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
    I was in attendance for that match and it was great, although I couldn't see much of what was happening on the mat and I thought the finish was rather abrupt. You should check out the Will Ospreay vs Marty Scurll match from the same show. One of the best matches I've seen live and I preferred it to ZSJ vs Styles.
  2. cactus
    I thought they were the coolest thing about when I was a kid. Granted, I started watching in late 1999 and my only exposure to their 1997/8 incarnation was on my older brother's DX VHS, but I loved watching them even if their humor went over my head. I was psyched when I heard rumors of them reforming in 2006 and I enjoyed it for what it was. I was just happy to see my old favorites back together again, even if they were even more cringey than ever at this point. Hell, nostalgia even made me sit through their 09/10 run. Looking back, their humor is very immature and there are very few DX moments that I would still find funny today (the 97 public announcement and the 'Stan' sketch come to mind).
  3. cactus
    One beefy motherfucker squaring off with a significantly less talented beefy motherfucker. Sheamus doesn't have much of a chance. The look on Lesnar's face when he caught Sheamus's leg was pure money. I was slightly irked by Sheamus getting up and giving his back to Lesnar during the final suplex spots, but it's a minor gripe with an otherwise good match.
  4. cactus
    Really enjoying the podcast so far. Good stuff! Not so much scummy, but one of the most carniest thing I've heard is when a fan asked Colt Cabana for a photo after a show, he obliged, and then asked for ten dollars after the deed was done. Fuck that. If paying beforehand for an awkward photo with a wrestler isn't awkward enough, Colt has to go and take the piss.
  5. cactus
    I admit that I teared up at the post match embrace, but I feel that it's entirely possibly that I might of found it rather sappy if it wasn't for the tragic deaths of Macho Man and Elizabeth. The match itself is special. Warrior doesn't do anything to bring the quality down and it's actually one of his better performance, even if Savage is mainly responsible for the workrate portion of this match to be as solid as it is. He bumps well for Warrior's abysmal punches. The reason everyone rates this match highly is because of the emotion behind it. The atmosphere was something else. I personally found Warrior 'talking to the gods' and Macho Man hitting the elbow five times to be overly hokey, but I can forgive it.
  6. cactus
    When he first started doing it, it was one of my favorite spots in wrestling. Ambrose using it every single match he's in as a signature move has made me hate it. It should only be used sparingly or it ends up looking hokey and stupid as it does now.
  7. cactus
    Yeah, I've seen GIFs of them here and there, but this was the first time seeing them in action so it's a new experience for me.
  8. cactus
    By no means a MOTYC, this match was still a lot of fun. The rudos worked well as a collective unit. An easy watch due to it's quick pace, plenty of comedy spots and the constant realization that you're watching a wrestling match featuring TMNT knock-offs. ★★★
  9. cactus
    These guys are a treat to watch mat wrestle. They are so smooth and fluid. Eddie misses (he does actually hit him, but it's a minor gripe) a forearm to Benoit on the outside, and ends up crashing into the ring post. Benoit then takes control of Eddie's injury and continues to do damage to it with a variety of arm-trapped suplexes and slams. My personal favorite was the arm-trapped northern lights. The arm-work is a consistent theme in the match and is incorporated into the finish in a smart way. Eddie, after eating one of the most sweetest looking powerbombs I have ever seen, tries to strike Benoit. He does, but does more to damage to his injured wing than he does to Benoit. Benoit smells blood in the water and dragon suplexes a defenseless Eddie to a victory. This is a short and snappy TV match between two of the best ever. It's filled with meaningful limbwork and many cool spots, what's not to love? ★★★½
  10. cactus
    I usually prefer my shoot style to have a bit of pro-style mixed in, but I dug this a lot. There is no better technician than Volk Han and this match is proof. You can make a serviceable Volk Han moves compilation video with just this video alone. Some of his throws and submissions in this match were insane. Naruse sold the effects of Han's holds well and there's a lot of drama in the closing minutes of the match. It's essentially an extended squash match bar one hope spot where Naruse gets a lucky body shot in, but it's got Volk Han in it, so you know it's worth your time.
  11. cactus
    Unlike Sano, Yamazaki actually has a fight chance against Vader albeit a small one. Vader gets himself in a sticky situation when he eats some stiff kicks and the crowd go apeshit for it all. There's a great spot where both guys go over the top rope, which is very rare for a shoot-style match. Vader pulls a new trick out his bag and puts Yamazaki away with a chokeslam when his open handed shots aren't doing the job. The match serves the purpose of feeding Vader some more momentum and to establish a new finishing move into his arsenal and it does this very well. Vader still looks like a million bucks, whilst Yamazaki doesn't look like a complete pushover. ★★★¾
  12. cactus
    Vader doing shoot style is one of my favorite things ever. He may not have the technical wizardry of Volk Han, but he has the size and there's a lot of power behind his strikes. This is Vader's debut and he just demolishes Nakano in three and a half minutes. UWFi's rule of banning closed fists doesn't affect Vader much as he puts over his perfectly legal open handed strikes as a threat nicely. A great squash match. ★★★¼
  13. cactus
    Some good stuff here, like the swank springboard to half crab that Maximo did in the second fall, Kamaitachi's dives and both guys trying to out-cheat each other in a humorous spot during the deciding fall. It's a shame this drags in many places, mainly the first fall being completely filler featuring Kamaitachi working on Maximo's leg and then taunting the crowd for what seemed like forever. The selling of the leg also feels rather selective. A mixed bag.
  14. cactus
    It's Nakamura in a big match on the Dome show. Do you really need more motivation to check it out? They play up on AJ's recent back problems which result in a great spot where AJ plays possum. Near enough every near fall and submission felt like it could end the match, and even as the match approached the 25 minute mark, I still didn't want it to end. A total war. ★★★★½
  15. cactus
    As much as I want to crap on this match for it's dull control segments and opening moments, they kept me entertained enough with spots early in the match like the springboard dropkick knocking Tanahashi outside in brutal fashion and the crossbody over the guardrail. Once they hit the finishing stretch is when things get really great. I can even forgive some of the signature move reversal exchanges looking like a dance rather than a struggle for dominance. These guys know how to work an epic big match finishing stretch. This borrows a lot from the early 2000's WWE main event style, especially when they end up using each others finishing move. They add enough new stuff here to make it stand out from their other battles. It's flawed, but the great stuff outweighs the bad. ★★★★
  16. cactus
    Exactly what you would expect here. A solid spot-fest. I particularly enjoyed Rocky Romero's clothesline rampage and the 'armbar in the ropes whilst someone planchas over' spot. Of course, there are plenty of ill-timings and awkward moments, but that's to be expected. ★★★
  17. cactus
    A real meat and potatoes tag match, seasoned with some surprisingly great selling from Makabe after eating some stiff shots from Bullet Club. Homna got the crowd behind him because of charisma and his impeccable timing; he just knows when to bust out those Kokeshi Headbutts. ★★★½
  18. cactus
    Just finished watching this. Nak/Styles ruled. It's Nakamura in a big match on the Dome show. Do you really need more motivation to check it out? They play up on AJ's recent back problems which result in a great spot where AJ plays possum. Near enough every near fall and submission felt like it could end the match, and even as the match approached the 25 minute mark, I still didn't want it to end. A total war. As much as I want to crap on Tana/Okada for it's dull control segments and opening moments, they kept me entertained enough with spots early in the match like the springboard dropkick knocking Tanahashi outside in brutal fashion and the crossbody over the guardrail. Once they hit the finishing stretch is when things get really great. I can even forgive some of the signature move reversal exchanges looking like a dance rather than a struggle for dominance. These guys know how to work an epic big match finishing stretch. This borrows a lot from the early 00's WWE main event style, as they end up using each others finishing move. They add enough new stuff here to make it stand out from their other battles. It's flawed, but the great stuff outweighs the bad.
  19. cactus
    The opening 'feeling out' exchanges were decent enough, just very paint-by-numbers. The last time I saw this match was when I watched the entire event shortly after it had aired. I didn't care who won it and only watched it as I wanted to see every match on the card and I was understandably burnt out after watching four hours of wrestling, so I was rather bored during the first 15 minutes. I think it's a fair point to say that they can be rather bland during their control segments, although I enjoyed them more on a rewatch as I genuinely want to see what people who are calling these matches the modern day equivalent of Flair vs Steamboat see in these matches. Yeah, the average opening minutes holds this back. Many NJPW main events suffer from this problem, but I was nowhere near as bored as I was when I sat through the first 15 minutes of Styles vs Okada from last October. But then when the match finally gets going, oh my, it's good. It's everything I want in a big match main event, even if the Dominion match has better sequences. Most of the NJ guys can work a great finishing stretch, but everything fell into place just right here. It avoided being formulaic and crowd ate up every second. Not as good as their Dominion match, as it's way too bloated, even with all the great stuff sprinkled throughout. ★★★¾
  20. cactus
    This is from a newsreel, so it's heavily clipped and we have to deal with an irritating sexist narrator, but at least we get a rare glimpse of early women's wrestling. There's a certain amount of intensity in every little thing they do and there's no wasted movement. This makes minute things like attempting a lock up or applying a headlock fun to watch. This certainly makes me curious to check out more women's wrestling from this era.
  21. cactus
    This is clipped down too much to form a definitive opinion on. Pretty standard stuff for the time. Londos slickly counters Carnera's body scissors in a Boston Crab to pick up the first fall and they play off it in the final fall before the time limit expires. It's cool to see Londos in action, but this wasn't anything to write home about.
  22. cactus
  23. cactus
    I was not expecting this many head drops in a Tanahashi match! This is the first time I've been impressed by Taiyo Kea. He may be lacking in charisma, but he sure can dish out some brutal looking offense. Tanahashi takes it like the champ he is and fires back when he can find an opening. I don't rate Tanahashi as high as others do nowadays, but seeing him here, you can see why he has the fan-base he has now. Thankfully, the flaws that riddle most of his current work are nowhere to be seen. This match never feels formulaic and when Tanahashi hits a tide-turning big move, it feels organic. This matched benefited everyone. Kea looked like a bad ass in defeat on one of the biggest stages in his career, and Tanahashi looked like the ace that NJPW want him to be. ★★★★
  24. cactus
    http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2wtkvd_6-shinsuke-nakamura-vs-toshiaki-kawada_sport The mat-work here is fantastic. It shows a struggle, but it's accessible enough that someone who isn't a fan of shoot style would still enjoy themselves. Kawada is a lot more reserved than he usually is, but all that changes when Nakamura refuses to break an armbar when Kawada gets to the ropes. After this, Kawada finally starts bringing the hate and both guys take some stiff shots and suplexes. Even as Kawada was ending the near of his career, he was still one of the best at selling. His facial expressions were on point. It's a shame the no-selling headdrop spots come off as a tad silly, but you're still getting Nakamura vs Kawada, so you can't really complain, can you? ★★★★
  25. cactus
    These guys have great chemistry together and even disguise each others flaws. The spot where a worn down MiSU tries to initiate another slap exchange with Nagata, only to be clubbed into the other direction but Suzuki keeps slapping away at nothing was a great indicator of how good of a seller he is. Many other workers could of attempted that spot and it would of looked hokey, but not MiSu. This match has a big fight feel and is oozing with charisma. ★★★★¼
×
×
  • Create New...