DEATH VALLEY DRIVERETTE 7162014- NICKBOCKWINKLE! KOHEI SATO!

[DEAN]

DRIVERETTE 7162014

 

I was out of action for a few weeks, as actual work got in the way of me being able to review wrestling between the cracks in the workday- as it became a solid wall of work, and then I got out of the habit.  THUS I must reapply the lapsed discipline.  It is strange, the writing about the professional wrestling:  if you get away from it too far it seems really inane to be writing about it; but once you get past the grapple writing block, it is as easy as breathing and as fulfilling as playing in a punk rock band.  (Which I am also doing and that has curtailed my wrestle writing a little.)  But enough of me.  More about you and your love of the pro wrestling.  Yesssssss....BEHOLD,  THE PROFESSIONAL WRESTLING! 

 

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$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ DDT- KEISUKE ISHII/ SHIGEHIRO IRIE vs YASU URANO/ AKITO- 5/25/2014:   I was thinking that we should catch up on the antics of beloved favorite of the DVDVR, Shigehiro Irie.  There is a match at the UNION 10th Anniversary Show with Shigehiro and Shuji Ishikawa in the ring at the same time- and I find that to be very exciting.  C'mon, internet freaks, post it!  Any way, Irie and Ishii are the All Asia Tag title holders and they are up against two parts of the Smile Squash stable.  Yes, I went to cagematch.de and researched these guys.  Urano is 38 years old and was partly trained by FMW's very own Koji Nakagawa and also trained by TAKA Michinoku.  Akito is 27, scrawny and less fascinating.  And the match:   Pre-match, young ladies in plaid skirts spit water into Shigehiro Irie's face because Irie's boners must be supressed!  Ishii stands around and looks confused- as if he is new to the Dramatic Dream Team.  Folks clap at Ishii and Urano doing some basic wrestling.  Akito is actually impressive standing there- which is important; looking like he could beef up into a big fella later on in his career.  Irie works the headlock and leans into it.  Akito is nifty escaping and procuring his own headlocks and ankle locks and we are kind of coasting along here.  Urano and Irie is more punchy and kicky and funner.  Irie begins to LAY IT IN!  Urano lays it in also but it's not very nasty.  He does a lot of eye rakes which can be just as good-lookin' as laying it in.  I mean, everybody knows how much it hurts when a fucker messes with your eyes.  It's all about the psychology.  Akito makes with the several swinging neckbreakers and it's hard to pinpoint the style of wrestling.  Urano drops a pretty fucking beautiful knee across the face of Ishii and Akito does a nice Lawler Piledriver so I pinpoint this style as Undersized Greg Valentine-ish- which I obviously dig.  Yeah, Akito hits a beautiful Lateral Suplex and I really dig the ode to 1982 Philly Spectrum House Show wrestling.   I also dig Ishii assuming the Ricky Morton roll.  Irie is a fucking beautiful house a-fire.  Akito and Irie fiddle about with elbows to the face and dropkicks to the knee and what have you- all leading to Akito hoisting Irie into a truly impressive EVEREST gut-wrench suplex- impressive because Akito is thin and lanky and Irie is true burgeoning fat boy.   They double team Irie for a bit with Irie leaning into Urano's lariats and Akito's dropkicks to Irie transitioning to offence by crushing the skulls of his opponents with yet still more Greg Valentine-ish headbutts to the face.  This is perfectly fine wrestling- very competent and it is your basic Southern tag match but I'm an asshole who expects more from an Irie match.  Maybe it's the fact that Irie isn't the underdog in this.    I don't hate this match, but it just doesn't have SOMETHING to make me love it- though the suplex/lariat-heavy finish is pretty cool. Fuck me, I'm just being a baby.  This is good change of pace from the usual Irie match and it's really well done.  Go ahead- watch it, you won't hate it.              

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1yui74_keisuke-ishii-shigehiro-irie-c-vs-yasu-urano-akito-ddt_sport

 

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! AMERICAN WRESTLING ASSOCIATION- ERNIE LADD vs NICK BOCKWINKLE- 10/1978:  Oh man, 1978 was a big year for a 12 year old boy to be into Pro Wrestling.  Jimmy Snuka showed up in Texas (when I was in Arkansas) in 77 and followed me to Mid-Atlantic when I moved back to Virginia!  Harley Race was my champion and Wahoo McDaniel was on my TV every Saturday afternoon.  Ernie Ladd I had maybe seen twice and Nick Bockwinkle was one of those guys- like Dick the Bruiser and Bruno Sammartino, who only showed up in my life when they would be on the cover of an Apter mag.  These guys I wouldn't recognize unless their faces were coated in blood.  The wonder of the internet is that we old guys can piece together the rest of the wrestling story.   The problem with this match is that it is film clips.  I assume Nick Bockwinkle watched this in the studio and spoke over it, denying any evil he was perpetrating- though we would be looking directly at it with him.   Man, I miss that kind of shit.  It's all truncated and shit so it's hard to actually analyze much past what you already knew- Ernie Ladd was a really agile for a big guy- though it doesn't highlight my favorite quality of Ladd in his prime- his ability to bump enormous.  The other thing you already knew by watching assorted Goodhelmet collections- Bockwinkle is battling neck and neck with Ric Flair for the successor to the Ray the Crippler Stevens crazed gigantic selling and bumping title.  These highlights are pretty much Bockwinkle selling to the back of the building and flying all over the ring.  Ladd could be anybody in this- as this is a lot like the Terry Funk/ Rick Martel match from Puerto Rico that we watched before the writing interruption period- with Bockwinkle assuming the Funk role.  Actually, I guess someone could write a thesis arguing that Funk is the true heir to the Ray Stevens Sell and Bump thrown- and the three way outlay of evidence through wrestling matches would be pretty fucking glorious to behold- as Ric Flair's portfolio vs Nick Bockwinkle's portfolio vs Terry Funk's portfolio would make my entire mind explode.  Thinking of those three as equals is a bold statement.  That I just made.  This collection of clips is basically Bockwinkle basing an entire match on bumping to the vast, muscular, buky offense of Ladd- as the size of Ladd allows Bockwinkle to pretty much completely chew the scenery when bouncing off of him.  So yeah, in case you needed a file of Bockwinkle's bumping and selling style when facing a big man, here it is.  If you wanted to know what Ernie Ladd was all about- not so much this.

 

!@!@!@!@!@!  BIG JAPAN PRO WRESTLING- KOHEI SATO/ SHUJI ISHIKAWA vs KAZUKI HASHIMOTO/ DAICHI HASHIMOTO- 6/15/2014:  I'm guessing Kohei Sato and Shuji Ishikawa are no longer staying together as my favorite tag team of the year- as I see Sato is tagging with lots of other folks and Shuji is in a lot of singles matches that I need to catch up with.  I assume I will spend most of the rest of July wallowing in the horror of the Montreal Alouettes season and catching up on the Big Japan Strong Climb matches.  So yes, the rest of July will be a rollercoaster ride of soul-crushing CFL football and life-reaffirming stiff as fuck wrestling.   Pray for me, rejoice with me.  Right now, Double Hash and my favorite tagteam shall commence to beating the hell out of each other for my pleasure- and I find it pleasing.   Hashimoto and Hashimoto come out and the veiwer is struck by the new orange hair of Daichi Hashimoto.  Being that teenagers continuously hang around watching anime in the Rasmussen household, I quizzed  my 15 year old about the hipness and coolness of Daichi's hair and she said thusly, "They'd make a cute lesbian couple."  Oh well, I  guess they need to try harder if they want to win over the indifferent youth of America .  Daichi is bulking up as he gets deeper into his 20s.  He's gonna need it against the number 1 and number 1a crowbars on the island of Japan.  Daichi and Shuji ishikawa lock up early to make the rib-smashing by Sato that much more dramatic when gets around to entering the fray.  They do set the bar high by mauling each other early before Kazuki Hashimoto tags in and K-Hash and Ishikawa feign wrestling by K-Hash working the arm.  The delaying of Sato entering the ring works in building up my anticipation.  Its funny that Shuji motherfucking Ishikawa is in the ring first to set up a build up to a higher level of ass-stomp when his partner tags in.  Finally, Sato tags in and we have a clean break because I guess this is like a sunday school or something.  Sato sinks in an armbar and Kazuki hits the ropes as we wait for somebody's teeth to get kicked out.  They take turns kicking each other in the ass and I wondering why they think a match with these four guys would need any moments of levity.  Luckily, they to all brawl through the crowd- with Daichi Hashimoto and Shuji Ishikawa brawling like total motherfuckers to my utter delight; and then- just quickly, they take it back to the ring to continue with Shuji ishikawa setting a  PREPOSTEROUS stiffness level that Daichi steps right up to like a total champ.  Sato tags in and Daichi Hashimoto and Kohei Sato smack each others lungs through the back of each others' chests.  Ishikawa tags back in and awkwardly takes some Daichi offense to allow K-Hash in to do his Kanemoto Face Scrape spot- a spot to which I have been indifferent ever since Koji Kanemoto fell off my radar.  Ishikawa suplexes to transition and tags in Sato who opts to kick the fuck out of and then inverted a Falcon Arrow onto Kazuki Hashimoto.  K-Hash annoyingly no-sells it and tags D-Hash after a Dragon Screw and Daichi sinks in the STF on Sato who hits the ropes.  Sato crushes Daichi's jaw to transition and tags in Ishikawa who takes wads of double team stuff from Double Hash that all looked really fucking hurty and shit.  Ishikawa powers out of suplex to K-Drill back to offense and hits a 6/4ths legit lariat to crush the fuck out of Kazuki Hashimoto.  Daichi does the Mochizuki toprope running spinning savate kick after Shining the Wizard to make the save.  Ishikawa takes a kick straight to the teeth- as being the Ricky Morton in this style of tag match can have a severe downside. Sato makes the save and then just fucking MURDERS Kazuki with a Lawler Piledriver.  It is a thing beauty that is a joy forever.  They then take turns smashing K-Hash's ribs into powder.  Ishikawa fucking kills Kazuki Hashimoto with a true Lionness Asuka-level K-Driller and THEN hits a Diehard Kansai for the pin and hell- maybe they aren't breaking up my favorite tagteam.  Postmatch, they have a lot of mutual respect moments that Tenryu would break your fucking nose if you tried that shit with him.  Sato is talking in the locker room and you see that he is busted up pretty good all hardway and what not.   It's going to be a good rest of July if it starts off with this kick ass-beating and it can maintain it through to the end of the upcoming soul-crushing Dallas Cowboy 2014 campaign.  Coooome on, wrestlin!  Daddy needs you more than ever.  4 zillion stars and not even in the Shuji Ishikawa/ Kohei Sato top five.

 

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x20i26t_kohei-sato-shuji-ishikawa-c-vs-kazuki-hashimoto-daichi-hashimoto-bjw_sport

 

TOMORROW:  Soooo much Big Japan Strongstyle and hopefully Dean Allmark in Japan!  HELL YEAH!

[Ramsey]

If a full blown discussion topic opens up about Flair's, Bockwinkel's, and Terry Funk's bodies of work and how they compare to each other, I will read it, I will contribute to it, I will WALLOW in it...

 

...with no pants to be found.

 

DIG THAT!

[J.H.]

God... Bock and Ernie Ladd... that's like 2 of my favorite guys right there. I wonder what The Big Cat's promo on Bock was to get people into the arena...

 

James

[GOTNW]

KOHEI SATO should win march madness next year. Also the BJW commentators are the greatest. They screw around the whole time and then you get THOSE moments where Sato just annihilates the lil' ones and they CRINGE at the stiffness of his shots. Of course-with it being KOHEI SATO-they end up cringing more than laughing and screwing around.

[jstout]

I'm assuming Ladd was the face. I'm not sure if he was ever a face when he popped up in my Southern radar.

[thee Reverend Axl Future]

Funk v. Bockwinkel v. Flair for thee RStevens mantle is a heavy heavy concept, and needs more thought then discussion.

- RAF

[DEAN]

I'm assuming Ladd was the face. I'm not sure if he was ever a face when he popped up in my Southern radar.

Actually, I think Ladd was a face for 45 seconds when he first brought in to Arkansas territory when I was 11.  He did the old school thing that no would be able to do now where Boyd Peirce introduces Big Cat Ernie Ladd as a great guy and old friend and then Ladd takes the mic and shocks Pierce by doing the instant heel turn.  That's one of my more vivid childhood memories.

[DEAN]

Funk v. Bockwinkel v. Flair for thee RStevens mantle is a heavy heavy concept, and needs more thought then discussion.

- RAF

There is two prongs to this- was Funk a Stevens-style bumper and seller? (I would say that he was definately that when he wanted to be) Was Bockwinkle in the same category as Flair and Funk?  (Though I have seen a vast amount more of Flair and Funk, everything I've seen by Bockwinkle is enough for me to say that he was the same caliber.)