cactus
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Everything posted by cactus
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I strongly agree with the 90's joshi comparison. This three women having a match that is heavy on spots and less so on story. They work in some neat three person sequences and the dives in this are incredible. Sasha's botched suicide dive might of looked scary, but it's probably one of the better ones I've seen in WWE for a while. This was the reset the women's division needed at the time. ★★★★ -
This is Randy Orton's coming out party and it seems that this is the point where they start pushing Orton as a credible main eventer. He takes a massive beating at the hands of Foley and sells it like death. The image of Orton sitting up with a look of utter terror after being thrown onto the thumbtacks will be forever etched in my mind as one of the best facial reactions in wrestling. This match is 80% Foley beating on Orton, but they keep the crowd completely engaged because of Foley's immaculate crowd control. None of the big weapon spots feel forced and I'm so glad this holds up. ★★★★½
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There's no pussyfooting around at the start of the match, as they start wailing at each other as soon as the bell rings. Tully and Magnum sell their arses off and bleed buckets. The finish sees Tully trying to take out TA's eye with a shard from a broken wooden chair. They have a big struggle before Magnum turns the tables on Tully and jams the shard into Tully's forehead, causing him to forfeit. With a strong opening and a memorable finish, I felt the middle portion of this match let this one down for me. It felt like they are losing steam. Anyways, this wasn't an all-time great for me, but it's still a damn fine brawl. ★★★¾
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This is UFC rules, which means there's no rope breaks, and victory can only be achieved by submission or knockout. They wail on each other with some violent stiff shots that open up both women. Props on them for going the extra mile to make this legitimate. This started to drag when they started working holds as neither wrestler was interesting on the ground. It's not too long before they start throwing bombs again and I started to enjoy this again. Hotta served as an acceptable babyface, but Lioness Asuka was fantastic at cutting off Hotta's comebacks. I wouldn't quite call this shoot-style because of all the big pro-style moves in the finishing stretch, but this sure was a spectacle. ★★★¼
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Bryan and Styles doin' Bryan and Styles stuff. This didn't quite live up to my insanely high expectations, but it's still two of the best ever working a technical masterclass. The grappling, selling and submission transitions are all great. I popped big for Styles catching Bryan for the Styles Clash when Bryan went for his Flying Knee. This goes 38 minutes and it felt like 15. ★★★★
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If I had to pick one match to show to someone to people that deathmatch isn't just a vulgar display of very real violence, I'd pick this match. Kudo and Toyoda tease the big barbed wire spots well and there's only four occasions when they take a bump into the barbed wire. Toyoda is retiring and wants to go out with a literal bang. After eight minutes of teasing that someone is going boom, the much smaller Kudo takes the plunge and she sells it like death. The later part of this match felt like Manami Toyota bombfest, but if they took the time to slow things down and sell their arses off. Toyoda takes one of the nastiest headdrops I think I've ever seen. All this complimented with a pained Onita looking on from the commentary, makes this one of the best women's and one of the best deathmatches ever. ★★★★★
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What a bloodbath! I second the poster who said this was joshi for people who don't like joshi. They don't make this a sprint and they let them build up to the next moment and take the time to let the story unfold. Hokuto gets cut deep after taking a brutal piledriver on the table and she rocks the crimson mask better than Ric Flair and it makes for an absolutely disgusting visual. Kandori is an massive bully here and wants to rip Hokuto's arm off. Hokuto was excellent as the babyface fight from underneath. That springboard dive that she lands during the finishing stretch was something else, it reeked of desperation as Hokuto sends herself violently tumbling into Kandori. I thought the finish felt a bit flat, but this might be one of the best joshi matches of the 90's. ★★★★½
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Sooo... what does everyone make of his response? I'll admit I was starting to think he might of been set-up when he started to explain everything, but it soon became clear that he's trying to work us and emotionally manipulate his listeners by bringing up Hana Kimura, Bobby Fulton's cancer and Stacey's mental heath. I hope whoever made the allegations takes it further as nothing will be done otherwise.
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Honestly, what Sammy said was incredible gross and shitty, but I don't think he should be fired for it like some on Twitter are calling for.
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I'm starting to see why people aren't as high on Toyota as they were 10-15 years back. I wouldn't say this match lacked drama, but it certainly didn't have much in the way of story outside of them having to bust out their biggest moves to save their hair and the post-match stuff where Toyota tries to save Yamada from losing her hair. This felt like a good match on Fire Pro Wrestling Returns. It's exciting, full of big moves and 2.9 counts, but it lacks any memorable selling or a narrative tying everything together. Toyota was quite sloppy during the opening exchanges, but she more than makes up for it with some of her excellent looking bridges on her suplexes. While I can admit there's a glass ceiling on this kind of wrestling, I enjoyed this a lot. ★★★¾
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I feel this, but in the other direction. When guys like Starr, Riddle and Ospreay were outed, my first thought is "Ah damn, they had so much potential.", which isn't right. Yeah, I wasn't watching when Benoit happened, but I stopped watching wrestling not too long after Eddie died. I felt my love had died for wrestling, and I feel similar to what has happened in the last few days. I haven't felt in the mood to watch as much compared to when all this came out, and I'm not sure if I feel entirely comfortable going to the local RevPro shows again once everything is back to normal. I was watching some classic wrestling from the 80's and the 90's before all this came out and I've always found it easy to justify watching that stuff despite all the horrid stuff going on backstage as it's all in the past and locker rooms are safe spaces now, which isn't anywhere near the truth. Things might be better now than a locker room in 1985, but we've still got a long way to go. I'm going to try and watch some classic joshi and hope those amazingly talented women can reignite my love for wrestling.
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They really threw everything at each other. Aja Kong spams the spinning backfists like how I play cheap when I'm having a match on Fire Pro. Not all of them land or look good, but Bull never sells a dud, so all is forgiven. Both women get cut open due to some of the nasty weapon shots. We see scissors, metal boxes, nunchucks and other objects being used as weapons. Bull looked like a total boss dropping that leg drop of the massively high cage. I argee with this going too long for it's own. My general rule of thumb is that most brawls need to start wrapping things within 15 minutes, as it's damn near impossible to keep that intensity going for too long and this was no exception. ★★★½
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Whilst I agree with you guys about being a douche isn't the same as a rapist, the alleged behaviour of Jimmy Havoc is textbook emotional abuse. It's more than simply being a douche. The guy can get in the bin. Tyler Bate being grouped in with these scumbags for asking a married woman to his hotel room is someone who I feel bad for.
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Eh what a trainwreck the last few days have been. I think the people making cuck jokes at Cornette are missing the point entirely. The problem isn't the cuckolding, but the abuse of power. I can't be the only one wondering if he's going to touch on this on his next podcast episode, right?
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This is a from a handheld, but the quality is decent for it's age. This only goes six or so minutes and it mainly consists of these two chunky lads clobbering each other hard. These two grunt and groan so much that even the handheld camera from way back is picking it up. Hansen lands a dropkick and lariats Khan to the outside, which leads to Khan getting counted out. This was fine for what it was and at least it had a somewhat clean finish. ★★½
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I'd say the biggest promotions he works for currently are OTT and RevPro. I wonder if they are going to keep booking him after this. He's a top player in OTT.
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This has a slow start, with Choshu trading holds with Jumbo and Tenryu. After seeing a number of Choshu tags, I was starting to worry that he might not as good as I thought he initially was after loving his short and explosive singles matches for many years. He's just much better when he's throwing bombs and not working holds. I did love Choshu struggling to attempt his Scorpion Deathlock on Tenryu, a spot that was used in their classic singles match in JWP earlier in the year. Thankfully, it's not long until they up the intensity as Jumbo bleeds a gusher after taking a ring bell shot for Killer Khan. The arm that Choshu worked on during the opening is brought back into play as Khan stretches it in the turnbuckle and drops a top rope leg onto it. Khan, despite being the guy I liked least in this match, really impressed me with his selling. There's a non-finish here, but are you surprised? ★★★½
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I'm upset about David Starr, but I'm honestly not surprised. Guys who try way too hard to appear super woke online always have skeletons in their closets.
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They spent the first half of this trading holds, which I don't have a problem with as they created a sense of struggle and the holds looked good. The second half is where they go all out with the big spots. Some of the moves these women do are shocking to 2020 eyes, especially that running sitout tombstone. The selling gets somewhat neglected in the final moments, but with action this exciting, I can give them a pass. I can't imagine what it would of been like seeing this in 1985! ★★★★¼
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Tiger Mask has left New Japan and wants to try his hand at shoot-style. With his excellent speed and wide array of strikes, he adapts well to the style, but I'm sure Fujiwara's excellent performance carried this. Fujiwara was in the zone and puts Tiger over big time by selling his arse for for Tiger's strikes and eventually giving up when Tiger locks in his brutal looking chickenwing. This match loses steam after Super Tiger misses his top rope attempt, but there's enough Fujiwara awesomeness to make this worth your time. ★★★½
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Don Arakawa has been an underneath guy for most of his career at this point, and he gets a rare chance to fight for some gold. He's seriously outclassed by The Cobra, but he gets in a number of hope spots in this ten minute bout. Within minutes of the bell ringing, he lands a perfect bridging German that sends the fans into a frenzy. He might actually pull this one off after all! The Cobra has been established as the top junior in NJPW now that Tiger Mask has left. He looks the part of the ace of his division and brings the punishment to Arakawa. That tombstone spot was brutal, but they completely devalue it within seconds as Arakawa gets up and brushes it off. There's some good stuff here, but they get too carried away with upping the workrate instead of telling the underdog story that they laid out to rate this any higher than good. ★★★
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This has a big fight feel and the crowd are firmly behind Chigusa Nagayo. Everything about Nagayo screams babyface. I'm seeing Devil Masami for the first time and she stole the show for me here. Her facial expressions are top notch. She makes some menacing faces when things aren't going her way. She also has some neat offence such as her kneeling piledriver and the double underhook backbreaker thing she did a few times. Unfortunately I can't say I loved this as much as everyone else. The first 15 minutes felt directionless and slow, and I found that the momentum shifted all over the place with little rhyme or reason during the next 20 minutes. Nagayo really needed a longer face in peril segment for their finishing stretch to hook me. I really liked their intense boxing spots as none of those shots looked fake, but the double knockout finish bugged me. It is the 80's, so non-finishes are to be expected. This is still a good match in my eyes, just not as epic and amazing as it's reputation will have you to believe. ★★★½
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Come for Andre, stay for Hoshino! Watching 5'7" Hoshino trying his hardest to fight Andre was hilarious. People sleep on Hoshino way too much. Tony St. Clair is mainly here to give Andre a rest when he needs to, but he shows his worth by peppering in some slick World Of Sport exchanges with Sakaguchi and Hoshino. Andre's body was starting to break down by 1985, and his match with Stan Hansen just a few years prior feels a lifetime ago, but he uses his monster presence, charisma and surprisingly stellar comedy skills to make up for a lack of workrate. I won't spoil all the comedy bits, but I loved everything about this. If you're having a rough day and find yourself with ten minutes to spare, give this one a watch as it will have you grinning from ear to ear in no time! ★★★¼
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Bryan/Gulak from Elimination Chamber is still my WWE MOTY so far. But I'd say that Edge/Orton sits comfortably with Ripley/Charlotte, Bryan/Gulak and Gallagher/Lorcan as the top WWE matches post lockdown. Enjoyable show, much better than it had any right to be.
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That was good. That must of went 40+ minutes.