Assorted NJPW Handhelds

 

Koji Kanemoto vs. El Samurai, NJPW 3/17/1996

Crazy stiff match that builds to a huge finish. A nice reminder of how good the NJPW juniors could be in the 90s. Samura is fired up to begin, slapping the taste out of Kanemotos mouth before hitting a big dive. Samurai is this weird guy who is often dull but when he‘s on he‘s pretty great. He was on here working like Fit Finlay, dropping elbows across Kanemotos face, even headbutting him in the nose. Of course Kanemoto is a right fucker too and when he comes back he cracks Samurai with nasty stomps to the skull and kicks to the ribs. The whole match was pretty much all guys stubbornly sinking into submissions, not cooperating on basic moves and brutalizing each other. It builds to a pretty big crescendo, Kanemoto is slapping around Samurai, pulling him up spitting on him. He goes for a big German Suplex off the apron (you know, this was before moves like that were thrown out 10 times a month) but hits his own head weakening himself, his hatred got the better off him. Samurai in desperation mode trying to inch out a win after being beaten to a pulp was great, hell this whole thing was pretty great. Apaprently before there was only an 8 minute TV version of this available before so praise the lord for handhelds like this so we can get the full undistilled brutality.

2/3 Falls Match:  The Great Sasuke & El Samurai & Super Delfin & Gran Hamada & Norio Honaga vs. Koji Kanemoto & Shinjiro Otani & Dick Togo & Men’s Teioh & & Hanzo Nakajima, NJPW 5/3/1997

That is a serious amount of raw talent in this match. No way this wouldn't be good at least, and it ended up being more than that. Mostly the heel side (Kanemoto et al) playing the numbers game and double teaming the techicos. Kanemoto and Otani also got pretty scrappy and stiff with their opponents. Double teams were cool (dug the series of elbow drops and flip sentons, and the synchronized dropkicks from Kanemoto and Otani), and there was one badass moment where Sasuke had enough of Kanemotos shit and perforated his guts with crowbar spin kicks. Also due to the rules we got more than one really good finish. Nakajima and Honaga are kind of the odd men out in this lineup of junior legends, but they do fine. Honaga even gets some very nice face reactions for his scuzzy heel tactics amid a sea of talented flyers. Great dive sequence, too.

Shiro Koshinaka vs. Kengo Kimura, NJPW 5/3/1997

Two pissed off old guys slap the fuck out of each other, how can it not be good?! These two are fired up and the crowd loved it. Awesome bit where Kimura almost KO's Koshinaka with punches. Got a bit slow and rest holdy here and there, but they pick up in a big way for the finish. Just two mad old geezers dumping each other with crazy powerbombs and suplexes. Somebody really should steal Koshinakas flying butt to the back of the neck move.

FMW 1/10/1996

Ricky Fuji vs. Hayato Nanjyo

Two juniors you don‘t see work a lot. They did a RVD/Jerry Lynn like routine of dodging spin kicks and going for ground moves early on. Then they settle into slow, pointless, time killing matwork routine before they whip out their cool highspots. Nanjyos asia moonsault was pretty beautiful and Fuji spiked him hard with Tiger Driver style moves. Crowd popped huge in the last couple minutes. Both guys also had good fashion sense, Fuji rocking some tasteful tights with tassles and his glorious dyed mane and Nanjo a cheap but charming looking silver costume with a red scarv belt.

Bad Nurse Nakamura vs. Yuki Nabeno

A surprisingly heated little match. Nabeno laid a ton of spice into her moves, dropkicking Nakamura in the face. Bad Nurse looked like quite the badass tearing up Nabenos bandaged shoulder and then finishing her with a nasty STF.

Daisuke Ikeda vs. Hisakatsu Oya

This was a truely mouth-watering match up. Ikeda vs. Ishikawa is one of the greatest matchups of all time, and Oya is the sleazy Fake Ishikawa. And they duke it out in a BattlARTS-before-BattlARTS style match here! Mostly gritty matwork in between Ikeda kicking the dogshit out of Oya. Oya took some manly ass kicks and then dropped Ikeda on his head with those big backdrop suplexes of his. 11 minutes of exactly what you want it to be.

Megumi Kudo vs. Chigusa Nagayo

Bomb-dropping sprint with some smartness displayed. I loved how they would put over the sleeper. Kudo was a bit sloppy here and there so I give Nagayo credit. She handled herself like a badass and put Kudos submissions over really strong, in between destroying her with kicks and throws. When she fought out of a sleeper, then collapsed, barely hit a counter move and tried to shake of the cobwebs it was like something that should be hammered into every aspiring wrestlers head on how to sell chokeholds. After a match a pull apart happens between all the girls in FMW and GAEA tracksuits and Nagayo bleeds and jumps on Miwa Sato like she is going to kill her because that‘s what Chiggy does.

Aja Kong vs. Combat Toyoda

Another sick ass match up on this card, what was Arai on when he put all this awesome shit together? These two could have an intricate epic match, but fuck that this is FMW, they chuck tables at each others heads and bleed. Opening brawling with Toyoda smashing things over Ajas head and then suicide diving right into an Aja trashcan shot was just great. Both women bleed, and then we get them both exchanging stiff blows and crushing each other with suplexes. I‘d say the lariat trading here was better than usual in Japanese matches because these two are supposed to be crazy monsters so you buy it more. Excellent build to the finish. This hit all the spots.

 

Hayabusa & Koji Nakagawa & Masato Tanaka vs. BADBOY Hido & Mitsuhiro Matsunaga & Kintaro Kanemura 

This had barbedwire ropes, spider nets and they brought in a ladder among other things. It was like a pretty typical multiman match involving all those things. At first guys try not to get thrown into the barbed wire, then they do get thrown into it, some highspots and a heel control segments happen before the bomb throwing finish. The brawling here wasn't super exciting although technically there was a cool matchup in Hayabusa/Matsunaga. The highspots were pretty good with some big dives over the barbedwire and a splash off the ladder to the outside. Bomb throwing was also gnarly but didn't go long. Overall this was a solid entry to the genre.

The Library

Matt Borne in South Africa

 Matt Borne vs. Danie Voges, South Africa ?/1980s(?)

Matt motherfucking Borne. From what I've seen South African wrestling was similiar to European wrestling, but this was like something out of Memphis. Aside from the stylistic unusualness of this being rounds and 2/3 falls, they could've worked the same match in the mid south coloseum and it would've gotten pretty over. Mostly Borne generating some insane heat and some great looking punch exchanges. Voges wasn't very charismatic but he threw a surprisingly good right hand and wasn't completely clueless what to do. I also liked how ran into Bornes big boots as if he wasn't expecting to eat big boots. And Borne was just relentless. His heat mongering between moves was world class and when it was time to throw hands he looked great. It made me think him vs. Lawler would've been an all timer. The posting outside the ring was one of the loudest I've ever heard, too. Borderline epic third fall with the local boy bleeding and Borne decking him with punches until a towel is thrown in. I love me a towel finish. This was raw pro wrestling.

2021 MOTY Project Update #6

 

6. Bryan Danielson vs. Dustin Rhodes, AEW 10/23

Pretty interesting match between a hybrid wrestler and an aging heavyweight star. Dustin is lower ranked, so Bryan was absorbing most of his moves and obviously the superior technician. It builds to a handful of excellent Dustin comebacks. Obviously the superplex felt like an epic moment, and when he hit that powerslam it felt like the whole match had built to that. Great cover after the reverse DDT as well. When Dustin hit the lariat, it felt like Jumbo on his last legs trying to shut down Misawa. Danielson was a bit go-go when he went back to offense, but Dustin kept edging out nearfalls so you knew Dustin was close to pulling off an upset. Really cool how they eschewed a traditional match structure and just had a really good match.

8. Josh Barnett vs. Tiger Ruas, Bloodsport 10/22

I thought this was well nomination worthy. Ruas was winning the match through elite level grappling and superior conditioning, so Barnett was left to rely on blasting him with suplexes and strikes. Mat section had a number of slick moments and was extremely well executed. Ruas was controlling and throwing strikes on the ground. Even after Barnett had hit a big suplex and hit some strikes from mount, he looked pretty spent. Ruas capeoeira kick was an amazing spot as not only was it cool looking but also extremely well timed. Barnett was just making his big comeback and then Ruas bounced back with THAT. It made Ruas look unstoppable. Finish worked as an out nowhere bomb being dropped. Barnett had been the biggest badass to walk the US indy scene so Ruas pretty much destroying him made for an exciting match. Great stuff and probably better than the recent Bryan/Suzuki match

10. Bryan Danielson vs. Minoru Suzuki, AEW 10/15 

This had a bit too many Your Turn/My Turn exchanges for my taste. I get Suzuki probably has to do these because he has to be pretty banged up at this point but too much of this felt like a glorified Nagata match. I also don't by Bryans character engaging in that macho stuff since he is supposed to be a smart technician. Outside of that this was very good. Opening PANCRASE grappling was cool, dug Bryans fast shoot for the single leg, and there were plenty more great transitions and counters throughout the rest of it. I was a bit annoyed with Bryan doing things like the face stomps and elbows mid-match since I see those as finishers, but what can you do. Submission work was great and I dug all the pins. 

 

2021 MOTY List 

Takeshi Ono Documentation Project #19

 Takeshi Ono vs. Alexander Otsuka, BattlARTS 8/29/1999 - FUN

Only 3 or 4 minutes where shown here, but every second was great. Otsuka at this time was experimenting with pro style moves a lot, and he was working Ono like a Power Plant guy using a grappling dummy here, just ragdolling him around. There were a few great moments, such as Onos rolling leglock, and Otsuka scrambling over Onos low blow and dumping him with a big suplex that Ono desperately tried to counter. Of course, we get a big Giant Swing spot where Otsuka just launches Ono across the ring like a cartoon character. Finish was totally great with Ono scrambling out of a Dragon Suplex and locking in a slick armbar. Crowd went nuts for Ono tapping out Otsuka and rightfully so.

Takeshi Ono & Mohammed Yone vs. Katsumi Usuda & Daisuke Ikeda, BattlARTS 9/23/1999 - FUN

Exciting looking match, but we only get the second half. Good stiff BattlARTS action. Yone was tolerable as he was there to eat brutal kicks and lariats from Usuda and Ikeda. It‘s always stunning how good Usuda looks even in short clips. His backhands are awesome. The finish was Ono vs. Ikeda and it was some great bomb throwing and counters. Another great finish with Ono scrambling out of Ikedas Death Valley Driver and into another neat lucha rollup turned armbar. Seems Ono was raking in some big surprise wins towards the end of 1999 but it didn‘t seem to go anywhere.

Takeshi Ono vs. Ryuji Hijikata, BattlARTS 12/25/1999 - GREAT

One of the few Ono matches that year to even air in full, and it‘s a great one. Mostly just Ono being a freak, putting on slick submissions on Hijikata, busting out neat counters and punching and kicking him in the face. A lot of Onos stuff could easily be stolen in a pro style context, it just looks so good and makes sense. Hijikata was green-ish but he could strike back when it counted. Loved Ono struggling against Hijikatas Fisherman Suplex. Well executed finish. This hit all the marks in 9 minutes and was just a great opener.

TAKESHI ONO DOCUMENTATION PROJECT MASTER LIST

NOW FIRE ENDLESS BATTLE 2/14/1993

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

1. Kishin Kawabata vs. An Che Honn

2. The Equalizer vs. Kim Chon Hyon

3. Buddy Landell vs. Rod Price

4. Hisakatsu Oya vs. Alex Porteau

5. Manny Fernandez vs. Apollo Sugawara

6. Ishinriki vs. Hiroshi Hatanaka

7. Atsushi Onita & Kendo Nagasaki vs. Goro Tsurumi & Umanosuke Ueda

  This was another really fun NOW card! We start with 2 singles matches starring obscure korean workers. Korean pro wrestling seems to have a similiar history to japanese pro wrestling only that it kind of died off over the years, but it's such a great unknown on the english speaking internet. In a different universe we are all raving about korean pro wrestling while nobody knows who Rikidozan is. I've only seen glimpses of korean wrestlers and all of them were from japanese promotions pitting them against japanese workers, which I assume is kind of a barrier, assuming there is a language barriere there and these workers come from different backgrounds and styles. Plus, with 1992 undercard indy matches, you mostly check them out for curiousity, especially when such illustrious names as Kishin Kawabata and The Equalizer are in them. And these undercard matches delivered all you can ask for. Kawabata vs. An Che Honn was pretty much a showcase of fun offense – with Kawabata hitting big headbutts, kicks to the spine, biiiiig jumping elbow drops and sentons – and An Che Honn hitting some pretty agile junior offense. The korean was doing standing moonsaults, backflips, flip sentons where he landed with his hip first in really hurty fashion. Dare I say, was this guy an unknown innovator from 25 years ago? Or was he just imitating what he saw on Peruvian wrestling tapes from 20 years prior? Then he hits this cool punch/kick combo and I'm all on board for the Korean Pro Wrestling train. Eitherway, that match didn't have real structure as basically Kawabata went back to offense immediately after An Che had hit his spots, but it was a fun showcase. Kawabata wins with a big leaping elbow drop and that rules. The next match had slightly better structure – I've never seen The Equalizer before and he looks like a fake Kevin Sullivan – google tells me he was a Kevin Sullivan gimmick brother – apparently he was in WCW. If you are a Fake Sullivan superfan you probably need to see this match, because it's like a really fun WCW TV match for a minute. Equalizer works „I'm bigger and you can't knock me over“, and Korakuen Hall pops when the obscure korean finally bodyslams him! Fake Sullivan hits a BIG second rope legdrop! Kim Chon Hyon hits all kinds of fun out of nowhere kicks! Equalizer brawls his way to the countout finish, and because the camera guy filming this is kind of slow you don't really get what's happening. After the match Tsurumi comes out and looks pissed at the koreans!

 

Landell vs. Price – this is what US Indy workers working japanese promotions used to look like!! Tubby blonde dyed white guys who don't care about impressing anybody and instead just work a psychologically sound match! And well I'll be a son of a bitch, because these two go out of their way to work a Southern BattlARTS match! They hit snug elbows, thundering chops and hurty looking punches and toe kicks, and also work fun drop toe holds and fireman carries into leg rides on the ground. It was a slow paced, deliberate match, mind you, but damn! I wanna see more wrestling like this!! You are probably thinking to yourself „Oh you lying german bastard. You spent 4$ on this tape and now you are imagining things to trick yourself into thinking this was good.“ Well bugger off, because this low key ruled. Price absolutely clocks Landell with a stiff clothesline out of nowhere. Landell works snug wristlocks and toeholds (inbetween Wooo!s for the crowd) only for Price to come up and punch him in the cheek. Price blocks a surfboard so Landell goes for a single leg crab instead and kicks Price in the ribs while holding that. Price fights out of an armbar and locks in a UWF leglock which Landell sells like a Figure 4 with his shouders down for the pinfall. Landell comes up limping and Price immediately follows up with more snug lowkicks. What the hell is happening?? Landell dares Price to take him down, who promptly does just that. Landell fights off the Price takedowns – including one by doing an awesome Fujiwara sprawl and now the crowd is really digging all this was we move closer to the 20 minute mark in a match with a 20 minute time limit. They really go broadway here and work nearfalls for sleeper holds and Figure 4s. Prices last move before the draw is a 10 Punch in the corner for a close 2 count. This was such a weird broadway but they really did a pro job working a sound match that won everyone over.

 

After that we get two more matches featuring US guys. IT'S HISAKATSU OYA vs. THE PUG!!! And they hit the mat!! Damn, is NOW scientific wrestling central of the 90s japanese indy scene?! Oya looks better here than he did in both BattlARTS and MUGA. He really wrenches Porteaus t shoulder and arm with some snug holds. Porteau is on the very, very bland side here. He has a nice headlock punch though. But before The Pug can bore you to sleep Oya absolutely KILLS him with the backdrop suplex! Golly!! Nasty Oya submissions and that insane bump are totally enough for me to give this the Full Japan Indy Point. Next up is Thee Manny Fernandez vs. Apollo Sugawara. And that was a fun short match too. Fernandez has the Finlay mullet and his charisma and mannerisms shine through even on a handheld. Match was fun in that short WCW TV match way. Sugawara still has really nice dropkicks and Fernandez takes a really nice backdrop bump for him. Fernandez also hits some really nice slug clotheslines. He also wins with a nasty shootstyle toe hold which is unexpected and rules, like pretty much everthing on this card so far.

 

Ishinriki vs. Hiroshi Hatanaka was, unlike pretty much everything else on this card, something you could've shown to your average juniors loving 90s smark and he would've agree that it was a cool match. Two pudgy juniors go 20 minutes and there are some big nearfalls down the stretch. I really enjoyed the match as they did a good job filling the time, these two guys have really good looking basics, really fast explosive shoulderblocks and armdrags etc. Hatanaka looked especially good, hitting lariats with a ton of snap, big kneedrops and leg drops, really nice powerslam etc. His Fujiwara armbar counter may have been the highlight of the match. He also hit at one point a huge legdrop that looked like it would shoot KO someone and Ishinriki was either legit knocked loopy or Ishinriki is really good at selling „I just had a 280 pound japanese dude drop his weight on my jaw and I don't know where the fuck I am“. It's this kind of match that gets you really over with japanese crowds and they both came out looking like they should've been kings of the indies but instead they just completely fell off the map in the mid 90s. I thought the match could've been really great with a little more stiffness and hatred – they tease flaring tempers in the first minute and never really follow up – or maybe some kind of more pronounced story, but they achived what they were going for without hiccups and this was just a really cool match to see.

 

The main event was all about the superstar charisma of Onita as the crowd is absolutely white hot for him. Unfortunately once again some kind of sports entertainment crept into it as Ueda refused to cooperate with Tsurumi. To be fair, Tsurumi looked good here, and the guys potatoeing eachother sections were fun. Tsurumi was doing the backfists before the were cool and hitting nice punches, also Nagasaki has ridculously great kicks here, just trying to boot dudes heads off, plus Manny Fernandez was at ringside with a kendo stick. But once again the match ended early. The coolest thing to come out of this was a brief Manny Fernandez/Tarzan Goto face off which is the greatest match of the 90s that never happened.

 

So there you have it. Two really good matches, fun undercard, lots of coolness throughout, Tarzan Goto in a funny 90s getup... I'm all on board for the NOW hype train by now.

The Library

Assorted NEO

 

Hiromi Yagi & Carlos Amano vs. Yuka Shiina & Chaparita ASARI, NEO 5/4/2001

This is the kind of joshi I love and miss dearly. 4 crazy grapplers going all out busting out crazy armbars and legbars left and right and fighting fiercely. My girl Yagi totally stole the show having some great exchanges. I was also super impressed with Asari. She is someone I usually enjoy, but she totally adapted to the others style and busted out some super dope shit including her awesome swinging rana into an armbar. I‘ve never noticed Shiina much but she was hellbent on choking someone out. Amano was her usual self. The finish was great with Yagi pulling out an incredible counter. It was something Fujiwara would do if he was a 95 pound lithe athletic girl.

Hiromi Yagi & Yuka Shiina vs. Tanny Mouse & Yuki Miyazaki, NEO 5/3/2001

Not a match people would seek out on paper, but there were some good standing exchanges here. Miyazaki and Tanny where kind of a workrate team in NEO while still doing some comedy. Some moments felt comedic but not like contrived jokes. And the rest of this was quite good, mostly built around flash submissions and cool hard head spots from Tanny. Shiina was once again working like a submission artist and I think she's becoming one to watch. She's really putting the Sleeper Hold to use and that's something that will always get a wrestler on my good side. The ending was built around her trying to choke Tanny out, finding various ways to lock in sleepers and Tanny desperately avoiding them until Tanny caught her in a her weird Pallo Special to get the submission herself. Fun match and an example of sprinty joshi done right.

Yuka Shiina vs. Chaparita ASARI, NEO 12/7/2001

Awesome match! Pretty much Shiina countering Asaris flying into her grappling moves, and Asari countering with surprising grappling skill of her own. I love a match where wrestler not famous for grappling reveals themself to be good at grappling, and this was that. And they stuck to this simple story and it really worked in getting me into all their exchanges. Once again Shiina was hyper focussed on the sleeper. It build to a great ending with ASARI trying to knock her out with shotais and Shiina going for Sleepers from different angles. It's kind of mind blowing how simple great matches can be sometimes. Add a neat finish and you have one of the best joshi matches of the year.