QnD Reviews #5
More random musings from yours truly. This time I might even edit them a bit so they make a bit more sense and don't read like message board posts (which, of course, they are)...
-I'm working through a disc of World Class from '82 that's boring me to tears, quite frankly. It's mostly focused on Bugsy McGraw, who I've never seen in a good match. His matches at this point are mostly just shtick because he'd been around for like 20 years and he's also working a gimmick where he just does random, goofy stuff for no apparent reason. The kids LOVED him, though. Getting ready to watch a match with King Kong Bundy and Harley Race.
-David Von Erich was truly fantastic and would have only gotten better, since he seemed to be the one who not only wanted to wrestle the most, but the one that was willing to branch out from Texas and learn from people outside of his family. Every single match I've seen him in, from squash to main event, has made him look like every bit the star he was pushed as.
-Not sure how many people the Sportatorium held (wiki says 4000), but the heat produced by the crowd was just insane. It must have been deafening to be there live.
-They were crazy over, but the Freebirds as the happy go lucky babyface duo (no Buddy Roberts because, really, who could like him? He comes across as the biggest douchebag lush you'd never want to meet.) just doesn't compute. I'm glad that I've reached the point to where they were the biggest heels in Texas and concerned themselves with nothing but women, booze and crippling anyone named Von Erich.
-Checkmate is amazing. He doesn't get featured a lot on what I'm watching, but he's a European guy who just works circles around everyone. I (and most others, apparently) always thought this was Les Thornton, but apparently it's a guy named Tony Charles under the mask. At any rate, if he were working today, people would be going bonkers over him.
-They hype a match between Brody and Bam Bam Bigelow, which isn't shown. There's one of those dream matches that I never thought of until that point.
-Lots more Brody/Abby stuff on the discs I'm watching. Fun brawls, but they really run together at this point. There is a spot I loved, though, where the idiot ref gets into Abby's face to make him break a choke. Abby looks at him, casually pulls a fork from his tights and stabs him right in the face. He never even changed expression. It was tremendous.
-Another day, a few more hours worth of WCCW in the bag. We've inexplicably jumped ahead to '88 and yeah...I really wish we'd get back to '83 already, because there's a whole bunch of crap here. I did mark out for a completely random Masa Chono run in, but that was one of the highlights of what I watched over the past few days. He's rail thin and looks to be all of 20 years old. If even.
-There are some fun matches between Chris Adams and Terry Taylor, but they'd already run this exact feud for Bill Watts, so I'm sure they'd worked each other hundreds of times by this point. This is where the Chono interference comes in as well, as he's one of Taylor's stooges.
-The other big angles of this time period flow together, as you have the Freebirds breaking up and KVE feuding with Iceman Parsons for the world title. Steve Simpson gets blinded by Freebird hair cream (an angle that needs to make a comeback pronto) and that leads to Terry Gordy being the greatest ass kicking tweener ever. He hates all of the heels and he hates all of the faces, but he feels responsible for Simpson being blinded, so he decides to team with Shaun Simpson and go after Tatum/Victory.
-I also watched the first disc in Goodhelmet's Dick Murdoch comp. I don't know that I've ever watched this much wrestling from the 70s in one sitting and it was pretty phenomenal. Other than being a flippy dude, I don't think there's one style of wrestling that Dick Murdoch wouldn't have been the best in the world at if he wanted to be. What a great stooging ass of a heel who would turn around and throw the greatest worked punches I've ever seen. He had great timing with comedy spots as well, which is something you didn't see a ton of in those days. It really made him stand out as something different.
-Going back and forth between Goodhelmet's Murdoch and Windham comps at the moment. Mostly Windham at the moment. I'm entirely through his original NWA run. While he wasn't quite as amazing in the ring as he was the 18 months prior, his first run with the Horsemen is my favorite section of his career. He was pretty much born to be a Horseman. He just fit in so perfectly. It's funny...I've seen (and already own) almost every match on this set, but I'm happily watching it all again because he's just so goo. In my mind, Windham at his best is what every pro wrestler should aspire to be. As we move on, there's only one match from his Widowmaker run (vs. Tito Santana) and a match versus Jumbo in All Japan, then we're into the WCW era with his second go as a Horseman and tagging with Dustin Rhodes. You just can't go wrong with this set.
As far as Murdoch goes, I've reached the 80s and his first run through Mid South. That people don't sing his praises on a daily basis is almost criminal. There's some fun matches versus Pat O'Connor and maybe the best Kevin Von Erich matches I've ever seen. It wasn't usually the case with Kerry, but I'm starting to think that the other Von Erichs were at their best when they *weren't* wrestling in Texas. This makes me want to pick up all of the St Louis stuff that's ever been released as well, as I'd only seen individual matches before this. Here, you get some interview segments and see some angles play out and it seems like Sam Muchnick was every bit the promoter that he was always been hyped to be.
-Watched the first disc of the Mr. Perfect set. The doc wasn't up to their typically amazing standards, but it's still worth a watch if you're a fan. Even if it's just for the behind the scenes look at his vignettes. Joe Hennig kinda looks like Matt Morgan. No idea how big he is, but I can see him riding the family name to a great deal of success. If he's actually talented, well then all the better...
-I watched all of the Lawler/Kaufman stuff on the Memphis set (as in the DVDVR Best of the 80's Memphis set) as well. 90 minutes of some of the best worked shoot stuff that you'll ever see. I'm blown away more and more every time I see it. I need to find out if "I'm From Hollywood" ever got a DVD release. Comedy Central used to show it from time to time, but I haven't seen it in ages. You couple that movie with the footage I watched and I don't think you could get a more comprehensive look at the feud if you tried.
-Finished off the Windham set. Can't stress enough as to how worth it this set is. Some amazing matches/angles. I had forgotten just how great the team and eventual split with BW/Dustin was.
-Watched the second disc of the Hennig set. First time I saw the broadway match w/ Bock since it originally aired. Just a remarkable match. Both in the ring, where it went back and forth at a great pace the entire time and even on commentary, where they really managed to put it over as something special.
-Rodman Down Under. This wasn't very good, though I wasn't expecting it to be. Any entertainment it offered was usually for all the wrong reasons. I'm still trying to figure out why the commentators buried Johnny Grunge, basically cracking fat jokes about him throughout the entire match. Funnier yet is that Road Warrior Animal actually looked fatter, but they claimed he was in great shape. At any rate, I got it at Wal-Mart for a buck, so at least I got my money's worth. Heh.
-Raven/Sullivan shoot. Lots of fun stories and it would certainly be educational in terms of building a gimmick, but Raven talks too much and doesn't let Sulli get his stories out.
-Ian Rotten Roast. A lot of inside jokes that you'd have to be a big IWA fan to get. King is pretty funny, though, and this footage would be a decent example to site if you find yourself in the "is Mickie Knuckles attractive?" argument, as she cleans up pretty nicely.
-Finally, went back to the Murdoch set. I really want to finish this before I dive into the Memphis set. Last disc I watched was focused around Adonis/Murdoch versus the Samoans and versus Inoki/Fujinami in New Japan. I've not seen much early 80's NJPW, so I was astonished at how popular Inoki was. Anyone who thinks that Japanese crowds sit on their hands should watch some of these matches, because it would be hard to find a crowd any louder for such a prolonged period.
-Down to the last 2-3 matches in the Murdoch set. Much like the Windham set, I don't think I could give it a higher recommendation. I went in being familiar with Murdoch and knowing that he was awesome, but not really familiar with a lot of his best work. I'm coming out of it convinced that he's one of the best workers who ever laced up a pair of boots. The guy was a machine in the ring. He could tear it up on the mat if that's what the match called for, but the old standard of punching dudes in the face worked just as well. That he was a great talker and had some of the best facial expressions in the business was just icing on the cake.
CHIKARA - Grit & Glory - Disc One
This kinda blew my mind, as it was the first show (other than the current WWE/TNA shows) I've watched in about a month and a half that occurred since '99. Made it come off a bit sloppier than I'd normally notice, but it made all of the lucha stuff look state of the art as well.
-We open with a great Haze/Chucky T promo, as Daizee rambles on about beating Death Rey 5 times in one second and Taylor cracks me up with a line about KoT, saying that the entire crowd must have been Bobby Dempsey's parents that night, because no one loved him. Heh.
-The mixed tag itself was pretty bad, but I loved the bit where the women wrestled straight up, but when Chuck Taylor tagged in, he proceeded to engage in a catfight with Dempsey, with the ladies having to pull them apart. Oh, CHIKARA, how I've missed thee.
-ONST/Super Smash Bros. was pretty fun. Lots of innovative stuff from the SSB, though this match was largely built around Donst being heelish and Hydra being ignored by Mantis.
-This is pretty much the year of Vin Gerard. How ridiculous is that thought? Yet it's all been awesome and it turns out that he doesn't totally suck after all! He picks apart Lince's knee in this match. Lince even remembers to sell it, except for all of those times when he's springing to the top doing wacky lucha stuff. *sigh*
-Six man w/ Quack/Skayde/Turbo vs Claudio/Pantera/Dutt was friggin' amazing. One of my favorite matches this year, actually. Really fluid tandem stuff from the rudos and just some ridiculous spots all around. My first thought was that one of those names wasn't like the others, but even Sonjay stepped it up here.
-King/Storm II wasn't as good as the first, but I'm predisposed to like matches featuring Kingston pummeling masked dudes in the face, so this was still pretty great for me. You also get the requisite chilling promo from King before the match as well. Really, though, getting to watch Shane Storm's nose gush blood should make this a keeper for everyone. Heh.
-Fab 3 versus Colony was nothing special. Pretty standard CHIKARA trios action. Postmatch, Fab 3 continue their split. Great, great, great bit with Sweeney suggesting that they "hug it out," at which point Shayne Hawke leaps into Mitch Ryder's arms and practically starts dry humping him. Tremendous.
-I'm all caught up with the CHIKARA shows that I own currently. Time to put an order together, I guess. At any rate, you want both Anniversario shows from this year. Both of them are *fantastic*. I'd go as far as to say that they're two of the top five shows in CHIKARA history. From the astoundingly great matwork clinic with Skayde/Pantera and the Increibles match at MA to the Portal vs. Quack/Storm, Brodie/Claudio and FIST/Colony matches from CT, it's just nonstop awesome. You even get some Kaiju goofiness, including a game of chicken conducted on Big Wheels.
PWG - All Star Weekend 6, Night 2
-Anderson/Koslov is a pretty standard opener, but Koslov gets in a bunch of nifty spots and keeps it from getting boring. Anderson's running comments through the match were entertaining as well. He hadn't shown a ton of charmisma the previous times that I've seen him, so I was surprised that he was so funny.
-King/Hero is outstanding. These two don't wrestle so much as have a straight up battle of wills. We get possibly the sickest headbutt of the entire feud from King and these two just whale away on one another, including some chops across the face that had me wincing. Not slaps...actual chops. It's not as good as the Loser Leaves CZW or TPI matches, but they also have to cut it short because Hero injures his knee. It was well on it's way to being another classic up to that point.
-Age of the Fall vs. Young Bucks probably stood out because it was entirely unlike the prior match, but yeah...really fun spotfest. And the more it fell apart, the better the match got. The final few minutes were awesome, as you had the Young Bucks trying to throw out everything in their arsenal, but they keep getting stuffed by the more experienced Jacobs/Black.
-This is my personal favorite Evans/Strong match ever. Not really a fan of Strong, but he delivers quite a beating here and what more can you ask for? Jack is on with his spots as well, so there's no big blown spots to comment about. How long has Strong been using that Kondo Clutch w/ body scissors? It looks way better than the Stronghold.
-Tornado/Candace is the best possible intergender match you can imagine. Lots of silly stuff and Tornado sells some really weak offense, but this was layed out really well and they made it look entirely believable that Candice could win at any time. She even manages to crack the balls of steel!
-This segues directly into Claudio vs Necro. Not a great match, but watching Claudio working completely out of his comfort zone was interesting. He's not a brawler at all, but Necro basically goaded him into it because...yeah, he's Necro friggin' Butcher. Absolutely *loved* the giant swing on the floor, where Claudio managed to basically wipe out the chairs on one side of the ring with Necro's skull. Fun match.
-Generico/Yokosuka was pretty disappointing. I've not seen a ton of Yokosuka, but I definitely expect more out Generico singles matches. It was really just two guys going out there and performing spots on one another. No build, nothing meaningful. The crowd was pretty much dead the entire night (as PWG crowds usually are) and even these two running through every head droppy sequence they had didn't pop them.
-I liked the last half of the Dynasty vs. Doi/Yoshino match, but the opening was almost an extension of the previous match. Just 4 guys hitting spots at random. When it tightened up down the stretch, though, it got really good.
-Supes/Taro was garbage, but even in the midst of all of that, you get a glimpse at how great a heel SD is. There are few guys in the business today that can have the crowd just eating out of their hands quite like he can. At any rate, Taro hasn't wrestled in years, but still manages to kick out of every crazy head drop SD pulls out, until finally being killed with the most ridiculously dangerous looking move I've possibly ever seen. I assume it was a blown Psycho Driver of some sort, as I just can't imagine Taro agreeing to essentially being driven headfirst into the ring like a dart. From the second rope, no less.
-I haven't seen the first CIMA/Danielson match to compare, but this one is pretty great. Really slow paced, with lots of matwork. It's never boring, though, and it actually ties in to the finish, so huzzah to that. The postmatch stuff is pretty stupid, but I have beef with the match itself. And CIMA asking for "five more days," then correcting himself with "six more seconds," was pretty funny.
-I'm working through a disc of World Class from '82 that's boring me to tears, quite frankly. It's mostly focused on Bugsy McGraw, who I've never seen in a good match. His matches at this point are mostly just shtick because he'd been around for like 20 years and he's also working a gimmick where he just does random, goofy stuff for no apparent reason. The kids LOVED him, though. Getting ready to watch a match with King Kong Bundy and Harley Race.
-David Von Erich was truly fantastic and would have only gotten better, since he seemed to be the one who not only wanted to wrestle the most, but the one that was willing to branch out from Texas and learn from people outside of his family. Every single match I've seen him in, from squash to main event, has made him look like every bit the star he was pushed as.
-Not sure how many people the Sportatorium held (wiki says 4000), but the heat produced by the crowd was just insane. It must have been deafening to be there live.
-They were crazy over, but the Freebirds as the happy go lucky babyface duo (no Buddy Roberts because, really, who could like him? He comes across as the biggest douchebag lush you'd never want to meet.) just doesn't compute. I'm glad that I've reached the point to where they were the biggest heels in Texas and concerned themselves with nothing but women, booze and crippling anyone named Von Erich.
-Checkmate is amazing. He doesn't get featured a lot on what I'm watching, but he's a European guy who just works circles around everyone. I (and most others, apparently) always thought this was Les Thornton, but apparently it's a guy named Tony Charles under the mask. At any rate, if he were working today, people would be going bonkers over him.
-They hype a match between Brody and Bam Bam Bigelow, which isn't shown. There's one of those dream matches that I never thought of until that point.
-Lots more Brody/Abby stuff on the discs I'm watching. Fun brawls, but they really run together at this point. There is a spot I loved, though, where the idiot ref gets into Abby's face to make him break a choke. Abby looks at him, casually pulls a fork from his tights and stabs him right in the face. He never even changed expression. It was tremendous.
-Another day, a few more hours worth of WCCW in the bag. We've inexplicably jumped ahead to '88 and yeah...I really wish we'd get back to '83 already, because there's a whole bunch of crap here. I did mark out for a completely random Masa Chono run in, but that was one of the highlights of what I watched over the past few days. He's rail thin and looks to be all of 20 years old. If even.
-There are some fun matches between Chris Adams and Terry Taylor, but they'd already run this exact feud for Bill Watts, so I'm sure they'd worked each other hundreds of times by this point. This is where the Chono interference comes in as well, as he's one of Taylor's stooges.
-The other big angles of this time period flow together, as you have the Freebirds breaking up and KVE feuding with Iceman Parsons for the world title. Steve Simpson gets blinded by Freebird hair cream (an angle that needs to make a comeback pronto) and that leads to Terry Gordy being the greatest ass kicking tweener ever. He hates all of the heels and he hates all of the faces, but he feels responsible for Simpson being blinded, so he decides to team with Shaun Simpson and go after Tatum/Victory.
-I also watched the first disc in Goodhelmet's Dick Murdoch comp. I don't know that I've ever watched this much wrestling from the 70s in one sitting and it was pretty phenomenal. Other than being a flippy dude, I don't think there's one style of wrestling that Dick Murdoch wouldn't have been the best in the world at if he wanted to be. What a great stooging ass of a heel who would turn around and throw the greatest worked punches I've ever seen. He had great timing with comedy spots as well, which is something you didn't see a ton of in those days. It really made him stand out as something different.
-Going back and forth between Goodhelmet's Murdoch and Windham comps at the moment. Mostly Windham at the moment. I'm entirely through his original NWA run. While he wasn't quite as amazing in the ring as he was the 18 months prior, his first run with the Horsemen is my favorite section of his career. He was pretty much born to be a Horseman. He just fit in so perfectly. It's funny...I've seen (and already own) almost every match on this set, but I'm happily watching it all again because he's just so goo. In my mind, Windham at his best is what every pro wrestler should aspire to be. As we move on, there's only one match from his Widowmaker run (vs. Tito Santana) and a match versus Jumbo in All Japan, then we're into the WCW era with his second go as a Horseman and tagging with Dustin Rhodes. You just can't go wrong with this set.
As far as Murdoch goes, I've reached the 80s and his first run through Mid South. That people don't sing his praises on a daily basis is almost criminal. There's some fun matches versus Pat O'Connor and maybe the best Kevin Von Erich matches I've ever seen. It wasn't usually the case with Kerry, but I'm starting to think that the other Von Erichs were at their best when they *weren't* wrestling in Texas. This makes me want to pick up all of the St Louis stuff that's ever been released as well, as I'd only seen individual matches before this. Here, you get some interview segments and see some angles play out and it seems like Sam Muchnick was every bit the promoter that he was always been hyped to be.
-Watched the first disc of the Mr. Perfect set. The doc wasn't up to their typically amazing standards, but it's still worth a watch if you're a fan. Even if it's just for the behind the scenes look at his vignettes. Joe Hennig kinda looks like Matt Morgan. No idea how big he is, but I can see him riding the family name to a great deal of success. If he's actually talented, well then all the better...
-I watched all of the Lawler/Kaufman stuff on the Memphis set (as in the DVDVR Best of the 80's Memphis set) as well. 90 minutes of some of the best worked shoot stuff that you'll ever see. I'm blown away more and more every time I see it. I need to find out if "I'm From Hollywood" ever got a DVD release. Comedy Central used to show it from time to time, but I haven't seen it in ages. You couple that movie with the footage I watched and I don't think you could get a more comprehensive look at the feud if you tried.
-Finished off the Windham set. Can't stress enough as to how worth it this set is. Some amazing matches/angles. I had forgotten just how great the team and eventual split with BW/Dustin was.
-Watched the second disc of the Hennig set. First time I saw the broadway match w/ Bock since it originally aired. Just a remarkable match. Both in the ring, where it went back and forth at a great pace the entire time and even on commentary, where they really managed to put it over as something special.
-Rodman Down Under. This wasn't very good, though I wasn't expecting it to be. Any entertainment it offered was usually for all the wrong reasons. I'm still trying to figure out why the commentators buried Johnny Grunge, basically cracking fat jokes about him throughout the entire match. Funnier yet is that Road Warrior Animal actually looked fatter, but they claimed he was in great shape. At any rate, I got it at Wal-Mart for a buck, so at least I got my money's worth. Heh.
-Raven/Sullivan shoot. Lots of fun stories and it would certainly be educational in terms of building a gimmick, but Raven talks too much and doesn't let Sulli get his stories out.
-Ian Rotten Roast. A lot of inside jokes that you'd have to be a big IWA fan to get. King is pretty funny, though, and this footage would be a decent example to site if you find yourself in the "is Mickie Knuckles attractive?" argument, as she cleans up pretty nicely.
-Finally, went back to the Murdoch set. I really want to finish this before I dive into the Memphis set. Last disc I watched was focused around Adonis/Murdoch versus the Samoans and versus Inoki/Fujinami in New Japan. I've not seen much early 80's NJPW, so I was astonished at how popular Inoki was. Anyone who thinks that Japanese crowds sit on their hands should watch some of these matches, because it would be hard to find a crowd any louder for such a prolonged period.
-Down to the last 2-3 matches in the Murdoch set. Much like the Windham set, I don't think I could give it a higher recommendation. I went in being familiar with Murdoch and knowing that he was awesome, but not really familiar with a lot of his best work. I'm coming out of it convinced that he's one of the best workers who ever laced up a pair of boots. The guy was a machine in the ring. He could tear it up on the mat if that's what the match called for, but the old standard of punching dudes in the face worked just as well. That he was a great talker and had some of the best facial expressions in the business was just icing on the cake.
CHIKARA - Grit & Glory - Disc One
This kinda blew my mind, as it was the first show (other than the current WWE/TNA shows) I've watched in about a month and a half that occurred since '99. Made it come off a bit sloppier than I'd normally notice, but it made all of the lucha stuff look state of the art as well.
-We open with a great Haze/Chucky T promo, as Daizee rambles on about beating Death Rey 5 times in one second and Taylor cracks me up with a line about KoT, saying that the entire crowd must have been Bobby Dempsey's parents that night, because no one loved him. Heh.
-The mixed tag itself was pretty bad, but I loved the bit where the women wrestled straight up, but when Chuck Taylor tagged in, he proceeded to engage in a catfight with Dempsey, with the ladies having to pull them apart. Oh, CHIKARA, how I've missed thee.
-ONST/Super Smash Bros. was pretty fun. Lots of innovative stuff from the SSB, though this match was largely built around Donst being heelish and Hydra being ignored by Mantis.
-This is pretty much the year of Vin Gerard. How ridiculous is that thought? Yet it's all been awesome and it turns out that he doesn't totally suck after all! He picks apart Lince's knee in this match. Lince even remembers to sell it, except for all of those times when he's springing to the top doing wacky lucha stuff. *sigh*
-Six man w/ Quack/Skayde/Turbo vs Claudio/Pantera/Dutt was friggin' amazing. One of my favorite matches this year, actually. Really fluid tandem stuff from the rudos and just some ridiculous spots all around. My first thought was that one of those names wasn't like the others, but even Sonjay stepped it up here.
-King/Storm II wasn't as good as the first, but I'm predisposed to like matches featuring Kingston pummeling masked dudes in the face, so this was still pretty great for me. You also get the requisite chilling promo from King before the match as well. Really, though, getting to watch Shane Storm's nose gush blood should make this a keeper for everyone. Heh.
-Fab 3 versus Colony was nothing special. Pretty standard CHIKARA trios action. Postmatch, Fab 3 continue their split. Great, great, great bit with Sweeney suggesting that they "hug it out," at which point Shayne Hawke leaps into Mitch Ryder's arms and practically starts dry humping him. Tremendous.
-I'm all caught up with the CHIKARA shows that I own currently. Time to put an order together, I guess. At any rate, you want both Anniversario shows from this year. Both of them are *fantastic*. I'd go as far as to say that they're two of the top five shows in CHIKARA history. From the astoundingly great matwork clinic with Skayde/Pantera and the Increibles match at MA to the Portal vs. Quack/Storm, Brodie/Claudio and FIST/Colony matches from CT, it's just nonstop awesome. You even get some Kaiju goofiness, including a game of chicken conducted on Big Wheels.
PWG - All Star Weekend 6, Night 2
-Anderson/Koslov is a pretty standard opener, but Koslov gets in a bunch of nifty spots and keeps it from getting boring. Anderson's running comments through the match were entertaining as well. He hadn't shown a ton of charmisma the previous times that I've seen him, so I was surprised that he was so funny.
-King/Hero is outstanding. These two don't wrestle so much as have a straight up battle of wills. We get possibly the sickest headbutt of the entire feud from King and these two just whale away on one another, including some chops across the face that had me wincing. Not slaps...actual chops. It's not as good as the Loser Leaves CZW or TPI matches, but they also have to cut it short because Hero injures his knee. It was well on it's way to being another classic up to that point.
-Age of the Fall vs. Young Bucks probably stood out because it was entirely unlike the prior match, but yeah...really fun spotfest. And the more it fell apart, the better the match got. The final few minutes were awesome, as you had the Young Bucks trying to throw out everything in their arsenal, but they keep getting stuffed by the more experienced Jacobs/Black.
-This is my personal favorite Evans/Strong match ever. Not really a fan of Strong, but he delivers quite a beating here and what more can you ask for? Jack is on with his spots as well, so there's no big blown spots to comment about. How long has Strong been using that Kondo Clutch w/ body scissors? It looks way better than the Stronghold.
-Tornado/Candace is the best possible intergender match you can imagine. Lots of silly stuff and Tornado sells some really weak offense, but this was layed out really well and they made it look entirely believable that Candice could win at any time. She even manages to crack the balls of steel!
-This segues directly into Claudio vs Necro. Not a great match, but watching Claudio working completely out of his comfort zone was interesting. He's not a brawler at all, but Necro basically goaded him into it because...yeah, he's Necro friggin' Butcher. Absolutely *loved* the giant swing on the floor, where Claudio managed to basically wipe out the chairs on one side of the ring with Necro's skull. Fun match.
-Generico/Yokosuka was pretty disappointing. I've not seen a ton of Yokosuka, but I definitely expect more out Generico singles matches. It was really just two guys going out there and performing spots on one another. No build, nothing meaningful. The crowd was pretty much dead the entire night (as PWG crowds usually are) and even these two running through every head droppy sequence they had didn't pop them.
-I liked the last half of the Dynasty vs. Doi/Yoshino match, but the opening was almost an extension of the previous match. Just 4 guys hitting spots at random. When it tightened up down the stretch, though, it got really good.
-Supes/Taro was garbage, but even in the midst of all of that, you get a glimpse at how great a heel SD is. There are few guys in the business today that can have the crowd just eating out of their hands quite like he can. At any rate, Taro hasn't wrestled in years, but still manages to kick out of every crazy head drop SD pulls out, until finally being killed with the most ridiculously dangerous looking move I've possibly ever seen. I assume it was a blown Psycho Driver of some sort, as I just can't imagine Taro agreeing to essentially being driven headfirst into the ring like a dart. From the second rope, no less.
-I haven't seen the first CIMA/Danielson match to compare, but this one is pretty great. Really slow paced, with lots of matwork. It's never boring, though, and it actually ties in to the finish, so huzzah to that. The postmatch stuff is pretty stupid, but I have beef with the match itself. And CIMA asking for "five more days," then correcting himself with "six more seconds," was pretty funny.
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