Phil Schneider

I was coming here to do Fujiwara and see I was beat to the punch Reviews for all of these are here http://segundacaida.blogspot.com/2009/08/complete-and-accurate-list-of-all-of.html 1982 w.Osamu Kido/Kengo Kimura v. Animal Hamiguchi/Isamu Teranishi/Ryuma Go 8/29 1983 v. Killer Khan 5/24 1984 v. Super Tiger 9/7 1985 v. Super Tiger 9/11 1986 v. Akira Maeda 2/5 (I'll also skip the eliminations for a more Fujiwara centric pic) 1987 v. Riki Choshu 6/9 1988 v. Riki Choshu 6/19 1989 v. Kazou Yamazaki 7/24 1990 v. Nobuhiko Takada 2/27 1991 v. Minoru Suzuki 11/3 1992 v. Yusuke Fuke 2/24 1993 v. Joe Malenko 6/1 1994 v. Shinya Hashimoto 6/1 1995 v. Taka Michinoku 8/26 1996 v. Dick Murdoch 5/23 1997 v. Genichiro Tenryu 11/24 1998 v. Don Frye 5/6 1999- Looks like I haven't reviewed a single 99 Fujiwara match 2000- w. Dan Kroffat v. Mistu Nagai/Masahito Kakihara 12/6 2001 -w Tiger Mask IV v. Carl Malenko/Yuki Ishikawa 5/5 2002 v. Kohei Sato 3/3 2003 v. Kintaro Kanemura 9/1 2004 w. Shinya Hashimoto v. Kohei Sato/Ryuji Sai 8/15 2005 w. Kazunari Murakami v. Egan Inoue/Yuki Ishikawa 8/14 2006 - Nothing great 2007-Nothing great 2008-Nothing great 2009- Nothing great 2010 w. Katsumi Usuda v. Shoichi Funaki/Ikuto Hidaka 5/30 2011 w. Carlos Amano v. Yuki Ishikawa/Kana 1/10 2012 w. Yuki Ishikawa v. Mitsu Nagai/Tatsumi Fujinami 1/8 2013 v. Maasaki Mochizuki 12/14 2014 - Nothing Great 2015- w. Takayama v. Kazunari Murakami/Minoru Suzuki 11/15 2016 v. Atsushi Aoki 1/3 2017 v. Shinya Aoki 4/5

This was a KO or submission match for the WWWA title, and merciful fuck was this a war. Kandori opens up by tackling Hotta to the floor, after they get back into the ring, they scramble and it ends up with Hotta field goal kicking Kandori right in the head. Hell of a way to open a match and it really lets you know you are watching something special. This match has the greatest guard work I have ever seen in a pro-wrestling match, Kandori is basically a distaff worked Demien Maia. There is this great section early in the match where Kandori is in rubber guard and Hotta, frustrated with her inability to pass, just rains down headbutts splitting her own head open. For the rest of the match Hotta has blood streaming down her head which totally adds to the crazed aura. Of course with these two quasi unprofessional ladies everything is thrown with reckless abandon. Hotta is just unloading KO shots with every kick, Kandori is trying to crack jaws with every slap. Finish was great, Hotta lands two big bombs, a double underhook piledriver, and a nasty liger bomb, but clearly weak from blood loss, she forgets the rules and goes for a pin. This allows Kandori to catch her from the bottom with a great tight triangle choke for the tap out. It was basically a worked version of the Chael Sonnen v. Anderson Silva finish 12 years before that fight. Such a masterful piece of violence and a Segunda Caida match through and through

Speaking of Atlantis, has anyone seen this before?

This wasn't on the DVDVR 80s set

Man did I love this match. The concept is a group of AIW students challenged team of old school AIW guys. The first section of this match has the Old AIW laying a 75% Kurisu level beating on the rookies. Matt Justice nearly beheads Tre Lamar with a leg lariat, the Jollyville Fuck Its (who are a team I love and I need to seek out more of) have this great spot where T-Money puts Lamar in an airplane spin and Russ just punches him in the face on every spin. Garrison King has light up shoes an awesome secondary nickname (Garry "The King" Baller) and takes an absolute shellacking. After a really long one sided beating the rookies get a bit of an advantage with AJ Gray (who is sort of a ringer) and that leads into this awesome dive train, with Chase Oliver doing a Taka moonsault to the floor, Lamar hitting an insane looking Fosbury flop, Gray hitting a skytwister off the top and Justice Davey Boy Smith style powerslamming King off the top rope into a crowd on the floor. Finish run is pretty bonkers with everyone hitting big moves until the rookies get the big upset win. Batshit spotfest, with the old school team beatdown leading to a real structure that most of these kind of matches lack.

I am always very happy to see a big time Eddie Kingston singles match. Kingston isn't going to grapple with you, so this had less jujitsu rolling then the other Lawlor matches I have watched, but they replaced with grappling with Kingston chops and backfist to the face. This was these guys doing an All Japan main event and Kingston's selling put it at a higher level then most matches of this style. Every shot was impactful and every suplex was compressing. Lawlor has really good looking suplexes and is willing to take an asskicking. Lawlor does his neck snap move and Kingston sells it like it gave him nerve damage. Even the suplex no sell section had Kingston fighting through adrenaline and both guys collapse on their face. Finish was pretty great with Lawlor turning a Tazmission into a nasty ground and pound into a guillotine. Loved Kingston fighting from the ground until he ate one too many elbows and slumped unconscious.

The new trend of UFC guys (and gals) deciding to do indie wrestling has really led to some great stuff, and this might be my favorite. Filthy Tom Lawlor actually had some pro-wrestling experience before UFC (he is listed as Hack Myers trained by Cagematch) and was a DVDVR poster back in the day. Garrini isn't an ex-UFC guy but is a Brazilian Jujitsu champion and fits in perfectly in this style. Lawlor comes out in a gimp mask and predator wig, and I am not sure what gimmick he is working. Opening matwork was great, both guys rolling around grabbing arms and legs. I imagine this was ju-jitsu sparring and you could tell that the skill level was really high. After the matwork there was a section I didn't like where they did a very 2017 slap exchange into an elbow exchange into a a pair of semi no-sold German suplexes. After that there was a very cool double KO with Garinni throwing a knee and eating a superman punch at the same time. Finish run was awesome with Lawlor hitting a great uranage into an Olympic hell (man someone needs to bring over Tamon Honda and have him work both of these guys and Riddle). Actually finish was dope, Lawlor goes for a top rope headbutt and gets caught in a triangle, Lawlor fights his way out of it and counters it into a Styles clash for the pin. Just a hell of fight, and one of my favorite matches of the year.

This was pretty great stuff. I have been wavering on Riddle a bit this year, but putting him in with another MMA guy minimizes some of his more questionable attributes. The opening mat section between the two was pretty great, both guys were just rolling, looking for submissions grabbing advantages, high level stuff which is always good to watch. Riddle is a super impressive athlete and will often do something jaw dropping, after the matwork they exchange tough guy chops, elbows and kicks, and Riddle ends it with a pele kick which looked like it was in fast forward. Lawlor has a fun dick head charisma, shit talking, claiming Dana White sent him to take Riddle out, he is a natural heel and I dug him. His counter of the senton with a rear naked choke was especially cool. Finish was really awesome with Riddle throwing on a super fast triangle choke, and Lawlor trying to slam his way out of hit, only to turn it into a pinfall right before he went out.

I am questioning the legitimacy of that Benson Lee black belt, his karate looked very Eric Bischoffish. My god though 2 minute Dan Severn maulings are my new favorite thing in wrestling, it is like watching Youtube clips of Tyson fights. When Severn catches Lee's kick and rips down on it, it looked like it should have shattered Lee's knee cap. If I was Lee I would have rolled out of the ring, walked straight to my Toyota Tercel and driven home. Lee's little Dragon sleeper was cute, but Severn countering that with the worlds most violent snap mare right into a gutwrench suplex was awesome. Call the EMTs.

It sucks that he had control of it the last couple of months and stopped updating

This was probably a bad match to start this project with, because it really sets an impossibly high bar. This was on a high school football field in Williamstown New Jersey, and Tarzan Goto is sitting on a folding chair on the track watching the match. This is worked like a super amped up PWFG match, with Severn aggressively shooting in for takedowns and suplexes and Tajiri throwing kicks and using his speed to counter Severn's power, it feels like I was watching an Earth 2 Tajiri where he ends up trained by Funaki and fighting in Pancrase. Tajiri hits a plausible shootstyle enzigiri. Severn is awesome in this, he is totally amped up and just hurls Tajiri with suplexes, he reminded me a bit of peak Brock here especially in the where he walks through a low kick by Tajiri, hurls him with a belly to belly suplex, right into a german suplex, right into a choke. I couldn't believe how good this was, I would have lost my shit watching this in the bleachers at a 1995 indy show.

Sprint of the year candidate, and my favorite match of the tournament so far. Bayzler comes out and throws this jumping knee right into Candice's face and walks away with this great Kazunari Murakami style smirk. She misses a kick though, and Candice pushes her to the floor and hits a great looking tope into a spinning DDT, Bayzler is surprisingly great at catching dives, which isn't something you would think you would learn at Josh Barnett catch wrestling school. LaRae hits an octopus into her husbands crossface finisher. Baszler had a great almost tap near fall here, and it really felt like Candice might catch her, and there was also great second selling by Jessymyn Duke and Ronda Rousey, both really looked concerned and worried. LaRae tries for her top rop neckbreaker and gets ripped off the top right into the Bayzler choke. Shayna refuses to release it, and really comes off like an asshole. Awesome performances by both ladies and a hell of a short match.

Very good match, worthy of a finals, but very clearly the wrong lady went over. Not only are there way more interesting things that can be done with Shayna as a tournament champ, but she was obviously the superior performer. Most of the cool things in this match were provided by Baszler, all the early cockiness, the little kicks to the head, the absorbing of the spear, the nasty armwork. Then later in the match she did a masterful job of selling the broken rib to make herself look vulnerable, and set up the big finish. I really wish Sane’s spear looked better, a selling job that good deserved a better looking instigating move. I did love Sane’s backfist, which she hits with such force, and the diving elbow to the ribs was super nasty (Baszler covering her head only to get wasted in the body was awesome). Also total waste not to have some post match gaga. If you are going to have Shayna lose, at least have her jump Kairi post bell and have some sort of pull apart with the Horsewomen and the WWE wrestlers, any business they want to do there lost a lot of its luster. It really felt like they just wanted the photo op with horseface Ivanka and roid Kushner post match.

We get a nifty chance to look at Regal work a house show tag match along side fellow classic heel stooge Dick Slater. This is mostly the heel bumping and clowning for the faces and these are a pair of great clowns. Regal and Davey Boy had a great PPV match full of WOS spots, and they break out a bunch of those tricks here. This stuff has been spammed a lot by indy dudes lately, but it is pretty crazy to watch them do wristlock cartwheel counters in 93 WCW. Sting and Regal have a really fun knucklock sequence, with Sting doing a super impressive bridge with Regals weight on top of him. The finish came a bit abruptly after a long heel kneework section on Davey Boy, but that was my only quibble. Fun stuff and a great out of nowhere upload.