Phil Schneider

OOOOHHH!!! Sounds like it is well worth the wait ! Very excited to see my paranoia is unfounded

Nothing yet, I am starting to get more paranoid. Jet fuel can't melt steal beams.

Ok I am in on this little mini feud. Nomura is a rookie and this is a nice progression for him after their match in June. Suzuki is still chucking this kid around, but he has a little harder time keeping a grip on him. Nomura lands some nice kicks, and there is a very cool counter where he slips an uppercut and gets a great backslide which Suzuki rolls through right into a Nomura kick. Nomura even survives the backbreaker which put him down. I am in the bag for Suzuki, and think this Nomura kid might get pretty good.

Really fun kicker v. grappler match, Nomura has fast hands and nice kicks and Suzuki responds by just beasting him with wrestling. He has these great looking takedowns and amateur wrestling small packages, where he folds Nomura like a blanket he is putting in a hamper. Nomura had his moments, but this was all about Suzuki as an old school MUGA asskicker, headlock takeovers, Boston crabs and a backbreaker which looked literal rather then figurative, a little one sided, but cool shit. I am going to have to go on a Suzuki binge.

Not sure why Nakanoue and Suzuki want to murder each other, but they sure as shit do and this was totally awesome. They start potatoing each other in the aisle and can't be pulled apart with the ref throwing the whole match out 50 seconds in. They scream at each other on the microphone and they restart the match and they go back to beating on each other with concussion causing headbutts and leaping headstomps, eventually Suzuki beats up his partner because he was trying to keep him from slaughtering Nakanoue. I love this kind of stuff, felt like a classic WAR v. NJ match or a Kazunari Murakami fight.

It would be a bummer if the last NWA Classics match uploaded is a fucking Moolah match. Talk about going out with a whimper not a bang.

I don't like the sound of that

Great, great match, pretty different from much I have seen in wrestling before, almost like if Yoshiaki Fujiwara got a chance to work Brock Lesnar in a shootstyle match. Graves was desperate to grab a limb and twist, while Kratos was attempting to pound his head in with some of the most brutal looking ground and pound I have seen in a pro wrestling match. We also go some very cool shoot throws including Kratos nestea plunging with Graves on his back. At one point Kratos throws a shoot piledriver which didn't look smooth at all, but looked like how you piledrive someone in a streetfight. There was a running bulldog and top rope back elbow by Graves near the end of the match, which was really out of place for what they were doing before, but that was my only complaint, loved the finish, really perfect flash submission. Such good stuff, Graves is the best wrestler no one talks about.

This was totally awesome, maybe my favorite non-Matanza Cobb singles match ever. Bateman is woking one of the dozens of old-timey Sasparilla Brooklyn bartender gimmicks, but is a pretty skilled grappler and is willing to take a huge beating. He tries to keep Cobb at bay by ripping at his fingers and landing sharp 12 to 6 elbows, but Cobb keeps hurling him with nasty suplexes, especially loved Cobb chucking him neck first into the turnbuckle, finish was really great too.

Johnny Valentine v. Bully Curry is fucking awesome, but that match looks nothing like a MMA fight, I really have no idea what Meltzer is talking about

Bull Curry v. Johnny Valentine was fucking awesome

WWE is kind of mess right now, but they can still occasionally put together a match that feels important in the way that few other wrestling matches can. Having this match given such a focus an so much time on a big RAW like this might make this the most meaningful women's match since Wendi Richter v. Lelani Kai. The work was excellent too, both Banks and Charlotte can work this kind of produced big match epic well, the crowd cares about Banks and this was a shockingly good babyface performance from someone who I thought needed to be a hell. Charlotte is pretty green but she went above and beyond to make Sasha look awesome, including trying that nutso moonsault and using every bit of her flexibility to make the submissions look super nasty. Even little production changes like post match interviews and no ringside announcers freshen up RAW so much.

I am not sure exactly what the fuck Liga Elite is, but god bless whatever they are for this bit of glorious spectacle. CMLL doesn't do this stuff anymore, and I am not sure what the ramifications are going to be, but this was Rush and LA PARK having an old fashioned blood soaked lucha brawl. This would have been right at home with Sangre Chicana or Perro Aguayo and I am so happy to see the floors of the birthplace of lucha libre covered in pools of blood again. They rip into each other on the ring apron and it keeps going like that for the whole match, parts of it have the frantic intensity of Necro v. Joe. Rush goes and grabs a metal footlocker and they hurl it at each others heads. At one point the ref just bails the fuck out of there, the crowd starts tossing trash and Park and Rush keep killing each other. This may have killed the promotion, maybe both guys get suspended, I dunno, but I loved every sweet second.

Phil is joined by fellow Segunda Caida writer MattD and they dig into one of Phil’s favorite wrestlers Yoshiaki Fujiwara. Phil forces Fujiwara virgin MattD looks into a cross-section of Fujiwara matches. http://placetobenation.com/digging-in-the-crates-7/ Yoshiaki Fujiwara v. Super Tiger UWF 9/11/85 Yoshiaki Fujiwara v. Riki Choshu NJ 6/9/87 http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x3m34p8 Tatsumi Fujinami, Keiichi Yamada, Shiro Koshinaka, Yoshiaki Fujiwara & Kengo Kimura vs. Hiro Saito, Kuniaki Kobayashi, Super Strong Machine, Masa Saito & Riki Choshu (9/12/88) Yoshiaki Fujiwara v. Bart Vale Miami Shootfighting 3/20/92 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A_XVxuyARHY In addition Phil recommends the Whit Stillman directed Jane Austen adaptation Love and Friendship Matt recommends George McDonald Frasers Flashman novels

I agree with large parts of this, it is too bad Ambrose got so neutered because I though Jon Moxley really came off as a legit scumbag loose cannon on the indies.

Von Erich isn't their real last name either

LInk? Did you watch a handheld or is the TV version online?

LOOK WHO'S BACK!! Dick Togo returns from wandering the earth like Caine and is back doing what he does better then anyone. All of the regular DDT guys looked fine, their stuff is a little showy, but Urano had some nice looking shots including a great foreamr smash. I always liked Honda's Lawler punches and he took a good high backdrop. Still Togo was the star, landing everything with precision and not missing a step. I especially loved his casita which he rolled right into a crossface, just an awesome bit of business. We got to see that floating senton which was gorgeous. This was more of a showcase and a return I am really excited to see what Togo will do next.

Found this on youtube if anyone wants to watch it

Everything you would expect from this match on paper. A pair of violent old fuckers beating the piss out of a spunky kind while Kanemura nods off in the corner. Kurisu has gotten older, fatter and less agile, however you don't watch Kurisu for his athleticism, you watch him for his uncalled crowbarism, and that is still here. He stomps HASEGAWA in places you aren't supposed to stomp, guys and hits some nasty looking headbutts right to the temple and point of the jaw. Fujiwara enjoys brutalizing the kid on the mat some and really twists at his limbs. Kanemura gets some offense in, but he really isn't trying hard. A little one sided to be a real MOTY contender, but man did I love every second of this.

I really liked this, had the ragged violent feel of your best lucha brawls. One of the things I love about Rush is his mastery of pace, his fast stuff is really explosive and his taunting really feels like it is in the right place. Also happy to see Rey Escorpion again, he disappears and shows back up and is always worth seeing, he is in the background here but is wailing on dudes in the background. Pierroth was pretty great, he has a very Kurisu crowbar vibe which is awesome, every shot he throws is a little nastier then everyone else, loved his body shots and he had a surprisingly great powerslam. OG Pierroth was also a great old man brawler and new school Pierroth lives up to his legacy

Hey Avisman!! I used to love that dude back during the glory days of IWRG. He was always a guy who could work on the mat, and really developed into a great brawler, and then he disappeared (along with other awesome guys like Chico Che and Freelance) so IWRG could be all crappy fake Capos sons. This is Virus working a straight maestro style, focused on leg and arm locks and cool standing counters. Avisman is perfectly comfortable working this match, he has some very cool abdominal stretch variations, and looks perfectly comfortable countering arms and legs, great performance and I hope he shows up more. Virus is great at working this kind of match too, it is different then what he does in CMLL, and while I liked this a lot, I kind of wanted him to work more of his title match style so we could see Avisman stretch out a bit. This was a great painting, but I wanting to see them use more of their pallete.

This was a battle of four all time greats at their absolute athletic peaks. All of these guys are still great wrestlers when they show up, but their style has slowed down a bit as they have moved into their 40s. Here they are all in their mid 20s and the exchanges are so much faster and explosive without surrendering any of the chilling violence. The opening of this match is a great example of the brilliance of this style, Usuda and Ono have this lighting quick intricate exchange of kneebar counters, which was ended by Ikeda running in and kicking Ono's head into the fourth row. A Sunday of skill and speed with a cherry of brutality on top. The match continues on that vein, with great exchanges by all of the participants, with all four looking great. Ikeda throws some of his classic crowbar lariats along with nasty kicks and some really good desperate leg selling. Really the kind of match that isn't done anywhere anymore, and it was such a pleasure to watch.

That could go either way