Jetlag

Ishikawa/Otsuka may be one of the matchups in wrestling history when it comes to shootstyle work. Them rolling is just beautiful while never looking overly rehearsed. Otsuka is such a motherfucker and for some reason he gets extra inventive when rolling with Ishikawa. This was shaping up to be a classic complete with some brutal headbutts and amazing looking Otsuka suplexes before a very sudden finish. Great little showcase for what they would do a year later.

Nice to see one of the best matchups in wrestling making tape twice in a year. This was some very good shootstyle pro wrestling between two guys who obviously know eachother extremely well. Obviously not an epic war like the Young Generation Battle final, but a good look at a spot show type match. Actually liked how they integrated the attempted diving moves into the match. Great finish.

Welp, here's two matches I didn't even know existed on tape until last week. They didn't make the Best of BattlARTS comp – which is some serious bollocks if you ask me, because both these were excellent and immediately skyrocketed towards the top of my list of favourite Greco matches. (...)The second match also had a cool atmosphere as it took place in a hotel with folks watching from fancy dining tables. The tag had a cool layout too, as Ishikawa and Ikeda avoided eachother for the first half of the match, allowing for lots of good matwork involving Greco early on, before all hell broke lose in the second half. Even after watching so much Greco footage, I was surprised with all the cool shit Greco came up with in these two matches. I've said it before that Greco brings the best out of his opponents, but it was striking that Usuda and Ishikawa never looked better on the mat in 1996 than opposite Greco here. Another thing was how brutal Carl could get: the Ishikawa singles obviously had a lot of pride involved, and maybe Ishikawa's cockiness is what lead Carl to angrily waffle him with shotais and eventually rattle his brain with a series of kicks to the skull, but he did it the next night aswell when the beef was between Ishikawa and Ikeda... maybe it's cause he was fighting Ishikawa, maybe he toned down the striking later on to focus on his submission work, maybe April of 1996 just wasn't Ishikawa's month... one thing wasn't out of the ordinary: both matches had Carl ensnaring people like a python. Regardless, 4/13 was an intense contest with a crazy finish, and 4/14 another top notch BattlARTS tag that told an excellent story, and both matches delivered both brutality and crazy mat stuff in spades as you want. Highly recommended stuff

Welp, here's two matches I didn't even know existed on tape until last week. They didn't make the Best of BattlARTS comp – which is some serious bollocks if you ask me, because both these were excellent and immediately skyrocketed towards the top of my list of favourite Greco matches. The first match was a full shootstyle main event and as cool as you imagine it to be. They had the BattlARTS roster (and even Dieseul Berto) watching from ringside. (...) Even after watching so much Greco footage, I was surprised with all the cool shit Greco came up with in these two matches. I've said it before that Greco brings the best out of his opponents, but it was striking that Usuda and Ishikawa never looked better on the mat in 1996 than opposite Greco here. Another thing was how brutal Carl could get: the Ishikawa singles obviously had a lot of pride involved, and maybe Ishikawa's cockiness is what lead Carl to angrily waffle him with shotais and eventually rattle his brain with a series of kicks to the skull, but he did it the next night aswell when the beef was between Ishikawa and Ikeda... maybe it's cause he was fighting Ishikawa, maybe he toned down the striking later on to focus on his submission work, maybe April of 1996 just wasn't Ishikawa's month... one thing wasn't out of the ordinary: both matches had Carl ensnaring people like a python. Regardless, 4/13 was an intense contest with a crazy finish, and 4/14 another top notch BattlARTS tag that told an excellent story, and both matches delivered both brutality and crazy mat stuff in spades as you want. Highly recommended stuff

This was their 2nd match that year as Zrno tries to get back the WWU Jr. title. This was much less heated and intense than the first encounter but may have had even better grappling before the somewhat disappointing finish. Hara continues to look really good grappling with Zrno, being right there with the bridge spots and tricky wrist takedowns and what not. Something funny is how Zrno works the exact same as if it were a european match always waiting for his opponent to get up even though there's no 10 count. Match didn't have much direction and the ending wasn't super exciting as it looked like Hara was gonna defend his title anyways. Still, I get a kick out of watching these two grapple for 15 minutes.

JIP 20 minutes into a 30 minute time limit draw. There was still plenty of action with flying headscissors and snappy armdrags and stiff european uppercuts and dropkicks and what not. Verhulst doesn't do a ton here but I still enjoyed seeing him come in and do stuff as his technique is ridiculously good. Zrno was pretty „stiff“ here e.g. blocking opponents moves by stiffening up. It may not result in picture perfect execution of certain spots but I still thought it was cool and they did the usual time limit draw spiel where both guys were working for pinfalls equally before the end.

JIP. Kroffat is wearing goofy martial arts fraud artist pants! And he kind of wrestles like a goofy martial artist too, throwing stiff punches and kicks and working some neato submissions. He also absolutely murderizes Kawada with a Crucifix Bomb that dumps him on his neck. This match is weird and thrown together but really fun. Another great finish where Kawada has HAD IT and lariats Kroffat's brains out before folding him up. A MILLION STARS.

JIP to Kobashi getting his leg kicked out of his leg. Fuchi is super here as you'd expect, dumping him knee first on tables and whatnot a bunch. Why do you never see that spot anymore?? It looks reckless and hurty. Kobashi tags Kikuchi in and Kikuchi also takes a big damn beating, even a headbutt from Taue which split himself open. I love Fuchi's selling during the beatdown which sets up the nearfalls later in the match. After some great in peril work from Kikuchi he finally manages to tag Misawa in who signifies the filler portion of the match is OVER by absolute destroying everyone on the opposing team. Misawa, you embodiment of manliness. Then Misawa and Taue beat the shit out of eachother good and it's awesome. Another tremendous nearfalls and breath taking counter ladden finishing stretch built around Kikuchi before the inevitable happens. Taue debuts a somewhat new move which looks like it almost ripped Kikuchi's head off. Ahhhh, that early 90s AJ greatness! Fuck the haters, it doesn't get old.

Daisuke Nakamura is an MMA fighter who fights like a UWF wrestler in his real fights. He is really good at pro wrestling and it's always a threat to see him pop up on a random card to work shootstyle. This was quite the good big bullish wrestler vs. lighter, skilled grappler type match. Most importantly the whole thing felt highly competitive and they established the story of the match in the first minute when Suzuki just rushes him into the corner and throws him. Seconds later Nakamura would go for the ropes to avoid another suplex. Also loved the rolling armbar sequence and Nakamuras confidence on the mat. Shame about the brevity, but the exchanges were high end and they pushed all the right buttons.

Pretty fun nostalgia Kings Road match. Marufuji is trying to work more like a grizzled vet now. He didn't drag the match down a ton and some of his kicks looked impressive but at times he looked as bad at pro wrestling as always. Akiyama reminded me of Tenryu which makes sense because he is now as old as Tenryu was in 1998. At times he was just running over Marufuji. The slow parts actually added to the match and Akiyama was constantly going for the kill which kept me interested.

This was Roddy Pipers Mid Atlantic Title vs. Jack Briscos 10,000 Dollars. Love these old studio matches. Great mix of character work and wrestling. Piper reminded me a bit of Fuerza here. We get a really fun opening section with blocked wrestling throws and both guys working go behinds on the mat and Piper grabbing the hair only to be thrown outside. Brisco absolutely KILLS him with the side headlock. Is there anyone who made a side headlock look as brutal as Jack Brisco? When they did the "Piper tries to throw him off the ropes but Brisco holds on" spot it looked like Brisco would tear his head off. Even the floating takeovers looked gritty. Nifty transition into Piper controlling with a grovit into a pin of his own. This is pretty basic action but the selling and struggle over things is world class. I liked how Brisco would punch the legs for his initial comeback aswell as Piper retreating after eating an unexpected punch. We get awesome dueling sleeper holds and accordingly some crazy selling, great punch exchange and a well sold finish. Both guys looked like they had been through a war by the end of this.

Fairly basic Flair formula match which isn't a bad thing because these are two guys with really good looking basics. Jack Briscoe was in his 40s here and still looked like he would absolutely kick any current kickpadded crossfit guys ass. We get an ultra tight trademark Brisco side headlock and some good armwork with huge kneedrops to the elbow joint and the short arm scissor to start with before Flair gets the advantage. The 2nd half is pretty much the early to mid 1980s US version of a white hot nearfall ladden epic in front of a crowd that went crazy for Brisco possibly taking the title. We get vertical suplex teases leading to a big vertical suplex, dueling Figure 4s, awesome Brisco punch combo, some nifty counters and a cool finish. I don't know if Brisco is a selling master or if he was legit slightly out of it but I really dug how his body language screamed "aging athlete who is not quite as adept at this as he used to be but pushes through anyways" even as he was in control.

It's sketchy. These Berlin shows might be VoRo Agentur. I also think that they might have been promoted by Karl Dauberger. The Hamburg shows were promoted by Sven Hansen until some point in the early 90s when Rene Lasartesse began promoting them. I recommend contacting Gernot Freiberger on Facebook. He can also tell you a little about how the "CWA" label first came into place (until about 1985 "CWA" wasn't really a thing).

I am actually thinking the date on this is wrong. The finish doesn't match cubsfans results. The real date might be 3/8/98, considering a match of the same date was added to the Cagematch matchguide (probably based on a recommendation by Rob Viper).

This is not CWA and neither are the events in Hamburg that have been added. Just thought I'd mention that.

Top 100 Matches of 1998 1. Shinya Hashimoto vs. Tatsumi Fujinami (NJPW 6/5/1998) 2. Kiyoshi Tamura vs. Tsuyoshi Kohsaka (RINGS 6/27/1998) 3. El Hijo del Santo vs Felino (Monterrey 10/18/98) 4. Yuki Ishikawa vs Daisuke Ikeda (BattlARTS 5/27/98) 5. Shinobu Kandori v. Yumiko Hotta (LLPW 3/21/98) 6. Yuki Ishikawa vs Alexander Otsuka (BattlARTS 01/20/98) 7. Genichiro Tenryu vs Nobutaka Araya (WAR 01/14/98) 8. Shinya Hashimoto vs Kazuo Yamazaki (NJPW G-1 Climax 08/02/98) 9. Toshiaki Kawada vs Kenta Kobashi (AJPW Super Power Series 06/12/98) 10. Genichiro Tenryu vs Shinya Hashimoto (NJPW 8/1/1998) 11. Yuki Ishikawa & Tomoaki Honma vs. Minoru Fujita & Katsumi Usuda (BattlARTS 3/5/1998) 12. Mitsuharu Misawa vs Kenta Kobashi (AJPW 10/31/98) 13. Sandman vs. Sabu (ECW 1/10/1998) 14. Mile Zrno vs. Dan Collins (VDB 11/7/98) 15. Tarzan Goto/Masashi Aoyagi/Azteca vs. Dick Togo/Shoichi Funaki/MEN's Teioh (Indy World 7/22/1998) 16. Kiyoshi Tamura vs Yoshihisa Yamamoto (RINGS 09/21/98) 17. Katsumi Usuda & Ikuto Hidaka vs. Tomoaki Honma & Minoru Fujita (BJW 1/2/1998) 18. Kenta Kobashi vs Jun Akiyama (AJPW Summer Action Series 07/24/98) 19. Atlantis/Mr. Niebla/Negro Casas vs. Black Warrior/Blue Panther/El Hijo Del Santo (CMLL 4/24/1998) 20. Yumi Fukawa vs. Michiko Ohmukai (Arsion 4/11) 21. Yuki Ishikawa vs. Carl Greco (BattlARTS 4/24/98) 22. Osamu Nishimura vs. Masakazu Fukuda (MUGA 5/15/1998) 23. Meiko Satomura vs. Sugar Sato (GAEA 10/11/1998) 24. Kenta Kobashi & Johnny Ace vs. Toshiaki Kawada & Akira Taue (AJPW 1/25/1998) 25. Yuki Ishikawa & Osamu Nishimura vs. Tatsumi Fujinami & Shinichi Nakano (MUGA 3/3/98) 26. Masakazu Fukuda vs. Kazuhiko Masada (MUGA 12/8/98) 27. Aja Kong vs. Michiko Ohmukai (ARSION 2/18/1998) 28. Yuki Ishikawa vs. Katsumi Usuda (BattlARTS 3/6/1998) 29. Hiromi Yagi vs. Sumie Sakai (JD' 7/5/1998) 30. Katsumi Usuda & Minoru Fujita vs. Yuki Ishikawa & Tomoaki Honma (BattlARTS 2/8/1998) 31. Goldberg vs Diamond Dallas Page (WCW 10/25/98) 32. Shinya Hashimoto vs. Satoshi Kojima (NJPW 8/2/1998) 33. Kenta Kobashi vs Jun Akiyama (AJPW Championship Carnival 04/11/98) 34. Ayako Hamada vs. Mariko Yoshida (Arsion 8/31/98) 35. Kiyoshi Tamura vs Mikhail Ilioukhine (RINGS 01/21/98) 36. Kenta Kobashi & Jun Akiyama vs Vader & Stan Hansen (AJPW 12/05/98) 37. Negro Casas & Shocker & Felino vs. Hijo del Santo & Villano III & Fuerza Guerrera (CMLL 9/4/1998) 38. Genichiro Tenryu & Shiro Koshinaka vs Masahiro Chono & Hiroyoshi Tenzan (NJPW 06/05/98) 39. Mariko Yoshida vs. Reggie Bennett (ARSION 5/5/98) 40. Hijo del Santo/Blue Panther/Black Warrior vs. Mr. Aguila/Mr. Niebla/Tony Rivera (CMLL 5/22/1998) 41. Masao Orihara vs. Great Takeru (IWA Japan 6/24) 42. Jaguar Yokota vs. Cooga (Jd' 3/8/1998) 43. Shocker & Mr. Niebla vs. Dr. Wagner Jr. & Emilio Charles Jr. (CMLL 1/23/1998) 44. Torneo Cibernetico (CMLL 4/28/1998) 45. Mariko Yoshida vs. Rie Tamada (ARSION 4/17/1998) 46. Shinya Hashimoto & Tatsumi Fujinami vs. Yuji Nagata & Manabu Nakanishi (NJPW 11/16/1998) 47. Yuki Ishikawa & Katsumi Usuda vs. Mitsuhiro Matsunaga & Ryuji Yamakawa (BJW 5/20/1998) 48. Aja Kong vs. Mariko Yoshida (ARSION 6/21/1998) 49. Great Kabuki & Kendo Nagasaki vs. Shigeo Okumura & Keisuke Yamada (IWA Japan 7/20/1998) 50. Mariko Yoshida vs. Candy Okutsu (ARSION 12/18/1998) 51. Tarzan Goto & Ryuma Go & Great Kabuki vs. Keisuke Yamada & Keizo Matsuda & Shigeo Okumura (IWA Japan 3/13/1998) 52. Shinya Hashimoto vs. Genichiro Tenryu (NJPW 8/8/1998) 53. Tatsumi Fujinami vs. Masahiro Chono (NJPW 8/8/1998) 54. Felino vs. Karloff Lagarde Jr. (CMLL 4/21/1998) 55. Akira Taue vs. Kenta Kobashi (AJPW 9/11/98) 56. Mr. Aguila/Olimpico/Pantera vs Rey Bucanero/Ultimo Guerrero/Zumbido (CMLL 7/3/1998) 57. Reggie Bennett vs. Mariko Yoshida (ARSION 8/31/1998) 58. Yoshihiro Taijiri vs Gedo (BJPW Indy Hyper J Tournament 02/03/98) 59. Yoshiaki Fujiwara/Ryuma Go/Tatsuo Nakano v. Yoshiaki Yatsu/Hiroshi Itakura/Shigeo Okumura (Indy World 7/22/98) 60. Shinobu Kandori vs. Manami Toyota (AJW 8/23/1998) 61. Yuki Ishikawa & Tatsumi Fujinami vs. Hisakatsu Oya & Shinichi Nakano (MUGA 5/15/1998) 62. Meiko Satomura vs. Chikayo Nagashima (MUGA 12/8/98) 63. Michiko Ohmukai vs. Rie Tamada (ARSION 8/9/1998) 64. The Great Kabuki & Arashi vs. Keisuke Yamada & Shigeo Okumura (IWA Japan 4/29/1998) 65. Katsumi Usuda vs. Minoru Fujita (BJW 5/1/1998) 66. Tomoko Kuzumi vs. Hikari Fukuoka (JWP 3/6/1998) 67. Black Warrior & Blue Panther & Fuerza Guerrera vs. El Hijo Del Santo & Mr. Niebla & Negro Casas (CMLL 11/13/1998) 68. Chigusa Nagayo vs. Sonoko Kato (GAEA 2/21/98) 69. Meiko Satomura & KAORU vs. Toshiyo Yamada & Sonoko Kato (GAEA 6/21/1998) 70. Masato Tanaka vs Mr. Gannosuke (FMW New Year Generation 01/06/98) 71. Yuki Ishikawa & Tomoko Kuzumi (Azumi Hyuga) vs. Alexander Otsuka & Hikari Fukuoka (JWP 5/10/1998) 72. Katsumi Usuda vs. Tomoaki Honma (BJW 9/23/1998) 73. Tomoko Miyaguchi vs. Dynamite Kansai (JWP 6/24/1998) 74. Mikiko Futagami vs. Michiko Ohmukai (ARSION 7/21/1998) 75. Yumi Fukawa vs. Candy Okutsu (ARSION 2/18/1998) 76. Jushin Liger vs. Masakazu Fukuda (NJPW 5/18/1998) 77. Meiko Satomura vs. Rina Ishii (GAEA 2/21/98) 78. Tadahiro Fujisaki vs. Makoto Saito (WYF 1/8/1998) 79. Hiroyoshi Kotsubo vs. Katsushi Takemura (MUGA 12/8) 80. Koji Kanemoto vs Dr. Wagner Jr. (NJPW 06/03/98) 81. Tomohiro Ishii vs. Keisuke Yamada (WAR 3/10/1998) 82. Mayumi Ozaki vs. Reiko Amano (JWP 3/6/1998) 83. Great Sasuke & Gran Hamada & Tiger Mask IV vs Dick Togo & Shoichi Funaki & Super Boy (Michinoku Pro 1/16/1998) 84. Brazo de Plata & Headhunters A & B vs. Gran Markus Jr. & Cien Caras & The Steele (CMLL 5/22/1998) 85. Meiko Satomura vs. Sakura Hirota (GAEA 3/15/1998) 86. Dan Severn vs. Franz Schuhmann (NWA 2/28/1998) 87. Yuki Ishikawa & Naohiro Hoshikawa vs. Daisuke Ikeda & Minoru Tanaka (BattlARTS 2/7/98) 88. Tadahiro Fujisaki vs. Nobuyuki Kurashima (MUGA 12/8/98) 89. Ikuto Hidaka vs. Tiger Mask IV (UFO 10/24/1998) 90. Mariko Yoshida vs. Mikiko Futagami (ARSION 5/5/1998) 91. Ultimo Guerrero vs. Mr. Aguila (CMLL 9/11/1998) 92. Candy Okutsu vs. Mikiko Futagami (4/17) 93. Reiko Amano vs. Kanako Motoya (JWP 6/24/1998) 94. Masashi Aoyagi vs. Hirofumi Miura (WYF 3/20/1998) 95. Meiko Satomura vs. KAORU (GAEA 10/29/1998) 96. Scott Norton vs. Yuji Nagata (NJPW 9/23/1998) 97. Rie Tamada/Hiromi Yagi vs. Tiger Dream/Ayako Hamada (Twinstar Tag Final, ARSION 12/7) 98. Asian Cougar & Palomino vs. Akinori Tsukioka & Kyohei Mikami (IWA Japan 7/20/1998) 99. Sonoko Kato vs. Makie Numao (GAEA 12/27/1998) 100. Terry Funk & Bradshaw & Dustin Rhodes vs Too Much & Jerry Lawler (WWF 6/27/1998) So that completes the Top 100. I've made some slight changes to the match order to make everything a little more coherent. I could see making some changes depending on whether more NJPW or CMLL gets uploaded. Or when I decide to break the bank and buy a bunch of Lucha TV from Lynch... there's almost no Promo Azteca online. Man, what a great year for wrestling this was. Total wild ride to check out all this stuff. Top 5 Promotions: 1. ARSION 2. CMLL 3. BattlARTS 4. NJPW 5. IWA Japan Top 100 workers will follow shortly.

KAORU is the good joshi worker that was lost to time. No matter who you put her in the ring with she would usually give a good match despite her limitations. Put her against someone insanely talented like 1998 Meiko Satomura and you get something that breaks the mold. You get some nice snug strikes, KAORU stretching her opponent, some big, big bumps, really vicious arm attack from Meiko and KAORU selling it very well etc. I thought the whole thing was slightly rushed so it didn't get quite as epic as what they seemed to go for as it felt like a collection of highlights. But those highlights were really high end stuff.

Heeeyy it's the one really good WWF TV match in 1998 and of course I have to watch a grainy version with spanish commentary. Bradshaw gets to look like a badass, Too Much stooge perfectly, and the Lawler/Funk interactions were just awesome. Apparently this was the only time Lawler made a TV match in 1998. Travesty.

Catch auf dem Heiliggeistfeld, promoted by Sven Hansen.

This is a match which really has everything going against it. It's 60 minutes clipped down to 25, mainly centered around a beatdown on Jaguar, with two green girls and one very limited crowbar in it, most of what is shown is bombdropping and there is oodles of outside interference (at one point like half a dozen girls jump in the ring to stomp Jaguar). HOWEVER even despite all that due to a good Jaguar performance this is mostly watchable and even pretty great in parts. Jaguar bleeds and takes a huge beating getting shoot kicked in the face by Lioness, absolutely launching herself through the ropes to put a lariat over, taking a big spill down the Korakuen Hall stairs etc. Her blood loss selling was spot on and her desperation counters reminded me of Morgan/Faraon. I don't know whether to praise her because she looked great or to belittle her because she booked this mess.

For some reason the GAEA girls are at their best when working "Pat O'Connor grappling with someone for 10 minutes in the studio" type matches. This was another one of those and a goody. They do really nice work building from a headlock to a bulldog and from an armlock to a tiger suplex etc. Nice to see Kato keeping it simple for once. Numao is one of the lesser featured GAEA youngsters but she handles herself quite well in this type of match. Some great spots and counters down the stretch. Full GAEA point

Boy, why is there no wrestling like this anymore? Fun basic opening match. I can't tell whether Matsumoto is any good but you can slot her into a more technical match and it'll all be fine. Chikayo of course wrestles like the lightest, skinniest Tamon Honda and it's all wonderful. Fun takedowns and throws and some neat spots. Good enough that I feel slightly agitated that they clipped 2 minutes from this 9 minute match.

Some great exchanges between UG and Angel Azteca here. Cool to see Angel still hanging and banging with the kids. Man did CMLL have a roster of amazing athletes in the late 90s, Ninja de Fuego and Oriental are two pretty random names but each looks like the most spectacular dude in the world at various points. It also helps when you got a pair of professionals in Virus and Rencor stooging for you. Another super fun match in a stream of quality lucha material from CMLL.