superkix

Episode 2 is available NOW! http://fightingnetwo...ends.podiant.co to stream or subscribe to the RSS feed. You can also search us on Apple Podcasts. FNF #002: Super Tiger Vs. Fujiwara Topics discussed: - Tetsujin coming back in February - Inoki - Who was the 2nd best Russian in RINGS? - Chasito Moritaka - Rockman & Forte - Super Tiger Vs. Fujiwara in UWF (1984-85) - Bobby Heenan, Billy Robinson, Masaaki Mochizuki & Yoshihiro Takayama Matches: 7/23/84 - Akira Maeda & Yoshiaki Fujiwara vs. Nobuhiko Takada & The Tiger 9/7/84 - Fujiwara Vs. Super Tiger 12/5/84 - Fujiwara Vs. Super Tiger 1/16/84 - Fujiwara Vs. Super Tiger 5/31/85 - Fujiwara Vs. Super Tiger 7/17/85 - Fujiwara Vs. Super Tiger 9/11/85 - Fujiwara Vs. Super Tiger 2/28/98 - Jun Akiyama & Kenta Kobashi Vs. Masahito Kakihara & Yoshihiro Takayama 5/27/98 - Masaaki Mochizuki Vs. Minoru Tanaka 5/6/84 - Bobby Heenan & Billy Robinson Vs. Jumbo Tsuruta & Genichiro Tenryu Youtube Playlist: http://tinyurl.com/fnf002 Follow us on Twitter: @fightfriends @trillyrobinson @bren_patrick Email at: [email protected] Youtube at: http://tinyurl.com/FightFriends

This ruled, reminding me a lot of HARASHIMA’s 2010 match against Hikaru Sato. There was a blatant and endearing familiarity between these two that pervaded the match from the initial lock-up to the grinning snug exchanges. HARASHIMA was being quite nasty here, especially with his stompy legwork, which is never fancy, but always looks excruciating, whether it's uppercutting into a leg crank or just wrenching the ankle into precarious angles. When KUDO resists the suplex lift, HARASHIMA slapping that bad leg in order to hit the Falcon Arrow -- very cool touch. I guess if I had one minor quibble, it's that KUDO's selling could've been a little more profound but his in-the-moment stuff is pretty great and at times, he would just throw himself at HARASHIMA. But the legwork didn't do enough to deter KUDO from using his stiff kick-and-knee-based offense. Loved his duck>slap>smile strategy against HARASHIMA and HARASHIMA's lunging headbutt to answer. The escalation into the finishing stretch was terrific, with both guys bumping like crazy and throwing some nasty slaps. Hell of a performance from both guys (both in their 40s), and they managed to do a lot with the time allowed, creating an "epic" in under 20:00.

A total blast, with Kakihara once again being the consummate thorn in the side and this time, he’s got heavy back-up inTakayama. I love how confident Kaki is when takes down Akiyama with a dropkick but when he tries to lure him into a “shoot”, Akiyama brushes off some of his judo skills with a takedown and more than hangs with Kaki on the mat. So Kaki has to rely on his kicks and he quickly chops out Akiyama’s leg and re-asserts himself back on the mat with a leglock. Takayama’s the loveable brute, German suplexing Kobashi and knocking Jun off the apron, which leads to Jun rolling back into the ring to confront Takayama and getting nearly KO’d with a big knee. Kobashi’s the best good guy, checking on the welfare of his partner, taking sympathetic beatdowns, working the crowd while trying to combat Kaki’s pesky kicks. Jun and Kaki have some awesome chemistry here, between the in-ring interactions, the constant taunting and one-upmanship. The final showdown between Kaki and Kobashi was also really great. Kakiwara tries for his roll-up kneebar off a German suplex attempt but it doesn’t do the trick here and when he goes back to the kicks, Kobashi’s able catch one and capture suplex him. Really liked Kaki’s last spat before Kobashi destroys his world with the short-range lariat for the win.

It’s a beautiful day for a fun shoot-inspired pro-wrestling bout between two equally matched friends/rivals. There was a lot of back-and-forth on the mat, until Sakuraba decides to German suplex Kaki but when he gets greedy, Kaki takes him down with the Fujiwara armbar. Kakihara’s FINALLY able to connect with his big spinning heel kick, following it up with a high kick and a slough of palm strikes. He delivers an awesome suplex throw but Sakuraba immediately grabs an arm upon impact, trying to work his way down into an ankle hold. The finish was pretty cool, with Kaki coming at him with a combo of strikes and a suplex to set up the sleeper but in a terrific counter, Sakuraba flips him over and quickly taps him with the armbar.

A fun shoot-inspired pro-wrestling match, with Kaki looking uncharacteristically strong and focused, coming off his frenzied gambit of open hands and a solebutt that downs Ohtani. Ohtani answers with some knees and a German suplex throw, taking Kakihara to the ropes with the cross armbreaker. They fight over a leglock, slapping each other silly, until Kakihara’s able to turn it into a kneebar and continues targeting it throughout. He misses the big spinning heel kick (surprise, surprise) so Ohtani sneaks in with a grounded sleeper but Kaki is able put the pressure back on Ohtani’s leg. Good stuff. Ohtani fires off an awesome backdrop suplex and goes back to the armbar but he can’t close the deal and after the Kaki Cutter, Kaki submits Ohtani with the choke.

This is a pretty sweet sub-10:00 mathc. Kaki rocking the sleek purple because he really outshined Takada here. This had that pesky youngster vs. pissy veteran dynamic, which I love, and it created some rather memorable moments. Almost immediately, Sano bitch slaps Takada and Takada seemingly lays down on the mat out of fear for Kaki’s unpredictability. Kaki uses an arm-trap necklock to force Takada to the ropes but when he grabs an ankle and twists, Takada loses his cool and doubles down on the kicks, hacking Kaki’s leg to spaghetti and taking him down again and again. Kaki’s last gasp is great, as he catches Takada’s kick, barrages him with slaps, necklock suplexes him to the mat, and then squeezes out an unfortunately positioned armbar. His big “oooh ahhh” moment before Takada promptly chokes him out.

This borrows that same template from the 4/20 Sano match of Kakihara getting dominated for about 80% of the match and sneaking a submission win out, via the same roll up kneebar. Gary is being Gary here, taking Kaki down with a belly-to-belly suplex and then just trying to wear him out with the grounded full nelson. Albright uses his girth to essentially smother Kakihara on the mat, and Kaki doesn’t have much to answer with. When he tries striking, Albright snatches a leg and takes him back down or at one point, counters with an awesome leg-catch throw. He folds Kaki up with a big boy German but when he catches another kick, Kaki counters with the enziguri. Copy-and-paste finish from the Sano match.

What I love about Kakihara is how spastic and scrappy he is, completing whiffing on his spinning heel kicks, landing about 68% of his strikes, falling all over himself trying to grab a leg or an arm. Sano’s similar to that effect, especially in this match, as he aimlessly rolls around the mat, not quite sure which way he wants to go. I loved the struggle Kakihara conveys when he tries locking on the armbar, with Sano looking the most “in danger” he looks the entire match. Typically, a Kakihara match starts and ends the same way. Here, he trades strikes with Sano, until Sano dominates him down the home stretch, hitting suplexes, knees, and kicks, overwhelming Kaki until he tries for another German and Kaki rolls him up with a kneebar and quickly taps him. Lucky.

One of the best sub-five minute matches out there and within the first 10 seconds, Kakihara splatters Nakano's nose with a flurry of open hands. Nakano's able to slow Kaki down on the ground with a leglock and I like the combo of the knee > front neck chancery takeover, throwing some salt in the wound with a cheap shot kick. The blood really adds something to the match, with Kaki's grip slipping during a takedown attempt. As usual, Kakihara sets himself up for the big spinning heel kick but misses, which leads to the brutal finish from Nakano: smack, stomp, submit via single leg crab.

Already young Kakihara is showing signs of what's to come with the immediate slap after the handshake. Kakihara is lightning-quick with his kicks and slaps and Fuke does all he can to try and slow the whirlwind down, at one point catching a leg and countering with a cool capture-style powerslam. Once Fuke's got him on the ground, he's able to send Kaki crawling to the ropes by targeting the legs, supplementing the holds with an occasional kick or knee to the face. There's plenty of takedowns and scrambling around the mat until Kakihara finally secures a head-and-shoulder-lock for the submission. Fun match.

Loved this.Takada doesn't do a whole lot for me, especially on the mat, but when he's paired against Fujiwara, I find myself more invested in him as a performer. He sells Fujiwara's awesome lunging headbutts like a million bucks and sells the danger of Fujiwara on the mat, at times, freaking out when Fujiwara's able to reverse a hold. Fujiwara's as methodical as always with that classic grin, brushing off Takada's kicks and hanging out in the corners, which he utilizes as a home base when Takada comes striking. Such a fantastic visual when Takada's strikes get to be too much and Fujiwara slumps to the canvas, still managing a smile when he makes it back to his feet but ultimately, running out of options.

Loved the flurried slap-action to open and the frantic way Funaki counters out of the rear waistlock to ground Maeda with the wakigatame, really cranking it on. They convey good struggle for control and for the most part, Funaki's able to roll with a lot of Maeda's punches so to speak...you know, except for when Maeda is repeatedly rocking him kicks on the ropes. I like that even when they're on the mat, Funaki is still trying to drive home a few knees and boots, and his slaps are as nasty as usual. Maeda has a hard time slowing Funaki down, despite the suplexes and focused legwork, and eventually has to choke him out to win. Great stuff.

Decent match. The matwork felt restrained and there were some awkward hesitations most likely due to Rutten adjusting to the worked "shoot-style" environment. Rutten keeps staggering Malenko with high kicks but can't really cinch anything in on the ground except for a kimura, whereas Malenko keeps sending Rutten to the ropes by focusing on the arm but obviously can't outstrike Rutten. In the end, Rutten's kicks win out, when he connects with a shot to Malenko's ribs, downing him for the TKO victory.

This is #3 in their trilogy of matches but it had some cool power vs. technique dynamics. Sekimoto uses his beefiness to try and keep Suzuki grounded but Hideki's too slick and works over the arm a decent amount, standing on it, standing on Sekimoto's face because . Sekimoto doesn't really sell the arm though and starts throwing his muscle around, using Suzuki's own double arm suplex. They trade strikes and suplexes, and in the end, Sekimoto uses the deadlift German suplex to pin Suzuki. Decent match but typical Sekimoto match.

Bas Rutten wrestled a total of 6 matches in NJPW, two of which I've seen, and his last match in NJPW was against Koji Kanemoto for the IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Title. Not to my surprise, he plays pro-wrestler quite well. Sure, he's got some goofy...uh, dropkicks...but he knows how to work the fans and he sells Kanemoto's legwork well. He's able to use his raw strength to muscle Kanemoto into predicaments or escape them, like his awesome powerbomb counter to the triangle. At one point, he just starts slamming Kanemoto's head into the canvas. And of course, we get some slick matwork from Bas. Kanemoto's clearly overshadowed here, and while he'll get in some mounted tantrum slaps or go back to the leg to set-up the finish, Rutten really makes this match an interesting spectacle of sorts. After he hits Shining Wizard!!, Bas doesn't go for the pin but instead, plays to the crowd, like "hey, I can do this too", but it ultimately costs him the match. Pretty good match and from what I've seen, Rutten's best pro-wrestling performance.

Yeah, this was a real breakout performance for Nomura and I thought his chemistry with Yuji Okabayashi was especially awesome. Tons of fire, a hot crowd, that close stretch was something else. I really liked Yuji's suplex counter to the small package attempt and then just throwing Nomura with the powerbomb when Nomura tries for his new finish. Daisuke was also being more of a dick here, between stepping on Nomura's face and pissing off KAI on the apron. KAI's proven himself to be a good tag team wrestler in AJPW, so it'll be interesting to see if he finds a new partner since Nomura has stated that he is waiting for Jake Lee to return from injury. Personally, I'd love to see KAI and Maruyama team.

This was really good. I like dueling limbwork when it's pulled off in a smart way, and this match manages to do just that, with Sato priming the arm for the jujigatame and HARASHIMA trying to alleviate Sato's kicks by working the leg. This follows the traditional DDT "Main Event" template, with scrambled matwork to start, bouts of snug slap and kick exchanges, and the sudden escalation into bigger offense. The slaps are especially stiff, as Sato's lip gets busted, and HARASHIMA's legwork gets nasty at times with some of those targeted kicks. One of the cooler moments of the match is when Sato's able to go back to the armbar, transitioning into a triangle and as HARASHIMA begins to power out, Sato uses the ropes for a rope-hung armbar, choking HARASHIMA to the point of foaming. Sato's outside running PK takes a lot out of him, which allows HARASHIMA to dropkick the leg out from underneath him on the apron to regain control. They go back to the slaps, with Sato at one point straight up punching HARASHIMA in the face, and the finish was neat, with Sato catching HARASHIMA in an armbar off the springboard. HARASHIMA struggles to get out, at first booting at Sato, then grabbing onto the referee, before finally giving up.

I thought this was a solid match but my least favorite Suzuki defense of the year. Daichi didn't do a whole lot to differentiate his performance from every other mediocre Daichi performance, and it definitely lacked the pissy-ness I was hoping he'd tap into. He showed some dominance early on with his kicks and his headlock, but once Hideki finds a way out, it becomes the Hideki show, cranking cravates and throwing suplexes. He quickly adapts to Hashimoto's strike-based strategy so that when Daichi comes kicking again, he's able to catch a leg and capture suplex him. I liked Daichi's knee counter to the Robinson backbreaker attempt, which sets up a run of offense building toward the finish, but Suzuki quickly cuts him off and puts him down with the double arm suplex.

This was a really good match that had the potential to be fantastic had Miyahara deviated from his go-to formulaic approach. I mean, you had all the Kento "ace" tropes here: the hard in-the-moment selling but convenient bouts of amnesia to shoe in his signature spots and then the final minute comeback barrage of endless knees. But it was a brutally fought match and for the most part, the conveyed struggle, fatigue and desperation on Miyahara's part was great, coupled with the relentless Ishikawa trying to destroy any chance Miyahara has of beating him. I liked all the grunty neckwork building to the gnarly Fire Thunder Driver on the apron that was sold like absolute death by Kento. I thought Miyahara's selling was better than his usual fare but you still have dumb spots like the no sold dragon suplex. Loved the strike exchange toward the end, with an exhausted Miyahara trying to slug away with Ishikawa and Ishikawa just annihilating him. I liked the build to the arm-trap German, with Shuji either using an elbow to escape or just bursting out, but the finish felt very lackluster, especially considering all the punishment Ishikawa had put Miyahara through, including three Fire Thunder Drivers, a bunch of running knees, and a Splash Mountain Bomb. This would have been the perfect opportunity for Ishikawa to kick out of the German and force Miyahara to introduce a new finisher to his repertoire on the biggest stage of the year. But I guess if the formula ain't broke, there's no point in going to the drawing board.

Sometimes in a pro-wrestling match, certain things occur and you think to yourself "well, fuck, why doesn't he just do (blank)?". Whether it's escaping a sticky predicament or blocking a strike, these things may seem obvious to us, the bystander, but more often than not, instinct goes out the window in favor of "dramatic tension". Well, Fujiwara does (blank) a lot, which is why he's one of the greatest scrappy technicians of all time, and this match exemplifies that awareness. How a simple boot to the ass can be used as a counter to a single leg crab, or turning a shoulder or back to a kick, or snagging an arm off a rear waistlock to avoid a suplex and take control of the situation. Good stuff. They open the match trying to grab holds and sink something in until Maeda gives up and just starts kicking at Fujiwara on the mat. He hits an awesome belly-to-back suplex counter to a side headlock attempt but when Maeda misses the big spin kick attempt, Fujiwara takes advantage with the headbutts. They roll out of the ring stuck in a leglock and Fujiwara's able to prevent Maeda from making it back to the ring...so they restart the match and this time, Fujiwara's all over Maeda's arm, trying to cinch in the wakigatame after a swanky roll through. He's able to catch a kick and get the takedown but Maeda slips into a choke sleeper, and the finish of the match is fan-fuckin-tastic, with Fujiwara trying to maneuver to the ropes until he starts foaming at the mouth and the referee calls for the bell.

Yeah, this ruled. Zangiev was great here with his shoot suplexes and simple but effective counters. Hashimoto really sells him as a legitimate and unpredictable threat, which only adds to Zangiev's allure. I like how Hashimoto's frustration builds throughout the match as Zangiev has answers to a lot of Hashimoto's offense. That dosey-doe counter to the headscissors was awesome.

Sometimes you don't need a bloated 30+ minute "epic" and the old standby story of a promotion nobody getting put in his place by the promotion's surly dad is plenty. This ticked a lot of my personal preference boxes when it comes to a pro-wrestling match: grumpy old dude (check), disappointed tag partner (check), a well-sold beatdown (check), Hideki Suzuki (check). Ohtani looked his best here and right out of the gate, he's got zero time for Okuda, laying it in with nasty slaps and knees, shoving Okuda's kicks out of the way in order to dish out more punishment. Takaiwa played the gruff uncle to Ohtani's dad role, being a little more reserved with the bomb-throwing but still kicking ass. And Suzuki, despite not getting much in-ring time, was great as he reprimands his own partner with shitty little kicks and motivational smacks. I thought Okuda took the beating well -- that facewash to the outside looked especially rough -- and when he got the revenge tag, he brought the fire to Ohtani with some terrific machine gun-style elbows in the corner. He goes on to mock Ohtani by walking through the chops but that doesn't impress the old man, who in turn, dumps Okuda on his head not once...but twice with a release dragon suplex to put him away. Good stuff.

You know, I’m all for weapons-based dueling limbwork and I think for the most part, it worked here, with some pretty gnarly spots (that diving elbow drop from the top of the ladder to the outside). You had Sasaki targeting Akito’s neck to set up the crossface, doing crazy things like the Russian legsweep onto a ladder with a wooden block across Akito’s throat and ultimately, winning the match with the chair-assisted crossface hold. You had Akito doing his leg-based thing, blasting Sasaki’s knee with a chair while he’s hung up in the ladder and using a ton of kneebreaker variations. Really liked his double kneebreaker counter to the early crossface attempt. At times, Akito’s selling was terrific but Sasaki’s selling was definitely more miss than hit here, and between that and the near dead crowd atmosphere, this match didn’t reach the same level as Sasaki’s defense against Togo earlier in the year.

This match had its moments and I thought Takeshita’s performance was really great, especially toward the end, but Endo did a good job of centering his offense on Takeshita’s neck and bringing the focus back at various points in the match. I liked the viciousness of it early on and Takeshita’s selling was great for the most part, with him not being able to fully strike back at Endo. However, the backwork on Endo was conveniently ignored in favor of his glitzier offense, some of which didn't quite hit the mark. Some believable nearfalls toward the end and hard-hitting bombs from Takeshita building to the finish. Pretty good match.

This match had its moments but never really got out of second gear. I liked the urgency of the opening action and Alexander running in to dump Yamazaki with the German suplex. Fujita was real grunty and reckless, the way he'd power out of holds and toss the opposition around like sandbags. I thought Yamazaki was the standout here, with his slick as catshit exchanges with Otsuka and him wrenching on Ishikawa. Ishikawa keeps going after Yamazaki’s legs in response to the kicks but the finish came out of nowhere as Yamazaki grabs a cross armbreaker for the submission. Neat match-up on paper but didn’t quite live up to any expectations.