From: oliver@Software.Mitel.COM (Oliver Postlethwaite)
Newsgroups: rec.sport.pro-wrestling
Subject: First Impressions of Herb's Tape
Date: 24 Jul 92 04:33:38 GMT
Organization: Cosmic Monsters Inc.

Hello

I received my copy of Herb's video tape last Thursday and thought I'd post
my first impressions onm the tape. I've only watched it once (except for
a few matches). Here is a quick rundown of the matches and how I see them
so far...

Dump Matsumoto/Chigusa hair feud and Bull Nakano & Condor Saito vs. Dump and
someone - The video quality of these matches is just too poor to make them
watchable. They are very noisy too.

Esther Moreno/Manami Toyota vs. Bison Kimura/Aja Kong - This is a phenomenal
match which starts off really fast. The first fall is dominated by high
flying and speedy moves from the smaller team. I was amazed to see Aja Kong
(a very large woman) jump out of the ring off of the 3rd rope onto
everyone standing there. Ouch! The thing that bothers me about the women's
matches I've seen from Japan is that whenever the action moves outside of the
ring you can't tell what's going on because there are so many attendants 
crowding around everyone! This was possibly the best match on the tape and
that I've ever seen (although it has competition from some others on the tape).

Dynamite Kid vs. Tiger Mask - Pretty good match. It was the first time I'd
seen D-Kid as a heel and it suited him well. D-Kid reminded me of Chris Benoit
in the way they are built and move. 

Jushin Riger vs. Naoki Sano series - These are all brilliant matches on there
own but I found them too hard to watch all together. I found them to
be pretty similar with the same high spots. I mean, it was kind of like
Riger had to jump of the 3rd rope out of the ring, he had to use the
bow and arrow submission, etc... The 4th match is highlighted by Riger having
his mask ripped off (it hangs off his face) and bleeding. It's funny because
right before this match I was wondering if Riger had ever (and could) juice.

Riger vs. Pegasus Kid - I really enjoyed these two matches after sitting
through four matches with the same competitors. This was the first time I'd
seen Chris Benoit as the P-Kid and I thought his mask looked kind of goofy.

Keiji Muto/Masa Chono vs. Hiro Hase/Kensuke Sasake - This is another that could
be my favourite from the tape. From what I gathered from the audience's 
response, both of these teams are fan favourites and so the crowd was really
hot throughout and this seemed to push the wrestlers. My favourite part is
when Hase is putting Chono in various submission holds and/or pinning 
combinations (can't remember off the top of my head) and Muto keeps coming
in to break it up. Finally after doing this a few times Sasake comes in and
stops Muto from doing this and the crowd pops big time. 

Steiners vs. Hase/Sasake - I'd seen this one before from the WCW Supershow.
A really good match. I was pissed that the Steiners won though...

Steiners vs. Road Warriors - Much better than I expected (Herb only gave
it a 2.75/5, I would give it a 3.5/5) but too short. They never really
got into it. It was mostly just throwing people into the ropes and giving
a clothesline or a suplex... the Steiners wrestled better than the Roadies
but don't look as cool. I agree that it was a cheap ending.

Stan Hansen/Bruiser Brody vs. Dory and Terry Funk - Pretty good match but
not as good as was rated. I still don't think Brody's that good.

Hansen/Brody vs. A Butcher/Carlos Colon - The bad camera work spoils this
one. Not bad but not good. The best part is when ther brawl is taken into
the shower area and then right into the bathroom where someone is using
one of the urinals. 

Lex Luger vs. Brody - Shoot. The match itself is not so great. Brody
shoots on Luger by not selling his moves, ie. just standing there while
Luger hits him and not reacting. Luger continues to sell Brody's moves.
The crowd seems to get really pissed off by the lack of action. There was
some tension at times and I found this match pretty interesting.

Earthquake vs. Koji Kitao (sp!!!) - Kinda dull. Earthquake realizes
that Kitao isn't going to cooperate and swears up a storm. The mostly
just slap each others wrists until Kitao pushes the ref and gets DQ'd.
I liked the smug look on Kitao's face as he could tell 'Quake was
getting worried.  

Randy Savage vs. Genichiro Tenryu - Not a bad match but not what I expected
from Herb's 4.5/5 rating (I'd give it a 4/5). Savage takes a powerbomb
very poorly. Surprise ending for me!

Hulk Hogan vs. Stan Hansen - Here it is, supposedly Hogan's finest hour! (AT
least that Herb's seen) And I agree. This match starts out slow (like most
matches with Hogan) but picks up and it's great to see Hogan get his
butt kicked around the ring by Hansen. Double juice here. Good match.

Fantastics vs. Midnight Express - This match starts off real quick and
doesn't let up. I can't remember much else about this one. 

Eddie Gilbert/Terry Taylor vs. Sting/Shane Douglas - Chris Adams also
gets into this brawl. Basically this is after the match and Sting and
Gilbert get into it really well. A nice brawl but not much else. 

Cactus Jack jumps off his house onto a mattress - The TRUE highlight
of the tape. Cactus looks a lot smaller (lighter) here.

Cactus Jack vs. Eddie Gilbert (2/3 falls) - The 3 falls here are a 
falls count anywhere match,stretcher match, and a cage match. All
are very violent and sick. It's too bad that there's only one camera
shot (raw) because the action spills out onto the floor a lot. I'm
surprised Gilbert got out of the building alive (not from Cactus but the
crowd). Cool match but it's kind of ruined by the lack of camera angles.
I know, I know, I'm asking too much...

Stan Hansen/Terry Gordy vs. Jumbo Tsuruta/Yoshiaki Yatsu - This is a 
good match but I can't really remember much of it. By the end of the tape
I was pretty much OD'd on wrestling for awhile.

Clips from New Japan - Clips of Vader and Inoki and Hase and Shiro Koshinaka.
I can't say too much about this so I won't.

So there are my impressions after watching the tape once (and the 2/3 falls
womens tag match twice). I hope this will spark some discussion on the 
tape from those who have seen it. I'll probably like all the matches better
after I watch the tape a few more times. Thanks for reading.

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oliver@Software.Mitel.COM - "Now you get your butt kicked son of a gun!"
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