NBIceman posted...
Shisa/Doi vs Milano/YOSSINO
As much as I will forever hate that he brought the Paradise Lock into existence, it's always been easy to see what everyone saw in Milano Collection back when. (Side note: One of my favorite little pieces of super obscure wrestling trivia is the fact that he trained in my hometown of San Antonio for a while, randomly.) The man is smoothness personified, even more so than a lot of DG guys and that's saying something. Blend that with all of the creativity he exhibited and it was just impossible not to have at least some fun when you watched him wrestle. Injuries have derailed a lot of promising careers and he's no exception.
And all around, this is just a light, breezy good time of a match. Yoshino is one of my all-time favorites, Doi is a top-five all-time tag worker, and Shisa always seemed to do stuff that you'd never see anywhere else. None of these guys save for maybe Shisa were anywhere near what they would become in the future and there's only so much you'd do on an undercard tag anyway, but nevertheless, an undercard tag in a Toryumon style at any point in history is a pretty safe bet to bottom out at "good." Lots of good stuff here for sure and no wasted time whatsoever in its short run.
It's not the best Toryumon/Dragon Gate undercard tag match you'll ever see, but as I said in my original post I feel like it captures exactly the sort of spirit you'd want from their tag matches. It's always a treat to see Milano again before he left for America and got fat on Pringles. Shisa is kind of a guy who never did a whole hell of a lot in his career but he always holds his own in these sorts of matches.
Eddv posted...
Dean Malenko vs Scotty Too Hotty, Backlash 2000 April 30, 2000
https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x3bid0s
or use the WWE Network, it's easy to find.
This is one that came onto my radar via the Voices of Wrestling patreon where Rich Kraetsch recommended it to a fan of Dean Malenko's. I just watched it and it fucking rules.
You have Malenko here at the height of his heel powers and Scotty Too Hotty coming down from the hottest bit of his Too Cool run. The match starts with Scotty Too Hotty showing his speed and athleticism as Malenko, in full bastard mode attacking the leg methodically, keeps cutting him off and working him over. Malenko sometimes truly lacks ring charisma, but this is not one of them. He has the crowd in the palm of his hands building the support for Scotty to a near fever pitch towards the end. As an aside, I love WWF Attitude Era crowds and have missed them.
A lot of the way this match is worked will feel familiar, it's a pretty typical match formula for today, but was pretty innovative for the time. It is a hell of a showcase for the way Malenko worked. Scotty for his part actually sells the leg well and it builds logical and fun little story.
Only took a couple of days to get back to this. <_<
As I said before, I liked this match. Malenko basically worked a WCW match with Scotty and, with this being around the peak of Too Cool, Scotty was a great face to throw in there for him. Iceman did have a point that you never feel like Dean is losing this but it didn't really bother me too much. It's almost what you need to do if you actually want Malenko to mean anything. Too bad he never really does in the WWF.