New Footage Friday: All Japan Handheld 8/20/96

Yoshinobu Kanemaru vs. Kentaro Shiga 

ER: I really liked this, and was excited to see it. I saw a bunch of young lions matches on NJPW tapes, an endless series of 8-10 minute matches of black trunks rookies doing headlocks, dropkicks, and Boston crabs. But AJPW young boy matches never made tape, so you would rarely see some of these guys (at most you would see them do one move in a clipped trios). This was Kanemaru's 10th match and that's a cool thing to see. They do some cool matwork to start, the kind of matwork you didn't really get to see in AJPW, with nice hammerlocks and headscissors. Kanemaru gets to try a lot of fun things for a guy 10 matches into his career, hitting a Super Calo headscissors out of the corner, and a cool Vader bomb senton. He had a neat way of squirming out of Shiga bodyslams, twice slipping out of a bodyslam and winding up on Shiga's shoulders in a way that seemed 100% plausible. I rewound both instances he did this, as I'm not sure I've ever seen someone slip into an electric chair position to reverse a bodyslam. One time Kanemaru turned it into a headscissors, the other time a victory roll that actually made me think a guy was getting a win in his 10th match. Shiga was great at framing Kanemaru's showy moments and was really good at selling individual moves. I especially liked Shiga taking a dropkick on the chin and getting to his feet holding his mouth while still going back on the attack. I wish we had more AJPW young boys matches, because this was the kind of low key low frills gem I dig. 

MD: Perfectly enjoyable opening match, including working in and out of a headlock for a bit. They were very focused on their selling (Kanemaru his back, Shiga his face post dropkick) in a sort of academic way. Nothing really flubbed, with some high difficulty spots. I liked the way Shiga lifted his foot on the fisherman's suplex bridge to give an extra bit of weight for the three count. Good outing for these two.

Masao Inoue vs. Johnny Smith 

ER: This was dryer than the opener, but I enjoyed where it wound up going. It was slower and more methodical, snug headlocks reversed into snug hammerlocks, nice clubbing shots from Inoue, simple things done well. It builds to some nice offense for both, a great vertical suplex and powerslam from Smith, nice falling lariat from Inoue. I've seen plenty of Smith matches where he really dials up the stiffness, and that wasn't the Smith we got here (he can really cave in chests with his back bump missile dropkick and he's much kinder here), and while I still liked the pairing I have a feeling a singles match a year or two later would have been better. 

MD: Still in the range of perfectly acceptable house show undercard stuff here. They kept it mostly on the mat for the first half, with Smith pulling out some fun arm whips. Everything stayed close to the center of the ring with fairly limited motion, but it was gritty and hard hitting enough. As things escalated towards the finish, the fans got fairly well into it. Smith's big stuff (like his floatover suplex and powerslam) all looked good but it's nothing you'll remember tomorrow.

Giant Baba/Rusher Kimura/Mitsuo Momota vs. Masanobu Fuchi/Mighty Inoue/Haruka Eigen 

ER: Bless this man for recording the full legends trios. When old men matches would up on TV it was always clipped down to crowd spitting and the finish, you rarely got to see them working pre-bell shtick or the smaller comedy moments where guys like Eigen shone. So god bless this sicko for recording TWENTY FULL MINUTES of these glorious old dudes. Before the bell they work a fun gag around shaking or not shaking each other's hands, then a spot where Baba's team is throwing goodies to the crowd and Eigen steals Rusher's treat to throw to a different part of the crowd. Eigen's specific brand of ham played in full to a house show crowd is the exact kind of butter my bread needs. Gimme that bullshit where he gets sad about Momota getting a bigger cheer after getting up on the turnbuckles, but also give me Eigen throwing several headbutts and nice short uppercuts to Momota. Fuchi and Inoue are real dickheads to Rusher, with Fuchi kicking him in the knees and Inoue throwing strikes (Mighty Inoue still weirdly had some of the nastiest open hand chops in the company) and kicking him in the head after slumping him in the corner, and then Eigen laces into him with chops!

You don't typically get FIP sections in these matches and it's great seeing the heels really gang up on Rusher as Baba gets pissed on the apron. Fuchi fucks with Rusher by continuing to kick at his knees, then run away, making Rusher limp after him, before kicking his knees again. Fuchi keeps going back to the knee and it leads to a great moment where Rusher stops selling Fuchi's strikes, just walking forward while Fuchi is punching him right in the head, Rusher unfazed as Fuchi shakes out his fist (later, Fuchi pays him back stepping on Rusher's face to break up a pin). When Inoue tags in Rusher throws two genuinely crushing open hand chops right to Inoue's throat and hits an awesome old man bulldog. This was among the hardest chops and strikes I've seen thrown in a Kings Road old man trios, and probably more headbutts than I've seen thrown, and of course it boils down to Baba coming in and hitting a Russian legsweep for the pin. I love that this exists, and I would happily review all of the handheld old man matches. 

MD: Old man comedy. Momota anchored this, being the only guy on his team that could still move, while still being as charismatic as ever, garnering sympathy and having the fans clap along to his chops in the corner. There was a weird, and I suppose sort of funny bit of Kimura just eating a ton of shots from everyone on the other side and barely registering them, causing everyone to run from him in fear. There's a limit to how much you can do that without devaluing all offense on the card maybe? There was one moment where Kimura slinked into a drop down and I was legitimately worried about what would happen, because there was no way he was getting up in time for the next spot, but Baba got a shot in from the outside so it was okay. Baba not being able to get his leg up for the kick without hanging out in the ropes is always a little sad to watch (even relatively to just a few years earlier), but he still hit the leg sweep and seemed to be enjoying himself otherwise.

Jun Akiyama/Takao Omori vs. Giant Kimala II/Jun Izumida

MD: Weird reverse structure here where Kimala and Izumida got a shine of sorts, where Izumida was dominated in the middle building to a quasi-hot tag to Kimala, and then a long finishing stretch. Obviously that's not exactly what happened, but it's kind of what it felt like. Kimala and Izumida controlled things well when they were on top. They did a double elbow drop from the same side which I'm not sure I've seen much before but that people should steal. Again, the work was all fine but the structure was baffling. You want a monster heel team to take way more of the match than this.

ER: I'm a big fan of the Kimala II/Izumida team, but this tag was still even better than I hoped it would be. Kimala was a real (Botswana) beast here, loved all his strikes (his overhand chops and axe handles to Omori looked real nasty), loved his big legdrops and screaming flying elbows, his great avalanche, and will always be a fan of he and IZU's tag team offense that is basically "both men jump and fall onto their opponent and squish him". Omori is usually one of my least favorite AJ guys, but he was on fire here, great uppercuts and running kicks, really looked like a force on the same level as Akiyama, and Akiyama was throwing knees and elbows as hard as you'd expect. Izumida is always good as a guy eating a beating, because he's a real sicko and seemingly has no problem absorbing stiff shots with his massive head. Due to the handheld we don't see Izumida or Kimala getting thrown into the rail, but the landings sounded huge. And I just don't think it's possible for me to find more joy than in a Kimala II hot tag, and I was really impressed with how hard he worked on a smaller house show. He never got much of a chance to work actual tags like this when he teamed with Abby, as the matches were usually shorter and more dominated by Abby, so here you could really see his ability. There were a couple good saves down the stretch, and I liked Kimala knocking Akiyama to the floor to take him out of action. Izumida misses a big moonsault but plops down hard on Omori's chest when Omori goes for a sunset flip, and I was not expecting IZU and Kimala to get the win. Wonderful. 

Tsuyoshi Kikuchi vs. Satoru Asako 

PAS: All Japan juniors matches were not a focus of either the TV or of discourse, but they had some very talented wrestlers. Asako always seemed like the blandest of the 90s AJ crew, but I enjoyed him a bunch here. He had some big spots including a nasty dropkick through the ropes and flip dive, and landed some stuff with real pop and violence. At one point he blasts Kikuchi in the throat with a spin kick, and smashes him with back elbows. It feels like the kind of performance you see an undercard luchador give if he gets a mask match. Kikuchi is just as nuts as you would expect, apparently missing a diving headbutt on the floor (it is a handheld and you can't see the landing, which actually makes it more harrowing). We get a good nearfall section, and this felt like a match which would have been a bigger deal in a different context.

MD: Kikuchi oscillated between being a vulnerable champ and a juniors heel bully here and he was good in both roles. Past the finishing stretch, which really had the fans buying into Asako's hopes, the best part of this was when he was in charge and that bit didn't go quite long enough. Things meandered at times when Asako was in control after his comeback, with the match being most compelling when they kept it moving. A good number of dives and action on the floor. I was ok with Asako's kickouts during the stretch because he had ultimately taken so much of the match but it's good it didn't go much longer.

ER: Asako is the 90s AJ guy I basically know the least about, and have seen the least. He was not a guy who made tape in singles, and was typically showing up on AJ TV as the guy definitely taking the pin in a trios match. This match is probably the most memorable performance of his I've seen, with only his 2002 NOAH retirement match coming to mind as a contender (I remember that being a fun trios with him teaming w/ Misawa and Kobashi). Here he is coming after Kikuchi's belt, and he practically works sections of this like badass Kikuchi. This whole match had cool spots throughout, really had a similar feel (in pace, quality, structure, highspots) to heralded early 90s juniors stuff like Liger/Pillman. We got big dives to the floor, with both hitting heavy pescados, Kikuchi slingshotting himself into a flip dive and later hitting a big plancha, and Asako hitting a wicked baseball slide dropkick that sent him through the ropes. 

Both guys laid into each other with nice dropkicks, and then kept expanding to bigger things. Asako hit a wicked jumping spin kick right under Kikuchi's chin, and that really felt like the kind of hard kick to the chin the Kikuchi usually dishes out to younger guys. Kikuchi hit his running calf kick to the back of Asako's head, Asako hit hard back elbows, Kikuchi hit his great running elbow smash, and it all built to a genuinely hot nearfall finishing stretch. Asako got a couple surprise kickouts after two fireball bombs, and got great nearfalls of his own with tight cradles and inside roll ups, and a nice rana off the top. I always loved Kikuchi's form on his rolling Germans, and he finally has enough and whips Asako into the mat with a couple of them and then hits that exclamation fireball bomb. I thought this was really good and a great showing for Asako. It would be really fun if someone like him ends up with a bunch of Stock Rising performances found 25 years later on handhelds. 

Stan Hansen/Gary Albright/The Patriot vs. Dr. Death/Johnny Ace/Dan Kroffat 

MD: Frustratingly, only this and the main end up clipped, though none of it seems major. Unsurprisingly, the best stuff here all had Hansen: the headlock in and out of the ring with Williams to start, Ace and Kroffat trying to contain him (failing but doing better than one would expect), the way he sold walking around the floor after Patroit came in, his body careening across the ring to knock someone out to clear the way for the finish. This had plenty of big guys tossing each other around, but maybe due to the clipping never entirely came together for me.

PAS:: I thought the stand out here was Dr. Death, he crushed Patriot with a clothesline, hit a big spine buster and some great jabs. Finish run focused on Albright and Albright on an offense hot streak is one of the more exciting things in wrestling, you know big throws are coming and he hit a sick judo throw to go into a cross armbreaker. I do feel like there was some stuff on the cutting room floor, and it was a bummer we didn't get to see some of the ass kicking.

ER: I always love these big AJ matches that just literally throw all of the whites into the same match. It's the kind of visual that would stand out visually to someone not familiar with wrestling. It's like WWF throwing six AAA guys out there to open a Raw in Toledo, if they had given the crowd an actual reason to care about any of them. This doesn't live up to the on paper potential and wraps up a little conveniently (and maybe we missed more with clips than we realized), but it totally delivered in the interactions I wanted it to. Dr. Death really was great here, acting like a big general for his team and getting in the face of everyone on the other side. Every Hansen/Death stretch we got kicked the amount of ass that pairing should kick. They were really socking each other with punches (Death had a few sick punch exchanges in this, even his exchange with Patriot looked good) and there was a great moment where he knocked Hansen down to his butt with a hard jab. The match felt a little underbaked (and again, could be the handheld clipping) as Kroffat and Ace don't have a ton to do, and there are weird moments like Hansen breaking up a pin and then selling his save more than Patriot sold the Dr. Bomb he was being saved from. Still, we got to see cool stuff like Doc's spinebuster, and Albright really fucks Doc up with one of his World's Best Suplexes, folding him bad on a snap German. These guys weren't holding back on hitting each other, while also holding back on working too much of a compelling story, so it had a super high floor without coming close to the potential ceiling. Still, give me Hansen and Doc potatoing each other any damn day of the week.  

Mitsuharu Misawa/Kenta Kobashi/Tamon Honda vs. Toshiaki Kawada/Akira Taue/Yoshinari Ogawa

MD: The clipping here is particularly frustrating. You lose less of the match, I think, but what remains feels fairly iconic, and it'd be good to have the whole picture. Honda shines both early and late, tossing his head at people's faces with reckless abandon, though there's one spot with Taue which doesn't quite work (they recover well and then hit it). We come back from that first clip with a fought over nodowa to the floor and roll right into a really long (and like I said, plenty iconic) mauling of Kobashi. I like how he got his hope spots on Ogawa but they were all cut off. Kawada just kicked the ever-loving crap out of him, but he was able to come back against him and got meaningful revenge on Taue later. My guess is that most of what we lost in this was Misawa (probably an opening exchange) but everything else was great.

PAS: This was good stuff, but a little irritating (who the hell clips a HH?). I am happy we got all of the big Honda moments, that is my dude, and I always like to see him get shine. He was very headbutt heavy and not the suplex machine he would become, but we did get a nice throw on Taue. Kobashi gets the crud beat out of him, and few do that better. I love Kawada as this chill guy who will calmly beat the shit out of someone, he really lays into Kobashi. The finish felt a bit abrupt, it didn't have the all time finish run that some of these matches have, but all time greats doing great things is always worth watching.

ER: I thought this was great, seeing it from a partially obscured view with some clips in the action, so you know it would have played hot live. Everybody gets moments to shine and takes them, with a standout no nonsense Taue performance and a great babyface Kobashi run. Kobashi is an all time great at taking a heavyweight beating. There's a lot of small guys who take big beatings, but it's tough to pull off a 260 pound guy getting his ass kicked while still fighting. I also always like revisiting the era where Ogawa was opposite Misawa. We saw them together for the last decade of Misawa's life, it's cool seeing him when he was in the Holy Demon Army, cool seeing him work with Kawada to take down Misawa. Honda got a spirited dying on his sword performance, playing the fired up attention seeker well, dropping a dozen falling headbutts on people over the course of this. 

But I loved Taue the most, and this match got kicked up another level with an amazing spot that felt like something that would happen in a Tag League Final and not at a 2,000 seat Osaka house show. Taue and Kobashi were fighting on the apron, and Taue jammed the sole of his big boot into Kobashi's jaw, then leapt off the apron with a nodowa otoshi, but instead of splatting on the floor he flattens Misawa in a great bit of timing. I'm honestly not sure what happened (the nature of some of the action happening off camera due to the handheld), but either Misawa ran in quick to break Kobashi's fall, or he was whipped that direction by Kawada and the Holy Demon Army timed and incredible double team. Honestly I love either scenario. Holy Demon teamwork is second to none, and it's cool seeing Ogawa integrated into that, like when Kawada booted Kobashi in the face to assists an Ogawa back suplex, or Ogawa hitting Misawa with a left jab to knock him face first into a Kawada enziguiri. The build was great through this whole match, even with the cut footage. I'll never get tired of seeing the way these guys move against each other.