superkix

This was a fun, evenly matched contest, with Naruse hanging with Todorov on the mat as they roll around, trying to counter counters and reverse holds. Todorov uses some cool takeovers and suplexes whereas Naruse is more focused on the striking, primarily knees and kicks. He also brings his submission game. working through a crossface hold, a triangle, and a kneerbar. Naruse continues to improve throughout 1993 and this was probably one of his better singles performances, although Todorov gets the better of him in the end and submits him with a nasty rear necklock.

Probably 1991, although I really liked his match against Nakano from 1990.

This is, quite possibly, the best match in RINGS 1993. Zouev has been the man throughout the last half of the year and now he's up against THE man in Volk Han. I loved the opening – you have Zouev shooting in for a takedown, Han whipping him down by the arm and trying to lock in the submission, but Zouev is able to turn Volk’s attempt into the cross armbar and sends him to the ropes. For the first time, Han is truly put to the test on the mat. They start taking each other down with submissions, throwing strikes in between. Han uses a cool hammerlocked double wristlock, and Zouev comes back with a rolling cross kneebar, making Han lunge for the ropes . At one point, Zouev has him in a scarf hold and Han tries to whip him over in an escape but Zouev keeps the hold locked in, forcing Han to go the ropes yet again. As one might expect, the struggle was excellent as they fight over holds – tons of great takedowns and unique submissions. A couple slaps and kicks from Zouev but this was mostly submission warfare. The finish was awesome, as Han tries for something fancy and Zouev snags the Fujiwara armbar, trapping the legs to prevent Han’s escape and tapping him. Fantastic submission wrestling.

Petkov looks like a big dumb baby in his neon green singlet but he's a lot of fun and unlike pretty much everyone else in RINGS. Paired with a fiery underdog in Nagai, you get Petkov at his best: suplex throws, an Anaconda vice attempt, sitting on leglocks and smothering Nagai with his weight. Nagai is trying to kick and grab a hold and when he finally gets a kneebar, forcing Petkov to the ropes, Petkov has to take a time out to cold spray his knee. This plays directly into the finish, as Nagai goes back to the kneebar and taps Petkov right in front of the ropes.

Two Russian submission specialists = lots of struggle and defense. This was a back-and-forth game of chess on the canvas, where Kopylov would manage a rolling armbar takedown but Zouev would block the submission, and vice versa, with Zouev utilizing some cool takedowns but Kopylov playing heavy D on the mat. When Kopylov finally gets him in a double leglock, Zouev tries to struggle out and Andrei smartly hooks the leg to prevent the escape. I thought Kopylov looked more aggressive here with his strikes, landing knees and open hand slaps, but Zouev fires back, knocking Kopylov down with a big high kick. As the match progresses, they obviously get more sluggish and desperate to get something cinched in. Zoeuv finally grabs a toe hold with Kopylov trapped in a full nelson using his legs -- a very cool submission and another nice win for Zouev.

Sasakis clunky but effective enough to make for a fun power vs. technique match-up against Nishimura. Nishimura works well as the pesky technician as Sasaki keeps flinging him off. Nothing blow away but a pretty fun match.

This was pretty fun. Shibata did enough to hang with Casas. I liked his little mat rolling sequence into the belly-to-belly suplexes. When he and Casas were smacking each other in an exchange, it was cool to see Casa roll backwards to distance himself.

While not as good as their first time limit draw, this match did a lot with very little, putting the emphasis on the struggle of applying and maintain holds, and powering out of a situation. It's a slow and steady burn of classic psychology, where the champ isn't able to manhandle Sekimoto on the ground like everyone else in his title matches. Sekimoto is able to hold his own, using his strength to suppress Hideki. If you don't like Hideki Suzuki going into this match, chances are, you won't like him any more coming out of this match but he really sold well for Sekimoto, making Sekimoto's simple holds look debilitating. I love how Suzuki corners his opponents as a means of intimidation. Sekimoto uses his power to try and control Hideki, wearing him down with holds like the bear hug, which sees Hideki go limp when he tries to fight out. Hideki really works the cravate, keeping it cinched in as Sekimoto tries slamming him off, finally turning it into a neckbreaker. He manipulates the fingers of Sekimoto in order to get the cobra twist locked in, wrenching on the head and neck before Sekimoto staggers over to the ropes and dumps him outside. Sekimoto works the back awhile, and again, some great selling by Hideki on the corner whips. At one point, Hideki needs to re-lace his boots, they shake hands, and continue their wrestling match, getting the fans invested in a traditional contest of holds. There a lot of neat touches to this match, like Sekimoto holding onto the armwhip attempt and forcing Suzuki to his knee, or rolling through with Hideki's escape attempt to maintain control. At one point, Hideki uses a cool but clunky headscissors takedown, trying clever pin attempts when he finds openings. I love how Sekimoto headbutts the leg to set up the single leg crab. The escalation in offense isn't done at the pull of trigger but builds in the same fashion as the rest of the match. Strikes are limited to a few chops and open hands and the build to Sekimoto's German suplex hold was really well done. Suzuki tries to unbuckle the deadlift German suplex attempt and Sekimoto just slams him down. Oh, and Sekimoto hits the double arm suplex and Suzuki kicks out immediately because that's his move, duh. When Sekimoto tries to suplex him off the ropes, Suzuki uses a low blow to escape before beating on him and hitting the scoop tombstone for a two count. By the end, they're sluggish and can't quite hit everything they need to in order to win the match. Sekimoto's able to finally hit the German suplex hold but Suzuki is barely able to slip out of the pin as the time limit expires. Easily the best Suzuki match of 2018, and a definite throwback match structure that was able to draw in the fans through simplicity and struggle. Oh yeah, and Takuya Nomura ATTACKED Hideki after the match so...fuck yeah, we're getting a Suzuki/Nomura title match at some point.

Pretty fun tag with Sawa and Usuda being the standouts. Usuda was pretty stiff with his strikes, at one point punt kicking Yoshikawa in the face. Sawa's takedowns and transitions on the mat are always great, and he uses a neat armbar takedown on Hayato, switching to the leg to set-up the figure-four. Hayato isn't great on the mat but he brings the hard kicks and I liked how he used the knees when he's got the double wristlock on Yoshikawa. Yoshikawa was pretty good as the underdog but there were a few times he seemed lost in the shuffle. He hits a nice arm-trap suplex into the jujigatame before finishing it out with Usuda, who wins via submission. Nothing too crazy.

Shuji Ishikawa, Tomohiro Ishii, Kazuchika Okada are ones that immediately pop to mind.

Is there a more well-rounded wrestler than Otsuka? Probably not. Great explosiveness in his offense, from his suplexes to his grappling. I think Hidaka is very much an underrated matworker. I really liked his quickness across the canvas and the fluidity of his takedowns. Tiger Mask looked pretty good here, too. His early legscissors takedown was great and he hung on the mat with Malenko in a neat exchange. Malenko sells the danger of submissions really well, and the struggle between he and Otsuka on the ground was great. But Otsuka stole the show with not only with his offense (stuff like the deadlift German and gutwrench backbreaker) but fighting through submissions as Calenko and Hidaka target his legs throughout. Hidaka gets a really cool double leg takedown into the submission but Otsuka pulls out the win, countering the rolling leglock with a heel hook. Very cool tag match.

This was a good match with a bad finish. Everything up until the Stretch Plum was classic Fujiwara. Fujiwara working the wristlock, Kawada grinding on him with the headlock before dropping that awesome knee to the head. They both fire off some snug shots, and I didn't see most of this as Fujiwara no selling but rather him being the grizzled old grappler who can take a beating better than most. I mean, Kawada selling his own headbutts is obvious enough. Great headbutt exchanges and the old ring bolt headshot. The match fell apart after the Stretch Plum with some blatant no selling from Fujiwara and the finish sucked. But I enjoyed everything up until that point.

This was pretty fun. I loved Izumida's running shoulderblock to knock Takayama out of the ring. Takayama beating on somebody with kicks and suplexes is never not fun, and Jun gets a fun little comeback, with Kawada-style face kicks, knees, a great running boot in the corner and diving shoulderdrops. Of course, Takayama knees and kicks his way toward the finish, putting Jun down with a brutal head kick.

This match ruled. Imagine Kawada working a spell in BattlARTS, against a former RINGS underdog in Nagai. No pin attempts, only knockdowns and submissions. And for almost 12:00 minutes, these two beat the shit out of each other. Pesky Nagai gets to kicking early on until Kawada snaps on him with elbows, and they trade blows until Kawada boots him down and spits blood. The stage is set. Nagai's shitty underdog performance is incredible, from his selling and expressions to rubbing wrist tape in Kawada's face and kicking the shit out of his leg. Really good struggle from both during the Stretch Plum attempt. And then it shifts into another gear as they start blasting each other with low kicks to the leg. Kawada is super aggressive with his kicks, buckling Nagai's knees and knocking him off his feet. But Nagai's giving it back to him and you can see Kawada's in pain as he limps around the ring, frustrated that Nagai keeps fighting. They slap the hell out of each other but Kawada keeps attacking the leg, putting him in a nasty stomping single leg crab. He keeps trying to submit Nagai with the single leg and after smacking him around and cutting the leg out with a kick, he really cranks on the single leg for the submission. I love a good, fiery underdog story and this delivered on almost all levels, with some great selling from both guys and brutal exchanges. A total hidden gem in Kawada's already stacked portfolio.

I'm curious in regards to your take of him being overrated. He's usually the guy who puts on bangers and most folks agree he's great and wonder why he doesn't get a bigger push, yet seems to be absent from most "best in the world" discussions. He has a particular style that doesn't necessarily mesh well with everyone he goes up against, especially when he's working outside of NJPW, and can come off as tiring and robotic after the 10th strike exchange. That being said, I think he's underrated as a seller and conveys emotion better than most in New Japan.

Tomohiro Ishii

Finally got through this after two failed attempts (aka sleep) and it was a chore that. at times, felt never-ending. I'll echo some of the same negative sentiments about the match, including Okada's weak defense and ZSJ's tendency to just go through holds without giving them any meaning. He's just not very believable -- although, admittedly, some of ZSJ's counters were clever and I like how he always tries to keep Okada from reaching the ropes. He also did a good job of keeping the crowd invested in the submissions and spoiling a lot of Okada's signature spots. But that finish was super weak and it's becoming harder for me to pay attention to 30+ minute NJPW main events.

I am not looking forward to a 90-minute Okada/Omega match.

What a great squash by the master Volk Han, who has to side slam the fire out of underdog Naruse, who comes out of the gate hot, trying to stun Han with open hands and knee strikes. Of course, Han uses some awesome takedowns and submission holds thoughout, including a split-legged kneebar and a standing armbar. Naruse's just trying to hang on at points, either onto Han with a sleeper attempt or onto the ropes. His selling of Han's holds is terrific for a shoot-style match and his hope spot punch to the ribs was a cool moment that lit the crowd up. Naruse ultimately falls victim to Han's stepover armbar but he gave a spirited effort and Han continues to showcase why he's one of the best wrestlers in the world.

Pretty fun match, with Berto working as the big strong dude who smothers Naruse on the mat with his weight and Naruse trying to find the submission. He isn't intimated by Berto's size and immediately pops him with a spinning backhand to start. Berto has some decent takedowns and big jumping kicks but can't do a whole lot on the mat. The match picks up toward the end as they're both trading open hands and Naruse gets busted open with a spinning backhand. Berto keeps trying for a calf hold of some sort but Naruse's able to grab him with a leglock for the tap out.

Both guys have a similar style, although Zouev is less about the throws and more in the same vein as Volk Han, using Sambo takedowns, headscissors, arm submissions, and often turning an opponent's hold against them. Zaza comes out more aggressive than usual, landing some big kicks and a sick spinning backhand to the face. But once they get on the mat, Zoeuv takes control of the situation. He uses a grounded full nelson and a sweet arm-and-shoulder takedown into the submission. Zaza mostly sticks to neat strikes and throws, and his over-exaggerated selling of the leglock was something else. Things get sluggish toward the end as they struggle to get something going on the mat but in the end, Zoeuv catches him a cool neck-crank for the submission.

What a nice find. A match mostly dominated by matwork, with some really good reversals and counters, especially from Malenko. I really liked how Malenko had Fuchi in the double arm hold and tripped him down into a butterfly lock. Fuchi works the arm for a bit and when Malenko bridges out of a hold, Fuchi armwhips him down and tries for the crossface chickenwing, but in a great counter, Joe hooks the leg to take Fuchi down to the mat before going back to the leg. Loved how Fuchi sells Malenko's holds and the annoyed expression on his face when he's able to escape. The finishing stretch is a suplex exhibition from Joe, who hits a snap fisherman suplex hold, a fallaway suplex into the pin, a German and finally, the Northern Lights suplex hold to pin Fuchi. Really good stuff.

This was great. No striking, very few throws or takedowns, but tons of excellent matwork -- in particular, the opening scramble was really good, with Joe showing off his responsiveness to Fujiwara, maintaining control of the leg even as Fujiwara is trying to roll out. The build to the Fujiwara armbar was done well, with Yoshiaki scooting down to the mat in various attempts. But in classic Fujiwara fashion, he takes a moment to boredly rest his chin on his hand while he's trying to snag an armbar. I also really liked how he used the knee on Malenko's chin to escape his control. Sure, there were lulls in the action but the attention to detail, the slick counters and reversals, and the tension built through submission attempts create a technically sweet mat-based encounter.

Really loved the opening with Chabadze controlling Fujiwara on the mat and taking him over with little throws. He seems to have a good mind for the worked match. Fujiwara walking over and smacking him in the face after Chabadze tells him to bring it was awesome. Then Chabadze starts throwing him wirh suplexes but when he tries to turn him over with a single leg, Fujiwara grabs the heel and submits him. Fun match.

Cool suplexes and takedowns from Galdava but the matwork was a little too dry for my tastes. Joe looked decent and the finish was pretty neat but yeah, kind of a nothing match.