Post by Pike on May 4, 2004 15:30:41 GMT -5
OK, I hear "Art Barr" thrown around alot.. "The Ric Flair of Mexico", blahblahblah... So the mighty Dean Rasmussen of deathvalleydriver.com is having a moving sale and is getting rid of most of his tapes... So I grabbed one with an AJW 1995 PPV, an AJW commercial tape from 1984 (I want to see Jaguar Yokota and Devil Masami in their prime) and... THE BEST OF ART BARR
So I got the tape yesterday, decided to fast forward and watch Art Barr first, then go back and watch the joshi. Well, I just finished watching it and...
If this i the best, I DON'T WANT TO SEE THE WORST! Art Barr was a mullett-sporting Frank Zappa lookalike with the physique of, say, Randy Orton., The whole tape was a collection of six man matches where Barr, Konnan and Eddy Guerrero fought good guys, mostly Perro Aguayo, El Hijo del Santo and Blue Panther.
These matches were mostly stalling, total chaos (didn't look like they had any plan at all except a finish) and barely any planchas or anything. The striking was AWFUL (but i guess lucha is not about stiffness) and the chairshots were soooo sad... I mean, weaker than anything, the padding of the chair barely made contact with Barr's back on one lowlight.
Barr himself was pretty good, but he only got a few moves in per match. He'd hit a powerbomb, some stiff chops, and a couple times he'd go for a piledriver but he'd kind of fall sideways? I couldn't tell if they were blown moves both times or what??
Barr's finish is a frogsplash - which Eddy either taught him or Eddy stole from him, because Eddys frogsplash now looks like Barr's.. I mean, EXACTLY - except Barr's actually looks better, it looks severely painful.
I guess Barr had a "I'm from the USA" gimmick, as he had stars & stripes tights. He had a couple moves he would do to get the crowd going.. He'd do jumpingjacks (zzzz) or he'd do that walk Flair does.. The Fargo strut or something? Except with each step Barr would go WOOH! WOOH! WOOH! real quick and high-pitched.
I don't think Barr sucks, he seems pretty good, but this collection of matches weren't exactly spectacular. The AAA crowds were just a chaotic rabble, the complete opposite of Japanese fans. They were always jabbering and it seems like the primary focus of these matches is getting the crowd to pay attention!!
There was one sequence that was good - Eddy and El Hijo del Santo went at it. Real quick, couple armdrags and some roperunning. Was awesome. But then it was back to looking at the crowd and pumping them up. Ugh.
Oh yeah, it was cool to see Konnan way back then (this is around 1992?).. He had hair! But he had a bandana on, i guess the hairline was already receding. He had a COWBOY gimmick, comes to the ring with the theme from The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly. He was playing a heel but he was crazy over. "Konnan" chants kept breaking out.
So I guess the lesson here is just because someone on the internet says someone rules, that doesn't make it so. Or maybe the lesson is: Make sure you get lots of stuff on a tape because some of it will suck. Wait, I got it: Anything with a mullet automatically sucks (see: Hiroyoshi Tenzan).
So I got the tape yesterday, decided to fast forward and watch Art Barr first, then go back and watch the joshi. Well, I just finished watching it and...
If this i the best, I DON'T WANT TO SEE THE WORST! Art Barr was a mullett-sporting Frank Zappa lookalike with the physique of, say, Randy Orton., The whole tape was a collection of six man matches where Barr, Konnan and Eddy Guerrero fought good guys, mostly Perro Aguayo, El Hijo del Santo and Blue Panther.
These matches were mostly stalling, total chaos (didn't look like they had any plan at all except a finish) and barely any planchas or anything. The striking was AWFUL (but i guess lucha is not about stiffness) and the chairshots were soooo sad... I mean, weaker than anything, the padding of the chair barely made contact with Barr's back on one lowlight.
Barr himself was pretty good, but he only got a few moves in per match. He'd hit a powerbomb, some stiff chops, and a couple times he'd go for a piledriver but he'd kind of fall sideways? I couldn't tell if they were blown moves both times or what??
Barr's finish is a frogsplash - which Eddy either taught him or Eddy stole from him, because Eddys frogsplash now looks like Barr's.. I mean, EXACTLY - except Barr's actually looks better, it looks severely painful.
I guess Barr had a "I'm from the USA" gimmick, as he had stars & stripes tights. He had a couple moves he would do to get the crowd going.. He'd do jumpingjacks (zzzz) or he'd do that walk Flair does.. The Fargo strut or something? Except with each step Barr would go WOOH! WOOH! WOOH! real quick and high-pitched.
I don't think Barr sucks, he seems pretty good, but this collection of matches weren't exactly spectacular. The AAA crowds were just a chaotic rabble, the complete opposite of Japanese fans. They were always jabbering and it seems like the primary focus of these matches is getting the crowd to pay attention!!
There was one sequence that was good - Eddy and El Hijo del Santo went at it. Real quick, couple armdrags and some roperunning. Was awesome. But then it was back to looking at the crowd and pumping them up. Ugh.
Oh yeah, it was cool to see Konnan way back then (this is around 1992?).. He had hair! But he had a bandana on, i guess the hairline was already receding. He had a COWBOY gimmick, comes to the ring with the theme from The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly. He was playing a heel but he was crazy over. "Konnan" chants kept breaking out.
So I guess the lesson here is just because someone on the internet says someone rules, that doesn't make it so. Or maybe the lesson is: Make sure you get lots of stuff on a tape because some of it will suck. Wait, I got it: Anything with a mullet automatically sucks (see: Hiroyoshi Tenzan).
