This is the second part in my light exploration into the final months of FMW 1996. This is a very junior heavy section with my review covering a commercial tape focusing on November & Decemeber.
W*ing Kanemura vs TAKA Michinoku (12/10): 11 minute good match and a fantastic example of prime era TAKA. The dude was throwing dropkicks from every angle and off everything. And of course its FMW so, you get chairs!
The Gladiator vs W*ing Kanemura (12/11, BAHU #43): Oh man this is an odd m
One day I will get around to seeing all of the great FMW matches, I swear! The following entry is my attempt to cover FMW 1996 as best I can by searching for vids on the 'tube. From my experience, FMW videos tend to get taken down with some regularity or let's say there aren't a plethora of videos available like old AJPW or even W*ING.
So what I found and what I wanted to watch from '96 focuses on the later part of the year, August to December. The first collection of stuff is from the Comm
ROH Conquest Tour 2015 - Hopkins MN
Avari Davari vs Bobby Fish - OK match with some decent psychology and selling. There was bad weather so, I think this match was a little longer than it needed to be for anyone who was running late.
Romantic Touch vs Will Ferrara vs Beer City Bruiser vs Cheeseburger - Let's say you hadn't seen ROH since 2009 and then years later, this happened to be the first match you saw. I would not blame you for completely thinking they had ruined Ring of Honor. Y
In the grim darkness of the the near past there is only WAR! Yes, I'm back to Tenryu's playground to check out more wrestling that I may have missed or just forgotten.
Takeshi Ishikawa vs Great Kabuki (09/15/92): Oh man, so I was hoping this would be a very good match but, eh it was just sluggish. There was no build to a climax just a lot of sleeper work and bleeding. It was OK but, I was disappointed.
Let's get this back on track! Same show...
Ultimo Dragon vs Negro Casas (09/15)
I think we can all pretty much admit AJPW took a stylistic nosedive after the NOAH exodus. Sure Kawada, Tenryu, and Kojima occasionally had some great matches but, by in large, folks just didn't care to go out of their way to purchase this stuff. Therefore, the internet community didn't have much to go on as far as recommendations. My interest in AJPW post NOAH actually starts when some of the guys went back in 2013 I believe. Akiyama, Shiozaki, Kotaro Suzuki and others decided NOAH was a stagna
ROH Winters Warriors - Dayton
I really enjoyed ROH's Atlanta Winter Warriors 2015 show awhile back. (https://forums.prowrestlingonly.com/blogs/entry/567-the-2010s-roh-winter-warriors-tour-2015-atlanta/ )There's good talk about the Dayton show so, I decided to check it out. Let's see if its any good.
Will Ferrara vs Romantic Touch - Good laughs to start and pretty good action for the opener. Fun
Chris Dickenson vs Michael Elgin - Some people have really
I was never what you would call a WCW fan growing up. I liked seeing the matches on Saturday or Sunday but, I never went out of my way to watch Nitro until the Monday Night Wars stuff. It was WCW that grabbed my attention first with Goldberg and his streak. Plus my older cousin thought he was cool and therefore I did too
Quickly, I found out that I preferred WWF to WCW in most instances and then ECW came in the picture and I never looked back really.
So, with that being said, I never
This part transfers the attention to Kawada & his chance at the Triple Crown in October versus Jumbo. It also puts the Step-over Facelock over as a viable finisher, at least for some period of time. Team Jumbo is at their grumpiest here so the overall wrestling is sacrificed here for stronger psychology. It works beautifully in some matches & in others I pine for the excitement filled matches of 1990. There's probably too much Kikuchi & not enough Kobashi as the low-man on the totem
Jumbo, Taue & Fuchi vs. Misawa, Kawada & Kobashi (All Japan 4/20/91) Whew ! Nearly 52 minutes of action! This was really just awesome stuff with Kawada really stepping into his character & Fuchi being the real-standout of his team. He was the real bone cruncher here & getting quite a few chants too. He deserved them too. Kobashi was getting beat on for a good portion & although this slowed the action down, it made the closing 5 minutes sheer joy. Awesome finish too. I can't w
This part is comprised more of single matches than tags & isn't as awesome as the first two but does an excellent job of showing just about every one of the main players going at it alone. There may be some spoilers ahead by the way.
Mitsuharu Misawa vs. Akira Taue (All Japan 1/26/91) Misawa is such a dick here. He slaps Taue during a rope break & when they go to lock up he hits him with a stiff elbow shot. Taue gets his revenge though throwing up some mean boots, dumping a couple S
Jumbo Tsuruta vs. Mitsuharu Misawa (All Japan 9/1/90) ****1/2+ In this match-up Misawa tries to use his elbow strikes to go toe-to-toe with Jumbo. He finds out that he's no Tenryu and gets a beatdown. It's not that Jumbo isn't really messed up by this attack but it's not enough to transition into a serious pinning predicament. Still Misawa uses his quickness & flying but not in conjunction with much other than his strikes. So Jumbo does what he can to shift momentum and work Green Jeans over
This is one of my all time favorite feuds in puro. It probably won't get much attention nowadays but, that's time for ya! This isn't a definitive match list but, it covers most of the seminal puro program. These are my original reviews and star ratings when I was watching my DVDs as if the matches were weekly episodes. I've been in a wrestling rut lately so I hope this will get me out of it!
Jumbo Tsuruta vs. Tiger Mask II (All Japan 3/9/88) ****1/2+ What an amazing little match. Misawa ma
Its been awhile so, I thought I'd share a few of my favorite matches. Not just my favorite Dory Funk Jr. matches...nope, these are some of my all time faves. I cannot promise a bunch of moves and stuff so, don't be mistaken. I like my action matches but, my friends, this is different.
vs Jack Brisco NWA World Title (01/24/74) This is possibly one of the top 5 greatest matches that I've seen. Excellent mat wrestling for an hour with each fall being a little bit different in style and in st
Let's take the way back machine to 2014!
Ring of Honor in Cincinnati (07/18/14)
reDRagon vs Rocky Romero & Tomasso Ciampa: Koslov is injured so Nigel says Rocky has a replacement in the Sicilian Psychopath - nice! DRagon is pissed and rightfully so as the slap dash team takes the early advantage. Fish and O'Reilly eventually get control and unleash the 2 Man Smash Machine ™. Nevertheless, they can quite seem to get a handle on Ciampa and neither can Romero! This was a very g
It is June and by gawd it's the half way point of the year!?? Really? It was snowflakes and salt stains just yesterday!
That being said, I want to do my Best Match Watched and other assorted superlatives for the first part of 2019. It helps you but, more importantly, it helps me!
Best Match Watched:
-Daniel Bryan vs CM Punk - Money In the Bank (2012): This not a classic match but, one of the handful of WWE matches that I've watched this year that I thought was great.
-Michael
I need some kind of format or guide to help me talk about this 'zine 'Wrestle Void.' A blog is in the same vein as a 'zine, right? Its me talking about things I find interesting. What interests me with Wrestle Void? So, I suppose that's my hook with this little publication, right?! Let us begin...
This is a really fun rag to read -Straight and simple! The letters from the editors/co-founders at the start of each issue are a reminder that we as fans are real people. Gravy's letters especiall
Many of these matches I have commented on in the Everything Else match archives or the Yearbooks, if you will. I wanted to make a record of them all in one place here on my blog though. If you have similar wrestling tastes or just like to read what I have to say, I thought I would make one entry of my recent wrestling habits. It's pretty 1970's and 80's heavy but, we dip our toes into the 60's and 90's as you'll read shortly. Let's start with a doozy!
Johnny Valentine vs Bull Curry (06/20/6
I exhumed a load of reviews from the grooveyard for this one. I'm psyched to do it though. Jun Akiyama is one of my favorites I hope you enjoy reading and you take the time to go back to good old days of 1990's AJPW!
OK let's get this started!
vs Al Perez, vs Ted DiBiase (1/15 & 10/23/93): Both of these are worth checking out for that fun house show type of match. Both opponents kept the action and pace going for a couple entertaining matches. Its especially cool to see DiBiase b
Its been over a month since my last blog post but, I've been watching plenty of wrestling. I'm revisiting Kurt Angle's awesome early years in TNA as well as bouncing around YouTube for classic match ups. My Wahoo McDaniel kick has been a blast by the way! In addition to that great stuff, I've been catching up on some Tajiri stuff that I've missed. Not his WWE stuff mind you but, some odds and ends after he went back to Japan as well as some Tajiri as ECW fan favorite era stuff. So here we go! Sp
Here's my take on some semi-recent NOAH stuff:
Doug Williams vs Yoshinari Ogawa (12/16/18): Gosh remember 2018? Man, where has the time gone? Seriously, I know a lot happened last year but, we're a quarter of the way thru 2019 and I'm still trying to get used to that, aren't you? In the same vein, Williams and Ogawa let you know that the past is present. This was like a 1988 AJPW Jr. title match with holds, counters, and good old fashion wrestling. Hey it might be slow for some but, damn th
Thank you for your patience! I'm going to conclude the singles portion of this project here so, read on!!
(6/10)
Yoshihashi vs Ryusuke Taguchi: This was OK. I liked the opening mat section but, this felt like a by-the-book junior match. I think there is some drama here as Yoshihashi was part of the NJ main crew but as in a Young Lion/Junior member capacity. I say that as I've seen him paired with Taguchi in some tag matches. So maybe there's something here along the lines of YH proving
Sorry for the delay! The weather has been a little bit better the past two weeks and I've been able to get some skating in. Plus I think I needed a little break from wrestling. Nevertheless, I'm ready to pick up where I left off and get back to NJPW's Junior scene circa 2010.
We're still watching the Best of the Super Jrs. round robin matches.
From June 2nd (06/02/10)
Tama Tonga vs Yoshihashi: I missed this one on the previous post but, no biggie. It was an OK match. Nothing fancy
This is a project that I've wanted to start for some time now but, I couldn't find the right way to get going. Here's how it starts:
Bryan Danielson vs Fujita "Jr." Hayato (UWAI 12/03/06): I have to be honest, I've never heard of UWAI but, the person hosting it on the 'tube is the same person who has all of the Big Mouth Loud shows for viewing. So, I have to assume that it's an 'offshoot' (using that term loosely) of BML. Anyhow, I really recommend this match to anyone who's only seen 'Dani
I have clearly been on a Ring of Honor kick lately. Having a grip of clearance DVDs will do that to a fellow!
Young Bucks vs reDRagon (05/17/14 - War of the Worlds 2014): These two teams work very well together and here is another damn fine example. MMA'er Tom Lawlor (Filthy to you!) is seconding Fish & O'Reilly. He adds credibility to the DRagons and plays a really fun role especially early on. The Bucks are their usual selves and never slow down more than they have to. It works very w
I think the best way to tackle this post is to review both nights of the Raising the Bar event(s) from March 7th & 8th 2014. I'm going to give the major take-away points rather than my somewhat longer reviews of the matches in most cases. These were fantastic shows put on by Ring of Honor that haven't gotten much hype.
Night #1 - Milwaukee, WI
Silas Young vs Jay Lethal: These guys are well suited to work with one another. The size and athleticism is compatible. The crowd was into
