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Matt Franklin

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  1. Matt Franklin
    This was fun. Miho's enthusiasm in her role was great, and while she was the obvious weak link she showed good fire. I didn't mind Maekawa as much as others seemed to, while some of her kicks were off I thought her chemistry with Miho was actually kinda cool. Dug the finish with the over-the-shoulder tiger driver/scissor kick combo, very definitive. I thought Toyota looked good in this match, not as go-go-go as much of her 90's work. I haven't seen much of her post 95ish, so it will be interesting to see her more in this later stage of the career. ***1/2
  2. Matt Franklin
    I thought this was ok, but I didn't really connect with the match like some others. I think Honma looked great but felt that Yamakawa dragged the match down a bit. I really liked the powerbomb tansistioned into a samoan drop into the board, and agree that Honma's flipping plancha over the boards was boss. I felt the finish was a little anticlimactic, but the way Honma had the tight cradle on the pin sold me on it. Overall, not bad, but looking forward to seeing more Honma in this era. ***
  3. Matt Franklin
    I really enjoyed this one. I liked Otani's repeated kip ups out of the firemans carry from Kashin at the start, as well as his general dickishness about the opening match handshakes. As many have mentioned, love how the flash submissions were really put over as a great equaliser and they got increasingly over with the crowd. Tanaka is such a smooth worker, he shined in this setting. Would like to see Tanaka with another partner against Otani and Takaiwa, as while Kashin wasn't bad in this match, it felt like he was the noticably weakest worker of the four in the ring. ***1/2
  4. Matt Franklin
    I liked this as a popcorn lucha match, but nothing I think I'll remember as I go forward in this project. First time seeing Zumbido, and like many above I love his reckless bumping style, the over the top bump was great but I think I liked his missed splash into the turnbucks even more, he really ate it on that one. Definitely want to see more of him. Solar looked good also, really liked his tope in the tercera. I was surprised to see Pantera bust out a super frankensteiner to little recation in the primera, at least it led to the finish Mr. Mexico, Antifaz did nothing for me. Antifaz comes off like a CAW luchador from the late 90's, while Mr Mexico seemed very stiff, culminating in his kinda hilarious botch towards the end. Overall, as a match this was fun but no real story or anything to really sink your teeth into. **1/2
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  7. Matt Franklin
    I think the BATB lucha tag has a place in the yearbook, it's one of the better ones WCW ran and has the ridiculous Air Juvi that was the best one he ever landed. I guess it depends on how many Nitro 6-mans you already have on deck, after a while they do blend in a bit, though I think the BATB one gets by on it's own merits.
  8. Matt Franklin
    John and others, I concede that my Beatles analogy may not be perfect Looking back, it doesn't really get across the point that I am trying to make. My main point remains that if a wrestler can perform at a high level in the most important settings, then that holds a lot more weight in peoples perceptions of them than their performances on a fancam or B-Show tv program. Note that I am not saying that this makes them a better worker, rather that how matches are seen and remembered often correlates with the significance of the show that they took place on. Because we have access to so much footage from such a wide range if sources and territories, we are spoilt in a sense that we get a far more 'complete' view of a wrestler's career than what we once did, and as a result we can see who the more consistent workers of their times were. Going back to the 90s, when we still traded VHS tapes and youtube could not even be fathomed, we did not have the luxury of tracking a wrestler's career as thoroughly or as easily as we do now. Because of this, the big PPV matches held much more significance, as I am sure we all rented the shit out of them from our local video store and this is where I feel a lot of perceptions of who was a good worker in the WWF came from at the time, as we didn't have the abundance of competitive TV matches that we do now. While many of us (well, if your on this board the vast majority of you) have watched a wider range of footage now and can appreciate many of the great 'lost' workers - who the fuck knew who Jim Breaks was 10 years ago if you weren't from the UK - a far wider fanbase assosciates 'big time' performances with great workers. 'Mr Wrestlemania' Shawn Michaels is a great example of this, someone remembered by having what were seen as great matches (whether they were or not is up to you to debate) on the biggest shows. Bret falls into this category too, and while I feel that his resume reads far better than Shawn's, he does not have the complete career of the true GOAT-level workers. What he does have is a place in our memories, subconscious or not, for his legendary matches with Austin, Perfect etc, and these matches will always have a sentimental place in my heart that I defend, even though looking objectively I can see that he may not have been all that I made him out to be in my 13 year old mind. As far as WCW goes, you can really tell that Montreal killed his love for the business at the time, and while he may have been there in body, he was definitely not there in spirit.
  9. Matt Franklin
    The Beatles had possibly the tightest quality control of their era making this a bizarre analogy. I love The Beatles, but tracks like Don't Pass Me By, What Goes On and One After 909 aren't going to make anyone's favourite song playlist. Plus, I was never a big McCartney guy so their may be a bias there as well. But we look back on them for their best songs (Yesterday, A Day In The Life, Norweigan Wood etc) when discussing their legacy, not an outtake from the Anthonlogy discs, which is like comparing a Wrestlemania match to a house show fancam. While I may have been overstating the fact when talking about downright bad, I think the analogy holds up well, as they both have performances that are remembered as all-time greats, though perhaps not as good as some of the lesser known acts in history, and both have fans that will defend them to their death and get sensitive when it is pointed out that not everything they did was great
  10. Matt Franklin
    Personally, I feel that Bret's more subtle approach to selling worked well as it made him seem more 'real' in khis often cartoonish surroundings. This is not to say he couldn't play up drama and be theatrical; see his match against Lawler at Summerslam 93 to see some genuine fire and emotion come through. Bret Hart was my favourite wrestler growing up and remained so for a long time. While my tastes have broadened as I have watched a greater variety of footage (much like pretty much everyone on this board), I still find his big performances to be some of the best I have seen in the U.S.. I have previously written about my love of his KOTR 93 matches, and I still feel that it is minimum top 3 WWF performances ever when looking at the three matches, either as individual matches (whilethe Razor match is merely 'very good', the Perfect and Bigelow matches are classics) or as a connected story (selling of the cumulative damage of the night etc). The Survivor Series 96 Austin match is another of my all-time favourite WWF matches, enhanced by the build up and the excellent JR commentary. While I agree that some of his CHV/TV/ house show matches are better on paper than in reality, and also agree that this inconsistency prevents him from being in top tier GOAT consideration, I really feel that peak performance is more important than smaller show lulls. If you make a comparison to music, do you judge a band by their best songs or their B-Sides? Radiohead are one of my favourite bands, is their career going to be more remembered for Street Spirit or Trans-Atlantic Drawl? Perhaps a better Bret Hart/Music analogy would be to The Beatles; they both put out some things that ranged from average to downright bad, but at their peaks they were pretty fucking awesome.
  11. Matt Franklin
    A fantastic match that has been talked about a great deal over the years. Really good vet vs young flyer story, and one of Scorpio's best ever singles matches. Barry was great in building towards the hot run of near falls atthe end, as he took enough of the match previous that fans were buying the upset towards the end. I don't know if you can draw direct coparisons between this and Bret/Perfect, as I feel like there were two very different stories being told in the matches. As far as being great US matches within days of each other, I feel like they both have some really strong points. Barry/Scorp had the hotter finish run, but I feel that Bret/Perfect had a more 'complete' match with a stronger body. I would probably give the nod to the Bret match, though it depends on the type of match that you like. The Barry match was a more traditional NWA champ letting the youngster shine and get hope spots, where the Bret match was contested more evenly, with two top stars going back and forth trying to outdo the other. Both are fantasic matches and really stand out as US MOTYC's.
  12. Matt Franklin
    I agree with KB8 about the structure of this match, as I also thought that the first 20 or so minutes were fantastic, but as soon as Tenryu was eliminated, so was the bulk of the drama. Speaking of Tenryu, this may be the most dickish performance that we have seen from him so far this year, which is really saying something. His toe kicks in particular looked great, and the way he would bait the NJ guys was so prickish and awesome. Definitely a top 10 guy for the year so far. I kind of liked the Ishikawa end run, with the NJ trio casually reeling of signature moves and getting increasingly annoyed when Ishikawa keeps on surviving. I agree with Loss that this would have played better on a WAR card, as it seemed kind of heatless for the majority of the finishing stretch. There was no point where anyone watching could believe that Ishikawa could overcome the odds, so it was just a matter of seeing what would eventually finish him. Eliminating Tenryu relatively early added to the unpredictability, but in the end I don't think that the way the ending was booked did wonders for the feud apart from putting Iskikawa over as a tough bastard. There were enough key Tenryu vs Hash/Fujinami moments earlier to keep things moving along nicely in regards to building those matches. Very good match with an exceptional first half, but 40 minutes seemed too long for the way the match was put together.
  13. Matt Franklin
    This is a fun brawl, not much more to it than that. Both men bleed buckets, and there are some really cool visuals,mwhich is something that big Muta matches usually give you. Kabuki is quite limited in what he can do, but Muta does as good of a job as he can in making his offence look decent. Wild postmatch, with Kabuki threatening to murder Muta! Not essential viewing and I probably wouldn't have any desire to see it again, but decent enough for what it was.
  14. Matt Franklin
    I had never seen this match despite hearing a lot about it years ago online when the NJPW juniors were the hot flavour. I thought it was exceptionally good, Samurai has shown a lot between this and the excellent Dragon match earlier in the year, and is kind of looking like the unsung great worker of the juniors of the era (not to say he wasn't thought of highly, but he seemed to be held in a lower regard compared to Liger, Benoit, Ohtani etc). The way that the match was layed out seemed more US style to me, and it really worked. Benoit as always had super crisp execution on everything, and Samurai sold like a champ for him. I liked that they didn't go near fall crazy, and they finished at the peak of the match rather than going on too long. The finish, Benoit's top rope powerbomb, looked awesome and was sold really well post match, with Samurai going out on a stretcher. Not the greatest juniors match that I have ever seen, but very enjoyable and one that I would recommend.
  15. Matt Franklin
    This was a blast, really fun matwork. Kido has been a pleasant suprise in his appearances in the yearbook, I have enjoyed him every time out. Loved the out of nowhere finish, it has been mentioned that Fujiwara is the master of flash finishes and this is a pretty swank one. Not a MOTYC, but fun and recommended viewing.
  16. Matt Franklin
    This is one of my favourite matches ever, and I enjoy it more than most of the Sting/Vader matches, with the strap match maybe being better. So much is said about Bret's performance, and while it is outstanding I think some credit should go to Bigelow as well, as he was perfect in his role as the confident monster picking apart his prey. The booking of the entire tournament should really be commended, as Bigelow breezed through his first round match and then had a bye, while Bret had two very physical matches that took their toll, making the perfect underdog story. Bam Bam's offence is great, I especially loved the first back suplex, as he lifted Bret really high and then drops him STRAIGHT down, bouncing Hart off of the mat. I also liked Bigelow going back to the bearhug, building to Bret biting his way out. I also loved the cut off spot where after Bret had nailed him with a back suplex, on his second attempt Bigelow reverses into a splash, calling back to Bret's win over Razor. The finish is also perfect, with the smaller underdog using superior technique to get the win over the powerhouse. A great, great match made even better in the context of the night long storyline. I remember having a conversation on WKO about how much better matches such as this and Bret/Lawler from Summerslam are when put into the context of the storyline going into the match, and I feel that when watching matches such as this, you cannot really geta sene of how good they are when viewed as a standalone product, as they were intended to be viewed as part of a whole. In keeping with the storyline aspect, I agree with Gregor about the commentary. i personally love this three man team, and I also agree that Savage in particular goes out of his way to put over Bret as the best in the company. I love how he jumps in the ring and celebrates with Bret at the end, it doesn't feel like a Hogan spotlight-stealing moment, rather it feels like Savage was SO impressed with the Hitman that he had to goin and congratulate him, going quickly back to the booth to not outshineor take away from the moment. A triumph in storytelling from the WWF, one of their best efoorts of the decade.
  17. Matt Franklin
    The last time I watched this was on the WWE Bret DVD a couple of years ago straight after watching the SS 91 match and I remember feeling that this match was a slower, not as good version of the earlier match. On rewatch, and in the context of the yearbook/PPV, I have totally changed my opinion and think that this is one of the best US matches of the year. The success of this match is not in the athleticism, but the storytelling and the way that Bret and Curt portray their characters. Winning this match seems like it is the most important thing in the world to these two, and they really lay it in to each other over the course of the match, with perhaps my favourite spot being Bret's vicious European uppercut. The match always feels like it is building and I think the finish works in keeping Perfect strong as well as putting Bret over as the superior technician when Perfect may have been a little too hot headed. Previously I have thought the Bigelow match to be superior, though now I have them both about even as two totally different matches that are both put over the top by stellar storytelling and the context of the tournament.
  18. Matt Franklin
    Going to try and pick up my comments from here after slacking off for a while. KOTR 93 is one of my sentimental favourite PPV's, as it was one of the first events that I rented from my local video store. It is realistically the Bret Hart show (though I think the Luger/Tatanka draw is underrated from this show) and so much has been said about how he was able to craft 3 totaly different but great matches that I don't really have anything to add that hasn't already been discussed. Count me in as one of the people who think this is one of he greatest one-night performances of all time. This match is more of a sprint than your usual Bret PPV match, which works with the 15 minute time-limit stip. Razor more than keeps up with the pace, and this is a really good all action match. The way the near falls were worked to be closer and closer was excellent, with the small package being so close that Bret gets caught up with the ref leading to a nice transition. Also, it is nice to seenthe back superplex reversal used on someone who actually uses it as a signature manuever rather than randomly used in a try-to-powerbomb-Kidman way. Hard to believe it is by far the least of the three matches that Hart had on the night.
  19. Matt Franklin
    Dean Malenko vs Norman Smiley 23-11-97 Worldwide http://m.youtube.com/watch?p=2AB2CCC5456BF...p;v=8yoLJhnm-N0 I pimped this in the What Are You Watching thread, as it only takes up just under 8 minutes including intros I think this should go on to show a totally different style to what the rest of the promotion was doing at the time. Some tricked-out counters and slick mat wrestling by both men, one of the better TV matches I have seen from either.
  20. Matt Franklin
    Dean Malenko vs Norman Smiley - Worldwide Nov 97 http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=8yoLJhnm-N0 Holy shit this was awesome. If the WCW B-Sides comp ever happens this has to go on. Because this is Black Magic Norman Smiley and pre-Big Wiggle, they hit the mat hard for 7 minutes straight without any highspots, and both are such fluid mat wrestlers that it totally works. It has a very WoS kind of feel, and makes me want to watch every Malenko and Smiley C Show match to see if this is a style that they broke out more often. I'm watching that from my youtube playlistof matches to watch, where I pretty much choose random matches that look interesting. Check it out at
  21. Matt Franklin
    My top ten for January 1. Ric Flair vs. Bret Hart (Iron Man Match) (Boston 1/9/93) ****3/4 2. Mitsuharu Misawa & Toshiaki Kawada vs. Steve Williams & Terry Gordy (AJ 1/30/93) ****1/2 3. Ricky Steamboat & Shane Douglas vs. Hollywood Blonds (Clash 1/13/93) ****1/4 4. Eddie Gilbert vs. Terry Funk (I Quit Match) (Battle of the Belts 1/23/93) ****1/4 5. Mayumi Ozaki & Dynamite Kansai vs. Takako Inoue & Yumiko Hotta (JWP 1/15/93) ****1/4 6. Kenta Kobashi & Tsuyoshi Kikuchi vs. Jun Akiyama & Yoshinari Ogawa (AJ 1/24/93) **** 7. Ricky Steamboat & Dustin Rhodes vs. Barry Windham & Brian Pillman (WWW 1/2/93) ***3/4 8. Barry Windham vs. Ricky Steamboat (WCWSN 1/9/93) ***3/4 9. Ricky Steamboat & Shane Douglas vs. Hollywood Blonds (WWW 1/30/93) ***1/2 10. Eddy Guerrero & El Hijo Del Santo vs. Jerry Estrada & Espanto Jr. (AAA 1/22/93) ***1/2
  22. Matt Franklin
    Fun as shit formula R&R/Bodies match, with Curtis taking a insane ref bump that sends him at least ten feet across a basketball court floor. Loved the surprise of Eaton running in and dropping the Alabama Jam. Really solid, old-fashioned 'rasslin' that I could watch forever.
  23. Matt Franklin
    Outstanding match. I thought everyone looked good, and as Loss said the match logically progressed from one point to the other. Finishing run was very heated and well done, though the crowd didn't seem to buy the Oklahoma Stampede as a finish. Overall, incredible match and easily top 3 for the month.
  24. Matt Franklin
    Is T.F supposed to be Terry Funk? Fun interview piece.
  25. Matt Franklin
    Not as good as their Clash match, but still a really fun, action-packed match. Like KB8, I loved the turnbuckle Douglas took, I'm pretty sure it was just a really good sell job, but even if it legit rung his bell it still added to the match. Loved how the Blondes got the heat on Steamboat, and thought the finish looked fine. Shane was clearly too close to the ropes for the springboard, so Pillman essentially does a body tackle to the back of his head that was solid enough that I can buy it as ending a match. Really fun stuff, the more I see of these four during this era the more I love their work.
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