Found Footage Friday: LYONS~! SCHMIDT~! SUPER ASTRO~! SUPER BOY~! OGAWA~! SAWADA~! FUJITA~!

Billy Red Lyons vs. Hans Schmidt 11/13/59

MD: Schmidt was announced here as a replacement for Dick the Bruiser. We don't have a ton of Lyons footage in his prime and he was quite young here, on the way up. Davis says this was his biggest challenge yet. He was quick though, which seemed to light a fire under Schmidt too. By the five minute mark or so, they were both on their knees slugging it out with each other. Lyons held his own for fifteen minutes or so, but ended up counted out when an over-excited admirer wouldn't let go of him on the outside. Pretty clever count out spot that let Schmidt win while making Lyons look like he really had a shot.

Super Astro/Principe Joel/Jalisco vs. Super Boy/Fobia/Mano Negra Compton Lucha 6/5/95

MD: The primary pairing here was Super Astro vs Mano Negra and while Negra was high energy both in stalling and in his exchanges, the few glimpses of Super Astro vs Super Boy that we got made me wish that was the primary pairing instead. Jalisco stood out too as he had a certan swagger, even posture I would say, that made him stand out. He would take out all of the rudos with the same move and then the ref too for good measure. Super Boy had a great dive at the end (with Jalisco following up with a sort of elbow dropping dive) to set things up for Mano Negra vs Super Astro again. At that point, however, Joel turned heel and it ended as a pretty big rudo beatdown that probably built to some bigger match later on. The turn didn't really take away from the match as it felt like it came right at the end.

PAS: Very fun lucha trios filled with talented professional luchadores. The extra juice was getting to see bits of Super Astro and Super Boy two of the most electric exciting luchadores of all time. I love a fat highflyer and both of these guys were perfect example of melding chub and athleticism. Super Boy hits a crazy flipping senton to end a fall, and Astro is twinkle toed as ever. Finish was a bit of a dog's breakfast, but the stuff preceding it was a blast

Naoya Ogawa/Atsushi Sawada vs. Kazuyuki Fujita/Kendo Kashin IGF 4/11/15

MD: 8 minutes here and it's all action. The Fujita vs Sawada exchanges are great, just that right mix of intensity and flair and headbutts. Sawada really brings the energy whether it's his initial takedown or just scooting around the ring out of the way when Fujita gets the advantage. We don't get a ton of Kashin and Ogawa here, but the contributions are worthwhile, with Kashin trying to kill Sawada on the outside with some cloth around the neck and Ogawa giving in to Sawada's desire to get STO'd by his own partner so that he can hit a ridiculous and serene tandem DDT. I'd happily watch a 10 match Sawada vs Fujita series if such a thing existed.

PAS: This kind of hardhitting quasi-shoot puro stuff is right up my alley.  Fujita is such a rock headed dim bruiser and it is great to watch him bully Sawada and have Sawada fire back. Loved the flurry of strikes in the corner by Sawada, one of the advantages of wrestling Fujita is that you can hit him as hard as you can and it won't faze him a bit. Kashin and Ogawa are smaller players in this match, but Ogawa has such a great arrogant bruiser vibe, that he works great in this match as a foil. Taunting and bullying his partner until he had enough and just disposed of him. 

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Fujiwara Family: UFO 3 3/14/99

UFO 3

Tiger Mask IV vs. Jean-Pierre David

PAS: This was nifty stuff, Mask was throwing sharp kicks and punches, while David would try to grab him and take him down. There was a couple of pretty wild shootstyle highspots, including David judo tossing Mask off of the weird UFO circular ring apron to the floor, and Tiger responding by kicking and punching him off the apron on the other side. Finish had David working for an armbar only to see Mask get his back and choke him out. This had the fun choppiness of a good RINGS match, like David in this, he had some good throws and a French Canadian chippiness which made for a fun opponent. 

ER: I've never seen TM4 work any kind of shootstyle, but this had that cool shootstyle feel where things start out normal and keep escalating to a clearly unprofessional peak when one guy stops playing around. This all looked very normal, David working for armbars, TM using cool pro wrestling strikes to back him off. The finish looked fantastic, as TM just starts wailing punches at the back of David's head, and not just one or two. Tiger Mask starts using punches to the back of the head to set up his other strikes, including a cool use of a Tiger Mask solebutt and a great high kick that knocks David swiftly to the mat. Then, more TM punches to the back of the head to set up a nasty rear naked choke. 

Sean McCully vs. Orlando Wiet

ER: We at Segunda Caida are big fans of pro wrestler Sean McCully, but this is probably the first actual shootstyle match of his we've written about. And it is good! But in a different way than his pro wrestling is good. Weit had the obvious size and reach advantage, but that did not prevent McCully from charging right in and keeping things close, negating the reach, and literally dragging Weit to the mat. The ropes are really the only thing that allowed Weit to last long enough to finish, as he just kept hooking them to prevent takedowns, leading to McCully just dragging him down anyway. I loved this one moment where Weit would not unhook his arm, and McCully just punched him in the teeth. Weit has really explosive ground and pound and landed several quick shots, and he finally used that reach to drag McCully down with a nice guillotine. 

PAS: Love to see McCully, he looks like an Irish mob legbreaker who ends up getting 15 years in Framingham because he tried to knock over a cigarette truck drunk. Cool story with McCully's aggression versus Wiet's skill, and the finish made a ton of sense, as the aggression  eventually backfired and he got caught in a nasty choke for the tap.

Koichiro Kimura vs. Richard Roland Loux

ER: Mostly one-sided shootstyle squash, with some stand up leading to a dueling leglock (it was 1999-2002 MMA, so there's going to be a dueling leglock). I do like dueling leglocks though, especially when someone like Kimura adds in a couple twists to show how stubborn he is, making it look like both guys really did want to end it right there. After the stand up it doesn't take long for Kimura to get an armbar. 

PAS: Loux was a big bald fat guy in a gi, and had one great throw, but it is hard to get a sense of someone in such a short match. Weird to watch Kimura as such an overdog while watching all of the RINGS stuff where he is sort of a jobber.

Tiger Mask vs. Alexander Otsuka

ER: I liked this, even though there were some moments of disconnect that I would have roasted some unknown indy worker for doing. And I guess that makes me a hypocrite, because I like these guys (that said, Sayama had some ground and pound that looked like he was intentionally trying to not hit Otsuka). But I think the match would have been better if they leaned harder into having either a shootstyle match, or a pro wrestling match. They kind of combined the two and sometimes it worked and other times it looked a bit silly. I liked Sayama breaking out a bunch of cool Tiger Mask spinkicks, and Otsuka was great at getting his head in the way of catching them. But I also think Sayama went to them too often, and Otsuka kind of had to just keep leaning in and keeping them, and not all of them hit as well and he had to sell them anyway. If they had gone full shootstyle it would have been cool to see Otsuka take a glancing blow and then punish Sayama for missing. 

We got a weird mix of them seemingly treating the shootstyle stuff seriously, but then also mixing in their signature pro wrestling spots. We probably didn't need to see Otsuka's big swing, but I liked the realism they brought to other exchanges, like the way Otsuka looked to sandbag a Tiger suplex before getting dropped. Otsuka's rolling kneebars looked fantastic, really hyperextending Sayama's leg, and yet I was still really surprised Otsuka got the tap. Otsuka really should have made an even bigger mark in 90s/00s wrestling than he did, but it seems like his desire to control his own schedule was more important, and that just makes him cooler. 

PAS: I though this was pretty great, Sayama wasn't throwing the same level of heat as he did fifteen years earlier against Fujiwara, but he still had some big swings which landed hard, and spiked Otsuka with the dragon suplex. I also could have done without the giant swing, but otherwise thought Otsuka was brilliant. I loved his constant activity on the ground, adjusting his attacks, landing nasty body shots to readjust and move Sayama. The final kneebar was amazing, rolling it into nastier and deeper locks until he nearly ripped Tiger's leg off. Awesome shit, and a real mark on Otsuka's impressive resume. 

Kazunari Murakami vs. Gerard Gordeau

ER: This was cool, but would have been even better a year later. Murakami was totally evolved into his best self by 2000, here he was still a little bit more of a normal MMA-based wrestler. And while Gordeau clearly worked heel (including pretending he had no clue who Murakami was in a pre-fight interview), outside of one questionable eye attack he really wasn't as brazen about his heel attacks as he had been. Still, this was a cool fight made up of bizarre grappling and tumbling over and through ropes, and an apparently loose set of rules that allows for submissions to be applied outside of the ring. They kept getting tied up in the ropes, but it always lead to something weird and unique, like Gordeau shoving Murakami until Murakami flipped over the ropes to the rounded apron, or another time where Gordeau went after Murakami's eye (UFO was always really smart or really stupid to not show the eye attacks up close, never giving us the camera angle of the suspected gouge). Murakami came out of it blinking a lot, and Gordeau swung with his biggest strike attempt of the match, a high kick that would have decapitated Murakami had it been an inch or two closer. Murakami grabs a kneebar and Gordeau tries to tie him in the ropes, but they roll out to the ample, rounded apron and the ref just allows the hold to continue, and Gordeau finally has to get Murakami to drop off the apron, allowing him to pounce. This whole thing gets ruled a no contest after both men refuse to break on the floor, and it's a shame they never did a bigger rematch. I have to assume that negotiations broke down, because you do the no contest to set up the big triumphant Murakami win, but instead Murakami just beat UWFI guy Billy Scott. 

PAS: I agree that this would have been better with the terrorist taking on the nazi, but I did love it. Gordeau is awesome at bringing that out of control aura to his matches which Murakami would master later, you can almost see Murakami in this match thinking "shit I can just do this stuff for 20 years". I am a fan of the weird UFO ring with the big circular ring aprons, which allow a lot of shit to be done on the edges and off the sides, it is almost like a no ropes match but with ropes. Gordeau made a career out of cowardly blinding a guy, it is like if Invader 1 had a spot in every match where he hid a knife in his trunks, which in hindsight would rule, and this ruled too. Liked how this just ended in oblivion with both guys on the floor tied up and Gordeau trying to melon scoop Murakami's peepers. 

Dan Severn vs. Naoya Ogawa

ER: You remember that awesome match you love where the referee kept involving himself in the action the entire time? Of course you don't, because no good match can ever come from referees overly involving themselves. This match keeps threatening to get violent many different times, and every single one of those times Special Guest Referee Dory Funk Jr. literally wedges his body in the middle of these two, pulls one away from the other, grabs arms to prevent strikes, just completely breaks up any sort of conflict whatsoever. Funk was like Tirantes, if Tirantes had no charisma, shitty hair, and a ball cap that he purchased when he and his wife visited a retired aircraft carrier. Severn would grab Ogawa, back him into the ropes, fight for control...and then Funk would separate them. Ogawa would reverse Severn on the mat, get in the mount, and Funk would interject his body. The whole match was like being at your favorite restaurant, and every time the waiter comes walking up with your food he just keeps walking past you, letting you really see and smell this great food before not giving it to you. I don't think we got to see one single sequence worked to any kind of finish. At one point they spilled through the ropes onto the entrance ramp, and things looked like they were ready to unravel as they kept rolling and struggling down the ramp...and Funk comes running out of the ring with a freaking whistle, blowing it like he was breaking up a fight on an elementary school playground. Ogawa hits a nasty pump kick to the back of Severn's head and sinks a choke for the finish, but this entire match had all the guts ripped out of it. There has to be a story behind this, as this may be the most intrusive guest ref performance in wrestling history. 

FUJIWARA FAMILY

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Problematic Hall of Fame: Gerard Gordeau

Gerard Gordeau vs. Akira Maeda UWF 8/13/88

ER: Gordeau's pro wrestling debut, main eventing against the biggest shootstyle star in the large Ariake Coliseum, carrying on that Japanese Different Style Fight tradition. The Different Style allowed the match to stand out in a different way from the excellent Yamazaki/Takada match that came right before it. This match was less "clean" so felt more like a shoot, with Gordeau throwing high kicks and hard punches to Maeda. Gordeau would follow up with shots after knockdowns, but without being a real heel, leading to cool moments like him going down but landing an upkick to Maeda's eye that swung the advantage right back to Gordeau when he pounced for a rear naked choke. Gordeau has Maeda beat on reach, and Maeda gets that his best bet is to catch one of Gordeau's long limbs and start bending it, so when he finally drops to the mat and puts all his weight into down dogging it into a kneebar, it felt big. 

Gerard Gordeau vs. Brian Johnston UFO 10/24/98

ER: Johnson had a wrestling career similar to something you could picture Gordeau having if things had gone differently. Johnston was like a smothering if somewhat dull shootstyle Davey Boy Smith, but he got a strong 3 year run in New Japan during 1999-2001, an era that isn't really circulated much online. Gordeau feels like someone who could have had a similar midcard gaijin run in New Japan, and it would have yielded some great stuff. But I like his career as more of a high card special attraction, and it's got some insanely impressive milestones: Main event of the biggest show in reboot UWF's first year, main event of the biggest show in RINGS' first year, the first fight in UFC PPV history, a Tokyo Dome match against Inoki on a huge drawing show, Naoya Ogawa's BODYGUARD on the night Ogawa shot on Hashimoto, and now the semi main of the first show of Inoki's new UFO fed. There's a lot to be said about Gordeau's place in wrestling history, being used as a genuine special attraction draw as a major part of huge wrestling and fighting shows. He creates genuine buzz and looks like a guy who would have a really impressive heavy metal record collection and entirely unpleasant views on a lot of social issues. 

Johnston smothers him while Gordeau keeps distance when he can with high warning kicks, but Johnston is bigger and is able to pounce on him. Gordeau is patient and avoids damage, but Johnston does get a heavy armbar that leads to a nice Gordeau standing escape. Gordeau doesn't mess around once he's standing, and then his specific scumbag charm comes out as he starts throwing harder and more purposeful kicks at Johnston's head. He kicks Johnston right in the eye and sends him running out of the ring injured, and then there's a big scrum in the ring between cornermen, the kind of thing you would tell a ton of people about if it happened at any fighting show you'd attended. The cornermen keep going at it (Different Style Fight cornermen brawls are among the truest joys in pro wrestling), Gordeau gets on the mic and he's this incredible heel who has built up an old school 50s mythical heel character as a man known to permanently damage eyeballs and faces, as the cameras cut to Johnston holding his eye in the entrance way and a cornerman doing a double leg takedown in the ring. 

Gerard Gordeau vs. Naoya Ogawa UFO 12/30/98

ER: We get a cool Gordeau heel promo package, showing his unprofessional moments from other fights, showing his last UFO mic grab where he talks about when he fights there are no rules and makes threats about taking eyes. He says Ogawa might have a chance against him on the ground, but standing he is going to kill him. And as this match goes on we get more and more heel cheap shot character Gordeau, and it's great. Ogawa tries to tie him up, but Gordeau is a stronger striker and is able to keep knocking Ogawa to the ground. He starts acting incrementally unprofessional, and those incremental steps are key to the brilliance of Gordeau's heel character. He isn't out there doing some Nazi canned ham Sam Adonis bullshit, he's not out there seeking the glory for the heel heat. A heel who isn't showing any signs of enjoying his villainy is a colder, scarier, more intimidating heel. There needs to be a theatrical disconnect from your heels, that need to see them enjoying how bad they are being, that need to see them getting SOMEthing from their bad behavior. Instead, Gordeau always has the rushed unsmiling expression of a man who is trying to finish his cigarette outside while it's drizzling. 

Gordeau starts kicking at Ogawa's legs and sweeping them, and starts sneaking in shots that become more and more blatant, while his legal shots become more violent. After the legsweeps he hits some sicko punch combos to Ogawa's abs and kidneys, all legal but aggressive. But then Ogawa backs him into the corner and Gordeau starts throws a couple headbutts at Ogawa's eye, then actually gouges at it before punching Ogawa in that eye after gouging him down to a knee. But the face/heel dynamics are actually pretty funny, as Ogawa jumped up to his biggest level of stardom after shoot attacking Hashimoto, so them building up Gordeau as the cheapshotting asshole means that this is just a case of fan's cheering on *their* asshole. They are me, loving Jeff Kent as a Giant and hating Jeff Kent as a Dodger. Gordeau and Ogawa are like two internet trolls who can actually back up their words, and Ogawa will not be out-trolled. Ogawa does get Gordeau to the mat and does tap him with a rear naked choke that he holds a little bit too long, then he tries to bait Gordeau into starting a post-fight brawl. Ogawa was 100% the southern heel who was trying to bait the babyface into attacking him, knowing that there was a $5,000 per punch fine attached to each babyface punch until their big match. But again, Ogawa was *their* asshole. Ogawa is on his back trying to taunt Gordeau into getting tapped again, and the fans are into seeing their problematic guy rubbing it in. 

Gerard Gordeau vs. Enson Inoue BML 9/11/05

ER: This doesn't even go 3 minutes, but plays out as one of the hottest rounds in no holds barred fighting history. Gordeau doesn't once attempt to hide his cheating. No, now Gordeau is in his mid 40s, and is similar to how Abby did less bumping and more fork stabbing the older he got. Mid 40s Gordeau just throws high kicks and tries to thumb out eyeballs. He kicks Inoue to the floor then starts right in on thumbs to eyes, like Inoue was his Creator and Gordeau has now met his Creator and must kill him. Gordeau really goes after both eyes with both thumbs, even breaking up a potential choke by gouging at the eyes. Inoue gets his back in a great spot where Gordeau misses a high kick and Inoue takes him down while Gordeau's follow through has him turned around, and gets his back. Gordeau keeps cheating all the way to the finish, when we get this incredible fight over Inoue's match finishing armbar. Gordeau desperately looks like a man holding onto a cliffside root, and the ref completely ignores Gordeau's feet when they make the ropes multiple times, and you can see how disgustingly Inoue hyperextends Gordeau's elbow. Best of all, Gordeau - of ALL people - stands up and immediately demands answers, immediately demands Inoue explain what that unprofessionalism was all about. Where did this unprofessionalism come from Enson? No, we're not talking about the eye gouges Enson, what was that business with the armbar, hmmmmm? This was three of the wildest, unprofessional shootstyle pro wrestling minutes we have, pure lowbrow pit fighting, with the Japanese fans again getting to cheer for their problematic - but less so - homegrown jerk. 

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ZERO-ONE Truth Century Creation 3/2/02

KENTA vs. Tatsuhito Takaiwa

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

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

Kohei Sato vs. Yoshiaki Fujiwara

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

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

Sean McCully vs. Wataru Sakata

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

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

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

Yoko Takahashi vs. Yuki Kubota

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

Josh Dempsey vs. The Predator

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

Kazuhiko Ogasawara vs. Ryouji Sai

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

Naomichi Marufuji vs. Naohiro Hoshikawa

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

Shinya Hashimoto vs. Masato Tanaka

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

Shinjiro Ohtani vs. Naoya Ogawa

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

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Hey, This Happened: Naoya Ogawa vs. Baby Hashimoto

Naoya Ogawa vs. Daichi Hashimoto IGF 12/31/15

ER: People do weird things in life to honor their fathers. Or avenge their fathers. Or...look, I don't know. Sometimes people follow in the steps of their fathers and sometimes they don't. But Naoya Ogawa has now kicked two different generations of Hashimotos directly in their eye socket. He may be the only person who gets to brag about that. My father and I both have the same middle name, Earl. But so far in our lives we have not been kicked in the eye by the same man. I have never been kicked in the eye, so anybody who has kicked my father in the eye has not yet tracked me down. Daichi Hashimoto is still very young, but probably too old to still have "going through a phase" hair. With his purple bangs you can perfectly visualize the awkward family dinners with his folks asking him how school was and Daichi just sitting there with his arms crossed, asking to be excused without even touching his food that his mother took time to prepare. But he jumps Ogawa before the bell and attacks with slaps and kicks, enough to make Ogawa roll to the floor to put some distance between. But Hash chases and then Ogawa tees right off on him, laying him out with a rough high kick. Daichi crumbles admirably. Back in and Daichi attempts some stuff from a mount but Ogawa wriggles out, punishes him, and then casually walks up behind a kneeling Hashimoto and wraps a kick around his left orbital bone. Done. Ogawa does the airplane taunt over another fallen Hashimoto; Kazuyuki Fujita, looking more and more like George the Animal Steele only with no eyebrows, gets in the ring and tries to start shit; somewhere, someone checks to see if Gary Steele or Dylan Night have children, who he can then book against Colby Corino and Daichi Hashimoto in a 4 way iron man match, to be held at some Allentown, PA Vet's building. Was that person me? Perhaps.

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Best of Japan 2000-2009: Shinya Hashimoto/Takayuki Iizuka vs. Naoya Ogawa/Kazunari Murakami, NJPW 1/4/00

1. Shinya Hashimoto & Takayuki Iizuka vs. Naoya Ogawa & Kazunari Murakami, NJPW 1/4/00

I hadn't seen this match in years and it's still completely awesome. Ogawa and Murakami are like the ultimate evil anime boss battle, with their high and tight fades and their super arched eyebrows. But I'm not convinced any wrestler in history has looked like more of a badass than early decade Hash. The shag, the sideburns, the fat karate bellbottoms. And he's got blood in his eyes in this one. Everybody here gets to shine, with Hash punting Ogawa around the ring, Murakami throwing wild Ralphie-on-Scut-Farkus mounted bombs, Ogawa bringing the dickheaded aloof, and Iizuka having maybe the best moments in the whole match. I love how dickheaded Ogawa can make the STO look, like he's just overpowering everybody and forcing them onto the mat. But I lost it when Iizuka flies in from nowhere with his dropkick, and him locking in the rear naked choke on Murakami, Murakami starting to fight up, and then Iizuka flattening him out was epic. The crowd was so damn hot for this, and it was so cool hearing a wave of jeers when a triangle gets held too long, or the excitement when Hash blocks a judo throw. So much great stuff here.


BEST OF JAPAN MASTER LIST

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Cast Your Cares on Yoshiaki Fujiwara, He Will Never Let The Righteous Fail

Yoshiaki Fujiwara v. Haruka Eigen NJ 7/16/83-GREAT

This is another chance to see early Fujiwara off the random tiny Japanese HH site. This was structured as basic undercard NJ match, but a nice step above the norm with Fujiwara bringing another level to the opening matwork. I haven't seen a ton of non comedy Eigen, but he was perfectly comfortable working legs and arms. Fujiwara was rocking some great judo throws and knuckle locks. The later part of the match is off the mat and a bit more pedestrian, but it was really neat to get a chance to see these guys early in their careers.

Yoshiaki Fujiwara v. Hiroshi Hase NJ 8/8/93-EPIC

I just love the way these two match up, Hase is one of Fujiwara's better dance partners. The match starts out with both guys scrambling to establish wrist control, it is one of those little moments that make wrestling cool, and the kind of thing Fujiwara matches are loaded with. We get another one when Fujiwara gets taken down and actually calls time out, like he was Arn Anderson. Hase responds with a Sumo dance. It starts to get chippy with Fujiwara responding to getting out grappled by throwing a nasty left hook, and Hase doing the bolt spot so hard that it busts Fujiwara open. We ended with a great finishing run, including a spectacular Fujiwara armbar counter of a german suplex, and Hase reversing a standing armbar with a nasty Dragon suplex. Great discovery, well worth checking out.

Yoshiaki Fujiwara/Riki Choshu/Tomohiro Ishii v. Shinya Hashimoto/Naoya Ogawa/Tatsuhito Takaiwa Zero One 3/14/04-GREAT

This had a really ragged interpromotional feel. There were multiple parts of the match where guys would just square off and slap each other in the mouth. I especially enjoyed watching Fujiwara and Hashimoto crack each other in the chops. I could watch those two guys pound on each other all day. The match seemed to be setting up Choshu v. Ogawa and we got to see the expected amount of STO's and lariats. Match could have used some more Hashimoto and Takiawa did some things that annoyed me, still these kinds of uncooperative awkward violent matches are what Japanese wrestling does best, and even a minor version of that is going to be well worth checking out.

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE YOSHIAKI FUJIWARA

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE FUJIWARA

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


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

This is your WWE match of the year.

How does one work as a World Title Holder?

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

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

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

Helmsley doesn't know how to sell for opponents.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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