superkix

Petkov would have been great in UWFi against guys like Vader and Albright. Just a big fat baby who throws people around and sits on them with single leg crabs and gets his knee sprayed down when Nagai kicks it too hard. This is the same narrative as their first match but they have really good chemistry together and it's unlike most things in RINGS. I love how vocal Petkov's body punches are and how he absorbs Nagai's strikes to get close enough to suplex him. Nagai once again targets the leg throughout and ends up submitting Petkov after a very well-executed rolling kneebar. Good match.

Pretty disappointing match considering how great their UWF match was the year prior. It does pick up in the back half when Nakano's throwing suplexes and Yamazaki's snapping off kicks but the first half is slow and uneventful. I dug the finish with Yamazaki taking Nakano down with the flying legscissors and then them repeatedly booting each other back and forth to reverse holds until Yamazaki wins out.

A good match-up with Albright using his size and weight on the mat and Tamura, of course, using his finesse to get Albright on the ground for a submission. Albright at one point has Tamura's leg and Tamura is able to take him down with a slick kneebar transition. Albright keeps trying for this inverted necklock and he ends up snapping Tamura over with a necklock suplex>inverted necklock. Of course, he throws a few more suplexes and ends up KO'ing Tamura with a German.

A stiff little sub-five undercard treat with Slappy Kaki coming right out of the gate and swatting the hell out of Boss repeatedly. Boss doesn't really know what to do but gets some retribution by dumping Kakihara with a release German suplex and then running over and punt kicking him in the head. He shoves the ref aside and keeps pounding on him in the corner as the fans let him have it. Kaki slaps his way back in control and his final head kick KO to Boss looked scary.

Pretty hilarious "match" with Takada being a dick with the leg kicks and Berbick complaining to everyone, hanging on the ropes, retreating to the corner, and finally bailing out when he's had enough. Berbick should have done something, ANYTHING, other than just stand there crying and getting repeatedly kicked in the leg.

Really good brutal match-up and definitely the best Kopylov has looked in 1994 behind the Yamamoto match. It's nice to see Han returning to aggressive form and he just lays into Kopylov throughout the match. Kopylov's strategy throughout is to get Han off of him as quickly as possible, whether that's a slam or a throw or countering Han's own elaborate attempt. Kopylov's selling of the arm is subtle but nice as they go after each other's arms with holds. Loved Han's standing armbar>armbreaker. At some point, Han gets bloodied with a shot and gets pissed off. Neat finish with Han using a cool wristlocktakedown into the armbar and Kopylov's resiliency awarding him the upset victory.

Hot start with the strikes and Grom having to fight a fiesty Yamamoto off before he's able to start building some momentum. Yamamoto brought the kicks but Grom also lets loose with the open hand slaps. I thought Yamamoto did a terrific job of selling in this match, which doesn't happen all that often in RINGS -- between milking the ten counts and submission breaks, to dragging the leg there at the end. Cool finish with Grom using a sweet leg-whip takedown but getting snagged in Yamamoto's rear naked choke. Grom's second best performance of the year behind the Todorov match, and another feather in Yamamoto's 1994 cap.

This was the Nikolai Zouev that I was missing during the first half of 1994 and easily his best match of the year. There is plenty of great struggle on the mat with Nagau playing the scrappy little shit trying to spoil all of Zouev's submission attempts. When Zouev tries to grab a double wristlock, Nagai immediately floats out of it and to the ropes. When Zouev fights for the cross armbar, using his foot to break it open, Nagai's foot is on the rope like a reflex. he blocks a lot of Zouev’s takedowns but Zouev will still manage to grab a hold. Things get a heated with the smacks and knees, and in the end, Zouev gets the submission win in his home country.

Why not? These may not necessarily be the "best" matches or whatever but matches I got the most enjoyment out of, which is why we watch this dumb shit to begin with, am I right? Other than the big names like Misawa, Kawada, and Akiyama, Takehiro Murahama was an easy standout and had one of the best debut years to date. These are just in chronological order. Kensuke Sasaki vs. Genichiro Tenryu (AJPW, 1/4/00) Mitsuharu Misawa vs. Hiroshi Hase (AJPW, 1/9/00) Vader vs. Jun Akiyama (AJPW, 1/23/00) Mitsuharu Misawa vs. Jun Akiyama (AJPW, 2/27/00) Takehiro Murahama vs. Naohiro Hoshikawa (Osaka Pro, 3/25/00) Shinya Hashimoto vs. Naoya Ogawa (NJPW, 4/7/00) Mitsuharu Misawa vs. Yoshinari Ogawa (AJPW, 4/15/00) Super Delfin vs. Takehiro Murahama (Osaka Pro, 5/7/00) Alexander Otsuka vs. Naoyuki Taira (BattlARTS, 5/11/2000) Kenta Kobashi vs. Yoshihiro Takayama (AJPW, 5/26/00) Koji Kanemoto vs. Tatsuhito Takaiwa (NJPW, 5/27/00) Toshiaki Kawada vs. Masanobu Fuchi (AJPW, 7/1/00) Takehiro Murahama vs. Black Buffalo (Osaka Pro, 7/22/00) Jun Akiyama vs. Kenta Kobashi (NOAH, 8/6/00) Yuki Ishikawa & Carl Malenko vs. Kazunari Murakami & Naoyuki Taira (BattlARTS, 9/7/00) Toshiaki Kawada vs. Kensuke Sasaki (NJPW, 10/9/00) Toshiaki Kawada vs. Genichiro Tenryu (AJPW, 10/28/00) Kazunari Murakami vs. Yuki Ishikawa (BattlARTS, 11/16/00) Toshiaki Kawada & Masanobu Fuchi vs. Yuji Nagata & Takashi Iizuka (NJPW, 12/14/00) Kenta Kobashi vs. Jun Akiyama (NOAH, 12/23/00)

They turned up the heat a little with this one. Good frantic undertones to open the match and Nagata has more answers for Yasuda this time, throwing him with an overhead suplex to counter the double arm lock, all the reversals to the submission attempts on the mat, and that wrist-clutch Exploder to set up the finish. Yasuda dishes out more here but also takes a lot from Nagata. More suplexes are thrown, including a big launching double arm from Yasuda, and the stuff on the ground has a bit more life to it. Great performance from Nagata with his facial expressions and underdog spirit. Yasuda is still weirdly captivating. Good stuff.

Yasuda is something else. Sweaty and sloppy and unrefined. But yet it works well against a stalwart like Nagata. There are definite lulls in the match but Nagata will bring the fire with his kicks and knees while Yasuda keeps trying for the three holds he knows well enough to pull off. But it takes him awhile to get anything locked in as Nagata keeps fighting out and fighting back. Yasuda finally hits a tiger driver to set-up a hold but Nagata makes the ropes. Really liked the knees to the head from Nagata to set up the crossface hold but ultimately, he ends up tapping to one of his own holds in the front necklock. Preferred their April rematch but this still good stuff.

Far removed from Billy's best UWFi match to date the show prior (vs. Anjoh), this match sucked. Billy's blue singlet is a wee bit ridiculous. He has some amateur takedowns early on and Yamazaki high kicks him in the head but otherwise, there's a lot of uninteresting matwork. Like 15:00 worth. Skip.

Come on you guys are confusing Tom Burton for Jim Boss. Burton still doesn't have much of a clue...but he does have a little bit as far as when he's throwing suplexes or powerbombs. But yeah, this was all about the Tamura/Anjoh exchanges, which you need to sit through 20 minutes to catch about 8 minutes of interaction. Loved Tamura's whiplash takedown before he starts taking it to Anjoh and Anjoh bails. He also has such a spirited single leg crab -- I mean, he's laying all over the place trying to keep it on before turning it into the facelock.

Still have a ton of 1990s to watch/rewatch, 2002-20012 is more of less a blank spot, and I need to fill in some gaps but here's a running list: 1967: Giant Baba vs. Bruno Sammartino (JWA, 3/7/67) 1968: Giant Baba vs. Bruno Sammartino (JWA, 8/7/68) 1969: Giant Baba vs. The Destroyer (JWA, 3/5/96) 1970: Antonio Inoki vs. Dory Funk Jr. (JWA, 8/2/70) 1971: Antonio Inoki vs. Jack Brisco (JWA, 8/5/71) 1972: Giant Baba vs. The Destroyer (JWA, 12/11/72) 1973: Animal Hamaguchi vs. Mighty Inoue (IWA, 9/26/73) 1974: Mil Máscaras vs. The Destroyer (AJPW, 7/25/74) Verne Gagne vs. Billy Robinson (IWE, 11/20/74) 1975: Billy Robinson vs. Antonio Inoki (NJPW, 12/11/75) 1976: Billy Robinson vs. Giant Baba (AJPW, 7/24/76) Jumbo Tsuruta vs. Terry Funk (AJPW, 6/11/76) 1977: Jumbo Tsuruta vs. Billy Robinson (AJPW, 3/5/77) 1978: Antonio Inoki vs. Bob Backlund (NJPW, 7/27/78) Tatsumi Fujinami vs. Ryuma Go (NJPW, 11/30/78) 1979: Tatsumi Fujinami vs. Ryuma Go (NJPW, 10/2/79) 1980: Nick Bockwinkel vs. Billy Robinson (AJPW, 12/11/80) Tatsumi Fujinami vs. Dynamite Kid (NJPW, 2/5/80) 1981: Andre the Giant vs. Stan Hansen (NJPW, 9/23/81) 1982: Andre the Giant vs. Killer Khan (NJPW, 4/1/82) Stan Hansen vs. Terry Funk (AJPW, 9/11/82) 1983: Terry & Dory Funk Jr. vs. Stan Hansen & Terry Gordy (AJPW, 8/31/83) Stan Hansen vs. Terry Funk (AJPW, 4/14/83) Tatsumi Fujinami vs. Riki Choshu (NJPW, 8/4/83) 1984: Yoshiaki Fujiwara vs. Super Tiger (UWF, 12/5/84) 1985: Yoshiaki Fujiwara vs. Super Tiger (UWF, 7/17/85) 1986: Tatsumi Fujinami vs. Akira Maeda (NJPW, 6/12/86) Jumbo Tsuruta & Genichiro Tenryu vs. Riki Choshu & Yoshiaki Yatsu (AJPW, 1/28/86) Antonio Inoki, Tatsumi Fujinami, Kengo Kimura, Umanosuke Ueda & Kantaro Hoshino vs. Akira Maeda, Yoshiaki Fujiwara, Osamu Kido, Nobuhiko Takada & Kazuo Yamazaki (NJPW, 3/26/86) 1987: Yoshiaki Fujiwara vs. Riki Choshu (NJPW, 6/9/87) 1988: Stan Hansen & Terry Gordy vs. Genichiro Tenryu & Toshiaki Kawada (AJPW, 12/16/88) Nobuhiko Takada vs. Akira Maeda (UWF, 6/11/88) Tatsumi Fujinami vs. Antonio Inoki (NJPW, 8/8/88) 1989: Masakatsu Funaki vs. Tatsuo Nakano (UWF, 7/24/89) Jushin Liger vs. Naoki Sano (NJPW, 8/10/89) Stan Hansen & Genichiro Tenryu vs. Jumbo Tsuruta & Yoshiaki Yatsu (AJPW, 12/6/89) 1990: Jushin Liger vs. Naoki Sano (NJPW, 1/31/90) Nobuhiko Takada vs. Yoshiaki Fujiwara (UWF, 10/25/90) Jumbo Tsuruta vs. Mitsuharu Misawa (AJPW, 9/1/90) 1991: 1992: 1993: Stan Hansen vs. Toshiaki Kawada (AJPW, 2/28/93) 1994: Volk Han vs. Mitsuya Nagai (RINGS, 12/24/94) 1995: 1996: 1997: Volk Han vs. Kiyoshi Tamura (RINGS, 9/26/97) 1998: Kiyoshi Tamura vs. Tsuyoshi Kohsaka (RINGS, 6/27/98) 1999: 2000: Mitsuharu Misawa vs Jun Akiyama (AJPW, 2/27/00) Toshiaki Kawada vs. Genichiro Tenryu (AJPW, 10/28/00) Kazunari Murakami vs. Yuki Ishikawa (BattlARTS, 11/26/00) 2001: Minoru Tanaka vs. Takehiro Murahama (NJPW, 4/20/01) Alexander Otsuka vs. Takashi Sugiura (ZERO1, 4/18/01) Toshiaki Kawada vs. Mitsuya Nagai (AJPW, 3/3/01) 2002: 2003: Kenta Kobashi vs. Tamon Honda (NOAH, 4/13/03) 2004: 2005: Katsuyori Shibata vs. Jun Akiyama (WRESTLE-1, 8/4/05) 2006: 2007: 2008: 2009: 2010: 2011: Dick Togo vs. Antonio Honda (DDT, 1/30/11) Hideki Suzuki vs. Josh Barnett (IGF, 12/31/11) 2012: Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Minoru Suzuki (NJPW, 10/8/12) 2013: Katsuyori Shibata vs. Tomohiro Ishii (NJPW, 8/4/13) 2014: Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Katsuyori Shibata (NJPW, 7/26/14) AJ Styles vs. Minoru Suzuki (NJPW, 8/1/14) 2015: Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Kota Ibushi (NJPW, 1/4/15) 2016: Kazuchika Okada vs. Tomohiro Ishii (NJPW, 8/6/16) Yuji Okabayashi vs. Hideyoshi Kamitani (BJW, 7/24/16) Kenny Omega vs. Tetsuya Naito (NJPW, 8/13/16) 2017: Katsuyori Shibata vs. Kazuchika Okada (NJPW, 4/19/17) Hideki Suzuki vs. Yuji Okabayashi (BJW, 5/5/17) Kazuchika Okada vs. Minoru Suzuki (NJPW, 8/8/17) 2018: Hideki Suzuki vs. Takuya Nomura (BJW, 6/20/18) Hirooki Goto vs. Minoru Suzuki (NJPW, 1/4/18) Shotaro Ashino vs. Manabu Soya (W1, 3/14/18) 2019: Yuji Okabayashi vs. Takuya Nomura (BJW, 7/21/19) Yuki Ishikawa vs. Timothy Thatcher (wXw, 3/10/19 Masashi Takeda vs. Jon Gresham (Bloodsport, 4/4/19) 2020 (current): Yuki Ishikawa vs. Daisuke Ikeda (wXw, 3/7/20)

This time Vader & Tenta jump them to start and a microsecond of crowd brawling before it settles into Yamazaki and Vader, which is a much better start than Albright/Tenta because Yamazaki immediately starts cracking legs with kicks. Vader sells big for him here but he finally clobbers his way back and drops him with a German, which Yamazaki subsequently sells really well. Again, Tenta stinks in there, just no selling everything and almost falling down trying to throw sumo slaps. He does use a crab hold, so there's that. The Vader/Albright interactions are, of course, the main attraction and Albright dumps Vader with Germans until he gets woozy. Yamazaki and Vader close it out and Yamazaki goes back to attacking the leg to set up the kneebar. That doesn't work and Vader ends up KO'ing him with a powerbomb. On par with the first match, though I slightly prefer this more based on the Yamazaki/Vader exchanges and Tenta not being in there as much.

Albright saying "FUCK YEAH" before the bell is always a good way to start the match. The fans are stoked for Albright/Vader but are disappointed when Tenta stays in there and boy does he stink. Completely clueless to the style and mostly just lays there and no sells Yamazaki's kicks. But when Vader gets the tag, at least we get Vader launching Yamazaki with a German suplex and they have a pretty great strike exchange with Vader clubbing and Yamazaki firing off headkicks. The Vader/Albright exchanges is what everybody wanted and for the most part, they deliver. Albright isn't even that great of a wrestler but he throws dope suplexes and that's enough. Him dumping Vader with a big ass German was great before he finally submits him with the armbar. I think I preferred the rematch slightly more than this.

Abe works very differently in BJW and Hard Hit than he does in, say, DDT or Basara. His match against Nomura in BJW from February of this year is a great example. Or his match against Iwamoto from Hart Hit. He's very slick on the mat and has some great strikes. The little movements/expressions is a tribute to his trainer Sawa.

As far as Japan goes, Takuya Nomura (24), Fuminori Abe (23), Konosuke Takeshita (23), and Shotaro Ashino (28) to name a few.

Another short Albright squash. Nakano's trying to take Albright down and Gary just wants to SLAM. Albright hits a couple of suplexes and taps him with the grounded sleeper. Meh.

Yeah, nowhere near the 1988 match as it takes them awhile to get going, with Takada tapping him with kicks and slaps while trying to avoid Backlund's takedowns. I did like Backlund’s leg trip into the leaping forearm drop. In the end, he launches Takada with a big double arm suplex and hits a low angle German but Takada grabs the double wristlock for the submission. Disappointing.

These UWFI tags are often aimless but they have some cool moments sprinkled throughout. You just have to sit through 20+ minutes to get to them. This was mostly about the Tamura/Nakano exchanges, although the stuff between Nakano/Miyato gets heated at times. Tom Burton still pretty much sucks, though when he throws suplexes and powerbombs, it's okay. But on the mat, he's completely clueless and even Tamura can't drag much out of him. The first exchange between Tamura and Nakano was a lot of fun, as Nakano tries to keep pace with Tamura and ends up getting caught in a choke but when Tamura tries to roll through with an attempt, Nakano holds on with a choke of his own. Love when Nakano kicks someone repeatedly in the face to get out of a hold. Nakano and Miyato have a really great exchange toward the middle of the match where they both smack each other silly and dump each other with big suplexes.

This starts hot and ends hot but hits a lull through much of the midsection. Yamazaki German suplexes Takada very early on and there's a cool mat scramble for control that follows but then it slows down, with Takada "showing off" on the ground and Yamazaki staying on the leg. When Takada wants to strike, Yamazaki keeps taking him down and going back to the leg. Takada never really sells it though. Yamazaki attacks him in the corner with some solid kicks and knees, knocking him down, but Takada comes back, stunning him with a knee before dumping him with a backdrop into the single leg crab. Yamazaki is still trying to finish him off with kicks but Takada once again suplexes him with the dragon and finishes him off with armbar. Decent match with some cool moments.

Billy Scott continues to find comfort in shoot-style and this was probably his best solo outing to date. But still has an awful haircut.They open with a mad scramble and Scott lets Anjoh know early on that he ain't taking any of his shit. He kicks Anjoh in the face when they're tied up on the ground and when they're back on their feet, they're flinging hands and going kind of nuts, which is great. The groundwork throughout is a mess but that doesn't stop Billy from trying. I really like his German suplex lift into the Rock Bottom and his arm-trap judo throw but he can't really follow up on the mat. He does throw some mean palm strikes though. In the end, Anjoh catches him with a nasty knee strike in the corner, throws him with a dope belly-to-belly, but on the mat, Scott rolls him up, fucks the finish and Anjoh ends up tapping to a weak-looking neck crank. Good match nevertheless.

We're back for the second half of Fighting Network RINGS 1994, plus some other goodies. Direct link is HERE! https://fightingnetworkfriends.podiant.co/e/3674e2626b4fae/ to stream, or subscribe to the RSS feed. You can also find us on Apple Podcasts. FNF 019: RINGS in '94 Pt. 2 THE YEAR OF YAMAMOTO CONTINUES Another long break, but we explain why before delving into a solid second half of '94 with RINGS. Han is good, Nagai is killer, Kopilov shows up, and Maeda and Yamamoto have perhaps the best RINGS match up to this point. In the third segment, we are all over the place, talking Katsuhiko Nakajima, Takuya Nomura, Daniel Makabe, Timothy Thatcher, Masa Saito & Tsuyoshi Kohsaka. Topics discussed: - Fuck Furniture Companies - The G1...meh? - RINGS - Our dude, son of Togi. - Good matches!f - Nakajima's mustache - Maybe a match of the year. 3rd Segment Matches: Nakajima & Kitamiya Vs. Nomura & Kamitani Daniel Makabe Vs. Timothy Thatcher Pt. 2 Tsuyoshi Kohsaka Vs. Yuji Nagata Pt. 2 Masa Saito Vs. Akira Maeda Youtube Playlist: http://tinyurl.com/fnf019 Follow us on Twitter: @fightfriends @trillyrobinson Email at: [email protected] Instagram: @fightnetworkfriends Youtube at: http://tinyurl.com/FightFriends Store at: http://fightingnetworkfriends.bigcartel.com

Yeah, I liked this a bit more than most. I liked Anjoh's early defense, avoiding the German and keeping Yamazaki on the ground. His leg trip into the Fujiwara armbar was neat. They spend most of the match on the mat before Anjoh starts laying into Yamazaki with knees and kicks for a couple of knockdowns. There's a weird spot where Yamazaki finally hits the German suplex hold and Anjoh looks to counter that with a double wristlock but then rolls off with some delayed selling. The finish was cool too, with Anjoh trying for the rolling kneebar and Yamazaki countering with the neck crank.