GOTNW
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Everything posted by GOTNW
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I wish I was ever as optimistic and forgiving as you are.
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It's fine, cactus has written about most of those matches in their own threads I think.
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I think Choshu was great at executing the things he did in order to get the match to feel the way he wanted it to feel. He has great slams and suplexes. All time great stomps. Awesome Lariats. His matches vs. Hash have the best lock ups in wrestling history. Good on the mat as well though it is hard for me to judge him because so often chose to go the other way. All I really see is a preference for a different kind of wrestling on your part (only name that I was surprised to see on your list was Hokuto) which is fair enough.
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Good grief this lasted almost 20 minutes. Talk about time I'm never going to get back. Formulaic, predictable, sloppy, boring. A parody of WWE's current style. Awkward finish. Just a bad match.
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I'm not convinced Cesaro is a better worker than The Miz right now. This was a total blast-Cesaro has a lot of spots that sound good but often don't amount to much and having Miz stooge for him really helps his matches. The Miz lets him shine early on as Cesaro does come cool matwork spots and his badass deadlift gutwrench. They smartly transition into Miz's control segment by using Maryse and Miz doesn't do nothing fancy, nothing that would get a pop, just goes after Cesaro's shoulder injury. The way Cesaro countered Miz's Sleeper to get back in control was amazing, I don't remember him ever doing that before, ditto the amazing counter he had for Miz's DDT, that's the kind of awesome stuff he used to bust out regularly a few years ago before he settled into an underwhelming formula, and here even when he does use his formula (like the uppercut train I don't really like) he modifies it a little bit by finishing it with a beautiful dropkick. The big nearfall caught me completely off guard and I loved how they incorporated the Owens-Zayn angle into the match. Sure, Miz fucked up the Neutralizer bump after the match, but that was so utterly irrelevant after everything that took place. I wasn't expecting to like this more than Kalisto/Ryback but I did. ***1/2-***3/4
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I was pretty sure I wasn't going to like this nearly as much as other folks but I ended up kind of hating it. First off I actually want to bring up some stuff I thought was good. You often see criticisms of WWE matches in supposed blood feuds starting with a headlock or heels doing face spots etc. Not the case here. As soon as the match starts they went after one another and Zayn was doing the ten punches in the corner as a face should. I just. Don't care about this type of match. I get why people like it but personally, I am kinda done with matches like this. I hated the puro no sell spots. Served no purpose and looked stupid. Hated Owens doing a flip bump for Zayn's Clothesline. I don't remember whether or not Nakamura vs Zayn had a flip bump off Zayn's Lariat but Nakamura is at least more lean and does those bumps all the time, the visual of this fat guy doing a flip bump for the skinny underdog (not necessarily in this match but in general) was just weird. Then there's my absolute least favourite moment of the match-after Zayn hit Owens with a Michinoku Driver and a Blue Thunder Driver/Fireball Bomb (Kikuchi did it before Akiyama but no one seems to talk about that) Owens just gets up and hits him with a Wrist Clutch Fisherman Neckbreaker On The Knee. Literally just stood up and hit his big move after two big nearfalls. And the visual of Owens getting Zayn in the Wrist Clutch made it impossible for them to sell it as a desperation comeback that caught Zayn off guard due to the time it took to set up the move. Then they did like, a move on the apron and whatnot but I mentally checked out already and was just waiting for this to end. I di like Zayn's early Tope Con Giro and him wrecking the announce table. It was a great opening. I just wish a great match followed it. I could buy them doing a hateful Dragon Lee-Kamaitachi spotfest like they did in ROH and PWG or a hate filled brawl like they did in NXT but a hybrid just didn't work for me.
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This was a blast, I have always liked Ryback since he first showed up and wanted to love him but.........he just isn't that good. Perfectly fine as the guy who puts over the guy who puts over John Cena. He is a great foil for Kalisto though, Kalisto can get good matches out of stiffs and mediocre wrestlers but works so much better against a good base. Ryback has a bunch of cool power spots and the whole match is a battle of them and Kalisto's "fireworks". The avalanche military press slam looked awesome and I didn't mind Kalisto getting up so soon even if it may not have been the perfect way to go about doing it. I also loved the way Ryback carried himself and played to the crowd, him repeatedly kicking out of Kalisto's pins at 1 or an early 2 is something very unique for a modern WWE match and made the nearfalls more special. ***1/2
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Separate But Equal?: The ultimate goal of Feminism in wrestling
GOTNW replied to Luchaundead's topic in Pro Wrestling
There really isn't a lack of female wrestling fans as much as there is a lack of them using platforms like this. Pro wrestling criticism being Meltzer reddit dudebro stuff for so long may play a part in that. -
Unless skill isn't a euphenism for matwork I honestly have no idea what you're talking about(and even then I'd completely disagree with the notion that Choshu and Perro weren't good at it). I'd like to see you name those 50 most skilled wrestlers to see who you'd include other than the usual suspects.
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Hiroyoshi Tenzan does that move all the time. Akiyama does a variation of it as well. Maybe some other japanese wrestlers I'm forgetting do it too.
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Ishii was a midcarder holding a midcard belt. You could maybe make a case for Makabe being a "low tier main eventer" (his won-loss record against Ishii is also very telling, it's something like 7-1). Ishii? No way.
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This was awesome, Akiyama's Big Japan debut did not disappoint, he might be the best wrestler in the world right now, I loved the way he stooged for Okabayashi and played he was outmatched, he was borderline stooging for his Chops and it was great. Then Uto starts provoking him and makes the worst mistake of his life, watching Akiyama brutalize youngsters with knees is a thing of beauty. Hash Jr. has nice kicks and Okabayashi will LAY IT IN but what really makes it stand out is the sense of struggle and hate a lot of Big Japan strike exchange/power spots exhibition matches lack that Akiyama brought. There was a moment when Okabayashi and Daichi were brawling outside where Akiyama kicked Okabayashi in the head from inside the ring through the ropes and that's such an awesome spot you'd only see in bloody 1983 EMLL tag matches.
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Imagine thinking something can be "proper" in the english language with no universal guidelines and grammar. It's a frivolous matter of aesthetics and getting your point across. I don't think you were particularly good at the latter. Anyway I've figured it out so let's move on.
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Are those votes. Write ups for votes you already casted. Nominations. Why do you hate punctuation so much.
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Neat match that was really made by the surprisingly good selling. Irie has some good power spots, and him punching through HARASHIMA's guard and annihilating him with THE POUNCE sounds great in a vacuum but the way HARASHIMA just throws himself with crazy bumps really adds to them. They do some crowd brawling early on but they throw good strikes and it is more them slamming each other into the barricade and the apron then one wrestler "dragging" the other halfway across the arena to get him back into the ring which looks more like they're holding hands than actual dragging. HARASHIMA responds to Irie's power offence wih vicious knee strikes and stomps. Finishing stretch is a little too nearfall heavy but it was very exciting and fun. HARASHIMA slipping through Irie's attempted Fire Thunder Driver was an amazing spot and they executed "will he or will he not fall down" selling about as good as they could've.
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LOVED THIS. So much great stuff in this one. Early on MiSu goes for a fake clean break and just as he is about to chest slap Nakajima he reverses the position and clean breaks Suzuki. That really set the tone for this match of Nakajima being too old for Suzuki's shit. Suzuki selling Nakajima as a threat by recuperating fit perfectly into this and him fixing his hair was awesome. I've come to really dislike Suzuki's Rope Hung Armbar because of its contrived set up but luckily here the set up was modified and it came off much better. Nakajima continuing to hit Suzuki with his injured arm even when it was obvious it was causing almost no damage and actually hurting him more than Suzuki is the kind of thing that may seem idiotic it first but worked and really added to the match for me because it is exactly the kind of mentality I'd expect to see from a japanese fighter/superhero/wrestler/whatever, and to his credit Nakajima sold really well. ***3/4
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Firstly-credit where credit is due-the commentator said Nakatsu's style is Data Pro Wrestling which was an amazing Prince Of Tennis reference. I like Ikuto Hidaka but he isn't one for rookie punishment matches. I enjoyed this when they started doing Battlarts Junior wrestling but the first half was inconsequential, uninspiring and unnecessary.
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Really enjoyed it, doubt it will a serious MOTYC by the end of the year or anything like that and the opening matwork and strike exchanges could've been better but once they went went into a higher gear it become loads of fun. I found the addition of RINGS and Battlarts tribute spots to the indy style highly amusing.
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Strong BJ vs The Big Guns brings you the HOSSFIGHTING OF JAPAN PRO WRESTLING. Akiyama vs anyone from the Big Japan team sounds great, and here he focuses on destroying Daichi, and as you might know Akiyama vs young punk has been the best match in puro for the last 10 years and it delivers once again as Akiyama just kills Daichi with brutal knees.
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This is a glorified squash and Akiyama is a perfect cast for the role of the rookie executioner as he his attacks are as vicious as anyone's, his knees looked as brutal as ever but he also busted some unusual front kicks that also looked really great. It was a very interesting match to observe, as Akiyama was both working a compelling match while teaching the kid how the work, which was best exemplified when he would just flat out refuse to sell for Aoyagi's weak offence until he hit him with something worthwhile.
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Hideki brings a unique flair to each of his matches, usually matwork and chain wrestling in Sekimoto matches serve no purpose other than to fill time but here Hideki makes everything spectacular, from a Headscissors to a Hammerlock, and the struggle over holds which he brings feels novel in the modern puro. Yuto is an actual young boy and him going after Sekimoto in strike exchanges is a lot more interesting than a regular Sekimoto strike exchange due to the difference in their status forcing Uto to sell every one of Sekimoto's blow like death and also making every time Sekimoto sells for Uto mean more. Sanada looks solid here, and he displayed some nice chain wrestling in the beginning. I could've done with one fighting spirit no sell exchange less but it didn't even particularly bother me honestly.
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You know what's also classic All Japan? Injury/KO angles(ok, I thiiiink I've heard in the mean time it was a legit KO but hey, why let the truth get in the way of a good story?). I guess this wasn't a big enough tag for Okabayashi to pull a Jumbo and stretch it out but man I hope they do eventually do something like that. Hierarchy comes into play once again-skinny boy Shinobu can't match Okabayashi in strike exchanges, Maruyama-holy shit I thought he was like a young boy or something but it appears he used to be Tigers Mask. Not that it matters much. He's here to eat D-Hash kicks and YOU will enjoy it. Speaking of.......Shinya's son has grown and is now a solid threat to the biggest dog in BigJapan. Fun fun fun fun fun.
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This is kind of like your classic All Japan tag in that you have a tag of made of a guy higher on the pecking order (hama) and lower on it(Kamitani) and they work that into the match. Twin Towers squaring off is super fun, but watching them absolutely wreck Kamitani is even more so. They work this like you'd want them to with Hama saving Kamitani, cutting Twin Towers off when it seems like they're gonna finish him etc. but that can only last for so long before they eventually finish Kamitani.
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Ryota Hama is awesome, wrestling needs more fat guys. Let's face it-he isn't going to do much, but there are efficient ways to work around that. They chose the right one-having long, meaningful control segments that both established Hama's dominance and size. Hama's weight was so impressive the audience left out a collective OOOOOOOH when it was announced, and it makes the simplest moves look like killer. Okabayashi's gradual comeback was very well done, played off of what they had established and hit the sweet spot in its duration.
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You know what you're forgetting from this line up. Fairly standard and formulaic STRONGHT tag but it is a formula I like a lot and whatever faults you might usually find in these types of matches (no-selling, getting stuff in for its own sake) were absent here.