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Heads up Battle 2006 Akiyama v. Inoue V. Anarchy Wargames


Phil Schneider

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I really enjoyed the Wargames match (after watching so much WWE and CMLL in the last few years it was nice to see an enormous bloodbath ending a feud), but I gotta go with Akiyama/Inoue still. Infuriated Gym Coach Akiyama is one of my favorite wrestlers, and "comedy dork in the fight of his life" is one of my favorite setups for a match (Colt/Homicide, Bryan/Santino, etc). Inoue plays that role perfectly, and by combining weird comedy with the world title stakes it makes him look like he's trying to pull off a bank robbery against a sentient malicious bank.

Also it's one of like five Akiyama matches ever where his strikes don't look like total ass, so it's got that going for it.

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4 hours ago, Phil Schneider said:

Different War Games, but cool promo nonetheless, I am definitely going to try to get my hands on that one too.

Are you sure? Its the right year and same lineup as in the review. I totally went down a Bailey rabbit hole looking for that.

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Nope that promo is from 2007

 

War Games Match: The NWA Elite (Phil Shatter, Kory Chavis, Jeff Lewis and Abomination) vs. The Devil's Rejects (Iceberg, Tank, Azrael and Shaun Tempers) (NWA Anarchy Hostile Environment: 6/23/07 - Gainesville, GA)

 

This match is

 

War Games Match, If Team Anarchy 2006 Wins Jerry Palmer Gets Dan Wilson In The Cage For 5-Minutes, If The Devils Rejects Win Dan Wilson Gets Control Of NWA Anarchy: Team Anarchy 2006 (Shadow Jackson, Nemesis, Slim J and Ace Rockwell) vs. The Devil's Rejects (Iceberg, Tank, Azrael and Shaun Tempers) (NWA Anarchy Hostile Environment: 7/22/06 - Cornelia, GA)

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Okay, review time: 

Both matches have a common underdog theme. In their promo the Anarchy team even says they're not particularly good wrestlers! Inoue, his possibility of winning goes without saying (how the hell did this match end up getting booked btw? Was Misawa ribbing Akiyama for some reason?).

Both are totally different otherwise of course. The WOR GAMES is so goddamn indy... I mean, have you ever seen a meat cleaver and a claw hammer used in a match before? If you're a CZW fan, don't answer that. At the same time they're used perfectly well and there are some hellacious bumps starting with Rockwell being lawn-darted into the cage which looked horrifying. Unfortunately we miss a whole portion where the Rejects return to dominance. The whole vibe is great though. The announcers are hyped, the crowd is too, the big comebacks from the face side are awesome. Bonus points for a Slayer - South of Heaven tour shirt but minus points for Iceberg's Celtic cross ensemble so I guess that evens out. The ambo ride was an inspired bit as well. 

Inoue's career performance is something he can hang his hat on to this day. The beginning tickled the shit out of me with his cheap tricks and evasions and I really got on his side. To riff off of what Broken Lamp said, Akiyama is the star quarterback and Inoue is the poor, skeezy kid you hang out and smoke dirt weed with after school. There's no way you can boo him. He's got few skills but he's got heart, and he's got tactics that can even the playing field, at least for a minute. You know the inevitable is gonna come crashing down on him but he fights it every step of the way. 

I really don't know. One is a broke-ass War Games, one is a glorified squash with a higher production value. I could flip a coin at which one is better but both are really fucking fun and I'm glad I watched them.

EDIT: You know what? In a Battle of the Underdogs I'm going with the biggest Underdog. NWA Anarchy has my vote.

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The match was complete, so I am not sure what you mean when you say we are missing a part. I guess the face comeback was pretty dominant at the end, but they absorbed so much during pre-match beyond that I think it worked from a storytelling point. I have enjoyed watching all of these indy Wargames, but this was the standout so far. 

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Figured out what the problem was. My file on part 2 started at a minute or so in, probably because I'd skipped forward on some of the match sampling it before I watched the whole thing last night. Who knows why it stayed that way, I closed my browser and everything. 

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