Superstar Sleeze

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

WWF Jr Heavyweight Champion Tatsumi Fujinami vs NWA Junior Heavyweight Champion Steve Keirn - NJPW 2/1/80 Time to see if Fujinami is all he is cracked up to be. This is a double title match as the announcer points out a dozen times. Florida & WWF guys work NJPW so we get to see full head of hair Keirn. I remember loving Keirn vs Saito in Georgia. I thought Keirn was the worker I was more drawn to in this. The opening matwork was fine. There were a couple nice counters I liked Fujinami figure-4'ing the leg of Keirn while he in a toe hold to reverse into his own toehold for instance. Overall, it was not like the best matwork either. I really liked Keirn's reaction to Fujinami getting a one count by powdering and resetting the match. Keirn is tired of being in a Fujinami headlock and backs him in a corner and lays in some stiff shots. Keirn as a vicious prick heel was great. He worked over the midsection with huge kneelifts and a great double stomp. He threw Fujinami into the seats and into the post. He was DQ'd for excessive blows to the head on the apron after he opened up Fujinami. Fujinami got in some nice hope spots and showed some fire, but this was Keirn all the way in the first fall. Fujinami 1-0. Keirn was on fire in this fall. Fujinami may have won the first fall, but Keirn is in command. He clubs away at Fujinami and throws him around at will. Piledriver! Lackadaisical covers by Keirn. He is throwing bombs. Goes for bulldog but slammed into corner. Gets into a firefight with Fujinami who is coming back. Fujinami nails a German Suplex to win the second fall and BOTH titles! Loved Keirn as a heel in this and thought Fujinami was a good babyface. Great once Keirn went full heel. ****

The fact Luger finished behind Okada is everything that is wrong about this world. I did my part and voted for Takada. The only reason I did not vote him higher is because I have only seen a limited sampling of his 90s stuff, but I really enjoy him.

LETS GO BLUE!

Correction: Jimmy Redman's Sheamus Rant is the best thing to come out of all these podcasts. WOW! I thought I loved Sheamus! That's devotion. I want to go back and watch every 2012 Sheamus match now.

After hours and hours of listening to these podcasts, my favorite line so far is "I got a lot of time for Hogan". I love that! Hogan is the best!

Just watched the Great Antonio match. Was he drunk. I was laughing pretty hard when Inoki goes for a shoulder tackle and just goes flying off the fat guy. It is self-serious Inoki so it is pretty funny. Then Great Antonio starts hitting him pretty hard in the back of the neck and I was like this is not going to end well for him. Inoki beats the living shit out of his face for like a minute and he is a bloody pulp. Inoki was a bad muthafucka.

NWF Heavyweight Champion Stan Hansen vs Antonio Inoki - NJPW 4/30/80 Huge improvement over their first match! It was not worked at a Hansen pace, but he was allowed to be more of himself by kicking more ass and taking more of the match. He was clubbing Inoki very hard in the arm on each tie up and then just start blasting him in the back of the head, neck and back. Inoki was trying to go for the Lariat arm, but the barrage from Hansen proved too much and he had to roll out of the ring twice. Not often, we see Inoki fight from underneath. Hansen goes for the Lariat, but misses. Inoki hits an Enziguiri which feels like a huge game changer as Hansen has to powder. Hansen is wounded and Inoki is fired up. Inoki goes to the mat, but Hansen just starts drilling with elbows and knees to the head. Hansen regains control. Inoki does get a cross armbreaker on the Lariat arm, which may have saved him as soon after...Hansen clobbers him with a Lariat, but Inoki falls on the apron and Hansen is in pain. He suplexes Inoki on the apron! Impressive spot! I thought Inoki was going to lose by countout, but instead Hansen goes flying out the ropes when Inoki dodges him. Inoki hits a FLYING KNEE FROM THE TOP ROPE TO THE FLOOR ON HANSEN!!! Wow! I totally would have bought into a countout finish and been just fine. Inoki pins him in the ring and ref starts the count early and counts fast. He knows where his bread is buttered. Much better with Inoki working underneath and Hansen looking huge here. Hansen was kicking so much ass and Inoki really felt he was facing a grave challenge. The Lariat miss was great and the Enziguiri felt huge. The finish stretch was awesome. Cross armbreaker setting up that Hansen could not get all of his Lariat. Setting up the countout finish tease only to have Inoki hit a top rope flying knee to the floor. Really cool stuff. ****1/4

NWF Heavyweight Champion Antonio Inoki vs Stan Hansen - 2/8/80 Stan Hansen wrestles very un-Stan Hansen-like in this match. He is a more traditional hell, bumping and selling to shine up the babyface early. Could be him going up against the promoter or maybe how he worked in 1980? Basically Hansen is a very good heel in this match, but if he wrestled like this he would be a wrestler fondly remembered like 40-60 in the GWE poll. It is Bull in the China Shop that is special and that's not what we get. Inoki is fine. He definitely has a connection to the crowd, but he does have any moves early that really pop the crowd. He bests Hansen early on the mat. He even slaps him, but Hansen tags him back. Overall, Inoki outwrestles Hansen early and uses a lot of holds. Hansen starts clobbering, which gets him an advantage. Inoki begins his comeback with a dropkick and then Hansen hits his lariat out of nowhere. Inoki KICKS OUT! I bit on that. Then they go out on the floor and I totally bit on the double countout finish. Inoki brings him back in and nails a back drop driver, bit on that finish. Hansen decks him on the apron with a lariat to win the match via countout and apparently the championship. The finish run got this to be a pretty entertaining match. It was a strong over babyface versus rugged heel that is willing to sell. So it was very good and the finish run which had be biting three times on false finishes was pretty exciting and the real finish was badass. Totally makes up for Inoki kicking out of the Lariat. ***

I have a lot to say about this podcast, which I really enjoyed and I am still going through top twenty. But God, I have had Charles in Charge stuck in my head for three days and people at work hate me now.

All is right with the world, Matt D is the high vote on Bill Eadie.

Yoshiaki Fujiwara vs Nobuhiko Takada - UWF 10/22/84 Takada came out to So Happy Together and Fujiwara Ride of Valkyries. God Bless Japan! Why the fuck did I wait so long to get into Fujiwara! He is the best at coming up with completely plausible way to hit pro wrestling moves in a match. His backbreaker was tight. I really like these two together. Takada has so much to prove against Fujiwara, who is as confident as he was against Super Tiger. I loved the early grappling. It was quick without lacking the grit and struggle. Takada had some nice early gymnastics and Fujiwara/Takada did their bridge/snapmare sequence. It was grappling with highspots. The ultimate highspot was Fujiwara's escape from the Boston Crab that needs to be seen to be believed! At about the ten minute mark, Takada gets fed up starts throwing strikes at Fujiwara this seems like a bad idea at first because Fujiwara gets him in a corner and belts him. However, Takada actually wins the stand up and moves into a chinlock. Takada does not wrestle his control from a position of strength. His control feels tenuous at best and he wants to end it quickly because he knows he could lose any second. Fujiwara does come roaring back with some vicious strikes. He tries for the Crossface Chickenwing, but settle for a wicked piledriver. There is a cut due to bad video and next thing you know Takada is coming flying off the top and crashing and burning. My one complaint down the stretch is that sometimes Takada would pop up and start to go back on offense with kicks. It just seemed too sudden even for this pro-shoot-style mix. Fujiwara is killing Takada with butterfly suplexes and huge headbutts and then it is just here comes Takada. I think there could have been a better transition for Takada to have one last gasp. I LOVE the finish with Takada going for the crossface chickenwing only for them to snapmare each other over with Fujiwara coming out with the Crossface Chickenwing and the win. Highly entertaining shoot-style match. Loved the story of Takada as the underdog trying to match Fujiwara. Fujiwara is fucking awesome. Silent badass demeanor. Strong as all get out, great on the mat, cool highspots, great logical set ups, crazy awesome strikes. Excellent match! ****1/4

Super Tiger vs Akira Maeda - UWF 9/11/84 Just finished watching the match, I cant think of one thing Maeda did stand out to me. He is 0 for 2 thus far. Well, I guess he is taller than Super Tiger. Super Tiger, kayfabe-wise, has the worst strategy. The money is in his kicks and pro-style offense. He consistently gets owned on the mat. Yet, he still goes for takedowns and then ends up in an double wristlock or a cross armbreaker. Maeda was so bland. There was no struggle. He would take Super Tiger down, but with no sense of urgency. Like Fujiwara would take him down at will with power. Maeda just kinda would let it happen. All the pops from the crowd and from my couch were for Super Tiger. He should just stand up and kick because he is great at that. Tries to press his first advantage with a top rope kneedrop, but misses. He does nail a sweet Tombstone/Moonsault combo. That should have been the finish. Double wristlock goes nowhere for him. Maeda wakes up and starts kicking and throws a wicked belly to belly (ok, I remembered one thing). Tiger recovers and belts him with kicks before polishing him off with Crossface Chickenwing! So happy, Super Tiger won. Things did not look good for him at the beginning and Maeda was so dull I was actively rooting for Super Tiger. I did enjoy the ref refusing to count a Maeda bridge because he couldn't get Tiger's shoulders flat to the mat and Maeda was like fuck it I will just go for my eighth cross armbreaker attempt. I think when people complain about boring shoot-style it is matches like this. Hard to call it shoot-style when there is a tombstone/moonsault combo, thought. Super Tiger is a really fun worker in this and Maeda is dull, but hey I like grappling and I thought the finish run was pretty hot. ***1/2

I would never imagine that I would be the high vote on Stan Lane lol. I don't even have any particular affinity for him. Just weird. I do enjoy that I have been the high vote for late 2000s Michinoku Pro worker and 1980s Southern tag specialist.

August 5, 2000 at Differ Ariake is the debut show and features Misawa & Taue vs Kobashi & Akiyama in 2 out of 3 falls match. Angle after match to set up the next night so be sure to check it out. August 6, 2000 at Differ Ariake is the second show and features Akiyama vs Kobashi in the main event and Misawa & Ogawa vs Ikeda & Shiga, Taue & Izumida vs No Fear in the co-main events. Very cool we were at the same show! I met Adam Cole & Jimmy Jacobs after the show. They were cool. Great minds think alike! Thanks Eegah! We will try. My life was kinda clusterfuck and still, but good news, I fucking love wrestling again. Was burnt out for a couple months so that should help overcome my clusterfuck life right now.

Really great reviews. I will echo a lot of these sentiments. Super Tiger vs Yoshiaki Fujiwara - UWF 9/7/84 Fujiwara is such a gritty badass and I love that you can hear him snarling throughout this match. Coming off the tag match, I fully expected Super Tiger to control the majority of the match. He seemed to have no problem gaining an advantage and the match felt like a star making vehicle for him. Instead, he was totally gobbled up by the stronger, bigger Fujiwara. Fujiwara threw Super Tiger around at will and was countering him on the mat like it was nothing. At first, I could not make sense of Super Tiger's strategy from a kayfabe standpoint. Fujiwara was murdering him on the mat with wristlocks, triangle chokes and cross armbreakers. Tiger was playing right into it. He needed to use his karate kicks to establish some sort of game, but trying to fight Fujiwara on the mat was silly. He gets a big slap, but again plays into Fujiwara's head. Then he gets a WICKED kick to the head. Fujiwara sells it perfectly. Shocked, rattled and falls to one knee. Again, Tiger tries for a double wristlock, but once Fujiwara regains his wits he easily counters to a position of strength. Somewhere in here, Fujiwara counters a Triangle with a fucking piledriver. Mark Out City! Third time is a charm as Tiger strings a combination of kicks then a Tombstone Piledriver. One of the best Tombstones ever! He goes for a top rope kneedrop, but misses. Fujiwara pissed about the Tombstone nails his own piledriver. It has now morphed into a standard New Japan, which I am totally fine with. Tiger makes for a great underdog and Fujiwara is an excellent no-nonsense shooter. Pele by Tiger and misses the moonsault. Fujiwara does not fuck around and goes after the knee viciously with single leg crabs and figure-4s. I love how everything he does has struggle to it. The struggle over the German was excellent. Super Tiger fighting with everything he had to avoid was great. Fujiwara looks to finish him off and Super Tiger hits a roundhouse kick to the face. Nasty. Then knocks his head off before applying a Crossface Chickenwing for the Upset, come from behind victory. Loved the grappling early that really exploited the styles difference and weight difference. I think the pro-style finish run complemented it perfectly. Super Tiger could have sold the moments better. Selling the fact that he was overwhelmed, then he on top being pumped and then knee selling could have been better. He just kinda did he standard, nothing is wrong floating on his feet routine. He felt very hollow. Fujiwara was excellent. Classic match. ****3/4

Super Tiger & Nobuhiko Takada vs Akira Maeda & Yoshiaki Fujiwara - UWF 7/23/84 It is hard to call anything that features a tombstone piledriver, diving top rope headbutt and somersault from a guy wearing Tiger Mask shoot-style, but we all gotta start somewhere. Really enjoyable match! All these guys are from New Japan so not so shockingly this feels like a New Japan match. All Japan was always the bomb-heavy more American pro style promotion. Much like the New Japan I have seen this is focused on grappling with the highspots being more along the lines of flashy karate or amateur throws. I can already tell that Fujiwara was a huge omission to my list. His headbutts were fucking nasty. I loved his general dickishness. He was the first to throw a strike, an open hand slap to Super Tiger. I loved his bridge/snapmare sequence with Takada. He was great on the mat and really kicked some Takada ass. The story of the match was that Super Tiger would build up an advantage through his karate kicks and high spots. Then he would tag out to Takada. Takada was totally game and he really tried his best, but he would be overwhelmed by his more experienced opponents. As much as Fujiwara kicked ass in this match and as much as Super Tiger wowed with this highspots, I thought Takada was the MVP of this match. He was a perfect, wet behind the ears white meat babyface. He was just a notch below Fujiwara and Maeda in kayfabe, but he never shied away from the moment. He was going to try his hardest. I loved the finish stretch because after all that grueling action it looked like all of Takada's hard work was going to pay off and he was score a massive upset over Fujiwara. Missile dropkick! Belly to Belly! Fujiwara is able to wrangle him into a German suplex bridge (not really a throw, more of a pinning combination, wonder if the Tanahashi haters will bash him for that) to put Takada down. So close, but yet so far away. Just a quick word on Maeda, did not show me much. He just seemed there. Inoffensive. Really entertaining match. Thought three of the four really contributed different elements and it told a great story. ****1/4

Amen, brutha

Yes, I am pretty confident this actually happened on 1/1/84 and was mislabeled on the set. The 82 series for the Southern title, this was for the AWA World Championship.

I'M SO EXCITED! I JUST CANT HIDE IT!

Terry Funk vs Sabu - ACW 11/6/93 I apparently watched this match on May 11, 2013. Welp, I had no fucking recollection of this match. I loved it all over again! Sabu is so great. He separates himself from other stuntmen wrestlers with one of the best working punches, great selling, and actual psychology around his high risk moves. They are HIGH risk, they should NOT land all the time. You really get the feel that Terry did not know what to make of Sabu and all his leg dives at first. Sabu blasts him with a punch. I love how Sabu's highspots feel like a full court press. Nowhere is safe from Sabu because at any moment he could dive on top of you. I have to agree with myself from three years ago that Sabu's piledriver is bitchin as is Terry Funk's selling of it. The transition is Sabu missing a moonsault (very well-executed). Now Funk is firing away with stiff shots, I love it. Funk not to be outdone (in 1981 he dove from the top rope onto Snuka on the floor) hurls his body at Sabu from the middle rope to the floor. He clears out a bunch of chairs. I love the use of chairs throughout the match. Sabu's transition back on offense could have been better, but hey those punches are fucking sweet so I shouldn't complain. The finish is great. Sabu moonsaults onto a table so Funk immediately grabs the Spinning Toehold. Inside cradle and reversed Terry Funk wins. Excellent Indy brawl. Super fun. ****

SUNSET FLIP POWERBOMB FROM THE APRON TO THE FLOOR!!! WOW! That should have been the finish. Liked the Tanaka legsweep, early. Nice TV match. Kid looked good.