Jump to content
Pro Wrestling Only

tcg91

Members
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    391

  • Joined

  • Last visited

 Content Type 

Everything posted by tcg91

  1. tcg91
    This was fun and frustrating, because the match got clipped in the middle despite being good and the crowd being so invested in it. Those 10 minutes went quickly. They did the usual lumberjacks routine at the beginning, which was fine but nothing special really; it wasn't until the last few minutes that this started becoming special. Top notch brawling between them and Santana was the perfect retribution babyface, as he can take punches but also give them back. Predictable exhaustion fluke finish, but it was well done at least. I just can't figure out why they didn't feature this at WrestleMania ***1/2
  2. tcg91
    This was a great spectacle that lasted less than 8 minutes from bell to bell. Amazing brawl, but I thought that having Duggan bleeding within the first minute was a bit too excessive, despite DiBiase working so well over that cut. Houston loved Duggan's comeback and the way he was punching the champion, sometimes even blindly. Houston was furious for the way he was robbed, at the beginning and at the end of the match. The finish just made the crowd moan, but it was a perfect way to lead to the blowoff. Pre WWF Duggan was such a great babyface ***1/2
  3. tcg91
    Good sub 15 minutes TV match between these two teams, who had plenty of chemistry by that time. The crowd was very into it and the action was more than solid, even though it was clear that they were building for a bigger blowoff. Rogers was no Ricky Morton, but he was a good babyface in perils anyway. Like some previous bouts in this series, this ended as soon as the hot tag was made, but I guess it made sense given the circumstances. It was smart to build the fans' hate for Cornette ***1/4
  4. tcg91
    Fine match. Gagne looked quite awkward to my eyes again, as him hanging with Bock on the mat felt quite forced, just like his aerial assaults towards the end were a bit clumsy (a bit like HHH working boring 20+ minutes matches to pretend he's a technician). Very good job by the heels, who cut the ring in half and managed to get the crowd behind Brunzell's comeback. Nothing about this screamed excellence, but it was a good bout despite a finish that felt a bit flat ***1/4
  5. tcg91
    Fun 10 minutes bout, but nothing special in the World Class landscape. Of course, a good part of the match was about the heel lumberjacks getting involved and annoying the von Erichs (the iron claw segments on the interfering heels were quite repetitive, albeit quite fun). Good performance by Kevin, who was the most inspired and brought a lot of energy into this, especially when he was helping Kerry against the Duo. This was a fine angle to advance the feud, but also a decent bout, despite the flat non-finish ***
  6. tcg91
    This was a great 10 minutes bombfest, the 80s (better) version of what became the Ishii formula for New Japan a decade ago. This marked Tenryu's growth even more, as (despite getting some dirty advantage at the beginning with a cheap punch) he took Choshu to the limit like nobody thought he could, not during a one on one match. No downtime at all and Choshu couldn't put his opponent away the conventional way, so he managed to get a countout finish after a violent saito suplex on the apron. This was short and sweet, with one of the best non finishes I have seen in a while ***1/2
  7. tcg91
    This was a cool 12/13 minutes midcard match, quite fascinating in terms of timing, as Windham was a tag wrestler at the time and Murdoch was on his way out because he left before Wrestlemania. Murdoch was good at selling and playing the part of the upset heel that was getting outsmarted by the babyface, despite him still managing to dish some punishment on the opponent. They spent quite some time outside the ring for a nice brawl around guardrails and ringposts, but I didn't get why the referee didn't disqualify Murdoch for using a crutch repeatedly (especially because this spot led to the flashy pinfall, which was quite anticlimatic) ***
  8. tcg91
    Only 45 minutes out of 60 made air, but this was great. It was presented as a big deal, since the World Title was defended in Honolulu for a very rare marquee match. Matwork wise, this was the best Flair and Kerry did together, as they paced this really well and there was no World Class overbooking to damage the match. The claw tease was great, Kerry was working on Flair's legs and ribs to make his finisher more lethal; he was miles ahead from the rough diamond that had Flair beaten in 1982 but made a few mistakes, as this time nothing Flair did seemed to work against the challenger. Sadly, after everything else failed, Flair was saved by the time limit bell ****
  9. tcg91
    This was great. Collins wasn't even 18 and played an amazing babyface here, while Bennett worked on his arm and managed to dominate the champion. They told a nice story when, as soon as Collins rolled Bennet up for the 1-0, the challenger got mad and changed his behaviour; he started pummelling on Danny Boy so violently, making Collins bleed and collecting verbal warnings, as the referee didn't want to disqualify him to preserve the bout. Not a fan of restarting matches, but it worked quite well here and it fuelled Bennett's frustration, leading to the definitive DQ. I am shocked Collins never became a star in Japan or America, if this is how we worked at 17 years old ***3/4
  10. tcg91
    Good little TV match, but, at 10 minutes, this was too short to be a classic or anything memorable. Kerry put over Adams' initial kick, but then he was the one to shine on the mat, especially with a long facelock and teasing the claw a few times. I didn't really buy the part of Adams dictating the pace of the match, as things were much more exciting when he had to defend himself from Kerry's fury. The dirty finish was very well done, in sports entertainment fashion, protecting Kerry in defeat but not making it look like a complete fluke ***
  11. tcg91
    This was a very solid 20 minutes bout, as usual the matches are way more enjoyable if the 3 minute rounds are out of the window. The best compliment I can give Grey is that he was the UK version of Tito Santana: a rapid babyface that was also very good on the mat and at selling. Haward had a strict non-nonsense approach, he looked good when dishing punishment, but they failed at making this special, as it felt like never reached a dramatic peak or an exciting finishing run. Still, this was so technically clean that it deserved a watch ***1/4
  12. tcg91
    This was JIP unfortunately, only 22 minutes are shown instead of the original 38 minutes. This didn't add much to their saga in terms of story, but quite a lot in terms of new offence, as they kept countering each other's stuff and it was quite cool, it felt a bit fresh despite their long history. The claw teasing was great and Kerry also was quite good at selling the figure four later on. Terrible finish though, I get the point of Flair being lucky, but seeing a collision and a shoulder tackle for a pinfall is quite poor after they went at war for almost 40 minutes ***1/2
  13. tcg91
    Another great match between these two, their feud was so underrated. Slower pace, non-nonsense action and good struggle on the mat between challenger and champion. Valentine quite interestingly focused on Santana's back, rather than his injured knee like in the previous bout, but the limb work was good anyway. Santana was the one that attacked his opponent's knee, the figure four tease was good, even though the finish was a huge letdown in some respect. In hindsight, it is shocking that they didn't blow off this feud at Wrestlemania as the MSG loved this and surely would have been into it once again in March ***1/2
  14. tcg91
    This was wrestled in a smart way, as they clearly focused on the story of Tiger's arm being injured and thus affecting him a lot during the match. It made sense, as Takada in theory didn't have much of a chance, despite his growth in 1984; this predicament gave Takada more rope, but unfortunately they didn't let him destroy Tiger's arm until much later, when he started targeting it with kicks. He was good on the mat anyway and Tiger effectively switched back to an underdog status, before the referee decided to call the match off for his own health ***
  15. tcg91
    I have seen plenty of Fantastics vs MNX so far and they were all good matches, they were just lacking a bit of something to get a great one between each others. Rogers was on a roll here in the shine segment, he showed very crisp stuff that got the crowd crazy. The heat part this time kind of disappointed though, it was a rather basic one from the heels, who by now could wrestle in their sleep and maybe got a bit complacent here. Very good Rogers hot tag and even the fu** finish was well done, even if they always leave me wanting more from them ***1/4
  16. tcg91
    Slightly clipped. This was a blast and could have been a classic with a smoother matwork quality. The strikes were sensational, putting over the roughness of Fujiwara and the lack of fear of young Yamazaki, who kicked his opponent without any remorse. However, the stuff they did on the mat felt a bit random, almost a filler to kill some time, as it never really followed up the damage caused by the violent strikes. That, with the no-selling of Yamazaki towards the end, was a bit meh. I liked the finish though, as Fujiwara finally got to stretch his opponent and got him to tap out ***1/2
  17. tcg91
    This was tons of fun and, despite only being the first skirmish of the Tenryu/Choshu feud, there was so much goodness in here. The seconds also played their part well, Yatsu was very intense and Ishikawa kept messing with Choshu despite not being able to always measure up to him. Tenryu hit hard, causing Choshu to be even harder with him, which lead to the non-finish. Obiviously, not the benchmark of the All Japan six men bouts, but it was worth a watch ***1/4
  18. tcg91
    This was fun, also thanks to a hot crowd, even though Bill Mercer was trying to put this over like it was a masterpiece for some reason. I liked how the Adams/Kevin feud was the hottest pairing here, but Adams kept dodging the older von Erich until they finally collided and Adams finally got clawed. God bless Roberts, he tried and managed to look good, but he spent lots of his time (including the finish) trying to put Mike over which is a bit sad in retrospect ***1/4
  19. tcg91
    Good match, but the booking and the referee kind of ruined it towards the end. The brothers stretching the champions for the first 10 minutes was fun, they were building a tight match with lots of snugness. Too bad that the heat segment on Jack didn't last long enough, as it was quite good while it lasted. The referee refused to disqualify the champions on a few occasions, which got Gorilla Monsoon to be a crybaby on commentary, until the official got tired and finally called for the bell for a dull finish ***
  20. tcg91
    This was somewhat clipped or badly taped in general. Bock happily took Hennig to school here, but he gave the youngster quite a lot of space at the beginning, before taking over with his mat experience. Hennig's courage and stamina were put over with his performance, which will help in the future for longer matches. Fine rib work by Bock on Hennig, but his decent selling wasn't on par with the best workers of the business yet. He did well in the figure four later on, anyway, before the flashy finish which was perfect because it gave Hennig a clean win despite Bock being clearly the best worker in the ring ***1/2
  21. tcg91
    A good match between these teams, which was quite expected given their skills, but even this time I felt like the bout ended right when it started getting interesting for me. Fun stalling at the beginning, and of course the heat segment by the MNX was quite good, despite not being particularly creative. You could tell Cornette's guys were going through the motions with the Fantastics at this time. Good energy in the Fulton hot tag, but unfortunately the match finished straight away, albeit in a quite flashy and convincing pinfall by the babyfaces ***1/4
  22. tcg91
    This was a good rematch from the RWTL final of the previous year, once again heavily focused on the growth of Tenryu and the support he could finally give Jumbo against the bad gaijins. Good match, with enough heat and a smart pacing to hide all of Brody's limits, as Jumbo/Hansen was again the best pairing. Tenryu bled a lot and was great at times, like when he took the lariat to save Jumbo who was the legal man. However, the DQ finish was a huge disappointment and tainted the celebration of the native guys, who finally conquered the monsters duo ***1/2
  23. tcg91
    This didn't feel like a 5 star match, or even remotely close to it, but it was still a very good bout, despite the crap finish. The Terry/Hansen exchanges were tons of fun as usual, while Brody and Dory were fine while supporting their respective partners, enhancing the chaotic nature of the match. Dory took most of the beating, especially when he was stuck at ringside. It felt like a nostalgia act of their previous contests, rather than a new chapter, as it didn't add much to the story. A good nostalgia act, nonetheless ***1/2
  24. tcg91
    Shoot style is not my thing, but this was great and it couldn't go unnoticed. This was slightly clipped, but still maintained a good pace at 25+ minutes. Very easy and effective story of a grappler facing a striker, as Fujiwara would try to limit the effect of Tiger's kicks by keeping him on the mat, to avoid getting fooled like he did in their September bout. Fujiwara kept the match on this terms for a long time, making Tiger sell the arm very well for once, but Tiger's comeback was incredibly stiff and violent, starting from a headbutt that was an all or nothing desperate risk. Amazing TKO finish, both for intensity and crowd reaction ****1/4
  25. tcg91
    This had some great moments, but the initial matwork was dull and felt like a way to kill time because the holds went absolutely nowhere (the match went almost 25 minutes, so that beginning was unnecessary). Yamazaki showed a lot of fire, with stiff kicks used as a way to enhance his presence on the mat, resorting to those methods when Takada was getting the better of him. I liked the progressive climax they had and they sold well enough, but the first half of the match was too bland and disjointed from the rest to make this anything special ***1/4
×
×
  • Create New...