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Clayton Jones

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Everything posted by Clayton Jones

  1. Clayton Jones
    VS Matthew Justice in AIW or any of his AIW stuff if you want non-deathmatch, his trilogy of matches VS Matt Tremont in GCW, and both the H8 Club matches VS Necro/Klein. Although I generally don't think he was very good otherwise pre incarceration, those two teams just had great chemistry.
  2. Clayton Jones
    I'm the outlier here because I thought this was excellent. Great sense of struggle from beginning to end. This had no trading of holds for the sake of it that a match like this can sometimes get a pass on. Both guys were fighting for every transition and trying to end each other. So many beautiful but nasty exchanges. This was a rare match where I almost wanted a draw because of how much I loved the way the two matched up.
  3. Clayton Jones
    I would never choose to watch a Zack Ryder match normally but I'd watch this one.
  4. Clayton Jones
    I would argue Taue went out far less miserable, Kawada looked like he was cashing checks and nothing more for a good bit towards the end, but I get your point. Taue looked consumed with grief and was much more broken down but I still think he was enjoying working up until the end.
  5. Clayton Jones
    Navarro wrestles this match with an unhinged look in his eyes and a constant press forward with his attack. El Dandy is impressed on the defensive but rarely overwhelmed and brings some slick counters to the table, probably out of necessity more than anything. This match is really good but does feel like a bit of an exhibition at times, albeit a tense exhibition. It's pretty much exactly what you'd imagine and if this sounds like your kind of match then you'll be in love.
  6. Clayton Jones
    Not a bad match but I didn't think this did anyone any favors. Too much Kobashi melodrama for a match focused on Vader, Akiyama let himself get eaten up too much early on with no real payoff, and Vader looked a step off most of the time he wasn't chucking dudes around. Taue's workman performance was probably the strongest of the match but that was hardly the point. I actually didn't mind the finish, it felt inevitable that it'd be ugly, at least Akiyama finally got to effectively play the General role he seemed slotted in for his team.
  7. Clayton Jones
    I held off on watching this match for a long, long time. That's a lot of anticipation or a lot of reluctance, depending on how you look at it. What it finally delivered watching it today still floored me. As does the overwhelming praise it got here despite this being an era generally not remembered so fondly. There's an electric physical chemistry between these two right away that makes the crowd want to invest in the journey they're about to go on. Which is good, because this is a very ambitious match. They're clever in waiting as long as they do to target the knee, even I forgot that it was obviously the direction they were going. And it's a very hard task to make the crowd buy into the idea that the leg work will actually be Kobashi's downfall, in a promotion where submissions are an afterthought and top stars almost never submit. They find ways around it, how effective it was will probably vary depending on how much you enjoy the style they're wrestling. I totally get the criticisms of some of the sequences and how they fit into the overall narrative. But I thought they beautfully walked the tightrope of overkill, of coherence in psychology, and of maintaining high drama. This was one hell of a showdown and an all-time match in two careers full of them.
  8. Clayton Jones

    Vader

    Clayton Jones replied to Grimmas's topic in Nominees

    Awesome, thanks. I love the way they matched up in NJPW.
  9. Clayton Jones

    Vader

    Clayton Jones replied to Grimmas's topic in Nominees

    Is there anything in AWA other than VS Hansen or in CWA other than VS Wanz worth seeking out? I'm realizing after Elliott's post and after thinking more about the scope of his career I might actually be underrating Vader with him just outside of my top 10 currently.
  10. Clayton Jones
    Very good tag leading up to Jun's shot against Kobashi. He and Hase have a calm, cocky, confident vibe as a team that works really well. The dynamic between Kobashi and young Kea is good too, this match has a very natural flow and rooting interest. They target Kobashi's knee throughout. In the pantheon of AJPW tags this isn't particularly noteworthy but it is a quality story building and character driven tag regardless.
  11. Clayton Jones
    Damn what a great match. Little touches surrounding it, particularly the post match pull apart, put it over the top. But what's there bell to bell is indeed just tag team perfection. And that's saying something on Rose's part in particular because Ed Wiskowski didn't bring much of anything other than a big warm body and a punchable face to this feud. And that's plenty when Buddy Rose is your partner in crime and you're opposite two of the all-time babyfaces. One thing I liked about this match in particular was the fire from Martel to close things out. Much of this feud (starting back with the Sheepherders) has built around Piper as the bad kid influence on Ricky Martel, at least how it plays to me. Here Martel was a house of fire by the end which felt very satisfying. 1980s Portland rules.
  12. Clayton Jones
    The DVDVR review of that match blew my mind at the time. No idea how it'd hold up now but that's one of those matches I immediately associate with them.
  13. Clayton Jones

    Vader

    Clayton Jones replied to Grimmas's topic in Nominees

    It would be some combination of two matches above and VS Otto Wanz from December 1989.
  14. Clayton Jones
    Agreed completely. He also had some great matches VS Kanemoto in a period when junior VS heavyweight was rarely done well or focused on in NJPW. Also watched a really quality match VS Malenko in WCW lately. And on the opposite end of the spectrum as well as being the best Prince Albert opponent he was also great VS Takayama as far as big men go. Nagata just keeps rewarding the more I go back to him, I'll be surprised if when I focus on him for GWE my stock in him doesn't continue to rise.
  15. Clayton Jones
    There are moments of this that are great, but what felt like a blowoff culminated in a lackluster finishing stretch and payoff. When your commentator imagines a better and more logical finish than what you deliver you know you're in trouble. I'm not normally someone who when watching 1979 wrestling is so concerned with how it wraps up but with a match like this, which is lots of face raking, bleeding, and punching, the whole point is more or less how it concludes. The dueling low blows felt very fitting for the way the match was worked, liked something out of an issue of Southern Alcohol Comix, which especially makes sense when they keep referring to this is how Brooks settles things down in Texas. Not bad, both guys look good, but I wanted a little more.
  16. Clayton Jones
    Ha, I have Kikuchi #98 currently. Also there's tons of Super Dragon on the Highspots Network, obviously. Also some real oddities if you search around enough on youtube, like a dark match for WCW tagging with Blitzkrieg, VS Juvi also early in his career, an awesome 2003 match VS Brian XL, but yeah he seems to keep a close eye on what's up there. The Brian XL match is one of 4 matches we've featured on my blog all of which you can find here, that one and the CZW tag are especially worth checking out.
  17. Clayton Jones
    From Charleston WV. I'm loving this early '88 run from Arn & Tully. Here they're playing around with all sorts of illegal tags in front of Tommy Young, I think more than anything to see how he'll react. And to Young's credit he's not taking any nonsense. JJ Dillon is fun commentary here too, lots of extra touches surrounding an already rock solid match. Windham might actually have the best performance of the four, with such great energy and fire. Sting is dull and shitty at times but then sells and bumps his ass off other times, overall I'd say he brings more positives to the table but it's close. In the long run though the champs set the pace and tell the story throughout and this pretty great stuff even with a few minutes clipped out and non-finish.
  18. Clayton Jones
    Agreed that this is a great case of maximizing an opportunity on Tully & Arn's part. They have a great ability to strike a balance where they get eaten up for stretches making the faces look like a trillion bucks but then flip a switch when it's time for them to get their heat. Their timing really is impeccable. Dusty certainly did his part and this made for a really fun television tag.
  19. Clayton Jones
    Great babyface performances from Martel and Piper, especially considering Piper's red herring in the promo between falls and the commentator subsequently calling him "mysterious." I love a lot about this feud but the booking and execution of this kind of pulled it in so many different directions it wore a little thin. There are great moments but Butch Miller yelling promos are not among them. The good by far outweighs the not so good though and most of this is indeed great television.
  20. Clayton Jones
    Fight is definitely the right word for this one. Great struggle and interesting shifts in momentum, not just your typical dynamic with the walking tall babyface and the begging off heel. Both guys were great here but I was particularly impressed with what Tully brought to the table. He had a difficult balance to find as this type of heel opposite Wahoo and he did an exceptional job. Really fun little tussle here.
  21. Clayton Jones
    Not as fun of an answer but right now it's Kota Ibushi. Big chunks of my ballot look different weekly so there's virtually no chance that'll stay the same, but something about Ibushi there feels really right for the time being.
  22. Clayton Jones
    I wouldn't be surprised if it's mentioned somewhere in the previous 5 pages but the Kojima G1 match is a personal favorite. I'll certainly bring it up again when making the case for Kojima, who finished criminally low last time, but it's up there for me in Liger's career too.
  23. Clayton Jones
    Gulak already has a pretty damn good resume. He definitely has a good shot for me as far as modern candidates go. Back when I had a FloSlam subscription him and the Catch Point guys were matches I'd never skip on any random show I'd throw on. I went on a deep dive of his other indie stuff around that time as well and was never disappointed no matter where he worked or what opponent he was up against.
  24. Clayton Jones
    I'm a longevity and adaptability guy so for me Jun is an elite candidate. I don't think there's a single stretch of his career I'm not a fan of but I'll dig deeper to see if that's indeed the case. I love his ability to bring the best out in an opponent and his dynamic working with younger talent over the years like Hashi, Suwama, and Miyahara. His style is a great balance of classic fundamentals with a modern approach that really works for my tastes in particular. Basically Akiyama was my kind of wrestler from day 1 and never stopped being my kind of wrestler. There are very few candidates with his type of career that I can say that about.
  25. Clayton Jones
    Agreed. Sure there's slop in there but there's also great matches with Casas, Liger, Sasuke, Otani, Rey... granted that's a list of all-timers but Ultimo provided them with an awesome dance partner. He was definitely more of the guy the freshen up your junior division than to build around but the highs have him in contention for me even if opinion has turned against him. I also have a real soft spot for that tag with Hayashi VS GdI as it's one of the matches that got me back into tape trading after a few year hiatus after graduating high school. But I get that I'll need to go through some lows and some blind spots if i want to justify voting for him.
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