Jetlag
DVDVR 80s Project
-
Joined
-
Last visited
Everything posted by Jetlag
-
This starts really nice with about 8 minutes of really cool opening matwork. I especially loved the sections with Hashimoto as he is so fast and at the same time such a behemoth that he provides a great challenge as half the stuff you try on him you won't pull off, so you have to think fast and give your best. Soon the youngsters take over by putting the boots to the veterans, which sets up the second half of the match in which Hashimoto absolutely mauls Nagata. You really can't praise Hashimoto enough, as his offense is all kinds of furious and amazing chop-your-head-off type, but at the same time he does a great job putting over Nagata as this gutsy bloke with enough firepower to possibly put him away. Fujinami is secondary role here as he mostly serves as a foil for the young punks to show off their punkiness, but he is such a fun tricky wrestler too as he always has a counter in his sleeve and will slap your shit if you push him too far. Also his huge kneedrop off the top has become one of my favourite spots. Great signature performance from the old guys here and really good spunkiness from the young guns. -
Too hipster. You wait until I release my Top 100 consisting of nothing but pre-1992 JWP and WING handhelds.
-
This is intense from the very beginning as Hokuto hits a big backbreaker, crushing her own knee and at the same time setting up the back work on Kazama. Lots of Hokuto kicking the shit out of Kazama's spine ensues, landing every basic move with some extra pissed offness until kickpadded Kazama comes back kicking her in the face and then gives back some by attempting to kick Hokuto's leg out of her leg. The result feels obvious but Kazama gets some fun offense and surprise nearfalls in on Hokuto. This felt like it could've been better, but Kazama looked good selling and kicking the hell out of Hokuto, and I guess keeping the hierarchies intact was more important for them.
-
This was fun. How can you not love Yakushiji in his Bruce Lee get up? His opening section opposite Murahama makes me wish that singles match footage of his wasn't so scarce. And this was his last year of wrestling! Talk about retiring on the height of your game. The rest of the match was more Hoshikawa style, meaning it involved Murahama eating lots of nasty shots. I am fascinated witht his venue - looks like they crammed 70 people at most into there, and they are sitting on the floor really close to the ring, making the fans prime targets for getting flattened by suicide dives while drinking coffee. Delfin didn't do a ton here as the focus was to get Murahama into the fans hearts by eating ALL the punishment and busting out and awkward shooter dive and generating a bunch of nearfalls. I've probably seen a hundred japanese tags like this but the combination of this being O-Pro, Game of Death Yakushuji and Murahama in the focus makes it well worth checking out.
-
Sayama was showcasing his Seikendo philosophy here. The point of which was to do fighting in any situation, hence I think the GI was made to resemble an office suit. I remember Sayama and someone else also did a demonstration at an RJPW show wearing actual office suits and MMA gloves. Anyways, this match is never not fun, even though this was short. Fujiwara just does so much cool stuff taking Sayama down by his gi and all that, and Sayama's contempt was amusing, not like he was selling, but as if he was thinking "Stop grabbing me! I wanna do spin kicks!"
-
It's sleazy IWA japan brawling vs. sleazy UWFi shootstyle. Anjoh is thrilled to wrestle a guy this grotesque and goes nuts with the Looney Toons spots! Watch as Anjoh points to his head to signify his cleverness then falling on his ass the next second, getting MMA mount position only to play belly drums on Goto, STALLING~, etc. However there are also some slick takedowns and submissions in this match, and given that it's Anjoh and Goto, lots of nasty violence and uncooperativness. Goto actually isn't afraid to go on the mat and give out stiff lariats and punches, and Anjoh was right there kicking him in the jaw a bunch. Eventually Anjoh lands a series of stiff knees and elbows, bloodying Goto, who promptly goes nuts bloodying Anjoh with punches and a fork in return. Crowd boos the hell out of the DQ finish, I guess because they enjoyed watching these two murder eachother so much. Post match a bloody Anjoh tries to drag a police officer into this, as if to question why the police always sit there watching when a heel is doing something seriously wicked.
-
Really fun meeting of two absolute wrestling masters. Both guys were working double hard here, as if trying to prove at the big show that they can outwork anyone else in the country. Starts like MUGA match with some tricked out matwork, before they mix in BattlARTS stiff savate kicks and headbutts, then Sano busts out his junior dives before they do Lawler/Mantell exhausted elbow exchanges into an awesomely timed Ishikawa enzuigiri before going back to the MUGA again. Real tour de force from these guys, but there were lots of cool details aswell, such as Sano using his legs to extend the arm and get the sleeper, Ishikawa bridging out of a choke attemept, Sano doing some center of gravity shifting (which eventually backfires on him) etc. Really cool match and I dug the hybrid style they were aiming at here.
-
Is that the month with the Fuji vs Strongbow match? (kidding, but if so the best choice we probably have that people would have access to easily is Bruno vs Patera; I should have probably said August, 87). FWIW Claude Roca/Walter Bordes vs. Albert Sanniez/Pierre Bernaert (France 8/29) was pretty rad
-
-
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 for his kicks, and even an over the hill Kengo Kimura can still lay in some stiff kicks. Kimura finally catches Fujinami with a simple knee strike that Fujinami sells in amazing fashion and it's a testament to the quality of this match that such a basic spot had me verbally marking out. Korakuen Hall gets behind Kimura big time and his final comeback where he's throwing fists is exactly what you want. Matwork, stiff shots, quality underdog story, quality match overall.
-
Thanks GOTNW. This was phenomenal and one of the best pure skill vs. pure rage matches I've ever seen. Fujinami wants to open this MUGA style, but Hash blitzes him with a DDT and follows up with a huge barrage of kicks, setting the tone for the rest of the match: Hashimoto demolishing the old man, and wily Fujinami trying to catch the beast. No one kicks a man when he's down like Hashimoto, and he lays an all time epic beating on Fujinami including one of the most gorgeous high kicks I've ever seen. Fujinami is great withstanding the beating, selling his leg and making comebacks, and the psychology is top notch: In isolation, Hashimoto's leg sweep is a cool enough spot, but integrated into the match like this as a "fuck you" to Fujinami's leg screws and Figure 4s it becomes something entirely different. It all builds to some of the best submission nearfalls (and breakups) I've seen, Fujinami teasing the Dragon Suplex, a glassy eyed Hashimoto refusing to go down, a big "Dragon" chant breaking out etc. Great match.
-
Surprisingly good tag, better than it looks on paper. Felt a little like they were making an attempt at an AJPW style epic with stiffness, big bumps and intricate structure, except 3 out of these 4 guys are middle aged geesers which makes this match even crazier. Good energy early on with everyone laying into eachother, no hands headbutts, chops, the whole deal. My favourite bit was Chono almost being KO'd by a Tenryu punch but firing back with angry punches of his own. Koshinaka had his working boots on, catching Tenzan with a painful looking hip attack to the back of the head and then following up with shots to the same spot. Chono was bringing it too, taking a huge bump to the outside and then getting sent over the guardrail by a big Tenryu flying forearm in an amazing spot which set up the heat section on Tenzan. An almost spent Chono giving his all trying to turn the match over was pretty great and I loved his yakuza kicks and big punch. Because it's the late 90s they bust out all their finishers including Tenryu dumping Chono right on his neck and Tenzan crushing Koshinaka with one of the nastiest moonsaults I've ever seen. Pretty overkill-ish, but the match didn't get too bloated.
-
I watched the 5/26/96 commercial tape. It had an undercard of WAR vs. Yume Factory matches, so I couldn't resist. Unfortunately all the matches were clipped to just a few minutes. The longest surviving footage was Kitahara vs. Shinichi Nakano with 6 out of 10 minutes shown and it looked really damn good, with Nakano selling his arm and landing huge punches to Kitahara's face. Also it was fun watching Osamu Tachihikari bleeding and raging, waffling everyone in sight with chairs as a response to Motegi's heel tactics. Tenryu/Nakano was as cool as it sounds and the main event - Fuyuku/Jado/Gedo vs. Anjo/Takayama/Kenichi Yamamoto was fun as fuck with the UWFi guys working super stiff and the WAR residents going for heel tactics and brawling while keeping the match mostly in the ring. After that they showed about 30 minutes of interviews. Damn you, WAR editors! Some people CARE about Yume Factory.
-
So people are saying that Fujinami in the 90s was past it and his title in reign in 1998 was a lowlight. And judging by this match -- they are WRONG. Fujinami says DAMN you ALL - and drags Chono kicking and screaming into a bonafide MUGA epic like it's 1978/2006. Exciting opening establishes the story of the match immediately. Then you get Fujinami working really stiff - slapping the dogshit out of Chono and busting out the Thesz back elbow. Chono can barely do a thing on the mat but, Fujinami carries him no problem. Not only do you get fun maestro-ish touches from Fujinami, but also really excellent psychology, as you had Chono trying to work Fujinami's match, a great sequence centered around a lowblow, which Fujinami probably saw Negro Casas do in 1981 at Toreo, Fujinami teasing the STF, great leg attack stuff etc. Last couple minutes probably would've been better if Chono gave a shit about selling his leg. Ah, what the hell - this is still about the best match involving 1998 Chono I can imagine.
-
It is interesting that people are saying Negro Navarro outclassed Zack here. If anything it was that Navarro proved his style was superior. Zack did pretty well here all things considered; he never looked lost, and knew to contrast Navarro's flashier bits with some flashiness of his own, and occasionally cranking his holds in as needed. It's not his fault that he wrestles much like a dweeb, after all he's been told for years that his dweeby faux WoS shit is awesome and he's the next Johnny Saint or whatever. Too bad we have none of Steve Wright's matches from mexico to compare. Navarro is not as fast and vicious as he used to be and I felt he pretty much worked this match like any other short exhibition match against slightly dweeby indy guy. Still a fun showcase.
-
It's old time DVDVR's dream junior matchup! Parts of this had the feel of two guys who trained together a lot making their first faithful attempt at an epic. However, these two are solid enough at the basics to keep you entertained. They don't pussy out of exchanging stiff slaps, when they work the mat they go for actual submissions, and they understood to set their big spots up. Also they both have ultra choice swank movesets making this match worth watching just to see what coolness is coming up next. Fun junior spectacle. A million billion stars etc.
-
JWP's hotness goes against the megastar. These two highly athletic wrestlers with a number of spectacular moves in their pocket could easily go braindead and do suplexes and 2.99999s all the time, but instead we get a STORY~! with Yagi trying to take down the much higher ranked vet using her submission game. Toyota was really vicious, stomping on Yagi's head to break submissions, crushing her with extra vicious dropkicks and at one point just booting her off the top rope. "I don't give a fuck about you" Toyota is way better than workrate supergirl Toyota. Because Yagi is tiny you get the sense Toyota was really manhandling her. Match had a good pace, they start out taking turns bumping eachother really hard into the guardrails before slowing it down with some matwork and then actually building to the big suplexes and spots. Yagi didn't do anything out the extraordinary here, as almost all her offense was flash submissions as usual, but her bumping was pretty great as she'd just spike herself into the mat to put over the beating Toyota was giving her.
-
70s TV match!!! Six minutes of action! Damn I loved this. I dare you to look at Bobby Garcia and not love that guy. Carlos Colon without his face mutilated was a sight to see too. Some armdrags to start, but soon Grimaldo is doing what his red gear indicates: strangling Perez in the corner, and before you know what comes next they proceed to beat the shit out of eachother with awesome thudding punches! Then Colon comes in to work nifty shoulderblock exchanges and lands some nimble 70s flying moves including an amazing huracanrana. The rudoisms from Garcia and Grimaldo continue before Colon finishes with a sunset flip from the top rope which is a hot move for 1975. Man I hope whoever is uploading this finds more 70s Atlanta in his garage.
-
-
Stiff as hell 25 minute sprint. Altough it is telling that in a match that Misawa spin kicking dudes in the face and Jumbo waffling the hell out of Kawada with a chair, the highlight was Fuchi blasting Misawa with awesome punch combos. Match had ample opportunity to deliver a strong heat segment but every few minutes there was a reversal, tag out and then someone else was ready to continue the bomb throwing. I guess the Kawada vs. Jumbo interactions were central to the match. Finally, we get an excellent finish between Kawada and Taue.
-
18 minute match clipped down to 10, making this a sprint. Ikeda and Ishikawa start the match with a crazy headbutt exchange and they are just fighting like feral animals. Oh boy the sheer CONTEMPT Ishikawa has for Ikeda. Usuda and Tanaka blast eachother with kicks to the face. Tanaka, for once, was pretty tight here. It never ceases to fascinate me how these guys would go to any japanese town hall and proceed to kill eachother night in night out. EDIT: It's of course Ikeda teaming up with Katsumi Usuda.
-
I am looking forward to this project bringing out some discussion on Gypsy Joe. For a guy who is somewhat legendary and influental, he really is hardly discussed. So IWE books a nazi and a gypsy as a team. Is that insensetive? This type of IWE match is the ancestor to all sleazy 90s indy brawls. They fight around the arena to start. Kimura, for a guy who has looked impossibly dull in the 70s, is pretty fun here slapping the shit out of both these dudes. Joe bumps like a motherfucker. Then Krupp rolls in to excite you with his variety of nerve holds, bearhugs and toe kicks! But before the evil nazi can ruin the match Kusatsu comes in and salvages things with an awesome punch combo! Joe kicks him in the dick and Krupp follows up with the dreaded DICK CLAW. Things quickly devolve into chaos with all the guys piling into a salad and the ref rings the bell, but the chaos continues. We also get to see Joe absorbing a bunch of really, really, really hard chairshots. Fun stuff.
-
Lot of future stars in this match. Awesome fast exchange between Piper and Rose to start. Young, eager Piper is just electric, but soon he gets isolated and all the heels pile on him. When Piper tags out to the old guys Rose is off the charts feeding into their punches and flying high into the steel post like a cartoon character. A bunch of armlock work ensues and Stasiak is so rocking the armwringer and the crowd loves it! Savage had a nice high backdrop bump at one point. 2nd fall is much slower with the heels constantly interfering to break the faces momentum, building to Martel tagging in and getting a big run of early 80s spectacular offense before Roddy comes in again and just goes nuts on Rose with punches. Match may have been a little long but you gotta love Portland for getting people in a frenzy with a bunch of really simple armwringer work and a handful of bumps.
-
"Big Ox Baker... redundant to call him big... almost redundant to call him an Ox..." I love Boesch. This was old school heel as you had battles of the Claw vs. The Bearhug, Stomach Claw, Heart Punch, etc. I love how Spoiler wipes his hand on the mat after Baker slips out of the claw. Some clever spots here such as Spoiler flying right into a bearhug, Spoiler blocking the heart punch, Baker working over Spoiler's hand here etc. Spoiler can do this kind of entertaining intimidating big dudes fight in his sleep.
-
Kozack was pro wrestling af in this match. Awesome mustache, saluting the american flag, looking like your sports teacher etc. This looked like a bullshitfest to start, but turned into a wrestling match with Hito bringing some leg work. Kozack kind of reminded me of Axel Dieter here, his exaggerated movements and passionate charisma being really endearing. Long chinlock grinds the match to a halt before Kozack goes down to a bunch of those dreadful japanese chops.