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Old 10-03-2012, 12:58 PM   #6663 (permalink)
Ben Wyatt's Low Cal Calzone Zone
Join Date: Jun 2011
Posts: 5,341
Default Re: Official DVD/Match/Show Discussion Thread

David/Goliath chemistry varies depending on what sort of 'David' you're after. Sting/Vader is pretty much the blueprint to that sort of style IMO but if you consider David vs Goliath to mean 'big vs small' then Lesnar/Mysterio seems more appropriate, as Sting can hardly be considered a small man against most opponents. Both have insane chemistry however and the Dustin/Vader matches from 1992 and 1994 are tremendous, I know sterling considers the 1994 bout to be the best WCW match ever according to his top 100 ballot he submitted: which was all kinds of awesome.

Lawler/Bigelow was an excellent example of how Lawler can work a David vs Goliath formula, and Takayama in All Japan/NOAH has had some excellent matches under the same formula due to his sheer size and incredible offence. Takayama and Tenryu's singles matches in NOAH against KENTA are probably KENTA's two greatest matches not involving Danielson and they're straight out of the David vs Goliath story.

Vader is probably the best big man wrestler to work that sort of style, given he has the offence to make anyone a biable underdog regardless of their size as well as the supreme agility to bump big and make his opponent's comeback offence look spectacular and draw the viewer into believing Vader is up against the ropes. It doesn't hurt that he's also incredibly smart in laying out a lot of his matches so he achieves the perfect balance between making himself look vulnerable to the point that you can be invested in a possible upset, whilst still looking like the baddest motherfucker on the planet when he's on offence.

Come to think of it, Danielson/Henry really have all the makings of producing a stellar match if they ever get 15 minutes or more. The November Cage match bell to bell was one of the best matches in the company last year and that didn't get past 9 minutes.

Also new topic, what's everyone's current (screw all time since we're all likely to change our minds from time to time) favourite style/formula to a match? By this I mean WWE Main Event Wrestling, an Indy sprint, a Lucha 2/3 falls Title match (the classic 80s-90s Lucha here, not the post 2000 garbage), a southern tag, a southern brawl, Puro Main Event match etc etc.

I'd have to say over the past week and a bit I'm leaning more towards the British World of Sport style of wrestling, especially when they replace the swank matwork and add in some story and developing hatred in the match. Its amazing how well the WOS style was able to consistently produce these awesome matches filled with supreme matwork and hold trading, but that occasionally would produce some subtle stiffness and escalating violence that would be evident throughout the match and culminate near the end.

I recently watched Jim Breaks vs Adrian Street from 1972 (on youtube) and it was a stunning match, nearly on par with the famous Steve Grey vs Clive Myers bout from 1977 which is widely considered the best WOS bout. Both Street and Breaks are heels who like to mix in underhanded tactics in amongst their excellent chain wrestling, and you get some really violent and creative arm work as well as moments featuring fish hooks, gouging, biting, wrist manipulation, stiff forearms to the bridge of the nose etc. They managed to add enough of these heelish tactics in between the largely clean wrestling to slowly make each round (there's 6 in total) gradually get more and more heated throughout with both guys tiring of each other's existence by the end. Felt like a precursor to what you see from Finlay and William Regal.
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