This is a review a while ago for probably my favourite match of all time. It's not the same style of review I write now, but I thought I would be fun to dig it out. Enjoy.
Misawa/Kobashi vs Kawada/Taue
6/9/1995 - All Japan Pro Wrestling
Kobashi and Taue start off. Taue gets the early advantage and twists on Kobashi’s arm. Bashi slowly reverses, only for Taue to kick him in his bandaged up leg. RUDO! Kawada is in to receive some delicious Kobashi chops. He resists being whipped across the ring for ages, before running across to kick Misawa right in the face. Haha Kawada is so awesome. This is made even better by Kobashi thinking ‘Oh shit’ and going over to check if Misawa is okay. Misawa wants in now. He and Kawada exchange all sorts of chops, elbows and kicks until Kawada turns around and boots Kobashi right in the face and off the apron. I LOVE KAWADA. Taue tags in and gets worked over by the face team. He escapes to the outside and Misawa fakes a tope, only for Kobashi to hit a lariat from off the apron. Kawada runs in and is introduced to Misawa’s big fucking elbow. Misawa decides he actually will do a tope and flies into Taue. He is brought back into the ring and gets worked over again. Kobashi comes off the second turnbuckle, but Taue rolls away and tags out. Kawada now mercilessly attacks Kobashi’s bad leg and Bashi sells like a champ. Heels viciously work over the leg and it is great. Kobashi’s selling here is fantastic. He escapes the beating and tags Misawa who unleashes on Taue. Misawa ends up putting Taue into a crab, which leads to Kawada casually walking up and kicking him in the face. This is why I love Kawada. He tags in and goes to town on Misawa. Breaks down into a four-way but Bashi can barely walk. Misawa takes on both guys and does well for himself. Then in the greatest move ever, Taue chokeslams Misawa onto Kobashi’s injured leg, which Bashi’s sells by acting like he’s been shot. Kawada then double knee drops it from the second rope. So, so awesome. Heels work over Misawa, then after what seems like fucking ages Kobashi gets back in the ring, but Taue fucks him up by taking him back outside and dropping his leg on the guardrail. He comes back again and looks pissed. Lariat on Taue! Kawada tries to beat him down, but they end up hitting lariats on each other at the same time. This is so great. Kobashi ends up going kick for kick with Kawada and just won’t stay down. KOBASHI RUSH! He goes for a moonsault but gets cut off. Misawa gets the hot tag and hits a tiger driver on Taue for two and our first near fall. Kobashi is tagged back in and hits Taue with a german suplex. Another moonsault attempt is blocked. Kawada tries in vain to backdrop Kobashi and then eats one himself. Really breaks down here. After many failed attempts Kobashi hits a moonsault on Kawada but only gets a two count. Misawa the tags in and kills Kawada with a german. Tiger Suplex is bridged and only gets two, and a Tiger Driver pin is broken up by Taue. Taue then proceeds to place Misawa on the top rope and give him a big fucking chokeslam from it. At this the point the Japanese announcer is losing his voice, which makes this even more awesome. Chokeslam from the apron to the floor, by Taue on Misawa! Ouch. Kobashi now tries to lie on top of Misawa to protect him. Kobashi is so awesome. Bare in mind he is still selling the fuck out of his injured leg. Kawada is determined to get the pin on Misawa, but he keeps slipping away, and Kobashi keeps trying to protect his partner by sacrificing himself for him. The heels pull Kobashi off Misawa and hit a chokeslam/backdrop double team. Kawada hits a sick backdrop driver on Misawa, but he still kicks out. Kawada then hits a powerbomb for the pin at around 42 minutes. That was so, so great. Everyone did there job perfectly and it all came together. Possibly the best tag match I’ve ever seen. Kobashi sold his leg like a motherfucker and Kawada was brilliant in his desperation to get a pinfall over Misawa. Unreal.
Tuesday 23 October 2007
Monday 22 October 2007
The Goodness of 2007 #2
Danielson vs Necro Butcher
7/29/2007 - Pro Wrestling Guerrilla
FIGHT~! What a great brawl this was. Danielson comes off looking like a total killer and Necro is just good ol' Necro. They start up with some mat wrestling, but it's the kind of mat wrestling your stupid buddies do after 8 pints and some serious goading and shit stirring. Needless to say, it's awesome. Danielson tears at Necro's forehead, ripping it apart until it's a raw and bloody mess, and the favour is repaid by Necro who sets upon belting Danielson with chairs. I love indy brawls like this. Really I do. In the best spot ever Butcher suffocates Dragon with a plastic bag. Maybe with all that's gone on in 2007 it could be argued that suffocation spots aren't the most tasteful things to do, but fuck it this was greatness. Danielson fights his way back and screams about being the best in the world, which is exactly how the best in the world should behave. Dragon ends it with his deadly elbows, which are very much over by the way, and I rejoice. This was on the short side at around 10 minutes, but they were the among the best 10 minutes of my life. These men must rematch!
Cena vs Michaels
4/23/2007 - WWE
Now I'm not a big mark for either of these guys. Generally you'll find people that worship HBK and hate Cena, and you'll find people that worship Cena and hate HBK. For me, neither of them are great, but neither are particularly objectionable. I came into watching this match with some pretty high expectations after it had been pimped mercilessly by fanboys of both guys. They started off well enough with Cena trying to entrap Michaels in his dreaded STFU. Then Cena locked on some awesome headlocks. I know its sounds really smarkish to gush over how great Cena's headlocks were, but that whole section was great. They built the match really slowly, which I enjoyed, but wasn't really loving it. What I did love was Michaels schtick in the second half of the match; walking around like his body is completely fucked up (which it probably is) and trying to survive against the best guy in the promotion. Cena did a great job too at pulling out everything to put this man down and getting more and more frustrated. The finish run worked really well, with Michaels really milking his crawl to the ropes to break the STFU and trying his fucking hardest to get the cover on Cena after his first superkick. I really enjoyed Michaels being out on his feet, but always having the secret weapon of the superkick to keep him in the game. In the end HBK reverses another FU, hits his Sweet Chin Music and falls right on top of Cena for the pin. This was a fun match, but not one of the very best I've seen this year. It will be interesting to watch it again without the breaks, but I doubt it will greatly improve it. Fun match, but not the epic I was expecting.
7/29/2007 - Pro Wrestling Guerrilla
FIGHT~! What a great brawl this was. Danielson comes off looking like a total killer and Necro is just good ol' Necro. They start up with some mat wrestling, but it's the kind of mat wrestling your stupid buddies do after 8 pints and some serious goading and shit stirring. Needless to say, it's awesome. Danielson tears at Necro's forehead, ripping it apart until it's a raw and bloody mess, and the favour is repaid by Necro who sets upon belting Danielson with chairs. I love indy brawls like this. Really I do. In the best spot ever Butcher suffocates Dragon with a plastic bag. Maybe with all that's gone on in 2007 it could be argued that suffocation spots aren't the most tasteful things to do, but fuck it this was greatness. Danielson fights his way back and screams about being the best in the world, which is exactly how the best in the world should behave. Dragon ends it with his deadly elbows, which are very much over by the way, and I rejoice. This was on the short side at around 10 minutes, but they were the among the best 10 minutes of my life. These men must rematch!
Cena vs Michaels
4/23/2007 - WWE
Now I'm not a big mark for either of these guys. Generally you'll find people that worship HBK and hate Cena, and you'll find people that worship Cena and hate HBK. For me, neither of them are great, but neither are particularly objectionable. I came into watching this match with some pretty high expectations after it had been pimped mercilessly by fanboys of both guys. They started off well enough with Cena trying to entrap Michaels in his dreaded STFU. Then Cena locked on some awesome headlocks. I know its sounds really smarkish to gush over how great Cena's headlocks were, but that whole section was great. They built the match really slowly, which I enjoyed, but wasn't really loving it. What I did love was Michaels schtick in the second half of the match; walking around like his body is completely fucked up (which it probably is) and trying to survive against the best guy in the promotion. Cena did a great job too at pulling out everything to put this man down and getting more and more frustrated. The finish run worked really well, with Michaels really milking his crawl to the ropes to break the STFU and trying his fucking hardest to get the cover on Cena after his first superkick. I really enjoyed Michaels being out on his feet, but always having the secret weapon of the superkick to keep him in the game. In the end HBK reverses another FU, hits his Sweet Chin Music and falls right on top of Cena for the pin. This was a fun match, but not one of the very best I've seen this year. It will be interesting to watch it again without the breaks, but I doubt it will greatly improve it. Fun match, but not the epic I was expecting.
Sunday 21 October 2007
The Goodness of 2007 #1
So since the year is rapidly coming to a close I decided to start on making some 'Best of 2007' comps to document it. After the first volume was complete I then decided to review some of the matches as a way of giving back. This won't be in any chronological order, I'll just review as I watch them. This is simply some good and possibly great matches from this year that you should go out of your way to see.
KENTA vs Danielson
6/23/2007 - Ring of Honor
There's not a lot more that needs to be written about Bryan Danielson. He's the best in the world no doubt and although he's missed nearly half of it he'll still likely end up as most people's wrestler of the year. This match was really a showcase in why I love this man. Firstly, the tease of the 'I have 'til five!' He builds it up and builds it up and finally when it he does deliver the line the crowd pop huge. It's little things like that which make me love wrestling and which prove Danielson is great at his job. The best wrestlers in the world excel at the little things that draw you in, the things that cause you to sit watching a match with a huge shit-eating grin on your face. Flair does it, Kawada does it, Hansen does it, Austin does it and Danielson does it. Secondly, the finish is awesome. Danielson has a habit of creating an epic sense of tension and excitement during the finishing stretch, and he does this with aplomb in this match. Often people will bitch about no-selling, but fuck it's pro-wrestling, it's a show. Everything just clicks here from the trading of each other's signature moves to the huge amounts of under-selling them. The actual finish comes as Danielson is hammering elbows down onto KENTA's head, to which KENTA responds to by lifting Danielson up onto his shoulders and hitting a Go2Sleep, despite Danielson still belting him with elbow strikes. I've made this sound all about Bryan, when actually KENTA is awesome here too. He takes an awesome bump from the apron and brings extra fire with his strikes. But ROH is the Danielson show, and this match not only proves it, but also make me remember why I love pro-wrestling.
KENTA vs Danielson
6/23/2007 - Ring of Honor
There's not a lot more that needs to be written about Bryan Danielson. He's the best in the world no doubt and although he's missed nearly half of it he'll still likely end up as most people's wrestler of the year. This match was really a showcase in why I love this man. Firstly, the tease of the 'I have 'til five!' He builds it up and builds it up and finally when it he does deliver the line the crowd pop huge. It's little things like that which make me love wrestling and which prove Danielson is great at his job. The best wrestlers in the world excel at the little things that draw you in, the things that cause you to sit watching a match with a huge shit-eating grin on your face. Flair does it, Kawada does it, Hansen does it, Austin does it and Danielson does it. Secondly, the finish is awesome. Danielson has a habit of creating an epic sense of tension and excitement during the finishing stretch, and he does this with aplomb in this match. Often people will bitch about no-selling, but fuck it's pro-wrestling, it's a show. Everything just clicks here from the trading of each other's signature moves to the huge amounts of under-selling them. The actual finish comes as Danielson is hammering elbows down onto KENTA's head, to which KENTA responds to by lifting Danielson up onto his shoulders and hitting a Go2Sleep, despite Danielson still belting him with elbow strikes. I've made this sound all about Bryan, when actually KENTA is awesome here too. He takes an awesome bump from the apron and brings extra fire with his strikes. But ROH is the Danielson show, and this match not only proves it, but also make me remember why I love pro-wrestling.
Wednesday 17 October 2007
Lazy as fuck
Okay so I'm really lazy and haven't been too bothered about reviewing a shit-ton of wrestling. However, I plan to reform my ways and to do that I'm going to scrap reviewing all of 1990's All Japan since I'm never going to get around to it. Instead I'm just going to review as I watch so we'll see what happens. I will try my best to post stuff regularly though.
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