IWA Japan CRAZY CIRCUS 6/24/1998

 Yoshiya Yamashita & Yuji Kito vs. Hidetomo Egawa & Hiroki Araiwa

About 2 minutes of a bunch of black trunks rookies punishing each other with slaps and tight holds. Yamashita is the most experienced so he gets to wear green trunks and pick up the victory with a northern lights suplex.

Chikaru vs. Sachie Nishibori

10 minute match clipped down to about 3 minutes of spots. Chiharu is an SPWF idol girl and always looks pretty untrained. Her form is really off. Nishibori looks good and picks up the win with a completely botched pin combo.

Akinori Tsukioka & Takeshi Sato vs. Asian Cougar & Tortuga

The IWA Japan equivalent of a WCWSN lucha matches. Just these guys rolling out highspots for 7 or so minutes, with enough stiffness sprinkled in to make me give a shit. Tsukioka hits a moonsault to the floor on a prone Asian Cougar who is covered with chairs. Cougar hits all his brutal leg drops and takes the cake with an absurd tope con hilo. Sato kicks hard and dumps people with suplexes. And even Tortuga potatoed somebody with a stiff low kick at one point. All was right in the world.

Masao Orihara vs. Great Takeru

This was an utterly insane, blood drenched spectacle. Orihara looked really great here, taking one of the craziest bumps I've ever seen, and ripping Takeru's mask and kicking him in the face, and generally doing a massive feat holding this together. His selling was fucking crazy too as he was selling the blood in a way that you fought someone was really about to die here. Match also had a bunch of awkward painful high end junior offense, stiff powerbombs and neck compressing suplexes and all that.

Keizo Matsuda & Katsumi Hirano vs. Freddy Krueger & Ichiro Yaguchi

This was very clipped down. There was blood and some brawling. My one complaint is they didn't clip it down enough.

Sayuri Okino vs. Emi Motokawa

I don‘t think I‘ve seen Okino in a singles match before. Judging by her perfomance in this match, she is a pretty limited and sloppy worker. This had some moments but was probably the weakest Emi singles match so far.

Great Kabuki & Yoshiaki Yatsu vs. Shigeo Okumura & Keisuke Yamada

Yatsu and Kabuki join forces! This was 19 minutes clipped down to 10. As a result the match felt fast paced but a little lacking in calories, if you catch my drift. Yatsu did his thing and Yamada and Kabuki beating on each other was fun. Okumura was involved in the finish and he isn‘t as cool, although I loved Kabuki thrust kicking his jaw out.

 

THE LIBRARY

Assorted Japanese Indy Wrestling

 

Yasushi Sato vs. Hiroshi Watanabe, Mumejuku 4/17/2019

Any new Mumejuku upload is truely a gem. It looked like there were 7 people in the audience but these guys with over 100 years combined age gave it their all. This was worked in 5 minute rounds, and, apparently 2 count rules, because why the hell not. Another really good MUGA-like match. Loved the pop they get when Sato broke Watanabes perfect bridge. Sato is starting to really look like Japans best kept secret in these matches. The is so fun busting out inventive holds, and he continues to be the king of the russian leg sweep. Loved all the old man suplexes, the lock ups, the constant struggle over a basic side suplex, Watanabe flying outside after blocking a grapevine move followed by Sato hitting a damn plancha. The burst of energy in the last round, all the pin attempts being really well done and actually mattering due to the 2 count rules… I loved Watanabes Robinson backbreakers, and the eventual back drops. Him reversing Satos finisher looked so damn awesome, I have no idea how Watanabe, a 48 year old indy worker can make me give a shit about a cool reversal more than all the wrestlers half his age having reversalfests, but he just does it. I loved this.

GENTARO vs. Spark Aoki, Secret Base 1/10/2011

Never seen Spark Aoki before, but based on the „sleazy shooter who looks to go for fancy high kicks“ act he did here, he‘s cool. This was a really fun 11 minute BattlARTS style match. A style of match that this Secret Base crowd apparently did not buy their ticket for, because they sat in silence as these two slapped the shit out of eachother. GENTARO looked like he lost his calling as a BattlARTS guy here as he looked great throwing big suplexes, busting out carny stretches and smacking the shit out of his opponent. Aoki never stood chance, but he blasted GENTARO in the face with some unexpectedly stiff kicks of his own before GENTARO shut him down hard with a series of backdrops and lariats that would've done Choshu proud. Fun times.

GENKAI & ASOSAN vs. Eisa-8 & Shisa-o (Kyushu Pro 1/21/2016)

It‘s Kyushu Pro vs. Okinawa Pro. I was surprised by how much I enjoyed Eisa-8 here, for a skinny indy guy that I‘ve never heard of. All of his exchanges were very good, he worked his opponents with a certain sense of respect, avoiding tit-for-tap type exchanges, mounted some neat comebacks and hit a big dive. And GENKAI and ASOSAN basically work this like an indy Steiner brothers suplexing him hard and landing nasty kicks and punches. Shisa-o is GAINA and solid as a beefy fatboy with a nice elbow drop. It was a bit of a baffling choice to work this with the Okinawa Pro guy as FIP in front of a Kyushu Pro crowd but the match was good.

Tarzan Goto Documentation Project #3

BATHHOUSE DEATHMATCH: Tarzan Goto & Mr. Gannosuke vs. Keisuke Yamada & Shoji Nakamaki, IWA Japan 8/20/1995 - GREAT

This is the Bathhouse Deathmatch. They put a wrestling mat into a bathhouse and tag partners have to stay in hot tubs until tagged in.

The concepts sounds flat, but they actually manage to keep this entertaining the whole way through a combination of wrestling and surreality. Goto and Yamada start out with a bunch of fast mat exchanges, with Goto busting out Fujiwara armbars and Magistral Cradles and whatnot. In order to win you have to pin the opponent and then drown him in a nearby tub for 5 seconds. Lots of running around the bathhouse ensues, in the process of which lots of naked japanese women and men are scattering about the place looking for cover. I wonder if they put some of these tit and ass shots on the commercial tape cover. Goto also bashes the fuck out of Yamada with plastic buckets and then throws wooden baskets at him, while Yamada bumps like a madman for all that.

 Gannosuke and Nakamaki eventually get tagged in and immediately take the brawl to the streets. Another amazing thing here is the video editing, as there are constant cuts (including a dual screen while Gannosuke and Nakamaki are outside), they also constantly cut to a female host (who is holding a giant walkie talkie and a microphone in front of her face) and a bathhouse worker that keeps adding wood to the fire. I assume the bathhouse worker also explains some of the intricacies of hot tub heating in the process. Also, bluesy riffs play in the background here and there, and an announcer that is occasionally dubbed in shouts the names of some wrestling moves.

 Then this match also has it's tag psychology in place. Wrestlers keep leaving the hot tubs to break up submissions or pour cool water on themselves and get yellow carded for it. Yamada is the babyface in peril, gets bowled across the slippery floor and soaped up in a pretty creepy scene by Goto, he also does another slide across the floor to get the literal hot tag. Then it finally dawns on you that this is a partially inverted southern tag where the heat is on the guy who is tagged out, as Gannosuke and Yamazaki are selling the hot tubs like motherfuckers. In the end the video editing and inverted heat section come together for this amazing shot:

 

There's also one woman who tries her darndest to not let her day at the bathhouse be disturbed by wrestlers drowning eachother nearby and stays in the tub. Eventually Goto beats Yamada and then shoves his face into her butt to make the invasion of privacy scenario complete.

Truely a crowning achievement of our civilization, best japanese arthouse movie of 1995. What would YOU do if you saw a literally boiling Tarzan Goto coming your way at the bathhouse?

 

Tarzan Goto vs. Hisakatsu Oya, FMW 8/28/1994 - EPIC

Another treasure of a match. This goes 24 minutes and a good 15 of that is freaked out MUGA hold for hold work. It’s something you don’t see Goto do much, but he is great sinking into Fujiwara armbars, working cool backbreaker variations and cutting off Oya in methodical ways like he’s Bret Hart or something. There’s some really cool work around Goto countering Oyas backdrop attempts by grapevining and armbaring him, and Oya has some great counters into his own Octopus Stretch. Because its FMW they end up going for chairs and bleeding, Goto brains Oya with one of the hardest chairshots I’ve ever seen and works him over with the timekeepers hammer (one of my favourite spots) before both guys settle into an AJPWesque finishing run dropping each other with sick brainbusters and headdrops. Totally awesome stuff and an example of Goto working a match that suits his opponents style while still doing his gruesome thing.

TARZAN GOTO DOCUMENTATION PROJECT

GWE Watching #2: Devil Masami

 

Devil Masami vs. Lioness Asuka, AJW 4/5/1986

This was just a bomb throwing war all the way through. Bombs looked good, but I was hoping for a bit more depth. Most of this was just Asuka taking a move, then getting up and doing a move of her own. At least Devil did some reversals. There was a badass punch exchange at one point, but I was hoping for more depth. Heat was tremendous, at least. They do stupid double countout and then a lame restart into time limit draw.

Devil Masami & Akira Hokuto vs. Lioness Asuka & Chigusa Nagayo, GAEA 5/14/2000

Really good beginning here with some unpredictable lariats being thrown and Hokuto running in to brain people with weapon shots at surprise moments. Asuka and Nagayo end up bleeding and we get a really good segment built around Hokuto stomping on them and Masami dropping bombs. Masami was acting like a monster in this and really solid. Of course, eventually it was time for the Crush gals to make their comeback, and after Hokuto got hit by a measly clothesline they took over. After that it was all bomb throwing as they rolled out random double teams and finishers by the moment. That was maybe a 10 minute stretch of nothing but 2.999999s. Even things like Devil Masamis Fire Valley felt like throwaway nearfalls. I was gateful when Masami hit a basic leg drop to give some breathing space between the bomb throwing. I mean, it was good bomb throwing, but completely ridiculous. Everyone entered the ring at will and then there was a spot where we were supposed to care for an attempted tag? Hokuto, to her credit, sold really well, even though she wasn‘t the one bleeding. Fun match but a reminder of how ridiculous joshi can get.

Devil Masami & Mayumi Ozaki vs. Dynamite Kansai & Cutie Suzuki, JWP 8/16/1992

Excellent tag, in which everyone played their role and rank really well. Masami and Ozaki controlled the opening portions of this being a vicious heel team, and the Cutie/Dynamite largely relied on Dynamites juggernaut kicks and Cuties agility to make comebacks. There wasn‘t much of a story or epic transitions, but every section was good and it built to a really good, complex finishing stretch. Kansais kicks were brutal, Ozaki looked vicious booting people in the face and Masami gorilla pressing Suzuki around and working over her mid section was pretty sick. Ozaki also took an insane guardrail bump. Ending run was great with lots of well timed reversals. Pretty exciting stuff and everyone added to the match.

Devil Masami & Bull Nakano vs. Sakie Hasegawa & Hikari Fukuoka, JWP 5/22/1994

The first 5 minutes of this were amazing and made me think this was gonna turn out to be a hidden classic. Great opening exchange, followed by Sakie being really fired up, Masami looking great controlling her opponents and Nakano being just a bulldozer. Unfortunately, Fukuoka and Hasegawa mounted a weak comeback followed by a lengthy filler hold section and some botches crept in. Still, this was pretty great when Masami and Nakano were acting like the twin towers steamrolling their opponents. I thought Masami looked significantly better than Nakano, but it may have been due to Fukuokas and Hasegawas choices. Masami just destroyed these poor women. After Masamis epic rampage, Fukuoka making an easy comeback by connecting a weak crossbody followed by a sleeper hold that the crowd didn‘t care for was very weak. Hasegawas comeback felt more earned and I loved her running wild with the solebutts. Last moments of bomb throwing were spectacular. Give this a watch.

Tokyo Pro 8/25/1996

 

TWA World Tag Challenger Team Decision Match: Yoji Anjo & Tiger Mask vs. Takashi Ishikawa & Yoshihiro Takayama

This was a fun match with everyone dishing out stiff shots and Anjoh making jokes. Takayama was wearing biker gloves for some reason, but other than that his exchanges with Anjoh and Tiger Mask were the highlight of the match. Tiger Mask works best against heavyweights because it adds some restraint to his work and Takayama forces him out of his usual spiel by not going along and making him actually hit the mat and work exchanges instead of just hitting his spots.

 

Sabu vs. Black Wazuma (2 Cold Scorpio)

Really good match which may be the best I've seen between the two. They start slow with a lot of matwork and cool rope running exchanges which added a ton to the build of the match. These two have wrestled each other many times especially on this tour but they did a good job making everything come together organically and not making the match look like an exhibition. Sabu hits a really nice low dropkick into a spin kick transition and I'm wondering when the hell did Sabu turn into a graceful junior wrestler but then he goes for a dive and Scorpio just hurls a chair into him and the match goes awry. They move into the spots and reversals you expect from a Sabu/Scorpio match. All the spots still look cool and everything made sense, the only minor upfuck was Sabu's slightly delayed bump on a headscissor. Sabu using the chair to crotch Scorp when he tried his extra flippy legdrop was a really smart spot to allow himself extra breathing space. I dug them going back to some cool mat stuff for a bit in the middle. Match went the right length. Feels weird how out of style Sabu worship is with the indy wrestlers of the last few years, I enjoyed this a lot.

 

NWA Light Heavyweight Title Match: El Dandy vs. Masao Orihara

Looking at this matchup taking place in a sleaze indy fed I was expecting a wild brawl but instead they stick to working a WCW Worldwide match. These are two guys with some fun snappy offense though and they trade some big suplexes, powerbombs and dives. They end up working some bullshit non-finish so they can do a restart with a few minutes overtime and then work a time limit draw. Lazy tricksters.

 

TWA Tag Title Match: Abdullah The Butcher & Daikokubo Benkei vs. Yoji Anjo & Tiger Mask

 Way too fun. This was about the best match you can possibly get out of two dudes as limited as Abby & Benkei. First Anjo and Tiger take turns laying into pudgy old sumowrestler Benkei before Abby comes in for the old stab & chop. Anjo ends up bloodied and playing a really good Ricky Morton for such a natural dipshit heel before coming back by beating the shit out of Abby and bloodying him in return. Undeterred by the potential Hep infection Tiger Mask comes in and beats the shit out of a bloody Abby aswell. Tiger can't really do highspots against these fat dudes so he just throws a bunch of kicks to the face and kneedrops and it's awesome. Abby trapping Anjo with his blob physique was a great spot too. Tiger Mask & Anjo looked super here and Abby selling and coming back with a last ditch throat chop was genuinely exciting stuff.

THE LIBRARY

2002 MOTY #13

 Carlos Amano vs. Command Bolshoi (JWP 9/23/2002)

WELL!! These are two of my favourite female workers, and really two of the more unique wrestlers in wrestling history, despite the fact you have to kind of scour the earth to find their good matches. Due to the special makeup of japanese womens wrestling these two are rarely in a matchup that allows them to shine. And for some reason, their matches over the years have never been quite white they should be. The 1998 encounter went far too long, the 2000 ones ranged between solid and fun exhibtions... fortunately, they finally delivered what the matchup promises on this one. This is a submission match and really worked like Negro Navarro vs. Solar in Coliseo Coacalco. It even had the kind of playing to the crowd and jokes that sort of match would have. 90% of this was grappling, and it was good. What makes these two so cool is not just their submissions but the cool unique trips and transitions they will come up with to get them. Plenty of unique spots and submissions to keep you entertained, and the finish was decided on the mat in an intense scramble as it should be. Really this felt like a Virus match and that's exactly what their strength is. No idea what took them so long to figure it out, but this was worth seeking out.

 

Great Sasuke vs. Dick Togo (Michinoku Pro 8/15/2002)

The 90s are over, all your junior heroes are broken down and old, and instead of highspots they work gritty technical matches now. This was centered around Togos pretty great selling performance, he comes in with a bandaged mid section and Sasuke spends most of this match torturing him with kidney punches and ab stretches. Ultra simple match but with plenty of cool moments. I really liked Togo desperately preventing Sasukes dive by clutching his leg and pretty much dragging him down then just throwing a chair at him („Fuck you, here's a chair“ is always a favourite of mine), really liked his nifty pin combo and desperate crossface attempts etc. A ladder gets brought into play and this as usual spells Sasukes downfall.  

Meiko Satomura vs. Chikayo Nagashima, GAEA 4/14/2002

Even though there was one obnoxious fighting spirit spot, this had more than enough solid, inventive pro wrestling to keep you entertained. Good opening matwork with both girls aggressively trying to dislocate eachothers shoulder. Nagashimas double stomps actually lead to a damn good Satomura selling performance with her looking vulnerable and struggling to reach deep and hit that Death Valley Bomb. The spot with Satomura trying to catch a flying Nagashima only to collapse was damn good. Satomura was also absolutely walloping Nagashima with nasty kicks left and right. There was a brief moment of struggle in the second half with Nagashima clinging to Satomuras leg and trying to prevent a flying move, only for her to eat an absolutely disgusting axe kick. It's these kind of moments that set matches like this apart from your average bombfest. Nagashima looked sharp, not blowing anything, whipping out cool submissions and rollups. Her use of the Cavernaria felt damn epic thanks to Satomuras selling. The ending run was 2,99999ville, but they never went overboard. Not a MOTYC, but a fun little war.

 Bas Rutten vs. Manabu Nakanishi (NJPW 5/2/2002)

  Rutten has been quite the consistent worker in NJPW. His strikes are so crazy that you buy him just caving in Nakanishis face any second. Rutten has such an aura that anytime Nakanishi can get a move in on him is impressive. There are a few spots that they pull off much better than you'd think, and Rutten gets thrown around. Nakanishis selling in the last couple seconds was shockingly good, not something I thought he had in him. Also loved him trying to power out of the flying armbar a split second after getting caught.

Manabu Sato (Manabu Hara/Suruga) vs. Hiroshi Shimada, Rainbow Promotion 3/21/2002

Really fun big vs. little grappling match. Shimada looked awesome here twisting up his opponent with amateur sugar holes. He also had some great violent looking knees on the ground. Talk about a guy who missed his calling as a shootstylist. Young Manabu, who seemingly could never decide on a last name, is more than solid here as a bantamweight grappler fighting a beast. 

 2002 MOTY MASTER LIST

Assorted Lucha

Gran Apache & El Mestizo vs. Escudero Rojo & Reyes Veloz (CMLL 9/12/1993)

It‘s a double hair match, baby! And this was pretty great. We move straight to brawling with the rudos Escudero Rojo and Reyes Veloz lazing into the technicos with cool big boots and clotheslines. Gran Apache looks great here, throwing his awesome punches and flying, and there was one absolutely ridiculous base spot from the rudos where Veloz (?) sprinted into the ring and halfway across to catch an Apache moonsault. Fun layout here with the technicos turning the 1st fall around but getting DQ‘d in the second due to not being able to hold back their hatred for their foes. It builds to an inferno of a 3rd caida where Apache and Mestizo bleed like hell and the rudos make several edge-of-your-seat comebacks. It comes down to Apache vs. Escudero and it‘s everything you want from a hair match with Apache throwing out huge dives, both guys going splat hard on missed flying moves and some big nearfalls. Apaches selling after the tope rope dropkick was epic and so was Escudero Rojo desperately trying to get away.

Blue Panther vs. Dos Caras, AWS 9/25/2004

I had no idea this match ever happened, let alone at a random US indy show. Of course, these guys are way too proud to dog it in such a setting. This was quite the clinic. Both guys did it all. Dos Caras was pretty old here, but he had no problem going hard. It made me wonder what else he was doing during this time period. The crowd responding nicely to this kind of maestros match was cool. Dos Caras is a different weight class, but the match wasn‘t affected. Really good stuff, exactly as good as it looks on paper.

GAEA ZONE-X 3/15/1997

Chikayo Nagashima & Sugar Sato vs. Maiko Matsumoto & Rina Ishii

They went hard for 1 minute, then Ishii got pinned from a roll up. It was a cool rollup, but I thought having this go 3 or 4 minutes longer still couldn’t have hurt. Still, the emotional reaction after the match proved this to be a stepping stone for Matsumoto and Ishii.

Toshie Uematsu vs. Makie Numao

Pretty cool match. Numao got Uematsu with some hard kicks, but mostly Uematsu was beating her down with boots to the face and hard as fuck dropkicks inbetween some mat scrambles. I really liked how Uematsu avoided Numaos Dragon Sleeper, and there were a handful of neat transitions and technical moves. GAEA rookies continue to impress.

Chigusa Nagayo vs. Sakura Hirota & Hiromi Kato

Nagayo has been quite the reliable rookie cruncher. Can Hirota and Kato do well in a 2 on 1 situation? No. No they can’t. This is about 40 seconds of Hirota and Kato flying into Nagayo (and Kato even trying to Torture Rack Nagayo!) before Nagayo takes them both out with Ikeda style running punt kicks to the face and then drops Hirota with another earth shattering powerbomb for good measure. A fun 56 second match if you are not Kato or Hirota.

 KAORU & Meiko Satomura vs. Akira Hokuto & Sonoko Kato

Another excellent match from the GAEA crew. This was centered around both the rookies trying to to prove themselves to the veterans aswell as Satomura and Kato fighting each other fiercely. All the Satomura/Kato exchanges felt BattlARTS worthy. As usual, all the exchanges involving KAORU and Hokuto were really fun, unpredictable and made sense. There was also plenty of violence with Kato and Satomura kicking hard, Hokuto trying to boot peoples heads off and at one point trying to shatter KAORUs eardrum. KAORU was also pretty vicious attacking Katos bandaged shoulder with nasty armbars. The finishing run was really extravagant and felt like an AJPW match. It was between Satomura and Kato with Hokuto and KAORU coming to drop bombs on one to help out the other. There were some great nearfalls centered around Katos wounded arm and it was just really excellently executed intricate stuff. Great ending to cap off a great match.

THE LIBRARY

Takeshi Ono Documentation Project #12

 

Takeshi Ono vs. Alexander Otsuka, BattlARTS 1/13/1996 - EPIC

This is from the BattlARTS debut show and you can tell they went out there and went hart to get the crowd hooked on their product. Really great straight shootstyle match. Ono is slick on the mat and can land some big strikes, but he is so light Otsuka damn well will use him as a grappling dummy. Anytime Otsuka goes for a takedown or suplex attempt Ono has to stuff him or scramble for the ropes. The early grappling is so slick and technical, the kind of intricate shootstyle matwork that became a bit lighter as BattlARTS became a touring promotion, and it‘s great to watch. It builds to a more tricked out and epic second half than you‘d expect from an 8 minute undercard match, as Ono actually gets the first suplex dropping Otsuka on his head. From then on it‘s Ono wasting Otsuka with nasty kicks and knees and Otsuka desperately trying to get his throws in. Ono is so great here scrambling for chokes and trying to pop Otsukas legs with heel hooks, and when Otsuka gets to his bread and butter, he just tosses the shit out of Ono. Tremendous last couple minutes.

 

Takeshi Ono & Daisuke Ikeda vs. Alexander Otsuka & Tiger Mask IV, BattlARTS 10/18/1997 – FUN

Opening of this match wasn‘t quite as violent as you are used to from Team Taco, I‘m not super into TMIV shoehorning his pro style spots into a BattlARTS main event, although you had some fun rudo work from Ikeda and Ono. Lots of nasty thudding kicks, and Ono trying to unmask the Tiger before sinking in a choke was a pristine BattlARTS hybrid wrestling moment. It picked up when Otsuka started picking apart Ikedas leg which built to a nasty comeback where Ikeda tried cracking Otsukas jaw with a lariat before we get the Ono vs. Otsuka finishing run. It was a strong finishing run that had several neat moments such as Ono trying to take Otsukas head off with a flying knee and then hitting a nifty sliding leg kick, and of course Otsuka ragdolling Ono hard with suplexes. Still I was kinda hoping for a grandstand Ono/TMIV exchange since Ono had kept trying to unmask TMIV indicating some heat between the two, although what we got was high quality.

Takeshi Ono vs. Katsumi Usuda (8/18/2001) - FUN

Only a 3 minute clip of an 8 minute match was shown, but what was shown looked predictably great. These guys had gotten really great with their transitions at this point, just one slick move after another, that plus BattlARTS level stiffness. Travesty we have so little of this stuff.

TAKESHI ONO DOCUMENTATION PROJECT MASTER LIST

GWE Watching #1: Jaguar Yokota

 

Jaguar Yokota & Yoko Kosugi vs. Lioness Asuka & The Bloody, JD‘ 2/2/1998

Joshi companies were on a roll with bloody, heated tags in the late 90s. This was, like so many of these great matches, about an extremely dominant heel performance from Asuka and THE BLOODY. They both isolate Jaguar and Kosugi in the opening minutes, with Jaguar and Kosugi mounting some comebacks, with Kosugi retaliating with some really violent double stomps and Jaguar having a great looking comeback outside hitting ranas and dives, before they settle into a lengthy FIP section where a bleeding Kosugi got the worst of it with chain shots and table pieces flung at her head. It was a smart layout where you couldn‘t tell when the match was going to end. It builds to Stone Cold Jaguar Yokota coming in wasting everyone with chairs and a pretty exciting bomb throwing end run with Asuka suddenly getting bloodied and the match suddenly swinging to whether or not The Bloody could outlast her opponent. Also, as usual, Asukas minions interferred, but not in a way that detracted from the match. Neat moment where Asuka and The Bloody seemingly had the match won but Ran wouldn‘t count the fall as she was busy with their entourage outside the ring. Really good stuff and example of something that really elevated these young workers to go toe to toe with the legends in an intense fight.

 

Jaguar Yokota vs. Lioness Asuka, JD‘ 1/11/1998

Another crazy sprint with some absolutely psycho bumps. Jaguars bumping and athleticism kept this entertaining. Asuka has nice kicks, but she really loves lazily brawling around the arena. There also is a world of difference between Yokotas and Asukas selling, even in a go-go sprint like this. Yokota nailed Asuka with her double arm ganso bomb onto the apron about 5 minutes into this and Asuka was acting unphased moments later. Keep that in mind when you go into this. There were also one or two goofy moments, one in which Asukas posse all jumped into the ring at once to pile on Jaguar. That kind of thing just breaks the logic of a match because you wonder why they don‘t just do that all time? Still, Jaguar looked excellent. Also loved the opening sprint portion built around a sleeper hold.

Jaguar Yokota vs. Jumbo Hori, AJW 3/1982

Really good little match. This was a classic Jaguar performance where she outskills a bigger opponent by taking her down over and over and grinding here down with holds. Very much a wrestlers wrestler performance. Hori doesn‘t sell on the level to make this an epic match (there is a nice build to a figure 4 which sadly remains inconsequential), but her big slams were a lot of fun. Jaguar also takes a wild bump over the announce table at one point. Last couple moments saw Jaguar trying to cradle Hori over and over and reminded me of an intense amateur wrestling match.

Oriental Pro 12/3/1992

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zAceUUApF_c

Wellington Wilkins Jr. vs. Katsumi Hirano

Hirano is a low level guy who likes to play shooter, and he is almost completely useless. Wilkins Jr. though gets an entertaining match out of him by eating him up completely. Wilkins looked like the total package here roughing up Hirano with submissions, cool suplexes and judo throws aswell as those nasty ground headbutts he does. The sole moment where Hirano gets to do something is when Wilkins temporarily loses balance allowing Hirano to lock in a lucky submission, which doesn't last long as Wilkins soon taps him out with a basic side headlock.

Akihiro Mikada vs. Nobutaka Araya 

I liked this more on rewatch. It's a slow paced match with a lot of holds, but there was some escalation to the holds, Mikada would try the same hold twice and Araya would reverse in cool fashion. Mikada peppering Araya with stiff kicks was a lot of fun. Match went a little too long for their own good and pro style Araya didn't show me as much at this stage, but this was solid enough for rookie undercard action.

Brian Lee vs. Masahiko Takasugi

The next bout was veteran Takasugi vs. An ultra generic blonde Brian Lee. Takasugi was still pretty spry and they worked an IWE type match with Lee roughing up his opponent and then Takasugi fighting fire with fire. Basic stuff again, and they ended the match just as it seemed to get hot. 

Yukihiro Kanemura & Masayoshi Motegi vs.Kazuhiko Matsuzaki & Hiroshi Itakura 

Fun juniors match with some piss and vinegar. I really liked Matsuzaki here, who was cracking everyone with hard headbutts and kicks, aswell as Itakura who can do both slick junior flips aswell as spin kick someone in the throat. I liked the flaring tempers, the dive sequence and the finish. I thought Kanemura went to the well too often with his STF. That was a hot move in 1992 and while it initially increased the tension, by the 3rd time he locked the move in it was reduced to a resthold. Bad psychology.

Ryuma Go & Jesse Barr vs. Ron & Don Harris (Texas Deathmatch in a cage~!) 

Good clobbering brawl with lots of blood. This kind of match would look really good-great in front of a hot US crowd but with this kind of subdued japanese crowd the whole thing felt a little dry, despite plenty of juice and fire. I liked how the crowd got into Jesse's toughness as he absorbed all of the Harris Bros high end tag team offense and the finish was a fun outsmarting the rules moment.

THE LIBRARY

Tanomusaku Toba Documentation Project #10

 

MIKAMI, Super Uchu Power, Tomohiko Hashimoto & Tanomusaku Toba vs Shoichi Ichinomiya, Tomohiro Ishii, GENTARO & YOSHIYA (DDT 10/30/01, Elimination Match) - FUN

This was an Elimination match which kind of showcased the amount of WWF fandom that was going on in DDT. Toba was only in this for a short time, but he looked damn great potatoeing dudes as usual. He also took some big ragdoll bumps during his FIP section. Tomohiro Ishii was kind of working like a regular heel wrestler here, which was a bit underwhelming considering how awesome he was when he was a stiff psycho during this time period, but there was a great moment where Toba woke him up and he started throwing big damn potatoes. The non-Toba portions were good but never reached those early violent heights again. It builds to a WWF style finishing run with Shoichi Ichimiya doing heel run ins, Mikami overcoming a 2 on 1 scenario, all the heels attacking with Stone Cold Uchu Power running in to lay everyone out only for a sudden heel turn to happen. I liked GENTARO a lot in this, such a cool unique wrestler in his early days with his blend of athleticism and WWF New Generation era worship, and MIKAMIs athleticism is also really fun, but I thought it got a little silly down the stretch. Still, someone who’s really into WWF Elimination Matches will probably dig this a lot.

 

Tanomusaku Toba vs. Futoshi Miwa (DDT 5/29/2004) - FUN

Futoshi Miwa is one of those DDT-style wrestlers with a fat nerdy kid gimmick. This was a shockingly decent match, mostly because Miwa knew how to wrestle like a fat kid, and Toba was beating this nerd pretty hard. Initially Miwa would act smug as Tobas kicks were bouncing off of his blubber, so Toba just brutalized him in the corner with punches. It looked like the ref was gonna stop the match but Miwa came back with a triumphant run of fatboy offense, just burying poor Toba under his blubber.

Tanomusaku Toba vs. MIKAMI, DDT 4/4/2010 - GREAT

This was way better. Short and to the point. MIKAMI tries to rush Toba and runs right into a big right hand. After that MIKAMI is eating shit until he is able to spin kick Toba in the face. MIKAMI looks really good here. He doesn’t do any kickboxing, but he has good matwork, highspots landing with a thud. And Toba always comes back punching or kicking him really hard. Apparently this was Tobas return match and he does feel slightly rusty, uncharacteristically whiffing on an axe kick. I hope I can find a match between these two in their peak period.

Tanomusaku Toba & Nihao vs. Takashi Sasaki & Asian Cougar (DDT 11/27/1999) - EPIC

Another excellent match from the DDT crew. Nihao looked very good here. It’s weird that you have to scour the earth for Nihao footage. The boy could go and easily would’ve been a great addition to the BattlARTS undercard scene. Good on the mat, cool suplexes, and perfectly able to engage in a stiff battle. He controlled the early parts of this while Toba would occasionally enter the ring to nail someone with unpredictable kicks and punches. I also really enjoyed Asian Cougar in this. He may seem like a spot monkey who just runs through his shit, but all of his spots where very well timed here and he knew how to fly into the scenery to crush someone at all the right moments. The match also had a great dive sequence. Toba is such a great addition to a hybrid junior tag like this. His springboard kick to the face is so reckless and awesome. The finish is between him and Sasaki and another great entry in their kickass rivalry.

 

 

TANOMUSAKU TOBA DOCUMENTATION PROJECT

Assorted Japan Indy Wrestling

 

Kazuhiro Tamura vs. Tatsumi Fujinami, Heat-Up 6/18/2014

 

I had no idea what to expect from this. Fujinami is old but can always go, but his opponent is a blip even on the indy radar. It easily could‘ve been a throwaway feelgood exhibition, but what we get is a really good little match! Fujinami grapples Tamura and looks really spry and motivated. There is some really cool MUGA vs. U-Style grappling with Fujinami busting out slick reversals of Tamuras armbars and Tamura trying to sink into his shootstyle holds. You actually don‘t see Fujinami stretch out and grapple often in his prime but he is a really cool maestro as an old man. When they stand up Fujinami gives Tamura a lot, even catching a dive from him and eating some hard kicks! The ending is inevitable, but this left me wholly pleased. Definitely one of the better Fujinami matches of the 21th century. 

 

Yuki Ishikawa vs. Shinjuku Shark, Fuyuki Army 4/8/2004

As a fan of both BattlARTs and sleazy indy martial artists, this match was sort of a dream match to me. And this was a really fun 7 minute match. I was delighted how well these two matched up. Ishikawa made it clear he wasn’t taking Shark seriously, but Shark caught him with some hard punches and unusual moves, including an abdominal stretch. Shark also did some really cool dodging and head bobbing which surprised even Ishikawa. Cool finish with Shark trying to block the Octopus Hold only to get pulled into a nifty rolling armbar.

Genichiro Tenryu & Masao Orihara vs. Riki Senshu & Masahiko Kochi, ?? 5/5/2010

Riki Senshu is a tiny guy doing a Riki Choshu impression, but playing it straight. Amusing little match which may have been better than some actual Tenryu/Choshu tags from the time due to Senshu and Kochi being more willing to take punishment. Orihara had his working boots on, Tenryu did the bare minimum which is still fun. Worth checking out.

WAR 6/30/1994 Part 2

 Hiromichi Fuyuki & Jado & Gedo vs. Chris Jericho & Brett Como & Dos Caras

This was just a 10 minute match with Jericho, Como, Jado and Gedo trying to cram in as many moves as possible. Dos Caras and Fuyuki were barely in the match and there was no real heat unlike other Fuyuki Gun matches. Jericho and Como hit this doomsday device move on Jado followed by a big gutwrench bomb and Jado completely no sold it. Jericho locked sloppy. I imagine this is the match 90s tape traders liked the most on this card. I will say that at least they got it over quickly.

Genichiro Tenryu & Koki Kitahara & Animal Hamaguchi vs. Great Sasuke & Shiryu & Masao Orihara - EPIC

This was a blast. Basically the juniors doing everything they can to annoy the heavyweights, who retaliate in pretty violent fashion. Lots of great triple teams and assist spots, all really well timed. Sasuke sumo pummeling Tenryu was really funny and he looked like the real deal bouncing around evading Tenryus offense. Hamaguchi and Kitahara were great here delivering some violent asskickings. Loved Hamaguchis elbows, headbutts and the weird stretch he broke out. So many neat moments. This was short but honestly a really unique match and totally delivered.

Shinobu Kandori & Rumi Kazama vs. Eagle Sawai & Harley Saito

Yeah, give us a LLPW showcase match, why not! This was pretty fun and more structured than the constant back and forth you often get with joshi showcase matches. There wasn’t much depth, but I still prefer a structured match. Everyone stuck do what they do best: Kazama and Saito throwing violent kicks, Kandori busting out flash submissions, and Sawai being a big powerhouse. It’s good stuff throughout and builds to a really fun, unpredictable finishing stretch with Saito and Kandori showing off their great chemistry together. I was wary about how this being the 8^th match on a really long card but they kept me and the crowd engaged.

Chris Jericho & Brett Como & Dos Caras vs. Great Sasuke & Shiryu & Masao Orihara

Yeahh, give us a 3^rd place match in this long ass 1 night tournament too, why not! It speaks volumes about these guys that they had all wrestled about 40 minutes already, but they still keep going hard in this and pop the crowd by doing all their shit. Dug Dos Caras busting out the whacky lucha holds, and Shiryu was pretty much the MVP here having fun sequences with Jericho and Como. The match had no depth, but that would’ve been too much at this point, and there is an artform to just rolling out spots for 15 minutes, and they did it well.

Genichiro Tenryu & Koki Kitahara & Animal Hamaguchi vs. Jado & Gedo & Hiromichi Fuyuki - EPIC

Alas, the final! And this was a total blast, too. Basically Fuyuki Gun try to do their usual spiel and run into a brickwall. Tenryu and crew wouldn’t have their triple teaming shit, and Fuyuki and his goons got the tables turned on them. Mostly Hamaguchi and Kitahara potatoeing and stretching Jado and Gedo. Anytime Tenryu would come in he would kick someone in the face or chop them in the throat really hard. Fuyuki looked damn great and may have been the best guy in the match. He would constantly run in to make these really violent saves by kicking people in the face, then drop elbows, slap Tenryu, are lariat someone in the jaw. It was as if you had two Tenryus in the match! It builds to a really hot second half with Hamaguchi running wild, and Kendo Nagasaki running in to cause more chaos with a fire extinguisher. It could have ended on that interference spot Attitude Era style and it would’ve been pretty great, but then we also get Kitahara having his leg taken out and stubbornly trying to survive against the nefarious Fuyuki. Great shit, a worthy cap of to this great tournament that produced more great matches than an entire month of 2021 pro wrestling. Wrestle and Romance.

THE LIBRARY

KOKI KITAHARA DOCUMENTATION

 

Takeshi Ono Documentation Project #11

 

Takeshi Ono & Masao Orihara vs. Ikuto Hidaka & Minoru Tanaka, BattlARTS 10/19/1997 - GREAT

It‘s the first time Ono and Orihara team up! And, what the hell – this was really good! It wasn‘t really a BattlARTS match and more of an indy tag with the stiffness upgraded to BattlARTS level stiffness and more fierce submissions – so what, that‘s a really good kind of match! And everyone here was super fired up. Tanaka was unusually stiff and trying to take down Orihara, and Hidaka fawas really good in his usual spunky young guy role. It was nice to see Hidaka had graduated from getting squashed by Ono in under 5 minutes to actually being a threat and even upsetting Orihara a few times. All the Hidaka/Ono sections were really fun, and of course Orihara is a sleaze good in this. Doing dickish kip ups, spitting on people, kicking them in the face, hitting gnarly powerbombs. It builds to a bigger finishing run than you‘d expect from a midcard(?) match, too. Really good shit and exactly what you want.

Takeshi Ono & Masao Orihara vs. Katsumi Usuda & Tatsuo Nakano, BattlARTS 11/25/1997 - GREAT

What a matchup. This was also pretty great. Two stoic shooters vs. A pair of absolute fuckers. The Tonpachi Machine Gun assault tactics were in full bloom here. The just swarmed all over Usuda and Nakano. Nakano looked damn great here as a tough old bastard teaching these punks a lesson, and Usuda had his share of gnarly moments too. There are just moments in these matches – like Usuda reversing a leglock and throwing some hard elbows to the back of Onos head – that you only really get in BattlARTS, and that is why BattlARTS rules. I also really enjoyed Nakano blowing off the attempt at a 2 on 1 and just beating Oriharas ass on the floor. Orihara was spectacular as usual, spitting on Nakano, running in to kick dudes in the face and then in the balls. Ono hadn‘t fully embraced his ratboy ways here, but he had some quality stiff exchanges against Nakano and Usuda. There was a constant feel that the Guns were outskilled and had to use their cheating in order to stay in the match, which made the whole thing really damn entertaining. Ono also had one of the hardest Russian Leg Sweeps in history on Usuda. Great finish where Orihara runs in like he had done so many times before only to catch some serious hands from Nakano while Usuda sinks in the choke on Ono.

Takeshi Ono & Masao Orihara vs. Minoru Tanaka & Alexander Otsuka, BattlARTS 11/29/1997 - GREAT

Another very good match, although it was much less heavy on cheating tactics from Ono and Orihara. There was still some serious fuckery going on, especially from Orihara, but most of this was straight wrestling. Orihara/Tanaka is always a quality match up, and we get some nice slick grappling sections between Otsuka and Ono. The match up turns up a notch when Otsuka drops Ono with an absolutely sick brainbuster – lord knows, Otsuka really tried to kill Ono all the time – and it moves into a pretty great brief ending run with Otsuka launching Ono across the ring with suplexes and Ono desperately trying to not get his neck broken. 

TAKESHI ONO DOCUMENTATION MASTER LIST

GAEA VICTORY ROAD 2/23/1997

 Chikayo Nagashima & Sugar Sato vs. Hiromi Kato & Sakura Hirota

Fun beginning here with Kato and Hirota immediately starting to brawl with chairs etc. only for it to backfire on them. This was another rookie match going 15+ match. Most of the match was dropkicks and crossbodies and stomps, you‘d think it would get boring but they get a ton out of their crossbodies dropkicks and stomps. Once again really dug all the stuff around Katos argentine backbreaker.

Kyoko Ichiki vs. Rina Ishii

Ishii gets the rub by going even with veteran Ichiki in this match. I wish we had gotten a bit more of it, but what we got was fun. Ichiki mixes in some athletic moves and Ishii looks very polished.

Meiko Satomura & Sonoko Kato vs. Maiko Matsumoto & Toshie Uematsu

Another extremely go-go type sprint that goes something like 20 minutes. The match was the usual back and forth, but I dug everyone here so it ended up being cool. I enjoyed Matsumoto hitting hard leg drops from all angles and making use of the atomic drop agai, and Uematsu was like a wrecking ball flying into the ring dropkicking people in the back of their heads. As always Satomura and Kato were feisty kicking the crap out of their opponents. It‘s funny to watch young Satomura bust out things like a twisting springboard splash. Match felt hard-fought, and had a neat finish. Full GAEA point, I guess?

Akira Hokuto & KAORU vs. Chihiro Nakano & Makie Numao

Every match on this show so far has been pretty much a sprint, but here we get a STORY~! As Numao and Nakano act all spunky and uppity and the veterans teach them a lesson by stretching and smacking them while also giving them appropriate time to shine. KAORU and Hokuto seem to be building a strong resume working these more story-driven matches in GAEA so far, and Nakano and Numao once again look great. Hokuto is especially good, as she acts like a badass who fucks shit up and takes no crap from anyone, but also will show ass at the right time. Loved her hobbling back to her corner after getting caught in a random kneebar. My only gripe is the clipped 6 minutes from this, although it‘s rather seamless clipping. Still, a 2 hour TV slot and they STILL had to clip?!

Mayumi Ozaki vs. Chigusa Nagayo

(note: the linked video is clipped slightly compared to the original TV airing.)

Parts of this were very cool, I dig Chigusas kicks, Ozakis sudden assault with the wooden spikes looked grizzly, and there was some gnarly fighting going on with both ladies trading headbutts and stiff backfists. That said this was largely an overly long mess with way too much no selling. It’s weird how Nagayo had one of the smartest matches I’ve seen in a while just the month before but then completely blunders it here. There was also a weird moment where Ozaki ripped her pants and had to roll outside to put on a new pair, and it happened in the middle of the finishing stretch. Just really weirdly paced match.

THE LIBRARY

Tarzan Goto Documentation Project #2

 Atsushi Onita vs. Tarzan Goto (FMW 2/26/1991) - EPIC

Okay, wow. This was brutal as hell. Essentially the world's sleaziest WAR match. Forget about explosions and barbedwire, this was about crazy headbutts, lariats and punches in the face.

 
This was also a total fight. Normally in hardcore type matches there will be some lulls when guys are rummaging around, but here they are just killing eachother the whole way. Right out the gate they are ramming their heads into eachother, Goto's face in a pool of blood immediately, and I love how Goto was selling that he is clearly rattled by Onita's headbutts but still trying to push back. Onita comes out on top and immediately goes for a suicide dive that doesn't go well, and Goto immediately grabs a chair and waffles Onita in the face. Next you know Onita is bleeding and Goto continues to beat the life out of him, just killing him chucking tables and stomping him in the face. When that doesn't do it Goto briefly works Onita's leg to set up an STF, altough he is still laying in a fucking stiff beating kicking Onita in the hamstring.
 
One headbutt exchange later and Onita has proven that he is still tougher, sending Goto outside altough Goto immediately goes for a fucking dropkick there. Neither of these guys will stop attacking, altough Onita gets the advantage again body slamming him into chairs and landing a table-cracking piledriver that looked like a potential KO as much as anything. Back in the ring and both guys are a mess at this point. Goto with the blistering lariats and huge superfly splash again, but Onita catches him with his DDTs and goes on to drill him with the big damn powerbombs. I actually liked the "kick out at 1 spot" here, it's become such a cliche at this point, but Goto's facial expression really gets it across, he's thinking "I know I'm dead on my feet, but I'm not quitting now, fuck you" then punches Onita in the face. Onita just keeps dropping Goto with one nastier powerbomb after another until he stays down, making this almost a Steve Williams Backdrop moment.
 
I dunno. This is probably not as fine as Kawada/Taue, but in way it feels like the ultimate 90s indy sleaze massacre. It's easily the best match of that kind that I can recall seeing. It's gruesome, primitive, savage as hell and unlike many other matches of that kind had me enthralled the whole way through. Yeah maybe it's not a Top 40 match in 1991, who gives a shit. I loved this.

 

Tarzan Goto & Mitsunobu Kikuzawa vs. Masayoshi Motegi & Shinichi Nakano, WYF 8/9/1997 - GREAT

 

This was another piece of fucking great pro wrestling. This was not quite the same chaotic, savage massacre as the previous Goto vs. WDF guys tag, but more of a great southern style tag. Some really fun back and forth wrestling early on which was damn cool to see from such a fat guy as Goto, before Motegi ends up suicide diving right into a Goto chairshot (did I mention Motegi is actually awesome?) which sets up the heat section of Goto again mercilessly fucking up Motegi with various foreign objects, including drilling his face with an umbrella. Motegi screaming for his life while Goto was stubbornly trying to crack a beer bottle over his head before he just breaks it and carves him up gave the whole thing a Hillbilly slasher movie feel. Goto has fucking great punches, too. It all builds very well to Nakano getting the hot tag and in turn messing up everyone with his simple, violent offense. Aside from Goto being awesome you also had the future Kikutaro who at this point was a fun fatboy wrestler that gets messed up by the veterans for being a newbie, at one point Nakano just grabs him and drills his face with knee strikes. Really well worked match that blends southern psychology and japanese hierarchy thinking.

 

TARZAN GOTO DOCUMENTATION PROJECT MASTER LIST 

Random Mid-South

 Fabulous Ones vs. Los Guerreros (1/24/1986)

Long, excellent grudge match. We start of with a wild segment of the F1s trying to attack early and then stooging and getting chased a bunch including Chavo hitting a beautiful dropkick. Guerreros control some with fun 80s spots and cool suplex before F1s take over double teaming their opponent. Match went to another level as soon as Chavo gets busted open and F1s start working over his cut in gritty fashion. Lane & Keirn are a whirlwind during the heat segment always getting sneaky stomps including kicking a bloody Chavo inbetween falls. Hector gets the hot tag and runs wild for a bit before he also gets stomped building to another hot tag from Chavo who has the house absolutely on fire. All time sick finish here with Fabulous Ones going crazy on Hector with a chair including hitting him in the neck and leaving him a bloody motionless mess. I'm a huge fan of the Guerreros especially Chavo but F1s may have looked slightly better here with their excellent stooging and heel tactics and wild swinging punches etc. Match was bordering on a classic as the length and number of falls were slightly an issue but the finish is an all time gruelling moment in wrestling. BRUTAL.

Buzz Sawyer vs. Jim Duggan (12/27/85)

Sawyer looks exactly like the kind of guy to get into a chain fight, possibly in some Mad Max like scenario. This exactly how you do this kind of match, just two big brutes wailing on eachother. Chain shots looked brutal and the blood was sufficiently nasty. Lots of uncomfortable dragging around by the neck too as Boesch comments „And Sawyer looks like a guy now who has a chain around his neck...“ Duggan with an AWESOME punch combo for his big comeback, everythings there. Something like Buzz falling into a chair looks dangerous and unplanned here. Duggan doesn't even care to pin Buzz, just drags him around and beats on him. Smart finish. Chair spots in Mid South always look grizzly, it's probably a mix of the excellent psychology, camera work and sound editing coming together. Just a great old school fight.

Fabulous Ones vs. Los Guerreros (2/28/1986)

Cage match. Right off the bat F1s with the punches and biting. This is just a sprint, just everyone throwing punches and flying into the page. Chavo goes from running wild to dangling upside down from the cage seconds later. Kind of sudden finish. Fun stuff but I thought what the F1s did to Hector last month deserved a bigger payoff.

Ric Flair vs Terry Taylor - Mid-South, Houston 5/3/85

Even though this had „signature Fair carryjob“ written all over it, it built to a quite fun match that stood out on it's own. Taylor is above average here, I liked his chops and punches, good selling, perfect to slot into Flairs match. This had really good build and pace with the slow beginning with some basic wrestling exchanges then building the tension by ramping up the intensity with the long headlock, Flair resorting to throws etc. Something like Flair hitting a series of hip throw stands out as a nice bit of wrestling. Arm work was fine as was Taylor getting some payback and the parts where they wail on eachother in the corner are obviously the best. The 50/50 ending run was extremely well done too. Flair matches like this are weird as it feels like you've seen it all before but in this case it works and it's nice that they took something like the legwork and Figure 4 stuff out of the equation to mix things up.

IWA Japan GET THE GLORY & FUTURE TRIAL 4/29 & 5/18/1998

 4/29

Perseus & Hidetomo Egawa vs. The Great Takeru & Akinori Tsukioka

Emi Motokawa vs. Chihiro Nakano

The Great Kabuki & Arashi vs. Keisuke Yamada & Shigeo Okamura

I'm an IWA Japan fan now, because every IWA Japan card is great in it's own unique way which can not be expressed in conventional measures of quality, this being an outdoor show in front of a picturesque setting just being the icing on the cake. This was a nice three-piece, as you had the junior opener, which was basically all these guys throwing a slew of big moves and occasional BattlARTSian intermission touches from Egawa including hitting some huge belly to bellys which you do not expect from a tiny insignificant guy like him. Perseus (a guy the internet knows nothing about), for a guy who is all about Dragon Suplexes and Triple Powerbombs and all that also hits a really great powerslam. It's all pretty senseless and really fun.

Motokawa/Nakano was a shockingly good match, everything you can hope for from sleaze indy undercard girl wrestling. Nakano is former GAEA and a kickpadded alternate universe Satomura. She almost KO's Motokawa with her opening barrage and from then on it's on. Everything she does is either a nasty kick or a cool shoot submission. She rules, and why have I never heard of her? Motokawa likes to indulge in silly spots but straightens herself out her after getting kicked in the face 3 or 4 times and starts dropping Nakano with suplexes that would do Otsuka proud. They don't indulge in too many nearfalls and I am left thinking the world needs more of this mysterious Chiharu Nakano.

The main event was a stupidly good sleazy WAR battle with Arashi basically walloping everyone with stiff lariats all the time and not bumping ever and crusty old Kabuki ruling it doing you know exactly what, hitting the worlds greatest punches and superkicks. Yamada basically gets the shit beaten out of him and eats the fuck out of every lariat and superkick he gets, just drilling himself into the mat with enthusiasm. Okamura is pretty blah but he and Yamada are EAGER and Kabuki is totally carrying this by bumping like a motherfucker and getting chairs chucked in his face and making me give a shit for his nerve hold AGAIN. He teases the fist drop and eats a flying lariat in a sequence that wasn't athletically impressive or anything but awesome in context of the match. I was totally a Kabuki fan before getting into IWA Japan, but seeing him crusty, old and broken down as an improbable but determined company ace who throws fists and gets spin kicked in the face is an enlightenment.

 

5/18

The Great Takeru vs. Perseus

Keisuke Yamada & Takeshi Sato vs. Shoichi Ichinomiya & Tomohiro Ishii

The Great Kabuki & Gran Hamada vs. Keizo Matsuda & Takashi Okamura

Not as good as the 4/29 card, but still really fun indy action. Takeru/Perseus was the same deal as usual, hit all your big spots for pops and be done with it, but they actually seem to be gaining a bit in polish. The Ishii match was a motherfucking Ishii match, as Tomohiro Ishii – dressed in improbable 90s colors – throws down chucking chairs and kicking the lowly IWA Japan punks in their faces. All the Ishii interactions were gold as he gets the boys to show some piss and vinegar, nasty headbutt exchanges and kicks to the spine ensue. Some gritty legwork is there aswell, with using the old Jumbo kneebreaker over a table/chair and it's all great. Ichinomiya is a future comedy character and you can tell he is not very good at the pro wrestling. Funny moment where Ishii tries the spot from his future Shibata matches where he puffs his chest after getting kicked by Sato and Sato just flattens him. Atta boy! Now I need more 1998 Ishii too, god dammit.

The main event was as fun as it sounds on paper, with Hamada working fun sequences and hitting big high spots, and Kabuki again in the sleaze Tenryu role. Matsuda & Okamura are quite suck ass and bland, but they do a decent job ripping up Kabuki's leg and isolating the vets hitting some double teams. Match went quite long and they kept it interesting and I would've liked to see the thing in full. Best moment of the match was easily Kabuki kicking Matsuda in the face and decking him with punches from let and right.

 THE LIBRARY

RIP Jack Veneno

Ric Flair vs. Jack Veneno, 9/7/1982

This is a historically famous match because Flair dropped the title on a whim to local hero Jack Veneno here. However, this looks like a seriously great match in its own right. We get about 15 minutes of what looks like a time limit draw. Jack Veneno looks really great here, like the richest mans Carlos Colon. Really fun, basic opening work around some headlocks and wristlocks. Veneno does the awesome thing where he hammers his arms at Flairs head while in the headlock repeatedly, and the fact that there is a packed stadium of buzzing fans being all kinds of crazy for Veneno is making this feel really special. They start turning it up early exchanging some great looking strikes in the corner, with Veneno hitting these awesome punch combos. Jesus, can you imagine being a Dominican kid watching Jack Veneno punch Flair in the mouth on your grainy TV? Flair is really good here trying to hit throws but getting steam rolled, there is a really nifty backbreaker from a headlock and some nice suplexes. Eventually Flair is able to drop Veneno on the rope and go to town dropping elbows. I love his missed elbow bumps. Some clipping happens and Veneno is bleeding and getting knees dropped on his head. They end up outside and Flair is bleeding too and we get a dramatic finishing run with Veneno doing this awesome fighting out of a Figure 4 spot and Flair hanging on by a thread. The ganso bomb finish was pretty crazy too.

Jack Veneno vs. Puño de Hierro

We only get about 5 minutes of this, but what an epic 5 minutes. The cage here is basically just straight bars, looks really hard to get up. Veneno rips open Punos mask and drops some fantastic looking elbows on his bloody face before they do a big fight up the cage and trading blows on top, with the crowd being super engaged. Puno de Hierro ends up taking a big bump off the top onto the ring(!) and Veneno remains triumphant.

Jack Veneno vs. Relampago Hernandez

I think Hernandez was one of Venenos main rivals, but this was basically just a short studio squash. Veneno cartwheels around the place looking like the rich mans Carlos Colon, but a crooked referee refuses to count the 3 until a good referee comes in to make the world a right place.

2002 MOTY Project Update #12

 Kohei Sato & Ryouji Sai vs. Hirotaka Yokoi & Wataru Sakata (ZERO1 5/23/2002)

Stiff, uncooperative shootstyle pro wrestling. Apparently this was Yokois first match ever and he looked good right from the get go. Whenever Sato & Sai got too uppity he would start throwing punches. I also loved how he kept blocking Sais irish whip attempts and, once he had Sai prone, ran the ropes himself and blasted him with a huge dropkick. Sakata is at his best when he acts like a dick and there was plenty of that here. I also liked how he acted like he was a class above all these greenhorns. There were some brutal saves in this match aswell. Sai took a big beating, getting bloodied by a Sakata spin kick and punched in the face by Yokoi. Sato & Sai were effective underdogs here, never getting in too much offense, and when they got something it would hit with a thud.

Wataru Sakata vs. Tatsuhito Takaiwa (ZERO1 5/3/2002)

Sakata had the vibe of someone who was just getting the hang of how to pro wrestle here, but after a somewhat tentative opening this turned into a shockingly good match. Takaiwa has been efficient against shooters and this was no exception. Sakata had it all over Takaiwa here, basically making him his punching bag, working submission counters and throwing him around with massive suplexes. Takaiwas only chance was to crowbar Sakata into oblivion. Muscling Sakata into the Death Valley Bomb may have been Takaiwas finest moment ever here. We get lots of brutal lariats (obviously), but Takaiwa really earns his salt eating one nasty kick from Sakata after another, getting double stomped and almost submitted a couple times. Awesome jaw breaking finish.

 

Shinjiro Otani & Masato Tanaka vs. Yuki Ishikawa & Katsumi Usuda (ZERO1 5/3/2002)

BattlARTS vs. ZERO1 feud continues. And this was a real good match! I mean, that shouldn't come as a surprise, but I was expecting something fishy to happen here. But nope, they get to do their thing for 15+ minutes. Plenty of hate, stiff shots and neat moments, of course. There was lots of back and forth, altough nothing egregious. I guess this was the Z1 guys giving a shot at working a BattlARTS style rhythm. No shootstyle matwork besides a few counters, but lots of nice snug work. Tanaka was pretty efficient working with the BattlARTS dudes and Ohtani kept the crowd into it with his charisma.  

Shinya Hashimoto vs. Nathan Jones (ZERO1 1/6/2002)

VAST ENERGY. This match was a total freakshow, but had far too many great moments not to love it. After working a lithany of martial artists in the 90s and being the king of the Tokyo Dome, Hashimoto has retired to his own remote island to live out his vision of what pro wrestling is supposed to be – some weird combination of Memphis and RINGS. Broken down 2000s Hashimoto is still a seriously great pro wrestler, and him destroying this freak of nature here was damn impressive. Jones really laid into Hashimoto who sold the beating huge. This also included Jones working an iron claw that Hashimoto sold like his skull was about to get crushed, Hashimoto and Jones working 70s Mighty Inoue/Andre spots, bearhug etc. Jones was a mixture of wooden and awkward and impressively athletic, he had this huge elbow drop, flies over the top rope, impressive leaping clothesline etc. And Hashimoto really lays into him too, hitting every part of the body with a thud, trying to find the weak spot. Hash chopping the shoulder while Jones was trying to hit lariats was pretty awesome, other great moments include: Jones powering out of Hashimotos armhold attempts, Hashimoto chopping away at the throat as well as his body shot combo, Hashimoto coming up with a bloody lip, a borderline exhausted Hashimoto locking in a basic leglock that ends up inescapable for Jones etc.

 Naoya Ogawa vs. Shinjiro Ohtani (ZERO1 3/2/2002)

Big awesome spectacle. Ohtani rushes Ogawa kicking him in the face, and Kazunari Murakami is ringside causing trouble. Ogawa has his haters, but to me his greatness is undeniable as he is pretty much the best possible japanese Goldberg. When hits the first judo throw on Ohtani he just drills him into the mat, and when he follows up kicking Ohtani he looks like a killing machine. He looks like he will destroy a guy in 2 minutes, but his selling is such that it always looks like the other guy can believably make a comeback. I also love how he took a german suplex with his big lanky frame. Ohtani of course rules punching Ogawa in the balls and selling the beatdown huge especially the last STO where he was just laid out as if he had his neck broken.

Wataru Sakata vs. Kohei Sato (ZERO1 6/27/2002)

Okay now, seems like Sakata was really getting it at this point. Sato has looked solid all year doing shootstyle matwork, but he wasn't really capable of creating great moments on his own. Here there were a number of great, well timed moments, most of them involving Sakata almost KO'ing Sato. Every movement counted here. Most importantly, Sakata looked like he was ready to snap this pasty nerd in half.

 

2002 MOTY PROJECT MASTER LIST

WAR 6/30/1994 Part 1

 Nobukazu Hirai vs. Yuji Yasuraoka

Yasuraoka may have been the pinnacle of 90s wrestling fashion. He wasn’t at his most extravagant here, but looked like a total gangster coming In with his mullet, baggy pants, martial arts belt and shoes.This was a basic opening match upgraded to WAR-appropriate level of violence with both guys really cracking each other when throwing hands and trying to rip each other in half with half crabs. Starts a bit slow but gets going good with Yasuraoka busting out his cool high spots and Hirai trying to crack his jaw with some mean elbows. Also, because it was the 90s, when they do moves they do cool moves like flying back elbows or sidewalk slams, and execute them with real thud. Hirai may have been at this best as a WAR opening match guy potatoeing his fellows and hitting big elbow drops, and he even wins this match with a really cool huracanrana into a neck crank. Very satisfying.

Hiromichi Fuyuki & Jado & Gedo vs. Hiroshi Itakura & Ichiro Yaguchi & Hideo Takayama

It’s nice to get a full version of that NSPW main event. And this was a pretty great match. Everyone looked good potatoeing the shit out of each other. Fuyuki was so great here punching and stomping these kickpadded wannabe shooters into oblivion, at one point even doing a Terry Funk combo, and as usual there were numerous cool cut offs and double teams from Fuyuki-Gun. Yaguchi was doing a sambo gimmick here, and he is a lot better as a dimestore Volk Han with cool kicks than as a shitty facepainted brawler. At one point he just ragdolled Gedo with a cool wrist throw and that was probably the coolest thing he ever did. Itakura was cool here working fast paced junior sequences with Jado and Gedo, and Hido was there to kick, bleed and get the life beaten out of him. Miss when wrestling was simple and violent.

Dos Caras & Bret Como & Chris Jericho vs. Ashura Hara & Arashi (Benkei) & Super Strong Machine

Now this is a WAR 6-man, baby. And… this went the absurd length of 30(!!!) minutes! It ended up not being a bad match, too! Dos Caras was great here, being pretty much a highspot machine and doing lots of amusing shtick to fill the time, such as challenging Arashi to a posing contest, and trying to unmask everybody else. He was the only on his team to hit a dive! Como and Jericho are more interesting thumbling with some fat sumos than doing their regular junior stuff, and Hara potatoeing them was amusing. And the Arashi sections manage to not stink, even though that guy couldn’t do anything besides some sumo pummeling at this point. After the time runs out Team Caras is awarded the victory. Talk about going to lengths to have Hara and his mates not drop a pinfall.

Great Sasuke, Masao Orihara & Shiryu v Koji Ishinriki, Masanobu Kurisu & Takashi Ishikawa

Man, every match on this card is a main event. This was pretty great too. It was basically a straight WAR match that saw Kurisu and Ishikawa potatoeing guys while the junior side saved their highspots for later, no trained monkey show here. Loved the Kurisu/Shiryu opening segment which saw Kurisu meeting Shiryus lucharesu tendencies by hitting a rope walk armdrag, and also Kurisu stomping and chairing Shiryu really hard. Ishikawa may have been even more vicious as he was kicking Oriharas head like a football. Orihara looked pretty great here (rocking an ultra spaced out 90s look too), and the crowd was insanely hyped for Sasuke, even though he did very little in the match. Ishinriki was wearing a Jason Vorhees mask in this for some reason and basically only in the match to eat the pin while Kurisu did the bulk of the work headbutting guys into oblivion. Finish was great with Sasuke, Orihara and Shiryu hitting a damn triple missile dropkick on Ishinriki before Ishinriki powerbombs Sasuke only for the actual legal man, Orihara to roll him up.

Genichiro Tenryu & Koki Kitahara & Animal Hamaguchi vs. Kendo Nagasaki & Ryo Miyake & Kishin Kawabata - GREAT

Well, it’s a bunch of beefy dudes potatoeing each other. Almost like this is WAR or something. This was one of the most one sided matches so far as Kitahara and Hamaguchi just mercilessly potatoed Miyake and Kawabata. I think both Miyake and Kawabata got in like a combined 5 offensive moves in this match. Kawabatas piece of offense was a really nice dropkick that caught Tenryu in the mouth, and Miyakes was a pretty pathetic looking dropkick cause Miyake sucks. Other than that, they were there to get kicked in the face and elbowed in the throat by Kitahara and Hamaguchi. Kitahara looked like a killing machine, just killing these poor guys, and Hamaguchi dropped some hard elbows and samoan drops. The match built to a Tenryu/Nagasaki face off, and while it was pretty brief it was cool with Nagasaki smashing Tenryu in the face with chairs. Every match on this card is overdelivering like mad and this was also really cool considering this could’ve been a nothing squash.

THE LIBRARY

KOKI KITAHARA DOCUMENTATION MASTER LIST