New Footage Friday: Different Style!!

Shinya Hashimoto vs. Aleksey Tyurin NJPW 7/22/90 - GREAT

PAS: Tyurin is an enormous Judoka, he looked like he might be 6'7 360, spent much of the match with some great looking Judo throws on Hashimoto. It is always fun to watch Hash try to solve a puzzle in these different style fights. The puzzle here was Tyurin's strength and technique and eventually Hash just tries to dirty it up, stunning Tyurin with two nasty short headbutts, dazing the bear enough to get him over with a side suplex and choke him out. Really fun visuals in this match, and while it wasn't tremendously action packed I really found it compelling. 

MD: Tyurin is massive, absolutely massive and he has a lurching way of moving at you with his arms up. The best way that I can explain this is that it's like when a little kid family member comes charging at you because they watched too much wrestling or something, when you're an adult and you have to do everything you can not to lose your balance and fall on them and break them. Tyurin is gingerly not trying to absolutely crush tiny child Hashimoto here. Which is bizarre and surreal. It means that just a headlock takedown seems like it could demolish Hash's kidney and break his ribs though. The flip side was that every movement (and every bit of restraint, I guess) tired Tyurin down more, so all Hashimoto had to do was stay alive long enough. Which he did. The suplex at the end barely works but is still worth seeing, though I'm not sure the choke out works because Tyurin was so large that he'd always be in the ropes. Always.

ER: Yes yes yes, this match is exactly my kind of thing. I adore that we are still finding new weird Russians that Inoki brought in, and I had no clue there were ever any GIANTS wrestling in New Japan Different Style fights. Hashimoto is a large man, and Tyurin absolutely dwarfs him. Tyurin looks like the largest possible Glenn Fleshler, a mammoth judoka who just walks through Hashimoto's strikes and flattens him with what come off like normal judo moves, like a headlock take over or an STO. He's so huge that he makes a headlock takeover look finisher worthy, and it's amazing. At one point he literally approaches Hashimoto and raises both of his arms over his head, and I swear to god he looked exactly like the grizzly bear on the poster of Grizzly. Just a giant man about to bear attack Hashimoto, so Hash kicks him right in the knee and keeps his distance. Tyurin doesn't pretend he is a bear any longer. Hash keeps getting better and better at evading Tyurin's takedowns, slipping out and landing on top, and I thought the build to the final choke was good. Hashimoto powers Tyurin over with a Saito suplex, and it while it was far from the prettiest suplex you've seen, it looks like Hash is moving a damn mountain. I bought the choke as it really looked like Hash was smothering the giant, using Tyurin's size and meaty neck against him. Great stuff. 

Shinya Hashimoto vs. Ramzin Shbiev NJPW 6/12/91 - GREAT

PAS: Shbiev comes out in boxing gloves and shorts, although he doesn't have a Box Rec record. He had decent form, but it didn't really look professional to me. Hashimoto however really knows how to work a match around a Russian guy with Boxing gloves. Hashimoto and Shbiev circle each other for the first couple of rounds, with Shbiev landing some nice body shots. That leads up to an all timer of last minute, with Shbiev dropping Hashimoto with a really nice multi punch combo. Hash realizes he can't stand in the pocket with him, hits two sick looking leg sweeps, and puts his lights all the way out with a sick high kick to the face, Shbiev didn't block it at all, and I wouldn't be surprised if he forgot all of the math he learned in middle school. 

MD: Two rounds of build up leading to one quick round of payoff, but what around it was. The build was measured and disciplined. Shbiev had a pretty clear advantage for the first two rounds, a straight up puncher. Hashimoto was able to slow the torrent with kicks, but whenever he tried to cut the distance and use his size to grab Shbiev, he ate a bunch of blows and the size and momentum necessary for the attempt brought them into the ropes. Towards the end of the second round, Hashimoto seemed to realize that just keeping Shbiev at bay wasn't going to work out and he started going for it with more wild kicks, landing one and knocking him flat. In the third, likewise, Shbiev realized that if Hash was going to do that, he better do something else and he rushed in with a really nasty flurry. They kept one-upping one another as Hash used his reach advantage with sweeping kicks, throwing Shbiev off his game enough that he could get a brutal headlock takeover and then finish it all off with a homerun hitting kick to the face. Just a hugely satisfying last round.

ER: Different Style is the most perfect pro wrestling. The looseness of a fight with the artistry of a performer, Hashimoto was really the true master of the Different Style. Inoki was the pioneer, but Hashimoto was getting these superstar reactions to his theme song because of his incredible Different Style wars. Shbiev comes out wearing long shorts and looks like someone Louis Gossett Jr. had to take down in the latter half of Diggstown, and Hashimoto is an expert at selling all of his strikes. Shbiev is a real interesting puncher, good at mixing up his shots, and Hashimoto is so captivating as someone struggling to find his distance. Shbiev drops him with this hard left to the body, and the longer this goes the more risks both guys take, both elevating their aggression. The final flurry is incredible, always amazing to me how well these non-wrestlers fall when it's time for them to take their wrestling beating. Hashimoto starts brutalizing Shbiev with legsweeps, just giving this poor guy knee problems for life, before finishing everything with a sweeping high kick that just drops him. Different Style God Hashimoto. Get me the t-shirt. 

Akitoshi Saito vs. Michiyoshi Ohara NJPW 2/8/92

MD: Crazy ten minutes of pro wrestling here. Ohara rushes Saito at the start, but Saito's about to outstrike him for most of the match. The great equalizer is that Ohara's better able to take him down and hook him, using the gi, yes, but especially with an absolutely monster capture suplex. He can't put Saito away, though, or even capitalize enough, so this builds to Saito kicking the crap out of him towards the edge of the ring, the two warring sides going at it on the floor, and a massively bloody Ohara trying desperately to get his revenge with a thousand red-streaked headbutts, changing the color of the gi. It's all for naught as Saito puts him down for good, with the post-match swarming of the ring being just as crazy as everything else we've seen here in this ten minutes of violence.

PAS: This was incredible, one of the best matches we have unearthed since we have done this. This is part of the Karate dojo versus New Japan feud, and I clearly need to find every second of this. Easily Ohara's career match, he was working as an amateur in a singlet and has some nice wild throws and takedowns, and Saito is hurling punches and kicks at him the whole time. Ohara also throws some really great looking headbutts, which are especially awesome after he is opened up and spraying blood around the ring. The whole match felt on the precipice of a riot and then it just exploded at the end. Totally awesome.

ER: Incredible, the exact kind of bloodlust you want from a NJPW/Karate Guys war. This is the most charisma I have ever seen Ohara possess, and I love young handsome normal hair Saito. You got a ringside area filled with New Japan tracksuits and karate gi's, and you know that's literally always an oil/water scenario. Ohara was super aggressive here, running down to the ring like he was Ultimate Warrior in a freestyle wrestling singlet and hits a double leg without slowing down, and then it's just several minutes of Ohara throwing Saito with STOs and other takedowns while Saito throws downward blow karate strikes and damaging kicks. Saito's kicks are really starting to slow Ohara, as they are relentless, and both guys seem to be playing VERY fast and loose with rope break rules. There were two different moments where each guy made it to the ropes to break a hold, and the rope break did not slow down the man applying the submission, merely giving them an opening to drag their opponent away from the ropes and continue choking or ripping at an arm. 

The oil and water of course mix on the floor, and New Japan guys start flying into karate guys, and it's one of those things that's always fun for me to go back and rewatch over and over, finding new guys to focus on each time. I think my favorite was a karate guy getting in Shiro Koshinaka's face, while Koshinaka completely brushes him off with stoicism and an elbow. Ohara is busted open and it only makes him madder, and he runs into the ring dripping blood and throwing nothing but smashing machine headbutts at Saito. Saito just tries to keep his cool and throw as many kicks as he can, all while Ohara is trying to smash him with his body and skull. Saito's gi gets covered in Ohara's blood splatter, making Saito look like he went to the Spirit Store and bought a "crime scene" costume. Ohara eventually cannot answer the bell, and then the oil and water mixes again as the karate guys are trying to swarm around Saito while the New Japan guys want to go at it. Again, another moment where I go back and rewatch multiple times, focusing on a different NJ guy each time. Look at the absolute babyface FIRE that Satoshi Kojima shows by repeatedly flying into karate guys to shove them out of the ring, total megastar charisma. Look at the veteran boldness of Osamu Kido as he casually wipes blood off his track suit! There is no wrong guy to look at here, in this best of all wrestling feuds. 

Akitoshi Saito vs. Shiro Koshinaka NJPW 2/12/92

MD: Impossible not to compare it to the Saito/Ohara match. This was longer, with less urgency. The blood wasn't as good. The suplexes (except for Koshinaka's last capture off a kick) were more cooperative. Once he really started to unload midway through, Saito had some great strikes, especially a jumping spin kick towards the end. Koshinaka was simply more of a showman than Ohara and he milked the ten counts and other moments better, but that's not always what you want in a match like this. The post match was a bit more meandering, with guys throwing shadow spin kicks at each other. It felt a little more like West Side Story than a war at times.

PAS: I thought this was also pretty great, although it was obviously hurt by watching it after the Ohara masterpiece. This had a lot of the wild brawling you love from this match up, with Saito being a crazed killer, and Koshinaka landing some really stiff hip attacks and big punches. This was a bit longer and wasn't turned up to 11 the whole match, but it definitely had it's frenzied moments, and I am loving Saito blooding up his Gi with the New Japan roster. Clearly I need to find and watch every released match in this feud, I love an out of control Puro gang fight. 

ER: This was more of a slow burner than Saito's fight against Ohara a few days earlier, but it was really no less good. Koshinaka brings a totally different vibe than Ohara brought, and stretches it into a more interesting story and longer payoff. I think almost all of us would pick the Ohara match if we wanted to just show one of these to someone, but this match had a great feel and strong build in a totally different way. I honestly have no idea how Saito didn't go on to become an even bigger star. He's someone we've seen in major Japanese feds for 30 years now, always a positive presence on cards but never the top guy. It's almost crazier that he didn't become Naoya Ogawa before Ogawa or Maeda after Maeda. 

The match is a long scrap that looked like it hit as hard in minute one as it did in the final minute. Koshinaka's sliding knees and hip attacks looked great, Saito's front kicks looked great, and this Koshinaka is really my most favorite Koshinaka. He had this calm cool to his attacks and took a hard kick beating in stride. At one point he caught a very fast Saito high kick, and he had this awesome measured facial reaction to it, like he knew exactly the three things he should do next. The way he casually stretches Saito into a single leg crab was like a Dojo Terminator firing up its mission. Saito comes back and starts wearing him down, and we get a cool fiery restart after it looked like Koshinaka wouldn't be able to continue. It's cool seeing guys like 2 Cold Scorpio rooting Koshinaka on from the apron, and he had a super memorable babyface dying on his sword run to the finish. Saito bloodies up the knee of his gi from trying to flatten Koshinaka's nose several times (by the end of the match Koshinaka has visible bruising under both eyes and his forehead), and I loved the shots Koshinaka was still able to fit in. His final stand was perfectly timed, getting to his feet right as he was counted down, and remaining on his feet in defeat. 

The post-match was of course another memorable fight between dojos, with Kuniaki Kobayashi leading the charge into punching a ton of karate guys in the face, and what I loved the most about it was New Japan Dojo basically heeling themselves during the beatdown. The crowd wasn't reacting to them as "their guys" by the end of this, and Koshinaka and Kobayashi were left looking at each other with the kind of sheepish looks of men who know they were the ones who pushed things too far. Koshinaka drags Aoyagi into the ring and Kobayashi comes in and jumps him from behind, none of the other karate guys are in there, it's just Koshinaka and Kobayashi hitting cheap shots, and Aoyagi is just like "guys come on, this doesn't need to happen like this". It was great, a different vibe from a familiarly excellent cast. 

Tatsumi Fujinami vs. Richard Byrne NJPW 7/8/92

MD: Compared to the other matches we watched this week, this was pretty ridiculous, but it also told the most complete story and it was sort of serene as well. For the first half, Byrne had the clear advantage on strikes, with Fujinami's selling getting them over, especially the spin kick to the gut. He had a few good moments of grappling, including almost getting the dragon sleeper on, but it was, at best even. Then, midway, Fujinami stops everything, demands gloves of his own, and comes out firing blows to the crowd's delight. Byrne, suddenly losing the striking game, has to come back with big kicks, but overstretches with it and goes tumbling over the top rope. They start fighting on the floor and he kicks the post, and it's all but over from there. This had an almost anime-esque mid-match power up with the gloves. But, since it was Fujinami, and the crowd was so into it, and he just rushed into it with so much earnest abandon, it pretty much worked.

ER: I love wrestling after the fact stories like Richard Byrne, a Massachusetts indy guy who ran a dojo in the same building as Killer Kowalski's school, who got this random match as a martial arts guy on a New Japan show, and also was a cult star in South Africa of all places. That's a cool as hell person and there's never been a better more interesting time in wrestling than these New Japan Different Style fights. Imagine if WWF was bringing in random MMA or weightlifting or decathlete guys, like they just kept the spirit of the Yokozuna bodyslam challenge and carried it through the 90s with all their biggest stars. WWF could have believably made Different Style fights the biggest focus of their 90s, and I think it would have been a more successful direction. Byrne was totally new to me here, and he's like Garry Shandling doing a Jerry Flynn character. It's great, the perfect early 90s strip mall dojo vibes. 

Byrne is such a sneering punk, with this big comical cartoon expression on his face that made him feel like a Punch Out! character. Fujinami was brilliant at selling his kicks, and honestly Byrne was great at selling for Fujinami's big late match strikes. There are great moments like Fujinami locking in the dragon sleeper around Byrne's huge head, or Byrne angrily tearing off his gloves and throwing them to the mat, then Fujinami demanding he be put INTO gloves before the 3rd round starts. Fujinami comes out with his fighter gloves and starts peppering Byrne, frustrating him with quickness, and it became a whole different Different Fight at that point. I thought Fujinami was going to end it with his great rear naked choke, but Byrne convincingly back elbows his way out of it. I LOVED Byrne's two bumps over the top to the floor, one a silly "Macho Man getting press over the top by a Yokozuna kickout" bump off a Fujinami uppercut, the other a missed kick momentum sending him down. Byrne adds some of those fun pro wrestling elements to this early 90s New Japan fight feel, including hanging from the bottom rope by one leg after eating a Fujinami enziguiri while trying to get back into the ring. The finish feels downright Memphis, with Fujinami getting a heel hook and Byrne stuck with nowhere to go, ripping his gloves off and throwing each of them at Fujinami, that felt like a glimpse of how Austin Idol would have worked one of these matches. 

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New Footage Friday: HASH! STATE PATROL! BLUE PANTHER! RAY GONZALEZ! JUNJI HIRATA!

Blue Panther/Blackman/Valente Fernandez vs. Lobo Rubio/Ricky Boy/El Indomito UWA 90

MD: This was a nice surprise. It had a buzzing crowd, a pretty perfect crowd-pleasing primera with a lot of fun match-ups where everything had zing, a little bit of heat, and then a comeback with a memorable finish you won't forget anytime soon. Valente is not a guy I'm super familiar with but past his tendency to meander in the wrong place at the wrong time, I thought he had great fire. He threw himself into everything he did. Panther managed to fit a lot into a short period of time, primarily some tricked out holds and this great front facelock drop that he should have been using up and down a few years later when he was a beloved hero against Art Barr. He also threw an axe kick of sorts which was pretty nasty whatever he was going for. The exoticos were good foils in there but didn't necessarily stand out. The finish was wild with Valente getting lawn darted out of the ring, his head disappearing behind a desk at the edge of the crowd.

PAS: Total standout Fernandez performance. He is a guy with a really great kip-up, and he found a bunch of ways to mix in his kip-up, plus he takes a fucking insane bump at the finish getting hurled over the top rope and smashing the back of his head on the concrete. Honestly a top ten lucha bump to the floor, which is a tough list to crack. This is mostly fast moving Panther, which isn't as cool as hard mat wrestling Panther, but still pretty cool. Matt mentioned his combo DDT/Facebuster move, which was cool, something he did a lot in this match, and something I have never seen him do before or since. Really strange, you don't normally see someone break out a signature spot for just one six man tag match in 1990. The rudos were solidly in place to eat the technicos spots which is what they should be there to do. Nifty match with an absolute all time highlight.

State Patrol vs. Ray Gonzalez/Ricky Santana WWC 8/24/91

MD: We've gotten so much Puerto Rico in the last month that it's almost overwhelming. Reviewing the State Patrol in strange places is our oeuvre though. This was really just a glimpse of a TV match but it was good for what it was and it's too bad we don't have more of them there. Puerto Rico could make giants out of the meek. Look at how great the Rock'n'Roll RPMs were there. This was well balanced, with an opening that didn't outlast its welcome, a good hot tag even if I don't know what Parker was going for and a finishing stretch with a good cutoff and a very satisfying ending. Next time I see a State Patrol match I want to pay more attention to Wright on the apron because he was really good here.

PAS: This was fine. It didn't really have the insanity you want from a Puerto Rican match, it was basically the third or fourth best match on an episode of WCW Worldwide. Decent hot tag, solidish heat segment, fun finish. Utterly forgettable stuff, but kind of cool to see the State Patrol on tour.

ER: Puerto Rico is fairly unrepresented on match lists, and so it's always a favorite thing of mine to find out which workers from the States would occasionally show up there. I've watched the existing Rougeaus PR match at least a half dozen times, and probably watched the Jamie Dundee match at least four. The Puerto Rico that shows up is pretty patchy, as it's not like we're getting full runs from any of those guys (and I assume they didn't fly down there just to work one match). But we've been getting more and more PR uploads and it looks like we're slowly filling in some gaps. State Patrol were never presented as a strong tag team on US TV. They did a couple All Japan tours and were weirdly dominant on one of them, getting a bunch of TV matches and winning all of them. It would be like Well Dunn or Disorderly Conduct going on an AJ tour and beating everyone's asses (Well Dunn/Southern Rockers kind of did this, and it was weird). I think the State Patrol gimmick would work even better today, the kind of gimmick that would make them faces or heels depending on what town they were in. House show in Missouri? Babyfaces. House show in Oakland? Heels. There has been a rotating group of at least 2-4 guys working a Border Patrol gimmick in the Bay Area dating back 25+ years. But seeing State Patrol working anywhere but America always strikes me as funny. I'm not sure if Adam-12 played in syndication in Puerto Rico, but it's safe to say that Buddy Lee and James Earl would have been heels by virtue of their whiteness anyway.

The match itself is essentially like most State Patrol WCW matches. When I was younger I thought Buddy Lee was the better half of the team, but I've been moved firmly into the James Earl camp the past few years (seems that's been a lifelong trend with me, originally liking Edge in '98 before quickly moving over to Christian, Jeff before moving over to Matt, Enos before moving over to Bloom, basically I never should have trusted my initial childhood/teen instincts about any tag team, ever). This is all armdrags, dropkicks, and punches, and that's fine. Buddy Lee looked a little off in this, stutter stepping a couple of armdrags and going for a weird move off the top where he just landed on Ricky Santana's knees (Santana was lying and facing the turnbuckles, meaning Parker was jumping directly on him like a mirror, so I have no idea what move I was supposed to think he was even doing). But James Earl was a real stud here, stooging for Gonzalez and Santana, getting infuriated from the apron (watch him take a silly leaping bump to the infield after getting knocked . I loved the spot where Santana was knocking back and forth between them with punches and back elbows, loved teen superstar Ray Gonzalez's little mustache, and loved the "WCW putting over their new Latin tag team" vibe of this match. It's like they saw what State Patrol were doing in Georgia and were like "yeah that will work here!" I can't wait for a Disorderly Conduct match to pop up in this Puerto Rico footage. It will happen.


Shinya Hashimoto/Kensuke Sasaki/Tadao Yasuda/Yuji Nagata/Junji Hirata vs. Shiro Koshinaka/Kengo Kimura/Kuniaki Kobayashi/Michiyoshi Ohara/Akitoshi Saito NJPW 2/11/96

PAS: New Japan 10 man elimination tags have been some of the most consistently excellent match styles in wrestling. This was sort of a lower end version of that but had some really fun moments.  I think some of the steam was out of the Heisei Ishingun feud at this point, but that crew has some fun dudes on it. Anytime you get to see Hashimoto rip shit is going to be cool, and I really enjoyed him coming in a clubbing guys, only to get blindsided by Koshinaka's rock hard tailbone. This had some of the problems that are endemic in elimination matches, where guys get eliminated by weak sauce stuff to keep it moving, but for a longish match it kept me pretty engaged.

MD: Very fun house show ten man elimination that doesn't rise to the level of the classics, with Nagata especially getting a ton of time to shine. They built him up early by having him survive a spike piledriver and have to fight hard out of the corner and then went in on him really hard after Hashimoto and Sasaki were eliminated. After he survived eating a wayward Hirata diving headbutt that was supposed to be a save and the subsequent Kobayashi fisherman's suplex, the fans really got behind him (though he'd fall soon after). Lots of good spots and sequences including a top rope double stomp train in the corner and a pretty elaborate set up for Hashimoto getting eliminated. While Hash was suitably larger than life in this setting, and Koshinaka his usual jerk self with butt butts coming from every direction, the match survived the two of them getting eliminated. The balance was a little off in general as can be the case with big elimination matches (the weight of some moves mattering less or more than they should), but they hit the underlying story well enough with enough peaks that it's hard to care too much.

ER: This was great fun, with a structure that is pretty hard to mess up. It was a little sloppier and loose than these things tend to be, but I like that loose atmosphere in a setting that can be stuffy. These matches always wind up having some unexpected heroes, or big contributions from unexpected sources. I really liked Yasuda here. He's a big lummox with a Mr. Potato Head, but he got given some cool moments to shine. He looked mammoth compared to everyone else, hit his nice big boot, big avalanche, great butterfly suplex, basically got to do his big spots before getting out of there. The double stomp train was awesome, and structured perfectly. They saved the two big dudes for last, so as I'm watching it I'm saying outloud "Oh yeah Hashimoto is doing it!! Wait YASUDA is doing it!?" Junji Hirata looked like a total beast, and he's a guy who ALWAYS looks like a total beast and should be talked about more when we have "what guys are total beasts?" conversations. He throws a ton of great clotheslines here, no sold a nut shot from Ohara (who threw out a couple nut shots here) and it's pretty clear from watching him that this was the guy that Kensuke Sasaki became a few years later. When I looked at these 10 guys I was not expecting Koshinaka and Hashimoto to disappear so early, but I love when these matches let others shine. They gave the stage to Yuji and he's the whipping boy for the first half and then gets to come out on first on the second, throwing exploders and overhead suplexes, his kappo kick is perfect, just lighting up anyone who tests him. Saito was a disappointment, felt like half of his kicks missed, and missed at the worst time. The finish run of a 30 minute match is not the time to be pulling kicks, but Saito whiffed on three straight and the crowd got noticeably restless. Really took the air out of what should have been a fun finish. Still, this was a 30 minute match that did not feel at all like 30 minutes, and there was far too much good to let Saito's iffy kicks mess it up.

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New Footage Friday: LOS TALIBANES!! NICHO!! SANTO!! SATANICO!! HASHIMOTO!! OHARA!!

Tatsumi Fujinami vs. Michiyoshi Ohara / Shinya Hashimoto/Masahiro Chono vs. Kengo Kimura/Tatsutoshi Goto NJPW 11/24/93

PAS: Japanese wrestling gang fights are some of my favorite types of wrestling matches and this was a great example. These are technically two matches, but basically one big fight with the pajama clad Heisei Ishingun guys hurling chairs and brawling with New Japan trainees while guys fight in the ring. Hashimoto is awesome in these kind of matches, he is prowling around the ring like a Rottweiler on a chain waiting to go fuck someone up. Goto was really great in this too, walking through Chono's kicks, and then KO Chono with a nasty suplex and staring down Hash while pinning him. Then of course post match all hell breaks loose again, and we get another rumble. I can imagine this stuff would have been incredible to watch live, and is pretty great to watch on a blurry handheld too.

MD: We've had our share of handhelds from this era of NJPW and the Heisei Ishingun stuff is all pretty glorious chaos. You can put yourself in the mindset of being in that crowd, living your life, toiling through the drudgery of your day, and then getting to bathe in this wild abandon at night. We have two matches here with the Fujinami one having been out there; I can't any sign of the tag being previously available. They all stream together like some sort of ECW bedlam, though, so we grouped them. As such, you can't really rate something like this like you would a normal match. What stuck with me afterwards was the swarm of purple gis, Chono getting tossed outside and chaos ensuing, Hashimoto getting held back by the ref, and the litany of kicks to the face, with the crowd fully lost in the turbulence of all of it.

ER: Ohara is already a noted New Footage Friday shit disturber, as last year we checked out a handheld from about a week after this that saw Hashimoto and Ohara going at it on a house show. Ohara's purple gi boys clashed big with Hashimoto's black jumpsuit young boys, and this match was an earlier iteration of Ohara's purple gi gang causing trouble. Hashimoto waging war on Heisei Ishingun is guaranteed Segunda Caida content, a guy who really conveys "man representing his side in war" better than most other legends. I really loved Ohara and Goto throughout this. Ohara is a guy with big strikes and imposing body language, big suplexes, and Goto works as kind of a less dominant version of Ohara. There is always some kind of commotion happening on the floor before, during, and after these two matches, constant pull aparts and chases down aisleways; and while I didn't find it as high end or as intense as some of the other gi guy brawls, the atmosphere for those is still always special.

El Hijo del Santo/Atlantis/Lizmark/Mr. Niebla/Ultraman Jr. vs El Satanico/Pirata Morgan/Black Warrior/Rey Bucanero/Arkangel de la Muerte CMLL Japan 9/24/98

PAS: This is a boatload of the greatest luchadores ever (along with awesome journeymen like Ultraman and Arkangel) given a lot of time to work a cool cibernetico. Like most ciberneticos we open with 8 or 9 really cool individual exchanges, Arkangel and Niebla do a bit of stooges comedy, Santo and Rey Buccanaro do a fast rope running exchange topped off with a great plancha, Black Warrior breaks out his all time great tope. Eventually the rudos take over and we get Atlantis and Lizmark outmatched and having to take on a bunch of rudos. We get some great Satanico vs. Lizmark sections which is an all time great feud we don't have a ton of footage on. The cibernetico format leads to a little more spottiness then an all time great lucha match, but this gets a ton of time to breath and it always great to see more of these guys.

MD: Apparently, we only had this in part before, but it's such an amazing array of talent, and structured pretty perfectly. There's some heated Morgan/Satanico frustration before and after (and it gets violent with collateral damage after) but it doesn't really impact the match itself. Early on, Niebla is so dynamic, Bucanero so daring and experimental (to the point that even when it doesn't work you give him full marks for effort), and Ultraman and Arkangel with unique connections to this particular crowd, and the action is all good. Eventually it settles down to 5-on-3, and since you have Santo, Lizmark, and Atlantis as the three surviving tecnicos, it feels like the most iconic thing imaginable. While you sort of wish Santo made it to the end instead, Atlantis' star power and presence was unmistakable here.

Bestia Salvaje/Emilio Charles Jr/Scorpio Jr vs Nicho/Damian 666/Halloween Tijuana 3/16/02

PAS: This match was a wager match with the captains hair being on the line. I am not sure if La Familia de Tijuana were technically rudos at this point in TJ, but this was worked like a rudo vs. rudo brawl with the Los Talibanes being super rudos (we are talking about 6 months after 9/11 here). 2002 Nicho was an all time bump freak, and he takes one of his signature ringpost tackle bumps and a crazy flip dive. Bestia was losing his hair here and was wrestling like it, he does this super cool almost cannonball style tope and spend much of the match covered in blood exchanging nasty slaps with Halloween. There is a little ref bump and interference shenanigans, this is Tijuana, but it is mostly six grizzly brawlers pounding on each other, which is exactly what you hoped this matchup would be.

MD: This was by the books, but with a thousand flourishes. Crotch-chopping, local hero Nicho isn't my favorite career version of Psicosis, but they were so over, so engaged, worked hard, and carried themselves with such star power. The primera was all rudo beatdown, the segunda had the comeback, the tercera was the back and forth, the dives, the finish, and that structure gave the swagger and violence and attitude meaning and depth.

ER: I would have been completely into this match had it been nothing but Bestia Salvaje throwing perfect dramatic back row right hands to Nicho and Halloween. I've been to see Tijuana lucha live several times, the atmosphere and arena are the best, and had I been there that night (I was there for dates right before and not far after this) I would have been jumping up and down watching Bestia 80% of the time. Luckily our camera man had that same level of interest, and nobody could have possibly disagreed. Bestia was a total force here, just slapping people around the entire match. His overhand chops and big shots to the face were making consistent loud contact the entire match, with Halloween especially taking the brunt of his attacks. We even built to a mammoth Bestia tope where he crashes full speed head-and-shoulder first into Halloween, just an absolute bleeding legend. I'm surprised Matt doesn't rate local hero era Nicho, as I'm a big fan of that era. Maybe because I saw him live? I don't think so, because every TJ handheld we have of him during this era shows a man not slowing down and working as hard as ever in front of hot crowds but no cameras. I've seen him take some of his wildest bumps on TJ shows, and you've probably seen Nicho take some bumps before. Here he gets insane distance on his ringpost bump, flying out so far past the post that I assumed he was doing an insane tope. Nope, just Nicho bumping like a lunatic. Scorpio and Charles were really good goons for Bestia's star power asskicking, Scorpio always there with a boot to break up a nearfall and Charles dropping elbows and doing silly buckled knee selling on clotheslines, Scorpio bleeding quality amounts of blood while threatening ringside fans who throw drinks on him. The nearfall sequence between Bestia and Halloween in the tercera was really high end, fast cradles and quick reversals that lead to several believable close pins, including Charles and Scorpio yanking the ref out at the perfect time of a sure pin. I'm not sure why we haven't dove in and reviewed all of these early 2000s TJ handhelds, as this really feels like the hottest era for that territory. 

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New Footage Friday: Andre Catch!! Hashimoto!! Rugged Ronnie!! Jake the Snake!!

Jean Ferrer vs. Andre Bollet French Catch 12/8/68

MD: I loved this because it was such a combination of rote and predictable pro wrestling and something absolutely extraordinary. The hinge point? Andre. Even so young, he was an attraction and larger than life. You put him into something that is traditional and it becomes completely refracted in a hundred ways.

They do a lot of comedy matwork and chain wrestling with Bollet getting increasingly frustrated and increasingly prone to dirty tactics. This is something we've seen a hundred times, but because it's Andre as the foil, it really felt like it stood out. You could watch him do a rowboat wrench to Bollet's leg or do a body scissors butt crash again and again and it'd still somehow be novel and entertaining. Bollet was amazingly giving and multifaceted, which didn't hurt, of course.

It also didn't hurt what they were trying to do that this was an Andre that both could and would eat headlock takeovers, for instance. This might be one of the only times I've ever seen Andre not entirely work to his size. Even in the 70s, when he was still quite agile, he was doing that. Here he was almost more of the world's best 1997 Paul Wight. A fall ends with Bollet's cheapshot tactics paying off and allowing him to hit two slams on Andre like it was nothing at all. Anyway, it all ends with Andre catching one last cheapshot kick in the corner, hitting a top of the head atomic elbow, and one last slam.

Post match, Bollet is pretty hilarious trying to get Andre to beat up celebrities. If you can't get enough of him, here's his single with Roger Delaporte. No one else will offer you that.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vAVyTkq3Vm0

PAS: Unusal match, with Andre working as a regular catch guy who just happens to be a little bigger. Pretty crazy to watch Andre do leg stretches and takedowns and go behinds. His agility is really impressive as is his technical skill. Still it is a little like playing on a pickup team with a 6'7 guy who only wants to shoot threes, motherfucker you are huge, go down in the post. It isn't the Andre match I wanted to see, but it was still a real pleasure, and I am just delighted that stuff like this is showing up. I did really dig the first part of the match where Andre would just stand up to his full height to break up headlocks and over head wristlocks.  I thought Bollet was great, he looked like a French Killer Karl Kox, and was great at stooging around for Andre and sprinkling in some badassness. There are so many great French wrestlers we have only a couple of matches of. I had never heard of Bollet before, and now I want all the Bollet.

Jake Roberts vs. Ronnie Garvin Georgia 4/7/84

MD: This was a match that absolutely worked. It worked extremely well. You can't look at this, and especially listen to it, and say it wasn't effective, that they didn't know exactly what they were doing, even that they should have done a single thing differently. I personally wish that they had done things a little differently. There's so often the argument that a match was the right match for the moment or for the building and that we can't compare it with other matches with 2019 eyes, even if we're comparing it against a bevy of other 1984 matches from the same territory or whatever. Generally, I think that is absolute bunk. This might be an exception. Maybe not, though. This was a crowd that wanted this finish, that wanted the last few minutes, that was constantly buzzing throughout. Maybe if they had tweaked things it could have been even more over the top.

So, what would I have preferred? First, more of a shine. A huge brunt of the 16 or 17 minutes of the actual match was Jake bearing down on holds. Past a bit of fun clowning with Jake's height, the shine was basically just an extended Garvin legscissors leading to the payoff of Garvin's punch. After that it went into Jake's holds, the chinlock, the armbar, the tape-choke headlock. Jake was always on and in between these, instead of real hope spots, there were hairpulls and him peppering shots in, but it was suffocating. They needed to either break it up more or dive in more firmly to a singular focus. This wasn't a World Title match, it was a TV Title match, meant to go less than twenty minutes. The possibilities and the pacing are different there.

The solution? Late in the match, Jake pulled off Garvin's head bandage and opened him back up. That should have been the focus the whole way through. That's especially true since the finish was set up with Garvin having enough, getting a chair and whalloping Jake with it (amazing blade job on the way down, by the way) as the crowd went wild (they went around a loop one more time after that until Garvin finished him off with a huge punch as Ellering leaped in to try to stop the inevitable - Jake was leaving the territory soon after). If the entire match was focused on the wound, on Garvin being bloody, and then on him getting his bloody revenge to set up the win and the title change, the place would have been even more electric. Instead, it was sort of a droning constant buzz of the crowd before they became unglued at the very end. It was effective. It probably could have been even more so, and a better, more timeless, match as well.

Shinya Hashimoto vs. Michiyoshi Ohara NJPW 12/3/93

ER: This was a main event of a house show, worked as violently as if they were main eventing the Tokyo Dome. Ohara has a posse of guys in purple gi, Hashimoto has Hase and Kensuke Suzuki in slick NJ track suits, and they go to war like it was interpromotional! And really, if we're being children about this, Hashimoto started it. You knew these two would work stiff, but you didn't necessarily know that Hash would bust open Ohara with a headbutt and then throw two cruel punches right at his cut. And that's really where this gets turned up several degrees. Hashi throws evil kicks but Ohara is able to surprise with big chops and headbutts of his own. Ohara really comes off tough standing up and toe to toe with Hashimoto, but Hash is one of those guys who can overwhelm, and it's a joy seeing him hit his big rolling spinkick and the best DDT in history. He purposely busts open Ohara even further just to punish him, and the finish has not just literal color but some storytelling color as well. Hash hits an absolutely finisher worthy DDT, but Ohara surprisingly kicks out. Hash hits another and refuses to pin, challenging Ohara to get up from that. You think you're gonna kick out of MY DDT? Go on then, stand right up. Ohara eventually does stand, only for Hash to grab him in a rear naked choke for the tap. We threaten a potential unprofessional breakdown between purple gi and jogging suit, tension boiling, and the whole time you're thinking "this is what these two lunatics did on house shows??"

MD: Look, we have such stuff to show you guys in the weeks to come. Yes, there's lucha we haven't looked at. There are WWF house shows that barely anyone has examined. Mostly, though, there are Japanese handhelds. We've got a Liger vs Eddy match queued. There are way more matches from 1977-78 Japanese TV. We've got three or four great matches from this 6/4/91 AJPW show (one has the State Patrol). We have Aoyagi trying to Stop a certain someone. The Network just keeps overwhelming us though.

I come into a lot of this stuff blind. You never know for sure what'll be novel or interesting or amazing until you watch on these shows. While I thought the early part of the match where they were staying close and grabbing limbs was well worked and competitive if not overly complex, when this match turns on a dime, it turns hard.

Hashimoto's skull creates a blast of red where none had existed before, and they don't look back. The holds had been mean; after this, they become meaner. It's the strikes though, that are absolutely unrelenting. Hashimoto becomes laser focused on the wound and it's all Ohara can do to fire back, no matter how desperate he is, no matter how furious he might be. He can slap Hahsimoto five times, kick him as hard as imaginable, but Hash just has to get one shot back into that cut and he's back in control. He's a bull. He sees red. Ohara stays in it, but in the end, Hashimoto DDTs him twice, the second time with such impact that it's more or less right on the cut, and locks in a choke for the win. Whatever Ohara got paid for this one, no way was it enough.

PAS: Heisei Ishingun matches were stuff that totally got overlooked when I was collecting tapes in the 90s, easy to get seduced by the flashy juniors stuff and skim over the lumpy dudes in pajamas. Big mistake on my part, this stuff absolutely rocks, for some reason just giving a bunch of midcards guys matching outfits really amps up the whole presentation. Jesus Hashimoto is not a guy you want to irk, he maybe the best ever at changing the temperature in the room, two sick short headbutts a line of red dripping down Ohara's skull and we are off to the races. You could tell Ohara felt out of his depth, he did his thing, had some nice looking offense, but he struggling over a salmon with a Grizzly bear. Loved the choke finish and the Hash stare down of the crew after the match, just a perfect bit of wrestling business, Ohara looks tough as fuck absorbing this pummeling, Hash looks like a killer and it sets up nicely whatever revenge HI was going to embark on.

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New Footage Friday: Rudge, Kido, Fujiwara, Choshu, Mutoh

Terry Rudge vs. Osamu Kido NJPW 5/20/77

ER: A cool snack, with Kido really impressing me with his speed and toughness against a noted tough guy like Rudge. The first 75% of the match really could have been worked the exact same if both men were tethered by a 2' rope. A lot of action is started just from establishing wrist control and we get a lot of cool minimalism, like Rudge on his back looking for the right time to kick out Kido's ankle, or Rudge trying to bridge out of a chinlock before eating a hard hammerfist blow to his stomach. Kido really gets to show off his speed when things get off the mat, and I absolutely loved him whipping Rudge into the ropes only to completely halt his momentum with a big headbutt to the stomach. Rudge sold it like me running into a bollard stomach first (it was at the park and I didn't see it). This match didn't aim for epic status, but who needs epic status?

MD: This worked out really well. These two went at it with absolutely nothing given for free but a whole lot ultimately earned, though never for long. Rudge worked this like he was in England, making sure to chain together knockdowns with holds (which is a necessity there because if you try to put something on too late after you take your opponent down, the ref will break it and call for a reset). In this environment, it made everything seem all the more visceral and unrelenting. Kido, on the other hand, was a master of just not letting go, no matter what Rudge might try to do. My favorite bit of that was probably a nasty hammer blow to the mid-section as Rudge was trying to bridge up out of a chinlock, but there was a long, dynamic wristlock spot early on too. Oh yeah, they beat the heck out of each other with forearms and European uppercuts too, really just at every opportunity. This kept a good pace, never wore out its welcome, used whips liberally to bridge things. I really dug how Kido both entered and exited the match with the backbreaker too. I'm not sure what that said narratively, but it was novel and interesting yet still totally believable.

PAS: I loved this, Rudge is one of my favorite Euro guys, definitely in the same phylum as guys like Regal and Finlay, and he worked this in his tough man style, Yanking and twisting at limbs. Kido can be a bit passive sometimes, but Rudge forced him into his style of match, and they really laced each other with tight looking elbows and uppercuts. No wasted moments, no flab, just a tight corners punch out.


Riki Choshu/Osamu Kido vs Yoshiaki Fujiwara/Kengo Kimura NJPW 10/22/77

MD: One thing that stood out immediately was how little 28 year old Fujiwara stood out visually. That was true to a degree with Choshu as well, especially considering his later look, but Fujiwara always seemed to have a look that matched his style be it the mustache or what. We've seen him so old for so long that it's a bit offputting to see him young. He was still himself, however, able to manipulate limbs and space and grind down on everything he did. The strikes were great and varied in this one, with Kimura especially having great jabs. Choshu got to sell a little (and better than Kido who was more than happy shrugging off legwork) but spent most of his time just tossing people around with these dynamic, over-the-top slams. Honestly, that last bit, along with the repetition of some spots (like a knee drop on the way in after a tag) made some of this felt weirdly experimental. It was a fun snapshot.

PAS: This was an undercard tag and thus not really shooting for anything too big, but it was a chance to see two all time greats in Choshu and Fujiwara in their relative youth (also two pretty cool dudes in Kido and Kimura.) Fujiwara has a perm which is truly bizzare, he still is Fujiwara though, he throws some really great looping body shots to the kidneys, and does some nifty arm and leg work. I also really liked Kimura throwing hands too. Choshu did seem a bit washed out, he is such a great minimalist wrestler but back then he hadn't yet figure out how to project his personality into his work.

Keiji Mutoh/Michiyoshi Ohara vs Shiro Koshinaka/Akitoshi Saito NJPW 7/18/93

MD:In digging through this footage, you never know what's going to jump out. Yeah, something like Diamond vs Liger is going to get flagged immediately just for the oddball nature of the pairing, but a third or fourth from the top match like this tag, you can't really know one way or the other with unless you watch.

I ended up really liking this. It was straightforward but still dynamic, maybe more down my alley than Phil or Eric's. It had three or four distinct bits of heat, with Koshinaka and Saito playing the part well (Koshinaka is particularly punchable) and ultimately getting a satisfying but never-for-certain comeuppance. I loved the initial tease of Koshinaka getting in, only to drive the action right to his corner and get his butt shot in to start off the first bit of heat. Mutoh was pure charisma. Ohara was the world's best Taz, with all sort of great suplexes and throws, both in reversals out of nowhere and coming in after a big tag. Everyone was more than happy to lay their shots and kicks in. The finishing stretch had just enough wrinkles to put things in question without ever stretching credulity. This was just good wrestling.

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Yoshiaki Fujiwara Cannot Carry All The People Because It is Too Burdensome For Him

Yoshiaki Fujiwara/Tatsumi Fujinami/Riki Choshu/Keiji Muto/Hiroshi Hase vs. Great Kabuki/Kengo Kimura/Shiro Koshinaka/Tatsutoshi Goto/Michiyoshi Ohara NJPW 3/21/94 - GREAT

This is a 10 man 2/3 falls gang fight, with Heisei Ishingun facing off with the New Japan boys. The NJ 10 man matches are always great (at least the 20th Century version, fuck if I am going to watch some Bullet Club mess). Really enjoyed Muto in this, this is a match with a lot a clubbing brawlers, so having an infusion of high level athleticism really brings something different. Of course I love some clubbing brawlers and there was a lot of great clubbing here. Our boy Fujiwara is great in these matches, you aren't going to see any of the high level mat work, but you are going to see him choking Koshinaka with a rope and headbutting him in the temple. I think this needed the heat of the Fujiwara v. Saito singles match, that most of this was more wrestling match then blood war. Still the wrestling was good, and I was really surprised at HI going over like that, with Goto hurling Muto off the top rope with a nasty uranage.

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE FUJIWARA

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SEGUNDA CAIDA DECLARES WAR!!! NJ 2/5 + 2/16 + 6/14/93

WE DECLARE WAR

Genichiro Tenryu/Ashura Hara/Takashi Ishikawa v. Kenji Mutoh/Akira Nogami/Shinya Hashimoto NJ 2/5/93

Pretty much exactly what you want out of this match up on paper. Hashimoto and Tenryu have a couple of nasty little scuffles building up their big singles matches, while the lumpy pissed off duo of Hara and Ishikawa mug the fuck out of Nogami. One thing we definitely got out of the 80's New Japan set is that Akira Nogami will take as big an asswhipping as anyone in wrestling history. After we go back and forth for a while, the WAR team kick his ass up and down the ring. Hashimoto isn't in this match a ton, but after Nogami gets pinned he attacks Tenryu and looks like he tries to take his eye out. More of a teaser then a great match, but a nice teaser.

Genichiro Tenryu/Ashura Hara/Takashi Ishikawa/Koki Kitahara/Ricky Fuyuki vs. Riki Choshu/Tatsumi Fujinami/Osamu Kido/Hiro Hase/Takashi Iizuka 2/16/93

These kind of Puro gang fight 10 man are one my favorite types of wrestling matches. This is 2/3 falls rather then elimination style and goes nice and long so each guy gets to stretch out a bit. We know what the WAR guys bring to the table, they are going to try to kick, stomp and punch divots in your skull. Tenryu is probably the greatest all time at throwing cheap shots, and he is constantly cracking folks from behind.The NJ guys really shine here as well. Fujinami and Iizuka probably take the biggest beating and both are masterful at receiving and firing back. Kido isn't in as much, but he pulls off some awesome flash armbars, really putting over his suddeness. Hase has a weird cool way of eating offense, I loved his sell of Fuyuki's clotheslines, and is great at catching people in sudden suplexes. Choshu is the BMOC, and he is as good an Ace as there has ever been. He gets the pins in both falls, as is so great at coming in and cleaning house.

Genichiro Tenryu/Takashi Ishikawa v. Shinya Hashimoto/Michiyoshi Ohara 6/14/93

Unlikely but true, in a match with Hashimoto, Tenryu and Takashi Ishikawa the star was Michiyoshi Ohara. He start out by spitting at both WAR guys and is totally great as the firery underdog getting the shit smashed out of him. There is a great moment early in the match where Hashimoto is getting worked over, and Ohara reaches out, gets the hot tag, comes in like a house of fire, only to get obliterated by an Ishikawa elbow. We get some more tastes of nasty Tenryu v. Hashimoto, inlcuding a great fight for a brainbuster, which includes Hashimoto just popping Tenryu with a Cro Cop high kick. Ishikawa and Tenryu are guys who will beat on someone, Hashimoto is a great hot tag, and Ohara is very good here taking a beating. We have all of the elements for an excellent traditional tag wrestling match, add the additional juice of interpromotional distaste, and you get something truly excellent.

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PRO WRESTLING FUJIWARA-GUMI SHOW #27 6/18/95

Takeshi Ono v. Carl Greco

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.

Minoru Tanaka v. Yasunori Okuda

PAS: Okuda was an Akido guy with Shinjuku Shark's hair, who wasn't very good. The did a bit of cooperative matwork where it was clear that Tanaka was letting him apply stuff, and then Tanaka gets an ankle lock. Short and bad.

TKG: I don't think this would have been any better if Tanaka was working actual Shinjuku Shark. Okudo didn't do any slow motion Aikido spots.

Michiyoshi Ohara v. Shoichi Funaki

PAS: The story was that the spunky young guy was trying to take down the big veteran and getting punished for it. Problem was Funaki's execution was so loose and shitty looking, that not only did you buy Ohara's initial no-sell, but you didn't buy it when he started selling later. Ohara had some nice slaps, and a great looking scissors kick, but Funaki needs to be putting some mustard on stuff, if he wants to hang in PWFG. He looks like a guy born to be a Velocity jobber.

TKG: Ohara grapevines Funakis legs to take Funaki down in a really pretty spot. but yeah I would have preferred to see Ohara work someone who can throw. Funaki's suplex also seemed semi-unbelievable, although Ohara was willing to take it right on top of his head busting his mouth open. Post match Funaki attacks Ohara which leads to Ohara pasting Funaki with a chair.

Daisuke Ikeda v. Takanari Tateno

TKG: This is another mixed match with Tateno in a gi wearing boxing gloves. Ikeda just bulldozes through Tateno taking him down and beating him from the mount. Nothing Tateno does looks that good but mostly he gets to move his hands fast like hes throwing flurries in defense. Doesn't really matter as this is just a one sided beating. Post match Ikeda calls out Ishikawa.

PAS: Yeah this was a slaughter, Ikeda does come off like a bad motherfucker, and where is the Ikeda v. Ishikawa PWFG match this pull apart is setting up?

Ryuji Murakami v. Katsumi Usuda

TKG: So when you work these wrestlers vs. karate guys shows one of your wrestlers needs to job. here that task falls on Usuda. unlike alot of the wrestling v. karate guys matches ou see, Murakami's stuff has a lot of force behind it and you actually buy that he's beating the shit out of his opponent. Usuda gets his mouth busted open and is saved by the bell in the first round. Usuda doesn't make it through the second. You leave this wanting to see more Murakami.

PAS: Yeah most of these mixed matches suck, mainly because the martial arts guys pull their stuff so it looks weak. Murakami ain't pulling shit, and he was dropping Usuda with really nice looping punches. This sets up Fujiwara vs. Murakami later in 95 which is a match I really excited to see now.

Yuki Ishikawa v. Akitoshi Saito

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.

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2006 HIDDEN GEM- WRESTLE AND ROMANCE

Hidden Gems

Genichiro Tenryu, Koki Kitahara, Masao Orihara & Don Fuji vs. Shiro Koshinaka, Akitoshi Saito, Michiyoshi Ohara & Masashi Aoyagi – WAR-7/27/06

This was the main event of the WAR reunion show, and was WARtastic. Lots of old guys with weird lumps on their body punching each other in the face. Parts of this dragged a bit. I didn’t like the beatdown on Don Fuji, he is a fake WAR guy and really should have been replaced by Yuji Yasuruoka. Still lots of this were class, I loved the constant brawling off to the side of Koki Kitihara and Saito, when ever shit was going on they would find each other and start the asskicking, where are tape of that indy feud? You also had the world’s greatest dive train, with Orihara hitting a beautiful Quebrada, followed up by Tenryu trying a sumo thrust off the apron, and finally Koshinaka hitting a great asssmash silla. Orihara was a lot of fun here, he looked a little less sleazy then he did at his sleaze peak, although his multiple eyebrow piercings do make him look like Arashi’s weed hookup. I loved the section where they were beating on him, as Saito is kicking the shit out of him, and after three nasty kicks on the ropes, Orihara just kind of spits a flemy blob right at him. I can just imagine the hepatitis swimming in Orihara’s spit, in a country where Muta is such a big star, an Orihara spray really should be a finisher. Of course Tenryu was the star here, randomly throwing things at folks, punching people in the eye, landing weird low angle brainbusters on peoples necks, just great stuff. In the world of a million indy promotions, Tenryu really needs to start up WAR again fulltime.

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