dawho5
Members
-
Joined
-
Last visited
Everything posted by dawho5
-
I thought "fun" was about right as far as describing this match. Kawada vs. Hansen was the best part for sure. Spivey not killing the match could also be considered a highlight. About midway through 1991 I'm in complete agreement with Ditch. Hansen/Spivey are more consistently good and somehow far better at filling time in matches than Williams/Gordy. I guess we'd be looking at it differently if the MVC would have been booked in 15 minute and under matches more consistently. -
-
Oh man, that match and the Kobashi match the night before are among my favorite Hansen matches. I would have to rewatch the Taue match to see if I thought it was in the same vein or not. I think the best comparison I can come up with off the top of my head is the 99 RWTL Final with Taue vs. Kobashi/Akiyama. The crowd so wanted the old school revival (Taue was almost like a fill-in for Baba as Hansen's partner) team to come through with the win against a heavily favored Burning team. Made for a completely different Stan Hansen match.
-
Yeah, Hansen as the sympathetic babyface is so freaking great. But I still prefer Hansen the force of nature at the end that even Gordy couldn't keep under control. One thing about Hansen a lot of people miss is his selling and ability to switch gears when he needs to. He's always remembered as an all-time great for his offense, but he's the complete package.
-
Just watched the 4/18/91 tag and I think it deserves a spot up there with some of Hansen's best for radically different reasons than most of the Stan Hansen matches I've seen that have already been mentioned. Hansen as the face-in-peril is incredible when it happens and it's really hard to believe that unless you've actually seen it.
-
Some things I found worth mentioning on my first watch ever of this match. The crowd is chanting for Misawa (as loud as the music when it hits ) before the music starts. Holy fuck is that awesome. I thought Jumbo doing small things really made the middle and the end. Like where he heard the chants for Misawa after a few nearfalls, pauses to react to the fans and gives Misawa the rana reversal for a nearfall. That's some genius shit for a much bigger pop than you'd think a rana would get in a heavyweight match. Then things like the twitch after the DDT make me love Jumbo so much. I thought this was better than the June match by a long way but shy of the September one. Jumbo's quest to stay on top makes that match transcendent to me, where this is as much Misawa's Kawada in 6/3/94 performance. The first match he got lucky with the timing of things when Jumbo crotched himself on the ropes after hurting his arm, which opened up the rollup being a possible finish for Misawa. The second match was where we saw that Misawa was still a clear number two with some work to do before he stood a chance at beating Jumbo. This match Misawa really threatens Jumbo late, even hitting an elbow (reminded me of the Williams match in 94 a lot) after the first backdrop driver that forced Jumbo to up the ante with two in order to put him away. Great match for sure, but not their best. I would say that was as much because of the focus of the match as anything. Misawa just was not as compelling as the guy trying to catch Jumbo compared to Jumbo as the veteran trying desperately to show he was still number one. If you look at it in terms of All Japan booking the matches all have a purpose which they serve really, really well.
-
Yeah, I'd have a hard time putting Kobashi anywhere below 15 despite my absolute hatred of the excesses he indulged in. At his best he was an incredible worker with a great understanding of how to get a crowd behind him. And even on his worst days the guy was giving 110% for the entirety of every match.
-
This was a really good listen for me. It highlighted some things that I really don't think about a lot and I probably ought to. Gives me another way of looking at wrestling, which is a huge plus. Thanks to Tim, Will and KrisZ.
-
This match is great for so many reasons. It plays off of a lot of stuff that has led up to it. It is at Korakuen and Kikuchi is in it. Kikuchi actually gets to look good on offense for a few brief stretches, despite the whiffed diving headbutt. There's a lot of stuff in here that is a callback to things that have happened in the months prior. Oh, and Kawada slamming Taue down on the piece of railing Misawa and Kikuchi took out and laid on the floor is incredible. It's not a 10/90 or 4/91 level awesome 6-man, but it's right up there behind them.
-
-
Man, I am two behind. That Flair promo on Hogan from 99 was absolutely amazing. Loving these, keep up the good work.
-
This Parv vs. Pete feud better live up to all of this hype. Also, I think Steven has to be on the second one to avoid the asterisk. Can't have Martin calling himself the undisputed champ when it is, in fact, disputed. Great stuff though. I look forward to the encyclopedia guys being on there and seeing what kind of ridiculously obscure questions Johnny will come up with for them.
-
-
Don't get me wrong, I'm just asking questions. I tend to cherrypick matches a lot myself so I completely understand. I just know that when I have watched all the lead-ins I tend to enjoy the match more for it in a well-booked feud. I was just wondering if you saw any difference between cherrypicking the present and the past. The rest was just stuff that popped into my head as I was typing that up.
-
Okay, here's a question for you then just for the sake of discussion. IF you separate the wrestling from the booking and watch for the good matches, what is the difference between that and watching a match from the past with little to no context? Isn't it a very similar thing once you think about it? And another question. How can you have truly great wrestling matches without context derived from a well-booked feud? What makes matches great is often something more than just the work in the ring. It's the meaning of what's going on in the ring as it relates to the feud between the workers. Does the lack of a consistent, well-crafted narrative outside of the matches in a vacuum have an impact on the matches themselves? Which leads me to yet another question. Is this what Vince means by "sports entertainment"? Is that a part of his disconnect from what he would call "pro wrestling"? It's obvious that there are aspects of the older styles that he doesn't care for and has done away with. Or it could be just a side effect of the philosophy that the brand is bigger than any of the stars that work within it.
-
Didn't Lanny work one match as the fake Jericho during the Malenko feud? A bit off-topic, but I would swear he did.
-
Kikuchi was big in the early 90s as the whipping boy for team Misawa. He was essentially THE face-in-peril and you have to realize that guys get over big in Japan on showing spirit. Which happens to be a huge strength of Kikuchi's along with selling. I have to think you'll eventually at least like Kobashi's offense. The suplexes will probably win you over even if the crying doesn't. I am one of those few who is very down on Kobashi's later career work with the exception of certain matches. I almost hate you for being down on Kawada. But I will forgive. It seems like you are skipping an important match in 8/92 Misawa vs. Hansen. It's one of the matches that cements Misawa as a force to be reckoned with. Also, one of Hansen's few really great matches with Misawa. Great listen guys, keep up the good work.
-
Just rewatched this and it is only the second match of 1990 that had me going all the way through. Everything is sharp, well-placed and brutal. Only thing that comes close to this so far in 90 is Fuchi vs. Kikuchi as a total package. The Misawa vs. Jumbo rematch on 9/1 has an incredible finishing run to go with the incredible story of Jumbo's fight to remain on top, but the lulls drop it just below this one. The wrestlers and the crowd were on fire from the get-go and it's a great, great watch.
-
I understand not wanting to rip the guy off, but Rocky Raymond is absolutely glorious. Only real problem is that his act would be hard to top.
-
This match actually sets up the 8/92 TC match well. I know the 92 match is about a real Misawa injury at the time, but it's also sweet revenge for Misawa in getting a win with an elbow after having that arm worked. As far as this match in full, I can't say a whole lot positive about it. It's not that it's a bad match. Just that you expect more from the pairing. I have this feeling as I go through the 90s again that's going to be the case with these two.
-
This is a match where context makes all the difference between really good/almost great and classic. The opening was great at establishing the nature of the rivalry. The ending was incredible for how it cemented Misawa as THE new star in AJPW. The middle had a few botches and didn't really go anywhere. The test of strength mentioned above was far more glaring than the Jumbo top rope mistake. Either it was some kind of miscommunication or Misawa was out of position, but Jumbo did a sort of short knee off the top to a very close Misawa. Then Jumbo tries going for a tigerdriver only to get backdropped out and works his way back to the top where Misawa cuts him off, Jumbo elbows him off the top and then hits the jump knee off the top spot the way he usually does. It was something you had to really pay attention to catch because they covered so well for it, but it is there. This is an incredible match for how much Jumbo was willing to give and how Misawa really came through in a tough spot. And smiled...I'm guessing you could count the times you saw that on one hand with some fingers left.
-
That much I can understand. I just don't care for the idea of trying to put numbers to a bunch of categories, no matter how much thought is put into it, to sum up how a wrestler performs. It seems just as reductive as "great matches" while covering different ground for guys like DiBiase or Masanobu Fuchi. They are both clearly great ring generals who any promotion would be happy to have around, but were only involved in a handful of great matches with the majority of their career spent doing unimportant things. Having some way of qualifying their credentials seems like a worthwhile idea, but I look at wrestling as something better felt than analyzed and put in order. So the idea of finding a scientific way to fit the less mainstream candidates into the top 100 just doesn't appeal to me.
-
Again, it seems like an overly elaborate way of approaching a simple problem, Parv. DiBiase in the WWF wasn't supposed to come across as a great wrestler. I'd guess that most who have seen any of his pre-WWF work would agree he's very good at least and worthy of a top 100 pick. But once he gets the "Million Dollar Man" gimmick, essentially a spoiled brat rich kid but all grown up, DiBiase had to wrestle his matches a little differently. If he goes out and has great matches consistently and drags rookies and stiffs to career heights how does that play into his gimmick? There are times when it made for great vignettes and character work, but it put a lot of limitations on what DiBiase was going to be able to do in the ring. Otherwise he'd have been doing a long-term J.J. Dillon or Scotty Flamingo.
-
Wow, that's a busy year of updates for you. First was a fun read and the promos were sweet. Now I suppose I have to dive into the second.
-
I have to question whether or not the homogenization of styles has had the effect of possibly making matches seem less memorable than they used to. You look at 10-15 years ago and there was a huge difference between a match in Japan, a match in WCW, a match in WWF and a match in Mexico. Now you see a lot of the same tropes as far as in-ring action at the very least in the WWE and New Japan (which are the two big promotions now). Yes there are differences, but less than there were in the past as guys watch a bunch of footage and add moves/aspects they like from somewhere else into their style. I'm not saying it lowers the quality of matches, but it might make individual matches seem less memorable due to their similarity to a lot of other matches you see during the year. I would agree that it is much easier to find great matches in the past. You get to skip all the stuff that doesn't appeal to you or doesn't matter or just plain doesn't work.