A few more (near-complete) matches from some DVDs. First up, a trios from August 19th, pitting Sasuke, SATO and TAKA against Super Delfin, Gran Naniwa and Jinsei Shinzaki. This had a nice opening exchange between Naniwa and SATO - they match up well, especially where Naniwa is taking impressive looking bumps off of SATO really quick takedowns. There was a short rudo section and I've got to say that TAKA isn't really impressing me in that role, and his selling of the beating is lacklustre at best. They do some comedy - the arm-wringer spot and the fake defection by Naniwa - and everyones trademark dives. I was hoping for a little more Sasuke vs. Shinzaki, but they just skirmished early on.
The August 20th show had a title match between Sasuke vs. Shinigami. This was very by numbers. The opening few minutes stuck to the mat - there's a definite distinction between workers like SATO, whose opening sequences are usually quick, more lucha-inspired and based around takedowns and kipups, and workers like Sasuke whose matwork is slower, more technical and based around submissions or holds. Delfin adapts well to both styles. They blow that off soon enough and, probably due to some clipping, the match felt rather like one of those 'The best ten moves of Sasuke' YouTube videos, and Shinigami, whoever he is, did not come off as a threat.
Finally, there were two SATO and partners vs. Delfin and Super Boy tags, the first from August 11th with Gran Hamada, and the second from August 20th with Piloto Suicida. I've seen SATO and Super Boy match up a few times now, and they have some really fun spots. I particularly like the monkey flip spot where SATO lands on his feet - Super Boy looks away, only for Delfin to tell him to look back, where upon he does this completely over-the-top sell of his surprise where he falls over into the ropes. It's much as if SATO didn't just land on his feet, but in the process, he also morphed into Rikidozan.
Weird thing about these two matches was I liked Hamada a lot more than Piloto, who is a second-rate luchadore at best and whose moveset mainly seems to consist of raising his arms in triumph, but the Piloto match was probably better (or at least, more enjoyable), as it gets a lot more time to build up. I guess it felt like a houseshow match as it was heavily into crowd pleasing, with a few short rudo sections. The Hamada match did have just some really slick matwork at the beginning. Above I mentioned the different types of opening exchanges within the promotion - Hamada is definitely a technical holds kind of a guy, but he moves more interestingly from holds and exploits little bits of leverage in a way only old Mexicans do. Final point, I don't want to undersell how much I've been enjoying Delfin during this time-period, but it is Super Boy who is the most fun to watch bounce around the ring. Consider me a fan.
Sunday 11 April 2010
Tuesday 6 April 2010
A Bunch of: M-Pro 1993 Commercial Tapes (part one)
I have four commercial releases from 1993 that I thought I'd put together in one post. First one has matches from July. I enjoyed the clips from Shiryu vs. Terry Boy. One of the things I've been enjoying most about Terry is the styles he brings together. Obviously there's the lucha-inspired offence, but he also drops in several American spots, like a long side headlock sequence or inside cradles off the ropes. The finish to this is Terry doing Flair's corner bump then coming off the other turnbuckle with a crossbody. Other thing I've enjoyed is the body language. The DVD I'm watching is fairly bad quality, yet his mannerisms - like the bemused turn of the head after Shiryu flips onto his feet off of some takedown - tell me what look I could expect to see on his face if I could see that much detail. It's interesting to be essentially watching like someone in the cheap seats on a DVD, yet reveals which guys really know how to convey a story to the whole crowd. Shiryu has a great tope.
Main event tag was Delfin and Naniwa against SATO and Sasuke. This was entertaining stuff, they paired off to start and switched after two sets of exchanges, so we got some opening mat work and typical lucharesu stuff, followed by the rope-running sequences. Delfin was in fine form, kicking Sasuke in the face after his does his backflip corner attack, then teasing a dive before blowing it off due to crowd cheers. SATO was a little off on a couple of his highspots, but he's still impressive to watch. Sasuke was doing his usual spots so that was completely fine by me. Naniwa is the only one I don't have much sense of as a wrestler. They do the comedy spot where Delfin does over-the-shoulder armbreakers without looking at whose arm is given to him, leading to the inevitable switch where he gets Naniwa's arm by mistake, while Sasuke and SATO cheer him on. They finish with some dives and Sasuke wins with his in-ring quebrada on Naniwa. Nothing exceptional, and I got the impression they mistimed a couple of things (like the breakup of the Delfin Clutch), but even by-numbers M-Pro from this period is fun to watch.
Second show is the commercial release of the July Champ Forum show I reviewed before, with clips from a few other matches. One thing I realise between my first and second watch is that Sasuke's in-ring quebrada press was pretty much his finish, which adds to the finish because he after Delfin kicks out of that at two, he tries a top-rope version (again for a two-count) then the pinning rana for the win. I'm always a fan of super-finishers in big matches, especially when convential weaponry has failed.
Main event tag was Delfin and Naniwa against SATO and Sasuke. This was entertaining stuff, they paired off to start and switched after two sets of exchanges, so we got some opening mat work and typical lucharesu stuff, followed by the rope-running sequences. Delfin was in fine form, kicking Sasuke in the face after his does his backflip corner attack, then teasing a dive before blowing it off due to crowd cheers. SATO was a little off on a couple of his highspots, but he's still impressive to watch. Sasuke was doing his usual spots so that was completely fine by me. Naniwa is the only one I don't have much sense of as a wrestler. They do the comedy spot where Delfin does over-the-shoulder armbreakers without looking at whose arm is given to him, leading to the inevitable switch where he gets Naniwa's arm by mistake, while Sasuke and SATO cheer him on. They finish with some dives and Sasuke wins with his in-ring quebrada on Naniwa. Nothing exceptional, and I got the impression they mistimed a couple of things (like the breakup of the Delfin Clutch), but even by-numbers M-Pro from this period is fun to watch.
Second show is the commercial release of the July Champ Forum show I reviewed before, with clips from a few other matches. One thing I realise between my first and second watch is that Sasuke's in-ring quebrada press was pretty much his finish, which adds to the finish because he after Delfin kicks out of that at two, he tries a top-rope version (again for a two-count) then the pinning rana for the win. I'm always a fan of super-finishers in big matches, especially when convential weaponry has failed.
Monday 5 April 2010
Michinoku Pro: 10th December 1993
There's lots of clipping in the early matches (Shiryu vs. Yakushiji, Wilkins vs. Hoshikawa, Gran Naniwa vs. Nakajima) leaving plenty of action and spots but not much sense of whether the matches were put together well. Probably somewhere in the middle. The Shinzaki and Damian vs. Predator and Yone Genjin had some nice bumping by Damien (who may or may not be the Perros del Mal affiliated Damian 666) and some surprisingly quick lucha sequences from the larger Predator, then a bunch of comedy spots which seemed to revolve around lots of miscommunication leaded to Shinzaki calming everything down with his powers. Again, this was clipped, but was fine for what it was.
Moving onto the matches that were more or less complete, Terry Boy, Battle Ranger and TAKA took on Ricky Fuji, Crazy Boy and Super Boy. This had plenty of quick exchanges and a lot of dominance by the technico side. The finish stretch was highspot heavy, but also featured a number of the sort of contrived bits I don't normally like (like synchronised toeholds and hurricanranas). You get the impression TAKA is starting to stand out - his dives are the most spectacular, and he takes the pinfall. That said, Terry Boy is by far the best for working for the crowd - his moveset is simpler and he openly interacts with them more. This was followed by a Sabu vs. Jerry Lynn match that was basically a spotfest. The most annoying bit was Sabu not breaking the table on his somersault dive, then Lynn being first up to try a powerbomb on the table. I'm always struck by how Japanese tables are actually made of tables.
Next up, Great Sasuke and Tarzan Goto vs. Mr Pogo and Masaru Toi. Nothing say's mid-90s Japanese indies like Tarzan Goto and Mr Pogo. This match was fantastic. It starts out as a brawl, and they keep an incredible pace when they finally get to the ring, with Sasuke running through his highspots and Goto being absolutely awesome punching and headbutting everything that got in his way. Sasuke goes for his quebrada, only to be hit with a cane mid-flight. What completely makes this match, however, is the heat section, where the heels tear up Sasuke's back with a splintered cane and the crowd are tremendous. Part of this is down to Goto, whose frustrated apron work allowing triple teaming in the ring was really great, and part is down to sticking to traditions- Sasuke manages two brief comeback, but is cut-off, before his third leads to a all-or-nothing dive to his corner and a genuinely hot tag. This leads to a great chop battle between Goto and Pogo, with the former finally running rampant, dropping Toi with a brainbuster, and bending a chair multiple times over his back. This all leads to Sasuke's revenge, bringing the crowd to it's peak, which was a couple of quick nearfalls, and a submission victory - a pleasingly short conclusion to an utterly wild match, which had a distinctly Southern feel, including the crowd. I'm sure Sasuke's selling and underdog act against the FMW guys is important to how much I liked this, but nothing compares to how into Tarzan Goto I was coming out of this match. Completely badass.
Main event is a mask match between Super Delfin and SATO. Not a huge amount of suspense over the outcome here. I was struck by the speed of some of the exchanges, especially watching SATO float around on the mat and some of the sequences off the ropes. I liked the build up of this, moving from Delfin being in control with a series of submissions, to SATO's run of near falls, interspersed with a couple of great highspots. SATO's no-hands somersault plancha is breathtaking. I did start to feel like the nearfalls were gettinga bit excessive, as moves started to get repeated for the same two-count result. However, I liked how Delfin finally regained the advantage, with an increasingly frustrated SATO risking everything on a top rope senton and missing, making him an easy target for a flash pinning german suplex.
A highly enjoyable show. The FMW tag is probably my favourite Sasuke match up to this point. Be warned: the quality of a lot of these shows is much lower than perhaps people have gotten used to. You are all spoiled. It's good for the soul to strain your eyes watching one blocky Asian leap at another, like we always used to (Note: it's not good for the eyes).
Moving onto the matches that were more or less complete, Terry Boy, Battle Ranger and TAKA took on Ricky Fuji, Crazy Boy and Super Boy. This had plenty of quick exchanges and a lot of dominance by the technico side. The finish stretch was highspot heavy, but also featured a number of the sort of contrived bits I don't normally like (like synchronised toeholds and hurricanranas). You get the impression TAKA is starting to stand out - his dives are the most spectacular, and he takes the pinfall. That said, Terry Boy is by far the best for working for the crowd - his moveset is simpler and he openly interacts with them more. This was followed by a Sabu vs. Jerry Lynn match that was basically a spotfest. The most annoying bit was Sabu not breaking the table on his somersault dive, then Lynn being first up to try a powerbomb on the table. I'm always struck by how Japanese tables are actually made of tables.
Next up, Great Sasuke and Tarzan Goto vs. Mr Pogo and Masaru Toi. Nothing say's mid-90s Japanese indies like Tarzan Goto and Mr Pogo. This match was fantastic. It starts out as a brawl, and they keep an incredible pace when they finally get to the ring, with Sasuke running through his highspots and Goto being absolutely awesome punching and headbutting everything that got in his way. Sasuke goes for his quebrada, only to be hit with a cane mid-flight. What completely makes this match, however, is the heat section, where the heels tear up Sasuke's back with a splintered cane and the crowd are tremendous. Part of this is down to Goto, whose frustrated apron work allowing triple teaming in the ring was really great, and part is down to sticking to traditions- Sasuke manages two brief comeback, but is cut-off, before his third leads to a all-or-nothing dive to his corner and a genuinely hot tag. This leads to a great chop battle between Goto and Pogo, with the former finally running rampant, dropping Toi with a brainbuster, and bending a chair multiple times over his back. This all leads to Sasuke's revenge, bringing the crowd to it's peak, which was a couple of quick nearfalls, and a submission victory - a pleasingly short conclusion to an utterly wild match, which had a distinctly Southern feel, including the crowd. I'm sure Sasuke's selling and underdog act against the FMW guys is important to how much I liked this, but nothing compares to how into Tarzan Goto I was coming out of this match. Completely badass.
Main event is a mask match between Super Delfin and SATO. Not a huge amount of suspense over the outcome here. I was struck by the speed of some of the exchanges, especially watching SATO float around on the mat and some of the sequences off the ropes. I liked the build up of this, moving from Delfin being in control with a series of submissions, to SATO's run of near falls, interspersed with a couple of great highspots. SATO's no-hands somersault plancha is breathtaking. I did start to feel like the nearfalls were gettinga bit excessive, as moves started to get repeated for the same two-count result. However, I liked how Delfin finally regained the advantage, with an increasingly frustrated SATO risking everything on a top rope senton and missing, making him an easy target for a flash pinning german suplex.
A highly enjoyable show. The FMW tag is probably my favourite Sasuke match up to this point. Be warned: the quality of a lot of these shows is much lower than perhaps people have gotten used to. You are all spoiled. It's good for the soul to strain your eyes watching one blocky Asian leap at another, like we always used to (Note: it's not good for the eyes).
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