El-P
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[1995-10-09-NJPW vs UWFi] Keiji Muto vs Nobuhiko Takada
El-P replied to Loss's topic in October 1995
This is not the match is should have been, and it's entirely Mutoh's fault. Here he's in half-"fuck you" mode (as opposed to complete "fuck you" mode in January 96). He works a bit during the mat exchanges, but that's Keiji Mutoh doing NJ matwork, which doens't cut it against the top UWF-I guy, although Takada was never a great mat worker himself. Solid is the right word. Then, Mutoh manages to totally no-sell a heel hold, and that's where it gets problematic. From there, it's been established that the dangerous shoot-style submissions just don't cut it. The finishing stretch of the match is quite good, with the exception of Mutoh selling an arm-bar like it's not that much, and most of all the total no-sell of Takada's enzuigiri (granted it wasn't a great looking one, but still). Yeah, there's a trend here. Ok, sorry but this is ridiculous. First, Takada just ate a german suplex and a backdrop driver just before the moonsault spot. He rolled out the way, and I guess if he had just gotten up, he would have been criticized for shitty selling. After rolling out of the way, Takada sat up, took a breath and as soon as Mutoh was up he was right there kicking him in the face and the knees. Absolutely nothing wrong with this. Then, his kicks. I just watched his two classic matches with Maeda & Fujiwara from 90 just before this one. He kicked just as hard in the three matches, especially toward the end of the Mutoh match. No difference at all. And yes, Takada worked as much as he could against a guy who just wasn't into selling his shit, he worked the mat early on, tried submissions, kicked a lot and in the end sold that stupid figure-four spot as well as anyone could (I mean seriously, a figure-four submission in Japan in 95 against a shoot-style ace). Takada was game, Mutoh wasn't. They could have had an excellent match together, but Mutoh hates shoot-style as much as Choshu does, and it really showed here. Didn't sell the submissions right, didn't sell the KO right (he was pulling up his kneepads while doing his sole KO spot of the match) and although he did work a bit on the mat, he just wasn't interested in having a good match. Of course it's nothing compared to the following January's episode, where he was doing the job. I like Mutoh more than most, but when he's into "fuck you" mode, good luck. In the end, I'd say this ended up being pretty decent all in spite of Mutoh. -
The day I'm getting back into watching this guy, he's top 5 easily. Greatest shoot-style worker ever.
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Fuck yeah. Great wrestler. Totally underpushed and undersold these days. Gotta love his "apathetic gaze" like GOTNW said. He was not laid back, he downright looked stoned, or not giving a fuck. And then he kicked you in the head. And sold like a motha. Career cut short by injury too. Shoot-style needs more love, this guy was terrific.
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Not hard. That match was horrendous. It's impressive how Rocky improved over the next two years, as they were able to have an excellent 1hour Iron match in 2000, although it's the epitome of Attitude era overbooking that works, which helped both of them quite a bit.
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This ladder match is exactly the point where I began to dislike ladder matches, because of stupid ultra-slow climbs and illogical use of objects (like using a chair to beat on a ladder prone on a guy's body, how in the hell that's supposed to hurt more than a simple chair shot ?). Take away the crowd heat, and I don't think it's that good of a match. Maybe my opinion would change today, but last time I checked, it was all heat over an awkward gimmick match.
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[1990-10-25-UWF-Atlantis] Akira Maeda vs Masakatsu Funaki
El-P replied to Loss's topic in October 1990
Mostly agree with this. A really good match, but not a MOTYC or anything to me. I thought Maeda was clearly the better worker here, reigning down Funaki's atheticism and terrific stand-up striking. Coming just after Fuji vs Takada, it's striking to me why Takada was so great. Although he was nowhere as good a striker that Funaki was, and not that great on the mat either, what makes the difference is how much better he sells the near-submisisons and KO (a bit like Onita would actually). He makes everything means so much, whereas there were a bunch of very slow, totally devoid of urgency escapes by Funaki here, including in the middle of the match, which kinda dragged a little at points because of it. Maeda was much better at this, and it made Funaki look dangerous. Anyway, this was still really good of course. Maeda as the surly veteran always works well and Funaki brought spunk in spades. His mullet was horrifying though. What the hell ? -
[1990-10-25-UWF-Atlantis] Nobuhiko Takada vs Yoshiaki Fujiwara
El-P replied to Loss's topic in October 1990
Great match. Two masters going at it. Everyone is gushing (rightfully so) about Fujiwara, but Takada was at his best here too. The way he milks the rope escapes and the KO's are fantastic, from his body language to his facial expressions, both the care which he tends to approach his opponent with because he knows shit is coming if he gets caught on the mat or in a corner, and the urgency he puts into his flurries of offense. Both Maeda and Takada had their best matches, and MOTYC, with Takada in 90, while their match together just didn't reach that level. Just sayin' -
Really, if you watch that Yankem match now, it's like Jacobs never really improved. They could have as well called him Unabomb instead of Kane.
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Wat can you say ? Just a classic match. Both guys are awesome here, the sense of flair and drama of Takada really shines, while Maeda manages to get sympathy for himself as an underdog against the young star. Terrific exchanges, great urgency, great selling of KO's and near-submissions. Shoot-style at its best (and no, I don't mean at its technical best, but shoot-style isn't strictly about that).
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[1994-01-04-NJPW-Battlefield] Hulk Hogan vs Tatsumi Fujinami
El-P replied to Loss's topic in January 1994
Bad match, unless your idea of a good match is Hogan dominating Fujinami with matwrestling for a while then this ending stretch, which really isn't good either. Fuji has one burst of energy during a good minute and a half at the beginning, then delivers the typical 90's Fuji performance of not doing shit until he slaps on the sleeper. Yeah, Hogan looks ridiculously thin here. He also found a way to give his favourite croonie a Tokyo Dome spot. And I'm not talking about Jimmy Hart, who's useless as usual, but Brutus Beefcake who gets to grace the Tokyo audience with a single match of his own on the undercard, and winning no less. Ah, Hogan... Chono vs Hash was a good ten minutes too long, but the last half was very good, although it's obvious Chono wasn't the same guy he was from 90 to 92. Still showing some signs of smart work though, since that's how he got by later in his career. Choshu vs Fujiwara couldn't have done less, really. For what it was, I guess you could say there were seeds of a good match, but it just ended when it was getting started, so. At least they did something, as opposed to Fuji, but this kind of show really speaks poorly of the NJ guys in the 90's : lots of jacked up boring gaijins (Jurassik Powers in a terrible match against the Hellraisers, the Steiners being somewhat fun but not really good either, Beefcake for goodness sake, and Hogan who at least worked a big harder but still had a bad, boring match), a bunch of bad matches in the undercard invovling Heisei Ishingun, an underwhelming junior match which didn't get over in the Dome setting, the veterans of the 80's totally mailing it (although I haven't watched Tenryu vs Inoki which I'm sure was much better) and a decent main event that was just not on the same planet as what AJ was doing at the same time (or the women for that matter). -
[1994-01-04-NJPW-Battlefield] Rick & Scott Steiner vs Keiji Muto & Hiroshi Hase
El-P replied to Loss's topic in January 1994
Like every NJ Steiner Brothers match : overrated. Mutoh and Hase hold this one together, but although I enjoy some amateur stuff thrown in the right context, there it meandered for too long and really didn't mean much (as opposed to Doc & Gordy showing the Steiners they weren't all that). Some good action especially toward the end, but the Steiner can't work a smart tag match to save their life. Rick kinda sucked here, and was already sloppy as hell. Scott had awful hair and threw some terrific suplexes like they were nothing, as always. I don't think it was even that impressive in therm of bomb throwing match, but the screwdriver was *amazing*. Of course it led to : nothing. I'd call this a good match thanks to the action, but nothing special at all. -
His Tiger Mask stuff is quite underwhelming. After the original one, I don't think anyone really did the gimmick right until Tiger Mask IV. Kanemoto found himself as a dick junior later in the 90's, and from then on, he's one of the most consistent worker you can find. He's also very respected by his peers I believe for being extremely safe (despite the stiffness).
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Please no. Don't do that. Ever.
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The third rate little Kawada of SWS/WAR, but what a fun worker he was. Always the most solid of these promotions undercards, with legitimate excellent performances when he got the opportunity (like against Hase in WAR). Lumpy, not overly charismatic but still connecting with his indy audience, better worker than a bunch of the main promotions undercard guys, would probably be a top 100 worker if he had more opportunities to shine, but in his own setting, he was often a blast. I believe he ended up promoting in his own area, some sort of shoot-style promotion with no ring and just a mat on the floor.
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Disagree. He didn't had the great matches (although the Hara one is the closest to be legit great to me), but he had a shitty opposition, working against guys like Takano and washed up Yatsu. I don't see the issue with him giving a lot to his opponents as he's great at taking a beating too. His SWS work is definitely a plus to me, as all the tag matches against Yatsu & Haku were all good/very good, and he had a bunch of good singles match against not so good opponents. What more can you ask, really ? Of course the NJ stuff is much better, but hewas working against a much better opposition in a different setting where he got heel heat, which gave matches a different dynamic to begin with. His work in the 00's, at the very least the early 00's, is also a big plus, considering how old he was (compared to say… gasp… Flair doing shit at the same age).
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He may be the definitive peak > longevity pick. It's a shame he got injured when he did. As a total package (mic work, look, presentation, work), Rick Rude was amazing.
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I'm single for the first time in 12 years. Watch stuff whenever I feel like it.
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Pretty much agree, although I really don't see how anyone could say that they "lay on the mat". They exchanged holds but always kept things moving, playing the equality game until Mutoh did hook up the indian deathlock for a while, but it built to a backdrop driver and piledriver and basically Mutoh working on Chono's neck, which he sold really well. I agree the finishing sequence was a nice idea that turned into an odd one, repeating the pattern way too much before the conclusion. Aside from that, they played off their familiarity really well, worked nice transitions and overall had a very good match I thought.
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Sasaki is simply not a guy you want to watch in a long single match in the 90's. 10 minutes of this would probably have been ok, but really, this was cattering to the worst instinct of Rude on offense (aka : restholds) and Sasaki simply kinda sucked in single at this point. Okay beginning and good little strecht at the end, and great dress by Madusa. Les messy that the Hash match, but also much less fun to wach. Not good.
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[1992-08-12-NJPW-G1 Climax] Rick & Scott Steiner vs Keiji Muto & Kensuke Sasaki
El-P replied to Loss's topic in August 1992
Really fun match, with Mutoh & Sasaki being priceless. Sasaki doing Rick's reverse powerslam to Rick was terrific. Rick kicking out at one wasn't. Rick actually got quite sloppy at the end, especially with Mutoh, who was a house of fire in this match. Very good bomb throwing match, with some structure brought by the NJ guys. Not sure it's one of the Steiner's best though, because of the slopiness at points. -
[1992-08-10-NJPW-G1 Climax] Rick Rude vs Shinya Hashimoto
El-P replied to Loss's topic in August 1992
To me Chono was easily the best heavy in Japan after the AJ crew in 91 (shoot-style apart, I have no idea how I'd rank them from 90 to 92). Hash was nowhere near as good as the other musketeers and Hase at this point. He passed them all later in the decade. -
[1992-08-10-NJPW-G1 Climax] Rick Rude vs Shinya Hashimoto
El-P replied to Loss's topic in August 1992
Decent match. I'm not so sure Hashimoto was quite the worker he would become in the mid-90's yet, so it's not exactly all Rude's fault that they don't click that well. I actually enjoyed Rude more than Hash here, gotta love the reaction for his failed hip swivel. I didn't mind Madusa's interference, just like I didn't mind Sherri's during Tenryu vs Savage. And those tights. Rude was an awesome package.