Proposal for 2018: Match Review Trades

[GSR]

I didn't have much expectation of shodate liking Lawler/Snowman. I picked it for him because he always talks about how important realism is to him and that match has been praised in some circles as incredibly realistic and even UWFi-esque (which I actually don't agree with, but that's neither here nor there). I was kind of hoping for more than a single sentence worth of thoughts.

 

For once I was actually interested in what shodate had to say about the match (knowing how others view it and also his constant rhetoric about 'realism'), then we got zero thoughts about the match, just some line about Jerry Lawler! I was going to address his subsequent post about Lawler's strikes not looking as though they have as much impact as Aja's uraken and Hotta's kicks (there's a bloody obvious reason for that!) but I'd decided a while back that I was no longer going to reply to his posts so just left it.

 

There's some good stuff in the MDA about this match as it's on the Yearbook, with Loss calling it the best sub five minute match he'd seen back in 2012. I never considered that it was UWFI-esque, but thought they were doing MMA before the term had even been coined. Here's what I wrote when I watched it for the first time a couple of years ago.

 

The Snowman and Lawler circle around each other, almost like it’s a boxing match and they’re feeling each other out. Snowman with some lefts and then he engages with Lawler, but ‘The King’ throws him to the floor with his absolutely beautiful takedown and gets in some shots of his own. And this already is like nothing I’ve ever seen before in a wrestling ring! They continue to take each other down and the Snowman is on his back kicking his feet up as if it’s MMA to stop Lawler getting to him. They start circling again and Snowman has a finger extended as if he’s signalling that he’s prepared to rip out ‘The King’s’ eye. Lawler with a flurry of punches to the mid-section and then one to the ear. Snowman tries to engage but Lawler takes him down and Jerry Calhoun is having a tough time getting them separated. Snowman lands a few big shots and Lawler fires back dropping him and then Snowman is almost pulling guard. He reverses position and Calhoun again tries to separate them. He pushes Snowman back to the corner, but Snowman nails him with a right for the DQ. Lawler and Snowman go back at it again and they exchange more punches. Lawler takes him down and then starts going for the eyes before we return to the studio.

 

This was incredible. I had not read any of the comments so didn't know what to expect but was transfixed by this. i'm not someone who is into 'shoot style', but this looked like one of the most legitimate fights I've ever seen in a wrestling ring. From the way they held their fists, to the take downs, to indicating they were going for their opponent's eyes, to actually going for their eyes, to kicking their legs up when they were down to stop the opponent getting at them. These two were doing MMA before the term had ever been coined, and to think, this was in Memphis and Jerry Lawler! MUST SEE STUFF and what is even better, there is clearly plenty more from these two to come.

[DR Ackermann]

Glad you liked the match, Matt! Its one of my favorite Tenryu vs midcarder-who-has-no-chance-against-him matches. That period of early 1990 is kind of stagnant and disregarded after the super hot 89 and before Misawa and company's rise in the second half of the year, but Tenryu brings it every night. It's basically him feuding with midcarders and lowercarders as an offshoot of his feud with Jumbo and they're all trying to kill him. I really like how he is still experimenting and mixing up his highspots. He'll do new stuff that you haven't seen before and then not use it again.

[shodate]

 

I didn't have much expectation of shodate liking Lawler/Snowman. I picked it for him because he always talks about how important realism is to him and that match has been praised in some circles as incredibly realistic and even UWFi-esque (which I actually don't agree with, but that's neither here nor there). I was kind of hoping for more than a single sentence worth of thoughts.

 

For once I was actually interested in what shodate had to say about the match (knowing how others view it and also his constant rhetoric about 'realism'), then we got zero thoughts about the match, just some line about Jerry Lawler! I was going to address his subsequent post about Lawler's strikes not looking as though they have as much impact as Aja's uraken and Hotta's kicks (there's a bloody obvious reason for that!) but I'd decided a while back that I was no longer going to reply to his posts so just left it.

 

There's some good stuff in the MDA about this match as it's on the Yearbook, with Loss calling it the best sub five minute match he'd seen back in 2012. I never considered that it was UWFI-esque, but thought they were doing MMA before the term had even been coined. Here's what I wrote when I watched it for the first time a couple of years ago.

 

The Snowman and Lawler circle around each other, almost like it’s a boxing match and they’re feeling each other out. Snowman with some lefts and then he engages with Lawler, but ‘The King’ throws him to the floor with his absolutely beautiful takedown and gets in some shots of his own. And this already is like nothing I’ve ever seen before in a wrestling ring! They continue to take each other down and the Snowman is on his back kicking his feet up as if it’s MMA to stop Lawler getting to him. They start circling again and Snowman has a finger extended as if he’s signalling that he’s prepared to rip out ‘The King’s’ eye. Lawler with a flurry of punches to the mid-section and then one to the ear. Snowman tries to engage but Lawler takes him down and Jerry Calhoun is having a tough time getting them separated. Snowman lands a few big shots and Lawler fires back dropping him and then Snowman is almost pulling guard. He reverses position and Calhoun again tries to separate them. He pushes Snowman back to the corner, but Snowman nails him with a right for the DQ. Lawler and Snowman go back at it again and they exchange more punches. Lawler takes him down and then starts going for the eyes before we return to the studio.

 

This was incredible. I had not read any of the comments so didn't know what to expect but was transfixed by this. i'm not someone who is into 'shoot style', but this looked like one of the most legitimate fights I've ever seen in a wrestling ring. From the way they held their fists, to the take downs, to indicating they were going for their opponent's eyes, to actually going for their eyes, to kicking their legs up when they were down to stop the opponent getting at them. These two were doing MMA before the term had ever been coined, and to think, this was in Memphis and Jerry Lawler! MUST SEE STUFF and what is even better, there is clearly plenty more from these two to come.

 

Lawler to me was never that realistic to me i did a list of best ie most realistic strikers[ people like willy Williams and alike] in another place

and plus in the shootstyle stakes in UWFi was the least fave out of bunch the lo like real Japan and RINGS more

 

that match was ok but never felt real to me cuase lawlor for me never had the best strikes ala people i said above Like Williams or kansai or Hotta

[Tim Evans]

For Rah:

 

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xbg9nj

 

Barry Windham, Dustin Rhodes and WCW Champ Ron Simmons vs Jake Roberts, Ric Rude and Cactus Jack from 10-31-1992 Power Hour

[dawho5]

For dawho5

 

Good start of a three-way-dance type match with Steen and Generico teaming up on Oulette to get him out of the way. Things get pretty spotty after that with a legitimately insane 360 springboard dropkick to the floor by Generico. They kind of go back to the story of going after Oulette here and there, but it turns into one of those "Oh my GOD" ECW three-way matches and while what they did was impressive, I didn't love the match as a whole. I felt like you could see Generico's strengths on show throughout with a lot of bumping, selling and bursts of offense. Steen hit some big stuff but I'm not convinced he was great at this point in his career. You can see he has a lot of good offense, but that's not enough. Oulette has the easiest job here and does well enough. He's just killing these guys with everything and no-selling a lot of their stuff. I thought the double back suplex spot should have been avoided due to how shitty it was always going to look.

 

Overall, fun match that tries to add a little psychology to the highspot 3-way-dance setup.

 

And as a complete turnaround from the style of that match, MattD gave me this.

 

 

I liked this a good bit more for the simplicity and strong story they told. Review is here.

 

http://prowrestlingonly.com/index.php?/topic/36144-nick-bockwinkel-vs-dick-slater-houston-41682/

[SirEdger]

For SirEdgar, if you want me to switch this I can choose a different match.

 

I'm trying to find the accurate words to what I just saw and I could only describe this as a somewhat tentative American version of a DDT match. Nonetheless, I'll always give credit to someone actually training and take bumps like Chris Gethard did like for Rhyno's Gore. Also will have to give credit to that Vacation Jason for pulling every dirty heel trick in the book, which was awesome to see. Intended for a good laugh and nothing else.

[Matt D]

Anyone that's been out back in for this week? Anyone need a week off? I'll spin the wheel/make the deal tomorrow.

[SirEdger]

Yeah, I'll jump back in this week.

[Jetlag]

I gave joeg this match which is still waiting for a review:

 

And I received this match, which put me in a bit of a sullen and melancholic state:

http://prowrestlingonly.com/index.php?/topic/34010-genichiro-tenryu-vs-kazuchika-okada-tenryu-project-1115/

[Rah]

For Tim Evans

 

Aerostar, Angélico, Jack Evans vs Machine Rocker, Pentagón Jr., Soul Rocker

AAA on Televisa: 2013-08-31 (taped 8/16)

[HeadCheese]

Alright, for you HeadCheese, let's go with Keiji Muto vs Shiro Koshinaka from NJPW Battle Final, 12/11/95

 

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x5if2xk

Everybody in the ring even the referee was wearing wrist tape and shoes that were white, very suspicious. The photographers added to the aesthetic of this match. I liked the touch that all Keiji Muto's leg work did not really work until he hit the dragon screw and than automatically Shiro Koshinaka tried to get a quick flash pin victory to escape the leg pain. I also really liked Muto's German Capture Ballsplex and the to the back missile drop kick. This was a good match.

[Matt D]

Week 14. I thought last week went pretty well across the board. Siredgar is back. I Get that it's Mania week so some people are traveling. As such, it's more important to give your partner a match and if you have to delay watching yours into next week that's ok. I'm under the weather and don't have the spreadsheet in front of me so hopefully at least some people get fresh partners.

 

HeadCheese

joeg

Nintendo Logic

Matt D

Jmare007

dawho5

laz

siredgar

Tim Evans

DR Ackerman

Richeyedwards

jetlag

oldbirds

shodate

WingedEagle

rah

Sr. Logic, here's a match from the recently unearthed NJPW Handhelds that I thought was pretty great, one of the real gems of that set.

[shodate]

@ oldbirds

[Jmare007]

I owe 2 reviews and I'll probably owe this week's too but I'll get to it soon enough.

 

Anyway, I've decided I'm going to pimp as much Strong Big Japan as possible through this project so to dawho5, this one is for you.

 

Yoshihito Sasaki & Kazuki Hashimoto vs. Shinobu & Yuji Okabayashi - Big Japan 7/25/2011

https://rutube.ru/video/dd6594dcb8ee887a68924bcdd9dc4abc/

[NintendoLogic]

For Matt D: Rick Rude in All Japan. You can't not watch.

 

Note that this link contains two matches. Your assignment is the first one.

 

[SirEdger]

For laz, let's go with El Samurai vs Shinjiro Otani for the IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Championship (9/13/97, but taped 8/10/97)

 

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x6g1s4r

[dawho5]

For jmare, a classic shootstyle vs. pro style bout between Tatsumi Fujinami and Akira Maeda.

 

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x4u0xnm

[Richeyedwards]

This week I received Matsunaga vs Goto from one of the early FMW shows from Jetlag http://prowrestlingonly.com/index.php?/topic/41513-tarzan-goto-vs-mitsuhiro-matsunaga-fmw-120489/

 

For Jetlag I have Given them Hotta vs kandori from March 1998

 

[HeadCheese]

My match for joeg is from Sea Food Pro Wrestling

[DR Ackermann]

My match for Tim Evans is the Monterrey chain match between La Fiera and Jerry Estrada from 1991, which you may or may not be familiar with but I know you dig lucha.

 

[dawho5]

I owe 2 reviews and I'll probably owe this week's too but I'll get to it soon enough.

 

Anyway, I've decided I'm going to pimp as much Strong Big Japan as possible through this project so to dawho5, this one is for you.

 

Yoshihito Sasaki & Kazuki Hashimoto vs. Shinobu & Yuji Okabayashi - Big Japan 7/25/2011

https://rutube.ru/video/dd6594dcb8ee887a68924bcdd9dc4abc/

 

All I got out of this (after googling the names I wasn't familiar with) was that Sasaki and Shinobu had some kind of issue going in. And that Okabayashi is really uninteresting as the unstoppable heavyweight. Other than that it was mostly guys taking turns hitting each other to supposedly keep the match moving. I hate doing negative reviews, but this one didn't seem like much beyond stiff strikes just for the sake of stiff strikes.

[AstroBoy]

Hey, Matt D, I want back in this coming week.

[shodate]

who ever get me next week take the sme match o gave oldbrids this week since hes not here

[Rah]

@WingedEagle

 

Team Hell No & Kofi Kingston vs. The Shield - Six-Man Tag Team Match: Raw, May 20, 2013

[oldbirds]

who ever get me next week take the sme match o gave oldbrids this week since hes not here

 

Had some trouble accessing the board during the week, and this weekend has been wrestling heavy but tomorrow I'll give the review and match. Sorry for the delay.