Some 1980s New Japan

Super Strong Machine vs Akira Maeda, NJPW 8/20/1987

Pretty badass match. Machine is awesome here, facing an overwhelming challenge but trucking on and beating the shit out of Maeda with his straight forward pro-wrestling offense. Watching them wrestle here it’s hard not to think this late 80s New Japan/UWF influenced style is the best stuff ever. There’s intricate grappling, and a general caginess that makes everything really interesting. Great selling from Machine early on as he was quickly limping from Maedas attacks while Maeda was still strutting around confidently. Maeda would constantly get the better of Machine on the mat, and start to destroy him with kicks when standing, so watching Machine close the distance and trying to put Maeda through the wringer with punches, nasty short kicks and headbutts was pretty great. Maeda seemed to be holding back a little early on but once Machine really gets him fired up Maeda would just try to tear through him with spin kicks. Couple great moments including a few awesome counters down the stretch including Machine rolling out of an armbar and locking in a hammerlock to hit the Evil Windmill Suplex which totally ruled, and then we get Machine trying to gut it through his destroyed shoulder. Just really really good pro wrestling.

Antonio Inoki & Seiji Sakaguchi vs. Tatsumi Fujinami & Kengo Kimura, NJPW 12/6/1985

30 minutes of great old school pro wrestling. This kind of chess match NJPW style which is not quite shootstyle but done with the same sense of seriousness and spontanity may just be my favourite style of wrestling. What they do is fairly basic without much flash save for one or two moves, but they do it all with such spirit and my god do all these guys make basic stuff look awesome. It never feels like they are just going through the motions. There’s also some cool creativity like Kimura coming down on Inoki with a flying stomp while Fujinami had him in a sharpshooter because why not, the goal is to crush them. First half was pretty much an exercise in all 4 guys always doing something interesting and keeping the crowd engaged. Did I mention the crowd is white hot for this and constantly catching fire just for Inoki or whoever tagging in? It’s the 80s baby. Sakaguchi is always really cool to watch as he comes across as such a monster. There’s a bit of legwork on him that feels slightly wasted but I really liked how he resisted the figure 4. Second half was peppered with a few epic standoffs including Inoki throwing punches at Fujinami and Fujinami spiking him with an awesome suplex, the crowd rallying big behind Kimura while Inoki kept locking in Octopus Holds with the precision of an expert grappler. Kimuras leg lariat may be my favourite piece of offense ever. Pretty great ebb and flow here, anytime it would seemingly die down they would bring the sparks back up with something big like Sakaguchi absolutely launching a guy with a backdrop suplex, Inoki hitting out of nowhere enzuigiris or trying to pry guys apart with Octopus Holds. The last few seconds was right on the money with Fujinami going for the kill with the Dragon Suplex on Inoki and Inoki resisting with all his might. Simply but highly effective pro wrestling.

Antonio Inoki & Seiji Sakaguchi vs. Tatsumi Fujinami & Kengo Kimura, NJPW 12/12/1985

More great wrestling very much in the same vein as the above match, and to think they did both these in less than a week is frankly ridiculous. Lots of more great exchanges here, exhilarating pace, still no-nonsense while constantly turning up the heat. I thought it was not *quite* the house of fire that the earlier match was but it’s not much less. However, this one does have an actual finish that is built to in pretty great fashion as Inoki gets caught in a figure 4 and when Sakaguchi tags in his bad leg gave out and Fujinami and Kimura, hungry to get the win did a number on his leg. You rarely see 2 guys working as a team to just destroy a guys leg like this. When Inoki tagged back in he seemed to be limping too and was desperately throwing punches. Really good build to a finish without just going through a bunch of nearfalls. All in all, there’s plenty of really good action to enjoy here and you want to see it just for the conclusion.

Keiichi Yamada vs. Tatsutoshi Goto, NJPW 3/26/1986

You would associate NJPW young lions stuff with black trunks and ultra simplistic wrestling, but they were both wearing bright blue tights here and doing lots of different stuff. With Goto its more of a fun oddity to see him fresh faced and busting out things like a crossbody or chest kicks – I would have thought he was simply born with a mustache and a shit stirrer. As we all know, young Yamada is yoked as hell and bristling with energy. The matwork here they do is really nice – really torturing each other with basic things like a facelock and moving through their holds swiftly without losing the competitive edge. Goto in control is a bit drawn out, though he does crown Yamada with an absolutely harrowing piledriver. He would also do things like hit a powerslam straight into an armbar because that was how things were done in 80s New Japan. You could tell Yamada was a boiling hot talent and the crowd was already buzzing for him even though he hadn’t quite hit his stride yet. It’s fascinating to think he might have joined UWF and become a peer of Tamura or something. His matwork was great obviously, and he also busted out a ridiculously backflipping flying chop. Really liked how Yamada seemingly couldn’t hit a comeback, then survived Gotos (already beautifully deadly) backdrop and was able to score a flash pin for the win. Is it a surprise the top of the cards of 80s New Japan was some of the most fierce and best stuff ever when even the lower card stuff was this good and competitive?

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

Young Shinya

Shinya Hashimoto vs. Masahiro Chono, NJPW 3/20/1987

My god did these two look like legends from the very beginning. I mean, Chono less so, but Hashimoto is pretty much as good as you’ve ever seen him here. They do some really cool matwork, really fast takedowns and tight hold for hold work while moving through everything smoothly, Hashimoto absolutely pelts Chono with kicks, they slap the shit out of each other, the crowd is hot, Chono hits an AWESOME out of nowhere backdrop suplex, Hash works a great sleeper… just great energy in this. Hashimotos suplexes were awesome although I can see why he stopped doing bridging suplexes with his frame. This would be a great match for any two wrestlers, for two young lions this was amazing.

Shinya Hashimoto & Masahiro Chono & Keiji Muto vs. Tatsumi Fujinami & Kengo Kimura & Shiro Koshinaka, NJPW 7/29/1988

The Three Musketeers unite. Maybe for the first time? This was super heated and action packed because all three young guys basically want to take a chunk out of Fujinami. Fujinami throwing punch combos in retaliation was awesome. And my god does Hashimoto look like a walking badass already. Karate pants, spin kicking people, just being a mean old tank. It's also fun to see these future stars doing some different things from later. Hashimoto hits a crazy spinning gutbuster, Chono does a spin kick. Mutoh was already himself, grinding the match to a halt with a meaningless Figure 4. Aside from that this was a house of fire. Really awesome to check out.

Assorted NJPW Handhelds

 

Koji Kanemoto vs. El Samurai, NJPW 3/17/1996

Crazy stiff match that builds to a huge finish. A nice reminder of how good the NJPW juniors could be in the 90s. Samura is fired up to begin, slapping the taste out of Kanemotos mouth before hitting a big dive. Samurai is this weird guy who is often dull but when he‘s on he‘s pretty great. He was on here working like Fit Finlay, dropping elbows across Kanemotos face, even headbutting him in the nose. Of course Kanemoto is a right fucker too and when he comes back he cracks Samurai with nasty stomps to the skull and kicks to the ribs. The whole match was pretty much all guys stubbornly sinking into submissions, not cooperating on basic moves and brutalizing each other. It builds to a pretty big crescendo, Kanemoto is slapping around Samurai, pulling him up spitting on him. He goes for a big German Suplex off the apron (you know, this was before moves like that were thrown out 10 times a month) but hits his own head weakening himself, his hatred got the better off him. Samurai in desperation mode trying to inch out a win after being beaten to a pulp was great, hell this whole thing was pretty great. Apaprently before there was only an 8 minute TV version of this available before so praise the lord for handhelds like this so we can get the full undistilled brutality.

2/3 Falls Match:  The Great Sasuke & El Samurai & Super Delfin & Gran Hamada & Norio Honaga vs. Koji Kanemoto & Shinjiro Otani & Dick Togo & Men’s Teioh & & Hanzo Nakajima, NJPW 5/3/1997

That is a serious amount of raw talent in this match. No way this wouldn't be good at least, and it ended up being more than that. Mostly the heel side (Kanemoto et al) playing the numbers game and double teaming the techicos. Kanemoto and Otani also got pretty scrappy and stiff with their opponents. Double teams were cool (dug the series of elbow drops and flip sentons, and the synchronized dropkicks from Kanemoto and Otani), and there was one badass moment where Sasuke had enough of Kanemotos shit and perforated his guts with crowbar spin kicks. Also due to the rules we got more than one really good finish. Nakajima and Honaga are kind of the odd men out in this lineup of junior legends, but they do fine. Honaga even gets some very nice face reactions for his scuzzy heel tactics amid a sea of talented flyers. Great dive sequence, too.

Shiro Koshinaka vs. Kengo Kimura, NJPW 5/3/1997

Two pissed off old guys slap the fuck out of each other, how can it not be good?! These two are fired up and the crowd loved it. Awesome bit where Kimura almost KO's Koshinaka with punches. Got a bit slow and rest holdy here and there, but they pick up in a big way for the finish. Just two mad old geezers dumping each other with crazy powerbombs and suplexes. Somebody really should steal Koshinakas flying butt to the back of the neck move.

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.

KOKI KITAHARA DOCUMENTATION PROJECT MASTER LIST

Koki Kitahara Documentation Project #7

 Genichiro Tenryu & Koki Kitahara & Masao Orihara vs. Shiro Koshinaka & Masashi Aoyagi & Kengo Kimura (WAR 10/21/1992) - EPIC

WAR vs. New Japan is one of those few transcendental occurances in wrestling history. This whole match is just from another planet, insane heat, crowd booing and cheering everyone at the same time, dueling chants breaking out, and everyone engages in super uncooperative, violent exchanges. The star of the match is Tenryu as he comes in constantly like a force of nature, there’s an amazing moment where he takes a piledriver on the floor, then cleans house and the camera pans away revealing he has blood streaming down his face, but our boys Orihara and Kitahara are fantastic supporting players. Orihara is young an super fired up, taking big beatings and always firing back, at one point he gets into a fight with Akitoshi Saito who’s outside the ring in his gi and it seems the place comes unglued. Kitahara is right at home in this kind of scrappy match, throwing kicks like baseball bats and looking in shootstyle holds all while drawing baffling heel reactions, I wish he had been in the match a little more. And the Koshinaka/Aoyagi/Kimura was just kicking ass like you wouldn’t believe. Kengo Kimura may have had the night of his life, he is old but he was kicking and punching guys in the face all while acting like a jerk and taunting Tenryu. This was a nice reminder of how much pro wrestling rules.

 

Koki Kitahara & Pierroth & Dr. Wagner Jr. vs. Rayo de Jalisco Jr. & Vampiro & Atlantis (CMLL 9/23/1994) - GREAT

Koki Kitaharas stay in CMLL lasted about 4 matches. Japanese wrestlers working Mexico for a brief stint usually doesn’t produce great matches, and I was expecting Kitahara to tone his act down, maybe work a bit more like a junior… but boy, I was wrong. This is classic Kitahara acting like a psycho material. He was hellbent on kicking the dogshit out of Vampiro here. Seeing Kithara punting someone in the face on the floor of Arena Mexico is something else. Pierroth and Wagner also seemed to have had it with Vampiro. I imagine he was being a coked up joker on his stay or something, because they were really pasting him with punches and clotheslines, while being absolutely unwilling to make him look good or bump for him in any way. Really one of the meanest rudo performances I've ever seen. It makes for a pretty compelling match as Atlantis and Rayo De Jalisco basically only make sporadic appearance while Vampiro gets his ass kicked and tries to fire back only to get beaten up some more. In the second fall, Vampiro was hitting his own goofy martial arts kicks and I was starting to groan, but then Kitahra elbowed him in the jaw hard and kicked him in the face some more. After the match Kitahara and Pierroth immediately jump on Vamp with Kitahara raining punches on his face and Pierroth looking like he was either trying to protect Vampiro or choke him out. Either way, it’s rare you see an ass kicking like this in Arena Mexico since they banned blood. I’m wondering why it’s not talked about more, but then again, digging up this stuff is what this blog is for.

 

KOKI KITAHARA DOCUMENTATION PROJECT MASTER LIST 

Even More Rare Assorted NJPW TV

 Tatsumi Fujinami vs. Kengo Kimura, NJPW 12/10/1986

Very good, competitive feeling match up. Fujinami controls the initial going by hanging onto Kimuras arm and they go through a few complex reversals before Kengo bitchslaps Fujinami in the middle of a sunset flip. Fujinami takes offense, but finds himself eating some bare knuckle punches from Kimura. After some more back and forth Fujinami eats a nasty leg lariat to the face from Kimura and we get some hot and unpredictable 80s nearfalls. This could’ve gone longer but it was quality shit.

Seiji Sakaguchi vs. Antonio Inoki, NJPW 5/25/1987

I am digging these Sakaguchi matches showing up. This was like Sakaguchi having one last go at his old rival. In the 70s these guys would do hold for hold matches, but this was a real exercise in pacing. They would do some grappling, and then they would do something to heat things up. Inoki tries rushing Sakaguchi at the start, but Sakaguchi blows him off. Then Sakaguchi lands a big atomic drop outside the ring. Suddenly Inoki goes for an enzuigiri, then both guys start throwing hands and Sakaguchi is downed by a huge slap. Sakaguchi really puts Inoki through the ringer with armlocks on the ground, before reversing a back suplex attempt into a Russian Leg Sweep in a great spot. I thought this was building to a classic, but then a weird transition happens where Sakaguchi seems to blow himself out hitting a big Atomic Drop and Inoki just blasts him away with enzuigiris. Still, a great lesson in how to create tension in wrestling matches.

Andre the Giant & Terry Rudge vs. Seiji Sakaguchi & Osamu Kido, NJPW 10/4/1976

Andre and Rudge! That alone makes this a gem. Match was fun too. We JIP to Andre and Rudge working over Kido with painful neck wrenches. Andre is so imposing even working basic holds. Then Andre misses a big splash, Kido makes the hot tag and we get lots of fun Andre stooging. It's a bit weird how the giant is the guy on the team taking the big bumps but it's fun to watch Andre fling himself over the top rope etc. Sakaguchi and Kido don't really sell on the level you want from a babyface team but they have some good teamwork spots. There was also a cool moment in the second fall where Rudge made Kido fly to the outside in a well timed spot. Rudge is one of the all time great asskicking wrestlers, he did kick ass a bit here but it was like 5/10 when it comes to Rudge material. Otherwise this was solid 70s action.

Assorted Rare NJPW TV

 This channel is uploading old AJPW and NJPW TV material, most of which is pretty rare. It seems that he takes all NJPW videos offline after a few hours, so download everything as soon as you can.

Antonio Inoki vs. Bearcat Wright, NJPW 10/31/1975

The legendary Bearcat Wright was quite old and past his prime here, although he still was able to look like a menacing dude. He had great looking headbutts, and his choking actually looked really vicious. This felt more like an introduction to the character of Bearcat which sets up a bigger rematch - the brawling after the bell may have been more exciting than anything in the match. Still, footage of Bearcat Wright is a treasure.

Steve Wright vs. Kengo Kimura 12/5/1977

Only about 4 minutes show, but lots of fun, tight wrestling in those 4 minutes. You get the sense Wright had no problem going even against opponents who weren’t familiar with European style wrestling. Wright wins with a super cool kip up into a pin combo.

Tatsumi Fujinami & Osamu Kido vs. Tony Rocco & Chavo Guerrero NJPW 10/13/1978

Real gem of a match. +20 minutes of high end 70s junior wrestling. The 70s style really was awesome, basically a mix of carny matwork, cool suplexes and occasional neat highspots. Really loved Tony Rocco in this, who is such a great carny grappler. Also really dug young spry Chavo, and the Japanese guys are super solid too. We start with about 10 minutes of cool grappling, basically a lot of cool armwhips and pin attempts with some neat scrambling takedowns and blocked moves. Fujinami looks sharp as hell here and throws some great dropkicks. This is 2/3 falls and every fall has a good finish. Loved the crazy 70s dives and big bump at the end. This pretty much rocked.

Yoshiaki Fujiwara vs. Antonio Inoki NJPW 3/16/1989

Didn’t even know this match happened in 1989. It wasn’t an epic, but a nice slice of super enjoyable pro wrestling as you expect from these two. Inoki has great chemistry with Fujiwara on the mat, and he has such a great aura and feel of danger to him, even compared to a guy like Fujiwara. Some very nice matwork here before Fujiwara decides to punch Inoki in the face. These guys continue to throw hands, and when these guys do it it’s way compelling because they actually look like they don’t want to get hit. Fujiwara ends up trying to cut down Inoki using some rough tactics and his hard head, only for Inoki to destroy him very quickly in Inoki-like fashion. Inokis Worlds Biggest Badass shtick matches up really well against Fujiwaras tricky counter artist act.

Brief thoughts on SPWF 6/14/1995

 
SPWF  6/24/1995

1. Hiroshi Osumi (Shinjuku Shark) vs. Masahiko Kochi
2. Exciting Yoshida vs. Phantom Funakoshi
3. Toyonari Fujita vs. Dangerous Uchida
4. Made in China & ??? vs. Mr. ??? & ??
5. Ichiro Yaguchi & Isamu Teranishi vs. Kishin Kawabata & Hiroshi Hatanaka
6. Kuniaki Kobayashi & Great Kabuki & Kengo Kimura vs. Yoshiaki Yatsu & Masa Saito & Riki Choshu

SPWF may be the least of the 90s mud show indies, but SPWF shows are always a nice novelty. I liked Yoshida/Funakoshi, Funakoshi was doing some kind of technical heel gimmick, his technical stuff looked good and I liked how he went to choke his opponent and then hit a knee drop to the throat. Yoshida was doing an Animal Hamaguchi tribute act and then he hit this really reckless tombstone piledriver. Main event was pretty much a greatest hits show that pleased the crowd, with the two novel additions to the usual Choshu tag formula, 1995 Yatsu and Masa Saito not doing anything special. Karate pants guys were more than solid, though. Nothing else stood out really but I prefer this kind of serious pro wrestling over todays joker indies.