Secret Santo 2018-2019

[Matt D]

Following from here:

Welcome to Secret Santo for the 2018 Holiday Season. 

Rules are as follows:

1. You let me know that you are in.

2. I use a randomizer to create pairs.

3. You do a modicum of research into your partner using the board and suggest a match. It should be something easily available and not of an unreasonable length. You guys can talk it over via PMs if you want.

4. Your partner selects a match for you.

5. Both of you take the week to watch and review the matches here or in its respective match thread. Because of the time limit, the sooner you guys get each other your matches, the better.

6. I reshuffle the deck and we do it again the following week. We do it until it's no longer working, but definitely though Xmas.

From last time, what makes this work is threefold. First, take a couple of minutes and figure out who your partner is. Second, communicate: if you won't be able to watch your match during the week, just let everyone know. It's ok. Third, even if you can't watch your match, try to get your partner one as soon as possible. Easy stuff, right?

And for week 1, the random pairings:

1. joeg
Headcheese

2. Matt D
aaeo_

3. NintendoLogic
Microstatistics

4. cad
SirEdger
Jetlag

Doing it a bit differently this time. Since we have an odd number, there's a group of 3.  I think the best way to do this as follows. cad will pick a match for Edger. Edger will pick a match for Jetlag. Jetlag will pick a match for cad. 

So go check out some of your partner's posts and pick a match ASAP. aaeo, I'll try to have a match by tonight for you.

Thanks for participating,
Matt

[SirEdger]

Jetlag, since I see that you're big into Puro, I chose Taishi Takizawa vs Kengo Mashimo from the K-Dojo Grandest Slam in Korakuen Hall last October.

https://rutube.ru/video/b2fd0f5739a7f8b8424090965af12fa5/?fbclid=IwAR2_QsOLUGcCnM6upiBw2MO1DFpFlTrbTqTZDcu4BvSyUoVryfiusGyIs4s

cad, to help you out, I got a subscription to Powerbomb.tv and I watch anything I can get on YouTube, rutube or Dailymotion. Always open to broaden my horizons. :)

[cad]

Oooh, I suppose I should list that stuff for me... I'll watch whatever, no limits or preferences, but all I have to work with is basic internet sites. No subscriptions or anything.

[Jetlag]

cad:

 

 

[Microstatistics]

NintendoLogic: 

Azumi Hyuga vs. Kayoko Haruyama (JWP, 4/29/2008)

 

[Matt D]

For disclosure's sake,

I've given aaeo_ the IWE six-man from 72 with Andre the Giant & Franz Van Buyten & Ali Bey vs Isamu Teranishi & Rusher Kimura & Thunder Sugiyama

and he's given me

CWF Mid-Atlantic: Cain Justice from Dominic Garrini from 2/25/17.

[NintendoLogic]

Microstatistics:

 

[Matt D]

CWF Mid-Atlantic: Cain Justice from Dominic Garrini from 2/25/17.

Two years sounds about right for the last time I really jumped into CWF Mid-Atlantic. My Segunda Caida brethren watched this one and ranked it EPIC and have been high on Justice in general. I've seen nothing from either guy, though I'm pretty sure I heard Garrini on BTS. I don't know if I'd go quite as high on it as they did but, it was a very solid, I'd even say special, match between two talented guys who were still finding their way around the ring. There was so much talent, earnestness, and understanding of basic pro wrestling trappings here that the arguable flaws actually made the match work better. 

Garrini's ability to switch from one hold to the next was super smooth, just high-level limb manipulation. Justice not being quite as smooth played into a very clear story of the match, whether that was the intention or not. He was far more focused on containment, just keeping his head above water. There were times where Garrini would leave himself vulnerable in scoring a hold and Justice would capitalize with a different hold but it was never quite as flawless and he could never hold it for long. That's why he went to the stomp first and that's why he went to the arm-posting first. Honestly, I'm not sure Garrini would have ever gotten there on his own and maybe Justice would have gotten there even if he had been scoring better on points. It's partially why I would have totally bought Justice going to the ropes for leverage towards the end as a finish and why it made a dramatic half-second of a moment, really setting up the finish with the Triangle that Garrini couldn't hold. The last couple of minutes definitely worked. 

There were times where Garrini almost looked a little lost and times where Justice didn't quite burst into a move, but it felt accurate to who these guys were and where they were in their career and the match never lost focus because of it. I liked Garrini's visible frustration in something not going his way. Non-impacted selling is a big part of what draws a crowd in. If the wrestlers care, the crowd cares, and Garrini was able to portray that very well. On a process level, I'm curious how many of the counters they worked out ahead of time and how much of it was just shooting with conscious openings. The overall effect was good regardless and played into the story that they were telling, but I am curious how such a thing works in 2018 indies, even with guys with shoot or quasi-shoot backgrounds.

Anyway, this was fun and I'm sort of curious to see where these two have progressed to now almost two years later.

[cad]

Edger, I don't have a lot in my arsenal to recommend other than stuff from Mexico, so the least I can do is keep it short (my number one choice was a 41:07 Youtube video because I remember you posting something about the CMLL Welter title, but I don't want to do that to someone on my first time doing this).

Americo Rocca vs Kid Guzman, April 27 1999

[aaeo_]

I liked the match! posted my review on the match thread.

[SirEdger]

18 hours ago, cad said:

Edger, I don't have a lot in my arsenal to recommend other than stuff from Mexico, so the least I can do is keep it short (my number one choice was a 41:07 Youtube video because I remember you posting something about the CMLL Welter title, but I don't want to do that to someone on my first time doing this).

Americo Rocca vs Kid Guzman, April 27 1999

That will do. I'll watch it later today and I'll have my review written probably during the weekend. :)

[SirEdger]

So, finally got a chance to watch the match cad offered me; Americo Rocca vs Kid Guzman, either from CMLL or EMLL, I'm not sure, other than it's at Arena Coliseo.

First, really got a kick out of the entrance area, a total throwback to cheesey 1991 WCW. My Spanish is a tad (very) rusty but I figured out this was a Lucha de Apuesta. Rocca doesn't even waste any time and attacks Guzman before the bell. Typical lucha sequence once both men get in the ring and Guzman with a nice corkscrew plancha on Rocca outside. Guzman scores the win with a heel hook rather quickly to take the first fall. I noticed that they took way more time than the usual  2 out of 3 falls match I've seen from Mexico but I thought it was a very nice touch, with Rocco's second working on his calf and heel after the first fall. The 2nd fall definitely was the most painful of the 3 to watch for me. I didn't particularly find Rocca's style very enticing, maybe not as much as it feels out of place and sticks out like a sore thumb, working more of an American old school heel over Guzman. However, he seems to legit punch him on the nose in the corner (I had to watch the replay after the 2nd fall because I missed it in the original sequence) and Rocca scores the 2nd fall with some sort of hammerlock lifting chokehold on something. Doctors and Guzman's second working on his bloody nose before the 3rd fall and Rocca uses that in his favor as the 3rd fall begins. Again, not particularly impressed by Rocca but once Guzman begins his comeback, the pace picks up and it makes for a more interesting match. Guzman takes two nasty falls in that one - first, on that tope on the outside as he really landed like a dart on Rocca on the floor - and then the 2nd, when he dodges that back body drop and completely miscalculates his landing on the ring apron and slips on the floor. Kudos to Rocca though for working this into the finish with a Tequila Sunrise to score the victory. And to add insult to injury, Guzman ends up bald.

For what it was worth, I thought it was an OK match. Not bad by any means but not anything that blew me away. Guzman showed some fun flashes during the match but with Rocca getting most of the offense as the rudo and Rocca not really working the traditional lucha libre style that I'm used to see, I thought this took a bit away from the match.

[Matt D]

New Rule:

If you fail to give your partner a match two weeks in a row, you're out for the next week. Remember, giving a partner a match ASAP is way more important than managing to get your review during the week.

FYI, NotJayTabb and boss rock both wanted in so they ended up partnered this week. 

Anyone else want on/off for the reshuffle tomorrow?

[Jetlag]

I'm still in.

 

I watched Mashimo/Takizawa. It was a brutally boring, long, slow by the numbers japanese big match in the year of 2018. I liked Mashimos kicks and that modified Calf Branding he did. That's all I have to say.

[Matt D]

I'm away for extended family in-law holiday drudgery this weekend but I do have the next pairings.

Matt D

joe g

 

aaeo_

SirEdger

 

NintendoLogic

cad

 

Headcheese

boss rock

 

Microstatistics> Jetlag > NotJayTabb (Microstatistics provides Jetlag. Jetlag provides NotJay. NotJay provides MS).  

 

Joe, I'll have something for you by tomorrow night. Sorry for the slight delay. 

[SirEdger]

Alright, aaeo, for you, I picked something that hopefully will be a better hit for you that my choice for Jetlag was last week. Let's go with KUSHIDA vs Will Ospreay from Wrestling Dontaku this year:

https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x6ivrg4

If you already have seen it recently, let me know, I got something in backup in case :)

 

[aaeo_]

Yeah, I have seen that. Have you seen any of the Super Tiger/Fujiwara matches?

[SirEdger]

No, I haven't.

In this case, I'll switch to this one; Road Warriors vs Fabulous Ones from a Winnipeg show in 1984:

 

[NotJayTabb]

I checked out Microstatistics's Greatest Match Ever list, and saw Bret/Owen was top 5 and Bret/Bulldog was in there too. There's a decent chance you'll already have seen this, but it's a good bedfellow to those two matches.

 

[cad]

Yamazaki/Kazama vs Kansai/Saito had a bunch of neat technical ideas that grabbed me more than anything else in the match. Yamazaki at one point couldn't get her opponent up for a double underhook suplex, so instead she dropped down and turned it into a hold I'd never seen before. Saito got out of a toehold by going for an enzuigiri from her back. Kazama avoided being placed on the top rope by kicking off into a headlock takeover. The plot of the match didn't really have a hook for me. The longhaired team seemed to have better teamwork, and when they won with a doubleteam I was proud of myself for seeing that, but I have no idea if that's actually what they were going for. They dominated most of what was shown and there wasn't a whole lot to worry about from their point of view. Maybe that was in the part that got clipped. So there was some quality wrestling here but it didn't feel like something that strove to be looked back on by the end of the year, let alone almost thirty years later.

For NintendoLogic: Hijo del Santo/La Parka/Octagon vs Santo Negro/Psicosis/Eddy Guerrero, February 19 1995

[aaeo_]

23 minutes ago, SirEdger said:

No, I haven't.

 In this case, I'll switch to this one; Road Warriors vs Fabulous Ones from a Winnipeg show in 1984

thanks! I'm picking the December 84 edition of Tiger/Fujiwara, which is my favorite one and I think the consensus highlight of that series. 

https://www.dailymotion.com/video/xzny2l

[Jetlag]

NotJayTabb:

 

[Microstatistics]

18 hours ago, NotJayTabb said:

I checked out Microstatistics's Greatest Match Ever list, and saw Bret/Owen was top 5 and Bret/Bulldog was in there too. There's a decent chance you'll already have seen this, but it's a good bedfellow to those two matches.

 

Yes, I've already seen this. Great match (**** or so). But I guess if you could provide an alternative (not sure what the rules are actually about previously watched matches, maybe I can just review this one)

[Boss Rock]

For HeadCheese, I pick Kaientai DX vs. Gran Hamada, Super Delfin, Great Sasuke, and Gran Naniwa from Michinoku Pro (12/16/1996). One of the greatest spotfests ever.

 

 

[Microstatistics]

It might take me some time to get the review out for the match NL assigned me but in the mean time:

Jetlag: Shawn Michaels vs. Chris Jericho (WWE GAB, 7/20/2008)