[1993-03-04-AWF] Jushin Liger vs Chris Benoit

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

From Liger's tour of Australia! Excellent quality handheld, by the way.

 

I've never been overly impressed with most of their matches because it always seemed like they couldn't quite live up to their own standards, but they still have excellent matches. This is more animated than your usual Benoit/Liger match, and I think I like it more for that reason. It's wrestled more American style than New Japan style, in the sense that Liger's comebacks are timed more like they would be for an American audience and Benoit does a lot more complaining about slow counts and that sort of thing.

 

Hey, if you are patient, you may find hidden clips of a Benoit/Malenko match from the same tour that doesn't look nearly as good but has some nice moments.

[benj]

Liger-Benoit-Australia-1993.....fuck....yeah

 

Crisp and nicely worked with a really good crowd. Fun to watch guys like Liger and Benoit, neither could have believed this would been seen in future years, work they way they did. Professional wrestlers here.

[Resident Evil]

The mat felt like cement in this match.

[Guest aceman]

first wrestling card i ever attended.

[shoe]

Just a good give and take match that melded a bunch of different styles.

[Zenjo]

Had no idea this was from down under. A solid 15m bout that was similar to what they'd be doing in Japan except with more playing to the crowd. Good effort as they obviously wanted to impress the fans in a new country.

[Kevin Ridge]

Benoit plays to the crowd a lot. Looked pretty good as they wrestled a bit differently for the foreign audience. Would have liked if Liger used a different finisher.

 

Brief clip of Malenko/Benoit and even Dean is playing it up the crowd.

[PeteF3]

Liger takes a page from Muta's book to put Benoit away. Dare I say it, this is the best of the Liger/Benoit matches of these Yearbooks. Great, crisp execution and a fast pace, with a little bit of classic babyface/heel stuff for the foreign audience.

[WingedEagle]

Really enjoyed working American style with more character work and antics. Really interesting to see these guys with more pronounced changes in momentum with a babyface/heel dynamic as opposed to give and take. I liked the spot where they fought over a tombstone that saw Benoit connect only for Liger to get his knees up on the splash that followed. Liger finishes it Muto style with a backbreaker & mooonsault combo.

 

***1/4

[soup23]

Not much to add to the comments of this. The match is really good and a excellent showcase for the performers but never kicked into that extra gear to make it great. Liger and Benoit would seemingly have a lot of classics against each other but Loss is right in that I can't recall a slam dunk singles match between them. Keep in mind that I haven't watched the 1992 match so maybe that will be it. ***1/2

 

BTW I think this disc is my favorite of all the discs on any set I have watched so far. Classic matches, angles and a wide variety of styles. I loved every second of it.

[garretta]

This was a nice mixture of styles for the Australian audience: A little lucha, a fair bit of Japanese juniors, and some good old-fashioned North American brawling. We've seen better from these two, but this audience hadn't, and they ate it up with a spoon. Liger gets the clean win with a moonsault.

 

It seemed to me that the audience wasn't quite sure who to cheer and who to boo, as both men were cheered and jeered at various points.

 

We got a short glimpse of a Dean Malenko/Benoit match at the very end of the disc that looked promising. Was it just the next match on the disc this match came form, or was it a contender to make the set?