Jetlag

Yeah, this was a really good claustrophobic little match. Maybe even better than the Mochizuki/Yasuraoka match I called the best 3 minute match ever like last week. I'm a huge fan of early career Tajiri, and I had no idea he could handle himself this well against such a beast. Severn was a lot like current Brock except - far more interesting...? The primitive mat- and submission work was really cool and the psychology was right aswell with Severn looking in danger despite literally being twice as big and launching his opponent around like a sack of potatoes.

Yeah, this was a badass little scrap. I liked that while Hashimoto was several leagues above Kurius, he still put Kurisu over as a tough little tank who can deal out serious damage. Hash sells big time for Kurisu before outclassing him with an equally violent beating (especially loved his flurry of headbutts followed by beautiful judo trip), so Kurisu is forced to use illegal tactics before he can start his chair ambush. Not seeing half of Kurisu's chairshots kind of made the whole thing even better. Hash comes back as a pissed off angry bear just mauling Kurisu cuz he's Hash.

This was a pretty fun match between two young and eager workers. The Scorpion works a fun junior/shootstylist hybrid style and Ozaki always adds a ton of personality to her matches. In fact Ozaki looked as good and charismatic as she did in her most famous matches. Her outfit was pure pulp awesomeness and she reminded me a little bit of Negro Casas here in how fast she was thinking and how she would exploit weaknesses relentlessly. Scorpion's execution was a little sloppy at times, so I have no problem calling this an Ozaki carryjob. Whenever Ozaki was able to grab an arm or leg, she would stomp the shit out of that body part to create an opening, then go for the finish. Because this was 1990, moves like a superplex or sunset flip were HOT nearfalls and they timed everything extremely well, resulting in a bunch of 2,9999s that the crowd went bananas for. Weak finish, but I still liked the match a lot.

I figure this topic may produce some interesting discussion on this board. It's also a nice change from the usual "Who/what is the greatest xy" topic. What is a boy, you ask? Here's the definition from OSW: My boys: - Masayoshi Motegi - I am unsure if he was actually untalented, but given that he more often than not is trying very hard rather than being good, I'd say he qualifies. Guy who has a reputation for dropping out of the J-Cup 1st round in weird matches where he usually fucks something up, pudgy indy wrestler who blades in every match and takes stupid bumps while never achieving any success or recognition at all... Motegi was a boy for life. He still does enough right to keep his matches resembling pro wrestling while always busting his ass, so I love the miserable little bastard. - 90s Ryuma Go - early in his career he was the real deal, so I am restricting this to his 90s crazy man phase. I don't think I've seen him in a good let alone great match yet, but him fighting space aliens, working as a tribute US babyface or shootstylist is more than endearing. A hilarious and tragic character. - James Magnum - has won me over with his matches in Kitao Dojo.

Hey, I kinda forgot about this project. Looking forward to read more of your thoughts, KB8. Lioness Asuka/noki-A vs. Ayako Hamada/Fabi Apache (Tag League, 11/3/01 Tokyo) Aw lil Akino teams with Asuka now! This was a match that kind of suffered from too much hard work. Ayako and Akino were just bumping all over the place here, transitions out the ass, the whole enchilada... there just wasn't really a match going on to sink your teeth into. I like Asuka, she is a fun powerhouse who will kick you like a dog... I liked the noki-A vs. Fabi finishing section. Still for a 12 minute bout this had too much stuff crammed into it. Mima Shimoda/Etsuko Mita vs. Mikiko Futagami/Rie Tamada (UWA Tag Title, 11/25/01 Tokyo) Basic LCO match that stayed in the ring and didn't drag. GAMI bled, and also brought her paper fans wrapped in barbed wire (wow that gimmick got dark quickly). Some nice twists and turns, altough I've seen their spots too many times to care at this point. Manami Toyota vs. Mariko Yoshida (11/25/01 Tokyo) Big ol' dream match. The style contrast of Yoshida's shoot submissions vs. Toyota's car wreck style was pretty fun. Yoshida catching her higher ranked opponent repeatedly made for a solid layout. Toyota was bringing it too, laying in mean stomps and clobbering Yoshida, and her dropkicks and suplexes were on point. She may have had a more expressive performance than Yoshida, who was pretty much doing her thing. This had some of the ills of japanese big match wrestling, but the story was fun enough and the finish-off was a fine moment. Ayako Hamada vs. Lioness Asuka (Queen of Arsion Title, 11/25/01 Tokyo) The young ace takes on the big bad legend! This match is a rare Asuka singles match with no bullshit. For that alone it was interesting to watch. And they went for a full-blown EPIC too, putting on a fight that had wrestling exchanges, submission work, stiff moves, table spots, fire balls, the whole deal. If you are nostalgic for joshi stuff you may enjoy this, but others may call this match a poorly thought out mess full of blown spots and poor transitions. I'll say there were a few cool moments and they both threw some mean bombs, but overall the fight never came together for me.

Back to: W*ING 11/21/93 Moondog Spot vs. Ryo Miyake Moondog Splat vs. Badboy Hido Masayoshi Motegi vs. Winger Crash the Terminator & Miguel Perez Jr vs. Leatherface & Boogie Man Nightmare Freddy & Crypt Keeper vs. Nobutaka Araya & Shoji Nakamaki Jado & Gedo vs. Headhunters A & B (Barbedwire Match) W*ING seemed to be lacking in japanese stars at this time. All your sleaze heros (Araya, Hido, Nakamaki) were still in their infancy stage, Nakamaki even wearing the black trunks attire. Maybe that's why they introduced the horror characters. Anyways this show was kind of the downside to watching old indy houseshows. Almost every match here was a sloth like brawl. I actually kinda liked the brief Moondog squash to open the show. Motegi/Winger was the best match on the show as Motegi continues to look better than he has any right to be as he carries the almost completely useless Winger to a perfectly passable junior undercard match, busting out cool holds and all that. The first Horror monsters match had some cool power moves especially from Crash (Bill Demott?!) but ended on a very dry note. The other match was basically a squash. The main event was solid enough - Jado and Gedo wore their amazing Zubaz pants. These two teams have wrestled eachother a bunch and the barbedwire stip made them stay in the ring, all 4 guys have nice punches, and Headhunters always bust their ass breaking out their highspots and big bumps. Still the match was a little long and sluggish but the finish was cool with how the Headhunters set up their big Bulldog. Another Motegi match that delivers beyond logical expectations. At this rate Motegi is pretty much my boy.

That "fans as lumberjacks with WEAPONS" match is not a TNA invention. Terry Funk and Jerry Lawler had one in 1991.

Back to: Kitao Pro 2/21/95 Masaaki Mochizuki vs. Masanobu Kurisu Koji Kitao vs. Richard Byrne Akio Kobayashi vs. Hiroshi Itakura Al Snow vs. Takashi Okamura Akio Kobayashi vs. Koki Kitahara Koji Kitao vs. Osamu Tachihikari Al Snow vs. Koki Kitahara Koji Kitao vs. Masaaki Mochizuki Ryuma Go vs. Kazuhiko Matsuzaki Koji Kitao vs. Koki Kitahara Ohh boy this card. In case you are confused – this is a tournament, with Tachihikari and Kitahara getting a BYE for some reason to skip the 1st round. They removed the ring ropes for this show – smart move. Let's do it quick: Mochizuki/Kurisu was Mochi throwing really hard kicks and Kurisu throwing really hard headbutts and stomps for 3 minutes – so about what you expect. Then Mochi downs Kurisu, causing him to slip over the edge of the ring and almost land on his head outside, dear good. Kitao/Byrne – Byrne has an amazing Jerry Flynn/Bart Vale like american bullshido master look, but is squashed in 40 seconds when Kitao catches him with an admittedly pretty cool Volk Han like wrist lock. Itakura/Kobayashi – Itakura looks like the lost great talent of the 90s, as he wrestles like a tubby Kota Ibushi, fast, stiff, capable on the mat, cool spots – but gets kicked in the face by the lousy Kobayashi and fails to get up. Poor Itakura always gets the short end. Snow/Okamura – it will never cease to amaze me how Snow got roped into doing this shit. Snow earns my respect by working a pretty solid 5 minute match against the not very good Okamura, hitting stiff palm rushes and actually getting the crowd behind him. Snow also eats one of the most brutal koppu kicks I've ever seen. Kobayashi/Kitahara – Kobayashi is a slimy hateable dipshit, and Kitahara kills him some in this match, but not nearly enough. Kitao/Tachihikari – for a few seconds this was two fat sumos clobbering each other, and all was right in the world, then Kitao wins another 1 minute squash. Don't exhaust yourself, Kitao. Snow/Kitahara – this is the most promising matchup cause both these guys can actually work. Snow gets dropped on his shoulder with a german suplex and Kitahara painfully picks his shoulder apart. Snow tries hard, but at 3 minutes the match fell short just as it got good, 1 or 2 minutes longer and it would've been a pretty good bout. Kitao/Mochizuki – Mochizuki is next on Kitao's short pointless squash list. Ryuma Go/Matsuzaki – Go saves this show by beating the snot out of Matsuzaki with ultra stiff punches and headbutts and then tortures him on the mat and then some. Go is INSANE and I love him.God bless you, Champion of the Galaxy. Kitao/Kitahara – Kitahara is the first guy who gets to do actual harm to Kitao. They beat the shit out of eachother and Kitao throws these brutal Vader Hammers, and brings out the Kitao Driller again. Eh I guess this was solid, brutal enough to be worthwhile, altough with a match as short as 4 minutes you have to go a little more all out than this for it to be something special. I dunno. The feel of these Kitao booked shows is kind of fun with the „anything can happen/match can end at anytime“ vibe, and every match is brutal as fuck, which is always a plus. But I feel they could've delivered a little more on some matches. You know there's something fishy when Ryuma Go and Al Snow are bringing the workrate. It was interesting and a breeze to watch, kind of like fast food shootstyle. The best match was Snow/Okamura, so now you know it – once upon a time, Al Snow carried a mediocre japanese karateka to a pretty decent 5 minute match.

Next in the gauntlet is one of the original sleaze classics - SPWF. Social Progress Wrestling sounds like a north korean propaganda fed, perhaps booked by Antonio Inoki, but the product was pretty interesting. SPWF 9/5/1994 Shinichi Nakano vs. Kamikaze Yoshiaki Yatsu & Masayoshi Motegi vs. Isao Takagi/Hirofumi Miura This is from an episode of TV, which gives me some hope that there's more pro filmed SPWF out there. Nakano vs. Kamikaze was a classic journeyman performance of Nakano to drag the shitty Kamikaze into a solid match. From what I've gathered about SPWF google translating their japanese Wikipedia page is that they made backyarders into pro wrestlers, and I assume Kamikaze was one of those backyarders because he exhibits all the traits of one: hesitancy, sloppiness, polished looking highspots but shitty looking everything else, and general lack of conviction. Also, at this point he was still wearing a mask, and the jacket he wore was without a doubt one of the ugliest pro wrestling attires I've ever seen. Nakano beats him up and stretches him good and is able to build a solid by the numbers match around him with some nearfalls. Nakano even did the Fuerza punt. Seems SPWF had a lot of kids in the audience because Kamikaze got a lot of kiddie sounding pops. The main event was a match I'm sure is good, but not exactly sure how good it was. Do you like formula wrestling? Because this was tag formula executed to a tee. If you find that boring, it was probably less exciting. It was worked a lot like an SWS match with 1992 WCW layout. Sharp basic wrestling, with a fast pace and few stiff shots. Motegi looked really sharp, playing his role of Yatsu's young partner well, hitting nice armdrags etc. and playing a good Ricky Morton when he got isolated and bloodied. Dare I say, is Motegi actually one of the underrated juniors of the 90s? Miura, for a guy who has been stinky in everything I've seen so far, was acceptable here and the old guys were really fun. Yatsu still had something in the tank, and the future Arashi was really spry. Not exactly mind-blowing stuff here, but I'd love to see more SPWF.

Texas Deathmatch in a Cage~! The main event was a serious match and worked US style. Harris Bros came in with long flowing manes – and bah gawd they both look like Chris Hero!! Go and Barr were your babyfaces, and the Bros worked them over good. Harris Brothers had really nice punches and stomps, eventually hitting some huge double teams including a big powerslam off the top rope. Everyone bled, and eventually Go got the hot tag and ran wild on the nazi vikings as if they were space jews, hitting a bunch of flying clotheslines and eventually getting the win with an octopus hold. Barr didn't look like much, only hitting some stomps and kneedrops, but the crowd got into him when he refused to quit, and Ron & Don did a pro job here, knowing to fly headfirst into the cage when it counted. Won't make you forget Final Conflict and probably went a little long, but I thought it was a good little formula match.

The co-main event was another match where you have no idea what to expect going and then you end up being positively surprised. I'd never seen pre-deathmatch Kanemura or Matsuzaki before, only snippets of Itakura and Motegi is a guy who is a notorious fuckup. All 4 guys won me over, though. Matsuzaki was a black trunks rookie, but he had really nice sharp kicks and headbutts, and Itakura was a fairly athletic tubby guy. Motegi looked pretty sharp, and everyone worked stiff and got the crowd into the match. They did flaring tempers nicely, leading to 3 guys hitting awesome dives and then a double countout which they turned into a restart and then did a really nice finish with Motegi hittig his awesome triple german into Kanemura getting the win.

The opener was pretty great because PWFG Wilkins showed up to school his opponent with awesome takedowns, suplexes and stiff headbutts and shotais. It was a postively Negro Navarro performance from old Wellington. His opponent didn't look like much, but he didn't look lost in a match with a lot of grappling and he had a nifty leg trip. At one point, Wilkins went for a kick and fell over, to which Hirano rushed for an Achilles Hold. It was a minor detail, but about the only way Hirano could see any land in this match. Badass stuff from Wilkins.

The dynamic of this match was young Ran Yu Yu trying to topple more established Kansai and young Kuragaki trying to topple the more established Reggie and Ran. Aside from some stiff exchanges Yu-Yu didn't leave an impressive performance, but Kansai and Bennett were pretty fun here, bringing what the kids call "hoss fighting" these days. I enjoyed Bennett in ARSION and she had lots of cool power moves here while moving at a very fast pace, I liked Kansai and her kick-orientation, the splash mountain on Bennett was an insane spot too, especially since Kansai is not a power spot wrestler. Kuragaki at this point mostly stuck to basic dropkick and potatoes stuff and was solid enough. Fun match.

Pretty good sprint. The point was to make Kosugi look good against a much higher ranked outsider, so there was no reason to expect rocket science psychology here. I mean, Huyga barely worked her back for 90 seconds. I can live with two or 3 spots not being sold like Rude/Steamboat. I actually thought the transitions and control segments were above average - especially liked Huyga taking an unexpected Fuerza bump to the floor and Kosugi immediately capitalizing with a big double stomp. Hyuga sold enough to allow Kosugi to believably hang with her.

I actually thought this was kind of fun in it's messy ways.. The ZAPS(~~!) were just killing the JWP crew with stick shots and also had huge fat girl dives and powerbombs... of course the match was too clipped up to make sense. It was more like a highlight reel than anything else, but... it actually made me curious what was next for the ZAPs.

Oriental Pro 12/3/1992 – this was a very watchable handheld, the guy caught everything in ring and most of the brawling outside too. Wellington Wilkins Jr. vs. Katsumi Hirano Akihiro Mikada vs. Nobutaka Araya Brian Lee vs. Masahiko Takasugi Yukihiro Kanemura & Masayoshi Motegi vs.Kazuhiko Matsuzaki & Hiroshi Itakura Ryuma Go & Jesse Barr vs. Ron & Don Harris (Texas Deathmatch in a cage~!) Well, this show was super interesting to watch. Way more polished than you expect a handheld random indy show with a bunch of nobodies + Harris Bros (of all people) to be. The opener was pretty great because PWFG Wilkins showed up to school his opponent with awesome takedowns, suplexes and stiff headbutts and shotais. It was a postively Negro Navarro performance from old Wellington. His opponent didn't look like much, but he didn't look lost in a match with a lot of grappling and he had a nifty leg trip. At one point, Wilkins went for a kick and fell over, to which Hirano rushed for an Achilles Hold. It was a minor detail, but about the only way Hirano could see any land in this match. Badass stuff from Wilkins. The next match was an extremely young Nobutaka Araya (here's a guy who's been everywhere) and Mikada, a guy I've found no information on. Mikada had really sharp, stiff kicks and didn't let up. The match was pretty basic and two guys this green probably shouldn't have gone 15+ minutes, but they delivered a good finish with Mikada landing a huge crossbody off the top. Charming in parts. The next bout was veteran Takasugi vs. An ultra generic blonde Brian Lee. Takasugi was still pretty spry and they worked an IWE type match with Lee roughing up his opponent and then Takasugi fighting fire with fire. Basic stuff again, and they ended the match just as it seemed to get hot. The co-main event was another match where you have no idea what to expect going and then you end up being positively surprised. I'd never seen pre-deathmatch Kanemura or Matsuzaki before, only snippets of Itakura and Motegi is a guy who is a notorious fuckup. All 4 guys won me over, though. Matsuzaki was a black trunks rookie, but he had really nice sharp kicks and headbutts, and Itakura was a fairly athletic tubby guy. Motegi looked pretty sharp, and everyone worked stiff and got the crowd into the match. They did flaring tempers nicely, leading to 3 guys hitting awesome dives and then a double countout which they turned into a restart and then did a really nice finish with Motegi hittig his awesome triple german into Kanemura getting the win. The main event was a serious match and worked US style. Harris Bros came in with long flowing manes – and bah gawd they both look like Chris Hero!! Go and Barr were your babyfaces, and the Bros worked them over good. Harris Brothers had really nice punches and stomps, eventually hitting some huge double teams including a big powerslam off the top rope. Everyone bled, and eventually Go got the hot tag and ran wild on the nazi vikings as if they were space jews, hitting a bunch of flying clotheslines and eventually getting the win with an octopus hold. Barr didn't look like much, only hitting some stomps and kneedrops, but the crowd got into him when he refused to quit, and Ron & Don did a pro job here, knowing to fly headfirst into the cage when it counted. Won't make you forget Final Conflict and probably went a little long, but I thought it was a good little formula match.

Ito vs. Yamada was shown in full and was a pretty cool little clash, like a poor man's Vader/Tamura. Lots of potatoe shots, and Ito, who could still move well at this point, was slamming the fuck out of Yamada with pro style powerbombs and suplexes. Yamada is the future Black Buffalo (of all people) and had some cool judo throws on Ito's roided ass. Yamada looked the most talented of anyone on the card and it feels like a waste that he went on to do garbage wrestling for the rest of the 90s.

Next up is: NSPW 9/24/1994. NSPW was a shootstyle indy that went for serious fighting ala UWFi. Now that's something you don't see everyday. That is just me guessing, because I can't find any mention of this fed anywhere, not even on the japanese wiki. Card: Hiroshi Osuma vs. Katsumi Hirano Yukimasa Yokota vs. Shingo Shigeta Takashi Hara vs. Masamitsu Kochi Yoshiro Ito vs. Keisuke Yamada Koichiro Kimura vs. Fumio Akiyama Ricky Fuyuki/Jado/Gedo vs. Hiroshi Itakura/Hideo Takayama/Ichiro Yaguchi Most of the fights were too clipped up to be assessed, but the fighters looked polished and worked plenty stiff, with Shigeta taking a pretty brutal beating in the second match but refusing to give up. Osuma vs. Hirano was a boxer vs. Wrestler match that was actually pretty good, which is a rare accomplishment. I assume most of these guys are from SAW given that Koichiro Kimura is also on this card, but that's pure speculation as I can't find any info at all on this fed. Ito vs. Yamada was shown in full and was a pretty cool little clash, like a poor man's Vader/Tamura. Lots of potatoe shots, and Ito, who could still move well at this point, was slamming the fuck out of Yamada with pro style powerbombs and suplexes. Yamada is the future Black Buffalo (of all people) and had some cool judo throws on Ito's roided ass. Yamada looked the most talented of anyone on the card and it feels like a waste that he went on to do garbage wrestling for the rest of the 90s. The main event was a typical Fuyuki/Jado/Gedo affair where they beat the shit out of the NSPW guys, bloodying and triple teaming them and waffling them with chairs. The NSPW all had kickpads (future face painted garbage brawler Yaguchi was doing a sambo gimmick at this point) and liked to kick hard, Itakura had a really nice dive aswell, but it seems most of their offense was clipped out which is a weird decision. They just got destroyed and the Fuyuki trio hit all their huge triple team moves including a powerbomb off the top and a huge assisted butt drop from Fuyuki. Fun stuff and Fuyuki is such a bastard in the match.

WHO IS JAMES MAGNUM?? Magnum looks like Randy the Ram and I love him and the bullseye he has on his butt. They totally missed out not showing Randy the Ram getting KO'd in a 90s primitive MMA fight in that movie. Magnum pussies into the corner, to start but blindsides Kitao with a huge forearm to the eye and looks in a quasi stretch plum. Kitao NUKES him with a Uranage, but Magnum says fuck YOU and headbutts him in the jaw! Magnum follows with some more awesome headbutts holding Kitao's pants, but eats a knee to the face before Kitao cripples him with a series of low kicks. Awesome squash match.

YEAH~~! I cannot express how perfect Kurisu is on this card. Okamura is the next ultra-green reckless kicker from Kitao's Dojo and nowhere near as on-point as Mochizuki. This goes exactly how you imagine it to go from how it looks on paper: Okamura recklessly kicking Kurisu in the face a bunch of times, and Kurisu Kurisu'ing the fuck out Okamura. Because this fed is quasi-shootstyle, there's no brawling or chairs, so instead Kurisu mainly focusses on stomping and headbutting Okamura into a coma. Kurisu has about the most god awful stomps on film, as he puts the boots to Okamura's head, ears, and neck. To make things worse, Okamura even increases the trainwreck potential by blowing stuff and even trying a spin kick from the second rope. It eventually resolves into Kurisu almost popping Okamura's knee with a twisted Single Leg Crab. This match was ugly, grotesque, primitive, and fun as hell.

AND – this was one of the best rookie vs. Rookie opening matches I've ever seen – and really the perfect opening match for this kind of fed: fast, short, brutal, to the point, and with purpose – as the audience was dying to see young Mochi make a dent and topple the slightly more experienced Yasuraoka. This match also shows how good Yasuraoka could be when he wasn't stuck in a spotfest with Lance fucking Storm, simply by not backing down from reckless kicker Mochizuki. Yasuraoka absorbing Mochi's opening barrage, creating an opening with a big headbutt and then downing Mochi with a huge slap was such a simple, but badass sequence. Both guys came across as aggressive, fast moving, and willing to bite a face off when necessary. Neither of them were afraid to get nuked with huge suplexes either, and did I mention Mochi recklessly kicks the shit out of Yasuraoka anyways? This was a bonafide sub 5 minute war.

Let's make this a gauntlet of random 90s indies, shall we? I watched : Kitao Pro 6/14/94 - Koji Kitao's fed. They have a drum instead of a bell! Masaaki Mochizuki vs. Yuji Yasuraoka AND – this was one of the best rookie vs. Rookie opening matches I've ever seen – and really the perfect opening match for this kind of fed: fast, short, brutal, to the point, and with purpose – as the audience was dying to see young Mochi make a dent and topple the slightly more experienced Yasuraoka. This match also shows how good Yasuraoka could be when he wasn't stuck in a spotfest with Lance fucking Storm, simply by not backing down from reckless kicker Mochizuki. Yasuraoka absorbing Mochi's opening barrage, creating an opening with a big headbutt and then downing Mochi with a huge slap was such a simple, but badass sequence. Both guys came across as aggressive, fast moving, and willing to bite a face off when necessary. Neither of them were afraid to get nuked with huge suplexes either, and did I mention Mochi recklessly kicks the shit out of Yasuraoka anyways? This was a bonafide sub 5 minute war. Masanobu Kurisu vs. Takashi Okamura YEAH~~! I cannot express how perfect Kurisu is on this card. Okamura is the next ultra-green reckless kicker from Kitao's Dojo and nowhere near as on-point as Mochizuki. This goes exactly how you imagine it to go from how it looks on paper: Okamura recklessly kicking Kurisu in the face a bunch of times, and Kurisu Kurisu'ing the fuck out Okamura. Because this fed is quasi-shootstyle, there's no brawling or chairs, so instead Kurisu mainly focusses on stomping and headbutting Okamura into a coma. Kurisu has about the most god awful stomps on film, as he puts the boots to Okamura's head, ears, and neck. To make things worse, Okamura even increases the trainwreck potential by blowing stuff and even trying a spin kick from the second rope. It eventually resolves into Kurisu almost popping Okamura's knee with a twisted Single Leg Crab. This match was ugly, grotesque, primitive, and fun as hell. Akio Kobayashi vs. Nobukazu Hirai Eh, this was alright too. Kobayashi is the least of the green kickers so far, but Hirai has nice suplexes. Koki Kitahara vs. JR Carson Okay, SOMEONE has to be able to tell me what the deal with the US guys on this card is. JR Carson is one of the most strip club bouncer looking wrestlers I've ever seen, and he seems to have no shoot ability whatsoever. Altough his pro style offense is admittedly pretty nice looking, but what do ya know, Kitahara kills him off very fast with a nasty neck crank because Koki Kitahara has no chill. And this leads us to... Koki Kitahara vs. Akio Kobayashi I liked that Kobayashi seemed to target Kitahara's weak spot that Carson softened up in the previous match. Kitahara actually sells a good deal for Kobayashi and this was about as good as a 4 minute match you can have with a dude as limited as Kobayashi. James Magnum vs. Koji Kitao WHO IS JAMES MAGNUM?? Magnum looks like Randy the Ram and I love him and the bullseye he has on his butt. They totally missed out not showing Randy the Ram getting KO'd in a 90s primitive MMA fight in that movie. Magnum pussies into the corner, to start but blindsides Kitao with a huge forearm to the eye and looks in a quasi stretch plum. Kitao NUKES him with a Uranage, but Magnum says fuck YOU and headbutts him in the jaw! Magnum follows with some more awesome headbutts holding Kitao's pants, but eats a knee to the face before Kitao cripples him with a series of low kicks. Awesome squash match. Al Snow vs. Koji Kitao Yeah, Al Snow. Snow says before the match that he's been watching Godzilla movies to prepare for this match. Snow looks jobber as hell, but makes the most of this match, acting like a shootstylist and hitting a huge palm rush and gigantic suplex on Kitao before he gets kicked in the eye and dropped with one of the most brutal piledrivers I've ever seen. Snow actually beats the count after almost getting Chono'd but squash monster Kitao immediately finishes him off with a choke. Al Snow, you gave your best.

SHIT THAT NOBODY REMEMBERS OR CARES TO KNOW: Black Buffalo started wrestling in 1993 as a shootstylist but then lost his way and ended up touring scummy japanese indies like IWA Japan, before he eventually ended up becoming the evil baseball mascot in O-Pro. This fact is the explanation why Buffalo is totally able to rock Murahama's world with some really fast judo takedowns early on. This is basically the most IWA:MS match ever in Osaka as the garbage brawler who's secretly a legit badass steps up push a young kickpadded punks shit in. The opening quasi-BattlARTS matwork, culminating in Murahama channeling his lucharesu surroundings to do a lucha transition into an armbar was really sweet and could've gone longer. They get into a huge potatoefest as Buffalo is slapping the sense out of Murahma and hitting him in the chin with chairs etc. while Murahama is totally game and kicks like a devil. Buffalo looked Villano-ish, dropping huge legdrops and pasting the kid with lariats. I thought the run of big near finishes was extremely well done as Buffalo always seemed to have the upper hand, until Murahama was able to kick him in the eye and put him away. Buffalo looked like a total badass and Murahama like a dangerous tough kid. Absolutely loved this match.

I dunno, I thought they did everything right here. This style of match with it's generic matwork -> brawling -> nearfalls layout isn't popular anymore, but I thought every section was well executed. Opening matwork was quite good as both are fast and spry, and Hyuga is smart enough to know she has to prove that she's a class above, brawling outside had some nasty stiff kicks, table spot and really well done near countout spot. There were some minor hiccups in the last section, but they did a good job mixing up strikes and impact moves and keeping the match moving in a way that seemed closer to AJPW heavyweight stuff than your typical joshi bout. I thought the selling was spot on too, as Hyuga was pushed to her limit by a mid section injury. The biggest problem was that the match took place in a pale hall in front of an audience of rocks and thus didn't have great atmosphere.

THE QUEST FOR THE CARL GRECO OF THE YEAR - - 1996 PART 2 Yuki Ishikawa vs. Carl Greco (BattlARTS 4/13/96) Yuki Ishikawa & Katsumi Usuda vs. Daisuke Ikeda & Carl Greco (BattlARTS 4/14/96) Welp, here's two matches I didn't even know existed on tape until last week. They didn't make the Best of BattlARTS comp – which is some serious bollocks if you ask me, because both these were excellent and immediately skyrocketed towards the top of my list of favourite Greco matches. The first match was a full shootstyle main event and as cool as you imagine it to be. They had the BattlARTS roster (and even Dieseul Berto) watching from ringside. The second match also had a cool atmosphere as it took place in a hotel with folks watching from fancy dining tables. The tag had a cool layout too, as Ishikawa and Ikeda avoided eachother for the first half of the match, allowing for lots of good matwork involving Greco early on, before all hell broke lose in the second half. Even after watching so much Greco footage, I was surprised with all the cool shit Greco came up with in these two matches. I've said it before that Greco brings the best out of his opponents, but it was striking that Usuda and Ishikawa never looked better on the mat in 1996 than opposite Greco here. Another thing was how brutal Carl could get: the Ishikawa singles obviously had a lot of pride involved, and maybe Ishikawa's cockiness is what lead Carl to angrily waffle him with shotais and eventually rattle his brain with a series of kicks to the skull, but he did it the next night aswell when the beef was between Ishikawa and Ikeda... maybe it's cause he was fighting Ishikawa, maybe he toned down the striking later on to focus on his submission work, maybe April of 1996 just wasn't Ishikawa's month... one thing wasn't out of the ordinary: both matches had Carl ensnaring people like a python. Regardless, 4/13 was an intense contest with a crazy finish, and 4/14 another top notch BattlARTS tag that told an excellent story, and both matches delivered both brutality and crazy mat stuff in spades as you want. Highly recommended stuff