Jetlag

Carl Greco vs. Shoichi Funaki (PWFG 8/13/94) Another 5 minute contest. A breeze to watch, as you may guess. Even then Carl had some nasty, neck-cranking signature moves. This was all about slick transitions and counters, and damn they did some spectacular stuff. They even worked a mini story into the contest with Funaki getting frustrated and trying to learn Carl's moves. Heck, Funaki looked really good in this! I think this PWFG crew (which moved on to BattlARTS) might be last really talented group of wrestlers to debut in the same promotion. They just got both technique and instincts right. Not to mistake this bout for anything truely grand, but it's just my idea of the perfect 6 minute Nitro match. Carl Greco/Alexander Otsuka vs. Yuki Ishikawa/Mohammed Yone (BattlARTS 1/30/2000) How many times can you run a permutation of the same match and get something good? Well, I'd assume many many times, as long as you stick to what works for you, but that wasn't the case here. Yone took up a portion of the match, and that guy is so hit and miss. He can be pretty enjoyable when he sticks to reckless kicks and lariats, but his other signature moves kind of stink and he also likes to do irritating no selling. There was also barely any matwork, so Greco didn't really get to do what he does best. There was some stiffness and clubbering, but the match had that weird semi-comedic feel undercard BattlARTS matches sometimes have. Geco even did a Fargo Strut at one point. You had the stiffness and clubbering and neck-crushing suplex moves aswell as a particularily twisty submission to keep you entertained throughout, but I was hoping for a few more "pure" bits.

Carl Greco/Yuki Ishikawa vs. Alexander Otsuka/Mohammed Yone (3.12.1999) Random BattlARTS match constellations continue to deliver. Man, has there ever been another indy promotion with this much enthusiasm and creativity in throwaway encounters? This was one of these "typical" small show matches. With a little novelty added, as Otsuka and Yone were dressed in weird matching outfits and doing an unusal amount of double team moves (I'm sure it was meant to be a riff on some more popular wrestling tag team or anime or whatever). Granted, you had 3 world class workers + 1 capable worker here, so the ceiling is a little higher than it is for any other constellation of indy schmucks... still, I'd like those lesser indy schmucks to atleast try to match the level of execution and enthusiasm on display here. There is just something about the small things, such as a frustrated Ishikawa leaping in on a single leg to Otsuka only to be caught in some sort of spinning triangle choke that is infinitely more interesting and enjoyable to watch than the lazy stomp+restholds approach in other styles. This match was worked like a sprint, so Greco didn't have to change his usual style, as he always goes into wrestling exchanges with guns blazing. Here it was clear that Greco is so dangerous even countering his moves leads to getting caught again. The difference between Greco and Ishikawa is Greco always tries to sink into a finish. Ishikawa will use an Achilles hold to set up a heel hook, Greco doesn't do that, he can finish with the Achilles Hold. The match was pretty much the 3 maestros hitting the mat and just doing bits of neat wrestling, while Yone was hidden away safely throughout the body of the match. Then they move into a finishing stretch that was way too grand for a dingy little hall like this with lots of dramatic submission teases and counters, safes, double team moves and Ishikawa getting kicked in the face while Yone gets his lip bloodied from a Greco crossface. Not something that will top a lot of MOTY lists, but you have to wonder what the fuck was going on in the heads of these indy schmucks to work their butts off like this in front of an audience of crickets.

I've threatened to do this before, so here it is. A thread dedicated to the stepbrother of Joe and Dean Malenko, the man who came from the street and became someone who made his living hitting the mat hard and tossing the fuck out of japanese guys. I like any guy who wrestles like that and Greco is such a fascinating worker by being both extremely polished and some kind of measuring stick for his opponents too. He has thrived in obscurity, so his career merits studying. Note: this thread will not be about discovering 5* classics or psychological masterpieces. That is for other, lesser wrestlers. Carl Greco vs. Super Rider (BattlARTS 4/17/2001) This is a B-Rules match, which means a max of 5 rope breaks allowed and no strikes. Tailor made match for Greco, and this is a really good showcase for what he was doing around this time period: essentially being a terrifying opponent for the hopeless undercarders BattlARTS was using then. Rider (a Sayama trained indy guy) is a good opponent for Greco: he is competent, agile and not afraid, thus this is loaded with the kind of fast, tight, twist-you-to-a-pretzel-style shootstyle matwork I've come to enjoy so much. Very brief match, but they get in and out of some positions and holds I've never seen in any other match. The result is never in doubt, but Super Rider manages to improve himself here as he graduates from Opening Match Guy to Guy who passed the Greco Test. Smokes a lot of 20 minute epics for me. Carl Greco & Katsumi Usuda vs. Yuki Ishikawa & Masaaki Mochizuki (BattlARTS 12/5/1999) This is a finale of some tag tournament. This had the typical BattlARTS tag formula, meaning a messy mix of matwork, suplexes and face-shattering stiff blows building to an increasingly dramatic finish. Of all 4 guys, it is Greco who adds a bit of more typical tag psychology to the bout: coming with a bandaged leg, being the weak link in his team. This isn't melodramatic like that 1993 tag, but his performance was a nice blend of being both weakened and very dangerous. It was different from his usual straight-up wrestling approach and produced some excellent exchanges with Ishikawa. At one point, Greco even did a rolling tag after a miscommunication between Ishikawa and Mochi. Another moment was Carl flying into the scene with a reckless Kung Fu-esque kick to save his partner. Greco was not the star of the match, as they cleared the stage for Usuda and Mochizuki to run through a series of spectacular (and sometimes contrived) shootstyle/lucharesu counters. I didn't care much for Mochizuki and his get-this-shit-in approach, but I felt Usuda carried him nicely enough to make this another addition to the cannon of great BattlARTS tags. Call me anti-workrate or whatever, but I preferred the tight and hard fought nature of what Ishikawa and Greco were doing to Mochizuki's spottiness.

This is for the European Middleweight title and something I've had for years, but never actually watched. Foolish me, because this is an utterly fantastic match, maybe the best match I've seen for either guy. Mile did some brilliant stuff here, some of which I haven't seen in any other match. Which is crazy considering he would hang up his boots soon after this - I guess all these maestro type guys all get better with age. He may be one of the most underrated bridge users. Seriously his neck bridges and maneuvering around on the mat in and out of pin positions were amazing. If you like awesome wrist lock and neck chancery work, painful leg snapping techniques aswell as a variety of bridge spots this is your match. Collins at this point was an experienced pro and game for this kind of contest. He did some good stuff, unique stuff (dug his falling headbutt) but Mile was the king of the mat here. Of course both guys like to get aggressive too and weren't afraid to lay in the european uppercuts, and they moved back and forth from holds and matwork to beating the piss out of eachother nicely. The weak point of the match is the finish, as Collins blew a couple rope running sequences and they just ended the match. Still, totally kickass bout, the best from these VDB discs and a hidden gem.

Nominate: Terry Rudge vs. Franz van Buyten, Hamburg 10/1/1987 I re-watched this classic. Still a kickass match. These Hamburg shows were much more rowdier than the tame british TV wrestling, so Rudge was allowed to go all out. Of course the main selling point is that this is a match to see Rudge at his most aggressive and violent in an important match against the top babyface. But this match also has a simple, effective structure going for it, where they make the most out of using the round system. The first round is the feeling out and establishing of the characters. In the second round, they do some really slick wrestling about arm whips and a headscissor. Simple stuff executed great and done neatly. The third round Rudge is finally fed up with Van Buyten and so begins one of the baddest ass stompings I've ever seen in a wrestling ring. The following rounds eventually have the big, slowly built up Van Buyten come back and several nearfall attempts and back and forth in the last round. After the last round, they do an extra, 10-minute tie breaker section (because this is some kind of decision match) which is a fractal of the whole match. Like I said, the aggression and sheer fury Rudge shows here is off the charts. He looked like the single baddest dude on the planet and was attacking Franz like a machine. Even during the early feeling out and wrestling sections, he is constantly aggressivly shoving his opponent in the face, manipulating the fingers or bending the wrist in really painful ways like he was Gene Lebell. The heat section is off course utter pain, with the highlight being the hammerlock/head shove to face combo. You can totally see Fit Finlay being inspired by Rudge. Franz, on the other hand, is a guy with really great selling (especially love his shoulder bumps which make it look like he was being launched back with a ton of force), takes a reckless bump at one point and gives Rudge back as good as he can. That rope tie up/crossbody spot is something a lot of babyfaces in germany and austria did, but nobody made it look as good as Franz as he just rams into his opponent with his entire weight. So there you have it, a simple match built around a great face vs. a great heel to give the 2000 folks at the Heiliggeistfeld a good night.

i was actually going to ask about this on another board And yes, these 3 matches from 1998 I upped above were from the VDB shows. I think Peter William was the announcer and maybe promoter too. They were released on VHS (thus the clipping) and I bought them yeeeears ago as DVDs from a tape trader. I could only find Vol. 3, 4, 5 and 8, so there are atleast 4 missing. Would be worth seeking out, as these shows had some interesting guys, like late Marty Jones, Pat Roach, Cannonball Grizzly working hold for hold matches etc.

I haven't watched this one in years, and since OJ relieved my nostalgia for middle european pro wrestling, I gave it another spin. The first trivial observation is how much more play matches like this would get had they been filmed professionally. After watching so much different wrestling over the years I can say that the quality of these vienna handhelds is the dirt worst. Bad camera angle, unnatural colors, clips, crowd noise eating up most of the sound, you may see footage like this as an experimental foreign arthouse film. That aside, this being a rare 30 minute middleweight title match from austria with absolutely no shenanigans is worth powering through the video quality. And let me tell you, there is some quite fantastic stuff here. You didn't see these kind of faster paced lightweight matches much in germany/austria, and clearly they were going out of their way to make this special. People have their issues with Steve Wright, but I felt his flashiness was well integrated here as the much more down to earth Zrno is a great counterpart to him. These matches were worked much rougher in germany than in the UK. No cute stuff, just fierce takedowns, twisting on the mat and constant trading of stiff as hell european uppercuts and headbutts. They really go hard at it and just back and forth with mat stuff, rope running and laying into eachother with shots. It almost feels like a workrate match at times, but the constant stiff shots and battling over basic throws make it quite the engrossing, gruelling battle. Highlights include Steve countering a takedown attempt by turning Mile inside out, aswell as both of them turning seemlessly into an amateur sequence after a missed pin attempt. Steve really shows his wares in this match and seems to be constantly advancing. You won't be blown away by this if you've watched a ton of euro stuff, but for the time (late 80s when brit wrestling was winding down) this is really good stuff that exudes charm especially with the fans being behind their respective favourite all the way and yelling Bravo! in genuine amazement at every throw. The finish feels like a triumphant victory appropriate for a classic wrestling bout, along with the tremendous endurance displayed by both contenders adding greatly to the match.

OJ, you always do the best projects. Some facts (maybe myths) about Zrno: - he was a former Yugoslavian amateur wrestling champion - he made his debut in 1973 - he was trained by Rene Lasartesse, Charly Verhulst (Johnny Londos) and Michael Ujevic - he was a rival of Ashura Hara when Hara was the junior ace of IWE in 1979, he also fought in the NJPW junior scene - he was said to be the last classical middle european pro wrestler - he is still fit, not drinking or smoking, and operating a metal company together with his brother in germany EDIT: I just did a search and apparently, there is footage of Mile Zrno vs. Ashura Hara on IWE 1974 - 1981 Vol. 4 Never noticed that. Should be worth getting, even if it's only a 2 minute clip. Some more matches from Berlin - these are from the very end of his career, and also the very end of traditional german wrestling: https://youtu.be/Iwe_nzUT2HU https://youtu.be/bklgH_viDVM https://youtu.be/5_ybaRLrodk

Bock is such a fascinating character. He was an olympic level wrestler who lost his spot on the olympic team (to none other than Wilfried Dietrich) and turned pro. He promoted his own events where the main event was him vs. an actual bear. He didn't care much for pro wrestling and it showed. I appreciated the match. I watched it years ago and was puzzled, but knowing what I was getting into, I could enjoy it for what it was. Funny how Bock became a legend to the japanese due to his lethargic behaviour and uncaring attitude. You can tell he influenced guys like Takayama, Suzuki etc. I think I remember reading Yuki Ishikawa was a fan of his too. From the looks of it wrestling him must have absolutely sucked as he was fucking up Inoki like you expect an olympic level amateur to fuck somebody up. God can you imagine being Inoki and wrestling Bock for several times on this tour? By the end he looked like some kind of satanic undead with the blood mark on his forehead and utter disregard for everything Inoki did. My favourite moment was Inoki doing the Robinson belly to belly suplex to the ring apron, where Bock just lands on his feet, goes straight back into the ring and dumps Inoki on his head with the scariest belly to belly suplex I've ever seen. And yeah, even with all the no selling, things get really intense towards the end here. When Bock started busting out the headbutts I was feeling like I was watching a real sport. I wish the japanese crew had filmed the whole tour so we could know wether all 70s german wrestling was this intense. I imagine Bock vs. Andre or Pete Roberts being spectacular.

I'd watch stuff that wasn't taped, I guess. Pre-2010 Futen, old european tournaments, untaped/clippeded BattlARTS, 70s joshi, UWA and indy lucha. Territory-wise basically anything that was hyped with a picture of a bloodbath in the mags.

Interesting subject. Sergje1 has uploaded a Battle Royal from hungary from the late 70s or early 80s to YouTube. Thats about the only wrestling footage from that region that I know of. As you may know, Mile Zrno is a well known croatian wrestler who worked in germany and austria a lot and has a reputation. Maybe you can contact him through facebook or something, I don't think he's ever been interviewed by an internet fan. There are also some videos of greek pro wrestling in creepy looking locations. It seems a little weird pro wrestling seemingly never boomed in south eastern europe and eastern europe. Given that these countries have a great wrestling tradition, and all things fighting, grappling and wrestling related are popular there, I'd say there's untapped potential. I know there is a ZERO1-offshoot promotion in Belarus or somewhere which is just bizarre.

My top four: 1-Sano 2-Vader 3-Finlay 4-Fujiwara Honorable mention: Tajiri For those interested, Alexander Otsuka has a match in Puerto Rico where he plays a somewhat chicken heel with Otani-ish facial expressions.

HOLY SHIT!!! I LOVE WRESTLING!! Who is Tiger Conway Jr.? Greg Valentine dives for the legs from the first minute on. Greg Valentine has to be some kind of wrestling genius that he can work slow as a slug and still have these brilliant matches. This goes like 30 minutes but there is a not single 10 minute headlock or any of that bullshit. Just Valentine beating the dogshit out of Tiger. Loved how Valentine would block a headbutt and knee Tiger in the face. That looked like it really fucked him up. Tiger knew exactly that he was facing Greg Valentine here and acted accordingly. He used his quickness, tactics and approaching Valentine carefully in order to not get crushed (he gets crushed anyways). Needlesss to say Valentine is a master at dropping elbows and knees at different angles and positions on his opponent's neck, throat, knee, thigh etc. so you don't get bored. Conway Jr.'s selling is just right mix of babyface agony and bitter contempt for his opponent. He does some dancing and showy headbutts in the first fall, but after a while Valentine beats the antics out of him. The second fall is fucking great with Conway Jr. fighting like a devil to avoid the figure 4 and protect his leg. He busts out a fucking anaconda roll and follows up by kicking Valentine in the fucking face like this was Futen and then lands a motherfucking leaping headbutt on Valentine like he was inspiring a young Daisuke Ikeda in the audience and I am now the #1 Tiger Conway Jr. fan. Both guys look completely wiped out after the 2nd fall with Tiger having this look on his face like he wants to lay down and die but can't. Then he starts the 3rd fall by BITING VALENTINE IN HIS EYE while Greg lets out a blood curdling scream. Tiger Conway Jr. starts tagging Valentine with punch combos and this is off the charts. And then... a lousy finish happens. But still, anything up to that was pure gold brutal 70s style wrestling and I wouldn't mind if another ten thousand 30 minute Tiger Conway and Greg Valentine matches showed up on the service.

Really interesting match up. El Halcon is a guy who does pretty lucha spots. Spoiler is a killing machine. Parts of this were really good - Spoiler bumps well for Halcon's armdrags, and Halcon showed that he had some skill in applying pin combos. On the other hand, Halcon on offense was kind of a mixed bag. Especially considering that Spoiler was crushing him with knee drops and elbows that looked like they weighed ten thousand pounds. I think Halcon's stuff in response was a little doosy doo. I mean, at one point Spoiler powered out of a pretty lucha submission and just kicked Halcon in the ribcage before dropping him on the cold arena floor. I really loved the bit where Halcon kept slipping out of Spoiler's Claw, so Spoiler rips his mask open and applies the claw to his exposed brain, leaving him bloodied. Once again Gary Hart ends the match. Very worthwhile match and Spoiler is becoming a must watch guy simply for his blunt force style.

The shortest truely great match I've seen (Ikeda vs. Ono) is 4 minutes, so I will go with that as an answer. I think the hardest thing to deal with about short matches is the disappointment. I remember watching a Fujiwara vs. Otsuka match that went 60 or 90 seconds. The work in it was great, but the fact that it didn't even go 2 minutes was such a punch in the stomach. It was still a good match, just not GREAT. The above match avoids this.

It is on NWA Classics & please spare me of your lectures when you haven't even seen the match in question. I'm more than familiar with both workers.

Interesting to watch a US junior title match from 1980. And this wasn't a workrate match at all. I know Thornton had a kickass match with Terry Rudge in england, and while he was working a more generic style here, he carried it along nicely. I assume Don Diamond is some green boy (green enough to not know how to apply a figure 4) and Thornton just beat him like a dog. Thornton has a really great european uppercut, forearms him in the face while in a chinlock, knees to the face, and punch to the throat. I dug Diamond's selling as his body went limp everytime Thornton hit him. Thornton was stealing falls and folks got really riled up and into the match. Really entertaining stuff, maybe borderline listworthy if it weren't for some overly showy leg selling with no consequence in the 2nd fall.

Ha, Dory is so lazy he almost forgets to bump for a Mascaras armdrag during the opening exchanges. This was worked like one of those AJPW 70s tags, but a really efficient one and none of the stuff they did came across as dated. The Funks are a heel duo here and really good one at that. Christ, can you imagine running this match in 2016? If it happened today Terry would come in with a MAGA trucker hat and tell Lothario to go back while patting him on the shoulder. Terry was really great here like I expect a guy I placed in my All Time Top 5 to be. He came across as a hotheaded bull even during the hold sections and he was a total prick to the babyfaces all the way through. Feels weird to wish for a 30 minute match to go longer but this could've gone a little longer. The Lothario v. Terry boxing section in the 3rd fall was everything you are hoping for from seeing this matchup. Terry was dancing around Jose and waffling him with punches, but he just withstood the assault, came back and just clocked Terry. Mil and Dory, thankfully, stay out of the way for most of this match. Nifty finish to wrap it up and fuck the Last Battle of Atlanta, Terry vs. Lothario is my new most wanted match.

Fun match. These girls all have good offense while at the same time too broken down to do anything to workrate-y so there was no no-selling or annoying prideful screeching. I always pop for Kuragaki's Norton-ish power spots and her moonsault into outstretched legs looked savage. AKINO vs. Syuri section was pretty good and I like Akino's mix of kicks and cradles. Akino still can do some slick spots. Dug the bit where Kato and Akino took turns kicking Kuragaki in her face to cut the big woman down. Some sloppiness keeps it down.

Krupp is already doing the roman salute during the introductions and proceeds to warn everybody of ZE GERRRMAN KLAH!. Very subtle there, mein Freund. For a guy who is so outwardly heelish, he starts this off with a lot of wrestling. Lothario was clearly a world class pro wrestler at this point. I really dig the detailled selling, such as Lothario leaving his arm up his back after escaping from a hammerlock. The first minutes of this are great, if you can get into this kind of 70s rolling on the mat like I can. Then Krupp locks on some kind of under the shoulder claw hold, to which Lothario responds by attempting to break his nose and I am in love with this match. Then you get the nerve hold and claw sections, but Lothario is such a champ selling for it that YOU will believe in it. Everything Lothario does is amazing and brutal. He works his way back into the match by neutralizing the claw and it's brilliant. The stuff he does has a prime Kawada feel of simple nastiness: chop to the nose, knee drop to the bent wrist, square punch to the face, knee drop to the back of the head. You expect Krupp to get up with his brain hanging out of his nose. Then Jose busts out the stomach claw and we get a battle of the claw holds, with Krupp doing his best terrified B movie actor impression to sell it. This was a better finish away from being listed. Maybe I'll list it anways somehow. It is def. near the top of the list of brilliant matches centered around claw holds. Regardless, take my word: Jose Lothario is the fucking man.

I remember watching the PWFG match and it was really fun. Some comedy and quality shootstyle action. These japanese supershows are really interesting. There's also the Rikidozan Memorial Shows or Indy Summit shows from the 2000s that give you all kinds of weird matchups like Tarzan Goto vs. Yoji Anjo.

This only goes 12 minutes but it's 12 minute of truely excellent wrestling.Even basic moves like a pinfall or headlock look great and intense when these guys are doing it. I really loved the little neck crank Regal busted out. You know it's awesome when JBL on commentary gives a shit. Besides all the gritty, super intense mat stuff you also have the greco headbutts and Benoit chopping a bloodied Regal in the face. These two did some really innovative stuff together when you think about it, crossing the technical finesse of the british style with the deadly stiffness and suplexes of an AJPW classic.

I thought this match was badass. The transation from Nagata dismantling Yoshie to Nagata fighting for his life was great. Yoshie was pretty outmatched in the beginning, but as soon as he got to bring out his arsenal of fat boy attacks thanks to his open hand punch he was just wasting Nagata. At times it looked like he was just short of crippling Nagata. Nagata's one shot comeback ability is cool too and the last few minutes are full of kick to the face goodness while Yoshie is ready to die on his feet. Just good old japanese wrestling goodness.

Oh Carlos, I will never not watch your matches. And she faces off against AKINO who I know can go as she pretty much works like a gender switched Ikuto Hidaka/Katsumi Usuda type of lucharesu shooter so this is an automatic must watch anyways. And this was a damn good undercard match, let me tell you, despite the JIP and all. This starts out a little weird as both are full of disdain for eachother but also working kind of comedic, then move swiftly into slick technical sequences lifted straight from a Hidaka/Usuda matchup and finally end it with all the skull crushing headbutt and orbital bone breaking shootkick glory you can wish for. The selling is decent enough for all you joshiphobics to tolerate it and there are some transitions and counters that just make so much sense: AKINO countering a leaping headbutt by kicking Carlos in the teeth, Akino ending up outside the ring after a missed baseball slide dropkick to set up Amano's dive, etc. Damn tasty sandwhich of a match.

This is one of my favourite joshi matches. I can't really do it justice. Joshi fanatics will tell you GAMI isn't that good, but I love her. Tall, awkard girl with a big belly and completely sullen and melancholic face that is like carved from a rock who can go like a motherfucker is an awesome wrestling character. Lifelong undercarder pushing beyond his limitations vs. established star is one of my favourite match types and GAMI does some really brilliant wrestling here. Gami uses her lucha technique and just totally outclasses Hyuga. Really, there wasn't a single move in this bout GAMI did that didn't rock. Includes the most memorable use of a face rake ever. It's a Hyuga match so it also has the fast pace, brutal skull crushing knee attack moves and headdropping suplexes for you workrate addicts to sink your teeth into. Still, GAMI.