SECRET SANTO 2023~!

[The Natural]

Check that timing out, Gordi!

[Matt D]

1 hour ago, The Natural said:

Cheers, Matt. Anything you do/don't fancy?

Maybe something that's not from a PPV but more of a TV match. Otherwise, whatever you like.

As for you I'll give you a choice. Familiar or less familiar. Bret's a guy who had some disappointing matches against Japanese talent over the years. This is one that I think is one of his better ones, against George Takano. Less "Exhibition"-y than what we'd get against, let's say Tiger Mask II..
 

And if you want something more familiar but still cool due to the locale, here's the Hart Foundation as "de facto heels" in 1991 against the Rockers from right before that in Japan.

I can't upload it to youtube, so here's the file itself.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/14wLOXdr1dVPXhgN0dapTSm19C0-hTiDi/view?usp=sharing

 

[The Natural]

27 minutes ago, Matt D said:

Maybe something that's not from a PPV but more of a TV match. Otherwise, whatever you like.

As for you I'll give you a choice. Familiar or less familiar. Bret's a guy who had some disappointing matches against Japanese talent over the years. This is one that I think is one of his better ones, against George Takano. Less "Exhibition"-y than what we'd get against, let's say Tiger Mask II..
 

And if you want something more familiar but still cool due to the locale, here's the Hart Foundation as "de facto heels" in 1991 against the Rockers from right before that in Japan.

I can't upload it to youtube, so here's the file itself.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/14wLOXdr1dVPXhgN0dapTSm19C0-hTiDi/view?usp=sharing

 

Thank you for both of these. Two Bret Hart matches I haven't seen.

Any wrestlers in particular you want? I've come up with one of your matches.

[Curt McGirt]

Hey Brynn, I got some ideas but what are you interested in seeing? All I know is that you're cool with death match stuff but I can do that for any and every body. 

[John E. Dynamite]

19 hours ago, HeadCheese said:

If there is any room,  may I join week 2

I got no idea what you're in to so I'm gonna go with some good time retro sports entertainment. An Introduction to the Genius of Joyce Grable, the Funk-meets-Hokuto shit-talking shit-kicking down-home beauty queen.

JOYCE GRABLE vs. PENNY MITCHELL - WWF 10/16/1982, Philadelphia Spectrum
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2i0W6N9Ty0A

This is a match about being a fuckhead. Not just Joyce being a fuckhead, but longtime New York area babyface referee Dick Woehrle being an even bigger fuckhead. Let's just say the two of them don't get along and and that Dick has a shtick. A little less workrate heavy than Joyce being a tag-focused brawler in AWA or Mid South, a little more New York-y character driven, but the work is still rock solid. Commentary by Vince Jr. + I believe Pat Patterson (who's doing his own character work swooning for Penny). Note: this particular YouTube channel is a great resource for 80's women's wrestling. It is also mad creepy, so avert your eyes from match descriptions and comments. If only I could inline...

Edited December 10, 2023 by John E. Dynamite

[Curt McGirt]

That chain match was gnarly! Bull doing the nunchucks maneuvers with the chain all of the sudden was a big mark-out moment. In the comments it says that Kandori said she saw one of the legdrops occur in slow motion and that's freaky to think about. 

[The Natural]

2 minutes ago, Curt McGirt said:

That chain match was gnarly! Bull doing the nunchucks maneuvers with the chain all of the sudden was a big mark-out moment. In the comments it says that Kandori said she saw one of the legdrops occur in slow motion and that's freaky to think about. 

Thanks for reminding me. Whenever I see anybody do nunchucks, it's always Bruce Lee first, always then Michelangelo from the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Fun fact, it was called Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles over here.

[SirSmUgly]

3 hours ago, The Natural said:

Thanks for reminding me. Whenever I see anybody do nunchucks, it's always Bruce Lee first, always then Michelangelo from the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Fun fact, it was called Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles over here.

Mikey didn't even have nunchuks in the Hero Turtles version! 

Which is odd, considering that they let Leo keep his katana and knife crime is a major issue in the UK. 

[porksweats]

Hey @Zimbra

Saw you said you were watching alot of Bockwinkel earlier, hopefully you haven't seen this one!

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

[onelegbrynn]

5 hours ago, Curt McGirt said:

Hey Brynn, I got some ideas but what are you interested in seeing? All I know is that you're cool with death match stuff but I can do that for any and every body. 

@Curt McGirt I’m good with independent stuff, WWF/E (plus anything on the Network), Impact, ROH, etc. Lucha and Japan stuff (as long as it’s in YouTube) is something that’s a bit of a blind spot for me. 
 

@Sammo~! I’ve been sick as hell the past few days with strep throat but starting to feel better so I will get to the match you sent me either tonight or tomorrow.

 

[Casey]

14 hours ago, Gordi the former AEW fan said:

Casey, after really getting into the Bull tag that Curt gave me in Week One, I wanna take advantage of getting paired with our resident Bull Nakano Expert this week, and get your informed opinion on one of these sub-30-minute Nakano title matches. 100% your choice, which one, whether it's one you know well and have strong opinions on or one you are somehow not yet familiar with. I would just like to read your take.

For me, I prefer a weird, interesting, or violent match to a Meltzer/Keith *****+ "great" match, but really any non-WWE, non-NXT YouTube wrestling video you think I might enjoy or you'd like my take on would be fine, please & thank you.

(links removed by me as to not bog people down)

You know what? I got some time this week.

Monday morning before I go to bed (I’m at work right now, night shift), I’ll have @The Natural’s reviews up. I’m going to do Undertaker/Mankind: Buried Alive and Mankind/HBK: Mind Games.

And I’m gonna watch every single one of those Bull matches and have them reviewed before Friday. Because she’s my favorite wrestler, you’re one of my favorite posters (believe it or not) and it’s the holiday season. Secret Santo rules the fucking world - until I pair with @Matt D 

As for you… Maybe you’ve seen them (most likely), maybe you haven’t. But who cares! I’ll give you some choices, too.

Violent:

Combat Toyoda’s retirement match, versus Megumi Kudo, in an exploding electrified barbwire rope match. One of my very first exposures to joshi and Japanese wrestling in general was watching those FMW tapes they used to sell (in America) with the shitty English commentary. I was captivated. I’m pretty sure this was on one of those tapes. Combat, Megumi and Shark are staples of my teenage wrestling years. I love Megumi Kudo - not as much as Bull, but it’s a close one.

Interesting:

(the link might not embed in the actual post, so… Google it? It’s in this post, I swear!)

Mike Awesome/The Gladiator versus The Great Muta, AJPW 2003.)

Well, it’s interesting to me anyway. I’m a big Mike Awesome mark, but I’ve seen shockingly little of his Japan run that isn’t FMW. I think in the last Santo I gave someone Awesome/Kobashi, so here’s two of my favorite wrestlers way past their prime! That’s fun. At the very least it might be good in a trainwreck sort of way.

Weird:

I know ECW is owned by WWE now, but at this point, they weren’t, so I’m gonna throw it in here. A fancam of Tracy Smothers versus Kintaro Kanemura at a house show in 1999, in Nashville TN. Come on, a weird ass match-up, for a niche promotion, in the middle of the Bible Belt? If that doesn’t qualify I don’t know what does!

Edited December 11, 2023 by Casey

[Curt McGirt]

8 hours ago, brynn9292 said:

Japan stuff (as long as it’s in YouTube) is something that’s a bit of a blind spot for me. 

Alright! Here is probably my favorite New Japan match of all time. In it you'll find the root of guys like Eddie Kingston (as much as he talks up All Japan, this is closer) and a lot of the stiffness and strike-based work of the modern era. And you also have one of the greatest in full flourish and another of the greatest as a pissed-off grumpy, lumpy old dude that will chop your right in the throat. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WoMG1R03Fo8&ab_channel=VHSArray

[HeadCheese]

@sammo Giving you Jiro Kuroshio vs. Seigo Tachibana from Wrestle-1 (5/6/2018)

https://youtu.be/7qTMg4A3UUQ?si=l_w_v89EW-vGa95f

Edited December 11, 2023 by HeadCheese

[Matt D]

22 hours ago, The Natural said:

Any wrestlers in particular you want? I've come up with one of your matches.

I'm ok with whatever you've got. Thanks.

[The Natural]

On 12/10/2023 at 1:37 PM, Matt D said:

Good job everyone. Here's Week 2.

@The Natural
Matt D
---
@Curt McGirt
@brynn9292
---
@porksweats
@Zimbra
---
@Casey
@Gordi the former AEW fan
---
@Sammo~! >>> @John E. Dynamite >>> @HeadCheese (Which means that HeadCheese gives a match to Sammo~!). John joined in and we ended up with an odd number anyway, but hey, the more the merrier.

Paul, got a match in mind for you later today.

 

On 12/10/2023 at 1:45 PM, The Natural said:

Cheers, Matt. Anything you do/don't fancy?

 

23 hours ago, Matt D said:

Maybe something that's not from a PPV but more of a TV match. Otherwise, whatever you like.

As for you I'll give you a choice. Familiar or less familiar. Bret's a guy who had some disappointing matches against Japanese talent over the years. This is one that I think is one of his better ones, against George Takano. Less "Exhibition"-y than what we'd get against, let's say Tiger Mask II..
 

And if you want something more familiar but still cool due to the locale, here's the Hart Foundation as "de facto heels" in 1991 against the Rockers from right before that in Japan.

I can't upload it to youtube, so here's the file itself.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/14wLOXdr1dVPXhgN0dapTSm19C0-hTiDi/view?usp=sharing

 

 

22 hours ago, The Natural said:

Thank you for both of these. Two Bret Hart matches I haven't seen.

Any wrestlers in particular you want? I've come up with one of your matches.

 

30 minutes ago, Matt D said:

I'm ok with whatever you've got. Thanks.

This is the first of your matches I came up with yesterday, Christian Cage vs. Rhino from TNA in a barbed wire steel cage match knowing you're a big Christian Cage fan. I remember really liking it at the time. Only added by Impact Wrestling 4 months ago.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=tN7j0Ck_cKs&pp=ygUXY2hyaXN0aWFuIGNhZ2UgdnMgcmhpbm8%3D

Came up with your second today, Bret Hart vs. 123 Kid. Almost went with Bret Hart vs. Rocky Maivia but the former is the better of two. As you kindly gave me Bret Hart matches, only fair I do the same.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=zFAxibB9GjE&t=425s&pp=ygUUYnJldCBoYXJ0IHZzIDEyMyBraWQ%3D

[onelegbrynn]

 

10 hours ago, Curt McGirt said:

Alright! Here is probably my favorite New Japan match of all time. In it you'll find the root of guys like Eddie Kingston (as much as he talks up All Japan, this is closer) and a lot of the stiffness and strike-based work of the modern era. And you also have one of the greatest in full flourish and another of the greatest as a pissed-off grumpy, lumpy old dude that will chop your right in the throat. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WoMG1R03Fo8&ab_channel=VHSArray

What are you interested in Curt? Or are you game for just about anything?

 

[Curt McGirt]

I'm open to anything you can find on Youtube or Dailymotion. I don't have the Network unfortunately. I could try and torrent some things too. 

[onelegbrynn]

1 hour ago, Curt McGirt said:

I'm open to anything you can find on Youtube or Dailymotion. I don't have the Network unfortunately. I could try and torrent some things too. 

I'm really torn on this one then. I could go bizarre from the dying days of WCW or just something completely wacky from the Indies. However, I think in the spirit of the holiday season and the Secret Santo, I'll go wacky and holiday themed. Here is the Super Smash Brothers (Evil Uno and Stu Grayson) vs. The Well Oiled Machines (Pepper Parks and "Psycho" Mike Rollins) in a Tables, Ladders and Boxes match from Smash Wrestling:

https://youtu.be/-SXfew1coFk?si=QGsOkvCSZVGMahOY

Enjoy!

[Sammo~!]

On 12/4/2023 at 8:23 AM, Zimbra said:

I've been watching a lot of Bock lately so here's Bockwinkel vs Ricky Morton from 1982:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B3EWGglxlNQ

This is pushing the 20 minute limit so if you want something shorter let me know.

Houston Wrestling - Nick Bockwinkel vs Ricky Morton - 1982-07-02

From the jump this match is great. Immediately a pair of (I assume) brothers sitting right next to the camera are heckling Bobby Heenan: "EYY WEASEL! GET OUTTA THERR!!" "Go back to the locker room Weasel! We didn't pay to see you!"  Great stuff. Bobby Heenan just needs to exist and the people hate him. Bockwinkel looks incredible, exactly like a travelling world champ should. I haven't seen a ton of pre-Rock n Roll Ricky Morton so it was cool to see his larval version. This is a 2/3 falls match with a pretty easy to follow story. The first fall is Bock is trying to figure out exactly just how lightly he can take his opponent. Bockwinkel is so good at all the small things. He's got this cocky swagger, but every time Ricky Morton gets to the ropes or escapes a collar-and-elbow tie-up Bock gets this look of incredulity on his face like "What did this little shit do?" He does a great job at conveying being slightly embarrassed, trying not to show it and failing, and then letting that emotion get the better of him, giving Ricky Morton more of an opening. It's pretty clear that Bock is better wrestler but he's arrogant and doesn't like to be shown up and that's where Ricky is able to get the advantage. They exchange holds, there's a lot of consecutive body slams, like a 2021 CM Punk match randomly broke out. Eventually we see Bock's mean streak as he's charging with shoulders in the corner. Ricky tries for a cross body, Bock gets out of the way and capitilizes with a piledriver. Bock takes the first fall. Bobby Heenan is in the ring for the rest period and a huge "Weasel" chant breaks out. 

2nd fall has more great character work from Bockwinkel. Now that he's up a fall he's a total cocky prick. Kind of the same start to the fall, with Bockwinkel trying to grab a hold on Ricky Morton and Morton escaping him at every turn, but the emotional intensity is turned up a bit as Bock is trying to press the advantage and Ricky is more desperately fighting from underneath.  This fall more quickly devolves into a brawl as Bock is trying to put things away quickly. His cockyness gets the better of him and he gets caught with a sunset flip tying it up at one fall a piece. 

Fall 3 starts off with Ricky on the attack, he's not letting his momentum go to waste. The crowd is starting to believe that maybe they're going to see a title change happen. A lot more bodyslams (holy cow that ring looks like it has zero give). Big knee drop off the top and then a figure four from Ricky. One thing I've never really liked in wrestling is when the ref kicks the heels hands away from the ropes during a submission attempt. The ref does this when Bockwinkel tries to escape the figure four, but Bock wasn't doing anything illegal earlier in the match, nor had he harassed the ref in any way to warrant it. It just looked like blatant favoritism to me #BockwinkelDidNothingWrong. We get a couple of cool spots from Morton including a hurrancanrana that the crowd exploded for. Eventually we get the Vader/Sting ending where Morton goes for a big splash in the corner, Bock moves out of the way, Morton bangs his head on the post and gets rolled up for the 3. 

It's always a treat to watch Nick Bockwinkel and Bobby Heenan in their prime. It was great seeing Ricky Morton as the local babyface coming within an inch of beating the world champ. Totally different from his work with the Rock n Roll, where he would take most of the offense and sell tremendously, this match was more even with the story being that Bockwinkel was underestimating his opponent for the majority of the match and it almost costing him in the end. Thanks for sharing this. I really enjoyed it. 

[Sammo~!]

@John E. Dynamite. 

Here's one for you from last year. Chihiro Hashimoto in a handicap match vs Sayaka Unagi and Yurika Oka in which Hash plays the role of Andre the Giant 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gxE7nqdk1L4

[onelegbrynn]

Ok, so for round 1 @Sammo~! assigned me the Onita vs Hayabusa Exploding Cage Match. I should preface this by saying that I'm horrible at match recaps/reviews so don't expect a novel from me on these matches but I'll do my best to recap my thoughts.

Atsushi Onita vs. Hayabusa (Exploding Cage Match) (May 5, 1995)

I looked this up and it's from the Onita Retirement Show in 1995. I have not watched much, if any, of FMW so this is all new to me. There was a lot of headlocks and just hanging out on the mat for a while and a few minutes into the match Hayabusa goes into the cage and things just explode everywhere!! That was crazy!! There's more stuff on the mat, more explosions and the referee looks like either a scientist or is wearing a hazmat suit. Not sure which. Anyway, 3:00 minute countdown hits and things start amping up because they're trying to finish each other off before the ring explodes. I don't know the right word for the situation ... anticipation or panic maybe? Anyway, Hayabusa hits the cage AS THE RING EXPLODES!! THAT EXPLOSION WAS WILD!! Was seriously not expecting that!! After the dust settles Onita, Hayabusa and another referee are all covered in more soot that Daniel Stern in Home Alone 2. Big powerbomb from Onita ends it. I was a little bored by the first bit with all the headlocks and rolling around on the mat but once things started ramping up this was a ton of fun!

As for the match Curt assigned me in Round 2, I'll get to that this week after I get caught up on some other things!

[Curt McGirt]

Super Smash Brothers (Evil Uno and Stu Grayson) vs. The Well Oiled Machines (Pepper Parks and "Psycho" Mike Rollins) - Tables, Ladders and Boxes match

Sheer goofiness on display here. Pepper and Mike get beat down on a previous show so they challenge the SSB for a tables, ladders and boxes (?!) match. The ring is surrounded by boxes, the tag belts are above the ring, and they get down to it immediately with Mike charging out of the Abdullah box standing at the entrance to begin the fight. The crowd chants "What's in the box?" every time someone picks one up. There aren't too many surprises really. One box is a gift-wrapped table with a thin box covering the top (one of the announcers says it isn't a table and idiotically ponders its identity), one's a bat, most of them are empty. The big one is a box full of plastic balls like a McDonald's play pit that Mike gets piledriven into which is funny as both men disappear completely. Another time Grayson takes a dive into it and just his legs are sticking out. The real weapons here are actually confetti guns that everyone sells like deadly mist. We get some tables broken and Stu takes an enormous fall off the ladder onto some boxes outside which looks like it could have gone really badly. I remember Pepper from the early days of AEW from the Pantera-ripoff font on his trunks' "Pepper" logo and of course the SSB are the Dark Order. Uno thankfully is wearing better looking gear now. Corny fun if you don't mind some comedy. Bonus points for the fan that yelled "suplay, suplay!" like he was Gordon Solie.

[John E. Dynamite]

37 minutes ago, Curt McGirt said:

 I remember Pepper from the early days of AEW from the Pantera-ripoff font on his trunks' "Pepper" logo and of course the SSB are the Dark Order.

Did Pepper ever wrestle under one of his other names in AEW before debuting as The Blade?

[Curt McGirt]

Shit, that was him, wasn't it? Where do I remember the Pepper pants from then? 

[Gordi the former AEW fan]

On 12/11/2023 at 1:59 PM, Casey said:

You know what? I got some time this week.

Monday morning before I go to bed (I’m at work right now, night shift), I’ll have @The Natural’s reviews up. I’m going to do Undertaker/Mankind: Buried Alive and Mankind/HBK: Mind Games.

And I’m gonna watch every single one of those Bull matches and have them reviewed before Friday. Because she’s my favorite wrestler, you’re one of my favorite posters (believe it or not) and it’s the holiday season. Secret Santo rules the fucking world - until I pair with @Matt D 

As for you… Maybe you’ve seen them (most likely), maybe you haven’t. But who cares! I’ll give you some choices, too.

Violent:

Combat Toyoda’s retirement match, versus Megumi Kudo, in an exploding electrified barbwire rope match. One of my very first exposures to joshi and Japanese wrestling in general was watching those FMW tapes they used to sell (in America) with the shitty English commentary. I was captivated. I’m pretty sure this was on one of those tapes. Combat, Megumi and Shark are staples of my teenage wrestling years. I love Megumi Kudo - not as much as Bull, but it’s a close one.

Interesting:

(the link might not embed in the actual post, so… Google it? It’s in this post, I swear!)

Mike Awesome/The Gladiator versus The Great Muta, AJPW 2003.)

Well, it’s interesting to me anyway. I’m a big Mike Awesome mark, but I’ve seen shockingly little of his Japan run that isn’t FMW. I think in the last Santo I gave someone Awesome/Kobashi, so here’s two of my favorite wrestlers way past their prime! That’s fun. At the very least it might be good in a trainwreck sort of way.

Weird:

I know ECW is owned by WWE now, but at this point, they weren’t, so I’m gonna throw it in here. A fancam of Tracy Smothers versus Kintaro Kanemura at a house show in 1999, in Nashville TN. Come on, a weird ass match-up, for a niche promotion, in the middle of the Bible Belt? If that doesn’t qualify I don’t know what does!

Dang, Casey! You didn't just hit the bullseye here. You hit three straight triple twenties.

The Weird: Tracy Smothers vs Kintaro Kanemura 

When I request "no WWE or NXT" I DEFINITELY don't mean "No fan cams of house show matches from 1999 It's the insane production "values" and dehumanizing corporate-speak that I am desperate to avoid. That stuff brings out seriously negative feelings in my heart. THIS, on the other hand, is damned near the polar opposite and it sparks nothing but joy for me. 

It's an absolute nothing of a match. Eight minutes of OK action, leading to a satisfying clean finish. With Tommy Rich wedged in because presumably a former NWA champion still had some drawing power in that part of America at that point in history. The local Vancouver indie used to bring in Jimmy Snuka to try and draw a few extra eyes, after local TV shut down in the mid-80s. but most people didn't believe it was really him. One of my friends took a Superfly Splash and swears it was the stiffest thing he ever felt in a wrestling ring. Anyway, Rich and his beer gut trying to find something to do during the match is enough reason for joy.

But the real joy comes from Tracy Smothers and Kanemura each doing the one thing that they do best. With Smothers, it's jack-jawing with the crowd and flipping double birds and just 100% being the MAXIMUM touring veteran heel journeyman there to show the young boys how it's done. And with Kanemura it's recklessly hurling around his dumpy body (in his goofy ring gear) and either crushing his opponent or badly hurting himself. Also trying to sneak out a win with a quick roll-up. And it's just that and nothing else for eight minutes. And it's glorious. What a weird match-up indeed, and it goes EXACTLY how you'd expect, exactly how it should.

The Interesting: Great Muta vs The Gladiator

I am pretty sure these two guys could also have a pretty great 8-minute match where they both stick to the things they do well. This match is NOT that. I also think they could have pulled of a "poor man's Hansen vs Kobashi" type of Kings Road match; but I guess, based on this one match, that 2003 was during a time when Mutoh tried to change AJPW into a style like the Fire Pro version of New Japan Strong Style, where you HAVE TO start out with several minutes of mat wrestling and limb work before getting to the high flying and big bombs? And, oh boy, Muta and Gladiator are NOT suited to several minutes of mat wrestling and limb work. Awesome looks completely lost more than once in the early going. Eventually they meander into the "OK, enough of that, let's go!" portion of the match and it gets GLORIOUSLY interesting. Muta hits a bunch of crazy Shining Wizard variations, including one off the back of one of the dudes at ringside (which leads to Awesome doing a blood-spurting blade-job) and a couple more while Gladiator is sitting on the top turnbuckle. And Awesome out-does Kintaro Kanemura by absolutely heaving himself on a dive to the outside where he over-shoots Muta, who does nothing to catch or protect him. Then Awesome totally botches an attempt at a top rope powerbomb (or something) and Muta spits the mist into his bloodied face with absolute contempt. 

This is a legitimately TERRIBLE match, full of sound and fury signifying nothing, and I really had a good time watching it. No fooling. There was a bunch of stuff that legitimately popped me, and it got me thinking about wrestling nostalgia in a way I'll try to sum up at the end of this (already too long) post. 

The Violent: Megumi Kudo vs Combat Toyoda

I think this match should be required viewing for all Death Match wrestlers. 

In a 2020 Secret Santo, I was given the Kudo vs Kandori barbed wire match, and my thoughts then were pretty similar. Maybe all pro wrestlers  should study some Megumi Kudo matches. Kudo vs Shinobu Kandori might be the best barbed wire match, and THIS might be the actual Best Exploding Whatever Death Match. Ever.

It's obvious, but it's true: There are only four big explosion/wire spots in the whole match, but each one is EARNED, each one is BUILT TO, and so each one is INVESTED WITH MEANING. 

It's a legitimately GREAT match, like the Nakano tag that Curt gave me. There are moments that are hard to watch and moments that are legitimately moving, and moments that are BOTH OF THOSE THINGS SIMULTANEOUSLY.

Examples:

Moving: It's Toyoda's retirement match. Both competitors talk about that before the match and it's subtitled, so we can all get goosebumps. Toyoda comes out to WILD THING, to honour Atsushi Onita. During the match, the camera cuts to Onita several times, and he is clearly overwhelmed with emotion.

Hard to watch: Even more than the explosions, even more than both women bleeding heavily from their upper arms... the last two big head drops that end the match are just as nasty as it gets. 

Both, simultaneously: The fourth and final explosion/wire spot is Kudo leaping backward into Toyoda's arms and both women tumbling into a huge explosion, together.

In the aftermath, both women are selling like they are on death's doorstep. Kudo gets carried out on a stretcher. Onita carries Toyoda out on his shoulders so the crowd can show their appreciation for all she has given them. She collapses at Onita's feet.

The match is also structured perfectly and each woman plays her role perfectly. But it the combination of violence and emotion that makes this match a true classic.

 

It's too tough to sum up my thoughts on nostalgia succinctly. I'll try to do a deep dive in the Navel Gazing thread eventually.

 

 

Edited December 12, 2023 by Gordi the former AEW fan