On Brand Segunda Caida: Shootstyle All Japan!

Tamon Honda vs. Gary Albright AJPW 12/16/95

PAS: Not a completely put together match, but it was fun to watch two badass amateur wrestlers chuck each other around the ring. Albright was such a great suplexer he would pop his hips and send Honda flying. Albright was so big that Honda couldn't hurl him but he got off a couple of throws as well. There was a cool spot with Honda struggling to take Albright's back and finally riding him down with a choke. I wanted this to be some hidden classic, and it wasn't that, but it was fun stuff overall.

ER: I thought this kicked ass. The whole thing was two absolute tendon strength beasts throwing each other in impossible arcs, and filling all of the in between time with headbutts and limb ripping. The whole match was both guys trying to finish, and not bothering with any kind of plan other than "set him up to finish him". Both go for takedowns, but the headbutts start early, and less than two minutes in Honda drops Albright with a back suplex and Albright throws Honda with two belly to belly suplexes that have the most gorgeous arc to them. Albright is the greatest suplex thrower in wrestling, never looking like he needs an ounce of help from his opponent, just throwing around 250 lb. bags of sand. Honda scrambles for armbars, Albright locks in his always great heel hook (my favorite heel hook in wrestling, the way he would cross his arms around the ankle and lean his weight into it like a calf crusher), and there are hardly any strikes, just headbutts! Honda wasn't really winning singles matches at this point in his career, he was the guy putting in 8 minute losses to that tour's new gaijin and/or being competitive with Satoru Asako or Kentaro Shiga.

But the more he hammers away at Albright the more the fans start getting behind him, and when he locks in a great sleeper choke you had a loud and full Budokan crowd thinking they were seeing Honda's first big win. He really looked like he exhausted Albright with that sleeper, and after Albright gets to the ropes and gathers himself he really starts going in for the kill, getting the crowd buzzing by maneuvering into a dragon suplex that Honda barely escapes, then tossing him with a heavy head and arm suplex. Honda senses he's losing it and keeps going for hastier and hastier armbar attempts, leading to Albright breaking one and raining down a nasty downward palm strike on a prone Honda. The nearfall after that big head and arm suplex was great, totally looked like Honda was done for, while the two low angle Germans made sure of it. This is a rare singles pairing, the kind of showdown I would have loved to see run back. Shoot, I wish we got a team of these two, unassuming yet freakishly strong, just suplexing and headbutting everything in sight. They had to go out there and do their thing directly before the big 4 Pillars RWTL Finals, and they did that thing.


Tamon Honda vs. Toshiaki Kawada AJPW 1/12/96

PAS: This was a minor key mid 90s Kawada singles match, but it was really joyful. I loved the opening with Honda tooling Kawada on the mat, and Kawada responding by offering par terre position. Honda smashes him in the back with headbutts and tosses him with a German suplex. There was a basic story of Kawada winning the striking exchanges and Honda taking him down, until finally Kawada just grabbed a heel hook from the mat to tap him. Honda wasn't fully developed yet as a wrestler, but it was really fun to see him as this takedown machine.

ER: This was cool in a totally different way, a match that really didn't feel like an All Japan match in many ways. I can't recall too many All Japan matches with this much submission work that actually ends with a submission. The match also starts with very non-All Japan matwork, with Honda muscling Kawada to the mat and really tries to grind him into the mat, tying up limbs and trying to jam his head down. Kawada getting into par terre is such a colossal dick swing to do to a literal THREE TIME OLYMPIC WRESTLER. "Oh, you want to wrestle? Sure, let me give you the first shot, man who represented his entire country in front of the world for over a decade." Kawada knows this clearly - obviously - needles Honda, and does it a second time, and I loved Honda dropping a headbutt into Kawada's back and then hoisting him into a Dead End, the only suplex and really the only bump of the match, with Kawada able to hit a kick before slumping into the corner. And then this whole thing becomes a weird and neat battle of Honda spamming all kinds of headbutts and all parts of Kawada's body while Kawada tries to kick him away. Seriously, Honda headbutts Kawada in the legs, stomach, back, head, even goes up to the top rope for a diving headbutt (I don't think I've ever seen Honda go off the top and it's weird!). Kawada ate a real sick flash dragon screw (Kawada took dragon screws better than any wrestler ever, always went down with those bent ass Reggie Jackson legs) and that slowed him down for awhile, but he kept dragging at Honda and picking away, turning this into a real cool competitive oddball match.


Steve Williams/Gary Albright vs. Yoshihiro Takayama/Masahito Kakihara AJPW 5/1/98

PAS: This was really fun, sort of a chance to see how Dr. Death would have looked as a shootstyle wrestler, he feels like he would have been the world's best Billy Scott. The match was focused on Williams vs. Takayama which seemed like an all time rivalry that never happened. They open up going nose to nose and start pounding on each other. Takayama hits a dropkick to the orbital bone and Williams pops up, smashes him with a shoulder block, then Takayama tries to throw him and Williams sandbags him so they just roll around on the ground punching each other. Williams is bad ass in this match, at one point Kakihara thows his fast slaps and Williams just drops him with a potato right hand.  We get a fun finishing run with Williams hitting a nasty backdrop suplex to beat Takayama. Those two just had amazing chemistry, too bad they never had a singles match.

ER: This match was on one of the very first All Japan tapes I bought, that 5/1/98 Tokyo Dome show. I read about Misawa vs. Kawada in PWI and it sounded like something I needed to see. I'm sure I still have that tape somewhere. And I actually remembered a couple things about this match, even though I'm sure I haven't seen it in 20+ years. What a kickass piece of - not really uncooperative, more uncommunicative - business. Takayama and Kakihara had barely worked All Japan at this point, so they come off like an unknown shootstyle invading team who come out to Mannish Boy like total badass weirdos. Albright and Doc look stoic and massive, and the table is set. This was a massive All Japan show, just a huge crowd, and I cannot imagine how bizarre it would be to be standing opposite two native shootstyle workers with nearly 60,000 fans buzzing. Doc clearly wants to put on a show and decides to take a ton of stiff strikes from both men to show how Not Bothered he is by any of them, ends up completely sandbagging Takayama on a belly to belly and has a straight up Frye/Takayama exchange 4 years before that was a thing. Doc also opts to take a ton of nasty leg kicks from Kakihara (man's thighs must have been seriously knotted up from all that Dome Toughness) and then run into both with some brutal shoulderblocks. Doc hoists Kakihara up for a spinebuster, and lets Kakihara bump it without going down, then just muscles him up hardway and runs over to set him on the top turnbuckle. Seriously Doc is just showing off here and it's always wild to see a gaijin getting springy in front of a massive crowd. And you can bet that he later plants Kakihara with that spinebuster.

Albright is a UWFI guy as much as an All Japan guy, and I like him bridging the gap here and working a little more respectfully, working some UWFI style takedowns and strike exchanges with both. Later on in All Japan the three of them would form a cool UWFI ex-pat team. I love Albright so much. He's such a force, but has a body that doesn't look like he'd be able to do specifically what he's a master at. He has smaller arms that guys his size and his legs don't look as big as they should, and he's got that big granite boulder of a stomach. He doesn't look to me like someone with crazy throwing strength, but his throws are majestic and violent. You've never seen a quicker belly to belly than the one he surprises Kakihara with, whipping him at a 3/4 angle into the mat. I dug how Takayama baited him into catching a leg kick so he could pop him with a straight knee to the forehead, and loved Albright's selling of that knee. The miscommunications in this one played strong, because these are all hard hitters with legit backgrounds, so when a guy wouldn't quite go up for something it just made it look extremely hard fought, like Albright lifting Takayama up for a powerbomb that it didn't even look like the huge Takayama could have stopped. Loved Doc's big superfly splash on Takayama, and that match ending backdrop driver was sick. Sadly, I didn't get to find out what the hell Albright would have done off the top, as Kakihara intercepted him as Doc was hitting his splash. I needed to see that big ol' Galapagos tortoise up on the top rope, no idea how it got there and no idea what to do now that he was there. Thanks a lot Kakihara.