cactus
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Everything posted by cactus
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These two have insane chemistry together and work at a speedy pace that never lets up for the duration of the bout. Bret hit some of the smoothest headlock throws ever during his shine. Perfect's known for being a great bumper, but his selling is turned up to 11 here. He cuts off Bret at just the right time, sending the MSG crowd and the babyface commentators into a rage. Speaking of commentators, I thought the bickering between Piper and Heenan added to the drama. Bret hits Perfect with everything in his arsenal and begins to gets frustrated with himself, which leads to an amazing false finish that sees Perfect roll up Bret when he's arguing with the referee. In an era where a finisher ended the match 99% of the time, Bret finding the strength to kick out of the Perfect-Plex was a huge deal, as was Bret displaying his ring IQ to start to lock on the Sharpshooter when both men were down. This match felt like a huge moment for Bret, establishing him as a top technician of the company. I used to think this match paled in comparison to their KOTR 1993 match. I'm happy to report that young Cactus is clueless. I'd easily say that this is the best match that the WWF had put on since going national. ★★★★★ -
The storyline of Virgil finally gets his payback after being DiBiase's servant for years has concluded. Virgil's big moment is the result of DiBiase carrying him to a fun match, with Roddy Piper helping things out by putting in a fantastic colour commentary job egging Virgil on. Virgil wasn't terrible, he just wasn't interesting in any way. He wasn't particularly emotive and most of his stuff was completely fine. Sherri gets involved, and gets this one thrown out, but Earl Hebner calls for the match to restart. The match wasn't anything too special, but the emotion, shenanigans and the hot MSG crowd really up this one up a notch. ★★★¼
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Gave this a rewatch and I still love it. Sherri was phenomenal in this, acting as an interfering valet constantly attacking Warrior. The post-match stuff still gives me all the feelings. My Warrior criticisms still stand as his strikes leave a lot to be desired, even if it's something that can be overlooked in an emotionally charged match like this. I still need to watch Perfect/Bret, but I think this is going to be my WWF MOTY for 1991. ★★★★½
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You couldn't get more anti-workrate than this, but it's fun for what it is. I like the small touches they added to make this work, such as Roberts trying to find Martel by using the crowd's reaction and luring Martel by clapping in one spot and moving to the next. Martel also deserves some credit for making this work as well as it did, his hammy comedic acting did wonders for a match like this. ★★½
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Typical Rockers versus big men stuff, not that I'm complaining! Both Marty and Shawn bump like crazy and the crowd are super hot for them. From his staggering selling to him catching Marty in a nifty powerslam, I thought Barbarian also looked good here. Every show needs a match like this to open things up and get the ball rolling in the right direction. As I go through all the Wrestlemanias in order, I can really appreciate how dynamic and fast-paced this match was compared to what we were usually getting on the undercard for these shows. The only match that has better workrate from the first six 'Manias is Steamboat vs Savage. The Rockers are over like rover and it's crazy that the office would split them up in a few short months. ★★★¾
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Shawn's already feeling like he could be a big single star. Both him and Perfect bump around like mad. They decided to test each other with by boxing each other and it's great house show styled fun. Shawn's nasty dive to the outside caught by surprise for what looked like a low key TV match. Perfect wins by DQ when Bossman attacks him. Shawn is fine with Bossman costing him the match because ...reasons. Hulkamania-era babyfaces had less depth than a puddle. ★★★
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I really liked the Dr D. episode, the best from this season behind the Benoit and Brawl For All episodes. I didn't know too much about the incident so it was quite eye opening. Dr D. is obviously a bit of headcase, but I felt bad that Vince screwed him over. I don't get why John Stossel is still bitter about the slap though. I'd happily take a slap from Dr D. if it got me half a million in damages. Eddy Mansfield exposing the business for the benefit of the workers is something I could get behind, but there's something disingenuous about him which I can't' put my finger on.
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The image of Stan Hansen pacing around the ring, whilst spitting chewing tobacco everywhere disgust me on a deep level. These guys potato each other, but it's missing the flare that their famous NJPW brawl had as the crowd just aren't reacting to it. The referee throws this one out and rules it a double DQ and Vader and Hansen brawl to the back. This is a curiousity watch and nothing more. ★★
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This is was at it's best when both guys were throwing bombs. Tamura hit Kakihara with a DVD that looked like the one that Velveteen Dream does, can't say I was expecting to see that in a shoot-style match! The matwork felt hyper realistic , but it lacked flavour. Being a the first ever match under the UWFi banner, this gave you a taster what to expect and to introduce to two wrestlers who would be very important to the development of the promotion. ★★★
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I think a good way how to tell if a worker is at an elite level is by how engaging and interesting they can make a simple headlock. Kawada keeps Tsurata's famous temper in check by keeping him grounded. Kawada loses this after taking two nasty backdrop drivers, but he looks strong and on Tsurata's level. This being just short of 20 minutes was a refreshing change. Not all big title matches need to 30+ minutes all the time. Take note, NJPW. ★★★★¼
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I've never been a fan of the War Games stipulation as I find the first 15 minutes doesn't feel important as the match can't end and they can be hard to follow, but I thought this was brilliant. Pillman and Windham's open this and the make every second of the 5 minutes they get alone count, with Pillman using the cage and extra ring to destroy Windham in a variety of different ways. Sid and Rick Steiner call a spot so loud that it makes John Cena sound silent. Sid is a lot more athletic as usual, and Rick bumps like a motherfucker so all is forgiven. Once everyone is in the ring, the heels gain an advantage and Sid violently powerbombs Pillman on his head. The finish involves El Gigante coming out to Pillman's aid and throwing in the towel for him. I wasn't a fan of the finish as it did no favours for supposed babyface Gigante and the crowd showers him with boos once the bell rings. ★★★★
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With all the talent in this, it's a surprise that Fuchi gets a good showing and it's one of his best performances ever. He keeps breaking up pins and submissions, tearing apart Kobashi's leg and being an all-round dickhead. Kawada flipping him off caught me as I wasn't even aware flipping the bird was a thing in Japan. Taue and Kawada still hate each other and proceed to the rip each other to shreds whenever they're near each other. Tsurata's pride is still hurt from his loss from Misawa last year so he spends this night making everyone on Misawa's team pay. I liked the part where he's trying to disguise his chokehold on Kawada as a perfectly legal chinlock. What impressed me most about this was that they were able to keep the action fast paced and explosive for the majority of the match despite this going 50+ minutes. I wouldn't call this perfect as there's definitely times when I felt my attention fading (the 30 minute mark after Kawada's comeback and the Kobashi hot tag segment comes to mind), but I can't name a better six man tag better than this off the top of my head. ★★★★¾
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The crowd treat Tsurata as a god as he enters the building, but it's not long until they are firmly behind Kawada. This has a slow start, with Tsurata going for Kawada's leg. Things get going once it seems like Kawada might have a chance at topping the ace. His selling in this is sublime, he lands a gamengiri, but he isn't able to follow up as his leg is giving him too much pain. Tsurata lands two nasty Backdrop Drivers and gets the win, still sitting firmly at the top of the AJPW hierarchy. ★★★¼
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With this being a non-televised event, they work a lot of holds. They do decent job of keeping them interesting, with Kobashi holding onto a headlock even after getting his shin dropped over Misawa's knee. The short finishing stretch is very explosive, with both guys dropping bombs. Obviously not to the level of their later matches, but it's clear these guys have great chemistry between them. ★★★¼
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El Gigante is introduced before the match and if I didn't know how terrible he was in the ring, I'd be quite chuffed at seeing him versus Flair from their interaction here alone. Not to be contrarian, but I liked this a lot. Scotty's performance wasn't his best. He botched a spot where he and Flair were meant to go over the ropes, and he didn't show a lot of fire and he looked lost during the final few seconds (something that's very important not to fuck up when you are doing a time limit finish!), but Flair saved this one for me. It's classic heel Flair. He slows the pace right down, cheats to stay on top before going to town on his opponent's leg. Steiner's selling of his damaged leg was great at least. ★★★½
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Very brief match, with Cactus wanting to brawl, but Jumbo wanting to keep it in the ring. Cactus takes three nasty bumps onto the concrete despite this going barely five minutes. It's a surprise Foley can still walk with the amount of bumps like these he's taken over the years. I didn't think Jumbo looked lazy. He's a star working a big tournament with guy who hadn't yet proved himself. He made Foley look good without taking too many bumps himself. ★★¾
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Gordy and Hansen violently lariating their opponents is always going to be entertaining, but this is let down by an over reliance on holds during the first half. Things improve once Misawa is laid out with a powerbomb on the outside and Kawada has to fight off the two nasty gaijins by himself. Words cannot fathom how over Kawada was during this point in time, the crowd even chant along with his kicks much like they would with Daniel Bryan some twenty years later. Slow and dull first half, compelling and explosive conclusion. ★★★¼
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Not much action, but a lot of campy fun. Lawler threatens to cut Garvin's hair before the bell, and the match ends in a few minutes once Lawler has enough of Garvin's stalling and cheating and attempts to cut of Garvin's lovely locks. Any match that has Jerry Lawler throwing a few punches can't be all bad. I had no idea Downtown Bruno was Harvey Wippleman until I googled it. ★★
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Watching the yearbooks has given these AJPW matches the context they deserve. It's top-tier wrestling, but there's a lot of backstory you would miss if you just go into the big matches blind. For example, the crowd go apeshit for Kawada and Taue starting off as this is playing off the hellish brawl the two had at the same building the week previous. Kawada shows a lot of fire, whilst Old Man Tsurata gives one of his grumpiest performances yet. Poor Kikuchi never stood a chance when Jumbo got his hands on him! The highlight of this match was seeing an out of his element Kawada trying to hang with Tsurata whilst the audience rallies him on. ★★★★½
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RIP Fink. Voice of my childhood.
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You could take my thoughts from their last match and paste them here as this was very similar, just worked at a slower pace. Eric Young possess a nice looking running knee.The world's sleaziest babyface tries to hulk up Lawler style, but is greeted by a chain shot, costing him the match. ★★
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Tatum stalls around to start this off, until Dundee gets his hands on him. Dundee uses a lot of WOS-inspired grappling and that took me by surprise. After being distracted by Dundee's valet, Dundee scores a roll-up for the win. Tatum sulks in the ring afterwards, giving some pantomime level facial expression to try and sell his shock and misery. There's not too much here and it didn't go overly long, but this was fine for what it was. ★★½