Best of the Velocity matches #1

 

Tajiri vs. Billy Kidman, Velocity 5/21/2002

 

Really freaking good Tajiri performance, who may be one of the all time great TV workers. He just did it all here, busting out cool holds, viciously cutting off Kidman, timing some excellent spots, kicking the crap out of Kidmans shoulder. Kidman was good as your cookie cutter flyer selling an arm injury but Tajiri was the man in this. Loved all the unique spots like the Tarantula getting denied and then turned into an armbreaker, Tajiris awesome handspring right into a Kidman dropkick etc. I didn‘t love the distraction but I guess at least they didn‘t go the obvious route ending it on a roll up right there.

Hardcore Holly vs. Val Venis, Velocity 5/21/2002

This was a four and a half minutes heavyweight sprint! And these two work a nice heavyweight sprint but damn, would it have killed them to stretch out 2 or 3 more minutes and let things breathe and work the crowd a bit? But damn, for two early 2000s WWE muscle heads they do a nice job working like a pair of joshis. Really nice opening with both guys working some fast trips and snug headlocks, before they really leather each other with some hard chops and clotheslines. Venis doesn‘t even do any sexy man spots, he‘s all business hitting snug elbow drops and knee drops! And he busts out a lot of high end offense against Holly, even dropping him with a big Blue Thunder Driver! I loved that move in WWF No Mercy. Holly evades the Money Shot and he nails Venis with a dropkick in the face and pins him. Yeah, Holly won a match with a standing dropkick and that rules.

Hugh Morrus vs. Albert, Velocity 5/28/2002

Hugh Morrus was working WWE TV in 2002?! And of course Morrus is game to work hard in a 4 minute big boy clash! Really fun work with Morrus clashing into the bigger Albert trying to take him down. Morrus hits a nice powerslom, but then dives right into Alberts big boot in a really cool big man spot! I‘d expect Morrus to job but he refuses too, he hits a huge german suplex on Albert and then goes for the kill with a huge moonsault off the top!!! That misses! Good try. Albert takes a hard chest bump into the corner for no reason before winning with the Baldo bomb. This was a heap of fun.

Val Venis vs. Reverend D-Von Dudley, Velocity 5/28/2002

Val Venis, 2002 Velocity workrate matchine? This was the main event and they work an epic 7 minute match with narrow kickouts and everything! It‘s fun to see how two guys like these two would work that kind of match and this had some nice moments. D-Von is aggressive to start but Venis comes back with his snug offense. Venis works the legs for a minute, even getting the tap with a cool reverse figure 4 but the hilarious Deacon Batista has the referee distracted. D-Von works the back, including doing a Fuchi-ish turnbuckle assisted stretch and Venis is selling really nice and makes a nice comeback. Venis hits the Blue Thunder Driver, which Devon again kicks out and Venis sells it huge, full Taker/HBK Wrestlemania Shocked Face! Venis goes to the top but Devon catches him with a second rope neckbreaker in a really nice moment. Devon takes a really nice bump on a missed diving headbutt but the ref ends up getting bumped and Venis eats the COLLECTORS BOX from Batista! What a match.

EMLL in 1990 #5 - 2/4/1990

 

Watch

Tauro Jr. & Octagon & Rafaga Azul vs. Zorro de Oro & Panico & Canelo Casas

This started out with some promising matwork that the rudos kept interrupting. Really liked how Tauro Jr. Swept Casas to the mat from an armbar attempt. The technicos got their shine in a second segment doing rope running exchanges and tricking the rudos. The match kind of fizzled after that with a not very good rudo beatdown (Canelo uncharacteristically botching some things) and a 3rd fall that took a bit to get going before some admittedly nice oddly coordinated multimant sequences. Not the best opening match.

Remo Banda & Mogur & Chamaco Valaguez vs. Fuerza Guerrera & Hijo de Gladiador & Comando Ruso

Similiar to the first match. This had a better first fall, as all the technicos looked really good. Really liked Chamaco Valaguez for his energy and crazy finishing hold. Enjoyed Banda getting trolled by Comando Ruso and repaying him by clocking him with a big forearm while he was standing on the apron. Rudos were a bit more vicious than in the previous match, but nothing outstanding. Banda threw some nice punch combos, but the technicos got snuffed in the 3rd fall without much addo. Really would‘ve been a pretty good match if they didn‘t go so awfully long, and poor Remo just can‘t seem to get into a match where he gets to look as good as he seems to be.

Espectro Jr/Herodes/Emilio Charles Jr vs Ringo Mendoza/Kung Fu/Popitekus

This was like how you want every random trios to be. You had Mendoza and Charles doing some classy lucha exchanges, Espectro Jr. Bumping for Popitekus beastly size in fun ways, and Kung Fu and Herodes doing some entertaining comedy built around martial arts bullshit and Herodes being a bumbling fool. They mix up the pairings in the second fall and we get some more good exchanges. I really would have liked to see more of Herodes punching and headbutting Popitekus during the rudo beatdown. 3Rd fall was short and had some more fun stuff including a star spot, plus a surprising ending with Herodes busting out a big dive and the rudos winning. Fun trios.

Brazo & Brazo de Oro & Brazo de Plata vs. Ulises & Gran Markus Jr. & Pierroth Jr.

First fall had some wonderful stumpy legged highflying from the Brazos. Brazo de Platas light footedness was especially impressive, he threw a really nice dropkick, leapfrog, big silla off the top… the rudos quickly took over in the second fall and bloodied their opponents, which was unexpected. Gran Markus Jr. Goes from a bumbling big idiot to a goon punching people hard in their cut and getting blood all over himself really well. It seemed Brazo was knocked out or something as his Brazos had to stage their comeback without him, but the rudos soon took back over and ended the match. Feels kinda weird to run this as a main event as it basically turned into a squash and was merely a set up for further matches between these teams.

 

The Library

80s Europe #10

 Mike Bennett vs. Dan Collins, England 2/12/1985

This was really freaking great, honestly blows my mind nobody except OJ talks this match up much because it was a borderline 30 minute old school masterpiece worked at a relentless pace. Most of that was due to Mike Bennett, who looked like an old time grappling master doing a vicious heel act, in the same vein as Terry Rudge or Jim Breaks but with a bit more of a stone faced psycho vibe to him. You could write a book on how to wrestle just by observing what Bennet was doing here. He was tearing up young Dan Collins like no other in this bout. Loved the constant nelsons, shoulder stretches, the mean grovits, the facelocks and constantly pressuring Collins throat with his elbow or knee. At one point he did a jiu jitsu like guard sweep into an armbar which he used to strangle Collins with his foot on his throat. That is some truely next level stuff. It was the kind of stretching that was up there with the best of Fuchi or Jim Breaks and it was awe inspiring. Also, the way Bennett initially wouldn‘t give Collins much, denying his basic reversal attempts and gradually building the match towards bigger and bigger comebacks from Collins was nothing short of masterful. Bennett also kept escalating the violence in interesting ways, for example by topping off their first strike exchange by viciously kneeing a downed Collins in the face. Collins did pretty good for a 17 year old kid in this bout, he mostly stuck to retaliating against Bennetts tactics and never got lost which is very commendable. Still, safe to say Bennett was touched by the wrestling gods that night and running the show. When Bennett had enough and just busted up Collins nose and then kept hitting him in his bleeding face I felt this was Top 10 all time level. It build to great last two rounds with some real fireworks bumping from Bennett and a number of false finishes that would trick almost anyone watching. True to many European bouts, the actual ending underdelivers slightly, but everything up to that point was a honest to god wrestling masterclass.

Jim Breaks vs. Dan Collins, England 4/26/1984.

This was the more loud, boisterous version of the Bennett match. I preferred Bennetts performance but this was a near classic in it‘s own right. The workmanship of a guy like Breaks, who could‘ve just coasted doing his bread and butter stuff in a match against a kid but instead decided to up the ante and work some neat details fascinates me. Here we got some nice Breaks grappling, the usual Breaks heat seeking and joing dislocating arm work, and then something entirely new as Breaks started to wrench the hell out of Collins face and busted him up. The face stuff was nasty as hell, although Breaks didn‘t build to Collins getting some kind of epic payback. Instead we got a unique moment where Collins bursted out of Breaks hold headbutting him in the jaw, which Breaks sold in amazing fashion. Really, all the dangerous bumps and canadian destroyers in the world can‘t measure up to how Breaks sold that jaw headbutt. Collins got nowhere near as much offense as in the Bennett match, but he got that headbutt, plus he busted Breaks eye open with a nasty elbow. That eye thing may have been an accident but the way the camera cut away made me think Breaks actually bladed his brow there, fucker sure was crazy enough to do that. The finish was another fluke but at least it was a straight pin. I‘ll leave it to you to decide which was better, although I prefer the more overarching brilliance of the Bennett match. Both these matches are good as hell in their own right, that is for sure.

 

80s Europe Master List

Takeshi Ono Documentation Project #22

 Takeshi Ono vs. Takashi Okamura, PWFG 8/12/1995 - FUN

Okamura is the guy with the craziest mullet from Kitao Dojo, and he is a fun opponent for Ono. This was a straight shootstyle 4 minute match than the hybrid craziness this match would have been in 1997 or 1998, but it was good. Okamura works this as a bigger guy with some crazy kick variations, and Ono has to slip past that to try and tap him out. Onos slickness is great, he would lock in a submission and then he would counter Okamuras counter attempt into another submission. Really nice finish too with the crazy belt throw. 

Takeshi Ono & Daisuke Ikeda vs. Hikaru Sato & Kengo Mashimo, Futen 1/22/2012 - EPIC

Another FUTEN main event, another 20 minute round of 4 lunatics just beating the life out of each other. This had a great build, as we start with some cautious Ono/Sato exchanges where neither guy wanted to make a mistake, before Ikeda tags in. Sato and Mashimo immediately take to isolating Ikeda and just slapping the dogshit out of him, which sets up the crazy frenzy that would be the second half of the match kicked off by Ikeda running and punting Mashimo in the face. Sato was just being introduced to the crazy world of FUTEN here, but he did good bringing the violence. He'd punch and palm Ikeda really hard, and finally they engaged in some brink of survival-level headbutt exchange topped by Sato kicking Ikeda in the face hard. After that gruelling caveman slugfest we get the much finer but still extremely violent Mashimo/Ono ending section. Really almost any Ono ending section in a quasi-shootstyle match is gonna be really great and these two looked awesome killing each other, this is just the coolest pro wrestling on earth. Mashimo looked really great too, big deadlift suplex, whiping out Onos leg with a badass sweep, I can only imagine how good their singles matches were. Ono is as great as you want him to be, throwing awesome punches and kneese, a crazy flying headscissor plus almost ripping Mashimo in half with the Octopus Stretch. On top of all that you get the trademark brutal partner saving spots. Really dug the moment where Mashimo went for the brainbuster only for Ikeda to take his leg out, still causing Ono to take a nasty bump. Finish was excellent stuff. Says a lot that this might be the least of FUTEN main events, because it was still an insanely great match.

Takeshi Ono Documentation

The Regal vs. Eaton Series

 What do you do when you have two workers as talented as 1996-1997 William Regal and Bobby Eaton with nothing to do? You book them into a bunch of under 5 minute TV matches, of course!!

William Regal vs. Bobby Eaton, WCW 3/7/1995

Regal is sleazy as hell here, strutting about the ring as if he was gonna apply to the Ministry of Silly Walks. They lock up and we get Regal doing about 5 cool things in 30 seconds outgrappling Eaton. Regal talks trash, Eaton gets fired up and soon Regal eats like 6 beautiful punches in a row and a neckbreaker. Eaton signals for the Alabama Jam but Regal scurries away and gets on the mic. After some profuse apologizing Regal offers Eaton to team up with him and Eaton is just all befuddled and accepts. I guess Eaton had nothing better to do. And this is how the Blue Bloods were born!

William Regal vs. Bobby Eaton, WCW 10/30/1996

And just like that, the Blue Bloods are no more! How much can you achieve in a 3 minute match? We start this with Regal working an armlock and Eaton goes for a god damn flying headscissor hold, but Regal uses the ropes to throw him off in one of those cool things seemingly only Regal does. Eaton with an armwringer and Regal bumps in his head into the turnbuckle, resulting in some fun cranky Regal neck selling. Eaton starts uncorking punches with Dusty putting them over as lethal and gets some nice nearfalls for a punch combo and a swinging neckbreaker, with Regal just barely getting the foot to the ropes on the neckbreaker. Eaton continues to go to town on Regal with the punches but Regal shoves the refree, decks Eaton with a punch and pin him with the feet on the ropes. This was sweet.

William Regal vs. Bobby Eaton, WCW 11/29/1996

Another 3 minute match! Will they ever get 4 minutes on WCW TV? They throw a lot of punches in this one, with Regal going for his palm strikes right away and Eaton clocking him with a great looking right. They work a test of strength/monkey flip spot for a minute which is really cool, then go back to punches. Eaton goes for a suplex and Regal cradles him as he gets up which was a neat finish. I think this went slightly under 3 minutes.

William Regal vs. Bobby Eaton, WCW 2/16/1997(?)

Finally, a 4 and a half minute match between them! And it‘s a very mysterious match too, because it‘s not even listed on Cagematch! Maybe it‘s actually their April match. Same start as the preceding match, with Regal going for palms in the corner and eating a big Eaton punch. God damn Regal has about a dozen ways to just keep running into Eatons amazing looking punches in this. We get a heat segment for a minute where Eaton takes a facebump on the floor and smashed into the stairs, but soon enough Regal is back to eating punches and selling them like a cartoon cat getting caught in a mousetrap. Another easy flash rollup win for Regal here, will they develop this theme?

William Regal vs. Bobby Eaton, WCW 6/24/1997

Most vicious Regal performance so far, as he kicks the hell out of Eatons arm here and kneedrops his face. Joey Maggs for some reason comes out and Dusty promptly buries him on commentary saying he needs to watch and learn because he hasn‘t been winning matches. Eaton gets a brief comemback and Regal does the British style bounce off the turnbuckle into taking a backdrop bump. REALLY neat moment where Eaton tries to climb out the ring and Regal catches his leg and drives it into the buckle. Regal puts the Regal Stretch on Eaton, and Eaton fights it really hard trying to turn out of it, but Regal lands some open hands and headbutt until he can turn Eaton on his belly to get the tap. I guess this conclusive finish ends their series. Surprising how much neat stuff you can do in throwaway 4 minute matches.

French Catch-Catch-Up

Petit Prince & Jean Corne & Alain Mitchell vs. Daniel Noced & Jacky Richard & Guy Renault, France 2/9/1974

Really cool French take on a lucha trios. Like those matches, you had a lengthy technico shine, a rudo beatdown building to a hot 3rd fall with plenty of comeuppance. And you had a real money match up to carry the whole thing, and that was Petit Prince vs. Daniel Noced. Holy fuck the Prince is an absolute trip to watch, just the fastest trickiest wrestler ever, and Noced looked great both bumping for his crazy arm drags as well as trying to kick the Princes chest in. Everyone else was good too and I especially enjoy Jacky Richards stooging who is Infernales level when it comes to eating technical offense. It wasn't a deep match and the fact that Cornes initial absence barely played a role was a bit weird but it was a rousing good time in total.

18/01/1973 Rene Ben Chemoul & Walter Bordes vs. Anton Tejero & Inca Viracocha

Another week of French TV, another 30 minutes of stupidly high end pro wrestling. It‘s quite fascinating how closely these matches mimic the layout of a lucha trios. You get about 10 minutes of fun one up manship exchanges, followed by 10 minutes of a rudo beatdown and then 10 minutes of high quality back and forth. Everything executed with ridiculous tighntess and perfection. There are so many little things here that make these exchanges great – the technicians cranking up the viciousness just a little bit more than your typical friendly babyface shine segment, the way these guys will sell a basic shoulder block just being thrown back only to get up immediately and into a rope running segment, the way these guys will not kid around with their european uppercuts and body punches etc. Some of the technical moves were just blindingly fast. Beatdown segment was good with the faces taking lots of bumps flying to the outside, and the ending section was fun and unpredictable. I‘ve learned that big finishing runs centered around heels stooging and trying to throw inside shots with the faces bowling the heels into eachother are way more entertaining than back and forth 2.99999s. Ref has some heel antics but never gets into derailing the match. The French crew is starting to rise in my estimation to be up there with the Michinoku Pro or BattlARTS guys where you could throw any permutation of them into a tag match and it would be MOTY if it happened now. And they did just that week in week out.

 

Georges Cohen vs. Chico de Oro (2/23/74)

1 fall match going about 25 minutes. Chico de Oro is announced as a Spanish champion. If Spain still had workers that good around in 1974, it’s pretty sad that Spanish wrestling died around that time. This was a technical match up with a fast pace. Both man engaged in some intricate wrestling and fast rope running. Chico de Oro played nice and sportsmanlike, but the French crowd was firmly on the side of their boy Cohen. It almost annoyed me a little how they kept siding with Cohen even when he kept kicking Chico de Oros ass. The Spanish champ ended up taking a few bumps to the outside and fought back valiantly, even throwing out some flying headbutts, but he had no chance winning that crowd over. There was also some weird controversy with the referee where he gave Cohen a public warning for breaking out of a pinfall. All that said, it was a very good match.

 

Underground Wrestling EXIT 1/29/2012

Fugofugo Yumeji vs. MASAKI

I think MASAKI is a Nightmare guy or something. At least I recall seeing his name on those shows 10 years earlier. Weird how these guys keep popping in and out of random scum indies over the years. Masaki has nice kicks and knees and is not afraid to get slapped in the face hard, and this starts out as pretty decent BattlARTS scrap on a paper tin mat placed on a wooden floor. Soon enough Fugo cranks up the violence to Kurisu-ish levels by hitting some pretty crazy stomps and kicks to MASAKIs head. Masaki doesn‘t give up yet but is soon toast as Yumeji cracks his head open with an ungodly headbutt. Pretty short, primitive and fun.

Nyudo vs. Ghost Face

Ghost Face is a masked guy who looks really buff and kind of old, like he is an undercarder from the 90s, maybe Rikio Ito. This was pretty basic rookie punishment stuff, Nyudo throws forearms and the big guy blows him off etc. Standard staff made a little rougher by the EXIT setting since that mat really seems to provide almost no protection.

Keita Yano & THE KABUKI vs. Kikujiro Umezawa & Kenji Takeshima

Yano was a workhorse in this, hitting the mat with Takeshima and bumping his ass off on that thin mat. He even seemed to be doing a Mighty Inoue tribute act, perhaps inspired by him teaming with the son of the Great Kabuki. Yano does an airplane spin and some flip sentons. The first Umezawa vs. Kabuki Jr. section was great, they start by basically ramming into each other and do a bunch of uncooperative looking grappling. Still I wanted BUKI to do some neck chops and superkicks, but he just didn‘t tag in again for some reason. Still Umezawa is super gritty in this environment and Keita was well worth watching.

 

The Library

RIP Masashi Aoyagi

 

Masashi Aoyagi & Akitoshi Saito vs. Naomichi Marufuji & Daisuke Ikeda, NOAH 11/16/2000

Very WAR-feeling NOAH match, the kind that the company should have done more. Not many „wrestling“ sequences, just guys awkwardly kicking and punching each other, jumping on each other and refusing to get off. Marufuji looked pretty good here as he knows how to work this kind of match, instead of his junior spots he did double legs, capture suplexes and going for chairs. Aoyagi is nice here kicking ass and matching up with Ikeda. They don‘t square off as much as you‘d like because Saito is the focus, but when they do its good stuff with Ikeda using the gi against Aoyagi, hitting a hard lariat etc. Also really liked the bit where Saito challenged Ikeda to a macho exchange and Ikeda just blindsided him and went for the eyes, something that should have ended all macho exchanges right there.

Masashi Aoyagi vs. Atsushi Onita, FMW 8/28/1994

This was an exploding barbedwire, double hell landmine deathmatch. As a match it was pretty much a tribute to their matches in the 80s, except now occasionally guys would get pushed into an explosion by a kick or takedown. I give Onita a ton of credit here as he sold a ton for Aoyagi. Aoyagi just took him apart with kicks, kicking at his bandaged shoulder, Onita took most of the explosion bomps getting shoved into the mines by Aoyagis kicks. Even Mr. Pogo did a brief run-in to blow a fireball in Onitas face. It really ramped up the drama of the match and the crowd was huge into it. Aoyagi taking of his jacket for a strap drop moment only to end up getting blown up himself was one of those deathmatch moments. Ending was the standard Onita fare but it was good. It was nice for Aoyagi to have this match where he kicks the tar out of Onita on a big, exploding stage.

2022 MOTY Project Update #3

 Hayato "Jr." Fujita vs. MUSASHI, Michinoku Pro 7/1/2022

Fujita comes back from cancer and a really bad leg injury to take on the champ. Obviously a match that had an insanely emotional story behind it, but the wrestling matched that backstory. Fujita showed pretty much no signs of ring rust and instead went out to destroy MUSASHI with incredibly vicious, Hashimoto-esque kicks and submissions. The match ramped up quickly when both guys started to try and kill each other with some insane headbutts, and they only kept building from there. There were some excellent control, comeback and cut off spots, such as Fujita slipping into his choke hold when Musashi attempted a suplex, Musashi attempting to work Fujitas legs only for Fujita to go to town on him with chairs, Fujitas insane finger bending etc. I haven't seen Musashi since he was a rookie and while he is a bit generic he actually looked like he wanted to defend his place in the world from this old veteran. Fujitas performance was a mixture of returning badass standing tall and also slowly falling apart and trying to push on, which was fascinating. They did a great job with the ending run, building to an epic violent conclusion which had to be one of the best "going out on your sword" finishes in forever. The match had some unfortunate 2022isms (back and forth strike exchanges, some no-selling) that kept this from being a classic, but the match told a story, was noticably tighter than the contemporary main events you see from NJPW, NOAH etc., and overall just an infinitely more engaging bout.

2022 MOTY List

GWE Watching: Demus

 

Demus vs. Mascarita Dorada, CMLL 1/11/2008

Freaking spectacular match worked at a feverish pace. Opening matwork was brief but great as it really looked like Dorada had to use technique and quickness to not get squished. Dorada is mostly known for highspots but he is really good working as Marcelo Garcia slipping out from underneath a much bigger opponent. Doradas crazy ringpost bump followed by Demus‘ psycho splash was completely unexpected and great. 2Nd and 3rd fall where just a lunacy show with Demus tossing Dorada around, who took some lunatic bumps, and Demus taking Doradas offense which may be the most complex and spectacular of all time ridiculously well. Highlights include Doradas gigantic dive off the ring post, later a huge diving rana and Demus just smashing his body into the ringpost. Also really loved Doradas submission where he just jumped on Demus back and went for the submission like Chiatzu jumping on Nappa. Also, Mascarita Dorada moonsaulting right into Demus outstretched legs was quite insane, so was his twisting face bump when Demus just launched him. Great big vs. little match, blows away a lot of highly praised matches.

Demus vs. Bam Bam, CMLL 7/27/2008

This was also really good. Really enjoyed the opening fall matwork where Demus did a really nice heel cob, mostly controlling Bam Bam in interesting ways, fish hooking him etc. Bam Bam is not as spectacular as Mascarita Dorada but he still has some quite spectacular offense, lots of difficult jumping ranas off the ropes etc that Demus catches perfectly. Demus busts out some big stuff himself including an awesome fast dive where he whipes out Bam Bam. I also loved his big submission. Demus seemed to have difficulties with his second which kept costing him in the match and his selling of being brought to the edge of defeat was intrigueing. Really really liked the finish too. These two had a lot of matches so I‘ll gladly move on to their hair match.

Demus vs. Bam Bam, CMLL 8/24/2008

As far as bloodless hair vs. Hair matches go, this was quite good. I wanted a bit more violence, there was some biting and floor brawling but I wanted more, that‘s 2000s CMLL for you I guess. Aside from that, they worked a breathless pace trying to wipe each other out with huge dives and bombs. Some nice submission nearfalls between the fury. The ending was really memorable as Demus hit this sick running powerbomb to the ramp on Bam Bam. Modern wrestling has conditioned me to expect Bam Bam to make a comeback rally, but Demus just finished him off right there and pinned him. Cold way to take someones hair.

Demus vs. Shockercito, CMLL 6/2/2009

Another hair vs. Hair match. Spectacular start to this as Shockercito hits a crazy spinning headscissor to Demus on the ramp and then nails him with an epic, horizontal landing tope. Shockercito has some quite spectacular moves, but Demus quickly goes to town on him slamming him with his power offense. Demus hits a huuuuge powerbomb off the top and I really liked how Shockercito actually sold that, having a hard time fighting back into the match and looking like he had his bell rung. The match also had a big more violence with both guys punching each other angrily here and there, so I guess I liked it more than Demus/Bam Bam. Shockercito took the win hanging onto the ropes which I thought was a bit strange but other than that this was really good.

Demus & Pierrothito & Pequeno Warrior vs. Shockercito & Mascarita Dorada & Pequeno Olimpico, CMLL 6/12/2009

After Shockercito took his hair in sneaky fashion I wanted to Demus to beat the shit out of him, but I guess that happened in another match. This was just about 10 minutes so you can imagine how short each fall was, but it was a quite fun, complex sprint with an unpredictable layout. Everyone looked amazing and was in and out of the ring really fast so I can‘t really make a huge cases for Demus based on this, but he did look really good when he was in. This match also had one of the best triple team moves I‘ve ever seen as Pierrothito & Warrior bounced Dorada ribs first into Demus outstretched legs. Add a share of spectacular technico highspots into this and you have a quality TV match.

Demus & Pequeno Halloween & Mr. Aguilita vs. Tzuki & Ultimo Dragoncito & Pequeno Olimpico, CMLL 4/1/2007

Earliest Demus match I could find in the matchfinder. Of course, he pretty much looks like a complete wrestler already. This was a short albeit super fun unpredictable trios. Really liked how the technicos kept denying the rudo beatdown and outwrestling the rudos in fun ways. Demus was paired with Tzuki and a really good dance partner. As usual Demus catches his opponents offense flawlessly inbetween crushing them with big slams etc. How he can slam a guy as small as Tzuki so hard with out killing him is beyond me but its extremely entertaining. Excellent finish between Demus and Ultimo Dragoncito. It‘s crazy how much work and passion these guys would put into matches that would end up being rather short and insignificant.

GAEA DEAD HEAT 7/21/1997

 Pancrase Rules: KAORU vs. Toshiyo Yamada

This was a straight UWF style match, which is something you don’t see much from the ladies. I wasn’t sure how KAORU would do in this, but she ended up doing well. Yamada looked badass as you expect. Some grinding matwork. KAORU initially forced her to the ropes and tried to upset her, but Yamada pushed back hard and almost obliterated her with a kick that would look brutal on a Maeda highlight reel. Exciting finish. Didn’t know KAORU had this in her. Really good stuff.

Meiko Satomura & Sonoko Kato vs. Chigusa Nagayo & Toshie Uematsu

Really heated, fast paced tag. As usual Nagayo disciplining her students and acting invincible provided plenty of entertainment, but I was surprised by how good this was when Uematsu was in the ring. Seems she was turning into a really great worker at this point. Satomura and Kato fought like mad, making some real dents into Nagayo, shocking the audience when Satomura even dropped her with the Death Valley Bomb. Unfortunately, only the last few minutes aired.

Sugar Sato & Chikayo Nagashima vs. Reyna Jabuki (Toshiyo Yamada doing Hokuto's gimmick) & Infernal KAORU

High end workrate match where they went pedal to the metal in 10 minutes. Fast exchanges, cool double teams by Jubuki and KAORI, chair coming into play… they did everything, and did it so fast almost nothing stuck. Weird choice to run this kind of match after the much more heated, story driven Nagayo tag. The finish was really nice as Nagashima and Sato tried to set up the doomsday device but KAORU took out Nagashima with a springboard dropkick and Yamada got the pin with an impressive reverse rana into a pin combo. Other than that this was forgotten as quick as it was to watch.

The Library

Command Bolshoi Treasure Trove #7

 Command Bolshoi vs. Azumi Hyuga, JWP 4/23/2006

These two have wrestled each other a lot and they have really special chemistry together. Starts out really solid with some smooth exchanges but gets really great towards the middle and end. These two pull off some great struggling for control sequences with insanely tight executen. There was also no random offense from Hyuga like she often likes to do. Finishing run was brief but really good and Bolshois surprise submissions and incredible counters kept the match interesting. This went pretty short which I appreciate a lot in a sea of bloated joshi singles. Very good match.

Command Bolshoi vs. Kayoko Haruyama, JWP 8/21/2005

These two had a really great match in 2010, and this was likewise pretty great. Less strikes were thrown, but the match was chock full of fantastic sequences and nifty surprise counters by Bolshoi. Haruyama had gotten quite good at this point and she kicked Bolshoi in the face hard a couple times. Good stuff that even the dark joshi period wasn't all so dark.

Command Bolshoi vs. Meiko Satomura DX, JWP 10/19/2014

It's 6 minutes of Bolshoi vs. Satomura with some weird interference from a bunch of masked characters in the middle. Still, any wrestling between these two is gonna be great, and damn do I need a singles match between these two. Not the greatest match when it comes to sprints, but it was a nice taste of what could be if they got together and had a real main event.

2002 MOTY Project Update #21

 

Wataru Sakata vs. Yoshihito Sasaki, Z1 12/29/2002

Great BML style match. Sakata may have been the best junior in 2002 simply because he just goes for the kill all the time. You buy a random knee or low kick from him as knocking someone out, and on the ground he‘ll just start grinding the other guys face. Sasaki was just the right mix of cautious and aggressive. Him trying to control this dangerous shooter with headlocks and swinging away wildly with open hands and pro wrestling style crowbar shots was really great. Him randomly trying to grab an argentine rack has to be one of the greatest hope spots I‘ve ever seen. And Sakata was just a killer.

Carlos Amano vs. Meiko Satomura, GAEA 11/17/2002

These two only need about 5 and a half minutes to have an excellent match. Great constant scrappiness throughout, and there was some absolutely fabulous submission and counterwork throughout. Amano looked great busting out deadlift suplexes and some murderously stiff headbutts. Satomura fired back with her trademark kicks, and because of the sprint format every nearfall was great. Utterly brilliant finish. It annoys me to no hand there‘s no lengthy singles match between these two as veterans, as the stuff they do together is always so unique and undeniably great.

Osamu Nishimura vs. Yuji Nagata, NJPW 8/8/2002

At points this may have been even better than Nishimura vs. Takayama. Nishimura is this guy who just kind of gives everyone the same challenge, and Nagata was super game to grapple it out with him and threaten him with his dangerous submissions. First 15 minutes of this or so were a pretty sublime grappling epic as it‘s so fascinating to watch Nishimura control and counter his opponent. Nagata is really decent mixing it up by throwing some strikes and shoot suplexes into the mix. The match could‘ve been Top 10 level if Nagata didn‘t decide to complete bury Nishimuras legwork. Instead they went with Nishimura surviving Nagatas high end modern offense and countering with his 80s moves, which was still quite great. Nishimura was damn near superhuman in 2002.

 

2002 MOTY List

Random Lucha

 

Skayde & Torero vs. Colt & Aspid, Promo Azteca 2/28/1997

Opening matwork between Skayde and Colt was like the lucha equivalent of a high end U-Style match up. Really beautiful but also competitive stuff. Notable how good a random indy luchador like Colt was in 1997. Toreros sections were supposed to add some spice to the match, and his wrestling was fun too. He kept taking his boot off to hit the rudos with, while lizardman Aspid played the fool. The hold he won the first fall with was really cool. The match kept being played like that, Torero doing shtick and Skayde working high end workrate exchanges. Their team work was really cool and something you don‘t see a lot from technico teams. Good stuff and just the first 3 minutes of this are must watch.

 

El Dandy & Hector Garza & Shocker vs. Shu El Guerrero & Felino & Kahoz, CMLL 9/8/1995

CMLL once again throws 6 guys into a match and you get something really good. Shu vs. El Dandy is such a cool match up, and they really stretch out and do a lot together here. They start with a lengthy mat section which was so cool, Dandy allowed to Shu to look beastly, with Shu hitting aggressive takedowns and locking in cool holds on him. Dandy tried to pick at the best by attacking his arms and legs, building to a really nice arm lift spot. Felino/Garza was also so good, man I love Felino as he will just grapple and throw the fuck out of a guy. Garza was this athletic young stud but Felino pretty much overwhelmed him and it was intense stuff. The next good match up in this was Shocker/Kahoz, who apparently had a feud going. Shocker forearmed Kahoz hard as he was standing on the aprom which is totally enough to get me into the match up. Later we get Kahoz working quite mean, hitting some snug clotheslines and kick and even tearing Shockers mask violently. I really liked how Dandy and Garza had to use double teams to use the first fall (earning them some boos since that‘s rudo stuff). The rudo beatdown transitions into everyone working frantic 1 vs. 1 exchanges was also really good and the technicos still being at a disadvantage was a nice touch, as the rudos were quite ruthless hitting gnarly powerbombs on that unforgiving mexican ring mat.. Dandy hit this great desperation tope over the 3rd rope and his partner tried to pull out a win but failed. Sometimes technicos can‘t succeed and this case the rudos were just a bit too vicious.