SEGUNDA CAIDA DECLARES WAR!!! 7/21/96

Naoki Sano/Kazushi Sakuraba vs. Nobukazu Hirai/Osamu Tachihikari

PAS: Given the difficulty Royce Gracie had in taking Sakurabas back, I was shocked at how easily Osamu Tachihikari slipped in the choke. We only get about 2 minutes of this, so didn't get much outside of Sano looking awesome.

TKG: Oh man it's the return of the cult of Tachikari. This was clipped from an 11 minute match. When Sano wasn't in this match, it wasn't pretty.

Michiyoshi Ohara vs. Nobutaka Araya

TKG: This was way joined in progress. I kind of remember Ohara being better than this. I mean he was never as good as Saito or Goto but still thought he wasn't as sloppy as this.Not stiff sloppy, just "what was that supposed to be?" sloppy. After 2 minutes of Ohara loose sloppyness, Araya dumps Ohara ganso style on his head and then does a moonsault where he looks to break Ohara's face. Just ugly.

PAS: This was awful, I remember liking Araya a lot but this was an awkward dangerous mess. Kind of felt like I was watching Bull Buchanan v. Bryan Clarke if they were both hopped up on pills.

Arashi vs. John Tenta

PAS: This was the first super clipped match where I wanted to see more. Tenta got good hight on his elbow drop and legdrop, and Arashi worked kind of stiff. They had a post match Tenta v. Koji Kitao pull apart which is a cultural thing for.

TKG: This was clipped up but every spot looked good with Arashi also getting a lot of height on his stuff and the crowd appearing really heated. I really wish we had this in full.

Ultimo Dragon/Rey Misterio Jr./Lance Storm/Yuji Yasuraoka v. Jushin Liger/Chris Jericho/Gedo/Juventud Guerrera

TKG: This was eight guys wrestling to little heat until a hot end run. It really had the feel of one of those 70s tag matches that just go back and forth and then back again and then into a finish. I kind of expected everyone to match up with their partner (Rey v Juve, Jericho v Storm) etc. Instead one face gets matched up eating stuff from three heels, then one heel gets to eat stuff from three faces, then another face gets a section where he's eating stuff from three heels, and then another heel gets section where he's eating stuff from three faces, then another face...until we get a long back and forth Juve v Yuji Yasuraoka section (as though this match was setting up that feud) and then the two of them do a hot end run where the crowd begins to get into the near falls and dives. Somehow we miss the Rey dive. No one looked bad but this felt like long heatless time killing. I guess this was run after Tenta v Arashi, so they needed a heat killer. I was kind of surprised by how good Gedo looked. Either he's a guy where the conventional wisdom was wrong or he's a guy who got his better moments edited out.

PAS: I remember being ridiculously excited for this match when it got announced in 1996, and then super bummed when the commercial tape I got two months later had the match clipped. So when Will mentioned their was a Commercial DVD with this match uncut I got really excited, and man for sort of a holy grail match this was a pile of shit. Long meandering sections of uninteresting double teams, maybe only a minute or two of cool spots. These are some guys who can do some shit, do some shit. Rey was the most spectacular wrestler in the world at this point, and he did a couple of dives off the apron and one rana, we didn't even really see him and Juvi match up and only got less then a minute of him vs. Liger.. I am amused conceptually by Juventud Guerrera v. Yuji Yasuroka being the focal point of this match, but it wasn't a blow away match up or anything, and I certainly would have rather seen a bunch of other guys showcased. Even the hot end run was kind of short, and not as crazy as it should have been. Totally smoked by Team Beyond v. Aeroform v. Up in Smoke from Evolve 3, which is a travesty considering the guys in this.

Jado vs. Yoshihiro Takayama

TKG: What the hell? So I'm assuming Takayama dominated the first 9 minutes of this...but what we get is Takayama hitting Jado with knees then blasting his knee into post in an attempt to thow running knee and then Jado dominating throwing Takayama around with Germans and putting him into subs etc. Takayama looks to et a little run but gets cut off by Gedo. Essentially we get to watch two minutes of Jado squashing Takayama which is ridiculous.

PAS: Takayama takes a big bump on the missed running knee which was cool, but otherwise this was pretty terrible. Jado chucking around Takayama with ease was utterly idiotic.

Riki Choshu/Satoshi Kojima vs. Ricky Fuyuki/Big Titan

TKG: This really disappointed. I kind of was expecting a lot more from Fuyuki Army v Choshu/Kojima. Wanted one of the hot inter promotional tag type things we got in 93, and this wasn't that.

PAS: This was more mediocre then bad. I liked the Fuyuki vs. Kojima sections, and I though Kojima was really throwing some nice looking lariats. Choshu looked pretty disinterested though, and this didn't have a ton of energy or heat.

Tatsumi Fujinami/Shiro Koshinaka vs. Nobuhiko Takada/Hiromitsu Kanehara

TKG: This is the first match that I actively dug on this show. I liked the Takada v Koshinaka matchup in the 80s and it continues to be a fun match up. Fujinami is still really great at selling and timing his stuff and while I normally prefer punch to the nose Koshinaka to hip attack Koshinaka, Koshinaka was really putting the bone of his his hip into all of his hip attacks.

PAS: I though Fujinami looked really solid in this, he looked really comfortable working the mat with Kanehara, and felt way more engaged then Choshu did earlier. Weird that this was so short, as this was the first match that was full on the commercial disc (we saw every second of that turd of a juniors match, but that was on a separate disc), but it was less then ten minutes long, where the undercard stuff mostly went 15-20.

Tatsumi Kitahara vs. Masahito Kakihara

TKG: This was two kickers kicking and working leg locks. Kakihara had really fast hands and they have an awesome end run that starts with Kakihara hitting a spectacular drop kick in the corner and trying to follow it up with a leg whip but misses and Kitahara just wastes him with a running slap.

PAS: I liked this a bunch. Kakihara is always fun throwing quick slaps, but he was also cracking Kitihara with low kicks. Kitihara sells really well and was awesome in his brutal comeback. That running slap was off the charts, and the low dropkick into an ankle pick which he used to finish the match off, was one of the cooler submission applications I have seen in a while. Really feels like something Danielson should steal.

Genichiro Tenryu vs. Yoji Anjoh

TKG: HOLY FUCK! This was everything you wanted it to be. Both of these guys are amazing at working "I have contempt for my opponent" and it's just an awesome match up. Both guys sell while still getting across the contempt that they have for opponent's offense. And their distaste for their opponent seems to grow over the match as Tenryu gets more reckless and Anjoh gets more self satisfied. Lots of awesome Anjoh pouting and acting an ass and lots of Tenryu bitter glaring and just builds and builds. At one point Tenryu reverses a headlock into an awesome ankle pick. I really don't think of Tenryu as a guy who does neat smooth mat stuff but this was worthy of rewind. Tenryu lariats the shit out Anjoh, Tenryu ignores the refs warnings about closed fists (and just throws amazing punches). There is another point where Anjoh is in mount and it looks like Tenryu broke his nose from below and then started to work the nose. Anjoh refuses to break holds and gets two amazing near falls out of awesome reversals of the powerbomb. Every time he figures out a new way to reverse the powerbomb into a nearfall he just glows filled with contemptuous self satisfaction. Just amazing.

PAS: These are two of the most facially expressive wresters ever, and this was just full of awesome facial expressions. This was Potato shot heavy even by the standards of Tenryu matches, as he is just hurling lariats with utter disregard for the guy on the other end, chopping him right in the throat and just laying in some brutal punches to the jaw and temple. Anjoh is also right there kicking Tenryu in the eye and ribs. The final pair of cool Anjoh reversal near falls were amazing as I actually kind of bought him going over Tenryu, which is sort of a ridiculous idea. Just a tremendous job by Tenryu drawing me into the match and putting over the lower ranked guy.