Like a Full Steaming Train Helping to Lay Tenryu's Own Track, Bring on the Storms and the Rain, Ain't Nothing Holding Him Back

Genichiro Tenryu v Koji Kitao (WAR, 12/4/94) - GREAT

This was like the best possible version of a rounds-system RINGS fight between an old disgruntled ex-sumo wrestler and a younger, fatter ex-sumo wrestler. I mean I've watched a stupid amount of matches comprised of five three minute rounds the last few years. Some from RINGS, some from UWFi, some of them shoots, some of them not, but none of them this much fun. Tenryu looked every bit as great in 1994 as he did in 1993 and some of his selling was absolutely phenomenal. He sells Kitao's first flurry of Vader-ish soup bones likes he's been concussed, rolls out the ring grimacing after a leg kick, eats shots like he very much did not expect to be eating shots; he's one of the best sellers ever and always brings an awesome, subtle hint of realism to things. Of course he also wallops the dogshit out of Kitao. At one point he had him in the mount throwing forearms and punches, rasping his displeasure at Kitao having the audacity to cover up, so he just started choking him with the collar of Kitao's own gi. I liked how they started incorporating more of the pro-style elements round to round as well. In round one the closest thing to your pro wrestling was a Tenryu chop. In the second round he thumped Kitao with an absolute bastard of a lariat, a koppo kick that connected with both heels straight to the cranium, and Kitao hit a huge uranage. By the third round you had Tenryu trying to powerbomb him and Kitao hitting a fucking Michinoku Driver! Kitao's ax kick at the end about had me on the floor and Tenryu selling it like it shattered his clavicle is why he is the very greatest of them all. If Kitao has a match that's better I'll be surprised because this was just absurdly fun.


Genichiro Tenryu v Genki Horiguchi (Toryumon Japan, 7/13/03) - FUN

This was Tenryu beating up an Ultimo Dragon trainee for five minutes. The ceiling for that is never going to be sky high but the floor is pretty much always something fun, and this was a fun five minutes. Genki is one of the more tolerable guys from the Dragon Gate system and was always a decent face in peril back when I paid attention. He was here to take a hiding and a hiding he took. The crowd were red hot for him as well and when Tenryu started booting him in the eye they sure voiced their displeasure. Genki's running buddies got involved briefly as they all took turns flying at Tenryu in the corner, then Tenryu chopped them all and punched Genki in the face. A big blue tray was thrown in at some point and as Genki went to pick it up Tenryu put a foot on it, looked at him like "not today, motherfucker," and conked him over the head with the big blue tray. When someone chucked about a kilo of powder in Tenryu's eyes and Genki caught him in the backslide I actually wondered if they were going to run the upset. We one and all wondered no longer after Tenryu took the wee fella's head off with a lariat.


Complete & Accurate Tenryu

Tenryu Should've Been a Cowboy, He Should've Learned to Rope and Ride, Wearing His Six-Shooter, Riding His Pony on a Cattle Drive

Genichiro Tenryu & Masao Orihara v The Great Kabuki & Koki Kitahara (WAR, 7/14/92) - EPIC

Well, start as you mean to go on, I guess. This was the main event of the WAR debut show and if you had any questions as to how things would be done in this particular Tenryu fed then they were answered pretty quickly. What a spectacular festival of violence this was. It almost felt like the best possible version of your classic WAR formula threaded through a dramatic double heat segment AWA tag. It had the extended beatdowns and the hope spots and cut-offs. It had the hot tags and even hotter finish. Only here the extended beatdowns were attempted homicides and the hope spots and cut-offs a hundred times more vicious. Here the hot tags led to someone's orbital bone getting demolished and the even hotter finish had someone getting dropped on their neck. The match starts with Tenryu and Kabuki pairing off, a couple guys who've worked together for years settling into this new home they've come to share. So Tenryu just chops him dead in the trachea inside twelve seconds. Just a totally inordinate and unnecessary response to what had been a simple shoulderblock. Kabuki is left rolling around clawing at his throat and I half expected the ref' to give him an emergency tracheotomy. And basically we're off to the races from that moment on. Orihara was tremendous in this and it felt like a true star-making performance. He gets absolutely smashed to bits. Him and Kitahara is a match-up that fucking ruled in SWS because Kitahara would just beat the brakes off him, but nothing like this. At one point Orihara did a kip-up and backflipped out of a top wrist lock and Kitahara obviously hated it because he made his life a total misery thereafter. There was one part where it looked like he was going to hit a piledriver, but then he muscled him up a bit further and hit a fucking Ganso Bomb! Kabuki never could backflip very well so he made the kid's life a misery too. I don't think I've ever seen Kabuki work stiffer than this. Everything he did was the most potatoey version of it possible, from his neckbreaker to his uppercuts under the chin, then he'd tag in Kitahara and Orihara would be kicked full force in the ear and neck. And what really made it was the way Orihara kept trying to fight back. He'd always try to throw punches or struggle to create some distance, although it usually only ended with him getting walloped even harder. It made everything feel uncooperative, like he did not want to be set upon like this and that he wasn't just there to take a beating and tag out, which at times almost made it an uneasy watch. The first hot tag was pretty much perfect as he fought back by kicking lumps out of Kitahara in return, then Tenryu came in taking heads off and from there everything went up another few notches. The back half of this had something wild or awesome or outright barbaric - sometimes all three at once - happening every few seconds. Orihara's second heat segment sees him get the shit kicked out of him even worse than before but he fights back by crushing Kabuki with two dives. Tenryu breaks a chair over Kabuki's back so later Kabuki superkicks him in the throat. The partner saves are just stupid brutal even for WAR as Kitahara ends up with his eyebrow split in half. All of the Tenryu/Kitahara sections towards the end were incredible and Tenryu trying to punt his spleen through the uprights was fucking unbelievable. It honest to god might've been the most hellish beating he's ever delivered to someone. I mean think of the SCOPE of that! Just amazing front to back. The WAR Main Event Tag is an acquired taste, but this was a classic of the genre and might be the best WAR match of them all.


Complete & Accurate Tenryu

Kandori v Saito; Kandori & Hotta murder each other!

Shinobu Kandori v Harley Saito (JWP, 7/19/90)

Maybe it's because I haven't watched any JWP in ages, but stylistically this felt quite a bit different to what Ozaki and Kansai and the rest would be doing a few years later. It wasn't worked the same as Ohtani/Samurai from 1/96 so it's not a perfect analogy, but it reminded me of that if for no reason other than how there was a template there for juniors matches going forward, yet ultimately they decided to take the division in a different direction and it wound up being less interesting (well, to me it did). There aren't all that many joshi matches I'd compare to this in style and that's a shame, because it was pretty great. It was hard not to pick up some shoot style vibes just from the way they worked holds and treated the strikes. There was also the underlying dynamic of Kandori being this badass grappler and Saito being the underdog striker. It was almost the inverse of Ishikawa/Ikeda with the grappler being the dominant mauler. Saito is a little treasure and she took it straight to Kandori like she knew it was her only means of survival. Offence was her best defence and there's one part where she literally punts Kandori out the ring. It was brutal, and yet you knew it was necessary. Kandori obviously had a bunch of killer takedowns and ways of yanking Saito into submission attempts, and once or twice she unloaded with a few big strikes of her own. They do a roll-up reversal bit about two thirds in that I wasn't initially digging, but then they give it a cool twist and use it for a dramatic false finish. Last few minutes were great as you felt it slipping away from Saito as Kandori was just dropping her with bombs, but there was always life left in Harley with those cradles. I think I'm about ready to revisit the famous Kandori/Hokuto match. I've been on a bit of a joshi kick lately so if it's ever going to truly resonate with me I'm guessing it'll be now.


Shinobu Kandori & Mizuki Endo v Yumiko Hotta & Kimiko Maekawa (LLPW, 8/15/97)

How in the name of Christ did Kandori ever get a shitty rep as a worker? This was fucking wild. It's largely strikers (Hotta/Maekawa) v grapplers (Kandori/Endo), but the wrinkle is that Endo can't really hang and so it feels like Kandori often has to go it alone. It didn't help that Endo charged Hotta before the bell and I guess got punched or stabbed in the guts for her trouble, so she started the match even more handicapped than usual. Hotta and Maekawa were an unbelievable pair of thugs in this. About six seconds in Hotta punts Endo's teeth through the back of her head and from that point forward she and Maekawa throw a staggering amount of vicious kicks. Some of these were truly vile and they came in multiple shapes and sizes. Maekawa would fold Endo in half with a camel clutch while Hotta would blast her in the chest, then they'd switch over and try to outdo each other. Hotta was swinging for the fences like she always did, but her partner on the night had her beat. Maekawa was always stiff as a bastard, like Murakami only with kicks and even more reckless into the bargain. She was hitting ax kicks to the forehead and neck, pump kicks to the face, roundhouses, Wanderlei punts, penalty kicks, the whole repertoire of gratuitous violence. Kandori as walking tall badass was amazing, though. The first time she gets in there's a palpable sense of shit getting real and those moments where she was launching folk with judo throws and snapping into submissions were awesome. There were parts where Endo was lying half dead somewhere so she'd have to weather the storm by herself, taking one opponent down only to be kicked ridiculously hard in the face by the other, which more than once led to her being kicked ridiculously hard in the face by both of them. She's usually a great seller of strikes anyway, maybe my favourite in all of joshi, and there was one shot from Maekawa that was near Fujiwara level. All of the exchanges with Hotta ruled as well. You can sort of understand how it isn't really mentioned as a classic feud in the joshi pantheon, but every time they match up it's nuclear. The slow circling, the mugging, the shit-talking, Hotta's strikes v Kandori's wrestling, those highlights like Kandori spearing her out her boots and raining down elbows. How has this gone so far under the radar? Finish is awesome as well. Endo's been taken out for the umpteenth time and Kandori is trying to finish Maekawa, but Hotta won't give her a second's peace and is constantly breaking up submission attempts. Kandori clearly tells her to fuck off out the ring, and as she goes to leave Kandori jumps her and chokes her out. Kandori finally has Maekawa one on one and now she has until Hotta regains consciousness to put her away. The armbar at the end is grotesque and Endo managing to hold off the reawakening Hotta was a great little slice of revenge. I thought this was incredible and one of the best joshi matches of the decade.

Kobashi v Misawa -- The Superclassic!

Kenta Kobashi v Mitsuharu Misawa (All Japan, 1/20/97)

Well, in case y'all might've had other ideas, this is still an absolute fucking scorcher of a pro-wrestling match. I've had trouble with a few of the lengthier All Japan matches (even the truly heralded ones) in recent times and struggled to really settle in early. There'll usually be a point where they do something and it all clicks into place and they'll have me 100% for the rest of the journey, but even in the '96 Tag League I found the first ten minutes sort of bland, at least in comparison to the rest of it. This had me right from the go and not once did I check out.

There are really only four or five key transitions/momentum shifts the whole match and we get two in the first ten or so minutes. After the initial feeling out stage, which at this point for these two is a case of throwing strikes and hitting a mid-range bomb, Kobashi gains control and starts working Misawa's ribs. It doesn't last too long but it's good stuff. Kobashi wasn't DEEPLY into the stage of his career where he'd start doing annoying shit, although even at his fighting spirity worst he always had killer offence and world class strikes. He'd cut off Misawa early by hitting a sort of leaping spear, then he'd back him into the corner and throw these great body punches, and of course everything was interspersed with his chop variations. He has great chops and will spin chop you right in the neck so we're all digging proceedings early. When Misawa takes over he sells the damage pretty subtly, like how he'll stop after an offensive move and huff a bit longer than usual. He isn't selling like his lungs are burst because the situation doesn't require that, but he's just been kneed in the guts several times so he's not in perfect shape either.

Then the major turning point comes when he tries to hit the elbow off the apron and smashes his arm off the guardrail. Kobashi is absolutely first class going after this and has a ton of interesting ways to work the arm. Submissions hadn't been over as legitimately viable finishers in All Japan for about six years at this point but I'll be fucked if they never had folk buying that cross armbreaker when he finally locked it in. They had those awesome little bits of build and escalation working as well, like how Kobashi went for the cross armbreaker initially and Misawa made the ropes before it could be properly applied, which put over how much of a struggle even getting that hold on him would be, and then of course it felt huge when it eventually happened for real. Misawa's sell of the arm was phenomenal and about as good as any sell of a body part I've seen. He was typically subtle with it, especially in comparison to Kobashi's grander expressions, but he was pure magic. You knew he was going to keep throwing elbows no matter what. It's his oldest and most reliable weapon; even if that arm's hanging on by a mere sinew he will elbow you in the fucking mouth. It's the way he'd do the little things, though. The longer it went and the more damage Kobashi did to the arm, the more effort Misawa needed to exert and the more detrimental throwing those elbows would be. He'd fire back with one and it'd rock Kobashi, but then he'd need to use the other arm to follow up, or worse yet take a second for the pain to subside, and that would sometimes let Kobashi back in. Kobashi refusing to be put in his place by his old partner was great as well. He wasn't Misawa's #2 anymore, he was the Triple Crown champ and Misawa needed to step back. Then he goes for the lariat and Misawa just fucks him in the arm with his own dodgy elbow, so now we've got both guys with a bad wing.

The contrast in selling is so cool at this point, because both sell their arm amazingly, but it goes back to Kobashi being way more grandiose with Misawa stoicly powering through. And whether it was intentional on their part or just a byproduct of how they chose to communicate pain, Kobashi's arm being totally fucked after ONE Misawa elbow after all the shit he had thrown at said elbow himself told a story in its own right. Misawa might not look like it, but that guy is the Terminator and you better take your opportunity to put him away when you have it. Misawa doesn't really work the arm to the extent Kobashi did, but it remains an outlet for Misawa to exploit and Kobashi is clearly hampered by it. At this point they start bringing out the bombs and if they ended the match after 25 minutes it would've been a MOTYC. Except they go another 15, and the fact it never once felt remotely like overkill is sort of staggering in its own right (I know YMMV but generally speaking my mileage is not typically great on heavily extended finishing runs). There were a ton of awesome moments, from the micro to the macro, my favourite maybe coming when Kobashi decides he has to use the arm for the lariat only for Misawa to block it and both of them end up going down clutching an arm. I guess you could argue that Kobashi should've gone back after the arm when Misawa started to regain some footing, but it never felt like Kobashi's end goal was to win with an arm hold or the likes. It was there as a base off of which he could start dropping nukes, while at the same time slowing Misawa down. The latter was clearly working because Misawa was struggling to hit his own big moves (and again, the way he sold that was near impeccable), and that alone kept Kobashi in the fight. Misawa even hit the Tiger Driver and couldn't cover him properly because the arm basically gave out. More arm work might've made the whole end stretch even more dramatic, but I definitely don't think it suffered due to any lack of it.

The last big momentum shift comes when Kobashi goes for his one last "no you will NOT make the big fucking comeback" gambit by trying a powerbomb off the apron. It's full desperation and the STRUGGLE is so great, just from the way Misawa practically tries to crawl out the ring for some respite while Kobashi sees his chance and has to pick him up one-handed. Of course Misawa reverses it and Kobashi takes a ludicrous rana bump to the floor and sells it like he's been shot in the kidneys. He never fully recovers from there while Misawa does what he always does and finds a way, because he is by god Mitsuharu Misawa and you shall not pass. Kobashi kicking out of the Tiger Driver '91 was massive and there might've even been a hint of uncertainty on Misawa's face. After that all Kobashi can really do is crawl around half dead, feebly attempting these lariats from his knees that have nothing behind them. By the end he knows for an absolute fact that he's fucked, yet he'll stand and meet his doom head on because at the end of it all we are who we are and he is Kenta Kobashi.

There are only a small handful of matches at this point that I'm almost completely confident will hold up to the absolute elite/***** level no matter how often I watch them. I've said before that the book on 90s All Japan is pretty much closed for me and I don't have a ton of interest in rewatching it, but there are more All Japan matches included among that handful than any other. I would give this match the full McConaughey in True Detective GIF; the most prestigious of all Whiskey & Wrestling accolades.

Wagner v Niebla (two incredibly cool masks)

Dr. Wagner Jr. v Mr. Niebla (CMLL, 9/2/97)

I remember reading about this back in the old DVDVRs. Like, fifteen years ago, not back as in all the way back IN THE DAY of 1997 as at that point I was merely a pup and the internet didn't reach Scotland until 2003 anyhow. I wasn't really hip to the lucha libre then, intent as I was in tracking down the New Japan juniors and the All Japan classics, but I knew Wagner from his stint in Japan and Dean gushing over this match made it seem impossibly cool. Those old DVDVRs were the best. I wish they didn't get ether'd when the board went down, because they probably shaped my tastes in wrestling as much as anything at a time when I was paying £40 for three tapes from fucking Golden Boy and the likes. Anyway, I finally checked this out a few years back on one of the re-released Schneider Comps and it never quite lived up to my hype. Rewatching it today it stands up as being good without ever reaching that upper level, although they aimed for that in the tercera. The first two caidas were pretty neat and made up my favourite stretch of the match. Niebla doesn't necessarily look like he'd be the most graceful flier, but for a light heavyweight he sure could move. At times it looked like Wagner didn't know how to handle him. Everything he tried, Niebla would flip out of it, whether it was landing on his feet off a monkey flip or straight backflipping off the top turnbuckle. You could argue that he went to the dive too early, but it was a great tope and it at least made sense for him to stick with what was working. It followed a similar pattern in the segunda and Wagner was still having trouble keeping him grounded. That Niebla sold the winning crucifix pin between falls longer than the Liger bomb a few minutes earlier was a bit jarring, but Wagner coming out aggressive in the tercera covered well enough. The tercera itself was something that wouldn't have looked out of place in 2007, at least in terms of some individual moments. Then again if you transplanted this into the third fall of a 2007 title match it would look about a hundred times better than the norm. I mean it was largely a collection of bombs, but they built the nearfalls gradually, and even if the flow was a little stop-start it was head and shoulders above your shoddy Mistico/Averno bouts of a decade on.  We got some decent legwork for a minute there, Wagner stopping mid-beating to get on the house mic and talk trash, and Niebla's second tope was a peach. Wagner dipping into his New Japan bag was a cool touch as well and the finish looked brutal. Not a classic, but 1997 was an absolutely loaded year so I guess it's hard to stack up.

RINGS Korakuen Experiment: Round 1 (2/28/93)

Masayuki Naruse v Sergei Sousserov

Man this was fun. It was a little sloppy at points and not everything came off great, but the striking had a recklessness to it - especially Sousserov's - and we got some neat takedowns and submission attempts that the crowd really peaked for when you wanted them to (it's Korakuen, after all). Nothing on the ground was particularly slick and it was a little stop-start with them getting tangled in the ropes, but they were both going for it and I don't mind some choppiness if there's energy to it. Sousserov is the business and this was probably one of my favourite non-Han or Maeda bouts so far.


Mitsuya Nagai v Sandor Telgen 

You know, this was perfectly fine. It only went five minutes and it wasn't setting the world on fire, but they at least kept the stand-up moving along. None of the kicks landed particularly clean, but they threw a bunch of them and there was no standing around doing nothing. Nagai also had a couple cool takedowns and the finish was sweet. There have been worse bouts, let me tell you.


Naoyuki Taira v Toshiyuki Atokawa

This is the fifth Taira match/fight I've watched this week, and for someone I hadn't even heard of until a couple years ago I'm sold on him being pretty fun. I'm not entirely sure what the rules were here, but there are five three minute rounds, interchanging between kickboxing and MMA, and it very much may possibly have been a shoot. It wasn't great or anything but it was spirited and Taira visibly enjoying himself out there was sort of infectious. At one point he went for a flying knee and absolutely hurled himself out the ring, then came back in smiling a little sheepishly even though the crowd ate it up. They appreciated the effort, certainly. Maeda also came in and officiated the MMA/RINGS rounds of the fight and the crowd sure seemed to get a kick out of that as well.


I have the TV version of this show - hence the brevity of it - which is missing a Kimura/Nishi bout that was on the comm tape. The completionist in me wants to hunt it down but then the sane part of me realises it's probably a waste of time as it's not really the most enticing fight and also there's the hilarious idea of me being a completionist in the first place. I haven't completed a single fucking project since I started this blog! And I bet I'll never finish this one, either!


Complete & Accurate RINGS

Some More Battlarts

Takeshi Ono v Katsumi Usuda (Battlarts, 7/20/00)

This was like 40% Battlarts, 60% New Japan juniors. It's not really what you want from these two, but you take that 40% when it's there and I guess if nothing else it's interesting seeing how they approach the 60%. There's a kind of novelty aspect to it. It's a little experimental. I don't know man, you want Aquemini André 3000 but at this point you take what you can get and even The Love Below had 'A Life in the Day of Benjamin André.' Ono was actually really fun dicking it up and working full rudo. He went after Usuda's leg for a spell and would hold on longer than necessary on rope breaks, then he went after the arm and approached that the same way. In between he even raked Usuda's eyes across the ropes. He was visibly pulling a lot of his shots though, his punches mostly grazing and his kicks thrown with less mustard, some of them at three quarter speed. Usuda was doing the same so maybe they just decided they wanted to get through this show with all their teeth for a change? Considering Usuda was pulling double duty on the card it's hard to blame them. And yet we will, because we are the harshest of critics. Usuda channeling Fujiwara for a few minutes there was cool, at least. He rolled out the headstand counter to the Boston Crab and even followed up with some Fujiwara-style headbutts, rocking all the way back before delivering the blow. It's hard to complain about Takeshi Ono footage being available on the internet.


Yuki Ishikawa & Mohammed Yone v Mitsuya Nagai & Ryuji Hijikata (Battlarts, 7/20/00)

Nothing blowaway, but it had its moments. Hijikata works more like a pro-style junior than a shoot-style junior, though he hits hard and his matwork is pretty sharp. A couple times Ishikawa seemed to leave himself open while Hijikata was in the process of grabbing a hammerlock or some such, but when they got to the striking it looked more convincing. There was a cool bit of selling from Hijikata as well where he went dead weight after getting caught flush, but Yone didn't seem to have any idea what to do with it and so he just stomped him a bunch. There wasn't much to the Nagai/Ishikawa exchanges, which is a shame because they've had some decent ones before and Ishikawa against a crowbar is always fun.


Carl Greco v Naoyuki Taira (Battlarts, 7/20/00)

This was Greco at his suffocating best. He dominated most of this with his grappling and at times it was hard to see Taira having a lifeline. When it looked like he might be able to at least bring the fight to its feet - where he'd conceivably have more chance of doing something - Greco would grab a cravate from his own back and twist Taira back to the mat. It's not even that Taira is useless on the ground -- he has some moments and works his way into the mount nicely at one point, it's just that Greco is in full demon mode on the night and that'll be a struggle for anyone. Towards the end we even got to see him unload with some knee combos so maybe Taira doesn't have an advantage on the feet either. There were a couple rope running sequences that felt a wee bit jarring given the previous ten minutes, but I don't think I've ever seen a cross body score a nearfall in Battlarts before, and I suppose you could look at it as Taira having to get especially creative just to weather the Greco storm. Taira had a quietly fun year in 2000 and Greco being quietly awesome in general is kind of his thing. 


Yuki Ishikawa v Katsumi Usuda (Battlarts, 7/20/00)

This was more like it from Usuda. At a shade over ten minutes it wasn't an epic, but it didn't need to be because ten minutes of Ishikawa v striker who's trying to kick his head off will almost never not work. Ishikawa spent the majority of this on the defensive and if Usuda was going easy with his strikes in the first match he'd ditched that idea by this one. I guess Ishikawa had peen paying attention earlier because a bunch of his counters were geared towards picking apart Usuda's leg. It forced Usuda to vary approach a little and so he went back to those Fujiwara headbutts. There was a great sequence where he was frantically trying to wriggle out of a kneebar, Ishikawa continually shifting his weight in order to roll with the momentum until Usuda manages to finally squirm his way into grabbing a cross armbreaker. I thought Usuda mostly did fine selling the leg even as he was hurling kicks at Ishikawa's face and head, and of course Ishikawa on the ropes, trying to beat the count while continually being bombarded with violence, all of that ruled. I've seen Usuda break out the spinning back fist as an exclamation point on a wild kick flurry twice in the last two days now and it really is an awesome wrinkle I never noticed before.

Monday Battlarts Blues

Yuki Ishikawa & Katsumi Usuda v Daisuke Ikeda & Carl Greco (Battlarts, 4/14/96)

This was exceptional, maybe the second or third best Battlarts tag of the year. It went 17 minutes, the first half almost entirely matwork, and all four were out there doing some truly high end Battlarts matwork. Every match-up we saw worked, though they saved Ikeda/Ishikawa for the back half. A couple times they threw each other a look that said they'll cross that bridge in due course, and at one point they wound up in the ring together only for Ishikawa to quickly duck out, almost as a middle finger even though we all knew it wouldn't be long before they got to the slaughtering. Ikeda/Usuda made for a fine stand-in and their brief exchange was great. The grappling was fierce and I loved Ikeda trying to force Usuda into various positions by punching him in the ribs, neck and stomach. He'd have the mount, rain down strikes, eventually Usuda would have to give up his back, and as was his wont Ikeda would crack him in the back of the head a few times before trying to grab the choke. Then about halfway in Ikeda lands the first blow on Ishikawa -- an illegal one where Ishikawa ends up a little too close to the wrong corner and Ikeda comes in swinging. From there everyone ramps up the violence and we get the high end Battlarts murder strikes to go with the grappling. Ikeda spin kicking guys in the lungs, Ishikawa jacking his jaw with a little extra venom than even that match-up is used to, Greco and Usuda reeling out crazy quick combos. Towards the end Ishikawa and Usuda have a dual submission on Greco and you're thinking it's only a matter of time before Ikeda comes in and drills someone and then obviously he runs over and absolutely crushes Usuda's head with a kneedrop. I mean this thing was just hideous. I think my favourite spot of the match was when Ishikawa had almost secured the mount on Greco, but the he took a second to look up at Ikeda, maybe to make sure his old enemy had kept himself to the apron, maybe to let him know that he definitely still hated his guts. Maybe he became a prisoner of his own disgust then because he let himself linger a bit too long and Greco nuked him with an up kick that put him on his back. It probably could've done with an extra few minutes to really elevate it into the upper tier, but even still it feels like one of the better matches of an incredibly stacked 1996. And that finish was a fucking finish.

Big Mouth Loud!

There's a whole shit load of Big Mouth Loud on YouTube, maybe the entirety of its brief run, all uploaded on the one channel by some generous soul. So I watched a bunch of it and wrote some words.


Kazunari Murakami v Katsuyori Shibata (Big Mouth Loud, 9/11/05)

Pretty short for the main event of your debut show, but they played the hits you expected them to and it was fine for what it was. And really, do you want these two going half an hour anyway? In some ways they're fairly similar, at least in that they'll throw brutal strikes and stare you down with undisguised contempt. Murakami's not that much older, but a lot of what he does feels like the blueprint for a lot of what Shibata does. Naturally there was a goodly amount of brutal strikes and undisguised contempt, but they threw in a few really cool little touches to boot. I think my favourite spot was when Shibata drilled him with the penalty kick, then when he tried it again straight away Murakami caught his leg. Murakami stood up and really cocked the fist back for a right hook, then as Shibata covered his face and head Murakami swung that same arm downward into a huge dragon screw. They both cracked each other in the jaw, stood on each other's head, and even the macho dick-swinging strike exchange worked because of who they are. I'll probably check out all the Murakami from BML over time and this was a decent start.


Yoshiaki Fujiwara v Minoru Suzuki (Big Mouth Loud, 3/22/06)

Fifteen years after their match in Fujiwara's own promotion, the old man looks like he's barely lost a step. Even at a brisk 11 minutes this had a little bit of everything. The opening stretch is full of tight and gritty matwork like you expect, including a flash armbar three seconds in as Suzuki shoots for the early takedown. As you watch Fujiwara throughout the decades you get the sense he'll probably be able to do this kind of thing into his 80s (I mean he's already doing it into his 70s). Then Suzuki throws a kick to a downed Fujiwara, talking a little shit while he's at it. Fujiwara comes up smiling, rams Suzuki in the cheek bone with a headbutt, and for the next few minutes we get some super fun horse shit. Suzuki bonks Fujiwara's head off the turnbuckle bolt to no effect and then checks the bolt to make sure Fujiwara's cranium hasn't damaged it. Fujiwara backs him into the corner and peppers him with a few blows, but Suzuki keeps shit talking and Fujiwara fixes him with this amazing "you always were a little prick" grin. I've never really cared one way or the other for Suzuki's shtick but I do love seeing how Fujiwara reacts to his old student's nonsense. All those goofy faces with the tongue out, slapping him just to push the old man's buttons, and yet Fujiwara continues to go about his business. Similarly Suzuki has a point to prove, even if it's to himself and nobody else. Great bit where Fujiwara has him in a kneebar and, even though you can tell it sucks to be on the receiving end of, Suzuki won't give him the satisfaction of showing it. He doesn't know when to shut up, either. So Fujiwara just grins and wrenches the fuck out of it and Suzuki has to scramble for the ropes. The fight over the Fujiwara armbar at the end ruled as well and this was just really fun stuff overall.


Yuki Ishikawa v Hiroyuki Ito (Big Mouth Loud, 4/19/06)

It's pretty awesome that this match even exists. Ito had that MOTDC with Tamura in U-Style and there was the first iteration of this match-up in the same promotion, but then U-Style rode off into the night like a beautiful dream and our young prodigy went with it. Except apparently he didn't! I've only seen smatterings of BML before and I guess I missed the part about Ito coming in for a few shows. The U-Style match between these two was good so naturally I expected the same here, and in actual fact I thought this was even better. Nobody in history takes a hellish beating like Ishikawa and this was all about the young stud trying to prove his metal against the king. Ishikawa is the human embodiment of two dollar steak and takes half a dozen outrageous head kicks in this. Ito's kicks look equal parts pretty and lethal, thrown at warp speed and landing square in the jaw or temple. There was one point where it looked like Ishikawa might've been smiling, probably reminiscing about the good old days when he was taking this sort of beating on a bi-nightly basis. There was some real nice scrambling here as well, usually when Ito would try one kick too many and Ishikawa would catch him. That's not to say Ishikawa wasn't throwing bombs, because he was and on one occasion I thought he might have actually KOd Ito legit (turns out Ito merely sold it to perfection), it's just that with Ishikawa you know he's always in with the grappler's chance. If anybody can grab a submission from anywhere it's Ishikawa. This was a cracking little bout.

Hideki Suzuki Rewind

Hideki Suzuki v Daisuke Sekimoto (Big Japan, 3/30/17)

I loved a whole bunch of this. Suzuki was rocking the purple again so you already know he was top drawer, but I could count on one finger the amount of times I've enjoyed Sekimoto this much and that was when he wrestled Suzuki the last time. Their previous match was the thirty minute draw from earlier in the month and this had a lot of the same qualities. This was a tighter affair at only nineteen minutes, but it was fully-formed and they built on some of that groundwork laid before. The sense of struggle they managed to convey was really impressive and the early hold-trading was great. Suzuki is always adding cool and nasty little touches to his matwork, like digging his knee into Sekimoto's ankle joint or bending a wrist at horrible angles. It all felt very MUGAish. Sekimoto was really vocal with his selling as well so you bought all that joint manipulation hurting like a bastard. He also reversed a top wristlock into this rough key lock of sorts that looked like it could've snapped Suzuki's forearm. After that opening spell they moved into a short burst of strikes, and I shit you not the first forearm Suzuki threw was a Battlarts Hall of Fame level brain-scrambler. Maybe Sekimoto's taken so many crowbars to the skull at this point that his reactions to this stuff are genuine, but I thought he sold a bunch of Suzuki's strikes throughout the match amazingly. There was almost no goofy hulk up fighting spirit and when he got clocked with a true screamer he went with his best dead-eyed "oh Christ where even am I?" Kawada stare. Plus he'll always leather you back so we got some monstrous clubbering in return. After a cool spot where Suzuki catches Sekimoto mid-tope with a forearm (which Sekimoto sells by laying half dead on the apron) they go back to this awesome MUGA/BJW hybrid right through to the finish. Like in the last match it was Suzuki who had the edge in grappling, but Sekimoto is a brick shithouse with enough freakish strength to make up for it. Suzuki was dogged going for the octopus stretch, twisting Sekimoto's fingers for leverage and crawling all over him at one point, but Sekimoto could either muscle him up into a torture rack or drag himself to the ropes. By the end of the last match you got the sense that if one of them could've hit their finisher it would've been over. This had the same struggle over those finishers, the same sense that it would only take one. There was this great bit where Sekimoto was straining so hard to hit the deadlift German that I expected his gum shield to fly out and kill a person sitting front row. Really good match. 

WAR, King of the Deathmatch, MUGA: Japanese Indies Friday!

Masao Orihara v Akitoshi Saito (WAR, 10/23/92)

WAR v New Japan delivering the goods again, is it? Never would've guessed. It wasn't that this had no business being awesome, it's that you look at those names and wonder why the fuck every single person in the building was going mental. This was absurd heat for guys so far down the pecking order. You could tell Orihara was feeding off it big time, though. He's pretty underrated anyway because he communicates hatred well and will get the shit kicked clean out of him on the regular, but I thought he was absolutely great in this. All Saito's really good for at this point in his career is crowbarring folk, but it was enough for Orihara to work with. And man did Saito crowbar him. He was trying to murder Orihara with kicks; huge punts to the chest, sloppy roundhouses, even a few punches to the ear just to spice it up some. Orihara trying to catch these shots and go for kneebars or chokes ruled, especially when he wasn't quick enough off the mark and wound up getting clobbered. A couple of his delayed crumples were awesome bits of selling and at least once I bought him going down with a collapsed lung. On a few other occasions he maybe popped up a little quick, but the crowd clearly lit a fire under him and you couldn't have asked for him to be any more aggressive. I about lost it when he just leapt on Saito and tried to punch his skull open. The way he sold those last couple knockout blows was incredible as well and I was totally behind him pulling off the upset.


Dan Severn v Tarzan Goto (IWA Japan, 8/20/95)

This was fucking wild. Tarzan Goto v Dan Severn on a King of the Deathmatch card was always going to be fun just for the novelty of it, but I never expected Severn to rule this much. Maybe it's time to break open the WWF vault and check those matches with Shamrock and Blackman again. I'm sure he worked Owen Hart as well and he probably got to chuck Al Snow around for a few minutes. Plus I always remember liking his entrance music, the slow jog to the ring, the towel, sweat-stained training gear, just a menacing sort of presence that never quite looked as badass as promised. But maybe I was full of shit and he was actually great? Either way he sure looked like a killer in this. Straight away Goto wants to take it to the floor, because he's Tarzan Goto and of course he does, but Severn isn't interested. Goto riles him a bit and has a big grin on his face as he threatens to introduce a chair less than a minute in. Severn's clearly a fish out of water because the first time he turns his back Goto jumps on him with a choke. Severn tries to keep things on the level by wrestling with Goto, but Goto just coconuts him with headbutts and lariats. Eventually Severn snaps and starts hammering him with knees, a big crossface slice, an elbow, really smothering him as he tries to lock in a choke. I couldn't tell you what did it exactly but Goto's mess of a forehead is cut open and he's not best pleased. Goto smashing a bottle over the ring post and trying to glass Severn was fucking amazing and this is where Severn decides he's had about enough. He tried to keep things clean but Goto's a man who can't be reasoned with. They have this awesome spill over the barricade into the crowd, rolling around the floor in super uncooperative fashion, wildly flinging chairs from their backs, taking potshots at each other like a couple guys embroiled in an alley fight. Goto comes out on top of this because he is Tarzan Goto and of course he does, but Severn comes up roaring and hurling chairs into the ring like a man who's been pushed beyond the limits of decorum. He has well and truly entered "fuck it" territory. The last couple minutes are totally awesome as Severn manages to crack Goto in the knee with a chair (just as he slides in the ring and narrowly avoids one of Goto's own chair swings), Goto tries to flatten him with these sit-out piledrivers, and Severn keeps shooting in for throws and chokes. This whole thing was a treasure and it's a shame they never matched up fifty two times.


Tatsumi Fujinami & Shinichi Nakano v Osamu Nishimura & Yuki Ishikawa (MUGA, 3/3/98)

This maybe doesn't quite reach the heights you'd expect from the participants, but these four get ~15 minutes to work a match primarily built around grappling so you know it's good stuff. I've watched '98 Ishikawa a few times in recent weeks and every time I do he looks best in the world calibre. His exchanges with Fujinami were a little brief, but they were snappy and rugged and in a year with more good wrestling worldwide than people tend to think, Ishikawa continually looks king. I've barely seen any 90s Nishimura. In actual fact this match might be the extent of my 90s Osamu Nishimura viewing. Of course he was slick as hell and working tight headlocks, him and Fujinami doing their awesome dance every time they pair off, really nailing that early 80s New Japan matwork perfectly. There wasn't a ton of flash here, but you watch this for the way everyone fights over simple holds, snug with their armbars and leglocks, just really solid matwork from four guys who know how to work a mat. Folks who say Fujinami was crocked after '91 are crazy.

The Last Time Virus Couldn't Buy Some Shit He Can't Remember, the Last Time He Fucked the World He Might've Bust a Sinner

Damiancito El Guerrero v Cicloncito Ramirez (CMLL, 1/7/97) - EPIC

Still tremendous. I think watching this for the first time a decade ago, the freshness of it and the fact more people hadn't cottoned on to its greatness probably played a part in how thoroughly I was blown away by it. I guess lucha is still the most niche of niche in terms of what internet wrestling fans are talking about, but by 2019 we've had the 90s yearbooks and the 80s lucha set and the footage explosion of those godly YouTubers putting up shit we never knew existed. Even if there's far less lucha-driven discussion online than New Japan or NXT or maybe even modern joshi, there's certainly more of a spotlight on it now than there was fifteen years ago. In 2009 I think I'd only ever seen this brought up by OJ on his PWO blog. Nobody had comp'd it and Virus was still a couple years away from that 2011 renaissance making everyone want to go back and watch everything he ever did. Watching it then was notable for me not just because it was an awesome wrestling match, but because it shaped a lot of what I would come to look for in lucha title matches going forward. I still find myself judging matches against it to this day, and by now I'm pretty well settled on what my own idea of great wrestling is. Some of the matwork is still absolutely world class. Fluid, scrappy, graceful, a little of everything. It's one thing pulling out a bunch of gorgeous reversals but it's the struggle and fight over holds that really push it over the top. There are a few times were they'll do something I've never seen before - like Damiancito reversing a wishbone into a camel clutch - and then they'll punctuate the ground exchanges with bursts of rope running and armdrags or springboards. It felt like all through the match they were establishing Cicloncito as the superior flier and that it would be his route to victory. The best example of that came at the end of the primera when he hit a spectacular springboard rana where he leapt backwards over Damiancito's head. They kept that theme running into the segunda and there was one extended sequence that had about seven awesome moments strung together. Plus the finish to the fall was one of those preposterous submissions that reminds you you're watching a fucking lucha title match. If we're holding this to the same standard as the true all-time classics - and I am - then I guess the two big dives in the tercera never carried quite as much weight as they should've, maybe because they moved past them a bit quickly, but the dives themselves were humongous and Ramirez really lived up to the name with that bullet tope. I never expected to come out of this again thinking it's the best match ever, and that's about how it went, but it absolutely held up like I hoped it would and I'd still easily call it a MOTD-level bout. It's only fair given the post-match celebration.


Complete & Accurate Virus

When Tenryu Gets Drunk and Talks to God, He Tells Him that He's Sorry for All the Things He's Not

Genichiro Tenryu & Stan Hansen v Terry Gordy & Steve Williams (All Japan, 3/6/90) - EPIC

This was Dr. Death's first title shot since coming to All Japan, about a month after he debuted, and boy did he come out like he wanted to make a statement. He'd been on TV a few times already, but this was at the Budokan so it's a different kettle of fish. He was feral in the way he was going after folk, just amped to the moon, whereas Gordy was a little more stoic because he's been here and seen it all before. For about two thirds this was real good stuff. Everything was snug as fuck which shouldn't surprise anybody, lots of impact on everything and the striking was world class. It was pretty back and forth though, with both teams having short little runs of offence before possession bounced across to the other team. The transitions were usually alright and it never really felt like an abrupt shift of momentum, but these are four guys who will lay a huge beating on someone and I wanted an extended heat segment to sink my teeth into. Then Tenryu accidentally enziguris Hansen off the apron and I get my wish. Gordy and Williams go after Tenryu's leg and with Hansen on the floor all Tenryu can do is try to survive. Williams stomping the kneecap got some massive heat and I loved how Gordy would just yank and twist the knee at weird angles; there was nothing fancy about it, it looked plain nasty and Tenryu sold it all great. Then when you think Tenryu's about to make the hot tag, Williams tackles him from behind and Hansen ends up flying off the apron again. At that point he's had enough and comes in swinging a chair, but before he breaks it over Williams' head Tenryu has to submit to whatever sort of figure four abomination Williams put him in. After the bell Hansen flips on his own partner and tries to string him up with the bullrope. I guess being the one-legged man in an ass-kicking contest against Gordy and Williams and not winning is enough for a man like Hansen to ditch you. It's a ruthless business after all. Jumbo of all people comes to Tenryu's aid but then Tenryu grabs the bullrope and goes buck wild on both of them! Jumbo's like "ffs mate I tried to HELP you!" and Tenryu's like "away and shite, you." As a match it's probably on the GREAT-EPIC borderline, but those last five minutes were awesome and the post-match carries it through.


Genichiro Tenryu v Katsuyori Shibata (New Japan, 11/13/04) - EPIC

Fucking hell I love this match-up. I wish they wrestled seven hundred times. Their G-1 match from earlier in the year is one of the best five minutes matches ever and this is worked in similar fashion, with Shibata showing all kinds of disrespect and trying to hospitalise his elder while Tenryu throttles him for his temerity. Tenryu as badass Clint Eastwood putting a young jock in his place is really the perfect dynamic. Right at the start Tenryu meets Shibata on the ramp and throws him off the stage into a row of chairs, then a little later Shibata drags him to the same spot and I thought for a second he was going to chuck the old man to his death. They do a back and forth in the ring where Shibata punts Tenryu in the chest, Tenryu responds with a punch and one of those low angle brainbusters, and they basically repeat that sequence three times until Tenryu comes out on top. It was kind of dumb but also awesome in that egregiously stupid sort of way. Tenryu hitting a draping DDT from the top rope to the floor was sheer fucking lunacy and I don't know how he never killed him. Shibata popping up and deciding it's his turn to throw potato shots a couple minutes later was a wee bit rubbish, but he doesn't get much offence in before Tenryu chokes him half to death. I can see someone thinking the finish was a touch flat, but for as annoying as Shibata dropping all selling can be, the way he staggered around like a man ready to be put out his misery was great. And of course Tenryu doesn't need to be told twice.


Complete & Accurate Tenryu

WWF Wrestlemania X

Well, not the whole show, but the stuff that interested me. I watched the Bret/Owen opener a few years ago and wrote about it already, so there's no point going over that ground again. WWF weren't exactly in the habit of knocking out amazing PPVs in the 90s but the opener and Shawn/Razor both delivered and there was some other okay stuff. So even if it isn't a high bar, this was probably one of the better shows the WWF had during the 90s.


Bam Bam Bigelow & Luna v Doink & Dink

I didn't hate this. I mean it wasn't good, but the Luna/Dink parts were sort of amusing and that was the match-up I expected to be rubbish. There was one bit where Dink was running around the ring as if he was trying to make Luna dizzy or something (come on, how the fuck should I know?), so Luna just stared at him then punted him in the chest. Bigelow's one of the better guys in the company in '94 but he was barely involved. His falling headbutts from a standing position had some daylight, but his headbutt off the top looked good. Who was playing Doink here? Whoever it was hit a big DDT and took a bump off a missed Whoopee Cushion that could've busted his tailbone. Post-match I expected either Dink to bite Luna in the butt or Bigelow to crush a midget, but neither happened. This was like six minutes and wouldn't have been the worst match on nine out of ten WWE PPVs today.


'Macho Man' Randy Savage v Crush (Falls Count Anywhere)

This was billed as falls count anywhere but in reality it was falls count anywhere except in the ring. It was sort of convoluted. You can't pin your opponent in the ring, but pinning them anywhere else in the arena or city of New York is fine. It also had a Texas death match twist to it in that after each fall the loser had sixty seconds to return to the ring. If he couldn't do so, the match was over. In practice it only went about eight minutes but it was an okay little brawl. Few are better than Savage at communicating the hatred of a feud that's supposed to be built on hate and he came out the gate jumping straight at Crush's face. You bought that he hated him, basically. They did some cool stuff, like a tilt-a-whirl backbreaker on the floor, a big Savage bump across the guardrail, Crush hit a nice superkick that busted Savage's mouth open, and then the finish was pretty amusing even if it didn't work entirely as intended. Crush kind of stunk for the entirety of his career but this iteration of him with the face paint and cool ring gear and aligning himself with Fuji was probably my favourite Crush. Neo-Nazi biker with tire track forehead tattoo, big goofy surfer bro, nWo lummox with sunglasses and Kronik-era hired assassin who slicks his hair back with Nutella just didn't click in the same way.


Shawn Michaels v Razor Ramon (Ladder Match) 

Well dang, I thought this held up shockingly well. I probably even liked it more now than I did whenever I last watched it (must be like ten years ago). I get criticising Michaels for doing all this crazy shit with a ladder that the crowd will pop for rendering it counterproductive to him as the heel, but at worst I don't really care and at best I might be able to convince myself it actively added to the match; or at least added to my enjoyment of it. Razor punches him around the place and I bought Michaels only being able to win by getting creative with that ladder. He wasn't winning with fisticuffs but hey, there's a big fuckin ladder you're allowed to bonk someone with so that's a decent equalizer, right? Plus everything looked super nasty and like it was designed to actually hurt Razor, rather than hunt for the almighty pop. I mean, all that carny shit about him having a five star match with a ladder that Scott Hall happened to be window dressing in is obviously silly, but I thought this was largely Michaels being a bump machine and Razor plugging in his spots and selling well when he needed to. There were also clearly moments where Shawn was leading him through spots. Michaels just picking up the ladder and flinging it at Razor's kidneys was brutal and in that instance I'm not sure how much of Razor's selling was actually selling. When he made his comeback and clotheslined Michaels over the top (which Michaels took an awesome bump off of) he could've climbed the ladder and tried to win, but I bought him wanting revenge for being smashed in the gut and kidneys five times with the ladder. He basically used it to throw an uppercut at one point and naturally Michaels took a killer bump to the floor. The slingshot into the ladder, the splash off the ladder, that thing Michaels did out the corner that was also a splash only ladder-assisted; all great spots. The baseball slide into the ladder was also one of the better of its ilk. There were moments as well where Michaels would add a nasty little touch out of nowhere, my favourite being where they both take a spill off the ladder and he just kicks it over so it lands across Razor's back. Thought the finish was basically perfect as well. The bit with him getting tangled in the ropes is great and I love how he milked the shit out of all that, going from having his leg caught and escaping only to get his arm wrapped, juuuuuust inches away from being able to shove that ladder over. But the way he set it up to climb initially by standing it over Razor's body was a really cool little touch. Razor already walked under it pre-match and this was Shawn being overconfident. Why would he ever pass up a chance to rub salt in the wound? I guess the opening few minutes before the ladder gets introduced was a bit vanilla, but it's about the only part that didn't feel like a gnarly fight. Obviously the highspots are dated a quarter century later, but I think having such vivid memories of this as a kid and being blown away by what they were doing at the time will always stick with me. It never felt like just a collection of cool moments. It was rugged and mostly coherent and I'll probably always get at least a little enjoyment out of a Shawn Michaels bump show.


Yokozuna v Bret Hart 

This is usually a fun match-up and they had a few really good bouts the previous year, but I didn't think too much of this. It was mostly punch-kick, and even if it was decent enough punch-kick with Bret's stompy punches and Yoko cutting him off, I was probably more interested in Piper taking no shit from anybody (he's the guest referee). There was one headbutt spot that did kind of rule, though. Yoko's delayed timber bumps are always pretty great and Bret selling his own head was a cool touch. Last few minutes picked up as well and a couple of those nearfalls gave the crowd a kick up the arse. I had no recollection of how they actually ended this and that finish was...something. Was Yoko chasing Piper up the aisle supposed to suggest he had something to do with it? Or did they just run the straight banana peel finish? Either way the post-match was a cool moment. Even as a kid I could never quite get behind Bret, but I sure liked him more than Yoko and I had no real interest in Luger either. Seven year old me would've had Savage in the main event but nobody ever did listed to me.


1994 WWF Project

Piper v Bret (Roddy's Last Hurrah...for like three weeks)

Roddy Piper v Bret Hart (WWF Wrestlemania VIII, 4/5/92) - EPIC

Ten years ago I'd probably have called this Piper's best match ever. Since then I've rewatched the Valentine feud and that stuff's definitely a rung up, but this is still really good and if nothing else it's one of his best performances. I know he'll never blow you away with his technique and Piper throwing a hip toss isn't the most crisp thing you'll see, but I love how he does everything like a wildman and even those hip tosses have an element of frenzy. I've always loved the story of him reverting back to some of his saltier ways as the match goes on. I actually watched this and Bret/Perfect from King of the Ring '93 back to back earlier, and I thought Hennig was a little more overt in his heeling than Piper was in this, which I wouldn't have said based on memory alone. I know there's the ring bell spot and this had the blood, but Hennig was way surlier and I'd have expected him to actually hit Bret with the bell given the opportunity ("Remember the old saying: what the hell, use the bell!"). It may be hokey WWF-style melodrama, but I thought that ring bell stuff came off great and puts most spots of its ilk these days to shame. Maybe it was because the commentary wasn't trying to ram it down our throats, maybe it's because Piper's a decent actor; either way it totally worked for me. Although I'm a shameless geek for a good bit of inner conflict so take that for what it's worth. I also forgot the set up to Bret getting cut open, but it totally ruled. You're thinking Piper holding the ropes to let Bret back in is always ending up with Bret getting suckered, but Piper actually lets him in clean. Maybe we're underestimating Piper's strength of character. To be fair to him, Bret's been trying to get under his skin all day and that bit earlier where he faked the shoulder injury only to roll him up was a bit of a dick move in its own right. It's no wonder Piper slapped him. But hey, it's all good now and we'll no doubt see a clean contest from here on out. Piper telling Bret his lace is undone and popping him with an uppercut was amazing and he never looked back from there. Bret was a perfect foil for him, but Piper listening to the devil on one shoulder while the angel on the other tried to rein him in was a super fun story. The part where he unloads with a flurry of jabs to the eye was where you had to stop and go, "yep, that's the Roddy Piper we always knew was in there." Or maybe it's the part where he was biting Bret in the cut and I guess I'll retract that horse shit about him not being surly. Finish is fairly iconic in WWF lore and there's one guy in the crowd with a Hot Rod t-shirt who's just distraught when a) Piper decides against bludgeoning Bret with the bell, and b) when Bret reverses the sleeper. Piper's become a huge favourite of mine in recent years and this held up really well. Long live Hot Rod.


Complete & Accurate Hot Rod

Jarrett v Michaels! Work Memphis! Sorta!

Jeff Jarrett v Shawn Michaels (WWF In Your House 2: Lumberjacks, 7/23/95) 

You know, for a guy who has a rep of not being all that good, Jarrett has a nice resume of fun stuff. Still think this is his best match and probably his best performance. It wasn't a carry job by any stretch, but it's total Memphis for most of it and I'd guess it was him who laid the thing out. Sure looked like he was having a blast the whole time. All the early horse shit rules, Jarrett's fun stalling, great one-upmanship shtick, Michaels leading the crowd along with Hebner's ten count, and even if Michaels' punches will never make the Nashville crowd forget a Lawler or Dundee punch, his short jabs are much better than his old man chops. Shawn's bump over the post is a doozy and works as a quality transition. I thought Jarrett's control segment dragged just a bit at points and his abdominal stretch was pretty muck, but they're minor quibbles. Finishing run lasts longer than I remembered but it was also good stuff. The double clothesline leading to the nine count before Michaels does the kip up is effective in that it plausibly allows him some extra time to recover. I don't mind the kip up in general but I know it's an irritation to lots of folk. Plus this was the smooooothest kip up ever because he does it straight after the flying forearm and just kips right up without his feet touching the mat first and McMahon blew his knickers off I bet. Roadie was also a fun annoying shit all the way through this and the finish was a fun payoff to that. Mega fun match. WWF was not great in 1995 but this feels pretty easily like a top 10 match in the US that year.

Saturday Mornin' Minis!

Espectrito & Jerrito Estrada v Mascarita Sagrade & Octagoncito (AAA, 8/28/93)  

This was an absolute hoot. Is Espectrito the best mini wrestler ever (I don't count Virus in that because he's been wrestling on main rosters for over twenty years now)? Sagrada has a shout as well, but I'm partial to Espectrito because he's an incredible base, an incredible bumper and an incredible rudo dickhead bully. The chemistry between them is really awesome though and they did a bunch of neat shit together in this, like Espectrito gorilla pressing Sagrada and threatening to fling him into the first row (some guy is like no no please don't throw that small man into my elderly grandmother's face and beverage), the cool armdrag variations and the amazing bump Espectrito takes off the ropes just as you think he's about to Fuerza Bump it to the floor. Half pint Octagon might be a better wrestler than full pint Octagon and he got the absolute dogshit beaten out of him, then later hit mini Estrada with a fucking CORKER of a tope. Jerrito looks about as sleazy as the actual Jerry Estrada and I want you to think about that for a second because that is some outrageous amounts of sleaze. He was also really fun in this but I don't think he was even a wee bit blootered or unfit for work so I question his dedication to the character. Third caida had some awesome rudo bullying and the part where Espectrito full force booted Octagoncito's teeth out the back of his head was absolutely spectacular. I'll watch the Espectrito/Sagrada singles match again at some point in the next dozen years and I bet it's still awesome.

Aoyagi v Kurisu; Ishikawa v Ikeda (potatoes for days!)

Masaji Aoyagi v Masa Kurisu (New Japan, 2/5/91)

This was about seven minutes of what you expect out of these two. So if you like what they bring to the table then you'll like seven minutes of them bringing it to the table. I fucking liked what they brought to the table. Aoyagi wasted no time at all and flew at Kurisu with a spin kick as soon as he got in the ring, then shortly thereafter absolutely splattered his nose with a hellish looking knee. Kurisu can sometimes be stingy when it comes to selling strikes so you really need to convince him it's worth his while, and this was one of those shots that he was selling to the back row whether he liked it or not. Of course he gets his revenge by jabbing the point of a chair into Aoyagi's mush and headbutting him about a dozen times in the ear. The referee's first mistake was trying to take the chair off him. His second mistake throwing the match out and trying to take it from him again. He should've walked away and let someone else unfuck that situation. Kurisu as this uncontrollable menace battering referees and ring boys with chairs is really one of the finer things in this game of ours.


Yuki Ishikawa v Daisuke Ikeda (Battlarts, 11/5/11)

Ludicrous strikes, rough grappling, the nastiest version imaginable of at least one thing -- it's the Battlarts. This felt a wee bit greatest hitsy at points, but it's the two kings of the style and it was a fitting way for them to close the book on their rivalry. There was this thread running through the match of Ikeda throwing absolute bastard headbutts - the first was truly revolting - that he always comes out of worse for wear. Ishikawa is a Fujiwara trainee so I guess it'd make sense that he'd develop a rock hard skull. He doesn't quite no-sell them, but he shakes them off pretty quickly while Ikeda is left dizzy. Ikeda's pride won't let him quit though, and when he finally manages to keep Ishikawa down for more than a couple seconds it feels like a true victory for hard-headed stupidity. I have nothing to substantiate this but the crowd here didn't really feel like your usual Battlarts crowd. Maybe it was the occasion of the final Battlarts show bringing out some filthy casuals. Either way some of the reactions were different than usual. Even when these two were smashing the enamel off each other's teeth the die hard Battlarts crowds seemed to take it all in with a sort of silent - maybe stunned - regard. This crowd reacted almost in horror a few times (every headbutt), popped big for some of the crazier punches and kicks, there was even a comedy spot thrown in there. It was like they'd heard about the Battlarts boys coming to town for one final set and this was their last chance to see the two old nutjobs beat the brakes off each other. That all sounds way snobbier than intended because I do not care one way or the other, but there's an amusing sort of irony in the last ever Ishikawa v Ikeda being a monkey show. Some of the selling towards the end was a little spotty, transitions not coming as smoothly as usual, like a beat was skipped or there was a jump in the tape and you missed what came between Ikeda punting Ishikawa in the jaw and Ishikawa suplexing Ikeda on his neck. Maybe they read the crowd and decided just to play the blockbusters. If you want the deep cuts you know where to find them.

Murakami!

Kazunari Murakami v Enson Inoue (New Japan, 5/2/03)

This was more of a prison brawl than an actual match, but as far as six minute prison brawls go this was pretty dang fun. I had no recollection whatsoever of Enson Inoue working New Japan but I guess putting him against Murakami for his brief foray into pro-wrestling works fine. I mean why wouldn't you want to put a mixed martial artist in there with a fucking crowbarring maniac? Murakami takes a gang beating by Inoue's corner early on, ends up bleeding profusely, and his sneer as he gets back to his feet might've been the very greatest Murakami sneer in history. The palpable crowd reaction of "holy fuck this guy is truly psychotic" was both warranted and amazing. He then stands and allows Inoue to punch him several times in the face. When he wiped blood away with his hand and licked it clean I about flipped and this was maybe the quintessential Crackpot Murakami performance.


Kazunari Murakami v Mitsuharu Misawa (NOAH, 10/13/06)

Not really the wild or awesome spectacle you'd hope for, so in that sense I suppose it's a touch disappointing, but it still had enough Murakami horse shit to be fun. Unfortunately Misawa didn't seem all that interested here. On the one hand it was pretty amusing seeing him act above engaging in Murakami's antics. Murakami would try and get a rise out of him by throwing dickish jabs and gloating, outright standing on his face while Misawa lay slumped in the corner, stepping onto the ramp and beckoning Misawa to follow, but by and large Misawa played it by the book. A couple times his composure cracked and he drilled Murakami with some elbows, but if that had been Hashimoto in there he'd have taken Murakami behind the woodshed and slaughtered him. Murakami getting cut open and rising from the grave like a sneering zombie ruled though, even if this was one of those NOAH crowds that was more likely to respectfully applaud than bay for blood. And if you're not there rooting for Murakami to wreak havoc then what's the point?


Kazunari Murakami v Naomichi Marufuji (NOAH, 6/8/07)

This was the match that really sold me on Murakami. Back in the faraway time of 2007 when my stupid young self had more interest in hunting down 90s New Japan junior heavyweights or keeping up with Japanese wrestling in general, watching every single thing Murakami had ever done wasn't really a priority. A lot can change in twelve years and I remember even then, watching this on youtube or Veoh or whatever streaming site after it had been posted on the DVDVR board, knowing that Murakami was someone I'd one day come to cherish like my own son. The skinhead, the death stares, licking Marufuji's blood, the straight punches to the jaw. I mean it takes a special kind of lunacy to have a perfect hairline and willingly go bald. At that point I still actually liked Marufuji, and he was fine in this, but it was the Murakami show and it opened my eyes to a whole new world of crazy. Maybe this as much as anything shaped my tastes in wrestling going forward. So there's a story for the grandkids.

Hashimoto v Kojima (G-1 '98)

Shinya Hashimoto v Satoshi Kojima (New Japan, 8/2/98)

This felt almost Hashimoto-v-Choshu-Lite, not just for the parts with the lariats and Hashimoto staring them in the face but also for the parts with the lariats and Hashimoto staring them in the face. But hey, if you're going to work a low carb version of a famous match-up then I'm on board with a low carb Hashimoto v Choshu. For real though, Hashimoto was stupid great in this. Any time he gets pissed off enough to double stomp someone's intestines out their mouth you know you're onto a winner. Kojima isn't particularly good nor interesting but he'll at least throw lariats that make a thud, and really that was about all Hash needed to make this work. It's never not amazing to see how Hash will sell progressive damage, how those shots take their toll over the course of a match. He is so good at it. I don't think anybody's ever held a candle to him in making those "let me stand here while you take your best swing at me" spots not look cliche or downright stupid. We've already established that he's a man of honour and a man of honour will give an adversary fair opportunity. But son, you better make the most of it because he will vaporize you if you don't. Match went up a level when Kojima started hitting elbow drops off the top, landing one across Hashimoto's knee that seemed to surprise both him and the crowd in equal measure. Kojima going after the leg made sense if for no reason other than to lessen how hard he'd be kicked in the sternum. Hashimoto's sell of it was impeccable, especially during the figure four, really walking that line between embellishment to ramp up the drama while maintaining a sense of realism. As a response he moved away from the kicks and tried to overhand chop Kojima's arm off. The way he used it in the first instance to block an attempted lariat ruled, then later he went berserk with a huge flurry right to the shoulder. I could've done without Kojima just standing up after a DDT like it was nothing, not even as a goofy fighting spirit spot, just...got up like it hadn't happened, but I guess it's still Kojima and you make peace with that fact. Hash going to the cross armbreaker to seal the deal after the previous DDTs hadn't put Kojima away was a smart finish as well.

WWE Royal Rumble Cherry-Pickin'

The Rumble is one of two big wrestling shows that I still make a point of watching each year and this year's looked like a pretty awesome event on paper. I watched it with a friend and my brother and by the end we were pretty well tanked up (we even watched the pre-show so all told that was like, what, sixteen hours of hard liquor?), and on the whole I thought it delivered a fun time.

Bryan/AJ felt like a match that might've been good but I really didn't care too much about it and on a rewatch I wound up thinking it was the fifth best match on the show. The Miz/Shane tag was whatever but it had an amusing enough ending and Shane looking like he was due to keel over and die was sort of funny maybe. Women's rumble was rough for the first third, then there was a middle third that picked up a bit, and the final third brought it home really well. I haven't watched a lot of Tamina but she does not seem...good. Rhea Ripley looked pretty awesome and the Kacy Catanzaro stuff was fun, especially the spot where she slithered her way up the ring post back into the ring (even if those spots are sort of tired at this point. I mean, "both feet must touch the floor" is being taken more literally than ever and if your whole ass body is chucked out you should probably be eliminated). Becky shouting "put me in, Fit!" and Finlay being all fuck it then go on and the pop ruled. I still figured Charlotte was winning so it was a cool moment when Becky actually pulled it off. I was a wee bit worried when Becky tapped clean as a sheet for Asuka, but in fairness they've managed to book the top women's feud(s) super well the last few months so I'll believe they can continue that going forward. Men's rumble had a Jeff Jarrett appearance and by the end I was rubber enough that I couldn't even remember Nia Jax being in there elbowing folk in the mouth. Rollins winning is a bummer because he is rubbish but Lesnar managed to kill it with Finn Balor so I have a little bit of faith that he can drag something decent out of Seth. I wanted a Velveteen Dream appearance and when I didn't get one I was bummed.


Asuka v Becky Lynch

This had a solid enough first five minutes and they had some nice ideas, though it felt a bit back and forth and didn't totally grab me. Asuka paintbrushing Becky and Becky looking at her like "okay we're doing this now?" was a cool moment. I'm definitely behind Becky getting the big push and think it's awesome how she's gotten herself mega over, but a bunch of her facial expressions can be pretty hokey and I think overall she's a step behind a few of the other women. Still, this picked up when she started going for the Disarm Her and I liked Asuka's sell of the arm for a while after that, especially from the armbar under the turnbuckle bolt. Asuka looked badass here, bunch of really snug strikes and she made those that missed look like she was trying to actually connect, really making Becky work for everything. She also had a few big hip attacks and took a couple nasty bumps, especially the neckbreaker/fisherman buster off the apron that both women crashed hard and awkward on. The struggles over each submission attempt towards the end looked appropriately ragged and Asuka doing a chickenwing Cattle Mutilation was a great finish. I probably wouldn't have had Becky tap clean, but I don't see it hurting her too much and if they're serious about building Asuka back up then fair fucks.


Ronda Rousey v Sasha Banks 

The Rousey train keeps on rolling and this was the best Sasha's looked in aaaaages. I was hyped for this and it totally delivered. Everything around the arm was great. Sasha had a bunch of awesome and nasty looking ways of working it over and Rousey continues to be the best seller in the company. The ringpost spot to set it up was killer just for the visual of Ronda literally punching the lights out and she really never looked back from there. She had lots of great little moments around that busted up hand/arm, like throwing punches primarily with her left hand and never being able to throw rights without impunity (and she only threw a couple before abandoning the idea anyway), climbing the ropes using only her left hand, visibly leaving it hanging close by her side -- she never let you forget it was hurt and once or twice it prevented her from grabbing a submission she'd ordinarily have no trouble locking in. Sasha had about as many of those great little moments working from above and some of it was downright Finlayish. Stomps to the hand and fingers as Ronda tried to rope break the Banks Statement, using her own ring attire to get some extra torque on the crossface (as she was selling her own arm at the same time), driving her knee into Ronda's forearm as she tried to pull herself up by the rope. That armbar where she about had Rousey's elbows touching behind her own back was fucking disgusting, then she went even beyond that by adding in the joint-manipulation and finger-bending. I haven't really been interested in Sasha for quite a while, but it looked like she held a lot of this together on the offensive and it was a quality performance from her. Bunch of other cool parts as well, like Sasha hitting a tope early then trying it again later only to be caught and dragged into the armbar, and this might've been the best Rousey's throws have looked yet, she was just whipping Sasha around the ring one-handed and Sasha was snapping into bumps like a pro. Ronda's shit talking ruled yet again and the first time she picked Sasha up she made it clear that this was for all the folk who said she couldn't wrestle. It's still kind of amazing how she'll keep finding ways to hurl herself into submission attempts - like the cross armbreaker while draped over the top rope - and she'll bust out at least one strike per match that looks like it'd cave someone's face in. This time it was a step up knee coming off the ropes, but her body punches early on looked super tight as well and at one point she got surly and front kicked Sasha straight out the ring. Dug the finish too, especially Rousey's "this is over" exclamation between the gutwrench powerbomb and Piper's Pit. Loved this. Ronda is an absolute treasure and if she really does leave after 'Mania it'll feel like one of the biggest missed opportunities ever.


Brock Lesnar v Finn Balor 

Man, when Lesnar gives a shit that guy is unbelievable. And he clearly gave a shit here because this was a crazy fun nine minutes. I have no use for Finn Balor and his Lash LeRoux offence but I guess Lesnar decided he was worth working with and boy did Finn take his chance. Lesnar took all of his double stomps right in the guts and I love how he ate those three dives by letting Balor land with his entire weight across his shoulder and neck. He never caught Balor the way most folk would catch a dive, he just lowered his head and let himself be squashed by the wee human full speed somersaulting towards him. Lesnar's diverticulitis coming to bite him after those nasty table bumps ruled and when he can be bothered selling big for someone he's absolutely sensational at it. All of those grimaces, the "ah SHIT!" as he tried to pick Balor up for the German, even struggling to hoist him for an F5 gave Balor that extra bit of time to regroup and reverse it into the DDT. Crazy Lesnar Face making an appearance at the end as he tried to snap Balor's arm like a tree branch was fucking amazing. There have been more than a couple misses in there for sure, but ever since he came back with that Cena match in 2012, motivated and in-the-mood Lesnar is the best big match wrestler in America. This totally smashed my expectations to bits and it was one of the better sub-ten minute matches WWE's had in a while. It's also the most I've ever enjoyed Balor by some distance.

If Tenryu'd Known She was Religious then He Wouldn't Have Came Stoned to the House of Such an Angel, too Fucked Up to Get Back Home

Genichiro Tenryu v Akira Taue (All Japan, 4/9/90) - FUN

Pretty similar to their match from TV the same month, which means it had Taue punching above his station and Tenryu making him pay for it. This started with Taue getting the jump as Tenryu was being checked by the ref', taking it outside and laying into him with a chair. When Tenryu made his comeback he grabbed a headlock and a leg scissors which is about the last thing I'd have expected him to do by way of response. It was kind of cool if you look at it as him trying to contain the young punk for a minute so he can regain his bearings. After that he chopped him many times and very hard across the chest, which is about the first thing I'd have expected him to do by way of response. Tenryu is always super giving in this kind of match so Taue got to look like he could hang for a second there, but ultimately we all knew how it would end. Maybe next time, champ.


Genichiro Tenryu v Shinya Hashimoto (New Japan, 8/8/93) - EPIC

Epic, all-time level slugfest and probably my favourite of their epic, all-time level series. What a match-up this is. It's largely built around strikes, and really, if you're going to have two heavyweights work 20+ minutes of striking then I can't think of two I'd rather watch. I can't even tell you how many times I've written on this stupid blog about current day strike exchanges in Japanese wrestling and how none of them come close to Tenryu/Hashimoto. Some hit harder, some hit cleaner, but I don't think any manage to make it all mean as much. "It's about the SELLING," I'll lament. "Nobody knows how to SELL it anymore!" And beyond being an old bastard yelling at clouds because there's not enough 1993 in 2019, I watch this and think yeah, fuck it, nobody knows how to sell that shit anymore. The striking in this told its own story, and more than one of them at that. Tenryu was dismissive, ornery and frantic, depending on which stage of the match you chose to look at. Hashimoto was gutsy, defiant and relentless, depending on whichever depth of himself Tenryu's horseshit had pushed him to. It might actually be my favourite Hashimoto performance and that covers an absurd amount of ground. One of the best things I've ever read about him was written by OJ on the PWO board, probably a good few years back now. It was about how Hashimoto was a man of honour, how he had bushido, how he embodied traditional Japanese values and carried himself the way a samurai should. Tenryu couldn't give a shit about any of that and will make a fight as dirty as he needs to. Sometimes he DOESN'T need to, he'll just do it anyway because it's in his nature. That sort of comportment pushes most men to dish out receipts in kind, but besides one moment early on where he flew at Tenryu in a rage, Hashimoto held his head high and resolved to win on his own terms. I mean he still tried to kick Tenryu's pancreas into the twelfth row but at least he wasn't a prick about it. As an awesome counterpoint, Tenryu was a prick about everything. The majority of his offence for the first three quarters seemed to be booting Hashimoto in the eye socket and chopping him in the Adam's apple. He was contemptuous as was his wont and maybe part of it was seeing how far was too far. At about the midpoint Hash catches him with a hip throw that lands him right on his shoulder, and Tenryu's selling the rest of the match is outstanding. Hash is just rifling him on the arm with roundhouse kicks, trying to tear his arm off, sort of using that as a base to start landing bombs. Last five minutes are off the charts. Tenryu's desperation selling was amazing and the sequence where he counters the German with a bulldog and a koppo kick was out of this world. Hashimoto's face before it as well, teeth bared, a total "fuck you and everything about you" look as he stares down the inevitable. His final dead-on-his-feet gambit before the penultimate powerbomb was everything great about Hashimoto. Phenomenal match, even better than the last time I watched it.


Complete & Accurate Tenryu

Jumbo v Misawa: The Rematch

Jumbo Tsuruta v Mitsuharu Misawa (All Japan, 9/1/90)

Yeah, this is the business. I think if you'd asked me ten years ago where I'd put this on an all time list I'd probably have gone somewhere around the top 20. I guess it's a decent barometer of where I'm at with the pro-wrestling these days because it probably wouldn't be within a hundred spots of that now, but even still it's a cracking match. Ageing star trying to hold onto his place in the world is one of my favourite stories in wrestling and this is mostly an awesome telling of that story. Misawa's already beaten Jumbo once. Jumbo's been blitzed by those elbows and still hasn't quite figured out what to do with all that cruiserweight offence. So he either comes up with some answers or he'll be handing over the reins long before he's ready to. Like the June match I thought the first few minutes were shit hot. Misawa throws his first elbow but Jumbo knows all too well what to expect and gets a block. Jumbo then tries his own and Misawa has that scouted...so Jumbo just knees him in the guts. Last time he couldn't deal with Misawa flying around, so this time he won't let him get the chance. The knees to the body and the clubbering looked good too, so that was a bonus. I thought the middle part meandered a bit, much like in the first match. They worked a few holds and it wasn't as if they sat in them for minutes at a time, but it didn't feel like there was a great deal of urgency to them either. A headscissors, an abdominal stretch, Jumbo wearing Misawa down without it ever really grabbing me. There were a few cool moments sprinkled in, though. They play off the finish to the first match with the roles reversed, this time Jumbo flipping the pin attempt for a nearfall. Misawa had some of that flying to fall back on as well, like his Super Astro headbutt off the turnbuckle, and those elbows were always useful in a pinch. He came across as more of a heavyweight this time, whereas before it was a bit closer to cruiserweight stepping up a division. Then Misawa drills Jumbo in the ear one time too many and Jumbo goes apeshit. He didn't survive two years of Tenryu chopping him in the throat only to have his brains scrambled by the new kid's elbows. The new kid had even been Jumbo's understudy for chrissakes! He just batters Misawa all over the place, slams him over a table, hits him with a chair, dismissively chucks him through the ropes when Misawa makes it back in. The crowd can boo if they want but Jumbo's had enough and it's time for this foolishness to end. Everything that comes after this is pretty tremendous. Jumbo walked that line between desperation and frustration and his progressive selling for Misawa's elbows was amazing. The moment he snapped again and started throwing headbutts was doubly amazing, like a man who'd exhausted all other options and been driven to near frenzy. I loved the spot where Misawa tried the same leap off the turnbuckle from earlier only for Jumbo to finally have it scouted and drive him to the mat. Of course that little glimmer of hope is squashed not long after as Misawa catches him AGAIN coming off the top. It's like whack-a-mole where every time you get rid of one problem another one pops up. Misawa combining his two biggest weapons and hitting an elbow off the top rope was awesome, but I guess it was fitting that he went to the well once too often and it ultimately cost him. He had his own little glimmer after kicking out of the first backdrop, but Jumbo catching him with the lariat as he fires up for another elbow was a fitting way to shut him down for good. There are clear parallels between this and things like Hansen/Kobashi. Jumbo was probably as good in this as Hansen's best with Kobashi, but the best Hansen/Kobashi engaged me way more from start to finish. I think the biggest strengths of both matches is how the young guys came out looking great in defeat while the old dogs showed they weren't ready to step down. It's just that neither victory came decisively and you knew it wouldn't be long before those victories stopped coming altogether. I'd comfortably call this great, but I'm not sure it's what I really want to be watching at this stage in my fandom.

Back to where it all started...

Jumbo Tsuruta v Mitsuharu Misawa (All Japan, 6/8/90)

I haven't watched this in close to fifteen years. I imagine that, like a lot of people, it was my gateway to 90s All Japan. I remember reading back then about the deep storytelling and how you really needed to watch a lot of it chronologically to pick up on all the intricate details they were weaving into these matches. 6/9/95 is the pinnacle of pro-wrestling but you better check out these fifty three matches that came before it to REALLY get a handle on the tale they're telling. It was kind of carny in retrospect, but the passion folk had for writing about it was infectious and it's certainly a major reason why I started watching stuff outside of my WWF/WCW comfort zone. This always made sense as the place to dive in. You got the ageing ace of the 70s/80s and the future ace of the 90s. You got to see where Misawa cemented his spot. You got to see King's Road in its infancy. Plus you needed to see this for the sixth interaction between Misawa and Kawada in the fourteenth Misawa/Kobashi v Kawada/Taue match to truly resonate the way it should so really it was the perfect place to start. I don't remember exactly what I thought about it on last watch, never mind the very first watch. In 2019, at a point where I've mostly closed the book on 90s All Japan, I thought it had a great opening five minutes and a great closing five minutes but a middle fifteen that didn't really do a ton for me. I guess I'd rather be watching Battlarts? The opening ruled and I thought they did a solid job establishing both guys' strengths. Misawa wrestled more like a heavyweight than he did as Tiger Mask, but he only shed the hood a couple weeks ago so he still had some of those tricks up his sleeve. He had to get squirmy to escape a backdrop, reversing it into a pinning situation which I guess is a cool bit of foreshadowing for the finish. Then he went to the fake-out tope and dropkicked Jumbo into the barricade. That was an awesome spot because Jumbo obviously wasn't seeing anything like it from the heavyweights he was used to wrestling. It established a point of attack for Misawa that Jumbo probably didn't have an answer for (yet). Jumbo hitting the high knee and 'OH'ing with the crowd felt appropriately dismissive, but then Misawa slapped him across the face because he's here to stay. At that point you expect Jumbo to maul him, but they mostly settle into a steady wrestling match and Jumbo working from above wasn't the most compelling. I remembered Misawa's strikes playing a bigger role as well, especially after the six-man that started the whole thing where he was scrambling Jumbo's brains with elbows. Or maybe it was the rematch where they really played that up. I did like that Misawa's flying bailed him out a few more times in the body of the match and the big plancha to the floor down the stretch looked killer. Even when Jumbo was dominant there was always that danger of Misawa being agile enough to pull *something* out the bag. That of course plays into the finish and I still think it works really well, as does the set up with Jumbo taking the crazy bump into the ropes (which I'd forgotten about). Misawa managed to hang with him and it always felt like he was in with a chance, even if it was because of how different he was to Jumbo's most recent rivals. He may not have won decisively, but he used that athleticism to best Jumbo when he needed to and a three count is a three count. I always thought the rematch was the real classic so maybe I'll check that out again soon. I haven't seen that in about fifteen years, either.

MS-1 v Cien Caras (ft. Satanico and Mascara Ano 2000)

MS-1 v Cien Caras (Hair v Hair) (AAA)

This was a AAA wagers match alright. Tirantes bullshit, each man's second getting involved several times, some dude having his head shaved as the victor's music and pyro blazes in the background. But hey, the Tirantes bullshit wasn't totally over the top, the involvement of each guy's second was fun as fuck, and the music and pyro blazing as the loser has his head shaved actively ruled. So this was an enjoyable hair match between two of the most charismatic old dudes in lucha. MS-1 and Satanico made for an awesome pair of thugs through those first couple caidas. Every single chance he had, Satanico would get involved. He threw pot shots, tripped up Caras when the comeback might've been on, I think at one point he even punched him in the balls. It all got a bit much for Mascara Ano 2000 and he finally jumped Satanico for his nonsense, but all that did was get himself removed from ringside. Satanico going a step too far in the segunda and also getting bounced set up the tercera as a proper showdown. In execution it felt more like the third fall of a title match, but they sold the struggle well and I'll probably never not get into a big Cien Caras deciding fall. Say whatever you want about him as a worker, but that dude has charisma out the wazoo and his death stare at Tirantes was unbelievable.