Best Matches Seen April 2020 |
Defiant 2/19/18 Defiant Interim Internet Title Four Way Elimination Match: Travis Banks vs. Chris Brookes vs. David Starr vs. Mike Bailey 18:57. Rather than working two matches at once, they did this the same way they'd do a 3 way, just switching off while the other guys got to be Naito. Though one could certainly argue this made it even that much more contrived, it had its benefits in allowing them to do a long, varied match without padding that was also much easier to actually follow. Format aside, the match once again showed how great Bailey is, just stealing the show in every matchup with his athleticism, diversity, and acting. He's the only wrestler who has ever really successfully incorporated taekwondo, and among the handful of best flyers around pulling off gymnastic stunts such as the corkscrew standing shooting star press with the greatest of ease. Bailey is such a fun character as well, able to intelligently convey what he's about to do in the old silent movie comic style when he needs to, but he doesn't overdo it. When it's advancing the match by setting something up or showing the change from wrestling honorably to making someone who disrespected the rules, and thus him, pay, he relies on his acting, otherwise he let's his wrestling do the talking. Bailey was a really good opponent for Banks shoot style because he's actually a technically proficient martial artist, and this was the best combo during the bulk of the match. There were 8 dives, with some amazing ones by Bailey as well as a creative one where Bailey broke Banks rear naked choke by standing & darting for the ropes, diving to the floor onto the others with Banks on his back to break it. Brookes was the definition of should be good but actually isn't as usual, doing the same handful of things he always does competently, with the exception ofneeding a second try to drape Bailey's feet over the top rope. He didn't hurt the match, but whereas Bailey sees creative possibilities especially of how to incorporate his moves, Brookes just reverts to what he can do the same way he always does it, and whereas Starr will bust anything to get the match to a reasonable level, Brookes shows no particular inspiration. Brookes was the 1st to get eliminated, and not surprisingly, it came down to Banks vs. Starr, as that was the rivalry they were playing up from the outset. What was surprising, is this final section was actually the highlight of the match. Starr generally isn't the cleanest or crispest worker at this point, but you know he'll go the extra mile in the effort & desire to make it good to mostly make up for that, and these two really stepped it up once Bailey wasn't around to make them look so inferior. Starr literally just did strikes until the final segment, saving his entire move set for the big sprint to the finish. The match wasn't particularly intense until this point, but with the title so close they were able to convey that taking the belt home really did matter, and that took the contest to another level that it's hard for a 4 way to reach when they're just randomly swapping guys in and out. I liked the spot where Banks went for a tope, but Starr got onto the apron quickly and cut him off with an apron DDT. Starr countering the slice of heaven, which Banks got a near fall with earlier, with a lariat and pulling him off the 2nd into a powerbomb backbreaker seemed a perfect finish, but Banks again kicked out. Starr kept beating on Banks until he was barely responding then went to finish with an avalance style superplex, but Banks came back to life, countering with a kiwi crusher off the 2nd to take the title. ***3/4
SMASH.15 3/31/11: Hajime Ohara vs. KUSHIDA 16:11. A considerably improvement over their SMASH.1 main event. KUSHIDA has been developing the other aspects of his game beyond his lucha, and that's led to a big improvement because it's both leaving less to the opponent & cutting a lot of their meandering filler out of the match. Whereas roughly half the previous match felt like padding, here pretty much everything was a reasonable include because rather than coming off as mere spectacle as some of KUSHIDA's earlier SMASH matches did, this match was intense from the outset with a heated & energetic exchanges. These guys went hard, and while there were many slow portions, that allowed KUSHIDA's bursts into lucha flourishes to feel dynamic & exciting rather than, "goodie, they're finally doing something". KUSHIDA was focusing his throwaway stuff on a body part now, the arm, though it's doubly lame seeing a guy who actually understands MMA throwing out so many no body control locks. Ohara's offense was a lot crisper & more reasonable this time. He did a good job of selling the arm without stalling the match out in the process, and can't be faulted for forgetting about it as the match progressed given KUSHIDA was the one who totally moved on to bigger & better things. Hiroshi Tanahashi was in the audience observing New Japan's newest fulltime employee KUSHIDA, and they were sure to show him when KUSHIDA threw in a sling blade. This is normally a match KUSHIDA would win, but since it was his last match with SMASH, he put Ohara over. ***
NJPW 2/27/80 WWF Martial Arts Title: Antonio Inoki vs. Willie Williams R4 1:24. Most of Inoki's "martial arts matches" have been complete embarrassments, but this was truly an epiphany, showing "real" fighting was a style actually worth developing and exploring, something that could look different in a good way rather than just being a less flashy version of the same sideshow shenanigans. Here we had a collision between the top pro wrestler & sort of top karate guy, in an era where karate was still big enough that being the top karate fighter mattered, as they still represented the top means of self defense study in Japan, as well as most other corners of the globe. Williams was the top foreign protege of legendary karate master Mas Oyama, who was famous for defeating animals such as bulls & bears. Willie actually only made it to the semifinals of the 160 man Karate World Championships tournament the year before, but he was already known in Japan for playing himself in a movie where he earned the nickname "The Bear Killer" by following in Oyama's footsteps and taking one out, so he seemed to be the flagbearer in this battle between fake & real fighting, which was actually more something the fans demanded than the usual fight where Inoki just leveraged his money to get world class fighters who would beat him in seconds to lay down for him. While still obviously a work, the heat & intensity were off the charts, and there was genuine desperation, mostly because neither side would agree to do the job, and with such huge stakes, both sides were very leery of a double cross. In a setting where there's genuine suspense & hostility, and thus neither side really wants to compromise themselves or be generous and trusting to make the other look superior, even Inoki's usually feeble attempts to create heat by being chippy came off well because they were applied to something that seemed urgent and ready to ignite, rather than completely farcical and begging to be laughed at. All that being said, the match was mostly good due to Williams having being an amazing athlete who had great skill & wasn't willing to compromise it. After all, while Williams had more of a name in Japan & higher standing in their karate world, this is ultimately the same disaster as the Monster Man match if he didn't deliver the goods. While Williams was never a favorite of RINGS fans, keep in mind that he was 41 when he debuted there. This 28-year-old version is almost a totally different fighter than we saw in the '90's, really a revelation to this style, as he's actually trying to use his length, footwork, & speed rather than reverting back to the established dumbed down, no skill stand around begging to be clobbered hokem the way even most pro wrestlers who have won MMA matches do. When I say Williams was a great athlete, I don't just mean for a 6'7" guy, he seemed like he could have been a dominant power forward in another life, and I have no doubt he could have won the UFC heavyweight title had he been born later, especially if he was competing with today's stiffs such as Derrick Lewis & Jairzinho Rozenstruik, who stand around doing nothing beyond praying the opponent for some reason gets bored enough to just run into their right hand. Williams was an amazingly fast, reactive athlete, and he didn't just make it easy for Inoki as Inoki's other clay pigeons did. Williams may not always have employed modern MMA technique, but he understood how to fight, and he was trying to bring his battle tested reactions to wrestling rather than trying to fit in by doing everything at half speed, and compensating with over the top theatrics. There were great little bits such as Inoki shooting for a single, but Williams stuffing it with an underhook, then immediately peeling off to the side & disengaging so Inoki couldn't make a second attempt at the takedown. The action constantly broke down by spilling to the floor, in part because neither guy wanted to give the other an opening for anything major, to be prone to the point the opponent could take them out if they decided to be a shady back stabber. While this was worked, it's more that 1 guy would do something expecting the other to either take it or not, and then once in a while they'd purposely give an opening. For example, Williams would use his reach to land jabs that Inoki should take because they are solid but not going to knock him out, but then he'd throw a slightly slow & telegraphed high kick that Inoki was supposed to counter. In any case, the real or imagined threat of the opponent choosing glory over honor added a legitimate tension to the fight, keeping both guys on their toes & reacting sooner rather than later. In the 2nd, Williams dodged a rolling thunder & kicked Inoki in the head, but Inoki finally dragged him down. They rolled to the floor though, where things got out of control & Inoki emerged with a bloody head. After a really long break, they finally restarted only to have Inoki escape to the floor to avoid Williams strikes & both guys crashed to the floor (which Inoki tried to recreate in seemingly every UFO match) after Inoki took Williams down. All this smoke & mirrors was keeping the urgency up while limiting exposing the fakery because one of the big problems with Inoki vs. Chuck Wepner particularly was the more Wepner hit Inoki with his obviously pulled strikes, the more the match failed to succeed on any level. Inoki finally seemed to have his chance hitting a hane goshi, but Williams immediately responded with an up kick only to nearly get armbarred trying to follow with ground and pound. The finish where they each threw a dropkick then wrestled each other over the top to the floor, with Inoki getting an armbar but Williams being saved by the double ring out was the only part that seemed obviously scripted. Though Inoki got that bone at the end, Williams owned him for most of the match, certainly doing way better than any of the other martial artists had done against Inoki. In some sense not a lot happened here, but the movement of Williams & the urgency of both made it feel drastically different than perhaps anything we'd seen before. While I wouldn't rank it close to the best match of the 20th century, as it was named in a 2003 poll in Japan, because it's so much better than the previous Inoki martial arts matches that were chores to try to keep a straight face through, it truly felt original, and it has endured the test of time. ****
