superkix

This is fun. Here are a few more: Irish Jungle Which Salesman? Kodiak Autobahn

Bingo x2!

Batista Mockery Ebonics Junior

Bingo!

Easy one. One Damn Lake

Cool, a male gymnast. Perfect for 205 LIVE.

I really liked the brutality of this match, with Vader whipping Sting around and into guardrails with the strap. Sting bloodying Vader's back or the nasty punches in the corner that further bloody Vader. The stipulation is obviously dumb -- i mean, why not just start touching corners -- and when the referee gets in Vader's face about beating up Sting. Come on dude, it's an unsanctioned strap match? But the last few minutes leading up to the finish were awesome. Vader whipping Sting into that rolling koppou kick, then hitting that great release German. The finish was dumb and as a whole, this may be my least favorite match of the series...but when it picks up, it really picks up.

My favorite match of the series. Loved the opening few minutes, with Vader no selling the punches,, powering Sting around before Sting comes back with that cannonball kick and a release German suplex, building momentum, knocking Vader out of the ring, knocking his mask off, and then hitting a plancha onto Vader AND Harley Race. Whoa. Sting even hits a SUPER DDT at one point. Sting will get these little flashes of offense through Vader's dominance and he does such a good job of selling here. Loved his struggle for the backslide. The finish was really cool too. Great match.

Sting really sells the enormity of Vader (although, realistically, he’s not THAT much bigger) and Vader does a great job of making Sting’s lighter offense look more impactful. Sting really sells the hell out of Vader's punches and I never knew Sting was capable of delivering German suplexes -- that was a cool surprise. I liked the finish with an overzealous Sting busting himself open and Vader putting him down with the big powerbomb. Really good stuff.

No idea who any of these people are aside from Io Shirai and Keith Lee.

Giving some life to this thread with 1993 RINGS. This is only the stuff worth watching (imo) but I recommend watching everything because RINGS is so much more than the matches/match quality. Mitsuya Nagai vs. Masayuki Naruse (RINGS, 1/23/93) A pretty fun, extended squash, with Nagai controlling most of the match. He's throwing suplexes and attacking the leg with submissions, popping Naruse with kicks to the leg and the ribs. At one point, Naruse catches a kick and uses a cool waterwheel drop. But that’s about it. Nagai knees him in the face, kicks him in the head, and finally submits him with the armbar. Sotir Gotchev vs. Todor Todorov (RINGS, 1/23/93) A fun exhibition match for Todorov, who was really good at tying Gotchev up in interesting predicaments. He keeps trapping the arm, whipping him down, going for armbars. Gotchev is less of a finesse guy and more of a rough and tumble guy. He isn’t much of a striker but he’ll dump Todorov with a fireman’s carry, or his awesome bearhug suplexes, and when he’s got him on the mat, he keeps trying for a choke. Cool submission finish too. Sergei Sousserov vs. Masayuki Naruse (RINGS, 2/28/93) Kind of a mess but fun – Sergei’s almost filled the Willie Peeters role for 92-93 with his explosiveness but lack of actually connecting. He does have some cool suplex throws and slams, and when he’s on the ground, he’s grabbing arms, legs, chokes. Naruse is, more or less, trying to weather the storm of Sergei’s barrages and find a submission. He’ll throw a couple of knees here and there, but he’s mostly attacking the legs on the mat. This went a little long as they kind of struggle to get anything cinched in, with Sergei ultimately submitting him with a kneebar. Sergei is dope but his sweet spot is under 10 minutes. Sirra Fubicha vs. Kalil Valvitov (RINGS, 3/5/93) This is wrestled in rounds, which is probably a good thing considering the pace these two unknown European dudes were working at. Sirra Fubicha may be of Georgian-descent but don't quote me on that. The first three rounds were awesome. In the first round, Fubicha is all about suplexing and trying to grab a limb, while Valvitov keeps trying for a shoot STF. Fubicha opens the second round by hitting a low-angle Olympic Slam and a deadlift uranage on Valvitov, then gets him in an ankle lock. Valvitov throws a couple of suplexes but he’s trying to get the STF locked in. He's more of the bruiser in this match, clubbing Fubicha down at one point with forearms. Fubicha gets a little too fancy with his headscissors takedown but other than his takedowns and throws, he’s not much of a submission specialist. In the fourth round, he gets a little crazy with the open hand slaps but by the fifth, they’re both spent. They fire off a couple of deadlift Germans but it ends in a draw after the sixth. Volk Han vs. Andrei Kopylov (RINGS, 3/5/93) A much different match than their previous encounter. Kopilov is very aggressive early on, throwing Han around, kicking out his leg to try and tangle him up on the ground. Of course, Han calmly waits until he sees an opening to crank on some kind of hold. Love his stepover armbar takedown. Han throwing some pretty nice open hand slaps. Aside from the blitzkrieg opening, Kopilov is mostly on the defensive, reversing holds when he can, but Han wins in the end with the ankle hold. Volk Han vs. Mitsuya Nagai (RINGS, 4/24/93) One of my favorites from RINGS '93 because I love an underdog fired up and within the palms of the Japanese crowd, swinging for the fences with wild abandon. Nagai puts Han on the rocks, here and there, but he definitely puts him on the rocks. Han does his thing, taking him down to the mat to stretch him in ways only Volk Han can do -- at one point, choking him with his own arm. But Nagai keeps coming at him with kicks, catching him with a shot to the face before Han snags a foot and takes him back down. He's also upped his submission game against Han, using a rolling leglock, a cross armbar, a kneebar...but Han will find ways to slip out and turn the hold against him. I thought the finish was awesome, with Nagai knocking him into the ropes with the big wheel kick, briefly turning him over into the single leg (the crowd losing their shit) before Han forces the submission out of him. Yuki Ishikawa vs. Masayuki Naruse (RINGS, 5/29/93) A half hour of mat warfare. If that's your shit, welcome. There weren’t many knockdowns – this was mostly them scrambling around, trying to grab chokes, leglocks, armbars. Anything. Ishikawa keeps taking Naruse off his feet with double leg takedowns but at one point, he grabs Naruse's leg and Naruse pops him in the face with a nasty knee strike for a knockdown. Nothing blow away but a lot of fun to see Ishikawa in this environment. Dick Vrij vs. Andrei Kopylov (RINGS, 5/29/93) Vrij was uber-dominant and aggressive against Kopylov, not giving him an inch. He’s laying into him with big kicks, kicks him in the nuts at one point, and whenever Andrei gets him on the mat, Vrij is quick to grab the rope so Kopylov never really has an opportunity to keep him on the ground long enough for a submission. Kopylov finally catches him with some body blows and knees but that’s about it -- Vrij just keeps knocking him down with his mean flurries and finally pops him with a palm thrust for the KO.

I echo a lot of the above sentiments regarding this match. Sasaki makes his offense work while looking like a little badass. He gets in some really good body shots on Fujita, and the way Fujita took that German suplex was kind of nuts. When Sasaki takes him down with the armbar takedown, Fujita scrambling to the ropes was a lot of fun. Loved the finish with them trading punches while Sasaki's got him in the kneelock and then Fujita going nuts and pummeling him the TKO.

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.

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.

Yeah, this ruled. It was 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.

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.

This was loosely wrestled under European Catch Rules with Tony St. Clair serving as ref. A cool match in theory, considering the two dudes involved, and a really cool match in execution, despite some of the clunkiness early on. Bas is strike heavy in the opening round, Nishimura focuses on the arm in the second. Nishimura got to show off in the third round and fourth round, pulling out the sickle hold and bow-and-arrow holds, but Bas really lays into Nishimura with some stiff leg kicks in the fifth, both in and out of the ring. At one point, he gets a yellow card for blasting Nishimura as he's getting back into the ring. Bas continues targeting the leg with submissions, and Nishimura is a great sell as always. The test of strength sequence was kind of fun and then Nishimura gets a yellow card for excessive elbows in the corner. There's a great spot where Nishimura chases a wounded Bas into the corner to attack him. Weird spot in the match comes where Bas goes in for a double leg takedown and maybe knocks himself out? I don't know - he was unresponsive for a second there. Loved Bas hitting the Shining Wizard in the ninth round and being all proud about it, and then the final round of them trading/countering holds until the end was a nice way to cap it off.

Zack's legwork was pretty but like always, inconsequential. Chill out in a hold and really work it instead of dancing from one flashy thing to the next. The most visceral part of the match was him repeatedly DDTing his leg into the mat. That was cool. Kota's selling didn't really help matters when he relies so heavily on his kicks and knees to get him ahead in the match. There were some clever counter spots later in the match and ZSJ outslapping Ibushi was great. Probably the second best match of the tournament behind Tanahashi/Suzuki.

Yeah nowhere near 2016. It was a pretty good match with some cool moments but I'm finding myself becoming less and less a fan of the current main event style. Way too much fluff. Omega was more tolerable here than usual but still wrestles/acts like a cartoon character. Similar to the Ibushi/ZSJ match, the limb work was inconsequential. The counter spots are fun for what they are and Omega countering the Destino with that sit-out driver was pretty sweet and would've made for the perfect flash finish. Or you know, the double arm piledriver that immediately follows it.

Murakami is the stuff of nightmares in this match, yikes. He gets bloodied early into the match and boy does he bleed. He rises up like some ghoul and then willingly gets rocked with punches by Enson before putting on the armbar and refusing to let go. Enson continues punching and stepping on Murakami's face, ragdolling the ref aside to continue the beating until the ref calls it. Cue the DMX. Not so much a match but viscerally wild.

Duh this was great. I could watch Suzuki destroy limbs all day, no problem. Tanahashi's selling is whatever, he's the perpetual ace. Loved all the slaps and palm thrusts to set up the sleeper>piledriver combo from Suzuki, and then of course the real nasty legwhip sold so well by Minoru before Tanahashi hits his stuff to win. Easy MOTN.

This was a good match with some great moments. Kind of a weird nothing start until Nagata throws him with the overhead suplex. I loved Nagata coming in from the floor and immediately getting kicked in the head, with Bas relishing the moment in the corner like a real rassler. The transition and high-angle execution of Nagata's wrist-clutch Exploder was pretty sweet, and his final crosshead hold looked gnarly. Rutten's selling is a little silly at times but he gets it.

A total sub-five minute blast with Rutten showing off what he can do in a worked environment and Tanahashi playing the fiery babyfaced underdog. They open with a little slap boxing before Bas gets him in a double underhook, drilling him with knees and a nasty chest kick. Tanahashi heats back up with a couple of throws and I loved when he explodes out of the corner with the dropkick. The finishing rush from Rutten was awesome, with a nasty solebutt, a spin kick to the head, mounted shoteis and then the rear naked choke. Really good squash.

This turned into a pretty fun RINGS undercard-style match. It took them a while to get going but picks up when Rutten grabs the front guillotine and tries for the triangle, which leads to a fun little mat scramble. Rutten rocks Naruse's world with a big head kick, and then Naruse channels his inner Maeda and hits the capture suplex into the leglock, turning it into a cool inverted cloverleaf-type hold. Toward the end, Rutten starts to unload with the knees and kicks but Naruse's able to catch one and drop down into the kneebar. It's pretty much over after Rutten hits the big spin kick though. Neat!

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.