FLIK

Please tell me footage exist of this...

Haven't seen any of this but here's some random stuff that looks good or atleast interesting on some early shows I saw listings for on SMV IWA MS Eddie Gilbert Memorial Show 3/13/97 Ricky Morton vs. Tommy Rich Debbie Combs vs. Luna Vachon American Kickboxer vs. Tarek the Great Tommy Gilbert vs. Dory Funk, Jr. Chain Match: Terry Funk vs. Doug Gilbert IWA MS 4/3/97 Ian Rotten vs. Tarek the Great Ian Rotten vs. Bull Pain IWA MS 5/8/97 Wolfie D vs. Ricky Morton Bull Pain vs. Ian Rotten Jamie Dundee & Doug Gilbert vs. Mad Man Pondo & Ox Harley IWA MS 7/19/97 Debbie Combs Vs. Robbie Rage Lady Vendetta Vs. Candi Devine - Thumbtack Death Match Buddy Landel Vs. Tommy Gilbert Ian Rotten Vs. Bull Pain - Barbed Wire Cage Match IWA MS Eddie Gilbert Memorial Show 2/21/98 American Kickboxer vs. Suicide Kid vs. Tarek the Great Buddy Landel vs. Tommy Gilbert Doug Gilbert & Dutch Mantel vs. "The Beast" Dan Severn & Terry Gordy - Guest Referee is Buddy Landel

All the IWA MS talk of late reminded me that they've been around since 1996. Haven't seen much from the early era but the 10/21/97 King of the Death Match tournament should be represented on the set since that was a pretty famous/influential show. For sure the Ian Rotten vs Axl Rotten Barbed Wire, Electric Light Bulb match in the finals and maybe the Doug Gilbert vs Mad Man Pondo barbed wire match from earlier in the show.

Shit, that reminds me i've got like 40 unwatched IWA shows sitting on an old HD including the one from 2001 with the topless stripper bubble bath match.....I should really get to those

Thinking about this, they hit their 500th show in 2008, ran reg until 09 and then on & off since then until atleast late 2011 (don't know if there's been any shows this year) so prob 6-700 shows totall of which atleast 90% have to have been released on tape so yeah you'd have to be insane to try and tackle all of it. Don't think i've ever seen the full thing, I got the Hero match as part of that Hero vs Punk comp someone put out around the time of their 90 min match. Couldn't think of too many specific ones to add to my list but I recall liking a lot of the Page vs Corp feud over the years. Another one I liked that I didn't add was the Punk vs Delerious 60 min draw from shortly before Punk went to WWE. Lots of comedy & hijinks mixed in with the wrestling but it was fun for what it was.

It was pretty big among the DVDVR circle for a while, on par with ROH in terms of buzz/talk. Hard to imagine given how things are now but individual shows (not just the promotion itself) used to spawn multiple page threads. Anyways, here's a partial list of the best IWA MS stuff i've seen 08/11/2001 (Elimination Match) 2 Cold Scorpio, Suicide Kid, Cabana & Ian Rotten vs Punk, Hero, Ace Steel & Danny Dominion 11/21/2001 Chris Hero vs Tracey Smothers 11/22/2001 (30 Min Iron Man) CM Punk vs Colt Cabana 02/08/2002 CM Punk vs Chris Hero 02/09/2002 (TLC Match) Chris Hero vs CM Punk 11/02/2002 CM Punk vs Chris Hero 12/21/2002 CM Punk vs Chris Hero 08/01/2003 (KOTDM) Toby Klein vs Necro Butcher 04/10/2004 AJ Styles vs Matt Sydal 06/25/2004 (FBTW) Necro Butcher vs Toby Klein 09/15/2004 AJ Styles vs Matt Sydal 10/21/2004 Danny Daniels vs Chris Candido 09/18/2004 Rain vs MsChif vs Knuckles vs Haze vs Lacey vs Martinez 02/12/2005 MsChif vs Sara Del Ray vs Knuckles vs Haze vs Melissa vs Ariel 06/11/2005 Samoa Joe vs Necro Butcher 06/17/2005 Danny Daniels vs Jimmy Jacobs 07/02/2005 (3 Way Wargames) Chris Hero, Corporal Robinson, Bull Pain, Ian & Axl Rotten vs Tank, Eric Priest, Chandler McClure, Sal & Vito Thomaselli vs Eddie Kingston, BJ Whitmer, Mark Wolf, Steve Stone & JC Bailey 08/19/2005 (Strap Match) Rain vs Mickie Knuckles 08/19/2005 Chris Hero vs Arik Cannon 09/09/2005 (I Quit, Respect Match) Arik Cannon vs Chris Hero 09/24/2005 Chris Hero vs Arik Cannon 10/15/2005 (Iron Man Tables Match) Josh Abercrombie vs Tyler Black 12/16/2005 New Jack vs Jimmy Jacobs 12/16/2005 (No Rope Barbed Wire) Necro Butcher & Toby Klein vs Deranged & Brain Damage 12/17/2005 (Elimination Street Fight) Ian Rotten, New Jack, Nate Webb, Necro Butcher & Corporal Robinson vs Eddie Kingston, Josh Abercrombie, Brandon Thomaselli, Sal Thomaselli & Vito Thomaselli 12/30/2005 Necro Butcher vs Eddie Kingston 12/30/2005 (Elimination Match) Josh, Vito & Brandon vs Matt Sydal, Tyler Black & Marek Brave 01/12/2006 Necro Butcher vs Samoa Joe 01/20/2006 (6 Team Scramble) Lotus & Crazy J vs Tyler Black & Marek Brave vs Chris Hero & Claudio Claudio Castagnoli vs Necro Butcher & Toby Klein vs Deranged & Brain Damage vs Josh Abercrombie & Brandon Thomaselli 01/21/2006 (NO DQ, Falls Count Anywhere) Jimmy Jacobs vs Arik Cannon 02/08/2006 Necro Butcher vs Toby Klein 02/08/2006 Tracey Smothers vs Chris Hero 03/17/2006 (4 Corners of Pain) Mean Mitch Page vs Corpral Robinson 03/18/2006 (Barbed Wire Taipei Death Match) Ian & Pondo vs Iron Saints 03/24/2006 Low Ki vs Tyler Black 03/24/2006 Necro Butcher vs Roderick Strong 04/01/2006 (9 Man TLC) Marek Brave vs Tyler Black vs Trik Davis vs Billy Roc vs Lotus vs Chuck Taylor vs Ricochet vs Crazy J vs Darin Corbin 04/01/2006 Low Ki vs Necro Butcher 05/18/2006 Sabu vs Mad Man Pondo 05/19/2006 (Elimination Match) Brandon, Vito & Sal Thomaselli vs Ricochet, Chuck Taylor & Marek Brave 06/02/2006 (FBTW) Brain Damage vs Deranged 06/03/2006 (FBTW) Ian Rotten vs Mickie Knuckles 06/17/2006 (Falls Count Anywhere) Mickie Knuckles vs Ian Rotten 07/14/2006 (No Rope Barbed Wire) Brain Damage vs Deranged 08/02/2006 (Street Fight) Brain Damage vs Bull Pain 08/11/2006 Low Ki vs 2 Cold Scorpio 08/12/2006 (Street Fight) Bull Pain vs Toby Klein 09/29/2006 Low Ki vs Gran Akuma 09/30/2006 Davey Richards vs Low Ki 09/30/2006 El Generico vs Low Ki 09/30/2006 Low Ki vs Rodrick Strong vs Arik Cannon 09/30/2006 Mike Quackenbush vs Claudio Castagnoli 11/03/2006 (Barb Wire Boards) Mayumi Ozaki vs Sumie Sakai 11/03/2006 (Light Tube Log Cabin Match) Mayumi Ozaki vs Sexxxy Eddy 11/03/2006 (Electrified Light Tubes Barb Wire Weapons Cage Match) Mayumi Ozaki vs Mickie Knuckles 12/16/2006 (Knockout or Tapout) Necro Butcher vs Low Ki 01/05/2007 (Finishers Match) Drake Younger vs CJ Otis 01/05/2007 Low Ki vs Roderick Strong 02/09/2007 ($2500 Bounty Match) Jimmy Jacobs vs Colt Cabana 02/09/2007 Low Ki vs Drake Younger 02/09/2007 Chuck Taylor vs Davey Richards 02/23/2007 (Special Ref Sherri Martel) Steve Corino vs Mickie Knuckles 03/31/2007 (Chicago Street Fight) Low Ki vs Chuck Taylor 03/31/2007 Ricochet vs Ian Rotten 04/06/2007 (Barbed Wire Cage) Ian Rotten vs Drake Younger 04/06/2007 (Texas Tornado Match) Vortekz & Diehard vs Hillbilly Jed & Indiana Kidd Jr vs Ash & Michael Elgin 04/06/2007 ($5000 Bounty Match) The Barbarian vs Jimmy Jacobs 04/06/2007 Chuck Taylor vs Z-Barr 04/06/2007 Chuck Taylor vs Tracey Smothers 04/22/2007 Low Ki vs Hernandez 04/22/2007 (Hardcore Match) Ian Rotten & Drake Younger vs Vortekz & Diehard vs Hugh Rogue & Chuey vs Children of Pain 04/22/2007 (Hardcore Match) Necro Butcher vs Masada 04/28/2007 (Barbed Wire Mayhem) Drake Younger vs CJ Otis 06/30/2007 Chris Hero Claudio Castagnoli Cheech & Cloudy vs Ruckus Sabian Ricky Reyes & B-Boy 06/30/2007 Hernandez vs Drake Younger 06/30/2007 Homicide & Low Ki vs Necro Butcher & Toby Klein 10/27/2007 (No Rope Barbed Wire Electrified Light Bulbs FBTW) Mickie Knuckles vs Lufisto 05/04/2008 Sara Del Rey vs Mickie Knuckles 06/20/2008 Sara Del Rey vs Mickie Knuckles 06/21/2008 (4 Corners Of Pain) CJ Otis vs Insane Lane 06/21/2008 (FBTW) Diehard Dustin Lee vs Mad Man Pondo 06/21/2008 (Barefoot Thumbtacks, Bottle Caps & Broken Glass) Scotty Vortekz vs Danny Havoc 06/21/2008 (Cinder Block Death Match) Insane Lane vs Deranged vs Danny Havoc 06/21/2008 (200 Light Tubes, No Rope Bared Wire, Scaffold Match) Devon Moore vs Danny Havoc

I think that point's a bit overstated. Michaels' wacky bumping in that match isn't really all that different from what he used to do whenever he was a heel and wrestling some guy a lot bigger than himself. And I'd argue that it improved the match; what the hell else are you gonna do against Hogan in 2005 to make it watchable? Compare the wretched Hulk/Orton match from next year for a good picture of how it might've gone otherwise. . If you search on youtube there's a clip of Scott Hall doing comentary over the match and he flat out says HBK was purposely trying to make Hogan look bad with his selling and went into detail on how/why. It's pretty fascinating stuff I can't access YouTube at work (although I can search for it), I'm assuming this is the vid/clip you're talking about? Yeah that's it. Hall did a bunch of others too that are pretty entertaining. On the recent MLW podcast with Konnan, Court & Mr Saint Lerant they told the story about how Hall was doing it to practice because he wanted to get into commentating.

I think that point's a bit overstated. Michaels' wacky bumping in that match isn't really all that different from what he used to do whenever he was a heel and wrestling some guy a lot bigger than himself. And I'd argue that it improved the match; what the hell else are you gonna do against Hogan in 2005 to make it watchable? Compare the wretched Hulk/Orton match from next year for a good picture of how it might've gone otherwise. . If you search on youtube there's a clip of Scott Hall doing comentary over the match and he flat out says HBK was purposely trying to make Hogan look bad with his selling and went into detail on how/why. It's pretty fascinating stuff Not a top guy but before he got put in the dog house he was one of Vince's favorites and being groomed as a future top guy for sure.

Ah, figured. There's a few ppl who went gaga over it back in the day like Quebrada Mike but I don't know anyone anymore who actually agrees with that assesment. I actually do like Hotta vs Combat a lot myself but there's a billion matches in 94 I thought were better & or more historically significant that could have made it in it's place.

Heh, so did this make it on based purely on past rep or did someone actually go to bat for it?

No specific one stands out but I remember atleast one or 2 of the Punk/Dinero vs Sinn/Slash (Wolfie D) tags being pretty good and the Raven/Gathering vs Douglas/New Church feud in general being good. It was amusing at the time because Raven & Punk were doing the rounds on every other indy show around the world feuding with each other so TNA was like "it would be brilliant to have them be a tag team instead" That was around the time of the Teddy Hart fight so I think that was the reason.

WCW @ Oakland, CA - Coliseum - July 16, 1998 (13,393) The Ultimo Dragon defeated Lizmark Jr. Villano IV defeated Chill Blitzkrieg & Super Dragon defeated Dragon Yakuza & American Wild Child Villano IV defeated Zuma Thunder - 7/17/98: Konnan defeated El Dandy The Ultimo Dragon defeated Lizmark Jr. Public Enemy defeated Alex Wright & Disco Inferno via disqualification Jim Duggan defeated Roadblock Perry Saturn defeated Kanyon Eddie Guerrero defeated Psychosis Scott Norton defeated Ciclope Stevie Ray defeated Damien Rey Mysterio Jr. fought Juventud Guerrera to a no contest Hugh Morrus & the Barbarian defeated Marty Jannetty & Chris Adams Scott Hall & Curt Hennig defeated Diamond Dallas Page & Konnan Dark match after the taping: WCW World & US Champion Bill Goldberg defeated the Giant This Thunder taping was the first live show I ever got to go to, I was about 14 at the time. The only things that stand out to me now that I can still remember is that I got in a big fight w my mom (who went with me) about something outside the arena that led to me almost not going. The Super Dragon/Blitzkreig dark match was pretty cool as they did as many crazy flips & shit they could fit into 2-3 mins. Bret Hart attacking Rey after his match vs Juvy for some reason, Nash cutting a taped promo that no one could hear in the arena, Hall/Hennig vs DDP/Konnan was pretty decent and I was pissed as fuck Raven wasn't thear since he was my favorite wrestler in the world at the time. After that I didn't get to go to another live wrestling show for 5 more years when I discovered there was a local indy sceen. Considering Nor Cal isn't considered a hot bed for indy wrestling i've gotten to see a lot of great matches, big names & cool shit over the years. When I first started venturing out I was pretty limited to shows I could get to via public transportation since I didn't have a car so I only got to see mayby 5 or 6 indy shows in 2003 & 2004. The 2nd indy show I went to had Donovan Morgan vs Michael Modest in a falls count anywhere match for NOAH's GHC Jr Title with Crash Holly as the special ref. Scorpio Jr vs Rockero Del Diablo for the IWRG title was the main event way way before I knew who the fuck Scorpio JR was or WTF IWRG even meant. The 4th indy show I ever went to was the Pro Wrestling Iron card that had Misawa & Ogawa vs Nigel McGuinness & Bart Blaxton as the main event. No clue who Nigel was back then but him & Ogawa did some cool chain wrestling shit & Misawa didn't dog it. Undercard had Sumie Saki vs Sara Del Rey in a real good match which I was excited for since i'd just gotten into joshi back then. I remember she was selling a best of tape but wanted $20 for it which I didn't have so I bought an autographed photo instead and she misspelled my name on it.....still pissed Next show I went to after that was one of the worst shows i've ever been to still to this day. Something like 10 diffrent ppl who were advertised including Vic Grimes, the SAT & some Rev Pro guys ended up being no shows so the undercard was filled out with really shitty local talent. The main event was Rockero & NOSAWA vs 2 lucha guys I can't remember in a 2/3 falls match which was pretty good but had a crappy screwjob ending. After that it was almost a year before I went to another show for various reasons. By 2005 I had a car so I started going to Hayward to see the Chick Fight shows and then started going to APW each month after that since they were free Mariko Yoshida & her student Nene Kimura were at Chick Fight 2 which is the first 1 I went to and the reason I came out. Meltzer was thear too sitting a few chairs down from me, the first time i'd ever seen him in person and the only time i've ever seen him at a show period in this area. I wasn't a subscriber back then but knew who he was, my first impression was actually that he looked kinda creepy in person. The Yoshida vs Princess Sugey of CMLL main event is still one of the best live matches i've ever gotten to see. Between that and the next tourament later in the year I got to see Yoshida wrestle 5 times live which was awesome. Was really cool to see other joshi talent like Yoshiko Tamura, Kaoru & even Tanny Mouse on the future shows. Plus IWA MS was still hot back then & Shimmer was just getting started so girls like Mercedes Martinez, MsChif, Daizee Hase, Alison Danger, Mickie Knuckles & Hailey Hatred coming through was pretty sweet + Cheerleader Melissa hadn't wasn't getting booked all over back then so I still got to see her monthly too. Lot of other cool random ppl showed up back then for diffrent APW shows, Asian Cougar was on a bunch, Kudo from DDT came through, Dino & American Baloon wrestled on 1 show which i'd rather forget, Gangrel was a regular for a while, Kamala (wrestling flip flops, throwing chops that had atleast a foot of air between them that guys still had to sell), Steve Corino, Chris Hero, Claudio, Delerious, The Sandman showed up at the garage 1 night just to cane a bunch of folk. Besides marking out I also remember thinking "shit, I don't drink, I really hope he doesn't offer me a beer cause i'm gonna look really dumb turning him down", thankfully he didn't. I got to see stuff like Strong Man's (of CMLL & NJPW fame) first few matches which weren't as bad as you'd imagine actually & Kafu before he got signed by WWE, he never made it out of FCW and got released a while but it was still cool seeing a local guy almost make it to the big leagues. Eventually after a few years I stoped going, mainly because I hate the fucking garage but by that time i'd learned about all the other 8 trillion local indies so it wasn't so bad. For a while in like 07-08 I was going to prob 3-4 live shows a month. Was crazy awesome getting to discover live death match wrestling being a big fan of that style too. Sadly these days I rarely go to shows anymore because being a responsible adult and paying your ever growing amount of bills on time sucks ass & gas being almost $4.50 a sucks dick thus the funds available for wrestling aren't what they were. Last show I went to was the one with Fit Finlay vs Timothy Thatcher a few months back which was another of the best live matches i've ever seen so I picked a good one atleast.

Looking back at my old best of 2005 list, these were the TNA matches I had on thear AJ Styles vs Samoa Joe 12/11/2005 (my #2 overall match for 2005) AJ Styles vs Samoa Joe 8/14/2005 (#8) AJ Styles vs Christopher Daniels (30 Min Iron Man) 10/23/2005 (#11) AJ vs Joe vs Daniels - 9/11/05 Daniels, Joe, Strong & Shelly vs Sabin, Bently, Dutt & Aries (Elimination Match) 11/13/05 AJ Styles vs Jarrett 5/15/05 AJ Styles vs Christopher Daniels (30 Min Iron Man) 2/13/05 AJ Styles vs Abyss (Cage Match) 4/24/05 Sabin vs Petey vs Skipper vs Shane - 2005 forget exact date AMW & Jarrett vs Dudleys & Rhino 11/13/2005 Raven vs Abyss (Dog Collar) 7/17/2005 AJ Styles vs Petey Williams 11/13/05 Styles vs Daniels vs Killings vs Skipper (Ultimate X Challnge) 3/13/05 Raven vs X-Pac (House of Fun match) 5/15/05 These were the ones I had for 2006 Sabin, AJ Styles & Daniels vs Aries, Strong & Shelly 1/7/06 Sabin, Dutt & Bently vs Petey, A1 & Eric Young 1/14/06 AJ Styles vs Shannon Moore (Street Fight) 1/21/06 AJ Styles vs Samoa Joe vs Christopher Daniels 2/12/06 Rhino vs Abyss (Falls Count Anywhear) 2/12/06 Jarrett, Steiner & AMW vs Sting, Styles, Rhino & Killings (Wargames) 4/23/06 Christian vs Abyss (Cage) 4/23/06 Christian vs Abyss (Full Metal Mayhem) 5/14/06 Samoa Joe & Sting vs Scott Steiner & Jeff Jarrett 5/14/06 X-Cup Royal Rumble w (Minoru Tanaka, Puma, Chris Sabin, Hirooki Goto, Incognito, Johnny Devine, Sonjay Dutt, Black Tiger IV, Magno, Eric Young, Alex Shelley, Jushin Liger, Shocker, Tyson Dux, Jay Lethal) 5/14/06 AMW vs Styles & Daniels 5/14/06 Jarrett vs Christian vs Abyss vs Sting vs Killings (King of the Moutntain) 6/18/06 Samoa Joe vs Monty Brown vs Rhino (Falls Count Anywhere) 8/13/06 Styles & Daniels vs LAX 8/13/06 Low Ki vs Chris Sabin 9/24/06 LAX vs AJ Styles & Christopher Daniels (Ultimate-X) 9/24/06 LAX vs Styles & Daniels (Cage Match) 10/22/06 Christian vs Rhino (8 Mile Street Fight) 10/22/06 Low Ki vs Chris Sabin 10/22/06 Sting vs Jeff Jarrett 10/22/06 Rhino vs Christian (Barbed Wire Cage Match) 11/16/06 Abyss vs Sting 11/19/06 Samoa Joe vs Kurt Angle 11/19/06 Samoa Joe vs Kurt Angle 12/10/06 Fuck, since I only rarely watch TNA now, I forgot how awesome Styles was Not TNA but I thought him & Joe also had a really good match in PWG in 2005 too

I mentioned this in another thread not long ago but yeah, TNA is the perfect compilation promotion. If you can wade through the BS there's a lot of good to great matches over the years and ocasionally a few nice patches of quality booking.

Some cool shirts on that site but damn is $27 way too much for that stuff

That is the match, I don't think anyone would call it good but I included it because it showed how shit crazy IWA-MS could be sometimes with the hardcore aspect. In a yearbook setting, I think at least the bumps is essential because Ian and many fans thought of this stuff as the lifeblood of the promotion even with some great wrestling going on. Yeah the match is Bailey vs Mad Man Pondo. Pondo's a big BJW & W*ING fan so it came about because he thought it would be fun to do and Bailey was the only one crazy enough to do the gimmick with him. If you want just the highlights, here ya go

It's funny because even then ppl complained that it wasn't what it once was but joshi would kill now to be at the lvls they were in 05. AJW had been on the heavy death march since 03 so it wasn't a totall surprise when they collapsed, GAEA was still drawing well & putting on good shows so it came out of nowhere when they threw in the towell however. I sorta disagree. I think they don't need as much wrestling but there's still enough fans & enough talent to support 2 or 3 strong companies, it's when shit got splintered into 8 or 9 that it all went to hell.

Inoki. Period Inoki had power in New Japan since its inception. What is it about this time period that made it happen here? Pride & K1 got hot, he wanted to capatilise. Kind of the same way worked shoot UWF was hot a few years earlier so they wanted in on that.

Hash/Ogawa was the start of it I think. I know it pissed Mutoh off and was atleast part of the reason he left & took Kojima & the rest with him to All Japan. Shortly after that happened Choshu was out of the company too.

Ah yeah, you're right, got my timeline mixed up. He was going to win it but on the New Years show he lost vs Cro Cop so Yasuda got the title instead because he beat Lebanner in his fight on the same show. Inoki. Period They were crazy about anyone with legit fighting skills at this time and he was they best of them all. The Inoki-ism MMA fetish wouldn't have been so bad if most of the guys who got pushes off it weren't shit workers. It wasn't just NJPW guys doing MMA during this time frame but a lot of MMA guys doing wrestling too to mixed results, Frye was a regular, Enson Inoue, Bas Rutten, Josh Barnett, etc... I forget what year it was but they wanted Ken Shamrock for the G1 really bad but it fell apart for some reason (injury?).

Everyone, even if you hate MMA (which I largely do) needs to see Takayama vs Frye atleast once in their life.

Manabu Nakanishi did 1 or 2 and lost. Didn't have much of an effect on his career as he was allready a mid carder Kendo Kashin did a few to mixed results. A few months after he beat one of the Gracies he got the IWGP Jr Title but he was allready a pushed guy in that division anyways. Kaz Fujita quit wrestling for a while to go into MMA but he actually won a bunch of fights so when he got brought back to NJPW he got the IWGP title off Norton. Tadao Yasuda by some miracle won a couple of his fights which is 110% what got him his push as a main eventer and the IWGP title from Fujita. In the middle of the biggest push of his career, winning the G1, winning the IWGP off Yasuda, etc... Yuji Nagata pissed it all away when he fought Cro Cop while still IWGP champ and got embarasingly knocked out in 20 seconds. Shinsuke Nakamura won a few MMA fights in his first year which got him his Super Rookie push and made into a main eventer winning the IWGP way WAY too early. I think I may be missing some but those are the major examples I can think of of New Japan guys doing MMA. A few wrestlers from other companies got in on it too, I know Mammoth Sasaki did an MMA fight and lost, Alexander Otsuka & other Bat Bat guys did some, a bunch of Luchadors did some as well with the most notable being Dos Caras Jr/Alberto Del Rio who actually did pretty well at it. Joshi has a big history of mixing with MMA too going back to atleast the early 90's as AJW would reg have shoot kickboxing matches on their shows and even their own MMA title for a while, JWP using karate fighters for a bit, girls like Ito, Kandori & Hotta doing MMA, etc...

You couldn't tell???

Yup, didn't win a single fight either but he put up so much of a fight that he got over by losing. Next thing you know a few months after the famous Don Fyre fight he's GHC champ then half a year later he's IWGP champ and he's getting movie roles and all kinds of other shit and is pretty much made as a top guy.

I'd call this easily the best year of Oya's career and i'm not sure i'd have anything of his from Battlarts in a top 10 list of his matches in 98 list but I enjoyed all 3 of them. Only 5 out of 8 mins aired from Oya vs Greg Valentine, it was fun in a Valentine style slugfest sorta way. Oya vs Ishikawa is a pretty good match but they never kicked it into high gear like you know they can. Oya vs Ikeda in FMW from a couple years earlier was better. Oya/Otsuka vs Backlund/Ishikawa I talked about earlier in the thread and is the best of the bunch.