New Footage Friday: All Japan 12/2/96 Handheld

 AJPW 12/2/96

PAS: This was the tail end of the 1996 RWTL, and only a couple of days before the apex of All Japan Tag Wrestling. We saw two pretty great warm up matches for our finalists.

Masao Inoue vs. Yoshinobu Kanemaru 

MD: Spirited opener that played up the size difference and highlighted Kanemaru's athleticism. Inoue based well early, as Kanemaru stayed on his arm, did some tricked out chain wrestling, and flew at him from every direction. You were really just waiting for Inoue to catch him and he did, selling the arm still for a bit before really putting the oomph into his mauling. Kanemaru was so spry that he could land on his feet at any moment and he had some hope towards the end, including a well-worked for slam before missing a leap off the top and getting crushed. They made the most of this.

ER: AJ openers were always so much more interesting than NJ openers, as you really got a sense of these guys growing, and the fans were always ready to get excited at the slightest hint of an upset. Kanemaru was someone who really got to show a lot in openers (for a few years) and I really dig the AJ slow burn hierarchy. Kanemaru surprised Inoue with a lot of flash, including really sending him flying into a guardrail on a dropkick. He doesn't skimp on his missed offense, always missing as if he thought there was water in that pool, and I like the little victories that fans react loudly to. Like here, Inoue hits his falling clothesline and then rudely palms Kanemaru's face on the cover, then gets launched off when Kanemaru throws all of his remaining strength into a kickout. It was like Yokozuna kicking out of a Macho Man pin and the crowd was into it, sensing a Kanemaru surprise. Inoue acts incredulous to the ref, but then folds Kanemaru with a hard back suplex and pins each of Kanemaru's arms to the mat, not taking cocky chances this time. 

Tsuyoshi Kikuchi/Yoshinari Ogawa vs. Satoru Asako/Maunakea Mossman 

MD: This was a fun quasi-juniors tag. Mossman definitey shined here with a lot of dynamic stuff, but it was almost too much or too varied. He had the kickpads and the kicks, a bunch of holds, a couple of throws, and a splash off the top. You wanted to see him focus in more on one thing, maybe. Kikuchi continued his run in this footage as a class A cruiserweight bully. When he finally got fed up and intervened to save Ogawa, he just laid in a beating and refused to leave the ring as if he was Hansen or something. Asako and Ogawa were fine though Ogawa, despite working from underneath and having a good connection with the crowd, didn't show signs of being fully developed as of yet.

ER: This felt like two different matches, and I liked both matches, but I wish we could have seen either the last half of the first match, or the first half of the second match. The first half is really neat, with Asako and Mossman working over Ogawa's knee. Asako especially goes off on that knee, really wailing on it with stomps, elbow drops, knee drops, just landing on Ogawa's knee with his body. Asako and Mossman were making quick tags and I was really getting into this AJ juniors southern tag. But once Ogawa rolled to the floor, Kikuchi came in and just beat the shit out of Asako, and then never really left (even though I don't think he ever tagged in at any point). From there, there was nothing more acknowledged about Ogawa's leg, and this became Kikuchi as Hansen, always kicking someone's ass. Ogawa was the afterthought of the match, getting his knee worked on and then stepping aside for Kikuchi, but I thought Ogawa was really great at taking offense. He was whipping himself into the mat on little things like drop toeholds, and his ability to take offense made Asako/Mossman look like a real team. Mossman had a lot of cool stuff, loved how his long kicks always found their mark under chins, and his top rope splash was awesome. His splash focused less on hang time, and was more like a low line drive, getting to the landing point quick and painfully. I also really loved his moonsault feint, as he head fakes a moonsault to get Ogawa to roll out of the way, then nails a Vader bomb instead. Ever since seeing that Zero-1 match where Kikuchi spends 10 minutes literally pretending Hoshikawa's hard strikes weren't bothering him in the least, I've been scared of Kikuchi, looked at him in a whole new light. He comes off like a real bully and feels like he would have no problem taking several Mossman kicks if it lets him land one brutal elbow smash. Also, I really like the Kikuchi/Ogawa finish of a Kikuchi elbow smash into an Ogawa inside cradle, very aesthetically pleasing and Ogawa was right there to catch Mossman as he was falling from the elbow. 

Tamon Honda/Johnny Smith vs. Giant Kimala/Jun Izumida 

MD: Another good, but slightly weird showing from the Kimala/Izumida team. They had great offense, including that same side tandem double elbow drop, a torture rack drop, and an assisted tree fall headbutt, but I swear they worked towards a quasi-hot tag again. Honda knew exactly what he was and how to make the most of it. He was formidable but also hugely entertaining in his exchanges with Izumina. The crowd was into Smith but he was too quick to rush to the next thing. It was a big deal that he suplexed Kimala and he diminished it by not milking the moment at all. That was just the way he was working this one.

ER: A little aimless, but aimless in that fun way where I can just zone out and enjoy these dudes for 15 minutes. I love the Kimala/Izumida team, always love the big hot Kimala tags they build to. The start of the match is really great, with Honda throwing a side headbutt to Izumida's stomach as he was coming off the ropes, then going right into the two of them using their oversized melons to clonk each other. Honda throws a great spinning heel kick (on one leg, Booker T style) that I don't recall him using that often, and I liked how he and Izumida kept going back to different headbutt attacks throughout the match. I liked Honda's never-give-up falling headbutts, where he'll just keep faceplanting until one finally lands, juxtaposed with the super violent Kimala/Izu team headbutts, Kimala throwing Izumida down into some hard landings. I agree with Matt that Smith is from that Dynamite Kid school of hit your awesome looking offense and move right along to your next big of awesome offense. It doesn't make the offense look less cool, but it sure makes the offense mean less. The snap suplex on Kimala should have been the big spot of the entire match, but he was already moving on to a nice elbow smash and cool top rope elbowdrop less than 10 seconds after. The All Japan roster had so many different guys at this point who knew how to properly lead up to their biggest offense that you'd think someone would take him aside and tell him to let things breathe a little. Kimala's hot tag was as awesome as ever, and I think his avalanche is one of the greatest in wrestling history. He doesn't leap into it, it's just this super impactful sudden stop. I love the same side tandem elbow, love his rolling senton and heavy splash. I'm so happy we've gotten so much more Kimala/Izumida footage, since they were frequently edited off TV. 

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

MD: First, you'll be glad to know they didn't work this one exactly the same as the last. They did repeat a dive tease but who cares as it was funny both times. That's not to say Momota didn't carry things for his side, because he absolutely did, and whenever he was in there it felt like a real match. You watched this and there was no reason to to think a singles match between him and any of his opponents wouldn't have been very good. Kimura, at this point, has to hold the record for getting the most out of the least, right? He occasionally sold his shin and ambled around the ring no-selling mostly everything else and the fans ate it up. I wish I knew what Kimura said post match for any of these.

ER: I really loved the old man trios we reviewed a couple weeks ago (same teams, from the 8/20/96 show), and while this was fun I don't think it was nearly as good as that match. The comedy hit better in that match, and there was an actual cool story thread throughout of the rudos working over Rusher's leg. This didn't have any real threads, and was much more of a time killer, but I like watching these guys fill time. Rusher looked like he was getting legitimate laughs out of his teammates by shaking his head in silly ways to show Fuchi how impervious to pain he was. Baba looked like he was laughing into the turnbuckle and Momota had to lean over the ropes to hide his face. I don't know if I've ever seen any of the old man competitors actually break, but this looked like they were actually having a hard time holding it together for Rusher's antics. I liked Fuchi's fearful selling and him getting backed up in the corner by the crazy Kimura, only to find that Inoue and Eigen had walked to the other side of the ring to avoid tagging in. 

I'd really love to see a serious Momota/Eigen singles from this era. We have evidence that Momota could still go as late as 2009, but Eigen is a guy who seemed like he was a super spry 50 year old still (loved his rolling before the initial lock up with Momota) but purposely played things down. He's a guy who has a lot of genuinely great shtick so I get why he took things easy, but looked at the nice knife edge chops he was throwing to Baba and a few other sequences, I with we got an actual serious old man Eigen run. Fuchi is a bastard as always, throwing a few kicks at Rusher's face and later breaking up a pin by scraping his boot on Rusher's ear. We got the Eigen spit take spots, including my favorite where he and Momota exchange hard overhand chops and Eigen hits Rusher on the apron with his spit. Also, for a 47 year old just a few months away from retirement, Mighty Inoue's rolling senton literally looks better than any modern wrestler's rolling senton. His form and aim on that move are pure elegance. 

Stan Hansen/Takao Omori vs. Dr. Death/Johnny Ace 

MD: Perfectly ok match hurt by my expectations. A lot of this was Hansen or Williams coming in and breaking up holds and it felt like it kept building to a real encounter between the two of them but never quite got there. Williams had his usual mid-90s manic energy and Hansen could still turn it up, including hitting a double dropkick with Omori at the end, and he certainly cut off and leaned on Ace well. But when you see this match on paper and come out of it realizing that most of the heavy hitting (and it was good heavy hitting) came from Omori vs Ace exchanges, something probably went wrong. Both Williams and Hansen had great presence though, of course, especially in the little moments like Ace, on the top rope, having to punch Hansen, on the floor, in order to clear enough space for the double team finish.

ER: I'm with Matt in that the match feels like it's building to that big Hansen/Doc showdown, and that doesn't happen in the match, and the match is lesser for it. The confrontation comes to a head AFTER the match, which is probably their best interaction of the match (though I do love Doc breaking up a pin by yanking Hansen by the hair out to the apron to elbow his throat). After the match Hansen is leaving, then turns around to swing his bull rope at Doc, which leads to both egging the other on, before Hansen decides to leave again. Doc gets up on the turnbuckles closest to Hansen's exit aisle to raise his arms, and Hansen cannot abide. He runs back and knocks Doc off the ropes, Doc gets tangled, Hansen swings at photographers and ring boys, and the crowd reacts louder to this than anything in the match proper. I don't think we are alone in thinking the match didn't live up to expectations, as the crowd is much quieter during this match than during any of the prior matches on the card. They only really woke up during the finishing stretch. But that's not to say the whole thing wasn't enjoyable. Omori and Ace did hit hard, and Hansen made his pinfall breaks count (nobody breaks up a pin better than Stan Hansen). I loved Omori's heavy as hell elbowdrop off the top, and was wowed at the speed Hansen and Omori shot Ace into the ropes for a tandem shoulderblock. Ace had that speed where you could tell he wasn't fully in control of his body, Hansen using that Andre pulling strength on him. Plus, the Doomsday Device finish looked like it came a couple inches away from killing Omori on a house show. So while we didn't get a big batch of dynamite like I wanted, if this match established the floor, it's a nice high floor. 

Mitsuharu Misawa/Jun Akiyama vs. Gary Albright/Sabu  

MD: Peak Sabu doing peak Sabu stuff in AJPW against Misawa and Akiyama. The match turns on a dime a few times, going from a mostly grounded affair into Sabu flying all over the place or Albright tossing people around. The stuff you're going to remember here is Sabu leaping off of Albright's back, poetry in motion style. Sometimes it works, like a huge kick to the face in the corner. Sometimes it doesn't, like the missed moonsault that set up the finish. Sometimes it really, really doesn't, like when Sabu flies out of the ring and lands hard on the guardrail. The fans knew what they were getting and they were happy to get it. It never really comes together as a match, but is that actually what you're looking for when you watch this one?

PAS: Sabu and Albright are such a legendary oddball team, what a way for Misawa and Akyama to warm up for the RWTL finals, face these two weirdos. No chairs for Sabu to use in AJPW so he just keeps using Albright's back as a launching pad, including one springboard dive where he landed ribs first on the guard rail with a crunch. Misawa and Akyama kind of took a backseat to the wackiness, although I loved the Freestyle takedown and ride exchanges between Jun and Albright. We get a couple of sick Albright suplexes including one which dropped Misawa right on his head (always a bit tough to watch with hindsight). More of a spectacle than a match, I almost would rather see Albright and Sabu against a team with a bit more color. Misawa and Akiyama are great, but I bet I would have dug their Hansen and Omori match more. 

ER: Sabu is as incongruous to Kings Road style as anyone, and throwing a wrench into their style is always fun (for the hits and misses). My only gripe is that I wish Sabu had thought of some more interesting ways to insert his offense into things, but I also liked how Akiyama wasn't someone who was going to wait around during overly long spot set-ups. Kings Road worked so well because of the impeccable timing of its best wrestlers, and some of these Sabu spots require a lot of stand still time. Stand still time is not something we typically see in this era of All Japan, and it's weird! Akiyama treating them realistically made these spots work within the framework, and lead to some of the best moments of the match. I loved Gary Albright getting into tabletop position several times during the match, using his refrigerator shaped torso to boost Sabu. I'm honestly shocked they didn't incorporate Albright's unreal throwing strength and have him launching Sabu like a projectile. Sabu takes some rough spills, no more rough than landing stomach first on the guardrail after Akiyama casually walks out of the way of his triple jump plancha. The missed triple jump moonsault (again off Albright) to set up the finish was just as nuts, and it easily could have lead to an even worse landing. Albright is so cool, nobody else in wrestling like him. I loved him and Akiyama working the mat, ending with Akiyama throwing 8 or so nasty elbows right to the face. They build throughout the match to Albright throwing Misawa, Misawa wisely scrambling for the ropes every time Albright tries to get the underhooks in, and it's an awesome moment when Sabu hits poetry in motion on Misawa and Misawa stumbles out of the corner into that Albright belly to belly. They tease that Misawa is going to get dumped with a dragon suplex (on a house show!) but compromise by merely getting dropped vertically with a German suplex. I agree with Phil that Misawa/Akiyama were a bit too stoic for the oddball gaijin team, and I'm positive I would have loved their match against Kimala/Izumida even more. That's the true handheld gem. 

Kenta Kobashi/The Patriot vs. Toshiaki Kawada/Akira Taue

MD: I really enjoyed this. It caught me off guard as Kobashi caught Kawada almost instantly with a Tiger Suplex and followed up with a power bomb on the floor. That set the stage for a control-driven match as opposed to a back and forth one, with three clear segments before they went into an extended finishing stretch (though one where the Holy Demon Army controlled for the most part, building off of Taue's presence and what went before including the fact he was the one guy not to take an extended beating) about 2/3rds the way through. Kawada did fight back for the hot tag and they immediately crushed Kobashi basically the same way Kawada was crushed (huge suplex + move on the floor). It also meant just a minute or two apart were Kobashi's chops in the corner on Kawada and Kawada's rapid kicks on Kobashi which just felt paralleled and correct. I would have liked to see Patriot more involved in the early beatdown on Kawada, but when he did get a hot tag from Kobashi he came in fiery until Taue targeted his injured arm. Solid selling for the rest of the match from him, especially down the stretch where he was fighting valiantly with one arm. The stretch itself was pretty measured with a couple of big break-ups and one big kickout but nothing that took me out of the match. Taue targeting the arm once again to open Patriot up for the killing blows was good stuff. One Taue and Kawada got full advantage, they were just amazing spoilers. Nothing could kill a wrestler's forward momentum than Taue imposing himself upon him. Just a good focused, lost main event.

PAS: Interesting variation on a classic main event tag. Mitsuhara Misawa to the Patriot is about the biggest talent downgrade I can imagine, but Patriot was fine here, especially for a guy who was a focus of the finish run. Really liked the Kawada vs. Kobashi sections, it is a different vibe then Kawada versus Misawa, but Kobashi's flourishes work well as a foil for Kawada's grimacing ass kicking. I loved the exchange they had when Kobashi came into to try to break the Kawada arm bar, with Kawada waving off the two initial chops, only to cut Kobashi off with a big kick when he tried for more momentum. I also enjoyed Taue taking Patriot apart at the end. He is like a slow moving avalanche, it isn't going to hit you fast, but you will end up buried underneath it all.

ER: I really really liked this match, and it really felt like the best Patriot performance I've seen. Now, while it's true that there were 27 or so guys I was more excited to see on this show than The Patriot, a good performance is a good performance. We don't get many limb work matches in All Japan, and I thought Patriot got his arm tore up nicely and sold it the entire way through. The match started very surprisingly, with Kawada nearly convincingly 2 minutes in after a tiger suplex and powerbomb on the floor, and for almost the first 10 minutes of the match the only offense Kawada gets is throwing some kicks at Kobashi from his back (classic Kawada, selling being only on muscle memory fumes, still annoying the fuck out of Kobashi by kicking him in the eye and back of the knee). Kawada gets to pay Kobashi back with a ruthless as hell backdrop driverWhen Taue makes it in they eventually single out Patriot, and begin coldly and methodically wrecking his protected arm. Taue is wrapping the arm around the ropes and kicking at it, and Kawada is really mean to it. 

My favorite part of the match is Kawada so fixed on taking apart Patriot's arm, that while Taue and Kobashi are fighting on the floor, and somebody gets thrown HARD into the guardrail off camera, Kawada doesn't even bother glancing over to see who hit the rail, he's too busy kicking Patriot's arm as hard as he can, ripping off the protective brace, and stomping on it (Taue casually walking back into frame confirming it was Kobashi hitting the rail was a fantastic moment caught by our cameraman). I was really impressed with Patriot's arm selling, especially when he was making his comebacks, never once slipping and doing a move that required both arms. He was also a super strong presence throughout the match on the apron, and I love a great apron performance. He's great at getting tied up by the ref as Kobashi is getting double teamed, and he has a few fired up moments where he is dying to get in that ring and you can hear the fans buying into it. Taue looked as great as ever, playing into Kobashi's quirks (I hate those Kobashi equalizer spots where he takes a snake eyes to the buckle, powers up, takes a chokeslam into the buckle, powers out, gets dumped with a German suplex, powers up, but then Taue has to sell a lariat for longer than Kobashi sold anything), and Taue's destruction of Patriot for the finish was violent as hell. There are a couple really great nearfalls, like Patriot getting saved after a backdrop/nodowa otoshi combo, and barely kickout out of a hard Taue nodowa otoshi while Kobashi was nowhere close to save him. Loved Patriot trying to punch Taue afterwards and Taue just pump kicking right through it, before slamming the door shut with a final nodowa otoshi. 

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All Japan Battle Royal 1/2/97

As part of my continued look at the All Japan New Years battle royals, here is 1997.

1/2/97

ER: This didn't have a ton of comedy, but it found ways to dispose of every single one of the most threatening guys all in a row. Dr. Death goes right after Taue at the bell, batters him, and slams him into the buckles to set up the Stampede. BUT, as Doc is running back towards the center of the ring to slam Taue, Kawada runs in and just shoves Taue over onto Doc. Doc cannot believe it. This suffered a bit from poor choice of camera angle, as we mostly miss Bobby Duncum Jr. getting eliminated at the same time as Doc (a simple DDT from Izumida put him down), and we also miss how Gary Albright ends up on the bottom of a pile. But the biggest possible crime is the camera missing Stan Hansen's elimination. Hansen is always such an unstoppable force in these matches (um, well, any matches he's in, I suppose that would be true), and to completely miss what happened to actually take him out of the match? Shameful. He did get dogpiled by 10 people, but I wanted to know how the clear favorite got taken off his feet to begin with. And perhaps an even bigger disappointment was that he left with no ill will. After he got pinned I assumed he would crush whomever wronged him with the inside of his left arm, but he just casually exited the ring.

Hansen's elimination sent us on a string of big name eliminations, all in a row. Kawada was a real asskicker the entire time he was in, and he was always going after big names. I love the moments in these battle royals where two guys square off in the middle, and everyone else hangs back on the ropes, like it's a big dance off. Kawada and Kobashi fight over suplexes, and just as Kawada gets a vertical suplex, Kobashi shifts his weight and lands on him, resulting in a dogpile to eliminate Kawada. But then Taue hilariously takes the opportunity to grab Kobashi in a Boston crab while Kobashi is still pinning Kawada! However, everyone just rolls Kobashi through and he pins Taue with a sunset flip type cradle, and of course they then roll Taue over to pin Kobashi. Misawa and Akiyama are the next gone, and the ring separates into Gaijin vs. Native. So we get Eigen, Izumida, Hase, Honda, and Omori in one corner, and The Eagle, The Lacrosse, and Johnny Ace in the other corner.

Hase fires up his troops (while clearly using all of them as human shields) against the gaijin, but then shoves Eigen to the wolves. It was the only way. Hase keeps playing guys on his own side, even coming to an alliance with Lacrosse before naturally turning on him once he eliminated Honda. Hase was great at being the manipulative ringleader, because you knew it was all going to blow up in his face. By the time Omori hit him with a nice spinning heel kick and Izumida flew down with his big round head, the crowd was losing it. Omori vs. Izumida is not the final two I expected, but that's a major part of the joy with these matches. I'm not a big Omori fan, probably would have him towards the bottom of my Kings Road Power Rankings, and he doesn't endear himself any further here. He and IZU work a couple brief singles match spots, throw in a couple decent nearfalls, but Omori sucks all the drama out of the finish. After IZU misses a big falling meteor headbutt, Omori plants him with a German suplex. However, Omori loses the bridge, and the ref stops counting the pinfall. At that point it becomes a struggle for Izumida to keep his shoulders to the mat, while Omori awkwardly scrambles to hold a cradle. Time really stood still as it became clear this was the finish, and Omori couldn't get out of his own way. After Omori wins, he runs to the turnbuckles to celebrate, and actually slips and falls off the ropes. Rough ending, but at least Omori was finally able to put his weird Royal Rumble appearance behind him and win the big one.

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All Japan Battle Royal 1/2/98

1/2/98

ER: Spectacular. Few matches bring me as much joy as All Japan's annual year opening battle royal, and this is a nice weird crew. There is no loyalty in sight, just a lot of guys keeping butts to ropes and seeing who is gonna be dumb enough to step foot in the circle and get pinned by 15 guys. This battle royal is most well known among wrestling nerds for being THEE match where Skull von Crush gets a pin on Misawa. I think 90% of the people reading this site all had some kind of moment where they read or heard that Vito once pinned Misawa, and it immediately sounded like bullshit. I first read it in the 1998 or 1999 PWI 500 issue, and it sounded fishy. It was a trivia tidbit that got repeated a lot online, mainly because many were unfamiliar with the dogpile pinfall style of All Japan battle royals.  And I'm willing to bet upon learning that, most think that Crush was one of 15 guys pinning Misawa. In reality, the moment was much more exciting. It came around the halfway point, several had already been eliminated (big names like Hiroshi Hase and Akira Taue were out first, so the ring had cleared a bit), and Crush got in the middle of the ring and went right after Misawa. Crush hit Misawa with a stunner, Misawa being the only person I've ever seen take a stunner and then do a forward roll bump after, and Crush pinned him with really only a couple helping hands. So the moment was much more than the "one of 15 guys" narrative that became the immediate answer whenever the trivia piece would get mentioned, as it was Misawa getting pinned expressly because of the move he took from Skull von Crush.

Skull von Crush's somewhat validation wasn't the only fun bit we got. Haruka Eigen continues to be the master of big mouth shit talking in these matches; he always lands a cheap shot and then hides behind a bigger ally, this time literally jumping and running behind Baba. It's so great. Giant Kimala is a fun target in this one, people kept running up on him and he would fight back with big head chops and headbutts. He and Dr. Death had a weird thing and kept going after each other. Jun Izumida was the eventual winner! A guy who hung back at the right moments and had hilarious little things like trying to sneak up to cheapshot Akiyama but getting caught. Major guys, most notably Kawada, went after Baba in moments that really lit up the crowd, Baba running down every single one of them, blasting Baba chops and eventually getting pinned after getting dogpiled after delivering a nice Russian legsweep. Baba had this fantastic arms out What the Fuck face after getting ganged up on. "You came at the 60 year old KING? Seriously?" We got the lovely and unexpected final 4 of Akiyama, Izumida, Johnny Smith, and Johnny Ace. The Alliance of Johnnies is extremely short-lived, as Smith hits Ace with his great reverse DDT, the Akiyama palmed the back of Izu's head and threw him melon first into a falling headbutt on Ace. Izu gets a really fun and exciting win, letting Akiyama and Smith have a nice battle before letting one pin the other and then flipping the pin. God I love these battle royals.

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Eric's Working 2009 MOTY List!!

Eric's 2009 MOTY List!!

I'm officially in trouble, as this list keeps growing exponentially larger, and I really didn't think there would be this much wrestling that I love when I started this project. Is 2009 an awesome year for wrestling, or are my standards just really really low?

1. Last Man Standing Match: Sami Callihan vs. Greg Excellent (CZW, 1/10/09)
2. Mitsuharu Misawa/Takashi Suguira vs. Shinsuke Nakamura/Hirooki Goto (NJPW, 1/4/09)
3. Averno/Ephesto/Mephisto vs. Volador Jr./Mistico/La Sombra (CMLL, 1/9/09)
4. Masao Inoue/Mitsuo Momota vs. Jun Izumida/Tsuyoshi Kikuchi (NOAH, 1/12/09)
5. Bryan Danielson vs. Scott Lost (PWG, 1/10/09)
6. Osamu Nishimura/Masa Fuchi vs. Minoru Suzuki/NOSAWA (AJPW, 1/3/09)
7. Undertaker vs. Shelton Benjamin (WWE Smackdown, 1/9/09)
8. Necro Butcher vs. Bill the Butcher (IWA-MS, 1/3/09)

1. Last Man Standing Match: Sami Callihan vs. Greg Excellent (CZW, 1/10/09)

Wow. I went into this assuming it would shatter the Sami Callihan myth. All last year Sami Callihan looked great, but he also only faced high-end talent: 2 Cold Scorpio, Necro Butcher, Ian Rotten, Chris Hero, Trik Davis, Jimmy Jacobs. All of those guys rank towards the top of my "favorite workers" list. But Greg Excellent? Never heard of the guy, never seen the guy, have no idea what to expect from the guy. For the record, my guess was he was a Chuck Taylor-type smiling indy goofball whose offense had kitschy names like "Excitebike" or "Final Fantasy" or "Funky Cold Medina" or "Avoid the Noid". I was picturing some bad announcer yelling, "He hits the Final Fantasy ON A CHAIR!!!" But no. Greg Excellent was fat, with thinning hair and a patchy beard. He looked like Chris Hero, if a couple years ago instead of getting in real good shape Hero had instead opted to go the opposite direction and throw on 40 lb. This was going to be the true test of Callihan's mettle.

And holy cow did he deliver. This is a Last Man Standing match, and it was brutal. Both guys took some crazy shots and completely retarded bumps. There were at least 4 moments I had to rewind while jumping off the couch. Sami, slumped against the guardrail takes an awesome cannonball senton from Gregcellent, Sami overshoots a nutty dive that bends him and Greg over the guard rail in really uncomfortable ways, and the finish is the real coup de grace: Sami setting up three chairs back to back, seats facing out, and sunset-flip powerbombing Greg off the top onto them, then just beating the crap out of him with one of the chairs until he can't get up.

This was worked really well, and while Greg didn't always look amazing, he more than held his own and the end result was a really fun, really awesome brawl. I'm not saying to go out and check out a bunch of CZW shows, but you'd be well off checking out the Callihan matches from CZW shows.

4. Masao Inoue/Mitsuo Momota vs. Jun Izumida/Tsuyoshi Kikuchi (NOAH, 1/12/09)

I went into this with higher expectations than likely anybody else that has ever watched this match, and it completely exceeded them. My fondness for each of the workers in this match ranges from "like like" all the way up to "completely in love with".

Inoue/Momota have to be the front runners for tag team of the year at this point. I cannot remember a team that was this much fun to watch. Masao Inoue has my favorite gimmick (gimmick?) in all of wrestling: The Chubby Little Loser. He is the ultimate dork. He's chubby, has a dorky haircut, a goofy smile, the least main event offense of anybody ever, and a general sad sack appearance. And I want to watch every second of it. His awesomeness begins before the bell even starts, as when he is introduced and some people throw streamers, one of the streamers hits him in the head and he flinches then kinda flails like you would if you walked through a spiderweb. Throughout the match he is just awesome, hitting all his wimpy offense (eye rakes, rubbing opponents' eyes with his wrist tape, raking opponents' eyes over the top rope, noogies, etc.) and costing his team pinfalls (one great spot where Momota has the likely pinfall ending, and Inoue walks away prematurely celebrating, while IZU casually walks by him and breaks up the pin. The "What the Fuck?" look Momota gives him and the general constant look of shame and regret coloring Inoue's face is just classic.).

Momota is amazing as well. I've always been a big Momota fan, but this is my first glimpse of LEGEND HEEL Momota. He's now shaved his head, still has his old man mustache, and now wears black trunks that say "Legend Heel" across the back. There was a great spot where he's working over Kikuchi with closed fists, and referee Mighty Inoue admonishes him for using the closed fist, and he just points to the "Legend Heel" printed on his tights and shrugs. Like, "This is the life I chose. I'm a legend, and a heel. Of course I'm gonna use closed fists." Momota takes offense nicely for a 61 yr. old man, and every move he takes he elicits the most hilarious "Uuuggggghhhhh" sound.

Kikuchi is still one of the finest salesmen in all of wrestling, really putting over Inoue's eye rakes and noogies. He sold an eye rake like he just found out he was bleeding from the eyes: lots of rubbing, concern, pain. No need to do any Shawn Michaels "sell it too the back row" type of sell, he's doing it all for those with a keen eye. IZU has some really fun offense in this as well, doing these fun throat thrusts to Momota and just kinda...falling on people at awkward angles, like IZU does.

So go watch this. Revel in a match where Inoue is the youngster, a match where the average age of the combatants is 47. You need all of this.


5. Bryan Danielson vs. Scott Lost (PWG, 1/10/09)

Scott Lost is a guy I've enjoyed for quite a while now who nobody outside of L.A. really talks about. He looked really good here, throwing some really nice punches, and a nice spin kick. He and Danielson spend a good amount of time outside the ring, and numerous fun "getting thrown through chairs" spots ensue. Lost hits an awesome super spear that involved diving over a few chairs. Both guys looked good here. I can't wait until Danielson starts unleashing badass 8 minute matches on Superstars or ECW. Like, I'm REALLY excited to see how Danielson's syndicated match structure works out. I was there live when he worked the dark match against Lance Cade, and it went almost exactly 8 minutes and it was awesome. I really love 8-16 minute match Danielson.

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FAR FROM CLASSIC TOMK- throwaway comments written about a bunch of matches in 2004

Ahh 2004 and I was full of optimism about the future of the heavyweight Pro-Wrestling. Its almost sad looking back on my optimism.

"Between this [ Ogawa v. Goldberg] and Takayama vs. Nakamura 2004 really started out on a good foot in terms of heavyweight wrestling."

Goldberg burnt out on wrestling and now does MMA commentary. Ogawa really doesn't do "wrestling" anymore.JBL retired. Takayama went down for a couple years and who knows to what degree he'll recover.

And the two people who's work most excited me in 2004 are dead.

some stuff here I still stand by, other stuff not so much...

Takeshi Morishima vs. Jun Izumida (NOAH 3/13/04)

Man Izumida is on this ridiculous hot streak. Normally when guys who stunk get good after ten years it's cause they simplify, drop silly stuff, work tighter. Izumida has taken the opposite tack and just gone on an offensive tear. Ridiculous. Plus all of Izumida's old Tenzan'ish (headbutts, mongolian chops) offense is also looking really crisp lately. And yeah I'll say it best diving headbutt in the business today.

Chris Benoit vs. Triple H vs. Shawn Michaels - WWE World Heavyweight Title (WWE 3/14/04)

Cooey seems to like the early exchanges in this. I have no idea what he sees in those. The rest of match is all about the Benoit crowd heat. The crowd heat was awesome, but what made it so awesome is it was all about the crowd turning on the story of the match. Shawn Michaels goes for the WWE I hit opponent’s offense and hits a laughable German suplex in what was laid out as a "we are equal" faces spot. Crowd boos. Crowd boos any time anyone but Benoit is on offense. Crowd doesn't want to see the match that's been laid out for them. Crowd heat cool, actual match not much.


Eddie Guerrero vs. John Bradshaw Layfield - WWE Heavyweight Title (WWE 5/16/04)

This is your WWE match of the year.

How does one work as a World Title Holder?

Ric Flair gets a lot of crit on the net for the way he worked as champ. It's asked "Why is he begging off from Ricky Morton?"

Hogan doesn't get the same criticism. As he either gets criticized because his formula was stale, or praised for work as "strong champion". I've never understood the second as one of goofiest things in any Hogan match is the "I have to lose the beginning of test of strength segment". You have the biggest guns in wrestling, why is Bob Orton, Lanny Poffo or the Bossman powering you down? Why do you have to dig deep to win test of strength with Adrian Adonis? Stupid.

Kobashi gets some crit for his championship work against guys who aren't on his level. He can't find way to make lesser opponents credible unless they work same work the leg formula. Why does everyone have to work Kobashi same way? Rikio spends entire match working the leg until he starts throwing bombs. It's Rikio why not throw bombs from start. Sano beats Akiyama by just destroying his ribs. That’s what gets him to the title challenge. But he never does that in the title challenge itself.

Helmsley doesn't know how to sell for opponents.

Eddy Guerrero has figured out how to work a match against lesser opponent. Whole match is based on Eddie being the better wrestler and Bradshaw just not being at his level. All of the offense, all of the selling is built around that. Just a fucking great Championship match.

When I watched Eddy vs. Lesnar I remember thinking that I liked the way two worked together and would have liked to have seen them work a series.

Eddy vs. Bradshaw was better than that although I have really no interest in seeing the series. Unfortunately that’s what I'm stuck with. Still 5/16/04 is your WWE match that should make this or any list.

KENTA vs. Jun Izumida (NOAH 6/11/04)

Izumida works as poor mans short Hashimoto, Kenta works as Kenta. They do a spot where Kenta hurts his shins doing Kawada kicks to Izu’s head. I hope Kawada and Jamal work that same spot. I like old school AJ, love count out post dive lucha falls....I'm big fan of count out finishes. Liked the Hash v Vader count out finish which the crowd turned on. Izu vs. Kenta, best worked count out finish this year.

Kaz Hayashi vs. TAKA Michinoku - AJPW World Jr. Heavyweight Title (AJPW 2/22/04)

Who would have thunk. Two guys who I think of as being natural heels. Two guys who started out in lucha inspired juniors promotions. Working AJ-they work what felt like really good AJ juniors style match. This wasn't no NJ goofball juniors. This wasn't Toryumon meta-lucha. This was AJ juniors match, with AJ juniors style selling trace-ing line back to Fuchi vs. Kikuchi. Who would have thunk it.

Kawada vs. Hashimoto (AJPW 2/22/04)

The new thing that Hashimoto has brought to Japanese heavyweight wrestling is Ole Anderson, Ricky Steamboat bodypart selling.

Yeah there used to be you worked on body part for submission or the old school AJ body part work was lead in to throwing bombs (i.e. you weren't going to be able to throw opponent until you had weakened through body part work).

Hashimoto says we do bodypart work like Steamboat. Hash and Kawada are both broken down guys coming into this match and that adds to the epic feel of it. One of the things you realize by watching Kawada out of AJ, is that Kawada is short. Kawada is shorter than Ohtani, shorter than Kohei Sato. Dwarfed by the likes of Noaya Ogawa. He's short guy coming into ring with Hashimoto. But hell, Hashimoto worked credible singles match against Liger he can do it with Kawada. Whole match is built around Hashimoto's arm vs. Kawada's leg. If the two worked a match pre injuries it would have had a ton of suplexes. It doesn't need them anymore as its all about the bodyparts.

Hashimoto is alot better at the bodypart selling and work here but Kawada really steps up to the plate figuring out how to work this style. And besides which when Kawada no sells, the audience has to recognize "his leg is sleight screwed up" ...thus his fighting spirit no sells seem well like either legit fighting spirit or more often a game face to show no intimidation from opponent. Kawada does that alot here grimacing followed by putting on a game face, there are these great moments where he moves like an old man struggling to get out of bed and then just fights to try to hide that on his face.

Epic match. Everything I wanted out of meeting of these two.

Naoya Ogawa vs. Bill Goldberg (Hustle 1 1/4/04)

Speaking of selling, the weird thing about Ogawa in Zero-One is that he's become all about the selling. In all the endless mediocre Ogawa/Hashimoto vs. shitty guys tag matches. It's Ogawa who always plays face in peril while Hashimoto works hot tag. It's Ogawa working Kikuchi to Hashimoto as Kobashi. Not a role that anyone would've picked Ogawa for five years back. Somehow through this Ogawa has gotten actually good. He's limited in that he has a WWE superstar’s offensive depth. He has about three really over offense moves. And he’s able to sell between that. Goldberg also not a guy with a lot of depth of offense. Both have really over offense spots but not a lot of them. The two come together in ring and just feel like they were made for each other. Between this and Takayama vs. Nakamura 2004 really started out on a good foot in terms of heavyweight wrestling.

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