Man, this was badass. I've seen it before and I remember liking it then, but this time it felt like a top 5 Mutoh match and maybe top 10 for Vader. "Prototype for Vader v Sting" is the easy shorthand description of this, made by countless people in our goofy corner of the internet, but it totally is. Vader is at his best as a mean bastard bully and he was all that and more, clubbing Mutoh across the face with some disgusting forearms, closed fist punching him in the eye as the crowd got more and more irritated. Look at the size of him. Why does he even need to do shit like that? He could clearly win without it, yet he does it anyway and then revels in it to make matters worse. Mutoh's offence came in bursts, though sometimes a man has to get primitive and that meant belting Vader across the face in return. The stretch run managed to feel epic without being particularly long and it was probably helped by the fact people were buying nearfalls from about the midpoint of the match. There were a bunch of great moments towards the end, like Mutoh's handspring elbow out on the floor followed by Vader's counter to it back in the ring with a sort of German suplex/uranage combo. I liked the finish itself a lot as well. Mutoh was only going to get so far trying to trade bombs with a guy like Vader, so the small package reversal was a nice bit of trickery to offset brute force.
Shinya Hashimoto v Masa Chono (New Japan, 8/11/91)
Hashimoto with the long hair and beard is one of the coolest looks in wrestling history. Like the wayfaring hero returning home after several years off the beaten path. A man who's seen too much. A man you know better than to cross. This started out fine with some okay matwork, but I generally don't find your standard New Japan matwork all that interesting so I'm usually going to need more of a hook. Chono picking apart Hashimoto's leg was a pretty good hook and that it led to Hash trying to kick him to bits in response was gravy. I haven't seen their match from a couple days previous, but by the way Hash favours his leg in this (and Chono gives it a little kick early on to suggest there's something extra there) I'm wondering if it isn't a story point from the rest of the G1. Either way Chono is focused in going after it. I actually thought Chono was really good in this, not just from an offensive standpoint but also in how he sold Hashimoto's strikes. Pretty soon it became a story of Chono trying to win through strategy and technique with Hash opting for raw savagery, and Chono reacted to Hashimoto's onslaught like it was something to be feared. It also didn't hurt that Hash was completely fucking murdering him with kicks. I mean sweet Jesus a few of these were vile. There was an awesome moment where, after a handful of blows to the midsection, Chono just crumbled off an Irish whip and for a second there I wondered if they weren't going to do a stoppage (despite having seen this before and being 99% certain who was winning). Final few minutes were super dramatic with Chono doggedly going for the STF and Hashimoto being defiant to the death. As a match it went from alright at the beginning and kept building to something excellent, with one of the best Chono performances I've seen. Hashimoto, though. A truly wonderful pro wrestler.
Shinya Hashimoto v Masa Chono (New Japan, 8/11/91)
Hashimoto with the long hair and beard is one of the coolest looks in wrestling history. Like the wayfaring hero returning home after several years off the beaten path. A man who's seen too much. A man you know better than to cross. This started out fine with some okay matwork, but I generally don't find your standard New Japan matwork all that interesting so I'm usually going to need more of a hook. Chono picking apart Hashimoto's leg was a pretty good hook and that it led to Hash trying to kick him to bits in response was gravy. I haven't seen their match from a couple days previous, but by the way Hash favours his leg in this (and Chono gives it a little kick early on to suggest there's something extra there) I'm wondering if it isn't a story point from the rest of the G1. Either way Chono is focused in going after it. I actually thought Chono was really good in this, not just from an offensive standpoint but also in how he sold Hashimoto's strikes. Pretty soon it became a story of Chono trying to win through strategy and technique with Hash opting for raw savagery, and Chono reacted to Hashimoto's onslaught like it was something to be feared. It also didn't hurt that Hash was completely fucking murdering him with kicks. I mean sweet Jesus a few of these were vile. There was an awesome moment where, after a handful of blows to the midsection, Chono just crumbled off an Irish whip and for a second there I wondered if they weren't going to do a stoppage (despite having seen this before and being 99% certain who was winning). Final few minutes were super dramatic with Chono doggedly going for the STF and Hashimoto being defiant to the death. As a match it went from alright at the beginning and kept building to something excellent, with one of the best Chono performances I've seen. Hashimoto, though. A truly wonderful pro wrestler.
No comments:
Post a Comment