Jetlag

Huigaji looked awesome in the first Futen match that we saw, but everything else was far away from that performance for some reason. This felt a lot like Mashimo leading him along and that you could've told any other indy guy to stop pulling strikes and put him into this match and it would've been fine. Mashimo carries Hiugaji through some shootstyle mat exchanges fine before he starts giving him the business with brutal kicks and slaps. Hiugaji is able to catch Mashimos leg and is basically able to hang on through that while occasionally catching Mashimo with a big punch or stomp. Fun layout and together with the stiffness dialed up makes a really really fun match.

Okubo sure has put on weight since U-Style. He is still smaller than Nagai. FUTEN crowbar Nagai is really the best use of him post-RINGS. They don't go for matwork and just blast eachother with mean kicks and elbows. Basically just a short basic indy undercard match with Okubo selling fired up youngster taking a beating and Nagai working on his arm, but Futen stiffness elevates everything to at minimum a fun match.

6 minute Futen opening match which means you are going to get a dose of fun violence in a short amount of time. This feels a bit like wrestler vs. MMA figher, with Nohashi trying some takedowns and sticking to headbutts and dropkicks otherwise while NARITA throws punches from mount. Narita has some really nice punches and a cool rolling Octopus Hold for a nice nearfall, but Nohashi soon headbutts him into oblivion, full on with a bloody mouth and welts on his head.

Controversial match, but I thought this was a stroke of genius as far as pro wrestling booking can go. Sometimes keeping a promotion fresh and unpredictable is more important than having the biggest and most credible guy on the roster be champion. And the match is really good too because they do a tremendous job messing with the audiences expectations. Working cutoffs in such a way has become a lost art, I'm afraid.

Not one of the better Akiyama sprints, but it sure drives the point home. Shigas massive opening barrage of offense trying to put Akiyama away was really entertaining, but the conclusion was just not that interesting. Matches like this were very important in NOAHs booking as they conditioned audiences that the opening of a match was important, so I appreciate them.

Hashi may have been outworking everyone else in NOAH at this point. This was a typical rookie/veteran match with Akiyama mostly blowing off Hashis offense except when he was using that iron skull. Akiyamas „I'm so tough“ bullshit biting him in the ass was a nice touch and literally everything Hashi did was extremely well done. He would try different approaches to cut Akiyama down headbutting him in every different body part and at one point he just headbutted him like 30 times in one go. Akiyama beats and stretches Hashi good with some especially nasty facelocks but overall I was lukewarm on his performance here. If he had sold the head trauma Hashi was giving him on a larger scale the match could've been pretty great.

Man I love NOAH. Even a minor lead-in tag like this will have a unique, unpredictable structure, everyone playing their role and guys unloading on eachother with stiff shots. Great opening which gets the crowd by the balls immediately. Marufuji putting Hashi in the tree of woe so he and Ogawa can double team Akiyama is something we all did in WWF No Mercy. I like Akiyama a lot but I thought he was outshone by Hashi here, who was just way stiffer, more intense, etc. I thought Akiyama could've done a better job giving Ogawa & Marufuji receipts for their rat boy tactics. Ogawa looked great as usual outsmarting his opponents. Marufuji didn't do anything stupid, even showing some viciousness dropkicking Hashis skull repeatedly. Loved the finish.

Two big guys maul each other for 5 minutes. Primitive match, but I prefer them doing this over some drawn out 10 minute affair. Morishima looked like he could've been great if he had worked more Otto Wanz style matches. He certainly looked up there slugging it out with Vader in the corner.

Man it's crazy people used to take matches like this for granted. Everyone knows their role and gets to look good, and the match tells a fine STORY~! Where you genuinely can't predict the exact payoff. Honda and Hashi try to crack eachothers skull before slapping eachother silly! Hashi is really GETTING IT and elicits great crowd responds! Taue boots people in the face when they least want to have it! Saito... hits hard! Shiga does all these nifty submissions, which are still over at this point! Inoue isn't useless! Now this isn't GREAT stuff, but there still enough nifty details to keep this entertaining, such as Honda teasing the Dead End or Hashi struggling to get in position for a double team move. Also, cool submission finish! This gets the full NOAH point.

Fun interpromotional juniors match in front of a molten hot crowd. To be honest I thought the match had too much filler work and not enough hate filled exchanges, but Kikuchi stepping up to maul opponents was indeed awesome and Liger was a sufficient prick. Inoue got to look strong for a rookie in black trunks and Kanemaru was able to not kill the match. Him kicking Liger in the balls may have been the highlight of the match, which feels stupid considering it's a juniors match that has brainbusters and whatnot, but it was an insanely well timed moment that the crowd ate up.

Iizuka returns to wrestling. And he gets to fight Nishimura in a long technical battle! Is this the longest singles match Iizuka has ever been in? Does anyone even remember any significantly long Iizuka singles matches?? As far as lesser known 2002 Nishimura singles matches go, I'd say this was better than Nishimura/Shiga. Iizuka was much less luggage than Shiga, instead he was actively trying to crack the stoic grappler, while Nishimura seemed to have an answer to everything. Iizuka finally found what he was looking for when he got Nish in one of his sambo leg locks. An awesome battle of leg entanglements ensued that left both guys struggling to get up. Couple brilliant nearfalls down the stretch that I bit on. Nishimura was the man in 2002 and Iizuka more than held up.

Our only BattlARTS main event of the year, but it's a good one. These two always have good matches, and this time they went for a full blown 19 minute main event. What was cool about this was that normally you had Usuda as the aggressive striker with Ishikawa working counters. Here Usuda was still aggressive but Ishikawa gave him back good, so Usuda was also using his defensive tools more, which is something he does very well, and you had a match basically built around who could turn the others aggression against himself first. Match has lots of good matwork and also some insanely stiff headbutts and kidney shots. I especially like anytime Usuda would get aggressive on the mat, normally you would go to the mat to seek safety from a striker, you aren't safe from Usuda though. It really is a crying shame Usuda was so underutilized on the indie scene, atleast Ishikawa got himself a spot on Michinoku Pro undercards that year. Usuda takes as good as he gives, taking some crazy crazy suplex bumps. There are some excellent submission teases and the finish was pretty epic with multiple face shattering kicks and Ishikawa just rattling Usuda with a big punch. The finish plays up the story of the match as it was all about who would get the deciding counter.

BOYS!! It's my favourite time of the year - that time when I spend my hard earned money to buy indy sleaze tapes, and then tell YOU about it. NOW 2/14/1993 Kishin Kawabata vs. An Che Honn The Equalizer vs. Kim Chon Hyon Buddy Landell vs. Rod Price Hisakatsu Oya vs. Alex Porteau Manny Fernandez vs. Apollo Sugawara Ishinriki vs. Hiroshi Hatanaka Atsushi Onita & Kendo Nagasaki vs. Goro Tsurumi & Umanosuke Ueda I watched the last NOW card and wanted to see more, so I got more. And well, this was another really fun card! We start with 2 singles matches starring obscure korean workers. Korean pro wrestling seems to have a similiar history to japanese pro wrestling only that it kind of died off over the years, but it's such a great unknown on the english speaking internet. In a different universe we are all raving about korean pro wrestling while nobody knows who Rikidozan is. I've only seen glimpses of korean wrestlers and all of them were from japanese promotions pitting them against japanese workers, which I assume is kind of a barrier, assuming there is a language barriere there and these workers come from different backgrounds and styles. Plus, with 1992 undercard indy matches, you mostly check them out for curiousity, especially when such illustrious names as Kishin Kawabata and The Equalizer are in them. And these undercard matches delivered all you can ask for. Kawabata vs. An Che Honn was pretty much a showcase of fun offense – with Kawabata hitting big headbutts, kicks to the spine, biiiiig jumping elbow drops and sentons – and An Che Honn hitting some pretty agile junior offense. The korean was doing standing moonsaults, backflips, flip sentons where he landed with his hip first in really hurty fashion. Dare I say, was this guy an unknown innovator from 25 years ago? Or was he just imitating what he saw on Peruvian wrestling tapes from 20 years prior? Then he hits this cool punch/kick combo and I'm all on board for the Korean Pro Wrestling train. Eitherway, that match didn't have real structure as basically Kawabata went back to offense immediately after An Che had hit his spots, but it was a fun showcase. Kawabata wins with a big leaping elbow drop and that rules. The next match had slightly better structure – I've never seen The Equalizer before and he looks like a fake Kevin Sullivan – google tells me he was a Kevin Sullivan gimmick brother – apparently he was in WCW. If you are a Fake Sullivan superfan you probably need to see this match, because it's like a really fun WCW TV match for a minute. Equalizer works „I'm bigger and you can't knock me over“, and Korakuen Hall pops when the obscure korean finally bodyslams him! Fake Sullivan hits a BIG second rope legdrop! Kim Chon Hyon hits all kinds of fun out of nowhere kicks! Equalizer brawls his way to the countout finish, and because the camera guy filming this is kind of slow you don't really get what's happening. After the match Tsurumi comes out and looks pissed at the koreans! Landell vs. Price – this is what US Indy workers working japanese promotions used to look like!! Tubby blonde white guys who don't care about impressing anybody and instead just work a psychologically sound match! And well I'll be a son of a bitch, because these two go out of their way to work a Southern BattlARTS match! They hit snug elbows, thundering chops and hurty looking punches and toe kicks, and also work fun drop toe holds and fireman carries into leg rides on the ground. It was a slow paced, deliberate match, mind you, but damn! I wanna see more wrestling like this!! You are probably thinking to yourself „Oh you lying german bastard. You spent 4$ on this tape and now you are imagining things to trick yourself into thinking this was good.“ Well bugger off, because this low key ruled. Price absolutely clocks Landell with a stiff clothesline out of nowhere. Landell works snug wristlocks and toeholds (inbetween Wooo!s for the crowd) only for Price to come up and punch him in the cheek. Price blocks a surfboard so Landell goes for a single leg crab instead and kicks Price in the ribs while holding that. Price fights out of an armbar and locks in a UWF leglock which Landell sells like a Figure 4 with his shouders down for the pinfall. Landell comes up limping and Price immediately follows up with more snug lowkicks. What the hell is happening?? Landell dares Price to take him down, who promptly does just that. Landell fights off the Price takedowns – including one by doing an awesome Fujiwara sprawl and now the crowd is really digging all this was we move closer to the 20 minute mark in a match with a 20 minute time limit. They really go broadway here and work nearfalls for sleeper holds and Figure 4s. Prices last move before the draw is a 10 Punch in the corner for a close 2 count. This was such a weird broadway but they really did a pro job working a sound match that won everyone over. After that we get two more matches featuring US guys. IT'S HISAKATSU OYA vs. THE PUG!!! And they hit the mat!! Damn, is NOW scientific wrestling central of the 90s japanese indy scene?! Oya looks better here than he did in both BattlARTS and MUGA. He really wrenches Porteaus t shoulder and arm with some snug holds. Porteau is on the very, very bland side here. He has a nice headlock punch though. But before The Pug can bore you to sleep Oya absolutely KILLS him with the backdrop suplex! Golly!! Nasty Oya submissions and that insane bump are totally enough for me to give this the Full Japan Indy Point. Next up is Thee Manny Fernandez vs. Apollo Sugawara. And that was a fun short match too. Fernandez has the Finlay mullet and his charisma and mannerisms shine through even on a handheld. Match was fun in that short WCW TV match way. Sugawara still has really nice dropkicks and Fernandez takes a really nice backdrop bump for him. Fernandez also hits some really nice slug clotheslines. He also wins with a nasty shootstyle toe hold which is unexpected and rules, like pretty much everthing on this card so far. Ishinriki vs. Hiroshi Hatanaka was, unlike pretty much everything else on this card, something you could've shown to your average juniors loving 90s smark and he would've agree that it was a cool match. Two pudgy juniors go 20 minutes and there are some big nearfalls down the stretch. I really enjoyed the match as they did a good job filling the time, these two guys have really good looking basics, really fast explosive shoulderblocks and armdrags etc. Hatanaka looked especially good, hitting lariats with a ton of snap, big kneedrops and leg drops, really nice powerslam etc. His Fujiwara armbar counter may have been the highlight of the match. He also hit at one point a huge legdrop that looked like it would shoot KO someone and Ishinriki was either legit knocked loopy or Ishinriki is really good at selling „I just had a 200 pound japanese dude drop his weight on my jaw and I don't know where the fuck I am“. It's this kind of match that gets you really over with japanese crowds and they both came out looking like they should've been kings of the indies but instead they just completely fell off the map in the mid 90s. I thought the match could've been really great with a little more stiffness and hatred – they tease flaring tempers in the first minute and never really follow up – or maybe some kind of more pronounced story, but they achived what they were going for without hiccups and this was just a really cool match to see. The main event was all about the superstar charisma of Onita as the crowd is absolutely white hot for him. Unfortunately once again some kind of sports entertainment crept into it as Ueda refused to cooperate with Tsurumi. To be fair, Tsurumi looked good here, and the guys potatoeing eachother sections were fun. Tsurumi was doing the backfists before the were cool and hitting nice punches, also Nagasaki has ridculously great kicks here, just trying to boot dudes heads off, plus Manny Fernandez was at ringside with a kendo stick. But once again the match ended early. The coolest thing to come out of this was a brief Manny Fernandez/Tarzan Goto face off which is the greatest match of the 90s that never happened. So there you have it. Two really good matches, fun undercard, lots of coolness throughout, Tarzan Goto in a funny 90s getup... I'm all on board for the NOW hype train by now.

Super intense contest in front of a really responsive Wembley crowd. I don't remember this being so one sided as Cortez takes most of the bout with Grey making the occasional fired up comeback one upping him, but they used that structure to great effect. Really one of the best examples of build in a wrestling match I can think of as the intensity is just simmering and both guys liking eachother less and less over the course of the match. Starts off with Cortez working a bunch of headlocks, which sounds boring but Cortez is such a high end wrestler it's ridiculous. Him yanking Grey by the chin or nose was a bit like Volk Han throwing someone by the wrist, and he really wrenches Greys face. Eventually Grey puts him in a headlock of his own for a nice pop which is the WoS equivalent of Dick Murdoch building to his punch. This match is remarkably simplified down altough they are working ultra tight and there are a small handful of beautiful reveras (partially the armlock escape Grey does which was like something a luchador should steal). Eventually it breaks down to Grey trying to jump on Cortezes injured leg whenever he gets the chance. I didn't remember the finish at it comes a bit out of nowhere and isn't really what you want but it really makes you want to see the rematch which unfortunately we never got.

I may be in the complete minority here, but I thought this wasn't as good a Nishimura/Rutten in some aspects, particularily because Takayama came across as holding back. This was still some pretty great character driven pro wrestling with a technical edge. Takayama doing those bridge up spots is wonderous. I wish he had sold the legwork a little more. Nishimuras throwback spots for massive reactions ruled as usual. Nishimura can actually set up a move or hit a pin combo that decides the match, so he never really comes across as exhibitiony. Liked Takayama just kicking him like a dog, but this is largely the Nishimura show aside from the novelty of Takayama doing technical wrestling.

Neat 10 minute Rutten showcase. It's funny that Rutten in some aspects comes across like a 50s wrestler. I mean, he makes you believe in body shots or slamming the other guys head down as nearfalls. Kanemoto didn't add a ton, but he played his part. This was entertaining because Rutten comes across as so dangerous, always knowing what to do on the mat, plus all the out there cool thing he will do.

One of the more unique matches in wrestling history, it's a kickpadded uncooperative modern day shooter vs. A classy early 70s technician. Rutten was great at pro wrestling no doubt about it, his selling of Nishimuras holds was great (did a better job there than most trained pro wrestlers) and he was basically threatening to KO Nish every single round. Rutten not holding back at all is a big part of why the match worked. Nishimura ruled as usual believably locking Rutten into his old school carny holds or dishing out the european uppercuts. I think this may have been better without the rounds but it had typical european build closer to a german style match (Nishimura spent a lot of time in germany and austria) than british as it had that simmering animosity. Nishimura slowly getting destroyed but getting in Ruttens head was really cool. By the last round they completely ditched the striking and just stubbornly went for the tap out.

At this point Fujinami was mostly relegated to tag work. Now he takes on Inokis project Yasuda. Before the match starts Yasuda insists Fujinami puts on MMA gloves, so when Fujinami does so Yasuda rushes him. One punch exchange later and Fujinamis nose is gushing blood. This really feels like a fight to the death with Yasuda trying to choke out Fujinami, but the old guy can always hit a surprise move. Only 5 minutes but a surprisingly good match.

Always love Hashimoto destroying a martial artist. Despite the massive size difference, Hashimoto was able to make Ogasawara look threatening... well till he just started chopping his head off. Hashimotos dropkick was for the ages. Also, watching him pull Ogasawara into DDTs repeatedly made me think his opponent doesn't even need to know how to bump to take that move... Hash just drills you and it'll look good regardless.

You can't call this a bad match but you can hardly love it either. The opening is okay like a poor mans BattlARTS match. They do some matwork and mix in stiff shots. The second half had some good ideas but never really grabbed me because it felt like your stereotypical japanese big match with neither guy adding any character. Also, both guys went back to offense too easily. Nagata catching Sasaki with surprise high kicks was cool but him basically no selling back to offense and burying Akiyamas finishers (prick) didn't do much for me. Kensuke when he is not wearing MMA gloves or in there with an all time great also continues to do very little for me.

Always nice to see the M-Pro crew show up on another promotions card and try to steal the show. This was maybe slightly faster worked and more chaotic than their usual formula tag, which wasn't a bad thing. You are really kept on the edge of your seat when any minute 4 guys might run in to drop elbows all at the same time. A chaotic brawl breaks out halfway into the match and Naniwa gets bloodied and his mask ripped open, which just sets the crowd completely on fire for him. The Sasuke/Hamada/Yakushuji technico shine sections are really fun – Yakushuji fast complicated headscissors and armdrags are still the best, and I don't remember Hamada working as Fujiwara but he does a good job at it here. Still the massive blood and mask ripping portions and Naniwa getting to shine really set this one apart.

Lovely match. I wish I had like a hundred Dos Caras singles matches available. His legwork was awe inspiring. He basically locked up Canek repeatedly and then tried to sprain his ankle for like 20 minutes straight. There is the joke that at some point UWA only existed to give Canek and his relatives titles, but he looked good here. He was ready to wrestle, and he sold that legwork. Using a bunch of spin kicks for a comeback was a little weird though. Cool 3rd fall that had the fans by the balls with the nearfalls. Canek was showing so much ass here I was sure he would win, so the match worked me too.

This was quite the effective heavyweight slugger. One of the best uses of Kane that I've seen and I actually liked Undertakers performance. Liked his punch combos, liked his huge dive, liked him going for a damn victory roll of all things, liked him blocking Kanes assault and surviving. Ending sequence was about as well executed as you can ask for.

This match is famous because of the clip where Inoki gets in the ring and punches Nakamura. There was nothing exciting about the match itself; I mean this would've been fine as a midcard tag, but as a Dome main event...? There are some solid exchanges and a brutal soccer kick finish but that's it pretty much. Kashin adds nothing (shocker!) and the potential fun matchups don't deliver their potential. Nakamura was pretty mediocre here so I guess he deserved to get punched. He was working like a US indy guy in the opening portions and that's a real disgrace. He also put up very little fight against Fujita during the finish. There is a little bit of Fujita and Nakanishi crowbarring eachother, and Nakanishi manhandling Kashin, but not enough really. Worst of all is they never really engaged the crowd.