Found Footage Friday: R2W!? TARZAN~! FUJIWARA~! ORIHARA~! KURISU~! GORO~! AOYAGI~! NOSAWA~!

R2W True Winner 1/28/98

Akira Kawabata vs. Kenji Fukimoto

MD: Hey, it's an opening match. These guys hit the mat hard. My lasting memory of it will be the sound of them doing so again and again and again. Constant noise in this one. You weren't going to get much crowd noise as this place was either sparsely attended or people just hadn't filed in yet (we'll see on later matches). But for this crowd and this spot on the card, they worked hard. I will admit it was a little "your move, my move" or in this case "your earnest offense ending with a half crab, my earnest offense ending with a half crab" as they went to that well again and again. Cross arm breakers too, but mostly half crabs. And the transitions weren't much to write home about, a couple of caught kicks, a couple of opportunistic shots. Lots of rope breaks. After one, Kawabata hit a waterwheel drop and locked in a cross armbreaker of his own for a quick tap. 

ER: It's weird that Akira Raijin was just in TNA for a couple years. What a stupid promotion. Here he is young and has baby fat, working a young lions match with another Kurisu guy. Kurisu Young Lions sound like they should create some horrific violence, and while we didn't get there I felt it rose to something prickly by the finish. I found the matwork scrambles engaging and could have seen a lot more before we moved into the half crabs. Fukimoto had this charming thing where he would stumble over his own feet no matter what he tried, but not in a clumsy way? It looked more like he was putting his whole body into everything, overly committing his weight, and would lose his footing if Akira shifted. They don't budge on a stiff shoulderblock, Akira has a wicked spinning heel kick, and the submission trading at the end felt like Fukimoto was seriously trying to make Akira tap by putting his full weight into half crabs. No prior limb work was necessary, he was trying to fuck up Akira's knee and lower back. When Akira made the ropes and put a hand on his love handle, I don't doubt that lower back was sore. Fukimoto's quick armbar looked like it might get the tap as Akira kept missing the ropes with his swiping boot, but once he got there and earned the break he had much better ring placement with his armbar. 

Chihiro Nakano vs. Misa Okada

MD: Can't say I'm too familiar here. Okada had facepaint and crosses on her gear and a size advantage. Nakano was pretty spry and had a clear technical advantage. Lots of great struggle early on be it over a headlock or Nakano trying to hit a slam or just getting her legs up to block kicks. Okada was able to impose with her size but Nakano was quick to come back with kicks or a flash takeover. At one point Nakano stopped and screamed at Okada only to get run over anyway. When Nakano finally did hit the slam she could have made a slightly bigger deal out of it before hitting the kneedrop. There were a couple of bits of weird positioning where Okada wasn't quite where she wanted her to be and moving her took away just a little snappiness/plausibility maybe. The stretch had some very tricked out stuff though, including some nice roll throughs into leglocks by Nakano and a great go behind into a bent-in-half German by Okada. Eventually though, one of those leglocks did Okada in. Not the smoothest thing at times but great effort overall.

ER: Nakano is a Tarzan Goto trainee and looked confident, while Okada looked much less trained and much less confident. Okada had no idea how to sell offense, she only knew how to take one specific kind of back bump. Any strike that landed, and offense that landed, she froze; but if it was something where she could do her one kind of back bump - a measured, disconnected from impact, wrestling school back bump - then brother you know she was falling to her back. Nakano had to actually slow down her work because Okada kept freezing and not blocking anything. I appreciated how sound Nakano's snapmares were, how she cast a long arc and actually looked like she was flinging Okada onto her back. Nakano was, at times, moving around a corpse and it's a miracle the match looked as much like a match as it did. Okada really gave Nakano nothing to work off, even though Nakano was the one almost always in control. Hilariously, Okada breaks out two gorgeous suplexes during the finishing stretch, a German and a high bridge northern lights, and they were so unexpected because nothing else she did looked anywhere near as good as those suplexes. We needed more of her folding Nakano rather than being mystified by what a kick is supposed to be doing. 

Kazushige Nosawa vs. Masashi Aoyagi

MD: Oh hey, these guys I know. This went pretty much like you'd expect. Aoyagi came out striking, knocking Nosawa all over the place with kicks and throat shots. Lots of variety, with a spin wheel kick, spinning kicks, roundhouses, axe kicks, etc. Nosawa got a few leglocks and even caught a kick and slammed an elbow down on the knee which let him take over for a minute or two, but when Aoyagi had enough he took over with a corner charge that sent him out of the ring, coming back in with a overhand chop off the top. When he lost the gi jacket, you knew it was over, and one kick later, it was. He was quite nice to Nosawa after the fact though, so I guess despite the beating, he could be glad he didn't draw Kurisu instead.

ER: Nosawa is in a green and orange singlet with yellow fringe down the sides, and with his faded red kneepads he looks like he's wearing the fringed singlet version of Tito Santana's El Matador gear. Aoyagi is in a black karate gi and shows no emotion. It's so cool Aoyagi became a NOAH lifer after the first decade plus of his career spent as a karate guy whose style often didn't fit into other feds (in a way I liked). Misawa had such a great eye for talent, all the Japanese veterans and indy scum guys he brought in fit the style so well. He had that vision that led to karate guys like Aoyagi and Akitoshi Saito, BattlArts guys, the kind of mixed fight/background guys that Baba didn't want in Kings Road. 

But what surprised me about this, is that I appreciated what Nosawa brought more than what Aoyagi brought. Aoyagi, a decade into his career, looked like the guy less aware of how to put together a wrestling match. The crowd was rightly into him because of his aura and gave the first somewhat noisy reaction of the night to his big spinning heel kick, but this got good when Nosawa took over and made it a fight. When Nosawa caught a kick and turned it into a hyperextended kneebar, it looked like something that could have actually gotten a quick tap from Aoyagi. Nosawa stood up and knocked Aoyagi around much more than I expected. The way he hammered Aoyagi's leg and threw a dropkick to the kneecap was fired up tough stuff, and his running dropkick to Aoyagi's chest was 0.7 on the Joshi Dojo scale, knocking him dangerously back into the ropes. Fans had been reacting to Aoyagi from his first kicks, but Nosawa had to win them over by establishing toughness. 

Aoyagi removes his gi (!) before delivering his match winning roundhouse to the chest. Nosawa was recovering from a near fall spin kick that could have hit better, and the gi removal was the right call. I've never seen anyone remove their gi as a Lawler strap spot, let alone the stoic Aoyagi, who for all the expression he was showing may have just been removing it because he was hot. 

Yuka Shiina vs. Kiyoko Ichiki

MD: Kiyoko Ichiki came out to Heaven is a Place on Earth, so that's how we're starting this one. She did great to start too, ambushing Shiina and tossing her into the (empty, so, so empty) chairs and then grabbing a chair and hitting a triple jump plancha to the floor like she was Sabu! Then she wiped out completely on an inner springboard attempt and Shiina took over. Ok, ok, I had to stop to watch the rest of the match and Ichiki is pretty great actually. She's definitely someone who went under the radar as best as I can tell. She had mean, mean shots, would step on both hands at once to jump on them, would do a mare and then hang on to the hair to bridge to the next move. Speaking of bridges she had one really clutch bridge out of a pinfall late that was a killer moment too.

But they also did a ton of STUFF down the stretch. This had a sunset flip power bomb and a top rope armdrag. Shiina won it with a series of missile dropkicks including one that was like a sniper rifle to the back of the head. Definitely an ambitious match but they hit the mark more often than not and kept things chippy and mean-spirited the whole way through. I'd like to seek out some more of her stuff.

ER: I instantly fell in love with Ichiki when she came out to "Heaven is a Place on Earth" because you can tell she really loves the song. She waits to enter so the song can build, she takes a circuitous route to the ring so the song can play longer, and at the bell she ambushes Shiina and drives a knee into her hip. I don't know where cagematch got the 1,200 attendance number, but I think these Tarzan Goto indies were cooking some books, as was Japanese tradition. The bulk of this match focused on meanness and had great energy, and that was the stuff that carried this. I liked it less when they went into a few pin sequences that felt out of place for the match they had been working. Despite the pin sequences looking fine, you can tell the crowd also thought they were unnecessary, as they were some of the only parts that got meek reactions. 

No, you wanted Ichiki jamming the sole of her boot into Shiina's face and both stomping and stretching the other's knees. Ichiki's triple jump plancha looked awesome, whatever joshi trainee did a great job of making it look like she was actually checking on Shiina while getting into position to help catch the dive. Shiina's dropkicks all looked really good, punctuated by how quickly she was able to get to an elevated position before delivering them. She gets quickly to the middle buckle before jumping around with the kicks, all in one fast motion, and later delivers the same from the top. There was one moment where Shiina slipped climbing the ropes, that would have been a good time to acknowledge the work done on her knee, but instead she just looked frustrated and climbed back up. No matter, the crowd bought into this because it was good, and the loud ring made every impact of the top sound huge. 

Masanobu Kurisu vs. Goro Tsurumi

MD: Tsurumi was around 50 here. Kurisu was a couple of years older. Kurisu held out a hand. Tsurumi didn't shake it. Kurisu gave him the middle finger. Why would you antagonize Kurisu? Why would you antagonize Tsurumi? This was a war and is, as much as anything else, why we go back and watch these things. Sometimes something is everything you'd want from a pairing. This was probably more.

Kurisu was the early aggressor, brutal shots interspersed with insulting slaps. For the most part though, it was like attacking a giant tree trunk. Tsurumi absorbed everything, even stomps, and then, to Kurisu's misery, the tree trunk started to hammer back with headbutts and shots of his own. Eventually, Kurisu finally opened things up by grinding is foot in Tsurumi's face, getting him to the floor, and burying him in blue plastic chairs. 

Tsurumi decided to get back at Kurisu by prying off an arm, working it int he ropes and then bending it on itself to step on the elbow once or twice. Kurisu returned favor by prying off a leg and forcing Tsurumi into the craziest split imaginable, something you wouldn't imagine this big fro-clad older warrior would be able to manage. Kurisu stayed on the leg, putting it on top and working it. There were little moments of whimsy among the violence here, Tsurumi grabbing at the ref for not breaking it, for instance. Then when Goro took back over and slammed a chair repeatedly into a prone Kurisu and then knocked him off the apron, Kurisu tried to toss a chair into the ring, failed, and then walked right over and sat down in one of those blue chairs, making a scene of it. 

Things devolved into both men working king of the mountain or pulling each other out and walking to a far wall to slam each other's head into it, or trying to use the post, only for the ref to intervene one too many times and get manhandled for his trouble, calling for the DQ. It should have been unsatisfying but it was pretty much the only way this thing was ending. Our last image is of Kurisu bringing in a trash can to try to cause a bit more chaos but finally just giving up on it all. Hell of a thing, this one.

ER: The exact kind of fun, disrespectful old man fight you would want when you see a Kurisu match, with the great twist that old man Goro is actually the one being disrespectful! Kurisu was out here working a regular (i.e. Great) stiff old guy match with sharp chops, forearms that actually look good, headbutts to the jaw and face...and then Goro is the one who turns up the heat with chops to the damn neck and the kind of punches that can only lead to bad things. Tsurumi has the kind of short stiff punches - several variations, lefts and rights, right to the chin and mouth - that fucking KURISU has to sell. Kurisu is an expressive, loud seller, letting out multiple loud yells after getting dropped to his knees with stomach punches. Kurisu, forced unexpectedly to scream his own screams, is forced to make Goro scream.  

Kurisu does this by bending Tsurumi in a way I've never seen Tsurumi bend. Kurisu steps on Goro's instep and forces him into a splits, and the way Goro screams when Kurisu gets him in a wishbone...you never could have convinced me that 50 year old Goro Tsurumi could do the splits. Kurisu stands on the man's back and neck AFTER forcing him into a splits and brother, I don't think I've never seen anything like it in a wrestling ring. Old man Tsurumi is somehow so flexible that I don't think a stump puller would even work as a submission on him. Their fighting is so good, trading shots that all feel like direct reactions to the strike that just landed. Kurisu kicks him in the knee, Goro back chops him in the neck, Kurisu slaps him across the face, it all feels like escalation and a response that says, "Oh yeah, you old fuck? How about this?" 

Kurisu starts throwing chairs into the ring and it builds to a great moment where Kurisu angrily drags a chair to the ring just to use it as a step up to the apron, a hilarious moment in a fight just before the fight is thrown out. 

Mitsunobu Kikuzawa/Shigeo Okumura vs. Crusher Takahashi/Masao Orihara

MD: This could have been a super indie tag five years later (maybe without quite as many low blows?). Really, this is 18 minutes of Orihara (and to a somewhat lesser extent Takahashi) being an absolute jerk. Pure cruiserweight bully stuff. It starts with him chucking the flowers out of the ring. It ends with him killing Kikuzawa (Ebessan/Kikutaro) with a sit out power bomb for the win and leaving the ring with a backlip just because he can.

In the middle, it's just one nasty piece of offense after another. On a lockup, he kicks the leg out brutally. He hits Kikuzawa with a pile driver where he turns to face all four sides of the ring before dropping him. He jams a rana off the top with the meanest sheer drop power bomb. And in between there's all the connective tissue of headbutts, kawada kicks, raking the eyes, that you'd want. Takhashi has a killer brainbuster and one of the meanest snap suplex you'll see too. And then to their credit, Kikuzawa was scrappy, headbutts, throwing himself at his opponents, and a nice leaping tornado DDT.

There was a completely absurd bit in the middle where Orihara would pile driver Okumura, Okumura would snap back up, Orihara would hit a low blow, do it again, and he'd pop up. He'd get one of his own before Orihara finally kept him down with the third. It was entertaining at least. It knew it was absurd and leaned into it. Nothing boring about this match even though it was pretty much a one sided mauling with a bit of hope/retribution here or there. 

ER: Awesome tag with a ton of pride and ego and bad attitude. It's a given that a match with Orihara would have bad attitude, you just never know who exactly he's going to take it out on. Before their opponents are even entering, Orihara shoves the ref with one palm to the chest. Orihara shoves the ref not in the way a heel would, but in the way a bully who does this to someone every single day of their life would. He is one of the most watchable wrestlers and seems like the most unpleasant prick. Crusher does not match Orihara's asshole energy but he understands his mission. He's the one who goes after Okumura's taped up shoulder. Orihara does not target existing injuries, he just focuses on finding how many ways he can kick Okumura in the face. 

Everyone is catching strays. Kikuzawa almost gets his nose busted when Okumura tags out while throwing Crusher into the corner, as the throw whips Crusher's elbow back into Kikuzawa's face. There's some great face in peril work as they isolate Kikuzawa. Orihara throws punishing corner clotheslines, drops Kikuzawa with a brainbuster, the spikes him with a piledriver after showing it off to people on every side of the ring. I get excited for such a great piledriver, and I had no idea we were yet to see several of the most disgusting piledrivers ever to be publicly inflicted on a man. There's a real nasty double team when Crusher locks on a Boston crab so Orihara can come off the top with a double stomp to Kikuzawa's back. 

There's a great bit where we learn that Kikuzawa has the head strength of a Tongan, where Orihara starts dishing out headbutts and does more damage to himself. Orihara is always unprofessional, always a punk, but he's also a gifted salesman with great ideas. I love the way he staggered and dropped himself to his knees after repeatedly, stubbornly headbutting Kikuzawa Fifita. It leads to us witnessing some horrific neck and spine trauma as Orihara and Okumura refuse to sell each other's piledrivers, several times, even though you can see how badly their heads are connecting with the mat on each one. These are some of the most disgusting piledrivers I've ever seen, just intentionally stuffing head and neck into the mat. The way Okumura's legs whip forward on each one just focuses more of the impact and I have no idea how they kept getting up. To add perfect insult to certain injury, Orihara swiftly kicks Okumura in the face before delivering his final one. 

Ichiro Yaguchi vs. Rikio Ito

MD: I don't know. Do you guys know about Ichiro Yaguchi? We've only done one match of his ever on SC. He's a big guy, dressed in sort of blue scrubs with holy crosses on them, in red. He has a phantom of the opera deal and long bleached blonde hair. He comes out to Hell's Bells and has Kiyoko Ichiki with him. He's a character and is bombastic, over the top. Plays to the crowd, the ref, his opponent, though not quite as consistently as I'd like. Anyway, they sort of hit each other hard, I guess. My favorite part of this was Yaguchi making a huge deal out of turning Ito over for a Scorpion Deathlock like he was Choshu, arm up in the air, wide stance. Ito immediately forced his way out and stepped on Yaguchi's throat. I got a kick out of that. This ended in a double countout after which Yaguchi chucked out the ref and raised Ito's hand. I don't regret watching it. Yaguchi could have had a pretty fun Onita match at this point but he spends a few years later fighting Nise Onita instead (though he's with him a lot in the 2010s and I don't really want to know this honestly. I just want to get to the Fujiwara vs Goto tag).

ER: Yaguchi has undeniable presence, a big dude with black metal face paint and crosses on his gear. Had he come out to King Diamond rather than "Hells Bells" I would have considered doing a full Yaguchi deep dive with Matt. Black Metal Mr. Gannosuke sounds like one of the coolest Japanese wrestlers of the 90s, even if this dude doesn't wrestled anywhere near as well as Gannosuke. Ito might be the better worker, Yaguchi feels like kind of deadweight (but not in a way that's fully detrimental to the match). Yaguchi is so-so Gannosuke, Ito is so-so Arashi, and honestly I wish a lot more wrestlers now were so-so versions of 90s Japanese scum guys. I really wanted Ito to go through with his press slam, because it looked insane that he was even attempting it from a deadlift. It was used only so Yaguchi could slip out, but I appreciated the ambition. Ito had better clotheslines, but if Yaguchi learned to do Kabuki-level throat thrusts he could have been a legend. Crowd loudly boos the count out finish, as they should. I suppose we need to keep Yaguchi and Ito strong for the next weird empty show in a giant convention center. 

Keisuke Yamada/Yoshiaki Fujiwara vs. Katsutoshi Niiyama/Tarzan Goto

MD: Best as I can tell this was the first encounter between Goto and Fujiwara. They both toss the flowers out into the crowd to start. Yamada wants to start but Fujiwara doesn't let him and that means Niiyama leaves the ring so Goto can come in as well. This is still a sparsely attended crowed relative to the single level rows of chairs around the ring but they do realize that they're about to see something entirely novel.

It's a game of inches to start, Goto prying an arm off. Fujiwara works him into the corner and batters him though. Then he starts with headbutts with dramatic hairpulls to keep it when Goto tries to shove him off like they were working in the WWWF or something. Fujiwara tagged Yamada (who would be Black Buffalo) in. Yamada was incredibly game in this match. That didn't mean he didn't run right into Goto's crashing weight and go down though. I'd say Niiyama was much more of a weak link, but that primarily meant Fujiwara and Yamada would take back over on him as opposed to letting him hit dubious offense. That let them control for a few minutes before Goto finally took over on Yamada.

The rest of the match wasn't the direct Goto vs Fujiwara match up we might want but it was indirectly wonderful. Goto took it all out on Yamada instead, taunting Fujiwara, rubbing it in his face. At times Yamada would heroically fight back, showing wild fire, only for Goto to cut him off like only he could. At one point, Fujiwara had enough and dragged Niiyama into the ring, punishing him, but Goto didn't care one bit, not like Fujiwara seemed to care about Yamada. 

Yamada finally got free from Niiyama and made a big hot tag. They were able to play the numbers game for a minute but Fujiwara was too much and got the armbar on Niiyama. People streamed from the back to interfere, taking Fujiwara out of the match and leaving things Goto vs Yamada. You'd think that'd be the end of it, but Yamada had one last huge heroic moment, reversing a whip into a barbed wire board. Goto survived that and slammed him down upon it for the win. Things completely broke down after that but as best as I can tell, this never led to anything. Still, so much of what we did get here was iconic.

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80s Joshi on Wednesday: Chigusa! Noriyo!

Volume 4 

1. Chigusa Nagayo vs. Noriyo Tateno (AJW Junior Title) - 8/10/82

K: There’s a story around this match that gives it a little bit of historical significance. This was the biggest match in either woman’s career to this point. Chigusa had won the Junior Title a few months earlier in a decision match against Itsuki Yamazaki. Everyone backstage thought she’d beat Noriyo here as she was 2 years in and Noriyo only 1. That she lost was a such an embarrassment that she said she was quitting wrestling and went to see her parents rather than take the bus with the rest of the roster back to Tokyo. She’d be back of course.

The match is better than the average rookie outing. Chigusa does a couple of Jackie Sato style thrusting big boots to the chest, which is interesting when Lioness Asuka was the one billed as ‘Jackie Jr’ for their similarities. There’s a nice moment where Noriyo Tateno goes in for either a very low flying crossbody or a very high dropdown trip; but either way Chigusa had to quickly jump quite high to avoid it. A nice bit of sloppiness that makes things not look rehearsed. 

It’s also noteworthy that Chigusa already has a bit of fanclub going and they’re quite loudly chanting NA-GA-YO for her. There’s a popular perception that Chigusa’s rise to stardom came with the armies of cheering schoolgirls who started packing out the shows in 1984, but that’s not quite the full story. Even when the fanbase was mostly adult men (though it was a lot mixed than current Joshi) she was getting more popular than her push.

**1/4

MD: It’s important to know that the flowers today were provided by the Nagakusa Park Association and Fukushima Television. Noriyo is 16 here as they are happy to point out repeatedly on commentary. Nagayo has about a year on her. I get that this isn’t uncommon in this footage, but that doesn’t make it less striking when you stop and think about it sometimes. Case in point, they were both also given giant stuffed bears as well.

This was certainly sprinty. Tateno tried for an early attack with a dropkick, but Nagayo was more or less able to defuse much of what she tried. She just couldn’t press much of an advantage herself. When she did, the match was a little better and a little more grounded. At one point she did this sort of curb stomp where the legs were further back than usual as she all but stepped on them. And then she did hit her spin kick at one point too. 

Really though, the strength of this one was just in how they shifted from one hold to the next and kept things moving and competitive. That came into play at the end as Tateno was able to muscle it out and get Nagayo down for the three and the title. We’ve heard of guys legitimately working in the start of the match like in Florida or pretending to do so for extra money like in Oregon but the idea that you work an entire match and then the finish is based on a shoot is still so mindboggling to modern brains (or at least it is to my own). But it does make things unpredictable to say the least. In a match like this where there wasn’t any sort of clear narrative they were following save for that these two were pretty equally matched, it fit well enough, I suppose. It did give this all a bit of a weird feel since Chigusa had a local cheering section and got a chant once, for instance. I guess it all worked out for these two in the end though.

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The Unstoppable Force and the Immovable Object: Mad Dog Connelly vs Calvin Tankman

Mad Dog Connelly vs Calvin Tankman GCW The Last Ones Left 6/20/26

MD: Once upon a time Austin Connelly was a man like any other, a man like you and I. 

This world that we live in, however, this world that he had to endure day after day, year after year, it changes a man. Some of us can go about our lives keeping our heads down, watching, observing, yeah, even writing, instead of doing. 

Half of any crime is opportunity. 

We all have the intent deep down, whether we want to admit it to ourselves or not, but Austin Connelly had the opportunity we didn't. He was a professional wrestler, a fighter, a warrior. His trade, the living he made, was one of violence. When violent tendencies, the violent possibilities that tug at each and every one of us, and violent opportunities come together, a beast can be born. And so he was, bursting forth full grown from an unhealable wound upon the world. 

Mad Dog Connelly is an unstoppable force, ever roaming, a shark unable to stop, a predator that has to take the most vicious, the most onerous path. No choice, no hesitation, no regret. Pressing ever on.

Calvin Tankman, however, is an unmovable object. He'd taken some time to heal up, to recenter himself. Now he was back on the scene on home turf, in front of a crowd that was 95% supportive. 

What happens when an unstoppable force meets an unmovable object? The heavens themselves shake.

Connelly can be driven to acts of animal ingenuity, and he would be here soon enough, but his first instinct was to charge forth. He did so again and again, bounding right off of Tankman with sweeping momentum that would have taken down any lesser man. Tankman brushed him off like he was nothing. 

He was not nothing. He was rage and fury embodied in a mortal frame. The fight spilled the outside. Connelly gnarled at Tankman with teeth and forearms. Tankman staggered but struck back. 

And then they found the chain.

To Connelly, the chain is a comfort; the chain contains him, grounds him. The chain is a burden, for he is Sisyphus ever dragging the weight of the world behind him with it. It is not a weapon, no more than a fist or a foot is a weapon. It is a part of him.

Tankman learned that quickly, winning the tug of war but losing the war of momentum, Connelly shifted at the last moment to cause Tankman to careen into the post. From there, the choking began. The great equalizer. On the ground, any two men are the same size, and in this case, one man had linked rings of steel to wrap around the throat of the other.

He could have left Tankman for dead. That wasn't enough though. It wasn't satisfying. A few minutes of violence against an opponent so formidable? It didn't quench the need. It brought no peace, no quiet, no respite. It did not relieve the pressure. The boulder continued to press down upon Sisyphus.

So they made it back to the ring and he gave in to his desire to gutwrench him over, and then, when that proved ultimately futile, to trade strikes. Connelly's strikes were mighty, but even the harshest wind cannot punch down a mountain (at least not in the span of a day). And this mountain punched back. 

Tankman took over, knocking Connelly around the ring. He went for a power bomb, but Connelly blocked it. For a moment, the unstoppable force made himself an immovable object. It would not last. Tankman packaged him up, hefted him up, and turned that into a power bomb. Yet Connelly would not stay down.

Nor would he stop fighting. He would not because he could not. It's as simple as that.

He crawled his way out of a body slam and took out Tankman's leg from behind, cutting down a tree that he could not blow over. He hammered him in the corner with explosive dropkicks, and then, a rare sight indeed, he rose to the top, flying off with a diving headbutt. Tankman would not stay down either.

Heading back up to the top to fire off another shot, he found Tankman before him having given chase. Connelly meant to flip over him and power bomb him. Maybe he couldn't gutwrench him, but clever beast that he was, he could use gravity to his advantage. 

Tankman would not be moved. Instead he backdropped Connelly over, rose the rest of the way to the top, and just as Connelly had tried to become an immovable object before, Tankman himself now became an unstoppable object, flipping feet over head with a thudding moonsault. 

The fire within Connelly did not stop. The force continued to push against all of the injustices and hypocrisies of the world, but this once, with Tankman pressed down upon him, the force stoppable or not, simply had nowhere to go.

In the clash of these two primeval entities, the object bested the force on this night. But the force would travel on for the pressure is unbearable and the boulder ever needs pushing.

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AEW Five Fingers of Death 6/15 - 6/21

ROH Global Wars Cincinnati 6/18/26 / AEW Collision 6/20/26

Athena vs Syuri / Athena vs Maya World

MD: So, why do we watch?

I've been watching Athena as ROH champion since 2022. In that time, I've seen her defeat Yamashita, Nightingale, Sakura, Sakazaki, Hogan, Starkz, Martinez, Rose, Abadon, Catalina, Persephone, Windsor, and on and on and on, some multiple times. Plus, you might say the heart of the title run, the connective tissue, has been the Proving Ground matches. There have been so many of those. I've seen a lot of Athena. Anyone following ROH has.

So what's the appeal now so deep into the title reign? What made these two matches stand out against everything else last week? 

With some wrestlers, familiarity breeds contempt. You start predicting moves before they happen and while there's a sort of comfort to that, comfort only takes you so far. Athena is the definition of unpredictability. She is volatile, tempestuous. It's at the core of her character and generates the energy that draws you into her matches. But just as important, with Athena, the familiarity you develop gives you a launching point. 

For some wrestlers, it's all about spots and counters. The action drives character. The cart leads the horse. It's all about getting to the big idea with little care on how the match actually gets there. With Athena, character drives everything. Because the character is so good, so dynamic, so engaging, "everything" becomes full of organic, interesting destination points, maybe even more so than those matches that are contrived to get to certain spots. Who she is drives what she does. And she will react differently to every opponent and every situation. 

Knowing her past (encounters and otherwise) with Syuri and Maya made so much difference here. Despite her close connection to Maya as mentor and lack of such with Syuri, there were similarities. Both opponents had gotten the better of her in one way or another, and the list of those who had done so over the last few years is very small indeed. Syuri had successfully defended her IWGP Women's Title against Athena earlier this year. Maya is the one blemish on Athena's ROH singles record, surviving a Proving Ground match. She subsequently took he to the limit in the title match she earned and the Survival of the Fittest that followed. Maya may be billed as the It Girl, but there remains a sense of Final Girl to her as well, the one who might be fated to end the horror that is Athena. It's not quite a prophecy, not quite an inevitability, but it's as clear a possibility as any other right now. And Athena knows it. 

Of course, with Maya there were other factors at play. Her run through the Owen Hart Tournament, a title shot at All In on the line, is a bittersweet Cinderella story. Her brother passed away recently. Despite that, perhaps because of it, she threw herself into her work, becoming a last second substitution for Sareee and defeating Skye Blue to propel her to the semi-finals and to another match-up with Athena. The character of Athena has professed tough love when it comes to her minions. While there always seems to be a self-serving undercurrent to that, it's hard to deny the results, and occasionally, very occasionally, hints of humanity poke out from the monster she's become, though usually only to get swept away by the rage and fury of the fallen goddess. Meanwhile, Athena herself has lost in the semi-finals of the Owen tournament twice. As she carries ROH on her shoulders, she's been unable to reach the highest peaks in AEW. 

And of course, and this would be true if she was facing Shafir or Statlander in main events or Forza or Nixi XS in proving ground matches, Athena is excellent at not just finding the kernels of truth between herself and opponent but in crafting a dynamic character which will create such opportunities in the first place.

It's easy to compare and contrast how these matches played out and see that aspect plain as day. Look at the first few minutes of both. With Syuri, she extended her (yes, left) hand, Syuri took it graciously, Code of Honor met with some respect. Then they went at it, a feeling out process. Athena more than held her own, but Syuri, having the superior confidence and momentum since she won the last match, pressed her advantage. Athena didn't get dominated but she was absolutely on her back foot, forced to be reactive in the face of Syuri's technique, agility, and aggression. It was a bit of a role reversal compared to how she would normally bully around her opponents. It's actually somewhat rare that someone can get a conventional shine on her. This wasn't quite that, but it was far closer to it than usual, and it was fascinating because of that.

With Maya, things were completely different, and I don't just mean the fact it wasn't an ROH match so there was no Code of Honor (she was quick to shove Maya down and taunt her with her own M/W hand signals instead). This had more of an exhibition or celebratory feel. A playful feel. It reminded me a little of the Willow ROH match where they hit finishers of previous ROH champs. That had thrown me at the time but this didn't. Here, they went counter for counter, tit for tat, cartwheeling through things, rolling around the ring with cradles. There was a showy element to it. I'm not saying that the character of Athena was taking it easy on Maya, but I do think she was perhaps giving her some rope, was letting her shine. You might call it kindness, knowing this was Maya's moment in the sun after all that she'd been through, but knowing Athena, it was probably more like false hope. She was playing with her food, building confidence so that she could snatch it away. After the fact, she might even claim it was magnanimous, but it would have been her lying to herself, the world, the heavens. She held a grudge against Maya for taking her to the limit three times in the last few months, once literally in the Proving Ground. And perhaps even more than that, she now realizes that there is a chance that she is Cronus, not a god but a Titan, with Maya as the Zeus set to someday overtake her.

Of course, Athena is equal parts wrathful and resourceful and she was able to take over on both opponents. With Syuri, it was on the apron, absorbing repeated knee shots to hit a brutal twisting power slam upon it. With Maya, the moment that she Maya stepped just a bit too far, when her confidence was growing just a bit too much and she was maybe about to get one over on Athena, her mentor squashed her like a bug with her Something Evil variation on the floor. No Koji Clutch follow up needed here. It was all about contorting her, crushing her, and opening the door for the damage to follow. 

And the damage she did upon both opponents looked quite similar. With Syuri, it was a bit more focused. With Maya, it was somewhat more meandering, more playing to the crowd, more rubbing it in Maya's face, but it was equally brutal for both. Yet both would come back and get a measure of revenge. Here, however, is where the matches once again deviated. One of the joys of ROH matches and about Athena's run as a whole, is that there's more room to breathe, less need for commercial breaks to help drive the match (Maya came back right when they were returning from break, for instance). Instead of going down into the finishing stretch, the ROH title match was allowed to have an extra level of complexity. Syuri took Athena off the top rope with a hold and started to dismantle her arm. They were already past the conventional heat segment at this point, but it added an extra wrinkle which would make the remainder of the match more interesting. 

Athena would have to both escape submissions and fight back with one arm. Meanwhile, Syuri would shift her focus to bigger bombs in an attempt to put Athena way. As they fought to the finish, they traded those bombs, including Athena pulling out moves she only does rarely, like a Tiger Suplex. Syuri pushed her advantage (both the momentum with which she started the match with and that gained from the damaged arm) and Athena came off as something of a vulnerable champ who could lose at any moment, deepening the drama. Despite that, she was able to hit one last clutch reversal, slipping through the legs for a pumphandle tombstone, setting up the O-Face and her getting her win back and retaining the title. 

With Maya, things were very different. Athena survived Maya's comeback through familiarity, having an answer for everything Maya tried. Yet, Maya kept coming, her refusal to back down shifting Athena into the sort of reactive state she had been in against Syuri. That ended in disaster for Maya, however, as both women found themselves on the floor, and then up on the guardrail, with Athena getting the best of the moment and driving Maya down onto it with a Rock Bottom.

The match opened up emotionally from there. As it looked like Maya wouldn't beat the count (a 10 count here as opposed to the 20 count in ROH), Athena reached out to pull her in. It seemed at first like another magnanimous gesture, Athena giving her protege (though not minion) a chance to win or lose in the center of the ring, to not squander her opportunity on a fluke. She immediately began to berate her over her brother's memory, however.

Why do we watch Athena? Because she's dynamic and complex. Because she is the roiling ocean, an active volcano, because she is a villain that may not be sympathetic, may not be relatable, but that is all the more fascinating because of her strengths and her faults.

At first it seemed like she was offering a hand to Maya to lift her up. Then, as she berated her and Maya exploded upon her, it seemed like she was trying to awaken something within Maya, to try to make her fight all the more, to make her the best she could be. Here's where that familiarity comes into play though. That's not what she was doing at all. She was luring her in. It wasn't that she wanted Maya to be able to win or lose in the ring. It's that she wanted to put her down once and for all, definitively. It's not that she wanted Maya to rise up and fight. It's that she wanted her off her game and frazzled. That's why she was able to catch her in the corner and take her down, setting her up for the O-Face. Maybe if the wind had blown a little different or the sun had shined through the trees Athena may have decided differently and found just a modicum of grace. But it hadn't and she hadn't, and now it was time to end Maya.

The O-Face is one of the most protected moves in wrestling. Barring a fluke roll out of the ring or a foot on the rope, it ends matches. That's important. People love surprise kickouts and artificially propped up exciting finishing stretches, but it's so much better to define something, to make it important, to reinforce its importance, and then, when it really, really matters, when you want to make someone, when you want to highlight her journey and put her over the top, then and only then, to have someone kick out. Only then. Only when it matters the most. You build up capital, build it and build it and build it, and then you pay it off. That's the most powerful tool in pro wrestling.

In some ways, that's a symbol for Athena in general. Some people say she takes up too much of the air in her matches, that she overwhelms and eats up opponents, but she always reacts when things don't go her way. She sells it emotionally, because she expects to win, expects to dominate, and so often, lives up to her own expectations, thus creating that expectation with the fans as well. In that regard, she reminds me of Stan Hansen. By enforcing so strict a baseline, it means any deviation from it carries great rewards for an opponent who can step up and force it. 

Athena hit the O-Face clean. She pinned Maya cockily. Maya kicked out. Athena sold it like the shock, the transgression, the offense, the violation to the order of the universe that it was. She had invoked Maya's brother. She had awoken something inside of her. She had thought it would be something Maya couldn't handle, a means to the end that was the O-Face, but it was instead something that Athena couldn't handle, something stronger than her most dangerous weapon, something powered by love and not hate and therefore, something that Athena could no longer tap into or understand, no matter what she might claim. 

Maya got a fluke small package, but Athena pushed her way out. Then, much like Stan Hansen before her, inevitability, hierarchy, maybe even fate upon her side, Athena reared back to hit a lariat of her own. Maya ducked it, tied Athena up, pressed all of her weight down upon her, and heard the ref count three. 

Post-match, Athena embraced Maya. There's no way to know if that would have been the end of it, if she wouldn't have ambushed her if Mercedes hadn't come down. That's part of what makes Athena so interesting after all, the wild unpredictability. Even if she had spared her, it wouldn't have been heroism but instead another streak of false magnanimity from a fascinating villainess. 

So why do we watch? 

The consistency, the variance, the commitment, the familiarity, the unpredictability, the truth and the contradictions. 

How could we not? Why would we ever look away? 

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Sunday Reading: Dixie's Got the Yeyo

Dixie vs. Tony Lazaro JAPW 9/13/02 

ER: Jersey All Pro Tony Lazaro wrestled less than 25 matches in his career and died tragically young, which might make him the most obscure eventual member of Special K. This was before his brief Special K run, not yet one year into a career that didn't last two. Think of this match as Kikuchi trying to rise up against Kobashi, but if Kikuchi and Kobashi were 135 pounds soaking wet. Knowing how inexperienced Lazaro was, it's another great Dixie performance, highlighting how good he was at missing offense to create openings, and how advanced he was at fueling the innovation of others. His fast missed offense to set up an opponent's sequence - like his fast spinning heel kick - was something La Parka was really good at in the exact same way. I don't think Dixie was inspired by La Parka, he just has many qualities that great wrestlers have. He's able to highlight the strengths of Lazaro in cool ways, working familiar sequences in ways that include something unfamiliar. 

I loved the way they approached their mirror sequence, with them mirroring each other so well that they actually perfectly connect the soles of their feet during the mirror dropkick. I don't think I've ever seen that. Dixie works his brilliant fusion of southern wrestler and innovative joshi worker, throwing sharp punches and multiple kneedrop variations to glue together his attacks. The knee he shoves into the side of a crawling Lazaro's head is even better than his traditional vertically dropped knee. They don't overdo big spots which makes their high end basics stand out, and makes their biggest spots pop. Seeing them do a gorgeously executed Ocean Cyclone Suplex is cool because you get to see what it would look like performed by people smaller than Manami Toyota. 

There's a great moment that really captures the feel of this era of Jersey All Pro, when Lazaro hits Dixie with a stiff mule kick to the face from the apron then hits an Asai moonsault that smashes his shins across the guardrail. He earns his Holy Shit chant for the dangerous landing, while also earning his babyface cheers when he makes it back to the ring fired up from surviving his bad landing. JAPW fliers landing brutally and fighting through pain is one of the things that made the style so cool. It turns traditional wrestling selling on its ear because we witnessed them actually surviving violent crashes, their toughness eschewing the need for theatrical limping. 

Dixie is an innovative bumper without reinventing the bump, great at taking slamming offense on his face. His small frame was perfect for being whipped into the mat on pancakes and 2002 Staten Island playground wrestling full nelson clutch slams alike. He's also great at quickly setting up and executing extremely complicated offense. His match finishing Air Raid Crash delivered over his own knee rules in its full embodiment of the promotion's highly embellished style, but it's the way he gets Lazaro into position for it so quickly that makes it the style's equivalent to an Arn Anderson spinebuster. 

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE SPECIAL K

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Found Footage Friday: LOS INFERNALES~! VALENTE~! GUERRERO DE LA MUERTE~! NIEBLA~! LATIN LOVER I GUESS~!

Rayo De Jalisco Jr./Latin Lover/Valente Fernandez vs. Los Infernales (Satanico, MS-1, Pirata Morgan) Monterrey 8/23/92

MD: We had previously covered the Latin Lover vs Valente Fernandez apuestas match so it's nice to get this as well, which has Fernandez turning on him, including him explaining it after the match. Morgan wears a bandana through this as he'd just lost his hair to Vampiro. Infernales ambush to start, and it's a solid rudo beatdown where they cycle through the tecnicos before slamming Lover, holding him down, and having MS-1 squash him with a top rope splash. Segunda starts with Rayo charging the ring and it settles down to exchanges. He gets all of his stuff in as the Infernales bumble about. They're as good as anyone playing into it. Fernandez looks very good too, sharp offense, going out as a tecnico with a bang. Lover less so, overall. The tercera was short but chaotic with guys going in and out of the ring and the tecnicos sort of trying a hit and run approach. It ultimately backfired as Lover rushed in to save Fernandez from a 3 vs 1 situation and accidentally dropkicked him. Fernandez lost it after that and started in on Lover with a chair before raising his hands with the Infernales and going back out to post Lover some more. He got a ton of heat for it and on commentary after noted how sick he was of Lover constantly being so clumsy. The payoff was fun so now it's nice to have the set up too.

ER: I loved the match long payoff of Valente losing his shit on Latin Lover, because every time Lover was in this match he looked like the worst wrestler in Monterrey. Were Rayo's bunny hop headbutts ridiculous? Yes. But everything Latin Lover did - outside of a cool bad landing dropkick on the floor to MS-1 - looked like it was done by a guy who should not be in a ring in front of paying customers. Watching him hit light clotheslines below the boobs or his weird Roadblock moonsault bumps to the floor was enough for me, but watching Valente doing several flawless classic lucha bumps to the floor made me fully understand his turn, even before the dropkick. And let's hear it for my boy MS-1, the least acclaimed of Los Infernales but a helluva show here, outshining Satanico and Pirata, huge aura, big top rope splash, throwing harder punches than his celebrated brethren. 

Latin Lover/Kato Kung Lee vs. El Sanguinario/El Mercenario Plaza De Toros Monumental mid-1992

MD: It's worth going through all of this just so we know someone's covered it. Rob had pointed out a number of new matches on this channel and I can report back that there's not a lot to see here. Lover still had his mask at this point and he was over with a part of the crowd as the new idol/sensation, and I'd even say his stuff looked a little better here, maybe because Sanguinario was flying into it so well, but this was fairly straightforward. At one point in the segunda when the rudo beatdown abruptly start, he got lawn darted into the seats and that was pretty satisfying and Kato Kung Lee got to do his stuff right at the end to entertaining effect but the VQ was rough for the most part and the opening exchanges were pretty subdued. Unless you really want a glimpse of what early Lover looked like, I'd say this is probably a skip.

ER: If any of you are out there reading this and still wondering what early Latin Lover looked like, picture the worst Lenny Lane match you've ever seen and now picture Lenny with less polish. 

Mr. Niebla vs. Guerrero De La Muerte Arena Coliseo 12/17/96

MD: Just the tercera here. We come in with Guerrero in charge, first with a camel clutch and then tossing Niebla off the top. He has a cool little bit he does where he winds up with his foot for leverage before tossing him too. He then starts slapping the piss out of Niebla, which only enrages Niebla and enables the comeback, which included a great moonsault from the apron to the floor. On the way back in though, Guerrero pulls off Niebla's mask. The ref buys that it was an accident and the match continues (which I've rarely ever seen actually).They rolled into a stretch from there, including a big top rope dive to the floor and then wiping out over the top in a Jerry Estrada bump by Guerrero which was followed up by Niebla having to shift directions to hit his tope. Guerrero caught him on a rana attempt and dropped him with a power bomb for the win though. A good fall. Shame we don't have the whole thing.

ER: Fantastic one fall tercera look at the things that made Guerrero de la Muerte a special worker, one who we've likely highlighted much less than other special workers from this era of special workers. This was Guerrero's fall. Niebla got a couple cool tecnico moments: a big Asai moonsault (the way he slingshots himself to the apron made it look like he was going to go even crazier, like Gran Metalik or Taka) and a tope with hardly any run up, just switched directions when he saw where Guerrero was running. Guerrero was great at setting it up, his backdrop to the floor superb, holding onto the top rope to get full extension and holding it for a full arc. It looked like he was captured in a vert ramp trick on the cover of Thrasher. 

But the fall was all about building to those few big Niebla moments and letting Guerrero run wild with the rest. Even Guerrero gets a big dive, hitting an awesome full arms out plancha. Both were excellent at catching the others' dives. I'm with Matt in that I don't think I've ever seen a mask removal deemed "accidental", and in this case Guerrero was definitely Up To No Good with the mask removal. The way it happened was so sick. He had the mask partially removed and had a handful of the mask's jawline so he could hold Niebla in place while punching him in the face. Niebla began to fall after taking punches and the mask came off in Guerrero's hand. An accident, in that he wasn't attempting to rip his mask off, he was merely using the mask to punch his opponent in the teeth!

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80s Joshi on Wednesday: Mimi! Masami! Jaguar!

Volume 3   

13. Mimi Hagiwara sings 'Broadway Dream'

K: Matt got to this first and made me chuckle that he keeps reviewing the singing segments, not something I ever intended anyone to do! It’s just part of AJW. You have to watch it. If anything my curation has significantly downplayed the proportion of 80s AJW TV that consisted of wrestlers singing. Part of it was to try and sell records (these songs were all released as singles), but I also think they match up well with their in-ring personas and aren’t just random songs.

MD: I don’t know? What do we say about this. It’s weird to see Mimi in red and not white. She’s more expressive selling than singing but she’s clearly good at this? This was disco-tinged in a way I may have expected a year or two earlier. I got nothing. I’m tone deaf. 

14. Devil Masami vs. Jaguar Yokota (WWWA Singles Title) 7/19/82 

K: We don’t have much info on attendances for this era of AJW but I’d make an educated guess that this was the biggest show of the year. It’s Ota Ward and it looked pretty packed. We’re missing a lot of the TVs before this one unfortunately. We do know that Mimi Hagiwara & Yukari Omori successfully defended the tag belts against Leilani Kai & Velvet McIntyre in a show shortly before this. They beat Princess Victoria & Wendi Richter in the match before this one, plus earlier in the show Lioness Asuka beat Masked Yu to win the AJW Title (which had been vacated by Devil Masami earlier). 

Right from the introductions you can hear that there’s sizeable contingent in the crowd who are cheering for Devil Masami. Anyone who tells you fans cheering for heels is something that only started recently needs to brush up :) It’s worth noting not just because it’s unusual, but I also think it informs how the match plays out. If the reason for Devil getting cheered is some fans liked how violent and ‘badass’ she comes across, this got undermined by Jaguar Yokota really pulling out that side of her tonight, which was a good thing.

Devil’s more crazed shenanigans are put on the backburner tonight, it feels like her and Jaguar really want to deliver more of a classic style wrestling match. They distinguish themselves not by Devil cheating as such, but the different way the transitions play out. Firstly, we have them go to the mat, where Jaguar is pretty dominant in locking Devil up in various leg-focused holds (which Devil sells with excellent facial expressions). Devil switches things by powering out of a butterfly suplex position. Later again when she’s on the defensive it’s because Jaguar has her in an unusual submission where she’s pulling both Devil’s shoulders back behind her like she’s about to do a really big sitting chest press but is overdoing it… but Devil has the brute strength to power out and take Jaguar down. On the other hand, whenever Jaguar takes the advantage, it’s by using some combination of speed and technique, for instance when she leaps at Devil off an Irish Whip and rolls her up into a pinning predicament. 

Power vs. technique, but also there’s an added malice to Devil’s offense, for instance in how she slams Jaguar face first into the match, like she’s adding a bit of gratuitous violence/humiliation into it. She’s also the first one to take things to the outside, where she throws Jaguar into the chairs. It’s such a ubiquitous spot I sometimes think you need to think of Joshi match structure as shine - heat - throw into chairs - hope - comeback or something. It works as a signifier that we’ve moved onto a new section of the match.

Jaguar gets back into the ring and has an angry vibe about her. She quite quickly gets the advantage when they start a Greco-Roman style struggle, which you’d normally think would favour Devil, but Jaguar’s able to use her leverage to flip Devil over in a kind of monkey flip move and then goes to work on her. She’s so aggressive and vicious at going after Devil’s leg that Devil actually flees to the outside limping! There’s a big roar from the crowd supporting Jaguar here, it’s as noisy a crowd as we’ve had in a while. She gets a reprisal in and throws Devil into the outside chairs.

The big criticism at this point has to be about Devil mostly dropping selling her leg after the restart, or after a minute or so. I don’t think it’s accurate to say she drops it entirely, she does subtly walk a bit unevenly on it for a little bit and when she has Jaguar up in the military press she does a movement just as she drops her that her leg was about to give out if she held up Jaguar a moment more. I’d put this in the category of it would have elevated the match if Devil sold her leg more, but it’s not egregious enough to actively drag things down. We’re also just hitting a climax here which is exciting enough that I don’t really notice unless I’m really paying attention. 

Also, Jaguar hits and OVER THE TOP ROPE dive onto Devil on the outside. I’m pretty sure she’s only the 2nd woman - after Tomi Aoyama - to ever successfully hit that move. Puts over that you’re watching a special match when something like that gets pulled out.

We’re not getting a winner here. We’ll have to wait another year for that. Double countout it is. Thematically, the way they executed this works. Jaguar has tapped into her most vicious side and - unusually for her - is showing a lot of emotion and expressiveness in dishing out punishing to Devil. She actually looks gleeful at times. It all gets out of control when she’s swinging a chair around at her as Devil gets her cane to try to fight back, but despite that being her element, they come across as evenly matched at this. A flaw is Jaguar’s chair shots are a bit weak, although I may be looking at them with post-ECW eyes, and it is a positive that wrestlers didn’t seem to need to actually scramble their opponent’s brains to get a reaction from a chairshot.

Excellent match and one of the best of the early 80s for AJW.

****1/4

MD: Long title match between the top face and the top heel and a great way to end the disc. What clearly stands out in this relative to Jaguar’s predecessors, and a theme for this disc in general, is just how much she took the fight to Devil. Despite being carried out by her faction, they would be a non-factor here, only intervening when everything broke down at the end and maybe acting as moral support when Devil was hurt the worst. Jaguar had enough of Masami’s crap and she was going to take no more. 

While Devil tried to attack her at the start, she turned it back on her with a cross body block off the second rope and after trading a few holds (including a deep tapitia/cavernaria variation by Devil), Jaguar honed in on the leg. That meant a brutal figure four, with the two selling huge in what seemed to be oppressive heat. It meant wrapping the leg around the rope and kicking at it. It meant her short leg scissors. It meant a toehold with her knee dug into Jaguar’s leg. Jaguar sold it with her usual expressiveness and Jaguar put over the effort like the most important thing in the world.

Which, of course, meant that Devil would drop it completely as she headbutted her way back into a comeback, immediately locking in a tapitia that used the leg like nothing had happened. Bit of a shame, not because you have to sell religiously but because it was both the meat of the match and so well done while it was happening.

That said, the bombs they bridged to next were compelling.They both had a lot of stuff and some good transitions as well. Jaguar flipped through a tilt a whirl backbreaker attempt. Devil reversed a second tombstone. It seemed like maybe, just maybe, Jaguar was going to get her after bridging up out of a pin and finally hitting her double underhook and belly to back suplexes, but Devil survived.

They spilled to the outside to finish the match (having visited it once or twice already) with Jaguar again getting fed up and launching an assault on Devil with a chair. Devil came back with the kendo stick and they jousted for a while before taking out the ref and forcing the match to be thrown out. It was still pretty satisfying even if they clearly left a lot more for the future. We tend to not hold the dropped limbwork against them because they just hadn’t mentally worked their way through that sort of longterm consequence but here it did particularly grate. Still, the good was exceptionally good. 

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AEW Five Fingers of Death 6/8 - 6/14

ROH TV 6/11/26

Eddie Kingston/Ortiz vs The Workhorsemen

Punch in. Knock out.

That's the creed of the Workhorsemen. It's built into their name. Carpenters. Good hands. Guys you want to anchor your card. Solid. Unshakable. They'll give anyone a tough match. Can credibly beat any other team on any night. Do work that anyone would be proud of. 

So that's on one side. On the other? Eddie Kingston and Ortiz. Eddie's here in ROH not to give back, not to teach, not to train, not help even, but to give the young lions of the company someone to push off against, someone to show heart against. 

That's well and good for Billington, for Price and Oliver, for Cole Karter or Griff Garrison. 

Not JD Drake. Not Anthony Henry. They've been punching in and out for years and they've seen one kid after the other get the fame, the fortune, the recognition, the opportunities. Life happens. It's happened to both of them. Maybe if things had gone a little different, one of them would have been the Continental Champ, the ROH champ, would have gotten Ortiz' chance to shine. Eddie fought for what he had. Ortiz made the most out of opportunities. But they would have too. 

Do they whine? No. Do they quit? Never. They keep punching in. They keep knocking out. They keep fighting. Maybe there's a chip on their shoulder, but given how they use it, that's a good thing.

This was just a really good mid card tv tag. The characters and the expertise drove it. That chip on the shoulder? They found the middle ground between that driving everything and classic tag team knowhow. For the latter, Ortiz especially was so good at being in the right place at the right moment for the right effect. I wasn't a huge fan of the Ortiz/Santana combo because it was a little too much of the same, maybe a little cute when it came to some of the tandem offense, but you put him in with contrast, and so much of what was great about that team gets to shine without any distractions.

Then you put him against the Workhorsemen who excel at controlling the ring and creating opportunities both for themselves and their opponents and then making the most of the former and cutting off the latter, and it just works exactly like it's supposed to. Maybe more than anything else, I love how they created time for one another. Henry would hang on against an opponent just long enough for Drake to recover and assert himself. Drake would just do the same, biding time until Henry was in the right spot so he could push his opponent into their corner for a trip. There's an element of trust and understanding that most teams never quite reach, but when you see it in practice, it's a special sort of magic.

And then Eddie was there to add the spice and, despite what the Workhorsemen might want, to be someone for them to push off of. Certainly Drake did, jawing, chopping, slamming into Eddie. Henry did as well, going so far as to throw a bunch of Kawada kicks just to make him angry. Then, when it came time for the comeback, one that was very much earned through missed tags and drawn refs and other Southern tricks, he came in like the folk hero he is, chopping away and giving everyone grief (most of all himself, like always), before a leapfrog from Ortiz set Henry up for the DDT.

Just a really good way to spend twelve minutes. Yeah, there are tag team belts stranded in Mexico right now, but this was pro wrestling for the sake of it, guys fighting for pride, fighting because the bell rings and they're faced off against each other, fighting because they're wrestlers and pro wrestlers wrestle, and we, as pro wrestling fans, watch them wrestle. Hell of an arrangement we have here. 

I don't get a lot of feedback out here. That's part of why I post on Twitter now too. Even then, I don't get a ton. But I did get sent a post a year or two ago on BlueSky where someone said that not everything needed a thinkpiece or a review of 1000+ words, that, in this case, Rhino vs Manders didn't and that it just diluted everything. Now, of course, I was going to write earnestly and honestly about a DEAN match, but I think it's something worth poking at.

Pro wrestling criticism, writing about pro wrestling, is fairly underdeveloped. I don't think what I do is honestly all that great relatively. I do my best but this is a hobby. It's just a sparse ecosystem.  In a world where the bones have been picked for years and years, I don't think anyone would need me. Wrestling isn't like that. Most of the writing has gone to the best, most lauded, most canonical stuff. You can probably read a decent amount about Flair vs Steamboat. You probably can't read a ton about 1981 German footage. You also probably can't read a ton about a mid-card match from 1993. 

You can probably read a lot about Okada vs Tanahashi from January. You probably won't read a lot of people thinking about Workhorsemen vs Eddie Kingston/Ortiz tag from ROH. But there is beauty to be found in this. I don't know how many stars someone might give it. 3 and a half? The show itself has 7 votes and a 5.something on Cagematch. But limiting yourself to canonical five star matches misses so much of what makes pro wrestling amazing. 

I think there's plenty of joy to be found in the crates, in the trenches, in the margins. It's work looking fir the greatness in the smaller moments and even a sort of craftsmanship and serenity in moments that aren't conventionally great. 

These four are so good at what they do and what they do has value and worth. So long as you open your heart to it, it will make you feel something and isn't that what this is all about? These are complex characters who have lived full lives and that can not just distill that not just through promos, but in their ringwork itself. They played with the conventions of the form, remixing and refracting complex emotions through it. There is room for it in this world. The world (of pro wrestling but in general) is better off for it. And to me, that's absolutely worth writing about.

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Found Footage Friday: 1981 HANOVER~! BRET~! BELLOMO~! DIETER~! MOROWSKI~! GORO~! KIMURA~!

10/23/81 Hanover

Bret Hart vs. Paco (Francisco) Ramirez

MD: We only barely hear Bret come out to Some Girls by Racey which is the highlight of his matches in Germany generally. Paco Ramirez was really leaning into the bandelero thing with the hat and the music and the pancho as best as we can see at least.Nice bit to start. Bret pressed Ramirez to the ropes and Paco tripped him. Then he tried it again and Bret sidestepped and whacked him. Paco let the crowd get under his skin pretty well. They did some bits where Bret outwrestled him only for Ramirez to hair pull and then get run over. This was all sound but clearly Ramirez had more connection with the crowd. 

You know who else had more of a connection? The ref. At one point Ramirez refused to break a hold so the ref dropkicked him out of the ring to a huge pop. I'm not sure this helped either Bret or the match though. Bret got a big comeback out of the corner reversing a whip and all of his babyface offense (forearms and dropkicks and a legdrop) looked crisp, crisp enough to score him the win.

ER: I think I like Germany Bret Hart a lot more than Matt. I see this guy a couple years into his career, and am kind of blown away by his execution and poise. His connection to German crowds wasn't there, but who do you expect him to be, Sal Bellomo? He works this match at a very brisk pace and I was impressed by the deep bag he brought. He played wet behind the ears rookie to Ramirez's sneaky vet, but his ring work did not look like a rookie's. He has snap on everything he does, every collision looks honest, every throw or takedown is physically sound. These are the full grown snapmares of a man who understands the physics of a snapmare, understands the physics of an armdrag. When he runs at Ramirez, his approach is believable whether he connects or misses, because there's an honesty to his work. I am a big fan of Established Bret and one of the things I love most about his work is his honesty. 

There is a logic to his progression, he clearly mentally keeps track of what kind of offense he "should be able to do" as a match progresses, and the execution is that of someone in his current match condition. He is never a worker who is going to work the match the exact same in minute 15 as he was in minute 2...but that seems like a much more impressive skill for someone to have this early in their career. He is not fully formed Bret, but he's much closer to that level than we could have reasonably assumed. The one noticeable thing he grew out of as he continued to improve, is he lost that kind of hunched shoulder stillness during what should be the glue moments. I think of Bret as a strong Glue Guy because he is never caught in a state of stasis in between The Action. He's good at occupying space, good at gluing spots together with body language. Here he was still standing there in a wrestler's hunch, waiting for the next thing to happen. I wonder when he grew out of that. Owen never grew out of that. You can watch almost any 1998 Owen match and see him standing dead still in that same hunch, waiting in place for the next thing to happen. 

Sal Bellomo vs. Manuel Lopez

MD: If you asked me fifteen years ago if I'd rather see a comparable Bret or Bellomo match... well, Bellomo was beloved here. Lopez came out to bullfighting music but with less aplomb than Ramirez. This was face vs face and had a lot of fun tit for tat type spots. Lopez would flip Bellomo and play it up, then Bellomo would do it to him. Lopez would escape a hold by lifting Bellomo and carrying him to the top turnbuckle and seating him there, then Bellomo would escape one by positioning Lopez onto the apron. All fun stuff. Handshakes and sportsmanship. In the second round, Bellomo escaped a headscissors by scooting around and kicking at Lopez' belly a bunch which popped the crowd. Then they went into a bodyscissors sequence that ended with them stuck together by their legs.

Lopez had a lot of fun stuff. They did a bow and arrow, a stump puller (which is not something you see often), and he had ways of stepping over and whacking the arm to unlock things. All that and a ripcord spinout backbreaker. Bellomo was happy to take all of it since shortly thereafter he leaped up to the second rope and hit a flying body press off of it to pick up the win. Pretty fun stuff while it lasted though.

ER: Many in our community love to "build books" on guys. Do a dive into someone known or unknown, see if there are any things that were missed, anything we can mention about someone's work that could change an opinion or inspire further digging. There are sexy names to do dives on, and, well, less sexy names. Salvatore Bellomo feels like a guy who is being discussed only by me and Matt, a German sensation who showed next to none of his babyface crowd connections in his WWF undercard work. We had no idea about Bellomo in Germany and even after writing about several of his German appearances, I feel like he is still a guy only being experienced by me and Matt. Are some deep dive names so unsexy that even upon finding revelations about said sexless wrestler, they inspire more of a "we'll take your word for it" approach rather than a "I too will now form opinions on this man on whom I had none"? I have yet to see Salvatore Bellomo Discourse outside of what Matt and I have written, but I suppose I also have not sought it out. We are alone on our Bellomo Islet, down here in our Bellomo Mines.   

All that to say, Bellomo works in Germany like I have never seen him work anywhere else. There was an armdrag spot where he flew up around and over Lopez and it had so much snap that it looked like a Tiger Mask spot, only Bellomo's had more quick burst speed. Who is this guy? The bulk of the match is built around Bellomo holding a near pornographic body vice in a long, extremely entertaining sequence. The holds were strong and believably cinched in, Bellomo refusing to break a snug body vice while the talented Lopez found ways out or attempted to lock in his own. I need to see Bellomo's early 80s striptease routines because the way he keeps his legs locked around Lopez in various positions points to someone who would have incredible pole control. When the round ends there's one of the best ref untanglings I've seen. The bell sounded while their legs were fully tangled, standing on their heads no differently than a spot I'd see live 20 years later between American Dragon and Low Ki. I am going out on a limb assuming that neither were inspired by early 80s Sal Bellomo, but now I know it only would have made their spot better. The ref had to work hard to unlock these holds, both men crying out in theatrical pain while what sounds like Dutch pop music plays buoyantly over the top.  If that's not better, maybe it's better to just leave Matt and I on our islet. 

Axel Dieter/UFO vs. John Quinn/Grand Vladimir

MD: So until last week or so I had no idea that Kaiser was Axel Dieter Jr. That just shows you how tuned out I am I guess. Maybe Eric knew? Anyway, they chant for Axel as he's announced and for UFO after that. Fans love these guys and for good reason. 

This might have been for some sort of title or an end of tour tournament or something since the faces got big wreaths at the end. Shine at the start was a blast. Dieter is so good at presenting himself as a star and taking up space. UFO is beloved but more wins slugfests or out-techniques opponents. Vladimir shines as a stooge (Quinn does more teeter tottering but is probably better on offense). Dieter had all of the headstand toupie takeovers before he finally got beaten into the corner. After quite a bit of doubleteaming but nothing that stood out, he got punched into the corner and UFO came in hot to win the fall. Second fall had heat on UFO leading to a Canadian backbreaker, with the third fall continuing the heat leading escape of more backbreaker attempts to a much bigger hot tag to set up the finish. I'm not sure the heel control was quite as compelling as I'd like for a double heat even with some threats of cards and what not.

ER: I had no idea that Ludwig Kaiser was Axel Dieter Jr. but I also haven't watched WWE in so long that the last time I did that guy was named Marcel Barthel and wasn't 't a big crossover star in a Mexican lucha fed that The Undertaker is booking, so there are probably a ton of things in life that I don't know. Who knows what kind of sons Le Gran Vladimir could have out there. Water softener repairmen, HVAC guys, insurance salesmen. Matt and I are the only ones who speak the name Vladimir, who knows who he has spawned. I love teaming up the two tallest foreigners to fight the two biggest babyfaces, made this seem like a big match from go. Quinn and Vlad are very similar workers (at least they're working a similar style in Germany) and their simple control is easy for crowd favorites Dieter and UFO to build off into bigger things. Dieter works more FIP while UFO is the one coming in and trading blows with the big men.

Neither big man does anything spectacular - that's not really the big heel German style - but they're good at basing for things like Dieter's complicated headscissors, and they can break out some surprisingly vicious stuff, like when Quinn stomped down hard on Dieter's face. Vladimir hits one of the biggest and baddest kneelifts I've seen, after Quinn roughly whips UFO into the buckles, tagging in and moving UFO's whole body several feet with the power of his knee. It didn't look like UFO leaping in response, it looked like a man being launched against his will by a powerful knee force. They are powerful, but we need to believe they can be felled by our heroes, and they're good at getting felled. Vlad is great at felling them. There's an excellent spot where UFO is uppercutting Vlad in the ropes, getting into a rhythm, hitting him again and again, and when Vlad's body is anticipating the next recoil UFO steps aside to break the rhythm and send Vlad faceplanting to the mat. 

Karl Dauberger vs. Kengo Kimura

MD: First round had some good dueling armwork, including Kimura getting a hammerlock on repeatedly. When Dauberger started to take liberties in the ropes, Kimura showed real fire with the ref. He had some nice escapes from holds with various scissors including one on the arm I haven't seen much before. Second round was mainly Dauberger grinding down on him with chinlocks and headlocks until Kimura was able to get some kicks in right at the bell. Kimura came back big in the next round with some huge whips and kicks. Dauberger could sell being whipped into the corner (and bump big and stylized along with it). He took over when the ref finally pulled Kimura back (too fiery for his own good). On offense Dauberger was very meat and potatoes with his clubbering and leaning. Kimura came back one more time but Daubuerger got him to the apron and attacked his leg from the floor until he got DQ'ed. Maybe this is why Kimura ended up in his trademark leg brace. Probably not.

ER: Really good stuff, a great asshole Dauberger performance and some always engaging selling from the underdog Kimura. Dauberger goes after Kimura's leg with nothing too fancy, just being a brute, and I was super impressed with Kimura's selling. It felt like someone selling an actual knee injury and not Wrestling Selling. Even between rounds he was stretching his leg on the ropes, in a way that wasn't fully attached to the match. He wasn't limping his way through sequences, he just looked like a guy convincingly working hurt and it gave him this subtle fire that got people fully behind him the deeper he went. Dauberger leaned his weight on him and smothered him, and whenever they were apart he would start trolling Kimura again. There was a great moment where he kicked Kimura in the face while drawing the ref's attention to his complaint, then casually sidestepped Kimura's dropkick response. This needed more of a Kimura comeback to evolve into something special, but I also liked that Dauberger recognized when he had gone too far and fucked Kimura up a bit more before taking the DQ. No comeuppance, just suffering. 

Moose Morowski vs. Jim Neidhart

MD: This had moments where it looked like it was going to hit a different gear, but never quite made it. When they were slugging away, it was good. When Neidhart was charging at him, it was good. Problem was, he started the match by having Morowski move and knock him out and ended it by having him crash hard into the corner and get pinned. In the middle, he got a bearhug on a few times and knocked him over the top once with a hard shot, but it was more posturing and teasing them really going at it than them really going at it. 

ER: It's true this never grew to the power struggle it could have, for reasons that might be Neidhart's inexperience or maybe even his inability to do more. He doesn't have great strikes for various reasons. Either he's not good at throwing worked strikes, or was told to never put weight behind his strikes, so I don't know if he has it in him to escalate this match the way it could have. This is not me saying Neidhart isn't a tough guy, more that I wish his toughness would come through in some fucking slug out with a hoss like Moose Morowski. It doesn't. Neidhart rarely gets to that level. We have more than enough footage of the guy to determine that he just does not have that level in him. We've heard enough stories about how hard he partied, so you'd think reaching that level in a ring would be second nature, but it may be that he was actually conserving his energy for partying while holding back as much as possible in the ring. I don't think I can find fault with that mentality within pro wrestling, really. An NFL practice squad guy should be an expert at violently crashing into guys nicknamed Moose, so we know it's a conscious decision when he does not do that. The power grappling was what made this worth watching. Morowski holding Neidhart in a painful crossface, forcing Neidhart to break by grabbing handfuls of Morowski's hair into a snapmare, that kind of thing. Do more of that and it's a heavyweight struggle that wouldn't need strikes. But I do love Morowski capitalizing on Neidhart's meathead idiocy, essentially painting a tunnel on a rock face and tricking him to run full speed into it...twice. 

10/20/81 Hanover, Germany

Sal Bellomo vs. Goro (Tsurumi) Tanaka

MD: This threw me at first since Bellomo had Kauroff as a corner man and Tsurumi had Kimura and they got announced in their track suits and everything and that doesn't usually happen. This was going all the way and they really milked it. Some great lockups in the first round leading to them trading headlocks. Second round was about armholds and armdrags but again they were working it and it felt very competitive. 

Goro opened things up in the third with shots and stomps and was able to control the arm accordingly. Bellomo had some great hope in the fourth, including a rolling leg pick and a kip up followed by a dropkick but he ended up right back into holds and was really selling the arm by the end of the round. That continued into the fifth which was all Goro. He'd do waterpumps and even cross arm breakers and while Sal tried to fight back, he couldn't get anything going. 

Sixth round had him scrambling, just trying to survive and avoid Goro getting his arm. Lots of rolling away or spinning out as the fans cheered for him. He somehow managed a drop toe hold and things picked up to rope running. That let him hit a back body drop and finally take control on the leg. Seventh had him press his advantage with a roll up into a leglock but Goro had enough and started chopping away, getting real heat since he didn't go to this until things had turned on him. Bellomo took a real beating through the round with Goro's bs kung fu looking good. Eight had Bellomo start to fire back. He'd get cut off a few times but would power through and the fans loved it. He ended it with holds but unable to put Goro away. The last round was a testament to their wind as they really went at it, but just as Bellomo was going to win with his leaping back body block, the time expired. It was pretty good but maybe not worth the time investment if I'm going to be totally honest. Sal really was super over in Germany though.

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80s Joshi on Wednesday: Tateno! Jaguar! Mimi! Yukari! Masami! Kai! McIntyre!

Volume 3  

11. A Day In The Life of Noriyo Tateno

K: Something you'll get from AJW is all their wrestlers were trained from scratch by the promotion itself, so watching wrestlers develop from very limited rookies into fully-fledged stars is all part of the show. So sometimes they'd dedicate a bit of TV time to introduce viewers to a newer wrestler and get over their personality with the audience, before they have much wrestling skill to speak of. This one is for Noriyo Tateno. On episodes before this they did segments for Chigusa Nagayo and Yuriko Takagai. Nagayo gets plenty of attention later on and Takagai retires at the end of the year/is historically irrelevant, so I chose to include the Noriyo feature. It all helps to get a broad understanding of the vibe of AJW TV.

MD: This is pretty much what you’d expect. They do it in a clever way to have the segment start towards the end of her day (late training and going to bed) and then end as she’s coming out the curtain for a match the following evening. Tateno is 16 here. I’m kind of curious what she was reading that we only get a glimpse of. It’s also interesting they’d show the training because it mainly consists of rolling and taking back bumps and that’s the sort of thing that feels like it might raise some flags. Yes, they need to know how to fall, but they sure do a lot of that in training… anyway, we’re going to be probably spending quite a bit of time with the Jumping Bomb Angels on future volumes so this felt like time well spent even past seeing the inside of 1982 shops or local strawberry fields.

12. Devil Masami, Leilani Kai & Velvet McIntyre vs. Jaguar Yokota, Mimi Hagiwara & Yukari Omori 5/15/82 

K: K: In this match we have a trio of the WWWA Singles Champion Jaguar Yokota and the WWWA Tag Team Champions Mimi Hagiwara & Yukari Omori. Talk about overpowered. Mimi Hagiwara comes to the ring wearing a crown and a semi-transparent white gown. The way she's presented would feel heelish in almost any other context, but she is unironically pushed as a sweet and pure Disney princess like character. 

There's a lot going on in this 1st first, it almost feels like a full match by itself. The main narrative here is that Devil is just unstoppable. She does have a title shot against Jaguar on the 7/19/82 show coming up, so keep that in mind. We open with Mimi charging at the Devil and unloading a flurry of her signature boxing punches on her. It does seem to work for ten seconds maybe when Devil flees to the outside, but then gets the better of Mimi fighting on the outside.

Devil gets revenge for Mimi's punches by continually working over Mimi's hand all through the fall. She starts when she isn't even in the ring yet. Velvet McIntyre has Mimi caught up in the ropes, and then Devil comes over, grabs Mimi's hand and bites it! She goes after it again once she's the legal woman, and it becomes the focal point so much that McIntyre and Kai also go after it when they're up against Mimi. Mimi is able to put up a much stronger fight against the two foreign wrestlers, for instance she's handling Velvet very capably at one point, but then she runs into Devil, who she just can't handle it seems.

Jaguar and Omori don't do a whole lot in the 1st fall really. They're both hot tags but in a different way. Omori just pops in to do some power moves before she runs out of steam and get beaten up. She has an interesting one that starts like a powerbomb, but then she tosses her opponent to the side instead. Jaguar gets more of a reaction when she's tagged in, but she's overzealous in trying to just launch herself at the heels that she gets trapped in their corner and triple-teamed quite quickly. The babyfaces just aren't working together very effectively, meanwhile the heels put together some joint offense to win the 1st fall.

The 2nd fall is mostly just a compressed version of the 1st. This time Mimi does well beating up Leilani Kai, that is, until Devil Masami intervenes and goes to work on her hand again. The twist here though is this time when Jaguar gets tagged in she gets to shine a lot more and evens things up for the babyfaces.

The 3rd fall is when things develop more, there's just a bit more heat in how everything's worked and the babyfaces have more a determination to win about them. Things spill out to the outside a couple of times and the fighting is fierce. Mimi looks downright mad and violent when she's throwing people around on the outside. There's a better throw into chairs on Jaguar though, because she doesn't exactly take a bump but just runs straight into them. 

We get a bit of a Devil vs. Jaguar teaser here. There's a cool moment where Devil swings Jaguar into the corner, Jaguar goes for her boomerang counter off the turnbuckle, but Devil just ducks under it with great timing so that if she hadn't ducked that split second the move actually would have hit. It looks so much better when I've seen so many other wrestlers try these spots but can't make them look anywhere near as believable. 

There's also a funny moment where Velvet McIntyre has Jaguar held up in the air in a choke. Mimi runs in and pushes her so Jaguar just gets dropped to the mat. I'm not sure if that's what Mimi was going for there, but I guess it stopped the choking at least.

We get a rare-for-AJW DQ finish here. Devil for some reason really totally loses it and decides that breaking Mimi Hagiwara's hand is a more important goal for her today than winning this match. She brings her cane into the ring and just starts smashing her hand up with it. After the DQ the Commissioner and referee try to pull that cane off her but she's goes even more wild, throws the referee into the chairs and actually tries to throw a strike at Commissioner Ueda but is restrained by the seconds at ringside. We have a nutcase on the loose.

One of the best TV trios matches we've seen so far. We're a long way off Devil vs. Jaguar so I'm not sure if it was really all intended to build that match, but unfortunately we're missing 6 or 7 shows in between, so seeing it that way is probably the best we can do from an enjoyment standpoint.

***1/2

MD: Tons of pomp right from the start here. I feel like we haven’t seen a ton of Yokota and Hagiwara together this year. Maybe I’m wrong. Maybe it’s Kumi who’s been off on her own? But Mimi’s out looking like a white princess, crown and all. Jaguar has more of the martial arts look in black. Devil’s dressed like an evil musketeer (you’ve seen the look, I’m sure), and Kai has the whole “Queen of Hawaii” deal going. Quite the entrances. 

This was pretty great. Omori played her role of taking some beating and coming in strong with small bursts of strength. Likewise Velvet stood out in a big way when it came to effective Moolah-ism (hairpulls, stepping on the hair, maring someone with the hair) and Kai had that plus strength on top of it. Really though, this was about Mimi, Jaguar, and Devil. 

Mimi took it right to Devil at the start, throwing those boxing blows. That meant when Devil could take over later, she started targeting the hand, biting it, stepping on it, punching it! Who punches someone’s fist? Devil Masami, that’s who. Mimi, of course, sold brilliantly, as she is want to do, both in the ring while it was happening (while constantly registering, fighting, struggling, reaching - what a babyface she’s become) and on the apron when they cycled through.

The heels took the first fall after cutting off some fire with Devil being an absolute monster. She pressed slammed Mimi in front of her corner then hit a spinning one to make her land on her hand. When Omori came in they made her take a Bret bump into the heel corner and then Kai finished her off with a splash. Second fall had more working over Mimi’s hand and Jaguar coming in only to eat a gutbuster from a suplex position from Jaguar (who just had so much stuff in this match, so much of it organic and nasty). Yokota did come back ducking under Kai and Velvet before hitting a missile dropkick and beautiful butterfly suplex with an even more beautiful bridge on Velvet. 

Third fall was chaos leading to one more massive move from Devil, being a press slam into the corner onto Jaguar. Things spilled out and when they got back into the ring Jaguar bridged out of a Kai pin and bounded her way back into it. Just when it seemed like their side might win, Devil came in with the kendo stick, targeting Mimi’s hand specifically. The commissioner threw it out and gave things to the babyfaces but Jaguar was absolutely furious at him and everyone else for what had occurred. Between the hand focus and Mimi’s selling and Jaguar’s violent tendencies and how well everyone else played their role, this worked quite well for me.

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The Many Enemies of Maxwell Jacob Friedman (AEW Five Fingers of Death 6/1 - 6/7)

AEW Dynamite 6/3/26

MJF vs RUSH

MD: Conflict in Literature:

MJF vs Nature (RUSH): This is what MJF was up against: RUSH, a rage-filled, ungovernable beast, a monster, the white bull. He had faced men like Darby Allin and Brody King and Mark Briscoe who walked a certain line, but RUSH was deeply over it. Years ago, MJF would have cowered and run from him. Now, he saw himself as the great hunter, as a matador, and he meant to wield his own esteemed civility as a weapon. He provoked RUSH backstage before the show. When the bell rang, he charged right in. When RUSH won the first exchange, MJF spit in his face. When RUSH caught his foot, he poked him in the eye. RUSH kept coming, yes, but MJF was ready for that. He wanted him angry. He wanted him enraged. He wanted him making mistakes. It was RUSH that pulled off the corner turnbuckle pad, but it was MJF who was able to use the referee as a stalking horse to slam RUSH's head in and open him up. Even after RUSH took over, MJF was still laying snares, catching him in the corner to drive down upon his arm and injure him. Down the stretch, when all looked lost for MJF, when he had just barely survived the Horns dropkick in the corner and when RUSH was about to hit it again on the outside, MJF sidestepped at the last moment, one last triumph of man over nature, allowing him to hit the tombstone, the beginning of the end.

MJF vs Man (Rush): Where MJF may have miscalculated is by overlooking the fact that underneath the bestial exterior was the heart of a man, a man with pride, a man who could make calculated decisions. Andrade had tried to focus Rush before the match, had tried to remind him of who he was and what he was and why he did this. A beast knows fight or flight. A man can draw on something deeper. A man can learn from mistakes, can adapt. Even bloodied and reeling, Rush was able to steal MJF's own trick: when MJF pushed Bryce aside to try to do more damage with that exposed turnbuckle, Rush turned the tide and tossed him in head first. Later on in the match, with his arm so damaged, instead of fighting blindly or fleeing and quitting, Rush used the ringpost to relocate his shoulder and stay in the match. It's what pushed him to hit that straightjacket pile driver on the apron. That wasn't the wild act of a beast. It was the driven, focused precision of man. Even at the very end, he refused to quit, showing his defiance as his body gave way. Yet, despite it all, Rush's humanity had its limits and it was by drawing the beast back out of him that MJF forced those mistakes that allowed him to win the day.

MJF vs Self (MJF): The other factor that allowed Rush to get back into the fight was, of course, MJF himself, his own hubris, his own mistakes as a character, his inability to get out of his own way. That's how he got into this fight in the first place, by getting right into Rush's face. That's how this became a no countouts match, by him pressing the matter further. On some level, yes, it was all part of a ploy to drive Rush to distraction and to make mistakes, but in the heat of the moment, maybe there's a little beast within MJF too. It's one that needs to preen, that needs to lash out at everyone and everything around him, that demands recognition, that cares about legacy because it's the only way to prove everyone wrong about him, most of all himself. It was one thing to make Rush angry. It was another to rub it in with the crowd, to make horns after his eyepoke, to drape his arms over the ropes in satisfaction after laying a shot in, to talk into the camera, to taunt whenever he had a moment. Maybe that's the entire point? Maybe if MJF's not rubbing it in, he's not really alive. Everything is a means to that end, to prove some sort of ridiculous point. Maybe he's just that insecure. Every time he lost that battle with himself, however, it gave Rush a chance to come back, gave him another shot at victory. MJF was able to steady himself in the end, through necessity as much as anything else, and lured RUSH in one last time, but he made the road bumpier than it had to be along the way.

Max vs Society: And yet, even with that, the fans still cheered for him now and again, still chanted MJF when he was being announced. That was after Max went out of his way to have Justin Roberts pause that announcement to insult the crowd twice. It's why he gave Rush so many openings through his character's emotional weaknesses, because he has to constantly hammer it through the crowd's head that they're to boo him, that they are to get out of their own way, not try to be smart or difficult or go into business for themselves. MJF is formidable and dangerous, full of bluster but able to back it up, but it's all on Max to constantly stay on his toes so as not to give the crowd anything tangible to latch on to. Rush, despite being a rudo if not a heel, gave them so much, constantly embracing the moment and letting everyone come along for the ride, appealing not to them but with them, letting them scream and chant along. Yet even then, at a key point in the match, they stopped cheering for him and decided that everything was equally awesome instead. MJF was fighting man, beast, himself, but Max's real enemy is that crowd.  

MJF vs Author (Max): Except for sometimes, it's himself (Max) as well. This could be reality, too, couldn't it? Maybe it's society? But to blame anyone other than Max is to embrace nihilism. Yes, there is structure, but he has agency. Max has the power. He's the wrestler. He's the one who conducts the crowd. So yes, he's on a so often card with exhausting high-spot laden, counter-heavy, 5+ star classics, and he has to stay true to himself and try to get a reaction out of these crowds other than "This is Awesome," something more visceral, something more meaningful, something that will last. Sometimes, he becomes his own worst enemy there, trying to keep up, trying to match other former PPV main events to get in front of cagematch scores and (other) critics, and what we end up with is something overly bloated. It's understandable, human, even if it means he's following the trend instead of creating it. On TV, though, there's less of that perceived need, and that's why he's right up there with Darby with best TV wrestler of the year. I'd say he's probably got him beat, but that's just me. Certainly on this night, Max made sure that MJF shined in all of the right (which for him almost always means "the wrong") ways. He gets it as well as anyone going. He just has to refuse to blink even when others don't get it.

MJF vs Technology (The yellow cord): This is a stretch, and a very literal one at that, but yes, that yellow electrical cord did come into play, and yes, after MJF lured RUSH in again and hit a drop toehold on a chair, he ever so casually kicked it back under the ring. I always warn against checking boxes, but this once I wanted to check a box, sorry. He not only beat technology there, but made sure not to give the fans anything to latch on to in the process. No candy for them. 

Max vs God/Fate: Life happens. It happened after All Out 2022 where Max's return got upended. It happened to Adam Cole, a fluke injury that derailed Max's first title run. At some point in the match, it happened here too and Max came out of this with a hurt knee. This has been a great year for Max, a great title run, and now the start of a second, with what seemed to be really good Briscoe and Andrade matches ahead of him. But he's out there fighting the crowd, fighting the last thirty years of history, fighting every card that he's on, and fighting, yeah, himself. What's fighting god and fate in the face of that? It's just one more fight, and he's got plenty left in him. He's just getting started.

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