superkix

Burton is like the UWFi version of Michael Elgin. He can throw some cool bombs but there's not much else to him. We don't even get any cool bombs here -- he pretty much stinks. His strikes are non-existent and his ground game is as basic as it gets. But he couldn't sell water to a goldfish. Kakihara at least adds some life to this match by popping him with slaps and kicking him in the face. Burton wins with a crab hold. Skip.

Anjoh is definitely one of the more underrated mat workers -- he's pretty slick and at one point, does a skull crusher. Boss is another clueless white dude and doesn't do much here but that's okay because Gary Albright rules in this match. He absolutely wrecks Anjoh with German suplexes throughout; that second to last German is especially brutal and awesome. When Yamazaki gets the initial tag in, he also takes Albright over with a killer German suplex of his own. Albright isn't much of a ground guy but he doesn't get paid the big bucks to work a side headlock. That finishing stretch with him and Anjoh is the definite highlight, with him clubbing the shit out of Anjoh before finishing him off with the Germans. Big Albright showcase.

Maybe not the perfect match but the perfect match-up, and my ideal match, hitting everything I want in a pro-wrestling match. Plenty of snug and effective matwork up front, with the little things executed so well. But the match really delivers after the restart, where you get hard kicks and bodyshots, and Fujiwara working the hell out of his signature armbar, catching Maeda from all angles and transitioning to the double wristlock when he sees the opportunity. Awesome finish too, with Fujiwara grabbing the heel hold and Maeda grabbing the choke as a counter, seeing who can hold out before Fujiwara starts drooling and finally passes out. Great match.

Fujita in Big Japan rules. The stiff exchanges between he and Daichi were the best things Daichi's been involved in all year. Hard slaps, big knees, mean elbows from Fujita. At one point, he gets busted the hell open with a spinning heel kick from Daichi that clips his brow. Even after the match, those two are still beating on each other. Sekimoto and Kamitani were pretty good too -- love Sekimoto's backbreaker -- but you're really only in this to see Fujita.

A decent match, nothing more, nothing less. Uto is your typical paint-by-number bruiser and doesn't really do too much here. Suzuki's armwork is brutal -- I liked him catching Uto's sliding lariat with the Fujiwara armbar -- and between the joint manipulation and knees, Suzuki does a strong job of working it over. Uto's selling, however, isn't great and within a few minutes, he's back to using the arm, no problem. That being said, there were some cool spots in the match. Hideki's lariat to Uto looked nasty and Hideki later takes a pretty stiff lariat from Uto. I also liked the finish, with Suzuki going back to the arm following the double arm suplex and submitting Uto with the double wristlock. Nowhere near the level of the Nomura defense and didn't really feel like a title match at all.

Hey, it's a Yuki Ishikawa match in 2018. The 51-year old can still go, although he's obviously slowed down. This was a pretty fun match with some cool spots. Ishikawa's ground game is still better than guys half his age, and it looked like he was having a lot of fun in there rolling around the mat. I liked how he elbowed Hara in the back of the head to set up the Fujiwara armbar and he hits his always great grapevine German suplex. Also liked the arm control late in the match. Hara's sold enough, which has kind of been his entire career, with some decent strikes. He gets a cool flying armbar takedown to Ishikawa's slap attempt and after he dumps Ishikawa with a release German, he kicks him in the head for the win.

I'd be down to run a Japanese promotion if this gains enough interest.

Second half of 1994. Nikolai Zouev vs Mitsuya Nagai (RINGS, 8/28/94) 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. Grom Zaza vs. Yoshihisa Yamamoto (RINGS, 10/22/94) 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. Volk Han vs. Andrei Kopylov (RINGS, 10/22/94) 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. Mitsuya Nagai vs. Dimitri Petkov (RINGS, 11/19/94) 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. Mitsuya Nagai vs. Masayuki Naruse (RINGS, 12/16/94) Really good match-up between two similar dudes. Nagai is the better striker while Naruse has a little more finesse on the mat. Loved the opening with Nagai striking hard and then hanging onto the front neck lock when Naruse tries to roll him off before it settles into an evenly contested match. Nagai will get the knockdown and Naruse will send him to the ropes. Things escalate from the ground with Nagai being particularly stiff with his shots. Naruse's struggling to find anything and finally lands a big spinning heel kick in the corner but when he tries to take him down with a judo toss, Nagai catches him with a sleeper for the win. Awesome finish. Akira Maeda vs. Yoshihisa Yamamoto (RINGS, 12/16/94) Terrific match. The best "big boss" Maeda match since he returned from injury, and Yamamoto at his fieriest. Right out of the gate, he's rocking Maeda with big nasty open hands while Maeda struggles to find a takedown. That's one of his only defenses against Yamamoto (he's kind of like the wise tortoise in this match) but even when he's able to grab a submission, Yamamoto finds ways out or reverses the holds. The crowd is loving Yamamoto taking it to Maeda but when Maeda's able to fire back with some big shots of his own, he lays into Yamamoto and quite often, chaos ensues -- which rules. Loved Maeda's surprise palm thrust to Yamamoto's face and Yamamoto losing it and taking Maeda down with a stiff combo. Once Maeda has established that he's going to submit him, Yamamoto sticks to striking and doesn't let up, even at his final down. The crowd doesn't like turtle-mode Maeda but in the end, he's able to snag the leglock for the submission. Probably the best RINGS match of '94, although Han/Nagai later in the month might take that honor. Tsuyoshi Kohsaka vs. Daisuke Ikeda (RINGS, 12/24/94) A solid squash as Kohsaka dominates Ikeda, battering him around with strikes and smothering him on the ground. Ikeda's able to withstand a lot of TK's hard shots and the way they throw palm thrusts like punches is awesome. It seems to be me that Ikeda wasn’t quite used to working this style – granted, he was in PWFG but that wasn’t quite worked the same way so he gets really exhausted here. There’s this great struggle on the mat with TK trying to grab the armbar and Ikeda fighting around it but the finish was pretty lame with Ikeda sort of falling into TK's submission. Volk Han vs. Mitsuya Nagai (RINGS, 12/14/94) The best of their series and no doubt one of my all-time favorite RINGS matches thus far. There's so much to love about this match. Both guys play their respective roles so well, with Nagai being the pesky shithead underdog and Han the leggy takedown submission artist. Tons of cool shit from Han on the ground and that hammerlock suplex. I loved him using the triangle as a means to stop Nagai's barrage of knees and kicks. The fans love it when Han's getting rocked with kicks or Nagai's mocking him, and when Nagai briefly gets him in the STF, they collectively lose their shit. But Han keeps throwing him off and taking him to the ropes with submissions. One of my favorite moments in the match comes when Han has him in an armbar and he uses his own legs to block Nagai from being to flip out of it, and then he traps the leg to prevent any escape. Just smart wrestling. At one point, Han drags him into the middle of the ring just to apply a hold. He's always using his feet to break up Nagai's holds. Nagai does get to show off on the mat as well and has some good attempts of his own, like the rolling kneebar. I loved Nagai's struggle to pry open the armbar and when it finally gets it, Han touches the ropes to break it. Tons of excellent struggle on the ground, an incredible pace and a great finish, with Nagai's frustration at its peak when he's just pummeling Han with body shots before Han finishes him off via submission. Chef's kiss. Akira Maeda vs. Yoshihisa Yamamoto (RINGS, 12/24/94) Not nearly as good as their 12/16 match but still one of Maeda's best performances of 1994. Maeda doesn't let Yamamoto get away with nearly as much offense here, and shows off his more aggressive side, immediately backing him into a corner, striking him down, and then slapping on a nasty side headlock. Yamamoto's still able to force Maeda to dance in submission holds and drops him with slaps and knees. When Maeda comes at him hard with kicks, Yamamoto's able to catch one and drop down into a leglock. Once more, the match builds to Yamamoto's final down and again, he tries downing Maeda with knees, and once again, Maeda uses his turtle defense and snags him with the leglock for the win.

A solid squash as Kohsaka dominates Ikeda, battering him around with strikes and smothering him on the ground. Ikeda's able to withstand a lot of TK's hard shots and the way they throw palm thrusts like punches is awesome. It seems to be me that Ikeda wasn’t quite used to working this style – granted, he was in PWFG but that wasn’t quite worked the same way so he gets really exhausted here. There’s this great struggle on the mat with TK trying to grab the armbar and Ikeda fighting around it but the finish was pretty lame with Ikeda sort of falling into TK's submission.

Not nearly as good as their 12/16 match but still one of Maeda's best performances of 1994. Maeda doesn't let Yamamoto get away with nearly as much offense here, and shows off his more aggressive side, immediately backing him into a corner, striking him down, and then slapping on a nasty side headlock. Yamamoto's still able to force Maeda to dance in submission holds and drops him with slaps and knees. When Maeda comes at him hard with kicks, Yamamoto's able to catch one and drop down into a leglock. Once more, the match builds to Yamamoto's final down and again, he tries downing Maeda with knees, and once again, Maeda uses his turtle defense and snags him with the leglock for the win.

Yeah, this was the best of their series and no doubt one of my all-time favorite RINGS matches thus far. There's so much to love about this match. Both guys play their respective roles so well, with Nagai being the pesky shithead underdog and Han the leggy takedown submission artist. Tons of cool shit from Han on the ground and that hammerlock suplex. I loved him using the triangle as a means to stop Nagai's barrage of knees and kicks. The fans love it when Han's getting rocked with kicks or Nagai's mocking him, and when Nagai briefly gets him in the STF, they collectively lose their shit. But Han keeps throwing him off and taking him to the ropes with submissions. One of my favorite moments in the match comes when Han has him in an armbar and he uses his own legs to block Nagai from being to flip out of it, and then he traps the leg to prevent any escape. Just smart wrestling. At one point, Han drags him into the middle of the ring just to apply a hold. He's always using his feet to break up Nagai's holds. Nagai does get to show off on the mat as well and has some good attempts of his own, like the rolling kneebar. I loved Nagai's struggle to pry open the armbar and when it finally gets it, Han touches the ropes to break it. Tons of excellent struggle on the ground, an incredible pace and a great finish, with Nagai's frustration at its peak when he's just pummeling Han with body shots before Han finishes him off via submission. Chef's kiss.

Really good match-up between two similar dudes. Nagai is the better striker while Naruse has a little more finesse on the mat. Loved the opening with Nagai striking hard and then hanging onto the front neck lock when Naruse tries to roll him off before it settles into an evenly contested match. Nagai will get the knockdown and Naruse will send him to the ropes. Things escalate from the ground with Nagai being particularly stiff with his shots. Naruse's struggling to find anything and finally lands a big spinning heel kick in the corner but when he tries to take him down with a judo toss, Nagai catches him with a sleeper for the win. Awesome finish.

Terrific match. The best "big boss" Maeda match since he returned from injury, and Yamamoto at his fieriest. Right out of the gate, he's rocking Maeda with big nasty open hands while Maeda struggles to find a takedown. That's one of his only defenses against Yamamoto (he's kind of like the wise tortoise in this match) but even when he's able to grab a submission, Yamamoto finds ways out or reverses the holds. The crowd is loving Yamamoto taking it to Maeda but when Maeda's able to fire back with some big shots of his own, he lays into Yamamoto and quite often, chaos ensues -- which rules. Loved Maeda's surprise palm thrust to Yamamoto's face and Yamamoto losing it and taking Maeda down with a stiff combo. Once Maeda has established that he's going to submit him, Yamamoto sticks to striking and doesn't let up, even at his final down. The crowd doesn't like turtle-mode Maeda but in the end, he's able to snag the leglock for the submission. Probably the best RINGS match of '94, although Han/Nagai later in the month might take that honor.

I feel like if a NJPW main event goes over 30 minutes, you really only need to watch the last 15 minutes and that was definitely the case here. The slap battle with Tanahashi's fighting spirit and Ibushi looking like a bobblehead was easily the highlight of the match. They follow it up with a pretty lame elbow exchange but some of the spots and nearfalls in the final minutes were cool, including Ibushi bouncing off Tanahashi's chest with those backflip knees. I really liked Ibushi staggering into that second to last High Fly Flow. But yeah, the first 20 or so minutes were whatever.

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.