Jetlag

I'm a Joe Malenko fan. This was all matwork, which is a good thing. Not exactly huge drama or storytelling going on here, but a total grappling clinic. Malenko mentions he is older than Tamura and there is def. a theme of the super fast young superstar taking on a wily veteran. This was a bit the opposite of the usual maestro match, as instead of Malenko using his experience to counter Tamura it was mostly Malenko twisting and pretzeling the fuck out of his younger opponent. It was almost like pro wrestling psychology vs. shootstyle psychology as Malenko was always grabbing a toe or ankle in order to twist it, digging a knee or elbow into Tamura's face etc. While Tamura was always looking for an armbar to finish his opponent immediately. Tamura looked slick as hell in the process and Joe put him over like a pro. Strong match albeit for the purists only.

This is the complete opposite of the February match. That match had slow build and very little points used. This has one of the hottest beginnings I've seen in a shoostyle match as Fujiwara immediately goes to pound the living shit out of Takada. Fujiwara was a grinning madman here out to teach Takada a lesson with his fists and cranium. Some people have pointed out that Takada was more cautious here than usualy, which I don't quite buy - to me it looked like Lazy Takada was in full swing for much of this match, to the point where it looked like Fujiwara vs. a dummy at times. They use up all their points equally, altough the actual finish was not quite as epic as what they seemed to be hinting at. I still like the February match better than this, but this was tremendous regardless.

This is still one of my favourite shootstyle matches. Top notch contest with a masterful build. It may feel like a cliche shootstyle main event, even having a standoff post matwork exchange, but what the hell. This opens up with a bunch great, high resistance shoostyle exchanges building towards the first rope break and down in the minutest details. They spend a good 12 minutes without a rope break and 18 minutes without a down and that sparingness pays dividends when the bombs start dropping. There is of course the theme of whily old Fujiwara always having a counter in his sleeve, there are lures where Takada is overwhelming him for minutes at a time only to be caught and forcing a rope break immediately. Takada is a guy I dislike often, but he was fine here as he was going at Fujiwara with some aggression, and when he starts reigning shots at Fujiwara you can tell he feels that he'll just blow the old bastard away. On the other hand Fujiwara is tougher than he thought, as there are several moments where Fujiwara is eating shoots, trying to catch and counter but unable to. Finally Takada knocks him down but he just turns and ties his shoelace before getting up. Then Fujiwara starts bouncing around and grinning and you know it's on. Shootstyle has a reputation for being dry and sportslike but that is some amazing acting and timing in this contest.

Looking forward to everyone burning out even worse than GWE after watching too many five star classics and nit picking which should go higher.

Yes yes, what a find... 10 minutes of straight up amateur style matwork, all working for pin attempts. Apparently this was one of Ricky's first matches and mit makes sense to work an amateur match against a young wrestler with an amateur background. Lots of close quarter fighting and very much not clean breaking in the ropes to add intensity. Ricky had all the cool takedowns, but Sonny made for a strong antagonist against the spry young face. My favourite move may have been the cravate/cradle thing Ricky tried. Dug all the rolling around.

Can I still join in? I need to get watching again.

Some matches from february 1991 2/23: Cuty Suzuki vs. Eagle Sawai For a fairly basic speed vs. Size undercardmatch between two not very great workers this was kind of fun. Eagle Sawai has pretty much no rep, but her body checks, back elbows, splashes and slams look real sharp and she knows how to rough her opponent up. This was a little restholdy for a match that wasn't very long to begin with, but they pick up the pace good when Sawai starts targeting Cuties back and Cuty starts countering her power moves in freaked out twisty rollups until Sawai reverses one and uses her massive size to pin her for the 3. 2/24: Mayumi Ozaki vs. Utako Hozumi Weird match, which was almost a total squash on behalf of Miss Ozaki. Oz is one of the all time best at beating someone up and making it look good while being a teeny tiny lady herself, and this almost approached Arn Anderson TV squash tier where the jobber actually looks legit. Ozaki has really nice simple moves, nice snap suplex, elbow drop, elbow to the throat etc. but Utako came back with almost nothing before Ozaki drops her with her badass leg capture suplex. 2/11 Cuty Suzuki & Oscar Tomo vs. Eagle Sawai & Yukari Osawa It says 2/24 in the matchlist, but this is clearly in Korakuen Hall like the next match on the tape. This was pretty much your typical run of the mill joshi tag. Some may like it, but for me this kind of tag just holds little interesting. It was just a bunch of control segments that go nowhere before a random reversal and tag and then the whole process started again. They didn't even have high workrate, altough the finishing run was tricked out as is guaranteed with JWP matches. Oscar Tomo had an interesting look – like a mini Kansai, but did nothing so interesting otherwise. Osawa and Sawai played the heel role well but it was nothing you haven't seen in a thousand Black Pair matches. 2/11 Tokyo Korakuen Hall: Shinobu Kandori vs. The Scorpion I guess this is the downside to watching old Kandori matches. Scorpion gets a 2 minute string of offense before Kansai catches her in a submission and that's it. It was fun and mildly exciting and they needed matches like this to put over Kandori as a badass.... still, The motherfucking Scorpion deserved better.

The motherfucking Scorpion. This was a really cool match and most of that was thanks to the lady in the mask, who was seriously ahead of the curve with her junior/shootstyle hybrid wrestling, bringing both the flips and the kicks and the kimuras, but this match is good due to STORY~ and not due to style. Utako is on the blander side, as she is Japanese Prettygirl #1245 which is the joshi equivalent to being a hairless kickpadded indy junior. Her offense is not as high end as Scorpion, but she redeems herself with some excellent selling. These two could go braindead and just do some athetic moves, lotsa filler holds and then bust out a bunch of 2,9999s and call it a day, but we get so much more than that here. There is some really cool battle for control stuff including Scorpion working almost a full guard before Hozumi digs her elbow into the thigh and locks in an achilles hold. Hozumi cannot seem to get the upper hand but pulls out a well executed control segment before Scorpion gets her again. A BACK SUPLEX is turned into a nearfall and Scorpion has it all over Hozumi here. Scorpion targets the back and really clever injury spot ensues to increase the tension further. I really liked how while Scorpion was in control so much there was a palpable tension about Hozumi eventually pulling out the victory because JWP is flukey, and Hozumi actually looked strong despite getting in little offense. Really entertaining stuff, this is why JWP was gold.

I'd probably pick the spot where one of those massive european tournaments was held. Like Hannover in 1970 - I think the finals of that was Rene Lasartesse vs. Axel Dieter. Something about getting to see top tier wrestlers from all over the world in daily singles matches seems really cool.

It's the holidays. Time to watch some wrestling. No, I'm kidding, I'll be going on a trip and not watch any wrestling for atleast another week. Meanwhile, some matches from 1991: 4/25 Chiba: Pink Cadillac vs. Sachiko Koganei Pink Cadillac is a tall chunky broad in a god awful pink outfit. How awful. Poor Koganei is squashed mercilessly. Cadillac actually had some spots, but is probably better confined to two minute GLOW matches. JWP officials understood this too and this match was kept mercifully short. 6/30 Tokyo Korakuen Hall: Mikiko Futagami vs. Sumiko Saito It's the origins of GAMI! She's a bland rookie in a LACOSTE bathing suit! I'm not a huge fan of the joshi young lioness style matches. Lots of shoulderblocks and back elbows. Futagami busts out the admittedly badass rolling triangle lancer and a neckbreaker/chokehold submission, perhaps foreshadowing her future wrestling style. Still they seemed to get their stuff messed up after the 5 minute mark and started repeating spots and blowing sequences leading to a random finish. 10 minute match that should've been kept to 5-7. 6/30: Utako Hozumi vs. The Scorpion The motherfucking Scorpion. This was a really cool match and most of that was thanks to the lady in the mask, who was seriously ahead of the curve with her junior/shootstyle hybrid wrestling, bringing both the flips and the kicks and the kimuras, but this match is good due to STORY~ and not due to style. Utako is on the blander side, as she is Japanese Prettygirl #1245 which is the joshi equivalent to being a hairless kickpadded indy junior. Her offense is not as high end as Scorpion, but she redeems herself with some excellent selling. These two could go braindead and just do some athetic moves, lotsa filler holds and then bust out a bunch of 2,9999s and call it a day, but we get so much more than that here. There is some really cool battle for control stuff including Scorpion working almost a full guard before Hozumi digs her elbow into the thigh and locks in an achilles hold. Hozumi cannot seem to get the upper hand but pulls out a well executed control segment before Scorpion gets her again. A BACK SUPLEX is turned into a nearfall and Scorpion has it all over Hozumi here. Scorpion targets the back and really clever injury spot ensues to increase the tension further. I really liked how while Scorpion was in control so much there was a palpable tension about Hozumi eventually pulling out the victory because JWP is flukey, and Hozumi actually looked strong despite getting in little offense. Really entertaining stuff, this is why JWP was gold.

Oh, that won't work. I've planned to start posting shows in January.

It's Masayoshi Motegi, ya heathens.

Here are some of the biggest drawing indy shows of the 2010s and 2000s according to genickbruch. WWNlive in China Day 4 (China) 11/16/2014 - 10,500 - main event: Johnny Gargano vs. Ricochet FMLL @ Los Angeles 1/26/2013 - 7,000 - main event: trios match feat. La Par-K, Hijo del Santo, Dr. Wagner Jr Clash of the Legends 4/27/2007 - 6,000 - main event: Hulk Hogan vs. Paul Wight NWA New Jersey / NWA Pro 6/27/2009 - 5,500 main event: Apolo vs. Dimitrious Papadon Memphis Wrestling Throwback Night 2 2004 - 5,000 - main event: tag featuring Terry Funk, Jimmy Hart, Jerry Lawler and some non-wrestler Clash of the Legends @ Midsouth Coliseum 6/15/2001 - 4,700 - main event: Jerry Lawler vs. Lord Hugh Mungus WrestleCade 2016 11/26/2016 - 4,000 - main event: Matt Hardy vs. Ryback Show @ Chicago 2/17/2013 - 3,500 - main event: trios match feat. La Par-K, Hijo del Santo, Blue Demon Jr. RoH Supercard of Honor XI - 3,500 - main event: Young Bucks vs. Hardy Boyz NEW Wrestling under the Stars - 3,341 - main event: Young Bucks vs. Alberto El Patron & Rey Mysterio Show @ Chicago 1/23/2011 - 3,000 - main event: Hijo del Santo & Hijo del Rey Mysterio vs. Piloto Suicida & Imagen Nocturno APW Cow Palace Royal 2017 - 3,000 - main event: Cody Rhodes vs. Joey Ryan NEW Wrestling under the Stars 2016 - 2,800 - main event: Cody Rhodes vs. Kurt Angle The site also lists a show headlined by Scott Steiner in Aruba drawing 11,000, altough not sure how much truth there can be to that Verdict: they can do it if they manage to get El Hijo del Santo, La Par-K, Scott Steiner, Jerry Lawler, Matt Hardy, Hulk Hogan and Apolo or some comparable Puerto Rican star and run the show in a city where many puerto ricans and latinos live aswell as get a shitload of legends to do autograph signings. Or maybe just stop running these stupid supercards in an oversaturated market and find a new country to do business in.

Needs more hideous color formating for authenticy. Good job otherwise

IBA Infoletter #1 The IBA has taken up business operations. Sponsors have been found and a TV deal with one of the many emerging private TV broadcasters has been made. IBA will be taping a weekly studio show ("Total Catch") for a 50 minute late night time slot in front of a small audience, aswell as run several houseshows in the surrounding towns of Hamburg, building up to a monthly big show in Hamburg. Houseshows will be taped using 1-2 cameras and production of commercial tapes is considered. Regional newspapers and a few national news outlets have run stories on the new wrestling organisation and conducted interviews with Sven Hansen and Peter William. Both emphasize the legitimacy of the sport. When asked why a legit sports organization would air on a private channel along with raunchy gameshows ( ), the reply was that only the new private broadcasters are adventurous enough to showcase the "brutal and entertaining sport", while the traditional governmental TV stations are too "fruity" to risk upsetting their audience. When asked who the potential new breakout wrestling stars would be, Peter William mentions Steve Regal, 2 Cold Scorpio and Tom Magee. A local TV station ran a short documentary on the belgian born and residing in germany former champ Franz van Buyten, who is currently training for the initial IBA events. Van Buyten acknowledges that he is aging but will give his all in order to make both his countries proud. He also mentions that middle european generally stick together, and middle european audiences generally cheer any wrestler regardless of their nationality as long as he fights fair and brave. Also mentioned in the documentary are Terry Rudge, Greg Valentine and Klaus Wallas, which Van Buyten calls some of the fiercest competitors in the game. Clips of Greg Valentine breaking someone's leg in a US match are shown. A Hamburg newspaper ran a brief interview with a local Hotel owner, who was tasked by IBA organizers with housing their international superstars. The Hotel owner describes the difficulty of this, as some wrestlers come from countries with "very strange customs", and many wrestler are eccentrics, not to mention the hostilities between them. He explains he had to run background checks on each wrestler and split them into two groups which he placed in different hotels each, hoping everyone will get along this way.

It says a lot about me that this was one of the few 2017 wrestling matches that I could stomach or care to watch. Yes, this sluggish in parts and largely consists of appealing to the crowd. Super Muneco looks really bad, but then, that dude always sucked, and Raton and Pinocho are still absolute workrate machines. Something that is often misunderstood: Formulas don't have to be boring. Yes, you know roughly what's gonna happen, that there will be lots of technico shine and fooling the rudos here, but these guys all have so much stuff they can do and mix up you never know what's exactly gonna happen. So any unexpected turn and twist of events ends up adding to the enjoyment and contributing to the structural whole. Mr. Condor is hilarious in this match, bumping himself and pinching Pinocho in the nose as a dick move. Gallego has a really nice slap and headbutts. Raton is fat as fuck but can still spin around into armdrags and Pinocho is a damn maniac, has always been. Rocky Santana is still referred to as the Mexican Onita in 2017. Yes they're all fat and OLD~! but still able to engross their audience with the same tricks as 27 years ago. I rate this 6,26 stars.

Roland Bock was a former olympic-level amateur who quit the real fighting after he had a nervous breakdown and blundering his chance at the olympics. He got into pro wrestling for a quick buck and "not wanting to be there" pretty much sums him up. He used to run his own wrestling shows where he main evented against a bear and all that crap. Of course the japanese loved him for his uncooperative bullshit.

Based in Hamburg, Germany, the IBA (Internationale Berufsringkampf Agentur) vows to bridge old school european wrestling between the 80s and 90s. Having signed top tier wrestling talent from more than 12 nations, the goal is to run a series of events across the surroundings of Hamburg and Lower Saxony. A variety of prizes lure the aspiring wrestlers to make their mark in top notch wrestling contests and tournaments for the entertainment of the highly educated and critical local german audience. Ruleset IBA have introduced a unique ruleset which functions as a hybrid between european and international wrestling styles. Matches are 2/3 falls (with the exception of some preliminary and special contests), KO may end the match immediately. Wrestlers may receive yellow or red cards for lesser or greater fouls. Special stipulation matches may be granted upon request to the matchmaker. Official Roster Heavyweights Steven Regal (England) Tarzan Goto (Japan) Headhunter A (Dom. Republic) Headhunter B (Dom. Republic) Greg Valentine (USA) Franz van Buyten (Belgium/Germany) Kim Duk (S. Korea) Tom Magee (Canada) Klaus Wallas (Austria) Indio Guajaro (Colombia) Canek (Mexico) *Per special agreement, Headhunters will both represent Dominican Republic and F. Van Buyten will represent both Belgium and Germany, Middleweights Masayoshi Motegi (Japan) Emilio Charles Jr. (Mexiko) Mile Zrno (Croatia) Franz Schumann (Austria) Blue Panther (??????) Lightning Kid (USA) Marty Jones (England) Dave Morgan (Wales) Jörg Chenok (Germany) 2 Cold Scorpio (USA) Terry Rudge (England) *per special agreement, Middleweights may move up to heavyweight division upon request Trainee: Markus Buchholz (Germany) Staff Ring Announcer: Manfred Koch Head Referee: Mick McMichael Matchmaker / Spokesperson: Peter William Promoter / Spokesperson: Sven Hansen Business will pick up soon.

Wrestle Dream Factory or Yume Factory, a micro-indy that split off from SPWF (which split off from SWS, which split off from AJPW). Masakazu Fukuda, Fugofugo Yumeji, Onryo and others came from there. They had some pretty good cards for a shitty indy led by drunkard Shinichi Nakano and Masayoshi Motegi.

JIP into a wristlock and they move right into trading impact moves. Some nifty spots before Jumbo wins the 1st fall with a series of high knees leading to big one off the top. 2nd fall Jumbo immediately continues working over Billy's neck with knees and elbows and also chopping the hell out of him. Jumbo controls for more than 10 minutes including lots of chinlocks and headlocks and Billy sells that he's DEAD. Billy eventually gets out of the headlock and repays Jumbo good, crashing him into the corner and then finishing with a bunch of neck-snapping moves leading to the tombstone piledriver. 3rd fall is all action right before the time limit runs out, Jumbo goes for the figure 4 and Billy is hitting impact moves but can't follow up because of his leg. This was good solid pro wrestling and I didn't hate the long headlock in the second but I still thought it was a little grating especially with how lukewarm Billy's comeback was and the neck work could've been payed off better and they could've done more to build on each fall, for example, by continueing the neck work from the 2nd instead of moving straight to a legwork story, teasing the big knee attack again etc. Just stick to their 70s matches instead.

Pretty much a pro wrestling 101 match. They start out with Kozak immediately going for the arm. Some more scientific wrestling ensues where Boyd stays in control cheating on almost every move. Eventually Nick fires up and Boyd bumps really huge for the first punch. Boys tries to smuggle a god damn boomerang into the ring, leading to Kozak bashing him with the chair. Boyd rakes the eye and Kozak is selling that eye rake like a motherfucker. Boyd lands some shots to the back of the neck then applies the NECK CLAW while Boesch goes into the science of the rabit punch. Kozak keeps coming back, but Boys posts him. Some more work on the back before Boyd secures it with a basic neck snap. Pro wrestling can be very enjoyable when it's done with a brain.