Jetlag
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This was pretty much a sprint and made me think the Headhunters might be one of the most underrated tag teams ever. This was not just funny sleazy pro wrestling, it was basically like a Twin Towers vs. Rockers match, except far seedier, blood-drenched and violent. Headhunters were absolutely pasting the Twins with chairshots, powerbombs and their combined FATNESS, and I loved every second of it. Meanwhile Jado/Gedo were hitting superkicks and flying around, and the Headhunters did a really good job setting themselves up for their offense and bumping around like huge bowling pins. Also, the guy operating the camera finally gets his shit together and we get a full picture of this match. The only bummer was that the camera missed a huge Headhunter dive outside the ring. Watching this grainy footage zooming in on a Headhunter rampaging about in the stands of Korakuen Hall felt kinda like a found footage monster movie. The finish - a giant Headhunter moonsault - was one of the most ridiculous spots I've ever seen as the poor little japanese guy lying in the middle of the ring basically disappeared underneath as this giant fat dude splashed into the ring like free willy. Fantastic match
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post-SWS Nakano matches are rare as hen's teeth, which is awful because he is such an interesting worker, as his basic technical stuff looks tough as nails, and then he will stand up and kick you in the kidney. This was an extremely basic juniors match (that was half missed by the camera guy) where Winger added nothing, but was still a decent Nakano carryjob. Nakano made Winger struggle for everything, and at one point popped Winger straight in the mouth with a huge punch and then proceeded to stomp and kneedrop the back of his head as if trying to give him brain damage. Japanese sleazy unprofessionality at it's best.
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I watched the W*ING 1/2/94 show (Handheld). Or, the last 3 matches, because only those were filmed. If you come across a pro-shot version of this show, grab it, because even the nearly unwatchable handhelf stuff was really fun. Crypt Keeper & Nightmare Freddy vs. Jason the Terrible & Shoji Nakamaki - this was a tornado tag and some of the best stuff I've seen from the horror creatures. That doesn't say much, but the layout was right, as Keeper & Freddy were the heels beating down on the faces, while Jason & Nakamaki were your charismatic babyfaces bleeding, being charismatic and making fun comebacks. Keeper was really spry here, doing a flip entrance to the ring and then landing huge boots to people's faces like he was Kawada or something. I feel like a hypocrite for it, but Jason is really fun to doing his Undertaker stuff and hitting absurd spin kicks. Shinichi Nakano vs. The Winger - post-SWS Nakano matches are rare as hen's teeth, which is awful because he is such an interesting worker, as his basic technical stuff looks tough as nails, and then he will stand up and kick you in the kidney. This was an extremely basic juniors match (that was half missed by the camera guy) where Winger added nothing, but was still a decent Nakano carryjob. Nakano made Winger struggle for everything, and at one point popped Winger straight in the mouth with a huge punch and then proceeded to stomp and kneedrop the back of his head as if trying to give him brain damage. Japanese sleazy unprofessionality at it's best. Head Hunters vs. Jado & Gedo - this was pretty much a sprint and made me think the Headhunters might be one of the most underrated tag teams ever. This was not just funny sleazy pro wrestling, it was basically like a Twin Towers vs. Rockers match, except far seedier, blood-drenched and violent. Headhunters were absolutely pasting the Twins with chairshots, powerbombs and their combined FATNESS, and I loved every second of it. Meanwhile Jado/Gedo were hitting superkicks and flying around, and the Headhunters did a really good job setting themselves up for their offense and bumping around like huge bowling pins. Also, the guy operating the camera finally gets his shit together and we get a full picture of this match. The only bummer was that the camera missed a huge Headhunter dive outside the ring. Watching this grainy footage zooming in on a Headhunter rampaging about in the stands of Korakuen Hall felt kinda like a found footage monster movie. The finish - a giant Headhunter moonsault - was one of the most ridiculous spots I've ever seen as the poor little japanese guy lying in the middle of the ring basically disappeared underneath as this giant fat dude splashed into the ring like free willy. Fantastic match -
The original JWP is painfully underexplored. This is probably it's most prolific match, and it's more interesting than a great match. You may theorize that this is Kandori, the dangerous shooter putting the pro wrestler under fire and setting the blueprints for Kandori/Hokuto... which is a good formula, but in reality it was Devil dragging a green Kandori by the nose through a long match. Kandori looks good on the mat, and not very good doing anything else. Devil is as mean as you can want a hardened veteran to be carrying this and brings the goods, downing Kandori with a huge punch, almost ripping her in half with a surfboard, dishing out clubbing blows to make up for Kandori's weak kicks and so on. The biggest problem with the match is that it's needlessly long, as the iconic moment - where they both start bleeding all over the ring - only comes about 30 minutes into the match, and before that, there's a lot of meandering. It felt a bit like Devil redoing the Chigusa match against a far lesser Chigusa with nice submissions. The actual bloodbath was kind of underwhelming too, honestly. There's always charm to watching a rookie and a veteran going along for a lengthy match and this had enough good moments and nearfalls to keep you satisfied, but I gotta say this wasn't as good as I've seen it hyped up. Also, I'll never understand what was up with that restart/overtime they did.
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I LOVE 80s JUNIOR WRESTLING! And this has prime Fujinami in a match with interpromotional flavor. We know junior Hara is game from his match with Zrno the year before, and he was game here once again. But this match was less about matwork and more about building intensity, as they would work uncooperative holds, slap eachother, stare and make you root for Fujinami kicking Hara in the mouth. In terms of technical work this bout isn't on the level of the high end 1980 stuff, but the general sense of "these two really are about to kick the shit out of eachother" is awesome in it's own way. Like all great old junior wrestling the timing is great, as they really build towards the dropkicks and other basic highspots. Hara busts out the rugby tackles and his insane backflip suplex once again, and gets so mad by Fujinami retreating that he busts him open with meaty punches and headbutts. Match felt like it ended 5 minutes too early, altough I take a pissed off Hara stomping a bloody Fujinami in the face and Fujinami making a desperate flash comeback over lengthy sections of 2,9999 counts and shocked faces.
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With this and their MUGA appearance from the year before, these two are on a hot streak of cool 10 minute bouts. This was less hold intensive and more like BattlARTS match as they go for the hellish kicks and breakneck moves. I really hope these two had an excellent 20 minute match at some point which had the matwork of the MUGA match and the brutality of this match edited together. Actually this match was suffering a little from them cramming a lot into a short time while not doing the interpunctuation. Eventually though Kato's kicking Meiko really hard in the gut led to some strong selling from Meiko to atleast give the impression of the match having a red thread. One thing about the GAEA younglings crew that doesn't get brought up much is how inventive these girls were especially Meiko, and you can see it in this match from her, hitting her opponent from all kinds of unusual positions. Liked this match as the girls have the brutal offense and fundamentals down, but in terms of selling or structure was still lacking.
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These two had a match in JWP earlier in the year that was solid but rather unspectacular. This was much closer to delivering the promise of the match up, as it was faster paced and livelier. Too bad we only got a clipped version. Match is mostly flash submissions with Bolshoi adding in a slick Clown-Sambo move here and there. Eventually Amano focusses on the arm while Bolshoi tries to counter by going for leg attacks. These two actually know something about timing and not to infuse too much bullshit, benefiting the match greatly. Amano doesn't even go for any headbutts here and it goes to a draw to make the 70s studio scientific wrestling clinic analogy perfect. Probably not that interesting match if you're not already a fan of these two, but I liked it.
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Fun lucha dance partners go HARD for japan type match. Virus looked almost indistinguishable from his current form, meaning that was great here. Marvin looked a little green and sloppy, not always 100% with his form, but didn't blow anything. Virus on the other hand executed all his stuff effortlessly. To be fair, Virus has probably done 500 matches like this, and equally as many matches of this type have happened over the years in japan, there was nothing particularily outstanding here. Still it's a chance to get to see Virus do his thing, which is better than most wrestlers doing theirs, honestly.
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This starts really nice with about 8 minutes of really cool opening matwork. I especially loved the sections with Hashimoto as he is so fast and at the same time such a behemoth that he provides a great challenge as half the stuff you try on him you won't pull off, so you have to think fast and give your best. Soon the youngsters take over by putting the boots to the veterans, which sets up the second half of the match in which Hashimoto absolutely mauls Nagata. You really can't praise Hashimoto enough, as his offense is all kinds of furious and amazing chop-your-head-off type, but at the same time he does a great job putting over Nagata as this gutsy bloke with enough firepower to possibly put him away. Fujinami is secondary role here as he mostly serves as a foil for the young punks to show off their punkiness, but he is such a fun tricky wrestler too as he always has a counter in his sleeve and will slap your shit if you push him too far. Also his huge kneedrop off the top has become one of my favourite spots. Great signature performance from the old guys here and really good spunkiness from the young guns.
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Too hipster. You wait until I release my Top 100 consisting of nothing but pre-1992 JWP and WING handhelds.
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This is intense from the very beginning as Hokuto hits a big backbreaker, crushing her own knee and at the same time setting up the back work on Kazama. Lots of Hokuto kicking the shit out of Kazama's spine ensues, landing every basic move with some extra pissed offness until kickpadded Kazama comes back kicking her in the face and then gives back some by attempting to kick Hokuto's leg out of her leg. The result feels obvious but Kazama gets some fun offense and surprise nearfalls in on Hokuto. This felt like it could've been better, but Kazama looked good selling and kicking the hell out of Hokuto, and I guess keeping the hierarchies intact was more important for them.
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This was fun. How can you not love Yakushiji in his Bruce Lee get up? His opening section opposite Murahama makes me wish that singles match footage of his wasn't so scarce. And this was his last year of wrestling! Talk about retiring on the height of your game. The rest of the match was more Hoshikawa style, meaning it involved Murahama eating lots of nasty shots. I am fascinated witht his venue - looks like they crammed 70 people at most into there, and they are sitting on the floor really close to the ring, making the fans prime targets for getting flattened by suicide dives while drinking coffee. Delfin didn't do a ton here as the focus was to get Murahama into the fans hearts by eating ALL the punishment and busting out and awkward shooter dive and generating a bunch of nearfalls. I've probably seen a hundred japanese tags like this but the combination of this being O-Pro, Game of Death Yakushuji and Murahama in the focus makes it well worth checking out.
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[2000-03-11-Rikidozan Memorial] Yoshiaki Fujiwara vs Satoru Sayama
Jetlag replied to soup23's topic in March 2000
Sayama was showcasing his Seikendo philosophy here. The point of which was to do fighting in any situation, hence I think the GI was made to resemble an office suit. I remember Sayama and someone else also did a demonstration at an RJPW show wearing actual office suits and MMA gloves. Anyways, this match is never not fun, even though this was short. Fujiwara just does so much cool stuff taking Sayama down by his gi and all that, and Sayama's contempt was amusing, not like he was selling, but as if he was thinking "Stop grabbing me! I wanna do spin kicks!" -
It's sleazy IWA japan brawling vs. sleazy UWFi shootstyle. Anjoh is thrilled to wrestle a guy this grotesque and goes nuts with the Looney Toons spots! Watch as Anjoh points to his head to signify his cleverness then falling on his ass the next second, getting MMA mount position only to play belly drums on Goto, STALLING~, etc. However there are also some slick takedowns and submissions in this match, and given that it's Anjoh and Goto, lots of nasty violence and uncooperativness. Goto actually isn't afraid to go on the mat and give out stiff lariats and punches, and Anjoh was right there kicking him in the jaw a bunch. Eventually Anjoh lands a series of stiff knees and elbows, bloodying Goto, who promptly goes nuts bloodying Anjoh with punches and a fork in return. Crowd boos the hell out of the DQ finish, I guess because they enjoyed watching these two murder eachother so much. Post match a bloody Anjoh tries to drag a police officer into this, as if to question why the police always sit there watching when a heel is doing something seriously wicked.
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Really fun meeting of two absolute wrestling masters. Both guys were working double hard here, as if trying to prove at the big show that they can outwork anyone else in the country. Starts like MUGA match with some tricked out matwork, before they mix in BattlARTS stiff savate kicks and headbutts, then Sano busts out his junior dives before they do Lawler/Mantell exhausted elbow exchanges into an awesomely timed Ishikawa enzuigiri before going back to the MUGA again. Real tour de force from these guys, but there were lots of cool details aswell, such as Sano using his legs to extend the arm and get the sleeper, Ishikawa bridging out of a choke attemept, Sano doing some center of gravity shifting (which eventually backfires on him) etc. Really cool match and I dug the hybrid style they were aiming at here.
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August 2017 Match of the Month: Discussion Thread
Jetlag replied to Grimmas's topic in Pro Wrestling
Is that the month with the Fuji vs Strongbow match? (kidding, but if so the best choice we probably have that people would have access to easily is Bruno vs Patera; I should have probably said August, 87). FWIW Claude Roca/Walter Bordes vs. Albert Sanniez/Pierre Bernaert (France 8/29) was pretty rad -
Go here: http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XMzg2OTg5NDQ=.html?spm=a2h0k.8191407.0.0&from=s1.8-1-1.2
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Former top juniors do battle while being much older and all grizzled up. Sounds depressing? Maybe, but this was just a ridiculously fun MUGA style match with tremendous psychology that got Korakuen Hall into a frenzy. Fun stiff opening before Fujinami lands a big backdrop that Kimura sells huge. Kimura is still junior-sized and never a megastar like Fujinami, so he is the considerable underdog. They do some cool matwork, both guys still moving fast, Kimura desperately avoiding the Figure 4 etc. But the money here is the storytelling as Fujinami keeps getting the advantage on the mat and locking in nasty arm triangles and chokeholds, leading to Kimura desperately going for his kicks, and even an over the hill Kengo Kimura can still lay in some stiff kicks. Kimura finally catches Fujinami with a simple knee strike that Fujinami sells in amazing fashion and it's a testament to the quality of this match that such a basic spot had me verbally marking out. Korakuen Hall gets behind Kimura big time and his final comeback where he's throwing fists is exactly what you want. Matwork, stiff shots, quality underdog story, quality match overall.
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Thanks GOTNW. This was phenomenal and one of the best pure skill vs. pure rage matches I've ever seen. Fujinami wants to open this MUGA style, but Hash blitzes him with a DDT and follows up with a huge barrage of kicks, setting the tone for the rest of the match: Hashimoto demolishing the old man, and wily Fujinami trying to catch the beast. No one kicks a man when he's down like Hashimoto, and he lays an all time epic beating on Fujinami including one of the most gorgeous high kicks I've ever seen. Fujinami is great withstanding the beating, selling his leg and making comebacks, and the psychology is top notch: In isolation, Hashimoto's leg sweep is a cool enough spot, but integrated into the match like this as a "fuck you" to Fujinami's leg screws and Figure 4s it becomes something entirely different. It all builds to some of the best submission nearfalls (and breakups) I've seen, Fujinami teasing the Dragon Suplex, a glassy eyed Hashimoto refusing to go down, a big "Dragon" chant breaking out etc. Great match.
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Surprisingly good tag, better than it looks on paper. Felt a little like they were making an attempt at an AJPW style epic with stiffness, big bumps and intricate structure, except 3 out of these 4 guys are middle aged geesers which makes this match even crazier. Good energy early on with everyone laying into eachother, no hands headbutts, chops, the whole deal. My favourite bit was Chono almost being KO'd by a Tenryu punch but firing back with angry punches of his own. Koshinaka had his working boots on, catching Tenzan with a painful looking hip attack to the back of the head and then following up with shots to the same spot. Chono was bringing it too, taking a huge bump to the outside and then getting sent over the guardrail by a big Tenryu flying forearm in an amazing spot which set up the heat section on Tenzan. An almost spent Chono giving his all trying to turn the match over was pretty great and I loved his yakuza kicks and big punch. Because it's the late 90s they bust out all their finishers including Tenryu dumping Chono right on his neck and Tenzan crushing Koshinaka with one of the nastiest moonsaults I've ever seen. Pretty overkill-ish, but the match didn't get too bloated.
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I watched the 5/26/96 commercial tape. It had an undercard of WAR vs. Yume Factory matches, so I couldn't resist. Unfortunately all the matches were clipped to just a few minutes. The longest surviving footage was Kitahara vs. Shinichi Nakano with 6 out of 10 minutes shown and it looked really damn good, with Nakano selling his arm and landing huge punches to Kitahara's face. Also it was fun watching Osamu Tachihikari bleeding and raging, waffling everyone in sight with chairs as a response to Motegi's heel tactics. Tenryu/Nakano was as cool as it sounds and the main event - Fuyuku/Jado/Gedo vs. Anjo/Takayama/Kenichi Yamamoto was fun as fuck with the UWFi guys working super stiff and the WAR residents going for heel tactics and brawling while keeping the match mostly in the ring. After that they showed about 30 minutes of interviews. Damn you, WAR editors! Some people CARE about Yume Factory.
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So people are saying that Fujinami in the 90s was past it and his title in reign in 1998 was a lowlight. And judging by this match -- they are WRONG. Fujinami says DAMN you ALL - and drags Chono kicking and screaming into a bonafide MUGA epic like it's 1978/2006. Exciting opening establishes the story of the match immediately. Then you get Fujinami working really stiff - slapping the dogshit out of Chono and busting out the Thesz back elbow. Chono can barely do a thing on the mat but, Fujinami carries him no problem. Not only do you get fun maestro-ish touches from Fujinami, but also really excellent psychology, as you had Chono trying to work Fujinami's match, a great sequence centered around a lowblow, which Fujinami probably saw Negro Casas do in 1981 at Toreo, Fujinami teasing the STF, great leg attack stuff etc. Last couple minutes probably would've been better if Chono gave a shit about selling his leg. Ah, what the hell - this is still about the best match involving 1998 Chono I can imagine.
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[2017-04-28-Lucha Memes] Zack Sabre Jr vs Negro Navarro
Jetlag replied to GOTNW's topic in April 2017
It is interesting that people are saying Negro Navarro outclassed Zack here. If anything it was that Navarro proved his style was superior. Zack did pretty well here all things considered; he never looked lost, and knew to contrast Navarro's flashier bits with some flashiness of his own, and occasionally cranking his holds in as needed. It's not his fault that he wrestles much like a dweeb, after all he's been told for years that his dweeby faux WoS shit is awesome and he's the next Johnny Saint or whatever. Too bad we have none of Steve Wright's matches from mexico to compare. Navarro is not as fast and vicious as he used to be and I felt he pretty much worked this match like any other short exhibition match against slightly dweeby indy guy. Still a fun showcase. -
It's old time DVDVR's dream junior matchup! Parts of this had the feel of two guys who trained together a lot making their first faithful attempt at an epic. However, these two are solid enough at the basics to keep you entertained. They don't pussy out of exchanging stiff slaps, when they work the mat they go for actual submissions, and they understood to set their big spots up. Also they both have ultra choice swank movesets making this match worth watching just to see what coolness is coming up next. Fun junior spectacle. A million billion stars etc.
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JWP's hotness goes against the megastar. These two highly athletic wrestlers with a number of spectacular moves in their pocket could easily go braindead and do suplexes and 2.99999s all the time, but instead we get a STORY~! with Yagi trying to take down the much higher ranked vet using her submission game. Toyota was really vicious, stomping on Yagi's head to break submissions, crushing her with extra vicious dropkicks and at one point just booting her off the top rope. "I don't give a fuck about you" Toyota is way better than workrate supergirl Toyota. Because Yagi is tiny you get the sense Toyota was really manhandling her. Match had a good pace, they start out taking turns bumping eachother really hard into the guardrails before slowing it down with some matwork and then actually building to the big suplexes and spots. Yagi didn't do anything out the extraordinary here, as almost all her offense was flash submissions as usual, but her bumping was pretty great as she'd just spike herself into the mat to put over the beating Toyota was giving her.