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What Are You Watching / Last Match, Event or Documentary You Saw
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23-04-2007 12:22pmAnd a quick, non spoiler review of it. It can be a live match or one you have seen on DVD. From other forums, this is a great way to see other promotions you may not have known about. Dont just list a match, as any retard can do that.
The Briscoes Vs Kings Of Wrestling ROH: Final Battle 2006
As mentioned in another thread, this is an absolutely stunning match. The pace is lightning fast, and there is no let up at any point. Watch this match. It will make you happy.
Jimmy Rave Vs Nigel McGuinness Final Battle 2006
This is a great match also, but then, Nigel hasn't been in a poor match in an awful long time. It has one of the most out of the blue finishes I have seen. Throughout this match you can see that Rave is at the beginning of a push, and on his showing here, he will do very well once he is in or around the main event scene.
London & Kendrick vs Duece & Domino Smackdown 20/04/07
This match shows why the tag team division in WWE is so crap. Im putting spoiler tags herethey pushed Londrick as a great team who have held the belts almost a year. They lose the belts on an injury angle on free TV. Fúck sake, they had an oppurtunity to build a good fued where D&D, a heel team, do anything to get the titles and have the blow off on PPV. Instead, this happens. Bullshirt is what it is0
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Good thread!
Jimmy Rave vs Nigel McGuinness (I Quit match) - ROH - Battle of the Icons
I've been away on holidays so I haven't seen much recently, apart from the TNA PPV but I've said my part on that. I watched this match straight after WrestleMania and it really made me laugh after seeing Cena's attempt at selling a leg injury. In this match Rave works on Nigel's ankle, and Nigel works on Raves shoulder and by the end of the match I was convinced both were in agony. As gimmick mentioned, Rave was beginning a push at Final Battle and it continued here with Rave's Heel Hook submission looking devastating. I liked the end of this match too with both guys came out looking strong after. These two have had a great feud and it won't be too long now until we can re-live their brutal Fight Without Honor from Liverpool
KENTA vs Naomuchi Marufuji - NOAH - Autumn Navigation
Two of my favourite wrestlers in the world right now. Marufuji came into this as GHC champion, a big step up from the Juniors division where you would normally find these two. Marufuji has improved so much since Final Battle 2005 and his match with Danielson. He takes some nasty falls (see my sig) but battles through like a true champion. At one stage when he "hulks" up, he looks like a carbon copy of Kobashi. I mean it's scary how similar they look.
Thank god for YouTube!
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
If you don't love this match, I hate you.0 -
Tully Blanchard and Arn Anderson versus the Hart Foundation at Summerslam 1988/89.
Its one of my favorite tag matches and its probably one of the most overlooked. Speaking of overlooked, Blanchard and Anderson were such a great tag team and their over the top antics worked so well in the match. they made the Hart Foundation look like a million bucks even when beating them.
No one killed themselves or killed each other during the match. It was a text book match that I'm sure they had lots of times on the road. It would get over today too I think.
Ric Flair versus Terry Funk 1991 "I quit match".
Both of them were so fantastic in this and its in my top 5 matches of all time. Again it was no monster spot fest as you'd expect but there a 101 little things that make it such a great match and seem so real like Flair jumping on his back, squeezing his neck and Funk just generally being an out of control mad man. The intensity of it was unreal. The commentary with Ross and Solie was phenomenal too.0 -
ROH Vs CZW in a Cage of Death Match (Think that's what it was called?).
I saw it with no commentary, but I don't think commentary would have made a difference, the match was awful.
Being hit with a weapon is supposed to mean something. This match was just people getting hit with weapons repeatedly. It had no flow and they removed probably the best two wrestlers in the match after a few minutes just to set up a feud.
If ROH is like this normally I might not bother checking out any more of their stuff.0 -
Double C wrote:KENTA vs Naomuchi Marufuji - NOAH - Autumn Navigation
If you don't love this match, I hate you.
What an amazing match this was. It shows everything that is great about Pro Wrestling. I love the way the crowd grow into it as it goes on as well. Some amazing spots, and it tells a great story.chopperbyrne wrote:ROH Vs CZW in a Cage of Death Match (Think that's what it was called?).
I saw it with no commentary, but I don't think commentary would have made a difference, the match was awful.
Being hit with a weapon is supposed to mean something. This match was just people getting hit with weapons repeatedly. It had no flow and they removed probably the best two wrestlers in the match after a few minutes just to set up a feud.
If ROH is like this normally I might not bother checking out any more of their stuff.
Did you actually see this fued develop? Now, im not normally into hardcore trash wrestling, but this was a fantastic blow off to a properly booked "invasion" angle. Your point on the weapons I think is wrong. Throughout, they were beating the ever living snot out of each other, tables, chairs whatever. But it was always hatred which drove them. No matter how badly one got hurt he would still get back up to fight for the honour of his promotion.
The no commentary thing - well this tends to happen for some big matches, and indeed, throughout the ROH CZW fued. There was no commentary for the latter stages of Joe Vs Punk II, Dragon Gate 6 man, Joe Vs Kobashi ( I think).
ROH is not usually like that particular match though. It tends to be alot more about actually wrestling than brutality, ie its more Chris Benoit than Mick Foley.0 -
I wasn't mad about the Cage of Death to be honest. I think it has to be understood that it was pretty much a mid card feud the whole way through ie Ace Steel and Adam Pearce representing ROH. It was good for what it was I suppose. Nate Webb definitely took the worst beating ever in that. The Cop Killa onto the barbed wire was sick, as was his weird moonsaulty thing. The pop for Homicide when his music hit made the match more special.
I you want to get into ROH look for most of Danielsons title run, he had incredible matches against Roderick Strong (3 times), Jimmy Rave, KENTA, Nigel McGuinness and a hilarious match with Alex Shelley. The crowd interaction was brilliant there:
Crowd member: Shelley, you suck dick.
Shelley: No, I rather vaginal sex.
But honestly, give ROH a try, it's better than everything else.0 -
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Gimmick, I didn't see the lead up to the match, but you should be able to view a good match years later without knowing any of the storylines and still enjoy it.
As a stand alone match it was terrible. There was very little psychology. Moves didn't mean anything. I think there were about three pin attempts all match.
I'm all for good "hardcore" style matches. Jericho and HHH in the cell is a prime example of one of these type of matches done well, just this particular match did nothing for me.
Double C, Danielson's title run has already been recommended so I'll be checking it out as soon as I can.0 -
Brian Pillman vs Johnny B Badd (Marc Mero) - WCW Fall Brawl 95
This was after the Hollywood Blondes had been broken up because they were getting more over with the fans than they were meant to. The bookers were attempting to make Pillman look bad by putting him in this match with a very limited worker at the time in Johnny B Badd. They booked it for a 20 minute time limit draw, followed by a long period of overtime. The idea was that Pillman would struggle to carry Mero to a good match and that he'd have completely lost the fans by the time they reached the overtime, giving all the lads in the back a good laugh at Brian after he'd been talking about the different styles he was incorporating into his work. What Pillman did was a big "**** you" to the people in charge. He carried the match 100 percent, and he carried it so well. This match didn't make it onto the dvd of Pillman that WWE made, as on the surface it's not that amazing a match. But given the context, this is an excellent example of how great a worker Pillman was. Took me ages to track it down!
I wasn't a big fan of that Cage of Death. The Cage of Death is a CZW thing, they're all about their "hardcore wrestling", which I'm not usually a fan of because there's too many untalented guys doing it. As mentioned, if you want a taste of what ROH is about then you can't go wrong with the American Dragon
On a sidenote, I'd love if ROH released a dvd of the Jimmy Jacobs/Lacey angle. I think that angle had more fans into it than any other, based purely on the actual story, and it built for over a year without ever getting stale I think0 -
^^its a pity that pillman is not given more recognition as being a great wrestler.I am a huge fan of the guys work and no doubt still would be if he was still with us...
Also Im not a fan of the "death match" either. Often the guys have little or no wrestling talent but a high threshold of pain and they are called great wrestlers for their efforts to rolling around in barbed wire,broken glass etc.The idea of intentionally causing physical harm to yourself is what really pisses me off about this "hardcore" style of "wrestling".Also I think that it is this that gives wrestling alot of the bad publicity0 -
Hiroshi Tanahashi vs Yuji Nagata for the IWGP Title, New Japan, 14th April
I'm not very up to date with Japanese wrestling, but from what I've heard this is one of the best matches to come out of the country this year. Nagata gets a title shot after winning the New Japan Cup tournament last month. TNA viewers may remember Tanahashi as the New Japan guy who fought AJ Styles on a TNA ppv last year
The pace of this match was perfect, they built it up so good. Nagata's kicks were vicious and both guys did an excellent job of selling. It doesn't take much to sell an injury properly but it adds so much to the match. It drew a lot of parallels to the Cena vs Michaels match from Raw for me, as Tanahashi is the young champ who not everyone is keen on and Nagata is the older guy who had the backing of the fans in this match. This took place one week earlier though and it was just as good0 -
5YF NYC ROH Feb 07
Im watching this at the moment, and Ive just finsihed the Briscoes Vs McGuinness and Cabana match. So far, every match on this has been very good (though I skipped the womens match). Great 4 way fray, with Jimmy Jacobs Vs Xavier Vs Shingo Vs the retuning Jack Evans. I had heards Evans had improved hugely with his spell in Dragongate, and Im not going to say any different. Jack is about the most innovative wrestler in ROH at the moment, and he is not just a spot monkey. He has brought some nice floor work to his arsenal as well now. Ill watch Morishma Vs Joe when I get home. Quite close to a 5 star Im told.0 -
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I missed out on a lot of the early PPV's last year so i'm on a catchup spree at the minute. I'm into June/July which usually means the cream of the crap between One Night Stand and Great American Bash.
Judgment Day 06 is the last PPV i've actually watched, altho i recorded Backlash 07 last night so i'll probably watch that later tonight. It's hard to watch WWE right now when i'm currently going through the entire year of RAW 99 and Superstars 87 and seeing how well storylines developed then, as opposed to the utter drivel (seriously, who gave a **** who shaved whos head off at Mania, and why should we still care about it a month later?). Superstars 87 is actually getting a lot of attention from me as i'm watching the buildup to Mania III.
They don't make it like they used to!
(christ, i do sound like an angry old man now!)
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Double post, sorry. I blame Eircom.0
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gimmick wrote:5YF NYC ROH Feb 07
Im watching this at the moment, and Ive just finsihed the Briscoes Vs McGuinness and Cabana match. So far, every match on this has been very good (though I skipped the womens match). Great 4 way fray, with Jimmy Jacobs Vs Xavier Vs Shingo Vs the retuning Jack Evans. I had heards Evans had improved hugely with his spell in Dragongate, and Im not going to say any different. Jack is about the most innovative wrestler in ROH at the moment, and he is not just a spot monkey. He has brought some nice floor work to his arsenal as well now. Ill watch Morishma Vs Joe when I get home. Quite close to a 5 star Im told.
Bizarre, I'm at the exact same stage in that show! Can't wait to see Joe and Morishima. Homicide and Rave is meant to be good too. Thank god Homicide's reign is nearly over at this stage, I couldn't buy into him as champion at all. His match against Hero was only watchable for Hero and Sweeney on the outside.
I agree about Jack. He has toned down his Flippy McGuiilcuddy ways from 2004 and is turning into a real competitor now. Although now that *minor talent release spoiler*Shingo has gone back to Japan, his proposed group might be in trouble.0 -
HBK Vs Cena WWE Raw 28/04/07
This is the match which should have headlined Wrestlemania, not the crap they put on at the actual event. Great back and forth match, great crowd heat, totally unpredictable as it wasn't for the title. Im still somewhat suspect of Cenas selling ability, but this match, for me, is by far and away his best yet. I still dont buy into people saying Cena Vs Umaga is a MOTYC, as it was crap, but this was great. Ive not seen Backlash yet, but on this showing, the main event should be well worth watching.
Mohammed Yone & Takeshi Morishima Vs Go Shiosaki & Naomichi Marufuji
This was a great match. All 4 of these men are great, and I am a bit of a Marufuji mark at this stage. Im liking Morishimas style. he is very fast for a big guy. I had not seen Yone wrestle before this, and look forward to seeing him again. This match was quite technical to begin with, and picked up the pace to a great sprint at the end. I dont know the show it was on, but it was just on TWC last night.
Samoa Joe Vs Takeshi Morishima 5YF NYC
The hyperbolé for this match was justified. My only problem with it was it was slightly short at around 20 mins, and the end was slightly anti climactic. Both these men put on an amazing show, and this was about as stiff and hard hitting as you are likely to see. The crowd were hot for this one which always helps. Pity Joe will be wasted so badly in TNA, but thats where the money is.
Not a bad nights viewing Im sure anyone will agree.0 -
I watched Joe and Morishima last night too, I couldn't get over Morishima's agility! I had seen bits and pieces of him before but never expected a cartwheel back splash from a near 300 pound man. The crowd were brilliant for this and they gave Joe a nice farewell too at the end.
Still haven't bothered with Rave and Homicide yet, I might just watch it now.0 -
got a copy of the 2001 invasion ppv and survivor series on dvd,watched that last night,talk about throwing away a great angle,id forgotten how confusing the whole thing was as well,the rock was on the wwf side but was wcw champ,austin was with the alliance and had the wwf title,alliance lost because kurt (an alliance member) turned on austin cost him the match so the wwf title was given to kurt the next night on raw (who the fans were booing) and vince was a face up until ric flair walked out and proclaimed himself part owner! jesus!0
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Rob Van Dam vs Dan Kroffat - AJPW 1995
This was the first time I'd seen RVD wrestle outside of WWE or ECW. If the rumours about him leaving WWE are true, then I'd love to see him wrestle on the indies if he can still wrestle like he did in this match. He had all his trademark stuff back then, but the match as a whole was much more exciting than his regular stuff. Great wrestler. Kroffat was a good heel in this match
Arn Anderson vs Ric Flair - WCW Fall Brawl 1995
Both guys did promos before the match about how they've been best friends and they both love each other but that they have to fight the other man because he's gone too far. Interesting watching them as they both had the same point of view but different ways of delivering it. The match was excellent, WCW had a load of wrestlers come out to sit front row to get over how big this was. Crowd was sort of split, they got behind Arn as Flair did more heel stuff. I was really enjoying it but then the ending spoiled it a bit. I'm not sure where they went with the angle after this, so I don't know if the ending made sense in the long run or not. Pity, because Arn and Flair didn't wrestle each other a whole lot of times
Terry Funk vs Jumbo Tsuruta - All Japan 1976
I found this "Best of Terry Funk in AJPW" dvd in my room yesterday, don't know where it came from. Anyway, this match was the first one on it. There was a bit of an anti-climactic pin, then I realised it was 2 out of 3 falls. The Funker is really interesting to watch I find. Little things he does make him stand out. Decent match0 -
Briscoes Vs El Generico and Kevin Steen 5YF Philly
Defo an early runner for MOTY. The pace of this match is that what you have come to expect from a Briscoes match. I hadnt seen much of Steen pre this, maybe a few PWG matches, but he impressed the hell out of me, and is worthy of his roster spot in ROH. The Briscoes as always did their part in making a memorable match.
So far so good with this DVD. Better that NYC.0 -
Briscoes vs Matt Sydal & Christopher Daniels 5YF Chicago
Another great Briscoes match. Not as good as the above one, but great all the same. I think Sydal has really turned it up a few notches in 2007, and I'll never understand why people say that Daniels has gone stale. Usual fast pace to this, felt that the Sydaniels had some great joint offense. Even though this match was almost 30 minuts long, I felt it was paced wrong, in that the first 22/24 minutes you knew there would not be a fall, and the sprint came out of nowhere, whereas otyher tag tam matches it build up to the finishing sprint. Was slightly dissapointed with Marks mistake at the end as well, but all in all, this kept my attention very well, and is well worth seeing.
In fact, so far so good on 5YF Chicago.0 -
6 Man Mayhem - 5YF Dayton (Claudio Castagnoli v Pelle Primeau v Mark Briscoe v Matt Cross v Shingo v Roderick Strong)
Awesome match. Very spot orientated, but awesome none the less. I can't believe how good Primeau has become. Before this match, to me he was just a lame student getting a minor push but he worked his ass off in this one. He was in the match non stop for the first two thirds of it, getting his ass kicked, well, more like his chest chopped. Strong and Shingo went to town on him with the chops.
Once the final sprint came, Primeau pulled off two of the most insane head scissors you will ever see, both to Claudio. Briscoe pulled out a Shooting Star Press to the outside and Cross did a few nice spots too.
The cool thing about the match was that the spots had relevance to the story of the match, they weren't just thrown in for the sake of it. It's definitely my favourite 6MM ever. Castagnoli is at his best working with smaller guys and this match is proof of it.0 -
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PWG Battle Of Los Angeles 2006
Im on night 2 of this at the moment, and I must say,the wrestling is fantastic. Now, I do find it a bit hard to watch without any commentary though. Last match i saw on this was Davey Richards Vs Ronin, which was actually quite good. Im not a fan of Richards at all, and Ronin looks terribbly out of shape. Richards does look fairly impressive in this outing, and carries a decent match. Good pace, and doesnt rely on any high spots. My only gripe is that it goes over 15 minutes which is a bit too long.
The matches worth seeing from this are Generico Vs Delirious (night 1), Steen Vs Sydal (1) and Cabana Vs Sabin(1), Evans Vs CC (2). There is an absolute shocker on night one between Dragon Kid and Qucksilver. About the sloppist match i have ever seen on DVD.0 -
ROH Fifth Year Festival - Liverpool
The first bit of ROH from this year that I've seen, and it was brilliant. First half of the show was very solid, nothing completely stand-out though. Davey Richards impressed me a lot, he was very good at playing the heel here. Delirious did very well, I forgot he'd suffered a concussion the previous week until Prazak mentioned it. Sara Del Ray really is one of the best women wrestlers around today I think, I saw another of her matches the other day against Nattie Neidhart, excellent stuff
Second half was deadly. PAC impressed me so much more than on any other occasion I've seen him. Him vs Roderick Strong was almost turning into one of those matches where you know beforehand that there's no way the challenger will win the title, but then you start doubting as the near-falls get nearer and nearer. The Briscoes vs Naruki Doi and Shingo was very fast paced, my only gripe with it would be that it seemed like the Briscoes were getting in too much offense, but I suppose it makes sense as it was definitely what the crowd wanted to see. I lost track of who the champs were in the middle of the match, got my dates mixed up, so the ending surprised me a bit
The main event was a really really good match up to when Joe hit the Muscle Buster on Nigel to the ring apron. Then it started going on pure emotion and it was just awesome. The look on Nigel's face when he made his way back to the ring after being helped up the ramp was so intense, and the crowd just erupted when he kicked out of Joe's clothesline! It really must have been something to be there for it0 -
And the second night is even better! I haven't watched these shows since, with the exception of the Briscoe's singles match and the Whitmer Jacobs falls count anywhere match, so I might just stick it on later to re-live the glory.
It's good to see Richards getting over as a heel, I think he was getting a little stale as a face, same applies to Strong too.
The tag title match was amazing to witness live. No one, and I mean no one saw Doi and Shingo winning so it was a nice surprise to throw in. I saw Mark Briscoe's botched SSP today from All Star Extravaganza III, its sick. It was a shame too, that match looked as if it was going to be brilliant.
Your right about Sara del Ray, she will be a good addition to the WWE Divas roster, after a bout of the mandatory cosmetic surgery. She won the first Shimmer world title recently too, fair play to her.
Pac looked very good too, but then again Strong can make any high flyer look good. I'd like to see Pac booked again to face Castagnoli anyway and maybe Aries when he comes back.
I was hoping for Nigel to go over Joe in the main event but it was done perfectly, both looked like animals after it, even Nigel with his injury.
I'm sure I'll be back in this thread tomorrow after I watch the rest of ASE III and Supercard of Honor II, there should be a few classics in there!0 -
Dragon Gate 6 Man Tag - CIMA, Shingo and Susumu Yokosuka vs Dragon Kid, Ryo Saito and Masaaki Mochizuki (ROH Supercard of Honor II)
Well these lads had a lot to live up to after last year and imo they blew last years match out of the water with this one. This match had a much slower pace than the last one and I'm glad it did. It would have been very easy for them to do the same insane fast pace match but this one had so many extra elements. There was a great hard style confrontation between Shingo and Mochizuki. Mochizuki's kicks are unreal, and he uses his surroundings very well to pull them off. Shingo was very impressive in this one too, his power is incredible. CIMA's team spent a lot of time working over Dragon Kid to slow him down and they used some of the most innovative submission holds I've ever seen. There weren't as many contrived spots as in the last one either, the only one that springs to mind starts off as a tower of doom but turns into a Doomsday Device followed by CIMA's coast to coast. The final burst was lightning fast. I expected it to go on longer but it ended well. I'm sure it will appeal more to people who were sceptical of the first one.0 -
5YF Liverpool
This is an incredible with good matches throughout. The opener between Richards and Homicide was excellent, and had the crowd well into it. PAC Vs Strong didnt fail to dissapoint either, even if I think that PAC is too aerial orientated. If he could master some mat work he would be excellent. The show stealing was Briscoes Vs Shingo and Doi. Having seen the match live i got really into this again. The aftermath was brilliant which really gave further anticipation to the next night. Joe Vs Nigel had a great match, all the better considering Nigel tore a muscle in his thigh in the opening minute. Great psychology, great action, and a fantastcic finish.
This show is a must see.0 -
gimmick wrote:5YF Liverpool
This is an incredible with good matches throughout. The opener between Richards and Homicide was excellent, and had the crowd well into it. PAC Vs Strong didnt fail to dissapoint either, even if I think that PAC is too aerial orientated. If he could master some mat work he would be excellent. The show stealing was Briscoes Vs Shingo and Doi. Having seen the match live i got really into this again. The aftermath was brilliant which really gave further anticipation to the next night. Joe Vs Nigel had a great match, all the better considering Nigel tore a muscle in his thigh in the opening minute. Great psychology, great action, and a fantastcic finish.
This show is a must see.
I actually think the Briscoes match is even better on DVD than live, the pace was so frentic live that a lot of things slipped my memory. The finishing run is ****ing incredible, even second time round it blew me away and even fooled me a few times!0 -
Briscoe Vs Briscoe 5YF Finale
This is as close to the perfect match as I have ever seen. We all know what these 2 can do as a team, so seeing them go against each other was always going to be a bit special. Surprisingly there was alot of restholds in this match, but it didnt really affect the hot pace of this. Both men had plenty offence, some high spots and nice power moves. The crowd were very much into this, and the standing ovation for the end was totally dreserved. It was class on DVD, and I am glad I saw it live also. Match Of the year by a country mile so far.0 -
gimmick wrote:Briscoe Vs Briscoe 5YF Finale
I watched this match the other day and it was amazing. It had everything in it. The story told within the match and the story the actual match itself told were both excellent. Afterwards I was just left wanting to see them team up again. They're both in the NOAH Junior Tag League next month, which is something I've got to see. There's the Briscoes, Danielson & Richards, KENTA & Ishimori, Marvin & Kotaro Suzuki and Marufuji & Kota Iifushi. Every team will wrestle every other team with points being awarded to the winners. That's at least 10 matches, all of which I want to see!
CM Punk vs Austin Aries - ROH World Title match, Death Before Dishonor 3, 2005
I just watched this, thought it would be appropriate as it was the last time before this week that Punk challenged for a world title. Great match, I don't think anyone in the building gave Punk a chance of winning as it was common knowledge he was off to WWE. Started with Punk on top until Aries hit a big move. It was like HHH vs Cena at WM last year here, with Aries getting constantly booed for about 10 minutes when he was in control, and then every single person there cheering whenever Punk got so much as a punch in. This was more about what the match meant than the actual match itself, so I can forgive Aries for apparently forgetting Punk had been focusing on his already injured neck for at least 10 minutes. And then the promo after the match...just pure gold. Punk is the man0 -
Ric Flair versus Steamboat Chi Town Rumble February 1989
The WWE Legends of the '80s dvd was in sale in town so I picked it up. This match is one hundred shades of greatness. I don't have the words to describe how good it was.
Part 1: http://www.dailymotion.com/relevance/search/ric%2Bflair%20steamboat/video/x241tv_ric-flair-vs-ricky-steamboat-chitow
Part 2:http://www.dailymotion.com/mrbling/video/x24297_ric-flair-vs-ricky-steamboat-chitow0 -
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Vince135792003 wrote:Ric Flair versus Steamboat Chi Town Rumble February 1989
I was on holiday in Spain years ago, and there was a German tv station that showed WCW for an hour or two every night. One night they had a special that was all about Flair, who I'd heard of but never actually seen. I wasn't too impressed with what I saw. He was pretty out of shape back then. I thought there was more to him than that though, so when I got home I watched that match, and right then I could see what all the fuss was about. Great stuff
Eddy Guerrero, Art Barr & Heavy Metal vs El Hijo Del Santo, Blue Panther & Octagon - AAA, 1993
Fun match, the fans despised Art. There were a lot of little things he did that I thought were cool. Eddy was great, nowhere near as charismatic as he'd become though, Art was basically like what Eddy was 10 years later here. The one thing that never fails to annoy me about Mexican wrestling is the refs. They always do something stupid to piss me me off. And in this match there were two! If someone was outside the ring, they'd both go to check and turn their backs on the heels. They'd both count some pinfalls and they'd be inconsistent. They're always real old refs in Mexico too. There's never any tap-outs in Mexico either, wrestlers just nod their heads and it makes every submission look like Montreal '97, with the ref calling for the bell. Anyway, strange ending to this match, I'm not sure what happened, which I blame the refs for, but they had some sort of fan vote to decide the winners. Like they do with WWE bikini contests. Might have helped if I could speak Spanish
Yuji Nagata vs Josh Barnett - New Japan, 2003
This was after Barnett was stripped of the UFC Heavyweight title (which he wore to the ring anyway for some reason) for steroid use. He pulled off some great moves, a lot better than most wrestlers do. Unfortunately he completely lacked any psychology, although it was his first wrestling match. A lot of it didn't make sense anyway, as whenever Barnett got Nagata in a good submission, he'd do something that he'd never do in a real fight to let him escape and it looked too obvious to me. Barnett pulled off an awesome flying armbar near the end. Worth watching just to see Barnett wrestling, but Nagata's had many better matches. Can't believe Barnett's not even 30 yet, I'd love to see him back in the UFC
Reyes Del Aires, CMLL 2007
This was basically an elimination match to decide the best high-flyer in CMLL, featuring about 10 or 15 guys. There was basically no psychology involved here at all, which isn't the normal thing with CMLL, but it is in this tournament apparently. Start of the match had everyone coming into the ring and then diving on a load of guys outside. Surprisingly only one lad messed up. About five wrestlers were eliminated before anyone actually kicked out of a pinfall. I used to watch a good bit of CMLL, but I didn't know most of these guys. I recognised Alex Koslov, who has wrestled in PWG, and Sangre Azteca, who has tag-teamed with Fergal Devitt in Japan. Some order was restored when there were only three guys left, but they kept breaking up each others pin attempts, which again made no sense. The CMLL ring doesn't have ring aprons anymore, it has electric banners like you'd see around the pitch at Old Trafford. Anyway, this one's worth a look if you want to see a load of stunts, otherwise you'd probably enjoy CMLL's regular stuff much more. Although this tournament 2 years ago was meant to be good, Ricky Marvin was in it, and he is excellent
Haruka Matsuo & Misae Genki vs Amazing Kong & Kyoko Kimura, NEO 2006
I'll be honest, I only checked out this match because I saw a photo of Matsuo and thought she was hot. But it was the best match I watched tonight! The bitches busted her open within the first minute though. Amazing Kong is one of the most intimidating wrestlers around, male or female. This match was in what looked like an oversized cinema. Matsuo was beaten to bits while the other three women fought hard. Japanese womens tag teams always seem to have one hefty butch girl and one slim attractive one. These women could wrestle though. Kong was knackered after the first ten minutes but made it back in time for Matsuo making a great comeback. Matsuo executed what is probably the most perfect German suplex I've ever seen. I love this girl! Miss Kimura did an awesome flying armbar reversal of a chokeslam too. The audience were totally behind Matsuo at the end, it was great to watch. I'd never even heard of this promotion before tonight, but I've got to check out more of their stuff. Most people here would enjoy this match I think, it's not an overly technical Japanese match and it tells a good story. Gotta get it onto Youtube. I hope that my new found love has not clouded my judgment of this match!0
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