superkix

Tamura, confident in his ways, slaps Vader before the bell because...well, that's just what you do to the monsters in your life, right? Tamura's strategy is an obvious one: take Vader down at the kneecaps. Kick kick kick until he crumbles. Vader's able to catch him with a few shots but then Tamura lets loose a series of slaps and high kicks. For a big dude, Vader's selling is terrific here, as Tamura hacks him down and puts him in a kneebar. Vader struggles to find his mark as Tamura continues kicking, again using that kneebar to take Vader to the ropes. In the end, however, Vader's able to club him down, slam him, and hit the big powerbomb for the TKO victory. IAs said before, it's the classic shoot-style David vs. Goliath and it rules.

Neither guy is prime but it's still Han vs. Fujiwara so no complaints here. This is a little exhibition with them scrambling around the mat, looking to grab something substantial. Han goes for the armbar, the triangle, then drags Fujiwara to the middle o the ring looking for his signature standing single leg. He turns the attempt into his double heel hook but Fujiwara's able to snag an ankle hold, forcing Han to escape. They fight over leglocks and boy, Fujiwara's having a grand time and so is Han. Then we get a classic Fujiwara handshake fakeout into the single leg takedown attempt by Han stops him with a hammerlock. Fujiwara survives a sleeper and manages the Fujiwara armbar briefly before the time expires at 10:00.

This was good but as previously stated, not as good as their 2000 match. Straightforward opening but when Akiyama tries to get cute with his grappling, Misawa pops him with an elbow. As always, I liked Akiyama working the neck with his grumpy stomps, hitting a great jumping knee to set up the tombstone piledriver. Misawa keeps finding ways to avoid Akiyama's offense, keeps popping him with elbows and then finally takes him out with the dive through the ropes. Akiyama's able to bring the focus back to the neck with the DDT on the ramp, the Exploders in and out of the ring, but again, Misawa cuts him off up top to hit his superduper tiger driver and we get another traditional bomb-heavy finishing stretch with Akiyama hitting a bunch of Exploders to win.

So an Ishii/Suzuki final?

These two dudes seemingly had a whole slew of matches together in ZERO-ONE, many of which were, at the very least, GOOD matches. This one is a personal favorite because it's compact and simple yet smartly worked without overstaying its welcome. Tanaka is a pudgy little house of fire to open, putting Ohtani on the rocks until Ohtani dropkicks the knee and starts working the holds. When Ohtani ties the leg up in the ropes, the fans let him have it and he basks in their boos. Tanaka's selling is terrific throughout the match, as he tries to boot and slap his way out of a leglock to no avail. When Tanaka starts to build some momentum, Ohtani ducks an elbow and hits a German suplex hold for two. And then he goes back to attacking that knee, keeping his holds locked in even after a rope break. Loved Tanaka hobbling over on one foot, trying to cut Ohtani off on the top rope before eventually superplexing him off, which sets the stage for the bomb-heavy finishing stretch. Tanaka goes on an offensive run, trying to finish Ohtani off with the Diamond Dust but Ohtani survives, dumping Masato with a couple of release dragon suplexes before putting him away with the Spiral Bomb. Good stuff!

Solid junior heavyweight wrestling with a strong finishing stretch. You've got your standard opening with them trading holds and counters, then picking up the speed with some dives and more high-impact offense. Hoshikawa's kicks are as snug as always. The focus on the leg by Hidaka is the narrative here and he's always great at attacking it to set-up the Shawn Capture while Hoshikawa did a terrific job selling it. I love Hidaka's German suplex into the kneebar. The finish plays off the legwork with Hoshikawa hitting a German suplex hold but unable to maintain the bridge. So it tries it again, bridging on one leg to pin Hidaka.

Araya’s terrific at taking a beating and Kawada sure gives it to him. When Araya slaps Kawada in the ropes, he gets kicked down. When he tries to elbow Kawada back, he gets flattened and takes a real shitty (shitty in a good way) kick to the head. They slap it out and Kawada completely whiffs on a spinning backkick and lands on his ass for a little chuckle before he promptly resumes being a dick. Araya doesn’t do much on offense but boy, he really wants to hit that moonsault. He misses twice and pays for it, and then when he tries for a third time, Kawada cuts him off and folds him in two with a backdrop. Araya does finally hit the moonsault…mostly…but it’s not enough to finish off Kawada. After he busts Araya open with a running boot, Kawada quickly taps him with the stretch plum. A super fun squash match.

For the most part, a great match. I liked the convulsive start before the match sort of hiccups along. The ground stuff is filler but I liked the in-between stuff: the pacing around, the wincing, the missed dropkick attempt by Mutoh, the snap backdrop from Tenryu. Mutoh starts going after the leg but Tenryu’s able to counter a suplex attempt into an apron brainbuster and follows up with a tope. Then, of course, Mutoh hits the dragon screw from the apron to the floor to return to the legwork. Look, I love Mutoh’s legwork, even when it goes nowhere: the dropkicks to the knee, the endless dragon screws, the double stomps. Tenryu’s legwork…eh, not so much, though I do adore the Texas cloverleaf. But the finishing stretch is really good stuff, with Tenryu hitting a spider German suplex, a brainbuster, a frankensteiner, and plenty of punches and chops. The knee from Mutoh to counter the Northern Lights Bomb was sold so well by Tenryu, and it takes two Shining Wizards and a moonsault to put the champ away.

I still think their G1 match from last year was the best match of the series. Way less fluff, more compact and smartly worked. I don't need the unnecessary theatrics.

This was Hashimoto and Choshu beating the crap out of each other -- just tons of kicks, lariats, chops, and punches. One DDT from Hashimoto but it was mostly him being a dick, stalling at the beginning, and then not letting up on Choshu at the end, forcing Fujinami to throw in the towel. The selling was pretty great from both guys and Choshu comes off as the sympathetic defender of NJPW. Tons of heat with a hot crowd.

I always liked when a Northern Lights suplex hold was the finish.

Anyone interested in this thing continuing? I've got a bunch of cards planned up through Vader's defeat.

This match was a lot of fun, primarily because of Fuchi. This thing starts off with Fuchi hitting a backdrop and Samurai flying around before it settles into some classic Fuchi matwork. Loved him scooting across the mat with Samurai stuck in the headscissors and of course, the wishbone leg split. Samurai rubbing forearms while he's got Fuchi in the clutch is a old-school heel shenanigans, which I enjoy, but then Fuchi shuts him down after like seven backdrops.

Two dudes with amateur backgrounds chasing armbars and throwing suplexes. They tease Albright's German suplex throughout the match, up to the finish, and while he tosses Honda around early on with a couple of belly-to-belly suplexes, Honda got in quite a bit of offense against the bigger Albright. After a few suplexes of his own, he tries to put Albright to sleep, hanging on to the hold as Gary tries to counter out of it. He's able to get to the ropes when Albright tries for the dragon suplex so Albright palm thrusts him in the face, slams him down and goes back tot he armbar, which results in a little dosey-doe of armbar attempts until Albright punches him in the face. Then Albright hits a cool front suplex, a German suplex, and Honda tries rolling away from Albright toward the ropes but Albright scoops him up and hits the German suplex hold for the pin. Fun match.

An exciting match-up on paper but disappointing upon viewing. There wasn't much heat between these two, which is shame, because Nakano is known to piss off plenty of people. A lot of slow struggle spots with a few occasional spats from Nakano or hacking chops from Hashimoto. It heats up a little at the end as Nakano's able to take Hashimoto over with a German suplex and starts in with the kicks. Really loved the failed double leg takedown attempt into the DDT by Hashimoto to set up his finishing run.

We get about half of an 8:00 match but it's still a lot of fun, with Nakano being the pudgy shitkicker and Hase showing a lot of fire. Nakano's snap suplex rules and he manages to get quite a bit of offense against Hase, including a German and some big slaps. Really loved his face smack to stop Hase's headbutting dead in its tracks. Of course, we get a giant swing from Hase and a pretty brutal looking uranage to set up the finishing Northern Lights suplex hold.

This had its moments for sure. Fuchi schooling Araya on the mat, Tenryu busting open Araya with the punch and Fuchi taking advantage, the fired up Araya trying to get retribution against Tenryu but failing -- great selling from Araya as he eats lariats and chops and punches. Their last exchange with Tenryu being a total dick until Araya shoulderblocks him down was great. Some weird pacing issues though and the stuff between Kawada/Tenryu was disappointing.

This was good. After struggling to find anything on the ground, Nagata hits a kneel kick into the ropes and a backdrop hold for two before Fujita bails to the outside. Fans loved it. Fujita mostly uses his size to keep Nagata pinned down, popping him with a few shots or knees. Loved when Nagata tries for the big elbow and Fujita evades it and turns it into the choke sleeper. Nasty German from Nagata but yeah, Fujita no sells it and slams Nagata down. Then we get some weak sauce punches from Nagata before Fujita finishes him off with some pretty great grounded knees.

Pretty fun match with Tanaka/Gedo muddying the BattlARTS waters. The interactions between Tanaka and Ishikawa were the high points of the match, including their little headbutt exchange, and vice versa, the Gedo/Yone matches were at the low end. We get a little brawling with Tanaka using chairs to put Yone on the rocks and Ishikawa seething to get in there and deliver payback. The choke out finish and refusal to letup was the cherry to top it off.

I liked this quite a bit more than anything else from the tournament so far, except maybe Hiromu/Desperado. KUSHIDA is so good at controlling the flow of the match, so slick in his movements and counters. He's easily my favorite junior in NJPW and I can't wait to see him move up to heavyweight. SHO got to show off his technical side and while it isn't on KUSHIDA's level, he's still pretty good, although some of his offense can become too flashy that it loses its effectiveness. I liked when KUSHIDA trapped the leg when SHO's trying to boot out of a leglock in order to send him reaching for the ropes. He just keeps on after SHO's arm and SHO has to power out when he can -- he hits a cool gutwrench slam counter to the hanging armbar. SHO gets off some big offense toward the end but KUSHIDA goes back to the arm and ultimately pins him with his small package driver.

Sawa's final match in BattlARTS and a good showing from both guys, especially Suruga, who is usually solid but never blows me away. Sawa did some neat stuff on the mat early on, pissing Suruga off, who starts laying into him with kicks on the ground. Really stiff strikes from Suruga and some nice snug elbows from Sawa. Sawa will eat these strikes and just grin at the crowd -- it's really something. On the ground, Suruga focuses on the arm but then he'll throw a tiger suplex. Exhaustion plays into the finish as they're both lobbing tired shots. Sawa hits all his signatures toward the end and finishes off Suruga with the octopus hold to send the fans home happy. Really good, fun match.

An improvement over their first encounter with a well-worn chemistry and a good mix of laughs and stiff shots. I love the fake out slap exchanges, Ishikawa throwing closed-fist punches but showing the ref his open hand, Ishikawa throwing a roll of streamers at Sawa while he's trying to kick him from the apron. Sawa tries pulling off some of his mentor’s signature spots, being a pain in Ishikawa’s ass. As for the strikes, there are tons of slaps, punches, kicks, palm thrusts. Toward the end, Sawa dumps him with a cool half-and-half suplex and tries to submit him with the grounded octopus but Ishikawa is able to snag the leglock and force him into submission. Great finish with Sawa really selling the leglock struggle.

This was pretty fun but nothing blow away. The exchanges between Kakihara and Nagata were the obvious highlights. They work over Makabe for awhile, who throws his weight around just find against the shooters. When Kakihara tries for the shotei, Nagata counters with the Exploder. There are stereo submissions by both sides, and a bunch of suplexes toward the end, with Makabe hitting rolling Germans for a pretty great nearfall. After a double muscle buster, Nagai finishes off Makabe with the sprinboard knee.

New episode is out and about, and here's the direct LINK! https://fightingnetworkfriends.podiant.co/e/3642c80f407d2e/ to stream, or subscribe to the RSS feed. You can also search us on Apple Podcasts. FNF 017: Inoki Festival 1995 EPISODE 17, the single show review! We are here to talk a little talked about show that Antonio Inoki put on at the end of 1995, featuring all of our favorite guys (and gals)! Fujiwara, Takada, Yamazaki, Ikeda, Kakihara, Hase, Anjoh, Bull, Hokuto, Nagata and more! Yo this show is clipped to hell, but it's a ton of fun - listen to us discuss it! Topics discussed: We are gonna take a break after this one, Brennan is moving back! T-shirts are all figured out, paid for, being printed and will be arriving before long! What we are watching Inoki Festival 12/30/95 More dope matches! Choshu, Destroyer, Robinson, Windham, Regal, Hideki, Abe, Nomura and everything ever. & More Also: 5/13/18 - BJW - Hideki Suzuki & Daisuke Sekimoto Vs. Fuminori Abe & Takuya Nomura 5/26/78 - AJPW - Billy Robinson & Ervin Smith Vs. Jumbo Tsuruta & The Destroyer 6/9/87 - NJPW - Riki Choshu Vs. Yoshiaki Fujiwara 4/17/93 - WCW - Steven Regal Vs. Barry Windham Youtube Playlist: http://tinyurl.com/fnf017 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 pretty fun, if a little one-sided. I loved the cheap shot punch by Fujiwara before the bell but this is mostly Ogawa using his size to keep Fujiwara grounded, pounding on him with punches when he can. Fujiwara will try to grab an foot or a leglock but Ogawa is able to overpower him. Fujiwara's selling is really great in this, from him crawling across the canvas to the look in his eyes as he's getting planted by STOs.