Found Footage Friday: 1989 AJPW~! MALENKO~! FUCHI~! ABBY~! BABA~! KAMALA~! MIGHTY~! RUSHER~!

Mighty Inoue vs. Shinichi Nakano AJPW 2/23/89

MD: Another set of Classics drops as we go down the list of new footage. This one is probably one I wouldn't have gone out of my way for in general, but it was good overall. A Jr. Heavyweight Title match. We've gotten pieces filled in for this lineage and defenses and the matches hold up quite well against late 80s NJPW title matches really. You have guys like Fuchi, Inoue, and Momota carrying the division with people like Joe Malenko popping in.

I don't have a lot of time for Nakano in general, but this was set up to be almost impossible to fail. For one, he ambushed right from the start, giving things early direction and not forcing them into feeling out matwork he might not excel at. He slapped Inoue out of nowhere and then hit his signature power slam before tossing him to the floor and destroying him on the rails. Back in the ring, it was a seated chinlock. He at times had a sense that he wasn't sure how to best capitalize on the moment. 

None of that from Inoue. First chance he got (grabbing the head out of a Nakano toehold) he focused right in and chained three or four things together perfectly. As the match went on and they went back and forth, he wouldn't let things meander much either. At one point, Nakano was hitting shoulder thrusts in the corner with not enough pepper behind them, so Inoue asserted himself and started shin kicking him in the face. 

They had an exciting finishing stretch where Inoue got him down for the flipping sentons but missed the second. That allowed Nakano to hit his fisherman's suplex but Inoue got out to win with a very cool headscissors roll up out of a side slam. This overachieved, but it was entirely because Inoue is so good.

ER: I love Matt's specific, targeted dislike of Nakano, but I'm not sure I agree. I thought this match was great, but because of both men, and how easy they made it to buy in to an All Japan juniors match based around stiff work and snug holds. When I first started trading tapes, traders were not fans of the All Japan juniors division. If you wanted "Juniors Wrestling" there were so many other options: Michinoku Pro, New Japan, WAR, lucha, all filled with small guys working fast and flying, building to big highspots. All Japan's juniors division had none of that. It was permanently understocked with talent, AJPW never used it to showcase a future star, gaijin imports mostly focused on heavyweights (meaning you might get at best Rex King in a juniors match), and the matches were mostly worked like Kings Road undercard matches. It was not the style people associated with juniors wrestling, and now I'm far enough removed from that, that I can see the style for what it is and love it. 

Nakano tried to get the drop on Inoue and wear him down with holds, but since he is just a lesser version of Inoue it only worked until Inoue got fired enough to put him back in his place. Nakano came out hot, staggering Inoue good with a slap across the face and trying to secure a quick surprise title win with an awesome powerslam, knowing Inoue would be favored the longer the match went. When he moved into wearing down Inoue with holds, I bought all of them, because every submission felt like Nakano was working it to specifically finish the match. He believed in this firmly held submissions, and it made each one matter. His camel clutch, late match Boston crab, his single leg crab, all felt like something he was locking in to force a submission, never just to kill time. I bought into the struggle on every hold, and especially got into Inoue's long escape pulling a chinlock out of a deathlock, stretching Nakano until breaking. It all led to organic advances. Inoue's grounded headlock was snugly pulled into a swinging neckbreaker, the way he fanned Nakano's legs while locking in a butterfly stretch looked punishing, and when he locked in the tightest headscissors possible it was nice foreshadowing for the headscissor cradle he used to retain his title. 

If I'm talking about guys pulling snug submissions that look like they could get a tap, none looks better than Nakano pulling Inoue into a bow and arrow and holding it firm. How many bow and arrows subs have you seen fall apart at the seams? The legs come uncrossed, the knees aren't pressed firmly into the back to hold the sub taut, it's almost as common to see someone inadvertently slip out of the hold while rolling onto their back than it is to see a firm successfully applied lock, and Nakano puts the work in on every part of the sub. He put in the visual work of digging his knee into Inoue's back while securing the deathlock, worked through every bit of securing the hold at both ends of Inoue's body, leaving no wriggle room when he rolls to his back with Inoue stretched. 

Does Inoue "look better" as a wrestler? Yes, probably. His fast and weighty crucifix pin was so good I thought it was the finish for sure, and the way he makes cradles and backslide attempts feel threatening in general means there's always a sense he can surprise with a finish, which made his cradled headscissors work so well. He gives weight to opponents' with good selling in holds and fast bumps. His flipping bump through the ropes to the floor is one of my favorite signature bumps. I love how this man exits a ring. But, All Japan Juniors matches were never about crazy bumps or building to big highspots, which was why the division never got acclaim 30 years ago. I'm not even sure what the biggest highspot of this match was - the crucifix pin? Inoue's somersault senton? - and that's why people weren't seeking out this work. Viewing it outside of its Juniors framing you can see how tight the work was. 

Giant Baba/Rusher Kimura vs. Abdullah the Butcher/Giant Kimala AJPW 3/8/89

MD: It would be easy to dismiss this, to just say some fun things about Baba's cool trip on Kamala, how Kamala fought out of the corner, or how great Rusher's strikes against Abby looked. Or we could play into the amusing bits here, the amazing look on Baba's face when Abby got a cheapshot on him on a rope break and then did the whole martial arts hand waving shtick. We could go on about how they were like a married couple having a spat and how delightful that was. And that'd be valid. We could talk about how into this the crowd was, how they buzzed for Kamala's big moments or Abby asserting himself or Rusher making a comeback or whenever Baba came into the ring. 

And on some level, I am going to talk briefly about the sum of all of that. But I just don't think I can do this justice. I'm not even sure I want to do this justice. This match, ten minutes or so until the countout, is its own sort of magic. It's delightful. I was smiling the whole way through, out of delight, and I rode the same wave as the crowd, decades later. I could argue that we were taught and trained and conditioned not to enjoy matches like this and then I'd feel dumb, because of how stupid that sounds, but also because how stupid it makes me feel that at one point in my life many years ago, I would have denied myself this sort of joy, would have tried to hide behind a sort of self-important sense that wrestling had to be something else. 

Sometimes wrestling should be this. Hell, most wrestling should be begging to be this, because this clash of characters, of timing, of conducting a crowd, of heart and humor and misfit, monster, mythic heroism and villainy... it's just so different than we can hope to find out of most other forms of entertainment. There's nothing in the world quite like this. Watch this. It's ten minutes plus some before and after. Let yourself feel what that crowd was feeling. Smile along. Be delighted. It's okay. The world is a dark place, but there's light to be found in the least likely of places.

ER: I get so excited whenever Matt and I get to write about Abdullah the Butcher and Kimala 2 teaming in All Japan, that I went into this having no idea it was actually Abby teaming with the real Kamala. I've seen so many Abby/Kimala 2 matches, several matches where both Kamala's team with Abby in a trios, but I've seen little of Abdullah and original Kamala as a team. I think it only happened on this one tour. Also, it's important to note that I don't think Real Kamala is an upgrade overall, but it does make the team more threatening and less beatable. Kamala in Japan is weird. He looks like he'd be a natural fit, because his size and appearance makes him stand out more than at any time he was in WWF, it's just that his work does not fit in with Kings Road style at all, and at times he comes off like a total first year fat guy who isn't sure how to work with any of the old pros he's in with. He throws his overhand chops somehow worse than he threw them in 1993 WWF, but at least he tried throwing spin kicks like 1986 Kamala. His early match spin kick into Rusher's chest was easily his highlight of the match. 

So, with no Kimala 2 to work the heel in peril role, it is down entirely to Abdullah to create all the match's intrigue, which he is great at doing. His work against Baba and Rusher is always worth seeing, regardless of what current freak is teaming with him. Abby's aura lifts other, differently fat ships, because there is no other situation where Kamala would have grabbed Rusher to headbutt him if he wasn't headbutting him with Abby. I was impressed by Baba's work with Kamala, how all his chops looked like they were moving the large savage, knocking him down to build to the big Abby/Baba showdown that everyone was dying to see. Abdullah looked like he had so much fun working with Baba, just try not to smile as Abby is doing his karate posing. He looks like he's having a ball, and while I think it is very silly that Abby gets busted open by Kamala's tribal mask, it leads to Baba straight kicking Abby in his forehead grooves several times and Rusher opening those cuts with headbutts, so the silliness leads directly to violence. The karate chops and backhands Abby throws at Baba's neck to stop the onslaught are one of the things that make their showdowns worth watching no matter the year. 

I take it back, maybe Kamala's best contribution to this was when Rusher swarmed him with chops and punches, Kamala selling the swarm by backpedaling in fear while flailing his arms to keep hornets away from his face. Kamala feels so out of place in Japan, that there can be awkward moments...but when a moment like that plays into his fish out of water placement, suddenly it all makes sense. 

Joe Malenko vs. Masa Fuchi AJPW 10/20/89

MD: I can't help but think about this match in context. 1989 All Japan is defined by the war between Tenryu and Jumbo, between Hansen teaming with Tenryu and tearing through people, by Footloose having spotfests, Rusher and Eigen and Okuma doing comedy, guys like Shunji Takano and Kabuki scrapping and holding down the midcard against both Revolution and foreign monsters. And yet, here is a an absolute throwback to both the sort of 70s hold-driven matches Jumbo had made his name on and the sort of Junior Heavyweight technical battles we'd expect out of Fujinami at the turn of the 80s before Tiger Mask changed the paradigm in New Japan. It feels like the pinnacle of the Denny Brown/Nelson Royal style of NWA Junior Heavyweight Title matches that riddled the undercards of certain territories for years. 

I also can't help but think of Newborn UWF, a native monster that was threatening all traditional ways of doing business in Japan. To watch Maeda, Takada, Yamazaki, Anjo, and all the others is to feel a constant sense of danger. One mistake could bring a fight to an end or allow for severe punishment. There's a tension that leaves viewers on edge the whole time through. It's exciting but it's also exhausting. There can be narratives. There were always narratives. But they were based on an incessant pressure. This is different. It's a slow unlocking, a game of chess instead of a perilous tug of war. Damage had to be done, joints had to be weakened, effort had to be put in. It required a different sort of investment, both for the wrestlers and for the crowd. The struggle is somehow more simulated but also richer and broader for that simulation. It may not feel quite as real but it feels just as true. The wrestlers struggle for every inch, sell every twist of a joint, and react emotionally to consequences (such as Fuchi retreating from the ring, arm damaged, after it seemed like Malenko had an answer for everything he tried). If UWF was constant sudden death, this was regulation soccer, where the ebb and flow of shots on goal and ball possession would add up over time.

And of course, I couldn't help but think about Fuchi. He's the most versatile wrestler I've ever seen. He could go from comedy, to a title match like this, to mauling younger wrestlers. You see wrestlers manage that over their career, but for him that might all be within the same week. I think about him destroying the knees of the Super Generation Army on tables, brutality on top of brutality. Here though, it was a chess  move. It opened the match up, turned everything on its head, gave him a lever to pry on for the rest of the match, and pry he did. Malenko was constantly off balance and every subsequent move he hit was full of desperation. Fuchi could, would, and did throw little pokey kicks to the knee to take back over whenever the opportunity arose. It was the same move, even the same brutality, but it was used in an entirely different way than those Tsuruta-gun trio matches of a year or two later. 

It all built to a spectacular finishing stretch. Malenko's desperation paid off for him as he caught Fuchi in a bridging blockbuster fallaway slam. He followed it up with a northern lights suplex and then a clutch armbar. With leg damaged, he couldn't put Fuchi away. Fuchi, arm possibly still hurt, went with leaping enziguiris instead, and then was able to jam Malenko's final attempt to slip around him for a bridging butterfly suplex and the title win. So while I thought back, forward, and laterally to 70s Jumbo, to Denny Brown, to 1989 AJPW, to UWF, and to 1991 six-mans, what I thought about most of all was how this match stood on its own, and just how good it all was. History might show these late 80s AJPW Juniors matches to be a last gasp of an older tradition in some ways, but it was a gasp that showed how much vital, vibrant, and worthwhile life might have still been left to be found in the style.

ER: I wrote about the maligned/unregarded All Japan juniors style up above as we were breaking down Mighty Inoue/Shinichi Nakano without realizing that Matt went into different detail on the style in this review down below. Denny Brown is an interesting style comparison for this type of match, and it's interesting because at one point that would have been considered a pejorative and now it's clearly being used as a positive comp to something that we both miss from modern wrestling. This match is nothing but excellent, honest work, both guys gluing themselves together to craft something tough and true while making my own joints and ligaments scream out in pain. 

They build this around increasingly torqued holds, no traditional "highspots", no strike exchanges of any kind, just one blunt attack that leads to a long full match of superglue. The blunt attack comes when Fuchi begins smiling and taunting Joe with a couple of head fakes, a couple of lunges that weren't ever leading to anything, but Joe sees the evil behind Fuchi's smile and just headbutts him in the face when he gets his hands on him, wrestling him to the ground and beginning the always satisfying wrenching. Joe's holds all look like the finish: his cradle, grapevining one leg while concurrently forcing Fuchi into a painful half nelson, using all his limbs to manipulate Fuchi's body, not going for a pin just going for pain; a camel clutch with no pullback on the chin, all focus instead on hooking both arms and pulling back on them as he sinks into the hold, leaving Fuchi wincing and rubbing out his shoulders after he escapes to the floor.

Joe Malenko is someone who can make a Fujiwara armbar takedown look like a hold that damages the entire body. The way he takes Fuchi's arm and drives him down with his full weight sends Fuchi's head, face, and shoulder into the mat, like he was using the arm as leverage to do something more sinister. He uses that same leveraged arm to do a Russian legsweep when Fuchi eventually fights to his feet, holding the arm the whole time and using that as the point to pivot into attacks that folded in other limbs. 

Fuchi makes no inroads working the mat with Joe so eventually involves his tried and true friend Ringside Table to smash Joe's knee into. Joe's knee selling is real and escalates the match instantly. I love an injury coming into play late in a match, rather than give someone a memory exercise in the first couple minutes that makes it near impossible to do an actual match without conveniently forgetting your injury. Once Fuchi smashes Joe in the knee, Joe's strategy changes entirely and you can see in his eyes that this was the worst thing to happen to him. Fuchi is now in kill mode and Malenko is bringing out the big guns. The way Joe swings his leg away from Fuchi's single leg attempt before swinging him over with a front face lock takeover, catching a high crossbody and floating over with Fuchi's momentum into a bridging pin, and a clean northern lights that I'm sure he wished he had pulled off earlier with a sturdier knee. Fuchi doesn't so much as wear Joe down as he does hold him down long enough to win, the same thing Joe had been doing all match long. Excellent work all around, showcasing a style that really wouldn't be hard to integrate into any modern work, you just have to be honest and actually put in the work. That's the thing I don't see happening.  

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Found Footage Friday: THE MALENKO-GUERRERO CLASSIC~! LORD NORMAN~! COLLINS~!

MD: We've been doing this for years now, pulling together whatever we can find from the connections we have and just on the internet in general. In parallel for a lot of those has been https://x.com/krisplettuce who has a patreon where he pulls all sorts of things together. Where we focus on matches specifically, he focuses more on whole TV shows and spans of shows. He's recently organized thirteen episodes of Malenko GWA from 88, hosted by Bob Roop and while none of the matches go too long, we're highlighting a few of them. 

Lord Norman vs. Steve Collins GWA 6/25/88

MD:  Collins was the Party Animal with the Party Girls (two valets) with him, and the fans chanting "party" basically the whole way through. He was the promotion's light heavyweight champion. Dropkicks, headlock takeovers including using the turnbuckles. That sort of thing. It's kind of amazing watching Smiley here knowing that he'd be on a few UWF 2.0 shows the back half of the year standing up to guys like Yamazaki and even Maeda completely believable and dominant. Here he was the newly crowned TV champ and had a chip on his shoulder. He was a few years into the business and you wouldn't know it was the same guy in UWF past the physique. Oh yeah, he also came out with a pipe, because of course he did.

I'm not sure he was always entirely on the same page as Collins but there were some little positioning things that were pretty interesting. Other things, like them setting up him missing a stomp onto Collins only to get his hands stomped himself didn't seem entirely plausible in the set up. When he took over, he had pretty credible offense, a few suplexes and a really nasty hotshot where he seemed to lose control of him. His entourage (including Dr. Red Roberts) menaced the girls and Collins went out. Norman went to post him but got posted in return and just missed the count back in. Post match they did a challenge where Collins would put a Party Girl up against the TV title. 

Lord Norman vs. Steve Collins GWA 7/23/88

MD: By the time the challenge happened, Norman (and Death Row) was managed by Reverend Johnson and he lost the match due to distraction and had to give up a party girl. He'd also given up the light heavyweight title since he wanted to move up weight classes so as to better face Norman and others (which was put interestingly as they noted he might lose some of his speed/agility in doing so).   

Right before this one, Johnson broke into the TV show with a pirate feed to announced the formation of the Black Wrestling Alliance which does, as a gimmick, feel at least five years before its time. Collins is down to one Party girl as Dominique had chosen to be with Smiley and crew. This was probably a stronger overall match than the last one and Smiley showed a lot more both while taking stuff and working from underneath and through his offense. There was a bit where he got clowned trying to get out of a headscissors I liked quite a bit. 

Collins was favoring a knee though he didn't really target it. He did his nice off center double underhook suplex though and stayed on him pretty aggressively. They ran a spot where he distracted the ref while Death Row crushed Collins and that made me think it was probably a good thing Maeda didn't see this match or else he would have never made it to UWF. Finish had Death Row rush the ring once Collins put on the sleeper and the Party Girl slipping Collins a chair so he could "break bad" as the commentary put it and hit everyone with it. You do get the sense that Smiley, even a few years in, might be progressing week to week but maybe it's just a data point issue.  

Joe Malenko vs. Hector Guerrero GWA 8/20/88

MD: Hey, this was really good. We only get about ten minutes of it before Rusty Brooks comes in while Joe has the flying octopus hold on and everything devolves from there, setting up a Joe knee injury for whatever would come next. This was for the Jr. Heavyweight Title that Collins had given up and what a trade up to either Joe or Hector. 

The early feeling out process was great, a lot of tricked out technique but always with an attempt of one-upping your opponent and getting an advantage. Hector started clean but leaned heel very quickly and that helped underpin everything here. He went from shaking hands to start to going over the top to point out his feet were on the ropes as Malenko had him in a hold to really selling big and whiny to faking a handshake for an eyepoke and he never looked back from there. The fans were more interested at chanting Porky at Brooks (who was seconding Hector) but I'd say they got into it as it went on. I want to know how Eric thinks this compares to the WCW matches between Dean and Eddy almost ten years later. 

ER: I thought this was just fine, and honestly pretty comparable to the (mostly awful) Dean/Eddie WCW matches. This match was nothing like those, but had similar pluses and minuses. The worst thing about the never-ending Dean/Eddie feud was that it was almost always a lot of very fast work with no real goal. Everything was fast, most of it was crisp, some of it was insanely impactful, none of it led to anything at all and none of it was treated as "something that happened". They moved on from offense so quickly that they could have gaslit anyone into thinking that nothing at all had even happened. I've seen multiple brainbusters that were sold for less time than most people sell a hiptoss, endless limb work than nobody sells, sequences blown through for speed rather than any lasting impact, finishes fully disconnected from anything that happened in the match proper, etc. It was wrestling made for a 2 minute highlight video to be posted 25 years later by an Twitter engagement account saying "Nobody talks about how Eddie Guerrero and Dean Malenko were two of the best to ever do it". 

Dean modeled himself nearly entirely after his older brother. He moved almost exactly the same as Joe, but did not retain half of the weight Joe put behind his move execution. Dean was good at move execution, but he had no clue how to let a move sink in or mean anything at all. He saw what his brother was doing, but didn't seem to understand what he was doing or why he was doing it. Dean's only takeaway seemed to be "do it faster, get through exchanges faster, move on to new exchanges immediately". Seeing Joe's inset promo, we know Dean did retain his brother's terrified eyes, emotionless promos straight into the camera, but couldn't even do those as well. I don't think this is Joe or Hector at their best, though there were moments. Momentum blocking is one of my favorite things in wrestling, from refusing to be pushed off a headlock or dead weighting a move, and them each blocking a hiptoss by gluing their boots to the mat looked real good, in a way that Dean never understood. The important thing Dean never understood is that both men actually looked like they were trying to throw a hiptoss when the other blocked it. Dean always thought too far ahead to the inevitable reversal, so "the move that never got completed" always looked like a move designed to be reversed. Joe selling his knee after Rusty Brooks' interference was really great. His fall to the mat and his second fall after struggling back to his feet to cross chop Brooks in the throat looked like someone who actually blew out their knee and there has been no point during Dean's career where his leg selling looked this good. Now that I think about it maybe Rusty Brooks - somehow only 30 years old!!! - might have been the best thing about this. 

For what might be the best version of Malenko vs. Guerrero, please see Hector Guerrero's WCW matches against Dean on the 4/4/97 Nitro and the 6/8/97 Worldwide. They are each about 3 minutes long so none of your time will feel wasted. 

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New Footage Friday: JOE MALENKO~! INOUE! TAJIRI! CICLON! MOGUR! STYLES! CROSS!

Joe Malenko vs. Mighty Inoue AJPW 1/25/89

MD: We're just starting to see the dividends with this new run of Classics. Previously we just had the last few minutes of this title change and while it was good, it, and other Malenko and Inoue matches from 89, always had me wanting to see the full thing. It didn't disappoint. Both wrestlers were extremely good at chaining one hold or opportunity into another while dealing and adapting with engaged struggle from their opponent. Early on that was Malenko with the arm (including an 89 Crossface), and later, Inoue with the leg. Shortly thereafter, they'd end up tied up a few times, an even match. Malenko had the bridges and the bombs and was so good at chaining a move out of a suplex. Inoue had the somersault senton and even creeping towards 40 could still absolutely go. This had the usual block-and-counter laden finish you'd get on these late 80s AJPW Jr. matches and while it was a finish partially set up to protect Malenko, it still felt like a big moment for Inoue and the fans reacted accordingly.

PAS: Loved this, a real chance to watch Joe Malenko ball out. I loved the opening with him leaping over Inoue's leg sweep attempts like he was doing the Kid and Play dance, and finishing it off with a scissors kick takedown. Lots of nasty counter wrestling on the mat, including Inoue putting on a sick Indian death lock, and some really cool looking arm locks by Malenko. I thought the roll up finish worked good with the way the match was going, Inoue showing he had a little funk to his game as well. 

ER: I thought this was fantastic, an awesome juniors match with matwork more interesting than anything you'd ever see in a New Japan juniors match. My only complaint with the match at all is that they felt the need to break away from the matwork. This was a 15 minute match, and the first 13 are up there with the coolest Muga clinics I've seen. Joe Malenko really is one of the all time mat guys, doing almost minimalist Bob Backlund type holds only wrenched in and played small and tough rather than long. Malenko isn't really about quick movement, and his style is so engaging that it doesn't really need it. You can see every step of his holds, and he builds through each of his holds in snug ways that are easy to follow and make simple holds look agonizing. Malenko is not without flash, as he begins the match doing little MPro hops to avoid Inoue's legsweeps while locked at the arms, and after hopping over a few he spins into a killer leg-scissors takedown. Malenko's bridging neck work is always impressive, made both guys look tough watching them go through slow motion Cirque du Soleil poses. 

Malenko cranks in a couple of nasty cravats across Inoue's face, locking his hands under Inoue's armpit and behind his back, and all of his holds look grinding and painful. Inoue's return fire looks good, especially when he butterflies Malenko's legs on a standing deathlock, he works Malenko's arm in some simple but painful looking ways. Malenko refuses to go into Expected Juniors Matwork, doesn't do kip ups out of knucklelocks, doesn't do monkey flips when you'd expect them, and his knucklelock takeovers look like expert judo throws rather than part of a rolling exchange. And I wish they would have stuck to that. It made for a great 13 minutes. Joe Malenko is much cooler on the mat than he is running ropes, and there were a couple things that didn't look quite right once they were on their feet. But we also got a tight fisherman's suplex from Joe, a slick reversal into a German suplex, Inoue's none-better somersault senton, and a great flash pin title win out of an Inoue rolling cradle reversal. Inoue's reversal was really strong, and the 13 minutes of bridging matwork by both men really established how good they were at forcing each other into bridged holds, you get the real sense that Malenko really couldn't have escaped the pin. Great match, with several things that modern acolytes of this mat style could learn from. 

Tajiri/Ciclon Ramirez/Fantasik vs. Halcon Negro/Mogur/Guerrero de la Muerte CMLL 12/23/95

MD: Tajiri had a few month excursion to CMLL when he was about a year into his career and there's not a ton to see of it, so this was a fun thing to pop up. He had a nice, long opening exchange with Guerrero de la Muerte (Toxico) and they were fine, basic but smooth. Late in the tercera he hit some solid kicks and had a nice tope. This was pretty standard fare otherwise, though lacking a central underlying storyline. Mogur stood out out with some good dropkicks and a great knee in the corner, plus leaning hard into the missile dropkick which led to the tecnicos taking the primera. The beatdown wasn't very memorable, with the comeback spurred by the rudos all mounting and posing Tajiri. Fantastik seemed to be straining to his his offense at times but disappeared from the match at the end with a pretty spectacular slingshot swanton bomb to the floor. It ended with a pretty unsatisfying foul which wasn't built and didn't seem to be leading anywhere.

PAS: Fantastik is this super cool luchador with a hairy chest who basically spent his entire career in Japan. I don't remember him working CMLL at all, and here he was with his Big Japan buddy Tajiri. There is a more well know match later in this tour where things break down between Tajiri and Mogur and they start stiffing each other, but there isn't anything like that here. I enjoyed the opening Tajiri and Muerte mat work the best, real chance to see how skilled Tajiri was as a kiddo. And that Fantastik swanton to the floor is one of my favorite high spots ever, what height and extension he got on that. It might have even been better than Super Astro's. 

ER: Matt mentions that this is pretty standard lucha fare, and he's right, but it's also really exciting watching just standard lucha fare from guys from this era. I've seen a stupid amount of standard lucha from the last decade of the CMLL roster, so a different era of roster going through their routines can be a real sweet panacea. It's cool seeing Tajiri and Fantastik in the CMLL mix, to see Tajiri do a pretty good job of understanding basic lucha caida structure. He's tasked with being the first mat exchange of the match, he comes in at the end of the segunda with a high spinning heel kick, and then lands a nice dive on Mogur at the climax of the tercera. Fantastik had the wild spot of the match, with a gorgeous slingshot swanton off Halcon Negro, perfectly lined up down an aisle. I really liked Negro here, a great theatrical bumper, and if that slingshot swanton wasn't in the match I think my favorite moment would have been Negro getting bumped to the floor, sliding out after a headscissors and landing on one leg, then hopping on one leg to slow his momentum until landing in the front row. He looked like a Looney Tunes character who skidded to a stop before running off a cliff. Ciclon Ramirez was a super graceful tecnico, great height on headscissors and bumps, and Mogur is a classic rudo in the vein of Mocho Cota or Satanico, all short right hands and nice traffic direction. This was probably a typical Saturday night for all of these guys, but it played with the right amount of freshness for me. 

AJ Styles vs. Jason Cross NWA Wildside 8/15/01

MD: This had a few things going for it. First and foremost, they were working it as an evil mirror image sort of match (or more accurately, as Cross stealing Styles' act), so there were a bunch of parallel spots that were effective and creative and well-executed, but also that meant something because there was an underlying story driving them. It wasn't an exact tit-for-tat, but was defined enough you couldn't miss it. Cross would hit one sort of tricked out arm drag, Styles would return with another. At one point, Styles hit a huge over the shoulders alley-oop on Cross that caused him to hit his head on the screen above the ring. Cross returned the favor later with one onto the top turnbuckle snake-eyes fashion. Late in the match, they both hit top rope splashes. That sort of thing. The second thing would be the theater itself. It let Cross hit a crazy dive of the stage, less crazy for the twists and turns and more so for the damage he would have done to himself if Styles didn't catch him well (he did), and they followed it up with brawling on the floor, with a green tinted, security footage looking sort of night-vision effect, and Styles spectacularly hitting a wall step-up standing moonsault. For the most part, everyone's stuff looked good. There were a couple of physics defying moments from Styles, like a bump off of a top rope 'rana that took me out of it. I thought Cross' strikes looked really good and it's too bad we didn't see more of them. They didn't wear out their welcome here by any means and that helps to justify the your move, my move nature a little (as does the mirror image underlying story), but if they shuffled things around a bit and had Cross lean on him a bit more towards the end, it would have made Styles get the moral win, before the "1988 WWF Manager on the apron so let me chase him around the ring" screwy finish, mean more. Still, this was very good for what it was and what it was trying to be.

PAS: Cross was working a Mike Davis as Dusty Rhodes version of AJ Styles here, which was a fun gimmick. The athleticism in this match was pretty off the charts, both guys had tremendous snap and execution on all of their big spots. This would have been pretty mind-blowing at the time, I mean we were just starting to see Low-Ki,  Red  et al do this kind of thing in the Northeast, and this was at or even above that level. The Cross dive off of the stage, the Styles wall walk moonsault and spiked headscissors, totally wild shit even now. I did think this was aiming to be an all time lost classic until they returned to the ring where they lost the string a bit. I don't think we needed that chase around the manager spot, and a fast ref count felt like one too many booking things for a match which didn't need any of them. Let Cross win clean or have Styles win clean, the match was good enough that no one would have been hurt by it. Cross is one of those weird wrestling casualties, no reason he should have been lost to history. He was like a taller AJ Styles and should have at least had a ROH/TNA career.  

ER: This is an era of indy wrestling that will always have the warmest place in my heart, as it was right when I was really getting into wrestling message boards and was the peak of my tape trading. This match had all of the things I loved about getting tapes in the mail, with a perfect wrestling venue for starters. This was in an old (?) movie theater, with the ring up on the stage and all the crowds seated below watching the show. I'm always interested in seeing how guys perform while having less sides of the ring to play to. This set-up has them essentially playing to one side of the ring, which brings unique perspective and focus to some of their exchanges. 2001 was fertile for getting a random selection of indy tapes in the mail and being surprised at so many styles happening all over the country. This was inventive as anything else from 2001, and Cross wasn't that far behind Styles as a talent at this point. Bobby Quance is a guy who gets brought up as a "what should have been" guy with under 100 matches, but Cross's stuff ages even better for a guy with a similar career. Cross is great at taking offense, and I love the heel gimmick of aping a popular face's wrestling style so well that is gets under the babyface's skin. Cross is great at being that smug and backing it up in ring. Cross hits an insane corkscrew plancha off the movie theater stage, and takes all of Styles' craziest 2001 offense, like the spike jump up headscissors and a Styles Clash off the top rope. Styles has been doing this level of great match for over 20 years now, and seeing how many indy guys are working for major promotions now, 2001 Cross is more polished than most of them. He was slightly too late for WCW, and for some reason didn't catch on in TNA after getting semi-regular shots. You always hate to see a cool talent fall through the cracks. 

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All Japan Motherload - The Funks vs. The Malenkos - AJPW 10/19/90

ER: In which Terry comes out with bangs, a ponytail a little mustache, clearly doing a Chicky Starr tribute. This was a fun match with the Funks playing into the Malenkos' game, Dory selling transitions like a sleepy turtle, and Terry breaking out some weird and goofy and sometimes misguided things. Dean clearly had a bunch of things he was dying to try out here, and Dory both does and does not go along with them. I liked a couple of the leglocks and drop toeholds Dean went for, and Dory had some cool reversals even if Dory's eyes were drooping more than Keith Moon's before a gig. The most fun was when Terry would take a roll with Dean. He had a really cool arm drag out of a go behind and came up with a nice way to get into position for a Dean top rope sunset flip. He also hilariously made Dean wait forever in position while he took an eternity doing his own top rope sunset flip right after. I really dug all the mat stuff, thought both Malenkos matched up well with both Funks, and really liked Dory's high backslide to beat Dean. They kept things low key throughout, no big bumps, felt like a smartly worked house show match.

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Yoshiaki Fujiwara Sustains the Humble, But Casts the Wicked To The Ground

Yoshiaki Fujiawara v. Joe Malenko PWFG 6/1/93-EPIC

PAS: This was so much fun, just a pair of true maestros pulling pushing and twisting each other until someone gives. This wasn't an exchange of holds, it was a constant battle by both men to find some advantage or defense. This was really a Malenko show, as he controlled with great takedowns, and constant attacking, with Fujiwara really focused on defense. Of course Fujiwara is the greatest defensive pro-wrestler of all time, so the defense stuff ruled.

TKG: This was a Malenko show. My favorite thing that he did was use his knee and shin as simple machine, constantly pushing it against stuff to act as a lever, inclined plane or wedge to force Fujiwara to move one body part or another, worlds most violent physics demonstration.

Yoshiaki Fujiwara/Daisuke Ikeda v. Ricky Fuji/Hitsakatsu Ooya FMW 5/5/95-FUN

This is for the FMW tag belts, and was on the undercard of one of the big FMW 5/5 shows. There was a bunch of stuff I enjoyed here, Fujiwara and Ikeda are both bleeding and do a good job of getting the crowd behind them. We get to see Ikeda kick some folks really hard, including a spin kick right to Fuji's face which looked like it chicleted his teeth. The finish had Fujiwara whipping out flash armbars, including catching Fuji off the top. Still lots of the match had the FMW team beating on Fujiwara and Ikeda, and there was nothing compelling about it. Lots of weak forearms and stomps, you are going to have to hit both guys way harder then that to have me buy into it.

Yoshiaki Fujiwara/Shinya Hashimoto/Naoya Ogawa v. Tom Howard/The Predator/Steve Corino Zero-One 5/19/02-GREAT

A match which ends up on the low side of great, but had enough stuff I enjoyed to push it over the top. This is part of the big UPW/NWA v. Zero One feud which lots of times came off as a giant money mark fantasy for Fred Rubenstien and Rick Bassman. This did have heel ref shit and a post match brawl with Mr. Fred throwing powder, but for the most part it was focused in the ring. Fujiwara had some cool flash submissions and got in his ring bolt comedy spot, but the star of this match was Hashimoto. The gaijin team is pretty limited, but Hash had some excellent battle of the titans spots with all of them. I especially love his work with Howard, who is someone I am really starting to dig while watching all of this Zero One. I loved how he wasted Hashimoto with a superkick after suckering him in with his hands behind the back gimmick. Finish had some cool OH Gun combo moves including a nasty STO/German Suplex. Cool stuff.

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE FUJIWARA

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All Japan Real World Tag League 11/20/10

These Puro tourney Project always tend to flame out (SLL's G1, my attempt to get through the BOSJ), but this is a tourney with Joe Malenko and Tamon Honda so we might make it.

Dark Ozz/Dark Cuervo/MAZADA vs. Kaz Hayashi/Shuji Kondo/BUSHI

This had its moments, but it was underwhelming at the end. There was some pretty lucha exchanges with Hayashi and one of the fake Charlie Mansons. I have been watching a bunch of MPRO six mans and back in his Shiryu days he was one of the best at quick armdrag and rope running. Ozz (or maybe Cuervo) has a really nasty finishing piledriver. Still much of this was pretty sloppy and awkward looking. It kind of sucks that AJ sends their rookies to IWRG but brings over AAA guys, this match would have been much better with the Terrible Cerebros or Oficiales as the rudo team.

TARU/Minoru/Voodoo Mask vs. Masanobu Fuchi/Tsuyoshi Kikuchi/Tamon Honda

Not a long match, mostly comedy stuff with Kikuchi making faces at TARU. I am always happy to see Honda as he got to break out some Olympic Hell and his great deadlift German. This was undercard trios match, and really worked that way. No one was going to stretch out, they were going to do some shtick and hit some spots and go home.

Hiroshi Yamato vs. Keiji Muto

This was Muto diffidently squashing a young guy. He looked kind of bored and it resembled the laziest of Inoki New Japan matches. I remember Yamato kind of stinking up Black Terry matches in IWRG, but he seems to be someone they are pushing and I don't see any point in something like this.

KENSO/KONO vs. Seiya Sanada/Manabu Soya

I hadn't seen any of these guys before (outside of Kenzo Suzuki), and was pleasantly surprised at this ending up decent. First part of the match wasn't much, mostly Soya throwing clotheslines and KENSO choking folks with his scarf. The match built to a nice exciting finish. KENSO has a really cool looking dive and he hit it twice, and Soya and KONO did a cool near fall exchange with KONO hitting a nasty knee drop, not sure if I recommend the match, but I dug the end.

Masakatsu Funaki/Minoru Suzuki vs. Osamu Nishimura/Joe Malenko

This was as fun as I was hoping it would be. Malenko didn't look like he missed a step. We got a long awesome Malenko v. Funaki mat stand off in the beginning of the match which really had the feel of watching Navarro or Panther work holds. Suzuki and Nishimura had a really cool mat opening too, I loved the twists they put on the MUGA headscissors stuff. The match was pretty good when it sped up too, Malenko and Suzuki throwing headbutts on the floor was sweet. The draws you end up getting in these kind of tournaments can be kind of a buzzkill, but the finish run was awesome with Suzuki trying to lock on his sleeper and Malenko countering it with an ankle lock and both guys fighting over it. Really good stuff and I am hoping all of the Malenko shows up.

Taiyo Kea/Akebono vs. Suwama/Ryota Hama

Wow, I was pretty shocked at how much I dug this. Really had the feel of a solid WAR tag with a bunch of big heavyweight dudes pounding on each other. I always love battle of monsters and while I don't really get the sense Akebono or Hama are very good, their exchanges really felt like a pair of Bison smashing into each other. I was also really into Suwama v. Kea, their opening mat work was pretty great, with Kea doing some awesome amateur rides. The middle portion of the match was just guys pounding on each other, there is a great spot where Suwama just slams Akebono with short lariats until he finally chopped him down. Finish was really cool, Suwama had a very cool wobbly sell of a suplex, and you buy Kea getting the pin as a big moment.

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Segunda Caida/Goodhelmet MIX TAPE #1 - The Best of Pro Wrestling Fujiwara-Gumi

Here is the match list for the first of many Goodhelmet/Segunda Caida collaborations. PWFG was a promotion all about beginnings. You had the pro-wrestling highlights of guys like Ken Shamrock, Minoru Suzuki and Masakatsu Funaki who would go on to form Pancrase and give birth to MMA. You have the first matches of guys like Daisuke Ikeda and Yuki Ishikawa who would go on to form BattlArts which is my all time favorite promotion. Along with that you have a couple of years of the career of Yoshiaki Fujiwara who may be the greatest Japanese wrestler of all time, Fujiwara has a ton of fun gems and a bunch of classics. Plus a bunch of random appearances, Dick Murdoch, Jerry Flynn, Mark Starr, Kane, Duane Koslowki, Riki Choshu, TAKA Michinoku, Dieusel Berto (father of the current WBC Welterweight champion Andre Berto) and even Roberto Duran, This is an awesome set of matches and folks should e-mail Goodhelmet at goodhelmet@satx.rr.com and pick it up . The reviews below have spoilers so if you want to be surprised beware.



DISC 1

Yoshiaki Fujiwara vs. Johnny Barrett (3/14/91) (11:36)

PAS: I was really excited when I saw this on the matchlist. Barrett is an early 90's Florida indy worker who was an early DDP tag partner and feuded with the Nasty Boys. Somehow he ended up in UWF2 working as a Greco guy. All of his earliest UWF matches are filled with 3 Stooges style selling and dropkicks, so of course I loved them. Fujiwara of course is fucking Yoshiaki Fujiwara. This was as great as I was hoping it would be, although for different reasons. By 1991 Barrett had gotten the hang of working the style and is actually a really great shootstyle monster, kind of like Gary Albright with takedowns instead of suplexes.__Fujiwara really puts him over great here, as they exchange big shots, including Fujiwara's awesome shootstyle headbutt, which is completely different from his pro-style headbutt . His Pro-style headbutt has him grab the hair and really rare back, the kind of showy headbutt that plays to the back row. The shootstyle headbutt is more like a ram, he bends his knees and drives the top of his head right into either the jaw or the temple of his opponent. It is so different from his pro-style headbutt, that it always looks reckless and potatoey. It really looked like he broke Barrett's jaw. The finish was awesome, Barrett is on top, and tries to maneuver for a cross armbreaker, he slips while trying to apply it, and Fujiwara pounces, grabbing his ankle and sinking in a deep ankle lock for the tap. It actual looked like Barrett blew the spot and Fujiwara just went with, although it might have been intentional. Fujiwara is an amazing defensive wrestler, and this was just a brilliant reaction spot.

Yoshiaki Fujiwara vs. Wellington Wilkins Jr. (5/19/91) (13:26)

PAS: Damn was this a blast. This was worked as a mat brawl, both guys were exchanging really nasty shots mostly on the mat. Short punches to the temple by Wilkins, almost JYDish seated headbutts by Fujiwara, Wilkins kind of leaping from a lying position into a knee on Fujiwara's throat. Fujiwara was almost working heel here, as he slaps on a kneebar and lays out in a supine lounging position with his head resting on his elbow, he almost looks like he is stifling a yawn. Wilkins is great, he has nice deadlift suplexes and takes Fujiwara's signature boston crab reversal as a dangerous neck bump. Is their any other shoot Wilkins out there? Did he work Kingdom or something?


Wayne Shamrock vs. Naoki Sano (5/19/91) (26:40)

PAS: I was pretty much in shock during this match, I couldn't believe what I was watching. I have never particularly cared for a thing Ken Shamrock has ever done, so I expected nothing out of this match, and it turned out to be as good as anything on the 80's Other Japan set. So much to love about this match, as they pretty much went back and forth from spectacular mat exchanges into awesome slugfest strike exchanges, great takedowns, into more spectacular mat exchanges.__The pacing of this was great, I especially loved how they paced their mat highspots. One guy would get in position and struggle a bit, and their would be a lull, and then super fast move into a choke or a kneebar. The crowd would pop huge for all of the mat spots, and it was the pacing of them which would really do it. Then after the mat near falls they would stand and just lay into each other with big shots, Shamrock's strikes looked way better here then in the previous match, and Sano was drilling him too. This was before Sano went to UWFI so I would guess this was his first shootstyle match ever, and he was a master of it. This was Sano's match, and while Shamrock was game, you could tell Sano was leading him. I also loved how Sano mixed in pro moves, as I actually bought an STF as a shoot submission, and a DDT as a shoot throw. I have never heard anyone even mention this match before and it is a total hidden classic.

Kazuo Takahashi vs. Mark Rush (7/26/91) (13:43)

PAS: Mark Rush was a guy I liked from the early UWF2 even though he never really had a good match. He was a amateur wrestler with an amusing circus strongman mustache. This was better then any of the UWF stuff I saw him in, and was overall pretty good. This was almost all amateur style mat exchanges which looked really good. The only striking came near the end, when Takahashi slipped in a little headbutt and they started throwing blows. Until that it almost looked like worked RPW, which came off really well.

Wayne Shamrock vs. Duane Koslowski (7/26/91) (11:58)

PAS: Koslowski is an Olympic wrestler who had some matches in UWF. He was pretty fun here, as Shamrock continues to not irritate me. Shamrock keeps him off with kicks and punches, and Koslowski gets in with a big throw or two. Really cool looking suplexes actually, looked more like Matt Hughes throws then Scott Steiner suplexes. The finish was really pretty looking as Shamrock hits a Northern lights floating over into a kneebar. It would be a really great Austin Aries spot but I don't know if I buy Shamrock throwing an Olympian, especially as smoothly. Still this was on the good side of fine.

Minoru Suzuki vs. Naoki Sano (7/26/91) (33:35)

PAS: Man am I steamed Sano only worked three matches for PWFG as he is fucking gold again. This goes to a draw which keeps it a little below the sublime Sano v. Shamrock match on the second show, but it was incredible. The counters in this were faster then in the Shamrock match, but it was paced similar. __Suzuki was the one brining the pro wrestling here, as he breaks out a nasty piledriver and even tries a dropkick. The dropkick spot was great as he threw it and Sano steps away contemptuously, Suzuki lands bounces up and hit a brutal jumping spin kick into Sano's grill. Suzuki was great here, as he is awesome as a fired up babyface, there is a point where is trying to get a cross armbreaker and he is just chopping at Sano's arm and kicking him in the head in a frenzy to try to get Sano to break his grip. There is a great spot where Sano has on a choke, and Suzuki is slapping his own face to keep himself awake. I loved the draw finish too, as both guys have kneebars on each other and are just twisting the ankles in desperation to try to get the submission before the bell. I clearly need to get more UWFI Sano, as he is truly brilliant in all of his PWFG matches, and I want more shootstyle Sano.

Yoshiaki Fujiwara vs. Masakatsu Funaki (7/26/91) (16:45)

PAS: Man was this great. This was almost completely worked on the feet, alot of throwing hands and feet. There was some mat stuff early, but it was really incidental to what was going on. I really dug Fujiwara's in fighting here. He was working over Funaki on the inside, throwing little bodyshots, and a great looking sneak short headbutt which dropped him for a count. Funaki is the guy with the reach and Fujiwara needs to conduct the match on the inside to win. Funaki was winning the distance here, and Fujiwara is awesome at selling a beating. He does almost a Flair flop when he get caught with the heel of Funaki's boot when he was going for a single leg crab. __The finish is what really made this match. Funaki drops Fujiwara with a high kick for a close ten count. Fujiwara barely beats count, and Funaki is all over him, trying to finish the fight. Thigh kicks, hooking slaps, kicks to the head he swarms all over Fujiwara against the ropes. Fujiwara is so overwhelmed that at one point he almost turns his back, which Funaki just drills him with some kidney shots, Fujiwara is able to get off the ropes but he is backpedaling eating shots, Funaki shoots confidentially for the takedown, and boom, Fujiwara catches his arm in a a Fujiwara armbar using his legs, he wrenches and Funaki has to tap out. Probably the best flash finish I have ever seen in wrestling. Really puts over Fujiwara as the master defensive wrestler, someone you can never count out, never drop your guard, as he can get you like that. Had me jumping off my couch. Just awesome stuff.

Yoshiaki Fujiwara vs. Lato Kirawarik (8/23/91) (8:13)

PAS: This was a total blast. Fujiwara puts on kickpads in the beginning of the match and decides to use his kickboxing. Really had the feel of Matt Serra breaking out his highkick, as Fujiwara just has a shit eating grin on his face the whole time he is landing axe kicks, high kicks and Tiger Mask style spin kicks on the befuddled Sumo dude. Lato does get some offense including an awesome rush where he lowers his head and gores Fujiwara like a bull. Finish was great as Lato bulls Fujiwara into the corner and pops him with shots, Soronaka breaks them up, and Fujiwara points to the ref and says something, and when Lato is distracted smacks him with a high kick. "Hey look over there...BAM"

Wayne Shamrock vs. Masakatsu Funaki (8/23/91) (24:29)

PAS: So I am going to go on record. Ken Shamrock used to rule at the pro-wrestling. I imagine if he ended up going to New Japan instead of WWF he would have had some great matches and we would all be Shamrock fans. This wasn't as good as the transcendent Shamrock v. Sano match, but it was pretty great. Both guys were clearly great athletes, and work a really fast style. I get the same vibe from this as I got from the Takada v. Yamazaki series although I like this match up more. Not a ton of selling, alot of moves, ext. Still for workrate shootstyle this was great workrate shootstyle. Great ending, with Shamrock and Funaki exchanging really fast strikes, Funaki goes for a German, ends up eating some nasty back elbows and Shamrock does a standing switch and crushes him with a dragon suplex for the KO. I was worried this was going to another 30 minute draw, and was really happy to see a winner.

DISC 2

Yusuke Fuke vs. Wellington Wilkins Jr. (9/28/91) (12:19)

PAS: This was alot of fun, as Wilkins continues to be my favorite of the random PWFG gaijin. He was really working heel here, as their was a ton of little cheap shots, a low blow, a shot on the break, kicking on the ground. At one point the ref even shoves him and I half expect him to bump like Flair to Tommy Young. Fuke gets really pissed off and is all firey and feisty.


Bart Vale vs. Naoki Sano (9/28/91) (17:01)

PAS: Sano continues to be the absolute king of PWFG as he manages to have a really fun match with Bart Vale of all people. Vale throws these wild awkward kicks, and most of the time they land weakly, Sano is anticipating where the are going and leaning deeply into them. Vale actually looks like a killer here. The mat stuff is great too, with Sano really working towards half crabs and boston crabs like they are legit shoot moves. Vale is in his Bart Vale Tudo mode too, and looked really good countering. It is a tragedy we never got a Sano v. Fujiwara or Sano v. Funaki match out of his little run.

Wayne Shamrock vs. Minoru Suzuki (9/28/91) (20:42)

PAS: I liked this alot more then their debut show match. Much like the first match, the opening was both guys working for ankle and leg locks and both guys rolling with some nice counters. The stand up and suplexes in this match looked alot better then they did in their first match, and it actually built to the finish well. Suzuki has really fast hands, and landed some really nasty combos. Shamrock official ruled in 1991, and he was throwing hands too. I love how they established Shamrocks dragon suplex as a deadly finisher. Once he hits the dragon, it is lights out, and the dragon he landed here looked like it should end a night.

Wayne Shamrock vs. Wellington Wilkins Jr. (10/17/91) (8:44)

PAS: With my new found PWFG inspired Shamrock love, and his status as a ratings dynamo, I have wondered how a current Smackdown Shamrock run would look. This match was a nice template for a fun 6 minute Shamrock v. Regal match. Wilkins brings the carnyish headbutts and cheap shots, and Shamrock is always intense. He does a really great thing where he struggles to get in position for a hold or a throw, and then there is a moment of stillness before he explodes. He does a couple of times here, especially right before he flips Wilkins for the finish, and it makes the subsequent move look even cooler.

Kazuo Takahashi vs. Masakatsu Funaki (10/17/91) (7:58)

PAS: This was another fun short match, I guess the Fuke v. Flynn epic took up all of the time. Takahashi is way below Funaki on the ladder, so he rushes Funaki at the bell and takes him down. This clearly kind of pisses Funaki off, as he stomps on his head on the break. Then the rest of the match is Takahashi eating big shots trying to get in on Funaki. He does get him down again, and Funaki is able to ankle lock him for the tap. I think it would have been better for Funaki to knock him out, rather then Takahashi getting him down just to lose, but this had a bunch of spunk and fire and was fun to watch,__

Yoshiaki Fujiwara vs. Mark Rush (10/17/91) (18:56)

PAS: Rush is a amateur guy with a comedic mustache who I always enjoy, but isn't usually in very good matches. This wasn't a Fujiwara classic, but was a lot of good clean Fujiwara style fun. Most of the first ten minutes or so was straight wrestling, with Greco locks and amateur rolling. Rush does that kind of thing very well, and Fujiwara added some touches, including reversing a ride by fishooking the ear, and faking a headbutt. Later in the match after Rush hurts Fujiwara's ribs with a suplex, Fujiwara gets nasty, laying in some headbutts, and knees to the gut for a down. __Rush really works like a typical UFC one dimensional wrestler, kind of like Rashad Evans, he has solid takedowns, but know real idea what to do on the ground. Meanwhile Fujiwara is always looking for something to hook and grab. The improvisation is one of the things I love about watching Fujiwara, he tries for a gutwrench which he kind of blows, as Rush ends up on top. Then Fujiwara just snatches the ankle from below and starts twisting.. I really enjoy watching Fujwara work all of these limited guys, he really gets a chance to play around, and the matches always put a smile on my face.

Jerry Flynn vs. Wellington Wilkins Jr. (11/3/91) (18:08)

PAS: Really great opener, clearly beats Flynn v. Meng in the BLOCK for the best Jerry Flynn match I have ever seen. Flynn may have 7 inches on Wilkins, and the match is really worked around that height difference. Flynn would pick him apart with big palm strikes and kicks on the outside, and Wilkins would be able to get inside and land some knees and headbutts. They had some really cool mat exchanges too, with Wilkins being really scrambely in grabbing for arms and legs..__

TKG: Yowza was this fun. Both guys get near falls (or momentum change stuff) built around almost busting their opponents nose. And you have all these moments where either Flynn or Wilkins have to back off to check the bridge of their nose. You quickly realize first guy to bust the other guys nose will win. You watch this and go damnit if Bischoff had only put these two guys in masks and neon gi's Blood Runs Cold would have kept that promotion alive.

Yoshiaki Fujiwara vs. Minoru Suzuki (11/3/91) (32:27)

PAS: Fujiwara had been mostly working undercards up to this point, but man does he deliver in a main event spot. Suzuki is your young guy desperate to overtake the veteran ace of the company, and he dominates here, although he is never able to put Fujiwara away. This is really all about Fujiwara as a defensive wrestler, he blocks and eludes and counters and while Suzuki would easily win a decision, there are no judges in PWFG. There are a ton of nifty little things in this match, but I especially loved the way Fujiwara used hand and wrist control. Suzuki is rarely ever able to lock anything in solid, as he is always getting his wrists and hands grabbed and twisted. I am not a big fan of the draw booking, but the finish here was great, Suzuki is getting more and more frustrated, and he and Fujiwara start shit talking at each other, and then at the end they both are working on ankle locks as the bell rings, and Suzuki refuse to let go. Then when he does he is punching the mat in anguish and frustration. Just great stuff.

TKG: Both guys were working defensively as you had sense that Suzuki was fighting to block headbutts before they were unleashed. Fujiwara tries to establish distance to headbutt and Suzuki pulls him in. Really Phil's covered the whole story here so pretty much all left to talk about are the cool little pieces like that, the multiple ways Fujiwara fights out of a choke (my favorite being this thing where he uses his feet to push his way out). Cameraman did a pretty great job here getting really expressive shots during long sleeper segment where Fujiwara spouts different types of bubbles till getting to the ropes. For a show that really had only two matches,,,this was a fucking great match.


Naoki Sano vs. Jerry Flynn (1/15/92) (18:54)

TKG: This was my second time seeing Flyn in PWFG. And fuck do I need to rewatch his series against Goldberg. Flynn's selling of Sano's KOs was surprisingly great and well Sano was just amazing. Flynn has the harder strikes and is taller but Sano can either get inside of Flyn's reach to hit his stuff or gets outside of Flynn's range, neutralizing Flyn's height. If Flyn's at the wrong distance and tries for a kick, Sano can just take him down with ease. Flynn makes a bunch of attempts at takedowns of his own but Sano can block those. The finish was fucking spectacular.

PAS: If Teddy Atlas was calling this match he would talk about the difference in how the guys can win. Sano has multiple ways to win, he can use his hand speed to win exchanges, and he can take Flynn down and submit him. Flynn only has one way to win, he has big power and can knock Sano out with big shots. Sano can either be too close for Flynn to land his big kicks, or he can use his speed to dodge them on the outside. Where Sano can't be, is in that no-man's land, neither all the way out, or all the way in. When he is in that no-man's land, at the end of Flynn's shots where he can't counter, then he gets drilled. Sano outthinks Flynn at the end, as Flynn had gotten a near KO with a brutal enzugiri earlier in the match, Flynn goes for it again, but Sano ducks and immediatly slaps on a knee bar for the finish. Really fun match, and Sano really looks like the best wrestler in the world at this point.


DISC 3

Bart Vale vs. Kazuo Takahashi (2/24/92) (14:12)

TKG: Last time I saw Takahashi he kind of bored me as guy beating Wellington Wilkins. Here Takahashi is working as more of the jobber role that Phil pimped him for. And damn is he a really great jobber just making all of Vales kicks and stuff look good. Takahashi is just great at selling the accumulated damage he takes, so each kick is sold differently than the last. I think my favorite sell was one where he eats a kick catches Vales leg and then slowly starts to loose his own legs and has to drop the caught leg. Awesome. this was fun stuff.

PAS: Yeah Takahashi is amazing as Lee Scott, making the shitty shootstyle mustachoed Sid look great. I am assuming Takahashi made the jump to Pancrase and I really don't know how being really great at selling bad kicks, transfers to shootfighting.

Yoshiaki Fujiwara vs. Yusuke Fuke (2/24/92) (17:19)

TKG: WOW. Ok this here is the match. Fujiwara goes with an early kick to the shin that just takes Fuke down in the first moments. Fuke clutches his ankle. Fujiwara makes a couple attempts at throws with Fuke reversing to the mat, and here you have this match all about Fuke being a guy with multiple cool ways to sprawl for stuff on the ground. When they stand back up Fujiwara is going to go right back at the ankle. Just a ton of different things going on in this. Fujiwara is caught in a triangle that has to be broken because they''re in the ropes... but post triangle Fujiwara just sells grogginess that leaves him open for one thing after another. This match just rules.

PAS: This was really great, and may have been the best Fujiwara, Fujiwara-Gumi match. The matwork was super here, as both guys were breaking out multiple counters to counters. My favorite is when Fuke was attempting a Boston Crab, Fujiwara tries to break out his signature crab counter, and Fuke counters it, then he tries it again and Fuke goes right for a cross armbreaker. I also loved all the fighting for holds, Fujiwara was going for the ankle and Fuke is just laying in bodyshots and headbutts, but Fujiwara refuses to let go. The shots to the knee were brutal, and I loved Fujiwara's viciousness.

Minoru Suzuki vs. Jerry Flynn (2/24/92) (10:15)

TKG: This was odd as Flynn dominates the standup and is really defensive when being worked on the mat. Defensive enough that when they go to the mat, Suzuki really isn't able to do much. In the end Flynn puts up his arms in defense on his back only to have Suzuki hook the back of them in this neat inverted full nelson. I enjoyed this but wanted better.

PAS: This was pretty good, but not a blow away match. Flynn's hair is absolutely ridiculous, he has a fluffy mullet with a part in the middle. It looked like the front of Scott Baio's hair with the back of David Brenner's hair.

Jerry Flynn vs. Kazuo Takahashi (3/20/92) (8:32)

PAS: Takahashi is the perfect guy to open a show, as he does his usual amazing job of selling for Flynn's kicks. Including even doing the Red Bastien bump where he slides down the ring ropes bumping his head on all of them.

TKG: Yeah I am now totally sold on Takahashi as he is greatest shoot style jobber ever. Not sure how being really great at selling kicks translated when he went to Pancrase...but he could have made Ric Blade look like a K-1 fighter if he went to CZW. the US crowd chanting along with all the ten counts, chanting "Go Jerry Go" and counting along for the downed palm strikes as though they were punches in the corner was fucking great.


Yusuke Fuke vs. Diusuel Berto (3/20/92) (7:41)

PAS: Diusuel Berto is a black guy who really looks like a ton like Brickhouse Brown. He kind of works like you would expect Brickhouse Brown to work if he was thrown into a worked shoot promotion. Using a superkick as his main strike. I loved the finish, as Fuke puts on a kneebar, and Berto sells it like Shaska Whatley in a figure four, before finally tapping.

TKG: Berto also does a couple of fun amateur style twists. But it was pretty much his savate kicks which Fuke sells all shoot styleish. Fuke eventually catches a savate kick to be caught a enziguri. Fuke sells the enziguri as shoot shot to back of head. Fun.

Minoru Suzuki vs. Ken Shamrock (Miami 3/20/92) (14:09)

TKG: This was fun. Shamrock has a bunch of throws and really a neat showcase for all he can do. took a while to get the crowd into it and this was before Suzuki really developed any of his heel shtick but once they had the crowd this was a fun good lil match.

PAS: I liked this alot, the couple of Shamrock v. Funaki matches which proceeded this were really hurt by going too long. They were full of dead spots and time killing matwork. Here Shamrock comes out and works a 10 minute sprint with Suzuki that dispensed with the stuff that held back the later match. This was a Shamrock focused match, and Suzuki was sort of along for the ride, still it was great.

Yoshiaki Fujiwara vs. Bart Vale (Miami 3/20/92) (15:51)

TKG: Bart Vale comes in to a huge local pop. I mean fucking huge pop. Fujiwara comes in with a trophy. Fujiwara taunts Vale offers to shake his hand then pulls away to comb his hair and fuck its Fujiwara as touring Japanese guy vs. your top regional star. Vale and Fujiwara pretty much keep this standing.Mostly Fujiwara bumping around eating kicks and then throwing tight headbutts in the clinch. Headbutts knock Vale down and get the crowd to boo. Fujiwara walks around with great taunting expressions. Vale eventually retaliates for the headbutts by hitting short headbutts while the two are ted up on the ground. Fujiwara goes to the ref to complain about the headbutts. It rules. Crowd is fucking great. Disappointed that there was no rice thrown but outside of that this is what you wanted out of this.

PAS: This owned, Fujiwara is the worlds best Toru Tanaka. It was really fun to watch him work a completely different style, then he works in a normal PWFG show. He isn't the legend that the young guys have to get past, he is the dirty foreigner cheap shotting your local hero. No real Fujiwara matwork or reversals, no cool moves to speak of, but it was great.

Minoru Suzuki vs. Ken Shamrock (4/19/92) (18:27)

PAS: This was really fun. Clearly your main eventers made some friends in Miami as they have all come back with 15 pounds of muscle. Shamrock is especially preposterous looking as he looks like Popeye with crazy outsized upper body and slim waste. Actually hard to concentrate on the match. Lots of nice exchanges from both guys, and an amazing finish as Shamrock tries to lift Suzuki for a big throw, and Suzuki locks on a choke in midair for the win.

TKG: Aww man. They just spent a lot of time working out with Gotch's equipment. A lot of time. It's Florida in the earl nineties. Yeah it was the early nineties they were in Florida, of course they bought drugs. Who wouldn't. If you're in NYC you buy a foam Statue of Liberty head piece, if you're in Hawaii you go to a Luau, you're in Thailand you fuck a 12 year old, you're in Florida in the early nineties you buy drugs. I imagine Bart Vale set up the meet. Shamrock was all nervous as Funaki started singing along to the Freak Nasty on the dealers boom box. It was distracting watching kung fu billy Graham with hair. Still really fun match. Shamrock was all about throws with Suzuki scrambling around on the mat after taking them..and finish ruled. Post match Suzuki jumps up and down and runs around the ring like a BJ Penn.

Masakatsu Funaki vs. Roberto Duran (4/19/92) (13:43)

PAS: This was alot better then I expected it to be. Meltzer described this match in the Funaki bio as Duran refusing to do anything, but that really wasn't true at all. In fact I can't imagine what else he possibly could have done, he threw alot of punches, jabs and nice bodywork, and he ate a couple of big throws. Funaki actually seemed unwilling to eat any punches to his pretty face, as Duran would connect to the body, but Funaki would dodge or deflected any punches to the face. In fact Duran only landed one punch to the face, a nice hook which he followed with two shots to the body. It would have been the perfectly place for Funaki to drop for a dramatic 8 count, but instead he shoots and gets a neck crank for the tap. It really felt like he wanted no more of Duran, pussy, no wonder he didn't allow punches to the face in Pancrase.

TKG: Yeah this was way more fun than I expected it to be. Duran takes a bunch of bumps and sells desperation by grabbing ropes when Funaki goes for clinch. Duran works first two rounds with his shirt on and then before the third round takes the shirt off and it's "oh shit he dropped the strap". Match ended too abruptly. I would have liked to see Duran vs. a better worker. Duran has to job and pretty much has to job to a "no mas " submission. Did 2 Cold have a submission move? Too Cold is flashy enough but really isn't pretty enough to play Sugar Ray Leonard.

Minoru Suzuki vs. Kazuo Takahashi (5/15/92) (11:47)

TKG: Suzuki works pretty heelish in this refusing to break, fishhooking etc. Takahashi is just a fucking great jobber selling frustration at all of this stuff.

PAS: We have talked allot about how great Takahashi is at selling strikes, but this match was all about him selling chokes and submissions. Early the in the match Suzuki gets a front neck crank, and Takahashi is choking and spitting like he just swallowed a wasp. After he loses to choke his whole face is red and he is gasping like he has a peanut allergy.

Ken Shamrock vs. Bart Vale (5/15/92) (18:33)

PAS: This was pretty fun, although at this point Shamrock has done really distracting things to his body. His pectoral muscles are rectangular and he doesn't appear to have nipples anymore, he kind of looks like a He-Man action figure. I really like how Bart Vale sells the knock down, he kind of crumples with his head in his hands like his wife just told him that his daughter wasn't really his

TKG: Shamrock's body is really weird. Also Shamrock decides to debut lots of head and shoulder movement. Lots of juking stuff and well he isn't good at the head movement at all. Like a Def Jam comedian parody of a white guy dancing. You expect Vale to figure out the timing and just nail Shamrock. This was better than I expected. It ends really weird as Shamrock throws some tiff knees and then Vale has this look on his face like "Oh we're no longer working" and throws the stiffest stuff he's ever thrown and Shamrock eats a KO. Vale just throws a nasty palm strike followed by a couple kicks. First time I've seen someone eat a KO from Vale where I actually bought that it should knock someone out. And it wasn't because of the selling.


DISC 4

Yoshiaki Fujiwara vs. Bart Vale (6/25/92) (20:56)

TKG: This was really great. Opening was like a mat sprint as Vale has to go for four rope escapes and eats on KO in opening five minutes. Never felt one sided but it was all about Vale and Fujiwara having exchanges on the mat with Fujiwara winning the exchange. Next ten minutes were more competitive but still felt like Fujiwara always able to win no matter how much Vale controlled. By end Vale really was finally able to outwrestle Fujiwara's guile and gets three knock outs leading to the final KO. This is the best Vale has looked in these things as he had really neat submission attempts, vices, mat work, etc and his KO strikes looked like they were actual KO strikes.

PAS: This was awesome, each mat exchange didn't just have one reversal, it had reversals reversed into a reversal. Alot of Fujiwara's signature reversals got modified as Vale countered their initial move. I don't know what the politics of the promotion were, but Fujiwara doesn't job to anyone but he does two straight jobs to Vale without ever getting the win back. This really was the only match where Vale actual looked good enough to deserve to go over Fujiwara.

Yuki Ishikawa vs. Kazuo Takahashi (7/27/92) (18:42)

PAS: This was Ishikawa's first awesome match in an awesome career. Takahashi really brutalizes him in the way you should brutalize rookies, including some nasty shoot headbutts, and hard slaps. Ishikawa fights back and lands some big shots of his own, and it actually gets pretty competitive for a minute, until Takahashi nearly rips his leg off with a one leg boston crab.

TKG: Yeah, Ishikawa vs. Suzuki started more competitive. This was awesome as Takahashi absoutely disrespectfully abuses Ishikawa. Shoot headbutts, face slaps, grinding his elbow into Ishikawa's nose, grinding his fist into Ishikawa's mouth, slow on rope breaks, nasty nasty punches to charlie horse the thigh, refusal to lock up when standing etc. Ishikawa just takes it and eventually comes back with a nasty shot to Takahashi's kidney and all of a sudden its on. Ishikawa tries to return the headbutts in kind. Takahashi starts to kind of punch himself out and really the kidney shot slows him a bunch. All of a sudden Takahashi is forced to accept Ishikawa and agrees to lock fingers when they get back to their feet. But the moral victory doesn't mean an actual victory. Still fucking neat neat story told through really brutal shots.

Johnny Barrett vs. Yoshiaki Fujiwara (7/27/92) (6:33)

TKG: Barrett has gotten huge. I mean he was big before but now he looks like Tugboat Taylor. He also has balded some more and grown some facial hair. His face has grown really dignified. Like a head chef at a fancy restaurant. His body meanwhile looks like a fry chef at a bowling alley. They do this opening section where Fujiwara counters a judo throw into an ankle lock which was awesome. They do a Super Porky in the partier section where Barretta rides Fujiwara and Fujiwara can't get out from under the weight while Barrett isn't able to hook in anything. Fujiwara takes Barrett down. Barrett tries to get up from partier but crafty Fujiwara slips on arm bar using his leg. Whole thing is just awesome 4 minute match.

PAS: I think Barret looks less like Taylor then a mix of Mukhan Singh and Dean Rassmussen. Both PWFG Barrett v. Fujiwara matches have been really short and fun. I get the sense they could have a really great 20+ minute main event. I think Barrett has had a pretty interesting career, he went from Florida indy guy, to WCW jobber, to shootstyle guy, to Chicago indy luchadore. Goodhelemet really needs to make a 10 DVD Johnny Barrett comp.__

Wayne Shamrock vs. Jerry Flynn (7/27/92) (12:44)

TKG: This had just a bunch of cool things going for it. Flynn's defensive stuff is always neat. there's this point where Shamrock has Flynn down and tries to grab for something. Flynn is able to defensively block every Shamrock attempt at a grab. Shamrock goes for a suplex and Flynn manages to defend while in the air. When Shamrock does have Flynn caught, Flynn makes one or two attempts to break free but always ends up going for the ropes. Flynn can defend but once Shamrock has him he struggles to escape. Its a kind of neat little thing they have going. There also is neat stand up section where Flynn gets a fall which only makes Shamrock more aggressive.__

PAS: This was a really fun Monday Night Wars Nitro v. RAW match. I would have liked to see the Dan Severn v. Glacier match that would semi-main this show. Shamrock's body is getting even weirder, his abdomen has weird lumps on it, like his six pack is bottles not cans. Flynn's stand up stuff looked really great here, and I love Shamrock's KO selling.

Yoshiaki Fujiwara vs. Mark Rush (8/15/92) (18:40)

PAS: When I got all of this Fujiwara-Gumi I was hoping that the promotion would be like WAR, a fun undercard headlined by a big main event, with Fujiwara in the Tenryu role. Instead for the most part Funaki and Suzuki have been main eventing and Fujiwara has been working mostly fun midcard matches. This however was a midcard match worked like a big main event. Rush is an amateur guy who kind of has a circus strongman look, and this was worked like a match against a circus strongman amateur. Rush could take Fujiwara down at will, and really punish him on the ground with strength holds, chokes, body vices, bear hugs. While Fujiwara would be trying to maneuver him into joint locks and submissions. Very cool story and really well executed, the first time I have seen Rush in a complete wrestling match, and a really hidden gem for Fujiwara fanatics.

TKG: Yeah this had a real main event feel. And I like Phil's mention of carny circus stuff as this was built all around chokes/sleepers/front chanceries like a battle for Weaver lock. There is this one odd section in it where Fujiwara is caught in a choke tries to escape and then just starts to drool, and it's amazingly dramatic and you think that its a finish but for some reason its counted as a down and Fujiwara is given a ten count to get back to his feet. Fujiwara gets back up and its on again. Odd to count passing out in a sleeper as a down but once you get past that, it really works nicely in this.

Joe Malenko vs. Minoru Suzuki (8/15/92) (16:05)

PAS: Joe Malenko baby. Malenko is so smooth in everything he does. Just awesome to watch him roll on the mat. His selling of kick is really awesome too. The match is broken up by rounds, and I think that hurts the flow of the match. Feels like it would have been better as one match, although they did a nice job of having the rounds break up near falls.

TKG: I liked the rounds as they did a couple of one guy loosing momentum saved by the bell stops, followed by the next round starting where no one has advantage at the start. . Malenko and Suzuki working each other on the mat was just neat to watch. And well Malenko sells stuff like he's frustrated. It's not that he's just in pain but that he's also frustrated that body can't take the pain. like he expects more of himself. Neat.

Naniev Olegg vs. Jerry Flynn (9/2/92) (11:42)

TKG: This is first actively good match on the show. Its a worked shoot show, and sometimes you forget that. Here the two guys really felt uncooperative in a real way that made the whole thing more dramatic. Both guys doing stuff with a type of indifference to opponent. That kind of aura combined with what felt like lots of receipt spots and super nasty finish made this for a fun match.__

PAS: Olegg was rocking the pink singlet and pink wrestling boots, Camron style. I am looking forward to watching the entire Soviet Dipset on the dome show. Flynn was great in this as he was the guy really controlling the match, as Olegg seemed to occasionally not understand what he was supposed to do.__

Bart Vale vs. Kazuo Takahashi (9/2/92) (13:54)

TKG: HOLY SHIT, this ruled. Takahashi is a guy who could make Stan Lane's kicks look devastating. Meanwhile Bart Vale has learned how to kick. Bart Vale has actually gotten pretty good as all his offense looks really sharp, his defense (when he's on the bottom in a mat sequence ) is really engaging, and his pacing is just solid. The best Takahashi is when he's working as underdog trying to hang with a guy above him. Bad Bart Vale is bad because he's worked as though he's higher echelon worker while his actual stuff looks garbage. Here he actually felt like a high level guy. And Takahashi can sell scrappy guy taking a beating like nobody else.

PAS: This was spectacular, Takahashi may be the guy I am most bummed about leaving for Pancrase. He has gotten almost 1993 Kikuchi great at selling and taking a beating. Vale was a real stink bomb for the UWF2 and the early PWFG, but at this point he may even be better then Shamrock. There was a great exchange where Takahashi is desperately trying for a leglock, and gets cut off by a highkick which he sells like death. You can see Fujiwara in the corner totally marking out, and making Fujiwara mark out means something.

Joe Malenko vs. Georgui Galdava (10/4/92) (7:40)

PAS: This was great as Galdava is quite an awesome fake Volk Han, and Joe Malekno is Joe Malenko. Lots of nasty leg twisting counters, and Galdava had some really great amateur throws. The finish was awesome too, as Malenko nearly touches Galdava's foot to his head.

TKG: Good gawd the finish pretzel hold was narsty. They did a bunch of meaningful rope breaks for a fed where no one has ever lost due to rope breaks. Still both guys worked "frustrated" by opponents ability to escape to ropes. This was filled with neat shifting of levels as one guy moved from bottom to top and then was moved back to bottom again.

Naoki Sano vs. Jerry Flynn (10/4/92) (9:32)

PAS: Sano was the show stealer for a bunch of the 1991 PWFG so I am amped to see him back. The opening was basically kickboxing, and Sano has some great leg kicks, just tremendous velocity and force. There was some really nice mat stuff too, and a really hot finish. All you would want from an undercard shootstyle match.

TKG: Yeah these two match up nicely. Last time they matched up it was more Flynn as the better striker vs. Sano as better mat guy. Here story a little more complicated as both bring different types of skills to the stand up game and different types of skills to the mat one. And you have a sense that either can play into the hands of either wrestler. the throw into the finish was super great too.

Bart Vale vs. Aleksei Medvedved (10/4/92) (8:51)

PAS: Medvedved has shaved his chest hair so he looks a little less Boratish then he did last time. He was still rocking the lemon lime unitard (I call it a Sprite). The Russians were really wearing more candy paint then Young Joc's Cadillac on this show. Vale has gotten so good, and this had the illusion of being competitive with Medvedved really being unable to do much. Aleksei did have an almost Takahashish ability to sell a knockdown though.

TKG: The shaving of the chest may give Medvedved a less Boratish look. but his arm swings and gait really give him a Borat/Eugeneish feel. Vale keeps on pasting him in the forehead as Medvedved prances around circling. Last time we saw Medvedved he was pretty much squashed here he's in this competitive match where you really get a sense of how good Vale is. At this point I think Vale has pretty much lapped all the guys who are about to go to Pancrase as workers. The mat stuff was sweet and the standup was filled with super nasty Vale kicks.

Duane Koslowski vs. Naniev Olegg (10/4/92) (9:32)

TKG: I was expecting this to be the least of the Florida guys vs. Russians but this was surprisingly good. Olegg brings alot more to the table than Medvedved and this actually is nicely paced with both fighting for advantage as this really felt like a high scoring RPW match. The finisher with Olegg putting a reverse figure four on Koslowski's left leg was spectacular.

PAS: Koslowski had been consistently been a guy with cool spots in search of a guy to put a match together. He never got a singles against Fujiwara who I think could do it, one wouldn't think a match against a Russian would be his best, but this was really good. It really felt like a RINGS match, with alot of countering and shifting on this mat. The finish was just amazing.

Yoshiaki Fujiwara vs. Zaour Chabadze (10/4/92) (7:35)

TKG: So Chabadze is a Russian champion Arm Wrestler and I was going into this fully expecting a hard head vs. claw match. While that would have been spectacular this was every bit as good if not greater. For an arm wrestling champ Chabadze isn't built like Scott Norton or Big Daddy Goodridge. Instead he has just this huge apelike wingspan as his arms look twice the length of his torso and are filled with just multitude of muscles. Match is really all about Chabadze dominating Fujiwara on the ground through arm strength. Fujiwara tries to keep his arms together and tries to manipulate his center of gravity to keep from just being thrown around by Chabadze' s wings. And eventually Chabadze gets fed up and asks for a standup. there's this huge pop as guy who dominated on ground needs standup. Fujiwara goes to corner wipes the sweat off his body by rubbing himself against turnbuckle. And slaps Chabadze across the face. Man this match rules.

PAS: The reason this match was better then anything on the show was the way Fujiwara can establish hierarchies. While Malenko v. Galdava was alot of fun as was Koslowski v. Olegg, they were basically worked as two even guys rolling on the mat looking for advantages. Here Chabadze is a monster, he can take Fujiwara down at will as is so strong that Fujiwara is helpless on the mat. So the crowd is super hot because it looks like the aging legend is going to get steamrolled, does he have any tricks left this is the worlds greatest Rocky 4.


DISC 5

Yuki Ishikawa vs. Mark Ashford-Smith (12/5/92) (15:36)

PAS: Mark Ashford-Smith is Mark Starr of Men at Work fame, your WCWSN fans will remember that he had a great series against Steve Regal so we know he can work the mat and take a whipping. Here he works the mat and takes a whipping, although he lays it in too, I especially loved the forearms to the back of Ishikawa's neck. There was a great straight punch by Ishikawa into a running knee which was straight out of the Diego Sanchez v. Joe Riggs finish, although Mark Starr is tougher then Joe Riggs as he only took an 8 count.

TKG: Mark Ashford-Smith is Mark Starr of Wildside fame, your USWA fans will know he can work a crowd and work a brawl. He didn't really do any brawling here as this was mostly on the mat. This goes 21 minutes and never drags as you feel like only six or seven minutes have passed when they put up the time. You want to see this.

Minoru Suzuki vs. Jerry Flynn (12/5/92) (10:58)

PAS: Flynn was a guy who used mostly kicks in his early PWFG matches, he does alot more matwork and is much more balanced in later stuff. In some ways it makes his matches a little less interesting, as he works the same style as everyone else now. This match had a bunch of really nice exchanges and counters, and was bascially a fine match. I still get the sense it would have been better if Flynn was a little more one dimensional.

TKG: I liked this a lot more than Phil. The basic thing about Flynn is that he does allot of defensive stuff. Allot of his kickboxing is very defensive oriented. And a big chunk of his mat work is defense based. Suzuki is constantly a flutter on the mat constantly sprawling trying something new. Thats the contrast that this match is about. As this match really had no stand up, but it was Suzuki on the mat trying to advance past Flynn's defenses while Flynn is looking for Suzuki to overreach and make a mistake so Flynn can catch Suzuki. Suzuki is taking risks, while Flynn exploits those risks._

Yoshiaki Fujiwara vs. Wayne Shamrock (12/5/92) (13:48)

PAS: Very cool match, Shamrock is really athletic and has great spots, you get a guy like Fujiwara or Sano to put that into a match it will be really great. The first part of the match has Shamrock using that athleticism to take Fujiwara down and get him into submissions, but Fujiwara has an answer for everything, and keeps doing awesome reversals into submissions. I really think Fujiwara is the greatest counter wrestler ever. Shamrock finally gets fed up with taking him down, and starts kickboxing. He gets a quick down, and then knocks him out with an enziguri to Fujiwara's face. The match feels a little truncated, especially considering how rarely Fujiwara loses. The standup section really should have gone a little longer, as Fujiwara kind of got squashed as soon as they stood.

TKG: I don't have much to add to what Phil says here other than I really liked the process of Fujiwara getting escapes. As he goes from guy caught to guy struggling to guy coming up with something in a visually exciting way When Fujiwara is beat you can tell he's beat as he seems just completely unprepared for the change in tactics._

Masakatsu Funaki vs. David Gobedjshvilli (12/5/92) (8:44)

PAS: This is Funaki's swan song to overtly worked wrestling as went off to Pancrase after this match. This was better then most Funaki matches, as it had a cool story. Gobedjshvilli had some giant looking takedowns, which Funaki couldn't stop, but Funaki was picking him apart standing, I especially loved Funaki working low kicks dropping his guard to land a big high kick. Funaki finishes with an ankle submission which is counter to what they were doing, but it's Funaki you can't expect everything. 

TKG: Gobedjihishivi really works like a guy who has no idea of how to defend against the kicks. At one point he tries a karate kid crane stance. He tries to shift to a southpaw stance. Gobedjihishivi spent his childhood watching bootleg kung fu movies poorly dubbed into Russian and damnit he was going to try every crouching stance he could remember. You can watch the Russian's childhood illusions crumble as one drunken tiger stance after another fails him.

Jerry Flynn vs. Diuseul Berto (6/1/93) (16:08)

PAS: I was totally blown away by this match. Berto is a guy who we knew had some fun spots and really great sperm, but nothing he did before really prepared us for a match this good. In my previous review I had talked about liking one dimensional kicker Jerry Flynn better then multifaceted Jerry Flynn, but here was the match where he put it all together. The mat work was great, I especially loved this crossarmbreaker spot, where he was able to shift his body and hold on to the hold even as Berto was rolling him around the ring. He also had a great rear naked choke off of a missed high kick. Then when he unleashed the stand up, you had some great back and forth exchanges with Berto, who's goofy Ninja kicks actually landed well.

TKG: This was AMAZING. Not just surprising since "better than should be" but actively really good. Second best match on show. In the past most of Flynn's matwork has been built around him working defensive. here he was aggressive moving from one submission attempt to other. Berto would get off his strikes in bunches. It wasn't that he had impressive hand speed or impressive combinations but rather that he would just get the strikes off in bunches before Flynn would be able to get off a response (normally a shotayish jab). Berto also had some really great Nipsy Russelesque selling of knock downs. Match was filled with hot near falls, my favorite being one where Berto maneuvers out of way of a kick dodging it in such a way that Flynn ends up behind Berto and gets him in a choke.

Yuki Ishikawa vs. Carl Greco (6/1/93) (21:50)

PAS: There is alot of patterns in Fujiwara booking, as this was clearly worked like your Minoru Suzuki v. Wayne Shamrock, young native v. young gaijin. This was a little less juniorsish, and had a finish, so I liked it more then most of those matches. Plus it's Yuki Ishikawa, even incubatory Ishikawa is still Ishikawa. There is alot more matwork in PWFG Ishikawa v. BattlArts Ishikawa, so I keep waiting for Ishikawa to punch Greco in the face. Still if you watch it without that expectation, it is really great._

TKG: I didn't like this as much as Phil. I'm not a big fan of the Takada vs. Yamazaki type of juniors style shootstyle matches. And there were moments that were a little too juniorsish in the early parts. Although Ishikawa stays away from juniors style "selling" . This does pick up by the sixth rope break as the submissions are sufficiently nasty and the mat reversals are sufficiently neat. Ishikawa never punches Greco right in the face but he is willing to eat a kick right in his own face. This show is great from top to bottom. I don't know if you can run a Japanese promotion with only two Japanese workers but Ishikawa is a great second native._

Bart Vale vs. Mark Ashford-Smith (6/1/93) (11:53)

PAS: I don't know if Ashford-Smith has any martial arts backround. I do know that his brother was a master of the deadly killing arts of the Orient, but don't know about him. What he is really amazing at is selling though. He eats kicks amazingly, I actually though Vale KO'ed him on the first high kick, as he looked like the recipient of an early Mike Tyson left hook. I mean Vale looked like a killer, almost to the point where it hurts the match that the match isn't over after the first shot. Vale is awesome at this point, and really controls the match.

TKG: This is 1993 so MMA was really in its most primitive form, Ashford-Smith had the advantage of coaching from 2002 era MMA. Nonetheless, Ashford-Smith was the underdog here with Vale dominating. We keep on saying that Vale has gotten really good but it needs to be repeated. Ashford-Smith has good mat work although it feels a little pro style at points and he eats kicks really well but again he eats them with spectacular bumps. not the type of cumulative damage bumps that Takahashi took. Still I get sense that Mark Starr has a ton of potential as a shoot style worker. Did Mark Starr ever feud with Jumping Gary Albright in Memphis?

Yoshiaki Fujiwara vs. Joe Malenko (6/1/93) (17:41)

PAS: This was so much fun, just a pair of true maestros pulling pushing and twisting each other until someone gives. This wasn't an exchange of holds, it was a constant battle by both men to find some advantage or defense. This was really a Malenko show, as he controlled with great takedowns, and constant attacking, with Fujiwara really focused on defense. Of course Fujiwara is the greatest defensive pro-wrestler of all time, so the defense stuff ruled.

TKG: This was a Malenko show. My favorite thing that he did was use his knee and shin as simple machine, constantly pushing it against stuff to act as a lever, inclined plane or wedge to force Fujiwara to move one body part or another, worlds most violent physics demonstration.

Jerry Flynn vs. Mark Ashford-Smith (7/21/93) (26:31)

TKG: This is more multifaceted Flynn and he's really fun in this both standing and on the ground. So this fed had a rope break/down scoring system with no one ever winning by TKO due to the system. Untill Ashford-Smith shows up and does it twice in a row and it rules. Ashford-Smith again takes some great bumps for kicks and it feels like he is starting to modulate the degree of the bumps. Does a great sell for the Sano/Zbysco back kick to the gut. Not sure if I buy him as a guy who has the tools to win a match yet. His best submission here was a nasty looking body vice. Flynn has a gut and it looked like it was being squeezed right off. But for the most part Ashford-Smith's mat work was all about trying to break opponents grip spots. He has weirdly learned how to throw really great knees. And well most of your actual guys trained primarily in worked shoot have a hard time throwing good looking knees. Odd that he can do it right out of the box. 

PAS: This took a while to get going, but mad did it kick into gear when it did. Did these guys ever match up on WCW Pro. I would assume their Pro match wouldn't have the matwork, but might have the Ashford-Smith sell of kicks. Tom was right about the knees, I especially loved Ashford-Smiths knee from his back, which was brutal looking and got a great 9 count. The finish here was great as both guys were attempting to lock on knee bars, and Flynn locked it, causing Ashford-Smith to go to the ropes where he was TKO'ed because he was out of rope breaks. 

Bart Vale vs. Yuki Ishikawa (7/21/93) (17:31)

TKG: This ruled. PWFG does some neat hierarchy booking here and there. Last time we saw Ishikawa he was working Greco where the two worked young flashy guys who were more or less even. Here he's working Vale who is several levels above him. the problem with Vale in UWF was that he was protected by the booking, booked as a top guy when his work didn't feel like top guy work. Now he actually has learned to work like the Man. And so this is like Ric Flair vs Sam Houston. Except it isn't about Vale coming in underestimating young Houston. This is about Houston coming in underestimating himself. Early parts of this were worked with Ishikawa as guy just trying not to loose, as match goes on he gains more confidence...confidence that he can hang and maybe challenge. Ishikawa goes from tentative to guy taking risks and crowd pops as Ishikawa grows in confidence. Vale has an answer for everything Ishikawa does but Vale also sells enough that Ishikawa's attempts come off really dramatic. I mean Vale isn't Funaki trying to put over being top guy by no selling. Vale sells big time. Really hot match. _

PAS: Teddy Atlas will often talk about a fighter "doing just enough to lose the fight." Early in this match Ishikawa was doing just enough to lose. He is moving away, attempting a leg takedown, but really much more concerned with avoiding Vale then trying an attack. Then as the match goes on, there are a couple of big moments where Ishikawa lets it all out and the flurries are much more impressive because of how tentative he was earlier. Ishikawa was really amazing as guy growing before our eyes._


DISC 6

Mark Ashford-Smith vs. Carl Greco (9/23/93) (22:46)

PAS: This was pretty good match, there were parts that felt a little awkward, but allot of good stuff too. Ashford-Smith had a bunch of really great looking chokes, various different styles of choke, all of which looked good. Greco looked good too, he had a lot of nice ankle locks, where Ashford-Smith would counter and he would shift the atttack. They also used more rope breaks then usual, and near the end of the match both guys were close to the limit. Ashford-Smith didn't get knocked down once, which is his forte, yet I still liked this.

TKG: I didn't like this as much as Phil. I had a sense that these two guys had a potentially better match down the line. I kind of want to see this after they work it around the horn and get all the kinks worked out. Once in a while things felt too cooperative. Both guys did have some nice throws and for the first time I had the sense that Ashford-Smith was a guy who could finish a match as all his submissions looked absolutely nasty. Phil mentions the chokes but he also had some nice heel hooks. Ashford-Smith didn't do any of his dramatic kick eats but he did some really pro-style dramatic dives for rope breaks._

Charlie Anderson vs. Jerry Flynn (9/23/93) (11:27)

PAS: I watched this after seeing Kawada v. Nakamura, and Suzuki v. Nagata, and this smoked both of them. Anderson is kind of green at this style (or any style, anyone know who the fuck this guy is?) but Flynn is a total master. I thought initial this would be a squash as Flynn comes out way more aggressive then normal. throwing some big shots, and Anderson has an almost Ashford-Smithish selling style. Anderson is able to get some really nice takedows though using leverage nicely. The finish was a shocker, as I thought Anderson had no chance but he was able to reverse a missed enziguri into a one leg crab for the tap. Really fun, and I am going to miss watching Flynn.

TKG: This was really good and I too will really miss Flynn. Favorite thing was Anderson would go for a takedown and Flynn would immediately move into defensive clinch as soon as he lands. Anderson goes for simple hiptoss and finds himself completely tied up on the ground with Flynn. This really felt like a match built around Anderson showing his toughness by hanging with Flynn. Anderson worked like overmatched guy and so the finish came as a real shock.

Bart Vale vs. Joe Malenko (9/23/93) (11:36)

TKG: I think Vale and Flynn are being jobbed out as they leave the territory. PWFG is moving from one school of Florida indy guys to another. And so we have this battle of Maestro's/Promoters , like Zandig v. Fat Frank. Well a lot better than that. This ruled. Vale has gotten really great and Malenko can twist a guy into all kinds of pretzels. Vale dominates standing and Malenko has a bunch of amusing kick sells. My favorite is when he sold like a carnival duck game eating a kick that turned him around and than eating another turning himself back, but this is a battle of Maestor's and Vale needs to prove himself and he keeps on going for takedowns. Vale goes for takedown, Malenko goes for submission, Vale goes for escape...and just all really sweet looking.

PAS: This was great, this might have been Bart Vale's last professional wrestling match, and it was a heck of a swan song. Joe Malenko, much like Dean has a standard match, and it is up to his opponents to insert themselves into it. Vale does a really nice job of working into a Joe Malenko match, and adds some Bart Vale touches. Malenko comes up with some just awesome ways to twist and turn Vale's bodyparts, but Vale also has great counters and reversals.

Duane Kozlowski vs. Yuki Ishikawa (9/23/93) (11:44)

PAS: This was a really great show, and this was the best match on the show. This is Ishikawa's first main event, and he is fully in the top young native role previously held by Takada in UWF and Funaki earlier in PWFG. The young native v. top outsider match is a staple match in these promotions and Ishikawa is really better at it then either of his predecessors. The match opens with a really great stare down, and you get a big match buzz even before the bell, Koslowki dominates most of the match with beautiful throws, but each of Ishikawa's comebacks is really milked for the most effect. I bought all the near falls, and Koslowki's backslide into a choke was totally awesome. Just a total blast, and Ishikawa feels like a made guy. 

TKG: Match was all about big hot spots. The two compete for big throws and when the throw comes its this big crowd popping spot. Match was about building heat for the big throws, and the dramatic submission attempts. Match about working toward crowd heat. For a guy who worked prelim matches against a guy who really hasn't had a high end PWFG match--Ishikawa v. Koslowski really had this great MAIN EVENT FEEL.

Carl Greco vs. Katsumi Usuda (10/29/93) (22:02)

PAS: Shootstyle is this weird style where you can be really great right out of the blocks. This is possibly Usuda's first match and he was already awesome. Greco is really fun here too, as he has really athletic mat work. Really great flipping counters and attempts. Usuda wasn't kicking the shit out people like he would in BattlArts, but his mat stuff was super too, I especially loved the double hammerlock submission. This was a draw that didn't feel like a draw and made me want to see the rematch badly._

TKG: Usuda was kicking pretty damn hard but yeah a lot of this was about Greco's really athletic counters and stuff. I especially liked his head stand flip to get to the ropes. Usuda also caught Greco's knee at one point and Greco leaped up to knock Usuda with the other one. Neat athletic escapes and counters. At no point in this match did I think it was going to a draw. Really surprised when it happens.

Yoshiaki Fujiwara vs. Masaji Aoyagi (10/29/93) (14:25)

TKG: This is worked rounds style with Fujiwara wrestling barefoot. First round is the two exchanging kicks until Fujiwara gets take down and moves toward submission when bell rings. Second round is Aoyagi dominating standup with Fujiwara fighting off a ten count when the bell rings. Third round ends with Aoyagi caught in submission in center of ring struggling to fight off the pain till the bell rings. Fourth has this amazing strike exchange section in corner where Aoyagi hammers Fujiwara with karate strikes to the guts and kidneys and Fujiwara fights back with nasty punches to the kidneys. I liked this alot although on some level it was disappointing. I don't think it was as good as the better Fujiawara vs. Sayama matches and well Aoyagi is better than Sayama. Part of the problem is that Fujiwara works as kickboxer for lots of this so you don't have the kicker vs. wrestler dynamic that the Sayama v. Fujiwara and Aoyagi vs. Onita matches have. Instead you have a match where Fujiwara is the more well rounded mixed martial arts fighter vs. Aoyagi working as the more one dimensional MMA guy. Fight between two one dimensional guys with different one dimension is gonna be more intriguing than one dimensional guy vs. multidimensional one. 

PAS: The first part of this felt a little too much like a mixed match, like Aoyagi was playing the Mo Smith role, and he brings way more to the table then Mo Smith. It really kicked into gear though, and Aoyagi clearly saw Fujiwara drinking earlier as he seemed to be targeting his kidneys. Which is a spot I am shocked no one ever used with either Sandman or Austin. While I didn't like Fujiwara's kickboxing that much, his punch exchanges with Aoyagi at the end were spectacular.

Joe Malenko vs. Yuki Ishikawa (10/29/93) (22:00)

TKG: This is an odd match in several ways. On one level its worked like a lucha slow burn match where two guys are working technico v technico and slowly getting more and more pissed. It is also being worked in a real master vs. student way with Joe Malenko really twisting and slapping around Ishikawa as though he were trying to toughen up the youngster. Those are two odd stories to be working simultaneously. Then you get the weirdness of Malenko controlling most of the match while losing on points. For first half of match Malenko always seems to be more in control but he's the guy who has eaten more downs and gone for rope breaks more. Malenko' stuff is really cool and he does this one takedown that is like an inverted Russian leg sweep that is absolutely spectacular. I dug this a bunch but one of those matches where you watch it excited more about the prospect of rematch than you are excited by the actual match your watching. After match it looks like they have a post match pull apart that they decided to edit out.

PAS: I thought it was worked less like a lucha techinico v. technico match, then a face v. face technical U.S. match, where you were waiting for the tempers to flare. You almost needed Bobby Heenan calling this and rooting for one guy to punch the other in the mouth. It did kind of end before it really broke down, which almost gave the match kind of a cock teasing feel. You wanted them to break down, and they never fully did. Man was alot of the stuff spectacular though, Malenko will have at least three spectacular things per match that I have never seen before.

Carl Greco vs. Shoichi Funaki (8/13/94) (6:32)

PAS: Wow this was fun, this was a total mat spotfest, as both guys were working at a million miles an hour, spinning into combinations and counters. I remember Funaki breaking out almost a Casita into an armbar, and Greco is just great at the mat sprint._

TKG: This was shockingly good. Before the match starts Greco does mic work where he speaks like a Japanese guy with broken English, I guess to help the translator. Funaki is a guy who I don't normally think of as projecting character well. Here he is really fun projecting fired up guy trying to win. The actual mat work and exchanges were also pretty spectacular._

Glen Jacobs vs. Daisuke Ikeda (8/13/94) (6:13)

PAS: This was alot better then Jacobs v. Ishikawa, as Jacobs seemed to adapt to the style alot better. Unlike the previous match all of his big throws were counters here. Ikeda goes for a front face lock, Jacobs throws him with a Northern lights, Ikeda goes for an armbar, Jacobs does a keylock overhead throw. You got the sense if Jacobs had just stayed in PWFG/BattlArts he may have gotten as good as Viktor Kruger. _

TKG: Ikeda is alot taller then Ishikawa and so the size difference wasn't as pronounced. I wonder who was the Pat Patterson behind this match because this was all about Ikeda trying for stuff and Jacobs countering with throws which helped cover for Jacobs difficulty selling. Jacobs still can't sell but him fighting stuff with counters made it look like he was at least concerned with his opponents offense._

Yuki Ishikawa vs. Katsumi Usuda (8/13/94) (10:28)

PAS: This is the first of many really great matches between these two. This wasn't as hideously violent as their later matches, but was pretty good. Ishikawa is really working above Usuda for parts of the match, almost like he was working over a rookie, but Usuda fought back with some big shots, and looked like he caught Ishikawa unaware.

TKG: These two have better matches in the future. Greco v. Funaki was really the match of the show. still this was really good and every match Usuda seems to be getting stiffer and stiffer. Usuda's body shots to escape submissions were really good looking. and these two just jell really well.

Shoichi Funaki vs. Katsumi Usuda (10/31/94) (12:32)

TKG: Last time these two matched up it wasn't very good, this time I dug it a bunch. Last time i think it was worked more evenly. This time Usuda works as stronger (higher level) of the two and just pastes Funaki with strikes, while Funaki gets in really fast near fall submission attempts. Funaki goes for one drop kick that felt really out of place, Usuda steps out of the way of the drop kick and just stomps Funaki when Funaki falls to floor.

PAS: Yeah Usuda was a real asskicker here, last match they were two debuting guys working even. Here Usuda was clearly higher up on the food chain, and he just pounded the shit out of Funaki.

TAKA Michinoku vs. Naohiro Hoshikawa (10/31/94) (12:20)

TKG: This isn't really worked like a PWFG match. Its more or less a straight up juniors match just without pinfall attempts. I guess they do very little rope running. But essentially a juniors match. These two are really high end junior workers and best match on the show thus far. Still not a PWFG style match.

PAS: They start working the mat, but by the end they are breaking off dives and big nearfalls. TAKA in the mid nineties was my favorite wrestler and he was really awesome here. The springboard dive is still super impressive looking, and he did this great move where he started to whip Hosikawa into the ropes and instead clotheslined him in the back of the head. Not a PWFG style match at all, but still a total blast.


DISC 7

Daisuke Ikeda vs. Yuji Nagata (10/31/94) (11:05)

PAS: This was pretty great, for some reason the yutz doing the handheld, finally realizes how to use the zoom function, so it is a lot more watchable then the other matches. This is worked really BattlArts style, as there is less matwork and more kicking people in the face and dumping them on the top of their heads. Nagata especially breaks out some nasty suplexes, you get the sense from this match if he had just worked BattlArts he could have ended up a second rate Usuda rather then a eighth rate Masahiro Chono.

TKG: Ah he could have been a first rate Hijikata as heavy. And whatever else you want to say about Nagata, he is a lot better than Glen Jacobs. This has a lot more mat work then Phil remembers, simply cause thats less memorable than the strikes and violent throws. The matwork was really fast and all about jockeying for throws. the whole thing was worked at a really nice heavyweight sprint pace.

Takeshi Ono v. Naohiro Hoshikawa (5/19/95) (9:13)

TKG: This was lots of Ono kicking while Hoshikawa would catch kicks for cool non-cooperative looking throws. Ono wasn't as stiff as he would be later in his career but I dug this match up. They have a really great finish where Hoshikawa is working a half crab while standing on the other leg, and Ono reverses it into a legbar.

PAS: Ono was maybe my favorite BattlArts wrestler. He was this skinny disrespectful punk, who would kick people really hard in the face or sometimes the balls. He was more respectful, and less kicky, but still really fun. They had some really great mat sprint sections, where they were just moving at warp speed to try to grab something. 

Minoru Tanaka v. TAKA Michinoku (5/19/95) (11:43)

PAS: These two guys always have great matches against each other, and I assume this is one of their earliest. It starts with TAKA offering a handshake and Tanaka slapping him, and they are off to the races. They exchange holds and stop and slap each other, throw kicks and slap the shit out each other. TAKA is spectacular, and Tanaka is still young and spry. Really fun match.

TKG: Yeah this was alot more PWFGish then the last TAKA match we saw as this is very much built and paced around the downs and the rope breaks. TAKA does a spectacular dive fake but most of this was these two rapidly slapping the shit out of each other and trying to twist each others knees into awkward positions.

Daisuke Ikeda & Katsumi Usuda v. Yuki Ishikawa & Shoichi Funaki (5/19/95) (13:41)

PAS: We have now moved from the mat based style of PWFG into the violence fest that is BattlArts. Usuda and Funaki are fine here, but this is Ikeda v. Ishikawa and is everything that match up promises. PWFG is stiff wrestling compared to all other wrestling, but when those two match up it is like you are watching something completely different. Kicks to the face, punches to the ribs and face, just great. The finish was super as Ikeda gets Ishikawa's back and yanks on his nose and eyes so he lifts his chin for the choke. 

TKG: Ikeda is an absolute monster in this. Just a beast. you start this off with a two juniors matching up section, and the Funaki v. Usuda stuff is fun polished stuff at this point. You then get the heavyweight v. junior section with Ishikawa v. Usuda and this is somewhat disappointing considering what we expect from the two matched up. Mostly Ishikawa twisting Usuda up. then we get the Ikeda vs. Fuanki section where Ikeda just completely abuses and manhandles Funaki. Just beats the piss out of him. All building to the heavyweights finally matching up and fuck Ikeda is a beast. The Ikeda fishhooks Ishikawa and lifts him up by the fishhook to get him into position for choke is just bad ass.

Riki Choshu & Yoshiaki Fujiwara v. Shiro Koshinaka & Akitoshi Saito (5/19/95) (9:02)

PAS: This was a Riki Choshu match basically, as Heisei Ishingun invades, and we have a really great Choshu style interpromotional match. Nobody really sells anything, and they all are just running in and beating on each other. Koshinaka bumps all around the ring in an amusing way, and Choshu is just great at this kind of stuff. Short, but a blast. Great show overall.

TKG: This is really worked like an interpromotional match with both the stiffness and the non cooperation. Favorite spot is Koshinaka going for a snapmare and Choshu refusing to eat it. Blocked snapmare rules. There will be no cooperative throws, you have to fight for even a snapmare. Fujiwara throws a absolutely hideous punch right to Saito's face at one point and throws a bunch of great looking stiff worked headbutts. I mean at this point in PWFG, I'm used to seeing Fujiwara throw his stiff shoot style headbutt and its odd to see how stiff his pro style one is too.

Takeshi Ono v. Carl Greco (6/18/95) (6:18)

PAS: Ono still hasn't morphed into a dick yet, but this was a bunch of fun as Greco twists Ono like he was Jack Evans. Making his toe touch his face, the back of his neck touch the inner part of his knee. There were a bunch of submissions that could ever only be used on Ono, it was like Greco was inventing shit mid move.

TKG: Greco has bulked up a bunch since we last saw him, Ono is the same size. Outside of the nasty twisting, Greco also threw some nasty hard throws.

Yuki Ishikawa vs. Akitoshi Saito (6/18/95) (11:31)

TKG: Saito starts this match by blasting Ishikawa with a leg lariat and just spends most of the match kicking the dog shit out of Ishikawa. I'm kind of used to Ishikawa as guy who stands toe to toe exchanging stiff strikes so odd seeing him work guy who eats a walloping and can only counter with submission attempts. Other odd thing is that Saito also has really good looking submissions. I mean I don't think of Saito as a guy with a lot of submissions in his arsenal but he thows on some nasty looking stuff here. Finish is pretty great as Saito goes for leg lariat and Ishikawa does "elusive wrestler" slip to catch leg in half crab._

PAS; Saito may even be hitting harder here then he does now in NOAH. I mean it is Ishikawa, you can hit Ishikawa full force. The finish was so totally spectacular, and actually looked like the kind of tricky defensive wrestling counter that Fujiwara is the master of. I still like asskicker Ishikawa better then counter wrestler Ishikawa, but he is really great as a counter wrestler.

Carl Greco vs. Daisuke Ikeda (8/26/95) (13:14)

TKG: For some reason they are working on the worlds squeakiest ring. its fucking headache inducing as springs sound like fingernails on a chalkboard and you don't want to turn down the sound because you want to hear all of Ikeda 's strikes. So the last time we saw Greco it was against Takeshi Ono and me and Phil wrote about how great Greco was at throwing and twisting Ono, with the assumption that you can throw Ono harder than anyone else and twist him more than anyone else. but fuck that as Greco just tosses and twists the fuck out of Ikeda. He has both a lot of hang time and force with all his throws and while not twisting Ikeda's entire body just completely turns his ankles inside out. Ikeda for his part is still a beast in these matches and tries to toss Greco hard enough to fix the ring squeek.

PAS: Was really surprised to see Greco go over here, as they seem to pushing Ikeda as the top guy in this promotion at this point. I guess Greco has roided himself into the Shamrock spot. This was really great though, as Greco is such a smooth mat wrestler, and Ikeda is such a badass.

Yuki Ishikawa vs. Shoichi Funaki (8/26/95) (17:04)

TKG: This match feels absolutely epic and is surprisingly short. I mean normally when you say "Wow that match felt longer than that" its complaint because match is boring. Not the case here. Last time we saw Funaki he was all about the shitty strikes here he stays on the mat and these two just twist at each other as they struggle to shift from top to bottom. The two Fuanki strikes in this actually look stiff as he throws one drop kick which while totally out of place hit really hard and a nice headbut._

PAS: Funaki seemed more competitive then his place on the card seems to merit. This was worked pretty even, with Funaki getting Ishikawa in trouble a bunch. I remember after the nasty headbutt we actually thought that Funaki was going to win the match. Ishikawa was striking a bit more here, as he had some nice punches to the belly and some really rude shots to the back of the neck. 

Yoshiaki Fujiwara vs. TAKA Michinoku (8/26/95) (12:43)

TKG: This is worked more pro style than shoot style. Very little rope running but TAKA with a dropkick to the back of a seated Fujiwara, Fujiwara with his pro-style headbutts, and the TAKA throws Fujiwara headfirst into ring post comedy spots. No reason that these two should work this well together as you kind of expect a clash of styles. Instead the two just work really nicely with TAKA as jerkish junior vs. Fujiwara. Fujiwara twists the shit out of TAKA's legs and ankles and TAKA does nice job trying to fight his way out. Fujiwara eats alot of stuff and sells just enough to make TAKA look legit. I'm not really sure how Fujiwara works punching TAKA directly in the cheekbone. TAKA does seem to be missing a tooth at end of match, not sure if he started match with it or not. Fuck I dug this.

PAS: Yeah Fujiwara was punishing TAKA here, bodyshots, both the shoot and the pro-style headbutts, and some sick shots to the face. TAKA was really great as the underdog who almost heelishly disrespects Fujiwara. The matwork was really speed vs. guile, as all of TAKA's attacks were lightning quick, while Fujiwara was classically taking advantage of mistakes. TAKA is really great in PWFG, he doesn't work the style really but he was so good in the mid 90's that he can work a TAKA match that fits on the show.

Takeshi Ono vs. Mohammed Yone (11/19/95) (4:54)

TKG: I'm assuming that Ono's opponent is Yone. The Lynch list for this show is full of question marks. Yone is tall and not a ton thicker than Ono. I mean everyone is thicker than Ono but Yone is still skinny. Yone gets in one absolutely nasty kick but this is mostly the Ono kick and scramble all over opponent to get submission show. Thats a show I tend to enjoy.

PAS: Yone did have a great missed koppo kick after the one nasty landed kick. Middle of last year I saw Super middleweight contender Alan Green fight an ex-sparring partner Donny McCrary in a ESPN2 card. Green outclassed the guy, but his opponent nearly KO'ed him with a lucky punch, had him on dream street. McCrary couldn't settle down and finish Green though, he was just hurling wild punches, that is what that koppo kick kind of felt like. An outclassed guy got a lucky shot and was recklessly going for broke.

Alexander Otsuka vs. Takeshi Okano (11/19/95) (4:59)

TKG: Again assuming here that Otsuka's opponent is the future Winger. Otsuka pretty much controls this match. Some nice suplexes, nothing as spectacular as the most spectacular Otsuka suplex, but still a bunch of nice throws. Winger gets in the flash victory by reversing a leg lock into an ankle pick._
PAS: This was fun. Possible future Winger was pretty non descript, but wasn't afraid to land bad on his skull. The flash victory ankle pick was pretty awesome, as Okano was about to tap, but was able to grab the ankle and nearly rip it off.

Yuki Ishikawa vs. TAKA Michinoku (11/19/95) (8:11)

PAS: This was joined in progress which I was pretty salty about. At different points of my life each of these guys have been my favorite wrestler in the world, and I am pretty sure I hadn't seen them wrestle each other before. We got most of it though, and it was pretty great. Really counters on top of counters, as TAKA would use his speed to avoid and check most of the things Ishikawa was trying, but when it got onto the mat, he would be countered by Ishikawa's skill. Both guys were throwing bombs too, especially TAKA's nasty elbows to the back of the head. Wish I could have seen it all, but it didn't disappoint.

TKG: Ishikawa's submission attempts were really awesome here as he'd go through all these stages in order to reach a submission. First he'd isolate the body part, then he'd fight to completely extend it, and only then would he go and try to twist it into unnatural positions. On the one hand it was awesome, on the other it was disorienting as he'd go through this whole process to secure a submission when TAKA would just go and slap one on. Fun match, wish I had seen more.

Yoshiaki Fujiwara vs. Dick Murdoch (5/23/96) (26:08)

TKG: thank god they clipped and jip'd everything else because we get to see this in full. It looks like the audience has actually filled up over the course of the show. I mean it isn't fill for the main event but a whole lot more folks watching then at the start. I was expecting to enjoy this match but I wasn't expecting it to be this good. They start it off with Fujiwara as guy who backs opponent into corner and then wastes him with punches...while Murdoch is working guy with really nasty ways of taking apart opponents arm on the mat. So all the roles are switched and your waiting for them to righten themselves. They work a really great headscissor escape attempt section. Normally in these type of things a guy will do a Muga escape be put back into headscissor, do another escape get put back in, etc. What made this so neat is that it wasn't just that Fujiwara had a variety of ways to try to escape a headscissors but Murdoch had a variety of different ways to push his opponent down and keep him in the headscissors. Match had all the guys signature spots plus really neat ways both guys tried to avoid and escape their opponents signature stuff.

PAS: It seems pretty trite in a Dick Murdoch review to talk about how great his punches are, but goddamn are Dick Murdoch's punches great. Short jabs, big rights, beautiful uppercuts, just mixed it up and they all were gorgeous. Of course Fujiwara has some of the best punches in wrestling history too, and they had lots of really great exchanges, with Fujiwara being sneaker and not wanting to box heads up with Murdoch. Speaking of turning tables, Murdoch is actually the first guy to try a Fujiwara ambar, which Fujiwara counters by making a pyramid with his head and legs to relieve pressure, then spinning out to counter. Murdoch then counters Fujiwara's armbar attempt by twisting at the knee. It was an awesome bit of mat wrestling by both guys, and just a small piece of awesome in this awesome sandwich of a match.

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