Matt D

What the heck was Funk talking about with the Suplex and Piledriver at the same time? A Brainbuster?

No one slaps his thigh quite as well as Swann.

I looked back over my notes from when we did remedial wrestling over at DVDVR. I had general style complaints, like Childs notes ("That's the tragedy of this match to me. They have such attention for detail, such thought in the layout, such care in their selling, such intensity and willingness to just give themselves to pro wrestling. If they worked this match in a style I actually like, it could be like nothing I'd ever seen before, because of the talent and the work put into it. Instead, we get something that is exquisitely beautiful, but that manages to succeed despite its loudness and brightness and not because of it."), but my biggest specific concern was, yes, Kobashi. Here's what I said about that (keeping in mind that I said this 2.5 years ago): "The biggest real issue I had with the match was the Kobashi superman run. That's exactly what it felt like. It's funny that I've always heard that this stuff was somehow "more real." Personally, I don't mind it all that much. It felt like something out of a cartoon or comic book or sci fi, but I like those things. Actually it felt like the kid who got the Charles Atlas correspondence course and beat up the guys who kicked sand at him, or even more like it should have come after a montage with "Simply the Best" in the background. What it felt like most of all was some sort of kung fu movie (and Kung Fu Hustle came to mind) where the hero finally found his inner power and peace of mind and was able to develop super powers. It was hugely entertaining and kind of emotional, but not in the same way 99% of wrestling comebacks, even comebacks like Hogan's and Cena's, are. It felt anything but real. The issue to me wasn't even that, but that it ultimately didn't really matter. Kobashi had this once in a lifetime comeback, this sort of thing that stretches credulity so far past the breaking point that his hair should have turned hot blonde and energy waves should have been coming off of him, and it was awesome, and ultimately, they still lost. It just seemed like a story element that belonged in another match, maybe? Not the one where they were finally putting Kawada/Taue over. "

Half honest question: would you consider the fact that I really don't want to revisit it to be a flaw?

6/9/95 definitely has its flaws. I'm not sure what the flaws are for Sangre Chicana vs MS-1 or Bock/Hennig.

I only caught the first half due to parental obligations. I'll catch the women's match and the Nak vs Roode one later, though.

Someone should tell that one Author that there are probably better ways to sell than covering your groin.

If they ever want to really pull the trigger on Bray, they should go Ministry of Darkness and give him all the copycat schlubs they've assembled: AoP, Ascension, Sanity.

I'm biased but I thought Almas vs Strong was really good. I've some minor nitpicks but I really liked how the damaged arm and back led to big moments and momentum shifts in the stretch.

There was some pretty contrived stuff in there. The worst was Tye almost grabbing the wrong leg on the pin after the Tye breaker, but the finish was up there too.

Eric Young is a pretty ridiculous ham, isn't he?

Edit of my Segunda Caida review. Someone check this out (it's currently on youtube) and tell me if I'm way off in the comparison or not. ---- This was a poor man's Sangre Chicana vs MS-1. That said, even a poor man's Sangre Chicana vs MS-1 is still a rich man's match. I'm not entirely sure what the backstory was here. Kahoz had lost his mask to Shocker in 1995 (which seems very early for Shocker to pick up that sort of a win even if it was December and after he won the Gran Alternativa). I'm sure everyone knows that Kahoz was a gimmick that Pena himself had used but had given to Astro Rey in the 80s. I hadn't known that until now. Anyway, it doesn't look like there was a ton of build to this. It really doesn't matter. This followed the beautifully minimalist Chicana vs MS-1 format, though here Fiera was a full tecnico. That meant that Kahoz took over early, spent long minutes beating Fiera to a pulp, bloodying him all around the ring and the ringside area. This was where Fiera shined, selling broadly, bleeding huge, drawing a ton of sympathy. There was little attempt to fight back but that just build up the pressure for the eventual comeback all the more. Kahoz ended the fall with three pick-up/drop downs in a row (which I'm not sure I've ever actually seen. He could have finished him but kept picking him up; more on that later), and a stepover submission. As a primera, it was just as good as MS-1 vs Chicana, I think, a bloody, brutal beating. The segunda and tercera were still solid, even at times transcendent, but there just wasn't quite enough there to match the very best bloody one-sided brawls. In the moment, like with all Fiera tecnico performances, I kept waiting for the trademark spin-kick to signal the comeback. As a single move, it's not quite as good as Chicana's punch, but it's more stylized, flashier even if less visceral. He hit it early in the segunda, but not until countering a caught kick into an vicious enziguri. From there it was a short but utterly triumphant revenge beating, capped off with a picture perfect frog splash. The tercera was more of the same, awesome punches, blood and selling, a spot-on kick to the back of the head to send Kahoz to the floor followed by exactly the tope the match needed, all capping with a finish that called back to Kahoz arrogantly picking Fiera back up in the primera. Like I said, if you like MS-1 vs Sangre Chicana, you'll probably like this too. Even though it's not as good, that's still as good a company as a hair match can be in.

I'm only going to be able to dip my toes into this project due to time constraints, but one thing that i'd like to do is expand my horizons a bit. This was a direction I was pointed in so here I am. There were things I really liked: -The heels felt like Kaientai with more rudo leanings. They had all of the cocky tandem offense but also swarmed in for that initial beatdown as the ribbons were flying down, which was a cool visual. They just oozed personality and kept things moving with the rapid fire offense. -Parts of the structure. This is a one fall match and the back half of it was for big spots/final exchanges/pin attempts/dives. I liked in the first half how they shifted from that initial beatdown to a more shine-based set of pairings and then a sort of staggering heat where the heels would take over due to shenanigans only to get outwrestled with the process repeating. It took a while for me to see the picture, but I do think that for the most part there was a picture. -Sumo Fuji. Sumo Fuji was my favorite guy in the match. This was my first look at 2/3rds of these wrestlers. Everything Fuji did popped me. Maybe it's because it was the first time I saw him and the act would get old. I was kind of annoyed we didn't get an earlier shtick based Tokyo Magnum vs Sumo Fuji exchange. The first time he did the hundred hand slap I went nuts. -Everything was cutting edge and exciting. Loss and I aren't always on the same page when it comes to his temporal way of looking at wrestling. With this though, I think it fits. It's really interesting to look at this and the moves being done and the spots being executed and the attitude presented and compare it to the Nuevo Infernales stuff, for instance, or some of the early super indy rustlings. -Ultimo Dragon seeming like the biggest most awesome gold-masked star in the world at the end. There were things I didn't like so much: -Consistency. So the heel goon managers interfere early on and then stay out of the way for most of the rest of the match? That's weird. I also didn't like the kickouts towards the end. One of the real advantages of a six man is that you can break pins up. To me, I want to see kick outs happen earlier in a match and break-ups by partners happen more and more later, when guys are more worn down and it can be a bigger dramatic moment. Some of the late exchanges had way too much of the way of complex utterly killer offense which was just kicked out of without a lot of consequence, selling-wise. -Dragon Kid hit two or three amazing amazing spots. That corner Santo dive with the flip is nuts. For a lot of the rest of the match, he was the least impressive guy in there for me. His stuff felt a bit more collaborative (in a match that, in general, felt too collaborative for me quite often), sloppy, a bit contrived, and without some of the personality everyone else was showing. Yes, Magnum Tokyo had problems hitting stuff but it all came off as weirdly believable. The struggle actually added to the match and was bolstered by his personality. -Lack of a central narrative. I obviously need to see more, but this didn't have, to the same degree, the sort of storytelling I'm used to in lucha, even lucha spotfests. The pairings were less defined. There was nothing built to towards the end of the match that I could figure out. In lucha, those final dives in trios aren't an end in and of themselves; they're a means to clear the ring and create a single eventuality, a last pairing that will lead to a finish. I can't even remember who it was that Dragon Kid hit the dragonrana on to pin (Was it CIMA? No idea; also the dragonrana is way more impressive on paper than in reality). I'd rather things have been a little less haphazard in that regard. This was a lot of fun with a lot of attitude and exciting spots. For now, I'll put the onus on me to see more so I can be familiar with the narrative trends, but from what I am used to, it was a bit lacking in that regard.

This is the Brody I've always been promised but have never quite gotten before. What a great brawl. Blood and guts and chairs and impactful shots. Hate, real hate and terror, the sort that Brody was always supposed to radiate in Japan and that the footage never quite showed to be true. Definitely special footage. I watched the Duggan vs Ivan the Terrible match too and it was a surprisingly good hoss fight, the sort of thing you wish Bill Watts was announcing. They were really laying it in and for the most part it was back and forth in the best way. Duggan was a good enough heel and Ivan was bringing it enough and showing himself to be tough that the crowd really got into it by the end. Well worth watching.82 Duggan was aces.

One thing about the RnRL It depended a bit on when you became a fan. Boston had JCP/Turner TV, but I was a fan in that crowd who got into things in mid 1990 and I really had no idea who they were except for from the magazines (and even then, not as much). I had become more casual in 93 so I probably didn't see them on WCW TV that year. If you were a fan who came into things in 91 or 92, even if you watched WWF and WCW TV every week, that was no indication you would have been familiar with them. All I knew in the crowd is that they came out to the Rockers music, really.

You would have figured he'd be on the front of the video game first.

Estela Molina vs La Pantera Surena felt like a pretty historical match to me. I'm not sure how much pure luchadora matches we have from 1980 that go this long, this completely. Obviously Boesch was having a blast calling it. Molina was a great ruda. She's someone who is on the record for having some big title matches in the late 70s, I think. They were unsurprisingly ahead of their time here. Just another piece of the wrestling puzzle that the service offers us, one that I don't think anyone was expecting to get. Brody vs Spoiler is probably my favorite babyface Brody match on the service. Spoiler is just a joy to watch. He was athletic, but he didn't need to be athletic. He could have gotten by with his height and leverage and all of the tricks. My favorite here was him using his singlet as a weapon. There was a lot of symmetry and callback here. Later on Brody would use the mic cord, for instance. The finish came from Spoiler utiziling his leverage and the ropes one to many times. Maybe it was because it was because of the outcome, but Brody was far more giving than usual here, always important against someone who uses the claw. They really got over how dangerous it was. Very good match. i haven't loved every Brody performance on the service but most of his matches are somewhat different animals than his bad habit-laden ones in AJPW.

For fun stuff, 78 heel Brody is my favorite Brody, heel Duggan is a real revelation, any Dynamic Duos tag, basically, is a lot of fun, pretty much all the midget matches (and the Littlebrook title defense is a legit good match), everything with Bock obviously, that Dusty/Patera match.

Watch the Hayes vs Williams cage match too.

Everything in moderation.There's a difference between doing that sort of thing every week for the sake of it and doing it once in the Reyes del Aire to get heat (by ending it in the most rudo, disrespectful way possible for that specific crown) for an upcoming match that'll have a cleaner finish.

I loved that finish. It was total rudo.

The lucha people aren't subscribed to NJPW World and the NJPW World people don't care as much about lucha?

Like I said: