Found Footage Friday: 1989 NJPW~!

2/8/89

George Takano vs. Hiro Saito

MD: Pretty solid match. Takano was being pushed more at the start of 89 (with his team with Super Strong Machine) than at any point since he dropped the Cobra gimmick. He looked good here in a singles against a very game opponent. He did take most of the match. Saito would try to get him in a hold and he had an interesting technical escape to everything (be it stepping through to set up a takedown or a headstand to get out of a headscissors). Saito had a nice escape or two of his own. Things really picked up down the stretch as they absolutely paintbrushed each other for thirty seconds. That led to a nearfall off of Saito's senton and Takano catching him out of nowhere with the spin wheel kick and then finishing him off with a suplex and top rope splash. You'll be glad to know they shook hands post-match.  

ER: This was good. Tight grappling, real force applied during submissions and lock ups and knuckle locks, real physics used in takedowns and near misses. Takano had some great stuff to steal, including a cool low kip up out of an armbar (going straight into leaning his weight down into Saito's legs to maneuver out) and a cool pendulum swing spinebuster takedown, shifting Saito's weight back and forth before slamming him. Saito's figure 4 headscissors is impossibly snug, and all of Takano's eventual escape looked well earned. Once he escapes he locks Saito into a disgusting leg-grapevined camel clutch that would have played as the finish. You know maybe someone shouldn't steal any of this Takano stuff as I don't know who would be able to apply it as well as he does. They work these holds until the 10 minute announcement and then get right up and go into the finishing stretch. I was getting used to these snug holds and suddenly we're getting suplexes, Takano going up for a high backdrop, Saito hitting his senton famously full weight. I think Takano is much more interesting working holds than he is doing actual running offense. All of his holds looked like he was stretching Saito, but his top rope splash finish looked like he was trying to avoid full contact at all costs. 

Bello Greco/Sergio El Hermoso vs. Hirokazu Hata/Naoki Sano

MD: When Hata and Sano came back from Mexico, they brought their sparring partners with them. There's a Fujiwara match with them that people should seek out. As best as I can tell, Greco was the real base and worker and Sergio was the flash and lead for the comedy. He kissed the announcer before the match and blew one to the ref, causing all sorts of havoc. Hata and Sano had some big climb up armdrags on Greco. And the kiss spot where Sano went flying the first time but Hata blocked it to tweak the nose/lips the second worked about as well as it could. Sano had a bit more style to what he was doing maybe, whereas Hata just played into what he was given more, but both looked good. Finish had Hata hit a dive to the floor off the top and Sano hit a German (but not able to hold the bridge) for the win. In context, a lot of these spots were repeated from the TV matches they were having, but they were all crowd-pleasers for the house show crowd.

ER: The exoticos' music is incredible. It's like someone doing a muted trumpet sound with their mouth doing a sexy Peter Gunn theme. They have a great act. You can tell it's a great act, because they got constant laughs for the full 14 minute runtime, while tons of wrestlers on this card couldn't buy a reaction. Matt Borne and Italian Stallion can't buy a single sound from the people of Sapporo, but they love every single thing Greco and Sergio do, with good cause. The fans love the silly rope running, they love the butt stuff (I wonder if Rick Rude ever saw Bello Greco and lifted an entire career of selling atomic drops), they love the accidents and the misdirection, just involved in every single movement both do. Their timing is great throughout, the absolute best bit being Greco running down the length of the apron to just miss Hata, running his own face into the turnbuckle. Sano looked like a guy clearly in the middle of his breakout year whenever he was in (his stepover armdrag early in the match was so fast and clean) and Hata looked like a guy who was not that, and I loved how they worked with the exotico tandem. They weren't guys being worked around, they were integrating nicely. I would have loved to see Greco and Sergio stick around longer than these few weeks of '89 and work with more opponents, see what the act could do in singles, but all the footage we have is so good in the way that I'm happy it never burnt out. 

Seiji Sakaguchi/Kengo Kimura vs. Matt Borne/Italian Stallion 

ER: This doesn't add up to anything big but has plenty of fun working parts. I have not seen much of Italian Stallion's 1989 New Japan run, and it's crazy how much time he spent there that year and only that year. Sakaguchi makes chopped liver out of him, swallowing him up whole and chaining judo throws while never letting go of his arm, which he caught when Stallion tried to throw one punch. One punch that doesn't land and Sakaguchi treats him like he's Seiji Sakaguchi fighting The Italian Stallion. Stallion isn't bad at all, but he is much better when he wrestles like a poor man's Matt Borne rather than his usual rich man's Joey Maggs. His dropkick hits like a truck and he throws Kimura with a cool belly to belly, but needs a better clothesline. 

I love how Matt Borne moves. He's just as unpredictable as Buzz Sawyer but keeps things more compact. He's a bulldog, goes hard after Sakaguchi and gets hit hard by the large man. I loved a double leg trip Kimura and Sakaguchi pulled on him, like they were actually trying to pull him apart like a wishbone. Borne really smothers Kimura whenever he's in with him, riding him on the mat and not letting him land anything until the finish. He even pulls some bullshit when the ref misses Sakaguchi's tag and Borne goes back to picking on Kimura, shutting down a hot tag. Crowd doesn't react in any way to his bombs away which is just cold. He eventually takes the pin when Kimura gets a piledriver, and I like how he sells the piledriver with confusion instead of neck pain. 

MD: Little bit of a weird one to me. Stallion (and Borne to a lesser degree) gave a bit to Kimura but mostly ate him up on the mat. Stallion would just roll around on top of him. As you can imagine, they'd give more for Sakaguchi though. Kimura did get the win with the leg lariat/pile driver combo so maybe he felt giving but it did seem like Stallion was going to assert himself as much as possible when given the chance (just not with one of the bosses). Maybe that's why he stayed around so much in 89? 

Super Strong Machine vs. Yoshiaki Fujiwara 

ER: This doesn't rise to levels of Fujiwara singles match greatness, but it is a Fujiwara singles match against one of my favorite New Japan 80s natives so it's obviously a great 12 minutes. Fujiwara is in house show antagonist mode and just trolls Strong Machine with annoying stuff all match. He breaks every lock up with a slap, in a way that's not meant to hurt but meant to rile up Machine into making mistakes. It's all mischievousness where he retains plausible deniability over being a troll but it's all there. Look at Machine finally make his first inroads and throw Fujiwara to the floor, only to see the insanely aggravating way Fujiwara casually walks back around the ring after hitting the floor. Fujiwara gets his head bounced off the turnbuckle bolt and just strolls away adjusting his trunks. I don't think there was a wink thrown to the crowd, but it was implied. Just a cool fucking guy catching eyes with a girl in a car while crossing the street. 

Things open up when Machine starts going after Fujiwara's taped up knee with an ankle lock, and you can tell it's getting to Fujiwara because he starts throwing backfists from his back into Machine's neck. Machine wisely maneuvers things into a single leg crab, much harder to throw backfists from that position. Fujiwara breaks free from it by fishhooking Strong Machine's mask with one hand and throwing punches with the other, gripping a handful of the bottom edge of his mask with his left while punching him straight in the jaw with his right. When he gets to his feet he throws half a dozen headbutts, still holding Machine by the mask, hopping on his bad knee while throwing them. There's a great moment where Machine fires up after Fujiwara kneels on his face, and demands Fujiwara punch him some more, like a man. Fujiwara happily obliges and buckles Strong Machine's legs. 

The finish sequence is hot as hell. Fujiwara catches a clothesline and puts his weight behind an armbar in one motion, but Machine rolls through, so Fujiwara tries to take him down again with a Fujiwara but Machine blocks it, so Fujiwara pulls an inside cradle. Fujiwara's greatest successes come from never wanting to finish a match a specific way, always willing to pivot to whatever might be available. 

MD:  Not top tier-Fujiwara, sure, but it was definitely chippy and snippy. They leaned on each other. Battering in the corner, etc. I'd say SSM had the advantage until he tried slamming Fujiwara's head into the post. Then he tried to stop the headbutts that would come (self aware in a very good way) but couldn't. He did pull Fujiwara out and post his leg and Fujiwara had to fight from underneath for a bit. Fujiwara came back with huge headbutts though and ultimately after two arm bar attempts (first rolled through) locked in a small package. Nice little self-aware bits in this, the sort of thing you'd be more likely to get from Super Strong Machine than a lot of his contemporaries.

Hiroshi Hase vs. Shiro Koshinaka

MD: This was really good. Super high on it. There's a rule for 1987-1989 NJPW Juniors matches: The best ones start with an immediate ambush/advantage, and Koshinaka got that, nailing Hase in the ropes on the first exchange and going after his taped knee. Lots of nasty little shots and bigger submissions. At one point he went for a suplex, and Hase's leg went out and his head just crushed into the mat. Koshinaka hit the butt butt, the top rope knee drop and even the power bomb. Then he shoved Hase out. The ref got in his face and that let Hase pull Shiro out to take over. 

I wouldn't have minded if Hase sold just a little more but I was generally ok with it. Most of his offense wasn't hefting Koshinaka up but slamming his head into the exposed post instead (the best kind of offense). Koshinaka bled. Hase stayed on the wound. The ref tried to stop him at one point and Hase pointed out that Shiro had been unsportsmanlike in going after his leg and this was warranted. 

Eventually he did hit the Northern Lights but couldn't keep the bridge given his leg. He ended up choking Koshinaka for the DQ, which is way better than it sounds on paper, trust me. Post match Hiro Saito came in and they beat on Koshinaka and anyone that tried to stop them. Honestly, as a finish, it's not something we saw much during this era in New Japan and it was grisly and effective for me. Really good match.  

ER: This was really good. There was a different Koshinaka/Hase match on the New Japan DVDVR 80s set that happened the next month, from 3/16/89. I was higher on that match than the consensus (I had it 25 spots higher than the final results) and I think this is the better match. Koshinaka goes after Hase's leg like a heel and works the first third of this match as Junior Heavyweight Tenryu. Hase's comeback goes on so much longer and is equally violent, so much so that it turns Koshinaka into a bigger babyface by virtue of Hase being such an asshole. Hase pays merely lip service to Koshinaka's knee work - had the knee come back in any meaningful way, instead of Hase occasionally shaking it out while otherwise not acknowledging - it would have been one of the best New Japan juniors matches of the late decade. Koshinaka throws sharp kicks at Hase's knee that do not look pulled, so much so that it seems absurd when Hase goes on offense for 10 straight minutes with no sign of slowing down. 

Until Hase just flipped the switch, his knee selling was great. There was this almost third wall breaking spot where Koshinaka went for a snap suplex and Hase couldn't make it over on his bad leg, so instead whips nose first into the mat in one of the more disgusting DDT bumps I've ever seen. It's such a fucked up looking bump that it looked like a blown spot or miscommunication. It hits this meta level of "Hase's leg is so bad that he can't take moves the way you all expect guys to take moves" and it was something that could have made this match legendary. But Hase messes that up to and actually treats the spot like a fuck up, not acknowledging the bump he took at all and kind of quickly getting to his feet. 

But he went so hard on Koshinaka that I think he overcame the lack of selling. I've never thought of Hase as a kicker, but he unleashes some hellish kicks on Koshinaka. At one point, Koshinaka on his knees, Hase is just kicking him right across the bridge of the nose and Koshinaka hangs in for more, so Hase kicks him in the back of the head. He's really merciless, and Koshinaka turns into this fired up screaming babyface while taking everything Hase brought. Hase's torso and legs wound up smeared with Koshinaka's blood and he looked like a deranged animal biting at Koshinaka's head. The DQ finish looked great as there really was nothing the referee could do to separate Hase's mouth from Koshinaka's head. That man looked like he was pulling with all his might to pull him off and it was not happening. I'm curious what the consensus would have been on this match. Enough DVDVR voters would have hated Hase's selling, but I think more would have loved the violence. 

Antonio Inoki/Riki Choshu/Tatsumi Fujinami vs. Big Van Vader/Bam Bam Bigelow/Rip Morgan 

ER: A great house show main event that never quite settles into a structure but has the two biggest gaijin taking tons of big bumps for the freaking powerhouse native team. That's a star studded lineup and Vader/Bigelow treat them as size/power equals for long stretches. Bigelow takes a full flip for Riki's second lariat one minute in. Just a full backflip like he's Jeff Hardy. Fujinami isn't taking a flipping bump for Vader's clothesline, he's blocking it and getting a sick backslide instead. This is Riki's lariat though, so even Vader is taking a big leaping bump for it late in the match. Vader and Bigelow get rocked by suplexes and clotheslines all match, from all of them. Choshu even suplexes Vader in from the apron! Everybody was taking suplexes man.  

There isn't even really any hierarchy in this match, it's kind of strange. Going into it Rip Morgan feels like the most obvious Guy Taking Pin in Main possible but he's in there working big exchanges with Inoki and Choshu. He hits a kitchen sink knee to Choshu that Riki takes so well that it made my stomach hurt. Riki leans into his Scorpion Deathlock like he's applying it to Morgan as a shoot submission. Nobody felt like a bigger start than anyone else, it was just six stars working a main event that nobody outside of this sports center will ever see.

Bigelow was the one who worked this with joy. Everybody works with energy but Bam Bam was having fun. He's not a monster, he's the guy working with some color, a little whimsy. He shakes his fist out after punching Riki, bodyslams Inoki with force, breaks up a pin with a falling headbutt to Inoki's face. He's doing light axe handles off the top and throwing headbutts, but also looks like he's giving Vader ideas on how to wreak havoc. Vader had this amazing press slam hoist of Choshu, super impressive, made him look weightless. Bam Bam gets in the ring and directs Vader to throw Riki onto his knee in a gutbuster. It rules.  There's an awesome 1-2 where Bigelow breaks Inoki's octopus hold on Morgan by leveling him with a clothesline, and right when he hits it he gets wasted by a Riki lariat, great bookend to him getting flipped by one early. There are some little clips in this so we don't get a full feel for the finish, but this is six guys I loved watching run around each other. 

MD: 1989 starts with the Power Elite of Inoki/Choshu/Fujinami coming together against Vader and Bigelow. They do a bunch of these matches in January and the start of February, so it's a little overdone by this point, but the plus side is that they've been practicing and honing the match. That meant some spots like the Inoki kicking off out of the over the shoulder double team worked quite well. 

I really enjoyed the start of this one, with the heels ambushing and then Choshu ducking a Bigelow clothesline, hitting a lariat that just staggered him and then hitting the real one that Bigelow took a flip bump for (very rare for 89 in general and especially a guy Bigelow's size). In order to keep things fresh and prep for the Russians coming in, they had Rheingans join Vader/Bigelow as their American player/coach and he was at the margins of this one. 

This was fairly back and forth. You feel bad for Fujinami here. He's fine but he doesn't come off as the ace/champ when teaming with two of the most charismatic wrestlers ever. Vader was there to basically get control again. It boiled over (with a clip, and during that clip Inoki may have actually won it) to either the DQ or the post-match where heels controlled in the corner wouldn't stop double teaming and charging in. 

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New Footage Friday: HASH~! LIGER~! CHONO~! SANO~! SLIM J~! BARBED WIRE~! MATT BORNE WILL PLAY SUN CITY~!

Maniac Matt Bourne vs. Daniel "The Hulk" Voges South Africa ??

MD: A bunch of this South African footage dropped and we're playing it safe by going with the sure thing, Maniac Matt Borne. I tried to figure out when this probably was, but only found a story about Borne losing his passport on the way to South Africa and some guy stealing his identity and ODing years later. Here he was facing Danie "the Hulk" Voges, who was obviously a beloved local folk hero, at least from the reaction he got. It felt a little like an Otto Wanz match along those lines. This was a round system, seems like the best of five with some weird production quirks between the Dutch (?) commentary and long shots of crowd reactions of the same few people, a pair of twins, a couple that was very into it, and one guy who seemed to be sleeping. Borne was great here though, laying it in, stooging, getting heat, taking big shots. I'm not sure if Voges' straight on chops would look good against anyone else but they looked great here. It was mostly these two throwing shots but Voges won a fall in the second round with a power slam that was nasty as he barely got Borne over and Borne evened it up with a knee off the top in the fourth. Voges bled pretty heavily in the last round and it ended with both guys still scrapping and the fans left wanting more.

PAS: The Otto Wanz comparison is right on, the match also had sort of a Carlos Colon feel. This was basically all punches, but both guys had great looking punches, with Borne throwing hands, and Voges having this chops to the neck and chin. We get some really dramatic blood a big almost fatal powerslam and some glam looking ladies in the crowd horrified at the violence being laid out on their hero. I wan't to check out some more Voges, I like a big time local hero and he had some big star timing. 

ER: I love the aesthetics of this, feeling like our big German CWA rounds matches. We all separately got the local legend Otto Wanz vibes off Voges, except he's like the Iron Mike Sharpe of Otto Wanz's. Borne doesn't work his Buzz Sawyer lite style here and instead works as Kevin Sullivan. Kevin Sullivan/Mike Sharpe is a fight I'd want to watch, and it was good here. I like big heavyweight matches where they fill a lot of time by throwing downward clubbing forearms across chests and throw right hands and slaps to the jaw that land with thud. Borne throws punches at Voges' hairline and busts him open, and a regional hero fighting and swinging through a bloody forehead is a simple classic recipe that we've now seen get the same rabid reactions on every continent but Antarctica. This is the first broadcast in wrestling history that I've seen let a camera linger on a man who fell asleep in the crowd, capturing that moment where he wakes up with a snort and immediately begins acting as if he hadn't been asleep. It also captures a woman outright screaming in support of Voges, and that kind of regional passion plays to every part of my wrestling heart. That Voges delayed powerslam on Borne was well worthy of winning a fall, and I love the brawl it devolved into. 

Shinya Hashimoto/Naoki Sano vs. Masa Chono/Jushin Liger NJPW 1/6/90 - EPIC

MD: Unique match up where they weren't afraid to mix the pairings. It starts out with Liger vs Hashimoto with a nice bit of Liger crashing against him and Hash giving just what he should until Liger's able to zoom past him and finally get him down. Later on, it's interesting as he almost has a hard time getting Liger up, despite the fact Liger's smaller than Chono, giving everything a grittier, uncooperative feeling that makes every impact all the worse. A chunk of this was Chono leaning on Sano and while that was fine, you were kind of waiting for the other guy on each side to get back in. As per the norm for 1990, the STF was both over and protected. The eventual payoff was Chono and Liger dropping Hashimoto with a spike pile driver and then Hashimoto trying one crushing shot after the next to finally put Liger down. Good match that gave us just enough of the Liger/Hashimoto pairing and never wore out its welcome.

PAS: I love the Liger vs. Hashimoto match up. Unlike most junior versus heavyweight matches Liger always tries to go toe to toe with Hashimoto. It isn't David vs. Goliath, Liger is more like Mike Tyson: he may be short, but he hits just as hard. I loved him using momentum to drop Hashimoto with a shoulder block and a flip kick to the temple. Chono versus Sano was really cool too. Sano was such a smooth and violent wrestler, and I love the solebutt to the stomach as an equalizer. Hashimoto really went after Liger at the end, hitting almost a half powerslam half brainbuster and Liger kept coming and getting in his face. Great stuff, really fun discovery.

ER: I thought this was excellent, with my love for it growing with every moment I reminded myself that this match would have - if not for a man with a camcorder - gone undocumented. Watching how hard these four legends beat the shit out of each other for 2,200 fans in Korakuen early in the new year and nobody else, and yet a 40 year old guy in California is able to see these fully beatings 30 years later. It makes me emotional. It's crazy to see this level of commitment on a house show, with strikes thrown full force in spots and tons of offense that missed, but was thrown to hit. The true greats, men like Hashimoto and Liger, bring that suspension of disbelief into their matches with their full commitment to offense, and to see it worked to maximum effectiveness on a small but hot Korakuen handheld just makes me love them more. 

These guys come off like the toughest wrestlers on earth in matches like these. The Hashimoto/Liger segments were my favorite and they were complemented perfectly by Sano running traffic like a madman and Chono leaning into and bumping big for Sano made him feel like a real force. But Hashimoto and Liger looked like fucking pro wrestlers. Everything landed and every landing felt real. There's an early Liger hook kick that catches Hashimoto behind the ear and Hashimoto crumbles perfectly. The misses were incredible, so violently executed that you buy the idea that Hashimoto threw a spinning heel kick that was supposed to take Liger's head off until Liger moved when he wasn't supposed to. Now, these men are pros, and the reality is that Hashimoto merely threw a spinning heel kick so hard that it would have seriously injured Liger had it not been ducked, and Hashimoto is such an ideal version of what a professional wrestler should be that he makes every miss look like he expected a bullseye. 

Hashimoto drills Liger into the ring with a running brainbuster that is an insane spot for an untaped show, and when Hash hits that spinning heel kick he sends the full weight of his hip crashing into Liger. Sano is a barefoot psychopath, hitting a gorgeous pescado (later to be completely outshone by Liger's gorgeous tope con giro but hey) and throwing a bananas running dropkick to knock Chono off the apron. When Hashimoto gets the pin on Liger, he's a man really holding his opponent's shoulders to the mat, with Liger being pinned because he was the weakened man. It's that attention to detail when they aren't thinking about how many people are going to ever witness it. It's a special thing when you find a match that only exists because of some guy and his camcorder, and the match raises the stock of all four guys involved. 

Slim J vs. Azrael NWA Anarchy 4/9/11 - EPIC

PAS: This was a barbed wire massacre match, and a real great chance for these two sickos to poke little holes in each other. Both guys are really great traditional brawlers, and they had some cool violent moments in a match which was mostly about getting stuck. I loved the insanity of both guys swinging barbed wire baseball bats super hard into each other, I mean just imagine how much their wrists hurt. Azrael driving his forearm into a barbed wire chair on a missed slam was sick stuff on top of it all. Slim J amps it up in the closing moments of the match, wrapping himself in barbed wire and using his body as a pokey weapon. Azrael hits a sick ace crusher on him, but can't cover because him arm got punctured. The announcers mention all the brawls these two have had in this feud and I want to see all of them. 

MD: They delivered on what was advertised here. There was barbed wire everywhere throughout. While it was pretty gratuitous, everything was done with consequence, which is what you hope for out of a match like this. Early on, the basic layout of the ring, with weapons everywhere and Wilson on the outside put Slim J at a disadvantage as he had to get things out of the way whenever he wanted to try to hit one of his moves. I liked how they built up the wire early, as the wrestlers themselves were tasked to put it on the ropes. That was a gradual process but it built up tension for the first few shots into it, and did have the very clever moment of Azrael using the Staff of Righteousness to do it at one point. In a match like this (like an exploding cage match or anything else along those lines), one whip can completely change momentum, so long as the wrestlers put it over, and they absolutely did here, and that makes for different sort of narrative opportunities. Mid-match, Slim J, to create the great equalizer, wrapped himself up in the wire and tried to use his body as a weapon to varying effects. It meant that every impact in the finishing stretch was pushed even further over the top. I probably won't revisit this one anytime soon, but they treated everything in this match with fear and respect and consequence and it elevated it into something that was more than simple blood and guts.

ER: Slim J's legend grows with every month of footage from the past 20 years. He's one of the great babyfaces from that era, as talented as but somehow not even as heralded as The Amazing Red. Slim J has been knocking out Rey Mysterio level matches for years now to a fraction of the acclaim, and it's crazy. Here's another to add to his legend, a violent insane spotfest from the great Anarchy. There's great carny shit like Reverend Dan at ringside, and the early match looked like old school bullshit with classic Dusty Rhodes teased barbed wire spots. But when Slim J dodged and Azrael hammer-fisted a chair covered in barbed wire full force, the tone of this all changed. Slim J took a full force tennis racket shot to the head, and from then on full force was the name of the game. 

Azrael's beating looked vicious, and Slim's selling of the beating made it look even more lethal. Slim J might be the greatest selling babyface of the entire 2000s indy scene, it's not even a contentious statement. Here you get great high level cruiserweight spots from Slim J, like his fine Santo roll, but you get violent additions like Azrael subsequently getting flapjacked face first onto a chair. But soon Slim is wrapping himself entirely in barbed wire like a sexy boy band Sabu and they're swinging - again, full force - barbed wire bat shots like they were wrestling in the ugliest dirt lot lucha. And, as someone who has had their hands stung by many different aluminum bats, Slim straightening his wrists and shaking his hands was a familiar pain. 

Slim's missed corner avalanche while wrapped in barbed wire was like Zona 1-2-3 Kid, and that Azrael ace crusher is one of the greatest ever iterations of that move. Let's get Azrael into the online discussion for best ever stunner/crusher. Slim J takes a kind of whipping slam into a thick garbage can like a true garbage match legend, always combining big impact with a folded body, and Azrael's sitout driver off the rope rope through a table was an incredible finish. It's the kind of finish that even Shane McMahon might not consider to win his father's love. The chemistry here is incredible and it feels like it will play out like a legendary bloody lucha feud the more matches are uncovered. If this is the only one we ever get? We were lucky., 

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE SHINYA HASHIMOTO

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE SLIM J

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Fujiwara Family: BattlArts 3/25/00

BattlArts 3/25/00

Mohammed Yone vs. Ryuji Yamakawa

PAS: This was a Yamakawa match rather then an Yone match, and does a nice job of showing the variety that was on an average BattlArts card, everything wasn't Ikeda kicks to the eye. This was a fine hardcore brawl, Yone takes a suplex to the floor through a couple of tables, Yamakawa bleeds just to bleed and finishes the match with a nasty clothesline. Nothing that would go on either guys resume tape, but fun nonetheless.

Minoru Tanaka vs. Ikuto Hidaka

PAS: This was a 2000s juniors match with the only really BattlArts flavor being some knee bars and head kicks, but it was a heck of 2000s juniors match. Hidaka is really great at flying into things, diving knee bars, flying chokes, spring board dropkicks on knees. Tanaka has some cool rolling attacks too, and just hurls Hidaka on top of his head and kicks him in the face. There was a Tanaka dragon suplex which was as cool as that move has ever been thrown. Tanaka gets his knee taken apart, but sells it sporadically, which is a problem, but kind of par for the course. 19 minute Juniors matches are very much not my thing, but this was as good as that is going to get.

Shinobu Kandori/Mach Junji vs. COW COW/Takeshi Ono - FUN

PAS: Shinobu Kandori and Takeshi Ono are two of the coolest wrestlers of all time, so of course this tag match turns into a Mach Junji vs. COW COW showdown. Ono and Kandori are stuck mostly breaking up pins as COW COW and Junji face off. Not sure who COW COW was, but his execution on stuff was pretty good, nice german suplex and a stiff clothesline, so I didn't mind the match, but this was about the most uninteresting way it could have been worked.

Alexander Otsuka/Kazunari Murakami vs. Naoki Sano/Yuki Ishikawa

PAS: Look at this lineup, just four of the most badass wrestlers ever working a long BattlArts tag. We know what a great matchup Ishikawa vs. Murakami is, and it is awesome in this match too. Murakami is frenzied as usual and he and Ishikawa go after each other early with Ishikawa dumping him with a side suplex and Murakami using these amazing Judo throws. Most people think of Murakami as a guy who would just throw crazy punches and kicks and mean mug, but he had maybe the best Judo throws in wrestling history, he would just hurl the guy he was wrestling with incredible speed and tremendous force. We also got a bunch of Otsuka matching up with Sano, which is something that happened a couple of other times in tags, but was just incredible stuff. They had super fast takedowns and grappling exchanges, constantly moving and looking for the smallest advantages. These are also a pair of guys who will stretch the boundaries of BattlArts style and we also got a great tope by Sano and a pescado by Otsuka. The match breaks down first into an Ishikawa vs. Murakami final run, which included Otsuka breaking up a save by destroying Sano with a Everest German, and then a Sano vs. Murakami section with some nasty exchanged kicks and submission scrambles. It goes to a thirty minute draw which deprives us of a finish but does give us 30 minutes of these guys, so a good trade off.

Daisuke Ikeda vs. Katsumi Usuda - EPIC

PAS: Usuda is sort of the Akira Taue of the Battlarts big four, a little less flashy, a little less regarded, but equally able to deliver the goods when needed. He comes out wilding here, super aggressive and total pushing the pace to Ikeda, winging hard kicks to his head and body. You don't usually see Ikeda having to work off the back foot, it was a really cool different look for him. Even when Ikeda lands a side suplex, Usuda is able to grab an arm and work a keylock. Ikeda is able to land some big kicks of his own and one of his lead pipe clotheslines right on the ropes, I have no idea how Ikeda didn't break his forearm or Usuda's jaw or both. Finish is really great, with Usuda being a little reckless trying for a guillotine choke allowing Ikeda to slip first into a Fujiwara and then into a nasty choke sleeper which whitens Usuda's eyes. Really felt like Usuda had his number, but Ikeda was able to use his aggression against him. Maybe the most Fujiwarish Ikeda performance I can remember seeing. 

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE SHINOBU KANDORI

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE DAISUKE IKEDA

FUJIWARA FAMILY 

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1993: UWF-I, Vader Ain't Got No Alibi

Super Vader vs. Kazuo Yamazaki UWF-I 8/13/93

ER: I love the energy for these matches, love how the Japanese workers act like they loathe Vader coming onto their turf, love how the fans seem resigned to the fact that Vader is going to smoosh their favorites, and so they absolutely lose it whenever their guys are aggressive or gain a momentary advantage. Something as little as Yamazaki going for a go behind, even though there was not even a tease of him being able to throw Vader, gets a major reaction. So when Yamazaki actually starts landing on Vader the crowd is going absolutely bonkers. And the stuff with Vader landing shots is just fantastic. Yamazaki keeps throwing kicks that are too catchable, and Vader starts off almost too nice, just kind of working a catch and release program with the kicks. But things change when Yamazaki somehow picks a leg and Vader ends up on his back. It doesn't feel totally honorable but I fully understand Yamazaki kicking at Vader's head while Vader is grounded. The fans don't care either as any advantage is an advantage. 

Yamazaki is so good at being right on top of it, as the second Vader gets to his feet he lands a huge spin kick that sends Vader crashing into the ropes. Vader is so great at falling into ropes, through the ropes, getting backed into a corner with precision kicks to the face, and the way he's staggering and falling makes it immediately look like Yamazaki has a legit chance. We get an absolutely nuts moment where both men tie each other up and fall into the ropes, tumbling fast and violent over the top to the floor. You don't often see someone fall through the ropes in a fight, but when you do it always feels like a big moment, and this felt like the biggest, pro wrestling version of that moment. But all it takes is Vader catching one kick for Kaz to accept that Vader is not messing around. He decks him with a huge punch, flings him with a slam, locks on a huge standing choke (imagine one of those arms hooked under your chin!!) and just buries him with a uranage. Vader is an absolute tidal wave in this environment.

Super Vader vs. Naoki Sano UWF-I 10/4/93

ER: Definitely the strikiest of the UWF-I Vader matches we've seen so far. Vader catches a kick early and Sano slaps Vader while Vader is HOLDING HIS LEG! Then Sano falls back into the ropes for the break. The balls on this man. But we get a ton of punch and kick flurries the entire match, from both men. Vader is less about catching a leg and landing a huge bomb, and more about throwing hard palm strikes to the head and body. At one point he fakes a downward righthand strike, Sano takes the bait and Vader hooks him in the ribs with a left. So awesome. Sano is not bashful about trading, and the fans get way into it, and when he knocks Vader down the fans are still thirsty for that big first Vader loss. Vader just starts crushing him though, dropping him with a couple of big Samoan drops (I would have bet money that Sano was going to grab some kind of choke when Vader went for the second one, shocked it didn't happen), and Vader's chokeslam is really becoming quite the finisher. Sano's opening was really great in this, as he low bridges Vader over the top to the floor, and Vader takes a mammoth (wooly mammoth?) bump to the floor. The buzz in the crowd whenever Vader goes down is super exciting, but Sano will not be the one to vanquish the Mastodon.

Super Vader vs. Nobuhiko Takada UWF-I 12/5/93

ER: A huge main event to cap off a huge stadium show. Takada was wildly over and hadn't lost a singles match in over a year and a half. Vader looked mostly unstoppable and was one of the biggest wrestling stars in the world. I love how Vader came into UWF-I and worked like Vader. There was no shootstyle here, it's just his style - that of a 400 pound mastodon - being dumped right in the middle of shootstyle workers. And he was such a giant boulder standing in the way of the native stars' success that it was the perfect style clash. Vader was a megastar and was treated as such, and there was electricity throughout this entire match because the fans saw Takada as unbeatable, yet also saw Vader as unbeatable, and they were having a hard time reconciling those two conflicting results in real time, so they were just vocally excited the entire time. Takada is vicious with leg kicks here, and Vader is so phenomenal at selling those leg kicks that - whether he was or not - I fully bought that every muscle in his thigh was getting completely knotted up. Vader had used a pretty successful tactic in his other UWF-I matches where he would walk through offense and just land big strikes, work to catch a kick and then throw a haymaker. But Takada's leg kicks are too strong. 

Vader works a more aggressive mat game than in his prior matches, here actively trying to land on Takada and working vicious grounded palm strikes and trying to pop Takada's head off with awful headlocks. He even rushes Takada with a takedown at one point, which he hasn't done so far in UWF-I. And his leg is getting so knotted up that he can barely stand, and does great theatrical things like pushing himself back to his feet off his good leg, and at one point he even gets himself to his feet by using the referee to push off of. Vader wisely abandons the tactic of trying to catch Takada's kicks, and starts immediately closing gaps during stand up, not giving Takada space to fire off kicks. Vader runs in close and just muscles him into slams, any one of which feels like Takada won't get up from. Vader attempts to fight Takada at his own game, wrestles him to the ground with an armbar, but Takada is slippery on the mat and Vader's size is more exploitable there, and getting Vader to tap was a monumental moment in wrestling history. Takada didn't get there easy, and he even fought a little dirty down the stretch, kicking Vader while he was down, kicking him in the chest and gut, really sadistically picking him apart before going after the arm. He didn't set out to win this way, but it was what he had to do to win. Two unbeatable men, doing what they had to do. Vader's arm gets a fucking  stretcher job, and it's the greatest. There are two men, holding Vader's injured arm in a stretcher, one walking in front of him and one behind, his injured arm nestled on a tiny stretcher.


COMPLETE AND ACCURATE VADER IN UWF-I

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SEGUNDA CAIDA DECLARES WAR!!! SWS Wrestle Dream in Kobe 4/1/91

Bringing it Straight and Strong, we start with a slowly panning back shot of a padded dining room chair sitting in the woods, with bad hotel flower art propped on top of it. The camera pans back through the trees, the sun's rays reflecting off the frame of the bad art, obscuring it's image. In the background we see cars flashing by, so these "woods" are basically just off a roadway. What a curious intro. Straight and Strong T-Rex saves us from whatever that deleted scene from the Ring videotape was.

1. Kenichi Oya vs. Masao Orihara

ER: We get some kind of perfunctory matwork through the first half of this, not bad but nothing that was going to factor in to the finish in any way. There are still great little things, like Orihara thudding on a HARD mat after a big missed senton and Oya being a bit of a bully with hard bodyslams. Orihara slips on a springboard (which feels like a sentence I've typed before in SWS reviews. But Oya keeps him honest and soon things break open with Orihara hitting a huge moonsault to the floor. Back in Orihara throws a Saito suplex but Oya shifts his weight, landing awkwardly on Orihara. Oya shows him how to throw a mean suplex, dumping him rudely on his head. Oya muscles him into the buckles and charges, and Orihara just obliterates him with a mule kick, pushing up and back off the top rope. Oya look like he got kicked by a horse. He rolls over and he's drooling. He kicks out, and immediately blasts Orihara with a great short arm western lariat. Awesome finishing stretch to an otherwise inoffensive match.

2. Samson Fuyuki vs. Tatsumi Kitahara

ER: A not bad chubsters match with a sloppily executed finish that draws deserving boos from the crowd. Fuyuki seems kind of on autopilot mode throughout, though both men really do aim to smother on their chinlocks and that kind of thing at least raises the floor of a match. Things snap a bit once Kitahara starts throwing roundhouse kicks, although Fuyuki sells some of them kind of funny. They fumble around a little while Kitahara does a couple DDTs, though Fuyuki starts bumping them early both times. Finish is a total flop, with Fuyuki going for a suplex off the top, Kitahara shifts weight and lands directly on top, and then Fuyuki just rolls out from under and pins him. So Fuyuki pinned him...after taking a move from him. The crowd was correct to boo. This could have and should have been better.

3. Yoshiaki Fujiwara vs. Fumihiro Niikura

ER: Niikura got bossed around by Greg Valentine in a later SWS show I watched, so knowing Niikura was lowest on the SWS hierarchy (other than probably Don Arakawa) got me excited for overmatched underdog vs. Fujiwara. And it is about as one-sided as things can get, with Fujiwara even acting like Niikura's attacks aren't hurting him, and openly mocking him. And that stuff would have been fine, if it had lead to any kind of comeuppance then this match could have been special. Fujiwara is at the peak of his magic here, so even him bullying a guy and taking 90% of the match is really fun. It's peak period Fujiwara having a sparring session, and there's value to that. He shrugs off some spirited strikes and blasts Niikura with his own combo; He let's Niikura get him in a heel hook just so he can reverse it. He wrenches in holds just far enough from the ropes that Niikura has to fight to reach them, and the escapes do progress to real drama as it becomes a game of "how long will Niikura last?" Fujiwara is stronger, craftier, more talented, etc. So what chance could Niikura have? But watching him survive, watching him not give up, him knowing as much as us how little chance he has but still not quitting until his arm was bent disgustingly underneath him. We get a charismatic Fujiwara showcase and a gutsy underdog performance from Niikura, and that's enough.

4. Masakatsu Funaki vs. Naoki Sano

ER: I was kind of surprised at what a one-sided mugging this was. Sano never felt entirely out of the match, but he also never looked like he had a shot against Funaki. Funaki always has a prickish charisma, even when he's not overtly being a prick. He bullies Sano around with kicks and even a sick German suplex at one point, getting in close with palm strikes to open Sano up for kicks. The only break Sano gets is when he accidentally kicks Funaki low. Funaki comes back from that with a vengeance but Sano seems close to figuring him out and even hits a fast German of his own...that Funaki immediately turns into an armbar for the tap. This was all well done shootstyle, though never built up very much drama. Both guys looked impressive, but I need some more pro wrestling drama in my shootstyle.

5. Great Kabuki/Takashi Ishikawa vs. Kendo Nagasaki/Ishinriki

ER: Ishinriki always tricks me, as I regularly forget who he is, and his name seems like he's going to be a big lumpy scowling sumo guy. So I'm always surprised when I see him and get reminded that he's more of a Kobayashi or young Hase. And his early stuff is a little flimsy, including a spinning heel kick that looks like it shouldn't have even moved Ishikawa. Things change for the better when Kabuki tags in and just cracks Ishinriki with an uppercut, leaving him down on the mat holding his jaw. Ah. Now we can get down to business. He was a little miscast in this match anyway, as this should have been about large thick-torsoed brutes smacking into each other, and he wasn't going to contribute to that; nor did he contribute to much underdog babyface work. Instead he was treated as a kind of equal to the others, which I thought didn't work. He did hit a huge springboard crossbody to the floor late in the match on Ishikawa, and I was not expecting that, but the big guys falling on each other was always going to be the better part of the match. Kabuki squaring off with Nagasaki was a nice lumpy highlight, and the moments we got of Kabuki picking on Ishinriki were inspired (including his great stiff leg thrust kick), but this could have been more.

6. John Tenta vs. Koji Kitao

ER: This is a pretty infamous match, where Kitao got booted out of the fed after deciding mid match that he didn't want to sell for Tenta. The unprofessionalism adds to the aura of the match, as these are two big dudes clearly not getting along, and when the mood changes you start seeing the sinister looks and get into the gamesmanship. This is a match where not a lot of things happen, neither guy takes a bump, but it's always intriguing due to that danger factor. I love sumo on sumo matches anyway, so sumos that hate each other? Yes. Obviously. Now it clearly would have been much better if their hate turned into nasty strikes instead of just uncooperative lock ups, but there's still intrigue to be had. Kitao throws some sneaky low kicks, Tenta gets pissed and throw one of his own, Kitao throws a tantrum and throws a table outside (that's the point where Tenta has a clear "What the fuck are you doing?" face). Tenta shouts him down the rest of the match, keeps his distance without backing down (even pointing to his head at one point to show how smart he is!). Kitao starts comically holding out his fingers to eyepoke him! Tenta still doesn't back down, eventually Kitao shootkicks the ref for the DQ. Kitao was basically out of wrestling for 3 years after this, getting KO'd by Takada at some point before his boy Tenryu brought him in to WAR. Once the ref rang for the bell Tenta laughed and raised his arms right in Kitao's face. The way Tenta handled this match just made me love him more.

7. George Takano vs. Bret Hart

ER: The word "solid" kind of gets thrown around a lot to describe wrestlers, and it usually seems to be used as a replacement for "I can't think of anything this guy does that is spectacular, but he also doesn't offend my senses". I don't use solid that way, and this was a solid match. Workmanlike. Simple. Effective. Solid. It's more of a Takano match than a Hart match, which is amusing as Takano is basically Japanese Bret Hart. So you get to see the Bret Hart you've seen countless solid, workmanlike 12 minute matches, versus a Bret Hart with a different moveset. It's satisfying. It's like a better version of Michael Fassbender kissing himself in Alien: Covenant. Hart works subtle heel which makes this much better, as the changes are minor but just the thought of a good sportsmanship handshake fest sounds dull. So instead you had hart bumping hard on suplexes and doing little things like rub Takano's eyes across the top rope. It warmed my heart on a cold rainy day to hear that eye burn get actual boos from the crowd. Takano and Hart each have a nice offense, and both use it well here. Hart really snaps him on the backbreaker, and especially plants that knee into his undercarriage on the atomic drop. He whiffs on the elbow drop off the middle, allowing Takano to take back over and eventually win with a big splash (featuring a kickout damn close to the 3 by Hart). There were tons of little joys in this, aggressive lock-ups from Takano, Hart taking his always violent chest bump into the buckles even faster than normal, Hart bodyslamming Takano only for Takano to hold onto a snug hammerlock on the way over (a spot I don't see much anymore and truly miss), tight Takano cravates, simple vertical suplexes landing hard. This was simple, solid, effective pro wrestling. Match of the night so far.

8. Randy Savage vs. Genichiro Tenryu

ER: I honestly don't know if I've ever seen a Savage match in Japan before this. I don't think he ever went on any tours pre-WWF, worked a few SWS shows and probably did a 90s WWF tour at some point, but I don't recall ever seeing Savage in Japan. Savage gets on the mic and does a short promo like you'd hear from a villain at a theme park action-adventure live show aimed at children: "I'm gonna git you Tenryu, YEAH!" And this is a match up between two legends that you've never really thought about matching up, and it's a real blast. Savage is a more overt heel than Hart was in the prior match, throwing his tassel jacket at Tenryu, jumping out of the ring a couple times to avoid him, jawing with fans, and finally hiding behind Earl Hebner to sneak in a cheap jab on Tenryu. In other words, the match is awesome. Tenryu bullies around Savage with stiff chops, but Savage is the one who keeps going back to eyerakes, and it was weirdly worked like a modern Lesnar/Samoa Joe match where they both kind of immediately go for the kill and start spamming finishers. Tenryu hits an early folding powerbomb that Savage kicks out of, Tenryu kicks out of a Macho elbow drop, and the crowd is feeling it. Savage hits two different axe handles off the top to the floor, with Tenryu selling them like death shots, bumping one of them over the guardrail onto a table. Big part of the match comes when Tenryu gets Savage up for a huge backdrop suplex, but Savage shifts weight and lands full force on Tenryu's face. At least, it appears as if he landed full force, because Tenryu masterfully sells it as if his eye socket got caved in. Tenryu already holds the award for "best piledriver sell", here he's clutching at his nose and eyes with both hands, and he's so damn good that it really looks like something is wrong. Savage hits two Macho elbows but it's not enough to put Tenryu away, and soon hits two leaping, falling elbows of his own (I always love Tenryu's trust fall elbow, as it always looks like he's an inch away from rearranging a guy's face) and Savage kicks out of those! Fans are feeling this, I'm feeling this, you're feeling this. Tenryu eventually folds him with another powerbomb, really pinning to make it impossible for Savage to kick out. The struggle to get to the powerbomb was real good and kind of sloppy, giving it a little more authenticity. Savage blocked it and fell onto him for a pin, but Tenryu immediately rolled through, hoisted him up and planted him. Savage looked like he was somewhat sandbagging each powerbomb, but moreso probably was just avoiding getting dropped from too high an angle. This was a super fun singles match up that I had no clue ever happened (let alone a couple times), and cheating heel Savage in Japan was just too good. Awesome stuff.

9. Yoshiaki Yatsu vs. Hulk Hogan

ER: We all know Hogan tends to work differently when he goes to Japan, but this felt even more different than what I've seen before. Even his ring entrance is weird as he seems almost embarrassed to be coming out to Real American, almost eyerolling as he rips his tank top off. But the first 4 minutes of this are the flat out most awesome Hogan you've seen. They take it to the mat and mat Hogan is flat out the best. He takes Yatsu down and locks in a half nelson cravate, which is awesome. We get cool headlock takeovers, a freaking rolling armbar, wristlock go behinds, a Boston crab, just Hogan very competently working the mat as if it was totally normal. Things get a little clunkier once we stand up. He hits a real great back suplex on Yatsu, but really isn't great at taking Yatsu's offense, stumbling awkwardly to his knees on a bulldog and getting seemingly crossed up on some rope running that ends with Yatsu hitting a weird looking leaping punch to the nose. One of them hit their mark way too early and Hogan was left rubbing at the bridge of his nose the rest of the match. Yatsu doesn't give Hogan any chance to wuss out of a powerslam though, as he hits a real powerful doozy. It ends anticlimactically with Hogan hitting a weak axe bomber (his missed axe bomber earlier in the match looked much better). So the last 4 was ugly, but the first 4 minutes were magic. We need a Hogan on the Mat comp.

ER: The WWF matches actually saved this show, which I was not expecting, with Hart/Takano and Savage/Tenryu being really good, the Hogan match bringing the sheer mat joy, and Tenta/Kitao at least bringing intrigue. Outside of that we still got fun performances from Kabuki, Fujiwara, and Kitahara, so the show worked fine for me.


COMPLETE SEGUNDA CAIDA DECLARES WAR!!!

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All Time MOTY List Head to Head: Onita/Goto v. Kurisu/Nagasaki V. Liger v. Sano

Jushin Liger v. Naoki Sano NJPW 1/31/90

PAS: This was the final match of their awesome late 80s early 90s triology, and it is a hell of a finish. Liger starts out the disrespect by slapping Sano in the face, but Sano takes the early lead by piledriving Liger on the floor, ripping his mask and posting him. The rest of the match is this great visual of Liger with his mask ripped off, adding a bunch more red to the iconic red and white outfit. I loved all of Liger's comebacks in this match, he would squirm out of a Sano bomb attempt and hit a crazy dive or a desperation throw, but then get overwhelmed. This was Liger trying to ride a tidal wave, rather then a back and forth battle. Sano was great in this, such a vicious prick, there is a moment where he is just pounding on Ligers bloody head that you can see the joy in his face. I also loved his intelligence, there is a moment where he charges Liger in the corner, Liger moves, so Sano backflips out, Sano knows the kappo kick is coming so he just dives on his stomach to avoid it. Finish may have felt a little abrupt, with the level of punishment, but I dig the tombstone as a death move (Sano did a great post match sell of it) and Liger breaking out his first Liger SSP to close it out was pretty cool. I have a feeling that when I revisit NJ juniors for this project, the less juniory matches will stand out, and this was a great one.

ER: Man what a fight! Phil is right that when we revisit juniors stuff the best stuff will be the stuff centered around hate, not the stuff centered around "hot spots". But this had all the hate AND all the hot spots. It's great seeing Sano as almost a pushover, and then having that immediately blow up in his face. This is like CM Punk slapping Teddy Hart without realizing Hart was a trained boxer. Liger slaps him before the bell and hits palm strikes which leads directly to Sano beating his ass for 15 minutes. I love that this isn't some back and forth, big moves, pause for response, nearfall match. This is one man executing his perfect gameplan, while a legend hangs on and breaks out every desperate trick he knows. Sano was so cold and calculating, you can picture an announcer talking about how he's been reviewing film of Liger. He seemingly knew Liger's moves before Liger knew them, and looked awesome in executing his plan. Liger would get these annoying little escapes: gets dumped by a tiger suplex, but his foot almost accidentally falls onto the ropes; gets tossed with another dangerous suplex and almost accidentally lands in a crossbody for a nearfall. But this whole match is just violent and awesome. I can't believe the guardrails didn't go flying into the fans with the way these two were getting launched into them. And there were so many killer visuals of a bleeding Liger stumbling around with his mask barely hanging on, just trying to get a breath before Sano would maul him again. Only minor complaint was they peaked Liger's damage way too early, making him look pretty unconscious after that crazy piledriver at around the 6 minute mark of a match that went 20. But they sucked me right in and the whole thing just felt epic. Great match.

FMW Tag Review

Verdict: 

PAS: Both matches are awesome hate filled brawls and great ones. The FMW tag has more reckless violence, but Liger v. Sano tells more of a story. Very close, I am giving it to Liger v. Sano by a hair, but could easily be talked into a different verdict on a different day.

ER: As much as I loved this, I'm still leaning FMW tag. As Phil mentioned they were both violent, and violence is a pretty easy sell. But I loved the recklessness of the FMW tag, loved how unstructured it felt, loved moments like Onita running through the crowd trying to get away from Nagasaki like he was Jason Vorhees, all the insane chairshots, all the hardway juice, Kurisu showing up in a dad shirt button down; that FMW tag has a special charm to it, and I'm not actually sure what it's going to take to dethrone it. This match came damn close though.

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SEGUNDA CAIDA DECLARES WAR!! SWS 9/17/91

I'm an SWS novice, but 30 seconds in I already love the "Straight and Strong" tagline with a Godzilla T-Rex logo. Just some straight and strong wrestling right here. And also here's a dinosaur.

1. Samson Fuyuki & Shinichi Nakano vs. Kendo Nagasaki & Great Kabuki

ER: Joined in progress which is a shame, as we open on Kabuki and Nagasaki beating the snot out of Fuyuki. Kabuki throws one of the best running knees I've ever seen, and they roll to the floor to dump Fuyuki on a table and throw chairs at him while he flails in his awesome floral tights. Back in the ring and the Kendo/Kabuki double thrust kick is awesome and since both guys know how to hit a thrust kick it really should be a finisher. Fuyuki hits a falling clothesline on Kabuki, but Kabuki laughs it off, smacks him with a superkick and then shows Fuyuki how to REALLY throw a boss running clothesline. Nakano was a furious house of fire here but was really only in for 30 seconds (at least of what was shown of the 7 minutes), and Fuyuki still wrestles like a junior, and is still mostly junior size, winning with a cradle. I like the Kendo/Kabuki team, as well as the Fuyuki/Nakano team, but Fuyuki's comeback came out of nowhere and wasn't really believable at all.

2. Akira Katayama vs. Kenichi Oya

ER: I really liked Hisakatsu Oya during his FMW days, always thought he was a real underrated guy. I am 94% positive that I have never seen an Akira Katayama match in my life. I'm used to seeing Oya wearing his black karate pants and weird balding-down-the-middle 'do so it's weird to see him still balding down the middle, but wearing lime green and apricot shorts. Katayama is wearing tiger striped tights with "Rocket" written down the sides. It's like a couple NJPW trainees got sick of being forced to wear black trunks and do a bunch of boston crabs and dropkicks, so once they joined SWS they rebelled by wearing the shittiest trunks possible. First 7 minutes of the match are a whole bunch of nothing, but then suddenly a switch flips and Katayama starts working over the arm and it gets good. All the arm holds are put over by Oya's yelling and struggling, and Katayama does some cool knee drops to the bum wing. But Oya immediately ignores it all once he transitions back to offense (even using the bad arm for the first two post-armwork moves he does, an inside cradle and a clothesline). Last 5 minutes are fun as both guys just stop pretending to sell and start busting out all the big moves. We get plenty of nasty suplexes and a couple big dives from Katayama. Katayama also breaks out the stiff headbutts and uppercuts. So it was a total mess of a match, with 7 boring minutes leading into 3 ultimately pointless-yet-engaging minutes of decent armwork, leading to a really fun 5 minute sprint. I really wish this was the match joined in progress.

3. Masao Orihara vs. Tatsumi (Koki) Kitahara

ER: Orihara does not look like a disgraced yakuza button man yet and Kitahara is young and mulleted. Orihara does a bunch of poorly planned and reckless flips to the floor to start, seemingly with no regard to where he lands. Kitahara is gracious enough to catch him. Back in and Kitahara does a stiff legsweep and then points to his head to show how smart he is. Awesome. Then he starts kicking Orihara a bunch, and sassily gets the crowd to cheer for Orihara to make a comeback. One big vertical suplex later and Orihara is dumped to the floor, with Kitahara following to deliver one of the nastiest snap suplexes I've ever seen, right on the rampway. Good lord that was fast and painful. Orihara gets some little flying comebacks, until Koki decides to level him with a short arm clothesline to the neck. This sets up one of the coolest spots I've seen in months: So Orihara just got leveled with a clothesline, and he's taken a pretty man-sized beating and struggling to get up, and Kitahara is smugly leaning against the ropes, waiting for Orihara to get up so he can level him with another clothesline. Orihara gets up, Kitahara sprints forward and swings for the fences, only for Orihara to reverse it with a crucifix roll up for a GREAT near fall. What made it work so damn well was the commitment. Kitahara looked like he didn't expect Orihara to reverse it, so he threw the clothesline with full strength, making him off balance for the resulting takedown and roll up. Great spot. It doesn't matter in the end as Kitahara ends up hitting a mean northern lights suplex to win, but a great moment is a great moment. I don't know if I can call the match really good, as my end impression was that this was more Kitahara flexing nuts on a young boy, and the pacing wasn't great, and nobody really sold anything. These things are hard as shit for me to rank or judge or critique. Basically, all the moves looked good, some looked brutal, but I never felt invested in any of it.

4. Greg Valentine vs. Fumihiro Niikura

ER: Valentine comes out to some big brassy burlesque number, like he's working some underground strip club during Prohibition. Niikura was in the Viet Cong Express with Hiroshi Hase in the 80s. Match wasn't special as it was basically an extended Valentine squash, but if you wanted to see The Hammer stiff up a Japanese guy you don't really know, then this would be right up your alley. Valentine looked really good here, throwing some of the best elbow strikes I've seen (the stiffest Dusty elbow you've ever seen, really great back elbows, and ends the match after three straight beautiful elbow drops). Is there anybody with better elbow drops than Valentine? Hansen maybe? Probably definitely Hansen.

5. Davey Boy Smith vs. Takashi Ishikawa

ER: On paper I was pretty excited for this one but Davey gasses WAY early and gets super chinlocky the whole match. Ishikawa tries his damndest to make it interesting but any time the match starts to approach any action, Davey Boy locks on a chinlock and loudly breathes, literally wheezing and gasping all over Ishikawa. Match ends with Davey Boy hitting a body slam and winning with a bad flying clothesline off the top. Those two moves were two of the only moves Davey Boy hit all match. Horrible. Ishikawa threw an awesome dropkick and was not responsible for any of the shittiness here.

6. Naoki Sano & George Takano vs. Yoshiaki Yatsu & Haku

ER: Weird match up as it's two large heavyweights against two juniors and you also had the dynamic of the giant guys cheating throughout the match. So the cheating would get booed, but Yatsu is also clearly one of the biggest stars in SWS so many fans still wanted to cheer his team. Sano looked really good here and his comebacks against Haku were really good, and I really liked Haku's powerbomb variations. Match was building to something and then Haku and Yatsu rough up the ref and the match gets thrown out after like 7 minutes. Booooooo. I think we had some clipping as well at some point.

7. Genichiro Tenryu & Ashura Hara vs. Demolition (Smash and Crush)

ER: In retrospect Demolition had a horrible look and must have been one of the reasons my parents were filled with shame by my young/current/future wrestling fandom. I know they were supposed to look like Mad Max rogues, but they come off looking more like undercover cops trying too hard to blend in at The Mine Shaft. Barry Darsow is such a weirdo in this. He's still doing his "constant chatter" schtick, but it's so jarring to see and hear a giant leather daddy yelling "Shut your mouth, goofball!" or "I'm gonna beat this stinkin' bum!" Demolition are pretty boring here as their long control segment on Tenryu is just clubbing and chin locks (save for a really awesome and dangerous Smash backdropping Tenryu into a Crush piledriver). Control segment takes a long time, but the fans want Hara. Hara gets the hot tag, and unfortunately the match ends immediately after he comes in and does two clotheslines, and Darsow didn't exactly lean into them so they didn't look like normal match ending WAR type clotheslines.


Soooooo......this card was pretty damn disappointing. The theme of SWS seems to be that any move can end a match, at any time. Which just meant that every match ended out of nowhere on a move that looked like it shouldn't have ended the match. Wish we got the full cut of the Kabuki match.

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Best of Japan 2000-2009: Naoki Sano vs. Minoru Tanaka, BattlArts 1/30/00

Naoki Sano vs. Minoru Tanaka, BattlArts 1/30/00

Believe it or not, years ago *this* match was my introduction to BattlArts. Not Ikeda or Ishikawa clonking coconuts and essentially signing verbal contracts guaranteeing that by the age of 50 they will wander the streets aimlessly, forget to pay bills and not recognize family members. Nope. When I first watched BattlArts my favorite type of wrestling was juniors wrestling. Phil and I have joked that we used to buy WAR shows for the Ultimo Dragon matches, now we fast forward through those matches to get to the old lumpy fatsos punching each other. But when I was a teenager, it was all cruisers. I heard of Tanaka and was into the idea of a cruiser that did a bunch of neato kicks and fast spinny matwork, and this was a match of his that was talked about a lot at the time. I watched it a bunch back then, but have not seen the match in probably over a decade.

And boy, for a match with tons of cool stuff, it does not add up to a very satisfying experience. There were tons of awesome moments. You could have made a killer 3 minute music video set to a Jim Steinman song (erm, I guess half of a Jim Steinman song...) and I'd think it looked like an incredible match. But there was just no narrative and nothing tying anything together. Tanaka is a guy with a couple of cool tricks (I remember how much I flipped the first time I saw Sano catch a kick, throw a strike and saw Tanaka catch the arm into a rolling armbar) but now it comes off more like a guy who saw a Volk Han tape, like when American indy guys saw their first T2P or Johnny Saint match. Sano looked great and attempted to keep some consistency, throwing out clues to Tanaka by stretching his knee or rubbing it, but Tanaka would just stick to randomly throwing out flashy submissions to any random limb, just because they looked cool. Sano had some killer stuff in this, including a spring-loaded missile dropkick that launched Tanaka almost into the ref, and THEE nastiest spin kick you've ever seen in your life, just perfectly catching Tanaka right under the chin in the most brutal way possible. And in maybe the perfect way to encapsulate the entire match theme, Tanaka immediately no sells it and goes for an armbar.


BEST OF JAPAN MASTER LIST

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PRO-WRESTLING FUJIWARA-GUMI SHOW #3 7/26/91

Mark Rush v. Kazuo Takahashi

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

Bart Vale v. Lato Kirawarik

Lato is a Sumo guy I am assuming. Because he was really fat and kind of Polynesian looking. Not as good as Arashi, better then Koji Kitao is my early impression. Bart Vale isn't a guy who will make you look good in your debut. I think Fujiwara works him on the next show which will clearly be the litmus test.

Wayne Shamrock v. Duane Koslowski

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

Napataya v. Yusuke Fuke

Napataya is one of those Thai ladyboy kickboxers I think, as he does a really fey dance before the match, has sorta cornrows and really great Grace Jonesish facials. This match had some fun parts, as Napataya was wearing Fuke out with kicks, and Fuke would shoot and try to take him down and Napataya would either grab the ropes or Fuke wouldn't be able to get a hold of him. Still they basically do that for five rounds and Fuke never gets the expected takedown. Really sort of a cocktease of a match, as you were waiting for Fuke finally to get him down, and then he doesn't and then its over. It's like if the Midnights cut off the ring, beat down Ricky, he almost makes the tag, and then they pin him.

Naoki Sano v. Minoru Suzuki

Man am I steamed Sano only worked two matches for PWFG as he is fucking gold again. This goes to a draw which keeps it a little below the sublime Sano v. Shamrock match on the second show, but it was incredible. The counters in this were faster then in the Shamrock match, but it was paced similar.

Suzuki was the one brining the pro wrestling here, as he breaks out a nasty piledriver and even tries a dropkick. The dropkick spot was great as he threw it and Sano steps away contemptuously, Suzuki lands bounces up and hit a brutal jumping spin kick into Sano's grill. Suzuki was great here, as he is awesome as a fired up babyface, there is a point where is trying to get a cross armbreaker and he is just chopping at Sano's arm and kicking him in the head in a frenzy to try to get Sano to break his grip. There is a great spot where Sano has on a choke, and Suzuki is slapping his own face to keep himself awake. I loved the draw finish too, as both guys have kneebars on each other and are just twisting the ankles in desperation to try to get the submission before the bell. I clearly need to get more UWFI Sano, as he is truly brilliant in both of his PWFG matches, and I want more shootstyle Sano.

Yoshiaki Fujiwara v. Masakatsu Funaki

Man was this great. This was almost completely worked on the feet, alot of throwing hands and feet. There was some mat stuff early, but it was really incidental to what was going on. I really dug Fujiwara's in fighting here. He was working over Funaki on the inside, throwing little bodyshots, and a great looking sneak short headbutt which dropped him for a count. Funaki is the guy with the reach and Fujiwara needs to conduct the match on the inside to win. Funaki was winning the distance here, and Fujiwara is awesome at selling a beating. He does almost a Flair flop when he get caught with the heel of Funaki's boot when he was going for a single leg crab.

The finish is what really made this match. Funaki drops Fujiwara with a high kick for a close ten count. Fujiwara barely beats count, and Funaki is all over him, trying to finish the fight. Thigh kicks, hooking slaps, kicks to the head he swarms all over Fujiwara against the ropes. Fujiwara is so overwhelmed that at one point he almost turns his back, which Funaki just drills him with some kidney shots, Fujiwara is able to get off the ropes but he is backpedaling eating shots, Funaki shoots confidentially for the takedown, and boom, Fujiwara catches his arm in a a Fujiwara armbar using his legs, he wrenches and Funaki has to tap out. Probably the best flash finish I have ever seen in wrestling. Really puts over Fujiwara as the master defensive wrestler, someone you can never count out, never drop your guard, as he can get you like that. Had me jumping off my couch. Just awesome stuff.

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PRO-WRESTLING FUJIWARA-GUMI SHOW #2 5/19/91

Minoru Suzuki v. Kazuo Takahashi

This was basically a short squash with both guys working for takedowns on the mat, before Suzuki slaps on a quick cross armbreaker. Hard to tell much about Takahashi here. It had some energy.

Bart Vale v. Yusuke Fuke

I liked this a little better then Funaki v. Vale, as this wasn't based around Vale's flashy and loose looking kicks. This had kind of a weird story as Fuke kept going for submissions which would be reversed by Vale. Almost built as a showcase for Bart Vale Abu Dhabi superstar. Weird to watch Vale work this, but I prefer him as shitty Jean-Jacques Machado then as shitty Mirko Cro-Cop. After all of his submission grappling he ends the match with a sick looking knee to the head, which was even more jarring considering how tender everything else he throws looks.

Yoshiaki Fujiwara v. Wellington Wilkins Jr.

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

Wayne Shamrock v. Naoki Sano

I was pretty much in shock during this match, I couldn't believe what I was watching. I have never particularly cared for a thing Ken Shamrock has ever done, so I expected nothing out of this match, and it turned out to be as good as anything on the 80's Other Japan set. So much to love about this match, as they pretty much went back and forth from spectacular mat exchanges into awesome slugfest strike exchanges, great takedowns, into more spectacular mat exchanges.

The pacing of this was great, I especially loved how they paced their mat highspots. One guy would get in position and struggle a bit, and their would be a lull, and then super fast move into a choke or a kneebar. The crowd would pop huge for all of the mat spots, and it was the pacing of them which would really do it. Then after the mat near falls they would stand and just lay into each other with big shots, Shamrock's strikes looked way better here then in the previous match, and Sano was drilling him too. This was before Sano went to UWFI so I would guess this was his first shootstyle match ever, and he was a master of it. This was Sano's match, and while Shamrock was game, you could tell Sano was leading him. I also loved how Sano mixed in pro moves, as I actually bought an STF as a shoot submission, and a DDT as a shoot throw. I have never heard anyone even mention this match before and it is a total hidden classic.

Masakatsu Funaki v. Johnny Barrett

This was perfectly fin, but suffered a bit in comparison to the previous matches. Funaki really works this match the Maeda would, and that isn't a compliment. Barrett was fun, but you never got the sense Funaki was in any danger of losing. Some cool stuff, especially Barrett's shoot armdrags, but this was the PWFG version of a competitive TV squash. Naylor said Julio Barrett was a great NWA jobber, and that is what he was here.

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