| reset syndrome: another year in atlanta |
[Aug. 14th, 2009|03:14 am] |
there is that moment in a mixtape where it becomes either a story you read or a story you wrote.
and i am the author.
let's hope it works. it's fine for me--great, even--but who knows if it works for anybody else.
smorriswhite@yahoo.com if you want one. |
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| AJW: Kaoru Ito/Momoe Nakanishi/Nanae Takahashi vs Mima Shimoda/Etsuko Mita/Kumiko Maekawa, 12/09/00 |
[Jun. 3rd, 2008|11:17 am] |
| [ | music |
| | Terry Allen, Laid Back, Group Inerane | ] |
Download here!
Allow me to highlight the many splendors of this cage match from the start of the decade: multiple top-of-the-cage double-stomps to the gut, quadruple blade-jobs, pink- and gold-painted steel chairs to the face, a fire extinguisher, flash paper, chains, the stiffest powerbombs I have ever seen, did I mention the blood?, and Kaoru Ito at the height (and weight!) of her career crushing puny humans while defending the honor of her WWWA Women's Title.
The stipulation is that your entire team must escape the cage for you to be declared the winner. On the surface, this seems silly, because the psychology of the cage match is typically to contain a bitter rivalry and let it come to it's savage end to the fans' horror or (ideally) satisfaction, not to dip out whenever you get the chance. There, seemingly, is no triumph in escape. And yet, it works. The last member of the team left inside has to fight even harder while her team struggles to keep the enemy from escaping or, say, using their variety of cage-approved plunder. Of course, plunder is used, blood is shed, heads are dropped in awkward ways, and we all celebrate the beauty of what is easily the best tag-team cage match of the decade. Plus, you get to see LCO (Shimoda & Mita) do the only thing they were ever good at: hit people with things and throw fire. If they'd discovered garbage wrestling 5 years earlier, they'd have spotless careers. They should've trained with the Original Sheik.
I award this sixty-six billion snowflakes. |
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| BELIEVE THE OKUDA, continued |
[Mar. 8th, 2008|04:30 pm] |
SENDAI GIRLS: Ayako Sato/Ayako Hamada vs Meiko Satomura/Tyrannosaurus Okuda, 9/8/07
http://youtube.com/watch?v=mUPd8gKNqxs (part 1)
http://youtube.com/watch?v=LmIg0rXtaRg (part 2)
I wanted to see how Okuda holds up in a tag match, but first a word about the rest of the clan. Sato is new to me, so I give you even a sliver of background on her. I'd assume she's here to rep the Hamada faction, as Okuda is repping the Satomura School of Face-In-Peril. Hamada is something people spill loads of--well, not ink, really, but the digital equivalent--over; I think she's a usually a big eh. The stuff with Aja from Arsion earlier in the decade was good, but Aja makes everyone look boss. Satomura always delivers, and works even better as a veteran, like Liger but not balding (or male). Satomura and Hamada have a little history, having worked as recently as the previous July, in a match I'm sure many a roundfaced boy in a cartoon t-shirt lost their shit over.
Okuda and Hamada start. Okuda, of course, gets crushed. The double-stomps are the most memorably gnarly. Hamada and Sato tie her in knots and kick the tar out of her. Okuda gets in a freak jumping knee on Sato and tags in Satomura. Hamada gets her receipt with an over-the-top-rope double-stomp, but levels Satomura with a spinkick or however the fuck it's spelled. Satomura makes it look murderous, sliding off the ring apron like when Olive Oyl would kiss a dreamy lummox and melt down a flight of stairs. Okuda gets dragged into the mess, but Sato misses the plancha and the tide turns again.
Satomura lands a handspring kneedrop to the back of Hamada's dome. It's at this point I notice how great Hamada's selling has been. Okuda comes in and tosses a few jumping knees, making sure to keep Sato at bay. Satomura is great at filling in Okuda's blanks, as she runs in to level Hamada with a kick to the face after a deadlift backdrop. Plunder ensues, letting Hamada and Sato get the advantage again. Hamada's rolling senton on Satomura--through the ropes, I might add!--was fucking beauteous. Was I drunk the last time I watched a Hamada match or was she just taking it easy for 4 years? Or has her focus just shifted to tag matches? One noticeable flaw in Hamada is her stamina; I don't think she has the energy to really work anything other than tag segments. She starts to sag at the 3/4 mark, although the moves don't really suffer.
After some hope spots from Okuda, Hamada lands the Michinoku Driver and it's over before Satomura can save her downed pupil.
This was a lot of fun. |
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| BELIEVE THE OKUDA |
[Mar. 7th, 2008|06:16 pm] |
SENDAI GIRLS: Tyrannosaurus Okuda vs. Arisa Nakajima, 11/18/07
http://youtube.com/watch?v=_FMXzzTvSgA
There are some belts on the line, both Nakajima's. Wow, Nakajima's forearms are evil. The armbar, too. The over-the-shoulder armdrag needs work, but it made sense. The faceplants were more Confuse-A-Cat than actual offense and Okuda sold them by scratching her head. Wow, Okuda really does bust out the Camel Clutch--and bodyscissors! I love Nakajima stepping on Okuda on the way to the top rope. There's something vaguely BattlARTS about Nakajima's offense and demeanor in the ring, which I dig. The armdrags, the shootstyle, the strong style, the dickishness--that old BattlARTS postmodern cross-pollination. Except it doesn't work quite as fluidly as those Ikeda/Usuda/Otsuka/Yone/etc tags. Then again, what does? Plus, Okuda working in a mid-80s AJW fightingo-spiritu mode nullifies the idea of meshing styles.
The only thing that Nakajima bothers to sell is those jumping knees, and that's telling. I have a feeling this period of SENDAI Jrs. is about getting Okuda over.
Okuda wins with a jumping knee in the corner and a top rope knee. Knee knee knee knee...BELTS!
SENDAI GIRLS: Tyrannosaurus Okuda vs. Hiroyo Matsumoto, 12/29/07
http://youtube.com/watch?v=VFXSss81V5Q
Matsumoto is mostly ignorable, although her elbow to the solar plexus was pretty nasty. Her Half-Crab and Boston Crab were mint and made sense, seeing as Okuda's entire gimmick is built around knee spots. Oh, and the backbreaker was memorable. The rack (like a setup for the Death Valley Driver) beforehand was kind of unnecessary. It stuck out as an indie-flourish in a match that, in terms of moves, was pretty traditional. She should lose the rack and ramp up the stiffness.
Speaking of Okuda's jumping knees, they were much better here than the title match with Aja from (I think?) last year. And Matsumoto sold them like death. This string of title matches for Okuda all seem about building up the jumping knees, as well as getting her over as the next Satomura. I'm a huge Satomura mark and I'm starting to buy it a little more each time I see Okuda. Her selling was great in this, considering it was mostly kneework and gutbusters--and only 8 minutes long. Matsumoto's selling was decent, too. For instance, after an Okuda German Suplex Hold, they both sold the impact and Okuda sold the pain from the gutbuster she took.
Okuda goes over with a suitably evil jumping knee. I sense a pattern. You? Don't answer that. |
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| Meiko Satomura vs Kyoko Kimura (Sendai Girls 12/3/06) |
[Mar. 29th, 2007|12:29 pm] |
I got this in early Feb and slept on it, watching a bit here and there and reminding myself I should finish and then write about it. Then I got rid of it in one of the deletion fits I have whenever I look at my desktop and wonder why the fuck I can't see the cover of that issue of Herbie from 1964 I just set as my wallpaper. But thanks to dilligent (read: nerdy) posters at DVDR like Lenny and Ditch*, I have regained this recently hyped match from late 06. If I had actually reviewed it when I meant to I'd be ahead of the curve, but we all know I'm not together enough to do that.
Kimura has a strange gimmick that I've heard referenced as both a racist (in the way the character's written) Rastafarian and a drug addict. So Junkyard Dog, basically, right? Well, her little two-piece does have the Jamaican flag on it and she's got an afro. You know, for what it's worth. Early dickishness from Kimura, grunting at Meiko before the bell has been struck. Satomura tosses a few leg kicks. Meiko gets an evil over the shoulder drag and rushes for an armlock, which Kimura worms out of. Then there's the main-event requirement of trading tests of strength and then into some matwork. After the matwork, they try to knock each other silly, but after having their joints rerouted, this is not to be, which is a nice touch. It's like when you can tell a fighter's hand is broken but he keeps throwing punches. Kimura's headbutts are amazingly silly. They move into more severe submissions, with Meiko's armwork looking like it could really hyperextend somethin' fierce and Kimura tying Meiko in all kinds of evil knots.
Kimura gets in a deadly kick to the lip and Meiko really struggles to kick out, writhing and flailing like a sick bird. She has to bring the stiff offense to put Kimura away, which, after that kick and all that matwork, I totally buy. And that's the key to this match's success. It's not particularly complicated; the story is pretty simple, as all they really have to do is get over how equally matched they are. The finish comes out of nowhere and gives the feeling Kimura could just as easily have won. What else can you really ask for from a style that has all but died out? It's nice to stop hating for a minute and see a match that makes me want to keep abreast of all this new ladies' grappling. If Kimura worked barefoot, I'd give this at least 8 stars. |
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