W*ING 1/2/1994

 

Crypt Keeper & Nightmare Freddy vs. Jason the Terrible & Shoji Nakamaki

This was a tornado tag and some of the best stuff I've seen from the horror creatures. That doesn't say much, but the layout was right, as Keeper & Freddy were the heels beating down on the faces, while Jason & Nakamaki were your charismatic babyfaces bleeding, being charismatic and making fun comebacks. Keeper was really spry here, doing a flip entrance to the ring and then landing huge boots to people's faces like he was Kawada or something. I feel like a hypocrite for it, but Jason is really fun to doing his Undertaker stuff and hitting absurd spin kicks.

 

Shinichi Nakano vs. The Winger

Post-SWS Nakano matches are rare as hen's teeth, which is awful because he is such an interesting worker, as his basic technical stuff looks tough as nails, and then he will stand up and kick you in the kidney. This was an extremely basic juniors match (that was half missed by the camera guy) where Winger added nothing, but was still a decent Nakano carryjob. Nakano made Winger struggle for everything, and at one point popped Winger straight in the mouth with a huge punch and then proceeded to stomp and kneedrop the back of his head as if trying to give him brain damage. Japanese sleazy unprofessionality at it's best.

 

 

Head Hunters vs. Jado & Gedo

This was pretty much a sprint and made me think the Headhunters might be one of the most underrated tag teams ever. This was not just funny sleazy pro wrestling, it was basically like a Twin Towers vs. Rockers match, except far seedier, blood-drenched and violent. Headhunters were absolutely pasting the Twins with chairshots, powerbombs and their combined FATNESS, and I loved every second of it. Meanwhile Jado/Gedo were hitting superkicks and flying around, and the Headhunters did a really good job setting themselves up for their offense and bumping around like huge bowling pins. Also, the guy operating the camera finally gets his shit together and we get a full picture of this match. The only bummer was that the camera missed a huge Headhunter dive outside the ring. Watching this grainy footage zooming in on a Headhunter rampaging about in the stands of Korakuen Hall felt kinda like a found footage monster movie. The finish - a giant Headhunter moonsault - was one of the most ridiculous spots I've ever seen as the poor little japanese guy lying in the middle of the ring basically disappeared underneath as this giant fat dude splashed into the ring like free willy. Fantastic match

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IWA Japan Grand Opening Stage Battle States 5/23/1994

 

Watch

Johnny Gomez vs. Hiroshi Ono

IWA Japan was basically W*ING 2 at this point, so we get all kinds of cool random Puerto Ricans working here. Johnny Gomez looked really good here, he had a bunch of good looking offense and did a neat job directing young nondescript future deathmatch bleeder Hiroshi Ono along. Ono didn‘t show much but he hit a nasty back suplex at one point. Gomez had a really nice thrust kick (always loves those) and the finish was really brutal looking with Gomez hitting a dropkick where he basically landed on Hiroshi Onos face. This went a bit under 5 minutes and was just right.

El Oriental & Crash The Terminator vs. Miguel Perez, Jr. & Winger

What amount of drugs could dream up this match up? And – this match ended up being kind of insane and great! Before the match Oriental cuts a promo where he mentions being the brother of the Moreno Sisters, which is kind of cute. Oriental always looks really good when I see him, and he looks really good here getting decent exchanges out of Winger. Then you get Hugh Morrus and Miguel in workrate mode – as both these big guys step up and do a bunch of athletic moves and bumping! Suddenly the match was chock full of memorable moments, such as Crash leaping to the 3rd rope and then hitting a great spinning crossbody – that misses – before Miguel hits an equally great spinning senton of the 2nd rope. Then you get the heavyweights bullying the junior guys around. The section where Crash stooges a bunch for Wingers lucha moves, then catches him on a dive before gently placing him down and getting back into the ring was so out of left field and great. He‘s CRASH THE TERMINATOR, face painted maniac with a skullet, but brawling with a smaller opponent is somehow beneath him, he just wants to wrestle him fair and square in the ring! Perez Jr./Oriental sections where also great. Perez hits a really crazy lariat that drops Oriental on his neck and then Oriental fires back with this awesome front flip kick in his face. Finish was way bigger than you‘d expect too with Miguel busting out a bunch of dives including a crazy huge Asai Moonsault, Winger eating a powerbomb on the floor and Oriental taking a giant chokeslam. For a second match on a card with a bunch of thrown together wrestlers this was about as good as you can ask for.

Dick Murdoch vs. Masayoshi Motegi

Another insane match. Is this Motegis biggest match ever? Bigger than him facing Liger? It definitely felt more meaningful. The first 10 minutes of this were really great and textbook stuff. Both guys were just chain wrestling, but Motegi was going after Murdochs arm like mad and Murdoch did all these neat maestro-ish touches, such as blocking a takedown attempt, sinking in Fujiwara armbars. Despite the size difference they meshed very well. When Murdoch was cutting off Motegi, he always clocked him with a bionic elbow or punch to the face, while selling the arm. Motegi hit these neat punches and kicks to Murdochs arm. Obviously Motegi was a bit limited in terms of what offense he could do to Murdoch, and that held the last couple minutes of this back a bit. Still I was shocked how good this was, as they did a bunch of really good intricate wrestling while keeping it tight.

Shoji Nakamaki vs. Kintaro Kanemura

This was the first match on the card that was entirely within the ordinary. Kanemura gets a barbedwire bat and brutalizes Nakamaki a bunch. Nakamaki makes one fired up comeback and hits a nice diving headbutt. Kanemura takes a nice clothesline bump, but soon goes back to beating on Nakamaki before pinning him quite easily. Good enough to keep things moving and put over Nakamaki as an underdog taking beatings, although I think Nakamaki never really did move on beyond that.

Silver King vs. El Texano

There aren‘t many Texano single matches around that I know of, so this was cool to have. Pretty much a stocky guy workrate match. Both these guys execute all their stuff at a ridiculously high level. Starts great with an amazing looking Texano punch in the ropes before they unroll a bunch of spectacular rope running sequences. All super tight executed. There are some great dives and Texano gets amazing height on a big splash. Not much of a story, but they went out to get pops, and that they did.

Headhunters vs. Nobutaka Araya & El Misterioso

 

Putting Misterioso in the main event?! You better believe it. This was sloppy, but fun. Pretty much a sleazy Twin Towers vs. Rockers match. Headhunters hit a bunch of stiff clotheslines and big body splashes. We get a bunch of cool Big vs. Little interactions between Misterioso, plus a few crazy high spots. Araya hits a huge moonsault to the outside, there‘s a flip dive from a Headhunter. The sloppy/unprepared moments, such as Araya violently lariating an unsuspecting Headhunter over the ropes may have added to the mayhem. The ending is pretty brutal with Araya taking a bunch of Headhunter splashes and a moonsault that seemed to knock him loopy before the doomsday bulldog finish. I always enjoy me some Headhunters and this was a fun main event to cap off this insane card.

 

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Shin-FMW 6/17/1997

 Tarzan Goto vs. Katsutoshi Niiyama - FUN

This was a show where Tarzan Goto was in every match. Pretty insane idea, but our man Goto can pull it off no problem. Unfortunately they clipped all the matches, but every match brought something different and worthwhile to the table. This went close to 15 minutes which is a main event for most wrestlers but basically a warmup for Goto. Some fun opening chain wrestling which is always awesome to see Goto do and Niiyama gets in some fun kicks against Goto. That's about all we get from this.

Tarzan Goto vs. Takashi Okano - FUN

Okano is Winger. Pretty much the most enjoyable match you're gonna get out of Winger, as it's clipped down to him brawling and hitting his high spots and Goto bleeding, starting his blood loss 2 matches into this 6 match marathon.

Tarzan Goto & Ryo Miyake vs. Ichiro Yaguchi & Nobukazu Hirai - FUN

Ryo Miyake joins the fray! This was pretty much the Hirai show. He is in his weird joker face paint and kind of rules brutalizing guys with ECW-ish chair spots. He hits a really great elbow drop for the pin on Miyake too. I think Miyake started bleeding immediately, too. Yaguchi was mercifully clipped out of this match. Nevermind that: HIRAI~!

Tarzan Goto & Ryo Miyake vs. Masaaki Mochizuki & Rikio Ito - FUN

Reckless kicker Mochizuki ruled. It baffles me how awesome the karate guy who kicks hard and fast, all the time wearing a black gi act is and how nobody has stolen it. Plenty of Goto/Mochizuki interactions here, with Mochizuki kicking Goto hard in the blubber and Goto firing back with lariats and headbutts. That is kind of a dream match, and we basically get the clipped WCW syndicated match version of it. Rikio Ito is mercifully largely clipped out of this match up. Miyake gets pinned once again, continueing his arc.

Tarzan Goto & Ryo Miyake & Mitsunobu Kikuzawa vs. Kishin Kawabata & Katsuhiko Matsuzaki & Shigeo Okumura - FUN

Kawabata/Matsuzaki/Okumura is one hell of an indy scum murderers row. Kikuzawa joins the fray and is really spry and fun here, hitting suicide dives that put the "suicide" in suicide dive, full bodyweight senton and even busting out the Gannosuke Clutch. Everyone on the non-Goto team was fired up and they trade stiff beatings in some surprisingly great exchanges with Miyake. Matsuzaki also bleeds and we get glimpses of a classic Goto bloodletting. Also, pretty violent finish with everyone on the Kawabata team dropping their meanest flying move on Miyake. That would be cute in a junior match but since it's all tubby heavyweights landing on him it looked brutal. Damn I wish we had the whole match because it looked great.

Tarzan Goto vs. Ryo Miyake - FUN

This was a barbedwire ropes and boards match and a pretty gruel ending to the tour the force Miyake had to go through. Goto just brutalizes him here, non-pulled punches and lariats, and making him bleed like a pig in the barbedwire. Goto bled like mad, too. Miyake gets a handful of hope spots but Goto just slaughters him. Looked great and gory. After the match Miyake looks dead while Goto looks like he could do another 6 matches.

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TARZAN GOTO DOCUMENTATION PROJECT

Oriental Pro 1/20/1993

 Oriental Pro 1/20/1993

1. Kazuhiko Matsuzaki vs. Ryo Miyake
2. Miguel Perez Jr. vs. The Winger
3. Yoshihiko Abe vs. Katsumi Hirano
4. Great Sasuke & TAKA Michinoku vs. Super Delfin & Terry Boy
5. Handicap: Toyonari Fujita & Hideo Takayama vs. Masahiko Takasugi
6. OPW vs. W*ING Elimination Gauntlet Match: Kazuhiko Matsuzaki & Nobutaka Araya & Hiroshi Itakura vs. Masayoshi Motegi & The Winger & W*ing Kanemura

This was another fun Oriental Pro card. You're always going to get some largely unspectacular but snug and solid pro wrestling with Oriental Pro, which is much needed these days. You had a nice 10 minute draw in the opener with enough stiff shots to keep it interesting, a nasty one sided wrestler vs. karateka squash where Abe kicks Hirano in the eye over and over and his students jump into the ring axe kicking Oriental Pro wrestlers after the match, plus a fun squash in the Takasugi handicap match where he just tears up the future Badboy Hido and Magnitude Kishiwada.

The standout matches were a) the M-Pro tag, where they worked a straight match with no shtick and basically showed off their superior athleticism and skill level and b) the main event.

The opening half of this was fascinating and made my respect for Masayoshi Motegi shoot up tenfold. Motegi came in with a bandaged shoulder. His first opponent was Kazuhiko Matsuzaki, who immediately begand attacking that shoulder which made their basic opening exchanges highly interesting. Motegis amateur moves were great and Matsuzaki looked like a mini-Hashimoto when he started throwing kicks. Motegi caught him in a surprise suplex though and quickly put him away, leading to Motegi vs. Araya being next.

Araya, who was skinny at this point, then proceeded to tear up Motegis shoulder for another solid 10 minutes, inbetween throwing him around and hitting stiff chops and clotheslines. It probably got excessive as Motegi just kept surviving, but it was fascinating to watch Motegi get out of one armbar attempt after another through bridging etc. Araya also had a bandaged lower back, and his immediate desperation selling when Motegi was able to hit a basic slam followed by a half crab was great. The spot where Araya attempted a lift and collapsed followed by Motegi going for his german suplex only for his destroyed shoulder to give out was great and the last pinfall was epic. One of the best payoffs to an injury centered matchup I've ever seen.

The weakest matchup there was Winger/Itakura, although it was pretty much the best use of Winger I can imagine as he got in a series of quick hopespots before being handily put away by Itakura, who was pretty much the ace of Oriental Pro at this point.

The last matchup was Itakura vs. Kanemura, which promised to be interesting as Kanemura was already a sick freak at this stage. It started out strong with Kanemura eating a nasty surprise savate kick and powerbomb, then he started biting and using chairs. Itakura came back bleeding and they produced a dramatic finish which such a big convoluted match deserved. Overall all the parts of the match worked by themselves and also formed a compelling whole interacting with eachother, which is why I'm nominating it as one thing.

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