This is a tad bit meatier and more enjoyable than their TV debut. Typhoon hits two nice splashes in the corner and disdainfully steps over one of the scrubs on his way to tag in Earthquake. It should be noted that Earthquake hits some sweet leaping toe kicks in the corner. We get a Bushwhackers insert promo during the match. Typhoon's splash to set up the Earthquake splash looked really good. Not a great squash or anything but not bad. Natural Disasters vs. Bobby Jones and Larry Ludden (7/21/91) Nothing of note here as they build to a Summerslam match against Bushwhackers. Typhoon gets to shrug off some dropkicks before hitting his big splash in the corner but Earthquake pretty easily upstages him in this. Much better at using his agility and far better presence too. I do love the double team finish with Typhoon finishing things off with his typhoon splash this time. Looking forward to this.

This was largely fine but honestly it just didn't grab me very much and there seemed to be no sense of urgency here. Perro's charisma and mannerisms go a long way but his athleticism betrays him on certain spots in this and it doesn't always come across super well. That said, there was nothing really dislikable about this besides the fact that it really didn't stand out of the pack. **3/4

Dr. Cerebro and Ramirez are the showcase here and they carry things for their respective sides. Cerebro comes across like a real pro and really punishes Ramirez. Rodi and Star Boy both look pretty sloppy and work through some awkward sequences admirably enough. A really enjoyable offering though from IWRG. ***1/2

Good idea and I'd be up for it in any form that it takes.

This was pretty good action with Nagata looking one step ahead of Iizuka. His counter throw to the rear naked choke was pretty slick and he uses some pretty doggedly applied submissions to pick up the win in what looked like a decent match from what is shown here.

A fun juniors tag built largely around interactions between Kanemoto and Otani. Those two look predictably sharp outside of a weird clunky dueling spin kick sequence that fell flat. Otani in particular was arrogant and dismissive and had some fun exchanges where Makabe kept up his end pretty well. He showed some pretty nice fire and took the fight back to Otani. Still, Otani gets the win here in a fun match. **3/4

I liked Nagata's intensity in this and on paper this looks like a good matchup. I like to see Fujinami grappling here and the crowd seems really amped to see Nagata put him away with a suplex for the big win.

Hirata didn't look so hot in this and it looked to be a pretty tedious match with them trying to ramp up the drama down the stretch but it didn't really stand out much. Disappointing to see Takaiwa again take a loss but still happy to see him in this.

Liger finds himself in a similar uphill battle just like with Fujinami. But he has great crowd support and runs off some good offense before finally succumbing to a rear naked choke from the back mount. This was pretty enjoyable while it lasted.

Satanico is a mean bastard in the first fall as his partners tie up Tarzan Boy and he just tees off on Tarzan Boy in the most disrespectful way possible. I never tire of these orchestrated dismantlings from Infernales. They are such a joy to watch divide and conquer early on in these trios. Technico comeback is fun enough and Satanico has a nice payback spot as he begs off from all three guys. Satanico gets a pinning combo on Tarzan Boy and continues to torment him by using the ropes for a cheap pin in two straight falls.