Jetlag

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.

You're not alone with that opinion, friend. For those interested, I was assigned the 2017 match between Virus and Prayer and return I gave Matt D the 4/16/1989 AJPW Junior Title match between Masanobu Fuchi and Shinichi Nakano, which can be found at the RealHero archive.

This was one of the stiffest matches I've ever seen. Lots of sickening street fighting kicks to head of the downed opponent. I imagine if this had more intelligent transitions and build it would've been a strong match. The early going is fun with near KOs and submissions, but they lose their way and start trying to build to their powerbomb finishers, but not really doing a good job at it. I did like Kansai's leg trip and upkicks and they kept delivering stiff shots to keep me entertained, but Kansai's eventual comeback was poor and they ran out of (good) ideas. Also, funny moment where Chigusa is struggling not to botch a powerbomb and cripple her opponent.

The WAR match was about Hashimoto taking Tenry out in his own house. This is in contrast about Hashimoto, the brave New Japan representative, putting on a wrestling match and Tenryu mauling him with cheapshots. He makes a pissed off rush at his adversary early on, but the rest of this is an almost US/Britain like babyface performance with how he refuses to stoop to Tenryu's level as he keeps getting kicked in the eye and chopped in the throat. Hash doing wrestling is almost as awesome as Hash unleashing his fury, and he is great here, softening up Tenryu with massive kicks, dumping him on his shoulder with awesome throws and almost snapping his arm with a lightning fast counter. Tenryu's selling was absolutely flawless and I echo everything Superstar Sleeze has said on Hashimoto selling his desire to win. He may be the greatest ever at portraying this kind of determination in the face of a loss and watching him going at Tenryu despite having nothing left was just magic. These two maybe the best matchup in puro history as their simplistic styles are just made for eachother. Tenryu should not be slept on as he may be the best ever at being a savvy bastard, almost KO'ing Hash with a bulldog, checking on his arm and kicking Hashimoto right between the eyes for his troubles.

Yes, I agree with everything OJ has said. I didn't have a problem with the rest holds because 1. when you are working a match this long, you got to grab a few holds 2. Aja's work was pretty gritty because she was just wrenching the hell out of Kansai's face mostly 3. Aja being ultra dominant added a ton to the match. 4. Going for holds made sense, for example in the opening exchange Aja just overwhelmed Kansai with sumo palm rushes to her face so her desperately going for a headlock was the perfect response, and Aja of course wants to ground Kansai to avoid her own strikes. 5. It's not like there was a ton of hold work anyways, as between the holds Aja would kick the shit out of her opponent and just pick her apart. I prefer this kind of one sided buildup to your average transition by the minute joshi match. Kansai had a few great comebacks including punching Kong in the face and finally that awesome combination of first catching Aja in a weird armlock and then dumping her with an awesome judo style suplex on her shoulder. Aja's cutoffs were strong too, including almost breaking Kansai's spine with her weight which had to be one of the nastiest spots I've seen. The finishing run was pretty much done like a heavyweight boxing match with both of them unloading and doing some awesome KO teases. Aja's selling was literally perfect here as she went from super dominant to stumbling around on her feet after getting brained by Kansai's kicks. I was actually believing in a double KO. Actual finish was primitive and great aswell. Fantastic contest, the 1994 joshi MOTY?

Nothing like watching Virus earning himself a paycheck. You could probably stick him against any half competent dude and get a strong 20 minute match out of it. And that's pretty much what happens here. Prayer doesn't exactly leave a huge impression, occasionally Virus would feed him holds and he'd do rudimentary reversals or try a move of his own. But mostly he was there as the local guy for the fans to rally behind against the nationally recognized master, and get yanked around and stretched for the 20 minutes duration. Virus is skillful enough to sink into tricked out and painful looking submissions on any unsuspecting guy and there was plenty of that to behold. Prayer does get the odd nice run of offense, but the outcome was never in doubt. You may decide whether this kind of match is proof of Virus' greatness or just the standard output of craftsman who knows what he's doing in and out, but no matter what I'm going to enjoy this show.

Matches from 8/4/1991 Mizuki Endo Debut: Mikiko Futagami vs. Mizuki Endo Oh Mikiko. This was better than the previous rookie match, as there was less rope running and more of a clear ranking going on, with Futagami punishing her opponent, slapping her and no selling a few moves so that the bits where Endo knocks her over mean a little. Nothing mind blowing but a solid rookie match with Futagami doing the leading. Futagami is somebody I want to explore more, as I know she was pretty great in ARSION, but what about the period before that? Was it just that magic ARSION touch? I know judging from stuff like this GAMI always knew what she was doing. Itsuki Yamazaki vs. Hikari Fukuoka They follow a rookie match up with a rookie vs. Veteran contest. JWP was running on a thin roster. Yamazaki in JWP is a special worker and this was the first time I've seen her work with real disdain for her opponent. Yamazaki was really roughing up young generic Fukuoka here with proto-Curb Stomps on the ground, disdainful kicks and generally acting like a dipshit. My favourite thing Yamazaki did was blocking a Fukuoka leg trip, shit talking, then actively help her execute the trip and reverse the next hold Fukuoka tried. It was a Fujiwara class dick move. Fukuoka was just the typical basic rookie here with boston crabs and dropkicks, her forearm smashes had some vigor, but she also had a surprisingly weak crossbody. Still Yamazaki worked this about as well as humanly possible by threating Fukuoka like crap, allowing her some nice payback and then finishing the match with a dropkick that was plenty brutal. Mayumi Ozaki & Rumi Kazama vs. Devil Masami & Mami Kitamura This was probably the best showing Devil has had so far. Some strong armwork on Kazama early on (which did not lead anywhere, cause Kazama ain't that good), and lots of fun stuff built around Masami being as big as Kazama & Ozaki together with them flying around trying to topple her. This was a more restrained type joshi tag which you can tell they put some thought into, which I'd like to see more of. Kitamura was barely in the focus, but still hit a nice avalanche powerslam. Dynamite Kansai & The Scorpion vs. Shinobu Kandori & Harley Saito 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.

Aaah the joy of watching wrestling. This is a long as fuck slow match between two stocky motherfuckers without any spectacular offense and it may very well be one of my favourite lucha title matches of all time. There has been some talk about "anti-workrate", and some folks may classify this kind of brainy contest under that. But screw that, because this was as epic as a title match can get, with nearfalls out the ass, huge dives, and selling that makes Shawn Michaels look like a master of subtlety. This is a rare chance to see these two doing some straight up wrestling, and there are some really beautiful trippy takedowns and arm rolls in this bout, contestants being very much ugly and not lean and all that. The main reason why the match is so great is the interplay of Pirata Morgan's character and the title match formula. The amount of cheating you can do and get away with in a lucha title match in 1989 is very low, and yet he still shoehorns as many foul tactics as possible into this. He had to, cause Brazo was pushing him to the limit here. I also really loved the vicious edge Morgan brought to the match, throwing punches when the ref was not looking, elbowing at the joint and generally being as ruthless as you expect a plague of the seven seas to be. They work a really strong 2nd fall with multiple belieable false finishes with Brazo going to town on Pirata who was desperately trying anything to stay in the match. Eventually he strikes gold when he catches the Figure 4 and goes after Brazo de Oro like a terrier. Some of the best work around a Figure 4 I've seen ensues, and also a really great Brazo de Oro performance. A one legged Brazo scouting around the ring, trying to figure out how to go on while narrowly avoiding defeat at the hands of his super aggressive opponent was really epic. At one point, he just grabbed Pirata's arm, yanking him around some and then digging his head into the elbow joint as if to help thinking of what to do. The match also has some of the best timing and payback spots I've seen, such as the awesome build to the first great fat man dive, an equally great payoff spot when Morgan accidentally nukes his second or Oro's repeated crashing and burning just after gaining some momentum. This is all extremely simple stuff as are all the nearfalls they do, with moves such as sentons or a missed knee drop really adding to the contest, but the execution is great. This is a fascinating match because it's like a mix of lucha, WoS and NWA or Portland style psychology. And it's done by these two bastards who you expect far away from this kind of scientific match. Just outstanding storytelling and psychology, the kind of stuff that holds up even after years.

Here is my review of Shirai/Baszler http://prowrestlingonly.com/index.php?/topic/37268-io-shirai-vs-shayna-baszler-stardom-022317/?hl=baszler A solid spotfest altough not the kind of wrestling I can get into on a deeper level.

I don't really get the strong praise this has received. This felt like a slightly better Kurt Angle/Davey Richards match to me. Both wrestlers have really fun offense, aside from Baszler's dweeby thigh slapping, but stylistically the match was a garbled mess. I don't wanna nitpick at every detail but the transitions and selling was all kinds of whack here and as a result the match never got me into it beyond a level of "wow that looked hurty/weird". I always enjoy wrestlers with a legit background, and Shayna looked good picking apart her opponent, but she was too much into working a junior type match to come across as menacing and Io isn't the kinda worker to push her into that territory. The spots and hits here looked great, but at other times this was irritating and close to self parody.

Liger beating Fuchi, nice one I gotta simulate this card in Fire Pro world.

It's been a while. Time to get this going! IBA Infoletter #2 After preparations have been made, all international stars have arrived in germany in their hotels and IBA begins it's first tour, which has been labelled the "qualifying round" and is seen as a way to introduce all the wrestlers to the new audience. Studio TV episodes will begin airing shortly. Houseshow results #1: "Grande International Catch Gala" @ Schneverdingen - this show was billed as "Europe vs. Rest of the World" 1. Markus Buchholz DRAW Emilio Charles Jr. - Buchholz pinned Emilio via. O'Connor Roll (1:0) - Emilio made the young german submit to a Fujiwara Armbar (1:1) - Time Limit ran out (20 Min.) - Emilio refused to shake hands after the match. 2. Jörg Chenok def. Lightning Kid - Chenok KO'd Lightning Kid via Missile Dropkick - Chenok refused to shake hands after the match. 3. Masayoshi Motegi DRAW Franz Schumann - Schumann made Motegi submit to a Fujiwara Armbar (0:1) - Motegi pinned Schumann with his Triple German Suplex (1:1) - Ref stoppage when Motegi injured himself as he tried a Suicide Dive. Schumann refuses to accept the victory. - Both men shook hands after the match. 4. Blue Panther DRAW Mile Zrno - Time Limit ran out (30 Min.) - Blue Panther refused to shake hands. Zrno asked for house mic and wants a rematch. 5. Kim Duk & Tarzan Goto def. Steve Regal & Klaus Wallas - Regal pinned Duk with a Sunset Flip (0:1) - Goto KO'd Regal via Ghostbuster - Wallas turned on his partner and left the building. Duk & Goto continue beating on a bloody Regal after the bell. Franz van Buyten, Tom Magee and several others make the safe. 6. Greg Valentine def. Franz van Buyten - Franz pinned Valentine via. Small Package (0:1) - Valentine made Franz submit to a Figure 4 Leglock (1:1) - Franz was DQ'd for excessive brutality when punching Valentine on the ground and refusing to let go. Valentine previously used a chair on Franz outside the ring. - Valentine asks for house mic, says european wrestlers ain't shit causing a big brawl with Franz and other european wrestlers jumping on Valentine, which further escalates when Goto & Duk return. Local newspapers receives angry complaints about the violent content of the wrestling show and the destruction caused to the building by Goto & Duk. IBA management has ensured that all rowdy wrestlers have been reprimanded and the tour will go on as planned. Franz van Buyten was interviewed by the local newspaper, saying it wasn't a great night but european wrestlers did well and will do better once they adapt to the ruthlessness of the foreigners, however not all foreigners are rough style wrestlers.

From my short-lived BML review a ton: Karaev is this giant russian blob-like dude who uses an iron claw for a finisher. No idea where they found this guy, but he feels like he should be in a different dimension. Fighting Big Show or Otto Wanz or Tenryu in WAR or something. This was mostly Karaev manhandling tiny Shibata around which was amusing enough, but I felt he looked like a giant baby with his "swatting at flies" style palm strikes. The crowd were postively into this and Shibata however, who had no chance but to go for a flash submission against the giant. And he succeeded in that in less than 4 minutes. I'd say this match achieved what they were going for, but can't help but feel feel that the full potential of Alan Karaev was squandered.