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GOTNW

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    2006

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Everything posted by GOTNW

  1. GOTNW
    This is a weird to match to rate because of Wild Angus. He looked.....somewhat servicable. Hit some solid clubbing blows but was pretty bad at tying his offence together and selling. He wasn't of much use. However-this was pure magic whenever Billy Robinson was in the ring. Completely enchanting performance by him. It's not just that he himself looked great, everyone looks better than they usually are when they are matched against him. He brings a certain intensity and legitimacy that instantly transform his matches into something special. Jumbo aggressively shoved him aside when Robinson was going for a hold and hooked his leg to pick him up for a Piledriver which I really liked. I like how wrestlers go for the rope break instantly when they are near the ropes here and dive to break up pins and make actual contact when doing so. I love how Robinson sold Baba's big chop like he ran him over. I love how he counters moves mid sequence in ways other wrestlers don't that totally make sense and are incredibly aeshetically pleasing. ***1/4-***1/2
  2. GOTNW
    This was a bit dry at times but that's Jumbo for you. Watching this it seems pretty clear to me a Jumbo=Best 70s worker argument would have to heavily skewed towards him being involved in good matches and not on his personal contribution. Or people could have different taste than me and be wrong but let's temporarily ignore that. Hoffman totally carried him here. Jumbo knows the usual classic hold battles I wouldn't have needed to rewatch any 70s stuff to remember as mundane for the time while Hoffman busts out a bunch of awesome ones, just twisting his body in the most unusual ways. Early sequence here has Hoffman transition from an Indian Deathlock to a Gutwrench Suplex in breathtaking manner-it's an insane power spot that would fit right in with what Cesaro was doing a few years ago. Jumbo gets right back up after it and sells it like an Armdrag. Then he does a suplex of his own and gets confused when Hoffman actually sells it. He looks at the crowd before stomping Hoffman looking for their approval-sounds good in theory but his execution is nowhere near as good as say, Kobashi's. I also disliked his selling of Hoffman's Schmidt Backbreakers-the "shaking from the impact" might've worked without the odd delay between the move and Jumbo's selling. It just didn't look natural and the crowd didn't respond to it either. I could pick on him more but I'll just say if someone sold like he did here today they would get bodied. And he blew a Double Underhook Suplex fwiw. Hoffman did enough nifty things to keep me entertained and I loved the counter flash pin finish. ***
  3. GOTNW
    I'm sure it is common knowledge to many but I had no idea Wahoo worked All Japan. I was worried about this because of Abdullah but it ended up totally ruling. Abdullah has maybe two or three moves he can do right and he sticks to them here, I do love his goofy selling though, and Wahoo's brutal chops totally make you buy into the combination of the two. I love how Wahoo grabbed Abdullah's chin when they locked up and two minutes in both guys were bleeding, slamming each other into the timekeeper's table and doing epic strike exchanges. Finish kind of sucked as they went out of the ring for no reason for the dreaded double count-out buh man oh man you can FEEL Wahoo is an all time great here. Five minutes of awesomeness. *** (I'm not sure I can justify rating it more, it's not like it was Ikeda-Ono but I enjoyed it more than I usually would a *** match? IDK. watch it it's really good)
  4. GOTNW
    More Horst Hoffman fun! I don't buy into the idea Baba was ever a superworker, but he could certainly hang his own on the mat-which you're going to get plenty of in 70s All Japan. Hoffman's kicks to the back as a means of countering an armbar are great. This also had quite a lot of striking, Hoffman blasted Baba with vicious forearms, knees etc. and while Baba gets a bad rep for weak strikes his strikes here looked really good, his big chop was awesome as were his knee strikes. Hoffman looks like a really great seller, I loved how he sold Baba's chop and he put over his Russian Legsweep and Neckbreaker so well you'd totally buy him being KO'd, I also love it when wrestlers sell Bodyslamming someone bigger than them like he did here. ***1/4
  5. GOTNW
    Total dream match for me right here. A lot of time you'll get "traditional build" as an excuse for long segments of boring headlock and whatnot, these two guys are constantly working and always looking to improve their position. I'm sure not watching 70s puro for quite some time has a lot to do with it but regardless so many of the sequences felt fresh. There was a cool spot here where Destroyer tried to escape Hoffman's Headscissors and Hoffman used his hands to pull himself back, it looked really cool and I don't remember ever seeing it before and the match was filled with stuff like that. I love the gags Destroyer pulled during the match, and while this was mat heavy both of these guys can strike, I loved Hoffman's right hook counter to the Figure 4 and he busted out some nasty kneedrops. ***3/4
  6. GOTNW
    My enthusiasm for All Japan is at an all time low but might as well do this: 1.Misawa -blargh 2~3. Kawada 2~3.Tenryu I would agree with fxnj's point about Kawada being the best All Japan wrestler in terms of quantity of great matches and sheer longevity. I am more likely to get something out of an average Tenryu performance though, especially when you take into account post-split Kawada. 4.Terry Funk This seems ok relative to how highly I rate him as an all timer and how much of his case was made in All Japan. 5.Jun Akiyama I'm not sure I can call it better without revisiting their 90s stuff which I have no desire to currently but even in the 90s I find Akiyama a more interesting worker than Kobashi and Taue. He was a semi regular in 2011 and 2012 and has been a full time member since 2013 and during that time has been the best wrestler in Japan. That's longer thank you might think and enough to earn him a top 5 spot for me. 6~7. Kenta Kobashi 6~7.Akira Taue Something to think about on another day. 8.Stan Hansen I like Hansen in tags a lot more than I do in singles matches where he'll do something awesome!! and then walk around. In that sense his poor sight probably hurt the flow of his matches for me. 9.Jumbo Where would I rank Randy Orton if he became an undeniably awesome worker and kept that pace for 4-6 years? 10.Masanobu Fuchi Best All Japan junior ever. I used to think he was a sketchy singles match worker but I took a focused look at that and-yeah, no. Awesome in tag matches torturing guys. Maybe he should be above Jumbo.
  7. GOTNW
    I am saddened that Alan Karaev will be reduced to a mere trivia question now that I've watched both of his pro wrestling matches. He instantly "got it" and would bust out all these great palm strikes, knees, slams etc. For shame. Shibata isn't as good as Usuda so he mostly played face in peril here. I liked the way Karaev fought out of the first leglock and a flash submission finish was about as good of a way to get Shibata the win as there was. ***
  8. GOTNW
    My love for Usuda will not yield. After checking Karaev's wikipedia I have found out he was a sumo and a mixed martial artist. I am sold. He crushes an apple during the introductions. Usuda tries to do so as well and fails miserably. Man this ruled. The size difference was enormous. Karaev has awesome fat man offence and Usuda did a great job of selling for him and working around him. You go the feeling he was going to die once Karaev caught him and.......he eventually did but Usuda managed to briefly convince you he could maybe win, like when he caught Karaev in a Wakigatame and when he kicked Karaev in the head by climbing onto the second rope. ***1/4-***1/2
  9. GOTNW
    This might be the greatest squash I've ever watched. I love watching Kensuke beat the shit out of people, there a lot of guys that use offence similar to Kensuke today like Sekimoto, Okabayashi, Hino etc., part of the problem with them is probably that they're too selfless and end up doing shitty modern puro tropes and as a result neither guy in the match looks good, Kensuke only cares about looking strong and he is much better at projecting himself as a badass asskicker than the modern guys and he also does a lot of great looking combination and moves current guys don't like the sandwich lariats, chops to the throat and neck etc. His matches are also a lot less likely to feel stale-there is a lot more urgency behind his movement and it feels like he is trying to win when he throws himself at his opponent with these big power moves. So yeah. That should have been my Kensuke Sasaki GWO case. Sorry mate. I'll do you justice by 2026 I promise. Anyway. Kazunari Murakami is amazing at getting annihilated-he takes an insane bump over the top rope for a chop and just generally does such awesome facial expression while getting beaten up and tries to fight out of the position he's in. He never quite does-he hits some nice punches and kicks for a moment but quickly loses control. Still the match feels like a lot more than just a squash. I loved Kensuke's Ipponseoi counter to Murakami's haymaker and liked the restart of the match-the thirty additional seconds we got felt like an ending of an all time classic. I hope their match from Kensuke's vanity fed is still preserved somewhere I have to rewatch that one as soon as possible now. ***1/2.
  10. GOTNW
    Time for him to learn how to stall and throw a punch. I wonder if Animal Hamaguchi ever stops by the dojo these days.
  11. GOTNW
    I lost it when I saw this existed, Murakami-Nagata is a New Japan MOTD candidate and we get to see them go at it again, life is good. Enson Inoue is a guy I assume was universally hated at SSS ten years ago that I totally love and I'm not sure whether this was before or after Iizuka was broken down, I'l assume before because I'd like to stay positive and think BML wouldn't book someone that bad. And also he's still a face here and he turned heel after the injury so. My only problem with this is that Nagata has already picked some of his annoying quirks here like his goofy selling (especially the facial expressions he makes while doing so) and I also find his slapping style annoying, stomping the ring like some wrestlers do when punching while throwing slaps that make fine sounds on their own is just stupid in my book. This was still an awesome chaotic brawl though, Murakami is just wonderful and as of this moment is my favourite wrestler, Enson Inoue's com logic is basically full mount>face punch and his chances of making my GWE 2026 ballot improve with each match watched, I love the spot where he climbed onto the first rope while Holding Nagata in a Guillotine Choke as it looked like something done naturally to prevent Nagata to counter it by hitting him with body blows in the courner AND it was also a great way to feed Nagata a counter with a Northern Lights Suplex. Iizuka was good here too, viciously brawling, hitting people with brutal knees, stomps and punches, still Murakami vs Nagata is the main draw and they deliver, punches, shoot headbutts, kicks, they unload on each other and it rules. ****
  12. GOTNW
    I love the way these two play off each other, Suzuki did a great job of selling the threat of Fujiwara's submissions early on, all the matwork was snug, they constantly kept things moving and would use their joints to maintain control of their opponent or transition. A direct comfortation sheds an interesting light on how oddly different yet similar their characters are, the biggest difference probably being that one is tehnically a heel and another face. I love the way Suzuki avoided Fujiwara's headbutts after Fujiwara rocked him with a big one and how he checked the ringpost after Fujiwara smashed his head into it. Suzuki will do stuf like taunt his opponents when they're hitting him in the corner or when they lock him in a hold, that does faze a lot of wrestlers but Fujiwara reacts by just punching him in the face and hyperextending Suzuki's limbs. Finishing run is just an unreal thunderstorm of insane counters and armbar teases with a wicked finish. ****
  13. GOTNW
    Total dream match for me right here. Ten seconds in Kensuke and Murakami quarrel over who's going to start and chop and punch each other for a second before Kensuke starts things off, that spot is awesome in that setting but when you have like, Sekimoto and X modern puro guy doing it for twenty minutes it's boring. MiSU-Kensuke interactions sound least intriguing since I've seen them go at it plenty of times including a 40 minute match. They do a quick strike exchange and Kensuke irish whips MiSu into the ropes and-stare offs might not work in junior matches after doing kung fu sequences but they totally work here when MiSu suddenly stops as Kensuke is going to chop him. That's UWF blood for you. Fujiwara and Murakami do some nice grappling and MiSu stomped Murakami when they were near his corner which was a great touch and him not so subtly repeteadly kicking off Murakami's feet of the ropes to break the rope break was awesome as well. Murakami is just the best, he might be the greatest ever at conveying disgust and disdain through facial expressions. Minoru Suzuki can phone it in but man he is great when he wants to be, it's so much fun watching him troll Murakami and just act like a dick. The Murakami peril in section was absolutely hilarious, you gotta love the tremendous pastice of shoot style and comedy Fujiwara and MiSu present here. Loved the way Fujiwara fell down after Sasaki Lariated him, it looked like a beast of a man hit him in the back of the head and that's how he sold it. I fucking lost it when Kensuke fucked up the save, laughing out loud while Fujiwara punches people in the face is about as ennjoyable as wrestling gets and they immediately followed it up with Suzuki stomping on Murakami's head in the corner (which is Murakami's signature move), Fujiwara shitbeating Murakami and then choking him when Murakami yelled at him in an insulting matter AND then Fujiwara distracting the ref so Suzuki could choke Murakami and just pull his nose and do all these disgusting things. Murakami's comeback is the world's greatest uppercut (boxing, not european) and the finishing run is awesome as Kensuke Sasaki runs over people, Murakami and MiSu beat the shit ouf of each other and Fujiwara bleeds a lot at the age of 200. ****1/4
  14. GOTNW
    A lot of people seem to have this fixated idea of what wrestling is and think there is only one right way to do it. That's pretty boring. Due to wrestling's peculiar nature I have often wondered how far the medium could and will go, not so much in the "genres" it will creat in itself but means to express itself. Wrestling is a simulation of a fight. That's a very broad definition. An action movie scene is also a simulation of a fight. We've kind of seen some wrestling TV shows experiment with it (Lucha Underground most famously, maybe Wrestling Society X as well?) but I wouldn't be quick to write off expressing wrestling through unconventional means while still calling it wrestling. And while we (well at least I personally) often equate Worked MMA with wrestling I wonder if we could go even further. What about worked boxing and other single martial art fights? Maybe someone will go all the way and say a work of any kind is pro wrestling in its core sense, even if it is say, an NBA game. Here's a short animation that was one of the things that made me think about this:
  15. GOTNW
    If you pay attention to wrestling twitter you've already seem all the discussion about this, if not well Ricochet and Ospreay had a match Ricochet and Ospreay would have and for some reason a GIF of their sequence blew up and we're having that discussion all over again. And Vider chimmed in by shitting on all modern wrestling (including a Twin Towers match llma) after watching the GIF and coming to the conclusion you can't have storytelling in wrestling if you do gymnastics sequences. Quick comments: -I haven't seen the Ospreay-Ricochet match yet. I have no issue with someone disliking the values they use to achieve something. I don't think using the values they do is inherently bad. I think spotfests and flip matches can be great depending on how good wrestlers are at other, more important things. I don't think there's anything wrong with the GIF in question. -Vader is full of shit basically -No style is more or less valid because of how much you like it, how popular it is/was or how much money it did/didn't make Have at it.
  16. GOTNW
    A classic and a truly fascinating match, especially if you take their february match into account. Fujiwara comes out swinging early which sets the pace of the match-he rocks Takada with brutal punches and headbutts and establishes dominance early on. Takada is extremely cautious in his attacks against him having already been reversed in their february bout. The majority of the knockdowns don't really serve as nearfalls, rather their point is to establish who is in control off the match and set the stage for the finish. The exception to this is the last time Takada is knocked down as he falls down before just making it to his feet at the last second. That moment completely changes the atmosphere kicks off the finishing run. Takada's selling is crucial to the match quality-the way he wobbles after Fujiwara's Leglock and slowly falls down after a standing knock down in the corner keeps the crowd on their toes. Fujiwara's downfall is his character-whenever he goes for his usual quirks it costs him. Him laughing about finally getting Takada in a dangerous Leglock allowed Takada to counter it by palm striking the shit out of him and thus gaining one of his first openings in the match. Takada's strategy is to kick through Fujiwara-and he varies his kicks and strikes a lot due to Fujiwara's amazing defence. If he kicks too high too early he'll get reversed and leglocked. If he doesn't time a low kick well it's getting checked. That creates and unparalleled sense of struggle giving everything that happens importance, and the action itself is just epic-Takada kicking Fujiwara in the face is an amazing spot on its own but context allows it to truly bloom. *****
  17. GOTNW
    I'm not going to miss out on an opportunity to watch Sakuraba grapple and this delivered as a fun little match. I think both members of ReDragon are overrated and I wish Bobby Fish would stop screaming so much all the time, O'Reilly hit a nice kick combo and Gedo's shtick was fun as usual but this is all about Saku and his grappling exhibition with the lads. **3/4
  18. GOTNW
    This was quite interesting and worked completely different than their matches for the NEVER belt two years ago. Those matches were worked completely in Ishii's style while this one felt like a proper contrast. Some people have a platonic view of japan that's all about the great matches and whatnot so I love the fact that Naito's gotten so over mostly on character work and stalling. I enjoyed his Rush-like control segments early on and the presence of BUSHI and EVIL at ringside added another dynamic to it, the way they'd have one of them pull Ishii's leg to get Naito back in control for instance was very smartly done, of course New Japan's camera men missed it. I liked most of the legwork and the way Naito sold but man Ishii couldn't execute a proper leglock to save his life. The finishing stretch was more focused on brutality than dance counters as I prefer, you had Naito's brutal Dropkick, a couple of Brainbusters, a vicious DDT counter, a Gloria that was about as Vertical Drop as anything Naito's ever done etc. I loved the way Naito used Ishii's own offence against him late in the match and despite the match going so long he was never in *true* danger of losing and put Ishii away pretty convincingly in the end. ***1/4
  19. GOTNW
    This wasn't even a particularly good match but it was a special experience. Naito actually getting entrance chants in 2016 was a sight to behold and the crowd reactions transformed what would've been an underwhelming title match into a spectacular coronation. Perfectly booked and timed but Okada will still do the worst STF and Indy knee move ever to get me out of it. Naito's post match antics were better than anything in the match itself. ***
  20. GOTNW
    This wasn't structurally strong enough to be a great match but it was a nice return to form for Shibata after the polarizing Ishii matches. Tenzan is too old and broken down to afford to do a bunch of stupid no selling and while it may not reach the preposterous heights of the Ishii matches the violence does get VERY brutal and Tenzan's age and him actually selling made it an easy and engaging watch for me. ***
  21. GOTNW
    This was alright. I loved Sanada attacking Okada as soon as he went for his faux clean break, no reason for him to just stand there while this goof big leagues him. I disliked the way he used the two Piledrivers, he followed that up by doing nothing on offence to allow Okada time to recover which bored me as does Okada's shtick at this point, I enjoyed the finisher counter dances, Sanada manically going for the Dragon Sleeper for for a nice mini-plot and they did a good job of building up to OKada's Tombstone. Still too much of this I didn't even care for or could call what was coming nex to rate it any higher. **1/2
  22. GOTNW
    This was surprisingly solid, I'd have expected these two to have a boring opening and then transition into trading weak forearms for five minutes before a dancing finishing stretch but the match was actually quite tight and compact. It also had a lot more movement and selling than Goto matches usually do and counters that looked cool and felt fresh and novel due to these two not having five million singles matches against each other. EVIL's Fireman's Carry Powerbomb looked great and I loved how he sold the Impact of Goto's Lariat as soon as he countered them. **3/4
  23. GOTNW
    This was ok. I liked the early junior matwork well enough but then they transitioned into the double limbwork and kind of lost me. I've seen Akiyama do all the legwork spots Liger did here better and I saw Misawa and Kobashi sell them a lot better than KUSHIDA did, nothing they did really carried a sense of peril or ever gave me a reason to be invested. I like Liger's Brainbuster on the floor as a spot against young lions in the BOSJ when he's beating the shit out of them but I don't really think it fit in here. Liger did all of his signature moves he had no chance of winning the match with. They didn't even bother milking out any of the submission spots, I'm not even asking these guys to go all Minoru Suzuki and just stretch the shit ouf of each other and get great heat out of that but even Tanahashi and Naito get plenty of heat out of their Cloverleaf and Koji Clutch they never win with. I absolutely loved the way they teased Liger getting a rope break on the Hoverboard Lock and how KUSHIDA cut him off and stretched him, so **3/4 for that.
  24. GOTNW
    Very strong match and more reminiscent of something Koji Kanemoto would do than the self conscious dick measuring contests I've come to hate. The early faux shoot matwork was way more interesting than watching more pointless headlocks. The overreliance on cut offs after rope running and the lack of lengthier control segments prevented this from being better. I did like a lot of it, particularly Shibata's dominance in the middle and the way he kicked Nagata around and Nagata brutal comeback with devastating kicks and knees, prolonging those and finishing the match with them would've been much better than doing finisher stealing. I'm not crazy over suplex no sell spots but I did love the one here mostly due to Shibata actually countering Nagata's Exploder and just drilling him with an STO. The match also didn't overstay its welcome which I appreciate, I'm sure many would have preffered them doing more but this way I'm actually looking forward to the rematch. ***1/2
  25. GOTNW
    Man-Sons Of Haku sounds like such a badass tag team yet you watch this and it's pretty transparent why these guys aren't on Raw or NXT right now. Honma is a very good worker and I like Makabe more than probably anyone else on PWO but carrying these two goofs to a good match was a bit too much of them to ask, Hashimoto and Masa Saito could've probably had a three star match against the Tongas and they are no Hash and Saito. Tama Tonga's body blows were just atrocious, Tonga Loa bumped for a Makabe Lariat before it even hit him and when they actually did an interesting rope running sequence the payoff to it was a weak Dropkick Honma sold as much as he should've but then he couldn't even retaliate with a Lariat properly because Tama Tonga was out of position. Honma fighting off two guys made for a solid finishing stretch but wasn't nearly as good as Shibata doing so against Anderson and Gallows. **1/4
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