Edwin
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Everything posted by Edwin
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The match is JIP and we only get 4 or so minutes of it and it’s more so a quick fun short Cesaro showcase sprint so you know it’s not a MOTYC or anything along that line. We get some odd scrambles early on and then we get some stiff European uppercuts from Cesaro and a lengthy big swing. Ziggler’s inoffensive in this as he’s mostly along for the ride by eating the big shots and just flying around to display Cesaro’s strength. Cesaro reversing a sleeper into a suplex was pretty neat as was the finish which seemed like a throwback to his CHIKARA matches catching Ziggler in a pop up Neutralizer. Nifty little 5 minute TV match.
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This was more of a brawl and much better than the Fight Pit from last year with Riddle which featured the hokey flying teeth spot. I also felt this was a notch above their match from TakeOver last year which I also dug. Not a mind blowing brawl or MOTYC or anything, but both guys worked really snug and threw some heat behind their strikes. That slingshot on the rail on the top of the cage looked pretty nasty. Maybe an unpopular opinion, but Ciampa’s running knee looks much better than Kenny Omega’s V-Trigger which he usually just flys by his opponent while slapping his thigh really hard. Dug the use of the cage as well with both guys flinging each other into it and using it as leverage to escape holds. The finishing cage assisted stretch muffler was great. -
Another week, another solid Main Event Gulak TV match against a flippy cruiserweight. Carrillo isn’t nearly as crisp when it comes to doing contrived high spots as Ricochet, but Gulak is an absolute beast and he’s perfected the craft of working the sub 10 minute match against the more flip oriented wrestlers on the roster. Offensively, Gulak reminds me somewhat of Finlay as everything they put together looks brutal. He even makes a headlock takeover look great as you can see he puts some power behind it instead of just taking Carrillo over. Despite not being as crisp on offense, Carrillo still hits a heat Super Astro like springboard back headbutt and he takes a hellacious bump on the guard rail. Middle of the match develops a bit around Carrillo being unable to pull off one of his contrived spots and Gulak just armwrenching over the top rope. Carrillo also blasts Gulak with a nasty gamengiri which produces a nasty thud that isn’t thigh slap heavy, so it’s a surprise Gulak’s nose didn’t explode. There’s another great spot with Carrillo going for a big armdrag off the ropes and Gulak just yanking him to the ground and putting him in armbar. Neat finish with a big moonsault. I hope we keep getting these sub 10 minute Main Event Gulak matches if he doesn’t show up on RAW or SmackDown on a regular basis to have competitive matches.
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Far from their best match together, but this is a good little TV match as you would expect from these two. Bryan targeted Cesaro's left arm and Cesaro targeted Bryan's ankle after he kicked the ring post (which you could see coming once Cesaro got in place for it). Loved Bryan pulling on Cesaro's nose to pull off the Yes Lock and Cesaro countering a top rope huracanrana and pulling on Bryan's ears to setup a great looking super plex. Great finish too with Cesaro hitting his elevated European uppercut followed by the neutralizer. In my opinion, Bryan was WOTY for 2020 with continuously good to great performances despite having been away for several months due to paternal leave and he's talked about his career winding down as a top star, so it's cool seeing him pick up this year where he left off and it's cool seeing him put on quality TV matches and letting folks go over on his career winds down.
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Decided to rewatch this after having dug the recent Darby/Miro title match and while this isn't on par with that one, I dug this quite a bit on a rewatch. Darby takes his freakish bumps as per usual with that press slam over the top rope through a table holding up as one of the wildest bumps of the year. Darby didn't fling himself with his offense here as much as he did against Miro, but the use of the belt was still brilliant by Darby. The kick out into the corner and the entire Sting lights out angle was kind of lame, but I get why they did it.
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Is that Villano III Jr. match the one that lasts 45+ minutes? I watched it on +Lucha when it dropped and oof, that was brutal to sit through. I mean, I get why folks loved it as they did a lot of crazy big spots and such, but it was and felt long.
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Yuki Ishikawa vs. Daisuke Ikeda from wXw AMBITION 12. Daniel Bryan vs. Drew Gulak from Elimination Chamber and WALTER vs. Ilja Dragunov from NXT UK. Roman Reigns heel turn, Tribal Chief, Head of the Table angle. SmackDown. It had some odd moments, but it produced some quality matches and angles such as the Intercontinental title tournament, the Roman Reigns heel turn and the Sasha Banks and Bayley run and feud. Daniel Bryan. He was incredible in the first half of the year with great matches against Sami Zayn, Drew Gulak, AJ Styles and he was also involved in several good multiman matches. He returned later on in the year and he was involved in the really good series of matches against Jey Uso and also in many multiman matches.
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I thought this was very good. This maybe an unpopular opinion, but if I'm watching modern shoot style that's going to resemble MMA as much as possible, I want folks throwing heat behind their strikes and constantly scrambling looking to grab limbs or chokes and going for sweeps to improve their positions instead of just sitting in loose kneebars. That's exactly what we get here. Ueyama and Ito pack the heat behind their palm strikes and Ito even drops Ueyama with a sick knee from the clinch early on which leads to some exciting grappling exchanges with Ueyama taking the lead with a great looking flying armbar. That entire scramble looked like what we would get years later in the Tokoro/Nakamura fight year later. After the initial scramble they slow it down and the grappling exchanges aren't as intense, but there's still some dramatic moments with some submissions and some pretty near strikes thrown. Beautiful finish with Ueyama rolling into an ankle lock.
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It's always pleasant watching Gulak pop up somewhere in a WWE ring as he is one of the best and least featured wrestlers on the roster at the moment (really wish they would have brought him back up to continue his angle with Daniel Bryan when he returned from paternity leave). The match itself is a nifty sub 10 minute smaller show WWE TV match. We get some Fire Ant days Gulak at the start with some brief quick armdrag exchanges which is something you would have seen him throw in those Colony matches back in the day. He also pulls of some an incredible counters and he catches Ricochet twice in half crabs and you actually buy into him possibly pulling off the win on the second when he turns into a deep modified STF. Finish was pretty neat as well with Ricochet catching him an unexpected recoil knee.
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These two had a good singles match last year and just put on a very good match. There were some hokeyness to this, such as the obvious plastic fence Raquel tore with her handcuffs, but despite that, this had some true senses of violence with some brutal kendo stick shots that left visible welts on their backs and some absolutely nasty bumps such as Rhea taking a spine breaking ringside commentators table bump, a nasty spear through a glass door and a big table bump in the back with Rhea diving off a locker onto Raquel on a table. The brawling to the back was mostly done in the picture-and-picture so it was hard to follow, but the Dakota Kai run in was great as she was landing some nasty kicks before she got punted by Rhea and got stuffed in a locker. The finish was pretty great as well with both taking a big bump through the ramp.
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Good sub 10 minute TV match with Lashley working as the big bruiser and Riddle taking some wild bumps. That corner bump on the outside was nasty. That finishing sequence was creative and neat. I'm all for these two feuding over the US title. Riddle has been coming along nicely on RAW with some quality singles TV matches against Sheamus last year and now this one against Lashley.
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This was more traditional pro-wrestling than shoot style or Bati-Bati as Hoshikawa is a Michi Pro affiliated wrestler, but this is still a good match. They set this up with Hoshikawa using flashier and more pro-wrestling oriented offense as he throws some somewhat flashier kicks which of course Otsuka being the punishment freak he is he just dives in head first into these kicks and he does a fantastic job at putting them over a KO potential strikes and it builds the drama for the finish. Otsuka's comeback is a bit brief as he gets tired of playing around with Hoshikawa and then just dumps on his head with a TTD before teeing off with some big throws.
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This was a really fun Michi Pro house show multiman match. It's a lot more held back and a slower paced match with a fantastic Súper Astro performance. He does all of his signature spots and he does a neat comedy mask swap with Shiryu that leads to him being confused and punching the ref. Aside from his performance, everyone else is perfectly fine in their roles in this. Not an all-time classic or anything, but it never drags and is a perfectly fine way to spend 20 minutes.
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[1994-02-20-WCW-Superbrawl IV] Arn Anderson vs Steven Regal
Edwin replied to Loss's topic in February 1994
Regal comes in with a taped thigh which you know Arn will look to exploit at some point including kicking it to break a double knucklelock. There’s a great bit where Arn locks in a ridiculously tight headlock which looks like he’s about to burst Regal’s head. I had no idea Sir William was Bill Dundee. I thought he was great. You could tell he was working the ringside crowd during the double knucklelock they are loudly shouting at him. Arn’s armwork was pretty neat. He yanks Regal around and rams his arm into the ringpost which gets a great pop. I feel Tony doesn’t get much credit, but he does a great job explaining why Arn’s armwork here. Of course everything Regal throws connects and looks brutal. I really dug the finish with both of them showing signs of urgency as the count down was starting. That quick abdominal stretch counter by Arn leading to a small package was neat as well as the finish with Regal using Sir William’s umbrella for leverage to pull off the pin at the last second while everyone was buying into another time limit draw. Really great match. -
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Hard Hit is such an odd and fascinating company. It puts on unique shows that aren't necessarily for everyone, but I thoroughly enjoy them as they do a great job of putting on shoot style matches between pro-wrestling and MMA fighters who mostly fought in Pancrase. Tsuchihashi is the difference maker here though as he's mostly spent most of his combat sports career fighting for Akira Maeda in The Outsider (an MMA promotion Maeda founded to put on MMA fights featuring guys with no combat sports training who are mostly gang members) which is why he is all tattooed up. The match isn't your traditional pro-wrestling match and is more so 4 guys rolling on the ground countering each others submission holds without a single strike thrown. There is plenty of great looking spots though, including HARASHIMA countering Imanari rolls into scorpion death locks, HARASHIMA tugging on Matsumoto's gi pants and pulling him into a German suplex, Sakaguchi trying to jump into Tsuchihashi's guard with a cartwheel and of course the beautiful helicopter armbar finish. Again, this isn't traditional straight up pro-wrestling or shoot style per se, but it does have elements of pro-wrestling and shoot style.
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I thought this was fantastic. This is the final of the B-Rule tournament. I believe the rules of this tournament are straight up matches with a minimum of 5 rope breaks per match with a 10 minute time limit. The person who uses the most rope breaks, is down on the scorecard and thus if the match goes to a time limit draw, then that person loses. Not sure what Yano's background is aside from having been trained by Yuki Ishikawa and having attended a Tom Pritchard training camp in the US, but he is a master manipulator of the rules in this match and he knows he won't be able to submit Otsuka outright and he has to avoid any of Otsuka's big throws, so his strategy is to get Otsuka to use more rope breaks than him and try to outlast him which is somewhat of a jiu-jitsu approach. He is a younger and lower ranked wrestler than Otsuka, so he blitz Otsuka and quickly jumps and pulls guard which reminds of Takeshi Ono usually using a similar strategy except Ono would blitz with flurries of strikes and Yano is pulling guard and going for quick submissions. Yano uses quick submissions and constant transitions to catch Otsuka in submissions where he would rely on rope breaks while also tiring him. Dug all of the grappling exchanges as they were very tight and neither guy was leaving any space or just randomly allowing any transitions to occur. Otsuka using his knees to grind Yano's ankles and shins to get lose of some submission attempts instead of solely relying on rope breaks was great. Loved the finish of this as well with Otsuka catching Yano in what seemed like an odd submission you would see Volk Han catch folks in and Yano's plan proving to be effective as Otsuka uses up 3 rope breaks and he eventually begins to gas while Yano rides out the time limit.
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Dunne literally has the same "indy" epic match every time out regardless of the setting or opponent. You can almost call it spot for spot. It's a preference thing, but I'd rather watch Thatcher's gritty grappling than a Dunne "indy" epic. What company could you build around Dunne? PROGRESS? NXT UK? You can't even build NXT around him, much less RAW or SmackDown. Average promo, indytastic move and mind set, not overly charismatic, etc.
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Dunne superior to Thatcher? That's one I have to highly disagree on. Thatcher is fantastic. His selling, facial expressions, striking, grappling exchanges, brawling, etc. are much better than Dunne's. Dunne aims way to often to put on "epic" indy level matches which of course usually revolves around no sell 2.99 kickout exchanges, blatant thigh slap heavy strikes and extremely loose matwork.
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Was looking forward to the women's WarGames match as I dug their match last year, but this one did nothing for me. Way too many awkward moments and way too many weapon focused contrived spots that they were barely able to put together. That double stomp with the trash can and the Eclipse through the chair were pretty neat. Ciampa/Thatcher was good, not great. Dug the gritty exchanges and intensity these folks brought. Thought the hardway blood from the ear added to this. Thatcher's selling of that ending DDT was great. Seems like this feud is far from over and they've left plenty on the table to continue this rivalry. I wouldn't mind them extending this feud and it ending with them ending up as partner like the Bar.
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[2007-04-21-FIP] Necro Butcher & Mad Man Pondo vs Jay Briscoe & Mark Briscoe
Edwin replied to Jetlag's topic in April 2007
I liked their first match much more to this one as that one was more centered around wild ringside brawling with potatoes flying all over the place for the most part. This was a lot more 50/50 death match oriented and felt like a match you would see on tape from Hammond, Indiana on an IWA-MS tape. As it was more weapon oriented, Pondo focused more on that and on setting up spots surrounding them which sometimes took a bit long and felt awkward, but the spots he setup for the most part delivered. There's also tons of blood in this as you can visibly see Jay wiping blood from his eyes and him and Necro just bleeding all over the floor tiles. As it's more death match oriented, you get light tubes (Pondo getting slammed off the top rope into a plastic trash can full of light tubes), several table bumps (including the ref. getting powerbombed over the top rope onto a table on the outside) and of course wild ringside brawling with some cool visuals of Jay and Necro bleeding around ringside area and the crowds parting like it's Moses parting the red sea. The finish took forever to setup, but it definitely delivered with Mark hitting a ridiculous splash off the top of a truck onto Pondo on top of 2 tables. -
Footage of this has appeared online, although I was actually at this event (attended the MLW TV tapings the same day before heading over to this). This was the main event of a 5+ hour show that didn't seem like it wanted to end. It was originally scheduled to be Vordell vs. Chris Dickinson, but I believe Dickinson got injured and they announced Neal as his replacement and they changed the match into a street fight and boy did it deliver. This was a wild arena brawl with both guys throwing potatoes all over the place and taking awkward brutal bumps onto piles of chairs. Sucks the camera missed parts of this as he didn't leave the entrance way, but I remember them throwing potatoes at each other and ramming themselves against the bricks walls and merch tables. There's no blood in this, but the physicality and intensity they worked with made up for it. Not sure if Vordell has done something to get himself heat as he's barely booked anywhere, but someone needs to sign him.
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[2007-02-03-FIP] Necro Butcher & Mad Man Pondo vs Jay Briscoe & Mark Briscoe
Edwin replied to Jetlag's topic in February 2007
This match is incredible. Everyone is great in this, but Necro steels the show with an MVP level performance. He hurls the Briscoes into fans at ringside. He potatoes Mark with some brutal Tenryuesque punches and chops in the corner. He bumps like a lunatic all over the place including a sick suplex from inside the ring to the concrete floor. He hits a rana off the top rope through a table on the outside on Mark. Meanwhile Pondo is flipping off fans and talking trash while stapling dollar bills to Jay. The crowd is super hot for this and just going nuts from the start of it. There were some missteps like a botched doomsday device spin kick, but the positives in this outweigh the negatives by a huge margin. I didn't mind the near falls as they were kept to a minimum. Easily a top 10 career match for Necro and the Briscoes and a top 5 career match for Pondo. -
Ono is known for being the younger guy in the group that is wild/reckless and that his recklessness either pays off or gets him caught up problematic situations. Otsuka is an absolute beast who tosses fools around and who can endure a massive amount of punishment. Here we get instances of both. Ono getting himself in trouble for being reckless and Otsuka being able to dump him on his head and Ono's recklessness eventually paying off. The finish of this is pretty sweet with a neat looking sweeping hip throw leading into a scarf hold submission. Not an all-time classic by any chance, but a very good compact sub-10 minute match.