JvK reviews pimped matches from late 90s-10s

[JerryvonKramer]

The Great Muta vs. Hiroshi Hase (12/14/92)

 

I put the call out on Twitter for all time juice jobs after watching that last one and this was the one that people came back with in less than two minutes. Very fast paced to start. Gutbuster by Hase. Throws Muta on the top rope so he lands on his stomach. Switches focus to the arm. Muta comes back with flash. Exceptional action.

 

Muta takes over with an Indian deathlock which he falls back on. Shades of Dory Jr. Bridges back into an STF of sorts. But loses position to Hases who applies a sort of chinlock. Stomps on the face by Hase look nasty. Swivel on nose. Rick Rude neckbreaker. Hase lays down posing in the ring as Muta regroups. I think I'm falling in love with Hase as I watch this match, he's simply been awesome so far. Cool suplex by him now. Muta comes back with chops. Action goes outside. Back in. Chop from the top by Muta.

 

Back outside. Bulldog onto the exposed concrete by Muta. Ouch. Snapmare. Elbow drop, Muta does such a cool elbow drop. Drops Hase hamstrings first onto the top rope. And again onto the railings. Loving Muta's aggression here. It's like "this is payback bitch".

 

Back in and Hase comes back with a superplex. German gets a two. He's still selling the leg. Rakes Muta's face across the ropes. And again. Absolutely loving Hase's heeling during his match. Misses a dropkick. Muta throws a chair into the ring. Backbreaker, gets caught going for a moonsault. Muta throws another chair into the ring and then grabs the wrench for tightening the turnbuckle. Hase manages to get it though. Muta is cut. And his blood is pouring out of his face. Hase bites the cut and then actually spits some of the blood out. Absolutely gross, and amazing heel work from him yet again.

 

Piledriver right onto the cut by Hase and you can see the blood pouring from the top of the head. Guillotine by Hase. Sleeper. His psychology has been absolutely perfect during this match. Muta is covered in blood. Hase has Muta's blood all over his arm. Stomp in the face. Scorpion deathlock. Muta is wearing one of the most complete Crimson masks here.

 

Hase such a prick taunting him. Stiff slaps. Belly to back suplex lands with a splat of blood. And another one. Roar from Muta pops the crowd. Another suplex. And another one. And another one. Suplex city bitch. Goes for the moonsault. Misses! Christ this blood is ridiculous. Powerbomb by Hase gets two only. Muta is close to passing out through blood loss. Hase is STILL selling that leg from the hamstring spots earlier. Back suplex by Muta gets two. He's losing his shit now. Tiger suplex gets two only! Holy shit, I popped. Backbreaker. Moonsault! Yes!

 

Absolutely fucking phenomenal. Stone cold classic and one of the best matches I've ever seen. Even beyond the blood, the work is just so on point. Psychology, execution, selling, character work, crowd control, this match has everything. I bet people only talk about the blood. Even if there was no blood this would have been five star for me.

 

*****

[The Russian Daydream]

That really is a tremendous match. As a companion, you should probably watch the earlier match with the two of them from 9/14/90. It's like the reversal of this one with Hase doing the massive blade job after Muta goes after him with the foreign object. It's somewhat inferior to the 92 match but it's still pretty good and kind of explains where Hase's aggression comes from in the later match.

[WingedEagle]

I'll have to rewatch that now. I remember the epic blood and Hase's aggression with the weapon but don't recall loving it on that level.

[Microstatistics]

If you are taking suggestions, I would recommend Jushin Liger vs. El Samurai (4/30/1992) from New Japan. The hate and general storytelling in that match are incredible.

[conker8]

It's good to see you dig Hiroshi Hase.

He has some great matches against the two other Musketeers : Hashimoto and Chono.

[Ship Canal]

It's good to see you dig Hiroshi Hase.

He has some great matches against the two other Musketeers : Hashimoto and Chono.

 

Yeah, Hase vs Hashimto from 8/3/93 and 12/13/94 are both superb.

[JerryvonKramer]

Manami Toyota and Toshiyo Yamada vs Mayumi Ozaki and Dynamite Kansai (AJW 11/26/92)

 

I don't like by stating the obvious, but Dynamite Kansai is pretty butch as women go. She starts out with Yamada. Toyota in. Osaki in. This is probably too fast for a running commentary, so I'll just want and make more substantive comments as they strike me.

 

This Kansai is a fucking beast. The level of brutality so far has surprised me, I thought this was going to be more flippy flippy than this. Could almost be watching an All Japan men's match, but worked at a more frantic pace. It's a very all-action accessible style, and unlike much Lucha I haven't enjoyed in the past, it has a more satisfying sense of "heft" behind all the work. You can hear the kicks connect, and the mat slam. Nothing is "floaty". I also don't think it is spotty insomuch as it has none of that choreographed feel that sometimes irritates me about both 90s AAA and 00s indies. This might seem a lot for an initial impression, but I was expecting this style to feel a lot more ephemeral than it does, I don't like ephemeral. These girls work snug.

 

Some of the suplexes and head drops in this first fall have been sick. But I don't think it has been too spotty. Tremendous first fall.

 

Yamada's response to going 1-0 down is awesome. About 8 or 9 back suplexes in a row absolutely destroying Kansai. Suplex city bitch! Instant reply for 1-1, but the way it was done as a revenge mission with Yamada going full tilt was really cool. I loved that!

 

One small criticism is that I'd have liked to have seen a little more long-term selling from Kensai after taking the fall. It's been a lot of Yamada vs. Kansai so far, it has been the story of the match. Since they shook hands at the start, I'm guessing there's a reason for that.

 

Another small note -- I like the way that this match has slowed down as it progressed. We're very used to looking for the narrative of a slow start heating up to the hot finish. But I think that the idea of a frantic start followed by a cooling down period is just a compelling. Something to think about.

 

In the third fall, we settle into what is essentially a one fall tag match worked double heat. First Yamada is FIP. Then Toyota. I love a heel beatdown, and Kensai and Ozaki destroy Yamada. And then Kensai basically kills Toyota with three back suplexes and a sharpshooter. Neat little moment as Ozaki sneaks across and applies additional leverage on the ropes, as if it needs that after three suplexes! Ha ha. Evil for its own sake.

 

Yamada comes back to save her partner but Kensai annihilates her with kicks. She comes back with some of her own though and Toyota comes in to hit several Germans on Kensai. Tiger suplex by Ozaki. Powerbomb. Dropkick. Counters one by Toyota. Double teaming now.

 

Lengthy back and forth finishing stretch. A lot of effective near falls. I could have sworn Ozaki kicks out on the finish.

 

There's something really interesting about this match. It is clearly structured around Yamada and Kanasai kicking the shit out of each other, and Toyota seems to gravitate towards the high spots -- dropkicks, coming off the top, etc. -- but Ozaki, she is the rock, the base around which all this madness is structured. The other three are giving very "big" performances, she's giving a "little" performance. Her character work is off the charts, she's smug, bitchy, nasty, satisfied when she's on top, and thwarted when she's taking punishment, it's a tremendous heel performance and in the middle of at least two other amazing performances from Kensai, a real bully, and Yamada, who shows all sorts of babyface courage and fighting spirit. It is definitely a five star match. But when I think of my top 100, it's not one I see in the top 10 simply because it lacks the emotional punch for me. Looking at it, it would likely make top 25 though.

 

*****

[Grimmas]

Don't blow through too much AJW, as I hope the All Japan Excite Series Season Two will be the All Japan Women's Excite Series.

[WingedEagle]

Warms the heart to hear you found Ozaki the standout there. Either she or Bull Nakano is my favorite personality in joshi, but Oz is much more subtle about everything she does and never does anything without meaning. She's the best supporting actress who often steals the show.

[JerryvonKramer]

AJ Styles vs. Samoa Joe (12/11/05)

 

Tenay's voice just screams "this is wrestling for wieners" to me. Makes TNA hard to watch. Talk about the least cool thing on earth, ha ha. Stupid six-sided ring of course.

 

Styles comes out firing. Snap suplex. Kawada kicks . Misawa elbows. Who's been watching 90s All Japan then! Snapmare. Big dropkick sends Joe down. Crowd pissing me off already and need to stop being so self aware. It's so unfair on these guys that they have to work in these sub-optimal conditions.

 

Joe comes back with slaps and kicks. Tazz Don West a bit over the top on commentary. The presentation is a real hindrance, and so hard to look past. Massive reverse knife edge by Joe. Elbow exchanges. Joe kicks Styles's legs right from off the apron. Giant swing into the railings. Whip into the railings. Joe stops and waits for Styles to get up. One of my least favourite modern wrestling tropes that -- waiting for the opponent to get up. Just a style thing.

 

Joe is stiff as a hell of course. Big knee drop. Back splash. Joe stays on top for some time now. Tenay reminding us that this is for the X Division title, couldn't make this feel less important. I feel like this heat sequence and the level of Joe's dominance is being a little oversold by the announce team. Maybe I'm just used to watching Bob Backlund matches, but Joe hasn't been that dominant.

 

Styles hits a kick. Fucking hell Tazz is so bad, such a outrageous shill. Boston crab by Joe. I'm sorry but Joe just hasn't been on top long enough for Tenay and West to be selling this narrative of him having been on the end of a tremendous beating.

 

Egregious flip over the top by Styles, the "Fosbury flop"? Whatever it was, totally stupid in the context of this match. Terrible spot that makes no sense there. Styles outrageously spotty in this stretch. No rhyme or reason, not cool at all.

 

This is awesome chant from the crowd cements my diminishing patience. Joe with the kicks again. Styles with some comeback offense. Styles has colour, he's bleeding from the mouth. Joe is too. Powerbomb by Styles. Two only. Clothesline by Joe takes his head off. Cover doesn't even get two and Joe is shocked. Sit out powerbomb. Rear choke. Styles with a flashy kick to come back. Styles splash gets two. Announce team have worked to suck all excitement out of this. I never believed that would finish the match.

 

Royce Gracie choke by Joe. And that knocks Styles out.

 

My god. How terribly disappointing this match was. Just bad. I mean the environment does everything it can not to help and the commentary team is abysmal, but I was so disappointed by this. This is the opposite of working smart. Styles was the worst sort of spotty here. Joe's offense and the heat stretch did not adequately set up the story they were trying to tell. The match needed more time. The heated needed greater psychology and cohesion and focus. Styles needed to do a better job of getting over pain beyond just bumping big.

 

I was fully expecting to like this match and I'm surprised by how much it left me cold. Styles and Joe were my great 00s hope, Styles especially was one of the very few guys that stood out as being good when I watched those Low-Ki matches, but with this being as bad as it was, I'm thinking of probably pulling the plug on any further exploration of this era. Is there any point?

 

**

[Loss]

AJ Styles vs. Samoa Joe (12/11/05)

 

Tenay's voice just screams "this is wrestling for wieners" to me. Makes TNA hard to watch.

 

I can't stop laughing at this quote. You made my day.

[El McKell]

I just want to point out that Taz is not on commentary in that match it's Don West, cool to see you describe him as a shill because he was literally an infomercial host before being a wrestling commentator. Anyway Tenay and Don West are a top 5 all time commentary team for me, at least for matches like this cos Don West's unbridled enthusiasm could get annoying in 4 minute meaningless TV matches

[JerryvonKramer]

Wow, he sounds a lot like Tazz.

[JerryvonKramer]

Also, hey, there's no accounting for taste.

 

I love David Crockett, late 80s Vince, and Kal Rudman, defend Gorilla Monsoon, dig Gene Okerlund on play-by-play, and have Sean Mooney as my avatar.

 

For me the commentary team maybe took off half a star from that match and did the opposite of making it. The narrative they were selling didn't fit the match I was seeing.

[Grimmas]

AJ Styles vs. Samoa Joe (12/11/05)

 

Tenay's voice just screams "this is wrestling for wieners" to me. Makes TNA hard to watch. Talk about the least cool thing on earth, ha ha. Stupid six-sided ring of course.

 

Styles comes out firing. Snap suplex. Kawada kicks . Misawa elbows. Who's been watching 90s All Japan then! Snapmare. Big dropkick sends Joe down. Crowd pissing me off already and need to stop being so self aware. It's so unfair on these guys that they have to work in these sub-optimal conditions.

 

Joe comes back with slaps and kicks. Tazz a bit over the top on commentary. The presentation is a real hindrance, and so hard to look past. Massive reverse knife edge by Joe. Elbow exchanges. Joe kicks Styles's legs right from off the apron. Giant swing into the railings. Whip into the railings. Joe stops and waits for Styles to get up. One of my least favourite modern wrestling tropes that -- waiting for the opponent to get up. Just a style thing.

 

Joe is stiff as a hell of course. Big knee drop. Back splash. Joe stays on top for some time now. Tenay reminding us that this is for the X Division title, couldn't make this feel less important. I feel like this heat sequence and the level of Joe's dominance is being a little oversold by the announce team. Maybe I'm just used to watching Bob Backlund matches, but Joe hasn't been that dominant.

 

Styles hits a kick. Fucking hell Tazz is so bad, such a outrageous shill. Boston crab by Joe. I'm sorry but Joe just hasn't been on top long enough for Tenay and Tazz to be selling this narrative of him having been on the end of a tremendous beating.

 

Egregious flip over the top by Styles, the "Fosbury flop"? Whatever it was, totally stupid in the context of this match. Terrible spot that makes no sense there. Styles outrageously spotty in this stretch. No rhyme or reason, not cool at all.

 

This is awesome chant from the crowd cements my diminishing patience. Joe with the kicks again. Styles with some comeback offense. Styles has colour, he's bleeding from the mouth. Joe is too. Powerbomb by Styles. Two only. Clothesline by Joe takes his head off. Cover doesn't even get two and Joe is shocked. Sit out powerbomb. Rear choke. Styles with a flashy kick to come back. Styles splash gets two. Announce team have worked to suck all excitement out of this. I never believed that would finish the match.

 

Royce Gracie choke by Joe. And that knocks Styles out.

 

My god. How terribly disappointing this match was. Just bad. I mean the environment does everything it can not to help and the commentary team is abysmal, but I was so disappointed by this. This is the opposite of working smart. Styles was the worst sort of spotty here. Joe's offense and the heat stretch did not adequately set up the story they were trying to tell. The match needed more time. The heated needed greater psychology and cohesion and focus. Styles needed to do a better job of getting over pain beyond just bumping big.

 

I was fully expecting to like this match and I'm surprised by how much it left me cold. Styles and Joe were my great 00s hope, Styles especially was one of the very few guys that stood out as being good when I watched those Low-Ki matches, but with this being as bad as it was, I'm thinking of probably pulling the plug on any further exploration of this era. Is there any point?

 

**

Tune into the Super Show's Top 100 Matches podcasts to see how high I rank that match. It makes the list.

[JerryvonKramer]

I know a lot of people are high on it. Marty also spoke very highly of it.

 

It maybe suffered from being watched back-to-back with Dream Rush, but I thought it actively sucked and can only say what I think.

[Grimmas]

I know a lot of people are high on it. Marty also spoke very highly of it.

 

It maybe suffered from being watched back-to-back with Dream Rush, but I thought it actively sucked and can only say what I think.

No problem with that at all. Anyone can have any opinion, as long as they back it up.

[JerryvonKramer]

It's weird to me Steven, we seem to like such different things. I'll never understand LA Park love, for example.

 

And yet on the All Japan stuff we are seldom far apart.

[Grimmas]

It's weird to me Steven, we seem to like such different things. I'll never understand LA Park love, for example.

 

And yet on the All Japan stuff we are seldom far apart.

All Japan is a special beast that brings everyone together!

[ohtani's jacket]

Ozaki is definitely one of the better actors in wrestling. Really phenomenal talent who will probably get undersold on the final list.

 

There are a lot of interesting wrinkles to that tag. Kansai and Ozaki were career rivals who tore strips off each other in their home promotion of JWP, but teamed up to defend its honour against the larger AJW organisation, which could have swallowed JWP whole if it wanted to. Ozaki was a heel in JWP, though an extremely popular one due to her charisma, and Kansai was the ace. I always thought she did a remarkable job of projecting herself as ace of such a small company. Toyota and Yamada had been positioned as the latest idol team ala Beauty Pair & Crush Girls (cute girl paired with sporty type), but without the schoolgirl audience they were forced to get over in a different manner. They had a competitive rivalry the same as Beauty Pair and the Crush Girls but without the hatred of Kansai vs. Ozaki. The reason Yamada has a shaved head in the bout is that she'd lost a hair vs hair match to Toyota a few months prior. They were the reigning WWWA tag champions at the time, which was the big prize in this feud besides JWP's fight for recognition. From memory, quite a few of the JWP girls were AJW rejects so there was a bit of real life feeling behind it. I'm pretty sure both Kansai and Ozaki were All Japan rejects.

[Bierschwale]

Also, Ozaki does intentionally kick out at 2.995 to add basis for the rematch that was WON MOTY and increase the interpromotional hate.

 

There's another big DynOz match on a JWP show in-between the first two Toyota/Yamada matches between them and Yumiko Hotta/Takako Inoue (their other major rivalry with a specific AJW team which was originally based around Hotta/Takako as the AJW invaders on JWP soil, beating Oz and her partners until she had to turn to Kansai) that is just barely below the level of the Toyota/Yamada matches, but with even more inhuman stiffness.

[JerryvonKramer]

AJ Styles vs. Kazuchika Okada (7/21/14)

I find modern NJPW a curiosity sterile environment. Something feels souless about it for some reason. Okada looks like he's walked straight out of a video game, let us say Tekken. His jacket would make Jimmy Hart proud.

The sterility of this atmosphere does much to make Styles's rather forced and inorganic heel character work seem like it is taking place in a vacuum. Although I did enjoy him mocking the Japanese fans' chants.

Anyway, I think I've seen enough. Styles is not going to get a set of ratings from me. I'm perfectly happy for modern New Japan to be someone else's favourite. This did nothing for me. Video game wrestling for an inauthentic age. If it's your deal, great. It's of zero interest to me.

**1/2

[GOTNW]

You could've at least provided a correct date. And modern New Japan is definitely not video game wrestling because no wrestling video game ever made could come even close to capturing the ridiculous amount of counters and counter sequences they pull off, no to even mention how complex it wouls be to translate its selling style into such a medium. But hey you've watched like three random matches I'm sure you know better than me.

[Microstatistics]

I agree that for DreamRush, even though Kansai and Yamada were incredible, Ozaki stole the show with her heel mannerisms. I would rank the performances as Ozaki-Kansai-Yamada-Toyota with the first three being at an all time great level while Toyota's being very good. Toyota was the best one in the Dreamslam 2 rematch though, IMO.

[funkdoc]

GOTNW, i think JvK is referring more to the general presentation than the wrestling style