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PWO Monday Match Madness - Week 3 up now!


cactus

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PWO Monday Match Madness

Rules:

  • I'll start by posting a match with a write-up for everyone to watch and leave their thoughts. Anyone is welcome to participate.
  • At the end of the weekend, I will nominate a poster who rated my match to post a match of their choosing for the next week's pick.
  • At the end of of that weekend, the nominated poster will choose another user to take over and so on.

Hope that all makes sense. Also, always include a link for the match that you will be nominating.

Week 3 (as nominated by joeg): Leon Spinks vs Atsushi Onita (Martial Arts Cage Match) (FMW 5/24/92)

 

I thought I'd go with a very, very puroresu.tv type of match

I find this match to be a very polarizing match which makes for great discussion.

Spinks is a former heavyweight world champion boxer, and thus he has a great looking right hand and some beautiful combinations. However his best days athletically are behind him and his complete lack of wrestling experience leave him a fish out of water. Onita though bumps and bleeds, and bumps and bleeds some more. Onita makes Spinks look like the animal who beat Ali back in 77, as opposed to the punchy, middle aged, has been coming off of losing 7 of his last 9 fights. 

The match is awkward and clunky the way any match with a non worker would be. But it also features some of the all time greatest selling and bumping by Onita to make that non worker look like a monster. The way Onita snaps his head back when the jab connects, staggers when a hook or body shot connects, and flops when the straight right connects is the best most realistic selling of punches I've ever seen.

 The match features the trade mark Onita comeback. Despite the clumsiness and and awkward moments in the match, the crowd stays hot and Onita has them in the palm of his hand. Onita firing up is reminds me in many ways of Lawler. 

Anyways, I've found in discussions about this match people either love it because of Onita's selling and how he fires up on the comeback or they hate it because they can't get over the awkward, clumsy moments caused by a non worker being in the ring. I'll go 83% or 4 and 1/4 stars for a match that doesn't neatly fit into any ratings criteria.  

Previous weeks:

 

 

Week 2 (as nominated by gordi): Vader & John Tenta vs Gary Albright & Kazuo Yamazaki (UWFi Kings Road 10/08/94)

The nutshell version of the background for this match is: Albright was UWFi's top gaijin from near the beginning in '91, feuding with Takada. When Super Vader arrived, he supplanted Albright as the top gaijin and Albright was moved down the card.

In 1994, UWFi held the "Best in the World" Tournament which Vader won by beating Takada in the finals. On the same night, Albright beat Kiyoshi Tamura to finish 3rd in the tournament. UWFi started to build toward a dream match between the two huge gaijin. This match is one of two between these teams, both of which drew a white-hot, sold-out crowd as part of that build.

The characters:

Vader: The UWFi Champion. An "unstoppable force" type of monster.

Tenta: An "immovable object" type of monster.

Albright: Against almost anyone else he'd be a monster himself, but in this case he's the scrappy underdog who has clawed his way back to the main event from the mid-card. Albright has the most legit background in amateur wrestling of anyone n this match, though Tenta was also no slouch in that department.

Yamazaki: The ultimate scrappy underdog. The Ricky Morton or Tsuyoshi Kikuchi of shoot style pro wrestling.

Why this match: cactus gave us Laughter7 bringing their beautiful shoot style into a pure pro wrestling promotion. This is Tenta & co bringing pro wrestling psychology and crowd work into a pure shoot style promotion.

I don't want to give too much away, and I want to leave some stuff for other people to notice and write up, but: The crowd is rabid to see Vader vs Albright. Look at how they use that to draw heat.

There is a moment here where Tenta perfectly illustrates how "no-selling" can work as a story-telling device. He uses it judiciously to get his character over. It's one of the many fine examples of pro wrestling psychology sprinkled throughout this match.

Please enjoy one of my absolute favourite matches of all time:

https://ok.ru/video/6876631535

(Actual match starts about 6 minutes in. Don't miss the crowd work at the very beginning).

Week 1 (as nominated by cactus): Kazushi Sakuraba & Katsuyori Shibata vs Wataru Inoue & Togi Makabe (NJPW King of Pro Wrestling 10/08/12)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y6g9Zj8ua7A

2012 was the year I really dove deep into puroresu. 2012 was also the year that we got that gloriously stiff Lesnar vs Cena match. These things changed me as a wrestling fan. Great matches no longer needed to be long, over saturated kick out fests. I liked a touch of realism, short matches and brutal strikes and suplexes a plenty in my wrestling. Stuff like RINGS was too realistic for me, but I adored anything that was able to get just the right balance of shoot-style and pro-style for me. Think of stuff like the aforementioned Lesnar vs Cena match, Sakurba vs Otani at the Dome in '96 and this match.

Kazushi Sakuraba and Katsuyori Shibata (known collectively as Laughter7) announced they were returning to NJPW after a long sabbatical during the 2012 G1 Climax. Shibata was a rising star during the early to mid 2000s, but left abruptly to pursue MMA. This all happened during one of NJPW's lowest period and he received a lot of backlash returning to the company. Shibata failed to make a splash in the MMA scene and he was now returning to the dying company he abandoned, which was in much better shape financially. You can't blame the NJPW roster for being hostile towards him. Two of those employees were Wataru Inoue and Togi Makabe. They had seen the struggles that NJPW had gone through the past decade and they weren't going to make Sakuraba and Shibata feel welcome in their first match back in the company.

This match is an absolute war with a red-hot crowd. Everyone has a role here, and they play it magnificently. Laughter7 are here to kick ass and show precisely zero fucks, Inoue is the whipping boy with a belly full of fire and Makabe is here to flip people off and to receive a hot tag, so thankfully he doesn't bog this match down too much. Pretty much a squash with a few hope spots. Inoue's spear was a thing of beauty and it caught me completely off-guard. Makabe & Inoue realize they have to play dirty if they want to stand a chance. They rush the illegal Sakuraba of the apron in order to double-team Shibata, but this is only a minor setback for Laughter7 who then make quick work of the Always Hypers.

What a way to re-introduce Shibata and Sakuraba to the audience. Laughter7 were my favorite wrestlers in the world after this one match. All in under 10 minutes too.

★★★¾

 

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I'm getting a huge puroresu.tv flashback here!

 

GREAT choice to get the ball rolling.

 

A couple of days ago I made a long post going over my "old man yells at cloud" talking point of how current wrestlers are too concerned with getting all their stuff in, and too many recent matches are 50/50 my turn/your turn back-and-forth, and these young whipper snappers don't show any character in there, nor are they willing to look bad to get the other guys over...

 

And here you post a match that is ALL character work, simple but violent, with Inoue selling his ass off to put Supernova & Ikeru Densetsu way the hell over.

 

The character stuff is perfect, illustrating exactly what I so badly miss when I'm watching current stuff: Sakuraba & Shibata are both real-life high-end ass-kickers and they both absolutely look the part, with cauliflower ears and shooter's physiques, and the casually athletic way they carry themselves. Inoue looks like a guy who is badly out-matched but just tough enought o keep fighting back. Makabe is a very big very angry-looking dude.

 

And Laughter7 play the role of: Asskickers. And Inoue plays the role of: Guy getting his ass kicked. And Makabe plays the role of: That guy's big tough friend who is not afraid of the ass-kickers.

 

It all fits together perfectly. Thanks to Inoue's selling, Laughter7 come across as guys who can just overwhelm their opponents, immediately establishing them as a real threat. With Makabe also involved, they are not just steamrolling a couple of ham-and-eggers, so that makes them look like even more of a threat. Makabe igets to show that he isn't afraid of these guys, so he keeps his aura even in defeat.

 

It's not a long match, but it tells a perfectly clear story. After seeing this, how can you not want to see what Sakuraba & Shibata are going to do next?

 

When I'm doing armchair booking, I'm sometimes at a bit of a loss when it comes time to match shoot style guys up with pure pro wrestlers. These guys make it look so easy and so natural.

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I remember this run from just after it happened and was loving it, it is something that has been seen before the arrogant invaders facing off against defiant company men but the reason it has been done many times is that when it works it really works. I did not know much about sakuraba at the time having only been watching japanese wrestling for about a year and do not care about MMA so he was not impressive to me when he first came out the first time i saw him.. My first impression of shibata was just wow this guy carries himself so well and seems so baddass without him trying to hard to be badass.

 

As for the match itself it is really good with a great crowd. We start with an interesting contrast that sets the stage for the match, inoue drives shibata into the corner and then proceeds to do pro wrestling style stomps to him while stomping his other leg to get the noise but shibata fires back with a slap and spin kick to the gut with zero theatrics. This ever so simple introduction sets up the differences in styles and that both guys are coming in with high intensity. Both guys get an extremely short period on offense on the other that shows that both styles are valid and one will not completely steamroll the other but still puts over the intense danger of the more shootyish style of the invaders. It is so quick and simple but so very clever.

 

The rest of the match features some good back and forth action always angry from inoue especially.

 

I thought this was a great way to introduce laughter 7 in a bigger match than the squash they had a month earlier.

 

around ***1/4-***1/2

...

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The crowd was superb in this & really helped to elevate the match quality. Inoue was AWESOME, he was man on a mission trying to bring down the MMA invaders - all of his work over Shibata was great, even though I thought while I was watching the match that he got to do a little too much offense & that Shibata was on the selling-end of things a little too much, BUT by the end I was all about it as the crowd response to it was perfect. Really good, borderline great match. ***3/4

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Vader & John Tenta vs Gary Albright & Kazuo Yamazaki (UWFi Kings Road 10/08/94)

 

The nutshell version of the background for this match is: Albright was UWFi's top gaijin from near the beginning in '91, feuding with Takada. When Super Vader arrived, he supplanted Albright as the top gaijin and Albright was moved down the card.

In 1994, UWFi held the "Best in the World" Tournament which Vader won by beating Takada in the finals. On the same night, Albright beat Kiyoshi Tamura to finish 3rd in the tournament. UWFi started to build toward a dream match between the two huge gaijin. This match is one of two between these teams, both of which drew a white-hot, sold-out crowd as part of that build.

 

The characters:

Vader: The UWFi Champion. An "unstoppable force" type of monster.

Tenta: An "immovable object" type of monster.

 

Albright: Against almost anyone else he'd be a monster himself, but in this case he's the scrappy underdog who has clawed his way back to the main event from the mid-card. Albright has the most legit background in amateur wrestling of anyone n this match, though Tenta was also no slouch in that department.

Yamazaki: The ultimate scrappy underdog. The Ricky Morton or Tsuyoshi Kikuchi of shoot style pro wrestling.

 

Why this match: cactus gave us Laughter7 bringing their beautiful shoot style into a pure pro wrestling promotion. This is Tenta & co bringing pro wrestling psychology and crowd work into a pure shoot style promotion.

 

I don't want to give too much away, and I want to leave some stuff for other people to notice and write up, but: The crowd is rabid to see Vader vs Albright. Look at how they use that to draw heat.

 

There is a moment here where Tenta perfectly illustrates how "no-selling" can work as a story-telling device. He uses it judiciously to get his character over. It's one of the many fine examples of pro wrestling psychology sprinkled throughout this match.

 

Please enjoy one of my absolute favourite matches of all time:

 

https://ok.ru/video/6876631535

 

(Actual match starts about 6 minutes in. Don't miss the crowd work at the very beginning).

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Was really looking forward to this one as from a purely taste driven perspective it has a great selection of wrestlers involved. Vader is an all time favourite of mine, and someone who I can watch all day everyday while Tenta is someone who could perhaps make a claim for being one of the top 10 Super Heavyweight in-ring workers ever and one of the few 'legit' guys who perhaps doesn't get the respect he deserved. Albright, I haven't seen so much of but have seen enough to know he was a total badass and one of the best Suplex machines to ever step into the ring while Yamazaki isn't someone I remember seeing at all before now, so all in all, this should be an interesting match up.

First off, Vader looks like a total rockstar in the pre-match interviews, and everything I want from a nineties wrestler, the three English speakers do a great job of hyping the match and making it look legit. By the time all four are in the ring it becomes clear that there's some heat there, the crowd are pretty rabid to see Albright and Vader go one on one and the audible awestruck roar for Tenta (who looks massive even compared with Vader and Albright) during the introductions is a cool moment. His slightly modified Earthquake attire looks pretty great here too, nice to see it being recycled.

 

The match itself was a slow burn to begin with but did a great job of showcasing each wrestlers background, Tenta gets some awesome looking sumo slaps in early on before he and Albright both show off their amateur and mat based credentials. While this didn't do much for me, it was an interesting contrast to the usual Super Heavyweight brawling we were used to in the early nineties and lends to the legitimate feel they're trying portray here. The pace picks up once Yamazaki hits the ring and he goes about putting on a great plucky underdog display with some great looking strikes, Tenta instantly switches into monster mode and the two trade back and forth nicely with Yamazaki in particular coming across as a fearless fighter despite the massive size difference. From here it doesn't take long until we're treated to our first piece of Vader action and there's only one way to describe it here and that's terrifying. Each shot, whether it's against Yamazaki or Albright looks like it could end the match at any second and it's easy to see why he was just about the most feared man in all of wrestling at this point. It seems to be a role he relishes as he dishes out the punishment with swift brutality and the crowd eat it up. By the time Albright and Vader face off the crowd are white hot and the pair reward them by quite simply beating the crap out of each other.

 

All in all, after a slightly slow beginning this descends into a really entertaining and incredibly hard hitting shoot style tag match which is only enhanced by a fully invested audience. All four wrestlers put in a great shift and do their jobs to perfection with a great contrast of styles. As you would expect, Vader looks like a total monster and legitimately dangerous with it, his punches and forearms look like they could knock down walls and even in defeat he loses absolutely none of his aura. However, the MVP has to be Yamazaki. He takes an absolute beating throughout and how he wasn't knocked out by some of the bombs Vader was throwing I'll never know. Despite this he looks great on the offense too, throwing some spectacular kicks and some heavy shots of his own and off of the back of this I'll be looking up more of his stuff.

 

***3/4

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Fantastic pick, Gordi. Not enough people talk about Vader's run in UWFi.

 

Man, this is how you build hype for a singles match. Vader and Albright get in each other's faces before the bell and they then don't interact with each other until ten minutes into this, and the pop is absolutely nuclear. Albright and Tenta start the match and the pace is slow and methodical. Albright could take down Godzilla with his suplexes if he got the opportunity. He demonstrates his strength when he throws Tenta across the ring with ease seconds into the match.

 

I have to give a shout out to Yamazaki's phenomenal performance.He's the smallest man in this by a considerable margin, but he's certainly no slouch. His strikes are rough, and he even manages to get Tenta and Vader into comprising positions. The best part of this match is when he's standing off with Vader. Yamazaki unleashing a violent barrage of strikes, only to be cut down when Vader brutally Germans him on his dome.

 

Three Big Lads tarring off on each other with a scrappy underdog in Yamazaki. Riveting stuff.

 

★★★★

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  • 2 weeks later...

Week 3 

I thought I'd go with a very, very puroresu.tv type of match

Leon Spinks vs Atsushi Onita 5/24/92 Martial Arts Cage Match

I find this match to be a very polarizing match which makes for great discussion.

Spinks is a former heavyweight world champion boxer, and thus he has a great looking right hand and some beautiful combinations. However his best days athletically are behind him and his complete lack of wrestling experience leave him a fish out of water. Onita though bumps and bleeds, and bumps and bleeds some more. Onita makes Spinks look like the animal who beat Ali back in 77, as opposed to the punchy, middle aged, has been coming off of losing 7 of his last 9 fights. 

The match is awkward and clunky the way any match with a non worker would be. But it also features some of the all time greatest selling and bumping by Onita to make that non worker look like a monster. The way Onita snaps his head back when the jab connects, staggers when a hook or body shot connects, and flops when the straight right connects is the best most realistic selling of punches I've ever seen.

 The match features the trade mark Onita comeback. Despite the clumsiness and and awkward moments in the match, the crowd stays hot and Onita has them in the palm of his hand. Onita firing up is reminds me in many ways of Lawler. 

Anyways, I've found in discussions about this match people either love it because of Onita's selling and how he fires up on the comeback or they hate it because they can't get over the awkward, clumsy moments caused by a non worker being in the ring. I'll go 83% or 4 and 1/4 stars for a match that doesn't neatly fit into any ratings criteria.  

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There is an excellent article about Spinks' pro wrestling career here

It would seem that this match was for the WWA Martial Arts Heavyweight Title, which Spinks had won from Tarzan Goto... which makes the whole thing even weirder and more beautiful, in my opinion.

It's exactly as you descried it: Onita putting on a clinic in bumping and selling. A classic Onita battle-back-from-from-way-behind  story.

I was a little worried that this would be uncomfortable to watch, but in fact I got a warm feeling from it. Everyone involved displayed a lot of class and heart. 

 

 

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Mayumi Ozaki vs Dynamite Kansai (Street Fight - JWP 3/17/95)

 

 

 

Truly, one of the all-time great brawls. It's a violent spectacle, for sure. Ozaki biting Kansai until she draws blood and then spitting the blood on the ref is a very memorable moment, as is Kansai wrapping the chain around her boot and kicking Ozaki in the head. They brawl all over the building. There is a ton of blood.

But... it's not just a violent spectacle. There is also some truly amazing character work here, from both wrestlers. They go way beyond the obvious "big vs small" storyline. Oz is one of the great "actors" in pro wrestling and this match is a showcase for that. 

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That was the most violent women's match I've ever seen. I've always steered clear of women's match that have excessive amounts of blood. The level of violence and amount of blood was unnerving.  The level of violence was truly unsettling in the way many BJW or CZW matches are. Things like Ozaki dragging Kansai around with the dog collar or Ozaki biting Kansai and spitting the blood way too much for me. 

With that said there is some great stuff in here. Ozaki's selling is great. I like the way Kansai cuts off Ozaki's offense in spots.  There is a raw emotion that comes through where it feels like they are trying to kill each other and its very dramatic and unsettling at the same time. 

Not my cup of tea, but honestly if it were two men on a big show putting on a dramatic spectacle like this with this level violence, I wouldn't be quite so taken aback by the violence and chaos. Women carving each other up always unsettles me. Also wrestlers carving each other up in smaller venues always bothers me. So yeah not my sort of thing despite the drama of the match. 

 

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I can honestly say that was one of the wildest matches I've ever seen. I think with all the footage of Hardcore and Deathmatch wrestling there is out there now it's easy to become numb to this kind of match and just see it as more of a stunt show than an out and out fight. That isn't the case here though, from the outset this feels like a visceral fight with absolutely no pantomime involved. The shots are hard and heavy and although some of the offense looks a little sloppy at times it actually adds to the 'real fight' feel of the match.

Ozaki and Kansai clearly have great chemistry though and the little and large dynamic works really well here with Kansai using her power to cut off Ozaki to great effect. Ozaki's work with the chain is terrifying at times and really helps even the odds, especially when she's using it to strangle Kansai over the ropes. Kansai is more than up for dishing out the punishment herself though and comes into her own when they're brawling in the crowd as she uses her power to great effect once more.

Back in the ring, the brief bits of straight wrestling they showed certainly had me ready to look up more in-ring work from these two with Kansai in particular impressing me with her super fast kicks. However, soon after that it does bring me to my one only real complaint about the match which is the two blading spots. Both were incredibly obvious, which is in part down to poor camera work really, being a little more subtle would have ramped it up another notch for me and the way it was done just took me out of the moment slightly. However, having said that, great respect for both women in putting it on the line, as both have the famed crimson mask by the end. 

The end of the match kicks up a gear in terms of intensity and speed as both try to put the other away and really gives a feeling of this could end at any second. The Piledriver through the table just before the end is one of the most brutal looking things I've ever seen in a hardcore match and caused an audible gasp to come out of my mouth and I was more than glad to see Ozaki get up from it and really summed up this crazy, crazy match for me. These two put everything on the line and give this more of a legitimate feeling than just about any other match I can think of. A downright gritty and nasty match, but one you can't take your eyes off of. 

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Dr Wagner Jr vs LA Park 11/15/12 aired 12/1/12

 

Sorry Meant to post this on Monday but I'm in the process of changing internet service providers. I've been on a LA Park binge the past month or so. This is the match Cap's profile pic comes from. So the match opens with Park setting fire to a Dr. Wagner t shirt and it just gets more off the rails from there. If you've seen their match from 2013 its every bit as crazy as that one although not as violent or as good.  Park brings the unpredictable out of control brawling that only he can bring.  There's mask ripping and chair shots. They brawl all around the ringside area bashing each other with foreign objects that you'd never expect to be used as weapons.  

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That was tremendous. Just totally enjoyable, and nuts in a good way. AAA is a huge blind spot for me. I've seen so little of it, though most of what little I have seen I have enjoyed. There is a great moment when Park is staggering around outside the ring, mask torn, bleeding... and he turns around and just gets absolutely flattened by a running somersault plancha off of the apron.  That moment is exactly what I imagine when I think of AAA.

This was a masterclass in crowd work. I love how Wagner, Hogan-like, checks for the crowd's approval before pulling his "turn about is fair play" stuff on Park. Super hot crowd, and these guys play to them perfectly. 

I don't know if maybe the heel ref stuff might wear on me a little if I watched a lot of this... but I definitely got a huge kick out of it here.

Nakamura should study the nut shot that Park deals out here. Good Lord!

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Don Muraco & BamBam Bigelow vs Butch Reed & One Man Gang

A little bit of a change of pace this week. According to the youtube poster, it's from the Philadelphia Spectrum, March 1988. That's 3 or 4 months after these guys fought on opposite sides at Survivor Series '87 in the excellent-on-paper match of: André the Giant, One Man Gang, King Kong Bundy, Butch Reed, & Rick Rude vs WWF World Heavyweight Champion Hulk Hogan, Paul Orndorff, Don Muraco, Ken Patera, & Bam Bam Bigelow, with Muraco replacing the injured Billy Graham, 

I'm gonna go ahead and assume that these guys subsequently faced each other all over the circuit in the weeks and months following their Survivor Series match-up because in my opinion their ring chemistry is really good here. There are a couple of things in this match that I generally do not associate with 1980s WWF style: some pretty darn good big hoss clubbering action, and a nice variation on the Southern tag style with Muraco playing a great FIP. 

This isn't anything I'm gonna be nominating for the GWE project or anything, but I was very pleasantly surprised by this match and I enjoyed it a lot. I hope you enjoy it, too. 

 

 

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