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(Also Not March Madness): SECRET SANTO March 2020


Matt D

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Friday the 2nd of August 2019, from Chattanooga Tennessee: The Scenic City Invitational Night One, Match Seven. Tony Deppen vs Daniel Makabe. Our commentators are Righteous Jesse and Dylan Hales (who I believe used to post here as @DylanWaco*). Deppen is wearing the blue trunks, whilst Makabe is representing AC Milan** in black and red.

This is such a smartly worked match. It's a simple story of one guy working the arm while the other works the leg, but the way both men tell the story is masterful. Makabe is almost ridiculously smooth in the mat transitions, and he's a guy who, when you watch him, you really get the feeling that he's looking for ways out of the hold and finding them - and the ones he finds aren't always the same pat standard "C follows B that follows A" reversal sequences. Like it's creative, but it's organically creative. Deppen is right there with Makabe in terms of technical skill, but he's also more of the showman of the two. He's the one making noise when he throws (or takes) strikes, he's the one using the facial expressions to communicate his feelings to the audience (which is an often overlooked aspect of technical matches). So the match doesn't turn into a self-indulgent meaningless hold exchange type of thing. It feels like a competitive match that both guys are trying to win. 

So anyway, the limb work. Because both men sell specific limb damage at all times in the match, whether on offence or defence, that allows them to play the near-finish game exceptionally well. He didn't escape my near-fall because my move was ineffective, he escaped my nearfall because the damage he had previously done to me made my ordinarily flawless execution ineffective. So hitting a semi-conscious man with German Suplex but only bridging with one leg because the other is hurt, allowing the position to collapse on the count of two and give some recovery time, rather than the Fighting Spirit explosive kickout. 

They keep it fast-paced and cram a whole lot of moves and holds into their fifteen-ish minutes, but everything means something and they really do make it look like it could easily have gone either way. One guy makes a mistake and gets caught in a cradle, but it's not an unforced error. He's tricked into it by his opponent showing a false opening. That's the story they're telling, and that's how it comes across. Makabe's nickname is The Wrestling Genius. I'd say that's about right. If you've got IWTV, seek this match out. Thanks @Tim Evans.

* I tried atting him on the off chance he was still registered and he still has an account, but he hasn't visited in more than three years. Still, good on him for getting into the biz. He's a really good commentator.

** He wrestles wearing football tops. Soccer Jerseys. Whatever. I watched him in a tournament for a different promotion (I think it was St Louis Anarchy) and he did the Randy Savage thing of changing his gear for every match, but every time he wore a different team's shirt with trunks in matching colours. 

Edited by AxB
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On 4/14/2020 at 6:26 PM, Curt McGirt said:

 it could have easily felt like a rambling wreck, and let's be honest... they left bloodstains all over Arena Naucalpan.

You want a lot of blood? I'll give you a lot of blood:

Spoiler

 

If you're at all squeamish, don't even click the spoiler box, let alone watch the match. 

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Glad you liked the match @AxB , If you liked that, check out Makabe's second round match with Slim J. It's different but just as good. I'm partial to the Deppen match cause I was front row for it and it was mazing.

As for the match you picked for me.

Beyond Wrestling, Americanrana '19. Chris Dickinson vs Daisuke Sekimoto.

I'm not a big fan Beyond fan as I find their promoter/commentator to be a jackass. That said, this match surprised me. I thought going in it would be a American puro bombfest with no selling and story. In reality, this had a good story and it helped the match. This was Dickinson's dream match and he had to fight a bunch of guys in the lead up to the match. He started the match channeling Kensuke Sasaki/Kenta Kobashi and getting into chop fight with Sekimoto. Sekimoto comes back with chops and suplexes. EYFBO is at ringside with their boy Dickinson. I'm glad they didn't interfere and this was a clean match. Eventually, Chris overcomes the odds and gets the win with his finisher. There's a visual towards the end of the match where Dickinson gets chopped and it looks like it's raining in the building. It's amazing. Good match with a nice story and not listless like a feared.

This show also had the RNR express and Bryan Alvarez getting destroyed by Nick F'n Gage. Best beyond show ever?

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Ok, week 7.

Curt McGirt
The Man Known as Dan

Matt D
AxB

Ace
Tim Evans

Goodear
Smelly McUgly

Super Ape
Bigbosseli

OctopusCinema
Six String Orchestra

supremebve
Gordi

@Super Ape, @Bigbosseli - I know you guys have been struggling a bit. So I paired you. If either of you give for your partner but haven't received something but TUESDAY, I'll give you something.

Everyone, I know, especially with this week, we might start seeing some pairings for the second or even third time. Past a few tweaks, it's random and I can't keep track of what's already been done. It's not a bad thing though as you guys can triangulate a bit more based on what you gave last time. I'll try to make sure we don't have the same pairing two weeks in a row though.

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OK @Matt D, here you go. 'The Golden Boys' Steve Regal and Robbie Brookside vs Kendo Nagasaki & 'The Rock no Roll Express' Blondie Barrett:

Heh heh.

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27 minutes ago, AxB said:

OK @Matt D, here you go. 'The Golden Boys' Steve Regal and Robbie Brookside vs Kendo Nagasaki & 'The Rock no Roll Express' Blondie Barrett:

Heh heh.

I have not seen this, but I am sure it is something. 

How about this?

It cuts out before the finish but you'll be satisfied with what you get.

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This is a challenge because practically everyone in this thread has broader interests than me; I get deep into a few things, I think, instead.

@Goodear especially is a poster whose knowledge and experience with wrestling I respect, so I just thought to myself, what is a match that I enjoy that I think I'd like to read a review about from this person, even if they hate the match? Also that I can actually find online. 

And since I've been watching more stuff from Paul Boesch's Houston promotion lately, whatever I can find on the free web, here we go:

 

This is short, sweet, I like it for reasons that I'll go into later, and it has promos from both men as the bread for the sandwich. It's not mind-blowing, I don't think, but we'll see what the review looks like. 

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@supremebve You've said that "...All Japan in the 90s is the absolute peak of professional wrestling" (which, yep) and if I remember correctly you've also said that shoot style is a blind spot because you don't really get it. 

Allow me to present a possible gateway drug into the joys of shoot style: Kawada vs Albright '95!

It's very much a hybrid of 90s AJPW and the UWFi style. In a way, it stands out for what they don't do: There is almost no rope-running (Kawada's late-match lariats are what make this, definitively, a hybrid match rather than a straight-up shoot-style match). They don't jump off the turnbuckles or do any flying at all. They don't brawl on the outside. Kawada tosses in some of his signature stuff, but they stick to strikes, submission grappling, and realistic suplexes with a lot of struggle (which is what makes shoot style, well, shoot style: Paring pro wresting down to the stuff that would make sense in a pure combat sport and sticking to KO or submission finishes). In my opinion Kawada adjusts beautifully to working that way. I'm looking forward to reading your opinion. 

(note: I almost gave you one of the matches from the Vader vs Takada series that was my  personal gateway into shoot style, but I think you might get more of a kick from seeing the many subtle differences between this match and the 90s All Japan tag you reviewed last week).

 

 

 

Edited by gordi
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10 hours ago, Smelly McUgly said:

This is a challenge because practically everyone in this thread has broader interests than me; I get deep into a few things, I think, instead.

@Goodear especially is a poster whose knowledge and experience with wrestling I respect, so I just thought to myself, what is a match that I enjoy that I think I'd like to read a review about from this person, even if they hate the match? Also that I can actually find online. 

And since I've been watching more stuff from Paul Boesch's Houston promotion lately, whatever I can find on the free web, here we go:

This is short, sweet, I like it for reasons that I'll go into later, and it has promos from both men as the bread for the sandwich. It's not mind-blowing, I don't think, but we'll see what the review looks like. 

Nah I'm a dope.  Here, enjoy Windham v Rotunda.  I regard The Varsity Club as the best stuff of Rotunda's career and (spoiler) this is abdominal stretch free. 

 

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1 hour ago, gordi said:

@supremebve You've said that "...All Japan in the 90s is the absolute peak of professional wrestling" (which, yep) and if I remember correctly you've also said that shoot style is a blind spot because you don't really get it. 

Allow me to present a possible gateway drug into the joys of shoot style: Kawada vs Albright '95!

It's very much a hybrid of 90s AJPW and the UWFi style. In a way, it stands out for what they don't do: There is almost no rope-running (Kawada's late-match lariats are what make this, definitively, a hybrid match rather than a straight-up shoot-style match). They don't jump off the turnbuckles or do any flying at all. They don't brawl on the outside. Kawada tosses in some of his signature stuff, but they stick to strikes, submission grappling, and realistic suplexes with a lot of struggle (which is what makes shoot style, well, shoot style: Paring pro wresting down to the stuff that would make sense in a pure combat sport and sticking to KO or submission finishes). In my opinion Kawada adjusts beautifully to working that way. I'm looking forward to reading your opinion. 

(note: I almost gave you one of the matches from the Vader vs Takada series that was my  personal gateway into shoot style, but I think you might get more of a kick from seeing the many subtle differences between this match and the 90s All Japan tag you reviewed last week).

 

 

 

Sweet, I've only really watched Abright in .gif form, but if he's wrestling Kawada I'm 100% in.  

Do you have any blindspots and/or interests you want to explore?  What services do you have?  I checked the first couple pages and couldn't find a post.

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@supremebve I joined up late, so my 1st post is somewhere in the middle of the thread. I've really only got YouTube and Dailymotion as options. I remember I said that I have only seen a couple of French matches and one match from Brazil or Argentina... To add to that, I haven't seen a ton of stuff out of Texas, Portland, Puerto Rico... haven't seen nearly enough FMW or SWS or WAR, I would like to see more NWA and territories stuff from the pre-Starrcade era. I have only seen a handful of matches from before the 1970s... I think I'd like someone to recommend me a Mexican minis match. I haven't watched Bryan Danielson, Johnny Saint, or Dick Togo fight in a while even though they are three of my favourites. I'm on a pretty big run of watching hoss fights and brawls at the moment, and I am always in the mood for a good comedy match. I am honestly  pretty open to anything outside of post-1999 self-conscious epic "please give us five stars" type matches. I like those, too, sometimes, but I have not been in the mood for that recently for whatever reason.

Edited by gordi
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14 hours ago, Smelly McUgly said:

 

 

This is a tale of two wrestlers with, from what I have seen, two opposing reasons to watch their matches.  Dusty is big and loud in his way whereas Nick has a well earned reputation for a more nuanced blend of wrestling. And while both guys get to show off what they do in truncated fashion, I'm not sure they gelled as well as their theoretical selves did in my imagination.  That's not to say there is nothing to see here.

Nick is tons of fun and could probably be favorably compared to William Regal in terms of doing little things to tell the larger story.  In this match, there is an exceptionally interesting hammerlock segment as Bock has the hold and puts his head behind Dusty's left shoulder to avoid the counter back elbow.  Dusty looks for it a couple of times but Nick's guarding against it.  Bock then feeds his head knowing the elbow is coming and ducks it.  Now this all sounds very simply but it's missing in a lot of the empty calories you'd get from most modern workers.  Nick also gets to show this off on a series of lateral presses where he is not hooking the legs but instead extending Dusty's far arm.  While he's doing that, Nick gets up on his toes to while on the cover to increase his leverage.

Dusty for his part throws his strikes with his normal electricity but I'm pretty sure he knocked himself loopy on a headbutt and it may have cut the match short?  I'm guessing anyway as they transitioned to Bockwinkle having a momentary advantage immediately afterward and went right into the finish with Dusty having a figure-four. You can see a trail of blood on his shoulder at one moment before there is a run in and what looks like another blade job.  I actually like the idea of blading for the finish as it really would put an exclamation on the interference.

All in all, this was interesting but I don't think I would recommend it to anyone other than a Bockwinkle or Dusty completionist. It really didn't show off either guy at their best although it certainly wasn't a waste of time by any stretch. Nick tends to do better in longer, slower paced things in my estimation which is really telling for me to say as I'm usually arguing for matches to be shorter. Dusty is great with bumping heels and selling which he didn't get to do a lot of here.

**

Edited by Goodear
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On 4/19/2020 at 9:43 PM, AxB said:

OK @Matt D, here you go. 'The Golden Boys' Steve Regal and Robbie Brookside vs Kendo Nagasaki & 'The Rock no Roll Express' Blondie Barrett:

Heh heh.

Oh, I know what this. I didn't until the end, but I'd read about this one, though never seen it. There's a lot of late 80s (and later) UK wrestling, I haven't seen. I guess it's safe to say that 80s US wrestling reached the UK in 1988? We've got one guy, in Blondie Barrett, billed as the Rock and Roll Express. There's a heel manager though he doesn't do much except for a pre-match promo (not on this video) and the post match one. We've got an actual Rock'n'Roll Express rip off (Or Fabs at least) in the Golden Boys (including the weirdly accurate matching Booster Gold tights). It's more or less a Southern Tag though narratively very, very loose, with the ref giving up on the public warnings early on and the distractions only mattering so much and the hot tags being nonexistent though Regal does come in hot at one point after a tag. Regal's tossing legdrops all over the place. Brookside is coming off the top. They more or less contrive a Hart Attack and double dropkick at the end.

I'd honestly say that everyone is committed and play their roles well. The babyfaces are fiery. Barrett is a stalling, stooging, cheapshot throwing goon. Nagasaki is full of straight thumb attacks and nerveholds. If I had to compare Regal/Brookside to a babyface team from the 80s, it'd actually be early Rockers. They had that sort of ambition and enthusiasm, not quite managing the "tag team specialists" execution but having that same sort of in-ring swagger and brash (over)confidence.

Obviously, a lot went wrong here, some by design and some not so. The match starts with a pretty ugly leapfrog which presumably opens Regal's mouth(chin?) up. Later on the turnbuckle comes undone and Brookside, inexplicably decides to toss Barrett into it while they're working on it TWICE, which lead to a spot where Barrett got tossed off of it. All of that was hilarious to me for some reason. Barrett manages to trip on the ropes and land on a drop-down-ing Regal with a shoot elbow drop which made me wish this was ten years later because I can't even imagine what 98 Regal would have done at that point. 

And then there's the finish. I love 70s-early 80s British wrestling, I really do, but a lot of times it's lacking a longer purpose. You'd occasionally build to a return match or, more likely, play off older matches, and there were tournaments and titles, but in general, there aren't overarching narratives. Here, you had the mystery of who Nagasaki was under the mask, or at least what he looked like, and then the sort of monkey's paw wish of his true power being unleashed with the mask removed, etc. There is a way to do this where the announcing or at least the way the wrestlers were emoting in the ring (especially when you have a manager to play with) could have told a story: the heels were nefarious, constantly cheating. Brookside, however, hits a KO blow on Barrett (the weak link here). This leaves Nagasaki at a disadvantage for the first time in his career. They really build to the mask removal and how unprecedented this would be, gasp at the face that is underneath since it's not what anyone expected, really milk the hypnosis thing for about another thirty seconds more and then sell the horror of it all, the fact that Brookside doesn't know what he unleashed, etc. At the end of the day, Brookside and Regal would look like a big deal for what they accomplished but Nagasaki would seem all the more dangerous for what's been unleashed, etc. But that wasn't going to happen with this setting. A lot of times, this stuff just seems like wrestling for the sake of wrestling, which is fine, but somehow less so when they try to do stuff like this.

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I am pretty terrified to go back and watch a lot of Hayabusa era FMW because he was my Dude and I'm deathly afraid that a lot of his stuff was more style over substance and won't age that well. But how could he not be a teenager's top guy with that dope look, hardcore/crazy match types, and cutting edge high flying at the time?

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6 minutes ago, Oyaji said:

I am pretty terrified to go back and watch a lot of Hayabusa era FMW because he was my Dude and I'm deathly afraid that a lot of his stuff was more style over substance and won't age that well. But how could he not be a teenager's top guy with that dope look, hardcore/crazy match types, and cutting edge high flying at the time?

The 1995 FMW Grand Slam tournament was a lot of fun because you had guys like Matsunaga, Super Leather and Kanemura rolling up their sleeves and doing a bunch of straight wrestling along with Hayabusa, Oya, Gladiator etc. Lots of strong style, hail-fellow-well-met stuff. A neat look at the group after Onita's "retirement."

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