Revisiting 00s US Indies #38

Homicide v Necro Butcher (ROH Ring of Homicide, 5/13/06)

How good was the ROH v CZW feud? You've got this workrate super-indie known for guys like AJ Styles and CM Punk and Samoa Joe - the real upper echelon favourites of folk talking about wrestling on the internet - putting on matches that yer man Meltzer is raving about and throwing all sorts of star ratings at, and yet at this point, even in the midst of an acclaimed year-long title reign by THE internet wrestling community sacred cow, the best stuff happening on every show was whatever involved a bunch of scumbags from a garbage fed running into town and wreaking havoc. I checked out on ROH in early 2008, but for a two-year stretch before that it became a promotion that consistently ran awesome brawls, and part of me wishes they just leaned all the fucking way into that and rebranded as a 2000s indie Mid-South. To hell with your Davey Richards and Tyler Blacks of the world, give Necro Butcher the keys to the kingdom. What was so great about ROH v CZW was how chaotic it was. It felt like all manner of shit could kick off at any moment, and this was one of those moments. Memphis was the king (man I am hilarious) of the match-angle segment, where both aspects would mesh together to make a seamless whole. This was that, but stiffer and with lots of cussing and an increased likelihood of someone actually being killed. Homicide v Necro wasn't even the scheduled match -- it was supposed to be Joe v Necro, but that got abandoned early when Hero and Castagnoli interjected. Then Adam Pearce and BJ Whitmer evened the score and for a minute there we got a redux of the 100th Show riot. Many chairs were battered over heads, people were thrown bodily into things in uncomfortable ways, Adam Pearce crushed Claudio with an absolute bastard of a piledriver, Necro took a powerbomb across two chairs that would make you vomit, it was ROH v CZW at its scuzzy best. Then the CZW guys are going to kill Whitmer and the lights go out, the siren blares and everyone goes crazy. Homicide had stayed on the peripheries of this turf war before now, still a heel feuding with Colt Cabana and trying to poison him with bleach, but on this night he stepped up, if not necessarily for ROH then at least for himself, or maybe just out of belligerence. The actual Homicide v Necro part ruled. You probably know what you're getting and they largely deliver. This is also the match that's been GIF'd and used on twitter in meme format to communicate when someone spouting a terrible opinion needs to shut up, as Homicide incites a near-murder by getting about a hundred fans to throw chairs into the ring as Necro curls up underneath them. They then wrestle part of the match on top of this sea of chairs and obviously Necro Butcher is going to be taking lunatic bumps on a million folded chairs, because why would you expect anything else. "Welcome to Ring of Homicide, bitch!" A corker of a feud. 

Revisiting 00s US Indies #37

Bryan Danielson v Arik Cannon (IWA-MS Stylin' in the Summertime, 7/31/04)

I had never before seen an Arik Cannon match. I've been meaning to check out the Hero feud - and specifically their I Quit match from 2005 - since I started going through this stuff a year ago, but as is my wont I got side-tracked and never did. I was familiar with the name Arik Cannon, and have been for a number of years, long and winding as my journey as a wrestling fan has been. I was aware of his existence as a professional wrestler. Could not have told you a single thing ABOUT him, but I knew OF him. Strangely he didn't really look like I would've expected, which I guess is sort of weird because I'm not sure why I would've expected something in particular anyway. He was 22 years old here and I would not have guessed that from looking at him. He had the baggy pants and leather vest but is sort of pudgily put together so that choice of ring gear isn't the most flattering, looks like he could be Glenn Morshower's delinquent son who ran away from home in Friday Night Lights because his old man is a cop, must only be about 5 foot 4 considering Danielson is noticeably taller than him, has the face of someone who maybe had a rough paper round growing up...just a very different look than the vague portrait I'd painted in my head. Still, we're not here to judge books by their covers and overall I thought he was perfectly good in this. He works as overt heel and had lots of fun moments, both on offence and while working from below. He tells the crowd to shut up, is never above taking cheapshots and shortcuts, stooges with a little subtlety to it, just generally turns in a nice heel performance. And on top of that he brought some neat grappling, sold his arm pretty well, had some nice stuff to work over Danielson's neck, threw mean forearms, it was all fine work. Danielson was playing big fish in a small pond here though, and it was wonderful. The grappling was first class and he stretched Cannon to the limits of his flexibility, almost condescendingly gave him clean breaks without being a proper dick about it, then when Cannon annoyed him he wellied the wee fella in the face with elbows. Danielson's neck selling wasn't big and dramatic, but he made it look like he was at least bothered by it and Cannon's offence came off all the better because of it. Is it contrarian to say Danielson was better before he got the ROH title? Because he was on another level around 2004-2005. He was hardly a chump during the title reign and maybe some of those longer title defences are colouring my judgment, but everything just felt tighter and chip on his shoulder Danielson really was something else. This was very decent. 

Revisiting 00s US Indies #36

Low-Ki v Mark Briscoe (ROH Death Before Dishonour II - Night 2, 7/24/04)

This was everything it needed to be. It's not quite an extended squash, but it is Low-Ki smashing someone to bits and comes with all that entails. Mark is fired up and starts quick and Ki just cannot be bothered with that foolishness. The crowd start a duelling "let's go Briscoe/let's go Low-Ki" chant and are hungry for some non-Sports Entertainment independent wrestling action, so Ki assumes the down/referee's position because we're going 1972 here, motherfuckers! But then Briscoe obliges and actually out-wrestles him! And Ki is extremely peeved! He takes a powder, Mark gets agitated, Smokes climbs up for a cheapshot, Gabe is mortified. Ki then leapfrogs Mark and comes down clutching his leg and we one and all fear the worst. Perhaps it's a torn ACL, perhaps a dislocated patella. It must be serious for Low-Ki of all people to be in this much visible pain. But then he throws Briscoe into the ref' and as they work to untangle themselves Ki hits Mark with a springboard leg lariat. He had us all fooled and Gabe calls him a deplorable asshole, and we can't help but nod in agreement after such a wanton display of dishonour. Ki just eats Briscoe up here and shreds him with chops, so Briscoe will fire back and Ki will punt him in the mouth. There was one roundhouse kick that about took Mark's jaw off and by the end the crowd were almost entirely behind Briscoe. That's just good pro wrestling, friends.

Revisiting 00s US Indies #35

Eddie Kingston v Chris Hero (Last Man Standing Match) (IWA-MS, 9/29/07)

I'm a bit of a low voter on this. I like Kingston well enough and I'm mostly fine with Hero, but I've watched this a couple times over the years now and it's never blown me away. Some of the fighting spirit parts are kind of ropey, though they at least manage to feel like moments that are driven by a desire to get back up and kick the shit out of an opponent. Fuelled by HATRED and whatnot, as opposed to...whatever else fuels one's fighting spirit. And those parts are few and far between anyway because this is largely an alley fight. "Gritty", "seedy", "nasty"; the good stuff. There's no commentary and nobody even bothers with introductions, they just appear from a room punching and slapping each other. How long were they brawling back there to begin with? Where in the arena did they bump into each other? It could've been three minutes, it could've been an hour. Every shot lands with a thud or a whack and not a minute goes by without Hero calling Kingston a piece of shit or Eddie threatening to "fuckin kill" Hero. The chokes are violent, the eye rakes look like proper thumb in the eye trying to squish brains eye rakes, the elbows and forearms rattle teeth and the headbutts are appropriately disgusting. All the weapon shots are reckless and the bit where Hero just chucks a chair in the ring and the edge of it belts Kingston in the neck was unreal. Hero stamps repeatedly on Kingston's hands and fingers, at one point doing so while it looked like Eddie's fingers were flexed at the joints. Usually you'll have guys do that on flat fingers, obviously so it doesn't legit break those fingers (or at least offers less chance of breaking them, as you're still stamping on a person's hand after all). This time Kingston's hand was just lying curled on the mat and Hero squashed it with the sole of his boot. To hell with him being able to tie his shoelaces for a month. All of the guardrail stuff was mean and I'll always appreciate the finish of a match like this being the biggest and nastiest spot of them all. There was no anti-climax here, boys. Not my favourite match, one I'd put a few rungs below your Necro Butcher prison riots, but a badass fight all the same. 

Revisiting 00s US Indies #34

Samoa Joe v Homicide (ROH Death Before Dishonour II - Night One, 7/23/04)

This was a good Samoa Joe v Homicide match. I've watched a handful of them over the last couple weeks and I haven't really loved any of them, but this one was very good. Watching it in the context of their feud from this period helped as well. Homicide has been on a rampage and wants Joe's belt, and at the previous week's show Low Ki returned and joined the Rottweilers. They all stomped Joe to bits and Gabe suggested on commentary that they might actually murder him, which was very Gabe. This is now Homicide's last shot at the belt as long as Joe has it. I hoped he would be extra wild to match the occasion and I was not disappointed even a wee bit. Straight away he runs around ringside kicking over chairs and pulling apart bits of ring barricade, giving the finger to fans, delivering fuck yous all around. The rest of the Rottweilers are in attendance and Smokes jumps on the apron to distract Joe as Homicide attacks, a trick as old as any in the book and the mark of truly dishonourable individuals. Mark Nulty makes note of how he's "never seen Samoa Joe more focused," as Rocky Romero immediately gets up on the other apron and the laser-focused champ is reeled into being sucker punched for the second time in 15 seconds. At this point the ref' ejects all of Homicide's THUGGISH companions and I love how that really formed the story of the match; the story being that Homicide will lean all the way into being a bastard, even when doing so often ends up being actively detrimental, because he's Homicide and fuck everyone else and particularly fuck Samoa Joe. Trying to stand and trade blows with Joe is almost certainly not the strategy he wants to employ, but to hell with it. Maybe he's doing it because someone said he shouldn't, or that he wouldn't be able to, or he just can't help himself and he'll die on his sword no matter what. After Joe mauls him a few times he then starts going to the eyes, and obviously that ruled because the eye poke is one of the great, underutilised moves in modern wrestling (especially in a place where such dishonourable behaviour won't be tolerated). Homicide tries to brawl, Joe gets annoyed and fires back, Homicide pokes him in the eye, Joe goes down. Look, if it works it works. The big turning point comes when Homicide finally pushes one too many buttons, as he attempts Joe's own Ole kick and gets heaved across the floor with a nasty belly-to-belly. I liked how he sold it the rest of the way, how it stopped him from being able to hit a piledriver later, how he couldn't really go for the cover at points, how it felt like he never truly recovered from that moment on. In one sense I suppose it made it difficult to buy him actually winning, even when he was kicking out of Joe's biggest bombs down the stretch. Even when he hit three lariats on the spin it never felt like they would be enough, and shortly thereafter Joe was back in control again anyway. He fought hard until the end, refused to be pinned and never in a millions years was he going to submit, but when Joe grabbed that choke the lights were going out whether he liked it or not. Post-match the Rottweilers lay another gang beating on Joe and they all spit on the belt and Gabe shouts in his nasaly whine that "THEY'VE RAPED THE BELT OF ITS DIGNITY!" What a strange fellow. 

Revisiting 00s US Indies #33

Samoa Joe v Homicide v Bryan Danielson v Austin Aries v Mark Briscoe v Colt Cabana (ROH Survival of the Fittest, 6/24/04)

This is another long one and I really only wanted to watch the Danielson/Aries part of it, but I had some time and went all in. NO FEAR. It didn't really feel like 40+ minutes so straight away we're onto a winner. First half is the elimination part and it was mostly decent stuff. The Colt Cabana/Mark Briscoe pairing to start us off was very Colt Cabana-ish and they did some parity stuff with quasi-WoS exchanges that I didn't have much use for. At one point Mark turned his back and started walking towards the ropes for no reason whatsoever and you're like "oh, they're setting up the next part of their routine. I see" and they did something or other and I really just wanted Homicide to stab someone with a fork instead, ideally Colt Cabana. Cabana has done very little for me during this little trip down memory lane, in case you were wondering. Danielson was spectacular in this entire thing and he was in a surly mood from the start. The few minutes where he took Briscoe's leg apart was particularly great. Aries was a weasel and in no hurry to get involved unless it was necessary, but the exchange with Joe was really good. Joe of course steamrolled folk and especially wanted to steamroll Homicide, who stabbed him in the face many times with a fork not too long ago, and then his surprise elimination came off great. Cabana acting like a full blown doofus after being the one to pin him ruled. We've all known a Colt Cabana and we all know how they'd react to taking a scalp like that. Strutting around like they're untouchable, zero humility, full of hubris, that inflated sense of self-assurance, just totally insufferable. That he was eliminated next was a great payoff, particularly while Mark Nulty on commentary solemnly speaks to "the highs and lows of an elimination match." Very poignant. Aries and Danielson get about 20 minutes to work one on one and shockingly enough it was excellent. I guess Danielson works a little more like the heel than Aires - the actual heel - but I thought it played out fine. Surly Danielson will stretch anybody and their granny so Aries is probably always going to be an underdog in that scenario, whether he's supposed to be likeable or not. Aries tries to match him on the mat and Danielson applies this brutal sort of full nelson hold where both of Aries' arms are key-locked. Aries' offence comes in bursts and all looks really explosive, though the one time he does manage to apply something on the mat it's awesome, as he grabs a crossface and about cranks Danielson's head around a full 180 degrees with a fish hook. He gets his first proper opening after Danielson misses a charge in the corner and tangles himself in the ropes, and while there's never really any specific and prolonged limbwork, there are at least moments where they'll both focus on something. There's Aries going after the leg a bit. At some point Aries gets split open under the chin so Danielson hammers him with uppercuts. Towards the end Aries keeps going for the brainbuster because, you know, it works so why wouldn't that be a viable strategy, while Danielson apparently wants to break Aries' spine. Not extended body part segments, but it doesn't feel haphazard and all fits together nicely. The finish is great. Danielson is just obliterating Aries with some of the meanest body slams you've ever seen, then he clonks him with a roaring elbow and applies a fucking bearhug! I've seen a goodly amount of Bryan Danielson matches where he's twisted someone in knots, but I don't recall him using a bearhug as a viable means of finishing a match. The crowd totally bought it as well, and the way he used it to eventually set up his disgusting Boston Crab variation was amazing. The Danielson/Aries segment is where the money's at, but the first half with all six guys involved was good and as a whole I thought it was booked super well, especially watching it in context and knowing the surrounding storylines.

Revisiting 00s US Indies #32

Necro Butcher v Toby Klein v Brain Damage (CZW Tournament of Death V, 7/29/06)

What a ridiculous nonsense of a thing. Mid-2000s CZW deathmatch isn't a stylistic rabbit hole I have much interest in jumping down, but I hoped this would be more of a deranged Necro Butcher alley fight than a light tubes and barbed wire gorefest. I care little about guys in their awful baggy wrestling pants getting thrown shirtless into glass panels and bathtubs fulla thumbtacks, but I can make myself care somewhat about a bunch of psycho hillbillies trying to take the jaw off each other in front of 60 methamphetamine distributors. This was held in what looked like a forest clearing so it had the feel of a drunken brawl that broke out during a Yellowstone Park tour. As soon as the match starts Klein literally rips out Brain Damage's eyebrow piercing with a pair of pliers. I'd never seen a Brain Damage match in my life (prolly) but he certainly lived up to his name. Necro comes out to 'Freebird' and the crowd immediately lose their shit and five seconds later he's absolutely fucking whomped Brain Damage in the face with an empty gallon-sized water cannister tied to a broom handle. Klein gets bottled by Brain Damage, then Klein tries to pay him in kind except the bottle doesn't smash and somehow that looked even worse. Klein takes a hiptoss off a truck through four tables, Necro sneaks in and goes for the cover, and when Klein kicks out a fan shouts "you should've hooked the leg" and Necro holds his head in his hands like "fuck man I SHOULD'VE hooked the leg!" Still, the craziest bit comes at the end when they're just cracking each other in the face. This is all the way up there as the single most absurd punch exchange ever. All three are completely drilling each other in very non-worked fashion, both Klein and Damage laying full force jabs and hooks right to Necro's jaw and temple, Necro swinging wildly at anything attached to a pair of shoulders, and this rather than any of the previous gruesome stuff is what elicits the big CZ-Dub chant. If you're going to end a match like this with a punch then you better make that punch count, and brothers, any one of these punches would've done the trick. 

Revisiting 00s US Indies #31

Alex Shelley, Austin Aries, Roderick Strong & Jack Evans v The Briscoes, Jimmy Rave & John Walters (ROH Generation Next, 5/22/04)

I was a wee bit sceptical about this. I already knew going in it was a long one and I don't REALLY care about watching any of these guys for 40 minutes, but you know what? I'll be fucked if I didn't think it ruled. I never thought it dragged, never thought it was bloated, never thought they were just doing stuff to be doing stuff, never thought it got too contrived. Would it have been tighter if they'd shaved like ten minutes off? Probably, but all the same it never felt like they were running out of ideas and even at 41 minutes I thought they had just the right amount of stuff to fill the time. The first half was largely back and forth, plenty of momentum shifts with neither team really sustaining an advantage. That they managed to keep me fully engaged for that long (I'm sure this is very important to them) without a prolonged heat segment or obvious story hook was surprising, so fair play to them because most matches would've lost me long before that. I mean, this is 2004 ROH, right as the indie boom is about to peak, so at the very least you know these guys are going to make their shit look good, and usually that's not something I care all that much about but tip of the cap to the fellas because all of their shit looked good. I can't believe how well mid-00s Austin Aries has consistently held up going through this stuff and yet again everything he did came off great. Strong is pudgy and looks like a 19-year old trying to grow his first goatee because it is 2004 and goatees were all the rage then, but he still hits like a bastard and all of his exchanges with Jay Briscoe were uncooperative and potatoey. At one point Jay spat his chewing gum at Shelley and Gen Next got super indignant so later on Aries spat on the entire babyface corner. Just the general vicinity of it and everyone got caught in the blast. And he wonders why people want him to wear a mask, the silly prick. Things kick up a gear midway through and the back half has a little of everything. First the babyfaces isolate Evans with an absurd electric chair drop across both Briscoes' knees, and of course Evans gets stretched and wellied all over the place and of course it was a hoot. His backflip bump off a clothesline is always great because he makes it look like it was the force from the clothesline that flipped him all the way over and not just him doing a backflip. After that we get Jay in peril, which comes from an awesome transition where Strong folds him with a capture suplex just as Shelley dropkicks the knee. It was like a modern indie version of a Total Elimination where you know they all sat around geeking about how they could do something cool and that in and of itself is sort of cool and makes me wish I pursued that teenage dream of becoming a professional wrestler working in front of 23 people. The beatdown on Jay is good and he sells the leg well, and then they tease going into the finishing run but NO, it instead leads to a further heat segment on Jonathan Walters. Earlier in the show Gen Next attacked Walters and spiked him with a piledriver, so they work over the neck and naturally they do some neat stuff. Great moment where Walters nearly escapes to his own corner but Aries grabs his hair and slams him to the mat, and as Walters is on the way down Aries knees him in the neck, which looked pretty brutal. The actual finishing run is short by indie epic standards and I thought it ended just at the right time. Shelley double stomping Walters in the fuckin neck from the top rope was an absolute bastard of a thing and I'd have tapped out shortly thereafter as well, so keep yer chin up there Johnny Walters my good man. I watched this late last night, figuring I'd go to sleep after it if I wasn't put to sleep during it, but it actually gave me a proper buzz and I wound up watching some more stuff when it finished. I'm not about to call it the peak of modern indie workrate tags, but I'll tell you one thing and you best heed these words - I can't think of another straight up workrate tag that landed as sweetly as this. I thought it was properly excellent and massive surprise; in the good way and not like when you step in a puddle or a bees nest.

Revisiting 00s US Indies #30

It's been almost a year but I'm jumping back into the 00s indies. We'll see how far I get this time before wandering off for another 11 months.

Bryan Danielson v Jack Evans (ROH Survival of the Fittest, 6/24/04)

Well this ruled like fuck. ROH is hardly the promotion that comes to mind when talking about great squash matches - for obvious reasons - but this is largely an extended squash, and an awesome one at that. I imagine this is the Bryan Danielson people are buzzed about seeing again in AEW. I mean, I mostly checked out of watching WWE a decade ago so there's a lot of WWE Bryan that I haven't seen, but I absolutely do not recall him being allowed to do this to someone at any point in that run. As a babyface he was always the underdog, often a goofy one at that, and even when he got to tap into his mean streak it felt like a fleeting foray into a past life. As a heel he leaned a little further into it, but I don't really remember anything like this. He tortured wee Jack Evans here and never before have I seen someone twisted and contorted into so many ridiculous shapes. Even for an extremely flexible young man this was some real nonsense. At one point Danielson had both of Jack's elbows about touching each other behind his back while his heel was connected to his neck. He put him in the nastiest version of an Argentine backbreaker you've ever seen and then he pretzel'd him with a stump puller from hell. Evans got a few licks in and once or twice mounted some offence, but it was always brief and only drove Danielson to make his life an even greater misery. Evans' bump off the European uppercut was amazing and the Boston Crab at the end is a disgrace. Total blast of a match. 

Down Along the Cove Piper Spied His True Love Comin' His Way. He said, "Lord Have Mercy, Mama, it Sure is Good to See you Comin' Today"

Roddy Piper, Rick Martel, Dutch Savage & Stan Stasiak v Buddy Rose, Sam Oliver Bass & The Sheepherders (Portland, 1/5/80) - GREAT

The first fall of this ruled. It got lots of time, built well, let the big personalities shine, it was really the Portland TV main event formula at its best. Early on the heels get ping ponged around the ring, then they swarm Piper off a pin attempt and Piper is his usual awesome self being worked over. He has that ragged sort of selling where everything feels scrappy and his ability to generate sympathy is quite extraordinary. After the hot tag there's a lengthy arm work section and Rose is amazing during this, even leaving the match to go backstage and get his elbow strapped up. They kind of tease the idea that the elbow pad might be loaded, the way he clearly makes an effort to hit an elbow off the top despite never really using that move otherwise, but they don't make a major deal of it. A bit of subtlety and all that, rather than Michael Cole battering you about the head with it. Really cool bit where Piper gets raked in the eyes while applying an armbar and sells it by blindly trying to make a tag to one of his partners. The second fall maybe drags a little and peters out a bit towards the end, but still has plenty of good stuff. Piper takes another stint in peril and of course rules again. Love him trying to match strength with Bass only to be overpowered, then trying to slam him only to fail and eat one in return, but he keeps at it and WILLS himself to endure a greco-roman knuckle lock and hit a couple quick dropkicks. He was over like a bastard in Portland and felt like a truly massive star. Also loved the idea that the babyfaces can and will match shithousery with the heels, and for the majority of this you had Sandy Barr frantically trying to keep things from breaking down. Heels tiptoeing almost cartoonishly into the ring for blindsides, the babyfaces making phantom tags while Barr is ejecting one of the Army, just all sorts of shenanigans. Best bit overall might've been the quadruple running noggin-knocker spot where Sandy almost gets caught in the middle. Bonnema on commentary shouting "Sandy, get out of the way, you'll be killed!" was perfect. And so was Portland. 

Complete & Accurate Hot Rod

Tenryu Ain't Bitching 'Bout Things that Aren't in His Grasp, Just Trying to Hold Steady on the Righteous Path

Genichiro Tenryu, Jumbo Tsuruta & Takashi Ishikawa v Riki Choshu, Masa Saito & Killer Khan (All Japan, 1/24/85) – FUN

Pretty standard Choshu's Army v Jumbo/Tenryu six-man, which at least means the floor will never be very low, but at the same time Choshu/Khan/Saito is a murderer's row of a trio and I really wanted more. They never gave us that proper hook, that central thread running through the match that held everything together. Instead they walloped each other and that's hardly cause for complaint, but it was pretty ragged and they started losing me a bit with the back-and-forth. Khan was a peripheral figure and his charisma and personality was missed. It's also the only time (I think) I've seen Saito in this feud and I wanted my socks knocked off, so it's hard not to be disappointed when it doesn't happen. Not the best match this feud produced, not the worst thing you'll watch this week. Probably.

Genichiro Tenryu, Toshiaki Kawada & Ricky Fuyuki v Jumbo Tsuruta, The Great Kabuki & Kenta Kobashi (All Japan, 10/14/89) – GOOD

Did we ever get a lengthy Tenryu/Kabuki singles match from around this time? Even a few years later in WAR? Because that match-up is a sneaky all-timer as far as crowbar fun goes. Tenryu chopping him in the throat, Kabuki uppercutting him in the cheek, the lariats, the thrust kicks, it pretty much never fails to rule. Kobashi stepping to his elders and getting stomped is usually fun as well. I wish they went a bit further with it here, maybe have him in PERIL a while longer, but what we got was decent and as always Tenryu made him look a million bucks. Tenryu v Jumbo is of course good. There was one awesome sequence where Jumbo went for a high knee and Tenryu caught him, hotshotted him across the top rope (always one of Jumbo's Achilles heels), but then got clonked with a Kabuki uppercut from the apron as he went to press home the advantage. Even if the finish was never in much doubt I did like how they gave Kobashi a surprise nearfall on Tenryu right before it. Maybe the company figured he could be something.

Complete & Accurate Tenryu