Secret Santo 2018-2019

[C.S.]

@Matt D Here's one that was awesome and raved about at the time. Will be interesting to see how it holds up almost 30 years later.

From January 6th, 1992 (not sure if that was the match date or air date): The Lightning Kid defends the GWF Light Heavyweight Championship in a 2 out of 3 falls match against Jerry Lynn.

http://network.wwe.com/video/v1222055983/?contentId=&contextType=wwe-show&contextId=wwe_hidden_gems

[Jmare007]

I just want Matt to watch some Strong Big Japan, I honestly feel he'd like their "modern" take on making shit matter, not every match is human chess game, but in most encounters you get little stuff that I feel he'd love. 

[Matt D]

1 hour ago, Jmare007 said:

I just want Matt to watch some Strong Big Japan, I honestly feel he'd like their "modern" take on making shit matter, not every match is human chess game, but in most encounters you get little stuff that I feel he'd love. 

I am willing to take sidebets with you deeper into the summer if you have some stuff you want me to see and will review a few matches in return.

@C.S. I haven't seen that match in twenty years. Happy to revisit it with adult eyes. 

[Jmare007]

42 minutes ago, Matt D said:

I am willing to take sidebets with you deeper into the summer if you have some stuff you want me to see and will review a few matches in return.

 

Done.

[joeg]

Can I hop in on this? 

[Matt D]

2 hours ago, joeg said:

Can I hop in on this? 

So @NotJayTabb never gave Edger a match. If you want to take his match and suggest something quickly, go for it. But it'll have to be quick. Otherwise, just wait for Monday-Tuesday when I reshuffle.

I think moving forward (mainly at Xmas time if we do it again), anyone who doesn't get a match for their partner in 2-3 days of the pairings will be out the next week. Life happens, but it's not that hard.

Here are my comments on the Lightning Kid vs Jerry Lynn match:

Global is this sweet spot of my youth was actually a really big deal to me for a kid. I'd watch it after school and distinctly remember being frustrated when it was preempted due to the expansion draft for the Rockies and the Marlins. I was scrawny and the idea of light heavyweights really appealed. I felt like I could be the Lightning Kid, so even though he was a heel and I was 10 or so, I think I secretly supported him. I don't remember the match specifically from my childhood though. 

The network isn't cooperating with its upgrade, so I'm watching the version on youtube. It's a little clipped but I assume this is the same version as the network. I'd be interested if the network version isn't clipped. Immediately, it was great to hear Craig Johnson who I think had one of the best wrestling voices ever.

The early back and forth was certainly cutting edge for its time and it mostly hit. Lynn had this tendency at this age to hit everything but to be just a little off. Because no one else was doing this stuff in the states, it didn't really matter though. No one had a real idea what 'right' was supposed to look like. That was true with Lynn's diving forearm in the second fall.

Kid, on the other hand, was a lot further along in his character work, even if some of his offense was a bit beyond his strength and size. The chain wrestling, leading to to the outright heel kick, was fun, and because it wasn't something people saw every day and was so blatant, it worked. The end of he first fall did as well, as it was all about the kid playing to the crowd. In retrospect, I know why they brought him in to WWF as a babyface, but it was such a waste. 

I love the idea that a tombstone is a lightning strike that can come out of nowhere. Things seemed to fall apart a little in the third fall, with them just laying in a front facelock for a minute for no reason, for instance. It really felt out of place in the match. There were moments which just lacked that level of polish as they tried to get each other into the right place.

I would have liked more attempts for the finishes in the match itself. They had a logical tool and they didn't use it nearly enough. They did really play with the fans' perceptions in the end, making it look like they were protecting Lynn with two visual falls and the interference, only to invert it at the end, so I thought that was clever even if the execution didn't quite work.

This held up well, I thought. It was ambitious, more ambitious than it could actually achieve and it could have been tightened up a dozen ways, but on this stage, with these players, at this time, there was a lot more to gain by trying to be ambitious than to just coast. They tried to make this feel like a big deal and they succeeded more than anyone else in wrestling would have thought they'd be able to.

[joeg]

@SirEdger

 

 

[SirEdger]

Thanks! I'll give it a watch early this week and post my review shortly afterwards!

[C.S.]

@Matt D gave me Hollywood Blondes vs Marcus Bagwell & 2 Cold Scorpio from the 5/8/93 WCW Worldwide.

This was one hell of a tag team match!

There was a beautiful sequence early on with Flyin' Brian hiding a foreign object in his kneepad while he told the referee to check Bagwell's boot. Awesome heeling.

The Hollywood Blondes were absolute masters when it came to heel tag team techniques. They somehow managed to make an extended abdominal stretch sequence incredibly entertaining. It's sad that stuff like that is basically a lost art now.

Seeing Austin do a modified Stone Cold Stunner as a transition spot was a bit jarring in retrospect.

At the time, I never had much use for Bagwell and Scorpio as a tag team. It seemed like a waste of Scorpio to me, who I thought was the greatest thing ever back then, because he was doing top rope moves only seen in Japan in the early '90s. But I have to say, Bagwell is much better than I remember him being. Not all of that can be attributed to a carry-job by Austin and Pillman either, because Bagwell was selling very nicely and did a great job during the face in peril portion of the match. I always thought he was miscast as a face - who ever really wanted to cheer this Chippendale wannabe? - but he made a damn good case for himself in this match. 

This must have been the beginning of the end of The Hollywood Blondes, because dissension was teased throughout. What a waste! While it was obvious that Austin had major singles star written all over him, they could've gotten a lot more mileage out of the Blondes. That was just one of the myriad of bad decisions that plagued WCW back then. 

I loved the time limit draw finish. That's something you don't see much anymore. Everything here felt so meaningful, which is another art that's been lost in the era of "movez" and no psychology. This told a damn good story in a very entertaining fashion. 

Thanks for giving this to me, Matt. I had an absolute blast watching it!

(BTW, is it just me or did Roku used to have a Dailymotion app? If there ever was one, it's not there anymore - at least not that I can find. I ended up just watching the match on my monitor.)

[Matt D]

Glad you liked it. 

So far it's just been C.S. and myself who have put up reviews. I won't post new pairings until we see at least a few more.

[NotJayTabb]

Ah sorry guys, I've been away the past week, didn't spot that we were restarting last week. If I can be included on the next shuffle, I promise I'll be more on the ball

[C.S.]

9 hours ago, Matt D said:

Glad you liked it. 

So far it's just been C.S. and myself who have put up reviews. I won't post new pairings until we see at least a few more.

And here I was feeling bad that I took so long to watch the match and post my review.

Honestly, this exact thing is what soured me on the whole process the last time - giving people awesome matches, only to be ignored.

I realize time is limited and shit happens, but this takes maybe 30 minutes a week - roughly 20 to watch a match and roughly another 10 to write about it. Plus, this is entirely voluntary - and everyone here did, ya know, volunteer.  

P.S. This wasn't directed toward @NotJayTabb, who at least gave enough of a shit to post an explanation. 

Sorry if I sound so grumpy and curmudgeonly, but this really is a cool idea and some of the most fun I've had on PWO, and I'd hate to see it fall by the wayside again because of issues like this.

[SirEdger]

Review of my match will be posted on Thursday, promised.

[Matt D]

15 hours ago, C.S. said:

And here I was feeling bad that I took so long to watch the match and post my review.

Honestly, this exact thing is what soured me on the whole process the last time - giving people awesome matches, only to be ignored.

I realize time is limited and shit happens, but this takes maybe 30 minutes a week - roughly 20 to watch a match and roughly another 10 to write about it. Plus, this is entirely voluntary - and everyone here did, ya know, volunteer.  

P.S. This wasn't directed toward @NotJayTabb, who at least gave enough of a shit to post an explanation. 

Sorry if I sound so grumpy and curmudgeonly, but this really is a cool idea and some of the most fun I've had on PWO, and I'd hate to see it fall by the wayside again because of issues like this.

I do think a more low effort/risk way of doing this might be as a "match of the week" where one person selects a match and everyone watches/discusses. 

I like the current format because it hypothetically lets us get to know each other a bit more, but that might be less frustrating.

[NintendoLogic]

My wheelhouse is matches I can either praise to the heavens or rip to shreds, so I tend to come down with writer's block when a match doesn't strongly move me either positively or negatively. But I'll try to be more proactive now that Matt's started to crack the whip.

Jetlag's selection was a match between Epydemius and Charles Lucero in what was apparently in commemoration of the former's fifteenth year in the business. It should be noted off the bat that the match was pretty heavily clipped, which made it hard to get a feel for how well it ebbed and flowed. The first fall is contested mainly on the mat. Llave-style matwork is mostly whatever for me, but I did like Lucero throwing a knee to aid with a reversal. Lucero wins the fall with an STF, which surprised me somewhat as that isn't a traditional lucha submission. The second fall is rather brief and ends when Lucero is disqualified after hitting a martinete, which Epy sells like his neck has been broken. Several ringside attendants try to carry him to the back in a quasi-stretcher job. But since there's no actual stretcher, it looks like that time in CZW when Low Ki got dragged to the back by security after throwing a tantrum in the ring. In any event, Epy rushes back to the ring and demands that the match continue. Unfortunately, the third fall is really hurt by all the clipping, which makes it come across as a series of mostly unconnected spots and sequences. Epy gets the win with the nudo lagunero. This match would've grabbed me more if Lucero had taken some nutty bumps like in the Hechicero match, but I can't blame the guy for not wanting to kill himself for what was almost certainly a dismal payoff in a garage with a leaky roof.

[Jetlag]

Watched and reviewed the match I was given. Was pretty fun. When's the next round?

[Matt D]

So by my reasoning, we had C.S., Jetlag, Nintendo Logic, and myself post reviews. Let's just mix those four and as we get more people coming in with reviews they can be paired off.

Jetlag
C.S.

Nintendo Logic
Matt D

@NintendoLogic
Here's one in the Segunda Caida queue that I'm not sure we're ever going to get to at this point, but it's a ripper of a young boys match.

 

[NintendoLogic]

@Matt D

Here's something I think would be more attuned to your tastes than most modern New Japan.

 

[Matt D]

Fergal is such a natural name for a heel, especially this one. No light up jacket though. Ok! I'll watch and get a review up ASAP. Honestly, when I started this project the first time, I figured people would be slamming me with modern New Japan matches. This is probably one of the first I've gotten. Thanks.

[Matt D]

@NintendoLogic

I really liked this actually. This is probably my favorite Fergal match ever and I've certainly seen a decent amount of his NXT/WWE work. I've never seen him so present in a match. He's a much more natural heel, whereas he's a smooth and occasionally explosive babyface and one that the crowd can at times get behind (more because of who they are and what they want than who he is and what he delivers I think; he fits the mold of the times). There's just so much more personality here, so much more reactiveness. His natural dorkiness plays right into the bullet club motif and the little gestures he makes (whether it be the gun or doing the "I see you" to the ref). 

I really liked how most of this breathed too. They were going twenty minutes and there'd be a lot of bs and nearfalls at the end. They made sure to work in the Anderson spots smartly and it all fit into an overall narrative about Gedo's swagger. I imagine this had run for a while by this point, and it was enjoyable to see a lot of the interference attempts backfire while still not deflating the idea of a threat. 

Fergal's selling was excellent even in the back third of the match. Gedo had to work to take out a leg. It was a good strategy early on but not one that he could really engage with. Transitions were generally good. I liked the back focus and really liked the whip reversal cut off; it just seemed that Gedo was less hurt after that than the first time he went into the buckle. 

I bought into the finishing stretch. The double stomp not working was a great moment, and I did buy the next one or two move from Fergal despite the fact that his leg should have been shot. He portrayed adrenaline bursting through it quite believably because he was just so into the moment. When he had the chair towards the end, you got the sense that it was empowering, that it almost made him feel super human. That's, in part, why he made a mistake with it. 

I thought everything after the frog splash was a little much, especially the chair roll-ups. It was a near comedy bit way too late in the game, and I get part of what was over here was the Bullet Club  and you need a bit of that right at the end, AND they played with it metatextually but I thought it subtracted more than it added. In general, though, this had really good set pieces, was very aware of what it was supposed to be, and hit the right marks. You have Gedo sell the back a bit more, cut a minute off the end, and maybe have Fergal struggle just a bit more after his flurry after the double stomp, and you'd REALLY have something.

[NintendoLogic]

@Matt D

This was a fun Young Lion scrap. For the most part, they kept things basic and chippy with a liberal dose of trash talk and cheap shots. Wrestlers working like they genuinely dislike each other goes a long way in enhancing my enjoyment of a match. Takaiwa yanking Nagata down by his hair and then stepping on his head was Finlay-esque, and I will never not enjoy the illegal man getting knocked off the apron. The main issue for me was the lack of a strong storyline hook. In a lot of junior and joshi tag matches, someone will get worked over, they'll make the hot tag, their partner will clean house, and then the match will essentially reset. The work in this match wasn't quite that egregious, but there was never a sense that a team was placed at a sustained disadvantage by a member getting beaten down, which is an essential element to generating drama in a tag match. Ohtani and Nagata did what they could by focusing on Takaiwa's leg, but he never showed the slightest inclination in selling any accumulated damage. In particular, Nagata kicking Takaiwa's leg out of his leg during a bridging pin attempt seemed to be an attempt to get him to start selling, but he never took the bait. In fact, the finish was almost lucha-esque with Takaiwa submitting immediately to a hold (Boston crab) that had no real connection to anything that had preceded it. But I can't be too hard on them since they weren't setting out to have a classic tag match. It was all about showing fighting spirit and demonstrating mastery of the basics (other than leg selling, I guess). At that, they succeeded.

[Jetlag]

@C.S.

 

[C.S.]

Thanks, @Jetlag. I completely missed that we started another round. I'll get your match to you this week. 

Update: Actually have a match in mind, but not sure I'm going to assign that one. It's either split into two parts on DM with crappy quality or in French on YouTube. It's inexplicably not on the Network.

[Matt D]

I always assume Jetlag can speak 7 languages myself.

[C.S.]

Oh what the hell... Here's the match I had in mind, @Jetlag:

Bret Hart vs. Bob Backlund - WWF Superstars (7/30/94)

How well does this match hold up today? I honestly don't know. But back then, this was so different from anything else the WWF was putting out at the time that I ate it up and loved it. I thought it was an incredible scientific exhibition, which - again - was really rare for the WWF in that era. And that ending...wow. I won't spoil it if you somehow haven't seen it and/or don't know the history of their feud.

Their horrid WrestleMania match a year later makes people think this wasn't an awesome pairing (I still don't understand WTF happened there), but they lit up the ring on Superstars and had a very entertaining match at the Survivor Series a few months after this. 

DailyMotion (split into two parts, crappy quality, but in English)

 

 

YouTube (better quality but in French)