Jetlag

Tibor Szakacs was a Hungarian ex-army officer who fled to Britain and became a beloved wrestler. The man was built like a shaved chimpanzee, and his constant miserable gaze is up there with the likes of Kazuo Yamazaki. I love watching Szakacs wrestle as his slow movements are poetry in motion and that was felt strongly in this bout too, although this was about his young opponent Pete Stewart getting a rub by getting a fall over the veteran. Pete Stewart was later known as "Iron Duke" which is an all time great wrestler nickname, but he was basically just a young boy at this point. The technical stuff in the match is good and as soon as Stewart takes the 1:0 lead things get pretty intense with some vicious armwork and Szakacs busting out the dreaded chop. Extremely well executed with Szakacs throwing a suplex that I've never seen him do before. Well worth watching.

Psycho bomb throwing war which has to go down as the carryjob of the year. Vampiro was basically a stiff trying to be a video game wrestler here. However, his recklessness may have added to the match as he seemed to be self destructive hitting moves (e.g. knocking himself loopy with his own suplex, injuring his leg hitting a spin kick etc). It really adds to the suspense when you think this washed up drug fiend is going to blow his knees out any moment. Whenever Vampiro was in danger of getting lost, Bucanero engaged in some vicious brawling. I especially loved the segment on the ramp that started with Bucanero just clocking Vampiro in the back of the neck. He also had some really great brief work on the shoulder. The whole match made sense and was never boring as they just kept doing bumps and dives. The one weak point was Vampiros superman comeback which knocked the match down about 15 places in the MOTY list.

About 5 of 10 minutes aired. Acute Sae was a talented girl who could grapple and retired a year later. There wasn't much grappling here as the match was basically pro style and a showcase for both girls offense. Both have really good offense, Sae hit some judo throws, flying armbars and worked over Ran with nasty double stomps. Ran was her usual self hitting extraordinarily stiff kicks and elbows. Fun little clip.

Super fun 7 minute undercard match full of slick mat scrambles and stiff blows. Super Rider sucks when he's doing pro style, but he looks really good doing straight shootstyle exchanges. His submissions are a bit different to what the BattlARTS crew usually does and it makes for a fun contrast. All of his submission counters were great. Ono was of course fantastic demolishing him with slick strikes. He also did some crazy sharp, brief work on the leg. It makes me sad though that a wrestler as good as Ono was jobbing like this to a no name outsider in 2001.

Fun mini epic which was pretty much built around showcasing Phantom Funakoshi. Phantom is an SGP guy who wrestles kind of like a junior version of Osamu Nishimura. He throws a great dropkick and always forces guys to do some matwork and I really dug him here, grounding MIKAMI with judo sweeps and attacking his arm and shoulder. MIKAMI was kind of the ace of DDT at this point - squashing other low ranked guys within minutes - so I thought the match had an intelligent layout initially allowing Funakoshi to dominate with his technical skill and then forcing Mikami to take an unexpectedly big bump before he could get the advantage using his athleticism. Mikamis brief bursts of offense are impressive but you will want Funakoshi to score the upset here.

Brutal match in which Kawada basically tries to send Hase to the retirement home of comedy undercard tags for good. Aside from the opening matwork I thought Hase didn't really hold up his end, he looked like he was getting token bits of offense before Kawada went back to kicking the shit out of him. Pretty inspired Kawada performance although some of those sorry back and forth strike exchagnes were starting to creep in. Still, plenty of great spots mostly involving Kawada kicking Hase really hard in interesting ways.

Really fun houseshow main event. El Samurai is often the problem in these matches, however that wasn't the case here as he got dominated in the early wrestling exchanges and made for an effective underdog. Hase always looks really solid in this time period and Mutoh doesn't bring it down sticking to his handful of athletic spots in a fast paced match. Samurais initial flurry of offense was really fun as he was able to connect a flying elbow to Hase as Hase was trying to put a Figure 4 on Hashimoto. I also really liked Hashimoto coming in to drop a big elbow on Hase while Samurai had him in a half crab as comeuppance for Hase and Mutoh double teaming Hashimoto earlier. Note that they were able to make things like a superplex or sharpshooter feel really dramatic. Really effective here as they teased Hashimoto being worked over, which led to Samurai getting a "hot tag" only for Samurai to end up being worked over. It made all the nearfalls on Samurai feel super over. My one complaint is there wasn't quite enough Hashimoto as he looked badass as usual dropping bombs on people and chopping Mutoh in the throat.

What a matchup. Street is in his gown and makeup. McMichael is just the most regular looking bloke you can imagine. It's an amazing contrast and it produces a wildly entertaining TV match. McMichael tears up Streets gown and it's a furious match from the start. Street is actually super vicious here, clawing McMichaels cheek, always sneaking in blows, big leaping stomps that look violent as hell. When Streets starts wrestling he is just blindingly fast and smooth. But there is little wrestling here as it's basically a sprint brawl. Street does some prancing as he gets the advantage so McMichael does some prancing of his own and even steals some of Streets glitter which was extremely funny. The third fall was super simple and effective with Street trying to beat McMichael down hard and McMichael working over Streets stomach with headbutts and splashes. If you were hoping for more of Street being the wrestler we saw a year earlier in the Breaks match you'll be disappointed but as a match of it's own this was super entertaining, makes you wish more outrageous character wrestler were this good.

Excellent long TV main event. Kincaid has a bleach blonde head and Rann is almost fully grey and unassuming looking, so you know it's gonna rule. Plenty of nifty grappling throughout. Rann worked some almost jiu-jitsuesque transitions. I also loved his out of nowhere crowbar dropkicks. Kincaid ended up taking a big bump over the rope and Rann worked over his back and leg. Loved all the pin attempts. Rann got cute attacking Kincaid with some subtle heel tactics and Kincaid retaliated with headbutts and at one point threw a punch and did an almost Terry Funk like footwork routine. The match settled down a bit with more good wrestling. It was really the kind of bout where you could write a textbook on all the little things they did. I loved the way Rann sold Kincaids headbutts. There were a few points were Rann just grabbed an armlock and forced Kincaid down hard which ruled. Rann started playing dirty in the last round again which got the crowd pretty fired up again. There was an awesome moment where Kincaid was looking for the boston crab with the crowd being on fire, and then he catapulted Rann across the ring with Rann bumping on his head.

U-File Project Soulful Beginning Day 2 @ Differ Ariake U-Soul Tournament Qualifying Match: Minoru Suzuki vs. Yoshihiro Takayama U-File Trial Battle: Josh Barnett vs. Shinsuke Nakamura U-Soul Tournament 2nd Chance #1: Kiyoshi Tamura vs. Minoru Tanaka U-Soul Tournament 2nd Chance #2: Mitsuya Nagai vs. Wataru Sakata U-Soul Tournament 2nd Chance Decision Match: Winner of #1 vs. Winner of #2 U-Soul Tournament Qualifying Match: Yuki Ishikawa vs. Masahito Kakihara https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CxQBp6mYXpY

The first event of U-File Project is in the books.The event was a success, but it leaves questions. Fans were underwhelmed Kiyoshi Tamura was defeated in the 1st round of the tournament. However, there is a second chance. Tamon Honda turned out to be the surprise entry. His amaresu technique turned out to be too strong for his opponent. People are interested how much the NOAH contracted wrestler can achieve in U-File Project. Yuki Ishikawas match against Ryuji Hijikata ended up being very popular with the crowd. It made people interested in what else Ishikawa can do. Since U-File Project is sponsored by NJPW, the management of NJPW was allowed to choose a wrestler that will enter the tournament without qualifying. It was chosen to be Shinsuke Nakamura. However, he will have to face an established name regardless at this event. The card for the 2nd event of U-File Project was made public: U-File Project Soulful Beginning Day 2 @ Differ Ariake U-Soul Tournament Qualifying Match: Minoru Suzuki vs. Yoshihiro Takayama U-File Trial Battle: Josh Barnett vs. Shinsuke Nakamura U-Soul Tournament 2nd Chance #1: Kiyoshi Tamura vs. Minoru Tanaka U-Soul Tournament 2nd Chance #2: Mitsuya Nagai vs. Wataru Sakata U-Soul Tournament 2nd Chance Decision Match: Winner of #1 vs. Winner of #2 U-Soul Tournament Qualifying Match: Yuki Ishikawa vs. Masahito Kakihara

The first event of U-File Project is underway. U-File Project Soulful Beginning Day 1 @ Korakuen Hall U-Soul Tournament Qualifying Match: Kiyoshi Tamura vs. Josh Barnett https://youtu.be/F_kqSiYRa0g U-Soul Tournament Qualifying Match: Wataru Sakata vs. Alexander Otsuka https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aAcBqmJrLv4 U-Soul Tournament Qualifying Match: Mitsuya Nagai vs. ??? U-Soul Tournament Qualifying Match: Minoru Tanaka vs. Masayuki Naruse https://youtu.be/-wtS8BU9VqA U-File Project Opening Match: Yuki Ishikawa vs. Ryuji Hijikata https://youtu.be/CLDK93pRq00

Card: Show #1 - U-File Project Soulful Beginning Day 1 @ Korakuen Hall It was decided that an 8 man tournament will be held to determine the strongest U-stylist. The debut event will hold the qualifying matches for the first block of the tournament. U-Soul Tournament Qualifying Match: Kiyoshi Tamura vs. Josh Barnett U-Soul Tournament Qualifying Match: Wataru Sakata vs. Alexander Otsuka U-Soul Tournament Qualifying Match: Mitsuya Nagai vs. ??? U-Soul Tournament Qualifying Match: Minoru Tanaka vs. Masayuki Naruse U-File Project Opening Match: Yuki Ishikawa vs. Ryuji Hijikata The company announced a big match to headline its first event in Tamura vs. Barnett. Fans are anxious to see whether Tamura will establish himself as the company leader. Mitsuya Nagai will be facing a mystery outsider. All bets are off in regards to who has been signed to compete. Nagai has vowed to vanquish his opponent quickly. It was agreed that veteran Yuki Ishikawa and youngster Ryuji Hijikata will open the show. Fans are looking forward for the future of shootstyle wrestling to be introduced.

A fantasy booking project that will try to answer the question: What if U-Style kept going, with the help of New Japan Pro Wrestling, and a few independent contractors formerly of UWF, UWFi, RINGS and BattlARTS to form the ultimate mid 2000s shootstyle superfed? With the help of King of Colosseum 2 (PS2), we might just get an idea. -= ROSTER =- - U-File Army - Kiyoshi Tamura Josh Barnett Wataru Sakata Masayuki Naruse Masahito Kakihara Mitsuya Nagai - B-Spirits - Yuki Ishikawa Daisuke Ikeda Alexander Otsuka Minoru Tanaka Ryuji Hijikata - Freelancers - Minoru Suzuki Yoshihiro Takayama The U-File Ruleset: - time limit is 15 minutes - each wrestler has 5 points available to use for rope breaks/KOs - in case of time limit draw, remaining points decide the winner

Damn, Starr vs Gastel sounds awesome. I hope they still have that stuff lying around.

It appears we actually do have a match of his unmasked: GIL VOINEY VS GASPARIGNON (07/11/1965; 18:22)

Here's my Top 10 matches (so far): Tony Oliver vs. Bert Royal 2/22/57 Gilbert Cesca vs. Billy Catanzarro (aired May 2, 1957) Eddy Wiecz & Eddy Koparanian vs. Andre Bollet & Georges Gueret (aired February 23rd 1956) Gilbert LeDuc vs. Rocco Lamban 10/30/58 Dr. Adolf Kaiser vs. Jose Tarres 1/2/59 Le Petit Prince/Francis Louis vs. Daniel Noced/Jacky Richard 2/22/71 Al Hayes vs. Guy Robin (aired March 22, 1957) Petit Prince vs. Michel Saulnier, 10/4/69 Ami Sola vs. Jaques Couderc (8/8/1957) Vassilios Mantopolous vs. Billy Catanzaro, 1/29/67 That is just the tip of the iceberg, to say the least. To say we've had a truckload of awesome matches would be an understatement, though.

You're doing the lords work. I used this chance to rewatch the famous Yokota/Asuka match from 1985. I remember the initial sprint sequence blowing my mind, and its still a great sequence. I remember I had never seen anything like those snapmare bridge ups before, and now that we're watching old French pro wrestling, everyone is doing them. There's also a weird leglock which we've seen in France and nowhere else, so you have to wonder how much influence Kiyomigawa (the japanese worker touring France then) had on them. After that, it's a long section of legwork. Jaguars holds were great, but Asuka just blows it all off. Gotta say, Asuka has to be one of the worst megastars in wrestling. At least Jaguar looks somewhat concerned. Even Asukas kicks were mostly just laughably bad. Then she put that Takada-like noodle leglock on her opponent. The finishing stretch has no rhyme or reason to it, but it still stands out as they just bust out one reckless dangerous bump after another. Yokota getting thrown around was harrowing, so were all the piledriver spots. The finish has Yokota taking this massive flat face down bump off the top rope and getting up immediately to hit a suplex for the win. This match may have created the joshi trainwreck sprint formula. It's either terrible or great, depending on where you stand. I still enjoyed huge parts of this thanks to it being the 80s and neither girl doing anything silly on offense.

That match was a pretty infamous shoot incident and Kandori basically ended Satos career right there.

No JWP reviews in almost 2 years? Damn. JWP 9/26/1990 (JWP Monthly Version) Sachiko Koganei vs. Utako Hozumi Koganei is retiring. Too bad. She was a fun heel character. This was a 5 minute exhibition with Hozumi hitting some slick moves and Koganei getting a last hurray. After the match she is attacked by two wrestlers in street pants and shiny jackets, and she pins one of them for some reason. Eagle Sawai vs. Itsuki Yamazaki Yamazaki is great in the veteran technician role. Sawai added nothing to this match. Of course, she picks up the win. How one can have a match this bad with Yamazaki is beyond me. Sawai sold nothing and all her shit looked off. Bleargh. Shinobu Kandori & Miki Handa vs. Mami Kitamura & Harley Saito I was hoping for some Kandori/Saito exchanges from this. Instead we mostly get young Mami trying to not get crushed and Harley was in the match for about 30 seconds. It was a fun underdog story though. There was a long heat segment on Mami where she was prevented from making the tag over and over again. Anytime Kandori does a basic move it becomes a near finish, and her judo throw which sounded like it snapped Kitamuras shoulder was insane. Handa also looked pretty good here, dropping some pretty vicious looking offense for a tiny girl, especially her Robinson Backbreaker. Devil Masami vs. Dynamite Kansai This was great when they were mauling eachother. However, most of the match time was spent with Masami trying to ground Kansai and somewhat blowing off her offensive attempts. It was solid and made sense, but not really what I want out of this match up, especially since the match wasn't that long anyways. Also, Devil Masami taking Kansai for a walk int he audience was pretty bad. The finish felt unspectacular for something that was supposed to be a showdown between two killers. Kansai looked good her, hitting a big dives and just blasting Masami with kicks. She also broke out a nasty Cavernaria.

I'd never heard about this match until Classics Road uploaded it 3 days ago, and now I find out people have known about this for years. What the hell? This was fantastic and one of the Top 5, maybe Top 3 best matches Hase been in. It starts out pretty great with about 11 minutes of tight matwork that leads to both guys getting angrier and eventually trying to tear each others arms out. All the matwork felt fresh thanks to both guys having legit ability and doing some things they dropped later (for example, the double arm hold Liger did). The tangling armbreaker spots were great and Hases kneedrops to the elbow joint were insane, looked to turn Ligers arm inside out. Liger hitting a dive and blasting Hase with his rolling kick unexpectedly were a good way to let the audience know Liger could hang and very well upset Hase. The structure here reminded me a bit of a lucha title match, with the opening lengthy matwork and then Liger hitting some nice armdrags before Hase took over working his back. There were some pretty intense back stretches with Liger breaking out of the holds looking painful. Then Liger was able to hit a surprise powerbomb to knock the wind out of Hase. Last 10 minutes were insane, Liger whiping Hase out with huge dives, the crowd going nuts etc. I really liked how Liger, after Hase crashed with a top rope move, wasn't going to make the same mistake and just hit a double stomp, before following up with a dropkick to the ribs. There were lots of nearfalls, but they managed to make rather basic spots like a Camel Clutch or Liger tackling Hase into the turnbuckle feel epic. Also loved the epic nearfall on the Giant Swing and Hase desperately avoiding the suplexes. It reminded me a bit of Liger/Schuhmann in that they mixed in basic sequences for maximum effect. Checking now, this missed both Loss' and Chads Top 30 for the year. Yeah no, this is way better than that stupid Mutoh/Chono match.