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Makai Club #1

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  1. Makai Club #1
    This was awesome. Osamu Nishimura’s time to shine and he takes it. Nishimura has a lot of old-timey moves - things that seem very basic on the surface - but the crowd pops for all of his signature offences, like his European Uppercuts, his Abdominal stretch into the Octopus Hold and his knee drops. Nishimura controls Takayama from the start. Takayama uses his MMA and shoot style background to good use but Nishimura counters him hold for holds which pisses off Takayama big time. Nishimura stays one step ahead of him the entire time, focusing his attacks on the leg of Takayama. I thought Takayama sold for him excellently. He was hot shit at the time with his PRIDE appearances and he made Nishimura look incredible working from beneath for him. I love how everything mattered too. Takayama had to make his moments on top last. If he spent too long on offence without putting Nishimura away, Nishimura dragged him back to the mat and worked his magic. Takayama essentially had to knock him out with 4 shots and it did just that. ****1/2
  2. Makai Club #1
    Given Kenny's history in DDT, I would imagine that there are some minor influences involved in the makings of this match. With AEW's twist on it and less comedy albeit still fairly tongue in cheek. There were some great call backs to previous matches in the build. Guevara being chased, once again, by the golf cart driven by Hardy and Kenny was awesome. Guevara parkoring his way into the stands was great, too. I dug the Hangman Page stuff. I generally prefer him when he can do stuff like this and not actually wrestle "traditional" matches. Him riding on a horse was a great visual as well as the gag with the drinking in a bar. That stuff got a laugh out of me. Somethings didn't hit though like the Northern lights suplexes, etc. The brawling was fine. Typical plunder spots spread out in a building. The magic in this match was what it all build up to. Good match ***3/4
  3. Makai Club #1
    Mascaras gets a bad reputation for being restrictive, and that's totally true, but in this case, Destoryer is equally restrictive. Neither are willing to give much up so the match is a total struggle and it's so compelling to watch. Two masters of their trade scratching and clawing their way through snug holds and stiff strikes. And when they do get more easy with each other, the high spots come off so much more grander. Mascaras' selling of the figure four hold stands out and puts over the hold perfectly. Destroyer takes advantage of that to win the final fall and the match overall. Excellent match. ****1/2
  4. Makai Club #1
    A complicated match for new viewers of Lucha. However this is a pretty good gate way for getting into lucha libre still because it captures the magic of the lucha style but does it in a slightly different style. Typical for lucha matches, this is done in a two out of three falls match. In this case, you need to pin both partners to end the fall. For example, Santo and Octagon get pinned in the first round so Los Gringos Locos win the first fall. So naturally this can be confusing if you’re not away from the rules. Apparently, this was supposed to be a singles apuestas match between Hijo del Santo and Eddie Guerrero which would’ve been the first (and presumably only) singles match between the two. That sounds pretty amazing because both are world-class wrestlers on their day but Art Barr changed Pena’s mind and got himself and Octagon put in the match. And it benefits from it because Art Barr is so hated by the crowd and his history with Blue Panther (Santo & Octagon’s second) is played off in a big way in this. The match had everything you can want in a match. Excellent tag wrestling with Los Gringos Locos working over the tecnico team, maximising their heat before Santo and Octagon worked together to overcome the double team work, at one point sending Eddie and Barr into each other which lead into a pair of expertly executed synchronized topes on the outside. The story was excellent with the tecnico team having to work their way back in falls with Gringos Locos going ahead almost always, both in the second fall and last with Octagon and Santo each getting their shining spots in those falls. Art Barr taking out Octagon with the piledriver (a banned move in Mexico) while the ref wasn’t looking was amazing. The crowd went nuts at it. And it made it so much more sweeter when Blue Panther came in and did a piledriver to him, allowing Santo to eliminate Barr from the match. It was an excellent call back to the Panther/Barr apuestas match where Barr lost his mask via dq after a piledriver, as well as it being a revenge spot for Octagon, who was being carried out on a stretcher. Santo and Eddie were the main focus of all the hot stretches of the match so naturally there was a lot of tension in the final stretch. Santo is battered and bruised and takes some nasty suplexes, including a dragon suplex on the hard canvas before Santo catches Eddie off guard and pins him with a roll up to a tremendous ovation. Viva la Mexico. ****3/4
  5. Makai Club #1
    There was some little creativity for a change done by WWE on the last PPV. After Jericho was battered in the HBK match. He entered the Championship Scramble match later in the night, was taken out most of it and snuck the win and the title at the last moments. Giving this feud more escalation that WWE likes to do with their feuds. Now the World Heavyweight title is on the line in a Ladder match. And this is easily their best match that I’ve seen between the two. In this feud or in general. One benefit this match had is that it took a step back from what the feud had been based upon upto this point. I think the last match showed that there are some severe limitations on these two when they tried to have a hate filled match, so reverting back to basics and having a traditional ladder match while keeping some elements of the feud was a totally right choice. They made great use of the ladder whether it was for Shawn’s high flying or to attack each other with it. Loved Jericho kicking the ladder that was perched in the ropes, causing it to fall and land right on Shawn’s face. Him slamming Shawn’s head in between the ladder legs was, again, a great spot. However, there were some uses of the ladder that made me roll my eyes. Any move that involves the person jumping on the ladder to hurt the person inside or beneath gets automatic hate. The Elbow off the top by Michaels did nothing to hurt Jericho while hurting himself more, same with Jericho’s lionsault to Michaels. I really hated those spots. The match got really back on track with a scary landing for Jericho when Michaels pushed Jericho off the ladder to the outside floor. Jericho really could’ve broken his leg there. The match keeps with the hits, finally having a Lance Cade interference that’s good and/or useful before a great tug of war finish. Great match. A great match between these two while doing a stipulation that suits both more than an unsanctioned match. ****
  6. Makai Club #1
    So this is the infamous match (Is it famous? I’ve never heard of it before) where Dave gave it *1/2. Naturally, I was intrigued to see if two all timers, even with their well known iffy chemistry in other matches, can have a match that bad against each other. Kenji Wakabayashi calling this match like he was watching the Masters kind of says it all. For one of the most excitable commentators of all time that lives through his passion, he was in cruise volume. Anyway, enough about Wakabayashi. This was pretty awful and I think the rating is generous. The match started off nicely with a brief flurry of elbows by Misawa and Hansen scrambling to recover quickly. Misawa then began attacking the arm - a consistent story in all Hansen/Misawa matches - and grinds the match to a halt. The energy between the two instantly goes whenever they leave their feet. When Misawa is throwing elbows with Hansen selling them or doing Hansen things, the match picks up a bit. That’s all very limited to little moments that aren’t sustained well. To make things worse, the finish is so bad and looks botched. Misawa sunset keeps Hansen down for the three, Hansen kicks out at 3.1 and attacks Misawa and looks pissed at Joe Higuchi for calling it (it’s the right choice though. Hansen messed up). I imagine that this could’ve been saved with a hot closing stretch but a pin is a pin and that’s just the end of it. The crowd booed the ending but they were understanding and still cheered Misawa’s win announcement. *
  7. Makai Club #1
    An awesome match that felt like an exhibition in that they did their signature spots in front of a new crowd to get it over but had so many great spots that it became much more than initially intended. These two always have great chemistry and this was no different. Psicosis took some wicked bumps while Rey flew around him, hitting sime crowd popping spots. ****
  8. Makai Club #1
    Liger showing up in the crowd and playing about was mega boss shit. Liger rules so much. Naniwa was the clear underdog and did what any smart man that was outmatched would do - attack Liger before the bell. There were some awesome nearfalls at the start, setting doubt in the result. We got some funny comedy first by Naniwa doing a crab walk on the ropes, only to miss the elbow and then Liger mocking a crab after. I love the blend of serious hope spots for Naniwa and comedy. It was damn entertaining and didn’t get messy at all. ***3/4
  9. Makai Club #1
    Frantic pacing whether it was Otani hitting his suplexes or the aggressive work on the leg. Ultimo Dragon was okay from working from beneath. Him not selling the tombstone was bad but he was generally good at using the crowd to get momentum for his comebacks. He hits his spots well but this was mostly Otani being a god. He was so crisp and sparky in this. Great performance from Otani. ***3/4
  10. Makai Club #1
    This was awesome. The blend of styles was done really well and they played into it well. Anjo outsmarting Tenryu when he tried to whip him in the ropes, by baseball sliding under them and pulling a smirky face was a great example of that. You don’t run the ropes in Shoot wrestling (to much success anyway). It’s another example of Anjo being a total shithead and being a total prick, in a likeable way that I loved. There was great drama in the submission holds towards the end, with the crowd totally buying them due to the great transitions into them. Anjo did a great job of getting the most drama out of the submissions as possible. Tenryu being on defence for the whole matc was a bit of a shock but I think he did a great job with it. Selling the vulnerability of being with an unconventional opponent superbly. ****
  11. Makai Club #1
    This was really good. A bit dry but the quality was there mostly. The play by play booking of the match was well executed. Akiyama got put over big, causing Misawa to pass out within the second minute and then beating Taue later. Two straight falls with Akiyama being the victor. Akiayama put in a great shift on top as well. Kobashi sold well and dished out some of his signature offence. Good match. Akiyama turning on Kobashi in the post match was great booking as well. ***1/2
  12. Makai Club #1
    First show back for the newborn UWF and it aims to end it with a great match. Yamazaki was a great underdog that goes against the ace Akira Maeda and the match was protayed that away. Yamazaki had a great counter stratagy to allowed him to look impressive at pivtaol moments. The single leg boston crab was a great dramatic moment where I thought the match could've ended. And when he sparked Maeda with two loud and stiff kicks, I thought he was done. Maeda had some great selling towards the end stretch. He looked fatigued and tired and showed it through his offence. ****1/4
  13. Makai Club #1
    The Juniors get in on the New Japan vs WAR action. Young Punk Kanemoto and nearing prime Liger against Ultimo Dragon and Orihara sounds very exciting. Liger and Ultimo keep it clean with some fun mat wrestling with the shoulder tackle, kip-up into arm wringer spots while Orihara and Kanemoto are more feisty with their offence. Kanemoto and Orihara kick out at each other and show general disrespect to each other. There were times where they went a little long to get to the next gear but the action was never boring. Orihara takes a tremendous asswhipping and sells excellently. The dives to the outside looked outstanding as did most of the fast paced closing stretch. The match ended on a real dramatic note as well with the crowd biting on all the nearfalls before Ultimo finally pinned Kanemoto with the powerbomb. Awesome match that had two great parts. The assbeating and the bombs-away finishing stretch. ****
  14. Makai Club #1
    This was a little too boring and bland for a 23 minute match. Although it did have its highlights with Kakihara having a few sparky moments of offence. Ikeda had a few moments of joy as well - I dug it when he put his foot on Asako (???) and pointed at NO FEAR's corner. **1/2
  15. Makai Club #1
    This was so goddamn entertaining from start to finish. I like the carefulness in the grappling early on. Tons of feel out and careful thought put into each step both took. Both were careful of the other’s grappling skills and it showed. Takada began throwing more kicks as he switched gears once Fujiwara got multiple advantages on the mat. He threw some wild kicks with Fujiwara barely covering up for them until he got caught with a nasty heel hook. I loved the off the cuff bouncing around and the grunts Fujiwara did, and the crowd responding to it was pretty damn cool I must say. Fujiwara’s charisma was on total show in those small things. The match got pretty great after that with more all or nothing strikes being thrown. Fujiwara caught Takada flush on the nose with a brutal shoot headbutt which got an exciting near KO. Then this turned into a battle of Takada’s strikes against Fujiwara’s matwork with Takada on the offence with some germans and head kicks before Fujiwara, the master of counter wrestling, catches Takada with a nasty toehold that’s all crooked. Awesome match. Fujiwara celebrating over a shock victory against Takada was elating. ****1/4
  16. Makai Club #1
    This was so well built. Ibushi can go extra crazy with the reckless abandonment spots but most of that was saved in favour of a focused assault on the arm of Generico. Although in classic Ibushi fashion, he almost necked himself on a deep armdrag. Generico’s selling and comebacks were really great in turn. The teasing of the brainbusters were pretty biting and some of the eventual payoffs were awesome. Great match. ****
  17. Makai Club #1
    I would think that this was a dream match at the time. The recently returned Shinzaki (from the WWF run he had at the time), co-founder of Michinoku Pro against FMW Ace, Hayabusa. There is big potential for this match so I was hoping these two would get the best out of each other. Both are big personalities and them clashing should be pretty epic. However, this was not that. I want to give them the benefit of the doubt because Hayabusa looked really hurt near the end. The knee was the clear cause of pain for him with Hayabusa favouring it and punching it in fustration multiple times. I don’t blame them for ending the match, if that was the case. But the match was pretty rough before any signs of injury showed up. Hayabusa was in control for the first half of the match with Shinzaki working from beneath and looking to make a comeback. And the work was surprisingly tepid and quite dry to watch. Hayabusa had some impressive spots but there wasn’t much glue holding them together in a compelling way. It was shockingly bad until Hayabusa injured his knee and then it got worse when Shinzaki went on offence and put him away. Unfortunate ending to what was a very good event. DUD
  18. Makai Club #1
    The classic M-Pro tag team match. I was pretty pumped to see this given its high acclaim. And what can I say about it? Similar to what would be its modern equivalent, the Dragon Gate multi-man tags, there is so much to cover because everything went by at a brisk pace with effortless flow, so much ins and outs. It’s impossible to do any play by play unless you watch it multiple times to write down every key spot. Kaientai are a well oiled machine and they wrestle as such. Their double, triple, quadruple team moves were exquisite. Individually, they are all fairly simple rudos, but together everything they do together comes across as magically. On the other side though, the individuals stood out more. Which was by design, I imagine. Gran Naniwa had some checky comedy spots that worked within the match, which is impressive given the flow of most of it. Tiger Mask had some wicked kicks and aerial dives. But I think the MVP of the match, for me, was Yakushiji. Yakushiji was the glue in some key intricate spots. He was super innovative with some of his arm drags and dives to the outside. And Super Delfin came across as the total big dog of his team. His big match ending run was really awesome. Just a long hope spot, attempting to finish off Kaientai with everything he can, leading to some real dramatic nearfalls, before the cog that was Kainetai Dulex took its toll. The match is hardly flawless, however. There is room for some trimming as the match lost steam in the 5 minutes before the closing stretch. But this is the quintessential spotfest for Lucharesu and Michinoku Pro. ****1/4
  19. Makai Club #1
    Eruption (Kazusada Higuchi, Saki Akai & Yukio Sakaguchi) vs. THE HALFEE (Katsuzaki Shunosuke, Moehiko Harumisawa & Washi Sakurai) - DDT Ganbare Pro Hermit Purple 2020 21/03/2020 This looked really good on paper. Eruption have been super solid since their formation in January of 2020. And their opponents mirror them in terms of styles, individually anyway. Sakaguchi and Shunosuke/Shuichiro Katsumura have the MMA influence, Harumisawa/Moeka Haruhi are the slender women of their team and Sakurai/Shuhei Washida are the burly big men of the respective groups. Something they were eager to explore in the opening exchanges. The GanPro team THE HALFEE were on the defensive for most of the match with Eruption asserting their dominance with some systematic tag work. The crowd rallied behind the regulars who responded with quick stretches of offence and some of that underdog flair. They utilized the styles match ups really nicely, as well as blending the pairings together. Sakurai, who was the young guy of the team, impressed me a ton. He and Higuchi were probably the best together out of the lot. His selling was really good, and while his offence was naturally basic, being only two years in, he used it really well. The match went at a super fast pace, making the whole match feel exciting and thrilling to watch. Great use of time and wrestlers involved. ***3/4
  20. Makai Club #1
    Golden Lovers Explode!!! The history behind this reaches a lot of fans' hearts, clearly. Kenny comes in for a tour, has a well received match with Ibushi, he then teams with him and the rest is history. Funnily enough, most of their run in DDT is seemingly spent apart from each other but there is something always special when they do team together. But now, they are against each other once again. In Budokan Hall, for the KO-D Openweight Title. I was wondering if the match would hold up or not. Considering both wrestlers have peaked a little higher than this in recent years. However I think it’s improved upon rewatching it because Ibushi’s performance stood out so much more than it did last time. I think Kenny was really good in the match. He took a hell of a lot of bumps - scary ones. And he had some cool sequences as well. But I think the initial work on the arm was kind of standard-ish. It’s mostly thrown away in the long term but it doesn’t really look good in the moment either. Except for a few flat kicks to the shoulder that looked like they hurt. When Ibushi starts getting in more offence and the match begins to escalate and escalate into an all out bomb fest, then the match starts hitting all the greatness that the match is praised for. Kota Ibushi was a god in the match, like I’ve already said. Ibushi carries most of the great moments of the match with beautifully executed aerial moves that have a great blend of grace and recklessness whenever he leaves his feet. His standing corkscrew lands hard on with all the pressure on Omega’s whip. His kicks are the same as well. He kicked Omega in the throat more than once, which was such a dick move. Ibushi goes even wilder when they head further in the crowd and hits a moonsault off the stands - something that got him banned from Budokan for years. From that point forward, the match turned into less of the Kota Ibushi show and more even with Omega hitting more death defying offence as well. His electric chair into a german off the top rope was outright insane. Ibushi powers through however and one ups him with an amazing springboard hurricanrana off the top rope to the outside floor. My favourite moment of the match was Ibushi nailing Omega with punches during a strike exchange, and then no-selling an Omega snap suplex, smiling at him and kicking him in the face. I can imagine the no selling will annoy some, and I don’t blame them, but Ibushi makes it work with his heart and insane drive. And to cap off all the incredible risk taking bumps this match has, Ibushi throws Omega with reckless abandonment, spiking him with a Phoenix-Plex on the top rope and then hitting a Phoenix splash to finally get the three. It’s a wild match. A total spectacle with one outstanding effort from Ibushi. ****1/2
  21. Makai Club #1
    Hardcore Tag Team Match: Ryuji Ito & Shuji Ishikawa vs. HARASHIMA & Togi Makabe Holy shit. HARASHIMA blonde. I don’t like it. He looks like a scummy dude from Freedoms. I guess that makes sense in the match though. The match is a pretty action packed brawl. They waste no time using the chairs and assorted weapons around the ring. HARASHIMA gets bloody fast and the deathmatch duo takes advantage - I know I said I don’t like the hair but a bloody face plus the hair is always a great look. Ito smashing a chair into the forehead was a total dick move, and he doesn’t redeem himself with those chair shots to the back either. Makabe puts in a shift as well. He is known for not always being up to his best but he knows he is in Budokan and he wrestles like it. He lays in the forearms when against Ishikawa, who replies with headbutts. HARASHIMA was a superb underdog, taking the brunt of the offence then working for the comeback. His selling of the weapon shots was great. He levels Ito and Ishikawa with weapon shots of his own. His offence was full of aggression and poise. Damn, he was good in this match. This was such a good match. ***3/4
  22. Makai Club #1
    This is so rad. Saito attacks Mochizuki's legs but Mochizuki is like "I'm still gonna kick you" so Saito starts hitting nasty suplexes and slaps, Mochizuki kicks Saito in the head and busts his nose open and then knocks him out with a kick to the jaw. The match is clipped by around 7 minutes but the rest is all action with some great back and forth wrestling. You could find flaws in Mochizuki’s selling but there were a few very subtle limps and gasps of pain when he kicked. And of course, the clipping may have clipped out the best part of the selling. Great match. ****
  23. Makai Club #1
    The was incredible. The Sideheadlock struggle was just wonderful. First the execution of the headlock looks so tight and brutal but Piper's selling of it, his his attempts of getting out of it as welll as Brisco's defence of the attempted breaking of the hold, the ramming of the head into the turnbuckle, the final back suplex, all of it was just splendid. Piper slapping himself after, trying to get some blood flowing again was another little extra to put over the hold. Piper had some great holds himself like his grovit (it might of been a cravate), which looked painful. And I enjoyed the struggle of Piper trying to turn it into a pin hold with Brisco trying despretly to restric this movement. The struggle of the whole match making simple, basic holds all the more worthwhile. Love the coin finish as well. Hell of a battle. ****1/4
  24. Makai Club #1
    Best Of The Super Junior XIV Block B Match: Koji Kanemoto vs. BxB Hulk - NJPW New Japan 35 Anniversary Tour Circuit 2007 Best Of The Super Junior XIV ~Power of Mind~ - Day 1 01/06/2007 It's half three in the morning, I'm ready to go to bed but I find my favoutie Jr of all time against one of my favourite DG wrestlers in Korakuen Hall. I must watch it. This was predictably awesome. Kanemoto has no time for the tricky striker with all his movements and slaps and kicks the piss out of BxB Hulk. And to his credit, BxB Hulk adapt to his enviroment, realises who he is against and fires back with some stiff kicks of his own. He wrestled like a NJ Junior really well - he sold for Kanemoto with some incredble bumps where he'd launch himself into whatever. The ring mat, the guardrail. The strike exchange was really good with it being brief as well as varied with them mixing kicks with chops and slaps. The crowd naturally gravitated to Kanemoto who played to the crowd with his charisma, so that was fun. The arm muscle pose he did was adorable. ***3/4
  25. Makai Club #1
    Given that this is the last match of this historic rivalry, one filled with classic bouts that are among some of the greatest matches of all time, this just might be the best out of the lot. It has a high barrier to overcome with Misawa who was declining and almost everything they could’ve done with this pairing has been done more than once. Well, except one thing. And that’s to pass the torch. Onto Kobashi to take the mantle as the main. But I thought Misawa was the driving force of the greatness behind this match. He was not going down easily. Despite getting dominated early on and splitting the inside of his mouth open, he fought with everything he could. Misawa would eat Kobashi’s neck chops only to fire back with wicked hard elbows. He matched Kobashi’s suplexes and escalated the danger of them using the ramp. The whole set up of the ramp was fantastic. First a suplex on the ramp, then a tope elbow through the ropes knocking Kobashi for a loop and finishing it off with a tiger driver off the ramp with Kobashi landing right on the neck. Each spot was sold really well by Kobashi and each spot had time to breathe and be soaked in because each one was a killer spot and we got three in a combo. Kobashi channelled the the crowd’s energy to match his great performance, fighting from beneath. The finishing stretch was brilliant. Both men are selling their fatigue, Misawa’s face when Kobashi kicks out of the Emerald Flowsion, realising that it’s not his day, Kobashi making a quick comeback with a brutal brainbuster and then following up with the Burning Hammer. The match really works on every level. The apex of the old classic All Japan style and perhaps the best of their style NOAH would try and emulate for the next decade and a half. *****
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