Destruction 2015 in Kobe
(2015/09/27)
Showing posts with label Nakamura. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Nakamura. Show all posts
Tuesday, October 13, 2015
Wednesday, August 19, 2015
Monday, August 10, 2015
Sunday, July 26, 2015
Wednesday, July 8, 2015
Chismo Pick: Best of 2014
I just realized I never posted the list of my favorite matches of 2014, so here's my Top 15. Now, why 15? Why not 10? Or 20? Fuck me if I know. 16 is my fave number
but I can't go with that. So I'm going with the closest thing. Then why
not 17? Oh well... It needed to be more than 10, though, because 10 matches is
way too few considering the fact there are thousands of televised
pro-graps matches every year. Ergo:
Tuesday, July 7, 2015
Thursday, July 2, 2015
Global Wars 2015 - Night 2 (Cherry-Picked)
ROH/NJPW Global Wars 2015
(2015/5/16)
Roderick
Strong vs. Shinsuke Nakamura
Good but
barely. This needed to be way better considering the names involved and the
fact it was the last show on the tour. I feel like they were too obviously
trying to repeat the Ibushi/Nakamura magic, and it didn’t quite work. It had
some captivating spots and moments, but overall the match suffered from
Nakamura’s too contrived and far-fetched spot setups, also they rushed into
things unnecessarily. I hope they did better in England.
***
Saturday, June 27, 2015
Saturday, June 13, 2015
Wednesday, June 10, 2015
Saturday, June 6, 2015
Monday, May 4, 2015
Friday, April 17, 2015
Wednesday, April 8, 2015
Saturday, April 4, 2015
NJPW on AXS TV: Episode 11
New
Japan Pro-Wrestling on AXS TV
Episode
11, March 27th 2015
They
aired the very clipped version of Naito/Ishii from Invasion Attack 2014. Shame,
it was a great match, but I do realize it was a warm-up for the main event. We
still got to see Ishii dropping Naito on his head repeatedly. Damn, that was nasty!
Go and check the full version of this match!
Somewhere
in the studio, Tana is talking about the third Nakamura match in only three
months.
Invasion
Attack 2014
(2014/4/6)
IWGP Intercontinental Championship:
Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi ©
The very
best Nakamura/Tanahashi match, the ultimate edition, the pinnacle of the
rivalry, I gave it five stars last year and was pretty much alone in doing so,
I literally don’t remember anyone other than me going full boat on this
masterpiece of pro-wrestling. Hopefully there’s someone out there who came
around. I bet that in 20-30 years there will be some kids on some message board
discussing about “hidden gems” of pro-wrestling and this match is going to be a
hot topic for awhile, someone will dig it out beneath all the famous Ishii,
Shibata and Okada well-known classics.
They start
things with some neat catch wrestling packed in the feeling out process, there
were sweet reversals and patient, defensive wrestling, but then Tana gets bored
and goes into semi-full heel mode. He goes after Nakamura’s left leg and is
fucking relentless in doing so. Think a honey badger attacking a cobra. He just
won’t let it go. Tanahashi puts on the Tanahashi pace and makes everyone know
this is a Tanahashi match, through and through. Basically, he’s a dick. He’s
sick of working with Shinsuke again and doesn’t care from the crowd boos, he’s
just here to fuck up Shinsuke’s leg. Shit man, it is a thing of beauty watching
him work over it, every time Shinsuke is about to make a proper comeback,
Tanahashi simply goes after his leg again and again and again… Truly
relentless. The match is full of amazing little details that display their big
wrestling IQs, full of twists and turns, but the main plot is still Tana
destroying the challenger’s left leg. There’s an occasion or two with Shinsuke
kind of “forgetting” the previous legwork, but Tana always “kindly” reminds him
what the match is all about. Shinsuke eventually makes a proper comeback after
working from behind for a whole match and throws a plethora of super nasty
blasts, including punches, and then a series of Boma Yes brings Tana down and
bang – Nakamura regains his white strap.
What a
fucking masterpiece!
*****
Backstage,
Tana mumbles about something.
Inside
the ring, the Gracie duo arrives and Daniel challenges Nakamura. But first, it’s
the Gracies vs. Nakamura and Sakuraba!
Somewhere
in the studio, Tana is reflecting on the match, he’s talking about respect
Shinsuke’s grown for him and how it was an honor to hold the IC strap.
Tuesday, March 31, 2015
Random New Japan
New
Year Golden Series 1980
(1980/2/5)
WWF Junior Heavyweight Championship:
Dynamite Kid vs. Tatsumi Fujinami ©
Very
rough, very physically demanding match, absolutely flawless in execution, shit
was tight and technically sound. Fujinami entered the match with a cut on his
forehead and DK took advantage of it every time when on verge of losing the mat
game. These two were so damn physically prepared and fit here, it felt like
they could’ve wrestled for three hours straight. Great finish too.
****1/4
Champion
Series 1985
(1985/6/11)
WWF Championship: Tatsumi
Fujinami vs. Hulk Hogan ©
Oh
look, it’s Vinnie Mac inside the ring, announcing this sports entertainment
match! Sheeeeit, Hulk is much bigger than Fujinami (a former Junior after all),
but the size and power advantage alone are not enough to defeat the tough No. 2
of New Japan, hence Hogan bringing it down to the mat and trying to hang with
Fujinami in his own game. So cool seeing the Hulkster busting out various
armbars and other pace-controlling holds. Fujinami was, naturally, working from
beneath and his comebacks fired up the fans every time, but really, they were
chanting for Hogan too, and quite loudly and heavily I must say. Too bad they
kinda botched the lariat finish, but still, this was a great match overall and
should serve as a rock solid counter argument against all the “Hogan shit
wrestler” (whatever the fuck that means) cocksuckers.
****1/4
IWGP
Champion Series 1987
(1987/5/18)
IWGP League 1987 – Block B: Masa
Saito vs. Akira Maeda
Five
minutes of crazy awesomeness. The key part of success was actually Super Strong
Machine laying a horrific beatdown on Maeda just when he was about to enter the
ring, shoving him into the ringpost few times and busting him wide open. It
looked like a legit cut, not a bladejob. That turn of events suddenly gave Masa
Saito a significant advantage, and he sure as hell took the chance, Maeda got
his ass kicked properly here, I’ve never seen something like this before. One
helluva brawl, short and sweet.
****
Fighting
Spirit Series 1988
(1988/10/27)
Antonio
Inoki vs. Crusher “Bam Bam” Bigelow
Most
of this was messy as fuck.
**
G1
Climax 2008
(2008/8/15)
Masahiro
Chono & Kurt Angle vs. Shinjiro Otani & AJ Styles
I
have never bothered to check this one before, silly me because this was tons of
fun. Everyone delivered, even Angle, even the veteran Chono, but the undisputed
MVP was Shinjiro F’N Otani, my god, he owned everyone out there, especially the
crowd. Angle and AJ had a fun rivalry that year, their match-up here was damn
good, also Chono’s charisma and badassery were just all over the match, great
stuff, super enjoyable.
****
G1
Climax 2008
(2008/8/16)
Hiroshi
Tanahashi & AJ Styles vs. Shinsuke Nakamura & Kurt Angle
Fun,
vivid tag, but the one from the night before had Otani in it, and this one
didn’t, that’s the key difference. Nakamura was painfully average here, Angle
and AJ worked another round of their beef, and Tana and Angle were building
towards their eventual one-on-one match. And holy shit, Angle actually beat a
wrestler by using Olympic Slam, go figure!
***1/2
Resolution
2009
(2009/4/5)
IWGP Heavyweight Championship:
Kurt Angle vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi ©
I
have never actually seen this match before, despite it sleeping on my disk for
three years now. Eh, waddaya gonna do… Good match, the opening stage with them
rolling on the mat trying to outcatch each other and with two strong headlock
sequences was the best, it was nice. The rest was good enough, simply a mixture
of regular Angle & Tana matches, with obligatory signature spots such as
suplexes, ankle lock reversals, HFFs, etc. Nothing out of order, just stuff
good enough. What really made the whole thing for me was Tana’s fantastic
post-match selling of the ankle lock damage, I fucking love when wrestlers do that.
***1/2
Masahiro
Chono 25th Anniversary
(2009/10/12)
IWGP Heavyweight Championship:
Shinjiro Otani vs. Shinsuke Nakamura ©
Excellent
title match and forgotten gem of modern New Japan, the veteran and Junior
Heavyweight legend of the company comes back to fight the representative of
some other, modern era, and he’s going all in. Superb work by Otani here,
incredible crowd control by using his retro signature spots and also reminding
everyone of the great late Shinya Hashimoto, he drew massive sympathies throughout
the match, and the crowd bought into a chance of him winning the strap.
Nakamura was good too, but damn, the challenger was just on a whole other level
of swag.
****1/4
Best
of the Super Jr. XIX
(2012/6/10)
BOSJ XIX - FINALE: Low-Ki
vs. Ryusuke Taguchi
The
opening phase with Low-Ki setting up his pace was awesome, as he was just
chopping and kicking the shit out of Taguchi, stretching him on the mat, etc.
Felt like a rookie punishment match. Eventually, Taguchi finds few ways to stay
alive, mostly via smart reversals. However, Low-Ki is a vicious beast and we got
an awesome ringside sequence that culminated in a great table spot reversal
that fucked up Low-Ki’s midsection. He sold it great, favoring it all the way
until the end. That proved to be the key for Taguchi’s victory, in the
finishing run Low-Ki missed the phoenix splash and Taguchi was free to wrap it
up with a series of moves, with the last two of them targeting Low-Ki’s hurt
midsection. Excellent, tight match with a smart layout and simple structure.
****1/4
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