Zenjo
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Everything posted by Zenjo
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We have heels and faces. Really appreciative crowd in the gymnasium today. They were pumped to see superstar Liger, who was clearly enjoying himself. Breakneck action all the way with plenty of fun moments. They actually tried to pack too much in. A few sloppy moves and it felt rushed. They could've definitely done with a few more minutes to play with.
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Kobashi's 7 year World Title journey comes to it's nearly inevitable conclusion. The fans were certainly behind him and glad to see his wings take dream. In the early stages it didn't quite feel like a Triple Crown match. Taue was a great wrestler but he wasn't a natural champion figure. However the crowd were so hot by the end that it had an atmosphere worthy of the occasion. It was an impressive quality bout without being higher level AJ singles. There were a few instances of dodgy Kobashi selling. The structure was comparatively straightforward and it peaked down the stretch. I would've preferred Kenta's first TC win to be over Misawa or Kawada. That would've been a big breakthrough win. It felt like he was taking advantage of a transitional champion here. I'm slightly apprehensive about JDW swooping in with some results to counter this idea.
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The All Japan boys deliver once more. It was oozing quality from every pore. All four men brought their A game, with Tosh vs Aki being the most fun matchup. There wasn't a moments rest during the 26m. The action flowed organically and didn't feel at all compartmentalised. Misawa gained some measure of revenge for losing the TC to Taue. The crowd were certainly appreciative, yet I think this would've been even better at Da Budokan. It didn't quite catch fire enough to reach MOTYC levels, but wasn't that far away.
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The referee also has a vital role to play in near falls. They need to have a convincing 2.9 count. For over 17 years in the WWE you'd hardly see a near fall in main events because Earl Hebner was so terrible at his job. At 2.1 you knew it was a kickout. He's still going at TNA, but it's such a useless promotion it hardly matters anymore. I know I often go on about Hebner, but the subtle damage he caused ended up being vast without people realising it. A bad wrestler can only mess up their own match. A bad referee hurts multiple bouts a show, often for years on end as there's little personnel turnover.
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Puro is certainly more widely viewed than Lucha by the IWC. I think that it's a lot easier to transition from US wrestling to Puro compared to Lucha. More people seem to have a problem with not understanding the commentary rather than not understanding the various styles in Japan. When I first started watching over a decade ago I loved it immediately. With Lucha there are more differences with the match structure and rules. The moves, movement, bumping and selling can look quite alien until you get used to it. It's unique and heavily stylised. This all makes it less accessible. It wouldn't be true to say I disliked Lucha at first, but I wasn't a converted fan. I watched a number of the classics and quite enjoyed some of them. I didn't enjoy the style enough to seek out more Mexican wrestling. Years later when I began viewing the Yearbooks I saw Lucha as the bonus stuff, with US and Japanese footage being the main attraction. Since then I've gained a deeper appreciation of the style and become a much bigger fan. Unlike Puro it didn't come easily to me and required quite a bit of viewing. It's hugely rewarding once you figure out (most of the time) what's going on.
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Theoretically I'd take pre 96 in a heartbeat. It's not just down to what I'd perceive as better quality wrestling. The crowds were so much better pre it's like night and day comparing them. Smark fans are good for the forums, but not as an audience. It's such a screwed up relationship with the audience laying down the law and telling the performers how they've got to wrestle to satisfy them. It should be people going to a show simply to be entertained by the wrestlers. The days of an arena full of marks who really believed in wrestling and had an attention span of over 30 seconds are long gone. They created the great atmosphere's and the magical feel that can never be rediscovered. Unless we all go without the internet for the next 20 years or so.
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If you divide quality of posts by volume of posts you're definitely the best guy here Vinnie B! You can click on the edit option (next to multiquote) to restore your previous lists easily enough. It would be cool to see a top matches list for the whole year. I always like to see how much people agree or disagree with match rankings.
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Great events in World history by Mr. Bob Backlund 1776 D.C. (District of Columbia) Birth of the Ancient Olympic Games. [Only 1000 years out Bob] 323 D.C. Death of Alexander the Great. 4th July 1776 United States Declaration of Independence. 1912 The Titanic sinks. 22nd December 1983 Assassination of JFK. [Only 1 month out Bob] July 1969 Neil Armstrong sets foot ON THE MOON! 20th February 1978 Bob Backlund becomes WWF champion. [Add a W Bob] 23rd November 1994 Bob Backlund regains the WWF title that he never rightly lost. 15th May 1995 Bob 4 Prez!
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For the 90's the televised output of Lucha was nowhere near that of the US or Japan. WWF and WCW had loads of TV time and there's no shortage of ECW footage too. Japan had plenty of promotions who got airtime and commercial releases were widespread. For much of the decade in Mexico there was just CMLL and AAA with their 2 hour weekly shows. And AAA wasn't producing much good stuff outside of 93-95 by any accounts I've heard. So in terms of total recommended match output it's not a level playing field. For average match quality and usage of TV time however, CMLL in particular and therefore Lucha overall comes out very well. With there nearly always being 3 falls the average match time was even longer than Japan. Of course things have changed this century and there's such a glut of wrestling footage available everywhere. It's not like the IWC as a whole can sift through all of it to find a consensus on the decent stuff.
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I have to say that I've never considered that the WWE emphasis on promos and storylines had anything to do with wrestler welfare. More to do with believing that's what the audience wants to see. The guys work a "formulatic and limited match structure" because they're told to do that. Again because it's believed that said match structure will produce the best overall product. If the company ever cared about wrestler welfare then they'd alter the wrestlers schedule and give them proper breaks. If you take say the top 100 matches each year then the gap in match quality between Japan and anywhere else was never greater than in the 90's. It's certainly nowhere near as large in the 80's or 00's. I haven't watched enough from this decade to offer a comparison. US vs Mexico in the 90's is an interesting one to me. I think it's a close run thing, and haven't decided yet which one I prefer over the whole decade.
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Yeah it was Aja's 94 that gets the praise more than 95.
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I don't blame Razor for being hostile to this angle, I think the majority of wrestlers would've been. He should never be asked to do this type of thing unless he was comfortable with it. I've always been of the opinion that homosexual angles are best avoided in pro wrestling. Given that it's already got oiled up, muscular men in trunks grappling with each other.
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