Jetlag

Okay, Danielson/Fish at 100 is such a funny pick it feels like something a poster on this site would do as an inside joke. I assume after the Top 50 canonized picks were getting pretty sparse. EDIT: Okay, Jim Duggan match in the Top 100? This list isn't half bad. I'd be shocked if the GWE forums produces a better one.

Watched Kzy/Jimmy Susumu: http://prowrestlingonly.com/index.php?/topic/41097-kzy-vs-jimmy-susumu-dragon-gate-52017/ Wasn't all that bad at all. Check it out. Actually wouldn't mind seeing more Kzy.

Ah, Dragon Gate, we meet again. I've always said Dragon Gate was fucking boring, and there wasn't a ton exciting about this match as they move through each section in very obvious fashion, but in total it wasn't half bad at all. I'm kinda surprised this match doesn't seem to have much hype to it, because it had all the ingredients of a modern classic, and did a better job at it than the praised NJPW main eventers. Heck, it may be better than the Dunne/Bate match from the same month that got a bit of talk, because unlike that match it made me actually get into on of the characters. The work here is really solid: all the moves look good and some even have a nice snap to it. Often this merely applies to the big highspots with everything between the spots looking lazy, but there is some nice basic armwork from Kzy in the match, and Susumu nearly chops his head off with a lariat at one point. Kzy looked pretty good in general, getting good sympathy and bumping like a madman spiking himself repeatedly on his head to make Susumu's moves look deadly. Sort of like a leftover T2P worker with some interesting holds and a nice dive. His selling of the neck wasn't flawless, but he did sell it and it wasn't as obvious as Jimmy sold his arm on and off. I didn't get much of a sense of Jimmy Susumu, who had a moveset lifted straight from a Fire Pro edit and not much else beside. Most importantly, they worked this at a healthy 20 minutes instead of 40. I smelt the outcome from the first minute, but they did enough interesting stuff to make me forget about it. You can nitpick this type of match to death, saying it was just a by the numbers indy match with a bunch of half assedly sold limbwork, contrived transitions and big moves thrown out which are not even followed up by cover, but all that's to be expected at this point I guess.

Match for Richeydwards Jun Akiyama vs. Steve Williams 4//10/94

Billy Robinson is the name that they always drop when they talk about Thatcher doing those seminars. Apparently he's done seminars for Billy Robinson in britan, and also trained with Josh Barnett. He also did one match at the Inoki Dojo, so there may be some of that in play too.

I'm having more fun watching random 90s indy undercard matches than the super main events of today. If someone offered me the choice between a 6 hour comp of Masayoshi Motegi matches and a 6 hour comp of 6.75 star matches from todays NJPW/WWENXT/Superindys I'd gladly pick the Motegi. I'm saying this without any irony, as I've seen Motegi have better matwork sections, selling performances, highspots and generally engaging matches than nearly any currently active dude. I'm not exaggerating when I say Fugofugo Yumeji in 1997, a rookie jobber then, had a better understanding of how to lay out a match, add stiffness and hate to it and build to a finish than most main eventers right now. On the GME discussion board, Gordi mentions it's crazy how a match like Ikeda/Ishikawa (the half hour broadway) that doesn't have any major highspots or exaggerated emotions can be so great, possibly one of the greatest of all time even, and those kinda matches are sorely lacking. It seems pro wrestling has become a video game with wrestlers trying to get the Meltzer high score, and often when I'm watching matches, I feel like I'm getting sexually assaulted with self conscious epics.

Hey look, it's a match from the "dark ages" of NJPW! This match is a seemingly impossible achievement, as it's Chono in a long match that's actually good! And not only does Chono NOT look like a decrepit fossil of yesterdecade, he actually manages to go toe to toe with Takayama in some memorable exchanges! Chono for once gives a shit and sells Takayama like the huge deal that he is, getting the crowd solidly behind him in the process as he gets his ASS kicked. Takayama was tremendous here as a kickpadded cocky Stan Hansen to Chono's Baba. In fact he did beat the crap out of Chono far worse than Hansen ever did to Baba. I loved that after Chono had overwhelmed Takayama with punches and controlled with some holds for a beat, Takayama lands a single knee and it looks like Chono is seconds away from having his lights turned out. Chono getting destroyed and actually selling all this (for SYMPATHY~!) was great, and they are clever enough not to go too epic for the finish. There is ONE great transition and awesome destruction, teeth are gnashed and noses are bloodied, and that's all you need. Just some good old japanese wrestling destruction and that never gets old. A MILLION STARS!

Barbarians the lot of ya. This is one of my favourite US matches of all time. I'm not one to steal other people's reviews, but one YouTube commenter put it very eloquently: This is just super high end US wrestling from the get go. As high end as a Regal/Finlay match, stiff, tight, everything looks great. Awesome lockup to start, then gigantic hip toss bumps from Tully, CRAZY CRAZY HOT crowd, Tully destroying Garvin in the corner with awesome combos, Garvin fighting back with great looking headbutts, boots to the face and huge elbow drops. The motherfucking PIN ATTEMPTS in this match are great! Garvin is just grinding down Tully, elbow to the face, using his legs to pin the arm down, trying all kinds of different ways to beat that fucker. This is how you make your matches look legit. I also love the 80s workrate spot where Garvin leapfrogs into a backslide or his flip over pin. Garvin really was trying all kinds of different things to pin Tully. There are some clever spots too, especially Garvin selling his hand while trying to hold onto the ropes and Tully just pulls the tights. Another thing I love about this match and old wrestling in general is how violent the "bash opponents head into the ring/corner" spots feel. Now, there are a few problems that have been mentioned on the match: 1. is the length, which I didn't have a problem with, because this match is a total madhouse without any restholds or dull moments, and they keep busting out the good stuff to keep you entertained. 2. is the meandering, which I thought was intentional as Garvin didn't have his greatest weapon and thus couldn't figure out how to beat Tully and it was resolved in the awesome bullshit finish 3. is how dominant Garvin was, which I thought was okay as he merely gave a strong challenger performance and the challenger one upping the champ greatly is part of the usual title match formula anyways 4. Tully's leg selling, which again I didn't have a problem with as the legwork was just a small fraction in a very long match and Tully was still but hobbling minutes after it happened before he recovered 5. is the commercial breaks, which is the biggest problem with the match, altough it's not a true US TV match if the heel doesn't have the upper hand post commercial break I guess. Overall this is pretty much everything right with pro wrestling in my book.

This is something I loved in 2011 and I'm pleased to see it holding up extremely well. This starts out like a friendly maestro's match with some 10 minutes of high quality matwork between 4 barrel chested fast moving dudes, with all kind of cool holds thrown in. Then Apache increases the intensity by twisting Navarro's leg in a nasty way which sets up the rising tension in the 2nd half. Angel Mortal, a guy normally stuck carrying half baked spotblowers in AAA undercards looked really good here, having some great takedowns and understanding his role as a pissed off Navarro put him through the meatgrinder. I think this was the first match where I realized what a badass Navarro was and he is awesome here destroying dudes with his mix of painful looking command-esque wristlocks and MMA submissions. Eventually Apache starts breaking up submissions and I loved that something as simple as Navarro throwing punches to the kidney serves as an escalation of violence here. Then you got Apache throwing really great punches of his own aswell as Terry having to solve the 2 on 1 situation. Really simple match with not a lot of bumps or big moves (not counting awesome leg twisting submissions) but it tells a tremendous story and works really effective.

This was plenty great whenever Tenryu was brutally assaulting Takada with punches and kicks to the face. He also did a phenomenal job putting over Takada's kicks and submissions, flying over the guardrail and going crazy when Takada put on his trademark weak leglock. Takada was plenty average and you get the sense Tenryu could have had this match against any kickpadded shootstylist. However, Takada's selling for the stretch run was okay enough and he did kick Tenryu in the chin a bunch to make for an epic enough finish, I have no idea why he went for those weak slaps, Takada being Takada I guess. He does get what's coming to him as punch drunk Tenryu just runs through him. Strong match but not in the same universe as Tenryu/Anjoh.

Aaaaaah! Pro wrestling! WAR Hoshino!!! Hoshino immediately goes to town on goofy original costume Liger and just destroys him with barrages of awesome punch combos and rights and lefts and then some. Liger fires back with an awesome flurry of palm strikes only get punched in the FACE again and sinking to the 3rd rope selling this like a pro. After eating a truely Murdochian asskicking of punches, stumpy leg kicks and elbow drops, Liger makes a brief comeback directing a charging Hoshino to the outside and then crushing him with a sideways suicide dive against the guardrail. Hoshino won't back down though, as he posts Liger, slaps the referee and then fires back with a big plancha of his own! Liger does some of his goofy early mannerisms, such as going into fighting stance like a video game character, and not really having great comebacks, but he does love to kick Hoshino in the face here. Hoshino continues his utter dominance with fun ways to work over Liger such as ripping his mask, kicking him in the face or busting out a cool leg stretch/pin combo. Hoshino eats one of the nastiest koppu kicks I've seen but is able to gain the upper hand using his speed again and gets a nice string of nearfalls before Liger has to the steal the win in a flash. What is this bizarro world match? This had a really great opening that was hinting at a hidden classic and then turned into a fun somewhat flawed junior match. Still, way too fun, with Hoshino getting big chants and of course continueing his beating on Liger after the match with the ref doing a flip bump for a Hoshino punch. Liger really doesn't look like he'd have arguably the greatest junior match ever just a few days after this, but I was glad he let Hoshino have this match anyways.

Well, Tim Thatcher is a tribute wrestler for sure. He's still not great and his selling is still weird, but atleast he's made a niche for himself and all that. When I heard "indy shootstyle" I just assumed you were talking about that brand of cafeteria shootstyle, because that's what all indy shootstyle is to me. Atleast I've never seen an indy match (atleast outside japan) that I'd label shootstyle ala UWF or RINGS, not even that match linked in the first post. Altough it doesn't matter a lot to me. Of course the original shootstyle doesn't really look like real fighting either, so for me it's a little nonsensical to get all uptight about what is and isn't shootstyle... atleast there is a very noticeable difference in skill between your Tamura/Kohsaka matches and your average indy schmoe attempting some armbars.

Reviewed the Cena/RVD match that I was given. Nothing outstanding, but well executed pro wrestling.

Reviewed the Cena/RVD match that I was given. Nothing outstanding, but well executed pro wrestling.

This is the One Night Stand match where a bunch of rabid ECW fans paid WWE a lot of money to hate on Cena. Classic excellent pro wrestling booking. As far as the match itself goes, I don't have a whole lot to say. They knew exactly what to do and did a really effective job essentially working a high end houseshow match that still had a good big time feel. As usual there was some fun stuff around Cena's role with him doing subtle heel stuff and busting out a clumsy looking axe handle off the top (to no love whatsoever). The match was basically back and forth with RVD hitting his spots and Cena's 5 moves of doom combo drawing nearer until the ECWesque booked finish. Nothing I'll remember a week from now but it's always fun to check out a classic pro wrestling formula executed well.

Wew, almost 2 weeks since the last update! Time flies! Updates will be at minimum weekly from now on. The first episode of IBA's "Total Catch" TV show has aired on Saturday. Tape traders will be picking up every episode and releasing them monthly. IBA Total Catch TV Report #1 Intro Segment: Peter William greets the audience and welcomes them to the first episode of europe's hottest new sports programming. Some highlights of the above described houseshow are shown and dates of the next houseshows are announced so people can buy tickets. There will also be a large event at the end of the month in Hamburg. Peter William announces a lightweight and heavyweight league to determine the european champions of each respective division. The first wrestler to be introduced is Markus Buchholz. Peter William introduces the young talent and points out how impressive it is that he was able to take "Mexican champion" Emilio Charles Jr to a draw. Jörg Chenok comes onto the scene and complains why Buchholz is being featured even though he couldn't beat his opponent while Chenok won clear as a day. Chenok says all the new lightweights are shit and he is the best german wrestler. Buchholz ain't taking that crap and a they almost get into a physical scuffle before they are broken up. Buchholz wants to fight Chenok but William tells him he is already scheduled to fight another wrestler later tonight. Some highlights of Blue Panther vs. Mile Zrno from Schneverdingen are shown. Match 1 - Blue Panther vs. Mile Zrno (1 Fall - 10 Minute Time Limit) Fast mat action to start out. Panther gets some pin attempts, but Zrno powers out with his bridge. Action picks up very soon as Zrno gets some nearfalls on dropkicks, crossbodies and suplexes. Zrno misses a charge and Panther viciously works over his shoulder. Panther gets the Fujiwara armbar, but Zrno makes the ropes. Zrno makes a brief comeback hitting a big kneedrop and a Fisherman's suplex, but Panther is in the ropes. Panther catches the Fujiwara armbar again but the time limit runs out before he gets the tap. Winner: Time Limit Draw (10 Min.) Both guys stare at eachother. Zrno is interviewed and says he wants another match with no time limit. Commercial break then. Match 2 - Masayoshi Motegi vs. Terry Rudge (10 Minutes - 1 Fall) Before the match, the clip of Motegi injuring himself is shown to prove how dangerous wrestling is. Motegi comes in with a bandaged shoulder, but will still wrestle. Bell rings and Rudge immediately attacks the shoulder with Motegi being unable to fight back. Rudge puts on an arm stretch but Motegi fights to the ropes. Rudge continues pounding on the japanese guy with stiff forearms and headbutts. After some 5 minutes of Rudge brutally beating on Motegi's arm and shoulder the ref stops the match. Winner: Terry Rudge (Ref Stop) Rudge walks away not acknowledging his opponent after the match. Motegi has a doctor checking on him. Klaus Wallas is interviewed and asked why he turned on Regal at the houseshow. Wallas said he felt Regal and the german fans were beneath him and that the best doesn't need any partner, since there is only singles gold to get and tags are just for show anyways. Regal (with a bandage on his nose and eye) confronts Wallas and says he's a coward. Regal says he can't fight but will take on Wallas on TV next week then calls Wallas a coward again to which Wallas responds by blindsiding him and forearming him in the eye. Both men have to be separated. Match 3 - Markus Buchholz vs. Lightning Kid (10 Minutes - 1 Fall) Kid tries putting some holds on Buchholz, but Buchholz reverses them all. Buchholz gets a nearfall with a crossbody, but gets caught with a solebutt when he tries again. Kid continues working over Buchholz with kicks and getting some nearfalls with Boston Crabs, Armbars etc. Crossbodies and dropkicks get Kid some nearfalls, Buchholz makes a comeback when Lightning Kid misses a crossbody off the top rope and scores with a sunset flip. Winner: Markus Buchholz (Pinfall) Chenok comes out as if to attack Buchholz, but Buchholz & Kid together scare him off. Buchholz & Kid shake hands. A pre-taped promo from Greg Valentine is shown. He says he will be on TV and show those lousy germans what wrestling is all about. Since Franz van Buyten couldn't beat him, Valentine says he is know the top contender for the European championship. A segment involving Tarzan Goto & Kim Duk is done. Peter William introduces them as the most dangerous wrestlers in the world. Goto breaks a brick using his head to show his strength, bloodying himself and laughing about it. Tom Magee comes in to watch the next match but doesn't say anything. Match 4 - Kim Duk vs. Franz van Buyten (20 Minutes - 1 Fall) Duk immediately beats down Franz with punches, kicks and headbutts. Franz quickly comes back with dropkicks and flying headbutt. Duk goes for a chair but is yellow carded. Franz controls the arm for a bit, but eats a cheapshot from Goto while the ref isn't looking. Duk works over Franz with closed fist punches that the ref can't see and throws Franz over the top rope. Franz looks finished but when Duk goes for a Boston Crab he is able to counter and roll him up for the 3. Winner: Franz van Buyten (Pinfall) Goto immediately attacks Franz and a big brawl breaks out as Tom Magee and other wrestlers join the fray. The show goes off air as Duk & Goto start demolishing the studio.

It's been a thing for a very long time. I recall Bryan Danielson and Bobby Quance doing a full on BattlARTS inspired match in PWG in 2004 or so, not to mention the Danielson/Ki bouts especially the one with Shamrock as the ref. I haven't seen any great matches come out of it yet but I prefer this stuff over your typical comedy/spotfest indy match.

The match I gave to NintendoLogic: Hayato "Jr" Fujita vs. Jinsei Shinzaki (Michinoku Pro 12/13/2013)

I'm still all in for this, just a reminder.

"So what are you planning on doing tonight?" - "I dunno, taking my little daughter to watch a bunch of children's cartoon characters beat eachother to a bloody torn pulp." This match is basically the equivalent to an early 90s black/death metal record. It's gruesome, cartoony, sometimes sloppy and primitive, grim, badly produced, an utterly morbid spectacle, and hellishly great at times. There probably exists a better VQ version of this, but I don't need to see it. I get the criticism some have had of this match that there isn't all that match, but there are enough quick cuts and gruesome closeup shots of cartoon hero's throwing wild punches, clawing at eachother's face, bashing the next guy's head into the wooden side of th ring, or just flat out bowling eachother into the crowd to keep me entertained. The 3rd fall is utter mayhem with everybody flying around and crashing a bunch including useless Super Muneco getting his shoulder crushed and everyone walking around with their masks torn and bloodied looking like disfigured mutants. Grimy, seedy, bizarre and fun as fuck, it's everything a Monterrey bloodbath should be.

BattlARTS goes PRIDE! I forgot how little actually happens in this contest. But it's really such a formative spectacle. Murakami performs to the height of his potential as a death glaring demon throwing wild haymakers and kicks, and Ishikawa does his very best outmatched pro wrestler vs. MMA fighter impression. It's such a bizarre play on what japanese audiences had seen happen in real and fixed fights and pro wrestling matches and pro wrestlers pulling off implausible moves in real fights but it totally works. There isn't even a single KO count, which only serves to add to the pace, and Ishikawa coming up with the bloody mouth is such an intense moment. Then you get what is about the greatest outside brawling/street fighting segment ever and the breathtaking flurry into the lightning quick finish. For all the talk about BattlARTS being a violence-fest this is incredibly smart pro wrestling as they have the crowd by the balls the whole time while playing their characters to a tee and doing great job paying off the tensions built with the ending. All in just 9 minutes to boot.

I'm a Joe Malenko fan. Largely because he's a great grappler, and, well.. that's it. This is largely worked as two expert carny grapplers twisting eachother where they can and find out breaks first. Parts of it came across as high end pro style matwork, altough that only added to my enjoyment. There is working "stiff", as in hitting eachother hard, and there is working "stiff" as in making your body stiff to prevent movement and put restraint against the other guys attacks, and there was a ton of that here aswell as lots of low end blocking and high end countering going on. They basically start working on the ankles with a bunch of twisting and knee grinding before moving up the body to arm attacks until Malenko finally gets the grovit on Fujiwara's head in the climax of the match. Subtle bout, not much to it really, but one of my favourite fights ever.

Some gentleman on YouTube is uploading random obscure joshi shows, so we get more great Kandori/Hotta sections. This was pretty great and if you added 10 counts you'd have a high end BattlARTS match. Hotta & Maekawa were just ruthless here as they would attempt to pulverize their opponent with kicks aimed at the face and head whenever they found an opening. And they really emphasized the striker vs. grappler matchup here as the LLPW team used almost no strikes. The beginning is 100% already, Endo rushes Hotta and tries to land punches from the mount, but a few seconds later she eats a punt to the eye and gets just destroyed from there. Kandori was in the Tenryu role as the tough asskicking boss, drawing amazing reactions with STARES and GESTURES. There were also plenty of great reversals courtesy of her, including turning a sleeper hold into an STO. Also, Kandori choking Hotta unconscious after she made repeated saves was such a simple, great spot that really should be used more often. This was also the best I've seen Maekawa look as she was basically all flashy kicks that landed. I liked that when she missed an especially flashy kick, she just immediately kicked her opponent in th face. Endo didn't look too great but proved she was worth her salt by grappling it out. Awesome match, pro wrestling isn't the same these days anymore.

Masa Fuchi, baby. The man lost his calling as a UWF/NJPW style grappler. In 2018, people are probably not that eager to check out another AJPW superclassic (ZOMG!), but you gotta believe me, this is good. In a way this feels like a glimpse at what the company might have been had it's style turned into a different direction, closer to the shootstyle orgs of the 90s. I assume because Nakano is a Fujinami trained outsider Fuchi is determined to hit the mat here, and this match has about the most matwork in a post-classic era AJPW match I can recall. And it's not that loosey goosey pro style matwork either, this is largely Fuchi grinding and twisting the fuck out of Nakano. It wasn't quite torture master Fuchi either, but the hints were there for sure, and the intensity kept building and Fuchi kept cranking in his holds beyond the point of tolerance. It works better than many other technical based matches too as Nakano getting destroyed on the mat served to get the always reliable Korakuen hall crowd on Nakano's side in a big way, and that payed dividends during the big finishing run. Nakano was solid here, he sold extremely well and showed hints of serious determination, but this was the Fuchi show all around, complete with punches and boots to the face for good measure, even having a go at a second and earning himself some nice boos in the process. It makes me wish there was more AJPW junior stuff available because it's such a nice change of pace from seeing Fuchi get whipped around in multiman tags against the heavyweights. The finish was a fluke but a pretty good one, normally a fluke is a flash pin or submission, in this case however Nakano just blasts Fuchi in the back of the head, sending him semi-KO'd into the ropes and sealing it with a german where he is barely able to hold the cover until the 3. A tricky match formula executed beautifully, and it feels like wrongful scorn of history that this bout ended up lost in obscurity and Nakano lost his title just 3 days later in an even bigger fluke against Momota, his 1990 rematch against Fuchi not being available and the rest of his career blundered in obscurity. We all know Fuchi ended up making his case as one of the greatest of all time, still watching this makes me wonder what could have been had he been in a different era or promotion.

The first two matches were drawn out, tactical epics, this is the epic conclusion where everything goes haywire. In short, they beat the shit out of eachother and don't let up. Tenryu seemed to impose himself early on again, being more ruthless and coming at Hash like a train, but once Hashimoto hit that enzuigiri over Tiger Hattori it was clear he wouldn't let himself get blown away again. It was a great spot and may have made the whole match because it really served to escalate the situation. After that Hashimoto went all out and it was tough territory for Tenryu, folks sensing his downfall. While this wasn't as epic as the 1993 matches and I didn't love the weird "guy hurts himself doing a move" spots this is a great match in it's own right, one of the best blowoffs I've seen and one of the best "angry bears mauling eachother" matches for sure and a perfect conclusion to the trilogy.