So with that, here we are at the finals.
Hiroyoshi Tanahashi v. Yuji Nagata
The match starts off differently, this time with a bit more of a feeling out process, Nagata posessing a little bit more respect for Tanahashi after wrestling him once. Once he gains the upper hand though, you really see his attitude go from growing confidence to outright cockiness. He bats Tanahashi around the ring with slaps, kicks and other more strike-oriented stuff with smirks galore, talking a little trash along the way.
Eventually though, Tanahashi catches a break and catches Nagata with a dragon screw on the apron again, but this time, leaps right on Nagata and goes right to work with a neck breaker on the floor. These two seperate bigger spots serve as the basis from which Tanahashi works: First take out the legs. Remember that brutal kick last match that cost Tanahashi the title? Yeah, he doesn't want a repeat of that. Once that threat is eliminated and Nagata's comeback potential is neutralized, start going at his neck and hope that his arsenal of suplexes and the sling blade will be enough to keep the Champion down for the count.
Eventually though, Tanahashi has a stupid moment and decides to start trading shots with Nagata, letting the champ right back into the match. Nagata doesn't punch as hard as he kicks, but he still 'punches' freakin' way harder than Tanahashi and it almost costs him the match just like it cost Nakamura his semi-final contest against Nagata. This is when the match sort of goes from confident-cocky Nagata to the 'NOW I remember why I freaking hate you' Nagata.
Problem is, "NOW I remember why I freaking hate you' Nagata is cousins with sloppy Nagata. Yuji cranks up the same home run kick that won him the belt off Tanahashi four months earlier, only to have the champion catch it this time and hit not one, not two, no, not even three dragon screws, but four, just to be sure Nagata wouldn't pop him out of the blue again.
Tanahashi smells the blood and basically starts dropping Nagata on his neck in an effort to keep him down. He hits a high german and that's good for 2. Tanahashi knows Nagata's plucky, so this German will get him right? Nope, that doesn't either. Rather than lose his cool, Tanahashi keeps his head and mounts the buckles and hits the frog splash. This time, Nagata stays down and Tanahashi wins his first G1.
Overall, I liked this match, but not as much as their first encounter. This certainly felt like a lot bigger deal than the first match, but it didn't quite match up. The progression is nice on the part of Nagata, but as is occasionally the case with him, his selling is REALLY clown-ish at times, which isn't something that should be happening in a big match like this one. Tanahashi is good, but I almost felt like this was more of the formulaic stuff we saw throughout Tanahashi's run with the strap, not the man coming into his own stuff we saw when he lost the belt to Nagata.
All that I can live with though, as it's really more asthetic stuff. The thing that made me like this match a lot less than the other one was that just when it seemed like a segment was really starting to make sense and click, they flew to something else and there wasn't ever really a time to let what was going on settle in. I just felt like the stalled when they got to a certain level and then moved on to the next thing.
The ending though, is outstanding. Tanahashi DOESN'T get hit with the hail mary and this time makes SURE he knows how to end something. He comes in with a plan and sticks to it. Stay around long enough to frustrate the champ, make him goof, take out the legs (defense wins championships) and then start twisting off that neck. In that sense, his stick-to-it-iveness shows a lot of growth despite the structure being rather formulaic Tanahashi stuff. Not that formulaic Tanahashi is bad. It just isn't as good as when Tanahashi is guided to a something new.
Overall I like this, but it did have it's flaws. It plays off some of the good stuff with the last match while flip flopping the roles a bit. ***1/4
Thursday, August 30, 2007
Pre-Requisite Viewing
Before I get into this year's G1 Climax Tournament final, I'd like to take this time and use it as an excuse to post THIS match, which i'm sure you'll all love. I wanted to watch it before I popped in the Tournament Final, because, well, it'll probably make the match better.
Did I mention this is the best match in Japan this year?
IWGP Heavyweight Championship
Hiroyoshi Tanahashi v. Yuji Nagata
April 13, 2007
I've said it in earlier posts, and i'll say it again; the parallels between John Cena and Hiroyoshi Tanahashi are almost eirie. Not that that's a bad thing. Through a lot of hard work, John Cena's probably the best performer on the planet these days. Tanahashi, like Cena, wasn't recieved too well when he initially won the belt, but as time progressed, despite many fans being irritated with him on some level, it became really hard to hate his matches. Here's another case in point.
Yuji Nagata on the other hand. Oh lord, Yuji Nagata. If one were to find a North American counterpart to Nagata, it'd probably be Kurt Angle. Both came in using legit sportsman gimmicks and putting on matches way past their years early on in their careers. When they're on, they're probably both in the top five in the world. However, there's a nasty tendancy to get carried away with thigns to the point where it can trash a match. When Nagata's good, he's scary good. When he's bad, he's REALLY bad.
Nagata's been scraping his way back up to the top of New Japan since that imfamous MMA match with Mirko Cro Cop where Nagata was knocked out in around 30 seconds. It RUINED Nagata's reputation in a lot of ways, and prevented the fans from really buying him as a top guy. Nagata was hit an miss for a good two years after the Cro Cop loss before finally turning it back around in 2006. By 2007, he was looking as good as he did around the time he won the G1 Tournament and IWGP Championship in the same year.
So here we are.
This starts off well with the more experienced Nagata sort of treating Tanahashi like a joke early in the match and doing a lot of stuff just to show Hiroyoshi how much he dislikes him. This non-sense doesn't really lead anywhere, but it's what it sets off in Tanahashi that makes it awesome.
Tanahashi, after feining a Dragon suicida, lets Nagata into the ring and is just like 'fuck me? No. Fuck you and your attitude' and just begins unloading on Nagata. Nagata likes slug fests and quickly wins the battle, but the patient and coy Tanahashi catches a wild kick and screws it off the top rope and Nagata clatters to the floor along with the Champion.
Here's where the match approaches HBK-Cena II levels of awesomeness. What I LOVED about HBK-Cena II was the fact that instead of playing the plucky, clutch underdog champion, Cena wrestles with a boat load of attitude and confidence. Tanahashi basically does that here. Gone is the comeback crap, Tanahashi is going to rip that leg off Nagata and beat him with it, not because it neutralizes Nagata's primary weapon (kicks), but because he can. Just like you don't see a lot of Cena extended control segments, you don't see a lot of Tanahashi extended control segments and watching him make Nagata his woman for about 10 minutes rules plain and simple.
Nagata on the other hand, is incredible. His selling is what makes the match and all the annimosity that the crowd directs towards Tanahashi makes it just that much more fun of an atmosphere. He puts on perhaps one of the best, if not THE best selling performances of the year, letting his knee give out on a whip attempt, having it give out on a third brain buster attempt, etc.
In fact, it's the selling that just shifts this match into total overdrive for the finish line when Nagata counters Tanahashi's frog splash attempt with his injured knees. The sense of urgency he has, knowing that saving his skin that time might end up being the reson he loses the match in the long run, is incredible. Tanahashi's German attempt that he tries to score a pin with that he's lying all over Nagata's grundle as if to say 'please god, please let me keep this guy down'.
The kick at the end is the punctuation. The plucky Tanahashi has juice to kick out of one german, but not two, and this one's in the books and we have a new champ.
Just a really incredible match that Tanahashi lays out that Nagata just makes better. I love this whole Nagata not trying to do too much stuff and let his selling be the thing that adds the drama. The matches i've enjoyed the most from him; the Giant Bernard match from last year and now the Tanahashi title change, have been good preciecely because of Nagata's selling making those guys look dominant.
This is an excellent match and probably in my top five so far this year. It's easily the best match to come out of Japan that i've seen. ****
Did I mention this is the best match in Japan this year?
IWGP Heavyweight Championship
Hiroyoshi Tanahashi v. Yuji Nagata
April 13, 2007
I've said it in earlier posts, and i'll say it again; the parallels between John Cena and Hiroyoshi Tanahashi are almost eirie. Not that that's a bad thing. Through a lot of hard work, John Cena's probably the best performer on the planet these days. Tanahashi, like Cena, wasn't recieved too well when he initially won the belt, but as time progressed, despite many fans being irritated with him on some level, it became really hard to hate his matches. Here's another case in point.
Yuji Nagata on the other hand. Oh lord, Yuji Nagata. If one were to find a North American counterpart to Nagata, it'd probably be Kurt Angle. Both came in using legit sportsman gimmicks and putting on matches way past their years early on in their careers. When they're on, they're probably both in the top five in the world. However, there's a nasty tendancy to get carried away with thigns to the point where it can trash a match. When Nagata's good, he's scary good. When he's bad, he's REALLY bad.
Nagata's been scraping his way back up to the top of New Japan since that imfamous MMA match with Mirko Cro Cop where Nagata was knocked out in around 30 seconds. It RUINED Nagata's reputation in a lot of ways, and prevented the fans from really buying him as a top guy. Nagata was hit an miss for a good two years after the Cro Cop loss before finally turning it back around in 2006. By 2007, he was looking as good as he did around the time he won the G1 Tournament and IWGP Championship in the same year.
So here we are.
This starts off well with the more experienced Nagata sort of treating Tanahashi like a joke early in the match and doing a lot of stuff just to show Hiroyoshi how much he dislikes him. This non-sense doesn't really lead anywhere, but it's what it sets off in Tanahashi that makes it awesome.
Tanahashi, after feining a Dragon suicida, lets Nagata into the ring and is just like 'fuck me? No. Fuck you and your attitude' and just begins unloading on Nagata. Nagata likes slug fests and quickly wins the battle, but the patient and coy Tanahashi catches a wild kick and screws it off the top rope and Nagata clatters to the floor along with the Champion.
Here's where the match approaches HBK-Cena II levels of awesomeness. What I LOVED about HBK-Cena II was the fact that instead of playing the plucky, clutch underdog champion, Cena wrestles with a boat load of attitude and confidence. Tanahashi basically does that here. Gone is the comeback crap, Tanahashi is going to rip that leg off Nagata and beat him with it, not because it neutralizes Nagata's primary weapon (kicks), but because he can. Just like you don't see a lot of Cena extended control segments, you don't see a lot of Tanahashi extended control segments and watching him make Nagata his woman for about 10 minutes rules plain and simple.
Nagata on the other hand, is incredible. His selling is what makes the match and all the annimosity that the crowd directs towards Tanahashi makes it just that much more fun of an atmosphere. He puts on perhaps one of the best, if not THE best selling performances of the year, letting his knee give out on a whip attempt, having it give out on a third brain buster attempt, etc.
In fact, it's the selling that just shifts this match into total overdrive for the finish line when Nagata counters Tanahashi's frog splash attempt with his injured knees. The sense of urgency he has, knowing that saving his skin that time might end up being the reson he loses the match in the long run, is incredible. Tanahashi's German attempt that he tries to score a pin with that he's lying all over Nagata's grundle as if to say 'please god, please let me keep this guy down'.
The kick at the end is the punctuation. The plucky Tanahashi has juice to kick out of one german, but not two, and this one's in the books and we have a new champ.
Just a really incredible match that Tanahashi lays out that Nagata just makes better. I love this whole Nagata not trying to do too much stuff and let his selling be the thing that adds the drama. The matches i've enjoyed the most from him; the Giant Bernard match from last year and now the Tanahashi title change, have been good preciecely because of Nagata's selling making those guys look dominant.
This is an excellent match and probably in my top five so far this year. It's easily the best match to come out of Japan that i've seen. ****
G1 Semi-Final Fun
Hiroyoshi Tanahashi v. Togi Makabe
This was an interesting match up for me as I really believe these two are the most significantly improved wrestlers out there these days. Tanahashi really IS the John Cena of Japan in the sense that while many aren't all about the character and his past work, he's won people over with a great work ethic and has all of a sudden come into his own. Makabe on the other hand, has gone from mediocrity to being one of the most legitimately fun wrestlers in the world to watch. Makabe isn't the kind of guy who'll blow you away with great matches, but he's always garunteed to put on a fun show.
Of everyone in the G1 Final Four, Makabe is probably the most unlikely and that shows through much of the match, as he's just not to much of a match for Tanahashi in the ring. He spends a good chunk of the match trying to goad Tanahashi to the outside of the ring where he can turn the match into a total melee as this is the only way he'll really be able to win. Tanahshi on the other hand, has no interest in brawling at first, as you know the minute he goes to the outside, he'll end up on the short end of the stick.
Makabe is finally able to gain the upper hand on the outside, which eventually gives him enough of a head start on Tanahashi to keep control with the leg in the ring. I know a lot of folks probably won't be too wild about the leg work sort of being forgotten as we get into the wee hours, but for me, it wasn't a big deal, as it was used as a launching pad for all the high impact, crazy chain smashing Makabe stuff.
Tanahashi of course, is all about the gradual comebacks and survives in the end, largely due to Makabe's inexperience and tendancy to be, well, insane. Sure, it's rather formulaic, but it's still a lot of fun and while people won't be crapping out stars for it everywhere, it's great for what it is. ***
Yuji Nagata v. Shinsuke Nakamura
Basically, the story here is "I can destroy your arm better than you can destroy mine". Unlike the first match, where limb work is used to maintain control, the limb work in this match is used transitionall and serves as the gate to all the big stuff these two tend to do. I read on the wrestleview forums that one person in particular felt this had it's tight spots and fun stuff, but didn't really 'work' and I've got to agree with him. Arm work usually lends itself, and probably should in the case of this match, to a slower, less bombs galore style.
The segments are counter painful arm hold into painful arm hold of one's own, throw bombs, go back to arm out of nowhere, then get countered. Repeat. While the arm work was the constant through the match and ended up being the end result (Referee stoppage due to Nakamura's arm looking like putty in the end), the stuff in between just seemed like it was there and done for the sake of it rather than really ammounting to anything worth while.
This isn't bad by any stretch of the imagination, but the stuff they do doesn't really work for me. **1/2
I'll have the final up tonight or tomorrow.
This was an interesting match up for me as I really believe these two are the most significantly improved wrestlers out there these days. Tanahashi really IS the John Cena of Japan in the sense that while many aren't all about the character and his past work, he's won people over with a great work ethic and has all of a sudden come into his own. Makabe on the other hand, has gone from mediocrity to being one of the most legitimately fun wrestlers in the world to watch. Makabe isn't the kind of guy who'll blow you away with great matches, but he's always garunteed to put on a fun show.
Of everyone in the G1 Final Four, Makabe is probably the most unlikely and that shows through much of the match, as he's just not to much of a match for Tanahashi in the ring. He spends a good chunk of the match trying to goad Tanahashi to the outside of the ring where he can turn the match into a total melee as this is the only way he'll really be able to win. Tanahshi on the other hand, has no interest in brawling at first, as you know the minute he goes to the outside, he'll end up on the short end of the stick.
Makabe is finally able to gain the upper hand on the outside, which eventually gives him enough of a head start on Tanahashi to keep control with the leg in the ring. I know a lot of folks probably won't be too wild about the leg work sort of being forgotten as we get into the wee hours, but for me, it wasn't a big deal, as it was used as a launching pad for all the high impact, crazy chain smashing Makabe stuff.
Tanahashi of course, is all about the gradual comebacks and survives in the end, largely due to Makabe's inexperience and tendancy to be, well, insane. Sure, it's rather formulaic, but it's still a lot of fun and while people won't be crapping out stars for it everywhere, it's great for what it is. ***
Yuji Nagata v. Shinsuke Nakamura
Basically, the story here is "I can destroy your arm better than you can destroy mine". Unlike the first match, where limb work is used to maintain control, the limb work in this match is used transitionall and serves as the gate to all the big stuff these two tend to do. I read on the wrestleview forums that one person in particular felt this had it's tight spots and fun stuff, but didn't really 'work' and I've got to agree with him. Arm work usually lends itself, and probably should in the case of this match, to a slower, less bombs galore style.
The segments are counter painful arm hold into painful arm hold of one's own, throw bombs, go back to arm out of nowhere, then get countered. Repeat. While the arm work was the constant through the match and ended up being the end result (Referee stoppage due to Nakamura's arm looking like putty in the end), the stuff in between just seemed like it was there and done for the sake of it rather than really ammounting to anything worth while.
This isn't bad by any stretch of the imagination, but the stuff they do doesn't really work for me. **1/2
I'll have the final up tonight or tomorrow.
Monday, August 27, 2007
Morishima v. Homicide 2-17
ROH World Championship
Homicide v. Takeshi Morishima
February 17, 2007
So I guess this is one people have said is worth seeing, so I picked it up at the last ROH show in Hartford.
Completely awesome stuff early on with Morishima jumping 'Cide on the match and totally disrepsecting him. Homicide, whose actually a fan of brawls, eventually gains the advantage on the outside. What I liked about this opening piece was that Homicide had to use stuff and get assistance from Smokes to stay on top and control the early going.
As soon as the extra cirricular fun ends, it's all Morishima. Mori tosses in some great big man offense, with big lariats and lumbering wear down holds to completely overwhelm the plucky Champion. Homicide's comebacks are really hapless and nothing, not even his big stuff seems to have any lasting effect.
What makes this good though, at least for me, is Homicide's resilience. He plays the whole 'hard to kill' thing well enough to make it believable, but doesn't over do it like Austin Aries did, atrociously kicking out of that lariat at the end of HIS match with Mori a month or two later. 'Cide is way more sympathetic as the loser here.
The ending was similar to the Aries match, with Morishima just murdering and utterly overwhelming Homicide with two or three back drop drivers and a vicious lariat. The Homicide kick out really put heat on the last back drop driver and didn't come off as at all over the top like the Aries kick out did.
There are, however, some seriously goofy moments that do drag this match down. Homicide shouldn't EVER be able to hit a super plex on a guy like Morishima. Like at all. Some of Homicide's offense is pretty bad. Maybe they were trying to play up Homicide's haplessness, but the moves they chose were really akward.
The other thing I didn't like was the fact that none of the Morishima near falls had any heat. I never bought Homicide's offensive comebacks and having Morishima lay down for near falls seemed a little dumb.
All that said though, this IS a fun match. The first third is excellent, the second third very goofy while the home stretch is pretty great. ROH crowds aren't really used to having a genuine big man work well in ROH. Samoa Joe is a bigger guy, but he's not a legit big man worker like Mori is, so the reactions for Mori during and since this match has been mixed. While Morishima hasn't been stellar as champion, he's hardly been anything close to bad and he's a real breath of fresh air in a company that needs to branch out of the flippy-dippy cruiser stuff. ***
Homicide v. Takeshi Morishima
February 17, 2007
So I guess this is one people have said is worth seeing, so I picked it up at the last ROH show in Hartford.
Completely awesome stuff early on with Morishima jumping 'Cide on the match and totally disrepsecting him. Homicide, whose actually a fan of brawls, eventually gains the advantage on the outside. What I liked about this opening piece was that Homicide had to use stuff and get assistance from Smokes to stay on top and control the early going.
As soon as the extra cirricular fun ends, it's all Morishima. Mori tosses in some great big man offense, with big lariats and lumbering wear down holds to completely overwhelm the plucky Champion. Homicide's comebacks are really hapless and nothing, not even his big stuff seems to have any lasting effect.
What makes this good though, at least for me, is Homicide's resilience. He plays the whole 'hard to kill' thing well enough to make it believable, but doesn't over do it like Austin Aries did, atrociously kicking out of that lariat at the end of HIS match with Mori a month or two later. 'Cide is way more sympathetic as the loser here.
The ending was similar to the Aries match, with Morishima just murdering and utterly overwhelming Homicide with two or three back drop drivers and a vicious lariat. The Homicide kick out really put heat on the last back drop driver and didn't come off as at all over the top like the Aries kick out did.
There are, however, some seriously goofy moments that do drag this match down. Homicide shouldn't EVER be able to hit a super plex on a guy like Morishima. Like at all. Some of Homicide's offense is pretty bad. Maybe they were trying to play up Homicide's haplessness, but the moves they chose were really akward.
The other thing I didn't like was the fact that none of the Morishima near falls had any heat. I never bought Homicide's offensive comebacks and having Morishima lay down for near falls seemed a little dumb.
All that said though, this IS a fun match. The first third is excellent, the second third very goofy while the home stretch is pretty great. ROH crowds aren't really used to having a genuine big man work well in ROH. Samoa Joe is a bigger guy, but he's not a legit big man worker like Mori is, so the reactions for Mori during and since this match has been mixed. While Morishima hasn't been stellar as champion, he's hardly been anything close to bad and he's a real breath of fresh air in a company that needs to branch out of the flippy-dippy cruiser stuff. ***
Sunday, August 26, 2007
Summerslam 2007 Review
Well, I think after this one it's going to take awhile for fans to get the sour taste of John Cena retaining the belt out of their mouth enough to really enjoy this show for what it was, which was pretty good. Here's the reviews.
WWE Championship
John Cena v. Randy Orton
This is an utterly fantastic match. This played off a lot of the Cena defenses we've seen thus far with yet another new spin from a challenger. Orton, like he has for most of the feud (and the entire summer for that matter) seemed to be one step ahead of the champ for most of the early going. He's working smart here, sticking to the neck and head to do his major damage, but never getting carried away at any one point.
The staple of John Cena's work is his Jerry Lawler like comebacks and Orton sees them coming almost before John Cena does. He easily neutralizes them in the early going, but as the match continues along, he begins to gradually lose control of Cena and Cena gets in more and more offense. Orton seems resigned to the fact that a Cena is going to make a comeback at some point, and thus keeps the work targeted so that when and if it happends, he can pull off an RKO and win the match, so he's trying to make sure that if the worst case scenario occurs, he'll be able to bail himself out and the work will pay off.
Orton does a brilliant job for most of the match, but the past mistakes of challengers catches up with him as well. Like Umaga at the Royal Rumble and Michaels at Wrestlemania 23, Orton controls most of the match but Cena is always able to avoid the home run shot. When Orton finally DOES connect with an RKO, he's too worn from all his prior activity to follow up and get the pin fall.
The end comes when Orton falls into the same pit everyone else does, and lets things open up, which was exactly what he wanted to avoid. It's Cena, ironically, whose three seconds away from winning a match at anytime and like any clutch hitter, connects with a big FU at the right time for the pin fall.
The psychology is really done well here as Cena just looks lucky to be alive after the match. Like the Yankees though, the first eight innings don't mean anything unless you can get the hits when they count and Cena got that big hit. This is a great story and a great match was made super great by a super hot crowd. Best match of the card and best match for Cena since Raw. It was Orton's best performance ever. ****1/4
World Heavyweight Championship
The Great Khali v. Batista
Batista steals a page from John Cena's book and basically tries to sell Khali's stuff like it's death. Problem is, Batista ain't John Cena. Khali works fairly well here, keeping Batista on the mat and using his leverage to his advantage. Batista tries to work in spurts but continuously gets put on his rump by the bigger, stronger champ. He's one guy Bats can't toss bombs with.
The commentating on the part of Michaels Cole and JBL is outstanding here and made what looks like a mediocre, plodding match, pretty decent actually. Especially getting over Khali's rest holds as being truly painful. Just as this match was getting somewhere though, they seemingly cut it off with a really weird DQ finish that caught Cole and JBL off guard. They tried to cover it with the old chicken shit thing, but Khali doesn't look nor act like a chicken, so I don't get it. Moderately decent stuff that got cut before it went anywhere with a bad finish. **1/4
ECW World Championship
John Morrison v. CM Punk
This was ok for the first five minutes or so, but as the match progressed, it fell apart. I don't know if Punk and Morrison were trying too hard to get a totally dead crowd into it or not, but it suffered from all the same lapses their Bash match did with yet another super akward finish. Nice back and forth with another akward conclusion. **1/4
Triple H v. King Booker
This wasn't sensational or anything, but I wasn't really expecting much more than this. Triple H looks slimmed down after being out for so long and he definately looked like he had a lot of adjusting to do throughout the match. This was kept pretty tight, around ten minutes or so, but that works well considering the fact that the Game is coming off a big injury and they didn't do that last time he had his big comeback and it left him kind of exposed.
Booker worked ok in this match, but it wasn't really about anything more than the jerk-face heel finally getting his. I'd have liked to have seen them toss Sharmell's involvement in things into the match a bit more. Nothing spectacular here, but served it's purpose of bringing the Game back and blowing off a nice 'heel will get his ' sort of feud. **1/2
Rey Mysterio v. Chavo Guererro
Very good stuff here. These two are always good for a little something fun and this wasn't much different. In fact I found this to be QUITE good.
Rey looks like a super hero which is good for the kiddies, but brings a lot of intensity to the match, which is something he sorely lacked during his world title run. Chavo is a total asshole here, going right after the injured leg and being entirely unafraid of the man he conquered last fall. The near falls were worked really well and this was well grounded, not featuring too much of the Rey flippy stuff. It's a fairly compact match at slightly over ten minutes. Certainly worth a good look see and a sleeper pay per view match. ***
WWE Intercontinental Championship--Triple Threat Match
Umaga v. Mr. Kennedy v. Carlito
This wasn't bad, but a little anti-climatic. The heels basically decide to gang up on Umaga, but can't ever get on the same page long enough to really get anywhere. The one downfall of these matches in the WWE is the tendancy for guys to get stuck in the whole 'guy gets chucked and two guys go at it' formula but these guys did a good job of avoiding that for the most part. nice action here with Umaga getting his, Kennedy and Carlito squabbling, then Umaga pwns them. Nice match, but nothing long enough to warrant more than **1/2
Diva Battle Royal for the #1 Contendership to the Women's Championship
This was pretty forgettable, although not entirely bad. Basically it comes down to Beth Phoenix taking on the Smackdown duo of Michelle McCool and Torrie Wilson, who quickly get overhwhelmed and dumped by Phoenix. I would've liked to have seen them stick with this for longer than they did as nothing really played out except for the fact that Beth Phoenix is a tank. *1/4
Kane v. Finlay (w/ Hornswaggle)
Another match that was fine for what it was. Finlay is best when he's got a body part to tear apart and he does that here, working over Kane's ribs with pretty good effect. Kane sells as good as he has in the past year or two and it makes Finlay's offense believable. The ending is a bit rushed, but it is fun with Hornswaggle and Finlay freezing in fear of the Kane pop up. Nice little match and good opener to get the crowd going, but nothing more, nothing less. *1/2
Overall Thoughts: This is going to be a show that might not get rave reviews now, but will be looked upon fondly over time. The main event is truly sensational and is supplimented with a decent mid card with some fun stuff, mainly Chavo-Rey. The lackluster stuff suffers from weak endings but everything seemed to do what it was intended to do. For the second biggest show of the year, it was dissapointing to not see any title changes, but that shouldn't get in the way of calling this like it was, a solid WWE pay per view. Grade: B
WWE Championship
John Cena v. Randy Orton
This is an utterly fantastic match. This played off a lot of the Cena defenses we've seen thus far with yet another new spin from a challenger. Orton, like he has for most of the feud (and the entire summer for that matter) seemed to be one step ahead of the champ for most of the early going. He's working smart here, sticking to the neck and head to do his major damage, but never getting carried away at any one point.
The staple of John Cena's work is his Jerry Lawler like comebacks and Orton sees them coming almost before John Cena does. He easily neutralizes them in the early going, but as the match continues along, he begins to gradually lose control of Cena and Cena gets in more and more offense. Orton seems resigned to the fact that a Cena is going to make a comeback at some point, and thus keeps the work targeted so that when and if it happends, he can pull off an RKO and win the match, so he's trying to make sure that if the worst case scenario occurs, he'll be able to bail himself out and the work will pay off.
Orton does a brilliant job for most of the match, but the past mistakes of challengers catches up with him as well. Like Umaga at the Royal Rumble and Michaels at Wrestlemania 23, Orton controls most of the match but Cena is always able to avoid the home run shot. When Orton finally DOES connect with an RKO, he's too worn from all his prior activity to follow up and get the pin fall.
The end comes when Orton falls into the same pit everyone else does, and lets things open up, which was exactly what he wanted to avoid. It's Cena, ironically, whose three seconds away from winning a match at anytime and like any clutch hitter, connects with a big FU at the right time for the pin fall.
The psychology is really done well here as Cena just looks lucky to be alive after the match. Like the Yankees though, the first eight innings don't mean anything unless you can get the hits when they count and Cena got that big hit. This is a great story and a great match was made super great by a super hot crowd. Best match of the card and best match for Cena since Raw. It was Orton's best performance ever. ****1/4
World Heavyweight Championship
The Great Khali v. Batista
Batista steals a page from John Cena's book and basically tries to sell Khali's stuff like it's death. Problem is, Batista ain't John Cena. Khali works fairly well here, keeping Batista on the mat and using his leverage to his advantage. Batista tries to work in spurts but continuously gets put on his rump by the bigger, stronger champ. He's one guy Bats can't toss bombs with.
The commentating on the part of Michaels Cole and JBL is outstanding here and made what looks like a mediocre, plodding match, pretty decent actually. Especially getting over Khali's rest holds as being truly painful. Just as this match was getting somewhere though, they seemingly cut it off with a really weird DQ finish that caught Cole and JBL off guard. They tried to cover it with the old chicken shit thing, but Khali doesn't look nor act like a chicken, so I don't get it. Moderately decent stuff that got cut before it went anywhere with a bad finish. **1/4
ECW World Championship
John Morrison v. CM Punk
This was ok for the first five minutes or so, but as the match progressed, it fell apart. I don't know if Punk and Morrison were trying too hard to get a totally dead crowd into it or not, but it suffered from all the same lapses their Bash match did with yet another super akward finish. Nice back and forth with another akward conclusion. **1/4
Triple H v. King Booker
This wasn't sensational or anything, but I wasn't really expecting much more than this. Triple H looks slimmed down after being out for so long and he definately looked like he had a lot of adjusting to do throughout the match. This was kept pretty tight, around ten minutes or so, but that works well considering the fact that the Game is coming off a big injury and they didn't do that last time he had his big comeback and it left him kind of exposed.
Booker worked ok in this match, but it wasn't really about anything more than the jerk-face heel finally getting his. I'd have liked to have seen them toss Sharmell's involvement in things into the match a bit more. Nothing spectacular here, but served it's purpose of bringing the Game back and blowing off a nice 'heel will get his ' sort of feud. **1/2
Rey Mysterio v. Chavo Guererro
Very good stuff here. These two are always good for a little something fun and this wasn't much different. In fact I found this to be QUITE good.
Rey looks like a super hero which is good for the kiddies, but brings a lot of intensity to the match, which is something he sorely lacked during his world title run. Chavo is a total asshole here, going right after the injured leg and being entirely unafraid of the man he conquered last fall. The near falls were worked really well and this was well grounded, not featuring too much of the Rey flippy stuff. It's a fairly compact match at slightly over ten minutes. Certainly worth a good look see and a sleeper pay per view match. ***
WWE Intercontinental Championship--Triple Threat Match
Umaga v. Mr. Kennedy v. Carlito
This wasn't bad, but a little anti-climatic. The heels basically decide to gang up on Umaga, but can't ever get on the same page long enough to really get anywhere. The one downfall of these matches in the WWE is the tendancy for guys to get stuck in the whole 'guy gets chucked and two guys go at it' formula but these guys did a good job of avoiding that for the most part. nice action here with Umaga getting his, Kennedy and Carlito squabbling, then Umaga pwns them. Nice match, but nothing long enough to warrant more than **1/2
Diva Battle Royal for the #1 Contendership to the Women's Championship
This was pretty forgettable, although not entirely bad. Basically it comes down to Beth Phoenix taking on the Smackdown duo of Michelle McCool and Torrie Wilson, who quickly get overhwhelmed and dumped by Phoenix. I would've liked to have seen them stick with this for longer than they did as nothing really played out except for the fact that Beth Phoenix is a tank. *1/4
Kane v. Finlay (w/ Hornswaggle)
Another match that was fine for what it was. Finlay is best when he's got a body part to tear apart and he does that here, working over Kane's ribs with pretty good effect. Kane sells as good as he has in the past year or two and it makes Finlay's offense believable. The ending is a bit rushed, but it is fun with Hornswaggle and Finlay freezing in fear of the Kane pop up. Nice little match and good opener to get the crowd going, but nothing more, nothing less. *1/2
Overall Thoughts: This is going to be a show that might not get rave reviews now, but will be looked upon fondly over time. The main event is truly sensational and is supplimented with a decent mid card with some fun stuff, mainly Chavo-Rey. The lackluster stuff suffers from weak endings but everything seemed to do what it was intended to do. For the second biggest show of the year, it was dissapointing to not see any title changes, but that shouldn't get in the way of calling this like it was, a solid WWE pay per view. Grade: B
Saturday, August 25, 2007
Random ROH & Puro Catch Up and What Not
I'm pretty darn up to date on the WWE these days, but have regrettably fallen behind on some of the extra cirricular stuff kicking around out there.. Here are the reviews of some of those:
Samoa Joe v. Takeshi Morishima ROH Fifth Year Anniversary Show 2/16/07
This is a super-fun (and good) big man slug fest. While all the attention is sort of on Joe because he's leaving ROH at this point, the match itself is all about Morishima. There's nothing deep about this match in the slightest, just two guys tossin' bombs.
Basically both move through almost all of their signature stuff and after two pretty long control segments for both, neither guy is able to get the job done, so they just say 'fvck it' and start killing each other. Eventually Joe strings enough stuff together to get the big man on the mat and slap on a deep and pretty nasty rear naked choke to end the match. I'd definately say this wasn't much more than two guys running through their move set if the stuff they did wasn't executed so well. The ole kick looked good, the back drop driver looked good, all of the signature stuff looked rough and tumble, just the way it needed to look.
There is some stuff though, that'll probably leave you feeling a bit weird about this, namely Morishima just sort of chilling on the top turnbuckle waiting to get plowed with the muscle buster and Joe checking his watch after every pin fall....for like 30 seconds. Really though, it's not really here nor there, as most everything in this match is a lot of fun. This is my idea of what a big man match should be, like two bricks clacking together.. ***1/2
Kotaro Suzuki & Ricky Marvin v. The Briscoe's, GHC Jr Hvt Tag Team Championships, NOAH 1/21/07
I watched this before and liked it, but admittedly was sort of half-a$$ watching it so I didn't REALLY get a good look at it. This is REALLY a fantastic juniors match and not only is it the best junior tag match of the year so for, it's easily the best juniors match so far.
The Briscoe's can be really hit and miss sometimes, as they work a very spot-oriented style that works or doesn't, but this is an instance where it really, really, really works awesome. In order for spot style to be good for me, the transitions need to be good and more specifically in Briscoe matches, the other team really needs to bring the goods. Both happen here and it's awesome.
We start off with a really simple story. The Briscoe's are champs and basically rowdy Americans looking for a fight. They want to strike, drop you on your head till it explodes and double team you to pieces. Suzuki and Marvin on the other hand, aren't QUITE as spiteful, but aren't going to be pushed around and are more comfortable wrestling the Briscoe's as opposed to fighting them and goad them into making mistakes. They REALLY stick with this formula well through the first three quarters of the matches.
Suzuki and Marvin usually control the Briscoe's, but EVERY SINGLE TIME the match gets into striking in any form, the Briscoe's not only come out on top, they easily come out on top and Suzuki and Marvin have to survive, regroup, settle and re-establish control. Really, there's nothing mroe to it than that.
The transitions in this match are practically flawless. The Briscoe's make a mistake, Suzuki and Marvin go into multi-tasking mode, neutralize a Briscoe and take control. They maintain control until they try to throw bombs, what the Briscoe's like, and pay for it. Basically the match just goes back and forth constantly in this formula until the Briscoe's eventually get worn down enough for the Suzuki/Marvin team to trade bombs and have a chance, and they're able to hit enough big stuff to win the match. Nothing complicated, but just great spot-style wreslting.
The Briscoe's play up their dumb, frothing at the mouth redneck thing super well in this, but mostly, the credit for taking this to the next level is all Suzuki and Marvin. Suzuki is shockingly great in this. He seems much more wiling to trade with the Briscoe's and plays the role of the spunky one. Marvin is silky smooth, cool, calm and collected and totally comes off as the 'calming' factor in the match. Great role playing.
The key to the match for Suzuki and Marvin is to cut off the REALLY big stuff from the Briscoe's and they do that several times, twice with the doomsday device. No matter how deep the pile of doo doo seems to get for Suzuki and Marvin, they keep the Briscoe's off balance enough to at least prevent them from hitting the BIG BIG stuff and are able to constantly screw up the briscoe's pacing. Eventually the Briscoe's are worn down enogh to where the faces can open up the bag o tricks and score the victory.
This is just FANTASTIC stuff from both teams who stick with a fun formula and throw in some really fun and innovative spots to keep the crowd off their backsides the whole match. The momentum swings are constantly dramatic and for the last ten minutes, both teams look like they're within a hair's breath of losing the match. That's good wrestling. This is fantastic and shouldn't be missed. ***1/2
Takeshi Morishima v. Austin Aries, ROH World Championship, 4/27/07
Aries spends the opening moments of the match trying to knock Mori off his feet. it takes him about 672 shoulder blocks and strikes to do it though, before Mori just grabs him and spikes him of the mat like a football. Morishima is a total monster and does a fun job with it. He does the old Andre the Giant 'stand on em' thing and does the running bump butt and all that good stuff.
Basically, this is Aries making comebacks and showing life here and there with Morishima controlling almost the entire 15 minutes. JUST as you're REALLY getting tired of the Morishima control segment which lasts 10 minutes or so, Aries is able to catch a break and dumps the big man to the floor as he charges at him. Aries sales through the ropes and starts building SOMETHING, before Mori cuts him off. Mori hits a running bump butt in the corner barracade and then goes to do it again and Aries avoids it by the skin of his teeth and hits two missile drop kicks. We got back into the ring and Aries' freakign retardedly goes for a brain buster he's incredibly unlikely to hit given he's pretty much hit a tope and two drop kicks the entire match. Mori blocks it and another three-four minutes of MOrishima killing Aries. Then we do the 'remember the last time I won the title?' part of the match where Aries tries to basically re-inact the closing sequence of his match with Joe, except he finds this one much harder to pull off. Mori fights the first crucifix bomb attempt but can't avoid the second one. Aries kicks MOri twice and then hits a brain buster adn a 450 for... MOri gets his foot on the ropes. Aries says 'fvck it i'll just do it again' and goes for a second 450 only for Morishima to quickly recover and hit a nasty back drop suplex off the top rope and then a lariat which Aries flips 600 times to sell then kicks out. Mori hits one more backdrop driver and it's over.
I was really dissapointed with this match. It wasn't bad, there just wasn't really anything to it. Morishima sold REALLY well for Austin while Austin over sold as per the usual, but clearly with good intentions in mind.
The thing I didn't like about this is that they basically just tried to tweak some spots in the Joe-Aries match from a few years ago and run with them. They work towards the end a bit, but the Aries offense is just entitrely unoriginal and re-hashed. There isn't a SINGLE point where I felt as if Aries was a legit challenger for Morishima either. It just wasn't convincing in any way. Mori oversold the whole 'this is way too easy' thing too, as a lot of foreigners tend to do, because they're not really super sharp on communicating to the culture they're wrestling in front of. I don't really fault him for doing it, but it did completely make me think Aries was a total joke as a challenger.
Aries doesn't really DO anything than run through his signature stuff and eat some big moves. The crowd though, reacted to everything he did.. why, I don't know as it didn't grip me in the slightest, but the crowd popped for it and if it's working for most, then who am I ya know? But hoenstly, this isn't even in the top 30 of the stuff i've seen thus far this year. Aries is usually GREAT wrestling big men, but not here. This one's way, way, way, way overhyped, IMO. I don't want to totally kill this, because it's not a bad match, it's just been done so many times I can't get into it. **1/2
Bryan Danielson v. Go Shiosaki, ROH Invades Japan, 7/16/07
Good match here that plays out well. For those of you who don't know, Danielson was ROH Champion for a year and a half almost before dropping the belt in December to Homicide. This is one of his first few matches back since losing the belt. Go Shiosaki on the other hand, is this spunky Kobashi-clone from Pro Wrestling NOAH that well, "Goes" like crazy. Pretty much, that's the way this match plays out.
Early on, Shiosaki is wrestling pretty smart. Danielson seems to be a little surprised at how difficult it is for him to really contain Go and wrestle him to the mat. Go outdoes Dragon with strikes, throws and other fun stuff before Danielson is eventually able to put him in his place. To beat Go, Danielson isn't going to get into strikes. He's smaller, Go's bigger and stronger, thus it'd be a really stupid idea. So Danielson, the consomite viewer of wrestling tapes, must've watched the film of the Jun Akiyama-Go Shiosaki match from earlier this year where Akiyama pretty much demolished Go's arm and overwhelmed him from there.
Danielson applies a similar strategy and has success with it, wrestling Go to the ground and finding all sorts of ways to pick his arm apart. This works for a variety of weaknesses, none of which are as important as Danielson minimizing Go's greatest asset, which is his size and striking ability. Also, Dragon's two primary finishers: Cattle Mutilation and the cross face chicken wing, are both centered around the arm. Seems smart. Danielson seems to be content to work that arm. Go on the other hand, just wants to "Go" and throw bombs. Danielson gets increasingly frustrated by Go's ability to wiggle away from himand drop him on his head and whatnot, and that leads to mistakes that allow Go to control a lot more of this match then you'd think it would.
After much frustration, Danielson pretty much goes with the "bombs it is" decision and gets plowed. Danielson regains his patience, which sort of becomes the key to the match in a way. Dragon goes right back to picking apart the arm before Go again wiggles out, but this time Danielson... instead of losing his temper and making a mistake, seems content to take the moves in hopes that he'll be able to catch Go making a mistake of HIS own, and capitalize on the smart and patient wrestling he employed earlier in the match. It pays off for Dragon in the end, as Go misses a moonsault and Dragon's able to slap on cattle mutiliation. Go manages to almost wiggle out of it and go at another comeback, but Dragon quickly makes sure he's got Go dazed enough to keep the hold on, hits the KO elbows and then locks the hold back on for the submission win at around 27 minutes.
This was pretty good stuff, but really.. this was all Dragon. Go didn't do anything I haven't seen him do a thousand times in NOAH already. That's not a bad thing, but Go pretty much went until he got young and stupid again, and the cagey vet figured out a way to beat him. Nothing really new. This is worked a lot like the Akiyama match from January, as I mentioned earlier. Danielson's clearly the better wrestler, but Go keeps in the game with lots of spunk and fast moving offense, despite being bigger. This frustrates Danielson at first and causes him to sort of lose focus. In January, Akiyama had a lot of success working Go's arm, but unlike Danielson, he had the size t o pretty much overwhelm him and cut off the comebacks. Danielson on the other hand, has to work through Go's comebacks BECAUSE he lacks the size to completely keep him at bay, In many respects, Danielson has to almost let Go sort of do his thing, wrestle smart and stay patient to win. Unlike Akiyama, he can't really just go out there and say' hell, I think i'm going home in 10 minutes tonight'. He's got to use his cunning to beat a bigger Go.
It's a nice progressive spin on earlier stuff this year, but really, Dragon completely owns this match from bell to bell. His facials, selection of offence, his mounting frustration, etc., make this match WAY better than it would have been say, had Austin Aries worked it. My one sort of problem with this match is that the arm work is a BIG piece of it, and not just used for control. Go kind of forgets it's beingworked sometimes, and not other times and is inconsistent in that regard. The pacing is a little funny too as I found myself a little bit in the same corner as the crowd... it starts pretty slow and plodding then literally in five seconds is all over the place and you're kind of like 'oh wow, wait what's going on?" Aside from some pacing issues and Go still being pretty green despite what a lot of people might think, this is a pretty good match, but also a pretty one sided affair, at least in terms of who brougth the goods. Definately a good match though.***
Samoa Joe v. Takeshi Morishima ROH Fifth Year Anniversary Show 2/16/07
This is a super-fun (and good) big man slug fest. While all the attention is sort of on Joe because he's leaving ROH at this point, the match itself is all about Morishima. There's nothing deep about this match in the slightest, just two guys tossin' bombs.
Basically both move through almost all of their signature stuff and after two pretty long control segments for both, neither guy is able to get the job done, so they just say 'fvck it' and start killing each other. Eventually Joe strings enough stuff together to get the big man on the mat and slap on a deep and pretty nasty rear naked choke to end the match. I'd definately say this wasn't much more than two guys running through their move set if the stuff they did wasn't executed so well. The ole kick looked good, the back drop driver looked good, all of the signature stuff looked rough and tumble, just the way it needed to look.
There is some stuff though, that'll probably leave you feeling a bit weird about this, namely Morishima just sort of chilling on the top turnbuckle waiting to get plowed with the muscle buster and Joe checking his watch after every pin fall....for like 30 seconds. Really though, it's not really here nor there, as most everything in this match is a lot of fun. This is my idea of what a big man match should be, like two bricks clacking together.. ***1/2
Kotaro Suzuki & Ricky Marvin v. The Briscoe's, GHC Jr Hvt Tag Team Championships, NOAH 1/21/07
I watched this before and liked it, but admittedly was sort of half-a$$ watching it so I didn't REALLY get a good look at it. This is REALLY a fantastic juniors match and not only is it the best junior tag match of the year so for, it's easily the best juniors match so far.
The Briscoe's can be really hit and miss sometimes, as they work a very spot-oriented style that works or doesn't, but this is an instance where it really, really, really works awesome. In order for spot style to be good for me, the transitions need to be good and more specifically in Briscoe matches, the other team really needs to bring the goods. Both happen here and it's awesome.
We start off with a really simple story. The Briscoe's are champs and basically rowdy Americans looking for a fight. They want to strike, drop you on your head till it explodes and double team you to pieces. Suzuki and Marvin on the other hand, aren't QUITE as spiteful, but aren't going to be pushed around and are more comfortable wrestling the Briscoe's as opposed to fighting them and goad them into making mistakes. They REALLY stick with this formula well through the first three quarters of the matches.
Suzuki and Marvin usually control the Briscoe's, but EVERY SINGLE TIME the match gets into striking in any form, the Briscoe's not only come out on top, they easily come out on top and Suzuki and Marvin have to survive, regroup, settle and re-establish control. Really, there's nothing mroe to it than that.
The transitions in this match are practically flawless. The Briscoe's make a mistake, Suzuki and Marvin go into multi-tasking mode, neutralize a Briscoe and take control. They maintain control until they try to throw bombs, what the Briscoe's like, and pay for it. Basically the match just goes back and forth constantly in this formula until the Briscoe's eventually get worn down enough for the Suzuki/Marvin team to trade bombs and have a chance, and they're able to hit enough big stuff to win the match. Nothing complicated, but just great spot-style wreslting.
The Briscoe's play up their dumb, frothing at the mouth redneck thing super well in this, but mostly, the credit for taking this to the next level is all Suzuki and Marvin. Suzuki is shockingly great in this. He seems much more wiling to trade with the Briscoe's and plays the role of the spunky one. Marvin is silky smooth, cool, calm and collected and totally comes off as the 'calming' factor in the match. Great role playing.
The key to the match for Suzuki and Marvin is to cut off the REALLY big stuff from the Briscoe's and they do that several times, twice with the doomsday device. No matter how deep the pile of doo doo seems to get for Suzuki and Marvin, they keep the Briscoe's off balance enough to at least prevent them from hitting the BIG BIG stuff and are able to constantly screw up the briscoe's pacing. Eventually the Briscoe's are worn down enogh to where the faces can open up the bag o tricks and score the victory.
This is just FANTASTIC stuff from both teams who stick with a fun formula and throw in some really fun and innovative spots to keep the crowd off their backsides the whole match. The momentum swings are constantly dramatic and for the last ten minutes, both teams look like they're within a hair's breath of losing the match. That's good wrestling. This is fantastic and shouldn't be missed. ***1/2
Takeshi Morishima v. Austin Aries, ROH World Championship, 4/27/07
Aries spends the opening moments of the match trying to knock Mori off his feet. it takes him about 672 shoulder blocks and strikes to do it though, before Mori just grabs him and spikes him of the mat like a football. Morishima is a total monster and does a fun job with it. He does the old Andre the Giant 'stand on em' thing and does the running bump butt and all that good stuff.
Basically, this is Aries making comebacks and showing life here and there with Morishima controlling almost the entire 15 minutes. JUST as you're REALLY getting tired of the Morishima control segment which lasts 10 minutes or so, Aries is able to catch a break and dumps the big man to the floor as he charges at him. Aries sales through the ropes and starts building SOMETHING, before Mori cuts him off. Mori hits a running bump butt in the corner barracade and then goes to do it again and Aries avoids it by the skin of his teeth and hits two missile drop kicks. We got back into the ring and Aries' freakign retardedly goes for a brain buster he's incredibly unlikely to hit given he's pretty much hit a tope and two drop kicks the entire match. Mori blocks it and another three-four minutes of MOrishima killing Aries. Then we do the 'remember the last time I won the title?' part of the match where Aries tries to basically re-inact the closing sequence of his match with Joe, except he finds this one much harder to pull off. Mori fights the first crucifix bomb attempt but can't avoid the second one. Aries kicks MOri twice and then hits a brain buster adn a 450 for... MOri gets his foot on the ropes. Aries says 'fvck it i'll just do it again' and goes for a second 450 only for Morishima to quickly recover and hit a nasty back drop suplex off the top rope and then a lariat which Aries flips 600 times to sell then kicks out. Mori hits one more backdrop driver and it's over.
I was really dissapointed with this match. It wasn't bad, there just wasn't really anything to it. Morishima sold REALLY well for Austin while Austin over sold as per the usual, but clearly with good intentions in mind.
The thing I didn't like about this is that they basically just tried to tweak some spots in the Joe-Aries match from a few years ago and run with them. They work towards the end a bit, but the Aries offense is just entitrely unoriginal and re-hashed. There isn't a SINGLE point where I felt as if Aries was a legit challenger for Morishima either. It just wasn't convincing in any way. Mori oversold the whole 'this is way too easy' thing too, as a lot of foreigners tend to do, because they're not really super sharp on communicating to the culture they're wrestling in front of. I don't really fault him for doing it, but it did completely make me think Aries was a total joke as a challenger.
Aries doesn't really DO anything than run through his signature stuff and eat some big moves. The crowd though, reacted to everything he did.. why, I don't know as it didn't grip me in the slightest, but the crowd popped for it and if it's working for most, then who am I ya know? But hoenstly, this isn't even in the top 30 of the stuff i've seen thus far this year. Aries is usually GREAT wrestling big men, but not here. This one's way, way, way, way overhyped, IMO. I don't want to totally kill this, because it's not a bad match, it's just been done so many times I can't get into it. **1/2
Bryan Danielson v. Go Shiosaki, ROH Invades Japan, 7/16/07
Good match here that plays out well. For those of you who don't know, Danielson was ROH Champion for a year and a half almost before dropping the belt in December to Homicide. This is one of his first few matches back since losing the belt. Go Shiosaki on the other hand, is this spunky Kobashi-clone from Pro Wrestling NOAH that well, "Goes" like crazy. Pretty much, that's the way this match plays out.
Early on, Shiosaki is wrestling pretty smart. Danielson seems to be a little surprised at how difficult it is for him to really contain Go and wrestle him to the mat. Go outdoes Dragon with strikes, throws and other fun stuff before Danielson is eventually able to put him in his place. To beat Go, Danielson isn't going to get into strikes. He's smaller, Go's bigger and stronger, thus it'd be a really stupid idea. So Danielson, the consomite viewer of wrestling tapes, must've watched the film of the Jun Akiyama-Go Shiosaki match from earlier this year where Akiyama pretty much demolished Go's arm and overwhelmed him from there.
Danielson applies a similar strategy and has success with it, wrestling Go to the ground and finding all sorts of ways to pick his arm apart. This works for a variety of weaknesses, none of which are as important as Danielson minimizing Go's greatest asset, which is his size and striking ability. Also, Dragon's two primary finishers: Cattle Mutilation and the cross face chicken wing, are both centered around the arm. Seems smart. Danielson seems to be content to work that arm. Go on the other hand, just wants to "Go" and throw bombs. Danielson gets increasingly frustrated by Go's ability to wiggle away from himand drop him on his head and whatnot, and that leads to mistakes that allow Go to control a lot more of this match then you'd think it would.
After much frustration, Danielson pretty much goes with the "bombs it is" decision and gets plowed. Danielson regains his patience, which sort of becomes the key to the match in a way. Dragon goes right back to picking apart the arm before Go again wiggles out, but this time Danielson... instead of losing his temper and making a mistake, seems content to take the moves in hopes that he'll be able to catch Go making a mistake of HIS own, and capitalize on the smart and patient wrestling he employed earlier in the match. It pays off for Dragon in the end, as Go misses a moonsault and Dragon's able to slap on cattle mutiliation. Go manages to almost wiggle out of it and go at another comeback, but Dragon quickly makes sure he's got Go dazed enough to keep the hold on, hits the KO elbows and then locks the hold back on for the submission win at around 27 minutes.
This was pretty good stuff, but really.. this was all Dragon. Go didn't do anything I haven't seen him do a thousand times in NOAH already. That's not a bad thing, but Go pretty much went until he got young and stupid again, and the cagey vet figured out a way to beat him. Nothing really new. This is worked a lot like the Akiyama match from January, as I mentioned earlier. Danielson's clearly the better wrestler, but Go keeps in the game with lots of spunk and fast moving offense, despite being bigger. This frustrates Danielson at first and causes him to sort of lose focus. In January, Akiyama had a lot of success working Go's arm, but unlike Danielson, he had the size t o pretty much overwhelm him and cut off the comebacks. Danielson on the other hand, has to work through Go's comebacks BECAUSE he lacks the size to completely keep him at bay, In many respects, Danielson has to almost let Go sort of do his thing, wrestle smart and stay patient to win. Unlike Akiyama, he can't really just go out there and say' hell, I think i'm going home in 10 minutes tonight'. He's got to use his cunning to beat a bigger Go.
It's a nice progressive spin on earlier stuff this year, but really, Dragon completely owns this match from bell to bell. His facials, selection of offence, his mounting frustration, etc., make this match WAY better than it would have been say, had Austin Aries worked it. My one sort of problem with this match is that the arm work is a BIG piece of it, and not just used for control. Go kind of forgets it's beingworked sometimes, and not other times and is inconsistent in that regard. The pacing is a little funny too as I found myself a little bit in the same corner as the crowd... it starts pretty slow and plodding then literally in five seconds is all over the place and you're kind of like 'oh wow, wait what's going on?" Aside from some pacing issues and Go still being pretty green despite what a lot of people might think, this is a pretty good match, but also a pretty one sided affair, at least in terms of who brougth the goods. Definately a good match though.***
Welcome!
I figured I needed a place to put all my match reviews. Figured it might as well be here. Let the head dropping commence!
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