RIP Tarzan Goto

Tarzan Goto & Atsushi Onita vs. Genichiro Tenryu & Ashura Hara, WAR 2/3/1994 - EPIC

This is the match that stole the #1 spot from the 6/3/ Misawa/Kawada match in the 1994 Japan Match of the Year awards. That should give you an idea of what kind of epic scope we are looking at for a match here. Of course, it‘s FMW vs. WAR and two of the biggest stars in all of Japan, Onita and Tenryu are involved, so you are going to have absolutely molten heat and crazy reactions for everything compared to the somewhat sterile formality of a Misawa/Kawada match, but this match is way more than just star power. It‘s a remarkably intricate match, really, and there‘s a sneaky Goto performance here as he plays second fiddle to Onita but largely carries his team. They work the early exchanges with insanely high stakes and drop of a hat momentum shifts, guys get thrown outside just to get back in immediately to not risk a brawl outside, later Tenryu immediately tags out after eating an armbreaker from Goto to avoid possible armwork etc. Goto works the early exchanges teasing Onita coming in to square off with Tenryu. When Onita finally tags in the place comes unglued, but he soon gets busted open and kicked to a bloody pulp by Tenryu and Hara. WAR guys kicking a bleeding guy in the face is tried and true greatness, and when someone as charismatic of a bleeding babyface as Onita is on the receiving end it‘s really upper echelon stuff. I really liked how Onitas hot tag seemed to come as a fluke as he just ducked a move, but Goto just immediately tags him in again as if to give the fans some more star action but Onita gets his ass kicked even more. At that point it‘s like Onita is the broken down megastar and Goto starts thinking on how to salvage his team. Tenryu gets a bit too angry at Goto breaking up a pin, rushing him which in turn leads to Goto clocking Tenryu with a chair and bloodying him. At that point the match just becomes this huge Tarzan Goto rally where he just keeps taking people out. He busts out his huge superfly splash to Hara which leads to Hara having to get taped up, later he hits his huge facebuster to Tenryu onto a table which is a fucking nasty move to take on those hard ass Japanese tables. Hara getting taped up after the splash is honestly such a neat detail, how many tag matches do you recall where a guy has to get taped up after eating a finisher to continue the match? It‘s rare but it totally makes sense and it should happen more often, and it made the second superfly splash to Tenryu so much more brutal. When Hara later grabs Gotos leg to prevent him from making another safe it‘s really this crucial moment and maybe most heated moment in the whole match, as Goto has safed Onitas ass for half the match. It‘s really an amazing match full of impeccable timing and psychology, I have to say Onitas basic DDT to Tenruy reentering the ring may have been one of the greatest transitions ever, and Tenryu was world class as usual going from megastar who‘s pained to deal with these garbage wrestling scumbags to being furious and beating the shit out of people to punch drunkenly trying to lariat and abiesigiri his way out of a really tense situation. I also really like Hara just for his crazy facial expressions and selling, he looks mad tough shrugging of Gotos headbutts and strikes initially so when Goto lariats him really hard and his eyes roll back it looks just killer. Really everyone here was great and it‘s no surprise this ended up being the #1 match of the year, heated to the max with a beautiful story where they did a great job going from Onita bleeding and getting beaten to Onita and Tenryu taking guys out and swarming Tenryu, ending with an all-timer of a finish. I mean people can complain about sloppiness or whatever, but for me it doesn‘t get much more real than Tenryu trying to duck an enzuigiri only for Onita to catch him and drop him on his head because Onita is that beaten up and broken. This may not just be the greatest tag of 1994, but the greatest tag match of all time.

Tarzan Goto vs. Cactus Jack IWA 10/5/1995 - EPIC

These two are among the most „crazy brawler“ looking guys in history, and they do a bunch of crazy brawling in this, but there‘s also a surprising amount of wrestling! Jack controls early with a fucking Fujiwara armbar of all things and then works a bunch of sleeper holds. Technical babyface is a bit strange for Mick Foley to work, but they do a pretty fun job at it! Of course, 1995 Mick Foley is also an absolute bump freak and down to trade punches with Goto, and Goto is a great bruiser squashing him with nasty lariats and facebusters. Both guys end up bleeding big and Goto does his classic bloodletting, cracking Foley with a beer bottle and stabbing him in the face. Goto getting heel reactions from his home crowd says alot about what an effective heel he is, and Jack bleeds and sells like crazy. What makes the match is the amount of energy both guys put in, usually in these kind of matches guys will stroll around or lay on the mat while the other guy sets things up, here both guys are constantly reaching for weapons, when Goto goes outside Jack follows him and connects with a nasty hip attack, later Jack catches Goto in a backslide during a lazy moment for a tremendous hope spot. Tremendous Foley performance and Goto is a fantastic antagonist while also putting Foley over huge, and this match was a great example of both guys having the nuts and bolts of wrestling down along with the crazy bumps and blood.

Tarzan Goto vs. Atsushi Onita, FMW 8/4/1990 - GREAT

This was the first ever exploding barbedwire match and also a match that stole the match of the year awards, proving Goto had some serious workrate cred in Japan in the 90s. Unlike later explosion matches where they would milk and tease the falls into the wire to the max this match is chaotic like a warzone as the explosions go of left and right sometimes triggered by guys just stepping too hastily next to the wire. Onita unwittingly triggers two explosions early on and he gets up bleeding from his arm and a nasty cut in his back. Goto is right on him dropping him with fat powermoves and bloodying his face with nasty headbutts and fists. They make up for the shoddy explosions by headbutting each other to a bloody pulp and it's quite gritty. Goto works on Onitas bad leg a bit with some figure 4s that Onita punches and headbutts his way out of and they continue fighting. Goto is bombing Onita and he looks done but Onita is able to ram him into the wire and Goto takes the biggest bump of the match as he gets entangled in barbedwire and explosions. Then Onita keeps dropping him with like a dozen powerbombs and DDTs until Goto stays down. Could've done with another big Goto rally having a go Onitas bad leg like they teased but it was a wild, cool, experimental fight that probably sent the fans imagination running wild in 1990.

Tarzan Goto vs. Toshiaki Kawada, AJPW 11/28/1984 - FUN

What an insane upload. Mostly a fun technical match, with Goto doing the same cool hold for hold work while mixing in cool headbutts he would do later as a veteran. Kawada is a black trunks rookie and pretty athletic, he busts out a few very clean flips and even leaps to the top rope to hit a huge crossbody. Goto takes it in a style with the big Superfly Splash.

Tarzan Goto Documentation

Going through Shodates Best Matches of the 90s List Part 6

 The List

223. Akira Taue vs. Toshiaki Kawada, AJPW 6/7/1996

This has the rep of being „disappointing“ because it went a mere 18 minutes. That shows what kind of grandeur 90s AJPW was. This is one heck of a really good match though. I really liked the opening where Kawada seemed to be the superior striker, until Taue just casually shut him down by nuking him with big boots and a German suplex. Taue continued his assault until Kawada was able to snap a Fujiwara Armbar and work his arm. Taue getting fired up and Kawada frantically trying to cut him off was really great. The armwork also led to a fun spot where Taue tried blocking the gamengiri but ended up damaging his shoulder further in the process. Kawada got so pissed at Taue he chopped him in the face. Kawada destroying Taue with kicks to the face in the corner only to get blown away by a Taue shoulderblock and neckbreaker was also fantastic. These two are just a really fun match up with Kawadas vicious kicks vs. Taues lanky powerhouse style. Taue also hit this really great jumping big boot flush in Kawadas face. Punch drunk Taue hitting a weak chokeslam was also great. You know what are getting from these two in 1996, everything made sense and was sensible, and on top of that you get a bunch of neat moments and kicks to the face. I can see this may have been disappointing to the hardcore workrate AJPW fans considering there wasn‘t even a dive or an apron move, but by itself it was a great match.

137. Yoji Anjoh vs. Masakatsu Funaki, UWF 5/28/1990

Funaki was in peak physical condition here and looking like a movie star. Anjoh is a bit flabby and wears these ridiculous purple leopard print tights. And the crowd is absolutely on fire to see Anjoh taking down Funaki! They just came unglued whenever Anjoh was threatening Funaki in the standup. Funaki has some really nice punch combos and does his ducking and diving thing, but man, this is the Anjoh show. For a guy who is famous for being a fantastic prick heel, he is one hell of a tenacious babyface standing up to a bigger wrestler. The mat work is nice as it was that mix of slow lulls with faster, slicker movements, and the whole match had a great build. Really cool moment where Anjoh has Funaki in a cross heel hold and Funaki has to slap him to break out, Funaki had this facial expression as if he really didn't want to continue fighting. Later Anjo lands an insane near KO where Funaki barely makes the 9, and Funaki has a nice desperation  moment where he keeps kicking at a downed Anjoh. Crafty finish. A nice reminder of how great peak level shootstyle can be.

Assorted AJPW and SWS

 

Genichiro Tenryu & Toshiaki Kawada vs. Shunji Takano & Earthquake, AJPW 1989

Absolute slobberknocker of a match, just 4 guys going all out for 10+ minutes. It pisses me off so bad that heavyweight wrestling now is just guys shoulderblocking and back and forth hitting each other a lit, because there was none of that here, and it was supremely more entertaining to watch these guys suplex and kick the hell out of each other. Shunji Takano was basically a more unpredictable, psycho version of Jumbo here, trying to cave Tenryus face in with a dropkick, suplexing Kawada across the ring, randomly busting out stiff kicks. Earthquake always looks great, and he has some brief but killer interactions with Tenryu as well as acting like a brickwall towards Kawada to add some structure points. Kawada is fun laying into the heavyweights with his kicks and taking beatings, and Tenryu is of course great in these kinda matches. Super enjoyable 15 minutes, and I appreciate that no finishers were kicked out of.

Fumihiro Niikura vs. Masakatsu Funaki, SWS 4/23/1991

I had no idea this match happened, let alone that it was filmed! And I care!! Y’know, I’m a Fumihiro Niikura fan. He was a good grappler, he had cool punches, and he had a similar scuzzy charisma to Yuki Ishikawa. Funaki completely destroys him here, though. I mean, it’s kinda what you expect, but damn. Funaki does all kinda neat stuff to turn and twist Niikura, and he hits him with some hard strikes. Niikura tries to fight back but has no answer. A german suplex, and a nifty crook headscissor/armbar combo, and Niikura is out. Fumihiro Niikura, at least you tried.

 

Genichiro Tenryu vs. Toshiaki Kawada, AJPW 10/8/1989

This was apparently the first Kawada/Tenryu singles. Pretty great rookie vs. established star match, basically the whole match was Kawada just kicking the living shit out of Tenryu and Tenryu coming back with increasingly violent retaliations. Tenryu was really great at putting over Kawadas kicks early on, flying over the guardrail and generally looking like he got his bell rung. Really liked how he broke out of a leglock and just stomped on Kawadas face before trying to break his jaw with a lariat. Kawada retaliated with some jaw loosening kicks of his own until a classic “Tenryu has had enough” moment where he kicked him in the face and folded him with a lazy but hurty looking powerbomb.

Assorted HUSTLE

 

Toshiaki Kawada vs. Naoya Ogawa, HUSTLE 3/18/2005

HUSTLE doesn’t get explored much due to the comical nature of the promotion. But this… this was a seriously good match! Kawada wears this Bruce Lee outfit and Ogawa has “I’m chicken” written all over his attire. I was expecting them to break out into a musical number or something, but they wrestle this completely straight and with effort! It’s not on the level of their epic 2003 encounter, but they work plenty stiff, there are some fun payback spots centered around both guys working headlocks and then dismissively kicking the other guy, and I loved Kawada here, desperately avoiding Ogawas STO and mount punches, and doing fun stuff like breaking out a random spinning choke and even stealing Ogawas STO! Really fun, maybe even great match.

Naoya Ogawa vs. Tadao Yasuda, HUSTLE 7/13/2005

This went like 8 minutes, with a like 1/4th of that spent in a Figure 4 leglock that had no consequent. That said, I had watching Yasuda act sleazy and Ogawa bruising him up with kicks and judo throws. There is also an AWESOME spot where Yasuda blocks an STO and sumo rushes Ogawa.

Yoji Anjoh vs. Zeus, HUSTLE 9/17/2008

Absolutely great match. Well, if you can get into something that could as well show up on Superstars as a “great match” – but this is great. Like the worlds greatest Finlay vs. Chris Masters match. Young Zeus with the cornrows has tons of cool power spots. I loved how he would throw off Anjohs initial attempts at grappling him, until Anjoh started wristlocking and fingerbending him a bunch. Anjoh looks pretty great like Regal, his performance here made me wonder if I should do a deep dive on his HUSTLE run. Zeus arm selling had a few nifty moments – including a cool attempted gorilla press and the match ended in just the picture perfect moment.

Koki Kitahara Documentation #6

 

Koki Kitahara & Riki Choshu vs. Genichiro Tenryu & Tatsumi Fujinami (Rikidozan Memorial6/30/1996) - EPIC

Match at a big show involving 3 of Japans greatest stars where the standout is somehow, Koki Kitahara. Tenryu and Choshu did their thing, shoving each other, staring, creating some big time heat, and then Kitahara is there on the side eager to get into the fight while Tenryu is ignoring him completely. The opening exchange here really sets the tone, Tenryu and Choshu are the stars, Kitahara gets mauled by Tenryu, but is somehow able to get up and fire back with some hard shots of his own and even blindside Tenryu with a great kick to the back of the head. Kitahara ends up with a bloody mouth, but he never backs down. Tenryu and Choshu were also cracking each other hard here and I enjoyed Fujinami surprise catching Choshu after he got clocked with a lariat. The finish is, of all matchups, Tenryu and Kitahara again and it’s pretty great with Kitahara hitting one of the hardest punches I’ve ever seen in a pro match and Tenryu firing back with punches of his own and trying to chop Kitaharas head off. Really gritty, well executed match with big heat and a cool underdog story.

 

Shinichi Nakano & Shunji Takano & Akira Taue vs. Tatsumi Kitahara & Kenta Kobashi & Tsuyoshi Kikuchi (AJPW 5/14/1990) - GREAT

First match I’ve seen from Kitahara in pre-split All Japan. This was a cool match which feels like a “what could have been” as 3 guys who ended up leaving AJPW soon mix it up with known greats Kobashi, Taue and Kikuchi. This was basicallly a short undercard tag where 6 young guys swing hard at each other. Kitahara is only in briefly, but when he is in he is just throwing brutal kicks with great technique left and right, including wasting Takano in the corner with a sick combo, and launching Nakano over the top rope. Everyone else was laying it in too, I especially enjoyed all the Kikuchi related exchanges as everyone always slaps the shit out of that guy. Kobashi in his baby state is fun doing things like hitting snug european uppercuts and big leg drops, and Taue had some big powermoves. Takano also looked great in his usual role of a tall psycho potatoeing guys.

Koki Kitahara & Arashi vs. Toshiaki Kawada & Mitsuya Nagai (AJPW 11/24/2001) - GREAT

Kitahara vs. Kawada is an obvious dream match, however, they only had one real exchange in this that lasted ca. 30 seconds. They traded some good looking kicks, though. I noticed that Kitahara was going softer than usual on Kawada, so I wondered if he had gotten softer for this AJPW stint, but then Nagai tagged in and immediately Kitahara stomps on his face, spits on him and slaps the taste out of his mouth. I guess it was a thing about ranks. This was short but tremendously heated. The crowd were super into Nagai, who was kind of an underdog in this. Kitahara is mostly there to run in and potatoe Nagai for great heel reactions. This was by far the most fired up I’ve seen Arashi look. I mean, he wasn’t exactly moving fast or anything, but he was taking real punishment and dishing out back. Kawada was just brutalizing guys with kicks, and I think he didn’t take a single bump in this. Lotta promotions in the world now would kill to have this kind of heat.

KOKI KITAHARA DOCUMENTATION PROJECT MASTER LIST