Jetlag

Did a post about Tadao Yasuda today https://reverseviperhold.blogspot.com/2026/02/rip-tadao-yasuda.html He really does have a lot of great sprints. He was absolute magic in the 1999 G1 and the crowds loved him dearly. That match against Kojima felt surprisingly epic. Yasuda getting fired up while selling his damaged shoulder and trying to somehow get a win was better than almost anything I've seen in 2025. He is remembered for the coward shooter/Inokiist thing but plucky veteran sumo underdog Yasuda who will palm strike the shit out of you is also quite great.

Masakazu Fukuda Incredibly talented guy whose career was unfortunately cut very short by his tragic passing. That said, Fukuda was quite great pretty much from the get go, and he stood out in a big way with his gangly physique and unique style. I would say he kinda wrestled like Tamon Honda before Tamon Honda wrestled like Tamon Honda, just a unique grappler with a knack for cool submissions and nifty suplexes, and not afraid to scrap hard. Apparently his background was sumo and he was even in the RINGS dojo for a bit. Lots of little gem performance from him working WYF, MUGA or NJPW, with the WYF vs Buko Dojo feud being an obvious standout as well as pushing Liger to the limit or having a mat classic with Osamu Nishimura. Really wish I could find footage of his sole appearance in Germany which sounds fantastic too. Recommendations: vs Osamu Nishimura, NJPW/MUGA 5/15/1998 w KAMIKAZE vs Yoshikazu Taru & Takashi Okamura, WYF 4/29/1997 vs Kazuhiko Shoda, NJPW7MUGA 12/8/1998 Super Taira Big fan of Taira who is a really cool stylish indy wrestler that blends shootstyle with lucharesu. Footage of him is hard to come by but pretty much whenever he shows up he's a highlight with his unique approach and not afraid to go insanely hard even in obscure settings like KAGEKI or JWA Tokai. Since he became a regular Sportiva appearance he's looked consistently great while also showing up for free on the internet. I'm also really fond of his match series with Yasushi Sato. He's been around all the way since 1992, and he's definitely someone to look out for because from what I can tell he's always great. Recommended matches: vs Yasushi Sato, JWA Tokai 6/18/2017 vs Kenta Kosugi, Sportiva 10/30/2024 w Cosmo Soldier vs Koji Niizumi & Kitai Kubo, KAGEKI 2/27/2011 Konaka Incredibly unique wrestler who is both a mat genius but also a worshipper of old school match psychology and an immediate standout with his ghoulish appearance and eccentric style. It says enough that he came from the amateur-scene but became one of the most outstanding and most booked wrestlers on the japanese indy scene. Totally capable wrestler who always makes things interesting just by being who he is, and he's in a number of great matches both going at it with technical wrestling masters but also carrying lesser wrestlers. He does his comedy side personas and there's also the fact we don't have many of greatest matches due to Ustream blowing up (I am still praying for a copy of his ironman match with Yasushi Sato to show up somehow). Still Konaka is one of those guys who make me immensely happy to be a wrestling fan. Recommended matches: vs Sae, Sportiva 5/11/2022 vs Taro Yamada, Sportiva 7/5/2015 vs Yasushi Sato, Sportiva 7/21/2018 Chon Shiryu Great, great wrestler as he's basically the Bobby Eaton of the Japanese indy scene all while working an insane gimmick. It's honestly crazy how good he is as I've seen him do multiple styles and roles, from sympathetic Rey Mysterio-like underdog face with unique spots, to working as a sleazy rudo, to hitting the mat in a lengthy grappling clinic, to garbage brawling, to working a psycho bumpfest in a sportsbar. And he does all that while being himself, and all that for well over 20 years now, and the man doesn't seem to slow down. Throw him in the ring with someone half-trained on a tiny show in a basement somewhere and he'll still give you a memorable match. If that's not the sign of an amazing wrestler I don't know what is, but he does have his share of genuinely great matches too. I love his signature spots but the fact he has great substance really makes him great. Recommended matches: vs Masa Takanashi, Choco Pro 1/22/2022 vs Samas, Hot Shushu 5/6/2024 vs Kiku, Ice Ribbon 5/6/2023 Yoichi Shinmei / Yacchae Seven The former ace of the JWA Tokai scene from 25 years ago recently came back in his old age. Very athletic guy who can still go hard. Clearly he's a worshipper of Mitsuharu Misawa with those hard elbows he likes to throw and sometimes downright imitating finishes from famous Misawa matches but I think the way he puts everything together is pretty unique and makes him standout on his own. Clearly a super gifted wrestler who can go like no tomorrow and strikes me as one of the better wrestlers in Japan during his prime. Recommended Matches: w Yuta Oya vs Ali Najima & Masanori Watanabe, Sportiva 20/22/2025 vs Super Taira, Sportiva 3/6/2024 vs Konaka, Sportiva 6/5/2024 Kazuki Niimura/Grappler ASUKA/ASKA Somewhat legendary obscure figure from the Japanese 'amateur-pro wrestling' scene. As far as I can tell a super talented shoot stylist who was consistently a big highlight in that scene with his unrelenting submissions and brutal strikes with a few outstanding matches under his belt. His wider career is a bit of a mystery as he have almost nothing from him in other places like JWA Kansai or even Osaka Pro, though I'd love for more of that stuff to be uncovered somehow. Recommended Matches: vs Tadanobu Fujisawa, K-WEST 2/18/2010 w Fumitake Nakano vs Buffalo Sakata & Yoshiyuki Watanabe, JWA Tokai 8/29/1993 vs Takaku Fuke, JWA Tokai 1/18/2009

When he gets serious he is awesome. Really great at matches with blood, mask ripping and chippiness. Nothing like an angry clown shoot punching and kicking people. But between that... boy oh boy, he is in a lot of hick comedy matches. A compilation of serious Kamen matches would be awesome though. He was also quite fun before he put on the mask but not entirely at the point of greatness yet.

It's a short peak due to her leaving for the states really cutting down her output, though I'd say she was still fun in the US from what I've seen. That said, I'd rather watch a Sumie Sakai match over many other wrestlers. The Yabushita series is great.

But could he keep up with the likes of Okada and Will Ospreay?

Probably WALTER, since he went from an outsider indy guy to top guy in the biggest company on earth, I would assume. For similiar reasons: Eddie Kingston, Hechicero, Samoa Joe, CM Punk, Kana/Asuka, Zack Sabre Jr, Sami Zayn, Kevin Owens, Darby Allin, Bryan Danielson (though his stock was already quite high the last time around). Darlings outside the biggest feds that I would guess have garnered quite a bit of hype: Sareee, Takumi Iroha, Chihiro Hashimoto, Fuminoru Abe, Takuya Nomura In my personal estimation: Yasushi Sato, Blue Panther, Keita Yano, GENTARO, Hiroshi Watanabe (just based on the work they've done in the past 10 years)

Always thought Greg Valentine carrying this lame fake native american to a series of great matches had to be among the crown achievements in Greg Valentines review.

https://reverseviperhold.blogspot.com/2025/11/of-all-things-look-at-tony-garea.html I had fun with this one. Yes, this man Tony Garea is insanely bland, but let's not denigrate him by comparing him to the likes of Dean Malenko. Garea knows how to get fired up and always knows what to do in a match. And this 70s/early 80s workrate stuff of leapfrogs and armdrags and fast bumping heels is fun. That 1982 tag against Rodz and Estrada really is great. I couldn't even find the George Steele matches. Tho I do wonder if Garea ever looked like the best guy in any of these matches. To place him on a Top 100 is a massive stretch to say the least, but one could do worse than spend an afternoon watching old Tony Garea. Also, apparently this guys a kiwi? How is OJ not yet on the case?!

Brian Kendrick hasn't received any comments since February of 2016. A bit unfortunate that the last voting commenced at that time, because just in June 2016, the Cruiserweight Classic would happen and Brian Kendrick was doing some undeniably great work that everyone loved. Really interesting guy because he brought a bit more of a psychologically sound and gritty edge into the modern era cruiserweight era. He is still bubbling around on the indy scene and I'd actually be interested to look into some of that work, as he's had quite the lengthy and solid career.

Wait, so we can't vote on someone if they haven't got a comment since 2016?

You've got these two badly confused. Wagner is the taller German, and Dave Morgan is the shorter Brit, who notably spent a lot of time as a globe trotter and eventually settled in Germany. Wagners reputation as a worker really wasn't very good.

So I actually emailed the Swiss and Monaco TV archive about this stuff... Swiss archivers said they don't have them archived because the reels were purchased from elsewhere. So that confirms the suspicion from earlier, that these were probably French bouts purchased for Swiss TV. Monaco archive said they had some reels but they degraded while in storage and ended up unusable. Apparently they have 1 20 minute match that can be viewed on their premises but that's it, and they didn't specify what it was. Otherwise just newsreel type clips. Bummer, but makes me appreciate the French archiving effort more.

From what I've seen Axel Dieter had no problem doing all those flying headscissors, ranas and difficult bridge ups and working a fast paced match, just look at his matches with Mile Zrno or Steve Wright himself. No small feat considering by 1980 he was nearing the end of his career, and he wasn't exactly a small man. Knowing he worked France and Spain quite a lot I wouldn't be shocked if he had been quite the athletic guy in his younger days aswell. We know wrestlers did the quicker handspringy stuff in Britain and France before Steve Wright came around. Also, I've never heard of Steve Wright training anyone besides his son, until his son Alex founded his school in the early 2000s, where Steve would help out sometimes. The guy most credited for training the younger lightweight types in Germany in the 90s is Bernard Benesch, a French wrestler who worked for Lasartesse as a referee in Hamburg. Franz Schuhmann, the most prominent lightweight in the scene, credited Lasartesse himself with training him in the 80s, and he has said most of his training was bumping and how to use the ropes, almost everything he knew he learned from other guys while wrestling, either by being in the ring with them or watching them. Here's Beneschs student Markus Buchholz in action against Bernie Wright: You can see this mirrors a World of Sport style match a bit more, but I don't see how we need Steve Wright in the equation, given his brother Bernie is right there and probably showed young Markus some things in the ring before the match.

Quite great as a pissed off asshole in shootstyle matches punching people in the liver. The 2002 Hoshikawa match is an excellent violent little stifffest and his U-Style work is great. Probably spent a bit too much time in HUSTLE and I haven't really seen anything amazing from him in RINGS, but there sure are a lot of workers worse than Wataru Sakata.

I would, if I knew where to find them!

If this list was about dedicated bumpers, Anton Tejero would be a #1 contender. This guy would fling himself wildly out of the ring dozens of times per match all the way until his last days in 1980s. Really a special case of a guy who had absolutely no problem bumping his ass off endlessly. Also super impressive on offense, when he gets to show of that as often his matches were built around showing off the offense of the babyfaces. His tag work with Inca Peruano in the 1960s is totally radical even in the context of the high level of French wrestling at the time. Definitely a big part of what made the French scene so great considering for how long he keeps showing up and doing his thing. His work doesn't quite lend itself to the conventional understanding of a 'great worker' as in someone who colours matches with his offense and control segments, but as a rudo he's definitely an all time great. I don't recall a single bad match that he was involved in.

You can actually find a bit of Catch related videos in the RTS archive website if you just search for Catch, but it's just short newsreel/documentary type stuff starring the usual suspects: https://www.rts.ch/archives/recherche/?q=catch Apparenlty the Luxembourg archive is going through some work this year to make it more accesible and won't be open to requests until next year, so there is a faint glimmer of hope that whatever they still have might become available. The Monaco archive actually also has an on-demand streaming page but they only have a few videos there, nothing wrestling related.

Amazing research. It would be sick to have these, some killer match ups. Masahiko Kimura? I did not expect him at all. Definitely holy grail material. I remember hearing about a match between Achim Chall and Rene Ben Chemoul taking place in Luxemburg, so I think that country had wrestling.

I made a topic about this in the hidden board, but since nobody ever looks there, I figured I might as well make one here, because it's quite the interesting subject. Apparently the NWA ran some wrestling shows in the early 1980s in the Philippines. The country was still under a dictator then, who apparently gave his explicit permission for the shows to be run because he was taking some heat for an assassination. There was a Jr title tournament, and apparently even a Harley Race title defense. Raven Mack talks about it here a bit, and reviewed a tape of the lightweight tournament: https://web.archive.org/web/20121004044522/http://deathvalleydriver.com/dvdvr/dvdvr151.html I'm mostly asking if anyone here knows more about that stuff and if perhaps the footage still exists somewhere. Hector Guerrero vs Les Thornton in Manila in 1983 sounds like the kind of stuff I'd enjoy.

If it's someone you enjoy watching, what does it matter?

And just the other do, I was thinking of doing a blogpost specifically dedicated to Regals 1994... dude was an animal that year. Looks like you got me beat! There was also a match against Jungle Jim Steele of all people that I really enjoyed. And that Armstrong match is a gem indeed. Great work!

Let him be a lesson to us all that we work on ourselves to be good people, so we don't have to leave this world as hated men.