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Ditch

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Everything posted by Ditch

  1. Ditch
    This is one of a huge number of '90s matches that I watched for the first time well after the fact and was baffled by the praise. I still don't get it.
  2. Ditch
    This placed 46th for AJ in the '90s in my re-vote, and 8th for 1993. I had it 48th and 6th, respectively. Hell of a match. 4/14 got more Meltzer hype because IIRC he said it looked like a 5-star match.
  3. Ditch
    This is the sort of match that I think really shows how much better Hase was than Mutoh and Chono. He's able to do all the sort of trademark/rote NJ matwork/technical spots, but he's much better at going toe-to-toe, putting together an exciting finish, and having a watchable first 10 minutes. Meanwhile, yet another 'Tenryu plus high-end opponent equals great match' instance.
  4. Ditch
    There was a series of Tenryu vs Chono matches in '04 that were either cheap or had a lot of screwiness. Not sure they ever faced off in the late '90s; I lean towards 'no'.
  5. Ditch
    I like Misawa vs Gordy 6/1/91 as a "putting over the elbow" match as well. Not to mention Hansen's lights-out sell when Misawa won the belts in '92.
  6. Ditch
    There was the powerbomb and top-rope shoulderblock to win the '91 and '92 G-1s, but those were 1-offs. The butterfly lock for about 5 years or so. STF variants... but that's still the STF. Then finally in the '00s the shining yakuza kick became his trademark 'pin' move... and that's still the yakuza kick.
  7. Ditch
    I'll add the I don't like much of any "crawl to the rope" spots in general. Problem is that Chono didn't have a clear one-or-two-ends-a-match pin finisher to balance out the STF (for my tastes).
  8. Ditch
    Misawa grapevined the leg, then Doc was able to haul him up and drop him with the suplex, but the impact was like a release German as opposed to a typical BDD. Doc didn't sell it like a kick-off-the-ropes spot.
  9. Ditch
    From my last viewing of it in '07: "I've seen lots of people mention Kawada's leg as the selling point, but that's really only the point where they kick it into overdrive. That it happens about 1/3rd of the way in, and that they keep it hot for the rest of the match, is what's key. I didn't get into this the last couple times I watched it, but this time I was waving Kawada over to Taue to tag out in the closing minutes even though I already knew the finish." I had it #7 for AJ in the '90s, and comfortably the #1 of '93 (for AJ). I'm not sure what would even be particularly competitive with it as MOTY; maybe Thunderqueen.
  10. Ditch
    I watched this last year and was disappointed by it. Chono's style in general is too soft to fit into Tenryu's usual ass-kickery, whereas he was just fine working '90s strong style against his NJ compatriots. While I'm at it, I dislike the 'Chono's opponent slowly crawls to the ropes while in the STF' spot. I never feel like the hold is particularly dangerous, and it's survived like 90% of the time in his big matches (especially the first application), and he doesn't build to it particularly well. Add in that his other trademark move is a big boot, and he just isn't going to mesh 1/10th as well as Hashimoto in the heavyweight slugfest that is Tenryu-style. And after the June Hashimoto match, you can't say that Tenryu is unable to be part of a match that tells a story with limb work, so it's not as if Tenryu is inflexible. A lot has been said for a long time about Mutoh being overrated. Well, I think the same largely holds for Chono. He's been in tons of high-profile matches with very skilled opponents and there's not even five matches I consider legit MOTYCs.
  11. Ditch
    I'm not hosting them because I didn't like them, for pretty much the exact reasons you give.
  12. Ditch
    Did Misawa take one on a non-taped show? Kobashi is the one who ate it in the taped 6-man. I just looked at the BDD in this match and it's pretty rough. I can see how they might have wanted it to seem like less than the full Kobashi-killing BDD, but... it looked like a BDD to me.
  13. Ditch
    The big thing to me is that after the backdrop driver, Misawa came back at least twice and both times seemed too easy.
  14. Ditch
    The first half is better than the Kobashi match, but it really gets messy the further it goes. Much like the Kawada match from July, it feels like they don't know how to get to Misawa winning.
  15. Ditch
    Just as long as you don't drive a car into someone's living room.
  16. Ditch
    Wasn't Herb Abrams' UWF on TV nationwide?
  17. Ditch
    Here's what I wrote in late '07: "Coming in I wouldn't have ruled out this placing ahead of Hansen vs Kobashi, but man, this really shows how vital striking was in the best matches. Doc was a great power wrestler but he wasn't one for complex exchanges. Early portion of the match is fine but it isn't GREAT. Kobashi's nearfalls are okay but again, Doc hasn't gotten much in and it's like you KNOW he's going to come back and thus survive the moves. I still love the close with Kobashi's 'flighting spirit', and it's really solid wrestling with not a ton of resting, soooooo... I'm putting it in the same pack as Jumbo vs Kawada, around 25-30." I put it at #26 for All Japan in the '90s. But there's a big gap in how I view 26-30 and 21-25, and there's a clear distinction to me about this being solidly behind Hansen vs Kawada 2/28/93 (#24). The finish could probably have been done with one fewer backdrop driver; I think having the "Kobashi desperately trying to get out but he's too messed up to do it right" moment was really memorable in terms of putting Doc over as a main-eventer. It's important to remember that Doc had been a good hand and was over, but he was the #3 gaijin until Gordy left and needed something to put him on par with Misawa.
  18. Ditch
    He's saying that there's no reason to believe Punk's drug-free claim more than assorted other 'purity' claims by public figures. Which seems reasonable...
  19. Ditch
    One thing I like to focus on in selling is that wrestlers shouldn't act like they're hurting *less than they actually are*. Bodyslams hurt! Suplexes hurt! Wrestlers can be tough as nails and popping up after a rough bump is proof of that, but they'll still look tough if they get up relatively fast while registering the pain of the move. A no-sell done slowly and deliberately comes across as much more dramatic than the "pop up ---> hit move in retaliation" spot. See: Undertaker's sit-up. There are even differences in how Hogan's no-sell finish was done, and he drew way better when "hulking up" looked like it required effort than when it looked like his opponent's finisher revived him. That is phenominal.
  20. Ditch
    A red x on a white square?
  21. Ditch
    I wonder if Savage had time to think about the absurdity of that spot actually working in real life. Probably it was all adrenaline at that point.
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  24. Ditch
    a. If they want to become a mainstream sport and get that kind of money/fame/respect, they need to clean this sort of thing up. b. The point of profanity is that you're using the most extreme/offensive word possible to express something. "Poop" is not as bad as "shit", etc. And "dick" in certain contexts would get censored. c. It's not even about him getting fired or not, but rather that it's being waved away without a company apology or the company trying to institute a media policy to prevent it from happening in the future.
  25. Ditch
    I think you're confusing 2001 with 2002-2009. In 2001, especially after winning the Triple Crown, he wrestled regularly in both companies. But after 2002 he only wrestled in NJ a few times a year in interpromotional bouts where both companies would agree on the outcome. He was All Japan's booker for most of the last decade, not New Japan's.
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