Superstar Sleeze

Mid-South Tag Team Champions Rock N Roll Express vs Ted DiBiase & Dr. Death - Mid-South, Houston 5/3/85 I thought DiBiase & Doc worked like MX better than MX worked in Mid-South (Re-watch 2019: I think this sentence was that the offense was better. DiBiase & Doc were NOT better at stooging and heat-seeking). Great offense coupled with awesome psychology. Doc uses his awesome power to back suplex Morton. Morton hits a cross body, but accidentally lands on the bottom rope (2019 re-watch: great spot). This knocks him a little loopy so DiBiase picks him up and slams him back first to the post. Everything that follows is badass offense to the back. Backbreakers, Boston Crab, the best bearhug spots ever and an awesome Doc leg drop on the back. Morton tried a bodyslam on DiBiase and failed. Morton was so great at selling as we all know and timed his hope spots well. In a Doc bearhug, he clapped his hands and Doc missed elbow and thought it was best to tag out. DiBiase went charging into the corner. Morton dives for the hot tag. Gibson was great. Really good chaotic finish run, I liked the double dropkick only for DiBiase to blast Gibson with the loaded glove to win the tag titles. Short, but kickass tag team. One of the best heat segments in a Mid-South tag team match I have seen. The shine was kinda lame. Doc being a stooging heel just did not work for me, probably would have been best to have DiBiase in that role. Doc & DiBiase put on an offensive clinic and a great finish to get the tag titles on the heels. (2019 rewatch: Honestly thought I had never seen this match before and I reduced my original rating based on the fact that this was an excellent heat segment & finish but I didnt think there was an extra oomph to call it something truly special). ****

Midnight Express vs Rock N Roll Express - Mid-South 6/30/85 The Rock N Rolls were just weeks away from jumping to Crockett and lifting the belts off the Russians in their debut match. This is the swan song of Part 1 of this famous rivalry. I thought this is the best Eaton/Condrey vs. Rock N Rolls match I have seen. I still hold that Wrestlewar '90 match is the pinnacle of these two teams. Midnights were at their stooging, clowning best early. Eaton could not get anything right. H plowed his foot through Condrey's midsection and then accidentally monkey flipped him! The bit with Eaton asking the crowd if his hair was pulled and being met with unanimous no's only to ask Loverboy Dennis & Corny to get some yes' was funny. Condrey tripped up Gibson when the ref was distracted and MX's go to work. Where I think this loses out to the Wrestlewar matches is that MX settle for a lot of choking in this. Except right at the beginning when Eaton hits the Alabama Jam. The fans go nuts at this flagrant cheating! God bless this crowd! It becoming apparent to me that amount Morton played Ricky Morton is overstated, Gibson did his fair share in the FIP role and was quite good at it. With the MX going for less offense, it was his selling that was engaging. He is always good for the slow wandering will or will he not make it. I thought the superplex on Eaton was a great transition and the hot tag was molten. Usual quick RnR finish run with Morton hitting some punches and then melee sunset flip call it. I find these RnR hot tag finish runs to be unsatisfying frankly, but I loved the shine and heat segment. I would say right in the same ballpark as the Fantastics match. ****1/4

Midnight Express vs Bill Watts & Stagger Lee - Mid-South 4/22/84 Watch the video package that hypes this match. Other than Duggan/DiBiase feud, my favorite build. Watts talking about taking the Law into your own hands is one of the best Walking Tall promos and going out to find the Dog to be his tag partner is great. The ultimate heat-seeking, work around people's limitation, feed and bump match. The first five minutes is an excellent use of all parties involved. Junkyard Dog picks up an MX member and feed him into Watts to be punched. The Midnight Express bump and stooge for the babyfaces. My favorite one is Eaton actually bumps onto the top turnbuckle only to be punches off the top turnbuckle. Condrey may even have been better at selling with his face than Eaton these punches. Both MX members blade off these punches. Watts tries to punch Condrey on the apron, but gets walloped from behind by Eaton. The heat segment is insane. The crowd is on fire. The MX triple team with Corny getting his licks in. Watts is great at the whole trying to make the hot tag. The false hot tag erupts the building. JYD thumps Eaton, but Cornette gets him a racquet to throat shot him. Meanwhile, Watts punts Condrey in the balls and then kicks a bag of powder into Eaton's face. He thumps Eaton for a MASSIVE POP! Like you would be hard pressed to hear a bigger pop. Apparently, the pre-match stipulation was if the MX loses that Cornette has to wear a diaper and it is as entertaining as it sounds as he is humiliated. Great popcorn match. Super fun. ****1/4

Mid-South Tag Team Champions Rock N Roll Express vs Midnight Express - Mid-South TV 5/23/84 Can you smell That Smell? Fun, little TV match. It was NO DQ and early on the RNRs are throwing that in MX faces with double teams and throwing them over the top rope. Basically throwing all the MX shit back in their faces. Morton misses a dropkick. He then is rammed into the post and finally a powerslam puts him into the FIP. I love how modulated his selling and it took him three moves before going into the FIP. He is thrown over the top rope. He comes back in and then tags in Gibson. This kicks off one of the best finish runs I have seen in a tag match in a wild. It is total chaos. Gibson goes flying over the top rope when Cornette pulls it down. Watts tells us that how he was injured before, but Eaton goes into the post and is busted open. Back in the ring, Morton has Condrey in a spinning toe hold, but he gets shoved into ref and Gibson. Gibson's leg is busted. Condrey is on the top rope and Morton dives on Gibson to save his partner. I fucking love it! Gibson back drops Condrey over the top. Eaton crashes into Gibson, but Gibson gets a sleeper and Eaton kicks the ref. Cornette gets a chloroform rag and knocks Gibson out. MX wins the match. If that is not awesome enough, Cornette's post-match promo is awesome in explaining away his blatant cheating. Up until the finish run, the match was nothing much. But woah boy, hold onto your seats once Gibson gets tagged in that is about the most exciting two minutes of pro wrestling I have ever seen. Definitely check it out. ****

Mid-South Tag Team Champions Midnight Express vs Fantastics - Mid-South OKC 8/9/84. You want to hear the roof come off a joint, listen to the reaction to the hot tag to Bobby Fulton! That's how you build to a hot tag, people. Cornette and Eaton take the embrace for heat one step further with Cornette giving him a peck on the cheek. Rogers/Fulton work a headlock base for their shine. The best sequence was when Condrey gets three shoulder tackles in a row, on the fourth he gets bodyslammed and then shouldertackled four times. His reaction was priceless. The Fantastics drive the MX crazy by switching out on their arm bar illegally. However with the ref distracted, the MX doubleteam Rogers doing a number on him and play King of the Mountain with him. The ensuing FIP is excellent! Condrey is that dick heel going for the throat using knees and elbows, coming off the ropes always looking to double team. Eaton is mechanically so proficient everything he does looks great. Eaton/Condrey were a heel's team, Eaton/Lane had more flash which lent itself to more workrate, but Eaton/Condrey were heat magnets. They cheated their asses off. Rogers was money as an FIP. Selling was great and timed his hope spots so well. The MX had so many good cutoffs with each one seemingly more cheap than the previous. I thought Fulton was excellent. So often I think the hot tag is lame for just standing on the apron. He was very active throughout the FIP and it made a better match for it. Rogers gets a reverse elbow and tags in Fulton decks em all. Rogers trips up Eaton from the outside allowing Fulton to crossbody Condrey for the win. Southern Tag formula executed to perfection with all four men working hard. Just did not think there was anything exceptional about the match. That sort of hook or spot you will always remember. They just took the formula and nailed it. ****1/4

Just watched the match that made the Mid-South set (three weeks before this one) and loved it. I gotta get Classics.

Not in a world where Angelo Poffo exists. Posts of the year! Undertaker can now say he is the centerpiece of a ***** thread

That was the post of the year. Laughing so hard right now.

I'll check that one out then. Did you not like the '79 one? I have no plans to watch any of the 80s ones because they didn't make the set and I trust if they are not in top 175 that it is probably not worth my time.

WWF World Heavyweight Champion Bob Backlund vs Stan Hansen - NJPW 9/30/80 Stan Hansen with a sunset flip in this match! These two just never had the classic they should have had together. I remember liking this a lot more before than this go around. The beginning of the match is all about will Hansen ever successfully execute an elbow drop on Backlund who is always moving. He goes for the Lariat early, but misses and Backlund almost cold cocks him on the ropes to show he will brawl. Backlund uses technical acumen and speed tat first until Hansen runs backwards into him with an elbow and finally looks poised to take control. Backlund uses his strength to sit him down on the top rope and slaps him. Usually, I say this is a bad idea, but Bob Muthafucking Backlund and he can do what he wants when he wants. It breaks down into a great brawl trading eyerakes and slugging it out. Then a Hansen armbar happens, which is pretty boring. If they just brawled this could have been an all-timer. I loved the Backlund high knee then piledriver combo. They knock heads and they do a series of cover kickout with the other man covering now, which is a favorite Backlund spot. Hansen shotos him in and crowd gasps thinking Lariat, but it is a High Knee. They brawl on the outside with Hansen Lariating the post, OW! The brawl continues and the ref throws the match out as a double countout. Backlund hits Hansen with a chair and chases him off to make sure everyone knows he is the Man! Very good match, besides the armbar every entertaining just never gets to that next level. ***1/2

My regret losing my smile in regards to wrestling with three months before the deadline of the project. I would have had Fujiwara, Fujinami and Andre on my list. I love wrestling again, but too little too late. C'est la vie.

WWF World Martials Arts Champion Antonio Inoki vs Andre The Giant - NJPW 10/7/76 At one point, Inoki & Andre 69 each other. ***** Seriously though this is an incredible spectacle and another fabulous Andre performance. Vince McMahon Sr. sighting for Parv! It was like he was wrestling two men, Inoki and the ref. Andre was probably the best at ref interactions until Flair in the 80s. I loved the little bit at the get go when ref goes to check his boots so Andre lifts his leg and then pulls it down taking the ref with him. Then does it again with the other leg! He was shoving the ref around. The ref got his little digs whenever Andre was using the ropes he would kick his arm off, great spot during Inoki's short arm scissors. Inoki came out of the gates with a dropkick. Andre, unphased, just had this sinister smile on his face and even the Almighty Inoki did not seem that confident. That was the beauty of this match was Andre was able to make the shoot badass, Antonio Inoki, a sympathetic underdog. Andre was just toying with his early until Inoki got a nice armdrag into a short arm scissors. I thought they did a really good job of grabbing a hanging limb. Anytime Inoki was attacking Andre, Andre would just grab a hold of that limb and then start to work it and same for Inoki. It led to some really interesting passes, Inoki slapped Andre! What a reaction by Andre just a perfect "Muthafucka, tell me you did not just do that" and then only to slam his hand against the ring post and bellow. There was the aforementioned 69 incident where they both headscissored each other. Some Indy sleazeball must have stolen that spot by now, but I think it would make for good comedy now. Andre took some great bumps into the turnbuckles. I loved when he was holding onto the ropes for dear life and the ref kicked his hand off. Andre did a BOW & ARROW! I didn't like the cross armbreaker no matter your size that is a legit dangerous flash submission hold and for Andre just lay there was lame. Andre got up and then tried to choke Inoki out with the bottom rope by standing on it. OW! The finish is Andre has Inoki in the cobra clutch and Inoki hops over the top rope to escape and drags Andre out with him. They brawl on the floor and Andre headbutts the post and busts himself open. The wounded Giant throws everyone away the ref, Inoki and even his handler, which causes the match to be thrown out and Inoki awarded via TKO. Pretty lame finish. Inoki goes over, but really does not look like a winner. Double countout would have been more satisfying. Great Andre performance, but not at the level of Khan performance. I thought Inoki added and subtracted from the match from Khan. He has a lot more presence than Khan and I thought his offense looked really credible. You also cared more about what happened to him. The negative was a lot more time on the mat. I thought Inoki was great in some holds really selling the drama and in others I found myself drifting away. Also, I am finding this more and more with New Japan is that are not much in the way of overarching narratives. Everything exists in the short run. Attack the limb that is attacking my now and then reset. So there is not a real feel of progression. However, still an awesome David vs Goliath match, which felt very different with all the matwork and a great heel Andre performance. ****1/4

Which Andre match? I just watched the '76 one and I thought it was incredible! Maybe the best Inoki match I have ever seen. I have not seen the Backlund draw (which I also love) in a while though.

I have him a little higher. We'll talk about him in a bit. I lol'd

they sell the dvd on their website. That's how I saw it, actually ordered a dvd in 2015. Thanks. They have it in Blu Ray as well! Strange 'Shop' section on the site, two decades of events and they have only four DVDs for sale. Do they routinely tape stuff? I'm sure their matches used to show up on comps around 2004/2005. Still prefer inserting a disc into the player to loading up some stream. Feels more of a commitment somehow, I'm less likely to start flicking around. I should have went to that show. Could have been somebody.

Amen, brutha! Hogan is an irresistible force! Hulkamania Forever!

I'd chock it up to blood in this match? I'm on the fence about watching the rematch. Too much wrestling to be watched! Tatsumi Fujinami vs Dick Murdoch - NJPW 7/6/82 Murdoch punts the flowers he is given. Then rips more flowers out of the ref's hand and punts those! ***** Murdoch just gets wrestling! I loved the beginning Murdoch punching Fujinami right in the face in a chinlock and then grinding those knuckles in his chin just like my Dad would do when we were wrestling. We then get the usual Murdoch arm torture that's the hallmark of all his performances. Fujinami fires up in the corner. Fujinami is great at throwing strikes. Now we go to Fujinami's hallmark the side headlock. The cravat by Fujinami and Murdoch repeatedly punching him in the midsection to get out looked great. It was definitely Murdoch's punching against Fujinami's technical ability. The Texan roughouser looked like he had this one in hand until Fujinami got a back heel trip into a toehold. Fujinami rides high and leads to Murdoch choke. Murdoch goes right back to punching and strikes to set up a piledriver, but is back dropped over the ropes. This leads to the BIG high spot of the match the wicked Fujinami suicide dive. Then he bashes Murdoch's head into steel to draw blood. They seem well on their way to classic at this point, but a quick finish robs us of that. Fujinami blasts him right in the cut and then hits a suplex, but only gets two. The Abdominal stretch even in 1982 New Japan seems lame to be a part of a finish run. Fujinami runs into a big reverse elbow and Murdoch rides him down with a knee for his big nearfall before the finish. Oklahoma Slam by a Texan??!? Will wonders ever cease? Fujinami rolls to outside. I will give you three guesses at a finish. Double countout. Murdoch gives him the Brainbuster on the floor to set up the rematch. Flower punting could not save this match. Two all-time great wrestlers, but just a very good match. Nothing really to hook you in. Just when it was getting good with the dive and blood, it was time to end. The finish run was not very memorable. Good, not much more. ***1/4

Andre The Giant vs Killer Khan - NJPW 4/1/82 Holy shit! Andre was amazing in this. The best individual performance I have ever seen him have. The spot where he has Khan in a chinlock then Khan complains of a choke only for Andre to demonstrate the move on the ref and then blatantly choke Khan in the corner is great. I love Andre complaining to the ref he is not counting fast enough. The spot where he big boots Khan while coming in the ring is cool as fuck (saw it against Hansen too). The first half of the match you don't understand how Killer Khan even has a chance against Andre who is killing it. Khan just starts letting out these Rebel Yells and going for the eyes! At this point he just needs to survive. He then goes after Andre's left leg with kicks and wrenching it against the ropes. Andre delivers an all-time great selling performance. He is a wounded grizzly the rest of the match. He lets out these bellows and just will randomly swipe at Khan. He has enough strength to still dish out the punishment. He will just chop to keep Khan back and he is so naturally powerful this keeps him back. Andre moves to a lot of ass-based offense just using his weight to crush Khan. Khan's only hope is to got back after the leg at every turn. My one complaint is that the match does kinda spin its wheels. Andre is not really trying to defeat Khan, like I see no progression in his offense down the stretch. Khan can always go back to the leg, but Andre does not seem to have a game plan to beat Khan. I love the moment when sits on Khan and tries to get up only to bellow and fall back down. The crowd is so invested in every single time Andre falls down. It is great! Andre log rolling to the outside to buy time is awesome. I love Andre in Japan what a great heel! He just sticks Khan's head in the ropes and chokes him out. No offense to Khan, but he was totally overshadowed by Andre's performance in this. Andre big boot and attempted splash shows some progression in offensive strategy to put Khan out of his misery. I loved the double chop sequence with Andre covering up only for Khan to go up top. Andre lowers his hands slowly as if to say "is it over" and here comes Khan. Khan tries again this time Andre slams him off the top and then drops his ass on his head! Awesome finish! Dusty gives him a beer and he is pumped! My two issues with the match is they kinda spun their wheels in the middle of the match and that Khan's performance is just kinda there. I don't think he had anything much unique. Wow! One of the all time great selling performances from Andre coupled with an all time great offensive heel performance. That is pretty incredible because for a heel to give such an amazing selling performance. Cant praise Andre enough in this match. ****1/2

I have had fun ragging on Parv today, but he led me to this match and when the man is right, he is damn right! Dynamite Kid vs Tiger Mask - NJPW 1/28/82 Vacant WWF Junior Heavyweight Championship Big, dumb fun! I enjoyed this way more than I expected. They don't overstay their welcome. If Fujinami was innovating shoot-style, these two innovated the modern spotfest. This felt like the best possible version of modern WWE workrate. I thought this was even better because there was more of a sense of urgency and missed & blocked spots. It does feel like match where the spots are weirdly laid out. Like why do the violent railing spot only to have a very cool Tiger Mask gymnastics spot after. Save that for later for the heat! I hate when I feel like when I am watch a men's floor routine for a wrestling match, but I gotta admit Tiger Mask was pretty damn fun. I loved him sweeping the leg as a counter. Dynamite took some great nutty bumps to really sell Tiger Mask's offense. I did not think Dynamite was as violent as he was win the Fujinami match. He was more interested in going spot for spot with Tiger Mask like WWF Dynamite Kid would. I have really enjoyed Tiger Mask in Original UWF, he has enough knowledge on the mat to keep this interesting and multi-faceted. I really enjoy how audibly he sells choking. In what I thought may have been spot of the match was his bridge out of a headscissors and in one fluid motion converting to a Texas Cloverleaf. Gorgeous! I loved the leg work by Tiger Mask, but Dynamite totally blows it off immediately using his legs to make a comeback. The selling is a problem much like the modern style, but the match also lacks any sort of progression. They just go and go. It feels like nothing is being advanced. The cool moves at least feel like a part of struggle, but there is no heat is what I am trying to say. There have been Fujinami matches' without a proper heat segment, but this one feels different than those. I feel like this review is all over the place kinda like this match. I am having a hard time remembering, which spot went before which. I think that's really telling. There is no consequence. It is very slapdash, but highly entertaining at the same time and I am a structure mark. It is a spotfest that is really fun because the execution is so good, the spots are actually breath-taking and there are misses (two diving headbutts were huge) and urgency (loved the crazy dive to the floor by Tiger Mask). They went balls out for this match so I am giving this my standard rating for what I consider one of the best spotfests of all time. ****1/4

Shaking my head. Luger is so much better than Sting. Ridiculous. Is it just me or HHH better than Angle? I can't believe he has a chance at the top 100.

Parv gave this **?!?!?!? Nevermind, he can keep what he is smoking. WWF Junior Heavyweight Champion Tatsumi Fujinami vs Kengo Kimura - NJPW 9/25/80 Outstanding grappling match early on. Proto-shoot style. Hell that's more shoot style than a lot of the Original UWF I was watching. I love how things we take for granted in pro wrestling like an arm drag where not given, they were earned in this match! Excellent! I really did not get a sense of a narrative in the match, which hurts it, but I thought this was incredibly engaging mat wrestling. I like how things got heated, but they get back down to business. Wrestling should have a lot more missed and BLOCKED moves. This match had that in spades! The finish run started with a crazy flurry of dropkicks. When they dropkicked each other, they went for it! Never did get to see Fujinami hit a Dragon suplex. The finish run feels like a pro wrestling match as they start going for wrestling moves and the typical tropes are realized. Kimura hits a fucking near-Ganso Bomb on Fujinami! Holy Shit! Dropkicks him off apron and then comes crashing down on him. Love it! Kimura rushes Fujinami head first and slams his head into the post busting him open. Great countout tease. Fujinami looks to hit his suicide dive, but he crashes and burns and busts his head open on the railing. I love the symmetry of all this. Fujinami nails a dropkick to Kimura perched on the top rope. Both men are out and they call the match a draw! Great grappling early on, hot finish run, the finish itself was perfect. This was a match of equals throughout and ends that way. Just did not feel that overarching narrative that I love. Really strong outing. ****1/4

I thought Jimmy did a very nice job on Owen Hart.

Parv, gave this ****1/2??? I want what he is smoking. WWF Junior Heavyweight Champion Tatsumi Fujinami vs Chavo Guerrero - NJPW 5/9/80 Good little technical babyface vs babyface match. Very symmetrical match. Loved the pair of dueling headscissors. Chavo gets the Upside down surfboard then Fujinami gets the bow and arrow. Those were microcosms of the match them really establishing eveness. Unlike the Keirn match, Chavo never really heels it up nor does he have the stiff offense of Dynamite to really get this going into second gear. His ass based offense seems to be his best offense. Even his piledriver does not get much heat. Chavo's punches pale in comparison to Dynamite or Teranishi at least in this match. Keirn was just so much meaner. They both tease dives (Chavo does the proto-619) to the outside, which does get the crowd going. I got a lot of Fujinami left to watch, but he did not show much to carry match. He seemed content to let the match sit in first gear. So far it feels like his opponent dictates the match more than he does. This is only my fourth match I have seen him in so plenty left to watch and definitely keeping an open mind. Fujinami gets a big crossbody for two. He looks for the Dragon Suplex, but Chavo knows that would be the death knell, but Fujinami is able to wrangle him into a German Suplex bridge to win the match. Lukewarm match. Kinda disappointing given the talent, but this perfectly acceptable, good wrestling. ***

WWF Junior Heavyweight Champion Tatsumi Fujinami vs Isamu Teranishi - NJPW 10/8/81 Is it just me or does Fujinami kinda look like Japanese Marky Mark? Never heard of Teranishi before this match, but he brought it here. Best I have seen Fujinami look in a single match. I really thought he was fierce throughout this. The early matwork was intense and hard fought. It was fast-paced, but without ever feeling like it was exhibition. Teranishi came to play with strong wristlocks and a combination of dropkicks. Fujinami actually looked outpaced by Teranishi in a kayfabe sense always one step behind. It felt like when an underdog team in sports has really come to play and overwhelms the favorite early on. Pride gets the best of Teranishi and he holds onto wrist control, but takes an incredible amount of punishment as Fujinami brutalizes his chest with strikes. Eventually, Teranishi nails him with a headbutt, but Fujinami fires back with his precision dropkick. He looks for the Dragon Suplex, big pop, but Teranishi uses a leg trip to block and goes to work on the legs. Great tease! Teranishi fucking starts wailing on the side of Fujinami's head so Fujinami just fucking unloads. That's what a strike exchange should be! That was brutal. Dragon leg whip by Fujinami and I thought he looked awesome working over the leg. Everything (toeholds, figure-4s) was intense and painful. Really, really friggin' good! Teranishi's comeback does ignore Fujinami's awesome legwork as he is throwing Fujinami around and using dropkicks. That was probably the biggest blight on the match. Fujinami rolls through an O'Connor Roll into a German Suplex to win the match. Move this man up to the Heavyweight Division! Short, but explosive match. I just loved the perpetual motion of both men always attacking. I loved the strike exchanges and the mat work. Fujinami looked awesome here going just unloading his offense. Great finish, a little short and could have used some more selling, but badass match. ****1/4

WWF Junior Heavyweight Champion Tatsumi Fujinami vs Dynamite Kid - NJPW 2/5/80 I thought this was even better than the Keirn match. I love how loud Dynamite is. On offense every move has more impact from his sound effects and every blow he takes feels that much more painful from his verbal selling. I thought Fujinami sold even better and his comeback felt like an even bigger deal in this match. Dynamite came out to play. His buzzcut in 1980 with everyone else rocking medium-to-long hair gave him a crazed look. He set the tone early with no matwork and focusing on strikes and throws. He definitely wanted to lock in the Octopus, the first time he was met with the Dragon Screw Legwhip and the second time they tumbled out of the ring. Dynamite was persistent, headbutting him during a test of strength. In general, he was such a sadistic prick. This was the big difference between his bomb heavy WWF work and this. This had a lot more grit. He was elbowing, kneeing, headbutt, it was intense. He still threw his suplexes, but it was a lot meaner. He reopens Fujinami's cut with a nasty headbutt. Fujinami sells really well. I like Fujinami trying to fight fire with fire with huge European uppercuts and some of the best dropkicks this side of Jim Brunzell. We are talking pinpoint accuracy right to the head. Dynamite always had a response either attacking the cut or casually walking away from a dropkick or plancha. So that's where Samoa Joe got the idea from! Love that spot. Dynamite gets the Octopus, but Fujinami powers. He also gets his big finish, Diving Headbutt, but Fujinami kicks out! His second try ends in disaster. Great selling from Dynamite! Fujinami is able to get him in quite pinning predicament to win the match. I really enjoyed the strike vs strike battle. The Keirn match felt like your standard face vs heel match where Fujinami focused more on selling. This had face vs heel dynamics with a strong Dynamite control, but it also had more Fujinami fighting back and struggling to win. Dynamite's offense and verbal selling made this special. Fujinami bleeding and roaring back definitely met him at Dynamite's level. A little short and anticlimactic to be a true classic, but highly entertaining. ****1/4