Superstar Sleeze

IWGP Intercontinental Champion Tetsuya Naito vs Hiroshi Tanahashi - NJPW 6/11/17 First Fifteen Minutes: Fucking eh! Best first fifteen minutes I have seen out of New Japan in 2017. Hatred, intensity, energy and great psychology. I love that Tanahashi jumps Naito while Naito is still in his entrance get up. We see a pissed off Tanahashi. I don't think I have seen that before. I loved Tanahashi dropkicking him off the apron. Tanahashi has a sleeve on the arm. He European uppercuts Naito and favors his arm. Naito takes advantage. I love how the crowd is booing everything Naito does. Naito goes for an armbar takedown and is able to dropkick the arm. He takes off his entrance gear to do his signature pose! I love it! Naito does a great job of mixing strong psychology with heel tactics. Holding onto a short arm scissors in the ropes, getting boobs. Spitting on Tanahashi, slapping him in the back of the head. Tanahashi cant take it, double legs him and wails on him and they boo! I love the consistency from the audience. One Japanese teenager gives Tanahashi a polite golf clap as he spits on Naito. Awesome! I love Tanahashi getting gnarly. He goes for the leg, but Naito fights it off. Springboard dropkick to the arm. NICE! Naito goes for that signature Jeff Hardy like mule kick in the corner and Tanahashi CATCHES HIM INTO A DRAGON LEG WHIP! I marked out so hard. Single leg trip to the outside. Dragon leg screw. HIGH FLY FLOW TO THE OUTSIDE! Tanahashi goes for the Texas Cloverleaf, but cant get it. Another dragon leg screw, but Naito blocks and wrings Tanahashi down by the arm. I am loving Naito commitment to the arm and being a heel. SWEET running dropkick to the arm. He gets his mule kick right to the arm. Last Ten Minutes: Naito continues the good arm work, holds, attacking in a chickenwing, backbreaker on the arm. Top Rope Frakensteiner, but Tanahashi rolls through. Good hope spot. HIGH FLY FLOW! Crashes and burns. Amazing selling by Tanahashi. I have to say that throughout this match great selling by Tanahashi. Slaps are exchanged. I always forget that a strike exchange has to happen. Tanahashi gets a great Human Capture Suplex out of this. His arm cant hold up. Naito gets a tornado DDT, German Suplex and a Destino. Three head drops, BUT Tanahashi survives! Naito goes for Destino again like at 1/4, but Tanahashi's arm cant hold up. The arm work worked against Naito! Sling Blade! Nakamura's taunt?!? HIGH FLY FLOW! 1-2-NO! TEXAS CLOVERLEAF! Naito taps out. What the hell! A submission victory in Japan, when the hell does that ever happen. New Japan MOTY of 2017. Hiroshi Tanahashi does it again. He is the greatest of his generation. ****3/4

I agree with Sek, the first pop that came to my mind was the pop Austin gets for coming out to help Mankind is insane because it is NOT just the noise, it is the visual of every single person POPPING out of their seat too.

IWGP Intercontinental Champion Hiroshi Tanahashi vs Kota Ibushi - NJPW 11/5/17 First Fifteen Minutes: Tanahashi 101 in all its glory. I could watch Tanahashi do his thing forever. It is such great meat & potatoes pro wrestling. It is all set up by a very even start on the mat. Ibushi thinks he as an opening for his Triple Jump Moonsault to the outside, but it is way too early for that. He comes down and BAM Tanahashi dropkicks his knee while Ibushi is on the apron. Great transition. Great selling from Ibushi. It is classic Tanahashi legwork. There is a great spot where Tanahashi misses an elbow drop then Ibushi does the whiff kick and goes for the standing moonsault, but Tanahashi moves and he drops down straight leg on his knees and then does a great sell. Another great spot is when Tanahashi goes for that classic baseball slide and Ibushi instead hits a double stomp. Good Ibushi fire while still selling the leg on his dropkicks and kicks. Frankensteiner sends Tanahashi out now he hits the moonsault to the floor. Tanahashi gets the dragon leg whip in the ropes. Deep Texas Cloverleaf and Ibushi makes the ropes. This is just great classic pro wrestling. It is something Tanahashi truly excels at. Ibushi is striking the right balance between selling and not dying with good hope spots. Very solid thus far. Final Fifteen Minutes: Ibushi keeps going for bombs too early. Here is a German from the apron back into the ring. Tanahashi fights out this leaves him prey to the dragon leg screw in the ropes. HIGH FLY FLOW TO THE OUTSIDE! I love that spot so much because he is lands so high up on the body. Tanahashi goes for the High Fly Flow in the ring, but Pele Kick knocks him loopy. Now it is time to go for bombs: Top Rope Frankensteiner. HE LAUNCHES TANAHASHI LIKE A LAWN DART INTO THE TURNBUCKLES. Crazy spot! He gets that German he was looking for. Phoenix Splash for the win??? Crashes and burns. Really damn good strike exchange. Those slaps were great and varied they told a great story of Tanahashi trying to demoralize the defiant Ibushi and Ibushi trying to stand up to the Ace. One of the best strike exchanges I have ever seen. Ibushi hits a Last Ride. There is a weird miscoummunication. Tanahashi gets the Sling Blade, Dragon Suplex and two High Fly Flows to capture the win. Just a great Tanahashi outing. His formula executed perfectly, Ibushi made mistakes going for big moves early. He would get the big moves later which showed he needed patience. Ultimately, Phoenix Splash miss did him in and even though he remained defiant, Tanahashi was the one who strung together his winning combination to take the match. Stellar match. ****1/4

IWGP Heavyweight Champion Kazuchika Okada vs Katsuyori Shibata - NJPW 4/9/17 Don't know how long this goes, but on the off chance we are going long. Lets break this up. First Fifteen Minutes: Thank God for Shibata! A dude who when he has a wrestling gimmick actually wrestles. Unlike 95% of the people where "wrestler" gimmicks just means workrate. The opening section seems to me to be where Shibata is trying to get into Okada's head by showing Okada that he is clearly the superior wrestler. This can negate a lot of that championship advantage by eroding away Okada's confidence. Shibata was countering and taking Okada down at will. Full mount ride. Inviting Okada to mount him. Cross armbreaker attempt. Tricked out escapes. Shibata showed up the champ. Okada is the International WRESTLING Grand Prix Champion and Shibata just showed the whole world is a whole lot better at wrestling than Okada. So what is Okada to do? In my mind, I am thinking dropkick. To me, that's his great equalizer. Okada goes a different route. He does not give a clean break and goes for forearms in the corner. Normally, I would say punching someone in the mouth is a good strategy, but you are playing right into Shibata's hand. Shibata says you want to play that way I can play that way. Shibata proceeds to kick off Okada's head and win a forearm exchange pretty handily. For some reason, Shibata is committed to the ground attack. Figure-4, Inoki Indian Deathlock. Taking out the legs should take out the dropkick, the biggest Okada weapon. Of course, the Okada dropkicking his opponent off the top rope comes here. Didn't love it. Okada needed something, but I think a more out of nowhere dropkick to the head would have been better, but I completely agree that Okada needed offense to avoid dying. Okada presses the advantage and gets a Hangmans DDT off the railing. This is what you need to do against shooters. Create advantages and hit bombs. Okada ends the first fifteen minute with one of his neck cranks. I love the layout thus far. I think Shibata's nonchalant shooter attitude is great. Okada is slipping between good Okada (great selling) and bad Okada (apathy). What is killing me right now is I am not seeing a lot of intensity. It definitely felt more like a sparring exhibition early and it feels like some things are being down at half-speed without urgency. I definitely don't see a perfect match right now, but with a strong finish run I think MOTYC is very possible with this strong of an open. Second Ten Minutes: Okada holds onto the neck crank extra long even in the face of the rope break. I think that demonstrates that Okada takes Shibata seriously. The whole Shibata inviting Okada to elbow him and then Shibata fells him with one blow was a perfectly fine spot, but it doesn't go anywhere. Okada ends up taking control a couple minutes later with a big boot. I like how Okada has to earn his finish run. Shibata blocks the top rope elbow drop and tombstone before Okada hits the flapjack and then Okada gets the top rope elbow drop. Rainmaker->Shibata STO. Then they go into a strike exchange where Okada fares a lot better. I think this is to show Okada is getting tougher and Shibata is fading. Okada gets a neckbreaker and then a missile dropkick, but Shibata gets a double wristlock out of nowhere as we close out the second ten minutes. The layout is good. Some superfluous stuff but that is fine. Just does not feel exciting to me. Everything feels routine and nonchalant. Last Seventeen Minutes: Here they crank it up! After the double wristlock some really good kicks to the bad arm and then that wicked THWACK to back of Okada's head. Okada has had enough of this fucking disrespect. They sit cross legged and just slap the shit out of each other. Okada finally fires up! This is the fire I have been waiting for. BOMBFEST ensues and it is a damn good one. Okada goes for Rainmaker fights through strikes and Shibata eats it, but doesn't go down. Shibata HEADBUTTS Okada. This results in a career-ending injury. Which is a shame because shoot headbutts never look that great and really aren't worth it. Shibata gets an Octopus and then a sleeper. Okada is selling these for all they are worth. Shibata with a Rainmaker Slap! I LOVE IT! Shibata holding onto the wrist and delivering those kicks was great. Shibata is so damn good at kicking. Shibata goes for the big one and turns his back to run and Okada holds onto the wrist RAINMAKER~! MARK OUT CITY! I loved the last Rainmaker with Shibata cocked and loaded on an elbow but Okada lands the Rainmaker Lariat for the win. Too much filler in the middle to call this a perfect match. They were wrestling at half speed in the front half while it was a good layout. It was mostly superfluous. They could have just went from the opening matwork to the finish and had an amazing 20-25 minute match. I thought Shibata's offense did not really progress until the last seventeen minutes. I liked Okada's performance a lot. Great selling and great at putting over how much of a threat Shibata is. Okada slowly making in roads and slowly becoming tougher was great. The finish run was intense, high energy fireworks spectacle. Shibata was the cocky shooter that did not take shit seriously until it was too late. He could have put Okada away early but kept toying and in doing so sapped his own energy. Okada started gaining more and more confidence. Even though, Shibata looked to have it in the bag, his arrogance did him in as he mistakenly let Okada grab his wrist. Great story of a shooter's hubris and the resiliency of a pro wrestler. ****1/2

I saw this thread and I was like Holy Midcard, Batman! Then it dawned on me that I watched this match and was fucking atrocious. So many stilted spots and everything just seemed out of sorts. Totally forgot about this match and how terrible it was. I popped for "It's not hot!"

Phil calling this CrossFit wrestling and deriding it is exactly what I have been trying to articulate. So thank you and yes this style sucks. What is so annoying about this style is that it is both too fast and too slow. Way too much dramatic selling in between spots. But then during the action there is NO struggle so it is too fast. IWGP Heavyweight Champion Kazuchika Okada vs Kenny Omega - NJPW 1/4/17 I have reached Pro Wrestling Nirvana...I don't know what to do now...lol...nah. Long match lets break it down First Fifteen Minutes: I have not seen Okada since 2015. Dude has improved LIGHT YEARS! Way more expressive. He is no longer a stone-faced, apathetic douche. He is interesting, sympathetic babyface. Very happy to see that. Kenny Omega's Terminator entrance was pretty good, not as good as Hunter's but a good try. Strong perfunctory New Japan opening matwork. I liked the solid side headlock and the nearfall attempts. Omega avoiding Okada's dropkick, Okada avoiding Omega's finish, then Omega avoiding the Rainmaker Lariat was a good sequence. Big complaint about the match: NO STRUGGLE! Omega gets back in and then gets kicked in the head in seated position. How did Okada earn his position on top? In fairness the next big spot, which is like a minute later (way too much over dramatic selling) Omega does block the suplex only to eat a Hangman's DDT. I really liked Okada crossbody over the railing on Omega. I thought Okada wrestled really strong in the first third. Omega's was not doing too much. Again, Omega does NOT really earn his heat segment. It just sort of happens. Okada is AMAZING at selling those forearms to the back. Neither guy should be doing a strike exchange. Get another Omega finish tease. Omega hits the AJ Styles dive to the outside. Then bodyslams Okada into the apron. Okada is pretty much ruling everything right now. Omega looks like every other video game wrestler. Second Fifteen Minutes: I am in utter shock this got six stars. I was expecting something like Cena/Owens on steroids. This is so plodding and meandering. Omega hits a dropkick to the back of head. Looked awesome. I hate moves where people stand around and look dazed. Dean Ambrose elbow to a standing opponent comes to mind. Match meanders until Okada hits a suplex thingy out of nowhere. Okada's fire is great on his comeback. He really does look awesome. Omega has a funny way of feeding for him. He just keeps running at him full speed. He seems like a massive toolbox. I have to be fair Okada applies and absolutely terrible submission. He does not wrap the legs right at all and then gives Omega a shoulder massage. What the fuck. Anyways, Okada misses the elbow drop. Backbreaker. People made a point to talk about the back psychology but I don't really feel like it has been present. This is definitely about the few and far between high spots. Okada ends up over the railing, Omega does a cool moonsault. I am not trying to be an asshole. It is legitimately cool moonsault. DOUBLE STOMP ON TABLE! Ok, we are getting better. Powerbomb->1-2->KICKOUT! They do the big sell. Okada is dead. Omega cant believe it and there bodies are entangled. THERE IS TWENTY FUCKING MINUTES LEFT IN THIS MATCH AND THEY GO FOR THAT SELL! ARE YOU SHITTING ME? More stuff happens. Okada hits that dropkick to an opponent perched on the top and Omega takes a nasty spill. FINALLY! A good transition. They tease Okada putting Omega through a table that does not happen. Last Fifteen Minutes: I lost track of everything. Things I remember: Omega taking a nutty backdrop over the top rope through a table. Awesome spot. There was a super Dragon Suplex. Awesome spot. A Dragonrana. Great spot. I thought this was definitely the best fifteen minutes because they dropped all pretenses and just had a spotfest. There was some unnecessary melodrama here and there, but they tightened thing up for the most part and delivered an exciting finish. There was even some struggle with Okada hitting a Rainmaker through a barrage of kicks. Omega stealing all of Okada's stuff was kinda lame. I was actually pretty happy Okada won because he is clearly a better wrestler and Omega is a tool. All in all, I feel like I should apologize to Cena & Owens. I bitched and moaned about their spotfest, but at least it was exciting and action-packed. This was both too fast and too slow at the same time. Tons of downtime trying milk drama but nothing had any consequence. Then when the spots did happen they usually happened way too fast without any struggle. Omega just running at Okada to feed almost every spot was hilarious. You look like a fucking moron, dude. There were enough good highspots from Omega to say and enough good work from Okada to say this is good, but not even great. Okada does look like a world class pro wrestler now. Great selling, great fire, damn good moveset. It is not even the opponent. Omega could be a good wrestler. The layout was brutal. I actually believe these two can go 45 minutes. They have enough stuff. It is just the pacing was terrible and nothing had any consequence. Yeah there was some loose back psychology and the fact that Omega was desperately trying to unseat Okada, but nothing mattered until the end. Why not just do a ten minute sprint? Length does not mean strength. ***1/4

IWGP Intercontinental Champion Tetsuya Naito vs Hiroshi Tanahashi - NJPW 1/4/17 GO ACE! When did Tanahashi get old? Tanahashi is chicken soup for the traditional pro wrestling fan's soul. I saw this was going to go about 30 minutes from the timestamps and I kinda groaned. I never checked the time again. They had me the whole time. There is something just so logical about Tanahashi's matches that keeps me engaged and never lets my mind wander. They don't do the perfunctory amateur wrestling open (has that been scrapped?). Instead they opt for showing up each other. Naito forces Tanahashi to duck outside the ring so he does his signature taunt. Back in Tanahashi tags him with a dropkick and Tanahashi does his air guitar taunt. Naito was a fabulous heel in the front half of the match. Sadly that waned over time. We got an irreverent attitude with plenty of cheating: hair pulling, eye rakes and spitting. I hate spitting so that's an easy way to get over as a heel in my book. Tanahashi goes for a reverse crossbody, but Naito dropkicks the knee. Tanahashi does a great job selling and feeding the knee for Naito's offense. There is some cute shit like having the ref hold Tanahashi's leg while he kicks it, but it is mostly traditional hard work. Naito does a great job working in those aforementioned heel tendencies. Tanahashi never dies. WWE wrestlers need to learn this lesson. Naito uses the knee as a cutoff. Now anybody who has watched Tanahashi knows what is coming. Tanahashi attacks the knee. It is Tanahashi 101. I loved the SlingBlade on the apron (GREAT SPOT) and then a fucking FANTASTIC HIGH FLY FLOW from the top rope to the floor. He really wipes out Naito. It is modern pro wrestling so there are some things I would switch the order of, but overall it is good work. I really liked the Naito keylock on the bad knee (think a short arm scissors but on the leg) and then Tanahashi converting this into a Cloverleaf. Once Naito makes the ropes, Tanahasi goes all in on the High Fly Flow. I love people that jump into the High Fly Flow. He misses the second one. Since turning heel, Naito has a new shitty finisher. Ugh. It is like an even worse version of Selena Del Sol. he gets one, but on the second one Tanahashi hits a Drift Away. I hate that move too. Strike exchange. These two just should not do strike exchanges. They kick each other's knees. DRAGON SUPLEX! Tanahashi hits High Fly Flow! Second one, eats knees! Naito ENZIGUIRI! Destino (I think that's name)-> Kick out! Destino again gets the victory. I loved the first twenty-twenty-two minutes of this. Just great escalating action with strong body psychology and strong face/heel dynamics. Last five minutes was alright. I am not going to hold the Destino against Naito even though I don't like those moves I can check that at the door. I think the Destino off the ropes should have been the finish. I actually thought this was very tasteful in regards to false finish. It was really just that Destino and then second did Tanahashi in. There was really no big Tanahashi nearfall. I feel like the last five minutes was kinda tacked on to an excellent match and it didn't really climax, but they lost that face/heel dynamic that was really driving the heat early. Enough excellent work early on to make this an easy recommendation. ****1/4

Antonio Inoki vs The Great Muta - NJPW 5/1/84 Fukuoka Dome To me this was the whole point of over one year long Great Muta IWGP Title Reign was to set up this match for Inoki's Final Countdown! Think about it Chono never gets this match. Hashimoto never gets this match. Keiji Mutoh does not get this match. The Great Muta gets this match. The Great Muta is the last great character of the Inoki era. Inoki vs Muta main events the Fukuoka Dome drawing 53000+ showing that Muta is a worthy challenger. One of things I like about Inoki is clearly likes the theatre elements of pro wrestling. Even though he is a strait-laced shooter and loves shooting, he also loves wildmen characters. The Great Muta is the last of his kind. On paper, you would think this is probably going to suck, but you also know there is an outside chance this is going to be incredible. It is not the hidden gem that is Great Muta vs Tatsumi Fujinami from 1991. Lots and lots of stalling from Muta in the beginning. Inoki is clearly getting up there in age and he has to work around his limitations. Early matwork is tepid. The match picks up at the ten minute mark when GREEN MIST~! OH NO DOUBLE MIST~! Suplex on the ramp, running lariat on the ramp, which is silly, but I like it. Piledriver on the table! Muta claws open Inoki's forehead to get some blood flowing. It is pretty slow in between spots, but Muta is building drama and is getting violent. Violent Muta >>>> Stalling Muta. Inoki gets an enziguiri on the floor and then a kappo kick in the ring. He has life. There is this stupid rope ladder. That Muta tried to climb early in the match and know here he tries to use it dropkick Inoki does not work. At least he chokes him with it. Inoki grabs a sleeper, but the ref declares it is a choke and makes him break. Inoki reaches down to pick up Muta GREEN MIST~! OH SHIT! BACKBREAKER! MOONSAULT 1-2-NO! BACKBREAKER! MOONSAULT! 1-2-NO! The Dome is rocking because Inoki is knocking! Inoki sidesteps the back handspring elbow. Choke->pin 1-2-3! That actual finish was a bit anticlimactic, but that mist->backbreaker->moonsault run was hot! If they JIP this ten minutes in right at the first Mist, you could be fooled into thinking this is a good match. Mist, blood, piledrivers this was the bare minimum to send everyone home happy. Inoki just didn't seem to have much to offer and Muta did the best he could. Still a HUGE match in the grand scheme of things. It shows how BIG The Great Muta character had become. He wrestled HULK HOGAN and ANTONIO INOKI in back to back Donakatu Dome Shows (Early May Dome Shows). Goes to show you that The Great Muta character was a huge deal in Japan.

IWGP Tag Team Champions The Steiner Brothers vs Hiroshi Hase & Kensuke Sasaki - NJPW 5/31/91 Crash The Super Heavy! The Steiners lifted the tag belts off Hase & Sasaki at the Dome in March. This is the rematch. The Steiners are in matching pinstripes, which is unusual for the Steiners. Hase is fired up. Crowd is behind Hase. Inoki is in attendance. Hase and Scotty are always a good pairing. Lots of great amateur sequences early. I love the heel pick ups and counters. Hase ahas the best when he nails an enziguiri sending Scotty out of the ring. Hase misses a dropkick. I love the urgency from Scotty with that quick elbow drop. Big Oklahoma Slam on Hase. He sets Hase on the top rope never give your opponent the high ground. Hase makes him pay. Hase rocks him with a punch. Nasty hotshot by Scott on Hase. This is an electric opening. Scott goes for multiple covers. Nice bridge by Hase. I love bridges. Hase gets a spinning heel kick, but Scott gets a throw tags in Rick. Rick barks at the moon! Sasaki in. Rick Steiner has ONE OF THE BEST German Suplexes you will ever see! Sasaki sells this by teasing a countout loss on the outside. That German deserves all the selling in the world and Sasaki does it justice. Scotty throws Kensuke back in. Sasaki bullies Rick back into Hase's corner and they hit a double clothesline. Good tag strategy especially after eating that German. Hase grinds Rick's arm. Rick breaks free with punches and then a belly to belly. I really don't think Sasaki & Hase can win a bomb throwing game. SASAKI WITH A BULLDOG! Maybe I am wrong. He is going for a tombstone. The old tombstone reversal and Rick DRILLS Kensuke into the mat. Sasaki fires back with some great punches. He is teeing off and Rick does a great job making Kensuke earn the pop and that leads to a bigger pop. Scott comes in before the tag. There is a great scuffle here. Scott is worried about Rick. In the fracas, Rick and Kensuke clothesline each other. Rick tags in Scott. It is a pump handle slam. This had to be Sasaki & Hase's biggest worry a fresh Scotty Steiner. They do the hoist up and elbow drop for two as Hase saves. They have Sasaki firmly in their corner. Things get chippy between Scotty & Hase. Scott bowls Sasaki over with the POUNCE! Period. I liked Monty Brown. Scott applies a Dragon Sleeper. This has been great tag wrestling from Steiners. Really keeping Kensuke in their half. Over head belly to belly. Now it is Rick's turn and it is from the middle rope. Chinlock. I would say that this has been better than Dome due to more zip on the moves and more chippiness. It seems more like a struggle than the Dome. Kensuke gets a superplex and then Hase does his best Beautiful Bobby impression flying into the screen with a diving kneedrop on Scotty. Kensuke applies the Scorpion Deathlock. Bad idea. Should have tagged. Hase wipes out Rick from interfering. Lots of drama as they fight on the floor. Rick breaks free. Kensuke breaks hold to LARIAT RICK! Kensuke re-applies the hold! I love it! Big struggle over the ropes. That was well done. Scotty nails a Tiger Driver. Yep it is the Steiners and I love it! Tag to big brother Rick. Inverted Oklahoma Stampede. Rick drops Kensuke on his head with an inverted suplex. Kensuke responds with his own powerslam. Kensuke needs a tag in the worst way. Double tag! Scotty hits a tilt-a-whirl slam. So much for a Hase hot tag. The crowd has been quenched. Uncle Slam from the top rope. Top rope over head belly to belly. Hase hits an urnage! Northern Lights! 1-2-no! Kensuke dropkick. Hase/Scotty dropkick at the same time. Rick puts Hase on his shoulders Top rope DDT! Sasaki saves! WHAT THE FUCK?!? FRANKENSTEINER! 1-2-3! Some people say that this had better structure. I think I know what you all mean, but it is not the word I would use. I thought this had better energy. Everything had zip on it. Everything felt urgent. The chippiness between teams. The constant flesh on flesh, knockdown drag out fights gave this some extra heat. Definitely one of the better Steiner matches. Some really damn good power spots and I LOVE power wrestling. ****

Shinya Hashimoto vs Tony Halme - NJPW 9/23/91 Different Style Fight SWEEP THE LEG SHINYA! This feud was very instrumental into giving Hashimoto that legit badass credibility he needed to draw in New Japan. In no other promotion was it more important to be legit. Losing two in a row to Halme and getting KO'd in the second fight and missing four months was actually a big boon to Hashimoto because it gave him a mountain to climb. This is the revenge match! Tony Halme looks like Brock Lesnar and Brian Knobbs had a baby. He is wearing boxing gloves. Again I love his presence in the ring. Very imposing. Shinya Hashimoto looks like a sexy Bray Wyatt at the point in his career. He is all business. Halme's punches are a bit better. I don't left his left jab. It is not always straight. He kinda slaps with it in a poor backfist. When he threw it straight it was better. Hashimoto gets some nice single leg/back heel trip takedowns. But Halme always makes the ropes. Hashimoto makes good in roads by targeting the legs with kicks. This is less interesting in the first because it is all about Hashimoto winning and Halme does not land any really big shots in the first two rounds. At the end of the third round, he clubs Hashimoto in the back of the head which draws a chorus of boos to which Halme yells "Fuck you too!" I love it. Scorpio and Benoit are his cornermen! That's crazy. Fourth round is quick. Hashimoto rocks him with an elbow, Halme tries to show it does not phase him by taunting him by giving him his chin so Hashimoto SWEEPS THE LEG! Pro wrestling time Rainbow heel kick...picks him up...DDT...cross armbreaker, quick tap out. Hashimoto vanquishes the Finnish brute. As a vehicle to cement Hashimoto as a star this was fantastic. Not a terribly interesting match. But there needs to be more discussion around these type of important, star making matches in Japan even if they are not technically good, but they are important.

I fucking love Chad like it is my fucking problem! Roman is way too low, but you can make the argument that he is still making his case. So I'll let it slide. But on the same token, AJ Styles should not be above him. I love AJ to death. If I was doing a straight up GWE right now I have him in my Top 10 of all time easy. You could make a case on inputs that he is the GOAT, but his WWE run is too limited to put him above Roman. On the flip side, I am very happy that my love for AJ has been validated after all these years and that he is getting the credit he deserves. I was hoping Sheamus would crack the Top 50. He is awesome. Chris Benoit is my highest to drop so far as I had him at #11 right under Hulk Hogan at #10. Not surprised. Very polarizing. I don't begrudge anyone who did not vote for him.

Shinya Hashimoto vs Randy Thurton - NJPW 5/31/91 Different Style Fight Shinya Hashimoto path to redemption begins here. He has not wrestled since being KO's by the Finnish bruiser, Tony Halme back in February. I think it was smart to have his first match back be against a new opponent in a Different Style Fight. He gets to regain some credibility en route to beating Halme later in the year. Thurton is a black American kickboxer. I'm surprised he didn't go places. Tall, good looking, in good shape and good presence. Clocking in at ~5 minutes great spring. Tons of energy. Thurton threw some good kicks and wailed on Hashimoto with punches. He bloodied him pretty good. Hashimoto was smart going for takedowns which Thurton evaded. Hashimoto bloodied found a weakness at the end of the first. I love Mutoh as Hashimoto corner man. Hashimoto spits his mouth guard at Thurton at the beginning of the second and it's on! Hashimoto in the flurry pops Thurton good with an elbow. Floors him. Best rainbow spinning heel kick, wipes him out. Head drop duplex and cross arm breaker. Hashimoto is back, bitches! He is coming for you, Tony Halme! ***1/2

Shinya Hashimoto vs Tony Halme - NJPW 2/5/91 Different Style Fight Tony Halme, better known as Ludvig Borga, is a Finnish tough man with some boxing experience. He was brought in by UWF as The Viking, as a sort of big, burly blond brute. New Japan picked him up in 1990 and put him over Shinya Hashimoto in a Different Style Fight on 12/26/90. A big victory over the up and coming Shinya Hashimoto. A Different Style Fight is code for a worked shoot match. It is supposed to be an MMA match before MMA. Obviously, Inoki who made his career on the back of these is a big fan. Hashimoto more than any of the other Musketeers was treated as a legitimate tough guy. I would hesitate to call Hashimoto a shooter, but he was presented as more legitimate and more of a shooter than his contemporaries. I was surprised to find New Japan promoting "Different Style Fights" as early as 1991, I thought that was more of an innovation in the late 90s with Naoya Ogawa, the rise of PRIDE FC and Inokiism. I watched this match while in a boring meeting, shhhhhh don't tell my boss. I finally shelled out for NJPW World. I will say Halme has great presence. He looks like Brock Lesnar. He has boxing gloves on. Hashimoto is in normal wrestling attire. So this is being treated as Wrestler vs Boxer and it is a three round fight. Halme punches don't look great. Big and loopy. He is not putting his hips behind them. Like I said he is menacing but not convincing as a shooter. Hashimoto takes him down and gets a cross armbreaker. God, I hate how this is sold. Jesus even in a Different Style Fight they don't respect the cross armbreaker. Halme starts landing body shots. Hashimoto does a great job selling these body shots. Coughing and looking like the wind is knocked out of him. Hashimoto gets a side mount and a double wristlock. Again poor selling in holds. Halme lands more big shots. In the last round, Hashimoto gets a big throw, which looks awesome but doesn't do much. Halme catches a kick throws a wild haymaker and clips Hashimoto. Draws an eight count. Halme hits a big right forearm shiver way better than his punches. Halme whiffs on a punch but that's the KO blow. Halme goes over Hashimoto again and KOs him. Hashimoto would not wrestle again until May 31st after this match, which I believe was a way to further put over Halme that he put Hashimoto on the shelf for almost four months. It adds some serious drama to their rematch. I like it. This is obviously building to Hashimoto getting his big win back. It was interesting, but it felt more like Brawl for All rather than high level shoot style.

IWGP Tag Team Champions Rick Steiner & Scott Norton vs Hiroshi Hase & Keiji Mutoh - NJPW 11/5/91 Injury Update: Scott Norton is subbing in for the injured Scott Steiner so that they can drop the tag titles. Hiroshi Hase's normal tag partner, Kensuke Sasaki has been out since August and would not return until June of 1992 so Keiji Mutoh is replacing him. Hase & Mutoh do make a great tag team. I think this would a good next step for Mutoh. He is the runner up to Chono in the inaugural G-1 Climax and as Great Muta picked up a big win over Fujinami. I think the next logical step was picking up a title and tag title makes sense. Rick Steiner is an awesome wrecking force. At the end of the day, it is New Japan and selling just doesn't matter in this promotion (major exception in this match). Once you resign yourself to that fact, you can just watch the great offense. First it is Hase taking a beating. I think in Hase's heat segment. Norton shined more. Big lariats. A great bodyslam on the floor. Great energy. Steiner hit his trademark bulldog. I thought Hase's selling was pretty pedestrian. The transition was terrible as usual and I cant remember what it was. Mutoh's hot tag was great. Dropkicks galore. Back handspring elbow! He goes up top and Rick Steiner hits an overhead belly to belly. Then it is just the Rick Steiner show! Belly to belly on the outside. They tease a possible countout finish Mutoh is selling. What is going on? Actual selling! RELEASE GERMAN! Mutoh is dead and he is selling it. Again, the transition was terrible, but hey there was actual selling and it was from Mutoh of all people! Hase comes in. He is all piss and vinegar. Great dropkick. Then he eats a Rick Steiner RELEASE GERMAN! I could watch Rick Steiner kill bitches dead all day. STEINERLINE! URNAGE OUT OF NOWHERE! ANOTHER ONE! Mutoh hits his moonsault. FRANKENSTEINER ON NORTON! NORTHERN LIGHTS SUPLEX ON RICK STEINER! 1-2-3! NEW IWGP TAG TEAM CHAMPIONS YAHOOOOOOO! Ok, I added that Yahoo. Pretty much from the Keiji Mutoh hot tag this is gold. Sure there is selling and transition issues, but that does not mean this is not a ton of fun. Mutoh had great energy and Rick Steiner was a suplex machine. The finish run was a total bombfest that I loved. ***1/2

I am surprised everyone was down on this match. I thought it was their usual great Battle of The Bulls match. It wasn't CHOSHUUUUUUUUUUU, but not much is. Greatest 18 Champion Riki Choshu vs Shinya Hashimoto - NJPW 11/5/91 What is the Greatest 18 Championship? Short answer: Fuck if I know. Long speculative answer: It was a Riki Choshu vanity belt to make his matches seem more important while Fujinami was IWGP Champion throughout 1991. It is smart idea. Choshu is going to be wrestling the semi-main all year you should give his opponents something to vie for in addition to just trying to beat Choshu. It is one thing for Hashimoto to wrestle Choshu it is another to have a belt on the line even if it is a made up one. Don't ask me why the that is the name. It is Japan. The physical belt is Inoki's old WWF World Martial Arts Championship. Usual great Choshu vs Hashimoto battle of the bulls match. Hard fought lock ups. Shoulder tackles. Headbutts. It is the old run it up the gut, three yards and a cloud of dust. It is what is missing from wrestling nowadays. I thought what was interesting is that even though in 1991, Choshu is clearly Hashimoto' senior and Hashimoto wouldn't really break out until 1993, Hashimoto feels in charge of this match. It is his match to lose. Choshu is the one desperate in the beginning landing the big elbow and following up with headbutts. Hashimoto is not trying to prove to Choshu he belongs. It feels like he is past that. Now he just needs to pick up the win. It is two different things to contend and to win. Hashimoto already has that air that he can contend and Choshu clearly takes him very seriously, but can Hashimoto win? Hashimoto lots of kicks, rainbow spinning heel kick and DDT, but not enough to put him away. I hate how the cross armrbeaker is treated in New Japan. Hashimoto goes for the rainbow heel kick in the corner and Choshu blocks just as he will in the 1996 G-1 Climax and Hashimoto never recovers. Selling has never been a strong suit in New Japan among really any of its wrestlers. I should say long term selling. They good at registering. They are terrible at weaving it in long term. I just have to give up that Choshu blocked that with a bad arm and that he is moving around like nothing happened to him. Usual Choshu vs Hashimoto fireworks ending. Lots of Lariats, screaming defiance, Hashimoto eating them. I really enjoyed Hashimoto trying one last spinning heel kick that Choshu side steps. I would have made Choshu stealing Hashimoto's DDT the finish, but that is just me. I don't think they needed as many lariats, but again just me. It is Hashimoto vs Choshu, it is big, beefy wrestling. Whats not to love? ***3/4

Tatsumi Fujinami vs The Great Muta - NJPW 9/2/3/91 I give you, The Great Muta, in all his violent glory. He bashes Fujinami's head into exposed turnbuckles, grinds a spike into forehead, slams a toolbox into his head and hits him with canvas poles. Great piledriver in the ring. He gnaws on the bloody cut. He grinds the open wound into the exposed turnbuckle. His bloodlust is insatiable. In the ring, he cuts Fujinami off at every pass, with kicks, suplexes and oh just throwing him head first into hard, metal objects. I don't think I have ever heard that much heel heat in Japan. At least loud booing on three occasions. The Great Muta was just destroying Fujinami here. Fujinami started the match off red hot. He knows The Great Muta and how he is a horror movie monster come to life. He took it right to the beast. Great suicide dive to the outside wiping him out and the bodyslam. The thing is he let up on the gas pedal. Muta rolled under the ring. He undid the turnbuckle padding. You cant let that happen. The first time was an accident when the crown of Fujinami's head strikes the exposed turnbuckle and knocks him loopy. It was all down hill. But after bashing Fujinami's head with everything he could find under the ring and drawing blood. He could not put the Ace of New Japan away. Multiple Saito Suplexes and even a package piledriver and Fujinami would not stay down as Antonio Inoki looked on. Muta missed his trademark back handspring elbow. Fujinami gets in a kick and then Billy Robinson backbreaker! DRAGON SLEEPER! Can he pull off a miracle? Foot on the rope. OH NOW THE REF ENFORCES THE RULES! Fujinami punches Muta repeatedly in the corner as the ref tries to pull him off. If I was Fujinami, I would have been like "Where the hell were you when he was hitting ME WITH A FUCKING TOOLBOX!" The ref keeps at it. GREEN MIST~! It hits the ref not Fujinami. Fujinami cant win the with the ref. Two Saito suplexes, Fujinami is beside himself, he has the monster on the ropes, but no ref. German Suplex, bridge! He gets a visual three, but the ref is down. Fujinami goes for the ten punches in the corner, BALLSHOT! YES! YES! YES! The one last check box on all time heel performance. I love it! Muta gets a glass bottle and colddocks Fujinami. He revives the ref and hits his moonsault for the win. Spikes, piledrivers, blood, ballshots, MIST, Glass Bottles. Amazing heel performance from The Great Muta. The Great Muta in all his violent glory! ****1/2

The Great Muta vs Sting - NJPW 3/21/91 I really enjoyed this, but I am starting to think I am the only person that enjoys Muta. Obviously a lot of history going back to their iconic 1989 feud, which I really should re-watch it has been ages since I first saw it. This is my first time watching this match at the Dome. They have another big match in '92 where Muta is defending his IWGP Championship against Sting. I thought this started off fast and furious. Muta jumps Sting and loved the back handspring elbow early. Looked good. Sting countering with the press slam to the outside, crazy bump, and then out of control over the top rope suicide dive was great. Sting was on top for most of the match. I thought did a damn good job. Muta fucking up the monkey flip made for a surprisingly interesting spot. Muta does not sell in this gimmick, which makes sense for the gimmick but it is weird for the match. I wanted him to heel it up more like he did in his '92 IWGP Championship run. I loved the finish stretch. I love missed moves. It makes when they hit them all the better. Both guys know the Stinger Splash and Moonsault can win the match so they keep going for it, but the other guy knows the same thing so they keep countering. Really smart and interesting. Loved the missed back handspring elbow which leads to the missed Stinger Splash which leads to Muta eating knees on a moonsault. Fabulous sequence. Muta goes for the Moonsault again (really puts over the move) and Sting is able to hit a Super Back Suplex. Great spot. Missed top rope elbow drop by Sting. Simultaneous Lariats. Simultaneous dropkicks. They are doing a great job putting over the narrative how well they know each other. Sting is able to apply the Scorpion Deathlock as his nearfaal. Muta makes the ropes. Absolutely love the finish proper. Sting comes hurling in for the Stinger Splash and Muta MISTS HIM! Reverse crossbody picks up the win for Muta. The beginning is hot, the middle meanders, but the finish run is absolutely red piping hot! ***3/4

NWA World Heavyweight Champion Tatsumi Fujinami vs WCW World Heavyweight Champion Ric Flair - WCW SuperBrawl I Flair hair update we have gone from flying saucer to the Beiber hair cut. 1991 was the nadir for Flair. I don't get the booking of bringing in a virtual unknown Japanese wrestling legend based on a convoluted controversy that happened in Japan to main event a show. I am going with the narrative that this is to re-unify the NWA & WCW World Championships with Fujinami coming in as the NWA Champion. There is a group of Florida fans that are super into Fujinami chanting for him and bringing in a sign in Japanese. WCW's fanbase was insanely hardcore. Better than Dome match. More heated action and better structure. In the last match, Flair kept calling for different spots so they both moving too fast from spot to spot, but also moving too slow in the sense that execution was slow. Here they were moving better and more in sync. Good fire fights between these two. Fujinami used holds well. Fujinami aged a lot man. Like I remember digging his 1980 work but there were times here where he just looked plain old and he was wrestling Flair, who is four years older than him, but was moving way better. Fujinami worked the back well. Flair was selling a lot better. The atomic drop on the railing was a good transition for Flair to get on top and work the knee. The figure-4 was over. The bridge spot was sad. Fujinami just did not look good at times, Another was the press slam again Fujinami just looked out of it. Flair blades off the railing. Flair is working over time to make this work. All the good Flair tropes down the stretch. They knock heads. Fujinami plays Steamboat with a bunch of nearfalls before Flair pushes him off into Tiger Hatori. Flair grabs a handful of trunks and Fonzie counts Fujinami. Why the hell do we need to protect Fujinami? Wasn't Flair the babyface? What the fuck? Shitty finish aside, there is some good work here, but these two just don't really have chemistry. If this is your only introduction to Fujinami definitely check out his 80s stuff because he does not look good in these matches. ***

Hilarious. Watched this segment many times. Very funny. Prime Missy Hyatt.

IWGP Heavyweight Champion Tatsumi Fujinami vs NWA World Heavyweight Champion Ric Flair - NJPW 3/21/91 This is the worst time period for Ric Flair's hair. It looks like he as a flying saucer on his head. I believe this is Flair's first challenge for IWGP Championship as the NWA was historically affiliated with AJPW while NJPW was affiliated with WWF & Florida. Things switched in the early 90s with WWF switching their affiliation to Tenryu's upstart SWS and WCW moving to a relationship with NJPW that would last through the 90s. It is important to note Flair's WCW World Heavyweight Championship is not on the line. This was a new championship was that created in early 1991. I wonder if part of the reason this match exists to put over the fact that they are now two different world championships in WCW and really explain to the fans that the NWA & WCW are different entities. At this time in New Japan, short of Antonio Inoki coming out of semi-retirement, Tatsumi Fujinami was The Man. 1991 was his last hurrah and his 20th anniversary as a pro wrestler. He would continue to wrestle throughout the 90s and win the IWGP Championships two more times, but he treated more as a legend or elder statesman than a regular main eventer. He traded the championship earlier in the year with Vader and would lose the championship to long time rival Riki Choshu at the 1/4/92 Dome Show, but not before having two big championship matches with Masa Chono, who at the time seemed poised to be The Musketeer that would break out. The first half of this match was pretty much Flair by the numbers. He gets shown up early on the mat and then in a fire fight. I liked Fujinami going for the Dragon Sleeper early and Flair sold it really well. Desperately looking for the ropes. There was definitely some serious miscommunications. A weird criss cross spot that just ended. The press slam off the top that clearly went awry. Fujinami did look worse than Flair, but not by much. Nothing was sticking. Flair was clearly calling the match and just kept moving through stuff way too quickly. He starts working the knee but before you know it Fujinami has him in a Scorpion Deathlock and then we are back to back body drops and that botched press slam off the top. They needed to slow the fuck down. Flair could not focus on one thing in the first half of this match. It continues into the second half. They are doing the Steamboat chop out of the corner, back drop and then Flair is hitting Butterfly Suplex and a delayed vertical suplexes. The Suplexes look great, but nothing means anything. Finally we get some stickiness. When Flair blades off a railing spot. Now we have a hook. Fujinami is teeing off on Flair. Fujinami has been at his best in this match when he has been playing it like Wahoo or Garvin would. They intensity of the strike exchanges have been great not much else. The Flair Flops in this were great and well timed. Enziguiri one was good. Flair and Fonzie heads collide and Fonzie goes over the top rope. Fujinami does his best Steamboat impression with a ton of quick pinning combinations that fans count along with. It is clear Fonzie is not getting back up so when Fujinami does the Banana Split Schoolboy out of the Abdominal Stretch, Tiger Hatori counts three to give Fujinami the NWA World Championship. This sets up the SuperBrawl I main event of Fujinami's NWA Championship vs Flair's WCW Championship. What was the point of that match? This match is all over the place. I am hard pressed to even call this good. Fujinami looked disinterested and lost at times. Flair just could not settle the fuck down. One of the worst matches I have ever seen out of these two all time greats.

I just re-watched this. Agree with all my initial point wholeheartedly. Good crack as the Irish would say. Kensuke Sasaki is the man and all his haters be damned!

Why is there always so much Kensuke hate? He is a great power wrestler with a ton of charisma. Never understand the lack of Kensuke love. TAKE THAT DREAM!

The Great Muta & Sting vs The Steiner Brothers - NJPW 1/4/92 The first Tokyo Dome show on 1/4 in history. This would be the first of three out of four years Muta would wrestle the Steiners at the Tokyo Dome. New Japan sure loved the Steiners. Coming home from the club at 3am, the Steiners are exactly what I want to watch. Big, dumb fun. No thinking. Just a ton of power moves. Rick stiffs Sting early and Sting gives right back to him with the best Sting clothesline ever. I liked Sting stealing the Steiners running powerslam into the buckles. Muta takes a lickin' in this match. He just thrown around like a ragdoll. I don't like the blue at all on Muta. Not intimidating. White, black and red are the best. Green and yellow are ok. Blue is too neutral. It just makes him look cold. Steiners are fucking awesome. Every suplex and slam you can think of. Muta of course sells for shit, but at least he is willing to bump. Muta just gets up acts like nothing happened and pops off a back suplex. Whatever. Stinger Splash. Muta tags back in. Back handspring elbow, um, don't think so, Rick catches Muta and RELEASE GERMAN! I think that's the best version of that spot. The best spot of the match for me was when Sting hurled Muta at Rick sending him tumbling over the top rope. That could have looked horrible, but it was perfectly executed looked amazing. The finish sucked. They were clearly trying to protect the Steiners with a fast count and Rick also pinning Muta while Sting pinned Scott. Shitty finish aside fun power, Dome match. ***1/2

I was really hoping Big Sexy was going to come in at We are getting to part of the list where even if i didn't vote for them I am not surprised by the choices.

No one should sell for the IT Kicks. They are supposed to be Miz' way of taunting Bryan but in kayfabe it would make sense that he isn't as good at them and if people no sell them it will garner a major reaction. You can explain Miz going back to them even though they don't work as hubris. Of course the real benefit is no one ever had to sell those shitty shitty kicks ever again. But i think no selling makes sense in a kayfabe way.