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tcg91

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  1. tcg91
    Yet another good match between these two. However, while this still had some new details and spots here and there, I felt like it didn't add much to their evolving dynamic. But still, it was these two going at it for 20+ minutes with the usual fun mix of limbwork, strikes and Flair working extra hard to stop Kerry's raw strength. Also, Flair went from Kerry's arm to his leg and they soon forgot about the challenger's weak arm, while I liked the way he struggled to reverse the figure four later on. They did the shoulder tackle bump pinfall again and it felt a bit poor once again ***
  2. tcg91
    This match was an improvement from the one they had the previous week. Flair once again chose to fight Taylor as a 'babyface', but it got so difficult that he had to resort to awesome strikes first and, when they didn't work either, finally showed his dirty side to take over (it took him about 15 minutes). Once again, Taylor sold his arm well here and Flair did a good job too, but I really felt like they could have trimmed the match here somehow; this went for almost 40 minutes and part of the Naitch's heat segment looked a bit unenergetic. Great Taylor energy toward the end, as the crowd almost melted on 2 nearfalls; they did the same finish Flair did with Kerry the previous week, which was a bit better this time, despite not being the best choice out there ***3/4
  3. tcg91
    This was another very good Flair defence, on the same day he had a good one against Kerry von Erich too. Taylor easily had the best performance of his career so far, finding a lot of counters to Flair's repertoire and insisting on painful focus on the champion's arm. The struggle part wasn't the best but made sense, as Flair gradually went from babyface routine to a more aggressive approach, finally getting some good legwork in. Excellent selling from Taylor and, even though he tapped out, he ended up looking very good in defeat to the Naitch ***1/2
  4. tcg91
    Did these two ever had a bad match against each other?! And this wouldn't make the top 3 or top 5 of their bouts for me, even though Flair took it a bit easier than usual as he had a double shot that day. This took a bit to get going for me, then Flair hit Kerry low in another step of their progressive psychology, as the rules of the match would this time allow the Naitch to do whatever he pleased. Loved the 'low' claw as well, but then they forgot about this and mostly worked on each other's leg, which was still fine. The finish wasn't great either ***1/4
  5. tcg91
    Easily not the best Flair/Tsuruta, but still a very good match that had them working very hard. I liked the psychology progression of Jumbo growing since their 1982/3 bouts, so managing to get more offense for himself and to stop Flair's legwork here, even though Naitch did manage to grab the advantage very late in the match. Good struggle around the figure four and the reversals. That nearfall after Jumbo's thesz press was a great one, but it ended up being the only highlight of the last few minutes, as we got the usual flat countout finish. Put a better finish here and this is almost on par with their best bouts ***1/2
  6. tcg91
    This did more for Martel than his disappointing title defences against Nick Bockwinkel, as Saito looked like a monster and started taking down the champion piece by piece, which put over Martel's resilience and selling skills. Really liked Saito working on the champion's throat, even though that didn't last too long unfortunately; the deathlock stuff was fine as well after all, even though the move was way more over in New Japan and not fully in the States for Saito. Very cool flashy pinfall and it really felt like Martel survived a war here ***1/4
  7. tcg91
    Man, how ironic it is for the alleged 'Dream Team' to face Santana and Steamboat, who are a real dream team. Very good support from the Toronto crowd and this was 15 minutes of great wrestling, the heels controlling the match and the babyfaces hitting a predictable double hot tag. Beefcake did very little, but didn't mess it up at least, he played good support like Steamboat did, even though his was more selling focused. Of course, Santana and Valentine got involved in the finish and Tito got a clean victory that made the crowd very happy ***1/2
  8. tcg91
    I hate multi men matches in a cage, as the tag rules seem very forced, but this was a good one anyway. The babyfaces had their moments of shine, while the heels showed the right aggression to keep the match going; while none of them was a perfect worker, they all did their parts and Slaughter was an amazing support, because the took a great beating from them. The finish was also well received, Slaughter couldn't jump from the top rope, but Blackwell did and his splash looked devastating. This was good fun for the most part ***1/4
  9. tcg91
    Easy dream match, as Brody made the jump from All Japan and the crowd was so hyped for this. They went for an epic 25/30 minutes match and most of it ruled actually, as Inoki had to cope with an injured elbow and Brody actually sold his pain quite well. Inoki finally got a chance when he started working on Brody's knee and made it bleed. However, some of the top rope offense looked quite goofy and the referee bump stuff looked quite contrived; don't mind non finishes if they lead to rematches, but it took ages to get to that point here. This still was very fun for the most part ***1/2
  10. tcg91
    For some reason, none of the Martel/Bock matches never managed to be all time classics and maybe the booking could be blamed. Actually, there was some good storytelling, as Martel was clearly more confident compared to the previous matches he had against Bock, when the champion was the underdog against the heel Ace of the company. But they went through the motions at times, especially for a relatively short match, which was a shame as they clearly had more in the tank and only used it towards the end. Not the strongest finish either, as the referee actually damaged the heel and again Martel retain despite not beating Bock cleanly ***1/4
  11. tcg91
    This was an incredible match and a perfect blowoff. Most little actions and details mattered so much, like DiBiase failing to jump Duggan before the match the heel realising he couldn't slide under the ropes and get a timeout this time. Top notch brawling, easily amongst the best of the whole decade, of course this got bloody and it was a shame that Duggan took his white tuxedo off before it could become fully red. Even the pole climb teasing was great, because DiBiase actually tried to run away once Duggan got the glove, only to receive such a ridiculously hyped punch that was months in the making ****1/4
  12. 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
  13. 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
  14. 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
  15. 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
  16. 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 ***
  17. 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
  18. 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) ***
  19. 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 ****
  20. 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
  21. 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 ***
  22. 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
  23. 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
  24. 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
  25. 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 ***
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