Sunday, August 21, 2011
SMASH 4 6/25/2010
- Yusuke Kodama vs Akira
Typical vet vs rookie match. Kodama got to show off a little bit and looked the best he has in any outing so far, still a long long ways to go but he showed a tiny bit of potential atleast.
- Mentallo & Akira Shoji vs Kim Numpum & Yun Gang Chul
Good god, between pre match hype video, entrances, a LONG ass Numpum pre match promo, the match itself, and more talking from Numpum post match this got almost 30 mins of tv time. Was dreading this going in but the match itself was actually kind of decent, Yun Gang was working a 14th rate Kinya Oyanagei time travling saluting soldier gimmick. While not what I would call good, he was passable enough and could do a few simple basic things well and a few not so simple things sloppily. Crushed poor Mentallo's face trying to do a twisting senton. Numpum larely stayed out of the action and when he was in he didn't look like the absolute worst wrestler in existence this time. Mentallo was really the glue that held this together even though Shoji/Kim was the focus and he got the big win over Yun Gang with a moonsault.
- Isami vs Kushida
Modern hardcore match with Isami Claus brining Kushida some presents in the form of ladders and barbed wire boards. Gotta say I like Kushida a lot more in this environment. Not necesarily as a hardcore wrestler, but just as a guy with a bit of an edge. As I said in my SMASH 3 review, he's 10 kinds of generic when he's trying to work your usual spotty jr match but he's far more interesting as a dude in a fight for his life against a mad man or even as in the role of Robert Gibson waiting for hot tag like he was playing on Smash 2. A few minor anoyances in this, Kushida didn't put over the few hardcore bumps he took that well near the end and he tried to turn it a litte too much into your typical jr style match but still, Isami brought out the best in him here and overall I liked this match a lot.
Side tanget #1. Gotta say Isami doing the "i'm gonna injure myself to injure my opponent and show you how tough and crazy I am" stuff really doesn't work well for him. Jun Kasai for example can do that kind of stuff and pull it off because you buy that he's that nuts and gets off on the punishment, with Isami it just sorta seems stupid.
Side tanget #2, weird as hell seeing Esui working ring crew duty on these shows since she retired from wrestling before SMASH even started. I totally forgot they had an MMA division that she ended up hooking up with.
Side tanget #3, I never want to see a close up of Tajiri talking in random outdoor settings again in my life.
Side tanget #4, Starbuck is the spitting image of Balls Mahoney if he were a little skinier and had all his teeth, upon first glance before I knew who it was I totally thought he was Balls.
Side tanget #5. I really dig when promotions have ending theme songs for their tv shows, FMW using "Blind Faith" circa 97 was my fave. SMASH using "Auld Lang Syne" is a really weird choice but somehow is fitting.
- Lin Bairon, Tajiri & Hajime Ohara vs Jessica Love, Stark Adder & Haijy Heimo Ukonselka
By the standards of Tajiri, Lin & even Ohara this was an off night sorta. No one looked bad or even close to it but they didn't bring their A game either. Lin especially toned down her act and didn't try anything too fancy which was probably for the best given her oppoents. She even had a rare botch as she messed up a 619 atempt. Still, this match was more about showing off the new comers anyways and on that end it actually did deliver. I made it 10 seconds into Jessica Love, heard his stupid moaning and decided i'd FF through all of his parts, the other 2 I was pretty impressed with. Finnish Viking Warrior Haijy immediatly won me over by playing air guitar with his giant Axe during the entrance, Finnish cave man Stark Adder had me fantasy booking in my mind how awesome it would be if Tajiri dug up Yone & Tsubo Genjin to take these guys on or called in another WWE favor and brought over the Highlanders. Ah, good times to be had thear. Wrestling wise they were about as good as to be exspected, I mean, you don't really want intricate technical holds from your wrestling cave men & vikings, you want clubering brutish madness and that's what we got so I was happy. Fun match. FCF is 2 for 2 in the love/hate column with me now, Starbuck's coming next month to be the tie breaker. Toshie Uematsu's also coming next month, yay.
- Shuri vs Kana
It's funny, when it comes to the subject of Kana and her working stiff, it was never so much that she worked stiff that bothered me, it was always more that she worked stiff in an era whear it's not done that often against people who clearly aren't into/used to working that style so a lot of the time it just felt uncomfortable to watch. Here she's up against the former Karate girl, a chick with a legit MMA background and what does Kana do? She 100% pulls her punches and works lighter then i've seen her do in ages. Not complaining either, just something I got a kick out of. She was great here and I much prefer this to seeing her play nise Hotta. Match was awesome, they did a great job of making this seem like a big deal with all the pre match hype vids and they kept that vibe up for the entire match. There was a hint of hatred in the air but it was more about "i'm going to prove i'm better then you" then "i'm going to punch your face in". Bulk of the match was built around really agressive mat work mixed in with some very impressive kick exchanges. Loved the selling in this too as both did a good job of putting over the fatigue from how hard they were fighting as the match went on. In the end it comes down to a strike battle and KG Shuri gets the huge win with a kick to the head knocking Kana out long enough to score her the pin. I remember last year when I read the result of this match my reaction was "WTF, really?" but seeing it now, Shuri def deserved the win as she steped her game up big time for this match and looked every bit like someone on Kana's level. Post match is great with Shuri sheding tears of joy and celbrating while Kana slowly walks off with an "I can't believe that happened" look on her face, mid way through leaving she stops, glances back and flashes a brief tiny evil looking smile as if to say "i'm going to kill you for this". Awesome stuff, i'm surprised Kana had a moment like that in her. Easily one of my favorite matches from 2010.
A nice bit of redemption for SMASH after the horribleness of their last show. The good was really good and the suck didn't suck as much as I thought it would.
Saturday, August 20, 2011
Quick SMASH thoughts - Shows 1-3
So been kind of avoiding SMASH for the past 2 years but they've had a lot of joshi involvement i've wanted to see so I decided to give it a shot, let's see how this goes
SMASH 1 3/6/2010
- Tajiri vs Mentallo
Thought this was a pretty decent match. Mentallo didn't wow me but he seemed fine for a basic jr guy and Tajiri carried his end.
- Lin Bairon open workout with Tajiri
Awesome stuff. Ray working unmasked is just as awesome as she is with it and she has a cool look to boot. Here she gets to show off all her whacky kung fu flipping action making me really excited to see her on future shows.
- (Women) Shuri vs Meiko Satomura
Dug this quite a lot. Meiko is Meiko so is always great, Shuri hung in thear and outside of a few weak strikes looked good, def seems like someone who could develop into a very good wrestler if she sticks around long enough.
- Akira Shoji vs Leatherface
Really awful stuff, Latherface is no Super Leather. That's all i'll say
- (Hardcore Match) Tommy Dreamer vs Tajiri
Straight out of the late 90's/early 00's with lame hardcore wrestling. Cookie sheets and trash cans and kendo sticks galore. There were some fun moments mixed in, the table stuff was amusing and Tajiri did some cool shit so not a complete joke of a match, just nothing special.
- Kushida vs Hajime Ohara
Liked this a fair bit but it felt like it was missing something, felt a little robotic and emotionless I guess so I had a hard time getting into it seriously. Still, the action was good and I could see myself enjoying this more on another day if I was in a diffrent mood.
- Eugene promo
Pretty funny as he promises to come to Japan and punish Tajiri for being a bad bad boy for promising to bring him to Japan and never doing so.
Thought's afer the first show, SMASH is an interesting group. All complaints aside, I pretty much enjoyed everything I saw except the Leatherface match and they had enough interesting things to make me look forward to the next show.
SMASH 2 4/23/2010
- Tajiri vs Kyle Sebastion
Kyle's a big gangly kid, taller then your average jr (unless Tajiri is just way shorter then I thought) but too skinny to pass as a heavy. They did a lot of cool chain wrestling stuff so I really dug this a lot, Tajiri is great at that type of stuff and Kyle kept up nicely. Thought he was super impressive, the best looking guy of all the random non WWE foreigners SMASH has brought in that i've seen .
- Yusuke Kodama vs Hajime Ohara
Kodama's debut, your typical 1st outing for a Japanese rookie, gets to show a little bit of fire and get in some basic stuff but gets beat easily by the vetran w/o too much trouble. Couldn't tell much about Kodama from this, he didn't look horrible but wasn't impressive either.
- (Scramble Bunkhouse Barbedwire Bat Deathmatch) Mentallo vs Masato Tanaka vs Akira Shoji
They do a video package pre match to get over that Mentallo is a big FMW mark so this is a huge dream match for him and hey, masked FMW super fan is a gimmick I can throw my full support behind. This is full on old school early 90's garbage style and I loved this match. The work isn't crisp or smooth or full of high end offense, it's an ugly sloppy match but they had a lot of spirit and passion and that's more important to me. Shoji bleeds a gusher soaking himself and everyone else in the match with his blood and he generally played whiping boy for the other 2. Former MMA guy turned death match worker is also something I can support cause fuck, the world needs a new Mr. Danger. Him going nuts and riping off his shirt Hogan style while covered in blood and telling Tanaka to bring it on was a cool visual. Mentallo gets the win with a moonsault onto the bat onto Shoji. Again, LOVED this.
- Tajiri vs Eugene
So my memories of Eugene from the WWE were of him as a guy who did amusing goofy shit but largely dumbed down his actual wrestling work after a while to punch/kick/stolen sig spots off bigger names thusly I didn't go into this with high hopes. After a little bit of gaga to start with they get serious and take it to the mat and remind people that oh yeah, Eugene actually does have a lot of wrestling skill afterall which I really enjoyed. Nothing against the comedy stuff either as I like that too and in this match they do a great job of mixing both styles together and getting over the story of Eugene being pissed off at Tajiri but Tajiri not wanting to hurt his friend. Easily the best Eugene match i've ever seen.
- Kushida & Lin Bairon vs Hajime Ohara & Shuri
Really good, long match that told a cool story. Bairon is a wild woman who doesn't understand the finer points of tag team wrestling...like the whole tagging part (a cute Chinese Kamala if you will) and she's making her "debut" so she wants to show off and go at it alone. She demands to start and doesn't even want to bother with Shuri, calling out Ohara who obliges. She has some nice exchanges with both Ohara & Shuri, lots of hate between her and Shuri. Kush tags himself in with a tap to the head and goes at it for a while with both. Bairon tags back in and we get a really fun section of her getting double teamed, fighting back but refusing to tag out, getting beat up some more, finally wanting out but having no one to tag because Shuri & Ohara took out Kushida. Ohara's someone who just has the scumbag look written all over him but Shuri is quite the unlikely heel here, both are quite good in the role. Kush finally gets the super mega big hot tag and runs wild allowing Bairon to recover and get the big win with a spinny flippy twisting moonsault thing. Awesome stuff. Wish everyone involved would work more like this all the time.
Thoughts after the 2nd show, 3 really good matches and 2 decent ones, lots of variety, some cool wrestlers that have a lot of personality, some whacky fun characters but mostly doing serious wrestling without the stupidity you find in other "sports entertainment" style feds. This is a fed I could see myself becoming a big fan of.
Smash 3 5/29/2010
- Golem Knight vs Akira
Holy shit, I don't know who Golem Knight is or whear he came from but he stunk the joint out here in an awful match that old man Akira wasn't game to try and carry him through. One of the worst guys i've ever seen get a spot in Japan, so bad that even if he flew himself over and paid to be on the show Tajiri should refund his cash and a bonus to never come back. Mind blowingly I do know that he gets brought back for 2 more matches after this before disapearing.
- Jessica Love vs Hajime Ohara
Love's a Finish dude doing a tranny gimmick. I've seen quite a lot of flamboyant gay molesters in wrestling over the years, enough to know I don't ever need to see anymore so I had no patience for this. It's not a gimmick I particularly mind if they can also bring good wrestling to the table too, I love Pimpi in AAA for example, so I waited a bit to see if Jessica could do the same....which he didn't. Add in him doing the most over the top annoying, 1 million times worse then anything you'll ever see in Joshi, screams and moans and...noises and I couldn't take any more. Made it maybe half way into this before I gave up and skiped to the next match.
- Kim Numpum, Mentallo & Lin Bairon vs Akira Shoji, Yusuke Kodama & Shuri
Numpum is some awful barely trained guy from Korea who I assume is either a really famous celeb, money mark for SMASH or both to have gotten put on the show, there's no other excuse. Kodama again was just kind of thear, the other 4 looked nice, Lin especially and they brought just enough to the table to keep this out of the rubish bin but it was seriously draged down by Numpum. Most interesting thing about this was Kana's run in and brawl with Kana post match.
- (FCF Title) Valentine (c) vs Tajiri
Parade of shitty foreigners continues, streak of fun/good Tajiri matches ends. Valentine was just embarassing with his over the top "look at me i'm playing pro wrestling bad guy" schtick. Just phony and fake in every way, took me out of the match at the start and the wrestling iteself was so bland and average that the whole thing was a lost cause.
- Prince Devit vs Kushida
The first half was really good, as i've said before I dig matches build around basic mat work and chain wrestling and this had some really good sections of that. They kind of lost me for the 2nd half though as it became your standard jr wrestling 101. Here's some head drops, here's some flips, here's some near falls. Impressive looking but nothing to really make any of it stand out. Don't want to sound too harsh on this however as I did still like it a lot and compared to the rest of the card it was a 5 star affair but in the grand scheme of things it wasn't anything special. After watching this, i've come to the conclusion that Kushida is the Flying Kid Ichihara of the new generation. A guy who's in everyway a pedestrian, typical stereo type of a jr wrestler. Like some AI created template you'd get from a video game. He does just enough well that it would be wrong to call him bad because he's not but there's nothing unique about him at all and when I think of all the guys out thear working in New Japan, NOAH, DDT, BJW, MPro, Kdojo, Osaka Pro, Dragon Gate and on and on I could easily name a million dudes who are better.
Thoughts after the 3rd show, who ever is in charge of booking the foreign talent needs a bullet in the head. It's great that SMASH is using guys outside of the usual super indy bubble that typically get chances in other companies as there's a lot of really good undiscovered talent out thear but the new ones used on this show aren't it. I know the FCW guys play a big part on future shows and well, this Starbuck guy better bring the goods cause the rest of his Finish crew stinks and this whole show left a bad taste in my mouth. Looking forward to Kana/Shuri on the next show but that's about it at this point.
SMASH 1 3/6/2010
- Tajiri vs Mentallo
Thought this was a pretty decent match. Mentallo didn't wow me but he seemed fine for a basic jr guy and Tajiri carried his end.
- Lin Bairon open workout with Tajiri
Awesome stuff. Ray working unmasked is just as awesome as she is with it and she has a cool look to boot. Here she gets to show off all her whacky kung fu flipping action making me really excited to see her on future shows.
- (Women) Shuri vs Meiko Satomura
Dug this quite a lot. Meiko is Meiko so is always great, Shuri hung in thear and outside of a few weak strikes looked good, def seems like someone who could develop into a very good wrestler if she sticks around long enough.
- Akira Shoji vs Leatherface
Really awful stuff, Latherface is no Super Leather. That's all i'll say
- (Hardcore Match) Tommy Dreamer vs Tajiri
Straight out of the late 90's/early 00's with lame hardcore wrestling. Cookie sheets and trash cans and kendo sticks galore. There were some fun moments mixed in, the table stuff was amusing and Tajiri did some cool shit so not a complete joke of a match, just nothing special.
- Kushida vs Hajime Ohara
Liked this a fair bit but it felt like it was missing something, felt a little robotic and emotionless I guess so I had a hard time getting into it seriously. Still, the action was good and I could see myself enjoying this more on another day if I was in a diffrent mood.
- Eugene promo
Pretty funny as he promises to come to Japan and punish Tajiri for being a bad bad boy for promising to bring him to Japan and never doing so.
Thought's afer the first show, SMASH is an interesting group. All complaints aside, I pretty much enjoyed everything I saw except the Leatherface match and they had enough interesting things to make me look forward to the next show.
SMASH 2 4/23/2010
- Tajiri vs Kyle Sebastion
Kyle's a big gangly kid, taller then your average jr (unless Tajiri is just way shorter then I thought) but too skinny to pass as a heavy. They did a lot of cool chain wrestling stuff so I really dug this a lot, Tajiri is great at that type of stuff and Kyle kept up nicely. Thought he was super impressive, the best looking guy of all the random non WWE foreigners SMASH has brought in that i've seen .
- Yusuke Kodama vs Hajime Ohara
Kodama's debut, your typical 1st outing for a Japanese rookie, gets to show a little bit of fire and get in some basic stuff but gets beat easily by the vetran w/o too much trouble. Couldn't tell much about Kodama from this, he didn't look horrible but wasn't impressive either.
- (Scramble Bunkhouse Barbedwire Bat Deathmatch) Mentallo vs Masato Tanaka vs Akira Shoji
They do a video package pre match to get over that Mentallo is a big FMW mark so this is a huge dream match for him and hey, masked FMW super fan is a gimmick I can throw my full support behind. This is full on old school early 90's garbage style and I loved this match. The work isn't crisp or smooth or full of high end offense, it's an ugly sloppy match but they had a lot of spirit and passion and that's more important to me. Shoji bleeds a gusher soaking himself and everyone else in the match with his blood and he generally played whiping boy for the other 2. Former MMA guy turned death match worker is also something I can support cause fuck, the world needs a new Mr. Danger. Him going nuts and riping off his shirt Hogan style while covered in blood and telling Tanaka to bring it on was a cool visual. Mentallo gets the win with a moonsault onto the bat onto Shoji. Again, LOVED this.
- Tajiri vs Eugene
So my memories of Eugene from the WWE were of him as a guy who did amusing goofy shit but largely dumbed down his actual wrestling work after a while to punch/kick/stolen sig spots off bigger names thusly I didn't go into this with high hopes. After a little bit of gaga to start with they get serious and take it to the mat and remind people that oh yeah, Eugene actually does have a lot of wrestling skill afterall which I really enjoyed. Nothing against the comedy stuff either as I like that too and in this match they do a great job of mixing both styles together and getting over the story of Eugene being pissed off at Tajiri but Tajiri not wanting to hurt his friend. Easily the best Eugene match i've ever seen.
- Kushida & Lin Bairon vs Hajime Ohara & Shuri
Really good, long match that told a cool story. Bairon is a wild woman who doesn't understand the finer points of tag team wrestling...like the whole tagging part (a cute Chinese Kamala if you will) and she's making her "debut" so she wants to show off and go at it alone. She demands to start and doesn't even want to bother with Shuri, calling out Ohara who obliges. She has some nice exchanges with both Ohara & Shuri, lots of hate between her and Shuri. Kush tags himself in with a tap to the head and goes at it for a while with both. Bairon tags back in and we get a really fun section of her getting double teamed, fighting back but refusing to tag out, getting beat up some more, finally wanting out but having no one to tag because Shuri & Ohara took out Kushida. Ohara's someone who just has the scumbag look written all over him but Shuri is quite the unlikely heel here, both are quite good in the role. Kush finally gets the super mega big hot tag and runs wild allowing Bairon to recover and get the big win with a spinny flippy twisting moonsault thing. Awesome stuff. Wish everyone involved would work more like this all the time.
Thoughts after the 2nd show, 3 really good matches and 2 decent ones, lots of variety, some cool wrestlers that have a lot of personality, some whacky fun characters but mostly doing serious wrestling without the stupidity you find in other "sports entertainment" style feds. This is a fed I could see myself becoming a big fan of.
Smash 3 5/29/2010
- Golem Knight vs Akira
Holy shit, I don't know who Golem Knight is or whear he came from but he stunk the joint out here in an awful match that old man Akira wasn't game to try and carry him through. One of the worst guys i've ever seen get a spot in Japan, so bad that even if he flew himself over and paid to be on the show Tajiri should refund his cash and a bonus to never come back. Mind blowingly I do know that he gets brought back for 2 more matches after this before disapearing.
- Jessica Love vs Hajime Ohara
Love's a Finish dude doing a tranny gimmick. I've seen quite a lot of flamboyant gay molesters in wrestling over the years, enough to know I don't ever need to see anymore so I had no patience for this. It's not a gimmick I particularly mind if they can also bring good wrestling to the table too, I love Pimpi in AAA for example, so I waited a bit to see if Jessica could do the same....which he didn't. Add in him doing the most over the top annoying, 1 million times worse then anything you'll ever see in Joshi, screams and moans and...noises and I couldn't take any more. Made it maybe half way into this before I gave up and skiped to the next match.
- Kim Numpum, Mentallo & Lin Bairon vs Akira Shoji, Yusuke Kodama & Shuri
Numpum is some awful barely trained guy from Korea who I assume is either a really famous celeb, money mark for SMASH or both to have gotten put on the show, there's no other excuse. Kodama again was just kind of thear, the other 4 looked nice, Lin especially and they brought just enough to the table to keep this out of the rubish bin but it was seriously draged down by Numpum. Most interesting thing about this was Kana's run in and brawl with Kana post match.
- (FCF Title) Valentine (c) vs Tajiri
Parade of shitty foreigners continues, streak of fun/good Tajiri matches ends. Valentine was just embarassing with his over the top "look at me i'm playing pro wrestling bad guy" schtick. Just phony and fake in every way, took me out of the match at the start and the wrestling iteself was so bland and average that the whole thing was a lost cause.
- Prince Devit vs Kushida
The first half was really good, as i've said before I dig matches build around basic mat work and chain wrestling and this had some really good sections of that. They kind of lost me for the 2nd half though as it became your standard jr wrestling 101. Here's some head drops, here's some flips, here's some near falls. Impressive looking but nothing to really make any of it stand out. Don't want to sound too harsh on this however as I did still like it a lot and compared to the rest of the card it was a 5 star affair but in the grand scheme of things it wasn't anything special. After watching this, i've come to the conclusion that Kushida is the Flying Kid Ichihara of the new generation. A guy who's in everyway a pedestrian, typical stereo type of a jr wrestler. Like some AI created template you'd get from a video game. He does just enough well that it would be wrong to call him bad because he's not but there's nothing unique about him at all and when I think of all the guys out thear working in New Japan, NOAH, DDT, BJW, MPro, Kdojo, Osaka Pro, Dragon Gate and on and on I could easily name a million dudes who are better.
Thoughts after the 3rd show, who ever is in charge of booking the foreign talent needs a bullet in the head. It's great that SMASH is using guys outside of the usual super indy bubble that typically get chances in other companies as there's a lot of really good undiscovered talent out thear but the new ones used on this show aren't it. I know the FCW guys play a big part on future shows and well, this Starbuck guy better bring the goods cause the rest of his Finish crew stinks and this whole show left a bad taste in my mouth. Looking forward to Kana/Shuri on the next show but that's about it at this point.
Thursday, July 28, 2011
Random Quickie - Chikara 8/17/07 International Invaders Weekend Night 1
- Rahim Ali vs Shane Storm
- Alex Payne vs Tim Donst
- USApe vs Moscow
- Shayne Hawke vs Jigsaw
Ape vs Moscow was kind of fun, helped that they kept it short, the other 3 were some mix between awful, boring & generic. All went short and you were glad of it too. Also random thought, in the monkey vs cow match, Moohamad the terrorist cow came out to distract Moscow and cause him to lose. Why's the terrorist cow have to be named Moohamad? Seems kind of racist if ya ask me. Why can't the terrorist cow be named Steve???
- Olsen Twins & Brodie Lee vs Fire Ant Soldier Ant & Worker Ant
First decent match of the show, Olsen's always rule and Brodie killed folks in a pleasing manner.
- Claudio Castagnoli vs Akira Raijin
Surprisingly good. They took it to the mat and had a real nice back and forth exchange of holds. Made me want to track down more Raijin stuff. One of the few matches on the show to get a decent amount of time and they made good use of it.
- Pac vs Ricochet
For something they were touting as a "dream match" even back then this was kinda disapointing. Not bad per se but they only got like 8 mins, enough to go back and forth with random flashy dives but not enough to build into anything special. Nice for what it was but could & should have been so much more.
- Eddie Kingston vs Brute Issei
Kinda fun in a big guy lumbering slug fest sorta way. Brute kinda struggled a little to keep up and seemed lost at times but Kingston brought it.
- Chris Hero, Larry Sweeney, Chuck Taylor & Mitch Ryder vs Las Chivas, Equinox & Lince Dorado
Wasn't exspecting anything going in but holy fuck this was an awesome match. Great mixing of styles, comedy & faux lucha to start, great old school FIP beat down section on Equinox in the middle and your typical indy style dive fest, 2.9 a thon to end things. Everyone was on, including Chivas & Equinox who I didn't have high hopes for but those 3 stole the show actually. Surpised this didn't make Chikara's best of 07 Smart Mark set.
- (Chikara Tag Titles - 2 out of 3 Falls) F.I.S.T. vs Los Ice Creams
This on the other hand kinda stunk. The action was OK but there was a little too much stupidity and screwiness wiith their own internal logic that it took away from everything. 2 people in the ring attacking 1 guy = not ok. 2 people pinning 1 guy at the same time = OK. No physical tags needed, just leave the ring & your partner can come in = fine, leaving the ring while the ref isn't looking = not fine. 30 second break in between falls unless 1 team decideds they don't want to at which point the ref says "ok then, ring the bell, go ahead". Dumb dumb dumb...
- Alex Payne vs Tim Donst
- USApe vs Moscow
- Shayne Hawke vs Jigsaw
Ape vs Moscow was kind of fun, helped that they kept it short, the other 3 were some mix between awful, boring & generic. All went short and you were glad of it too. Also random thought, in the monkey vs cow match, Moohamad the terrorist cow came out to distract Moscow and cause him to lose. Why's the terrorist cow have to be named Moohamad? Seems kind of racist if ya ask me. Why can't the terrorist cow be named Steve???
- Olsen Twins & Brodie Lee vs Fire Ant Soldier Ant & Worker Ant
First decent match of the show, Olsen's always rule and Brodie killed folks in a pleasing manner.
- Claudio Castagnoli vs Akira Raijin
Surprisingly good. They took it to the mat and had a real nice back and forth exchange of holds. Made me want to track down more Raijin stuff. One of the few matches on the show to get a decent amount of time and they made good use of it.
- Pac vs Ricochet
For something they were touting as a "dream match" even back then this was kinda disapointing. Not bad per se but they only got like 8 mins, enough to go back and forth with random flashy dives but not enough to build into anything special. Nice for what it was but could & should have been so much more.
- Eddie Kingston vs Brute Issei
Kinda fun in a big guy lumbering slug fest sorta way. Brute kinda struggled a little to keep up and seemed lost at times but Kingston brought it.
- Chris Hero, Larry Sweeney, Chuck Taylor & Mitch Ryder vs Las Chivas, Equinox & Lince Dorado
Wasn't exspecting anything going in but holy fuck this was an awesome match. Great mixing of styles, comedy & faux lucha to start, great old school FIP beat down section on Equinox in the middle and your typical indy style dive fest, 2.9 a thon to end things. Everyone was on, including Chivas & Equinox who I didn't have high hopes for but those 3 stole the show actually. Surpised this didn't make Chikara's best of 07 Smart Mark set.
- (Chikara Tag Titles - 2 out of 3 Falls) F.I.S.T. vs Los Ice Creams
This on the other hand kinda stunk. The action was OK but there was a little too much stupidity and screwiness wiith their own internal logic that it took away from everything. 2 people in the ring attacking 1 guy = not ok. 2 people pinning 1 guy at the same time = OK. No physical tags needed, just leave the ring & your partner can come in = fine, leaving the ring while the ref isn't looking = not fine. 30 second break in between falls unless 1 team decideds they don't want to at which point the ref says "ok then, ring the bell, go ahead". Dumb dumb dumb...
Saturday, July 23, 2011
1992 Joshi thoughts & Top 10-20 list
Took me longer to complete this year then any other i've done so far due to the much larger amount of footage available. Just from AJW alone there's almost more matches this year that made tape then 1990 & 1991 combined, add in that I didn't just watch AJW this time and also watched a good 25 - 30 JWP/FMW matches and this was quite the year. With so much going on it wouldn't be fair to limit things to just 10 so
Top 20 Joshi Matches of the Year.
1. AJW 11/26/1992 (3WA World Title) Bull Nakano (c) vs Aja Kong
2. AJW 11/26/1992 (3WA Tag Titles, 2 out of 3 Falls) Toshiyo Yamada & Manami Toyota (c) vs Dynamite Kansai & Mayumi Ozaki
3. AJW 8/15/1992 (IWA Title - Hair vs Hair) Manami Toyota (c) vs Toshiyo Yamada
4. AJW 4/25/1992 (3WA Title Match) Bull Nakano (c) vs Aja Kong
5. AJW 7/15/1992 (3WA Tag Titles - 2 out of 3 Falls) Manami Toyota & Toshiyo Yamada (c) vs Aja Kong & Kyoko Inoue
6. FMW 9/19/1992 Megumi Kudo & Combat Toyoda vs Bull Nakano & Akira Hokuto
7. AJW 6/21/1992 (JGP 92) Aja Kong vs Bison Kimura
8. AJW 6/21/1992 (No Time Limit) Manami Toyota vs Toshiyo Yamada
9. AJW 5/24/1992 Kyoko Inoue & Mariko Yoshida vs Manami Toyota & Sakie Hasegawa
10. AJW 8/15/1992 (Fuji TV Tag Tournament FINAL) Bull Nakano & Aja Kong vs Toshiyo Yamada & Akira Hokuto
11. AJW 8/30/1992 Bull Nakano, Yumiko Hotta & Suzuka Minami vs Akira Hokuto, Etsuko Mita & Mima Shimoda
12. JWP 12/1/1992 Yumiko Hotta & Takako Inoue vs Mayumi Ozaki & Hikari Fukuoka
13. AJW 5/24/1992 Aja Kong & Bison Kimura vs Akira Hokuto & Etsuko Mita
14. AJW 6/27/1992 (3WA Tag Titles 2 out of 3 Falls) Toshiyo Yamada & Manami Toyota (c) vs Akira Hokuto & Kyoko Inoue
15. AJW 11/26/1992 (All Pacific Title) Kyoko Inoue (c) vs Akira Hokuto
16. AJW 3/20/1992 (3WA vs UWA Tag Titles - 2 out of 3 Falls) Aja Kong & Bison Kimura (3WA) vs Manami Toyota & Toshiyo Yamada (UWA)
17. AJW 4/25/1992 (IWA World Women’s Title Match) Kyoko Inoue (c) vs Manami Toyota
18. AJW 6/27/1992 (AJW Title) Mariko Yoshida (c) vs Etsuko Mita
19. AJW 12/13/1992 (Tag Leauge The Best 92 FINAL) Aja Kong & Kyoko Inoue vs Manami Toyota & Toshiyo Yamada
20. JWP 10/7/1992 (JWP Tag Titles) Cuty Suzuki & Mayumi Ozaki (c) vs Dynamite Kansai & Hikari Fukuoka
This was quite a hard list to put together, the top few and bottom few i'm confident about, on any other day I could probably rearrange the middle a good deal. I'm sure a lot of people will disagree but for me giving the Aja/Bull title change the #1 spot was an easy choice. In a stand alone vaccum the Dream Rush tag has better action, it's a fuckin great match, one of the best ever, but at the end of the day it's just a great match. Aja/Bull is a great match AND it's the end of an almost 3 year story that's dominated the entire company for much of that time and it sets up Aja as the undisputed ace of the company which she'd be for the next 2 years. So yeah, easy choice to have that as my #1.
Top 10 Wrestlers of the Year
1. Mariko Yoshida
2. Manami Toyota
3. Akira Hokuto
4. Toshiyo Yamada
5. Aja Kong
6. Bull Nakano
7. Kyoko Inoue
8. Mayumi Ozaki
9. Bison Kimura
10. Dynamite Kansai
Little bit easier list to make. No it's not really reflected in my top matches list but night in night out Yoshida was easily the most talented & consistently enjoyable wrestler in AJW. She didn't have as many opportunities to produce classics as others but she had her share and if I were to rank 21-30 she'd be in a good portion of those. Yoshida's rise up the ranks was a joy to watch too. She's someone who doens't have any natural advantages as a wrestler, she's not big or tall, she didn't have a major sports background prior to becoming a wrestler, not the greatest singer, and while she is very attractive, she isn't hot in that exploitable way that leads to one getting outside deals as a bikini model or whatever. To get ahead in wrestling she had to rely on talent alone so she worked really really hard and started putting on really really good matches. The fans saw this, apreciated it and started cheering her which in turn led to the guys in charge seeing this and pushing her higher up the card accordingly. In this day and age whear most wrestling promoters could give fuck all about things like who has the most skill and who gets the best crowd reaction and just shove whoever they like down the throats of fans until they learn to love it watching Yoshida in 92 was really refreshing. Toyota is an interesting case as she on the other hand was given the most chances this year to produce on a high level and in many of those matches she wasn't even the best preformer in them actually. Still, for every match whear she may have been 2nd, 3rd or 4th best, she had a ton more whear she was #1 and she had so many great matches and moments period that you can't really deny her a top spot. Her vs Yamada would be my pick for feud of the year and I would easily, hands down by a large margin call her & Yamada the best tag team, not just in joshi but in the world in 1992. Aja & Bull being a bit lower on my list this year then in previous years doesn't have so much to do with them slipping as it does more with this year focusing on others besides them a lot more. Bull vs Aja while never a dead issue was cooled off for a while in the early part of the year plus Bull having been on top for so long was starting to run out of fresh feuds. Giving her the CMLL women's title and having her recycle opponents to go after that helped stretch things out nicely though. The Bull vs Hokuto feud in the middle of the year was also one of the more enjoyable things of 1992 too, their 7/15 match is one of the better matches that didn't make my top 20 and their cage match on 7/30 would have been up thear too had it aired in full i'm sure.
Also worth mentioning is that just from a booking standpoint this was one of, if not the companies best years ever and in general so many memorable and historical moments took place this year that it's hard to keep track. This year saw the end (temporarily atleast) of the careers of Yoshida, Bison & Kamiya, the start of careers for girls like Kumiko Maekara & Rie Tamada and the first major pushes for girls like Sakie Hasegawa & Kaoru Ito. There was the obvious stuff i've allready mentioned like Yamada vs Toyota, Aja vs Bull, Hokuto vs Bull, Aja & Kyoko teaming up for the first time, Akira Hokuto recruiting Mita & Shimoda and start LCO, Yoshida's awesome little run. Except for the rookies and a few other minor exceptions, pretty much everyone on the roster had atleast 1 standout moment or run of somesort this year that made watching everything in order worth the effort. The running theme of Takako Inoue trying to gain respect, bullying anyone on or below her level and getting the crap kicked out of her by anyone above her level and Bat Yoshinaga continuing to wreck things up on the undercards this year were 2 of my other favorite standout things from this year off the top of my head. Of course, the biggest most important happening this year was the start of the interpromotional wars, first with Shark & Crusher from FMW invading after the main event of the 7/15 AJW show, then JWP getting in the mix and lastly the newly formed LLPW showing up. The original JWP splitting in 2 with half their roster bouncing to form LLPW is also a huge thing that took place this year, I personally didn't see enough footage to really follow having watched nothing from JWP early in the year or from LLPW's first few shows but it's still worth bringing up. The few JWP shows I did watch I really enjoyed, they were a clear #2 and couldn't compare to AJW but they had a few great matches that I got to see and a lot of really good talent on their roster with not just Kansai & OZ but Devil, Cuty, Bolshoi, Plum, Fukuoka, rookie Candy Okutsu and hidden gem Sumiko Saito. 19 years later here in 2011 joshi promotions are still sharing talent and we take it for granted but in 1992 it hadn't been done before, ever, it was new and fresh and exciting. Something that produced a lot of hate filled, emotional moments and a lot of amazing matches. Something that literally changed the entire business forever.
Top 20 Joshi Matches of the Year.
1. AJW 11/26/1992 (3WA World Title) Bull Nakano (c) vs Aja Kong
2. AJW 11/26/1992 (3WA Tag Titles, 2 out of 3 Falls) Toshiyo Yamada & Manami Toyota (c) vs Dynamite Kansai & Mayumi Ozaki
3. AJW 8/15/1992 (IWA Title - Hair vs Hair) Manami Toyota (c) vs Toshiyo Yamada
4. AJW 4/25/1992 (3WA Title Match) Bull Nakano (c) vs Aja Kong
5. AJW 7/15/1992 (3WA Tag Titles - 2 out of 3 Falls) Manami Toyota & Toshiyo Yamada (c) vs Aja Kong & Kyoko Inoue
6. FMW 9/19/1992 Megumi Kudo & Combat Toyoda vs Bull Nakano & Akira Hokuto
7. AJW 6/21/1992 (JGP 92) Aja Kong vs Bison Kimura
8. AJW 6/21/1992 (No Time Limit) Manami Toyota vs Toshiyo Yamada
9. AJW 5/24/1992 Kyoko Inoue & Mariko Yoshida vs Manami Toyota & Sakie Hasegawa
10. AJW 8/15/1992 (Fuji TV Tag Tournament FINAL) Bull Nakano & Aja Kong vs Toshiyo Yamada & Akira Hokuto
11. AJW 8/30/1992 Bull Nakano, Yumiko Hotta & Suzuka Minami vs Akira Hokuto, Etsuko Mita & Mima Shimoda
12. JWP 12/1/1992 Yumiko Hotta & Takako Inoue vs Mayumi Ozaki & Hikari Fukuoka
13. AJW 5/24/1992 Aja Kong & Bison Kimura vs Akira Hokuto & Etsuko Mita
14. AJW 6/27/1992 (3WA Tag Titles 2 out of 3 Falls) Toshiyo Yamada & Manami Toyota (c) vs Akira Hokuto & Kyoko Inoue
15. AJW 11/26/1992 (All Pacific Title) Kyoko Inoue (c) vs Akira Hokuto
16. AJW 3/20/1992 (3WA vs UWA Tag Titles - 2 out of 3 Falls) Aja Kong & Bison Kimura (3WA) vs Manami Toyota & Toshiyo Yamada (UWA)
17. AJW 4/25/1992 (IWA World Women’s Title Match) Kyoko Inoue (c) vs Manami Toyota
18. AJW 6/27/1992 (AJW Title) Mariko Yoshida (c) vs Etsuko Mita
19. AJW 12/13/1992 (Tag Leauge The Best 92 FINAL) Aja Kong & Kyoko Inoue vs Manami Toyota & Toshiyo Yamada
20. JWP 10/7/1992 (JWP Tag Titles) Cuty Suzuki & Mayumi Ozaki (c) vs Dynamite Kansai & Hikari Fukuoka
This was quite a hard list to put together, the top few and bottom few i'm confident about, on any other day I could probably rearrange the middle a good deal. I'm sure a lot of people will disagree but for me giving the Aja/Bull title change the #1 spot was an easy choice. In a stand alone vaccum the Dream Rush tag has better action, it's a fuckin great match, one of the best ever, but at the end of the day it's just a great match. Aja/Bull is a great match AND it's the end of an almost 3 year story that's dominated the entire company for much of that time and it sets up Aja as the undisputed ace of the company which she'd be for the next 2 years. So yeah, easy choice to have that as my #1.
Top 10 Wrestlers of the Year
1. Mariko Yoshida
2. Manami Toyota
3. Akira Hokuto
4. Toshiyo Yamada
5. Aja Kong
6. Bull Nakano
7. Kyoko Inoue
8. Mayumi Ozaki
9. Bison Kimura
10. Dynamite Kansai
Little bit easier list to make. No it's not really reflected in my top matches list but night in night out Yoshida was easily the most talented & consistently enjoyable wrestler in AJW. She didn't have as many opportunities to produce classics as others but she had her share and if I were to rank 21-30 she'd be in a good portion of those. Yoshida's rise up the ranks was a joy to watch too. She's someone who doens't have any natural advantages as a wrestler, she's not big or tall, she didn't have a major sports background prior to becoming a wrestler, not the greatest singer, and while she is very attractive, she isn't hot in that exploitable way that leads to one getting outside deals as a bikini model or whatever. To get ahead in wrestling she had to rely on talent alone so she worked really really hard and started putting on really really good matches. The fans saw this, apreciated it and started cheering her which in turn led to the guys in charge seeing this and pushing her higher up the card accordingly. In this day and age whear most wrestling promoters could give fuck all about things like who has the most skill and who gets the best crowd reaction and just shove whoever they like down the throats of fans until they learn to love it watching Yoshida in 92 was really refreshing. Toyota is an interesting case as she on the other hand was given the most chances this year to produce on a high level and in many of those matches she wasn't even the best preformer in them actually. Still, for every match whear she may have been 2nd, 3rd or 4th best, she had a ton more whear she was #1 and she had so many great matches and moments period that you can't really deny her a top spot. Her vs Yamada would be my pick for feud of the year and I would easily, hands down by a large margin call her & Yamada the best tag team, not just in joshi but in the world in 1992. Aja & Bull being a bit lower on my list this year then in previous years doesn't have so much to do with them slipping as it does more with this year focusing on others besides them a lot more. Bull vs Aja while never a dead issue was cooled off for a while in the early part of the year plus Bull having been on top for so long was starting to run out of fresh feuds. Giving her the CMLL women's title and having her recycle opponents to go after that helped stretch things out nicely though. The Bull vs Hokuto feud in the middle of the year was also one of the more enjoyable things of 1992 too, their 7/15 match is one of the better matches that didn't make my top 20 and their cage match on 7/30 would have been up thear too had it aired in full i'm sure.
Also worth mentioning is that just from a booking standpoint this was one of, if not the companies best years ever and in general so many memorable and historical moments took place this year that it's hard to keep track. This year saw the end (temporarily atleast) of the careers of Yoshida, Bison & Kamiya, the start of careers for girls like Kumiko Maekara & Rie Tamada and the first major pushes for girls like Sakie Hasegawa & Kaoru Ito. There was the obvious stuff i've allready mentioned like Yamada vs Toyota, Aja vs Bull, Hokuto vs Bull, Aja & Kyoko teaming up for the first time, Akira Hokuto recruiting Mita & Shimoda and start LCO, Yoshida's awesome little run. Except for the rookies and a few other minor exceptions, pretty much everyone on the roster had atleast 1 standout moment or run of somesort this year that made watching everything in order worth the effort. The running theme of Takako Inoue trying to gain respect, bullying anyone on or below her level and getting the crap kicked out of her by anyone above her level and Bat Yoshinaga continuing to wreck things up on the undercards this year were 2 of my other favorite standout things from this year off the top of my head. Of course, the biggest most important happening this year was the start of the interpromotional wars, first with Shark & Crusher from FMW invading after the main event of the 7/15 AJW show, then JWP getting in the mix and lastly the newly formed LLPW showing up. The original JWP splitting in 2 with half their roster bouncing to form LLPW is also a huge thing that took place this year, I personally didn't see enough footage to really follow having watched nothing from JWP early in the year or from LLPW's first few shows but it's still worth bringing up. The few JWP shows I did watch I really enjoyed, they were a clear #2 and couldn't compare to AJW but they had a few great matches that I got to see and a lot of really good talent on their roster with not just Kansai & OZ but Devil, Cuty, Bolshoi, Plum, Fukuoka, rookie Candy Okutsu and hidden gem Sumiko Saito. 19 years later here in 2011 joshi promotions are still sharing talent and we take it for granted but in 1992 it hadn't been done before, ever, it was new and fresh and exciting. Something that produced a lot of hate filled, emotional moments and a lot of amazing matches. Something that literally changed the entire business forever.
JWP 10/7/1992
- Sumiko Saito vs Candy Okutsu
Again Saito looks good but only a couple mins out of 12 aired and you can only do so much working opening match vs a rookie like Candy who'd only been wrestling 2 months at this stage. Saito gets the win with the STF.
- Fatter Butcher Karate Girl & Green Gi Karate Girl vs Sumiyo Toyama & Flower Girl Tights Wearer
Hell yeah, more Karate army in the house. FBKG Kicks flower girl right in the fuckin eye and swells it shut to start the match. Rest of what airs shows FBKG and Karate Ranger Green throwing a million more kicks and the ocasional knee at her. Greeny catches her with an enzugiri and she gets knocked out and fails to make it back to her feet for 10. Only 2 out of 14 mns aired, no footage of Toyama doing anything was shown but looked fun.
- Devil Masami vs Mariko Kyoki
Another in a never ending parade of randoms popping up on these early JWP tapes. This show would be the only televised proof of miss Kyoki even existing. Devil was nice enough to let her get in a couple kicks and a leg bar, they looked nice. Devil then crushed her and took her head off with a couple of lariets to end this after 3 mins.
- Plum Mariko vs Commando Bolshoi
Was hoping this would be a nice little prelude to the awesome submission match they'd have a few months later but sadly they don't take it to the mat at all. Once I got over the disapointment of them not doing what I wanted and took this for what it was I thought they had a pretty rockin little match. They worked this as a big move, all action match, Bolshoi brought some nice dives and other highspots, Plum brought a big bag of suplexes, ending with Plum getting the win with her cross armed german, fun stuff. Went 14 mins, little under half aired.
- Devil Masami, Sumiko Saito & Mariko Kyoki vs Plum Mariko, Commando Bolshoi & Sumiyo Toyama
JWP crew isn't exactly rolling deep at this point so everyone's pulling double duty here. Main story is Devil playing monster and smashing everyone she gets her hands on. Sumiyo stands no chance, Bolshoi flat out runs from her in a funny spot latter on in the match only to get caught, and Plum gets the worst of it. Nasty spot whear Plum gets press slamed into the turnbuckle post gut first, she gets tossed into various other dangerous metal and wooden things along the way as well. When Devil wasn't in murdalizing folks the rest just kind of floated in and out, nothing to stand out too much just nice paced action. Match went 18, half aired, Devil saw drop Toyama with a powerbomb only to be gracious enough to allow Sumiko to get the pin after a top rope splash. Fun easy crowd pleasing match.
- (JWP Tag Titles) Cuty Suzuki & Mayumi Ozaki (c) vs Dynamite Kansai & Hikari Fukuoka
Heh, interesting diffrence during the 2 teams entrances. Kansai & Fukuoka just calmly walk out and get in the ring. Fukuoka oddly looking like the spitting image of Jaguar Yakotoa with her all black singlet. Cury & OZ enter and they get mobed by fans and have to push their way through while mother fuckers are tossing confetti in the air. Wonder who as the more popular team here? Before the match gets under way they splice in a LONG clip of original Tiger Mask Sayama who was a special guest for this show, training Cuty and one of the other youngsters at his dojo in the proper way to smash faces and snap limbs. NOT as exciting as it sounds. Then get footage of Sayama giving them a pre match pep talk earlier in the night in the locker room as Cuty & OZ act all star struck like "holy shit, Tiger Mask is here and he's our buddy and we're super cool pals, fuck yeah hehehehehe" Devil Masami randomly barges in and just sits down next to him and starts puttin on lotion like it's no big deal. Sayama has a great "WTF is this bitch doing" look in response. That certainly killed 15 mins. Back to the match, yay. This was a rare case whear I watched a match twice in a row, the first time around I ended up thinking that this was pretty good but nothing special but I was distracted a lot during the initial viewing and had to stop and pause several times so fig that maybe I didn't give it a fair chance. 2nd time through I loved this a lot more. Early portion sees OZ & Fukuoka taking turns playing whipping girl for exstended periods of time, bit slow but not boring as they do lots of little things to keep it interesting. Ozaki being a great person to have as a tag partner is something i've brought up in previous reviews recently but I noticed here that Cuty is also pretty darn good as well. As a team they really compliment each other, always have each others back, always ready to come in and boot somebody in the head to make sure their partner doesn't get in too much trouble, have a lot of cool double team spots, etc.. Fukuoka & Kansai more work as 2 singles stars thrown together for a night. Around 1/3 of the way in they kick things into high gear after Cuty gets frustrated and tosses Fukuoka outside leading to a 4 way brawling section. Back inside they Cuty & OZ dominate most of the rest of the match, they blitz Kansai for a while and then Fukuoka tags in and works most the rest of the match. They don't go full on sprint but for the last 15 mins or so they work at a pretty fast pace and while not the most rabid you'll ever see they really get the fans into things by the end (better lighting and crowd micing would have helped the atmosphere a lot). Last few mins sees OZ & Cuty double teaming Fukuoka but keep failing to put her away, Hikari looks to make her come back, getting in a rolling cradle on OZ but just as quick Cuty rushes in and kills her with forearms allowing OZ to to drop her with everyone's favorite move the JWP special #1, a powerbomb for the win. Ending felt a little abrubt the first time I watched it but I think that was because by then they'd been going for so long with near falls and stuff that I hadn't realised they were allready into the finishing stretch long before then. Anyways, yeah, a few flaws here & thear but overall great match. Another from JWP that goes really long, 27 mins, but doesn't feel it at all, a total breez to sit through a second time.
Again Saito looks good but only a couple mins out of 12 aired and you can only do so much working opening match vs a rookie like Candy who'd only been wrestling 2 months at this stage. Saito gets the win with the STF.
- Fatter Butcher Karate Girl & Green Gi Karate Girl vs Sumiyo Toyama & Flower Girl Tights Wearer
Hell yeah, more Karate army in the house. FBKG Kicks flower girl right in the fuckin eye and swells it shut to start the match. Rest of what airs shows FBKG and Karate Ranger Green throwing a million more kicks and the ocasional knee at her. Greeny catches her with an enzugiri and she gets knocked out and fails to make it back to her feet for 10. Only 2 out of 14 mns aired, no footage of Toyama doing anything was shown but looked fun.
- Devil Masami vs Mariko Kyoki
Another in a never ending parade of randoms popping up on these early JWP tapes. This show would be the only televised proof of miss Kyoki even existing. Devil was nice enough to let her get in a couple kicks and a leg bar, they looked nice. Devil then crushed her and took her head off with a couple of lariets to end this after 3 mins.
- Plum Mariko vs Commando Bolshoi
Was hoping this would be a nice little prelude to the awesome submission match they'd have a few months later but sadly they don't take it to the mat at all. Once I got over the disapointment of them not doing what I wanted and took this for what it was I thought they had a pretty rockin little match. They worked this as a big move, all action match, Bolshoi brought some nice dives and other highspots, Plum brought a big bag of suplexes, ending with Plum getting the win with her cross armed german, fun stuff. Went 14 mins, little under half aired.
- Devil Masami, Sumiko Saito & Mariko Kyoki vs Plum Mariko, Commando Bolshoi & Sumiyo Toyama
JWP crew isn't exactly rolling deep at this point so everyone's pulling double duty here. Main story is Devil playing monster and smashing everyone she gets her hands on. Sumiyo stands no chance, Bolshoi flat out runs from her in a funny spot latter on in the match only to get caught, and Plum gets the worst of it. Nasty spot whear Plum gets press slamed into the turnbuckle post gut first, she gets tossed into various other dangerous metal and wooden things along the way as well. When Devil wasn't in murdalizing folks the rest just kind of floated in and out, nothing to stand out too much just nice paced action. Match went 18, half aired, Devil saw drop Toyama with a powerbomb only to be gracious enough to allow Sumiko to get the pin after a top rope splash. Fun easy crowd pleasing match.
- (JWP Tag Titles) Cuty Suzuki & Mayumi Ozaki (c) vs Dynamite Kansai & Hikari Fukuoka
Heh, interesting diffrence during the 2 teams entrances. Kansai & Fukuoka just calmly walk out and get in the ring. Fukuoka oddly looking like the spitting image of Jaguar Yakotoa with her all black singlet. Cury & OZ enter and they get mobed by fans and have to push their way through while mother fuckers are tossing confetti in the air. Wonder who as the more popular team here? Before the match gets under way they splice in a LONG clip of original Tiger Mask Sayama who was a special guest for this show, training Cuty and one of the other youngsters at his dojo in the proper way to smash faces and snap limbs. NOT as exciting as it sounds. Then get footage of Sayama giving them a pre match pep talk earlier in the night in the locker room as Cuty & OZ act all star struck like "holy shit, Tiger Mask is here and he's our buddy and we're super cool pals, fuck yeah hehehehehe" Devil Masami randomly barges in and just sits down next to him and starts puttin on lotion like it's no big deal. Sayama has a great "WTF is this bitch doing" look in response. That certainly killed 15 mins. Back to the match, yay. This was a rare case whear I watched a match twice in a row, the first time around I ended up thinking that this was pretty good but nothing special but I was distracted a lot during the initial viewing and had to stop and pause several times so fig that maybe I didn't give it a fair chance. 2nd time through I loved this a lot more. Early portion sees OZ & Fukuoka taking turns playing whipping girl for exstended periods of time, bit slow but not boring as they do lots of little things to keep it interesting. Ozaki being a great person to have as a tag partner is something i've brought up in previous reviews recently but I noticed here that Cuty is also pretty darn good as well. As a team they really compliment each other, always have each others back, always ready to come in and boot somebody in the head to make sure their partner doesn't get in too much trouble, have a lot of cool double team spots, etc.. Fukuoka & Kansai more work as 2 singles stars thrown together for a night. Around 1/3 of the way in they kick things into high gear after Cuty gets frustrated and tosses Fukuoka outside leading to a 4 way brawling section. Back inside they Cuty & OZ dominate most of the rest of the match, they blitz Kansai for a while and then Fukuoka tags in and works most the rest of the match. They don't go full on sprint but for the last 15 mins or so they work at a pretty fast pace and while not the most rabid you'll ever see they really get the fans into things by the end (better lighting and crowd micing would have helped the atmosphere a lot). Last few mins sees OZ & Cuty double teaming Fukuoka but keep failing to put her away, Hikari looks to make her come back, getting in a rolling cradle on OZ but just as quick Cuty rushes in and kills her with forearms allowing OZ to to drop her with everyone's favorite move the JWP special #1, a powerbomb for the win. Ending felt a little abrubt the first time I watched it but I think that was because by then they'd been going for so long with near falls and stuff that I hadn't realised they were allready into the finishing stretch long before then. Anyways, yeah, a few flaws here & thear but overall great match. Another from JWP that goes really long, 27 mins, but doesn't feel it at all, a total breez to sit through a second time.
JWP 7/9/1992
- (Kickboxing Match) ? vs ?
Don't know what either person's name was but this appears to be a fight between a middle aged house wife and teenage school girl. Skillwise they both looked better then the usual girls AJW gets for these sorts of things. Wifeypoo bust the school girls nose open and appears to dominate but it ends in a draw after 3 Rounds. Only 2 mins of highlights aired.
- Commando Bolshoi vs Mitsuo Kobashi
You know, you can't really say you've lived until you've seen a midget female clown take on a skinny butch karate girl, now I can say i've lived. Kobashi throws kicks, a lot of them, not much else. Bolshoi alternates between punching karate girl square in the face, droping her on her head with suplexes and some sweet submission holds. She wins one for the good guys with a rolling cross arm breaker. Went 6 mins, about half aired, really fun actually. A 2nd unnamed Karate girl runs in post match and they put the bare feet to Bolshoi until Plum makes the save leading to...
- Plum Mariko vs Fater Butcher Karate Girl
Ref calls for the bell while Bolshoi & Kobashi continue brawling outside. FBKG gets in a few kicks but Plum catches her on one, locks in a leg bar and gets the immediate tap out win in 25 seconds. Post match Plum kicks her while she's down just because. OK, I gotta investigate this more now. JWP going to war vs an army of martial artist is something i'd 1. never heard of before and 2. must see more of now :)
- Sumiko Saito vs Hikari Fukuoka
Sumiko's someone i've seen a couple of times now and never thought much of either way, just another random girl on the show. Here she really opened my eyes though, turning in a very impressive performance. She was really good working a match around the simple basic stuff but she also had a lot of nice submissions, including a sweet Bryan Danielson like cattle mutilation and busted out a few cool athletic high spots too. Looking over matchlist for other JWP shows from this time i'm guessing she would be JWP's equivilant to a Mika Takahashi or Miori Kamiya. Good solid mid to upper mid card wrestler who would have been very well rememberd had most of her career not taken place during an era when no one was paying attention JWP. Def want to see more of her now after this match. Fukuoka for her part was real good here too, she brought a lot of nice looking flashy highspots, and you could really see the Toyota influence shine through. She doesn't spaz out and go a million miles an hour like her hero does but she was def aping a lot of her stuff move wise. Match went 24 mins and they aired a good chunk, around half. Enjoyed this a lot.
- Devil Masami vs Cuty Suzuki
Boy, every time I see Cuty rocking the all black outfit it just feels to wrong. Anyways, weird match, Devil doesn't squash Cuty at all, she gives her quite a lot of offense actually but for a good majority of things Devil more or less treats it as a joke. Cuty will try something and Devil will just talk shit on her, make faces or brush it off and not give you any sense that she's in trouble. Came across like she was just toying with Cuty and could have taken over and crushed her in seconds had she really wanted to. Cuty is a persistent little spitfire in this though and she keeps coming back and blasting away at Devil trying to beat some respect out of her. Eventually Devil caves in and finally starts looking vulnerable enough to be defeated but meh, I dunno. By that point it was so late in the match that it felt like too little too late. They did enough later on that overall I can still say this was a pretty decent match but yeah, the early portion left a bad taste in my mouth. Devil gets the win in 21 mins after a power bomb, about 10-11 aired.
Random side tangent, gotta say compared to what AJW was doing at the time, JWP's production was just embarisingly low level. On a Zenjo show if they would have to edit matches they'd mostly atleast still keep the flow of the match in tact and do things in such a way that you often wouldn't even know there were edits at all if you weren't paying close attention and they didn't air the match times at the end of the show. JWP on the other hand will just randomly chop shit up, jump around at weird moments and make it a lot harder to get a sense for what the real story of the match is. Everything else about the show from the lighting to the camera angles with little to no close ups just comes across 2nd rate too. I'm not one to usually harp on such things but it's really hard not to notice. There was a moment in the latter parts of the above match whear I thought Devil may have been busted open slightly for a few mins but never could figure it out because they shot everything from so far back.
- Mayumi Ozaki vs Dynamite Kansai
You can feel the tension in the air even before the bell rings. A really violent match, not in terms of brawling & blood and weapons and stuff like their more famous matches but just in the amount of intensity and stiffness they exhibit. They kind of take you on a roller coaster ride in this match though. Kansai brought the stiff kicks, just punting OZ as hard as she possibly could in the back of the skull at times, Ozaki brought it just as hard and wasn't afraid to hop up and boot Kansai in the Jaw. They'd punch each other, thorw elbows, throw each other into the railings, chairs and lots of other things but every time they'd have a brutal exchange like that one or the other would slow it down and grab a hold. Mostly pedestrian stuff, a headlock here, a camel clutch, a leg bar or something to break things up. Gave the match the feeling that chaos could erupt at any moment as you kept hoping for them to stop holding back and go full force. In the later part of the match it looks like they're going for just another rest hold spot but OZ decideds to really crank the fuck out of an armbar and that really picks things up. OZ keeps up working on it and Kansai does an awesome job selling the pain. Even after she makes her comeback she continues holding her arm for quite a while and puts over how much it hurts her to execute moves even if they don't involve the arm directly. Eventually they move away from that to go into the final stretch but by then enough time had passed that it wasn't a big deal. This is one of those cool matches that starts out good but you kind of wonder what the big deal is at first. By the end while I wouldn't call it one of the top matches of the year things just kept getting better and better over time as they built up to the final climax and by then you're loving every minute. Great stuff for sure. OZ wins after a surprise roll up counter to a powerbomb. Went almost 30 mins, aired in full and it just flew by.
Don't know what either person's name was but this appears to be a fight between a middle aged house wife and teenage school girl. Skillwise they both looked better then the usual girls AJW gets for these sorts of things. Wifeypoo bust the school girls nose open and appears to dominate but it ends in a draw after 3 Rounds. Only 2 mins of highlights aired.
- Commando Bolshoi vs Mitsuo Kobashi
You know, you can't really say you've lived until you've seen a midget female clown take on a skinny butch karate girl, now I can say i've lived. Kobashi throws kicks, a lot of them, not much else. Bolshoi alternates between punching karate girl square in the face, droping her on her head with suplexes and some sweet submission holds. She wins one for the good guys with a rolling cross arm breaker. Went 6 mins, about half aired, really fun actually. A 2nd unnamed Karate girl runs in post match and they put the bare feet to Bolshoi until Plum makes the save leading to...
- Plum Mariko vs Fater Butcher Karate Girl
Ref calls for the bell while Bolshoi & Kobashi continue brawling outside. FBKG gets in a few kicks but Plum catches her on one, locks in a leg bar and gets the immediate tap out win in 25 seconds. Post match Plum kicks her while she's down just because. OK, I gotta investigate this more now. JWP going to war vs an army of martial artist is something i'd 1. never heard of before and 2. must see more of now :)
- Sumiko Saito vs Hikari Fukuoka
Sumiko's someone i've seen a couple of times now and never thought much of either way, just another random girl on the show. Here she really opened my eyes though, turning in a very impressive performance. She was really good working a match around the simple basic stuff but she also had a lot of nice submissions, including a sweet Bryan Danielson like cattle mutilation and busted out a few cool athletic high spots too. Looking over matchlist for other JWP shows from this time i'm guessing she would be JWP's equivilant to a Mika Takahashi or Miori Kamiya. Good solid mid to upper mid card wrestler who would have been very well rememberd had most of her career not taken place during an era when no one was paying attention JWP. Def want to see more of her now after this match. Fukuoka for her part was real good here too, she brought a lot of nice looking flashy highspots, and you could really see the Toyota influence shine through. She doesn't spaz out and go a million miles an hour like her hero does but she was def aping a lot of her stuff move wise. Match went 24 mins and they aired a good chunk, around half. Enjoyed this a lot.
- Devil Masami vs Cuty Suzuki
Boy, every time I see Cuty rocking the all black outfit it just feels to wrong. Anyways, weird match, Devil doesn't squash Cuty at all, she gives her quite a lot of offense actually but for a good majority of things Devil more or less treats it as a joke. Cuty will try something and Devil will just talk shit on her, make faces or brush it off and not give you any sense that she's in trouble. Came across like she was just toying with Cuty and could have taken over and crushed her in seconds had she really wanted to. Cuty is a persistent little spitfire in this though and she keeps coming back and blasting away at Devil trying to beat some respect out of her. Eventually Devil caves in and finally starts looking vulnerable enough to be defeated but meh, I dunno. By that point it was so late in the match that it felt like too little too late. They did enough later on that overall I can still say this was a pretty decent match but yeah, the early portion left a bad taste in my mouth. Devil gets the win in 21 mins after a power bomb, about 10-11 aired.
Random side tangent, gotta say compared to what AJW was doing at the time, JWP's production was just embarisingly low level. On a Zenjo show if they would have to edit matches they'd mostly atleast still keep the flow of the match in tact and do things in such a way that you often wouldn't even know there were edits at all if you weren't paying close attention and they didn't air the match times at the end of the show. JWP on the other hand will just randomly chop shit up, jump around at weird moments and make it a lot harder to get a sense for what the real story of the match is. Everything else about the show from the lighting to the camera angles with little to no close ups just comes across 2nd rate too. I'm not one to usually harp on such things but it's really hard not to notice. There was a moment in the latter parts of the above match whear I thought Devil may have been busted open slightly for a few mins but never could figure it out because they shot everything from so far back.
- Mayumi Ozaki vs Dynamite Kansai
You can feel the tension in the air even before the bell rings. A really violent match, not in terms of brawling & blood and weapons and stuff like their more famous matches but just in the amount of intensity and stiffness they exhibit. They kind of take you on a roller coaster ride in this match though. Kansai brought the stiff kicks, just punting OZ as hard as she possibly could in the back of the skull at times, Ozaki brought it just as hard and wasn't afraid to hop up and boot Kansai in the Jaw. They'd punch each other, thorw elbows, throw each other into the railings, chairs and lots of other things but every time they'd have a brutal exchange like that one or the other would slow it down and grab a hold. Mostly pedestrian stuff, a headlock here, a camel clutch, a leg bar or something to break things up. Gave the match the feeling that chaos could erupt at any moment as you kept hoping for them to stop holding back and go full force. In the later part of the match it looks like they're going for just another rest hold spot but OZ decideds to really crank the fuck out of an armbar and that really picks things up. OZ keeps up working on it and Kansai does an awesome job selling the pain. Even after she makes her comeback she continues holding her arm for quite a while and puts over how much it hurts her to execute moves even if they don't involve the arm directly. Eventually they move away from that to go into the final stretch but by then enough time had passed that it wasn't a big deal. This is one of those cool matches that starts out good but you kind of wonder what the big deal is at first. By the end while I wouldn't call it one of the top matches of the year things just kept getting better and better over time as they built up to the final climax and by then you're loving every minute. Great stuff for sure. OZ wins after a surprise roll up counter to a powerbomb. Went almost 30 mins, aired in full and it just flew by.
Sunday, July 17, 2011
AJW 12/13/1992 Tag Leauge The Best 1992 Finals
- Miori Kamiya, Kaoru Ito & Chikako Hasegawa vs Mima Shimoda, Etsuko Mita & Saemi Numata
Rematch from Dream Rush with Ito & Numata added to the mix. Previous match was more or less an LCO squash but this is worked a lot more competitively. Kamiya was super motivated here and looked really good going at it with Mima. Numatchi & Hasegawa actually had some of the more fun exchanges of the match and Ito was a nice addition to things as well. Turned into quite the nice little low level action tag by the end, Ito gets the win over Mima after Kamiya softens her up. Post match Kamiya announces her retirement. Guess that would explain why she got so many streamers during the introduction though a good portion of the crowd seems to be shocked at the news. Kamyia wouldn't have her retirement ceremony until Match of next year but this is her last televised match and it was a pretty good one to go out on. Not the best, not the most memorable, just good solid work with ocasional really good highlights which actually sums up Kamiya's career pretty well.
- (Midget Match) Tomezo Tsunokake vs Mr.Buddhaman
Only went 4 mins but that's 4 mins too long for me. I didn't care enough to check who won.
- Yumiko Hotta & Suzuka Minami vs Bull Nakano & Terri Power
Another Dream Rush rematch, this time with Bull taking Takako's place. You'd think that would make for an upgrade, you'd be wrong. Terri kind of tried, she didn't fuck anything up, she didn't have any bad looking awkward moments, wasn't clocking people in the jaw with horribly aimed lariets, she spent a lot of the match getting beat up and looked fine more or less. Everyone else totally half assed shit here, Suzuka did nothing of interest and HOTTA of all people was pulling her kicks. By her standards it looked like se was giving a love tap to a baby half the time. Usually she loves trying to cave Terri's skull in but here's she's just like "meh". Bull doesn't get involved in this too much and when she does she doesn't put forth much effort either. It's been a long year, she looks flat out tired actually. Even the crowd brawling is half assed, oh here's a chair, bleh, kinda sorta hit someone, not really, ok let's go back inside. It's like they all collectively said "fuck it, it's the final show of the year, let's just get this shit over with as painlessly as possible so we can go vacation in the mountains". Only they drag and drag and drag things out for 16-17 mins. After the obligatory near falls Terri accidently hits Bull and gets cradled by Suzuka to end it.
- (Vacant AJW Tag Titles) Tomoko Watanabe & Bat Yoshinaga vs Sakie Hasegawa & Debbie Malenko
Battle of the we hate FMW club. Takako & Yoshida come out pre match to return the titles, sad. Also sad is that these 4 pick up from whear the last match left off with a totally pedestrian, through the motions effort for much of this. Really slow paced, basic action, 15 mins in and nothing of note has happened. Bat saves things a little bit when she decided to put some actual emotion into things and does a hell of a great job putting over Sakie working over her leg. Bat starts screaming and nearly crying to sell the pain and that finally wakes up the crowd and myself. Bat does a great job continuing to sell the leg and put over the fatigue of the match for the remainder of things and it's a nice moment when she overcomes it all in the end and picks up the win & the titles by spin kicing Sakie to death. Final few mins of this were pretty nice but it was a too little too late situation unfortunatly. Big emotional speach from Watanabe post match to Bull who was at the commentary booth. Essentially Watanabe going "I done good mama?" and Bull looking on and clapping like "yay, yeah you done good baby".
- (All Pacific Title) Akira Hokuto (c) vs Takako Inoue
Takako jumps her from behind to start and drops her with 3 shoulder dropplexes. Surprisingly Hokuto does not kill her for this but she does quickly take over. These 2 met a few times earlier in the year and every previous time it saw Takako get the dog crap kicked out of her. This looks to be a longer, drawn out repeat but then Hokuto makes one mistake getting caught going up top. Takako punches her and she falls down getting her leg caught in the ropes. Takako is someone who's really really good at working over the leg and going for submissions. Hokuto is someone who's really really really good at selling a body part, especially her legs. They have the bright idea of combining these 2 elements and the match turns pretty damn awesome after that. Takako tries to destroy her knee, Hokuto puts it over like a champ, yay, good times. Hokuto isn't going to quit though and they tell the story of Takako not being strong enough otherwise to stand up to her toe to toe. Eventually Takako makes the same mistake Hokuto did earlier, gets caught herself, droped with a couple suplexes and then finished with the NLB. Overall a real good match. Post match Hokuto gets on the mic, talks shit about LLPW and promises to crush the rebel scum.
- (Tag Leauge The Best 92 FINAL) Aja Kong & Kyoko Inoue vs Manami Toyota & Toshiyo Yamada
Aja & Kyoko came prepared and have swank new matching team gear. Toyota & Yamada quickly try and turn things into a sprint early on but Aja smash ends that mess. Match instead settles into a long stretch of Kyoko & Aja having the time of their life torturing Yamada. Lots of awesome little touches during this part, lots of cheap shots and taunting. Aja bends Yamada over her knee and Kyoko just saunters in and steps on her throat really just for fun. They do the camel clutch/punt spot and Aja with Aja making fun of Toyota. Later on Kyoko puts Yamada in the Romero Special and Aja just walks in and screams at her to give up in another cool moment. All the while Toyota looks on with a sad look on her face whining like "awwwww ref, come on, do something, no fair". Really makes you apreciate OZ as a tag parter even more, she'd have just run in and punched somebody in the face instead :) Toyota finally hot tags in and goes bonkers but Aja & Kyoko were prepared for it and dodge all her shit for a while until Toyota's endless energry wins out and she eventually gains controll. Yamada tags back in for some sweet revenge, the look on her face getting to do the camel clutch/punt spot on Kyoko is priceless. Soon after the Super Maniacs again shut things down and take back over however. Kyoko blitzes her and then Aja drags her outside and spends a good deal of time tossing her around the building, throwing her into fans, smashing chairs and tables and doors and handbags and anythin else she can find upside her head. Kyoko looks on from the ring amused, Toyota stays in the corner like a good girl with her thumb up her ass doing nothing until Aja's done with her at which point she goes over and pats Yamada on the back like "thear thear, you can do it, I believe". 20 mins in and 85% of this has been all Aja & Kyoko. However, they make the mistake of leaving Yamada outside long enough to recover so when she gets back in she's quite pissed and starts murdering ppl with kicks and suplexes and her & Toyota finally get to rally and make their big comeback. Rest of the match is the usual back and forth big move a thon you'd exspect. Some highlights being Aja catching Toyota off a dive and turning it into a giant powerslam in one motion. Nice sunset powerbomb from Toyota on Aja. Double head butt misses for Yamada & Toyota and they eat the tandem spinning powerbomb after. Brutal choke slam from Aja on Toyta almost wins it but Yamada saves. Ending comes down to Kyoko & Toyota, after Aja breaks up a moonsault attempt, Toyota tries to go for the JOCS but it gets blocked by Kyoko and they spill outside, Aja again saves things, Yamada gets taken out and Aja goes nuts sensing this is their chace and starts screaming at Kyoko to finish her with the Niagra Driver. Kyoko hits it but last second Yamada rushes in one last time, again she gets tossed aside and this time Toyota gets pinned after they hit the doomsday elbow. Toyota weak link theme continues I see. Post match is aswesome, Aja & Kyoko celebrate, Toyota & Yamada recieve a 2nd plce trophy which Yamda accepts alone, 3rd place team Debbie (rocking some sweet Zubaz) and Sakie and 4th place team Hotta & Suzuka recieve consolation prizes too. The entire rest of the roster comes out and Kyoko spazes out and leads everyone in a happy happy "zenjo cha cha cha" chant. ENITRE time this is going down, like 6-7 mins, Tyota's just standing off in the corner, head completely down, sad and depressed while Yamada looks on angirly. Brilliant. Their tag title match from a few months earlier was much better but yeah, this was still pretty damn great in it's own right.
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