Well look at that, El Dandy and Negro Navarro are a good match-up. SURPRISE~!

So I haven't updated this thing since November, but it struck me that people may actually read it. I have a lot of stuff to post, but I'll take it one at a time. First up, el Dandy and Negro Navarro~!


Negro Navarro v El Dandy (IWRG 11/8/01)
--This is pretty much everything I could ask for. Three satisfyingly timed falls of excellent work in one of the best matches of 2001. Really, this feels better than the awesome Santo v Parka bloodbath on first watch. First fall is ten minutes, and it really looked to me that it was based around Dandy not being able to top Navarro on the mat no matter what he tried. He thought he caught a break when he hits a figure four and goes for some leg-directed attacks in general, but Navarro has a counter for every hold and a hold for every counter. Eventually Navarro tries a pile of them fancy schmancy holds and manages to keep Dandy down. The challenger's a fall down and might need a new game plan. Negro's like "fuck you we're sticking to the mat," and in a reasonably short second fall, Dandy manages to get the pace up. Literaly under a minutes before the pace is quickened and both guys are on their feet, Dandy gets a flash crucifix to even the score. Third fall had a total chess game aura and neither guy really stood out as the leader for much of it. Greatly back and forth and even if the lacked the suspense it could have otherwise had, the final few moments were truly fucking awesome. Dandy was trapped and the crowd burst into a chant for him while Navarro had sweat rolling down his whole body trying to make him give it up. It's no srurprise that once they get on their feet, Dandy can escape any chance of Navarro's holds, and Navarro makes the bigget mistake of the match by plunking himself on the mat so Dandy might trip, because it leads to la MAGISTRAL. LA FUCKIN MAGISTRAL. This match really feels must-see. Yeah, this is fan-tucking-fastic. Fan-tucking-fastic, I say.

 El Dandy/Ultimo Vampiro/El Fantasma v Negro Navarro/El Pantera/Bomber Infernal (IWRG 3/19/02)
El Dandy/Ultimo Vampiro v Negro Navarro/El Pantera (IWRG 4/4/02)

Neither are list-worthy, but the first is really bloody good and the second isn't THAT far behind it. Dandy/Navarro are obviously the best parts, and the mat work still rocks, but what separates these from anything else is the quasi-boxing segments. Navarro's punches fucking rule and Dandy stays down and out before making his big-ass tecnico comebacks. The other guys in the match do nothing to drag any of this down and these are certainly worth watching. Prefer them to the 2007 Monterrey match I watched yesterday.

I went to upload Dandy/Navarro on its own, but accidentally uploaded that and the two tags in the one file. Check them out: http://ifile.it/we1kfji

Splitting Again

I'm splitting my posts from being too gigantic so I can fit labels and such in. These ar re-posts, bascially.

Kumiko Maekawa v Momoe Nakanishi (AJW 24/10/01)
--Awesome, but not without it flaws. Nakanishi's long term selling could have been better, and it going an hour wasn't the best idea (dragged a bit with all the finishing stuff), but the good > bad. Maekawa seemed to look at Nakanishi like she was a school girl pushing her weight, and tried to blow her off early, and Nakanishi fighting back really well put surprise on Kumiko's face. She had desperation points where she'd try different ways to end the match, from submissions, to suplexes, to trying to kill her with a range of kicks, to using the barricade, green mist, etc. Nakanishi on the other hand almost looked like she had to try different things to make herself survive, using the tables and barricades herself, going for the right leg, using dives, suplexes outside, yeah. Maekawa used that many kicks that looked to borderline concuss Nakanishi, that it was awesome when Nakanishi pretty much shrugged them off later on to be successful and "arrive" no matter what. Last ten minutes I could have done without and the match would have been better without them, but it didn;t "ruin" it at all.

Bryan Danielson v Takeshi Morishima (ROH 3/11/07)
--After watching weeks of Danielson look like a child on Raw, it's surreal to see him make you think he's a giant in serial killer mode. Match itself was awesome, no beating the bushes, just two guys trying to pretty much destroy each other in 12 minutes. Have no idea what was going on during this feud, but they obviously wanted the other to get hurt. I also have no Morishima experience prior to this, and I thought he was great, he wasn't one of those annoying big men who would try to "wow" the crowd with flashy crap, he would just use his size to make Danielson suffer. Bryan's blade job was a thing of beauty too, looked like tribal facepaint or something. Then he has those elbows, the dive, and trying to tear Morishima's eye out. Finish was fitting and leaves you wanting more (anticipating next match up).

Kenta Kobashi v Minoru Suzuki (NOAH 8/1/05)
--First half or so of this I was into it, second half, not so much. Began with Suzuki taking his sweet ass time going into a greco roman knuckle lock and collar and elbow and all that, being a cocky dick. Kobashi gets fed up and keeps him in a four minute headlock (going to the outside as well) and then barraging chops all over his chest and neck. After that they did kind of a "kick it into high-gear" thing that wasnlt bad but didn't really spark my interest. Some heavy damn suplexes though, Suzuki was dropped right on the TOP of his bloody head.

Naomichi Marufuji/Minoru Suzuki v Makato Hashi/Jun Akiyama (NOAH 18/7/05)
--Wanted this to end after the first two minutes. The fact it went like 26 after that didn't help at all. I can see this being a really loved tag match but something about it had me really really uninterested the whole time. Hashi and Akiyama were good, I though, Hash was fighting to not have his bandaged head be over-hit, but Marufuji continues to annoy the hell out of me. Sells like a poor man's Jeff Hardy and insists on obviously slapping his thighs every leg move he does. He and Suzuki were doing some weird unneccessary crap on the ramp that made me want to turn of my DVD player. At least Suzuki played a decent son of a bitch.

Pile o' Wrasslin'

These are thoguhts and stuff noted down over various months about various matches. I've posted this on a bunch of dfferent forums so if there's a smiley code or someone's name dropped, you know why. Figured posting these would be a good way to get the ball rolling for this little blog.


Note; I generally just put comapny name and date in brackets instead of show/PPV name or whatever. Not sure why, I find it easier and I can be a perfectionist when coming to that sort of useless thing. Same goes for names, I'll pretty much always write "Rey Misterio Jr." not "Rey Mysterio", "Eddy Guerrero" not "Eddie Guerrero", "Davey Boy Smith" not "British Bulldog". Again, I don't know why and I'm not sure if it was even worth noting. Whatever

Mitsuharu Misawa v Yoshihiro Takayama (NOAH 15/4/01)

--Takayama’s a beastly human being. That’s why instead of trying to get the crowd behind him by using fighting spirit and trying to be a rip-off of the 90s All Japan heydays, he just fucks his opponent’s up with heavy thrusting kicks and run-across the ramp knees. While in a Greco-Roman knuckle power struggle he just like down at him like he’s an inferior being and yells at him. Not anything Japanese either, just a big monstrous Andre-the-Giant-like “ARghH”. I’m on a BIG high for the guy right now and it hasn’t been three weeks since I’ve seen my first ever match from him. Take nothing away from Misawa, even in 2001 he was the fucking man and could do what he always did, but Takayama’s such a treat since I seldom here (read, whatever) his name mentioned. One spot was tremendous where he just DUNKED Misawa into the table outside the guardrail. And the crowd weren’t all “OHHRRRR *clap clap clap*” like they usually are for something like that, they were just “OHRRRRR” with a couple of feminine “Misawa!”s thrown in there. He ends up making Misawa bleed from God knows where and Misawa’s win seemed that much bigger. Every time Takayama actually fell to the mat seemed like a biggish deal and something that could only be done through minutes and minutes of wearing him down. Misawa’s elbow flurry was the bomb. Best match of 01? I think so. Why couldn’t they put THIS on the NOAH set?

Mitsuharu Misawa v Jun Akiyama (AJPW 27/2/00)

--I’m low on Akiyama, and his seeming obsession with early-match forearms wars are bothersome, so I was thrilled when Misawa put an end to it early by thrusting five elbows at him and smashing him up full pace. Wasn’t long before Akiyama had mist of the match under his control, and as much as I’ve been low on the guy, and a much as I think he got too much of the offence, he was great. He seemed determined to be the King of All Japan for the past decade and he was a vicious fucker while doing so. There was a teased spot where he’d do his Exploder finisher on the apron (which is a ridiculously dangerous thought), and I’m waiting for Misawa to get him back in the ring. Then he actually DOES IT. Misawa’s neck seemed fucked and Akiyama was kneeing him and wrenching it galore. Misawa was literally rolling on the mat in agony at one point Misawa was furious and when he had the strength to pull out a move he dropkicked Akiyama’s neck and got it in a couple of submissions. He was blindly twisting and tugging and trying to screw up Akiyama’s discs. Akiyama was brilliant as well, wriggling around like he was in the jaws of a dinosaur. Akiyama I thought got back in offence too early but I guess there wasn’t *that* much behind Misawa’s own offence to let him stay down for longer. He was in full-blown fight-back mode and went straight back to Misawa’s neck. Finishing stretch if that’s what it can be called was pretty marvellous. Akiyama hits an Exploder after kicking out of a German and two Tiger Suplexes, and Misawa gets up from it straight away, Akiyama drives Misawa down again and while he attempts to get up both guys just collapse. Akiyama hits two fuckin’ more Exploders after that. Sounds like a Kurt Angle-like finishing period in writing but it was awesome. Probably not even in my top three for the year, but fantastic match.

Kenta Kobashi/Yoshihiro Takayama v Mitsuharu Misawa/Jun Akiyama (NOAH 2/12/07)

--Glad I watched this again because I thought it was great. Knowing it Kobashi’s return from cancer of all things gives more than enough justification for the crowd going bezerk for him. Takayama vs. Akiyama is about to start and Akiyama points toward Kobashi and Kobashi’s nodding and gets tagged in. Takayama was awesome in the match, btw. There wasn’t much of him, and that’s what I mean by awesome, he wanted to make sure Kobashi was the central theme and did his best to not steal the spotlight. He tagged Kobashi in when the crowd were about to explode already, he followed Kobashi’s orders, held the ropes for him, it was a great addition. Misawa was kind of doing the same, interfering when Tak was in trouble while Kobashi was in so the crowd booed him and got way more behind Kobashi. Akiyama was all right, but he seemed pretty adamant to get more offence in than needed. There was a part where Kobashi chopped at his chest for a straight minute and instead of selling it like he was in a war he just made a face like he was purposely doing nothing about it for the sake of crowd enjoyment or something. I guess that’s a noble reason and everything to have your chest painted red like that (it looked pretty damn painful), but he just yelled after it and all that shit. Misawa winning was a shock. Imo ahead of any match on the NOAH set so far.

Akira Taue v Yuji Nagata (NOAH 6/6/03)

--Nagata was being a pussy near the beginning. Taue tried to chokeslam him off of the apron and he was being all wimpy about it so Taue decides to punish him by pulling the mat off of the floor and chokeslamming him there. He barely jumps and acts like a pussy. Damned pussy Nagata pussbag pussy puss puss. I’m awaiting the punishment Taue will give him in the ring and he pounds and stomps him like hell. Nagata basically controlled most of the rest of the match and did some real good arm work, but I was really pulling for non-pussy Taue to win. The crowd booed Nagata at a couple of points too and they weren’t high on him the whole match. He looked like a good heel but I got the impression he was a legit pussy for not selling those chokeslams properly. Nagata’s best spot was having Taue in some kind of crossface/headlock move and telling the cameramen outside the ring to snap all the photos they could. I was spiritually killed when Taue gave up in an armbar variation but the match was really really good altogether.

KENTA/Naomichi Marufuji v Yoshinobu Kanemaru/Makato Hashi (NOAH 12/9/03)

--I haven’t really enjoyed the top 25 MOAH matches set, but it’s more of a “disappointed they aren’t above good” rather than a “they’ve been shit” in regards to the matches. None of the matches have been “bad” and the last two were great. This here is one of the worst matches I’ve ever seen. I don’t want to watch gymnastics you incompetent fucks. Hashi was okay but any hope he had of saving this finisher kick out no sell fest was killed with the other three idiots making Kurt Angle look like the best seller ever. I want to wipe this from my brain forever. If I was Mitsuharu Misawa I would have gone up to KENTA/Marufuji/Kanemaru after the match and said the Japanese equivalent of “great match guys. You’re all fired”.

Maybe more to come depending on what I find. This is excluding WCW for now since I'm wokring on something (very slowly) with other people somewhere, but I'll be posting that next.