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soup23

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Everything posted by soup23

  1. soup23
    Really cool start with a Horseman sucks chant and everyone showing some great intensity before locking up. I had forgotten that this wasn't for the tag titles. The structure of this was weird but I was appreciative of that having watched a lot of wrestling over the past two days. The nearfalls and double teams from the face side at first settled down with the Horseman taking over with an assist from Arn and some double teaming of their own. The work over Raven was done really well with the hint of bias from lil Naitch creating an overcoming the odds narrative for Saturn/Raven. Saturn tags in and has a good house of first sequence with a big pop when Arn gets popped. Horseman are able to take over on him though and again the match slows down with the heels in control. Fun match about the difference in pace. Benoit and Malenko aren't doing uninteresting things when on top but it does take a more methodical tone. Raven does a really good hot tag and again the match amps up with Raven doing his chair spots with Benoit. Saturn wipes out through a table on the outside thanks to Arn who has been a force in this match as a manager. After an Evenflow, Arn physically rolls in forcing Robinson to admonish him. However, Arn was clever enough to place the chair on Ravens head and we get a disgusting diving headbutt from Benoit for the win that leaves him bloody. I have always enjoyed this tag for having high octane moves with a southern tag structure of the double FIP and heel cheating. This held up really well for me. ****
  2. soup23
    One of my favorite PPV openers of all time. This works circles around Scotty 2 Hotty vs. malenko from Backlash for example. Blizkreig hit everything well and with poise for someone that was so fresh and was having mask issues. It is really sad hearing Tony by the week become disinterested in the product as he buries Thunder at the start of this match. The crowd gradually ohhhh and ahhhhing at the escalation of spots coinciding with the announcers taking the match more serious and deferring to Tenay for technical analysis was a treat to watch. A great spotfest to jump start a PPV with a disgusting ending. ****
  3. soup23
    Harmless segment to fill out the B show like Heat but also having a big star appear. Mick is really starting to embrace the comedy stuff now though.
  4. soup23
    Yeah, this was effective and storm on the mic was better than we have seen up to this point. This is a feud I couldn't care at all about but now am interested to see where it goes.
  5. soup23
    Fun spectacle type match that was executed better than i would have imagined. The spots with the exploding wire was great and Chono's reaction. Onita has a great aura to him of someone that has been in too many wars over the years and is unhinged. A really compelling loose cannon type character that alludes a lot of charisma. The headbutt sequence was also great. This felt like a fitting match on the big dome stage. ***
  6. soup23
    Sasuke and Liger is a great tag team. Here they go against Wagner and Kashin and make them look great while also showing some hate towards them. Kashin in fact hasn't looked nearly as bad as his reputation would state. I don't know if that is yearbook cherry picking or what but he was pretty great here when he locked on his arm submissions for the near falls. Most half touched on the other spots that makes this stand out among other junior tags and I have it just a bit below the March junior tag match. ***3/4
  7. soup23
    It doesn't look like we missed the first half of an all time classic but the clips here were good to me and built up some drama to the 30 minute draw. Vader hasn't quite had that stand out AJ performance but seems to be finding more footing with each outing.
  8. soup23
    Really enjoyed the Kingdom main event tag. They are really starting to win me over as a team as they have some good heel tendencies as long as Taven tones down the babyface dives and flashy offense. They work really well now in filling out a card. Opener was fun too. We will see how ROH responds to Joe coming and going and the latest batch of rumors of people leaving for NXT. They have been gaining good momentum this year minus some missteps at the PPV.
  9. soup23
    Missed commenting on this somehow but this was a good segment setting up the Prtichard vs. Eaton match that we get and setting the seeds of dissension for the Bodies.
  10. soup23
    Yeah, I think people are misconstruing what me and Shoe are trying to state. I fully expect Ibushi to lose but he shouldn't be put in a main event this early as Shoe laid out above based on what he has acomplished. However, this shows the problem with not developing upper stars by New Japan. I know Rich and Joe many times have talked about the number of "buttons" New Japan can push for the top guys to perform but lets dissect the upper level talent currently. Tanahashi and Okada - They do seem to be doing their down phasing situation. I don't know if they are setting up something where they face off again at WK again with one of these two beating Styles at King of Pro Wrestling but they are certainly having them meddle down the card a bit with lower talent. This wouldn't be a bad concept if others were prepared to fill that void. Naito - Could challenge for the IC belt I guess. Also might be a contender for Styles at some point but he did just lose to him at the Dome. Makabe - Don't really think he would be much more than poor contender for either the IC or IWGP at this stage Ibushi - Rematch with Nakamura needs to happen at some point down the line with a big win, until then I wouldn't keep him losing big matches like he is persuable doing at Invasion Attack Shibata - Feels like the ship has sailed on him getting a big run based on the politics involved. Goto - Not a bad challenger but he has blown so many chances before, do you want to risk doing that again. And if he does somehow win, what then? Ishii - Seems to be stuck in the NEVER picture for the foreseeable future. Kojima/Tenzan - Wouldn't be bad to throw out on a low level show but no way in hell they are winning the IWGP at this stage. IC would be less of an upset but still a damn surprising result My point is that it does feel like a long game is being played with the booking but I am worried about the bridge getting there if the end result is WK next year. We still have numerous PPV's and big shows to go with not a lot of compelling matchups as I laid out above. The IC situation actually may be worse off than the IWGP as we are now two months in of Nakamura not doing anything and this follows a token defense of Nagata which is fine for one of the lower shows of the year but wasn't much of a match or defense overall.
  11. soup23

    What about Flair?

    soup23 replied to Grimmas's topic in 2016

    Can't see him any lower than top 3 for me. The more I have poured through the 90's and watched older stuff, the more I realize that almost every performer has pockets where not a whole lot is going on or they turned in disappointing performances. Flair certainly has that but then he has a match like Superbrawl IX vs. Hogan. Not a great match at all, but one where he is working so hard and popping a big number 16 years after he became the Man. In the other thread, Matt brought up that Bockwinkel did everything with Flair smarter. That is an interesting narrative that I don't disagree with, but the amount of Flair on tape vs. the amount of Bock is pretty significant. Even though I thought Bock was fantastic in the AWA set and a really great worker, none of the top end stuff on that set holds a candle to my favorite Crockett stuff of the 80's. Bock may be smarter than Flair, but Flair is more organic, more emotional and even more versatile vs. a variety of opponents IMO of the footage we do have from the 80's.
  12. soup23
    This has done a better job at making Show look like a monster than anything else so far. The build out of Mania seems to be rematch as Rock vs. Austin is still going on. However, it seems like Shane is now the boss after Austin with Vince preoccupied with this Taker thing.
  13. soup23
    I didn't like kane even in 1999 and X-Pac was starting to wear out his welcome so I will go in with open eyes to see how this team gels together. So far so good as they win the belts here and some fun moments of Kane slamming pac on top of Jarrett to get the pin.
  14. soup23
    Austin puts over the smoking skull belt. Boy the post Mania raw must not have had much going on based on what we got here. This was a good segment to show some significance to the championship and personalization from Austin.
  15. soup23
    Four big stars are in there but yeah this lacks heat. Goldberg jackhammers Page but Hogan breaks that up. I think it may be the issue that 3 out of these 4 men has been working heel and face so far this year. Goldberg does look groggy as his impact moves like the spear don't have the pop they usually do. Also, he probably should have been out of commission following the Bret angle. Nash late for his cue is a eye rolling moment. Sting repels down and Hogan still freaks out. IS HOGAN A FACE OR HEEL OR WHAT RIGHT NOW. Sting points to the Turner Tron (This is its debut) and we get the Spring Stampede four way announced. This has been great booking for this PPV.
  16. soup23
    Nothing says a floundering promotion like a facelift and new set/logo. Saturn/Raven are doing a good job working over Kidman when we pick the match up and the crowd is into it. Saturn's splash looked great and Bobby and Tony are actually being a lot more cohesive this week and calling a good match. Hot tag to Rey and he does a great one bouncing around all over the place. Nut bronco buster shot gets a big pop and its a spot that looks good. All four guys are in the ring and the ref takes a bump. Saturn catches Rey into a nice Death Valley Driver. The Horseman run in and beat up Saturn allowing Rey/Kidman to retain. Fun stuff.
  17. soup23
    Hogan has his flip phone with him. We have the new WCW logo. Nash talking to lil naitch in the stairwell was a funny moment. Some more dissension between these guys. These two never really had any chemistry that it felt like you wanted to see a match between them two.
  18. soup23
    Long, winding recap of this angle so far. Then we get a sit down interview with a somber Vince and Steph. Lawler does this interview which is a little odd. Vince allows us to go behind the curtain and talk about creating the Taker character and how he is believing it too much. Steph looks really young and has hardly any delivery skills at this point in conducting an interview.
  19. soup23
    I can be the first to attest that editing these things is a beast. I have used this example before but Hase vs. Kawada from 5/2 was ranked at ***1/2 from me and would have made my top 100 of 1998. It didn't make it onto here and I didn't feel like things were slighted. I like joshi a good deal but having comprehensive joshi stuff to an extent would create a set that wouldn't have much widespread visibility or interest. My optimum set would be 60 discs but that isn't realistic too. The US Scene with the WWF and WCW having so much programming will dominant a chunk of the set. This was easier to bypass in the earlier part of the decade when a given weekend may only have one Superstars interview segment of note. Anyway the clips here looked pretty good to me and GAEA in 1999 and a promotion overall is something I would like to dive deep into at some point.
  20. soup23
    Great old vs. new dynamic and everyone playing their roles perfectly make this my #3 MOTY and it is neck and neck with #1 overall. I loved the way that Aja and Ozaki were cocky and violent but also gave credit to the underdogs and didn't let them have an inch to breathe. That made the comeback and final stretch so much more dynamic and rewarding. Aja flipping shit at the end also allowed the story to continue to be told. Fantastic storytelling and execution. ****1/2
  21. soup23
    I was talking to Loss that this is really an unheralded feud as this is probably the fourth best of their matches and it is great. In some ways it reminded me of the Kawada vs. Misawa 3/93 Carnival match of tag partners trying to prove themselves against one another. The way Akiyama transitioned from the arm work to the leg which she knows has worked well before was great. Kobashi gives an all time comeback and shows some great heart and fire without blowing off the limb work or feel like he is over emoting. Akiyama still looks poised to become that next break out guy that will lead the promotion into the 2000's. ****1/4
  22. soup23
    Cluster of a cage match but weapons, blood and fire make it look like a fun smoke and mirrors affair. Of course the Dudleys sneak a win and then just leave casually. The dive from new Jack looked great and dangerous. Fun clip for a show that didn't look very good overall.
  23. soup23
    I don't know what ECW can do but nothing feels fresh even with new guys mixed in. Douglas gets a big win here and Francine and Jazz brawl a bit. It all seems pretty played out.
  24. soup23
    Another worked shoot angle. How many times did ECW go to that well. Much like we saw Missy lose here allure week after week in ECW in 1996, this is happening with Tammy now as she doesn't look put together at all. Pretty sad stuff to watch overall and an angle that never would get over.
  25. soup23
    Holy shit, Douglas talked for about 10 minutes. In the first time while watching 3 yearbooks, I thought this was 96 and wondered why he had Francine here and why he was going on about Credible. Really bad promo. The rest brought in some new blood but yeah, this concept is toast.
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