A few matches under 10 minutes

 Kengo Mashimo vs. Isami Kodaka, K-Dojo 9/30/2002

Hey... did you know skinny deathmatch wrestler Isami Kodaka was once a skinny shootfighter dressed like a SHOOTO guy throwing wild punches and trying to break arms with flash armbars? You'll be surprised! This was just a hair under 5 minutes and it was like a more primitive version of Ikeda/Ono, so it was still pretty great! Both guys look awesome here. Mashimo doesn't have the hair dye and ponytail yet but he looks like quite the Hashimoto-esque figure here being a karateka dressed in black and taking on a shooter. Kodaka throws wild punches and spin kicks just great. The crazy spill over the rope was awesome  and the way Mashimo just decimated Kodaka with some of the most brutal head kicks and knees ever was harrowing. Quite the sub-5 minute war.

No Rules Match: Shinya Hashimoto vs. Kensuke Sasaki, NJPW 4/9/2001

It’s Shinya Hashimoto vs Kensuke Sasaki in 2001 New Japan in a NO RULES match. So it’s pretty much exactly what you want: plenty violent, short, no filler, just raw straight forward brutality. I had no idea this match even happened until now and it has no ratings in Cagematch, so that tells you this era of New Japan is still kinda underrated. Hashimoto goes into this with MMA gloves and there are some CAPTURE-esque exchanges to start. Sasaki is best as a primitive crowbar and that’s what he does here, Hashimoto would make him eat some hands early on so Sasaki just nuked him with a huge suplex. No Rules means there’s no rope breaks so Sasaki came across like a savage trying to rip out Hashimotos arm when he went for the armbar. Hashimoto came back with one of the nastiest punch flurries I’ve ever seen. After almost knocking Sasaki out, Hashimoto took the gloves off and they agree to a pro wrestling lock up before throwing kesagiri chops which was pretty awesome. Sasaki snatching Hash for the northern lights bomb out of nowhere was also pretty amazing. The car crash violent bomb throwing last few minutes were fairly great. Hashimoto is a king at building long intense matches but this kind of violent outburst also suits him pretty well.

Akira Nogami vs Yuji Nagata, NJPW/AAA 11/16/1994

Great 7 minute match. Young Nagata was working like an aggressive BattlARTS guy here, throwing wild strikes constantly and fighting back against Nogami with shootstyle technique. Nogami, of course, would end up grabbing one of those kicks, twist him over with a Dragon Screw and then stomp the hell out of that leg. Wrestling can be so simple but effective sometimes. Nagatas hulk up was also surprisingly great actually. The finishing stretch while brief was all well timed cool moments, such as Nogami resisting hard against Nagatas belly to belly suplex and hitting a really precise enzuigiri or Nagata unleashing some explosive kicks. Give me two guys going all out for 7 minutes and really comitting even to basic stuff like this any day.

Volk Han vs. Masayuki Naruse, RINGS 10/23/1993

This match has been called a contender for the greatest wrestling match under 10 minutes. It’s certainly an interesting pick. Han is bigger than Naruse so he really ragdolls him. I mean we all know Han is a monster but he was really yanking him around with his signature insanely fast wristlocks and throws, and straight up slamming him here and there. Hans wristlocks certainly have more aura than any other wrestlers wristlocks. This is Han as usual – dominating on the ground and you get some of the wildest submissions and escapes you’ll see anywhere. This man was truly a genius at coming up with unique submissions without getting too cute. Naruse is pretty much overwhelmed, but he gives a gutsy performance. He already loves the spinning back open hand strike and just tries to barrage Han early, but Han would catch him constantly. He does come up with some counters here and there, and Volk lets him have a moment knocking him down with a liver shot. There’s a great nearfall from a cross heel hook with Naruse desperately trying to escape and coming up limping after barely making the rope. He gets one last hope moment throwing some more body shots but Han spins him around for an easy tag. This was a Volk Han special, and the fact that it was pretty much a midcard bout against a much lower ranked opponent speaks volumes to how good Han was that even such a throwaway match would end up feeling special.

Yoshiko Tamura vs. Aja Kong

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=thSUqf6hgJo

Classic Aja trashing, if you like the Chaparita Asari match you will also like this. Tamura throws the kitchen sink at her to try and stop the monster. Tamura was putting major force even into her slightly goofy flying cross chops. The backfist that Aja nailed her with looked harder than many Kos in MMA fights. Check it out for a hard 2 minute fight.

Thoughts on 30 minutes of Volk Han vs. Zaza Grom

 

Volk Han vs. Zaza Grom, RINGS 6/24/1999

Opening 20 minutes of this or so were fantastic and some of the greatest shootstyle grappling I‘ve ever seen. You know Grom is a badass when he is like 35 here and as grey as a caesar. This is all about Groms ability to takedown Han at will and Han trying to counter that. Naturally Han is really great at creating incredible counters, but Zaza is also really great at creating incredible counters to those counters. It starts like the usual Han deal, with Han getting a rope break in the first minute. Then Han loses another point on a break and one on a technicality, and it seems like no big deal, but Zaza keeps racking up points. Suddenly Han is with his back against the wall, and then he eats a vicious shotai and he‘s out of points. I really wanted the last 5 minutes to be more epic considering how great they had built it up but sometimes you just gotta ride it out. Incredible showing from Grom regardless, and another piece of untouchable Han work.

Going through Shodates Best Matches of the 90s List Part 2

The List

33. Volk Han vs. Gennady Gigant (RINGS 3/5/1992)

The 33^th best match of the 90s as told by Shotaro of Date. With a name like Gennady Gigant you expect this to be some Raja Lion freakshow, but he is just a slightly bigger version of your kickpadded russian shooter. I wouldn't call him a Giant as he seems slightly less than Maeda sized but you can't not watch Han vs. A Giant. Volk Han is like Marcelo Garcia in this making short work of a bigger more massive dude. Gigant gets to have his moments, such as bodyslamming Han around or powering out of an armbar. But largely the point here is that even if you are a giant, you are not safe from HAN. Really the Han show, and that is something I tend to enjoy. Han wristlocking a poor fellow really never gets old. At this point it begs the question whether Volk ever had a bad match in his whole career.

34. Volk Han vs. Akira Maeda (4/3/1992)

This was #34 on our majesty Shoda T's list of the greatest matches of the 90s. And well that feels like a slight underestimation as this is really pretty great. This is how you do clash of the titans. I think it's weird Maedas RINGS work doesn't get brought up near as strongly as his 80s stuff... surely people would want to analyze and nitpick in depth? I thought he was just a great ace here. He would prevent most of Hans submission attempts and show he's the boss, but slowly came crashing down with his vulnerability. Han wasn't super dominant early on as he can't ragdoll Maeda around, but he can always pull off some freak move. And the points keep running out, with the formerly so confident Maeda getting some unexpected downs... then it seems he can finally take the russian down only to fall right into his trap. Matwork was very good, and the story of the match was wonderfully executed. Great match.

29. Volk Han vs. Grom Zaza (RINGS 5/16/1992)

This was #29 on our man Sheau D'Ahatays list of the greatest matches of the 90s. And this was really fun because Zaza is using mostly amateur wrestling, so against Volk Hans sambo you had a neat dynamic. Zaza hits all these awesome throws and works half nelsons and it rules. Han retaliates by almost knocking him out twice. This had that feel a lot of Volk Han matches have where the result feels inevitable but it was edge of your seat stuff the whole way through, and nice to see Volk against someone who puts up a little more resistance than the japanese guys and even puts him through the wringer a little.

30. Volk Han vs. Mitsuya Nagai (RINGS 4/24/1993)

CRAZY CRAZY HOT SHOOTSTYLE SPECTACLE!!! Nagai makes one (1) desperate rush at Han right at the start and immediately gets his legs tangled up. Han proceeds to envelope Nagai in one ridiculous hold after another while Nagai is running for the ropes like a choir boy. When Nagai is able to grab a basic headlock or half crab the crowd explodes like he just cured cancer. Han mostly slips underneath for weird takeovers into leglocks but eventually just lets Nagai take him down and then picks a kimura which was like taking candy from a children. No real „exchanges“ in this match but it's pretty much Hans formula match.

5. Volk Han vs. Andrei Kopilov (RINGS 11/16/1995)

The 5^th best match of the 90s according to the one and only Show Da Tay. Battle of the Sambo maestros. Kopilov is just the right amount of clumsy to be really awesome here. Watching him refuse to be utterly dominated like everyone else was great. I love the maudlin look he has anytime Han makes the ropes. This really feels like Kopilov can beat Han and there are some incredible escapes and holds down the stretch. Superb finish. This was slower and less athletic then your highly rated RINGS bouts but I didn't mind at all.