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Matt D

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    Matt Watches 1989 AJPW/1986 NJPW on a Treadmill

    in The PROFESSIONAL WRESTLING

    Posted

    Hits keep rolling:

    6/12/87: Chono/Kimura vs Von Erich/St. Clair: Great heel performance by Kerry here. This comes in 2 mins JIP Or so. They swarm Kimura in the corner. Chono's able to come in and St. Clair feeds all over the place for him on armdrags and what not, but then Von Erich really starts on Kimura's damaged leg. Some great heel stuff here as he walks over to slap Chono on the apron to draw the ref so St. Clair can post the knee on the outside. Then Von Erich puts the claw on the knee! Chono finally makes the save but gets nailed by a top rope St. Clair knee drop as he has a hold on Von Erich and he eats the face claw. In the end, though, Chono's able to hit a big samoan drop on St. Clair and Kimura comes back with the Inazuma Leg Lariat for the win on St. Clair.

    6/12/87: Saito vs Inoki III: This is a lot. So Maeda is on commentary. It's the end of the IWGP League. Inoki won group A. (Fujiwara was second and Barbarian third if you're keeping count). Saito won group B and I think Maeda didn't win because of that match where Super Strong Machine bodied him? They're already talking about NOW vs NEW on commentary which is a bit confusing since the post match seems to sort of set it up. It really does kind of feel like a corporate mandate. Or something. The two leaders of what NOW is supposed to be are wrestling here for the Cup. Inoki gets him out of nowhere with a spin wheel kick (accidentally getting the ref first because Inoki legitimately can't pull off the move right) and the back brain kick but Saito retreats to the floor. That gives Inoki a bit of an early advantage until Saito gets him down and slaps on a slightly modified Prison Lock (which usually is a kneeling deathlock on the side, that is with a twist; this is more straight deathlock). He holds it forever as the crowd rallies behind Inoki but Inoki punches out eventually. He's able to fire some shots back as Saito takes it like only he can (iconic stuff, this), but Saito gets him in it again. Inoki gets out, but saito gets him over with a suplex and puts it on for the third time. Inoki's limping around big here and Saito has a big advantage. Saito hits the Saito suplex. Something awesome here happens when he does. The second Inoki goes over with it, the fans start chanting huge for him. They wanted him to fight through it that badly. Usually the chant just comes at a different time, after it's earned or midway through a hold, but with Inoki it's always at the start of the hold or the point of impact because they believe in him so much. It's the damndest connection to a crowd I've seen in forever. Inoki survives another Saito suplex (and this is all methodological and weighty, since this is Saito after all. And this time Saito breaks. He is so stoic and calm and controlled and he just loses it with the ref. He goes for a third and Inoki falls over on him into a thesz press or so and gets the win.

    Post match, Saito's beside himself and Choshu rushes in and the three of them sort of posture as everyone else starts coming in too. It almost felt like post-match lucha with challenges. Until Inoki hugs Sakaguchi and Saito big. Fujiwara is with them. There's a weird sense of "Well, if we're going to do this, we're going to do it with all of our heart and we're going to come together and see who is the strongest!"  Saito and Inoki clasping hands is a pretty cool image. You have Choshu, Maeda, and Fujinami on the other side. I think we could have gotten months out of Choshu's team vs UWF/NJPW with a couple of defectors to Choshu's side like Kimura and Muto and Yamazaki, but I guess they just didn't have faith in what they were doing or something? They must have been that desperate. I'm going to ask @KinchStalker about it all.

    • Like 2

    Matt Watches 1989 AJPW/1986 NJPW on a Treadmill

    in The PROFESSIONAL WRESTLING

    Posted

    6/10/87: Inoki vs Barbarian: watched this OFF the treadmill due to Youtube. If nothing else, it shows how Barbarian had come by this point in his career relative to what he'd been like even a year before. He had much more presence and focus. He press slammed Inoki right from the get go (which drew the Inoki chants from the crowd). He'd go down into the JYD all fours position to menace him. Inoki would try to pry away by kicking at a leg or pumphandling an arm. Things got heated on the outside as Brooks tried to get involved. Whenever Inoki got too close to the ropes, Brooks would be there with the chain and would help Barbarian temporarily turn the tide. Inoki had some longish holds; he'd tend to escape Barbarian's. My favorite was the leg nelson where he whacked the leg over the head. Barbarian even picked him up out of it which was a great visual. Finish had Brooks get involved and try to do a running chain shot, but Inoki got out of the way so it hit Barb. That let him knock Brooks out and hit the back brain kick. Solid Inoki vs foreign monster fare.

    • Like 2

    2024 MOVIES DISCUSSION THREAD

    in MOVIES & TV

    Posted

    Just now, (BP) said:

    It basically goes American Grafitti
    ->Fast Times->Clueless->Mean Girls as the generation-defining high school movies (maybe with some room for a Hughes film in there somewhere) but I think after that youth culture became too atomized for there to be a clear successor. Is there any high school movie from the past decade with that kind of reach? 

    I hate even mentioning these but American Pie and Superbad? American Pie hit right when I was the right age. Breakfast Club was my preference though. That and maybe Rushmore.

    • Like 4

    Matt Watches 1989 AJPW/1986 NJPW on a Treadmill

    in The PROFESSIONAL WRESTLING

    Posted · Edited by Matt D

    Very glad I stuck with it. This is great stuff. Go watch the matches down below before reading my stuff.

    6/10/87: Masa Saito vs Kengo Kimura: Very, very good. Saito's amazing. He has this thing where he kicks his legs up when he does an armdrag as if he was a junior, and he moves so lithely going in and out of holds. But he's as thick as a wall. Kimura tried to hang with him on the mat early and did well enough. Mid match, he opened things up with the punches and Saito made them seem legit. He did more to get Kimura's new act over here in a few seconds than anything else has so far. He was able to snap a Saito suplex though. The match opened back up from there and went back and forth until Kimura's bandaged knee started giving him trouble and Saito honed in. Kimura survived a crab and hit the leg lariat but couldn't capitalized. He followed up with kicks instead of punches and that was a deadly mistake for Saito caught the third one and hit the dragon screw. He locked in the Scorpion but Kimura valiantly got to the ropes. Kimura ended up outside the ring, fought his way in and had a picture perfect near fall off of a sunset flip in, but he missed the knee off the top and Saito locked in a grisly prison lock. Kimura fought but to no avail. Really good stuff.

    6/12/87: Choshu/Kobayashi/Super Strong Machine vs Takada/Fujiwara/Kido: This was fantastic too. One of my favorite matches in this project in forever. These guys were such a breath of fresh air for NJPW at this point and it was so cool to see them up against the UWF team. It felt like such a big deal. A lot of it was shot from ringside aimed up and it gave it this epic feel too. Fujiwara and Choshu were both bandaged up from their previous match and they started to a big buzz and just sort of postured up against one another as two giants could do. Kido came in and immediately asserted himself on Choshu. Kido is the most credible guy in the world. He might not be able to put people way all the time but he can open them up and take them down. Choshu and co have all the big teamwork moves and that helped Kobayashi come in. He, at this point, was this great mix of the old NJ juniors style and some All Japan grime to make it relevant again in 1987, so he was explosive but could back the style up with substance. Kido made it to Takada and the place exploded for the Jr. champ vs a guy who was Tiger Mask's rival. I wasn't expecting them to be so into this but it did make sense. Guys like Cobra (before the switch) and Black Tiger felt like relics after the UWF guys came in but Kobayashi immediately felt relevant. When SSM came in, again, he felt like something that didn't exist in the company except for maybe some outsiders like Masked Superstar or Murdoch. He was just weighty, a low point of gravity, big thudding shots and takedowns. Takada was finally able to get the kicks going against Choshu and Fujiwara came in hot with headbutts as the place came unglued. But Saito got under him and suplexed him over. SSM leaned on him a bit until Kobayashi tried a crab and Fujiwara did his signature crab attempt reversal witht he bridge and the twist and the flip and it's so good. I don't know if I pop for anything in pro wrestling like I pop for that. The match really went back and forth from there. We had Takada and Kobayashi go at it again and SSM and Kido. Choshu's team could take back over with their big double teams (spike piledriver, the belly to back/clothesline off the turnbuckles/a double suplex), but the UWF guys had too many counters and holds and bombs. They had a stretch of just running through Kobayashi (Takada tombstone, Fujiwara headbutts, Takada German, Takada chicken wing) but he made it to Choshu. Choshu ate a bunch of Takada's stuff but jammed him on a dropkick and hit a belly to back. He went for the Scorpion but was positioned to see Fujiwara coming in. He dropped the hold, hit the lariat, turned back around and crushed Takada with it for the definitive pin. Such good stuff. Choshu is so hard to describe. He has this presence that's almost unmatched, this confidence, this matter-of-fact inner strength. It's sort of subdued but somehow entirely different than Tenryu. Tenryu's easy to write about. Sometimes I have trouble explaining what I like about Randy Savage and Choshu sort of hits me that way as well.

    Don't say I've never given you guys anything:

    https://drive.google.com/file/d/1gqa9DYKEApV6nKZYHaS8QH_vkmsi7ktM/view?usp=sharing

    https://drive.google.com/file/d/1OqYxDRZQOpOc3TEg1OnRqM40U_hJo8uA/view?usp=sharing

    • Like 2
    • Thanks 3

    Matt Watches 1989 AJPW/1986 NJPW on a Treadmill

    in The PROFESSIONAL WRESTLING

    Posted

    The change is very interesting.

    I just tried to put into draft form...

    6/10/87: Kimura vs Saito
    6/10/87: Inoki vs Barbarian
    6/12/87: Inoki vs Saito
    6/12/87: Chono/Kimura vs Von Erich/St. Clair
    6/12/87: Choshu/Kobayashi/SSM vs Takada/Fujiwara/Kido

    and two were "blocked" despite being in draft from but I can still watch them and the Inoki vs Barb match was just wiped but it wasn't my third copyright strike. I don't know if it's YouTube or NJPW that's coming down harder, but someone definitely is. I'll have to catch that Inoki match on the laptop.

    AEW TV - 3/13 - 3/19/2024 - Takin' Care of Business

    in ALL ELITE WRESTLING

    Posted

    2/3rds through.

    • Loved Mercedes' entrance. There was a moment where the music stopped and the chants continued and then the music hit again with it and that was amazing. Promo was fine. You know what we have to compare it to after all. It felt a little bit too planned and not planned enough all at once. Like she could have gone either way with it and she didn't. I get that she was lost in the emotion and you could feel it. She's naturally confident but she couldn't have fully expected the reaction. 
    • There were some very good moments in Joe vs Wardlow but it needed a little more at the end, I think. I would have liked Wardlow to get away the first time and then Joe not jump onto his back until a third attempt maybe.
    • I completely tuned out on the six-man when Red Jackson and PENTA squared off. I did want PENTA's bullshit there and for the Jackson to react to it, not immediate cutters and superkicks. So many superkicks. I liked Okada ducking Kingston at least. I know what I'd do next week (Have the Bucks break the no interference rule and have the match thrown out and then protect themselves from consequence with their titles to get heat).
    • I'll have a lengthy write-up about selling and consequence for White vs Darby on Monday, I think.
    • Like 4

    MARCH 2024 Wrestling Talk

    in The PROFESSIONAL WRESTLING

    Posted

    3 minutes ago, Godfrey said:

    That’s interesting, do you mean you think there’s more marks as opposed to smart marks in wrestling audiences again? What part do you think they don’t realize is fictional?

    They think that wrestlers are their friends now? 

    • Like 4

    AEW TV - 3/6 - 3/12/2024 - The Last Great American Dynasty

    in ALL ELITE WRESTLING

    Posted

    Hey, there's a show tonight:

    • White vs Darby: Fresh match up. That slight on White that he's defined by the person he's wrestling isn't... untrue, really. But here he's got someone who should be able to do some really interesting things with him. I can't even picture this one in my head past the first minute or so, so I'm curious how they go about it.
    • Jericho/Hook vs Gates of Agony: Logic here is that Jericho was Lionheart when he interacted with Taz so he'll be Lionheart here. It's spurious at best. You should really have Jericho be the FIP so hook can come in hot with all the suplexes but is he really going to get sympathy? I'd feel better if they had three house shows to work this out on first.
    • Willow vs Riho: This should be delightful. I like the idea of Willow being unable NOT to bully her even though she doesn't want to just due to the size differential.
    • Joe vs Wardlow: We've seen this before but it was all based around Wardlow's bodypart selling then. This will probably be very different.
    • Bucks/Okada vs PAC/Eddie/PENTA: equal parts annoying and sublime. Maybe more annoying than sublime actually?
    • Mercedes: My gut still says that she doesn't quite know what she's stepping into yet, but that she'll absolutely love it once she figures it out.. if she figures it out.
    • Like 2

    Matt Watches 1989 AJPW/1986 NJPW on a Treadmill

    in The PROFESSIONAL WRESTLING

    Posted · Edited by Matt D

    6/9/87: Kevin Von Erich vs Kido: Past Kevin being super aggressive to start like he always is and one crazy missed charged into the corner, this was pretty technical and sportsmanlike. Oh and maybe one claw attempt towards the end but that's just to be expected with these guys. Kevin hung a little, though some of that felt like Kido making him look good to be honest. He had that cross armbreaker takedown where you hook the leg under the arm and flip the guy but he couldn't get a cross armbreaker out of it, just an armbar. The ending was pretty ugly as they stumbled around the ring for thirty seconds until Kevin could get a small package. Needed either more of Kevin being a jock jerk or Kido having someone stronger to roll around with.

    6/9/87: Barbarian vs Ueda: Just 3 minutes here but they said we were 4 minutes JIP. Ueda was already bleeding which was dumb considering what was coming later in the card. Barbarian beat the crap out of him and then brought his second, Killer Brooks in and slammed Brooks onto Ueda which drew a DQ. Post match they destroyed him with the chain until he started firing back with a chair. I vaguely got the sense this was setting up a tag with Sakaguchi but if that was the case Sakaguchi should have made the save, so maybe not?

    6/9/87: Fujiwara vs Choshu: Choshu's back! Finally! Let me double check. He's been wrestling since the start of June. We just don't have footage. A singles match vs Kimura in there too. Anyway, this was #5 in the 80s set and it's pretty awesome. It's in Way of the Blade too. They start brawling on the way down and Fujiwara takes an immediate advantage with headbutt after headbutt after headbutt, opening Choshu up. Choshu finally fires back in the ring and it's great because Fujiwara takes it and there's a sense of fighting spirit and a hard head but then Fujiwara just walks forward and goozles him! Like fine, do the fighting spirit stuff, sure, but then immediately there after, try to kill your opponent! That's so much better than chop fests. Choshu gets a belly to back out of nowhere shortly thereafter though and locks in the Scorpion. He presses the advantage even after Fujiwara makes it to the ropes but Fujiwara gets the armbar! Then Fujiwara tries to take off the corner buckle, but Choshu reverses a whip. Then he hits a lariat, but Fujiwara gets the armbar again on an attempt of a second one! Choshu rolls out and busts Fujiwara open huge on the outside. He comes in and hits lariats until Fujiwara gets knocked out. Just a great, measured, passionate, bloody, headbutt-laden war.

    Here it is on dailymotion if you haven't seen it for a bit:

    https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x3m34p8

    EDIT: Oh yeah, I watched Harley Race/Marty Jannetty vs Choshu/Hamaguchi since I had a few minutes to kill. Race actually imposes on Choshu here because Jannetty wasn't going to be able to do it. It's the Race you want in Japan that you so rarely get.

    • Like 3
    • Thanks 2
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