TheBean

Re: Time Stamps, I think if the TNA YouTube folks can put time stamps in their compilation videos so can the WWE 😄

Tajiri vs Rey Misterio Jr. (WWE Smackdown! 09/25/03) - You might have seen this one but I didn't. I just couldn't pass up Rey vs Tajiri. And I'm so glad that I watched this. It's such a great match. Rey Misterio Jr is one of the best TV wrestlers so I thought this would be a lot of him doing his thing but, it's more of a story driven bout. Tajiri works over the masked hero's gut & ribs with a variety of kicks, submissions and throws. Junior has got to hang in there and find opportunities to attack when he can. This is Rey at his best I think. The Japanese Buzzsaw is as wily as anyone and cuts Misterio of in really fresh ways. But don't be mistaken this isn't a dull or dry match, there's a bunch of excitement. RECOMMENDED Also for more Tajiri matches and pics, see my latest post here: TAJIRI - You Might Have Missed

ROH - Showdown in Motown - 2005 Chad Collyer & Sal Rinauro vs Roderick Strong & Jack Evans - FIP flashback for the Badger. God damn, that was a sick under card tag match! Everyone was going off, doing crazy moves & hitting them perfectly. Sal...man, I forgot how much I like his wrestling. Chad was super solid here and wouldn't mind seeing him again. Jack & Rod brought their A-game. This was a great under card tag match. Real bananas shit. Homicide vs Colt Cabana - An awesome through the crowd brawl. This was supposed to be the intro for another match & these two just beat the crap outta each other. Julius Smokes gets mixed up in the melee. This is the 187 at his best and definitely puts Cabana in a new light for me. It's perhaps the best Cabana match I've seen. It's not some 5 minute brawling segment, this is ECW Arena/ FMW Korakuen Hall fans need to get the fuck outta the way stuff. Bryan Danielson vs Chris Sabin - Great title match! Excellent technical wrestling at the start. Sabin brought his high impact offense. The champ eventually slows the Detroit challenger down with back breakers & submission holds. Sabin doesn't quit pushing forward. It was a great showing from him in his first ROH appearance (I think). Dragon early in his reign feels fresh. Check out my full show review with pics: ROH - Showdown in Motown - 2005

One hope with all of that in mind is that they'll launch an ECW channel along with a "Territories" channel. I heard that ECW Hardcore TV is no longer available or going to be available to watch episodes by episode. It would be nice if they could do something like they're doing with the NXT channel and posting weekly TV shows (in order) along with events. Or at least have better playlist folders. I agree also that these vault channels are great but are really disorganized. My reoccurring gripe of needing time stamps seems like one of many ways its all disorganized. I almost get the impression they didn't know how much people would watch and use these channels.

This was a very good match. Excellent work on Hero's hand and subsequent selling. Loved how he had to really kick the crap outta Regal in order to get back into it. To be honest, I don't get the high praise this or the Cesaro/Claudio matches get though. They are very good TV matches. But they aren't really given the time to develop into something more than that. This is coming from someone who watched a great deal of Regal's TV & PPV matches from '94. This isn't on the level of Arn or the Larry Z matches. They're not on the Flair Marquis de Queensbury matches level either. They are probably more comparable to those matches & style than most of what was going on in NXT in 2013 (and since) however. I dig this style over spot-a-thons. Perhaps that's the reason for the high praise. That said, this along with the Cesaro match are an excellent bookend to Regal's in career. It's really cool that he got to work with the former Kings of Wrestling to do it.

Sid was the reason I started watching ECW back then. I had no idea who anyone was except Sid and it was great to see him destroy people. It worked because I stuck around for the long haul.

Kiyoshi Tamura vs Billy Scott (04/19) - Lots of tumbling here 😁 I think they agreed on no strikes to the head or body. Billy is a great explosive wrestler like Tamura but his striking is really good too. I think this rule or facet to the match took something away from what makes him entertaining. Tamura is his usual speedy slippery self. One one hand it's fast and realistic in its urgency. On the other hand, a good shot to the face usually slows a guy down so why not do that? I LIKED IT nonetheless. Naoki Sano vs Kenichi Yamamoto (05/27) - This a weird match as it's fought under some hybrid rules like BattlARTS or something 😀 There's pins but they're not actually working towards them. There's pro moves at times but they are extremely stiff. Yeah this is neat and something mentioned on DVDVR back in the day. It's short, violent and weird. I LIKED IT! Tatsuo Nakano vs Koki Kitahara (05/27) - Yes! yes! Take your pretty Katsuyori Shibata, I'll take fatty Nakano & Kitahara any god damn day! Two pudgy prize fighters punishing each others fat faces with straight knees and headbutts. News flash a real headbutt hits the guy in the fucking nose & mouth with the thick cranium and breaks his face with your skull..not to knock heads together and give yourself brain damage. Anyhow, Nakano does a real "shoot" head butt to Kitahara and busts the bridge of his nose open. Does he go easy on him? Nah..he knees him in the face some more. LOVED IT!!! Yoji Anjo vs Naoki Sano (06/26) - BattlARTS match again... maybe those guys were ahead of the curve - Technically oriented, hard hitting "pro wrestling" but no points system. You know its probably what UWF v.1 was doing. Anyhow, this was all of those things. Anjo jumped Sano before the bell. However, Sano rallied and was beating the crap outta Anjo. Anjo was bleeding. They played up the drama here in a more traditional manner. This was a bigger version of Sano's match with Yamamoto. Your mileage may vary on the outcome but I LOVED THIS. Toshiaki Kawada vs Yoshihiro Takayama (09/11) - A really good novelty match with big implications for AJPW booking. These two would go on to have better encounters but this laid the groundwork. Again more UWF v.1 than UWFi shoot style. And that is the vibe of UWFi here in 1996. It's not necessarily the same wrestling it has been from '91-'95. It seems everyone wrestles like Tamura (I started to watch Scott vs Kakihara and it lacked both guys' personality and felt like Tamura vs Tamura) OR they wrestle a UWF/BattlARTS/NJ 86-87 style. That's difficult to adjust to once I've gotten to like what I have been watching. I suppose they were trying to do whatever would draw them business. I don't dislike the more pro oriented style. I like it but it doesn't work for me right next to the more authentic shoot style wrestling. Which is real & which isn't? I don't want to ask that question while watching the same promotion. These hybrid matches need to actually be watched separately from the rest of the promotion's output. This seems like a good place to end with UWFi. ------- UWFi closes up shop in 1996 but RINGS is getting better as it goes. This might be the largest batch of RINGS matches reviewed. Mitsuya Nagai vs. Mikhail Ilioukhine (RINGS, 3/25/96) - I liked the slams Mikhail was doing and Nagai's stand up was fine. There's just too little of it. This is felt like the same confrontation every time. Throw a kick, grab it, slam, exhibition submission wrestling, half hearted rope break. This felt like a throw back and a step back to what RINGS was doing. IT'S OK Dick Vrij vs Kiyoshi Tamura (RINGS 6-29-96) - This was good but over too soon. Vrij was really laying into Tamura. His strikes were pretty on point. Those knees to the face were wicked. Dick doesn't really wrestle and so it was cut and dry on the mat. Unfortunately, they didn't milk the drama with multiple knockdowns. It really actually kinda ended with a moment that was kind of realistic. Like "yeah you should end things asap." IT'S OK. Hopefully I didn't speak too soon about the promotion. Masayuki Naruse vs. Todor Todorov (RINGS, 6/29/96) - Exciting stuff! Really spirited stand up fighting. The mat stuff was good but not overly complex. In honesty, it was a good addition to the striking. It broke that portion up. And I really dug the suplexes/slams also. A very well rounded bout. It could have gone on a few more minutes as these guys had great chemistry. I LOVED THIS ONE Volk Han vs. Mitsuya Nagai (RINGS, 6/29/96) - OK now I'm getting to see what others have said about Han. It's probably because Nagai is higher in rank/experience now. Additionally, RINGS is a bit quicker and closer to a shoot. We get the speed and we get better strikes as time moves on in RINGS. There was a specific wrestling exchange where it really looked like Volk was progressing through holds organically. He went for one joint lock which opened up a stretch which opened up another hold. Prior to '95, it sometimes looked like he kind of just would pick around for a free limb as if not bothered by the opposition or if he were in a leg lock. Maybe that's what he wanted to convey but that style didn't work for me. THIS worked for me. This version of Nagai worked for me too. He drilled Han a few times and was no slouch on the canvas. LOVED IT Masayuki Naruse vs Egan Inoue (RINGS 8-24-96) - Oh shoot! Was this a shoot? Off the chart intensity and realism. Even the grounded stalemate and different guards led me to think if this wasn't a shoot, it certainly wasn't as sportsman-like as many other matches. The stalemate on the ground as led me to believe this. Seeing as you're not allowed grounded strikes, they both were evenly matched and I'm sure someone would find an opening, the ref wisely stood them back up. The "story" of the match is that Inoue kept getting hit in the eye. They seemed to show respect to one another during the match but after the second hit in the eye, that's out the window. Finish may be a work, may be a shoot but LOVED THIS ONE Tsuyoshi Kohsaka vs. Mitsuya Nagai (RINGS, 9/25/96) - What an absolute battle! Nagai's throwing strikes like he should every match. TK has got to struggle for everything. He is a wizard on the ground. But he's not a push over fighting from his feet as well. But what makes this special is the speed & intensity. This felt like a shoot. RINGS finally is doing what UWFi was doing in this regard. Now they also seem to have a deeper roster as well. They are offering fresh matches and as history shows, they have their best years ahead of them while UWFi was closing its doors. LOVED THIS Volk Han vs. Masayuki Naruse (RINGS, 10/25/96) - Really good stuff! I'm really digging Naruse and his evolution. He can hang with Han. This starts out excellently but does get into the Han slowing things down to "grab an extra limb to make a human pretzel" which everyone else seems to enjoy. What I do like here is that Naruse is able to escape from many holds or at least get to the ropes. Han is a great pro wrestler though, I have no doubt. Seeing as he's been doing it for 5 years and once a month, he's a quick study. Case in point, him making the concerted effort to drag Naruse into the middle of the ring...much like an animal bringing its prey back to its den. Another great moment is when Volk Han loses his cool. Naruse excels at being the spunky under dog and selling that to the fans. This is definitely where he exceeds Mitsuya Nagai. Anyhow, great, smart finish on top of a great match. LOVED IT Masayuki Naruse vs Dick Vrij (11/22/96) - Equally quick match as the Tamura one at the start of this section BUT I think they built the tension much better. I think they showed Dick was vulnerable on the mat but very dangerous in stand-up. Naruse was more well rounded and could end it anywhere. This did feel like a wrestling match in terms of drama and the strike exchanges and whatnot. I LIKED IT RINGS is still carrying the shoot style banner. They have definitely picked it up where UWFi left it. I think it's a safe generalization that UWFI 1991-94 & RINGS 1996 and afterwards are the best periods. You can look to where Tamura was wrestling as a general guide, I guess. I'm going to end my sampling here for now. I really enjoyed the project. I definitely feel better informed. This is entertaining stuff but nothing can replace more traditional pro wrestling for me. It's a nice diversion. I think that's how I will look at it in terms of my blog going forward. I know I missed a lot of the classic stuff...even when using my own parameters. But that was the point, in a way. I wanted to see if the style itself could appeal to me. Thankfully it does but it comes and goes. There were days where I watched almost a half dozen matches. Other times, it felt like a chore to get through one match. It all depends AND my views don't necessarily mesh with others' views. There were more than a few recommended matches that I thought were OK or above average at best. Then there were other bouts that I loved but I didn't hear much of anything on from other folks. If you're interested in UWFi & RINGS then use my posts as a guide. Use others reviews as guides too. Ultimately, you're going to have to see what you like & what you don't. You'll have to do your own shoot style sampling 🙂

Not on the NXT DVD but absolutely should have been. Great 10 minute match... All kinds of awesome moves crammed into this TV match. These two have excellent body control and just make everything look perfect. Wisely I didn't listen to the commentary because it probably would have been lame. FULL EPISODE: Nov. 27, 2013

Last match on Disc 1 of the NXT DVD set and it's a good one. Excellent technical wrestling up to a point but really a fraction of what both guys are capable of doing...even although Regal is "over the hill" here. In a way this reminds me of Regal vs Larry Z from 1994 WCW...from a story perspective. Overall this was really underwhelming in terms of working a body part but I think that's more a WWE/modern mainstream wrestling thing. Like they weren't allowed to work the mat too much. I'm not sure if the fans were being respectful or if they didn't get it. Or they just don't want to see mat wrestling. From my perspective, it just didn't seem like enough. I felt like, "oh, that's it?"... I think they did enough to get it going but it just kinda ended. But what the hell do I know? Everyone else liked or loved it. I'm on the fringe with this one and thought it was just plain good. I will say the stinking announce team really oversold everything in the ring and that is probably affecting my opinion.

Damn, I really dug Cesaro's heel work here. Shouting at Zayn, "You're never going to beat me!" was a brilliant touch. This was a mean streak that I don't recall seeing from Claudio in ROH or PWG. I'm not going to go down a Cesaro rabbit hole but his offense and personality really mesh. He looks and acts like a tough world beating SOB. Zayn is pretty much a beefed up Generico and that extra mass makes a couple of the tried and true spots a hair clunky. See their Survival of the Fittest match...also the ROH/Koch DVD Best in the World has it. Yeah this was a great match but really because of Cesaro & the character work surprisingly. I didn't see any of the lead in but they told the story in the ring and knocked the socks off of the crowd. Me too at a couple points.

I'm watching this along with the Greatest NXT Matches 3 DVD set that WWE put out. This is the first set they did, if you're interested. Anyhow this was a pretty good match. It's interesting to read others comments now seeing as WWE has changed quite a bit. I don't think Women's Wrestling is as big a deal as it was a few years ago... To the WWE that is. It's also weird Paige & Emma...who is Tennille Dashwood... have anything to do with WWE. Like I had to look up what happened to Emma. I mean this was 12 years ago but WWE really does throw women wrestlers away like used kleenex. Considering I've already seen 2 Seth Rollins matches already on the DVD AND the gross corporate speak about how women's wrestling is important and that's why they are doing this blah blah blah. Neither seemed to leave on good terms. I'm not going to get into it but I really loathe any words that have been spoken during this match or the filler interviews regarding history, women's wrestling, etc. They are so insincere. What seemed sincere was Emma & Paige's desire to put on a really good title match. It was sincere when Paige was crying after she won the title. It's nice to see this humanity through the suited sleaze speak and the actual suited sleaze HHH. It's nice to see these women, early in their big-time wrestling careers, be genuinely optimistic & passionate. I think that is what's special about this match.

You will either love this or hate it. I loved it as it felt very Joshi does "attitude era" with all of the weapons (including a bat). What I liked was Chigusa's attitude to stick to her skills rather than rely upon weapons. There were lotsa neat spots and at ten minutes it was a lot of fun.

21 minutes of a 24 minute match. And it was a great one too! They really gave everything for this one. One of the best Sugar Sato performances as she came with fire and didn't bungle anything. The absolute highlight was Nagashima & Ozaki battling it out like their 09/15 match. This match was full of action (not always the prettiest) and exciting double teams and false finishes. The drama was there too as this was for the tag belts plus Sato & Nagashima were pupils of Oz and a big part of Hokuto and Ozaki's heel stable. The end of 2000 was all about the tag matches and this, the culmination of those bouts, was the best.

Another really fun match! KAORU's sequence heavy opening was best. I'm not usually a fan of this kind of stuff but it came off pretty well. Everything wasn't ultra clean so it seemed spontaneous. As the match went on it seemed to lose direction but kept up the pace. The kicks were really cool in this one. I really like Satomura as the underdog tag partner to Chigusa. The Devil/KAORU team had a great power/agility/heel dynamic. Yeah fun stuff.