FLIK

AJW 3/20/1993 - Saemi Numata vs Masami Watanabe Really really didn't need to see a re-match between these two. Slightly better then their match a week earlier, the early matwork was a little nicer atleast but still a pretty worthless matchup. Numata won with a shoulder block...yup.... - (3WA Midget Title) Little Frankie © vs Mr.Buddhaman Why the freakin division that consisted of the same 3 midgets rotating in an eternal hellish loop is beyond me - Mima Shimoda & Suzuki Minami vs Kaoru Ito & Terri Power Terri was the weak link here, she's focused more on the basic stuff she can do well but in a long match like this it gets a bit repetitive after the billionth lariat or power slam. Still, that's a minor fault in an otherwise damn good match. 1st half was made up of the other 3 all working long FIP sections and the 2nd half was all action with Ito steping up for her team to carry the majority of the load. Another great showing vs Shimoda and she worked really well with Suzuka too as it came down to them for the last few mins with the others running interferance. Crazy sit out powerbomb from Suzuka on Ito ends it. - Miori Kamiya Retirement Ceremony Pretty big send off for someone who never rose past mid card status, you could def tell the fans & the promotion really had a lot of love for Kamiya. Kamiya gives a teary eyed farewell speach then the usual stuff that happens at these things follows. Lots of old faces show up including Mika Takahashi (looking like a 12 yr old with pigtails), Crane Yu, Lioness & Jaguar. Hokuto & Bull who were on tour in Meixco sent letters to be read. Hotta, Suzuka & Aja also give short speaches. Ito's last up and she nearly breaks down in tears too. Everyone else on the roster gives her flowers her way up the isle. Whole thing goes about 20 mins. - Sakie Hasegawa vs Tomoko Watanabe Really good match when it was just them trading holds back & forth. Dug the contrast as Sakie had the more skillful technique, lots of manuvering around from hold to hold whear as Wat was more raw and and simple in her approach. Down the stretch things fall a part a little bit as Sakie seems out of it for some reason, like either she got hurt or gassed out. They get back on track a bit once Sakie starts going for a bunch of STFs that the anouncers make sure to point out is in tribute to her partner Debbie. Fun spot a little later on as Wat teases superplexing her to the floor but Sakie reverses it. A few kicks and suplexes later she gets the win. Good match overall despite a few rough moments. - Manami Toyota vs Takako Inoue The big follow up from last months tag title match. Takako waste no time and jumps Toyota in the isle and they fight into the crowd. Toyota tries to take her out with a diving cross body off the stage but wipes out Numata instead, back near ringside Takako tries a dive of her own but takes out another young girl instead. Tak recovers quickly and follows by hauling off on Toyota with a big series of punches then just to be a jerk starts stomping on her hands and pulling hair once she's down. After that Tak makes the mistake of falling back into her old comfort zone, instead of continuing with more aggressive offense she goes back to her old standard of trying to controll the match with a bunch of submissions. She has some success at first but ultimately it fails her. Toyota gets controll of the match and we get a long stretch of her busting out a bunch of holds of her own and when I say her own I mean exclusively her own. At least 4 times during this part Toyota cranks on some strange hold i've never seen anyone do before and that I have no way of describing other then they look hurty as hell. I'm sure Toyota is a pretty clean living woman but if someone told me before some of her matches she liked to pop mushrooms injected with cafine and sprinkled with acid I wouldn't doubt them. It would explain so much Anyways, Tak eventually has enough of being made into a human pretzel and kicks Toyota in the chest a bunch of times to transition back in controll. Doesn't last long as Toyota counters a lariat attempt into the rolling cradle. Toyota hits a bunch of suplexs to follow up and Takako counters with a tombstone for 2 counts. Takako catches Toyota with a top rope choke slam for a mega near fall that wakes up the crowd who thought she had the win. Big Takako chant after that. Toyota getting desperate gets in string of suplexes, cradles and a moonsault all for 2. Last burst of offense from Tak sees her drop Toyota with a big backdrop suplex and then attempt a dragon but Toyota mule kicks out of it, hits 2 more moonsaults and then the JOCS to finally win. Awesome awesome match, between this, the Kyoko match in Jan and the big tags w Hotta, Takako has by far been the standout wrestler of the 1st quarter of 93 as her evolution continues to be one of the most interesting things to follow in joshi. Match had myself and the fans thear really hoping she'd FINALLY be able to get that big win to prove herself but again, she comes close only to fails and be left looking dejected. - Bat Yoshinaga & Yumiko Hotta vs Toshiyo Yamada & Etsuko Mita Cool to see Dream Orca reuiniting for the first time in a while here, Hotta & Bat teaming on the other hand always feels wrong, like they really should have been booked as mortal enemies for all eternity. Early portion of this sees Mita getting brutalized with kicks by both. The beating goes on for a while until you're just begging for her to fight back. When Yamada finally does come in she can't do much either. Eventually Mita & Yamada get their act together and start showing some fire. Funny bit sees everyone trading the camel clutch - punt spot back & forth. Finishing stretch is fun, the usual stuff you'd exspect from these 4. Mita eats an accidental kick from Yamada and a Hotta pyramid driver finishes her off. Nothing special overall but a pretty good match. - Aja Kong vs Kyoko Inoue So apparently this isn't a title match afterall which it's mistakenly listed as on a lot of tape trading sites, guess this does explain Kyoko getting jobed out a week ago. Still, even as a non title this feels like a really big affair. It's the first major singles match of Aja's reign and the first major singles between these two. Amusing bit early on as the crowds cheering on Kyoko so Aja just glares at them until they shut up. Kyoko tries to start fast but Aja shuts her down pretty quick then goes into her usual routine of grinding ppl down. Kyoko learns the very very very valuable lesson that you shouldn't slap Aja Kong in the face or she will short arm punch you so hard you'll almost cry. Aja's strategy of wearing her down pays off once Kyoko starts to fight back as she's visibly worn down and can't really put a string of stuff together allowing Aja to easily counter attack. Aja smells blood and goes for the kill at this point and turns the match into a brawl, Kyoko tries whiping Kong into the crowd but that only really seems to piss Aja off more and she quickly gets revenge for that. Down the stretch Kyoko continues to do an awesome job putting over the fatigue of the match. She fails to get Aja up for the romero stretch, she goes for a suplex and can't pull that off either. Kyoko tries to do one of her springboard elbows off the ropes but Aja catches her mid move and dumps her with a release german in one of the coolest moments i've seen in a while. Kyoko still keeps fighting back and uses all her strength to get Aja up for the Niagra Driver but only gets 2, she trys for a 2nd but has no energy left. A big uraken and diving elbow from Aja later it's over. Really great match, even though most of what i've talked about was the beating Kyoko took she got in enough of her fair share. Really good job of putting over Aja as an absolute monster without making Kyoko look so bad you couldn't buy her at this lvl or think she had no chance of winning. Post match Aja calls everyone in the ring for a big team rally as they get ready for war vs the world at Dreamslam.

They were all over champ forum, they loved them some PN News...

Heh, at most a month I figure. Does have me wanting to watch RAW for the 2nd time this year tho

Hm, ya know I never made that connection before.

Love Tenta but I always thought the story he told about changing his Tiger tattoo into a Shark tat after they gave him this gimmick was one of the stupidest things ever.

Bryan going off on a big rant about how certain Spanish channels & other stations aren't part of basic cable only for Meltzer to point out in every case that they were and then Bryan continuing to argue about it until he looked it up and found out he was wrong was quite the moment on the recent radio show. As was Meltzer insisting anyone who buys the Cena Sucks shirt from WWE is a giant geek who has no clue what he's talking about. Who/whear's that quote from?

Ah ok, yeah I remember that story. For some reason I was half thinking at first it was supposed to be a vauge Randy Orton joke but that was some other chick he messed with.

Oh yes, spend my days workin hard on the go but the hands on the clock keep spinning too slow. Probably not southern twangy enough for Vince.

Heh, so far i've gotten all the refrences but that Bella joke totally went over my head.

I've decided Bryan Alvarez has become Homer Simpson - a guy who gets stupider, crazier, less funny & more of a parody of himself with each passing season

Yeah, Oya's one of the lost super workers of the 90's. His peak isn't that long but from about 94 - 99 he was one of the best guys around. Course, I haven't seen much of his pre 94 work to judge so he may have been great earlier then that too. He was originally a NJPW dojo grad in the 80's. I'm torn between this & the August match on which is better (been too long since I last watched either) but him & Hayabusa had a lot of great matches together and the 2 in 95 were a big part of establishing Hayabusa early in his run.

AJW 3/20/93 Manami Toyota vs Takako Inoue The big follow up from last months tag title match. Takako waste no time and jumps Toyota in the isle and they fight into the crowd. Toyota tries to take her out with a diving cross body off the stage but wipes out Numata instead, back near ringside Takako tries a dive of her own but takes out another young girl instead. Tak recovers quickly and follows by hauling off on Toyota with a big series of punches then just to be a jerk starts stomping on her hands and pulling hair once she's down. After that Tak makes the mistake of falling back into her old comfort zone, instead of continuing with more aggressive offense she goes back to her old standard of trying to controll the match with a bunch of submissions. She has some success at first but ultimately it fails her. Toyota gets controll of the match and we get a long stretch of her busting out a bunch of holds of her own and when I say her own I mean exclusively her own. At least 4 times during this part Toyota cranks on some strange hold i've never seen anyone do before and that I have no way of describing other then they look hurty as hell. I'm sure Toyota is a pretty clean living woman but if someone told me before some of her matches she liked to pop mushrooms injected with cafine and sprinkled with acid I wouldn't doubt them. It would explain so much Anyways, Tak eventually has enough of being made into a human pretzel and kicks Toyota in the chest a bunch of times to transition back in controll. Doesn't last long as Toyota counters a lariat attempt into the rolling cradle. Toyota hits a bunch of suplexs to follow up and Takako counters with a tombstone for 2 counts. Takako catches Toyota with a top rope choke slam for a mega near fall that wakes up the crowd who thought she had the win. Big Takako chant after that. Toyota getting desperate gets in string of suplexes, cradles and a moonsault all for 2. Last burst of offense from Tak sees her drop Toyota with a big backdrop suplex and then attempt a dragon but Toyota mule kicks out of it, hits 2 more moonsaults and then the JOCS to finally win. Awesome awesome match, between this, the Kyoko match in Jan and the big tags w Hotta, Takako has by far been the standout wrestler of the 1st quarter of 93 as her evolution continues to be one of the most interesting things to follow in joshi. Match had myself and the fans thear really hoping she'd FINALLY be able to get that big win to prove herself but again, she comes close only to fails and be left looking dejected.

Completely unrelated to this match but on a similar point I always dug that Hogan still Hulked Up even after he went to the NWO too

Eh, you're kinda stretching here. Not using the same sig move within the same promotion is fairly common but things have always been open for guys in other feds. There were ppl doing moonsaults in Japan before Muta came along and countless ppl doing them all over Japan at the exact same time he was at his peak. Once Mutoh finally did give it up that didn't open things up for anyone and when he switched to the Shining Wizard aproximately 900 thousand billion million and 1 ppl stole that move from him.

Uhhhhhh.....come again????

Might have this wrong but i'm 99% sure it was Scott Hall who brought that up or atleast that's who I remember 1st hearing it from. Yeah I remember this too. He was specifically talking about the flip into the corner that he was disapointed he didn't get to see Buddy Rogers pull out.

Heh, in a too funny to be made up story, Shawn Michaels & the WWE actually did legit try & sue Sean Michaels years ago to get him to give up the name. If it's even possible you guys should try and make the link for that bigger/more obvious. I looked at the site a couple times and completely missed it until you pointed it out.

Nope that was a diffrent match Jump to the 3 min mark for a pretty hilarious clip of Sandman giving play by play over the footage and talking about how out it he was

AJW Fancam 3/13/1993 - Saemi Numata vs Masami Watanabe 5 minutes of the most excruciatingly boring wrestling you could ever see followed by 2 minutes of kind of ok decent stuff. Entirely skipable match. Numata wins with something I can't remember after watching 1 minute earlier and don't care enough to re-wind and check. - Terri Power vs Etsuko Mita Slightly better then the previous match in that it was more bland then boring. Simple match, mostly Mita in controll with the ocasional Terri stretch of offense from Terri who pins her win with a frankensteiner in 13 mins. - (Midget Match) Mr.Buddhaman vs Tomezo Tsunokake I was almost curious enough to check this out just to see if them working a house show match could possibly be worse then them working on the major shows but thankfully logic prevaled. - Mima Shimoda vs Kaoru Ito Ito vs any one of LCO is always a good pairing so the show finally picks up with this match. Goes to a 20 minute draw but manages to avoid many of the pitfalls most other matches that go to the distance avoid. There was a lot of mat work but it all felt organic and focused and both sold the submission atempts really well. They also did a good job of knowing when to pick up the pace with bigger highspots and nearfalls and then slow things back down without making it seem like they were stalling for time. Mita was especially fun playing the more agressive, cheating heel. Overall just a really good match that never draged or telegraphed the ending. - Yumiko Hotta & Takako Inoue vs Bat Yoshinaga & Tomoko Watanabe Guy taping things seemed a bit distracted during this so some stuff gets missed making it a bit hard to follow at times. Looked like a pretty decent match though, mostly Bat & Watanabe getting beat on. If nothing else Hotta & Bat kickin the snot out of each other always rules and there was a fair amount of that atleast and it's Hotta who takes her down w the Tiger Driver in the end. - Suzuka Minami vs Kyoko Inoue Pretty interesting match. The 1st 10 mins is almost entirely Kyoko stretching Suzuka almost to the point of overkill. It pays off however once Minami finally starts fighting back. She continues to put over the fatigue of the match but you also get a unique sense of intenisity from her, really cranking down on the holds and putting an extra little something behind the other moves as she goes for revenge on Inoue for everything that happened earlier which I got a kick out of. They rinse/repeat the 1st half of the match after that before going into the usual run of near falls at the finish ending after Kyoko misses her running back elbow setting her up for Suzuka to hit the diving senton to win. Pretty surprised at the result, by this time Suzuka was clearly on her way down the card and Kyoko had been getting pushed higher up top for a while but neither neither was at the point whear i'd call this an upset yet but with Kyoko getting a 3WA title match in a couple of days I thought for sure they'd protect her here. Really annoying fan in the crowd who was screaming "ME NA MEEE" for almost the entire time so i'm sure she was happy atleast. No particular part of this individually was anything special but by the end it all came together to form a pretty good match. - Manami Toyota & Toshiyo Yamada vs Aja Kong & Sakie Hasegawa All about Aja playing unstopable monster. Sakie would get beat up for a bit then Aja would come in to save her, punting ppl in the jaw, stiff chops, tossing bodies all over and all around smashing folks. Then after that Sakie would come in and pick the scraps, cool submissions and her usual bag of spin kicks and suplexes. Wasn't until the match turned into more of a brawl that Toyota & Yamada get the upper hand for a prolonged period of time. Yamada hauls off on Sakie with a bunch of kicks of her own, taking her out then tries to do the same to Aja with less success. They double team Aja and almost get her down but Sakie recovers enough to make the save. She ends up eating an accidental back fist from Aja however which knocks her out enough for Toyota to drop her with a suplex to win. Fun match to end the night. Aja smash always = enjoyable wrestling and Sakie was good in her role trying to keep up.

This is another I haven't watched in years but yeah, I have pretty much the same recolection of it as well.

Never heard that story, what's the deal with that?

All wrestling matches have a story, sometimes the stories aren't good, well executed or deep but still, all matches have a story of some sort. To me logic & Psychology in wrestling are two things that are closely related but vastly diffrent at the same time and I think they get confused for one another too often. Logic applies to what you're doing, it's the telling of a story in a certain way but to answer the question posed NO simply having logic doesn't make a match great. Jake Roberts once defined psychology in pro wrestling as "mental masturbation" and I always thought that was a perfect way of describing it. Psychology is the art of making you care about the story and those involved in it. Psychology absolutely is necesary to have a great match. Logic needs great psychology to back it up. Psychology doesn't necesarily need great logic as much....but it helps....

Didn't mind it at the time, i'd only been a fan for 5 years at this stage so it didn't matter much either way that he wasn't a WWF guy. The basic story - guy going for the world title gets really serious and goes back to train with his mentor for the fight of his life is a pretty cool one. Liked the Vader/Shawn stuff in this match (which is 99% of it) myself, makes me wish they'd had a longer feud. Seen this a bunch of times in the past but had forgotten the finish, surprised Vader got a fairly clean win over him.