Jetlag

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~!

I also really like the Kyushu Pro channel https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCpoDpVFhUGHPWVYqmJ8TBwA/ Unfortunately, they don't upload matches often, but the video production is top notch and they have some cool wrestlers

I thought the whole point of the gimmick was that it was such a foolish disguise that the fans and other wrestlers could easily see through. "I can be PY Chu Hi as much as you can be a king!"

Watched Hokuto/Nagayo. Not sure why that match isn't dropped among the joshi classics. Probably the best Nagayo performance I've seen, folks should check it out.

I've seen very little 1989 joshi. This starts like a house of fire with Hokuto dumping the established star with huge suplexes on her neck and Chigusa actually selling that shit! Hokuto goes on a rampage looking for the sleeper like a madwoman and the heat for this is absolutely deafening. Chigusa gets a sleeper of her own and then starts punishing her smaller opponent with thunderous kicks. I thought Chigusa's leg submissions came across as filler and I was largly indifferent to what they had in mind for the finishing run. I'm not a fan of the random back and forth suplexes. The thing I liked most was probably Chigusas charge into the buckle on a missed lariat, and an almost Benoit/Sabu esque neck breaking flapjack. Folks should check this out as the match had a clear story, good selling and a few clever spots.

Damn, I didn't expect to enjoy this so much. In his prime Lou Thesz would cheapshot Rikidozan and stall, but here, he's going after Inoki like a killer, including dropping him with one of the most vicious backdrops ever seen. His holds look so vicious, and the match was both pretty slick and high resistance, which made the super basic holds here very rewarding. Thesz isn't exactly Negro Navarro, but his reversal into the STF attempt was one of the most graceful moves I've ever seen. Also, his bumping was still damn good - take note how he would whip himself into the mat each time Inoki sweeped him. Then you also get Thesz punching Inoki in the mid section a bunch and both guys using nasty back elbows on the ground. Hence, the match did at no point look like an exhibition. Inoki was along for the ride, but a good enough foil for the old fox. Really enjoyable maestro's match with a cool opening and finish.

Long 2/3 falls match. Unusual beginning as Singh breaks clean and wants to wrestle! It doesn't go well for him though and so he ends up doing the same old cheating tactics like in every other Tiger Jeet Singh match before Inoki catches him with a quick pin combo. The 2nd and 3rd have Singh working over a bloody Inoki with nasty looking finger to the throath chokes and Inoki firing back with his awesome punches. Do yourself a favour and skip the first fall if you wanna get to the bloody meat.

IIRC Tiger Toguchi was threated like a total geek in All Japan, so this could've easily been a 3 minute squash. Rusher Kimura and Animal Hamaguchi get on the mic before the match to taunt Inoki. Inoki seemed off focus and Toguchi immediately starts pounding on him. Toguchi has really good looking basic offense, nasty looking punches with great snap, kneedrops, elbows to the kidney etc. Once again Inoki looked like the baddest dude on the planet when he made his initial comeback throwing punches and slaps and blocking Toguchi's attack. Toguchi makes a few more comebacks by throwing cheapshots including pounding Inoki on the ground with punches and hitting him in the throat and getting in a piledriver, but Inoki catches him with a flash kick and then locks in an Octopus Stretch which nearly crushed poor Toguchi's body. This was pretty much a glorified squash as Toguchi is nowhere near Inoki's league but Inoki gave Toguchi a ton of offense making him look credible and there were a few badass moments.

„Wow wee wow-wow!“ - Chikara commentator „I think Quack wants to wrestle you!“ - Jigsaw, to Danielson Man, Chikara can be awkward to watch. This was a fun indy match. Some fine indy WoS work to start, I especially liked Danielson busting out Regal's nasty knee on chest neck crank. People have talked about the legwork, but I thought Danielson's responses to Jigsaw's dweeby strikes were the highlights of the match. They lost me a bit during the „everybody runs in and breaks up pinfalls/submissions“ section. What's the point of doing FIP when everyone can just run in at any time? Jigsaw's selling was so-so, really exaggerated, but he was also doing plenty of jumping around. Quack's „sumo“ palm strikes were cringe inducing, so were the commentators who talked about how much Jigsaw loves to wrestle Danielson while Danielson was ripping up his leg.

This was in a vaccuum a good match, but YOU, the living breathing human being watching this match will never get over the fucking stupidity of having Lawlor, the taller, bigger MMA badass working all even steven with Gresham's cute WoS shit. (Actually, Lawler is shorter than I am and the same weight, but he looked like Takayama next to Gresham here. Maybe I should get into wrestling.) To be fair, Gresham's faux WoS stuff looked slick and he could probably have a good match with a fellow mini. About 10 minutes into the match Lawlor finally awakens and starts busting out MMA holds. I really liked how Gresham fought out of an armbar, and Lawlor had some really nice chokes and good punches. Still the psychology continues to be a mess with both guys really killing the submissions, a random wristlock comedy spot (?) in the middle of the finishing run and the whole thing just not ending. I should probably cut them some slack because they tried really hard to have a solid mat based match without any flippies and some of the stuff they did was quite good. Still, I'd rather have the match be a grotesque, violent mess.

Oh, Tiger, you and your goofy rapier. Tiger ambushes Inoki and pummels him in the face with the butt of his rapier like a goof. Inoki bleeds immediately and Singh goes to town on him throwing chairs in his face and drinking his blood like a vampire. Jeet Singh may be not as intense a brawler as the Sangre Chicanas and Perro Aguayos of this world, but he does the same things they would do: punching and kicking a bloody Inoki in the head, dumping row of chairs on him, etc. Inoki makes comeback by nailing Singh with a random bottle and then throwing punches. You don't think of Inoki as Jerry Lawler but he throws awesome punches and there are some cool exhausted exchanges from their knees here. Both guys were also grimacing to the max, with Inoki's blood painted face being a distorted mask of wrath. They spill to the outside and the double countout ensues but they keep going at it. This was not on the level of your classic bloodbaths due to being a little long and slow but it may be my favourite Inoki/Singh match so far because it gets straight to the point and the action is what you want all the way.