Secret Santo - Winter 2022/3!

[SirSmUgly]

I've got one to go actually. I've been watching Mid-South while doing work, rather than watching wrestling primarily to write about it, but I'm coming back around and reviewing that last match in the next few days. 

[Curt McGirt]

2 hours ago, John E. Dynamite said:

Dirty secret, I used this entire project as an excuse to get off my ass and get back to scouring for really deep cuts and hidden gems. I hadn't seen a single match I gifted anybody before this project. I just watched tons and tons of stuff and made a note when I found a good one. So thank you everybody, it was your preferences and posts that told me what directions to go hunting in and I wound up with just troves and troves of treasure that I woulda never found otherwise. See you next time

watch the Ishinriki match DEAN it's really good

Dude, that's fuckin killer, and way more dedication than I have. This project might not be a competition but you win anyway. 

[Curt McGirt]

DUMP MATSUMOTO VS. YAKARI OMORI

If you look at the screencap you can probably gather what this is, and that's not a criticism. This is more a spectacle than a match, somewhere between the lack-of-rules and heat of '80s lucha, a Sheik or Abdullah match, and perhaps early WWF or Memphis. I've seen the big Dump matches but this one in particular nails why she was so hated. She had swagger. Every little smirk, every little contemptuous walk of hers, oozed heel swagger. You can see it RIGHT THERE IN THE SCREENCAP. That's her in a nutshell. It's beautiful.*

...and everything else is total chaos. Dump playing "hide the scissors" (with two different pair!), flunkies running in, I believe Bull Nakano chomping on Omori's arm like a vampire, the Latinx ref and the announcer being roughed up, people yelling on the mic the whole time... it's nuts. If they had a blowoff after this or this was supposed to be a blowoff, I don't even know. But it was crazy, and it was great. 

* Dump also looks a lot like a friend of mine's ex, who was a little more buxom but had the same body type, hairstyle, face etc. that she does. She had a personality that turned during the time I knew her from silent-but-deadly to total sociopath. So, pretty much a quiet version of a real version of Dump. Think about that. Oofta. 

[SirSmUgly]

Franz van Buyten vs. Ivan Strogoff

There's some neat stuff in here. I think Strogoff is the bigger beefy dude in black trunks, so forgive me if I am wrong and get the names mixed up. van Buyten winning a body slam after opening minutes of straining to overpower Strogoff was a nice spot that was well-built toward. I enjoyed Strogoff being surprised that van Buyten was able to win it. I much enjoyed Strogoff's consternation whenever van Buyten would have enough strength to get him flat onto his back.

Strogoff is the powerful brute, but van Buyten is the craftier wrestler, which forms the core of the work, with the added bonus that van Buyten is stronger than his lanky frame gives him visual credit for. Strogoff spends the opening eight or nine minutes outclassed; van Buyten surprises him with strength sometimes and with counters to Strogoff's power wrestling attempts other times. 

Strogoff's control segment in the middle of the match is a lot of leaning on van Buyten, not so entertaining in and of itself, but van Buyten is working so hard from underneath, with these pained facial expressions and constant movement as he tries to find a way out. When he finds a way to power up with Strogoff on his back, but then he can't find a way to do anything with it and falls back down, you can hear the crowd's frustration that he worked all the way up to standing, but couldn't do anything with it. 

The crowd is WAY into the struggle from underneath, basically. I like it in execution, but really found most of it to be a bit too slow and dull. I appreciate van Buyten's work from underneath, and heck, even the ref gets into it when he tumbles outside with everyone else as van Buyten finally gets a break by rolling over the top rope with Strogoff on his back. But man, Strogoff needed to be more interesting in how he ground down van Buyten. I'm not averse to big dudes laying on their smaller opponent, but you gotta be interesting about it or do it in much shorter bursts. 

This was an interesting match, and I'd say the strongest thing about it is the wrestlers' facial and bodily expressions. Also, the ref basically got his ass beat, so maybe I don't understand French wrestling rules w/r/t ref abuse. 

[The Natural]

On 1/25/2023 at 3:29 PM, SirSmellingtonofCascadia said:

For you, Natural, I've got this tag match between four of my favorite wrestlers ever. You've likely seen it before, but hopefully, you'll have a little fun watching this through fresh eyes. You'll see why I picked it considering your recent posting in the gen thread:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kXWDx2W7mIo

Sting and The Great Muta vs. The Steiner Brothers, WCW/NJPW Tokyo Dome, 4th January 1992. Note the the correct day, month, year format, you Americans!

A match I've never seen before. Watching this reminds me why the Steiner Brothers are one of my favourite tag teams ever for the power suplex based offense coupled with the stiff Steinerline by Rick Steiner. Sting gives the Dog Faced Gremlin a receipt with a running clothesline full steam to Steiner out of the corner. You don't often see a wrestler use a signature move against their opponent but you do here as Sting does the over the shoulder run into the turnbuckles on Rick. Nobody does the Flashing Elbow as well as the Great Muta. Sting and the Great Muta have both used the running face crusher in their respective repertoire for years so cool seeing them use it as a double team here. Impressive by Rick countering the handspring elbow of Muta and turning it into a German Suplex. There's a double pin as Sting counters the tilt a while slam to a victory roll while Rick pins Muta but Bill Alfonso is counting Sting's as he and the Great Muta pick up the win. 1992 has to be Sting's best ever year in the ring and it began here. Cheers for this first time watch, SirSmellingtonofCascadia and apologies for the delay. I'll get a match to you shortly!

Edited February 13, 2023 by The Natural

[The Natural]

For @SirSmellingtonofCascadia here's some early NOAH as requested in Vader/2 Cold Scorpio/Michael Modest/Superstar Steve vs. Mitsuharu Misawa/Naomichi Marufuji/Takeshi Rikio/Yoshinari Ogawa from 16th July 2001. Hope you like it:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=HOujursyc_c

Skip to 25:45.

For @Execproducer:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Whi7usNNd6s

Samoa Joe vs. Kenta Kobashi. ROH, 1st October 2005.

I previously posted the 2005 MOTY and here's the runner up. It's very rare to get the #1 (Samoa Joe) vs. #2 (Kenta Kobashi) best wrestler of the world go at it but we did here in a dream ***** match with such a hot crowd. Hope you like it.

Apologies to both of you and @Matt D for the delay.

Edited February 14, 2023 by The Natural

[The Natural]

On 12/31/2022 at 11:00 PM, Matt D said:

Week 4! Sorry I'm a little late. I was early last week. We're still getting over COVID here. Happy New Years everyone. I also got distracted by Rampage and This 1981 Anibal/Dr. Wagner Sr tag match that just popped up and 1990 AJPW and family stuff and whatever else. So, Week 4.

I assume everyone's up to date. Will check next week. Tagging's not working unfortunately.

Execproducer
porksweats
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Curt McGirt
Gordlow
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Matt D
Sammo~!
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John E. Dynamite
SirSmellington
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Super Ape
thee Reverend Axl Future
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The Natural
DEAN

Sammo~! I'll get something for you tonight.

 

On 1/1/2023 at 5:14 AM, DEAN said:

@The Natural you said you haven't seen much Joshi, then let me hip you to Sendai Girls, Meiko Satumura's promotion.  This is my OVERALL 2022 match of the year- Ryo Mizunami vs the unbelievably great Chihiro Hashimoto.

 

 

 

On 1/1/2023 at 3:20 PM, The Natural said:

Thank you, @DEAN. Happy Secret Santo and Happy New Year. I'll get my thinking cap on for what to send you and I'll watch this ASAP. Another one from my pile of shame getting snapped Thanos' style. Cheers, Paul xxx.

 

On 1/6/2023 at 5:41 AM, The Natural said:

 

I've had to retype this post I made on Tuesday as it didn't go through. Bugger.

Chihiro Hashimoto vs. Ryo Mizunami. Sendai Girls', 3rd September 2022. Note the correct day, month, year format, you Americans!

I do like me a good robe. Hashimoto wins that round. Liked the start to the match, the minute long collar and elbow particularly the test of strength spot with both women using their heads for leverage. I'll always mark out for the Kenta Kobashi chops in the corner used by Mizunami. New to me, an Alabama Slam straight into a cover. Really liked the spot when Hashimoto had Mizunami's back only for Ryo to counter with the Stone Cold Stunner, a famous spot from the Bret Hart vs. Steve Austin ***** match at the 1996 WWF Survivor Series. Two release Germans followed by a bridging one by Chihiro brings the win. I tend not to do revised Best of lists after the year is over but if I were to, this would place well in my 2022 MOTY list. That's another off my pile of shame. Thank you!

@DEAN, I've had difficulty picking you something for the man who's seen so much. My choice came to me this morning and from the aforementioned WWF Survivor Series 1996 spot. Hopefully it's new to you. Here's my pick:

Sting vs. Cactus Jack. WCW Power Hour, 21st November 1991. Bret Hart vs. Steve Austin from WWF Survivor Series 1996 gets overshadowed by their WWF WrestleMania 13 match. Both are *****. I feel this Sting/Cactus Jack is slept on compared to the WCW Beach Blast 1992 match. Personally I think this is the better of the two by far and a hidden gem of both men's career. A match that needs talking up more. I hope you like it.

 

On 1/9/2023 at 3:48 AM, DEAN said:

Sting vs Cactus Jack - Submit or Surrender Match-Power Hour 11/23/1991:  If I remember correctly, both of these guys had their best matches both against Vader.  Maybe Sting had a better match against Flair and Cactus had a better match against Terry Funk, but probably not.  Vader was the pinnacle for both these guys.  Cactus Jack was the proto Darby Allin and the Vader vs Cactus match was like Darby Allin versus Samoa Joe- just a relentless ass beating. Whereas the title change the other day was more like Ric Flair versus Vader- a relentless assbeating with an unlikely win by the guy who took an unrelenting assbeating, as Samoa Joe is pretty Vader-like in this current run.  Wardlow was a lot like Sting in his matches against Vader against Joe, except he matched up a little more with Joe than Sting did with Vader.  This here match was more like Darby Allin's first defense Friday against Mike Bennett, Cactus and Darby both get in big wads of offense while making Bennett and Sting look like total murderers as they then resort to their psycho bumpfreak selves.  Darby bump against the ringpost in the Samoa Joe match is as fucking CRAZY as Cactus's bump to the floor off the apron to set up the Scorpion Deathlock.  Sting is the Best Possible Mike Bennett because he supplies GREAT offense for Cactus to bump all over the ring for.  Sting leans into Cactus's offense and especially his punches because Sting ruled.  Fuck, now I want to go watch Vader versus Cactus and then Vader versus Sting in a strap match.  This was such a fucking great period of wrestling.

 

 

On 1/9/2023 at 4:00 AM, The Natural said:

Glad you liked it, @DEAN. Tried picking something you may not have seen which was difficult as you've watched a lot. Cheers, Paul.

I know we're not meant to bump topics but I really had to write something to @DEAN.

Hi, DEAN.

I don't have the way with words so here goes. I smiled at @Matt D drawing us together and it means even more now with...you know. My Joshi viewing was limited so thanks for introducing me to some. I smiled seeing a notification coming from you because it was by you. The smiles extended to the block of text reviews, the use of capitals in words/sentences to emphasize something and AEW RULES THE MOTHER FUCKING WORLD! So did you, my friend.

Love, Paul xxx. 

Edited May 25, 2023 by The Natural

[Matt D]

Just as a heads up as we stumble into July. Summer Secret Santo will be in August this year. I'm away from a Thursday-Thursday period upcoming and it would have just been tricky logistically. Hopefully this is a good thing and not a bad thing for most. As we get deeper into July, I'll ask for sign ups, but plan ahead accordingly. Just shelve everything else in your life. You know the drill.