Assorted NJPW Handhelds

 Shinya Hashimoto vs. Masahiro Chono, NJPW 3/1/1992

Chono isn't super compelling, but he has two moves that are really over and will occasionally hit back hard, and Hash is the fucking GOAT. This had a slow buildup, and while Chono doesn't bring more to the table than any random guy, I always enjoy Hashimotos grappling because he is such a beast. He executes something like a drop toe hold or belly to belly suplex with a ton of snap. Obviously the whole match built to the eventual escalation and when it comes Hashimoto is just an absolute force. The whole slow start is just to get the crowd buzzing for Hashimoto eventually snapping and stomping a mudhole in Chono, and that he does, bloody hell. There is a great moment where Chono absorbs the beating and tries to fire back but just gets overwhelmed, establishing Hashimotos hopelessly superior striking. Hashimoto puts such a one sided asskicking on Chono the crowd really senses Chonos only chance is to try to hit a Yakuza Kick or STF when the chance arises, so whenever Chono gets a glimpse of an offensive run they just go absolutely nuclear. Chono just eats one brutal kick to the chin and spine after another, he was eating such a beating that you buy him just wanting to stay down, but Hashimoto keeps pulling him up. The build to the STF was perfect as the first time Chono goes for it  he misses the toe hold, second time Hashimoto buries his face in the mat to avoid the facelock. Hashimoto eating Chonos boots was really great, it's such a simple move but Hashimoto makes it look like Chono is trying to kick down the Berlin wall. Match was sprinkled with some awesome, unexpected violence, such as Hashimoto elbowing Chono in the nose, Chono headbutting in the face, and at one point Hashimoto hitting a chop where it looked like he tried to stab his hand through Chono. Of course Hashimoto is really great at going from being an unstoppable monster to hanging on by a thread and being pushed to his limit. Amazing match, and it was basically all Hash.

Koji Kanemoto vs. Jushin Liger, NJPW 8/16/1992

Fun match where young Kanemoto gets a rub going 15 minutes against Liger. Kanemoto already looks like himself. He's still doing Tiger Mask spots, but he was also being a prick connecting Liger with some hard kicks, and Liger pays him back dearly with some brutal shotais and almost ripping him in half on a camel clutch. Super fun finishing run with Liger busting out random moves like a diving elbow or dragon sleeper for credible nearfalls.

Tanomusaku Toba Documentation Project #14

 Tanomusaku Toba vs. Masashi Takeda, Hard Hit 7/20/2008 - FUN

Deathmatch boy Takeda wasn't half bad at shootstyle at this point. Fun grappler vs. striker match. Takeda hits some explosive takedowns and suplexes and Toba hits some brutal counterpunches. It seemed to be hitting at something bigger, but it as a fun little match. Especially dug that sick deadlift suplex Takeda hit on Toba.

Tanomusaku Toba & Seiya Morohashi vs. Tomohiko Hashimoto & Nobutaka Moribe, DDT 3/27/2005 - SKIPPABLE

Seems the quality of DDT was nosediving by this time. I didn't really care for 3/4 of the guys here. Hashimoto is a guy who has worked FUTEN so he can hit and get hit and had one or two fun exchanges, but doesn't really do anything outstanding. Toba was Toba, he had a few fun moments where punched and kicked guys hard and also ate the fuck out of a Moribe Complete Shot at one point, he also played a pretty decent Ricky Morton to a boring control segment from Hashimoto and Moribe. That sad it wasn't anything that would justify enduring the mediocre guys in this.

Tanomusaku Toba vs. Keisuke Ishii, DDT 5/23/2010 - FUN

This was Toba punishing a rookie, which he does pretty well. Mostly Toba punching and kicking young Ishii really hard, while Ishii makes some scrappy young boy comebacks. Toba actually puts Ishiis boy offense over as dangerous and there was quite a high level of violence, for example Toba kicking Ishii in the face to escape a half crab. Fun 5 minutes.

TANOMUSAKU TOBA DOCUMENTATION

2021 MOTY Project Update #4 - New #1!

 1. Masa Takanashi vs. Fuminori Abe, Gatoh Move 7/13/2021

This is the kind of weirdo match that is right up my alley. Over 30 minutes of almost all inventive grappling on a mat in front of 10 people. I'm a big fan of Takanashi and he's the reason I checked this out, but Abe looked great too. Loved all the quirky holds and pins, especially Abes grovit to a small package or double armlock. Everything had just the right amount of struggle for it not to look like an exhibition. Takanashi just came back from a pretty bad leg injury and much of the early grappling is him trying to prevent Abe to get to the leg, and later Abe just demolishing him by twisting up the leg and working it over with punches and kicks. Abe looked really good both doing shootstyle rolling leg locks as well as making pro style moves like a spinning leg bar look painful. Loved Abe booting Takanashi through the window. Takanashi sold the fuck out of that leg work and then made an intelligent comeback working Abes arm. There was one extended full nelson sequence that felt a bit random but also like a struggle and Abe immediately landed another hard kick to Takanashi as soon as he got the advantage. Finishing run had the usual excellent counters and submissions from Takanashi and Abe landing more hard kicks and punches to his skull. A seemingly paralyzed Takanashi trying to make one last comeback was pretty epic and the double armlock nearfall was just amazing and the best shit I've seen in a wrestling match all year. I'm no expert on Gatoh Move but I'd wager this has to be the best match that group ever ran. I mean, run this back in a MUGA ring in 1999 or something and you'd have an obvious classic.

2021 MOTY MASTER LIST

Shin-FMW 6/17/1997

 Tarzan Goto vs. Katsutoshi Niiyama - FUN

This was a show where Tarzan Goto was in every match. Pretty insane idea, but our man Goto can pull it off no problem. Unfortunately they clipped all the matches, but every match brought something different and worthwhile to the table. This went close to 15 minutes which is a main event for most wrestlers but basically a warmup for Goto. Some fun opening chain wrestling which is always awesome to see Goto do and Niiyama gets in some fun kicks against Goto. That's about all we get from this.

Tarzan Goto vs. Takashi Okano - FUN

Okano is Winger. Pretty much the most enjoyable match you're gonna get out of Winger, as it's clipped down to him brawling and hitting his high spots and Goto bleeding, starting his blood loss 2 matches into this 6 match marathon.

Tarzan Goto & Ryo Miyake vs. Ichiro Yaguchi & Nobukazu Hirai - FUN

Ryo Miyake joins the fray! This was pretty much the Hirai show. He is in his weird joker face paint and kind of rules brutalizing guys with ECW-ish chair spots. He hits a really great elbow drop for the pin on Miyake too. I think Miyake started bleeding immediately, too. Yaguchi was mercifully clipped out of this match. Nevermind that: HIRAI~!

Tarzan Goto & Ryo Miyake vs. Masaaki Mochizuki & Rikio Ito - FUN

Reckless kicker Mochizuki ruled. It baffles me how awesome the karate guy who kicks hard and fast, all the time wearing a black gi act is and how nobody has stolen it. Plenty of Goto/Mochizuki interactions here, with Mochizuki kicking Goto hard in the blubber and Goto firing back with lariats and headbutts. That is kind of a dream match, and we basically get the clipped WCW syndicated match version of it. Rikio Ito is mercifully largely clipped out of this match up. Miyake gets pinned once again, continueing his arc.

Tarzan Goto & Ryo Miyake & Mitsunobu Kikuzawa vs. Kishin Kawabata & Katsuhiko Matsuzaki & Shigeo Okumura - FUN

Kawabata/Matsuzaki/Okumura is one hell of an indy scum murderers row. Kikuzawa joins the fray and is really spry and fun here, hitting suicide dives that put the "suicide" in suicide dive, full bodyweight senton and even busting out the Gannosuke Clutch. Everyone on the non-Goto team was fired up and they trade stiff beatings in some surprisingly great exchanges with Miyake. Matsuzaki also bleeds and we get glimpses of a classic Goto bloodletting. Also, pretty violent finish with everyone on the Kawabata team dropping their meanest flying move on Miyake. That would be cute in a junior match but since it's all tubby heavyweights landing on him it looked brutal. Damn I wish we had the whole match because it looked great.

Tarzan Goto vs. Ryo Miyake - FUN

This was a barbedwire ropes and boards match and a pretty gruel ending to the tour the force Miyake had to go through. Goto just brutalizes him here, non-pulled punches and lariats, and making him bleed like a pig in the barbedwire. Goto bled like mad, too. Miyake gets a handful of hope spots but Goto just slaughters him. Looked great and gory. After the match Miyake looks dead while Goto looks like he could do another 6 matches.

THE LIBRARY

TARZAN GOTO DOCUMENTATION PROJECT

Assorted Japanese Indy Wrestling

 Mitsuhiro Matsunaga vs. Koichiro Kimura, W*ING 10/26/1991

What a scuzzy dream match. I had no idea this ever happened let alone that it was taped, and now a quality handheld randomly shows up on YouTube! Wrestling can be good sometimes. Matsunaga is blond already but still very much a karateka. This was before he suffered a leg injury so he was much more mobile than later and still capable of throwing crazy kick combos. And Kimura is just a monster with the submissions. A lot of pro wrestlers are taught to not follow up quickly, let the audience register that a guy was slammed before they put on a submission, Kimura ain't like that, he will throw right into the submission in a split second. This was basically just a gritty as hell striker vs. grappler match up. Matsunaga was demolishing Kimura with his kicks and Kimura was landing crazy throws and submissions. Everything was a bit more violent and aggressive than in your standard shootstyle match, these guys would bitchslap each other, there's some nasty headstomping, at one point Kimura refuses to break clean and eye rakes Matsunaga which Matsunaga really sells like a shoot eye rake. There's this intense moment where Kimura goes to par terre while Matsunaga takes off his belt. You sense some serious violence is about to go down. The finish wasn't quite as epic as I wanted, but they made it look hard fought. I'm a huge fan of both these guys, and this overdelivered on my expectations.

Gekko vs. Gosaku Goshogawara, FMW 12/21/1995

Gekko is Masao Orihara wearing this insanely creepy outfit. Gosaku is some FMW trainee and Orihara just completely Kurisus him here. Gosaku has a bandage and Orihara kicks him full force in the face. Soon Gosaku is bleeding and eating brutal clotheslines and stomps from Orihara. Orihara takes the pin in 3 minutes. Brutal and abject.

RIP Hideki Hosaka

 

Hideki Hosaka vs. Hisakatsu Oya, FMW 6/19/1998

Pretty much the scuzziest MUGA match you‘ve ever seen. Hosaka used to be an SAW guy and Koichiro Kimuras sidekick, even had a match in RINGs, but it seems too many multiman garbage brawls have made him lose his submission skills. Basic grappling, but very entertaining due to the struggle and both guys having good instincts. Oya using his spindly form to grab armbars etc. ruled. Hosakas leglocks were simple, but good due to Oya selling desperation. We get a cool finishing run with Hosaka powering out of the Octopus Hold and whipping out cool Frankensteiners, and Oya dropping him hard with those backdrop suplexes as Oya does.

Hideki Hosaka vs. Great Wojo, W*ING 8/7/1991

Hosaka in one of his earliest appearances faces the Great Wojo, a guy with a rich background in olympic wrestling. Wojo pretty much dominates here and looked like a maestro when it comes to amateur matwork. That is, you have to be kind of an amateur matwork geek to appreciate the intricancies of what Wojo was doing, but he was good. And he dropped Hosaka with some big damn suplexes. Hosaka doesn‘t in anything except one desperate kick flurry. A valuable learning experience, I guess, but the Great Wojo was worth seeing.

Hideki Hosaka vs. Masato Tanaka, FMW 10/19/1997

This is foor Tanakas heavyweight title so… the biggest match of Hosakas career? It‘s still co-main event to an Onita tag, but what have you. Really good little match. Tanaka can have a good match against a blind man, but Hosaka adds a lot to the match. Fun AJPW – like opening standing exchange with Tanaka slapping Hosaka hard out of nowhere. Then a cool transition occurs where Tanaka tries his usual elbow to chair spot but because his arm isn‘t 100% he busts himself. Hosaka then does a really fun job working over Tanakas arm using both nasty wristlocks and just going to town with a chair. Tanakas selling was on the money and you actually buy pudgy Hosaka pushing him to the limit. Finishing stretch was really good too with Hosaka going back to Tanakas weak arm busting out cool Fujiwara armbars and other things. I‘ve seen so many Tornado DDT reversals I kind of groan at them but Hosaka turning the move into a big sitout spinebuster was awesome. You also got the usual neck crunching powerbombs etc. Good shit.

Going through Shodates Best Matches of the 90s List Part 4

 The List

 

222. Gary Albright & Dan Severn vs. Salman Hashimikov & Vladimir Berkovich, UWFi 12/5/1993

 Pretty much the pro wrestling equivalent of a monster truck show. 4 grizzly dudes built like fridges running at each other and going for wild throws in front of a crazy hot crowd. Severns aggression was beastly here, he was making these Russians really eat his hands, gotta appreciate him trusting that nobody will take offense. Albright did his thing - that is, deadlift suplexing dudes like they weighed 20 pounds. The crowd reaction to him hitting the deadlift german on Hashimikov and then teasing the full nelson suplex was intense. Berkovich seemed to be getting eaten alive early on - lots of grinding face-down matwork ensueing after throws - and the crowd reaction indicated the fans thought of him as a joker, so him snapping and beating down Severn was memorable. And Hashimikov is just about the most unfuckwithable greco roman throw machine you've ever seen. Badass stuff, this kind of money mark 90s shootstyle grandeur "hire a bunch of world champs with no pro wrestling experience and throw them in a big arena" booking was the best.

215. Mark Fleming & Tatsuo Nakano vs. Kiyoshi Tamura & Shigeo Miyato, UWFi 7/28/1992

Really great cutting edge shootstyle tag. Fleming is this burly Lou Thesz trainee and pretty much a beastly dude with real technical skill. He is a great matchup for Tamura to test himself against, and the plucky Miyato. Nakano as usual brings his special brand of aggression to the match, and whenever he comes in to slap someone in the mouth he really elevates things to a different level. Some absolutely gnarly suplexes are thrown, and the brief moment where and Tamura go at eachother with Tamura pouncing on him like a python and daring Nakano to hit him was awesome. Great finish too with Fleming looking a beast prying dudes apart with his carny special hold. This is why I track all these down.