ZERO-ONE Truth Century Creation 3/2/02

KENTA vs. Tatsuhito Takaiwa

ER: Weird match as it gets almost 20 minutes, but rarely feels like anything more than a Takaiwa squash. KENTA had some mighty ineffective juniors offense and no strikes to go along with his awful frosted tips mushroom 'do. No strikes in a match against Takaiwa means you're going to get beat up. So Takaiwa beat him up, and Takaiwa is just a guy I totally blocked out really really liking, mistakenly mentally lumping him in with guys like Kanemaru and other late 90s/early 00s meh juniors. Wait do I also actually like Kanemaru!? MY MEMORY IS SHOT AND NOTHING MAKES SENSE ANYMORE! But Takaiwa is definitely now a guy I'm correctly re-evaluating. He has a lot of offense and hits it really hard, and KENTA and his dumb haircut is a fun guy to see get clotheslined and powerbombed a bunch. Match structure is all wonky as we basically get Takaiwa beating KENTA up for 15 mintues, then KENTA gets some flimsy roll ups and ranas before inevitably succumbing. KENTA had this annoying habit of kicking out of his every single one of his pinfalls (outside of the schoolboy that opened the match which was a real nice schoolboy). He would get a roll up and then after a 2 count he would act like Takaiwa was suddenly made of hot lava, just scrambling away from him before Takaiwa would kick out. Annoying.

PAS: I remember really digging this period of Takiawa, there is a ton all over the early 20s Schneider Comps. He was basically a juniors Kurisu, a balding little prick who wasn't afraid to be completely unprofessional. This match would have been really good if it had about five minutes shaved off. The idea of a young guy getting mauled, and getting some hope spots is a great match type, but the mauling here dragged. Takiawa is just stomping KENTA in the back of his head and trying to break small bones in his neck with clotheslines, but at some point around the 10 minute moment it stops mattering, I mean if the brainbuster on the floor doesn't end it, why will this suplex. I did like KENTA 's crazy dive into the crowd, and it is really surreal to see a kickless KENTA match.

Kohei Sato vs. Yoshiaki Fujiwara

ER: The title card actually bills Fujiwara as "The Wrestle Master" which....yep, that math checks out. And this was a match that would fit right in on a modern Evolve show, with the first 8 minutes being mat rolling. And now I'm just drooling at the prospect of Fujiwara as elder Catch Point statesman. There was some good rolling though it could have leaned further one way or the other. There were nice reversals though neither seemed to have an advantage and it didn't always seem spirited. Fujiwara has some sick transitions and I especially loved him planting a forearm on Sato's throat as he moved into mount. On their feet and Fujiwara starts dishing headbutts and getting that gleeful old man gleam in his eye. But he goes down for the count pretty quickly to a soft kick behind the ear. I wasn't expecting him to stay down for a 10 count after it. We've all seen him take far worse strikes, and this was essentially the only strike he took in the match so it really should have looked better if it was meant to be the finish.

PAS: Awesome grappling match, in the style of the classic PWFG and UWF Fujiwara matches. Pretty much all on the mat with both guys desperately fighting for counters and reversals. Sato is very comfortable in this relm and does a lot of cool shit. You don't often see someone who looks comfortable rolling with Fujiwara in this way. Most guys even if the action is worked even, appear carried, while Sato looks like he has his own ideas. Sato uses his height well on the mat, sort in the way someone liked Kendall Grove does in shoots, he has long legs and uses their length to extricate himself and get advantages. Of course no one in wrestling history is as comfortable on the mat as Yoshiaki Fujiwara and all of his attacks are very fluid too. Finish was slightly abrupt, Fujiwara has done good KO finishes in the past, this one didn't feel as much like a finish, the kick didn't land as solidly as it needed to, and I think it dropped the match a bit.

Sean McCully vs. Wataru Sakata

PAS: Ok Sean McCully is the hidden star of this Zero-One revisit. He looks like a Jersey City nightclub bouncer, and has this great "COME AT ME BRO" charisma. Sakata is an ex RINGS and Pride guy who ended up in Zero-One for some reason. This starts out as a shootstyle match, and McCully is surprisingly adept at basic shootstyle mat work. McCully ends up getting flipped to the floor and then they start brawling on the floor with McCully posting Sakata, and it almost turns into a Murakami match. Finish is awesome, McCully is in the ring taunting Sakata "YOU WANT TO RUMBLE BRO, YO THE PULSE IS WHERE I WORK DUDE, YOU DON'T FUCKING DISRESPECT ME A MY CLUB BRO." Sakata gets into the ring, and McCully claps his gloves together in anticipation, and Sakata hits a jumping knee and KO's him. Totally would have been a viral video if it had happened outside of a bar, I wanted to start chanting WORLD STAR.

Samoa Joe/Tom Howard vs. Steve Corino/Gary Steele

PAS: This was a super entertaining NWA v. UPW tag. A nice mix of Corino's horseshit and more indy ROHish tag work. Joe is in full super indy mode, chaining together suplexes, hitting tope con hilos, wasting people with lariats. Meanwhile Corino is hitting hard, but also talking mad loud shit, and doing the MX/Delfin armwringer spot. While a lot of the match was Cornio v. Joe, I think Howard may have been the under the radar star of the match. He hits all these weird takedowns and has these cool punch combos, just a totally unique wrestler. He also had the spot of the match, where he used a Joe suplex bridge to springboard himself into a nasty dropkick on Steele. Whole thing was pretty great, I could easily see this main eventing a alternate universe ROH show and being really well regarded.

Yoko Takahashi vs. Yuki Kubota

PAS: This was either a worked shoot, or a sloppy MMA fight. One of the ladies gets her nose busted open, and they throw pretty recklessly. Sort of entertaining because they eschewed defense, hard to rate something like this though.

Josh Dempsey vs. The Predator

PAS: Man the hits keep coming with this show, this is another killer match. Dempsey is a boxer and Predator is an ex NCAA champion wrestler, but this was a nutso brawl. Dempsey jumps Predator at the bell and throws a bunch of nasty bodyshots. Predator hurls Dempsey out of the ring and he basically falls head first to the floor. Rick Bassman jumps on the Predator and gets thrown. The whole thing is completely out of control, Dempsey is throwing spuds, Predator swings around his Brody chain, and tries to hang Dempsey with it. I honestly thought this was as good as the best Brody brawls, maybe the Predator was an improvement on the original.

Kazuhiko Ogasawara vs. Ryouji Sai

PAS: This was also nuts. Ogasawara is a fun karate guy and Sai is a shootstyle Zero One young guy. First move of the match is Sai going in for a shot and eating a knee square on his nose. It looked for a second like they were going to end the match immediately. Sai passes concussion protocol and comes back and we get another heated brawl, with Sai going for takedowns and submissions and Ogasawara winging hard punches and kicks. At one point Ogasawara tosses off the Gi and busts up Sai's nose. Finishing spin kick I think legit KO's Sai, as you can see his eyes roll up into the back of his head and someone pull out smelling salts.

Naomichi Marufuji vs. Naohiro Hoshikawa

PAS: Marufuji juniors matches aren't really my bag, I am always going to prefer crazy karate guys,  but this one moved along and had enough fun moves that I ended up enjoying it. Hoshikawa throws hard stomach kicks which makes him a perfect junior for a Hashimoto fed. Marufuji doesn't have great offense, but in the age of Okada and Tanahashi it doesn't stand out as much, and he does really connect with his superkicks. I actually liked how he worked his submissions which isn't something I remember him doing. These guys had a pretty well regarded match on the first Zero One show, and they appear to be a pair of guys who worked really well together.

Shinya Hashimoto vs. Masato Tanaka

PAS: One of the all time greatest bear maulings in wrestling history. After this beating I imagine Tanaka wished he was back getting unprotected chairshots and thrown into barbed wire. It is a great kind of semi-squash match because Tanaka is always coming forward and attacking even as he gets mutilated. He even does some pretty nasty knee work, throwing some hard forearms right into the side of Hashimoto's knee, you know that guys knees weren't great. He even gets a great near fall, when he wiggles out of the brainbuster and smashes Hashimoto with a big rolling elbow. Still this was all about Hash as an absolute stalking killer. Not only does he throw those windmill over hand chops to the neck and his baseball bat wheel kicks, but at one point he jumps off the ring apron and lands full weight right on the side of Tanaka's ribs, I have no idea how they didn't crack like wishbones. There is this great spot late in the match where Tanaka backs Hash into the corner and slaps him, Hash gives this great wry grin and just full force punches Tanaka in the jaw. What a fucking rockstar Hashimoto was.

Shinjiro Ohtani vs. Naoya Ogawa

PAS: Another super heated scrap, what a fucking show. I guess Murakami was feuding with Ogawa at this point as he consistently needs to be held back from going after him. Murakami is such a superstar, when he throws off his shirt he is like Steve Austin. Ohtani uses Murakami's distraction to get an early edge, hitting his great missile dropkick and german suplex, Ogawa is too much thought and he eventually STO's Ohtani into a ref stoppage, Murakami tries to after him again and we have a great pull apart. Checking Cagematch, Murakami doesn't show up again until 2006, what a dropped ball, Ogawa v. Murakami looked like it would have been awesome

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2015 Ongoing MOTY List: BJW Big Boys Go WAR

Twin Towers (Kohei Sato/Shuji Ishikawa) vs. Ryuichi Sekine/Ryuji Ito BJW 10/29

ER: What the hell took me so long to watch this match? This was the best WAR tag since WAR, a total baton pass that gets every damn thing right. They got a lumpy guy in Ishikawa, they got two different guys who throw hard kneelifts to the stomach, everyone throws a hard lariat, Sato throws a tough piledriver, everyone lands hard on every suplex, and these guys all take shots to every single part of their body. This was 17 minutes of breathless heavyweight tag wrestling, no wasted moments, always somebody eating a nasty shot or getting their neck twisted or getting slammed with someone's full weight. I kept waiting for this to come up for air, but they never did. We get a couple nasty trips tumbling and sliding through ringside chairs (always with nasty follow up attacks), constant hard clubbing arms, omnipresent kicks to the stomach, those knees from Sato kept making me want to barf, just total punishment. Sekine is the smallest guy in the match and tries to make up for that fact. He lands full weight on a top rope splash, and always voluntarily goes toe to toe with the Twin Towers, even when that ends up poorly for him more often than not. The long finishing stretch is Ishikawa and him throwing each other into chairs in increasingly painful ways, with Ishikawa dropping him with a side slam into a set up chair, and Ishikawa eating a superplex onto a stack of them. But much of the run was Ishikawa punishing heavyweight ways: an over shoulder piledriver, a high as hell angle powerbomb, a big lariat used as a killshot, making damn sure Sekine wasn't going to kick out. This is the kind of regularly surprising beating that would hold up in any era, really made every guy look like a cult legend.

PAS: This was a really good Big Japan Heavyweight tag, although lets pump the breaks a bit with the WAR comparisons, these guys are all good, but none of them are Takeshi Ishikawa, much less Tenryu. I always dug Sato in WAR and he is still a guy who will kick your lungs out, and Ishikawa is lumpy and nasty. Loved Sekine in this, really great underdog performance, I loved the spot where he squirmed his way out of a piledriver, only to deadlift Sato for a powerslam, I could hear the hernia's forming when he was squatting Sato. I really didn't like all of the chair stuff, didn't look particularly good, a couple of times guys were holding chairs waiting to be hit, and when guys are hitting this hard they don't need RVD spots. Finish run was really nasty with Ishikawa smushing Sekine and Sekine dying on his shield. Good stuff.


2015 MOTY MASTER LIST

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Eric Views and Hollas for Suzukawa

"Disgraced Sumo". I'm not really sure if there are two words, when coupled together, that would make me want to watch a wrestling match more than those two. Off the top of my head I can think of several coupled words that would certainly make me prioritize a match:

"Fat Guys"
"Necro Butcher"
"Unseen Berzerker"
"Lucha Blood"
"Upset Hansen"

If someone describes a match to me using those two words, I'm going to watch that match really damn quick. But I think Disgraced Sumo might be at the top of the list. You're going to get a guy who at minimum seems uncooperative, who has gone through psycho training and is showing how tough he still is, and immediately has an aura of being a bad guy. Suzukawa has cornrows and large kanji tattooed across his back (which seems weird, I thought we were the only ones dumb enough to do that?), a bored expression permanently etched across his face, and he fought Cro Cop in a dangerously revealing mawashi. But sadly, there doesn't appear to be a whole lot of Suzukawa wrestling matches available to watch. I loved him in his match against Josh Barnett, which sent me searching for more, only to find out that NEW - the offshoot of IGF that Inoki supposedly set up to make Suzukawa a star (which is weird in itself, as you'd think Shinya Aoki would be a bigger star) -  is no more, as Suzukawa opted to leave. So this is what we have for now. Let's dive in to the last of the Disgraced Sumo.

Shinichi Suzukawa vs. Super Tiger (IGF/NEW 5/12/17)

ER: This is disappointing, only because due to the file size (8 minutes) I assumed we were getting their 5/27 match, which was under 8 minutes. But it's merely the last 5 minutes of their 5/12 30 minute draw, and then we get clips of their other two matches, including 5/27 (which took place outdoors at an amusement park!!). We get some cool stuff, like Suzukawa hitting a nice rolling kick and slapping Tiger around, Tiger hitting a cool hook kick, but for this being the final 30 minutes of a draw it didn't feel like much of anything had been built. It felt like the first 5 minutes of a match, with a bell ringing suddenly to signify that it's over. I wish we had the amusement park match, I really liked the visual of Suzukawa hitting a bunch of nasty sumo slaps in the corner while a roller coaster goes by in the background.

Shinichi Suzukawa/Keisuke Okuda vs. Kazunari Murakami/Kohei Sato (IGF/NEW 6/2/17)

ER: This is not what I was hoping for (I wanted more of a Suzukawa showcase) but what we got was weird, unprofessional, and ended like a badass Seijun Suzuki movie. Sato and Okuda are out first, and stand opposite each other in the ring for a bit too long waiting for the other two. Murakami comes out in a weird shark skin suit (with fighting gloves) and just Murakami's all over the place. Everything just got all Murakami'd up. He sulks in the corner and makes his awesome disgusted bad guy faces, then he drags Okuda out of the ring and dishes a beating on the floor while nobody does much to stop him. He tries to break Okuda's arm by forcing it around a ring barrier, tosses him into the post, banks his face off the barrier (cutting him open big) and rubbing the seams of his gloves in Okuda's cut and choking him in front of some ladies in the crowd. Suzukawa steps in and gets beaten with a chair, Sato takes some shots at Okuda, it's all very one-sided. Suzukawa is mostly a non-factor, this was all about Murakami and Sato roughing up Okuda, and the match ends about 6 minutes in with minimal opposition.

BUT!

BUT!!

Suddenly, Murakami is confronted at ringside by FUJIWARA! Fujiwara is also wearing a suit, and looks appropriately, expectedly badass. Murakami is still, Fujiwara's fist is clenched. Fujiwara is shaking. Fujiwara's anger builds...and then, he extends an open hand to Murakami, who shakes his hand! Fujiwara reaches into his suit jacket and hands a folded note to Murakami, who eyeballs it and laughs before walking away.

WHAT IS HAPPENING AND WHY WILL WE NEVER SEE THE CONCLUSION TO THIS ANGLE!?

This was the coolest Lucha Underground angle ever filmed, Yakuza Boss Fujiwara paying off noted asskicking grump Murakami to destroy those who have done wrong. Phil and I talked earlier today and he said he watched a 2002 Z-1 show where Murakami and Ogawa get into it after a match and people have to hold Murakami back. Phil excitedly looked to skip ahead to see a Murakami/Ogawa blowoff that nobody has ever talked about...only to find Murakami didn't make it back to Z-1 for another 3 years! Murakami is officially the master of starting the greatest angles that had no kind of finish. Murakami was The Higher Power. Murakami was the Hummer Driver. Murakami was behind GTV. Murakami is the absentee father who convinces you that THIS TIME he's going to be there. Murakami is cruel.

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Pro Wrestling Zero-One "Vast Energy" 1/6/02

1. Sean McCully vs. Tatsuhito Takaiwa

ER: On paper, McCully and Takaiwa matches did not factor into my decision to by the 2002 Z-1 set...but man did I love this. I now need to see all of the Sean McCully pro wrestling matches. McCully is a short MMA never was who brings an awesome cocky douche aura to Japanese pro wrestling, with his baggy shorts and smirk and bare feet (not even ankle tape!). Takaiwa seems vaguely uncooperative throughout, but shows too much ass to actually be uncooperative. It's a weird vibe. Takaiwa rushes him with a lariat and McCully ducks it and throws a spin kick, then a couple high kicks. Takaiwa bails to the floor and McCully jumps over the top after him, looking like he couldn't decide to land on the apron or the floor and just kinda ended up flying down onto the apron and Tak. McCully takes a mean bump into the rail and then gets blasted with a lariat that sends him sprawling wildly ass over elbow into the crowd. Holy shit. And then McCully calmly gets up and  WALKS UP THE RING ROPES to get back in the ring. Complete & Accurate Sean McCully arriving shortly. Takaiwa really seemed like he wanted to make an example of McCully...but also took plenty of hard kicks and throws from McCully. For a guy I've never thought about much I'll have to give credit to Takaiwa for making it seem like a dangerous atmosphere. Takaiwa is a guy who I kind of forgot about and might really need to seriously reevaluate. He looked really zoned in here. At one point he goes up top for an elbow that seems like a bad idea, and McCully moves as Tak just wrecks his elbow into the mat. McCully is always throwing body kicks and starts doing some great takedown suplexes, dumping Tak a couple times on his shoulder. Tak plants him with a powerbomb and dumps him with a stiff DVD. Man this was cool. What an unexpectedly great start to the Z-1 project.

PAS: Yeah this was a blast McCully was clearly not Pro-Wrestling trained, but Takiawa is the perfect guy to come in and potato shot an untrained guy. Those lariats by Takiawa seemed like they were trying to teach McCully some kind of lesson, just wound up smashes to the jaw and neck. I also have a feeling I will enjoy a Takiaea revisit.


2. Yoshiaki Fujiwara vs. Ryouji Sai

ER: This was a pretty basic Fujiwara match. Fun, because it's a Fujiwara match doing his thing, but not very substantial. He attacks Sai to start with a couple of brutal headbutts to the temple, and Sai eventually fights back with kicks. Fujiwara tends to absorb some kicks before going in for the kill, and that all happens here with one kick in particular flooring him and sending him rolling for the apron. Finish was odd with Fujiwara eventually just imposing his will on Sai, forcing him to the mat and bending his arm until he can get it into the armbar bearing his name. This was Fujiwara vs. a rookie.

PAS: I don't really disagree with anything Eric wrote but a Fujiwara squash is always something I am going to find awesome. I loved those vicious headbutts to the temple, they were very much of the Fujiwara shoot variety rather then the big worked ones, and they looked super nasty. I also loved the finish, Sai unloads with really fast multiple strike combo in the corner, great looking handspeed which isn't something you see a ton of in wrestling, Fujiwara gives him this little shrug, like "good job kid" and then just grabs and wrenches his arm down for the submission. Like he saw what the youngster had to offer and decided he was finished for the day.

3. Kohei Sato vs. Steve Corino

ER: I loved this period Corino. He was absolutely one of the best in the world at this point, for at least the year surrounding. And this is weird because he and Sato are kind of bizarro mirror image with their bleached blonde hair, black trunks and even remarkably similar body shape, height, everything. It's weird. Corino worked a southern cheating heel schtick here, but the schtick felt a bit too schticky after awhile. I loved it when Sato was throwing kicks and Corino was tossing punches at Sato's forehead, headbutting him and lobbing back elbows, but Corino would always revert to getting the feet on the ropes, choking with wrist tape, low blows, etc. It was amusing to a degree, but never as good as the actual ass beating, which I'd rather have more of. Sato had a nice takedown into an armbar and I liked him going after Corino's arm. This was overall good, but could have been really damn good.

PAS: I think I liked this a little more then Eric, I liked Corino trying to go toe to toe with Sato and failing, and having to resort to cheap shit to get an advantage. He gets caught in a triangle and tries to counter, fails and has to get to the ropes. I remember loving Sato back in the day and am really looking forward to revisiting him, nasty kicks, cool takedowns a fun poor mans Takayama vibe.

4. Naohiro Hoshikawa vs. Tsuyoshi Kikuchi

ER: Wonder what the story was behind Kikuchi working this show. He didn't work any other Z-1. And the match was fucking weird and confusing and maybe if I was Japanese it would make more sense, embedded in the culture and interpersonal relationships? Because I don't know man. This was weird. It was essentially 10 minutes of Hoshikawa being asked to kick Kikuchi as hard as he could, while Kikuchi showed boredom at just how little damage Hoshikawa was doing. It starts good with Kikuchi jumping him at the bell with a kick, but Hosh kicking him to the floor, Kikuchi taking a tough bump into the rail, and Hosh hitting an out of control dive that sees him fly way to fast headfirst into the rail. And then back in the ring Kikuchi plops down on his butt like a kid playing with blocks, and Hoshikawa starts kicking him. Kicks him in the back, the chest, stiff low soccer kicks. And Kikuchi just sits there, unfazed, acting like nothing is actually touching him. Hoshikawa starts bouncing off the opposite ropes and throwing stiff low dropkicks, which kind of knock Kikuchi momentarily onto his back, but he always just pops back up showing no facial emotion. More sitting, more kicking. At one point Kikuchi makes Hoshikawa look like even more of a jackass by dodging one of the dropkicks, with Hoshikawa clearly not expecting him to move as he thigh slaps a missed dropkick. What the fuck is happening. The whole match goes like this. Kikuchi takes a furious beating, but most of the time acts like he's dreamily sitting in a field, not getting his chest and back kicked in. We get a couple nice German suplexes, but they don't matter as neither guy is going to give the other the satisfaction of acting like they hurt at all. The only time Kikuchi even sells an eensy bit is late in the match after getting dropkicked in the face, and Hoshikawa starts teeing off with kicks to a grounded Kikuchi. The rest of the time is spent with Hosh trying to get a reaction, dropping an elbow on the throat, anything. Eventually Kikuchi just decided the match was over and locked on a nasty kimura for the tap, and then held onto it for several seconds after the tap and Hoshikawa flips out and tries attacking him after the bell, but Kikuchi acts like nobody is even touching him and looks right past him. What in the actual fuck. I have no idea what any of this was. Was Kikuchi sent by NOAH just to show what pussies all the Z-1 guys are? I've never seen no selling to this degree before. Kikuchi was like a guy whose sexual fetish was getting kicked as hard as possible, but at the same time he is numb to his own fetish. He took what looked like some brutal shots and he just showed boredom the whole time. Clearly more to this, but I have no idea if we'll ever know. Hoshikawa worked a couple NOAH tags opposite Kikuchi the year before this, could be worth investigation (plus Taue/Kikuchi vs. Hoshikawa/Takaiwa just sounds like something I would want to watch anyway).

PAS: Really weird match, it was a couple of degrees away from being an awesome match. First minute or so was great, the match had big heat and a lot of violence. Kikuchi's gimmick was a guy who could take a hell of a beating, so I guess that was why he was no selling everything in such a weird way. He was actually selling fine during the final run, flying around for Hoshikawa's big kicks and I dug the Kimura finish, but the middle section with Kikuchi just sitting there was super weird and killed the match. Felt a little like the stinky Fujiwara v. Kawada match, where I am sure there was some Yakuza power play in the background of this match which explains everything.

5. The Predator vs. Josh Dempsey

ER: Oh man this was a blast. Dempsey is a former boxer and Terkay has yet to go full Brody, and they wisely kept it to 4 minutes. Dempsey is limited but willing to take some bumps (some unintentional, like when he clotheslines Terkay over the top and goes over with him) and doesn't hold back a lot when he's punching Terkay in his gigantic head. Predator keeps things to a lot of knees and slams and Dempsey just throws punches. But Dempsey had a lot of punch variety, like when you play as Balrog in SFII. Dempsey threw cool body shots (that Terkay could have sold better) and really blasted him with some hooks. Terkay had some big slams, loved his ring post wrap around and at one point he chucks Dempsey over the guard rail and into some chairs with a bodyslam. Dammmmmn. both men get counted out and there's a great pull apart after with both men spilling through chairs. Real fun mixed style bout.

PAS: For an ex-boxer Dempsey's boxing form was pretty terrible but his shots were pretty stiff especially his body shots, he also wasn't afraid to take some big bump, getting hurled over the rail and kneed in the head. I also thought Dempsey had a fun frat boy douchebag charisma. Totally fun nutso match and exactly the kind of thing we hope to excavate.

6. Shinjiro Otani & Masato Tanaka vs. Samoa Joe & Tom Howard

ER: Howard and Joe were two of the guys I was excited about seeing on this project, as I remember liking Howard a lot and was curious how good Joe was 14 years ago. And this was a fun tag, even though it was really an awesome first half combined with a kinda sloppy disjointed second half. Howard gassed hard at one point and the structure totally fell apart, so that everyone was just lying around and/or getting in everybody else's way for what felt like a long time. But for a lot of this I dug Howard and all his sliding and standing side kicks. Joe was also far better than I remember, laying in stiff strikes and breaking out all kinds of suplexes I don't remember him using. He was also really quick, and really he worked like the best possible Taz. Otani has tons of personality which makes up for that thing Tanaka does where he sells a suplex by just sorta standing back up and looking vacant. Otani was mostly tasked with holding this thing together and trying to get it to a logical conclusion, and he was good running around making saves and I liked him paying Joe back for an earlier face wash. But yeah things did fall apart, but overall the match had plenty of charm. These teams should have a real good match in them.

PAS: I liked this a bit more then Eric too, I loved the UPW team as heel, Howard had so much fun nasty offense, I loved his brainbuster and his boot camp crawl to break a submission, I thought he did gas a bit, but Joe made up for it by being a total dynamo. You forget what an explosive athlete young Samoa Joe was, crazy hip strength on all of his suplexes and big nasty elbows and clotheslines. Finish run was a puro tag finish run, but the big moves were pretty huge and I didn't have a huge problem with any of the kickouts. I think I am going to like the weird Josh Howard matches more then the Ohtani/Tanaka workrate tags on this rewatch, but this was really good workrate tag.

7. Shinya Hashimoto vs. Nathan Jones

ER: So ummmmmm I kinda loved his. How was Jones so much better here, over a year before he was in WWE? Yeah, he was wooden in this, and yeah he had Hash staggering around setting stuff up, but he looked far more workable here than in any of his WWE stuff (outside of that awesome 4 on 2 match from Smackdown with Benoit/Angle vs. Lesnar/Jones/Matt Morgan/A-Train where Jones looked like everything was really starting to click), and he looked far more workable here than Khali did at any point in his WWE tenure, and Khali had a gig for practically a decade! But damn I really loved this. Hash was so damn good, at everything. Loved him getting bullied around by Jones, loved some of the weird situations they ended up in (Jones holding him in an over shoulder backbreaker, leading to Hash pushing off the tope rope and flipping back over Jones), and by the time we got to Hash beatdown I was flipping out. Hash launched all sorts of brutal kicks to Jones' thigh, chest and back (Jones leaned into all of these shots like a psycho), started tossing out his DDTs (which Jones took shockingly well), suplexed him over the top with Jones taking a wild "Vince MacMahon has no idea how to bump over the top rope" bump, and this was just all sorts of awesome. Jones certainly looked like a wooden stiff at times, but most of the time he was breaking out offense you didn't know he had (where did his high jump elbow drop come from??) or getting murdered by an arguably best wrestler in the world at this point Hashimoto, and this thing was just laid out flawlessly for max effect. I'm sure there is going to be tons of awful Jones throughout this project, but this wasn't that. This was killer.

PAS: Yeah this was totally dope, I remember loving this match back in 2002 and it totally held up. Jones should have been a bigger star, he is a crazy looking guy, cut like a bag of dope, 7ft tall and really athletic in a weird way. He isn't afraid to lean into big shots and Hashimoto lays in huge shots. He is far from a good wrestler, but has a set of tools. Hash shows his greatness, because he takes a guy with some very limited assets and builds a compelling match around those assets. Hash gets bloodied up with nasty slaps to his face and really looks like he can't solve this monster. Really impressive entry on Hashimoto's resume.

ER: Well I couldn't have asked for a better show to start out with. All the non-wrestling guys were fun, their native stable is diverse and also fun, the gaijin are unique and clearly busting ass, just a real satisfying roster that makes me excited for tons of different match-ups. No way the promotion keeps things at this high a level throughout 2002, but I'm excited for what's to come.

PAS: Yeah this was a really fun show I am very excited about checking out what this roster will do.

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Catching Up On 2014 Wrestle-1

Taiyo Kea & Masakatsu Funaki vs. Shinjiro Otani & Kohei Sato, Wrestle-1 6/27/14

Saw this match pop up and it had four guys that intrigue me in varying ways, so figured why not? Nobody could call this a MOTY, but as a fun one commercial Smackdown tag it was plenty worthwhile. There was no real high drama but the work within was good. The real revelation is that Taiyo Kea works as great now as he ever has, and maybe better. He was a guy who I was into during the All Japan pre-NOAH exodus days. Seemed like a guy who was really breaking out around 2002, but I could never get into mid/late 2000s AJPW so I lost track of him. I assumed he was mostly retired (and maybe he is?). Here he looks like a unrelenting monster, like a guy I'd like to see matched up against Ambrose. He mixes in a bunch of cool strikes, back elbow, nasty forearms, headbutts, meaty chops, cool short-range yakuza kicks, low rolling arm drag, low superkick. He just had a bunch of cool stuff that . Funaki is always fun doing little things, like his collar and elbows. He doesn't do them the way you're used to seeing them, he turns them into more of an immediate scramble. Think less HHH "this is how you execute a picture perfect collar and elbow" and more of a grappling fight. Him grappling with Otani is fun as he's always squirming around like a monkey, looking for leverage. Funaki also brings plenty of kicks, notably his rolling kappo kick to the temple. Otani brings a big spinning heel kick and missile dropkick and while he's lost a step he's plenty functional. Sato is a fine punching bag for Funaki and Kea, and really started to shine down the stretch. I dug his tight half crab and he really got my attention with a great knee drop off the top, brutal piledriver and a sick deadlift German to finish off Funaki. So, I like Kohei Sato now. As a rule, it's probably safe to say that if a guy does a cool deadlift German, big kneedrop and a piledriver that would make Lawler smile, then I'll be into that dude. It didn't add up to a great match and there wasn't much drama, but this was plenty worthwhile and a good showcase for all the participants' current abilities.

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Dick Togo Behind the Scene Pull Strings Like Geppetto, The Gun Blow Steam Whistle Like a Tea Kettle

Dick Togo/Scott Norton/Don Frye vs. Masahiro Chono/Kohei Sato/Eric Young PWE 10/25/08 - SKIPPABLE 

PAS: On paper this looks like an awesome random WAR six man, but it didn't like up to any of that promise. Chono and Norton start out and neither guy looks like he should be in the ring at this point. Young and Togo run through a wrestling school juniors section, Togo and Sato have some fun stuff, and Eric Young does a great convulsion sell on a Frye punch, but outside of that we had nothing. Frye is usually ridiculously charismatic, but he was bland here. Don't ruin the match in your head by watching the match on the computer. Dick Togo v. Shinya Ishikawa BJW 5/3/09-EPIC I can't remember seeing Togo work this kind of violent potato fest match before, and he is great at it. You get the sense that Togo could slot right into a FUTEN show and fit like a glove. The main problems I have with most Strong BJ wrestling is the lack of selling, emotion and structure. At its worst it is just two guys standing in front of each other throwing forearms. Of course there isn't anyone in wrestling better and inserting selling, emotion and structure into a match then Dick Togo. So we get all the violence without any of the problems. Togo really works over the kid, especially his ribs, smashing them with knees and an especially nasty double stomp. Ishikawa gets a couple of big comebacks, including a really stiff dropkick which Togo just flies on. Not particularly long, but really fun to watch and very cool to see Togo do something different so well. 

Dick Togo vs. Gedo DDT 6/30/11 - GREAT 

PAS: The curtain goes down on a great career with a great match. Togo is walking away at the height of his prowess, arguably the best wrestler in the world, on the best run of his career. Gedo is currently the best wrestler he has faced during this singles run, although this isn't the best match. Execution in this match is great, both guys hit what they do very well. The match starts with some solid as a rock basic mat wrestling. Gedo gets out wrestled and decides to brawl, smashing Togo in the ribs with a chair and ring bell hammer. Togo takes a huge bump ribs first into the ring post. We get a great Memphis punch exchanges, some exciting near falls, and a beautiful Togo tope and floating senton. Despite the brawling which looked great, I never thought this took the extra step into a grasping violent war, like the best of this Togo series. In a way that is fine, maybe a retirement match should be a guy running through his greatest hits with a good dance partner, and this was a great version of that, really enjoyed it, but Togo raised the EPIC bar in 2010-11 and this didn't clear it. 

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE DICK TOGO

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A Soft Answer Turneth Away Wrath: but Grievous Words Stir Up Yoshiaki Fujiwara

Yoshiaki Fujiwara vs. Johnny Barrett UWF 5/28/90-GREAT

PAS: Super enjoyable match. Fujiwara almost feels like a master Jazz trumpeter who is just riffing. He tries out a bunch of neat little concepts in this match, but it feels very experimental. He had multiple very cool ankle locks, one where Barrett was in the mount, and Fujiwara locked his ankle with his feet, and another when Barrett had his back and he countered by twisting Baretts foot. They also did a bunch of spots taking advantage of Baretts size, with Fuiwara climbing all over him like a kid on a jungle gym. Barrett is really great in this match too, there are multiple moments where Fujiwara is dancing around enjoying himself, where Barrett responds with a nasty forearm or a knee, he is in a fight and doesn’t want to be treated contemptuously.

TKG: Barrett was smoother on the mat then I remember him and even his standing knees to the head felt organic. I kind of wish Zero 1 brought him in when Matt Gaffari was doing his superheavyweight schtick. I mean there wasn’t this kind of matwork in WAR but he feels like a guy who would have had neat matches in WAR as well. The real problem with him in this match (and the flaw that kept this from being an epic showdown) is that at no point did I feel like he had anything that was going to end the match. All of his matwork, strikes, punishing moves…even his chokes and submissions felt like stuff being used to wear Fujiwara down to build to a pinfall finish and not a sub finish.


Yoshiaki Fujiwara/Riki Choshu/Tatsumi Fujinami v. Hiroshi Hase/Shinya Hashimoto/Keiji Mutoh NJ 7/9/94- GREAT

A big star six man tag which totally delivers. Starts out a bit slow, but it kicks in gear when our man Fujiwara tags in, he has great exchanges with both Hashimoto and Hase. A great strike exchange with Hashimoto, with Fujiwara landing nasty chops to the neck and Hash laying in kicks. Super cool spot with Hase catching a Fujiwara headbutt and turning it into a uranage. Finish is totally awesome, Hase hits his giant swing on Fujinami , but it makes him dizzy so he stumbles into a Riki lariat. From there you have a big run of moves with everyone hitting their signature stuff, until finally the 80’s stars get triple submissions and the win, The old guys team is totally awesome and I need to see more of them.

Yoshiaki Fujiwara/Yuto Aijima v. Giant Kimala/Jinsei Shinzaki AJPW 6/8/01-SKIPPABLE

Not much of a match, luckily we get very little Aijima because he is one of the worst ever. Mostly just Fujiwara running through his basic comedy spots. I enjoyed him biting Kimala on his titty, and how Shinzaki kept hurting his hand when he chopped him, but nothing that hasn't been done better other places.

Yoshiaki Fujiwara/Shinya Hashimoto v. Kohei Sato/Hirotaka Yokoi Zero-One 8/15/04-EPIC

Here is the first really spectacular 21st century Fujiwara match I have found. This had the feel of a classic BattlArts match,yuy nothing fancy just all four guys trying to beat the ever living shit out of each other. Fujiwara gets isolated for a part of this match and eats a pretty big beating from the young guys. Yokoi wears MMA gloves and unloads with nasty full strength punches to the face and body. There is this awesome section where he is unloading on Fujiwara and Fujiwara fires back with his jumping shoot headbutt. They also have a great early mat wrestling section, with Fujiwara showing the kind of slick counters that are his forte. Of course Hashimoto is a fucking tank, when he gets tagged in he just murders people, axe like chops to the neck, thudding kicks, big suplexes. There are several points in the match where Sato tries to stand toe to toe with Hashimoto and it is like trying to brawl with late 80s Tyson. I love this kind of gritty violent stuff and this match totally put a smile on my face.

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE YOSHIAKI FUJIWARA

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An Overflow of Good Converts to Yoshiaki Fujiwara

Yoshiaki Fujiwara vs. Keichi Yamada NJ 9/23/87 - EPIC

Real hidden gem from your random bad VQ HH Japanese webpage source. Great story with Yamada as this aggressive little bulldog who was never going to stop coming forward. Fujiwara was countering his attacks, but he could never slow him down. It reminded me of a Clay Guida UFC fight. Yamada didn't have the teqnuqie, but he was going to overwhelm him with pace. I never thought of Yamada as much of a mat wrestler, but he was super fast and impressive in the early exchanges. Fujiwara was totally spectacular here too, taunting Yamada when he would come in recklessly, smacking him with slaps and countering his moves. He also did a great job selling fatigue as you could tell he was frustrated with inability to put this little fucker away. Finish was awesome with Fujiwara countering desperation shot after desperation shot with the Fujiwara armbar, but Yamada would survive, get to the ropes, and charge right back ahead. Until finally Fujiwara trapped both arms and ended it. Too bad this only exists as a tiny poor VQ avi file, as I could see this finishing pretty well on my NJ ballot.

Yoshiaki Fujiwara vs. Dan Severn NJ 8/2/96 - GREAT

Very cool power vs. guile match up. Severn really comes off like a monster here, throwing around Fujiwara with big time suplexes. This reminded of the kind of match ups Fujiwara would have with random Russians in PWFG, as he really worked an entertaining contest around Severns limitations. There were a couple of awesome looking Fujiwara counters, Severn shoots for a firemans carry and Fujiwara catches him in armbar using his legs. There is another move where Fujiwara counters a double leg with an mid air armbar while locking the legs as well. Totally beautiful move which I really bought as the finish. The end was just Severn throwing a bunch of overhead tosses, with Fujiwara finally being too weak to kick out. Felt like the finish run was a bit repetitive, but this was about as good a non Tarzan Goto match I have seen from Severn.

Yoshiaki Fujiwara/Dan Kroffat vs. Steve Williams/Mike Rotundo AJPW 11/19/00 - SKIPPABLE

Nothing much here, total squash with Williams and Rotundo jumping their opponents at the bell, hitting some big power moves on Fujiwara and pinning him after a top rope powerslam. The whole match was just over a minute. Under other circumstances, I would have been intrigued to see Fujiwara work the mat with Rotundo, but not here.

Yoshiaki Fujiwara/Riki Choshu vs. Ryuji Sai/Kohei Sato Zero-One 10/17/04 - SKIPPABLE

This was during the period where Z1 was running all cage match shows, so this for in a cage for no reason. Pretty much a nothing match, with a couple of decent exchanges from Sato and Fujiwara, but this felt perfunctory and Choshu finishes it rather quickly with a lariat.

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE YOSHIAKI FUJIWARA

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