superkix

This turned into quite the match after a dull opening, with Takayama cutting off Misawa with the big knee and basement dropkicking him out of the ring. The pacing/structure of the match was a little clunky, with the submission work never feeling that believable -- like I don't need to see Misawa working an armbar. But the strikes really heated up -- the elbows from Misawa and the kicks/knees from Takayama. Whatever strike combo cut Misawa's chin made it look like his throat had been slashed or something. Takayama's first big German suplex nearfall was awesome and then the whole finishing stretch really brought the match home, with Takayama looking completely out of it and drooling after the running elbow smash before Misawa puts him away for good.

Yuta Yoshikawa's tag match with Katsumi Usuda vs. Munenori Sawa & Ikuto Hidaka.

Watching Liger as a young lion grap it up with one of the best in Fujiwara was just as satisfying as one might expect. For not having a ton of experience, Yamada looks pretty good in there with the reverse armbar maestro Fujiwara. I mean, whenever he has an opening, Fujiwara is quick to take him down with the armbar. When Yamada finally gets him in a leglock, Fujiwara mocks him, pointing at the leg like "are you kidding me with this shit?" before promptly exerting control. I really like Yamada's little slaps to the face when he's got Fujiwara on the ropes and then he climbs on with a great octopus hold. But Fujiwara peels him off, flings him down, and hits a side suplex. Yamada's able to grab a kneebar to take him to the ropes, and when he's on his feet, he's lunging at Fujiwara with slaps. At one point, he's able to get Fujiwara in a neat figure-four but that's the last straw as Fujiwara contiously takes him down with Fujiwara armbar counters, eventually submitting him for the win. Very cool match.

Two bald machine suplex machines, scrambling around the mat in a slick shoot amateur fashion, looking for the first suplex while simultaneously avoiding getting suplexed on their head. Sugiura fires off the first suplex with a belly-to-belly. Otsuka is able to take him down with the front necklock but Sugiura deftly bridges out and works into a front mount, where he just starts slapping Otsuka silly. You wonder, why is Otsuka taking all these slaps but then he gets up to his feet and headbutts the shit out of Sugiura, blood trickling down from his forehead as he smiles at Sugiura. What a MAN. They first trade headbutts, the blood spattering everywhere, and then suplexes, with Otsuka hitting a deadlift German and Sugiura with a cool rolling gutwrench. At this point in the match, Otsuka's a mess but when Sugiura tries for another gutwrench suplex, Otsuka picks the ankle and grounds Sugiura with the leglock, ultimately snagging a kimura for the submission victory. Great match.

The super slick mat scramble to open was easily the best part of the match in my opinion but it was still fun. Otsuka makes the mistakeof running Minoru's intricately shaved head, pissing off Minoru, who lands a few good knees. Otsuka's deadlift Germans will never not be good, you get a little slap exchange, and finally the dope bow-and-arrow hold into the sleeper to wear Otsuka down for the Gotch-style piledriver. Good selling as always from Otsuka but I agree, Minoru could've added a little more intensity to his offense. Still a pretty great sub-five minute match.

New episode is out and about, and here's the direct LINK! https://fightingnetworkfriends.podiant.co/e/363826225292e0/ to stream, or subscribe to the RSS feed. You can also search us on Apple Podcasts. FNF 016: The World According to SAWA EPISODE 16, that's one more than 15! We are back and we are discussing one legend in particular - the recently revived (but always awesome) Munenori Sawa! Brennan and Andy talk 8 matches from Sawa's BattlArts run here. We also have an absolute BANGER of a 3rd segment, where Brennan finally watches one of the greatest matches of all time. Topics discussed: Guess who's moving back to Oregon?! Shirt updates Munenori Sawa in Battlarts 2008-2011 Ikuto Hidaka Shitty Camera angles Victor Zangiev and our lil' Butterball Tatsuo Onita & Tae Kwan Do The God-like kicks of Kawada Megumi. Kudo. Combat. Toyoda. FMW. 7th. Anniversary. & More Matches: We are covering 8 Munenori Sawa from Battlarts between 2008 and 2011, all of them available on Youtube for now! 6/1/08 - Battlarts Young Generation Battle 2008 - Munenori Sawa def. Koichiro Kimura (9:42) 8/31/08 - NWA International Lightweight Tag Team Title - Sawa & Ikuto Hidaka def. Yuki Ishikawa & Yuta Yoshikawa (23:19) 10/25/08 - Battlarts Kitasenju Tournament - Mitsuya Nagai def. Munenori Sawa (14:26) 7/26/09 - Battlarts B1 Climax 2009 - Munenori Sawa & Yuta Yoshikawa def. Alexander Otsuka & Kyosuke Sasaki (16:00) 8/30/09 - Battlarts B1 Climax 2009 - Munenori Sawa def. Yujiro Yamamoto (14:30) 2/7/10 - Yuta Yoshikawa Retirement - Munenori Sawa & Ikuto Hidaka def. Yuta Yoshikawa & Katsumi Usuda (27:31) 6/19/11 - Yuki Ishikawa def. Munenori Sawa (16:27) 11/5/11 - Battlarts Once Upon A Time Battlarts ~Remember That Time~ - Munenori Sawa def. Manabu Suruga (21:21) Also: 10/14/94 - UWF-I - Tatsuo Nakano & Victor Zangiev vs. Yoji Anjoh & Yuko Miyato 5/19/90 - FMW - Atsushi Onita Vs. Lee Gak Soo 3/3/01 - AJPW - Toshiaki Kawada Vs. Mitsuya Nagai 5/5/96 - FMW - Combat Toyoda Vs. Megumi Kudo Youtube Playlist: http://tinyurl.com/fnf016 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 spastic but had some cool moments, with boxer Toba rocking Yoshikawa with punches, Ibushi running in with his lanky strikes, at one point, blastign Yoshikawa in the face with a gamengiri. Sawa wasn't much of a factor here but had a pretty fun apron exchange with Ibushi. Yoshikawa's finally able to catch one of Toba's punches with an armbar takedown. Great moment where Ibushi is trying to kick him off but Yoshikawa hangs on, eventually dragging him away from the ropes in an ankle hold>kneebar. Ibushi is brought in to finish off Yoshikawa, blowing through his offense and pinning him with a neat half nelson suplex hold. Wacky shooty fun!

News flash: Jun Akiyama rules. He rules now, he ruled then, and he's the standout of the inaugural ZERO1 main event. I really liked the opening between he and Yuji Nagata, but more importantly, I loved Akiyama harassing Hashimoto on the apron, only to get German suplexed from behind by Nagata. Once Hashimoto gets the tag, he batters Akiyama out of the ring and Jun's a little hesitant to return. The exchanges between those two are the most heated throughout the match. Akiyama and Nagata have fun throwing Exploders and taking each other's signature submissions. Misawa's fine here and gets in his usual spots but I would've liked to have seen his exchanges with Hashimoto be a little more...grumpy. Everyone drops some bombs toward the end but Hashimoto is more concerned with Akiyana than winning the match -- even after Misawa pins him, Hashimoto immediately goes back to attacking Akiyama before all hell breaks loose. Fun stuff.

What about Masanobu Fuchi? He had a pretty great (for his age) match last year against TAJIRI and I know he had good matches and tags with Wagner in 1980 but I haven't seen much of his work from the 1970s.

Masakatsu Funaki - 28 years vs. Nakano (1989) vs. Tanaka (2017)

Not much of a match, really, other than Backlund getting smacked around by Anjoh. Great doofus selling as always from Backlund and he pulls out his deadlift spot out of the submission hold. After all those Anjoh slaps, Backlund finally blasts him with a nasty smack of his own and puts him away with the crossface chickenwing.

This was a Kopylov showcase match with Orlov but it wasn't quite as one-sided as the Han/Orlov match. Kopylov is explosive early on with some cool takedowns and throws, and then it settles into a prolonged struggle on the mat, where they work through holds, countering when they can, grabbing ropes when they need to. Orlov completely whiffing on whatever he was going for and then eating an enziguri kick from Kopylov was awesome. Also, Kopylov's crucifix rolling submission was super cool. Orlov is a good jobber for the Russian submission guys.

Essentially a Volk Han squash match but it's still Volk doing his thing, which rules. Other than a judo throw into a cool arm-trap submission, Orlov doesn't do much else here but get dominated by Han on the mat. Han wrangles him in a cool side STF, lands a few slaps and knees, and of course, he's aware of his positioning at all times, scooting Orlov away from the ropes as he takes control of a leglock. Orlov can’t get much going and when he does manage a hold, he’s usually positioned too close to the ropes to be much of a threat. Volk tries to submit him with the single leg crab hold but finishes him off with the classic jujigatame.

TAJIRI's recent AJPW title run was met with its fair share of criticism but I actually enjoyed most of it and I dig TAJIRI's more grounded approach to wrestling in his older age. Of course, TAKA can still go, especially when he's on his home turf and not just ZSJ's mouthpiece. This was a pretty neat 10:00 match with some very good, focused armwork from TAJIRI and a couple of great kicks. Early on, TAJIRI bails out of the ring, he wipes his face with TAKA's towel, and then he goes to work on the arm. After a high kick into the pin attempt, he catches TAKA in a double wristlock off the kickout. There's a neat little sequence into the facelock but when TAKA lifts him up for a scoop slam, TAJIRI legscissors the bad arm, allowing him to take TAKA down with a rolling double wristlock. TAKA's selling is subtle but it works. He counters the buzzsaw kick into the facelock, then uses the legscissors and wrenches on the arm. He's able to hit the Michinoku Driver but Tajiri turns it into a pin attempt and buzzsaw kicks him. In the end, though, TAKA hits another for the win. Nothing blow away but a neat little match with a great TAJIRI performance.

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.