tim
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Everything posted by tim
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The Ultimate Dragon! I definitely don't think this was an extended squash, Rey got too much offense after Ultimo's long period on top, but man Ultimo sure did spend a lot of time on top and threw out everything and the kitchen sink to keep it from getting boring. The match does get really good when Rey gets on offense, and does feel competitive. Good match overall, not really great.
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Man, I remember the second trios being an all-time classic but this match, while being a wild angle, not exactly a great match in itself. Well, it's a wild angle and damn incredible match! Total chaos for the entirety of the match. This was like a back-alley gang beatdown with no remorse. And when the technicos finally get a comeback they're every bit as furious. Poor Hector Garza spends the first two falls trying to reason with Santo, but once Casas has Santo down in the third fall and is stomping away at his head, Hector keeps him from rolling out of the ring! Awesome spot. Just about every moment in this match is an awesome, brutal spot. I can't wait for the rematch.
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Sure the first half was nothing to really write home about, but I don't think it took away from the match as a whole. Overall it was definitely a great tag with an awesome home stretch. The crowd is really hot for Kobashi and Misawa facing off at the bell and it's cool that it's an extended Kobashi/Misawa segment that really kicks the match off later on. Patriot looked good and worked great with Akiyama at the end.
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Doc and Ace are having such a damn good year. I'm tempted to call them tag team of the year over Misawa/Akiyama and Kawada/Taue, but after the late November and RWTL Finals matches those two will have against each other, that probably won't be tenable. But man, they've ruled and they rule here too. In the Kawada/Taue matches against Misawa and Akiyama or Kobashi, the theme is usually that Kawada and Taue are superior as a cohesive unit, but here Ace and Williams are working together as a team more solidly than Kawada and Taue, and are mostly in control of the match. Taue gets a great hot tag and just stomps ass; he's got Ace set up for an apron Nodawa but Williams knocks them off the apron -- Taue is still able to land on his feet, pull off the Nodawa on the outside, and then cuts off Williams charging him with a clothesline. In fact, Taue sort of feels like the Misawa to Kawada's Akiyama, being the guy who keeps them in it with bursts of offense and keeps Ace at bay for Kawada to finish off Williams at the end. The last few minutes are really tense with Williams and Ace struggling to get back in control, but once Kawada makes his comeback on Doc he's able to unleash enough firepower to put him away. Awesome, awesome match. Also of note, Ace has a great running back elbow.
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Wow! Piper is crazy over. Bischoff's turn does sort of seem lost in all the chaos of everything else in the segment and by itself doesn't feel as significant as it might have if revealed differently. The focus of this angle is still very much Piper vs. Hogan, and man does that feel like a big match right now.
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Man Austin's having quite a back-to-back performance here. Really fun brawl, especially in the beginning. Man, The Executioner looks lame, but Undertaker looked great here. The Austin/Undertaker tease is really appealing. Austin definitely feels several rungs up as a star after last night.
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I thought this was a very good, close to great match. Like Austin/Bret it has a big match feel and the crowd being all about Sid gives it a really cool atmosphere. This was laid out exceptionally well and Shawn was really on. When the match gave Sid more leeway to spend some time working over Shawn he was none too impressive, but the match was pretty meticulously laid out to keep things moving along and it never got bogged down. The ending was sort of lame as the Jose Lothario stuff took away from the flow of the match when it was really starting to get hot, but the crowd still popped huge for Sid's win. Cool moment. The two big matches on this show really felt significant.
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I only watched this match once, several years ago, and didn't have so strong a recollection of it coming in to this viewing; and man, it's incredible. First off all the presentation is amazing, the video package and then the interviews before their respective entrances made this feel like a totally huge match, on top of very palpably being an "arrival" for Austin, this match cements him as feeling like a real top of the card star. And the work is just great. What I love about this match is it matches both Austin and Bret's characters; Austin is the brawler but has a lot of wrestling skill, Bret is the wrestler but is tough and can duke it out, and they mix the technical wrestling with brawling seemlessly, though really at its base it's a technical wrestling match. The whole match is good but once Bret recovers by winning a totally awesome punch exchange, and especially after Bret hits the piledriver, the match is really at another level. The drama, nearfalls and trading of big offense feels like a step above anything else going on in American wrestling. Bret's desperate struggle for the Sharpshooter right at the end was such a great spot. The flash roll up ending is one of the best flash roll up endings anywhere; those are usually booked as a half-measure to keep the loser from looking too weak and in doing so lessen the impact of the win for the winner and end up coming off pretty lame, but here it was perfect. Austin still looks great in defeat but it's not a cheap win for Bret at all. Really hard to rank this vs. Foley/Michaels.
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It's a damn crime that Scoprio didn't turn out to be a bigger star. Amazing talent, unique style, tons of charisma, good on the mic. He's a blast in this segment and it's a great segment overall. Scorpio giving away that he's going to job for the next guy coming out was just about the best shoot comment in any promo ever, and somehow they work the whole thing so that despite it starting out as a transparent joke, the guy who does end up pinning him ends up looking good!
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I was totally loving this match for the first 15-20 minutes. It was sold as a big match and the work and crowd reaction lived up to it, and it was just total chaos. Saturn working a chinlock, getting a chair thrown at him, and then just EXPLODING at Sabu leading to a wild exchange of dives was such an awesome spot. It was all just nonstop madness, very entertaining and never felt overly choreographed. After Sabu hits the tornado DDT through the table, though, it just start to feel like overkill. The multiple re-starts were interesting in theory but I was well ready for the match to be over by the end. Overall, very enjoyable.
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For a thirty minute draw this breezed by for me, and I never thought it dragged. These teams keep delivering and would have to be my feud of the year so far. This was a particularly rough match, with Williams especially dishing out some nasty, not-graceful offense directed toward Akiyama. The standout is a truly vicious lariat closer to the end. The long peril segment with Akiyama and the fact that this match doesn't go quite into the high end offense and extended run of dramatic nearfalls we got in their other matches made this feel like a bit more of an American style tag match. Doc teases his back drop drive throughout and after finally hitting it on Akiyama after a great extended struggle, is all about trying to hit it again at any opportunity for the rest of the match. A step down in quality from their other two big matches but to me those are a pretty damn high level of quality, this was still great and has a unique flavor among big All Japan tags.
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I've been intrigued by this match since I saw it as a shocking #2 on Loss' 1996 list, but never got around to watching it until now. I don't think it's one of the classic lucha title matches, and sure isn't a top MOTY contender for me, but no doubt this is an excellent match. Mat work in the first fall was sweet and I wish they spent more time on it. They really capitalize on the short, screwy second fall by having Dandy open up the third fall with roll up after roll up, establishing that Black Warrior can easily get screwed over and take a loss on any one of them. The third fall is really grueling and you really get the feeling of Warrior overcoming a lot between how hard fought the match is and how the deck is stacked against him with the ref keeping him from capitalizing by letting El Dandy lay around outside the ring, and ignoring his rope breaks. Warrior's big run of offense toward the end of the third fall with the awesome springboard head scissors, followed by the the big dropkick to the outside and then the moonsault to the outside ruled. Warrior's win feels like a real triumph. This won't finish in my top 10, maybe not my top 20, but it was great.
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The best from Battlarts thus far in the year. And man was this match awesome. Especially violent and hated-filled for a Battlarts match, and just chock full of incredible stuff. The extended beginning where Ikeda and Ishikawa are just killing each other, Ikeda dropping Ishikawa on his head over and over again with suplexes while Ono kicks him while he's down between each one, Otsuka hitting the greatest big swing of all time, Ono hammering Otsuka with strikes as Otsuka keeps diving in for a takedown. Some out of this world great moments in a match that overall doesn't quite hit MOTYC level.
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Austin is just killing it right now. Great contrast between the two; Bret is cool, collected, on top and confident in his position on top, while Austin is hungry and just taking every advantage to goad Bret, and he sure is petulant here in every way. Bret does seem to get a bit irritated as the interview goes on. Vince sells Austin going after the production guy and smashing the monitor really well. Austin is such an energetic presence totally unlike anything else going on in WWF.
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Man this is a VICIOUS beating Austin lays out. One of the better looking beatdowns you'll see in wrestling, Austin was just savage. Cool to see a fully developed Stone Cold still as a clear heel. He'd become an anti-hero pretty quickly but seeing him as a full on villain is a cool dimension of the character and you really never see again, as Austin's character in his 2001 heel turn is quite different. Brisco's bump is also nuts.
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I think this was my favorite match of theirs too, but it doesn't run away with it. I didn't think Malenko was quite at his best in control, but Rey was just spectacular. Especially the opening portion was dazzling, especially in the context of 1996 WCW, but it's great wrestling in any era. I felt like it slumped a bit in the middle but they picked it back up at the end with some exciting nearfalls and finished it off with an awesome looking top rope gutwrench powerbomb.