He Got a Job and His Name's Genichiro, Spends His Days at the Texaco. Never Shows Up Late and Never Shows Up Drunk, 'Cause When He Gets Lit He's a Loaded Gun

Genichiro Tenryu & Tiger Mask II v Great Kabuki & Ashura Hara (All Japan, 1/25/86) - FUN

It's kind of strange seeing Tenryu and Hara on the opposite end of the ring in 1986. They squared off a few times in SWS and WAR, but I just think of Tenryu and Hara as an 80s team, the Revolution against Jumbo and the ways of old. It's amusing watching Misawa work as junior heavyweight Tiger Mask as he's basically doing the same stuff heavyweight Misawa would do, only with less weight behind it. Say what you like about Sayama under the mask but he was spectacular for his time period in a way very few wrestlers have ever been. His snap on things still holds up as impressive even today and when he landed it clean - which he didn't always do - it's not hard to see why people lost their minds. Misawa doesn't really have any snap and isn't really eye-popping at all but at least the crowd respond well enough. This was at its best when everyone took the shackles off and it broke into a melee. Even Misawa swung a chair at one point, though nobody swung a chair like Kabuki. He smashed one over Tenryu's head and once again Kabuki v Tenryu does not miss. Kabuki spitting the green mist in Misawa's face as the latter jumps off the top rope was amazing. Then post-match he and Hara try and rip the mask off and I think a ring boy took an uppercut to the throat. 

Genichiro Tenryu & Jumbo Tsuruta v Stan Hansen & Ted DiBiase (All Japan, 7/19/86) - FUN

These two teams had one of the best 10-minute matches ever in the Tag League that year. This was more of a back and forth contest, nothing quite as compelling as Tenryu in peril while Hansen and DiBiase play the world's greatest Fire and Ice. DiBiase is wearing the black Million Dollar Man tights but without the dollar signs, so I guess just regular black tights. He looked pretty badass and worked surly enough that when they got backstage Hansen probably didn't throw a microwave at his head. I also liked the snap on some of Ted's bumps, like the one he took off a sunset flip. It looked like he properly got yanked over, really whipping his head back and bumping the canvas, the sort of thing that might make an actual sunset flip finish look plausible if you buy that he got his bell rung. 

Complete & Accurate Tenryu

Misawa with the broken face

Mitsuharu Misawa v Akira Taue (All Japan, 4/15/95)

This isn't quite my favourite Misawa match ever, but it would probably be top 3. It would be top 1 for Taue by a fair distance. Of course it rules and both guys are outstanding in it. You could see Taue's strategy from the start, even if it was somewhat restrained early on. Everyone knows Misawa has a busted face and if you're Taue then you're not about to actively avoid hitting him there, but he wasn't REALLY a dick about it either. He went to the facelock and the forearm was a little higher than it might ordinarily have been, really tight around the eye and bridge of the nose. It's fair game though, nothing below the belt and you'd be a fool not to exploit any weakness against a man with a paucity of them. I liked that first attempt at the snake eyes on the turnbuckle, Misawa blocking it and turning around with a look of mild annoyance, which felt significant considering how unflappable he is at the worst of times. When watching the Misawa/Williams title change from '94 earlier this week I thought the first third was dull as dishwater. This was the complete opposite and the first 10 minutes absolutely breezed by. It was your traditional 90s All Japan build, where they made a point of showing how well they knew each other without being overly cute about it. Taue was not about to stand around and eat elbows, but he couldn't avoid ALL of them and Misawa was aggressive whenever he had the room to build up speed. The first moment where it looks like Misawa's eye is going to be a real problem is when he goes for the flying elbow and Taue basically slams his face into the mat, after which Misawa rolls out the ring in obvious distress. Taue following up with the beefy tope was great and you kind of had a feeling this problem of Misawa's was going to crop up again. It was great build to Taue throwing she shackles off and fully exploiting it. First he grabbed Misawa by the face to flip him out of the facelock, though it wasn't absolutely blatant and was more or less just a snapmare. Then Misawa rocks him with some elbows and Taue outright digs his fingers in Misawa's broken eye socket. And we're off to the races after that. The HEAT~ it garnered gave this an extra layer and Taue would always go back to the eye whenever he needed an out ball. Stomping on the face, clawing at the eye, real coward shit but when you're stepping to The Ace you do what you need to do. Misawa's elbows have never looked better. There was some proper venom behind them here, maybe some desperation in how he knew he needed them to work and work quickly before Taue permanently blinded him. Building to the big deathbump is obviously something of an All Japan hallmark and this was a brilliant example of it. Taue's first attempt at the apron Nodowa is shot down with elbows, because of course it had to be the elbows, but you suspected that wouldn't be the last time Taue went for it. When he goes back to it later Misawa fights it off again, this time by grabbing the top rope rather than throwing elbows, so Taue just fucking Baba chops him in the eye, slaps the hand away from the rope and drills him. Misawa's slow comeback where all he can muster is elbows before rolling out to the floor is basically perfect. I don't think anybody does this stuff as well as Misawa. The kick-out of the Dynamic Bomb that had been Taue's major weapon in the tournament so far was nuclear, then when Misawa goes back to those elbows again he does it just so he can roll out the ring to recuperate. He wasn't using them to set up other pieces of offence, it was entirely so he could buy time on the floor, as close to Misawa in pure survival mode as you'll see. Taue with nothing left trying to claw Misawa's face one last time, knowing Misawa has done what he's always done and fought his way back, is such an awesome moment. Misawa about taking his head off with an elbow is an equally awesome response. This was some exceptionally good pro wrestling. 

Tenryu's Rattled Through a Tempest, He's Rocked Through the Storm. Those Scars that He Bear are Hard-Earned and Battle-Worn

Genichiro Tenryu v Shinya Hashimoto (New Japan, 8/1/98) - EPIC

Man fuck off. Hashimoto v Tenryu is one of my favourite matchups ever so I'm predisposed to loving most of what they do together, but I hadn't seen this version of it in close to 15 years and I sure didn't expect to come away from it thinking it might be a top 10 match ever wrestled. After the first minute I thought to myself "that was the best opening minute of a match in history," then a minute later I thought "that was the best opening two minutes of a match in wrestling history," then I said it again at the three-minute mark and then they never stopped whomping the living shit out of each other until dead on five minutes and basically it was the greatest five-minute opening of any match ever committed to tape. This is honestly just perfect pro wrestling to me. I would not have changed a single thing about those fist five minutes. It's slugfest wrestling of the highest order, not just in how they're actually hitting each other but in how they sell those strikes and what each shot is doing to them. Seriously, the selling in this incredible. How can anybody watch these two work an extended strike exchange and then go watch any of this modern chest-puffed horse shit and tell me the latter is any good? Tenryu is approaching 50 here and looks it, the way he just slumps in the ropes after Hashimoto tries to hacksaw his clavicle in two, wondering why he's still putting himself through this. There was one amazing bit early on where Tenryu dropped Hash for the first time and he staggered back like he was having a stroke, Hashimoto struggling back to his feet and staring up at him with a face like thunder. The dynamic of Hashimoto v Tenryu is always brilliant because you'll have Tenryu being a grade-A prick and blatantly punching Hashimoto in the face - these were possibly the best punches of his career and think of the SCOPE of that - while Hashimoto will wrestle to his code no matter what, no matter how often he's prodded. There are of course times where he loses his cool, for even the most composed among us will be pushed to the brink by Tenryu. When that happens his temper doesn't just flare, it fully erupts, but he never does anything below the belt. I think the one time it truly got the better of him he chucked the referee out the way for trying to restrain him, and after that I'm pretty sure Tenryu only used the distraction to punch him in the face again. The way they sell the cumulative damage, the way they introduce the DDT and powerbomb and cultivate drama from four or five moves, it's pretty much perfect pacing and match-building. Then Tenryu jumps off the top rope for a shoulder tackle and Hashimoto wheel kicks him dead in the face and I fell out the bed. These two have set an absurdly high bar of quality together over the years. They took everything great about their rivalry, condensed it into just under 15 minutes and worked it in front of a molten crowd that were on strings for all of it.

Complete & Accurate Tenryu

Misawa v Dr Death

Mitsuharu Misawa v Steve Williams (All Japan, 7/28/94)

I wouldn't say the first 10 minutes of this outright bored me to tears, but it never really did anything for me either. Over the last few weeks I've started watching longer matches on the exercise bike, and a good way to tell if something's engaging me is if they'll do a time elapsed announcement or I'll check my phone and something like 10 minutes have gone, yet it feels like I've only been on the bike for two. This time they did the five-minute check and it felt like I'd been riding for half an hour. I mean, I'm being overly critical and it wasn't terrible or anything. I wasn't desperate to turn it off, even if I briefly considered it. You could see Misawa was wary of even a hint of the Backdrop Driver straight from the start and was content to try the sleeper just for containment. They had a couple brief strike exchanges where Williams kind of nodded like he was remembering an Oklahoma frat house hazing party where someone walloped him in the face with a hoover and thus concluded that Misawa was a worthy adversary. In general I got what they were going for with the slow build. I just didn't find it particularly engaging so, you know, whatever. After Misawa hit the tope elbow it picked up, then picked up again after Williams hit that delayed spinebuster, and from there it built to something really good. Williams' work on the back was strong and I thought Misawa's selling was equally so, especially late on. Misawa clinging to the ropes as Williams ran him into the corner for the Oklahoma Stampede was a really cool moment and put across Misawa's desperation, which you can probably relate to if you imagine yourself in the position of being picked up and flung into things by a right guard. Misawa's elbow bailed him out more than once and I loved him going back to the rolling version that levelled Williams earlier, because why wouldn't you go back to what brung you to the dance? only for Williams to duck and use Misawa's momentum to essentially set up the first Backdrop Driver. They'd teased that a couple times before and once in particular the crowd about shit themselves, and Misawa's sell of it by damn near throwing himself out the ring just to delay the inevitable put the move over huge. Misawa on his last legs throwing desperation elbows was really exceptional, but you always had the sense that the first Backdrop had put him too far behind the eight ball and Williams was closing in on the second. Misawa's bump off it when it came was truly ludicrous. I don't really have any issue calling this a great match, or at least a match with two great performances, but that first stretch sort of killed me. Actually maybe it speaks to the strength of the last two thirds that they dragged me back in the way they did. 

Chigusa and Meiko! Teamwork makes the dream work!

Chigusa Nagayo & Meiko Satomura v Eagle Sawai & Keiko Aono (GAEA, 5/14/95)

If you couldn't tell from looking at the names, this was established vet and rookie partner v established vet and rookie partner. It starts with the vets barrelling into each other like a couple bighorn rams. After a few collisions they both end up on the canvas, so the rookies come and drag their respective partners back to their corners to tag themselves in, but amusingly Aono can't get Eagle to budge because she's too BEEFY. It was a fun way to set up a couple minutes of Eagle v Satomura and of course the work between them was quality. It's basically Satomura throwing herself - literally - at Eagle and getting nowhere before Eagle gets bored of it all, flattens her and tags in Aono. There was a point during the 90s tape-trading heyday (which I was not a part of as I am MERELY a man in his mid-30s) where Eagle was seen as kind of rubbish. That feels at least unfair, if not downright nonsense, because if nothing else she was a fun bruiser who projected a pretty badass aura and I'm not buying the idea that someone like Kyoko Inoue could work circles around her. She throws Satomura into the ropes so hard that the top rope almost rips the girl's head off, then she squashes her like a bug. Meiko and Aono probably hit three hunner running shoulderblocks when they're in together, or at least a dozen. They don't exactly have a deep well of offence to draw from but they're intense and very spirited. The rookie v rookie stuff was also kept interesting by them both looking to tag out at various points only for their respective big dog to refuse. This was sink or swim and they were getting no life raft unless it was absolutely necessary. Chigusa takes Aono's head off with a spin kick, Eagle lariats Meiko dead in the face, all the while the rookies try valiantly to put a dent in them. At one point Meiko hits about six running dropkicks to Eagle that basically do nothing, then when Eagle whips her across the ring Satomura is so fucked she just falls face first into the ropes. I don't think it was "selling" or at all intentional which made it even better. She'd emptied the clip and had nothing left. Chigusa's "well I'll be damned" face at the end when Satomura tapped Aono was great. 

Chigusa Nagayo, Meiko Satomura & Sonoko Kato v Devil Masami, Tomoko Kuzumi & Tomoko Miyaguchi (GAEA, 8/5/95)

Another really fun time! I actually thought this was even better than the last one, thanks in part to the inclusion of Devil. I'll level with you all; I don't know the difference between Kuzumi and Miyaguchi so I'll refer to them as the JWP girls. There was lots going on here and the young girls got to go hell for leather, but it never felt messy to me and it certainly helped that Chigusa and Devil were there to hold things together. I liked the start with Kato and one of the JWP girls, Kato accidentally running into Devil on the apron and Devil stepping in like she was going to chop her in half. Devil v Satomura was awesome for the one minute that we got, as Satomura is spunky as all get out and fearlessly runs into the brick wall and tries to scale Devil's body to apply an armbar. When she eventually grabs hold of it Devil sells with just enough concern that the crowd goes nuts, but ultimately you know she's going to pick Satomura up with one arm and powerbomb her. She then powerbombed one of her own students on top of Satomura and that was even better. The youngsters are still scrappy and mostly run through the same few moves, but any time it looked in danger of getting repetitive you had Devil or Nagayo there to freshen things up. There was always the backdrop of one of them coming at any given moment and murdering someone. Some of those veteran/rookie interactions were great, my favourite being when one of Devil's kids went for a springboard and Chigusa kicked her in the throat. Chigusa had one of them in a choke hold, then when the other ran in to break it up Chigusa just grabbed her by the neck and put her in a choke as well. Veteran shooter Chigusa with the extra weight might honestly be my favourite Chigusa and she's super fun in GAEA, which in general I prefer stylistically to the AJW of her peak. You obviously don't get the same level of sympathetic selling as you would against Dump and those cretins, really because she's wrestling with a bunch of teenagers and trainees, but she's a violent ass-kicker and that's every bit as compelling to me. Her interactions with Devil were of course excellent. The finishing stretch is actually really dramatic and much bigger than I would've expected, super heated with the JWP team trying to put away Satomura while Devil keeps her old adversary at bay. You think it's done when Devil and one of her trainees hit a sick doomsday powerbomb, but Chigusa saves it right at the last second and manages to rally her team into a comeback. Satomura has precisely one desperation sunset flip left in her and I'm not sure she even registers that it led to victory in the end. 

La Galactica on the rampage!

Jaguar Yokota v La Galactica (AJW, 2/27/85)

I'll get the stuff I wasn't so hot on out the way first. I've watched about three dozen 80s AJW matches over the last couple weeks and I'm very over the interference shtick. It doesn't kill matches for me, but it's always the thing I find least interesting in any of them and some of them have LOTS of it. Still, watch enough of even a good thing and you're liable to get fed up somewhere along the way, right? It is what it is. Thankfully there wasn't a ton of it here, and once or twice it was even quite enjoyable! And really, that was about it for the things I could've done without because pretty much everything else was good or fucking awesome. Jaguar was great here, from rolling out 1995, 2005 and 2015 offence in 1985 to bumping and bringing the intensity in her comebacks. Her selling was incredible at points and if she was disappointingly subdued in the last match of hers I watched (from 1997), she was not at all subdued here. Right at the bell Galactica grabs a pair of nunchucks, but Jaguar manages to steal them and unloads on Galactica first, then tries to rip her whole mask off. The way she sold her arm in the back half had people believing the thing needed to be amputated. Of course the way La Galactica went after that arm had people believing even more so that, if it didn't NEED to be amputated, one way or another it was GOING to be. Galactica was amazing in this. The first half of the match has some snug grappling, and even if it didn't last very long Galactica was adding all sorts of nasty touches to things, clawing Jaguar's face like she was trying to peel a giant tangerine, digging the point of her elbow right into Jaguar's eye socket, biting her fingers to break holds, she was an animal. She took Jaguar to the floor at one point and rammed her head into a table, then when Jaguar tried to climb back in Galactica stood on one of her hands before grabbing the other and trying to chew the fingers off it. Then about halfway in we get my favourite bit of interference in all of the stuff I've watched, as Jaguar climbs to the top and from out of nowhere one of Galactica's goons jumps up on the apron and shoves her off, Jaguar coming down awkwardly across the top rope. As far as outside interference goes it wasn't exactly furtive, but it was unexpected even in a promotion where it happens all the time, and she did it with such casualness, right at a moment where Jaguar was about to hit a home run, that it came off as the perfect cheapshot. And from there Galactica turns into the demented lovechild of Pirata Morgan and Mr Pogo. She stabs a hole in Jaguar's shoulder and starts digging her fingers in there like she's trying to flay skin, grabs a big piece of metal and shanks her with it, just ridiculously nasty stuff. Jaguar is bleeding freely from this gash in her shoulder and Galactica is lapping up the blood and spitting it in the air like mist, grinning like a hideous freak, teeth and mask stained blood-red, people shrieking in terror and disgust. Jaguar's slow comeback is great, then in the last few minutes we get some nuclear nearfalls and La Galactica taking a fucking flip senton to the concrete floor and Yokota wiping out half a dozen face-painted ghouls with a plancha. This is up there with the very best 80s joshi I've seen. 

Larry v Bock!

Nick Bockwinkel v Larry Zbyszko (AWA, 7/18/87)

I never got this far into '87 when going through the DVDVR AWA set, which is a shame because I likely would've had this pretty high on a ballot that I never would've submitted on account of not finishing the thing. It was pretty great. This was babyface Bockwinkel, which meant it was really just heel Bockwinkel with a smile and slightly more courtesy than normal. He was also against Zbyszko so he could've done just about anything and been cheered for it. And considering Larry had cost Bockwinkel the world title recently, there was a whole lot of scope for what Bock was willing to do. He busted out every trick he would as a heel, only to raucous applause. First he jumped Larry from behind prior to the bell, then he had him on the mat and fully stood on his face with both feet, then started choking him with a foot across the throat, choking him with the ring ropes, choking him with the turnbuckle bolt, choking him with the apron cover, everything. He would make sure to break at 4.999 and even once he held up a hand to tell the ref' he had until the count of 5. When the ref' is over checking on Larry, Bockwinkel undoes the turnbuckle pad and rams Zbyszko's head into it and Zbyszko takes a GREAT exposed turnbuckle bump. People just lapped this up and you'd think Bockwinkel had been on a Lawler-esque babyface run throughout the decade and not been a despised bastard for much of the last 15 years. What a pro wrestler. Larry Z also has to be one of the all-time great stooge bumpers. He was incredible getting beaten up and down the place, during all of the stuff already mentioned but also in taking these crazy Mr Perfect bumps on his shoulder and neck whenever Bockwinkel would kick him in the leg. When he finally takes over he does so with an eye rake and an awesome spin kick right to the guts, then he does everything that Bockwinkel did earlier only people are irate about it now that the shoe's on the other foot. The back half of this felt like something you could easily see in a big arena title match, both of them trading piledrivers and backbreakers while doing some great last legs selling. I love how Bockwinkel really puts the clamps on someone when he's going for the win. He hooked Zbyszko in a sleeper here and Larry immediately grabbed the ropes, so Bock just whipped him across the ring and yanked him into an abdominal stretch on the rebound. Bockwinkel's character was always that of a thinking man's wrestler, a strategist first and foremost, switching to plan B as soon as plan A went out the window. I loved Bockwinkel using a roll of dimes after the ref' gets bumped, then in the post-match he scatters the coins over Zbyszko's unconscious body and not only admits to the referee that he hit Larry with the dimes, but explains how he concealed them in his trunks beforehand. Without the use of VAR the ref' can only call what he sees, confirms that the decision will not be overturned, and that Bockwinkel is and will stay the winner. And nobody throws a petulant rager like Zbyszko. You WILL be hearing from his lawyer.

Revisiting 90s Joshi #52

Yumiko Hotta v Toshiyo Yamada (AJW, 6/3/94)

June 3rd, 1994. A relatively okay day for the pro wrestling in Japan. I had a SNEAKING suspicion that this might involve some kicking. It went all of exactly one second before my suspicions were confirmed as Hotta roundhouse kicked Yamada in the lungs. And well, this was really about the kicking. Very many brutal kicks. If that's something you like then there's plenty for you here, and I'll freely admit that people kicking the absolutely dogpiss out of each other is something I like and so there was plenty for me here. The striking was world class and both of them were leaning into everything like fucking maniacs. It kind of ground to a halt during the sections where they took it to the mat, though. It wasn't like they were grabbing an armbar or a leglock and sitting there for five minutes like Don Muraco, but it wasn't the most compelling all the same. On the other hand they'd often try and fight out of those holds by booting the other person in the face and that led to them standing back up and continuing to boot each other in the face. They were clearly willing to eat absolute hell on those kicks as well as the camera even catches Hotta, slumped against the ropes after being drilled with a high kick, nodding to Yamada like yes you can full force kick me in the face again I don't mind. And even if the grappling wasn't the best I thought they sold the damage of it pretty well. Late on Yamada applies an extended sleeper, and while there wasn't much actually happening in the moment, Hotta would stumble and need to take a beat to recover while making her comeback. The shift towards the high-impact bombs towards the end was maybe a little jarring, but it at least kept with the idea of them trying to murder each other. It was just a different sort of murder. 

Revisiting 90s Joshi #51

Meiko Satomura v Sonoko Kato (GAEA, 10/13/97)

Man, I know GAEA was a lot of fun in 1997 but where the fuck did this come from??? It's quite frankly stupid that Satomura is 17 years old here. She shouldn't already be this good at something some people need 10 whole years to get good at. Kato isn't much older (21) and this almost struck me as a joshi version of Tamura/Kakihara from the first UWFi show, where they just went out and tore it up like they were the future of the game. Everything they did here was super competitive and crazy intense, but they never really teetered into DOING STUFF~ territory. Even if it was back and forth for most of the 15 minutes they wrestled, I can't recall any transition feeling haphazard or like one of them just decided they wanted to go on offence again. There was always a struggle, sometimes in really unique ways, like when Kato was trying to pick Satomura up on her shoulders on the top rope and Satomura, after fighting it off for about 30 seconds, finally managed to hit a big knee to the side of the head. They also absolutely thumped the hell out of each other and put over the toll of it amazingly well. They'd delay their next move after a momentum shift just to sell any previous damage, really milk any strike exchanges, never letting the pace they worked at run high enough that they were having to blow stuff off. Satomura was doing all sorts of great counters and blocks to set up submissions, including one quick reversal of something (I don't even remember what it was now) into a sick armbar. Kato would reverse those submission attempts by kicking Satomura in the face and a couple of these were truly vile. Satomura even tagged her back with a high kick of her own from nowhere, just a total holy shit decapitation. The point where Kato turned around and cracked Satomura with a headbutt was insanity, then they traded those headbutts while on their knees, totally unprotected, borderline idiotic. There was just so much stuff here that I wasn't expecting but turned out awesome, and for something I watched completely on a whim it wound up being one of my favourite joshi matches of the year. And fucking hell was young Satomura a prodigy. Seventeen, fer cripes!

The Bucanero Show!

Pirata Morgan, Hombre Bala & El Verdugo v Atlantis, Angel Azteca & Ringo Mendoza (EMLL, 3/88)

Maybe the best Bucaneros showcase of them all. You could argue that this is by the numbers, at least in the sense that they play EVERY ONE OF THE NUMBERS, but I thought it was more than that as well. For one, that primera was an amazing rudo mugging. The Bucaneros were relentless and there aren't many better at swarming a tecnico and literally putting the boots to them. The announcer hadn't even gotten five words out his mouth and Atlantis was on the floor, Ringo slumped in the corner and Azteca curling up as six boots were raining down upon him. When the tecnico comeback happens they kick it all the way into highlight reel overdrive and it's sort of incredible how clean everything comes off. I don't think there was a single miss and they ran through EVERYTHING. This was Wilt going for 42 on 100% shooting. Way too many double- and triple-team sequences to mention, some of them comedy, some of them ending with a ridiculous bump, all of them great. My favourite might've been Ringo spin kicking the Bucaneros in the guts and then all three of them in unison frantically appealing for the DQ as if they'd been fouled. At one point Pirata Morgan does his slide along the canvas out the ring, but before he lands on the floor his partners manage to catch him, Morgan's feet just hooking the bottom rope, so Atlantis casually kicks the rope and he ends up falling to the floor anyway. Atlantis in 1988 is approaching Rey Jr in 1993 levels of spectacular, first with the gorgeous moonsault out the corner and then with the absolutely breathtaking tope right at the death. It was easily one of the best dives I've ever seen. The video cuts off right as Pirata Morgan punches Ringo Mendoza in the willy, but I would assume it led to a DQ anyway considering how brazen and in full view of the refs it was. The perfect sort of trios match to show to people trying to get into lucha trios matches.

I'm watching 80s joshi. The Jumping Bomb Angels were very fun!

Dump Matsumoto & Bull Nakano v Jumping Bomb Angels (AJW, 8/22/85)

I think at this point I'm best watching these mid-80s Dump matches in moderation. They're not really my thing as, if I'm being honest with myself, there's just a bunch of different types of wrestling I prefer. That said, like every other style I'm tepid on, when it hits it HITS. I thought this was a real blast and probably my favourite Dump match, and definitely my favourite 80s Bull match. Dump wasn't quite as menacing here as she was against Ohmori, which might be the best individual Dump performance, but she was still a terror and you couldn't sum it up any better than when she wrapped a chain around Yamazaki's neck, hoisted her up in the air and started parading her around the ring, Yamazaki completely helpless. In general I really liked the the Angels as babyface foils, and the dynamic of Bull not being the same sort of dominant lunatic as Dump meant it wasn't quite as one-sided as some of these matches will be. It all got plenty chaotic either way and I love how Yamazaki and Tateno would keep on coming forward, despite being stabbed and clobbered and choked and whatever else. The babyface FIRE~, if you will. Their timing was great, they sold big, brought the heat when they got their chance, made everything feel like a desperate fight, they were awesome. Honestly, I'm going through the 80s joshi stuff with an eye towards the PWO Greatest Wrestler Ever vote and more than anyone else it's Itsuki Yamazaki I feel like I need to see every match of. More than Dump, more than Chigusa, way more than Bull, certainly more than Asuka. Where are the JBA usually talked about relative to the Crush Gals? Because at this point I know who I'd much rather watch and it's not the Crush Gals. I thought the double count out to end the first fall worked well because it meant everything in the second fall had an extra edge, plus the crowd brawling that actually led to it was good and usually I'm ready to tap out on joshi crowd brawling after 10 seconds. The double dropkick into the table ruled as the Angels' big comeback spot and then Tateno flipping and spinning the nunchucks while staring Dump dead in the eyes was fucking amazing. Yamazaki leaping over the rope onto the apron only to get whomped with a metal tin was about as perfectly timed as a spot like that could be. Maybe I need to push the Yamazaki/Dump feud to the top of the to-watch list.

Crush Gals v Jumping Bomb Angels (AJW, 3/20/86)

This is the one right here. I mean, look, I don't LOVE this and it'll never fully be for me stylistically, but as far as HIGH-OCTANE WORKRATE~ tags go it's about as good as you'll get from the era. I watched their match from January 1985 before this and it was fine. It had some good stuff and some stuff that didn't really land and it felt like the first match in a series. I don't know how many (if any) matches they had together between the 1/85 match and this one, but this took everything the first one did and built upon it, added several layers, and upped the difficulty and intensity and pretty much everything else. One thing that always leaves me a little wanting with these tags - although it's by no means only an AJW thing - is that there's very rarely an extended PERIL segment and instead you've got control bouncing back and forth regularly. I get that that's sort of a "judging something for what it doesn't do rather than what it does" observation and my biases are rooted in southern tag formula, but I can't help it. Still, if you're going to work frequent transitions and control shifts then I can deal with it if there's a sense of struggle, and this captured the struggle pretty spectacularly. I could see someone thinking a lot of this is throwing shit at the wall and just doing all sorts of offence, but the mix of almost shoot style uncooperative grappling, nasty striking, impact moves with the suplexes and piledrivers...honestly, it just worked for me. I bought into it and it was always compelling. You really need for the selling to be good for that to happen and I thought the selling was largely excellent. When someone would quickly roll to their corner and make the tag after being hit with something nasty I didn't think it came across as them shirking the selling; it just felt like desperation, like they knew they needed to get out and let their partner pick it up. It was all about momentum and the momentum was a hundred miles an hour straight down the other team's throat. It was keep up or die. I think that's pretty well encapsulated by the finish to the first fall, where Asuka was finally able to reel off a string of bombs to pin Yamazaki before she could tag in Tateno. And these were some BOMBS, including a great looking Hart Attack followed by the tombstone. And that's another thing - piledrivers feel like Big Fuckin Deals here and I'm not sure when they essentially became as dangerous as a body slam in joshi, but these were used as and treated as death moves. Tateno and Asuka slapping the jaw off each other to begin the second fall was great. The finish to the fall was even greater, with Chigusa yelping as Tateno snapped her into that surprise German suplex. I'm a low voter on the Crush Gals overall but Chigusa will usually do at least one thing per match that makes me think "yeah, I get why someone might consider her one of the greatest ever." And to be fair, the Crush Gals might be the most over act in history and these crowds are just full on badgershit for everything so the third fall was every bit as hectic and dramatic as you would want. Lots of big offence, huge nearfalls, Asuka hitting a fucking Jackhammer in 1986, every neck bridge on a pin attempt looking like more of a struggle the longer it went. That tiger suplex at the end was a thing of beauty too. 

Naoki AND Takuma! The same Sano!

Naoki Sano v Masao Orihara (SWS, 9/16/91)

I love both of these guys. Sano in SWS was in that cool bridge phase of his career between the pro style of New Japan and the shoot style of UWFi, where he was working some PWFG shows along with the SWS ones and trying a bunch of cool quasi shoot stuff across both environments. Here my favourite example was a rolling surfboard into a rear naked choke with a bodyscissors. He has Orihara in a facelock and Orihara starts kicking him in the head to get out, so Sano catches one of those kicks and just rips the kid into a brutal kneebar. Orihara is one of the most fun young whippersnappers ever. Every time out he's willing to take a fucking stomping but he'll fire back heroically and he makes the absolute most of his hope spots. They blow an early sequence built around leapfrogs and missed strikes, but you give him the points anyway as he makes up for it by hitting two incredible dives to the floor. His first was a gorgeous flying cross body, then his moonsault obliterated Sano and I'm thinking Orihara had one of the best moonsaults ever. Sano's great at giving him enough to look like he's going places, but all the same this was Sano's match to dominate. Eventually he decapitates Orihara with a spin kick and folds him with a dragon suplex, and 1991 Sano really did have one of the best offensive arsenals in wrestling. 

Kenta Kobashi, KENTA & Tamon Honda v Yoshihiro Takayama, Takuma Sano & Go Shiozaki (NOAH, 4/27/08)

Let me tell you, if your idea of great pro wrestling is Big Beefy Fellas hitting each other really hard then this is the match for you. Even more than that, if you're into prolonged chop battles where Big Beefy Fellas try and turn each other's chest purple then you want every second of this opening. Ordinarily I'd have turned it off after 30 seconds but it's been a long time since I watched any late-career Kobashi, or CHOPbashi as he was affectionately referred to back in the 2008. He certainly hits like a bastard. This also had at least some semblance of story behind it, as Go was his protégé for a minute there and I guess now they're on opposite sides of the fence. Go wants to prove a point about how MANLY he is and Kobashi is like "no." I don't know, it was stupid but Kobashi's charisma at least makes it compelling to some degree. Prolly. It also led to a great bit where Takayama came in and told Go to get his shit together so Shiozaki elbowed him in the face, so Takayama elbowed him back, and then they proceeded to elbow each other in the face a few more times. Then they both turned and booted Kobashi in the face as it was all a RUSE. I thought KENTA might've been the most fun guy in this as he was in his element getting chippy with Takayama and Sano. He hit three running corner dropkicks to Takayama that easily could've given the big man another stroke, then later Takayama kneed him in the sternum so hard KENTA flew about eight feet in the air. Sano wasn't involved too much until the end, but he gets to close the match out and it was a nice enough showcase. 

A Pirata Morgan match where NO blood was drank!

Pirata Morgan v Mascara Sagrada (CMLL, 9/6/91)

It's been a minute since I've watched a Pirata Morgan title match. To be honest, other than the Brazo de Oro match from '89 there aren't really any Pirata Morgan title matches I can even think of. I don't have much of an opinion on Mascara Sagrada, but Morgan was on a roll in 1991 and worth watching against anybody. The primera was worked more like the opening stretch of a mid-80s NWA title defence than a lucha title match. It wasn't particularly flashy and certainly not as graceful as what some of the lighter weight divisions were doing, but I liked the more methodical pace and especially how they built around the armdrag. Sagrada was basically Ricky Steamboat here, working in and out of that armdrag, coming up for air, doing a rope running sequence, taking Morgan back over and barring the arm again. The finish to the fall being a figure-four after Sagrada spent most of it controlling the arm might be something that irks folk, but I'm pretty much over the idea that holds need a whole bunch of build up for them to be effective. Morgan really sells the hell out of the leg into the segunda as well, limping and hobbling while trying to rein Sagrada in. Where this really comes into its own though is the tercera. It started off fine, rolled along into really good, and by the end my jaw was practically on the floor. It wasn't even that they did anything spectacular, they just milked everything for all it was worth and they had me fully into the story they were telling. Sagrada was killing Morgan whenever he took to the air, crushing him with at least two amazing dives. Sagrada is hardly a wee fella so those dives had the grace AND the impact. Morgan was hanging in there but it was purely on survival instinct, every kick-out coming a tiny bit later than the one before. There were genuinely three or four times I thought the match was over only for him to slip out the back door. Whenever he managed to wrest away some control he had to go big, but he'd crash and burn every time. It was a cycle of futility because with every opportunity that arose he had to up the ante and I don't think he ever connected when he took to the air. If he did it was on the big splash, and I might even be misremembering that, but Sagrada kicked out anyway and soon enough you were wondering if he hadn't emptied the clip. He clearly needed something desperately and his final gambit was perfection. Both men had their minis as their seconds for the night, so Morgan just walks over and slams Mascarita Sagrada on the floor. Obviously Sagrada goes to check on his mini and has to wrestle with the idea of leaving him helpless to continue the match, or tend to him and get counted out in the process. I was sure he'd do the latter and we'd get a deflating finish to a match that had built to a great one, but he got back in the ring and went about putting Morgan away with some haste. He even managed to score a bit of payback on Piratita when he climbed to the top rope to interfere, and in the end he triumphed over the big pirate and the little. Morgan stooped low but it wasn't enough. One of my favourite matches of the year. 

Well, Tenryu Shook the Hand of a Weeping Sparrow, and Heard the Most Beautiful Tune

Genichiro Tenryu & Samson Fuyuki v The Great Kabuki & Takashi Ishikawa (All Japan, 7/8/88) - GREAT

We're joined in progress at about the five-minute mark here, with Tenryu trying to bend Ishikawa in half while Kabuki glares at him from the apron. I'm not sure why I'm shocked at this being badass as fuck. Everybody was particularly ornery on the night and if you know anything about these four then you know what that means. The bulk of it was centred around Kabuki and Ishikawa ripping Fuyuki's arm apart. It was really awesome stuff, nothing especially unique but what they did do had some real INTENT behind it. You bought them trying to rip that arm off and beat the man with it. Kabuki took him down with a couple brutal shoulder-breakers, Ishikawa punted him in the armpit, they were torturing him with armbars, it was great stuff. The cut-offs were almost all focused on the arm as well, minus one Kabuki thrust kick that was fucking spectacular. He also threw several amazing uppercuts, as was his wont. My favourite part of this stretch was when Fuyuki was about an inch away from making the tag and Kabuki just pounced on him and wrestled him back into the middle of the ring, Tenryu almost falling into the ring Marty Jannetty style because he was reaching in so far. It looked like Fuyuki did not expect to be prevented from making that tag, but Kabuki must not have been happy with where the heat was yet and decided more sympathy must first be garnered. Kabuki rules, basically. When Tenryu does get the tag he about takes Ishikawa's head off with a lariat. Those two were throwing some of the best shoulderblocks, just smacking shoulder on shoulder. When Fuyuki comes back in you're maybe wishing he'd try and sell that arm a bit more, but then he wallops Kabuki with a lariat and immediately clutches the arm before tagging out. Last couple minutes are super frantic and the finish is brilliant. Ishikawa was for taking none of Tenryu's shit, but Tenryu was for giving him it whether he wanted it or not. They're both laying into each other in the corner while Fuyuki hits a bridging German on Kabuki, then Ishikawa pushes Tenryu back with sumo thrusts and Tenryu falls right into the bridging Fuyuki. Ishikawa then drags Tenryu to the mat and wraps him up while Kabuki puts Fuyuki on his head with a backdrop. This pretty much ruled. 

Genichiro Tenryu, Koki Kitahara, Masao Orihara & Don Fujii v Akitoshi Saito, Masashi Aoyagi, Michiyoshi Ohara & Shiro Koshinaka (WAR, 7/27/06) - GOOD

An ode to the wrestling and the romance! This was your favourite band from back in the day getting together one last time to play Glastonbury or Coachella or T in the Park (IYKYK). Some of the members are old and can't muster the same energy they once could, but they do their familiar signature bits that everyone wants to see. Sumo Fuji plays the role of one of the deceased band members' kids who's taken up the instrument, not there for the band's heyday but a close enough approximation of what he's replacing that he fits in well. I guess he's the Jarod Clemons to Ashura Hara's Clarence. It made sense that he was the one who got beat up for a stretch and perhaps we all wonder how life might've been for the man had he been a Koki Kitahara trainee rather than an Ultimo Dragon one. The beginning was a real fun throwback to some of the WAR/Heisei Ishingun brawls of yesteryear, with everyone whomping each other with chairs and getting thrown into groups of spectators and scrapping around ringside. Saito was still a fairly prominent figure in NOAH around this point so he got to look the most dominant of his team, fittingly taking the mantle of meathead crowbar from his trainer and former king of crowbar maniacs Masashi Aoyagi. Orihara has one of the best knockout sells of being punched in the face I've ever seen here. I thought he'd legit had his bell rung at first the way he was struggling to stand, but he never looked properly out of sorts after that or struggled to run any of the spots and sequences that followed. I've seen wrestlers knocked loopy to the point where they forget they're supposed to duck on a clothesline or how to take a flat back bump and just need to be rolled out the ring for a minute. It didn't look like him being in there was a hazard to his own health so I'm chalking it up to him doing something awesome, which he did frequently throughout his career. 

Complete & Accurate Tenryu

Revisiting 90s Joshi #50

Mayumi Ozaki & Carlos Amano v Megumi Kudo & RIE (Dress Up Wild Fight) (JWP, 4/8/97)

I always get a kick out of JWP calling a street fight a dress up wild fight. Like the WWF calling Slaughter v Patterson an alley fight. You just kinda come dressed in street clothes and hit someone until they start bleeding and you won't get disqualified for it. This is only the second dress up wild fight I've seen, as the first one, many years ago now, was an Ozaki v Takako Inoue match that I hated. I've since come around some on Ozaki and I always mostly liked Kudo anyway and this was pretty damn good! It probably didn't need to be nearly half an hour long, but they didn't run out of crazy shit to do and the crowd were with them right until the end. I was expecting a whole lot of brawling in amongst the crowd and women getting thrown into rows of chairs. They didn't really do much of that and when they did it was never the central focus. There was always something happening in the ring, whether it was two of them pairing off and trying to kill each other or one person being left in a heap somewhere while the opponents tried to kill her partner. Ozaki and Kudo are obviously the stars. Big Star and lower-ranked partner v Big Star and lower-ranked partner is a pretty hard dynamic to fuck up and both Big Stars were great here. Kudo was awesome as FMW invader coming in to destroy the young Amano, who for her part leaned all the way into being destroyed. I remember when I first tried venturing into joshi, this would've been about 2006, and going through old forum posts from various places Kudo was someone the hardcore weirdos would lust over and fantasise about her stabbing them in the head and whatnot. Well they'd have loved her in this because her whole demeanour was that of a woman who knew she was the business, and I don't know if she stabbed anyone in the head but she fairly walloped the shit out of them. Her demonic grin when she wrapped a chain around Ozaki's neck and started choking her was truly perfect. They did a lot of gnarly shit with that chain, including Ozaki's payback where she used it to tether Kudo to the ring post by the throat. A bit later Kudo wrapped it once more around Ozaki's neck and chucked her out the ring, leaving her to dangle there while her face turned purple. There was some baseball bat stuff that might've been kind of hokey in theory, but it actually worked on account of how hard they laid it in. Someone taping a ball bat to their forearm and throwing a lariat maybe sounds dumb when they could just, you know, wallop that person with the bat. Why would you go to the trouble of taping that bat around your shin just so you can kick someone in the back of the head when you could always just, like, swing the thing like a normal thug? But you know what? The lariat looked wild and the kick even more so and at a certain point you don't have any choice but to throw your hands up and ponder: "who are we to question the inner workings of the dress up wild fight?" Ozaki about took the jaw off RIE with a vile backfist and her shit-eating grin as Kudo could only arrive seconds too late was also quite perfect. 

Revisiting 90s Joshi #49

Shinobu Kandori v Rumi Kazama (LLPW, 8/29/92)

The main event of the LLPW debut show, and a very WAR-ish one at that. Obviously I thought it ruled. They start out by immediately belting each other in the face, then go into a sort of parity stand-off before Kazama drops to all fours and asks Kandori to wrestle. It was the perfect belligerent response to a stalemate, where Kazama was not only dissatisfied at not having won the previous exchange, but wanted to best Kandori in the next one, even giving her the initiative first. Kandori then waltzed up and punted her clean in the face and I fell out the bed. Not to be outdone Kazama threw about a dozen kicks to Kandori's head and face. A couple of these were putrid and before long the match turned into the perfect joshi approximation of Tenryu v Kitahara. Although I've never seen Tenryu transition from a cross-armbreaker into a cloverleaf with this much ridiculous grace and PROWESS. There were a few suplexes down the stretch that Kandori kicked out of RIGHT at the death and I and every person in the building that night thought Kazama had actually toppled her. In the end it wasn't quite enough, but you can't fault the effort. 

Casas and the Dragon

Negro Casas v Ultimo Dragon (CMLL, 8/29/92)

As a match I don't think this is quite as good as the one from March '93. That match is one of the best lucha title matches of the decade though, so it's a high bar. This one's still excellent, and at the very least it's worth watching for Casas' performance. My god he was sensational here. The primera is a great opening title match fall on its own, with a real sense of struggle and Casas largely on the back foot, working defensively while Ultimo swarms him. All through the Casas/Ultimo rivalry Ultimo would shred Casas with those spin kicks and it didn't take long for him do that here. There was one great bit where they did a pop-up into what would normally be a monkey flip, but Ultimo switched position in mid air and kicked Casas right in the face. Watch how Casas struggles against the German suplex at the end of the fall, trying to push against Ultimo even past the point where he realistically has any chance of stopping it. Belligerent even in the face of inevitability, is Casas. The segunda is where Casas really steals the show, or steals even more of it than he already had. He paints an almost pathetic figure at the start of it, cowering in the corner holding his midsection, zero impetus to actually engage. Ultimo keeps pressing forward where he can, usually with those kicks, but Casas will seek shelter in the ropes or the corner, at one point lying on his side intimating that Ultimo fouled him. It was sort of hilarious. When Ultimo takes him down Casas immediately scrambles to the ropes, wraps his legs around them and clutches his stomach. His selling was unbelievable, not just because it looked like Ultimo's kicks really had done a number on him, but because it felt like he was trying to buy time and frustrate Dragon. When he catches him in the Sharpshooter a couple minutes later you're not sure if it was genius strategy, a huge slice of luck, a huge slice of instinct, or a mixture of all three. Either way he'd evened the score, debilitated as he was, and I liked as well that Ultimo realised he'd be better off submitting quickly than trying to fight it just to suffer more harm in the long run. If you're looking for an epic tercera then you won't find it, but I thought they still concluded the story in a satisfying way. Casas' selling was again phenomenal, taking a bunch of suplexes and selling the midsection like he'd been gut shot, clutching his stomach again after every kick out. Ultimo held him in a bridge after a butterfly suplex and you'd think his appendix had burst, then he just started butting Ultimo in the chest with the back of his head to free himself. Ultimo wouldn't give him a second's reprieve, just like he hadn't from the opening bell. After Ultimo topes him into the seats Casas bides as much time as the ref' will afford him. Ultimo tries to apply a surfboard and Casas will not give up an arm, so Ultimo obviously punches him in the ribs, manages to hook the hold, and Casas rips an arm free and clings to the ropes like a drowning man to a lifebuoy. I could've gone either way on the finish at first, but I came around to liking it pretty quickly. On the one hand it's a total banana peel, but I think it fits with the story. A banana peel was about all Casas could hope for and it was a banana peel he laid himself. He was fucked, hobbled over and ready to puke. He was never likely to muster a proper comeback, but he could rely on his wiles and technique in the clutch. In the end you wouldn't have known he'd actually won. A spectacular performance from the greatest of all time. 

6/3/94

Mitsuharu Misawa v Toshiaki Kawada (All Japan, 6/3/94)

It's pretty cool when you can just rattle off the date of a wrestling match and everyone knows exactly which match you're talking about. In pro wrestling circles, June 3rd 1994 means Misawa v Kawada. I think my last watch of this was around 2006 and 2006 me was certainly into different things in wrestling than 2023 me. There was still plenty about it that I thought was good, some stuff that I thought was great, and nothing I can possibly say about it will offer a fresh perspective on the most talked about match in the history of the internet. Yet talk about it I will, for that is what we do at Whiskey & Wrestling Towers. 

I thought the beginning ruled, the way they played up how familiar they are with each other without it being an obvious reversal routine with 2- and 3- and 4-step dance sequences. Those counters and dodges felt genuinely organic, which is a pretty difficult thing to do in a predetermined nonsense like pro wrestling. Kawada about took Misawa's head off with that spin kick and you're thinking Misawa might not have it all his own way this time. It felt significant in my own 90s All Japan re-watch chronology because the last two matches I watched with Kawada and Misawa opposite each other were the '93 Tag League final and the big rematch from May '94. And in the former Kawada was thoroughly outclassed and in the latter he only fared marginally better. And he lost both of them. After the first exchange Misawa responds quickly with a backdrop and you're maybe reconsidering how close this contest might be, BUT Kawada fires back again and shuts Misawa down, firstly off a whip into the rail, then on Misawa's attempted forearm off the apron. It was cool table-setting. As a whole this felt as even as their rivalry has to this point, largely because of Kawada's aggressiveness. He was a pitbull and you got the sense he knew it was imperative to stay on Misawa, to never give him an opening or a chance to recover. Misawa might've been untouchable as the king at this point but the way he started booting Kawada in the leg was an amazing moment. The fact he even needed to go there was maybe the first real chink in his armour, or at least the first chink Kawada has put in it. Compare that to the '93 Tag League final where Misawa was almost derisory in how he *didn't* touch it despite the fact Kawada was hobbled. I don't think I was aware of Misawa's bad neck the last time I watched this, so that's another cool layer. I don't find either guy particularly compelling at working holds, but those parts weren't extensive and Kawada spent more time using brute force to exploit the neck than working the facelock. 

The striking was absolutely world class, which probably isn't a surprise, and my favourite parts were when they were trying to knock the other's head into the bleachers, which probably isn't a surprise. It may not be as harrowing as Battlarts or FUTEN, but the selling really is top drawer and there's the struggle and the blocking and it all makes every strike exchange feel massive. As pretentious as it might sound, it does feel pretty layered and even NUANCED~ if you know their history. Or as nuanced as two people kicking and elbowing each in the face can be and at the end of the day that's where the bread is buttered. The point where Kawada punched Misawa in the jaw was spectacular, really just a perfect fuck off and die outburst, and then Misawa responding in kind a minute later is one of the best "do you actually know who I am?" moments he's ever had, and he's has a whole lot of those throughout his career. He also hit a rolling elbow to the back of Kawada's head at one point that was sort of disgusting. You don't usually see him lose his temper like that, but there were a couple moments where he clearly did; another being when he just outright stomped on Kawada's face. Kawada's enziguri to the nose, his head kicks in the corner after Misawa's ear had already split open, Misawa's forearm and European uppercut combos - basically there were about two dozen incredible strikes in this match. I thought Kawada was really great at showing desperation the longer it went as well, going back to those strike exchanges even though in the long run he'd never win that particular war. Then there were the momentum shifts and the transitions and how they all had the right amount of selling and WEIGHT around them so it never really felt like they were just trading bombs. Even after all this time, that's something 90s All Japan does better than just about anyone ever has. That reset spot leading to the final stretch with Misawa gathering himself on the floor while Kawada glares at him in unveiled contempt - just a perfect visual. You wonder if Kawada realised then, after hitting those powerbombs and not getting the job done, after knowing he couldn't let Misawa regroup at any point just to see it happen there and then, that maybe it had slipped away from him. And then you've got him feebly trying to fight out of the double underhooks, trying to force Misawa back to the corner, knowing what's coming, only to get put on his neck anyway. I guess this is still okay.

Revisiting 90s Joshi #48

Akira Hokuto v Manami Toyota (AJW, 8/21/93)

This was really good. It had some similarities to the '95 match, with Hokuto working super aggressive in the opening stretch while Toyota would often need to use bursts of offence whenever a ring rope was within touching distance. Early on Toyota gets hung up in the ropes with her leg caught and Hokuto just about bends her in half. She showed zero remorse then or at any point in the match and a couple times that manifested in her taking the mount position and slapping Toyota about the head. The real hook here was Toyota going after Hokuto's knee. Everyone knew Hokuto's knee was a bullseye anyway, but I like how there was an element of payback from Toyota after that spill into the ropes earlier. She even hung Hokuto up in the same tree of woe later and started punching at the kneecap. Some of Toyota's submissions weren't the least bit slick but they all looked mean, and once or twice it meant just grabbing Hokuto's leg and twisting it at ugly angles. I thought Hokuto's selling was great. You expect it to be when Toyota is actively working it over, but even after Toyota stopped properly targeting it Hokuto never let you forget she was pain (I mean, she almost certainly was for real). It wasn't in your face like Randy Savage hobbling around on one leg, it was much more understated, but she's exceptional at emoting and projecting and even a slight limp here and there was enough to do it. We can argue until we're blue in the face about which method is best, or if aiming for "realism" in pro wrestling is even the way to go or whatever, but I thought it was incredibly realistic and about as close to a real sport injury as you could get within the fake nonsense world that we choose to immerse ourselves in. On the flipside of that, Toyota getting stuffed on her head twice on the floor with sick piledrivers and brushing it off completely was a wee bit...questionable? Like I get that piledrivers in Japan are not piledrivers in America or Mexico, but this felt egregious even with that in mind. Still, it didn't kill the match for me or anything, maybe because this is about as high on Toyota as I've been in 15 years. Or ever, probably. I was into the finishing run and a couple of those nearfalls were molten. I can see why folk would go to bat for Hokuto being the best in the world that year. There are some people I prefer for stylistic reasons, but she really was exceptional.

Revisiting 90s Joshi #47

Jaguar Yokota v Lioness Asuka (Jd', 10/22/97)

And here I am once again, wondering if I shouldn't just drop everything else I'm doing to watch every Jaguar Yokota match committed to tape. This wasn't particularly difficult to follow and the roles were about as clearly defined as you could get. Asuka tells her cronies to back away before the first lock up, then when that lock up happens they immediately circle again like hyenas. I thought Jaguar's performance here was pretty great, but strangely subdued at the same time. I'm not a joshi historian by any stretch but if there's a through line from Jaguar to someone like Toyota then the similarities were limited to aesthetics here. Well, that and the willingness to get hammered up and down the place and throw oneself around with abandon. Asuka beat the brakes of her with some of the meanest shit imaginable, wild kicks, reckless throws into chairs, fully launching her from inside the ring to the floor, powerbombs on the floor and powerbombs through tables and powerbombs off of makeshift platforms. On the table spot Asuka piledrove Jaguar through it, took a piece of the broken wood and chucked the thing right at Jaguar's head. Then she picked it up and used the splintered end to stab her in the face. This looked especially crazy because she was almost doing a falling fist drop, only it was a jagged edge of table connecting with Jaguar rather than a fist. Jaguar's selling of it all was great and before long it looked like she was at death's door, crawling around bloodied, struggling to muster much of anything in response. A lot of what she did muster came from counters and nearly all of them were gorgeous, just some of the smoothest roll-ups you'll ever see. She was like prime Santo on that powerbomb sunset flip. I just wish she made a point of expressing herself a little more. I wouldn't say she was working in a vacuum, but there was no real EMOTING, none of the fire in her comebacks I remember from the early 80s stuff. If we're rolling with the Toyota comparison then Toyota would've been screaming like a mad woman, and even if I'm not the biggest Toyota fan I can at least appreciate the intensity. Jaguar was more world's best Dean Malenko here than world's best Tito Santana. Still she made Asuka pay when she managed to properly retaliate, first with the chain-wrapped foot that she fucking drilled Asuka right in the face with, then an amazing moonsault where her knees landed clean across Asuka's midriff. I thought Asuka was about to puke. Asuka having to take greater risks to try and put Jaguar away only for it to backfire, again with a spectacular counter, was a great finish. I should watch their '96 match next. 

A couple Yoshida gems

Mariko Yoshida v Yumi Fukawa (ARSION, 5/8/98)

It feels like I say this every other time I write anything about her, but my god is Mariko Yoshida a force of nature when she really goes after someone. She takes about 80% of this with Fukawa having to claw for every morsel. Fukawa tries a rolling armbar early on and pretty much whiffs it, so Yoshida looks at her in disgust and stomps on her head. My favourite bit of Yoshida matwork here was how she prevented Fukawa from rolling through on a legbar attempt. The first time she went for that legbar Fukawa did roll through and Yoshida couldn't lock it in. When she grabs it again later Fukawa tries to roll through once more, but this time Yoshida sticks a foot out to stop her, then somehow manages to corral Fukawa's other leg in the process. It probably sounds mundane when you're only reading about it, but it's the micro-details like those that separate the good mat workers from the great ones and Yoshida's attention to detail is magic. Some of the grappling exchanges were excellent, especially when Fukawa was able to keep those exchanges relatively even. Towards the end Fukawa manages to actually put Yoshida in trouble, but then Yoshida grabs her in the middle of the ring and is totally relentless in working through several submission attempts until Fukawa finally succumbs to the inevitable. 

Mariko Yoshida v Mikiko Futagami (ARSION, 8/9/98)

What a wonderful wee eight minutes. It's sort of jarring watching this back to back with Yoshida/KAORU from four years earlier. Obviously Yoshida's aesthetic presentation is much different in '98, but stylistically it's almost night and day difference. She was once again a demon on the mat, ripping Futagami into armbars and leglocks. There was nothing about her act that felt like it needed refining or like she was trying stuff to figure out what she wanted to be -- this was final form Yoshida and it's one of the best things ever. Futagami is hardly a slouch on the ground but, similar to their match from May that year, she needed to rely on the strikes if she was to have a chance. She rocked Yoshida initially with a palm thrust, then later connected with two absolutely brutal koppu kicks. The set up to the second one looked a bit ropey at first, like Futagami was on some All Japan fighting spirit juice after taking a German suplex, but I think she was supposed to flip out of it and just undershot the move in the first place. So we may all sleep easy. I've said this a bunch of times as well and it rings true again; Yoshida is probably the best I've ever seen at making you think she's going to submit to a hold. Part of this is the ARSION house style of course. You can buy someone submitting in six minutes in ARSION because of the shoot style elements and that matches are naturally shorter anyway, whereas if it happened in AJW I doubt I'd be buying it six minutes into a match no matter how good an actress she is. But it is what it is and it's hard to be The Ace while selling plausible vulnerability so early in a match. She never goes half-baked on trying to make the ropes and there's always that seed of doubt in your mind that she'll make it. The finish being what it was here just reinforces that things can end quickly in ARSION, and even the spider queen isn't safe. I love this pairing. 

Revisiting 90s Joshi #46

Mariko Yoshida v KAORU (AJW, 8/28/94)

This wasn't perfect. It was rough around the edges and at times they maybe struggled a wee bit to fill the half an hour, but at the very least they went out and worked something different to just about any AJW midcard match of the time (not that I've seen a ton of the 1994 AJW midcard, mind you). Yoshida is returning to action after nearly two years out with a broken neck and it turns into a minor story point throughout. If you'd only seen wrestling from America you'd be shocked that a broken neck isn't the main focus of the match, sort of like how Shawn Michaels came out of retirement after a slipped disc and everyone worked over his back for the next eight years. KAORU hits a couple piledrivers early and Yoshida's selling for the next little while was sublime, the way she'd snap KAORU into a leglock but immediately have to give it up, clutching her neck like the jolt from dropping to the mat had undone two years' worth of rehab. KAORU would go back to it sporadically throughout the match as well, sometimes just to give herself some distance by punching Yoshida in the neck. It worked every time so it would be hard to fault her. Yoshida never brought the same grappling that she would a few years later, it was very different here, much more scrappy and unrefined, but it was also really compelling. It was always gritty if nothing else. Sometimes she'd just grab KAORU's leg and twist it, whereas in ARSION she'd have turned it into something preposterous and beautiful and KAORU would've been scrambling for the ropes. I did love her putting KAORU in a half crab and tearing away her knee strapping, even biting her on the kneecap while the ref' wasn't looking, then she turned it into an STF where the leg was torqued at a putrid angle. Where the match mostly stood out from other AJW stuff was the pacing, which almost felt like a New Japan match at points. They'd go into stalemates and resets, regroup and come back at each other with different strategies. It meant we got a bit of everything, some matwork, some flying, some striking, a few bombs, but I never really thought they were just doing shit to be doing it. Some of the flying was great, especially KAORU's Asai moonsault, and one of Yoshida's topes where she landed all sideways. When it came to the striking they'd often shit-talk each other before throwing brutal slaps. And for the big high impact stuff, Yoshida practically hitting a Ganso Bomb was ludicrous. As the time limit approaches you kind of know what's coming, the bell ringing as Yoshida is pressing to secure a leglock. When they manage to get it restarted Yoshida comes out fast again, but then the neck comes back to haunt her as KAORU just spikes her with a tombstone. Very nifty. 

Revisiting 90s Joshi #45

Lioness Asuka, Eagle Sawai & Shark Tsuchiya v Yasha Kurenai, Mikiko Futagami & Carol Midori (LLPW, 8/15/97)

This was wild as hell. I'd never seen Carol Midori before but her first mistake was thinking she could go at Eagle Sawai head on. She made several more mistakes of that ilk throughout the match and we applaud her dedication to the PUGNACITY. They all pretty quickly found themselves in a pier-sixer around Korakuen Hall and as joshi crowd brawling goes this was pretty good. It was probably the weakest stretch of the match, but that was down to how good everything else was. If nothing else that brawling segment established the hierarchal gap and how little regard the Eagle/Shark/Asuka trio had for their opponents. Asuka must've chucked Midori head-first through twenty chairs, walked away to find someone else to beat on, then changed her mind and went back to inflict more misery on Midori. Yasha Kurenai was amazing here. The first time I ever saw her she was tagging with Kandori against a team from AJW and I thought she played a really fun Great Kabuki to Kandori's Tenryu. This was her in a different role, like the world's greatest Masao Orihara. The legends beat the unholy hell out of her and Kurenai's face in peril performance was legitimately exceptional. Shark carved her up with the sickle and this was some gruesome sickle work, but if you were worried it would be one of THOSE Shark Tsuchiya performances then you needn't have been as after that she focused more on stiffing Kurenai with elbows and lariats to the back of the head. Her and Asuka were amazing shit-talking bullies, the way they'd drag Kurenai's limp carcass over to her corner and hold her hand out, goading Futagami and Midori into reaching out for the tag, only to pull the hand back right at the last second and stomp her in the kidneys. There was one bit where Shark grabbed Kurenai by the hair and it looked like she was going to chuck her into the corner herself, tired of playing with Kurenai and looking for a new toy to chew. I was a wee bit disappointed because they were building serious heat and I wanted Kurenai to earn that comeback, to give us the satisfaction of seeing her retaliate and make the tag on her own terms. It would've meant more. Luckily Shark knew it too because it was all a fake-out and she immediately dragged Kurenai away again by the hair, Futagami and Midori cursing her to hell and back. Eventually she does earn the comeback and I loved how she made a return a few minutes later by whacking people with a stick. They played up the gulf in stature again by how the skinny girls would go for quick double- and triple-teams, really do everything with a sense of urgency, try to isolate one person while walking that tightrope of keeping her partners out the way at the same time. Asuka was almost dismissive of it at first and there was one part where Midori strung off a few moves, only for Asuka to shut her down and look at the crowd like "come on, really??" Eventually they manage to jump Sawai and Eagle was pretty great as a hefty bump machine. Every move they hit on her felt like a mountain climbed, then they tried a triple powerbomb off the turnbuckles only for one of Asuka's lackies to stop it with a kendo stick. It was such a deflating moment because you felt like they were THIS close, but then they come back to that later on and actually hit it for an awesome payoff. Speaking of deflating, Shark casually walking over and breaking up what looked like the winning pinfall with a stomp to the back was a perfect bitch move. You felt like that was it for the underdogs, they'd come close but just missed their chance, all because they took their eye off the ball and let this ghoul waltz over and ruin everything. That the match went another few minutes after that and they just kept adding layers onto the finishing stretch really speaks to how well everything came together. What a sensational bit of madness. 

Revisiting 90s Joshi #44

Megumi Kudo v Combat Toyoda (No Rope Exploding Barbed Wire Deathmatch) (FMW, 5/5/96)

I'm repeating what folk have been saying about this for years, repeating what I've said about it myself in the past, but this really is all about the way they build anticipation for the big barbed wire spots. I'm not shitting on your crazy deathmatches with gallons of blood and light tubes and psychotic barbed wire bumps or whatever. I don't think the great sport of professional wrestling is above such grody shenanigans and there have been plenty of those piss-and-guts deathmatches that I've gotten a kick out of. But this was less about the gratuitous violence and more about the THREAT of it; the obvious and inherent peril of wrestling a match surrounded by barbed wire, that threat always lurking in the background. The ambience from the start is quite remarkable, with the open air arena, Kudo's hair blowing in the wind like a slow-motion shot before a big battle scene, Toyoda just as menacing in the last match of her career as she was in her prime. They work this more like the Lawler/Mantel barbed wire match, or those early FMW matches with Onita and Goto against a pair of karatekas. Even being in proximity of the wire felt dangerous here, obviously because of how they sold it and brought that danger to life. Engaging in a collar-and-elbow tie-up close to the wire had the woman with her back to it wary. They made those tie-ups feel extra meaningful, gave jockeying for position a sense of GRAVITY and whatnot. I loved the way Kudo would immediately drop to the mat when Toyoda whipped her towards the wire. She was like a quarterback who's forced out the pocket having to slide before getting obliterated by a pass rusher, or in this case exploding barbed wire. They took hitting the ropes, something they'd do probably every day in training, something they'd do in every regular wrestling match, something almost second nature, and made of it a thing that had to be avoided at all costs. The way they sold the process of acclimatising to that was really cool, at one point with Kudo turning to gather momentum for a big strike only to realise she couldn't use the ropes to do it, the crowd responding with a gasp followed by a sense of relief. There were some other cool moments of hesitancy as well, like when Toyoda would drop Kudo with a slam or elbow but wouldn't really follow up because Kudo was so close to the ring edge, and by extension the barbed wire. To be honest a couple of those examples looked like they came from the wrestlers not being completely on the same page and it led to a brief pause, but intentional STORYTELLING~ or otherwise it worked. Then of course came the big exploding wire bumps themselves. The three individual bumps came off huge, even Kudo's second one despite the explosion not actually going off, the way she remained stuck to it for a few seconds longer, really letting the visual sink in. The shots of Onita in the crowd are all brilliant and then we get the double wire bump - which looked fucking insane - and Onita has his head in his hands completely beside himself. Even as they run through those final few powerbombs and suplexes they sell the toll of what the wire has done to them, and there's one close-up of Toyoda's arm with a nasty, nasty gash down her biceps. And then even after literal explosions, the craziest thing to happen is Kudo powerbombing Toyoda square on her head.

Building to Estrada v Satanico!

Jerry Estrada, Pirata Morgan & Emilio Charles Jr. v Satanico, Atlantis & Villano III (CMLL, 3/16/90)

This was here to set up the Jerry Estrada/Satanico hair match, and to that end it fairly did the trick. I hadn't forgotten how good Satanico was, but if I had then this would've been a timely reminder. One thing about Satanico is that he'll never let you forget you're watching a contest, or in this case a fight. He always captures a sense of struggle. The primera here was a rudo domination, but Satanico was never content to just let them get their licks in with impunity. I've seen even the best luchadores go through the motions in trios matches, content to let the heat build until it was their turn to make the tecnico comeback or start the rudo beatdown. Satanico makes you earn everything. He's always firing back and if you hang around too long gloating or playing to the crowd or messing about setting up a double team he will punch you in the neck. He threw a number of punches to the neck in that first fall, even dragging Estrada to the mat by the throat before Morgan and Emilio swarmed him. When the tecnicos do make their comeback they fight fire with fire, but before long they drag things back on track and actually turn it into a wrestling match. It works, and so the tercera begins with the rudos trying to instigate another brawl. Estrada throws Satanico head-first into the turnbuckle bolt and the camera shot really captures how wildly Satanico hits this thing, just no hands totally unprotected. There were some awesome exchanges in that third caida, particularly when things settled down a bit. Villano hits Emilio with an AMAZING punch flurry, Atlantis reels off a sort of flip powerbomb on Pirata Morgan before following up a dropkick and springboard moonsault, then Emilio takes a running corner bump that was somewhere between a Jerry Estrada special and a missed bronco buster. It always comes back to Estrada and Satanico though, usually with Estrada backing away until he knows his teammates are there to bail him out when Satanico - inevitably - turns up the aggression. Satanico hits two bulldogs in this that are as good as any bulldogs you'll ever see, like he's trying to ram Estrada's face through the canvas. Pirata Morgan was more of a background piece here but he showed how valuable that could be in a match like this. He didn't take up much of the spotlight, yet when he did he made the tecnicos, especially Atlantis, look dynamite. He'd never hesitate to cheapshot or throw pot shots when they couldn't see it coming, he'd beg off and plead for a reprieve when they'd retaliate, and obviously he'd bump big because he's still Pirata Morgan in any situation. 

1990 CMLL Project

Revisiting 90s Joshi #43

Manami Toyota v Yumiko Hotta (AJW, 9/3/95)

I don't know if I preferred this to Toyota/Hokuto from the previous day, but they're right about the same level and if nothing else the Hokuto match accentuates Toyota's performance here. I thought she was pretty awesome in this. I don't even want to beat the dead horse that is Manami Toyota's in-ring stylistic preferences -- she is who she is and you know what you're getting. But there were very few of her hallmarks from an offensive standpoint present in this, largely because she spent the majority of the match selling. I guess the other dead horse is her refusal to bother with long-term selling and I won't be going near that either, but one thing I've always thought Toyota was good at is the selling of damage in the moment. She's mad as a brush and will take absurd amounts of punishment and she makes all of it look devastating as it's actually happening. She did all of that here and that was probably 90% of her performance. Her in-the-moment selling was basically one and the same as her long-term selling because Hotta just spent the whole match kicking the living shit out of her. She never had a chance to blow off any selling in favour of running around doing a dozen springboards. Toyota's offensive bursts were explosive as always, but they were few and far between and, regardless of whether it was a conscious decision on her part or not (I'd imagine it was), it felt like the war with Hokuto had taken a major toll. Obviously Hotta was a wrecking ball. In a role reversal from Toyota/Hokuto it was Hotta who jumped Toyota at the bell, blitzed her with kicks, and after about 30 seconds Toyota was crumpled in the corner. The match dynamic wasn't even all that different from the Hokuto match, at least not in the first 10 minutes. In a mirror from the previous night the first bit of Toyota offence was a missile dropkick to the floor, but Hotta looked the fresher - probably because she was coming off a 15-minute match with Reggie Bennett and not 25 minutes of hell with the Dangerous Queen - and she was back rifling kicks before long. Even if you knew Toyota could turn a simple Irish whip into a counter attack she never had the same opportunity to do it as she did against Hokuto, again because Hotta never really bothered throwing her into the ropes. I mean, why would she? She didn't need to when Toyota spent half the time on the mat ripe for the kicking. There was one point where Toyota stood up groggy and Hotta just thumped her in the kneecap with a wholly unnecessary roundhouse. When Toyota could muster something in return she got extra belligerent, even tying Hotta up in the ropes and kicking her repeatedly in the face. I can generally do without the table spots, but I did like how Hotta stuffed Toyota dead on the splash attempt. Hotta also didn't share Hokuto's compulsion to pay Toyota in kind and I like how she immediately rolled her back in the ring and went back to business. I thought the build to Toyota hitting the Ocean Cyclone was really good, first with Hotta escaping each attempt, then the first one not landing perfectly (whether it was intentional or not I don't know), before finally hitting the second one after a bit of quick thinking. Down the stretch you got the sense she absolutely needed to hit that or she was done, because as desperate as she was in going for covers after every move it didn't look like Hotta was for staying down. I guess there was some excess towards the end and Hotta feeding Toyota her arms on the final pin was goofy, but they're minor quibbles. This is probably one of the career matches for both women. 

Revisiting 90s Joshi #42

Manami Toyota v Akira Hokuto (AJW, 9/2/95)

The first 10 minutes of this are as good as anything I've seen in ages. Even the entrances are great, with Hokuto coming out in a black wedding dress and veil, while Toyota is kitted out in her white robe. Maybe a little on the nose, but it felt pretty obvious what they were going for. Initially I thought it was Hokuto who jumped Toyota before the bell, but upon closer inspection she never tried to start a thing. It was Toyota who flung off the robe, turned and ran over to blindside Hokuto with a dropkick. Hokuto moving and Toyota basically taking a Hamrick bump to the floor before eating a somersault senton, with Hokuto still in the black dress, was a great way to start. It pretty much set the table for the next 20+ minutes. Toyota is certifiable and her whole strategy was built around flinging herself at Hokuto with as much force as possible from as great a height as possible. Springboards, dropkicks, moonsaults, everything. Hokuto responding by stretching her to hell and basically savaging her was the perfect response. Toyota popping up from that first backdrop probably would've annoyed me ten years ago, but I think at this point I better understand Manami Toyota; the character, the person. Her style and approach will probably never be my favourite, but I can at least appreciate that her pain threshold is ridiculous. She landed flat on her back off that missile dropkick to the floor and got right back up, so if she's willing to put HERSELF through that sort of shit then I can buy an opponent having to go above and beyond against her. I thought the transitions during those first 10 minutes were basically all great, from Toyota hitting her first in-ring springboard and following up with one of the nastiest dropkicks ever, to Hokuto putting Toyota clean on her head with this ugly reverse powerslam thing. With Toyota you almost have to be wary of even whipping her into the ropes, such is her desire to propel herself off of them and back into your face. So Hokuto grounding her with a disgusting bow-and-arrow and Sharpshooter ruled. Everything had a real sense of enmity, even the way Toyota would twist a handful of Hokuto's hair - it was like an arm-wringer to the ponytail - before chucking her across the ring. They didn't exactly lose me around the midpoint but I thought the match took a bit of a dip when they went into trading finishers for a minute or two. Considering the transitions and build had been A+ up to that point it was a noticeable drop off. They moved past that quickly enough though, and the build to the actual finish from there was really good. The escalation worked for me and I was surprised to find that so did the stuff with the table. It felt like it happened fairly organically, at least in that, as we've established, Toyota is a fucking nutcase. If I buy anybody resorting to putting someone through an unbreakable table because nothing else works, I buy Toyota. Not a chance Hokuto was taking that and not dishing out a receipt so I had no issue with her retaliating. Plus the actual spots themselves looked brutal. I know some folk think this is a spotty match, or even an outright spotfest. I don't really see it that way, but the pro wrestling is a matter of perspective and I don't feel strongly enough to argue. What I absolutely disagree with is that there was no selling towards the end, or that Toyota in particular wasn't selling. I suppose you could question how she was the first one to hit any offence after the last table spot when she's the one who was actually on table, but Hokuto clearly sold it like the senton nearly crippled her as well. They both crawl in the ring and Toyota, in her physical prime with inhuman resilience, happened to get up half a second earlier than Hokuto. So she spikes her because that's about all she has left. I mean, the last couple minutes of the match were basically all selling with two moves. I have no real personal attachment to either of these women so I'm not going to bat for favourites or whatever. If anything I've seen enough Toyota where I wish she'd sell more that this didn't feel like it was even in the same ballpark. Either way this was pretty awesome. 

Lawler & Dutch v Bill & Buddy!

Jerry Lawler & Dutch Mantel v Bill Dundee & Buddy Landell (Memphis, 3/10/86)

This is another Memphis match I hadn't watched since the DVDVR project. I had it as the 11th best Memphis match of the 80s back then and I'm wondering if even that was lowballing it, because this is some premium Memphis insanity. Dundee was a fucking wildman, running around irate, picking fights with Lance Russell and Randy Hales and fans and everyone else. Clearly Lawler being back in town didn't sit well with him. People are obviously going nuts and Dundee shouts at Lance to tell them to shut up and Lance responds with "how am I gonna tell them to be quiet, Bill?!" He'll also randomly drop off the apron and shout something down the house mic or pick up a chair and fling it in the ring, flip a table, grab one of those metal rods and start swinging it. The word I'd use is unpredictable and unpredictable men can be the most dangerous. The call-backs to the Lawler/Dundee Loser Leaves Town from December were great, with Lawler making a point of punching Bill right in the eye and ramming him into posts and tables. Initially it was more traditional babyface shine and Dundee and Landell were stooging and pinballing everywhere. That was great because they're awesome pinballs and who's going to provide better punches to pinball off of than Lawler and Mantel? But then Dundee gets cut open above the eye and there's nothing light-hearted about Lawler exacting this particular brand of revenge. He was even biting the cut at one point and I don't remember too many occasions where the King resorted to that. Dundee taking over by just punting Lawler in the balls and nailing him with a chain-wrapped fist was the perfect sort of desperate transition for what had come before. Dundee somehow gets even more maniacal after that and chokes Lawler with the safety rope, and I loved how when Mantel came around to stop it Dundee just booted him in the balls as well! Lance was mid-sentence about Dundee ripping Lawler with a punch and Dundee spun around, flipped the table causing Lance to scatter, and then he flung Lawler face-first into it, an amazing payback from when Lawler did the exact same thing to him back in December. I loved the way they worked the big comeback. Usually you'd get the tried and true hot tag with Mantel coming in to clean house, but this was all about Lawler and Dundee. Lawler is bleeding and absorbing shots, clearly ready to drop the strap and go bonkers, so Landell comes in and grabs him. Mantel jumps in to even things up but Calhoun puts him back out, and while this is happening Dundee wraps a chain around his fist again, goes for the big home run shot on Lawler, but Lawler ducks and Bill cracks Buddy. Landell is covered in blood and from there it's basically one long festival of babyface punches until Calhoun calls for the blood stoppage. Dundee was so great down that last stretch, repeatedly getting clocked by Mantel or thrown out the ring just to get back up, run face first into another punch, get chucked out, bounce up, go again, fully driven by instinct. Memphis was the very best. 

Some VINTAGE Pirata Morgan

Pirata Morgan v Volador (Monterrey, 1991)

Another blood-soaked Pirata Morgan classic. This wasn't an apuestas match, it was mano a mano, but it was worked like an apuestas and I'm convinced that just about any Pirata Morgan apuestas from around this period is worth watching. One of the knocks on Morgan is that his peak was fairly short and he kind of fell off a cliff after '92, with only smatterings of top drawer stuff after that. I don't know if I'd even disagree with that to be honest, but I've watched a goodly amount of our one-eyed Pirate recently and I'll tell you one thing, Pirata Morgan from about 1988 to 1992 is one of the best wrestlers on earth. He was a total savage in this, jumping Volador at the bell and ramming him into the post, ripping open his mask and lapping up the freely-flowing blood. People were losing their minds for Will Ospreay licking Omega's blood off his arm last weekend and that was very nice and all, but Pirata Morgan licking a handful of Volador's blood before guzzling it straight from the wound and spraying it in the air is really the peak of disgusting ghoul behaviour. Some of the ref' intervention in the primera was a little overbearing, but this is Monterrey and heel ref' shtick is par for the course. I thought Morgan was great at pouncing on Volador's indecision though, often by punching and booting him in the kidneys. And to be fair, Morgan outright cracking the ref' with an accidental punch to set up the Volador comeback made for an awesome payoff. And the longer it goes the more walls come crashing down around Morgan. First it was that shot to the ref', then Misterioso, Morgan's second, tries to interject, only to get clocked by Pirata himself. Volador's blood loss selling was really great and by the end of the tercera you've got him stumbling around with half a mask and Pirata Morgan spewing blood from his scarred eye socket like a freak. The big Volador dive is a real corker, and in very un-Monterrey fashion we actually get a clean, satisfying finish with no horse shit. This was awesome. 

Lawler v Dundee - an eye for a...haircut???

Jerry Lawler v Bill Dundee (Lawler's Title v Dundee's Hair, Loser Leaves Town) (Memphis, 12/30/85)

I actually hadn't watched this since the DVDVR Memphis project, which was a whole ass 15 fucking years ago now. It was my #1 during the vote for that and at one point I would've called it the best match to ever happen in the US. I've watched a whole lot of a whole lot these last 15 years and sometimes a re-watch will bump a match down a peg, the lustre of that first watch worn away, the participants no longer the new discoveries they were in 2008. 

Or, you know, sometimes I should just shut the fuck up. Because this really is the pro wrestling.

What a pair on unbelievable performances, possibly (probably?) the career best from both, and the bar on that is HIGH. Dundee's onslaught in the first half is absolutely incredible stuff. Maybe the best punches ever, but everything else he did looked sensational as well. The way he fuckin headbutted Lawler in the face as a cut-off was amazing, he was throwing sharp elbows, booting him right in the face, hitting top rope fist drops, and all of it was zeroed in on Lawler's eye. He was ducking and dodging, circling a half-blind Lawler, peppering him over and over, the perfect shark smelling blood in the water. Then he'd showboat and strut and at one point made the finger gun gesture and pulled the "trigger" as Lawler was lying flat on his back. It might be the greatest heat segment ever and it almost resembled the first fall of a bloody lucha apestas match, where the tecnico essentially gets nothing. Lawler's selling was of course spectacular. It might not just be HIS greatest sell job, but the greatest sell job of anyone ever. The way he was staggering around throwing wild misses, absorbing shots from the literal blind side, taking punches while falling, trying and failing miserably to get a foothold, it was basically perfect. I think he got two punches in during that first 10 minutes and one was an absolute corker from a kneeling position, but not nearly enough to swing the tide. 

Obviously the clip in the middle is infuriating, but the saving grace is the TV highlight package they play at the end, which allows us to fill in some of the blanks and at least piece together where they went narratively. We see Dundee getting more and more frustrated, even going for the top rope whoopie cushion. Then we see how Lawler managed to drag himself back into the fight, fittingly with the piledriver. Plus, while it sucks that we missed a Lawler comeback, when we join the action again he still has the strap up, so we sleep well in the knowledge that we never missed THE Lawler comeback. Dundee getting yeeted face-first into that table was fucking amazing and then they end up on the stairs after Dundee tries to hightail it with his wife. He sensed that he'd missed his chance to put Lawler away, so rather than risk losing his AND his wife's hair he'd just get in the car and drive until Tennessee was in the rear view. Lawler taking that bump over the rail was total Puerto Rico, the sort of thing where you're thinking "he won't actually take a bump off that" and then he fucking does take a bump off it! Dundee basically pleading with Calhoun to count Lawler out while Lawler stumbles back to the ring was a great moment, and I love Dundee hitting a desperation baseball slide dropkick just as Lawler is crawling back in the ring. Then they build to the comeback of all comebacks and the last couple minutes are off the charts. Lance, as he very often does, puts it perfectly on commentary, saying that they're just trying to annihilate each other. Even if you think the finish is a bit of an anti-climax given everything else they'd unleashed on each other, I still love the idea that Dundee brought it home by throwing something in that bad eye. 

I remember watching all of this stuff for the first time during the Memphis project. Going through that footage is maybe the most fun I've ever had watching wrestling, properly deep-diving a new territory and seeing how great people like Lawler, Dundee and Mantel were, listening to Lance Russell narrate it all and knowing after a disc and a half that he was the greatest to ever do it. With that comes a sort of nostalgia and sometimes with the nostalgia comes rose-tinted memories. Unless you count the blood in Lawler's eye there was nothing rose-tinted about my memories of this. It holds up as one of the best matches there's ever been, and a real strong contender for match of the decade.