superkix

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.

Not much else to add here. Backlund's little rush in the corner with forearms and backdrop was cool.

At this point in the tournament, matches begin to bleed together and I still think I preferred Goto/Ishii to this but this was lot of dumb fun. There were lots of cool suplexes and Ibushi punching Ishii in the throat a bunch.

This was probably too long but it had some cool moments and it seems like Scott is improving in the shoot-style environment. He delivers a neat uranage early on and then later, he and Nakano trade German suplexes. Yamazaki and Takada had some decent strike exchanges and at one point, Yamazaki drops Scott with a very cool leg-trap Saito suplex. The groundwork was mostly filler and no one tries to break up the holds, which is why the BattlArts tags were so much fun. No one could keep a hold locked on long enough before someone ran in and punted them in the face.

Matches are one of the following: - bad - okay - good - great - flawless

A fun enough debut for Albright, who established the suplexes as weapons early on. Anjoh pisses off Albright with low kicks and Albright takes him over with a belly-to-belly. When he tries for the full nelson, Anjoh counters with the reverse armbar takedown. There's plenty of Anjoh being a real shithead here, between him kicking the arm on the mat, hanging onto the ropes to avoid Albright and wavering on the apron. Loved Anjoh’s flipover entry to the rear naked choke. Albirght fires off another suplex and finally snaps him over with the dragon suplex for the KO victory.

Solid opener. Miyato is spunky, which I can appreciate, and Tamura is Tamura, which I do appreciate. Good control by Tamura on the ground as always, with plenty of rolling around the mat. Tamura has one of the best go behinds in pro-wrestling. Miyato tries for the double wristlock but Tamura quickly takes control of the situation and gets an armbar to send Miyato to the ropes. Nice uranage throw by Miyato and he lands some pretty good kicks, downing Tamura with a knee to the midsection at one point. Tamura gets that Fujiwara-style armscissors and there's a real slick counter to Miyato's reverse armbar. Tamura finally slams him down and gets the neckcrank for the win.

This had some cool moments. The exchanges between Tamura/Anjoh and later on, Takada/Anjoh, were really great. Boss is this generic 1980's-looking jobber who doesn't really do much in there. Really liked the opening scramble between Tamura and Anjoh, and their interactions only get more heated and aggressive as the match progresses, with chokes and head kicks to escape potential holds and at one point, Anjoh kneeing him in the face. When Takada gets in there against Anjoh, he comes at him with kicks and knees and a nice belly-to-belly slam, and Anjoh's had enough and tags in Boss, who again, doesn't do much else but get kicked in the head and smacked in the face. Anjoh gets a little revenge against Takada, taking him down after a stiff flurry, and in the end, he submits Tamura with the Fujiwara armbar.

This was actually a lot of fun. Things get really heated in there at times with their strike exchanges and, like pretty much every match, Nakano's nose gets busted. There is a lot of good counterwork and takedowns, and when Nakano's pissed, he dumps Miyato with the German suplex. There's also a point where he almost capture suplexes Miyato out of the ring as things escalate in violence. A good little Nakano showcase and a strong finish with the choke to win. Good stuff.

Fun match. Takada was able to avoid the German suplex throughout, but there were some fun teases and transitions, with Nakano grabbing the rear naked choke and rallying the fans behind him. Match really picks up when Nakano rushes him against the ropes with strikes and snap suplexes him. Takada's kicks looked good, Nakano's underdog defense worked well -- I especially liked the catch into the calf hold and then turning that into a pretty nasty side headlock on Takada.

Here is the first half of RINGS 1994. Volk Han vs. Yoshihisa Yamamoto (RINGS, 1/24/94) Loved the opening with Yamamoto recklessly going in after Han with the spinning backhand, the takedown, and then Han coolly standing on one leg and yanking the other into his standing single leg crab, He stays in control with his submission work and keeps taking Yamamoto to the ropes until Yamamoto staggers him with a shot to the gut. That gives Yamamoto an opening to try a bunch of cool stuff out on the mat, like the crossface, the guillotine, the inverted STF. Yamamoto's trying to hang on but Han will get him in that split-legged hold or a legtrap heel hook. There are times when Yamamoto seems kind of lost in there but he’ll get some takedowns and try something. But Volk Han is Volk Han. There's a great part where he’s got Yamamoto in a leglock and he uses his opposite foot to push Yamamoto’s arm away to keep him from breaking it. Cool stuff. Grom Zaza vs. Todor Todorov (RINGS, 4/23/94) Grom Zaza, looking real grizzled and lean, takes it to Todorov in a super aggressive showing. Grom's fluidity in this match (and in general) is one of his hallmarks. He's able to go straight into a hold off a missed strike attempt, or grab any exposed limb and just bend it into a submission. His striking is also really good here, between the kicks, knees, and slaps. After a nasty slam, Grom works his way into a scissored triangle hold.. He tries to break Todor in half with an STF and then he grabs a reverse armbar and tries to grab a choke with the opposite arm. The finish was great as Todorov is able to snag a kneelock and just when it seems like Grom is going to tap out, he sees an opening, grabs the arm and submits Todorov. One of Zaza's best performances. Yoshihisa Yamamoto vs. Sotir Gotchev (RINGS, 4/23/94) Pretty good match that fizzles the longer it went. First couple of minutes were hot though, with Yamamoto busting out the dragon sleeper>elbow combo and Gotchev bearhug suplexing Yamamoto (despite Yamamoto palm thrusting him in the face). Gotchev looks dopey and his groundwork doesn't have much finesse but it seems effective enough. There is a lot of maneuvering around the mat before Gotchev hits a cool deadlift suplex, and in the end, Yamamoto rolls him up for the leglock submission. Yoshihisa Yamamoto vs. Sergei Sousserov (RINGS, 5/17/94) An excellent showcase for Yamamoto with a lot of opportunities to shine on the mat. He gets the initial takedown into a kneebar but Sergei fights out and plants him with a perfect uranage. Yamamoto goes back to the mat with some cool submissions like a backpack sleeper and a side STF. He's also adopted Volk Han's dragon sleeper>elbow strike combo. Whenever Sergei's got him in a submission, Yamamoto does a really good job of milking the ropebreaks for a little added drama. In a very cool counter, Yamamoto floats out of Sergei's armbar into a rear naked choke and then finally counters Sergei's leg submission with one of his own for the win. A very cool match. Volk Han vs. Mitsuya Nagai (RINGS, 5/17/94) Not as good as their 1993 match but still pretty good. Nagai will snap off some kicks and try for something fancy on the mat but end up getting caught in a Volk submission. The match itself is much slower paced, with more struggle on the mat. At one point, Han catches a foot and just barely blocks a nasty-looking spinning heel kick counter before he puts on his signature standing single leg. I love when Han gets fed up against strikers and just takes them out with slaps and knees of his own. The finish was great – Nagai goes in with kicks and slaps and Han grabs a choke and drags him down for the quick tapout. Akira Maeda vs. Volk Han (RINGS, 6/18/94) Kind of a tale of two matches because the half of this match before the stoppage was really good. You have Han kicking Maeda in the face to start, dominating with submission holds and Maeda's great in-the-moment selling to rally the fans. Maeda's able to down him with a high kick but Han slides in for his signature standing single leg. Maeda pisses off Han with repeat leg kicks and when Han lays into him with strikes, he ends up poking Maeda's eye and they stop the match. When they restart, there is a lot more stalling, Maeda's more hesitant, his takedowns look really weak like he's scared of getting hit again. Some of the groundwork is cool like Maeda's controlling of the choke sleeper and Han's cool arm-and-leg trap submission. They trade some shots toward the end, Maeda grabs the leglock for the submission, and wins. But he really shouldn't have. Masayuki Naruse vs. Yuri Bekichev (RINGS, 7/14/94) This match was a total blast. Bekichev has a ton of fire and gets the crowd hyped about his big kicks. He lands this wild backspin kick to the back of Naruse’s head to open up. Sure, there are a couple of awkward moments that maybe stem from Bekichev having not worked a “worked match” but for the most part, he gets it. Loved Naruse's counter into the kneebar and of course the wheel kick catch into another kneebar toward the end of the match. Bekichev's nasty rolling solebutt to the face and Naruse bumping to perfection in the corner. There’s a part where Yuri challenges him and Naruse pops him in the face. In the end, Naruse takes him out with a big flurry of palm strikes and a knee to the face. Loved this. Andrei Kopylov vs. Yoshihisa Yamamoto (RINGS, 7/14/94) Really good match and the best Kopylov looks in the first half of '94. Lots of intense counterwork, with Kopylov being the dominant one on the mat, working leglocks and armbar -- really liked his nasty reverse armbar. They pepper the submission work with some stiff strikes, especially from Yamamoto with his palms, but Kopylov answers right back with big slaps. Kopylov's final submission is cool but I have no idea what is. Good stuff. Akira Maeda vs. Dick Vrij (RINGS, 07/14/94) Wild and violent. Vrij keeps kicking out Maeda’s legs, which in turn, starts pissing off Maeda. Then Vrij really starts laying into him which causes Maeda to go after him in the corner and knock him down with a big barrage of strikes. There’s a little submission work here and there but it’s really just Vrij letting Maeda have it with nasty palm strikes to the face and knees to the head, busting his nose in the process. The finish was shit. Maeda grabs a leglock and Vrij taps before Maeda can even lock it in...but then he kicks Vrij afterward and that causes the Dutch mafia to get involved and it’s chaos. Terrific.

This sucked. JT Southern sucks. Yamazaki cracking him in the legs with kicks and generally not looking happy about being in there were the obvious highlights.