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.

Matches from an old WAR Comm. Tape

 Genichiro Tenryu vs. Hiromichi Fuyuki & Jado & Gedo, WAR 7/28/1995

This was a 3 on 1 elimination match in a cage. Pretty insane ultra heated spectacle match where everyone does a great job. It‘s basically Jado & Gedo frantically swarming Tenryu while Fuyuki does his crazy high pitched yelling and beats him down further and it‘s awesome. Tenryu is The Rock here with the badass turned up a 100 times, getting huge reactions by looking at people and just looking like the ultimate walking tall & kicking ass babyface. I‘m a huge fan of Japanese ace figures destroying lower ranked wrestlers and Tenryu did just that to Jado & Gedo. Gedo looked great here, bleeding big, getting beaten to a pulp by Tenryu kicks and lariats, flying into the cage taking nasty bumps, jumping on Tenryu in the worst moments being a pesky annoyance, he also hit this absolutely lunatic cage dive to the floor, it really made me want to forgive him for ruining NJPW later. Fuyuki is his usual self here and acts like a prick, always coming in to stomp on Tenryus face and do his psycho screeching. Then you have Tenryu bleeding, random chaos breaking out with Tenryus crew brawling with Fuyukis underlings, plus a huge huge huge finish. Could have done with Tenryu kicking out of less moves but yeah fuck that criticism, Wrestle and Romans times 1000.

11/21/95 Korakuen Hall: Genichiro Tenryu vs. Shinichi Nakano

Only a couple moments of this were shown :( Tenryu hits an enzuigiri to Nakanos stomach that looks cool because Tenryu just does random things and makes them look cool. He also hits a kick that looks like it broke Nakanos jaw. Nakano is bleeding and taps out to the WAR Special soon.

1/23/96 Korakuen Hall: Genichiro Tenryu vs. Shinichi Nakano

Looks like it‘s the full match. Fast, brutal sprint. Tenryu beats the soul out of Nakano. Holy hell Nakano was taking kicks and punches here that would make Yuki Ishikawa wince. He bled, too, and seemed to be bleeding from the back of his head as well. Nakano barely made comebacks but he looked tough as nails even doing something as simple as shoving Tenryu. Also loved Nakano frantically avoiding the WAR Special. Gotta love Tenryu putting over Nakanos Fujiwara Armbar even though Nakano is way below him. Nakano is out of his depth but still fights for his live and punches Tenryu in the face. Awesome shit. There‘s WYF guys in jackets and Koki Kitahara looking like they want to jump into the fray. Nakano is done soon but he went down like a (very outmatched) hero. Pure ultra heated 90s magic.

Koki Kitahara Documentation Project #14

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

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

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

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

 

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

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

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Koki Kitahara Documentation #12

 

Koki Kitahara & Jun Kikuchi vs. Koji Kitao & Abdullah The Butcher, WAR 6/6/1997 - GREAT

This was pretty much 4 wrestlers who can beat on someone in cool ways beating on eachother in cool ways. Kitao and Abby sure ain‘t gonna bump, what can our man Kitahara and young barefoot Kikuchi do? But Kitahara gets in a surprising amount of offense on Kitao. Loved him walking over and blasting him with a kick to the face, hope Kitao didn‘t beat up Kitaharas wife after the match for that. Abby is all throat thrusts here, although he does cut up Kikuchi at one point, and I loved the moment where he caught a Kitahara kick and chopped him in the throat. He even takes a monkey flip bump at one point. This went about 10 minutes and came out just right and way more interesting than you‘d think.

Koki Kitahara & Osamu Tachihikari vs. Masaaki Mochizuki & Koji Kitao, WAR 10/6/1997 - FUN

I am annoyed with Kitahara facing Kitao so much, but I guess I have arranged myself with Kitao somewhat. He will club people in fun ways, hit a nice senton and recklessly piledrive someone. His uranage here was kinda shitty, though. Tachhihikari was unusually effective as a big tubby guy putting the boots down. Kitahara carried this kicking people in the face, brutalizing Mochizuki and spitting on Kitao. Mochizuki isn‘t what you‘d call a polished shootstylist but Kitahara gets some fun hold exchanges out of him. Fun moments where Buko Dojo guys try interferring in the match and piling on Tachihikari. Any WAR match where tubby guys potatoe each other is going to be fun at minimum and this also had the Kitahara factor.

Koki Kitahara vs. Hiromichi Fuyuki, WAR 4/2/1995 - EPIC

These two do a sleazy massacre as well as anyone in wrestling history, and this ended up being just great. Kitahara has a rep for being a violent crowbar, but Fuyuki totally matches him in violence. Fuyuki splits Kitahara open with some nasty headbutts and a hyper brutal chairshot and Kitahara has a bloody brow and lips. Fuyuki ends up spitting blood from a Kitahara choke and it‘s all one big violent toe to toe fight. There are some almost Memphis-like touches, such as Fuyuki tagging Kitahara with punches only to get spin kicked in the face, as well as Jado spraying something in Kitaharas face. The spray attack looked almost as violent as all the brutal headbutts and kicks to the face in the match. I also loved the spot where Kitahara hit this rope assisted enzuigiri. This was pretty much a sleazier Hashimoto/Tenryu match and I loved it.

KOKI KITAHARA DOCUMENTATION PROJECT

Koki Kitahara Documentation Project #10

 

Koki Kitahara vs. Masao Orihara, AJPW 4/9/1990 - FUN

Basic rookie opening match upgraded to Kitaharas insane level of stiffness. Anytime Kitahara was throwing kicks he was hitting Orihara like a baseball bat. Goodnes gracious. Orihara didn‘t do any flying here but he was spunky and willing the let Kitahara kick the life out of him. I liked how the end of the match is just Orihara working a somewhat dull hammerlock for a while before Kitahara just stands up turns his lights out with an ultra stiff spin kick.

Koki Kitahara & Hiromichi Fuyuki vs. Shiro Koshinaka & Kengo Kimura, WAR 2/14/1993 - GREAT 

Another match from the WAR/New Japan feud, and these matches really eschew traditional pro wrestling structure and even sequences. Everything is more heated, more reckless, and all the wrestlers likeliness to kick another in the face increases tenfold. Most of this was guys blindsiding each other with face kicks, and Kitahara is of course really great at blindsiding people with face kicks. Fuyuki also channels his old Footloose energy, and for such a natural creepy heel he is a really great fat Ricky Morton taking beatings and getting fired up. Koshinaka and Kimura dish out some big ass kickings, old man Kimura even takes some nasty crowbar kicks from Kitahara, and there is a pretty great section where he is punching Kitahara in the throat. Koshinaka is just kingsized here, there is this really violent section where he is just beating Kitahara to a pulp, knuckle punching him in the face, dropping knees with absolutely no light on him. Probably no other feud ever did violent spectacles on this level, and even though this wasn‘t the main players going at it it had that kind of big time feeling.

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WAR 4/27/1994

 Nobukazu Hirai vs. Yamato

Yamato is Tachihikari doing a face painted gimmick. Man, Hirai looks good here. Just rushing Tachihikari with big forearms and dropkicks, and even clocking him in the back of the head hard. Tachi fires back with sumo rushes and potatoeing Hirai and all is right in the world. Hirai does this cool thing where he powers out of a powerbomb attempt and weakens his own back. Later he hits a missile dropkick and can't get up because his back is messed up. And Tachihikari is kind of more effective as a goofy facepainted guy putting Iron Claws on people than as himself. I need more of this Hirai.

Koki Kitahara & Takashi Ishikawa & Ultimo Dragon & Masanobu Kurisu vs. Jado & Gedo & Ricky Fuji & Super Strong Machine (Elimination Match) - GREAT

Fun match that suffered a bit from one team being severely overpowered. There was just nobody to stand up to the violent asskicking that the Kitahara/Ishikawa/Kurisu trio can unleash. Strong Machine tried, hitting some stiff lariats and potatoes, and it was decent enough. Jado/Gedo were kinda clunky at first, but eventually settled into their rhythm when they started cutting off the ring and hitting double teams. Still, their stomp-punches don't quite do it for me in a WAR environment. Ricky Fuji was also clunky, but at least they eliminated him quickly. Ultimo Dragon was there to get his shit in. The finish was really cool with Kitahara standing up to a 3 vs. 1 match up and a hot finish between him and Machine.

 
Ashura Hara vs. Hiromichi Fuyuki

This was slow, but I still thought it bordered on nomination worthy. Two thick guys beating on eachother with lots of character selling from Hara. Fuyuki certainly was really good in 1994.

Mil Mascaras & Dos Caras vs. Chris Jericho & Ishinriki

Lucha guys did their thing here. Dos Caras looks very good, he really should've worked a WCW PPV or something. You can imagine how much offense Mascaras gave to his opponents. I could imagine better uses for Ishinriki, but Jericho looks where he belongs getting stretched by Dos Caras. Short and pretty much a complete showcase for the luchadores.

 Arashi vs. Genichiro Tenryu (Rounds)

This Arashi is Daikokubo Benkei under a mask. He was part of a stable of sumo wrestlers and squashing his way through WAR for a bit in 1994, which somehow earns him a match against Tenryu. This was two angry ex-sumos mauling each other, which is why you watch WAR handhelds. Arashi was willing to take punishment here and Tenruy was just tearing into his blubber. Arashi wailing away with his sumo palm strikes at Tenryu in the corner was great. His basic throws also looked good thanks to Arashi being a massive fat guy. The crowd actually buys Arashi as a threat, which helps a lot. Tenryu sold those beatings in a big way, and he comes back in a big way himself cracking Arashi hard in the back of the head and then just destroying him. That stretch submission was a nasty nasty move to put on such a fat guy. Nice reminder how great Tenryu was that he could get a match this fun out of a guy like Benkei, who basically had no good matches ever after this.

 Koji Kitao vs. Meng

Compelling matchup, when you consider that Kitao might blow a tantrum and Meng might rip his eye out. This was short. Both guys hitting the mat was fun, and then they move on to maul each other, so it was great. Kitao was squashing everybody in seconds, so the crowd went wild for Meng making him his bitch. Highlights include an awesome corner dropkick, and big piledriver and suplex on the big gi wearing slug. Wish Meng had went down with a little more fight but at least the finish looked nasty.

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WAR 6/30/1994 Part 2

 Hiromichi Fuyuki & Jado & Gedo vs. Chris Jericho & Brett Como & Dos Caras

This was just a 10 minute match with Jericho, Como, Jado and Gedo trying to cram in as many moves as possible. Dos Caras and Fuyuki were barely in the match and there was no real heat unlike other Fuyuki Gun matches. Jericho and Como hit this doomsday device move on Jado followed by a big gutwrench bomb and Jado completely no sold it. Jericho locked sloppy. I imagine this is the match 90s tape traders liked the most on this card. I will say that at least they got it over quickly.

Genichiro Tenryu & Koki Kitahara & Animal Hamaguchi vs. Great Sasuke & Shiryu & Masao Orihara - EPIC

This was a blast. Basically the juniors doing everything they can to annoy the heavyweights, who retaliate in pretty violent fashion. Lots of great triple teams and assist spots, all really well timed. Sasuke sumo pummeling Tenryu was really funny and he looked like the real deal bouncing around evading Tenryus offense. Hamaguchi and Kitahara were great here delivering some violent asskickings. Loved Hamaguchis elbows, headbutts and the weird stretch he broke out. So many neat moments. This was short but honestly a really unique match and totally delivered.

Shinobu Kandori & Rumi Kazama vs. Eagle Sawai & Harley Saito

Yeah, give us a LLPW showcase match, why not! This was pretty fun and more structured than the constant back and forth you often get with joshi showcase matches. There wasn’t much depth, but I still prefer a structured match. Everyone stuck do what they do best: Kazama and Saito throwing violent kicks, Kandori busting out flash submissions, and Sawai being a big powerhouse. It’s good stuff throughout and builds to a really fun, unpredictable finishing stretch with Saito and Kandori showing off their great chemistry together. I was wary about how this being the 8^th match on a really long card but they kept me and the crowd engaged.

Chris Jericho & Brett Como & Dos Caras vs. Great Sasuke & Shiryu & Masao Orihara

Yeahh, give us a 3^rd place match in this long ass 1 night tournament too, why not! It speaks volumes about these guys that they had all wrestled about 40 minutes already, but they still keep going hard in this and pop the crowd by doing all their shit. Dug Dos Caras busting out the whacky lucha holds, and Shiryu was pretty much the MVP here having fun sequences with Jericho and Como. The match had no depth, but that would’ve been too much at this point, and there is an artform to just rolling out spots for 15 minutes, and they did it well.

Genichiro Tenryu & Koki Kitahara & Animal Hamaguchi vs. Jado & Gedo & Hiromichi Fuyuki - EPIC

Alas, the final! And this was a total blast, too. Basically Fuyuki Gun try to do their usual spiel and run into a brickwall. Tenryu and crew wouldn’t have their triple teaming shit, and Fuyuki and his goons got the tables turned on them. Mostly Hamaguchi and Kitahara potatoeing and stretching Jado and Gedo. Anytime Tenryu would come in he would kick someone in the face or chop them in the throat really hard. Fuyuki looked damn great and may have been the best guy in the match. He would constantly run in to make these really violent saves by kicking people in the face, then drop elbows, slap Tenryu, are lariat someone in the jaw. It was as if you had two Tenryus in the match! It builds to a really hot second half with Hamaguchi running wild, and Kendo Nagasaki running in to cause more chaos with a fire extinguisher. It could have ended on that interference spot Attitude Era style and it would’ve been pretty great, but then we also get Kitahara having his leg taken out and stubbornly trying to survive against the nefarious Fuyuki. Great shit, a worthy cap of to this great tournament that produced more great matches than an entire month of 2021 pro wrestling. Wrestle and Romance.

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WAR 6/30/1994 Part 1

 Nobukazu Hirai vs. Yuji Yasuraoka

Yasuraoka may have been the pinnacle of 90s wrestling fashion. He wasn’t at his most extravagant here, but looked like a total gangster coming In with his mullet, baggy pants, martial arts belt and shoes.This was a basic opening match upgraded to WAR-appropriate level of violence with both guys really cracking each other when throwing hands and trying to rip each other in half with half crabs. Starts a bit slow but gets going good with Yasuraoka busting out his cool high spots and Hirai trying to crack his jaw with some mean elbows. Also, because it was the 90s, when they do moves they do cool moves like flying back elbows or sidewalk slams, and execute them with real thud. Hirai may have been at this best as a WAR opening match guy potatoeing his fellows and hitting big elbow drops, and he even wins this match with a really cool huracanrana into a neck crank. Very satisfying.

Hiromichi Fuyuki & Jado & Gedo vs. Hiroshi Itakura & Ichiro Yaguchi & Hideo Takayama

It’s nice to get a full version of that NSPW main event. And this was a pretty great match. Everyone looked good potatoeing the shit out of each other. Fuyuki was so great here punching and stomping these kickpadded wannabe shooters into oblivion, at one point even doing a Terry Funk combo, and as usual there were numerous cool cut offs and double teams from Fuyuki-Gun. Yaguchi was doing a sambo gimmick here, and he is a lot better as a dimestore Volk Han with cool kicks than as a shitty facepainted brawler. At one point he just ragdolled Gedo with a cool wrist throw and that was probably the coolest thing he ever did. Itakura was cool here working fast paced junior sequences with Jado and Gedo, and Hido was there to kick, bleed and get the life beaten out of him. Miss when wrestling was simple and violent.

Dos Caras & Bret Como & Chris Jericho vs. Ashura Hara & Arashi (Benkei) & Super Strong Machine

Now this is a WAR 6-man, baby. And… this went the absurd length of 30(!!!) minutes! It ended up not being a bad match, too! Dos Caras was great here, being pretty much a highspot machine and doing lots of amusing shtick to fill the time, such as challenging Arashi to a posing contest, and trying to unmask everybody else. He was the only on his team to hit a dive! Como and Jericho are more interesting thumbling with some fat sumos than doing their regular junior stuff, and Hara potatoeing them was amusing. And the Arashi sections manage to not stink, even though that guy couldn’t do anything besides some sumo pummeling at this point. After the time runs out Team Caras is awarded the victory. Talk about going to lengths to have Hara and his mates not drop a pinfall.

Great Sasuke, Masao Orihara & Shiryu v Koji Ishinriki, Masanobu Kurisu & Takashi Ishikawa

Man, every match on this card is a main event. This was pretty great too. It was basically a straight WAR match that saw Kurisu and Ishikawa potatoeing guys while the junior side saved their highspots for later, no trained monkey show here. Loved the Kurisu/Shiryu opening segment which saw Kurisu meeting Shiryus lucharesu tendencies by hitting a rope walk armdrag, and also Kurisu stomping and chairing Shiryu really hard. Ishikawa may have been even more vicious as he was kicking Oriharas head like a football. Orihara looked pretty great here (rocking an ultra spaced out 90s look too), and the crowd was insanely hyped for Sasuke, even though he did very little in the match. Ishinriki was wearing a Jason Vorhees mask in this for some reason and basically only in the match to eat the pin while Kurisu did the bulk of the work headbutting guys into oblivion. Finish was great with Sasuke, Orihara and Shiryu hitting a damn triple missile dropkick on Ishinriki before Ishinriki powerbombs Sasuke only for the actual legal man, Orihara to roll him up.

Genichiro Tenryu & Koki Kitahara & Animal Hamaguchi vs. Kendo Nagasaki & Ryo Miyake & Kishin Kawabata - GREAT

Well, it’s a bunch of beefy dudes potatoeing each other. Almost like this is WAR or something. This was one of the most one sided matches so far as Kitahara and Hamaguchi just mercilessly potatoed Miyake and Kawabata. I think both Miyake and Kawabata got in like a combined 5 offensive moves in this match. Kawabatas piece of offense was a really nice dropkick that caught Tenryu in the mouth, and Miyakes was a pretty pathetic looking dropkick cause Miyake sucks. Other than that, they were there to get kicked in the face and elbowed in the throat by Kitahara and Hamaguchi. Kitahara looked like a killing machine, just killing these poor guys, and Hamaguchi dropped some hard elbows and samoan drops. The match built to a Tenryu/Nagasaki face off, and while it was pretty brief it was cool with Nagasaki smashing Tenryu in the face with chairs. Every match on this card is overdelivering like mad and this was also really cool considering this could’ve been a nothing squash.

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IWA Japan 8/8/1997

Keizo Matsuda vs. Keisuke Yamada

Keisuke Yamada comes in with a shaved head. Maybe this match was to apologize for their weirdly blundered main event 2 months before? This match was a lot better though and a great opener. Started fun with some tight grappling before both guys start smacking the shit out of each other. Yamada was certainly starting to look really good at this point. Although they clipped a 19 minute match in half, but what we got was really fun.

Yuji Kito vs. Hidetomo Egawa

Great 7 minute match of two black trunks rookies slugging the hell out of each other. Really not holding back on their slaps and elbows, both guys uncorking some big suplexes. Egawa looks like the real deal here and I'm sad he disappeared early. Kito is non-descript but he hits back and gets dropped on his head with the best of them. Finish was great as Kito hits a big knee drop to Egawas spine, Egawa makes the rope on the boston crab attempt but Kito just pulls back and nearly bends him in half.

The Great Takeru & Tortuga vs. Hiroyoshi Kotsubo & Kamikaze

They pretty much clipped this down to the highspots, which I'm okay with, since Kotsubo is useless. Kamikaze looked good here hitting an awesome tubby guy asai moonsault, Takeru didn't embarass himself, and Tortuga may have been the funnest guy in the match. He hit a cool springboard back senton (that Kotsubo completely failed to catch), some nice flying clotheslines and a great splash that looked more hurty than anything sloppy ass Takeru hit.

Akinori Tsukioka vs. Masao Orihara 

Great start to this as Orihara kicks Tsukioka in the face hard before going Steve Austin on him with chairs. Unfortunately a video glitch happens and the rest of the match remains a mystery. Shame shame shame, I hope Samurai TV will reair this card in the next 40 years because this was looking great.

 
CULT HEROINE MAJOR CHALLENGE: Emi Motokawa vs. Aja Kong

Half of this was also eaten up by that glitch. We do get to see Motokawa getting some token nearfalls before Kong crushes her with neck spiking suplexes and a big splash. Too bad because I as looking forward to this.

BRAND NEW HERO BIG CHALLENGE: Takeshi Sato vs. Kodo Fuyuki

Man, I could watch Fuyuki do high pitched yelling and beating the crud off of a sucker all day long. Really fun match with Sato hitting hard kicks from odd angles and Fuyuki just creaming him.

Jado & Gedo vs. The Black Hearts

It's the Black Hearts!! The masked guys did okay, but on a card where every match has been stiff and exciting so far this really didn't stand up to the level. It just kind of went along, and while Jado and Gedo probably got a kick out of working a pair of gaijins they deserved more exciting opponents.

Elimination Match, Super Extreme Monster Rumble: The Great Kabuki & Benkei Daikokubo & Katsumi Hirano vs. King Kong Bundy & Leatherface & Freddy Krueger

This was a fun gimmick where the team members come into the match after a certain time. This needed a bit less guys leaning onto eachother doing choking and more crazy brawling and blood, although I did love King Kong Bundy who was super fired up. He even picked up the win with an Argentine Hold on poor useless Hirano. That was about the most memorable thing to happen in this match. IWA Japan was in kind of a weird state at this point as the undercard matches are always more fun than the main events, but I'm sure they'll get out of the rut as soon as they figure out  Hirano and Benkei are useless.

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WAR 1/5/1994

Masao Orihara vs. Norman Smiley

Oddly enough, Norman Smiley fit perfectly into WAR. I've yet to check out his mexican work but this may be the best stuff he's ever done. He was allowed to work as this tough as nails shooter who would dominate on the ground and potatoe dudes with nasty shots. Basically an UWF version of Regal. His holds looked clinical and when it was time to kick Orihara like a dog he wasn't playing around. I imagine if Smiley had faced Hashimoto in a big match or something we'd all be Smiley superfans. Orihara works as a Smiley opponent because he is CRAZY and will bust out unexpected highspots. Worth checking out.

 

Great Kabuki vs. Nobukazu Hirai

They start exchanging some solid armlocks before we get to the juicy part: Kabuki punching Hirai in the face. Hirai is spry, firing back bringing out some junior spots, but this was over almost as quickly as it began.

Ultimo Dragon vs. Ishinriki

 

This was very much an Ultimo Dragon match, although because this is WAR they potatoe each other on a level above your typical junior affair. Dragon uncorks some nasty spin kicks, and Ishinriki fires back with sumo clotheslines, palm rushes almost killing Dragon with a suplex. I pefer Ishinriki in heavyweight slugfests but he is a fun junior.

 

Mil Mascaras vs. Pierroth Jr.

 I enjoy watching Mil Mascaras grapple, but you can imagine how much offense Pierroth Jr got in here. It felt like a miracle that he was able to make Mil take a bump.

 

Shiro Koshinaka & Tatsutoshi Goto vs. Ashura Hara & Hiromichi Fuyuki

Another round of beefy dudes clobbering eachother. This wasn't peak WAR interpromotional material, but I still probably liked the best out of all the matches on the show. Particularily because the whole match felt thoroughly violent, and Fuyuki and Koshinaka were really at each other's throat. They randomly broke out into this super violent exchange that lead to a poor sap getting punched repeatedly and all was right in the world. I continue to enjoy Goto in these Heisei Ishingun tags as old guy with 2 moves who comes in to lariat and backdrop fools and nothing else, altough there was some sloppiness on his part. Hara's career was winding down but he could still take some big bumps. These matches pretty much write themselves but they still work in some things you won't expect.

  

Genichiro Tenryu & Koki Kitahara vs. Keiji Muto & El Samurai - FUN

 

WAR interpromotional tag that lags a little behind the standard for those due to Mutoh and Samurai not being quite up to the violent standards that these matches have. You watch these matches for some kind of violent showdown to happen and these two aren't the types to bring it. Kitahara was also unusually subdued. However I'd still recommend this for Tenryus amazing performance. He would really eat the fuck out of Mutohs flimsy offense and looked great flying around to put over the match. Add in the usual dose of signature Tenryu face kicking, throat chopping, powerbombing and lariating madness and have yourself something fun. 

 

THE LIBRARY

 

KOKI KITAHARA DOCUMENTATION PROJECT 

IWA Japan CRAZY CIRCUS & AGGRESSIVE WARRIORS

 6/25/1997

Tortuga vs. Yuji Kito

 Kito debuts with the Yuki Ishikawa wrestling shoes and white socks look. This was decent and mostly the turtle doing his thing. Tortuga hit some nice kicks. The referee also continues to amuse by doing a Tiger Feint Kick and a very pretty flying headscissor.

Emi Motokawa vs. Sachie Nishibori

Motokawa gives Nishibori the business with stiff dropkicks and thrust kicks. This was clipped down and made to look pretty much like a Motokawa squash although Nishibori hits one smooth rana.

The Great Takeru & Akinori Tsukioka vs. Masao Orihara & Hidetomo Egawa 

Another clipped match mostly narrowing it down to their highspots. These guys have cool highspots though, especially enjoy Tsukiokas Cancun Tornado. The best spot was Tsukioka going for a diving headbutt only to land face first on Oriharas outstretched legs. Egawa always looks impressive in these matches for a guy with very little experience.

Benkei Daikokubo & Katsumi Hirano vs. Takeshi Sato & Kamikaze

This was clipped down to almost nothing and I'm completely fine with that. Benkei  and Hirano blow.

Leatherface vs. Freddy Krueger

Freddy Krueger debuts, along with the mysterious whip-carrying lady! They engage in some baffling scientific wrestling to start with Leatherface hitting a Dragon Screw on Freddy. This doesn't last long as the match is taken to outside the ring with some rather standard brawling before Krueger wins the match in rather bafflingly easy fashion. Well, this wasn't exactly an epic clash of legendary horror monsters.

The Great Kabuki & Tommy Rich & Terry Gordy vs. Kodo Fuyuki & Jado & Gedo

I would have liked to see more of this. The Kabuki/Rich/Gordy team is super lumpy and old, but Rich still looks spry here. He throws some nice punches, bleeds big and even flings himself over the top rope. He was also wearing these really amazing colorful tights. The only thing we saw Gordy do in this was hit a stiff lariat. And Fuyuki Gun is Fuyuki Gun. They really brought in these guys just to clip the match down to 4 minutes!?

Keizo Matsuda vs. Keisuke Yamada 

Bit of a weird choice for a main event, but these guys were payrolling everyone else, so I guess they get to play big time. Matsuda is questionable but Yamada is really good, and this had some nice stiff exchanges and big bumps for a couple green guys. Matsuda wins with an avalanche spinebuster and that kind of rules, although it seemed Yamada was shoot KO'd taking the bump. The audience was certainly baffled with this being over after a mere 8 minutes.

They also showed highlights of the following on this TV episode:

7/5

Keisuke Yamada & Akinori Tsukioka vs. Masao Orihara & Hidetomo Egawa
Leatherface & Freddy Krueger vs. Benkei Daikokubo & Katsumi Hirano
The Great Kabuki & Keizo Matsuda & The Great Takeru vs. Kodo Fuyuki & Jado & Gedo

7/6

Keisuke Yamada vs. Yuji Kito

Emi Motokawa vs. Sachie Nishibori

Benkei Daikokubo vs. Dr. Luther

The Great Kabuki & Keizo Matsuda vs. Kodo Fuyuki & Gedo 

These were mostly wayyy to clipped down to assess, although Fuyuki Gun once again looked very good in their matches with all their cool cut off spots. Great Takeru blew stuff even in the clips.

THE LIBRARY

IWA Japan 3/3/1997

Emi Motokawa vs. Mima Shimoda

Rookie vs. Veteran match that exceeded expectations, considering it could’ve been just a worthless squash. But they actually managed to construct a logical match that was highly entertaining. I watched a ton of shitty Shimoda matches in ARSION, but this was a nice reminder that she was really good at one point. She really gives Motokawa the business here booting her in the face and waffling her with chairs. Motokawa looks spunky and gets a big rub going 15 minutes against Shimoda in a match with hardly any let down.

Metal Face & Katsumi Hirano vs. Crusher Takahashi & Shigeo Okamura

Metal Face is just a skinnier version of Leatherface with some tinfoil on his mask. Was he a young Japanese guy, or just a boy from the States getting a small break in Japan? His wrestling was quite harmless and un-serial killer like. Then again, he was no Leatherface. He did leapfrogs and powerslams and dropkicks and what not. This was perfectly average wrestling, which only went too long at 16 minutes length. 3 out of 4 of these guys really don’t have the kind of offense needed to make such a long match worthwhile, and even Crusher Takahashi can’t salvage a match by his own when he’s tangling with the likes of Metal Face and Katsumi Hirano.

Tortuga vs. Akihiko Masuda

This was clipped down and almost exactly like their previous match. The ref hit a suicide dive. Masuda doesn’t hit any stiff kicks, making himself even less interesting. He really needed to become the Great Takeru at this point and just be mediocre with a mask instead.

Akinori Tsukioka vs. Onryo

Another very clipped down match. Tsukioka tries hard to make this good, suplexing Onryo into chairs to begin and then hitting a swank Moonsault from the bleachers. Onryo however may have been at his worst here. He blew several spots including the finish, and he is just so awkward when controlling the match. To make things worse he did such a bad dust throwing spot the crowd started laughing.

Jun Kikawada vs. Chotaro Kamoi (Rounds)

Jun Kikawada has kickpads and MMA gloves. Kamoi is a sleazy boxer. This was worked MMA fighter vs. Boxer, went about 1 round + 2 minute and consisted mostly of Kikawada taking down Kamoi with judo sweeps before sitting on him and lightly punching him. Really a nothing match although the finish with the towel being thrown in as Kikawada had Kamoi in the STF and Kamoi acting upset about it like fucking Chotaro Kamoi won’t give away a clean victory was amusing.

Kishin Kawabata vs. Takeshi Sato

Classic Japanese wrestling unprofessionalism, the reason why one watches these sleaze shows. Takeshi Sato comes out trying to stiff Kawabata and Kawabata just delivers him a brutal mauling. It’s just a nasty trashing from there, Sato gets his bell rung with open handed strikes and almost gets his chest crushed by Kawabatas knee drops. He mounts a small comeback hitting another potatoe kick of his own and trying a half crab, but Kawabata just muscles out and nails him with a deadlift piledriver. Short match (6 minutes) that I’m sure Sato wished was shorter.

Takashi Ishikawa & Shunme Matsuzaki vs. Keizo Matsuda & Daikokubo Benkei

This is a rough looking match up on paper, but it way over delivered. Shunme is my boy Kazuhiko Matsuzaki, and almost immediately he brains Matsuda hard with chairs. Matsuda ends up bloody and getting kicked in the face a bunch. Ishikawa had a good night, potatoeing people like it’s 1992 again. Matsuzaki also has great looking stomps. I like how Benkei got the hot tag, then did a splash, a lariat and a boston crab and then tagged in Matsuda who was pretty beat up again, “I did all my moves, now it’s your turn”. Benkei was quite fun here though as a tough big guy absorbing punishment and hitting lariats and splashes. I loved how big of a heel reaction Ishikawa got by clocking Matsuda with a chair. In IWA Japan of all places! After the match Ishikawa and crew continue beating down on Matsuda 5 on 1 and I actually wanna see where this feud goes from here.

The Great Kabuki & Masao Orihara & Keisuke Yamada vs. Hiromichi Fuyuki & Gedo & Jado

This is an awesome looking match up on paper, and it really delivered on it’s promise. The Fuyuki & underlings trio really is one of the most consistently entertaining acts of the 90s in their scummy evilness. And Orihara is a sleazy treasure in this match, flying in and out of the scenery, having heated exchanges with Gedo etc. Kabuki is also awesome just tagging in, hitting awesome punches and superkicks and spraying mist. The juicy part is the heat segment on Yamada, which is really well executed and also really bloody. There was also an unusual intrusion when Yamada’s sister(?) tried to save her brother from Fuyukis nefarious tactics and Fuyuki shakes the shit out of her, it was totally unexpected an really underlines Fuyukis scummyness. Yamada survives a ton of punishment in this, almost too much, but then again he was bankrolling everyone and putting all these awessome IWA Japan shows together, so I guess I am fine with it, and the finish is a good one.

 

THE LIBRARY

NSPW 9/24/1994

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

NSPW (or maybe: NFPW) was a shootstyle indy that went for serious fighting ala UWFi. Now that's something you don't see everyday. Actually, TV Tropes of all places has a bit of info on this, describing it as "regional UWF". Now, how cool is that? The japanese wiki says the promotion folded after all the fighters got their asses kicked in Shooto, and we mourn the loss of an obscure micro-shootstyle indy. But at least, we still have this tape.

Hiroshi Osuma vs. Katsumi Hirano

Yukimasa Yokota vs. Shingo Shigeta

Takashi Hara vs. Masamitsu Kochi

Yoshiro Ito vs. Keisuke Yamada

Koichiro Kimura vs. Fumio Akiyama

Ricky Fuyuki/Jado/Gedo vs. Hiroshi Itakura/Hideo Takayama/Ichiro Yaguchi

 

Most of the fights were too clipped up to be assessed, but the fighters looked polished and worked plenty stiff, with Shigeta taking a pretty brutal beating in the second match but refusing to give up. Osuma vs. Hirano was a boxer vs. Wrestler match that was actually pretty good, which is a rare accomplishment. I assume most of these guys are from SAW given that Koichiro Kimura is also on this card, but that's pure speculation as I can't find any info at all on this fed.

Ito vs. Yamada was shown in full and was a pretty cool little clash, like a poor man's Vader/Tamura. Lots of potatoe shots, and Ito, who could still move well at this point, was slamming the fuck out of Yamada with pro style powerbombs and suplexes. Yamada is the future Black Buffalo (of all people) and had some cool judo throws on Ito's roided ass. Yamada looked the most talented of anyone on the card and it feels like a waste that he went on to do garbage wrestling for the rest of the 90s. 

Fumio Akiyama seemed to be embarassing himself in the semi main event. Not sure what was up with that.

The main event was a typical Fuyuki/Jado/Gedo affair where they beat the shit out of the NSPW guys, bloodying and triple teaming them and waffling them with chairs. The NSPW all had kickpads (future face painted garbage brawler Yaguchi was doing a sambo gimmick at this point) and liked to kick hard, the future Badboy HIDO also doing a kickboxer gimmick, Itakura had a really nice dive aswell, but it seems most of their offense was clipped out which is a weird decision. They just got destroyed and the Fuyuki trio hit all their huge triple team moves including a powerbomb off the top and a huge assisted butt drop from Fuyuki. Fun stuff and Fuyuki is such a bastard in the match.

THE LIBRARY

IWA Japan 2/8/1997

 Tortuga vs. Akihiko Masuda

Akihiko Masuda is the future Great Takeru. He wasn’t much more exciting here than as Great Takeru, although he was able to string some decent move sequences together including a pretty nutty double jump spaceman dive. This was a perfectly acceptable lucharesu opener. Could’ve been a little shorter since these guys don’t have enough material yet, but Tortuga is my boy, and I always enjoy him no matter what.

Hiroyoshi Kotsubo vs. Takeshi Sato

Fun 7 minute BattlARTS-style match. Kotsubo can be pretty bad but he was fine here, there were some heated moments where they slapped the shit out of each other. Unfortunately Sato blows his springboard move and Kotsubo just finishes him. Could’ve been better, although I ended up happy.

Akinori Tsukioka vs. The Wolf

It’s the motherfucking Wolf. A kickpaddded WYF undercarder with very little matches on tape. This was the funnest of the undercard junior matches so far, just two guys with a cool variety of strikes pasting each other. Tsukioka was in his Onryo-getup again and he wipes The Wolf out with a big dive. The Wolf is a complete random but he had few cool kicks and nice suplexes. You know indy wrestling was good then when every other guy was some esoteric semi-shootstylist.

Leatherface vs. Kishin Kawabata

I was surprised to see Kawabata looking energetic as he went to beat on Leatherface to start this, but then he reminded me what a load he usually is by immediately following up with a chinlock. This was low tier houseshow stuff. I am giving Leatherface the benefit of the doubt as he was doing double duty on this card.

Bison Kimura & Emi Motokawa vs. Esther Moreno & Alda Moreno

This was a match where the ladies were more athletic than all the men on the card. The Morenos made this fun with their athletic lucha stuff and Motokawa had a big asskicker in Bison Kimura for a partner. It was kind of a get your shit-in match as opposed to the underdog stories Motokawa usually works, but you can do worse than this.

Hiromichi Fuyuki & Jado & Gedo vs. Daikokubo Benkei & Leatherface & Katsumi Hirano

There were some shitty wrestlers in this match, but you have to be deaf, blind and lame to have a bad match against Fuyuku Gun. Watching a lot of Fuyuki Gun stuff, I have to wonder if they are among the most underrated trios in wrestling. Sure they do the same stuff in every match, that is eating up their opponents with foul tactics and fun offense in between comical amounts of high pitched Fuyuki yelling, but it always provides an entertaining match. In this they waffle the shit out of Hirano and Benkei with chairs thrust kicks and lariats and good times were had. Leatherface did almost nothing in the match but he hit a nice dropkick at one point which was more impressive than about anything Benkei and Hirano could do.

Great Kabuki & Keizo Matsuda vs. Takashi Ishikawa & Shigeo Okumura (Double Chain Match)

I wanted this to be better, but in the end it was a bit too much choking with the chain and too little beating the shit out of each other. There are some brief awesome moments where Kabuki is bleeding and throwing punches, but far too little in a mud of weak brawling. The post-match brawl where Keisuke Yamada runs in on crutches hopping around on one leg to beat on people while Kabuki was smashing dudes with the crutch was much better than the match itself.

Koki Kitahara Documentation #2

Koki Kitahara & The Great Kabuki vs. Genichiro Tenryu & Masao Orihara, WAR 7/14/1992 - EPIC

Do yourself a favour and make it a priority to watch this match asap. Literally one of the most awesome brutal spectacles I've ever seen. It starts out with Tenryu chopping Kabuki in the throat in the middle of an exchange, leaving him suffocating on his back, which sets the tone nicely. The early Orihara sections were pretty fun, as every couple minutes he would try something stupid and get punished swiftly. Kabuki & Kitahara end up putting a massive assbeating on him. Kitahara looks like such a killer in this match, just walloping everyone with kicks left and right and dealing them kicks to the eye and the skull, and Kabuki looks great aswell, dishing out extra mean punches and kicks. It also helps that you can really whip Orihara around, he would eat a neckbreaker and his head would just bounce off the mat. Oriharas initial comeback was pretty much perfect as he ditches his junior offense and just tees off with reckless kicks. Later he would hit these great looking dives. His springboard crossbody is an example of a perfectly timed highspot. Tenryu wasn't in the match a ton but he would occasionally walk in and remind you who he his. Earlier Kabuki had blindsided him so, after he Orihara hit a dive and left Kabuki prone outside Tenryu would casually stroll over and clock him with a chair. It's these kind of moments that help make this sort of match so much more intense. Tenryu going mad with the pre-PRIDE soccer kicks, not letting off and leaving Kitahara bloodied is why he's Top 5 all time. Note how he would also put over his opponents, with Kitahara almost KO'ing him and Kabuki pretty much beating him silly with the punches and super kicks. What a fucking match, I wouldn't be shocked if this ends up in my All Time Top 10 as far as tags go.

Koki Kitahara vs. Takashi Ishikawa, WAR 7/15/1992 - EPIC

  Absolutely brutal spectacle. The early going sees Kitahara establishing himself as a dangerous striker by chasing Ishikawa around some with his kicks. Ishikawa makes the mistake of running the ropes and gets brained with a high kick. To add insult to injury, Kitahara puts him in the Scorpion Deathlock (something Ishikawa used to do to piss off Choshu himself). Pretty stiff opening, but it's tame compared to what's to come. Ishikawa gets the advantage when he hits his great sumo charging shoulderblock. Soon Ishikawa goes to town on Kitaharas bandaged eye, hitting some punches that felt like they were intended to draw hardway blood. Ishikawa proceeds to just demolish Kitahara with some of the most brutal stomps, punches and kicks ever filmed. Kitahara is someone who can both dish out a beating and sell very well, and soon he is limping around with his vision clearly impaired like a beaten dog. The ending run is actually pretty hot with Kitahara making a big comeback kicking Ishikawa in the face repeatedly and hitting a huge moonsault aswell as narrowly avoiding a dangerous piledriver. However he soon falls to Ishikawas swatting lariats and gets brutalized even worse with PRIDE level stomps and knees. The finish felt like something that should happen in more matches. Brutal brutal match.

 Koki Kitahara vs. Samson Fuyuki, WAR 8/13/1992 - GREAT

Pretty ballsy undercard match as you'd expect from WAR. The cool thing about this was that the two could just be bastards to eachother back and forth and it would be a fun match, but instead we get a STORY~! with Kitahara not being at 100% and dealing with an injured leg while Fuyuki gleefully pastes him with shots. We start with some fun crisp chunky boy wrestling, nice leapfrogs and kip ups before Fuyuki starts the WAR-isms. Kitahara ends up bleeding and getting kicked in the face a bunch. The nearfall section was pretty much just right for an undercard match, they didn't get super grandiose but there were some awesome timed moments and reversals. I particularily liked Kitahara doing the "get backsuplexed but twist and land on top of the other guy" counter except he just crushed Fuyukis face with his hip. A very WAR touch to do such a basic spot in such a violent manner.

KOKI KITAHARA DOCUMENTATION PROJECT MASTER LIST