2005 MOTYC Comps

[Loss]

>>8/14/05 Samoa Joe vs AJ Styles (TNA Sacrifice)

Very good match. Lots of fun, with good pacing and selling and some terrific nearfalls. My only real problem with it was that Joe and Styles wrestled the match like they're the exact same size, but other than that, I think this is the best match I've ever seen from TNA. Hints of a big man/little man match happened early on, but it fell dead immediately when AJ bodyslammed Joe without much of a challenge. The pop that got showed how much the crowd would have taken to that sort of David/Goliath story. Again, good match, but my problems with this match were the same as my problems with Bull/Hokuto in January of '91.

 

>>11/5/05 Bryan Danielson vs. Roderick Strong (ROH)

I don't know if Roderick Strong is getting carried and I'm getting the wool pulled over my eyes or if he really is that great, but if I chose my five favorite ROH matches from this set, he'd probably be in three of them. The Punk match gets better every time I watch it, the Gibson match I'll get to in a minute and then we have this match. I'd like to see a little more ROH (something I never thought I'd say after watching way too much of it on these sets ) from around this time because I'm unsure how far Danielson is into his heel run, but this is something that does a lot to get over both guys, and the only time that going as long as they did didn't really bother me. My normal complaint with great ROH matches is that they can't seem to master them in 15-20 minutes, but this match did a lot with the time it was given, and Strong was elevated from this quite a bit I'd imagine.

 

>>12/3/05 Steel Cage Warfare (ROH)

I don't get it. Confused me to no end, and I have no idea what they were even attempting to do. Why is this on here? And why does it last six hours?

 

>>4/24/05 Ishikawa vs. Ikeda (Ikeda Produce)

Great match! One of my favorites on the set. Part of that may be that it was unique and that made it stand out, but this was really gritty and seemed more like a bar fight with rules that are mostly adhered to than it did a wrestling match. I normally don't like a lot of matches like this because there's little selling and it's all about the offense, but this is a match that would be great in just about any environment or context.

 

>>8/19/05 Chris Hero vs. Arik Cannon (IWA MS)

Embarrassingly bad match. Seriously, why?

 

>>9/11/05 Yuki Ishikawa vs. Alexander Otsuka (Big Mouth Loud)

Even better than the previous Ishikawa match! BML rocks, and I need to see more.

 

>>10/2/05 Gibson vs. Strong (ROH)

My favorite Strong match on the set, just because he finally goes over instead of playing bitch like he does on the rest of the DVDs. Strong strangely reminds me of Ron Garvin, both with the great chops and the fact that he makes a great challenger fighting from underneath, but really wouldn't work any higher than that.

 

>>10/2/05 Samoa Joe/Low Ki vs. Kenta Kobashi/Homicide (ROH)

Another great match, although putting Ki and Homicide on opposite teams was annoying, regardless of the half-assed reasons for doing so, especially when just six weeks before this, partners Joe and Ki were trying to kill each other. That really put a damper on the whole match, but the Joe/Kobashi interaction still rocked, and all four worked really hard. Booking was just too weird for me.

 

>>10/14/05 El Hijo Del Perro Aguayo/Mr. Aguila/Hallowen/Damian 666 vs.

Pierroth/Apolo Dantes/Mascara 2000/Universo 2000 (CMLL)

Good match with lots of energy and heat, but sort of hard to follow. I didn't really understand what I was watching.

[Loss]

Okay, there was a lot of interest in this set when it first came out with a lot of people saying they looked forwarding to watching/talking about them. So why did I end up mostly talking to myself in this thread? Kinda disappointing.

[Guest Big Papi]

I received the set a few days ago and I am very excited to get into it. I've never seen a ROH match and I have very little exposure to international wrestling. This set should be an eye opener for me. I'll share my thoughts as I start watching.

[Guest Big Papi]

I received the set a few days ago and I am very excited to get into it. I've never seen a ROH match and I have very little exposure to international wrestling. This set should be an eye opener for me. I'll share my thoughts as I start watching.

[Loss]

Great! Look forward to it.

[anarchistxx]

Ok, I'll share my thoughts on some of the matches, even though I don't have the set.

 

Shawn Michaels v Kurt Angle (Wrestlemania XXI) - I loved this match. A match that I thought lived up to the hype, the spots were well placed and worked well, it was really exciting to watch live, I've only seen it once since though, and I'm going to watch it in the next week to see ifit holds up.

 

7/18/05 Kobashi vs. Sasaki (NOAH) - Too much no selling, too many lariats, too much goofyness. It was still a good match, and had a great, epic feel, as well as being packed with great moments. However, I don't think it holds a candle to some of Kobashi's 90's matches, or even his 2004 MOTY against Akiyama.

 

2/16/05 Kawada vs. Kojima (All Japan) - Didn't like this much at all. Far too many strike battles, and just bored me at times. It's a while since I saw it, so I can't take the match apart and tell you what was wrong with it, but it really didn't appeal to me. I enjoyed the last 5 minutes a lot, and it's still a reasonable effort.

 

9/18/05 Suwa vs. KENTA (NOAH) - Prett damn sweet. Probably my second to top Puro match from last year. SUWA is such an awesome heel, and KENTA was really over with the crowd, so it made for a good combination. Some of the early stalling annoyed me, but still a great match.

 

1/8/05 Kobashi vs. Suzuki (NOAH) - A little too methodical for my liking. Good, but I don't rate it as high as Loss, but that's no suprise as it's pretty obvious we loom for different things in wrestling. Very smart match, and the first transition where Susuki fell backwards off the top and wrenched Kobashi's arm out his socket was awesome. hated the finish, with Suzuki still being able to stand after about 3 Backdrop Drivers and god knows what else.

 

12/11/05 Samoa Joe vs AJ Styles (TNA Turning Point) - The best Styles match I've seen, though I still haven't got round to watching his Street Fight with Rave. Joe was awesome throughout, but Styles was suprisingly good here as well. Not one of the top matches of the year, but it deserves to be up there and talked about.

 

8/21/05 Eddy Guerrero vs. Rey Misterio Jr. (WWE Summerslam) - Good match, I lved the story behind it and thought the video package built up to it really well. A couple of botches, I thought they could have filled thir time a bit better sometimes, and pulled some different stuff out. A good match, not a great one.

 

3/17/05 Kurt Angle v. Marty Jannetty (WWE SD! ) - Solid match, doesn't deserve to be anywhere near this set though, pending a rewatch. I think it's the wrong side of ***.

 

9/11/05 Samoa Joe Vs. Christopher Daniels Vs. AJ Styles (TNA Unbreakable) (My Review From My Review Of The Event)

 

This was a really fun match, but not a lot more. It had little substance to it, but they made it entertaining enough, especially to the target audience. They filled up the time with so much stuff, all dipping deeply into their offence ranges, and so it never really got boring. It was really exciting stuff, with plenty of near falls and great moments to remember. Execution was nigh on perfect as well, and it all built to a enjoyable experience, if not as much so as the first time I watched it.

 

Samoa Joe is clearly the best thing about this match. He looks aggressive and angry. His delivery is done with a great vicious panache, and it helps that he has two men willing to bump so much for him. He knows just when to put his stuff in, and does some amazing moves for a man his size. He is also the best of all three at selling and psychology. Styles isn't bad in the match, but Joe shines much brighter than his opponents.

 

Now to the bad. The psychology in this match was awful at times. This is most notable when Joe has Daniels in his deadly choke, but instead of breaking it up straight away, Styles goes to the top rope to do it. It happens as well with some of the high flying stuff that doesn't need to be there. The selling can be just as abysmal, with Daniels and Styles doing backflips and landing on their feet a minute after high impace manouvres. At least Joe manages to work his selling around the match style somewhat, the other two seem to make no effort. In fact, the Daniles- Styles segments are the worst. They lack the x-factor, and they just seem planned and lacking in urgency.

 

Daniels is obviously the worst wrestler in the match, he is painful to watch at times. His complete lack of emotion or character, his ballet like execution, at least he's a good bumber, but that seems about the only thing he's got going for him. The match also looks a bit too contrived at times, with numerous planned sequences, which are planned, and look planned. This is a very fun match, which will provide you with great entertainment the first time you watch it, providing you don't go in looking for faults. When watched again, it loses some of its goodness, but is still a good bout. ***1/4

[anarchistxx]

Double Post.

[kjh]

I got the DVDs last week and saw some of the first disc over the weekend. I thought I should give my opinions on the matches I saw, especially as Loss was getting fed up of speaking to himself.

 

Kojima vs Tenzan (02/20/05). I thought this was a pretty good effort for such a long match, though it took a long time to really get going and towards the end they blew a few spots that hurt their momentum slightly. I thought Tenzan sold the exhaustion angle at the end of the match really well, but I still found the finish to be anticlimactic and I disliked its contrived worked shoot nature.

 

Ultimo Guerrero vs Mistico (02/26/05). Just a really fun match and my favourite so far. Mistico's bumping was awesome and they made his spectacular high spots count by not overdoing them and fitting them in the context of the story they were trying to tell. A bit too short and basic to be a MOTYC though.

 

Spanky vs Danielson (04/02/05). By the sounds of things I enjoyed this more than Loss did. I really liked how Spanky frustrated Danielson by keeping up with him on the mat and how that led to Danielson stiffing the hell out of Spanky with strikes. Personally I thought most of Spanky's short offensive flurries were well timed, crisp and exciting. The only things that annoyed me were the commentary early on which seemed more focused on shilling DVDs than the match itself and Spanky getting out of the Cattle Mutilation so easily.

 

Shawn vs Angle (04/03/05). Conversely to Loss I liked this less than the first time I watched it, but it still holds up as a good WWE style big match. I probably liked it less because on second viewing the shock of people kicking out of finishers just isn't there anymore and this match relied on things like that to a really large degree in the finishing stretch.