drew wardlaw

I loved how much fire and ferociousness Delphin shows going after Murahama with takedowns and not letting up or giving him an opening to strike. It really felt like a guy defending his spot and his company. I loved Murahamas cheap tactics as well with the eye rakes, really showing his true colors.

BURNING SPIRITS #58: 2017 IN REVIEW B/W YEAR END AWARDS Well another year is coming to a close, all those busy bees are scrambling to finish their year end lists and award ballots, and 3 specific little bees are recording an insular podcast about their favorites of 2017. Hear as all three Spirits run down their favorites: Promotion of the Year, Match of the Year, Wrestler of the Year, Tag Team of the Year, Show of the Year, Breakout Star of 2018, and finally. BAD BOY MATCH OF THE YEAR. After the awards the gang give their thoughts on being a wrestling fan in the year of 2017. Oh yeah, theres a bit of DDT discussion at the start of the show too. Happy New Year! http://www.voicesofwrestling.com/2017/12/29/burning-spirits-58-2017-review-b-w-year-end-awards/ https://audioboom.com/posts/6571995-burning-spirits-58-2017-in-review-b-w-year-end-awards

Burning Spirits #57: BJW Death Vegas & AJPW Real World Tag League Finals All three Burning Spirits are finally back together to review some heavy real heavy hitters as we head towards the end of the year. First up is Big Japan Pro Wrestling Death Vegas, including a raging MOTYC for the Death Match title! We talk in depth about Masaya Takahashi's elevation, as well as the next generation of death match fighters! We also break down the Suzuki/Hashimoto title change and whether we felt this was the right opponent to dethrone him. We then move over to All Japan Pro Wrestling to review the Real World Tag League Finals. We look at the winners of the tournament and talk about Yoshitatsu's career performance! Plus, the return of Burning Spirits Cursed Audio, as Kevin has some temporary microphone issues. http://www.voicesofwrestling.com/2017/12/22/burning-spirits-bjw-death-vegas-ajpw-tag-league/ https://audioboom.com/posts/6565221-burning-spirits-57-bjw-death-vegas-ajpw-real-world-tag-league-finals

Its a shame that WCW, or Bischoff, or Russo, or whoever at this point, couldnt be content to be the #2 promotion and just rebuild a nice healthy promotion because they really couldve had something good with the talent and been an alternative to wwf at the time. The WCW crowd, like Loss pointed out above, is still there to see wrestling and thats what they got going for here, and it was pretty good when Page and Jarrett got down to business. The finish comes and it all falls apart of course but again, theres nuggets of good stuff here.

This segment really sums up a lot about what I remember (itll be interesting to see how it looks in retrospect) about 2000 WCW: some good ideas and some direction that gets completely obliterated by the tropes and self-sabotaging. Youve got Kidman, whos mad that hes been held down by Hogan and the like for years, and youve got Hogan whos out there trying to protect his spot. Its good that youve got the older guys finally working with younger guys, presumably to elevate them and put them over, and while tonally the old Millionaires Club being the faces and the young guns being the heels feels off, I think it could have worked, but would have probably required a lot more nuance than was possible at the time. This is all okay. They cant just leave well enough alone though and weve got the double-crossing authority figures getting involved and were off and running. This did, and still does feel fresh and cool coming off Uncensored and I was really excited for this when it aired, but it was not meant to be.

The metal attraction spot and the shots to the head were so funny man, I was really losing it. So far Survival Tobita is the Ace of the Year.

This was incredible. This might be one to show people who dont like lucha. This didnt even fully feel like a lucha match to me, just an absolutely great wrestling match, regardless of the style. The submission that Blue Panther wins the first fall with was so cool, Ive never seen that one before. He was the standout here for me. Just wringing Santos arm, constantly working like a real son of a gun, tight matwork, and getting the cheap win. I love the way this built through the falls and the dives were perfectly placed. Santo was a great babyface here, selling, going for the rollup pins, etc. awesome stuff.

At this point Ive seen a decent amount of early-mid 00s Takagi, although this is the earliest, and from what Ive seen he seems to be the straight man ace for his opponents to work off of. Hes always going to be bland and average and work in order to highlight the characters hes working with. This can be frustrating in the sense that he doesnt always hold up his end of the work but there is a purpose to it, at least thats what Ive seen.

Ohhhh man HHH was incredible here. I had never seen this before and him firing Hebner and giving him a pedigree was a legitimate shock and I was outraged! The match itself was good too, really hot crowd and some genuine excitement and is a pretty awesome tv match. The match could have been nothing and I would have liked the segment but the match being great puts this over the top as something really special.

Man this is a Honma highlight reel. First of all, hes coming out to Heading for Tomorrow by Gamma Ray!!!!!! He really brings the energy here right from the Bell with the tope, and doesnt stop with the highspots like the big elbow on the outside to the huge bumps he takes for Samples. Im very bad at telling when one wrestler is carrying another but man this was a carry job if Ive ever seen one. Samples really didnt come off as a monster here, but rather just a big lazy wrestler. Even still, Honma shows that even in 2000 his selling and bumping are incredibly strong attributes.

Tough to judge this as a match really but the table spots looked huge. I did like the wrestlers dancing during their entrances as well.

A lot of people have said what I came in here to say, that if you take away the booking and just watch this in a vacuum it is great. Just the sheer emotion of it when Hashimoto, slimmer and with a shaved head, comes down the ring. The crowd is rabid every time he gets some offense in and I jumped up when he takes down Ogawa with a leg sweep. Just a huge performance from the man himself. Theres nothing like Hash in the Dome. Murakami getting in the mix adds that important chaotic element that the feud has had, and those STOs at the end are just devastating and knowing that youre watching the end of Hashimotos biggest run is sad.

Burning Spirits #56: Pro Wrestling FREEDOMS Heel Dont Think 2017 The Burning Spirits are back to 2/3rd strength as Kevin & Drew are talking, at long last, FREEDOMS. After Drew recaps his recent fire evacuation, we break down the entire FREEDOMS Korakuen Hall show from 11/13, including some brief discussion on a hot new rookie making the scene. After that, we have a discussion about Kevin's new project he's working on, including some dreaded lucha talk! It's good to be back! http://www.voicesofwrestling.com/2017/12/16/burning-spirits-56-pro-wrestling-freedoms-heel-dont-think-2017/ https://audioboom.com/posts/6554168-burning-spirits-56-pro-wrestling-freedoms-heel-don-t-think-2017

Current Abdullah Kobayashi is a wrestler that I love and this 2000 stuff is really making me love him more and the cherry-picked stuffnive seen from the coming years hes really a pretty awesome wrestler. Ive mentioned this before but you can really feel the shift in style here between the old deathmatch style and the new. Awesome stuff.

Whoa this was very strange tonally. As others have said, this wasnt quite shoot style but it was reminiscent of it. The setting being Osaka Pro makes this even more wonky but infinitely more interesting. If this had taken place in BattlArts I dont think it would have stood out as much. This reminds me a little bit of some of the Toba singles matches from DDT. I may need to watch this again to really collect my thoughts on it.

I wrote a longer reply but I guess it got deleted. Ill just say that I cant add too much to the conversation but this was an incredible example of pro wrestling and the post match interview truly was transcendent and worked to retro-actively make the match itself more important and emotional. Just unbelievably great.

I really liked Sano here, really fighting hard to keep up with the younger Otsuka and Murakami and even pulling out some high flying to get an advantage. I had a shocking revelation during this match that Im enjoying Murakami less and less these days. Im just finding him very one dimensional, and while its a dimension I generally love, he just hasnt been connecting with me lately.

Kobayashi is the standout for me here, specially the aura that he has early on. Currently hes a deathmatch legend and just has this incredible presence of loveable horror. Its cool to see that hes got traces of it here. Hes not as beloved yet but if you look at his introduction and the way he carries himself on offense you can tell hes got it.

Wing Kanemura wit some very saucy lighttube antics. Very casual too. Anyway, this was a fun plunder type match with some especially rough spots like that powerbomb. Worked perfectly fine for the type of match it was, but didnt hit the peaks of the Honma vs Yamakawa match from the month before.

I was shocked at how little offense Misawa got in this. I was going in expecting a hard fought back and forth match with Akiyama pulling out a victory in the end. Instead, this was Akiyama thoroughly beating Misawa and the outcome was never really in doubt. Misawas face at the beginning and his body language throughout the match are what put it over the top for me, even beyond his neck selling. Just the battle wary eyes and body of the guy, the uneasiness he shows as the match goes on, the desperation flurry of offense at the end. Even as hes going through his high impact offense during the finishing run, you get the sense that his big moves just arent enough anymore. Incredible stuff.

I dont know, in a vacuum I enjoyed the match a good deal actually. I just wanted to see Hogan pay off on the promo by showing both Hulkamania and Hollywood, which he did a fine enough job of. Commentary wise, Im really having an internal debate about who is my least favorite commentator of all time: Mark Madden or Eric Bischoff.

I really liked the build to this with the David Flair I Quit match, but this didnt live up to the build for me. I thought it was strange they did a Texas Death Match instead of an I Quit Match, although I get not wanting to totally repeat the past feud. At the same time though, they rely heavily on the narrative that they had this intense feud 10 years ago and commentary really plays that up, and even Funk gets on the mic and explains hes going to piledrive Flair through the table like he did 10 years ago. The match itself isnt too bad, and even though I dont think they fill the time super well and they are slow moving, I enjoyed all the pinfalls. One note about the commentary, I think Tony has been really good in 2000, much better than I remember and much better than his reputation.

This is one that Ill need to watch again. Ive seen it before but its structured in such a way, or maybe its just my interpretation (thats why I need to watch it again) that its building to one big spot, and that big spot is a disappointment with the gimmicked mat. I found myself not paying attention to the action that was happening and just waiting for the end. Not sure if thats my fault or the match.

After watching the two matches, Im more inclined to view them as one piece rather than individual matches. I liked that Super Crazy was red hot from the start, this felt like his revenge for the beating he got last time, even though he won the match. Interesting dynamic between the two matches where the winner is the man who takes more of a beating.

3 Count on Saturday Night man, my bread and butter. Tenay showing more tude and Hudson is better than I remember him actually. I like this little feud here.