B-Boy VS Super Dragon - JCW Jersey J Cup Finals 6/27/2004
JJZ: Look at that head of hair on Bryce!!!! Well this isn't the match I originally planned on playing but this match fucking delivered. Finals of a one day tournament where both guys had to wrestle 3 times before this match. That's a long day at the office for sure. The slow start and build was expected but jesus when it got going it was at top speed. This match was just brutally stiff at times. A good amount of head drops but nothing over the top imo. I could see someone saying the finishing stretch was a little overkill considering it was the fourth match for both guys but I think about it like the the last second in a championship game and both wrestlers dug down as deep as possible to get the win. Hope you get them 2004 feels watching this like I did.
CJD: If someone asked me "should I watch this match?" My response would be do you love early to mid 2000s indie wrestling and all it entails? Because holy shit is that this match start to finish. These guys wrestle like they need to share their love for Japanese pro wrestling so badly it hurts. Like they're going to burst if they don't tell you about the 4 Pillars of Heaven or how the Great Muta actually had a much more prolific career just as Keiji Mutoh. Luckily I do love this era of indie wrestling and I really enjoyed the journey this took me on. The mat wrestling was better than most would probably expect, if fairly unimportant in the grand scheme of the match. This is a J Cup after all. The stiffness was obscene as you said, we just assumed in this time period that if two wrestlers weren't beating the shit out of each other then they weren't giving a great effort. But even by that standard these two wrestled this match like fans would analyze it decades later. Well here we are. Finishing run definitely went to excess at points but it was also kind of the story the match was telling. And the finish itself was certainly memorable and fitting. There's a lot here you could criticize but there's also a lot that's great. I'll fully admit I'm giving it a pass on some stuff. After stepping away from the hobby for a while I owe too much of my super fandom to the abuse guys like Super Dragon and B Boy put themselves through in this time period that sucked me back in. But I'm also glad that this style is no longer the norm for a lot of reasons. That won't stop me from enjoying the shit out of this match though.
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