guidedbyrocketscomp

 Daioh QUALLT vs Takehiro Murahama, Osaka Pro 3/17/2000

This was when Murahama was doing his unstoppable shoot boxer act in Osaka Pro, which has to be one of the craziest single runs of a rookie anywhere ever. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a Daioh QUALLT singles match, but after seeing this, fuck I need more of this Daioh QUALLT in my life. Basically QUALLT is a monster with caveman like strength and serious force in anything he did. He was just mauling Murahama, and Murahama was fighting back with some monster punch combos and knees of his own. This was just two guys putting insane violence into everything they threw at each other. Eventually Murahama starts getting the advantage, leading to a distraction, and then QUALLT blowing mist and trying to strangle Murahama with a rope. Totally crazy, and there’s a crazy post match too with an angry Murahama punching Delfin in the face really hard. God does this make all current wrestling look lame as hell.

Kenichiro Arai & Taku Iwasa vs Ryo Saito & Susumu Yokosuka, Dragon Gate 8/9/2008

No-ring Dragon Gate!! I love no-ring wrestling, and in this case removing the ring and just wrestling on a mat in Korakuen Hall adds exactly what a Dragon Gate match needs to be actually compelling. Any bumps look hard as fuck, and as such the wrestlers here were desperate to avoid even a bodyslam or suplex. This makes the stakes feel higher, and adds that little something that Dragon Gate normally often lacks: urgency, struggle, meaning… the crowd for this was molten hot too, so they were feeling the vibe as well. That said, Arai and Iwasa are awesome here. Really great unit of a tag team. Their team moves were awesome, and they did a great job cutting off the mat. We all know Arai as the crafty master, and he is crafty here, taking some hard as fuck and awesome looking back body drops on the mat, locking in slick sleepers and abdominal stretches – but he is also awesome as a lanky guy throwing bombs and cracking people with headbutts. Iwasa also looked quite good – he was hitting damn hard, and he almost ripped a guy apart with a cool submission at one point. Some awesome sequences and double team stuff here. Saito and Yokosuka aren’t much to write home about, but their offense is solid enough and I appreciate a guy like Saito just bringing hard lariats and spiking people with suplexes instead of doing something overly cute. Just a lot of good, brutal, heated action here.

The Moondogs vs The Warrior & Spirit of America (USWA 1991)

Somebody tells me to watch the Moondogs, I watch the Moondogs. The Warrior and Spirit of America are such a sight. They look just goofy and rip-off enough to be complete jobbers but also have good bodies and could plausible something of a deal in a small league like USWA. There is no question to what goes down here. Moondogs lay a savage pounding on these goofballs. Punching them in the face, throwing them around the ring, even bringing out chairs. There’s such an uncaring savage aura about the Moondogs that makes them awesome. They are not there to impress, they are there to kick ass, and that makes everything more impressive because it doesn’t come across as tryhard. The finish – something of a diving elbow while the opponent is held in a backbreaker position – looks like a total decapitation. And then they bust out a hurty looking big splash too for good measure. Great studio TV squash match.

Cactus Jack vs Arachnaman, WCW 1991(?)

I’ve never actually seen an Arachnaman match before. I’ve only ever just seen grainy stills of him. So here he is against Cactus Jack too of all people! Arachnaman – who I think is Brad Armstrong – actually tries to go all scientific on Jack. He hits some rollups and works the arm, even trying to snap it over the rope like he’s a spidery Regal. Armstrong tries to add a bit of flavour with his stances etc. I could see him being in a fun match against Great Muta as long as there’s blood and mask ripping, but that could be said about nearly everyone. Jack actually takes a back body drop on the floor in this nothing match against a guy saddled with a shit gimmick. Arachnamans finish is the ground abdominal stretch pin. I appreciate the Inokiism, but he is a bit sloppy in his application, and Jack quickly takes it home with a shitty jumping facebuster and holding Arachnamans costume for the pin. Well, know I can say that I know about Arachnaman.