gordi

I've been half-heartedly following BJPW, due mainly to FLIK's efforts at getting their stuff out there. I've been semi-enjoying a lot of it, but I've also been yearning for the comparatively sane and structured '99 - '00 Death Match style that was brought to its peak by Honma vs. Yamakawa. This match had some of the comparative mega-overkill of more recent BJPW, but for whatever reason (Sasaki being awesome, perhaps), this particular match seemed to tell more of a story and have more of a structure. The overkill stuff seemed more cool than disturbing, except for that disgusting visual of the nail stuck in Sasaki's head... It was easily the most I've gotten into a BJPW match since '00. I watched this match with a friend that's really into wrestling. I think the only death matches he'd seen before had Foley in them. This match freaked him out a little, in a bad way. It was too much for him. I can understand that. It's nice to see that NJPW is going back to the basics. This is as good a Big American Guy vs. Tough Japanese Guy match as I can remember seeing from NJPW since, well, since Vader vs. Inoki at the '96 Tokyo Dome show. I'm not saying it's anywhere near as good a match, but I will say that it's a nice big step on the journey back to NJPW being the kind of promotion that knows how to put that sort of match together. I guess I'll nitpick Bernard's weak-looking sidewalk slam, his half-hearted full nelson, and his showing too much light on the Vader splash. He did everything else pretty well, though, including selling for Nagata. There was some decent psychology, a good crowd, and even the wrestlers around the ring played their roles well. I thought that the finish looked devastating.

I love student vs. Teacher matches. I was there live for Taue vs. Morishima in Dec. '05, and that remains my favourite NOAH student vs. teacher match... but this one was pretty damn enjoyable in its own right, almost as much fun to watch on DVD as the other was to watch live. In the Morishima match, Taue ended up having to break out a new version of the Nodowa Otoshi (or however you spell it) to put Mori away. The match was great because it left both guys looking really strong. This match had the same effect, in that KENTA really took it to Kobashi, so he looked like a smaller guy who can legit hang with the bigger guys... but when Kobashi had enough he just busted out a super move and put KENTA away for good, proving that he's still the strongest. I thought the build was great, with KENTA putting out the little brush fires of Kobashi's comeback attempts in various effective ways. KENTA beating on Kobashi sounds bad on paper, but Kobashi is such a great wrestler that it never once felt wrong to me while I was watching the match. I loved 2005 Dragon Gate, and I watched a ton of it. When Meltzer gave this match *****, the common internet lament was that DG had put on dozens of matches that were very bit as good or even better, and Dave just didn't know that because he doesn't watch Dragon Gate. Well, I do watch Dragon Gate, and I feel pretty confident in saying that this match was indeed something special. It's like Blood Gen and Do-Fixer had been building to this match all through their magical 2005 run, and they wanted to pull out all of the stops (and all of the spots) for the Americans. Their was no build-up to this match as it was being presented to the ROH crowd, but for anyone who had been following DG in '05 there was plenty of story, and it was pretty clear what role each wrestler was playing. My favourite thing about this match is the way I can show it to a casual WWE fan who has never seriously watched Indy or foreign wrestling before, and know for a fact that they will enjoy it. As such, I've watched it a number of times with a number of different people, and I always get a real kick out of it. I got a real kick out of this match, too. One of the things that's so obviously enjoyable and rewarding about this set is the crazy variety of styles of great matches that took place in 2006. I've been getting more and more into MMA lately, and when I get the urge to watch some wrestling, it's almost always going to be something from the past. If I wanted to watch something newer in '06, I generally ordered some ROH DVDs. So it was really rewarding to watch disc 1 and get a nostalgic lucha match, a fast-paced kicks and spots juniors match, A classic heavyweight tag with some ultraviolence tossed in for good measure, a WWE Main Event style match with no unnecessary extra baggage, Misawa in fine form, A great big man vs little man match, a crazy six-man ultra-sprint... and now this. I had no idea that people were doing old-school borderline shoot style limb work in '06. What a treat this was! Frankly, I wouldn't want this as my every day pro wrestling bread... I'm watching too much actual shoot fighting, and I've only recently participated in the shoot style orgy that was the DVDVR Other 80s set... but this was great as an unexpected and very interesting ingredient in the '06 stew. It's different from UWF Shoot Style in that the focus is more on tight submission, limb, and mat work rather than striking. Nish and Saito have been building towards something like this for years and years. I didn't like the ending, but I'm glad that this match made the set.

Thanks for the invite. Here it is: goodhelmet's 2006 MOTYC set disc 1 part 1 La Mascara & El Hijo Del Santo vs. Blue Panther & Tarzan Boy (CMLL GDL 1/1/06) The thrill of this one os seeing El Hijo del Santo and Blue Panther hookin' it up again. They start right out with some very smooth matwork, and it's just a pure pleasure to watch. Panther is not as quick as he once was, but he's still pretty spry. He works in a handstand spot, and if that doesn't warm your heart you might want to check and see if it's still there. This has quite an old-school feel, as the first two falls build slowly, with lots of mutual respect spots and handshaking... then they just unleash for the third. The big spot involves both Santito and Panther doing huge dives to the floor from the top turnbuckle. I have to say, I wasn't expecting that. The finish is superb. KENTA vs. Naomichi Marufuji (NOAH 1/22/06) It seems like watching handsome junior heavyweights kick the crap out of each other has kind of gone out of style in 2007. I don't care. I can't get enough of this kind of match. They do a lightening fast exchange into a standoff, then go straight into the stiff slaps. I get the feeling that this is going to be a hot match... AND IT IS! There's some MMA-inspired matwork, then it's back up for minutes of stupidly sick stiffness ans hilarious direspect spots. After a good long while Maru proceeds to take KENTA's leg apart. If there's a big flaw in this match, it's that it's obvious that all the leg work will lead nowhere. Anyway, I forget to care as they head straight into the HOLY $#*&! part of the match. It's frankly amazing how these two guys manage to keep coming up with new variations of their craziest spots. They just string one crazy maneuver after another together, and only badly blow one of them. Then they do a bunch of variations on the theme of nearfalls. This is damn near a half-hour match, but it just flies by. As I said, I can't get enough of this stuff. Word on the street is, this is not even their best match on this set! Shadow WX & Mammoth Sasaki v. Abdullah Kobyashi & Daisuke Sekimoto (BJPW 1/27/06) What's great about this is that it's at least 85% old fashioned hard hitting heavyweight tag team action, and less than 5% aimlessly hitting guys with stuff or putting guys through stuff. The rest is hitting guys with stuff in a way that suits the flow of the match. High-flying Kobyashi is hilarious and unexpectedly believable. Sekimoto is jacked up and working tight. WX and Sasaki are a good team, they work together, and they pull out chair shot variations that Edge and Christian never imagined. All four guys are better at working a straight style than I would have imagined. Mutoh impersonations are always a bonus in my book, as well. Kurt Angle vs. The Undertaker (No Way Out 2/19/06) What's remarkable about this is that they let the wrestling tell the tale. No run-ins, ref bumps, or lightning bolts coming out of the undead giant's hands. They build slowly to the HUGE spot, then quickly transition into a really fun extended sequence of holds and reversals that never loses momentum. The finish is outstanding, and this match easily lives up to the hype. Mitsuharu Misawa vs. Takeshi Morishima (NOAH 3/5/06) An epic heavyweight encounter, with Morishima on fire, and Misawa at his absolute latter-day best. It's all hard hitting, big moves, and sick bumps. Morishima gets busted hardway, and doesn't slow down for a second. Misawa lays a brutal beating on him, and it does my heart good to see him in such fine form. I've polished off the first disc, so I'll post my thoughts n the rest of these matches and maybe some response to your (and other) opinions when I get some free time.

goodhelmet's 2006 MOTYC set disc 1 part 1 La Mascara & El Hijo Del Santo vs. Blue Panther & Tarzan Boy (CMLL GDL 1/1/06) The thrill of this one os seeing El Hijo del Santo and Blue Panther hookin' it up again. They start right out with some very smooth matwork, and it's just a pure pleasure to watch. Panther is not as quick as he once was, but he's still pretty spry. He works in a handstand spot, and if that doesn't warm your heart you might want to check and see if it's still there. This has quite an old-school feel, as the first two falls build slowly, with lots of mutual respect spots and handshaking... then they just unleash for the third. The big spot involves both Santito and Panther doing huge dives to the floor from the top turnbuckle. I have to say, I wasn't expecting that. The finish is superb. KENTA vs. Naomichi Marufuji (NOAH 1/22/06) It seems like watching handsome junior heavyweights kick the crap out of each other has kind of gone out of style in 2007. I don't care. I can't get enough of this kind of match. They do a lightening fast exchange into a standoff, then go straight into the stiff slaps. I get the feeling that this is going to be a hot match... AND IT IS! There's some MMA-inspired matwork, then it's back up for minutes of stupidly sick stiffness ans hilarious direspect spots. After a good long while Maru proceeds to take KENTA's leg apart. If there's a big flaw in this match, it's that it's obvious that all the leg work will lead nowhere. Anyway, I forget to care as they head straight into the HOLY $#*&! part of the match. It's frankly amazing how these two guys manage to keep coming up with new variations of their craziest spots. They just string one crazy maneuver after another together, and only badly blow one of them. Then they do a bunch of variations on the theme of nearfalls. This is damn near a half-hour match, but it just flies by. As I said, I can't get enough of this stuff. Word on the street is, this is not even their best match on this set! Shadow WX & Mammoth Sasaki v. Abdullah Kobyashi & Daisuke Sekimoto (BJPW 1/27/06) What's great about this is that it's at least 85% old fashioned hard hitting heavyweight tag team action, and less than 5% aimlessly hitting guys with stuff or putting guys through stuff. The rest is hitting guys with stuff in a way that suits the flow of the match. High-flying Kobyashi is hilarious and unexpectedly believable. Sekimoto is jacked up and working tight. WX and Sasaki are a good team, they work together, and they pull out chair shot variations that Edge and Christian never imagined. All four guys are better at working a straight style than I would have imagined. Mutoh impersonations are always a bonus in my book, as well. Kurt Angle vs. The Undertaker (No Way Out 2/19/06) What's remarkable about this is that they let the wrestling tell the tale. No run-ins, ref bumps, or lightning bolts coming out of the undead giant's hands. They build slowly to the HUGE spot, then quickly transition into a really fun extended sequence of holds and reversals that never loses momentum. The finish is outstanding, and this match easily lives up to the hype. Mitsuharu Misawa vs. Takeshi Morishima (NOAH 3/5/06) An epic heavyweight encounter, with Morishima on fire, and Misawa at his absolute latter-day best. It's all hard hitting, big moves, and sick bumps. Morishima gets busted hardway, and doesn't slow down for a second. Misawa lays a brutal beating on him, and it does my heart good to see him in such fine form.

Dang, jdw, that's a fantastically imaginative approach to this... I really enjoyed reading that and visualising how it might all come together. Which match would you put on first? Which would be your pre-intemission main event? I wonder about how the crowd would respond to Choshu vs. Hash after the AJPW tag? Maybe the old heavyweights would be forced to take it up another notch. I imagine much stiff striking and many hard lariats.

I've mainly just seen late 90s BattlARTS, and it's amazing stuff. IMO, it certainly lives up to the hype.

I found my original answer to this challenge on the old NMB. I'm surprised how little I'd want to change it up. here's this week's version. 1 - TAKA Michinoku, Sho Funaki, Dick Togo, Shiryu & Men's Teioh vs. Gran Naniwa, Super Delfin, Tiger Mask IV, Masato Yakushiji & Gran Hamada (M-Pro 10/10/96) I want a fast, fun, and exciting opener to fire the crowd up. It's a half hour plus, but it's never felt long to me watching it on tape. I can't imagine how quickly that time would fly by seeing it live. I also can't imagine any crowd not 'getting it up' for this match. 2 - Daisuke Ikeda vs. Yuki Ishikawa (BattlARTS 8/29/99) I think you'd need to follow that up with a sharply contrasting match, but one that can grab the crowd's attention when they're already buzzing from the opener. The M-Pro emphasizes speed and spots, the BattlARTS stiffness and violence. I think it's settle the crowd in without either killing the heat or burning them out. 3 - Randy Savage vs. Bret Hart (WWF 11/11/87) And we switch things up with a shorter, simpler, story-based match to slow things down a touch without losing the audience. Bret and Randy's star power would keep the crowd well involved, I'm sure. 4 - Bryan Danielson & Low Ki vs. Jushin Liger & Samoa Joe (ROH 11/6/2004) Why? It's here because I want to see these four guys on the card. It's here because it's a fun match with some nice heel vs. face stuff and it'll keep the crowd entertained while still not overshadowing the pre-intermission main event. 5 - Akira Hokuto & Shinobu Kandori vs. Aja Kong & Bull Nakano (AJW 3/27/94) The last match before intermission, to send everyone out into the lobby buzzing from the great story -- of the unwilling partners progressing from mutual hatred to mutual respect -- and the sick, stiff, high-risk action. ** INTERMISSION ** 6 - Jr. Heavyweight Championship Match: Tiger Mask vs. Dynamite Kid (NJPW 8/5/82) Not "The Greatest Match of the 1980s" one, this is a 15-minute sprint that'll grab everyone's attention and wake them up after the beer, snacks, and soda. 7 - World Heavyweight Title Match: Jumbo Tsuruta vs. Jack Brisco - 2/3 falls ( AJPW 8/28/76) Now that everyone's awake, let's treat them to a well-paced, perfectly developed 70s-style title match, featuring the greatest selling in wrestling history as Jumbo contests most of the third fall from his knees. 8 - Eddie vs. Benoit - (WCW Nitro 10/16/1995) Just a short and exciting TV-style match as a palate cleanser between the two epic AJPW matches. 9 - World Tag Team Titles Match: Mitsuharu Misawa & Kenta Kobashi vs. Toshiaki Kawada & Akira Taue (AJPW 6/9/95) When this is your main event, it doesn't really matter what's gone before. Nothing could possibly burn a crowd out enough that they wouldn't get into this. It is perhaps the best story ever told in a wrestling ring, and the one match in history that I would most dearly have loved to have seen live.

Someone (Phil? Dean?) on DVDVR once summed it up beautifully as the first post-modern wrestling style. They took the best elements of Shoot Style (emphasis on strikes, suplexes, and submissions, sick stiffness, all clean finishes, anyone can be beaten...) and mixed it up with crazy entertaining stuff from other styles of pro wrestling... Here's the actual quote (From DVDVR #100) No way I could put it better than this:

I love Shoot Style, but only as a once-in-a-while extra bit of spice to my overall pro wrestling diet. I love it like I love well-cooked Greek food, in that I almost never think of going for souvlaki, but whenever I do I end up glad that I did. If I went for Greek food every day, though, I'm sure it wouldn't take long to get sick of it... I think that the DVDVR Other 80s set was the equivalent of two straight months of lamb, eggplant, olives, and retsina. No wonder if people have had their fill of UWF matches! I first heard about shoot style from a Josh Barnett interview, and learned some more from internet friends on the 411 boards... that led to me buying the famous Vader tape from Tabe... of course I loved it. I'd never seen such stiffness and realism in pro wrestling before. Eventually, I got Tabe's Takada set as well. The Other 80s set was a real treat, a chance to see the roots of the style, a chance to see Fujiwara... and Sayama. Enough is enough, though, and I don't feel the need to watch any more Shoot Style for a while... but I'll get a hankering for it again somewhere down the road, I'm sure. I agree that watching so much actual shoot fighting has changed the way I watch shoot style. What fascinates me, though, is how often they get it exactly right. Maybe the long struggles and reversals when trapped in submissions aren't realistic... but a lot of the little details like leg kick defense and ways of maneuvering into position are right on the money. Also, there's the whole aspect of understanding that pro wrestlers with actual shoot training felt stupid doing stuff like running the ropes and so they wanted to come up with a style that didn't insult people's intelligence (or at least require such a huge suspension of disbelief). I think they did that really well.

Thanks for this, and for the new fighter of the week. I love those posts! Second the love for FOTW. I keep wanting to reply to those posts, but I can't ever think of anything to add.

There was the whole Backlund/Inoki/Title Belt controversy in late 1979... Showdown at Shea 1972, with Morales vs. Sammartino, and Monsoon vs. Ernie Ladd on the undercard... I'd be interested if you could find any footage of the 70s version of the World Wrestling Federation Junior Heavyweight Title (January 1978 - March 1979), Fujinami held it twice... This site might be useful. I'd put a condom on your computer first, though, just to be on the safe side: http://www.angelfire.com/wrestling/cawthon777/results.htm History of WWWF MSG matches in the 70s: http://www.angelfire.com/wrestling/cawthon777/70smsg.htm

True enough... I think there's an argument to be made for Gesias "JZ Calvan" Calvancanti as the current #1 LW fighter in MMA.

Something else to think about: Now Diaz has beaten Gomi, who has beaten Sakurai, who has beaten Trigg, who has beaten Misaki, who has beaten Henderson, who has beaten Silva…

I was screaming at my computer screen while watching this show. Crazy one-punch KOs, stunning upsets... a Gogoplata... it's great to be an MMA fan.

Partly, it's down to the fact that the Japanese feds do several tours every year and the wrestlers get actual time off (to heal up and recover) between tours. I'd say that the non-stop schedule of the US feds does more damage than the harder-hitting Japanese style over the long haul.

An awesome read, wp. I haven't even finished it yet, but I feel the need to comment. Your #1 is a match that's been flying beneath my radar. I am going to seek it out just based on my respect for your knowledge of Benoit's matches. Your #2 is a match that I remember very well. It blew me away seeing Stampede guys doing crazy stuff in the NWA. Your #4 match is one that, on a certain day, I might rank as my favourite match of all time. I'm going to print this up to read at leisure.

I'm pretty sure that this match was the gateway drug that created the first big surge in puroresu tape trading. As someone (John?) said in a review of the match I remember reading a long way back: A lot of people who had been reading about Japanese stuff in WON finally got the chance to see what the fuss was about. Like wp said, it was a huge eye-opener. I still think it's a hell of a match.

I'm very much of the opinion that the real problem there was that the ref was out of position. He should have been able to stop the fight before Salmon took those extra shots on the ground. As far as the primal rush is concerned: I definitely felt the rush when the kick hit. I didn't feel anything positive when those extra punches landed.

I don't have it. I got the 1992 set direct from Dan Ginnetty, but I got a bunch of '91 discs from someone else in a trade, and picked up some others in a buy. I may have the full version, but I'm hoping that Ginnetty will be willing to sell me the single disc if it turns out I don't have it.

Dan has a more complete version of this (48-49 minutes of it) that aired on a special. Well worth asking him about. John I will have to seek that out at some point. I was hoping it would be out there somewhere. I picked up the full version of the 5/94 tag, and loved every minute of it. The longer build made the huge finishing run seem that much more dramatic. With the clipped version of the six-man tag, the time just flew by. I mean, I got a glass of water and settled in for half an hour of wrestling... then the match was done and I hadn't had a sip of my water. I'd imagine the (almost) full match feels much the same.

AJPW TV 1991 disc 10: HOLY GUACAMOLE what a great, great disc. God bless Dan Ginnetty for putting this one together: * Kawada vs. Taue 15:53 shown * Gordy & Williams vs. Hansen & Spivey 14:42 shown * Kid & Smith vs. Kroffat & Furnas 4:31 shown * Misawa, Kobashi & Kawada vs. Jumbo, Taue & Fuchi 28:20 of 51:32 shown I believe the air dates were 05/05 and 05/12 Kawada vs. Taue: Four years later, they'd have one of the best matches ever, and their '91 Carnival match ain't exactly chopped liver, either. Kawada cranks on Taue's arm from many angles, and when Taue gets his turn, Toshi just kicks Akira in the face repeatedly. TAUE BLADES! and, enraged by the sight of his own blood, he uses the power of SUMO to knock Kawada out of the ring. They brawl Pier 6 style, and Taue drops Kawada's knee on the railing. Back inside, Taue goes for the knee -- PSYCHOLOGY!-- They brawl back outside. Taue just f'n plants Kawada with a huge power bomb on the mats. Kawada beats the count... and he is PISSED! They just beat the living hell out of each other until they end up outside yet again. Kawada lifts the mats, he wants to give Taue a big receipt... but Kawada ends up hoisted on his own petard, as Taue reverses and gives him a big Nodowa on the bare floor. Kawada's eyes go glassy, and it's clear he will not beat the count this time. Awesome stuff, really Mid-Southish and violent and well thought out. The well dressed men in the front row momentarily lose their composure from time to time. Who can blame them? Tag Titles Match: Gaijin on Gaijin violence! Doc is amped up, attacking people in the crowd as he comes to the ring. It's extremely weird seeing Hansen, bleeding from his forehead and from the first knuckle on his right hand, playing face in peril. Doc and Gordy are so damn good at cutting off the ring and laying in the beating, though. They actually get some booooooos from the crowd. This is even more Mid-Southy than the previous match. Every strike is stiff and full on, every bump is hard and loud. Nothing against Starship Eagle, but his HOUSE AFIRE bit is the least compelling part of the match. Thing pick right back up once he tags The Lariat back in, though. Hansen brawls outside with Gordy, and keeps making back into the ring just in time to save Waylon Mercy from being pinned. Eventually, Joe realizes that Spivey isn't the legal man, anyway. You'll never guess in a million years what offensive maneuver Hansen uses to take Doc's head off his shoulders. The crowd goes crazy for the title change. Bulldogs vs. Can Ams: It's Johnny, not Davey Boy, so Furnas is the most jacked up guy in this clip. It's non-stop athletic action for 4 and a half minutes, of course. Misawa, Kobashi & Kawada vs. Jumbo, Taue & Fuchi Super hot crowd for this one. Maybe they were expecting one of the greatest matches of the era. If so, maybe they were right. This whole disc is nothing but great wrestling, but this match is just on a whole other plane. MI-Sa-WA! KO-Bash-I! and FU-chi (clapclapclap)! each get crowd chants. Later on, so do Ka-wa-DA! and Ta-u-E! Jumbo gets his OH!s When Misawa and Jumbo face off, the crowd gets so hot that there are women actually screaming. Kobashi looks young and fit enough to remind me of my own mortality. Seeing Kawada run in to beat on Taue in order to save Kobashi is too strange for words. The hate is apparent, and I think that the old guard vs. young upstart dynamic would be apparent even if I'd never seen an AJPW match before. While Misawa vs. Jumbo is obviously the key, and Kawada vs. Taue is the most hate-filled of the rivalries here, every possible individual match-up is an absolute killer... and they play it that way. Kobashi just Kikuchis it up something fierce as the old guys take his knee apart. Fuchi is particularly beautiful to watch here. There are many girls in the audience with puffy hair and baggy sweaters. They are all really into the match. The editing is really well done, and the match doesn't feel clipped up at all. There is a clean big-move finish. I don't know how this could have been much better.