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Post by Baker on Jan 1, 2024 21:31:04 GMT
Been watching a lot of wrestling during a leisurely week. Got a ton of Match Reviews on the docket- Something like 8 OVW matches from 01-05 and 77.77% of the latest AEW pay per view. But my recent 95-96 WCW nostalgia trip reminded me of something I read about a year or two ago that I just HAD to find. And find it I did!
10 Jobber Battle Royal- WCW Pro 11/18/95
Participants are Nasty Ned, Disco Inferno, Dave Sullivan, Cobra, Barrio Brothers, State Patrol, Mark Starr, and Frankie Lancaster. What a lineup! What a thing! That's the beauty of WCW having hours of content to fill every weekend with no control freak overseeing said content. Gloriously bizarre stuff like this was able to slip through the cracks.
This first came onto my radar as "the Nasty Ned battle royal" so I assumed the longtime WCW jobber won this bad boy. Without "knowing" that I'd have guessed Disco, a depushed Evad, or Cobra to win in that order since they were the only ones you could remotely consider "stars."
This is a week before the inaugural World War III PPV so the point of this match is to introduce noobs to the Battle Royal concept and refresh the memory of more seasoned fans. That's actually a good idea.
Chris Cruise, Dusty, and Larry Legend are on commentary with Dusty going all in on Nasty Ned as his pick to win. And it turns out that's why this match was dubbed "the Nasty Ned battle royal." Because Nasty Ned does not win. He's eliminated somewhere in the middle. Lancaster got dumped first. State Patrol later simultaneously dumped the Barrio Brothers which I'm sure set up a feud on the B & C shows only I and other tru wrestling fanatics watched.
Disco was the star of this thing as he kept finding amusing ways to avoid physical contact. You know you're good when you can become the focal point of the match by doing nothing. And Disco was definitely good. It came down to State Patrol against poor Disco. And Disco won! When he simultaneously eliminated both members of the Patrol. It was sort of like the chickenshit heel version of Bam Bam winning that 1987 tv battle royal.
Verdict: Action was like * for Disco's antics, but the fact this exists at all is worth 5*
Addendum: Turns out this was a stacked version of the Pro with an Eddy/Gambler match, the cult favorite Liger vs. Barry Houston bout, and a rare Koji Kanemoto Stateside sighting.
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Post by Baker on Jan 3, 2024 1:54:50 GMT
Leviathan vs. Brock Lesnar- OVW 7/28/01Leviathan is Batista. This shoulda been Wrestlemania main event only happened twice- here and on a random 2003 house show. The timing was never right in WWE. Brock got the monster push immediately upon his callup in March 2002 and was gone by March 2004. Batista got called up a few months after Brock, but didn't hit his stride until right after Brock left. Then Batista was mostly gone by the time Brock returned in 2012. OVW needs a new scale. Leviathan is announced at a whopping 333 pounds and Brock at only 246. Both men are smaller than they would be in WWF, but still very large men, and roughly the same size. No way there is an 87 pound difference between the two. I'm all for keeping kayfabe, but you have to make it at least semi-believable. Leviathan controlled most of the match with Brock in the unlikely role of an underdog babyface for perhaps the only time in his career. Brock hit one of those twisting crossbody blocks off the middle rope to turn the tide. Then we get an early trip to Suplex City as Brock hits two nice overhead belly to belly's to set up Chris Sabin's Cradle Shock which was apparently his finisher in 2001 rather than the proper F5. Brock covers. NO! That dastardly Sin (Cornette's wife) interferes by spraying Brock in the eyes with hairspray or whatever. Leviathan follows that up with a dodgy Spear for the win. Verdict- Interesting historical curiosity. Both guys still needed some work, Batista in particular. There were some nice clotheslines. Batista wasn't interesting in selling, though that may very well have been his gimmick since he was playing a 'monster' character. Nova vs. "Prototype" John Cena- OVW Fall Brawl 9/7/02WWE letting their rinky dink developmental territory use the Fall Brawl name is the kind of pettiness I am here for. Nova is OVW Champ. Cena is the former OVW Champ who wants his belt back. He debuted in WWE a few months earlier so he's billed as "Prototype" John Cena in a combination of his OVW & WWE names. He's the heel and has never beaten Nova, coming in with an 0-3 record against the former ECW star. Can we just talk about how weird it is that Jim Cornette was a big Nova guy? Nova is a comedy wrestler from ECW with an average at best look who is more flash than fundamentals. Cornette should hate him! Yet Corny loved the guy. Guessing Nova paid him to work OVW. Cena is accompanied by Sean O'Haire so Nova brings out Big Bossman, of all people, as his backup to counter O'Haire. BBM had been an uber heel for years so it's weird to see him back in the babyface role. OVW crowd digs it though and I'll take this opportunity to put over the OVW fanbase. It's all "Go, *Babyface*, Go" and "*Heel* Sucks." They're old school wrestling fans playing along with the show rather than trying to become the show. The last of a dying breed. You gotta love it. You don't gotta love this match though. It was pretty rough. Neither guy can throw a punch to save their lives. Cena's power moves all looked off. Like he was a guy trying to do wrestling moves but had never actually watched wrestling before. The one highlight was a stalling vertical suplex with flex from Cena. Feels like the great Rick Rude move that never was. Finish comes when Kenny Bolin interferes. Cena holds Nova for a Bolin chairshot. Nova moves in plenty of time. But Bolin decks Cena anyway because there was some sort of heat between the two. Nova covers for the win to go 4-0 against Cena. I love the fact that Nova from the BWO is 4-0 against John Cena. Reminds me of those Apter Mag profiles with "Toughest Opponent" as one of the questions. Who knew Nova would be the answer for Cena? Too bad Vince never booked Simon Dean against Cena. Could have saved Shootist and thousands of others a lot of grief since Nova had Cena's number. Flash Flanagan & Rico Constantino vs. Nick Dinsmore & Randy Orton- OVW 5/19/01Dinsmore is the future Eugene. Flash & Rico are heels who don't get along. OVW is all about that turn of the century Nu Metal. I wonder what indie wrestlers come out to nowadays? Probably nothing I'd know. I chose this spot to mention theme music because Rico gets booed while coming out to the Rocky theme. That has to be a first in world history. The Rocky theme lends itself to a Pavlovian pop. Yet the OVW faithful boo Rico. This leads me to believe he really was a great heel who was misused by WWE as OVW hardcores have been saying for 20 years. This was a nice little high energy tag match with an unnecessarily complicated 12 finish. Rico & Flash are heels who don't get along, yet still controlled the bulk of the match. I'd always been a Dinsmore skeptic since this "great wrestler" did nothing of note following the gimmicky Eugene run in WWE, but he did look pretty good here. Orton hit a dropsault. Dinsmore hit a nice bridging German. Rico got "Rico Sucks" chants throughout. And Flash was a ball of heel energy. The finish was insanely idiotic though. Flash hit his Buff Blockbuster finisher after missing it earlier. Then he and Rico argued for ages, but still won. Then Flash laid everybody out after the match, Rico included, to end the thing standing tall. Weird how the one guy who never made WWE was the star of this thing. The Machine vs. Rob Conway- OVW 5/5/01Machine is Doug Basham under a mask. This is early in his run with the gimmick. He'd be OVW's lead heel for the next year or two. These are two more "great wrestlers" I've always been skeptical of due to bombing in WWE and doing nothing of note after leaving the fed. Conway has the mic. He calls out The Machine. Cornette talks a mile a minute on commentary (more on that tomorrow). Conway seems to be a heel in the midst of a face turn. This was honestly every bit as dull as you'd expect a Doug Basham vs. Rob Conway match to be. I watched 8 OVW matches about a week and a half ago and this is the one I remember the least. The one highlight was a neat way to get into a Pumphandle Slam that I don't think I'd seen before. Machine won when he rolled through a Conway top rope crossbody. Probably hooked the tights too. Idk. Don't remember for sure. Postmatch saw Conway be a sore loser who tried to unmask The Machine only to be foiled by his lackeys. Next Time: 4 more OVW matches + overall thoughts on the promotion and then I'll probably give PW a rest for a while
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Post by Baker on Jan 3, 2024 23:37:45 GMT
Kurt Angle vs. Damaja- OVW 11/16/02
Damaja is Danny Basham- the Marty Jannetty of the Basham Brothers, meaning the Marty Jannetty of one of the most boring tag teams to ever exist. That's just about as low as you can go on the Jannetty totem pole. But Damaja was another Cornette Guy. One of the 4 Pillars of classic OVW along with Doug Basham, Nick Dinsmore, and Rob Conway. His name is pronounced like "Damager." It wasn't until some time in the 2010s that I finally learned the proper pronunciation of his name. Until then I hadn't a clue. Always thought it was a goofball name when reading OVW results and probably pronounced it a different way in my head every single time. In fairness to myself, Cornette had a similar reaction when he got to OVW.
OVW would occasionally bring WWE stars in to take on their local heroes. And it doesn't get much bigger than Kurt Angle! He peaked as a character in 2000, but this era, right in the middle of the Smackdown Six, was the peak of his in ring game as he'd perfected his formula and it hadn't yet been overused. I somehow don't recall reading about this one back in the day. Angle, whose singlet game is underrated, has red, white, and blue on one side with gold on the other.
Damaja is flanked by his "Revolution" buddies- Doug Basham, Kanyon, Tough Enough's Jackie Gayda, and Johnny Spade. lol at the OVW crowd doing the "You Suck" to Angle's theme. But they do cheer the Olympic Gold Medalist. Angle mic work time. He makes fun of Johnny Spade, who is clearly the putz/jobber/X-Pac of the group. Then he brings his brother Eric out as backup. Eric, who was under a developmental deal at the time, runs the Revolution off with a baseball bat.
This is the longest match in this OVW binge at roughly 12 minutes. Angle controls early. Highlights include the old '10 punches in the corner' spot as it looked like Angle really hit him lol and Angle really drilling him with a running shoulder block in the corner. Damaja takes over when Angle goes shoulder first into the post on the second try. Psychology! Unfortunately the match grinds to a halt with Damaja's boring armwork which consists of slapping on lazy, lengthy armbars. Yep. Danny Basham was boring even when he was "good." Angle makes his comeback and we get a wild finishing stretch....
I don't remember the details in order as it's been over a week, but the Revolution interfered. Angle countered something into the Ankle Lock. A regular Angle Slam may or may not have been hit. Damaja got a 2.9999 off Albert's Baldo Bomb THAT I ACTUALLY BOUGHT AS THE FINISH. Yes, they legit got me to bite on Danny Basham beating Kurt Angle a few weeks before Angle won the WWE Championship for a 3rd time. Am I an idiot? Probably. As if a Developmental Guy is going to beat a bonafide WWE superstar...
Then the actual finish ruled. A woozy Angle was dazed in the middle of the ring. Damaja went up top looking for the kill shot when Angle makes this blind charge into the corner to hit Damaja with the first*(?) Super Angle Slam for the win. Really felt like a last ditch effort Hail Mary pass at the buzzer from Kurt that paid off.
*First one I remember seeing came on the 12/5/02 Smackdown when Angle hit Edge with one to win that epic 4 Way Elimination Match.
Meltzer gave this 4*. I wouldn't go quite that high because Damaja in control was boring as any Bashams match, but I can actually see where Dave was coming from. That finishing stretch ruled. And it's only natural to rate stuff higher when it ends on a high note. Why else would I have been putting over that Acolytes vs. Mideon & Viscera Jakked match for almost a quarter century?
Crowd was pro-Angle, but there were Damaja backers (at least according to Cornette on commentary) because he was the local hero who had been getting a strong push that was supposed to end with him in the Royal Rumble, and now he just took a WWE superstar to the limit. They were clearly building him up for a babyface turn and this was a major step in that direction.
Verdict- Classic Angle carry job with an epic finishing stretch which saw King Kurt carry a boring Basham to a *** or more match just by plugging him into his winning formula. Flawed because Basham is still a bore, but easily the best bout of last week's OVW binge.
*This one ran long so I'll try covering the final 3 OVW matches in my next post and then give it a rest for a while.
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Post by Kilgore on Jan 3, 2024 23:48:43 GMT
Kurt Angle vs. Damaja- OVW 11/16/02Damaja is Danny Basham- the Marty Jannetty of the Basham Brothers, meaning the Marty Jannetty of one of the most boring tag teams to ever exist. That's just about as low as you can go on the Jannetty totem pole. But Damaja was another Cornette Guy. One of the 4 Pillars of classic OVW along with Doug Basham, Nick Dinsmore, and Rob Conway. His name is pronounced like "Damager." It wasn't until some time in the 2010s that I finally learned the proper pronunciation of his name. Until then I hadn't a clue. Always thought it was a goofball name when reading OVW results and probably pronounced it a different way in my head every single time. In fairness to myself, Cornette had a similar reaction when he got to OVW. ECW used to play a music video by a rapper named Jeru The Damaja, so suffice to say, Paul E. would have totally gotten the Damaja name. One more reason Paul E. > Corny.
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Post by Ness on Jan 3, 2024 23:55:14 GMT
Baker over here inspiring me to make a Nick Disnmore thread. Gotta check in with Emperor to see if Eugene can carry a thread on it's own or put her in random thoughts and see if we get a few replies. Dude PW News fixing to investigate some PW stuff. And I started typing about OVW, maybe it has merit. Really this is fixing to be a talk about 03-05 iwc more than anything.
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Post by Baker on Jan 4, 2024 1:19:51 GMT
Forgot to mention I first heard of this guy like right after I finally learned how Damaja the wrestler's name was pronounced. Baker over here inspiring me to make a Nick Disnmore thread. Gotta check in with Emperor to see if Eugene can carry a thread on it's own or put her in random thoughts and see if we get a few replies. And I started typing about OVW, maybe it has merit. Really this is fixing to be a talk about 03-05 iwc more than anything. Do it. Start a thread. ============= Might as well drop my overall OVW thoughts here... -Love the old school "cheer the face, boo the heel" crowd. -Early-Mid 2000s OVW is only slightly less overbooked than late 90s WWF. Iirc 7 of the 8 matches I watched had convoluted 12 step schmozz finishes involving weapons, interference, ref bumps, or a combination of all three. -Cornette is incredibly grating on commentary. He talks a mile a minute and overexplains everything. Basically a hellish combination of Joey Styles and my writing style. The worst. Feel sorry for his sidekick poor Dean Hill who can barely get a word in. As booker, Cornette clearly thinks his work is genius so he goes overboard in explaining all the minutia in excruciating detail. The match or two without Corny on commentary were breaths of fresh air. *Not OVW related, but needs to be mentioned. Cornette is usually fine on commentary beyond the confines of his own little fiefdom. The one exception was Corny being paired with JR on Superstars when that show stopped mattering. It quickly became two grumpy old men bashing the very product they're supposed to be putting over. Put it this way. If Vince started micromanaging his commentators because he happened to hear JR & Corny going off script on Superstars, then Vince was absolutely in the right.
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Post by Baker on Jan 4, 2024 2:20:40 GMT
Redd Dogg vs. Shelton Benjamin- OVW 10/5/02Redd Dogg is Rodney Mack. These two formed a tag team after Shelton's former partner Brock Lesnar got called up to WWE. Now they're feuding because Redd Dogg is upset about Shelton missing some OVW dates to work WWE shows instead. That's actually a pretty good storyline. Fwiw I saw Shelton on a WWE house show in June or July of that year and I believe he worked Heat a few times before "properly" debuting late in the year as a member of Team Angle. Both men enter to Who Let The Dogs Out. Shelton isn't waiting! He rushes the ring and starts peppering Dogg with punches the way one should in a proper grudge match. Nice. It slows down after that. Redd Dogg has the best punches of anybody in this OVW binge. We get a ref bump because OVW. Shelton hits a Superkick Van Daminator. Another ref runs out. Mack kicks out at 2.9. There's a chain in the corner. Shelton hits the chain when Mack dodges a Stinger Splash. Mack covers for the 1-2-3. Postmatch sees Mack beat up both refs, hang Shelton over the ropes with the chain, and get big time heat in the process. Was Rodney Mack actually good? He was always a channel changer for me back in the day, but now I'm having second thoughts. This was hinted to be Benjamin's last OVW match, but methinks he returned to settle the score with Redd Dogg, perhaps in a chain or dog collar match. Verdict- Good first match in a feud that featured an even better post match which saw Redd Dogg go rabid. MNM vs. Dudleys- OVW February 2005
Aww yeah. I was hyped for this one. This should have been a major feud for the WWE Tag Titles with hot PPV openers and wild gimmick matches on Big 4 pay per views. Alas, this is, as far as I know, the only encounter between two of the best teams of their respective generations.* Unfortunately they were two ships passing in the night. Dudleys were inexplicably not being used when MNM got called up shortly after that year's Wrestlemania. Then the Duds were even more inexplicably given their walking papers. It was a major shocker at the time! They seemed like WWE lifers. *Yeah, I realize MNMs generation sucked. Just run with it, k? Sadly this was real disappointing. Neither team brought their A Game, opting instead for a house show effort. It started with a Bubba/Mercury test of strength turning into an impromptu dance off as I'm sure Corny was secretly steaming on commentary. Joey worked most of the match for his squad. Stuff happened. Like the "Wassup" headbutt. Crowd wanted tables. D-Von got one. But it was never used during the match. Neo Zeed will be happy to know crowds STILL chant for tables as evidenced by the AEW PPV a few days ago. Mercury got the win with a chain punch on Bubba. MNM beating the Dudleys makes me feel less like a mark for thinking Damaja was going to beat Angle. Postmatch sees the Dudleys send the fans home happy by 3Ding one of MNM through the table. Verdict- Real disappointing Johnny Jeter vs. Nic Nemeth- OVW 9/17/05Nemeth is Dolph Ziggler. He looks more like Crash Holly here. This takes place during the time I was really into OVW. Johnny Jeter was the man during this period. He was right up there with JBL & Jimmy Rave as the best heel in wrestling. Jeter is OVW Champ while Nemeth is an up and coming midcarder. Jeter's reign only lasted 3-4 months, but it was basically the developmental version of Triple H's awesome Jan-Apr 2000 run where they crammed years of goodness into just a few months. I thought Jeter was destined to be the next Chris Jericho. He ended up peaking as the 3rd or 4th most famous member of the Spirit Squad. Which kind of puts the kibosh on my whole "Dinsmore/Conway/Bashams couldn't have been that great since they did nothing of note outside OVW!" theory. Anyway, Mr. Kennedy does the ring announcing. He's Jeter's only friend, and he's so over the top in a cornball sort of way. God, imagine being too corny even for me. That's Mr. Kennedy (Kennedy) for ya. The Iowa of wrestlers. First half was like a classic Flair NWA Title defense with mat wrestling, chops, and a clear face/heel dynamic. Then we get into the second half/finishing stretch with all the gaga. Blanking on details as it was over a week ago, but I could see why these guys were still in developmental. They had good ideas! This match had a good layout. But they just weren't there yet. The timing and execution was just a little off. It was like they were trying to do a Michaels vs. Jericho match while being more like Chris Michaels & David Jericho. Jeter gets the win after high drama and a few false finishes with....a Superkick, I think it was. Or maybe it was Kennedy interference? Don't remember for sure. Verdict- Smart match with subpar execution. Like if Pat Patterson laid out a Wrestlemania main event, but the participants were recent wrestling school graduates.
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Post by Baker on Jan 6, 2024 3:10:37 GMT
I distinctly remember reading an article on one of the major newz sites predicting how the 2002 KOTR would go. I think it was the Torch, but it could have been the Observer. The reason I remember this article is because the writer mentioned a groundswell of grassroots support for Hardcore Holly to win KOTR in 2002. That wasn't even a strong year for our guy. He hadn't been pushed strong, or involved in a major storyline for like 2 years. But there was enough support for BOBCORE among the most rabid segment of the WWF Universe that this writer felt the need to mention it while simultaneously pooh poohing the notion in a respectable manner iirc. For the record I wasn't even a part of this particular surge of Hollymania. I was all in on RVD at the time. BUT Holly totally should have beat Test, and I'd have popped SO HARD if he beat Brock The Crock before losing to RVD in the finals. Planned on laying off the Match Reviews for a while but this very Holly/Test match showed up in my Youtube feed and I couldn't resist the temptation... Test vs. Hardcore Holly- Smackdown 6/20/02- KOTR Tournament Match Here are the three reactions one would have had to this match at the time... Tired (the common mark): lol at either one of these guys making a KOTR Final Four. WWE ain't what it used to be. Wired (Me): Hell yeah to BOBCORE making KOTR Final Four! Inspired ( Ness): Dream match! This was a short, hard hitting, back and forth match that unfortunately wasn't very good. BOBCORE sold an irish whip into the turnbuckles by running right back out to hit a clothesline. I realize BOBCORE is the toughest of the toughies, but an irish whip to the turnbuckles should still hurt. Sorry, but them's the rules. Test went for his Pumphandle Slam early. BOBCORE escaped. Then Test hit it later on the second try. YAY! Psychology! But then BOBCORE kicked out relatively easily on a quick count by the ref which saw no drama built. BOO! Test didn't even lallygag before making the cover. BOBCORE did this nifty inside roll up out of a Test Uncle Slam. I don't know what you call it. It's something Cruiserweights do. So it was cool! Unexpected BOBCORE. But it was also really sloppy and Holly didn't land in the right position. A for effort. D for execution. The highlight of most BOBCORE matches is The Textbook. But they wasted the dropkick here as our guy caught Test with one as the bigger man was flying off the top rope. That sort of dropkick rarely looks good. And even The Master of the Dropkick failed to buck the trend here. Cool finish though. Test drills BOBCORE with his GOAT big boot for the 1-2-3. This one fan had a great "OMG" reaction to it. If I could get a close up of that guy I'd gif it up. Verdict- Disappointing rush job that went like 3 minutes and saw the wrong guy go over. Would have been better stretched out to 6 so they could let stuff breathe a little.
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Post by Baker on Jan 8, 2024 3:27:29 GMT
Hiroshi Tanahashi (c) vs. Ryusuke Taguchi- NJPW New Year's Dash- 1/5/24- TV Title Match
My guy Tanahashi has aged. He looks to be in the early stages of developing a Jericho bod. He's the TV Champ, having just won it the previous night at Wrestle Kingdom.
Taguchi I saw once before against a debuting(?) Kenny Omega many Wrestle Kingdoms ago. Biggest takeaway from that match is remembering I actually liked Kenny Omega back then! It was my first time seeing him and I thought he was a hoot. Had tons of charisma. The 'chainsaw hair' arm was a great bit of wrestling b.s. Taguchi was just the broomstick in that one. Frankly surprised I remembered him at all.
This was not good. Not good at all. For years I'd heard Tanahashi was washed, but had yet to see it with my own two eyes, my last time watching "The Ace" being....the Billy Gunn match? And that was way back in....2017.
Anyway, they did a comedy match. And not even a good comedy match. But a real CHIKARA tier bullshit fest. Taguchi kept running the ropes until he got tired. Ass-based offense was a focal point. Tanahashi got pantsed. And the finish came anticlimactically when Tanahashi pinned Taguchi in the midst of a Malenko/Guerreo series of rollups.
Verdict- Pains me to say it as a Tanahashi fan but I see no reason to go higher than DUD. Oh well. At least they kept it a short 6 minutes.
*Postmatch sees Matt Riddle send a video challenge to Tanahashi. Huh? What? Is WWE working with New Japan now?!? No. Turns out WWE future endeavored Riddle a few months ago. Anyway, Tanahashi big leagues Riddle by pretending not to know who he is. Challenge by video is anticlimactic (why not have Riddle show up in the building?) and having Tanahashi treat him like a no name is counterproductive. This entire segment sucked...
BUT it inspired a new project which will allow me to deviate from my usual diet of old school mainstream US wrestling. There were a bunch of Japanese wrestlers I read about a decade or two ago who looked interesting on paper that I never got around to watching. Well, that's what I'm doing now. I'm already 6 matches in. Over the next few days I'll cover a match a piece from Yutaka Yoshie, Osamu Nishimura, Takashi Iizuka, Tadao Yasuda, Chaparita Asari, + Dick Togo and his Michinoku Pro friends, who were grandfathered in.
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Post by Emperor on Jan 8, 2024 18:45:58 GMT
Out of all the NJPW matches that happened over the past few days, what on earth made you choose that one? :lol: Anyway, they did a comedy match. And not even a good comedy match. But a real CHIKARA tier bullshit fest. Taguchi kept running the ropes until he got tired. Ass-based offense was a focal point. Tanahashi got pantsed. And the finish came anticlimactically when Tanahashi pinned Taguchi in the midst of a Malenko/Guerreo series of rollups. Taguchi used to be a phenomenal worker, ace of the Junior Division, but now he is a parody of a parody. All those spots you saw - that's every Taguchi match. He's the Toru Yano of the juniors, and I mean 2024 Toru Yano, not the amazing 2015-2020 Toru Yano. Perhaps I'm a mark being worked but I genuinely believe Tanahashi had no idea who Matt Riddle is. The video challenges are pretty common for a foreign talent appearance who isn't an active member of the roster. They won't fly a guy in just to cut a promo. Both Okada vs Danielson matches were set up by a Danielson video promo. I recommend you check out the Tanahashi vs Zack Sabre Jr. match from Wrestle Kingdom. It's under 10 minutes, and it's a pretty solid exhibition, apart from the finish. If you want something more intense, check out the 10-man tag United Empire vs Bullet Club from New Year's Dash. You'll be surprised at what happens.
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Post by Baker on Jan 8, 2024 23:31:17 GMT
Out of all the NJPW matches that happened over the past few days, what on earth made you choose that one? Simple. Felt like watching a Tanahashi match and that was the first one to pop up in a search :lol: Done. I agree with your take. Will cover it more in depth later in the week. Think I'm up to 10 matches on this recent Japan binge that I need to write about. 2 more modern(ish) New Japan matches will be represented in addition to Tanahashi/ZSJ. One of them involves your hero and mine, Toru Yano.
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Post by Baker on Jan 9, 2024 2:51:26 GMT
Been on a Japanese wrestling binge the past two days. It started with me finally watching interesting-on-paper wrestlers I read about decades ago and then morphed into watching interesting-on-paper wrestlers from modern New Japan. So far I have watched 10 matches. The plan is to do two reviews per post over the next few days.
I took a few summers off when I working at a restaurant during the early-mid 2000s. Luckily for you guys I deleted the Storytime behind that weird character quirk. One of those summers, likely 2003, I read up on then-modern Japanese wrestling with the intent to one day order tapes. I don't know how long this kick lasted. A day? Few days? A week? Month? The whole two months I wasn't working? That I do not remember. And I never did get around to ordering those tapes either. BUT today's matches feature two of those interesting wrestlers I read about during that summer 20 years ago. They had been kicking around back in the deepest recesses of my memory ever since. And now I am finally getting around to watching them...
Yutaka Yoshie vs. Takeshi Morishima- NOAH 5/26/02
Who's Interesting and Why? Yoshie because was hyped as a fatty who wore a pink singlet.
That being said, Morishima is the much bigger name. He's most famous in the States for being ROH Champ during most of 2007. Unfortunately for Mori I stopped watching ROH in January 06, though I still casually followed the promotion online for a few more years, including during his title reign. Think he also won the NOAH GHC at some point before retiring early due to illness. Pretty sure I've only seen one previous match of his- vs. Charlie Haas in a WWE dark/tryout match of all things. Wanna say Morishima won with a missile dropkick. This was unusual because Morishima is basically a Japanese Terry Gordy in look, size, and build. He is not a small man.
I am immediately bummed out by Yoshie being more big boned than fat and wearing a black singlet rather than a pink one. I feel used and abused.
This is an interpromotional match with New Japan's Yoshie travelling to Morishima's home turf to take on the young NOAH grappler. This match can be broken down into four distinct parts...
Part 1: Two minutes of big boys ramming into each other leading to a series of stalemates. This fan of the Norton vs. Ice Train series approves. Part 2: Five minutes of Yoshie working over Morishima's leg. Part 3: Five minutes of Morishima working over Yoshie's arm. Part 4: Five minutes of trading big moves without even so much as lip service being paid to the earlier arm/leg work.
I enjoyed the first 12 minutes more than the last 5. One highlight of the move trading was Yoshie hitting a big boy Thesz Press that actually looked like a legit finisher. And Yoshie would ultimately get the win with a pretty pedestrian back suplex.
Verdict: Quintessential middle of the road, "just there" sort of match.
Dr. Wagner Jr. vs. Osamu Nishimura- CMLL 5/14/02
Who's Interesting and Why? Nishimura because he was considered an olde school throwback way back in the summer of 2003. Not just regular old school, but olde school. Like Ye Olde School. We're talking era before pants olde school. Funny thing is he was hyped as a Dory disciple. 2003 me had it in my head that Dory Funk Jr. was one of the most boring wrestlers to ever live. Yet his protege Nishimura piqued my interest. I guess because wrestling 70s style in the actual 70s was BORING whereas wrestling an anachronistic 70s style in the 2000s was interesting to 2003 me? Fwiw Nishimura toured the US in 94-95. Even worked a few ECW shows. I believe Benoit & Snow were two of his opponents there.
Dr. Wagner Jr. is a Luchador who wore a white mask. I know literally nothing else about him.
Dr. Wagner enters to Bon Jovi's Bad Medicine. He is NOT wearing a white mask. First Yoshie in black rather than pink and now this. I feel gypped for the second match in a row. Never again will I believe anything I read on the internet. At least Nishimura fits my mental image as he has ye olde school look down pat what with those tiny black trunks and no kneepads.
This match was a bit of a mess for reasons I'll get to in a minute. Crowd was solidly behind their fellow countryman, Wagner, who got to shine early. Then Nishimura took over. He looked fine on offense going from one submission to the next- Muta Lock, bow and arrow, figure four, sleeper, abdominal stretch. He also slipped in a Missile Dropkick. Not sure the Muta Lock & Missile Dropkick are "old school" though. I've been lied to again! Stupid internet...
What really killed this match for me was the blatant interference. Nishimura's second, who I didn't recognize, would attack Wagner right in front of the ref. Then Wagner's second, Shocker, would return the favor by attacking Nishimura right in front of the ref. The ref did nothing about any of this interference despite the lack of subtlety in the cheaters. It basically turned into a de facto tag match.
Finish came when Nishimura was looking for a (possibly illegal?) Tombstone. Shocker blatantly interfered to break the move. Then, as the ref is admonishing Shocker, Wagner hits a (possibly illegal?) Michinoku Driver. Ref turns around and counts the 1-2-3.
Verdict- *ish. I just couldn't with the constant stream of blatant interference. You have to at least pretend the ref is distracted. Jeez. Didn't really get a good read on Nishimura's abilities here. He kind of gobbled up Wagner now that I think about it. Might have to watch another match of his once I finish writing up this batch.
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Post by Baker on Jan 11, 2024 3:58:12 GMT
Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Tadao Yasuda- NJPW 8/14/03- G1 Climax Who's Interesting and Why: Yasuda because during that Japanese wresting reading binge 20 years ago I came across a match he had with Yuji Nagata that looked more interesting on paper than every Misawa/Kobashi/Kawada/Taue match put together. Sorry, not sorry. It's worth noting Yasuda was loathed by actual 2003 New Japan fans. And he's still considered the worst IWGP Champ in NJPW history if the 5 minutes of research I did the other night are anything to go on. His big push to the top of New Japan came during the infamous "Inokiism" period in the early-mid 2000s when NJPW head honcho Antonio Inoki pushed MMA guys over the regular NJPW wrestlers. Inoki's MMA fetish allegedly came close to killing the company. To this day New Japan business has still not returned to where it was prior to Inokiism. Anyway, Yasuda was one of those MMA guys who Inoki "overpushed." But he was different than the rest, at least on paper, because he was an honest to goodness HEEL. I searched for that mythical Yasuda/Nagata match I read about all those years ago only to end up with Yasuda vs... Shinsuke Nakamura Consarn it! Oh well. You win some, you lose some. Nakamura was one of my least favorite wrestlers of the 2010s, and think of all the ground THAT covers. But this is still young Nakamura so I'm hoping he hadn't developed any of his bad habits yet. Despite his later flamboyance, the book on early Nakamura was "boring and overpushed." "Overpushed" because he did some MMA, of course, and for once "boring" may be the preferable option. Should beat "blowing raspberries and hitting 50 knee strikes with the very leg you just had worked over for the previous 10 minutes." The Match: Was a classic face vs. heel bout that didn't wear out its welcome in front of a quality crowd who were invested in the simple face/heel story. Good stuff. Yasuda is such a goon. I love it. Definitely lived up to my expectations. He's a tall, skinny fat guy with a face only a mother could love. Think the love child of Gary Hart & Bad News Brown. Comes across as the main bad guy's henchman in an 80s or 90s action movie. He went to the low blow whenever he got in trouble. Had a manager who I hadn't even noticed until he tripped Nakamura while Nak was running the ropes. Big Yasuda liked his double underhook moves. Hit a Butterfly Suplex and a Tiger Bomb before having another double underhook move countered by a Nak Frankensteiner in a big spot. Nakamura got the win after trapping big Yasuda in some MMA submission. To his credit, young Nak played a good white meat babyface. Satoshi Kojima vs. Takashi Iizuka- NJPW 12/1/10
Who's Interesting and Why: Iizuka. He's best known here in the States for getting wrecked by the Steiners on some Watts era WCW pay per view. He spent like 20 years in the NJPW midcard as your basic, run of the mill technical wrestler before transforming into a middle aged and crazy wild man. Middle aged and crazy heel Iizuka is the Iizuka I'm interested in. And that's what I'll be covering today.
Kojima was part of the New Japan's Lost Generation who got shafted during Inokiism. He ended up going to All Japan for a few years before ultimately returning once Inoki was out of the picture. Kojima eventually won both the IWGP & Triple Crown Championships, multiple times iirc, but was still considered a failure by many hardcore fans because he never became the transcendent star they had once expected him to be. I actually saw Kojima live once at ROH Final Battle 2003. He defeated Homicide in a mediocre match where I'm pretty sure 'Cide get his bell rung for real. Kojima also worked MLW here in the States around that same time.
The Match: Was another simple, effective face vs. heel bout in front of a receptive crowd. Kojima is actually IWGP Champ here, which surprised me, but I don't think the title was on the line. Also think this was a house show given the small venue, lack of commentary, and bare bones production work. Usually I use "house show match" as a derogatory term, but this was a GOOD house show match. They didn't do anything crazy or stupid and the barebones production actually helped since we heard all Iizuka's grunts and Kojima's gags as he was being choked. Iizuka was a wild man who cheated whenever possible with weapon shots, biting, low blows, and ref attacks. Kojima was the valiant babyface fighting off this rabid animal. Classic pro wrestling. So classic, in fact, that you could almost drop this into the Mid South Coliseum 30 years earlier. All you'd have to do is take away a Kojima Diamond Cutter and swap out the finishing Kojima clothesline for a Lawler haymaker. Prior to the finishing clothesline, Iizuka pulled out this comically large glove, which was closer to New Jack & Shark Boy "Hulk Hands" than Mid South Dibiase's dreaded black glove, but Kojima knocked the glove away with one strike and quickly followed that up with the winning clothesline. My only real criticism, and it's a minor one, is that Kojima wasn't all that dynamic as a babyface. Sure, the crowd was still into him well enough, but I think somebody like, say, Tanahashi would have had them hopping even more.
Double Verdict- These were my 2 favorite matches of the 14 I watched during this recent binge due to having a timeless face/heel structure in front of good crowds. Both were pure. Neither match was ambitious enough, or kicked into that next gear to earn 4*, but I'd put 'em both in that solid 3*ish range.
EDIT: Worth noting both heels, Yasuda & Iizuka, kept going to the Sleeper. I slept on the Sleeper back in the day, thinking it the most BORING of all moves. But I think it was Ness who recently caused me to see it in a different light when he stated what should have been obvious long ago- HHH (briefly) used it as a heat getter during his Reign of Doom because what is more BORING than the Sleeper? Yasuda & Iizuka know what's up.
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Post by Baker on Jan 11, 2024 23:52:02 GMT
Super Delfin/Great Sasuke/Gran Hamada vs. Dick Togo/Men's Teioh/Shoichi Funaki- AJW 11/21/97
These are all Michinoku Pro regulars. M-Pro was my favorite Japanese promotion back in the late 90s. The first two Japanese wrestling tapes I ever got were the 1994 J-Cup and a comp tape called Intro To Puroresu. My favorite match on either tape, edging out Doc/Kobashi, was the famous Michinoku Pro 10 man These Days tag on Intro. It featured the type of go-go-go cruiserweight wrestling I was into at the time while still having a traditional face/heel structure and the bonus factor of most Kaientai members being recent additions to my beloved WWF. Kaientai were my guys so I got an M-Pro comp or two after that. Iirc it was just an endless run of 4,6,8,or 10 man Kaientai vs. Good Guy tags. Togo was my favorite M-Pro guy followed closely by Teioh.
This one took place on an All Japan Women's show. Guessing this was the special attraction match of the evening in much the same way women's or midget matches had traditionally been used as a novelty match in men's promotions. Those M Pro boys sure did get around. Good on Sasuke for getting his guys out there. First saw them in ECW. Then WWF. Now they're in AJW. And I know they worked a bunch of other feds, too.
Best part of this match was Kaientai dissecting Sasuke's leg. This went on for a while and they really went to town on poor Sasuke's wheel. Then Sasuke made the hot tag and it degenerated into your usual go-go-go actionfest with everyone trading big moves. Blah. 1997 me would have thought the leg stuff boring and loved the move section. 2024 me is the complete opposite. Go figure. Delfin, who I never liked much, got the win after a ludicrous palm strike that looked like it missed by a foot. I'm surprised he didn't shout out "HADOUKEN" to really put over the ridiculousness of this move. Somewhere in Pennsylvania Mike Quackenbush saw this and got ideas...
Highlights beyond the leg work include Togo hitting his boss senton on Sasuke from apron to floor and his GOAT tier powerslam. All your great 21st Century powerslammers from Goldust to Joe to Orton do it with that Togo style snap.
Can we just take a minute to talk about how Funaki was a much better jobber than a workrate guy? He has no big moves! Everybody else is out there doing state of the art stuff and all Funaki can muster is a bridgeless Perfect Plex. Like what is the point of hooking the leg in that plex if you're not even gonna attempt the bridge? And Delfin broke out his stupid Delfin Clutch. Yeah, his big move was a fancy pin. Still not as annoying as Naniwa tho.
Charapita Asari vs. Mariko Yoshida- AJW 8/4/96- Grand Prix Match
Who's Interesting and Why: Asari because Skytwister Press. First saw her (live!) at Survivor Series '95 where she did this flippity doo called the Skytwister Press. For the next 9 months my friends and I called every flippidy doo a Skytwister Press. And then we called them Shooting Star Presses after Summerslam '96. Then we finally got smartened to the fact that all these flipping moves are actually different moves with different names. Anyway, the actual Skytwister Press is AJ Styles' Spiral Tap. Now I'm sure some pedant on Reddit would be like "Nuh uh! AJ twists left first while Asari twists right! And AJ spins thrice while Asari twists 3 and a half times! Totally different moves, ya mark!" Shut up. It's the same move. Point is I may not have remembered Asari's name back in the day, but I always remembered that legendary Skytwister Press.
I've seen Yoshida's name before but know nothing about her. And I assume the Grand Prix was AJW's version of the G1 or Champion Carnival.
This started off fast and furious with Asari hitting a handspring mule kick, slipping in a bunch of neat athletic escapes, and Yoshida hitting a Jackhammer(!) all in the first minute or two. Then Asari valiantly tried avoiding a Boston Crab in clever ways only to finally get caught with the most painful move in backyard wrestling. Asari survived and then returned the favor by hooking Yoshida in the OTHER most painful move in backyard wrestling, the Camel Clutch. These girls know what submissions actually hurt. Yoshida survived the Clutch and then they went into move trading...
This was far more 50/50 than I was expecting. Figured it would be more like 70/30 or more with the slightly bigger Yoshida controlling the smaller Asari most of the way while Chaparita slipped in the occasional hope spot to stay in it. But nah. It was 50/50. Both girls hit one nice dive off the top with Yoshida's actually being a bit more impressive. There was one ludicrous moment though where Asari hit her famous Skytwister Press. Yoshida survived it. Then Asari rolled out of the ring to sell for a minute. Why is your own finisher hurting you?!? It makes no sense! Or was it a depression sell? Was Asari so heartbroken over her finisher's failure to work that she was moping on the floor for that minute? I have no idea! But it was weird. Anyway, Asari would pull off the upset(?) a short time later with a diving frankensteiner.
Double Verdict- Both bouts were decent with the women's match edging the M Pro tag by a teeny tiny margin. Worth noting both would have blown my mind if I'd seen them when they originally happened though.
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Post by Baker on Jan 12, 2024 3:06:07 GMT
Minoru Suzuki/Yoshihiro Takayama/SUWA vs. Blue Wolf/Michiyoshi Ohara/Tatsutoshi Goto- UWAI STATION 12/3/06
Who's Interesting and Why: Blue Wolf because he's a shoot Mongolian who was called Blue Wolf rather then the usual "Firstname Lastname." And also SUWA, who I didn't search for, but was happy to see pop up here because he was a great heel who had an epic series with KENTA that I reviewed on Old PW. Suzuki & Takayama are also major names. Suzuki had a fun series with Yano a few years back and has a theme as great as his haircut is stupid. Takayama was a big star in the early-mid 2000s who's also famous for a shoot fight with Don Frye which is like one of maybe 10 MMA fights I can name and I once saw KENTA carry a washed Takayama to a good match despite Tak moving around like late state Andre. Fwiw he resembles 1993 Barry Windham in build here. Ohara & Goto are the only two wrestlers in this project I had never even heard of. So that's cool! I also had no idea what in the blue hell a "UWAI STATION" was. Turns out it was just some short lived promotion. My instincts told me the stacked team of Suzuki/Takayama/SUWA were winning this. Let's find out... Yeah, they won. A Suzuki Cradle Piledriver did the trick. It took a while to get there though as this was a meandering 20 minute affair that never really got out of first gear. Do not recommend. Lots of low blows. Was not expecting this project to yield as many low blows as a month of WWE Attitude Era tv, but that's where we are. The draw for me, Blue Wolf, didn't do much of note. I think he might have hit one cool suplex? SUWA also wasn't at his best, though the highlight of the match was SUWA hitting a "WASSUP" style flying elbow to the balls of one of the other guys and then high fiving Suzuki. SUWA rules. It was well deserved too as Ohara & Goto were all about the low blow, so this was payback. Verdict- Skip it. Under **. Pretty boring match. Great O-Khan vs. Toru Yano- NJPW 10/26/22- TV Title Tournament Match Who's Interesting and Why: Both . Great O-Khan because he's a gimmick Mongolian. The "wild Mongolian savage" gimmick was a staple of wrestling for decades. And here we have New Japan bringing it back in the 2020s with O-Khan in the role. I've wanted to watch a match of his for a while but just never got around to it. Yano is one of the modern era's great wrestling geniuses. Maybe even THE greatest. He is wrestling's ultimate trickster. Yep. Yano still has it. Emperor hinted that he was washed, and Yano wrestling in a shirt* did not inspire much confidence, but my guy still delivered. First he tries for a countout win by taping O-Khan's braid to the barricade. Classic Yano. Khan escapes with the help of his own personal ring announcer. Oh yeah. Khan had his own ring announcer named Lord Gideon Gray. They're part of a stable called the United Empire. Khan came out in full Mongolian regalia while waving the flag of his stable. And the English language commentary I listened to spent a lot of time bashing Lord Gideon Gray in much the same way Gorilla would take shots at Heenan back in the day. This whole thing was chock full of classic pro wrestling goodness. They have the best stretch of nearfalls in this entire project all based around Yano ROLLUPS~! Ness Kilgore See, because Yano is well established as a Master of the Rollup. He's won many big matches over the years with these simple pinning combinations so everyone, including myself, buys into them as legit finishes. He also earns bonus points for not killing any big time moves. He doesn't need to. That's pro wrestling. That's actual WORKING. That's Yano the Wrestling Genius. Finish is simultaneously great and terrible. The lights go out. It's not the 90s anymore so I just groan rather than get excited. But they come back on to reveal THE GREAT MUTA IN FULL REGALIA at ringside. So that's cool. But the whole LIGHTS OUT thing is still played out and it killed the flow of this very good match. Anyway, Muta mists O-Khan. Yano rolls him up(!) for the win. Assuming this set up a Muta/Khan match that had to be among Muta's last. *Pretty sure Yano's shirt featured NES characters but I couldn't make them out and I now I feel bad about it. Verdict- A hoot. I spoke too soon when I called Nakamura/Yasuda & Kojima/Iizuka "my favorite matches of this binge" because this one is right up there with those two.
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Post by Emperor on Jan 12, 2024 16:25:48 GMT
Toru Yano is washed, but that doesn't mean he doesn't have a great match in him. It's just these days they are few and far between. His first two matches in the 2023 G1 were vintage Yano and I was craving more, but the rest of the matches were just bad.
That match with Great O-Khan is one recent Yano highlight, and it was every bit as good as you said it was. The finish was baffling. I'm pretty sure it didn't lead to anything. This was on Muta's retirement tour so I assume it was to give Great O Khan a Muta moment before he rode off into the sunset.
Doing some quick research I see O-Khan teamed with Great Muta in a NOAH show in September 03. But there was also the delightfully random United Empire (Henare, O-Khan and Jeff Cobb) vs The Great Muta, Kazuchika Okada and...Toru Yano! November 20 2022. I probably watched this match but forgot about it.
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Post by Baker on Jan 13, 2024 0:20:45 GMT
Jon Moxley vs. Taichi- NJPW 7/13/19- G1 Climax Who's Interesting and Why: Taichi because Lionheart & Emperor had me intrigued when they put him over 3-4 years ago when we were doing PW's Favorite Wrestler Countdown thread. They had me wanting to watch a Taichi match. Now some 3-4 years later I am finally making good on that desire. This is extremely on brand. I do things at my own pace. Usually glacial. Jon Moxley and is not interesting and here's why... Because Dean Ambrose was down there with Nakamura as one of my least favorite wrestlers of the 2010s. He was a punch kick wrestler who sucked at punching and kicking. He also had this annoying habit of making funny faces. Truly the Buddy Roberts of the Shield. I hear Moxley is better. I would hope so! Hard to be worse than Ambrose. Anyway, this is his first NJPW match. Yep. Right away I can understand why Taichi would have piqued my interest 3-4 years ago. He's my kind of "character" wrestler. He has this elaborate entrance and I'm gonna have to rewatch the whole thing right now so I can get it right. Church music hits. A masked woman comes out. The "church music" theme has this dramatic intro that lasts a minute or more. The woman unmasks. She prances around a little bit while making these longing, lustful facial expressions like she can't wait for her man to come out. Then she goes into prayer. Finally Taichi enters. He wears a Phantom of the Opera mask and a Napoleon coat. Now the "church music" theme goes more poppy and has lyrics. Taichi sings them on his way down the aisle. Pure sports entertainment. You gotta love it. Moxley knows he's beat in the entrance game so he just comes out normally to some Sabbathy sounding doom metal. But Taichi is taking no chances so he jumps Mox in the aisle and beats him up a little. Taichi's entrance was, by far, the best part of this rather mediocre match. I get the impression Taichi is supposed to be an 'annoying' midcard heel like the Mountie. Mox took most of this once he survived that initial onslaught. One thing that annoyed me was he sold the back due to that early attack for most of the match. Hit a move. Hold the back. You know the drill. But then he goes and no sells an irish whip into the turnbuckle by running right out to hit a clothesline. I JUST criticized BOBCORE for this! And he's the toughest of the toughies. Moxley is no BOBCORE. AND his back was already hurt! Stupid stupid stupid. Mox put Taichi through a table on the floor with a Rock Bottom. I'm not sure we needed so much gaga for the finish. We got a ref bump, Taichi's dame interfering, and Taichi got to escape Mox's first finisher attempt before finally going down to the old Robert Thompson Implant Double Arm DDT. This is Moxley's debut. Taichi appears to be a comedic midcarder. Mox should have beat him easier without the need for so much gaga. Reminds me in a way of the Angle/Haas match from a 2003 Smackdown. Angle had just returned from a lengthy injury. WGTT turned on Kurt while he was out. The returning Olympic Hero should have wiped the floor with midcard Charlie to show he was back and better than ever. Instead they worked a 50/50 match before Kurt naturally went over. It just wasn't the right match for that scenario and I feel the same way about this one. Verdict- Watch Taichi's entrance. Skip the match. Zack Sabre Jr. vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi- NJPW New Year's Dash 1/5/24- TV Title Match This is an Emperor recommendation. We know Tanahashi. Sabre I've seen once or twice before against....I forget. He's a skinny British technician who has dyed his hair blond since the last time I saw him. This was a good technical match with an underwhelming finish. Tanahashi don't get paid by the hour so he was looking to end it early. Went for his "High Fly Flow" Frog Splash finisher within the first minute or two. NO! ZSJ got his knees up. Next few minutes were ZSJ taking Tanahashi to school with a submission clinic. He'd transition from one hold to another. Commentary said something like "he won't keep a hold on for longer than 6 seconds because he knows the opponent won't quit. Instead he'll transition to another hold." Now the whole "6 second" thing is blatantly untrue and I can prove it, BUT it's also a great bit of wrestling b.s. so I am more than willing to roll with it. They trade rollups when...Tanahashi gets an anticlimactic 1-2-3 to become the new TV Champ (fwiw NJPW has a comical, AEWish amount of titles lol). Very underwhelming finish. And it makes no sense! ZSJ is New Japan's resident technical wizard. He shouldn't be losing a rollup battle to all arounder Tanahashi. ALTHOUGH...I recently discovered Tanahashi was just named President of New Japan. NOW it makes sense. It's all about The Game and how you play it... Even though I'm a Tanahashi fan, this felt like a ZSJ carry job. Tana just went along with ZSJ's submissions the way any old broomstick would. He also seemed to be a step slow in his general movements, slow to get up, etc, though I admittedly doubt I would have noticed if not for 5 years of reading "TANAHSHI IS WASHED!" any time I'd wander into a discussion of modern NJPW. Verdict- Good match let down by a mediocre finish. Overall I'd have it behind the Yasuda, Iizuka, and Yano matches, but still above everything else in this binge.
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Post by Lionheart on Jan 13, 2024 1:55:12 GMT
HOLY SHIT! You sure chose some poor matches to go for, but I am somehow still very excited to read someone reviewing a TAICHI match. Even if it was a dud. I am overjoyed that you liked the entrance so much. If you would be willing to try more, I present to you THE TOP TWELVE TAICHI MATCHES (unordered):
TAICHI Vs. SANADA - New Japan Cup March 5th, 2023 TAICHI Vs. Will Ospreay - NJPW G1 July 15th, 2023 TAICHI & Zack Sabre Jr. Vs. Tetsuya Naito & SANADA (c) (IWGP Tag Team Championship) - NJPW Wrestle Grand Slam 2021 TAICHI & Zack Sabre Jr. Vs. Guerrillas of Destiny (c) (IWGP Tag Team Championship) - NJPW Road To Dominion June 1st, 2021 TAICHI Vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi - NJPW G1 Day 18 - October 20th, 2021 TAICHI Vs. Jay White - NJPW G1 Day 16 - August 13th, 2022 TAICHI Vs. Tetsuya Naito - NJPW Summer Struggle In Osaka Night 1 - July 22nd, 2021
TAICHI Vs. SANADA - NJPW G1 Day 4 - September 24th, 2021 TAICHI Vs. Kazuchika Okada - NJPW G1 Day 12 - October 8th, 2021 TAICHI Vs. Will Ospreay - NJPW New Beginning In Sapporo Night 1 - February 4th, 2023 TAICHI Vs. Kota Ibushi - NJPW G1 Day 17 - October 16th, 2020
TAICHI Vs. Tomohiro Ishii - NJPW G1 Day 9 - October 5th, 2020
I can make any of these matches available to you via my streaming site ON REQUEST. Oh, but I guess you have NJPW World already which has them all. Which is even more convenient.
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Post by Baker on Jan 16, 2024 21:49:38 GMT
Thanks for the recommendations Lionheart . I may check some out once my current project is complete. lol of course I don't have NJPW World. Dump Matsumoto vs. Chigusa Nagayo- AJW 6/25/85- Grand Prix Match Who's Interesting and Why: Both really, but mostly Dump. Dump Matsumoto is maybe my favorite wrestling discovery of the past 3-4 years. She's like a rich woman's Sheik or Abdullah. Chigusa was Dump's top rival and one half of the legendary Crush Girls. These two had an all time great feud highlighted by an epic hair vs. hair match two months after this one. It's hard to separate myth from fact when it comes to these two. I've seen claims that Chigusa was more popular than peak Hulk Hogan. I've seen claims the Road Warriors (among others) ripped off Dump. Meltzer has claimed hated heel Dump was actually the most popular wrestler among Americans in Japan at the time. I'm not sure how to rate this match. By most metrics it's a failure. There are probably more botches here than in the Jericho & Sting 8 man tag debacle on the last AEW ppv. Dump isn't interested in selling anything. The rulebook is thrown out the window as is usually the case in Dump matches. These same wrestlers having this same match in some rinky dink venue at any other time would almost certainly be a DUD... But it worked for that audience at that particular time. The thousands in attendance are deeply invested. There is something very pure about these Dump vs. Chigusa matches. They more archetypes than wrestlers. Dump is pure evil and Chigusa pure good. This is the type of good vs. evil wrestling I grew up on...The babyface vs. heel dynamic that wrestling revolved around for like a hundred years. And on that level it works. As for the match itself, Dump uses weapons. Her lesbian biker gang (including a young Bull Nakano) interferes at will. There's a shady referee involved until Dump bludgeons him for not being shady enough. Chigusa slaps on a few Sharpshooters and I think a Figure Four with twirl. She even hits a piledriver. Dump sells nothing. And it goes to a time limit draw. Verdict: 1/4* for the wrestling. ****3/4 for the spectacle. Split the difference and go **1/2 Wolf Hawkfield & Johnny Smith (c) vs. Gedo & Jado- AJPW 5/1/98- All Asian Tag Title Match Who's Interesting and Why: Wolf Hawkfield for so many reasons. Before The Renegade, our guy was WCW's first failed Warrior clone as "Jungle" Jim Steele. Then this notorious "bad wrestler" went to "the best wrestling promotion in the world," AJPW, where he would stick around for nearly a decade. One of his names there was The Lacrosse which is a badass name. Pretty sure I've already reviewed every Lacrosse match on Youtube. And now he's Wolf Hawkfield which was the name of a character in some fighting game my friend Chuck had back when those Mortal Kombat/Street Fighter style games were all the rage. So Wolf Hawkfield is a literal video game wrestler. Perhaps the first? Johnny Smith is your basic bland good wrestler guy. He spent most of the 90s in AJPW with the occasional foray into ECW. Gedo & Jado were like a poor man's Kaientai in that they played heel and got around, but didn't have a great deal of flash. 90s Japanese wrestling fans in the West like Strictly ECW's Stuart couldn't stand 'em. So nobody was more pleased than I to see these "bums" have a well received match with the Impact Players at an ECW Arena show because anytime you could prove Stuart wrong was a good time indeed. One, or both, would later go on to book New Japan back to relevance in the 2010s. Not bad careers for a pair of what they used to call "Japanese indie sleaze" guys. The All Asian Tag Titles are their secondary tag belts. Think the old NWA US Tag Titles. This is All Japan's first ever show in the TOKYO DOME~! Gedo & Jado are wearing what I can only describe as karate pajamas. Highlight comes in the first minute with some sweet British chain wrestling from Smith and...one of the other guys. Rest of the match is real average. Wolf Hawkfield gives off real Chuck Palumbo vibes. He does some power stuff and grunts a lot. Basically imagine Chuck Palumbo & Chad Collyer vs. Two Funaki's for 12 minutes and you have a pretty good idea of what this was. Smith gets the win with a pretty wicked looking Slop Drop. Verdict- ** the most average match of the matches to ever be average
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Post by Ness on Jan 16, 2024 21:55:54 GMT
I love that we never know where Baker is watching stuff from. One minute it's modern New Japan and now he's going back in time.
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Post by Lionheart on Jan 16, 2024 22:28:15 GMT
Yeah, I was just about to say he must have just randomly pirated an unnotable G1 Climax night from five years ago and then randomly watched a non-main event match on it and nothing else.
Pretty wild and bizarre amounts of effort for strange gain!
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Post by Baker on Jan 16, 2024 23:24:33 GMT
I love that we never know where Baker is watching stuff from. One minute it's modern New Japan and now he's going back in time. Love this. I always like to keep the people guessing. Reminds me of the time 🤯 was thrown for a loop over me reviewing Edge & Christian vs. Dudleys from Royal Rumble 2001. As if writing about a match featuring two extremely popular teams on a Big Four pay per view during a boom period was off brand. Seriously though. While I do bounce around a lot, smart money will always be on me coming back to 95-96 wrestling sooner rather than later. Got two more matches to cover on this current kick- one from Japan and one....Japan adjacent. Then maybe I'll take Lionheart up on his Taichi offer. Should have time later to pump out that final two for one review.
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Post by Baker on Jan 17, 2024 2:21:50 GMT
Ryuji Yamakawa (c) vs. Kintaro Kanemura- FMW 5/5/00- WEW Hardcore Championship Match
Who's Interesting and Why: Yamakawa because he was Japanese cowboy who came out to Journey. He also had hype around the turn of the century for "revolutionizing the death match" alongside his chief rival Tomaoki Honma, but let's face it. I'm here for the "Japanese cowboy coming out to Journey" stuff.
Kanemura sometimes used the first name Wing. He worked all the Japanese death match promotions, showed up in ECW a few times, and I'm pretty sure he was the guy Kevin Sullivan carved up in Smoky that one time.
Another thing I'm fairly certain of, but too lazy to confirm, is 5/5 being FMW's version of New Japan's 1/4.
Kanemura enters first to Raven's ECW theme. He does a goofy dance in the ring. Could this be BAHU's "Team No Fear" dance? I think that would be a correct assumption. Then Yamakawa comes out....as a Japanese cowboy....to JOURNEY's Separate Ways. Welp. I know who I am rooting for. I like The Offspring well enough, but they're no Journey. But get this. The crowd BOOs the Journey guy! Death Match fans. smh. They really are ghouls. Sure, Yamakawa is an outsider as a Big Japan guy working an FMW show, but Journey should trump promotional allegiance. I mean if DDP came out to Wheel In The Sky during a WWF vs. WCW interpromotional dream card in 1996 I'd....you know what? Let's just move this along...
I saved the worst for last because this match SUCKED. If you like walk & brawl, furniture rearranging, botches, repeated spots, and moments with 1990s indie production quality, then I have found the match for you. If you're anybody else, avoid this like the plague. Sad thing is you could get a GREAT 1-2 minute highlight package out of this. Or I could easily get a killer round or two of gifs. They did some cool stuff! Multiple Angel's Wings. Balcony dives. A flip dive. A Death Valley Driver. Pulling light tubes out of the actual lighting structure they belong in. Kanemura wore the crimson mask. But everything in between the cool stuff was the pits. So like 90% of the match. This was the epitome of "all style, no substance." Kanemura won his title back. I think with back to back powerbombs?
Verdict- 1/55*
Yuji Nagata w/ Sonny Ono vs. Hiroyoshi Tenzan- WCW Worldwide 4/4/98
OK, so this is a bit of a cheat, but bear with me. This project originally started as "cool-on-paper New Japan guys I remember reading about 20 years ago and am now finally going to watch." These two, along with Kojima, were the Failed Generation who, while successful in kayfabe, still never reached the heights many expected of them due to Inokiism. BUT I didn't have a lot of time back when I was watching all these matches so I just slipped this little quickie in on break, or before bed, or before the tv show I was about to watch, or whatever it was.
Didn't know Tenzan worked WCW beyond that one off vs. Savage at Starrcade '95. He's a member of NWO Japan (BOO!) and sports a truly horrendous mullet that would be too nasty even for the Nasty Boys. And leave it to Larry Legend to turn Tenzan's hair don't into the focal point of his commentary. Paraphrasing here, but Larry Z was basically like "Anybody with THAT haircut has to be an asshole. So OF COURSE he's NWO. Yeah, Nagata is with that jerk Ono, but he's young still. One day he'll learn. Just look at him! He's a nice, respectable young man like the great Japanese wrestlers of yesteryear. Men like Fujinami, Masa Saito, and the great Antonio Inoki."
Unfortunately Zbyszko's rant about Tenzan's hair don't was among the highlights of this nothing match. The other being a nice overhead belly to belly from Nagata. There was also a powerbomb which the crack WCW production crew missed entirely. Nagata got the win with this weirdly primitive figure four that wasn't even the Hogan/Dusty stepover version after Tenzan was illegally tripped by Ono.
Verdict- Nothing to see here. Move along
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Post by Baker on Jan 20, 2024 0:44:04 GMT
AJ Styles (c) w/ Bullet Club vs. Kazuchika Okada w/ Gedo- NJPW Dominion 7/5/15- IWGP Championship Match
Already covered Tanahashi & Nakamura during this dive. With Okada leaving New Japan, I figured it only fair to cover the other top native responsible for the their 2010s resurgence.
I like(d) Tanahashi. Couldn't stand Nakamura. Okada falls somewhere in between. He's...fine. I liked the Okada/Omega match I saw. Saw Okada have a good match with Roderick Strong, who I've never been a fan of, in ROH. But I've never gravitated towards the guy. So he's kind of like a Japanese Randy Orton in that sense. Has a great dropkick though!
I'm also a low voter on AJ's mid 2010s ROH/New Japan run. Mostly seen some ROH stuff and the Wrestle Kingdom match with Naito. It was....fine (EDIT: except the Shibata G1 Climax match. That ruled). But I certainly wasn't seeing the same "BEST IN THE WORLD~!" style run everybody else was. Maybe I was watching the wrong matches? Or maybe I just didn't buy into Bullet Club AJ because it seemed forced and Styles is a natural babyface due to having flashy moves? Likely a combination of both.
They start out teasing dropkicks to oohs and aahs. AJ would score first when he connected with one a few minutes later, but Okada would come back to win the overall dropkick battle 3-1, the final tally being a BOBCORE special.
First 10 minutes revolve around the loathsome Bullet Club interfering and being general douchebags with their tired 90s taunts. How these guys ever got over is a mystery to me. They're so cringe. But then I thought the same thing about proper NWO & DX, so of course I'm gonna feel the same way about these cosplaying hacks. Referee Red Shoes (ugh) comes out from the back to expel Bullet Club from ringside to get that Earl Hebner pop. We even get a "SUCK IT" for maximum Hebnerage from the unfortunately named Red Shoes. Bullet Club overact to this like you wouldn't believe. Having grown up on 80s & 90s WWF, a part of me appreciates what they were doing here even if it came across as more parody than homage.
Match was actually better with Bullet Club at ringside lol. Their antics kept the crowd hot for babyface Okada. They quieted down after the expulsion. Luckily Gedo is a good babyface manager. He'd slap the mat to get the crowd back into it whenever they'd begin to lull.
First half of this is real slow. Between the BC interference, and a long Styles chinlock, this was a real "WWE" style match. Styles controls most of the way. He even outstrikes Okada during the inevitable forearm trading. Things ramp up down the stretch as they're wont to do. Lots of big moves are teased. Okada kicking out of a Tombstone followed by a Springboard 450 Splash was a bit much. Later on Okada will finally hit the Tombstone he'd been teasing for ages. It's all FINE, but lacking in a way I can't quite put my finger on. Then they go into a genuine great finishing stretch with counters on top of counters until Okada hits the Rainmaker to become NEEEWWW IWGP Champion.
Verdict- Good match. Maybe even very good. Definitely not great* though. Idk. Let’s go ***1/2. There's a Nagata match I liked better and another Yuji match roughly on par with this one coming up. Hopefully tomorrow.
*Sometimes, after watching a more high profile match, I'll do a search to see what others thought. I don't let it effect my opinion. I'm just curious. Anyway, Meltzer gave this ****3/4. 2nd reviewer I found gave it ****1/4. I get it to an extent. It hearkens back to something I wrote a few weeks ago about how ending on a high note tends to inflate a rating. This is only natural. I did it myself for like 20 years! Anyway, this bit by the 2nd reviewer, a guy named Alex Podgorski, actually does a great job of explaining why this match, and Okada in general, didn’t fully knock my socks off...
"As for Okada, he came across as…mechanical…in this match. Even though he tried to show some fire and personality by overcoming the odds and going nose-to-nose with Styles, it just didn’t work. The only time Okada did anything truly unique or special was, as usual, in his closing sequence. He and Styles had another clever counter exchange that led to a surprising and exciting finish. But outside of that, there wasn’t anything special in what Okada did."
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Post by Big Pete on Jan 20, 2024 12:17:34 GMT
I'm also a low voter on AJ's mid 2010s ROH/New Japan run. Mostly seen some ROH stuff and the Wrestle Kingdom match with Naito. It was....fine (EDIT: except the Shibata G1 Climax match. That ruled). But I certainly wasn't seeing the same "BEST IN THE WORLD~!" style run everybody else was. Is this where you start making the case that Beer City Bruiser was actually the better worker than AJ? Ala Mark Henry > Kurt Angle circa 2006 PWO? In fairness, I could understand watching that Naito match and walking away underwhelmed. This was pre-Los Ingobernables de Japon Naito when he was coming off a failed push and just wasn't connecting with the audience. It wasn't exactly a highly rated match either and Styles had better and would go onto have better. During his early days, I remember the match that really turned heads was against Suzuki in the G1. This was pre-English commentary, so fans were making their own commentary tracks just to make sure it was as accessible as it could be. I can't really remember the match, but it seems to track with how I generally felt about Okada. Most of his work was skippable UNTIL he hits the dropkick and then the match becomes good. Even so, the matches always felt so formulaic and cliche that I'd find myself enjoying guys like Toru Yano more. At least Yano was looking to win, Okada looked like he wanted to dance around for 20 minutes before he'd actually go for the kill.
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Post by Emperor on Jan 20, 2024 22:32:14 GMT
As for Okada, he came across as…mechanical…in this match. Even though he tried to show some fire and personality by overcoming the odds and going nose-to-nose with Styles, it just didn’t work. The only time Okada did anything truly unique or special was, as usual, in his closing sequence. He and Styles had another clever counter exchange that led to a surprising and exciting finish. But outside of that, there wasn’t anything special in what Okada did." You've figured out Okada's magic trick. He's one of the greatest match closers in the business, and that's how he gets all the pretty snowflakes. More often than not, the first two thirds of an Okada match are as unremarkable as you get. Okada is more interesting when he has an edge, a fire, and we've seen more and more of that from him last year with younger wrestlers trying to step up to him. And Okada knows exactly when to turn up that heat in the middle of a match. He knows how to read a crowd. In conclusion, what's wrong with "Red Shoes"?
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Post by Ness on Jan 20, 2024 22:37:49 GMT
It always seemed like the first 30 minutes of an Okada match was filler and you could skip it. System talk about fillers man.
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Post by Big Pete on Jan 21, 2024 5:21:57 GMT
Emperor, does NJPW World only have the major shows in the archive? Looking through their catalogue and appears they only have the WrestleKingdoms, Dominions and G1 Climaxes. If you're lucky, certain years have the odd PPV thrown in, but it's clearly not their complete catalogue. Has it always been that way? It'd be a shame if that whole 2012-2020 period wasn't available on the service.
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Post by Emperor on Jan 21, 2024 16:23:36 GMT
I'm sure that on the old NJPW World you could find pretty much any past NJPW content. Type in a wrestler's name and you get hundreds of results. But I just typed Tanahashi into the search of the new NJPW World and there are only 36 results, a real mixed bag of Tanahashi's career. Big matches, small matches. No rhyme or reason. Hashimoto gets 12 results. It is tremendously disappointing if they've restricted their archive.
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Post by Ness on Jan 21, 2024 16:28:02 GMT
Not a good look for the ACE here. Limited selections under his administration...
No wonder Okada is splittin...
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