Draven/Myojin does a match review! (Cuz why not?)
Feb 16, 2022 2:38:55 GMT -5
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Mongo the Destroyer, Steve Awesome, and 3 more like this
Post by MYŌJIN on Feb 16, 2022 2:38:55 GMT -5
(Just trying something different. I was watching this match and thought it'd be kind of neat if I did a review of it in the XHF Discord. I figure if this sort of takes off, I might watch and review interesting matches I've never seen before once a week- and if you guys are interested, you could send me some matches you like for me to check out! Let me know what you guys think of this.)
This match is Jushin Thunder Liger (c) vs CIMA at Dragon Gate's Kobe Pro-Wrestling Festival 2007.
So to start things off, as a mega nerd when it comes to Japanese wrestling. I had no idea Liger had a stint in Dragon Gate, I was even more surprised to learn that he held the Open the Dream Gate Championship from late 2006 to now.
This match has a little bit of backstory to it. 7 years before this in Michinoku Pro's J Cup tournament, Liger and a VERY young CIMA faced off for the first time where Liger beat him to advance in the tournament.
This is their rematch- and for the top prize in DG no less. Without a doubt, evident by Liger's all black attire and him leading the heel New Japan faction C.T.U. at this time- Liger is the de facto antagonist veteran of this match, CIMA being the young fiery babyface.
The match starts off with some decent mat wrestling. I usually kind of zone out when matches start kind of this slow, but these two keep it interesting by swiftly countering each other's submissions and rest holds- trying to get the better of each other. Most notably, Liger puts CIMA in a modified surfboard hold and converts it into this nasty sort of high angle camel clutch/chinlock that looks awful for CIMA's lower back.
CIMA escapes and reverses the hold into a single leg boston crab, Liger escapes that. CIMA begins working Liger's left leg, specifically the knee by stomping on it, stepping on it with all his weight- and even doing a standing body splash onto his leg that keeps Liger grounded. The champion finally makes it back to his feet and the two are done with the chain wrestling. They start yelling in each other's face, I'm assuming insults or whatever and Liger runs the ropes and hits CIMA with a shoulder block. The challenger stays standing and dares Liger to try again which he does- However, CIMA drops down- leap frogs up- and catches Liger with a dropkick. The first big move of the match, built up toward pretty well.
CIMA tries to Irish Whip Liger, he counters and sends CIMA to the corner but CIMA escapes. He rebounds off the ropes and Liger drops him with a picture perfect tilt-a-whirl backbreaker that was really satisfying to see! Liger starts stomping away at CIMA and.. This is sort of where the problems of the match start to begin. Only 6 minutes into a 30+ minute bout, CIMA starts fighting spirit no-selling the stomps to the chest and stands back up. He hulks up, sends Liger out of the ring with a corner dropkick that sends the champ head first into the turnbuckles.
He drags Liger up to the ramp, looking to hit his main finished; Schwein (a modified Air Raid Crash) on the top. KWhich is a very weird idea? Like why wouldn't he try to hit it in the ring?) Liger counters it and IMMEDIATELY makes him pay for it with a standing Liger Bomb on the ramp then followed by a nasty brainbuster before hauling ass back to the ring, optimg for a count out victory.
I usually find these "make it to the ring at the very last second" spots in Japanese wrestling overdone, but here it's great. CIMA is selling like he's pretty much done for, he has to practically hurl his damaged body down the ramp to even make it close to the ring. His stablemates are urging him to get up and at the very last second at count 19- he makes it back inside the ring. Liger doesn't give him a chance to breathe and reminds the audience and myself very quickly that he's the heel here. While the challenger was recovering on the outside and the referee wasn't paying attention, Liger undid the turnbuckle pads in a corner and sends CIMA back and neck first into the exposed buckles- who sells it well by instantly collapsing in pain. He then CIMA's legs around the ringpost, and smashing his left knee in with a chair. Payback's a bitch.
Liger viciously starts working CIMA's knee. One thing to note: Heel Liger is awesome, you wouldn't expect someone who's been a babyface for most of his career to be such a grumpy, sadistic, unfair vet who clearly despises his opponent. He puts him a spinning reverse figure four- never seen Liger do that before- and CIMA, again, wonderfully sells like his leg has been done in. Though he kind of takes me out of being immersed in the match once he not once, not twice, but multiple times raises his hand as if he's about to tap out when we all know he won't. At least not this early in the match. The crowd don't buy he's gonna possibly tap at all and it eventually comes off as really melodramatic.
Of course, CIMA powers out and makes it to the ropes. Despite what I said earlier, the crowd are still really behind him and chanting his name. He's over like crazy here, which is insane because he's wrestling Jushin Liger. The faces he makes while selling being in a submission are just downright awful though. I'm not sure what he was going for, but it looks goofy as hell and makes me roll my eyes. CIMA tries to fight back, Liger quickly shuts that down with an eye rake. One thing I really love: Liger tries to lariat the challenger off of an Irish Whip, CIMA dodges and counters with Superdol (Yes, it's named after a steroid lol. It's a backstabber/lungblower) and he immediately sells his hurt knee, because you know- he's using both of his knees in that move. It's clear hitting Superdrol made his knee even worse, actually, as now he's struggling to walk and selling like its starting to go numb on him. Excellent stuff there.
...Then almost immediately after he ruins that by running and hitting a corkscrew plancha after sending Liger out of the ring. I get it, he's a high flyer- but c'mon. How do you go from limping to flying out of the ring full speed? He at the very least starts moving sluggishly still as he throws Liger back into the ring and gets back to work with a springboard double foot stomp to the champ's back.
And all of a sudden, a MEAN backdrop suplex from Liger while CIMA wasn't paying attention gets momentum back on his side. That looked like a rough bump to take. Liger goes right back to CIMA's injured leg with a normal figure four this time. CIMA starts doing that dumb about to tap out thing again. It's even more annoying this time, especially when he's extremely close to the ropes. Liger throws him out of the ring, hits a shinbreaker onto a table on the outside.
Then smashes his leg with a chair again. Wonderfully evil. CIMA's desperate to get away from him at this point, but Liger hits him with a second Liger Bomb straight back into a figure four again.
For a match into past its halfway point, this has been very slow paced- I take that back, CIMA counters Liger's Shotei with a low dropkick. Follows it up immediately with a Perfect Driver (Cross-Legged Michinoku Driver).
As Liger makes it back to his feet in the corner, CIMA hits the Superdrol double knees again into the corner (for some reason doesnt sell them this time). Lifts Liger up to the top rope, hits him with Venus (a palm thrust uppercut) then sends him flying with an Iconoclasm- which is sort of like an inverted crucifix powerbomb to an opponent seated on the top rope? It looks sick. CIMA then goes up the opposite corner, goes for the Mad Splash (a Frog Splash). Liger gets his knees up and counters with a pretty nice rolling cradle pin that nearly gets a three count. Pace has kicked up immensely.
Liger hits a running sitout Liger Bomb. Another two count. He goes up the top rope this time and hits a Frog Splash of his own. Another two count. He goes for a third Liger Bomb, CIMA refuses and lifts him for Schwein- spikes him with it! He only gets a two count either. I'm loving this trading of big offense.
He brins Liger to the top rope. Hits another Venus, but hangs him over in an inverted tree of woe. He then goes to the other side of the ring- and hits an AWESOME Coast to Coast dropkick to the back of Liger's head. ...He then brings Liger back up the top rope. Hits Venus again. Okay, that setup is getting old fast. He makes up for it with a Goriconoclasm though (a cross arm version of the Iconoclasm, again looks dope as heck. He has a really cool moveset.)
He goes for Mad Splash again, this time it connects- but only gets a two count. He goes to the other side of the ring to attempt for it again- but Liger gets up, completely no-selling the splash and runs over to hit him with a Shotei??? These two have a really bad issue when it comes to simply brushing off each other's offense.
LIGER HITS A BRAINBUSTER FROM THE TOP ROPE. HOLY SHIT! ANOTHER BRAINBUSTER!
...
CIMA somehow kicks out of all of that. :/
Liger them hits the Crash Thunder Buster (a backdrop lift into a facebuster, Rhea Ripley currently uses it.) Another pin attempt. Kickout at one? Are you serious?
At least Liger is selling his disbelief of the kickout, and CIMA looks utterly fucked. Until he smokes Liger with a superkick, who in turn takes his face off with two Shoteis- a rolling Koppu kick- and attempts for like his fifth brainbuster of the night, but CIMA counters into one of his own.
CIMA then hits Schwein for the second time. This quickly has become a finisher spam fest, blegh. And of course, Liger kicks out. CIMA is shocked and battered. He goes for a SPRINGBOARD SOMERSAULT LEG DROP, WHAT THE HELL?
He lifts Liger for one of his big match moves, Crossfire (a sitout straightjacket package powerbomb) and FINALLY its enough for a three count! New Dream Gate champion!
...I have very mixed feelings about this match.
I love the beginning and middle sections but as soon as they kick into high gear, the big spots feel kind of unearned for the slow and methodical match that it was at the start. The multiple false finishes (Which none were very convincing to be expected to be a three count) after almost every big move hit is exhausting and very spammy, same with the no-selling when at this point both guys should be extremely tired.
That said, CIMA is sort of the standout for this match- for better or for worse. Because he's both selling his leg excellently while also then sort of just going into going spot after spot with Liger without any real pacing to it. The ending of the match was almost surprising because of how anticlimactic the lead up to it was.
Thougg, I was still very invested. So were the crowd.
Not a bad match, not the best out of either man's work though. Would I say it's worth going out of your way to watch? If you like that sort of fast paced big hitting style, sure. If you're expecting sort of an epic, it's disappointing.
This match is Jushin Thunder Liger (c) vs CIMA at Dragon Gate's Kobe Pro-Wrestling Festival 2007.
So to start things off, as a mega nerd when it comes to Japanese wrestling. I had no idea Liger had a stint in Dragon Gate, I was even more surprised to learn that he held the Open the Dream Gate Championship from late 2006 to now.
This match has a little bit of backstory to it. 7 years before this in Michinoku Pro's J Cup tournament, Liger and a VERY young CIMA faced off for the first time where Liger beat him to advance in the tournament.
This is their rematch- and for the top prize in DG no less. Without a doubt, evident by Liger's all black attire and him leading the heel New Japan faction C.T.U. at this time- Liger is the de facto antagonist veteran of this match, CIMA being the young fiery babyface.
The match starts off with some decent mat wrestling. I usually kind of zone out when matches start kind of this slow, but these two keep it interesting by swiftly countering each other's submissions and rest holds- trying to get the better of each other. Most notably, Liger puts CIMA in a modified surfboard hold and converts it into this nasty sort of high angle camel clutch/chinlock that looks awful for CIMA's lower back.
CIMA escapes and reverses the hold into a single leg boston crab, Liger escapes that. CIMA begins working Liger's left leg, specifically the knee by stomping on it, stepping on it with all his weight- and even doing a standing body splash onto his leg that keeps Liger grounded. The champion finally makes it back to his feet and the two are done with the chain wrestling. They start yelling in each other's face, I'm assuming insults or whatever and Liger runs the ropes and hits CIMA with a shoulder block. The challenger stays standing and dares Liger to try again which he does- However, CIMA drops down- leap frogs up- and catches Liger with a dropkick. The first big move of the match, built up toward pretty well.
CIMA tries to Irish Whip Liger, he counters and sends CIMA to the corner but CIMA escapes. He rebounds off the ropes and Liger drops him with a picture perfect tilt-a-whirl backbreaker that was really satisfying to see! Liger starts stomping away at CIMA and.. This is sort of where the problems of the match start to begin. Only 6 minutes into a 30+ minute bout, CIMA starts fighting spirit no-selling the stomps to the chest and stands back up. He hulks up, sends Liger out of the ring with a corner dropkick that sends the champ head first into the turnbuckles.
He drags Liger up to the ramp, looking to hit his main finished; Schwein (a modified Air Raid Crash) on the top. KWhich is a very weird idea? Like why wouldn't he try to hit it in the ring?) Liger counters it and IMMEDIATELY makes him pay for it with a standing Liger Bomb on the ramp then followed by a nasty brainbuster before hauling ass back to the ring, optimg for a count out victory.
I usually find these "make it to the ring at the very last second" spots in Japanese wrestling overdone, but here it's great. CIMA is selling like he's pretty much done for, he has to practically hurl his damaged body down the ramp to even make it close to the ring. His stablemates are urging him to get up and at the very last second at count 19- he makes it back inside the ring. Liger doesn't give him a chance to breathe and reminds the audience and myself very quickly that he's the heel here. While the challenger was recovering on the outside and the referee wasn't paying attention, Liger undid the turnbuckle pads in a corner and sends CIMA back and neck first into the exposed buckles- who sells it well by instantly collapsing in pain. He then CIMA's legs around the ringpost, and smashing his left knee in with a chair. Payback's a bitch.
Liger viciously starts working CIMA's knee. One thing to note: Heel Liger is awesome, you wouldn't expect someone who's been a babyface for most of his career to be such a grumpy, sadistic, unfair vet who clearly despises his opponent. He puts him a spinning reverse figure four- never seen Liger do that before- and CIMA, again, wonderfully sells like his leg has been done in. Though he kind of takes me out of being immersed in the match once he not once, not twice, but multiple times raises his hand as if he's about to tap out when we all know he won't. At least not this early in the match. The crowd don't buy he's gonna possibly tap at all and it eventually comes off as really melodramatic.
Of course, CIMA powers out and makes it to the ropes. Despite what I said earlier, the crowd are still really behind him and chanting his name. He's over like crazy here, which is insane because he's wrestling Jushin Liger. The faces he makes while selling being in a submission are just downright awful though. I'm not sure what he was going for, but it looks goofy as hell and makes me roll my eyes. CIMA tries to fight back, Liger quickly shuts that down with an eye rake. One thing I really love: Liger tries to lariat the challenger off of an Irish Whip, CIMA dodges and counters with Superdol (Yes, it's named after a steroid lol. It's a backstabber/lungblower) and he immediately sells his hurt knee, because you know- he's using both of his knees in that move. It's clear hitting Superdrol made his knee even worse, actually, as now he's struggling to walk and selling like its starting to go numb on him. Excellent stuff there.
...Then almost immediately after he ruins that by running and hitting a corkscrew plancha after sending Liger out of the ring. I get it, he's a high flyer- but c'mon. How do you go from limping to flying out of the ring full speed? He at the very least starts moving sluggishly still as he throws Liger back into the ring and gets back to work with a springboard double foot stomp to the champ's back.
And all of a sudden, a MEAN backdrop suplex from Liger while CIMA wasn't paying attention gets momentum back on his side. That looked like a rough bump to take. Liger goes right back to CIMA's injured leg with a normal figure four this time. CIMA starts doing that dumb about to tap out thing again. It's even more annoying this time, especially when he's extremely close to the ropes. Liger throws him out of the ring, hits a shinbreaker onto a table on the outside.
Then smashes his leg with a chair again. Wonderfully evil. CIMA's desperate to get away from him at this point, but Liger hits him with a second Liger Bomb straight back into a figure four again.
For a match into past its halfway point, this has been very slow paced- I take that back, CIMA counters Liger's Shotei with a low dropkick. Follows it up immediately with a Perfect Driver (Cross-Legged Michinoku Driver).
As Liger makes it back to his feet in the corner, CIMA hits the Superdrol double knees again into the corner (for some reason doesnt sell them this time). Lifts Liger up to the top rope, hits him with Venus (a palm thrust uppercut) then sends him flying with an Iconoclasm- which is sort of like an inverted crucifix powerbomb to an opponent seated on the top rope? It looks sick. CIMA then goes up the opposite corner, goes for the Mad Splash (a Frog Splash). Liger gets his knees up and counters with a pretty nice rolling cradle pin that nearly gets a three count. Pace has kicked up immensely.
Liger hits a running sitout Liger Bomb. Another two count. He goes up the top rope this time and hits a Frog Splash of his own. Another two count. He goes for a third Liger Bomb, CIMA refuses and lifts him for Schwein- spikes him with it! He only gets a two count either. I'm loving this trading of big offense.
He brins Liger to the top rope. Hits another Venus, but hangs him over in an inverted tree of woe. He then goes to the other side of the ring- and hits an AWESOME Coast to Coast dropkick to the back of Liger's head. ...He then brings Liger back up the top rope. Hits Venus again. Okay, that setup is getting old fast. He makes up for it with a Goriconoclasm though (a cross arm version of the Iconoclasm, again looks dope as heck. He has a really cool moveset.)
He goes for Mad Splash again, this time it connects- but only gets a two count. He goes to the other side of the ring to attempt for it again- but Liger gets up, completely no-selling the splash and runs over to hit him with a Shotei??? These two have a really bad issue when it comes to simply brushing off each other's offense.
LIGER HITS A BRAINBUSTER FROM THE TOP ROPE. HOLY SHIT! ANOTHER BRAINBUSTER!
...
CIMA somehow kicks out of all of that. :/
Liger them hits the Crash Thunder Buster (a backdrop lift into a facebuster, Rhea Ripley currently uses it.) Another pin attempt. Kickout at one? Are you serious?
At least Liger is selling his disbelief of the kickout, and CIMA looks utterly fucked. Until he smokes Liger with a superkick, who in turn takes his face off with two Shoteis- a rolling Koppu kick- and attempts for like his fifth brainbuster of the night, but CIMA counters into one of his own.
CIMA then hits Schwein for the second time. This quickly has become a finisher spam fest, blegh. And of course, Liger kicks out. CIMA is shocked and battered. He goes for a SPRINGBOARD SOMERSAULT LEG DROP, WHAT THE HELL?
He lifts Liger for one of his big match moves, Crossfire (a sitout straightjacket package powerbomb) and FINALLY its enough for a three count! New Dream Gate champion!
...I have very mixed feelings about this match.
I love the beginning and middle sections but as soon as they kick into high gear, the big spots feel kind of unearned for the slow and methodical match that it was at the start. The multiple false finishes (Which none were very convincing to be expected to be a three count) after almost every big move hit is exhausting and very spammy, same with the no-selling when at this point both guys should be extremely tired.
That said, CIMA is sort of the standout for this match- for better or for worse. Because he's both selling his leg excellently while also then sort of just going into going spot after spot with Liger without any real pacing to it. The ending of the match was almost surprising because of how anticlimactic the lead up to it was.
Thougg, I was still very invested. So were the crowd.
Not a bad match, not the best out of either man's work though. Would I say it's worth going out of your way to watch? If you like that sort of fast paced big hitting style, sure. If you're expecting sort of an epic, it's disappointing.