New Footage Friday: Fishman, Black Cat, Fritz Von Erich, Kabuki, Hercules Ayala

PAS: Network put up a nearly complete Star Wars card from 1981 (Kerry vs. Race was out there before, and we took a pass on Killer Tim Brooks vs. Mil and a Battle Royal) so we decided to review a couple of the matches from that show and threw on a cool NJ HH to close out the week.

Kevin Von Erich/David Von Erich vs. Hercules Ayala/Ali Mustafa WCCW 2/21/81

MD: There was a lot to like here. I know David and Kevin had won some of the other tag belts in Dallas but this was their first time winning this one and it felt like a huge deal. Some of that was the setting. Some of that was the post-match celebration. A lot of it was the match itself though. They were a very good babyface pairing, with a lot of energy and just enough stuff between the double teams, the flying, and the claw. Ali was just a tremendous stooge, bumping, feeding, full of underhanded offense. I loved how he threw himself into dropkicks. Ayala brought the power and the size, more than doing his part. What really stood out was how often they went back to heat. I think the Von Erichs had ten comebacks here but between the size advantage and heel chicanery, they kept ending up fighting from underneath. It's not a well that's gone to all that often to begin with, but because they never took back over for long, it made for more of an escalation than any sort of stuttering and really got the crowd to build more and more for them as the match went on. As much as I tend to resent the Dallas crowd for their hero-worship, it's really hard to blame them given matches like this.

PAS: This was a bunch of fun. I loved the Von Erich's meathead charisma, they are great as big fired up country boys ready to fight. Kevin is a totally under rated flyer. He doesn't have the gracefulness of some, but he has a ton of power in his legs and really gets in the air on dropkicks and big elbows. Matt makes a great point about the structure, heels really controlled the match, and they were great at it, and the Von Erich's made a bunch of mini comebacks leading up to the big comeback which really blew up the crowd. Don't know much about Ali, but he was really great in this match, offensive looked nasty and he was a great foil, Ayala was a beast too, great press slam, and he had this moment where he came into break up a pin and just punched David right in the liver, a liver which was already working hard I imagine.

Fritz Von Erich vs. Kabuki WCCW 2/21/81

PAS: Kabuki is such a cool act, the weird penis nose mask, the spinning around, the face paint, the crazy bendy fingers, I am all in, wrestling needs more exotic weirdos. I am a fan of 80s old man walking tall matches, loved the Bill Watts stuff from Mid-South and any time Jackie Fargo or Eddie Marlin wrestled in Memphis. Fritz may be a garbage person, but he is pretty good at walking tall. Lots of Kabuki gesticulating and Fritz countering with a big punch. I loved the spot where Kabuki went for a nerve pinch under the arm, and Fritz countered with the claw. Gary Hart starts punching at Fritz's leg and a fan attacks Hart, have to love wrestling that can get drunks ready to jump barricades. Finish was kind of BS with David running in and beating up Kabuki, actually made Fritz look kind of weak. Still I dug this, although it is very in my wheelhouse.

MD: This was minimalist in the best ways. They knew what they were doing. Fritz came in first which both allowed Kabuki his elaborate pre-match rituals and let him sign about a hundred autographs for kids. About half the match was them looking for an opening an that made when either found an opening all the better. Listen to the heat for Kabuki's first real burst of offense. The crowd was irate because of the build for it. It kills me that we live in a world where the claw probably wouldn't work, because it's such an effective, visual tool that can be built towards throughout a match, that can be consistently countered or defended against, that can be the perfect instrument for a comeback. Fritz was the real deal here, absolutely genuine Americana. He was a gnarled old bastard who looks close to 73 than the 53 he was at this point. Kabuki was electric with his theatrics and Fritz' response, putting his finger to his head and spinning it to indicate in his slow, bigoted way that Kabuki was a crazy weirdo will be the image that sticks with me as much as anything else. The finish was definitely muddled. The idea was that Hart was interfering so thoroughly that David (who wanted revenge anyway) had to run in, but you had both a fan and Manning attacking Hart first which really muted the threat of him. I get that they had to protect Kabuki and Fritz but the sequence felt overstretched and neither of them or David ended up looking good.

ER: I love it! Fully agree with Phil about old guy Walking Tall matches. I would wager a substantial amount that I was the high vote on the Eddie Marlin/Tommy Gilbert Memphis match (and also bet that Phil was the 2nd highest vote) and I assume if you've read much of anything I've written you would know that I have a general fondness for old guys wrestling. That juxtaposition between an incredibly tough man, who is now also very vulnerable due to humans' peculiar habit of eventually dying. Fritz was in his 50s here but looked large, and powerful; a vast aging physique that still flashed plenty of muscle. The man looked like someone who could still muscle around cattle. And what a sight it is to see the ringside area swarm with children and adults alike, all trying to get their programs signed by a man they would later grow to not respect. And we get a simple yet effectively hot kick and punch match with Fritz lifting heavy legs into Kabuki's gut, and throwing punches that....well, realistically I could watch an old cowboy punch another old cowboy like that for 20 minutes and have it be one of my favorite matches of all time. See, our 1976 MOTY. Kabuki grounds him and bites at his throat, Fritz reverses to a stomach claw from his back, and we all know how silly the stomach claw was but it somehow never looks silly in the least when Fritz is applying it. Hart attacks Fritz's leg when they're in the ropes and a drunk fan charges in to save Fritz. It is a fact that any spectacle that can inspire a drunk man to play hero, is almost always going to be great. This is not a man who runs onto a baseball field or charges the Nitro ring or makes jack off motions behind a live on the scene news reporter. Those people are in it for the fleeting fame. This man is not Soy Bomb. This man was so incensed watching his legend get treated unfairly, that he felt it necessary to step in and show Fritz he was NOT ALONE. This man was so wrapped up in the drama that was professional wrestling and the Von Erichs, that he - in that moment - felt that HE was the solution. In that moment he was the guy thwarting an armed robbery. And that's a level of performance that most performers will never achieve. David Manning annoyingly gets the biggest babyface spot of the match when he punts Hart from the apron, Kabuki throws great uppercuts but gets pinned by a backdrop, DVE is somehow a babyface for beating down a man just so his dad can pin him....but I don't care, because this was 10 great minutes of pro wrestling.

Fishman/Black Cat vs. The Cobra/Shiro Koshinaka 10/6/85

ER: This was a fun low stakes tag, making me want to seek out more and more Black Cat. He was so cool here at dickish little things, yanking Koshinaka out of a pinfall by his hair, swiping at Cobra from the apron when he ran the ropes too close to their corner, nice aggression; he really did little things you don't typically see in juniors matches. Koshinaka was also a pleasant surprise. He has been wrestling for more years than I've been alive, and it was neat seeing him even younger (he showed up a lot on the NJPW 80s set, but mostly from '87-'88, nothing this early). He was on the good guys team here but showed plenty of spunk, slapping both heels around (especially taking it to Fishman), landing a heavy plancha on Fishman, good punk charisma. Fishman we recently saw in an unearthed 1998 match against Santo, a real treat of a match that made me curious to see more of him. Here he was mostly feeding Koshinaka, but he throws meaty chops, bumps hard for dropkicks, takes a squirrelly backdrop bump on his shoulders, and throws a killer back elbow. Takano lightens up on some things, but gets crushed by a Black Cat lariat (after landing on his feet after a flip, the best) and throws some cool armdrags, rolling across Cat's back to do so. The match ending sunset flip is reckless but smooth. Nothing blowaway, but a really fun match.

PAS: Fishman is a truly legendary lucha libre figure, and I have never gotten it. He worked the Monterey show I did commentary on years ago and was the worst guy on the card. He was old then (although old luchadors normally rule) so I am always looking forward to catching glances at him during his prime and trying to figure it out. This match doesn’t do it though, he seems like a replacement level tecnico and feels like the least interesting guy in this match. Black Cat is one of those guys who was around NJPW forever, but man is he great, he feels like a great regional rudo, like Toro Bill or Arandu, a guy you know had dozens of classics which never showed up on tape, but just radiates professional asskicker. He had an awesome journeyman career, starting out as a Villano IV tag partner in UWA, worked as a trainer and ref in New Japan for years, had a weird AAA run as a Gringo Loco and even had a WCW Worldwide match against Chris Adams. Nothing spectacular in his performance in this match, but impossible not to enjoy him.

MD: I'm glad I'm on the same page with Phil and Eric here re: Black Cat. This was a great showcase for him. All of his stuff looked mean including these little bursts of bullying chain wrestling, and he based perfectly for his opponents. The rope running sequence with Cobra definitely stood out: he threw himself into the arm drags and they managed some fairly complex fakeouts before ending with a tilt-a-whirl backbreaker. I wasn't quite so high on Fishman. There's something very iconic about him as an entity but to me, here was just there in this one, effective but forgettable. I do think we have more Black Cat in this footage and we should poke around to see what we can find.

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2018 Ongoing MOTY List: Sabre vs. Okada

64. Zack Sabre Jr. vs. Kazuchika Okada NJPW 4/1

ER: Jim Ross mentions Negro Navarro early, as Sabre's MMA trainer, and I have to rewind to make sure I heard that right. It's weird to me to think that JR might have watched a Negro Navarro match at some recent point. And I really liked this match, it was a brisk 35 minutes with a super strong Sabre showing, and Okada stepping it up nicely for their first singles together. I don't know if this was as good as any of the Tanahashi/Sabre series, but this was real good. Okada is a guy with usually bad execution on simple strikes and transitions, a guy who is mentally focused on the "big move" of a sequence so glosses over the stomach kicks and offense that's meant to missed, going on autopilot at times. Here he's really present, really facially sells that Sabre is tearing him apart, and really laces in some strikes like isn't always guaranteed. And I really liked the build to this, with them stressing that Okada had only tapped once (to Nakamura) and here you have Sabre who's been a submission spider monkey for the last 6 months. It's a classic, simple story: X is tough to beat a certain way, Y is the best at doing that certain way. And Sabre was awesome, really vicious with leg submissions. At one point he had his weight leaned so far back on a half crab that it looked like he was trying to rip Okada's leg out from the hip joint. I love when he works these nasty leg grapevines and we got some cool ones, and in one of the more vicious things I've ever seen him do, he does a standing twist with Okada's leg wedged between his legs. It looked really swift and violent. He even turned a dropkick into an STF in a pretty cool moment. Okada worked meaner than usual, throwing his forearms like he was Laettner coming down from a layup. They had a good brawl on the floor, with Sabre taking a couple great hard bumps on his hip, really making Okada's offense seem more dangerous than it felt, falling hard into the front row, really feigning a good asskicking. I still can't decide how I feel about the back half of the fight. Sabre wisely switched up his attack to Okada's arm, which is some more classic "weaken the champ's biggest weapon" stuff, but by the end it felt like he did so much nasty stuff to the arm, and it didn't once stop Okada from attempting to still use that arm. If Okada wins every match with the Rainmaker, and a submission guy who has been tapping everyone works on that Rainmaker arm for 10 minutes, and it doesn't weaken it one bit? That essentially makes Okada out to be the Terminator, which makes things a lot less fun. Okada hasn't lost in 2 years, and I think Sabre would have been an awesome mega asshole to break that streak. I thought the arm submissions were great, some arm scissors, armbar caught from an elbow drop, dodging that Rainmaker into more armbars, and a tight triangle that really felt like the finish. But then Okada started dropping clotheslines anyway and it felt like it didn't matter. I did think Sabre kicking out of them felt big, and the tombstone dropped Sabre right on his dome, so I can't deny the brutality of that finish...But I also kind of resented that finish. This match review has taken me all evening to finish because I can't decide whether this was really damn good or really good but flawed.

PAS: Sabre is a fun guy to watch, he works a pretty unique style and does it well. He is a guy I turned around pretty big over the last couple of years, and I think he stepped up and really performed well in the biggest match of his career. Okada really doesn't it do it for me though, and I though for the most part his performance was pretty bad here. Okada was originally a T2P guy and he was fine if a bit tentative in the early llave style first part of this match. I especially loved all of Sabre's octopus variations, he was climbing all over Okada like a jungle gym, and seemed to be inventing new twists and turns on the fly.  When Okada started breaking out his regular offense this fell apart a bit, his basic stuff looks so bad, there was a point in this match where he threw two comically bad back elbows and a no contact kick to the stomach to set up a DDT, he looked like one of those semi-trained fitness models that Johnny Ace used to hire to try to fuck. When Sabre was in control it was fine, when Okada took over it looked bad (selling isn't really Sabre's forte anyway, he does a bit of the OTT arm shaking and fish flopping which is de rigueur with the Davey Richards indy generation) Not only did Okada shrug off the arm work to keep hitting clotheslines, that clothesline that finished the match looked terrible, not a ton of impact and he hit him in the chest. Cool performance by Sabre marred by Okada being on his bullshit.


2018 MOTY MASTER LIST

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Shinya Hashimoto Discovers There is No Room to Rumba in a Sports Car

Shinya Hashimoto vs. Super Strong Machine NJPW 8/4/90 - EPIC

ER: Weird, another awesome Hashimoto singles match? This was great, worked far more like a "Different Style" match from this era than a traditional New Japan match. Much of the match was standing with a great, messy, awkward rhythm. There were no typical turn-based strike exchanges, no throws, no rope running, just a bunch of nasty strikes, like Hashimoto kicking Machine across the kneecaps or Machine throwing punches to Hashimoto's neck. There was no real grappling, more standing attempts at wrist control, just two meaty dudes backing each other up with focused, grubby strikes, lariats to the face, all great. Strong Machine is flat out mean in this match, kicking Hash hard in the chest when Hash is bent at the waist, hitting rough leg sweeps to Hash's inner leg, slapping him in the ear, all rough. Machine does seem to lean out of a couple big Hash haymaker kicks, but there are plenty that land, and I loved how big the crowd was reacting to Hash. Finish is cool and unexpected, when Machine hits a huge diving lariat/avalanche off the apron and a big axe handle, landing hard into Hashimoto, and winning by count out. If I had seen on paper that a flying clothesline off the apron and an axe handle was enough for the count out, I would have been skeptical, but it looked really great in execution and the post match celebration from Machine really made it feel like he went through a war and was thankful to be in one piece on the other side. Awesome match.

PAS: What an out of nowhere gem this was. The hate is layered on pretty thick from the first moments of the match with SSM slapping Hashimoto across the face, and Hash responding by spitting in his eye. The match structure was really cool, with Machine landing some big shots, but he was mostly trying to take out either an arm or leg to slow down Hash who is this menacing beast lumbering forward and unleashing mayhem. Machine's limb work wasn't really based on holds, but more on these awkward and nasty strikes, kicking Hashimoto in the side of the knee cap, throwing uppercuts to the inside of leg, and chops to the arm. Meanwhile Hashimoto is walking throwing it and responding with huge Hashimoto style chops and kicks. Loved this finish with SSM dragging Hash to the floor, hitting a great looking apron clothesline and a crazy diving axe handle and getting the count out win. This looks fun on paper, but it totally over delivered and ended up being one of the best matches from this batch of handhelds

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Finlay is Walking Home Three Parts Pissed

Fit Finlay vs. El Samurai NJPW 4/23/92 - FUN

ER: Finlay was a regular fly-in for the early 90s Juniors tournaments, but his matches always were clipped to shreds if they saw tape at all. So it's satisfying to finally see an actual Finlay singles match, albeit one worked a little more house show style. I'm about as cool as can be with Finlay working a house show style, though. When everything you do looks that good, flash isn't necessary. Instead he just drops 12-6 elbows on Samurai's noggin, pastes him with standing elbows, strangles him in a grisly straightjacket choke (with a kick to the spine for good measure), collides into Samurai with a couple short arm clotheslines, the kind of thing you'd expect, getting his shots in while Samurai works over his leg. The stuff on the floor was cool, with Finlay attacking him with nasty chairshots and Samurai eventually getting fed up and attacking back. Finlay hits this lighting fast clothesline off the apron, and I never recall him doing that before. He drifted out of view from the camera and then suddenly in the background he just launches himself at Samurai. Back in he drops the most precise and quick knee right between Samurai's eyes. The finish felt like a house show finish, with Finlay hitting a leaping tombstone, missing a splash or headbutt off the top, and getting rolled up. It was weird seeing Finlay attempt some flying move off the top, that's not a thing that happens.

PAS: I thought Samurai was close to a non-entity in this, which kept it from being anything more then a fun Finlay showcase match. Finlay looked great though, very WCW era Finlay, smash mouthed, nasty and hard hitting. I love watching Finlay do simple things, he has the best bodyslam in wrestling history, and his elbows and knees are just perfection. The brawling on the outside was great too, Finlay's selling on the edge of the chair chairshots was great. It looked like it smashed him square in the face, and I am sure it barely touched him at all. I pretty much hated the finish, that Tombstone was the nastiest move of the match, and Samurai winning on a banana peel spot, right after eating that move was dumb.

ER: New Japan juniors routinely told tombstone piledrivers to go fuck themselves.


COMPLETE AND ACCURATE FINLAY

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Aoyagi Drank Enough Whiskey to Float a Battleship Around

Masashi Aoyagi vs. Tony Halme NJPW 10/17/91 - EPIC

PAS: This is another undiscovered Tony Halme masterpiece. I had no idea early 90s Tony Halme was such an awesome killing machine. This was a Karate vs. Boxing mixed match, and Aoyagi is great at these kind of hyrbid fights. First round had both guys working their opponents into corners, with Halme using his pulverizing body shots, and Aoyagi winging head and body kicks.  Aoyagi takes over during the second round, really working over Halme's mid section with knees and kicks, Halme is great at selling fatigue and being winded as he is stumbling around the ring, however he is still able to drop Aoyagi with one body shot. Second round ends with a really cool back and forth exchange. Third round is what pushes this into EPIC territory. Aoyagi gets a quick knockdown with a spin kick, Halme barely beats the 10 count and Aoyagi flies at him to finish him off and leaps right into a huge right hand. Aoyagi beats the count, but a second monster right hand floors him for good.  Great stuff, Halme doesn't have a lot of different songs to sing, but he sings the fuck out of this one song.

ER: There's no way my run through WWF Ludvig Borga matches is going to be anywhere near as fun as these two Tony Halme boxing gems, but I don't care, Tony Halme was awesome. The thing that really put this match over for me was how bonkers the crowd kept getting, the longer it went. These fans were loving it, flipping out for Aoyagi, but at one point chanting for Halme! Halme is hulking in this, really dwarfing Aoyagi, and he throws these huge haymakers all match. Aoyagi is squirmier than Hashimoto so a lot of the shots graze, and Aoyagi's strategy becomes to just throw everything at Halme all at once and hope kicks start to land. Halme's best strategy is to bully Aoyagi into a corner and start throwing blows to Aoyagi's slumping body, and I love how he kept going back to that tactic, and as Aoyagi started landing more and more kicks Halme got more desperate to get him in that corner, finally picking him up and tossing him into the corner (the only non-strike in the match). Aoyagi threw all kinds of wicked kicks right to the gut and liver and spleen. Halme does some of my absolute all time favorite selling, contiually getting buckled at the waist by kicks, stumbling perfectly into position for the next kicks while selling being out of gas, really great stuff. Aoyagi even gets the crowd amped by aping Inoki vs. Ali with a legsweep! At one point Halme gut punches Aoyagi to the mat, and holds himself up by resting glove first on Aoyagi's back. Tremendous moment. Aoyagi gets a big moment at the end of the R2 by hitting a leaping spin kick to floor Halme. Halme has this great staggered dazed walk back to the end of his corner. But just like Hashimoto, Aoyagi smelled blood and aggressively went right back to that well, only to get knocked right out of the sky by a Halme right hand. Not long after that Halme belts him straight across the cheek, perfectly captured by our mystery filmmaker. You can even hear the wind flow out of the filmmaker's sails after that punch, his voice clearly knowing Aoyagi wasn't getting up. Awesome spectacle.


COMPLETE AND ACCURATE AOYAGI

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All Japan/New Japan Handheld Cherry Picking: Tom Prichard? Kimala II?

Hiroshi Hase vs. Tom Prichard  NJPW 10/18/89

ER: Almost 30 years ago some weirdo took time out of his Wednesday to record a Tom Prichard match. And he utilized the zoom, so you know he wasn't just letting the camera run. He took that time out of his evening, kept that footage like a secret, and so now I will write a hundred or so words to join this loop. The match is fun, with Prichard - hair flowing like David Coverdale - working over Hase's leg by stomping his hamstring, locking in half crabs and spinning toe holds, taking a surprising majority of this match. I really liked Prichard here. He didn't do anything overly fancy, but he worked with tons of confidence and acted like a bigger deal than he probably was. That takes some stones to go into a match with the plan of outmuscling an Olympic wrestler. And to his credit, it totally works. I was hoping for more out of the Hase comeback, though. Hase's mid-match comeback was really cool, him limping around on that bum wheel but still hoisting Prichard up with a neat deadweight Karelin lift and dropping him with a sick gutbuster. But his end of match comeback to win felt like they got the sudden call to go home, as all knee selling goes out the window and he kind of mechanically grabs the northern lights suplex. We had fleeting moments before that, like Prichard's snug sunset flip, and really I got what I wanted out of the match: A good Tom Prichard performance in a match nobody knew existed. (But sorry, the Heavenly Bodies Complete & Accurate is still in line behind the Beverly Bros/Destruction Crew C&A)

Kenta Kobashi/Kimala II vs. Toshiaki Kawada/Gary Albright  AJPW 6/3/96

ER: This immediately jumped out to me from the matchlist, as I'm a goof who likes Kimala II, and he's not a guy usually put into matches high up the card with stars, he's the guy working low on the card hitting splashes in Abby matches, slapping bellies with IZU, or somewhere in a Baba trios. Seeing him 2nd from the top with some big name guys is a super exciting find for me. This is a cool tag to start because it's a native/gaijin vs. native/gaijin, I always think that's kind of cool. Kimala is a unique guy to see as a face in peril, and the match got really good when Kawada and Albright started picking away at him. Before that it was kind of Kawada vs. Kobashi by the numbers, and their by the numbers is cooler than most, but it feels like the big two getting some stuff out of the way to lengthen a match. Kimala/Albright was a more fun match up, as it was far more common to see them teaming, they rarely were on opposite sides of a match. Crowd is immediately behind Kimala, getting a kick out of his Baba chops and digging when he lit Albright up with a headlock. Albright is really fun and a guy I need to go watch more from. He's really underwritten about considering his fun career. The talking point for the longest time was that Kawada carried him to one great match, but I can't think of a match where I haven't enjoyed him. Seeing him do a snap suplex on someone as beefy as Kobashi is a great visual, and the fans are familiar with his throwing strength, so it's great hearing all the excited oooooohs when he teases giving Kimala a dragon suplex. The match really picks up once Kawada and Albright start to isolate Kimala, and the fans start responding to him as the underdog. Kawada is kicking at his leg and throwing big kicks to his belly (which leads to a great moment where Kimala finally catches a kick and fires back a chop to the head). Both do uncharacteristic double stomps to Kimala's stomach, and Albright starts tearing at the arm, dropping a knee on it, digging into it with his elbow point, throwing him into the guardrail, working an armbar. When Kimala finally makes space the fans want the Kobashi hot tag so bad! Kawada was a great jerk, kicking people in the forehead all match and finally separating Kobashi from Kimala, allowing Albright to get the armbar. This match was real fun, with a fun FIP you don't get to often see.

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New Japan Handheld Cherry Picking: Buzz Sawyer! Vader! Manny Fernandez! Russians!

Manny Fernandez vs. Timur Zalasov  NJPW 8/5/89

ER: Cool match. I've never heard of Zalasov before and he seemed pretty green, but it's impressive how adept these Russians were. Even if they don't always know how to fall, they always know how to fall interestingly. This had a bunch of cool almost shoot looking armdrags. They were obviously too stylish to be a shoot, but they were executed as if someone was trying an armdrag in a shoot. Manny would kind of tug-o-war with Zalasov over a knucklelock, with Manny getting his momentum  going one way and using that leverage to toss Zalasov the other way. They would hook each other's elbows and drop each other down to a neck bridge, in a couple ways I haven't seen before, cool little twists on common spots. Zalasov appears to be sandbagging Manny a bit (though it doesn't really look intentional) but it doesn't stop Manny from dropping him with a couple cool deadlift Germans. Manny's strength was really impressive here as he doesn't really work a grappling style, but his throws look professional. I liked Zalasov's wobble leg selling, and it looked especially good after Manny surprised him with a nice straight right to the jaw. Zalasov finished it with a great high angle belly to belly, popping those hips and tossing the heavy Fernandez with what looked like ease.

Big Van Vader vs. Wahka Eveloev  NJPW 8/5/89

ER: What a weird little match. It seems vaguely unprofessional from the first minute, and it only goes about 4 minutes. Eveloev tries to keep his distance and Vader keeps rushing him with sumo slaps, and aims to punch him in the face. Russians start angrily climbing into the ring and we get a little pull apart. Vader does more of the same, bullies Eveloev into the ropes, shit is clearly being talked, and more Russians try to get into the ring with NJ ring crew holding them back, and now Sawyer and Murdoch are getting up on the apron. My god I would go into war if I had Vader, Buzz Sawyer, and Dick Murdoch backing me up. Vader hits a quick headbutt but Eveloev hits a boss belly to belly and tries to lock in an armbar, but it's tough to keep a 400 man down and Vader escapes the armbar by rolling over and punching Eveloev in the face, then stands up and kicks him right in the temple, sending Eveloev reeling into the ropes. Russians are actively spilling into the ring to stop this now and Manny Fernandez is in the ring telling them to back off, so Vader slams Eveloev with a super stiff bodyslam, and then full weight splashes him right on the neck/chest for the win. Vader talks shit from the ring to the Russians, Eveloev stands up slowly and cautiously, the way you imagine a man would after getting a 400 lb. weight dropped onto his lungs. Jokes on you, bub. Wahka, Wahka.

Buzz Sawyer vs. Victor Zangiev  NJPW 8/5/89

ER: This match was on the DVDVR New Japan 80s set, but I thought it finished criminally low (which I assume was because it was only 5 minutes or so) and we've never written about it before. This show had a 5 match series of America vs. Russia matches (as you might have guessed from reading the above reviews). This was the 5th match, with the series tied 2-2. Even though the match goes just about 5 minutes, it is straight fire. This star couldn't have burned much longer the way they worked. Brawling bumper Buzz Sawyer is awesome, but bald GaryAlbright Sawyer is maybe just as awesome. Zangiev is super chippy throughout, really showing off and rubbing it in Sawyer's face, tripping him to the mat, snapping on maybe the best sharpshooter I've ever seen (and flexing while doing it!), doing a kip up out of some mat grappling, and really chucking the larger Sawyer around with freak strength. The knucklelock sequences are awesome, real struggle, and seeing Zangiev bridge up high on his neck with burly Sawyer on him. Sawyer decides to not fuck around and rushes in with a great knee to the gut, and then begins showing off his suplexes. I thought we were going to get a KO finish when Zangiev deadlifts him into a backdrop suplex. It feels like Zangiev is cockily moving in for the kill when Sawyer grabs him and throws him practically straight overhead with a gorgeous amateur suplex for the quick pin. The Americans rushing the ring with an American flag to celebrate was an awesome moment. Zangiev was such a natural and I really need to see what other grappling style Buzz is out there.

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Aoyagi Drank That Poison Whiskey Until It Killed Him Dead

Masashi Aoyagi vs. Masanobu Kurisu NJPW 2/5/91 - EPIC

PAS: Just a sleaze indy dream match. It is weird that this is New Japan and not main eventing a NOW or ZIPANG show. Aoyagi comes out jumps the rail, and spin kicks Kurisu right in the mouth, and it is fucking on! Aoyagi beats Kurisu around the ring a bit, and is really laying in to him, you know Kurisu is going to potato you, so you got to throw spuds at him. Kurisu fires back with those odd angle vicious headbutts, unprofessional stomps and chair shots where he digs the corner right into the throat, the whole Kurisu shebang. There is this great moment where Aoyagi blocks a headbutt with a karate forearm block and thrust Kurisu right in the throat. The match stays ragged and unprofessional throughout, lots of wince inducing shots and a DQ finish that has Kurisu violently chair shotting Aoyagi, the ref and multiple trainees. This is part of a batch of new NJ HH's unearthed by Pete over at PWO, this is what I was dreaming it was going to be like when I saw the match listing and it lived up to every second.

ER: Phil and I spoke today and he told me about this match, and when I asked how it was he said, "Close your eyes and picture what you think a Kurisu/Aoyagi match would be like. It's that. It's exactly that." And wouldn't you know, it's exactly that! Kurisu matches always have a vague feeling of unprofessionalism to them (and, you know, sometimes a very blatant feeling of unprofessionalism to them) and this is no different, just a bunch of kicks to parts of the body that don't get kicked, kicks that get caught when the kicker doesn't expect them to get caught, half crabs sunk in deep (while holding onto the ropes for dear life!), Kurisu standing on Aoyagi's neck while Aoyagi holds Kurisu's other boot from going god knows where (that throat standing getting paid back with a nice thrust back to Kurisu's throat), and of course Kurisu eventually getting sick of things and grabbing a chair. Kurisu really should have been the man given the Chairman of Wrestling gimmick. At one point the action wanders off the camera to the right while the mysterious cameraman is asleep at the wheel, but we assume, obviously, that it is an artistic choice, like Tarantino panning away from Mr. Blonde hacking a cop's ear off. We know that the unseen violence is made that much worse by forcing us to imagine the horrors that could be happening. Wrestler vs. karate guy matches are always the best, trainees always get shoot beaten, chaos always ensues, and Kurisu is creator of chaos. Phil was right, this was the match you pictured when you dreamed of Kurisu vs. Aoyagi.

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2017 Ongoing MOTY List: Sabre v. Tanahashi 1

74. Zack Sabre Jr. v. Hiroshi Tanahashi NJPW 7/17

ER: This was the opening night of the G1 and these two didn't seem to care at all that their limbs would have to hold up over the following month. Early on Tanahashi goes for his leaping elbowdrop and Sabre shifts to catch him in an armbar. You can ask why Tanahashi - with bicep tendinitis - was even attempting an elbowdrop, but you dance with what brung you and he paid. Tanahashi attacks the arm the whole match, firing kicks, and locking on painful octopus holds to overall weaken Tanahashi and make it easier to get at the arm. Tanahashi finds openings by landing a bunch of nice body shots, hard shots under the ribs, and going after Sabre's long legs. We get some real nasty leg whips and dragon screws, and a tightly locked in cloverleaf. Finish was a nasty bit of business, with Tanahashi going for the high fly flow and eating knees about as painfully as possible, leading to Sabre trapping his good arm and dismantling the bad arm. The crowd gets super loud cheering for Tanahashi, as Sabre removes the bicep pad and starts unraveling Tanahashi's arm tape, yanking and snapping that arm around like a guy trying to rip a branch off a tree. Tanahashi's selling throughout was good, and I especially thought his pained howls were effective. A lot of wrestlers have a weird habit of staying quiet through pain, and Tanahashi's pain was palpable thanks to his screams. Killer, simple match.

PAS: There was some stuff in this match that was pretty bad looking, both guys have some of the cringiest looking stuff for supposedly great wrestlers (Sabre I think is pretty good, Tanahashi I have never gotten). I thought those body shots Eric was praising looked crappy all windup and no impact. There is a section where they both duck their heads and get kicked in the stomach, and both guys do ever step in the processes badly, the head drops for the backdrops look bad, the kicks don't connect, the selling wasn't plausible, I was ready to delete the file and curse Eric for making me watch this, but it got really good by the end. Tanahashi did an awesome job of selling the bad elbow, and I really liked the viciousness of Sabre tearing at the elbow tape and his manipulation of the elbow was grotesque. It is a big deal to make a huge star like Tanahashi tap out, and the violence of Sabre elbow attack made it plausible, it was experimental, he felt like a sadistic toddler trying to find new ways to rip the wings off insects. Hard match for me to rank, as the good stuff was awesome, but the bad was pretty bad.


2017 MOTY MASTER LIST

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

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

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

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE FUJIWARA

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One of the Soldiers Pierced Yoshiaki Fujiwara's side with a Spear and Blood and Water Came Out

Yoshiaki Fujiwara vs. Akitoshi Saito NJ 8/3/93 - EPIC

PAS: Holy hell was this awesome. Fujiwara attacks Saito at the bell and starts choking him with his black belt and it was on. Fujiwara versus a kicker is always the best, and Saito wasn't afraid to throw huge kicks especially to Fujiwara's belly. Fujiwara is the greatest body shot seller in wrestling history, he always sells them like he is about to throw up, but is keeping it down to fight through a Crossfit workout. Saito gets Fujiwara down and opens him up with knuckle punches to the head. Then a pissed off Fujiwara fires back with big headbutts as blood is running down his face. Finish was great Fujiwara crumple to the ground after a couple of nasty body kicks and Saito comes into finish him off, Fujiwara though grabs the next body kick and turns it into a nasty ankle lock for the tap. He then does this awesome strut around the ring with a shit eating grin on his face. He jaws a bit with Aoyagi who was seconding Saito and then offers his hand. Saito throws a kick at him, and Fujiwara has this great "look at the tough guy" smirk and struts out of the ring. I saw this on Ditch's site and got excited, but it totally exceeded my pretty high expectations.

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE FUJIWARA

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I Press On Toward the Goal For The Prize of Yoshiaki Fujiwara

Yoshiaki Fujiwara vs. Riki Choshu NJPW 1/4/94 - GREAT

These two had a certified classic in 1987 and have always matched up beautifully. This was a dome show match, and surprisingly minimalist for such a huge stage. This had a lot of grappling early, not Choshu's strength, but Fujiwara is always work watching grab holds. Finish was bigger of course, with Fujiwara desperately grabbing at Choshu's arm, and Choshu squirming free. Fujiwara starts throwing nasty kicks to Choshu's lariat arm and Choshu powers up and starts cracking Fujiwara with multiple lariats. Fujiwara eats three of them and stays standing, he goes to counter the fourth, trying for another armbar, can't pull it off and finally goes down on the fifth for the pin. Had a classic Fujiwara finish, but probably needed a bit more before that to hit EPIC level.


COMPLETE AND ACCURATE FUJIWARA

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Better is the Sight of Yoshiaki Fujiwara than the Wandering of the Appetite

Yoshiaki Fujiwara/Osamu Kido vs. John Quinn/Otto Wanz NJPW 6/14/84 - SKIPPABLE

I have liked previous Wanz, but he was pretty much just working like a less mobile Northeast Indy mailing it in for a check Bundy. I'm not sure who John Quinn was but he wasn't much better. Fujiwara isn't going to be able to do much in this context, so it was all shtick. Quinn hurts his hand punching Fujiwara on his head, Fujiwara keeps hold of a headlock by pulling Quinn's beard. Add that to a desultory ending and this can be missed.

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE FUJIWARA

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Now The Earth Was Corrupt in the Sight of Yoshiaki Fujiwara

Pete over at PWO unearthed a bunch of previously unseen New Japan HH which includes some previously unseen early Fujiwara jams. Because there is all of this Fujiwara handheld stuff, plus a couple more new PWFG shows, I am going to intro a Fujiwara advent calendar. New Fujiwara review every day until Christmas!


Yoshiaki Fujiwara/Riki Choshu vs. Roland Bock/Micha Nador NJPW 8/6/81 - GREAT

Neat chance to look at baby Choshu, young Fujiwara (who still looked 45) and a couple of Euro dudes with very little footage. This was an undercard tag, so it didn't have a lot of big dramatic moments, but it had a bunch of nifty smaller ones. Loved the opening Nador v. Fujiwara sections with Fujiwara doing a bunch of spots holding on to a hammerlock. There was also a cool fast reversal section between Nador and Fujiwara later in the match. Bock was fun as a steamroller, he looks like David Crosby but he portrays a powerhouse well, he comes in with some big shoulder blocks and finishes the match with a couple of violent Irish whips into the corner and a nice butterfly suplex.

Yoshiaki Fujiwara/Kengo Kimura/Osamu Kido vs. Animal Hamaguchi/Isamu Teranishi/Ryuma Go NJPW 8/29/82 - GREAT

This was sort of a Choshu's army style six-man before the Choshu's army was a thing. The IWE boys really brought the pace, Go especially was a workrate machine for 1982, he must have really had some demons for his career to end up where it did. Fujiwara isn't a guy you think about as a workrate sprint guy, but he was unsurprisingly awesome in this, throwing cool looking snap suplexes, hitting these cool open hand chops to the head, and isolating Hamaguchi and blasting him with headbutts. Finish was cool with Animal hitting a nifty airplane spin into fallaway slam on Fujiwara for the pin. I also liked how they kept brawling after the bell. I imagine they ran a variation of this trios every show and I imagine it was always great.

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE FUJIWARA

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2017 Ongoing MOTY List: Shibata, Okada, Brain Trauma

7. Katsuyori Shibata v. Kazuchika Okada NJPW 4/9

ER: Yes, this is the infamous likely/hopefully last match of Shibata's career, as he's a super tough man who coconut clonks other tough men in the head as hard as possible, and because of that almost became a vegetable. But overall I thought it was his greatest career performance, at times masterful, and we also got the best Okada performance I've seen. Were there still problems? Yes, but the peaks far outweighed and made for some pretty great moments. Shibata works this like he's the Terminator, and Okada makes for a game Sarah Connor. Every strike Okada would throw at him, Shibata would emotionlessly brush it off as Okada's eyes would widen in disbelief. We start with some fun and engaging matwork, with Shibata almost always a step ahead but not wanting to finish, worked as if he just wanted Okada to realize how he could snap him if he wanted to. Shibata looks like he's hardly breathing and Okada looks like he's barely hanging on, Shibata easily maneuvering into chokes and an armbar, and later working over Okada's knee. I've been a consistent critic of Okada's convenient selling and poor placement of damaging moves, but I thought his selling was good here. There were still moments where he had to get his shit in, but even on his omnipresent dropkicks it's not like he would be hopping up afterwards, usually he would act like he immediately regretted doing a dropkick, and as the match wore on he wasn't able to throw out moves at full strength, allowing Shibata to stay standing through a couple of rainmakers lariats. I wish he hadn't done a pop up dropkick after the devastating sleeper suplex spot. I'm so over the pop up fighting spirit, and that suplex was such a colossal spot, Shibata choking the life out of him and then tossing his body away like trash. It should have been a bigger moment.

Shibata's attitude carried the bulk of this match. He wasn't just going along and having an Okada match, his smug attitude made all rote strike exchanges feel different, getting inside Okada's head by showing him how much more effective his strikes were. I have no clue how Okada's face and neck weren't bruised and swollen by the end. Shibata was great throwing out these condescending punts, not going for the kill, but swatting at Okada's spine, smacking him in the back of the head with a boot, just picking away at him in painfully annoying fashion. The headbutt is what it is. It's no grosser than any clonking headbutt you've seen Ikeda or Kikuchi throw, but it is admittedly troubling knowing what we know happened to Shibata post match. If you found out several tape submitters died of testicular cancer from ball shots, you probably would have laughed a little less at those episodes of America's Funniest Home Videos. The headbutt is gross, made somewhat better by Shibata finishing the final 5 minutes of the match, locking on sick octopus holds on Okada, but never able to put him away. I do think they had Okada take a bit too much damage, as it didn't seem like Shibata took enough to go down for the count (if we only knew how badly damaged his body was...), but I liked how Okada was able to convey his fading strength through his weakening rainmakers, and I think this is the best conceived version of a "main event New Japan style" match that I have seen. Shame about the effects of that style, though.

PAS: I was actively irritated at Eric for making me watch this, I have no desire to watch New Japan main event wrestling, and as someone who played high school football, college rugby and boxed in the golden gloves I am a little squeamish about brain injury (I am sure my brain scan looks like a bunch of old hot dog buns). Still I enjoyed this and Shibata sure went out on a hell of performance. Really dominant Shibata match which forced Okada to work from the bottom, which is where someone of his questionable offense belongs. Shibata also works better as a merciless killer, then as a guy doing 50/50 forearm exchanges. I loved Shibata tooling him on the mat, breaking out shootstyle submissions, and even British stuff from his Progress tours. This forces Okada to be the first guy to throw hands, and man does Okada get tooled. I loved the part where Shibata throws thirty or so short punches right to the jaw, and the kicks to the brain stem were grotesque. That headbutt was actually a great bit of wrestling drama, although man it is hard to watch with hindsight. I did like how Okada stepped it up with his shots, his forearms looked mostly good and that final rainmaker is the first time I have actually liked that move. I hated the no sell, and Okada's elbow drop is more CM Punk then Macho Man, but this was still about as much as I am going to like a 2017 Okada match.


2017 MOTY MASTER LIST

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2017 Doesn't Make the List: 4 1/2 & 5 Star Edition

1. Hiromu Takahashi vs. Dragon Lee (NJPW 2/11/17)

What a stupid little match. I genuinely like a lot of their CMLL matches, and I think their 3/4/16 match should land on our MOTY list (but Phil refuses to watch it so we likely won't ever know). But now the moves keep getting bigger and the actual point just skipped town. The Mexico matches had a strong tecnico/rudo leanings, with Kamaitachi being the despised foreigner. Here both guys take turns playing heel, and it's only one of the reasons that none of the moves here meant a damn thing. One minute Lee would do these great dickish condescending kicks to a downed Takahashi, and right after Takahashi would be yanking at Lee's mask. It all rang hollow when they would then fighting spirit their way through some suplexes. Both men were too wimpy to commit to a persona, and it made all of their spots look like geek show exhibition than two guys trying to win; it's that Kurt Angle "We're going to have a 5 star match" said during a supposedly heated promo. One-upsmanship can be compelling, but not nearly as much when neither guy is working a consistent emotion. The Mexico matches benefitted greatly from the 2/3 falls structure, as it gave some natural breathing time (which these two have shown they are incapable of doing, rushing through huge spots as if there was a madman threatening to blow up the arena if they work below a certain speed), and most importantly it allowed 2 extra pinfalls, so that at least a couple of their finishers actually got to finish something. There are some genuinely spectacular spots in this match, and some genuinely stupid ones, often spectacularly stupid. I'd be shocked if Lee could keep a straight train of thought and wasn't slurring speech postmatch after taking that sunset flip powerbomb, getting thrown off the top to the floor while setting up a double stomp, and later getting brained into the guardrail catching Takahashi's wild senton. The problem is that it sure never felt like it was affecting him that much, as he would always go immediately back on offense. The fans didn't even seem to react to much of this until Takahashi awesomely unmasked Lee. Shocking, that actually committing to being a dick lead to an actual emotional reaction. Many moves were done, neither man struggled to do any of the moves, both men were heels until they weren't, many moves were kicked out of, eventually one of the moves was not kicked out of.

2. Michael Elgin vs. Tetsuya Naito (NJPW 2/11/17)

Damn. This one had me, until it lost me. And then after it lost me, it continued existing for another 10 minutes. I was hooked, really into it. Elgin isn't a guy I love but I was really loving his performance. His early power stuff was awesome, and I loved Naito's bug eyed desperation as he had no clue what to do to actually stop the beast. Elgin catching Naito's tope was far and away the most impressive I have ever seen that spot. On paper it's always an impressive spot, but it's really difficult to make it look like the diver didn't know he was being caught ahead of time. Here, with Naito's facials and Elgin's strength, it looked like Naito hit a dive the exact same way he normally would have, and Elgin  unexpectedly caught him and suplexed him (AND sold the suplex himself, as it WOULD hurt to suplex a guy on the floor). So I was pretty sold on the match at that point. And then Naito started working over Elgin's knee, and Elgin sold it really great. Not just limping around, but doing neat things like hitting a german and bridging on his good leg, and two different times using the ropes to assist him in doing a kick (an enziguiri and later a superkick). There were a couple of minor lapses but overall the selling was really spot on, and gave Naito important openings. Elgin was still catching him with some brutal standing shots (including those great standing lariats) and Naito was starting to pull ahead. It was good. It was a smooth, turbulence-free landing on the MOTY list. And then Elgin started doing some rope running spots, some of his big lifts, knee unaffected. Which, okay, nobody is perfect. And then it happened the rest of the match, even when Naito locked in a leg bar, and the crazy moves to Naito ramped up, which means he was kicking out of everything that looked deadly, and then the thing just shot past the end zone and kept running out of the stadium, Gump style. The overkill went on too long, past the point of interest. I could not call it a bad match, as the first 60% had tons of value, but man did they work really really hard to undo all of that. I really loved the build and tone this match had, which makes it a huge disappointment that they went the direction they did. And that's arguably a worse offense than just being a bad match from the bell.

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1986 Match of the Year

Yoshiaki Fujiwara/Osamu Kido/Nobuhiko Takada/Kazuo Yamazaki/Akira Maeda v. Antonio Inoki/Tatsumi Fujinami/Kengo Kimura/Umanosuke Ueda/Kantaro Hoshino NJPW 3/26/86

PAS: One of the most famous matches in Japanese history this is the first major collision in the New Japan v. UWF feud. It is an elimination tag with to the floor eliminations allowed. Tremendous match, great performances by everyone involved. Our man Fujiwara was great, his section vs. Fujinami was yet another cocktease for the 80’s singles match which never happened, and I loved how he and Hoshino would pot shot each other. Inoki is so over, and comes off like a huge star, any time he tags in the crowd goes bananas, same with Maeda, sort of criminal we never got a big singles between those two as well. Most of the eliminations were really great, including Fujiwara and Fujinami just tearing it up until they both going tumbling over the top. We then get one of my favorite spots in wrestling history as Ueda (who is an ex-garbage guy who barely wrestles at this point) tags in to square off with Maeda, Ueda hadn’t been in the match much at all, and was playing the role of the outclassed older legend. He locks up with Maeda, eats a kick or two, realizes he is out of his league and tackles Maeda to the floor eliminating them both. Just such a cool moment, with Ueda sacrificing himself for New Japan. I could totally see Eddie Marlin in the same role in a big Memphis v. Knoxville 10 man. Finish is the only down part, as Inoki is left with Kido and Takada and I don't really buy him in any trouble, even down 2 to 1.


ER: This was my #2 match on the NJPW 80s ballot, with only Hansen/Andre edging it out. Pretty sure my #3 match will be our 1987 MOTY, and I believe what will be our 1984 MOTY landed in my top 10 of the set. So, you heard it here first, there was some pretty high end stuff in 1980s Japanese pro wrestling. Inter-promotional matches always have a much higher floor than most matches, and this was huge. Imagine if WCW invaded WWF in their prime and how hot the crowds would be as these disrespectful punks invaded (wait, actually don't think about that). If any invasion angle leads to a match half as hot as this, you did something right. Just the before bell drama alone is worth it, with Maeda lobbing air kicks at the NJ guys while trash talking. And their ring work backs up the trash talking.


This isn't like those UFC hype shows where they build up a violent fight and then work a points fight, this is a loudmouth contingent being loudmouths, and then fighting like asskickers. Every tag in brought new excitement as everyone had goals and the fans were hot for the new match-ups. Maeda and Inoki had an absurd amount of charisma, and Fujiwara looked downright giddy to be a part of it. He always knows how to stand out in these kind of matches and his chuckling thug vibe brought an outlaw quality to the UWF invaders. Every segment hit the right note, with unexpected standouts like Kimura/Yamazaki working a compelling short story that ended with a flash desperation pin from Kimura, followed by him crawling back to the corner and essentially being done for the match. The Ueda moment was amazing, and incredible wrestling moment and one of the all time great moments of psychology (arguably my second favorite piece of wrestling psychology ever, right behind Rude getting DQ'd for coming off the top rope against Steamboat, but immediately getting the pinfall back due to the damage he caused). Ueda was the clear, unspoken weak link on Team NJ, and over the first 30 minutes of the match all he had done was tag in, then tag right back out. It's like the team wanted to thin UWF's herd before they let Ueda in there. The admiration and respect from fans when he walked through the ropes was huge, and it would be hard to not feel sympathy for him as Maeda kicks the hell out of him, with Ueda clearly trying to catch kicks but his reactions being too slow. Him essentially smothering and falling on Maeda is the ultimate desperation tactic, the ultimate example of taking advantage of a weird match stip (and Phil is so right, feels like some weird stip they would have in Memphis), and just the best. My favorite guy in the match was Hoshino. He was a real revelation for me when watching 80s New Japan, and he's possibly my favorite fired up underdog babyface in wrestling. Here he's so good on the apron, a team man until the end, and in the ring he doesn't ever seem to notice that's he's the smallest guy in the match. He's spirited, wild, dangerous, and sympathetic. You get the sense that he's no match for the UWF guys, but HE doesn't get that sense. The ending IS a little anticlimactic, as aside from one good nearfall Inoki didn't seem in much trouble, and no matter how good he looked here I'm not sure there was one person watching who believed Osamu Kido would be the lone survivor. You can roll around different endings, have Maeda survive to end the match with an Inoki showdown, but that would deprive us of the Ueda moment, and it's easier to just appreciate the match for the all time great pro wrestling that it already is.


ALL TIME MOTY MASTER LIST

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I Liked Tanahashi/Naito! Phil...Did Not Like Tanahashi/Naito!

Hiroshi Tanahashi v. Tetsuya Naito NJPW 1/4

ER: I much prefer this "not going gentle into the good night" Tanahashi than "promotion ace" Tanahashi. It's similar to Misawa's late career William Munny character, though not nearly as broken or tired. But Tanahashi is sliding somewhat back down the totem pole and now wrestles with a certain disgust, and that disgust shines through in his work. Naito is the clear heel here, but Tanahashi doesn't act like an ultra valiant babyface. He doesn't stoop to Naito's level of disrespect, but he doesn't aim to take the total high road either. Naito just goes right after Tanahashi's leg, really taking it apart, and Tanahashi sells it nicely. Even down the home stretch he didn't completely forget about it. That right there sounds backhanded, but it isn't. Before Naito attacked his knee Tanahashi hit this killer left hand right into Naito's ribs, and it's almost like that one shot totally changed Naito's gameplan. Tanahashi would go after those ribs whenever he could, even later locking on a single leg crab where he was clearly pressing his and Naito's weight into the hurt ribs side. That attention to detail was so damn cool and something you rarely see in matches featuring even the best mat guys. That rib work also lent more weight to his splashes, crossbodies and sentons; seeing Naito wince on a hook to the ribs made you immediately think how much pain he was in after the great high fly flow to the floor. I loved how Naito used spitting in Tanahashi's face as a means to comeback, knowing that was a level even slightly gruff Tanahashi wouldn't stoop to. Even the strike exchange portion had a neat twist, as both men kicked at each other's legs. The kicks didn't look very good, but it tied in great to the match itself, and meant far more than any elbow exchange could have meant. Naito peppered in his comebacks nicely, Tanahashi stacked his offense wisely, and I ended up really digging this.

PAS: I was pretty pissed when Eric nominated this, which meant I had watch NJ Twink main event wrestling, my least favorite kind of wrestling. It really feels like Eric is trying really hard to find good things to say about this

"Didn't completely forget about the leg"

sounds backhanded and it should have been, Tanahashi did sell it at the beginning, but his end of the match selling consisted of him shaking his leg a bit and then hitting all of his dives unencumbered.

"Even the strike exchange portion had a neat twist, as both men kicked at each other's legs. The kicks didn't look very good, but it tied in great to the match itself, and meant far more than any elbow exchange could have meant"

It sure didn't look great, it looked really goofus and while it meant more then any elbow exchange, Eric forgot to mention that it was proceeded by one of those dumbass tickle fight elbow exchanges that looked like Ethan Page practicing in his mirror. The finish run was pretty terrible too, I have no idea what in the sweet name of Chris Kanyon Naito's finish is supposed to be, but it looked super silly and elaborate, the whole end run had this very forced near fallism which is just so inorganic feeling.

There were a couple of things I liked, I thought Tanahashi's dive to the floor looked great, and Naito caught it in a way that made it look like he concussed himself. I also did like the opening body shot, although I think Eric is inventing some grand narrative which isn't there. I didn't hate the beginning, didn't mind the middle, and hated the finish. Not for me.

ER: There is a chance I was two White Russians deep when I nominated this match. I will buy Phil al pastor super burritos from El Farolito next time he is out here, and hope it heals wounds. I stand behind liking this match, though.

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2016 Ongoing MOTY List: Ishii v. Shibata

75. Tomohiro Ishii v. Katsuyori Shibata NJPW 2/11/16

ER: I don't typically go out for Ishii stuff, but this one kind of ended up entrancing me. It was this weirdly worked, cooperative match, professional match...but with both guys agreeing to do every "worked" move as hard as they possibly could. So the match started almost immediately with the two just standing in front of each other, taking turns elbowing each other. It's stupid at first, but then it keeps going, and it keeps going, and it seems stuck on an endless loop of shots that keep getting harder and more ill-intentioned. Ishii is taking shots to the throat, Shibata is taking shots in the neck and trap. The shots look crippling. And they keep happening. And the whole match is essentially move trading, and dick swinging...and it kind of takes you over. It's like Bad Lieutenant: Harvey Keitel's cop starts the movie at rock bottom. And new, rockier rock bottoms keep presenting themselves. This match starts with men hitting each other as hard as they can, and moves into clotheslining each other as hard as possible, kicking each other as hard as possible. The shots to the neck and throat keep happening, every Ishii clothesline looks like it should cave in Shibata's chest. Even the missed moves missed with meanness. A Shibata soccer kick, a low cutting Ishii lariat, these moves are dodged and ducked, but if they somehow weren't they would have been devastating. So the whole match has this vibe of one-upsmanship and "I'm tougher than you", except it's never unprofessional. It's an almost surreal vibe, and I dug it. Maybe the first "Ishii stiff fest" I've enjoyed.

PAS: I though the first part of this match was pretty terrible. Both guys hitting each other and making goofy faces, the worst of this kind of lame-o New Japan dick swinging. Lots of the shots weren't even that nasty, some of the shots to the throat were, but the elbows weren't that nasty, and the chops weren't Tenryu or Wahoo level or anything. The spot where each guy invites the other dude to suplex him was some dump ass Chikara shit, I almost excpected Ishii to hypnotize Shibabta or throw an invisible grenade. The second part of the match was an actually wrestling match with selling and transitions and everything and was pretty good. I liked Shibata going for the triangle choke and how he kept adjusting it, and the Ishii lariats were super nasty and were actually sold. I also loved the headbutts, it got a little Futenish near the end which I am into. I do think the PK is a weak finisher especially compared to some of the stuff which didn't finish the match from both guys. Liked the end enough to stick this on the bottom of the list, but it isn't going any higher.

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1981 Match of the Year

Andre the Giant v. Stan Hansen NJPW 9/23/81

PAS: The greatest King Kong v. Godzilla match in wrestling history and that is one of the most fun styles of wrestling ever. Worked exactly as you want it to be, both guys hurl right into each other, Hansen is so awesome here, you can't turn a sledgehammer into a scalpel, so he going to smash right into Andre even if a monster comes calling. One thing I noticed re-watching this was how great Andre is at working simple holds, when he grabs an arm it really feels like he is going to rip it off and floss with it. The restart and Andre killing the ref for a DQ were perfect spots for this match, no reason to think this war would be contained by the rules, and it made perfect sense that this would end with both guys smashing the ring boys trying to keep them apart. Andre getting hit with the lariat and spilling outside only to come back to kill the ref was a great bit of business. Hansen finally hit Goliath with the slingshot (although this match was more Goliath v. smaller Goliath) and when you wound a maddog he is going to lash out. Not an enormous fan of Face Andre, but Evil violent Andre is one of my favorite wrestlers ever, and this is one of his masterpieces.

ER: My #1 match from the New Japan 80s set! Monster vs monster, hoss vs. hoss, two enormous men bashing the hell out of each other. There's too much I love about this and it's no different from what everybody else loves about it. Andre ripping at the arm is so amazing to see in this modern day of Catch Point, because as he was bending and wringing out that lariat arm it looked exactly the same as somebody like Gulak or Thatcher doing it. Andre as Billy Robinson just seems unfair. The Hansen elbow drop that Andre turns into an armbar just incredible. I love all of Andre's bumping. As I watched it I tried to think why Big Show's bumping never hit me on the same level as Andre's did. Big Show was bigger, it should be more impressive! But I think it never hit me as much because Big Show is taking bumps, whereas Andre looks like a man trying not to fall. Big Show bumps like a giant version of anybody. Andre looks like a real time avalanche. The bump to the floor off the lariat was perfection, his fall into the ropes from Hansen's opening match short lariat was perfect (with him falling into Hansen, into the ropes), his teetering and lumbering and stumbling were perfect. Hansen would batter him with these short strikes and every time Andre would eventually grab at him and just knock him silly. Both men completely understood everything about what would make this work: They knew how fans saw them, Hansen knew he was a monster, Andre knew Hansen was a monster, Andre knew he was the bigger monster, Hansen knew Andre was the bigger monster. Seems easy, but there are so many wrestlers that work the same match regardless of opponent, that seeing two guys with massive presence, that both fully grasped WHY they both worked so well, is just a wrestling gift. This match will be hard to beat.

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