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A pretty good but disappointing tag match considering the names involved. There were definitely some cool moments with Fujiwara being the standout of the match. I liked his early lock ups with Ikeda and them throwing stuff like Fujiwara's big slap in the corner and Ikeda's crumpling head kick. Sugiura was the clunky, hothead amateur in there against Hashimoto but worked really well against Fujiwara. Loved Fujiwara's boot scrape to the face to counter the triangle into a leglock and Sugiura throwing Fujiwara with a couple of overhead suplexes. The outside stuff was whatever, Sugiura's selling wasn't very good, and there wasn't enough Ikeda/Hashimoto interactions. Sugiura's able to deliver a nice German suplex hold on Hashimoto before Hashimoto finishes him off.

It's been a minute but we're back and we're going back to Fighting Network RINGS to talk the first half of 1994. Direct link is HERE! https://fightingnetworkfriends.podiant.co/e/3663011df9a3cc/ to stream, or subscribe to the RSS feed. You can also find us on Apple Podcasts. FNF 018: RINGS in '94 Pt. 1 FIGHTING NETWORK RINGS IN 1994 Pt. 1! Will Volk Han still win our hearts, or is there a new young upstart stealing the show? Only one way to find out. We are back after like 44 years to talk RINGS once again. We got Volk, we got Maeda, we got Tariel, we got Vrij, we got Kopilov, but most of all the first half of '94 brings us the ascendance of Yoshihisa Yamamoto. Oh, and Grom is MEAN. In the third segment, we focus on one of Andy's favorite feuds of all-time, as we pay our respect to Vader (RIP) as he locks up with the bleached-blond babyface STING. (Oh and Hideki Suzuki and Takuya Nomura wrestled for the BJW title and it rocked.) Topics discussed: - We're back! - Brennan has no furniture, but he IS in Oregon - The shirts arrived, they look great, and you should have them! - Inokiists, PWO, Fall Wrestling - RINGS RINGS RINGS - Vader, Sting, Takuya, Hideki 3rd Segment Matches: Vader and Sting: Great American Bash 92, Starrcade 92 and Superbrawl III 6/20/18 - BJW Strong Title: Takuya Nomura vs. Hideki Suzuki Youtube Playlist: http://tinyurl.com/fnf018 Follow us on Twitter: @fightfriends @trillyrobinson @bren_patrick Email at: [email protected] Instagram: @fightnetworkfriends Youtube at: http://tinyurl.com/FightFriends Store at: http://fightingnetworkfriends.bigcartel.com

This was a fun sprint with a babyfaced Sekimoto and blonde Ohtani being stiff and surly. Loved the buckwild opening with Sekimoto going after Ohtani, spearing him on the facewash attempt and dumping him with a release German. Ohtani biting the thumb to escape a chinlock is a nice transition into him being real mean with his baseball dropkicks and slaps, busting open Sekimoto's mouth. Sekimoto's chops are loud and proud and he gets a couple of two counts off lariats but this is Ohtani's show. Swan-dive dropkick, dragon suplex, powerbomb, and finishing him off with his King Cobra Clutch.

SJW = Social Justice Warrior. Not sure about cuck unless it's a typo.

is there a better bomb throwin', no sellin' little shitkicker than Takaiwa? This was a pretty decent match with Hoshikawa trying the more technical approach and Takaiwa obviously going the rough-and-tumble route. Hoshikawa will come at him with hard kicks, Takaiwa will no sell them in order to slap him the face and chop him down. Takaiwa throws really hard chops. He lariats him over the barricade, powerbombs him on the floor, hits a superplex. Hoshikawa keeps coming back with kicks and makes the mistake of trying to contain Takaiwa with a butterfly lock (Takaiwa obviously counters out with a Death Valley Bomb). He finally takes down Hoshikawa after three consecutive lariats.

Between this, the Abe match, the Togo match, and his performance in the Strong Climb, Nomura is easily one of the best wrestlers in Japan right now. He gets it.

Where the heck is the Okada/Suzuki downpour match?

An easy MOTYC. Here's my review from SUPERDUPERPLEX.

I love a good 80's handheld match. Tons of heat between Takada/Maeda and Fujiwara, but especially between hot-head Takada and old iron-head Fujiwara. Kido is the low man on the totem pole and things slow down whenever he's in the ring but, for the most part, he manages to fit in with these guys and does some neat stuff on the mat. At one point, he's got Takada in a leglock and when Takada struggles, Kido kicks his opposite foot to put the pressure back on Takada. Later on, he's able to catch a back kick from Takada and take him down into the single leg crab. But man, once Fujiwara gets in there vs. Takada, the match sizzles. Takada starts cracking Fujiwara's legs with kicks, Fujiwara gets pissed and smacks him down. Against Maeda, Fujiwara immediately takes it to him with body blows before Maeda and Takada work him over with stiff kicks. He's able to slip out of Takada's suplex attempt and take him down with the Fujiwara armbar but he can't get the submission. Maeda German suplexes him and goes into a crossface chickenwing but Fujiwara whips him off and re-applies the hold himself. The finishing stretch between he and Takada is just as nasty as when they started and I loved the actual finish, with Fujiwara catching a kick, stomping out the opposite leg, and then submitting him with the leglock.

This had some cool moments but as a whole, it didn't quite feel cohesive enough to be a truly great match. I did like the extended feeling out process to open, with Mutoh trying to catch a kick and Nagata almost amusing him on the mat. When Mutoh finally snags the leg, Nagata cinches in the front necklock and forces him to the ropes, which Mutoh sells really well as he exits the ring. When he returns, the match gets a little messy. I like how Mutoh's usual legwork strategy keeps getting thwarted and Nagata has some clunky but effective counters. But you know, eventually Mutoh gets it and goes to town on the knee. Other than a few kicks, Nagata's strikes look shitty. And I agree, Mutoh no selling the German suplex>wrist-clutch Exploder combo to hit a Shining Wizard was dumb. Not a bad match, not a great match, but a match.

Hey, I'm all about technique vs. power match-ups and this one worked really well, despite Tenzan's limitations. Osamu is snug as always, really working the hell out of Tenzan's arm and Tenzan really selling the submissions as dangerous. Tenzan is Tenzan but he works well as the counterweight to Nishimura's approach. The armwork goes away but the back half of the match is a lot of fun. Nishimura smartly blocks the crab hold attempt and I loved his collapse after the big face slap. Always a top notch seller. The two count off the German suplex hold was great, and I thought the finishing stretch was good. After Tenzan hurts his knee on the calf branding and misses the moonsault, Osamu dropkicks the knee to set-up the spinning toe hold, which Tenzan Mongolian chops out of before finishing him with the TTD.

A fired up Sendai crowd behind a fired up Liger = FUN! I loved the early la magistral cradle by Liger, forcing Kojima to bail out of the ring. Kojima plays a fun enough spoiler to Liger's babyface comebacks. They work through some holds on the mat before Kojima hits a Koji Cutter to the floor and a Liger Bomb of his own. Liger comes back with a big powerbomb and a moonsault but he can't finish off Kojima, whcih leads to Kojima hitting a top rope Koji Cutter and a cool cradle Michinoku Driver. The nearfall off of Liger's brainbuster was awesome and in the end, Kojima's the one who can't finish off Liger and he runs into a big shotei for the upset loss.

Blown spot aside, this was a really fun match with a cool finish. I like both guys but haven't seen them much in WWE so seeing them actually wrestling was a nice surprise.

Semi-final of the one-night IWGP Heavyweight Title tournament. This is a pretty good much but Fujinami looks way too overpowered against Vader. I like that Vader is able show off some subtle additions to his power template (the hammerlock takedown, the drop toe hold). Fujinami gets in quite a bit of offense before Vader rocks him with a perfectly sold lariat. Fujinami stays on the arm for most of the match, looking for the armbar, which plays well into the final against Hashimoto. When Fujinami tries rolling him up, Vader squashes him and hits his running splash for the win.

A more compact version of their June '88 match with a few of the same spots surrounding Vader catching Fujinami (i.e. the tumbling out of the ring on the crossbody). Again Fujinami looks pretty strong here, hitting suplexes and backdrops. This time when Fujinami slips out of the suplex attempt, he uses a sleeper to wear Vader down for the dragon sleeper. Vader also comes off the top rope with an avalanche before he creams Fujinami with a lariat for the win. Fun match.

At times, it was hard to follow along, especially when they were in the crowd, but there were some cool moments throughout. I liked Vader's powerful opening with the headbutts, forearms, and suplex. But Fujinami's able to hip toss him over and lariat him out of the ring. When he suplexes Vader, the whole ring rocks, a great visual. There's a lot of in-and-out-of-the-ring stuff going on, and at some point, Vader is bloodied. Fujinami heats up during the finishing stretch, nearly pinning Vader with the running crossbody, but the finish was kind of shit with Vader sitting on him during the roll-up attempt and Fujinami kicking out at three and immediately getting up.

Great job of Vader being the big mean aggressor early on, between the clubbing shots and the back work, trying to wear him down. They fuck up one of the spots and Fujinami's backdrop was a little too cooperative. Fujinami targets the legs, using the figure-four and scorpion deathlock until Vader pops him with a well-sold lariat. But then Fujinami is back with the low enziguri kicks and octopus hold, which Vader rightfully slams out of. Vader's crossbody catch where they both tumble out of the ring was awesome and I liked Fujinami squeaking out the win with the backslide. I agree, Fujinami looked a little too strong here, even more so in their April '89 match. But still a really good match.

Hashimoto doesn't have time for Vader's hollering and smoke-spewing elephant head. He immediately goes after the injured arm of Vader, which Fujinami had worked earlier in the night. Vader does a good job initially of keeping the arm behind him but Hashimoto's able to snag it and Vader has to pop him with a spinning backhand. The tension between these two is pretty damn great and when Hashimoto lets loose with the kicks to the arm, Vader sells it terrifically. Vader does such a good job of playing the vulnerable monster in Japan who is scared (legitimately) of submission holds. Vader bodyslams out of a double wristlock, building some momentum, which includes a big dropkick, but when he goes up top, Hashimoto stops him with a spinning heel kick and once again goes back to the best shot he has at winning: that injured arm. But Vader is often able to clobber his way out of trouble and does so here, punching Hashimoto in the face and hitting two lariats, the second enough to score the win following an awkward hesitation by special guest ref, Lou Thesz, on the three count. A simple story of finding the dragon's weakness and exploiting it but in the end, the dragon eats the knight. Great stuff.

I think the only A Block matches I'm really looking forward to are Suzuki's matches with Tanahashi, Okada, and maybe EVIL.

Seems like this is the perfect year to cherry pick.

On paper, this should be a complete hossfest -- in execution, however, it's a little disappointing. I really liked the tension behind the lock ups, building to when Albright starts wailing on him with elbows in the ropes. He does manage a belly-to-belly suplex on Vader but that's the only suplex we get in this match, despite Albright briefly getting him in a full nelson. The match plods along with Vader going for choke sleepers until he finally gets one locked on for the submission. Not the kind of match you want from these two.

This was more in line with the Tamura match, with Kakihara trying to utilize his speed in a kick-and-run offense until Vader corners him and pummels him down. Kakihara connects with a terrific spinning heel kick that busts Vader's nose and then he goes to town with the slaps and kicks on Vader, trying for the armbar before Vader snags the ropes. That sure pisses Vader off, who clobbers him silly and then chokeslams him. But that's not enough...he KOs Kaki with a wheelbarrel facebuster. Another fun squash from SUPER VADER.

This was less shoot-style and more pro-wrestling but it was still a pretty fun match-up. There's a pretty great part where Vader catches one of Sano's kick attempts and Sano repeatedly slaps him in the face and...Vader doesn't do anything. He lets him go with a warning. Sano's able to get in a few strikes before it turns into the Vader show. Palm strikes, Samoan drops, a chokeslam and a powerbomb wrap this one up.

Yamazaki knows his best chance of winning is knocking Vader off his feet with kicks. Unfortunately, Vader's on top of it and counters most of Yamazaki's early kicks, slamming or clubbing him down as a result. Or he corners him like a dog and hammers him to the ground. Yamazaki's able to take him down and kicks away at the leg, which Vader sells well here. He follows up with a big spinning heel kick into the ropes . They both tumble to the floor but back inside, Yamazaki continues the assault with some head kicks but Vader won't go down. He's able to block the German and counter out of the sleeper attempt, trying to snag an armbar, but Vader breaks away and blasts Yamazaki with palm strikes, finally chokeslamming him for the TKO. This was a lot of fun, and Yamazaki made Vader look even more dominant while still giving him a fight.

I love Nakano because he never backs down from a fight, regardless of the size of his opponent. He's not scared here against Vader, who gets him down and tries for a single leg crab. Nakano tries kicking at Vader but the big man keeps popping him with shots and then hits him with like...I don't know, a German uranage? Nakano, of course, gets bloodied during the coruse of the match but he manages a sleeper hold! Unfortunately, Vader keeps popping him and though Nakano's spirit is strong, Vader eventually takes him out with the knockout shot.