Found Footage Friday: SEGUNDA CAIDA DECLARES WAR!!! Matches from WAR-ISM 11/11/93

Full Show 11/11/93 Handheld

 

1. Ultimo Dragon vs. Dan Sileo

ER: Is this the same Dan Sileo who was a football player and lame sports talk host on Bay Area's KNBR in the 2000s? I didn't know his football career but I remember him on KNBR, but it can't be the same guy. That guy was a defensive lineman and this guy doesn't look that much larger than Ultimo, but whoever it is, this True Blue Rex Kwon Do practitioner really adapted to pro wrestling almost shockingly well. I thought this was great, and I loved every part of it. Sileo has a gaudy stars and stripes gi and, while I know the Danny McBride strip mall karate guy is an easy and well-used reference at this point, goddamn is this guy just the millionth strip mall karate guy to look exactly like that. 

I loved the way they kept advancing this. The leg work was really cool, with nasty heel hooks off caught kicks, and a cool deathlock where Sileo was applying different kinds of pressure and then even ripped his gi off before rolling through the deathlock (which I don't think I've seen before?). When he got frustrated and threw a chair into the ring, Ultimo did incline push-ups off the chair and then had the ref hold his ankles down while he did a couple sit ups. Everything had nice snap to it, from things like (both men's) chops, to a super impactful version of Dragon's handspring elbow, to all of the kicks everyone threw. Sileo had an impressive command on selling, too. I was really impressed when Dragon whiffed on a spinning heel kick over Sileo's head, and he knew not to bother selling it and instead went right after Dragon. That's not an instinct most heavily trained wrestlers would have. Sileo broke out a majistral that looked as impressive as any I've ever seen Ultimo do, and the two counts down the stretch were all incredibly well done and worked through. This is the first time I've seen Dan Sileo and I am now honestly wondering how Dan Sileo didn't become a bigger star. This man understands pro wrestling, has great instincts, and is incredibly entertaining. This man takes a German suplex high up on his shoulders and somehow has great suplex selling? Who the hell is this guy? 

There is an incredible moment when Sileo is whipped into the buckles and does this awesome cocky flip over the top to the floor, landing on his feet, posing for the crowd, and by the time he turns around thinking he had evaded Ultimo, Dragon was already doing a suicide dive past the ring post into him. I did not think we'd be seeing Ultimo hitting a dive onto a some karate guy, trusting some strip mall karate guy to catch a high speed tope, a high speed tope that is already well in motion when Sileo is facing away from Dragon. This spot was timed so well, it was somehow a great catch, and Sileo was able to be facing away for most of it and turn around just in time to be annihilated. The most seasoned wrestler you know will never look this natural while waiting to catch a blind dive. I am going to need to write about more Dan Sileo matches. Complete & Accurate Bonecrusher Sileo coming soon!

PAS: Rewatching WAR over the years, I have been pretty underwhelmed by the Ultimo Dragon matches, but I guess I just needed to see him working ex-NFL linemen in Gi's rather than juniors matches where he's being outclassed by luchadors. Loved this, an awesome weirdo fight, with Ultimo ruling and Sileo being really fun too. Loved Ultimo doing pushups on the thrown in chair and hitting a wild tope on Sileo while he was celebrating. Sileo's entire shtick was great, he took a German suplex right on his neck and hit a cool jumping La Magistral. I really need to see Sileo work Dave Taylor and Ulf Hermann in Germany, and I really wish that Ultimo got a chance to work Jerry Flynn on a WCW Pro or something. 

2. Nobukazu Hirai vs. Shigekazu Tajiri

ER: This was a rounds match between a gi guy and a pro wrestler, and the best parts of this had the bad blood that we all associate with pro wrestlers vs. gi guys. There were multiple moments, in the first round especially, where it was clear that Tajiri did not want to cooperate, which is a best case scenario for a match like this. A couple of things got crossed up, Hirai grabbed Tajiri aggressively by the gi lapels, and then you had Hirai forcing his way into a shoot northern lights suplex and shoot bodyslam with Tajiri very clearly trying his hardest to sandbag. Hirai had started all this chippiness by throwing a playful kick at Tajiri when the former was entering the ring for the match, and that energy kept coming back, like when one of the rounds ended and Hirai kicked Tajiri in the ass on the latter's trip back to his corner. Not all the kicks land, and that plays to the match's benefit, as one of the best moments is Tajiri suckering Hirai into doing a spinning heel kick and just ducking it, then kicking Hirai in the face. Hirai does some great cocky shit like throwing a couple of German suplexes and then standing on Tajiri's neck, then deciding to let the ref count Tajiri down for a potential KO. I don't think the submission or kicks in this worked as well as the ones in Dragon vs. Sileo, but the 3rd round build was satisfying, and I liked Tajiri increasing the use of spinning heel kicks down the stretch. His (surprise) winning spinning heel kick looked Hashimoto level.

3. Masao Orihara vs. Satoshi Kojima

ER: I have a feeling there are a LOT of unseen or unheralded classics in the WAR vs. NJPW feud and this is ranks with the best of them. This was the only time Orihara and Kojima wrestled each other, and brother, I don't know why that is but based on this match alone they seem to fucking hate each other. These two are total assholes to each other for over 10 minutes, egging each other on into really violent match that stayed within a pro wrestling framework, just a really stiff constantly-verging-on-unprofessional pro wrestling match. The fans chant for Orihara at the bell, but after Kojima refuses a handshake and instead slaps him and German suplexes him on his head before the bell, then throws elbows as hard as possible and dumps him with a powerbomb, and the fans start chanting KOJIMA. 

Every single thing in this match was thrown with the intention to hurt, and there were a ton of great moments that looked like they were luring each other into fully committing to a move only to pull the rug out at the last possible moment. Kojima goes for his elbowdrop and lands teeth first into Orihara's boots, but the elbow was thrown with the confidence of someone who never thought his face would meet boots. Orihara does a pescado into nothing and his body does not look like someone who expected to be diving into an empty pool. They manage to make missed dropkick and sidestepped spinning heel kick spots look good, because every single thing done in this match was thrown with real intent. Orihara's leg work and heel hooks were as violent as anything you'd see in a Fujiwara fed, with the holds really sunk in. You could see how suctioned he was to Kojima's leg when Kojima was trying to yank away like he was in a bear trap but Orihara's grip only tightened, so Kojima had to start throwing legit strikes to desperately try to force some kind of break. 

It's tough to find cool examples of no-sold piledrivers but I'll have to tip my cap to them here, because this was it. Orihara spikes Kojima on the top of his head with a classic Lawler piledriver and Kojima rises to his feet and attempts to cripple Orihara with a Tombstone like he was Undertaker working Hogan in 1973 PRIDE. Orihara responds by spiking Kojima even harder with another Lawler piledriver, and brother, it feels okay to throw selling out the window when your neck is suffering this much real impact. These were piledrivers thrown by men who wanted to just feel something. No move is guaranteed to land, and it doesn't stop either man from throwing everything with full conviction, and yet the whole match maintains a vibe of "worked pro wrestling" while also feeling like both guys are sneaking in offense that the other wasn't expecting. It sure didn't look like Orihara was expected to be dumped on the back of his head by a couple different suplexes, and it sure didn't look like Kojima expected to take two boots up kicked into his chin....and yet it also seems like both guys fully expect it? Let me tell you, *I* did not expect Orihara to hit his insane moonsault over the ringpost to the floor, because I cannot imagine the level of trust it took in Kojima - a man who had not felt trustworthy at any part of this match - to even think about hitting that moonsault. Orihara wins by kicking Kojima in the eye and rolling him up with la majistral, and Kojima is so pissed after that he starts punching Orihara, and Orihara just leaves the ring, no selling all of the punches as he goes. YES!!

4. Arashi vs. Yuji Yasuraoka

ER: Arashi is in his mask and just poured into his bicycle shorts. He looks like a dream scenario where they brought in Giant Brazo as part of Los Brazos. He is humongous, and his tits are spectacular. This was short but entertaining, with Yasuraoka throwing kicks as hard as fast as he can but none of them ever phasing Arashi, so Arashi just lets the man kick him for a bit and then just starts throwing him around the way a large sumo would throw around a smaller man, with years of training and muscle memory behind the throws. The finish is great, as Arashi absorbs kicks and decides to let Yuji know what striking is really like, and so bullies him into the corner with open hand sumo thrusts and I swear, Arashi is just palm striking Yasuraoka's head back and forth between his open hands like he was forming a pizza dough. Arashi wins the match with two headlock takeovers, locking his arm around Yasuraoka's neck so tightly and then rolling over with his own large body with such force that it looks like he's trying to pop Yuji's head off his own body like a Barbie doll. 

5. Great Kabuki vs. Tommy Rich

ER: Tommy Rich still comes out to REO Speedwagon's "Roll With the Changes" in 1993 and it's hard not to think of this song within the context of Tommy Rich's life. 23 years old, making towns around Georgia in his Ford Fairmont, waiting to see if there's another radio single off You Can Tune a Piano But You Can't Tuna Fish before committing to buying the 8-track. Rich and Kabuki go way back and worked each other several times over the preceding decade, but it's hard not to be disappointed with this match. You could not call this a bad match, but on this card it kinda was. I love Tommy Rich kneeling on the inside of Kabuki's leg and throwing worked elbow strikes, complaining to the ref about hair pulls and shit, but this was a show where every match so far has had moments where someone almost got knocked out and moments where guys were actively trying to knock the other out, so the bar had been raised pretty high over the first half of the show. The final stretch of this was great, when Rich blasts Kabuki with a stiff clothesline and a perfect fistdrop off the middle buckle, and Kabuki starts throwing knee trembling thrusts to Rich's throat, but Rich losing to a small package is going to feel like a downer after the violence that had taken place in every match prior. 

6. Black Cat vs. Hiromichi Fuyuki

PAS: Total out of nowhere classic. This was a lumberjack match and part of the WAR vs. NJ feud, with Black Cat coming in as a New Japan stalwart and trainer to take on Fuyuki. Just a pair of barrel chested bruisers clocking each other with clotheslines and hard punishing shots, each one a little further then it was supposed to go. Cat, for example, cracked Fuyuki right in the eye with a short elbow and Fuyuki responded by splitting his head open on a turnbuckle bolt. Cat then proceeds to lose blood at an alarming rate, leaving stains over the mat. Cat fought valiantly, but eventually was felled by a pair of super nasty looking powerbombs. Hard nosed violent WAR style stuff, just an ugly treat to watch.

ER: The WAR/NJPW feud has produced some of the most agreeably great matches ever, an incredible success rate, unparalleled heat, and this show has two more of them that we've never seen. Orihara/Kojima and Black Cat/Fuyuki are completely different matches and completely great additions to the WAR/NJPW legend. The latter has great blood and is much more punch based, the former is two guys doing pro wrestling moves as stiff as possible. It's wild that the one with juniors and without blood is more violent, but even without blood the hate was palpable. This match felt less like hatred, and more like a great bloody pro wrestling dramatic-selling brawl. This was long, nearly 20, and I don't think the holds moved the match along as well as Orihara's leg attacks did, but this was a bloody match between two brick shithouses cracking jaws, and we don't have to choose a favorite. This was also a Lumberjack Death match, and I wish I knew all the things that went into these two needing a Lumberjack Death match. WAR really wasn't a gimmick match fed, choosing instead the superior gimmick pairings. Who needs stipulation matches when you can just team weird guys up against each other? 

Fuyuki looked like the best version of Takeshi Morishima, or perhaps a more accurate comp to Gordy than Morishima was. This felt like the most violent version of a classic Crusher match, two guys with barrel torsos throwing hooking punches across each other's jaws and throwing clotheslines set to smash. Fuyuki's diving clotheslines were engulfing, blowing through Cat with insane closing speed. Black Cat threw short elbows across Fuyuki's temple and Fuyuki threw down right back, and whenever it threatened to spill into the middle of warring WAR vs. New Japan Lumberjacks, it only got better. This feud was so perfect, because everybody involved on both sides of it was a total asskicker, and everybody seemed like they really fucking hated each other. Satoshi Kojima acted like a fucking asshole to Orihara, Tenryu trolled Tatsumi Fujinami so hard earlier in the show that Fujinami got Actually Upset and ripped off his suit jacket while needing neck tendon flaring restraint from Manabu Nakanishi. Tommy Rich and Bonecrusher Dan Sileo are left looking like cornered southerners trying to stay between the WAR gang and New Japan crew whenever Fuyuki got an asshole smirk across his face and threw Cat into the fellers. The blood came midway when Cat got run face first into a turnbuckle bolt, and Fuyuki must have sent the sole of his boot into Cat's cutout least eight times. Black Cat wobbled his legs and fought back and Fuyuki managed to dominate and make Cat bleed out without coming off like a bad guy, instead looking like a man representing his cause. Sometimes a 30 year handheld shows up online and when you're done watching it you can say that you've seen upper echelon Kodo Fuyuki, Satoshi Kojima, Masao Orihara, and Black Cat performances, and everything feels right. 

7. Koki Kitahara/Super Strong Machine vs. Heisei Ishingun (Kengo Kimura/Tatsutoshi Goto)

ER: This is a really cool tag that brings together four guys who I think are almost always universally underrated as workers. Out of these four, I think Kengo Kimura probably gets the most respect as a worker, and when was the last time you saw literally anybody talking about how much they love the career of Kengo Kimura? Super Strong Machine is the best possible Bison Smith, throwing nothing but hard elbows and clotheslines and slams, Vince McMahon's idea of a perfect wrestler in 1977, and I don't think I've ever not been entertained by a SSM match. Koki Kitahara is a WAR punk through and through, and it gave this match a fun dynamic, as he was the one WAR guy in with three NJPW guys, with Strong Machine the guy who's playing both sides without acting passionate allegiance to either side. So This match was all about three of these guys having a tough but professional tag, while Kitahara tried to get under everyone's skin before eventually succeeding in doing just that. Everyone else has no problem throwing spirited elbows and clotheslines but Kitahara's the one kicking people in the eye and throwing kicks at knees, with Kimura's Red Gi crew yelling at him from the floor only causing him to act like more of a pudgy punk. It all escalates when Masashi Aoyagi gets on the apron to try to settle him down, and Kitahara chooses to go after AOYAGI with a chair! Kitahara is enough of a crazed asshole to go after AOYAGI with a chair and you just have to love and appreciate a psycho like that. I love how Kitahara finally gets Kimura to snap, kicking at him mockingly while he's down, and getting the vet all riled up until Super Strong Machine can't save him. I loved Aoyagi sneaking in at the finish to hit Kitahara with a spinning heel kick to set up the finish, and thought the tag unsurprisingly kicked ass. 

8. Genichiro Tenryu vs. Ashura Hara

PAS: This delivered everything you want from this matchup on paper. A pair of guys built like sacks of flour chopping, lariating and headbutting each other in unsafe and violent ways. Not a lot of fancy moves, although Tenryu did hit a enzigiri right to Hara's eye and cheek, but just crazy violent shots. I love how Tenryu just lets his chops float. At one point he catches Hara right in the trachea and the ref looks at him like "c'mon man I am just trying to do my job." Hara doesn't back down at all either, laying in some really meaty clonking headbutts, and sick lariats right into the clavicle. This is WAR as WAR gets.

ER: I always associate Hara with Tenryu. Hara was the longest term Tenryu tag partner in Revolution, left All Japan at first opportunity to join him in SWS and then retired in WAR in 1994. Hara is a Tenryu guy, and that means that we really don't have many Tenryu/Hara singles matches. I think they had less than 5, and I'm sure this is the only one I've actually seen. This is Tenryu VERSUS Hara and that is an incredibly cool thing. And this really is the exact thing you would want from a Tenryu/Hara match, which is two best friends trying to urge the other one to hit them harder and harder, except you've never had a friend who wanted you to hit them harder and harder because we've never done competitive sumo. Tenryu and Hara hit each other so fucking hard in this match and I've never known another person in my life who could hit somebody this hard. WAR Hara is the fattest Hara which makes him the coolest Hara, and he looks even cooler when Tenryu runs into him incredibly hard with a shoulderblock and then drops his shoulder and winces hard and shakes out that limp arm after Hara doesn't budge an inch. 

After Tenryu hurts his shoulder on Hara's torso and Hara didn't even give him the liberty of acting like he had even been touched, Tenryu makes it his match long mission to make Hara lose sensation in at least one of his arms. These two are old ass running buddies and if you are old sumo running buddies that means that sometimes one of you will get chopped over and over in the neck and slapped insanely hard across the face. Hara does his best to not budge whenever Tenryu hits him and is shockingly successful, and none of us can ever comprehend how hard Ashura Hara has been hit in his life, and how hard he has hit people. You have to get hit in the face and neck an absurd number of times to be able to take six straight chops to the neck from Genichiro Tenryu without registering any pain. Hara is able to walk through a shocking amount of pain to repeatedly murder Tenryu with his perfect lariat, but Tenryu drops him to his knees with a chop right to the throat. The only time I even notice the referee in the match, is after that throat chop when he steps up to Tenryu like "hey man that guy is your best friend." Hara can't use one of his arms his whole chest and neck and shoulder is all purple bruising just a few minutes in, so he has to just spam Tenryu with lariats from the arm he can lift. When he keeps hitting Tenryu in the ropes as hard as he can, he gets a full head of steam for a killshot and flies hard through the ropes to the floor when Tenryu just drops to the ground as his only possible defense. Hara's sell of Tenryu's enziguiri is more perfection, taking it to the teeth and crumbling to his chest and knees, butt up in the air. 

Imagine the ways these two could have surpassed Ikeda and Ishikawa if only their friendship was just a little bit different. I'm glad we got them murdering each other a few times over the span of their Revolution. 

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AEW Five Fingers of Death 6/19 - 6/25 Part 2

AEW Forbidden Door 6/25/23

Bryan Danielson vs. Kazuchika Okada

MD: If you've been following the site for any length of time, you know that this isn't a dream match for us. But hey, it's been nice to have Final Countdown stuck in my head for half a week, right? That said, we certainly value Danielson. He's one of five, right? I've personally got nothing against Okada. Heck, if I was actually watching his "grumpy" phase, I might not mind him one bit, and in a world of wrestling that has a tendency to get smaller and smaller as time goes on, the ability to project one's self as a star is no small thing.

Still, this match was a bit snakebit, wasn't it? The crowd was still in shambles from the 40-minute epic that preceded it. Danielson got an injury with ten minutes to go. Some of the choices he made in dealing with that injury had a chilling effect upon the crowd. That said, I probably personally ended up liking what we did get here more than what we would have gotten if all went well. Moreover, I think the Danielson performance that was distilled through adversity was much unique and far more interesting than the channeled perfection we might have gotten otherwise. We're never going to judge "greatest wrestler ever" just from who can go hardest (hit hardest maybe, but not go hardest). You learn so much about a wrestler not when things go right in a perfectly planned match against an ideal opponent, but when things go askew and the wrestler has to adapt, or in moments where things are inherently less than perfect. That's when real wrestling genius shines through and in my mind, at least, that's what we got here.

Here's what made this match fascinating: upon first watch, there was every impression of Danielson selling the damage to the neck by favoring his arm, and committing so thoroughly to the act that he leaned instead on the Knee, that he channeled the Yes chants for the first time in AEW to fire up but only used one arm for them, that he powered through a submission using every limb but the one that was damaged. In this scenario, he was so vulnerable, so off center, that he feigned a seizure-ridden neck injury in order to draw Okada in (which didn't work by the way; Okada went right in for the kill after a few seconds of deliberation). That in and of itself would make the match mirrors within mirrors.

Except for it turned out to be mirrors within mirrors within mirrors, for Danielson's arm really was hurt. Whatever match they did or did not plan became something else in response. I read into it that Okada targeted the neck because Danielson's aggression got him up on points early, but would that have happened otherwise? Would there have been the Yes Chants? Would he have gone to the knee twice? Would he have worked the seizure spot? Would the struggle and uniqueness of the submissions at the end felt so offputting and gnarly and desperate? Probably not. Instead, it was a master whose body was failing him, who was in a match that should never have been possible, one that was denied to him the year prior, pasting together what was meant to be a dream match in front of a dream crowd using old tricks and new and making people feel. The crowd felt things that they wanted to feel, things that they dreaded feeling. Every movement carried with it layers. The calling out for the Yes chant wasn't just a Yes chant. It was one of the first ones in AEW (if not the absolute first; he's consciously not done them). It was half of one with a damaged arm. It was one by a desperate wounded Danielson. It was a ploy by the real man behind the American Dragon mask to engage the crowd despite the match going off the rails. So I don't know about this being a dream match but as a dream performance by a dream performer, it contained multitudes. It's the sort of dream that will linger, the sort that will stay with us in the months and years to come. 

CM Punk vs. Satoshi Kojima

MD: I liked MJF vs Tanahashi a lot, much more than the Swerve match from Collision, but that was MJF doing his best 1990 Flair vs JYD match. Tanahashi was limited but charismatic and MJF used that to the fullest. This was not dissimilar in some ways, as Punk leaned hard into the crowd reaction and wrestled big, but Kojima came off like an old vet leaping from the bench with fire still in his heart wanting one more swing for glory. Both wrestlers realized that they had a special crowd and a special opportunity and even though it likely came as a surprise to Kojima, he made the most of it. If Tanahashi is a star that has been treated like a star even as he became more limited, Kojima met this moment with a great reawakening, and Punk was right there to join him. The dueling pec popping might be what I remember from this show as much as anything else, really, but what I probably enjoyed the most in this match in specific was the way Punk chose to work it. He was as disrespectful as possible as a character, playing to his own ego by making callouts to Gabe and shouting along in Japanese to the ten count and doing the Hogan legdrop but at the same time being as respectful as possible as a human being working with the guy by throwing his whole body back for every Kojima strike and being incredibly wary of his lariat almost to the level of Buddy Rose stooging for Stan Stasiak's iron claw.

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AEW All Out 9/5/21 Pt. 1

Private Party/Jack Evans/Angelico/Matt Hardy vs. Jungle Boy/Orange Cassidy/Luchasaurus/Wheeler Yuta/Chuck Taylor

PAS: This was a match full of guys I am a low voter on (I like Jungle Boy, Hardy and Jack Evans a fair amount, the rest aren't for me), but this kind of fast moving 10 man is a good way to hid limited guys and keep things moving at a nice pace. The Private Party have some fun SAT's double teams, and didn't have to do things they couldn't do. The top rope blockbuster by Jungle Boy was a great spot, and they did some amusing Chikara stuff like the chicken fight and submission chain, and left slow motion spots and invisible grenades in the trash where they belong. I don't know why Chuck Taylor did two dives to the floor and Jack Evans did none and Luchasarus needs to dump the spin kick when Tommy End is in your fed, but otherwise this got Cassidy and Jungle Boy on the show and it is smart to get really over acts like them to open a show. 

Eddie Kingston vs. Miro - EPIC

PAS: The first real Eddie Kingston classic we have seen in AEW. This was King's Road Eddie, he maybe the only US wrestler to actually understand what made those All Japan matches so special, and it wasn't the moves it was the meaning. Eddie and Miro really beat the hell out of each other with Miro landing great looking kicks and straight rights and Eddie absolutely beating the hell out of Miro's chest and neck with blood blistering chops. I loved the little selling Eddie did throughout the match, eyes getting glassy after eating big shots, never fully able to get movement in his back after getting powerslammed on the floor, shaking out his fingers when Miro bit them, masterful stuff from one of the greatest sellers in wrestling history. All of the stuff with the turnbuckle pad was great business. Remsberg being a beat too slow on the Kingston pinfall, him stopping Kingston from slamming Miro into the turnbuckle only to be out of position and miss the low blow. This is how you protect an over babyface like Eddie, he was the better man, but lost out due to fate. This is another level performance by Miro and another feather in Eddie's all time resume. 

ER: Incredible, passionate performance for Eddie Kingston, a guy with a career's worth of great passionate matches. He's the guy I currently want to see against every other wrestler, the guy I think is most likely to have someone's best match (at least until Hero gets back). And if there's a Miro match I've ever enjoyed more, it's been many years since it happened, as these two really tapped into something. This is the coolest version of Miro we've gotten, and I love Eddie in big title matches so I was buzzed about it. Eddie got to have a great selling match, working a ton of match long bits in between quick bursts of damaging Miro. Eddie brings that ability to have a chance in any moment of the match, the same way Fujiwara was always in it. Kingston could lose every single match he's in for two years straight and people will still believe he has a chance the next match. It's a strong connection and it elevates his biggest singles matches. 

I fully bought into how big each guy was missing, both running hard into turnbuckles and guardrails, and I also bought into how both would immediately come firing back. Kingston firing off the guardrail with a yakuza kick or how Miro would scream into Eddie. Eddie's chops really did look blistering, and the way all of his offense had these triumphant builds due to the way Miro had avoided them really added to his aura. Seeing Kingston finally land his tope or his backfist really meant something, and the two suplexes he hit looked like a title change. I really liked all the nonsense with the turnbuckle, loved the way it played out. Miro's winning combo was like something Kingston himself would set up: A mule kick low, big high kick, and a big exclamation point running kick to turn out the lights. Great presentation, great title match. 

Jon Moxley vs. Satoshi Kojima

PAS: This was a solid hard hitting New Japan style match which I think was hurt a bit by following Kingston and Miro doing a better version of a similar thing. They really put Kojima over on commentary and it is cool he got to have a big US moment like this. Stuff landed with thuds and I thought Kojima got several big near falls (without ever hitting his Koji lariat), the DDT on the apron looked appropriately nasty and the bloody elbow from Moxley added a bit of spice to the match. But this had a lot of the elbow strike, make a face, elbow strike stuff which I don't like in current Japanese wrestling. Suzuki coming out post match felt like a big moment and I like how AEW takes advantage of an open door policy to have surprises like this.

2021 MOTY MASTER LIST

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New Footage Friday: WAYNE! KOJIMA! HARA! GANNOSUKE! ROCKWELL! ALEXANDER! I QUIT!

Andrew Alexander vs. Ace Rockwell NWA Chattanooga 6/24/11

PAS: This was the blowoff of a feud which started with Alexander pissed he didn't make the PWI 500, and ended with him piledriving Rockwell's father to set this match up. Both of these guys are hidden gems of the 2000s Southern indy scene, and this match had just the right amount of craziness without ever pushing over into deadening overkill. I liked how this started as a fist fight, and bled into something more sadistic. Alexander going Marathon Man on Rockwell's teeth with the pliers was sick shit, as was the waterboarding. I liked how they set up the chair couch early in the match, only to have it sit their like Checkov's gun until the finish. Lesser matches would have had that spot in the first five minutes and then had it forgotten about at the end. Loved the pathos of the finish with Rockwell cuffing Alexander to the ropes, duct taping his mouth so he couldn't say I Quit and just beating on him, only for Rockwell's dad to come from the crowd and tell him "Son he has had enough." Southern fried gold. I have liked both of these guys in the past and this exceeded expectations for me. 

MD: Hey, this was good. Given the nature of I Quit matches, how there can be a lot of dead time and mic work, I thought (while watching this) that I might have to cut this up and talk about how one part or another was really good but that it didn't come together as a narrative. Or that it would have been a "good 18 minute no DQ match but..." I apologize for the lack of faith. Both guys worked hard from the get go here, and then smarter later on. The transitions were good (Alexander charging in and getting back body dropped over the rope early, Rockwell spending too long setting up the row of set up chairs later on, both guys bumping over the top twice for a couple of momentum shifts with a classic comeback in the middle and an opportunistic heel pile driver at the end, Rockwell's low blow during the first handcuff spot). The escalation with the pliers was ghastly and immediately turned the match's heat up. Most importantly, they paid off the chairs being set up 100% correctly, as i t was the last big spot of the match. The use of duct tape to prevent Alexander from saying I Quit was pretty brilliant stuff and perfect moment for a blow-off to a feud in a world where heels really, truly get comeuppance, which is the best pro wrestling world possible.

Damien Wayne vs. Satoshi Kojima SAW 5/3/14

MD: This was sort of the WCW Randy Savage special. Wayne came in early to ambush him at the bell and took most of the match. His stuff looked good, including the great elbow drop off the top, and Kojima made sure to stay an active participant, but it built to a banana peel, here a second missed elbow drop, the quick clothesline, and the pin. Post match Rob Conway came out to make a challenge. Wayne looked good for getting so much in on the champ, even in a short time, but there wasn't a ton to this.

Mr. Gannosuke vs. Manabu Hara Batos Cafe 4/3/18

MD: Nice, measured surprise of a match with plenty of build and escalation that feels earned and hard-fought. Gannosuke was around 50 here and he's fascinating to watch, a resilient scrapper journeyman. He can hang on the mat, though Hara's going to have the advantage 90% of the time. That 10% of the time is when Gannosuke does something outlandish and unexpected, something implausible but entirely believable. They stay exclusively on the mat for a while, and then go back and forth between being on the mat and doing some stand-up stuff to break it up for a bit too. It means that when the bombs come, they're welcomed and when they stay, they don't really overstay their welcome. Knowing the length of the video helped and hurt here because it made you know that Hara's early submissions (no matter how intense and well executed they were) weren't going to do it, but they talk to each other a lot post-match, so it meant the slight worry I had at around the 20 minute mark that this was going to just keep going and going was unfounded. The finishing stretch was full of Gannosuke's stuff (and he had a lot of it) but I would have liked one more tease of Hara's cross armbreaker towards the end. Otherwise, no complaints from me.

SR: Awesome match, which may actually be the best Gannosuke singles I’ve seen, which is crazy to say about a match that happened in 2018. I guess random uploads from Japanese micro indy related YouTube channels are the new gold. I think this was during Gannosukes retirement run so he was bringing the goods. First half of the match is all matwork. Suruga is obviously younger and more athletic and pushing the pace, so Gannosuke breaks out a bunch of awesome Fujiwaraesque counters. Totally didn’t know he had that in him. Second half Suruga continues to dominate by laying into Gannosuke with kicks and palms, I also did not expect a 48 year old has-been-coasting-for-years Gannosuke to eat that kind of stiff punishment. It’s really all about whether Gannosuke is tough enough to survive and break out a counter or whether the younger wrestler will blow him away. Gannosuke is of course a really fun tricky pro wrestler, he can always turn a match around by just kicking someone in the balls or busting out his awesome Gannosuke Clutch, and he fires back with some crowbar lariats and big bombs of his own. No idea what’s been going on lately with so many awesome unexpected Japan indy matches popping up but I love it.

PAS: Gannosuke's rep was always as a sneaky mat worker amongst the FMW dudes, but I didn't think he had this in him. It was a very Fujiwarish performance, which is about as big a compliment as I can give. Hara is way more athletic, but Gannoseke has the guile and kept catching him. When Gannosuke unloaded his big offense at the end it  was great, those lariats had to give Hara some Ikeda flashbacks, all hard upside the head with the bony part of the arm. I would have liked to see one more Hara offensive run during the end, but was better than just weird, which is kind of what we were promised by the matchup. 

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New Footage Friday: CWA THE FINAL WAR '95

CWA Final War 12/14/95

Joe-Joe Lee vs. Rod Price

PAS: This was a US rules match, which I assume means no rounds. Price is a Global guy who is probably best known for accidentally getting his hair weave ripped out by Chris Adams. I was kind of surprised he never went anywhere, he had a good 90s roid belly look and had pretty solid execution. Joe Joe Lee is Satoshi Kojima during his excursion. This was pretty good without ever moving into great. I really liked Lee's jumping elbows, and the finish was some fun BS with a chair.

MD: I concur that it's strange Price never ended up somewhere else. I have fond memories as a kid of watching him team with Tatum in Global and he's perfectly fine here a few years later. They had a more than solid opening exchange, just good action. As the match went on, I could have went for some transitions/cutoffs that weren't so grab-and-arm-and-kick, even if it did make the hotshot towards the end more memorable. It was the first iffy finish on a night of them.

ER: I thought this was great, and was my favorite thing on the show. I was not expecting that to be the case, even though I really like Rod Price and Kojima. Rod Price is like if Candido went through the Power Plant instead of Tennessee indies. Price bumps hard and strikes hard, takes a couple different big bumps to the floor (one through the ropes and one over), and comes off like a proto Luger. Lee isn't as charismatic as he'd become a little later, but his repertoire was solid; I really liked his mule kick (and the way Price sold it), and was impressed at the way he flew into a brick wall like Price. Their scrap on the floor was good, with Price really planting a hard chair into Lee's back, a nice cherry to all the genuinely great stand and trade we got in the match. these two went it and had a top to bottom cool match.


2 Cold Scorpio vs. Jim Neidhart

PAS: I thought this was great. It is a streetfight and all you need to have a great streetfight is two guys willing and able to throw heat, which we had here. Neidhart has great looking clubbing forearms, and was really laying them in, while Scorp would use more fast and sharp combinations, including going body to head. Most of Scorp's flying backfired, as he crashed and burned on a couple of bodypress attempts, he also takes a great bump where Scorp basically does a Flair Flop off the apron to the floor. Weird to have a DQ finish in a streetfight, but Neidhart trying to choke Scorp to death does warrant one.

ER: The layout to this was a strong way to handle a style clash like this, as Neidhart is a limited guy in singles matches whose limitations were turned into strengths here. All he had to do was lay in hard forearms and kneel on Scorpio's throat, and Scorpio was in charge of moving the action around the ring and ringside. Neidhart has big forearms, and he did almost nothing but smash Scorpio in the chest and face with them, coming off in a 0.7 Vader in the process. Scorpio eats those shots and throws quick strikes back, but routinely gets smothered and bullied by Neidhart. In fact the longer I think on it the more I wish we got at least two bigger Scorpio comebacks before the brutal choke DQ. Scorpio really got smothered for 80% of this, and he's someone who can believably go toe to toe with Anvil. The finish looked great, with the tree of woe choke bending back Scorpio's neck, but Scorpio needed a couple more of his violent impact moves.

MD: This almost felt like a Neidhart showcase by default. He was a tank in there and it was on Scorpio and his explosiveness to figure out how to deal with him. It meant that all of the cutoffs were Scorpio basically making a desperate mistake. Again, a weird finish though it was intense enough. Just out of place in what the match was supposed to be. Also, Neidhart should have always come out to Alice Cooper.


Tony St. Clair vs. Danny Collins 

PAS: This is a Piratekampf match which is a chain match/flag on a pole match, a European specific match time which pretty much always delivers. Collins was a real nasty fuck in this match, really laying in all of the shots, and grinding the chain into St. Clairs mouth. I always love the way leverage is used in these Piratekampf matches, lots of cool looking tug of war spots with a guy trying to drag someone else up a pole. I thought the finish was great with St Clair crotching Collins on the top turnbuckle and climbing up him to the flag. This was a midcard Piratekampf so it didn't have the same of sort of gritty war of attrition qualities that the other Piratekampf matches we have seen, but it is a great gimmick and two great wrestlers performing it.

ER: This was really good, and now that I've seen a few Piratekampf matches it really feels like those working the stip treat it very seriously. This was a rough hitting match, Collins especially working this like a darker haired Finlay with awesome punishing strikes, and both guys took nasty yanks and hard bumps while going after the flag. Collins meanness really carried this through, and St. Clair was a real strong babyface, and the crowd was super into him. Collins is a guy I need to seek out more, and I'm sure we will get to more of him with this new wave of German handhelds. The filming of this match was really great, and totally added to the action. The work was tight enough that I wasn't thinking most of the time how I was watching a handheld.

MD: St. Clair coming out to Simply the Best is some glorious wrestling BS. I liked their familiarity with the gimmick, little things early on like Collins trying to cut distance by stepping on the chain only to get yanked off his feet by a ready St. Clair or towards the end when St. Clair uses the chain to make Collins lose his balance on a corner whip to shift the momentum. These tend to be the best possible "on-a-pole" sort of matches because the chain keeps distance short and allows for some nasty shots and knockdowns. This didn't quite get to that level of bloody meanness but it was fun for what it was.

John Hawk vs. Viktor Kruger 

PAS: This was a Texas Bullrope match, and had some of the flaws of that match, lots of dragging to corners and less action. The action we got was pretty good though. Kruger throws a mean running elbow, and I really liked the finish with Kruger breaking up the turnbuckle tapping by tackling Hawk to the floor, but still losing when Hawk hit the turnbuckle from the floor. There was some weird matwork at the beginning and a double kneebar spot, which I guess was Kruger bringing BattlArts to the ranch. Weird to see Bradshaw with that ponytail, the JBL persona is so ingrained with me.

ER: I am a big fan of someone being a "Master of the _____", so Bradshaw coming out to Rednex while being billed as the Master of the Bullrope Match is going to be right up my alley, even if at the end of this I much rather would have seen a straight Hawk/Kruger match. But it's almost always going to be a more interesting match if the focus is on asskicking rather than "reaching for things". These are two I want to see in a slugfest, though I still liked little things they did, like trading stomach kicks while entwined in a knuckle lock, and I am admittedly a sucker for those turnbuckle reaching spots where one guy is doing everything to hold that rope taut while the guy reaching is using all his might to stretch for the buckle. It's a fun bit of actual strength that could go wrong if one of the guys slipped just a little. The finish was the most inspired section of the match, and ending on a high note really does have the power to shine up nearly anything: Bradshaw is going for the fourth and final turnbuckle, so Kruger spears him through the ropes to the floor, then accidentally lariats the ringpost, allowing Hawk to leap back up to the apron and hit the turnbuckle. Rednex play us out.

MD: I struggled a bit with the turnbuckle count here. Bradshaw was already able to channel his inner jerk well. Kruger seemed to be almost as big as him and they played it like a clash of the titans for the most part. Both this and the piratekampf match had the wrestlers almost constantly going for the win which was appreciated but it didn't necessarily make for the most compelling match here. As Eric said, the finish was inspired. It's tough to get a good bullrope match finish and I'm surprised Bradshaw didn't steal this for later on.

Big Titan/Cannonball Grizzly/Fit Finlay vs. August Smisl/Ice Train/Rambo

PAS: This was a cage match with the cage being around the ringside area rather then the ring. The cage basically served the same purpose as a ringrails, just something to get irish whipped into. Finlay was mostly just cheap shotting guys on the outside, he is about the best guy in history to watch throw cheapshots, but I would have liked to see him in ring more. Most of the match was WCW Pro style heavyweight wrestling, lots of Big Titan vs. Rambo. I did really like the Ice Train vs. Cannonball Grizzly stuff, Ice Train had really explosive offensive, that was a WCWSN feud that we just missed by a year or two.

ER: I liked this, but with the talent involved I was expecting more. We still got plenty of good moments, but there were also things we didn't get (like Finlay vs. Train, but instead we were getting tons of Titan vs. Rambo). Finlay's huge torpedo shoulderblocks in the corner were a major highlight for me, and the Train/Grizzly culmination was another big moment. And match that has a jacked up Ice Train hitting a wooly mammoth powerslam on Grizzly is going to have a high floor. Ice Train also had a big leaping clothesline off the middle buckle that was a heavyweight wrestling dream. The rest of this has good brawling and some upper class bumps into the ringside cage, so this was still a win even though I wanted more.

MD: They announce Ice Train as choo choo Ice Train, so that was appreciated. Smisl is a guy I've never seen before and his hat will stick with me more than his seemingly fine work. Rambo was both over and pretty well protected in the match. He got to toss everyone on the other side into the cage to open the match. He was never really the guy in peril and it was only the numbers game that let Finlay's side keep the advantage. That sort of thing. I'm sort of curious to see more Cannonball Grizzly here. For a guy the fans wanted to love, News was problematic at best in 91-92. He had a lot more presence here. Finlay was mainly on the outside throwing violence around when some poor fool got too close to him. He did get to hit a couple of awesome ballistic shoulder blocks in the corner though. The finish was very weird with Ice Train getting his stuff in and Rambo having to basically shout at him to get him to run across the ring to eat a cheapshot from the apron.

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New Japan Pro Wrestling on AXS TV Episode 16 Review

1. Lance Archer & Davey Boy Smith Jr. vs. TenKoji (6/21/14)

I remember a time a decade ago when Lance Archer was a total embarrassment, truly one of the worst wrestlers in the world to appear on my television. I'm in my mid 30s now, I'm a homeowner, and Lance Archer is still a total embarrassment, truly one of the worst wrestlers in the world currently appearing on my television. Man there is not one thing he does well in the ring. He takes offense like he's scared to be hit, always preparing more for the bump he's about to take. His offense is just terrible. We - me the author and you the reader - we know what moves he's supposed to be doing just because we know the movements. But I have no clue what a first time viewer would think Archer was doing half the time. At one point he did a standing splash and Rachel actually had no clue what he was attempting. It's like he was making a weird human tent over him. He just sort of jumped up and landed on all fours, but no part of him came close to touching Kojima. Even worse he awkwardly yelled "Let's get CRAZY!!!" before hitting it. You have never seen anything less crazy that Lance Archer's standing splash. Out of all the things to possibly yell to the crowd...DBS Jr. isn't good either, but it's easy to not notice that when Archer is bumbling all over the ring. For every tiny thing DBS does well, he does something real poor. Nice knees to the stomach, horrible kicks to the stomach. He tries to carry himself like a big guy, but works real soft. Tenzan looked good in this, hit a nice spinkick, tried his damndest to make The Killer Elite Squad (ughhhh that name) look like they have painful offense. Kojima looked kinda sluggish, but DBS didn't do him any favors leaning far away from his lariat. This match was...not good.

2. Hiroshi Tanahashi & Togi Makabe vs. Doc Gallows & Karl Anderson (6/21/14)

Good match, with the story being Makabe was working it with a broken jaw, which sounds like lunacy, but I'll bite. So every shot thrown to Makabe's chin throughout gets a nice sneery reaction from the crowd. Anderson/Gallows work so much better as a team than Archer/Smith, it's really stunning how much work those two get. Gallows/Anderson have their double teams down, and the moves themselves look so much better. Here Gallows hits a great standing splash, and you actually know 100% exactly what it is he's doing. Tanahashi was good in this, fighting for two men essentially. There was an awesome moment where he hit the Sling Blade on Anderson, went up for the HFF and Anderson got the knees up, and right when Tanahashi hit knees Anderson cradled him right up. Awesome near fall, and the spot looked perfect. Makabe isn't great, but this match is kind of an ideal scenario for a Makabe match, as due to his injury he mostly sells, except when he comes back with a big lariat. So limit Makabe to selling and lariats, and things ain't bad! Finish is real nice as Bullet Club dispose of Tanahashi, and Makabe uses the last of his strength to go on a comeback tear, only to get nailed with a jumping Gun Stun, planting him right on his injured jaw. Good stuff.

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New Japan Pro Wrestling on AXS TV Episode 6 Workrate Report

1. Karl Anderson vs. Hiroyoshi Tenzan (8/4/13)

Wow, out of all the G1 matches from 2013 they could have shown, they lead with Anderson vs. Tenzan? Mauro assures me that I am seeing the greatest pro wrestling IN THE WORLD. I'm starting to think Mauro is a liar. Tenzan is still pretty much the same guy he was 15 years ago. The Anaconda Vise has always seemed like a pretty easy move in terms of getting to the ropes. Nothing about this was very good, and I'm not sure why Tenzan is the guy they'd want to expose to a national audience. I mean Shibata vs. Ishii from the same show was RIGHT THERE, featuring two far more relevant guys in an actual good match.

2. Davey Boy Smith Jr. vs. Satoshi Kojima (8/4/13)

Are they really just showing these two matches because TenKoji was a well regarded tag team when I was still a teenager? DBS always gets put over as a big time catch wrestler but most of the time he just works big man power spots. But hey I ended up enjoying this match. Kojima is still plenty spry and all his clotheslines and elbow strikes looked nice (and you know there are going to be plenty of clotheslines and elbow strikes in a Kojima match). A lot of the blocks and reversals looked real good, especially both men blocking each other's lariats (really loved DBS yakuza kicking Kojima's right arm which made Kojima spin around and blast him with his left) and the timing of everything throughout was real tight. Bullet Club interference can be clunky but here it's minimal with Taka grabbing Kojima as he went to the top, but then taking a great tumbling bump down the apron to the floor after Kojima clocks him. I mentioned DBS is always pushed as a catch wrestler and instead does power stuff, but that isn't a real disappointment as a lot of his power moves look good. He has a nice big boot, hard shoulder blocks, nice brain buster, really nice sit out powerbomb, took a nice fast bump over the top off a clothesline. He's essentially a very good Test. This was fun. Also, if you weren't aware of it before the match, Davey Boy Smith Jr. is the son of Davey Boy Smith, who was in the British Bulldogs with Dynamite Kid, and is also related to Bret Hart. This is information Mauro and Josh were polite enough to tell us about every minute.

They are cruel and have Nakamura before the match talking about what a great match Ishii vs. Shibta was and wondering how he was going to top that. Why would they not just show that match!? Maybe they're showing B block one week and A block the next?

3. Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Kota Ibushi (8/4/13)

This right here is a great GREAT match and easily the best thing they've aired so far, probably the best puro match of 2013. The stretch run of this match holds up as one of the best stretch runs of the decade, but really the whole thing is impeccably laid out. Nakamura was a nasty bully who underestimates a more than game Ibushi, and from there we get both guys just really clicking. All of Nakamura's strikes were brutal in this, with the Boma Ye's in particular just horrific (and Ibushi foolishly leaning way into all of them), and all of Ibushi's comebacks were fun and logical. Ibushi can pull off some spectacular flying spots that look effortless yet impactful. Loved his standing shooting star, immediately rolling through and nailing a springboard moonsault. His strikes also worked plenty well but really Nakamura was the story of this match as before this match happened I know I wasn't expecting much, but this match vaulted Ibushi into a "guy I actively like" status, and Nakamura up to the level of "guy I actively seek out". The way he tears into Ibushi is just epic, with some crazy kicks to the back of the head, a couple awesome running knees in the corner, all the Boma Ye's, a crazy flip out moment where he's just stomping on Ibushi's throat and screaming. He really made it look like this indy punk would upset him and that he had made the pompous mistake of underestimating him, and once he really turned it on he came off like a total sadist. This match also figures probably my favorite kickout ever, when Nakamura blasts Ibushi with a knee and Ibushi kicks out on one, fights to his feet and falls flat on his face, and immediately eats another Boma Ye for the easy 3. That spot could have come off so hack and Ibushi really nailed the mannerisms, with some Kawada level selling using his last bit of strength, really putting over that he kicked out at 1 on pure muscle memory but really had nothing left in the tank and was just a final gasp. Excellent match. I linked it above in case you hadn't ever seen it.

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