Matt D

This is sort of far afield from even wrestlers' political affiliations though?

They'll probably replace him with Russo in two months?

I tried to make Elliott tell me that a few days ago but he's been awol.

http://prowrestlingonly.com/index.php?/topic/36925-naomichi-marufuji-vs-kaito-kiyomiya-noah-012117/ I enjoyed this. (With all of two data points), I much prefer old Marufuji to young Marufuji and Kiyomiya feels like someone to watch (not that I actually watch anyone from NOAH, but hey, maybe I should). Thanks for this.

Interesting match. I've only seen one outer Marufuji match in my life, being one from 10 years or so earlier against Taue, and this was a wildly different experience (short story: in this match, he's the Taue). I agree with the posters above that Kiyomiya brought a lot to the table. He had a ton of energy from the get go in how he bounded to the ring and how he was just hyperactively moving about and bouncing while waiting for Marufji to enter the ring. He was just potential energy and youth raring to go, and go he did with the initial assault and then the gutsy performance from underneath throughout. There's a moment mid match where he hits a missile drop kick and just slides across the ring to go for a pin attempt and it's a little bit of enthusiastic movement I'm not sure I've ever seen before. It was well appreciated. I thought they nailed a lot of small things, which really mattered. For instance, in the initial bit of rope running, Marufiji stayed in the center of the ring and it was on Kiyomiya to duck one move after the next before hitting his forearm. Then, when Marufuji really took over, it was a repeat of that sequence but with him running as well, making Kiyomiya reverse course and get nailed. There was a strong sense of everything feeling earned too. Marufuji didn't just take stuff placidly. He tried to get a shot back in. It was the same with Kiyomiya, even as he was getting killed with chops or beaten down on the outside. He tried to get a shot in from underneath. It just didn't matter. Like I said, what did matter was the detail work, because it provided an underpinning to the overall beating of the match. It gave it a foundation that made it more than just Kiyomiya getting his chest reddened and constantly coming back for more. There was a little too much bouncing back after a bit shot (superkick, etc.) but that's the nature of the style and it worked with the crowd. They went to enough effort to have Kiyomiya sell (spoiler: he was probably really hurting so much that he had to) and for Marufuji to show bemusement that I'm not going to fault it, especially because the moment of Kiyomiya shouting through the pain to finally fight his way back mattered all the more for it. There was a split second after the no-assistance German suplex where he locked Marufuji into a Tiger Suplex position where time seemed to stop and there was that pro wrestling magic of Belief in the air. It didn't work out for the kid but I bet it helped him get over.

southofheavy, you know your schedule. If you want to pair with Rah, great. If not, I'll double up gladly. Let us know. If we don't hear by tomorrow morning, I'll pair with Rah too.

It depends on how big a Tito Santana fan you are.

I mean the video in the article is named "Billy Jack Haynes - Go Fund Me request."

So, I'm not even sure where to begin here. Maybe with this disclaimer: Billy Jack Haynes is probably never truthful.

Far out of my wheelhouse. Looking forward to checking it out. Thanks. You haven't been with us all that long, so I only have some sense of what you've seen and what you haven't, so here's something from my wheelhouse, but set in Japan. It's slightly JIP after the entrances, but you only lose two minutes. Terry Funk vs Nick Bockwinkel (07/12/1983) http://prowrestlingonly.com/index.php?/topic/34313-terry-funk-vs-nick-bockwinkel-ajpw-071283/

Week 7. Slow week for us as a bunch of people are taking a week or two off. I've made sure that there are no doubles for the last three weeks. Jetlag Jmare007 HeadCheese fxnj Richeyedwards Matt D Kronos Rah SPS dawho5 Nintendo Logic Tim Evans WingedEagle concrete1992 southofheavy We had an odd number. southofheavy, if no one jumps back in by the morning, I'll double up and pair with you too.

Didn't Austin just downplay War Games 1992 a few months ago?

Where did this person get that talking point? Where are the lists of pimped 70s Onita? I'm trying to remember which Onita tag I really love. Is it: 6/6/82 Ric Flair & Dick Slater vs. Giant Baba & Onita It might be?

Ive been reading back. The moment, in my view, where people went from jokingly upset to actually frustrated, was when Negro Casas hit. (Though there were moments when the biggest shootstyle worker, female, or WoS guy hit too).

And I respect that. Here he is crushing entire style of pro wrestling. That is pretty impressive when you think about it.

Sometimes when I leave this place it feels like this:

What do we do? Try to find someone on Twitter who's watching this and send them a few bucks a month for them to send it to us? 1992 WON letter pages?

It's funny that we don't have anyone from Memphis in the community despite all of us loving Memphis Wrestling so much.

Yep. Ospreay reminds me of Styles at that age. I really look at Ospreay and see a guy who isn't good right now, but is very naturally gifted, very athletic, and just naturally talented. I think 10 years from now Opsreay could be one of the best in the world. There was an echo chamber in 2000, and more so in 2003, but I don't think it's entirely like what young wrestlers have to deal with today.

Kronos, http://prowrestlingonly.com/index.php?/topic/36602-stan-hansen-dan-kroffat-vs-rock-n-roll-express-ajpw-10261988/ So, I don't want you to take this one personally. It's a very cool, novel match in a lot of ways. It's just that those ways add up to defeat the otherwise unquestionable purpose of Morton/Gibson, the glorified ideal of southern tag team wrestling, and the shine/heat/comeback formula. I'm glad to have had a chance to watch it again and to actually write about it this time and thank you for that, but it's the embodiment of why we can't have nice things.

This is the worst Rock 'n' Roll express match of all time. What if you take everything that makes the R'n'R work, everything that makes them great, and then you put them in an environment where none of that matters, against an opponent who won't allow any of it? That's what you get here. Look, the match has a few things going for it. One, if you want to see Stan Hansen destroying people, this is a match for you. He has smaller opponents but is still in the AJPW setting, close enough to his physical prime that he has the wind and the dexterity to hit stuff cleanly. There's one point of the match where he has a face-vice on Morton, just literally has his hands over Morton's face, and that's basically the whole match. Kroffat stands out as the most exciting wrestler of 1988 offensively. He hits a ton of interesting things, none of which seem contrived. By 1992, he'd be the total package, with an almost memphis-like ability to work the crowd and his opponents and the ref as a heel yet still making it seem 100% to fit in AJPW. Here he just has spatterings of that, but he's still fascinating to watch. You get the feeling like he could have a Meltzerian six star match with 1988 Owen Hart or whatever. It's also immensely cool to hear the crowd chant "rock and roll" at the start. But this is a hot mess, a hot, hot mess. The Southern tag formula is the greatest gift god ever gave to us through pro wrestling. The Express are heavenly angels of that style. And Stan Hansen is basically the devil sent to tear it all to shreds. It starts off well enough with Kroffat eating the R'n'R fast offense. The fans are into it. They're chanting. Kroffat's game. It's a shine and it's working, at least right up until the point where Hansen storms in for no reason and starts to kill both guys. It's pretty much all downhill from there, with Morton looking as lost as I've ever seen him. He repeats spots (dropkicking Kroffat twice into the corner which comes off as very weird), has just weird comeback attempts (he does a small package 2-3 times, including once on Hansen and it's absolutely NOT what the fans want to see; at another point, his big comeback move is an armdrag on Hansen, which basically just lets Hansen get enough distance to destroy him again), and basically is put in a position by Hansen's relentlessness where he can't breathe enough to sell. If the guy is constantly hitting you, you can't sell. Hansen doesn't let anything breathe at all. Let's say Morton gets a kick in on a back body drop attempt. Ricky would normally drop to the ground, sell, and move to get another shot in, to really build up tension for the eventual cut off. The second he turns, Hansen's back on him again. Nothing. Just a guzzling. Probably the worst thing was when Hansen missed a Lariat on the outside early on and hit the post. In a normal match, that would have been a big moment and would have set up a very believable shine and built into the overall flow of the match. Here? Well, Hansen lets them double team him for about twenty seconds and that's that. It's basically their only offense on him all match. If wrestling is about moments and making them matter, this is just so much noise. It's vaguely amusing to watch Hansen kill these guys, sure. It's novel. I don't think it's good though, not at all. There's no comeback. There's no hot tag. How do you do a R'n'R match with no hot tag? Even in Japan. There was still room for it. Instead of a comeback and Gibson coming in to at least try to clean house, there's a cutesy spot with a missed shoulder block and a trip by Morton and a Flying Body Press by Gibson and both R'n'Rs trying to pin Hansen. It's a mercy to all of us when Hansen follows this up by turning around after a missed kick to hit the lariat on Morton. In isolation, there are a lot of cool little bits here. Something as simple as Hansen dropping the kneepad to flatten Morton as Kroffat holds him down is innately cool. The match is full of stuff like that but none of it adds up. The crowd started the match by chanting Rock 'n' Roll but there wasn't a single thing in there that made them want to chant when Morton was in that facevice late on. Gibson was standing on the second turnbuckle on the outside. Morton was waiting for the crowd to fire him up, but the crowd didn't care. The fire never came. Not even the greatest babyface tag team of all time could survive Stan Hansen stomping out the flame of pro wrestling beauty.

I like him a lot more as Prince Puma. I think he wrestles at least somewhat differently in that role. Granted, the matches that all stand out the most are the Muertes matches and that might just be a case of him having a base to work with instead of someone with a similar style to force a lot of overall excess.

And thats a perfect example of people not getting that performer means the whole package, not just work. I really like some of his promos from that year. Its a truly great performer who doesnt need to talk to be that over, dude. Unless Ive missed the existence of Sabu promos, anything is possible.

And thats a perfect example of people not getting that performer means the whole package, not just work. I really like some of his promos from that year.

I'm shooting for Weds again this week. Anyone else want back on/temporarily off for the week?