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MJH

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Everything posted by MJH

  1. MJH
    In a lot of way this might be the most complete "match" Zenjo ever did, because it combined the great sprints (and the first match is a phenomenal 20-minute sprint on its own) with the great melodramatic Hokuto story in the second match. I'd have to re-watch Queendom '94 and 8/30/95, but I'm pretty sure I'd call this the second best tag match ever in Joshi. Incidentally, how much of the post-match footage is kept on this (and also St. Final)? You really can't cut-off Hokuto matches after the bell because the post-match is very much part of the whole deal, unlike anyone else I can ever recall doing.
  2. MJH
    I fucking *hate* Ace and firmly believe there had to have been someone better for that role... but I don't think there's any reason/evidence to think that guy could've been Bossman.
  3. MJH
    Oh, yeah, and this match is remarkable. More remarkable than genuinely great, I think, I wouldn't go so far as to call it a MOTYC, but just so much fun. John's post in the Hansen thread argued for it perfectly.
  4. MJH
    Kobashi was always the day-in/day-out best of the three. Well, certainly by 1993 and for the rest of the decade. "Lazy" Kobashi performances are few and far between at any point, even on the handheld house-show footage or low-end comm releases where vs. the likes of Izumida he's working much harder than Misawa and Kawada would've dreamed of. 1993 is pretty much the peak of that. On the January tour alone you have him taking a powerbomb on bare concrete to set up his singles match with Taue which is just a set-up match for Misawa, and leading the tag that was Akiyama's first great match. Does anyone think Kawada or Misawa are going all-out with Stan on a house show, even at Korakuen, after working the other two all within 4 days? Even the biggest Kobashi detractors (John's hardly that I would say) never faulted him for effort.
  5. MJH
    Sure. But the only really fair comparison would be to Bull and I wouldn't call her notably stronger in any regard to her.
  6. MJH
    11/18. 11/20 is the TV air date. I thought this would've benefitted from being ~25' instead of ~35', and I'd say Masami was less flashy rather than necessarilly "more psychologically sound", but this was still a really good match. I always found Hokuto/Ozaki and Kansai/Kyoko somewhat underwhelming on this show, so it's probably the best match on it.
  7. MJH
    I don't think this is a spot fest at all, really, there's pretty clear levels/story going on. It's certainly a sprint, as most AJW is, but I don't even think it's notably fast-paced for the company. Aside from a sloppy few minutes at the start of the home stretch, though, this is pretty great. I'm not sure where I'd put it for the year, but it's probably a low Top 10 tag for Zenjo. The finals are better, though, Hokuto seemed to perform that much stronger when the story revolved around her more than it does here. And I still wonder why no one's nicked the Camel Clutch/Punt, either. That's such an awesome heel spot and an automatic payback spot too.
  8. MJH
    Now admittedly, I'm not much a promo guy (and when I am it's generally more Arn/Jake over Flair/Dusty), but isn't there a much stronger case that Austin 3:16 is the best promo of the decade because of the resulting $$$ than, say, he's the best US wrestler of the decade because he drew the most $$$? Aren't promos, like angles, all supposed to be about building interest in the upcoming big match? Where did "promo as advert/promotion" give way to "promo as dramatic monologue" (or however you'd term it)? Was it Rock? You watch "Hard Times", and people see that and want to watch Dusty kick Flair's ass and take the belt. Whereas, you watch most Rock promos and they're events unto themselves. There's a few exceptions, of course, but Rock promos generally just make you want to watch him rather than whatever his upcoming match may be, and if all Rock ever did was talk you'd be perfectly content.
  9. MJH
    Possibly. Taping in Vegas, Raw'd start at 6 to go live, right? Going live with the first show, they're wrapping 10-10:30 assuming they run some things short and pad the 2:15 out with the ad breaks on the second show. That's not too late for them to do it, but, IIRC, when they did the double in LA (?) last year they started about 45-minutes early. As far as the idea of it being off the cuff, I have a hard time believing he didn't run a script by Vince/etc. The cut-off was far too perfect. He walked the line a bit too well. It's one thing to name-drop NJ and ROH, but lines like "I thought the company would be better off when Vince dies" or "he's a millionaire not a billionaire", you're just not going to say them on WWE TV without getting the OK.
  10. MJH
    Since the Chavo botch he's been using it as a faceplant rather than a fall into the armbar. It wasn't hit perfectly, but, yeah, they're treating it as a faceplant.
  11. MJH
    Davey/Eddie didn't do an awful lot for me. I don't mind Edwards (though it can be hard to take a guy seriously when he makes Miz look menacing) and I'm far from a 'Davey Hater' - I thought the match with Shingo was great for what it was, and the match with KENTA would've been great if he hadn't made a comeback after the Falcon Arrow off the apron - but the match really felt at times like they were throwing shit at the wall. So much of the match just seemed jumbled-up. There's an obvious story to be had, that of Davey being hesitant and Eddie more brutal until Davey finally lets himself go all out. The dragon screw leg whip spot was OK, they're all a bit hokey and really only worked to a point with Shawn and Ric, but it's coming within two minutes of Eddie killing him with the fisherman buster on the apron and a double footstomp through a table. Then you had Davey kick the ringpost right near the end; it felt completely in the wrong place. No one's expecting them to lay their matches out perfectly, but this wasn't even an all-out spotfest. You could probably re-arrange everything they did, add a little there, take a little some place else, and it's something close to a great match. The submission trading is still Bad Angle, but the match moreorless hits their ceiling. I just thought it was about as flat as a match of its type can be. That all said, especially given the setting, the post-match was great.
  12. MJH
    He might be nondescript as fuck, but DiBiase did a really good job with Cara on Smackdown last week. The Danielson match was superior overall, but Ted took the flashy spots better than anyone as of yet.
  13. MJH
    Actually, for more on Ogawa, I always got a kick out of him vs. Misawa during the Jumbo tags. Misawa clearly really liked him; he'd work in monkey flips (Ogawa took them great), tilt-a-whirl backbreakers etc... spots he wouldn't do with anyone else (rarely). And not in that horrible Doug Williams sense where everyone suddenly started doing the Jap Strangle so he could do his counter.
  14. MJH
    Heel vs. Heel works the same way as Face vs. Face... you switch one over the course of the match. It doesn't have to be a turn, but you just work the match so that you give the crowd something to root for. First example I can think of off the top of my head is Kawada/Taue from the '95 Carnival; it's pretty clearly worked for the crowd to get behind Taue.
  15. MJH
    When's that from!?!
  16. MJH
    As a "work guy", not much. I don't think anyone would go so far as to say he was ever "bad", he was always "solid" at worst. It's just he was lacking next to the offence of his contemporaries and should never have been pushed as far as heavyweight champion.
  17. MJH
    Is he any less "black" than Barack Obama? The correct answer is whichever ancestry Rock himself chooses to identify with (which may be both...). My assumption would be Samoan, but I've neither read his book nor any interviews of his on the subject.
  18. MJH
    How many tours did Barry actually make of Japan? I can't really think of many matches over there, myself; you'd think he'd've worked there a fair bit, right? I mean, the thing with the Jumbo match that I remember was that, there's clearly an issue of not having worked together much. Granted, I think Jumbo/Kerry was their one and only time sharing a ring (and it shows early before they change direction) but I don't see Barry as one of those US guys who wouldn't adapt well.
  19. MJH
    Does Toyota really scream that much more than anyone else? Did she even scream as much as Shimoda? Maybe I'm just acclimatised to it, or something, but I hardly notice it. The number of girls who weren't constantly making noise is much less than those who were.
  20. MJH
    You'd've thought someone would've pushed a black wrestler (or a few) hard in the wake of Jackie Robinson or something, though, right? Hell, I'm amazed I haven't heard of a guy working as Jackie Luther/King.
  21. MJH
    I don't think your sarcasm was missed, rather rzombie's post after yours segued into a separate mini-discussion on that old "10%" figure.
  22. MJH
    It's actually kind of... weird to think of how small the number of black workers is on a "greatest wrestlers ever" list. I mean, women's wrestling is pretty much relegated to a small group, two close generations of workers in one country more or less, and you'd find half a dozen, at least, somewhere near the top. Basketball, football (both), baseball, track; so many sports have equal numbers of black/white great players if not a dominance of black players, so what gives?
  23. MJH
    Here's the thing I never could understand: Raw is pretty much guaranteed a 3.0 rating. I'm not as well versed in how many people that actually works out as, but of those x people, surely 95% have internet access at this point? And if they watch week-in and week-out, surely they'd look up wrestling on the internet? I mean, I know we, as in the people on this board, are in a very small minority of fans, but, even if we assume the majority of the fans are kids, there has to be a percentage much higher than 10 who're following the "behind-the-scenes" news, etc...
  24. MJH
    See, I've never really been a fan of this match; the structure's always seemed off somehow. The strike battles/staredowns in the first ten-minutes or so always felt like resets, and the lack of any sustained offence from either guy until really that sleeper sequence, it's more what I'd expect out of "ROH guys trying to do All Japan" rather than All Japan guys themselves. The moonault, too, came far too early and felt really wasted. I mean, I think I get what they were going for: I think the idea is they're equal, no one gets any real momentum, and it seems Kobashi makes the breakthrough with the sleeper but that only leads into Kawada getting the real breakthrough by suplexing him to hell. There's something in that, and it's a cute twist given how both the Misawa/Kawada and Doc/Kobashi matches went, but it never really felt as concrete with me. I don't think Kobashi should've gotten anything out of his hope-spot there either where he actually hits a backdrop that Kawada ends up covering him off. The finish just seemed off. I don't know, I'm presuming it worked more for you guys, and it was still, y'know, "very good", and a Top 30-ish match on the set, but I've never felt it was unjustly overlooked given both what came out of AJ in 1993, and the better stuff they'd do together over the years.
  25. MJH
    I'd hardly compare the shotei to Baba's overhand chop, but the point on a move being "too easy" I can understand. Of course, then you've got that entire debate about the "one finisher" style (which I certainly don't like). "Why don't they just hit their biggest move ASAP" is one of those things you just have to accept, though. The hierarchal system in Japan at least excuses why Misawa didn't just hit his TD '91 on everyone, but it's really just one of those things... I don't see how the shotei is any different than the Yakuza Kick, or Misawa's running elbow, or, yeah, even the lariat/clothesline. If you don't buy it, you don't buy it, but I've never had a problem with it, nor can I recall it being brought up in suchaway before. And I don't think Jerome was saying Hansen didn't work in America, or was unaware of it, but when all's said and done, do you think of him for that territory work or for All Japan?
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