Calvin
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Everything posted by Calvin
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An underrated Taker performance here as he shrugs off a vengeful Flair's best efforts and methodically, brutally beats him into a bloody mess. Arn Anderson's run-in is one of my favorite spots ever. ***1/2 -
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You can see them laying the groundwork for the infamous 4/7 Akiyama vs. Ogawa match. I don't personally have any strong feelings about Akiyama dropping the championship to Ogawa in four minutes, but I appreciate that they planted the seed and watered it a little instead of booking a total surprise for surprise's sake. ***
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Hashimoto dishes out an ass-kicking in one of the better squash matches that you'll ever see. Lack of heat puts a ceiling on this, but this is mechanically and functionally on-par with any of post-MMA Brock Lesnar's extended squashes.
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A historic match not only for it's significance in establishing Ring of Honor's reputation, but also because it's one of the best triple threat matches of all-time. It's fast-paced, hard-hitting, with tons of innovative sequences that were groundbreaking at the time, and while this match has merits on its athletic accomplishments alone, there's layers to the action beyond the impressive physical execution that elevate this into something more memorable than your standard spotfest. ****1/2
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This is ten minutes of Takayama playing with his food before violently snuffing them out, and today's meal is the spirited, headbutting maestro Makoto Hashi. ***
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This is a surprisingly praised match, and maybe it should've been at the time, but it doesn't hold up in 2023. Punk and Hero are talented performers, but they're not quite experienced enough at this stage in their careers to handle a short film-length hardcore match with the required finesse, and it predictably crumbles under the weight of its own ambition despite their best physical efforts. **1/4
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This match ends after the entrances since that's all Chono is good for. I'm actually glad that they decided to just do random shit to pop the house. **1/4
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This isn't terrible, but I find Nagata is only as good as his opponent, and Tenzan isn't him. **1/2
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This is everything I would've wanted out of these two in this setting. It was compact, connective, and had no wasted motion whatsoever. ***1/2
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I wanna say this is their first singles match together, but don't hold me to it. Their chemistry is apparent, but Tanahashi is just a very unconvincing offensive wrestler here. **1/2
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More T2P goodness. A lot of this seems centered around the ongoing feud between Milano and Saito, where the former clearly has the latter's number. Tons of fast sequences, flashy submissions, and colorful personalities as is this promotion's wont. ***
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These two have good chemistry, so the action is good, but this is still a wildly overbooked mess with all your usual mindless Attitude Era tropes, and they lazily recycle sequences from previous matches. Most importantly, this essentially confirms what we already knew: Chris Jericho is a paper tiger champion. **3/4
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Decent match, but Edge simply isn't interesting. He does get suplexed on his head and stretched painfully in the Regal Stretch, though. That was definitely interesting. **3/4
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I always come away more charmed by the personability of Toryumon trios matches than I am impressed with their mechanical coordination, but they blew me away here with some of their highspots. Shisa's stuntshow was just downright absurd. ***1/4
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Triple H's in-ring return after tearing his quad, and he's visibly rusty and slower. His hot tag flops, and it's almost comical how quickly he manages to deflate a crowd that was cheering him. The match is otherwise unremarkable. **1/2
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Angle is on fire with these television matches. He works the traditional WWF big man/small man structure here well, bumps his ass off, and looks convincing on offense against someone nearly twice his size. I love the nuances in his performances where it's clear he's still working through his inexperience as a pro-wrestler, but being an Olympic-caliber wrestler is such a profoundly strong base to start off on that he's able to overcome those mistakes often with his athleticism and coordination. (And we'll soon see another, even better, iteration of this with Brock Lesnar). ***
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Kikuchi's act is amusing for a spell, as he no sells practically everything and comedically overacts when he decides to sell, and Hoshikawa has to escalate almost to shoot-levels of violence in order to get him to react, but it's mostly empty calorie exchanges that lead nowhere despite the stiffness and tension. **1/2
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These two have phenomenal chemistry, AND this match gets 11 minutes, so this is obviously a hoot, but the non-finish with Kane diminishes this. ***
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Hey, this gets ten minutes! Another fun, fast Smackdown tag match as we continue to see Jericho's stock as champion plummet when he taps clean in the ring to The Rock. RVD's a competent face-in-peril so long as his limbs aren't targeted, which they aren't, and Rocky is simply the hottest of hot tags. ***