Saturday, December 17, 2011

The Complete WCW run of Jushin Liger: Disc 2

1) v. Brad Armstrong (WCW Saturday Night 07/18/92)- 4
This felt like playing the 1st stage of a video game over and over again. So you would think, both guys knowing they are going to a 10 minute draw you wouldn't just do meaningless leg work for the whole bout right? Brad doesn't do much for the gerricurl look nor for making a case about being a legend. I mean the ground work, the armdrags the timing of both men, great, but Brad is as dynamic as plastic wrap.

2) v. Chris Sullivan (WCW Power Hour 08/08/92)- 2
Sullivan throws punches like Punky Brewster and he's balding worse than Hogan. Liger powerbombs him for no good reason about 3 minutes in and doesn't even cover. Sullivan should have watched less Hill Street Blues reruns and more Liger tapes so he would know how to actually sell some of Liger's marquee shit.

3) v. Jimmy Garvin (WCW Main Event 08/16/92)- 1
This barely went 4 minutes and nothing happened. Garvin came out and primped for a few seconds but he did pull off a pretty stiff slam. Liger kind of went for the finish out of nowhere in what was a really bizarre turn of events.

4) Liger & Erik Watts v. Sting & Dr. Death (WCW Starrcade)- 5
I've watched and reviewed this once before, the Liger v. Sting stuff is some really fun work, there's a lot of combos in this strange match but each one feels like it goes exactly as it should.

5) Liger & Kensuke Sasaki v. Ricky Steamboat/ Shane Douglas (WCW House Show Philadelphia, PA 12/29/92)- 6
This was a pretty cool match, went about 20 minutes and is that rare face v. face match at this point in history. The cool thing is this crowd turned on the champs (Dragon & Douglas) and just loved the Japanese team, Liger was really playing it up too. Everything basic in this looked really great, kicked off by a slam from kensuke that rattled the whole ring and gave Steamboat a look on his face like he just bounced off a trampoline onto an elephant tusk. There was some great nearfalls close to the end of the bout too where you thought a title change could happen. Video quality wasn't the best unfortunately but never where you couldn't see the action.

6) v. Ultimo Dragon (WCW/NJP SuperShow 3)- 7
Tell me you've seen this match. This sport is all about presentation a lot of times and Liger in his purple outfit and Dragon in the gold made these guys look like superstars. Love the table spot later on, it's not botched because it doesn't break, it's more painful and unexpected from a juniors match. Both guys are breaking out all their faves here, powerbombs, brainbusters and was treated like a huge puro main event. Dragon's look of disbelief after the bout was a little silly considering he was pinned but seemed fine after it was over though.

7) v. Brad Armstrong (WCW Worldwide 05/18/95)- 3
they broke out the quick armdrags again and this was probably the first time Brad had been relevant in quite some time. Tony mentions Armstrong's been wrestling a long time but that's about all he could say about his career. The coppo kick looked like a blast from a .90 magnum. Finish was shocking to say the least but can't give it too much originality because they used the same spot 3 years earlier.

8) v. Brian Pillman (WCW Nitro 09/04/95)- 5
This match is pretty historic, and finished pretty well in our Best of Nitro project last year. It seemed to be a polarizing match among readers but I still enjoyed this. Liger was coming off a year layoff and his timing is really off. But both guys have enough chemistry together that they pull something entertaining out of this. The announcers seem to be oblivious to any moves these guys have done because the hurricanrana spot made Bischoff blow a gasket.

9) v. Eddie Guerrero (WCW Main Event 10/01/95)- 5
I liked this as it got more time than the Pillman Nitro match and seemed more like both men just feeling each other out for about 12 minutes. One thing that stuck in my crawl was everything here seemed really low impact, even powerbombs which should never be. Their timing seemed much more natural than he and Pillmans did and that helped make this feel effortless, and apparently this was Eddie's debut here. An interesting caveat is Liger is way less protected during this run than in '92.

10) v. Barry Houston (WCW Pro 11/18/95)- 3
Who the hell is Barry Houston and why did he try a plancha and hit a Northern Light suplex on Liger on the floor?! This was a fun quick ride and Houston took some rough falls too. Liger started playing up his heel persona and I loved the Gene Simmons closeup after match

11) v. Bobby Starr (WCW Pro 12/16/95)- 1
Starr is grosser than Oscar the Grouch's pubic hair. And he's a ginger. Liger doesn't waste much time with him but does give him a bodyslam spot.

12) v. Skip Brown (WCW Worldwide 12/17/95)- 2
Skip's nickname is apparently "Sugar" I can't imagine anyone wanting a lick of that. Why do all these guys working Liger try crossbodys on him? I don't know or care but I love seeing it. Liger's headbutt looks like a moose being thrown from a commercial airliner.

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