drew wardlaw
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Everything posted by drew wardlaw
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A Sundays song to open disc 2! I'm curious to see what other treats are on these discs. I liked this one more than Anjoh/Yamazaki. The two biggest stars in the promotion going at it. Again, with this style, there's always a fine line between pro wrestling and play fighting. I actually didn't find the submission holds very boring and I liked the bursts of kicks and strikes going into the mat stuff. Mean Maeda is a few years out from breaking Choshu's eye and he hasn't gotten any nicer it looks like. really good drama when Takada hits Maeda's eye and is finally able to get an upper hand. The crowd was really feeling it and there was a great struggle during the ankle lock.
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Coincidentally I've been going through some old UFC and PRIDE cards and have been re-watching some of Anjoh's mma matches. I was familiar with him as a child as I was really into the early mma stuff. Yamazaki was my least favorite guy of the UWF vs NJPW feud from '86, just seemed to be a step below the rest of the guys. But anyway, the shoot style is difficult because on the one hand, there's a definite sense of it just being two guys pretending to fight, without the spectacle or drama that makes pro wrestling what it is. Kind of all of the bad without the good, and one of the main reasons I'm not a fan of the current Evolve style grapplers. On the other hand, I really have a soft spot for this style as the UWF vs NJPW feud is something I absolutely love and between that and it's connection to Japanese MMA I find it a really interesting promotion specifically to follow. Something else, I love a stiff strike all the time, no matter what. From an artistic perspective, the idea of willingly allowing another person to hurt you for the sake of believability is something that will always appreciate in any context and the very concept of it really touches on some deep philosophical issues, suffering or the sake of your art, the lengths people will go to entertain, etc. It's something that really connects with me and I'm able to identify with in certain respects. Yamazaki throws some good head butts here, and it's pretty intense throughout. Decent, enjoyable match.
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Great match. It'll be interesting to see how this compares to the Midnight Express matches this year. I reckon I'll like some of those better but The Rockers collective fire can't be beat. I really liked the tag sequences from them. Very cool.
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There's a movie called Salo, Or The 120 Days Of Sodom. There's a scene where a torture victim gets his tongue cut out. Rey makes the same face when he's in the camel clutch post mask rip. And all you can really see are his eyes.
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As a child this felt different to me than like Jack vs Sting or certainly Vader vs. Sting. It felt much bigger and scarier and I LOVED them going to the entrance set up. As an adult I still really enjoy this. It's really arbitrary which of these kind of garbage matches I choose to like, maybe it's nostalgia, but for this match all I wanted was to see these two try to hurt each other, and that's what I got. Thoroughly enjoyable.
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I guess this is kind of the exact opposite of what you're asking, but something that I always look for in a match is something that makes it unique. It could be the story, it could be the selling, or it could a certain camera angle used or even a botch that makes the match unique within a certain context.
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You know who I loved in this match was Fuyuki. Played a really sleazy heel here and it worked great for me. Him getting his knee destroyed on the railing was gnarly, but him going in and tearing at the tiger mask after Tenryu had ravaged it was really cheap and awesome. Also him going for the rollup on Jumbo after a Tenryu kick. Just so infuriating and heelish. He's overshadowed here but I loved his work. Also, was Misawa bleeding from the nose or was that just like a tongue on the mask or something? Tiger Mask just gets a vicious beating from Tenryu and the mean veteran beating up a young person dynamic continues to be one of my very favorite things in wrestling. The leg work on Fuyuki pays off and what a cool finish! I've never seen that before, what a great idea. Really cool match, lots to like here.
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Lee Scott going toe to toe with Cactus Jack! With a storyline no less! I really like Ross commenting on how horrible Jack's win/loss record is. Cool storytelling device there. Lee Scott being fired up and attacking Jack at the beginning had me siked but it was short lived. This was a feel good match for me, even though Scott was destroyed. A Rudy type moment I guess.
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Lawler accusing Dirty White Girl of getting TRENCHMOUTH from Chris Champion... genius. You can tell Lawler was influenced by Andy Kaufman. This is yet another promotion that I'm very unfamiliar with outside of seeing some matches on ESPN throughout the years. These segments are the most artful presentation of pro wrestling promos I've ever seen. The amount of subtly and psychology Lawler uses is so impressive.
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I already forget, is this the one where Lawler makes a joke about Mexicans and is cracking himself up during it? He may or may not have used a similar joke on WWE tv like 2 years ago. Lawler's improvising ability and wit unquestionable.
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I hadn't seen this match before. I'm interested in watching the gaps in Arn's early 90s singles matches throughout this and see where everything stacks up. Battle of the throat slashes here, Arn's is better. I get STOKED when the thumb goes across that neck. Looking forward to the Buzz Sawyer match, I really liked their interactions here.
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One of my biggest wrestling black holes (of many) is the Rock 'n' Wrestling era of WWF. I had just started watching wrestling in 1990 and it was NWA/WCW. And while I know most of the characters I've really seen very little of the product itself. I guess this is kind of the end of that period, but still, this is all very new and exciting.
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This is the first Funk's Grill segment I've ever seen. I'm really hoping each segment is him having rational discussions of philosophical and social issues with the heels of the day. This is an unbelievable segment and really unlike anything I've ever seen in wrestling, especially this time period.
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Another huge blind spot for me is this All Japan Women's/Joshi/etc. I've seen Akira Hokuto but only in WCW when she came out wearing a fright wig and a gas mask, so I thought she was the gal in the pants until the pin. Anyway, this seemed really sloppy to me which made the strikes feel shoot-y at times. I really liked the pants lady selling the sleeper by running the ropes with limp limbs. Cool story trading off sleeper holds, and a hot finish to boot. I'm into it.
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I really liked after the Kawada plancha to the outside, Fuyuki was about to get up on the far turnbuckle when he noticed the beatdown on the other side and went to help. The camera doesn't cut to a different angle and captures him realizing his partner needs help and running to the rescue. It's really cinematic and very cool.
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His promos definitely are, and probably his overall character too. In ring, maybe his facial expressions, and his work in America was always more over-the-top than in Japan. Not sure if anything outdoes punch drunk Funk though.
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Seems like a pretty common trend here going years back that most people are pretty unfilair with lucha. I'm in the same boat. I'm really out of my element here and I've been reading the lucha beginniners guide thread to try to figure out what's happening. This is a cool match and pretty athletically impressive, but I really don't "get" the style yet.
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