G. Badger

This year has been relatively an AJPW focused year. So I thought I'd squeeze in a quickie spotlight on my favorite NJ wrestler, Tatsumi Fujinami. No real theme or anything beyond matches I found online that looked cool Bob Backlund vs Tatsumi Fujinami (NJPW 01/01/82): Man, this is 40 almost 41 years old. Anyhow, this is 15 minute technical duel and I loved it. Its the type of match (and time) where they escaped or reversed holds rather than use rope breaks. This could have gone on much longer but we get a weird finish. It legitimately looked like the ref counted in an odd manner and the finish didn't go as planned. I know its the 80's but this didn't even look like a finish. These two are master technicians so I don't think they would have had this look or end as clunky as it did. But screw that, everything else before was gold. I'd say it was a great match except for the finie. Dos Caras & Jimmy Snuka VS Kengo Kimura & Tatsumi Fujinami (NJ Tag League 1985): Fun tag match with Dos Caras working his ass off. 1985, it could be 1995 with all of the springboard moves he does. Otherwise nothing terribly remarkable but a fun high energy go-go tag match. It's typical of most NJPW tag matches of the era. What is remarkable is again Dos Caras AND he's posted the full match on his YouTube channel. So I figure it is OK to share it here: ----- Kevin Von Erich vs Tatsumi Fujinami (NJPW in Shizuoka 1986): 80's finish but this is off the hook so it doesn't matter. Kevin is a wild mad man! Everything he does looks fantastic. Scoop slams and snap mares even. Credit due to Fujinami for bumping like this. It really sells the match. You know Kevin reminds me of Muto in his explosive athleticism. Imagine those bursts from Muto but for 12 minutes. On top of that they work a little story with the claw and Fujinami going after the hands in order to take that away from Von Erich. Really good stuff. Fujinami has a pink ring jacket that I don't think even flies in 1986...check that out too Jushin Thunder Liger vs. Tatsumi Fujinami (NJPW 12/11/1991): I think this is one I've wanted to see for some time. It was good but nothing terribly remarkable. And that probably sounds like crap when it was actually good wrestling. I figure they wanted to show how Liger would stack up against Fujinami. He does very well but it feels like an off night for him or something. I just wasn't as excited as I expected to be. This was neither a technical duel or an all out action match. Too high of expectations? I don't think so. I just felt like they wanted to have a 'just a pretty good match' and they totally accomplished that. Tatsumi Fujinami vs. Genichiro Tenryu (NJPW 09/26/1993): Fucking great match! I haven't seen enough of the NJ vs Tenryu feud as I want to but have seen enough & know enough. This is a big deal. Tenryu is beating Fujinami from pillar to post. The Dragon does not quit and will find a way to turn the tide if he can. Not a long match but that doesn't matter. The pace is all right for the bout. Glad to see Tenryu too, it's been awhile! Keiji Muto vs Tatsumi Fujinami (NJPW 2001 AJPW Triple Crown match): 15 minutes long or so. This was a really neat match that focused on actual wrestling on the mat. Fujinami in particular showed moments of brilliance in his counters. Towards the end they sprinkled in some bigger moves like the Shining Wizard. Perhaps this match worked around some physical limitations of the workers or maybe it was just really clever, focused and unique. Shit, maybe it's all those things! I thought that this was pretty darn good...perhaps great depending on your preferences. Pretty fun little project to do after work this week. I totally recommend sneaking in a match or two this holiday weekend. I don't think anything was longer than 20 minutes. Just sneak out on Xmas day B.S. and watch some great wrestling instead. Thank you as always for reading, be safe and happy holidays folks!

It's about the end of the busy season at my job. My eyes and brain are fried. I've got a quickie review in mind but in the meantime I thought I'd write something up. One thing I have been interested in talking about is my perspective on wrestling and how that effects my reviews. I try not to do work rate reviews. I'm not trying to give you a play by play of a match. I'm past the phase of nitpicking every match to see if the arm work leads to something. I've out grown the idea that selling a specific injury is all the match should be about. Wrestling is about storytelling. Yet its not always about the storyline. It is about energizing and entertaining the fans. Its not about just about appealing to the nerds keeping score at home. It is something that I try to be mindful of but I know I fail at from time to time." Oh he should have hobbled on his left leg after reversing that suplex. Tsk tsk..." The wrestling should not erode the suspension of disbelief. It should not take the fan out of the excitement to wonder, "wait wasn't she just hurt?" or "he's standing there to catch him for a long while" without providing some in ring explanation or larger universal explanation. That is to say, in the world in which they are telling these stories, does this make sense? I think its more important that the wrestler is selling the story to the fans. That's getting them to understand and believe what they're doing is meaningful. That's what selling is. Not just grabbing your back after a Boston Crab. Pacing and timing are so important but rarely do I see folks mention it. Think about your favorite movies, novels or other fiction. Its all a cycle building up and bringing back down until it escalates to the climax and its resolution. This is something very important to me. I think people forget wrestling is about feeling and subconsciously keep stats on wrestler performance like fantasy football. This is why most of my reviews try to capture how a match makes me feel. I want to convey my excitement or disappointment, my level of engagement or level of disinterest, etc. It makes it simpler for me to write but I really want to encourage wrestling fans to approach wrestling this way again. I think there's this pressure to be hyper analytical and academic about wrestling (and other hobbies). You might be in the early stages, firmly in the middle of it, burnt out or in recovery. But a some point you just loved wrestling because it was fun and excited you. "I'm going to have to redo my rating system. Otherwise I can't account for the stylistic differences between lucha and puro. And what about the lucharesu? Sweet Jesus..." Wrestling is something that's fun and a hobby and I treat it as such. It's why I take breaks sometimes. But its also why I try to watch stuff that interests me rather than stay current. I tried and to be honest I just can't keep up. There's all kinds of older things that I missed or want to see more of rather than get engaged in something I can't find consistently or don't really care about. Its like how most people feel about music. The best music is the stuff you listened to when you were young because you were young. So you might pick up new stuff or put it on your Spotify but chances are it'll be from around those times or be in a similar style. I'm that way with wrestling. I'm sticking to stuff I know and love but expanding my horizons here and there. Boogie Away Grandpa! I think deep down the purpose of this blog is to stimulate people's interest in wrestling that is softly fading into memory. Things you might remember hearing about, a review of a match 5 to 10 years ago, watching clips back in 2016 or whatever. It can be about things you never heard of. I'm not trying to find esoteric matches or promotions. I think I'm finding things that are right in the open that haven't been obscured by time as much as they obscured by the glut of online content made available in the last 10 years. Its very much what's new and then what's next? If you've read my blog, you know that I too am effected by this. The distraction of new or unseen wrestling online has knocked me off my tracks a few times. So I'm not immune and I'm not against it either. I'm very grateful in fact. Those people are doing the same work for the same reason. But I'm not ignorant to its effects either. I've got ADHD and I get distracted and then interested and then hyper-focused. I'm trying to work against the larger effect of content glut wiping this stuff off of people's radar entirely. It is not a crusade of mine or anything. I'm not the only person doing this and in fact much of PWO is about preservation. Many members do or have done awesome work. I guess I am just doing what I can while watching some really good stuff. Hopefully you like reading about it and I pique your interest. I am not sure where I'm going with this now. Like I said, I'm A little fried from the overtime. I just wanted to write a little and be reflective. Pretty lame compared to writing about moonsaults and stuff. Thank you for reading!

Awesome to see you revisiting Tiger Mask! I was pleasantly surprised when I saw his non-DK matches. Not everything was amazing but there are some really fantastic battles that don't get the attention they deserve. I don't think I saw the Villano III from '81...might have to search for that. Really nice in depth reviews as well.

Welcome back! Another Big Japan show from 2007. This is another DVD from Highspots that they no longer sell in the U.S. Its listed as BJW #134 & #135 (07/08/07) but I believe it is episodes #132 & #133 if that'll help you locate it elsewhere. Let's begin! Hiroyuki Kondo & Onryo vs Men's Teioh & Shinobu - clipped comedy match mainly. Really cool finish. Takashi Sasaki vs Ryuji Ito: 300 light tube death match for the title. Sasaki and Ito do not disappoint at all. A great death match for most of the bout but I felt that they really kicked up the intensity/brutality in the final third. Ito went for more light tubes (if that was possible) whereas Sasaki went for harder strikes...well that one axe kick on Sasaki was pretty damn vicious. I don't know what else to say. This was another classic death match in my book. Sasaki strikes a perfect balance between his pro wrestling and the death match props. Ito depends upon the props a little more but, never to the point where you think he needs them to win the match or put on an entertaining show. ----- Jun Kasai & Naoki Numazawa vs Abdullah Kobayashi & Yuko Miyamoto - Scaffold match. This started out well enough. It reminded a little of the BJW of old...not much action but really good spots. This got better and better as it went on. It was like a FMW match like that. By the end this was really good stuff...utilizing the prop but still putting on an exciting match with good moves and dramatic nearfalls. Kasai and Yuko Miyamoto were the best. "Crazy Monkey" Jun Kasai ----- Yoshihito Sasaki & Daisuke Sekimoto vs Katsumasa Inoue & Mammoth Sasaki - 22 minutes of wrestling. You'd better believe that this was some hard hitting no nonsense puro. Mammoth Sasaki isn't a physical specimen like Sekimoto but my goodness, he hits just as hard. Inoue is striking out on his own. He and Mammoth are trying to take the belts from Sekimoto and Yoshihito. This was a great battle and perhaps a near classic. I could tell that they didn't want to steal the show from the Ito vs Sasaki main event. Otherwise Mammoth and Daisuke would have had more one on one time. Nevertheless, this was still awesome. Great to see Yoshihito Sasaki - its been awhile! ----- The big 3 matches were excellent examples of the variety & quality puro BJW was putting out there in '07. It's something I had no idea of at the time. A couple folks that recommended this in the past - thank you! BJW is not for everyone BUT its not as niche a promotion as you might believe. I think it's because the focus is still on wrestling and not shocking or disturbing the fans in attendance. 2 of the 3 big matches aren't anymore gruesome than anything you'd see on TNA for instance. All that aside, this was a great purchase. Definitely seek out the death match and the puro tag match. More Big Japan Wrestling in 2023, for sure! Thanks for reading! Gonna try to sneak in another post or two before the end of the End of 2022 / Best Match Watched post.

I got this DVD from Highspots when they still had Japanese wrestling. They've got this labelled BJW #118 & 119 (03/14/07) . I think the correct numbers are episodes #116 & 117 episodes. In any case, this is for for the 03/14/07 show. Takashi Sasaki vs Yuko Miyamoto - Scaffold and Light tube death match for the title. We get a really nice build up and back story to Miyamoto etc. I don't speak Japanese so other than the match footage, I fast forwarded much of this. But you can tell that he has a lot of heart. What's interesting is that he's soft spoken and seems to have lisp. Not the type of person that you think would willingly fight in barb wire & glass. So right there you're pulling for him to win. He's the baby face. Sasaki is a beast as we can see from the clips beforehand. He's beaten Miyamoto with the buzz saw kick through the light tube to Yuko's head. So yeah... Wu Tang ain't nuthin' to fuck wit. This was a great death match...heck it's probably a classic if I'm being honest. The wrestling was there, the drama was there, the spots & spectacle were there...I'd highly recommend it even if you avoid death match stuff. You might think they went overboard with a couple spots (not anything sickening with the weapons but using the scaffold) but personally I think it went right to the very edge. It told the story, the K- Hall fans were out of control... yeah if you've enjoyed TNA's Ultimate X matches, it's like that with a couple spots (and blood). If you're the type of person that thinks a pile driver on the floor should end a match in all circumstances, this probably isn't for you The 15 year old kid in me loved this shit though! ------ Madoka & Kengo Mashimo vs Katsumasa Inoue & Daisuke Sekimoto: Alright, Kengo Mashimo! Just saw him in my AJPW 2014. Sekimoto is well known and I think I've seen a couple Madoka matches. Katsumasa Inoue is new to me though. He's a welcome addition to the BJW crew (at least the ones I know). All that aside, this match rocked! The opening Kengo vs Daisuke exchange was a harbinger of good things to come. They did an awesome job of having an all-gas-no-breaks tag match. I love it when they really want to have a dynamite bout and hold nothing back. The pace was quick, the intensity was fierce and the execution & selection of moves was excellent. A near classic match to me...really scratching at a low end classic. ----- Ryuji Ito, Abdullah Kobayashi & Shadow WX vs Jun Kasai, Naoki Numazawa & Saburo Inematsu : I knew it all couldn't be fantastic. What took me out of this was Numazawa and Abdullah's performance. They looked like they didn't care. Numazawa isn't that good but Abby Jr. can perform when he wants. If this was Ito & Shadow WX vs Kasai & Inematsu (who is slightly better) this would have been pretty good. Numazawa just killed the energy every time, he got in the ring...his shit did not look good here. A couple cool spots but this also had no flow or organization. Its an OK match but is kinda the match that wasn't more than the gimmick. This is probably the coolest thing Numazawa did all match. ----- Overall this was pretty damn great stuff! The last match could have been better but the first match (the actual main event) and the Sekimoto tag (which happened right before the main) were awesome. I wish I could tell you to pick this up but I'm not sure where to direct you. I'm very happy that I picked this up a year or two ago. Hope you dig the pics. I got another BJW 2007 review coming up soon. Thanks for reading!

This is a two birds with one stone post. I wanted to get a little more Zero One in this year as well as get back to early 2000s NOAH. I was going through my 2001 list and realized I had a mini project with Zero One vs NOAH in 2001. There's some better known stuff and a couple I'd never heard of. Let's jump in! Mitsuharu Misawa & Yoshinari Ogawa vs. Shinya Hashimoto & Alexander Otsuka (January 13th, 2001) : A good match that goes a long way on the Misawa vs Hashimoto interactions. Very exciting and extremely well worked despite not being memorable from an action standpoint. This is a big one but I think would've been better with someone other than Otsuka. Naomichi Marufuji vs. Naohiro Hoshikawa - ZERO1 - 03/02/2001 : Great match! This is one I wanted to see for a long time as it was highly recommended on Quebrada (which was my gateway to serious puro fandom). It didn't really disappoint either. Now I wouldn't call it a classic in 2022 but 21 years ago, I could certainly buy that rating. Marufuji is spot on here and Hoshikawa is someone who looked ready to break out in the new millennium. He's like a beefier KENTA. This is kinda the template for their NOAH classics. I'd really recommend watching this match. It just has this really neat early 2000's transitional vibe to it. Like you could see where 2000's wrestling was headed but it was grounded by 90's sensibilities. From a personal perspective, I was only 5-6 years removed from this match when I found out about it. It's taken me 15 years to see it. Ha! A weird existential/where-has-the-time-gone feeling came over me when thinking about that. Like using wrestling as a way to measure the passage of time. Kentaro Shiga & Yoshinobu Kanemaru vs. Naohiro Hoshikawa & Tatsuhito Takaiwa - ZERO1 - 09/15/2001: This was off the hook! Fantastic junior action from bell-to-bell. The mix of styles is what I think did if for me. Zero One is power & kicks vs NOAH's speed and technique. It made for some great interactions and unexpected moments. And thy showed restraint by not emptying their tanks. They are building up the program and there's not much more you can do than this. It got over exactly as it needed too. I'm calling this a lost near classic junior tag match. It was a blast! Shinya Hashimoto & Yoshiaki Fujiwara vs Daisuke Ikeda & Takashi Sugiura - ZERO1 - 09/15/2001: Where did this come from? Holy cow this is a interesting matchup. It's clever and exciting. Its much more like a 1986-87 NJPW heavyweight strong style tag. It's been awhile since I watched this type of stuff and this was appreciated. Yeah buddy, go check this shit out. Mitsuharu Misawa & Yoshinari Ogawa vs. Shinjiro Otani & Takao Omori (October 12, 2001) Back in the green ring of Noah. This is neat as Omori is here as a cast off from the early days of Noah but there's that great AJPW history that ties him to Ogawa & Misawa. Then you've got Otani who has no love for Ogawa or Misawa whether you want to draw upon his NJ history or as one of the top stars of the fledgling Zero One. It's a simple match but a great one. I think what elevates it is that the little touches are done right. And perhaps it's because it is 2001 and we're not that far away from when wrestling (as in holds, storytelling over moves etc.) mattered. Compare this to nowadays or 2011 AJ which I was just watching, and working a few holds in between moves, escalating the action and selling rather than acting as a tough guy seems so very old fashioned. But dammit, those things work! And this isn't a text book example of those things but they're in the match and this small venue/B show main event was exciting and got me engaged. And rather than beat the scrap out of each other, go move crazy or whatever, they did a simple yet dramatic tag battle with good heel/face work, well timed counters & spots, and some believable near falls (rare as a unicorn nowadays). ----- Tatsuhito Takaiwa vs. Yoshinobu Kanemaru (10/19/01) - Very good to great Jr. Heavyweight title fight. Lots of bombs thrown and no way will you not dig this match. Nice counter moves and surprises... just a lot of fun and believable near falls. Naomichi Marufuji & KENTA vs. Naohiro Hoshikawa & Tatsuhito Takaiwa (11/30/01) - A prelude to the Marufuji/Takaiwa encounter. Its 13 minutes of really good junior tag action. KENTA hasn't quite found his identity yet and its the earliest I've seen him. The potential is visible already. The Zero-One team is a great combo and Hoshikawa impressed again. As a lead in to the match below, there's no reason not to see this. Tatsuhito Takaiwa vs Naomichi Marufuji (12/09/01): This is a classic junior match because of all of bananas shit that takes place. It definitely belongs in the list of awesome Junior matches of early NOAH and perhaps it's the first one. But not only is it shocking (in a good way) but its clever at times as well. Takaiwa attacks the leg quite viciously and Marufuji's real only offense is his side kick (super kick) and taking flying leaps of the top rope. And his only defense is trying to counter Takaiwa with a pinning combination or endure the onslaught and maybe get lucky. I will say with a bit more structure this could have been a high end classic and be scratching at an all time classic (****3/4-*****) however it's just sneaking in at ****1/2. I try to avoid stars anymore because I'm splitting hairs with fractions so yeah low-end classic but a classic nonetheless In summary, this was extremely fun to watch. There's variety in styles and match-ups. The intensity was there. The action was exciting and surprising at times. It was exactly what I wanted. Everything here is easy to find online. If nothing else, pick 2-3 matches to watch. If you haven't seen Misawa in awhile, go with those. You want guys kicking people, Hashimoto and Hoshikawa got you covered. It is hard to go wrong with anything here. Be kind and patient with people this holiday season. A little bit of kindness goes a long way. Thanks for reading!

I agree wholeheartedly. Its been great to have these matches available to fill some gaps for my projects. I'm actually planning on a review of Mutoh era AJPW based on the wealth of footage available on the Gaora YouTube. I think this era is worth a revaluation.

Let's go back to 2011 and see what I missed the first time around. I'll post the links to the Gaora YouTube videos for your enjoyment: Minoru Tanaka vs Kaz Hiyashi (01/02/11): This was a very good junior battle with two legends of the style. I think they have something better in them but this was still pretty good stuff. My issue is with how they're not really transitioning control from one guy to the other. It does seem a bit like 'your turn-my turn' and I'd like to see a reason why Minoru is able to now do his arm bar or brainbuster after getting whooped on for 3 minutes. Same goes for Kaz. And this is the whole thing. They have really great sequences planned but no good or simple way to get to them other than 'OK now we do dueling kicks' or 'now we do the turnbuckle spots.' And they are impressive and athletic on their own but putting 20 of those in a row doesn't make a great match. Watch below and maybe you will feel differently. Suwama (c) vs. Taiyo Kea (01/11/11): This was a smart match especially by Kea. He stayed focused on working Suwama's neck. And well Suwama worked Kea's ribs throughout. So I really liked that. And this was a good fight. I'd say it ***1/2 stars. Just really solid heavyweight wrestling. Sanada/Soya vs Yuji Okabayashi and Daisuke Sekimoto (03/21/11): This was a classic tag match in my book. I think 3 out of the 4 guys wrestle like Riki Choshu/Kensuke and the 4th guy like prime Muto so as long as they stick to that then we're gonna get a very good bout. But this is for the tag belts and they bring everything. Strong BJW is a really fantastic at this time in AJ. This isn't on Gaora but your 'day to day movement' video website has it for you. Search it out! Suwama & Masakatsu Funaki vs Yuji Nagata & Manabu Nakanishi (05/15/11): Great inter-promotional tag battle! Hard hitting, spiteful stuff. Nakanishi does not get the love he deserves. There's not a ton to go on about here. This is exactly what I wanted and expected. Firm **** stuff Yuji Nagata VS Seiya Sanada [2011 Champion Carnival Battle]: Sweet sassy molassy Sanada took a beating. This was a near great match where Sanada took the pain train. An absolute treat to watch for a Yuji Nagata fan - striking mixed with grappling. He was really testing Sanada. But in all fairness Sanada really got a boost going toe to toe with such a decorated wrestler. He kept things fun and the outcome was in doubt. KAI vs Kenny Omega (Junior League Match 2011) : Yeah this was borderline great stuff. I continue to be a fan of KAI. Kenny was pretty hit or miss. He's got his mannerisms that work in some regards. When he's selling his abdomen injury then it works but once he moved on to just selling exhaustion/punch drunk it gets a bit melodramatic. That coupled with his ability to snap out of this fatigue/stupor to do drop kicks and other cardio moves takes away from the match. He's just waiting for his turn. That said KAI doesn't get into this behavior. He is the rock of the match and doesn't get too swayed to get carried away. I originally ordered a DVD with this match but got sent the wrong one (which features the awesome KAI vs Kanemoto match). So it was nice to see this finally but am quite happy that I got the Kanemoto match instead. --- A pretty fun little project. Definitely seek out the Soya/Sanada vs Strong BJW tag match. Then go watch the Nagata matches. The links are above so you've got no excuse Thank you for reading!!

Here's another one I found. The great RWTL match between Omori & Soya vs Sanada & KAI from 11/19 or 11/26 the TV date as I had it listed above. Thank you Gaora!

Here we are back in 2013 -again! Some kind soul posted these since my 2013 project wrapped up. I stumbled upon them will looking for 2014 stuff. This is some really nice wrestling so let's take a look! Minoru Tanaka, Koji Kanemoto & Hiroshi Yamato vs Atsushi Aoki, Yoshinobu Kanemaru & Kotaro Suzuki (04/29/13) : Thought maybe I saw this but, no! So this was from the 2013 Champion Carnival final night. First things first, kudos to the dude who gave Aoki the double birds right in his field of vision while stomping his opponent. Then kudos to Aoki for getting up in said dudes face Hahaha! That's was hilarious! All that said, this was SICK! The top juniors in the company in one ring, all with beef - this was top shelf stuff. It was so aggressive yet intricate that nothing came off as overly contrived. It just felt like rivals going to battle. It made me realize how much I missed Kotaro and Kanemaru in 2014. Aoki is so much better with Kotaro than Sato and this match is proof (nothing against Sato). But Minoru, Kanemoto and Yamato were just as fantastic here. The feud of Burning juniors vs Stack of Arms/Junior Stars is the best of the year thus far ('22). Its been awhile since I saw the original matches but, this is an amazing reminder. Classic junior 6 man match. Yoshinobu Kanemaru vs. Hiroshi Yamato - 06/02/2013 - This match is a direct response to the 04/29 match. Great, great 15 minute junior title match. The first 5 minutes are some of best sequences I've seen in awhile. Shit, it might be one long sequence actually. It doesn't really drop off from there too much if at all. Just the unpredictable element of those 5 minutes was top notch. I think as the match continued, I generally knew where they were going. However, they still sprinkled in twists and turns that made this pretty awesome. Kanemaru in 2013 (along with Aoki & Suzuki) is rad. Jun Akiyama and Go Shiozaki vs. Joe Doering and Suwama - 06/02/2013 - 28 minutes of classic tag wrestling. The final few minutes elevated this for me. There were a couple spots that I feel were cutesy or for visual effect rather than what you'd do in the heat of a fight (especially heavyweight wrestling). But I mean that's 2010's and later wrestling, isn't it? I'm nitpicking because it was really exciting & dramatic stuff. Again, the final moments eliminated any reservations that I had. This is a classic bout. It is a tag match-up I wanted to see during my initial coverage of 2013 AJPW and it delivered - sweet! Atsushi Aoki and Kotaro Suzuki vs Kaz Hayashi and Shuji Kondo - 06/30/2013 - I wanted to like this one and have a proper sendoff for Hayashi & Kondo. It just wasn't happening. You very well may dig this match and it was spectacular and full of cool moves. But that's all it was - a bunch of cool moves. No rhyme or reason and right from the get-go. Its the worst tendency of Kaz & Kondo to just go balls to the wall like early 2000's Indies and we get that here :/ I watched 12 or so minutes and just knew this wasn't going to get better by being longer. Atsushi Aoki and Go Shiozaki vs. Suwama and Takao Omori - 9/19/2013 - In contrast to the above match, they kept it simple, built up the drama & intensity and had a very very good tag match (***3/4+) in front of like 1/4th as many people. A fine way to end this revisit of 2013. I'm not selling how fantastic this is but its pro wrestling done right. All in all this was a very enjoyable mini project. I try not to go back to anything just because I have so many other projects and ideas for the future. However 2013 AJPW is so good and my 2014 project was a tad shorter than I wanted. All of these are currently available to watch on that most popular of video sites. Get em while you can! I highly recommend you do! Speaking of going backwards on projects, I actually found a batch of 2011 AJPW matches on the Gaora YouTube page. I'd like to review those next as well as share the links so you can enjoy them as well - guilt free After that, I think I'm going to watch what little AJ 2015 I have. I might mix that in with some other 2015 stuff perhaps like BJW, Wrestle-1...we'll see. Thanks for reading! Keep staying safe folks!

In the past year or so Gaora posted some videos from AJ 2011. I'll be making a new post about those. One they added but I've already seen and loved was KAI vs Koji Kanemoto (09/25/11). So from Gaora with love, here it is:

Found one more worth your time. It's out there on the web for ya too. Joe Doering and Suwama vs. Yuji Okabayashi and Daisuke Sekimoto - 11/30/2012 : All killer no filler 10 minute match! Great stuff - if you like these wrestlers then it is exactly what you want and need

Here we are at the end of the road for 2014 AJPW. We're wrapping up with the 11/29 show which I found online. Masanobu Fuchi vs. Naoya Nomura -skipped Takeshi Minamino vs. Yohei Nakajima - Fun indie heel vs babyface match. Just simple stuff but so enjoyable. Keisuke Ishii & SUSHI vs. Enoshima Man & Ultimo Dragon - I started watching this and it was pretty bland. It was just a generic junior tag match with not much spark. I fast forwarded to the last couple minutes and it never seemed to have much more urgency. Its probably OK but I don't feel bad skipping it. Kotaro Suzuki (c) vs. Ryuji Hijikata - Unfortunately not available :-/ Akebono & Yutaka Yoshie vs. Dark Kingdom (KENSO & Mitsuya Nagai) (RWTL Match) - Um this was OK. It wasn't very long. Burning Wild (Jun Akiyama & Takao Omori) vs. Xceed (Go Shiozaki & Kento Miyahara) (RWTL Match) - My main event and watched after the match below. And so glad that I did! This is a classic RWTL match between to great teams. It had a traditional structure and a good work-a-body-part basis for the meat of the match. This wasn't an epic empty the tanks classic but one that was clever, exciting and increasingly dramatic. Something right at the ****1/2 mark. This show needed something of this caliber. Special Tag Team Match - Suwama 10th Anniversary Debut Evolution (Atsushi Aoki & Suwama) vs. Evolution (Hikaru Sato & Joe Doering) - Starts out a little directionless and not fitting for a intra-stable exhibition match (more technical wrestling less brawling). So I had a hard time getting interested. But things really picked up when Aoki made the hot tag to Suwama and it was bombs away for the rest of the match. This could have been great if they put a story to it. In all fairness the story this told was the Evolution stable coming apart at the seams but, that's not the case based on the post match Anniversary celebration. It was a good match but under expectations. I sort of thought that might be the case and watched the Burning Wild vs Xceed match last as my true main event just in case. Overall, this was an OK show. A one match show in terms of recommended stuff. Maybe you'd like the Evolution tag more than I did. It's certainly worth checking out but the Burning Wild vs Xceed tag match is what you want. I wasn't keen just ending it there and found a bonus match from Kobashi's Fortune Dream show (12/10/2014): --- Joe Doering and Shingo Takagi vs. Yuji Hino and Kento Miyahara - 2 AJPW guys and Wada as the referee? Close enough for an AJPW match for me! Do yourself a favor and watch this match! The hardest hitting, smash mouth, He-man match for 2014. Add another awesome match to the 2014 list. This was a classic bout especially if you like Sekimoto/Okabayashi strong style tags (something AJPW was missing in 2014). Loved every minute of this. Not a thinking man's fight but for raw power this was fantastic. A great end to this 2014 project. This is on the 'tube currently. --- 2014 AJPW was pretty good overall. I didn't feel immersed in the storylines or promotion as much as 2013 just because I didn't have as much footage available. I didn't help that one of my DVDs was defective. All that said some of the very best bouts of 2014 are on the 'tube or the "day-to-day movement" video site. These include but aren't limited to: Jun Akiyama vs. Takao Omori (Vacant Triple Crown Title - 06/15/14) Joe Doering (c) vs. Go Shiozaki (10/29/14 -Triple Crown Title) Burning Wild vs Xceed (11/29) Doering/Shingo vs Hino/Miyahara (12/04 Fortune Dream) Doering was kicking ass and is an awesome champ. He really was bringing a special energy and fight that is old school (and lacking from recent wrestling). The comparisons to Stan Hansen are arguable for either side but I appreciate his work as champ. He is the Gaijin monster of old and I like it! P.S.I was able to find some more matches from 2013 (and 2012) that have been posted recently. I found them while looking for 2014 stuff so a nice treat! I'll do a post on those next as an addendum to my 2012-13 projects. After that I might pivot to something else. I had my eye on 2001-2003 Noah matches that have been overlooked. But it's my busy season at work so that may not happen before New Years. Thanks for reading!

That's awesome to hear! Thanks for the feedback! Glad you are enjoying the screen captures as well - it's kinda like being a ring side photographer trying to catch a good pic. Being able to rewind is a big help though

Well looks like my sample of AJPW for 2014 is going a bit shorter than expected. My disc for 09/28/14 is defective. I'm going to be perfectly honest, this is why I stopped getting stuff from my "Internet Video Provider." This disc was probably from my last or second to last order when half the stuff was either defective like this or just the wrong show (labeled date matched what I bought but what was on there was different). And here it bites me in the ass a couple years later. If you're interested in ordering I'd recommend going light with your initial order and check every chapter to make sure that it works right when you get it. I'm not angry but disappointed since it was a good show with Miyahara vs Doering and Suwama vs Shiozaki being the highlights. Let's move on & start with a free match online posted by Gaora: Ultimo Dragon & Yoshinobu Kanemaru vs Atsushi Aoki & Hikaru Sato (10/22/14) - Junior tag battle and it looks like Aoki has joined the Evolution stable after all. He and Sato are a great team. Ultimo and Kanemaru are vets so really there's no worry here. And don't you know it, this is a great tag fight. I loved the finish. It was something they were working towards and it paid off. You gotta love that! Besides that, there were some really fun holds, interesting double team moves and yeah just a blast to watch. This is free from Gaora on their YouTube page: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=8uPX9a7sR54&list=PL9GbOLsWy6qLCD-R4zPkA9lUAtbzj06bm&index=109 Unfortunately it is the only thing from 2014 AJ that they have currently. Elsewhere on the internet: Joe Doering (c) vs. Go Shiozaki (10/29/14 -Triple Crown Title): Well we know who won the big match on 9/28 and get a couple clips from the match. Now the title fight... Best Joe Doering singles match to date. No fucking lie, he ruled in this match! He made Shiozaki fight for every move, strike exchange, high spot etc. This felt like an athletic contest and a brutal one at that. Doering looked like an absolute monster in the ring. Shiozaki played a great underdog but also a star. That was difficult to do but I felt he was inspired by Misawa at times_- rolling out of the ring to prevent a pin attempt, blocking or reversing attacks and using his counter attacks at opportune times. There were nice touches like this that helped build the drama and kept things engaging. Joe Doering provided the pace and tone. He kept this match quick and aggressive. It never felt like they were killing time or working a sequence. Because just when you thought they were going to do something expected, they did something else. Expect the unexpected is a phrase I kept in mind early on and it stayed relevant throughout. Don't anticipate some slick or cute match. Its nasty and a little rough around the edges at times but man! That's part of what makes it worth your time. A classic match and a fight worthy of the Triple Crown title. Woo doggy! That was something! Anyhow, let's get on to my 11/1614 DVD! Yoshinobu Kanemaru vs. Naoya Nomura - not shown but listed on Cagematch. Dory Funk Jr. & Masanobu Fuchi vs. Osamu Nishimura & SUSHI - skipped Masayuki Mitomi & Ryuji Hijikata vs. Xceed (Kotaro Suzuki & Yohei Nakajima- fka- Menso-re Oyaji) - Oh wow, this was really really good. Ryuji Hijikata vs Kotaro was fantastic. They had some surprising and refreshing sequences together. Those felt either well thought out or entirely spontaneous, if that makes sense. That's to say, they added twists and turns to well worn Junior sequences that came from being in the moment or by making a conscious decision to surprise. Yohei Nakajima & Mitomi were really good as well. They didn't work anything as complex as their partners but it was still quite engaging. This is 13 minutes of very good stuff...reminds me of the 2003 Differ Cup in the best way! RWTL Matches from here on out! Kengo Mashimo & Tank Nagai vs. Dark Kingdom (KENSO & Mitsuya Nagai) - Dark Kingdom explodes as former members Kengo & Tank team up as K-Dojo (home promotion) and battle against the top DK dogs KENSO & Nagai. Heel vs Heel teams in K-Hall - yes, please! This didn't disappoint as it scratched that Indie itch - brawling on the parquet floor, foreign objects, and keep it simple stupid tag wrestling. 15 minutes of great tag wrestling. Tons of good pics with this one too: ----- Akebono & Yutaka Yoshie vs. The Big Guns (The Bodyguard & Zeus) - 10 minutes, good physically taxing match. Two strong men taking on two super heavyweights, its what you want and expected. Xceed (Go Shiozaki & Kento Miyahara) vs. Evolution (Atsushi Aoki & Hikaru Sato) - Great tag match especially when Evolution was facing Shiozaki. Miyahara was OK but, I don't know if he added anything other than being Shiozaki's partner. If we got better selling or in essence a story that involved him, this would have been a classic match. The ending of the match was absolutely fantastic. ----- Burning Wild (Jun Akiyama & Takao Omori) vs. Evolution (Joe Doering & Suwama) - Well my mouth is still hanging open from this match. Under 10 minutes long. They went fast and hard from the get go and you get good stuff but this was WAY too quick in my opinion. 10-12 minutes would have been better with the same result and not been a WCW Nitro paced match in AJ. What I will say is that storyline wise, it fucking works! I'm kinda amped to see more of the Real World Tag stuff... sure I've only got one more installment but, it's a doozy! ----- A tad disappointed with the main event but not truly because it is a teaser and the rest of the show was awesome. I love tag wrestling and this delivered. K-Dojo vs Dark Kingdom was the most fun but Xceed vs Evolution Jrs. was that Great AJPW tag match I was looking for. The best one of the post was Doering vs Shiozaki though. Seek that out! Thanks for reading folks! It means a bunch to me

Part Two and our first combo entry. We start off with a match found online then we'll go over a full show. As you can tell from the date we're skipping ahead a few months. Jun Akiyama vs. Takao Omori (Vacant Triple Crown Title - 06/15/14) - I guess Akebono had to vacate the title. We get a nice lead in to the match showing the history between Omori and Akiyama. I'm a dork and know it already... it's one of things that makes this period of AJ special. It's as if Akiyama never left and he and Omori would be the old guard. Speaking of drawing on classic AJPW, Akiyama works over Omori's lariat arm like a fiend. At every turn, he's kicking, smashing or wrenching on his opponent's wing. Not only is this weakening the Axe Bomber arm but its forcing Omori to use his other kick based offense, which isn't as strong as it was. A great example is when Omori was going to the top for his knee drop because it is something that can turn the tide but is a big risk. Akiyama forces Takao into this situation then makes him pay for it. Just really awesome work from Akiyama. Omori finds openings but either cannot capitalize or over extends himself when he gets going. This is really smart work from Omori as well. He never sells the arm to where it's stupid if he uses it BUT sells enough to let you know its hurting him when he does. Classic match in my book. Hard fought match, the story is there both long term and within the bout...the story of the match makes sense and feels right. Heck the pre match stuff even helps out! Now onto the DVD of the 07/27/14 show! SUSHI vs. Menso-re Oyaji - Quick indie Junior match. Menso-re Oyaji unmasks and I think is going to wrestle under his real name from here on out. Dory Funk Jr, Osamu Nishimura & Yutaka Yoshie vs. Masanobu Fuchi, Takao Omori & Ultimo Dragon - Only in Fire Pro Returns would this be a good match. I would have been stoked to see Nishimura & Yoshie vs Omori and Ultimo. Hideki Suzuki & Zeus vs. Kengo Mashimo & KENSO - Sweet indie feeling tag match. 12 minutes of action. Everyone brought a little something different to the table but all combined it was so much fun. Really good stuff. Kento Miyahara & Kotaro Suzuki vs. Jun Akiyama & Yoshinobu Kanemaru - Very fast paced match with a purpose. Everything looked great here with the focus on Akiyama putting Miyahara in his place. Great under 10 minute match! ----- Keisuke Ishii & Shigehiro Irie vs. Mitsuya Nagai & Takeshi Minamino - Nagai & Minamino are part of KENSO's group Dark Kingdom. They are basically the capital 'H' heel group. Irie & Ishii are so baby face that its nigh impossible to hate them. So we get a match you'd expect but it feels really refreshing in an AJ ring. But then again this is AJ-as-Indie promotion if you couldn't tell by now. There's no complaints from me. You get that stuff mixed in with your more traditional AJ stuff with your big names. Gonna sound like a broken record but another really good tag match. ----- Atsushi Aoki vs. Hikaru Sato - Now for something different! Aoki and Sato put on a shoot/Inoki-strong style match for the Junior title. Lots of very good grappling and fighting for holds. I would have loved to see more scrambling on the mat. Maybe why that's why I can't call it a great match. I think if the pace was quicker or more like a real fight then this easily could have been fantastic. Now I still really dug it especially Aoki's work. I think there was a portion where this was going to be a little more pro leaning but once they decided to make it more shoot style, it got really good. Two guys riding the bus to work... ----- Suwama vs. Joe Doering - Evolution main event! This is for the title. You know what you're getting from these two. Smash mouth heavyweight puro and they don't disappoint. What's really cool and makes this a great match is the surprises they include. It's either moves they rarely do or adding twists to their standard arsenal. Plus they hit really hard :-) This is two of the physically largest dudes (outside of Akebono and Yoshie) just beating each other up for 20 minutes. It harkens back to Jumbo vs Tenryu a little bit. The hate isn't there...this is two current stable mates fighting after all. But the slower pace & heavy hits are definitely reminiscent of an earlier style in AJPW history. Another really good show (minus the Dory Funk Six Man) and I'm liking 2014. These shows are a breeze to watch. The variety of characters from top to bottom is refreshing. So little spoiler if you jumped ahead of everything. I'm a little bummed the Vacant title winner (the first match in the post) was just a transitional champion. We'll see how 2014 goes for the winner of the Evolution main event (trying not to spoil). We will see if I agree or disagree with the decision as we go on. Something to look out for... Thanks for reading! I'm going along at a good pace so stay tuned for more of AJPW 2014!

Thanks for waiting on me! If you've followed my blog you know I am easily distracted. I have a real good plan that gets interrupted by something that draws my attention elsewhere. I'm not like this with serious matters but it's something I do with my hobbies. The seasons usually play some part. In the summer, I tend to focus (fixate) on skateboarding. Invariably I'll get hurt or its too damn hot to skate and that's when I make time for other stuff like wrestling. In the winter, I just tend to get burnt out on wrestling and other stuff. Anyhow, enough about me. Let's see what we've got! OK first thing, I do not have as much available online as I did for 2013. I've got about a handful of matches as opposed to almost as many full shows online. Also the stuff I bought for 2014 is all over the year. We're starting with February and I think the next DVD I have is in September. So my apologies if you were looking for a more comprehensive overview or even a good summary of the year like I did for 2013. This is going to be a healthy sampling instead. I wish I bought a couple more discs but the quality of the seller wasn't up to my standards anymore. Maybe he got better but I'm not messing with it. Lets start with the first show and any online ones I'll tack on at the beginning or end chronology as we go. Its looking to be a four-parter. 02/08/14 Yoshinobu Kanemaru vs. Soma Takao - Good all action Junior match to get things started. Soma impressed me and hope I get to see more of him in 2014. I guess he's a DDT guy like many of the non AJ guys here. Keisuke Ishii vs. Atsushi Aoki - Good for what the guys in the ring did but Kenso & Nagai spoil it to cause Aoki to lose the match. More of an angle than a full match. KENSO & Mitsuya Nagai vs. Ryuji Hijikata & SUSHI - Nice music for Nagai & KENSO! But yeah they're the new heel team. I like that. This was a good match and really kicked up a notch when Ryuji Hijikata made the hot tag. Definitely want to see more. Not fully developed since it was meant to get over the new heel team. Masaaki Mochizuki vs. Hikaru Sato - I like both guys well enough but I wasn't feeling it. It was a bit too much of "I'm tough!" - "No I'm tough!" wrestling. I can get behind that. I enjoyed Eddie Kingston vs Ishii from the free part of the recent AEW PPV. This match wasn't compelling though. It was too guys doing this type of thing for 10 minutes trying to build to a submission win. But it wasn't for me :-/ Akebono, Shigehiro Irie & Yutaka Yoshie vs. Go Shiozaki, Kento Miyahara & Kaji Tomato - Perfect use of Akebono. The focus is on he vs Shiozaki for the belt. Akebono is amused by Go and his attitude. This is a very interesting perspective for him instead of the super serious one he takes. It shows depth personality which he normally lacks. All that said, the highlight of the match was Irie & Yoshie vs Kento and Tomato. And that's was very good stuff! Heck it all was very good. It was a nice twist that Go couldn't seem to hold his own against even Akebono's partners,and he needed help. Kaji Tomato was new to me but the dude can work. He showed 100% effort. Very good match, scratching at a great one if I'm being honest. ----- Kotaro Suzuki vs. Ultimo Dragon - Very good junior match! They wisely treated this as a tournament match instead of a title fight or one time dream match. They made a lot of good decisions in what story to tell, when & how to shift momentum and actually incorporated wrestling holds which we haven't seen much of this show. ----- Joe Doering & Suwama vs. Jun Akiyama & Takao Omori - Tag belts on the line. This starts out well enough and is going along at a good pace. It's operating in that ***3/4 range but eventually switched into high gear. The attacks became fierce, the defensive actions got more desperate and everything just felt more urgent. I really know they have a classic match in them. As it is I would say this ends up as a near classic ****1/4 bout. ----- Pretty darn good show and a super easy way to get back into the groove of things. I really like the variety that they have now. After the Wrestle One exodus, the company was pretty much Burning stable vs AJPW...no complaints from a quality perspective but its nice having the mix of styles.

I haven't been watching anything lately but wanted to post something. I've been messing around with old AJPW footage and flares and distortion from the bright lights. I take whatever halos, prismatic effects, after images or saturation of light that occurs when filming (and temporarily blinding the camera men no doubt) and further manipulate it. Baba ----- Kabuki vs Flair ----- The Funker

In all honesty, this was going to be a quickie post of just a few matches that I stumbled across. But then I became intrigued by the match ups or was impressed by a worker and wanted to see more. And here we are! The entire 2003 Differ Cup watched out of sequence reviewed out of sequence. I'm not going to pretend it didn't happen. Sit back and read on: KENTA & Kotaro Suzuki vs Great Takeru & Kappa Kozou (02/08): Was going to skip this since I'd never heard of the IWA Japan team. But then I thought - I'm going to end up watching the whole event (mostly) so I should just check it out. So glad I did! Its shown in full as it features the home NOAH team and frankly it is a great opening bout! Both teams were smooth and exciting which surprised me. Perhaps it's a case of low expectations but I thought the teams gelled well enough that the IWA-J team would be invited back for under card jobs at the very least. Not thinking they were though... Jun Kasai & Gran Naniwa vs YOSSINO & Ultimo Dragon (02/08): Saw this called the worst match of the night...no way man! In fact, I thought it was great! It wasn't a move fest but it was clever, funny and had some exciting moves too. It just felt like 4 pros at work. Sometimes it doesn't have to be epic, brutal or intense to be great. MIKAMI & KUDO vs Kuroda & Chocoball Mukai (02/08): JIP to the last 10 minutes of an 18 minute match. Took a chance on this and was pleasantly surprised. My sleazy indie radar steered me right. Very fun very indie match with chairs and a ladder. As a fan of ECW & FMW, this felt good. Ikuto Hidaka & Masao Orihara vs. Tatsuhito Takaiwa & Yoshihito Sasaki (02/08): In a NOAH ring but this is a Zero-one match. And that is pretty cool. The familiarity is there and they were able to do some really good stuff. Hidaka never ceases to amaze me with some move or sequence. Orihara (who I hadn't seen much at this time other than Fire Pro Returns) can still go. This was all action and a great match. Yoshihito Sasaki looks good even this early. MIKAMI & KUDO vs Tatsuhito Takaiwa & Yoshihito Sasaki (02/08): JIP and clipped however the stuff that was shown was really good! The Zero One team brings the steak but MIKAMI brings the needed sizzle. Heck KUDO looked really exciting here as well. The ladder is in play again and I'm not complaining. 12 minutes shown out of a 15 minute match so I feel safe giving this a "very good" rating. KENTA & Kotaro Suzuki vs YOSSINO & Ultimo Dragon (02/08): Oh yeah this was really good stuff especially towards the end. Masato Yoshino/YOSSINO did his part here but Ultimo was the star of the whole tournament. Good pace, action throughout - this 11 minute bout was a nice way to end night #1. Great Takeru vs Kappa Kozou (02/09): Fun showcase match of the IWA Japan guys. It's about 10 minutes of them throwing their best stuff out there. They made a good impression on me. Ikuto Hidaka vs Masao Orihara: Oh shit! They were not going to be out done by the IWA guys. This was some next level stuff. Hidaka again drops my jaw with his precision, speed and body control. Orihara is right there with him! This wasn't all fireworks either as Hidaka was trying to get a clean win whereas Orihara was going to take it anyway he could. Even Ikuto has a breaking point and introduces a steel chair to the mix. Nothing too crazy like we've seen the night before but it's nice to see the ECW/FMW relaxed rules again. This is a great junior match. Kuroda & Chocoball Mukai vs Gran Naniwa & Jun Kasai : I wasn't sure about this one. I looked it up and it was around 20 minutes. 12-14 minutes seemed right but that time seemed too much. Yet again, I was wrong. This was a really fun match that had a little bit of everything. Both teams looked really good. Kuroda and Kasai were the best though. I don't know if I would have booked this after Hidaka vs Orihara from a draw perspective but they did their job and provided lighter entertainment to prep the fans for the main events. KUDO & MIKAMI vs. KENTA & Kotaro Suzuki: This is fought for Third Place trophy. I've seen this called a very good match but I can't agree. The start was fun but the middle was long and pretty dull. The last third was good but wasn't enough to save this from being just OK in my book. This was very good but the Naniwa/Kasai match was no good? Yeah right! The Kappa/Takeru bout smoked this as well. It was just too long and none of the guys knew how to fill the time in the middle. A disappointing fight. Ultimo Dragon & YOSSINO vs Tatsuhito Takaiwa & Yoshihito Sasaki (02/09): Its much more toned down in terms of crazy spots (although it has a few) and has a strong face/heel dynamic. Masato Yoshino (YOSSINO) played the whipping boy and Takaiwa was the bully. Dragon was the big brother and Sasaki was the lackey. It was simple and effective. It was well executed, there were nice surprises, shoot it was a really good tag match! A great way to end the tournament. There you have it! Never had any intention at anytime to watch this but dammit I had a lot of fun! Only one match was a bummer and most were actually pretty darn good to great. This gets a very strong recommendation from me especially if you're craving something from this time in wrestling. Thanks for reading!

"never had the best match he potentially could have had. " I guess I was thinking beyond just having great matches but also getting the spotlight that she deserved in AJW. The time she missed was time that she could have moved up the card and got big singles wins. In my mind then she really could have had some classics but on a much bigger stage and with bigger names than in Arsion. Nothing against those matches at all but I think she would have rather had those in an AJW ring. So in the grand scheme of things, she doesn't get recognized like she should.

I was really psyched on the Doug Williams match vs Samoa Joe from a couple weeks ago. Williams has been a favorite of mine since seeing TNA in 2007. I remember how it really impressed me with how he used his knees for much of his striking offense. Knee drops, knee lifts and such really resonated with me at the time. Not only didn't you see them very often at that time, Williams used them in such a deliberate manner. It wasn't just one knee drop, it was a myriad of attacks. Its almost like when I first saw a Wanderlei Silva fight and how he used his knees. The style is different but the principle of using the knees seemed very smart and dangerous. That coupled with his mat wrestling and suplex skills, I was sold. Anyhow, I've never done a spotlight on the Anarchist and after watching a bunch of Steven Regal matches, I thought why not now? So without further ado, let's begin! I'll post any YouTube videos below the match if they're posted by the folks that own the rights. Other stuff, you'll have to watch it anyway you can. Doug Williams & Jun Akiyama vs. Go Shiozaki & Kenta Kobashi (Universal Uproar, November 12, 2005) : Very small ring and while they did give the fans Kobashi vs Akiyama right away. They then had Akiyama in peril for a good while and it felt odd. It almost felt like they dominated him. Once Williams got in there it resumed the normal order of things and all was good. All was great in fact. Doug was on fire and Shiozaki in his rookie year was fantastic as well. Kobashi did his thing which is all anyone could want. Akiyama seemed really game to work with Doug. They functioned extremely well together. All of the knee strikes, it was awesome! The closing segment was so enjoyable. Not on par with Kobashi's ROH appearances but absolutely great stuff! Doug Williams & Jody Fleisch vs Go Shiozaki & SUWA (ROH Unified 2006): Great golden age mid card magic. I mean this is also from the Unified show which is arguably one of if not the best shows. Jody keeps things simpler but does mess up a couple things but honestly I couldn't tell either way. The simple things he does work and is an astute partner for Doug. SUWA does his thing and Go in 2006 had all of the fucking tools already. Honestly, Doug vs either NOAH guy would have been just as good to me and really this match is really about those encounters with Jody in there for fun. ----- Doug Williams & Go Shiozaki vs Davey Richards & Atsushi Aoki (RQW April 2007) : Very good tag match. Its pretty much a NOAH tag in the UK - good grappling to start, strong hits, quick action down the stretch. A couple bobbles as Richards/Go miss the body scissors or maybe hurricanrana and the bottom turnbuckle breaks during the end but they recover on both. Neither really hurts the match. Just good action with everyone going all out in front of the small UK crowd. ----- vs Johnny Moss (3CW Remembrance Day 11/11/07): This was a quite fun & more technical style bout. Things get chippy from time to time especially towards the end but its more traditional than we see Doug in Japan, ROH or TNA. He does it all so very well. Moss you might remember from my wXw 16 Carat tournament posts from a couple years ago. Very nice to see him again. ----- Doug Williams & Nigel McGuinness vs. Akira Taue & SUWA (NOAH 10/13/06): This was pretty much all SUWA and the lads but that's not a bad thing at all. Take functioned kind of like a heel manager - interrupting pins, meddling, and assisting in some moves like the Dudley Boyz "Whassup" headbutt spot but SUWA dropped an elbow instead and looked to destroy Novel's dick in the process. The Brits worked their butts off this bout. Taue eventually gears up and we get some really exciting stuff in the last few minutes and this is a really good tag match. So many of these seemingly throw away tag matches are only perceived as such because of the quality of the high end stuff. Doug Williams & Nigel McGuinness vs The Briscoe Brothers (RQW Indypendence Day 2008) - Slight JIP but this is about 13 minutes of great tag wrestling. Its like the TNA PPV version of what they can do. Everyone looked really and mat wrestling at the beginning was awesome. Its very much what I want to see in Doug or Nigel's matches. ----- Kotaro Suzuki, Yoshinari Ogawa & Yoshinobu Kanemaru vs. Atsushi Aoki, Bryan Danielson & Doug Williams (NOAH 10/25/08): Great 15 minute 6 man match. Lots of action and a neat twist where Ogawa isn't really amiable with his teammates and vice versa. We used to see that on TV during the Attitude era but not too much in Japan. I'm not sure what the background is but it makes it a memorable match. All the talent in the ring ensures you'll find something to like here. Excellent project! Its something I should have done a long time ago. If you're unfamiliar with Mr. Williams, check a couple matches out. If you're a fan or just want to look back to wrestling days of yore, give it a shot! Thanks for reading! Stay safe folks!

I'm back with the second and final installment of the Samoa Joe - World Champion DVD released by ROH in 2004. Let's pick back up where we left off. vs Christopher Daniels (Glory by Honor II - September 2003): A fighting champion for sure! Daniels used his speed & agility to take Joe to the limit. In a way Daniels maybe should have won because he showed tons of toughness withstanding Joe's awesome offense. If you've seen their TNA battles then you know Joe can really toss The Fallen Angel around. The one STO looked especially vicious! So yeah in a way Daniels was the physical underdog and even though he's the heel, you started rooting for him. Just a classic match...nice pacing, things made sense and was earned. I really appreciated the finish as well. These two would not be done with each other. vs Jay Briscoe (Tradition Continues - October 2003): Man there were some early 2000's frat bro marks in the audience this night. Christ Almighty dude, sit the fuck down. I hope that these dudes bought the tape back in '03 and saw what douche bags they were. But they probably were marking out for themselves. Anyhow, this was a pretty good match. Joe wasn't taking Jay seriously and Jay would mount a comeback then Joe would snuff him out. The reason those guys were such dicks is that Jay had no chance of beating the champ. Yet they were acting like he could and getting folks all worked up. It reminded me of PWG in the Reseda VFW. Just fans who think that they are part of the entertainment. It took away from a pretty enjoyable match. In all fairness this is in Maryland and I'm sure there's local fans from here & Delaware at the show. Pretty much like BJ why he was booked in a title fight. It wasn't great as Jay didn't have much of a personality yet and looked bush league with the singlet and shorts gear but all things said, his offense looked better than BJ Whitmer's and he took some punishment thus making him a viable singles contender down the road. One near fall was pretty dumb and killed the prestige of a finisher in my opinion. It was far too generous to 2003 Jay. One more time? ----- vs AJ Styles (War of the Wire - November 2003): Phenomenal world title match! Seriously though this is one I hadn't heard of but seeing it on paper I knew it had to be worthwhile. A classic match without a doubt. This is a twist on what Joe has been doing as AJ seems to an answer for many of Joe's attacks. Joe actually seems to have met his match and in turn takes a few short cuts (see the eye rake out of the Muta lock for instance). I'm not sure how it rates against some of their TNA matches but this is exactly what I wanted to see. If the Corino vs Homicide barb wire war wasn't right after this then I think they could have made this even better. But hey that's business. I loved that match too so no complaints. We get kind of a unique twist on the finish too...sort of a modified extra hurty version. ----- vs Mark Briscoe (Final Battle - December 2003): Mark pinned the champ in a tag match before the above show so he gets a shot at the title. I liked the story of this much more than Jay's fight. It makes more sense in terms of a narrative. Jay was booked to capitalize on being in Maryland & get local fans. Admittedly Mark was booked as a somewhat mid level challenger for the AJPW visiting Final Battle. Joe, I believe still was a zero joke affiliated worker so he needed to be out of the cross promotional fights (Monika vs Joe in 2003 would have been sweet!). All that aside, no one thinks Mark is gonna win..maybe not even Mark. BUT I think he & Joe use that to tell an great underdog story. Additionally, Jay's presence at ringside is more meaningful as Joe is soft feuding with the Briscoes. I don't know, it's one of those the sums is greater than the whole of its parts matches. It was very good and a nice finish. Plus we get a Punk Joe confrontation to pave the way for 2004. ----- Overall, this is a great DVD. A few classic (****1/2) matches vs perennial rivals, and some very good defenses as well (vs Williams, London & Mark being the best). I would have liked more shown of the highlighted tag matches (Night of Grudges 6 man & Briscoe Brothers vs Joe & AJ at The Conclusion). That's just a preference since they could have shown a highlighted version of the Whitmer match. I do not care for that at all. Anyhow, highly recommended DVD. Its on eBay but be patient and you should be able to get it for a reasonable price ($10-15).

This show was kind of a holy grail DVD for me. Well holy grail for a reasonable price. But it is actually rather uncommon to find compared to later ROH stuff. The big draw of this is the main event of AJ Styles vs Bryan Danielson. It was the one major omission in the excellent ROH Year Two compilation. This match completed the trinity of all time classics from AJ, Paul London and Danielson in 2003 - Epic Encounter, Night of the Grudges being the other two. And let me say it again, Paul London would have had more classics if he stuck around. Those two classic battles were not accidental. Anyhow, this is a Quickie so let's get going. I skipped stuff that I wasn't interested in or have watched once elsewhere and had no intention of watching again. Dan Maff vs Colt Cabana - Skipped Xavier & Nigel McGuinness vs John Walters & Tony Mamaluke - Very early Nigel appearance and I think he's the standout here. His work with The Purists was the real interesting stuff. Nothing against Xavier (R.I.P.) but his stuff was generic. This was a fun match though. ----- Matt Stryker vs Justin Credible - Skipped Izzy & Dixie vs The Briscoe Brothers - Cornette is with Dem Boys (oh wait! too early for that). Special K matches usually gets skipped but this was actually rather good. Glad I gave it a shot. Homicide vs BJ Whitmer - I feel that whatever was good here was due to Homicide. A reliable source said this was a great match but I humbly disagree. It was OK. What SHOULD have been the finish would have kept this as a good match. But in the worst decision they went beyond that...in true nonsensical Indie fashion. Who made this decision? Scramble Cage Match - I'm not listing all of the teams. This is kinda infamous. Its Jack Evans' debut and Teddy Hart's last ROH match (ever?). I've seen it once. Its Indie in the worst way. What's notable is Jay Lethal as Hydro for Special K wrestles in this one too. If you haven't seen it, go check it out for the spectacle. Samoa Joe vs Christopher Daniels vs Steve Corino vs CM Punk - Everyone has got a little bit of history here except Joe & Punk which is funny. Fast forward the obnoxiously long Corino intro and you've got a great match with 4 icons of ROH. Joe looked like the World Champ here. That match could have been the main event to an average ROH show for the time but we get one more... AJ Styles vs Bryan Danielson - Topping their classic from All Star Extravaganza ('02), we get one of the most intense and competitively fought matches I've seen this year. You need to watch this match. It has been hyped since it took place so I'm not going to say anything that hasn't been said. All Time Classic ROH match. This is probably my Best Match Watched front runner right now. That said I probably won't choose it since it is something a lot of folks have been aware of for awhile. Overall a fun show with an all time classic. That really elevated the appeal to me when searching for this. Shit its the only reason I was searching for it. So the tag matches and the 4 way are gravy on top. Thanks for reading!

I got interested in the Atsushi Aoki & Kotaro Suzuki team from watching 2013 All Japan. Their bouts against Koji Kanemoto & Minoru Tanaka are some of the best this year. So I was curious what they were doing in NOAH a year before they jumped to AJPW. Let's take a look! Suzuki & Aoki vs Nakajima & Kajiwara - (NOAH 01/15/12) - Story here is Aoki is gunning for Nakajima's Jr. Title. Man do we get that. Aoki is like Kawada or KENTA by going after Nakajima every chance he gets. He even leaves his lesser opponent Kajiwara (new to me) in the ring in order to injure Nakajima's leg. Suzuki plays the supportive partner by keeping the attack on or defending. Aoki and Nakajima's work makes me want to watch their title fight. Very good match. vs Ricky Marvin & Super Crazy (03/18/12): This was fun with lots of cool moves but was excessive. And I'm not sure it told much of a story. I think if it was 15 minutes, you could get away with that and I'd say it was a great fireworks match. Just too many fireworks from start to finish with no build up or downtime. vs Marvin & Sabre Jr - (NOAH 04/22/12) - Very good small show match. Slow or perhaps insignificant first part but then we get the pairings of Aoki vs ZSJ and Marvin & Suzuki and it gets cooking. vs Marvin & Ishimori - (NOAH 04/29/12) - Basically the closing 5-7 minutes of a match presented as the whole thing. Sequence after sequence especially by Marvin & Ishimori. Kotaro gets annihilated! Pretty cool but not quite a full match as its more of a sprint. Fun though! Shiozaki, Suzuki & Aoki vs Otani, Hidaka & Hashimoto - (NOAH 05/09/12) - OMG, I loved this match. Korakuen hall 6 man tag magic here with every pairing offering something interesting or outright exciting. The big story is young Hashimoto being able to hang in there with Noah top dogs especially Shiozaki. Otani keeping Go in check was enjoyable as all hell since Shinjiro looks like someone's buff dad. I think what made this great beyond the actual talent was the pacing. It was around 20 minutes and built up steam little by little until at the end, the excitement was at a fever pitch. Never did they over do it or go down a road narrative wise only to abandon it. In fact the story finished what it began with twists and turns along the way. I think this was a classic 6 man tag. vs Naomichi Marufuji & Taiji Ishimori (05/13/12): Great match but not without its faults. The hyper pace is so untenable and renders so many cool moments forgettable. They never let anything sink in. And that can work if you have a shorter match of like 10-15 minutes but they went double that. It's too much. Still there were so many cool moments that I guess they accumulated into something special. vs Marvin & Super Crazy - (07/22/12: THIS is the definitive version of this match-up! Under 20 minutes, all fireworks still but the slimmed down version of their March match. They wrestled it as Aoki vs Crazy in the first half and then Marvin vs Kotaro in the second. Of course there were double teams and break -ups but the legal guys really broke down like that. I respect their decision to do this. It made for a much better match. A fitting end and on a high note. Great fireworks match!. This mini project has been OK. It at least reaffirmed my lukewarm interest in later day NOAH. But there are some diamonds in the rough - shorter matches are better is a good rule though. There is a lot of what I don't like about contemporary wrestling here as well (and this was 10 years ago!). Aoki & Suzuki's work in 2013 AJPW is so much more substantive than many of the fireworks displays here. The 6 man match above was the highlight without a doubt though! That was a under the radar awesome match and very similar to the stuff I loved in AJ '13.

I very much wanted to call this post "The Champ is Here" but that is the title of Joe's second volume ROH DVD. Today we'll be looking at volume one which looks at Joe's first defenses of the ROH World Championship after defeating Xavier. These are the matches that really put that title on the map and really establish the prestige of that position. You may forget that Low-Ki was the first champ and his climb to the top was greater than his time there. That's OK since Xavier was a project for Gabe S. but the fans really didn't want him even after a few shows. Here comes Samoa Joe who was both a badass like Ki and a project for Gabe. vs Doug Williams (Retribution: Round Robin Challenge 2 – April 2003): Having just watched a bunch of Steven Regal, I'm thrilled to watch a version of Regal (so to speak) take on Samoa Joe. The first couple minutes could have been on Nitro. Things pick up into more familiar territory especially for the champ as his MMA styling shows through and we gets sort of a worked shoot-style thing (BattlARTS) with Williams going after the arm and Samoa Joe trying to hook in what he can given the position he's in (STF, Crab, Heel hook etc.) but it leads to the the Choke in the end. Quick match at a little over 10 minutes but certainly puts the finisher over as a match ender AND Joe as a fighting champ. This was hard hitting and very physical. A good way to set the tone for Joe as champ. ----- vs Homicide (Do Or Die – May 2003): Intense violent title fight. The backstory is tied to Homicide vs Corino's Group. But really this is Joe vs Homicide. I haven't seen their other matches but I think this is the best of the bunch per some trusted sources. That's good because this is a classic... maybe a forgotten classic ROH World title match. ----- vs Dan Maff (WrestleRave - June 2003): Hard hitting no nonsense title fight with the two heavyweights of the company. It felt very much like a local independent promotion's TV main event on the cable sports channel at 10:00 on a Sunday. There's a story to tell as Maff pinned Joe at the previous show thus disbanding the ill-fated Group and well pinning the champ with a jack knife pin. However there's no real story telling here or even a call back to Maff using the jack knife pin. Its just two guys beating each other up. Good stuff nonetheless but could have been improved with just a couple small touches. vs Paul London (Death Before Dishonor - July 2003): London's final ROH (of his original run) and while common sense says he's not going to win, your heart hopes he does. Paul London is sorta like the best kept secret of early ROH watching in the 2010's & '20s- even more so than his former pal Brian Kendrick. Sure both went on to the WWE and got some fame but that's probably faded by now. But I think what's stranger in hindsight is that Paul jumped ship as his star and confidence in ring was rising. I suppose it makes sense at the time to take the big time deal then...no it makes perfect sense. In hindsight, went in 10 years too early. He was Smackdown tag champs but what is that really in the grand scheme of things? He was one of the first in a long line of fantastic talent wasted in WWE. I digress. So here we have Joe on the rise and London at the end of the road. What could be a very simple to the point match or even a squash is given time and room to breathe and be creative. London wants to go out on top and will use everything in his arsenal to win. Joe is slowly becoming the legendary definitive ROH champ so you're not going to win without a helluva fight. Its not a perfect or even pretty match at times but everyone looks good in the end. Great match and I enjoyed it more after seeing for a second time 5-6 years later. ----- vs BJ Whitmer (Wrath of the Racket - August 2003): This was a low end good match. Whitmer has as much charisma as a saltine cracker. He's also still doing an tribute act to Jun Akiyama. His exploder suplex looked good his jumping knees were mediocre. Those are tough for anyone to make look good. The corner ones you can jump up and jam the knee in the chest, guy sells it and its like caught between a rock & a hard place. The running version comes down to the guy selling it. Act like its hit you and stopped your momentum and knocks you flat on your back. Trying to make it look good as a actual strike is tough. Joe does his thing and keeps this interesting. I'll pick back up with Part #2 soon.Thanks for reading!