All Japan/New Japan Handheld Cherry Picking: Tom Prichard? Kimala II?

Hiroshi Hase vs. Tom Prichard  NJPW 10/18/89

ER: Almost 30 years ago some weirdo took time out of his Wednesday to record a Tom Prichard match. And he utilized the zoom, so you know he wasn't just letting the camera run. He took that time out of his evening, kept that footage like a secret, and so now I will write a hundred or so words to join this loop. The match is fun, with Prichard - hair flowing like David Coverdale - working over Hase's leg by stomping his hamstring, locking in half crabs and spinning toe holds, taking a surprising majority of this match. I really liked Prichard here. He didn't do anything overly fancy, but he worked with tons of confidence and acted like a bigger deal than he probably was. That takes some stones to go into a match with the plan of outmuscling an Olympic wrestler. And to his credit, it totally works. I was hoping for more out of the Hase comeback, though. Hase's mid-match comeback was really cool, him limping around on that bum wheel but still hoisting Prichard up with a neat deadweight Karelin lift and dropping him with a sick gutbuster. But his end of match comeback to win felt like they got the sudden call to go home, as all knee selling goes out the window and he kind of mechanically grabs the northern lights suplex. We had fleeting moments before that, like Prichard's snug sunset flip, and really I got what I wanted out of the match: A good Tom Prichard performance in a match nobody knew existed. (But sorry, the Heavenly Bodies Complete & Accurate is still in line behind the Beverly Bros/Destruction Crew C&A)

Kenta Kobashi/Kimala II vs. Toshiaki Kawada/Gary Albright  AJPW 6/3/96

ER: This immediately jumped out to me from the matchlist, as I'm a goof who likes Kimala II, and he's not a guy usually put into matches high up the card with stars, he's the guy working low on the card hitting splashes in Abby matches, slapping bellies with IZU, or somewhere in a Baba trios. Seeing him 2nd from the top with some big name guys is a super exciting find for me. This is a cool tag to start because it's a native/gaijin vs. native/gaijin, I always think that's kind of cool. Kimala is a unique guy to see as a face in peril, and the match got really good when Kawada and Albright started picking away at him. Before that it was kind of Kawada vs. Kobashi by the numbers, and their by the numbers is cooler than most, but it feels like the big two getting some stuff out of the way to lengthen a match. Kimala/Albright was a more fun match up, as it was far more common to see them teaming, they rarely were on opposite sides of a match. Crowd is immediately behind Kimala, getting a kick out of his Baba chops and digging when he lit Albright up with a headlock. Albright is really fun and a guy I need to go watch more from. He's really underwritten about considering his fun career. The talking point for the longest time was that Kawada carried him to one great match, but I can't think of a match where I haven't enjoyed him. Seeing him do a snap suplex on someone as beefy as Kobashi is a great visual, and the fans are familiar with his throwing strength, so it's great hearing all the excited oooooohs when he teases giving Kimala a dragon suplex. The match really picks up once Kawada and Albright start to isolate Kimala, and the fans start responding to him as the underdog. Kawada is kicking at his leg and throwing big kicks to his belly (which leads to a great moment where Kimala finally catches a kick and fires back a chop to the head). Both do uncharacteristic double stomps to Kimala's stomach, and Albright starts tearing at the arm, dropping a knee on it, digging into it with his elbow point, throwing him into the guardrail, working an armbar. When Kimala finally makes space the fans want the Kobashi hot tag so bad! Kawada was a great jerk, kicking people in the forehead all match and finally separating Kobashi from Kimala, allowing Albright to get the armbar. This match was real fun, with a fun FIP you don't get to often see.