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Secret Santo 2018-2019


Matt D

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Was Lethal doing an impression of somebody for his match with Carlitos? He came down to the ring looking like every guy from the early to mid 2000s who tried to be charismatic. Carlitos was just a guy who had a picture of himself on his pants. Those Flair chop spots in the corner looked awful, with Lethal simply moving over so that Carlitos could start hitting him. Then they did that neverending suplex reversal spot and I was like, "oh, they're going for comedy, I shouldn't be so hard on them," but everything after that just felt like a generic indy match. I liked that clothesline Carlitos did where he landed on the apron, and the ref rolling over to emphasize the closeness of a two count was neat. Lethal bumped well for that crossbody.

Headcheese can have the same match I gave him a month ago.

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Carlitos was the promoter for that promotion so that's why he was in the match. Also wrestled Caristico and Roderick Strong in the past.

I watched Tenyru/Kitahara vs Kimura/Koshinaka. What a match that was. I've seen some of the WAR vs NJPW feud but this was nuts. You had seconds fighting each other, blood, a rabid crowd and just pure hate from the wrestlers. Loved heel Koshinaka ass based offense and Kimura destroying Kitahara. Then you had big boss Tenyru chopping and punching fools. Loved the moment where Tenyru is bleeding in the corner just diving Kimura a death stare.The post match was great with Masa Saito coming in to challenge Tenyru. Fun stuff and I need to see more of this feud.

My match for SirEdger:

 

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I finally got to watch the Sabre/Strong match I was given. Pretty fun match, altough it's jarring how Sabre does the same couple spots and holds in this match as 3 years later. He's like Flair in there making all kinds of different opponents put the same holds on him. Strong is someone I like and nothing more as too often he is basically playing mini Dean Malenko. His vicious stomps are great, but there's not enough of them, plus he doesn't show any charisma.

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Of the two matches @HeadCheese gave me, I decided to go for the Verne Gagne/Red Bastein match, felt like it was more outside of my comfort zone, something I probably wouldn't seek out normally. I thought it would be a fun curio, but I actually ended up really enjoying it. All the matwork felt purposeful and all the counters felt earned. I loved the opening headscissors spot, with Bastein repeatedly struggling to escape and getting caught with another headscissors upon escaping, until he wises up and avoids a 4th to send Gagne tumbling to the floor. Gagne has a size advantage, so even a hiptoss looks like a big shot on the skinnier Bastein, and I thought the commentary really helped tell the story of the match. By pointing out Gagne's size advantage and the problems Bastein was up against, it meant Red looked good even in defeat. Neat stuff.

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On 1/8/2019 at 11:52 AM, NintendoLogic said:

No, I haven't seen that. For you, here's something pretty far removed from a typical lucha title match.

Rocky being billed in CMLL as Ricky Romero is a story in itself. From Luchawiki:

 

I had come across this one a few years ago but I was eager to see it again. Romero being in there with Virus does give it a few unique wrinkles. There isn't a ton of 00-07 or so Virus readily available online and it's a shame because as good as he's been in the last decade, he was younger and faster then without really losing much of the finesse he's aged into. There are some reversals in the first caida (like catching a leg in mid air on a leapfrog and driving Romero down) which are just too good. Romero hung with him, starting out simple with the matwork but getting more intricate towards the finish, with enough personality to keep the fans engaged and get them behind Virus. He, maybe, escalated things a bit too fast too soon with the hangman's neckbreaker, for instance, but he won the fall, so I'm generally ok with it. 

The segunda was short and sweet, with Romero bringing the meanness and intensity and Virus almost instantly reversing things. That continues into the tercera. I'm not sure if the anti-cuban sentiment or what, but you have to love how thoroughly they lean into the heat for a title match, even while keeping that veneer of skill and technique. Romero supplies intensity and keeps the crowd angry at him, but it's impressive Virus can marry the two elements so flawlessly. How often do we complain that a grudge match starts with a lock-up? Here, though, he was able to make those convoluted holds feel like they were full of fury. 

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Ok. New week. I think we'll keep riding until the end of January and then take stock. We probably have a little more overlap than before just through attrition.

NotJayTabb > cad > joe g (joe gives NJT a match)

Grimmas
Matt D

Jetlag
NintendoLogic

Headcheese
Tim Evans

Steven, have you seen this one?

 

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26 minutes ago, Grimmas said:

I don't recall seeing that, so I'm in.

Matt D, I doubt you have seen this, but BLANK is one of my favourite characters in wrestling today and here is a great showcase with Ford looking great as well.

 

I've never actually seen Ford either, so I'm up for that. 

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On 1/15/2019 at 9:31 AM, Matt D said:

Steven, have you seen this one?

 

So this fucking ruled. The more I see of Martin the more I believe she is a time traveler. Power bomb, crowd brawling, and two table spots in 1985? Come on!

Although Martin controlled most of this and was so fucking awesome just annihilating Petersen, Petersen did show amazing selling and garner great sympathy. 

I gave it a 7.0.

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On 1/2/2019 at 5:49 PM, Jetlag said:

 

@SirEdger

Shinya Hashimoto & Naoya Ogawa vs. Tom Howard & The Predator (ZERO1 5/3/2002)

https://vk.com/video496410132_456239118?t=34m57s

Review for Ishikawa/Steamboat will come tomorow, hopefully... and the other match too

Finally was able to watch the match that Jetlag gave me at the beginning of the year. I had only heard of Tom Howard by name so I was intrigued to see what he was like in the ring. Underwhelmed would be the right word for me to use. I was so unnerved by Howard going to the WALTER pose every 5 seconds that it literally tuned me out of the match every time he was in the ring. I was more impressed by The Predator, as he showed me some agility for a guys his size, trying to match strikes with Naoya Ogawa. My overall sentiment for this was that Hashimoto & Ogawa were much more superior to me than Howard/Predator, although as I said, Predator did look good in his exchanges in the ring. The ending of the match looked like a complete clusterfuck, so was the post-match brawl (was still nice to see young Samoa Joe, young Kazarian along with CW Anderson & Nova) right up until Hashimoto & Ogawa recovered and cleaned house afterwards. Overall, I felt disappointed by the match in general as Howard & Predator didn't do all I thought was necessary for me to be emotionnally invested in the match but I'll definitely give some old ZER01 another try eventually.

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On 1/15/2019 at 10:13 AM, Grimmas said:

I don't recall seeing that, so I'm in.

Matt D, I doubt you have seen this, but BLANK is one of my favourite characters in wrestling today and here is a great showcase with Ford looking great as well.

 

So I'm glad I watched this. It was good to see Ford in general. I liked seeing Blank too. It was good to see modern CHIKARA, probably good for me to see an intergender match since I haven't seen any in years and they're fairly common now.

In general, I liked the presentation here. CHIKARA plays fast and loose with reality. I buy Black Widow being able to survive with the Hulk chasing her for three minutes in a crumbling Helicarrier. I buy Chun-Li fighting Balrog.  I bought this too.  Ford's sort of a tale of two worlds with her offense. The strikes are pretty good actually, especially the kicks. The acrobatic stuff, however, was hit or miss. That has less to do with her gender and more to do with the fact I've seen people hit it far better. If you're going to do a flip before your move, even in a heightened reality like CHIKARA, you need to make it seem like it's adding impact to the move, or at least that it's impact neutral. Stuff like the back-handstand before the shoulderblock in the corner felt like molasses. It's true with anyone, male or female. If you're going to do overly complicated stuff, you have to execute it well. Otherwise, don't do it. She did a lot well (selling, bumping, the strikes, just general presence) so it's a bit of a shame that what stood out the most was that.

Blank was pretty delightful. The gimmick with the zipper over the mouth is clever. The idea of violent masterpieces feels original in a medium where nothing feels original anymore (and the loser must wear a mask gimmick sounds like it was pure CHIKARA). He had this was of oscillating between watching what was unfolding around him and explosively hit a move that was purely in character.

Anyway, this was enjoyable for what it was. I'm not sure it could have worked anywhere BUT CHIKARA but that's a testament to the promotion so much as it's a red flag for the match.

-----

In general, I can reroll fairly soon. I think we're all a little bumpy on things here. We've had, what, 1-2 reviews this week? Do people want to keep going or maybe call it a day for 2018-9 and maybe revisit things for Santo in July or something? I'm ok either way. Just let me know.

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