Maybe it's time to once again go through the entire Fujiwara/Super Tiger series

Yoshiaki Fujiwara & Akira Maeda v Super Tiger & Nobuhiko Takada (UWF, 7/23/84)

What a pairing Fujiwara/Super Tiger is. You know, just in case you'd forgotten. I don't even remember the last time I watched an original UWF tag, but this was badass as fuck and Fujiwara was sublime from start to finish. It's closer to what these four would've done in New Japan around this point than your classic shoot style, but Fujiwara is one of the best pro style wrestlers ever AND one of the best shoot style wrestlers ever so you're not surprised that he can straddle the line between both worlds, even with shoot style very much still in its formative phase. He tried to cave Tiger's skull in with those headbutts, which is really one of the best parts of the Fujiwara/Super Tiger rivalry. It was his selling that stood out more than anything else, though. He made Sayama look like the most dangerous man alive with how he ate and sold those kicks. It didn't hurt - well, it didn't hurt US - that those strikes were as good as they've ever been. Sayama actually looked phenomenal in this, agile and quick and dynamic as ever, but everything was laid in with more force than it had been in the past. This wasn't about the snappy pirouette on his rolling hammerlock, this was about him spin kicking someone in the guts as hard as possible. His one backflip kick looked like the death blow in a martial arts film and then he about fucking kneedropped Fujiwara's head through the canvas, which is another staple of their rivalry. His diving headbutt looked sensational and it came after a hellish tombstone. Fujiwara/Takada was fun as well and I'll always pop for the spot where Fujiwara and an opponent trade snapmares to get out of being choked to death with a chinlock. Maeda was maybe a wee bit low key in this, but I don't say that to knock him. He let Fujiwara and Tiger drive things and if nothing else that set the table for those two trying to kill each other several times over the next year. I guess it's time I watch every one of their matches together all over again.

Tenryu Lost His Bride to the Finest Man She Claims to have Ever Known. When She Got to the Parking Lot, His Knees were Already Blown

Genichiro Tenryu v Stan Hansen (All Japan, 9/11/87) - GREAT

This was on the DVDVR All Japan 80s set under a different (I guess incorrect) date. At the time I wrote that it had a nice opening and a fun post-match but the rest of it was disappointing. Almost 13 years later I would agree with the first two parts but disagree with the rest of it being disappointing. What can I say, sometimes I get it wrong. I've always tried to avoid retreading ground on this here nonsense blog and writing about the same match twice, but when I miss like this I feel it only RIGHT and JUST that I offer a new perspective. I'm sure all 12 of you are absolutely buzzing. Anyhow, the start really was awesome. Hansen was a terror and riled up about something on the night, swinging a chair at a reporter on one side then storming across the way and hurling another chair at someone in the crowd. These All Japan crowds knew better than to hang around when Hansen was on one and you better believe Stan gave them cause to scatter. When the match starts properly they smack each other dead in the face inside three seconds. This was surliness of the highest order and I love how Hansen would almost stare in astonishment at someone slapping him before cracking Tenryu in the ear with a wild palm strike. Hansen's piledriver is a thing both beautiful and terrifying, stumbling backwards as he hits the mat while Tenryu lands almost side on. How he was able to move his fingers after it is anybody's guess. Tenryu was more intent on treating this like an actual wrestling match and would go after Hansen's arm to neutralise the lariat. Hansen was interested in none of that and every chance he got he'd throw Tenryu to the floor and whip him into the barricade or throw furniture at him. At one point he just chucked a full table on top of Tenryu's semi-conscious body. It's strange watching Tenryu work a slow cross-armbreaker to not much reaction given that over in New Japan even a hint of that move being applied would result in nuclear heat. Eventually Hansen realises his strategy might not be the best strategy and fights fire with fire by going after Tenryu's arm. This still meant taking it to the floor at points, but rather than haphazardly throwing things or rushing Tenryu he'd take his arm and wrap it around the metal railing. Tenryu making his comeback with a desperation dropkick ruled and I've never bought him winning with the top rope elbow more than I did here. Even the double count-out wasn't deflating on account of them trying to maul each other and Hansen smashing Tenryu's head into the floor. 

Genichiro Tenryu & Yoji Anjoh v Koki Kitahara & Arashi (All Japan, 1/14/02) - SKIPPABLE

There wasn't a lot to this, which is a shame when you consider the astronomical levels of shithousery you could be getting from a Tenryu/Anjoh team in 2002. Tenryu was the grumpiest bastard on the planet that year and he was damn near affable in this! Anjoh never pouted and pranced around like a goofball or kicked anyone in the willy even once! The Kitahara stuff was good, at least. If Tenryu was in an uncharacteristically good mood then Kitahara tried to snap him out of it by kicking him in the sternum a dozen times. In the end Arashi bit the bullet after a couple mid-level lariats and I think even the crowd were expecting a bigger finish. 

Complete & Accurate Tenryu

Tenryu's Got a Batmobile so He Can Reach Ya' in a Fast Shake, When Your World's in Crisis of an Impending Heartbreak

Genichiro Tenryu, Takashi Ishikawa & Ashura Hara v Ric Flair, Earthquake & Typhoon (SWS, 4/16/92) - GOOD

This is setting up the Flair/Tenryu match the following night and it's a fun, sort of low key, lead-in tag that easily could've played in America. Flair spends half of the match shit-stirring and riling up Tenryu while refusing to actually engage physically with him. Tenryu is obviously annoyed and wants to FIGHT but Flair immediately tags in one of the Disasters before they need to lock up. Flair will scrap with Ishikawa and Hara, then Tenryu will make a quick tag and Flair will casually tag out, but not so casually that you're fooled into believing his reasoning stops at just antagonism. Earthquake and Hara have a fun beefy boy tussle and Earthquake really does have world class weeble-wobble selling. Hara absolutely clobbers him with a clothesline at one point and Earthquake's shoulderblock could've killed a moose. I don't know if I've ever seen the Flair/Tenryu matches from '92, but their All Japan match from '84 is not good and the exchanges here weren't really the greatest. They did have a couple great moments though, then Tenryu missed his leaping back elbow and Flair scurried to tag Typhoon who squashed Tenryu with a big running splash. I was a little surprised they opted for Tenryu in peril, but they did and wouldn't you know it but it worked. The finish was maybe a wee bit too intricate for a ring with this many guys not exactly known for their finesse, but if nothing else I'm interested in seeing the Flair/Tenryu match from the next night, at least on the off chance they light each other up like they did once or twice here. I would be willing to lay down a wee bitta cash that those two perhaps throw some chops at the very least.

Complete & Accurate Tenryu

Some Mid-South Coliseum CHAOS!

Tommy Rich & Eddie Gilbert v Pretty Young Things (Falls Count Anywhere) (Memphis, 5/14/84)

I hadn't watched this since the DVDVR Memphis project in 2008. If it even made the set anyway. I'm guessing it did because it's probably a top 20 Memphis match of the decade. The first half is more of a traditional tag match than a full scale riot, but there are still moments where it spills to the floor and things get wild, like when Koko punches Eddie Gilbert in the willy. Koko smashes a piece of wood over Gilbert's neck and then later uses half of it to stab him in the throat! Gilbert is on the canvas trying to get up and Koko is just fucking obliterating him with some of the greatest punches you've ever seen. At least two people got heaved over the announce table and metal rods are used as weapons and Eddie Gilbert uses the steps as a trampette to fling himself at Koko. The back half turns into a FULL free-for-all rather than just a partial one and they all brawl around ringside and up the stands and then eventually the Mid-South Coliseum stage. Rich and Norvell Austin make it up there first while Gilbert and Koko fight in the bleachers and Koko takes a Puerto Rico-style bump over one of the safety railings. He was like 18 feet in the fuckin air! Or at least six. Gilbert fully torpedoing himself at Koko's nuts with a diving headbutt was some phenomenal revenge and then he just chucks him off the stage. Norvell tries to piledrive Rich and the people react like a legit murder is about to occur and when Rich reverses it the place erupts. And then Rich throws Austin off the stage as well. You don't even care so much that the match gets thrown out in the end, particularly because Jerry Calhoun got clobbered often enough that he probably wouldn't have been able to count a fall anyway. I'd have thrown the thing out too, Jerry. This was tremendous. 

I'm trying to watch some random stuff

I moved from Scotland to Texas for a new job a few months ago and I haven't had time to watch much of anything since then. I've tried to set aside an hour here and there over the last week to throw on some randomness and this is what I came up with. I might even have time next week to do the same.

Dick Murdoch v Vladimir Berkovich (New Japan, 8/5/89)

This was Murdoch working a New Japan house show against a Russian grappler like it was in front of 3,000 people from Central Missouri in 1982, and I mean that in the best way possible. However many questions we may have about Dick Murdoch's background - and there are many - I don't think we'd ever conclude that he had one in MMA (or a singular martial art for that matter), so it's kind of amusing seeing him sell the cross-armbreaker like a regular pro wrestling armbar. I think the crowd cottoned onto it as well because there wasn't the same buzz when Berkovich grabbed it like there would've been if that was one of the natives in there. They knew this was a different sort of match, one maybe outside the stylistic box that they'd come to expect in 1989. Maybe a bit of a THROWBACK~, if you like. Berkovich goes after that arm a few times so Murdoch goes after the leg in response, which made for a nice enough dynamic over seven minutes. The build to the first time Murdoch connects with an elbow to the knee is perfect, then the reaction for him throwing his first punch to the face is even better. I wasn't even really paying attention to how he milked those moments, but he got tetchy with the other Russians in Berkovich's corner and he was always on the cusp on clocking someone and then he did. He knew how to get the exact response from the crowd that he wanted. I don't think they gave a shit that he didn't know jiu-jitsu.   

Kazunari Murakami v Kensuke Sasaki (Big Mouth Loud, 3/22/06)

About as good as you'll get for three and a half minutes. This was Murakami making deranged faces while getting hit very hard. It wasn't your usual dick-swinging tough guy nonsense - Murakami absorbed the blows as well as he could, but he didn't shrug them off so he could hit back and then stand around just to be hit again in return. He took the shots and tried to fight through them because he's a psychopath, but Sasaki just clobbered him over and over until he couldn't stand up again. Sasaki didn't wait for Murakami to hit HIM. He just saw that Murakami wasn't going down and so he did what any other angry man built like a tree would do and he fuckin hit him again. Some of the Sasaki lariats were damn near decapitations and then he chopped Murakami in the back of the head and it was repulsive. Murakami punched Sasaki in the face like he punches everyone in the face, then the ref' got in his ear and Murakami had to argue because he couldn't help himself and Sasaki flattened him. Sometimes you only need three and a half minutes.  

Young Bucks & Kenny Omega v Lucha Brothers & Pac (Ladder Match) (AEW Dynamite, 1/11/23)

I'm not really sure what possessed me to watch this. I don't like any of these guys and I can't stand four of them. There's pretty much nothing about watching a ladder match that excites me in the year 2024 and that's even with people I do like. And yet I watched it anyway and thought it was perfectly fine. At 17 minutes it never got totally stupid, they worked at a quick pace and ran through their moments one after another, but nothing felt overly contrived because they never really slowed down enough to set up anything too ridiculous. There was a hunner thousand superkicks but they all looked more like Chris Adams superkicks rather than Jey Uso superkicks so why not I guess. They mentioned on commentary that Omega was beat to shit and jetlagged to hell and I actually bought it because of how he worked, maybe to the point where those things were actually true? I mean, he's been legit dinged up for a while, right? I don't know, he obviously did some big time moves and flipped through a table and hit a fucking outrageous One Winged Angel off a propped up ladder, but I thought he sold the TOLL of everything well. Also loved him getting his fingers crushed between a ladder when Pac stepped on it, and he sold his ribs pretty well towards the end without being hammy about it. Matt Jackson hit a running Canadian Destroyer that might've been the most not-stupid Canadian Destroyer I've ever seen and the other one obliterated his hamstrings on a flip ladder bump and I think the Young Bucks are dreadful but credit where it's fuckin due and all that. Pac hitting Omega's fingers with a hammer was also hilarious. The BASTARD~. Pro wrestling, what a nonsense.