Assorted FULL

 Akihiro Yonekawa vs. Mongolian Yuga, FULL 4/12/1993

 

The opening match to this FULL show begins with a bunch of uncooperative amateur matwork… because of course it does! I think Mongolian Yuga is Jinsei Shinzaki, and he looks like the fucking terminator in this. Holy hell. He was squishing poor Yonekawa (future Kesen Numajiro) with painful rides, gutwrench drops and out of nowhere suplexes. This was definitely the baddest showing by a guy who came out to „Dschingis Khan“ as his entrance music ever. Yonekawa doesn‘t get any offense going – when he does put on a side headlock, Yuga just suplexes him hard. A couple hard slaps and dropkicks to the face later it looks like Yonekawa is bleeding from his mouth, GAEA girls like. Yonekawa does get in a DDT and bulldog – causing Yuga to do some nice head spike bumping – but the Mongol is soon no selling his offense. Brutal piledriver, headspiking suplex and one absolutely nasty claw slam later and Yonekawa is dead meat. Yuga struts away as Dschingis Khan blares. Pro wrestling is special and wonderful.

Lasser vs. Felino, FULL 9/12/1991

Some quite beautiful lucha here. These guys will do the standard lucha exchanges at a ridiculously high level, and then add in some nice extra flourishes such as amateur takedowns during matwork etc making this feel like a UWF match. Felino was in his goofy early costume where looked a bit like an ewok, but looked like an awesome matworker. I liked Lasser a lot as part of the Arqueros and he is a very good luchador in his own right. Dug his big hip attacks. This was 7 minutes and it really felt longer because they did so much cool stuff.

WAR 6/20/1999

 Masao Orihara vs. Tomohiro Ishii

Both these guys were pretty great in the late 90s, so I was pretty salty about this being clipped down just a couple minutes. Ishii was a wreckingball during this period, but Orihara easily outstiffes him trying to crack his jaw with lariats. We also get Ishii working Orihara over with chairs and whiping him out with a crazy rolling senton to the outside. Fun stuff but I wanted at least 3/4ths of the thing.

Nihao vs. Koki Kitahara

This was a CAPTURE showcase match and holy fuck after this I‘d kill to get the entire CAPTURE back catalogue. Brutal brutal match, just the most primitive grimy shootstyle you can imagine, two guys with gloves trying to pummel each other into oblivion. Nihao takes Kitahara down and bloodies him with punches and headbutts, but the boss comes back just trying to crush his face with punches and teeth loosening kicks. There was one spinkick that would‘ve made Daisuke Ikeda wince, and also at one point Kitahara reverses a takedown into an armlock that looked to almost tear Nihaos shoulder. They showed 4 out of 6 minutes, and really would it have killed them to include those 2 minutes? Still 80 % of a sick spectacle is better than most, and those 4 minutes were some of the most insane of the year.

Ryuma Go vs. Thunder Warrior Alpha

I respect Tenryus tendency to bring in Go to squish random aliens. This was clipped to almost nothing but we got to see Go acting crazy and destroying the alien.

Genichiro Tenryu & Magnum TOKYO vs. Nobutaka Araya & Sumo Fuji

The boss is involved, so we got the full match here. Didn‘t know what to expect from this, but it ends up a really entertaining match thanks to Tenryuisms. Basically Sumo Fuji acts like a big shot and annoys Tenryu some and ends up paying for it. Also really liked Araya as a scuzzy guy potatoeing Magnum TOKYO. Toryumon guys also looked solid in their sections against each other, and TOKYO hit a pretty great top rope asai moonsault amongst other things. Loved Tenryu here, I think he didn‘t even take a back bump but pretty much carried the match by being a prick, as he usually does.

Osamu Tachihikari & Arashi vs. Daikokubo Benkei & Ichiro Yaguchi

We get about 30 seconds of this and I am not bummed at all about that. I liked Tachihikari busting out random moves like an STO and a Magistral.

Yuji Yasuraoka & Masaaki Mochizuki vs. Super Delfin & Naohiro Hoshikawa

This was 4 solid pro wrestlers doings lots of solid pro wrestling, building to a pretty exciting second half. WAR reckless kicker Mochizuki ruled, I am just going to pretend he retired after WAR folded. He had some pretty great exchanges with Hoshikawa here, and I loved him flying into the scenery out of nowhere to take out people with spin kicks. Delfin & Hoshikawa worked well together and it was cool to see them acting as a crew. For some reason, juniors getting dumped on their heads or diving around the place was a lot more satisfying to watch in the 90s.

Masaaki Mochizuki vs. Yuji Yasuraoka

I guess Mochizuki wasn‘t happy with Yasuraokas performance in that tag, so he gets on the mic to challenge Yasuraoka to a singles. Yasuraoka then proceeds to hit his awesome dive, getting insane height, and we get a fun short explosion of them throwing bombs at each other. Wouldn‘t have minded if this went longer, but they just did a 17 minute long match before so it made sense for this to be short and intense.

 

Shigeo Okumura, Sambo Asako & Atsushi Onita vs. Nobutaka Araya, Genichiro Tenryu & Shoji Nakamaki

Exactly what it looks like on paper. 6 tubby asskickers brawling all over the place, bleeding and pasting each other with chairs and lariats. That plus the megastar charisma of Tenryu and Onita. Tenryu is such an awesome menace here, punching people in the face and chucking chairs at them. Him vs. Terry Funk would’ve been one hell of a program. Then again, Tenryu was pretty much untouchable at this point in his career. Onita & Asako looked pretty much like regular guys at this point, which made Asako getting abused by Tenryu feel all the more violent. Okumura was in charge with bringing a slight bit of workrate to the match and he did fine, hitting a pretty stiff dropkick. Very predictable match but all too fun.

THE LIBRARY

RIP BADBOY Hido

 BADBOY Hido vs. Jushin Liger, Apache Pro 4/14/2006

Awesome 5 minute explosion of hate filled brawling in front of a rabid hot crowd. This was the conclusion of a series of CTU vs. Apache Pro tags in 2006 and Liger is giving Hido hell here. Liger is great as an invader beating on someone, and Hido bleeds and sells good. Hido makes a quick comeback going for his trademark bat shots which look great. Liger pins him pretty fast though and we get the whole Apache Pro roster jumping on him and Hido trying to cut his hair, which leads us to...

BADBOY Hido & Kintaro Kanemura & Tetsuhiro Kuroda vs. Gedo & Jado & Jushin Liger, Apache Pro 4/14/2006

Also pretty great match, one of those 2000s interpromotional wars with a ton of heat that make wrestling fun and exciting. More hatefilled brawling, Liger getting pissed off at his cut hair was a nice touch, and CTU are a really good heel unit isolating their opponents, working the cuts and brawling. Everyone on Team Apache bleeds big and gives a fired up babyface performance. Normally I dislike Kuroda, but he just did a fired up hot tag here, foregoing his usual comedy spots, and then he also bled and we got more pissed off brawling. Kanemura/Gedo ending stretch was damn good. Hido was mostly selling and bleeding here, although he is a really good FIP and his superplex was a nice well timed moment.

BADBOY Hido vs. Shadow WX, BJW 4/28/2002

One of the crazier things I've seen in wrestling. BADBOY Hido is a complete psycho here. He beats the shit out of Shadow WX and everyone nearby, even some woman (who is maybe related to WX?). It really feels more like a worked shoot angle than a match, as it comes across like Hido is stepping over the line and being a menace, doing things he is not supposed to be doing, and what an achievement that is to create that effect in a deathmatch promotion. The pull part at the end was probably the most pissed off WX has ever looked, and damn do I want to see the bloody payoff that this set up.

BADBOY Hido vs. Hayabusa, W*ING 9/11/1996

We start this with a great rudo Hido section where he carves up Hayabusa, rips his mask, and hits some great looking bat shots. Hayabusa takes he over and is kind of a heel to the W*ING fans, but he's really not a very convincing bad guy. Finishing stretch was fun with Hidos simplistic violence vs. Hayabusa flying moves and the fans getting big into Hido. Hido hits his bat shots with real pop and he makes simple things like a dropkick to the face look very violent.

BADBOY Hido vs. Shinjiro Ohtani, WEW 9/22/2003

This was probably the best match to come out of the now forgotten WEW vs. ZERO1 feud. Ohtani bullies deathmatch boy Hido a bunch, and Hido comes back swinging baseball bats and tossing ladders at Ohtanis head. Ohtani doing garbage spots and bleeding is fun, and so is Hido taking Ohtanis boots to the face and getting suplexed on his head. Bat shots were pretty brutal in this and probably better than the usual lariatfest. Perfect meeting in the middle.

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.

Tarzan Goto Documentation Project Master List

LLPW Dramatic Rhapsody ~ Beyond the Struggle ~ 5/23/1995

 Harley Saito & Michiko Omukai vs. Leo Kitamura & Carol Midori

They showed about 2 minutes of this. They didn't even show Harley doing anything! Travesty. Everything else looked generic and heatless. Putting on a pair of kickpads certainly did wonders for Omukai.

Noriyo Tateno vs. Mikiko Futagami

Futagami gets a rub going against Tateno who is supposed to be one of the big stars of this promotion. In reality, this was almost a complete Tateno squash with Tateno not really putting much sauce into what she was doing to Futagami. Just going through the moves. The most spice she added was stepping on Futagamis face at one point and biting. No heat. She had a cool roll up counter of Futagamis Russian Leg Sweep. Other than brief moment this was a waste.

Rumi Kazama & Kurenai Yasha vs. Miki Handa & Michiko Nagashima

This was the best match so far because it had a story and structure. Kazama and Handa were feuding, so the match built to a face off between them, but they also built up tensions between Kurenai and Nagashima. Kazama has fun violent kicks, and Handa and Nagashima did a good job isolating Kurenai. I always get a kick out of watching Handa working like the Andersons. There was a cool kendo stick duel between Kurenai and Nagashima at one point, and the finish with Kazama trying to survive while Kurenai was handcuffed was heated and had good drama. That said this went a little long and had a few pointless brawling segments.

Shinobu Kandori vs. Mizuki Endo

Endo tries to step up to the unstoppable machine that is Kandori. Fun match even though I hopped for a bit more shootstyle. Instead it was just Endo trying to get offense in on Kandori and getting smacked and countered a bunch. Great exchange of submissions at one point. Endo eats a pin at the 6 minute mark which looked unintentional and they ring the bell. Kandori has the match restarted and Endo gets to go her at her again only to eat another fluke pin 2 minutes later. Endo keeps attacking Kandori though so for some reason the match goes on until Kandori puts her away proper with a couple nasty powerbombs. Confusing endings aside the action was fun and scrappy here and they had good heat for Endo to topple Kandori. And Kandori is so charistmatic and good at her act that everything she's in ends up worth checking out.

Chigusa Nagayo & Bomber Hikaru vs. Eagle Sawai & Jenn Yukari

Great interpromotional match. Nagayo deserves a ton of credit for essentially carrying this not just with her charisma but also working the mat, throwing people around with fast suplexes and finally busting out stiff kicks. Sawai acted as her foil and while she did extremely little (basically just hitting body checks and lariats) she did it well. The section where she tried to bulldoze Nagayo only to out an out of nowhere legsweep was great. Yukari and Hikaru were supporting players, but they were fired up and the crowd getting behind Hikaru while Nagayo was earning boos was awesome. Second half had some exciting twists and nearfalls as they paced the match in such a way that you couldn't tell when the finish was gonna occure. Good stuff and a great effort from Nagayo.

THE LIBRARY

2002 MOTY Project Update #16

30.  Rey Bucanero & Ultimo Guerrero vs. Shocker & Vampiro, CMLL 9/13/2002

Another shockingly great match in the Vampiro vs. GDI feud. Getting a great feud out of Vampiro must be the crown jewel in Bucaneros and UGs body of work. This was basically a 12 minute super sprint that they put thought into. Every fall told a story and was intense. Of course, everyone minus Vampiro here is a really great athlete, so they were wrestling on a high level. Shocker played second fiddle to Vampiros charisma, but he was working his ass off bumping and flying and working exchanges. And Vampiro did not shit himself. I always like how hard Bucanero and Guerrero go at their opponents. They are asskickers but they always make sure to get the crowd on their bad site. Near perfect mix of workrate and heelwork.

4. Atlantis & Mr. Niebla & Negro Casas vs. Rey Bucanero & Dr. Wagner Jr. & Tarzan Boy, CMLL 8/30/2002

Even greater match, probably the lucha MOTY. Just an incredible brawl. Just a house of fire with the rudos coming out destroying the technicos and then the technicos coming back laying major assbeatings on them.Tarzan Boy was going hard after Negro Casas since they had a feud, and the bit where Casas was eating a 3 on 1 beatdown on the floor was some street violence. The technicos almost completely forgo any fancy moves and just go right back after the rudos, guys jumping on each other raining punches from mount left and right, it's a frenzy. Casas continueing to beat on Tarzan Boy right after the finish was great. In between the brawling and mask ripping they mix in some incredible sequences. You know it's awesome when Mr. Niebla has his working boots on and Bucaneros monkey flip bump over the rope was out of this world, he just flew into the void. My favourite moment in the whole match may have been Casas landing punches from mount and Bucanero jumping on him ragdolling him across the ring by his hair. You wouldn't think a hair drag would be so awesome but it is. You could tell Casas had a blast too busting out Choshu lariats and kicking dudes in the face. A nice reminder how incredible lucha brawls can be.

2002 MOTY MASTER LIST

Tanomusaku Toba Documentation Project #15

 

Tanomusaku Toba vs. Shinya Aoki, DDT 1/3/2019 - GREAT

This was a boxing gloves match where Aoki would use some grappling and ground and pound. This was kind of like Rocky, Toba is broken down and slower, can he contain the new hotness? You don‘t really need to put over what a monster Aoki is, but I‘m happy they gave him a serious match like this. Toba was confident early on, but Aoki gained confidence and finally just blew him away. Few great spots, such as Toba diving for a punch on the ground only for Aoki to lock in a submission at lightning speed. Aokis ground and pound looked just brutal and I was surprised to see Toba get up from that (although barely). Close to a squash but genuinely dramatic.

Tanomusaku Toba & Hayato Sakurai & HARASHIMA vs. Masa Takanashi & Yukio Naya & Mizuki Watase, DDT 2/5/2020 - FUN

Sakurai is one hell of a team mate. And Toba wore this cool gi get up. Charming match due to those factors. Naya is this big kickpadded crowbar and had the most interesting exchanges out of everyone on his team. Toba wasn‘t involved in the match much sadly, only throwing some strikes early on before eating a beating and tagging out, but Sakurai did lots of fun shit like locking in cool flying legbars and hitting judo throws. Watase was non descript but didn‘t drag things down. Fun for the novelty of seeing Sakurai and Toba in his gi.

Tanomusaku Toba & Hikaru Sato & Rion Mizuki vs. Tsunehito Naito & Akito & Kazuki Hirata, DDT 3/27/2011 - GREAT

Tsunehito Naito~! In 2011 I had no idea who Naito was so I probably would have skipped this match, but now I know what‘s up, and got excited seeing Naito in this. Naito was 40 here and hadn‘t had a match in 10 years, but he was still bringing it. Bullying Mizuki and having quality exchanges with Toba and Sato. I know this is the Toba documentaiton, but grumpy old Naito stole the show in this grappling and throwing the shit out of everyone. The uncooperative bit where he refused to let Sato throw him out the ring ruled. I also loved him locking in the Dragon Sleeper on the floor. Toba got to have a nice finish turning Hiratas lights out. Everything else was fine. They really should bring back Naito in 2021.

TANOMUSAKU TOBA DOCUMENTATION PROJECT MASTER LIST