Tanahashi vs Goto
11/11/2007 - New Japan Pro Wrestling
This, ashamedly, is the first Hirooki Goto match I’ve seen since his return. He’s bulked up and grown out so much, I think he’s actually a different person. It wouldn’t surprise me if the real, skinny Goto is stuck in Tijuana doing indy shows or something. Tanahashi’s hair is ridiculous. Seriously he looks like a gay Japanese version of Noel Fielding. They went balls to the wall all out here. Thirty minutes and no slow down or lack of intensity anywhere in the match. Loads of people ragged on Goto’s lack of selling on the knee when Tanahashi worked it over, but it didn’t bother me at all. Tana compensates for it anyway by constantly working it over and reminding Goto. It’s a testament to how good Tanahashi is right now that he could lead this match and rein in young Hirooki here. That’s not a knock on Goto though as his work was great here too. His new offence is great and he’s adapted well to a heavyweight style of wrestling. He does however mix it up with some junior stuff as well, demonstrated by his second rope springboard flip on to Tanahasi on the outside. Tanahashi is great as always heeling it up really well. I would love to see him as an all out dick, in the vein of Ric Flair, but maybe that will come. They did an awesome job of getting Goto over huge here and there were some spots where the crowd really bought into Goto getting the win. His sunset flip bomb from the turnbuckle at the end had the crowd completely sucked in. It’s a great testament to New Japan that Goto, who’s only been back for a few months from a year excursion that saw him leave as junior, is already being taken seriously as a heavyweight title threat. The finished came when Tanahashi hit a High Fly Flow onto Goto’s knees and followed it up with a Texas cloverleaf. Great match filling with intensity and a real belief that Goto could come away as champion. Maybe not my Match of the Year, but it comes in near the top and is further proof that New Japan is probably the most exciting promotion in world right now.
Thursday, 13 December 2007
ROH Man Up PPV
Hero vs Castagnoli vs Marufuji vs McGuiness
Larry Sweeney is a great, great man. Seriously of everything ROH has booked this year from the culmination of the Jacobs/Whitmer feud, Morishima’s title reign, the Briscoes/Steenerico feud and everything else, Sweet and Sour Incorporated has consistently the best thing in the entire promotion, and a large amount of the credit must go to Mr. Sweeney. His charisma is amazing and he turns every segment he’s involved in into five star entertainment. This was one such segment. He came down to the ring shouting about how he sold Matt Sydal to his buddy Vince. That was funny. There was a lot of whackiness to start out with. Hero’s gimmick is that he’s an awesome athlete and of course all awesome athletes do shit loads of flips for no reason. Therefore Chris Hero must do shit loads of flips for no reason. Hero is also a great man. There was a great spot early on that involved Marufuji hitting Claudio with a springboard head claw! A lot happened, too much to recap. In the end Claudio hit his Ricola Bomb on Marufuji and looked certain to get the pin but Hero jumped on top of the referee. He claimed he tripped on the rope and couldn’t help it. Nigel then hit his jawbreaker lariat on Castagnoli for the win. This was much fun to watch and nicely set up Nigel’s next title shot.
NRC vs The Resilience: Best of Three Singles Series
Cross vs Romero
This was the best four minute match I ever saw. Cross gets a lot of stick, but I really like him. His moves are always so crisp and they always look great. He’s got this great, gymnastic-esque offence, which in this match included him doing a Flag on the ringpost (basically holding onto the post and lifting yourself so you are at a 90º angle, like a flag) and dropping down onto Romero, who was on the floor outside. Romero looked like a killer in this match. His kicks look stiff as hell and he hoisted Cross up for a german and planted him on his head. He followed this up with an execution kick for the pin. It’s not like Cross was squashed and came out looking bad either. He got a lot of offence in, but in the end Romero is just a bad ass that kicks people really hard.
Aries vs Richards
I can’t understand the dislike of Davey at all. He’s not spectacularly good, but given a few more years there’s a good chance he will be. He simply does all of his stuff well and draws a ton of heel heat. What’s to dislike? He worked really well with Aries in this match, and there was a lot of good stuff here and a great finishing run. Aries finishes Davey off with a head kick, brainbuster and 450º-splash combo. Fun match.
Stevens vs Strong
I believe these two have feuded in FIP for a long time, so they should know each other well. Strong had such great beat downs it’s unbelievable. I remember a time, just after Strong had all those awesome matches with Danielson, when I was convinced Strong would be the next champion. The thing is now I still think he’s not quite there, but his ringwork was excellent here, he just needs a charisma injection. Stevens made his big comeback and really got the crowd behind, especially when he ‘fighting spirit no sold’ a superplex. Eventually though Strong hit a splash mountain for the pin. Stevens got over huge here and I’m pretty sure he’ll have a great 2008 in ROH. It’s a shame that in the end The Resilience came across as inferior opponents to the NRC because both Cross and Stevens have great potential, but they when they lost Aries it all fell apart and even his return wasn’t enough to save them.
ROH Title Match: Morishima (c) vs Danielson
Danielson was sporting an awesome eye patch and wearing his bitching robe to come down to the ring. This man is money. The match was great, because they started out with so much intensity and never let up for the whole length of the match. It was similar in a way to the Tanahashi/Goto match, but at an even faster pace. Danielson hit an awesome dive to the outside onto Morishima and very nearly overshot him and landed on his head. Morishima came off as a monster. Standing next to Danielson he looked bloody huge and Dragon bumped for him like a madman. They also did some cool spots where Danielson tried to roll him up or package him and Morishima just wouldn’t budge. It was some good stuff. Anyway the story here was that Morishima broke Dragon’s orbital bone in their last match and he was out for revenge. Morishima, in the interest of being a good sport, had declared he would not attack his opponent’s eye. So typically Morishima got angry, thought ‘fuck this’, ripped off the eye patch and laid fists and forearms into Danielson’s broken eye socket and the ref called it off. Danielson continues to bring the awesome in 2007.
ROH Tag Team Titles Ladder War: The Briscoes (c) vs Steen/El Generico
Straight off the bat there were chairs flying everywhere. One Briscoe got thrown over the barricade into the big pile of them. It was all rather nasty. They had these cheap as fuck ladders, which looked like they would get decimated. And sure enough they got completely decimated. Generico got hiptossed by both brothers into one in the corner and it might as well have disintegrated. It was carnage. Mark got powerbomb over the ropes onto a ladder on the outside. It looked like it hurt a lot. Seriously this match got to the point where it was ridiculous. Finally after it was decided that the shitty aluminium foil ladders were not going to be sufficient to reach the belts, Jay got a big fuck-off maintenance ladder. This thing was huge, and it wasn’t breaking. They set it up in the ring and two ladder bridges were formed between it and the turnbuckle. Generico took a Jay Driller through one ladder and Mark took a package piledriver through another. That was pretty cool. Jay and Steen climb the big ladder and Steen fell off, leaving Jay to capture the belts. Insane match, but way too over the top. Some people will have loved this, and I can see why, but I though it was overkill towards the end. Nevertheless a good spectacle.
Larry Sweeney is a great, great man. Seriously of everything ROH has booked this year from the culmination of the Jacobs/Whitmer feud, Morishima’s title reign, the Briscoes/Steenerico feud and everything else, Sweet and Sour Incorporated has consistently the best thing in the entire promotion, and a large amount of the credit must go to Mr. Sweeney. His charisma is amazing and he turns every segment he’s involved in into five star entertainment. This was one such segment. He came down to the ring shouting about how he sold Matt Sydal to his buddy Vince. That was funny. There was a lot of whackiness to start out with. Hero’s gimmick is that he’s an awesome athlete and of course all awesome athletes do shit loads of flips for no reason. Therefore Chris Hero must do shit loads of flips for no reason. Hero is also a great man. There was a great spot early on that involved Marufuji hitting Claudio with a springboard head claw! A lot happened, too much to recap. In the end Claudio hit his Ricola Bomb on Marufuji and looked certain to get the pin but Hero jumped on top of the referee. He claimed he tripped on the rope and couldn’t help it. Nigel then hit his jawbreaker lariat on Castagnoli for the win. This was much fun to watch and nicely set up Nigel’s next title shot.
NRC vs The Resilience: Best of Three Singles Series
Cross vs Romero
This was the best four minute match I ever saw. Cross gets a lot of stick, but I really like him. His moves are always so crisp and they always look great. He’s got this great, gymnastic-esque offence, which in this match included him doing a Flag on the ringpost (basically holding onto the post and lifting yourself so you are at a 90º angle, like a flag) and dropping down onto Romero, who was on the floor outside. Romero looked like a killer in this match. His kicks look stiff as hell and he hoisted Cross up for a german and planted him on his head. He followed this up with an execution kick for the pin. It’s not like Cross was squashed and came out looking bad either. He got a lot of offence in, but in the end Romero is just a bad ass that kicks people really hard.
Aries vs Richards
I can’t understand the dislike of Davey at all. He’s not spectacularly good, but given a few more years there’s a good chance he will be. He simply does all of his stuff well and draws a ton of heel heat. What’s to dislike? He worked really well with Aries in this match, and there was a lot of good stuff here and a great finishing run. Aries finishes Davey off with a head kick, brainbuster and 450º-splash combo. Fun match.
Stevens vs Strong
I believe these two have feuded in FIP for a long time, so they should know each other well. Strong had such great beat downs it’s unbelievable. I remember a time, just after Strong had all those awesome matches with Danielson, when I was convinced Strong would be the next champion. The thing is now I still think he’s not quite there, but his ringwork was excellent here, he just needs a charisma injection. Stevens made his big comeback and really got the crowd behind, especially when he ‘fighting spirit no sold’ a superplex. Eventually though Strong hit a splash mountain for the pin. Stevens got over huge here and I’m pretty sure he’ll have a great 2008 in ROH. It’s a shame that in the end The Resilience came across as inferior opponents to the NRC because both Cross and Stevens have great potential, but they when they lost Aries it all fell apart and even his return wasn’t enough to save them.
ROH Title Match: Morishima (c) vs Danielson
Danielson was sporting an awesome eye patch and wearing his bitching robe to come down to the ring. This man is money. The match was great, because they started out with so much intensity and never let up for the whole length of the match. It was similar in a way to the Tanahashi/Goto match, but at an even faster pace. Danielson hit an awesome dive to the outside onto Morishima and very nearly overshot him and landed on his head. Morishima came off as a monster. Standing next to Danielson he looked bloody huge and Dragon bumped for him like a madman. They also did some cool spots where Danielson tried to roll him up or package him and Morishima just wouldn’t budge. It was some good stuff. Anyway the story here was that Morishima broke Dragon’s orbital bone in their last match and he was out for revenge. Morishima, in the interest of being a good sport, had declared he would not attack his opponent’s eye. So typically Morishima got angry, thought ‘fuck this’, ripped off the eye patch and laid fists and forearms into Danielson’s broken eye socket and the ref called it off. Danielson continues to bring the awesome in 2007.
ROH Tag Team Titles Ladder War: The Briscoes (c) vs Steen/El Generico
Straight off the bat there were chairs flying everywhere. One Briscoe got thrown over the barricade into the big pile of them. It was all rather nasty. They had these cheap as fuck ladders, which looked like they would get decimated. And sure enough they got completely decimated. Generico got hiptossed by both brothers into one in the corner and it might as well have disintegrated. It was carnage. Mark got powerbomb over the ropes onto a ladder on the outside. It looked like it hurt a lot. Seriously this match got to the point where it was ridiculous. Finally after it was decided that the shitty aluminium foil ladders were not going to be sufficient to reach the belts, Jay got a big fuck-off maintenance ladder. This thing was huge, and it wasn’t breaking. They set it up in the ring and two ladder bridges were formed between it and the turnbuckle. Generico took a Jay Driller through one ladder and Mark took a package piledriver through another. That was pretty cool. Jay and Steen climb the big ladder and Steen fell off, leaving Jay to capture the belts. Insane match, but way too over the top. Some people will have loved this, and I can see why, but I though it was overkill towards the end. Nevertheless a good spectacle.
Tuesday, 23 October 2007
Wrestling Potpourri #2
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.
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.
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.
Tuesday, 28 August 2007
Best Of All Japan 1990 #2
Fulton & Rogers vs Kikuchi & J. Malenko - 9/1
Fun little sprint match from these guys that basically consists of The Fantastics beating the ever loving fuck out of Kikuchi. He bumps like a madman, including a bodyslam from the apron to the floor which is just sick. Oh how I cringed. Fulton and Rogers majorly go to work on him but he won't stay down no matter how many times he's dropped on his head. Combine Kikuchi flying all over the places with Malenko's intensity and the Fantastics stiffness and it makes for a great little match. Finally after being dropped from a great height for what must be the thousandth time Kikuchi stays down for the three count, but his complete disregarded for the well being of his body has to be commended. This isn't an epic clash like the main-event of this show (see below) but it's not supposed to be. It's a fast and furious mid-card entertainment and it's a fine, fine match, but unfortunately it can't hold up with some of the intense and epic bouts that its surrounded by. So whilst a fun diversion it'll probably be lucky to break into the prestigious the top 50.
Jumbo vs Misawa - 9/1
This is the big rematch. Jumbo is out to prove that he still can hang with the young guys and Misawa wants to prove his earlier victory over Jumbo was no fluke. This has everything I wanted from their first encounter in spades, with huge intensity, crowd heat and drama. Jumbo is a man possessed and really looks like he wants to murder young Misawa just to prove a point. He hits him with everything, including some awesome looking ground and pound and a chair shot in the crowd. Misawa brings his great athleticism and spirit, but Jumbo is just on fire here. Towards the end he looks so desperate to put away Misawa, hitting him a lariats, superplexes and backdrops, but he just can't keep him down for three. Finally a bridged back suplex gets Jumbo the win, but Misawa still looks strong as he survived a mega onslaught here. This is perfect pro-wrestling filled with danger, intensity and emotion. Some of the near-falls are unbelievable and both guys come out of it looking like megastars, which perfectly sets up a rematch for somewhere down the road. This should be a definite top 10 pick, but if there's another 10 matches of this caliber yet to come you won't hear me complaining.
Jumbo/Taue vs Kawada/Misawa - 9/30
The first time that these two teams met out of a total of four meetings. Quite slow and steady in the early going I thought. One major highlight was Kawada and Taue brawling in the crowd until Kawada gets bored and throws Taue into a cupboard. Awesome. Fairly steady and entertaining action, but things relly kick off whenever Jumbo enters the ring. Everything is great when it comes to 'house of fire' Jumbo. He throws laraits and suplexes around like no one's business and comes off as still very much the man. Not a bad match by stretch of the imagination and healthy entertainment, however it just doesn't really do enough to be highly regarded. It'll be borderline if this gets in or not.
Jumbo/Taue/Fuchi vs Misawa/Kawada/Kobashi - 10/19
There were so many great little pieces to this match that it's hard to do it justice. Taue was great at being the whipping boy for the older team, and his interactions with Kawada were gold. Firstly, Taue bodyslams Kawada on the outside, so he retaliates by suplexing Taue on the wooden floor a little bit later. Then when ever they're in the ring they just try the rip each other apart. This match also goes further in cementing my love of all things Kawada. His kicks are lethal and he has this brilliant 'cannot be arsed' look that makes him a complete badass. Kobashi's selling is great as the older team decide to work over his face with all manner of punches, kicks and chairs (well a chair). But things really get turned up when Kobashi hot tags Kawada and from that point on it's completely crazy. Bodies are flying everywhere and the intensity doesn't drop at all. We also get a Kobashi-sault which immediately makes this match worth a million stars. Finish comes with young Kenta surviving a huge onslaught from Jumbo, including an avalanche-backdrop, before eventually being put down. This match made everyone look good, especially Kobashi as he almost gets a fall on Jumbo, and is worth everyone's time. Definitely should make the list.
Fun little sprint match from these guys that basically consists of The Fantastics beating the ever loving fuck out of Kikuchi. He bumps like a madman, including a bodyslam from the apron to the floor which is just sick. Oh how I cringed. Fulton and Rogers majorly go to work on him but he won't stay down no matter how many times he's dropped on his head. Combine Kikuchi flying all over the places with Malenko's intensity and the Fantastics stiffness and it makes for a great little match. Finally after being dropped from a great height for what must be the thousandth time Kikuchi stays down for the three count, but his complete disregarded for the well being of his body has to be commended. This isn't an epic clash like the main-event of this show (see below) but it's not supposed to be. It's a fast and furious mid-card entertainment and it's a fine, fine match, but unfortunately it can't hold up with some of the intense and epic bouts that its surrounded by. So whilst a fun diversion it'll probably be lucky to break into the prestigious the top 50.
Jumbo vs Misawa - 9/1
This is the big rematch. Jumbo is out to prove that he still can hang with the young guys and Misawa wants to prove his earlier victory over Jumbo was no fluke. This has everything I wanted from their first encounter in spades, with huge intensity, crowd heat and drama. Jumbo is a man possessed and really looks like he wants to murder young Misawa just to prove a point. He hits him with everything, including some awesome looking ground and pound and a chair shot in the crowd. Misawa brings his great athleticism and spirit, but Jumbo is just on fire here. Towards the end he looks so desperate to put away Misawa, hitting him a lariats, superplexes and backdrops, but he just can't keep him down for three. Finally a bridged back suplex gets Jumbo the win, but Misawa still looks strong as he survived a mega onslaught here. This is perfect pro-wrestling filled with danger, intensity and emotion. Some of the near-falls are unbelievable and both guys come out of it looking like megastars, which perfectly sets up a rematch for somewhere down the road. This should be a definite top 10 pick, but if there's another 10 matches of this caliber yet to come you won't hear me complaining.
Jumbo/Taue vs Kawada/Misawa - 9/30
The first time that these two teams met out of a total of four meetings. Quite slow and steady in the early going I thought. One major highlight was Kawada and Taue brawling in the crowd until Kawada gets bored and throws Taue into a cupboard. Awesome. Fairly steady and entertaining action, but things relly kick off whenever Jumbo enters the ring. Everything is great when it comes to 'house of fire' Jumbo. He throws laraits and suplexes around like no one's business and comes off as still very much the man. Not a bad match by stretch of the imagination and healthy entertainment, however it just doesn't really do enough to be highly regarded. It'll be borderline if this gets in or not.
Jumbo/Taue/Fuchi vs Misawa/Kawada/Kobashi - 10/19
There were so many great little pieces to this match that it's hard to do it justice. Taue was great at being the whipping boy for the older team, and his interactions with Kawada were gold. Firstly, Taue bodyslams Kawada on the outside, so he retaliates by suplexing Taue on the wooden floor a little bit later. Then when ever they're in the ring they just try the rip each other apart. This match also goes further in cementing my love of all things Kawada. His kicks are lethal and he has this brilliant 'cannot be arsed' look that makes him a complete badass. Kobashi's selling is great as the older team decide to work over his face with all manner of punches, kicks and chairs (well a chair). But things really get turned up when Kobashi hot tags Kawada and from that point on it's completely crazy. Bodies are flying everywhere and the intensity doesn't drop at all. We also get a Kobashi-sault which immediately makes this match worth a million stars. Finish comes with young Kenta surviving a huge onslaught from Jumbo, including an avalanche-backdrop, before eventually being put down. This match made everyone look good, especially Kobashi as he almost gets a fall on Jumbo, and is worth everyone's time. Definitely should make the list.
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