soup23
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Everything posted by soup23
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I didn't see this as Misawa dogging it as much as his stoic persona really plays worst against Hansen and Baba than any of the other opponents. Baba really needs someone that adds a lot of movement or charisma to his exchanges to counteract the slow movement. Hansen needs someone that is a great underdog that he can pound (Kobashi 1993) or someone to go toe to toe with him in a battle (1993 kawada or 1988 Tenryu). Him versus an ace (misawa now and Jumbo before) where it is 50/50 generally does not result in his best work. The work in this was fine up to the near fall section. I really thought everyone kicked it up a notch in the final 7-8 minutes and Misawa winning really cemented him as the guy. I do wish they would have chopped around 5-8 minutes of down time to make this a classic but overall I though this was very good with interesting themes throughout and is the best All Japan match so far of 1994.
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Good match but the multimans just play so much better to what Michinoku Pro's workers strengths were at this time in that they can hit there stuff, do some spots and tehn go away. This had some great sequences but a lot of downtime too. Comedy would have been nice to mix in but they may have shied away from doing that due to the ending angle. Sato is incredibly agile for his stocky frame.
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Really good tag team match. I have not watched much Toyota at all in the past 4-5 years so I am not sick of her and have been impressed so far with how much she she has hit of her offense. Bull vs. Aja is always great and has great intensity. I though Kyoko was also really good in the Toyota heat segment being a spunky punk working her over. Real good tag match and I can't wait to see the Queendom tag. This yearbook is making me love Joshi again.
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I really wanted to like this match more than I did because I love cheering for Hasegawa and the story was strong throughout but this match just kept going and going. The opening matwork was gritty and cool. The ending I thought was also great with the trading of chokes. The middle just had too many down periods of aimless offense and Hasegawa was definitely on the offensive too much. Yamada has great kicks but her moveset is limited so in a thirty minute match there is a lot of "how many times is she going to throw a kick" going on. I just wish there could have been around 10-15 minutes chopped off this because with the strengths of these two workers there is a great match between them. Even with all the flows, I would still call this good and was glad to watch it. Hasegawa is quickly becoming one of my favorites while watching this yearbook.
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Real contrast to the last match because that had better spots (minus Sasuke Special) but this had much execution and story. Overall a great inter-promotional feud and Onita and Tenryu being charismatic as hell and Hara and Goto being the respective bruisers of their team. Tenryu's sustained selling after the DDT was masterful and good for him to give Onita the win to continue the feud.
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Probably my most disappointing match so far as even though I think the work was better here than in some other matches, they had a bigger stage here and things just didn't seem to click. I lost interest repeatedly due to the structure and couldn't not decipher a storyline throughout the match. It is disappointing to see Ultimo who was my favorite of all the WCW cruisers as a kid really not hold up at all over time in most of his big showcase matches. The Sasuke botch was comical but besides that, I thought he was actually the strongest worker in the match. Just a match that had not glue to make the spots impactful.
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Great junior vs. heavy battle. Starts out with good process and sound strategy from both competitors. Liger being unable to surfboard Hash was brilliant. The sequence from the Liger bomb to the end was breathtaking with big moves, perfect selling and the right pacing. Just a great match that makes both guys look really strong coming out.
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Good to know that Devon is on summer break and that accounts for him being able to blow through the yearbook because I have been watching it a pretty relentless pace and he is leaving me in the dust. Really interested for the yearbook and AWA podcasts. I really like how Dylan talked about that the thing he likes the best now is getting the big picture and that is why I think the 80's sets and yearbooks are so appealing because before you really were limited in what to watch but now you can get the best stuff and major happenings for all the companies or in the 80's project a specific company throughout the decade and evaluate appropriately on what holds up over time.
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This felt like the perfect style garbage match that had intensity and the spots were logical and felt organic. Ending was blah and I didn't get Sabu going through a table by himself at the end. I have always enjoyed punch and kick brawls and cage matches done well but for a garbage/weapons match this was high end stuff.
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I think I align with Exposer as the most annoying thing to me in the match was in the second fall where Kong gave three backdrops with a kickout when a save by Toyota would have been better. I liked the story of Hasegawa hanging with the big guns and thought while Yamada was limited in her move set, what she did do in this match looked well.
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Tough match to really comment on. Great mat work and every hold was maximized. the visual of Llanes sweating and gasping in the headscissors was amazing. I did think the finish was extremely underwhelming and weak though which will prevent it from breaking into the upper echelon of top stuff of the year.
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Easy to see why this was a one time endeavor based on heat and structure of this match. The enforcing of rules and scale of the cage really hindered the movement and intensity of the match. Austin bump where his leg got caught in the cage was insane. Really disappointing match that I remembered being much better than it was.
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I thought Williams looked like an animal here and really got over. Misawa rolling to the floor after the back drop driver is a great spot that gets paid off in their triple crown match later on in July. I thought this tag was very well done with good role playing and Williams becomming the #1 gaijin.
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