Jetlag

A bunch of legit martial artists and strange masked gimmicks step up to work a more surrealist BattlARTS match. Lots of nasty potatoes and credible shootstyle exchanges. Black Hole was inspiring - a fat dude with a genuinely cool mask, clubbing Vader like blows and judo throws. Hopper King is Super Rider and doesn't hold back with the kicks. Most importantly this had the kind of chippy fighting that elevates pro wrestling. Loved how Kimura wouldn't accept Akiyama breaking up his submission attempts. Then Kimura tried tooling Black Hole only to get rocked by those swinging fists. Even the crowd brawling was fun and the finish absolutely nasty. This was everything.

Good match with the theme being the constant giving and taking between these two. You had Misawa with the usual precise elbows and graceful athleticism while Jumbo stuck to working over his mid section. Eventually they move out of their usual rhythm to just get into a slapfest. While transitions came a little too easy for this to be an epic struggle they eventually moved into the kind of finishing run that gave the fans their moneys worth. Should add Misawa eating the turnbuckle when trying to counter the backdrop is one of those outstanding spots you only really get in early 90s AJPW

Really smartly worked match that shows how these two smartened up to working meaningful singles exchanges. We start with a nice struggle over a basic lockup/headlock before Kawada starts wrenching Taue's arm in interesting ways, really making you buy that armlock as a takedown rather than "I won't let go". I love the way Taue would use his long legs to make Kawada eat his boots and knees repeatedly like the lanky prick that he is. This threatens to get pretty epic when Kawada starts working over Taue's bloody face with nasty kicks but a cleverly worked transition to Taue on offense happens - great spot where Kawada trips Taue to the outside when he goes for his sumo rush only to eat a move on the floor. The legwork on Kawada ended up being filler but was intense enough with Kawada trying to kick his way out of submissions. Unexpected tactics from Kawada when he wrenches Taue's arm some more shortly before a controversial finish happens. Kawada going for some retaliation by countering with a powerbomb on the floor on his own only to fall victim to Taue's less elaborate techniques was a cool way to keep the feud exciting. Very good to excellent match that would be a standout on any card that didn't have a Jumbo/Misawa singles match.

I really liked the parts where they slapped each other like they meant it. Kroffat is still rocking the pajama pants and makes Kobashi eat some nasty kicks right under the chin. Some of the parts where they trying to push the other guy to he ropes and hit him felt like them doing UWF inspired work, in that slightly wonky AJPW way. The junior hybrid parts were fine and I like this kind of short energetic match over a drawn out epic.

In some ways this was better than Satomura/Saiki and in some ways worse. The opening exchanges were very good, and the match soon turned into an absolute slaughter with Satomura using her skinny opponent as a kicking bag. Sareee also took some brutal suplexes. Sareee is a fairly generic female worker, but she held her own with some sick crowbar dropkicks that seeked to shatter Meikos face. Satomura basically worked this like a pissed off Jumbo, angrily walloping her opponent around whenever she had enough and landing brutal throws. Meiko also whips out a super fast spinning toe hold and looked like it would dislocated your knee in another great spot. The problem was that whenever Sareee needed to make a comeback she simply no sold her way back into the match. Meiko selling her the head trauma from the constant dropkicks to her face added some depth but this needed some kind of hook for Sareee to outsmart her higher ranked, more skillful, precise and vicious opponent. As a result the finish didn't feel earned. Should add that Satomuras suplex bumps were crazy aswell.

Borderline excellent lengthy old school epic. I always love the rope running exchanges these guys work into their matches. To be honest, the first fall wasn't brilliant, but it sets the tone and the match never slowed down. As with Chi-Town rumble, love everytime Steamboat gets Flair with the chops. The 2nd fall was the best as it was just this great struggle with Flair trying to seal it and Steamboat desperate to stay on top. Flair flopping after fighting out of an abdominal stretch is how you sell. Steamboats endless elbow drop series to Flairs leg has to be one of the greatest uses of such a simple move ever. Steamboat crashing and burning repeatedly and having to fight through an anguishing Figure 4 is the stuff of a classic. Pin combo trading felt like a struggle aswell. Unfortunately neither guy put in a super deep selling performance considering how much limbwork there was here, maybe they felt like they had to keep the pace up with rope running etc. I thought you really noticed the length down the stretch and some of the pin attempts felt like filler.

Crazy hot match with a fast pace. I love that they make big deal of Flair trying to pin Steamboat with the leg on the ropes during the opening minute, really struggling over such a basic pin. We get a great staredown and a lengthy Steamboat shine with Flair bumping big and both guys as always lacing eachother up with chops. Flair taking over with a simple kick to the mid section was a little easy, but salvaged by the fact he also reversed Steamboats succesful comeback combination. The one problem with the Flair/Steamboat series is that Steamboat never seems to make it a point to sell the leg work. He will go crazy while in the Figure and that rules, but afterwards..? It really could factor into things more specifically given he uses lots of flying offense. Flairs selling wasn't exactly high end either, but atleast he acknowledged all those elbow drops. The rest of this was their usual mix of great spots, with a sense of awesome struggle. Loved the hard fought test of strength near the end.

Wonderful match which always holds up. I love the basic but increasingly elaborate rope running opening sections. They never go for the obvious while mixing in leapfrogs and slides and keeping the theme of Steamboat one upping Flair. Obviously the chop battles are just awesome. It's not rocket science but Steamboat is a nearly perfect babyface by simply bouncing back constantly and just slugging away at Flair. Also check out how much resistance Flair put up against a basic drop toe hold. Flair came across as the highly precise, more vicious champ who would bully Steamboat to the ropes and and try to beat him down. The finishing stretch is great edge of your seat stuff with the classic reversals and misses. I actually didn't remember who won the match and the finish once again got me. As far as criticism goes, I thought the heat section didn't reach all time levels of intensity and Steamboat could've made a bigger deal of the Figure 4, but the you can only really criticize this match in regards to all time level stuff.

Borderline excellent 30 minute long shootstyle match, which was, needless to say, insanely stiff throughout. I mean, it's a given these two will beat the daylights out of eachother, but for 30 minutes straight is impressive. Matwork was very good too also. They would play up the striker/grappler dynamic, but Ikeda would slowly keep gaining advantages on the mat. Ishikawa tries trading fists with Ikeda early and just got destroyed with a brutal savate kick that left him glassy eyed on the floor. Frustrated, he would then more often than not try to target Ikedas injured mid section. While the body of the match wasn't exactly spectacular it never got stale due to enough danger and interesting submission work being present. End run had some crazy strike exchanges and suplexes. Ikeda launching his deadly assault only for Ishikawa to step on his guts was such a simplistic, intense ending. Match was different even from your usual BattlARTS stuff and delivered.

These two have a go at establishing themselves as the lamest workers in all of BattlARTS history. This went 14 minutes but felt like half an hour. Some slow, unimpressive matwork to begin with, with the standing portions resembling Takada/Bernardo. They move into some contrived sequences for nearfalls. Funakis poor mans Dean Malenko style is just boring and Tanakas just does the same spots as always. Not all 90s japanese wrestling was great.

Huh! Really fun trios match. Maybe I should stop dreading joshi tags. The main reason for this being fun is that they mix the usual joshi workrate stuff up with lots of amusing shtick and the combo of tagging Kyoko with two low ranked workers. Kaori Yoneyama plays Mini Kyoko and makes a really fun goofy underdog face, while Kyoko herself works as a Brazo de Plata/One Man Gang type immovable object, which works a lot better than Kyoko working long winded epics. All the Yoneyama tries Kyoko Inoue tribute spots and gets smacked upside the head was fun, all the Kyoko Inoue as immovable object/laying out everyone on the opposite team stuff was fun, and the workrate sections were fun too. I've spoken about how much I like Kuragaki and she was as fun as always, and Bolshoi looked good working completely different from her match against Amano just before this one. Hyuga and Ran are kind of the big main event stars in this one (if you can talk about „stars“ considering how small JWP was at this stage) and they are remarkably non-outstanding, really outworked by everyone else in the match. The one moment I didn't like was Hyuga hitting her german suplex combo on Big Kyoko after she was struggling to just lift her before. Other than that, quality stuff.

WELL!! These are two of my favourite female workers, and really two of the more unique wrestlers in wrestling history, despite the fact you have to kind of scour the earth to find their good matches. Due to the special makeup of japanese womens wrestling these two are rarely in a matchup that allows them to shine. And for some reason, their matches over the years have never been quite white they should be. The 1998 encounter went far too long, the 2000 ones ranged between solid and fun exhibtions... fortunately, they finally delivered what the matchup promises on this one. This is a submission match and really worked like Negro Navarro vs. Solar in Coliseo Coacalco. It even had the kind of playing to the crowd and jokes that sort of match would have. 90% of this was grappling, and it was good. What makes these two so cool is not just their submissions but the cool unique trips and transitions they will come up with to get them. Plenty of unique spots and submissions to keep you entertained, and the finish was decided on the mat in an intense scramble as it should be. Really this felt like a Virus match and that's exactly what their strength is. No idea what took them so long to figure it out, but this was worth seeking out.

Necro vs. Indy Star Who Can Kick Ass is a tried and true formula, and this may have been the craziest and most out of control of them all. Couple seconds into the match both guys are holding on to eachothers shirts and swinging huge punches, couple seconds later Dragon was knocked loopy to the outside. Necro then goes for his elaborate chair spots only to be elbowed in the face an angry Dragon who still had a chair around his neck. The match had a lot of spots which required some set up, but there were also constant eruptions in between where guys would smack eachother recklessly. Dragon would use all these puro tribute kicks and elbows while Necro just throws reckless bum fight punches and stomps. The blown spots added to the trainwrecky feel and Dragon hurling a chair at the back of Necros head when he looked away is a classic barfight move. Obviously Dragon is strong with the body language, looking pissed off, throwing chairs around while the audience is watching this real life Godzilla battle, while Necro is just a tremendous babface here, getting face pops not to mention the selling of his destroyed hand. The indy „Burning Hammer into a chair“ spots were obviously really brutal but the most violent moment of the match may have been them trying to kill eachother in the corner. This is a little long and slow here and there but I imagine it's tough to work a super stiff bumpfest for almost 25 minutes without slowing down and for „Clash of the Titans“ type matches (which this really is, toughest madman vs. Biggest asskicker on the continent) it doesn't get much better.

This was looking like it was building to be the junior match of the decade with both guys working a really good bayface shine segment with some clever spots and then a great heat section built around Chavo lathering Rey with nasty low kicks. Chavo looked like the best possible Dean Malenko here, handling Rey by the mask and taking Destroyer bumps which was pretty creative fora cruiserweight match. Reys selling initially was just great but I thought he ended up getting a little too cute with comeback spots that all required him leaping around and landing on his bad leg. The 619 clutching the knee also ended up looking goofy. Rey ain't no Hijo del Santo after all.

Uhh.. it's Inoki and Hogan working MUGA. And it rules!! The crowd is molten hot, and Hogan does all these awesome technical transitions, totally holding up his end. The hold for hold stuff is basic but effective, with Inoki carrying himself like he could escalate and snap Hogans arm any minute. The Figure 4/Indian Deathlock sequence was great and so was Hogan folding himself up when Inoki threatened to go for the Octopus Hold. No doubt Hogan fully understood how to work this kind of match. I loved Inoki eating the axe bomber and slowly getting up "well, let's get back to wrestling". Add in some really well timed suplexes and a cool finish and you have a great contest. This should've gone longer and you would have a stone cold classic.

James Mason & Chad Collyer vs. Kendo & Tsubo Genjin (Japan, 2000) James Mason & Chad Collyer vs. Tiger Mask & Hideki Nishida (Japan, 2000) James Mason & Chad Collyer vs. Pantera & Macho Pimp (Japan, 2000) These are from Michinoku Pro and very clipped. You get to see Collyer working as a Dean Malenko clone and Mason working as your explosive foreign athlete with unique sick spots. He had perfect form on everything and you could tell the Michinoku Pro fans enjoyed seeing him. James Mason vs. Hideki Nishida (Michinoku Pro, 2000) Mason faces the Spike Dudley worshipping Nishida in a European Rounds match. What a weird matchup, but Mason is a total pro and Nishida is very game, so it totally works. How curious that we have to go to japan to see Mason work straight technical stuff. Nishida was using some lucha submissions so for a moment this was like WoS vs. Lucha. Cool as hell altough a little on the short side. James Mason & Bret Como vs. Tiger Mask & Mens Teoh (Michinoku Pro, 2000) Hm, of all the japanese indy wrestlers, who do I want Mason to face? That's right, Mens Teioh. Their stuff together was just wonderful. Teioh is clearly stoked to work a freaky euro style worker. Thunderbird Bret Como was a canadian indy worker who has been working japan indies for years and does just fine, most notably hitting a nice Shooting Star Press. But you want to see maestro vs. maestro and all the Mason/Teioh stuff delivered. James Mason & Bret Como vs. Solar & Shiryu II (Michinoku Pro, 2000) Now look at this damn matchup!! Shiryu II is Fantastik, so... BOYS!! Michinoku Pro was a collection of cool wrestlers in 2000. And this was really a bunch of cool wrestlers rolling in and doing the stuff that makes them cool. Mason is less about matwork here and more about slick spots and supreme coordination, but that is just the beauty of it. He matches up extremely well with Fantastik. We also get the insane Fantastik tope to the floor and Solar looking sharp as hell.

James Mason vs. Shane Stevens (1998) „Psycho“ Shane Stevens was a thickly built wrestler. Nothing remarkable about him, just your bread and butter heel, but his look alone and Masons face work made this look like something that could've shown up on TV in the mid 80s. This was another decent contest marred by an annoying lady trying to do heel commentary, basically shouting „kill him!“ and „snap his hand!“ all the time and being dismayed whenever Mason made a comeback. James Mason vs. Flash Barker (9/17/1998) More typical face vs. Heel stuff, but they aimed for something bigger here, going over 20 minutes, and doing a good job at that. Flash Barker isn't a very remarkable heel, but he did some amusing hide the foreign object stuff here and had a violent outburst in the last round that was convincing. They kept the match moving, and Masons super athletic moves and comebacks kept this highly entertaining all the way. „Young wrestler with cool flips and flying“ isn't exactly a groundbreaking concept but together with the effective structure and genuine heat here it works really really well. James Mason & Karsten Kretschmer vs. Robbie Brookside & Black Navy Seal (Germany 1999) This was pro filmed. I wonder what this was from as this was the very end of the traditional german wrestling. There was nothing traditional about the match, as it was a 10 minute sprint. There may have been clipping, but who knows. I'm so used to german wrestling being drawn out and all about milking heat, so this was very different. Everyone looked good, even Kretschmer, and Mason already looks like a complete wrestler and fits very well here cycling through spots. Black Navy Seal is Rasta the Voodooman who you may know from GWF or BattlARTS, so he has quite the penchant for popping up in obscure corners of pro wrestling. He looked good here though.

James Mason vs. Corporal Punishment (1996) This was the opening round of a tournament to decide the Middleweight Champion. Mason was in full babyface mode and the match was basically a 5 minute squash with the Corporal (a in every way generic masked wrestler) bumping around for Masons athletic offense. No restholds, so has about all you want from this type of match. James Mason vs. Steve Grey (1996) 2nd round in the tournament. Interesting matchup since Grey is one of the all time great brits, but they only get to go for about 7 minutes here. Good sprint as they just exchange the typical british holds and counters at a fast pace, and Grey still has great form. Mason gets the upset win (who is the underdog in a match between a 16 year old and a 60 year old guy?). James Mason vs. Flash Barker (1996) The finals of the tournament. This was the typical heel tactics vs. Babyface retaliation that is typical of british wrestling, with a little more crisp punches added from both guys. Barker looked decent pinballing around and throwing body shots. It didn't have the kind of hold work you'd expect from a british match but I guess that kind of stuff was gone at this point. Most importantly the crowd absolutely loved Mason.

So one of the best decisions I've made in 2019 so far is getting a James Mason comp. Mason is the greatest wrestler to come out of europe in the last 25 years. Flashy graceful worker with enough substance to keep you entertained and has a long career of looking good on tape. So with that being said, let's get WATCHING!! James Mason, Johnny South & Ulf Hermann vs. Dale Preston, Dave Taylor & PN News (Caernarfon, taped 27/2/1995) RESLO TV WAS STILL AROUND IN 1995??? And WOW based on this I want to see all the 1995 Reslo TV. This was a blast in all the unexpected ways. You have Johnny South as a Fake Road Warrior, Ulf Hermann as a mix between Fake Ultimate Warrior and Fake Sting, and a young James Mason with a head full of blonde hair. That alone is very telling of what european wrestling was like in 1995. And the match was just really really fun full of crisp action and everyone doing something cool. Kind of Eric Rs WCW syndicated dream match except it's in welsh BABY!!! This has elimination rules and Mason is out first, but he still gets to look good: smooth babyface spots, really nice worked open hands, enthusiastic clapping, big back body drop bump... all the base ingredients of a really great wrestler were there. Next we get to see Ulf Hermann absolutely working his ass off, hitting big dives, flip spots that were pretty crazy from such a huge, possibly roided dude, while Dave Taylor works like Fit Finlay hitting snug clotheslines and nasty chinlocks. I've always had a soft spot for Cannonball Grizzly/PN News and he is a really fun big fat dude here aswell, hitting Vader-like clubbing blows and lots of fat man diving moves, including a crazy Cactus Jack elbow. It comes down to South vs. Taylor and that was very very different from how that would have been 10 years earlier but South still looked good. And we get to watch all this madness thanks to 1 dudes VCR. Crazy crazy times. James Mason vs. Jason Cross (1995) We move on from the bright colors of Reslo TV to what british wrestling looked like in 1995: a tiny ring in a small multi purpose community hall in front of about 30 grannies and kids. This was filmed with one camera at a fixed angle, and there are serious vibes emanating from the imagery. The curtain behind the ring alone is haunting. As for the match, it was James Mason doing a Fuerza Guerrera like heel routine and that is so weird and really really fun. Really lighting up his opponent with those open hand shots, working ballshots, taking nice corner bumps and throwing water at the audience. At one point he goes at it with a ~10 year old in the crowd and ends up taking a bump for the kid. At another a big woman with a cain looks to give Mason a run for his money and an elderly lady gets in the ring. Jason Cross didn't do much here, and it was pretty clear Mason was the more athletic, better coordinated guy, not that it mattered because Mason gave a show here typical of a 10 year veteran carrying a green guy. Outstanding in every way. Apparently, James Mason was 15 YEARS OLD in these matches. Holy FUCK.

Tubby old white dudes punch eachother in the face for 20 minutes and it rules. Jesus why are old fat dudes so much better at wrestling?? Just the sucker punch from Kox alone that opens this is greater than what any skinny young dude currently wrestling can do. Most of the match is Kox beating down and cheapshotting Murdoch, who in turn comes up with all these great wind up punch combos. Despite this being No DQ Kox makes it a point to HIDE THE OBJECT. I guess keeping it in your pants is handier than carrying it around all the time and risk losing it. This is really about two guys with a variety of ways to hurt eachother, and a variety of ways to in turn put over that hurt. Kox is just ridiculous here, bumping huge, whipping his head back anytime he gets punched (a very minor but important thing he does better than just about anyone today). The best moment is easily when he eats the Calf Branding, coming up with the blood from his brow and this „Where am I?“ look on his face, and then he gets fucking kicked in the face with the saliva flying out his mouth... aside from all the great punches there are also some vicious stomps and knees from Murdoch that really look like they land with a ton of weight right on Koxs face. The crowd is really into Murdoch as a babyface, and while the match isn't super heated as a whole they react to all the key moments perfectly. To utter some criticism, the pace of the match (at roughly 20 minutes length) is a little slow, but really... this is two masters in their prime working their craft. And you get plenty of old style Brainbusters to top it off. Million star classic, really.

Robinson is a lot like a slightly less southern Terry Funk in this. He largely carries the action through mannerisms and bumping all over the place for Baba. At one point he even leans against Baba and gives him this really uppity „Why don't you chop me yeah“ look. Needless to say Robinsons grappling and counters aswell as the little touches such as going for a suplex in the middle of trading holds were all great and kept the match fresh the whole time. Baba doesn't exactly suck, but it's really blatant how Robinson is doing all the interesting stuff while Baba just sticks to his spots. He doesn't put Robinsons legwork over strongly either. This was a little too brief to be some kind of classic but watching Robinson work is truely a joy.

This was one of the first puro matches I've ever seen at it really got me into the whole old school wrestling. I soon had to watch every Destroyer match I could find. And well this holds up extremely well. It is considered the „precursor to the classic“ in regards to their 1974 match, but this match by itself is better than a lot of „classics“ in other match series. The grappling rules as it's almost 70s shootstyle. I'm guessing Mascaras was so uncooperative Destroyer basically just stuck to shoot throws and holds he had no way of preventing. Just really stiff (as in high resistance, no obvious going along), tight hold for hold work. After some trading of semi-carny holds Destroyer is able to sneak in a blow to Mils mid section, which feels like Volk Han getting punched in the liver, and he immediately follows up with shoulder blocks to the mid section holding Mascaras tights, with Mil looking like he really wanted to avoid those shoulder blocks. The finish to the 1st fall is really good with moves being teased and missing before a combination decides it. The 2nd fall immediately grabs the crowds attention by continueing from the finish of the previous fall. Mil Mascaras has his critics, probably rightfully so, but his uncooperative nature and tendency to eat a match up made for compelling pro wrestling here as the Destroyer really had to work hard to get a fall on him and try all kinds of different things. There are several Figure 4 teases, things get chippy, an had when Destroyer finally gets the hold Mil is awesome trying to get out of the move like a shootstylist by contorting his body. In the 3rd fall Mils selling was money, no questions about it, as he was hobbling around, trying to create space, stretching his leg as if to fix it, and desperately trying to fend off the Destroyer, who was just as desperate to pounce on the legs and get that darn Figure 4 again. Actually great finish which again plays of the 1st fall. So here you had an extremely psychologically sound, smart match that draws you in while delivering plenty of really good grappling. The 2nd fall doesn't quite hold up the intensity, but no qualms about it. This is the best match outside England that year in a cakewalk.