Man, the intros to these RINGS shows are the greatest. This one has an English voice over laying out the card with similar graphics to those the WWF would use for early Survivor Series PPVs where McMahon would yell out the teams. "Joining the Warlord are Power and Glory, and captained by Rick Martel, IT'S THE VISIONARIES!" Those PPV intros were a substantial part of my childhood. I was a peculiar six year old.
Mitsuya Nagai v Herman Renting
One of the coolest things about a project like this, where you basically follow a promotion from its inception through to its closure with all the peaks and valleys in between (you know, hypothetically), is that you get to see the progression and growth of certain folk during the journey. Case in point: these two. In their first match they were fairly tentative, acclimatising themselves to this new and bizarre world of the shoot style, and it made for a fairly garden variety scrap between two young fellas finding their feet. Both are just far more assured this time out, their kicks thrown with a little extra whip, those kicks landing with a little extra leather. Combos are faster, the cooperation aspect more negligible, as if testing to see how well the other might react, pushing the boundaries of how much of the shoot-fightin' one can get away with in the fake-shootin'. Things started to get real chippy and Renting was taunting Nagai by brushing his shoulder off and asking if that was his best shot. Of course we see signs of reckless crowbar Nagai in response as he tries to full force Wanderlei punt Renting in the head as he's lying prostrate on the canvas and I'll be damned but at some point I had to stop and ask myself if this wasn't pretty fucking awesome. And you know what, I really think it might've been! I was practically in shock a few times at what they were doing. I mean it wasn't Tamura/Han matwork or world class striking, but it was so far above what they had done before (all of that one fight together that time) that I couldn't quite believe it. Renting was super persistent with his takedowns and Nagai was having to exert a ton of energy in not just preventing them, but in escaping if prevention failed. He got dumped on his neck for a knockdown and later Renting - I'm honestly not bullshitting you - hit one of the coolest German suplexes/throws I've seen. Often when they'd be stood up they'd waste no time at all in going back to the striking and Nagai even sprinted across the ring and tried a flying knee! He also drilled Renting with an unbelievable enziguri that legit had me off the couch. I had no idea Renting had this in him. Just a total blast.
Willie Peeters v Bert Kops Jr.
Hot damn this was really fun as well. We're getting the niggliness on this show, brothers! Kops is unfamiliar to me and a google search doesn't turn up much of anything, but I'll go out on a limb and say he's a wrestler who's maybe dabbled in a wee bit of the kickboxing. He has some awesome throws, really torquing the hips and getting some angles on them as Peeters sails helplessly through the air. Unfortunately he can't really seem to do much once he gets to the ground and Peeters is usually able to wriggle free, so I'm left to question how much of the wrestling Bert really does (more than me, I'd wager). It leads to things being a little stop-start at points with the ref' standing them back up. Peeters continues to be a favourite of mine. He's a kickboxer who wants little to do with being on the mat. If he can avoid being there he will and his first plan of action is to stand and strike, though he is able to take Kops down a few times himself when pressed (he has the wrestling background and such). He also has a sort of Murakami-ness about him where it looks like he maybe never quite figured out how to pull his strikes and so he smacks Kops really hard with closed fists. I'm not sure he ever cared about that closed fist rule the whole time he was in RINGS. Same goes for the striking a downed opponent rule because he did that a bunch as well. There was one amazing bit where Kops took him over with a German suplex but Peeters immediately rolled back to his feet and cracked him with an uppercut. Post-fight Peeters is asked about his key to victory and he answers with, "I think the knee to the face. Thank you." How can you not love this guy?
Dick Vrij v Ton von Maurik
Cagey start to to this one as Von Maurik - perhaps sensibly after Vrij's recent slaying of Maeda - appears to be reluctant to engage. Then again Vrij doesn't seem too eager, either. And so it goes for about two and a half rounds (this is seven three-minute rounds, btw) with the highlight being Vrij dickishly mussing Von Maurik's hair. Von Maurik isn't very good nor convincing and that's kind of the killer in this. Vrij is coasting in his own right but you at least get the sense he could break out and finish it whenever he wanted. That it went nearly six rounds and didn't even end with a brutal KO does not amuse Dana White. It actually started to pick up a bit as it went on and they followed suit with the first two fights by getting pretty chippy, at one point even spilling to the floor in the most obvious "accidental" fashion ever where Vrij threw a sly knee to the ribs, but there was a lot of fluff in between the good bits (which were few and far between, besides). Vrij's first knockdown of Von Maurik was an absolute corker, though. The slow motion replays of it are truly spectacular.
Akira Maeda v Willy Wilhelm
This had a coupe iffy moments where the cooperation aspect was fairly obvious, but on the whole I thought this was pretty enjoyable. Wilhelm is a likeable sort of fellow, somewhat oafish looking yet wholly capable of chucking mere mortals around with relative ease, which he did several times. A couple of his harai goshis in this looked especially awesome. At one point it led to a half crab right in the middle of the ring and the crowd were in a rabid panic that Maeda might actually lose for the second show in a row. He also exposed his belly like a big gorilla and dared Maeda to kick him there, which Maeda did to little effect. Maeda going to the leg kicks seemed like a pretty sound strategy thereafter and it created openings to other things, such as the head kicks that almost KO'd Wilhelm twice. Finish had one of those moments of obvious cooperation, but it's whatever.
Best show yet, I'd say. Vrij/Von Maurik wasn't up to much but it was better than the last RINGS fight that employed the rounds system. The first two matches were super fun contests that I had no real expectations for whatsoever, and I look forward to seeing more of all four guys now that they seem to be settling into the style. Main event was another enjoyable Maeda bout. He hasn't fought any world beaters yet, but the crowd are always rocking and it certainly adds to the spectacle. Plus a certain Russian wizard is about to show up...
The overall production continues to be excellent as well. Those post-fight action replays are a thing of beauty.
Complete & Accurate RINGS
Monday, 7 August 2017
Sunday, 6 August 2017
Complete & Accurate Fighting Network RINGS
RINGS. The shoot style promotion that brought Volk Han to the attention of pro wrestling nerds the world over. The shoot style promotion that was home to peak Kiyoshi Tamura, Tsuyoshi Kohsaka, Yoshihisa Yamamoto and a bunch of Russian grapplers nobody had ever heard of. Akira Maeda's baby, his splinter group from the original UWF. It's one of my favourite promotions of the 90s and at its best there are few things in wrestling I'd rather watch.
It'll probably take me around a decade, but the goal is to go through everything (now that it's readily available to me), at least up until they switched to full MMA around the end of 1999. So that's like 90 shows. So a decade might be underselling the scope of such a project, knowing me like I know me. But we'll give it a try nonetheless!
I won't bother categorising it into EPIC, GREAT, GOOD and so on since I'm taking this show by show rather than match by match. I'm not really sure how I'll lay it out, actually. It's a work in progress. Fuck it.
Anyway, all of the RINGS!
1991
RINGS Astral Step: Spirit U (5/11/91)
RINGS Astral Step 2nd: Aqua Heat (8/1/91)
RINGS Astral Step 3rd: Kamui (9/14/91)
RINGS Astral Step: Final (12/7/91)
1992
RINGS Mega Battle: Kaiten (1/25/92)
RINGS Mega Battle 2: Ibuki (3/5/92)
RINGS Mega Battle 3: Ikazuchi (4/3/92)
RINGS Mega Battle 4: Kohrin (5/16/92)
RINGS Mega Battle 5: Shi Shi Ku (6/25/92)
RINGS Mega Battle 6: Hayate (7/16/92)
RINGS Mega Battle Special: Ishizue (8/21/92)
RINGS Mega Battle Tournament 1992: First Round (10/29/92)
RINGS Mega Battle Tournament 1992: Second Round (11/13/92)
RINGS Mega Battle Tournament 1992: Semi-Finals (12/19/92)
1993
RINGS Mega Battle Tournament 1992: Finals (1/23/93)
RINGS Korakuen Experiment: Round 1 (2/28/93)
RINGS Battle Dimension 1: Osaka Metropolitan Circuit (3/5/93)
1996
Saturday, 5 August 2017
RINGS Astral Step 2nd: Aqua Heat (8/1/91)
Mitsuya Nagai v Herman Renting
Is this Nagai's debut, not just in RINGS but in all of the pretend fighting? It's certainly the earliest Nagai I've seen, as well as the least bald. This had more going on than Renting's last outing (also a show opener) and was pretty okay if largely unspectacular. Nagai's kicks look sharp enough, though none that landed were of much consequence. It's a departure from later career Nagai where he's crowbarring the living shit out of people and everything is landing eight thousand percent, often across Yuki Ishikawa's front teeth. Renting is another kickboxer but his shots were more probing than anything. There were some sparks of an alright ground struggle and at one point Nagai slickly escaped a choke attempt to gain side control, but otherwise this was fairly by the numbers.
Chris Dolman v Ton von Maurik
This was basically a shoot style hoss fight. It wasn't pretty, in fact it was ugly and ragged, but fuck if I didn't enjoy it a bunch. Von Maurik is...well I can't find any worthwhile info on him from a cursory google search but he's a tall Dutchman with a bitchin' perm. Dolman mentions in his pre-fight interview that he needs to be careful of Von Maurik as he's fast, in good condition and skilled in both boxing and sumo! He does not look like a sumo wrestler but who am I to argue? But yeah, right from the start Von Maurik charges Dolman and they're very soon taking pot shots at each other. Von Maurik's kicks come from a very flat stance and none of them land all that clean, but it looks like he's putting some meat behind them - at least to the extent he can with no real hip torque. Dolman has a really weird guard, forearms tight around his ears, face shielded by his elbow. Not much got past it, to be fair to him, but it did leave his midriff open to a punch combo that scored Von Maurik a knockdown. Dolman then started to flex the judo muscles and take Von Maurik down pretty much at will - once with an absolutely gorgeous harai goshi - at which point he would start headbutting him in the chest. This was evidently effective as it opened Von Maurik up to some submission attempts and Von Maurik clearly wanted no part of it, scrambling to the ropes as quickly as possible. It played into the finish as well, and I liked how Von Maurik tried to claw his way to safety while Dolman pulled him into the middle of the ring, like a big monster dragging some poor fellow into a pit. I said after his last fight that I'd like to see Dolman get a run out against someone who can actually go, and while I don't know if Von Maurik ticks that box he was an exponentially better match-up than Billy Kazmaier. And I thought this was just way fun.
Willy Wilhelm v Peter Smit
If you squint hard enough Wilhelm looks a bit like Calumet County district attorney Ken Kratz, or a Tesco brand Stan Hansen. He's a judoka who medalled in the '83 and '85 world judo championships and apparently had a match (presumably worked) with Maeda in '89 that drew 60,000 to the Tokyo Dome! He tells us he's beaten Smit a couple times in the past, back when Smit was much lighter. This time it'll be a bit more challenging, and while he knows he can't compete if it becomes a kickboxing contest he feels he'll be able to take Smit down and either put him in an arm lock or strangle him. Smit's interview is gibberish to me as my Dutch isn't for shit. Basically I wanted to transcribe the Wilhelm interview because that is pretty much exactly how the fight went from his perspective and I sort of love that he not only outright told you his strategy, but went and actually executed it. He had his gameplan, was confident enough in it to lay it out there, and followed through on it. Smit really wasn't very good at all. He would move into the clinch without ever actually trying to do anything, though there was one bit where he threw Wilhelm into the ropes and kicked him in the ribs which led to Wilhelm selling it like he'd popped a lung or something. I thought that was going to be the finish, but Wilhelm got up after 8 and came out, arms raised and roaring, like a big bear who's just happened upon a campsite. I figured a mauling was imminent. And well, he never quite mauled him but he sure did strangle him.
Akira Maeda v Dick Vrij
Vrij is in a foul mood after taking the L - as the youths say - in their last fight and comes out immediately swingin' for the fences. He's just all knees to the body and high kicks in a flurry of neo-Nazi primary villain in a Jean-Claude Van Damme movie rage and manages to score two early knockdowns. And it's obvious pretty quick that this fight has as clear a story as any pro-style match you'll see. Maeda has barely been in competition since the UWF closure. In fact I think this might only be his second bout in nearly two years; the first being his fight against Vrij on the previous show. Vrij is bigger, stronger, angrier and is literally trying to kick him senseless. He almost kicks him clean out the ring at one point (Maeda had to basically Terry Funk teeter-totter in order to stay in and it was great). The crowd get one million percent behind Maeda and when Vrij scores the fourth knockdown there's an audible "holy fuck he might actually lose this" reaction rippling throughout the whole arena. It turns to genuine panic when Vrij just keep coming forward, and not knowing the result myself I was thinking "nah, he's not getting TKO'd in ten minutes...is he?" His knee is also pretty heavily taped and when he gets up gingerly after taking another spill (not counted as a knockdown) you're thinking there might be no way back. He's injured and one knockdown off a stoppage and Vrij is absolutely all over him. It's inevitable. But it's still Maeda and this is his newly built house. He's been in worse situations, hasn't he? I was very much a fan of this, not just for the way they went about executing the match but also of the ballsiness of the booking. Best fight so far in our short history of Fighting Network RINGS.
This was one of the easiest hours of pro-wrestling I can recall seeing. It was a total breeze. The main event (and post-fight) was an awesome spectacle made even better by a crowd living and dying with their guy. Dolman/Von Maurik was quite the shoot style slobberknocker and absolutely exceeded my expectations. Wilhelm/Smit was like six minutes long and the opener, while not a blowaway fight or anything, was a fine enough debut for Nagai. More than the fights themselves, though, the overall production is generally outstanding. The pre-fight interviews (even with the guys I can't understand because my linguistic breadth is shamefully inadequate) and the short build up packages space out the card so that everything flows smoothly.
Complete & Accurate RINGS
Is this Nagai's debut, not just in RINGS but in all of the pretend fighting? It's certainly the earliest Nagai I've seen, as well as the least bald. This had more going on than Renting's last outing (also a show opener) and was pretty okay if largely unspectacular. Nagai's kicks look sharp enough, though none that landed were of much consequence. It's a departure from later career Nagai where he's crowbarring the living shit out of people and everything is landing eight thousand percent, often across Yuki Ishikawa's front teeth. Renting is another kickboxer but his shots were more probing than anything. There were some sparks of an alright ground struggle and at one point Nagai slickly escaped a choke attempt to gain side control, but otherwise this was fairly by the numbers.
Chris Dolman v Ton von Maurik
This was basically a shoot style hoss fight. It wasn't pretty, in fact it was ugly and ragged, but fuck if I didn't enjoy it a bunch. Von Maurik is...well I can't find any worthwhile info on him from a cursory google search but he's a tall Dutchman with a bitchin' perm. Dolman mentions in his pre-fight interview that he needs to be careful of Von Maurik as he's fast, in good condition and skilled in both boxing and sumo! He does not look like a sumo wrestler but who am I to argue? But yeah, right from the start Von Maurik charges Dolman and they're very soon taking pot shots at each other. Von Maurik's kicks come from a very flat stance and none of them land all that clean, but it looks like he's putting some meat behind them - at least to the extent he can with no real hip torque. Dolman has a really weird guard, forearms tight around his ears, face shielded by his elbow. Not much got past it, to be fair to him, but it did leave his midriff open to a punch combo that scored Von Maurik a knockdown. Dolman then started to flex the judo muscles and take Von Maurik down pretty much at will - once with an absolutely gorgeous harai goshi - at which point he would start headbutting him in the chest. This was evidently effective as it opened Von Maurik up to some submission attempts and Von Maurik clearly wanted no part of it, scrambling to the ropes as quickly as possible. It played into the finish as well, and I liked how Von Maurik tried to claw his way to safety while Dolman pulled him into the middle of the ring, like a big monster dragging some poor fellow into a pit. I said after his last fight that I'd like to see Dolman get a run out against someone who can actually go, and while I don't know if Von Maurik ticks that box he was an exponentially better match-up than Billy Kazmaier. And I thought this was just way fun.
Willy Wilhelm v Peter Smit
If you squint hard enough Wilhelm looks a bit like Calumet County district attorney Ken Kratz, or a Tesco brand Stan Hansen. He's a judoka who medalled in the '83 and '85 world judo championships and apparently had a match (presumably worked) with Maeda in '89 that drew 60,000 to the Tokyo Dome! He tells us he's beaten Smit a couple times in the past, back when Smit was much lighter. This time it'll be a bit more challenging, and while he knows he can't compete if it becomes a kickboxing contest he feels he'll be able to take Smit down and either put him in an arm lock or strangle him. Smit's interview is gibberish to me as my Dutch isn't for shit. Basically I wanted to transcribe the Wilhelm interview because that is pretty much exactly how the fight went from his perspective and I sort of love that he not only outright told you his strategy, but went and actually executed it. He had his gameplan, was confident enough in it to lay it out there, and followed through on it. Smit really wasn't very good at all. He would move into the clinch without ever actually trying to do anything, though there was one bit where he threw Wilhelm into the ropes and kicked him in the ribs which led to Wilhelm selling it like he'd popped a lung or something. I thought that was going to be the finish, but Wilhelm got up after 8 and came out, arms raised and roaring, like a big bear who's just happened upon a campsite. I figured a mauling was imminent. And well, he never quite mauled him but he sure did strangle him.
Akira Maeda v Dick Vrij
Vrij is in a foul mood after taking the L - as the youths say - in their last fight and comes out immediately swingin' for the fences. He's just all knees to the body and high kicks in a flurry of neo-Nazi primary villain in a Jean-Claude Van Damme movie rage and manages to score two early knockdowns. And it's obvious pretty quick that this fight has as clear a story as any pro-style match you'll see. Maeda has barely been in competition since the UWF closure. In fact I think this might only be his second bout in nearly two years; the first being his fight against Vrij on the previous show. Vrij is bigger, stronger, angrier and is literally trying to kick him senseless. He almost kicks him clean out the ring at one point (Maeda had to basically Terry Funk teeter-totter in order to stay in and it was great). The crowd get one million percent behind Maeda and when Vrij scores the fourth knockdown there's an audible "holy fuck he might actually lose this" reaction rippling throughout the whole arena. It turns to genuine panic when Vrij just keep coming forward, and not knowing the result myself I was thinking "nah, he's not getting TKO'd in ten minutes...is he?" His knee is also pretty heavily taped and when he gets up gingerly after taking another spill (not counted as a knockdown) you're thinking there might be no way back. He's injured and one knockdown off a stoppage and Vrij is absolutely all over him. It's inevitable. But it's still Maeda and this is his newly built house. He's been in worse situations, hasn't he? I was very much a fan of this, not just for the way they went about executing the match but also of the ballsiness of the booking. Best fight so far in our short history of Fighting Network RINGS.
This was one of the easiest hours of pro-wrestling I can recall seeing. It was a total breeze. The main event (and post-fight) was an awesome spectacle made even better by a crowd living and dying with their guy. Dolman/Von Maurik was quite the shoot style slobberknocker and absolutely exceeded my expectations. Wilhelm/Smit was like six minutes long and the opener, while not a blowaway fight or anything, was a fine enough debut for Nagai. More than the fights themselves, though, the overall production is generally outstanding. The pre-fight interviews (even with the guys I can't understand because my linguistic breadth is shamefully inadequate) and the short build up packages space out the card so that everything flows smoothly.
Complete & Accurate RINGS
Friday, 4 August 2017
Koki Kitahara and the Face-Kicking and Such
Koki Kitahara v Akira Katayama (SWS, 10/29/91)
Man Kitahara was the best. I remember when I first got into Japanese wrestling I'd buy tapes with as much junior heavyweight stuff on them as I could find. Guys like Liger, Kanemoto, Ohtani, Eddie, Benoit, etc. I doubt I even knew who Koki Kitahara was back then and if I saw his name on a match list I probably would've skipped right over it (unless he happened to be matched up with one of the aforementioned names). It's been a while since those simpler times. My tastes have shifted somewhat dramatically since then and at this point I'm more likely to seek out obscure Koki Kitahara matches than any from those other guys (with the exception of probably Eddie). This started out with Katayama, in his leopard print tights and kneepads, jumping Kitahara at the bell and laying a beating on him. He had to try and stay on top the whole match because if he let Kitahara catch his breath he'd pay for it. Of course Kitahara caught his breath and kicked Katayama really hard in the mouth. I thought he'd literally kicked his teeth out and Katayama spent the back half of the match bleeding down his chest. Kitahara also seemed to be nursing a bum leg from a previous match so Katayama would go after that now and then as well, almost as a contingency plan of sorts. Kitahara hit what was basically a Ganso Bomb and his snap suplex is so, so good; easily as fast and sharp as Dynamite Kid's or Benoit's or whoever else's. Fun match. There's bound to be some hidden Kitahara gems from WAR v New Japan.
Man Kitahara was the best. I remember when I first got into Japanese wrestling I'd buy tapes with as much junior heavyweight stuff on them as I could find. Guys like Liger, Kanemoto, Ohtani, Eddie, Benoit, etc. I doubt I even knew who Koki Kitahara was back then and if I saw his name on a match list I probably would've skipped right over it (unless he happened to be matched up with one of the aforementioned names). It's been a while since those simpler times. My tastes have shifted somewhat dramatically since then and at this point I'm more likely to seek out obscure Koki Kitahara matches than any from those other guys (with the exception of probably Eddie). This started out with Katayama, in his leopard print tights and kneepads, jumping Kitahara at the bell and laying a beating on him. He had to try and stay on top the whole match because if he let Kitahara catch his breath he'd pay for it. Of course Kitahara caught his breath and kicked Katayama really hard in the mouth. I thought he'd literally kicked his teeth out and Katayama spent the back half of the match bleeding down his chest. Kitahara also seemed to be nursing a bum leg from a previous match so Katayama would go after that now and then as well, almost as a contingency plan of sorts. Kitahara hit what was basically a Ganso Bomb and his snap suplex is so, so good; easily as fast and sharp as Dynamite Kid's or Benoit's or whoever else's. Fun match. There's bound to be some hidden Kitahara gems from WAR v New Japan.
Thursday, 3 August 2017
RINGS Astral Step: Spirit U (5/11/91)
Towards the end of last year I did what I said I was gonna do for ages and finally bought a stack of RINGS shows. I don't even know where I've put them all now but I think I grabbed every show from the first (well, the first proper show -- they ran an exhibition type gig before that) through the end of 1994. Or maybe it was the middle of '94, it doesn't matter. Either way my plan was to watch them all and write about them. Then of course I got distracted by something else and barely watched anything for like half a year, killing my idea dead. But then the other night I flung in the first disc and got to watching.
Herman Renting v Peter Smit
This had some okay grappling on the ground and one or two decent takedowns (or maybe takedown attempts), but there wasn't a ton of urgency to any of it and it all mostly felt like two guys doing a demonstration. "This is how you go for an armbar..." Renting threw some okay kicks, but they were pretty light and again looked a bit like he was showing us all where you're SUPPOSED to kick someone. The winning armbar was cool, at least. Not terrible, but it won't knock your socks off.
Willie Peeters v Marcel Haarmans
Man, Peeters was fun in this. He threw lots of nice kicks that made a smack when they landed, he wasn't afraid to lay into Haarmans with punches, and even if he wasn't much use on the mat he was certainly game to try for takedowns. Haarmans doesn't really seem to do...anything...very well. He's a big lumpy dude and he absorbed lots of body shots, but there was never much behind any of what he was doing. When it went to the mat it felt like he was fairly composed, but I don't know if he had much to offer there offensively. I've liked the limited amount of Peeters I've seen previously and he's one of the guys I'm interested in seeing more of in the early RINGS years.
Bill Kazmaier v Chris Dolman
Jeez Louise this was rough. They work it within the rounds system so I briefly wondered if it somehow was a shoot, like Maeda was on the crystal meth one night and thought it might be fun to book that, but it didn't take long for the notion to be squashed. Kazmaier looks a bit like Arn Anderson here if Arn Anderson fell out a boat, drowned, and washed up on the shore. At times he moved like it, too. I've never seen Dolman before but he has a bit of young Glenn Jacobs about him, despite apparently being 46(!). He also has a legit judo and Sambo background so if he shows up again I guess I'd like to see what he can do with someone capable. Kazmaier threw some strangely amusing body shots and a big suplex, Dolman had one or two okay takedowns, but otherwise this was four and a half rounds of not a whole lot.
Akira Maeda v Dick Vrij
This was almost certainly helped by coming after the listlessness of the previous fight, but on its own I thought it still managed to be pretty dang fun. Vrij is always good for a bit of banter, his taunting and horse-shitting it up usually fairly amusing. Maeda was cool as you like through all of this, never rising to Vrij's bait, content to let Vrij force the issue before he would try and capitalise. Most of Vrij's slaps were more insulting than anything, though he did catch Maeda with a few that made the crowd sit up. He threw a handful of high kicks, but again Maeda would wait, catch one, then try and go for the takedown or submission. A couple times it backfired and he found himself rocked, but in the end it paid off like he'd planned. This went like eleven minutes and I dug it just fine.
I've said before on this here blog, probably several times as I journeyed through a handful of early UWFi shows last year, that I find it much easier to sit through mediocre/middling shoot style at this point in my wrestling fandom than pretty much any other kind of style (or similarly mediocre/middling instances of it, anyway). Whatever the reasons for that may be (there are a few, I'm sure), I know I'd rather watch a bang average RINGS show from 1991 than a bang average WWE PPV from the here and now. And this show was pretty consistent in its bang-averageness and I do not regret watching it whatsoever. The main event was fun and I look forward to seeing the rematch on the next show. Willie Peeters impressed both the crowd and this boozehound before you in his debut and we all as a collective look forward to seeing him some more. The Kazmaier fight was not good in the slightest and I'll never be in a hurry to re-watch it, but its sluggish weirdness sort of made of it a spectacle that you feel you need to see through to the end before - inevitably - vowing never to do so again.
When it comes to RINGS I know most people - myself included - think first and foremost of the Tamuras and Hans and Kohsakas and maybe the Yamamotos and probably the Maedas, but early RINGS seems to be a blind spot that nobody really talks about outside a handful of matches. I'm not expecting to come away thinking guys like Herman Renting or Ton von Maurik are unheralded superworkers, but I want to see how the promotion grew from basically being Akira Maeda and a bunch of Dutch judokas and kickboxers into one of my favourite promotions ever from '96-'98.
Complete & Accurate RINGS
Herman Renting v Peter Smit
This had some okay grappling on the ground and one or two decent takedowns (or maybe takedown attempts), but there wasn't a ton of urgency to any of it and it all mostly felt like two guys doing a demonstration. "This is how you go for an armbar..." Renting threw some okay kicks, but they were pretty light and again looked a bit like he was showing us all where you're SUPPOSED to kick someone. The winning armbar was cool, at least. Not terrible, but it won't knock your socks off.
Willie Peeters v Marcel Haarmans
Man, Peeters was fun in this. He threw lots of nice kicks that made a smack when they landed, he wasn't afraid to lay into Haarmans with punches, and even if he wasn't much use on the mat he was certainly game to try for takedowns. Haarmans doesn't really seem to do...anything...very well. He's a big lumpy dude and he absorbed lots of body shots, but there was never much behind any of what he was doing. When it went to the mat it felt like he was fairly composed, but I don't know if he had much to offer there offensively. I've liked the limited amount of Peeters I've seen previously and he's one of the guys I'm interested in seeing more of in the early RINGS years.
Bill Kazmaier v Chris Dolman
Jeez Louise this was rough. They work it within the rounds system so I briefly wondered if it somehow was a shoot, like Maeda was on the crystal meth one night and thought it might be fun to book that, but it didn't take long for the notion to be squashed. Kazmaier looks a bit like Arn Anderson here if Arn Anderson fell out a boat, drowned, and washed up on the shore. At times he moved like it, too. I've never seen Dolman before but he has a bit of young Glenn Jacobs about him, despite apparently being 46(!). He also has a legit judo and Sambo background so if he shows up again I guess I'd like to see what he can do with someone capable. Kazmaier threw some strangely amusing body shots and a big suplex, Dolman had one or two okay takedowns, but otherwise this was four and a half rounds of not a whole lot.
Akira Maeda v Dick Vrij
This was almost certainly helped by coming after the listlessness of the previous fight, but on its own I thought it still managed to be pretty dang fun. Vrij is always good for a bit of banter, his taunting and horse-shitting it up usually fairly amusing. Maeda was cool as you like through all of this, never rising to Vrij's bait, content to let Vrij force the issue before he would try and capitalise. Most of Vrij's slaps were more insulting than anything, though he did catch Maeda with a few that made the crowd sit up. He threw a handful of high kicks, but again Maeda would wait, catch one, then try and go for the takedown or submission. A couple times it backfired and he found himself rocked, but in the end it paid off like he'd planned. This went like eleven minutes and I dug it just fine.
I've said before on this here blog, probably several times as I journeyed through a handful of early UWFi shows last year, that I find it much easier to sit through mediocre/middling shoot style at this point in my wrestling fandom than pretty much any other kind of style (or similarly mediocre/middling instances of it, anyway). Whatever the reasons for that may be (there are a few, I'm sure), I know I'd rather watch a bang average RINGS show from 1991 than a bang average WWE PPV from the here and now. And this show was pretty consistent in its bang-averageness and I do not regret watching it whatsoever. The main event was fun and I look forward to seeing the rematch on the next show. Willie Peeters impressed both the crowd and this boozehound before you in his debut and we all as a collective look forward to seeing him some more. The Kazmaier fight was not good in the slightest and I'll never be in a hurry to re-watch it, but its sluggish weirdness sort of made of it a spectacle that you feel you need to see through to the end before - inevitably - vowing never to do so again.
When it comes to RINGS I know most people - myself included - think first and foremost of the Tamuras and Hans and Kohsakas and maybe the Yamamotos and probably the Maedas, but early RINGS seems to be a blind spot that nobody really talks about outside a handful of matches. I'm not expecting to come away thinking guys like Herman Renting or Ton von Maurik are unheralded superworkers, but I want to see how the promotion grew from basically being Akira Maeda and a bunch of Dutch judokas and kickboxers into one of my favourite promotions ever from '96-'98.
Complete & Accurate RINGS
Wednesday, 2 August 2017
Even if Tenryu Crashes and Burns All the Way Down to the Embers, He'll Leave Them Something to Remember
Genichiro Tenryu, Ichiro Yaguchi & Shoji Nakamaki v Atsushi Onita, Sambo Asako & Shigeo Okumura (No Rope Barbed Wire Street Fight Tornado Death Match) (Onita Pro, 5/13/99) - GREAT
Who knew Tenryu working a no rope barbed wire street fight tornado death match would be this fun? Man was that guy the ultimate journeyman in the 90s. He wrestled just about everywhere in Japan, working all these different styles from King's Road to what I guess was the approximation of Strong Style at the time to inter-genre (wow that doesn't sound pretentious at all) spectacles with Takada to crazy barbed wire deathmatches in Onita's scuzzy castoff indy. And he even showed up for a couple Royal Rumbles, just because. I have no idea why they decided to clip this. It's the main event of the very fist Onita Pro card, it's Onita v Tenryu, it had a rabid crowd, and above all else it was fucking wild. Why would you not want to show that in its full and unedited glory? Stupid people. They really just go hell for leather straight away and I love how Tenryu and Onita took centre stage while the others brawled away in the peripheries. Onita was rocking a big forehead bandage and Tenryu zeroed in on it and punched and elbowed the cut (with some awesome, brutal downward elbows) until it reopened. They also sold that first Irish whip attempt like they wanted no part of the wire whatsoever, eliciting a big "oooooohhhhh" reaction from the crowd. Match was all over the place in the best way possible. Guys brawled into the seats (whereupon seats were flung everywhere and used frequently as weapons), in and around the barbed wire, just everywhere in sight. Great bit where Tenryu and Nakamaki front suplexed Okamura into the wire and Tenryu used the body as a means of smooth egress from the ring, then Asako came flying into view with a crazy tope. Nakamaki and Yaguchi wrapped Onita in barbed wire and I loved how Onita, like a crazy fuck, spent the remainder of the match deliberately wrapped up so he could use it to his advantage. He was throwing himself bodily into people and they were getting their clothes and hair and face shredded by the barbed wire, then he gave Yaguchi a piledriver while his legs were still wrapped in said wire. By the end Yaguchi looked like he'd been savaged by a panther. If this was in full I'd be stunned if it didn't hit EPIC.
Complete & Accurate Tenryu
Who knew Tenryu working a no rope barbed wire street fight tornado death match would be this fun? Man was that guy the ultimate journeyman in the 90s. He wrestled just about everywhere in Japan, working all these different styles from King's Road to what I guess was the approximation of Strong Style at the time to inter-genre (wow that doesn't sound pretentious at all) spectacles with Takada to crazy barbed wire deathmatches in Onita's scuzzy castoff indy. And he even showed up for a couple Royal Rumbles, just because. I have no idea why they decided to clip this. It's the main event of the very fist Onita Pro card, it's Onita v Tenryu, it had a rabid crowd, and above all else it was fucking wild. Why would you not want to show that in its full and unedited glory? Stupid people. They really just go hell for leather straight away and I love how Tenryu and Onita took centre stage while the others brawled away in the peripheries. Onita was rocking a big forehead bandage and Tenryu zeroed in on it and punched and elbowed the cut (with some awesome, brutal downward elbows) until it reopened. They also sold that first Irish whip attempt like they wanted no part of the wire whatsoever, eliciting a big "oooooohhhhh" reaction from the crowd. Match was all over the place in the best way possible. Guys brawled into the seats (whereupon seats were flung everywhere and used frequently as weapons), in and around the barbed wire, just everywhere in sight. Great bit where Tenryu and Nakamaki front suplexed Okamura into the wire and Tenryu used the body as a means of smooth egress from the ring, then Asako came flying into view with a crazy tope. Nakamaki and Yaguchi wrapped Onita in barbed wire and I loved how Onita, like a crazy fuck, spent the remainder of the match deliberately wrapped up so he could use it to his advantage. He was throwing himself bodily into people and they were getting their clothes and hair and face shredded by the barbed wire, then he gave Yaguchi a piledriver while his legs were still wrapped in said wire. By the end Yaguchi looked like he'd been savaged by a panther. If this was in full I'd be stunned if it didn't hit EPIC.
Complete & Accurate Tenryu
Tuesday, 1 August 2017
Japanese Indy Sleaze!
Tadahiro Fujisaki & Makoto Saito v Cosmo Soldier & Sato (Wrestle Yume Factory, 6/10/97)
This had a real Battlartsy recklessness to it, just fifteen minutes of uncooperative crowbarring and potatoing from all four involved. Honestly, I had no idea who any of these guys were and didn't bother trying to identify them until after I'd watched the match. Cosmo seemed fairly obvious given the mask with the big star on the front and therefore it would stand to reason that whoever he was teaming with was Sato, but I didn't put names to faces of the other two until afterwards. I'm not sure who you'd point to as the best guy in the match (I'm not sure you'd be bothered to), but you might point to Fujisaki (he's wearing the singlet) as the one who gave the least shits about his opponents' safety. He really brutalised Cosmo and flung him about with abandon, hitting this weird body slam that left Cosmo crumpled beneath himself in a tangle of ACLs and ruptured patellar tendons. Beyond that he was stomping him in the face and hitting lariats right around the throat and dumping him on his ear with back suplexes. Saito (the future K-Ness of Dragon Gate fame (I would never have known this, btw, if it hadn't been pointed out by Jetlag on PWO)) was throwing brutal high kicks and dropkicking guys at weird angles, across the lower spine, upper thigh, just below the shoulder, right under the chin. Almost nothing in the match looked pretty but it did look like it hurt a lot. There wasn't a ton of structure, but the messiness worked for it and the heat segments certainly made it feel like someone was in peril. Pretty much the definition of Japanese indy sleaze. The very best kind.
Masaaki Mochizuki, Yoshikazu Taru & Takashi Okamura v Masakazu Fukuda, Kamikaze & Hiroyoshi Kotsubo (Wrestle Yume Factory, 6/10/97)
What the fuck was this? I'd never even heard of half these guys, Mochizuki is a Dragon Gate mainstay I've never had anything but apathy for, Taru has been doing his half-baked Voodoo Murderers shtick for years...and yet this totally ruled. Mochizuki, Taru and Okamura are all kitted out in karategis and I assumed they were playing the role of invaders (they're from Koji Kitao's dojo, courtesy again of Jetlag), but the crowd were 100% behind them and spent near enough the whole match chanting for Taru. It was rabid, honest to goodness heat in this dingy little gym. Match was very much your Aoyagi-booked wrestler v karateka affair, but it was less outlandish spectacle and more balls out sprint that happened to be between karatekas and wrestlers. Taru spent most of the match being worked over by the home team and they really kicked the shit out of him. I don't know the difference between any of those guys but one of them was trying to burst Taru's lungs with double stomps. Another would rake his eyes across the ring ropes and crush him with portly sentons. We even got nasty little punts to the face while he crawled around the ring helpless. As far as I know this is the only Takashi Okamura match I've ever seen and he was just destroying guys with crazy stomps and head kicks. He did a wheel kick at one point that connected full force across the nose, total disregard for the face of whoever took it. The last stretch had guys laying into each other on the floor, dives through the ropes, Mochizuki running up turnbuckles and drilling guys with wheel kicks, and while all this chaos is going on Okamura and whoever are in the middle of the ring trying to tap each other out. I seriously thought this was as good as any of the high end MPro tags on the '96 yearbook, and in some respects it was even wilder. Great match.
This had a real Battlartsy recklessness to it, just fifteen minutes of uncooperative crowbarring and potatoing from all four involved. Honestly, I had no idea who any of these guys were and didn't bother trying to identify them until after I'd watched the match. Cosmo seemed fairly obvious given the mask with the big star on the front and therefore it would stand to reason that whoever he was teaming with was Sato, but I didn't put names to faces of the other two until afterwards. I'm not sure who you'd point to as the best guy in the match (I'm not sure you'd be bothered to), but you might point to Fujisaki (he's wearing the singlet) as the one who gave the least shits about his opponents' safety. He really brutalised Cosmo and flung him about with abandon, hitting this weird body slam that left Cosmo crumpled beneath himself in a tangle of ACLs and ruptured patellar tendons. Beyond that he was stomping him in the face and hitting lariats right around the throat and dumping him on his ear with back suplexes. Saito (the future K-Ness of Dragon Gate fame (I would never have known this, btw, if it hadn't been pointed out by Jetlag on PWO)) was throwing brutal high kicks and dropkicking guys at weird angles, across the lower spine, upper thigh, just below the shoulder, right under the chin. Almost nothing in the match looked pretty but it did look like it hurt a lot. There wasn't a ton of structure, but the messiness worked for it and the heat segments certainly made it feel like someone was in peril. Pretty much the definition of Japanese indy sleaze. The very best kind.
Masaaki Mochizuki, Yoshikazu Taru & Takashi Okamura v Masakazu Fukuda, Kamikaze & Hiroyoshi Kotsubo (Wrestle Yume Factory, 6/10/97)
What the fuck was this? I'd never even heard of half these guys, Mochizuki is a Dragon Gate mainstay I've never had anything but apathy for, Taru has been doing his half-baked Voodoo Murderers shtick for years...and yet this totally ruled. Mochizuki, Taru and Okamura are all kitted out in karategis and I assumed they were playing the role of invaders (they're from Koji Kitao's dojo, courtesy again of Jetlag), but the crowd were 100% behind them and spent near enough the whole match chanting for Taru. It was rabid, honest to goodness heat in this dingy little gym. Match was very much your Aoyagi-booked wrestler v karateka affair, but it was less outlandish spectacle and more balls out sprint that happened to be between karatekas and wrestlers. Taru spent most of the match being worked over by the home team and they really kicked the shit out of him. I don't know the difference between any of those guys but one of them was trying to burst Taru's lungs with double stomps. Another would rake his eyes across the ring ropes and crush him with portly sentons. We even got nasty little punts to the face while he crawled around the ring helpless. As far as I know this is the only Takashi Okamura match I've ever seen and he was just destroying guys with crazy stomps and head kicks. He did a wheel kick at one point that connected full force across the nose, total disregard for the face of whoever took it. The last stretch had guys laying into each other on the floor, dives through the ropes, Mochizuki running up turnbuckles and drilling guys with wheel kicks, and while all this chaos is going on Okamura and whoever are in the middle of the ring trying to tap each other out. I seriously thought this was as good as any of the high end MPro tags on the '96 yearbook, and in some respects it was even wilder. Great match.
Monday, 31 July 2017
SWS, 10/30/91
My intention was to watch the Haku/Ishikawa match last night as it had been pimped on PWO, but it was late and I had nothing else to do so I sat and watched the whole card. It was an easy hour and a half.
Pat Tanaka v The Great Kabuki
This feels like the kind of match Tanaka's worked a thousand times on WWF house shows. He took most of this and looked good as always. His sweep kick always looks nice and his diving forearm is great; he's just a rock solid hand that I have no problem watching work eight/nine minute undercard matches. Kabuki never did much but he hit a couple nice thrust kicks and Tanaka took a big inside-out bump for his lariat. Perhaps an excessive reaction what was a meager lariat in truth, but no matter.
Barbarian v Kendo Nagasaki
This was JIP to some headlock/leglockery until Nagasaki said fuck it and went bushwhacker with a chair. Nothing prompted it, Barbarian did nothing that would ordinarily warrant it, he just decided it was what he desired. They spill into the crowd and throw some meaty chops and for a minute there I'm thinking we're getting a double count out, but no, they do in fact make it back into the ring. Shortly afterwards Barbarian hits the top rope clothesline and that, as they say, is that.
Koki Kitahara & Yoshihiro Asai v Bestia Salvaje & Masao Orihara
This was real nifty and at points got pretty damn awesome. The nifty came from Asai and Bestia, who ran the gamut of Asai/Ultimo's armdrag and headscissor sequences with Bestia serving as a great base for all of it. None of Asai's stuff here will be new to you if you've seen more than a couple Ultimo Dragon matches, but for the most part it looked pretty when it needed to and more importantly like it was impactful. But really, you want this for the parts that were awesome (I mean why wouldn't you?) and those were courtesy of Kitahara and Orihara. This might be my favourite Kitahara performance ever. When they match up initially they both throw a few big kicks and Orihara fights admirably, but he's a young boy and Kitahara treats him as such. It's a fun dynamic and it works. Kitahara doesn't go beyond the pale, he doesn't take liberties, but he doesn't throw feather dusters either. The balance is as it should be, all things considered. Then Orihara kicks him a little too forcefully in the nose and Kitahara just absolutely fucking mangles him. It was almost uncomfortable at points. Orihara continues to scrap and stand up for himself and Kitahara gets even more abusive. He punted him in the face and kidneys, hit a vile roundhouse kick, gave him a snap suplex on the ramp, recklessly front suplexed him across the guardrail, it was brutal. And truly in step with the values of a Tenryu fed he gave up caring about the result of the match in order to continue beating on poor Orihara. Vengeance had taken precedence over victory. This was a match where everybody looked good and the whole thing came together well, but that one moment where something went awry - horribly, for Orihara - led to things taking a murderous detour. Kitahara as vicious wee prick elevated this past the ceiling it might've had otherwise.
Naoki Sano & Shunji Takano v The Warlord & Paul Diamond
One could argue this might be a waste of Sano's talents. As a match it wasn't very good and it was JIP to boot, but it did have some moments that were at least unique. Diamond was all over the place, messing up every spot and getting awkwardly into position for everything, but Warlord was pretty okay. He's jacked to the moon and back and I'm not sure how he can move properly, but he had some fun stuff with Sano, including a bit where Sano tried to slam him, failed because Warlord is gigantic and Sano is comparatively teeny, then stepped on his toes before successfully slamming him on the second attempt. He also took a couple big Sano spin kicks, and I liked how he ate Sano's plancha kind of side on and different from how you'd normally take it (I assume Warlord had never once been required to take a plancha before).
Ashura Hara & Samson Fuyuki v Yoshiaki Yatsu & Shinichi Nakano
I was hoping we'd get more Nakano and Fuyuki hating on each other in this and that is exactly what we got. Doesn't look like their feud has gotten to the super heated stage yet, but they sure don't like each other. In fact, I don't think anybody likes anybody. All the shots were beefy and clubbery and so forth and there were few wasted opportunities when it came to an illegal man putting a boot in. Hara was headbutting guys and hitting meaty lariats, Yatsu was boxing folk around the ears and Nakano and Fuyuki weren't shy about smacking one another. Eventually it breaks down and a chair ends up in the ring, and I'll be damned but they even went with the chair shot behind the ref's back finish. I would very much be down for a Nakano/Fuyuki singles match.
Takashi Ishikawa v King Haku
I'm kinda bummed that they JIP'd this to around the midway point, but the half that we got was quite the slobberknocker. Ishikawa spends a bit of time working Haku's leg, wrapping it around the ring post, belting it with a chair, slamming him knee-first across the guardrail, and Haku sells it pretty well. Then they move past that and get to laying it in like you want. Ishikawa's lariats looked as good as they ever have and Haku was right there in response. They even did a strike exchange where Haku was conking Ishikawa with headbutts and Ishikawa was slapping him up across the ears; it was like something you'd see in an Ishii match (only less ridiculous). Short finishing run got the crowd going as well. And we got another Ishikawa fatboy plancha! This was fun.
Genichiro Tenryu v George Takano
Tenryu in SWS is sort of a strange beast. He's clearly the ace and the biggest star in the company, but there aren't too many times where I can remember him really projecting that, at least against the natives. Part of it might've been him wanting to elevate guys like Ishikawa or Takano and make it feel like there's at least a closeable gap between ace and #2, so he would be more giving in those match-ups. I can certainly understand that and even applaud him for it, but selfishly I wish he'd gone full Tenryu more often and really fucked guys up. Takano took a bunch of this, maybe too much, though it at least led to moments where Tenryu would eat a big slap or kick and sell it like his brains got rattled (and he has some of the best brain-rattled selling ever). Takano brought a nice level of intensity as well and his huge tope was pretty incredible. Still, the best part of this was Tenryu grabbing a chair and just chucking it at Takano's head. He threw a handful of chops to the trachea and a couple knees that weren't exactly pretty, but for the most part he kind of coasted this. Overall it had its moments, but I think Tenryu needed something to inject a bit of life into him again. Luckily WAR wasn't too far around the corner.
Complete & Accurate Tenryu
Pat Tanaka v The Great Kabuki
This feels like the kind of match Tanaka's worked a thousand times on WWF house shows. He took most of this and looked good as always. His sweep kick always looks nice and his diving forearm is great; he's just a rock solid hand that I have no problem watching work eight/nine minute undercard matches. Kabuki never did much but he hit a couple nice thrust kicks and Tanaka took a big inside-out bump for his lariat. Perhaps an excessive reaction what was a meager lariat in truth, but no matter.
Barbarian v Kendo Nagasaki
This was JIP to some headlock/leglockery until Nagasaki said fuck it and went bushwhacker with a chair. Nothing prompted it, Barbarian did nothing that would ordinarily warrant it, he just decided it was what he desired. They spill into the crowd and throw some meaty chops and for a minute there I'm thinking we're getting a double count out, but no, they do in fact make it back into the ring. Shortly afterwards Barbarian hits the top rope clothesline and that, as they say, is that.
Koki Kitahara & Yoshihiro Asai v Bestia Salvaje & Masao Orihara
This was real nifty and at points got pretty damn awesome. The nifty came from Asai and Bestia, who ran the gamut of Asai/Ultimo's armdrag and headscissor sequences with Bestia serving as a great base for all of it. None of Asai's stuff here will be new to you if you've seen more than a couple Ultimo Dragon matches, but for the most part it looked pretty when it needed to and more importantly like it was impactful. But really, you want this for the parts that were awesome (I mean why wouldn't you?) and those were courtesy of Kitahara and Orihara. This might be my favourite Kitahara performance ever. When they match up initially they both throw a few big kicks and Orihara fights admirably, but he's a young boy and Kitahara treats him as such. It's a fun dynamic and it works. Kitahara doesn't go beyond the pale, he doesn't take liberties, but he doesn't throw feather dusters either. The balance is as it should be, all things considered. Then Orihara kicks him a little too forcefully in the nose and Kitahara just absolutely fucking mangles him. It was almost uncomfortable at points. Orihara continues to scrap and stand up for himself and Kitahara gets even more abusive. He punted him in the face and kidneys, hit a vile roundhouse kick, gave him a snap suplex on the ramp, recklessly front suplexed him across the guardrail, it was brutal. And truly in step with the values of a Tenryu fed he gave up caring about the result of the match in order to continue beating on poor Orihara. Vengeance had taken precedence over victory. This was a match where everybody looked good and the whole thing came together well, but that one moment where something went awry - horribly, for Orihara - led to things taking a murderous detour. Kitahara as vicious wee prick elevated this past the ceiling it might've had otherwise.
Naoki Sano & Shunji Takano v The Warlord & Paul Diamond
One could argue this might be a waste of Sano's talents. As a match it wasn't very good and it was JIP to boot, but it did have some moments that were at least unique. Diamond was all over the place, messing up every spot and getting awkwardly into position for everything, but Warlord was pretty okay. He's jacked to the moon and back and I'm not sure how he can move properly, but he had some fun stuff with Sano, including a bit where Sano tried to slam him, failed because Warlord is gigantic and Sano is comparatively teeny, then stepped on his toes before successfully slamming him on the second attempt. He also took a couple big Sano spin kicks, and I liked how he ate Sano's plancha kind of side on and different from how you'd normally take it (I assume Warlord had never once been required to take a plancha before).
Ashura Hara & Samson Fuyuki v Yoshiaki Yatsu & Shinichi Nakano
I was hoping we'd get more Nakano and Fuyuki hating on each other in this and that is exactly what we got. Doesn't look like their feud has gotten to the super heated stage yet, but they sure don't like each other. In fact, I don't think anybody likes anybody. All the shots were beefy and clubbery and so forth and there were few wasted opportunities when it came to an illegal man putting a boot in. Hara was headbutting guys and hitting meaty lariats, Yatsu was boxing folk around the ears and Nakano and Fuyuki weren't shy about smacking one another. Eventually it breaks down and a chair ends up in the ring, and I'll be damned but they even went with the chair shot behind the ref's back finish. I would very much be down for a Nakano/Fuyuki singles match.
Takashi Ishikawa v King Haku
I'm kinda bummed that they JIP'd this to around the midway point, but the half that we got was quite the slobberknocker. Ishikawa spends a bit of time working Haku's leg, wrapping it around the ring post, belting it with a chair, slamming him knee-first across the guardrail, and Haku sells it pretty well. Then they move past that and get to laying it in like you want. Ishikawa's lariats looked as good as they ever have and Haku was right there in response. They even did a strike exchange where Haku was conking Ishikawa with headbutts and Ishikawa was slapping him up across the ears; it was like something you'd see in an Ishii match (only less ridiculous). Short finishing run got the crowd going as well. And we got another Ishikawa fatboy plancha! This was fun.
Genichiro Tenryu v George Takano
Tenryu in SWS is sort of a strange beast. He's clearly the ace and the biggest star in the company, but there aren't too many times where I can remember him really projecting that, at least against the natives. Part of it might've been him wanting to elevate guys like Ishikawa or Takano and make it feel like there's at least a closeable gap between ace and #2, so he would be more giving in those match-ups. I can certainly understand that and even applaud him for it, but selfishly I wish he'd gone full Tenryu more often and really fucked guys up. Takano took a bunch of this, maybe too much, though it at least led to moments where Tenryu would eat a big slap or kick and sell it like his brains got rattled (and he has some of the best brain-rattled selling ever). Takano brought a nice level of intensity as well and his huge tope was pretty incredible. Still, the best part of this was Tenryu grabbing a chair and just chucking it at Takano's head. He threw a handful of chops to the trachea and a couple knees that weren't exactly pretty, but for the most part he kind of coasted this. Overall it had its moments, but I think Tenryu needed something to inject a bit of life into him again. Luckily WAR wasn't too far around the corner.
Complete & Accurate Tenryu
Sunday, 30 July 2017
NWA Classics 24/7 #20
Gino Hernandez v Nick Kozak (Houston Wrestling, 12/1/78)
There wasn't really a whole lot to this, but they told a nice enough story. Kozak must've wrestled on and off around Texas for about twenty years. He's clearly in the twilight of his career at this point and looks like a New York firefighter six months off retirement. Gino had his head shaved recently and is rocking the awesome mask/wig combo. Match is basically built around Kozak trying to expose Gino's baldy head to everyone in attendance. He seems more preoccupied with that than actually winning, though, and Boesch touches on it on commentary. Eventually he pushes Gino too far so Gino rams him into the post and smashes him with a chair. For some reason Bronko Lubich doesn't disqualify him and Gino finishes things off with a Russian leg sweep and a couple elbow drops. Gino in Houston is a well I haven't really tapped yet and this was an okay place to start.
There wasn't really a whole lot to this, but they told a nice enough story. Kozak must've wrestled on and off around Texas for about twenty years. He's clearly in the twilight of his career at this point and looks like a New York firefighter six months off retirement. Gino had his head shaved recently and is rocking the awesome mask/wig combo. Match is basically built around Kozak trying to expose Gino's baldy head to everyone in attendance. He seems more preoccupied with that than actually winning, though, and Boesch touches on it on commentary. Eventually he pushes Gino too far so Gino rams him into the post and smashes him with a chair. For some reason Bronko Lubich doesn't disqualify him and Gino finishes things off with a Russian leg sweep and a couple elbow drops. Gino in Houston is a well I haven't really tapped yet and this was an okay place to start.
Saturday, 29 July 2017
IGF Next Exciting Wrestling!
So back in April, Simon Inoki, brother of Antonio, announced that the Inoki Genome Federation was branching out with a separate brand that would run smaller venues than the larger scale IGF shows, and more often at that. For the first show they brought in a bunch of shoot style vets like Fujiwara, Funaki, Otsuka and Josh Barnett. I think three cards were taped and a further handful of guys like Takaiwa, Kanemoto, Murakami and Minoru Tanaka made appearances. I was on board. Then last week it got shitcanned. Go figure. I don't know if it's gone for good or there's some inter-Inoki squabbling going on that might be hastily resolved or whatever, but either way Next Exciting Wrestling is no more...for the time being. I've started picking through the three shows we have available.
Yoshiaki Fujiwara v Shinya Aoki (NEW, 4/5/17)
Man, Fujiwara is the most timeless of the timeless. He looks almost no different now than he did fifteen years go and the only difference between then and fifteen years before that is the kneepads (he always looked like an elderly gent, even in the earliest footage we have of him). He's a little slower than he once was given that he's two years shy of his seventieth(!!!) birthday, but he can still work joints and take it to the mat with the best of them. Aoki is a lightweight mixed martial artist who's fought everywhere from PRIDE to Strikeforce and flipped off Mizuto Hirota after breaking his arm with a kimura. He possibly has the reputation of being a wee prick. This was fairly methodical, but the devil is in the details and the details were what made it. All of the shifting for side control was measured, often with Fujiwara using his weight to his advantage. He'd use some nasty joint manipulation and, being a few steps ahead as he always is, Aoki would try to roll free only to end up where Fujiwara really wanted him. Aoki would kind of slither about as if he was going to shoot in for a takedown, so Fujiwara would draw him in close and ram him with a headbutt. And holy fuck were these some awesome little heabutts, straight to the ear leaving Aoki almost in disbelief (I mean, he broke a dude's arm and gave him the finger, so it's hard to feel too much sympathy for him). When Fujiwara managed to grab the Fujiwara armbar I thought he might actually be able to pull off the win. Then when Aoki escapes you get the sense he might not come any closer than that. By the end you're just hoping Fujiwara can survive the choke long enough for the time limit to expire. This could've been a super fun modern day Fujiwara/Takada-esque series if they'd gotten the chance.
Kazunari Murakami & Kohei Sato v Keisuke Okuda & Akira Jo (NEW, 7/7/17)
This is that one Murakami match that pops up every year and makes me want to watch every single thing he's ever done. I never actually do it of course, but there are few things in wrestling I enjoy more than watching Murakami roll into town and wreak havoc. He's even gone a step further this year by rocking up wearing what appears to be a snake skin suit. He looks like a hitman who requests payment in "favours." Of the sexual variety? Maybe a wee bit too conventional for the likes of he. I've never seen Jo or Okuda before but the pre-match highlight package leads me to believe they will not spend much of this match on the offensive. This was about 95% strikes and sneers and it was totally awesome. Jo and Okuda take a real pasting but they just keep on coming. A few times they'll cause trouble, but for the most part Murakami and Sato obliterate them. Murakami was amazing in this; his facial expressions and mugging is some of the best ever and he was glaring and snarling like a psychopath. Akira Jo doesn't have the greatest strikes in the world, which isn't normally conducive to having good strike exchanges (especially given that most strike exchanges are crummy to begin with, simply by way of their existence), but it actually became a positive in this instance as it highlighted the sheer gulf in striking power. He'd throw a few flimsy forearms and slaps then he'd get murdered with a Murakami uppercut or Sato kneelift. Basically Murakami and Sato were bastards and Jo and Okuda had no means of out-bastarding them, no matter how hard they tried. Towards the end Murakami was just planting them with judo throws and Sato told the crowd to quieten down for a sec so they could hear the thunk off a headbutt. When Murakami rids himself of the jacket and shirt you know it's go-home time. I loved this and I really should watch every single thing Murakami's ever done.
RIP, Next Extreme Wrestling. We hardly knew thee.
Yoshiaki Fujiwara v Shinya Aoki (NEW, 4/5/17)
Man, Fujiwara is the most timeless of the timeless. He looks almost no different now than he did fifteen years go and the only difference between then and fifteen years before that is the kneepads (he always looked like an elderly gent, even in the earliest footage we have of him). He's a little slower than he once was given that he's two years shy of his seventieth(!!!) birthday, but he can still work joints and take it to the mat with the best of them. Aoki is a lightweight mixed martial artist who's fought everywhere from PRIDE to Strikeforce and flipped off Mizuto Hirota after breaking his arm with a kimura. He possibly has the reputation of being a wee prick. This was fairly methodical, but the devil is in the details and the details were what made it. All of the shifting for side control was measured, often with Fujiwara using his weight to his advantage. He'd use some nasty joint manipulation and, being a few steps ahead as he always is, Aoki would try to roll free only to end up where Fujiwara really wanted him. Aoki would kind of slither about as if he was going to shoot in for a takedown, so Fujiwara would draw him in close and ram him with a headbutt. And holy fuck were these some awesome little heabutts, straight to the ear leaving Aoki almost in disbelief (I mean, he broke a dude's arm and gave him the finger, so it's hard to feel too much sympathy for him). When Fujiwara managed to grab the Fujiwara armbar I thought he might actually be able to pull off the win. Then when Aoki escapes you get the sense he might not come any closer than that. By the end you're just hoping Fujiwara can survive the choke long enough for the time limit to expire. This could've been a super fun modern day Fujiwara/Takada-esque series if they'd gotten the chance.
Kazunari Murakami & Kohei Sato v Keisuke Okuda & Akira Jo (NEW, 7/7/17)
This is that one Murakami match that pops up every year and makes me want to watch every single thing he's ever done. I never actually do it of course, but there are few things in wrestling I enjoy more than watching Murakami roll into town and wreak havoc. He's even gone a step further this year by rocking up wearing what appears to be a snake skin suit. He looks like a hitman who requests payment in "favours." Of the sexual variety? Maybe a wee bit too conventional for the likes of he. I've never seen Jo or Okuda before but the pre-match highlight package leads me to believe they will not spend much of this match on the offensive. This was about 95% strikes and sneers and it was totally awesome. Jo and Okuda take a real pasting but they just keep on coming. A few times they'll cause trouble, but for the most part Murakami and Sato obliterate them. Murakami was amazing in this; his facial expressions and mugging is some of the best ever and he was glaring and snarling like a psychopath. Akira Jo doesn't have the greatest strikes in the world, which isn't normally conducive to having good strike exchanges (especially given that most strike exchanges are crummy to begin with, simply by way of their existence), but it actually became a positive in this instance as it highlighted the sheer gulf in striking power. He'd throw a few flimsy forearms and slaps then he'd get murdered with a Murakami uppercut or Sato kneelift. Basically Murakami and Sato were bastards and Jo and Okuda had no means of out-bastarding them, no matter how hard they tried. Towards the end Murakami was just planting them with judo throws and Sato told the crowd to quieten down for a sec so they could hear the thunk off a headbutt. When Murakami rids himself of the jacket and shirt you know it's go-home time. I loved this and I really should watch every single thing Murakami's ever done.
RIP, Next Extreme Wrestling. We hardly knew thee.
Friday, 28 July 2017
Hideki Suzuki of the Day #16
Hideki Suzuki & Yoshihisa Uto v Daisuke Sekimoto & Yuji Okabayashi (Big Japan, 3/19/17)
Solid bout, though more of a sporting contest between two teams looking simply to win rather than a bar fight with them trying to kick the crap out of each other. Not that we didn't get a little of the latter anyway. Okabayashi will really go all in on the shouty tough guy "hit me and prove you are worthy!" part of a strike exchange - which is pish - but he will doubly go all in on absolutely caving somebody's chest in with a knife edge. So I suppose you accept the trade off. Suzuki and Sekimoto were really putting all their weight behind forcing the other to the mat with top wrist locks and knuckle locks. It all served as a fine bridge between the previous draw and the upcoming rematch and I was into pretty much everything they did together. Thus, I am now anticipating that rematch even more than I was before. So job done, I guess.
Solid bout, though more of a sporting contest between two teams looking simply to win rather than a bar fight with them trying to kick the crap out of each other. Not that we didn't get a little of the latter anyway. Okabayashi will really go all in on the shouty tough guy "hit me and prove you are worthy!" part of a strike exchange - which is pish - but he will doubly go all in on absolutely caving somebody's chest in with a knife edge. So I suppose you accept the trade off. Suzuki and Sekimoto were really putting all their weight behind forcing the other to the mat with top wrist locks and knuckle locks. It all served as a fine bridge between the previous draw and the upcoming rematch and I was into pretty much everything they did together. Thus, I am now anticipating that rematch even more than I was before. So job done, I guess.
Thursday, 27 July 2017
SWS Bringing the WAR + Kawada v Kobashi: The Final Chapter
Naoki Sano, Shinichi Nakano & The Great Kabuki v Samson Fuyuki, Takashi Ishikawa & Koki Kitahara (SWS, 11/10/91)
Well this was pretty badass. The central thread running through it is that Fuyuki and Nakano despise each other, but there's also a little side story of Kitahara not really being a fan of Fuyuki either despite being on the same side. It's subtle and they don't play it up much, but Kitahara will refuse to tag him and once or twice stares at him like he'd like to give him a smack. Fuyuki/Nakano is not subtle and they tear into each other and grab each other by the throat and such. The first half was a wee bit ragged even if there was plenty of hate going around (from everyone), and there was a great bit where Ishikawa hit a fat boy plancha, but it's when Fuyuki takes a mugging on the floor that things really pick up. Nakano opens him up with these nasty little rabbit punches and Fuyuki spends a chunk of time in peril. Sano was winging kicks and punching the cut, Kabuki was throwing his awesome uppercuts to the body and chin, and Nakano was biting away at that open wound. Fuyuki is always really vocal with his selling and his shrieks were sort of uncomfortable. I mean, you'd probably expect it out of someone whose forehead was being gnawed at. Short finish run is hectic and I was fine with Nakano just grabbing a chair and cracking Fuyuki with it. If you're gonna do a DQ in a Tenryu fed then you need to make it look legit and Nakano made this chair shot look legit. Post-match Fuyuki gets zero sympathy from Kitahara who volleys him in the face, which was just the best payoff. Even Ishikawa was affronted.
Toshiaki Kawada v Kenta Kobashi (All Japan, 1/17/00)
Their last ever match together, so I suppose it's fitting that it felt a bit like a Greatest Hits show. It wasn't absolutely stacked with bombs or anything, but I'd probably rather watch them go twenty minutes than forty-plus at this point anyway. Kawada was the best wrestler in the world in 2000 and he was exceptional in this. Kobashi was kind of picky with the selling and I'm not in love with the Hulk Up shtick, but Kawada basically used that to make the match feel like an uphill struggle. Like, I don't think Kobashi took a great deal more of the match than Kawada did, but based on how Kobashi would often steamroll him and the way Kawada sold it all you knew who the dominant one was. Kawada was always in with the kicker's chance. He dropped Kobashi with a few big suplexes (and Kobashi took them on his head), but much of his offence was kicks. And they were awesome kicks -- the punts, the gamengiri, the roundhouses, the HUGE axe kick, they all looked killer. Sometimes they'd come across as desperation as well, like when he fought off Kobashi's dogged attempt at a German suplex by hitting an enziguri. If Kobashi was suspect with the selling, he was not with the offence. He was chopping Kawada right in the neck, and while the fighting spirit spots might've been eye-rolly he sure tried to make you forget about them straight after with the lariat. Plus he did everything with a scowl. Finish had some awesome dead-on-his-feet selling from Kawada just for good measure, and the fact the crowd seemed to buy into a cross armbreaker as a possible finish despite there not being a submission finish in All Japan since 1992 (prolly) was pretty cool as well.
Well this was pretty badass. The central thread running through it is that Fuyuki and Nakano despise each other, but there's also a little side story of Kitahara not really being a fan of Fuyuki either despite being on the same side. It's subtle and they don't play it up much, but Kitahara will refuse to tag him and once or twice stares at him like he'd like to give him a smack. Fuyuki/Nakano is not subtle and they tear into each other and grab each other by the throat and such. The first half was a wee bit ragged even if there was plenty of hate going around (from everyone), and there was a great bit where Ishikawa hit a fat boy plancha, but it's when Fuyuki takes a mugging on the floor that things really pick up. Nakano opens him up with these nasty little rabbit punches and Fuyuki spends a chunk of time in peril. Sano was winging kicks and punching the cut, Kabuki was throwing his awesome uppercuts to the body and chin, and Nakano was biting away at that open wound. Fuyuki is always really vocal with his selling and his shrieks were sort of uncomfortable. I mean, you'd probably expect it out of someone whose forehead was being gnawed at. Short finish run is hectic and I was fine with Nakano just grabbing a chair and cracking Fuyuki with it. If you're gonna do a DQ in a Tenryu fed then you need to make it look legit and Nakano made this chair shot look legit. Post-match Fuyuki gets zero sympathy from Kitahara who volleys him in the face, which was just the best payoff. Even Ishikawa was affronted.
Toshiaki Kawada v Kenta Kobashi (All Japan, 1/17/00)
Their last ever match together, so I suppose it's fitting that it felt a bit like a Greatest Hits show. It wasn't absolutely stacked with bombs or anything, but I'd probably rather watch them go twenty minutes than forty-plus at this point anyway. Kawada was the best wrestler in the world in 2000 and he was exceptional in this. Kobashi was kind of picky with the selling and I'm not in love with the Hulk Up shtick, but Kawada basically used that to make the match feel like an uphill struggle. Like, I don't think Kobashi took a great deal more of the match than Kawada did, but based on how Kobashi would often steamroll him and the way Kawada sold it all you knew who the dominant one was. Kawada was always in with the kicker's chance. He dropped Kobashi with a few big suplexes (and Kobashi took them on his head), but much of his offence was kicks. And they were awesome kicks -- the punts, the gamengiri, the roundhouses, the HUGE axe kick, they all looked killer. Sometimes they'd come across as desperation as well, like when he fought off Kobashi's dogged attempt at a German suplex by hitting an enziguri. If Kobashi was suspect with the selling, he was not with the offence. He was chopping Kawada right in the neck, and while the fighting spirit spots might've been eye-rolly he sure tried to make you forget about them straight after with the lariat. Plus he did everything with a scowl. Finish had some awesome dead-on-his-feet selling from Kawada just for good measure, and the fact the crowd seemed to buy into a cross armbreaker as a possible finish despite there not being a submission finish in All Japan since 1992 (prolly) was pretty cool as well.
Wednesday, 26 July 2017
Great Sasuke, Shiryu & Masao Orihara v Takashi Ishikawa, Masanobu Kurisu & Koji Ishinriki (WAR, 6/30/94)
What a wild wee maniac bastard Masa Kurisu is. This is a show built around a six-man tag title tournament, so in that sense I guess it's fairly important. But it's a house show. It's not taped and it never would've seen the light of day if not for someone filming the whole thing (bless that soul, whoever he/she is). So a house show of some consequence...but still a house show. Kurisu has no reason to be the way he is on a house show. Right away he's potatoing guys, clonking them with headbutts, kicking them in the eye, chopping their throats. Orihara has shaved train tracks into his hair and looks like a crackhead and Kurisu cannot understand why people are cheering him. It is mystifying to him and eventually he decides it's enough for the crowd to also earn his ire and so he spends a goodly amount of time thereafter shouting at them and giving them the finger. He hates Shiryu's elaborate mask so he rips a chair off the ground and hammers him with it, like really destroys him with this chair shot. Later on he jabs the edge of it into Orihara's neck and then runs the length of the entrance ramp to smack him again. He even "winds up" before it, which, you know, awesome. It was a truly glorious performance from a reprehensible little man. And this match fucking ruled, even beyond the Kurisu parts. It might not be quite as random as the most random of six-man tag pairings to ever grace a WAR card, but it's hard to imagine it taking place anywhere else. It was the essence of WAR, basically. I don't know who Ishinriki is but he's wearing a Jason Voorhees mask and bright lilac trunks, which is a pretty tremendous juxtaposition and just goes to show that the pro wrestling really can create wonderful art. Ishikawa sort of takes a backseat in the handing out of potatoes, but there was one bit where he literally punted Orihara up and down the ramp. The M-Pro guys were super over as well. Everybody popped big for their signature spots and were rocking for the stereo dives, and somehow the juniors trio even managed to hit a triple springboard dropkick in which all six feet connected with their target. Usually somebody messes up the timing of a spot like that and you end up with one of them dropkicking thin air, but they hit it right on the money here. Ishinriki probably kicked out of and popped up from too much stuff at the end, but it at least made things dramatic and the finish was really cool. I just loved all of this, warts and all. And Kurisu. He's everything that's great about WAR in one middle-aged, bellicose nutshell.
Tuesday, 25 July 2017
There's an Answer Here if Tenryu Looks Hard Enough. There's a Reason Why He Always Reaches for the Harder Stuff
Genichiro Tenryu & Stan Hansen v Akira Taue & Great Kabuki (All Japan, 3/2/90) - GOOD
This kind of match has a sort of inevitability about it. Taue is practically unblooded and Kabuki, broken down as he's becoming, isn't dragging a guy in his second year past two of the three biggest stars in the company. And Tenryu and Hansen themselves are inevitable. They're wrecking balls, they destroy things and you can't stop it. The fun, then, is seeing how the old guy with the nunchucks and his rookie partner meet their demise. Tenryu and Hansen obviously smashed them to bits -- nasty chops, forearms, clubbering, forty yarders to the spine. Taue wouldn't go down without a fight though, and there was a great bit where he caught Tenryu coming off the ropes with a big boot to the chin before following up with a weird chokeslam that dropped him face-first. If wrestling was real then Hansen would have to be one of your top draft picks for a tag partner. He's exactly the kind of guy you'd want at your back in a fight. Any time Tenryu looked to be in even the slightest bit of bother Stan would come in and help. Put Tenryu in a leglock? Hansen is in kicking your face. Indian deathlock? Not on Hansen's watch. Taue and Kabuki got no respite whatsoever. He was also awesome at responding to Kabuki's short uppercuts (which looked GREAT, btw). The more Kabuki threw the more Hansen would sell them, going from almost annoyance at the start to eventually needing to just bowl Kabuki out the ring so he'd stop. Finish was cool as well, with Kabuki taking a wild bump to the floor off the lariat as Taue lay dead for a while after the double powerbomb.
Genichiro Tenryu, Koki Kitahara & Animal Hamaguchi v Kendo Nagasaki, Kishin Kawabata & Ryo Miyake (WAR, 6/30/94) - FUN
This is probably right on that line between FUN and SKIPPABLE, but I'm all about the WAR and there was enough randomness here that you probably should be too. Nagasaki is 53 at this point and he is flat out determined to skelp someone with a chair. Doesn't even matter who, he'll hit anyone. Hamaguchi is 47 but he drops elbows like a man two decades younger. They were great elbows, really quick and impactful. Tenryu took a bit of a backseat in this to let the others have the spotlight - as was his unselfish wont - and so Kitahara stepped into the role of guy kicking everyone in the face really hard. Kawabata was kicked many times in the face. Miyake was kicked many, many times in the face. Nagasaki was kicked once in the face and he went directly for that chair. Never for a second did you doubt the finish. This is the Wrestle and the Romance.
Complete & Accurate Tenryu
This kind of match has a sort of inevitability about it. Taue is practically unblooded and Kabuki, broken down as he's becoming, isn't dragging a guy in his second year past two of the three biggest stars in the company. And Tenryu and Hansen themselves are inevitable. They're wrecking balls, they destroy things and you can't stop it. The fun, then, is seeing how the old guy with the nunchucks and his rookie partner meet their demise. Tenryu and Hansen obviously smashed them to bits -- nasty chops, forearms, clubbering, forty yarders to the spine. Taue wouldn't go down without a fight though, and there was a great bit where he caught Tenryu coming off the ropes with a big boot to the chin before following up with a weird chokeslam that dropped him face-first. If wrestling was real then Hansen would have to be one of your top draft picks for a tag partner. He's exactly the kind of guy you'd want at your back in a fight. Any time Tenryu looked to be in even the slightest bit of bother Stan would come in and help. Put Tenryu in a leglock? Hansen is in kicking your face. Indian deathlock? Not on Hansen's watch. Taue and Kabuki got no respite whatsoever. He was also awesome at responding to Kabuki's short uppercuts (which looked GREAT, btw). The more Kabuki threw the more Hansen would sell them, going from almost annoyance at the start to eventually needing to just bowl Kabuki out the ring so he'd stop. Finish was cool as well, with Kabuki taking a wild bump to the floor off the lariat as Taue lay dead for a while after the double powerbomb.
Genichiro Tenryu, Koki Kitahara & Animal Hamaguchi v Kendo Nagasaki, Kishin Kawabata & Ryo Miyake (WAR, 6/30/94) - FUN
This is probably right on that line between FUN and SKIPPABLE, but I'm all about the WAR and there was enough randomness here that you probably should be too. Nagasaki is 53 at this point and he is flat out determined to skelp someone with a chair. Doesn't even matter who, he'll hit anyone. Hamaguchi is 47 but he drops elbows like a man two decades younger. They were great elbows, really quick and impactful. Tenryu took a bit of a backseat in this to let the others have the spotlight - as was his unselfish wont - and so Kitahara stepped into the role of guy kicking everyone in the face really hard. Kawabata was kicked many times in the face. Miyake was kicked many, many times in the face. Nagasaki was kicked once in the face and he went directly for that chair. Never for a second did you doubt the finish. This is the Wrestle and the Romance.
Complete & Accurate Tenryu
Saturday, 22 July 2017
Hideki Suzuki of the Day #15
Hideki Suzuki v Daisuke Sekimoto (Big Japan, 3/5/17)
I was caught a little bit in two minds coming into this. On the one hand it was a big title match in which I figured Suzuki would really get to stretch out and do his thing. On the other hand I knew it went half an hour and I wasn't sure how I'd handle half an hour of Sekimoto. But hey, it mostly turned out to be everything I wanted with almost nothing of what I didn't want! They grabbed me from the very first lock-up, laying some groundwork for the story they were going to tell. Sekimoto wins the initial test of strength because he's stronger, so Suzuki smartly uses his height and leverage to stand back up and slickly spin out to sweep Sekimoto's leg. Suzuki flexes out the kinks in his fingers and they lock up again, but this time Suzuki just throws Sekimoto over the ropes with a belly to belly. And from there it was just a super quick half hour. There were lots of things I liked in this. They never worked what you'd call a slow build as such, there wasn't much hold-trading or deliberate matwork early on, but they continued laying the foundations and it didn't take long for the story to form. Sekimoto is a real slab of meat and his number one aim is to steamroll you. Suzuki can't quite trample guys the same way but he's the superior technician, and so there are lots of examples of Sekimoto trying to flatten him or hit one of his bombs and Suzuki countering in unique ways, usually into a submission attempt. Sekimoto tries for a submission of his own by going to the torture rack and Suzuki does this great slow escape that he manages to turn into one of his airtight chin locks/chokes. Suzuki has so many cool variations of moves, often rolled out unexpectedly, like when Sekimoto lowers his head huffing air after a flurry of forearms and Suzuki yanks him right into a small package. He also brings a bunch of cool little touches to communicate the STRUGGLE, like grabbing Sekimoto's ankle so he can't be turned in a Boston crab or going dead weight to prevent the German suplex. I was mostly perfectly fine with the strike exchange as well, and I actually thought Suzuki threw the better shots. He's a world class striker anyway, but clubbering the dogshit out of someone, as much as he can annoy me, is something not many people do as well as Sekimoto. Even the no-selling/fighting spirit parts were tolerable, not just because there were only a couple of those bits during the whole match, but because they at least played into the story of Sekimoto being a juggernaut who's nearly impossible to stop if he builds up enough momentum. And if nothing else it led to Suzuki having to come up with more interesting ways of combating Sekimoto's little-engine-that's-too-stupid-to-know-it-should-stop-isms. I was a bit worried they'd started going back and forth towards the finish a bit early and that they'd lose me, but they really didn't at any point. I guess there were a couple ropey transitions, but the selling of exhaustion was mostly excellent and it really did feel like they fought a war. It always came off as a struggle rather than back and forth for back and forth's sake, which is one of my single biggest grumbles with modern puro. It isn't making you forget Misawa v Kawada or anything, but there were shades of the build to those big moves just the same. And the fact neither could hit their finisher not only left something of consequence on the table for the rematch, it made sure they never went too far into overkill in the first run. I heard this was good and I'm all the way on the Suzuki bandwagon by now, but it still managed to exceed my expectations.
I was caught a little bit in two minds coming into this. On the one hand it was a big title match in which I figured Suzuki would really get to stretch out and do his thing. On the other hand I knew it went half an hour and I wasn't sure how I'd handle half an hour of Sekimoto. But hey, it mostly turned out to be everything I wanted with almost nothing of what I didn't want! They grabbed me from the very first lock-up, laying some groundwork for the story they were going to tell. Sekimoto wins the initial test of strength because he's stronger, so Suzuki smartly uses his height and leverage to stand back up and slickly spin out to sweep Sekimoto's leg. Suzuki flexes out the kinks in his fingers and they lock up again, but this time Suzuki just throws Sekimoto over the ropes with a belly to belly. And from there it was just a super quick half hour. There were lots of things I liked in this. They never worked what you'd call a slow build as such, there wasn't much hold-trading or deliberate matwork early on, but they continued laying the foundations and it didn't take long for the story to form. Sekimoto is a real slab of meat and his number one aim is to steamroll you. Suzuki can't quite trample guys the same way but he's the superior technician, and so there are lots of examples of Sekimoto trying to flatten him or hit one of his bombs and Suzuki countering in unique ways, usually into a submission attempt. Sekimoto tries for a submission of his own by going to the torture rack and Suzuki does this great slow escape that he manages to turn into one of his airtight chin locks/chokes. Suzuki has so many cool variations of moves, often rolled out unexpectedly, like when Sekimoto lowers his head huffing air after a flurry of forearms and Suzuki yanks him right into a small package. He also brings a bunch of cool little touches to communicate the STRUGGLE, like grabbing Sekimoto's ankle so he can't be turned in a Boston crab or going dead weight to prevent the German suplex. I was mostly perfectly fine with the strike exchange as well, and I actually thought Suzuki threw the better shots. He's a world class striker anyway, but clubbering the dogshit out of someone, as much as he can annoy me, is something not many people do as well as Sekimoto. Even the no-selling/fighting spirit parts were tolerable, not just because there were only a couple of those bits during the whole match, but because they at least played into the story of Sekimoto being a juggernaut who's nearly impossible to stop if he builds up enough momentum. And if nothing else it led to Suzuki having to come up with more interesting ways of combating Sekimoto's little-engine-that's-too-stupid-to-know-it-should-stop-isms. I was a bit worried they'd started going back and forth towards the finish a bit early and that they'd lose me, but they really didn't at any point. I guess there were a couple ropey transitions, but the selling of exhaustion was mostly excellent and it really did feel like they fought a war. It always came off as a struggle rather than back and forth for back and forth's sake, which is one of my single biggest grumbles with modern puro. It isn't making you forget Misawa v Kawada or anything, but there were shades of the build to those big moves just the same. And the fact neither could hit their finisher not only left something of consequence on the table for the rematch, it made sure they never went too far into overkill in the first run. I heard this was good and I'm all the way on the Suzuki bandwagon by now, but it still managed to exceed my expectations.
Friday, 21 July 2017
Hideki Suzuki of the Day #14
Hideki Suzuki & Takuya Nomura v Yasafumi Nakanoue & Yoshihisa Uto (Big Japan, 7/24/16)
The feud that keeps on giving, this time with a neat new wrinkle. Suzuki and Nomura were a fun match-up, but they might be even more fun as a unit. This is now the fourth Nomura match I've seen and I'm definitely becoming a fan. He was really awesome in this with how he'd throw super fast hands and leap all over people trying to twist them into armbars. That he made his debut a mere three months prior to this means his strike exchanges carry some weight, how he'll try and hang with the established guys even though he's obviously the underdog. You want him to come out of those exchanges on top and you feel sympathy for him when he doesn't. I mean it's hard not to feel sympathy for him when Nakanoue and Uto are clobbering his face in, but his selling was pretty great as well. Suzuki was tremendous yet again. He was Nomura's burly big brother, content enough to let Nomura fight his own battles yet willing to step in when necessary. He approached his initial exchanges with a sort of condescending indifference, where Nakanoue would elbow him in the face (stiffly) and he wouldn't even dignify it with retaliation. It was intended to insult and Nakanoue knew it. Then he lost his marbles like everybody knew he would and he just murdered Nakanoue. That initial moment in a Suzuki match where his temper erupts is so great. It's truly Tenryu-esque. And these matches are all very derivative of WAR, the way the violence escalates and how there's always that sense of things being on the cusp of breaking down into a street brawl. Also loved the finish, with Nomura earning his stripes by holding off Nakanoue long enough for Suzuki to end things. Post-match Suzuki helps Uto back to his feet and shakes his hand in a show of respect. Nakanoue he leaves in a heap on the floor.
The feud that keeps on giving, this time with a neat new wrinkle. Suzuki and Nomura were a fun match-up, but they might be even more fun as a unit. This is now the fourth Nomura match I've seen and I'm definitely becoming a fan. He was really awesome in this with how he'd throw super fast hands and leap all over people trying to twist them into armbars. That he made his debut a mere three months prior to this means his strike exchanges carry some weight, how he'll try and hang with the established guys even though he's obviously the underdog. You want him to come out of those exchanges on top and you feel sympathy for him when he doesn't. I mean it's hard not to feel sympathy for him when Nakanoue and Uto are clobbering his face in, but his selling was pretty great as well. Suzuki was tremendous yet again. He was Nomura's burly big brother, content enough to let Nomura fight his own battles yet willing to step in when necessary. He approached his initial exchanges with a sort of condescending indifference, where Nakanoue would elbow him in the face (stiffly) and he wouldn't even dignify it with retaliation. It was intended to insult and Nakanoue knew it. Then he lost his marbles like everybody knew he would and he just murdered Nakanoue. That initial moment in a Suzuki match where his temper erupts is so great. It's truly Tenryu-esque. And these matches are all very derivative of WAR, the way the violence escalates and how there's always that sense of things being on the cusp of breaking down into a street brawl. Also loved the finish, with Nomura earning his stripes by holding off Nakanoue long enough for Suzuki to end things. Post-match Suzuki helps Uto back to his feet and shakes his hand in a show of respect. Nakanoue he leaves in a heap on the floor.
Thursday, 20 July 2017
Hideki Suzuki of the Day #13
Hideki Suzuki v Takuya Nomura (Big Japan, 7/9/16)
This felt like the right sort of progression from their June match (Hideki of the Day #10). The outcome still isn't really in doubt, but Nomura fought harder and took more of this. Suzuki would try things that he did in the first match, but Nomura would be ready for it and counter. Suzuki would try to counter the counter, but then Nomura would counter even that. He did his homework, he was relentless in going for openings, and Suzuki often found himself on the back foot. There were a few cool moments like that in particular. Nomura was crawling all over him at one point trying to grab a cross armbreaker, Suzuki tried to roll backwards out of it and Nomura caught his legs in a nifty cradle. Nomura tried to double stomp Suzuki's head again and there was a great bit where he fought out of a kneebar by slapping him really hard across the face. Nomura even has the big uppercuts scouted and reverses one into a slick backslide. Suzuki needs to go one step further than before when Nomura kicks out of the Billy Robinson backbreaker, so he sure plants him with the double underhook suplex. Give these guys seven/eight minutes and it'd be hard for them not to make it worthwhile.
This felt like the right sort of progression from their June match (Hideki of the Day #10). The outcome still isn't really in doubt, but Nomura fought harder and took more of this. Suzuki would try things that he did in the first match, but Nomura would be ready for it and counter. Suzuki would try to counter the counter, but then Nomura would counter even that. He did his homework, he was relentless in going for openings, and Suzuki often found himself on the back foot. There were a few cool moments like that in particular. Nomura was crawling all over him at one point trying to grab a cross armbreaker, Suzuki tried to roll backwards out of it and Nomura caught his legs in a nifty cradle. Nomura tried to double stomp Suzuki's head again and there was a great bit where he fought out of a kneebar by slapping him really hard across the face. Nomura even has the big uppercuts scouted and reverses one into a slick backslide. Suzuki needs to go one step further than before when Nomura kicks out of the Billy Robinson backbreaker, so he sure plants him with the double underhook suplex. Give these guys seven/eight minutes and it'd be hard for them not to make it worthwhile.
Wednesday, 19 July 2017
Hideki Suzuki of the Day #12
Hideki Suzuki & Daichi Hashimoto v Yasafumi Nakanoue & Yoshihisa Uto (Big Japan, 6/29/16)
"Nakanoue definitely feels like one of the weakest - or at least the most cookie cutter - of the players in this division when he isn't outright beefing with someone. Like, he needs that hook to draw me in". I said that yesterday in light of Nakanoue and Suzuki being on opposite ends of a match and not hating each other to death. So I went back to some 2016, and yeah, they really hated each other to death last year. This was fucking great. Suzuki was incredible in it and brought everything that made me a fan in the first place, but Nakanoue was so much more interesting this time it wasn't funny. It's actually he and Uto who start the mugging pre-match, which is a departure from Suzuki being the first to let his temper boil over. But of course it's only a matter of time before it does boil over. He really thumped Nakanoue with elbows and headbutts and threw in a Tenryu punt to the eye for good measure. They even did a strike exchange that I not only thought wasn't rubbish, but was in fact actively good, and I know I said I wasn't going to keep bringing up strike exchanges but this felt significant enough to warrant mention. Then Uto tried to get chippy so Suzuki stretched him and punched him in the kidney and dug his knuckles in his face (which gave Uto a bloody nose). Daichi establishing himself as the young guy who wouldn't take any shit was the other major plot line. He really swung for the fences with his kicks, threw a few coconut headbutts, flew into camera shot with a crazy dropkick, and overall I bought him as the young guy who wouldn't take any shit. So job done, I guess. Post-match Nakanoue tries to get back at Suzuki some more and Suzuki literally grabs ring boys by the head and throws them away in order to oblige. I love this feud and this match encapsulates everything that's great about it.
"Nakanoue definitely feels like one of the weakest - or at least the most cookie cutter - of the players in this division when he isn't outright beefing with someone. Like, he needs that hook to draw me in". I said that yesterday in light of Nakanoue and Suzuki being on opposite ends of a match and not hating each other to death. So I went back to some 2016, and yeah, they really hated each other to death last year. This was fucking great. Suzuki was incredible in it and brought everything that made me a fan in the first place, but Nakanoue was so much more interesting this time it wasn't funny. It's actually he and Uto who start the mugging pre-match, which is a departure from Suzuki being the first to let his temper boil over. But of course it's only a matter of time before it does boil over. He really thumped Nakanoue with elbows and headbutts and threw in a Tenryu punt to the eye for good measure. They even did a strike exchange that I not only thought wasn't rubbish, but was in fact actively good, and I know I said I wasn't going to keep bringing up strike exchanges but this felt significant enough to warrant mention. Then Uto tried to get chippy so Suzuki stretched him and punched him in the kidney and dug his knuckles in his face (which gave Uto a bloody nose). Daichi establishing himself as the young guy who wouldn't take any shit was the other major plot line. He really swung for the fences with his kicks, threw a few coconut headbutts, flew into camera shot with a crazy dropkick, and overall I bought him as the young guy who wouldn't take any shit. So job done, I guess. Post-match Nakanoue tries to get back at Suzuki some more and Suzuki literally grabs ring boys by the head and throws them away in order to oblige. I love this feud and this match encapsulates everything that's great about it.
Tuesday, 18 July 2017
Hideki Suzuki of the Day #11
Hideki Suzuki & Daichi Hashimoto v Yuji Okabayashi & Yasafumi Nakanoue (Big Japan, 2/26/17)
Pretty standard twelve minute house show tag. Suzuki and Nakanoue have definitely moved past whatever made them hate one another to death in 2016. Which is somewhat unfortunate. Nakanoue definitely feels like one of the weakest - or at least the most cookie cutter - of the players in this division when he isn't outright beefing with someone. Like, he needs that hook to draw me in, whereas Suzuki is game against pretty much anyone, Okabayashi will throw huge chops against whoever he's in there with, and Daichi at least feels somewhat interesting if for no reason other than the family name. Then again this had one of those screamy tough guy strike exchanges between Daichi and Okabayashi that makes you cringe so hard your face falls off and Nakanaoue did not. So who knows. Suzuki threw one awesome chop-forearm-uppercut combo but otherwise this was fairly nondescript.
Pretty standard twelve minute house show tag. Suzuki and Nakanoue have definitely moved past whatever made them hate one another to death in 2016. Which is somewhat unfortunate. Nakanoue definitely feels like one of the weakest - or at least the most cookie cutter - of the players in this division when he isn't outright beefing with someone. Like, he needs that hook to draw me in, whereas Suzuki is game against pretty much anyone, Okabayashi will throw huge chops against whoever he's in there with, and Daichi at least feels somewhat interesting if for no reason other than the family name. Then again this had one of those screamy tough guy strike exchanges between Daichi and Okabayashi that makes you cringe so hard your face falls off and Nakanaoue did not. So who knows. Suzuki threw one awesome chop-forearm-uppercut combo but otherwise this was fairly nondescript.
Monday, 17 July 2017
Hideki Suzuki of the Day #10
Hideki Suzuki v Takuya Nomura (Big Japan, 6/29/16)
This was cool as fuck. I'd seen Nomura once before in a tag match, but this is the first time I've gotten a look at him in a focused singles setting. He works as quick young striker and throws nice hands and feet, pretty much everything landing with a smack (this is Big Japan, after all). Suzuki doesn't really work as a bully as such, but he's the bigger man and so he works as dominant grappler and throws Nomura around with some awesome wrestling. It's a ready made dynamic and it worked a treat. Some of Suzuki's takedowns in this were so great. There was one bit where he just ripped out an inside cradle from nowhere and it was probably the tightest, most realistic use of a small package I've seen in a pro-wrestling match. It had no set up and didn't look cooperative at all, but if he'd wanted to he probably could've kept Nomura tied up like that for several minutes. At another point he dropped to his back to invite Nomura to grapple with him and Nomura tried to fucking double stomp him in the face instead. And good grief will Suzuki try and bend you all the way in half with a Boston Crab. Super fun match-up. Suzuki basically working as burlier Osamu Nishimura is something I can absolutely get behind.
This was cool as fuck. I'd seen Nomura once before in a tag match, but this is the first time I've gotten a look at him in a focused singles setting. He works as quick young striker and throws nice hands and feet, pretty much everything landing with a smack (this is Big Japan, after all). Suzuki doesn't really work as a bully as such, but he's the bigger man and so he works as dominant grappler and throws Nomura around with some awesome wrestling. It's a ready made dynamic and it worked a treat. Some of Suzuki's takedowns in this were so great. There was one bit where he just ripped out an inside cradle from nowhere and it was probably the tightest, most realistic use of a small package I've seen in a pro-wrestling match. It had no set up and didn't look cooperative at all, but if he'd wanted to he probably could've kept Nomura tied up like that for several minutes. At another point he dropped to his back to invite Nomura to grapple with him and Nomura tried to fucking double stomp him in the face instead. And good grief will Suzuki try and bend you all the way in half with a Boston Crab. Super fun match-up. Suzuki basically working as burlier Osamu Nishimura is something I can absolutely get behind.
Sunday, 16 July 2017
Hideki Suzuki of the Day #9
Hideki Suzuki v Masakatsu Funaki (Zero-1, 3/1/15)
Really cool seven minutes. Funaki was the heir to Inoki and Suzuki is a 2010s Billy Robinson, so you knew you'd get some neat matwork, and while it didn't last very long it most certainly was neat. Funaki is more than a decade Suzuki's senior but you couldn't tell from how he moves. He's still super quick in the scramble, rolling through and grabbing armbars like it was 1996. The last couple minutes were just great. They burst into a frantic race to either score the submission or drop the other with a bug suplex and the slickness with which they were reversing and countering was pretty impressive. Wish it were longer, but you take what you can get.
Really cool seven minutes. Funaki was the heir to Inoki and Suzuki is a 2010s Billy Robinson, so you knew you'd get some neat matwork, and while it didn't last very long it most certainly was neat. Funaki is more than a decade Suzuki's senior but you couldn't tell from how he moves. He's still super quick in the scramble, rolling through and grabbing armbars like it was 1996. The last couple minutes were just great. They burst into a frantic race to either score the submission or drop the other with a bug suplex and the slickness with which they were reversing and countering was pretty impressive. Wish it were longer, but you take what you can get.
Friday, 14 July 2017
Hideki Suzuki of the Day #8
Hideki Suzuki & Yoshihisa Uto v Daisuke Sekimoto & Seiya Sanada (Big Japan, 2/18/16)
This was kind of low-key compared to the Big Japan I've watched recently - nobody really tried to cave anybody else's face in - but it felt like a vehicle to push Sanada, and in that sense I suppose it did its job well enough. He wasn't spectacular or anything and his offence was a bit juniory, but at least it looked crisp. The finish run with him and Uto was basically garden variety "you hit your move and I'll hit mine" stuff, though. Suzuki/Sekimoto made for a fun match-up, especially their exchange where they fought over hammerlocks and top wrist locks. Sekimoto is the pits and the poster boy for most of what I can't be arsed with in modern Japanese wrestling, but to be fair to him he paired up well with Suzuki. His forearm exchanges with Uto also had the added wrinkle of a hierarchy gulf, so it didn't come across as being completely hackneyed. His facial expressions are still ridiculous, however. Perfectly fine twelve minutes overall.
This was kind of low-key compared to the Big Japan I've watched recently - nobody really tried to cave anybody else's face in - but it felt like a vehicle to push Sanada, and in that sense I suppose it did its job well enough. He wasn't spectacular or anything and his offence was a bit juniory, but at least it looked crisp. The finish run with him and Uto was basically garden variety "you hit your move and I'll hit mine" stuff, though. Suzuki/Sekimoto made for a fun match-up, especially their exchange where they fought over hammerlocks and top wrist locks. Sekimoto is the pits and the poster boy for most of what I can't be arsed with in modern Japanese wrestling, but to be fair to him he paired up well with Suzuki. His forearm exchanges with Uto also had the added wrinkle of a hierarchy gulf, so it didn't come across as being completely hackneyed. His facial expressions are still ridiculous, however. Perfectly fine twelve minutes overall.
Thursday, 13 July 2017
Hideki Suzuki of the Day #7
Hideki Suzuki & Yoshihisa Uto v Shuji Ishikawa & Kohei Sato (Big Japan, 9/21/15)
Big Japan truly is the land of the crowbar-wielding potato farmers. I've had that impression for a while if only from reading about it, but watching this stuff confirms it. Ishikawa, Sato, Suzuki, Okabayashi, Kawakami, Sekimoto, even the rookies -- everybody thumps the absolute dogfuck out of each other. It's a bit of a departure from the barbed wire landmine deathmatch focus of yore (though Abby Jr. and the deathmatch crowd are still doing their thing. It's sort of surreal seeing Yuko Miyamoto as grizzled old bastard with criss-cross scarring all over his back when a decade ago he was the pretty young fella being hurled off scaffold. So...surreal yet understandable, I guess). This was all around badass to begin with, but the added hook with Uto stepping to the plate against the big dogs really kicked it up a few notches. And by Christ did Uto get abused in his stepping to the plate against the big dogs. Kohei Sato has been around for a while now but he's always been a guy on the periphery of my attention. I couldn't tell you if he's always worked like this, but based on recent evidence he might throw the hardest elbows in wrestling. He was just plastering Uto here. Ishikawa is someone I now want to watch more of independent of this little project and he was a super fun bully again. His knees to Uto's body were outrageous, but it was the interactions with Suzuki that ruled the most. There was one strike exchange where they were just hammering each other and laughing along like a pair of sadists, gumshields half hanging out mouths and spittle flying. Everybody and their granny and their granny's dog knew who was taking the fall here, but it was the journey that you came to see and a heck of a fun journey it was.
Big Japan truly is the land of the crowbar-wielding potato farmers. I've had that impression for a while if only from reading about it, but watching this stuff confirms it. Ishikawa, Sato, Suzuki, Okabayashi, Kawakami, Sekimoto, even the rookies -- everybody thumps the absolute dogfuck out of each other. It's a bit of a departure from the barbed wire landmine deathmatch focus of yore (though Abby Jr. and the deathmatch crowd are still doing their thing. It's sort of surreal seeing Yuko Miyamoto as grizzled old bastard with criss-cross scarring all over his back when a decade ago he was the pretty young fella being hurled off scaffold. So...surreal yet understandable, I guess). This was all around badass to begin with, but the added hook with Uto stepping to the plate against the big dogs really kicked it up a few notches. And by Christ did Uto get abused in his stepping to the plate against the big dogs. Kohei Sato has been around for a while now but he's always been a guy on the periphery of my attention. I couldn't tell you if he's always worked like this, but based on recent evidence he might throw the hardest elbows in wrestling. He was just plastering Uto here. Ishikawa is someone I now want to watch more of independent of this little project and he was a super fun bully again. His knees to Uto's body were outrageous, but it was the interactions with Suzuki that ruled the most. There was one strike exchange where they were just hammering each other and laughing along like a pair of sadists, gumshields half hanging out mouths and spittle flying. Everybody and their granny and their granny's dog knew who was taking the fall here, but it was the journey that you came to see and a heck of a fun journey it was.
Wednesday, 12 July 2017
Hideki Suzuki of the Day #6
Hideki Suzuki v Ryuichi Kawakami (Big Japan, 2/10/17)
Presumably the follow-up singles to the January tag (for more information on this wrestling match, see Hideki of the Day #3), this definitely had a 'first match in the feud' feel to it. You need to start somewhere, though, and for eleven minutes it was a cool first match in the feud. Both guys are pretty coy in the early parts, neither wanting to play too much of their hand too early, though like in most Suzuki matches we get some nice exchanging of holds. There's a great Suzuki moment where he counters a chin lock by grabbing one of Kawakami's wrists and twisting like he's opening a stubborn jar of pickles. Sometimes you can just tell from a wrestler's reaction whether it's all selling or not, and this looked like the grimace of a man who knew he was either being taken down to the mat or losing a hand. There was another part as well where Suzuki had him in a tight headlock and Kawakami's face was contorted into about four different expressions. I've only seen Kawakami twice so I'm still in the process of formulating an opinion on him, but I'll tell you this much: he hits like a bastard. He threw some MEATY forearms, brothers. Last few minutes were real good and the finish was great. Suzuki had come close to hitting the butterfly suplex a couple times, but Kawakami had been able to reverse. Kawakami then connected with a big forearm and Suzuki went full on dead weight, and for a second I thought they were actually gonna do a ref' stoppage. Kawakami eventually managed to get him up, but Suzuki was playing possum and hit the butterfly for the quick three. Satisfying build up to what I assume will be plenty of ill will and ass-beating and whatnot.
Presumably the follow-up singles to the January tag (for more information on this wrestling match, see Hideki of the Day #3), this definitely had a 'first match in the feud' feel to it. You need to start somewhere, though, and for eleven minutes it was a cool first match in the feud. Both guys are pretty coy in the early parts, neither wanting to play too much of their hand too early, though like in most Suzuki matches we get some nice exchanging of holds. There's a great Suzuki moment where he counters a chin lock by grabbing one of Kawakami's wrists and twisting like he's opening a stubborn jar of pickles. Sometimes you can just tell from a wrestler's reaction whether it's all selling or not, and this looked like the grimace of a man who knew he was either being taken down to the mat or losing a hand. There was another part as well where Suzuki had him in a tight headlock and Kawakami's face was contorted into about four different expressions. I've only seen Kawakami twice so I'm still in the process of formulating an opinion on him, but I'll tell you this much: he hits like a bastard. He threw some MEATY forearms, brothers. Last few minutes were real good and the finish was great. Suzuki had come close to hitting the butterfly suplex a couple times, but Kawakami had been able to reverse. Kawakami then connected with a big forearm and Suzuki went full on dead weight, and for a second I thought they were actually gonna do a ref' stoppage. Kawakami eventually managed to get him up, but Suzuki was playing possum and hit the butterfly for the quick three. Satisfying build up to what I assume will be plenty of ill will and ass-beating and whatnot.
Tuesday, 11 July 2017
Hideki Suzuki of the Day #5
Hideki Suzuki v Kohei Sato (Zero-1, 3/27/16)
Killer match. Suzuki was pretty fucking sensational in this. It's not especially long for a title match (clocks in at around fourteen minutes), but he controls most of it by working Sato's arm and it is some awesome arm work. He has an array of octopus stretch holds where he simultaneously ties up a different body part while bending the right arm at horrific angles. Sato is completely helpless at points and Suzuki is crawling all over him and trying to wrap Sato's arm around his own body like a beach towel. He also throws European uppercuts and grounded knees directly to the arm, which obviously ruled. It's not often I'll complain about a wrestling match in the current climate not having a longer finishing stretch, but I thought this could've done with a few more minutes. I did like the idea of Sato rolling out a few bombs in fairly quick succession to knock Suzuki loopy, and I guess it theoretically leaves the door open for a rematch, but it felt like Suzuki maybe went down a wee bit too easily. Or maybe I just wanted the match to continue because I was diggin' it. Who knows? Either way I thought this was pretty great.
Killer match. Suzuki was pretty fucking sensational in this. It's not especially long for a title match (clocks in at around fourteen minutes), but he controls most of it by working Sato's arm and it is some awesome arm work. He has an array of octopus stretch holds where he simultaneously ties up a different body part while bending the right arm at horrific angles. Sato is completely helpless at points and Suzuki is crawling all over him and trying to wrap Sato's arm around his own body like a beach towel. He also throws European uppercuts and grounded knees directly to the arm, which obviously ruled. It's not often I'll complain about a wrestling match in the current climate not having a longer finishing stretch, but I thought this could've done with a few more minutes. I did like the idea of Sato rolling out a few bombs in fairly quick succession to knock Suzuki loopy, and I guess it theoretically leaves the door open for a rematch, but it felt like Suzuki maybe went down a wee bit too easily. Or maybe I just wanted the match to continue because I was diggin' it. Who knows? Either way I thought this was pretty great.
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