dawho5
Members
-
Joined
-
Last visited
Everything posted by dawho5
-
From the Brutal Instances of Color thread, both Mayumi Ozaki vs. Mima Shimoda from 1999 and the Mad Dog Vachon blade job gone horribly wrong do not disappoint. -
The structure of this match is what really sold me on it. The opening matwork stuff did seem a little too fluid. But then it came to the point where it was very clear that Kohsaka had the advantage on the ground despite Tamura's jujigatame being the focus of the match. He gets a few close calls on tamura needing to hit the ropes and finally forces it. Tamura switches it up and goes to stand-up to take away the advantage, but Kohsaka shows that he's got weapons there too. So Tamura starts trying to do quick takedowns into holds off of stand-up, which Kohsaka also counters. As the match progresses, you can see Kohsaka becoming a bit more vulnerable to Tamura's grappling on the mat and finally the jujigatame that Kohsaka had been fighting off the whole match happens and we have a finish. This was really beautifully done from the standpoint of fighting strategy as well as using Tamura's jujigatame as a focus for the build. Really good match that should make my top 50 or higher.
-
Tenryu working over Tenzan's cut - fucking great on all levels. Tenzan's tepid comeback - not so much. And really, Tenzan takes 10 minutes of offense, gets in a minute's worth of strikes, does 3 finishers and we're done? Apparently Tenryu falls over at the mention of a light breeze. I wish I could rate this match higher for the first ten minutes, but the finish drops it down to bottom 25 for me.
-
I thought Kawada's "fighting through the pain" selling of the leg, then having to break to sell it was good at first, but tapered off too quickly. The modification of the stretch plum to attack Hash's injured shoulder was pretty sweet. Actually, most of the mat stuff they did was incredible. Kawada's kicks near the end were definitely not up to snuff. He did carry on the leg selling even after the match, but I thought there should have been more during. As dream matches go, this was overall pretty good. There were points where it was amazing, but others where it fell short by a ways. Should make my ballot, probably somewhere in the bottom 50. Still better than Kawada vs. Kojima.
-
Isn't there a pretty violent Cena vs. Umaga Last Man Standing match out there?
-
I can live with Takaiwa being Takaiwa in tag matches. It's when he's in longer singles matches that it gets bad. Here he is mostly okay, with just a little bit of the invincible lariat and powerbomb machine version showing up. Togo is great. Hidaka is great. The thing I loved about this match was Hoshikawa's performance. He never stopped selling the leg, just tapered it back as the leg work got farther behind him and sold in between kicks and by climbing to the top a little slower. Another aspect I liked was the Takaiwa/Hoshikawa tenson and how it may have cost them the match by giving Togo and Hidaka the early opening to take apart Hoshikawa's leg. If Hoshikawa isn't isolated like that early, he's more effective late and that could have swung things the other way. Takaiwa working over Togo's cut was all kidns of fun, as is most Takaiwa dickishness. And Takaiwa really screws up the bump on the second rope pedigree. It almost looks like a tigerdriver 91 , just brutal. One f those mistakes that actually helps the match.
-
-
I liked this match a lot. But I don't think it'll get into the top 30. Kawada adapting to other worker's styles is always awesome, and it makes for really singular matches against shootstyle guys. I thought they should have stopped at the double countout instead of restarting and going to a double KO though. Resetting from an anticlimactic finish into another anticlimactic finish seems kind of wrong.
-
This was pretty damn good for a juniors trios tag. Arai getting his hand worked over was great. Horiguchi is one of my favorite of the second generation Toryumon guys. The backslide spot was very big. Arai fighting through the hand injury helps make this memorable finishing run even better. Dragon Kid is kept to a minimum as well. Some really nice dives in the middle too. It will probably make my ballot.
-
That Piper v. Rip Rogers match was all kinds of fun. Portland may be something I get into one day after many, many other things have come to pass.
-
My opinions on the match are very similar to SS's. I really, really liked KENTA & Hashi's strike exchanges. They moved into different strikes as they progressed and didn't go on forever. Also, what happened between All Japan and NOAH that the entrances got longer with more flashing lights and smoke than the WWE entrances? I know New Japan was doing that kind of stuff, but the level it's reached even by 2003 is ridiculous.
-
This match was all sorts of crazy. The inclusion of some of the newer Toryumon guys (in 2003) makes it seem a little more fresh.There are a few spots I guarantee will be hard to find outside of this kind of match. As spotty, indy-style matches go, this has got to be the best I've ever seen. A few of the sequences are absolutely breathtaking. The 4-way dive with the rope running timing is so fucking good. I can see this making my top 50.
-
Last 5 minutes were blow-me-away spectacular. I dozed off for the majority of the rest. Especially anytime Akiyama tagged in Saito or Honda tagged in Kobashi. Kobashi as asskicker supreme in a tag match is not something I ever care to see, so I may be in the minority there. I'd be surprised if this makes my ballot.
-
-
Okay, this is my working #2 match. One extra half nelson keeps it from being number 1. So much awesome here. Honda's takedowns all look absolutely spectacular. Honda's bumping for the big suplexes is ridiculously awesome. The headlock sequence they work about 8 minutes in is all kinds of incredible. This is the kind of match I LOVE out of Kenta Kobashi. He's so damn good at using great matwork to build to his big suplexes and strikes. It's just that he never does it. But against Honda, it only makes sense that Kobashi works that style of match. And damned if it doesn't work out amazingly well. So many small things too. Like the really awesome rolling Olympic hell that put Saito away gets put on Kobashi. He's actively pushing Honda's arms away from his neck and trying to get his arm over the top of Honda's head as he squirms to the ropes. THAT is the Kenta Kobashi I love watching. I've read that Kobashi 'got out of the way" for this match. If you watch enough early 90s Kobashi, you'll see that this sort of thing is right up his alley as far as his skillset goes. It's just something the style moved away from, which is a real shame given Kobashi's penchant for working this style of match.
-
Lead-in to Kobashi vs. Honda, so it made sense for me to watch it. Honda tries his damnedest to make Saito look good. Doesn't help that Saito is a guy who took all the wrong lessons from All Japan in the 90s. Also, Honda's jumping enzuigiri is better than Saito's, who uses it as a finisher. Bleh.
-
This was the best Nagata match I've seen so far. Really well-worked, I had this feeling the rings of Saturn Nagatalock would be the finish when Taue fought it off the first time. Nagata was looking pretty not beat up in his post-match reaction to winning, despite taking a massive beating at the hands of Taue. I did think the match put over Nagata's toughness and counter wrestling, which seems to be the purpose of it.
-
I didn't love this. KENTA as face in peril was great. Murahama and Liger brought everything you could hope for. Marufuji really did not look good besides the headbutts and the massive dive. The KENTA vs. Murahama stuff was fun, but didn't take up enough of the match. Marufuji before the toning down of all the high flying/jumping stuff is not something I like to watch all that much. I get really tired of the leg slapping in place of actually hitting something with your kick.
-
This was a really, really great opening build. Misawa's early control, the big crash and burn leading to Kobashi's comeback, those are amazing. About the 4th half nelson I start to scale back my opinion of the match. Too many head drops overall, but it actually did work on a storytelling level. Also, Kobashi getting his definitive win over Misawa is huge and awesome moment. I get down on Kobashi a lot, but he worked hard and when he didn't go overboard was an incredible wrestler. This comes in below a lot of stuff for me because of the excessive head drops. I get the downtime late after being dropped on your head that often. This was their best match since 1997 though.
-
This was really, really good. They start out in standard juniors match style. Then they go to the big legwork that is a huge part of the match until the end. There is some no-selling, but less than you would think. AKIRA is great late, clawing at the ref and leaving him incapacitated long enough to miss the tapout to an anklelock. Ref is back with us and AKIRA BITES KOJI'S KNEE to break an anklelock. Not long after, the big AKIRA splash that has been teased twice hits for a huge nearfall. AKIRA then turns the tables with an ankle lock on Koji. Koji has to dig deep and pulls out the double ankle lock to put away a very game AKIRA. I loved some of the selling in this (Koji selling his face) and the late leg stuff was really, really well done. I'd put this just above the Hashi match that Kanemoto had due to what seemed like some tension between these two in both of their matches I have seen.
-
Great stuff so far in this post. I for one don't care for the idea that I have to rank and number and organize all the matches and wrestlers into lists of which is the best. I watch the matches to enjoy them at the time. If I do, there's really no point to me in asking myself if this match was more or less enjoyable than some other match or matches I've seen. That being said, there is something to the idea that watching a wrestler over time in different matches and situations gives you a much better idea of their strengths and weaknesses. I'm going to go with the wrestler that popped into my head the instant I read the original question: Kenta Kobashi If you watch his matches from 1993 on, you'll find a lot of different things. For instance, Kobashi is an excellent submission wrestler. He wrenches his holds at intervals, doesn't hang on to one hold in favor of switching to a similar hold and wrenching on that for a bit, then going to another. And Kenta Kobashi working over the ribs and/or back is an absolute joy to watch. His ropes -> knee, ropes -> knee -> Russian legsweep combo is an incredible sequence that I'm shocked nobody I've seen has ripped off. But over time you start to realize that he's not all that great at the when and what of wrestling. If you start looking at his later work, when the Kobashi we all know has emerged, a very clear distinction arises. When he's wrestling Kawada or Taue, his head drops are used when and as often as a head drop ought to be. His no-selling is contained. Then you watch a match with Misawa, who either had no interest in reeling Kobashi in or trusted him enough to not go overboard pretty often. And Kobashi is throwing big stuff out for midmatch nearfalls that don't make a whole lot of sense. You can go even farther to a match with Akiyama. I can remember at least one of those where Kobashi felt the need to hit Akiyama with 3 half nelsons, one of which was used as a near-fall. There is just no need for Akiyama to go through that kind of punishment in order for Kobashi to put him away. It just seems like because Kobashi was the "youngest" of the Four Pillars, he very rarely got to have much say in what went on early in his career. Not only that, but he didn't seem to pick up on the why as the junior member of the match. And later, when it came to be his turn to direct the match that hurt him quite a bit. Without watching years worth of matches from AJPW I wouldn't have seen everything necessary to come to the conclusions that I did. I wouldn't have the perspective of looking back at his days as just a spunky youngster who had to fight his way through everybody's abuse (which was a very entertaining portion of his career). So while I'm not overly interested in codifying exactly where I would put Kobashi or his matches in the grand order of things, I feel very comfortable being able to look at him as a wrestler, see his strengths and weaknesses and know why I found a match of his to be really entertaining or not. It seems like the answer to this question is pretty similar to the answer to the "drawing power as an important aspect of a wrestler" question. You determine it by watching their work (not just in-ring in the case of American workers) over time and seeing how they change, what their strengths and weaknesses are, how they work with varying opponents, how they work from underneath, how they work from above, and any number of other factors that matter to you. The answer is going to be different for all of us, but I think it's important to at least do a good cross-section of their career (thorough research is important) before coming to any major conclusions.
-
I thought the finish of this helped put over the elbow even more than Jumbo already had. Everybody knew Hansen was a tough dude who liked to brawl. So when you put him away with an elbow, it means something. Also, I thought it drew the line between Misawa putting away somebody who wasn't really a challenge (early Kawada, Kobashi matches) with suplexes and tigerdrivers and how Misawa had to put away somebody who simply wasn't going to let him get his preferred finishers on them.
-
Yes, let's see a sketch about teeth. That is the title of this episode isn't it? I haven't seen a single thing about teeth yet.
-
Didn't Monty Python do a similar idea with soccer many years ago?
-
You also have to look at the way Vince handled a lot of the wrestlers who got big in the territories before he got ahold of them. Martel, JYD, etc. were all made into jokes when they finally came over to the WWF side for the money. I don't know exactly why, but Vince seemed to have a thing for trashing big acts that he didn't personally make into stars.