2002 MOTY Project Update #18

 

74. Perry Saturn vs. Paul London, WWE 3/9/2002

Classic inexplicably great 6 minute TV squash. Saturn must‘ve liked London because he seriously gave him a lot of offense in this. He puts a big beating on London and throws him about the ring like a grappling dummy, as if he wanted to try some moves he normally can‘t do against your typical WWF guys. Highlights include a cool tomoe noge from the bottom, nasty back elbow, booting London in the face a bunch and a cool quarter nelson neckbreaker. It was the right mix of being an offensive machine without doing too much. London makes the most of his brief offensive runs including a nice dropsault, landing a spin kick in Saturns face and planting hard on a missed SSP. Kicking out of Saturns picture perfect elbow drop was a nice moment and seemed to give the feeling that an upset might really happen.

42. Goldust & Booker T vs. Christian & Chris Jericho, WWE 12/23/2002

Most of 2002 WWE looked like Smackdown vs. Raw, but they worked an old school structure here. Everyone here was really good, but obviously Goldust was the standout. From selling, to crowd control, do hitting great punches and excellent timing. The crowd psychology was excellent with the story being Goldust trying to prove himself as not being the weak link and they got nuclear heat. Goldust looked like a million bucks. Jericho and Christian were a really good ratty heel team too, and Booker Ts stuff looked great too. Extremely worthwhile and holds up unlike a lot of the more hyped Smackdown stuff.

2002 MOTY Master List

A Very MUME Christmas

 

Hiroshi Watanabe & Yasushi Sato vs. Manabu Hara & Raito Shimizu, Mumejuku 1/13/2020

What a Christmas present from the guys at Mumewhatever (apparently this group has undergone multiple names from Mumei to Mumetoha to Mumejuku but I‘m filing them all under Mumejuku)! Just a wonderful matchup. Watanabe and Shimizu start this with some solid hold for hold exchanges, before things spice up with Hara vs. Sato. That section was just magical, just the right combination of shootstyle grappling vs. Satos tight veteran pro style holds. Then, Hara brained Sato with a sick kick that was way stiffer than what you‘d expect a 50 year old guy to take to the back of his head. The whole match had a surprising level of stiffness as later Sato busted out some stiff elbows and clocked Shimizu with an absolutely nasty shoot headbutt. As usual with Sato matches there was some neat psychology. For example, Shimizu kept reversing his gutwrench suplex attempts into his own, until Sato spotted it and hit a really neat counter where he fell on top. Another neat detail was Watanabe being wobbly after being in Haras triangle choke despite being able to break the hold. Satos springboard crossbody as also way prettier than anything you‘d expect from him. Second Sato/Hara section was really great too. I loved how Sato hit a Terry Funk style punch combo to Shimizu, but then immediately was overwhelmed by Haras shoot striking. As always, Sato makes great use of the russian leg sweep. Watanabe also looks really spry here including hitting some great suplex and carrying the ending section with his selling. Another absolute gem from this crew. I also have no idea why Hara isn‘t signed to a major company as he‘s in insane shape and looked great.

Tanomusaku Toba Documentation #17

 

Tanomusaku Toba vs. MIKAMI, DDT 4/27/1999 - GREAT

MIKAMI comes out barefoot and with MMA trunks and gloves. Amazing. This was a great little scrap. MIKAMI realizes quickly he‘s outgunned by Tobas striking and just goes for armbars left and right with Toba making dramatic escapes. The fact Mikami could do this kind of match shows why he was a special boy then. I really enjoy this kind of singular focus in shootstyle, and these two did a great job working a 5 minute match around armbars and KO blows.

 

Takashi Sasaki & Tanomusaku Toba vs MIKAMI & Super Uchu Power, DDT 8/30/2001 - GREAT

This was another match that exemplifies what made all these guys so fun back in the early 2000s. We get some cool exchanges between MIKAMI and Sasaki before Mikami and S.U. Power begin putting a beating on Sasaki. MIKAMI has quite good chemistry with the Space Monster, Uchu Power was brutally shoot throwing, stretching and kicking Sasaki, and MIKAMI held up the violence with some full bodyweight flying moves and a neat Tiger Spin kick to the face. Loved Tobas hot tag where he flew into Super Uchu Powers face with a huge, huge knee and then he proceeded to brutalize the Space Monster. Could have done with more Toba content (he only gets in after Sasaki makes the hot tag) but the finish was great with Sasaki trying to finish off Mikami and Toba running in to help with some face kicks.

Sanshiro Takagi & Fake Takagi vs Takashi Sasaki & Tanomusaku Toba, DDT 9/30/2001 - FUN

This was just a 2 minute match. Pretty much just a Toba/Sasaki control segment on Ichimiya before Ichimiya steals the pin with a flash pin to Toba. It was a really good control segment, Ichimiya has worked CAPTURE so he has no problem getting kicked in the face by Toba, and that pushes this into the FUN territory.

 Tanomusaku Toba Documentation Project

BattlARTS vs. Team DERA 2/20/2011

 Yujiro Yamamoto vs. Takashi Miyamoto

Takashi Miyamoto is a skinny guy who wears blue/white martial arts pants right out of the 90s, so he‘s immediately overy with me. Yamamoto at this point was the king at getting really good undercard matches out of not so good wrestlers. This is another example. Here he‘s really working dominant grappler, blocking Miyamotos kicks, taking him down and stepping on his face. Miyamoto gets pissed off and nails him with some stiff kick combos so Yamamoto in turn fires back slapping the taste out of his mouth and more nasty face stepping. Miyamoto continues to get on my good side hitting a neat STO. Easily could‘ve been a whatever match, but we got some nice scrappiness and interpromotional hatred.

Bison TAGAI vs. Shun Kasagi

Kasagi has a T-Shirt and baggy trunks like late 90s Mitsunobu Kikuzawa. He also has a kickpad on one foot and no kickpad on the other~! Tagai controls this on the ground to start and it‘s just fine. After some shootstyle matwork Tagai puts a pro wrestling headlock on Kasagi so he can do something too. Kasagi hits some actually nice kicks. Tagai then hits some shitty looking missed clotheslines and other shitty looking offense. I thought it was gonna end there, but Kasagi comes back and hits a really shitty looking dive and a befuddling botched nothing and this is going way too long now. I forgot how bad TAGAI was.

Keita Yano vs. Konaka=PALE ONE

Keita Yano had become the joker, he was still a BattlARTS guy, but his heart was with doing weird collages of technical wrestling at old school shtick at this point. These two nerds do some WoS tribute matwork full of Johnny Saint spots. They would become better matworkers later on, but were clearly just making baby steps here. I liked Konakas modified Figure 4 but he didn‘t do anything outstanding otherwise. At one point they exchange Abby style throat chops with high pitched yelling. Yano wins with a nice knee trembler where he pulls his kneepad down before hitting it. Fun match for what it was.

Alexander Otsuka & Kenji Takeshima vs. Kengo Takai & TAKASHI

TAKASHI has a fun 90s getup with distinctive colour scheme. This was a fun indy tag. Takai is cool as old guy trying to defend his territory. Nothing outstanding, but he had a cool seciton rolling with Takeshima, and was fired up. Otsuka slammed guys hard and everyone else was throwing potatoe shots. TAKASHI mostly got stretched but when he got to he fired back with stiff elbows and kicks. He got to have a cool moment dropkicking Otsuka in the back of the head when he went to suplex Takai, which set up Takai hitting a gnarly reverse brainbuster on Takeshima for the win. Perfectly enjoyable action.

Munenori Sawa vs. Shigehiro Irie

They decided to let the young guys have the main event, and they made the most of it and beat the shit out of each other. Actually Sawa would retire that year while Irie would go on to own the decade on the Japanese indies. This was Iries humble beginnings, as Sawa stomps and slaps the hell out of him. Almost all Irie has is being really tough and trying to hammer Sawas face in with brutal elbows. Sawa had some goofy tendencies around this time, but he cut it out and to be fair had one of his best performances ever. He was running the show here, and did it well by grounding Irie with some good matwrestling and most importantly trying to beat the soul of him. The one sided nature of the match totally worked and it built to some supremely violent strike exchanges and bomb throwing in the last few minutes with Irie trying to gut it out. I also really appreciate Sawa did not go for his Mutoh tribute signature moves and instead just turned Iries lights out with punches. Good shit and felt like one of the better indy mains of 2011.

 

The Library

Tarzan Goto Documentation #9

 

Grigory Verichev & Koba Krutanize v Atsushi Onita & Tarzan Goto, FMW 12/9/1991 - GREAT

Classic early 90s soviet shooter spectacle. Krutanize and Verichev are two huge soviet judokas and they are there to toss Onita and Goto around the ring like potatoe sacks. Crazy uranages and suplexes ensue. Onita and Goto fire back in spirit and it‘s all crazy heated and good fun. Our man Goto is a tank in this punching and lariating the judo guys, even hits a big Superfly Splash in a huge moment. Very unpolished and rough looking but all around great pro wrestling.

Tarzan Goto & Mr. Pogo vs. Atsushi Onita & Sambo Asako, FMW 7/25/1990 - FUN

Classic early 90s brawl where they fight all over the place and chuck chairs at each other. Goto and Onita looked great just tearing into each other. It‘s a grainy handheld, with a pro shot this might look like that Dragon Master brawl. Mr. Pogo was slimmer here than later. Asako basically just took a beating. The finish was great as Onita hits a nasty powerbomb to Goto and looks like he has won it, but moments later ate a piledriver to the floor. The post match brawl with Goto and Onita continueing to brawl in uncooperative fashion, slapping each other and bleeding was almost better than the actual match, though.

Tarzan Goto & Atsushi Onita vs. Jerry Flynn & Mitsuhiro Matsunaga, FMW 12/10/1989 - EPIC

Insane fucking match, 2 karatekas, 2 crazy unhinged wrestlers locked in a ring surrounded by barbedwire trying to beat each other to death. The opening 2 or 3 minutes have to be up there with the best match openings in history anywhere. Goto pops Matsunaga with a big damn headbutt only to get jumped with a kick assault. Goto tries to suplex his way out ouf the 2 on 1 situation only to get blindsided with a kick to the face. Onita jumps into the fray, and we get to see him pulling Flynns hair, twisting, and punching him in the face. The whole match was worked like that, violent, crazy exchanges punctuated with guys jumping on each other and getting blindsided by kicks. I liked how the barbed wire caused guys standing on the apron waiting to take in to get into dangerous situations, this was before they had done barbedwire to death and they sold it as super dangerous, so the crowd freaked out whenever someone was lightly leaning into it with his arm. Onita takes a nasty thumble through the barbedwire and he comes back with a shredded arm and the rest of the match he tries to punch people out with that shredded arm. Matsunaga is as good here as you need your untrained karateka to be, he throws some crazy kicks including axe kicking Onita in the face and a wild jumping abisegiri. Flynn is the same but a bit bigger and more lumbering. Goto is a fucking monster in the second half of this, bleeding from his eye, headbutting people in the face, trying to stomp Matsunagas head in, hitting a big leaping elbow to Flynns face. Then he‘s getting killed by crazy striking combos. You think he‘s not gonna make it, but then he does and in comes Onita to make himself a legend. It was like a gory surreal western crossed with BattlARTS. 

TARZAN GOTO DOCUMENTATION PROJECT 

Assorted NEO

 

Azumi Hyuga vs. Yoshiko Tamura, NEO 5/5/2003

These two had a more famous 60 minute draw in 2006 or so, this here is much shorter and livelier and more watchable. Opening exchanges were really mean and hard thought, submissions applied with full intent to tap the other person, and dropkicks landing right in peoples faces. I was getting ready to complain when they botched a couple moves and went into a marathon of kickouts and move exchanges (as these joshi big matches go), but then Hyuga hit a huge flying knee to Tamura outside the ring which was sold in a big way and they picked it up for an excellent finishing stretch that saw both women throwing brutal strikes. Real edge of your seat stuff with a killer finish.

Yoshiko Tamura vs. The Bloody, NEO 9/20/2004

Violent, scrappy big match. First 10 minutes of this were just great as it was like they decided to work a BattlARTSian joshi match. Just two ladies kicking the guts out of each other and scrambling for leg bars and chokes. Really nice, scrappy, uncooperative and hard fought stuff. They lost me a bit when they went for the extended outside tour, but it led to Bloody brutalizing Tamura with the chair which in turn caused a sick Tamura bladejob. Bloody continued to wail on her with nasty chair shots and trying to bend her in half with nasty crab holds while seconds jumped on Tamura when she was outside. Tamuras comeback wasn‘t the greatest as she basically no sold a bunch of chair shots but it felt gradual enough. The finishing stretch was neck spiking suplex mania peppered with exceedingly violent strike exchanges. Tamura has great looking elbows, and I also really dug The Bloody‘s double handed chops which she really blasted Tamura in the face with. Could‘ve done at half the length but it was a cool discovery.

Yoshiko Tamura & Carlos Amano vs. Misae Genki & Ran Yu Yu, NEO 5/3/2001

Ran Yu Yu in the early 2000s was a very special worker. Her exchanges with Amano here were fantastic. Tamura/Genki sections were solid, but a step down. They just go through their stuff, while Ran makes hers special. She was doing things no other joshi worker was really doing at the time, like busting out European style pin combos and turning her elbows and european uppercuts into brilliant moments. Her elbow to the sternum has to be one of the best simple strikes I‘ve ever seen. She even imprinted on the finish by hitting one of her signature elbows to set it up. They went for a big finish here but didn‘t overkill or go long, and so it was good. Amano also looked good as usual.

Yuka Shiina vs. Misae Genki, NEO 9/24/2001

Cool 5 minute sprint which had Shiinas unique style written all over it. I have no idea if this Shiina mini push ever went anywhere in NEO, it doesn‘t seem like it, but it was cool that she got to do her own thing for a while. This was Shiina dominating the bigger, higher ranked Genki by putting submissions on her left and right. Just when I thought Genki was gonna make an easy comeback Shiina viciously booted her in the face and went for the kill with another choke. Shiinas style, while basic, got tremendous heat. She even rabbit punched Genki in the back of the head. The finish was well done but I thought Shiina by all logic should have won. Eitherways, Yuka Shiina has my attention now.

CMLL Japan Lucha Revolution 2nd 2/24/1999

 Watch

Kurokage vs. Takashi Sasaki

Unusual match to open your CMLL Japan show, but I‘m not complaining about your DDT boys getting some work. This was a fun 5 minutes, these two really work un-lucharesu like and pelt each other with kicks and open hands. Kurokage kind of gets a showcase here, he busts out a slick armbar, spikes Sasaki with a vicious Dragon Suplex and gets the pin with a cool combination.

Maxx Bunny & Super Cacao vs. Masaru Seno & Mitsunobu Kikuzawa

Fine undercard lucharesu with some comedic elements. Give me some amusing gimmicks and the occasional neat pin or submission and I‘m happy. Tubby boy Kikuzawa looks good doing armdrags and twisting sentons. Seno is the future Daioh Quallt and works as a thick amateur boy here and he is fun. Bunny did the occasional comedy but also brought some wrestling. I think Super Cacao is Nozawa and he‘s inoffensive. There was no need for this to go twice as long as the previous match, though.

El Olimpico vs. Rencor Latino

I always enjoy luchadores in Japan getting 10 minutes to impress the audience. These two do some really funky matwork to start, lots of cool unorthodox throws. It‘s a pity CMLL pretty much got rid of matwork in the 2000s because things were getting very experimental at this point. The match took a bit of dampener when Olimpico was hesistant on his dive, but they picked up again for the finish when Latino hit his own big dive. Enjoyable stuff, why does it feel like ages since I‘ve seen two luchadores do this kind of match in Japan?

Halcon Negro & El Salsero & Zumbido vs. Super Delfin & Masato Yakushuji & Naohiro Hoshikawa

Another really fun lucharesu match. Everyone had their working boots on. El Salsero was a fun discovery here, he would do his crazy dancing and then plant people with big powerbombs and spin kicks. Yakushiji is one of the most spectacular wrestlers ever and he matches up extremely well with Zumbido here. Halcon Negro is a lumpy bodied luchador and it‘s fun watching him bust out dives and get kicked hard by Hoshikawa. Structure was a bit iffy since the Osaka Pro guys kind of tried to work rudo but weren‘t very convincing at it (Yakushiji keeps getting face spots and Delfin doesn‘t do much). Finishing run was fun though with a big dive train etc.

Ultimo Guerrero & Virus vs. Oriental & Tsubasa

Any long Virus match from this period is a treasure. And this was all these guys going balls out for +20 minutes. Really aiming for the most spectacular match they could possibly produce. We get a bunch of ultra slick opening mat exchanges to start. I‘ve never really noticed Tsubasa before, but he matches up well with Virus, not just „guy who is a warm body getting carried through some sections by Virus“ but actively looking really polished. And Oriental is really underrated and a really good worker. The match goes a bit awry when Oriental goes for diving rana to the outside (an insane move for 1999) and UG miss-catches him. He ends up being fine though and it may have added to the match as immediately there was heat on the rudo beat down section. Oriental regained his senses and later actually hit the big diving rana in a really nice moment. And the rest of this was spectacular and smooth to the max. I‘m surprised I‘ve never heard of this before because how on earth would 90s workrate smarks not love this?! If you want a crazy spotfest you might as well get a bunch of pro luchadores to do it, and they went for big fucking spots here, aside from all the slick ranas and spectacular dives there was Virus busting out a dominator from the top which looked like it could have killed Tsubasa, and Ultimo Guerrero busts out his avalanche reverse suplex on the hard as hell Japanese ring. They executed everything with grace (safe for one or two mishaps) and logic and it was really good shit. Also dug out UG trying to pull out the victory against the odds, real stoic rudo determination. Another really great Oriental performance, too, and did I mention Virus? I'm not overly familiar with 1999 CMLL but I wouldn't be surprised if this was the 2nd or 3rd best Lucha match to happen that year.

THE LIBRARY

RIP Jimmy Rave

 

Jimmy Rave vs. AJ Styles, Pro South Wrestling 5/8/2015

This was Styles working some dingy hall in the south to defend the IWGP title against Rave. A nice PS to their storyline in RoH 10 years earlier. Structurally this felt a bit like both guys doing their take on an NWA title match with modern stylings. Nice fast movements by Rave during the opening hold exchanges, with Styles sinking into holds for control. The whole match was built around Styles controlling, with Rave gradually making comebacks, until Rave was stringing enough offense together that it seemed like he could really win the IWGP title. I would have liked a bit more emotion given both guys backstory, maybe for Rave to revive his old cheating tactics more, although that rope bump he made Styles take was pretty nasty. But it was a very good veteran psychology match with high athleticism.

Jimmy Rave vs. Nigel McGuinness, RoH 3/4/2007

This was a Fight without Honor and took place in Nigels home country. Just a brutal old fight this was. Typical in RoH fashion they start with a lock up, but Rave imemdiately establishes his ratboy heel role and they are soon laying into each other. Really amped up level of violence, with guys taking nasty bumps and really smacking each other hard between exchanges. McGuinness is a trashing machine laying into Rave with open hand strikes and jaw-breaking lariats, and Rave holds up his own landing a really violent face stomp and bitchslapping him. Nigels bandaged leg comes into play, and while there wasn‘t much legwork Rave would use it to cut him off, and he did a pretty decent job selling it. Guardrail bumps were just insane and really took this to the next level, Rave was fearless just absolutely getting killed on that steel. Because this is 2007 parts of the match came across a bit work-rateish particularily the bit where McGuinness first did his Tower of London when there should‘ve been a bit more hatred and torturing each other. Still those sections were well executed, and everything else was super gritty and mean. Loved the „fuck you“ Pedigree from Rave complete with a shit eating, bloody grin, too.

Dog Collar Match: Jimmy Rave vs. CM Punk, RoH 5/7/2005

This was more like it. Jimmy Rave jumps CM Punk before he can get the collar chain on him. After that it‘s all hatred, chain punches and blood. The chain prevents much workrate so they had to stay focussed and it produced a really good brawl. Punk bled a gusher and Rave beat the fuck out of him. For a guy who‘s a pretty boy heel, Rave knows how to get violent, his Mistica into a chain across the mouth was super nasty. Punk won‘t make you forget Jim Duggan in his role but he‘s smart enough to get a few things right. It was getting a bit silly at the end with Punk fighting off the whole Embassy as more and more goons kept jumping on him, but Rave took me right back with that insanely violent chair assault.

Jimmy Rave vs. Chris Crunk, AWE 9/20/2015

At this point Rave had turned into a slightly fatter, grizzlier indy veteran. He beats the shit out of his skinny opponent here. Snug clotheslines, violent face stomps, big STO, just eating this guy up. Rarely do you see one sided veteran beatdowns in wrestling like this nowadays and this was a glorious one. Crunk didn‘t do much for me but he doesn‘t get in much offense either. And you watch this for Rave cracking him.

Jimmy Rave vs. Matt Riddle, SCI 8/6/2016

This is grizzled veteran Rave taking on Riddle who is younger and was also a huge indy star at this time. Nice example of Rave working a completely different than usual match. He is still his usual persona, but he is so outmatched and has to fight from underneath so he almost assumes a Masao Inoueish babyface role. Riddle outgrapples him early, so Rave thumbs him in the eye and stomps his bare feet. After some more scuzzy Rave heel antics, such as punching Riddle in the face and spitting on him, Riddle would go on ragdoll Rave with his throws. Raves STO was once again a great, really well timed spot set up by Riddles doozy dooness. Riddle is a bit goofy here but Raves performance draws the crowd into the match in a much bigger way than his usual match. A testament to the skills of Jimmy Rave.

Assorted ZERO1

 

Shinya Hashimoto vs. Riki Choshu, ZERO1 2/29/2004

I had no idea this match happened. I can kind of see why it was largely forgotten – these two are broken down, and they do a short match, without an overly dramatic ending, at a time when most tape nerds where hungering for NOAHesque epics. But fuck, the match between these two was still happening. The first 6 or 7 minutes of this is guys stubbornly trying to crack eachother, really trading brutal kicks and chops where the other looks like he really doesn‘t want to get kicked and chopped. There‘s not even a back bump but it‘s really compelling. Hashimotos shoulder selling ruled and Choshu has some nice kicks to the shoulder. Hashimoto clutching his shoulder after the Scorpion lock was a nice touch. These two are really the kings of these kind of ultra-simplistic, nasty, uncooperative strikes exchanges. Eventually, after the opening established that both guys are broken down and hurting, Choshu gets Hashimoto up for a superplex. And Hashimoto takes that superplex in really brutal fashion, really barely getting over, landing on his shoulders. It feels like a big spot, and then Choshu hits another, even crazier superplex where he nearly spikes Hashimoto. Really probably the most „Damn he killed him“ a superplex has ever felt in a match. Eventually it gets to the usual Choshu stubbornly trying to take Hashimotos head off with lariats while Hash refuses to go down. Choshu sold the finish in a weird way, which is probably the reason this doesn‘t get talked about match. But damn I was amazed by these two guys just cracking each other.

7 vs. 4 Elimination Match: Shinya Hashimoto & Tatsuhito Takaiwa & Yoshihito Sasaki & Shinsuke Z Yamagasa & Kohei Sato & Hirotaka Yokoi & Osamu Namiguchi vs. Riki Choshu & Tomohiro Ishii & Takashi Uwano & Ichiro Yaguchi, Z1 12/14/2003

Extremely fun elimination match which was just a wild spectacle. Everyone jumping in and getting eliminated real fast, seconds get involved, all building to the epic Hashimoto vs. Choshu faceoff. Every single exchanges was on the money, you had the black trunks guys throwing beautiful suplexes and dropkicks, Yokoi punching people in the face, Takaiwa crowbarring people, etc. Ishii got to look tough as he does. Last Hashimoto/Choshu showdown was short but super intense, both guys just wasting each other with brutal punches and kicks. That low kick Hashimoto threw to take out Choshu has to be among those great subtle things that end up looking awesome that Hashimoto just has a thing for.

Fugofugo Yumeji & Takao Ohmori vs. Manabu Nakanishi & Mitsuhide Hirasawa, Z1 2/17/2008

About the rawest 90 seconds in pro wrestling you will ever see. It‘s Z1 vs. NJPW, Nakanishi and Hirasawa rush their opponents to start. We get Yumeji trying to stand up to Nakanishi who‘s just a big old tank. Fugo tries to scramble his brains with those crazy jumping headbutts he does and Nakanishi punches him in the throat then just turns his lights out with one of the crazier lariats I‘ve ever seen. Harrowing.

80s Europe #7

 Alan Kilby vs. King Ben, WoS 10/7/1981

Really unique match. I know Alan Kilby can be pretty great, while King Ben hasn't done anything for me, but they both went all out here in a contest that was basically worked greco roman mixed with some shootstyle holds and stiff strikes. Forget about the classy british grappling and reversals, most of this was built around really intense lockups, attempted and failed throws and struggling over pin attempts. At one point Ben breaks out a top wristlock, Kilby starts working an armbar on the ground... add in some stiff, awkwardly landing strikes (including a flying headbutt from Ben that almost KOd Kilby) and sheer wild eyed determination from Kilby and you've got yourself one hell of a match. This match felt like it belonged in the 1960s rather than 1981, but the folks sat there in awe and really appreciated this contest that just kept building and building. Great finish too.

 

John Elijah vs. Ray Steele, WoS 7/22/1982

John Elijah was this bear of a man, who looked like he had insane upper body strength. And this had a bunch of great hold for hold work mostly focussing on the upper body. Elijah had this way of selling when he was forcing his way out of Steeles holds as if he was performing insane feats of strength. There‘s an artform to working this way that is lost now, and they executed a really good match in this style. Slow paced but the crowd was hot for it and there were some great holds and generally really good work.

Fit Finlay vs. Young David, WoS 3/13/1982

A look at a Finlay match where he doesn‘t cheat. He doesn‘t even step on Davey Boys hands. This had some really good matwork and holds. You get the sense Finlay vs. Atlantis would‘ve been amazing. David didn‘t leave his mark on the match as much as Finlay, but he looked intense. A lot of this was like if you‘d ask what junior wrestling between two super athletic guys with no high flying would look like. Finlay had some awe inspiring bridging and both guys had some great looking suplexes. Overall good technical action although it didn‘t have as much heat or story as their better bouts.

 

80s Euro Compendium 

WYF Endless Shout 1/8/1998

 Watch

Shigeo Kato vs. Raging Bull

Raging Bull is some foreigner who somehow ended up working a few WYF shows around this time. This was almost like a TV studio squash with Kato working over Bulls arm for 7 minutes before tapping him out with a carny hold. Bull only clubbed his way out of Katos holds a few times and went down pretty easily. I think Kato did his job well here so I thought it was a cool little match but nothing must watch.

 

Tadahiro Fujisaki vs. Makoto Saito

Really good match which leaves you with a few realisations: 1. these two kids were insanely talented to have a random indy sleaze undercard match this good 2. damn, that's actually Fugofugo Yumeji and some dork from Dragon Gate before he went to Dragon Gate? 3. These two totally could have and should have been the Yuki Ishikawa and Daisuke Ikeda of sleazy King's Road style, but it just ended up not happening. AAAAAHHHHH it's maddening!! All that squandered potential!!! It's even worse than watching the kids in GAEA!! But, atleast I can watch this match and fantasy book an ideal fed centered around these guy propagating their own vision of brutal & intricate junior wrestling.

This match is a lot like two NOAH heavies having a really fun undercard bombfest. It's not flawless, but the potential for this to grow into something beautiful was there. Fujisaki has the cool wrist clutch suplexes and submissions and Saito brings the stiff spin kicks and hurty looking junior offense. The build to the finish was especially cool as it was like a mix of an AJPW "super finisher" and NJPW "You keep blocking this move, so I will use that to set up another move" moment.

 

Masashi Aoyagi & Cosmo*Soldier vs. Masayoshi Motegi & Azteca

Solid long match. The thing with these guys is you want them to bust out reckless highspots and have scrappy exchanges, so when they churn out a more polished match you‘re almost a little disappointed. That said Motegi proved himself an intelligent worker here. While his initial exchange with Aoyagi was not as heated as it would‘ve been in a 1993 W*ING vs. NJPW match, it was clear Motegi was trying to give Aoyagi as little space as possible to unleash his dangerous striking. Later, he decided to do some really solid backwork on Soldier to set up some cool submission holds. Everyone else was solid here but the match wasn‘t crazy or weird enough for a WYF undercard bout. Soldier had 2 good dives but he really needed to botch some moves.

Shinichi Shino vs. The Wolf

This is the Wolfs retirement match (although he would come back to work for WWS a few years later), which adds some emotional connection and heat. Shino isn‘t very good, but he can work a hard hitting match, and The Wolf gets in some nice kick barrages on him. Frantic pace and the crowd was really into it. I liked Shinos spinning Dragon Sleeper and his big powerbombs.

Onryo & Shinigami & Hirofumi Miura vs. Masakazu Fukuda & Hiroyoshi Kotsubo & Kamikaze, WYF 1/8/1998

Up to a point this was a really good 6 man tag. Everyone here is not super polished, but willing to take and dish out some punishment, so you got a bunch of fun scrappy exchanges. For example, Onryo sandbacked a Fukuda suplex early, so Fukuda just dropped him on his head. I also enjoy these hybrid wrestlers taking on these whacky zombies. Even Shinigami was entertaining as you got moments like KAMIKAZE turning his Iron Claw into a Fujiwara Armbar and then Shinigami would work over his stomach to set up the stomach claw. Even the Kotsubo/Miura section was good as Miura punched him in the face and Kotsubo would spit on him and hit a stiff spinning backhand. Control section on KAMIKAZE was really good, he got a table thrown on his head, bled a bunch, ate chain punches etc. The segment where he backdropped Onryo on top of Shinigami and then hit his spectacular Spaceman Moonsault while bleeding was incredible and like something out of a high level CMLL trios. Unfortunately the match fell apart a little when they had Kotsubo and Onryo engage in a long segment, they really needed to tag in Fukuda instead. KAMIKAZE looked great though spiking Onryo on his head and the ghoul outgrappling the guy in the singlet was funny.

The Library

Koki Kitahara Documentation Project #14

Genichiro Tenryu & Koki Kitahara vs. Super Strong Machine & Hiromichi Fuyuki (WAR 2/24/1994)  - EPIC

4 tubby guys beat the fuck out of eachother and it rules, what else is new? The opening minutes were really fun logical pro wrestling. Fuyuki was fired up, ready to take down Tenryu and kick Kitaharas ass. He also looked shockingly good doing sympathetic selling as he got awkwardly kicked in the chin and face repeatedly etc. Kitahara loves demolishing other dudes with kicks but ends up having his leg taken out in a simple spot that looked great. His leg selling was very good as his kicks became mostly useless. Tenryus hot tag was really fun and different as Fuyuki just bitchslapped him out of the ring and proceeded to kick Kitaharas ass some more. Tenryu then hands out some Necro level chairshots only to get brained himself. Super Strong Machine is not a very charismatic dude compared to the others but he is really fun here blindsiding guys, just constantly ramming people in the back of their necks with lariats and chairs when they would least expect it. Tenryu kind of played the role of the megastar who looked like he was on the verge of defeat, always looking like he was gonna go „Damn now I'm REAL fed up!“ and then he would get bonked in the head again. Really cool finish. I'd say this isn't quite up there with the high end WAR material but for the genre this is must watch anyways.

Kitahara & Ishinriki & Takashi Ishikawa vs. Koji Kitao & Masaaki Mochizuki & Akio Kobayashi, WAR 7/17/1994 - GREAT

Pretty cool short match. The first part of this was to put over Kitao as an unstoppable monster, and they actually make him look like such. He devastates Ishikawa and Ishinriki, but Kitahara is able to make some dents in him, which is a pretty cool role for Kitahara to be in. Then Kitao tags in Kobayashi (not sure why, he was destroying everyone) and immediately we get some scrappy violent exchanges starring a pissed off Kitahara slapping the shit out of a snot nosed karateka. Ishinriki also looks good doing wild sumo flailing and throws against the karatekas. Mochizuki frantic exchanges were great. I‘d Ishikawa trying to grab Mochizuki and trying to yank him over the rope also felt crazy. And Kitahara was the man in this.

 

Koki Kitahara vs. Nobutaka Araya, WAR 7/13/2000 - GREAT

One of these violent and out of control spectacles you only really get when two scuzzy thick guys (preferably with mullets) face each other in a WAR match. It looks like Araya is drunk or something here, most of what he does is hit Kitahara with hard crowbar shoulderblocks, awkwardly flopping about the place as Kitahara beats on him, and acting weird and psycho. It takes a look to look up there with Kitahara in the psycho department but Araya does it here. At one point he puts his hands on Kitaharas second Nihao, and it felt like a very real moment where shit was about to go down. And Kitahara looks just disgusted with him and kills him with nasty blunt force kicks. Awkward, violent, seedy match, pure Wrestle And Romance

KOKI KITAHARA DOCUMENTATION PROJECT

The Call of the Underground #3

 

Fugofugo Yumeji & Yoshihiro Takayama vs. Kenji Takeshima & Johta, EXIT 1/1/2015

Wow, Takayama enters the underground! This was raw, unfiltered brutality. I‘m pretty sure the only plan they had going into this match was that they were gonna beat the fuck out of each other for 15 or so minutes and call it that a day. And that they did. Takayama wasn‘t in the match much, but Fugo absolutely held up his end. He just had one brutal exchange after another and his chemistry with JOHTA was Ikeda/Ishikawa esque. You can tell these two loved killing eachother. Johta blasted Fugo in the face with some crazy enzuigiris and Fugo, as usual, unloaded his headbutts. There was a fun moment where Johta went to headbutt Fugo only for Fugos hard skull to fire back on him. Takeshima was also in this match and mostly ate punishment aside from trying to grapple here and there. And he just got slaughtered by Takayama for the finish, just ending a bloody mess. That said Fugo is looking awesome in these EXIT brawls.

Fugofugo Yumeji & Sanshu Tsubakichi vs. Munenori Sawa & Keita Yano, EXIT 8/24/2008 

More Fugo mixing it up with BattlARTS youngboys. The confines of the EXIT chain ring really force Yano and Sawa to cut out their bullshit and they just have a short violent match. Lots of neat mat brawling sections here, Fugo and Sawa are especially intense opposite each other, forearm across the face, throat chokes etc. Fugo and Sawa beating on each other is great. Once again, Sawa learns to respect the dome. The finish is great as Fugo has an armlock cinched in and Sawa tries to break it up but can't because Fugos skull is indestructible. Another really good little match.

Fugofugo Yumeji vs. Nyudo, ?/? EXIT

About 90s seconds of both guys trading ear drum shattering slaps. Yumeji hits the big headbutt and it's over. Some kind of point has to be made about Fugo turning up simplicity and violence to the maximum with his project.

Command Bolshoi Treasure Trove #4

 Command Bolshoi & Megumi Yabushita vs. KAZUKI & Sachie Abe, JWP 1/11/2009

Pretty much a monster showing from Bolshoi and Yabushita, who spent pretty much the whole match armbaring their opponents left and right. Abe and Kazuki couldn‘t get in any offense unless they used double teams. That dynamic made this match really entertaining. I always love Yabushita as her „throw and armbar“ style pretty much sends opponents into survival mode right from the start. Bolshoi was just ridiculous here. Abe looked like a decent worker doing Jaguar Yokota moves. KAZUKI was a bit indyriffic here or there, but I liked how she tried to counter Yabushita with judo moves of her own and I loved her tomoe nage into a pin. Really good little match due to how they worked the dynamic.

Command Bolshoi vs. Konami, Pure-J 8/11/2017

Really cool Velocity shootstyle match which should have been on my radar in 2017. Konami is one of the few promising modern day joshi workers. The wrestling in this was like a cross between BattlARTS and ARSION. All slick legbars and the occasional high kick from Konami. It‘s probably no coincidence Konami has one of her best showings I‘ve seen against Bolshoi. The calf slicer sequence in this was incredible. It was just a 7 minute match, but backed with cool matwork and peppered with a few great sequences. Reminded me of those 7 minute Ishikawa/Otsuka matches which is high high praise.

Command Bolshoi vs. KAZUKI, JWP 10/13/2013

Another really good match. I wasn‘t sure about KAZUKI before, but she was convincing here. This was almost all on the mat and just a duel of arm- and leglocks. KAZUKI busted out another cool tomoe nage into an armbar, and her selling after she got caught in Bolshois leg stretches was great. Basically Bolshoi doing a Virus style mat contest, and it was cool as hell.

Command Bolshoi vs. Hanako Nakamori, PURE-J 1/14/2018

Another excellent match, which felt like one of the best joshi matches in years. I haven‘t seen Nakamori before, but she was this big lady who liked to throw stiff kicks, and she was pretty good. As usual with Bolshoi matches there was some great, tricked out matwork, with Nakamori also bringing stuff to the table such as locking in a cool Takogatame. There was an absolutely sick Volk Han-like sleeper from Bolshoi that left Nakamoris face turning blue. The later goings of the match were exciting with Nakamori landing some FUTEN level kicks in Bolshois face, and Bolshoi firing back with her trademark shotais. The most impressive thing was how well the match flowed, there were sections were one of them was focussing on attacking an arm or a leg but it never went long and never felt like filler, and all the transitions fell into place naturally. Just a tremendous pace for a 20 minute match without feeling go-go.

The Call of the Underground #2: Underground Wrestling EXIT 9/12/2010

 Watch

 

 Kazuhiko Ogasawara vs. Kenji Takeshima

Pretty cool opening match due to both guys not holding back. Ogasawara has really violent punches and kicks, and Takeshima would eat them, take him down and pepper him with stiff elbows of his own. It's a super simple match formula but they make it work by waffling the hell out of each other and working some cool Lawler/Mantell exhausted exchanges from their knees. Dug how Ogasawara would kick Takeshima in the face to break out of submissions. Almost felt too epic for an opener.

Knight King Jully & Bomber Iwata vs. Johta & Nichiryu

Bomber Iwata has boxing gloves and I goes does a thaiboxing thing. Jully is another thick guy with MMA shorts. Nichiryu is lumpy and balding. This was pretty fun when Jota was in the ring as he was energetically trading beatings with the two guys on the opposite team. The parts where Nichiryu were okay but nothing memorable. Unfortunately he ended up being in for most of the match. Still decent amount of stiffness and no stupid ideas in their wrestling.

Mohan Dragon vs. Nyudo

Mohan Dragon is a foreigner with boxing gloves. Nyudo is a pudgy guy who wears a Fugofugo style singlet. I wonder if he has Fugos boy? This was 3 minutes of guys doing stand up and hitting each other. Dragon clearly had the feel of a guy who couldn't make his punches and kicks look all that good as he wasn't used to throwing them in worked matches. Nothing to see here really.

Toshiya Kurenai vs. Sanshu Tsubakichi

Apparently Kurenai is the EXIT Underground champion. He has MMA gloves and seems to be doing an aggressive striker thing. Aside from some fun moments of said aggressive striking this was also forgettable. Things got a bit more intense towards the end but mediocre old Tsubakichi, after falling out of the ring which could have heated the match up just fizzled out.

Tatsuhito Takaiwa vs. Kana

Fun discovery. This was worked extremely logical, basically a near squash with Takaiwa dominating most of the way and Kana only getting in desperation stuff. Some really good matwork, and Kana is really good at working this kind of match as she knows exactly how to pick her spots. Takaiwa was devastating her, even something like an elbow drop he did looked super violent, and her one big comeback where she teed off with kicks and a big punch was cool before she got her lights put out.

Fugofugo Yumeji & Jaguar Rogovski vs. Kikujiro Umezawa & Onryo

It‘s pretty cool to see Onryo in this environment. He gave a really good performance, blowing radiation dust at people and then really laying in kicks and elbows. Rogovski was a fun guy in a mask with MMA gloves who liked to throw hard punches and spin kicks, kind of working like a Toba and stand in. And Umezawa and Yumeji mauled each other something fierce once again. Goodness gracious. EXIT Umezawa continues to impress me, as he is really credible as a tough monster and he also had some fun Sumo vs. MMA feeling exchanges against Rogovski. But the thing that will stay in your mind is that horrifying headbutt Fugo lands on Umezawa. Fun main event all around.

The Library

2 Cold Scorpio Documentation #1

 

Fit Finlay vs. Too Cold Scorpio (CWA 11/27/1994) - EPIC

Scorpio is really a phenom. No matter the environment, he rules. This is all about Scorpio unloading his ridiculously high end flying offense and paying for it by clashing with the archaic euro rules. Finlay is at his usual heel game here, but the match is all about Scorp. Even with him rolling out high spots, there are fun bits of simple wrestling such as the spot where they struggle over a backslide as the crowd is roaring. This basically opens as a long Scorpio shine segment before Finlay takes out his leg. Finlay taking out a leg is fun and it sets up the great last round where Scorpio sells the fuck out of that leg. He hits a gorgeos moonsault and basically has Finlay beat but the rules won‘t allow it and he gets carded. Really dramatic and well executed stuff, and a very satisfying dream matchup.

 

Tamon Honda vs. 2 Cold Scorpio, NOAH 3/21/2003 - GREAT

This is a matchup you can‘t really wrap your brain around. Obviously both guys are good, but Honda is very different from Scorpios usual opponents. But they mesh really well. Scorpio is ultrasharp as usual, busting out some great looking strikes. Honda was great in the early minutes, constantly going for chokeholds and suplexes, which Scorpio sells great. You get the sense that Honda makes up for his lack of mobility by just glueing himself to his opponent. We get Scorpio working over Hondas leg, doing some cool sharp legwork and Honda having some great selling. Honda. Honda countering a superkick into the Olympic Hell was really choice, as was the finish. Short but good, and felt like it could end at any time.

2 Cold Scorpio Documentation

2 Cold Scorpio Documentation Project

 

2 Cold Scorpio is a wrestler everybody knows is awesome, but few can tell how awesome exactly. Most of that is due to his insanely extensive career that took him to all kinds of places, from Mexican organizations to German beer halls to all the major American organizations to Japanese indies, then NOAH and back to US indies. There are few wrestlers more deserving of an in-depth look at their careers so it's time to do it and scrape for hidden gems. As always matches are broken down into SKIPPABLE, FUN, GREAT and EPIC.

1993

vs. Lord Steven Regal, WCW 7/27/1993 - GREAT

1994

vs. Fit Finlay, CWA 11/27/1994 - EPIC

1995

vs. Dean Malenko, ECW 3/3/1995 - FUN

1996

vs. Sabu, Tokyo Pro 8/25/1996 - EPIC

vs. The Goon, WWF 12/2/1996 - FUN

1998

vs. Taz, ECW 1/10/1998 - GREAT 

2000

vs. Satoru Asako, NOAH 11/4/2000 - GREAT

w Vader vs. Daisuke Ikeda & Mitsuharu Misawa, NOAH 12/2/2000 - FUN

2001

vs. Mitsuharu Misawa, NOAH 6/9/2001 - FUN

w Vader vs. Daisuke Ikeda & Takashi Sugiura, NOAH 10/17/2001 - GREAT

w Vader vs. Jun Akiyama & Akitoshi Saito, NOAH 10/19/2001 - GREAT

2002

w Vader vs. Mitsuharu Misawa & Jun Izumida, NOAH 11/20/2002 - GREAT

2003

vs. Tamon Honda, NOAH 3/31/2003 - GREAT

2005

vs. Go Shiozaki, NOAH 4/3/2005 - GREAT

vs. Yoshinobu Kanemaru, NOAH 11/5/2005 - GREAT

2022

vs. Minoru Suzuki, GCW 4/23/22 - FUN