Matt D

Monkey’s paw.

The varsity club is an interesting look there but it was all undertones of cruelty and crazy Kevin Sullivan promos. Wolfie D became Slash but he wasn't exactly an athletic wonder beforehand. Have you ever seen the Satanico promo where he creates Averno and Mephiso?

Not a lot to say but I loved the Paul Turner "bump" at the end of the MJF match. I also wish MJF would pick up a new goofy move for each feud like the Kangaroo Kick though he wouldn't have to do all of them in every match.

I went through all the early Kitao matches in early SWS and I sure wish that I didn't. He even dragged down Tenryu. No one can drag down Tenryu!

1. I haven’t seen a Dolph match in years. 2. There’s a reason for that. 3. The only thing that kept him from being completely unwatchable prior to that was WWE reining in some of his worst instincts.

You figure Ali would have been a little safe since he was promoted for NXT No Mercy on the 30th.

4/14/91: Inoue/Dory Funk Jr. vs Dynamite Kid/Johnny Smith: Inoue and Dory worked well together in that they fit together and didn't seem out of place, but there wasn't a ton of interaction between the two. We had the familiar Dory vs Smith mat segment and Dynamite working very competitive when he was in there. This ends up a very credible match where Smith is probably better off for hanging but nothing super compelling like Dory and Terry or Inoue and Terry might have been. Finishing stretch was pretty good with Inoue hitting all his stuff on Dynamite but Dory being unable to control for Smith and Dynamite getting what feels like a rare win off of a finesse roll up. It was a unique pairing at least. 4/14/91: Misawa vs Texas Terminator Hoss: One of the big chinks in the Misawa armor when it comes to his big AJPW run (solely for, let's say, #1 in GWE purposes; that's the level of scrutiny here) is that he wrestled a lot of the same wrestlers night in and night out and most of them were phenomenal. My impression is that we don't have a lot of singles matches with guys like Texas Terminator Hoss. Even here, this is a handheld. It's not great. Hoss wasn't terrible when it came to making the most out of his size but he wasn't exactly good with it either. There's a lot of him laying on Misawa or Misawa trying to pry off a limb and contain him with it and it's not compelling. It's just not. If this was Misawa vs One Man Gang in 1991 I bet that would have been compelling. The best thing I'll say about this is that Misawa was able to win definitively with the magic elbow off the top. Just given the nature of the move (where it isn't up close and in tight) and ring positioning allows for a lot of interference in tags. Here it was a nice clear way to establish that if that pin was not going to get broken up in a tag, that would be the end of the match.

That was probably my favorite single episode of any live action Star Wars TV but then I’m of the exact sweet spot age for Ewoks.

That was with him as heel and them as babyfaces. A whole new world opens up when you're dissing a heel and not a babyface.

My hope here specifically is that they are doing this to film a couple of really impressive spots where Statlander hits Friday Night Fever on Menard or press slams Parker, etc., that they can use in promo packages forever.

I don't want to be the guy but it's a choice to do five big singles matches for Dynamite and then a bunch of crazy tags for Rampage. Right now Rampage is looking like: Sting/Darby vs Luchasaurus/Christian, and we know that won't stay in the ring. Mogul Embassy vs Hung Bucks for the ROH Titles (I'll hate if after a year of defending against all comers, they give the belts to the Elite to serve a different story; I'd really like to see Top Flight/Andretti or some team that had been working up win it). HOOK/Cassidy/Statlander vs Menard/Parker/Anna Jay (Just announced) Acclaimed vs Dark Order for the AEW Titles

I covered the Danielson/Claudio tag, with unfortunately harsh words for Claudio. http://segundacaida.blogspot.com/2023/09/aew-five-fingers-of-death-911-917.html?m=1

4/14/91: Cactus Jack vs Dan Kroffat: This was a hoot. Very different Cactus Jack than we've seen on the rest of this tour and one that probably could have had a totally different trajectory in 90s AJPW comedy matches. This wasn't a huge crowd/venue and they played it full shtick, which Foley had skill at given his sense of humor. Every old trick in the book. They started with Foley breaking hammerlocks in the rope and gesturing in the crowd until Kroffat kicked the ropes to crotch him on the third or fourth try. Then it was headlock/headscissor out/back into headlock. And headlocks that were broken with a whip but with Kroffat pulling the beard. AT one point, Foley hit himself with a chair on the outside by accident and then walked right in to a chairshot from Kroffat. They still felt the need to do the plunge (Kroffat took it) and there was a bit of actual action in there before they went into the finish (Kroffat won), but it was mostly fun stuff that the crowd was into enough. I thought that this had to be the comedy match, and at the very least it had to be the comedy match with motion because... 4/14/91: Andre the Giant/Rusher Kimura vs Eigen/Okuma: Eigen is basically Serpentico, right? He starts every Rusher match with a handshake and a slap. Here, he shakes Andre's hand instead and sells it like Andre was crushing him, then, when he's starting against Rusher, runs across the ring and smacks Andre. What a prince of a man. He, of course, then does the lock up with Rusher and slaps him too. As they couldn't do the usual delayed gratification of Rusher locking up with Eigen here, Okuma and Eigen did control for the most part with Andre just threatening. When it came time for Eigen to get his, he did a massive spit spot on the apron with Andre whacking him once from the corner and then around the ringside area with Rusher. Late in the match Andre tagged in for the first time and they did a funny bit of Okuma and Eigen attacking him with a thousand shots and none of them registering. Finish was Andre falling on one of them (I assume Eigen). It was a fun variation but Andre from even six months before felt very different.

4/14/91: Masao Inoue/Momota vs Teranishi/Satoru Asako: A HH so we get the whole card. More or less my first look at Inoue and Asako. This is a fun way to do the opening match with the more or less rookies, having them paired with some vets, and one that's usually pretty over in Momota. When it was Momota vs Teranishi, they really went at it and it was enjoyable. When it was Inoue vs Asako, they tended to work the mat and did deliberate first-match AJPW rookie stuff and it was fine. Both showed promise. Inoue had this nice upwards dropkick that I liked. When it was either of them against the vets, the vets bullied them something fierce. It made for a fun introduction to these guys. If I come back to 1991, maybe I'll see them again, but probably only if I have handhelds? 4/14/91: Doug Furnas vs Steve Doll: This was pretty good. Doll had speed and agility. Furnas had strength and agility. Furnas had the clear advantage here for a chunk of this accordingly. This moved better than the Fuchi vs Furnas match certainly, not to harp on that, especially since we just had a really good Fuchi match vs Kikuchi. Doll had a pretty slick corner reversal where he went up and over and then hit a German. I haven't seen too many people do that ever. His last burst ended with a whip reversal and a frankensteiner though. I would have probably much rather seen Can-Ams vs Southern Rockers though. The 4/16 show has Can-Ams vs Smith/Slinger at least.

I'll hit the rest on my commute tomorrow but thought Infantry/Mack vs Outrunners/Ku was really entertaining.

I watched this Santana/Ortiz vs Aussie Open match from 5 years ago as I'm trying to get a sense of Santana and Davis was unrecognizable.

Hey, we just happen to live in a world inhabited by Serpentico, buddy.

Pretty fun Rampage overall: 8-man had some interacting pairings. All the people outside. Jarrett/Lethal working with Butcher/Blade, Hardys working with Lucha Bros. There was some fun stuff early with Penta and Jarrett and Matt is a perfectly fine FIP in 2023. He knows how to garner sympathy and work from underneath. Whenever he's not trying to keep up with Sammy or something, all is well. The stuff with Abrahantes was a little goofy but at least he got ragdolled. Kingdom vs Sydal/Daniels was solid stuff. I got a kick out of the Kingdom talking about neck health before hitting neckbreakers and what not. Pretty funny. Pretty vocal match overall with Sydal responding to whatever Taven was saying. Finish was abrupt but you need that sort of thing sometimes. Fans really wanted to chant that something was awesome, I guess? Not much to say about the two squashes except for that Avalon and the Outriders made the most out of Billy Gunn's leg and Bowens looked great, hitting his stuff and then basking in the crowd adoration. He also played off the Dark Order well. Main event was good. Back and forth, power stuff, everything measured. Jade's reactions feel much more natural now. When she was yelling at Sterling after the near miss, she was very much in the moment. Another good defense for Stat. It's a shame we never had a Jade babyface run but what are you going to do?

4/6/91 (may be 4/16/91?): Fuchi vs Kikuchi: This was for the Jr. Title and it was very good. The first 2/3rds of so was Kikuchi in a hopeless situation. He kept getting tossed out early but would stymie Fuchi by rushing right back in. Eventually the stretching started. Kikuchi might slip in a few forearms or get a tricked out little mat exchange where he ended up with Fuchi's arm. Fuchi would shut him down real quick, in these cases with a slap to the face or some more stretching respectively. Kikuchi finally found his opening and just threw his body at Fuchi over and over with top rope dropkicks and dives. He couldn't put him away though and Fuchi took over with the lifting smash onto the table on the other side of the rail, demolishing the leg. That was the beginning of the end and everyone knew it. Fuchi locked in a half crab but Kikuchi made it to the ropes. That was the preamble for the STF... yet, somehow, miraculously, Kikuchi hung on and made it to the ropes again. There was a bit of a buzz here, one that was rewarded with Kikuchi throwing a desperate shot and then actually hitting the German. And then his leg gave out on the bridge. Poor bastard. He lasted quite a while in the half crab that followed but couldn't last forever. Good match. Here it is:

It’s only funny if this stays the official thread, guys.

I’m glad Punk isn’t lurking. He’d lunge at you guys violently for spending the last ten pages not talking about him.

Weed?

I get a kick out of Mox and Christian sharing a room.

Thanks! Definitely hadn’t heard Martin vs Daniels yet. That should be a good test for Darius.

4/6/91 Jumbo vs Kawada: Ah the joys of the Carnival. This one was very cool, a lot to wrap my mind around. Kawada got the first shot in but then Jumbo started to hit the "kitchen sink" (hate that name, can't believe Dylan Hales of all people calls it that on commentary! For shame, old friend) on him a couple of times. Jumbo leans in with submissions, crab, kind of lame legbar, the STF Fuchi taught him where Jumbo kinds of just lays on you. Kawada fires back on the leg, gets a half crab but can't hold him, etc. Hits a big clothesline. Contains him with leg scissors. He's lost the plot a bit since while it's impressive Kawada is containing Jumbo like this... he's not going to beat him this way. But it's all he can do. Jumbo gets out and Kawada just takes him down with a chinlock and a headlock and the look on Kawada's face here, the effort, the missing teeth, the sheer determination is awesome. But Jumbo's not going to be held down, even by that guy, and he lifts him up and instead of hitting the back drop driver just tosses him across the ring. Then he takes him outside and hits the shin breaker on the table. After that he brutalizes him: Clothesline, pile driver, big boot. KAwada's able to somehow reverse a whip in the corner and he uses all of his kicks, the leaping one in the corner, the "Kawada kicks", the spin kick, an upkick after Jumbo cuts him off with a clothesline, and then finally Tenyru's enziguiri to the face! He hurts his shin and can't capitalize but finally squares Jumbo up for one of his finishers, the clothesline to the back of the head. It knocks Jumbo out of the ring though! Cruel twist of fate. He can't follow him with the shin, but he knocks him off the apron, follows up! It's pretty exciting at this point. He hits a belly to back in the ring and this is the moment! HE sets Jumbo up for the power bomb, but can't get it, hammers him, but can't get it, gives Jumbo his best and Jumbo just slaps him in the face. It's all but over here. Jumping knee. Kickout! Jumbo gets pissy and hits the power bomb himself. Kick out. So Jumbo just hits him with two back drop drivers and calls it a day. The fact he hit two, to me, wasn't him being worried about Kawada or even angry at him, but being a dick that wouldn't give him the moral victory of being able to kick out of one. Anyway, this was good and really leaned into the hierarchy in a smart way. 4/6/91: Misawa vs Hansen: Another hierarchy match. I won't go too deep into it, not like the other, but Jumbo could really take it to Hansen here. It was maybe 65/35 along those lines, maybe even 60/40. He's able to fire back on him, able to take him down, able to contain him. He's able to toss Hansen into the rail, etc. The match opens up in a big way when Hansen rips off part of the guard rail and attacks Misawa with it, which the announcer goes nuts for saying he'd never seen it before. There's a pile driver here as well. Misawa eventually comes back and he hits maybe the best magic elbow off the top I've ever seen. It was like time froze. But he misses the frog splash which felt like the real lost opportunity for him to actually win. When Hansen tosses Misawa into the rail after he goes flying over big and then Hansen hits the lariat while Misawa's coming back in on the apron. Hansen adjusts the elbowpad and goes for it again, Misawa ducks and goes for the crucifix that everyone in the crowd knew that he'd win with if he hit it, Hansen dropped down in a modified Samoan Drop and that was the match. This was more even than Kawada vs Jumbo but maybe less theatrical. Very interesting to see how the hierarchy spectrum was shifting over time.