Jetlag

Great last 10 minutes. Funaki is absolutely out of control with the legbar variations here. Anytime TAKA attempts a comeback his fucked up leg thwarts him. It makes for a great dramatic contest. At one point TAKA fights out of another Funaki leg lock and Funaki just gets up and slaps and kicks the shit out of him. What a statement. This may be one of the best examples of "junior match with damaged leg selling" I've seen, makes you wish the full version was available somewhere.

I felt Shingo was pretty bad. He did those ridiculous Tenryu style kicks to the face that didn't even touch Mochizuki's head, later the same with punches. He also blew a sequence and was absolutely guilty of that obnoxious video game like on/off selling. He redeemed himself a little with the punches he threw later. The second half of the match felt like every 2nd sequence involved running in some way. I mean almost all of Mochi's signatures involve running, the kick to the apron, the springboard enzuigiri, the axe kick from the corner, the yakuza kicks, soccer kicks, etc. I think it would increase the sense of desperation if he didn't do that so much. Imagine if Kawada had to run the ropes everytime he tried his gamengiri. Watched some more Mochizuki: vs. Dick Togo http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x698xe_masaaki-mochizuki-vs-dick-togo_sport Mochizuki slotted into a signature Togo match. Togo essentially brutalizes Mochizuki, blooding him up and destroying his leg. Mochizuki still hits all of his signature kick combos, sprinting across the ring etc. It wasn't a terrible performance from him but I felt you could've slotted any other indy kicker into his place and gotten an equal result. Mochizuki was much less compelling when taking a beating here than in the Takagi match. Notable obnoxious moment: Mochizuki kicks out of a Pedigree from the top rope, then wins the match with a botched rollup. w Yoshinobu Kanemaru vs. Koji Kanemoto & Kazuki Hashimoto, Fortune Dream 12 10 14 Pretty typical junior kickers face off type match. Kanemoto looks way over the hill but was still pretty fun as he has fun ways to lay an asskicking on someone. Kanemaru and Mochizuki turn this into almost a comedy match halfway into it by doing lots of low blow spots. I really liked Mochizuki's non chalant knee to the balls but I think I preferred Kanemaru kicking Kanemoto in the balls and then doing the mexican fake. Other than that this was pretty much guys hitting and getting hit until the time limit draw. One thing I noticed is that Mochi looks much more generic here than the veteran who challenged Shingo one year later. vs. TAKA Michinoku, DG 7/3/05 Great match. I guess some could argue that the first half of this was TAKA kicking the shit out of Mochi's leg and the second half is Mochi hitting all of his signature kicks anyways. I thought the initial transition with Mochi hobbling across the ring then slapping his lleg and shrugging the injury off was good enough. On the other hand this was an excellent TAKA performance. He was really compelling both getting the shit kicked out of him, making the early armwork look important and working over Mochizuki. Mochizuki does well in his role but I have to see he doesn't look very charismatic next to his peers. The finishing stretch was a little your turn-my turn-ish but I felt they got the point across well that Mochizuki was about landing his combos and closing in on TAKA while TAKA had more of a punchers chance with his out of nowhere kicks. Didn't like the Kurt Angle-ish use of Taka's face lock, but what do ya want. I think it was very notable that this match had much less rope running and contrived sequences and thus felt tighter and more urgent. One match in favor of Mochizuki so far. So far I'm not blown away but I will try to check out a little more to see how he does against his peers. For someone people say is different from the typical DG worker it seems that he is very much guilty of shit typically associated with bad DG/Junior workers: no selling, filler limb work, getting his shit in, etc. I will try to find a match where he is in a more dominant role because selling and taking a beating doesn't seem to be something he really grasped until this year.

I watched Mohizuki vs. Shingo which appears to be the most pimped (5 stars) match of Mochizuki's career. Also the first Mochizuki singles of that caliber I've seen. I was fine with Mochizuki's performance in it, particularily the fact that he was able to control his opponent in a way that didn't get dull. On the other hand, the DG style is so weird with the constant no selling and contrived sequences that everything kind of gets lost in a shuffle. There were moves like an apron death valley driver that weren't even followed up by a cover. Shingo was def. the worse guy in the match but there were many moments where Mochizuki looked like your typical DG style worker who loves to engage in running contests.

I enjoy him in those WAR tags punching dudes in the face but I've also heard bad things about him. I think I've seen 1 or 2 matches from the 2000s where he looks kind of Momota-ish but sadly doesn't do any face punching. Recommendations?

What are his Top 5 matches? I've only seen him vs. Goldberg and two vs. Benoit.

This was kind of a weird match. It feels closer to something like Kikuch/Aoyagi, however weird that comparison may seem. The first match was a real "broad" spectacle going all over the arena while this is worked really "compact". It's almost all in the ring. When Hokuto is selling, she is in kind of a slouched over position, and when Kandori goes for pins she attempts to roll Hokuto into a ball. When the match goes to the outside, it is immediately followed with a big move. When Kandori re-enters the ring Hokuto runs up and absolutely blasts her with a spin kick to the face. It has the feel and intensity as if they were fighting in a telephone cell, or like an amateur wrestling match. They establish Kandori is tougher while Hokuto is slowly falling apart but will not quit. There's a lot of huge bombs in a tight timeframe which aren't no sold but rather sold as in "I am unwilling to stay down for YOUR bullshit offense". Hokuto tries to kill Kandori throwing bombs, Kandori toys around until forced to use her submissions. Eventually they go back to the beginning of the match eskimo boxing. Hokuto has no real chance but Kandori looks like she is giving it all to stay on your feet and remain superior. Hell of a battle.

I think for someone who is thought of as quintessential babyface Steamboat's ability to go outside the typical formula is really remarkable. I watched Steamboat vs. Orndorff from Halloween Havoc today and, while not a great match, it shows what Steamboat was capable of. He does some really nasty armwork almost ripping Orndorffs fingers off. Orndorff's (inital) selling helps, but Steamboat has a Hashimoto like intensity where you think he is going to attack Orndorff to the point the referee will stop the match. After that the match turns into almost a WCWified NOAH structure with a few perfectly timed bumps (including Steamboat missing a charge flying over the top rope from the ramp) and excellent build to Steamboat's crossbody finisher, including landing a flying karate chop on the ramp and then in the ring for a great nearfall. They could have done a generic heat/shine structure no problem, but decided to something more interesting. The Beach Blast match is probably the best example of Steamboat's ability to do a little more complex stuff than anyone else at the time. Really interesting worker.

She is someone I like especially her performance in the Aja match but I recall being disappointed by the Kandori matches (that match with the chain being a particularily messy brawl that went forever and the barbwire match being a rather generic deathmatch) and the AJW tags are a mess and not as good as other womens tags from the time. Feels like a cult hero that really doesn't have much of a body of work to me. Still a hundred times better than Brody though. Where will Necro Butcher be on your ballots folks?

Zoltan Boscik: vs. Robby Baron vs. Jon Cortez vs. Jim Breaks vs. John Naylor vs. Steve Grey vs. Alan Sarjeant Steve Grey: vs. Clive Myers (2 or 3 of them) vs. Mick McManus vs. Jon Cortez vs. Jim Breaks vs. Johnny Saint vs. Keith Haward vs. Ken Joyce Terry Rudge: vs. Les Thornton vs. Marty Jones vs. Tom Tyrone vs. Len Hurst vs. Dalibar Singh vs. Franz van Buyten vs. Steve Regal (Hamburg, Germany)

He worked heel in IWS (canadian indy) earlier in his career (IIRC it was in a feud against that goof Beef Wellington where they traded apron brainbusters and triple piledrivers, so may be not quite worth seeking out). I thiiink he works heel in a youtube match against Maxime Boyer but I can't check it right now. It's been forever but I recall him not doing any exaggerated heel stuff, just working like a pissed off dick punishing guys with Yakuza kicks.

Early 2000s AJPW has some interesting looking cards: AJPW Super Action Series 2000 - Tag 8 Singles Match Mohammed Yone vs. Steve Williams Singles Match Masanobu Fuchi vs. Yoshiaki Fujiwara Tag Team Match Jinsei Shinzaki & Yuki Ishikawa vs. Maunakea Mossman & Toshiaki Kawada (Yuki Ishikawa main eventing AJPW! against Kawada!) Anybody seen this? Supposedly it was on GAOA TV. Other interesting looking matchups: 12.9.2000 Nippon Budokan Genichiro Tenryu/Mitsuya Nagai vs. Yoshiaki Fujiwara/Mohammed Yone 11.27.2000 Niigata Yoshiaki Fujiwara/Danny Kroffat vs. The Windham Brothers There's quite a few interesting looking Fujiwara matches there. I've only seen Fujiwara and Fuchi vs. Nagai and Kakihara which is a godlike squash match. Yoji Anjoh also worked there. There's also a 60:00 draw involving Kawada, Hase, Kensuke and Kojima. Only comment on it that I can find is that they filled the time well.

Insanely good in 2010 and 2011 in his Futen appearances. Inspired throughout his NOAH run. Far superior to a lot of other japanese 2000s worker, but I think the early retirement ends his case.

How about this: 1. he doesn't know how to sell. 2. he doesn't know how to do any offense that doesn't look like crap. Even as spotfests his matches have nothing going for them. They are usually slow, uneventful, low on crowd reaction due to Marufuji being confusing rather than engaging. etc. And he really doesn't have many great spots.

I enjoyed that match. Altough Satomura wasn't the focus, her exchanges with Kana ruled. These two have to be among the best matchups of the 2010s in japanese wrestling (the other best matchup being Akiyama vs. anyone)

Found her 2010 singles vs. Kana https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=atpUDLdCFsw Damn epic match and likely their best against eachother, check it out if you haven't

Another piece in Yoshida's great 1999. Futagami is much lower on the totem pole, so Yoshida makes it clear she wants to finish this in 30 seconds. Futagami doesn't much but she has a handful of spectacular counters for Yoshida's signature moves. Futagami has a kind of miserable charisma, like a female Masao Inoue, but manages to give Yoshida a lot more than she expected. Didn't like the double finisher pop up before the finish, altough it was fairly well done. Yoshida continues to look like a female Negro Navarro crossed with Tamon Honda, clutching her opponent out of nowhere for the Air Raid Crash and locking in unique chokes out of thin air. A few variations on her Spider Twist submission in this match.Great selling from both girls throughout.

I wonder to how many other wrestlers this would apply. The closest thing I imagine would be Bret Hart's popularity in germany. I guess the popularity of certain british wrestlers too.

jdw has made great post after great post in this thread. I'm still not sure what JvK is going for here.

Before I would've said that he is great but lack of footage prevents him from making the cut. But now OJ has unearthed a match from 1962 and I'm not so sure about that anymore. Based on quality he is a near godlike worker and one of the best euro heels. And most of the stuff we have available is from a 50-60 year old. If more ITV vault videos can be made available I imagine his stock would skyrocket for me.

Kawada vs. Akiyama, 2/9/93 is probably the best japanese rookie/vet match I've seen.

Are there even 10 wrestlers with more immediate impact than Breaks? Aside from his heel act he also has the advantage that his matches are filmed in small intimate locations with the audio being mixed well. Dandy was a technical wrestler/brawler but doesn't have any shtick or attention grabbing mannerisms. I think Breaks vs. Casas or Breaks vs. La Parka would be the better comparison.

Haven't seen this one in a few years. It was a pretty solid match with well worked holds and a few impact moves from the europeans. Billy Robinson tries escalating the match a few times but kind of hits a brick wall in Dory Funk Jr who is exactly as bad as I remember him being. Funks work over Robinson's back a bit leading to a few well timed reversal segments and nothing more. Funk and Billy get on eachothers grill leading to lots of amusing mugging and a nice punch combo from Robinson. Hoffman is pretty good landing an awesome throw on Dory, busting out stiff shots on Terry and has a variety of great knee attacks. Robinson busts out his backbreaker and the Gotch style tombstone piledriver on Dory which Dory doesn't react to at all. Just kicks out, then reverses the next hold and doesn't even make it look like he needs to tag out. Matwork isn't very special. Lots of moments where there's a little mingling on the ground, then a tag out. Really hot last minute before the 45 minute draw with finisher attempts, reversal etc. There's probably worse ways to spend 45 minutes but I wouldn't recommend anyone to watch the full fight.

Really fun match and another glimpse at the stylistic weirdness that was going on in ARSION. The first couple minutes are pure women's BattlARTS style. Omukai really lays it in on Futagami in the corner with some malintentioned knee strikes and then rocking her with that running solebutt of hers, so Futagami, after a brief mat scramble, replies in kind by just standing up and punting Omukai square in the eye. After that it turns into a more typical joshi style match with dives and suplexes but they always go back to the submissions. Futagami doesn't seem to react to anything so the crowd responds big when she points to a guy who was obnoxiously chanting Omukais name the whole time. Omukai is not afraid to land the most god awful hits to the face. Very much worth watching for the intense submissions scrambles between, building to an intense finish.

This is such a great match. Really made by the contrast in styles and them trying to show each other up. Saito lands some huuuuge deadlift germans and locks in the Olympic on Honda, making it clear he has no respect for the olympic veteran. The stand up sections are really great here as each elbow and kick lands with bad intention. Some incredibly stiff shots there that get the crowd rocking. Honda's selling is top notch. It all builds to a great finishing run as Honda makes Saito pay dearly by locking in one Hell after another another. Several great counters including Saito countering another Olympic hell by launching Honda into the air. March 2003 was one hell of a month for NOAH.

WOW! This was a super fun match. It was distinctly joshi and a nice contrast to the matches Mariko Yoshida was having the same year. Carlos Amano, while not a complete worker yet, was really fun just diving for leg submissions all over the place and using her size and agility to survive. To my surprise, Hyuga made this match. I've never really noticed her before but she blew me away here with her performance. She did a great job controlling her opponent. She did a great job selling. And she did a great job getting the story of the match over. Amano would try using her submission skills to her advantage, but Hyuga wasn't having it and decided to put her in her place with a couple submissions of her own, resulting in a few great spots. This includes a couple of nifty armbar counters and an angry Hyuga raining punches to Amano's head from the back mount. Neat structure here where Hyuga controls the match early on, while Amano tries attacking her legs like a rabid dog with a few different strategies. Hyuga keeps cutting her off while selling the accumulating damage on her legs in very believable fashion.Totally out of left field great selling performance. Perfect finish too. I think Hyuga may deserve a closer look after this.