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tcg91

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Everything posted by tcg91

  1. tcg91
    While not as famous as the 'Mania 3 match, of course, this was so much better. Hogan gains so much from this match, because he doesn't run away or hide from Andre, he tries to actually wrestle him and goes toe to toe with him for 10+ minutes. The bodyslam on Andre was impressive, but unfortunately the crowd didn't react to it they way they should have; it's also a blessing that most of the WWF fans never saw it (so it could be done again in 1987). Hogan bled and got beaten down, so he ends up costing himself the match when he tries another bodyslam, that was a satisfying and memorable finish ***
  2. tcg91
    This was a great match and the best thing about it was that it was so simple and easy to watch. After a long feud, the two finally got in the cage and Backlund mostly kicked Slaughter's ass all over the ring, making him bleed and pay for his sins. Slaughter was good in his desperate approach, all he did was just trying to escape the cage (can't win with pinfalls or submissions, so it fitted the stipulation) and avoid contact as much as he can, apart from trying to capitalize on Backlund's shoulder injury and failing miserably on a couple of occasions. The crowd loved this and it made the match so much better, Backlund was a perfect predator and Slaughter's selling was on point, especially his face expression after the last time he failed a cheeky cage escape ****
  3. tcg91
    This was a really nice Southern style tag team match. Going less than 15 minutes definitely helped them keeping this really tight, there was no messing around or stalling (which can be Memphis' weakness at times), plus both Dundee and Rich shined while selling the champions' offense. I also liked the way Mantell and Idol worked together, they were more oiled than I expected them to be; the champions cornered Dundee and Bill tried to fight from underneath anyway, making for a compelling contest. The clean finish and the title change were also nice to see, the crowd exploded when Dundee managed to pin Mantell ***1/2
  4. tcg91
    This was good when Adonis and Brunzell were in the ring, while Ventura and Gagne didn't perform as well as the other two. At least, Ventura was decent while supporting Adonis in the heat segment, even though the match was solid but still kind of forgettable in hindsight; it was a solid bout, but nothing really stood out. Tag matches with 2 or more hot tags can be quite complicated and the last hot tag here felt a bit flat, as it came just before the riot that led to the non finish. They ended this on a high, anyway, with the brawl and the champions trying to abuse the over the top rope rule to keep the belts ***
  5. tcg91
    A good match, as usual the focus was on the touring champion making the local guy look good and, while he was still not at his best, young Kerry looked strong here. It was not a masterpiece, but the action was solid and Race schooled his opponent quite well. The referee shenanigans weren't clicking too much for me, but they added a bit of drama at least and we all know by now that a non-finish was on the table anyway. Also, Race put over the claw like a dangerous hold and was selling his desperation while trying to avoid the move ***
  6. tcg91
    This was okay, fundamentally a decent match but quite disappointing all considered. Them going face to face for a slugfest was predictably the best part of the match, but that only took place at the beginning and at the very end. What we got in the middle, however, wasn't amazing and somewhat of a filler at times. None of the limb work was particularly good, which surprises me because they showed all of their flaws that they protected way better in their previous New Japan match. I liked the way they both bled and sold the exhaustion, even the non-finish was well done and they ended this on a high note, I hope to see better rematches **3/4
  7. tcg91
    This was a really fun 10 minutes TV match, one of those that deserves to be seen, despite not setting the world on fire or anything. No-nonsense or time wasting in here, this was all about old school matwork and limb work between two very fluid workers. Young Eaton was already very reliable and good at selling, his control segment was also noteworthy, he did quite well once he started building momentum focusing on Keirn's back. Unfortunately, the finish was quite abrupt and the over the top DQ rule doesn't age that well, but I really hope to see more of them against one another ***1/4
  8. tcg91
    This was a good match, even though it got sloppy at times and it's always hard to watch a legend slowing down too much. Overall, a few execution mistakes were forgivable as they had an effective stalemate for 20 minutes and managed to make time fly. Robinson was more aggressive and played the heel here, but Dory was not shy and indulged in strikes to get back to his opponent accordingly. The matwork part was solid since the beginning, but I didn't like how they switched gear as soon as the announcer updated them on the remaining time, it was so noticeable and quite disappointing considering that they are two veterans and should know better. At least, both Dory and then Robinson kept selling the leg until the end, even though the finish was a bit flat. So fun to see young Kerry von Erich as the referee! ***
  9. tcg91
    This was better than the recent singles between Blanchard and Conway, even though that angle was used as the main focus for this match. Conway is better than usual here, he fights from underneath and his control of the pace is limited, but once again Gino puts on a hell of a performance with great selling and a nasty control on the babyfaces. The Duo got a lot of heat (while, only a week earlier, a crowd like Houston wasn't that hot for Tully) and the booking was perfect, because once again Conway/Blanchard was teased and then again postponed to let Gino shine with the finish. Props to them for going 25 minutes without getting corny or boring ***1/2
  10. tcg91
    This is not as famous as other early WWF matches and it's a shame because it was a damn good one. As usual, they stalled a bit at the beginning, but they quickly moved to the good stuff (unlike what they did in 1980). Slaughter sold everything in a great way, then digging in the headlock as a way to get revenge for the pain the champion caused him. I feel like Backlund held things back at the beginning, but he was great when he bled around and made a furious comeback, fighting with the desperation of a blind bull. We get a non-finish to stop Backlund's rage, but it was predictable and it built towards a stipulation rematch, so no complaints on this one ***3/4
  11. tcg91
    A good match, even though the crowd was extremely quiet by the Houston 1980s fans standards. It might be that Blanchard belongs to another territory, or it might be that Conway is not over enough as a single babyface, I can't really tell for sure but I will side with the champion on this one. Even in the ring, the challenger never fully impressed me, he was pretty basic and mainly got his points across thanks to the good Blanchard selling. I liked the quickness they showed at the beginning and towards the end, the finish was also pretty well done ***1/4
  12. tcg91
    They wrestled a really smart match and, as usual, the Portland crowd made it so much better. Rose gets extended work on Youngblood's arm (fresh off from surgery), but then Youngblood manages to finally reverse a hold and he gradually becomes the one to torture Rose's arm. This goes from good to better, because the fans love seeing Rose dominated and Youngblood has all kind of Bryan Danielson arm/shoulder strikes to submit his opponent. Rose bleeds and is amazing in his struggle at getting back control, because he just got a taste of his own medicine. The finish makes sense too, Rose gets the count-out loss to avoid tapping out again, but it's a bit of a let-down and shame for what still remains a great match ****
  13. tcg91
    Once again, Race is defending the title against a top star of a local territory. However, this time it's a heel vs heel match and so it doesn't initially work as well as it did with other people, like Rick Martel in Portland for example. Still, Gino seized the opportunity and fought a good match, managing to win the crowd's approval by the end and, if you know how much heat he usually gets in Houston, that is quite remarkable. The blood helped, as Race pummels the challenger and, once Gino started selling and stopped being cocky, then the fans got on his side thanks to the selling, also supporting his comeback. The furious rush by Gino causes his DQ, but he still gets to leave the match as the moral winner ***1/4
  14. tcg91
    This was an incredible final and they challenged all boundaries, going for almost 45 minutes even though it was probably smarter (and less courageous) to adhere to the usual 15/20 minutes Baba tag formula. The whole match was a passionate climax towards Terry and Jumbo finally beating the hell out of each other, their exchanges were so good to be believed. Terry made the match, firstly he got dominated by the Aces and then, once the table turned, he unleashed his anger on the opponents with a lot of fury. Baba and Dory tried to "just wrestle" for the most part, but Terry and Jumbo had a score to settle and their pairing was the easily the highlight of the whole bout. Terry taking Jumbo's elbow drop to save Dory from the pinfall is such an iconic and underrated spot, we get a non-finish unfortunately but there's plenty of good stuff to make up for it. Apart from Baba's segments coming off a big goofy, this was really well done ****1/4
  15. tcg91
    This was amazing. Bockwinkel was gelling really well in his All Japan tour, he clearly had a masterpiece in his arsenal and Robinson was the right dance partner. Firstly, what I loved about this is how their initial matwork focuses on finding the best place to attack the opponent, moving the whole gravity of a tactic, rather then doing a 10 minutes New Japanish limb work than soon gets forgotten. Bock gets the upper hand overall and carries this like a champion, but also Robinson does very well when he's finally coming back to ground Bock with some legwork. The reason this is "only" and excellent match and not an all time great is that the climax kind of died towards the end, I am cool with the time limit, but nobody really believed any of the late nearfalls and that was surely the key to end the bout on a high note (regardless of the outcome). Still, this ruled and is the best thing I have seen so far ****1/2
  16. tcg91
    Can't really call it dream match, but this was quite the attraction at the time. Inoki and Hansen are obviously the big pairing, Hogan is decent at supporting his team, while savvily Backlund takes most of the match, selling the heels' attacks for several minutes and getting the crowd hyped about Inoki finally getting the hot tag. So, while the fans were into it and the action was never boring, this failed to pick up and become special. The main reason is probably Backlund looking a bit awkward at times, the gaijins probably called it in the ring and you could see some miscommunications here and there. Thumbs up for the clean finish and for Hansen's sick lariat on Inoki ***
  17. tcg91
    This was a really nice representation of an American style match in Japan, with tons of influence from puroresu and an interested crowd. Bockwinkel doesn't hold back, once again his strikes are on point and he's really good on the mat. Terry plays the babyface in perils part and of course he's great, the heels work on his leg and he shows plenty of fire in his comeback. You could tell that the crowd was hooked and, when most of the match revolves around something that works, things are getting good (smartly, Bock and Terry are heavily involved here). The clean finish was a good surprise, but it was a bit abrupt and this match would have been a classic with a good 5+ minutes finishing stretch ***1/2
  18. tcg91
    This is a good match overall, but it doesn't age as well as it could. They go 30 minutes to reach a time limit draw, but the first 10 are a bit of a throwaway, they should have put more focus into creating a relevant story since the beginning. I liked what they created after that, Jumbo's armwork was good, even though I was surprised to see Steamboat being treated as an equal of the future Ace. The finish stretch well orchestrated, but the lack of credible nearfalls ended up hurting the contest and even the fans weren't buying most of them. I see why some people might love this, but also why others might hate it ***1/2
  19. tcg91
    The ring announcer is great at hyping Kid's homecoming and Rocco is an awesome heel, so it's a no brainer that this match generates a super hot crowd. This doesn't go too long, like some other Joint Promotion matches did, so it displays the great mix that a New Japan juniors match would: matwork, strikes and quickness. Actually, too many strikes, because Kid busts himself open with a headbutt and the crowd explodes (they're not really used to it). Stopping the match because of blood loss is a huge disappointment, especially in hindsight, and also a shame because this match had such an amazing start. This is a perfect example of why less is more, because the fans went crazy when they finally got the "less" before their eyes ***1/2
  20. tcg91
    Piper and Martel are gone, but the fans are still crazy hot for this. Rose/Youngblood is the most promising pairing and they do very well, including a long headlock phase that got the match hot instead of killing it. Oliver is a good addition to the mix and supports Rose in his pummelling, while Lightfoot is clearly the weakest link and he sells for most of the contest. They go 30 minutes before the time limit, the match is missing a clean finish to make it awesome, but they were still furiously brawling when the referee stopped them and this is a plus. It's incredible how Rose makes all of his opponent look so good ***3/4
  21. tcg91
    This is slightly clipped, as we are missing the start of the first round. "Stalemate" is the key and the announcer repeats it often, this is some of the best grappling of the year and nobody manages to get the upper hand. To be honest, the announcer also seems to only have eyes for Cortez, who's definitely the most mobile and skilled of the two, but Haward impressed me thanks to his rugged and unorthodox style, he's got that raw style of a young Steven Regal. I think this had a very nice build towards the final phase, but then the match got flat instead and ended before anything noteworthy took place ***1/2
  22. tcg91
    This was slightly clipped, 3 minutes out of 20 are missing and so it's not a big deal. The contest was solid as a rock, they showed a lot of intensity and created a nice stalemate on the mat. While Kimura slightly got the upper hand, none of them dominated the opponent on the floor and consistently worked on a body part, making it a fluid and balanced match. It's quite rare, actually, to see the struggle for dominance to be the theme for most of the match. This continues until the end, Kimura tries to tame his opponent for good, but he hits the barricades with a dive and so ends up losing by countout. Quite a conservative finish for a title change, but the match was good ***
  23. tcg91
    Saying that this was a broomstick match wouldn't be too fair, but Terry was so great here and he completely made this with an outstanding performance. He sold all of Butcher's offense and, despite not being used to the underdog role, he was a master at getting the crowd emotionally involved in his fight from behind. This was much better than the Carnival match and the crescendo made sense, in a context like this the non-finish is not a big deal because this was too out of control to have a clean finish. This is also quite refreshing to see, as it shares little to nothing with a "normal" wrestling match, so kudos to them for working with what they had ***1/2
  24. tcg91
    This is easily the toughest match to rate yet. A coffin is involved and the rule is that the loser will be put in the coffin AFTER the match, but then Dusty wins by simply throwing Koloff inside the coffin without any pinfall procedure. While this is so confusing and made the previous pinfalls useless, it is also true that the match itself ruled in its simple format: a very nice brawl, a bit of juice, Dusty wasn't lazy, the crowd was quite into it etc. Imagine watching a movie where actors, dialogues, scenes, pictures etc. are quite good, except the plot makes so sense at all. The fact Dusty created this is even more shocking **
  25. tcg91
    This was fine and got nice crowd support from the MSG, but the action wasn't great overall. The best part was easily the beginning, when a furious Backlund was clearly dominating and Slaughter bumped big time for the champion. The shine segment was followed by a few disappointing minutes, the match slowed down excessively and failed to pick up against towards the end. Backlund added a bit of drama by bleeding, but then he was disqualified due to outside interference, which quite at least bizarre for a babyface champion **3/4
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