Kevin's Random Thoughts
Thursday, February 17, 2005
Review: Samoa Joe vs Austin Aries 12/26/04...
Tubb came over last night to check out my new DVDs. I was going to bed soon, but I he wanted to watch Joe vs Aries, and I obliged. Here's what I though.
I knew this was a relitavely short match going in. And that's fine if it was done right and establishes Aries as a champ. The match started off basic enough with a big man vs little man story. Aries not getting anywhere on shoulder tackles, and being unable to take Joe over with a simple headlock is very basic, but very fine. Aries then tries to take out Joe's leg, which is a logical strategy in the big man vs little man style. Except Aries looks like he doesn't know what exactly he wants to do with the leg. Joe doesn't sell it early on, which is fine. If Aries kept going back to the leg when it trouble and Joe starts selling it more and more each time, it would work. But they don't do that.
In the next part of the match, they throw the opening part totally out the window. The big man vs little man story is gone, and the leg work never comes up again. Instead, they go to the outside. That's certainly not uncommon in a Joe match. He needs to work that tope and the ole kicks in somehow. Except in this match it felt totally out of place. Maybe because it happened a lot earlier in the match than usual for Joe. That makes sense considering this is a shorter match than usual for Joe. But if they wanted a shorter match, they should have cut this outside the ring nonsense out. They could have used the time continuing the big man vs little man and leg work inside the ring with more mid range offense before going into the finish.
Aries selling on the outside was downright goofy. Old man Flair comedy match goofy. The sad part is I doubt it was intentional. It stands out in a serious Joe title match like a five white guys at a Peruvian restaurant in Elizabeth. The goofiness continues once they got back in the ring with some horrible transitions, although points to Joe for a sweeter than usual power slam. The setup for the first 450 was downright idiotic.
But once Aries hit the first 450, it woke the ground up. It succeeded in saying "It's early, but we're going home soon. Start popping." And they did. Everything from that moment on had the crowd's attention with some good nearfalls. In the last few minutes, they brought the stiffness you'd expect from Joe and execution you'd expect from Aries.
Where this match succeeds is getting the crowd to buy the finish coming earlier than expected. Joe's whole trilogy with Punk he was coming off of were long matches. Aries wrestled AmDragon in ROH's longest match ever. One could assume they were going for a long match. But they didn't, and no one there seemed disappointed. So kudos for that.
Where this match fails is the rest of it. They started off with a simple big man vs little man match, and ditched it. Size was never an issue for the rest of the match. Aries started with some leg work, and ditched it. He didn't seem to have a game plan once the stuff outside happened. And there was a long stretch of goofiness from the outside until that first 450. Yes, Aries beat the long reigning champion Joe. But in the match, Aries didn't do much to prove he had the ability to beat such a dominant champion. And Joe seemed like he just wanted to his signature spots to pop the crowd and to his job at the end.
I was told Meltzer gave this ****. I disagree so much that Muto vs Kawada at ****3/4 makes more sense to me right now. I won't throw snowflakes out, but if I believe **** is supposed to mean 'excellent'. This match is far from it. It's pretty much just ok.
Tubb came over last night to check out my new DVDs. I was going to bed soon, but I he wanted to watch Joe vs Aries, and I obliged. Here's what I though.
I knew this was a relitavely short match going in. And that's fine if it was done right and establishes Aries as a champ. The match started off basic enough with a big man vs little man story. Aries not getting anywhere on shoulder tackles, and being unable to take Joe over with a simple headlock is very basic, but very fine. Aries then tries to take out Joe's leg, which is a logical strategy in the big man vs little man style. Except Aries looks like he doesn't know what exactly he wants to do with the leg. Joe doesn't sell it early on, which is fine. If Aries kept going back to the leg when it trouble and Joe starts selling it more and more each time, it would work. But they don't do that.
In the next part of the match, they throw the opening part totally out the window. The big man vs little man story is gone, and the leg work never comes up again. Instead, they go to the outside. That's certainly not uncommon in a Joe match. He needs to work that tope and the ole kicks in somehow. Except in this match it felt totally out of place. Maybe because it happened a lot earlier in the match than usual for Joe. That makes sense considering this is a shorter match than usual for Joe. But if they wanted a shorter match, they should have cut this outside the ring nonsense out. They could have used the time continuing the big man vs little man and leg work inside the ring with more mid range offense before going into the finish.
Aries selling on the outside was downright goofy. Old man Flair comedy match goofy. The sad part is I doubt it was intentional. It stands out in a serious Joe title match like a five white guys at a Peruvian restaurant in Elizabeth. The goofiness continues once they got back in the ring with some horrible transitions, although points to Joe for a sweeter than usual power slam. The setup for the first 450 was downright idiotic.
But once Aries hit the first 450, it woke the ground up. It succeeded in saying "It's early, but we're going home soon. Start popping." And they did. Everything from that moment on had the crowd's attention with some good nearfalls. In the last few minutes, they brought the stiffness you'd expect from Joe and execution you'd expect from Aries.
Where this match succeeds is getting the crowd to buy the finish coming earlier than expected. Joe's whole trilogy with Punk he was coming off of were long matches. Aries wrestled AmDragon in ROH's longest match ever. One could assume they were going for a long match. But they didn't, and no one there seemed disappointed. So kudos for that.
Where this match fails is the rest of it. They started off with a simple big man vs little man match, and ditched it. Size was never an issue for the rest of the match. Aries started with some leg work, and ditched it. He didn't seem to have a game plan once the stuff outside happened. And there was a long stretch of goofiness from the outside until that first 450. Yes, Aries beat the long reigning champion Joe. But in the match, Aries didn't do much to prove he had the ability to beat such a dominant champion. And Joe seemed like he just wanted to his signature spots to pop the crowd and to his job at the end.
I was told Meltzer gave this ****. I disagree so much that Muto vs Kawada at ****3/4 makes more sense to me right now. I won't throw snowflakes out, but if I believe **** is supposed to mean 'excellent'. This match is far from it. It's pretty much just ok.
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