Had an Ax to Grind so off Tenryu Went, Mad at the Sun for Coming up Again

Genichiro Tenryu & Ashura Hara v The Great Kabuki & Haku (WAR, 7/15/92) - GREAT

A step down from the previous night's classic, but still chock full of your lumpy WAR goodness. This never had the same ready-made hook of Orihara being junior heavyweight punching bag. On the one hand that meant we got some Tenryu in peril, and for a role you don't necessarily associate with him during his peak years he sure is great in it. On the other hand Hara isn't nearly as explosive coming in off the hot tag. Hara also took a couple stints being beat on, one of which in the back half that kind of dragged a bit, and as much as I love him he isn't as compelling a face in peril as Orihara. The second half of the previous night's match just escalated in violence until it reached horrific levels, so the back half of this being more about the abdominal stretches and camel clutches was never going to hit the same heights. But in amongst all of that you got exactly what you came for -- potatoes for days, nasty strikes, brutal partner saves, awkward powerbombs, hate, ill will, and an exasperated referee knowing he can't keep any of it in check. Hara and Haku were bringing the bazooka headbutts here, some where one guy would grab the other by the hair and conk him, others where one would bounce off the ropes and ram his head into the closest face or forehead. I've always had a soft spot for Haku and he clearly likes working Tenryu feds because he can cut loose and slabber folk like he was born to. This isn't him throwing rinky dink lariats and superkicks against Jimmy Snuka; this is WAR and if you don't smack a guy so hard that his sweat hits the back wall then you're doing it wrong. His first interaction with Tenryu was also amazing as, like the previous night, Tenryu's very first involvement had him trying to crush someone's windpipe with a chop. Only where Kabuki bided his time and hit back later, Haku immediately grabbed a chair and walloped him in the head. He was also giving Tenryu some of his own medicine by kicking him in the face as he crawled around trying to find his partner. Kabuki might've been even more agitated here than he was the night before. Any time someone hit the ropes near him you fully expected them to be kneed in the kidneys or kicked in the neck, and more than once that's what happened. He may not be as physically talented, but if we're comparing Japanese guys in face paint who worked 80s US territories then I'm pretty sure I'd take him before Muta. I know Muta never superkicked anyone in the throat with as much conviction as Kabuki. Not one of the true upper echelon WAR tags, but more than once it broke into a deluge of lariats and headbutts and everybody getting clobbered from all angles. And that's really what brought you here in the first place.


Genichiro Tenryu & Shiro Koshinaka v Satoshi Kojima & Hiro Saito (New Japan, 2/5/00) - FUN

This is a match I was interested in for the Tenryu and not a lot else. Don't care about Kojima, rarely care about Koshinaka, and Hiro Saito is comfortably behind Masa and Harley on any sensible person's list of pro-wrestling Saitos. The Tenryu bits were indeed fun and he was the best part of this by a mile, especially when he was chopping folk and punching Saito in the jaw. For his part Saito was alright firing back and his sentons certainly looked PLUMP. Koshinaka obviously couldn't be bothered and was mostly nothing. His hip- and butt-based offence will sometimes look okay if he's laying it in, but he wasn't really doing that and so you don't really care. Once or twice he was also being worked over and just decided he was fed up, stopped all pretense of selling and tagged out. Kojima had a few fun moments of chippiness, getting in Tenryu's face, throwing some shots the old man wasn't expecting, definitely the brightest non-Tenryu participant. Cool moment where he pushed Tenryu too far and got clobbered with an apron enziguri, crowd booed a little and Tenryu looked at them like "what did you honestly expect?" Tenryu taking a page out of Koshinaka's fuck it playbook and no-selling Saito's powerbomb was kind of lame, although the setup to it was well done. More of a proper heat segment on someone and this could've been pretty good, but it was basically your garden variety back and forth New Japan tag.


Complete & Accurate Tenryu

Absolutely Fabulous

Fabulous Ones, Dutch Mantell & Steve O v The Sheepherders, Adrian Street & Jesse Barr (Stipulations Match) (Memphis, 3/28/83)

I still don't actually know what the stipulations to this are. Haven't known since I first saw it over ten years ago. They don't necessarily have any bearing on how the match is worked, so it's not like DiBiase/Duggan where they're in the cage wearing tuxedos and there's a glove on a pole and whatnot. They're not gimmick stips as such. The result of the match and who takes the fall specifically determines which of the several stipulations must be upheld and of course this is Memphis so you better believe somebody is leaving town when all is said and done. As a match it was plenty chaotic. Street wasn't involved for very long, but his exotico shtick was fun as he got kicked in the butt and threw a hissy fit, then later was the recipient of a wishbone and I can't really do justice to his sell of it. You had guys coming in illegally, heels taking cheapshots, being chased out by the babyfaces, the babyfaces themselves taking cheapshots; there was always something going on beyond what the two guys in the ring were doing and Calhoun had to spend the whole time trying to keep a lid on it. The best parts were when one guy would just randomly smack someone with a chair for no apparent reason. At one point Mantell came running along the floor and smashed a Sheepherder in the head. Keirn, from outside the ring, hit someone in the back as they were standing by the ropes, and I don't know where he even got the chair from but it was a total Tenryu move. Lane getting on the mic post-match and telling Cornette to "HIT THE ROAD, JACK" prompts the tantrum to end all tantrums as Corny has to leave Memphis for like four days or something. I'm sure he was back in three.


Fabulous Ones v The Moondogs (Stretcher Match) (Memphis, 5/2/83)

Outside of Lawler/Dundee, this might be my favourite Memphis feud. I have a ton of fond memories of going through the Memphis set and a whole bunch of them revolve around the Fabulous Ones. Before the Memphis stuff I mostly knew Steve Keirn as the old balding gator hunter who was always covered in chewing tobacco. I remembered him with chew dripping down his beard and Monsoon calling him a disgusting boor and Heenan sometimes cracking jokes about him having just kissed Mike McGuirk (as an aside, Heenan's McGuirk cracks might be the best running gag in WWF history). I always liked Lane and even had time for his goofy karate, but he was the sauce to Eaton's steak and everything else in the main course. Then came Memphis and I couldn't believe how good these guys were. The Mid-South set had come out before Memphis but I was late in getting to that, so while everybody else involved in the 80s project already got to see them be awesome - albeit as heels - the Fabs jumped off the page to me as an amazing, all-time level babyface unit. Eleven years later they're still my favourite ever US tag team. The thing that separates them from a lot of babyface teams of the era is that the Fabs got to brawl like motherfuckers and have insane blood feuds with the Moondogs and the Pretty Young Things. Midnights v RnRs might be the pinnacle of US tag wrestling, but they never had anything like this. That Midnights/Fantastics match from the Clash where they were chucking each other over tables was nuts, but they never hit the same level of visceral hatred as Fabs/Moondogs. Naturally this starts out wild before the Fabs isolate Rex (I'm not entirely sure if it was him or Spot and neither is Lance because he just refers to him as "the bigger Moondog"), and I don't have any memory of them trying to double stomp his guts to mush but they surely do just that and it was surely fucking awesome. In an interesting twist on the norm it's uber-babyface Stan Lane who brings out a chain, but there's a collision between him and Rex and the chain goes flying. I loved Keirn picking it up and trying to strangle Rex from the outside, though of course that leaves the ref' distracted and he misses Spot clubbing Lane in the head with a big old dinosaur bone. The short heat segment on Lane rules and Jimmy Hart jumping around blowing his whistle like an idiot has everyone itching for him to get popped in the mouth. The hot tag to Keirn sends everything into chaos and the last couple minutes are insanity. Keirn bonks Rex with the dinosaur bone and goes full Pirata Morgan, biting him in the forehead and spitting the blood in the air, while Lane and Spot try to throttle each other on the floor. Finish is totally crazy. For a match that can only end with one team being carted out on a stretcher, you'd think any stoppage other than that would be anticlimactic. But Keirn being hanged in the ropes while the Moondogs and Jimmy Hart try to murder him felt way more disturbing than what him being beaten into unconsciousness would have. Sending Keirn away in an ambulance wasn't enough, they wanted him carted out by the coroner! The ropes really snapped back as Lane finally managed to free him as well. Just a brutal looking sequence and Lane wildly swinging a chair trying to defend his fallen comrade was an awesome visual. And hey, Keirn WAS eventually taken away on a stretcher - on the second attempt since a Moondog tipped it over the first time - so in the end they fulfilled the terms of the contract. This might not even be the wildest match of the feud.


Fabulous Ones v Bobby Eaton & Duke Myers (Hair v Titles) (Memphis, 5/16/83)

The Rock n Rolls never had anything like this, either. This was the kind of thing that, if you ran it with a slightly tweaked finish, could conceivably turn a guy babyface. Duke Myers got his brains beaten out here, bled like a stab victim and had no idea what was even going on at the end. He was a warm body that Bobby Eaton rolled onto an opponent and he'd have stayed there if not for being dragged away. The match starts out with them going Lane in peril almost right away, which was probably a smart booking decision considering how much the Fabs were going to take of the match later. Lane doesn't really make a hot tag; he basically makes his own comeback and is fully recovered by the time he tags in Keirn, but Randy Hales sells it as a big moment. I like that Lane sold the effects of his own headbutt, at least. Then the thrashing begins. After a few seconds of Keirn beating on him Myers' face is a ruin. He gets nothing from here on out. It's just a total Fabs domination and Hales says several times that he's never seen a guy busted open so bad. Even the mid-match stoppage is the kind of thing you could use to put major sympathy on someone, especially if you have Cornette and Eaton dump him for losing them the match. Myers never quit, he was just beaten half to death and the ref' stopped it. Cornette and Eaton leave in disgust and you get some more heat on them, setting up the revenge run from Myers. That's not complicated booking and we've seen something similar work a few times. But this is hair v titles and if Cornette's boys lose, he's bald. So they get the match restarted and Myers gets bludgeoned some more. The finish is one of those things where, if you started to feel even a little sympathy for Myers after the unholy shitkicking he'd received, it all evaporated when Cornette and Eaton managed to cheat their way to a win. Myers himself played little part in it, but he's associated with them, reaps the same rewards and ultimately becomes an undeserved tag champ. Unless you'd count taking that beating and walking away as something worthy of a champion. And well, you might not be wrong.

Lawler v Dundee: For all the Marbles!

Bill Dundee v Jerry Lawler (Dundee's Hair v Lawler's Title & Car) (Memphis, 8/22/77)

What a fucking match. I'm positive I'd seen a clipped version in the past, but this is the full version that became available a while back, possibly as part of the 70-TV.com footage released a few years ago. I'd already watched the build up on those 70-TV discs and it really is wonderful. They went back to this feud countless times over their careers and the way they managed to find new ways of keeping it fresh is pretty amazing. The opening here is more cagey than usual for them, but the stakes are as high as they've been in their eternal feud to this point. So it's understandable. Dundee's hair is on the line, but more than that if he loses he'll have to listen to all of Lawler's grandstanding on TV about how he told everyone he'd beat the little runt. Lawler's title and car are both at stake and what's a king without his crown? And in Memphis, a king without his Cadillac? So is his dopey manager's hair but I expect Jerry cares substantially less about that (I don't even remember the manager's name now and I don't think he was around very long. He was no Jimmy Hart, obviously). So it's real tentative and Lawler spends most of the first five minutes skirting the peripheries of the ring, always arm's length from the ropes. I love how Dundee played it cool, though. He never got riled, never got drawn in, just kept patient and waited for his chance. He eventually gets it by kicking Lawler in the knee - which was apparently damaged in another of their recent matches - and going to work on the leg for the next few minutes. Lawler does this great sell of it where he keeps the bad leg turned away from Dundee, still staying close to the ropes in case he needs to grab them or outright escape the ring. Dundee is dogged in going after the figure-four, gets closer to applying it with each attempt, but Lawler manages to fight him off every time. The one time he just about managed it Lawler turned onto his side and yanked Bill off his feet by the tights, so Dundee improvised and applied a sort of side of  side on figure-four using his hands for pressure instead. Lawler takes over with a short bit of revenge leg work, but it doesn't last long before we get to the fists. He brings out the chain, opens Dundee up, chokes him with it, grinds it in his cut, bites him, the full playlist. Then before the ref' can catch him in the act he drops it back out to his manager and goes about the rest of his business with bare knuckles. You know what you're getting with the punches. Both are GOAT-level punchers and several dozen GOAT-level punches are thrown. There was one awesome Dundee flurry where he was peppering Lawler with shots, circling around him as he went before dropping him with an absolute jaw-jacker. But Dundee is losing blood and before long he's on his last legs. This was some truly incredible last legs selling. At one point Lawler had him in the corner just lacing into him and you bought Dundee only being upright because Lawler's presence in front of him kept him from falling on his face. It gets so bad the NWA representative in attendance calls a halt to the match, but of course Dundee is having none of it. Lawler is naturally pissed at the restart, immediately jumps for the mount and unloads with this unreal barrage of shots. Just a total "will you fucking die already?" response, the kind of thing you see in a big dramatic murder scene when a character's pushed beyond the brink and they're left staring at their hands, all their fury spent, wondering how they were capable of doing that to someone. Except Lawler knew from the start he was capable of it and he still had fury to burn. The finish might've been a wee bit anticlimactic, but you soon forget about it with the post-match, which was very Memphis in its execution (thus, awesome). I'm not sure where this sits among the very best of Lawler v Dundee, but it's an absolute corker and probably somewhere around their top 3 singles matches.

Porky/Markus! Coupla Fatboys! Santo! Panther! Niebla!

Brazo de Plata & Headhunters A & B v Gran Markus Jr., Cien Caras & Steele (CMLL, 5/22/98)

You knew you were in for something special before this even officially started. The Headhunters are full blown tecnicos here and come out hugging children and high-fiving parents, then Brazo de Plato comes out at a rapid waddle and bum rushes the EVEN PORTLIER Gran Markus Jr. as the Loony Tunes theme song plays. You'd maybe think the match could only go downhill from there, but then you'd be dead fucking wrong because this was an awesome seedy brawl built around a couple fatboys bleeding like pigs. The first caida lasts about a minute and a half before the rudos literally kick Porky into submission. Or the refs DQ them for excessive cruelty, I'm not really sure. Either way Porky gets thrown into the ring post and bleeds, so Markus Jr. punches him in the cut and hungrily laps up his blood like a disgusting wee ghoul. Porky making his comeback was of course phenomenal, as it tends to be. I'll never tire of Super Porky losing his marbles in fit of rage and it looked like he was trying to kick Markus Jr. to death. He was also measuring his punches before landing potato shots right to the cheek bone and digging his thumbs into the cut forehead like he was trying to peel a particularly stubborn tangerine. The Headhunters were a blast in this as well, throwing their ample weight around and splatting guys with beefy clotheslines, one of them crushing Cien Caras with his entire body weight, the other doing an awesome fatboy plancha off the ring apron. Steele is Val Venis in a dodgy Shredder mask made of cut up cereal boxes and he was a pretty fun rudo stooge. He had a couple impressive power spots, like picking up a Headhunter and ramming him into the post, and he had a nice brawling section with that same Headhunter where he tried to cut a mid-match promo only to get his face smashed into a table. The finish is deflating as we finally get to the mano a mano section with Porky and Markus Jr. on level footing, but the ref' sold the almighty hell out of that splash and if the apuestas lives up to the lead in then you can accept the trade off.


El Hijo del Santo, Blue Panther & Black Warrior v Tony Rivera, Mr. Niebla & Mr. Aguila (CMLL, 5/22/98)

Totally different yet equally awesome trios. This was just a breeze, and if it wasn't particularly standout for CMLL in 1998 then that says more about the kind of TV they were producing that year. This didn't necessarily have a central pairing to it -- it didn't appear to be setting up a title/apuestas match or even furthering any existing programmes, there were no A/B/C roles or match-ups, but it did have the obvious hook of the young studs up against the legends. It was a workrate trios at heart, but even if they never got especially niggly there was definitely an element of the old guard wanting to put the kids in their place. Niebla looked like a real superstar here and his pairing with Panther was top drawer. You'd suspect part of looking so good against Panther is because you're in there with Panther in the first place, but he looked crazy graceful all the way through and his matwork was really slick. Either he improved markedly at the latter in those eight months since the Wagner title match, or he was always capable and Wager decided to work that New Japan hybrid anyway. Aguila also had a few big moments and his corkscrew moonsault was perfection. Santo busting out the corner tope will always rule and I loved Niebla taking it straight in the face as the dude front row had to scramble out of dodge so fast his shirt got left behind. I want to check out more Niebla from '98. Late career Niebla can be a drag and I don't remember early career Niebla being anything exciting. Maybe this was right in the sweet spot?

Yoshida v Futagami; Ohmukai v Tamada (ARSION)

Michiko Ohmukai v Rie Tamada (ARSION, 5/5/98)

This had a few cool moments, a few weird moments, a few rubbish moments. It wasn't the best. Ohmukai starting out by using a handshake to yank Tamada into a tiger suplex was great, but then they went and did a bunch of suplex-trading and no-selling and nobody has time for that shit. Ohmukai has some killer strikes but hardly any of them looked good here. Her kicks were all over the place, the ones that connected often looking light, the ones that missed looking like that was always the plan anyway. She did throw one punch to the jaw that kind of ruled, though. Tamada was just as sloppy and some of the miscues between them were glaring, resulting in awkward fumbling with neither seeming to know who was supposed to be hitting a move and who was supposed to be taking it or moving out the way or what. When she's on her game Ohmukai can be a pretty great Battlartsy shitkicker, but this was not that. I don't know what this was.


Mariko Yoshida v Mikiko Futagami (ARSION, 5/5/98)

What a cracking little bout. Where the last match started with a minute of ropey fighting spirit guff, this started with a minute of sprawling and scrambling for limbs that ended in a stalemate. Yoshida was an absolute marvel in this. She mostly works dominant and it's because she's such a dynamo on the mat. Futagami is the more accomplished striker, but most of her big hits land almost surprisingly. She has to get tricky with them because Yoshida seems to have them largely scouted, and once or twice, probably out of frustration, she throws a couple that could be considered cheapshots. Early on they engaged in a knuckle lock and Futagami started throwing kicks, thinking she'd keep hold of Yoshida's hands so she wouldn't be able to block. Except Yoshida used her arm and managed to corral a body kick anyway, which she then turned into a rolling kneebar. On the couple rare occasions it looks like Futagami might have Yoshida in a dangerous spot, Yoshida will spring a counter and apply an ankle lock with her own feet or a kimura to escape a choke (and I love that she coughed and spluttered a bit afterwards to sell it). I'm not sure what prompted it specifically, but at some point Yoshida started selling her taped up wrist and it gave Futagami something to target in times of need. Some of her hits started landing a little more flush as well and they had me convinced she was winning after the brutal koppo kick. But really, Yoshida did about five things on the mat that I don't think I've seen before. There was one point where Futagami tried to pull some Manami Toyota neck bridging out of a pin shenanigans so Yoshida grabbed a choke with her legs. A couple beats later Yohida hit a folding powerbomb, and as Futagami kicked out Yoshida instantly transitioned into an ankle lock. The way she wound up with a gogoplata out of a gutbuster at the end was absurd. ARSION had such a cool house style and this was a superb ten minutes of it.

Hashimoto v Yamazaki (The Title Match)

Shinya Hashimoto v Kazuo Yamazaki (New Japan, 2/16/97) 

This is such a great match. It was a pairing that ruled any time we saw it in '96 and they played off some of that history here. First couple minutes are great as they set up a few things they'll pay off later. Right away Yamazaki throws some strikes in the corner and Hash just wallops him with an overhand chop, so you're thinking Yamazaki might want to try and do something about those at some point. He also tries to hit a German, but it's blocked and Hash reverses it into a snap DDT. For a stretch after this it feels a bit like Hashimoto is having to react to whatever Yamazaki throws at him. He can never settle into a rhythm while Yamazaki implements his strategy. Hashimoto will kick you in half so naturally Yamazaki goes after the leg. Hash is mostly contained for a while, and even if some of the kneebars aren't hugely compelling they at least further the story. There are also a couple great moments where Yamazaki tries to go for an armbar, then as Hash worries about blocking that Yamazaki shifts back to the leg. We also get a payoff to that earlier German suplex attempt as Yamazaki wastes him with an ax kick and hits a great looking German. Match goes up a gear just after halfway and is fucking awesome from then on (as opposed to only being pretty great beforehand). There were a few occasions in the back half of 1996 where Yamazaki would sell a rib injury in matches. He'd even do it outside of New Japan, like during a tag match in WAR, and it always added some big time drama. The injury was caused initially by Hashimoto trying to crush his lungs in a June tag title match, so Hash just pump kicking him in the guts was an amazing "fuck this" transition. Yamazaki sold it like he'd been shot as well, and they play it up with a few other kicks to the midsection later so I'm inclined to believe it's a deliberate part of the PSYCHOLOGY~. At this point Yamzaki changes strategy - because stopping those kicks clearly worked out so well - and goes to the arm instead. I guess it's easy to make comparisons to Misawa/Kobashi again because it's so fresh in my mind, but Hash's overhand chops feel pretty comparable at this point to Misawa's elbow - and we've seen them used to similar effect already - so I thought it was a cool way to advance things. That Hashimoto's selling performance was incredible doesn't hurt. It was a different sort of selling from Misawa's, more expressive than Misawa's stoic determination, but the overall point was largely the same. His arm is fucked and his opponent is clearly trying to take away a major weapon, but as long as the arm is still attached he'll keep using that weapon and worry about the consequences later. Yamazaki was winging kicks to the arm, really working for the Fujiwara armbar, and the crowd were starting to react like an upset might be on the cards. A couple times he grabbed the fresh arm and applied the armbar there, then as Hashimoto reached for the ropes he would transition back to the opposite arm. At one point he just started headbutting the shoulder and the bit where he blocked the brainbuster by punching Hash's bicep was awesome. Hashimoto coming back with his own headbutts looked brutal as well, just total Fujiwara-style butts right to the cheek bone. And of course the moment he lost it and reeled off five overhands in a row, dropping to one knee in agony afterwards, was amazing. That finish with the absolute mother of all brainbusters was a hell of an exclamation. I've never seen their G-1 match from a year later, but it's one I've been looking forward to for ages and if this is anything to go by I imagine it'll be terrific.

Liger v Kanemoto (IN FULL!)

Jushin Liger v Koji Kanemoto (New Japan, 2/16/97)

I watched this practically back to back with the heralded Liger/Ohtani match from a week before this. The Ohtani match is routinely talked about as one of the best juniors matches ever, compared to Misawa/Kobashi not necessarily in terms of quality, but for the story they told being quite similar. And well, I liked this way more than the Ohtani match. One of the very first comps I ever bought had the clipped up version of this on it and I remembered reading about it on one of the old DVDVRs. It sounded spectacular and was a bit of a dream match for me at the time. Kanemoto was one of the first guys from Japan I became a fan of and Liger was maybe the very first, being familiar with him as I was from the WCW appearances and some old magazines. So naturally the eight or nine minutes I saw of it blew me away. I watched it again about ten years ago, probably the same JIP version, and still loved it. The full version isn't exactly a holy grail for me at this point and I never figured one would ever be made available anyway, but I guess New Japan decided to throw us Kanemoto stans a bone and drop the unedited version way back when. And hey, the full version was great! And those missing minutes added rather than detracted from the match!

It's not a perfect match by any stretch and there are some iffy parts. A few bombs could've been sold better, they could've made a little more of one or two elements, maybe the brief limb work could've had more of a payoff, that sort of thing. I think this being about eight minutes shorter than the Ohtani match kept me a little more engaged as well, and in general I thought they used their time better (though I understand that Ohtani and Liger probably needed longer to tell their story). This had some matwork in the first half, some targeting of Liger's knee and arm, but it was mostly Kanemoto kicking the shit out of Liger. Kanemoto never exactly worked over the knee and/or arm, he just briefly went to the kneebar or armbar in between those longer bouts of striking. Liger acknowledged that the arm was giving him some grief, but it wasn't the central focus of the first half and it was all the other grief Kanemoto was giving him that had him sweating. It's sort of amazing how a guy in a full bodysuit and ridiculous mask can be so expressive, but Liger is awesome at conveying the story through body language and his body language said "what the fuck am I even doing here?" He'd been put through the ringer a week earlier and straight from the bell he's being booted out of his costume. Isn't The Ace supposed to be given a break once in a while? Why be The Man if you can't flex some political muscle now and then? The first half is like 90% Kanemoto and even the moment where he basically no-sells a powerbomb didn't annoy me because it was the first bit of real offence Liger had mustered. Plus for any questionable moment like that you get two or three awesome ones in return, like Kanemoto flipping Liger the bird mid-Figure Four or chucking him around by the horn on his mask. Or generally being a wee prick and punting him in the spine and such. The transition into Liger's comeback is a real corker. Kanemoto comes off the top with a moonsault, but as Liger moves Kanemoto's able to land on his feet, charging right at Liger only to have his nasal bone drilled through his brain with the meanest shotei ever. This was just hideous and, like it did against Ohtani the week before, establishes the shotei as Liger's most reliable and lethal weapon. Liger is really great from here on out reasserting himself and repaying Kanemoto for all that horseshit earlier. The brainbuster on concrete felt huge here too. In the Ohtani match they did something similar with Ohtani taking a powerbomb on the floor, but he was literally up and about like nothing had happened ten seconds later. Kanemoto really milked this though, waiting just until the ref' got to nineteen before sliding back in the ring. Liger briefly going after Kanemoto's knee during the stretch run felt a touch out of place, but it had a payoff later as Kanemoto builds up another head of steam before missing a moonsault, and from there he can't quickly follow up because he dings his knee on the landing. Liger using the shotei to set up the avalanche brainbuster was a great finish as well and there's that trusty palm strike getting him out of bother again.

I doubt this is even a top 10 match of 1997, but it's one I've always had a soft spot for, have fond memories of even reading about, and the full version totally delivered everything my teenage self could've wanted.

Twist off the Lid Like Tenryu Did, Let the Fiddle Make a Little Mountain Noise

Genichiro Tenryu & Ultimo Dragon v Typhoon & Shinja (WAR,12/8/95) - SKIPPABLE

This was the semi-final of a one night tag tournament, the first and only of its kind in WAR's short, potatoey history. Tenryu and Ultimo beat Fuyuki and Kandori in a fun first round match (refer to the C&A Tenryu database, if you would) while Shinja and Typhoon had to get past the all-star duo of Koji Kitao and fucking El Gigante! I can only imagine how the prominent online wrestling reviewers of the time viewed that. Folk weren't exactly the most receptive to WAR and its lumpiness back then so I'd assume many negative star ratings were assigned. But hey, some of this was alright! Typhoon is absolutely huge and towers over everyone. It wasn't as noticeable in the WWF because it was full of giants there, but even Tenryu looks small and Ultimo is teeny tiny. Tenryu chops him stupid hard but Typhoon is unfazed and slams your WAR president like he was a mere sack of carrots. They do some mid-match comedy shtick with Typhoon asking little Ultimo for a test of strength, Ultimo obliging by standing on the top rope, and Typhoon just chucking him away. Ultimo ends up playing face in peril and Typhoon gives him a backbreaker, then while on one knee gives him about six more with absurd ease. Ultimo does not make you forget Tommy Rogers, but he's a passable enough FIP and Tenryu was getting super annoyed at his little buddy being treated like garbage. The finish was pretty out of nowhere, but you'd have bet the house on Shinja being the fall guy and Tenryu condescendingly applauding them afterwards was amusing. Shinja flinging a fireball in his face was a pretty unexpected response.


Genichiro Tenryu & Ultimo Dragon v Jado & Gedo (WAR, 12/8/95) - GREAT

The final! And what a killer little sprint! I wasn't expecting much from this, knew it only went eight minutes (fuck yer Real World Tag League) and figured it might be kind of decent with enough Tenryu involvement. But man, it wound up being a real hoot. Gedo is sporting the bleach blond quiff and he and Jado look like the goofiest pyjama-wearing shitheads imaginable. They jump Ultimo before the bell and straight away we go into the Ultimo Morton segment. This was way more heated than the semi-final as Jado and Gedo are working at double pace with a bunch of neat offence and cut-offs. Gedo also takes the turnbuckle padding off one corner and I thought it was a bit silly because they don't actually do anything with it, but just you wait. Gedo even knocks Tenryu off the apron at one point by clawing at his recently-scalded face. Of course Tenryu is a fucking hell storm in off the hot tag, immediately breaking a chair over Jado's head and smashing him into a table. Almost instantly Jado's face and forehead are crimson and Tenryu so thoroughly mauls him that you almost feel sympathy for the wee goof. He's trying to pull himself up with the ropes and Tenryu just keeps chopping his throat and throwing short punts to the cut. Gedo eventually comes in and dropkicks Tenryu's knee at a disgusting angle, but the follow-up splash backfires and he flies into that exposed turnbuckle. Thus, we have the greatest payoff in the history of our sport. Gedo's carcass is ripe for the pickings as Ultimo wipes out Jado with the Asai Moonsault, and Tenryu adjusts the weightlifting belt with a look that tells us he's very much back in the big time (he'd missed five months prior to this, though I'm not sure if he was injured or what). This flew by. It never let up, had a nice heat segment, Tenryu slaughtering someone, cool little setups and payoffs, blood, a hot crowd, just way better than I was expecting.


Complete & Accurate Tenryu

Llanes, Herodes, Ms-1; some 1990 CMLL

Pierroth Jr., Ulises & Super Halcon v Javier Llanes, Huracan Ramirez & Americo Rocca (CMLL, 1/19/90)

Javier Llanes is such a fascinating worker. Lucha uploaders on YouTube have been doing god's work the last few years so a chunk of 90s Llanes footage has shown up. That means we mostly have late career Llanes, but there are a couple trios from the Dandy feud that are awesome compliments to the title match. We just don't have much of anything from his prime, which sucks because there's a hair match with Estrada from '83 that probably would've been wild. He's almost fifty here, a near-twenty year vet, so in lucha terms he's still a whippersnapper. He had fun exchanges with all three rudos in this and Pierroth in particular must've seen that the old man could still go, because after they matched up the first time he wanted no more Llanes going forward. Americo Rocca is the same age as Llanes, probably moves better than him at this point, but in comparison kind of feels like a relic. He still has those pretty armdrags though, and probably has the best mat exchange of the match with Super Halcon. Match got real rough in the tercera when the rudos started with the beatdown. They were bending Llanes' fingers over the ropes, Ulises was stamping right on Rocca's mouth, a bunch of nasty looking stuff. Halcon punting Llanes low at the end was magnified as a total dick move (pun intended, I guess?) because up to that point he'd been the most clean of all three rudos.


Angel Azteca, Super Astro & Mascara Sagrada v MS-1, Herodes & Tierra, Viento y Fuego (CMLL, 1/19/90)

How about Herodes and MS-1 for a dream team you never knew you needed? This never had a chance of being a clean contest as MS-1 kicked Astro in the head as the latter was doing his pre-match interview and naturally Astro took exception. Astro is simply doing his TV commitments and the rudos are starting shit already? Never a good sign. The rudo unit was a hoot all the way through this and everything they did seemed to rile the tecnicos even more. At one point Astro bamboozled them with his footwork so thoroughly that you knew he'd pay badly for it. He was also hitting his headbutts from everywhere and Herodes took the brunt of them, usually right in the nose. You were never keeping that rudo unit down for long, though. They were always going to find a way to shithouse themselves into an advantageous position and sure enough it was Mascara Sagrada they mugged first. Herodes doing the foreign object shtick and clocking folk ruled. The ref' knew he had something on him but Herodes was always careful, only used it sparingly, and any time the ref' tried to check him Herodes would straight up run away. After all, you can't call what you can't see. They even started with the mask-ripping in the segunda, then when the tecnicos had had enough Herodes got desperate. Of course the ref' was watching him like a hawk and that bit of metal was his undoing. Not an amazing trios, but there was too much talent for it not to be fun.


1990 CMLL Project

Some 00s Battlarts (Ikeda, Ono...Kamen Shooter Super Rider?)

Daisuke Ikeda v Mitsuya Nagai (Battlarts, 1/30/00)

This was alright in parts but overall didn't do a ton for me. Nagai looked pretty lost more than once here, visibly calling sequences while sort of ambling around the ring with Ikeda as he tried to conceal it. He threw some decent kicks and had a couple tights submissions, at least. Ikeda was more Ishikawa than Ikeda as he assumed the role of underdog absorbing a ton of punishment. I love Ikeda, but he's not likely to work in that role the way Ishikawa does so it didn't totally connect with me. The best parts of the match were when he was clobbering Nagai and he about decapitated him more than once towards the end. His rolling kick off the top rope was an awesome spot as well. From memory Nagai has a few strong bouts in Battlarts, but this wasn't really one of them. As a comparison I'm interested in seeing the singles match with Ishikawa.


Takeshi Ono v Kamen Shooter Super Rider (Battlarts, 1/7/01)

Six minutes shown from a nine minute match probably isn't the best use of Takeshi Ono at this point, but hey, it was six minutes of Takeshi Ono knocking lumps out some doofus in a Kamen Rider mask so I guess it was fun for what it was. Super Rider is a Sayama trainee and has a handful of decent kicks, but his role in this match was to be hit hard and often. Ono landed a couple outrageous hooks and straight rights, a few wild high kicks, brutal knees, one front kick that probably splatted Rider's nose all over the inside of his mask; it was a pretty aloof, almost disinterested Ono performance (he probably knew himself that there were better things he could be getting up to) yet it carried with it a dangerous sort of violence. He also kicked this scrub in the dick with one of the best low blows I've ever seen. Initially Super Rider caught his attempted roundhouse kick, then ducked the enziguri, but as soon as Ono landed he flipped onto his back and hit an upkick to the privates. That finish was some bullshit, though. Who employs these refs?

Like a Full Steaming Train Helping to Lay Tenryu's Own Track, Bring on the Storms and the Rain, Ain't Nothing Holding Him Back

Genichiro Tenryu v Koji Kitao (WAR, 12/4/94) - GREAT

This was like the best possible version of a rounds-system RINGS fight between an old disgruntled ex-sumo wrestler and a younger, fatter ex-sumo wrestler. I mean I've watched a stupid amount of matches comprised of five three minute rounds the last few years. Some from RINGS, some from UWFi, some of them shoots, some of them not, but none of them this much fun. Tenryu looked every bit as great in 1994 as he did in 1993 and some of his selling was absolutely phenomenal. He sells Kitao's first flurry of Vader-ish soup bones likes he's been concussed, rolls out the ring grimacing after a leg kick, eats shots like he very much did not expect to be eating shots; he's one of the best sellers ever and always brings an awesome, subtle hint of realism to things. Of course he also wallops the dogshit out of Kitao. At one point he had him in the mount throwing forearms and punches, rasping his displeasure at Kitao having the audacity to cover up, so he just started choking him with the collar of Kitao's own gi. I liked how they started incorporating more of the pro-style elements round to round as well. In round one the closest thing to your pro wrestling was a Tenryu chop. In the second round he thumped Kitao with an absolute bastard of a lariat, a koppo kick that connected with both heels straight to the cranium, and Kitao hit a huge uranage. By the third round you had Tenryu trying to powerbomb him and Kitao hitting a fucking Michinoku Driver! Kitao's ax kick at the end about had me on the floor and Tenryu selling it like it shattered his clavicle is why he is the very greatest of them all. If Kitao has a match that's better I'll be surprised because this was just absurdly fun.


Genichiro Tenryu v Genki Horiguchi (Toryumon Japan, 7/13/03) - FUN

This was Tenryu beating up an Ultimo Dragon trainee for five minutes. The ceiling for that is never going to be sky high but the floor is pretty much always something fun, and this was a fun five minutes. Genki is one of the more tolerable guys from the Dragon Gate system and was always a decent face in peril back when I paid attention. He was here to take a hiding and a hiding he took. The crowd were red hot for him as well and when Tenryu started booting him in the eye they sure voiced their displeasure. Genki's running buddies got involved briefly as they all took turns flying at Tenryu in the corner, then Tenryu chopped them all and punched Genki in the face. A big blue tray was thrown in at some point and as Genki went to pick it up Tenryu put a foot on it, looked at him like "not today, motherfucker," and conked him over the head with the big blue tray. When someone chucked about a kilo of powder in Tenryu's eyes and Genki caught him in the backslide I actually wondered if they were going to run the upset. We one and all wondered no longer after Tenryu took the wee fella's head off with a lariat.


Complete & Accurate Tenryu

Tenryu Should've Been a Cowboy, He Should've Learned to Rope and Ride, Wearing His Six-Shooter, Riding His Pony on a Cattle Drive

Genichiro Tenryu & Masao Orihara v The Great Kabuki & Koki Kitahara (WAR, 7/14/92) - EPIC

Well, start as you mean to go on, I guess. This was the main event of the WAR debut show and if you had any questions as to how things would be done in this particular Tenryu fed then they were answered pretty quickly. What a spectacular festival of violence this was. It almost felt like the best possible version of your classic WAR formula threaded through a dramatic double heat segment AWA tag. It had the extended beatdowns and the hope spots and cut-offs. It had the hot tags and even hotter finish. Only here the extended beatdowns were attempted homicides and the hope spots and cut-offs a hundred times more vicious. Here the hot tags led to someone's orbital bone getting demolished and the even hotter finish had someone getting dropped on their neck. The match starts with Tenryu and Kabuki pairing off, a couple guys who've worked together for years settling into this new home they've come to share. So Tenryu just chops him dead in the trachea inside twelve seconds. Just a totally inordinate and unnecessary response to what had been a simple shoulderblock. Kabuki is left rolling around clawing at his throat and I half expected the ref' to give him an emergency tracheotomy. And basically we're off to the races from that moment on. Orihara was tremendous in this and it felt like a true star-making performance. He gets absolutely smashed to bits. Him and Kitahara is a match-up that fucking ruled in SWS because Kitahara would just beat the brakes off him, but nothing like this. At one point Orihara did a kip-up and backflipped out of a top wrist lock and Kitahara obviously hated it because he made his life a total misery thereafter. There was one part where it looked like he was going to hit a piledriver, but then he muscled him up a bit further and hit a fucking Ganso Bomb! Kabuki never could backflip very well so he made the kid's life a misery too. I don't think I've ever seen Kabuki work stiffer than this. Everything he did was the most potatoey version of it possible, from his neckbreaker to his uppercuts under the chin, then he'd tag in Kitahara and Orihara would be kicked full force in the ear and neck. And what really made it was the way Orihara kept trying to fight back. He'd always try to throw punches or struggle to create some distance, although it usually only ended with him getting walloped even harder. It made everything feel uncooperative, like he did not want to be set upon like this and that he wasn't just there to take a beating and tag out, which at times almost made it an uneasy watch. The first hot tag was pretty much perfect as he fought back by kicking lumps out of Kitahara in return, then Tenryu came in taking heads off and from there everything went up another few notches. The back half of this had something wild or awesome or outright barbaric - sometimes all three at once - happening every few seconds. Orihara's second heat segment sees him get the shit kicked out of him even worse than before but he fights back by crushing Kabuki with two dives. Tenryu breaks a chair over Kabuki's back so later Kabuki superkicks him in the throat. The partner saves are just stupid brutal even for WAR as Kitahara ends up with his eyebrow split in half. All of the Tenryu/Kitahara sections towards the end were incredible and Tenryu trying to punt his spleen through the uprights was fucking unbelievable. It honest to god might've been the most hellish beating he's ever delivered to someone. I mean think of the SCOPE of that! Just amazing front to back. The WAR Main Event Tag is an acquired taste, but this was a classic of the genre and might be the best WAR match of them all.


Complete & Accurate Tenryu

Kandori v Saito; Kandori & Hotta murder each other!

Shinobu Kandori v Harley Saito (JWP, 7/19/90)

Maybe it's because I haven't watched any JWP in ages, but stylistically this felt quite a bit different to what Ozaki and Kansai and the rest would be doing a few years later. It wasn't worked the same as Ohtani/Samurai from 1/96 so it's not a perfect analogy, but it reminded me of that if for no reason other than how there was a template there for juniors matches going forward, yet ultimately they decided to take the division in a different direction and it wound up being less interesting (well, to me it did). There aren't all that many joshi matches I'd compare to this in style and that's a shame, because it was pretty great. It was hard not to pick up some shoot style vibes just from the way they worked holds and treated the strikes. There was also the underlying dynamic of Kandori being this badass grappler and Saito being the underdog striker. It was almost the inverse of Ishikawa/Ikeda with the grappler being the dominant mauler. Saito is a little treasure and she took it straight to Kandori like she knew it was her only means of survival. Offence was her best defence and there's one part where she literally punts Kandori out the ring. It was brutal, and yet you knew it was necessary. Kandori obviously had a bunch of killer takedowns and ways of yanking Saito into submission attempts, and once or twice she unloaded with a few big strikes of her own. They do a roll-up reversal bit about two thirds in that I wasn't initially digging, but then they give it a cool twist and use it for a dramatic false finish. Last few minutes were great as you felt it slipping away from Saito as Kandori was just dropping her with bombs, but there was always life left in Harley with those cradles. I think I'm about ready to revisit the famous Kandori/Hokuto match. I've been on a bit of a joshi kick lately so if it's ever going to truly resonate with me I'm guessing it'll be now.


Shinobu Kandori & Mizuki Endo v Yumiko Hotta & Kimiko Maekawa (LLPW, 8/15/97)

How in the name of Christ did Kandori ever get a shitty rep as a worker? This was fucking wild. It's largely strikers (Hotta/Maekawa) v grapplers (Kandori/Endo), but the wrinkle is that Endo can't really hang and so it feels like Kandori often has to go it alone. It didn't help that Endo charged Hotta before the bell and I guess got punched or stabbed in the guts for her trouble, so she started the match even more handicapped than usual. Hotta and Maekawa were an unbelievable pair of thugs in this. About six seconds in Hotta punts Endo's teeth through the back of her head and from that point forward she and Maekawa throw a staggering amount of vicious kicks. Some of these were truly vile and they came in multiple shapes and sizes. Maekawa would fold Endo in half with a camel clutch while Hotta would blast her in the chest, then they'd switch over and try to outdo each other. Hotta was swinging for the fences like she always did, but her partner on the night had her beat. Maekawa was always stiff as a bastard, like Murakami only with kicks and even more reckless into the bargain. She was hitting ax kicks to the forehead and neck, pump kicks to the face, roundhouses, Wanderlei punts, penalty kicks, the whole repertoire of gratuitous violence. Kandori as walking tall badass was amazing, though. The first time she gets in there's a palpable sense of shit getting real and those moments where she was launching folk with judo throws and snapping into submissions were awesome. There were parts where Endo was lying half dead somewhere so she'd have to weather the storm by herself, taking one opponent down only to be kicked ridiculously hard in the face by the other, which more than once led to her being kicked ridiculously hard in the face by both of them. She's usually a great seller of strikes anyway, maybe my favourite in all of joshi, and there was one shot from Maekawa that was near Fujiwara level. All of the exchanges with Hotta ruled as well. You can sort of understand how it isn't really mentioned as a classic feud in the joshi pantheon, but every time they match up it's nuclear. The slow circling, the mugging, the shit-talking, Hotta's strikes v Kandori's wrestling, those highlights like Kandori spearing her out her boots and raining down elbows. How has this gone so far under the radar? Finish is awesome as well. Endo's been taken out for the umpteenth time and Kandori is trying to finish Maekawa, but Hotta won't give her a second's peace and is constantly breaking up submission attempts. Kandori clearly tells her to fuck off out the ring, and as she goes to leave Kandori jumps her and chokes her out. Kandori finally has Maekawa one on one and now she has until Hotta regains consciousness to put her away. The armbar at the end is grotesque and Endo managing to hold off the reawakening Hotta was a great little slice of revenge. I thought this was incredible and one of the best joshi matches of the decade.

Kobashi v Misawa -- The Superclassic!

Kenta Kobashi v Mitsuharu Misawa (All Japan, 1/20/97)

Well, in case y'all might've had other ideas, this is still an absolute fucking scorcher of a pro-wrestling match. I've had trouble with a few of the lengthier All Japan matches (even the truly heralded ones) in recent times and struggled to really settle in early. There'll usually be a point where they do something and it all clicks into place and they'll have me 100% for the rest of the journey, but even in the '96 Tag League I found the first ten minutes sort of bland, at least in comparison to the rest of it. This had me right from the go and not once did I check out.

There are really only four or five key transitions/momentum shifts the whole match and we get two in the first ten or so minutes. After the initial feeling out stage, which at this point for these two is a case of throwing strikes and hitting a mid-range bomb, Kobashi gains control and starts working Misawa's ribs. It doesn't last too long but it's good stuff. Kobashi wasn't DEEPLY into the stage of his career where he'd start doing annoying shit, although even at his fighting spirity worst he always had killer offence and world class strikes. He'd cut off Misawa early by hitting a sort of leaping spear, then he'd back him into the corner and throw these great body punches, and of course everything was interspersed with his chop variations. He has great chops and will spin chop you right in the neck so we're all digging proceedings early. When Misawa takes over he sells the damage pretty subtly, like how he'll stop after an offensive move and huff a bit longer than usual. He isn't selling like his lungs are burst because the situation doesn't require that, but he's just been kneed in the guts several times so he's not in perfect shape either.

Then the major turning point comes when he tries to hit the elbow off the apron and smashes his arm off the guardrail. Kobashi is absolutely first class going after this and has a ton of interesting ways to work the arm. Submissions hadn't been over as legitimately viable finishers in All Japan for about six years at this point but I'll be fucked if they never had folk buying that cross armbreaker when he finally locked it in. They had those awesome little bits of build and escalation working as well, like how Kobashi went for the cross armbreaker initially and Misawa made the ropes before it could be properly applied, which put over how much of a struggle even getting that hold on him would be, and then of course it felt huge when it eventually happened for real. Misawa's sell of the arm was phenomenal and about as good as any sell of a body part I've seen. He was typically subtle with it, especially in comparison to Kobashi's grander expressions, but he was pure magic. You knew he was going to keep throwing elbows no matter what. It's his oldest and most reliable weapon; even if that arm's hanging on by a mere sinew he will elbow you in the fucking mouth. It's the way he'd do the little things, though. The longer it went and the more damage Kobashi did to the arm, the more effort Misawa needed to exert and the more detrimental throwing those elbows would be. He'd fire back with one and it'd rock Kobashi, but then he'd need to use the other arm to follow up, or worse yet take a second for the pain to subside, and that would sometimes let Kobashi back in. Kobashi refusing to be put in his place by his old partner was great as well. He wasn't Misawa's #2 anymore, he was the Triple Crown champ and Misawa needed to step back. Then he goes for the lariat and Misawa just fucks him in the arm with his own dodgy elbow, so now we've got both guys with a bad wing.

The contrast in selling is so cool at this point, because both sell their arm amazingly, but it goes back to Kobashi being way more grandiose with Misawa stoicly powering through. And whether it was intentional on their part or just a byproduct of how they chose to communicate pain, Kobashi's arm being totally fucked after ONE Misawa elbow after all the shit he had thrown at said elbow himself told a story in its own right. Misawa might not look like it, but that guy is the Terminator and you better take your opportunity to put him away when you have it. Misawa doesn't really work the arm to the extent Kobashi did, but it remains an outlet for Misawa to exploit and Kobashi is clearly hampered by it. At this point they start bringing out the bombs and if they ended the match after 25 minutes it would've been a MOTYC. Except they go another 15, and the fact it never once felt remotely like overkill is sort of staggering in its own right (I know YMMV but generally speaking my mileage is not typically great on heavily extended finishing runs). There were a ton of awesome moments, from the micro to the macro, my favourite maybe coming when Kobashi decides he has to use the arm for the lariat only for Misawa to block it and both of them end up going down clutching an arm. I guess you could argue that Kobashi should've gone back after the arm when Misawa started to regain some footing, but it never felt like Kobashi's end goal was to win with an arm hold or the likes. It was there as a base off of which he could start dropping nukes, while at the same time slowing Misawa down. The latter was clearly working because Misawa was struggling to hit his own big moves (and again, the way he sold that was near impeccable), and that alone kept Kobashi in the fight. Misawa even hit the Tiger Driver and couldn't cover him properly because the arm basically gave out. More arm work might've made the whole end stretch even more dramatic, but I definitely don't think it suffered due to any lack of it.

The last big momentum shift comes when Kobashi goes for his one last "no you will NOT make the big fucking comeback" gambit by trying a powerbomb off the apron. It's full desperation and the STRUGGLE is so great, just from the way Misawa practically tries to crawl out the ring for some respite while Kobashi sees his chance and has to pick him up one-handed. Of course Misawa reverses it and Kobashi takes a ludicrous rana bump to the floor and sells it like he's been shot in the kidneys. He never fully recovers from there while Misawa does what he always does and finds a way, because he is by god Mitsuharu Misawa and you shall not pass. Kobashi kicking out of the Tiger Driver '91 was massive and there might've even been a hint of uncertainty on Misawa's face. After that all Kobashi can really do is crawl around half dead, feebly attempting these lariats from his knees that have nothing behind them. By the end he knows for an absolute fact that he's fucked, yet he'll stand and meet his doom head on because at the end of it all we are who we are and he is Kenta Kobashi.

There are only a small handful of matches at this point that I'm almost completely confident will hold up to the absolute elite/***** level no matter how often I watch them. I've said before that the book on 90s All Japan is pretty much closed for me and I don't have a ton of interest in rewatching it, but there are more All Japan matches included among that handful than any other. I would give this match the full McConaughey in True Detective GIF; the most prestigious of all Whiskey & Wrestling accolades.

Wagner v Niebla (two incredibly cool masks)

Dr. Wagner Jr. v Mr. Niebla (CMLL, 9/2/97)

I remember reading about this back in the old DVDVRs. Like, fifteen years ago, not back as in all the way back IN THE DAY of 1997 as at that point I was merely a pup and the internet didn't reach Scotland until 2003 anyhow. I wasn't really hip to the lucha libre then, intent as I was in tracking down the New Japan juniors and the All Japan classics, but I knew Wagner from his stint in Japan and Dean gushing over this match made it seem impossibly cool. Those old DVDVRs were the best. I wish they didn't get ether'd when the board went down, because they probably shaped my tastes in wrestling as much as anything at a time when I was paying £40 for three tapes from fucking Golden Boy and the likes. Anyway, I finally checked this out a few years back on one of the re-released Schneider Comps and it never quite lived up to my hype. Rewatching it today it stands up as being good without ever reaching that upper level, although they aimed for that in the tercera. The first two caidas were pretty neat and made up my favourite stretch of the match. Niebla doesn't necessarily look like he'd be the most graceful flier, but for a light heavyweight he sure could move. At times it looked like Wagner didn't know how to handle him. Everything he tried, Niebla would flip out of it, whether it was landing on his feet off a monkey flip or straight backflipping off the top turnbuckle. You could argue that he went to the dive too early, but it was a great tope and it at least made sense for him to stick with what was working. It followed a similar pattern in the segunda and Wagner was still having trouble keeping him grounded. That Niebla sold the winning crucifix pin between falls longer than the Liger bomb a few minutes earlier was a bit jarring, but Wagner coming out aggressive in the tercera covered well enough. The tercera itself was something that wouldn't have looked out of place in 2007, at least in terms of some individual moments. Then again if you transplanted this into the third fall of a 2007 title match it would look about a hundred times better than the norm. I mean it was largely a collection of bombs, but they built the nearfalls gradually, and even if the flow was a little stop-start it was head and shoulders above your shoddy Mistico/Averno bouts of a decade on.  We got some decent legwork for a minute there, Wagner stopping mid-beating to get on the house mic and talk trash, and Niebla's second tope was a peach. Wagner dipping into his New Japan bag was a cool touch as well and the finish looked brutal. Not a classic, but 1997 was an absolutely loaded year so I guess it's hard to stack up.

RINGS Korakuen Experiment: Round 1 (2/28/93)

Masayuki Naruse v Sergei Sousserov

Man this was fun. It was a little sloppy at points and not everything came off great, but the striking had a recklessness to it - especially Sousserov's - and we got some neat takedowns and submission attempts that the crowd really peaked for when you wanted them to (it's Korakuen, after all). Nothing on the ground was particularly slick and it was a little stop-start with them getting tangled in the ropes, but they were both going for it and I don't mind some choppiness if there's energy to it. Sousserov is the business and this was probably one of my favourite non-Han or Maeda bouts so far.


Mitsuya Nagai v Sandor Telgen 

You know, this was perfectly fine. It only went five minutes and it wasn't setting the world on fire, but they at least kept the stand-up moving along. None of the kicks landed particularly clean, but they threw a bunch of them and there was no standing around doing nothing. Nagai also had a couple cool takedowns and the finish was sweet. There have been worse bouts, let me tell you.


Naoyuki Taira v Toshiyuki Atokawa

This is the fifth Taira match/fight I've watched this week, and for someone I hadn't even heard of until a couple years ago I'm sold on him being pretty fun. I'm not entirely sure what the rules were here, but there are five three minute rounds, interchanging between kickboxing and MMA, and it very much may possibly have been a shoot. It wasn't great or anything but it was spirited and Taira visibly enjoying himself out there was sort of infectious. At one point he went for a flying knee and absolutely hurled himself out the ring, then came back in smiling a little sheepishly even though the crowd ate it up. They appreciated the effort, certainly. Maeda also came in and officiated the MMA/RINGS rounds of the fight and the crowd sure seemed to get a kick out of that as well.


I have the TV version of this show - hence the brevity of it - which is missing a Kimura/Nishi bout that was on the comm tape. The completionist in me wants to hunt it down but then the sane part of me realises it's probably a waste of time as it's not really the most enticing fight and also there's the hilarious idea of me being a completionist in the first place. I haven't completed a single fucking project since I started this blog! And I bet I'll never finish this one, either!


Complete & Accurate RINGS

Some More Battlarts

Takeshi Ono v Katsumi Usuda (Battlarts, 7/20/00)

This was like 40% Battlarts, 60% New Japan juniors. It's not really what you want from these two, but you take that 40% when it's there and I guess if nothing else it's interesting seeing how they approach the 60%. There's a kind of novelty aspect to it. It's a little experimental. I don't know man, you want Aquemini André 3000 but at this point you take what you can get and even The Love Below had 'A Life in the Day of Benjamin André.' Ono was actually really fun dicking it up and working full rudo. He went after Usuda's leg for a spell and would hold on longer than necessary on rope breaks, then he went after the arm and approached that the same way. In between he even raked Usuda's eyes across the ropes. He was visibly pulling a lot of his shots though, his punches mostly grazing and his kicks thrown with less mustard, some of them at three quarter speed. Usuda was doing the same so maybe they just decided they wanted to get through this show with all their teeth for a change? Considering Usuda was pulling double duty on the card it's hard to blame them. And yet we will, because we are the harshest of critics. Usuda channeling Fujiwara for a few minutes there was cool, at least. He rolled out the headstand counter to the Boston Crab and even followed up with some Fujiwara-style headbutts, rocking all the way back before delivering the blow. It's hard to complain about Takeshi Ono footage being available on the internet.


Yuki Ishikawa & Mohammed Yone v Mitsuya Nagai & Ryuji Hijikata (Battlarts, 7/20/00)

Nothing blowaway, but it had its moments. Hijikata works more like a pro-style junior than a shoot-style junior, though he hits hard and his matwork is pretty sharp. A couple times Ishikawa seemed to leave himself open while Hijikata was in the process of grabbing a hammerlock or some such, but when they got to the striking it looked more convincing. There was a cool bit of selling from Hijikata as well where he went dead weight after getting caught flush, but Yone didn't seem to have any idea what to do with it and so he just stomped him a bunch. There wasn't much to the Nagai/Ishikawa exchanges, which is a shame because they've had some decent ones before and Ishikawa against a crowbar is always fun.


Carl Greco v Naoyuki Taira (Battlarts, 7/20/00)

This was Greco at his suffocating best. He dominated most of this with his grappling and at times it was hard to see Taira having a lifeline. When it looked like he might be able to at least bring the fight to its feet - where he'd conceivably have more chance of doing something - Greco would grab a cravate from his own back and twist Taira back to the mat. It's not even that Taira is useless on the ground -- he has some moments and works his way into the mount nicely at one point, it's just that Greco is in full demon mode on the night and that'll be a struggle for anyone. Towards the end we even got to see him unload with some knee combos so maybe Taira doesn't have an advantage on the feet either. There were a couple rope running sequences that felt a wee bit jarring given the previous ten minutes, but I don't think I've ever seen a cross body score a nearfall in Battlarts before, and I suppose you could look at it as Taira having to get especially creative just to weather the Greco storm. Taira had a quietly fun year in 2000 and Greco being quietly awesome in general is kind of his thing. 


Yuki Ishikawa v Katsumi Usuda (Battlarts, 7/20/00)

This was more like it from Usuda. At a shade over ten minutes it wasn't an epic, but it didn't need to be because ten minutes of Ishikawa v striker who's trying to kick his head off will almost never not work. Ishikawa spent the majority of this on the defensive and if Usuda was going easy with his strikes in the first match he'd ditched that idea by this one. I guess Ishikawa had peen paying attention earlier because a bunch of his counters were geared towards picking apart Usuda's leg. It forced Usuda to vary approach a little and so he went back to those Fujiwara headbutts. There was a great sequence where he was frantically trying to wriggle out of a kneebar, Ishikawa continually shifting his weight in order to roll with the momentum until Usuda manages to finally squirm his way into grabbing a cross armbreaker. I thought Usuda mostly did fine selling the leg even as he was hurling kicks at Ishikawa's face and head, and of course Ishikawa on the ropes, trying to beat the count while continually being bombarded with violence, all of that ruled. I've seen Usuda break out the spinning back fist as an exclamation point on a wild kick flurry twice in the last two days now and it really is an awesome wrinkle I never noticed before.

Monday Battlarts Blues

Yuki Ishikawa & Katsumi Usuda v Daisuke Ikeda & Carl Greco (Battlarts, 4/14/96)

This was exceptional, maybe the second or third best Battlarts tag of the year. It went 17 minutes, the first half almost entirely matwork, and all four were out there doing some truly high end Battlarts matwork. Every match-up we saw worked, though they saved Ikeda/Ishikawa for the back half. A couple times they threw each other a look that said they'll cross that bridge in due course, and at one point they wound up in the ring together only for Ishikawa to quickly duck out, almost as a middle finger even though we all knew it wouldn't be long before they got to the slaughtering. Ikeda/Usuda made for a fine stand-in and their brief exchange was great. The grappling was fierce and I loved Ikeda trying to force Usuda into various positions by punching him in the ribs, neck and stomach. He'd have the mount, rain down strikes, eventually Usuda would have to give up his back, and as was his wont Ikeda would crack him in the back of the head a few times before trying to grab the choke. Then about halfway in Ikeda lands the first blow on Ishikawa -- an illegal one where Ishikawa ends up a little too close to the wrong corner and Ikeda comes in swinging. From there everyone ramps up the violence and we get the high end Battlarts murder strikes to go with the grappling. Ikeda spin kicking guys in the lungs, Ishikawa jacking his jaw with a little extra venom than even that match-up is used to, Greco and Usuda reeling out crazy quick combos. Towards the end Ishikawa and Usuda have a dual submission on Greco and you're thinking it's only a matter of time before Ikeda comes in and drills someone and then obviously he runs over and absolutely crushes Usuda's head with a kneedrop. I mean this thing was just hideous. I think my favourite spot of the match was when Ishikawa had almost secured the mount on Greco, but the he took a second to look up at Ikeda, maybe to make sure his old enemy had kept himself to the apron, maybe to let him know that he definitely still hated his guts. Maybe he became a prisoner of his own disgust then because he let himself linger a bit too long and Greco nuked him with an up kick that put him on his back. It probably could've done with an extra few minutes to really elevate it into the upper tier, but even still it feels like one of the better matches of an incredibly stacked 1996. And that finish was a fucking finish.

Big Mouth Loud!

There's a whole shit load of Big Mouth Loud on YouTube, maybe the entirety of its brief run, all uploaded on the one channel by some generous soul. So I watched a bunch of it and wrote some words.


Kazunari Murakami v Katsuyori Shibata (Big Mouth Loud, 9/11/05)

Pretty short for the main event of your debut show, but they played the hits you expected them to and it was fine for what it was. And really, do you want these two going half an hour anyway? In some ways they're fairly similar, at least in that they'll throw brutal strikes and stare you down with undisguised contempt. Murakami's not that much older, but a lot of what he does feels like the blueprint for a lot of what Shibata does. Naturally there was a goodly amount of brutal strikes and undisguised contempt, but they threw in a few really cool little touches to boot. I think my favourite spot was when Shibata drilled him with the penalty kick, then when he tried it again straight away Murakami caught his leg. Murakami stood up and really cocked the fist back for a right hook, then as Shibata covered his face and head Murakami swung that same arm downward into a huge dragon screw. They both cracked each other in the jaw, stood on each other's head, and even the macho dick-swinging strike exchange worked because of who they are. I'll probably check out all the Murakami from BML over time and this was a decent start.


Yoshiaki Fujiwara v Minoru Suzuki (Big Mouth Loud, 3/22/06)

Fifteen years after their match in Fujiwara's own promotion, the old man looks like he's barely lost a step. Even at a brisk 11 minutes this had a little bit of everything. The opening stretch is full of tight and gritty matwork like you expect, including a flash armbar three seconds in as Suzuki shoots for the early takedown. As you watch Fujiwara throughout the decades you get the sense he'll probably be able to do this kind of thing into his 80s (I mean he's already doing it into his 70s). Then Suzuki throws a kick to a downed Fujiwara, talking a little shit while he's at it. Fujiwara comes up smiling, rams Suzuki in the cheek bone with a headbutt, and for the next few minutes we get some super fun horse shit. Suzuki bonks Fujiwara's head off the turnbuckle bolt to no effect and then checks the bolt to make sure Fujiwara's cranium hasn't damaged it. Fujiwara backs him into the corner and peppers him with a few blows, but Suzuki keeps shit talking and Fujiwara fixes him with this amazing "you always were a little prick" grin. I've never really cared one way or the other for Suzuki's shtick but I do love seeing how Fujiwara reacts to his old student's nonsense. All those goofy faces with the tongue out, slapping him just to push the old man's buttons, and yet Fujiwara continues to go about his business. Similarly Suzuki has a point to prove, even if it's to himself and nobody else. Great bit where Fujiwara has him in a kneebar and, even though you can tell it sucks to be on the receiving end of, Suzuki won't give him the satisfaction of showing it. He doesn't know when to shut up, either. So Fujiwara just grins and wrenches the fuck out of it and Suzuki has to scramble for the ropes. The fight over the Fujiwara armbar at the end ruled as well and this was just really fun stuff overall.


Yuki Ishikawa v Hiroyuki Ito (Big Mouth Loud, 4/19/06)

It's pretty awesome that this match even exists. Ito had that MOTDC with Tamura in U-Style and there was the first iteration of this match-up in the same promotion, but then U-Style rode off into the night like a beautiful dream and our young prodigy went with it. Except apparently he didn't! I've only seen smatterings of BML before and I guess I missed the part about Ito coming in for a few shows. The U-Style match between these two was good so naturally I expected the same here, and in actual fact I thought this was even better. Nobody in history takes a hellish beating like Ishikawa and this was all about the young stud trying to prove his metal against the king. Ishikawa is the human embodiment of two dollar steak and takes half a dozen outrageous head kicks in this. Ito's kicks look equal parts pretty and lethal, thrown at warp speed and landing square in the jaw or temple. There was one point where it looked like Ishikawa might've been smiling, probably reminiscing about the good old days when he was taking this sort of beating on a bi-nightly basis. There was some real nice scrambling here as well, usually when Ito would try one kick too many and Ishikawa would catch him. That's not to say Ishikawa wasn't throwing bombs, because he was and on one occasion I thought he might have actually KOd Ito legit (turns out Ito merely sold it to perfection), it's just that with Ishikawa you know he's always in with the grappler's chance. If anybody can grab a submission from anywhere it's Ishikawa. This was a cracking little bout.

Hideki Suzuki Rewind

Hideki Suzuki v Daisuke Sekimoto (Big Japan, 3/30/17)

I loved a whole bunch of this. Suzuki was rocking the purple again so you already know he was top drawer, but I could count on one finger the amount of times I've enjoyed Sekimoto this much and that was when he wrestled Suzuki the last time. Their previous match was the thirty minute draw from earlier in the month and this had a lot of the same qualities. This was a tighter affair at only nineteen minutes, but it was fully-formed and they built on some of that groundwork laid before. The sense of struggle they managed to convey was really impressive and the early hold-trading was great. Suzuki is always adding cool and nasty little touches to his matwork, like digging his knee into Sekimoto's ankle joint or bending a wrist at horrible angles. It all felt very MUGAish. Sekimoto was really vocal with his selling as well so you bought all that joint manipulation hurting like a bastard. He also reversed a top wristlock into this rough key lock of sorts that looked like it could've snapped Suzuki's forearm. After that opening spell they moved into a short burst of strikes, and I shit you not the first forearm Suzuki threw was a Battlarts Hall of Fame level brain-scrambler. Maybe Sekimoto's taken so many crowbars to the skull at this point that his reactions to this stuff are genuine, but I thought he sold a bunch of Suzuki's strikes throughout the match amazingly. There was almost no goofy hulk up fighting spirit and when he got clocked with a true screamer he went with his best dead-eyed "oh Christ where even am I?" Kawada stare. Plus he'll always leather you back so we got some monstrous clubbering in return. After a cool spot where Suzuki catches Sekimoto mid-tope with a forearm (which Sekimoto sells by laying half dead on the apron) they go back to this awesome MUGA/BJW hybrid right through to the finish. Like in the last match it was Suzuki who had the edge in grappling, but Sekimoto is a brick shithouse with enough freakish strength to make up for it. Suzuki was dogged going for the octopus stretch, twisting Sekimoto's fingers for leverage and crawling all over him at one point, but Sekimoto could either muscle him up into a torture rack or drag himself to the ropes. By the end of the last match you got the sense that if one of them could've hit their finisher it would've been over. This had the same struggle over those finishers, the same sense that it would only take one. There was this great bit where Sekimoto was straining so hard to hit the deadlift German that I expected his gum shield to fly out and kill a person sitting front row. Really good match. 

WAR, King of the Deathmatch, MUGA: Japanese Indies Friday!

Masao Orihara v Akitoshi Saito (WAR, 10/23/92)

WAR v New Japan delivering the goods again, is it? Never would've guessed. It wasn't that this had no business being awesome, it's that you look at those names and wonder why the fuck every single person in the building was going mental. This was absurd heat for guys so far down the pecking order. You could tell Orihara was feeding off it big time, though. He's pretty underrated anyway because he communicates hatred well and will get the shit kicked clean out of him on the regular, but I thought he was absolutely great in this. All Saito's really good for at this point in his career is crowbarring folk, but it was enough for Orihara to work with. And man did Saito crowbar him. He was trying to murder Orihara with kicks; huge punts to the chest, sloppy roundhouses, even a few punches to the ear just to spice it up some. Orihara trying to catch these shots and go for kneebars or chokes ruled, especially when he wasn't quick enough off the mark and wound up getting clobbered. A couple of his delayed crumples were awesome bits of selling and at least once I bought him going down with a collapsed lung. On a few other occasions he maybe popped up a little quick, but the crowd clearly lit a fire under him and you couldn't have asked for him to be any more aggressive. I about lost it when he just leapt on Saito and tried to punch his skull open. The way he sold those last couple knockout blows was incredible as well and I was totally behind him pulling off the upset.


Dan Severn v Tarzan Goto (IWA Japan, 8/20/95)

This was fucking wild. Tarzan Goto v Dan Severn on a King of the Deathmatch card was always going to be fun just for the novelty of it, but I never expected Severn to rule this much. Maybe it's time to break open the WWF vault and check those matches with Shamrock and Blackman again. I'm sure he worked Owen Hart as well and he probably got to chuck Al Snow around for a few minutes. Plus I always remember liking his entrance music, the slow jog to the ring, the towel, sweat-stained training gear, just a menacing sort of presence that never quite looked as badass as promised. But maybe I was full of shit and he was actually great? Either way he sure looked like a killer in this. Straight away Goto wants to take it to the floor, because he's Tarzan Goto and of course he does, but Severn isn't interested. Goto riles him a bit and has a big grin on his face as he threatens to introduce a chair less than a minute in. Severn's clearly a fish out of water because the first time he turns his back Goto jumps on him with a choke. Severn tries to keep things on the level by wrestling with Goto, but Goto just coconuts him with headbutts and lariats. Eventually Severn snaps and starts hammering him with knees, a big crossface slice, an elbow, really smothering him as he tries to lock in a choke. I couldn't tell you what did it exactly but Goto's mess of a forehead is cut open and he's not best pleased. Goto smashing a bottle over the ring post and trying to glass Severn was fucking amazing and this is where Severn decides he's had about enough. He tried to keep things clean but Goto's a man who can't be reasoned with. They have this awesome spill over the barricade into the crowd, rolling around the floor in super uncooperative fashion, wildly flinging chairs from their backs, taking potshots at each other like a couple guys embroiled in an alley fight. Goto comes out on top of this because he is Tarzan Goto and of course he does, but Severn comes up roaring and hurling chairs into the ring like a man who's been pushed beyond the limits of decorum. He has well and truly entered "fuck it" territory. The last couple minutes are totally awesome as Severn manages to crack Goto in the knee with a chair (just as he slides in the ring and narrowly avoids one of Goto's own chair swings), Goto tries to flatten him with these sit-out piledrivers, and Severn keeps shooting in for throws and chokes. This whole thing was a treasure and it's a shame they never matched up fifty two times.


Tatsumi Fujinami & Shinichi Nakano v Osamu Nishimura & Yuki Ishikawa (MUGA, 3/3/98)

This maybe doesn't quite reach the heights you'd expect from the participants, but these four get ~15 minutes to work a match primarily built around grappling so you know it's good stuff. I've watched '98 Ishikawa a few times in recent weeks and every time I do he looks best in the world calibre. His exchanges with Fujinami were a little brief, but they were snappy and rugged and in a year with more good wrestling worldwide than people tend to think, Ishikawa continually looks king. I've barely seen any 90s Nishimura. In actual fact this match might be the extent of my 90s Osamu Nishimura viewing. Of course he was slick as hell and working tight headlocks, him and Fujinami doing their awesome dance every time they pair off, really nailing that early 80s New Japan matwork perfectly. There wasn't a ton of flash here, but you watch this for the way everyone fights over simple holds, snug with their armbars and leglocks, just really solid matwork from four guys who know how to work a mat. Folks who say Fujinami was crocked after '91 are crazy.

The Last Time Virus Couldn't Buy Some Shit He Can't Remember, the Last Time He Fucked the World He Might've Bust a Sinner

Damiancito El Guerrero v Cicloncito Ramirez (CMLL, 1/7/97) - EPIC

Still tremendous. I think watching this for the first time a decade ago, the freshness of it and the fact more people hadn't cottoned on to its greatness probably played a part in how thoroughly I was blown away by it. I guess lucha is still the most niche of niche in terms of what internet wrestling fans are talking about, but by 2019 we've had the 90s yearbooks and the 80s lucha set and the footage explosion of those godly YouTubers putting up shit we never knew existed. Even if there's far less lucha-driven discussion online than New Japan or NXT or maybe even modern joshi, there's certainly more of a spotlight on it now than there was fifteen years ago. In 2009 I think I'd only ever seen this brought up by OJ on his PWO blog. Nobody had comp'd it and Virus was still a couple years away from that 2011 renaissance making everyone want to go back and watch everything he ever did. Watching it then was notable for me not just because it was an awesome wrestling match, but because it shaped a lot of what I would come to look for in lucha title matches going forward. I still find myself judging matches against it to this day, and by now I'm pretty well settled on what my own idea of great wrestling is. Some of the matwork is still absolutely world class. Fluid, scrappy, graceful, a little of everything. It's one thing pulling out a bunch of gorgeous reversals but it's the struggle and fight over holds that really push it over the top. There are a few times were they'll do something I've never seen before - like Damiancito reversing a wishbone into a camel clutch - and then they'll punctuate the ground exchanges with bursts of rope running and armdrags or springboards. It felt like all through the match they were establishing Cicloncito as the superior flier and that it would be his route to victory. The best example of that came at the end of the primera when he hit a spectacular springboard rana where he leapt backwards over Damiancito's head. They kept that theme running into the segunda and there was one extended sequence that had about seven awesome moments strung together. Plus the finish to the fall was one of those preposterous submissions that reminds you you're watching a fucking lucha title match. If we're holding this to the same standard as the true all-time classics - and I am - then I guess the two big dives in the tercera never carried quite as much weight as they should've, maybe because they moved past them a bit quickly, but the dives themselves were humongous and Ramirez really lived up to the name with that bullet tope. I never expected to come out of this again thinking it's the best match ever, and that's about how it went, but it absolutely held up like I hoped it would and I'd still easily call it a MOTD-level bout. It's only fair given the post-match celebration.


Complete & Accurate Virus

When Tenryu Gets Drunk and Talks to God, He Tells Him that He's Sorry for All the Things He's Not

Genichiro Tenryu & Stan Hansen v Terry Gordy & Steve Williams (All Japan, 3/6/90) - EPIC

This was Dr. Death's first title shot since coming to All Japan, about a month after he debuted, and boy did he come out like he wanted to make a statement. He'd been on TV a few times already, but this was at the Budokan so it's a different kettle of fish. He was feral in the way he was going after folk, just amped to the moon, whereas Gordy was a little more stoic because he's been here and seen it all before. For about two thirds this was real good stuff. Everything was snug as fuck which shouldn't surprise anybody, lots of impact on everything and the striking was world class. It was pretty back and forth though, with both teams having short little runs of offence before possession bounced across to the other team. The transitions were usually alright and it never really felt like an abrupt shift of momentum, but these are four guys who will lay a huge beating on someone and I wanted an extended heat segment to sink my teeth into. Then Tenryu accidentally enziguris Hansen off the apron and I get my wish. Gordy and Williams go after Tenryu's leg and with Hansen on the floor all Tenryu can do is try to survive. Williams stomping the kneecap got some massive heat and I loved how Gordy would just yank and twist the knee at weird angles; there was nothing fancy about it, it looked plain nasty and Tenryu sold it all great. Then when you think Tenryu's about to make the hot tag, Williams tackles him from behind and Hansen ends up flying off the apron again. At that point he's had enough and comes in swinging a chair, but before he breaks it over Williams' head Tenryu has to submit to whatever sort of figure four abomination Williams put him in. After the bell Hansen flips on his own partner and tries to string him up with the bullrope. I guess being the one-legged man in an ass-kicking contest against Gordy and Williams and not winning is enough for a man like Hansen to ditch you. It's a ruthless business after all. Jumbo of all people comes to Tenryu's aid but then Tenryu grabs the bullrope and goes buck wild on both of them! Jumbo's like "ffs mate I tried to HELP you!" and Tenryu's like "away and shite, you." As a match it's probably on the GREAT-EPIC borderline, but those last five minutes were awesome and the post-match carries it through.


Genichiro Tenryu v Katsuyori Shibata (New Japan, 11/13/04) - EPIC

Fucking hell I love this match-up. I wish they wrestled seven hundred times. Their G-1 match from earlier in the year is one of the best five minutes matches ever and this is worked in similar fashion, with Shibata showing all kinds of disrespect and trying to hospitalise his elder while Tenryu throttles him for his temerity. Tenryu as badass Clint Eastwood putting a young jock in his place is really the perfect dynamic. Right at the start Tenryu meets Shibata on the ramp and throws him off the stage into a row of chairs, then a little later Shibata drags him to the same spot and I thought for a second he was going to chuck the old man to his death. They do a back and forth in the ring where Shibata punts Tenryu in the chest, Tenryu responds with a punch and one of those low angle brainbusters, and they basically repeat that sequence three times until Tenryu comes out on top. It was kind of dumb but also awesome in that egregiously stupid sort of way. Tenryu hitting a draping DDT from the top rope to the floor was sheer fucking lunacy and I don't know how he never killed him. Shibata popping up and deciding it's his turn to throw potato shots a couple minutes later was a wee bit rubbish, but he doesn't get much offence in before Tenryu chokes him half to death. I can see someone thinking the finish was a touch flat, but for as annoying as Shibata dropping all selling can be, the way he staggered around like a man ready to be put out his misery was great. And of course Tenryu doesn't need to be told twice.


Complete & Accurate Tenryu

WWF Wrestlemania X

Well, not the whole show, but the stuff that interested me. I watched the Bret/Owen opener a few years ago and wrote about it already, so there's no point going over that ground again. WWF weren't exactly in the habit of knocking out amazing PPVs in the 90s but the opener and Shawn/Razor both delivered and there was some other okay stuff. So even if it isn't a high bar, this was probably one of the better shows the WWF had during the 90s.


Bam Bam Bigelow & Luna v Doink & Dink

I didn't hate this. I mean it wasn't good, but the Luna/Dink parts were sort of amusing and that was the match-up I expected to be rubbish. There was one bit where Dink was running around the ring as if he was trying to make Luna dizzy or something (come on, how the fuck should I know?), so Luna just stared at him then punted him in the chest. Bigelow's one of the better guys in the company in '94 but he was barely involved. His falling headbutts from a standing position had some daylight, but his headbutt off the top looked good. Who was playing Doink here? Whoever it was hit a big DDT and took a bump off a missed Whoopee Cushion that could've busted his tailbone. Post-match I expected either Dink to bite Luna in the butt or Bigelow to crush a midget, but neither happened. This was like six minutes and wouldn't have been the worst match on nine out of ten WWE PPVs today.


'Macho Man' Randy Savage v Crush (Falls Count Anywhere)

This was billed as falls count anywhere but in reality it was falls count anywhere except in the ring. It was sort of convoluted. You can't pin your opponent in the ring, but pinning them anywhere else in the arena or city of New York is fine. It also had a Texas death match twist to it in that after each fall the loser had sixty seconds to return to the ring. If he couldn't do so, the match was over. In practice it only went about eight minutes but it was an okay little brawl. Few are better than Savage at communicating the hatred of a feud that's supposed to be built on hate and he came out the gate jumping straight at Crush's face. You bought that he hated him, basically. They did some cool stuff, like a tilt-a-whirl backbreaker on the floor, a big Savage bump across the guardrail, Crush hit a nice superkick that busted Savage's mouth open, and then the finish was pretty amusing even if it didn't work entirely as intended. Crush kind of stunk for the entirety of his career but this iteration of him with the face paint and cool ring gear and aligning himself with Fuji was probably my favourite Crush. Neo-Nazi biker with tire track forehead tattoo, big goofy surfer bro, nWo lummox with sunglasses and Kronik-era hired assassin who slicks his hair back with Nutella just didn't click in the same way.


Shawn Michaels v Razor Ramon (Ladder Match) 

Well dang, I thought this held up shockingly well. I probably even liked it more now than I did whenever I last watched it (must be like ten years ago). I get criticising Michaels for doing all this crazy shit with a ladder that the crowd will pop for rendering it counterproductive to him as the heel, but at worst I don't really care and at best I might be able to convince myself it actively added to the match; or at least added to my enjoyment of it. Razor punches him around the place and I bought Michaels only being able to win by getting creative with that ladder. He wasn't winning with fisticuffs but hey, there's a big fuckin ladder you're allowed to bonk someone with so that's a decent equalizer, right? Plus everything looked super nasty and like it was designed to actually hurt Razor, rather than hunt for the almighty pop. I mean, all that carny shit about him having a five star match with a ladder that Scott Hall happened to be window dressing in is obviously silly, but I thought this was largely Michaels being a bump machine and Razor plugging in his spots and selling well when he needed to. There were also clearly moments where Shawn was leading him through spots. Michaels just picking up the ladder and flinging it at Razor's kidneys was brutal and in that instance I'm not sure how much of Razor's selling was actually selling. When he made his comeback and clotheslined Michaels over the top (which Michaels took an awesome bump off of) he could've climbed the ladder and tried to win, but I bought him wanting revenge for being smashed in the gut and kidneys five times with the ladder. He basically used it to throw an uppercut at one point and naturally Michaels took a killer bump to the floor. The slingshot into the ladder, the splash off the ladder, that thing Michaels did out the corner that was also a splash only ladder-assisted; all great spots. The baseball slide into the ladder was also one of the better of its ilk. There were moments as well where Michaels would add a nasty little touch out of nowhere, my favourite being where they both take a spill off the ladder and he just kicks it over so it lands across Razor's back. Thought the finish was basically perfect as well. The bit with him getting tangled in the ropes is great and I love how he milked the shit out of all that, going from having his leg caught and escaping only to get his arm wrapped, juuuuuust inches away from being able to shove that ladder over. But the way he set it up to climb initially by standing it over Razor's body was a really cool little touch. Razor already walked under it pre-match and this was Shawn being overconfident. Why would he ever pass up a chance to rub salt in the wound? I guess the opening few minutes before the ladder gets introduced was a bit vanilla, but it's about the only part that didn't feel like a gnarly fight. Obviously the highspots are dated a quarter century later, but I think having such vivid memories of this as a kid and being blown away by what they were doing at the time will always stick with me. It never felt like just a collection of cool moments. It was rugged and mostly coherent and I'll probably always get at least a little enjoyment out of a Shawn Michaels bump show.


Yokozuna v Bret Hart 

This is usually a fun match-up and they had a few really good bouts the previous year, but I didn't think too much of this. It was mostly punch-kick, and even if it was decent enough punch-kick with Bret's stompy punches and Yoko cutting him off, I was probably more interested in Piper taking no shit from anybody (he's the guest referee). There was one headbutt spot that did kind of rule, though. Yoko's delayed timber bumps are always pretty great and Bret selling his own head was a cool touch. Last few minutes picked up as well and a couple of those nearfalls gave the crowd a kick up the arse. I had no recollection of how they actually ended this and that finish was...something. Was Yoko chasing Piper up the aisle supposed to suggest he had something to do with it? Or did they just run the straight banana peel finish? Either way the post-match was a cool moment. Even as a kid I could never quite get behind Bret, but I sure liked him more than Yoko and I had no real interest in Luger either. Seven year old me would've had Savage in the main event but nobody ever did listed to me.


1994 WWF Project