El Dandy v Antifaz del Norte (Monterrey 9/17/00)
--"A lengthy Dandy apuestas match from 2000? How come I've never heard of this?"
40 minutes later: "oh nevermind"
This
only goes 40 minutes if you watch the pre-match interview/Antifaz
weight training stuff, but even at like 33 minutes it can be a complete
drag. Antifaz gets busted badly really soon, and by the time
Dandy's...doing something to him (poking eye? pulling hair? JUST
POINTING AT HIS HEAD?) you can pretty much see his entire face anyway.
Kind of makes me think "who gives a shit if he loses his mask tonight
now? we all fucking saw him." Dandy's buddy with the shitty-ass haircut,
who if I understood the commentators right was Zumbido, was a shitty
shitface shithead that was shitty at everything. He interfered a few
times and just made the match longer with everyone standing around in
confusion. I must have checked on my DVD player 15 times how long the
match had until it was over. Shithead Zumbido sets up Antifaz on the top
rope and literally turns around just waiting to be flipped. I could go
on about this but I won't. It's just not really worth watching.
El Dandy v El Hijo del Perro Aguayo (AAA 8/31/02)
--I guess I
expected more AAA clusterfuck bullshit, but this was surprisingly good.
It pretty much went swimmingly like a good title match with Dandy
getting help from other rudos and stuff. Finish was shitty, though, and
it didn't exactly come deep into the third fall. If they had been let go
for 10 minutes in the last fall this could have entered that "very
good" territory, me thinks.
El Dandy v El Hijo del Perro Aguayo v Mr. Aguila v Electroshock (AAA 9/2/02)
--Aguila
comes out to the DeGeneration X theme here and is almost a bona fide
Jeff Hardy imitator. So each guy has to escape the cage separately
and....you know what? No. I will not talk about this. It. Was. Fucking.
Bad. You will not watch this- say it with me, "I will not watch this."
None of this "oh maybe different strokes" or "I want to watch everything
talked about" or "I've wanted to watch some more Mr. Aguila so.." NO.
Don't watch this. DO. NOT. WATCH. THIS.
El Dandy v El Hijo del Perro Aguayo (AAA 2/28/03)
--Looked
ok. I say "looked" because I was more fixated on the watermelon I was
eating. Wasn't long before this turned into a fuck of the cluster kind.
Not as much as the stuff on the 1996 yearbook, but it's just confusing
and unneeded. AAA was a shithole around this time.
El Dandy v Heavy Metal (AAA 5/3/03)
--"Bull
Terry" match, and since they had chains tied to ther necks which
connected each other, I can assume "terry" is Spanish for "collar" or
something. I don't care. This wasn't good either. Death to Pena. {*} = NOTE
El Dandy/Super Crazy/Ultimo Guerrero v Nicho el Millionario/Damian 666/Halloween (LLA 7/11/04)
--Finally
AAA fucks off and I can look at something really worth watching. Thank
you Lucha Libre Azteca. This won't stick out with great trios, but it
def sticks out on a disc of shitty AAA. Is pretty much a really cool 90s
trio match. Super Crazy looked pretty awesome in the exchange with
Damian. Or Halloween, IDK. They look similar and I don't care for
either. I hope there's more footage of Super Crazy in trios like this
because he looks like a guy who really fits in with the sort of stuff
you see in the really great lucha tags. But yeah, THIS was good.
El Dandy v LA Park (ENESMA 10/29/04)
--Park's
outfit really is cool. Reminds of when Jushin Liger wore those actual
anime-inspired outfit before settling on "Thunder." This has everything a
good little lucha match should have and without going into depth, it's
really good. Not a MOTYC like I've seen it called, but as far 2004 goes I
think I prefer this to Kobashi v Akiyama.
{*} = NOTE: I wrote this before having the knowledge Antonio Pena died years ago. I feel like a piece of shit, obviously.
Showing posts with label 2002. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 2002. Show all posts
Friday, 22 June 2012
Sunday, 27 May 2012
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
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
Sunday, 11 September 2011
Yes, Splitting Posts
Yuki Ishikawa v Daisuke Ikeda (Fu-Ten 24/4/05)
--They shake hands out of mutual respect and not five seconds go by before Ikeda’s laid out Ishikawa with a palm (could have been a fist). Gets an eight-count too which was great to start the match with and it really creates a theme of these two trying to outdo each other. These two had been in ring rivals for at least ten years before this and while I haven’t seen a lot of their matches or probably even their best ones, they’ve all been great. This was off the charts. Ishikawa to me is the superior mat worker of the two and Ikeda the better at smacking people around with kicks and different hand shots. Never mind that though, Ikeda can do mat and Ishikawa can do pummelling. This had both doing both, obviously. There was plenty of first-rate grappling here with a lot of stalemate moments where both guys would be waiting for the other to cave in and stay the hell down. By the end of it (fourteen minutes), both guys hair looked like they had been electrocuted and Ishikawa’s lip was split open. I was surprised to see it end in submission, actually.
Shinya Hashimoto v Masato Tanaka (Zero-ONE 2/3/02)
--This is apparently the match that made Z1 officials become so impressed with Tanaka that they hired him full-time. Can't say I blame them, he was great. He has some sort of inter-promotional Championship in his hands or something pre-match and just before the bell rings he drops it to his leg and kicks it towards Hashimoto. Hash is a respectful fella, and fan favourite (and creator of Zero-ONE) but he'll fuck you up bad. He rampages straight for Tanaka in a blind haze of strikes and kicks that'd make most wrestlers weep. Tanaka's waiting outside for a break and he's almost whinging like a baby while Hashimoto's standing there and looking at him like he dares him to kick that belt at him ever again. Tanaka gets some good offence in and I was surprised by how much I liked him, but Hash is one of my favourites on offence and he's really creative. One spot Tanaka's on the outside laying down and Hashimoto casually jumps from he apron ONTO HIM. Nearly hits his head on the guardrail as a result. He just will not relent with those kicks and chops either, I didn't really think I'd see anyone I could say rivals Vader in the shoot-while-not-wrestling-shoot-style department. Great bloody match and I'm not waiting too long to watch he 11/7/03 one.
Sheamus v John Morrison (WWE 19/12/10)
--I can pretty much revoke what I said about Sheamus not interesting me in any way, because most of what he did here was pretty freakin great. I wouldn't call this a classic, and I'd say it's far from it, but the idea of a "classic" seems to vary from every single person, and I'm not going to knock this much at all because it was really good. Thought Sheamus actually did really display his overpowering big motherfucker gimmick over little jumpy purty-boy Morrison who should have specialised in this sort of thing. Sheamus' work on his leg wasn't just good becuase "hey he's jumpy and this is a ladder match and John can't climb", it was good because he actually DID unique stuff that i thought he was missing. I really can't be bothered trying to remember much of what he did in particular, or trying to come up with names for them, but I got the sense that if somebody like Arn Anderson was in a ladder match he'd do a similar sequence of stuff. First 3/4 of the match was spent with hobbling Morrison trying to stop Sheamus from going up, and Sheamus being pissed and surpirsed at how Morrison can even stand, then plowing through him him with this and that. Morrison sold the leg really,m really well as well, and he sold it even at points where it wasn't even necessary (if it is and stuff. yayrasslinnerds) It was all done really well and Morrison's hope spots didn't seem goofy (like I usu. think they do). Loved the spot where they were both holding ladders on the opposite sides of the ring and ran at each yelling "YOU FUCKERRRRR". Well they didn't yell that, but it wa sin my head and I enjoyed it. Ladder matches are obviously going to have it's fair share of "the hell?" moments, and this wasn't too bad before the *big spot* of faling outside the ring. Honestly that looked pathetic with both guys just jumping. I tried to watch the replay to see if someone did a move or they both fell but I just saw Sheamus jump onto the ladder and Morrison jump after him. I don't think Sheamus should have really got up after that either but it set up Jerry Lawler's line of "what is this guy The Terminator?", so it makes up for it. Very good match.
Yoshiaki Fujiwara v Kengo Kimura (NJPW 7/12/75)
--Been going through the NJPW 80s set again, and skipping through Fujiwara caught my eye like a motherfucker. On a total kick of the guy and I'm gonna skip through the NJPW 80s, Other Japan 80s & PWFG sets and watch anything of him I can. In the meantime I'll search for otehr stuff of his I don't have, like this. Fujiwara's apparantly been in the game about three years here, and his selling is already phenomenal. This is a short match (unlikely- most was probably cut off), but it's a good display of 70s matwork, and I like that style a lot. Kimura's fine and good, busting out your usual stuff and trying to outdo Fujiwara the best he can, but Fujiwara's threw out some great stuff, notably having an armbar on Kimura, throwing him over in a firemen's carrier (while keeping hold of the arm), and dropping down to a leg-armbar. Thing. Like I said his selling is top notch; you don't get to see a lot of selling in his face since the footage is from '75 and a little blurry, but his bumps are spot on and if someone used the stuff Kimura used in a leigt fight I can totallly see someone actually being affected the way Fujiwara was selling. Not a great match at all (for the eight/nine minutes that was shown, it was probably a lot longer), but it's the sort of match I'd be thrilled to see on Raw sometime.
Yoshiaki Fujiwara v Kohei Sato (Zero-One 2/3/02)
--I was liking this until this Sato guy decided to blow off all of Fujiwara's signature stuff. They were having really good mat exchanges for nearly ten minutes, and then Fjiwara goes to the Fujiwara armbar, and without two seconds rolling by, Sato rolls through and treats it like it's nothing. That I wasn't ALL THAT fussed about, but it got a lot worse when Fujiwara was trying to headbutt the kid, and he goes and starts yelling like one of those annoying young Japanese wrestlers, displaying his "spirit" or some crap (like KENTA or Akiyama). Fujiwara later does that thing where he twists his legs around and kaes his opponent roll in front of him, and because he's old and shit it takes forever and he's panting like a motherfucker on the floor, so Sato gets back on offence again. Honestly, though, first half (more than half, probably) of the match was really good. Fujiwara was still good mat-wise and Sato could match him well. Felt kind of sorry for them because of the dead crowd, like, if this was RINGS with a hot atmosphere, there would have been people shitting their pants at the quick submissions pulled out of nowhere and stuff. Worth a watch, definitely.
--They shake hands out of mutual respect and not five seconds go by before Ikeda’s laid out Ishikawa with a palm (could have been a fist). Gets an eight-count too which was great to start the match with and it really creates a theme of these two trying to outdo each other. These two had been in ring rivals for at least ten years before this and while I haven’t seen a lot of their matches or probably even their best ones, they’ve all been great. This was off the charts. Ishikawa to me is the superior mat worker of the two and Ikeda the better at smacking people around with kicks and different hand shots. Never mind that though, Ikeda can do mat and Ishikawa can do pummelling. This had both doing both, obviously. There was plenty of first-rate grappling here with a lot of stalemate moments where both guys would be waiting for the other to cave in and stay the hell down. By the end of it (fourteen minutes), both guys hair looked like they had been electrocuted and Ishikawa’s lip was split open. I was surprised to see it end in submission, actually.
Shinya Hashimoto v Masato Tanaka (Zero-ONE 2/3/02)
--This is apparently the match that made Z1 officials become so impressed with Tanaka that they hired him full-time. Can't say I blame them, he was great. He has some sort of inter-promotional Championship in his hands or something pre-match and just before the bell rings he drops it to his leg and kicks it towards Hashimoto. Hash is a respectful fella, and fan favourite (and creator of Zero-ONE) but he'll fuck you up bad. He rampages straight for Tanaka in a blind haze of strikes and kicks that'd make most wrestlers weep. Tanaka's waiting outside for a break and he's almost whinging like a baby while Hashimoto's standing there and looking at him like he dares him to kick that belt at him ever again. Tanaka gets some good offence in and I was surprised by how much I liked him, but Hash is one of my favourites on offence and he's really creative. One spot Tanaka's on the outside laying down and Hashimoto casually jumps from he apron ONTO HIM. Nearly hits his head on the guardrail as a result. He just will not relent with those kicks and chops either, I didn't really think I'd see anyone I could say rivals Vader in the shoot-while-not-wrestling-shoot-style department. Great bloody match and I'm not waiting too long to watch he 11/7/03 one.
Sheamus v John Morrison (WWE 19/12/10)
--I can pretty much revoke what I said about Sheamus not interesting me in any way, because most of what he did here was pretty freakin great. I wouldn't call this a classic, and I'd say it's far from it, but the idea of a "classic" seems to vary from every single person, and I'm not going to knock this much at all because it was really good. Thought Sheamus actually did really display his overpowering big motherfucker gimmick over little jumpy purty-boy Morrison who should have specialised in this sort of thing. Sheamus' work on his leg wasn't just good becuase "hey he's jumpy and this is a ladder match and John can't climb", it was good because he actually DID unique stuff that i thought he was missing. I really can't be bothered trying to remember much of what he did in particular, or trying to come up with names for them, but I got the sense that if somebody like Arn Anderson was in a ladder match he'd do a similar sequence of stuff. First 3/4 of the match was spent with hobbling Morrison trying to stop Sheamus from going up, and Sheamus being pissed and surpirsed at how Morrison can even stand, then plowing through him him with this and that. Morrison sold the leg really,m really well as well, and he sold it even at points where it wasn't even necessary (if it is and stuff. yayrasslinnerds) It was all done really well and Morrison's hope spots didn't seem goofy (like I usu. think they do). Loved the spot where they were both holding ladders on the opposite sides of the ring and ran at each yelling "YOU FUCKERRRRR". Well they didn't yell that, but it wa sin my head and I enjoyed it. Ladder matches are obviously going to have it's fair share of "the hell?" moments, and this wasn't too bad before the *big spot* of faling outside the ring. Honestly that looked pathetic with both guys just jumping. I tried to watch the replay to see if someone did a move or they both fell but I just saw Sheamus jump onto the ladder and Morrison jump after him. I don't think Sheamus should have really got up after that either but it set up Jerry Lawler's line of "what is this guy The Terminator?", so it makes up for it. Very good match.
Yoshiaki Fujiwara v Kengo Kimura (NJPW 7/12/75)
--Been going through the NJPW 80s set again, and skipping through Fujiwara caught my eye like a motherfucker. On a total kick of the guy and I'm gonna skip through the NJPW 80s, Other Japan 80s & PWFG sets and watch anything of him I can. In the meantime I'll search for otehr stuff of his I don't have, like this. Fujiwara's apparantly been in the game about three years here, and his selling is already phenomenal. This is a short match (unlikely- most was probably cut off), but it's a good display of 70s matwork, and I like that style a lot. Kimura's fine and good, busting out your usual stuff and trying to outdo Fujiwara the best he can, but Fujiwara's threw out some great stuff, notably having an armbar on Kimura, throwing him over in a firemen's carrier (while keeping hold of the arm), and dropping down to a leg-armbar. Thing. Like I said his selling is top notch; you don't get to see a lot of selling in his face since the footage is from '75 and a little blurry, but his bumps are spot on and if someone used the stuff Kimura used in a leigt fight I can totallly see someone actually being affected the way Fujiwara was selling. Not a great match at all (for the eight/nine minutes that was shown, it was probably a lot longer), but it's the sort of match I'd be thrilled to see on Raw sometime.
Yoshiaki Fujiwara v Kohei Sato (Zero-One 2/3/02)
--I was liking this until this Sato guy decided to blow off all of Fujiwara's signature stuff. They were having really good mat exchanges for nearly ten minutes, and then Fjiwara goes to the Fujiwara armbar, and without two seconds rolling by, Sato rolls through and treats it like it's nothing. That I wasn't ALL THAT fussed about, but it got a lot worse when Fujiwara was trying to headbutt the kid, and he goes and starts yelling like one of those annoying young Japanese wrestlers, displaying his "spirit" or some crap (like KENTA or Akiyama). Fujiwara later does that thing where he twists his legs around and kaes his opponent roll in front of him, and because he's old and shit it takes forever and he's panting like a motherfucker on the floor, so Sato gets back on offence again. Honestly, though, first half (more than half, probably) of the match was really good. Fujiwara was still good mat-wise and Sato could match him well. Felt kind of sorry for them because of the dead crowd, like, if this was RINGS with a hot atmosphere, there would have been people shitting their pants at the quick submissions pulled out of nowhere and stuff. Worth a watch, definitely.
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