AUG 2020 WRESTLING GIFS

[tbarrie]

5 minutes ago, Death From Above said:

Is "Masked Man" really that far removed from "Mr. Wrestling"?

I'd say so, yes. Though American wrestling also had a "The Grappler", come to think of it, which is even more generic than "The Masked Man".

[Matt D]

1 hour ago, tbarrie said:

Wait... they had multiple masked guys, but one is just named "L'Homme Masque"? (French for "The Masked Man".)

To be fair, he was the first one. It's one of those tricks you can only get away with once.

[Matt D]

This is what uncooperative high end French catch looks like:

Hunter isn't nearly as interesting as Hayes. His deal was that he was tall and the superior reach means that you can't get him with things like a single-leg:

High comedy:

[The Batboy]

[Kang]

[Elsalvajeloco]

If you're gonna post a goddamn Manami Toyota taking someone's offense gif, don't pussyfoot around.

[Kang]

[Kang]

[Matt D]

Hunter's deal is that he's really tall. How many times in his career was Kane a babyface? Why did he never do this?

Smarmy heel escape:

Quality forearms. Quality stooging:

 

[The Natural]

A gimmick match still used to this day. Oh my! These TLC matches more so the early ones did a number on wrestlers.

[Kang]

[The Natural]

Young Lions go at it. Amazing to see the rise of Kazuchika Okada and Tetsuya Naito to the top of New Japan Pro-Wrestling, becoming IWGP Heavyweight Champions and main eventing the January 4th Tokyo Dome show.

[The Natural]

 

[Matt D]

I have somehow gotten way behind again on these. I blame the hour match we're doing next week.

Hunter's so big that the heels have to go to great effort to try to get over on him. It doesn't work.

Such a dick move from the outside:

Hunter isn't the most fun guy to watch but him mauling people while the tape sputters and has imperfection is still pretty great.

[Kang]

[The Natural]

 

[Matt D]

Last bit there: Crowd pleasing spot galore:

Here's Hombre vs Delaporte and the Hayes/Hunter tag if anyone wants to see it:

The first couple of minutes of Hayes/Hunter are really cool since they try to hang with wrestling god Lord Al.

[Elsalvajeloco]

This isn't the first time Takako Inoue has had a sword pulled on her, is it? 

 

[Jiji]

Takako makes me panic.

[Jiji]

Okay, sorry for the double post but Watanabe should be charged with attempted murder for that spike slam on Shimoda. I've only seen a very small bit of late '90s/early '00s AJW (mostly Momoe for the shit like the moonsault -> German, so great!), did Tomoko always hit the cannonball buster like that or was that a particularly nasty version?

Edited August 29, 2020 by Jiji

[Elsalvajeloco]

42 minutes ago, Jiji said:

Okay, sorry for the double post but Watanabe should be charged with attempted murder for that spike slam on Shimoda. I've only seen a very small bit of late '90s/early '00s AJW (mostly Momoe for the shit like the moonsault -> German, so great!), did Tomoko always hit the cannonball buster like that or was that a particularly nasty version?

Usually, it would be a sitout version but she did both. Watanabe spent a large majority of the time you mentioned feuding with LCO (tagging with Ito and Maekawa and then tagging with Ito, Momoe, and/or Nanae vs. some combo of LCO +  Maekawa, Hotta and heel Toyota), and she had no trouble just killing poor Mita with it. If she was picking up the biggest female on the roster like a little child, picking up Shimoda and doing it was no problem. She did a more devastating version on Shimoda in a tag team cage match from that same year (if that gif is from 2000) where she's wearing those same Cactus Jack style boots and just absolutely murders Shimoda with it. It's a completely brutal match. If I can find it, I'll post it in one of the threads. @Kevin Wilson or somebody posted it on the board several years back as part of one of the DVDVR lists. That's how I found it.

There is also a Zap I & Zap T match vs. LCO in the rain from July 1999 (IIRC day 1 of like their two day outside studio cards with both having big downpours) where she absolutely obliterates Mita. In last few matches of her career, Mita hardly took any bumps. I think it's easy to guess why. Her neck and back must have been wrecked.

[Matt D]

Still behind. Second bit of footage started with the very finish of Jo Rinaldi vs Gaston Maujean. It's a pretty fun sequence starting with a jammed monkey flip. This could be a finish in 59 France:

Next up is Roger Laroche vs Henri Lambert. I love the twist on this kneedrop:

While these two get spirited and mean, it was basically a babyface vs babyface match, a technical match, on paper. Look at the emotion here. Lambert was eating up Laroche early, and he went to the foot stomp to break it up. This is the second time, and it infuriates Lambert, and that's, seemingly, exactly the emotional reaction Laroche was going for to throw him off his game. So much is going on in this clip:

[The Batboy]

[Matt D]

What follows my last gif is a SEVEN MINUTE armbar sequence where Lambert kept trying to escape and Laroche kept hanging on. It was pretty nuts.

It starts here with the headbutt to the hand and the driving knee down:

Here's an example. Lambert works up. Laroche tries to slam him back down to keep the hold. Lambert tries a bunch of hip tosses and Laroche hangs on:

After seven minutes, Lambert's out and they pick up the pace again:

[Kang]