Jetlag

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.

I've had no message from WingedEagle so far, but for those interested I gave him this 1950s/60s match between Lord Blears and Leo Garibaldi:

I was given a Memphis studio TV match between Jerry Lawler and Ric Flair: http://prowrestlingonly.com/index.php?/topic/30920-ric-flair-vs-jerry-lawler-memphis-wrestling-082982/ Lots of promo work. All quite textbook stuff. Not much to write about I thought but it's always a joy to check out these highly efficient territory angles.

This was a classic studio TV angle. The opening promo work was so weird due to how calm everyone was. I'm just used to Memphis TV being a bunch of crazy characters yelling and hitting over the mark. The match was basic but had good intensity due to the stakes being so high. Afterwards the Ric we all know comes out and has a huge meltdown. Imagine being a kid in the 80s and seeing your guy Jerry Lawler kicking the world champ's ass on TV.

This was a fun striker vs. grappler match with Delfin dominating on the ground and with superior takedowns but eating shots standing. So, sort of like a UFC or PRIDE fight. Who would've fought Osaka Pro would reactivate the old FMW different style fight formula? Delfin had great takedown and throws here and Murahama couldn't do a thing on the ground to him. Pretty cool to see a character worker such as Delfin put the antics aside and show what a badass he is. Murahama, again, had great strike combos and I liked how he just gouged Delfin's eyes when he had enough of all that. Super simple match executed extremely well.

Not sure but I'm sure those guys could go far in pro wrestling if they added more nearfalls.

This had a really hot opening with Harley flooring the model with a huge kick before Inoue attempts to retaliate only to take a huge bump to the floor. Harley immediately follows up with sharp kicks to the side. If they had continued in this fashion this would've ended up being a serious MOTYC, but they settle down quickly and work the standard joshi stretch hold opening. Some shenanigans ensue with Takako choking her opponent and Harley getting boo'd when she retaliates. Match picks up again when Harley injures (re-injures?) her ribs and Takako starts torturing her. Harley finds an opening where she attacks Takako's arm and now it's Takako's turn to take a beating. This match is sort of an exercise in crowd manipulation as Harley is the outsider, but they end up putting the heat on both wrestlers with the crowd getting hugely being them both. This is a 30 minute draw so it's slow paced but they keep the action solid throughout and go bonkers with nearfalls in the last few minutes. This didn't have the kind of great transitions I like in a classic but as it stands Harley was really great here and Takako sold decently aswell and this ended up being one of the better women's matches of the year.

Long, excellent main event to make up for that shite midcard. These two had really gotten the hang of how to beat somebody up and make it look good while at the same time selling the punishment received, and they built a really good match around these qualities. It reminded me a bit of an AJPW style match rather than typical joshi, with a slow pace and some cool move progressions. Sawai stuck to her rough housing tactics which issomething she did really well at this point, but Harley was determined to lay an epic beating on her opponent. Really punishing contest with Saito teeing off on Sawai with rapid fire kicks and both girls using some grinding holds. The finishing run was not as great as the body of the match but not huge detriment. It could've used few more ideas but opinions on that will vary. They did a really good countout tease and then packed it up to end the match in style. Quality match, which shows Sawai could go and once again Harley Saito being the real deal.

The 7/14/91 Korakuen Hall show... this was filmed by TV crew so much better production than usual. Over The Generation Match: Miss A vs. Hikari Fukuoka A future JWP ace appears. This was a brutal 3 minute rookie squash and pretty cool. It starts out great immediately with both of them destroying the Korakuen Halls guardrails by bumping ridiculously hard into them. Kansai kicks wee swimsuit wearing Fukuoka to a pulp including a stiff kick to the mouth, but Fukuoka actually gets a nearfall when she catches here in a reverse Achilles Hold! It doesn't last long though as all here dropkicks leave Kansai unphased and a moment later Kansai puts her out with the most hellacious of lariats. About as good as this type of match can be in 3 minutes. Also, I noticed that the ref is TOMMY RAN, which is awesome. Devil Masami & Plum Mariko vs. Mayumi Ozaki & Dementia Dementia has a great look and very much not great wrestling skills. Masami was working invincible monster here and going to town on everyone with stiff lariats and powerbombs. Eventually Ozaki came after her with a chair. Not much of a much overall, though. Terri Power & Pink Cadillac vs. Shinobu Kandori & Itsuki Yamazaki Oh god, that Power/Cadillac team is pure cringe. Kandori and Yamazaki look really sharp even in this terrible matchup, but there was only so much they could achieve. UWA Title Match: Harley Saito vs. Eagle Sawai Long, excellent main event to make up for that shite midcard. These two had really gotten the hang of how to beat somebody up and make it look good while at the same time selling the punishment received, and they built a really good match around these qualities. It reminded me a bit of an AJPW style match rather than typical joshi, with a slow pace and some cool move progressions. Sawai stuck to her rough housing tactics which issomething she did really well at this point, but Harley was determined to lay an epic beating on her opponent. Really punishing contest with Saito teeing off on Sawai with rapid fire kicks and both girls using some grinding holds. The finishing run was not as great as the body of the match but not huge detriment. It could've used few more ideas but opinions on that will vary. They did a really good countout tease and then packed it up to end the match in style. Quality match, which shows Sawai could go and once again Harley Saito being the real deal.

I was given a really fun grappling heavy studio TV match between Sonny King and a young Ricky Morton. Review is here: http://prowrestlingonly.com/index.php?/topic/23843-ricky-morton-vs-sonny-king-memphis-tv-042680/&do=findComment&comment=5826946

NJPW handheld flood gives us Liger's first shot at the IWGP Jr. Title. Altough this is very different from the matches that would come in the future. Essentially young Yamada is a huge underdog against shootstylist Takada. During the early matwork portion Yamada is super cautious to avoid all of Takada's UWF submissions. Eventually Takada gets sick of this and blasts him with kicks. Takada goes for the Tombstone but Yamada desperately avoids that move aswell. Soon Yamada is selling big and the crowd is going bananas for every offensive move and counter he is able to land. Basic match executed extremely well and really fun to check out a way different Liger.

This was previously available as near unwatchable post stamp size handheld from a japanese site, however, due to recent flood in new japanese handheld footage we get a proper quality version where you see all the details of the grappling. Damn what an intense contest. Almost all on the mat, and Yamada looks really impressive. It's crazy that he was only in his 3rd year as a pro wrestler, but Fujiwara puts him over really strongly. Yamada was a stud and going at Fujiwara like a relentless amateur wrestler. No surfboards or anything from him here, instead he was rocking banana splits and flying legbars, even busting out a credible shootstyle Figure 4. He could've easily gone on and become a high end shootstylist - well, if he wasn't too small maybe. Fujiwara is awesome as you expect from a grappling master, doing lots of cool shit such as using his head to dig into Yamada's elbow joint or reversing the figure 4 into a toe hold. Early on Fujiwara seems to be disrespecting Yamada and mocking his submission attempts, bitchslapping him in the corner, but Yamada keeps pushing him, fighting back with huge slaps and a dropkick that almost kicked Fujiwara's head into th 3rd row. Fujiwara refuses to uses the ropes, but eventually is forced to resort to them. There are like half a dozen great armbar counters from Fujiwara in this match proving why he is the master of the move, several times he seems to be luring Yamada into a trap in order to snap him, but Yamada immediately curls into a pyramid in order to defend against the submission. My favourite moment my have been Fujiwara getting the armbar and flatting Yamada in order to prevent his defense and using his leg to apply the pressure, never seen him do that anywhere else. Yamada keeps pushing and escaping though and going after Fujiwara like a terrier until he goes for one shot too many. Great match.