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The 2012 MOTYC thread

340K views 3K replies 192 participants last post by  Alan4L 
#1 ·
#1,745 · (Edited)
Hiroshi Tanahashi (c) vs Minoru Suzuki; New Japan Pro-Wrestling IWGP Heavyweight Championship; King of Pro-Wrestling 10/8/12

First off, you know a match is good when you're trying to nitpick it. I think the reason Dave Meltzer gushed over this match so much was because it had a very MMA feel to it, with a lot of the arm offense that Suzuki brought to the table. Tanahashi sold great, which I always think he does. The aforementioned arm work was great. I wasn't too high on a lot of the leg work that Tanahashi brought, although I did mark for the figure-four leglock spot. Also Suzuki works a lot better on offense than selling it. In my top five for the year, probably better than Richards/Elgin, but still firmly behind Tanahashi/Okada (Okada title win), Okada/Naito & Brock/Cena for me. Finished seemed abrupt & I wanted to see Suzuki go back to the Piledriver attempt. I also hated all of the standing slap spots.

Oh, I should mention the now infamous air guitar spot I guess: I don't see what the big deal was. It did seem out of character for Tanahashi & the crowd shit all over it, but it added some emotion to the match & fired up Suzuki, so I think it was fine.
 
#1,746 ·
NJPW King Of Pro Wrestling 08/10
Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Minoru Suzuki
****3/4

by the moment, easily my pick to MOTY, fucking awesome match.
 
#1,748 ·
How is the Air guitar spot out of character for Tanahashi. Tanahashi is cocky and self adoring superstar....that spot was brilliant.
 
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#1,758 ·
I second this. Really brought the hate and far exceeded how crazy I thought it would get with the tacks.:eek:Storm bled like crazy, haven't seen a blade job like that in ages. Thought King Mo would hinder the match but his facial expressions when Storm/Roode were brawling right beside him were pretty great and so glad he didn't hinder the finish. The finish was sick. Great match.

I'd go ****1/2 too. Storm really excels in these kind of matches.

I actually enjoyed a RVD match in 2012 too.:eek: I'm a massive Zema Ion mark so that could be the case. It wasn't anything outstanding but RVD was pretty good and they both just put on a fun opener.

Haven't watched Aries/Hardy yet. Don't know do I want to.:p
 
#1,756 ·
Bound For Glory:

-James Storm vs Bobby Rooode ****1/4
-Jeff Hardy vs Austin Aries ****
-AJ Styles/Kurt Angle vs. Chavo/Hernandez vs. Daniels/Kazarian ***3/4

G1 Climax
-Kazuchika Okada vs Tetsuya Naito ****
 
#1,757 ·
TNA Bound for Glory 2012
Storm vs. Roode
Aries vs. Hardy

Also enjoyed: Joe vs. Magnus and AJ/Angle vs. Chavo/Hernandez vs. Daniels/Kazarian, match got crazy and Kazarian took a nasty spill on the outside. Glad he wasn't hurt that bad, nice to see Daniels immediately check on him afterwards.
 
#1,759 ·
^Depends on how you feel about them I guess.

Thought Aries looked really strong in the match for a guy smaller than Hardy. There were times where it looked like he was trying to kill him and it looked believable. The crowd was mostly behind Aries but then the match picked up and the crowd support shifted towards 50/50 and back again.

Good match with both Hardy and Aries trying new things.
 
#1,760 ·
Yeah, Aries/Hardy was a great match, IMO, it had a "big match feel", the crowd was hot (although the face/tweener dynamics was peculiar bcuz of the bad build), Austin's character work was immense, and he was using a plenty of psychology to get into Hardy's head. And Hardy was pretty good too, his offense looked believable for once. I think it's the first time since the Victory Road '12 match against Angle.

Aries/Hardy: ****1/4
 
#1,761 ·
Just saw Aries/Hardy. Hard to tell if the split crowd helped or hindered. Thought the match was really good. A lot of little psychology tid bits I liked, especially watching Hardy crutch Aries, dick move but Aries did it to him on Impact. Probably go ***3/4-****. May rematch it later.
 
#1,763 ·
James Storm vs Bobby Roode - Street Fight - TNA Bound For Glory 2012
Good but not great and certainly not MOTYC Level. Wanted it to be more of a hate driven brawl than a spotty weapon based hardcore match but for that type of match it entertained me enough. Blood helped get over the hate a lot more than anything they actually did. Spots were good but nothing outstanding and they never got the flow of the match on enough to create the kind of buzz and atmosphere it deserved. Enjoyable enough but not must see or MOTYC Level.

Austin Aries vs Jeff Hardy - TNA World Heavyweight Championship - TNA Bound For Glory 2012
Again, decent enough but not close to MOTYC Level. Didn't think it was a total Aries carry job in the sense that Hardy wasn't terrible and Aries wasn't overly outstanding to make a decent match great. Enjoyed edgier Hardy. Wasn't enough depth to the match to make me care of get me invested. Ton of booking perplexes too like why TNA turned Aries yet again so soon, why he's trying to be CM Punk and why he's dropped the title to Hardy so soon, along with the crowd being extremely pro Aries when the idea is for their biggest babyface star to win the title in the biggest main event of the year.

Kevin Steen vs Michael Elgin - ROH World Championship - ROH Glory By Honor XI
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOORING. Don't even want to watse my time talking about this much. Typical ROH garbage. Do nothing of note besides moves until the finish when you kick out of everything. That reaction to the F5 kickout. Wow. Steen looks really bad physically right now. Moving really bad. Elgin was clueless when he wasn't doing spots yet again. At least Nigel was entertaining and almost managed to convince me to care about what was going on. Kelly does a very poor impression of enthusiasm. Over 30 minutes for this? Deary me.

ACH vs AR Fox - 30 Minute Ironman Match - AIW Straight Outta Compton
Now this the shit you all need to be watching. Had this on my USB to watch for ages now and if I knew it was going to be this good I would have watched it months back. ACH is absolutely phenomenal. Someone desperately needs to regularly book him, Swann and Ricochet in matches together. Watched this straight after Steen/Elgin and THIS is how you work a 30 minute match where spots are the selling point. I say the selling point and not the entire focus of the match because with the booking and ACH being awesome they added a ton of depth to this on top of the spots. And the spots are really awesome. These days it's hard to be innovative period, yet alone work a 30 minute match full of innovation but these two pulled off a refreshing high flying match really well. Fox is still bland but he's got some cool spots and he was pretty good in this in the sense he did his stuff well and wasn't annoying. ACH is so much fun and adds so much to his game on top of his crazy spots. You know going in that the spots are gonna be crazy and you expect that but with this match you don't really expect them to work a really smartly structured Ironman match but they pull it off superbly well. Loved ACH countering Fox's springboard exploder thingy everytime after he got the first fall off it. The roll up sequences was probably my least favourite part of the match but in the context of the match it was neat of them to go for less draining rollup attempts over their big shit towards the end of the 30 minutes and they paid it off nicely with ACH getting a pin out of it. Adored ACH clinging to the ropes once he went ahead with only a few minutes left. Booking was great too. This was originally an Ironmatch between AR Fox and Uhaa Nation but Uhaa got injured and pulled out the week of the show so ACH replaced him. Therefore you just assume Fox will win and put ACH over as a strong loser but they swerve you really nicely and have ACH pull out the win and they work it really well to keep Fox as the more established guy in the hierachy but still have him lose clean in a match like this. More or less the same length as Steen/Elgin and literally felt half as long. Zero down time or filler which for a 30 minute match with two wrestlers like this you wouldn't expect. The stip probably just helps it pip past PAC/Devitt for my Juniors/Cruiserweight/etc MOTY. Got it just below the running pack for my actual MOTY that I've give the same rating too but it's either near or right at the top of the rest so definitely top 10 for the year.

****1/2
 
#1,764 ·
ACH vs AR Fox - 30 Minute Ironman Match - AIW Straight Outta Compton
Now this the shit you all need to be watching. Had this on my USB to watch for ages now and if I knew it was going to be this good I would have watched it months back. ACH is absolutely phenomenal. Someone desperately needs to regularly book him, Swann and Ricochet in matches together. Watched this straight after Steen/Elgin and THIS is how you work a 30 minute match where spots are the selling point. I say the selling point and not the entire focus of the match because with the booking and ACH being awesome they added a ton of depth to this on top of the spots. And the spots are really awesome. These days it's hard to be innovative period, yet alone work a 30 minute match full of innovation but these two pulled off a refreshing high flying match really well. Fox is still bland but he's got some cool spots and he was pretty good in this in the sense he did his stuff well and wasn't annoying. ACH is so much fun and adds so much to his game on top of his crazy spots. You know going in that the spots are gonna be crazy and you expect that but with this match you don't really expect them to work a really smartly structured Ironman match but they pull it off superbly well. Loved ACH countering Fox's springboard exploder thingy everytime after he got the first fall off it. The roll up sequences was probably my least favourite part of the match but in the context of the match it was neat of them to go for less draining rollup attempts over their big shit towards the end of the 30 minutes and they paid it off nicely with ACH getting a pin out of it. Adored ACH clinging to the ropes once he went ahead with only a few minutes left. Booking was great too. This was originally an Ironmatch between AR Fox and Uhaa Nation but Uhaa got injured and pulled out the week of the show so ACH replaced him. Therefore you just assume Fox will win and put ACH over as a strong loser but they swerve you really nicely and have ACH pull out the win and they work it really well to keep Fox as the more established guy in the hierachy but still have him lose clean in a match like this. More or less the same length as Steen/Elgin and literally felt half as long. Zero down time or filler which for a 30 minute match with two wrestlers like this you wouldn't expect. The stip probably just helps it pip past PAC/Devitt for my Juniors/Cruiserweight/etc MOTY. Got it just below the running pack for my actual MOTY that I've give the same rating too but it's either near or right at the top of the rest so definitely top 10 for the year.

****1/2
Any chance you could give us a link, please? Been wanting to check out some ACH for a while.
 
#1,765 ·
Seabs, I think for more a hate filled brawl rather than a full of weapons match you might enjoy their Lockdown cage match more. It was bloody too but they pretty much brawled throughout the entire match. Only thing I hated about the match/show was the fact that the crowd was mostly dead except during Hardy/Angle earlier in the night.
 
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#1,767 ·
Tanahashi vs. Suzuki
****3/4

Ok, I'm starting to get Tanahashi now. I still don't love what he does (yet) but I am starting to realize how incredible he is at it.

I didn't really mind the air guitar spot, in of itself. Tanahashi was already a heel because I hate him so much. I will say this: if he is supposed to be a babyface (and lets face it, hes booked that way) then this spot is a VERY strange choice. Nevertheless I thought it sparked the hate really well.

The arm work was really great and Suzuki using it to get the sleeper utilized late was awesome. Tanahashi's legwork, while overdone, was great here in large part to the selling. Suzuki looked like he was in agony. The Figure Four MADE this match. Every single thing that happened in that hold was awesome. Suzuki stumbling going into the ropes, but then baiting Tanahashi in for the dropkick was a really exciting hope spot. Tanahashi appearing to pass out was also very very cool.

I also love that there isn't a single pinfall attempt until the finish. It just makes the importance of the submissions that much better.

One problem that one could argue is that Suzuki throws a LOT of kicks after his leg is worked over. I will say, however, that the RIGHT leg gets worked over, and since the right leg isn't the standing leg for his kicks, I don't mind it being the swinging leg. This could bother some people, but its not a huge deal to me.

There is a little bit of execution sloppiness, which takes it down a bit, but I really love the story and the action. Its not as good as Okada vs. Naito, but its the next best thing. NJPW is amazing right now, and I can't wait to see the future.
 
#1,768 ·
I don't see how it is a strange choice, Tanashi's gimmick is that he's some air guitar cocky rockstar. The Japanese audience just didn't take kind to him making light of the opponent, but the actual maneuver in itself isn't strange in the least bit. If it was an American audience or a less conservative audience, it probably would have been cheered.

Seemed to me that it was just part of his light hearted personality.
 
#1,770 · (Edited)
Tana/MiSu is the match this year that really warrants a re-watch for me. There was so much greatness in it. Agree with Nervosa that it was the figure four that really elevated the match to that amazing scale. It was literally incredible and the best spot this year imo. Suzuki shouting and screaming at Tanahashi was just insane to watch.

Something people haven't talked about yet that I thought was an awesome little touch was how MiSu was completely all about business, and so he come out on his own without his cronies that usually accompany him to the ring, and when he enters the ring, he tells the guy that usually holds the ring ropes open for him (and he usually kicks) to get down before he gets in the ring. This is a guy that wants absolutely no help and has left his heel schtick behind because he wants to prove to himself he can do it on his own. The air guitar spot just added more fuel to that fire. MiSu's performance was insane in that match.

I watched Steen/Elgin too, and I thought it started with a lot of potential with Elgin out-powering Steen and Steen starting to control the match. I thought it was great when Steen would keep cutting Elgin off, but nope, that didn't happen for more than 5 minutes before it went into trading shit mode. I did genuinely enjoy the final 5 minutes or so though, and probably only because of Nigel being a motherfucking GOD! seriously, god bless that man. Fucking awesome human being he is. I love him. I want to marry him. He managed to make what would have other wise been a legit annoying shitfest enjoyable. I mean, imagine this match with Prazak commentating, it would be so much less than what it was. Did I say I love Nigel? Because I do. But overall (apart from the first 10 minutes) the match was pretty much nothing more than two guys doing moves to eachother for 20 minutes. Seriously, compare this to Tana/MiSu (or NJPW in general) and the way they BUILD to the finishers so they MEAN something. It should be so fucking simple.
 
#1,772 ·
Definitely gonna need to rewatch the match with a few new observations in mind. However, I know Tanahashi performed the cobra stretch air guitar taunt before the Suzuki match, for heel heat, as he has been a tweener since regaining the belt. I still don't understand the controversy surrounding it.
 
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