ohtani's jacket
DVDVR 80s Project
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Everything posted by ohtani's jacket
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I'm gonna try to be positive about Loss' #469. Firstly, it appealed to that most Japanese of sensibilities of a fighter showing fighting spirit in a loss. Second, the flurry Tamura has where it seems like the impossible might happen is a really cool moment in the bout. Thirdly, these are the type of Vader bouts I liked in Germany. What irked me most, though, wasn't that this wasn't shoot style. I can live with it being a crazy spectacle. What bugged me was the finish. Couldn't Vader have learnt a shoot style hold instead of throwing out pro-style moves? If they didn't want Vader to TKO Tamura with strikes, I would have liked to have seen Vader grab an armbar or something unorthodox from the big man, But that's just me. -
I could only find a JIP version of Loss' #473 but loved it. There was nothing really special about what Flair or Morton were doing but the crowd were super hot and both guy's characters were so clearly defined that you just enjoyed the fact it was Flair vs. Morton in front of a hot crowd. I swear until my dying day that as soon as Flair cut his hair it was over. It's like Samson and Delilah.
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Loss' #474. This started off well and Bourne looked like an absolute beast, but Kerry sucked too much for me to rate this too highly. Those discus punches were abysmal. I've always loathed matches that go backstage. I can barely tolerate matches that go around the arena. I'm kind of surprised by how many people thought it was cool that they half-arsed it on a pickup truck in the middle of a thunderstorm. The real fight here seemed to die out once they left the ring.
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I hadn't seen Loss' #477 in years so decided to give it a whirl. Great little match. It's Joshi so some of the transitions aren't the greatest but the battle from the mat to the high impact moves is as dogged and hard fought as any match in the 500-451 to date. Cutie was always a fierce competitor and she showed that in spades here, and the Scorpion was a talented "mystery girl" in the same vein that the Tarantula had been in the 80s. Stylistically, this reminded me of what Chigusa, Asuka and Omori were trying to do on the back of the UWF boom in the mid-to-late 80s. They really mixed up shoot style and Joshi puroresu well and had a committed, hard fought bout.
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I could only see the clipped version of #484 w/ Zbyszko on commentary, but you take what you can get. The focus of the clipped version is Larry Z's commentary. Larry was a great talker and it was easy to get suckered into his outrageous take on the match. Some offensive comments, but hey, Zbyszko made a living out of being obnoxious. Would have to see the complete version to actually concentrate on the bout.
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Loss' #480 was a well worked house show bout. I've enjoyed what little PG-13 I've seen in the past and this was another solid performance from them. It had all the ingredients of an enjoyable house show bout and just enough action to avoid being a match that was all about heat. I liked Dudley in this match too. His stuff on offense looked good and his bumping and selling helped carry the action. The hot tag wasn't that great and neither was the finish but Pete mentioned something about Whipwreck had a knee injury and he did look fairly immobile at times. Were PG-13 the best tag team in wrestling at this point?
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Loss' #478 was better than I thought it would be. Hansen vs. Terry was still pretty fun in 1990, but I actually think I liked Dory taking the fight to Stan even more. The Funks were relics of a bygone age at this point but I guess there's nothing All Japan crowds like more than the Funks having one more last hurrah.
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Loss' #481. Tamura was still a little raw here and really hadn't had that many fights under his belt up until this point. I'm guessing that's the reason why it was such a scrappy affair. The mat stuff was okay but the stand up portions weren't as good as in later Tamura fights. Things got a bit loose down the finishing stretch and I disliked that Samoan drop thing Tamura did. Overall, it was better than anything I can remember Tamura doing in the UWF, so it was likely his best match to date, but like most novices they were a bit too ambitious down the stretch and lost their way a bit.
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Loss' #483. Savage does his favourite trick of selling a knee injury, but there's no denying the man was good at it. I liked the transition from Savage's early brawling to Michaels and Sherri taking over on offense. I didn't mind Michaels going back to the figure four so much as they worked it differently each time and I loved the slaps to the face. Savage reversing it and Michaels clambering for the ropes was a nice touch and the crowd bought into Michael's finger across the throat on the final go through. The only thing I didn't like was the set-up to the flying elbow. The turnbuckle selling was great but I had a hard time believing Michaels would stay down that long from a posting and a clothesline. Nice post-match attack, though. And the rest of the match was rock solid. I wonder how good their other matches were that year.
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My bad if that's the case. There were a few other channels that used to upload WoS matches like https://www.youtube.com/user/mike06052 and https://www.youtube.com/user/wrestlaz Recently, there have been some full length original WoS episodes uploaded by this guy -- https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCAcBjp6k-E-9Bh3Z7v9yxaA/videos?sort=dd&view=0&shelf_id=0 and full length M&M episodes here - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6e_hofDmYgegf3_tHJMm0g
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This has bothered me a lot since I read it. An awful thing. My condolences to his family, especially his brave wife.
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What do we know about 80s JWP in terms of how they drew? Same for LLPW? I presume the answer is "not well" and certainly not "hall of fame level." But I don't really know much about that and I'm a little curious. One thing I was struck by watching Kandori vs Devil from 88 recently was the crowd. It wasn't enormous, but it appears to be a mostly adult male audience. One thing that is always pointed to in Aja Kong's favor is her influence in drawing the hardcore male fans based on appearing on those Hamada's UWF shows and helping move Joshi away from catering to the younger girl audience. I'm wondering if that was fairly consistent at JWP shows in the 80s or if that match was an anomaly. Its not an entire HOF case by any means, but looking back at the "Golden Age" of Joshi Wrestling, Hokuto vs Kandori is one of the first things to come to mind. I guess I'm just more curious about her career. She comes across like a big deal watching footage but discussion of that era, where it exists, is usually centered around ring work. All this said, I agree with everything Tim said above except for the part about Kyoko. Kandori and Kansai strike me as the two best candidates from that era. Neither strike me as particularly strong candidates for the Hall in general, but I think both, especially Kandori, are pretty interesting figures to think about on some level. I don't think the original JWP particularly catered to the school girl audience. They initially had some backing from the producer behind a popular idea group at the time, which was a large part of the reason why the wrestlers were dressed in more elaborate costumes than the traditional All Japan "bathing suits." But New Japan was quite heavily involved w/ the women training at the New Japan dojo and Kandori herself preferring to spar with men and eventually Shinma, Onita and Hamada started pulling it this way and that trying to turn it into a multi-style promotion ala the original UWF before the shoot style guys took over. The women wanted it to continue as a women's promotion and the internal split eventually led to the formation of FMW and Hamada's UWF. JWP up until that point hadn't been making any money. They mostly ran small venues like they do today and their video releases were these overpriced, terribly shot handhelds that you had to write away for. They had no TV presence whatsoever and mostly drew the hardcores. Kandori was either fired or suspended after she shot on Jackie Sato (I don't remember which) and when she returned she became the first freelance wrestler in Joshi puroresu history. All Japan wanted to bring her in for a big match with Chigusa prior to Chigusa's 1989 retirement but apparently they wanted Kandori to sign a five year contract and she was only prepared to sign a one year deal so the fight fell threw. That may have been her best chance to be a significant draw prior to the inter-promotional period. One of the cool things about the Hokuto vs. Kandori feud is that it was very much a worked shoot. Kandori was unpopular in the pro-wrestling community and seen as an outsider from the Judo world who didn't have a true love for professional wrestling and Hokuto called her out on that in her promos. There's no way Kandori was a HOF draw or even that big a star, but she was a regular on the late night comedy shows given many of the comedians were fans of wrestling and you can see some of that stuff on YouTube. You should watch Kandori and Kazama watching Fujiwara direct a porno, if you haven't. It's kind of ironic considering Kazama went on to do porn. And Fujiwara directing a porn is as great as you'd imagine. He sits in this chair drinking a bottle of whiskey and directing the sex scene. Anyway, Kandori was a regular on these type of shows and had a huge amount of charisma. Her nickname was Mr. Joshi Puroresu and they would often play off that image that she was more like a man than a female wrestler. She also gained some notoriety for running for the Upper House elections and eventually getting a seat as a Japanese lawmaker.
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Loss' #491 was a simple Choshu style match that was reasonably well executed. A lack of strikes and some dull matwork prevented it from being truly exciting and the finishing stretch was kind of predictable. Still, it accomplished what it set out to do, welcoming the returning Muto back into the fold and letting him know where he sat in the hierarchy.
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Loss' #494. For once I agree with myself from four years ago. The match is decent but it's very much an aging Steamboat against a less experienced and more limited Austin than his WWF peak. Some of the action is good but there are small lulls too like Austin's bear hug. And a finish like that just makes the past 10-12 minutes seem inconsequential. The ode to WM III was a neat touch and something I didn't pick up on four years ago.
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Loss' #493. I can't find this anywhere (if it's hiding somewhere), but I did find a bunch of Jake's SMW promos online and I've got to say that Jake was still the best promo guy in wrestling at this point. The best thing about Jake's heel act in '94 was his insistence that nothing was ever his fault. It didn't matter whether he DDT'ed the Dirty White Girl, or cut a promo sitting at home, he managed to be psychotic, scary and compelling.
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Loss' #496. Like Matt, I watched the rematch first, but hey, two matches for the price of one. UWF-i is like the AAA of shoot style to me and pretty much made a mockery of the style, but I did get suckered into this. I mean where else can you see three US big men wrestle like a collegiate wrestler, a sumo wrestler and a boxer? That's pretty much what the UWF-i style allowed the US guys to do. You can argue til the cows come home how good they were at it, but at the end of the day the crowd were hot for the matches and everybody wanted to see Vader vs. Albright, which was clearly the selling point. Nothing really pure, but nothing you'd see in the US either. Great use of swearing too.
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Loss' #498. DDP impressed me on commentary here and Goldberg's entrance predated the UFC in some ways, but the match itself didn't do much for me. Felt like a smart blockbuster flick at best, but way too short, and the finish let most of the air out of the balloon. A decent main event for 1998 television, but by no means historically great. 499 is available on Ditch's site, btw.
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Loss' #499 is a fun match. Starts off by resembling a lucha tag, culminating in a pair of swank topes, then shifts to move of a juniors focus with a series of finishers and nearfalls. There's not a great deal of narrative to speak of, but the action moves at a steady pace and Hoshikawa's quasi-shooter gimmick provides a nice counter-balance to the lucha influences. Would have been an entertaining bout to watch live.
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Mile Zrno vs. Steve Wright (Vienna, 1987) I've always had an irrational dislike for Steve Wright mostly due to the fact that I see him as a supremely talented guy who rarely ever brings it. If there were some sort of shtick over skill meter, Wright would set off alarm bells. The best match I've seen him as was as "Bull Blitzer", wrestling Marty Jones for the World Mid Heavyweight title in 1986. I saw this match against Zrno many years ago and for some reason it didn't leave much of an impression. This time I thought it was excellent. It was clipped, of course. which interrupted the flow at times, but the bulk of the action was Wright and Zrno trading the sort of holds the ol' noodle expects them to work. Competitive, skilled, mat-based; Wright lived up to his billing here. And Zrno was, well, Zrno. More matches like this, please.
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It's time to get stuck into Loss' 500. 500 is a big number. I can't imagine ranking the top 500 of anything. I'm just going to give a straight take on this stuff. This struck me as nothing special. Ross spent the entire match shilling shit. The pay off to the finish was meant to be the Freebirds tagging in Badstreet but Badstreet didn't tag in with the Freebirds in peril or drive home the Freebirds' advantage and get in a quick cheap shot. Instead, Badstreet seemed to hold his own and then some, which begs the question of why Garvin and Hayes sheltered him from the tag. This would have been better as a house show match without Ross having to recap and re-advertise the Clash every five seconds but even then you've got to buy that the stalling and the slow burn payoff is any more than a stock standard TV match.
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Mile Zrno vs. Bobby "Power" Stahlhauer (IWW, Hannover 1/17/98) The German summer tournaments may have been held under a tent in a camping ground while the wrestlers lived out of caravans but at least they had some prestige to them. This German indie venue looks like something straight out of an early BattlARTS show. It's fair to say that Zrno didn't always face the most skilled of opponents during his illustrious career, but here he was in 1998 still trying to make a young guy look like. Tremendous commitment to his craft and as fine a veteran performance as I can remember seeing from a Euro guy in 90s. This a few years before "maestro wrestling" became a thing. Makes me wonder if I should take 00s Euro maestro work seriously. The answer to that is that I probably should.
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Thanks for the correction. It's a wonderful channel and I hope you continue updating it. Vic Hill vs. Jack Gacek was awesome. I've always loved 30s cinema and judging by this I'll love 30s graps too. The Miller Brothers vs. Fabulous Kangaroos featured two legendary tag teams but was a bit generic for my liking. Stuff like cutting off the man and face in peril segments. Others might see that as vintage tag wrestling, tho. Jose Sevilla vs K.O. Koverley was a bit looser than Hill/Gacek but they did some really cool mat spots. Jules Strongbow vs. Hardy Kruskamp was especially intriguing after watching Strongbow do the ring-announcing at the Hollywood Legion Stadium, as well as commentating and the backstage interviews. He was a big guy and a power wrestler cum slugger, but I was impressed by his intensity. He really stuck to his man and gave him no leeway. Vincent Lopez vs. Man Mountain Dean was pretty much classic pro-wrestling in that it was basically a slug fest. The footage may have been slightly speed up in the transfer but there's no denying the intensity of the performers. The first thing that stood out to me about Ali Baba vs Red Brannigan was how Brannigan really did look like an Irishman and Baba, even if he wasn't really Turkish, fit the bill. It never ceases to amaze me how much more global wrestling was in the early days when people really did seem like they were coming from all over the world to compete in overseas territories. It makes professional wrestling seem like a sport with a global reach. Baba seems like an interesting story. Watching him bodyslam a guy into "submission" is a finish that probably wouldn't work these days but is an awesome way to get over one of wrestling's most basic moves.
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THE ARTHUR PSYCHO HOUR Ep 57 Haven't done one of these in a while. Billy Joe Beck vs. Ringo Rigby (11/20/84) Rigby was never that great after returning from the States, but this was a solid enough television debut for Beck. It's a "Waltonism" if ever there was one, but he called Beck a "boy" despite the wrestler being grey and middle-aged. Beck was from Belfast but his style didn't really resemble FInlay or Moran unfortunately. Mel Stuart vs. Caswell Martin (1/9/79) Stuart was a seventh rate Dick Murdoch in his prime and he was already past his best here. You know you're on the slide when you're tinkering with your gimmick and here he was trying to do some "Pretty Boy" character that was going nowhere fast. Martin made this watchable but Walton had a bee in his bonnet about how Martin was giving Stuart too much "leeway" and would just not let it go. All-time great he may be, but he could sure be irritating at times and didn't he have his moods? Crusher Brannigan vs. Giant Haystacks (9/1/83) Wrestling Haystacks was an exercise in futility. Brannigan was a loud American heel who was the latest to suffer the indignity. I can't say he put much effort into it, but he did gig which was banned on TV so I guess he thought he'd make it colourful. Caswell Martin vs. Giant Haystacks (1/25/84) One of the dumber things about Dale Martin & Joint Promotions is that they'd fed Haystacks quality wrestlers like Caswell Martin, Marty Jones or Johnny Wilson for no good reason. And it's not like they get a fall against him or look like they have any chance of scoring an upset. They just get squashed, which is stupid. And they wonder why wrestling's popularity slipped. Steve Logan vs. Tiger Dalbir Singh (5/21/86) This was a good match, especially the first few rounds where the local lad Logan was looking to score the upset. Singh eventually took over and slowed the pace a bit, but he finished Logan off with some cool leg submission work instead of a bullshit injury finish or some other generic shit. Lacked a bit of meat in the middle but clearly the match of the day. Eddie Riley vs. Alan Gregg (6/8/88) Riley was one of the smallest men in the history of World of Sport and this was a quick "little" match against a newcomer to television. Mostly just falls. Inoffensive.
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Mile Zrno & Abdullah Tamba vs. Tiger Mask & Kantaro Hoshino (New Japan, 3/4/83) Zrno vs. Hoshino = rad. Zrno was junior-rific here and it was stellar. Zrno could have a long and prosperous career as a junior in Japan if the Japanese brass had been paying attention. It's too bad his singles match with Tiger Mask was clipped to a handful of Tiger Mask's offensive moves. New Japan didn't know what they bloody had. New holy grail -- Zrno's series of matches with Fujiwara on the same tour that Inoki wrestled Bock. Tamba was alright in this, too. Imagine Abdullah the Butcher crossed with a Head Hunter and you have Tamba. Of course it was 1983 and that meant Tiger Mask kicked everyone's ass, but it's Zrno in Japan true believers.