F.I.S.T. vs. The Colony (Chikara 2/20/09) I’m taking an extended holiday vacation until the first Monday of January and partly using it to enjoy a stack of wrestling DVDs I have. Plowing through my Chikara stack, I hit up a show from much earlier in the year dubbed “If the Airplane is Snowed In, Put [...]
Saturday, December 5, 2009
Brazo de Oro vs. Pirata Morgan (EMLL 11/15/89) We’re out of my comfort zone. I’ve read about both these guys, but never seen them wrestle. This one’s for a belt, I’m guessing a smaller NWA title Mexico has adopted. Pirata is in great shape, and even has the eye patch for the pirate gimmick. Brazo is [...]
Sunday, November 1, 2009
Mike Quackenbush & Jigsaw vs. Claudio Castagnoli & Bryan Danielson (Chikara 9/13/09) Last night, I watched a match from this past September (much fresher in the public’s minds than everything else I’ve been watching) that I enjoyed so much, I wanted to implore other people to check it out. I know John usually does these [...]
Saturday, October 24, 2009
Brad Armstrong vs. Great Muta (WCWSN 5/30/92) I liked Brad Armstrong in his Mid South matches, and I was actually a bigger advocate for his title match on TV with Dibiase then the longer formed house show match. So I think Armstrong had talent and could go in a shorter TV match. Likewise, I like Muta, [...]
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
Lex Luger vs. Dick Murdoch (Power Hour 11/10/89) Jim Cornette and a more sports oriented, less hyperbolic Jim Ross on commentary. Talk about a dream team, and they helped paint the match’s picture completely for me. The first few minutes is as simple as punches and wrist locks, and the story works so perfectly. You can [...]
Friday, October 2, 2009
Bob Backlund vs. Ivan Koloff (MSG 8/28/78) My first foray into seriously watching a WWWF MSG match from the seventies. Lou Albano keeps yelling into the mic. I don’t quite get it, but the crowd gets riled up. This really is a time warp, because these tough NYC fans really seem to love the spiffy [...]
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Tiger Mask vs. Eddie Gilbert (Philly 11/25/82) I know there’s a talking point/school of thought emerging out there (of course this is all random opinion and not a completely unified thought)that the Tiger Mask/Dynamite Kid matches don’t hold up, or never were that great, and that Tiger Mask was a bit of a spot monkey without [...]
Thursday, September 3, 2009
Hiroshi Hase vs. Great Muta (New Japan 12/14/92) Another match from the New Japan top 20 as voted on by the Death Valley Driver Message Board many moons ago. This was and still may be a much talked about match for the blood that Muta spills, the beginnings of the insider fan Muta blade job scale.
Sunday, August 30, 2009
Kota Ibushi & KAGETORA vs. Shuji Kondo & Oyanagei (El Dorado 2/27/08) Shingo Takagi & BXB Hulk vs. KENTA & Taiji Ishimori (Dragon Gate 3/20/08) I watched these two back to back a few days ago and saw some similarities and differences. Thought I’d blog about it starting with the embarrassing fact that I have trouble telling [...]
Monday, August 24, 2009
El Samurai vs Shinjiro Ohtani (New Japan 1/29/96) El Samurai has a pocket of fans, but when I first got into the Japanese Super Juniors style he was always an also ran to me. As in, here’s a great match Chris Benoit had. It’s with (fill in a name like Ohtani). Or, M-Pro had a big [...]
Saturday, August 22, 2009
Cactus Jack vs HHH (WWE Royal Rumble 1.23.00) Recently I was reading a decent debate about the best years of singles stars, where people would throw in typical greats like Ric Flair’s 1989, Kobashi’s 1993, Shawn Michaels’ 1996, or even new school ideas like Brock Lesnar’s Mania ’02 till Mania ’03 (I like it). The most [...]
Monday, August 17, 2009
Bob Backlund vs. Ivan Koloff (MSG 8/28/78) My first foray into seriously watching a WWWF MSG match from the seventies. Lou Albano keeps yelling into the mic. I don’t quite get it, but the crowd gets riled up. This really is a time warp, because these tough NYC fans really seem to love the spiffy [...]
Wednesday, August 5, 2009
A new compilation disk has arrived with fun goodies, so I figured I’d post some thoughts on the lot of random matches. Here’s the first…
Friday, April 24, 2009
5.29.04 Samoa Joe vs Chris Hero (IWA-MS) Super fan Rob Naylor has extolled the virtues of this match and it’s fun, and after much thought and due process, who am I to doubt El Dandy (or Rob Naylor).
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
HHH vs. Shawn Michaels vs. Jeff Hardy vs. Chris Jericho vs. JBL vs. Umaga (Elimination Chamber) (No Way Out 2/17/08) I’m usually not a fan of Elim. Chambers. MFP (My Friend Paul) and I got the first Chamber on PPV in ’02. I thought the structure was limiting, produced bad bumps, possible injuries, and wasn’t my [...]
Monday, April 20, 2009
Randy Orton vs. John Cena (No Way Out 2/17/08) This is more of a match of entertainers than it is a pro wrestling performance, though it’s certainly that too. Both guys are immensely good at the having and showing presence, as well as intangibles like facial expression, when to play to a crowd, the pacing and [...]
Saturday, April 18, 2009
Jumbo Tsuruta vs. Billy Robinson – (AJPW 3/5/77) Fit Finlay & Pegasus Kid vs. Negro Casas & Eddy Guerrero (New Japan 4/30/92) These matches don’t have a ton in common other than being taped in Japan and both being around twelve minutes. I thought I’d throw in my two cents on these two together since I watched [...]
Thursday, April 16, 2009
CM Punk vs Chris Hero (IWA-MS 2.9.02) This match took place a few weeks before super indy Ring Of Honor would debut to the world. At the time this match was the standard for great independent wrestling in the U.S., at leas tto some people. You’ve got this, Danielson-Low Ki on the east coast, and whatever [...]
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
Roderick Strong vs Erik Stevens (FIP 2/16/08) Been meaning to see this match for a year now. Finally took the time to sit down with it. I was there live for their ROH Final Battle ’07 match, and it didn’t get good until last 1/3 of the match, though you can argue the first 2/3 was [...]
Monday, April 13, 2009
Alexander Otsuka vs Daisuke Sekimoto (Inoki Genome 3/15/09) Sekimoto I got turned onto when I reviewed a Big Japan tag from last year. He was the one who impressed me enough to take a closer look at. Otsuka has done some BattleArts of recept, which is a real niche shoot style promotion in Japan. I’m pretty [...]
Sunday, December 27, 2009
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