Jetlag

Dude, times were different. Back then few people had any idea about what "real fighting" looks like outside of stuff like Shooto or SAW, and the UFC wasn't exactly full of high end grapplers. Volk would also bust out all kinds of wonky leglocks and cross heel hooks, which are still a main weapon of the Craig Jones' of this world, and you do see many of these esoteric/weird moves in sambo competitions still. A banana split is a legit move. Not one that works on everyone, but just because you don't see it in high level fights doesn't mean it's not realistic. A lot of people wouldn't think of doing a twister/wrestler's guillotine in a submission match either until Eddie Bravo came along. Aside from that, a match doesn't have to look like a real fight in order to look more realistic than another; I can award Jerry Lawler realism points based on his strikes actually looking hurty compared to some thigh slappy indy wrestler with silky soft strikes.

Actually most of this stuff has been made avialable before. Since that Andre stuff isn't on the website I assume the guy uploading this stuff must have worked some serious voodoo magic to obtain it from the archive. There is a bit of talk about the french footage and the difficulty in getting it from the archive in the french catch thread. Slightly off topic, but what the hell is up with video archives not wanting to give out ancient wrestling footage? I contacted an austrian archive about video footage from Graz they supposedly had and they didn't even bother to respond further. Atleast we got all the Chicago archive stuff.

2 stories in 1 with Ogawa trying to hang with the big dudes and No Fear trying to keep Misawa at bay. Largely strike based match which I dug a lot because you had 4 guys who can throw strikes. So instead of suplexes you get guys pounding eachother with elbows, kicks, lariats and punches. This match largely works because No Fear's stuff feels fresher and you get fun moments such as Misawa selling Takayama's knee to the body, or Omori swatting everyone with lariats. Agree about the great finishing sequence as Takayama's interference backfires and Omori looks strong in defeat as he is able to survive for a while without his partner.

Anytime people talk about how great AJ supposedly was back in those days, I go back, find he's essentially the world's greatest video game wrestler and stop bothering.

Hooooly shit @ this showing up! Man, young lion Andre is something. He did come across as pushed beyond his ability here, but that uncanny force of nature vibe was there for sure. Anytime Andre put his giant hand or boot in Francis' face was scary, and his bear hug looked like it would break you. Van Buyten is guy who always struck me as a hidden world class worker, and he does look world class here, as he really makes his hold look like there's a ton of pressure in them and clashes into Andre with big european uppercuts and flying headbutts. Franz adds these neat touches as always such as dropping his weight on Andre's leg to bend it, countering a european uppercut into a wristlock or rolling up Andre from the gutbuster aswell as hitting plausible huracanranas on the Giant. Really neat discovery, and DAMN do I ever want to see every french match that was ever filmed show up!!

Oh, how some things can change in just over 2 years:

I can't remember where I put him on my GWE ballot. I do consider him a 2nd tier worker though, outside the Top 10-20. Better than Kobashi, but below Kawada. About the same level as Misawa. It is curious that I don't remember his best match. I always say Danielson/Morishima, but I dunno how well that holds up. FWIW, he is likely the best overall guy from 2002-his first retirement in a cakewalk.

This had a GREAT opening with Kansai and Harley facing off only for Yamazaki to step in and smash Kansai into the guardrails. Those guardrail bumps are about the manliest thing. This was a fast paced workrate tag, but another piece in Kansai/Saito rivalry with plenty of boss exchanges between the two. They meander at times and I dislike how Kansai would no-sell all the clever work that Yamazaki and Saito were doing. Ah well, Saito sells well enough and Yamazaki stepping up and kicking Kansai in the face is pretty much the greatest thing. Unpredictable match with lots of well timed transitions. I have no idea whether other folks can warm up to this type of stuff but I'm really enjoying it.

Well you look at this matchup and you go „These are 4 ladies who are not afraid to hit hard and get hit hard in the ring.“ And you are correct. This had plenty of asskicking, but I would've liked them to fire it up a little more and bring that trademark intensity Kandori is famous for. Maybe it was cause they were working a title match so they wanted to keep things cool. Anyways this had enough good stuff to keep you entertained and they delivered another strong finish. They worked the match in such a way that you couldn't tell when and what the finish was gonna be and it paid off with that ending. Not as epic as it could have been, but then the baseline for JWP matches is fairly high and this would be a standout match on any other promotions card.

Very good tag which was mostly built around the veteran team of Devil & Yamazaki rudo'ing it up and cutting off their younger opponents who were firing back with plenty of spunk. This was probably the best Devil has looked as she was quite the thrashing machine here throwing stiff headbutts and punches and dropping the girls with massive Gorilla slams and powerbombs. She did some cool „monster“ selling aswell and reminded me a bit of Andre. Yamazaki wasn't in the match much but she did work a few cool exchanges and she once again acting like an even girlier Takeshi Ono, running in to kick people in the head and stomp on their hands to break up submissions. Kazama was laying into folks with brutal kicks again and there were plenty of violent exchanges in the process. Kandori was probably the most subdued but it was established that she could end the match at any time so that resulted in a few neat moments. Really effective match with some strong double team work from Devil & Yamazaki and a clever finish.

Cool JWP style match. It's a little hard to discern where the line between your average cool JWP match and the great stuff is. The work isn't exactly high end and there's no overarching story, but then the work is GOOD and you get all kinds of neat spots which set these two apart from your average girly spotblower. I really liked the wrestling they did here – nothing high end, but just well executed basic stuff, such as Plum resisting a toe hold, or Kazama turning an Achilles Hold into almost a figure 4 spot by extending the leg to block the pressure. Here Plum gets the better of Kazama with some impressive counters and Kazama almost breaks her jaw with some whack spin kicks in return. I was also impressed by how they did set up the dive in this match. Yeah, I'm a sucker for a good dive set up. Kazama ends up high kicking the steel ringpost and they do a double countout into a restart and Mariko goes after Kazama with her leglocks like the other Mariko. I thought Kazama's selling was good altough it wasn't overly dramatic as she is not that kind of worker and it was just a good trick to get the crowd all hot and behind Kazama for the crazy 2.9 run. One might frown and say this was just another junior match, but I did enjoy it tremendously. Good layout, some cool wrestling and stiff blows, smart thinking, and they never overreached.

The first half or so of this was just amazing and easily the best JWP tag I've ever watched. They basically did away with all the cute stuff and just went for the kickpadded joshi version of a Choshu/WAR tag. The Kansai vs. Saito/Kandori interactions were just magic. Stiff blows, lack of cooperation, flash submissions, general frantic pace... this may be my favourite style of wrestling. Kandori had superstar written all over her here as she had amazing presence, disdainfuly kicking Scorpion in the face and standing toe to toe with Kansai. The second half drifted more into a different territory, whichwas still solid, but I was hoping for the sparks to fly a little more of that opening. It was basically a WAR tag that turned into an AJPW tag, and I like the WAR style better. Still, they pulled through with a good story as Saito and Kandori worked a good underdog+major badass team. Saito and Kansai kept brawling after the finish, keeping me excited for their further interactions throughout the year. Ah screw it, this is still the best JWP tag by a landslide so far.

You should check out Kandori/Saito from 1990. Seems like it would be right up your alley Some tag matches: Rumi Kazama & Shinobu Kandori vs. Devil Masami & Itsuki Yamazaki (JWP 9/30/90) Very good tag which was mostly built around the veteran team of Devil & Yamazaki rudo'ing it up and cutting off their younger opponents who were firing back with plenty of spunk. This was probably the best Devil has looked as she was quite the thrashing machine here throwing stiff headbutts and punches and dropping the girls with massive Gorilla slams and powerbombs. She did some cool „monster“ selling aswell and reminded me a bit of Andre. Yamazaki wasn't in the match much but she did work a few cool exchanges and she once again acting like an even girlier Takeshi Ono, running in to kick people in the head and stomp on their hands to break up submissions. Kazama was laying into folks with brutal kicks again and there were plenty of violent exchanges in the process. Kandori was probably the most subdued but it was established that she could end the match at any time so that resulted in a few neat moments. Really effective match with some strong double team work from Devil & Yamazaki and a clever finish. Miss A & Harley Saito vs. Shinobu Kandori & Rumi Kazama (JWP 10/10/90) Well you look at this matchup and you go „These are 4 ladies who are not afraid to hit hard and get hit hard in the ring.“ And you are correct. This had plenty of asskicking, but I would've liked them to fire it up a little more and bring that trademark intensity Kandori is famous for. Maybe it was cause they were working a title match so they wanted to keep things cool. Anyways this had enough good stuff to keep you entertained and they delivered another strong finish. They worked the match in such a way that you couldn't tell when and what the finish was gonna be and it paid off with that ending. Not as epic as it could have been, but then the baseline for JWP matches is fairly high and this would be a standout match on any other promotions card. Dynamite Kansai & The Scorpion vs. Harley Saito & Itsuki Yamazaki (JWP 8/8/91) This had a GREAT opening with Kansai and Harley facing off only for Yamazaki to step in and smash Kansai into the guardrails. Those guardrail bumps are about the manliest thing. This was a fast paced workrate tag, but another piece in Kansai/Saito rivalry with plenty of boss exchanges between the two. They meander at times and I dislike how Kansai would no-sell all the clever work that Yamazaki and Saito were doing. Ah well, Saito sells well enough and Yamazaki stepping up and kicking Kansai in the face is pretty much the greatest thing. Unpredictable match with lots of well timed transitions. I have no idea whether other folks can warm up to this type of stuff but I'm really enjoying it.

Man, it's pretty cool to go back and watch GAEA and check out all these rookies having excellent long matches. This went off to a flaming hot start with a slap at the bell and both of them looking like they wanted to kick the shit out of eachother. They end up going to the mat and really punishing eachother with holds. You could be peeved about this seemingly lacking direction, as Nagashima wanted to target Kato's bandaged shoulder but Kato would cut her off quickly anytime she tried so Nagashima ends up trying different approaches, but this ended up paying dividends when Nagashima finally locks in an armbar in the 2nd half and Kato selling her arm going limp. Some fantastic slick reversals by Nagashima into her rollups (which made for great nearfalls), another great nearfall for a sleeper hold, intense battle near the end with both of them slapping the shit out of eachother... yeah this was tightly worked, intelligent pro wrestling that really drew me in and made the most out of a few basic spots while still keeping a high pace. Great stuff, what the fuck happened to pro wrestling that these girls with no experience are outworking everyone today?

Really fun classic lucha formula match. Arena Mexico stuff can get a little cerebral and choppy here and there, so it was nice to see 4 guys stretching out in front of an appreciatve Tijuana audience. Difuntos have a really awesome cartoon villain look with shoulder spikes and skulls, while Black Shadow Jr. has that Scott Steiner sunken chest and seedy old luchador charisma, and Climax with his shirt and suspenders looks like a regular dude who put on a mask and walked into the ring. Black Shadow Jr. was perfectly good as your old guy with his working boots on, hitting some really nice armdrags, trippy flying headbutts and a solid punch. In between the exchanges the Difuntos do every bumbling idiot spot in the book. While this was a formula match through and through I really liked that you honestly couldn't tell when the rudo beatdown was gonna begin. Once the Difuntos start bringing the beating you get Climax selling the fuck out of his leg. The technico comeback is great fun too with Shadow Jr. spitting and Difuntos getting their heads banged and thrown into the chairs. The finish is a riot too and the crowd eats all this up. This is a rare lucha show with good audio so you can actually hear how the fans respond to each individual spot and by the end everyone's cheering loudly. The first fall had some genuinely excellent work and all the shtick all worked like a charm. Textbook lucha match, not something you'd seek out on paper, but I enjoyed it a good deal.

This was a little long. Robinson is so great to watch though. Not only did the holds they were using here look clinical, it was also fascinating to watch them zoning in whenever an opening for a potential finish presented. Robinson looked ultra slick and his escapes were great without being overly showy or contrived. Robinson coming up with different ways to go for the Butterfly Suplex was also highly entertaining. There are some slow parts and meandering. I thought it took Inoki a little long to start raising his fist and firing up the heat. Then he starts throwing hands, but Robinson makes him do a more generic sequence involving armdrags and a dropkick. I also disliked how Inoki didn't sell any exhaustion. Guess they were a little over their heads here going 60. I found this jdw post which I guess explains why parts of the match came across as awkward: http://prowrestlingonly.com/index.php?/topic/4632-giant-baba/

This was some ridiculously high end junior action. Not in terms of „moves“, but in how intense and physical this was. They mixed up the pro wrestling moves with tons of nearly shootstyle amateur/catch matwork, so that made the flying headscissors and dropkicks and so on even cooler. Go was damn good for a 22 year old but Fujinami was insane. What a stud that dude was. Even more ridiculous is that people in 1978 already knew about his signature moves (Dragon Screw + Suplex). And this is one of his earliest matches on tape! Talk about popping up right on top of your game.

Thanks for posting that! About 248 1999-10-25 No Fear vs Untouchables Do you mean the match from 8/25/1999? On 10/25 Takayama didn't wrestle.

I didn't notice any chip on his shoulder and I could read all of his posts, in fact he seemed more reasonable when debating then some regular posters. I found it very poor that some users would get up and mock his posting style. Any fraud who comes forward and pimps a bunch of under the radar 90s joshi is more than welcome to continue his shenanigans in my book. Example: http://prowrestlingonly.com/index.php?/topic/41350-akira-hokuto-toshie-uematsu-vs-kaoru-kiyoko-ichiki-gaea-11997/&do=findComment&comment=5836662 Great match. Would probably never have watched it if it weren't for his post.

Why? He made a lot of very interesting posts. His Top 250 of the 90s matchlist alone has made him a Top Poster for me right now.

This was #245 on our friend shodate's list of the Top 250 90s matches. Good thing because otherwise I probably would've never watched this. This was fantastic and instantly became one of my favourite joshi matches of the year. Lots of cool uncooperative exchanges throughout, and the match told a good story. You had Hokuto being two classes above both opponents (and making that very clear), Uematsu refusing to back down and wrestling a class above hers, and Kaoru and Ichiki trying everything to gain the advantage and topple their opponents. There were some basic spots such as biting, stomping eye rake or hair pulling toss which felt really violent here. There was also plenty of awesome receipt spots, especially whenever Hokuto felt disrespected, she would step up and show who's boss usually by booting someone in the face. There was also plenty of head droppin death moves and crushing diving attacks. Despite that the match didn't feel like overkill and ended at just the perfect spot. Little weak transitions here maybe, but yeah all things considered I enjoyed the hell out of this.

You should go check out his series with Inoki. Once upon a time Tiger Jeet Singh was quite capable in his role. (Hm. That almost feels like a thinly veiled curse. "Go watch a Tiger Jeet Singh match.")

Been a while, folks. But old JWP still rules! Rumi Kazama vs. Plum Mariko (2/12/89) Cool JWP style match. It's a little hard to discern where the line between your average cool JWP match and the great stuff is. The work isn't exactly high end and there's no overarching story, but then the work is GOOD and you get all kinds of neat spots which set these two apart from your average girly spotblower. I really liked the wrestling they did here – nothing high end, but just well executed basic stuff, such as Plum resisting a toe hold, or Kazama turning an Achilles Hold into almost a figure 4 spot by extending the leg to block the pressure. Here Plum gets the better of Kazama with some impressive counters and Kazama almost breaks her jaw with some whack spin kicks in return. I was also impressed by how they did set up the dive in this match. Yeah, I'm a sucker for a good dive set up. Kazama ends up high kicking the steel ringpost and they do a double countout into a restart and Mariko goes after Kazama with her leglocks like the other Mariko. I thought Kazama's selling was good altough it wasn't overly dramatic as she is not that kind of worker and it was just a good trick to get the crowd all hot and behind Kazama for the crazy 2.9 run. One might frown and say this was just another junior match, but I did enjoy it tremendously. Good layout, some cool wrestling and stiff blows, smart thinking, and they never overreached. Miss A vs. Shinobu Kandori (2/12/89) So you look at this matchup and you go „Hm. That can't be that great. They're still babies and not close to their true form.“ But the opening of this match is a house of fire and exactly what an ideal Kansai/Kandori match would look like: Kansai trying to murder the judo woman with thunderous kicks and Kandori going mad grabbing submissions. Kansai hits a huge piledriver and then brains Kandori in the back of the head with a massive kick, leaving her stunned on the floor. One of the more harrowing openings to a match I've seen. What follows is just great – lack of cooperation, disdain, more MURDER and KILLING, but soon things break down and they start fumbling to fill time. It's really hard to do a Super Badass vs. Super Badass going long. At 10 minutes this probably would've been great, but they go 19 and they fill that extra time up with lots of half crabs. I wanna blame Kansai because they lost the crowd when she took control, but Kandori also no-sold a bunch of legwork and she really liked that half crab too. Match picks up near the end again with a big bump that plays of the opening and some fat lariats and Kandori busting out her judo again. Worth checking out for that fiery opening alone, but I couldn't help but be sour at the squandered potential with this matchup.

I don't need a match this week, but if anyone wants my recommendation, here's Masa Takanishi vs. Trexxus. For the South East Asia Title~!