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 2003. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 2003. Show all posts
Friday, 22 June 2012
Lucha. That's It.
Negro Navarro v El Engendro (NWG 2/16/03)
--Man I could see people who don't like lucha very much thinking nothing of this. First of all, it's almost entirely mat work, like, 99 decimal point %. Second, it's a little take-turn-ish, but if you're going to go your turn/my turn, I'd much rather it be used while exchanges some really sweet looking holds instead of 50 second periods of beat down, which none of this was. The ref was terrible with slow counts, too, but that's something even a lucha diehard would pick at. This is one fall for the Intercontinental Title and Navarro's the challenger, but he still manages to come across as the maestro of the two. Engendro held his own really, really well and they worked tremendous with the idea that "there's a hold for every counter and a counter for every hold," but Navarro would seem much less trouble when Enegndro had him working from the bottom. Some of the submissions were sublime; there just can't be a name for the cross-legged things Navarro pulls out here. I actually paused it to try to figure out which way who's leg was going where at times. One of the submissions had Navarro tie up Engendro's leg with his own and then pull his up upwards so they were both above the mat (terrible explanation but it was awesome). Looked hard as hell to hold and that was confirmed when Navarro himself had to drop him because he couldn't keep the weight up. There sure as shit aren't names for the counters whipped out. During another leglock thingy they both wind up sitting up and sort of trying to grasp each others hands while still having their legs all bundled. This was an ideal chess game, and you got the sense Engendro had to stay on the mat because Navarro had a counter for everything anyway and would have more freedom to wrench him when upright, but Navarro's clearly got him outclassed, so he pops up with lariats and stuff. THAT left him more open to attacks and got wrangle up in Navarro's rolling keylock move thing. He was the pawn getting destroyed by the knight either way, I guess. Really good match in a quiet year for lucha.
Negro Casas v Perro Aguayo Jr. (CMLL 9/25/04)
--Perro's cocky and attacks Negro and pulls his head up for the pin in the first fall, which becomes his stupid mistake when Negro flash-pins him with la magistral a minute later. Only one more fall after that, but it's mostly Perro booting Negro here and there. He uses the block thing that's a step in modern day CMLL, and sits Negro down in the stands, etc. Bunch of nothing, really.
--Man I could see people who don't like lucha very much thinking nothing of this. First of all, it's almost entirely mat work, like, 99 decimal point %. Second, it's a little take-turn-ish, but if you're going to go your turn/my turn, I'd much rather it be used while exchanges some really sweet looking holds instead of 50 second periods of beat down, which none of this was. The ref was terrible with slow counts, too, but that's something even a lucha diehard would pick at. This is one fall for the Intercontinental Title and Navarro's the challenger, but he still manages to come across as the maestro of the two. Engendro held his own really, really well and they worked tremendous with the idea that "there's a hold for every counter and a counter for every hold," but Navarro would seem much less trouble when Enegndro had him working from the bottom. Some of the submissions were sublime; there just can't be a name for the cross-legged things Navarro pulls out here. I actually paused it to try to figure out which way who's leg was going where at times. One of the submissions had Navarro tie up Engendro's leg with his own and then pull his up upwards so they were both above the mat (terrible explanation but it was awesome). Looked hard as hell to hold and that was confirmed when Navarro himself had to drop him because he couldn't keep the weight up. There sure as shit aren't names for the counters whipped out. During another leglock thingy they both wind up sitting up and sort of trying to grasp each others hands while still having their legs all bundled. This was an ideal chess game, and you got the sense Engendro had to stay on the mat because Navarro had a counter for everything anyway and would have more freedom to wrench him when upright, but Navarro's clearly got him outclassed, so he pops up with lariats and stuff. THAT left him more open to attacks and got wrangle up in Navarro's rolling keylock move thing. He was the pawn getting destroyed by the knight either way, I guess. Really good match in a quiet year for lucha.
Negro Casas v Perro Aguayo Jr. (CMLL 9/25/04)
--Perro's cocky and attacks Negro and pulls his head up for the pin in the first fall, which becomes his stupid mistake when Negro flash-pins him with la magistral a minute later. Only one more fall after that, but it's mostly Perro booting Negro here and there. He uses the block thing that's a step in modern day CMLL, and sits Negro down in the stands, etc. Bunch of nothing, really.
Tuesday, 19 July 2011
These Are All WWE Matches. Insert Crappy Title.
Bob Backlund v Hussein Arab (WWF 4/6/79)
--This is really damn good, and not even one of the better Backlund matches there is. I'm not even saying that as a gimmicky poster or anything, either. He's one of the best ever at mixing mat wrestling with pure fun, and Sheik's no slouch at it too. Match goes thirty minutes and I loved it all, even the pre-match stuff with Lou Albano when McMahon threw what looked like coffee straight in this damn face. The match itself had a bit of a mix of everything, I've always loved how Backlund can make the most simple common move look so deadly and entertaining. He has the best Full Nelson reversal ever. Sheik's actually growing on me more and more not just as a fun pleasure to watch, but a legitimately GREAT match worker. Him countering a rope jump with a (spiked) boot to the face was a highlight. Match was mostly mat stuff, though, but then they get tired of it and batter each other with chairs (not sure what the rules were back, no one was DQ'ed), and the crowd was sucking it up like hell. No way Sheiky could have resisted BOB'S ATOMIC DROP, and he got his dues. GO BACKLUND.
The Undertaker v The Big Show (WWE 23/2/03)
--Nothing of a must-see, but as far as WWE style slugests go this is a pleasant watch. Very rough-housian with heavy punches, forearms, BS' backwork, headbutts. Not really ultra-stiff but satisfying enough to make you believe that shit really hurt. Taker even bladed. A-Train interference was a bit of a pain but it set up a cool UT dive on him & PAUL E. DANGEROUSLY. Definitely don't regret watching, need to check CS08 real soon.
Owen Hart v Davey Boy Smith (WWF 3/3/97)
--If you asked me last year I would've said this was a top twenty matches I've ever watched or something. Now? About top 250, but I still really liked it. Started off with some bizarre twisty rolly thingys that I can only explain as being each guy trying to say "I'm a better mat worker than you are, partner". They were cool on the eye and stuff but I don;t love them like I used you. I find it really funny that a while ago I used to worship the armbar-rolly thingys, and now my favourite part was by far when they were hinting that they might cheat each other out of the match. Totally different things. Also loved how Davey would do some athletic taunt and Owen would duplicate it to get in his head. Both guys were pulling tights, putting feet on ropes, etc. and I though it was all great. I've heard some were bothered or whatever that all that tension didn't explode into a fist outburst or something but I though it didn;t warrant it anyway since they were tag Champions together. Not surprised this wasn;t the mind-blowing "scientific technical clinic" or whatever I used to think this was, but I'd be ltying if I said I didn;t really like it. Like, I wouldn't be against watching this again tomorrow, for example.
HHH v Edge v Chris Benoit (WWE 29/11/04)
--the result of this was bloody stupid given HHH was the Champion and lost the title only to win it back at NYR, but the match itself is a blast, glad it was recommended to me. This is the type of 3-way match I mean when i said "good spotfests", no dull moments and everything was really fun, like an attitude era match or something. Opened up with Unter taking it easy while Benoit and Edge beat each other up, he was jokingly clapping and giving those little "ow" facial expressions and it was awesome. It's a given all WWE three-ways will have two guys in the ring while one's on the outside, and a lot of the times it'll be done in a stupid way like getting throwed over the top rope and landing on their feet and "collapsing" or something. This was done greatly though, there was only like one that wasn't that convincing, but it was coincidentally my favourite one, because Benoit got Edge and Suplex'ed him on Helmsley fucking HEAD. Batista and Flair coming out made for another good "take-ou-on-guy" moment when they bashed Benoit, too, and Orton's (acting GM) involvement added a little bit to the match cos of his HHH feud. Not sure if they even had any matches after this in 04, but... yeh. Benoit used the sharpshooter a couple of times, likely in reference to Backlash 04, and i thought that was really cool. Again, they should've learned from Taker/Angle 02 that this type of finish doesn't go down too well, but Vince loves those "who won?" moments. Still doesn;t explain HHH bringing in a chair after the referee got knocked down in a no DQ match, though. Anyway, great match.
--This is really damn good, and not even one of the better Backlund matches there is. I'm not even saying that as a gimmicky poster or anything, either. He's one of the best ever at mixing mat wrestling with pure fun, and Sheik's no slouch at it too. Match goes thirty minutes and I loved it all, even the pre-match stuff with Lou Albano when McMahon threw what looked like coffee straight in this damn face. The match itself had a bit of a mix of everything, I've always loved how Backlund can make the most simple common move look so deadly and entertaining. He has the best Full Nelson reversal ever. Sheik's actually growing on me more and more not just as a fun pleasure to watch, but a legitimately GREAT match worker. Him countering a rope jump with a (spiked) boot to the face was a highlight. Match was mostly mat stuff, though, but then they get tired of it and batter each other with chairs (not sure what the rules were back, no one was DQ'ed), and the crowd was sucking it up like hell. No way Sheiky could have resisted BOB'S ATOMIC DROP, and he got his dues. GO BACKLUND.
The Undertaker v The Big Show (WWE 23/2/03)
--Nothing of a must-see, but as far as WWE style slugests go this is a pleasant watch. Very rough-housian with heavy punches, forearms, BS' backwork, headbutts. Not really ultra-stiff but satisfying enough to make you believe that shit really hurt. Taker even bladed. A-Train interference was a bit of a pain but it set up a cool UT dive on him & PAUL E. DANGEROUSLY. Definitely don't regret watching, need to check CS08 real soon.
Owen Hart v Davey Boy Smith (WWF 3/3/97)
--If you asked me last year I would've said this was a top twenty matches I've ever watched or something. Now? About top 250, but I still really liked it. Started off with some bizarre twisty rolly thingys that I can only explain as being each guy trying to say "I'm a better mat worker than you are, partner". They were cool on the eye and stuff but I don;t love them like I used you. I find it really funny that a while ago I used to worship the armbar-rolly thingys, and now my favourite part was by far when they were hinting that they might cheat each other out of the match. Totally different things. Also loved how Davey would do some athletic taunt and Owen would duplicate it to get in his head. Both guys were pulling tights, putting feet on ropes, etc. and I though it was all great. I've heard some were bothered or whatever that all that tension didn't explode into a fist outburst or something but I though it didn;t warrant it anyway since they were tag Champions together. Not surprised this wasn;t the mind-blowing "scientific technical clinic" or whatever I used to think this was, but I'd be ltying if I said I didn;t really like it. Like, I wouldn't be against watching this again tomorrow, for example.
HHH v Edge v Chris Benoit (WWE 29/11/04)
--the result of this was bloody stupid given HHH was the Champion and lost the title only to win it back at NYR, but the match itself is a blast, glad it was recommended to me. This is the type of 3-way match I mean when i said "good spotfests", no dull moments and everything was really fun, like an attitude era match or something. Opened up with Unter taking it easy while Benoit and Edge beat each other up, he was jokingly clapping and giving those little "ow" facial expressions and it was awesome. It's a given all WWE three-ways will have two guys in the ring while one's on the outside, and a lot of the times it'll be done in a stupid way like getting throwed over the top rope and landing on their feet and "collapsing" or something. This was done greatly though, there was only like one that wasn't that convincing, but it was coincidentally my favourite one, because Benoit got Edge and Suplex'ed him on Helmsley fucking HEAD. Batista and Flair coming out made for another good "take-ou-on-guy" moment when they bashed Benoit, too, and Orton's (acting GM) involvement added a little bit to the match cos of his HHH feud. Not sure if they even had any matches after this in 04, but... yeh. Benoit used the sharpshooter a couple of times, likely in reference to Backlash 04, and i thought that was really cool. Again, they should've learned from Taker/Angle 02 that this type of finish doesn't go down too well, but Vince loves those "who won?" moments. Still doesn;t explain HHH bringing in a chair after the referee got knocked down in a no DQ match, though. Anyway, great match.
Monday, 20 June 2011
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
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.
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.
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