Superstar Sleeze

Akira Maeda vs Yoshiaki Fujiwara -UWF 7/13/85 Missing the beginning four minutes of a 15 minute match. Overall, I was thinking the problem with some of these Original UWF matches is that they are too long. Shoot style is a hard style to do for a long time. Fujiwara/Super Tiger made it work but the other pairings aren't doing as well with the 20+ minutes timing on their matches. I thought this was much better with the compact style. This the most intense I have seen Maeda. These two were dripping sweat minutes into the match from how hard they were going on the mat. I loved the story of this match. Maeda was going low instead of high with his kicks. Even though Fujiwara was trying to take it to the ground, Maeda was coming up with inventive ways to get Crabs on him (single, Boston and even Scorpion Deathlock). What made this was the struggle to apply the holds and Fujiwara's verbal selling. Really compelling matwork. Fujiwara was able to get his own legbars, but everytime he stand up he would hobbled and Maeda would kick out his legs. It was interesting because Fujiwara could not stand up with Maeda but on the ground he was competitive. Maeda figured this out and tried to go for the kill with multiple spinwheel kicks to the head to win the match. Except he kept WHIFFING! Fujiwara capitalized with a legbar to win. Just as good as the March match if not slightly better. I liked the story of Maeda attacking the legs, Fujiwara competitive on the mat, but not on his feet because of bum wheel so Maeda goes for kill, but whiffs and Fujiwara pounces with win. This is twice now Maeda has choked and failed to put Fujiwara away, Fujiwara just has that killer instinct. ****

Much preferred Fujiwara/Super Tiger but maybe because those are still have tinges of the pro style I love. And because I find Maeda to be boring as piss. Yoshiaki Fujiwara vs Akira Maeda - UWF 3/2/85 Can Fujiwara do the impossible can carry Maeda to a great match? Lets find out. I will say this has a big fight feel moreso than the Super Tiger matches with either guy. I prefer the Super Tiger matches, but those feel like David vs Goliath, superhero matches. Maeda for all his lameness does have an aura due to his unprofessional shoot kicking of wrestlers in the face and Fujiwara is just a badass. Fujiwara repeatedly slapping the taste out of Maeda's mouth in the first five minutes is awesome. As an anti-Maeda fan made me very happy. I thought the feeling our process here was much better. Fujiwara made this match drip with struggle when so many Maeda matches are just listless. I love how he bucked him off the side control double wristlock. Fujiwara starts to make serious in-roads on the mat so Maeda responds with the Super Tiger strategy of kicking Fujiwara in the head hard, many, many times. Fujiwara responds in the best way possible by slapping Maeda really fucking hard and then holding his head in place for some nasty headbutts. This was about the halfway point and for the next ten minutes it was pretty much all Fujiwara and it was so much better for it. He started working on the legs, but eventually got his Fujiwara armbar locked in. Maeda was getting hope spots, but Fujiwara pretty much was constantly cutting him off on the mat. It was nice to see Maeda dominated. Because of that and Maeda's rep, I totally bought in on Maeda winning. I thought the transition to the finish was a little weak as it was just a bundle of legs lock and Maeda comes up kicking. Maeda just starts roaring with those kicks. It is alternating between nasty suplexes and chokeouts. I was totally ready for Maeda to win with that Dragon suplex or a choke. Then he WHIFFS on a spinkick. Fujiwara POUNCES with a CHOKEOUT!!! AWESOME FINISH! There was still too much downtime to call this any more than great, but hell Fujiwara did and got a great match out of Maeda! Finish was spectacular. Apparently they have a real classic in New Japan the next year. I will be watching the July 1985 UWF rematch next though. ****

Akira Maeda vs Kazuo Yamazaki - UWF 2/18/85 Akira Maeda: The Human Cure for Insomnia. He is a total snoozefest on the mat. So many "bundle of legs" lock or just lying on Yamazaki. Yamazaki is not he guy to draw anything out of Maeda. So far nobody is. The first 12 minutes was a Maeda mauling. Well there was a clip because even the cameraman got bored. Yamazaki got a quick German and that was it. I will say Maeda did have his first explosion of fury. Some really nasty kicks and he did seem more forceful, but then it went back to lying in a side mount or a "bundle of legs" lock. He did have a nice deadlift German. Yamazaki was able to wriggle out and get a single leg crab and from there tries to press his advantage on the mat, but this led to yet another game of "leg twister". It takes a great seller to really get over just holding a bundle of legs and these guys just aren't it. Maeda ends up with a single crab now. Maeda does seem more into this match than previous encounters, I will give him that. Yamazaki's selling out of single leg crab would have been great if he was selling a kick to his head, but was just weird coming out of the single leg crab covering his head. Maeda back to the single leg crab, but Yamazaki makes the ropes. This is a full court press by Maeda. Maeda is destroying him with kicks. After two straight jobs to Super Tiger, Maeda does need some rehab and I guess Yamazaki is his whipping boy. Yamazaki tries some kicks and Maeda fights through them to do a Human Capture Suplex and drop Yamazaki on his head. Nice! Yamazaki tries for German, but Maeda connects with a stiff back elbow. Yamazaki keeps making ropes on submissions. DRAGON SUPLEX BY MAEDA for two! and then promptly chokes him out. Just an extended squash for Maeda to remind everyone he is number two to Super Tiger. Better than October encounter, but that just because Maeda was throwing Yamazaki around and had some nice kicks. He still sucks on the mat. Next match is with Fujiwara, which will be interesting for two reasons: 1. To find out who is second fiddle to Super Tiger and 2. to see if Fujiwara can do the impossible and get a great match out of Maeda. ***

Yoshiaki Fujiwara vs Kazuo Yamazaki - UWF 1/7/85 Welcome to the Yoshiaki Fujiwara Show, Kazuo Yamazaki! Fujiwara is just so compelling. He has the explosiveness to make shoot style work that Maeda lacks. He really rips Yamazkai over on these takedowns. He is so committed to everything he does. When he is transition to a wristlock or applying a figure-4 on a limb he does it so decisively. He is a man who knows exactly what he wants and he gets what wants. On top of that Fujiwara complements his excellent offensive repertoire with dramatic pro style selling. The way he collapses when Yamazaki is able to nail a desperation kick to the head or how he sends himself flying across the ring on a roundhouse kick to the chest is just awesome. He is a badass but knows how to show vulnerability. The way he controls Yamazaki with those forceful takedowns and gripping submission work is great. Loved the finish with Yamazaki getting one nearfall with the German (oh now pinfalls count!) before Fujiwara hits a monster piledriver and then double wristlock for win. It was short but sweet. In a lot of ways this was a poor man's Fujiwara/Super Tiger. Yamazaki used home run kicks to the head to create in-roads. Unlike Tiger, in both a kayfabe and artistic sense, his kicks just arent as good so Fujiwara was able to respond and always regain the advantage. Yamazaki lacked the killer instinct of Tiger in the 12/05/84 match. Fujiwara was just too overwhelming for him, but God was Fujiwara just incredible to watch in this. Super Tiger has been a joy to watch, but Fujiwara is the undisputed best worker in this promotion. There is no shame in being the poor man's version of one of the greatest series of all time! Recommendation to watch just to see what Fujiwara can do as it is breath-taking. ****

Super Tiger vs Akira Maeda - UWF 1/7/85 I just found out that the Original UWF was Sayama's promotion not Maeda's. It now all makes sense why Sayama has not jobbed once! I checked Cagematch and through this match Super Tiger does not lose. I will say I have greatly enjoyed him in this run in UWF. He has such a beautiful kicks. I don't think I have seen someone kick as gracefully and as forcefully as Super Tiger. It is such a diverse array of kicks too that makes it special. He really tags Maeda with a couple great roundhouse kicks to the midsection. I have to say I thought this was a better Maeda still not great, but his strategy was smart. He let Tiger come to him. Tiger is going for these home run kicks and it leaves him. It was great counterwrestling. Maeda was able to throw him to the ground multiple times at the beginning. Maeda is boring as piss on the ground, but at least he was trying different submissions. After about 8 minutes of getting thwarted, Super Tiger finally nails Maeda with a nasty kick and hits his famous kneedrop to head, but misses the kneedrop from the middle rope. I thought Tiger was not as great as in the Fujiwara matches with his verbal selling. In addition, I thought his strategy here was not smart. He would get advantage and then squandered it on the mat by grabbing a hold where Maeda's superior strength and technique could reign supreme. At some point, UWF got rid of pinfalls because Maeda has Tiger's shoulder pinned for like a good minute in a double wristlock. There is a really boring stretch of Maeda submission work on Super Tiger, lots of lying on him. Tiger wriggles out of a Maeda submission attempt and gets a single leg crab. It is actually really good and deep. The finish stretch is wicked hot. Super Tiger just starts rifling Maeda in the head with kicks after a rope break on the single leg crab. Maeda is able to stand up and kick out Tiger's plant leg!!! WOW!!! He finally gives Tiger a taste of his own medicine with kicks to the head. Tiger grabs a hold of the kicks out Maeda's leg. Battle of palm strikes and Tiger slaps the taste out of his mount. Tiger wins with a headscissors choke. For another win for the ace of UWF. Super Tiger was like the original Royce Gracie. Nothing too special. Tiger's offense looked amazing and Maeda wrestled a smart, but boring match. The finish stretch was great, but too little too late to call this a classic. ***1/2

Volk Han vs Andrei Kopylov - RINGS 7/16/92 My least favorite kind of submission work is what I call the "bundle of legs" lock. Where both guys are laying down each with a sort of leglock on the other, popular in New Japan and sometimes in WCW. At first I actually think these guys made it work. You could see the immense struggle, how the figure-4s were almost forming or that sick time where Han was choking with Kopylov with a headscissors from a sick position. Kopylov's verbal selling was off the charts great and really added to the opening matwork. They got kinda lackadaisical and it became the "bundle of legs" lock. Even the ref had to call a stalemate and stand up. Han ruled right after that. Insane standing hammerlock forces rope break. Then just wrenches him down with a wristlock into a gnarly choke for another rope break. Then it was a spinning backfirst and kicks to get a knockdown. Han really had Kopylov reeling. Kopylov smartly slows it down and wraps up holds. "Bundle of legs" lock. The finish is pretty good with Han hitting a spinning backfirst for his second knockdown. Han looks like he has the match in hand. But then he gets cocky tries a flying karat kick and eats a big straight front kick to the midsection. Great selling! It feels like a big moment as Kopylov gets a knockdown. Han backs him into a corner and goes for a rip takedown, but KOPYLOV PANCAKES HIM! OOOOOOOOO DRAMA! Kopylov grabs a top wristlock and looks to convert to a crossarmbreaker, but rope break. Kopylov looks gassed, but gets a great leg trip and a applies a wicked toehold. Han is tempted to choke him but that's cheating so he taps out. Loved that moral struggle. I am in Kopylov won, but should be traditional Japanese match structure the one kicking ass usually loses. Beginning with all the struggle was great and the finis was intense, but it was too little too late. Way too much downtime in this one. Proves Han is human and does not have classics in every single outing. ***3/4

I can only imagine what someone like Parv would think about the first ten minutes of this match. Dreadfully dull and I like this style. Nobuhiko Takada vs Kazuo Yamazaki - UWF 12/5/84 I love shoot-style, but bad shoot-style commits the worst sin any man can commit by being boring. The first ten minutes of this is dreadfully dull. The only cool spot is when Yamazaki bridges and Takada kicks the leg out from a side mount. The rest is just battling over a cross armbreaker (Takada) and a toehold (Yamazaki). Takada seems to be taking Yamazaki down and bringing the fight to Yamazaki. The match picks up about 12 minutes in (the whole thing is 24 long minutes and you feel every minute) when Takada applies a double wristlock that has Yamazaki scrambling to the ropes. Yamazaki responds with a series of fiery kicks and takes Takada down. Takada on stand up slaps the fuck out of Yamazaki. One of those great I am trying not to sell but damn did that sting sells by Yamazaki. I thought they lost some momentum by Yamazaki pancaking Takada for a while. There were some good kicks. What really saves the whole match is that the finish stretch is wicked hot. Really shows how much better these are compared to Maeda. Takada was delivering BADASS Jumping Tombstones and I love how he was pinning and then upon kickout going right for the double wristlock. Some really good kicks by both men. Surprised Yamazaki was able to turn the tide with a jumping roundhouse kick. Takada sold it really well. Yamazaki pounced and really never let up. It was some nasty submission attempts and snap suplexes, the German was the one that did Takada in. I don't know the hierarchy of UWF, but this was pretty shocking to me. I fully expected Takada to win especially as he was firing off Tombstones and kicks. They totally got me to bite on his Crossface Chickenwing. The Yamazaki transition and then like two minutes explosion of kicks and suplexes to win was great. Felt very NJPW juniors in that if you cut out the first 12 minutes you have a great match, but the first twelve minutes really drag, but the last five minutes are fire. ***

Damn, youre much tougher grader than me if you are giving that ****3/4. Excited you are getting close to the top.

Akira Maeda vs Kazuo Yamazaki - UWF 10/22/84 They took a helluva long time to get going in this one. Just a lot of listless time on the mat in wristlocks. Everytime it looked like someone was going to make some in roads with some kicks they would grind it to a halt on the mat. There would be the occasional good snapmare or bridge by Yamazaki. Still, there was not much struggle. Maeda is too deliberate. He has no explosiveness to make this style work. Very little charisma from what I have seen. I liked Yamazaki from that one Hashimoto match. After about 15 minutes, they finally kick in the finish run which is a German by Yamazaki, missile dropkick then another German with a beautiful bridge, but too close to the ropes. Ab stretch, but once he goes for roll up, Maeda converts into a cross armbreaker. Meada hits a spinkick and then in a gnarly sitting neck crank, armbreaker submission wins match. Finish stretch was good, but too little too late. Just not a very interesting match as Maeda continues to disappoint.

Really, the result was never in doubt after he was blasted in the head at on three different occasions from three different angles and had four knockdowns against him. From a kayfabe standpoint, to say Han was in control just smacks of silliness. Volk Han vs Dick Vrij - RINGS 8/21/92 Amazing drama in this shoot-style masterpiece. Vrij is a dickish headthunting heel. Han is the clean cut maestro. The match is really the high head kick of Vrij vs the legbar/heel hook of Han. Han sets the tone immediately taking Vrij down and just never letting go of the ankle. Just a great visual of Han having his prey by the ankle and Vrij desperately lunging for the ropes. That would be a seen played over and over again. We find out what Vrij's strategy is, keep it standing up and go high. There is a couple times he is able to catch coming in when he is shooting for legscissors or a takedown for legbar. The scoring seemed off as Vrij used the ropes on at least four occasions but didn't always get counted on. As the match progressed, Vrij was landing bigger and bigger shots. He was growing more and more confident. He was a great dick heel signaling to the crowd. The Han takedown attempts became more desperate as Vrij was clearly too close to the ropes for Han to do anything. Vrij hit an awesome spinning back fist and then totally rocked Han with a high kick to the head. Han had four knockdowns against him and one more knockdown would cost him the match. In a miracle, Han catches Vrij's high kick takes him down and wrenches in a great stepover toehold (STF without front facelock) to pull out the win. Classic mat wizard vs bomb throwing standup fighter. Very entertaining, great pacing and I loved how the strategies played into the finish! ****1/4

IWGP Jr Heavyweight Champion Jushin Liger vs Norio Honaga - NJPW 3/14/91 Non-Title SOLD! I was skeptical about this run of Liger's career against Honaga and AKIRA because neither is famous. I have never even seen a Honaga match. I am totally sold on him and this feud after this match. What an amazing dick heel performance. You had everything you want from focused attack on body part (ribs), jumping from outset, hanging him out to dry on the railing, then the exposed turnbuckle, Liger gets chippy that means BALLSHOT, great gutbuster, chair attacks, choking with ropes! It was just the most flagrant heel work and I loved it. He could have had better facial expressions and body language, but actions were great. Liger firing by busting this asshole wide open with a turnbuckle shot was glorious. Liger just dismantles him with his badass offense while Honaga is bleeding a gusher. Then Honaga's buddy distracts him German 1..2..NO! Like Liger is going to job to this chump. Clothesline and then clothesline from top rope 1...2..3! WHAT!?1! The ref's reaction is priceless. He cant even believe he counted to three!!! Great babyface vs heel match. Simplest match to tell but so damn effective with Honaga committed to being a reprehensible heel and Liger is on top of his babyface game. All we needed was that super Liger comeback to make this classic. Loved this as a first match in the feud. ***3.4

IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Champion Jushin Thunder Liger vs AKIRA - NJPW 3/21/91 1991 is a strange year for Liger. He had big time feuds with Sano 89-90 then Pegasus Kid '90. His booking is hallmarked by trading the belt. In '91, he tries to elevate AKIRA & Honaga, which seemed to be the least successful elevations of his career as these are his least famous opponents. AKIRA & Honaga had been in NJPW for a while so it made sense to try to propel them up the card. I have never seen a Honaga match, looking forward to that. AKIRA has received his personality transplant and is rocking the badass Kabuki gear. Liger is wearing green & gold. Not my favorite Liger outfit, never really been a fan of green & gold. They are in the Dome so Liger starts off hot with palm strikes and does a big dive. Then drops into a sleeper. I know that it is customary to do matwork in the beginning of NJPW, but this was not very inspired chaining at all. Quickly moving in and out of holds. The turning point of the match is when Liger goes to dive on AKIRA, but AKIRA nails him with a ground-to-air dropkick. He nailed him good and Liger's knee is injured. AKIRA is all over the knee. Liger is really, really, really good at selling. I thought AKIRA was good on top with holds and stomps but Liger was making this. The finish run was fine; didn't think was anything too great. Liger really trying to get over the palm strikes. Liger's knee seems fine for a while and then acts up on tombstone attempt. He did drop the leg selling pretty swiftly. AKIRA also did not go back to the knee as he was going for quick falls and Germans. I think AKIRA should have been attacking the knee more. AKIRA missed two big splashes off the top. Liger hit a couple Ligerbombs nothing doing. So he needs the SUPER DDT to win! Pretty standard Liger. Big dive->matwork->turning point->great selling-> extended finish run with nearfalls and a big cresecendo. Besides the great selling, I really did not think this was particularly special Liger performance. He is a very selfless worker and allowed AKIRA to get in some big nearfalls before he hit a bunch of big bombs to win. It is Liger 101. ***1/4

IWGP Jr Heavyweight Champion Naoki Sano vs Akira Nogami - NJPW 8/31/89 Before AKIRA got a personality transplant he was just simply Akira Nogami in black trunks. Akira was a distant third all year to Liger & Sano, but the story is that he is out to prove himself. From the opening, he slaps Sano hard and never really lets up. He is constantly offensively minded. He makes up for his blandness with his relentless onslaught. Like anyone who passed through the NJPW dojo, he is a very sound worker. He was great on the mat and thought he had a really nice legdrop. The other story of the match was that Sano was the ultimate counter-wrestler always one step ahead of Akira and that's why he is champion. Akira is perched on top, dropkick. Akira goes for dropkick, he holds onto ropes. Akira goes for a kick, he catches it and turns it into an enziguiri. There are a lot of examples of Akira getting a quick advantage off a highspot but when he follows it up with another highspot he gets burned. He has not learned how to capitalize on a highspot and then maintain his advantage. Sano shows us that. After the enziguiri he goes for piledriver and then figure-4s the head. A sound, veteran mentality from a young lion. Sano puts on a great Boston Crab at one point and when Akira tries the same thing Sano breaks. I love how Sano is clearly the better wrestler from kayfabe perspective, but because Akira is so damn relentless he has a chance. On a superplex, Akira shifts his weight, this is his best chance, but gets two. There is a series of nearfalls including a German bridge by Akira that looks good. He is putting himself in position to win. He goes up top and Sano crushes him out of the sky with a dropkick. AWESOME! Plays right into the counterwrestler thread they had going. That gets two, but a fisherman suplex gets Sano the win. Tight match, with lots of energy and little down time. It is New Japan so the execution is great and the everything is snug. The narrative of hungry challenger constantly getting thwarted by smart champion was great. I loved the payoff with the dropkick by Sano with Akira coming off the top. Really played into Sano's counterwrestling and being one step ahead of Akira dynamic. Excellent, well thought out juniors match. Sano is on a roll, definitely want to see more from him. ****

IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Champion Jushin Liger vs Naoki Sano - NJPW 8/10/89 Jushin Liger's magnificent selling has been much discussed and raises this match to all time classic status. I loved the first match so much with Liger beating the shit out of Sano only for Sano to kick his head off then the double knockout finish. Here Sano rips off Liger's arm and beats him with it. The beginning of the match with them just kicking each other in the head during lock ups outta nowhere was bitchin. Sano reverse thrust kick gives him his first opportunity at the left arm and Liger selling the hell out of it. Liger makes ropes. Liger is wearing shoulder pads...was he injured in an intervening tag match? Liger hits a kappo kick but Sano makes it back to the arm. The heat segment is glorious. Love the fake out Irish whip into just snapping his arm down or Ligers prone selling with his dead arm limp by his side. The match changes complexion when Sano hurls his body to the outside but smacks his head against the concrete busting himself open. Sano abandoned strategy and paid for it. Young dude in a championship match got to leave it out on the table. Liger's broken wing selling is great his offense of kicking Sano straight in the Open wound. I don't think that gets discussed enough is that he matches violence with violence. Loved the pile drivers! Liger makes the cardinal mistake of putting his opponent On the top rope. Never let your opponent have the high ground. Sano hits a missile drop kick and hits that splash to outside. Great transition. Finish is double hot. The struggle over the German duplex ending in a Fujiwara armbar. Ligers hope spots were great. Loved the trio of armbar, German and super back duplex (play off the double KO spot). Great finish! Heated, energetic, violent, sublime selling blood from Sano and a raging climax. Maybe a hotter transition back to Sano is keeping this from the full Monty. Just doesn't feel that level but goddamn this is just insanely great pro wrestling. ****3/4

IWGP Jr Heavyweight Champion Hiroshi Hase vs Jushin Liger - NJPW 5/25/89 Jushin Liger takes his place in the sun nary a month after his redebut as Liger in the Dome. I have watched very little pre-93 Liger what a different worker. He throws his body with reckless abandon in these 89 matches. End of an era for Hase too who would graduate to Heavyweight division soon. Liked the hot start by Hase hitting a dropkick at the bell and throwing a suplex. Liger throwing kicks so well has been a revelation. Great way to start hot but once both guys get to stalemate we go to mat. Hase has a great heat segment working over Ligers abs in vicious fashion. Ligers finish run is hot hurling his body at Hase then that nasty snap Super plex. Ligers execution is so good. Oh my God! That fall away slam with bridge by Hase!!!!! Airplane spin no it is a barrage of Kappo Kicks and a crazy Human Capture Suplex for three! Fun match hot finish stretch! Great way to kick off the Liger era! ***1/2

IWGP Jr Heavyweight Champion Jushin Liger vs Naoki Sano - NJPW 7/13/89 Incredibly fun, insane 13 minute sprint. Great way to wake up on vacation. I thought Liger felt very inspired by the Stampede boys like Dynamite, Bret and Davey Boy. Like a ramped up version of those Harts/Bulldogs matches with more insane offense and a lot more urgency. The opening matwork is tight but definitely a lot quicker than Fujinami's from early 80s. Liger was just so offensive minded in this match. It was a full court press. However he would get sometimes on the mat. After the tilt a whirl backbreaker he opened an unholy can of whoop ass on Sano. Look how much he relied on Irish whip to create movement doesn't feel like early 80s Mew Japan. Even though he is hitting spots in rapid fire succession there is so much urgency you can help but feel infected with energy. The duplex to the floor was insane and then somersault splash off top to floor like shut the front door! Nice countout tease! Liger can't get powerbomb but almost caught in a pibfall see trying to make something nothing almost gets him. Loved Sano's transition to offense with Liger catching his foot and clobbering him with a kick to head. Liger did great job with disoriented selling. Sano then presses advantage with dropkick to head. After taking an asswhupping a head shot is what he needed. Sano has insane offense on outside too and great German for nearfalls. Wild Japanese women in front row >>> stoic yakuza. Loved the symmetry of FINISH run. That double dropkick was best ever Sano really destroyed Liger. Lots of hitting moves at same time. Super bank suplex that knocks both for a loop. Great finish! Sets up rematch well. Interesting finish being so even leading to double knockout. Insane high end offense mixed with good transition and tons of urgency means damn great time watching wrestling! ****

Great pick! He is a beast in that match!

Yeah but Sid in ECW was the shit!

AJ Styles vs Bobby Roode Final Resolution 2012. AJ deserves all the awards in the world for that performance. A match that would not win best picture but AJ deserves Best Actor!

Jushin Liger & El Samurai vs Ultimo Dragon & Masao Orihara - WAR 4/2/93 In the midst of the NJPW vs WAR feud dominated by Tenryu vs Hashimoto in Co. there was the junior analog to the feud with Jushin Liger facing off against Ultimo Dragon. Their big singles match happened at the 1/4 Dome show but was marred by a dead crowd and botches. Here the crowd was electric everytime these two men squared off the ring. Often, Liger is so head and shoulders more over than his opponents it was nice for him to be in there against an equal. Liger was on fire in this match. He just brought an insane energy to this match. He had so much pep in his step. He was kinda dick the whole time because he was the invader on WAR's turf, but people were eating up his hip swiveling, arm swirling taunting. When Liger & Dragon both went for the cup the ear taunts I marked out. Liger's kept up this energy throughout the match. The match did vacillate between chippy and meandering though. I thought Samurai had some good moves like a couple piledrivers, some awesome dives and a reverse suplex that gave Liger a hot tag, but he was not bringing the passion. It was just going through the motions. Orihara was your good little dick underling that's such a great Japanese trope. Dragon was way better against Liger than Sammy. He kinda slummed it with Samurai, which is weird because they apparently had a classic in WAR a couple weeks before this. Dragon was definitely up for wrestling Liger. The double team moves were great. I LOVED the dive train! The finish stretch was great with Liger nailing a Ligerbomb but Dragon making the save. Diving headbutt save and when Sammy finally takes out Dragon, Liger eats feet on diving headbutt so this creates some drama, but Liger wins with Frankensteiner. Take home message is this is where Liger vs Dragon the singles match should have taken place! Hot crowd and both men were on. Liger was oozing charisma. He was kicking ass. He showed enough vulnerability to make it interesting but you knew he was taking home the win. I thought as a tag match just too uneven. Samurai had some good offense, but lacking the fire. Dragon was carrying himself like a star, but oddly enough was not supplying the cool moves. This could really could have a heat segment or something to build drama. I wish this was better just because Liger looked awesome here. ***1/4

Jushin Liger & El Samurai vs Wild Pegasus & Dean Malenko - NJPW 3/9/93 This is clearly from NJPW, but it is presented by WSW with Craig DeGeorge & Sir Oliver Humeprdink on commentary and they are not that bad! They actually call the action pretty well. It seems like WSW just repackaged NJPW matches with English commentary for American consumption. Pretty ordinary matches from these four. I thought Liger/Benoit parts were clearly the best. Liger outsmarting Benoit with speed and then doing the Hogan ear cup and then Rude hip swivel was the definitely the only reason to go out of your way to watch. Sammy seemed to coast and Malenko besides busting out one great submission didn't add much. Benoit was a machine on offense in control of Sammy. Liger gets tag and so does Malenko. I figure Malenko is easy pickins' but Benoit saves on LigerBomb. They actually tease Benoit pinning Liger twice with German and Diving Headbutt but Sammy saves both times. Even Malenko gets some love with a nearfall from a Northern Lights. Sammy/Benoit brawl. Liger hits Frankensteiner out of nowhere. Perfectly good match. Fun antics from Liger and good intensity from Benoit. Exciting finish stretch. That seems like a real Liger hallmark is good wrestling then throw out 4-5 big spots at the end to send crowd home happy ***

Super Delphin vs Sato - M-Pro 12/10/93 Mask vs Mask Match Beautiful wrestling from Delphin & Sato here. Sato is just so fluid in the ring. The chain wrestling is really wonderful to watch in this. After the sort of mini-Delphin control with the single leg crab, Sato's armdrag is just wonderful and graceful. His mid-match high impact moves are breath-taking, DDT, backdrop driver and powerbomb. The first 2/3rds of this match really suffers from lack of structure and struggle. It feels very much an exhibition. Just two guys doing moves, very pretty moves. Delphin no sold a cross armbreaker, which is a big no-no in my book. The last 1/3rd of this is very dramatic and awesome. Once Delphin hits the dive to the outside, they both turn this on. I loved Delphin having to block Sato's punches and punch him to hit a DDT. Then Sato starts snapping off hope moves from Delphin's offense. Struggle, earning it! This is what I am talking about. Sato hits this amazing, sublime dive. Just watch it. I cant describe the beauty of this dive. The tension is off the charts with Sasuke holding back Delphin's manager as Sato's rattles off a bunch of awesome bombs down the stretch. His powerslam is awesome! Loved the senton. The missed senton was a great nearfall for Delphin! Delphin hitting a German Suplex into a back bridge rollup was impressive win! Sato is revealed to be DICK TOGO!!! Loved the finishing stretch of this, really turned up the drama and both guys felt like they wanted it. Definitely lacking hate and where was Delphin's heelishness could have been helpful in this match. An exhibition leads way to a hot, dramatic home stretch. ***1/2

UWA World Welterweight Champion Super Delfin vs Great Sasuke - M-Pro 7/24/93 Super Delfin won the title from a luchador, Celestial in Japan and for the rest of mid-90s the title would swap between Japan and Mexico. I have not watched much M-Pro, but am excited to get into it. I think Junior wrestling in 90s had the most prominent influence on today's in-ring style focusing on moves and less on transitions and storytelling. So I would like to see if that's true and how this evolves. Apparently, this is outdoors as there are fireworks before the match. Sasuke is wicked over throughout the entire match. That's definitely still one big difference compared to today is that the fans are still more invested in the wrestler rather than the moves. Delphin does get a chant going for himself, but as he is soaking in the adulation Sasuke dropkicks him and hits a massive dive. I loved this. Thought it was a great way to work in a highspot and make Delphin pay for his hubris. The match was basically a classic Japanese blowout. Where one guy controls so much of the match, you can just feel like he is going to lose. Super Delphin is the choke artist du jour. Delphin is a pretty good heel in this going after the mask and choking on the ropes. The enziguiri was a nice transition. My major malfunction was that Great Sasuke just kinda played ragdoll for him. He was not making him earn the moves. It was just too nice & neat. On top of that, there was not much in the way of hope spots. I thought the selling was good. Sasuke did a nice job selling more and more down the stretch as the moves got bigger and bigger. This cooperative wrestling and lack of struggle feels really remission of today's wrestling. I thought Delphin did a great job escalating his offense. Late in the match when Sasuke did start the hope spots they were great. The handspring back elbow was an excellently timed cutoff. The Asai Moonsault was a great hope spot that wiped out Delphin, but caused so much damage to Sasuke he couldn't follow it up. I thought Delphin's response to go even bigger with his moves: really high impact suplexes and finally going for top rope splashes was great. They did a nice job teasing the countout off a big dive by Delphin with Sasuke getting in at 19. The fact that Sasuke rollthrough on a crossbody was a transition was just weird. Like all of sudden he has energy to hit a dropkick was kinda lame. SPACE FLYING TIGER DROP~! I feel like the name is cooler than the move even the move is pretty bonkers. Quebradas and springbaord hurricanarana wins the day for the hero of M-Pro. The offense in this was pretty spectacular. Sasuke's highspots were all awesome and that's pretty much all he did. His selling was good, but there not enough struggle and hope spots. Delphin escalated his offense well and was a decent heel. Visually impressive but lacking that extra oomph. ***1/4

Nice job Brad!

You can! On the award-winning New Japan World for 999 Yen! But seriously not a Nak fan but I loved that match! I should rewatch it.