El-P
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Everything posted by El-P
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I know all dead people are good guys, but I still remember the story of Damian's dream being working with Liger, and little punk ass Naniwa didn't want to do the job to a comedy guy from FMW. Therefore Damian didn't get to work with Liger. I don't know if that's true, but that's what I always heard about this match. Anyway, Damian is doing impersonations, which is always fun.
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I enjoyed it. It's morbid ECW at its worst, but you can't deny it has a true bloodthirsty aura to it, and Axl was a good worker and good seller. Ok, it's guilty vampire pleasure, and it works only in this particular setting, but when I went through my ECW watch, I enjoyed this more than Eddie vs Dean. Go figure.
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Comedian. I rectified it 2 days ago when I said that, ok, she wasn't as great as Hase was at the same time. That's also part of my point. Considering her experience level in 1992, Yoshida was really a super worker. As great as Hase at this point ? No. But balancing the experience level between the two and the fact Yoshida wasn't supposed to have the great matches Hase was (as a junior then a heavy workhorse), I say the gap isn't that big, and certainly not big enough to put Hase above Yoshida on a career vs career scale. I don't know. I love NJ heavies from that time period, and Hase was great. Was Kyoko better ? Quite possibly. Sadly I never got to put up notes about 1993. I have tapes somewhere I bought from Lynch with about the entire year of joshi. I should rewatch this. That is, when I get done with WCW, and then the SMW I'm getting. And I'm planning of getting into older AJ & NJ stuff too eventually. Need time...
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I would agree. Jannetty never showed more than during the mid 90's. I would say 93-95 would be a good period to define his peak, including his WWF matches with Michaels (the RAW ones), Doink, the tags with Waltman, the stuff in 95 against Candido & co. Well, I haven't seen much of Michaels from this era, but I would put Michaels peak during the Rockers days too actually, in the WWF (friom what I've seen), so it doesn't sound that far fetched to me to consider this. 1996 Michaels is ridiculously overrated, and I'd rather not talk about his comeback.
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Well, she's my all-time favourite wrestler ever, so that too. That said, I was very surprised to discover that she ruled so much back in 92 when I did. I watched this with an open mind and not a "Yoshida will be the pearl of my joshi watch no matter what" mindset. I'm not saying she was the greatest wrestler in 1992. Kyoko, Oz, Aja, Bull, Hokuto, Kansai were clearly better. But was she better than Toyota ? Yes she was in my mind, no doubt about that, and that's after I watched most matches of the year, not before. Re-watching 1992/1993, I found Yamada very overrated as a worker, which surprised me. Some great performances, but uneven. Toyota wasn't that great in 1992 either. Kyoko vs Yoshida in 1992 >> Kyoko vs Toyota (speaking about that IWA title match). She had lot of very good and excellent matches in the year, more than just "nice matches". Yes, she was still young and not developped, but for her experience level and what she was working with in term of tool, I say she was excellent. if anything, to me she overachieved in 92. And she never had a match as horrible as the 40 minute draw that Toyota and Yamada had on 01/04. I dug up my old notes about 1992, and here are my 10 top singles matches : 1 : 11/26 Akira Hokuto vs Kyoko Inoue (22 :16) 2 : 08/15 Manami Toyota vs Toshiyo Yamada (19 :43) 3 : 07/05 Kyoko Inoue vs Mariko Yoshida (30 :00) 4 : 06/21 Mariko Yoshida vs Sakie Hasegawa (30 :00) 5 : 01/04 Akira Hokuto vs Kyoko Inoue (24 :54) 6 : 07/09 Mayumi Ozaki vs Dynamite Kansai (25 :11) 7 : 04/25 Bull Nakano vs Aja Kong (21 :40) 8 : 08/30 Kyoko Inoue vs Mariko Yoshida (15:22) 9 : 11/26 Bull Nakano vs Aja Kong (20:19) 10 : 06/21 Toshiyo Yamada vs Manami Toyota (26 :16) So yes, Toyota vs Yamada did pull out a miraculous match once. But overall, 2 Yoshida vs Kyoko matches and Yoshida vs Hasegawa abocve any other Toyota/Yamada matches. Yoshida vs Toyota during the Grand Prix was much worse than the Kyoko match, and that's not because of Yoshida but because Toyota just gets in autopilot mode instead of getting the best out of her opponent like Kyoko could. Yoshida was better than Toyota in 92, and there's no other way to look at things to me. Toyota/Yamada worked really well as a team, because it also hide their weaknesses, and they got some great tag team matches that year. But they also never were the best in any great match. Oz & Kansai were better. Kyoko & Aja were better. And you got Yoshida & Takako vs Hasegawa & Malenko as my third best tag match of the year, a bunch of youngins working way over their heads and having a fantastic match. WTF ?
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1991.02.02 Arn Anderson & Barry Windham vs Brad Armstrong & Tim Horner Fuck storytelling and fuck playing your role right. Give me fast paced action with crisp and smooth execution, and these four can deliver that in spades. And for once a match that get some actual time, so it can develop into a legit great match. Seriously, this is the best tag match since the MX have departed. The face side lacks a bit in charisma, to say the least (it's so sad, Horner is such a strong worker otherwise), but Arn & Windham have enough facial expressions for the four of them. Arn's bumping, stooging and mannerism are at an all-time great, and Windham, despite getting a little bit fat around the waist, looks like a top 5 worker in the world. Shit finish aside (which at least protected the Lightning Express, keeping them from doing the inevitable job), this is the kind of match that reminds me why I love wrestling. Oh, and of course, everyone played there role more than well (duh), and the match made perfect sense to boot. (this needs to get in the 91 Yearbook.)
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To me Triple H peaked in 1997. Angle peaked early, but he was never a super worker to me. Still, goofy Angle from 2000 beats the hell out of Super Serious Workrate Angle from the rest of his career. Owen got great super quick. AKINO (female wrestler from ARSION) got great super quick. Hiromi Yagi (female wrestler from JWP) got great rather quick. Tenryu... not so much. Peaked late.
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Understood. But that wouldn't register as being a great wrestler, which I thought was the point.
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Wait, what ? Being Miss Baba's favourite register as having a great career in Japan ?
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The Saturday Night match was Scott Steiner walking over Flair in a sprint, Flair barely had any offense at all. At this point they were still on this idea that Flair was done as a main player. I wouldn't call either a good match, but at least the Saturday Night match accomplished something in making Scott look like a bonified monster. The Clash match was way too long for Scotty who had no clue how to work single for such a long stretch, and he was badly exposed as a guy who just wasn't ready. Of course technically it was also better because Flair could do more stuff, but in the end it just didn't click for me. In term of efficiency, the Saturday Night match was much better. It was also more exciting, with Arn DDTing Steiner only to have Rick steinerline Flair to even the score. So yeah, the Saturday Night match worked much better even though it was basically a Goldberg match.
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Ric Flair vs Scott Steiner - Clash 14 - 1991.01.30 It was both good and bad. Bad because it was a Flair-by-number match to the point of stripping his opponent of his own identity, especially on offense. Scott worked like about any musclehead would against Flair, although no press slam which surprised me, doing requisite Flair spot like putting him in the figure-four, and doing zero suplexes before the final stretch. In a way you could argue that it was better to save the big spots for later in the match, as Scott at this point is basically a spot machine who throws people around with no rhyme, but it still never felt like you're watching Scott Steiner kicking Flair's ass like Scott Steiner should. Steiner was also awkward in spots, botching a few stuff in an embarrassing way, like this spot where they both should go over the tope rope that he couldn't execute along with Flair, so he had to basically throw himself out. And it was good because they worked a nice stretch to the finish, with Flair selling a Steiner suplex like it was hell, and building up the intensity to the last seconds depsite the obvious time limit draw finish. If the match allowed more Scott Steiner to work his own style early on, it could have been excellent. As it was, it felt by the number for a good while, and somewhat disjointed. Oh, and Flair short hair looked awful. Blame the Black Scorpion mask I guess.
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I actually just witnessed a great exemple of that. Clash 14, in 91. Early in the card, Sting basically jumps above Butch Reed, who barely does a back body drop to avoid Sting, who goes flying over the tope rope to the floor. DQ. Really, Reed barely did anything but try to not get hit. In the main event, Flair is leaning on the ropes, Scott Steiner charges full speed and hits him with a clothesline which throws Flair over the tope rope to the floor, as expected. Ross shouts "Judgement call !!" Eh eh eh. What a bunch of bullshit.