Tarzan Goto Documentation #10

Tarzan Goto vs. Katsuji Ueda, FMW 8/25/1990 - GREAT

I always wanted a Katsuji Ueda showcase match, and here he is against Goto!! I don‘t know much about Ueda, but he is someone I buy as being tough just by looking at him. Mustache, boxing gloves, taped ankles for some reason. And Goto doesn‘t care about any of that – as he opens by moving in and trying to headbutt Ueda into oblivion right at the go. Ueda throws punches and kicks and this is really like a martial artist vs. Bar fighter match. Goto moves close enough to Ueda where in a normal sport the referee would break it up – but this is FMW, so Ueda eats headbutts to the face. Goto also has some pretty fast ankle picks for a fat guy. Ueda soon puts a pretty big beating on Goto, knees to the face, elbows to the back of the head. It‘s rough and grizzly and Goto is soon bleeding like crazy and getting knocked out over again. Pretty great transition from Goto bullying this guy around Goto putting over how dangerous his strikes are. It looks like Goto is done but he is able to catch a kick, pop Ueda with another headbutt and sink in a Figure 4 of all things. Some really great falling headbutts to Uedas leg later and he‘s out. I would‘ve liked a bigger 3rd stanza with Goto throwing Ueda around some more, but it made sense since Goto looked on the brink of defeat. Great match, anyways.

 

Tarzan Goto vs. Masaru Toi, FMW 2/19/1994 - GREAT

Curious match up because it‘s Toi working a main event singles (unless there was a match after this that the camera guy missed). The match was almost a total squash too, albeit a memorable one simply due to the sheer violent asskicking Goto unleashed. Toi paid his dues working in Calgary so he was never really on young boy duty and instead the guy delivering punishment when it comes to his matches in W*ING, PWC etc., so Goto kicking him all over the place here felt different. Goto was like a more violent Regal early on, cutting off Toi in different ways with knees to the face, punches, headbutts to the side of his head etc. Soon Goto was chucking tables at Tois head and bloodying him. Toi made the most of his brief offensive runs catching Goto with some kicks to the chin. Goto mostly catches them and continues the beatdown so when Toi finallly slowed him down with his gnarly solebutt to the face it felt rewarding. Of course Goto soon just dropped him with a Hashimoto level brainbuster and pinned him. For how one sided the match was, it was pretty great.

Tarzan Goto vs. Viking Taniguchi, Onita Pro 9/23/2001 - FUN

Merciless, Necro-level one sided beating by Goto to Taniguchi. Taniguchi isn‘t very good and his one comeback is pretty lackluster so it was probably for the better he barely got any offense. Goto did it all here, chucking chairs, tables at him, beer bottle, violent lariats and punches. He also beats on referees and ring announcers after the match, I‘m not sure of the monster Tarzan Goto run ever happened in Onita Pro but it looked promising here.

Tarzan Goto Documentation Project

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

Tarzan Goto Documentation #8

Tarzan Goto & Great Sasuke vs. Mr. Pogo & Masaru Toi, Michinoku Pro 12/10/1993 - EPIC

Pretty insane match. Starts of hot with a mix of fast junior exchanges and violent brawling. Normally Mr. Pogo just dishes out offense and doesn't take much, so Goto just beating the shit out of him and bloodying him with punches and chairs looked like something else. We get Pogo wailing back on him with a boot, and Goto bleeding and doing a great hulk up. I loved how Goto capped of what was his shine segment in the match by grabbing a kendo stick and beating the snot out of Toi and Pogo. After that we move onto the meat (and blood) of the match: Pogo stabbing Sasuke in the back. Ultra grizzly stuff and has to be in the Top 5 craziest things Sasuke has done. Sasuke trying to crawl across the ring with that piece of wood stuck in his back was like something out of a messed up hillbilly gore move. Gotos hot tag did not disappoint as he just destroyed everyone in his path. Great classic tag structure executed in a very early 90s Japan way.

2/3 Falls: Tarzan Goto & Masanobu Kurisu & Gran Hamada & Masashi Aoyagi & Kazuhiko Matsuzaki vs. Shiro Koshinaka, Ryo Miyake, Ishinriki, Arashi & Ryuma Go, Wrestle Aid Project 5/2/2005 - GREAT

Yes, you‘re reading this match up right. Just an absolute murderers row of lumpy sleaze gods potatoeing each other. I had no idea Go was still running shows in the 2000s and of course he put this monster match up together. He and Ishinriki were pretty fun here while Miyake was mostly just there to bleed and get potatoed, but the stars were Kurisu, Aoyagi and Goto. Goto was kingsized here, having a heated exchange with Koshinaka (Koshinaka always matches up well against tubby ex-AJPW guys in bumblebee colour schemes) and putting his trademark bloody beatdown on Miyake, while Aoyagi threw a bunch of great looking kicks and Kurisu was Kurisu. Whole match had barely any wrestling moves, just old guys potatoeing each other. Matsuzaki didn‘t do much on offense but was willing to bleed and eat the pin. Pretty much exactly what you want from this matchup.

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