Vash Watches Old Stuff

[VashTheStampede]

Completely ripping off inspired by Spiner's post, I decided to make my own thread for rating the old wrestling matches I decide to watch occasionally.

First one up...

Hayabusa vs Jushin "Thunder" Liger
NJPW Super J Cup First Stage
4/16/94

Hayabusa has always been one of my all-time favorites. I even changed my name to Hayabusa for a time at the old GW. This match is relatively early in his career, facing the legendary Liger at the height of his powers.

Hayabusa starts the match by showcasing the unreal aerial ability that will eventually make him an icon...so the wily Liger decides to ground him with an assault on his leg.

The difference between high risk moves then and now is that it looks like they are legitimately trying to damage their opponent back then...whereas these days its more about popping the crowd.

Hayabusa makes a comeback, but when he flies from the top rope, Liger snatches him out of the sky with a stiff powerbomb, then finishes off the upstart with a Fisherman's Buster.

***3/4

 

[Tubby23]

Where could I watch this? Is it on YouTube?

 

[VashTheStampede]

Where could I watch this? Is it on YouTube?

I've got a Best of Hayabusa blu-ray from IVP Videos (the best bootleg wrestling site on the internet )

BUT I found this:

 

[Tubby23]

That really was excellent

 

[VashTheStampede]

Sabu vs Taz
Barely Legal
4/13/1997

Maybe at some point I'll watch an old match that WASN'T from mid-April in the 90s.

This is one of those matches where you really need to be invested in the story and background to fully appreciate it. This was one of the best built matches I can ever recall, and a lot of it hinged on the fact that the two men legitimately did not like each other. Taz called out Sabu for no-showing an advertised match to work in Japan and Sabu thought it was bullshit that Taz did the dirty work of the "office" to make him look bad to the fans.

The ECW Arena was electric for this one and it is always a fun thing to watch public opinion flip in real time during a match. The opening sees the Philly crowd flipping off Taz and shouting expletives, but by the end they accept him as the better man even before Bill Alfonso turns on the Human Suplex Machine and joins up with Sabu and RVD.

Big props to Sabu in this, as a Taz crossface visibly breaks his nose in the early moments of the match.

The match ends with Taz choking Sabu into unconsciousness with the Redrum kata ha jime. Sabu wakes up after the bell and tries to continue the match but Taz informs him that he just choked him out. A moment so bad ass that you see why Taz was quickly moved to the forefront of the company.

****

 

[Spiner202]

Wow I totally missed this thread earlier! Great idea

I'm really curious about ECW. I've seen nothing of its original run, but my assumption is that basically every match is somehow no-DQ and the most brutal wrestling imaginable. It seems like pure chaos. Is that accurate? Also, if so, how does it hold up today? I find sometimes it's tough to watch the super bloody, chair shot-to-the-head type of wrestling these days.

 

[VashTheStampede]

Wow I totally missed this thread earlier! Great idea

I'm really curious about ECW. I've seen nothing of its original run, but my assumption is that basically every match is somehow no-DQ and the most brutal wrestling imaginable. It seems like pure chaos. Is that accurate? Also, if so, how does it hold up today? I find sometimes it's tough to watch the super bloody, chair shot-to-the-head type of wrestling these days.

Yeah, pretty much the only rule enforced is the 3 count by the ref.

And there was a lot of chaos and violence (though aside from a few specific matches, the violence was nothing like the level of a typical deathmatch)

But it also had a lot of really good actual wrestling.

Dean Malenko, Eddy Guerrero, Chris Benoit, Chris Jericho all got noticed by the big leagues because of ECW.

They also popularized Lucha Libre outside of Mexico thanks to banger matches from Rey Mysterio Jr, Juventud Guerrera, and Psicosis.

Three-way Dances between Yoshihiro Tajiri, Super Crazy, and Little Guido were always a highlight in the later days.

 

[Webster]

Dean Malenko, Eddy Guerrero, Chris Benoit, Chris Jericho

Four of many WCW cast aside because they thought they wouldn't go over...