July 1996
49 topics in this forum
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- 5 replies
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Sousserov is spin kicks and suplexes, which he quickly re-establishes within the first minute of this match. He comes off as this big Russian brute, strong right out of the gate, but as the match progresses, his offense usually falls apart with weak takedowns and plenty of whiffed spin kicks. It didn't necessarily happen here - although he whiffed earlier rather than later - and he gor some cool late game takedowns, including a dope German-style uranage. This definitely had more of the pro-wres feel to it, with Naruse playing the scrappy doo, hanging onto Sergei's neck with chokes as Sousserov continually tries to spin him off to no avail. At one point, Naruse hits a SHOO…
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Savage comes in limping, having done a clean submission job to Ric Flair the previous night in the same arena. Unfortunately for such a weird novelty of a match-up, this is every 1996 Savage match you've ever seen--Randy gets the crap kicked out of him, hits three offensive moves the whole match, and wins with the elbow. To his credit, Savage takes the Liger Bomb, fisherman buster, and Shotei like a pro. But the match is fairly empty, with Liger logically targeting Savage's bad wheel but completely going away from it in the second half of the match. Not a waste of time because of the "yeah, this actually happened" factor but not really much of a match.
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- 3 replies
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- 1 follower
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Flair's challenging for the IWGP title for what may be the only time--the second of two "this actually happened" matches on the same July 17 card. And like the first match, there isn't much to this besides the novelty of seeing these two together. Flair busts out every cheap-heel move he can in this setting, and Hash does do a great over-the-top sell of an eye poke (as does the announcer: "THUMB! THUMB! HASHIMOTO BULAINDO!"). Lots of Hash doing the Sting no-sell of Flair chops, too. Both guys try hard but the ending is too sudden and Flair is simply too past it to consistently make it in a Japan setting now.
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- 10 replies
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- 8 replies
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- 9 replies
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That great feel when you discover a new classic from one of your favorite wrestlers. Kawada is the god of detail work and I challenge anyone who disagrees to watch this match. It's simply laid out perfectly to play to each of their strengths and weaknesses. Kawada might have won their match a year prior, but he's still done his studying for this one as he shows with the shoot-style stand-up opening of this match. I love how he sells his leg when Albright checks his leg kick attempts. Probably unintentional, but it kind of has the feel of a 1920's match with how they keep returning to the Greco-Roman lock-up. The opening is a textbook study of how to build up tension in a …
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Former top juniors do battle while being much older and all grizzled up. Sounds depressing? Maybe, but this was just a ridiculously fun MUGA style match with tremendous psychology that got Korakuen Hall into a frenzy. Fun stiff opening before Fujinami lands a big backdrop that Kimura sells huge. Kimura is still junior-sized and never a megastar like Fujinami, so he is the considerable underdog. They do some cool matwork, both guys still moving fast, Kimura desperately avoiding the Figure 4 etc. But the money here is the storytelling as Fujinami keeps getting the advantage on the mat and locking in nasty arm triangles and chokeholds, leading to Kimura desperately going…
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- 846 views
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- 17 replies
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- 7 replies
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