The Comando Ruso apuestas you've all been looking for!

Remo Banda v Comando Ruso (Hair v Hair) (CMLL, 2/16/90)

The big - or moderately-sized - blowoff to what's been a pretty fun midcard feud. As far as bloodless apuestas go it wasn't Casas/Panther, but it was an okay way to kill 15 minutes. It almost had a story of Ruso being the dominant force, using his size advantage and general brutishness to stay on top, with Banda having big bursts of offence to keep him in the fight. Ruso wipes the floor with him in the primera, then Banda comes back with one of those offensive bursts in the segunda and we're all set for an epic deciding fall. Or a moderately exciting one. The tercera starts with Ruso about giving Banda whiplash off a turnbuckle headshot, but Banda comes back with a huge dive off the top and if we had three gallons of blood this would've been pretty awesome. Even though he had some spotty selling towards the end Ruso was a fun bruiser throughout, while for Banda it felt like we got a better look at him in the lead-in trios. Banda's selling after the - admittedly brutal - running powerbomb was kind of weird, and then Ruso gets himself DQd for essentially trying to kick him to death and that will always be an anti-climax in a by god hair match. 

1990 CMLL Project

Piper You're no Friend of Mine. I Trusted You and You Robbed Me Blind, of Everything I had and You Took Your Time

Roddy Piper & Don Muraco v Rocky Johnson & Tony Atlas (WWF, 2/18/84) - FUN

Largely a Piper and Muraco heat-seeking exhibition, but Piper going out of his way to make a crowd throw objects at him will never not be entertaining and Muraco looked like he could be halfway arsed on the night, so overall it was a fun time. Tony Atlas might be as cranked as I've ever seen a wrestler. His traps have traps and almost look like wings sprouting from his shoulders. He didn't have the best punches, however. In most circumstances that might've been an active detriment to the part of the match where he and his partner engage in a fist fight with their opponents, but this was salvaged by Piper and Muraco being stooges. At one point Muraco jumped up on the middle ropes to tell people to shut up and took an amazing banana peel tumble. Piper's oversell of a legdrop to the midsection is the stuff of legends and then in the end he and Muraco have a falling out and Piper flips him the bird and walks away. Apparently this was Piper's first appearance in the Philly Spectrum. I reckon he made an impression. 

Roddy Piper v Andre the Giant (WWF, 3/31/84) - GOOD

A magical wee five minutes. Right away Andre rips the shirt off Piper's back and whips him with his own belt, and from there's it's basically Piper trying to get close enough to do something underhanded without getting caught and clubbed in the face. Piper retreats to the apron and stands behind the post, foolishly thinking he's found temporary respite, then Andre reaches out and grabs him by the arms and yanks him into that same post. As soon as Piper steps back in the ring Andre corners him and butt bumps him, so Piper undoes his tape and goes to the choking. So Andre just takes the tape from him, wraps it around Piper's throat and chucks him out the ring. That was what wrestling Andre was like. It was a mountain to climb, only this mountain was actively trying to throw you off it at every turn. After the third time Andre grabbed Piper's entire head in his one hand and punched him with the other Piper decided enough was enough. It's hard to blame the man, really. 

Roddy Piper v Ivan Putski (WWF, 5/21/84) - SKIPPABLE 

I may have been premature in declaring Tony Atlas the most cranked wrestler I've ever seen. I forgot about the existence of Ivan Putski. He must be about 5'4 and absolutely housed to the moon, redder than a well-skelped arse, paper-thin skin, just a walk monument to PEDs. How is that man still alive? I don't even remember the last time I watched a Putski match but he wasn't good and this didn't make me want to do a deep dive. He wasn't for giving Piper anything early and threw a bunch of crazy windmill punches like someone trying to swim for the first time. Piper soon realises he's getting no offence so opts to just run away, then absorbs a bunch of Putski's shots, rakes his eyes and does a delayed Greg Valentine-style fall on his face. Piper finally takes over with a foreign object shot and I love how his entourage of bagpipe and drum players come out to ringside to punctuate the shift in momentum. In the end Putski accidentally wallops the referee with one of his blind overhands and you know what? I bought that. Anyhow this wasn't the best. 

Complete & Accurate Hot Rod

Rockers v Brainbusters

The Rockers v The Brainbusters (WWF, 1/23/89)

By god what a bitta the tag wrestling. I know that Shawn Michaels is not a likeable individual and a deeply flawed pro wrestler and that Marty Jannetty is probably a psychopath, but when people I tend to agree with on lots of pro wrestling discussions tell me I'm crazy for thinking the Rockers are on par with teams like the Fantastics and Fabulous Ones, I can't help but think THEY are the ones smoking crack, not me. Perhaps they're simply blinded by seething CONTEMPT for the Heartbreak Kid and I am in fact the only one capable of impartiality. Perhaps. Or they just don't like WWF tag wrestling very much and sure, I get it. But this was a southern style tag that happened to be in New York rather than Atlanta and I thought it was way up there with the very best southern style tags from any combo you want to throw at me. The early shine rules and one of my favourite things about the Rockers is how they obviously put a ton of thought and creativity into double teams. Being in there with Arn and Tully does not hurt one bit and the timing on everything was just perfect, the wrestlers' reactions exactly what you'd expect for who they are. Arn slaps Michaels in the corner so Michaels comes back with some punches, backs Arn into the corner and of course slaps him, and Arn has the nerve to be indignant about it. Lots of parts where all four of them are in the ring and it's all smooth enough that nobody ever needs to stand around waiting for the next part of the sequence to happen, so you never feel like what you're watching actually IS a sequence of spots and pre-planned moves. Even Hebner (or HEEbner as Trongard calls him and I will now be doing the same thank you very much) looks halfway competent and doesn't get lost trying to keep up and I'm 100% putting that on the wrestlers making it actively difficult for him to fuck anything up. There was one sequence that had Tully attempt his slingshot suplex that Michaels slips out the back of, an attempted double suplex by the Busters that's turned into a double superkick after Jannetty makes the save, then Arn took a fucking hurricanrana clean on the top of his skull like one of those Dragon Gate juniors and I fell out the bed. The transition is one of my favourites as the Busters get lamped up and down the place for the umpteenth time, but on this occasion Arn stays down on the floor and hides beside the apron. Tully then baits Michaels into chasing him around ringside and as he rounds the corner goes for a clothesline, which Michaels ducks only to get wasted by Arn instead. The heat segment is pretty much 10/10 stuff. Jannetty is one of the best ever at making it look like he REALLY wants to tag in and works the apron like a maniac, nearly falling head-first into the ring making a leap for that tag just as Arn snatches Shawn out the air, the timing on a cut-off spot that most teams don't nail being absolutely nailed. Michaels really shines during all the hope spots, Arn works surly as a bastard and hits the amazing spinebuster cut-off, and Blanchard (or Blanch-ARD as Lord Al calls him and I will now be doing the same thank you very much) is the best weasel bastard there's ever been. Seriously, how did it take me until like 2019 to realise that Tully is a top 25 wrestler of all time rather than top 75? Arn using the tassels on Jannetty's boots to keep his foot pinned down is an incredible bit of improv at the finish as well. This whole thing was phenomenal. I thought it was one of the handful of best WWF tags ever when I last watched it, and honestly this time I could see an argument that it's #1. The tag team wrestling is the greatest. 

Steamboat v Cowboy Bob! The Hart Foundation v The Bees!

Ricky Steamboat v Bob Orton Jr. (WWF, 7/20/85)

This is a real personal favourite of mine. I remember seeing it for the first time on goodhelemet's Ricky Steamboat comp way back in 2008 or some stupidity, and it's still a hoot 14 years later. Steamboat is wearing the CRISP black tights and boots combo and looks like what I imagine a crowd in Landover, Maryland would've expected a ninja to look like in 1985. His armdrags may never have been better as he just works the hell out of Orton's cast arm early on. His WWF strikes are sort of goofy compared to his regular NWA chops because he has to do the little martial arts gesticulations, but they still might be the best strikes in the company at this point and all of them landed with a smack. Orton is playing all the way to the back row with every sell and bump, which is fitting considering he's in there with Steamboat who will play to the furthest row imaginable. Maybe Orton figured since they were in Maryland he'd work this like it was a Great American Bash tour and he went full Mid-Atlantic with the mannerisms. The transition was great, as he initially hurls himself out the ring off a missed shoulder tackle and about flies over the barricade, then he steals a drink from someone at ringside and chucks it in Steamboat's face and if you've ever had a litre of Coca Cola thrown in your eyes as I have - and I would assume a number of you have - then you know how much it stings like a bastard. Orton really measures his punches to the nose and Steamboat is Steamboat selling everything. Stretch run has some nice drama, including a great nearfall off a top rope crossbody and a great skin-the-cat moment where Orton takes another big spill over the top rope. The DQ finish kind of blows but our referee looks like Conservative MP Michael Fabricant so what can we really expect but incompetence? Gorilla Monsoon was well within his rights to slander the man on commentary. "Fuck the Tories" indeed, Gorilla. I'll always love this match.

Hart Foundation v Killer Bees (WWF, 2/17/86)

I'd never seen this before. It had been talked up as one of the better WWF tags of the 80s during the GME project, and I'd say that's pretty accurate. It's really good. I don't mind the more heel-in-peril-dominant WWF tags of the era but my bread and butter is southern style, so I'll probably always gravitate more towards one that dedicates time to the babyface beatdown, and this one had a relatively short HIP segment followed by a shorter FIP spell and then a longer FIP spell. The early stuff with Neidhart being an immovable object was fun, leading to the Bees taking him over with some really swank drop toe holds. A nice slick drop toe hold is a treasure and these were great ones. Monsoon tries to be smart on commentary and thinks the gastrocnemius is a part of the quadriceps muscles and that is just flatly incorrect as the gastroc is the calf and maybe he should read a fuckin textbook before spreading such misinformation. Neidhart was clearly kicked in the vastus medialis. Silly old man. The first FIP spell is transitioned to with an awesome Bret legdrop, one where he just comes in and about crushes Blair's head - or his metatarsal as stupid Gorilla Monsoon might WRONGLY suggest - while Blair has Anvil in a toe hold. The meat of the match is Brunzell in peril and it was pretty great. The ref' isn't the quickest so of course Monsoon canes him repeatedly on commentary for being inept but all of the cut-offs and distraction spots were good in theory, and most were good in execution as well. Bret and Anvil shut down Brunzell's momentum at one point with an awesome assisted running shoulderblock in the corner and this time Monsoon correctly references the intercostal muscles so maybe he read that textbook after all, then they try it a second time and Bret about whiplashes himself to oblivion as Brunzell moves. Brunzell hitting the dropkick for the first time blows the roof off, then Blair is a blistering hot tag and rather than going right to the finish we get a bit of an extended finishing run, or at least extended relative to most tags of the era. Some huge nearfalls down the stretch, Brunzell's second dropkick is a scorcher and a Jumpin' Jim Brunzell dropkick really is one of the best dropkicks ever. I prefer Harts/Islanders as my #1 Hart Foundation match, but this was better than every Hart Foundation/British Bulldogs match I've ever seen. The fuckin gastrocnemius. I am fuming here.

Been Chasing Songs and Women, Making Some Bad Decisions, God Knows Piper's Drinkin' too Much

Roddy Piper v Bruno Sammartino (Cage Match) (WWF, 2/8/86) - GREAT

Really fun WWF style cage match. The Chicago Bears had just pumped the Patriots at Superbowl XX so Piper comes out wearing a Bears t-shirt and hangs posters of William Perry and Jim McMahon. As soon as Bruno gets in there he chucks Piper into the cage and Piper is bleeding inside eleven seconds. Piper hurtling into the poster makes a really satisfying *thwack*, then Bruno scrunches it up and stuffs it in Piper's mouth, then stuffs the other one down Piper's trunks, and of course Piper sells the latter like he's just been given a surprise prostate exam. Roddy Piper is also the godking of staggering around selling blood loss and obviously we get that here. Bruno half rips Piper's shirt off, so Piper is left bumbling around with the fabric hanging off him like a mummy. At one point Bruno almost rips Piper's trunks off so Roddy spends a third of the match with a sizeable amount of pasty white butt cheeks on display. I loved Piper hitting the low blow to take over as Bruno tries to escape the cage, then he follows it up with a blatant elbow to the plums and I'm wondering if this is actually Puerto Rico rather than Boston but then this crowd was kind of shitty for a match involving Piper AND Bruno and if it really was Puerto Rico Piper would've been hit in the head with a projectile by now. Escape the cage rules are never great but I thought they worked around them well enough, at least in that they showed real desperation whenever the other was heading for the door, lunging desperately for a leg while timing those moments so that nobody had to completely blow off any offence to do it. Bruno's revenge ball shot was sensational as he outright haymakers Piper in the willy and Puerto Rico nods approvingly. Bruno smashing Piper in the head with a chair at the end was a cool way of finally shaking him too. If this happened in MSG it might've been eight stars.

Roddy Piper v Rick Rude (WWF, 9/30/89) - GREAT

This was a real blast, which was not at all surprising to me. I mean both of these guys are probably two of my 10 favourite US-based wrestlers ever, so obviously I was going to like it. If nothing else it's a nice stop to hit before re-watching that cage match I loved way back whenever. Pre-match Rude gets absolutely fucking nuclear heat for calling the New Yorkers a bunch of fat inner city sweat hogs and people will not let him finish a sentence before booing him mercilessly. It was great. The first couple minutes were as much fun as I hoped as Rude asks Piper to remove his mini skirt because he doesn't know whether to kiss Piper or beat him to death. Piper is about as amused as you'd think, then chases Heenan out of town and wraps the kilt around Rude's head and swings him about the place. They have a great fight over Piper's belt, first with Rude using it to whip Piper, both of them lunging for it and having a tug-of-war to see who comes up with it, Piper eventually winning that battle and whipping Rude in the arse with it. Rude's sell is quite frankly immaculate and almost as good as his atomic drop sell. Piper wrapping the belt around Rude's neck and whipping him face-first into the turnbuckle looked brutal as well. Rude eventually slows things down with a bearhug and then by working the camel clutch, but he has good forearm clubs to the back and Piper is always scrappy as a bastard. There are times with Piper where he clearly does shit that his opponent was not expecting and it always gives matches an extra sense of uncooperativeness, a bit of added struggle or tension. This time Rude threw him to the floor so he could do his swivel hips pose, but Piper immediately hopped back in and tried to bum rush him and Rude needed to react. That sort of thing is why Piper would be close to my all-time top 40 at this point. There was a great bit during the Piper comeback where Rude threw a big haymaker with the left that Piper blocked, then threw one with the right that was similarly blocked, then went for a big double club/Mongolian chop thing and Piper blocked that with both arms and rocked him with a punch. If Piper had given Rude one of his GOAT eye pokes as a receipt for earlier this might also have been eight stars. Alas.

Complete & Accurate Hot Rod

Some old man Michaels

I have a peculiar urge to run through a bunch of post-comeback Shawn Michaels. We'll see how far I get before going back to the Hector Guerrero. 

Shawn Michaels & HHH v Rated RKO (New Year's Revolution, 1/7/07)

I will not be re-watching the full old man DX run. However, I'd guess this is the highlight of that foolishness and that particular run ending with HHH blowing a quad and Shawn Michaels throwing a temper tantrum is quite fitting, all things considered. Helmsley in his oversized hockey jersey and Michaels running around with his wee beanie hat is peak "How do you do, fellow kids?" meme. They're about three years removed from that Good Charlotte video with the pensioners dressed like goths and skateboarders. This was pretty good. Had a couple heat segments and I liked Michaels and HHH dragging the referee out of position so they could hit stuff ILLEGALLY and whatnot. Michaels hits an apron legdrop on Orton and catches him with the heel of his boot and when Orton started bleeding I was like "wait a minute, I remembered much more blood than this." Edge eventually hits a chop block on Helmsley who goes FIP for a minute, then it breaks down a bit and Edge spears Michaels off the apron before Orton wellies him with the tag belt. Michaels bleeds a lot and I was like "I could've sworn it was Randy Orton who did all the bleeding!" HHH comes in at one point and starts hobbling as he's ejected and I thought the wee referee fella had caused him to blow his quad but it would appear he was just selling the leg from earlier. After the hot tag it all breaks down like I guess it was always supposed to, then the quad explodes on a spinebuster and he, Edge and Orton all start kind of floundering. So Michaels hits a corner tope on Orton and pulls rank on everything and wallops the referee to completely remove all of those awkward moments where he's getting in the way and having to make slow counts. Then he whomps Orton with a chair and THERE is all the fucking blood I remembered! Orton looks like he's been fully stabbed in the face and is just WEEPING blood after about six seconds. Michaels rolls around on the broken table after he elbows Orton through it like my 4-month old dog rolls around on the floor after I take him a walk in the rain.

Shawn Michaels v Randy Orton (Survivor Series, 11/18/07)

I don't think I've watched this since it aired. I remembered it being the first WWE match to feature a Crossface post-Benoit and not a whole lot else. Michaels always gets dinged for having piddly looking offence and has never been talked up as much of a hold worker, but maybe he'd been hanging around with Regal for a minute before this because he threw on a mean cravat early on and wouldn't let the thing go. This had a kind of silly stipulation in that Michaels couldn't hit Sweet Chin Music or he'd be disqualified and never allowed to challenge Orton for the title again. I have no idea why. Orton meanwhile would lose the belt if HE was disqualified. The latter is never really a factor but the former leads to some really creative stuff and WEAVES A TALE of Michaels having to step out of his comfort zone and find a new way to win. That means using a bunch of submissions that he's been forced to submit to himself over the years and I shit you not his Crossface looked better than Benoit's ever did. He really used his legs to hook Orton's arm so he couldn't grab the ropes and then twisted his head all ugly to the side, which left Orton with a cut lip (that led to some nice visuals later of Orton's blood-stained grin, especially after he nearly took Michaels' head off with a clothesline). He broke out the Sharpshooter and this being Survivor Series adds a nice wee layer to things, tried for the figure-four but it was reversed, then he went to the ankle lock towards the end and people were biting huge on it. They even worked those superkick teases in well, the first time with him making to hit it after the top rope elbow, brushing aside the referee's reminders that he can't actually do that move, but merely using it as a FEINT and rolling Orton up when he ducked. The second time he tried it was out of instinct, had to pull it back, and that split second let Orton hit the RKO. If we're keeping it a buck I've never seen Ric Flair work a match as creative as this. Fire me, I'm already fired.

The Jumping Bomb Angels!

Jumping Bomb Angels v Glamour Girls (WWF, 11/24/87)

"I think these Yankee girls are in for some trouble." This might be the first time I've watched any of these WWF Jumping Bomb Angel matches. Could not tell you the last time I actively sought out a Glamour Girls match. Gorilla, Hayes and Bockwinkel (!) don't have a clue which Angel is which and they just refer to them as "the Japanese girls," but I'll be fucked if our commentary team and MSG crowd alike aren't won over by the end. The crowd are actually losing it after about fifteen seconds as Yamazaki is hitting crazy fast dropkicks and bridging out of pin attempts at warp speed. Yamazaki was a whirlwind with the sunset flips here, using them as hope spots, counters, always catching the Glamour Girls unawares. Judy Martin yoinks her into the air with a sort of fireman's carry slam, but Yamazaki lands on her feet hits a dropkick and Leilani Kai about flips her perm on the apron. The Glamour Girls can't deal with anything thrown their way because they were never taught how to in Moolah's basement and you know it won't be long before they get SURLY. Yamazaki's heat segment is a treat and I like how agitated Tateno is on the apron. The mark of a good babyface team is as much the person working the apron as the one in the ring, as my great grandmother would often say. The Girls (the Glamours, even) didn't work over Yamazaki's throat as such, but I did love how they'd quite often just step on it, sometimes with both feet which looked pretty brutal. Judy Martin putting Yamazaki in a Sharpshooter was unexpected but very cool too. After the hot tag it all breaks down a bit and the double bridge into double dropkick spot ruled, then in the tumult the Glamour Girls hit a fucking powerbomb and maybe this is the female version of that Tiger Mask/Dynamite Kid match where nobody in the Garden cared who they were at the start and by the end they were going nuts? This ruled. 

A Saturday of Hector!

Hector Guerrero v Buddy Rose (Portland, 4/14/79) - GREAT

What a hoot. I’ve seen this about five times and always love it. It’s basically Rose doing his established star making lower midcard guy look like a threat match so he gives Hector a ton, which is great because young Hector is megafun. First five minutes is Hector working the arm, although they fit in a Buddy Rose rope-running sequence prior to it for the CULTURE. Hector uses a key lock, then a rolling key lock and Rose continually tries to escape. Second time Hector does the rolling key lock Rose nearly manages to roll him up, then grabs the tights a couple times before Hector has to change it up. It’s a cool touch because it makes Rose look smart and skilled enough not to be getting owned by the same move, plus it makes Hector look good for responding in kind. The wee pensioner lady front row is also livid. Buddy tries to backdrop Hector TO THE RAFTERS but Hector lands on his feet and Bonnema is astonished at a show of such athleticism and I fell out. In another cool moment, the next time Buddy tries something similar he opts to just launch Hector up in the air and drop him face-first with a flapjack, rather than the standard back body drop we all now know Hector can just flip out of. Hector gets to look super slick and Buddy doing the leg press bit in the corner will always be awesome, as Buddy and Terry Funk make that look better than anyone. Rose naturally finds a way to win in the end, maybe a little too easily considering he spent most of the match on the back foot, but Hector looks like a promising young up-and-comer and post-match Rose and Wiskowski try to retire him for his temerity. This was like the best possible first fall of what would’ve been a seven star 2/3 falls match. As it stands it is merely a five and one quarter star match. Get it watched all the same. Post-match Hector gets carried out very clumsily and I assume the wrestlers did not take part in proper training with regard to the handling of neck injuries. 

Hector Guerrero v Jeff Jarrett (Memphis, 12/19/87) - GOOD

Studio wrestling really is some of the very best wrestling. Memphis studio wrestling might be the best of all studio wrestling, the way they seamlessly thread the matches and angles and interviews together, Lance Russell the conductor of this lunatic orchestra, the perfect pro wrestling TV format that produced some of the most perfect pro wrestling TV. I watched a ton of this Hector run years ago on the DVDVR Memphis set extras (or EXTRA extras, perhaps) and I couldn't believe how great it was. That was before I clocked onto how awesome Hector was as well, so I wasn't even predisposed to loving it going in. He'd comes out selling hair removal cream and calling the white folks in attendance chicken skins with hairy underarms. Every interview segment ruled and Lance would sigh and roll his eyes and try to keep things from veering off the rails and Hector would inevitably play the victim, merely a well-meaning businessman trying to improve lives. He was wearing his Javier Escuella poncho here and this was around the time CWA were selling those Jeff Jarrett posters where he's standing shirtless in cowboy boots and every advert for it sounded like something from a sex line (I assume). Well Hector is not impressed by skinny Jeff Jarrett and in fact thinks he might be a one-trick pony, so Hector convinces him to agree to a no punch stipulation. Which means this is all about them building to that one inevitable punch. Hector will do something different in every match he's involved in, never coasts on signature spots even in a studio match that's used to set up a bigger match down the road, and this time he does some tricked out lucha submissions, or at least tricked out by 1987 Memphis standards. However our uncultured - and downright biased - Tennessean referee counts his shoulders when he applies a bow and arrow, so Hector is pissed and throws a full on temper tantrum. Jarrett mostly controls with an armbar and Hector takes some great armdrag bumps, complains about hair pulling that never happened, and then when he just about convinces the ref' to keep an eye on it he goes right to Jarrett's hair. Eventually Hector's frustration boils over and he slaps Jarrett, baits him into the corner where Jeff threatens to punch him in the face, and as the referee tries to get in between them Hector sucker punches Jarrett in the eye. Sometimes the pro wrestling is pretty simple. 

Complete & Accurate Guerrero Brothers

A little Tully, a little Arn, a little Wahoo

Tully Blanchard & Jimmy Garvin v Wahoo McDaniel & Sam Houston (Worldwide, 5/17/86)

This was a bit different structurally from your regular southern tag, basically having four shorter FIP spells rather than the single extended one. It was weird as the transitions weren't really pronounced and none of the hot tags were especially satisfying. One of those hot tags came after a solitary chop in Wahoo's case, one from Houston where he just rolled away mid-beatdown. Tully and Garvin are a fun pair of weasels, although, intentionally or otherwise, I liked how they presented Tully as less of a stooge than Garvin. There was one bit where Wahoo had him in an armbar and Tully managed to fish flop into his corner, but Garvin pretended he didn't see him and strutted along the apron, only sprinting back into position and holding his head in his hands after Wahoo had dragged Tully to a safe enough distance away. Later there's a return opportunity where Tully can make the tag but almost hangs back and doesn't. Where Garvin's was cowardice, Tully's felt more like he was reminding everyone who the Horseman was. Later, Garvin got popped with some punches and stumbled in a daze into the opposition corner with his hand out looking for the tag, only to get popped again by Houston on the apron. Tully does something similar, except he immediately recognises his error and gets out of dodge before any harm's done. It was subtle, but a cool way to show how different both heels were and I like that Tully's presented as more than just a shithead, because he was always a vicious wee bastard when he needed to be. Houston is tall and rubbery enough that the hotshot at the end looked brutal and there's something especially satisfying about a big lanky fella getting planted with the slingshot suplex. You'd maybe like your babyfaces to get a little more here as in the end the heels took the clean win after controlling about 12 of the 15 minutes, but I guess at times your heels need to show some competence.

Arn Anderson v Wahoo McDaniel (Worldwide, 5/24/86)

This was off to a flyer almost immediately as Arn was making bug-eyed faces and selling everything Wahoo did like he'd seen a ghost. He gets yanked over with a nasty wrist lock and bails right to the floor like he did not see that coming. He eats a couple chops and makes a swift exit like he didn't know the old man could still hit like that. He tries to kick Wahoo in the gut, but Wahoo catches the leg and takes Arn's other leg out from under him with a kick to the hamstring, Arn backs up into the corner, eyes about popping out his head. Wahoo's leg work is decent enough for a few minutes, then Arn takes over and I guess Wahoo's scar tissue gets opened because he's bleeding pretty noticeably and I don't remember there being a moment that looked like it was setting up a blade job. Although I guess a strong sneeze and that forehead is leaking. Arn eventually rolls to the floor pointing to his wrist to signify he's stalling for time. He's the TV champ so why not see out the draw and go home with the belt around his waist? Wahoo actually scores a pin so clearly they were doing Dusty Finishes eeeeeeverywhere in '86, but Tommy Young had missed a foot on the ropes and then Arn just dumps Wahoo over the top for the DQ. Needs must sometimes. 

The Guerreros v Sangre Chicana!

Hector, Chavo & Mando Guerrero v Sangre Chicana, Gran Markus & Gran Markus Jr. (EMLL, 9/18/87) - GREAT

Fuckin Hector Guerrero v Sangre Chicana, brothers and sisters! That is a legitimate Tier 1 dream match for me that I never would've even thought about until I stumbled upon this. The primera is basically a full Guerreros show and it was amazing. Chavo had some nifty matwork with Markus Jr. that effectively became him tying Jr. up, followed by Jr.'s old man coming in to lend a hand before being shooed back out. He'd try and sneak up on Chavo like one of those don't wake the bear games you'd play when you were four and wrestling used to rule. Shockingly enough, Hector v Chicana was my own personal highlight, much like seeing OutKast and the Wu-Tang Clan sharing a stage would be, but also the actual highlight of the match as they were just brilliant together, much like I imagine Andre 3000 and the GZA would be. Before they even get in together Hector forward rolls over to the rudo corner, grabs an unsuspecting Chicana by the nose and uses his other hand to slap the nose away. Chicana psyches himself up and charges, drops down waiting for Hector to hit the ropes and step over him, but instead Hector picks him up and levels him with an uppercut. For such a rabid animal Chicana is an underrated comedy guy and his little confused look when Hector was nowhere to be found was so great. Loved the bit where Mando had Chicana in a seesaw with his knees as the fulcrum and every time he slung Chicana up Chavo and Hector would take turns knocking him back down with forearms. The Guerreros are just the best. I haven't seen much Markus Sr. but he was a fun old guy with fun old guy charisma. I wonder if he wasn't an awesome puncher in his heyday and passed that onto his kid because Markus Jr. hit Mando with an absolutely incredible punch flurry in the segunda. The tercera settles into a more extended Mando/Markus Jr. showdown as they punch each other into a state of only being upright because they're both propped up by the other, shoulder to shoulder, stuck in that position as the others fight around them. Markus Sr. gives his boy a shove and he lands on top of Mando in a pinning position, then Chavo flips them over and as Chicana tries to break it up Hector shoulder charges him out the ring, and Chicana's look of "oh no what have I done?" as he's toppling into the ropes was full Sangre Chicana. Really cool Guerreros performance across the board. Mando is the least talked about of the family, or he's the one whose work I'm least familiar with, but he was super fun as a weird sort of stocky pocket rocket, had some kooky submissions and spots like Tony Charles as Checkmate, then he'd go and flatten someone with a huge dive from the top turnbuckles to the floor. The Guerreros. What a wrestling family. 

Complete & Accurate Guerrero Brothers

Hector v Tully! And v Flair! For like 90 seconds!

Hector Guerrero, Tim Horner & Denny Brown v Ric Flair, Arn Anderson & Tully Blanchard (Worldwide, 1/17/87) - GREAT

This was about five minutes and really only here to set up an impromptu Flair v Windham match. It should've been three times as long and used to set up Hector v Tully around the horn and then an eventual Hector Guerrero World Title run. Alas. Wrestling promoters are dumb as fuck. The opening few minutes had the heels in their stooging glory as all three of them got hit by Tim Horner dropkicks, Arn after he lowered his head for a back body drop only for Horner to flip over his back and catch him on the spin, Tully after he thought he'd wrapped Horner up in a hammerlock, and Flair after he thought Horner would just stand there and be chopped. Then Hector came in, immediately backed Flair into the turnbuckles and unloaded with corner punches, then clonked Flair and Arn's heads together when the latter came running up the apron to intervene. Hector takes Flair over with - I'm not actually kidding here, btw - the best sunset flip I've ever seen, as he leaps into it like he's trying to use actual momentum, bridges all the way up off the floor, hands wrapped TIGHT around Flair's waist, using his own legs to try and drag Flair away from his corner, really making Flair work to stay upright and reach out for that tag. The Tully/Hector segment was about 20 seconds and fully perfect pro wrestling. It comes after the also-perfect Flair/Hector exchange and Flair is pissed about that sunset flip, so after he tags in Tully he shoves Tommy Young. Tommy ends up on his butt and upon landing clips Hector in the leg, which distracts him long enough for Tully to pounce. He whips Hector into the ropes, ducks low for a back body drop, but Hector flips out into a headspring and hits a dropkick as Tully turns around. Hector cocks his fists ready for more, Tully retreats to the corner and throws a temper tantrum for the ages. I'm telling you now, if this lasted ten more minutes it would've been seven stars and I'd wager at five minutes it's already better than every Young Bucks match in recorded history. Arn murdering Denny Brown with the Spinebuster was the sort of transition with AUTHORITY that you want from your heels, then Flair comes in and goes right to the figure four, causing our man Denny to pass out. Five minutes of the very best studio wrestling. Then a melee starts afterwards as Flair won't release the figure four and Windham comes out and he and Flair have a match, but Windham is not Hector Guerrero and so the viewership switches off their TV and ratings plummet and here we are some 35 years later, wondering why Hector Guerrero was never given that big gold belt. Wrestling promoters were fucking dumb as fuck. 

Complete & Accurate Guerrero Brothers

Complete & Accurate Hermanos Guerreros

If you've been reading this blog of stupidity for more than 10 minutes, or if you're even more unfortunate and you've known me personally for any length of time, you might have a notion that Eddie Guerrero is my favourite wrestler ever. I may have mentioned it once or twice. 

You know who else was fucking awesome, though? All of his brothers. And probably his dad and his nephew is okay as well and wasn't Eddie's daughter doing the pro wrestling for a while there too? But the brothers are really the golden quartet of pro wrestling siblings. Mando the least talked about of the four, who isn't as highlighted via footage as the others. Chavo and Hector who spent a decent chunk of the 80s as one of the best tag teams in America, both having sporadic runs in Mexico and the former having a great spell in Japan as a prominent junior heavyweight. And then Eddie, the runt of the litter who put it together and had a run as the champion of the world, who passed away as the best wrestler on the planet. The Von Erichs were the epitome of Texas, the Rhodes were the blue collar sons of plumbers who went Hollywood and came to epitomise the American Nightmare, the Harts had fifty sons and daughters and an extended family to make the Targaryens weep, and the Anoa'i family currently rule the Sports Entertainment world. But the Guerreros were king. 

I've written about hundreds - literally hundreds - of matches involving these guys on here already, so over time I'll update this and compile every bit of nonsense involving a Guerrero brother in this very catalogue. Singles, tags, trios, the whole shebang. Why, you ask? For what purpose, you ponder? 

Why else?

For science. 

1979

Hector Guerrero, Adrian Adonis, Ron Starr & George Wells v Roddy Piper, Buddy Rose, Ed Wiskowski & Killer Brooks (Elimination Match) (Portland, 4/7/79) - EPIC

Hector Guerrero v Buddy Rose (Portland, 4/14/79) - GREAT

1981

Chavo Guerrero & Ricky Steamboat v Mil Mascaras & Dos Caras (All Japan, 9/6/81) - GOOD

1983

Chavo Guerrero v Nick Bockwinkel (Houston Wrestling, 2/25/83) - EPIC

Chavo Guerrero, Kerry Von Erich & Iceman King Parsons v Terry Gordy, Michael Hayes & Buddy Roberts (Penalty Box Match) (WCCW, 4/29/83) - GOOD

Chavo Guerrero v Mr. Olympia (Houston Wrestling, 6/24/83) - EPIC

Chavo Guerrero v Masa Fuchi (All Japan, 8/31/83) - FUN

1984

Chavo Guerrero v Mighty Inoue (All Japan, 2/26/84) - GOOD

Hector Guerrero v Jose Lothario (Houston Wrestling, 5/25/84) - GREAT

Hector Guerrero v Jose Lothario (Texas Death Match) (Houston Wrestling, 6/8/84) - EPIC

Chavo & Hector Guerrero v Jose Lothario & Al Madril (Houston Wrestling, 7/20/84) - GREAT

Chavo & Hector Guerrero v Gran Hamada & Mighty Inoue (All Japan, 9/12/84) - FUN

Chavo & Hector Guerrero v The Fantastics (Houston Wrestling, 10/12/84) - EPIC

Chavo & Hector Guerrero v Shawn Michaels & Mike Jackson (Mid-South 11/8/84) - FUN

Chavo & Hector Guerrero v Brickhouse Brown & Master G (Mid-South, 11/22/84) - FUN

1985

Chavo & Hector Guerrero v Rock n Roll Express v The Fantastics v Midnight Express (Mid-South, 2/10/85) - GREAT

Chavo & Hector Guerrero v Rock 'n' Roll Express (Mid-South, 2/13/85) - GREAT

Chavo & Hector Guerrero v Ted DiBiase & Steve Williams (Bandolero Death Match) (Houston Wrestling, 7/85) - FUN

Chavo & Hector Guerrero v Rip Oliver & The Grappler (NWA Battle of the Belts, 9/2/85) - EPIC

Chavo & Hector Guerrero v The Fabulous Ones (12/27/85) - EPIC

1987

Hector Guerrero, Tim Horner & Denny Brown v Ric Flair, Arn Anderson & Tully Blanchard (Worldwide, 1/17/87) - GREAT

Hector, Chavo & Mando Guerrero v Sangre Chicana, Gran Markus & Gran Markus Jr. (EMLL, 9/18/87) - GREAT

Hector Guerrero v Jeff Jarrett (Memphis, 12/19/87) - GOOD

1988

Hector & Mando Guerrero v Badd Company (AWA, 5/14/88) - GREAT

1989

Eddie Guerrero v Terry Funk (World Championship Wrestling, 5/20/89) - GREAT

Eddie Guerrero & El Hijo del Santo v Negro Casas & Blue Panther (Gimnasio Josue Neri Santos, 11/5/89) - EPIC

1990

Chavo Guerrero, El Dandy & El Texano v Angel Azteca, Javier Cruz & Americo Rocca (CMLL, 3/9/90) - GREAT

1994

Black Tiger & The Great Sasuke v Wild Pegasus & Shinjiro Ohtani (New Japan, 10/18/94) - GOOD

1996

Black Tiger v Great Sasuke (New Japan, 6/17/96) - GOOD

Eddy Guerrero v DDP (Worldwide, 11/2/96) - GOOD

1997

Eddy Guerrero v Dean Malenko (Nitro, 1/13/97) - FUN

Eddy Guerrero v Syxx (Ladder Match, Souled Out, 1/25/97) - FUN

Eddy Guerrero v Dean Malenko (Nitro, 2/10/97) - GOOD

Eddy Guerrero v Chris Jericho (Superbrawl, 2/23/97) - SKIPPABLE

Eddy Guerrero & Chris Jericho v The Faces of Fear (Nitro, 2/24/97) - EPIC

Eddy Guerrero v Dean Malenko (Uncensored, 3/16/97) - GREAT

Eddy Guerrero v Dean Malenko (Inglewood, CA, 6/28/97) - EPIC

Eddy Guerrero v Chavo Guerrero Jr. (Nitro, 7/14/97) - FUN

Eddy Guerrero v Chris Jericho (Fall Brawl, 9/14/97) - EPIC

Eddy Guerrero v Ultimo Dragon (Nitro, 9/15/97) - GOOD

Eddy Guerrero v Dean Malenko (Spokane, WA, 9/18/97) - EPIC

Eddy Guerrero (El Caliente) v Rey Misterio Jr. (Nitro, 9/29/97) - GOOD

Eddy Guerrero v Rey Misterio Jr. (Halloween Havoc, 10/26/97) - EPIC

Eddy Guerrero & Dean Malenko v Rey Misterio Jr. & Steven Regal (Nitro, 11/3/97) - GREAT

Eddy Guerrero v Rey Misterio Jr. (Nitro, 11/10/97) - FUN

Eddy Guerrero v Rey Misterio Jr. (World War 3, 11/23/97) - GOOD

Eddy Guerrero v Fit Finlay (Nitro, 12/22/97) - GOOD

1998

Eddy & Hector Guerrero v Black Angel & Super Ninja (PWF, 5/22/98) - FUN

Eddy Guerrero v DDP (Saturday Night, 6/20/98) - GOOD

2001

Eddie Guerrero v Chris Jericho v Chris Benoit v X-Pac (No Way Out, 2/25/01) - EPIC

Eddie Guerrero v Chris Benoit (RAW, 3/12/01) - GOOD

2002

Eddie Guerrero v Rob Van Dam (Backlash, 4/21/02) - GOOD

Eddie Guerrero v Rob Van Dam (Judgment Day, 5/19/02) - GREAT

Eddie Guerrero & Brock Lesnar v Rob Van Dam & Bubba Ray Dudley (RAW, 6/3/02) - GOOD

Eddie Guerrero & Chris Benoit v Bubba Ray & Spike Dudley (RAW, 7/1/02) - GOOD

Eddie Guerrero v Booker T (RAW, 7/8/02) - FUN

Eddie Guerrero, Chris Benoit, Big Show, X-Pac & Kevin Nash v RVD, Booker T, Goldust, Bubba Ray & Spike Dudley (RAW, 7/8/02) - FUN

Eddie Guerrero & Chris Benoit v Bubba Ray Dudley & Spike Dudley (Tables Match) (Vengeance, 7/21/02) - GOOD

Eddie Guerrero v The Rock (RAW, 7/22/02) - GREAT

Eddie Guerrero & Chris Benoit v The Rock & Edge (Smackdown!, 8/1/02) - GOOD

Eddie Guerrero, Chris Benoit & Kurt Angle v Rey Mysterio, Edge & John Cena (Smackdown!, 8/8/02) - GOOD

Eddie & Chavo Guerrero v Edge & Rey Mysterio (Smackdown!, 8/15/02) - GREAT

Eddie Guerrero & Chris Benoit v The Rock & Edge (Smackdown!, 8/22/02) - GOOD

Eddie Guerrero v Edge (Summerslam, 8/25/02) - EPIC

2003

Eddie Guerrero & Tajiri v Charlie Haas & Shelton Benjamin (Smackdown!, 5/22/03) - EPIC

Eddie Guerrero & Tajiri v Charlie Haas & Shelton Benjamin (Smackdown!, 7/3/03) - GREAT

Eddie Guerrero v Big Show (No Mercy, 10/19/03) - GREAT

2004

Eddie Guerrero v Brock Lesnar (No Way Out, 2/15/04) - EPIC

Eddie Guerrero v Kurt Angle (Wrestlemania XX, 3/14/04) - GREAT

Eddie Guerrero v Rey Mysterio (Smackdown!, 3/18/04) - EPIC

Eddie Guerrero v Big Show (Smackdown!, 4/15/04) - EPIC

Eddie Guerrero v JBL (Judgment Day, 5/16/04) - EPIC

Eddie Guerrero v JBL (Bullrope Match) (Great American Bash, 6/27/04) - GREAT

2005

Eddie Guerrero v Rey Mysterio (Judgment Day 5/22/05) - EPIC

Eddie Guerrero v Rey Mysterio (Smackdown!, 6/23/05) - EPIC

Tenryu Left Carolina, Black Clouds Rollin' in. He Saw what was Comin', He Could Feel it in the Wind

Genichiro Tenryu v Nobuhiko Takada (WAR, 12/13/96) - EPIC

If you'll allow me to speak freely, I am not a Takada fan. He has that stoic charisma and big star aura that can come across really well in a match like this, where the personalities of the competitors add a ton to the atmosphere, and from time to time he will kick the absolute dogfuck out of someone. But for every one of those times you get several in exchange where he'll grab a kneebar or half crab and lie around on the mat like a bag of fermented grass. He also has a good sandbag or two in him when he's really feeling like stinking a place up. You got the best/worst of both worlds here, but thankfully more of the best than the worst. This is the second match these two had in '96. The first was from UWFi and was a total Big Match Spectacle and it ruled. It also ended with Takada making Tenryu submit, which neeeeeeever happens, so the return leg being in WAR leaves there little doubt as to who's winning. But hey, it's not like the journey can't be fun! Like the first match it's very much a spectacle, though a little more traditional pro style befitting the environment. Even the staredowns at the beginning felt big, that hesitancy to lock up really milking the drama. Both are almost smirking and I imagine for Takada it's because he knows exactly what Tenryu wants to do, while for Tenryu it's because he knows Takada knows yet that doesn't make him want to do it any less. The first exchange was perfect. Tenryu did what we all knew he would and threw a jab at Takada's cheek (after pretending to shake hands first), then what followed went something like this -- Takada winging a kick, Tenryu smashing him in the nose, Takada letting his temper flare by kicking Tenryu out the ring, Tenryu taking a walk to compose himself only to turn around and get thumped clean over the barricade with another kick. From then on out it had the feeling of many a big Tenryu match, where he was the tide his opponent tried not to get swept away by. Tenryu would be Tenryu no matter what, against anyone and everyone, in any building on earth, but could Takada keep his head and not get roped into playing Tenryu's game? After the hot opening they slow things down a bit and the matwork wasn't the best. It was the weakest stretch of the match and Takada wasn't too fussed about working the kneebar. Tenryu's selling was amazing, but he's never been a Fujiwara so there's a ceiling on how much even he can keep an extended kneebar interesting. When they bring it back up again Tenryu tries to cave Takada's face in and I loved how Takada slumped in the corner like "honestly, was that even necessary?" I thought Takada sold those shots to the head amazingly for the next few minutes, how even when Tenryu went for a kneebar of his own Takada still looked dazed. Tenryu realising the error of his ways and ditching the kneebar in favour of elbowing Takada in the face after fifteen seconds was obviously phenomenal. At that point Takada just starts kicking Tenryu in the lungs and the rest of the match is spectacular. Tenryu chops him in the throat more than once and Takada goes down like he caught a knee to the balls. He then picks up one of those non-foldable chairs and points to his weenie like that knee was not the least big accidental and Tenryu looks at him like he maybe underestimated Takada's emotional state. Some of Tenryu's on-the-ropes selling down the stretch as Takada kicks the shit out of him was out of this world great. There was one bit where he looked dead to rights and he just bum-rushed Takada with a big sumo push, and Takada about gave himself whiplash flying into the ropes. Down the stretch they even do that 'one guy is covered for a two count then just rolls over and covers the other guy for two' bit and it didn't suck. That they had the crowd genuinely biting on Takada submitting to the WAR Special is just the coolest. 

Complete & Accurate Tenryu

Orton v Cena...for the first time (in singles, on PPV, maybe)!

John Cena v Randy Orton (Summerslam, 8/26/07)

I thought this was great when I last watched it way back whenever the hell. Like, 2009 maybe? A ways back. I can happily report that I thought it was great these many years later, in the present day of 2022. It's wild to me that this match, the first big Cena/Orton encounter, is only six years prior to that segment on RAW where they were hyping up their title unification bout and everyone in the crowd was trying to hijack it with the Daniel Bryan chants, while we're now almost nine years removed from that unification match itself. What the fuck?! I think this was around the point Orton started using the punt as one of his finishers and they were treating it as a bit of a death move, having put RVD and Michaels out of action in recent weeks. I don't know if he'd hit it on Cena leading into this, but Cena comes in "concussed" and they play off it really well throughout. That thread comes into play early when Orton clocks him with one of the best punches he's ever thrown, and from there Cena sells being dazed and groggy pretty amazingly. Lots of Orton's cut-offs involved him just clubbing Cena in the head which was pretty great. My favourite example was when he clotheslined him right in the back of the head off a reversal. This is also some of the best headlock/chinlock work Orton's ever done, and he's someone who had a really good headlock/chinlock for a while there so that's not a terribly low bar. I mean I just got done watching a ton of 1986 New Japan so I've seen the likes of Tatsumi Fujinami and Yoshiaki Fujiwara work the absolute GOAT chinlocks and I would say Orton's here were about 70% as good as Fujiwara's, which effectively makes them 80% better than most chinlocks in the history of wrestling. There was also one bit where he did the Garvin stomp and really planted those stomps on Cena's ankles and wrists. It was a really good Orton performance, basically. Cena's timing was great, he sold well, it was a very 2007 John Cena performance. Finishing stretch was nuclear and I thought they did Big Match Spectacle really well without it ever feeling manufactured. Cena catching Orton in the STF then Orton hitting the RKO ("do the joke!") outta nowhere ("wahaaaaay!") but not being able to follow up immediately because the knee was hurt made for an amazing nearfall that actually made sense. I liked this way more than the Cena/Punk MitB match, more than something like Orton/Foley from Backlash, and it might be top 5 for both of their careers. I'm glad I re-watched this on a whim. 

One last visit to 1986 New Japan

Tatsumi Fujinami v Akira Maeda (New Japan, 6/12/86)

This was the match I might've been most looking forward to re-watching when I decided to go back through all of this stuff. It finished #6 on the DVDVR voting and it was my own #7, so it set a high bar. Seeing everything surrounding it again over the last couple weeks, all of the build with them facing off in tags and multi-mans and gauntlet series, I was ready to jump in again. I don't know if you could really call it a singular match in wrestling history, because at the end of the day it's shooter v pro wrestler and there have been plenty of those, but if nothing else it feels special in a way very few of those do. I think they told their story pretty much perfectly. Maeda is a wrecking ball who has a dozen ways to submit you and a hundred ways to knock you out. Fujinami, like all of the New Japan guys, has been hardened over the last six months just by virtue of being in there with the Maedas, Fujiwaras and Takadas of the world. After being put through the trials of UWF, this crop of New Japan wrestlers are all the better for it, a new dimension added to their game, and Fujinami may have come out the other side better than anyone. Maeda is Maeda though, and learning how to fight off a legbar won't be enough to save you. The early parts are pretty even and I loved Fujinami ducking the wheel kick and running Maeda over with the lariat. A sports analogy would be the underdog team playing on home turf, full of energy and scoring early, their gameplan being implemented exactly the way it was laid out on paper. But in a world of sportswashing where sports teams are backed by literal nation states, that gulf between the best (or at least richest) and the rest has never been bigger. Those moments where it looks like David might be able to topple Goliath are fleeting and before long Maeda reminded everyone why he's Goliath. Fujinami sold that first leg kick like a shotgun blast and it was an avenue for Maeda to exploit the rest of the match. It was a constant uphill struggle for Fujinami and he had to maximise every bit of offence he could muster, take advantage of every lapse in Maeda's concentration, while Maeda was a thresher and could shut him down or wrap him up with cold efficiency. There were parts where I would've liked Maeda to go a little bigger, to really attack openings, to maybe lean into the crowd reaction after they'd exploded for a high kick or a suplex rather than drop into a kneebar, but for Maeda the aim of the game was to win and I can't point to anything he did that wasn't in service of that narrative. Fujinami is damn near heroic down the stretch, the desperation German an incredible moment topped only by his kickout from the dragon suplex, and then the finish is...what it is. If the plan was for them to go to a 30 minute draw then they were building the absolute hell out of it, but Fujinami was bleeding like a spigot so it's hard to conclude they were wrong for calling it early, even if Fujinami probably needed to get a few more licks in to make the double TKO plausible. This isn't my favourite match of the year, but it's still a corker, feels like the main event of 1986 New Japan, and a pretty good place to put a cap on this wee project. 

And so, as we did with '87, here is your very official top 15 New Japan matches of 1986 (aka The Year of Yoshiaki):

1. Tatsumi Fujinami, Kengo Kimura, Shiro Koshinaka, Kantaro Hoshino & George Takano v Akira Maeda, Yoshiaki Fujiwara, Nobuhiko Takada, Kazuo Yamazaki & Osamu Kido (9/19/86)
2. Antonio Inoki, Tatsumi Fujinami, Kengo Kimura, Kantaro Hoshino & Umanosuke Ueda v Akira Maeda, Yoshiaki Fujiwara, Nobuhiko Takada, Kazuo Yamazaki & Osamu Kido (3/26/86)
3. Yoshiaki Fujiwara & Kazuo Yamazaki v Keiichi Yamada & Umanosuke Ueda (5/19/86)
4. Tatsumi Fujinami v Akira Maeda (6/12/86)
5. Yoshiaki Fujiwara v Keiichi Yamada (9/23/86)
6. Antonio Inoki v Yoshiaki Fujiwara (2/6/86)
7. Nobuhiko Takada v Keiichi Yamada (7/19/86)
8. Tatsumi Fujinami, Kengo Kimura, Shiro Koshinaka, Seiji Sakaguchi & Keiichi Yamada v Akira Maeda, Yoshiaki Fujiwara, Osamu Kido, Kazuo Yamazaki & Nobuhiko Takada (Gauntlet Match) (5/1/86)
9. Antonio Inoki v Dick Murdoch (6/19/86)
10. Yoshiaki Fujiwara v Kengo Kimura (5/16/86)
11. Tatsumi Fujinami, Kengo Kimura & Shiro Koshinaka v Akira Maeda, Yoshiaki Fujiwara & Osamu Kido (7/19/86)
12. Antonio Inoki v Yoshiaki Fujiwara (6/12/86)
13. Yoshiaki Fujiwara v Akira Maeda (2/5/86)
14. Dick Murdoch v Akira Maeda (4/25/86)
15. Yoshiaki Fujiwara v Akira Maeda (1/10/86)

The Midnights v America's Team!

Midnight Express v Dusty Rhodes & Magnum TA (JCP, 5/4/86)

I'm sure you'll be shocked to hear that this had quite the raucous crowd. Handheld footage from around this time really captures how wild these audiences were in a way that the televised footage doesn't, the way it puts you right in the thick of things. The ambience, you know? The ambience here was batshit insanity for America's Team. It's almost trite to say that the babyface shine was great, but really it was great. Dusty's like a pig in mug in this environment as people will lose their mind for him shaking his hips and throwing elbows. Magnum will simply stand tall, shoulders straight, fists clenched, statuesque, a challenge extended, declined by the MX, and the people are in raptures. Just for standing there. The presence of Baby Doll at ringside gives this another edge, as everyone remembered Cornette nailing her with the tennis racket on TV. It led to an amazing early stooge spot, where Condrey scoots out the ring to get at her, 180s back to his own corner as soon as Magnum drops down off the apron, but at that point Eaton has already started making his way around for backup (or more likely to drag Condrey away from a beating) and they wind up crashing into each other halfway, Eaton flying backwards, Condrey bouncing into the guardrail. Mid match Dusty grabs the mic and asks Cornette if he wants a fight with Baby Doll, who gets in the ring and rids herself of her jacket to a massive pop. Cornette is amazing trying to make us believe he's toying with the idea of actually getting in there, hopping up on the apron, taking his own jacket off - but never dropping the tennis racket - before finally being talked out of fighting a woman by Condrey, who gives him a hug afterwards for emotional support. You really see how great a worker Dusty is after the MX take over on Magnum. He doesn't just come in and make a half-arsed attempt at interjecting. There's no "oh I'm trying to stop my partner from being double-teamed here, no wait 70lb referee please don't stand there blocking my path." He makes whichever Hebner brother is working on the night earn his fucking paycheque by keeping him away, and as Dusty gets more and more frantic so too does the crowd. HIS crowd, if we're keeping it a buck. And obviously the MX play off that. I don't know how often I've said they're the best ever at pulling the referee and opposing tag partners every which way so they can devastate someone, but they do it again with Magnum here. One of them runs around to get at Baby Doll, which drags Dusty's attention so the other can ram Magnum into the post, so Cornette can whack him with the tennis racket, while the referee does everything just to keep up, Magnum ending up covered in blood after two minutes of chaos. They're masters at it. Cornette was a devil during the heat segment as well, smug enough to make you puke and at one point a security guard had to jump the rail because someone wanted to get at him so bad. Cornette standing there spinning his racket and dusting his coat off was unbelievable and I absolutely believe all of those stories he'd tell about fans wanting to legitimately stab him back then. Honestly that Magnum in peril segment might be the most sustained nuclear heat I've ever heard. Dusty coming in off the hot tag is insanity, then Magnum gets incapacitated again and before long Dusty is the one being walloped with a tennis racket. Magnum eventually coming in with the chair and cleaning house was probably a more satisfying finish than a Dusty finish. Baby Doll was also about half an inch away from beheading Corny with that chair and I reckon if she'd connected the roof would've blown off the place. What an awesome bit of the southern tag wrestling.

And we are back once again to the 1986 New Japan

Nobuhiko Takada v Keiichi Yamada (New Japan, 7/19/86)

Have I perchance mentioned that young Liger was the fucking truth? To be honest I've been cold on him for years and Takada has never been my guy, so if I hadn't been watching all this stuff anyway I'd probably never have checked this out. Fortuitous then, as it was pretty awesome. What I really liked was how they sold their standing in the hierarchy. Yamada was frantic in going to the ropes whenever Takada would apply the legbar, while Takada was much more composed if Yamada managed to lock in a submission. The crowd picked up on it as well and were far more vocal when Yamada was the one in trouble, probably because they bought him submitting early more than they bought it from Takada. By the end they were red hot for everything and a big part of that is Takada's performance, which honestly might be one of the best I've ever seen from him. I thought he was legitimately great in this. He started to get a little more desperate as things went on, showed frustration after Yamada kept getting the ropes, shaking his head like "will this kid just go away already," sold a greater degree of danger for Yamada's holds, gave him more in strike exchanges as the match progressed. Maybe he'd been taking cues from Fujiwara because he really knew when to give and when to take. There's a cool example about midway in after Yamada made the ropes off ANOTHER legbar attempt, and Takada got up and immediately started throwing kicks. He'd kept those in the holster for the first 8-9 minutes so at that point you knew Yamada was getting on his nerves. He might not have been a veteran yet, but this was him in a position of more experienced worker, not necessarily having to carry someone but at least be in the driver's seat, and fair play to him because he was excellent. Yamada was great as scrappy underdog. He held his own in strike exchanges and I liked how he would use things like lariats and dropkicks rather than the pure shoot style strikes of Takada, which if nothing else kept the line between New Japan and UWF halfway in place. Loved the bit where Takada refused to be whipped into the ropes so Yamada clotheslined him in the face a few times, then tried a wild dropkick and crashed hard. He also sold the struggle and the danger of not only holds, but of a few key moves, really in a way that not a lot of wrestlers two years into their career would (or at least not like this). Those legbar examples were obvious but so was the tombstone, where Takada tried it twice in quick succession and Yamada frantically wriggled out both times. Then there was the fight over the chickenwing in the back half where they were channelling Fujinami and Fujiwara, reversing the reversals trying to hook it in. That sort of struggle set up the payoffs for when Takada managed to grab the legbar in the middle of the ring. At that point I thought it was over for sure, and I think maybe the people did too, but Yamada made the ropes and the reaction was incredible. Then when Takada hits the tombstone - after Yamada hit one of his own - it lets him finally hook in that chickenwing. If that's not good build I'm not sure what is. This would've done really well on the 80s set if we had it, but I'm sort of glad we didn't because it's cool knowing things as good as this are still popping up. Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery. As they say (prolly). 

Tatsumi Fujinami, Kengo Kimura & Shiro Koshinaka v Akira Maeda, Yoshiaki Fujiwara & Osamu Kido (New Japan, 7/19/86)

This is another one we didn't have available until the last few years. It's bonkers that stuff like this was happening on untelevised house shows. It's also another one to add to the Fujiwara hits collection for 1986. He was so good in this. Early on Koshinaka foolishly tries to step to him and they trade a few slaps, Koshinaka giving no ground and even grinding a forearm across Fujiwara's face, and eventually Fujiwara just stops trading shots and instead bores an increasingly deeper hole in him with every slap Koshinaka throws. When Koshinaka tries a dropkick Fujiwara swats it away like a pesky fly and tags out, above such silliness, but not above laying waste to that boy at a later date (or a later moment on the same date, as it were). Not to be a broken record but god in heaven Fujiwara v Fujinami is a perfect matchup. For their very first exchange Fujiwara backs him into the corner and slaps him. Nothing prompted it, nothing warranted it, Fujiwara just did it because he took the notion to and he is who he is. Fujinami is incredulous and charges him into the opposite corner where he unloads with slaps and kicks that leave Fujiwara curled up on the mat, then he drags Fujiwara into the New Japan corner where all three of them stomp a mudhole in him. I cannot express how amazing this was; a total "do you know who the fuck I am?!" big dog moment from Fujinami. It leads to Fujiwara getting beat on for a minute, but he roars back against Koshinaka - who foolishly went for the slaps again - with the headbutts, chucks him out the ring and points at Fujinami like "get in here, boy." Then Fujinami obliges and Fujiwara casually tags in Maeda. Just a spectacular sequence that makes you wonder what else these guys were doing on house shows that are forever lost to time. Maeda/Fujinami was great again. Quick grappling, Maeda's striking looking lethal, Fujinami having to find ways around it, everything molten hot. I haven't watched the June singles match in 13 years and I'm very hyped about seeing it again. Maeda catching a Kimura kick and drilling him with a capture suplex was another highlight, maybe only topped by the finishing wheel kick that about caved in Koshinaka's face. 

A day away from the 1986 New Japan! But not a day away from the Yoshiaki Fujiwara!

You may have noticed that I've been watching a lot of 1986 New Japan lately. On my travels through time I've concluded what any sane individual would - that Yoshiaki Fujiwara was the best wrestler alive that year (and the year after, as we discovered when we went through 1987 New Japan last November). It got me thinking about the man's prime. I'd foolishly thought in the past that his absolute peak was 1989-90. I mean I'd still say those years were PART of his peak, but the peak certainly didn't start in '89. He was already unbelievable at least three years before that. So when DID the peak start? Was it '86, when he returned to New Japan with a fire lit under him? Outside of one of the Fujiwara/Super Tiger matches I haven't watched any of the original UWF run in at least a decade. So we're taking a wee detour to see how good Fujiwara was going back to 1984. At this point he's pretty much solidified himself as one of the top 5 wrestlers in history; now it's just a case of determining where in that top 5 he lands. 

Yoshiaki Fujiwara v Kazuo Yamazaki (UWF, 1/7/85)

Fujiwara and the original UWF is such a match made in heaven. Nobody does corner strike exchanges like Fujiwara and nowhere accentuates the violence of corner strike exchanges like the original UWF. I think it's because that first UWF run was a little less defined from a stylistic standpoint. In UWF 2.0 and then especially the Takada/Maeda/Fujiwara offshoot promotions, you weren't going to get some of the insane brutality you got here because the rules around TKOs and knockdowns were actually enforced. You wouldn't get Fujiwara lying hunched in the corner while Yamazaki tries to cave his skull in with kneedrops in RINGS or PWFG. This had some of the very best corner striking you'll see, almost bordering on Battlarts at points. There was a spell of about four minutes where they pretty much stayed in the one corner shredding each other with kicks, punches, slaps and headbutts. First it was Yamazaki leathering Fujiwara with kicks, Fujiwara covering up and trying to weather the storm, then Fujiwara reversing it and laying into Yamazaki with body blows, then the tables being flipped again and Fujiwara ending up back in the foetal position. The heat for Yamazaki catching Fujiwara with kicks was absurd and there was one high kick to the neck that elicited one of the loudest pops ever, as well as one of the best Fujiwara sells of a high kick you'll see. There's another moment where it looks like Fujiwara has Yamazaki trapped against the turnbuckles and Yamazaki rips off a spin kick that about ruptures Fujiwara's spleen. He sold this thing like he had internal bleeding and I legit thought they were going to do a stoppage for a second. Basically this was some godly corner work and corner work is another thing Fujiwara is an expert at. The thread running through this is one as old as time in shoot style - Fujiwara is clearly the stronger on the mat while Yamazaki would rather be standing and striking, so it's the always-reliable striker v grappler dynamic. Yamazaki is often frantic in trying to reach the ropes while Fujiwara knows he can cinch in holds with significantly less resistance. Some sick examples of this where Fujiwara will rip into a hold in about two seconds and Yamazaki is left floundering. I thought the kimura following the piledriver was for sure the end, but Yamazaki making the ropes sent that crowd fully off their head. It was nuts. It's sort of unfortunate then that as soon as Fujiwara grabbed the nasty facelock the crowd knew it was over. There was no way he was escaping twice in quick succession like that, not with Fujiwara. Who - you may be shocked to hear - looked fucking amazing in this bout. So we're off to a flyer. 

Yoshiaki Fujiwara v Riki Choshu (New Japan, 3/2/84)

This is one of the best matchups ever, right? They bring out in each other my favourite side of both - the belligerent Choshu who won't be denied and Fujiwara on the rampage - and this had some of that, though it was more angle than match all things considered. '84 Fujiwara isn't a whole lot different from '86 Fujiwara. Maybe a bit less secure in his persona, his connection to the crowd a little less established, but within three seconds of the bell he's trying to throw Choshu out the ring and when that doesn't work he has him by the throat. So he sure never needed the UWF excursion to find that side of himself. He was Inoki's enforcer here and when you think about it that's pretty much a perfect role for him. Not that the Fujiwara who forged his own path wasn't perfect, but really, who better to send in than a mad bastard who'll wreak havoc under any circumstances? I guess if nothing else we know that Fujiwara was great as mad bastard who'll wreak havoc under any circumstances even in 1984. Choshu eventually comes back and wellies him with two lariats, so Fujiwara grabs what looks like a fucking crossbow bolt from under the ring and tries to fully stab Choshu with it. That results in a melee where Yatsu and Animal Hamaguchi hit a doomsday device on Fujiwara and Inoki comes out looking like the baddest man alive in his incredible jacket. I guess I should just watch every since second of Fujiwara v Choshu. 

You would be correct in thinking that we are still watching 1986 New Japan

Yoshiaki Fujiwara v Akira Maeda (New Japan, 1/10/86)

More of the same from these two, which is very good pro wrestling. It's one of the first UWF showcase matches since they re-joined the New Japan fold and you couldn't have picked a better showcase. If nothing else, in case these crowds had forgotten in the two years they'd been gone, it reminded everyone how dangerous Maeda is as a striker and how much of a lethal counter-wrestler Fujiwara could be. The early going has some great matwork and fighting over holds. Maeda takes Fujiwara over with a sharp hip toss that about puts him on his neck, Fujiwara reverses a half crab by rearing up on his head and booting Maeda away with the free leg, they fight over an arm, a leg, just really good stuff all around. Then as it goes along they start to groove into the tried and true Fujiwara/Maeda dynamic. Maeda is an assassin and starts winging those kicks, roundhouses to the midsection, leg kicks, wheel kicks to the head, dipping all the way into that bag of nasty shit. Nobody absorbs blows like Fujiwara and some of his corner defence was incredible, then he'd try and catch some of those kicks and they'd slip through the guard, partially landing and visibly hurting him or fully landing and almost ending him. After about a dozen of these he starts to get belligerent, smirking and half strutting away from exchanges even though you know he's trying to get under Maeda's skin. Of course it takes next to nothing to get under Maeda's skin, so the latter maybe forces the issue a bit too much and Fujiwara clonks him with a headbutt. Maeda responding with one of his own that landed right in the cheek bone was amazing. Maeda getting a little frustrated and leaving himself open made for an awesome finish, with Fujiwara shooting off an elbow and catching him with the flash armbar. As a matchup this feels almost like the prototype for Ishikawa/Ikeda. Not that there had never been any striker v grappler matchups before Fujiwara/Maeda, but these two had some of that same grey area where Fujiwara could still strike when he needed to and Maeda was no slouch on the mat. Fujiwara/Sayama, for example, was almost entirely grappler v striker, because Sayama had no chance when it came to grappling. Being a proto Ishikawa v Ikeda is a pretty cool thing to be. 

Antonio Inoki v Yoshiaki Fujiwara (New Japan, 6/12/86)

A very different match to the February bout, but an awesome one all the same. In February they went for more of a slow cook, where they used their charisma and personalities to bring it to a boil and build drama. This time there was no need to try and build tension - their factions had been going at it for months now and the tension was inherent, a palpable ever-present, so Fujiwara jumped Inoki at the bell, tried to snapmare him into oblivion and then choke him to death. As far as beginnings go it was pretty great. This was more of a pure babyface Inoki, almost the underdog given the way Fujiwara blitzed him early. Fujiwara was the Terminator, an unrelenting force that wasn't to be denied. If it looked like he had to give too much to Inoki in February then he took it all back here and it never once felt like Inoki had the upper hand. There was no shit-talking while locked in a hold, no counters or reversals that he didn't have to fight tooth and nail for. The first time he managed to sneak out of the choke he went straight into an Indian deathlock and the way he fired up the crowd was awe-inspiring. He tried to match Fujiwara with the sleeper and I love that Fujiwara literally went for his throat. They escalated like that the whole way through, Inoki having to throw more and more of his honour out the window to keep pace with someone who never brought any in the first place. When he punched Fujiwara in the back of the head and Fujiwara just grinned at him you kind of knew that the rest of the match would be fought on Fujiwara's terms. And once again nobody works or sells a choke like Fujiwara. He has to be the best ever at both and I loved Inoki trying to shake him by just throwing both of them over the ropes, only for the camera to pan around and there's Fujiwara still wrapped around Inoki, relentless. You think Inoki might finally have slowed Fujiwara down after ramming him into the post, but even gushing blood from his head Fujiwara kept coming forward. It was pure defiance, taking punches to the cut and giving no ground, refusing to even be whipped into the ropes, even getting blasted with the enziguri and walking away grinning, which was about 90% amazing and 10% horrifying. In the end Inoki might've found a way to eek out the win, but he had to walk through fire to do it and Fujiwara was the dragon. 

We keep watching the 1986 New Japan

Yoshiaki Fujiwara & Kazuo Yamazaki v Keiichi Yamada & Umanosuke Ueda (New Japan, 5/19/86)

Bless the 1986 handheld video camera gods! Panasonic, we salute you! This wasn't available during the 80s project (I assume?); if it was I'd probably have had it top 30. I cannot tell you how much I loved it, although I will attempt to with many words. I loved it in all of the ways I expected to love it, but also in a bunch of ways I didn't expect. Every matchup rocked. They shake hands early but Fujiwara has no time for Ueda, waving him away because a deviant like that is neither to be trusted nor acknowledged. Then those two started with some rock solid grappling that I honestly did not expect Ueda to have in his locker at this stage of the game. Fujiwara slaps him off a clean break without a single second's hesitation, then when given the chance to retaliate Ueda surprisingly breaks clean so Fujiwara slaps him again. He didn't even think about it and had no compunction about doing so, a man utterly assured in his convictions. Later in the match when Ueda does crack him back, Fujiwara stares him dead in the face and the distorted colouring of the old camera footage makes him look like a psychopath from a Takashi Miike film. Yamada and Yamazaki have a gorgeous exchange, so quick and crisp and I'm sorry but give me Yamada doing the shoot style for 35 years. He was fucking awesome in '86 and this was some of the best matwork I've ever seen from him. It VEXES me that he pretty much ditched this stuff in the 90s, even if I understand why (New Japan juniors style, innit). Imagine a world where him and Sano switched places and Yamada went to SWS and PWFG and Sano wore the costume? Not that the world we got was a disappointment, but still. Ueda/Yamazaki was shockingly fun. Ueda kind of sandbags Yamazaki at a few points, especially when Yamazaki is foolish enough to think Ueda in 1986 is down for getting German suplexed off a whippersnapper, and instead Ueda whips him into the slickest armbar I've ever seen him pull off. Yamazaki looks almost disconcerted as he high kicks Ueda in the head and Ueda blows it off completely, so he backs into the corner to tag Fujiwara as Ueda stalks him down, and Fujiwara refuses the tag like "go and fight the fucking ghoul then!" Yamada/Fujiwara was the best of the lot and I love how genial Fujiwara is to the kid. They shake hands before having an amazing exchange and you could tell it was a proper handshake, not one merely for appearances but a handshake of genuine respect, teacher to student. They square off a few times throughout the match and in a later exchange Yamada backs him into the corner and slaps him, and the fact Fujiwara never headbutted him in the face right there is telling. When he has the opportunity to hand out a receipt he just pats Yamada on the chest, then looks over his shoulder at Ueda like he wouldn't be so lucky. Next time they end up in the ropes Fujiwara punches Yamada in the ribs, gives him a shot to the face and takes him over into a key lock. It was one of those "I like you, boy...but watch yourself" moments. And the armbar at the end is one of the most beautiful of the man's career. This honestly might be my straight up favourite match of the year. 

Yoshiaki Fujiwara & Akira Maeda v Kendo Nagasaki & Mr Pogo (New Japan, 7/18/86)

Styles make fights, they say. Has the tide shifted any on Mr Pogo? I haven't watched a Pogo match in forever but he was routinely derided as one of the worst wrestlers in history when I first found out what an internet was. Fujiwara had no time for him or his bullshit whatsoever and wouldn't even acknowledge it when Pogo cheapshotted him twice. I fully expected him to eventually run riot on the wretch and sure enough he headbutted him in the face. Pogo and Nagasaki working an FIP segment on Maeda by choking him with wrist tape was sure something. Nagasaki was not particularly giving or cooperative and full credit to Maeda for not shoot roundhouse kicking him in the eye socket after Nagasaki went dead weight on a suplex attempt and landed fully on Maeda's head and chest. Pogo and Nagasaki have some cornerman who's dressed like a clown in a top hat with a megaphone running around the floor and I really wanted Fujiwara to headbutt him and then he did. If you put money on this being anything other than a schmozz finish then hell mend you. 

We can conclude that 1986 New Japan was very good

Tatsumi Fujinami, Kengo Kimura, Shiro Koshinaka, Seiji Sakaguchi & Keiichi Yamada v Akira Maeda, Yoshiaki Fujiwara, Osamu Kido, Kazuo Yamazaki & Nobuhiko Takada (Gauntlet Match) (New Japan, 5/1/86)

One hour and twenty minutes! These gauntlet series are some of the coolest things New Japan ever did. They're not technically one match in the traditional sense, but in a narrative sense they pull together into one package with each individual segment contributing towards that overall story, flowing from one to the next, from beginning to end. The '84 gauntlet was my #1 on the DVDVR New Japan set and is one of the greatest things I've ever seen in wrestling. I have not re-watched that bastard however as it is an ENDEAVOUR and I didn't think I had it in me to do it in one sitting at this point in my life. Well to hell with that because I just sat on my arse for 80 minutes and watched this one front to back. In a novel concept I will now talk about each individual match, using no more than 150 words for each (I thought about doing 100 but Fujinami/Fujiwara was simply too good for me to be shackled as such). 

Takada/Yamada fucking ruled. Have I mentioned how fun young Liger was? If he wanted to he absolutely could've been an amazing shoot style wrestler, right along the same lines as Sano. I know that's like saying Michael Jordan could've been a really good baseball player if he didn't like basketball so much, but still. This had lots of struggle and was more or less entirely shoot style, with Yamada going at the prince hammer and tong. Takada thumps him with kicks and it looks like Yamada is going to be counted out, but he keeps getting up and the nearfall off the backdrop driver was insane. Yamada sells the urgency of these shoot submissions better than most actual shoot stylists. Great opener and probably one that would be remembered super fondly as an early Liger match if it was its own thing.

Takada/Sakaguchi was a nifty enough styles clash, if a step down from what we just got. Takada aims to chop the big tree down with leg kicks and Sakaguchi is having none of it. Sakaguchi using his lankiness for leverage to escape holds is a cool way to get around the fact he shouldn't really be hanging with Takada on the mat. Canadian backbreakers are great. Bring back the Canadian backbreakers.

Sakaguchi/Yamazaki was a badass wee five minutes. Yamazaki is fired up going after the big lummox, throwing on legbars and slapping Sakaguchi about the face when he tries to sit out of them. Sakaguchi is LONG though and it's hard to keep him locked up. Eventually he just muscles Yamazaki into a half and then full crab and Yamazaki succeeds only in softening Sakaguchi up somewhat for Kido.

Sakaguchi/Kido wasn't so hot. Kido is tiny compared to Sakaguchi but probably quicker and Sakaguchi has had to deal with two people already. Which is part of the beauty of these gauntlets. Ordinarily there's no way I'd have expected Kido to win this, but under the circumstances he can keep plugging away and see what's what. If I'm him I'm thinking a small package is a decent way to go as well. So fair play to the wee fella. 

Kido/Koshinaka was pretty okay. Koshinaka dragging Kido the floor immediately and hitting a piledriver ruled, then he went after the leg which was a fine enough idea if not the most compelling in execution. Kido slabbering him with a forearm was sensational. I am not particularly sure what the finish was all about.

Kido/Kimura was too short to really be much. Kido had already wrestled two guys and the last match ended with him lying arse-end up over the guardrail, so you maybe had an inkling of how this would go. Still, he went out a hero. Or at least a man deserving of mild applause. 

Kimura/Fujiwara is where the match picked up again. I guess this answers why Fujiwara was out for blood in their singles match later in the month. Kimura jumps Fujiwara at the start (much like Fujiwara would do in a couple weeks), rams him into the post, and this time the rock solid cranium can't save him. He comes up bloody and Kimura is all over him like a rash. He digs his fingers into the wound and when Fujiwara gets up and looks him dead in the face there's this "ooohhhhh" reaction from the crowd. Right before Fujiwara obliterates him with a headbutt. Fujiwara's face as he tries to rip Kimura's arm out the socket was an absolutely incredible visual. 

Fujiwara/Fujinami must be the best ever matchup that never materialised as an actual match. This was the closest we got to it and mother of god what a phenomenal bitta pro wrestling. Fujinami works the sleeper like he's trying to crush Fujiwara's windpipe and Fujiwara is the one true god of selling a chokehold, which you can add to the list of other things he's the one true god of. The struggle is just exceptional, the way Fujiwara tries to snapmare out of that choke only for Fujinami to keep hold, flip over with the momentum and go right back to it, Fujiwara's eyes glazing over more and more each time. There was one bit where he was reaching out for the rope, inches from that but closer to unconsciousness, so Fujinami wrapped a leg around the arm to cut him off and there was genuine belief that Fujinami might actually choke him out. As far as building drama with a single, simple hold it was pretty much perfect. Fujiwara knowing that Fujinami is the last one standing from Team New Japan and trying to get both of them counted out was so great. Fujinami sensed what the play was too and he was lunging to get back in the ring, but Fujiwara was feral and when that man has the bit between his teeth it's hard to pry it loose. I had no recollection of Fujinami hitting a total fucking gusher in this. Fujiwara ditching the count out strategy and piledriving Fujinami on the concrete instead was a pretty great way to bring about said gusher. It needed to be some real blood loss if he was going to sell being dead on his feet, and it was and the selling was phenomenal and so was Fujiwara whomping him with uppercuts and Fujinami just collapsing in the ropes. The backslide reversal to one of those uppercuts once again lends credence to the idea that UWF's kryptonite is the mighty backslide, but Fujiwara couldn't give a shit even after losing and goes right back to throwing headbutts. An unbelievable ten minutes and that might've been more than 150 words. 

Fujinami/Maeda to take us home honestly wasn't that much of a step down from the last match, which means it was fucking awesome. Fujinami's selling again is just out of this world, taking bullet after bullet and staggering around energy-depleted, falling awkwardly into the ropes, making last ditch reversals, facing down the inevitable while refusing to blink. Maeda hitting the dragon suplex and Fujinami actually kicking out of it is one of the best nearfalls I've seen in ages, and if you're going to do  a blood stoppage after all this then it better look legit. And brothers, this looked very legit. Bring on the singles match. 

So there you go. Nine "matches" over 80 minutes. As a whole it wouldn't quite make my top three New Japan matches for the year, but things like Yamada/Takada and Fujinami/Maeda were awesome and that Fujinami/Fujiwara bit is as good as anything I've seen in ages. A hell of a thing.