Superstar Sleeze

WWWF Heavyweight Champion Bruno Sammartino vs Nikolai Volkoff - WWF MSG 10/25/76 Doesn’t matter if it is 1976 or 1986 Sexy Nikki V is not a very good wrestler. He is just very boring on offense and he was snapping back on his bumps too often and too furiously. Albano looked so young. The match was a disorganized mess and way too long at almost 20 minutes. Lots of nice Bruno takedowns to start. Volkoff suckers Bruno in with a test of strength to kick him. Boring short heat segment. They do some great battle of bulls shoulder tackle spots. They do knuckle locks and bear hugs. Volkoff is cheating using chokes and eye takes but it doesn’t feel heated. Bruno converting the bear hug into his own was cool. Also it just seemed like they were throwing shit out there with no sense of momentum and no meaningful transitions. Bruno goes through what feels like a finish stretch with his boxing which he did earlier and a fired up Bruno is a great Bruno. Yet we go into another Volkoff heat segment. Best part of the match is the Volkoff butt to the solar plexus. Again the Volkoff offense is Boring. Sammartino wins off a school boy after Volkoff crashes into the buckles. ill have to look this up if this was a 3rd match or a one off. It was a clusterfuck there were fun aspects but nothing to hold it together.

WWWF Heavyweight Champion Bruno Sammartino vs Superstar Billy Graham - WWF MSG 2/2/76 Bringing back watch & walks, see how long this lasts as my fingers are already frozen. Maybe it will make me short & sweet. i didn’t think this was as good as the January match. It lacked the Clash of Titans feel. Just wasn’t as heated. We get 16 minutes out of 18 minute match everywhere I look. This is a “taste of your own medicine” match. Graham does something to Bruno he throws it back into Grahams face : Surfboard, leg work, and Full Nelson. I liked the tests of strength. The leg work was poor in my opinion just looked like they were hugging a leg when each was doing it. I did like Graham missing two High risk top rope moves to set up Bruno’s offense. Bruno slams Superstar’s head into the turnbuckle to cut him open. Bruno unloads furiously in the best part of the match to trigger the ref stoppage. I’d watch the January match and the title switch over this. Tepid. ***

WWWF Heavyweight Champion Bruno Sammartino vs Superstar Billy Graham - WWF 1/12/76 Superstar Graham is such a magnetic personality that it overcomes almost all his limitations in the ring. I really enjoyed the title change so I am going back to their first encounter at MSG. According to Cagematch this is the correct date and the date I saw on the video of 10/13/75 belongs to Ivan Koloff. The crowd heat for this match is off the charts. There is a very vocal quarter or third of the crowd that is chanting for Superstar. There is a loud Bruno chant to drown them out early. The crowd is whipped into a frenzy by the simplest of moves such as a top wristlock. Vince is positively drooling over Superstar he still calls the match in Bruno’s favor but there’s no denying his love for Superstar. Hogan was basically a more athletic and mobile Superstar. I loved the pre match ritual with the Grand Wizard I have seen it done with Ken Patera but this is next level great. Someone needs to steal this. This is such an easy match to review every highspot is so big and so sticky. Every transition so intelligent and logical. This is such a classic WWF heavyweight main event. The crowd was red hot for the whole thing. They start off some shadow boxing but Superstar runs away like the yellow belly he is. The crowd reacts to everything. Superstar demonstrates his strength by shoving off Bruno during collar elbow tie ups but on the third Bruno shoved him hard into the buckles ricocheting into a top wristlock. The crowd roars! I know most will not have the patience for ten minutes of tests of strength but I am here for it! The top wristlock battle is compelling as Superstar yanks Bruno down by the hair. Bruno comebacks with a bodyslam as Superstar flails and writhes. Brilliant heel selling. They of course do the Greco-Roman knuckle lock test of strength. Superstar wins early but Bruno comes roaring back only for Superstar to butt him low. Off comes the wrist tape and he chokes Bruno. The crowd is hot! Bruno breaks free and he uses it on Superstar. Again Graham’s flailing reaction makes this all the better. Now we get the Bearhug. Great selling by Bruno and Superstar rams wicked hard into the buckles. It was insane! I thought Superstar concussed himself. Now Bruno back with his own Bearhug. This is such great heavyweight Clash of Titans wrestling. They knock heads and Bruno spills out of the ring to lose by countout to set up the rematch. Bruno sends Superstar packing over the top rope with a knuckle XZ sandwich. Bruno declares it is supposed to be a 20 count on the outside. lol. Workrate marks recoil, heavyweight main event fans rejoice! This was incredible! So much fun! Simple but oh so effective. ***3/4

NWA World Heavyweight Champion Dory Funk Jr. vs Jack Brisco - CWF 2/8/72 If we have heard it once, we have heard it a million times “well this isn’t Funk/Brisco”. So we know what is not Funk/Brisco let’s find out what is. First 20 minutes: It is amazing we have as much as we do as outside of Japan this much footage is not readily available until the late 70s really. Gordon & Eddie Graham hype this as the first World Title match on TV. Solid immediately spoils the result saying they went to a one hour draw so they need to split it up. It seems like the JIP’d twenty minutes as this twenty minute stretch is pretty complete. It doesn’t hit the highs of Brisco/Inoki but few matches do. It is excellent championship style wrestling. Junior going for the Spinning Toehold is the first thing we see. Jack clamps on a tight headlock. It is Backlund-esque the way he rows and wrenches it. Junior hits two kneecrushers. Watch how Jack registers the pain but fights through it. Junior needs to slam Jack head into the turnbuckle and a back Suplex to gain the advantage. He attacks the arm but Jack returns the favor snapping the arm over the top rope. Junior wrestled very heelish, boot rake, crowding in the corner with his really nice tight European Uppercuts. Jack has two great flash nearfalls a backslide and a sunset flip. His commentary on the Sunset Flip is genius. He explains Junior set to early on the back body drop attempt and Jack read the play and applied a sunset flip. I would have never seen it that way but that makes perfect sense. I love defensive wrestling. Another great defense spot is Junior goes back to working the arm and Brisco applies a very tight Body Scissors. The way he catches Junior with it is perfect. Junior not to be outdone converts into a Boston Crab. This is very high end pro wrestling. It is shame it is not complete but this is great stuff to watch. Second Twenty Minutes: There’s two clip in here so hard to say where we are at any given point in the match. Jack is cooking. Double stomp love that move. Boston Crab. Backbreaker. Junior resorts to throwing him over the top rope to stop the bleeding. Bombs Away Kneeedrop by Junior. He telegraphs a move and Jack gets behind for a German and Jack throws him over the top rope so he tastes his own medicine. Junior’s foot gets stuck in the ropes. Jack is relentless as the ref pries the ropes sort releasing Junior’s foot. Jack applies the Figure-4! I popped. Junior breaks free and wrenches the leg against the apron and goes for the Spinning Toehold but Jack reverses into a figure 4 attenpt. The red is bumped and Junior hits his other finish the Butterfly Suplex. I want to mention you can really tell where Steamboat drew his inspiration from in how to sell. Jack is selling like million bucks. Junior goes to the top rope and gets press slammed off of it. I love that this is a tradition of NWA Champions. Jack tries to pour it on but Junior monkey flips him out of the ring to waste clock. The clock is Jack’s biggest enemy. Junior keeps blocking the figure-4. Jack with abdominal stretch and he converts into a cradle. It is a race against the clock. Can he negotiate the pinfall? He cannot. I loved the presentation in some ways, the scientific explanations were great. It just sucked that they had to tell you the finish at the outset of the match. I don’t think this would be 5 stars but 4.5 stars is not out of the realm of possibilities. Excellent championship style wrestling match.

WWWF Heavyweight Champion Bruno Sammartino vs Superstar Billy Graham - WWF 4/30/77 Surprised I never thought to track this down and glad we have it in full. Superstar looked surprisingly spry in the match on top of looking like a million bucks. Vince is definitely a fan. Graham was just 7 years too early. Timing is everything. Although I do think Hogan was the better athlete and wrestler. Superstar surprisingly throws the powerhouse Bruno around to start but Vince tells us not to worry Bruno will make his comeback and he does throwing Graham into the buckles who ricochets off into an armdrag. The bump and sell whips Baltimore into a frenzy very reminiscent of a Rick Rude. Bruno controls the arm. Graham powders. Tests of strength. Just perfect. I love a test of strength. It is a great mini-battle within the match and these two work it perfectly. I thought this was the best part of the match. How Bruno worked from underneath and overcame Graham. Graham works a short pedestrian heat segment after a kneelift. Bruno fires up and somehow busts Graham open. He unloads. Great punches and ferocity. Graham is able to whip him into the buckles. Bear hug! That’s a Bruno special. Bruno escapes. Bruno comes roaring back with punches. He retaliates with a Bearhug of his own. Grahams makes it to the ropes. Bruno is teeing off in the corner. He clearly wants the ref to come over and distract him by breaking it up but the ref sucks. Graham double legs Bruno and uses his feet on ropes to WIN THE WWWF TITLE to shuck and dismay of everyone. This must have been mind blowing to those in attendance. Never thought Bruno would lose. This is definition of simple but effective. ***3/4

NWA World Heavyweight Champion Dory Funk Jr vs Antonio Inoki - JWA 8/2/70 2/3Falls First Fall: This is not as good as I remember their 1969 match being. I read my 1969 match review and it seems that one was a much more exciting from jump. Don’t get me wrong this is is still very solid and snug, but doesn’t get out of first gear yet. I like this idea of slams as more about body positioning rather than accumulating damage. I should say they can be both but an early slam shouldn’t be a death sentence. I like how both men scramble out of bumps to avoid the other consolidating the advantage. Generally seems Inoki is working the arm and Junior the leg. Inoki works a nifty arm drag early. Not to be outdone Junior works a fabulous drop toehold into a calf slicer one of my favorite spots. Junior hits a knee crusher out of an Inoki headlock. Watch that scramble from Inoki to avoid any more damage. Sometimes you don’t need to writhe to sell. You can sell fear in the scramble. Great single leg by Junior. They work a step over toehold. Inoki works out into an arm stretcher and a brief moment of Mania consumes him as he repeatedly stomp Junior’s arm. He works the arm now. They add some more motion here. Trading DROPKICKs and body slams but each time Inoki gets back into control with an arm drag. Inoki gives Junior too much space and ends up back in Drop Toehold. Last thing Junior is playing the Travelling Champion subtle heel well. Letting Inoki shine, Inoki is the one winning the mini battles, Junior is stretching the rules a bit. Solid base. Hopefully they kick it up a notch in the next forty minutes. Junior sits down into shirt arm scissors. Things pick up when Inoki gets to the ropes and Junior heelishly stomps the arm. Inoki takes a powder. Junior pounces on him. Tangling him in the ropes and letting the fists flying targeting the arm. Inoki hulks up. Junior begs off and powders. Inoki punches him and slams his head into buckles as tempers flare. Inoki works a standing headlock for a while before Junior hits a Belly To Back Suplex drops the elbows 1-2 and the ref pulls up. Wow! Inoki forget to kick out. Ref repositions and Inoki kicks out. That’s pretty bush league especially for these two and the era. What’s stranger is Junior ends up winning the fall with a Butterfly Suplex. I mean if he was going to win anyways why not just finish the count and protect the business. Still a solid match so far but pales in comparison to the 1969 classic. Second Fall: Action picked up here. Junior comes out hot looking to put this away. Inoki counters a surfboard into his own and then into the body scissors. Some fun work in and out of the body scissors. Junior pops him good. Junior tries the knuckle lock, Inoki bridges and Junior ends up back in body scissors that type of shit that’s always great. Junior ends up losing his temper and chucking Inoki into the outside slamming Inoki’s head into tables. He looks to win the match with a Butterfly Suplex. Great struggle. Inoki back drops out, lands on top 1-2-NO! Inoki German Suplex 1-2-3! It is all knotted up. Third Fall: This one is for all the marbles and you can tell both wrestlers have picked up the urgency. Junior tries to get something going with some shouldertackles but leaves himself open for the flying head scissors. We work in and out of that. Even getting what looked like the first ever Frankensteiner out of Inoki in a wild moment. We see of the patented Dory Funk Jr European Uppercuts. Junior tries for the Boston Crab but Inoki bests him. Junior tries a full Nelson but eats a mule kick. Then he sits down into a Short Arm Scissors that is a move at the 50 minute mark. Inoki tried to punch out Junior yanks him down by the hair. Here when Junior goes full heel. There is Terry Funk tripping Inoki, blasting Inoki into the ring post. Inoki fights valiantly attempting his famous abdominal stretch and a top rope knee drop. He misses one. You expect to see the Spinning Toehold but instead Junior gets one of his own but on the second he gets press slammed off the top. In 1970! Flair was just honoring tradition. I see why the Butterfly Suplex had to finish the first fall because Inoki needed to counter it in the second to win and he needed to take it here and kick out to show his growth & resiliency. He goes for Abdominal Stretch but gets tied up in the ropes. They throw out a lot of spots down the stretch but Inoki does get the Abdominal Stretch hooked up as the bell rings. Weird match not bad per se but an hour long you better be great but this wasn’t. It had its moments and everything was well-worked. It was missing a hook to get invested or thread to tie it all together. Watch the 1969 match instead. ***1/2

This was a hoot! The promo was hilarious. It is going to be a warm day, it is going to be a cold day, take off that sissy shirt and they start beating each other. I cant totally explain but I am a sucker for Dick The Bruiser and Da Crusher. The action in the match was great! Crazy seeing Dusty stooging and bumping and acting like a heel that was a mindfuck. Bruiser & Crusher are just fantastic brawlers. Verne's stories were pretty funny too!

WWWF Heavyweight Champion Bruno Sammartino vs Stan Hansen - WWF MSG 8/7/76 Steel Cage This is gotta be the best Bruno match we have on tape, right? What a barnburner of a brawl. This is how you do a barroom brawl inside a cage, take notice WWE & AEW. Everything visceral and scrappy. They are going for the eyes, the throat and the fucking testicles. They are throwing fists, elbows and kicks. This is glorious. A very different Stan Hansen here not just the look with the bleach blond hair, but he is a more conventional American heel doing stooging, bumping and feeding spots. When the going gets too tough early, he runs like a coward from Bruno trying to win the match. He is selling ballshots like a heel. He gets tangled in the ropes for the finish. Stuff that the Grizzly Bear in Japan would never do. So it is unique in that regard. Hansen's strategy seemed to be either nail Bruno with the Loaded Lariat Elbow Pad or run away and try to escape the cage. The one thing that held true to form here was Stan Hansen was still a ball of perpetual motion. Even though he was eating offense more often than not, he was always moving. Always making Bruno earn it or running away. Bruno was a great asskicking babyface. He is coming off having his neck legitimately broken in April at MSG by Hansen. He is out for blood. He is balling that fist up and letting it fly. I LOVED The finish. Bruno blasting Hansen's head into steel post, busting him open, getting control of Loaded Lariat Elbow Pad and just wailing away on Hansen as he is tangled in the ropes. Then marching out of the Cage triumphant holding the vanquished Hansen ins utter contempt. Hansen stumbles up, gets up on turnbuckles to boos, only to collapse on his ass backwards. There is an alternate reality where Hansen is an all-time great stooge in Mid-Atlantic. Tremendous baroom brawl where Bruno exacts revenge and the finish is excellent! ****

Dusty Rhodes vs Ken Patera - Houston 11/30/79 All caught up on AEW, fiance wants to watch RAW when I get home and I am in Ireland on a break from work so lets watch some random ass wrestling. Ken Patera is a guy who intrigues me because of everything I have read on this site and Big Dust is Big Dust you gotta love him. First Fall: Ken Patera is fucking huge! If he was a better looking dude, he would have been the King of the 80s. Rock Hard & Massive! JJ Dillon is managing him and looks totally different. Dusty is looking pretty good leaning into that Stardust name. Have not seen much Dusty pre-85. Thought the first fall was solid, but pretty much in first gear. Patera worked the headlock to start, got a couple good shots in the ropes as a heel should. He released the hold to set something up but Dusty popped up and grabbed an armbar. I love that. Patera gave up the advantage and paid for it. Dusty was not hurt enough to be selling so he took the space and turned it into offense. Patera pops him pretty good on the break in the ropes. Again great heel move. Dusty fires up and Flip Flop Fly Bionic Elbow bit on that as the finish since it 2/3 Falls. Patera did not do anything particularly exciting working a reverse chinlock. Dusty used the elbow. Patera missed an elbow. Big Dust hit an elbow to win the fall. Nothing to write home about, but solid wrestling nonetheless. Second Fall: Now this is more like it! Some great slam bang wrestling action here! Dusty unleashes fury to start with some great punches and sends Patera out to the floor. He is building off the momentum of his first fall and looks like he is going run away with it. Patera goes to the eyes but nothing is stopping big Dust. He misses an elbow. Patera bodyslam. Dusty press slams Patera. Dusty will no be denied. Patera slams the leg across the apron and works a toehold. Pretty compelling. Dusty trying to use his free leg to break the hold and finally gets Patera in position to hit the Bionic Elbow. Bullseye! Dusty tries to charge but hobbles and his Bionic Elbow hits the turnbuckles. Patera pounces with two Full Nelsons both end in rope breaks. Love the desperation shown by Dusty there. Patera works the bearhug. This is some of the best Bearhug work I have ever seen. First off it shows how powerful Patera is because he is lifting Big Dust up multiple times. I bit on the first nearfall from Dusty being unconscious but he breaks it up with Elbows and the Ear Clap. The final Bearhug gets the duke for Patera. Great second fall! Third Fall: Dusty & Patera wail on each other. You think Patera will have the upper hand but Dusty makes his comeback overwhelming Patera with righteous fury. Action spills to the outside. I smell a double countout, I am wrong! Patera makes it back into ring and Dusty is being held by JJ so he cant return to the ring. It is not a Patera victory, but a Dusty victory as the ref saw it and DQ's Patera awarding the match to Dusty. This match bucked the 2/3 falls formula usually the second fall is short & sweet and the third is longer. The second fall felt like the climax. The third fall brought us to quick resolution. Fun stuff. ***1/2

Stephen Hase was a thing from the original version. It is something to do with their translation software. I cant think of any good ones now, but there were legit funny as fuck translation mishaps. I enjoy them.

WAIT!?! What the fuck? When they updated the service? They got rid of matches. NOOOOOOO! Do we think they will re-upload the matches eventually?!?

Genichiro Tenryu vs Tadao Yasuda - NJPW 3/21/04 I was in Ireland last week for work and got out of the habit of watching and reviewing wrestling. Going to the Carolinas next week. Hope to get back in the habit soon. Yasuda would be gone from New Japan in 6 months and this is one of his last ten matches in NJPW. It seems like he was booted from Makai Club after this and started teaming with Tenryu. The writing felt like it was on the wall for during this match. He was not treated like a star. The beauty of Yasuda is that a fucking huge ex-Sumo dude that chokes the shit out of people and moves awkwardly. He forces conventional pro wrestlers out of the their comfort zone and to work differently. If you take that away from him, his matches aren’t very good. That’s what happens here. He is effectively an old school Southern heel that relies on Makai Club interference to gain an advantage so that he can try to choke Tenryu out. Once Tenryu feels like Yasuda has done enough, he brushes him off and polishes him off. There is no sense that Tenryu is in danger, that Yasuda is a real threat or that Tenryu has to treat Yasuda differently. He pulverizes him to start. Only Hoshino interference allows Yasuda to have a chance to choke him. Then Tenryu at the end rattles off a dragon leg screw, lariat and a couple gnarly looking elevated DDTs (like a 3/4 Brainbuster) kinda sick to win. I think the story was Yasuda gets beaten soundly to explain him get turfed by Makai Club but leaves for a very uninteresting match and disappointing for both men.

Thank OJ, means a lot coming from you. Different strikes for different folks. Give me Ogawa and Murakami everyday, twice on Sunday!

Shinya Hashimoto & Naoya Ogawa vs TEAM 2000 (Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Scott Norton) - NJPW Tokyo Dome 5/2/02 Historically a very important match as this was Hashimoto’s last match in a New Japan ring and Ogawa’s second to last match in New Japan. This is New Japan’s 30th Anniversary show drawing 47000 not too shabby. Misawa vs Chono and Nagata vs Takayama were on top. You have to imagine this would have been TenCozy if Kojima had not defected to All Japan. It is interesting to track if Tenzan’s push was a result of Kojima’s departure. We have Norton in this spot instead and in probably one of his last premiere matches. Hashimoto is still over like rover so these are the perfect guys to feed to him especially since he is playing the role of invader. I was surprised at how much offense Tenzan and Norton got but I guessed viewed through the lens of Hashimoto & Ogawa as invaders it makes more sense. Ogawa is highly protected and only sells because of nefarious tactics by Team 2000: Tenzan BUmrushing him at the bell, Norton bullying into the Team 2000 corner for double team, a Tenzan ballshot leading to a Tenzan Driver. Hashimoto is not as well protected. Tenzan and Norton hit their clubbering offense and Hashimoto sells similar to a Choshu style match. This is very much a Fighting Spirit match. Hashimoto always absorbs the offense and eventually overcomes this opponents. They had a sick nasty STO/Legsweep combination. That’s when Tenzan hits the aforementioned ballshot to set up the Tenzan Driver. Norton comes in and Hashimoto hits the Single Arm DDT which leads to some fantastic selling of the arm by Norton for the rest of the match. Ogawa is nailing Judo takedowns and putting Norton into wristlocks and armbars. Tenzan hits a diving headbutt to break up the cross armbreaker which was sick! Norton powers up against Hashimoto doing this epic Babyface arm dangling comeback with power slams and lariats. He tries to get the Shoulderbreaker on Hashimoto but OGAWA WALTZS IN FOR THE STO!!! STO FLATTENS TENZAN! The STO/German combo on Norton wins it for the Z-1 boys! Loved the finish! Nothing that will set your world on fire but solid meat and potatoes wrestling. I thought everything after the Single Arm DDT on Norton was red hot! ***1/2

IWGP Tag Team Champions Yuji Nagata & Manabu Nakanishi vs Naoya Ogawa & Kazunari Murakami - NJPW 5/5/00 Fukoukoa Dome You can pretty much never go wrong with the team of Ogawa & Murakami. The two of them generate instant nuclear heat and make everything feel like a fight. I like Nagata well enough, don’t have much of an opinion on Nakanishi. This is a month after Ogawa beat Hashimoto at the Dome forcing him to “retire”. This is one of those Inokiist clusterfucks that you wish followed a little more of a narrative, was a little longer and had a better finish. I don’t mind the clusterfuck finish. You gotta keep Ogawa strong post-Hashimoto and if you don’t want them to be champs then Murakami eating the pin is fine. They could have climaxed a little hotter felt like it was still building. The charm of Inokiist matches is that they feel so wild and organic and unpredictable but the downside is too much chaos can feel unsatisfying too. I love the brawl to start. Ogawa has his right shoulder wrapped so Murakami takes the first 5 minutes. Murakami looks great to start awesome back heel trip takedown of Nagata, keeps the hold post-rope break. Nagata rips him down with a great Suplex. Nakanishi was interesting he came in and kinda cleaned house on Murakami. Honestly it felt like Nakanishi was the bigger star the way he was able to throw Murakami around. It was essentially a two on one handicap match for five minutes when Nagata finally threw the limp body to Ogawa. I loved all the tussling Ogawa did with both. That first STO the way it came out of a double underhook Greco-Roman struggle spot was insane. Blind and you miss it type stuff. I rewound twice to really take in the full explosivity of the move. The ones against Nakanishi were also interesting the first one there was so much struggle he didn’t get all of it so he followed up and flattened him with the next one. Then they did the Schmozz finish which I don’t blame them just think they could have made the match 5 minutes longer and built to it. Nagata kicks Ogawa’s bad arm. Masked dude who looks like Inoki chokes Nakanishi out while Nagata pins Murakmi with a German Suplex bridge. Post-match brawl which seems to tease Ogawa vs Choshu which we never get as a single but we do get as a tag team match one year from this at 2001 Donakatu event. A singles match is very tantalizing. Fun Inokiist clusterfuck. ***1/4

Shiny Hashimoto vs Takao Omori - NOAH 12/23/00 HASHIMOTO IN NOAH~! Inoki fired him and the early Zero-One was based on an interpromotional feud with NOAH before feuding with Tom Howaes & UPW. Omori is the perfect sacrificial lamb for Hashimoto in his debut match. He has some credibility but he is not a pillar or Takayama so he he can eat it. Did Hashimoto ever face Takayama that would’ve been killer? Short but sweet match coming off the INSANE firefight between Fujinami & Hashimoto in October this slugfest looks tame, but it is still better than the current New Japan Fighting Spirit Breakdowns. Hashimoto is the better striker chopping Omori down and great kicks. He Jabs his fingers into Omori throat on a headlock to boos from the NOAH faithful. The finish is efficient and compact. Hashimoto looks like he is going to squash Omori but Omori drives him hard into buckles great selling by Hashimoto as it is his selling that piques the NOAH fans interest. Two big lariats by Omori plus a Dragon Suplex gives him his big heat fall. Omori winds up for the lariat but HASHIMOTO CHOPS HIM DOWN WITH EDGE OF HIS HAND! Massive Kick and Brainbuster does Omori in. Great debut for Hashimoto! Made him look like Hashimoto The Destroyer! Omori is legit so I liked his quick flurry. Nothing nobody needs to see but it was still fun. ***

Thanks @ohtani's jacket for the context for this match. I was confused whether this was before or after him getting fired. Why did he get fired? Did he refuse to put someone over? I did not realize he retired after losing to Ogawa at Dome Impact. Shinya Hashimoto vs Tatsumi Fujinami - NJPW Tokyo Dome 10/9/00 A lot to unpack here before we get to the match. This is Hashimoto's first match back since losing to Naoya Ogawa at the Dome in April 2000. According to OJ, Hasimoto retired after that show, which I did not realize. This is his comeback match and also this is the opening match which seems like a weird spot for two legends. I am 99% sure this is before Hashimoto gets fired, but maybe there was already a political shitshow brewing. This being Japan even though Hashimoto is fired he still works Inoki Bom Ba Ye on 12/31/00 and the 1/4/01 Dome show. Who the fuck knows what is going on? By Inoki Bom Ba Ye he was already representing Zero-One. I was expecting to come on here and say this was two legends having a pleasant, lo-fi grappling match with some nice strikes and takedowns. Because it was Hashimoto and Fujinami the stakes felt higher and the charisma energy brought up the work. End it with a gentleman's three as JT would say. Instead all of a sudden at the 10 minute mark they get into this INSANE FIRE FIGHT! Fujinami starts throwing closed fist potatoes. Hashimoto fires back. Every fucking New Japan wrestler should watch this and be like this is how you fucking do a Stand-Up Slugfest! HOLY SHIT THIS WAS ELECTRIC! This is some serious DVDVR/Segunda Caida shit right here. They were throwing live fucking rounds. Hashimoto murderized Fujinami with a punch/high kick comb. Fujinami lips are bloodied and dried. For a second, you legit think fuck Hashimoto murdered the dude. This shit was ferocious. Fujinami is such deadweight Hashimoto cannot hoist him up for the brainbuster and settles for the DDT. The ref calls the match as Fujinami cannot defend himself. The ending is ***** but the first ten minutes are ho-hum. Call it ***3/4 but everyone needs to watch this!

Shinya Hashimoto vs Gary Goodrige - Inoki Bom Ba Ye 12/31/00 Interesting note Hashimoto is announced representing Zero-One already even though they have not had their first show yet. I knew Hashimoto was fired by Inoki after Do Judge in October but I guess the rift was not that bad as Hashimoto goes over here. Goodridge is a world champion arm wrestler turned MMA fighter fighting in both UFC and Pride, he lost to Naoya Ogawa in Pride. Great look, zero charisma dry as fuck. His girlfriend/wife is a stone cold fox. Pretty blasé MMA Fighter vs Pro Wrestler match. Goodridge threw great missed punches. But his landed punches were painfully pulled. Good bodyslam takedown and heel hook. Hashimoto worked the leg with some kicks and used the ref to get a takedown. Nothing super interesting. No real hook or narrative to sink your teeth into. Hashimoto headbutts out of the corner and repeatedly headbutts him on the ground. Single leg crab ends Goodridge’s night. Skippable.

Naoya Ogawa vs Tadao Yasuda - Inoki BOM Ba Ye 12/31/00 What a stacked card that drew 40000+ to the Osaka Dome on New Years Eve. Inoki vs Renzo Gracie main events with Mutoh, Frye, Shamrock, Sakuraba, Hashimoto and Fujiwara on the undercard. I’m surprised how middle of the pack this is on the card. I know Yasuda got pushed hard in 2002 but was he really pushed yet? My Cagematch research made it seemed like he didn’t get the big push until next year. Would’ve been interesting to see Fujita in this slot. Unlike the UFO show in 2002 this is clearly a work. Although I’m 99% sure Yasuda had to stand there and take live rounds from Ogawa. He was not KO’d but he got cut up, his face looked like shit and he looked out of it. I guess it was a worked shoot. As after Ogawa pulverized him with punches he submitted with a choke. Yasuda bumrushed him at the bell with Sumo Slaps and the shoving the ref down by Yasuda is all you need to know this is a work. Ogawa uses a great front kick to corner Yasuda and unloads to set up the finish. It is 1:37 so nothing anyone has to see but an interesting card. It shows how hot New Japan was at the time that they could this and the 1/4 Dome so close and draw big. Americans may have not liked This style but it drew big money.

Naoya Ogawa vs Shinjiro Ohtani - Zero-One 3/2/02 I watched Ogawa vs Matt Ghaffari (USA Olympic Wrestler) from the UFO 2002 Dome show because I thought it was a work but I’m 99% sure it was a shoot. Ogawa KO’d with a crazy straight left to the nose. Ogawa handled self well against a dude who was clearly a one-dimensional wrestler. Also on that show Fujita kicked Yasuda’s ass in a shoot. Inoki looked oddly nonplussed about that finish. I figured it be like watching your two sons but it looked like he wanted Yasuda to win. Inoki was very happy about Ogawa’s win. Hashimoto was also there and put Ogawa on his shoulders. No point in reviewing actual shoots on here as this is Pro Wrestling ONLY goddamnit where we WORK! This is the main event of the first year anniversary show draws pretty well with Ogawa on top and Hashimoto in the semi-main event against Masato Tanaka. They take a break from featuring Tom Howard and his UPW boys. Kazunari Murakami is at ringside and he is beefing with his former partner Ogawa. Now there’s a match I wish we saw! Perhaps it happened in IGF but it definitely didn’t happen in 2002 which is a bummer. I have no idea if it would have drew well (probably Ogawa Drew pretty well in 2002) but goddamn it would have been a banger. One of the better Ogawa matches I have seen in a bit this was raucous mayhem. Ogawa gets on the mic immediately antagonizes Murakami and throws a mic at him. Murakami gets up on the apron to create the kerfuffle that gives Ohtani the opening to pounce and overwhelm Ogawa early with a plancha to the outside and face washes (one trying to get back in the ring was great). Ohtani goes full-court press but the ref peels him off. Ogawa composes himself and just going into Killer mode, great front kick and punts once Ohtani is down. Murakami back up and it is Ohtani famous springboard DROPKICK! I love how Murakami is creating these openings for Ohtani. Ohtani hits a ballshot. I approve. Cobra Clutch is Ohtani’s near fall and Ogawa needs the ropes. Ohtani gets cocky trying to shoot Ogawa into the ropes and does a jumping spin kick. Ogawa stops and flattens him with a STO!!! Ogawa crushes him with a Saito Suplex. The only odd transition is Ohtani getting a kneebar and then a cross armbreaker on Ogawa on his own. Ohtani goes for a powerbomb but is backdrop. He scrambled to his feet and charges only to get flattened by SPACE TORNADO OGAWA~! STO CITY! LETS FUCKIN GO! Ogawa wins! They do the pull apart with Murakami which sadly doesn't go anywhere. This match is virtually perfect in 7 minutes. Little things like how the back drop was used to set up the first STO. Ohtani didn’t sell it like a slam or make Ogawa come get him. He panicked. He lost the advantage and he scrambled to reassert himself but haste makes waste as my mother always said. In his desperation he left himself open to the STO. That is just one example of how pretty much every transition was organic and logical. Awesome pro wrestling! ****

Naoya Ogawa vs Yoshiaki Fujiwara - Zero-One 6/14/01 The third major Zero-One show and they have loss the boost NOAH (esp. Misawa) gave their first two shows as they drop to about 8000 people. This also marks the debut of Tom Howard who with his UPW trainees would be a key part of Zero-One for the next two years. Hashimoto would defeat Howard in the main event. Outside running Ogawa vs Hashimoto the next two biggest native match-ups for Ogawa would be Fujiwara and Ohtani. They show footage of Ogawa choking Yasuda out at Inoki Bom-Bae-Ye which I’m unclear if it was a work or shoot. They try to hype Fujiwara up as an OG badass that trained with Gotch but he is older now so it doesn’t look good for him. The best parts of this match are the beginning and end. When the ref is checking them, Fujiwara slugs Ogawa and rips him down by the leg. Fujiwara can’t capitalize on this sneak attack as Ogawa is too big and defends well. The middle is a bit of slog and I posit this is the fault of MMA. UFC/PRIDE showed us what a real fight looks like and it is unfortunately not a bunch of Volk Han submissions wizardry. It is usually a slog in the guard (obviously there are great MMA fights but a lot it feels that way to me). They try to pass each other’s guard Ogawa tries to get his back to choke him out, Fujiwara pulls out some toeholds and leglocks. The ending is much better. Ogawa hits two STO’s but Fujiwara gets the flash Fujiwara armbar for big heat. Ogawa polishes him off with thread consecutive Space Tornado Ogawa to win by Knock Out. Awesome finish! Post-match some random Japanese dude attacks Ogawa but checking Ogawa’s Cagematch this never materialized into anything as his next fights I recognize all the names and I didn’t recognize this guy. ***

NWA intercontinental Tag Team Champions Shinya Hashimoto & Naoya Ogawa vs Tom Howard & Matt Ghaffari - Zero-One 12/15/02 Someone should make a documentary on Tom Howard he had a really interesting early 2000s between his students and being the main gaijin talent and booker for Zero-One in its first two years. He seems like he is a great carny. He has gone from Mark Kerr to The Predator to Nathan Jones to now Greco-Roman Silver Medalist, Matt Ghaffari. There is some key background to this match. Ogawa defeated Ghaffari in UFO in August of 2002 which Wiki lists as shoot fight, which surprises me. Can anyone confirm or deny? Ghaffari has um gained um some weight it looks like. He has a massive jiggly Buddha belly, but because he is former Olympic Medalist he is still an amazing athlete. This match is quite the spectacle and it is really driven by Howard & Ghaffari. I love Ogawa more than most, but I am not surprised when he takes a backseat but for Hashimoto The Destroyer, the Ultimate Ass-Kicking Ace to be shown up by Howard & Ghaffari was shocking and in a weird way a little unsettling. The Howard stuff I had seen before and he is a really excellent Major Guile come to life doing his weird US Military Kung Fu. He kept his hands behind his back and showed Hashimoto up dodging and sticking and moving. He nailed a perfect superkick that looked amazing. Ultimately Howard did get his comeuppance with Hashimoto showing him the Hand of Doom and Howard did his classic military crawl scurry away from him. The part that was for lack of a better term disturbing was the way Ghaffari manhandled Hashimoto and rubbed his jiggly belly all over his face in a pinning combination. The Japanese fans laughed! They laughed at Hashimoto The Destroyer! It was an emotionally moving moment. It made me feel uncomfortable, but it made me feel so kudos to them. At the very beginning of the match, Ogawa slapped Ghaffari but after Ghaffari did the classic wrestler spin around their opponent but he licked his hand and spanked Ogawa. Again a humiliating moment for a legit badass. Ogawa chose the worse of three options in my opinion, he no-sold it. Since he was not a heel he should have not scurried and sold humiliation. However, as a badass babyface, he should have gotten pissed, bowed up and decked Ghaffari. It was very interesing to watch Hashimoto and Ogawa humbled. The finish protected Hashimoto & Ogawa well and utilized the same crooked ref that they used to get the NWA title off Hashimoto onto Dan Severn. Hashimoto & Ogawa started to the get the upper hand on Howard & Ghaffari. Ogawa flattened Ghaffari with an STO and then DOUBLE CLOTHESLINE~! (we will see how that ages as a reference ). We find out the ref is crooked as Ghaffari does not kick out, the ref counts three but the ref claims he did kick out and announces it is two. So clearly the American ref is on the take. They hit their cool double team finish the German/STO combo BUT Ghaffari is so fucking huge he just crushes Hashimoto and the ref. Howard missile dropkick to Ogawa. Ghaffari steamrolls Ogawa and Howard. Belly to belly and then a MASSIVE SPLASH TO OGAWA'S HEAD wins the match for Howard & Ghaffari! Crazy spectacle match where American gimmick wrestling meets Japan and it is wild! Howard & Ghaffari could have been an all-time act in either Japan or the States. I wish they got a longer run. I dont think Howard is an all-time great wrestler per se but he is very entertaining, he has gimmick and his unique highspots down pat. I wish we could have seen Howard in many different environments. Hashimoto & Ogawa are two of the biggest personalities in the history of wrestling and it is hard to believe they took backseat to anyone let alone these two, but they did. They did their part well dont get me wrong but Howard & Ghaffari were the stars. Very cool & unique match. ***3/4

Nathan Jones vs The Predator (Sylvester Terkay) - Zero-One 12/15/02 Cage Match Surprisingly Half-Way Decent King Kong vs Godzilla match! The Japanese crowd was laughing but I think it was at the American ref shouting two. This is the second time I have seen Japanese crowds find this practice funny. Pretty standard Clash of Titans big shoulder tackles, no bumps and Iron Claws galore. Jones takes the first bump of memory serves me correctly. Jones has great whippy chops with his crazy swimmer arms. He takes some great bumps into the cage. When The Predator chain gets involved shit gets real. They two hit each other pretty fucking hard with that chain. There was one Jones punched with chain wrapped around his hand I don’t know how he didn’t knock out Predator. They traded MONSTER chokeslam. Jones got up for it. Jones sent Predator down. Some big top rope moves. Pretty good use of the Cage. Terkay finished with some Brody King Kong Kneedrops. All in all it was pretty good! It is too bad nobody thought they do psychology, what to do with their bodies in between spots and how to feed because they are actually both quite athletic and good at big man offense. Jones says he is leaving for WWE but says once he has beat Brock he is coming back. I’m intrigued by the Jones WWE run I think he was gone by the time I got back into wrestling. Pretty good monster vs monster match. ***

NWA Intercontinental Tag Team Champions Nathan Jones & Jon Heidenreich vs Shinya Hashimoto & Naoya Ogawa - Zero-One 10/26/03 I am no expert in Zero-One but it seems that NWA I-C Tag Belts were actually the main prize. Again I don’t know how much of that is their allegiance to the NWA but TNA holding the World Title hostage. It makes sense though as Hashimoto & Ogawa feel like co-Aces. As we saw last year, their mutual hatred for the foreign invaders under Tom Howard has united them as a tag team. Before this match we see the Behemoths, Jones & Heidenreich pummel & pulverize Ohtani & Tanaka en route to winning the titles. Forget Heidenreich & Animal, they should have done Heidenreich & Jones as 21st Century Road Warriors complete with face paint and started them as babyfaces. I think that could’ve been big money. This match was way better than I expected and it is pretty much due to Nathan Jones who is the worst wrestler in a conventional sense of the match. Heidenreich moves better than Jones, executes better than Jones and is a pretty good verbal seller. Heidenreich fed really well for Hashimoto and that running overhand chop by Hashimoto at the beginning was great. Jones is just a freak of fucking nature and it is on full display here. The Double Iron Claw was one of those 80s moments that rules so hard! Then Hashimoto & Ogawa were trying to chop him down with kicks and he just starts slinging chops was ultra-hot! At one point Jones hurls Ogawa at Hashimoto! THIS SHIT WAS KING KONG CRAZY~! You know logically Ogawa would crush this dude and you see that at the outset his punch/kick Combos are killer but Jones just sledges him to the ground. That’s the thing Jones dwarfs Ogawa who is fucking huge himself. I love Hashimoto & Ogawa wrestling small and trying work Jones’ leg. Then Jones & Heidenreich do all these monster double teams on Ogawa that are killer! The Predator (Slyvester Terkay) comes out doing his Bruiser Brody gimmick and apparently has turned on Howard’s boys and distracts Jones. Hashimoto pulverizes Heidenreich. The best spot of the match Hashimoto and Ogawa take turns round kicking Jones up against the ropes then DOUBLE KICK JONES TAKES THIS INSANE BACKWARDS FLIP BUMP TO THE FLOOR! Hashimoto/Ogawa hit their STO/German double team to win the match and the titles! Nathan Jones looked King-Size here literally and figuratively. Just saw on the next big Zero-One show we get Jones vs Predator in a Steel Cage good, bad or ugly that gonna rule! We get Hashimoto & Ogawa vs Howard & the Iranian wrestler Angle went up against. Fuck yeah! Some great 80s shit in this match. ***1/4

Riki Choshu & Manabu Nakanishi vs Naoya Ogawa & Kazunari Murakami - NJPW 5/5/01 Fukuoka Dome Weird match both in execution and booking. Looking at everyone’s cagematch history match seems really random. The show drew 25000, Don Frye, Yasuda and Nagata are on the card but they are each wrestling people you’d expect them to beat. There’s an All Japan vs New Japan match but All Japan is represented by Mutoh & Hase and it is against Chono & his gang so not really a new permutation. Ogawa vs Choshu sounds like a draw but a pretty big number. It seems like Choshu was out by 2002 and starting his new promotion in 2002. Perhaps this was the only person Hashimoto trusted Ogawa with but Inoki always seemed high on Ogawa so I don’t think he fuck him over. Strange booking. The match also sucks which is super disappointing given that Ogawa/Murakami are usually raucous mayhem. It starts off very promising. Ogawa slugs Choshu at the bell and applies a rear naked choke. Nakanishi has to pry him off with some clubbering. Murakami tags in. He I just not that frenetic Tasmanian Devil you want. He is throwing good jabs but it is the blizzard of punches. Ogawa comes in and the match energy goes way down. I can’t tell if he is sandbagging or he has been knocked loopy because he is just not moving right. It is really awkward and heatless. Nakanishi tapped Murakami out with a double wristlock. Ogawa basically never wrestles for New Japan again so it doesn’t make sense for them to win, Choshu is old so that doesn’t make sense but Nakanishi also doesn’t go anywhere. So the whole thing doenst make any sense. No reason to watch this.