Jetlag

Sakata had the vibe of someone who was just getting the hang of how to pro wrestle here, but after a somewhat tentative opening this turned into a shockingly good match. Takaiwa has been efficient against shooters and this was no exception. Sakata had it all over Takaiwa here, basically making him his punching bag, working submission counters and throwing him around with massive suplexes. Takaiwas only chance was to crowbar Sakata into oblivion. Muscling Sakata into the Death Valley Bomb may have been Takaiwas finest moment ever here. We get lots of brutal lariats (obviously), but Takaiwa really earns his salt eating one nasty kick from Sakata after another, getting double stomped and almost submitted a couple times. Awesome jaw breaking finish.

YO! This match is two sided. First of all, they level some epic beatings on eachother here. No doubt about it. Ohtani goes at Ishikawa like he just caught him with his daughter. Just punishing him with kicks, slaps, bloodying him, some nasty as hell face grinding, and he slaps the ring boys too for good measure. Ishikawa makes one or two epic comebacks, including one where he just punches Ohtani square in the face and another where he hits one of his stiffest enzuigiris ever and then tries to break Otanis arm in several places. So you feel like you are watching an epic fight, but then the match seemed to be lacking in well thought out transitions or some kind of twist and also it's all over in less than 9 minutes. For that there is plenty of asskicking going on here, but other than that – I guess I just expect deeper material from Ishikawa who is a master of the neat touch even in a short wild brawl. Then again this was largely the Otani show. But – if you want to tune out and watch two surely elderly japanese men throw the kitchen sink, this is your stuff.

More meth lab BattlARTS. This starts out with some somewhat conventional, good lock ups and grappling, altough quickly devolves into a gritty seedy fight. Watching these two fight over pin attempts and submissions is way more interesting than skinny juniors running through choreographed reversals. Hero looked good working over Ian with stiff strikes and Ian once again just pasted him with european uppercuts and crossfaces. There was some nasty as hell legwork with Hero wrapping tape around his leg to protect himself. The vocal selling was pretty outstanding too. Great post match with Ian having his knee popped back in place. The IWA MS crowd proves they are true connoisseurs by giving this a standing ovation.

Two of indy wrestlings greatest asskickers level epic beatings to eachother. Virtually every blow in this match landed with a major thud. The match lacked in transitions, but the sheer assbeating will keep you watching till the end. Ki looked amazing as not only was making minced meat of his bigger, menacing opponent with rapid fire Kawada kicks and flying kicks to the face but also locking in crazy armbars. Joe countering the Dragon Sleeper into his Island Driver was inspired. Pretty great finish.

Not as great as the JAPW match, but still insanely tightly worked, stiff pro wrestling that blows away all the current wannabe shooters (and everyone else too). They mostly struggle over holds while pounding the daylights out of eachother. Kis stiffness was just crazy as he would rough up Danielsons already bruised face with out of nowhere kicks. At one point he just grabbed Bryans head and went loose with Kawada kicks sending him to the outside. Most of this match was both guys fighting over holds or working eachother over with stiff kicks and chops. Ki blocking a Dragon Suplex only to be thrown with a back suplex was like something out of 80s NJPW. I also loved how Ki, after choking the air out of Danielsons lung would immediately follow up with double stomps to the stomach. Unfortunately Danielson made an easy comeback soon after that and the finishing stretch was not as great as the body of the match as they mostly stick to throwing big old bombs back and forth for like 10 minutes. Still, match felt like a classic in large parts.

I love Ogawa as much as anyone, but this should have been an angle to set up their Dome match and not the dome match itself. The brief flashes where they fight were great: Kensuke headbutting and punching out and pummeling Ogawa, who came back just as dangerous as always and kicking Kensuke like a dog is the stuff an epic match is made of. However this was like 2 minutes of wrestling and another 2 minutes of guys in tracksuits jumping in and out of the ring. Kensuke blindsiding Ogawa while like 20 dudes were pummeling in the corner was cool. But yeah, as a setup this would have been great, as their only match it was just a disappointment. Better than Ikeda/Ono my ass.

Really underwhelming match considering how great Akiyama can be and Nagata being passable around this time. This was largely boring your turn/my turn stuff. I know it can be difficult to work with a guy you are not used to, but I expected more from Akiyama than just chinlock his way through a neck work segment. Nagata just isn't good enough to make this stuff compelling. Akiyama using the Emerald Frosion was a cool touch admittedly.

INDY KINGS ROAD! It's almost needless to say this was very good, stiff pro wrestling between arguably 2 of 3 most talented US dudes in 2002. Match had good build and Super Dragons arm selling was excellent, textbook stuff. He was struggling to hit his signature move, even intentionally fucking up a springboard dive and whiplashing into the ropes. Outside interference was a little goofy but lead to a huge double stomp from Dragon. Danielson in this early stage was a pretty fun wrestler of his own, busting out a lot of things that will come unexpected if you are used to the later WWE or RoH version.

Exactly the kind of fun weirdo spectacle you want from a sleazy boxer vs. B-movie action character match. Howard hits all kinds of fun offense including a fucking flip senton to the outside and magistral cradle, and Dempsey punches him really hard. Not exactly well rounded pro wrestling, but you don't want well rounded pro wrestling from this matchup. Also, just the right length at 5 minutes.

DAMN I wish we got this in full. Sean McCully still rules here hitting all kinds of awkward and unexpected stiff offense. Fugofugo has worked CAPTURE so he totally can go against Sean. This match was a bit of a strange mix, on one hand you had Sean McCully punching dudes really hard in the face and Fugofugo busting him open hardway with headbutts, on the other there was lots of Corino comedy, miscommunication spots etc. There was also lots of amusing Fugofugo hard head and human cannonball shtick, one spot where Wagyuta tombstones Fugo onto Corinos chest etc. For a clipped undercard match this gets the full point in terms of sheer entertainment value.

After watching this I am pretty sure Sean McCully would be Top 30-20 in the world in 2018. His crowbar spin kicks and knees ruled and he was always grappling, keeping this moving. Takaiwa can handle himself in this kind of trainwreck, muscling up a clueless McCully for Powerbombs and Death Valley Bombs. At one point he just leapt forward and forearmed McCully in the throat. Only about 7 of 10 minutes are shown but this will give you everything you want in spades.

Hey... I'm doing a best of 2002 project. That's an excuse to watch ARSION again, right? Asuka & noki-A vs. Ayako Hamada & Ai Fujita (ARSION 1/6/2002) This wasn't anything great, but they wrestled a straight match without any bullshit or awrygoings an that alone is noteworthy. Match was going along fine altough there were no moments in the 1st half that made me ge „this is GOOD“. It does pick up nicely for the end run which had some well timed spots and both Ai Fujita and noki-A getting to look good, with Ai looking especially funky hitting cool submissions, rollups and punches. Will be interesting to see what these two are able to do in dying days ARSION. Michiko Ohmukai vs. Lioness Asuka (ARSION 1/13/2002) Both these two can be good, but they are also prone to bullshit and taking lazy shortcuts. The first few minutes of this were actually inspired, as they hit eachother hard and Ohmukai actually tried preventing Asuka from just getting her shit in. A couple minutes in the match Asuka started going for her lazy crowd „brawling“. Ohmukai took some huge double stomps in this, what a weird way to celebrate your lengthy pro wrestling career. It was pretty fun to watch these two kick and punch each other in the face, on the other hand there was also some goofy/blown looking stuff. Asuka being so non-expressive while rumaging around with her tables doesn't help. I guess this was good overall. Mariko Yoshida vs. Michiko Ohmukai (1/25/2002) It was fun watching Yoshida hit the mat and this had some cool punches. Ohmukai was lazying it up in this match though making this nearly a 1 woman show, which sours me because this could've been real good with Ohmukai caring. Also, it's kind of painful how no one is buying Yoshidas submissions anymore.

@ joe g: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7pJlz_reGD8

This was a serious contender for the greatest US indy match I've ever seen. Virtually flawlessly worked 30 minute junior epic which had everything – matwork, storytelling, selling, devastating moves and guys slapping eachother in the mouth. We start with 10 minutes of nearly uninterrupted matwork which was ultra tightly worked, smooth stuff. Quance is someone nobody really talks about anymore, but he was a great talent and just mindlbowingly good for a dude in his 2nd year of wrestling. The matwork they did here was much better than the wristlocky WoS imitation stuff you usually get in US indies and closer to lucha matwork with a bit of japanese influence sprinkled in. Quance would shoot for double leg takedowns and judo legtrips, while Dragon just pounces on him like a snake, in between working ultra tight pin attempts and slapping eachother. Quances tiger feint rana may be the single coolest move a skinny US junior has ever invented. This is 2/3 falls and both the first 2 falls have really smart finishes that pay off in the long run of the match. Dragon was incredibly vicious here, modifying his signature offense to work Quances arm, but he also did a great job selling a big head kick. Quances arm selling was pretty much flawless as he was struggling to hit his offense for the rest of the match and he looked quite sympathetic trying to take down his bigger, more vicious opponent. There were also numerous great counters from Super Dragon, ranging from Fujiwara armbars to turning a DDT into a powerbomb mid-air. He also had this amazing flying armbar. Match also had all the usual brutal offense, neck-compressing suplexes, huge double stomps and lariats etc. The finish is fucking infuriating, but please don't let that detract from the amazing work these two did here.

Probably the greatest matwork in a US indy match ever. Both guys were incredibly vicious here: Danielson would crossface Low Ki really hard aswell as drop knees on the ground, not to mention just trying to pull Kis head off when working facelocks. Kis focus was basically to create openings using his knee strikes etc. Ki was pretty outmatched, but still came up with a few brilliant counters. While this was largely uncooperative, they came up with a few great holds such as Ki trying to split Danielsons legs. Bryans using the modified surfboard to set up the Cattle Mutilation is the greatest use of that move aswell. Then Ki is able to get out of that too. Ki picking up Danielson and ramming him into the buckles before collapsing was another great comeback. Danielson slapping Ki only to get clocked with a head kick was another all time moment. Danielson moving to the corner as seen as Ki kneed him was a smart use of ring positioning. Danielson crawling to the apron and just taking a bump to the floor when Ki hit him instead of doing some elaborate apron spot was a brief of fresh air compared to current day apron spot obsessed pro wrestling. The match lost a bit of it's greatness when they were fighting on the floor and I thought they could have done a better job with the finish. By all logic, the whole thing should have ended with the 2nd Cattle Mutilation. I don't want to nitpick though, because this was a seriously great, inspiring match.

Unexpectedly great indy main event. It's pretty cool to see two underexposed guys who can work step up and deliver their idea of a big match. Both guys were bumping big to get this match over, not just taking big dangerous bumps, but also bumping big for basic moves like a shoulder block. Garuda looked like he just got hit by a truck during the opening exchange and the crowd response underlines that. Meanwhile Sasaki was flying around to put Garudas dropkicks over. Between the big slams and flying they were working a pretty solid groundbased match. Mammoth has really good looking basics, really awesome body slam, huge leg drop, kicking Garuda in the spine between moves etc, while Garuda actually looked like the legit succesor to Hayabusa, hitting thudding kicks, cool submissions and flying around. The finishing stretch was probably better than the stuff many bigger name workers would do that decade. While they did a lot of big moves, there were some really cool cut offs, everything was built to, and they had people believing in a powerslam or schoolboy. Loved Mammoth powering out of a backslide too. The only sour thing about this match is the clipping which was really unnecessary on a TV show that had a 2 hour timeslot.

Ah, 2002, when Shocker was a great worker. I really liked the brief opening matwork, with Shocker flipping around and Guerrero catching him in a great flash Fujiwara Armbar. 2nd fall was short but had UG working Shockers arm over with hurty wristlocks and takedowns. Then Shocker made this great comeback and trying to boot his head off. Shocker looked damn good here, even throwing a great punch combo. The 3rd fall was your typical UG end run where they exchange big dramatic kickouts. Not my favourite thing but it was awesome to watch these two crush eachother with huge chunky guy highspots.

It's the birth of indy dream match wrestling baby. Joe has come back from japan and has yoinked all kinds of cool things from the legends while Danielson is starting to come into his own. The opening hold for hold trading isn't anything brilliant but still feels inventive by 2019 US indy wrestling standards. There is guard work and they work for cross armbreakers but also snug cravates. When Danielson tries to get cute and throw shots Joe would make him pay dearly with a few crossfaces of his own. This was generally pretty hard hitting and they do a good job building to the big spots. This was slightly before they were really starting to put it all together, Joe wasn't quite the menacing badass, but he would really lay into Bryan with kicks, slam him hard to counter a basic headlock etc. On the other hand he would also bump for a feeble Bryan shoulderblock which is just weird. Bryan was pretty fun also hitting a big enzugiri and suicide dive. The one weak part were his head kicks as there seemed to be a lot of light there. Finish was all kinds of fun.

Much of this was very good, largely thanks to Ian Rotten. He would take down Bailey and crossface him, hit big suplexes, Kawada-esque kneedrops etc. His hand selling was pretty neat. After having his hand worked over he would stop throwing punches and instead use the back of his forearm. There were also lots of crazy headbutt exchanges and body part work. On the other hand having this go over 40 minutes was simply a bad idea. Watching them take turns beating on eachother simply got old after a while. Bailey is pretty one dimensional and seemed to have little idea about selling. I'll also say parts of this would have looked better if these two were classically trained and athletic pro wrestlers. For example, Ian could barely get up Bailey for the kneebreaker.

Rey doesn't have the mask here but god damn the crowd LOVES him. Like almost all Rey matches this had a really good lay out and good quality exchanges. Ace Steele has an amazingly early 2000s look but based on his talent displayed here he should have gotten a WWE run. Ace is the heel so he does a lot of really amusing acting like a bitch, really googly eyed looking upset at crowd reactions, leaves the ring only to do a silly run back when he gets counted out etc. Despite that there was a lot of wrestling here, with both guys meshing well doing matwork and standing exchanges and working a cool transition. This has a 15 minute time limit so they start packing up a little early and the last 4 minutes feel slightly rushed with the last 1 minute they spend fumbling around trying to get the last pin on the time limit. Aside from that slightly deflating finish this was very good.

Big awesome spectacle. Ohtani rushes Ogawa kicking him in the face, and Kazunari Murakami is ringside causing trouble. Ogawa has his haters, but to me his greatness is undeniable as he is pretty much the best possible japanese Goldberg. When hits the first judo throw on Ohtani he just drills him into the mat, and when he follows up kicking Ohtani he looks like a killing machine. He looks like he will destroy a guy in 2 minutes, but his selling is such that it always looks like the other guy can believably make a comeback. I also love how he took a german suplex with his big lanky frame. Ohtani of course rules punching Ogawa in the balls and selling the beatdown huge especially the last STO where he was just laid out as if he had his neck broken.

The 90s are over, all your junior heroes are broken down and old, and instead of highspots they work gritty technical matches now. This was centered around Togos pretty great selling performance, he comes in with a bandaged mid section and Sasuke spends most of this match torturing him with kidney punches and ab stretches. Ultra simple match but with plenty of cool moments. I really liked Togo desperately preventing Sasukes dive by clutching his leg and pretty much dragging him down then just throwing a chair at him („Fuck you, here's a chair“ is always a favourite of mine), really liked his nifty pin combo and desperate crossface attempts etc. A ladder gets brought into play and this as usual spells Sasukes downfall.

Two pasty tubby methheads in black shirts work a quasi shootstyle match in front of 30 people. While this was a little clumsy and slow in parts this was probably better than any cafeteria shootstyle I've seen from the current generation of US indy wannabe shooters. And in fact they should study this one as it had a lot of stuff that is missing from their attempts: stiff blows while trading holds to create an opening, holding tight to your holds and pin attempts, trying to prevent the other guy from moving etc. There was a neat moment where Ian would apply an STF and headbutt Tarek in the back of his head. Tarek is really hilarious as his entire idea of selling is pretty much „scream really loudly“ so anytime Ian would do as much as squeeze him he would scream like a japanese female wrestler. All in the same tone mind you. He was okay though and Ian looked very good twisting up his leg etc. The headbutts in this were insane especially the falling headbutts that left the lady in the striped pullover wincing. Memorable finish. This is what indy wrestling should be.

More 2018 randomness as I keep going on random watching sprees. This time I found an unexpected borderline classic!! Strongly considering: Teddy Hart vs. Myron Reed (AAW 1/20/2018) What the fuck was this match?? Teddy Hart is a grizzled veteran now and he is whipping out super fast impressive submissions. He also lights Reed up with some stiff european uppercuts. The opening portion of this is pretty much Hart chucking Reed around and it's really fun. The most awesome thing is the announcers are talking about how this could be like a Stu Hart Dungeon grappling session while Teddy is hitting moonsaults into hammerlocks. Hart hits this asai moonsault which coupled with his „I don't even give a fuck anymore“ facial expressions and payama pants was pretty great. Hart then rummages around putting a bunch of chairs together and tries a move where you can't tell if he botched a canadian destroyer and landed on his back or Reed countered him. But Sabu-like wrestler who is either going to destroy himself or his opponent is fine with me. Myron Reed is a young guy with a serious deathwish. He hits some huge dives and eats a bunch of sick neck compressing super indy moves from Hart. Hart also tries some rope whiplash moves which look really brutal on skinny Reed who is just thrown around like a ragdoll. Hart also starts working a fucking bearhug in the middle of this match. I need more of this Teddy Hart. Added: Teddy Hart vs. Harry Smith (WOW 8/11/2018) I did not expect to see a 30 minute mat classic involving Teddy Hart in 2018, but here it is. Not only did this match have a ton of great spots and cool matwork, it told a beautiful story: Harry is the cleanest, most kept together guy you can think of, being on the road with big companies for years and doing catch wrestling tournaments on the side. While Teddy is the black sheep of the family walking into this match in his payama pants and black shirt famous for burning bridges and being obsessed with cats. Initially they start of friendly shaking hands and trading hands and doing standoffs while Teddy looks somewhat pained with himself. Eventually Teddy starts taking shortcuts. The matwork in this match rules, Smith is a legit catch guy so he works a bit like a UWF dude countering into armbars and kneebars, while Teddy also looks great as his flashier counterpart, flipping around trying to escape an armbar, and hitting a really great Fujiwara armbar of his own. Teddy takes the match to the outside decimating Smith with suplexes to the floor and the fans are shocked, probably because Harry is the one taking big bumps so far while Teddy Hart has been locking in awesome flash submissions. Harry would initially fight back trying to put Teddy in his place but the more bombs Teddy would drop on him the more desperate he would get. While the finishing run wasn't flawless – there are a TON of nearfalls (which actually feel warranted given the occasion and story of the match), and at times they switch offense too easily – it was held together nicely by Teddys great selling, as he was basically constantly selling to put over everything that happened, always checking his teeth or elbow, even after he himself had hit a move, and some nice callback spots. Hart takes some way bigger moves than you'd expect. I also loved him trying to power out of Teddys rope hanging piledriver. I also liked that Teddy stuck to his indy moves of flying and brutal neck compression bombs while Smith used traditional powerslams, piledrivers and superplexes etc. for nearfalls. Also, there were some neat submission counters. Finish is really simple and works. Borderline classic. Watched: Takuya Nomura & Fuminori Abe vs. Ryuichi Sekine & Ryota Nakatsu (BASARA 8/10/2018) Diet BattlARTS. If it was 2008 there would be little reason to bother with this stuff, but these days you gotta take what you can get. Sekine actually worked FUTEN, and he is still mediocre, but he does hit hard. Nakatsu looked like he had no idea what was doing. Parts of the match were just an awkward mess rather than shootstyle, but I enjoyed watching Nomura destroy these nerds. At one point he decided he had enough of Nakatsus interferences and just crippled him with a brutal leg kick. Abe looked okay, I especially liked his crowbarish Dragon Screw (might have been an accident tho) and he and Nomura seemed to be a fun team.

This was a disappointing match, but I gotta atleast write down why. This was during the period when Ishii was with FEC and he was trying to work like a western heel, so instead of epic BattlARTS vs. CAPTURE exchanges we get Ishii kicking Ishikawa in the balls a bunch. There are still some stiff blows and neat Ishikawa reversals altough that is to be expected. Ishikawa even does a shitty no sell off a back suplex, something I've never seen him do.