Superstar Sleeze

They pulled off the spot pretty damn well so more power to them. What I have read about Rick Rude's injuries seems ambiguous. So what was his injury in lat '92 that forced him to relinquish the US Championship? Was it the same bacnk injury that ultimately forced him to retire in 1994? Are there particular matches where these injuries are known to have happened? Thanks.

Skipping the GHC Title Change with Misawa and the Misawa & Kobashi tag because I have seen them before and have notes and am deciding between watching them again or reviewing based off notes. Onto Akiyama as the Ace of the tag division GHC Tag Team Champions Wild II (Takeshi Rikio & Takeshi Morishima) vs Jun Akiyama & Atikoshi Saito - Budokan NOAH 9/23/02 You know all those touring 80s metal bands with only one original member (looking at you, Quiet Riot) that's what this match felt like. It was a wicked bad All Japan tribute match that had one of the original members of the band performing. You know what this match is good for, though. You see why Akiyama is a cut above the rest. The way he throws himself into every bump and into every move makes you believe. Don't get me wrong, Rikio and Morishima had potential, but they were so tentative. Not tentative in a I am selling that match as a big deal let me be cautious, but tentative more like I don't want to hurt myself or my opponent and still pretty green. Atikoshi Saito is a lost cause and just a pretty atrocious wrestler. I have no idea how Akiyama got saddled with such a chump. He was apart of some of the slap exchanges and double clothesline spots ever. Jesus, in Japan, it is not like work their slaps just friggin' shoot slap him. Rikio and Morishima were not much above him in terms of laying it in, but they did try a bit harder with Akiyama. The Morishima side slam on Saito to transition out of his heat segment was pathetic and Saito visibly hopping into Rikio's arms for a bearhug was sad. I'll give credit where it is do, Wild II was effective in working Saito's ribs with lots of double stomps and Saito actually sold pretty well, but that part was merely decent. The best parts of the match were of course when Akiyama was in. The way he just bumped for Morishima and Rikio made them seemed so much more credible. When he slapped them, it definitely woke them up. Morishima finally started hitting some big clotheslines and because Akiyama is a total nut he took a wicked Doomsday Device. Akiyama gave as good as he got because he messed Morishima's face with his jumping high knee. The finish run features Saito and Rikio and it is about as anti-climatic as one can imagine. Saito wins after a bunch of jumping enziguiris. Easily the worst match I have seen so far in my 00s puroresu watching. It is full of trite slap exchanges and poor offense. How far has the once mighty All Japan has fallen! I am not even going bother rating it. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- GHC Tag Team Champions Sterness (Jun Akiyama & Atikoshi Saito) vs Burning (Kenta Kobashi & Kentaro Shiga) - NOAH 10/19/02 The undisputed and unlikely star (at least from my perspective) was Kentaro Shiga. I had never seen Shiga, but with that frame he looked like as if I stepped into the ring. He is not a shorty like Saito, but a tall-ish, lanky fellow. So when Akiyama waves him off dismissively at the very beginning as if to say "Listen chump, it is time for the big boys to play" and then promptly cheapshots him off the apron Shiga comes in and tries to retaliate, but this is not Akiyama's first rodeo and he backs off the apron and gives him a wag of the finger. , I was like "Fuck Yeah!" Shiga then proceeded to prove me wrong the rest of the match that he did belong. Shiga just screamed "Face In Peril", but lo and behold he was one helluva hot tag. Shiga gets a hold of Akiyama and slaps him in the corner. You can imagine what happens next as Akiyama just brutalizes Shiga with a barrage of slaps. Akiyama goes to finish the job on the ramp, but Shiga gets a tornado DDT off the ramp that almost decapitates Akiyama on the railing. HOLY SHIT! He does it two more times off the apron onto the railing and I think Akiyama is dead. Akiyama can only get a foot on the ropes and collapses on the Irish Whip attempt. Kobashi is in and get hits his delayed vertical suplex, but Saito saves drawing boos. One other thing I love about this is match is that there is actual heel heat for Sterness. When Saito saves Akiyama he actually draws boos. Interference is pretty liberal in puroresu tags, but rarely draws boos. The facts the crowd was in unison for Kobashi & Shiga and there was an actual build to a finish improved this match tenfold over the previous Sterness tag. Saito draws more boos by breaking up a sweet ab stretch with crossface. Kobashi tags Shiga, but outside of his on bomb he just does not have the offense to take it to Akiyama, who wrangles Shiga into a vicious crossface while Saito restrains Kobashi. This has been a perfect use of Saito so far. Now the real fun begins as Akiyama busts open Shiga's nose with a high knee and they just brutalize his face during the heat segment. Saito, who throws a pretty good kick, kicks him in the face and steps on his face. Akiyama slaps Shiga in the face while Saito holds him as the ref is admonishing him Saito stands on Shiga's face. This is friggin' awesome. Shiga gets a lariat to tag in Kobashi. I have to say I was bit underwhelmed by Kobashi. It was a pretty tepid hot tag when I was expecting molten fire. He chops the fuck out of Akiyama, but they go into finisher tease. Saito hits a real sweet axe kick on Kobashi and a German. Kobashi lariats Saito and tags Shiga, who is a fuckin house of fire. He is out for blood and just crushing anything that moves. A Saito jumping enziguiri stymies his run. Now it is Kobashi's turn to rattle off offense: he throws Akiyama down on the knee to corner and half-nelson suplexes follow, but Saito saves. They tease the Burning Hammer, but Saito the Personification of Buzzkill breaks it up with a jumping enziguiri. Don't worry Kobashi, Shiga has this on lock. He applies an STF on Akiyama while Kobashi detains Saito and the crowd is rocking for Shiga. Shiga does for his big bomb: the tornado DDT, but Akiyama hits a brainbuster out of it. Akiyama goes to choke a bitch, but Kobashi saves. Shiga gets one more hope spot with a roll-up outta of an exploder, but Akiyama proves too much for him hitting a brainbuster, exploder and a fisherman buster to polish him off for a successful defense of the tag titles. The match does run pretty long and can be a bit excessive at times would be my quibbles. I would imagine this is Shiga's match of a lifetime. Everyone loves an underdog and this is a story anyone can get. The underdog punking out the bully, getting his ass beat, taking it right to the bullies, but coming up short. Kobashi, who lets face it can be a bit of a glory hog, really let Shiga shine in this. Akiyama played a great heel prick in this much better than any other match I have seen from him. ****

I may buy the charisma argument. Nobody is going to be as effusive as Kobashi, but Misawa and Kawada have their own special charisma. We will see how I feel about Akiyama. I am not buying the moveset argument at all not even for a dollar. Jun Akiyama vs Kenta Kobashi - NOAH #4 PPV 12/23/00 The story of Akiyama's two monumental victories is focus, focus, focus. Take what it is given to you and don't let up. Weather the inevitable comeback and unleash a barrage of Exploders to win. In this match, he has three things working against him: he falls into an early hole, Kobashi's half-nelson suplex levels the playing field in the middle and then pride at the end. In the previous matches, Misawa's elbow and Kobashi's lariats and suplexes were rendered powerless by Akiyama's tenacious work. In this match, Kobashi shows tremendous fighting spirit in working through his arm injury to hit a half-nelson suplex to knock Akiyama out. Akiyama is able to recover from this, but when he had Kobashi knocked out on the outside after an Exploder instead of taking the victory he wanted the decisive victory. Thus was the great, long fall of Akiyama from the top rope onto the back of his head. Kobashi is ripshit to start the match and is lighting Akiyama up. Akiyama vacillates between retreat and standing tall with neither working. On the outside, he is able to use Kobashi's overzealousness against him ducking out of the way of a chop. He drops him across the railing and Kobashi is really selling the cheat. As a viewer, I thought this was clearly the opening Akiyama would exploit. However, Akiyama deviates and instead goes high-risk on the ramp hitting a DDT on the ramp and a running elbow (ala Mutoh). He looks to end it early with an Exploder, but Kobashi plants him with a DDT on the edge of the ramp. Akiyama deviating from the gameplan did not work out too well. Instead, Kobashi takes a page out of Akiyama's playbook and is absolutely relentless on Akiyama's neck. It really climaxes when Akiyama goes for his knee in the corner and Kobashi throws him down. Akiyama really sells that neck making you believe Kobashi had turned the tables on Akiyama. I actually believed I could buy Kobashi's headlock as the finish after the neck work and Akiyama selling and how tenacious this headlock was. In a callback to the August match, Akiyama saves himself with two desperation dropkick to Kobashi's knee. Different day, same story? Not so fast, Akiyama drops a boot on Kobashi's arm from the apron and drives his knee into Kobashi arm riding into the railing. Akiyama is looking to take away the Burning Lariat and the lethal chops of Kobashi. The following arm work is so textbook, but so well-done with Akiyama using everything available (ropes, post, railing, his own shoulder) to hit to inflict damage on the arm. Kobashi makes you believe that arm is totally useless, but just when end seems near he snaps off a sleeper suplex. Kobashi continues to sell the arm, but hits a half-nelson suplex on Akiyama that knocks him the fuck out. That is not something Akiyama had to weather in his previous victories. Kobashi is still injured, but in a lot of ways the entire playing field had been levelled. Kobashi, ever the sportsman, stops the ref's count and drags Akiyama back into the ring. Kobashi still sells the arm doing moves like the powerbomb and the lariat. You believe it is arm that is allowing Akiyama to kick out because those moves don't have their usual power behind them. Kobashi goes for a move that does not use the arm: the moonsault. However, Akiyama gets up to powerbomb him off the top rope. It is even stevens. It really feels like it is a tied ball game going into sudden death overtime at this point. Akiyama goes for the kill with the exploder on the apron, but they both jump off the apron. Akiyama is able to hit an Exploder on the exposed concrete and he is fuckin out. Now, Akiyama stops the ref's count to drag Kobashi back into the ring. In Akiyama's mind, a pinfall the ring must mean effacing all doubts and securing his place in the Sun. He hits a double-arm DDT, a diving elbow to the back of Kobashi's head and then a exploder, but only gets two. Akiyama goes for his choke, but they get wrapped up in the ropes. There is a great struggle over the wrist-clutch exploder where you actually feel bad that Kobashi is about to be hit with this move. Then Kobashi kicks out! So Akiyama figures the only thing more he can do is hit the Exploder off of a higher place. Kobashi still has enough struggle in him to send Akiyama crashing onto the back of his head. Kobashi just collapses onto the mat in a great visual. Kobashi hits three lariats, but he knows what he must do. Akiyama puts up a perfunctory struggle before the inevitable BURNING HAMMER~! Both men shake hands and all is right in the Kingdom of NOAH. At 35+ minutes, this match continues the lineage of dramatic, epic Kings Road matches. I loved the symmetry of both men having the other knocked out at different points, but wanting to finish it in the ring. I liked the callbacks to their previous encounters. I do think this match is a little overly self-indulgent and could have benefited from trimming. There is plenty of gratuitous suplexes and such that left off because I did not want to write a novel about this match and because I thought they were insignificant. I am strong believer moves like that should not be. In the February 2000 classic with Misawa, there were no wasted moves. Still, it showcased Akiyama and Kobashi at their finest with Akiyama working the arm over and Kobashi fighting through it. There is no slight in not being as good as that Misawa/Akiyama 2000 match. It was a great, great blowoff match and excellent example of both men's resumes. ****1/2 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Mitsuharu Misawa & Jun Akiyama vs Shinya Hashimoto & Yuji Nagata - Zero-One 3/2/01 The decentralization of puroresu continues as the disenchanted Hashimoto forms his own promotion known as Zero-One (started in the year 2001) and brings in three of the biggest stars of puroresu for his debut show. It is the fastest rising stars in New Japan and NOAH on either side and of course the main attraction is to see the Ace of 90s New Japan mix it up with the Ace of 90s All Japan. I did not expect such a snoozefest of a match. Everything felt so tepid until the end. The match did make Hashimoto look like an absolute monster, but other than that it was pretty uneventful. Nagata is just not a very submission wrestler, which is a problem since that is his gimmick at this point. Akiyama does his best to make it interesting by heeling it up and taunting Hashimoto. After Nagata catches him with a German, Misawa says "Kid, let me show you how it is done." and Nagata gets some kicks in before it is elbow city. Misawa gives him "Now you do something" tag. Akiyama piledrives Nagata while taunting Hashimoto. This match undercut Akiyama pretty bad, but hey at least he was a total prick during it. Nagat kicks Akiyama's leg out from under him and is going to do his Nagatalock while saluting Misawa, but thinks better of it and tags Hashimoto. Hashimoto rips through Akiyama, who bails. Akiyama thinks about it on the outside before coming back in and just being taken to the woodshed. It really feels like Akiyama was playing the same role as Nobutaka Araya in the tag match I watched earlier. Akiyama is not Araya. Hashimoto overhand chop is pretty sweet and he looks like a beast. Finally, we get Misawa vs. Hashimoto. Misawa hits a spinning back elbow up against the ropes. Hash with a huge overhand chop sends Misawa to his knees and then floors him with a kick to the chest. Then tags Nagata. Awww is that it? Tease. Nagata applies a shitty armbar and then a crossface. Misawa can't be bothered with this shit and just elbows out of it and tags Akiyama. Take care of my light work, Akiyama. They trade exploders, you know it was coming. Akiyama applies a crossface. Akiyama goes for another, but Nagata drops down into guillotine choke. I liked the symmetry of that. Here comes Hash to murderize Akiyama, but Ak cuts him off with a high knee. Atta boy! He puts his foot on his throat and makes the ref count. Glorious. Misawa goes for the Tiger Driver, but Nagata interferes. Hashimoto disposes of Misawa and tags Nagata. Misawa gets the Tiger Driver for two. On the next one he elbows Hashimoto, but it gets reversed into a triangle choke. Akiyama saves Misawa after a Nagata back drop driver with a pin. Hashimoto is in for the kill and hits a couple DDTs, but cant put Misawa away while Nagata detains Akiyama. Akiyama breaks free and slaps the shit out of Hashimoto while he is trying to suplex Misawa. This wakes up Hashimoto who now has murder in his eyes and goes to town in the corner. This allows Misawa to hit a German Suplex from behind for the win. After the match, Hashimoto makes a beeline for Akiyama and tries to kill him. Melee ensues. It was nice to see Akiyama heel it up and Misawa in a back to basics match, but it felt like nothing happened. Hashimoto would come in kick ass and then leave. Why leave? Why not just win? Misawa was not much better with Nagata either. He let Nagata hit moves, but then no sold them and just would elbow. Akiyama was at least interesting, but treated like Hashimoto's bitch. I get the appeal that it is Misawa vs. Hashimoto. It did not do anything for me. The ending was good with all of Akiyama's antics finally getting him in hot water with Hashimoto. The payoff with Misawa sneaking away with the victory was cool. I'm giving it *** because it was a decent match with a very good payoff and finish.

Some high praise, I did not put him in my top 50 because I have not watched nearly enough, but I am definitely excited. Mitsuharu Misawa & Akira Taue vs Burning (Kenta Kobashi & Jun Akiyama) - NOAH Debut Show 8/5/00 2 Out Of 3 Falls Pyrotecnics, a ramp and a post-match angle immediately NOAH signals that it is going to be different than All Japan. The booking builds on Akiyama's big victory over Misawa and pushes him as the center piece of the new promotion. From August through December, NOAH relied on the Akiyama/Kobashi feud to carry the shows. What a way to kick off this money feud then with Akiyama taking out Misawa and Taue in two straight and then laying out Kobashi after the match. Thats how you make a new star! Within 2 minutes, Akiyama chokes Misawa out and had young boys tending to him. I will say that Kobashi did hit a half-nelson suplex right before, but I don't think it lessens the impact of Akiyama winning the first fall in such decisive fashion. Misawa made a career out of takin a lickin and kept on tickin. It is elbows for everyone and Taue slaps the shit out of Akiyama. After a exchange Misawa/Kobashi, the Akiyama show begins again with Akiyama getting whipped by Taue. Taue hits his Nodowa on the ramp (excellent first use of the ramp) and Akiyama is just a heap. Taue heaves him back into ring. Misawa and Taue get nearfalls on Akiyama. Akiyama rolls through a Nodowa. Kobashi with a spinning back chop, but Taue gets a knee lift to tag Misawa before things get too out of hand. Misawa hits a missile dropkick to swing it back in their favor. Misawa blocks the half nelson suplex, but Akiyama blinds tags himself in. Young hotshot just looking for action or is he looking to prove himself as the new ace? Taue and Akiyama tease the apron Nodowa, but Kobashi breaks it up (buzzkill). Taue hits a nodowa in the ring and a Dynamic Bomb, but Kobashi saves again. Kobashi powerbombs Misawa into the corner, which always looks sick. Kobashi hits the Burning Lariat on Taue, but walks into Emerald Flowsion. Akiyama hits the Exploder twice on Misawa and a knee and an exploder on Taue. After the match, the real fireworks begin when Akiyama hits a back drop driver on his long-time partner, Kenta Kobashi. Thus setting up the main event for the next night. The match is really a vehicle to propel Akiyama to the top as I stated he wins two straight falls over two of three of his biggest possible opponents and then dropped the other on his head after the match. I think there was subtle ways to make Akiyama the heel besides the fact he was the one who turned Kobashi. He choked out Misawa, which is a pretty violent way to beat someone. Also, he was getting saved a lot by Kobashi. He did ultimately win and he did not look weak, but maybe the story is that he is biting off more than he can chew. Only way to find out is watch the next night's main event. ***1/2 Jun Akiyama vs Kenta Kobahi - NOAH #2 8/06/00 Now that they positioned Akiyama as a force to be reckoned with it was time to consolidate that and they went a long way towards doing that by having Akiyama choke out Kobashi to win NOAH's first single main event. My biggest issue with this is that it was not wrestled that much in the vein of blood feud, but more along the lines of an All Japan epic and I think if NOAH really wanted to depart from the past then have an out of control brawl could have cemented that image. No matter this is still a very good match just a bit disconnected from the storyline set up the night before. It actually began as I wanted with a heated exchange and Akiyama powdering, but once he got back in everything became tentative they went into the test of strength and sort of slowed it down. The first big highspot is Kobashi hitting a powerbomb on Akiyama to the outside. Akiyama really milks for everything it is worth. That separates the great wrestlers from the chumps because plenty would be right back up hitting moves and taking bumps. Kobashi is now doing ab stretches and a full nelson. I don't have anything against that, but I think storyline necessitates a more violent layout. Akiyama hits a pair of basement dropkicks on the bandaged knee to take control and Kobashi selling of these dropkicks is so damn good. "Ko-Bash-i" chants ring out as Akiyama has him in the scorpion deathlock. Akiyama is relentless on the knee very similar to his hyper-focus in the Misawa match. Akiyama goes for an Exploder and a great struggle before Kobashi snaps off a suplex then his own sleeper suplex. Kobashi is still selling his knee as he tries string together some offense: powerbomb and half-nelson suplex. However, it seems like the injuries have sapped too much of his strength and energy as Akiyama hits FIVE exploders and chokes him out to win. After the match, the young boys are tending to Kobashi and one is giving him CPR so Akiyama to be a prick gets into a scuffle and there is even a hip swivel on the ramp. Watching this match, I thought I came in with the wrong expectations. It was a dick move to drop Kobashi on his head the previous night, but maybe it was supposed to be more symbolic then start of Akiyama, the super heel. Then the finish and post-match happened where Akiyama chokes him out, attacks those helping Kobashi and is a cocky prick on the ramp. I think antics are truly emblematic of what is trying to be achieved. It is just that the All Japan guys are so rooted in their ways they only know that way to wrestler a match. It is a very good match, but falls short of being on the level of other All Japan epics, but that's why they have rematches, folks. ****

You guys briefly touched on the attempt to generate new stars at the turn of the century: Akiyama, Sasaki, and Nagata. I think the common theory floated was that Akiyama just did not have the charisma. I just wanted to see if anybody had further thoughts as Akiyama's career in 2000-2002 is so interesting to me because it really seems like a rocket is strapped to his ass until he gets beat by Ogawa (granted he becomes the rock of the tag division after that with Saito). I posited in the Akiyama thread that: "I think my major hang-up with Akiyama is I don't think he ever found his personality in the ring the same way the others did. " I'll ask the same question here: "Who is Jun Akiyama? Maybe someone can flesh out who Akiyama is for me. Maybe it will come in time with watching more footage. Now, Akiyama's 2000-01 is so intriguing to me because from a booking perspective he strikes me as the absolute hottest wrestler in puroresu. " Feb '00 - Pins Misawa Aug '00 - First NOAH show, chokes out Misawa, pins Taue and drops tag partner Kobashi with a back drop driver. That is a huge friggin' angle. The next night he chokes out Kobashi to win. They are giving Kobashi CPR after the match Dec '00 - Kobashi gets his win back, but needs to use the Burning Hammer July '01 - Pins Misawa to win the GHC Title Oct '01 - Headline NJPW Dome show against Mutoh & Hase with Nagata Jan '02 - Pin Nagata headlining 01/04 Dome show Feb '02 - He pins Kobashi in a tag match against Kobashi & Misawa with Nagata April '02 - Drops title to Yoshinari Ogawa, WHAT THE FUCK!?!? He beat Misawa and Kobashi within six months. He choked out Kobashi. How was he not a made man? Ditch gave a similar answer to Charles, "Akiyama and Nagata both suffer as a result of who they're compared to. How do you follow the Musketeers? How do you follow the Four Corners? I think the same thing happened with Jumbo (comp to Baba) and Fujinami (comp to Inoki). Jumbo and Fujinami were the 'pause that refreshes'. NOAH didn't have anyone to follow up with after Akiyama, but in Nagata's case I think he and Tenzan were needed to clear the stage for Tanahashi et al. to be seen as a success on their own terms rather than the terms of the golden days." Basically that there has been diminishing popularity ever since Rikidozan, but while that is what we are seeing. It does not explain why we are seeing it. I happen to agree with Mike Campbell that when Misawa and Hashimoto rose to prominence they had other rivals with them. Akiyama just did not have anybody. So I was curious if anyone thinks it is Akiyama's fault, a lack of credible challengers or NOAH's booking (Ditch and Campbell both slammed the booking.)

I loved the conspiracy theory that Will was Tiger Mask. I got a good kick out of it. I was just about to post the crazy six-man lineup Mil Mascaras, Bob Backlund, & Jimmy Snuka vs The Eliminators & Hector Garza and Charles said it. WAR is crazy. Another huge blind spot for me. I have seen the great Tenryu/Hash matches and the crazy brawl with Mutoh and with Takada, but have no seen much WAR. I need to remedy that. Fujiwara vs. Abby in '97 sounds weird as hell. Even though I have watched plenty of puroresu, this was still plenty informative.

Fucking awesome. Texted a buddy the same while watching Raw tonight. I love that dude. I have not marked out for modern wrestling in forever. My brother and I were working on his calculus homework when it happened and we both lost our minds. Roman Reigns is a fuckin' beast.

80s New Japan in general is a huge blind spot for me. The information about New Japan/UWF feud was much appreciated.

Its Akiyama Time! Jun Akiyama vs Mitsuharu Misawa - Budokan 2/27/00 After this match, Akiyama was paid, laid and made. This was not a passing of a torch. Akiyama was out to seize that torch on that night and Misawa was going to fight every single step of the way to keep it. The proof is in the pudding: watch Akiyama's head snap back on one of Misawa's transition elbows in the corner or the knee drop Misawa drops on Akiyama's nose that draws blood. When I saw that knee, I was like "Holy fuck, I think he just broke his nose" and when Akiyama came up then was blood. Akiyama gave as he good as he got. As soon as, he was given a weakness (Akiyama drove Misawa to the mat on an attempted reverse cross body and Misawa came up holding his neck) and he went after Misawa's neck (yes given the circumstances now that can be uncomfortable) with a tenacity rarely seen. I am a drop toehold mark. In this match, I think I saw the greatest drop toehold of all time, when Akiyama applied a drop toehold onto Misawa into the railing. Thus match developed into one of the all-time classic Misawa matches with Misawa working underneath while Akiyama strung together one of the greatest offensive runs of all time. The whole time because of the credibility of Misawa's comeback and Misawa's elbow going all the way back to 1990 you never once think he is outta of it until he is shockingly out of it. They are a bit tentative to start and they actually dive out of the way each of the other's moves before Misawa hits a dropkick sending him out of the ring. Akiyama, knowing Misawa too well, moves out of the way so Misawa stops himself on the apron and hits his diving elbow onto Akiyama. Misawa hits some absolutely wicked elbows on Akiyama in the corner to establish him dominance as THE ACE. However, Akiyama side-stepped a Misawa reverse cross body and drove him to the mat. Misawa comes up holding his neck and the complexion of the match totally changes. Akiyama hits a jumping knee to send Misawa out to the ring. Misawa whips Akiyama into the railing, but Akiyama side-steps him and hits the most wicked drop toehold into railing. He drops Misawa onto the railing throat first and while he is hanging there he hits him with a knee from the apron. Then he hits a knee while Misawa is hanging on the apron, then a piledriver onto the floor and then a friggin' wrist-clutch exploder on the apron. This was a holy shit string of moves all focused on the neck. Akiyama wrangled him into a cool neck submission with grapevining his legs in such a way to apply pressure on Misawa's neck. Misawa backs him into the corner and hits an absolute monster back elbow and then a springboard dropkick to face. This is a wake up call to Akiyama that there is a reason Misawa is known as one of the most resilient wrestler ever. Misawa hits his front facelock the announcer sells it like it is 1992, but it is 2000 and the crowd does not really buy it. I will say it still looks tenacious as all hell. The crowd just was not buying it as a possible finish. Akiyama dropkicks Misawa off the top rope, hits a running knee off the apron, knee to the back into railing, tombstone piledriver in the ring and finishes this run off with a huge diving elbow to Misawa's neck while he is in the ring and an Exploder. He still can only get a 2. Misawa gets out of a neck submission to hit his spinkick and drop a nasty knee to Akiyama's nose that draws blood. Misawa's frogsplash gets 2. Misawa runs of his impressive offense: two Germans and a Tiger Driver. Misawa hits a roaring elbow, but just phases Akiyama who hits two Exploders. On the second exploder, Misawa fumbles around before falling looking oddly like arch-rival, Toshiaki Kawada. Could the Kid actually pull it off? Akiyama hits a running knee to Misawa's face and then an exploder for 2. He hits a brainbuster for two. Finally hits the mother of all wrist-clutch exploders dropping Misawa on his head to win at that point the biggest of match of his career in grandiose fashion. This match reminds me so much of The Dark Knight in how it is perfect confluence of the superficial with meaning. What makes the Dark Knight so great is there is enough fireworks and eye candy to appeal to our audiovisual senses, but all rooted in a beautifully woven story. It appeals to pretty much facet of humanity, much like this match. You have the story of the young upstart looking to dethrone warrior-king by attacking his neck ruthlessly and violently. The old warrior-king has plenty of fight left in him, but eventually he overcome by the surmounting pain and the indefatigable resolve of the young upstart. On top of that, this is one of best offensive spectacles to ever be produced. Akiyama does a tremendous job of never letting up just zeroing in when Misawa is coming back he does not stop coming forward. Misawa is one of the ultimate underneath workers in this match he gives Akiyama even more offense than he would usual, which shows how much he trusted him at this point. After that second Exploder, when Misawa tried to get up and just fell back down you flashed back to all the times it had happened to Kawada and it was Misawa standing tall. The grand finale was a vicious head-drop wrist clutch exploder. Akiyama respected Misawa enough to know that he had to have no remorse if he wanted to take his place in the run. *****

Masa Fuchi is my new hero. He had one helluva performance in the All Japan versus New Japan tag match in 12/00. He stole the show with his cocky, prickly antics and followed by his great selling. All Japan falls off a quality cliff in 2002, but from 2000-2002 it was still providing quality wrestling even though it was not sustainable due to the age of the stars, Kawada, Tenryu and Mutoh. I greatly enjoyed the tag matches I reviewed here as unusual suspects really elevated their game to match the likes of Tenryu and Kawada such as Taiyo Kea, Masa Fuchi and Nobutaka Araya. On the flip side, I did not find the Kojima all that great though he did finally have a pretty good match against Tenryu. Check out All Japan strikes back! http://ridingspacemountain.blogspot.com/20...aki-kawada.html Updated rankings: 1. All Japan Triple Crown Champion Kenta Kobashi vs Yoshihiro Takayama - All Japan 05/26/00 2. All Japan Triple Crown Champion Genichiro Tenryu vs Keiji Mutoh - Budokan 6/8/01 3. Toshiaki Kawada & Masa Fuchi vs Yuji Nagata & Takashi Iizuka - NJ PPV 12/14/00 4. Keiji Mutoh vs Toshiaki Kawada - Champions Carnival 04/01 5. IWGP Champion Kensuke Sasaki vs Toshiaki Kawada - 10/00 Tokyo Dome Non-Title 6. Genichiro Tenryu & Masa Fuchi vs Toshiaki Kawada & Nobutaka Araya - AJPW 6/30/01 7. Kenta Kobashi vs Takao Omori - Champions Carnival Final '00 8. Toshiaki Kawada & Genichiro Tenryu vs Stan Hansen & Taiyo Kea - Budokan 07/23/00 9. IWGP Heavyweight Champion Genichiro Tenryu vs Kensuke Sasaki - 01/04/00 10. Genichiro Tenryu vs Toshiaki Kawada - Vacant All Japan Triple Crown 10/28/00 11. GHC Champion Yoshihiro Takayama vs Mitsuharu Misawa - Budokan 09/23/02 12. Mitsuharu Misawa vs Yoshihiro Takayama - Vacant GHC Title 04/15/01 13. Genichiro Tenryu vs Satoshi Kojima - AJPW 07/07/02 14. IWGP Champion Yuji Nagata vs. Yoshihiro Takayma - Tokyo Dome 05/02 15. Keiji Mutoh vs Yuji Nagata - Sumo Hall 08/12/01 G-1 Climax Final 16. Genichiro Tenryu vs Satoshi Kojima - AJPW 02/24/02 17. Yoshihiro Takayma vs Osamu Nishimura - G-1 Climax Semifinals 18. Yoshihiro Takayama vs Kensuke Sasaki - G-1 Climax Round Robin 19. Keiji Mutoh & Hiroshi Hase vs Jun Akiyama & Yuji Nagata - Tokyo Dome 10/08/01 20. Toshiaki Kawada vs Satoshi Kojima - AJPW 06/06/01

You forgot he has bitchin' entrance music (every entrance song post-blueblood gimmick was pretty damn great) and excellent taste in music in general. Lastly DAT HAIR~!

Dustin Rhodes vs Rick Rude - WCW Saturday Night 08/28/93 Best of 3 Series VACANT US Champion After the draw at Beach Blast and another month in between, WCW declared the Vacant US Championship would be decided in a Best of 3 matches series. The title has been vacant since May. This is getting a little ridiculous to say the least. Plus it seems according to commentary and Rude's post-match promo that Rude is ready to move onto Flair and that Rhodes will be joining in Wargames against Vader. Of course, given all this heat dissipation, they go and have their best match yet in spite of it being 24 minutes. I would not call it a lost classic, but it is a very solid match and the most enjoyable thus far. The beginning is the same as all their matches there is some jawing and a heated tie-up. At this point, I am just praying they do not outright re-hash the Beach Blast match. Rude grabs a headlock and talks some trash "Your father ain't nuthin. Your mama ain't nuthin", that's one underutilized way to make a headlock entertaining. I started digging the match during Dustin's arm work. I thought Rude's selling and Dustin keeping things moving was some of the best work from them yet. Rude powders selling his arm and gets back in and tries to goad him into a test of strength. Jesse puts over Rude hard here saying even though Rude is the one who is hurt, he is dictating the pace. Dustin ain't buying it and kicks him in the arm. WHAT?!?! The fans are chanting it "Break It" when Dustin has him in the armbar. That's awesome! I'll never forget the 4 year old that once yelled at Big Show to eat Jack Swagger's leg. Rude gets a right hand to get out of it. He slams Dustin's head into the mat breaking only to sell his arm and talk trash. Rude is the man, baby! Rude tries to hip swivel, but cant and we go to commercial. Apparently, during the commercial Dustin broke the Rude Awakening due to Rude's weaken arm and hit his own. However, he did a little bump 'n' grind before the pin, which Jesse mocks the "Stupid Texican" relentlessly. "You know Tony, thats what happened at the Alamo. Crockett was too busy swiveling his hips instead of firing his canon." Jesse was on top of his game that night for sure. Rude starts to work the back in earnest and this where the match starts to drag with Rude hitting his camel clutch and bearhug. There is one really good hope spot: Dustin's electric chair drop, but he ends up sailing over the top rope to the floor when Rude ducks, which is such a great bump. Rude does the most entertaining ab stretch ever as he gives Dustin a wicked wedgie when the ref is not working. I got a good laugh out of that. Rude goes back to the camel clutch and when he jumps to land on Dustin's back instead the Rude jewels crash against Dustin's need. I can still picture Rude's double over sell now. He probably has the best double over sell ever. Arguments against? Dustin hits some bionic elbows and string together an inverted atomic drop (Have Mercy!) and bulldog, but Rude's foot finds the bottom rope. Rude grabs a desperation sleeper so Dustin backs him into the corner. Then Rude jumps over Dustin so that Dustin can grab a sleeper? (That was weird) Rude pushes off the turnbuckles to land on top to pick up the victory. It is a less well-executed version of the Hart/Austin Survivor Series '96 finish. Finish execution problems aside, this was an enjoyable match and really surprising given that it goes 24 mins (22 mins aired). I did not think they had it them to pull this match out given their previous performances. Who am I to doubt Dustin Rhodes and Rick Rude? When Rude stays away from offense, he is still really friggin' good and even during the heat segment he used more of his tricks to keep it entertaining. I am still waiting for Dustin to open a can of whoop ass, but this was his best performance by far. Whereas Rude had always been doing stuff he does well well, Dustin seemed to be lacking energy and interest in this feud. He woke up for this match. Lets hope thats the case for the last three matches of the feud. ***1/4 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Dustin Rhodes vs Rick Rude - WCW Saturday Night 09/4/93 Best of 3 Series VACANT US Champion I am sorry, Mr. Rude, for doubting your offensive ability. For one night, Rick Rude looked like the Rick Rude of 1992 and just kicked all sorts of ass. Dustin was there every step of the way. They start off more tentative in this match. Dustin has everything to lose in this one. "Is he playing to win or not to lose?" asks Jesse. Rude takes the offense early as he is up 1-0 with a headlock, but Dustin gets a kneecrusher and just fucks up that knee. He wrenches and tortures it. Rude is giving Savage and Kawada a run for their money in the knee selling game. Rude forces separation by axe kicking Dustin in the head. He then hits a DDT, a backbreaker and a gourbuster all while selling his knee like it has been shot. On the second gordbuster, his knee gives way, but he still crawls to the camera to give the viewing public a kiss to say it is over. Rude limps back and Dustin punches his knee. Rude stymies Dustin with an eye-rake, but Rude goes to well once to often and Dustin hits a gordbuster. Dustin eats knees on his splash attempt. During a criss cross, Dustin grabs a backslide for a flash victory. This match was well on its way to "Lost Classic" status before the abrupt finish. The finish makes sense because you don't want the decisive one until the big finale next week, but it does not give this match that extra boost. Rick Rude wrestled for two in this one as he was clicking on all cylinders and made this match one worth watching. Dustin is very capable, but this is the Rude show. There ain't no shame in that, kid. ***1/2 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Dustin Rhodes vs Rick Rude - WCW Saturday Night 09/11/93 Best of 3 Series VACANT US Champion Back to our regularly scheduled boring programming. Flair is out to do guest commentary, but it is babyface Flair so it is a bit more serious. Dustin extends Rude his hand, I guess he respects him after this last week's badass performance. Rude comes outta the gates early with a bearhug. Dustin with bionic elbows and slaps on a camel clutch like chinlock. Dustin goes to jump on Rude's back, but his balls get busted. Rude follows this up with an atomic drop, which is just awesome and Dustin falls to the outside. We go to commercial and during the commercial Rude got a nearfall off a DDT. Rude works the chinlock...a lot. Dustin gets a back drop, but eats knees again on the splash, nice callback. After some more chinlocking, we get a nice little slugfest and Dustin starts to fire up and grabs a backslide, another nice callback. Dustin gets an O'Connor Roll. He is feeling it and goes for the bulldog, but Rude throws him into the ref. Rude is headed for the chair, but the Dirtiest Player in the Game aint having none of that. Rhodes wins off a rollup via distraction from Flair. Ugh, what a shitty finish. That was very disappointing that after 4 months of feuding and the two previous matches that grand finale ends up being the backdrop for the Flair/Rude feud. It was a pretty blase match outside Dustin's great bump off the atomic drop. ** ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Dustin Rhodes & Ric Flair vs Rick Rude & Sid Vicious - WCW Saturday Night 09/18/93 Ric Flair better have bought Dustin a drink after that performance. It is often said that Flair takes up too much of his tag match as he is afraid to rely on someone else to get over his match. Flair trusted Dustin to get this match over as Dustin wrestled 99% of this match as a face in peril and did an exceptional job. At the beginning of the show, Dustin attempted to save his Wargames partner, Sting from a Harlem Heat beatdown, but ended up having his back injured in the process. Sid attacked Dustin early and the heels never let up. Flair hemmed and hawed on the apron. He tried to get a chair to save Dustin and he tried to mess with Rude's mind by thrusting his hips at him, but nothing could save Dustin from this torture, but Dustin. After an extended Rude chinlock and plenty of hip swiveling, Dustin claws at Sid's eyes and hits a cross body on Side, but he gets flung to the outside on the kickout. Tony puts this over huge. Rude slams Dustin's back into apron while Flair inadvertently detains the ref. Back from the commercial, Sid misses a leg drop, but has the presence of mind to cut off Dustin and tags Rude. Ruge bearhugs Dustin and what is making all this is Dustin's great selling. He seems more into this then any of the previous matches as he really is the star of this match. He hits some bionic elbows, but takes the belly to belly for 2. Sid drops Dustin gut first across the railing. I am thinking the roof is going to blow off this place when Flair gets the tag. Flair gives Dustin a pep talk and sends him back into ring. He must really want Rude. Dustin reverses the tombstone and I really thought this was going to be it, but Sid cuts him off. Now, I am excited for the hot tag! Dustin hits out of a nerve hold and hits a lariat, but just collapses. Sid blocks him again and Rude is in and just taunting Flair by taking his time with Dustin. Dustin tries to go through the legs and eventually fights to make it, but ref misses. Tony does a great call of this as he was so excited to see Flair, but when the ref sends him back he is very disappointed. Dustin hits the bulldog on Sid! TAG TO FLAIR! He atomic drops Rude so hard he forgot to stick his knee out. He is hitting everything that moves. Flair gets the sleeper and here comes Harlem Heat. BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! They throw it out. Sting is in to save and here comes the Shockmaster as he trips over the guardrail and the bottom rope. Sometimes you just have to embrace it. We get a kickass front half of a match. The drama of that FIP should have belonged in a lost classic, but then it just ended. Dustin put in his best performance of '93 summer here. Rude is such a dick and Sid does what he does best look big. You have Flair cheerleading and being a mad man on the apron. It is Dustin that makes it all special. The way he times his hope spots and how he sells the desperation. The hook of the match is to get the hot tag, but then it just ends. Very disappointing finish to a great Dustin performance. ***

From History of the WWE, "NWA World Champion Harley Race pinned Paul Figeroua at the 19-second mark with a suplex and a kneedrop to the head; prior to the bout, ring announcer Joe McHugh introduced WWF World Champion Bob Backlund, who came to the ring and shook hands with everyone, with Race firmly grabbing Backlund's hand and staring him down; Vince McMahon then briefly interviewed Backlund at ringside, where he said he was here to study Race as he no doubt would be wrestling him soon, Backlund then left, and Race was interviewed, where he said he had been chasing Backlund all over the world, and that Backlund couldn't run from him in his own back yard, and said that he was here so there would be only one world champion (the official time was mistakenly announced as 49 seconds, instead of 19)" Kayfabe: This is a champion vs. champion feud. This is NOT a blood feud. This is actually different than normal face/heel dynamics Harley is looking to see who is the best says what we would think is a lie about Bob is ducking him because we are WWF fans and know that Bob ducks no man. Backlund versus Patera is a blood feud. We wanted to see Backlund eat Patera alive. The Hogan match is a normal babyface/heel match. We want to see Backlund overcome the size difference. The Race match is all about the two championships. He is the heel because he is not OUR champion. The obstacle is inherent in Harley's character he is the outside champion. Thus we want to see Backlund prove he is the best champion. It does not matter if the match sucks or if Harley gets no offense, the point is the WWF Champion is better than all champions. The fans just want to know that the money they are paying for is the best damn champion. Yes, they want to see Backlund vanquish heels and the WWF provides you that with Patera, Valentine, Patterson, Muraco, Patera, Slaughter etc... Those guys are heels designed to be blood feud opponents or multiple time opponents. Harley Race is the heel because he is the outside champion thus we just need to know our champion is better. Bob proves he is the best against tough opponents that's why we need heat segments, but when facing a rival champion Bob needs to prove he is the king of his home turf. Yes, I understand this all makes the match suck, but hey they did not always book matches to be great. Non-kayfabe: Outside of the WWF TV and the 9/80 MSG match, Harley never worked NYC again that year or in 1981. There were going to be no rematches. So lets all the value out of it in one shot. Nobody is going to see this in the NWA so who cares if Harley gets fucked by our champion. In the 2008 French Open final, Nadal brutalized Federer. Domination happens in real life.

Genichiro Tenryu vs Satoshi Kojima - 07/17/02 The two trends I have noticed from my limited Kojima watching is to expect one shitty modified Ace Crusher and that the beginning of the match is always better than the end. I will say this match the the goodness lasted well into the match thus making it is his best match yet. After being dissed and dismissed by Tenryu in the February match, Kojima came out with something to prove and right off the bat gives Tenryu a taste of his own medicine: punches and chops in the corner. Tenryu gives him a Fuck You Chop that may have been a little high as Kojima gasps for breath powdering to the outside. The high chop to the throat was Tenryu's ace in the hole throughout the match when the going got rough. It is quite a trump card to have. Tenryu, who is pissed that Kojima is being a little baby about him trying to crush Kojima's larynx, throws a water bottle at him. Got to love, Mr. Puroresu! Kojima's new strategy is just to kick him in the knee. Tenryu retaliates by kicking him in the head when he tries to go for a toehold following up with a high chop and kappo kick. Tenryu punches him in the face and Kojima goes back to the knee. A dragon leg screw causes Tenryu to powder. Kojima pounces on the knee, but Tenryu just overwhelms him. Tenryu hits a pretty explosive follow up chop into corner with some more punches. Tenryu lariats Kojima out and dives onto Kojima. Judging by this crowd, the chicks dig this lumpy old bastard. Tenryu has been taking Kojima to the woodshed and it seems at this point they are going to make the Fighting Spirit play to get Kojima over here. Kojima takes out Tenryu's knee with a lariat on the apron. I love that spot! Here comes Kojima: plancha, somersault off the apron, dragon leg screw, figure-4, scorpion deathlock. He goes back to give Tenryu some more of his own medicine with punch/chop combination in the corner. Kojima is feeling it, but his top rope elbow only gets 2. What does Tenryu do to stymie Kojima? Chop to the throat, duh. Tenryu hit him with two sick deadwight Germans, really showed off Tenryu's power. At this point, I actually wrote "Wow 20 minutes in and no Ace Crushers yet!" in my notes. Literally a second later, Kojima floats over on a suplex attempt and hits an Ace Crusher. It was inevitable. He hits his stupid looking neckbreaker and his scoop piledriver. The best part is on the pin, Tenryu's foot looks for the rope and when he realizes he is too far he kicks out. Thats excellent ring awareness in bot a kayfabe and non-kayfabe sense! Tenryu punches Kojima and hits a brainbuster to regain advantage. He hits the Spider German, but misses back elbow. Thus Kojima hits his stupid fuckin middle rope Ace Crusher. What does Tenryu do, everybody? Chop to throat. Kojima has FIGHTING SPIRIT~! He lariats Tenryu with no padding only there is a bandage there. We hit the home stretch with a chopfest. It is too bad they descended into trite 00s puro hell because they were doing so well. Tenryu hits tow brainbusters for an excellent false finish. Kojima gets his pop for a lariat false finish. Instead of just finishing it there, they dragged it out. Tenryu blocks a lariat hits two brainbusters, but Kojima does a dazed lariat that left me shakin' my head. They do a chopfest were both men sell their fatigue. Tenryu wins with a brainbuster and powerbomb combo to a lesser pop than the false finishes. The finish issues is the same ones that plague the WWE today with so many false finishes that the crowd does not pop as hot for the actual finish. Plus they just dragged it out way too much at that point. Before that, the match was really good and Kojima gave his best performance yet. He had a chip on his shoulder he was going to prove hos mettle to Tenryu and used his moves against him, took out the knee and then threw the bombs. Plus he did take one helluva a beating. Tenryu was his usual steady eddy self making everything awesome around him throwing water bottles in disgust, chops to throat, deadweight Germans. It is a disjointed match, but I am a positive dude. Lets go ***3/4 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Genichiro Tenryu & Toshiaki Kawada vs Stan Hansen & Taiyo Kea - Budokan 7/23/00 This is the first main event at the Budokan in post-split All Japan and it is bitchin' as all hell. It is clearly not a sustainable given 3/4 of the participants' age (it is also 3/4 of the participants from that amazing 1988 Real World Tag League match) and the fact Kea never really made a mark otherwise. However, as a one-off this was really spectacular. Up front, I had never seen a Kea match, but have heard of him and of course I have the other three all in my top 20 greatest of all time. Honestly, at first given how Kea moved, his posture and moves he struck me as a bigger version of Low-Ki. At first, there was something insincere about him. It felt like he was going through the motions whereas Hansen who could barely move just felt like a crazed bear that wanted murder his old rival Tenryu and Tenryu was just as incensed having seen Hansen for the first time since about 1990. Their sections together just seemed so much grittier than Kea's kick exchange with Kawada. Tenryu gets the tag and first thing he does make a beeline for Hansen, who is not even legal. Later on in the match, on the outside, Hansen is beating the pissed out of Tenryu up against the post and Hanse whacks his hand on the post. Not to be deterred, he keeps throwing hands and hits his hand again on the post and sells better than anyone else in the match. Stan Hansen is just so good. As good as Hansen was, he was so limited it was hard for him to make an impression. Tenryu on the other hand just came off as so explosive in all his exchanges with everyone. That is not usually a word I used to describe Tenryu. It looks like Kawada and Tenryu are going to make short work of the injured Hansen, but Hansen is able to knee Kawada in the head. Kea hits a DDT and boots Kawada over the railing. It is time for Kawada and Kea to shine. Kawada played a great face in peril especially since it seemed like he was about to be showed up by Tenryu. Kawada works hard in this segment to make Hansen/Kea team earn it. When he gets into a slugfest with Hansen, he does his great sell of an elbow where he kinda staggers back and looks like he is about to fall on his ass. That is Kawada I know and love. Kea and Kawada have a great mat exchange over a cross armbreaker. It was really gritty and I dug Kea's slaps. Kea really proved himself to me in that sequence. For this match, he was on their level. Kea gets a TKO stunner (the Hawaii Five-O?) for 2, but Kawada hits his spinning heel kick to tag in Tenryu. Tenryu punches Kea, enziguiri and a wicked lariat follow. O Hell Yeah! It starts to break down and Kea hits a monster German on Tenryu who was trying to hold onto the ropes to save himself. Kawada saves Tenryu from that Hawaii Five-O thingy. Melee ensues. Hansen lariats Tenryu -> Kawada jumping kick to Hansen. Kawada goes back to apron just break up Kea's pin, which was a little awkward. Kawada hits a wicked back drop driver to no pop for 2. Tenryu heads off Hansen and they brawl to outisde. Kawada goes for a running corner powerbomb, but then just decides to plant him right there. It was nasty. I dug this match a lot. The fact that Tenryu had not been in All Japan since 1990 his interactions with Hansen really added to the beginning. Then Kawada/Kea kicked some ass in the middle. The finish was chaotic and entertaining. They used the headdrops to set up or be the finish of the match. I don't if there is any other Kea worth watching, but on this night he hung with best of them. **** ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Genichiro Tenryu & Masa Fuchi vs Toshiaki Kawada & Nobutaka Araya - All Japan 6/30/01 So what happened to this Araya guy? It sure as hell felt like a star-making performance for him in a way that he had not succeeded yet with Satoshi Kojima (he was already a relatively big star from New Japan) and Taiyo Kea. I had never heard of Araya so I read that he was a WAR stalwart before coming in post-split All Japan. Post-split All Japan is a combination of Mutoh & his crew and Tenryu & his crew since Mutoh became the president it is not surprising that Araya did not go further based on this information. Fuchi and Araya started off with a pretty good mat exchange, which Fuchi seems to get the better of this. Araya backs Fuchi into his corner. I just watched the New Japan tag match with Kawada and Fuchi on the same team and actually got confused when Kawada and Fuchi were squaring off. The double writslock is a favorite these four. Kawada and Tenryu squared off to a big reaction with some chops and kicks thrown. Araya comes in and promptly gets punched in the head. Araya is bleeding. Tenryu big chop to him on the outside. Fuchi works the cut with closed fists. Tenryu comes in and just keeps punching him in the head even though Araya tries firing up. Araya is finally able to get Kawada for a not so hot tag seemed too early for me. Kawada comes in and heads are gonna roll. Kawada spinning heel kick to Tenryu and big boot to Fuchi. Fuchi punches Kawada in the head and you get that great Kawada sell. Kawada takes an enziguiri whilst in the corner with that great selling. Kawada punches Tenryu in the neck to tag in Araya. Araya and Tenryu just go at it and in a great vicious segment. Tenryu wins and Fuchi kicks him in. I am just loving these old bastards beating the piss out of this plucky undercarder and while Kawada is trying to clean up. Fuchi hits him with two back drop drivers and Tenryu hits with the running chop in the corner. Araya finally bowls Tenryu over and hot tag to Kawada. Kawada kicks Tenryu's head off, but Tenryu punches him in the head. Tenryu enziguri gets Fuchi in, but Kawada jumping kick blocks Fuchi's German. Araya is just killing everything. Araya urnage on Fuchi and goes for moonsault. Fuchi dumps Araya off the top. Kawada kicks Fuchi's head off and Araya wins with the moonsault. Watching the match develop, I never once expected Araya to be on the winning team, never mind getting the pinfall. I am a sucker for Japanese veterans torturing undercarders. I thought the blood added a lot to this. I loved how Araya was not somebody to take this lying down and just kept coming. I will say what keeps this from being an all-time classic is because the could have really added a lot more drama to at least one of those face in peril segments. I thought Kawada had some great moments in this, but the match was all about Araya versus the cocky Fuchi and the ornery Tenryu. It is a shame they never really capitalized on this. ****1/4

Genichiro Tenryu vs Satoshi Kojima - 07/17/02 The two trends I have noticed from my limited Kojima watching is to expect one shitty modified Ace Crusher and that the beginning of the match is always better than the end. I will say this match the the goodness lasted well into the match thus making it is his best match yet. After being dissed and dismissed by Tenryu in the February match, Kojima came out with something to prove and right off the bat gives Tenryu a taste of his own medicine: punches and chops in the corner. Tenryu gives him a Fuck You Chop that may have been a little high as Kojima gasps for breath powdering to the outside. The high chop to the throat was Tenryu's ace in the hole throughout the match when the going got rough. It is quite a trump card to have. Tenryu, who is pissed that Kojima is being a little baby about him trying to crush Kojima's larynx, throws a water bottle at him. Got to love, Mr. Puroresu! Kojima's new strategy is just to kick him in the knee. Tenryu retaliates by kicking him in the head when he tries to go for a toehold following up with a high chop and kappo kick. Tenryu punches him in the face and Kojima goes back to the knee. A dragon leg screw causes Tenryu to powder. Kojima pounces on the knee, but Tenryu just overwhelms him. Tenryu hits a pretty explosive follow up chop into corner with some more punches. Tenryu lariats Kojima out and dives onto Kojima. Judging by this crowd, the chicks dig this lumpy old bastard. Tenryu has been taking Kojima to the woodshed and it seems at this point they are going to make the Fighting Spirit play to get Kojima over here. Kojima takes out Tenryu's knee with a lariat on the apron. I love that spot! Here comes Kojima: plancha, somersault off the apron, dragon leg screw, figure-4, scorpion deathlock. He goes back to give Tenryu some more of his own medicine with punch/chop combination in the corner. Kojima is feeling it, but his top rope elbow only gets 2. What does Tenryu do to stymie Kojima? Chop to the throat, duh. Tenryu hit him with two sick deadwight Germans, really showed off Tenryu's power. At this point, I actually wrote "Wow 20 minutes in and no Ace Crushers yet!" in my notes. Literally a second later, Kojima floats over on a suplex attempt and hits an Ace Crusher. It was inevitable. He hits his stupid looking neckbreaker and his scoop piledriver. The best part is on the pin, Tenryu's foot looks for the rope and when he realizes he is too far he kicks out. Thats excellent ring awareness in bot a kayfabe and non-kayfabe sense! Tenryu punches Kojima and hits a brainbuster to regain advantage. He hits the Spider German, but misses back elbow. Thus Kojima hits his stupid fuckin middle rope Ace Crusher. What does Tenryu do, everybody? Chop to throat. Kojima has FIGHTING SPIRIT~! He lariats Tenryu with no padding only there is a bandage there. We hit the home stretch with a chopfest. It is too bad they descended into trite 00s puro hell because they were doing so well. Tenryu hits tow brainbusters for an excellent false finish. Kojima gets his pop for a lariat false finish. Instead of just finishing it there, they dragged it out. Tenryu blocks a lariat hits two brainbusters, but Kojima does a dazed lariat that left me shakin' my head. They do a chopfest were both men sell their fatigue. Tenryu wins with a brainbuster and powerbomb combo to a lesser pop than the false finishes. The finish issues is the same ones that plague the WWE today with so many false finishes that the crowd does not pop as hot for the actual finish. Plus they just dragged it out way too much at that point. Before that, the match was really good and Kojima gave his best performance yet. He had a chip on his shoulder he was going to prove hos mettle to Tenryu and used his moves against him, took out the knee and then threw the bombs. Plus he did take one helluva a beating. Tenryu was his usual steady eddy self making everything awesome around him throwing water bottles in disgust, chops to throat, deadweight Germans. It is a disjointed match, but I am a positive dude. Lets go ***3/4 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Genichiro Tenryu & Toshiaki Kawada vs Stan Hansen & Taiyo Kea - Budokan 7/23/00 This is the first main event at the Budokan in post-split All Japan and it is bitchin' as all hell. It is clearly not a sustainable given 3/4 of the participants' age (it is also 3/4 of the participants from that amazing 1988 Real World Tag League match) and the fact Kea never really made a mark otherwise. However, as a one-off this was really spectacular. Up front, I had never seen a Kea match, but have heard of him and of course I have the other three all in my top 20 greatest of all time. Honestly, at first given how Kea moved, his posture and moves he struck me as a bigger version of Low-Ki. At first, there was something insincere about him. It felt like he was going through the motions whereas Hansen who could barely move just felt like a crazed bear that wanted murder his old rival Tenryu and Tenryu was just as incensed having seen Hansen for the first time since about 1990. Their sections together just seemed so much grittier than Kea's kick exchange with Kawada. Tenryu gets the tag and first thing he does make a beeline for Hansen, who is not even legal. Later on in the match, on the outside, Hansen is beating the pissed out of Tenryu up against the post and Hanse whacks his hand on the post. Not to be deterred, he keeps throwing hands and hits his hand again on the post and sells better than anyone else in the match. Stan Hansen is just so good. As good as Hansen was, he was so limited it was hard for him to make an impression. Tenryu on the other hand just came off as so explosive in all his exchanges with everyone. That is not usually a word I used to describe Tenryu. It looks like Kawada and Tenryu are going to make short work of the injured Hansen, but Hansen is able to knee Kawada in the head. Kea hits a DDT and boots Kawada over the railing. It is time for Kawada and Kea to shine. Kawada played a great face in peril especially since it seemed like he was about to be showed up by Tenryu. Kawada works hard in this segment to make Hansen/Kea team earn it. When he gets into a slugfest with Hansen, he does his great sell of an elbow where he kinda staggers back and looks like he is about to fall on his ass. That is Kawada I know and love. Kea and Kawada have a great mat exchange over a cross armbreaker. It was really gritty and I dug Kea's slaps. Kea really proved himself to me in that sequence. For this match, he was on their level. Kea gets a TKO stunner (the Hawaii Five-O?) for 2, but Kawada hits his spinning heel kick to tag in Tenryu. Tenryu punches Kea, enziguiri and a wicked lariat follow. O Hell Yeah! It starts to break down and Kea hits a monster German on Tenryu who was trying to hold onto the ropes to save himself. Kawada saves Tenryu from that Hawaii Five-O thingy. Melee ensues. Hansen lariats Tenryu -> Kawada jumping kick to Hansen. Kawada goes back to apron just break up Kea's pin, which was a little awkward. Kawada hits a wicked back drop driver to no pop for 2. Tenryu heads off Hansen and they brawl to outisde. Kawada goes for a running corner powerbomb, but then just decides to plant him right there. It was nasty. I dug this match a lot. The fact that Tenryu had not been in All Japan since 1990 his interactions with Hansen really added to the beginning. Then Kawada/Kea kicked some ass in the middle. The finish was chaotic and entertaining. They used the headdrops to set up or be the finish of the match. I don't if there is any other Kea worth watching, but on this night he hung with best of them. **** -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Toshiaki Kawada & Masa Fuchi vs Yuji Nagata & Takashi Iizuka - New Japan PPV 12/14/00 New Japan vs All Japan delivers another classic in this tag match pitting the 2000 G-1 Tag League Winners against the All Japan stalwarts. Nagata & Iizuka come out with Sasaki and Liger immediately this match has a big fight feel. At first, Fuchi cowers away from the younger, Iizuka using the ropes to his advantage. I have never seen Iizuka match and just know him as the dude that the Steiners took liberties with at Wrestlewar '92. He has a predilection for the sleeper. Nagata tags in and brings the fight to Fuchi, who tags out to Kawada. Kawada and Nagata duke it out on the mat in a very gritty exchange. Kawada, cocky as ever, goes for hamstring stretches so Nagata kicks him in the face. The ref admonishes Nagata allowing Kawada to retaliate with a kick to the face of his own. We leave this exchange feeling both are equals. Fuchi mans up and hits a kneecrusher on Iizuka and transformed into the cockiest bastard ever. He lays Iizuka on the middle turnbuckles where he stands on Iizuka's neck and legs. Kawada puts him in a half-crab, which in typical Kawada fashion involves him stepping in his head and nearly breaking him in half. Fuchi gets in on the action by standing on Iizuka's head with the look that says "What the fuck are you going to do about it, Nagata?" Fuchi puts Iizuka in the half-crab so Nagata lights him up. This gives Kawada the chance to floor him with a jumping kick. So now Kawada and Fuchi take turns beating the shit out of Nagata on the floor while the other keeps Iizuka at bay. That's fuckin bitchin' tag wrestling. The crowd is behind Iizuka and I love how you see Sasaki urging Nagata on while he is fallen in the corner. Nagata tries to interfere, but just collapses. You really get the feeling what is one the line here. It is New Japan versus All Japan and New Japan lost the first battle when Kawada beat their champion. Iizuka is able to hit a suplex on Fuchi and he grabs a sleeper on him. Kawada breaks it up, but Fuchi falls outside the ring. While Kawada is checking on Fuchi, Iizuka tags Nagata. I loved that sequence so much. Kawada knows he is in enemy territory and cant afford to lose Fuchi. Nagata tells Kawada to bring it, don't sing it. Kawada hits a big boot and lariat for two. Kawada goes for the back drop driver, but Nagata gets some jumping high kicks to rock him. Kawada is just masterful at selling these. Nagata gets a German, but Kawada hits his spinning heel kick. Kawada hits the back drop driver, but only gets two. Liger cheers the kick out. This is such a cool atmosphere. Kawada applies the stretch plum and the crowd seems very nervous that All Japan will go over again. Kawada with a boot to Iizuka and goes for the powerbomb, but Nagata blocks and kicks Kawada's knee, an eye for an eye. Nagata applies the Nagatalock. Fuchi, remember that badass mutha, staggers in and breaks it up. However, both the All Japan boys end up in leg submissions. Kawada punches Iizuka in the head to make the ropes. When Fuchi is released, he collapses in the corner looking for a tag even though his not legal and Kawada is not there. I need to watch more Fuchi because after being the cockiest bastard ever he is selling like a million bucks. Not to be outdone, Kawada keeps collapsing on German suplex attempts before doing a jumping kick out of it. Kawada tags the limping Fuchi. Fuchi dropkicks Iizuka's knee hoping to regain that advantage. He hits two back drop drivers on Iizuka. Fuchi grabs his own sleeper on Iizuka to give him a taste of his own medicine. Kawada stretch plum on Nagata and Fuchi switches to stretch plum. I love mirror spots! I don't know Japanese, but it sounds like the time calls are getting closer together. Iizuka and Fuchi knock heads on a criss cross exchange. One last Kawada/Nagata exchange and they rip into each other with vicious face slaps. Nagata ends up gets the better of it and applies a cross-armbreaker. Fuchi stands on Nagata's head to break it up as the time limit expires. WHAT A WAR! First, my new dream team is Masa Fuchi and Tony Atlas. Whenever, Atlas played FIP they could have had Fuchi walk on him to revitalize him. Seriously, this was a fantastic that used everybody to their best potential. They highlighted the Kawada/Nagata showdowns in such a way they came off as a big deal, but without feeling like we did not see any action. Fuchi's work in this was excellent and I really need to watch more of his stuff. I loved the Iizuka FIP, which actually became a double FIP where both Iizuka and Nagata were in peril. That was some really ingenious booking. It is the type of stuff you only get to see in puro tags. The finish was great with Kawada and Nagata trading stuff in a logical, violent fashion. I loved Fuchi's and Kawada's selling at the end. It really took the match to whole new level. The ending with Nagata and Kawada slapping teh fuck each other in a race against the clock was so dramatic. It just had to end as a draw. ****1/2

Dustin Rhodes vs Rick Rude - WCW Beach Blast 1993 Vacant US Title 30 Minute Iron Man Match In 1993, it is a sad truth, but Rick Rude had no business going 30 minutes anymore. It is an incredibly precipitous decline given how bitchin' his 1992 Beach Blast 30 minute Iron Man with Steamboat was. Rude was never going to make anyone's greatest offensive wrestlers list. He always his money stooging and bumping for babyfaces. However, his offense at this point has deteriorated to the point where I having issues suspending my disbelief. Dustin tried his damndest, but it basically looked like he was getting knocked over by a feather at some points. Then you add on top of this they forced to go 30 minutes and you have a recipe for disaster. It is actually a testament to both how good this ended up being. Yes, it is a mediocre match that you do not have tog o out of your way to see, but it should have sucked out loud. They cut a snail's pace, but they were very logical in how they built the match and used a lot of shtick to salvage what would otherwise tedious and boring stretches. They came off as two men who really hated each other with all the jawing, heated early tie-up (love that as a start to a match) taunting and spitting on each other, but unfortunately the action did not always follow suit. Rude took a big back body drop early and was just selling that back so well. We hit the reverse chinlock early on Rude, but Dustin provides a smattering of entertainment with pelvic gyrations mocking Rude. Dustin had kept jumping and landing with all his weight on Rude's back, but he went once to the well too often and ate some knees. The follow-up clothesline Rude hit is what I mean by business-exposing bad offense. You gotta love Rude selling the abs on the hip swivel. ( ASIDE: As a marathon dancer at the clubs of Boston Metro, that one is a particular favorite of mine after about an hour at the club. You go for the hip swivel, sell the back, go for the hip swivel make a half-rotation, sell the back, then you do a full rotation to a big pop. Ok, so one drunk guy popped for it, but I am working on trying to get on a bigger stage.) Rude applies the bearhug and when Dustin tries to pry himself free, he eats a belly-to-belly. Dustin changes his strategy from the back to the leg, which sucks on two fronts. Rude is one of my favorite back sellers and his knee selling is just ok. Secondly, Dustin is not every good at working the knee in this match. His pathetic excuse for an Indian Deathlock is wrapping the legs up and bearhugging it. Rude says fuck this and hits his Rude Awakenin to go up 1-0. The best part of this match is Dustin staggering all over the place whether after this Rude Awakening or after an eye rake later. In a rare show of wrestler patience, Rude waits for him to stagger near him and hits him with the weakest clothesline possible. At this point the heat segment starts to drag because Rude just has nothing to do. They do the tombstone reversal (always a great spot) and Dustin gets a 2. Dustin looks to be mountinga comeback, but he is a bit overszealous and he jumps over the top rope careening to the floor. See all the good spots are there and there are spurts of action, but so much deadtime. Rude gets in his two best offensive moves with a pair of snap suplexes. He goes to the well once too often and Dustin hits a suplex, which Tony sells as a great nearfall. Again, you think he is about to mount his comeback, but Rude pulls his tights so that Dustin takes a header into the top turnbuckle. I love that in this 30 minute match that you see both wrestlers going to the well once too often. They know they have to go 30 minutes no matter what so they keep trying to repeat moves that work to extend themselves to the 30 minutes, but this allows the other wrestler to anticipate the moves. Rude grabs a sleeper and Dustin almost passes out and his hand grazes the mat for a 3rd time, but ref does not call it. "THATS BULL!" - Jesse. Rude hits Dustin with a snot rocket and Dustin retaliates later on with some spit. Rude eye rakes Dustin, who staggers and falls over the top rope. Dustin sells cant seeing as well as Marty Jannetty at Wrestlemania VI (yeah I am single and watch too much wrestling, what of it. ). Rude toys with him, but when he ducks Dustin goes behind and hits the bulldog. It is all knotted up. The race against the clock is on as there is under 5 minutes left. Dustin is clicking on all cylinders: flying elbow, piledriver, lariats. He even avoids Rude off the top and hits a DDT, but tit is too little too late for him to capture the vacant US Title. So after, 27 minutes of sluggish action and 3 minutes of fire, we are left with no US Champion. Hopefully the best of 3 match series will be shorter matches and more entertaining. This match has rep as a total borefest and I don't think I would be quite that harsh. Actually, reading this review back it feels almost too positive that really focuses on the action and positives of the match. What can I say I just have a disposition of relentless optimism. There is a lot of downtime in the match and Rude just does not have enough at this point to carry heat segments. **3/4

Yoshihiro Takayama is all man. I have been a mark for his heelish style in the puroresu scene since I first saw it 6-7 years ago. While I enjoy his individual performances, I don't it always mesh too well if every puro star. However, when it does you get a Match of Decade Contender like 2000 Triple Crown match with Kenta Kobashi. Come enjoy the best of the Bleach Blond & Bad Giant of Japan. http://ridingspacemountain.blogspot.com/20...o-takayama.html 1. All Japan Triple Crown Champion Kenta Kobashi vs Yoshihiro Takayama - All Japan 05/26/00 2. All Japan Triple Crown Champion Genichiro Tenryu vs Keiji Mutoh - Budokan 6/8/01 3. Keiji Mutoh vs Toshiaki Kawada - Champions Carnival 04/01 4. IWGP Champion Kensuke Sasaki vs Toshiaki Kawada - 10/00 Tokoyo Dome Non-Title 5. Kenta Kobashi vs Takao Omori - Champions Carnival Final '00 6. IWGP Heavyweight Champion Genichiro Tenryu vs Kensuke Sasaki - 01/04/00 7. Genichiro Tenryu vs Toshiaki Kawada - Vacant All Japan Triple Crown 10/28/00 8. GHC Champion Yoshihiro Takayama vs Mitsuharu Misawa - Budokan 09/23/02 9. Mitsuharu Misawa vs Yoshihiro Takayama - Vacant GHC Title 04/15/01 10. IWGP Champion Yuji Nagata vs. Yoshihiro Takayma - Tokyo Dome 05/02 11. Keiji Mutoh vs Yuji Nagata - Sumo Hall 08/12/01 G-1 Climax Final 12. Yoshihiro Takayma vs Osamu Nishimura - G-1 Climax Semifinals 13. Yoshihiro Takayama vs Kensuke Sasaki - G-1 Climax Round Robin 14.. Keiji Mutoh & Hiroshi Hase vs Jun Akiyama & Yuji Nagata - Tokyo Dome 10/08/01

Finally finished RAW from this past week. It was a fun show and you usually can count one really good match a week (Reigns/Punk), but it felt like more of a one-off then a show in the story arc, which makes sense given the National Championship. I always enjoy Flair and Cena calling out Orton for having the audacity to call Flair overrated made me smile. I enjoy what they have done with the Orton character basically making him into the common internet perception of him. It has gotten rid of most of the cheers. However, Cena/Orton just has never been appealing to me even though I like both now. The fact that Rey has the turned one of the best bumps in wrestling into a great offensive move speaks to how awesome he is. I am talking about the slide into a belly flop into the outside. I was bit distracted during this match, but it did not seem like they hit their true potential in the match, but they seem to be moving forward with Bryan's heel turn. I liked the fact that Bryan wove in his experience with Kane, but it is too little too late for me. I wonder what Brie thinks of this? Michael Cole posited that question during her match so it is clear that on-screen in this universe that they are engaged. I won't call them out on half-assed soap opera-ness again to give them a chance to rectify this situation, but color me unimpressed again. Why dont the Rhodes boy get promo time? Yeah they have great matches, but lets add a little flavoring to this steak. I enjoyed DDP on the Steve Austin podcast. He is such a natural talking. He just always gets me JAAAAAAAAAAAAAACCCCCCKED! Eat. Sleep. Conquer. Repeat. BROCK ROCKS~! I am disappointed we are not getting the Mark Henry match. I really wanted Sheamus/Brock. When is Sheamus coming back? Alicia Fox is wicked hot (and dangerous). Needed more Summer Rae. The 3MB insert promo was pretty funny. Drew McIntrye stealing the show. Heath Slater is still injured clearly. Too bad would have been way better with some classic Slater bumps. Put in the "Bad News Barrett Sucks" camp. Piper's Pit with The Shield I thought was the best segment by far. Rollins seemed way more comfortable on the mic. Ambrose was pretty funny at the beginning. Piper was in classic form stirring the shit between The Shield. Really good stuff. Punk vs Reigns, I was really amped for this match. I have been a huge Reigns mark since the get-go and thought he was the best suited to parlay this run into a big push and not just because how he looked. He understood how to make the most out of every interaction in the ring and how to sell his moves. The howl before the spear and the punch to the ground before the Superman Punch are just plain bitchin'. I don't think they hit their full potential in this match, but I thought it was a very good first offering in hopefully what will be many more matches. The rib work by Reigns was very solid, but I think Punk could have done a little more to keep the crowd involved however as someone pointed out that may have been a lost cause as this Baltimore crowd kinda sucked. The Reigns superman punch off the Punk springboard clothesline was a thing of beauty. I liked Reigns winning, but with some help from Ambrose. So is Reigns the better wrestler or was this The Shield as a unit? Reigns gets too big for his britches, but Ambrose and Rollins claim that unit is stronger than the individual should be good. Jake The Snake as the final surprise was shocking and got a pretty good reaction. Given that they will be in Mid-South territory for Wrestlemania, I presume he is a lock for the HOF, but can he headline? Given that reaction, maybe. Especially if you stack him with the Midnight Express and The Fabulous Freebirds, oh wait that only appeals to us.

Yoshihiro Takayama vs Osamu Nishimura - G-1 Climax '02 Semi-finals I wanted to like this, but it came off feeling too much like exhibition to me. There was no real sense of struggle or urgency until the latter stages of the match. There is no doubt that Nishimura was over like rover with the crowd, but I did not get the sense he really cared about winning the match. He seemed kind of like a hot dog showboat. I love Takayama, but he sort of just let Nishimura do stuff to him to pop the crowd. Nishimura has some neat little mat stuff, but it is way too cute for my taste. What bugged me the most about Nishimura' performance is how he totally no sold the cross armbreaker while in the hold. Talking about killing the drama. Even though, the crowd loved Nishimura, there seemed to be something so detestable about him. He just seemed so smug to me. Towards the end when Nishimura did a knee drop on Takayama's knee and then the figure-4, Takayama's selling finally drew me in. It finally felt like two people trying to win a match. Of course, I am going to call a spade a spade and Takayama just dropped the knee selling after that, which bothered me because Takayama working from underneath was an interesting dynamic. I have never seen Nishimura before but something about him did irk me so I did take personal pleasure when Takayama said enough with this bitchy little kicks and chopped the fuck out of his chest. Then he just chucks him across the ring twice. God Bless Takayama! That was pretty much the end of Nishimura. Nishimura get an ab stretch pin for a false finish that crowd bites on. Takayama, undeterred, hits him with an Everest German to pick up the victory. Having only watched one match of Nishimura, I will continue to have an open mind about him that withstanding I was very underwhelmed by this match. It was a refreshing change of pace to see long stretches of matwork and no lariats, but I have seen better versions of this match and it really could have been so much more. There was plenty of good wrestling, but once again it felt like a Nishimura matwork exhibition. I thought Takayama supplied all the best parts and was the only one interested in selling during the majority of the match. It would have been cool to see Takayama work underneath if it was against a less self-indulgent opponent. It is a hard match to rate, but I will say ***1/4.

Skipping the Beach Blast Iron Man because it is 30 mins and I have puro to watch. Dustin Rhodes & Hawk vs Rick Rude & Equalizer - Clash of the Champions 24 You have to watch the bad to appreciate the good. I wish Equalizer's name was The Great Equalizer. I had never seen the Equalizer/Evad Sullivan before he kinda looks like a fat Michael Hayes or a Moondog. The spot that best exemplifies the match is when Hawk goes a reverse neckbreaker on Equalizer and Equalizer loses his balance and just falls. I have not had such a good laugh in awhile. The babyface team was perfectly fine and energetic. It was cool to see Dustin hit the Doomsday Device, but it was oddly used as a transition move. Rude was great at stooging, but it was all over, but the crying for him. The heat segment was pathetic with a clueless Equalizer and a decrepit Rude. Was Equalizer's gimmick was he was an absolute moron? Hawk just ignores the ref and fucks the heel team press slamming Rude onto Equalizer. Hawk shoulderblocks Dustin on top of Equalizer for the win. Why wasnt the Doomsday Device the finish? Bad, bad match.

Genichiro Tenryu vs Satoshi Kojima - Budokan 02/24/02 Kojima is still wicked over with the fans. I actually listen to wrestling podcasts while listening to these puro matches, but still have the volume up high enough on the match to hear sound effects. The only chants loud to hear are the Kojima ones. I have no problem tuning out Japanese commentary completely so that undercurrent does not affect my ability to listen to the podcasts. Tenryu is more game than Kawada it seems to carry Kojima to a great match, but still it does not reach MOTYC levels for me. Again, I thought the beginning of the match was the best part. Tenryu was so good at looking down at Kojima. The way he brushes aside one of Kojima's chops is awesome. Then he backs Kojima against the ropes and lets Kojima cover up waiting for the chop only to look like a tool when it never comes. Then the next times he chops the bejeezus out of him in the corner. Basically, Tenryu is awesome, but we already knew that. Kojima "proves" his mettle sending Tenryu tumbling to outside with some forearms and a diving forearm. He does his somersault splash. After a chinlock, Tenryu hits his own somersault splash on Kojima. In a weird moment, Kojima heads for the hilsl, but seems to be spooked by the specter of Giant Baba at the end of the ramp. It is weird because Kojima seems like a babyface to the crowd and because puroresu does not usually that device. Tenryu wrangles him back in and just punches and chops the shit out of him. Kojima resorts to his base instincts: Ace Crusher, Ace Crusher, Ace Crusher! Ok, it was only two, but one was a shitty one off the apron. In a really cool spot, Tenryu tries to enter the ring and Kojima lariats his knee. That spot should be cribbed. Once again, the knee work does not follow to a neat conclusion. Kojima really is a shitty version of Mutoh. Tenryu regains the advantage and hits his wicked sweet spider German/back elbow combo. Tenryu goes back to head games with some playful slaps and Kojima reacts with a scoop piledriver. I love how Kojima hits this weird neckbreaker and afterwards Tenryu just punches him to get the advantage. Tenryu brainbuster leads to a double KO. Tenryu wins a chopfest to get a powerbomb, but only gets 2. Kojima lets out a roar, but then Flair Flops. Huge Kojima chants! Tenryu polishes him off with a brainbuster. This was a big improvement over the Kawada match because of Tenryu's consistency. The whole match he was playing head games with Kojima about his inexperience and his inferiority. Kojima would power up, but he would never be able to sustain momentum because he lacked the experience. Why hit a weird move when you can just punch someone in the face? Kojima is a bit all over the place on offense, but is good at puro fighting spirit selling. He is a more expressive, but spottier version of Mutoh. I actually really dug the finish where he looks like he is going to do the fighting spirit hulk-up, but just collapses. It shows Kojima has a lot of heart, but does not have the brains yet. ***1/2

There is about 6 minutes of the Bock/Andre available. Andre bumps around for Bock well. It is fun for what it is worth.

I was looking through some WCW 1993 results and I saw that Jim Neidhart & Junkyard Dog teamed not once, but TWICE! That sounds so awful that I feel almost compelled to see it.

Keiji Mutoh is one of the most hit or miss wrestlers I have ever encountered. Sometimes I will be left shaking my head in shock at someone who can be so talented could shit the bed so hard. Other times, I will be who is this wrestler and what did he do with Mutoh. I do think his 2001 stuff holds up for the most part. I am most impressed that someone at his age not only revamped his image, but reinvented who he was a wrestler. I thought he delivered a classic with Kawada and then a real Match of the Decade contender against Tenryu. Check it out in 2001: Shining Wizard! http://ridingspacemountain.blogspot.com/20...eiji-mutoh.html

Wow, did you guys all miss it or too busy looking Summer Rae's bitchin' dress? Fandango/Langston was pretty damn good. I thought they earned match of the night honors over a very good Bryan/Harper match. I thought Langston looked great in his shine in how explosive he was, reminded me of Doc or Hansen. Fandango has elevated his work in past couple weeks after basically doing jack shit since Wrestlemania. The NYC fans basically handed him a push on a silver platter and he did diddly squat with it. The heat segment felt dramatic and Langston was great at being sympathetic. Big E has such a shitty finish though. BROCK/HENRY!!!!!!! O fuck, I went BATSHIT for that! I will be buying the Rumble just for that match. Let me preface the following criticism with I DO NOT THINK BRYAN IS BEING BURIED. The Wyatts are the number 3 heel act behind Orton and Lesnar at this point. There is no shame with working with them. The storyline sucks, but yeah the angle does add a nice development. Though my brother pointed out the last person to follow the Wyatts ended up being made COO. My brother said he would willing to join the Wyatts too. The feud just seems so thrown together. I feel like Bray's psychobabble never really tied everything together. The Shield/Punk stuff makes more sense. The Authority sicced the Shield on him because of a pretty transgression. That fits the Authority's MO. I really wish they did something with the fact that before all this Bryan was in Team Hell No and they could have tied all the Kane stuff together. It would give the storyline so more gravitas and flesh it out. It just feels so much like the Cena/Kane storyline from 2011. Kane randomly decides he wants Cena to embrace the hate. At least that makes sense since Cena does get shit on, but it was just weird that Kane was shoehorned into doing the angle. It feels the same way with the Wyatts they have just been shoehorned in here. It is annoying to me because there is easy connection for them to make. The angle won't save the storyline, but at least it will transition it to Bryan destroying the Wyatts from the inside. I will say one thing for all this talk that WWE has a bunch of soap opera writers these are either the shittiest Soap Opera writers or it is the fact that it is hybrid combination of soap opera writers with wrestler input that causes these issues. I watch General Hospital religiously and there is no way they could miss such an obvious transition. WWE is so bad at Soap Opera 101 that I cant believe it is actually written by soap opera writers. To point someone said about a babyface with flaws, I completely agree that a babyface with a tragic flaw is more interesting, but once again this is stupid because in the early summer they established that Bryan had an inferiority complex that fed into a anger issue. Now that was something interesting. They could have built on that. Once again, it is shitty soap opera writing. I am excited at the prospect of The Wyatt Authority where Aurora gets kidnapped and Vince is the Devil That Made Them Do It.