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Makai Club #1

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  1. Makai Club #1
    Excellent match. Happy Motel taking it to the Golden Lovers, who are virtually gone from the company soon after this. The torch of the future has been past, and it’s only right the Takeshita was the star and focus of the match. His work with Kenny was great, his selling was good but him going back and forth exchanging big moves was the peak of his performance. Endo and Ibushi stood out as great partners as well. Great double team moves galore. ****1/4
  2. Makai Club #1
    This is a great example of a face v face in a No DQ match. Bret plays it on the edge. He isn’t hesitant to use chairs or ropes/cables to his advantage. And why should he? It’s all allowed and legal. It’s not a morality contest and he’s in it to win. Diesel is similar but plays it a bit too straight and is hesitant at the crucial points in the match. That’s why Bret wins over him, and Diesel knows it. Love the call backs to their Rumble match with the Figure Four in the middle of the ring and the use of the chair by Diesel. They arc’d the match really well from Diesel kicking Bret’s ass, looking like a total badass;, to Bret attacking the leg of Diesel and then the finishing stretch where they are selling the fatigue and damage of the whole match while building to the big high spot of the match - the epic spanish announce table bump from Bret. An overall great match. ****1/4
  3. Makai Club #1
    An epic Now Generation vs Old Guard match in Budokan Hall. The opening exchanges between Kobashi and Hansen were great. The struggle for the cross elbow tie up before Hansen took Kobashi to the mat and smothered him was a strong way to open the match and the following encounter between Misawa and Baba was cool as well. Misawa oversells for Baba, naturally, but Baba’s facial expressions after the brief strike flurry from Misawa made it all work. Baba smirking might be my favourite thing in wrestling. The match lost steam in the middle of the match with too much repetition with Baba locking Misawa in loose arm-wringers and various submissions. Kobashi putting Baba in the rolling cradle made sure that the middle portion of the match wasn’t a total waste of time, however. The finishing stretch was fun though and finished the match off super strong. Hansen and Baba constantly trying to set up the irish whip into Western Lariat, only to be scuppered by Misawa at every attempt was awesome. Hansen got so pissed off that he pounded Misawa on the apron, sending him flying into the guardrail. Kobashi’s crying face after Baba kicked out of his moonsault was a prime WWE-esc moment. Loved it. ***3/4
  4. Makai Club #1
    A match that wasn’t even scheduled to happen apparently. I heard that Vader was supposed to get a rematch for this show but Shawn throwing a fit at Summerslam scrapped those plans so they put Mankind in this match. Neat. The match reputation speaks for itself. Almost everyone considers this to be a great match. Some go as far as to claim it's one of the best matches WWF has ever done. I won’t go as far as that but this was an incredible match, for sure. This was very unconventional and out of the box. A different match from what you’ll usually see from a WWF title match or a Shawn Michaels match. It was one of the few times where Shawn Michaels came across as wrestling rather than performing. He lays in his strikes, his aerial attacks have more malice than flash in them. He is very aggressive and totally game in this match. The first third of the match is so great. Mankind stiffs Shawn with a back elbow to kick it all off and what came after was a very rough and unpredictable scramble. Michaels dropkicks Mankind, who’s holding the outside mats and then jumps on him. It looks super dangerous as does the subsequent back bumps on the concrete he takes. One of my favourite moments of the match was Mankind, after the little worked shoot incident in the corner where Shawn shouts at Mankind for not running at him in the corner, baiting Michaels in and grapevining his legs around Michaels before trying locking in the mandible claw. It felt very off the cuff and raw. It worked perfectly into the tone of the match. The match is next spent with Michaels first working over Mankind’s knee after a sickening bump into the steeps after a suplex on the outside and then the hand after the chair gets brought into play. Michaels throws out a dainty dragon screw and the figure four on the wrong leg (Flair does it as well so I’ll forgive Shawn) but Mankind sells the work excellently. The match has tons of little moments but works great as a highlight reel as well. The table bump is awesome and was worked in seemingless both into the spot and afterwards to the finish. Mankind gets caught in the ropes in horrific fashion. Michaels hitting a running, chair assisted superkick looked incredible. Just so many things you can list off. The finish kinda sucks with Vader running in a tad too late making the planned false finish seem awkward and wasted since Mankind had to kick out of the aforementioned superkick to no fanfare. But Undertaker showing up out of the casket was pretty cool, admittedly. So what we were left with was an unbelievable match with a great mix of brawling and highspots and some brilliant selling from both wrestlers (+ some great character work by Mankind with his squealing). They were given tons of time and they used it well to combine different components to make one very compelling and gripping match. The match probably needs a more tight finish to make it a top tier match but I haven’t got many complaints for this match. If you’re a Shawn Michaels critic, you'll probably like this. It has pretty much none of his bad attributes and some of his best. ****1/2
  5. Makai Club #1
    This probably should’ve been better than it was. But I have grown very weary of endless strike exchanges at this point. Perhaps their age should give them some slack but I just prefer a bit more. I’m glad that they switched up the strikes so it wasn’t just the bland forearm blows and the selling was fine. Give me way more than that though. The meat of the match where there were a bit more submissions being attempted was more my alley. That was the best part of the match for me. Nagata getting the win was great though.
  6. Makai Club #1
    This was pretty great once they got kicked into another gear and AJ began attacking Bryan’s leg. All the technical wrestling up-to that point was a bit too showy with not much struggle to it but once the duel-limb work aspect got added to the match, the work from both, Bryan especially got more snug and heated. I thought AJ’s selling was very strong and was the constant quality that carried through the match from start to finish. Bryan’s selling was decent but I didn’t really buy his pain unlike AJ's. The finish itself was pretty great as well. The counter from the running knee to the styles clash was super slick and impressive. ****
  7. Makai Club #1
    Saying that isn't too much depth isn't the same as saying that there is no depth. That'd be a lie from my POV. He still has a few great years where his output was really good (2012, 2013, 2018) which is still a lot. And making the best out of garbage tv and writing is all well and good. However it's still something that I've never been into, and doubt that I will ever watch again, as far as the angles go. So I can't honestly say that helps his case as far as I'm concerned. He's still in the top 5, just not #1. Or at least decisively. I'd have to really think about how I compare his peak years to the others I mentioned.
  8. Makai Club #1
    I don't think Bryan had nearly enough of a great 2010s, due to injury, booking, etc, to be considered an undisputed #1. I guess he's like Rey Mysterio in that point of view. He's had some good matches, high level matches like the Sheamus match at ExRules, Cena at Summerslam and the Brock match. But unless you're a rabid fan of his, I don't think there is too much depth there for the aforementioned reasons. Cena comes to mind. He doesn't have a strong full decade for both 00s and 10s but I feel like he has a great 06-14 which is enough of a blend to cover the amount of time in question. Dick Togo definitely has a shout. I probably need to watch more 00s Togo outside of DDT, if possible, though. Tanahashi maybe? I think 00s Tanahashi has his flaws, one's that were improved upon later in his career, but he still has some quality matches against Goto and Nagata. Even Muto of all people. Okada would be my #1 for the last decade but with the 00s being his YL run, albeit with a few good matches, but he has no chance I'm afraid.
  9. Makai Club #1
    The most built-up match of the year. And whilst it's not the main event, it felt on that level. Extremely strong match with both guys totally outdoing themselves and delivered on what they built up in the tag team matches. Sho looked great with his power moves and submission attempts, making Shingo looks the most vulnerable he has been since debuting. Shingo ruled as always but Sho was the standout here. ****1/4
  10. Makai Club #1
    This was good. This gets a reputation for being an all time brawl but I don’t see that a whole lot. Instead this was more focused on fast tag team work that is constantly flowing back and forth. The crowd probably elevates the work to the point where I can see why people think so highly of this. However I think desperately lacked a killer stretch where the match turned into that transcendent masterpiece. And there were a few aspects that I really hated. Austin and Owen got sent backstage after hurting their knees via figure fours on the post. I don’t know why that was necessary. It’s a fairly standard spot in the 90s and they don’t even look in bad enough shape to be sent away. It takes two of the most over in the match out of it, Austin in particular. And Owen being taken out of the match, only to return for the finish and win made it a whole lot worse. And the finish beside that was so anticlimactic and comes out of nowhere. Austin gets attacked by Bruce outside, a small brawl takes place and then Austin goes in the ring and gets pinned. A bad finish to what was a pretty good match. ***3/4
  11. Makai Club #1
    Hase and Sasaki had the more substantial exchanges in this, and I kinda loved them going at each other. The slap exchange was great. Although I’m not sure if Hase was supposed to get knocked down the first time, it worked as Sasaki is the badass and Hase is at the end of his career. Tenryu had some good Ternyu-isms where he’d throw a stiff punch to Kawada or Sasaki and that was awesome. Just a simple match that lacked a bit of heat but it didn't hurt the match too much. ***1/2
  12. Makai Club #1
    Had a hard time actually sitting down to watch this. Always had to do something when I planned to sit down and watch this, and an hour later, I can say that it was worth waiting. This was pretty great. This was a great hybrid of shoot style and pro-style. The early mat-work was awesome. The struggle just to get Kandori into a neck bridging position by Saito was incredible. Everything was contested and very uncooperative in a compelling way. Saito was great from working beneath, having to come up with different ways to defend herself against Kandori’s submissions and stiff strikes. The finishing stretch with all the nearfalls was really well done, too. Saito got some great nearfalls, even getting a pin at one point but the ref said Kandori got her shoulder up (I don’t think she did) but she ultimately fell to Kandori. ****1/4
  13. Makai Club #1
    40 minute match...kinda worrying on paper but this flowed way better than I thought it would. The pacing is still rather slow with most of the offence being basic mat work with a few cool counters and fast sequences being thrown in. Also Yamada had her kicks which will always pop me. The first bell threw me for a loop. I was unaware that there was a 30 minute time limit to this opposed to the 40 this gets extended to. It makes sense 30 is the traditional time limit. But like their 91 match, this goes 30 but Toyota asks to receive 5 more minutes, and again once that runs out. Then they noticeably switched up gears, throwing more all or nothing offence at each other, desperately trying to end the match and prove who is the better. They upped in tempo and intensity which worked great into the match. ***3/4
  14. Makai Club #1
    More fuel to the fire in regards to Aja Kong and Kudo. The class of 86 are destined to collide sometime in the future. And this is the first meeting between the two (in any form) since Kudo’s return to wrestling. They would face each other in December for the 3WA World championship. Before that, they have to team with their fellow wrestlers for now. Love Aja getting in the ring, shooing off Sato and calling for Kudo. And unlike Toyota and Yamada on the Anniversary show, she gets a reaction. It might be small but damn if it didn’t make me smile. Love their initial exchange where Kudo attacks the arm and tries to bring in to the mat only for Aja to blast her in the face with a kick. There was another awesome sequence where Kudo was outwitting Aja with her quickness, countering anything Aja Kong had in store for her. Aja Kong had to rely on the strikes to get anything after a while. Told a great story there. Poor Sato. She got beat up so badly any time she was in the ring. With Ito, there was more give and go but with Aja Kong in the ring, it was dream street. She ran nice interference for Kudo though and even had some cool subsequent offence, following whatever Kudo did nicely, whether it was a clothesline off the top after a Kudo arm wringer or catching Ito with a running clothesline after she missed a footstomp (to Kudo). There was an awesome moment where Aja Kong comes, with no cause to, and hits Kudo with her metal box. She fails to hit it off the top rope the second time though, hitting Ito (which would repeat itself when she accidentally hits the Urakento her for the finish) with it instead. A really, really good tag match with tons of neat spots and match building between Kudo and Aja. Sato and Ito more than pull their weight in their lesser roles. ***3/4
  15. Makai Club #1
    Kudo and Toyoda were very over with the crowd. Maybe that was in comparison to the AJW duo but they had the crowd behind them whether they were in the driving seat or working from beneath. Toyota, to her credit, was great in spite of getting little from the crowd. She had some great sequences that she strung together. Toyoda was a good base for her high flying. Yamada kicked ass with her stiff kicks. Kudo was a strong sympathetic character with her selling and charisma. And her string of offence to put away Toyoya was awesome. ****
  16. Makai Club #1
    Triple Crown Title Match: Suwama (c) vs. Taiyo Kea - AJPW Pro-Wrestling Love in Ryogoku Vol. 5 31/08/2008 I believe this is my first time watching Taiyo Kea in a singles match. I probably watched him randomly once or twice, I know I watched in him a tag but that was 2019 Kea. This is pretty much peak Kea it seems. Although, the match itself is critically panned, and my curiosity has gotten the best of me. Probably not the best way to watch someone at their craft for one of the first times. I think I’m fair though. However, the match..well lived up to its reputation. It was not very good for a plethora of reasons ranging from them never really getting out of the second gear until the last closing stretch (40 minutes into a 60 minute match btw) which, to me, was totally lacking in drama. There were hints of the two working each other’s legs but I found the struggle to be rather dry. Neither were great at submissions as far as I can tell. Although Suwama splashing himself onto the leg was pretty great. It was just too lackluster for far too long. They lost me before the finishing stretch which itself seemed to go on forever. I’m convinced they lost track of time and went “home” too early. This wasn’t awfully bad. Just boring. Early Suwama disappoints me once again. **
  17. Makai Club #1
    This was pretty much saved by a brutal closing stretch with mean punches that hit the mark, some awesome bombs thrown. Really good end to what was a pretty unintresting match. The flow was really ugly, essentially taking me out of the match. There would be large gaps inbetween the moves with little transitions. It was just "pause, figure out what to do, do". It was fairly stiff and Suwama had some nice power moves but the overall match was too bare bones. I like both guys but this was not it. Takayama didn't look the best either - his wellness frailties showed. But god bless Suwama for eating those punches. **3/4
  18. Makai Club #1
    AJPW World Junior Heavyweight Title Match: Naomichi Marufuji (c) vs. Kaz Hayashi - AJPW Excite Series 2009 - Day 1 06/02/2009 I thought this was pretty good. Most of the match was Marufuji doing his thing, well I might add, with Hayashi coming up with occasional counters and strikes, trying to keep Marufuji at bay. Marufuji was pretty entertaining while on top. He switched his offence from flashy aerial moves to strikes to submissions well. I thought he did a good job of building his offence up with Hayashi just avoiding his signature moves such as the corner kicks making them feel big when he executes them. Hayashi worked well from beneath in terms of selling and he was a good person that the fans could rally behind even against the popular Marufuji. A good finishing stretch closes out a pretty good Junior Heavyweight title match. ***3/4
  19. Makai Club #1
    Big 30 minute chaotic match in Ryogoku. Choshu looked super strong in this, getting both falls and always staying one step ahead when he was in the ring. He directed traffic for his side as well. The Maestro of Team New Japan. I like how both falls took their time and told different stories. The first fall was about New Japan wrecking havoc with WAR playing catch up. The second fall was WAR on top, taking advantage of Iizuka and Fujinami, isolating them. Tenryu beating up Iizuka with cheap shots and had chops was killer. Iizuka has a history of taking incredible beatdowns so he knows how to make the best out of it and use it to his advantage. Hase was a boss as well. He threw some sick uranage’s to Ishikawa. Great, great match. ****1/4
  20. Makai Club #1
    This was an electric 13 minutes. I assume that this was the start of the Hashimoto v Tenryu feud. It looked like Muto was going to be the big headliner of his team, given he is champion (as Muta which technically is a different person) but Hashimoto calls out Tenryu to kick off the match and the rest is history. Tenryu is very hesitant in this match. After he gets pummeled by Hashimoto’s kicks to kick off the match, he starts to be cautious, tags out more often than he would. He is very keen to go when Nogami is in there, and he dishes out some heavy offence against him, while looking at Hash (which was awesome) but then it’s Muto or Hashimoto in the ring, in comes Hara or Ishikawa. This was played off brialintly when he got trapped ina barrage of triple team moves that sent the crowd into a frenzy. The other two WAR guys were good and played their parts as the side pieces to Tenryu. Ishikawa got booed any time he was in the ring whereas the other two were cheered, mostly. Good to see his heat out of the Fujinami match is being carried over. Great match. ****1/4
  21. Makai Club #1
    Verne Gagne, a rigid old promoter, did something wild and used his overseas connections to bring Jumbo Tsuruta to the states, making him his champion. Jumbo, being the foreigner, got booed for the ring announcements but he was pretty much classic Jumbo. Stoic faced and menacing. Even throughout the match, barring a few subtle heel spots here and there, he wrestled fairly straight. One thing I love about AWA is there is a ton of emphasis on good wrestling. The first half of the match is Jumbo and Martel struggling for holds with Martel just being outmatched by the combination of strength and speed Jumbo possesses. Martel is adept enough to keep up and is able to get control via his mobility, using Jumbo’s momentum to get the better of him. For example leapfrogging him and then drop-kicking Jumbo, and then later using a reverse crossbody. We get some cool spots like Jumbo hitting a knee crusher, trying to escape a headlock hold, only for Martel to just hang on but still selling it brilliantly. Jumbo’s high knee looked so brutal as well. There is a good reverse abdominal stretch spot as well that leads into the finish nicely. Jumbo gets a visual three count but the ref got KO’d briefly after a dropkick sent Martel into the ref. This protects Jumbo to the Japanese audience (who would see this on their TV) while still giving Martel a big victory after a hot shot on the ropes. A good match. A novelty seeing Jumbo work in the States. Martel is awesome as well. Not a blow away match but I liked it a ton. ***1/2
  22. Makai Club #1
    First match of the Fujiwara vs Super Tiger series is a good ‘un. Both wrestlers’ strengths came out to the front in the match. Fujiwara was super focused on ripping Tiger’s arm apart in the early parts, being laser focused on submissions and grappling while Super Tiger worked from beneath, selling and coming back with flurries of strikes and other submissions. The counters in this are really good. Especially the deadlift into a piledriver counter by Fujiwara against Tiger’s triangle choke attempt. The last exchange for the finish was awesome - Tiger struggling away from Fujiwara’s dreaded holds before hitting a stiff head kick and getting the win via chickenwing. ****1/4
  23. Makai Club #1
    This was a cool big UWF tag team match. There is still fairly early for the promotion so this was still half way into shoot style but there was still a “New Japan” vibe I got from this. Tiger comes off the rope once or twice to success (he doesn’t as the style progresses). They set up some great match ups down the line - Tiger vs Fujiwara plus Fujiwara v Takada. I thought everyone except Maeda was pretty great in this. Maeda seemed to disappear in favour of highlighting Tiger which was the right choice. I dug Takada a lot. He was the clear bottom rung of the match and worked like such. He held on for the face locks with tons of desperation in fear of Fujiwara getting control. Tiger was a star though. Everything he did the crowd responded to. He threw some great kicks and worked in his usual Tiger Mask style well into the match. Fujiwara was always good as always at selling or dishing out offence. ****
  24. Makai Club #1
    This was pretty cool. I know people will ignorantly try to compare this to MMA or whatever but this is very much pro-wrestling. The mat wrestling was very good with it being fast and heavy without dwindling on without much aim. They used the cage around them very well too, making it much more than just an added accessory. Riddle had some cool strikes like the Antohy Pettis kick of the cage and when Thatcher was wailing on him, he had some cool up kicks as a defensive measure. Definitely different from what you’ll usually see but kept some of the classic elements that keep it grounded. ****
  25. Makai Club #1
    This was unrelenting in pace, action and drama. It’s hard to point out who was the best out of Kawada or Kobashi in this match. Kawada brought some sublime selling to his knee which came after Kobashi did the unthinkable and attacked his knee, which he was slightly favouring upto that point. Kawada’s deadweight selling for the finish after being laid out with the rolling elbow (and two subsequent suplexes from Misawa and Kobashi) was incredible stuff. Kobashi was so great on offence whether it was on top or working from beneath. He was so compelling. Kawada and Kobashi’s exchanges were spectacular. Kawada being a dismissive prick to Kobashi, kicking him in the face in a petty way and then stepping on his face during the high angled single leg boston crab only for Kobashi to turn it around and doing the same was awesome. Taue and Kawada had some great double team work as well, working over Kobashi with their underhand tactics. Taue was quite great in this himself, as an individual. He sold the opening barrage from Kobashi and Misawa perfectly with his selling and defensive work. Later when he was snake eye-ing people, he brought some great malice in his facial expressions. Misawa worked as cover boy for Kobashi and did a great job at it. Him and Taue had their own little game in who can attack each other on the apron the most. Everyone played their roles perfectly. Easy watch that left me borderline breathless. *****
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