Jetlag

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.

Nothing better than a lucha match that starts with about 17 minutes of straight matwork that the crowd eats up. This is one of the earlier Navarro/Solar matchups and what they did here was pretty different from what they would do later, altough it was all great. This is also one of the better Skayde showings I've seen as him rolling with Shu is much more interesting than him rolling with one of his skinny trainees. Shu is just so physical, he does this thing where he goes on all fours or tailor seat and dares the other guy to move him. So Skayde puts a nasty toehold on him before going for a rolling stretch. Really really neat stuff that feels competitive. The later portions that had Shu throwing dropkicks and flying clothesines were also pretty great. Shu also hits a really great senton really squishing Skayde underneath, and locks in a nasty arm triangle with the arm trapped. Then Skayde would torture him further by putting all kinds of leglocks on him. The submissions and pins also work as near falls. Finish is between Solar and Navarro and suitably good. This is really a borderline classic, 20+ of high quality technical lucha at it's finest.

Michinoku Pro could still deliver dope 6 man tag action in the 2000s. This a trademark high spot filled formula tag with everyone playing their roles. Curry Man is a pretty good use of Christopher Daniels as he doesn't pretend to be a master worker but just acts like a tool. His missed dive was pretty insane. Super Boy always looks so great in M-Pro (where the hell is his lucha material?) and this was no exception, he is so awesome as a massive fat guy crushing the tiny dudes with flippy moves, and working miscommunication spots. Hidaka was also a really good team captain, trying to unmask TMIV and attacking his bad arm, twisting up Yuasas leg and getting kicked in the face etc. Nishida as a Spike Dudley inspired guy working highspots with Super Boy was really fun too. This is the kind of match that is completely predictable but still puts a smile on your face.

VAST ENERGY. This match was a total freakshow, but had far too many great moments not to love it. After working a lithany of martial artists in the 90s and being the king of the Tokyo Dome, Hashimoto has retired to his own remote island to live out his vision of what pro wrestling is supposed to be – some weird combination of Memphis and RINGS. Broken down 2000s Hashimoto is still a seriously great pro wrestler, and him destroying this freak of nature here was damn impressive. Jones really laid into Hashimoto who sold the beating huge. This also included Jones working an iron claw that Hashimoto sold like his skull was about to get crushed, Hashimoto and Jones working 70s Mighty Inoue/Andre spots, bearhug etc. Jones was a mixture of wooden and awkward and impressively athletic, he had this huge elbow drop, flies over the top rope, impressive leaping clothesline etc. And Hashimoto really lays into him too, hitting every part of the body with a thud, trying to find the weak spot. Hash chopping the shoulder while Jones was trying to hit lariats was pretty awesome, other great moments include: Jones powering out of Hashimotos armhold attempts, Hashimoto chopping away at the throat as well as his body shot combo, Hashimoto coming up with a bloody lip, a borderline exhausted Hashimoto locking in a basic leglock that ends up inescapable for Jones etc.

I was given Ricky Steamboat vs. Takashi Ishikawa from 1982 by Matt D which was a nice opportunity to check out T. Ishikawa working a more technical match. The match starts with Ishikawa controlling with a headlock for a bit and Steamboat trying various escapes. Ishikawa does the fun rope walking headlock takeover and looks all kinds of solid. A clever transition happens and Steamboat controls with an armlock for a bit. Ishikawa fights out and escalates the match hitting a tubby guy plancha and some nice elbows before Steamboat catches him with a crossbody for the flash pin. Rock solid stuff and something modern workers should study to understand how control segments and transitions work.

4 tubby guys beat the fuck out of each other and it rules, what else is new? The opening minutes were really fun logical pro wrestling. Fuyuki was fired up, ready to take down Tenryu and kick Kitahara's ass. He also looked shockingly good doing sympathetic selling as he got awkwardly kicked in the chin and face repeatedly etc. Kitahara loves demolishing other dudes with kicks but ends up having his leg taken out in a simple spot that looked great. His leg selling was very good as his kicks became mostly useless. Tenryu's hot tag was really fun and different as Fuyuki just bitchslapped him out of the ring and proceeded to kick Kitahara's ass some more. Tenryu then hands out some Necro level chairshots only to get brained himself. Super Strong Machine is not a very charismatic dude compared to the others but he is really fun here blindsiding guys, just constantly ramming people in the back of their necks with lariats and chairs when they would least expect it. Tenryu kind of played the role of the megastar who looked like he was on the verge of defeat, always looking like he was gonna go "Damn now I'm REAL fed up!“ and then he would get bonked in the head again. Really cool finish. I'd say this isn't quite up there with the high end WAR material but for the genre this is must watch anyways.

Borderline great NOAH 6 man action. Really fun opening, BURNING try isolating Taue only to eat a bunch of boots to the face and Taue ends up teasing the apron chokeslam on Kobashi with Ikeda helping him. We get some brief exchanges where you can't tell what the layout is going to be and then Taue takes out Kobashi with the big chokeslam on the floor anyways. In 1995 this probably would barely phase Kobashi but in 2002 this takes him out for a long time and we get a long heat segment with KENTA taking a huge beating while Shiga desperately tries to save him. That they were able to get serious heat for something like a Sleeper Hold in Differ Ariake speaks volumes about they excellent job the rudos did here. Ikeda was in top form, hitting hard, constantly running in to cheap shot dudes and almost knocking KENTA out with high kicks and spin kicks. Kobashi ends up coming back altough looks badly wounded. We get a really fun finishing run with Ikeda laying into Kobashi, doing a great job selling a big suplex, Shiga busting out his awesome submissions. Bison manhandling the little dudes etc. Great postmatch too, Taue rules.

One year later, Sugiura looks much more rugged. Can he take down Honda now? He can't, but here's another really fun match. Plenty of grappling, and that is a good thing because Honda rules so much on the mat. His cradles, takeovers etc. are so much cooler than your average UWF matwork. His super tight headlocks etc. also help emphasize how much it must suck to wrestle this guy and they also have significance, he might just lock in a basic front headlock then yank the guy over and crank his neck. Sugiura brings a lot more to the table in this match. Not outstanding and he does look a little awkward at times but he is a fun dance partner for Honda. The finish was pretty fun and unpredictable even if you've seen a lot of Honda as he wasn't doing his usual finishers (yet?) and instead some more experimental things.

Amaresu shootstyle! This was a really cool match. Apparently this was Sugiura's 3rd match ever so it's good that he gets to fight Honda, who is a master of a nifty short match like this. The early matwork here felt a bit like Negro Navarro doing an exhibition in Coliseo Coacalco, quick movements and then a break, but they get into some good extended mat sections later on. Really cool stuff that feels different from your typical UWF inspiried japanese shootstyle matwork. Honda looks like a troll but he can move really fast. Sugiura (in his amateur singlet) looks good throwing the much bigger Honda around. He survives some of Hondas unorthodox submissions and even hits a massive Karelin throw on the big guy. Nifty Fujiwaraesque finish.

Unexpectedly stiff, fun undercard action. Hashi and Izu try to crack eachothers skull in the opening and Hashi gets bloodied hardway. This leads to your signature Hashi underdog performance with Taue Baba chopping his cut. Inoue, as usual, was pretty much useless in helping Hashi here, so Hashi has to tough it in the finish against Izu who dishes out some big bombs. This kind of stuff is what made NOAH great.

A bunch of ninjas and sleazy masked dudes fly around in Korakuen Hall! By no means is this a great match, but it is a great bizarre indy spectacle. They bring out a bunch of ladders for this so you know what that means. Match includes: lots of preposterous Sasuke highspots (including the apron tope) and ladder-related awrygoings! Chabinger abusing everyone with his weird wooden mini table! Great Sasuke disappearing and reappearing, changing between his Great Sasuke/Sasuke the Great personae! Takeshi Ono in a mask hitting dudes with high kicks! Orihara looking good! NANIWA doesn't know how to do the Naniwa Elbow anymore! Great Sasuke hitting some REALLY stiff kicks! Sanhshiro Takagi in a mask handing out stunners! After the match everyone sits down and they have a beer. Osamu Tachihikari comes out too. Rating: watch if you can laugh at Sasuke getting a ladder flung at his head.

Tomohiro Ishii comes out in full on Dick Togo worship gear. Amazing. This was a shockingly great indy tag with all 4 guys smacking eachother hard while working complex spots and cutoffs. We get lots of fun heel tactics from Rudo Hidaka and Ishii which was interesting to see these two go back and forth between throwing hard shots and working Stunning Steve Austin/Fuerza Guerrera heel spots. Hidaka likes slapping his thigh but he really does paste guys with his kicks. This was one of the greater Tiger Mask IV performances I've seen too as he looked like a graceful technico while also spin kicking dudes really really hard. Him almost crushing Hidakas ribs with a massive kneedrop and Hidaka coming up bloody was a pretty epic moment. All their brief showdowns really made me want to see a singles match between the two which is not something I would've said from watching their BattlARTS material. Kazuya Yuasa is the future GAINA and he works like a WAR rookie here, hitting as hard as he possibly can on his dropkicks and lariats and hitting awesome bulldogs and elbow drops. He survives a ton of punishment and it builds to him and Ishii trying to crack eachothers jaws with lariats. The finishing run wasn't as brilliantly tricked out as the body of the match but what the hell... it's a great little discovery.

@SirEdger Shinya Hashimoto & Naoya Ogawa vs. Tom Howard & The Predator (ZERO1 5/3/2002) https://vk.com/video496410132_456239118?t=34m57s Review for Ishikawa/Steamboat will come tomorow, hopefully... and the other match too

This was so much smarter and more organic than their 1985 encounter it's not even funny. We get a fun fast opening exchange with Jaguar countering the handshake drag, but the rest of this was worked like a high end 80s NJPW strong style classic. I'm not kidding. Highly competitive snug pro wrestling, with Asuka working as a big shooter/bruiser type and Yokota fighting from underneath with technical moves. It's the little things that really got me into this match: Yokota kicking Asuka in the head while they were matwrestling, going for a lucha submission when Asuka blocked her piledriver attempt, getting out of trouble by catching Asuka with a leg trip etc. When Asuka wasn't trying to kick Yokota to a pulp, she would try to snap her arm during the opening portions. Asuka working firemans carries and throws to set up arm submissions is infinitely more interesting to me than random back and forth. Yokota hitting a piledriver on Asuka and following up with a tight necklock is logical pro wrestling 101 and the spill to the outside was straight out of the 80s playbook aswell. After slapping Jaguar silly, Asuka would give her a taste of her own medicine. The Scorpion Deathlock that left Yokota crumbling was awesome aswell. Asuka really goes to town on Jaguar now hitting one of the fastest Giant Swings I've ever seen and mercilessly cutting her off at every turn. There is also a pretty great Sleeper spot down the stretch: the first time Lioness caught her with it, Jaguar immediatey scrambled to the ropes, the 2nd time she reversed it immediately, and the 3rd time Lioness locked her down and she was close to fading, with her eyes rolling back in her skull etc. This is how you put a hold over. Yokota is in so much peril, trying every possible comeback and getting cut off that hitting the murderous piledriver actually feels like a huge moment. The one slightly weak moment here is the fluke finish and that is forgivable considering this was a tournament semifinal. I should also point out while everything in this match was logical, the bout never got predictable or by the numbers. But damn this like the greatest match Asuka has ever been in and damn do I need more matches like this from these two.