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

 The List

 

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

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

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

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

IWA Japan WELCOME THE WORLD CHAMPION TOUR '97 10/27/1997

 Yuji Kito vs. Yoshiya Yamashita 

Emi Motokawa vs. Sachie Nishibori 

Tigre Oriental vs. Tortuga
Freddy Krueger vs. Katsumi Hirano

Keisuke Yamada & Keizo Matsuda & Takeshi Sato vs. Akinori Tsukioka & The Great Takeru & Perseus

Leatherface vs. The Great Kabuki

Another strong late 90s IWA Japan card. Opener was solid, girl match was pretty fun. I think I prefer IWA Japan girl undercard matches over AJW undercard matches at this point since they don‘t do things like hitting three dropkicks in a row for no reaosn. Nishibori looked good in that match hitting swank ranas and whatnot. Tigre Oriental is a guy who is listed as only working Japanese indies like KAGEKI and watching the match I couldn‘t tell if he‘s a backyarder, a Japanese guy who attended a training camp in Mexico, or just a really shitty luchador. He takes about 80 % of the offense in the match but Tortuga still gets the biggest pops with his rope walk comedy spot and a way too sick flip dive to the floor for a semi-comedy guy in a goofy costume.

The 6 man tag was really good. Mostly basic, but tight and fast paced action. Takeshi Sato and Tsukioka were the best guys in the match, Sato hitting stiff kicks and working fun semi-shootstyle exchanges, including dropping Perseus on his head with an out of nowhere Capture Suplex, and Tsukioka being really energetic kicking dudes in the eye. The match went 22 minutes with no letdown and they didn‘t clip once which I appreciated. Kabuki/Leatherface was also really fun, just two big long haired dudes flying into the furniture and pasting each other with punches.

Daikokubo Benkei vs. Dan Severn

What a weird main event. Benkai is big and can push Severn into the ropes, but looks completely out of his depth. Severn mauls him, bloodying Benkais eye, and about 5 minutes into this Benkai taps out. Severn is really good at these savage fights, but even knowing how shitty Benkai is I was hoping he would take it to Severn at least a little. 

 

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