GOTNW
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[2006-03-22-Big Mouth Loud] Kazunari Murakami vs Kensuke Sasaki
GOTNW replied to GOTNW's topic in March 2006
Like I haven't watched it already It's a great match. I'll see whether or not internet wayback machine preserved my review. I'm a big Sugiura fan as well but he's definitely not as good as Sasaki. I think the NOAH style was doomed once it became about "the stuff" rather than about constructing matches that happened to include "the stuff", but for a while they still had enough workers good enough to have great matches in that style. I still think peak Sugiura was a great performer-but getting that style right took a lot of effort , and he was never the type of wrestler to get more out of doing less and never seemed to grasp how to build a match in a way to get the crowd invested in it and maximize the reactions to what he's doing. He just went out there and did his stuff, sometimes to thunderous applause and sometimes (and predominantly in recent years) to crickets. -
I'd rather not equate recklessness to stiffness. That match was incredibly dumb. Sasha could easily break her neck on a throwaway spot one of these days. She's already talked about how hurt she is due to all the bumping and she suffered a concussion very recently. So someone relatively injury-prone doing stuff like that is just insane.
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Strowman is awesome and this squash ruled. The jobber was good enough, selling his hand when he punched Strowman and bumping nicely but this was all about Strowman throwing him around and treating him like a punching bag. Less thigh slapping midgets more wrestlers tall enough to play at least a power forward that refuse to bump please.
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I don't think sloppiness is inherently bad but with the kind of workrate matches they're attempting to have they are a clear obstacle that I don't see going away any time soon unless they start doing crazy AJW dojo excersises which I don't see happening on road life. Sttill there was a lot of good stuff in here that gives me hope a month of reversal could be enough for these two to come up with something really good. Sasha's straight jacket looked great and using a pin to set up the Banks Statement was something you'd expect from Dick Togo and not a random Raw match. I really love how they follow through on their bumps, it made Sasha's Baseball Slide and Meteora from the apron look absolutely amazing. They also did a good job of using kicks as transitions, so anyone making a case for Emma's inclusion into a hall of fame based on influence take notice. Sasha's facial expressions while Charlotte stretched her were the most cringe worthy thing I've seen in a long time. It's frustrating how in the same match there are times they come off as doing something amazing and revolutionary and at other times it looks more like a 2008 Diva match. Sasha's Suicide Dive was insane-but also something worth criticising for its recklessness a lot more than a 70 year old man headbutting a ringpost. I have nothing against emotional performances in pro wrestling but Sasha faux-crying after not getting a pin isn't exactly reminiding me of Hokuto, Ohtani and Santo. Charlotte's Suplex-twisting Neckbreaker move also looks incredibly stupid. The Moonsault is a thing of beauty tho. Finishing stretch was fun and it was surprising to see them actually go through with a clean finish instead of opting for a DQ and delaying the title change once again. **3/4
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Boring, meaningless match that shouldn't have lasted more than thirty seconds. Nothing was bad tehnically-they're trained pro wrestlers who can hit their spots clean but there was zero reason to care about anything here. Why is a jobber whom the commentator are making fun of taking so much of a showcase match for a returning face? It doesn't make Neville look sympathetic, it makes him look incompetent and you think no wonder this guy's never going to amount to anything in the fed.
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I liked how this was structured a lot more than the previous fatal 4 way, everyone going after Reigns in the beginning made for an interesting dynamic, only problem was that I don't think anyone in this match other than Reigns is a consistently good wrestler in 2016. What this match did give us was some interesting cut-offs, Jericho breaking up Sheamus' 10 punch combo with a Springboard Dropkick, Sheamus using the Brogue Kick to break up Jericho's Boston Crab and to cut off Reigns while he was cleaning house, Jericho countering Zayn's Springboard DDT by just pulling him down, all really cool ideas that were executed well. Reigns not allowing Jericho's midlife crisis cover to get even a one count was amusing and the finish was reminiscent of a 2013 Shield six man tag, Roman was on fire, unfortunately old man Jericho botched a big spot but Reigns recovered well enough by just picking him back up and punching him in the face again. **3/4
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Awesome squash, Nia Jax looked great here, overwhelming the jobber with her power and throwing her around, I particularly loved her smashing her face into the canvas and the corner splash. Not big on the Legdrop finish at all, I was hoping she'd use the Headbutt to finish her off once she broke up the pin on the first Legdrop as it looked great. **3/4
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Things I liked: Cesaro's Suplex counter to Rusev's Camel Clutch and that whole sequence between them (tho I find it laughable someone could go crazy over 2016 Cesaro and shit on everything in New Japan when stuff like the no-sell Lariat Cesaro busted out here is such an obvious rip from that style), Balor inexplicably targeting Rusev's balls and Owen's bigger moves (Fireman's Carry Neckbreaker and his Air Raid Crash variation both looked great). Things I didn't like: The brawling (Rusev's and Cesaro's punches in particular are lackluster, Rusev's strikes look good any time he's doing wacky forearm smashes and he should stick to them), everyone having to get all of their shit in and the obligatory tower of doom spot, Rusev not breaking up Owens' pin, awkward feeding (Owens' rolling out of the ring after being Dropkicked by Balor in the middle of the ring and Cesaro staring at an idiot at Rusev as he is about to eat a Superkick), kicks obviously not connecting (Rusev's spinning heel and Balor's Pele) and telegraphing the finish even more by having Balor sell the Powerbomb for as long as he did. All in all a pretty average and formulaic take on this type of match in the WWE style. **1/2
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You can shoot me a PM in the future if you don't know the first names (Katsumi Usuda, Kengo Mashimo, Kenichi Yamamoto)
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I would start a thread for that promo if I could find what Impact it aired on.
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I'll believe it when I see it. Seems like Paul and his team feeding false information in another desperate attempt for Evolve to retain its indy cred.
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Isn't USA network in a pinch right now? I doubt they can afford to drop their most watched programme.
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There's been talk about WWE dying for fifteen years now. They'll be fine. They're still in their comfort zone. Their biggest problem now is overexposure. A brand split could help here if they went about it that way-keeping Raw guys off Smackdown and vice versa and only had the big 4 PPVs feature talents from both brands. But if they actually fared about fixing these issues they wouldn't need a brand split to do so. Instead we'll get more PPVs, more titles, more content, more of everything we already don't care about. WWE will continue to be incredibly boring until Vince dies and will become even more boring once Stephanie and white feminism take over.
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4 minute junior matched will be a million time better than bloated 20 minute ones in PWG.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U_31g1QCwN0
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Konosuke Takeshita vs. Kota Umeda (DNA, 1/8)-NO Andy Wu vs. Hiroshi Yamato (WRESTLE-1, 1/10)-NO Ikuto Hidaka vs. Ryota Nakatsu (BASARA 01/21)-NO Hiro Tonai vs. Kyu Mogami (K-DOJO 2/25/16)-YES (usually use ***1/2 as my cut-off but this was unique enough that I want to support it and also Kaientai Dojo rules so) Rush vs. LA Park (Elite 7/14)-YES comments in match discussion archive yadda yadda yadda
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Well this was something else. I liked them starting the match off with brawling on the ramp as that's something a lot of matches I like do in CMLL but then there was a portion where they kind of, uhm.......just kinda walked around without much intent to hurt each other and it felt like the type of Attitude Era brawls stuff that also had insanely hot crowds but wasn't any good. Then they just started killing each other and I was all in. cubsfan described the weapon thrown as a wooden cooler-which sounds pretty insane but I have no idea what it was so let's run with it. It was nice to see blood in Arena Mexico once again and that, combined with the insane crowd heat really made it feel like a special match. The no-finish actually helped-as fans became furious and started throwing garbage into the ring-only for Rush and Park to continue brawling to even louder reactions. Park being an old fat dude also adds a sense of danger any time he goes for a move like a dropkick or a dive. ****1/4
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I just came back form the croatian indy and it was awesome. The matches suck-but that's totally irrelevant. The crowd is amazing-basically no one watches wrestling here, so the crowd reaction are basically stuff you'd yell when you'd see two dudes arguing and fighting in school. It's a very.......pure wrestling experience, with absolutely no smarkiness whatsover. Even if the wrestler aren't properly trained it's still a million times better than going to a show that's incredibly dry and dull.
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Did Matt Hardy watch Death Note? The notebook and the manical delete screaming seem like too much of a coincidence. For reference: Anyway this was another great segment. Hardy's current character is brilliant.
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This was a much different match than any of the Honda matches I've seen so far. It was a lot to take in. At it's core it's a face vs heel match-but there's just so much going on it's much more than that. Sato put on a really good heel performance, and Honda excelled in this role as well. In the first minute Sato managed to throw Honda outside, pull his hair and drop him suspiciously low on a reverse atomic drop. From then on all hell brooke loose-as Sato had wrestlefriends and even a fan help him beat Honda up. I love the way he viciously threw him onto chairs and then proceeded to throw more chairs at him. But what's really great about this is that these two understood their roles and how to efficiently play them-Honda was believable when fighitng back, didn't do any weird pauses when striking Sato from below, he would either sell or continue striking him, and Sato would respond by registering the pain of the strikes and avoiding them and firing back at the right time. They'd tease you with a comeback several times in a single sequence only to continue the control segment and it made the comebacks that much more special. Sato's Catapult on the top rope was some next level stuff and both guys bumped great. ***1/4
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I've always held TAKA Michinoku in high regard and him cultivating such a badass house style in his own promotion is only going to help his 2026 GWE looks for me. This match. My god. What can I even say to do it justice. I'm astonished how simple doing pro wrestling right can be sometimes. This match consisted of nothing more than these two grappling. And it became something special. Not because they used big symbols, but because they used normal, usual, mundane symbols and turned them into something huge by mixing them up with a bunch of cool, beautiful looking matwork. When you know how to sell you can turn Headscissors and Armbars into viable nearfalls too. I loved how TAKA used Headlocks and Sleepers to set up his Crossface variations-maybe connecting smaller symbols with bigger symbols and thus increasing their importance is something that should be discussed more. Ayumu Honda is still the best and this ruled. ***1/4
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Is Fujiwara really risking his health? He's a 67 year old professional wrestler that's STILL ALIVE. And in good shape! I think touring plays a much bigger factor in injuries than doing shoot headbutts (not saying they're harmless, but bumping seems like the true cause of all evil).
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This one was a little different, as Honda worked more like a Minoru Tanaka here which.....I'd rather he worked like he did in the previous two matches of his I've seen but what can you do. He made for a good Minoru Tanaka. The opening wasn't much-they did the same chain wrestling sequences you've seen a million times but did do a few interesting things during it-like Yoshida using a one armed headlock while Honda held him in a hammerlock and doing the WOS foot-wristlock counter. Honda did a bunch of dropkicks, an armdrag and even a 619. Also a hammerlock backstabber which may sound like "bad indy move 101" but actually looked really cool. His holds looked great again but his stomps were extremely weak. Yoshida looked like a pretty average professional wrestler. **1/2
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So head trauma is justified if people cheer it?
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The Hikaru Sato match was good. So good. Too good to be true. As I searched for more Ayumu Honda I prepared myself for disappointment. I imagined him throwing weak forearms and slapping his thigh. This is the reality of japanese wrestling in 2016. Nice things are in the minority. This wrestler couldn't possibly exist in present time. Right? Right?................... But he does. It turns out Ayumu Honda really is that damn good. I don't remember the last time I was so excited about discovering a worker. It's not that he works shoot style-it's simply the best easily made comparison out there to make people understand what they're getting into with him. It's not that he's consciously flashy like a Volk Han-he just does so much cool shit you've never seen before. In that sense he reminds me of Otsuka. Saying he does extremely high level grappling feels like understating it an a sign of my ability to properly articulare why his work is so special. This is my first time seeing Kazuhiro Tamura, and, well, he looked very good too I guess. ***