Live from Saitama, It's Velociday Night!

[Toshiaki Koala 0]

Was that a Lyger mask I saw?

[Aero 0]

I missed the first match and saw the second one, and I'd say I liked this London-Akio match better, right now. My only gripe would be that the commercial break came out of nowhere. It seemed like London was about to dive out of the ring after not being able to a minute earlier, so I felt kind of cheated. The bump onto the steps was SICK. There were some awesome counters and reversals. I loved it. Bring on part IV!

[Styles 0]

Isn't impact a bunch of non-wrestling Jarrett promos?

 

Or has it improved?

 

London vs Akio was a good match.. that's the first one I've seen.

Nope, Jarrett isn't even on the show this week, he and Nash are banned from the building. Give it a shot!

[Guest Phenom]

Man's rectum.

[ChrisMWaters 0]

Plus for Impact, you can't go wrong with Shark Boy!

[SuperJerk 0]

Akio vs. London????

 

FUCK!

 

I can't believe I fucking forgot what time it was on tonight.

I was looking forward to it all week.

 

 

Must....find....download....

[RavishingRickRudo 0]

Loved it.

 

They clearly knew they had time because they paced it really well and limited their high spots. They had a lot of fun spots: the top wristlock spot, the cross-armed choke spot, the stair-spot, the rope scissors spot, the chop spot. Building towards the high flying was fun, but to be honest, I would have liked to have seen more insane stunts.

[RavishingRickRudo 0]

Riggle is god. The man gives 110% in every skit.

 

"I TOLDYA I WAS GONNA SUCK!"

[RavishingRickRudo 0]

BATEMAN!

[LessonInMachismo 0]

I usually don't like CW action, but this match was superb. My girlfriend, who watched all of two Raws and Smackdowns with me in 1999 when we first met (not counting the SD taping we attended in 2001), happened to be in the room and found the match good.

[EricMM 0]

At least they moved the match from the opener to the Main Event.

 

I'll never understand why they (WWE) don't pick up more ROH talent like they did with London. He obviously pops the crowd well enough. Spanky, London, Styles, even Punker could provide a certain contrast to the Show/JBL contests the WWE sorely needs.

[Guest The Shadow Behind You]

They had Spanky. Spanky didn't like the shorter match, less attention paid to him aspect of WWE and left.

 

Vince made an offer to AJ Styles; AJ Styles turned it down since he made more working indies/TNA and wasn't willing to leave his family full time.

 

CM PUNK would be stripped of all his great abilities by going to WWE...His penchance for long matches and his promo style wouldn't be accepted by the back nor would his gimmick even be used.

[Dark Age 0]

Just wrote up a little review of Akio/London. It's not great, but I don't have much experience in this, so whatever. Tell me what you think (it's done from memory, as well, so there may be some stuff left out).

 

 

Paul London Vs. Akio (PART IV!!!) - Saturday 12th February 2005 - WWE Velocity

 

Dang, this rules every bit as much as their previous matches! It's sad that these guys go out their everyweek, kill themselves for OUR enjoyment, and yet, still, the company doesn't give a crap about them. There is an upside to this, however - not caring about them means that they don't get restricted to the usual WWE style. They can go out there, mess some shit up, pop the crowd, have a great match and go home happy. Well, WE go home happy, I doubt they do after the nutty bumps they take.

 

They go at a slower pace than their previous bouts here - they know that they're getting the time that they didn't have in those encounters, so it allows for better pacing. This is evident when London teases a dive early on in the match, only to hit it at a later point. He went for the same dive (somersault plancha) in one of the earlier battles between these two. This time, however, Akio has it scouted, and manages to regroup before London can hit it. He isn't prepared for the second attempt later in the match, though, when London DOES connect with the flip.

 

It's nice that the crowd is with them from the start here, unlike previously when they had to win them over (not that that is really a bad thing). It translates well to the wrestlers, who seem to give that little bit extra with the hotter crowd on their side. London's stomps just seem to make more sense when the crowd is actually clapping along, rather than sitting on their hands, ya know?

 

One minor gripe with this is the lack of throwbacks to the other matches in the series - I thought when London went for the double axe handle that they were going to play into a nice nearfall or counter off the top rope DDT in match number two, but that didn't happen. I'd have liked to have seen some stuff like this, but there is always room for more matches in the future and, like I said, it's only a minor gripe, and it'd be harsh to really criticise them for anything here.

 

The chop-fest is awesome, and is similar, again, to the one we saw in match number two. That time they went in to a kicking frenzy, whilst here, London gains the upper hand and proceeds to burn Akio's chest with about twenty consecutive chops.

 

You get the feeling that as much as this breaks from the usual company style constraints, it's still being held back just a little bit. The neck and head work from Akio is good, and gives him an obvious target and focus point for the rest of the match, however, it's as if he's not doing all that he can do. He makes the chinlock work more than most guys on the roster can, but it would have been nice to see a little more variety in the submissions - maybe a Dragon Sleeper as a nice nod to the country that they're in?

 

The tease of the steel steps bump is as nice as the fake dive - early in the match, Akio backdrops London over the ropes, only to see him land on the ring apron and come back with a headscissors from the over the ropes. Later in the match, Akio manages to add a little extra power to the backdrop, and this time London can't hold on. The result is the insanely dangerous, yet really fuckin' cool, crash into the steel steps that should be enough to warrant a coffin for Paul. Yet still he goes on. Because he's Paul London, and he really, really rules. More than you, in fact.

 

The fact that this is going to be longer, as opposed to a sprint, allows them to not necessarily use more stuff, but pace it better. If this was a six - seven minute match, they'd probably use all the offense that they use here, but they'd burn it up quicker, and wouldn't get the chance to tease it like they do with the dive and the stair bump. The doubled time also allows them to use a longer opening stretch. The matwork shows how equal these guys are, whereas in the other matches, we'd gage that equalness from the trading of nearfalls, but we didn't really have a platfrom to show it. Now we do.

 

What sets these two apart from the rest is just how well they do the little things. London shaking his hand every time he throws a punch, Akio being tossed out of the corner flat on to his back. They are only minor details, but the small stuff helps a decent match become good, make a good match great.

 

London's "undressing" from the cross-armed choke in to one of his own is fantastic. It could be percieved as comedy for the live crowd, but it shows the struggle that these two guys are in. They fight for every hold, the right to throw a punch, the right to go to the top rope. This wasn't as nutty as their other matches, but it didn't have to be. Both guys know each other so well that simply flying about the ring wouldn't be enough. They had to break each other down until the time was right and THEN take to the air. This was a battle and a struggle. They'd proven they could fly, now they were going to fight. It's fitting that London FINALLY managed to defeat Akio with his patented 450 Splash, a manoeuvre which he had attempted or teased in all their past encounters, but never managed to hit. Now he has, the best WWE feud today maybe over. (Winner: Paul London @ 14:06 with the 450 Splash) **** (WWE MOTY to date)

[Guest ShootingStylesPress]

Then people jumped to some conclusions.

Who is jumping to conclusions here? If he does a ladder match, it will most likely be done with Akio.

 

Fantasy booking comes into play and I know I would like to see London vs Akio Ladder Match at Wrestlemania as a total show stealer. This years Wrestlemania doesn't look to be as well booked as even last years, so it is very well possible that if they did put on a match it would have a decent chance at being 'Match of the Night.'

The fact that I said that he'd LIKE to do a ladder match, but only could with someone like Akio. He said it in a kind of whistful, man-I-wish-I-could, kind of way. Everyone was then just like "HOMG LADEER MAACH" and assumed it was going to happen.

[MillenniumMan831 0]

A couple weeks ago, I spent 10-15 seconds just trying to tell my buddy who is a casual fan (wrestling, not sex . . . well, actually both, but I digress) about Paul London and his SSP . . . his response . . .

 

"Dude, no offense, but I don't care." That buzzkilled my day. Make that ex-buddy.

[RavishingRickRudo 0]

That was a better review than 90% of the stuff out there. Good stuff. The rating was too high. I'd say ***, ***1/2's tops.

[natey2k4 0]

Naw.. Kidman vs London was *** 1/2 ... this was **** to me.

[Guest Fiscusalicious]

Vince made an offer to AJ Styles; AJ Styles turned it down since he made more working indies/TNA and wasn't willing to leave his family full time.

You're close. The offer was actually made right before TNA started.

 

He responded by saying that the money he was offered in a developmental contract was not worth relocating himself and his family to the Cincinnati area.

 

He wasn't really as prominent (he was...but he wasn't considered one of the elite by most like he is today) on the indy scene before that, and it's ironic that when he turned down their offer, that immediately put him on a pedastool and people began taking notice.

[Exslade ZX 0]

Akio vs. London????

 

FUCK!

 

I can't believe I fucking forgot what time it was on tonight.

I was looking forward to it all week.

 

 

Must....find....download....

Anyone know where to find a download? I know there's a wrestling torrent site...but not sure if they'd usually have Velocity?

 

Fucking taped it, and someone changed the channel

[BHK 0]

This is the entire show, and not just London/Akio, so it weighs in at 423 megs.

 

 

http://www.pwtorrents.net/tracker/torrents...hp?id=793&hit=1