Sunday 29th April, 2012, 11.06am: Sitting in bed with nothing to do today EQUALS I write about some wrestling. I have a stack of WWE DVDs from when I last watched (Extreme Rules) to the present so that's what I'm doing for the next few weeks. I watched Over the Limit before this, and actually enjoyed it quite a lot. I thought the Punk/Mason vs. Show/Kane tag was a lot of fun and that Orton vs. Christian match was really a very good face vs. face WWE heavyweight match (with a particularly well-paced finishing stretch and some nice spots that played off the knowledge each man had of the others moveset). The I Quit main event was sort of worth watching for Cena doing his performance art limits of human endurance act, although that idea dragged on way too long and I didn't like recorded voice false finish.
11.13am: So, next up is Capitol Punishment, from June 2011. PLAY.
11.20am: I don't know what they do with R-Truth after this title match, because his title shot feels like what the character is really all about, but I'm enjoying how insane-looking he is in this gimmick. He's got some impressive mic skills that haven't seen much play in recent years.
11.23am: First up, a match to determine: (a) whether Dolph Ziggler can drag anything worthwhile out of Kofi Kingston, and (b) the US championship. In the meantime, there's some borderline intolerable misogyny going on as the commentators discuss Vicky Guerrero's weight. "Want to be of value, ladies? Don't forget to be thin and attractive. And even if you do make yourself more thin and more attractive, old overweight men who decide these things will probably still determine that it's not enough." Someone put that on the side of a bus.
11.40am: Cole says Kingston takes inspiration from Shawn Michaels. Kingston does some weak chops and pointlessly jumps around a bit in lieu of doing anything with any impact. I mention these things together for you to draw your own conclusions.
11.54am: Look, I'm glad they gave the belt to Dolph, and he was really good in the match, especially the way he bumped around and made Kofi's stuff look actually dangerous (he absolutely jumps into the crossbody which was, like, well good), but that ending was really rubbish. Firstly, I'm not sure if Kofi fell over while Dolph was going for the Zig-Zag (a much tidier ending), but if so, Dolph salvage it by making it a sleeper hold. Then, the ref is clearly able to see the rope break, whereas he should have been facing away. Thirdly, what happened to the old 'arm drops three time' finish for a KO victory? Lastly (and this is a bit pedantic, I grant you), Booker's going on about it being a DQ because of the use of ropes, which doesn't make any sense. I generally like how unpolished he is on commentary, it feels more real when events are surprising, but sometimes he needs to keep on-script more to get over the actual story points.
12.03pm: Alex Riley vs. The Miz next. Got to say, it's a smart move them doing this turn with his first big match in his billed hometown. I mean, I don't think he's getting that ovation on his own merits (yet) (maybe ever), but it should play well.
12.21pm: That was what it was. Riley has some terrible punches and they featured heavily, so that's not good. Miz played his role fine (I liked him taunting Riley then acting shocked when he actually got slapped), and the ending was a bit of a surprise. I hope they are not banking on Riley being a potential star, because I didn't see much here.
12.32pm: I'm going to make a potato rosti and bacon and eggs, because HELLO, it's a Sunday and I'm not dead yet.
1.34pm: Back now. This Obama skit is ridiculous. Remember: satire isn't funny if it takes a political position. Obviously, that doesn't include left-wing positions.
1.40pm: Big Show vs. Alberto Del Rios is next. Big Show interrupts Del Rios' entrance from behind, and I'll be honest: I would not look quite some comfortable waiting for the Big Show to run into me from behind as he did.
1.51pm: I really liked that as a half-angle half-match. The Mark Henry run-in and slam through the table was impressive, and the leg injury finish lets both men leave looking good. Show's sell job of the leg was really great.
1.55pm: Oh, come on. I've already sat through one Big Zeke vs. Wade Barrett match this week. Why is this happening again? Barrett runs through the usual heat-generating heel promo tactics: mentioning the national debt, rubbishing the education system, recommending the establishment of a monarchy. Standard.
2.04pm: Well, they kept it short at least. Nothing actually to be offended by, just nothing very interesting. NEXT.
2.06pm: This anti-bullying campaign is basically commendable but pretty incredible given the Vicky Guerrero stuff at the beginning. "Don't bully people. Except if they're full figured and slightly less attractive. They don't count. They're barely people."
2.09pm: CM Punk vs. Rey Mysterio is more like it. I can not believe they ever booked Punk as a face for the first couple of years in the WWE. Is there a more naturally gifted heel out there at the moment (where the moment was, admittedly, 10 months ago)?
2.24pm: Really nice match with lots of cool spots. Obviously, Rey and Punk work really well together, as seen in the past. I liked the avoidance of each others stuff - the sequence where Punk avoided Rey's kick twice before getting kicked was really cool. Punk avoiding three 619s, with the third one transitioned into the GTS, completed that theme in a convincing ending. And if Punk wasn't actually nursing both an arm and leg injury, his selling had me convinced otherwise.
2.29pm: Christian vs. Randy Orton is next. I've liked both their prior matches, but this is the first with Christian working heel. For the record, Orton as face and Christian as a heel is really not playing to anyone's strengths. On the other hand, they've made it work in storyline terms. So much so that Booker T has geesebumps, which I believe is where your goosebumps have goosebumps.
2.50pm: I enjoyed this as well. The match was built around Orton's concussion, so that gave it a nice storyline. Orton does some stupid things that would obviously aggrevate a head injury, and I have this internal debate about whether that's acceptable. On the one hand, he sells it, so it is consistent. On the other hand, he KEEPS HEADBUTTING Christian and basic common sense screams at him to find another move. Has he even done headbutts before? King is explaining that he's probably not thinking straight, but even the most brain-addled can understand, on a primitive level: 'Head hurts, stop hitting things with head'. Christian doesn't actually stand out for me much here, although I do like that last month Christian does Edge's spear to a big cheer, and this month it comes off as a complete douchebag move. I should probably give them more credit for a storyline that has turned the fans so effectively.
2.58pm: Evan Bourne and Jack Swagger have been sent out to fill some time between title matches. Swagger tries to get heel heat by the standard trick of raising his arms, but no-one responds. They are ambivalent to his arms. He is saying to them 'Look at my arms, evil and raised' and the crowd collectively shurg and say 'S'just arms, man'. One guy at the back boos a little. It was a bit like my graduation, except almost everyone hated my arms.
3.10pm: I'll give the Obama impersonator credit for the quality of the impression. He absolutely nails the mannerisms. But this is still beyond stupid. I don't care that someone who is playing the part of someone else can do something that you wouldn't expect the person he is playing to be able to do, because IT'S A DIFFERENT PERSON.
3.30pm: And that was the Cena vs. R-Truth main event right there. Match was passable and inoffensive and I'm struggling to think of any real highlights. The commentators spend most of the match picking minor faults with the things other commentators say (although some of them were spot on, like Booker saying Cena always finds a way to pull victories out, and Cole saying that a day will come when he doesn't, and Booker saying that of course such a day always comes, and Cole then questioning what his point actually was). Booker also asks for the name of moves It occurs that Truth hasn't worked out how to turn crazy heel interview persona into crazy heel in-ring persona, and he mostly does his moves and mouths off a little bit. Finish is a nice little pay-off, and it doesn't feel like they'll be running a longer feud here.
3.36pm: So, you know, this was an actually good show. The main event wasn't really anything special, but the other title match and the Rey-Punk match was definitely worth the time, and the other stuff had some nice moments and didn't last too long if it didn't need to. Plus the next month is all about Punk, so I'm in a pretty positive-about-the-WWE place right now
Monday 30 April 2012
Tuesday 10 April 2012
How Great is Sasuke (Part 8 of Oh, Hai, Long Neglected Sasuke Project)
Great Sasuke and Dick Togo vs. Yoshinobu Kanemaru and Genba Hirayanagi, NOAH, 30th October 2010
This came of like the Sasuke and Togo Show. For twelve minutes of wrestling, I absolutely don't mind watching two of my favourite guys show off their stuff, but I really got no sense of a sustained comeback from the NOAH guys, which was odd. Sasuke and Togo come off like two twenty years veterans absolutely in control, which is exactly appropriate. Togo leads the way through a series of lightening fast takedowns early on, at a speed that suggests his imminent retirement is not due to physical breakdown. Togo always works tight, but I got the impression that Sasuke was putting a little bit extra into his kicks and stomach jabs.. There's also slight suggestion of rudo Togo, a sneering smile on occassion, but it isn't overt. The combination of this, a quick efficient pace and some nice offence drives the heat section along nicely before the finishing stretch which had enough stuff, but little nearfall overkill. Even when on defence, I find myself watching Sasuke and Togo - Sasuke's sell of the elbow to the groin was the sort of slightly absurd oversell I love him for. Somersault plancha out of nowhere, senton, top rope dropkick to the ground rounded off a decent little match in highspotty fashion.
KENTA and Atsushi Aoki vs. The Great Sasuke and Kenbai, NOAH, 10th October 2010
This match has quite a gradual build. It opens with some sensible, non-flashy matwork and submissions and everyone looks pretty even, even tiny Kenbai. KENTA and Aoki really didn't seem interested in doing anything noteworthy during the whole section beating down Kenbai (who, I think, is a masked Yuki Sato). Then it gets going more when Sasuke tags back in, and he introduces a chair which backfires twice (including a somersault senton bump right on it). This introduces a second heat section and finally Aoki and KENTA step up the pace a bit. Kenbai hits a bunch of nice spots and Sasuke does his apron somersault bump which misses (naturally) and there's a couple of really close falls that I sort of bought at the time, before KENTA levels Kenbai with a lariat and they finish him off about four times over before the pinfall.
The whole match was fine, and I enjoyed it, but KENTA and Aoki often don't give me much to write about other than variations of the theme: 'Ooo, KENTA just did a stiff kick' or 'Ooo, KENTA just did a stiff forearm' or 'Ooo, similar things about Aoki'. They seem so obsessed with being intense and stoic that they never really perform, they just do hard hitting stuff at pace, and sometimes I want more. Sasuke, on the other hand, is all about the performance. Watch him during the strike exchange with KENTA - you get the sense of the impact and increasing damage from each of KENTA's forearms, while KENTA robotically takes a shot and carries on regardless. And he shows here that it is not a choice between seriousness and performance. His early matwork looks as fluid as Aoki (who has a technical gimmick), and I liked the look and gestures he made when caught between Aoki and KENTA early on, trying to make sure he got out without taking a sneeky double team. Above everything, he's pretty unpredictable which you can't say of someone like KENTA. And only he has an ongoing career retrospective on a well-respected wrestling review blog, so the rewards are fairly clear.
Great Sasuke and Yoshiaki Fujiwara vs. El Samurai and TAKA, PWFG, 22nd January 95
The most interesting part of the match's layout is how Fujiwara moves from a supporting role to the main focus of the match, which is a nice example of a match evolving from its initial premise. The early part of the match is an extension of the TAKA-Sasuke feud, and you really get the sense those guys were unleashing on each other. There's a great spot in the first half where when both Sasuke and Fujiwara runs off the ropes (which looks like Sasuke taking a cue from Fujiwara), but Fujiwara fakes out a dive while Sasuke goes flying. He then stomps around with mock disappointment in being outpaced by Sasuke.
Fujiwara spends most of the first half breaking up every pinfall or submission attempt on Sasuke. This pleased me - I never quite understand the logic of a team partner not trying to break-up every pin attempt if they could. After Sasuke finally gets out, Fujiwara takes over. As it gets closer to the end, he mostly squares off with a very game TAKA who surprises him a few times and who seems difficult to finish off. The finish finally comes when Sasuke hits perhaps three big aerial moves to keep Samurai out of the way before Fujiwara finally gets the armbar, catching TAKA mid-air in a cool-looking spot.
The match is packed for of really fun moments. I'm not sure how I felt about how it flowed together, but it's definitely worth a watch.
This came of like the Sasuke and Togo Show. For twelve minutes of wrestling, I absolutely don't mind watching two of my favourite guys show off their stuff, but I really got no sense of a sustained comeback from the NOAH guys, which was odd. Sasuke and Togo come off like two twenty years veterans absolutely in control, which is exactly appropriate. Togo leads the way through a series of lightening fast takedowns early on, at a speed that suggests his imminent retirement is not due to physical breakdown. Togo always works tight, but I got the impression that Sasuke was putting a little bit extra into his kicks and stomach jabs.. There's also slight suggestion of rudo Togo, a sneering smile on occassion, but it isn't overt. The combination of this, a quick efficient pace and some nice offence drives the heat section along nicely before the finishing stretch which had enough stuff, but little nearfall overkill. Even when on defence, I find myself watching Sasuke and Togo - Sasuke's sell of the elbow to the groin was the sort of slightly absurd oversell I love him for. Somersault plancha out of nowhere, senton, top rope dropkick to the ground rounded off a decent little match in highspotty fashion.
KENTA and Atsushi Aoki vs. The Great Sasuke and Kenbai, NOAH, 10th October 2010
This match has quite a gradual build. It opens with some sensible, non-flashy matwork and submissions and everyone looks pretty even, even tiny Kenbai. KENTA and Aoki really didn't seem interested in doing anything noteworthy during the whole section beating down Kenbai (who, I think, is a masked Yuki Sato). Then it gets going more when Sasuke tags back in, and he introduces a chair which backfires twice (including a somersault senton bump right on it). This introduces a second heat section and finally Aoki and KENTA step up the pace a bit. Kenbai hits a bunch of nice spots and Sasuke does his apron somersault bump which misses (naturally) and there's a couple of really close falls that I sort of bought at the time, before KENTA levels Kenbai with a lariat and they finish him off about four times over before the pinfall.
The whole match was fine, and I enjoyed it, but KENTA and Aoki often don't give me much to write about other than variations of the theme: 'Ooo, KENTA just did a stiff kick' or 'Ooo, KENTA just did a stiff forearm' or 'Ooo, similar things about Aoki'. They seem so obsessed with being intense and stoic that they never really perform, they just do hard hitting stuff at pace, and sometimes I want more. Sasuke, on the other hand, is all about the performance. Watch him during the strike exchange with KENTA - you get the sense of the impact and increasing damage from each of KENTA's forearms, while KENTA robotically takes a shot and carries on regardless. And he shows here that it is not a choice between seriousness and performance. His early matwork looks as fluid as Aoki (who has a technical gimmick), and I liked the look and gestures he made when caught between Aoki and KENTA early on, trying to make sure he got out without taking a sneeky double team. Above everything, he's pretty unpredictable which you can't say of someone like KENTA. And only he has an ongoing career retrospective on a well-respected wrestling review blog, so the rewards are fairly clear.
Great Sasuke and Yoshiaki Fujiwara vs. El Samurai and TAKA, PWFG, 22nd January 95
The most interesting part of the match's layout is how Fujiwara moves from a supporting role to the main focus of the match, which is a nice example of a match evolving from its initial premise. The early part of the match is an extension of the TAKA-Sasuke feud, and you really get the sense those guys were unleashing on each other. There's a great spot in the first half where when both Sasuke and Fujiwara runs off the ropes (which looks like Sasuke taking a cue from Fujiwara), but Fujiwara fakes out a dive while Sasuke goes flying. He then stomps around with mock disappointment in being outpaced by Sasuke.
Fujiwara spends most of the first half breaking up every pinfall or submission attempt on Sasuke. This pleased me - I never quite understand the logic of a team partner not trying to break-up every pin attempt if they could. After Sasuke finally gets out, Fujiwara takes over. As it gets closer to the end, he mostly squares off with a very game TAKA who surprises him a few times and who seems difficult to finish off. The finish finally comes when Sasuke hits perhaps three big aerial moves to keep Samurai out of the way before Fujiwara finally gets the armbar, catching TAKA mid-air in a cool-looking spot.
The match is packed for of really fun moments. I'm not sure how I felt about how it flowed together, but it's definitely worth a watch.
Thursday 5 April 2012
Michinoku Pro: 15th December 1994
This Champs Forum episode opens with the earliest Ikeda-Ishikawa match I've seen. It's not of epic length or anything, but it's a really great eight minute match. It's violent at times, with some particularly nasty knee strikes and headkicks, and Ishikawa punching Ikeda in the kidneys. There's also some really neat mat transitions going on. Most importantly, it excels as a well-told, self-contained story. I watched it a few times to pull out all the things going on, because it goes at a relentless pace. It starts with Ishikawa trying for the armbar early, but Ikeda manages to avoid it. Ikeda starts off on the mat too, then turns to the headkicks after one gets a near standing ten-count. Ishikawa avoids more kicks and turns them into leg bars, but Ikeda manages to land another, then continue with the head attacks and shifts to the german suplex. A second one is blocked by Ishikawa going deadweight and rolling through, but his armbar attempt is again blocked. Ishikawa holds on, takes Ikeda down again, and this time he can't block the submission hold.
The main event is Great Sasuke vs. TAKA. Coincidentally, it's also the earliest version I've seen of a now familiar match-up. I liked this a good deal. There's a clear distinction between the 1994 NJ junior style and what was coming out of big singles matches in M-Pro at this time, which were faster and had very little in the way of long early matwork sections.Throw in the FMW garbage matches and you really can make a case for the Sasuke's impressive versatility even this early in his career. I liked the pacing of the big spots, and the sense of escalation in them - to take one example, TAKA one-ups Sasuke's quebrada with a top rope version. As you might guess, it's an ace vs. young upstart type of a match, but TAKA looks really strong throughout, like he might pull off the win. I actually bought into one of the near falls off a cross-arm powerbomb. Aside for all the impressive spots, it's Sasuke's reaction to his near-defeat that is crucial to the match, the way he's stunned and slapping his own face the shake himself out of it. His victory comes across as opportunistic and fortunate, like it was a solitary lapse in TAKA's concentration being the deciding factor. There's some slightly intermittent clutching of an injured arm that keeps trying to distract me from enjoying the whole match, but that's the only obvious flaw.
Wednesday 4 April 2012
Michinoku Pro: 30th October 1994
This is a commercial release, rather than an eight-generation taping from an old VHS, so I'll be enjoying the sight of wrestlers with definitive edges. Unfortunately, a number of this unfuzzy wrestlers have very forgettable matches, prompting me to wonder why the video quality people did not co-ordinate better with the wrestling quality team. Why am I straining to watch awesome Super Boy matches, but I can see Wellington Wilkins Jr take some lousy bumps in near-HD quality (This may be an exaggeration)?
I also liked the main event between Sasuke and Onita, in a No Rope Exploding Barbed Wire Double Hell Exploding Ring Death Match. First of all, the pre-match build was great. Sasuke is flown by helicopter to the venue, with a camera pointing straight at his face, jaw-set, looking ominous. When they come back, it's dark, and the atmosphere makes it seem like An Event is about to happen. The match itself stuck with a simple deathmatch psychology - use the nasty things before you opponent uses them on you. The build to the first big spot had loads of teases, and when it comes, it is unexpected, with Onita suddenly charging Sasuke into the wire from what looked like a standing stalemate. Onita takes a couple of bumps onto the barbed wire and explosion boards, before Sasuke pulls out the space flying tiger drop over the electrified wire, in what critics (me) are calling a completely ridiculous but awesome decision. Onita regains the advantage, firstly with a throw that used Sasuke's momentum out of the ring onto the boards, and then basically powerbombs Sasuke until he gets a three count just before the time-limit. I don't quite understand the exploding ring gimmick - is the point to finish the match before it detonates, or to keep out of the way when it detonates (hopefully with your opponent in the blast zone)? - but there's little doubt its a visually impressive finale. It leads to some deeply melodramatic post-match activities where Sasuke plays actually dead and Onita trys to revive him. Quite the enjoyable spectacle from start to finish.
Anyway, that deals with the two first singles matches (Masato Yakushiji vs. Wellington Wilkins Jr, and HANZO Nakajima vs. Naohiro Hoshikawa, for those who need to know). Then there's a La Pantera vs. Super Delfin match that I was excited for, but never really gets going after a promising opening of lucha takedowns and submission. This had a whole run of real awkward-looking Pantera spots which look like botches that just kills any latent momentum that they had. Delfin is really into short comeback in his matches at this time. This was basically Tornado DDT, Delfin Clutch and we're done.
The trios (TAKA, Jinsei Shinzaki and Gran Naniwa vs. SATO, Shiryu and Terry Boy) is maybe the first Kaientai trios, and it is really fun. The show is outdoors and the opening brawl is absolutely not afraid to give the video producer a headache (the whole thing is nicely put together so that get a sense of the three separate exchanges all happening together). Then they reset and hit the ring, which gives the Kaientai guys a chance to show off all there new triple team stuff. There's a super-intense Terry Boy-TAKA staredown before they match up, and I'm really looking forward to seeing how TAKA ends up changing allegiance. The other team does mount a comeback, but the focus is still on the rudos - their dives were spectacular (SATO and Shiryu do stereo somersault topes, causing me to rewind twice so I could watch each one individually) and their team mentality finally isolates Naniwa for an awesome SATO senton. I'm aware that when the KDX feud really gets going, I'm going to be spoilt with great trios and eight-man tags, but I did enjoy a whole bunch of this.
I also liked the main event between Sasuke and Onita, in a No Rope Exploding Barbed Wire Double Hell Exploding Ring Death Match. First of all, the pre-match build was great. Sasuke is flown by helicopter to the venue, with a camera pointing straight at his face, jaw-set, looking ominous. When they come back, it's dark, and the atmosphere makes it seem like An Event is about to happen. The match itself stuck with a simple deathmatch psychology - use the nasty things before you opponent uses them on you. The build to the first big spot had loads of teases, and when it comes, it is unexpected, with Onita suddenly charging Sasuke into the wire from what looked like a standing stalemate. Onita takes a couple of bumps onto the barbed wire and explosion boards, before Sasuke pulls out the space flying tiger drop over the electrified wire, in what critics (me) are calling a completely ridiculous but awesome decision. Onita regains the advantage, firstly with a throw that used Sasuke's momentum out of the ring onto the boards, and then basically powerbombs Sasuke until he gets a three count just before the time-limit. I don't quite understand the exploding ring gimmick - is the point to finish the match before it detonates, or to keep out of the way when it detonates (hopefully with your opponent in the blast zone)? - but there's little doubt its a visually impressive finale. It leads to some deeply melodramatic post-match activities where Sasuke plays actually dead and Onita trys to revive him. Quite the enjoyable spectacle from start to finish.
Tuesday 3 April 2012
Michinoku Pro: 29th September 1994
Right, here we go again.
This show was spread over two Champ Forums, and is a pretty stacked card, with two NJPW juniors dropping in and four singles matches on it. This is a bit unusual, and also presents a little bit of a problem for reviewing. I have liked Michinoku Pro singles matches, but like lots of juniors wrestling they tend to follow a certain predictable path, apart from on rare occasions. As a result, they don't always present a huge amount to write about. That said, watching the show was sort of instructive about when singles matches work well, and when they are missing something.
Before that, the show opens with Terry Boy and SATO vs. Hanzo Nakajima and Naohiro Hoshikawa. This was a fun TV-show tag match, mostly serving as an opportunity for the newly-formed Kai En Tai team to show off theit cool double teams. From the stuff I watched before, it was obvious how much personality Terry Boy had, and how much he could connect with the crowd. Here, it's channelled into rudoism, and it works just as well as when he was the plucky underdog crowd-favourite brawling with Shinzaki. SATO is such a bruiser here - he keeps more grounded than in his pre-KDX days, but all of his stuff looks great. They finish with an assisted powerbomb that looks absolutely brutal. The other team has their brief comeback and does some dives and it all serves its purpose very nicely.
The TAKA vs. Gran Naniwa match was really interesting. Both guys were fired up at the beginning - the sort of pre-match activities that usually go before a grudge match - and the first few exchanges in and around the ring were really heated. The match itself then had a lot of submission matwork, often with one guy copying the other or trying to top the previous move. All good so far. Where I think the match starting lacking was in the finish stretch, which, despite the impact going up, was just less intense than when they were just slapping each other. The high-risk stuff was good, but felt a little bit like it was included because it MUST BE INCLUDED. TAKA even misses his first no hand plancha, but then does it successfully about 60 seconds later in a spot that is not as impressive to watch second time around.
Super Delfin vs. El Samurai was fine, but gave little to write about. Although not ground-breaking or anything, I liked the early lucha exchanges. Delfin (and in particular his head and neck) was on the receiving end of most of the offence until the right at the end, where he stage a comeback - a couple of big DDTs and the Delfin Clutch. I have no problem with this - I think my opinion on overly long finishing stretches is pretty clear, and I also have no problem with the finish (it's wrestling, stop worrying about things looking absurd). The match just didn't have much else to say about it. One thing that is obvious: Delfin as crowd-favourite is nowhere near as fun as Delfin as a rudo. Shiryu vs. Jinsei Shinzaki is a mismatch, but it was cleverly put together. Shiryu has some really great looking offence that was credible against his much larger opponent. The in-ring tope landed with head unprotected squarely into Shinzaki's chest.
I really liked the Great Sasuke vs. Shinjiro Otani main event. In terms of 1994 junior matches (and this sticks very much to the New Japan juniors style) I'd place it below the second Liger vs. Sasuke match, but above the Super J Cup matches (from memory, I'm due to rewatch them). In 1994, Otani is basically the most expressive human being on the planet. There's a moment after the bell when Otani jumps Sasuke from behind and takes control for a minute or so where Sasuke has the opportunity to land a spinning kick. His face, as he falls outside of the ring and stands back up, is one of bafflement and shock. They spend most of the first two thirds of the match on the mat, with Otani targetting Sasuke's arm. Sasuke is a similarly expressive wrestler, although he does so in body-language, so these mat exchanges come across as really competitive struggles, with Sasuke grappling to avoid armbars and Otani finding different ways to return back to it. Then they hit the highspots and the finishing stretch, which was roughly the right length and finishes with the usual collection of german suplexes and powerbombs that we've all seen before (in a good way, though - the textbook is a the textbook for a reason).
Epilogue: Having a bit of a break causes me to re-evaluate some of my more strident assumptions about good and bad examples of wrestling. What is different between this sort of juniors match and a stereotypical Dragon Gate match, which similarly has limbwork that doesn't factor into the finish? Firstly, I conclude, the matwork is better. It stands alone as part of the story of the contest, rather than the way you fill up the first fifteen minutes of your forty minutes super epic. The second difference is the balance - with these high-end 90s junior matches, the length of the finish stretch indicates that the matwork was really just time-wasting, whereas a twenty minute match with twelve minutes grounded, you can reasonably consider it to be where both guys try and wear down their opponent before turning to their match winning moves. Thirdly, there is definitely a difference in the portrayal of long-term effects. Current juniors go from one extreme to another - from limping horribly to jumping around in five seconds. Here there are times where Sasuke favours the arm, and times where he uses the same arm, but there aren't the wild inconsistencies. There isn't the cliched "look at me battle through the pain" moments that people mistake for intensity. By the end, both guys seem exhausted, and their is a sense of cumulative damage throughout the match. That is what I think selling is really all about.
This show was spread over two Champ Forums, and is a pretty stacked card, with two NJPW juniors dropping in and four singles matches on it. This is a bit unusual, and also presents a little bit of a problem for reviewing. I have liked Michinoku Pro singles matches, but like lots of juniors wrestling they tend to follow a certain predictable path, apart from on rare occasions. As a result, they don't always present a huge amount to write about. That said, watching the show was sort of instructive about when singles matches work well, and when they are missing something.
Before that, the show opens with Terry Boy and SATO vs. Hanzo Nakajima and Naohiro Hoshikawa. This was a fun TV-show tag match, mostly serving as an opportunity for the newly-formed Kai En Tai team to show off theit cool double teams. From the stuff I watched before, it was obvious how much personality Terry Boy had, and how much he could connect with the crowd. Here, it's channelled into rudoism, and it works just as well as when he was the plucky underdog crowd-favourite brawling with Shinzaki. SATO is such a bruiser here - he keeps more grounded than in his pre-KDX days, but all of his stuff looks great. They finish with an assisted powerbomb that looks absolutely brutal. The other team has their brief comeback and does some dives and it all serves its purpose very nicely.
The TAKA vs. Gran Naniwa match was really interesting. Both guys were fired up at the beginning - the sort of pre-match activities that usually go before a grudge match - and the first few exchanges in and around the ring were really heated. The match itself then had a lot of submission matwork, often with one guy copying the other or trying to top the previous move. All good so far. Where I think the match starting lacking was in the finish stretch, which, despite the impact going up, was just less intense than when they were just slapping each other. The high-risk stuff was good, but felt a little bit like it was included because it MUST BE INCLUDED. TAKA even misses his first no hand plancha, but then does it successfully about 60 seconds later in a spot that is not as impressive to watch second time around.
Super Delfin vs. El Samurai was fine, but gave little to write about. Although not ground-breaking or anything, I liked the early lucha exchanges. Delfin (and in particular his head and neck) was on the receiving end of most of the offence until the right at the end, where he stage a comeback - a couple of big DDTs and the Delfin Clutch. I have no problem with this - I think my opinion on overly long finishing stretches is pretty clear, and I also have no problem with the finish (it's wrestling, stop worrying about things looking absurd). The match just didn't have much else to say about it. One thing that is obvious: Delfin as crowd-favourite is nowhere near as fun as Delfin as a rudo. Shiryu vs. Jinsei Shinzaki is a mismatch, but it was cleverly put together. Shiryu has some really great looking offence that was credible against his much larger opponent. The in-ring tope landed with head unprotected squarely into Shinzaki's chest.
I really liked the Great Sasuke vs. Shinjiro Otani main event. In terms of 1994 junior matches (and this sticks very much to the New Japan juniors style) I'd place it below the second Liger vs. Sasuke match, but above the Super J Cup matches (from memory, I'm due to rewatch them). In 1994, Otani is basically the most expressive human being on the planet. There's a moment after the bell when Otani jumps Sasuke from behind and takes control for a minute or so where Sasuke has the opportunity to land a spinning kick. His face, as he falls outside of the ring and stands back up, is one of bafflement and shock. They spend most of the first two thirds of the match on the mat, with Otani targetting Sasuke's arm. Sasuke is a similarly expressive wrestler, although he does so in body-language, so these mat exchanges come across as really competitive struggles, with Sasuke grappling to avoid armbars and Otani finding different ways to return back to it. Then they hit the highspots and the finishing stretch, which was roughly the right length and finishes with the usual collection of german suplexes and powerbombs that we've all seen before (in a good way, though - the textbook is a the textbook for a reason).
Epilogue: Having a bit of a break causes me to re-evaluate some of my more strident assumptions about good and bad examples of wrestling. What is different between this sort of juniors match and a stereotypical Dragon Gate match, which similarly has limbwork that doesn't factor into the finish? Firstly, I conclude, the matwork is better. It stands alone as part of the story of the contest, rather than the way you fill up the first fifteen minutes of your forty minutes super epic. The second difference is the balance - with these high-end 90s junior matches, the length of the finish stretch indicates that the matwork was really just time-wasting, whereas a twenty minute match with twelve minutes grounded, you can reasonably consider it to be where both guys try and wear down their opponent before turning to their match winning moves. Thirdly, there is definitely a difference in the portrayal of long-term effects. Current juniors go from one extreme to another - from limping horribly to jumping around in five seconds. Here there are times where Sasuke favours the arm, and times where he uses the same arm, but there aren't the wild inconsistencies. There isn't the cliched "look at me battle through the pain" moments that people mistake for intensity. By the end, both guys seem exhausted, and their is a sense of cumulative damage throughout the match. That is what I think selling is really all about.
BLOG UPDATE: Where we are now
So, a strange thing happened last night. I watched a wrestling DVD for the first time in about ten months. The recent hiatus has been a combination of work and study taking up more and more time, combined with a degree of wrestling burnout at the beginning of 2011. I felt sure I would come back to it, soon, one day, maybe tomorrow, but for a long time, I was lazy. Too lazy to sit on a bed and watch fake sport on a laptop (Note to biographers: omit this)
I suspect missing Wrestlemania was probably the deciding factor (more on that in a moment). So I went home last night, and sorted out which DVDs I hadn't yet watched into a pile. Afterwards, I watched a DVD, and I enjoyed it a great deal, and now I'm writing some words about it. It's a bit like the old days, in 2011, when I watched a DVD and then wrote words about it. Part of me was tempted to just start writing a review without even acknowledging the break. I'd be all "What absence? I've actually been here the whole time, watching and reviewing inside my brain." But I RESPECT YOU ALL TOO MUCH to do that. I hope you feel that.
So what's the plan? Good question, self. Firstly, there is the pile to deal with. This consists mostly of 1994 M-Pro, 1993 FMW and some 2010 Japanese indie stuff like the sort that I still like (M-Pro, K-Dojo, possibly some FREEDOMS). Then, I'm expecting an order of WWE DVDs from 2011-12, which I will be starting on over the weekend. I'm going to do a Possible Live Blog for each PPV, and maybe some stuff on the TV shows. Then I need to catch up with the big things of 2011. 2011 is basically a lost year at this point. I watched maybe a bit of Lawler indie stuff, and a couple of IWRG handhelds, and WWE and (apparently) two days worth of Champions Carnival and that's it. Maybe I'll finish off the Carnival, if I still have the files but I'm on the hunt for a best of 2011 comp. Does goodhelmet still do these?
I did decide, however, not to try to be as all-watching as before. In 2009 and 2010 I watched loads of stuff from everywhere to contribute to the WKO 100 and the DVDVR ballots. It apparently leads to the burnout. From now on, it's going to be stuff I enjoy and stuff I think I will enjoy and occasionally things I know I'm going to hate but will enjoy writing about. And then other things that I think I should be watching. Oh, it's happening again.
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