The Shinya Hashimoto/Keiji Muto Trilogy

     Shinya Hashimoto vs Keiji Muto, NJPW 6/5/1997

Fucking masterpiece of a wrestling match, there’s no other way to put it. So much wrestling is focussed on action-action-action, but this was like a great suspense flick with the most intense ending you’ve ever seen. Right from the go it’s clear what both men are all about, Hashimoto wants to kick, and Muto wants to get underneath him and take out his legs. What follows was some of the best defense-based and slow building pro wrestling ever caught on film. Neither guy was willing to make the slightest mistake and this made all their exchanges really interesting. There is so much great stuff going on. Almost none of what they do would fit into a highlight clip or GIF and yet it’s wrestling of the highest caliber. I love how even a basic knee that Hashimoto throws when locking up sets up a thunderous kesagiri chop that immediately draws a gasp from the crowd, with a panicking Muto firing back right away with a messy hitting solebutt and taking down Hashimoto immediately, with Hash not even wanting to allow a basic headscissor being locked in. Watching prime Hashimoto from a 2026 perspective is insane because I am used to seeing guys allowing themselves to be hit, asking the other guy to hit them, even laying down so they can be hit in a bizarre game of contrived tough man posturing etc. With Hashimoto, Mutoh absolutely does not want to be hit by anything. He wants absolutely none of those neck chops and none of those kicks. So even though this is a pro wrestling match, it feels like an MMA fight with an expert striker vs a takedown artist. And whenever Hashimoto unleashes it’s like the thunder of an erupting volcano. Absolutely great Hashimoto performance as he’s awesome as a monster that wants to strike but is getting worn out. Muto was also absolutely great here. He did a lot of great stuff, such as a really sweet legscissor takedown, I also really liked how he teased a dragon screw but instead went for his flashing elbow. Even his goofy handspring elbow looked great as he hit it so fast with absolutely no breathing time. There’s this great bit where Hashimoto rages on the outside after being frustrated by Mutohs tactics so Mutoh cockily offers him the re-entry. Hash gets back in and he has this amazing look on his face, like he is going to kill Mutoh. And seconds later Mutoh is on the mat getting the shit kicked out of him. The whole match was full of great little moments like this and it just kept building and building to a molten hot finale. I can see why some fans were more drawn to the All Japan stuff that was chock full of cool moves while this match spent like 20 minutes building to a dragon screw, but holy shit this is just great stuff on a completely different level. Loved the unique twist on their signatures, Hashimotos revenge leg kick, Mutoh hitting the moonsault to Hashimotos legs, Hash firing away this great last gasp barrage off offense. Really felt like they put their all into this and if that’s not the best a wrestling match can be I don’t know what is.

Shinya Hashimoto vs Keiji Muto, 12/10/1993

Not quite *as* great as the 1997 match, but still a solid stone cold classic. Match was already built around the chess game of takedown artist Muto frustrating Hashimoto and trying to avoid the dangerous strikes. Highlights include Hash shrugging off a surprise attempt at an octopus hold, and both guys going into a judo scramble. I also appreciate that there was no legwork/figure 4 stuff, although Muto really wanted to go for it. Hash throwing leg kicks, daring Muto to go for the leg, and then responding to some gritty surprise headbutts by rushing Muto like an angry bull is why he’s the GOAT. He was also able to make Mutos basic short arm scissor look killer. His response was, of course, to rain punches onto Muto. Hash then got up with blood coming out of his nose and a sliver of blood from his mouth like a slit in his face and you know the fight is on. Second half was quite epic as you had Hash laying devastation on Muto with his kicks and Muto pushing the bleeding Hashimoto to the brink of defeat. Several ridiculously well timed moments. The sequence with Mutoh landing on his feet on the attempted moonsault was an example of something that modern workers probably would have rushed in an effort to force as many moves and reversals into a short sequence as possible, whereas these two were smart enough to slow down enough to make the payoff feel really rewarding. We also get some beautiful Hashimoto wrestling such as hitting a perfect German Suplex on Muto. Hash drilling Muto with a surprise bulldog was also another great unexpected moment. Muto trying to resist the DDT with all his remaining lifeforce only to end up eating the deadliest brainbuster ever may be a top 10 moment in any wrestling match. This crowd was really freaking rabid for Hash’s DDT too. You may say ‘well, it was 1993, times were different, a DDT was exciting…’ but fuck that, these people had already seen Liger and his shooting star press and Tiger Masks shit and whatnot, and here they were flipping the fuck out for a 30 minute match culminating in a DDT because these guys are fucking masters at this.

Shinya Hashimoto vs Keiji Muto, 8/15/1995

‘nother masterpiece between these two. At this point it’s a coin toss which of these matches is the best but fuck, they are all great. This was one was a bit more conventional but still had that strategic, struggle-loaded chess match feel early on with neither guy wanting to get caught. Muto seemed a bit less engaged, perhaps because he was worn down from the G1. Hash catches him a lot early, sprawling on a takedown attempt, catching his jumping savate kick. Even almost turning the tide in his favor by going for Mutohs arm briefly. It’s not quite the same level of intricacy as Muto showed in the 93 and 97 matches but it’s still some pretty damn good pro wrestling. Loved the bit where Hash struggled against a German Suplex so Muto went for the Dragon, and then the Octopus Hold. Pretty damn epic ending with Hash trying to bust Mutos skull with some beautiful high kicks. Man alive does Hashimoto just look like a god when he’s charging up and gathering energy for those kicks. Mutoh seemed dead in the water and was left with a few great desperation counters. It’s New Japan so something like a straight armbar is a totally believable possible finisher to go for. Another epic jumping DDT from Hash ends up spiking Muto causing his bandage to come off with blood streaming down. Doesn’t get more italo western than that when it comes to pro wrestling.

Some early 90s AJW

   

Kyoko Inoue vs Takako Inoue, AJW 1/24/1993

Excellent match, which I’m afraid may be a bit of an overlooked minor classic. After some scrappy, quick exchanges, Kyoko was quite great taking over the match with varied submissions. Whenever Takako would try to come back, Kyoko would put her back down quite aggressively, and often still establish herself as the superior, graceful wrestler. Stuff like both of them fighting over a headlock leading to Kyoko kicking Takako in the face is so good and the kind of thing you basically never see anymore even though it’s so simple. Also, Inoues flying headscissor rolls and springboard moves rule. Takako ended up having to scout Kyokos spots, which she does well, there is a legbar spot where she catches Kyoko that ends up being really great. Eventually Takako capitalizes by taking chairs to Kyoko and suplexing her on the floor, which Kyoko sold like death. Really exciting ending run mostly due to Kyokos great selling of the floor sequence, which had a few big moves and some awesome drama. KO punch finish was quite unexpected but great.

Aja Kong & Sakie Hasegawa vs Kyoko Inoue & Toshiyo Yamada, AJW 10/10/1993

It’s 1993, so much of this was brutally violent, exciting and heated pro wrestling. My god does Aja Kong consistently look like just the greatest monster ever. Pretty much anytime she tagged in she would punt the shit out of people all over the ring and just try to crush people. Yamada is also pretty consistent at bringing the violence with her insane kicks. Hasegawa is fun as a plucky sidekick that needs Ajas help, though I thought the match dipped a bit in quality when she and Kyoko were in the ring as there were some meandering portions. Still eventually Yamada tags in and tries to rearrange Hasegawas face with a serious of super violent kicks and from then on it turns into really edge of your seat stuff with people getting their heads caved in and breakneck suplexes being hit. Hasegawa redeems herself by hitting a deadly solebutt and not being an obvious lost cause in the battle, and Inoue was hitting some jaw cracking lariats. Really exciting stuff as they created a sense of a swinging pendulum with various tags and partner help spots to maintain a sense of unpredictability, and the bombs they were dropping were pretty damn big bombs. Another minor gem in the pile.

Sakie Hasegawa & Debbie Malenko vs Shark Tsuchiya & Crusher Maedomari, AJW 11/26/1992

This was from the Dream Rush show so obviously not the main attraction, and old joshi fans would tell you that Shark Tsuchiya sucked… but fuck all that, because this some awesome heated and highly uncooperative pro wrestling. Basically Tsuchiya and Maedomari are heat magnets, harkening back to the old Gokuaki Domei vibe that was mostly gone from AJW in 1992 with Bull and Aja turning quasi face. Tsuchiya goes at Malenko before the bell, and it’s just a heated fight from the go. There seem to be FMW fans in the building so the match had that kind of ridiculous heat. Hasegawa was like a rabid ferret in this, slapping the shit out of people, kicking her way out of holds, and absolutely looking like she was not willing to give an inch to these FMW punks. Even going over to kick people in the face when Debbie had them in a hold, or putting some extra meanness into some basic legwork. It was awe inspiringly uncooperative and evil and quite frankly, amazing. Her little exchange with Tsuchiya were Tsuchiya hit her with a tomoe nage on her face was great. Tsuchiya also has a bandaged arm/shoulder here (apparently from a legit injury) so anytime Debbie puts an armbar on her the crowd goes wild. Just a massive crowd of people going wild for Debbie snapping someones limb. A surprisingly amount of vulnerability from the brawling heels here as Team AJW keep taking them down and refusing to give them an inch, Tsuchiya even being unable to do much as she hurts herself applying a choke, until Maedomari was able to spike Hasegawa with a sick chokeslam. It continues to look like a blowout for the FMW team though until some chaos goes down and they are able to brawl on the floor for a bit. Back in the ring Hasegawa immediately double legs Maedomari and rains punches from mount on here because Sakie Hasegawa was a mean demon in this. The finish is is just Hasegawa finish Maedomari off with a series of kicks to the face and force pinning her with Maedomari struggling like she really 100% wanted to get out of the pin. Was this perfect? No, it probably was a little long, it may have been better with some blood and Team FMW getting a bit of more conventional heat, but fuck me, this was dripping intensity and heat and pretty unique, let alone for a midcard match. They absolutely do not make them like this anymore for that alone you should watch this.

Tarzan Goto Documentation #16

 Tarzan Goto vs Atsushi Onita, FMW 1/6/1993 - EPIC

BattlARTS level violence contained in a barbedwire ring, with both guys taking dangerous spills into the wire and getting sliced repeatedly. Right at the go they are mauling each other with shoot headbutts. Onita stops Goto with a punch to the face and goes for a sleeper, but gets pushed back into the wire. One lariat later and Onitas arms are cut. That about sums this match up, just two guys wreaking destruction on each other almost without pause. There is some filler figure 4 work which is a minor point deduction, but other than that this is just gritty insanity. Goto is a force of nature here pounding Onita to a bloody pulp, and also not afraid to fly into the wire, and Onitas aura is so insane that he can make almost any kind of beatdown work, let alone the kinda beatdown that Goto puts on him here. The barbedwire actually feels dangerous and people react with horro at the spills which is another plus of these early deathmatches. Another thing is that it’s 93 so they were excuting moves like a bulldog or DDT with maximum snap. Gotos facebuster moves also looked like an execution. At one point Goto goes for a German Suplex and I’m not sure I’ve seen him hit a german suplex in another match but holy fuck his German Suplex was beautiful here. Lots of epic exchanges here and the finish feels about as big as it gets without relying on some ridiculously big bump or anything, just visceral carnage done in a skillful way. You don’t quite get spectacles like this anymore.

Tarzan Goto & Mr. Pogo & Yuta Nakata vs Kintaro Kanemura & Masayoshi Motegi & Yusaku Obata, Super FMW 7/30/2010 - FUN

Raw injection of pro wrestling at it’s seediest. This is in Shin Kiba, it looks like there’s about 30 people intendance. They still go all out, but the emptiness of the building and the lack of crowd enthusiasm adds to the ghoulish atmosphere. We get Goto punching Kanemura in the face and them both hitting each other with shoot headbutts, some brawling that actually feels spirited. Mr. Pogo, around 37 years into his career and 10 years from having a broken neck feels like an ancient ghoul in this match. Oddly enough he takes more offense than I’ve often seen him take, eating one of Motegis nasty shotais. Motegi takes his boot off to beat on Motegi, but ends up still taking a sickle to the face. Nothing like Pogo taking the sickle to hapless fools in a dark nearly empty building. Nakata is a complete sleazeball and I like how Motegi completely no-sold his dive. Obata, being chiseled and young, looks like the one guy here who has a future still, and so Goto carves him up with a broken beer bottle and does some gritty Abby/Sheikh vs Funk Bros arm stabbing. A weird thing happens where it seems Goto and Pogo are gonna fight but they make up and do a double team move that involves Pogo doing a drop down which feels like some wild athleticism from him. Eventually it devolves to Goto vs Obata with Goto making Obata earn some offense. Obata hitting a basic suplex is made to feel like a big deal and he has a cool sliding leg lariat, though he ends up running into Gotos face and getting mauled by more punches and headbutts to the face. Everybody was working oddly hard here, but what you will mainly remember is the creepy vibe.

Tarzan Goto vs Shoji Nakamaki, IWA Japan 8/9/1995 - GREAT

Insane level of aura here. Normally these IWA Japan main event brawls have 6 or so guys in them. Here it’s just the two of them, but boy do they make up for it with action. Right at the go they are at each other with Nakamaki landing some hatefilled chairshots to Goto and Goto kicking him right back in the face. Nakamaki takes an insane bump where he falls through the barbedwire ropes to the floor and the crowd is just melting down at this. Goto proceeds to kick Nakamakis bleeding ass all over the place. You know Goto is great at dishing out punishment, and taking punishment is the one thing Nakamaki is famous for, so you can imagine the kind of asskicking that goes down. Nakamaki is quite great just firing up, hitting a headbutt, and then getting baredwire shoved in his face. Nakamakis only chance here is that the referee, Gypsy Joe is on his side. It doesn’t make a huge difference but it’s fun because clearly Nakamaki needs to hit Goto with just 1 good move and Joe will count the 3. Gotos response to this problem is to just kill Nakamaki dead. The finish in this is just absolutely heinous. It doesn’t even feel like a deathmatch freakshow exhibition spot it’s just a killing. After the match Goto beats the shit out of Joe too, knocking him over with a lariat (can you imagine how hard you have to hit Gypsy Joe that he will actually sell for you?). Joe eats some chair shots and gets shoved into the wire. A big GOTO chant breaks out and he just looks like the coldest dude on earth. This won’t win any workrate awards but it’s just an awesome heat filled spectacle in it’s glorious blood drenched and barbed wire wrapped way.

 

Tarzan Goto Documentation 

Koki Kitahara Documentation Project #17

 Koki Kitahara & Genichiro Tenryu & Takashi Ishikawa vs Shiro Koshinaka & Masashi Aoyagi & Kengo Kimura, NJPW 11/23/1992 - EPIC

The WAR/New Japan feud is such a special occurance in wrestling history. You basically had all these guys, producing multiple excellent matches per month, all ultra heated, at an excellent pace, packed with violence and great moments. This was no exception, just +20 minutes of scrappy unpredictable chaos, guys running in and out beating on each other, throwing uncooperative strikes, getting blindsided and having he fight spill over and so on and so forth. The NJ crowd absolutely despise Kitahara in this, like they totally resent every fiber of his mulleted kick-throwing shitstirring existance, and he is pretty amazing here just bathing in the hatred, cheap shotting guys, disrespecting Aoyagi, getting his nose bloodied and almost dying in a 3-on-1 gang beatdown from the NJPW crew. Everybody in this match is amazing, though. Koshinaka not being afraid to crush peoples faces with kneedrops and punches, Kimura flying in hitting people with his awesome jumping kicks, Ishikawa trying to stomp people to death, and of course Grande Tenryu really elevating the big fight feel of the match. I also loved Aoyagi who was having scrappy violent exchanges with everyone and occasionally hitting people with his cool flying kicks, really having a GOAT "tough aging karate master going all out" performance. The ending is especially cool, as Tenryu tags in realizing he's facing Aoyagi and gets this amazing smirk, but then gets blindsided and destroyed a bunch for the crowd flipping out at Tenryu potentially being pinned by Kimura. Just amazing pro wrestling, so much fight, attrition, hatred, struggle, great timing, and to think this not in the most talked about matches from this feud is mind boggling.

Koki Kitahara & Genichiro Tenryu vs Tatsumi Fujinami & Jushin Thunder Liger, NJPW 8/3/1993 - GREAT

Another round in this great rivalry. Here we get a great 10 minute sprint. The fast paced Fujinami/Tenryu sections rule, with Tenryu immediately bloodying Fujinamis nose with a kick to the face, and Fujinami trying to destroy Tenruys leg. Once again, Kitahara was insanely hatred - just what did this particular fellow do? But he has the audacity to show up with his dopey mullet and sleazy jeans and karate kick people and that is really fitting for this kind of street fight feud. We also get to see Liger in this kind of heated bloodfeud environment which is really fun, he has some great moments including getting into a shotai battle with Tenryu, and in turn getting kicked in the face. At 9 minutes you really can't go wrong with this stuff with everyone bringing lots to the table and the general "anything can happen-"feel of these matches.

Koki Kitahara Documentation Project

You can Always Watch Random Lucha Libre

 

Shu el Guerrero/Ultimo Guerrero/Guerrero de la Muerte vs Ultraman/Olimpico/Sendero (CMLL 3/13/98)

20 minutes of seamless, beautifully executed lucha libre. Gotta love how 1997-1998 just about everyone had their working boots on and was having awesome matches weekly. I mean I’ve never heard anyone praise Guerrero de la Muerte, but Guerrero de la Muerte looked like a fucking workhorse in this. Whole rudo team was awesome but he really went the extra mile, working some spectacular segments with Olimpico, really making sure to make his opponent look like a million bucks, then turning around, kicking ass and punching people in the face, before bumping even bigger and finally just ripping a guys mask off in a perfectly timed moment. Shu is always super enjoyable to watch bumping, puffing his chest, locking on weird submissions. They were already going hard in the first fall, culminating with a beautiful double dive from Olimpico and Ultraman. Apparently Sendero is a luchador from Peru and while he didn’t do anything super outstanding he was fun to see. The rudo beatdown was just tremendous, with all 3 guys always keeping things interesting. Ultimo Guerrero even managed to hit a cool dive fake in assholeish fashion. Pretty hot 3^rd fall. Sometimes, you just want to watch some good lucha libre.

Guerrero de la Muerte/El Arkangel vs Tigre Universario/Metalico (CMLL May 8th, 1993)

Really good, intense match for a bunch of undercarders. I checked this out for more Guerrero de la Muerte (who knows, it might not even be the same guy as in the 1998 match), but the Arkangel/Metalico matwork stood out. Both guys wrestled wrestled like they had something to prove. Hard resistance on leg trips etc, and gnarly throws interspersed with the grappling. I love when guys hit out of nowhere throws while exchanging holds and Arkangel absolutely drilled him with a huge rock bottom here. Guerrero then ate a spinebuster from Tigre which he sold as if it had given him a concussion. The rudos then proceeded to work a sneaky cut off which I loved. 2^nd fall was super unpredictable as they kept mixing up rudo beatdown and beautiful technico shine segments. Muerte didn’t do much in terms of wrestling but I really like how he always knows to time that right hand perfectly. LOVED the callback to the first fall when Muerte ate another devastating spinebuster. Rudos letting Tigre fly into nowhere and then finishing with a huge doomsday device was also quite the power move. Badass little match where they made everything count.

Random CMLL

 

El Dandy & Silver King & Lizmark vs. Negro Casas & Satanico & Felino, 6/28/1996

I knew this was gonna be good when I saw who was in the match, but it ended up being even better. I think a CMLL trios where everyone has their working boots may be the best wrestling ever and this was pretty damn incredible. First 10 minutes were insanely scrappy and uncooperative. Dandy vs. Casas face punching showdown was incredible, Casas may be the best ever at transferring that kind of stuff on to a big stage, it really felt monumental as Casas would land a punch, do a smug self satisfied little dance before getting popped in the mouth, all to great effect. Casas was full of smirks and antics in the match but still bringing the right amount of legit pro wrestling with his cool spin kicks and blows. Dandy was in his UWF black trunks and kickpads get up so he meant business. Felino and Silver King was on the same level, with both guys being really stubborn and uncooperative going for takedowns, blocking and bitchslapping each other. Satanico/Lizmark was the most traditional pro wrestling in the match and still pretty great and scrappy looking. Rudo beatdown felt intensely violent due Casas trying to choke Dandy out and kicking him in the head, Lizmark taking a beatdown in the corner and almost having his mask pulled off. King getting his head bashed into the post was also really grizzly. At one point Casas was fucking biting Lizmark and you could see the flesh between his teeth before he gives the crowd a smug look, incredible. 3^rd fall retains the uncooperative, violent vibe really well and has some nice retaliation. Especially loved Casas complaining of a foul only to eat some UWF kicks from Dandy who was sick and tired of his shit. I thought it may have needed a bigger showdown considering how incredible the build throughout the match was but Casas getting his head kicked in was nice. Felino and Silver King continueing to streetfight was also excellent and Dandys big dive was thoroughly nuts. Dug the use of the ring with guys taking brutal looking postings and getting bashed into the ring edge.Really excellent match where they went for something pretty unique and everyone looked great, it felt like lucha crossed with WAR Memphis and UWF in the best way.

 Ultimo Dragon vs. Negro Casas, 8/28/1992

Pretty epic destruction of Casas. Dragon has it all here, he unloads all of his high end japanese offense on Casas who basically just takes a beat down. Dragons kicks actually look like he is kicking the shit out of his opponent here instead of going through a kick choreography, and he presses the action early on locking in a figure 4 in the first fall instead of the usual chain wrestling. There is some nice wrestling going on but Dragon is the dominant force and Casas is on offense for maybe 30 seconds in the whole match. Casas selling performance was quite amazing as it looks like he got fucked up early on by Dragons kicks and bombs and hanging on by a thread. There is a point where Casas is able to kick Dragon in the back and is unable to follow up so Dragon turns around to kick his ass some more. I was rooting for Casas and wanting him to stage some kind of epic comeback but he is too smart for that and he ends up just capitalizing on Dragon slipping and makes him pay for it. Crowd was mad hot for Ultimo and the match had such a unique vibe. It's rare that you see a title match in lucha be this one sided while going long. Dragon was on and Casas performance was amazing making this really memorable.

Norman Smiley vs. Vampiro, 10/30/1993

 At last, we talk about the truely fascinating stuff on this blog! Norman Smiley being a megastar in Mexico feels so unlikely. Especially since he wrestles the same dry technical style, but I guess the crowds just took a liking to him. Stardom in wrestling is sometimes bestowed in mysterious ways, but I think the guy deserves it just for being unapologetically himself. It's something that almost never gets brought up, as the English speaking internet is largely ignorant to lucha and I imagine the few lucha diehards are also ignorants towards the likes of Smiley and Vampiro since 'it's not real lucha'. This is a pretty interesting match. It's not some kind of hidden gem, but it ain't bad, and they do lots of curious things.  Immediately they start with grappling and trading some hard kicks. I thought Smiley was punishing Vampiro at first, kicking him really hard when he was down and locking in legit holds, with Vampiro looking sloppy and out of position. But Vampiro fired back with stiff looking kicks of his own, even kicking Smiley in the head while he was trying for a UWF leg lock. Smiley torquing 'piro on the ground is good, and Vampiro manages to string some decent power moves together to end the first fall. Vampiro soon goes back to looking like he barely belongs in a ring. He sure is a funny wrestler to watch when he tries. There are some fumblings, and poorly thought out structure, but by gawd they do try hard to work some epic twists and turns and have a lengthy match that succeeds in not stinking it up. I dug Smiley big bump to the outside, and the nonchalant foul he gave Vampiro amping up the pressure in the match was pretty well done. It was not a flawless match but I'd rather watch something like this over generic junior workrate fest #9000.

Assorted Lucha Libre

 

Hassam el Genio/Lamparin/Super Muneco vs Los Desastres (Terremoto, Marimoto & Hecatombe) (AAA April 25th, 1993)

You know I love serious no frills wrestling but sometimes I just wanna watch a bunch of super athletic guys with distinct characters do highly athletic wrestling with a bunch of amusing shtick. No clue who Hassam and Lamparin are but they looked really good here, Hassam is a tubby looking guy who despite his really uncomfortable looking blue genie suit moves really well and has great fatboy athleticism, Lamparin may be Kendo, really light footed wrestler with cool spin kicks and lots of amusing mannerisms. They are billed as Nuevo Trio Fantasia but I guess that didn't last long. Los Desastres have really rough put together outfits in comparison but they are very competent rudos. Lots of really cool unique armdrag variations in this match and fantastic rudo stooging and bumping, just one cool exchange after another. I especially liked the bit where one rudo accidentally leapt into his partners arms and then accidentally got dropkicked over the top rope. Rudos also had interesting ways to beat on their opponents, such as a nasty Marimoto dropkick through the ropes. Third fall had some intense brawling, big dive train with tubby Hassams plancha being the highlight and a cool finish. Even Super Muneco was bringing it hard so you know it has to be a good match!

Winners/Super Calo vs Dr. Maldad/Mr. Maldad (AAA June 8th, 1992)

Dr. Maldad and Mr. Maldad, what a team. They totally carried this match though. Not that Winners and Super Calo are bad, they are perfectly good athletic technico fodder with fantastic dance moves, but the rudos did a supreme job here. The opening fall stooge a ton was a ton of fun, just two evil guys in goofy masks bouncing themselves around to make these two dancers look awesome. They also displayed some cool rudo tactics such as a 2 on 1 gory special and a spot where one Maldad stepped on the others back to land a cool diving stomp. Technicos also bumped big for the beatdown. This seems to be Super Calos first ever match on tape, and he had a kind of cursed protooutfit where he doesn't have his cool mask and hat but just a mask that looks like a pair of sunglasses and a puffy broccoli haircut. He would be trendy in 2023. Still a fun match. Third fall was brief but culminated in an awesome dive.

El Matematico/Goldman/Matematico II vs Dr Maldad/Juventud Guerrera/Mr Maldad (AAA April 4th, 1993)

This was pretty great. Matematicos are just amazing technicos, their agility and body control is really next level, and with a pair of truely dedicated rudos like Hermanos Maldad you got a dynamite match up. Juventud was barely 18 here and he looks 5 years younger than that, but he was a strong addition to the match. His match up vs. one of the Matematicos was really fast and athletic, maybe like something his dad would have done in the early 80s. Goldman is the grandson of El Santo who wound up having a sort of not super spectacular career, this is his 2nd match ever and while he is predictably green executing some spots a bit sloppy, he pulls off a lot of difficult stuff and one of the Maldads has the grace to work a segment reminiscent of Hijo del Santos 80s work against him. The first fall of these matches is kind of always the best since you get a bunch of high end sequences plus rudos complaining and being bumbling, but the rudo beatdown was also top notch here and the match built to a crazy dive train in the last fall and a brief but good finishing sequence.

Tarzan Goto Documentation #13

 

Tarzan Goto vs. Great Punk, FMW 9/23/1993 - FUN

Punk is Katsutoshi Niiyama. He rushes Goto at the start but things go awry for him quickly and Goto starts kicking him in the face and dumping tables on his head. Goto delivers a really great beatdown as he has so many different cool ways to kick the shit out of you, headbutts to the face, huge superfly splash off the top, slapping the hell out of Niiyama etc. It's weird though, if this was Tully Blanchard or whoever delivering this kind of bloody beatdown on someone it would be legendary and epic but since Goto has a great beatdown in pretty much every match he's in it feels like it's another match for him. So it depends on what Niyaama brings to the table, and Niyama doesn't bring much except some weak looking uranages and rollups. Still, a solid by the numbers match with Gotos numbers being really damn high.

Tarzan Goto vs. Masashi Aoyagi, Shin FMW 9/29/97 - EPIC

This delivers the kind of freak violence this matchup promises. Basically Goto hacks up Aoyagis face causing him to bleed like crazy almost immediately. Aoyagi in turn busts out a barbedwire kickpad and tees off on Goto, kicking him in the face and just tearing up his leg. The barbed wire kick spots hold up about as violent as anything else in deathmatch wrestling history, I'd rather take a lighttube over the head than get kicked by Aoyagi, the barbedwire just makes it way worse. I would have liked Goto to throw more punches but retaliating against the superior striker by chucking barbed wire boards at him works fine. This didn't have any kind of deep story or great transitions but the gore aswell as a pretty big finish and both guys being willing to take crazy punishment made it really engrossing.

 

Tarzan Goto Master List

Assorted LLPW

 

Bull Nakano vs. Yasha Kurenai, LLPW 10/25/1993

I‘m willing to bet this is the best 3 minute match you‘ll watch for a while. Kurenai was in a really famous squash against Hokuto, but this may have been even better. Nakano just punts the shit out of her, full on lariats to the face and all and smacking her around. There was especially brutal lariat that turned Kurenai briefly into a stiff. Kurenai gave all she got and got some bigger spots in on Nakano than you‘d expect. Nunchuks and a staff come into play, plus a memorable sick KO finish. Pro wrestling was so on fire in 1993 even a random squash like this could be legendary.

Shinobu Kandori & Mizuki Endo vs. Harley Saito & Miki Hanada, 10/25/1993

As far as „badass teams with underdog matches“ go, this was really good and just felt like a crazy fight. We start hot right off he bat with Endo getting nearly KO‘d by Saitos BattlARTS level kicks. I never thought much of Handa, but her elbowing Kandori in the back of the head and then bowling her into the chairs was just the right thing to do in this kind of frantic battle. Love how Saito is consistently one of the few people who can step up to Kandori. Her throwing Kandori and then just blasting her with a face kick was badass. Endo barely has offense at this point, but she sold like crazy and had good fire. Kandori is so fucking great going from being an absolute menace to selling that she‘s taking danger and staggered. Finishing run looked great as it had a number of neat moments, plus face stomps and hits to the back of the head. Too bad about the clipping but what was shown looked like one of the best joshi matches of 1993.

Rumi Kazama vs. Jenn Yukari, LLPW 1/4/1994

This was UWF rules, but they pretty much worked it like a regular slightly more groundbased LLPW match. These two don‘t have much of a rep but they can sure hit the mat and bust out neat transitions. No pinfall rule made for some surprisingly interesting psychology, and there were some hellish suplexes and kicks thrown. I wish we had the full 10 minutes instead of just 5 but what was shown was a pretty great BattlARTS Velocity match.

LLPW Blooming Ultra Wild Dance 8/29/1993

 Watch

 Semi Finals: Eagle Sawai vs. Noriyo Tateno

This was very ground based and alright. Tateno struggling to lock holds in on Sawai due to her large frame added some interest. Tateno worked this as the veteran star grounding and containing her beastly opponent. It was no Itsuki Yamazaki in JWP performance, but it was decent enough and I was into Sawai overcoming her. The spot where Sawai crushed Tatenos bridge looked downright murderous.

Semi Finals: Shinobu Kandori vs. Harley Saito

This went 11 minutes and we got about 7:30 of it. We get pretty much the opening , and then the ending section, both of which are really great. Starts like a Choshu/Hashimoto match with Saito trying to blow Kandori away with her kicks and Kandori just being an impossible badass. I like while Saito is good enough to not get tapped out right away by Kandori, she still pretty much got her leg mangled. Also check out Saito selling her shoulder earlier. Ending had Kandori busting out several really great Fujiwaraish counters and Saito doing her best outmatched fighter trying to pull of an upset performance. I‘m salty about this missing 3 and a half minutes.

Bull Nakano & Mima Shimoda vs. Rumi Kazama & Yasha Kurenai

Opening minutes of this was the kind of hot interpromotional warfare your brain craves. Nakano is as good of a monster as you need shrugging people off and blasting them with lariats, Kazama kicks the crap out of her, Kurenai is an eye-stabbing trouble making fiend, and there‘s brawling and a staff and nunchakus getting brought in. Middle portion was a bit middling as I was annoyed by Bull and Mima kind of no selling their opponents, but the ending made up for it as we get Rumi and Yasha unloading their big moves on Mima, more staff-bashing and Yasha dramatically trying to survive Bull. This was plenty enjoyable.

Finals: Shinobu Kandori vs. Eagle Sawai

This starts out great right away with Sawai going for the powerbomb and then spiking Kandori with a Randleman-esque slam. Pretty much every 1993 Kandori match is gonna be scrappy and full of bone breaking submission work and this had plenty of face kicks, smacks and nasty knee bars. Sawai isn‘t someone people rate highly but I enjoyed her as a big monster throwing Kandori around which is different from her usual opponents. Ending was great as Sawai seemed to be crumbling from Kandoris submission onslaught until Sawai started throwing her with those big uranages. Kandori can‘t put her away with powermoves so she has to come up with a Fujiwara-ish counter. Scrappy and good.

The Library

Tarzan Goto Documentation #12

 

Tarzan Goto & The Sheik vs. Tiger Jeet Singh & Tiger Ali Singh, FMW 3/29/1993 - EPIC

This was really fricking great, a raw straight injection of blood and insanity. Singhs swarm Goto right before the bell and Goto is pelted with saber shots. Luckily Sheik makes his heroic entrance as a big chant breaks out. He throws Goto a chair and it‘s go time. The fighting here was just bloody as hell and felt reckless. Singhs looked good just attacking their opponents relentlessly and the face stabbing was sick as hell. Sheik is as good as you need him to be here as a crusty old guy who draws big reactions punching and stabbing people in the face. Really loved the bit where Sheik tries bringing in a fucking beer bottle and gets clocked with the butt of a sword. Goto as good as you know him, bleeding like crazy and throwing great headbutts and lariats. Fucking crazy post match too as Sabu and Gladiator come in, Sheik turns against Goto blowing a fireball and they set the ring on fire. You have to love pro wrestling.

Tarzan Goto & Flying Kid Ichihara & Mr. Gannosuke vs. Kendo Nagasaki & Giant Korean, & Kim Soppo, BJW 6/10/1995 - GREAT

This was an elimination match as a series of singles matches and really unique. Nagasaki teams with two Korean guys, early BJW was weird. We start with Gannosuke vs. Soppo which was between alright and so-so, I liked Gannosukes dropkicks and his indian deathlock, Soppo seemed like a decent wrestler but they were both clearly unfamiliar with each other so they just kept it very basic. The unique thing is Goto and Nagasaki are at ringside and tempers are already flaring, when Soppo gets thrown out and suddenly you have Goto running him across the arena into a wall while Nagasaki throws a table at Gannosuke. Gannosuke ends up going ovoer and against GIANT KOREAN next. Giant looks like he has acromegaly and he wrestles a lot like Baba, brain chops and headbutts which is what you want from a Giant Korean. Still their match up is far from good as the Giant also likes to chinlock, but Gannosuke wins pretty fast with the Gannosuke Clutch. Now is when things get interesting, because Kendo Nagasaki in and he is in Dragon Master mode, just beating the live out of Gannosuke, torturing him with painful holds, he does a Magistral that looked like it almost ripped Gannsukes shoulder. All the while Goto is at ringside and he really wants to have a go at Nagasaki, when Nagasaki throws Gannosuke outside Goto goes after him with the chairs and these moments are over 9000 in intensity level. It looks like Gannosuke is gonna get squashed but he keeps hanging on. Eventually Nagasaki throws him out again and Goto has enough clocking Nagasaki with the chair. Now Nagasaki is bleeding and it seems Gannosuke might have a real chance to win the match 3-0… but then Nagasaki just drops him with the most awful piledrivers in history. 1,2,3, Gannosuke is out. There is a brief confusion where it seems like Ichihara is next but instead Goto comes in with a fucking fire extingiuisher, he doeses the whole ring and then lariats Nagasaki in the fog until he‘s out. This is a weird match to go GREAT on because the first two portions weren‘t much, but they ended up telling a compelling story that really had me at several moments, building to that epic ending, with Goto being integral to the whole match and doing a great job.

Tarzan Goto Documentation

LLPW Burning Gaze ~Gateway of Passion~ 5/11/1993

Miki Handa vs. Mima Shimoda

Hey look, it‘s an interpromotional match! These matches are always super heated and everyone works urgent, so this ended up being fun. Both blocked each others basic moves to begin and that‘s totally enough to get me into a match. Shimoda looked good directing the action, and even Miki Handa can bring the heat given the circumstances. It was pretty clipped, but I think we got a good idea of the match.

Noriyo Tateno & Kurenai Yasha vs. Shinobu Kandori & Mizuki Endo

Really great opening minute here as Tateno suicide dives into nothing. Kandori gets on the mic to shit talk her but Kurenai elbows her in the back of the head! Yasha follows up by trying to take Kandoris eye out, to which Kandori responds by getting up and punching Yasha in the face. Awesome stuff. Yasha was pretty great here in general, booting people in the face and really knowing how to be a pest at the right time. Kandoris shoot submissions were great and sent people into a frenzy to get to the ropes. The action was much more basic when Endo was in, although Tateno and Kurenai knew to put the heat on her. I‘ve been shitting on Tateno a lot but she was good here just flying into people with knees. It was a 14 minute match clipped in half and I really would‘ve liked to see the whole thing because what we saw was great.

Suzuka Minami & Bat Yoshinaga vs. Rumi Kazama & Yukari Osawa 

HOLY SHIT!! I LOVE PRO WRESTLING!!! This was absolutely awesome. Why nobody ever talks about how LLPW was the promotion that ran all these crazy heated, stiff main event brawls? This was the joshi equivalent to something like WAR vs. New Japan, really violent crazy match with a relentless pace where nobody holds back. Bat Yoshinaga is this scuzzy AJW undercarder with a karate gimmick and she has the night of her life here, holy lord she was awesome squaring off with the LLPW wrestlers and throwing kicks. She was getting massive face heat too so everyone in that arena that night knew she was awesome! 3 out of the 4 workers here throw kicks and they were all landing, there are a number of really violent saves where someone was going for a pin or submission and then got blindsided with a kick to the back of the head. Minami is the one worker who doesn‘t have much strike based offense but she does a good job tightening her stuff up and there are a few moments where she also kicked the shit out of her opponent. Kazama likes to play shooter so Minami frantically kicking her way out of her leglock was really cool. Most of the match was violent, scrappy standup interspersed with Minami and Kazama doing some cool wrestling and awesome Bat Yoshinaga character moments. There was one moment where Yukari tried breaking up one of Yoshinagas holds with kicks and Yoshinaga just give her this amazing disdainful look, totally not giving a damn about how hard Osawa was kicking her in the head. Later in the match it‘s Osawa who‘s putting a half crab on someone and the camera does a really nice job catching her glare over at Yoshinaga, who struts into the ring and pops Osawa with a single blow. That moment may have made the whole match, but I will also give credit to Yoshinaga putting on the single greatest iron claw in history on Kazama. The match builds to a flurry of big moves as many joshi matches do but they retain the aura of a crazy fight. I really liked how Minami and Yoshinaga initially dominated, but the match slowly began to slip away from their control. Kazama and Osawa seemed to have it in the bag until Yoshinaga made an awesome rally spin kicking everyone in the face. Everyone here fought hard but it was Yoshinagas night, and the ending really underlines that nicely. What a gem of a match.

THE LIBRARY

Assorted Japanese Handhelds

 

Masaaki Mochizuki vs. Masakazu Fukuda, WYF 8/4/1998

 

This thing getting uploaded by the cameraman almost 25 years later has to be a near miracle, but then we‘ve seen a lot of miracles by now when it comes to highly improbable things ending up on the internet. This was a great striker vs. grappler matchup. Seeing Mochizuki here makes one sour that he retired to Dragon Gate, as he was throwing kicks a nd hands in a totally unpredictable and non-choreographed way here that was really cool, coupled with some swank agility. Fukudas style is really unique, he is this lanky tall guy who just glues himself to opponents when he grabs them and drags them into his throws and submissions. He also absolutely rattled Mochizukis shit with a nasty dropkick and some stiff strikes, but Mochizuki kept firing back. The match had a few Hondaish moments, at one point Mochizuki went for a punch to Fukuda and Fukuda attached himself to Mochis arm and dragged him into another hold. When Mochizuki went to recuperate Fukuda just dragged him over the ropes and threw him, with Mochizuki landing hard on all his throws. This was to the point and absolutely no nonsense with both guys giving each other little space a nd all the offense looking like it required zero cooperation, I get WYF was a niche indy back then, but this kind of indy match is a real breath of fresh air these days.

 

Genichiro Tenryu vs. Great Kabuki, WAR 11/9/1993

 

These two could have just punched and kicked each other and done some staredowns and it would‘ve been a quite good match, but we got something more neat here. Tenryus resume of great houseshow matches is for sure impressive. We get a fun opening with Kabuki trying to stand up to Tenryu with his great uppercuts, and Tenryu just chops and lariats him in the throat with Kabuki sells passionately. Tenryu seems to have this in the bag easily but then Kabuki catches him with a surprise thrust kick and Tenryu tumbles outside. Immediately a bunch of Heisei Ishingun goons start swarming Tenryu and brawling with his seconds. Tenryu eats chair shots while Kabuki cuts a promo. Back in the ring Tenryu is bleeding and Kabuki takes him apart punching and kicking the cut. Tenryu is able to snap a Fujiwara armbar but has to let go of the hold because his blood is blinding him in a really neat moment. Tenryus facial expressions and body language are outstanding even on a blurry handheld. His exhausted surprise abisegiris were really cool, also. Great little match due to structure and grit.

 

Genichiro Tenryu vs. Hiromichi Fuyuki, WAR 11/8/1993

 

A unique match for Tenryu in 1993, because he fights his stablemate Fuyuki. So it‘s not gonna be an interpromotional brawl, but then, you have two tubby, surly bastards in a match, how can it not escalate? But they start wrestling, Fuyuki hits a nice scientific arm suplex and Tenryu busts out his cool leg trip. Fuyuki starts the real fun by kicking Tenryu in the back and hitting a fast belly to belly. Tenryu fires back with some light kicks to Fuyukis face, which feel almost like a reminder for Fuyuki not to try anything he would regret. They go back to wrestling and Tenryu lays a really stiff leg kick into Fuyuki, but Fuyuki shows toughness and catches Tenryu with an enzuigiri. Now it‘s Tenryus turn to not break clean and chip away at a prone Fuyuki. The whole match was built like that, lots of cool tubby guy wrestling building to explosions until both guys were punching and kicking each other in the face. I loved Fuyukis punches, and how Tenryu sold them with drool flying out his mouth as he got hit. Fuyuki worked one hell of a match getting fired up and just being this plucky fighter that wouldn‘t back down, and once again Tenryus charisma was outstanding. Some surprisingly great bits of wrestling too such as Fuyuki turning an attempted DDT into a northern lights suplex. Smart match with plenty of violence that told a simple story in a beautiful way, just a houseshow footnote for both guys in 1993 but would be a serious MOTYC if it happened now.

2 Cold Scorpio Documentation Project #3

 2 Cold Scorpio vs. Dean Malenko, ECW 3/3/1995 - FUN

Cool houseshow match with Scorpio doing some more technical work. It's funny how you can watch a ton of wrestling and a random Scorpio houseshow match from 27 years ago has some stuff you've never seen. Really liked Scorpios kneedrops on Deans face too to break up the niceness of their wrestling. Malenko is bland but insanely crisp. His control segment was a bit trite, but I liked his big stomp to cut off Scorpio. Boring chants start to come up so Scorpio just punches back to offense and starts hitting his high spots to shut the crowd up. The timing on the time limit draw was really impressive as the bell rung just as Scorpio hit the moonsault and had Dean beaten, although it may have been worked time.

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

Regal trying to take Scorpio apart in a really technical manner for 10 minutes. Great stuff, and Scorpio can hang very well in this kind of mat based match. When Scorpio got the advantage, Regal just stomped on his face  and proceeded to grind him down even more viciously. Some great stretches and holds in this. Scorpio makes this big comeback with a great punch combo and starts blasting Regal with his supreme high spots just as the time runs out. Regal getting hit with a 450 splash in 1993 is something else, would he have thought that would happen within 5 years as Kendo Nagasaki put a spell on his partner in Britain in 1988? Really good match though.

2 Cold Scorpio vs. Minoru Suzuki, GCW 4/23/2022 - FUN

Fun veteran match. I enjoyed these two trading holds and wish they had done a bit more of that, and Scorpios awesome punch combo on the floor. Could have done with a bit less back and forth strike exchanges, but that is how these guys get their paycheck now, and Suzuki doing stares to get reactions is effective. Scorpios high kicks and splashes aren't as smooth as they used to be but still look good, and I didn't expect him to take a boot to the face from Minoru.

2 Cold Scorpio Documentation Master List

LLPW Battle Winter 2/13/1992

 

Michiko Nagashima vs. Mizuki Endo

Rookie match with some basic moves and lots of stretches. Really nothing match here. Both these two turned into good wrestlers later but they had nothing going for them at this poitn.

Yukari Osawa & Mikiko Futagami vs. Utako Hozumi & Leo Kitamura

16 out of 22 minutes where shown. Pretty dull match without much heat until they started doing nearfalls. Hozumi and Kitamura controlled most of the action until Futagami pulled out a surprise win. Good for GAMI.

Kurenai Yasha vs. Midori Saito

Kurenai seems like a fairly underrated worker. She dominated most of this and she knew how to beat on Saito for 10 minutes and make it not boring. She did cool things like drop elbows on her face, bust out a bottle or throw a row of chairs at Saito out of nowhere. She also made some nice cutoffs and it was a cool seasoned rudo performance which was impressive considering she was still pretty early in her career. Saito had one nasty boot to Yashas chin but didn‘t impress me much otherwise. Yasha takes it with the chokeslam and this came across as almost a squash.

Rumi Kazama & Noriyo Tateno vs. Eagle Sawai & Miki Handa

 Pretty decent match worked at a medium pace. Kazama, Handa and Sawai all looked good. Tateno is usually pretty boring but Sawai was fired up, just running over her with body checks and lariats, and that got Tateno to show a bit of fire of her own. Kazama had her working boots on and was working stiff as usual. And Handa did some pretty good work too working over Tatenos spine with nasty looking knees and elbows. The finish was really good - Handa rolled up Tateno into a boston crab. Kazama landed a kick to make the save, but the resulting force pushed Handa further into the hold and actually forced a submission. Nice win for Handa and felt like something that should happen more often.

Shinobu Kandori & Harley Saito vs. Suzuka Minami & Etsuko Mita

Okay, wow. The opening of this was like a bomb going off. Super heat, intensity to the max, scrappy fights breaking out, everyone trying to kill each other. They had a bunch of AJW fans attending this cheering for Minami and Mita so this had the kind of insane heat these interpromotional matches have. The first 10 or so minutes were pretty damn amazing and up there with any WAR/NJ tag. Kandori is such a damn superstar, outgrappling everyone while making jokes and then snapping, buckling people against the ropes and mauling them with nasty lariats and elbows. And Mita and Minami brought the heat. The sequence where Kandori choked Mita out and Minami cleared house to safe her was another level of urgent and badass. Makes you wonder why that kinda stuff doesn‘t happen more often. Harley Saito is also quite the effective plucky sidekick to Kandori. The second half this was more of a typical joshi match but still, it was a damn hot ending run that the crowd went crazy over. And all I want from a match with a hot ending run is a hot opening that gets me into it, and they did that here. Real gem, and another piece in Kandoris amazing string of 1993 performances.

The Library

Going through Shodates Best Matches of the 90s List Part 5

 The List

231. Tatsuhito Takaiwa & Shinjiro Ohtani vs. Koji Kanemoto & Minoru Tanaka, NJPW 10/11/1999 

This has to be among the stiffest matches I‘ve ever seen the NJPW juniors division produce. Seriously, they went out of their way to make every second of this as unpleasant as possible. Kicks, smacks, Otani facescrapes, Takaiwas level, everything was executed at maximum violence. Even something like a Takaiwa elbow drop landed with a smack. Loved the pissed off exchanges involving Otani and Kanemoto. Everyone here was catching hands, though. You know it‘s great when even Tanaka is laying it in and taking beatings. The match didn‘t have some kind of arc or story, it was just one violent exchange after another. It builds to some huge sequences before the finish, though. Takaiwa looked great pounding dudes into paste with his multiple powerbombs and death valley drivers. Greatest junior match in the Dome ever? It was certainly the loudest.

 

234. Mayumi Ozaki & Cutie Suzuki vs. Dynamite Kansai & Sumiko Saito, JWP 8/9/1992

Ah let‘s see… fast pace, hot crowd, insanely stiff, simple moves…? It‘s the early 90s baby~! Seriously pro wrestling just doesn‘t feel like this anymore and it‘s sad. This was hard working and exciting. Sumiko Saito was a rookie who didn‘t stay around for long, but she looked tenacious here. She was paired with Kansai who as usual acted as a super asskicker, so you got a match built around Kansai kicking ass when she was tagged in, and Saito getting her ass kicked when she was tagged out. As usual Ozaki looks good working against Kansai, and Cutie throws some beautiful suplexes. The stretching holds actually felt meaningful in this due to Saito fighting hard and trying to evade the rookie beatdown. Couple really good moments here. Notice how epic the superplex reversal felt due to both womens selling. This was 2 Count Rules for some reason and while it didn‘t really factor into the psychology much it made their athleticism more impressive I guess.

 

31. Yoshihisa Yamamoto vs. Georgi Kandarahki, RINGS 7/13/1993

Young Yoshihisa Yamamoto takes on Georgi Kandarahki… Kandealaki… Keandelaki..?? Ahh to hell with it! Kandarahki has boxing gloves, a singlet and boxer trunks. He looks like a basketball player decided to be a boxer. Yamamoto doesn‘t have gloves. If you can get over the silliness of that, this was pretty fun. Kandarahki throws lots of nice combinations and this had some heated moments where he came close to punching out Yamamoto who fired back with spirit. Obviously Yamamoto was gonna dominate on the ground but they do a pretty decent job making it not too obvious or drab. This went 5 rounds (OF COURSE!!!) and didn‘t drag and was pretty fun overall. So… the 31.th best match of all of the 90s? Probably not but I enjoyed discovering this for Yamamotos fire and Kandarahkis cool punches.

Command Bolshoi Treasure Trove #3

 

Command Bolshoi vs. Saori Anou, PURE-J 9/13/2017

GREAT 4 minute sprint! I‘ve never seen Anou before, and while she was a bit of a generic joshi worker she was a perfectly good dance partner for Bolshoi. This was the Bolshoi show, though. She packed the match with neat pins, badass submissions and open palm strikes. Her timing was fantastic and her turning Anous aggression against herself was really cool. Loved the carny BJJ moves and the finish.

Command Bolshoi vs. Erika Watanabe, JWP 11/14/2004

Have never noticed Erika Watanabe before, but she was quite good here. She does some neat submission work and has cool judo throw offense and that makes a nice match up against Bolshoi. This was just 8 minutes of cool exchanges with no down time.

Command Bolshoi vs. Tsubasa Kuragaki, JWP 12/7/2003

These two have some truely great chemistry together, and it‘s cool to get an early match up between them. Kuragaki was a bit less thick here so this was less of a big vs. Little match, and more of a straight up 50/50 no thrills encounter. Some really good lucharesu exchanges here, at this point I don‘t need to establish both of them have really good offense, and Kuragaki has really pretty flying moves and armdrags along with her intricate power moves and holds. Finishing run was great with Kuragaki busting out some huge suplexes and some great spots centered around headbutts and lariats before a highly complicated technical move decides the match. The match could‘ve used a bit more of a story but the action was very good and these two really know how to accentuate their stuff. These shoot headbutts were awesome, and not just due to being violent but also do to being timed perfectly.

 

Command Bolshoi & Dynamite Kansai vs. Cutie Suzuki & Plum Mariko, JWP 7/10/1994

Great match – which was mostly about Kansai being an unstoppable juggernaut, and Suzuki and Mariko trying to find ways to deal with her. There were a couple really good, intense exchanges – loved Kansais opening barrage punting Suzuki around the ring. Mariko catching a Kansai high kick and turning it into an Achilles Hold forcing Kansai to scramble for the ropes was such a small, simple moment executed just tight enough to make everything look so much more real. I‘m also always amazed about what mean stomps and elbows Suzuki throws. Then she tried ripping out Kansais nose. Their interactions throughout were pretty great. Bolshoi was pretty early in her stage of being Bolshoi, when she came in she was working at a more generic joshi pace, but doing some cool spots including one awesome tricky leg grab and throwing big suplexes. The finishing run was great with Kansai constantly being put over as a monster while Bolshoi was trying to itch out a win.

Command Bolshoi vs. Hikari Fukuoka, JWP 9/23/1993

Another pretty great match, which I have no problem calling a minor classic. These two definitely felt like rookies here, but they built a big match, and they did it well, and told a tremendous story. They start slow with some cool hold for hold work and basic arm drags which they do very well, then build to some big suplexes and flying moves and finally a really effective dueling limbwork story. Bolshoi in her early days was a different creature, she did more flying moves, she had these cool one legged dropkicks, and her submission work was more basic, but incredibly tight, and she reminded me a bit of Otani. Fukuoka has a bandage on her shoulder and that shoulder comes into play in a really natural way. Bolshoi doesn‘t attack it initially but after a couple moves Fukuoka starts favouring it, and when Bolshoi doesn‘t get the pin with her regular offense she starts going after that shoulder. Fukuoka in turn attacks Bolshois back, which also makes a ton of sense, I am wounded so I‘m gonna wound you to, and her back slams and stretches and nasty dropkicks were cool. It‘s strange that Fukuoka was a Manami Toyota worshipper at this point but she sold that shoulder better than anything I‘ve ever seen Toyota sell. The finishing stretch was really great with Fukuoka going for back stretches and suplexes and Bolshoi going for Uranages and all kinds of arm submissions, there were a few moments of tremendous struggle plus some nice desperation. At one point Bolshoi went for a Tiger Feint dive fake and Fukuoka just grabs her and yanks her outside only for Bolshoi to brutalize her further with a chair. Epic last pinfall too.

Koki Kitahara Documentation Project #13

 

Koki Kitahara vs. Kuniaki Kobayashi, WAR 3/7/1993 - GREAT

Another heated, violent explosion between these two. Man Kitahara may have been Kobayashis best opponent, he really brings out his psycho asskicker more than any guy in a Tiger Mask ever did. There were lot of stiff strikes as you expect, but also an air of palpable hatred between them. Lots of guys spitting on the other, daring to hit each other, going for weapons etc. Eventually Kitahara just claws Kobayashis forehead open, bloodying him and following up by kicking him in the face. This was one of those WAR shows with a ton of NJPW fans in attendance so they get behind Kobayashi huge. Hot finish with a bleeding Kobayashi trying to comeback only to get his lights turned out. Kitahara was cold as hell in this feud.

Koki Kitahara & Nobukazu Hirai vs. Kunaki Kobayashi & Masashi Aoyagi, WAR 3/5/1993 - GREAT

Another pretty underrated/overlooked tag from this epic feud. As always the shear FIGHT was turned up to 11 here, everything looked super uncooperative and unpredictable, even things like guys getting thrown into a corner or being cut off. Hirai was pretty low ranked at this point and he was great here taking a violent beatdown from two badass building up to the eventual explosions between Kitahara and Kobayashi. Aoyagi also looked damn good busting out cool kick variations. The moments where Hirai is able to get in some surprise offense are great, too. It builds to a more elaborate finish than you expect, and it‘s pretty crazy that they kept up the insane heat the whole match. I mean the match starts crazy and heated with guys eating nasty kicks, getting thrown around and hitting baseballs slides across the ring. You‘d think it ends up being a sprint but instead they work a near 20 minute match, and they keep it at that level. Pretty amazing when you think about it.

 

Koki Kitahara Documentation

NOW FIRE ENDLESS BATTLE 2/14/1993

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

1. Kishin Kawabata vs. An Che Honn

2. The Equalizer vs. Kim Chon Hyon

3. Buddy Landell vs. Rod Price

4. Hisakatsu Oya vs. Alex Porteau

5. Manny Fernandez vs. Apollo Sugawara

6. Ishinriki vs. Hiroshi Hatanaka

7. Atsushi Onita & Kendo Nagasaki vs. Goro Tsurumi & Umanosuke Ueda

  This was another really fun NOW card! We start with 2 singles matches starring obscure korean workers. Korean pro wrestling seems to have a similiar history to japanese pro wrestling only that it kind of died off over the years, but it's such a great unknown on the english speaking internet. In a different universe we are all raving about korean pro wrestling while nobody knows who Rikidozan is. I've only seen glimpses of korean wrestlers and all of them were from japanese promotions pitting them against japanese workers, which I assume is kind of a barrier, assuming there is a language barriere there and these workers come from different backgrounds and styles. Plus, with 1992 undercard indy matches, you mostly check them out for curiousity, especially when such illustrious names as Kishin Kawabata and The Equalizer are in them. And these undercard matches delivered all you can ask for. Kawabata vs. An Che Honn was pretty much a showcase of fun offense – with Kawabata hitting big headbutts, kicks to the spine, biiiiig jumping elbow drops and sentons – and An Che Honn hitting some pretty agile junior offense. The korean was doing standing moonsaults, backflips, flip sentons where he landed with his hip first in really hurty fashion. Dare I say, was this guy an unknown innovator from 25 years ago? Or was he just imitating what he saw on Peruvian wrestling tapes from 20 years prior? Then he hits this cool punch/kick combo and I'm all on board for the Korean Pro Wrestling train. Eitherway, that match didn't have real structure as basically Kawabata went back to offense immediately after An Che had hit his spots, but it was a fun showcase. Kawabata wins with a big leaping elbow drop and that rules. The next match had slightly better structure – I've never seen The Equalizer before and he looks like a fake Kevin Sullivan – google tells me he was a Kevin Sullivan gimmick brother – apparently he was in WCW. If you are a Fake Sullivan superfan you probably need to see this match, because it's like a really fun WCW TV match for a minute. Equalizer works „I'm bigger and you can't knock me over“, and Korakuen Hall pops when the obscure korean finally bodyslams him! Fake Sullivan hits a BIG second rope legdrop! Kim Chon Hyon hits all kinds of fun out of nowhere kicks! Equalizer brawls his way to the countout finish, and because the camera guy filming this is kind of slow you don't really get what's happening. After the match Tsurumi comes out and looks pissed at the koreans!

 

Landell vs. Price – this is what US Indy workers working japanese promotions used to look like!! Tubby blonde dyed white guys who don't care about impressing anybody and instead just work a psychologically sound match! And well I'll be a son of a bitch, because these two go out of their way to work a Southern BattlARTS match! They hit snug elbows, thundering chops and hurty looking punches and toe kicks, and also work fun drop toe holds and fireman carries into leg rides on the ground. It was a slow paced, deliberate match, mind you, but damn! I wanna see more wrestling like this!! You are probably thinking to yourself „Oh you lying german bastard. You spent 4$ on this tape and now you are imagining things to trick yourself into thinking this was good.“ Well bugger off, because this low key ruled. Price absolutely clocks Landell with a stiff clothesline out of nowhere. Landell works snug wristlocks and toeholds (inbetween Wooo!s for the crowd) only for Price to come up and punch him in the cheek. Price blocks a surfboard so Landell goes for a single leg crab instead and kicks Price in the ribs while holding that. Price fights out of an armbar and locks in a UWF leglock which Landell sells like a Figure 4 with his shouders down for the pinfall. Landell comes up limping and Price immediately follows up with more snug lowkicks. What the hell is happening?? Landell dares Price to take him down, who promptly does just that. Landell fights off the Price takedowns – including one by doing an awesome Fujiwara sprawl and now the crowd is really digging all this was we move closer to the 20 minute mark in a match with a 20 minute time limit. They really go broadway here and work nearfalls for sleeper holds and Figure 4s. Prices last move before the draw is a 10 Punch in the corner for a close 2 count. This was such a weird broadway but they really did a pro job working a sound match that won everyone over.

 

After that we get two more matches featuring US guys. IT'S HISAKATSU OYA vs. THE PUG!!! And they hit the mat!! Damn, is NOW scientific wrestling central of the 90s japanese indy scene?! Oya looks better here than he did in both BattlARTS and MUGA. He really wrenches Porteaus t shoulder and arm with some snug holds. Porteau is on the very, very bland side here. He has a nice headlock punch though. But before The Pug can bore you to sleep Oya absolutely KILLS him with the backdrop suplex! Golly!! Nasty Oya submissions and that insane bump are totally enough for me to give this the Full Japan Indy Point. Next up is Thee Manny Fernandez vs. Apollo Sugawara. And that was a fun short match too. Fernandez has the Finlay mullet and his charisma and mannerisms shine through even on a handheld. Match was fun in that short WCW TV match way. Sugawara still has really nice dropkicks and Fernandez takes a really nice backdrop bump for him. Fernandez also hits some really nice slug clotheslines. He also wins with a nasty shootstyle toe hold which is unexpected and rules, like pretty much everthing on this card so far.

 

Ishinriki vs. Hiroshi Hatanaka was, unlike pretty much everything else on this card, something you could've shown to your average juniors loving 90s smark and he would've agree that it was a cool match. Two pudgy juniors go 20 minutes and there are some big nearfalls down the stretch. I really enjoyed the match as they did a good job filling the time, these two guys have really good looking basics, really fast explosive shoulderblocks and armdrags etc. Hatanaka looked especially good, hitting lariats with a ton of snap, big kneedrops and leg drops, really nice powerslam etc. His Fujiwara armbar counter may have been the highlight of the match. He also hit at one point a huge legdrop that looked like it would shoot KO someone and Ishinriki was either legit knocked loopy or Ishinriki is really good at selling „I just had a 280 pound japanese dude drop his weight on my jaw and I don't know where the fuck I am“. It's this kind of match that gets you really over with japanese crowds and they both came out looking like they should've been kings of the indies but instead they just completely fell off the map in the mid 90s. I thought the match could've been really great with a little more stiffness and hatred – they tease flaring tempers in the first minute and never really follow up – or maybe some kind of more pronounced story, but they achived what they were going for without hiccups and this was just a really cool match to see.

 

The main event was all about the superstar charisma of Onita as the crowd is absolutely white hot for him. Unfortunately once again some kind of sports entertainment crept into it as Ueda refused to cooperate with Tsurumi. To be fair, Tsurumi looked good here, and the guys potatoeing eachother sections were fun. Tsurumi was doing the backfists before the were cool and hitting nice punches, also Nagasaki has ridculously great kicks here, just trying to boot dudes heads off, plus Manny Fernandez was at ringside with a kendo stick. But once again the match ended early. The coolest thing to come out of this was a brief Manny Fernandez/Tarzan Goto face off which is the greatest match of the 90s that never happened.

 

So there you have it. Two really good matches, fun undercard, lots of coolness throughout, Tarzan Goto in a funny 90s getup... I'm all on board for the NOW hype train by now.

The Library

Oriental Pro Oriental Birthday One Night Tag Tournament 8/15/1993

 Different Style: Keisuke Yamada vs. Masahiro Tsukuda

One of Yamadas earliest matches! He takes on the mysterious, boxing-gloved Tsukuda to open this show because why not. Mostly Yamada going for explosive takedowns and Tsukuda beating on him with those fists. Pretty short, energetic, and the crowd was really hot for this. Eh, why not.

Quarter Finals

Goro Tsurumi & Masahiko Takasugi vs. Toyonari Fujita & Hideo Takayama

Tsurumi and Takasugi are like the APA on this laying an assbeating on Fujita and the future Hido. Fujita goes for some elaborate flips that look impressive for a stocky guy but Takasugi just lariats his daylights out. Meanwhile Tsurumi is hanging Takayama outside the ring. Fujita eats some nasty chair shots and a piledriver before getting pinned. I think this lasted 2 or 3 minutes.

The Scalper & The Geezer vs. Jun Kikuwada & Kazuhiko Matsuzaki

The Scalper and Geezer are a pair of hooded figures. They must've gotten some trainees to play these monsters because they are extremely limited brawlers. I think Kikuwada who has boxing gloves is the future Shinjuku Shark and he is kind of the star in this punching the monsters and hitting a suicide dive. Not much else here besides the monsters doing claw holds.

Hiroshi Itakura & Nobutaka Araya vs. Fukumentaro & Winger

This was a "workrate" match compared to everything that came before. Everyone just busted out their moves. Araya was really green here (he kind of no sells a german suplex completely) but he had nice powerbombs and a moonsault. I always enjoy watching Itakura and while Fukumentaro and Winger aren't very good they don't blow it completely here. Okay 7 or 8 minutes.

Poison Sawada & Masaru Toi vs. Hiroshi Shimada & Hirofumi Miura

Poison Sawada teams with Toi here, not Kenichiro Yukimura like Cagematch claims. The camera man misses a good chunk of this. I enjoyed Toi and Shimada stiffing people. Toi has a nasty double stomp and boots people in the face and Shimada hit big lariats and nasty short kicks. Miura wasn't doing his karate act yet and he isn't better or worse as a generic guy.

Semi Finals

Hiroshi Shimada & Hirofumi Miura vs. Hiroshi Itakura & Nobutaka Araya

This match was whatever, but Shimada hit this amazing full speed dive over the top rope. It was awe inspiring. He didn't even do a sloppy Undertaker dive, just went full flying couch on people, outstretched over the 3rd rope. After that Itakura hits a dive and he and Araya act like big shots as if we all didn't just see Shimada doing something that was about 10000 times cooler? They kind of isolate Miura for a bit and instead of making a hot tag he just gets pinned. Shimada didn't even try to safe him. Guess he was happy with just that dive he hit.

Kazuhiko Matsuzaki & Jun Kikuwada vs. Goro Tsurumi & Masahiko Takasugi

Fun stiff brawl. I buy Tsurumi and Takasugi as tough old guys cleaning out a bar. This was all about Tsurumi shrugging off Matsuzakis stiff kicks and Kikuwadas punches. The Kikuwada/Tsurumi exchanges were especially cool. Takasugi also busted out his awesome crowbar dropkick. This went 6 minutes which was just the right amount of time.

Final

Hiroshi Itakura & Nobutaka Araya vs. Goro Tsurumi & Masahiko Takasugi

This was the first match that had some kind of build and we get some cool basic opening exchanges with Tsurumi and Takasugi doing basic opening moves in really rough veteran fashion. Really dug all the punch variations Tsurumi throws especially his punches to the gut. It felt like Itakura and Araya had to survive a stiff onslaught from the veterans and that gave the match some structure and purpose. As usual the match spills to the outside  with Tsurumi breaking out the noose again - and I don't know if it was restarted or if it was like that from beginning but apparently this is elimination rules now which gives us two fun finishes. One has Takasugi just decimating Araya with a Vader-level german suplex and some nasty lariats before he and Itakura work a bunch of nearfalls. Takasugi usually doesn't sell and just destroys everyone so Itakura going even steven with him felt like a nice moment. Good main event.

THE LIBRARY