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August Wrasslin' |OT2| What? It's almost September.

I reviewed that XPW show a while back; http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=100089401&postcount=7509 - I would not recommend it, what a fucking trainwreck.

Watching some more Volk Han matches - this look like it hurt;

Volk.gif
 

Data West

coaches in the WNBA
I wonder if Sunny is a Reggie Bennett fan.
link that shit

It's a DVD rip from my own 'collection 'of wrestling from when the Suncoast was closing and everything was like a dollar. I'm sure it's widely available on the internet though.

It's weird watching this old Mariko Yoshida match and thinking, 'Oh I've never heard of this green other girl. She's gonna be killed'
AtXGfruCQAEcbwh.jpg

and then finding out it's Megumi Fuji
 
I'm pretty sure Volk's one of, if not the best shootstyle guy ever. Dude's so entertaining to watch with his super unique takedowns and reversals, he had some genuine all-time classics with the likes of Maeda, Tamura & Yamamato as well as carrying numerous lesser opponents to good to great matches. Shame he never considered himself a wrestler, he would've been awesome in the NJPW/UWFi feud.

Goddamn suplex;

Volk.gif


Heaven help you if Volk Han grabs a wristlock;

Volk1.gif


Dragonzord said:
I wonder if Sunny is a Reggie Bennett fan.

I dunno, I totally am though.

ibqwikX60xUCNP.jpg


ipageUTFQAYix.jpg
 

Data West

coaches in the WNBA
I wonder how things would have went if Mariko went with AJWP instead of ARSION. I don't think AJW realized how much they misused her, even with her injuries. To me, she's better than Toyota and Hokuto, and she's buddies with Kong IRL. And she has such a cool look.
 

Gonzalez

Banned
For all the massive bitching about Temple of Doom being a super dark movie, Jurassic Park which is considerd one of the best movies of all time has essentially the same exact tone.
 
Here, have this blast from the past;

Hulk Hogan Returns - WCW Nitro, August 9th, 1999

Personal Anecdote: My birthday is August 4th, so going to this show was my birthday present. As such, I got to see Hulk Hogan return/change from being Hollywood Hogan live. As you can likely imagine, 10 year old me was stoked as all hell.

This is also a reminder that Hollywood Hogan turned back into Hulk Hogan in Nampa, Idaho. Not Atlanta, Georgia, not Charlotte, North Carolina, but goddamn Nampa.

WCW...why
 
I wonder how things would have went if Mariko went with AJWP instead of ARSION. I don't think AJW realized how much they misused her, even with her injuries. To me, she's better than Toyota and Hokuto, and she's buddies with Kong IRL. And she has such a cool look.

She was probably a better technician than either Toyota or Hokuto, but I don't know if she was the complete package to the degree they were - it's a shame AJW never really got behind Yoshida after she returned from her neck injury, though. It really stalled her progress up the card and her rising popularity.
 

strobogo

Banned
Here, have this blast from the past;

Hulk Hogan Returns - WCW Nitro, August 9th, 1999

Personal Anecdote: My birthday is August 4th, so going to this show was my birthday present. As such, I got to see Hulk Hogan return/change from being Hollywood Hogan live. As you can likely imagine, 10 year old me was stoked as all hell.

This is also a reminder that Hollywood Hogan turned back into Hulk Hogan in Nampa, Idaho. Not Atlanta, Georgia, not Charlotte, North Carolina, but goddamn Nampa.

WCW...why

Shouldn't have been in Atlanta or Charlotte. It should have been in New York, Philly, or Boston. And they ran the North East a few times in 1999 and had super hot crowds for all the 80s WWF guys. Hulk was never very over in WCW strong holds. Actually, I think he was more over as the red and yellow in 1999 than 1994.

I think it his hilarious that WCW did the red and yellow nostalgia run in 1999, and WWE did it again in 2002. And 2003. And 2004. And 2005. And 2006. And 2014.
 
Jake Roberts is fully coherent and moving to a new hospital in Las Vegas noted Diamond Dallas Page this afternoon.

Page joked that Roberts' condition is stable, he's coherent, talkative and a little grumpy.

The move is because the pneumonia and fluid has spread from his lungs to other organs and the new hospital is better equipped for his condition.

Good news.
 

JavyOO7

Member
Ugh. First episode of Nitro so far starts out with Dave Penzer literally going HOOOORAAAAAA!!!1 ... annoying. What a terrible voice he has. He sucks.

Besides Bobby, the commentating team sucks.
 
Here, have this blast from the past;

Hulk Hogan Returns - WCW Nitro, August 9th, 1999

Personal Anecdote: My birthday is August 4th, so going to this show was my birthday present. As such, I got to see Hulk Hogan return/change from being Hollywood Hogan live. As you can likely imagine, 10 year old me was stoked as all hell.

This is also a reminder that Hollywood Hogan turned back into Hulk Hogan in Nampa, Idaho. Not Atlanta, Georgia, not Charlotte, North Carolina, but goddamn Nampa.

WCW...why

Kinda like Bret Hart making his WWE return after almost 13 years in...Dayton, Ohio instead of fucking Canada.
 

RP912

Banned
Ugh. First episode of Nitro so far starts out with Dave Penzer literally going HOOOORAAAAAA!!!1 ... annoying. What a terrible voice he has. He sucks.

Besides Bobby, the commentating team sucks.


You have Eric Bischoff doing his annoying car salemen commentary and fucking mongo :/. It's like having a pepsi with melted ice cubes in a cup with a hole in it.
 

strobogo

Banned
Ugh. First episode of Nitro so far starts out with Dave Penzer literally going HOOOORAAAAAA!!!1 ... annoying. What a terrible voice he has. He sucks.

Besides Bobby, the commentating team sucks.

No doubt the announcing is awful, but the first episode of Nitro was a real shot in the arm compared to what Raw as doing. Second ep was even better and the announcing wasn't quite as terrible.


Not even an hour into Fall Brawl and I have some great gifs. The full Wonderful/Spivey segment is on this PPV. Spivey not only restores Paul's confidence, but also gives him the lyrics to his entrance music. However, half of that hour is a Johnny B. Badd match. And he botches throwing a frisbee.
 

Data West

coaches in the WNBA
AJPW Summer Impact. Rafa is right, AJPW is the future without those lucrative Americans and Euros's. Besides, anything that aligns with Jeff Jarrett is destined to crash and burn.
God damn AJPW has some ugly young lions. These vanilla dudes are gonna wrestle. I'm bored already. I'm like Bret Hart at any modern WWE event. I googled one of these dudes in the match and fucking NOTHING came up. This is the caliber of an AJPW star. One guy's a 'veteran' and used to be in NOAH, so I guess that's who's doing the job to this young 'cool guy' who is most likely a heel. Have I ever mentioned how much I hate the 'both guys get to their feet at the same time for cheap applause spot' because I really fucking do. It's so played out, and they do it here too. AJPW should just book Fujita. I wish Fujita was here in all his handsome glory. Wrestler 1 and Wrestler 2 do strike trade-offs because this is Japan. The crowd is so bored. I am so bored. I can't put into words how bored this crowd is. Like.. X-Pac vs Justin Credible bored. This young lion looks like he's ripping off SUWA's tights. He's got no future, brother. NOAH reject keeps beating up 'young lion.' No one cares. These guys have shitty quality tights. I'm nitpicking at this point because there is NOTHING interesting going on in this match, and it is taking forever. There's a cute girl in the front row in a white t-shirt. These are the things you notice when you're that bored.

Yohei finally gets to do some moves. He does a decent headscissors takedown, he does a over the top rope splash then he runs in and does a suicide dive. I always hate that. One dive to the outside is enough. Also, there's so litle room on the outside between the ring and the rails that I would never do a dive to the outside. Too easy to Benoit yourself. There's a brainbuster into a german spot that's kinda sloppy but looks ok. Too bad it 's ruined by the Japanese lack of selling of german suplexes. There's way too many near falls for a match that NOBODY cares about. Thank Baba, the match is over.

Highlight: That cute fan
sushih1s9o.jpg

Masanobu Fuchi & Soma Takao vs. Masao Inoue & SUSHI
dude's name is Sushi. He has sushi on his head. His music is so stereotypical. I love him already.
sushijrs3xsle.jpg

OH MY GOD LITTLE SUSHIS. Is this guy now the hottest thing in AJPW? Sushi would kick the shit out of Captain New Japan, bros. THIS DUDE IS COMING OUT TO DANGER ZONE OH MY GOD. Oh shit, it's Soma Takao from DDT. He looks like Yosuke from Persona 4 irl. He's tagging with old man Fuchi. Remember him? He's from that era of AJPW where Meltzer was a complete mark and overrated everything they ever did. Soma's sweet though, I'm a big fan. His knockoff Boma Ye is fucking great. Masa Inoue comes out and like nobody cares.

The start of the match is Soma vs Sushi and both guys keep trying to get cheap pops from the audience. It's great.
somakipup14s00.gif

Soma is over with the crowd. They strike off then Soma stomps on Sushi's foot then he SUPER sutmps on Sushi's foot. Sushi nails Soma with a beauty of a wheelbarrow kind of kick. Sushi looks like if Curryman and Mushiking Terry fusioned. But Mushiking Terry is in the next match. We'll get to that. Inoue gets tagged in and stomps on Soma's foot to return the favor. Soma sells it like crazy and pushes Inoue away like 'back off dude that hurts for real.' This match is really endearing me to Soma. The ref tries to pull Inoue away from Soma because he thinks it might be cheap to keep stomping on his foot. In the mix-up, the 'injured' Some runs over real quick and stomps on Inoues foot. It's awesome. Inoue starts repeatedly stepping on Soma's foot. The monster. I don't know if Soma is a heel, face, or goofball heel.
sowakickso1s29.gif

Soma tags in Fuchi. Fuchi does a right proper stalling body slam on a 234 lb man. 60 YEARS OLD. Eat shit, Kane. This warrants a Fuchi chant from the crowd. BY GOD HE DOES ANOTHER ONE! 60 YEARS OLD Fuchi slams him after the extended stall and even walks it off like 'pft that's nothing.' He takes a breather. You watch his face, and you can tell he's loving this. It's pretty heartwarming. FUCHI WITH THE ONE LEGGED DROPKICK! He tries it on Sushi, Sushi holds onto the ropes and holy hell, Sushi gets mega heat for not letting Fuchi dropkick him. I want a Sushi mask. My boy, Soma Takao, gets tagged back in.

Soma reverses an enzuigiri from Sushi with his own kick and slaps the mess out of his leg. It's so loud. Fuchi nails Sushi with Soma's tub from behind. Sushi does this weird selling, like he can't accept his shame, so he tags Inoeu back in. Soma tags in Fuchi who has to take a breather before he comes through the ropes because he's old. Inoeu has Fuchi on the ground, and he's winding up his arm for the lariat. Fuchi takes so long to get up(because he's old) that Inoeu blows out his arm from winding it up. Inside cradle, Fuchi gets the roll-up victory, but they play Soma's theme because DANGER ZONE.


This was a really fun match that played to everybody's strengths. Highly entertaining, and everyone looked good. Exactly how you book a tag match with no major blood feuds in them involving a character named after food.
Highlight: Soma. Sushi was pretty great too, but Soma was amazing.

Nowhere near done. 6 matches to go! May try to size them up better to get them all in the last post. I'm really looking forward to a few of them though even if AJPW is real 'state of your fucking roster, mate.'
 

strobogo

Banned
AJPW in 2014 isn't actually the real All Japan, right? Isn't it technically a new company? I haven't really followed it a whole lot besides knowing that Mutoh led a mass exodus and formed his own company just like Misawa did and now Jun Akiyama is running shit. And some NOAH true borns are now in AJPW because Japanese wrestling politics are fucking weird. But I thought Jun formed a new company or parent company maybe. Idk. The politics of Japanese wrestling puts the US to shame.
 
Wow reading that Jake news actually made a shitty day much better.

I really expected to read about him passing today the way everything sounded last night.
 
He's tagging with old man Fuchi. Remember him? He's from that era of AJPW where Meltzer was a complete mark and overrated everything they ever did.

Just because Meltzer severely underrated 90's New Japan doesn't mean he overrated 90's All Japan...well, maybe a little, but unless you just aren't a fan of that style it's hard to deny the number of top-tier matches from that era.

AJPW in 2014 isn't actually the real All Japan, right? Isn't it technically a new company? I haven't really followed it a whole lot besides knowing that Mutoh led a mass exodus and formed his own company just like Misawa did and now Jun Akiyama is running shit. And some NOAH true borns are now in AJPW because Japanese wrestling politics are fucking weird. But I thought Jun formed a new company or parent company maybe. Idk. The politics of Japanese wrestling puts the US to shame.

Basically, All Japan got bought out by a money mark named Shiraishi - NOAH were in financial trouble and fired Kobashi, which prompted the BURNING guys (Akiyama, Shiozaki, Aoki, Kanemaru, Kotaro) to quit NOAH and sign with All Japan. Shiraishi, as it turned out, was batshit insane, publicly criticising New Japan, promising a return to the 90's All Japan style and dressing up as a gundam to wrestle Chono. Anywho, Mutoh quit and took half of All Japan's roster with him to form W-1. A legal battle ensued, but while this was going on Akiyama got himself a financial backer, got the support of Baba's widow and staged a coup for the company - Shiraishi eventually agreed, but would retain the commercial rights to the company name (Zen Nippon Pro-Wrestling) and the new Triple Crown title he had commissioned. The roster fell in line with Akiyama and they named their new promotion All Japan Pro-Wrestling, registered in English to differentiate it from the original.
 

strobogo

Banned
Just because Meltzer severely underrated 90's New Japan doesn't mean he overrated 90's All Japan...well, maybe a little, but unless you just aren't a fan of that style it's hard to deny the number of top-tier matches from that era.



Basically, All Japan got bought out by a money mark named Shiraishi - NOAH were in financial trouble and fired Kobashi, which prompted the BURNING guys (Akiyama, Shiozaki, Aoki, Kanemaru, Kotaro) to quit NOAH and sign with All Japan. Shiraishi, as it turned out, was batshit insane, publicly criticising New Japan, promising a return to the 90's All Japan style and dressing up as a gundam to wrestle Chono. Anywho, Mutoh quit and took half of All Japan's roster with him to form W-1. A legal battle ensued, but while this was going on Akiyama got himself a financial backer, got the support of Baba's widow and staged a coup for the company - Shiraishi eventually agreed, but would retain the commercial rights to the company name (Zen Nippon Pro-Wrestling) and the new Triple Crown title he had commissioned. The roster fell in line with Akiyama and they named their new promotion All Japan Pro-Wrestling, registered in English to differentiate it from the original.

Everything in Japanese wrestling after 1999 is so messy. SO MANY god damn off shoots and take overs and what not. It seems like every major star over the past 20 years has at some point had their own promotion, which at some point had an off shoot, which as some point had an exodus, which at some point had a name change. And all that shit seems to really have started with the UWF. That god damn promotion caused everything.
 

Data West

coaches in the WNBA
UWFi's bullshit ain't shit compared to FMW's.

I mean your shit's so fucked that you have your owner killing himself because he owes money to the Yakuza.
jiqPgXF.jpg

The best gravestone though.

Everything about FMW was seedy from the offset though. Even as a teenager, I was like, 'man this looks SUPER shady'
 

strobogo

Banned
Japan is...Japan, I guess. They're gonna Yakuza. They're gonna revolt. They're gonna take over. They're gonna have gross death matches. They're gonna have a blow up doll/ladder/dog/title itself be a champion.
 
Toyonobori & Inoki really started it, quitting the JWA to form the short-lived Tokyo Pro in the early 70's, plus AJPW & NJPW were technically splinter groups from JWA. Then in the 80's you had Choshu leaving NJPW to form JPW, Maeda/Fujiwara/Sayama leaving NJPW to form UWF and Onita leaving AJPW to form FMW. The 90's saw Maeda form RINGS, Fujiwara form PWFG and Takada resurrect UWFi from the ashes of UWF, while IWA-Japan spawned from WING, which in turn had spawned from FMW. Tenryu quit All Japan to form SWS, which switched backers after a couple of years and became WAR, at which point New Tokyo Pro formed with some of the SWS roster. BattlARTS and Futen came about after Fujiwara closed PWFG. Misawa quit All Japan and formed NOAH, while Ultimo left New Japan, formed Toryumon which in turn became Dragon Gate and Inoki sold New Japan and set up IGF. And all that barely scratches the surface once you add in all the indy sleaze promotions that have popped up and disappeared over the years from the remains of other promotions.
 

strobogo

Banned

Data West

coaches in the WNBA
Pic unrelated, lol. What the hell is that from? I know Reggie did some commercial work in Japan, including this wtf commercial that I can't seem to figure out exactly what it's advertising;

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wRvcsUqHAWY

DAH-DAN!!

http://www.ne.jp/asahi/betty/boop/dadan.htm

It was related to Da-Dan, but I have no idea how. I tried looking it up and no results. Looks like some Tales from the Crypt.
FMW was amazing simply for bringing us one of the greatest to ever do it.

HayabusaTitles9198.JPG

He's so sloppy though. He looked really cool, but I don't know if it was his age or the mask, but he did not look ready half the time. The one where he paralyzed himself wasn't even the first time he horribly botched one of his finishing moves. And when he hit them, he always looked so close to snapping his neck. I think he needed more time training, but FMW needed stars.
What? Don't turn this into DVDVR. 90's New Japan had fun characters, but their pointless mat wrestling is the cure for insomnia.

I could say the same about AJPW and their constant head drops. They ran them so far into the ground that I started yawning ever ytime Misawa dropped a guy on his head. Like yep, I'm not selling your move as a fan because you've completely inflated the value of near falls and big moves.
 

Gonzalez

Banned
Just because Meltzer severely underrated 90's New Japan doesn't mean he overrated 90's All Japan...well, maybe a little, but unless you just aren't a fan of that style it's hard to deny the number of top-tier matches from that era.

What? Don't turn this into DVDVR. 90's New Japan had fun characters I'll give you that, but outside of the Juniors, their heavyweight matches with their pointless mat wrestling are the cure for insomnia.

I'm glad that when they arrived in 2000 they dropped the fake Inoki MMA for something much more stimulating to the human eye.
 

strobogo

Banned
http://www.ne.jp/asahi/betty/boop/dadan.htm

It was related to Da-Dan, but I have no idea how. I tried looking it up and no results. Looks like some Tales from the Crypt.


He's so sloppy though. He looked really cool, but I don't know if it was his age or the mask, but he did not look ready half the time. The one where he paralyzed himself wasn't even the first time he horribly botched one of his finishing moves. And when he hit them, he always looked so close to snapping his neck. I think he needed more time training, but FMW needed stars.


I could say the same about AJPW and their constant head drops. They ran them so far into the ground that I started yawning ever ytime Misawa dropped a guy on his head. Like yep, I'm not selling your move as a fan because you've completely inflated the value of near falls and big moves.

For sure Hayabusa was super sloppy and there are probably 10 clips you can find that look as dangerous and as brutal as the one where he broke his neck. I also agree with AJPW and head drops. They went really nutty with them in 1998-1999 and it got even more bonkers for the first couple years of NOAH. The NOAH main event style was AJPW as filtered through a PS2 Smackdown game. Sometimes it was really awesome, though. In both companies.

What? Don't turn this into DVDVR. 90's New Japan had fun characters, but their pointless mat wrestling is the cure for insomnia.

Sometimes. I haven't seen a ton of 90s NJPW outside of juniors stuff, but 2002-2006ish NJPW feels MUCH worse with their pointless mat work and strikes that go absolutely nowhere. There were a few years there where they were dry as fuuuuuuuuck. The juniors stuff in the mid 90s that is so high praised is often just very spotty and has no real flow or story to the matches. Like an Eddie/Liger match in 1996 isn't even special because it's more about popping the crowd and being exciting juniors than doing good work in the ring. Just from what I've seen, I think AJ was more consistent from the mid 70s through the mid 90s. I think the style was more interesting and evolved more. New Japan really didn't change styles much from the early 70s until the 90s. It was still the Inoki style for the most part, as the shoot style of the 80s was just that style, but stiffer. Juniors were doing some dope stuff, though. All Japan went from pretty much NWA style in the 70s to something completely different by the mid 80s and fairly different again by the early 90s, so the full on head drop craziness by the mid 90s. I don't think NJ changed that much. Even today, I really think the MMA influenced style is pretty similar to what Inoki was doing in the 70s, but with a lot more strike battles.
 
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