Jump to content
Pro Wrestling Only

cactus

Members
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    1511

  • Joined

  • Last visited

 Content Type 

Everything posted by cactus

  1. cactus
    Fujita gets a bad rep. He looks the part, has some brilliantly smug facial expressions and his strikes are stiff as hell and they look believable at ending the match at any given time. Shibata is out of his league, but one lucky punt to Fujita's noggin which causes the champion to retreat to the ringside shows us that Shibata might just be able to pull off the impossible. Shibata shows a lot of fire in his beating, but Fujita is just to much of a ruthless bastard to be defeated on this night. This is the closest we're going to get to Shibata vs. Lesnar, so hop on this if you haven't seen this. ★★★★¼
  2. cactus
    After the most intense knuckle locks ever, Akiyama aims to soften up Kobashi's neck for his Sterness Dust. I'll never forget the big exploder that Akiyama gives Kobashi from the second rope to the outside, but Kobashi's vertical suplex from the apron was so nasty that Kobashi ends up spitting up blood, and he's the one delivering the move! After this massive spot, Kobashi wants to take this one home. He gives Akiyama an Orange Crush and a Burning Lariat, but he's not going down that easy. Kobashi attempts a rare Burning Hammer, but Akiyama counters and lays in a brutal assault. These guys sell everything to perfection and they never go overboard with the false finishes. This was a match that designed to be enjoyed by everyone in the building. The big chops, big gestures and even bigger suplexes were so massive that you could see them even in the cheapest of cheap seats. They waste no motion doing anything that would of only been picked up by the first few rows. That's what makes a perfect Dome match. ★★★★★
  3. cactus
    The first two falls are total sprints with a pace that never lets up and Toyota is able to get her shit in without taking away from the match. It seems that she's just that much better in tags. Kansai reminded me of an agile Aja Kong and she impressed me the most out of the four women showcased here. Ozaki might not be as violent as Kansai, but she's not afraid to break some rules to gain an advantage and she excelled in this area. I thought the third fall was the weakest part of the match by far. They slow things down and tries to work in a few FIP segments, but they move through things so quickly it's hard for me to care about them. They then move onto the finishing stretch which goes on for way too long with an excessive amount of 2.9 falls. Sometimes less is more. At least this one wraps things up in a decent fashion. ★★★¾
  4. cactus
    This was classic tag team psychology mixed with the high energy modern indie style. The Revival were masters of cutting #DIY off. I loved the spot where Dash charges under the ring to get to his opponent's side and break up the hot tag attempt. The stuff with Gargano in the submission hold was a bit hokey, but it's nothing that would compare to some of his worse moments when he would eventually get a singles run. This might be the best ever tag match the 'E has ever put out. ★★★★¾
  5. cactus
    Man, we were really robbed by not getting a proper months long program between these two as they compliment each other well and have clear chemistry. Their match at Mind Games was one of the company's best and this is an excellent TV main event. Mankind comes down to the ring with a trash can, but he ends up getting nailed with it and has the bin bag over his head and I was kind of hoping he would wrestle the rest of the match rocking his trash bag poncho. Rick Rude makes his return as Shawn's insurance policy and he's clearly paid off as his whacks Foley with a brutal chair shot to allow HBK to steal the win. Undertaker attempts to come to the ring, but Paul Bearer appears on the Titantron and warns him that Kane is coming to the WWF to wrap up the episode. This short, wild and damn fine to close a TV show. ★★★¾
  6. cactus
    Very sad news. I watched Survivor Series 1992 a few months back and I enjoyed his antics with Undertaker. Their casket match isn't a workrate classic by any means, but Kamala's reactions to Undertaker's spooky stuff turned a crap match into campy fun.
  7. cactus
    I wasn't too high on this as I felt like this was lacking in heat for the majority of the match and Baba and company's golf commentary didn't help matters. Hansen is a master of selling though and Taue's awkward offence has always been endearing. Taue using his ringsmarts to parry a charging powerslam was a ingeniously cool spot. ★★★
  8. cactus
    Sometimes you don't need workrate, but just two Big Lads slapping the piss out of each other for twenty minutes. Far from being Kobashi's best match, this was a total spectacle that every puro fan needs to see. This reminded me of Kobashi's match with Samoa Joe later in the year. Both matches felt like a Kobashi exhibition match and a spectacle for different reasons, although I vastly prefer the ROH match as Joe a much more interesting opponent that Kensuke.. ★★★★
  9. cactus
    This is how you groom a guy for a run at the top. Misawa is quickly becoming the grumpy Misawa that we all know and love. His best days are behind him, but he isn't about to let a young whippersnapper like Akiyama take his spot easily. He can still throw a mean elbow and an Emerald Flowsion will still put anyone away providing Misawa is able to hit it. Akiyama takes control after a leg sweep sends Misawa colliding jaw first into the barricade and Akiyama sets his sights on working over Misawa's head to set him up for an Exploder suplex or a Brainbuster. Akiyama wasn't the most interesting once he locked on a chinlock, but Misawa quickly shows us how to work a hold and keep it entertaining for the crowd by wrenching the cocky upstart in his stepover facelock. The last minutes are absolutely magical. Although this entire match could be described as a sprint, they really take things to 11 during the later stages of the match. Misawa pops right up after a couple of Exploders and Akiyama is forced to bring something new to the table. The 90's might be over and the glory days of AJPW are quickly coming to an end, but this deserves to be talked about when discussing any of the big King's Road classics. ★★★★¾
  10. cactus
    The first exchange features a lot of quick countering leading to a stand off establishing that Kobashi is now on equal footing with Misawa. The first half of this match is them slowly building up to the molten finishing stretch with most of it seeing Kobashi schooling Misawa. Kobashi countering a Misawa hurricanrana with a crab was a brilliant spot that once again illustrates the fact that Kobashi has Misawa's number. I didn't see the overkill in the finishing stretch, but I did think the elbow finish felt a bit flat. A lengthy, physical epic that's well worth giving a watch. ★★★★½
  11. cactus
    They start this one slow and it's smartly worked with Kobashi taking control of Kawada with a mean headlock and feeding him some chops when doesn't want to doesn't want to comply. I also dug the opening matwork. Kawada is getting schooled, but one big blow is all he needs to gain some control. I loved Kobashi's shocked reaction he had across his face before he went down by Kawada's lariat. It's not not long before this one descends into an all-out bombfest. We've clearly have reached head drop AJPW now. An injured Kobashi fighting back with some monster lariats popped both the crowd and myself big time! This might not be a top level classic for AJPW during this decade, but it's an exciting pit stop before I move onto the Misawa vs Kobashi 10/31/98 match. ★★★★
  12. cactus
    They start this one out with both Kobashi and Misawa getting a brief shine segment. They fight back and forth until Misawa elbows the guardrail in a failed dive attempt and Kobashi focuses his attack on taking out Misawa's arm. Misawa tries to fight back the only way he knows how, by elbowing his enemies in the face. Initially this seems like a bad idea as it's clearly hurting Misawa, but one lucky shot to Kobashi's lariating arm is all he needs to change the tide of this match. The way they built up to their big moves was magical. Kobashi kicking out of the Tiger Driver '91 shocked me as much as it shocked the two suits in the front row. The Misawa elbow finish could of easily fell flat, but these two made it work. This was a phenomenal face vs face match that did not hold back on the workrate. ★★★★★
  13. cactus
    There's so much to unpack here. Taue is here to be the brains to Kawada's brawn. He needs to keep Kawada's temper in check, much like in the 6/9/95 tag. Akiyama is lacking in experience, but he has a lot of heart and is a much better tag partner than Kobashi ever was to Misawa. Some of the head drops here were nasty, especially the spike Backdrop Drivers that Misawa ate. The strike exchanges between Kawada and Misawa show us that their epic rivalry is far from over. Akiyama and Misawa isolate Kawada and it's all up for Taue to save the day. He gets the tag and takes out Akiyama with a brutal chokeslam to the floor, and it's not long before the Holy Demon Army score the victory by pinning Misawa. This was probably my favourite AJPW King's Road match, behind the 6/9/95 tag of course! ★★★★★
  14. cactus
    An utterly brilliant brawl, with molten heat and seamless transitions. Funk's selling and trash talking were a particular highlight for me. This might be Flair's best ever face performance. After Flair sneaks in a win after countering Funk's cradle, Muta rushes the ring and mists Flair, but it's not long for Sting to save the day. Great match with an even greater post match. ★★★★½
  15. cactus
    Samurai spits at Liger and proceeds to act like a massive dick to Liger. The first minute is fantastic heel work, but I feel the segment peters out as Samurai isn't able to keep the heat going. Liger makes a glorious comeback which sees him kick all kinds of ass. In a move that mirrored Liger's match with Sano two years previously, Samurai's mask is ripped by Liger. Samurai is able to make a brief comeback, but isn't able to trade bombs with Liger and eventually loses. I didn't think Samurai came out looking particularly strong, but this match made Liger look all kinds of awesome. ★★★★
  16. cactus
    Sano reminds me a lot of Dynamite Kid in his offence. He's quick, stiff and likes to bust out a variety of snap and bridging suplexes. He goes after Liger's arm and Liger never forget to sell it. It amazes me how expressive Liger is, especially considering we can't see his face! Some of Liger's kicks looked weak, but with selling he brought to the table, weak strikes can be forgiven! Sano switching the momentum in the finishing stretch by locking in a flash Fujiwara armbar had me marking out. Super heated juniors match which I'd rate just a hair above their 1990 match. ★★★★½
  17. cactus
    Rewatched this for the Greatest Match Ever project and I think I like this less every time I watch it. The first time I saw this, I was enthralled and had it at the full five. This time I watched it and it struggled to keep my attention. Don't get me wrong, I'm impressed by their conditioning and the fundamentals show here are some of the best ever. You're not going to see basic stuff like headlocks, arm drags, chops and basic pro wrestling body language done better than in this match. I also dug how Flair transition from a unsure challenger who's clearly doubting himself to the slick, arrogant Nature Boy once he scores the first fall. The finishes weren't exactly great, with the final fall feeling like a bit of a cop out after nearly an hour of action. Still a very good match, I just think I prefer the Chi-Town, the Landover house show and the Spring Stampede match over this. ★★★¾
  18. cactus
    This reminded me of the Taka Michinoku vs Great Sasuke from IYH: Canadian Stampede as the crowd go into this not really knowing the wrestlers are, but they are whipped into a frenzy and left speechless by the sheer amount of impressive high spots. There is a face and heel dynamic here as Blood Generation isolate Genki, but once he gets the hot tag, it's all high spots. Some of the moves executed in the last ten minutes are still amazing today, even if my tolerance for this style of wrestling has dropped since I first saw this many moons ago. ★★★★
  19. cactus
    While there's a bit too much dead air for my liking and this could of benefited of trimming off 5 or minutes, this was a total spectacle where Cactus Jack does unthinkable things to himself to get Trips over as a credible main eventer. Triple H puts in a hell of a performance, taking a beating and bleeding like a pro and the limb work to Foley felt logical and organic. I dug the callback spot to Mankind/Rock at the '99 Royal Rumble. I still prefer Foley's match with Orton, but this is still essential Attitude Era viewing. ★★★★½
  20. cactus
    I directly correlate the decline of NXT with Adam Cole climbing up the roster. Sure, things like the Gargano and Ciampa rivalry becoming a little too deep and melodramatic didn't help the product, but after that horrid Cole vs Gargano match last summer was the point that the product had completely lost it's shine. From 2015-2018, regardless if you followed their weekly TV or not, you could be put on the most recent Takeover and see two hours of some of the greatest wrestling in the world. Things have became way too self indulgent ever since HBK has taken the helm.
  21. cactus
    This was a hidden gem from WWF's C-show. Watching this Texas crowd go apeshit for Funk once he's tagged in warmed my cold heart. Funk and Lawler were obviously great here, but Bradshaw really shone in this match. He looked like a hulking monster babyface mauling Too Much. A super fun match, with a great finish which sees poor Brian Christopher get his head lariat'd off after he gets too confident after ducking under a prior Funk/Rhodes double clothesline. ★★★½
  22. cactus
    This was a total war, with Hansen beating twelve shades of shit out of Terry Funk. Funk sells his beating well and is able to bring Hansen down with his famous spinning toe hold. Hansen keeps fighting back and eventually the referee is taken out. Hansen then HANGS Terry over the ropes before Dory Funk Jr., dressed like a right Dad, comes running down to the ring to save his younger brother. A brutal match filled with gritty visuals. Hansen's body getting covered by Terry's blood as he's locked in the toe hold was one that stood out. Sometimes a non-finish can be just as satisfying as a clean one. ★★★★½
  23. cactus
    Yeah, this is the Terry Funk show. I dug all the shenanigans with the heels hiding their spike, but this really got going when Terry Funk got busted open and gave us some of the most intense facials ever and his convulsing selling was incredibly believable. I prefer the '77 match as that was more explosive, but this was still a lot of fun. ★★★★
  24. cactus
    Not only is this the match that made the Japanese crowd fall in love with Terry Funk, this is the first Funk match that I saw that made me realise that he's a top level talent. I first saw this when puroresu.tv ran a project finding the best puro matches pre-1970s and it blew me away as I had no idea match from this period could be this hellish and chaotic. Don't expect to see many arm drags here! Abby and Sheik are limited in what they can do physically, but they make up for in psychology and violence. Terry gets his arm maimed with a spike. The referee sees this, but doesn't want to throw this one out so he tries to physically get involved with the heels and ends up getting stabbed for his troubles. It soon becomes clear that there's no way to bring this under control, so the Funks are awarded this by disqualification. Absolute chaos. ★★★★¼
  25. cactus
    I still prefer Mankind/Michaels at Mind Games and their rematch at the next year's Wrestlemania is still the best match that the company has ever put on, but this was a great match which did wonders for Austin's rep. This starts out as a gritty technical match that eventually starts to become a brawl. Austin and Bret looked great trading punches. I wish we got more of heel Austin before the neck injury limited his talents. The finish here was very similar to how Bret beat Piper at Wrestlemania 8. What made Bret Hart so believable was that he had some many different ways he could beat his opponent without relying on his finish. ★★★★½
×
×
  • Create New...