Guest TheShawshankRudotion Posted December 20, 2005 Report Share Posted December 20, 2005 Every time I watch and review a match that I dig, I always find myself questioning the nature of professional wrestling. Why did I like it? What made it good? How does it correspond to my existing views on wrestling? If it doesn't allign with my previous notions, what changes? Wrestling is not just one thing, it's many things to many people. A few days ago on the subject of "technical wrestling" in another thread, Loss mentioned that what I defined as technical wrestling sucked (to him, at least). Knowing what Loss likes (somewhat), I can understand that POV. I, of course, do not subscribe to it at all. Han vs. Tamura is one of those matches where we'd have deep divisions on. Volk Han is a member of the Russian Top Team, formerly the home of uber-fighter Fedor Emelianenko. LordoftheCurry and I have always called the Russian top team "The Accountants" because they do not look like fighters at all. They are every day guys, there is nothing really impressive about them, physically. Their hair, their physiques, the expressions on their faces... they're accountants. Now, I loves me some Fedor, but all this time I did not know that Volk Han used to be "that guy" in Fedors corner. He's the tall accountant. And he's like the second coming of Karl Gotch in the way he works the crazy ass submissions. Kiyoshi Tamura might just be the greatest worked shooter of all time. His work in UWF-i is tremendous, his matches with Vader and Takada are some of my favourites. The guy is just really, really, really good at making things look real. The match starts off with Volk Han grabbing a standing keylock on Tamura and picking him up by his one hammerlocked arm and walking around the ring with him. That just may be my new favouritest move. The action gets taken down to the mat with Han still holding on to the arm, trying to hook his legs across Tamuras body for the cross-arm breaker, which Tamura scoots around and grabs Hans leg for a heelhook, and then Han stands up and crosses Tamuras legs together and falls back down for a sorta figure four cross heel hold... this is all in, like, 20 seconds. I won't do PBP for the rest of the match, because as you can read it's very complicated stuff and very hard to describe. The moves come very naturally and the two feed holds to each other throughout the match. These counters are logical, but the pace itself is sped up from what you'd normally see in a shoot. There isn't the premium placed on positioning or scoring points as you'd see in grappling matches at ADCC, so they go for holds a lot quicker than usual. The matwork is very fluid and there is a diversity of moves, even if they centre around armlocks and leglocks. This is technical wrestling. Where this differs from traditional wrestling is that there is no story to it. Two guys trading holds, trying to get the better of each other, until one finally sinks in for the finish. That's it. Each guy is trying to beat the other. It's not grand. There are little theatrics. None of these guys pander to the crowd, or rally their support. They don't work limbs. They don't really build towards the finish, or have pay-back spots. The standard wrestling conventions simply aren't there. The excitement comes from the subtleties in the work, it comes in the movement and holds. It comes from the personalities, as well, in that you want one to win and the dramatics come from how close they are to winning or losing. Tamura is especially excellent at conveying danger, anticipation, importance, etc. of various moves and submissions through his body language and his facial expressions. My favourite moment in the match is about 3/4's of the way through (around the 8 minute mark), when -after all this mat wrestling and trading of holds and rope breaks and the like- the two are standing after Tamura frantically gets a rope break, and he levels Han with a kick to the solar plexus which puts him down immediately. The swings in the match also help create the excitement, as the fans are very into the "near fall". The selling by both guys is tremendous after this move. Han has his arms on the ropes, trying to catch his breath. Tamura is horny and anxious. Like, that dude just wants in there right away so he can finish the job. He sees the opportunity and he doesn't want Han to recover. Han is very sluggish in his movements while Tamura is frisky and perhaps over-anxious. Eventually Han gets back in control of the match and is able to get the upper-hand on Tamura standing. From watching his matches with Vader, Takada, and now Han, I don't think anyone plays "dazed and woozy" better than Kiyoshi Tamura. The finish is fitting for the match. It comes after a near fall/10 count spot when Tamura gets knocked down by Han after a flurry. They end up on the ground where Han has a keylock (or maybe an Americana) on the arm and traps Tamuras leg with his so Tamura can't roll out of it. They were able to catch the crowd when they were still hot after the near fall and it came at a point where the trading-moves didn't become repetitive. This is a truly great grappling match, I haven't seen many that can rival it, certainly none in North America. This is what mat wrestling is, not the Eddie/Dean pinning sequences or the armdrag and headlock crap you get on the indy scene. It was logical, it was well performed, and it worked. It should be required viewing. As an aside, I would love to see MMA guys work this style as I think they could do it very, very well. They could mix it up on the ground and standing, which would be an absolute delight. **** ~! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Famous Mortimer Posted December 20, 2005 Report Share Posted December 20, 2005 Can't argue with anything you've written. We had a thread at Smarkschoice about Volk Han and it revealed a surprisingly colourful life- as well as his great RINGS and MMA matches. Seeing him in action at the top of his game is something joyful to behold. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loss Posted December 20, 2005 Report Share Posted December 20, 2005 I will probably like this match when I see it, actually, just because I've heard that both Han and Tamura are very charismatic. I was referring to personality-free wrestling before, where it's all about the moves, holds and spots and there's zero connection. That's how I see Dean Malenko, but I've never heard anyone describe these guys this way. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest TheShawshankRudotion Posted December 20, 2005 Report Share Posted December 20, 2005 It's hard to define personality and charisma sometimes. It's one of those things that you can tell by watching it, but can't really convey to anyone else. With American wrestling it's easier, you have guys like Flair and Hogan who are larger than life and you can pick out points where their personality shines through because, well, it's quite obvious and theatrical. Like I said before, what they do is subtle, it's not flapping around on the mat, it's not looking out into the crowd, it's not cupping their hand around their ear or yelling "WHOOO!"... these guys essentially ignore the crowd and let their work do the talking. Yet the connection is still there and I think that comes a lot from the crowds interest in who would win and the competitive aspects of the match. I'd have to watch a Dean Malenko match to see if this differed from his approach, because I haven't seen one in a while. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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