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G. Badger

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  1. G. Badger

    NOAH You Might Have Missed - 2002 - Part 3 - Final

    By G. Badger,


    You Might Have Missed
    Sorry for the delay! Here we are with the fall & winter of 2002 and it is a doozy!
    KENTA & Kenta Kobashi vs Kotaro Suzuki & Mitsuharu Misawa (09/01): We get our first appearance of KENTA in his true form Gone is the surfer hair, orange trunks & white boots. He's in his dark grey tights with kick pad boots...and he is kicking. I know that sounds weird but up until now KENTA wasn't doing his shoot style kicks. This is a good match that gives us some good Misawa vs Kobashi moments without making it all about them. This is way more about KENTA & Suzuki coming into their own. Unfortunately Suzuki is still green enough where coming into your own means taking a beating well. Therefore the middle of the match is like a store brand saltine...Nice to see Kobashi back!
    Kobashi, KENTA, Shiga & Kikuchi vs. Akiyama, Saito, Hashi & Kanemaru (09/05/02): This is one I wanted to see but the YouTube video was deactivated. But dummy me, I actually have the clipped version on my 10/19/02 DVD! Holy cow! I've had this for over a decade and not known it. Anyway, like I said this is a clipped version with about 30 minutes shown out of 50 so not bad but there's no clean way to clip this. So we get the start and a few minutes before each elimination and probably the last 10 minutes uninterrupted. I didn't keep track exactly.  Anyhow this is Sterness vs Burning and from the get go this feels like the Sharks vs the Jets. Captain Fall elimination match so if Akiyama or Kobashi gets pinned at anytime, it's all over. But of course like I said this goes 50 minutes and other folks get eliminated. This is a blast to watch and legitimately looks like a great match. KENTA & Shiga are a focus with Shiga being the defector from Sterness and KENTA really starting to embrace his new style/gimmick. I think it's also a great showcase for Akitoshi Saito and is a excellent showcase for him. He has the best enzuigiri and spinning heel kick btw. And of course there's Kobashi and Akiyama who are as great as always. Great stuff.


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    Yoshinari Ogawa vs. Yoshihiro Takayama (09/07): Great match! Takayama tries to annihilate Ogawa. He shouts "Hey champ! C'mon champ" at Ogawa laying on the mat like a pile of dirty laundry. Like talk about adding insult to injury. The champ does find away though and proceeds to target the giant arm like there's no tomorrow... and frankly there might not be if he can't slow the blonde behemoth down. This is all capped off by an excellent closing few minutes that cements this as a great title fight.
    Yoshinobu Kanemaru/Tsuyoshi Kikuchi vs. El Samurai/Masayuki Naruse (9/23/02) This match has a fantastic pace and is full of action. This really is how you build a junior feud. The execution was great and the timing was even better. It left you wanting more. Bitchin’ great match. An unlikely NJ team too...
    Takeshi Morishima & Takeshi Rikio vs. Akitoshi Saito & Jun Akiyama (09/23/02): I actually watched this after the match below. I'm funny like that but I am glad I did because I thought this match topped the main event. It was a fucking intense battle from bell to bell. Saito and Rikio were just trying to destroy each other. Morishima comes in and brings it to Saito next. I'm thinking Jun, who's not always super stiff at this time would shy away but no! He was hammering on Morishima. Yeah I loved this thing. The pacing and intensity were just right. It could have been a sprint but Wild II are showing they can hang with the big boys. Saito is really coming into his own here...and that's being more of a bad ass. Some folks didn't like this but I'm not really sure why...I got the vibe that it was a comparison thing. comparing everything to AJPW 90's is only going to set you up for disappointment. I had to learn that lesson for myself. Just try to be in the moment, not analyzing and not comparing. I think if you're not familiar with everything going on in early NOAH, you probably won't give two shits about what anyone other than Akiyama is doing... but that'd be a giant oversight. You're not actually invested in these guys and early NOAH really is about pushing virtual nobodies from AJPW into the lime light. So early NOAH is not about trying to be AJ without Mrs. Baba. It's trying to be something different. It helps if you know this BUT this is such a simple beat-the-shit-outta-each-other match that I'm not sure anyone wouldn't like this...I thought this was a classic.
    Misawa vs Takayama (09/23/02): This is probably one of most lauded singles matches for NOAH 2002. I have never seen it in full! I have a Misawa comp that has clips (for some reason) but I am really glad I saw this. It's very MMA influenced without trying to be shoot style or even Inoki Strong Style (not to be confused with Inokism which was going on in NJ at this time...shoot matches, more MMA guys in NJ...I do like Don Frye as a worker though as well as Kaz Fujita). So don't think of the match being anything like that. Takayama is more like a giant Kawada in this thing. He's hitting knees, head kicks, going for arm bars. As a result Misawa taps more into that by focusing on his elbow strikes, working holds on the mat and even throwing leg kicks. But...he still is doing his moves off the turnbuckles and dives etc. Honestly this was a near classic match... only held back from both guys being beat up (both bleeding) and I think Takayama ran out of gas at the end...so the more intricate things at the end looked sluggish. But fuck! they were going at it all match so I cannot fault anyone for being a bit sluggish after all of that. Also re-watched Frye vs Takayama which is also 2002. Man I miss Pride... back in the late 2000's on Spike they had a Best of Pride FC show (via UFC) and I had my favorites all DVR'd...I digress!

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    Yoshinobu Kanemaru & Tsuyoshi Kikuchi vs. KENTA & Takashi Sugiura (10/12/02): This was a pretty darn good match! It probably didn't need to be 23 minutes long but once they got cooking they didn't let up. Lots of creative offense and if you like stiff elbow strikes then this is a match for you! Never heard anything about this but yeah, this is recommended stuff.
    Takuma Sano & Yoshinari Ogawa vs. Kotaro Suzuki & Mitsuharu Misawa (10/12): Wave vs Wave, interesting...I believe Marufuji was injured at this point otherwise he might have been in Kotaro's place. Half shown but man was this fun stuff! The Ogawa/Sano team was really good... I'll have to keep my eye out for more matches with them together.
    Kenta Kobashi & Kentaro Shiga vs. Jun Akiyama & Yoshinobu Kanemaru (10/17/02): I'm going to tell you this is the one & only match Kobashi uses his Diamond Head power bomb. It's basically a Dominator like Ron Simmons used to use. It doesn't look that cool though but what you want to see is Shiga vs Akiyama...that's great stuff...the whole match is really good. Burning vs Sterness!
    I was also able to locate my review for Kobashi/Shiga vs. Akiyama/Saito 10/19/02 which is a match that's gotten praise but if you're only going on hype, it seemingly happened in a vacuum. Like you would think everything else they did prior & after sucked. Matches like this are what inspires me to do these projects. They aren't deep dives but attempts to push against conventional wisdom/old ideas. 
    Kobashi/Shiga vs. Akiyama/Saito (10/19/02): This was a match I’ve sought after for a long time. It lived up to the hype for sure. It was great in showing Shiga’s heart as well as Saito’s evilness. That dude is a beast. Great long finishing run with false finishes and great moments for sure. Epic finish too. Bad Ass! People were psyched on this one throughout! It had to build a little for me but, at the end I was shouting and making noises right along with ‘em. Classic match!
    Since I have taken so long to get this posted, I took the time and dug this DVD set out of storage. I'm looking for under the radar stuff so there's got to be a couple on this show.
    Makoto Hashi vs KENTA (10/19): Good match and maybe a very good one if you ignore KENTA blowing off all of Hashi's good leg work. Hashi would have been a great junior talent had he debuted in 1986...and for that I really dug him in this match. KENTA is now the kicky version...but not the bad ass we see in ROH for instance.

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    Donovan Morgan & Michael Modest & Scorpio vs. IZU & Maxx Justice & Richard Slinger (10/19): No doubt I skipped this match when I got the 10/19/02 DVD but not now. I'm all about a match like this. It's a lot of fun too! Scorpio and Richard Slinger do a really good chain wrestling opening and from then on there's a bunch of neat moves, some comedy and quality 6 man wrestling. Morgan and Modest added a lot to the match.
    Kotaro Suzuki, Mitsuharu Misawa, Takuma Sano & Yoshinari Ogawa vs. Akira Taue, Daisuke Ikeda, Masashi Aoyagi & Takashi Sugiura (10/19): Oh man this was a lot of fun! The last few minutes were especially good. Not top tier but there's some really exciting sequences that had me cheering. I liked the early focus on Aoyagi and by the end everyone was going off. I really dug this one.

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    Yoshinobu Kanemaru/Tsuyoshi Kikuchi vs. Gedo/Jado - (12/7/02) Oh those bastards. Team NO RESPECT!!! Jado & Gedo are some nasty looking dudes. So the match is kinda like NOAH style American wrestling. It was a ton of fun with Gedo and Jado heeling it up in all those fun US ways. This is stuff that we lost later in the 90s AJPW as the brawler was phased out because it resembled garbage wrestling. So, Jado and Gedo are a call back to that good stuff from the 70s-80s and 90-91 AJPW. And god knows Kikuchi is all for that again. Still this is 2002 wrestling so, there’s some nice moves from both teams. It’s a different match especially from this time in wrestling and it’s great!

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    Kenta Kobashi vs Bison Smith (12/07/02): Great under 10 minute match! From watching GAEA, doing these shorter all action matches with the older guys would have been a good idea. Have the younger guys go longer. I would have liked a different outcome as I think it is Misawa playing it safe. Bison could have been NOAH's Dr. Death for the 2000's. He looked like an absolute monster for 3/4th of the match. Plus the Iron Claw work was excellent...it's a low impact move that can escalated into the iron claw slam. They did this here to great effect. Bison being pushed harder was a missed opportunity but it's still a great fight.
    Yoshinari Ogawa vs Mitsuharu Misawa (12/07/02): I loved the beginning and middle of this match. It was actually wrestled and reminded me of early 80's AJPW. Eventually they brought this into the late 80's and early 90's. Then the final 3rd didn't set my world a fire. There was too many back drops and Tiger drivers...like do another move or even fight out of it. And they do maybe once but, it was kinda dull but then the very end got really good again. And overall the whole thing was very good but was on its way to be great.
    2002 was an excellent year and maybe was the last year for the experimental stage of NOAH. Kobashi comes back full time (until 2006) and things change. Perhaps for the better? NOAH seems far less interesting as times goes on. And that is not a criticism... It's really quality stuff as we get into the Kobashi reign but it becomes more predictable than than in 2001 & 2002.
    Checking out 2001 & 2002 NOAH has been a project that I have been wanting to do for years. Really glad I got to do it! Hope you have enjoyed it too
    Thanks for reading!
     
  2. G. Badger

    NOAH You Might Have Missed - 2002 - Part 2

    By G. Badger,


    You Might Have Missed
    So I found a Japanese YouTube channel that has some more obscure/hard to find stuff for 2002. Most of it is clipped but I'm happy to see at least some of these matches. Looks like this person has a lot of Ogawa/Misawa/Wave stuff...and in turn more Wave vs Sterness so I'm pretty psyched. So we're going to kinda start back at the beginning of 2002 with these videos.
    Jun Akiyama, Akitoshi Saito & Yoshinobu Kanemaru vs Mitsuharu Misawa, Yoshinari Ogawa & Naomichi Marufuji (01/16): 7 of 17 minutes shown but man this looked great. Kanemaru was on fire! If you can see this in full, I think you're in for a good time! There's some post match fighting too. Yeah this one is recommended. Oh and I watched the pre match video and it looks like there was dissent with Ogawa & Misawa leading up to this match which plays a big part in the finish here. At first the finish looked weird but it's actually pretty cool. 
    Elimination Match: Mitsuharu Misawa & Naomichi Marufuji & Takuma Sano & Yoshinari Ogawa vs. Akitoshi Saito & Jun Akiyama & Makoto Hashi & Yoshinobu Kanemaru (01/20): 1/3 shown with this mainly be a highlight format as opposed to joined in progress. We get to see everyone's elimination so that was cool. Akiyama has his shoulder taped up and braced in this match as well as the previous one. I think this would be neat to see in full.
    Jun Akiyama & Makoto Hashi vs. Naomichi Marufuji & Yoshinari Ogawa (03/14): 9 of 17 minutes and definitely worth seeing in full. This reminded me of a Hayabusa era FMW tag in the best way possible. Lots of great action, no focus on toughness/fighting spirit, ultra stiff strikes etc. Sterness felt like the baby faces with Ogawa & Marufuji being crafty heels. Badass finish too! great stuff!
    Mitsuharu Misawa & Naomichi Marufuji & Yoshinari Ogawa vs. Takao Omori & Takashi Sugiura & Yoshihiro Takayama (03/17): Oh man, only 8 of 20 minutes shown. This was looking pretty badass! Misawa and Omori were laying into each other like it was a title fight. Ogawa vs Takayama was very entertaining as Ogawa was just too quick for the giant. And Marufuji vs Sugiura was excellent as always... Marufuji's, agility works so well with Sug's suplex & slam offense. 
    Jun Akiyama & Akitoshi Saito vs. Yoshinari Ogawa & Takuma Sano (03/25): An appetizer for the Akiyama vs Ogawa title fight and it delivers. 8 of 12 minutes shown and pretty much it only seems to cut Sano's face in peril segment. This was really really good stuff if you're not going into this expecting NOAH as AJPW. I've said this before but, early NOAH seemed much more like an indie than I think most Western wanted/saw as the 2000's went on.  NOAH as AJPW happens during Kobashi's title reign. But this first quarter of '02 with Ogawa vs Akiyama being the big thing is very fresh. 
    Takeshi Morishima & Takeshi Rikio vs. Manabu Nakanishi & Yutaka Yoshie (04/07/02):
    Here's one I found elsewhere. Reminds me of late 80's AJPW. I started watching it but realized these guys can't do a good match for almost 30 minutes. Who gave them that much time? This should have been 15 minutes. But hey, it's out there if you're interested
    Jun Akiyama vs. Yoshinari Ogawa (04/07): I'm not sure this was the plan for the Spring of 2002 however Kobashi was sidelined for a few more months and I think they were going to do something with Akiyama & him. So this Akiyama vs Ogawa stuff takes its place. They tease at it in the January matches but really commit to it by March. Anyway, this is the payoff and it's a sweet one. It's only 4+ minutes and wrestled at a quick pace. Since it's short I'm going to spoil it just as a heads up. The finish works because Akiyama has Ogawa's wrist clutched for that exploder variation. So both guys are tied together in essence. So when Ogawa reverses the suplex momentum into a small package, Akiyama's tied up into the hold and it's enough for a 3...like a wrist clutch small package hold. They executed this perfectly and if fumbled a little bit it would have looked hokey and damaged the credibility of the people and the title. The fans in attendance were super pumped for the outcome... maybe just because its something different & unexpected. I can get behind that... I think we can agree that rotating the belt between the same 3-4 guys can get stale.
    Akira Taue & KENTA vs. Mitsuharu Misawa & Yoshinari Ogawa (05/09): Very joined in progress with only the last 4 of 14 minutes being shown. Nevertheless this was pretty good stuff. Taue and Ogawa works so well because neither are that peak NOAH wrestler. Taue is basically late 70's Baba in terms of mobility and Ogawa is an early 90's AJ junior who wrestles like a he's a mid 80's junior. But it works! And we see that here. KENTA brings the fireworks. while Misawa plays the more than competent #2 to the champ (I know!? Ogawa is champ!). Excellent lead in to their title fight. If you find this in full I'm sure it's a blast! Same with Misawa, Ogawa & Takuma Sano vs Taue, Honda & Mokoto Hashi (05/06). I didn't review it but similar vibes as this 05/09 match.
    Yoshinobu Kanemaru vs. KENTA (05/26): The channel I've been watching for these clipped gems of course had this clipped too but I was digging and found this in full. And really glad that I did! This was great! Perhaps this is the first big KENTA match...he actually did the work the body stuff...as did Kanemaru. It didn't lead to a finish but it certainly wasn't boring. Kanemaru even did a move off the run way to the floor - pretty sick too. I think he did a good job leading this match as well. His cutoffs of KENTA's comebacks were well timed and impactful. It never looked like he was just going through the motions. So when the K-man got an opening with a vicious release German, it felt earned. Again great stuff here...
    Takao Omori & Mohammed Yone vs Yoshihiro Takayama & Takashi Sugiura (05/26/02): A little bit earlier there's a schism in No Fear. Akiyama calls Omori out saying Takayama is using him...during the match Takayama wants to decimate Akiyama with double team moves (they do) but Omori says enough is enough and hit his partner with the Ax Bomber and splits. That looks to be on the 05/09 show. That sets up this match BUT I have some conflicting info that just shows Omori vs Takayama on this date. So Sherlock Badger checked the crowd and sure enough its the 05/26 from the above match (note the two guys in white shirts wearing ties etc). Anyways...this was some great hateful hard hitting wrestling. It boils down to two parts 1) Takayama getting his ass kicked 2) Omori getting his ass kicked. Yone & Sugiura were very secondary in their roles. Yone was especially stiff with Takayama...I've got to see more of his NOAH work. I would have liked a little bit better of a finishing segment but, we get 20 minutes of potatoes so I can't gripe too much. If you're interested in watching this then, you should!
    Yoshinari Ogawa vs. Akira Taue (05/26): The lead in matches are so good and before the match, they show a clip from a match the night before. Taue beat Ogawa with a small package hold! He goes down and gets the title belt and throws it on a beat Ogawa and surely says something like, "take good care of this for me. I'll be back for it tomorrow night." Well this was a great match! especially if you've seen some of the lead in. There's call backs to those finishes. I think the layout and timing is really special too. If you're looking for that "once a year Taue is great again" match, I think this might be it!
    Satoru Asako Retirement Match: Mitsuharu Misawa & Kenta Kobashi & Satoru Asako vs. Akira Taue & Masao Inoue & Makoto Hashi (07/26): Asako is back in his AJ green and Kobashi is back in the orange - that's awesome! Oh shit he's even doing some of his old AJ moves too! Asako is going all out. Inoue gives no fucks and clothesline'd the man of the hour like there was no tomorrow. Taue gave the soon to retire Asako a few good slams too. Yeah this was a blast at about 10 minutes. The post match stuff is really touching too.  There's no good reason to skip this one if you're an 90's AJPW fan. 
    Now a big rant of sorts. If you're just here for match recommendations, we're all done for today If you're interested in a little shop talk about 20 year old wrestling then, read on!
    I am really liking 2002 NOAH and I'm glad I found a bit more than what I had originally planned. This Ogawa stuff has been excellent and unexpected. He's not what you're looking for in a GHC champ especially if you're more familiar with 2003 to 2010's NOAH. But 2001-2002 NOAH in a different animal. I was looking over 2000 AJPW's matches and man! it's really clear that Misawa had a vision with Pro Wrestling Noah. 2000 AJ's under card booking was the drizzling shits. It's the same people but in matches that looked like they were booked using a lotto ball machine. Like random as hell...and maybe those were fun/good matches but Misawa gave folks a purpose, a place, a direction in early NOAH. This didn't really happen until '01 and I think hit its stride in '02. It is very much "we're not going to be a one match company." From watching mid 80's AJPW last year, I think Misawa really wanted a company where there's something for everyone AND something for everyone to do. 
    The popular opinion is that Misawa lacked a vision and couldn't find someone else who could be on top. I disagree. I think his vision was to lift everyone else up rather than find a top star right away. I think evidence of this was Misawa being able to convince Baba on Ogawa as his tag partner in the very late 90's. In NOAH he continues this as Kentaro Shiga, Kikuchi & Asako get a boost out of under card swamp into high profile matches again. Outside veteran talent is given a chance like Akitoshi Saito, Aoyagi, Sano & Too Cold Scorpio as are "younger" outsiders like Daisuke Ikeda & Yone. Some of these folks were in 2000 AJPW...we can see Misawa wanted to shake things up. Inter-promotional feuds which were a staple of 90's puro/joshi could finally happen in earnest. And the young AJPW talent could get pushed into the lime light...Marufuji, KENTA, Morishima are all names we know if you're a 2000's ROH fan because of Misawa's vision. If you're a NOAH fan too then Rikio, Kanemaru, and Hashi are familiar to you. And Misawa knew to give Takayama the push he needed as well... not just a All Asia tag champ but as a main player in the heavyweight title scene. 
    Now I'm not saying it stayed as fresh and exciting until his death. He definitely went into safety mode due to the economics of running a business for the main events(not that the wrestling was poor but it's not as fresh). The under card always stayed interesting and sometimes outshined the main events. That aside, 2001 & 2002 are the years where I think we might be able to see where NOAH was supposed to be headed. And I don't think fans were comfortable with it and he gave Kobashi a 2 year long title reign.. but I don't think he gave up on the under card but conceded that the casual fan (big money arena filling crowds) wanted AJPW main events. After the Kobashi reign they never went back to this more creative main event scene (we see a nod to it in the lauded on PWO Kobashi vs Ogawa match, and in Marufuji's 2006 reign). 
    Maybe I should have put this at the very end of my 2002 posts (there's one more!) but having seen this much '01 & '02, it's clear that Misawa wanted to redo things. He didn't want NOAH to have these one match shows like AJPW had become. Having watched a good deal of Misawa era NOAH, he succeeded... I have always thought that their shows were very good from top to bottom. They don't always have the classic match main event but definitely are a blast to watch..many times having multiple great matches per show. 
    Thanks for reading! Planning on wrapping up 2002 next week.
  3. G. Badger

    NOAH You Might Have Missed - 2002

    By G. Badger,


    You Might Have Missed
    Here we are back in Pro Wrestling NOAH! It's 2002 and the matches this year is known for are the NJ vs NOAH Jr tags. I did some digging and found the reviews - yay! I'll mix those in with this week's new stuff. Per the 2001 posts, this is mainly going to be stuff that is a little under the radar. The exceptions are Akiyama, Yuji Nagata vs Kenta Kobashi, Mitsuharu Misawa (02/17/02) & Misawa vs Takayama rematch from 09/02. I only ever saw highlights and dammit this is the time to finally see the whole matches!
    Tsuyoshi Kikuchi/Yoshinobu Kanemaru vs. Jushin Liger/Wataru Inoue (2/17/02) This is full of stiff shots and heat. It’s getting hot in here! Like Nelly! Remember him? The guy with the bandages on his cheek and gold fronts. Yeah, now you remember…unfortunately. Where was I? Oh! Wrestling!! This was a fun fire building match especially when you pick a side. I picked NOAH. I like Liger but, most of the NJPW roster at this point in time is unremarkable. Inoue is a good example of that. Anywho…It was great seeing Kikuchi of yore. I mean this dude stood toe-to-toe with the likes of Jumbo and Kawada in the early 90s. He brings what remains to this match. Kanemaru is fun but certainly needs that surly old goat to help him out against the likes of Liger and Watery Inoue. 

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    Takeshi Morishima & Takeshi Rikio vs Yoshihiro Takayama & Takao Omori (02/17): Wild Two vs No Fear! A heavyweight super battle. This is the match I knew that they could have. No quarter given and none expected. The strikes were hard enough to crack concrete. Then some if the big moves were so sick looking because the guys are so big...they can't roll through with the momentum like a smaller guy. Rikio's Germans were especially nasty looking. A classic match for sure!
    Jun Akiyama & Yuji Nagata vs Kenta Kobashi & Mitsuharu Misawa (02/17/02): Here's one that I have wanted to see for a long while. This is a great match and probably what I'd consider a near classic. This had a lot going for it. I really dug Akiyama as champ not backing down or tagging out too soon. The rest was very good but not exceptional. And maybe that's an expectation thing...It definitely had some really sick moments. As a part of the NJ vs NOAH feud thing, this definitely is very good stuff and feels like the start of something rather than an awesome endgame encounter. I wish there was more to it than this...I think Nagata's NOAH stuff in '03 goes really well with this and probably was supposed to take place in '02. This definitely feels like it in a few ways however I believe Kobashi gets hurt during this or isn't quite 100% recovered (this is his return match from knee surgeries/rehab) and is off until the middle of '02. I've seen a **** rating and I'll agree with that.
    Akitoshi Saito vs Kentaro Shiga (04/07/02): Oh man the Shiga indie hero dream lives on This is really fun stuff as Shiga looks to have left Sterness and is squaring off against Akiyama's enforcer Saito. He doesn't stand a chance or does he? It's under 10 minutes and is a blast. Shiga has the worst chops ever but makes up for it by throwing stiff ass elbows... Saito is a bull and incapable of not hitting somewhat stiff so yeah this was really good.
    Jushin Liger/Minoru Tanaka vs. Tsuyoshi Kikuchi/Yoshinobu Kanemaru (04/07/02): Liger is he such a jerk-ass heel! Man does he punk the hell out of old Kikuchi and fancy pants Kanemaru. This was pretty good but, the NOAH team was out classed and outmatched. That doesn’t stop them from laying in some shots. I’m a bit of a Minoru fan so, this was a fun one. He was such a dick here! This isn’t so much a puro-style match as a fun American heel-babyface type tag match. 

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    Mitsuharu Misawa vs. Kodo Fuyuki (04/07/02): Very good match that I appreciated more than many of the fans. I think many of them were like "who's this fat guy making noises?" And that raises a good point, AJPW and NOAH can be pretty dry sometimes. When watching Fuyuki in other promotions, his noises aren't out of place at all. In a NOAH ring, I was taken a back. So this definitely is one I'm glad I got to see as a Fuyuki fan. It's got a little "garbage wrestling " which again fans didn't know what the fuck to do with Like do you people ONLY watch NOAH? You've seen a table get broken, right? It's 2002!
    Kenta Kobashi & Kotaro Suzuki vs. Masao Inoue & Yoshinobu Kanemaru (07/05/02): A fun match but it looks like a few minutes were chopped out (pun intended). No bother, you're watching this for Kobashi to hit people hard! Kotaro is super young here and looks to occupy the same ecological niche that KENTA did in 2001. Kobashi gets a 2nd comeback match. This one is way less taxing and he thankfully is back for awhile.
     
    KENTA & Takuma Sano vs Jun Akiyama & Kotaro Suzuki (07/26): KENTA #1 vs KENTA #2 to start things off and nice junior offense to open up with! I don't know if this is the first instance of surly KENTA vs veterans but it's a damn good one. Akiyama is so good in knowing when to no sell and when to sell here...he's probably the best of the big guys from AJPW in working with younger guys. Sano doesn't make a giant impression here because he knows that's not what the match is about. He does his job well in neutralizing Akiyama and,putting the hurt on he & Suzuki when he needs to. This is a great tag match. We really get to see the KENTA we come to know here both in attitude and move set. Suzuki really shined here as well.
    These 08/29 matches are in NJPW but I'm including them here: 
    KENTA vs. Wataru Inoue (8/29/02) – This is wrestled like you typical early 2000s junior match. There’s a lot of stiff elbows to no real effect, there’s fun spots but, the match isn’t awesome or anything. It’s a quick small show match with two youngsters. I love me some KENTA and if you’re a fan then you’ll like this one. He bleeds from his mouth…and he wouldn’t want it any other way. It’s pretty good for two rookies. Solid but, unremarkable. By the way the cross-arm bar and the mounted elbows are really big in 2002 it seems. 
    Koji Kanemoto vs. Makoto Hashi (8/29/02)- Hashi goes up against king prick Koji! The thing is that Koji thinks he’s tough shit but, Hashi is from NOAH- the hardest hitting, biggest bomb dropping-est (what?) promotion in the world. That’s good for Hashi since Koji figures he’ll practice his kicks on young Makoto’s lumpy head. Makoto remembers he eats kicks for breakfast…Kid tested mother approved…and chops and head butts the piss out of Kanemoto. I mean Hashi brings his ‘A game’ to take out the then IWGP Jr. champ. I’m always rooting against that smirking bastard! I love to hate him. The Noah Doughboy does me proud. Now that I think about it this match reminds me of the early 90s NJ vs. WAR feud. It’s very good stuff.

    Fuckin' love Koji...
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    Jushin Liger/Minoru Tanaka vs. Yoshinobu Kanemaru/Tsuyoshi Kikuchi - (8/29/02) – Seiji Sakaguchi’s out there. Hey! Why don’t you whisper into the mic some more? I kid! Liger comes out in some red long johns like he’s my grandpa. The costume change must be meaningful because he’s full of the piss and vinegar I keep hearing about. He didn’t count on Kikuchi and Kanemaru drinking jugs & jugs of old apple cider though! They bring the business to the NJ Jr. belt holders. Who’s tough now Liger? Hahaha! It doesn’t stop Minoru from being smug…and I love it. But, the story of this match stems from the man with the Rising Sun on his pants. To address this, I present a series of questions. What words does Kikuchi croak out of that cigarette and sake scarred gullet? Is it ‘Kill me?’ I ask this because if this is his wish, Liger is the genie of the lamp! Your wish is my command! Oh, tag out Kikuchi! We get it! You’re tough!! I love it though. These men deserve a round of applause; this is the match you wanted all along. Near Classic stuff!
    2002 is definitely a year that gets overlooked in NOAH history but so far it's pretty darn great stuff! The junior stuff is fantastic as many people have said but what I like about it is that NOAH feels like WAR for the 2000's. It's not getting by on these amazing classic singles matches alone. The company is striving to have more complete cards with the junior matches being as interesting as the heavyweight stuff. I know I have read that Misawa was a big proponent of this and you see that here. I also really dig the evolution of Wild Two Rikio & Morishima. Their match vs Omori & Takayama is a fine example of how they have grown since their 07/2001 bout vs No Fear. More good stuff is on the way for next time as we conclude 2002.
    Thanks for reading!!
  4. G. Badger
    This is a project that's been in the works for awhile. So long that a handful of matches I had bookmarked on YouTube are no longer available. This early NOAH stuff is hard to come by through the normal "free" channels. I'm guessing a lot of folks didn't pony up and buy the tapes/dvds. And I'm pretty much past that part of my life now...I've got a mountain of stuff that's in need of watching. Still, this along with joshi and supplementing my late 80's AJPW with Riki Choshu content, is all I'm really watching online. I digress.
    So this post I'm taking a look at Jun Akiyama and the first incarnation of his Sterness stable (his team with Akitoshi Saito especially). This week I'm focusing on 2001 since NOAH's a really interesting promotion at this time. Kobashi is out and they seem to be searching for an identity which doesn't truly seem to come until Kobashi's GHC title reign in 2003. That seems really overlooked to me. I've seen a couple things like Misawa vs Takayama and I'm thinking a Taue vs Misawa match over a decade ago. Relatively recently I did a Zero One vs NOAH in 2001 post and was pleasantly surprised with the results. Not only was the match quality good but NOAH seemed to have a less polished presentation, more adventurous/creative booking...it feels like a high end Indie like WAR or BJW or what later Zero One would be. I think most folks might recognize that with the NOAH vs NJPW feud esp. the junior tag matches of 2002. Or perhaps the 2003 Differ Cup which I also reviewed a little bit ago. Anyhow let's get onto the matches.

    Akitoshi Saito & Jun Akiyama vs Takao Omori & Takashi Sugiura (06/16/01) - Oh!!!!What a finisher!! 21 minutes of great tag wrestling. Just so well paced and never gets gratuitous. In fact it's rather simple. That keep it simple stupid mentality is what makes great matches when the talent and athleticism is there. Its 2001 so everyone is still in their prime. Sugi is the face-in-peril as a rookie. What's great is that with his frame, Saito and Akiyama can just lay into him. Everyone is on point here, everyone is excited to be doing this new promotion NOAH - its something I'd feel good giving ****1/4. That finish was just the right thing at the right time and gives it that extra 1/4 star and "near classic" designation.
    Saito, Akiyama, Shiga & Kanemaru vs Ikeda, Misawa, Marufuji & Ogawa (06/20/01) - Great 8 man match. Good kinds of chaos. My only complaints are with the couple commercial breaks and the VQ from the upload of the old footage. It got pixelated a bit and some the guys had white pants so they looked the same on the far away shots. That said, this was a blast to see these guys in one ring. I'm not sure if this was anything beyond a stable fight. Sterness seems like a street gang especially with Saito there as the enforcer. This is a little over 20 minutes (19ish shown) so this was a great appetizer to I'm sure a lot of other stuff at the time.
    Jun Akiyama & Yoshinobu Kanemaru vs. Takeshi Morishima & Takeshi Rikio (07/15/01): Fun match and a good showcase for everyone not named Akiyama. Kanemaru displays a good mix of junior offense and sneaky Ogawa tactics to stay competitive with the big men. Rikio is more developed than Morishima in terms of character and moves but you can tell in 2001 that Morishima has better fundamentals. That was a smart pairing. You can tell Akiyama likes working with them.
    Mitsuharu Misawa vs. Jun Akiyama (07/27/01): Man, they paced this one beautifully. This was not a match of excess at all. Very economical but still surprising and with just the right amount of razzle dazzle. It wasn't ungodly stiff or unnecessarily dangerous. The choice of moves and spots were so tasteful. It felt like two of the best in the world, former partners/allies going toe to toe. This was a classic match to me. I'm not watching AJPW/NOAH all of the time like I was 15 years ago so I can't tell you how it rates next to their other bouts or any of that stuff. Looking back I did a Akiyama in 90's AJ post in 2019. So I dug their 04/18/98 Champ Carnival bout quite a bit as well. If you liked that one I think you'd like this as well and vice versa

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    Saito, Akiyama, Shiga & Kanemaru vs. Misawa, Marufuji, Sano & Ogawa (08/15/01): Sterness vs Wave again! Another great match! There's a lot to like here. Everyone is involved including Misawa. There's a bit of comedy at the start. We get lots of rope running and simple but effective teamwork for the body of the match. At the end they dial up the team moves, we get the strong offense, saves etc. These guys are just working in a groove... super fun stuff. 26 minutes but it just flew by.
    Daisuke Ikeda, Morishima & Rikio vs. Akitoshi Saito, Akiyama & Hashi (08/27/01): More Daisuke Ikeda in NOAH? Absolutely yes, please! Ikeda and Akitoshi Saito blasting each other with kicks, hell yes! 12 minutes of a 14 minute match. Rikio and Morishima (Wild 2) were super impressive. Rikio does the big man thing well as he did throughout his career. Morishima even here shows he's more than just a big man. His explosive quickness makes me want to see more of him. Akiyama does what he needs to as the new champ but is actually pretty damn giving as well. This was really good stuff.
    Naohiro Hoshikawa & Tatsuhito Takaiwa vs. Akitoshi Saito & Yoshinobu Kanemaru (09/09/01): I did a Zero-1 vs NOAH in 2001 post back in 2022. I missed this one and am happy to include it here for my Sterness post Unfortunately we only get the last 3 minutes as its from a TV show. What's shown is a blast with Kanemaru & Takaiwa. Kanemaru does one of the best flip bumps on a lariat ever...and I hate flip bumps.
    Jun Akiyama & Akitoshi Saito vs. Mitsuharu Misawa & Yoshinari Ogawa (10/17/01): We only get a third of the match. The full match is out there somewhere but we get the last 7 minutes and it's really good stuff. Untouchables are still a great team. Sterness just act like a couple of bosses. Saito is definitely a great tag partner to have...a great #2 to Akiyama. He and Ogawa work really well together as well... it feels like you are watching WAR or BJW..there's a real charm to it.
    Vader & Scorpio vs. Jun Akiyama & Akitoshi Saito (10/19/01) 11 minute match. This is really all about reminding people how much of a badass Vader is! Sterness have a great opening attack on the Americans. Saito really has one of the best enzuigiris in the game. Fun stuff but not entirely competitive.
    Michael Modest & Vader vs. Akitoshi Saito & Jun Akiyama (11/25/01): This is from another TV episode so only have is shown and it focuses on Vader vs Akiyama. More real fun stuff. Wish we got to see more as we also didn't see much of Saito until the finish. He puts Modest away with his version of the Steiner Screwdriver. On the outside Vader chokeslams Slogans through a table like a god! Holy cow!
    Jun Akiyama vs. Takeshi Rikio (11/30/01): Really good 15 minute match. Rikio had some great slaps and power moves which is all you can ask of him. Akiyama provided the little touches to make Rikio look like a contender. That said Akiyama was never really in danger although the big man hit the champ with some fierce bombs.
    Vader vs. Jun Akiyama (12/09/01) Oh man that felt like a title fight! Stiff and psychology to boot. We get call backs to the above tag matches. We get both guys coming out with a game plan and sticking to them throughout. When people say that Akiyama doesn't employ psychology in his matches, point them to this match. Near classic stuff! Long live Vader too! Just when you think he's over the hill, he busts out a a move or two to remind you just how great he is. Release German suplex anyone?
    This was a lot of fun. There's a good amount of variety despite focusing on Jun Akiyama/Sterness. You would think every match would be the same but that wasn't the case. The big reason is that everything wasn't trying to be an epic. So while there was only one classic, they seemed interested in putting on entertaining wrestling matches. Everyone seemed excited to be there and to wrestling in these new fresh match ups. Even if it was only one new guy a match like veterans like Saito, Too Cold Scorpio or new blood like Morishima. In fact, I'm digging 2001 so much that I'm going to do a bonus post on it...matches that I ran out of time on for Akiyama but also a couple title fights and high profile tags. After that, I am planning on doing a Akiyama/Sterness 2002-2004 post.
    Thanks for reading!!
  5. G. Badger

    NOAH You Might Have Missed - More of 2001

    By G. Badger,


    You Might Have Missed
    Here's more 2001 NOAH! Along with the Sterness post and my Zero One vs NOAH post, https://forums.prowrestlingonly.com/blogs/entry/862-spotlight-noah-vs-zero-one-2001/ , I feel like I've got a pretty good sense of the company in '01. There's a lot to like with the fresh match ups, up and coming wrestlers and new twists on old rivalries. With the benefit of hindsight we know that NOAH hadn't quite hit its stride yet. Of the big 3 puroresu companies in '01, I think it was the most consistently good. NJ & AJ had some quality but most of it seemed dependent on Kawada, Tenryu and Muto (his '01 stuff is quality stuff). One big match I'm leaving off my watch list is Misawa vs Takayama 04/15/01 which was the deciding match for the inaugural GHC championship. That's a classic match. Below are some others you might have skipped over for one reason or another (hell I even ended up skipping a couple too!). Let's take a look!
    Takao Omori vs. Jun Akiyama (April 1, 2001): A really good...almost great match. I really like the Omori-Akiyama story. This period is one that I'm not as familiar with so I'm glad to have found this match. There's a strong focus on working a body part here and I think that's what makes it special. Akiyama mercilessly targets his former partner's Ax Bomber Lariat arm where Omori goes after the neck. Jun's attack is more defense minded. Takao is more offense oriented as his big moves also focus on the head and neck - piledriver, powerbomb, dragon suplex, Ax Guillotine driver and the lariat. I think what keeps this from being firmly "great" is the finish felt very uninspired. And I don't mean the final part of the match...no just the last couple moves. Like they didn't play off of the body of match...and they don't have to BUT it probably needed another back and forth sequence THEN the last couple moves to be a great finish and a "great" match. What a picky bastard I am sometimes This is still a very good encounter with the bulk of the match being excellent. And if I'm being fair both moves at the very end were super over at the time so I'm comfortable saying this is like ***3/4 stuff.
    Mitsuharu Misawa vs. Akira Taue (05/18/01): Great 15 minute title fight. This is the GAEA version fast paced and they hit a load of big moves without emptying the tank completely. That said there's no intra-match story but it definitely plays off their previous encounters. I guess if anything the story is that Taue has to keep the pressure on and keep hitting Misawa with head kicks, slams etc. He can't give Misawa any room to recover. If you've never seen Misawa vs Taue then this is a good way to get your feet wet.

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    Jun Akiyama vs. Takeshi Morishima (05/25/01): Morishima brings the goods early on, clearly besting Akiyama in the strength/power department. Jun uses technique to get the upper hand and stretches the fuck outta Morishima. His work from the head scissors is fantastic. It's sad that people just blow past this move in the tired headlock takeover to head scissor to escape sequence. It's a great move if you know what you can do with it. Anyhow, Morishima finds an opportunity and takes it. Then a match that seems like its going to a "veteran punishing up-and-comer" match goes Budokan. We get a big move off the apron to the floor. This isn't a lost classic or anything but it is great match for sure. Morishima even this early brings the intensity and confidence. I really like the finish as well as it plays off of that early psychology. 
    I was going to watch Juventud Guerrera vs Yoshinobu Kanemaru (06/24) but I just couldn't get into it after the beginning. I skipped ahead because there were some neat spots. From what I saw, it was a little stiff/rough around the edges due to being unfamiliar with one another. If you're interested, seek it out...maybe I'm missing something.
    Mitsuharu Misawa, Naomichi Marufuji, Takeshi Rikio & Yoshinari Ogawa vs. Michael Modest, Scorpio, Superstar Steve & Vader (07/16): Whoa, this is a nice little under the radar 8 man. It's rough around the edges on a spot or two but as the main event of a B-show that's alright. The veteran talent covers for any mistake quite well to where you don't even really care. The reason is that this is a super entertaining match. There's a little comedy, and although things are simple, it is done very well. You don't need to go crazy in order to have a good match. There's good pacing/rhythm, good chemistry, some gaga that keeps you engaged, and good action. I thought this was very good stuff as a result. 
    Scorpio & Superstar Steve vs. KENTA & Naomichi Marufuji (07/27): Wanna see KENTA get a concussion? Too Cold hits him with a standard spin kick but clearly KENTA wasn't ready for and is on dream street. Scorp does a good job taking care of him, stalls for time and gets Marufuji in the ring without too much harm or showing that the K man is seeing stars. Marufuji then proceeds to go off with Scorp and Superstar. Eventually KENTA comes back in and is slightly better and actually hits some high flying offense. Really good finish to boot.
    Kentaro Shiga & Makoto Hashi vs. Satoru Asako & Takashi Sugiura (07/27): This seemed like a neat matchup. And dang! I was right! Asako & Shiga bring that AJPW trained goodness that really gets the match going. From their the NOAH newbs follow their energy and we get a really fun 6+ minute match.
    Yoshinobu Kanemaru vs. Donovan Morgan (07/27): Pretty good match in the end. They confused the audience in the middle and they kinda switched face & heel roles. Part of it is Morgan is part of the Americans and is therefore sorta heel but certainly is when he spits in Kanemaru's face. Sterness is a tweener stable but Kanemaru should firmly be a face if only in this match does some heel shit like ball kicks & choke with his wrist tape (which he does on the regular). Then Morgan asks for the crowd support to break out of the sleeper. At first he gets laughs, which maybe what he wanted but then the fans were actually behind him. Like Kanemaru decided wasn't going to be the baby face dammit It was weird but they went with it. They got me & the crowd back, did some great stuff at the end and had a pretty good match overall. 
    Takeshi Morishima & Takeshi Rikio vs. NO FEAR (Takao Omori & Yoshihiro Takayama) (07/27): Badass 13 minute fight...really just beating each other for most of it. We got some really sick moves later but it ended sooner than I wished. Wild Two are still you but damn they brought it to Takayama & Omori. Near **** match.
    Takeshi Morishima vs. KENTA (08/15/01): Super young KENTA looks like he's got a surfer gimmick. One little flub early on (that damn Tiger Mask corner back flip off the guy) but this was surprisingly good. Morishima was a great base for KENTA's more generic junior offense (remember early Kawada in Footloose for instance?). It funny because he would still keep some of this in his offense like a top rope rana and definitely the springboard dropkick. Morishima and he are just great opponents and that's no difference even here in 2001.
    Daisuke Ikeda vs. Tamon Honda (09/01/01): A great example of what I was talking about last time. Early NOAH seemed more interested in doing different matches than what we'd see in the mid-late 2000s. This was a 12 minute BattlARTS match essentially: Lots of really good mat wrestling and fighting over holds, striking from Ikeda, some shoot-style suplexes from Honda (ala UWF). This was for a title shot and is something a few years later, I could see them booking a macho strike/bomb fest instead of this. Financially it probably is what people wanted in the end but 2001 NOAH gives us little treats like this very good match.
    Daisuke Ikeda & Takashi Sugiura vs. Takao Omori & Yoshihiro Takayama (09/09/01): The NTV matches such as this one are clipped in half. This one is 5 min of 10 minutes. Really wish we got all of it. I'm not sure we even see Omori as the legal man??? Anyway what is shown was great! I can't give this a proper rating but if you come across this in full somewhere, check it out! Helluva opening!
    Shinjiro Otani vs. Kentaro Shiga (October 17, 2001): A few more Zero One vs NOAH matches that missed the cut a year ago in my post. Glad to add them here! Otani was great here making Shiga look like a real threat. He stooged for him and took most of the moves during the match. Still Otani hit some big stuff and also came out looking strong as well. A real pro...good fun match right here!
    KENTA & Masao Inoue vs. Richard Slinger & Superstar Steve (10/19): Hey I watched this for Richard Slinger and he didn't disappoint. Now I have to back and watch a bunch of his AJPW under card matches that I skipped This was fun...probably could have been 10-12 minutes instead of 15 but I liked it. Simple stuff but best when Slinger was in.
    Masashi Aoyagi & Takashi Sugiura vs. Kentaro Shiga & Makoto Hashi (10/19): Sterness' C-team again taking on Sugiura and this time karate expert and indie favorite Masashi Aoyagi (although it looks like he was with NOAH for 14 years). This is another fun match and a good one overall as its given almost 15 minutes. If you're into 90's Indie puro like me then it's real easy to pretend this is an upper mid card match in between some death match with the Headhunters and the main event featuring someone who was trained at the AJPW dojo in the 80's But yeah, going with that notion, you'll really dig this. I'm on a Kentaro Shiga kick I guess... his lanky physique, silver shorts and technical skills scream baby face. It's a lot of fun day dreaming he's the star of this pretend Indie
    Daisuke Ikeda & Shinjiro Otani vs. Satoru Asako & Takao Omori (10/19): No Fear B-team vs Ikeda & Otani!? This is too weird for me to pass up! But I tell you what I thought it was kinda dull. It just seemed like they were told to eat up some time. I gave up on this
    Akira Taue & Tsuyoshi Kikuchi vs. Naohiro Hoshikawa & Tatsuhito Takaiwa (11/20): Only 5 minutes shown on a 10 minute match but shoot this was fun. Kikuchi and Takaiwa are trying to kill each other. Taue vs Hoshikawa is a lot of since Taue takes a ton of offense and Hoshikawa is a junior bumps beautifully for Taue's power moves.
    Mitsuharu Misawa, Naomichi Marufuji & Yoshinari Ogawa vs. Richard Slinger, Scorpio & Vader (11/20/01): Want to say this before I forget:  Richard Slinger & Marufuji's opening sequence is awesome! And we're off to the races from there...7 minute finishing stretch match. This was a blast!! Fun post match too! An NTV match shown in full ~ yay!
    Tatsuhito Takaiwa vs. Tsuyoshi Kikuchi (11/25): 1/2 shown and maybe that's a good thing. The parts where they were hitting each other was great. The parts where they were slamming each other was great. There's some leg work but that just was just kinda there because they needed something to make this 20 minutes long. Maybe it was clipped in such a way but nothing seemed to follow a logical pattern. So yeah at 10 minutes this was good but I can't think this was any better in full.
    Scorpio & Vader vs. Mitsuharu Misawa & Yoshinari Ogawa (11/30/01): This is one I actually own. It's been over a decade since I watched this. And yeah, this is really good stuff! It's a good mix of guys since Vader is all power, Misawa & Scorpio are all arounders who can bring anything given the situation and Ogawa is quick & sneaky. There's really sick spots here and let's be honest the spots are what make this match - Vader especially. His mobility is pretty limited here. Still he gets the job done. I dig the Scorp/Vader team.

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    All in all 2001 NOAH is a pretty darn good year. The under card always seems to have a couple good matches per show and the main events deliver. I wouldn't say they delivered in the way AJPW in the '90s did...but in all honesty they were already that way in 99-2000 which I've seen a good deal of (but not reviewed much of on this blog). It's definitely a transitional period but definitely makes it more interesting to go back and see what's been overlooked or underrated. As you can tell I really have a new appreciation for Kentaro Shiga but also appreciate how ready to go Marufuji and Morishima were. NOAH trainees Rikio and Sugiura weren't far behind since they're more one dimensional power wrestlers. Richard Slinger and Scorpio were always fun to watch and dammit even Superstar Steve. KENTA reminds me of Kawada in that he was good early in doing the junior high risk offense but it took a couple years to find himself and be awesome. And I'm not even counting the Zero One stuff or the Sterness stuff...yeah 2001 NOAH was pretty darn good indeed!
    I am planning on looking at 2002 in a little bit. I probably won't watch as many under the radar matches but heck! its '02 NOAH so anything more than a handful of matches and we're going to be under the radar But I've missed out on two of the bigger matches of 2002 so those are going to be reviewed hopefully!
    Also I went back to last week's post and the NOAH vs Zero One post and added some pictures in case you want to check those out. Turns out I had some clips of those matches on a Misawa comp. and thought a couple pics would make things more interesting.
    Thanks for reading!
  6. G. Badger

    Spotlight: NOAH vs Zero One - 2001

    By G. Badger,


    Spotlight
    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).

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    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!
  7. G. Badger
    This is a big post today so let's get going!
    Kyoko Inoue vs Lioness Asuka (04/29): So these two have had a couple/few acclaimed matches in other companies. I think it was fun but definitely not up to standard set by the others (or so I've heard). Where the best GAEA matches remind me of the best that FMW/ECW offered, this one felt like a TNA match. It was like half the match was Lioness on offense and then the second half was Kyoko. And honestly I don't this Inoue did that much whereas Lioness did some great hardcore style offense. And let's be real, this is a match all about offense and cool spots. Asuka definitely delivered but we got a kind of lazy (or maybe just old & banged up) Kyoko Inoue. It was good but not as good as it could have been.
    Akira Hokuto vs Meiko Satomura (04/29): Well this one lives up to the hype. Holy cow, the last classic Akira Hokuto singles match? What I liked here is that 1) It was very stiff...Hokuto set the tone that she wasn't going easy on Satomura and she wasn't done yet. 2) This was a straight match...No interference or weapons which Hokuto hasn't done in like 3-4 years in GAEA. That's significant because she's showing she doesn't need that. 3) Much of this match is focused on wrestling holds...this is very much in the classic late 80's early 90's AJW style. A steady pace with a story based on working holds, wearing the opponent down and going for the kill at the end. 4) Satomura didn't spam her moves...she hasn't done this as much in 2001 (but certainly did enough in '99 vs Kong). Wonderfully Hokuto wouldn't let her. Whether kayfabe or legit (in the middle is usually the truth), Hokuto reigned Meiko's bad singles match habits. Instead of not knowing what to do and rely upon going bicycle kicks and Death Valley's, Satomura was kicking Hokuto in the leg and head ala Yamada, Hotta, Kong Kansai. She finally seemed ready for big time longer singles bouts (she's always been fantastic in tags & shorter fast pace matches... her vs Kato matches for instance). I'll share the link for GAEAism's video below.
    https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=dOu0JySr8jA
    Next 3 are from 05/13 and are interrelated:
    Aja Kong & Toshiyo Yamada vs. Meiko Satomura & Toshie Uematsu: Well that was absolutely badass! For the folks that don't like any of the brawling/weapons stuff - this one is for you. 14 minutes of fantastic wrestling. In some way it was one long sequence but I can't imagine that is the case. I think the familiarity between Aja & Satomura is indeed that good now. Uematsu has levelled up and she definitely belongs in these matches. This was one of the best straight tags I've seen from GAEA in awhile. Near classic-classic match. 
    Chikayo Nagashima & Toshie Uematsu vs. Mayumi Ozaki & KAORU: You have to know there's weapons and stuff in this one I don't tire of it because they always keep it interesting. In fact there was a ton of great stuff with KAORU's table halves that I've never seen before. Having the two junior/lucha oriented GAEA girls made for really great spots and sequences... stuff you'd see like in Hardy Boyz, Young Bucks, MCMG, Briscoes etc tags. Another recommendation from me. Great match for sure!
    Aja Kong & Dynamite Kansai vs. Meiko Satomura & Chikayo Nagashima: And another great match! The youngsters had their work cut out for them as not only is it their 2nd match each but Kong and Kansai are twice their size. Satomura was on some next level shit with Kong here especially at the start... and frankly this whole series was. This could be considered one match if you want.. like an endurance series or something. If so this is absolutely classic stuff. These 5/13 matches in a way prove just how advanced these 3 GAEA originals are. To me its a shame Sonoko Kato is pretty much out of the picture as she was the best... better than Satomura. I'm not sure if Kato comes back in any capacity (I know she returns to wrestling) but it makes me want to check more of her earlier stuff out. But I'm talking about something else and should be focusing on this match. So yeah this match is great and unique compared to the previous ones. I think that is what makes these so awesome is the mix of match ups.
    Mayumi Ozaki & KAORU vs. Lioness Asuka & Sakura Hirota (06/17): Hahaha! Hirota comes out looking like Strawberry Shortcake so KAORU blasts her with her table piece. Hirota drops like a sack of potatoes immediately Even KAORU is laughing afterwards. But soon its all business as Lioness is handcuffed to the ring and Sakura is bloodied. Eventually they get bored with the youngster and toss Asuka the keys. This is really good dramatic stuff with the heel team being ferocious. It was a great little story and Asuka was absolutely amazing especially after they handcuffed her again! Just awesome visuals throughout the match as well. (This sets up a KAORU vs Lioness match but I've heard it just goes on WAY too long so I'll skip that).
    Aja Kong & Dynamite Kansai & Toshiyo Yamada vs. Meiko Satomura & Chikayo Nagashima & Toshie Uematsu (06/17): Awesome high energy match! The start with Aja & Satomura is what I'd hoped their previous singles encounters would be like. Everyone looked pretty good. Nagashima & Toshie Uematsu were especially exciting going up against the heavy hitters. Aja Kong was great as ever, trading pinning moves with Uematsu despite her greater size. Speaking of Uematsu, her being in another match like this really means she's getting a good push. This was a great match! Another one to see with these teams.
    Meiko Satomura vs Mayumi Ozaki (08/19): A great match with a fantastic opening few minutes. They bordered on overly ambitious but all in all they stayed in the lines and pulled off some really interesting stuff. This felt like pretty darn fresh match up. Satomura is very close to A-level talent in '01. Ozaki brought her A game (this was a relatively straight up match) so this was way better than I expected. And for that I think I may like it more than the Kong vs Satomura singles bouts. Satomura in 2001 has definitely matured as a singles wrestler in the marquee matches.
    Mayumi Ozaki vs. Aja Kong (10/28): They cut out a few minutes but this was very good stuff. No new ground was broken but lots of exciting action. This would be a good random GAEA match to watch as an ice breaker. Like, "oh shit they're not over-the-hill" and "this doesn't suck" in contrast to what popular opinion may have been at the time. This is still really good stuff! There's blood and everything
    Aja Kong vs Meiko Satomura (12/15): Yeah OK that was pretty good stuff but it felt like their other bouts. Satomura seems to have taken a step back here from her Hokuto and Ozaki bouts. Again there were probably 4 (or more? DVDs)...it's basically a fucking scoop slam at this point Is this Satomura or Kong...I have to think it's Kong calling the shots. Just like it was most likely Oz & Hokuto calling most/all of their matches with Satomura. Arsion and GAEA are known for their shorter matches so really wonder if Aja is rusty on how to layout a long (25 minute) match? There's like 5 minutes that just didn't need to be there. But honestly this was so similar to their other bouts, I'm not sure this whole match didn't need to be more than 10 minutes. There was good ground wrestling and injury story potential that would have made this great or at least different. They just don't seem to do that anymore.
     It just felt long because there were few surprises. Only the beginning felt fresh and awesome...This was just a cookie cutter long title match..much like their 2000 match. I'd rather they just do a 15 minute sprint and keep the good things like the quick beginning, stiffness, the mat wrestling, a couple of the surprising spots. Even if its only "very good ***1/2+" at least we're not sitting through a half hour very good match, right? I think back in the day this was clipped down to 16 minutes so I could see calling this a great match in that form but not knowing what happened in the missing 10 minutes. Some folks have said the full version helps as it sounds like it might be a real bad clip job.
    I know this is a rant now. But I think it should be said Kong is not Satomura's best singles opponent contrary to popular opinion. Their tag stuff is top notch and Kong is probably her #1 foe but their singles matches just don't do it for me. Again, this may be Kong plugging Satomura into a "big match formula" that worked against others in the late 90's- 2000s. This may be Meiko afraid to deviate from the plan or just not have enough experience/seniority to mix things up in a 20+ minute singles match. That energy we see in shorter bouts is really what's lacking. I'm watching bits while writing this and it reminds me of a Muto match where there's no urgency between attacks. Kong's best bouts are one's where it looks like she & her foe are trying to kill each other. Don't get me wrong its pretty stiff but there's too much dead air at times. It feels like a trip amusement park train...it's moving at a speed so you're aware of toward motion but not enough that you feel a thrill. There's no real ups and downs. Its amusing but not exciting.
    And Satomura needs some mid level offense (a suplex, body kicks, a DDT for instance)...I'm watching this and Meiko stops Aja's offensive run by axe kicking her from up on the apron (Aja is standing on the floor) - this is one of the awesome surprises! It's brutal as Meiko has so much force as her foot/heel is traveling like 100° and coming crashing down on Aja's head and neck. But then she has Kong stunned on the floor and can follow up. She could throw her back in ring and capitalize on this massive attack. She could do a diving stomp from the apron onto Kong on the floor. She hops down and does a fucking Death Valley Driver!? It's sick but doesn't she want to win the match in the ring? Now if she wants to inflict max damage but still eventually get the pin that's when you have a mid level move like a vertical suplex, a DDT, a back drop/back suplex. I think a piledriver would be good here for instance. She has no mid level offense in these Kong matches. Kong sells this but then Satomura follows this up (her finisher on the floor) with throwing chairs on her. Kong essentially brushes this all off and goes back to offense I looked at Kong's face and I really think she was frustrated. They're only half way through and she just took a finisher on the concrete... 'what the hell!? We've got 10 more minutes to go and you (Satomura) have no idea where to go now.'
    I'm making a point here because the Satomura vs Kong singles stuff is what GAEA is known for in the community. And it's not even GAEA's best stuff. It's not Kong or Satomura's best stuff in GAEA. It actually seems like their worst stuff in a way. They are in the position to work a 25 minute match in a company that does 10-15 minute matches. Satomura does not have the experience to logically work a match this long. She needs guidance. With guidance she can do excellent work (see Hokuto & Ozaki matches above). Kong either cannot or does not want to guide Satomura. As in, "you're in the big time now Meiko, you need to figure this out on your own." There's a few instances where Satomura is making decisions in real time and Kong vetos in response. Like, "wtf are you thinking"...Hopefully I made my point. And hey I'm just speaking for myself. You check it out! There is still a lot to like...you might see things differently.
    I can't end this post like that though...
    Chigusa Nagayo & Aja Kong vs Etsuko Mita & Mima Shimoda (12/24): Joined in progress. Not sure how much we missed but a nice return to form. Quick pace, nice assortment of moves, plenty aggressive.. it's a very good tag match. Maybe its too quick not enough selling etc. but it doesn't overstay it's welcome & there are nice surprises (we get that in tags of course). About 9 minutes shown. Obviously I'm comparing this to the above match because I'm making sure I'm not burnt out or mistaken. I feel much better wrapping up with this. 
    2001 is definitely the year Chigusa wants to really push the homegrown stars to the top of the company. Satomura really knocked it out of the park even though she still needs work to be the ace. GAEA absolutely kills it with their tag matches and continues to do so in 2001.
    So there we have it for GAEA for now! GAEAism YouTube is currently loading up more 2002 stuff and while I don't have a ton in store for 2002, 1) I'm always adding more as I go 2) They don't even have all of the few things I have on my to-watch list. So I'm going to have to give them some time So very thankful that they are posting all of this stuff!
    I might check out some stuff from 95-97 GAEA that I overlooked earlier. We'll see
    Thanks for reading!
  8. G. Badger
    I am going to keep going with GAEA for the New Year. As I've done for the past few posts I'm going to split the wrestling year up. So let's look at early 2001!
    Akira Hokuto & Mayumi Ozaki vs. Chigusa Nagayo & Lioness Asuka (01/27): This was a great under 10 minute match. The energy of the bout is what makes this so enjoyable. Its in Korakuen Hall, its noisy, there's blood, chairs flying, dives etc. Its not out of control but there's that energy. And even when the match is over, that energy is still there with Chigusa yelling on the microphone. And when Hokuto is shouting back with her addressing the camera, splatter of blood on her face, I got chills. This is badass stuff.
    Akira Hokuto & Mayumi Ozaki vs. Chigusa Nagayo & Meiko Satomura (03/11): A rip roaring good time! Everyone was at the top of their game (for '01 at least). Nice little bit of wrestling at the start. The opening with Oz & Meiko makes me want that match in this style...heck even Chigusa gets in with Oz, its still pretty cool. However this was a lot of brawling type action... I mean ECW/FMW stuff - weapons, spots etc. The babyfaces break down and engage in the chair swinging too.Also this is a match I would point to when making the claim that Satomura is an awesome tag wrestler. She is a fantastic #2 to the veteran Crush Gals and a fantastic #1/big sister when teamed with lower ranking partners. Anyhow, I watched this twice and it's a near classic GAEA tag. The pacing is excellent as they are fighting non stop for 13 minutes. On top of that, the execution is exceptional. There's only one moment where Satomura whiffs on kick but Ozaki didn't really sell it. She staggers back to avoid the chain which swings off Meiko's leg. But that gives Satomura the chance to try again and she makes sure she connected this time. Also lots of nice borrowing of moves and little things I noticed on the second watch.
    Aja Kong & KAORU & Toshiyo Yamada vs. Lioness Asuka & Toshie Uematsu & Chikayo Nagashima (03/11): Not to be out done, they start this off like FMW, in the crowd, chairs, dive off the little stage, Uematsu being hung from the balcony!?! Holy cow! Things eventually get back in the ring and it becomes a more traditional match (not 100%). Lioness does an awesome spot with her table for instance. The real highlight and reason this is a great match is Aja vs Nagashima...or really when Aja & Nagashima are the focus. Nagashima was on fire here throwing 'ranas like Rey Jr. or Dragon Kid (maybe not as quick and smooth but you get my point). The assists from their partners are really on point too. Excellent finish to boot! 
    Mayumi Ozaki & Akira Hokuto vs. Chigusa Nagoya & Lioness Asuka (04/08): Great 15 minute match between the two top teams. A bigger match than their January bout but similar as both teams used weapons and the action was pretty non-stop. I think I preferred that one but this was still awesome. They really have the mix of brawling and pro moves down pat. This was a big stakes match and it felt big but not big enough for me. That doesn't hurt the match but it holds it back from being a (near) classic.
    There was an Akira Hokuto & KAORU vs. Lioness Asuka & Meiko Satomura (04/15) match that I wanted to see. I doesn't appear available online on the GAEAism YouTube
    Kyoko Inoue & Aja Kong vs Crush Gals (04/22): Really fun 11 minute match. Everyone was was just doing their big stuff right from the start seemed. A little more so than most GAEA tag matches. But it worked! It was one of those crowds/matches where the fans were happy to see the matchup and the big moves...and that's what we got The Crush Gals actually out worked Aja and they didn't use any weapons (tables/chairs). Kyoko was having a lot of fun in the best way. Nice to see her back in GAEA.
    Heck of a week of wrestling! Chock full of tag matches... I love it! One thing I'll mention is that these mainly focus on the veterans and not the GAEA homegrown talent as much. Sonoko Kato's absence is definitely being felt. That said Crush Gals 2000 and Ozaki & Hokuto are kicking butt!
  9. G. Badger

    Best Matches Watched of 2023

    By G. Badger,


    From the Editor
    It's the end of 2023 and it is time for the Best Matches Watched of 2023. I've been trying to stick to different themes/projects each month so I thought it right to organize my list accordingly. If you want to go back and read the reviews then this should help you out. Plus there's a lot of very good and great matches you'll be able to explore that are not included here. A plus sign (+) means its an all time classic match and a contender for Best Match Watched for '23. HM stands for Honorable Mention and is usually a near classic match (like ****1/4) and everything else is what I thought was a classic (****1/2 or more). So Honorable Mention to Classic to All Time Classic if its on a continuum.

    January
    Crush Gals vs. Jumping Bomb Angels (AJW 09/14/1987)
    Miss A & Harley Saito vs. Shinobu Kandori & Rumi Kazama (JWP 10/10/90) HM
    Mariko Yoshida vs. Manami Toyota (AJW 08/30/92)
    Chigusa Nagayo vs. Mayumi Ozaki (JWP 05/22/94)
    Aja Kong vs. Dynamite Kansai (JWP 05/22/94)
    +Ayako Hamada & AKINO vs. Etsuko Mita & Mima Shimoda (ARSION 12/11/1999) +
    +Momoe Nakanishi & Nanae Takahashi & Kaoru Ito vs. Mima Shimoda & Etsuko Mita & Kumiko Maekawa (AJW 12/9/00 - Cage Match) +
    Momoe Nakanishi & Nanae Takahashi & Kaoru Ito & Tomoko Watanabe vs. Manami Toyota & Mima Shimoda & Etsuko Mita & Kumiko Maekawa - (AJW 2/28/01 - Elimination Match)
    Yumiko Hotta & Manami Toyota & Mima Shimoda vs. Kaoru Ito & Tomoko Watanabe & Momoe Nakanishi (AJW 04/01/01)
    Momoe Nakanishi vs Kaoru Ito (AJW 07/08/01)
    February
    Masato Tanaka vs. Tetsuhiro Kuroda (FMW 02/27/99)
    Hayabusa & Jinsei Shinzaki vs Masato Tanaka & Tetsuhiro Kuroda (FMW 03/19/99)
    March
    Eagle Sawai & Mayumi Ozaki vs. Shinobu Kandori & Harley Saito (JWP 04/26/91) HM
    Keiji Mutoh vs. Toshiaki Kawada (AJPW 02/24/2002)
    Genichiro Tenryu vs. Satoshi Kojima (AJPW 07/17/2002)
    Toshiaki Kawada vs. Takao Omori (AJPW 07/18/04) HM
    Kaz Hayashi vs Shuji Kondo  (AJPW 08/30/09)
    April/May
    Jumbo Tsuruta vs Kerry Von Erich (AJPW 05/22/84)
    Brody & Hansen vs Baba & Dory Jr. (AJPW 08/26/84)
    Tiger Mask II vs Pirata Morgan (AJPW 12/08/84)
    +Brody & Hansen vs Terry & Dory Funk Jr. (AJPW 12/08/84) +
    +Bruiser Brody & Stan Hansen vs Jumbo Tsuruta & Genichiro Tenryu (AJPW 12/12/84) +
    May
    Great Sasuke vs. Jinsei Shinzaki (M-Pro 03/31/1994)
    Great Sasuke & Ultimo Dragon vs Jinsei Shinzaki & Gedo (M-Pro 07/30/1994) HM
    Great Sasuke vs TAKA Michinoku (12/15/94) HM
    Curry Man, CIMA & Super Boy vs Minoru Fujita, Shiryu II & Jody Fleisch (M-Pro 12/21/99)
    Jado & Gedo vs The Great Sasuke & Tiger Mask IV (M-Pro 08/19/01) HM
    June
    Briscoes vs. Kota Ibushi & Naomichi Marufuji (NOAH 07/01/07) HM
    Briscoes vs. Marufuji & Suguira (NOAH 03/02/08)
    Briscoe Brothers vs Katsu Nakajima & Kota Ibushi (NOAH 09/06/08) Re-post but a classic
    Go Shiozaki vs Joe Doering (AJPW 01/03/15) HM
    July
    Las Cachorras Orientales vs. Watanabe & Maekawa (AJW 06/18/97)
    +Mayumi Ozaki & Devil Masami vs. Dynamite Kansai & Chigusa Nagayo (GAEA 04/15/95)+
    Akira Hokuto & Toshie Uematsu vs KAORU & Kiyoko Ichiki (GAEA 01/19/97) HM
    Meiko Satomura vs Sonoko Kato (GAEA 08/23/98)
    August
    LAX (Homicide/Hernandez) vs AJ Styles & Christopher Daniels (TNA Bound for Glory 2006)
    James Storm vs Chris Harris (TNA Sacrifice 2007) Re-watch but a classic
    Samoa Joe vs Homicide (ROH Death Before Dishonor 2, Night 1 07/23/04) 
    September
    Bryan Danielson vs Paul London  (ROH - Night of the Butcher 12/07/02)
    Bryan Danielson vs Samoa Joe vs AJ Styles (TPI 2004 Finals 09/18/04 IWA-MS)
    Bryan Danielson vs Chris Hero (TPI 2005 09/24/2005 IWA-MS) HM
    October
    Kuniaki Kobayashi vs Tiger Mask (AJPW 06/21/85)
    Riki Choshu vs Genichiro Tenryu (AJPW 06/21/85)
    Kuniaki Kobayashi vs Tiger Mask (AJPW 08/31 aired 09/07/85)
    Stan Hansen/Ted DiBiase vs Jumbo Tsuruta/Genichiro Tenryu (AJPW 08/31 aired       
      09/07/85)HM 
    November
    Ric Flair v. Rick Martel (AJPW 10/21/85)
    Riki Choshu/Yoshiaki Yatsu vs Jumbo Tsuruta/Genichiro Tenryu (AJPW 11/30/85)
    Shoehi Baba/Dory Funk Jr v. Jumbo Tsuruta/Tenyru (AJPW 12/12/85)
    Stan Hansen/Ted DiBiase vs Riki Choshu/Yoshiaki Yatsu (12/12/85 aired 12/14) only 1/2    
      aired
    December
    Meiko Satomura & Sonoko Kato vs. Aja Kong & Mayumi Ozaki (GAEA 04/04/99)
    LCO vs Hokuto and Ozaki (GAEA 09/15/99) HM
    Sonoko Kato vs. Meiko Satomura (GAEA 10/11/99)
    +Aja Kong vs KAORU (GAEA 02/13/00)+
    -----
    I'll sort by decade as well. Why not?
    1980's
    Jumbo Tsuruta vs Kerry Von Erich (AJPW 05/22/84)
    Brody & Hansen vs Baba & Dory Jr. (AJPW 08/26/84)
    Tiger Mask II vs Pirata Morgan (AJPW 12/08/84)
    +Brody & Hansen vs Terry & Dory Funk Jr. (AJPW 12/08/84) +
    +Bruiser Brody & Stan Hansen vs Jumbo Tsuruta & Genichiro Tenryu (AJPW 12/12/84) +
    Kuniaki Kobayashi vs Tiger Mask (AJPW 06/21/85)
    Riki Choshu vs Genichiro Tenryu (AJPW 06/21/85)
    Kuniaki Kobayashi vs Tiger Mask (AJPW 08/31 aired 09/07/85)
    Stan Hansen/Ted DiBiase vs Jumbo Tsuruta/Genichiro Tenryu (AJPW 08/31 aired       
      09/07/85)HM 
    Ric Flair v. Rick Martel (AJPW 10/21/85)
    Riki Choshu/Yoshiaki Yatsu vs Jumbo Tsuruta/Genichiro Tenryu (AJPW 11/30/85)
    Shoehi Baba/Dory Funk Jr v. Jumbo Tsuruta/Tenyru (AJPW 12/12/85)
    Stan Hansen/Ted DiBiase vs Riki Choshu/Yoshiaki Yatsu (12/12/85 aired 12/14) only 1/2    
      aired
    Crush Gals vs. Jumping Bomb Angels (AJW 09/14/1987)
    1990's
    Miss A & Harley Saito vs. Shinobu Kandori & Rumi Kazama (JWP 10/10/90) HM
    Eagle Sawai & Mayumi Ozaki vs. Shinobu Kandori & Harley Saito (JWP 04/26/91) HM
    Mariko Yoshida vs. Manami Toyota (AJW 08/30/92)
    Great Sasuke vs. Jinsei Shinzaki (M-Pro 03/31/1994)
    Chigusa Nagayo vs. Mayumi Ozaki (JWP 05/22/94)
    Aja Kong vs. Dynamite Kansai (JWP 05/22/94)
    Great Sasuke & Ultimo Dragon vs Jinsei Shinzaki & Gedo (M-Pro 07/30/1994) HM
    Great Sasuke vs TAKA Michinoku (12/15/94) HM
    +Mayumi Ozaki & Devil Masami vs. Dynamite Kansai & Chigusa Nagayo (GAEA 04/15/95)+
    Akira Hokuto & Toshie Uematsu vs KAORU & Kiyoko Ichiki (GAEA 01/19/97) HM
    Las Cachorras Orientales vs. Watanabe & Maekawa (AJW 06/18/97)
    Meiko Satomura vs Sonoko Kato (GAEA 08/23/98)
    Masato Tanaka vs. Tetsuhiro Kuroda (FMW 02/27/99)
    Hayabusa & Jinsei Shinzaki vs Masato Tanaka & Tetsuhiro Kuroda (FMW 03/19/99)
    Meiko Satomura & Sonoko Kato vs. Aja Kong & Mayumi Ozaki (GAEA 04/04/99)
    LCO vs Hokuto and Ozaki (GAEA 09/15/99) HM
    Sonoko Kato vs. Meiko Satomura (GAEA 10/11/99)
    +Ayako Hamada & AKINO vs. Etsuko Mita & Mima Shimoda (ARSION 12/11/1999) +
    Curry Man, CIMA & Super Boy vs Minoru Fujita, Shiryu II & Jody Fleisch (M-Pro 12/21/99)
    2000's
    +Aja Kong vs KAORU (GAEA 02/13/00)+
    +Momoe Nakanishi & Nanae Takahashi & Kaoru Ito vs. Mima Shimoda & Etsuko Mita &    
      Kumiko Maekawa (AJW 12/9/00 - Cage Match) +
    Momoe Nakanishi & Nanae Takahashi & Kaoru Ito & Tomoko Watanabe vs. Manami Toyota & Mima Shimoda & Etsuko Mita & Kumiko Maekawa - (AJW 2/28/01 - Elim. Match)
    Yumiko Hotta, Manami Toyota & Mima Shimoda vs. Kaoru Ito, Tomoko Watanabe & 
      Momoe Nakanishi (AJW 04/01/01)
    Momoe Nakanishi vs Kaoru Ito (AJW 07/08/01)
    Jado & Gedo vs The Great Sasuke & Tiger Mask IV (M-Pro 08/19/01) HM
    Keiji Mutoh vs. Toshiaki Kawada (AJPW 02/24/2002)
    Genichiro Tenryu vs. Satoshi Kojima (AJPW 07/17/2002)
    Bryan Danielson vs Paul London  (ROH - Night of the Butcher 12/07/02)
    Bryan Danielson vs Samoa Joe vs AJ Styles (TPI 2004 Finals 09/18/04 IWA-MS)
    Toshiaki Kawada vs. Takao Omori (AJPW 07/18/04) HM
    Samoa Joe vs Homicide (ROH Death Before Dishonor 2, Night 1 07/23/04)
    Bryan Danielson vs Chris Hero (TPI 2005 09/24/2005 IWA-MS) HM
    LAX (Homicide/Hernandez) vs AJ Styles & Christopher Daniels (TNA Bound for Glory 2006)
    James Storm vs Chris Harris (TNA Sacrifice 2007) Re-watch but a classic
    Kaz Hayashi vs Shuji Kondo  (AJPW 08/30/09)

    Feud of the Year: There's been some really good feuds this year. I think the ones that stick with me are Brody & Hansen vs All Japan in '84. Another one is SSU is GAEA in '99...I didn't get into it but its basically Lioness Asuka and stars of the 90's + Ozaki's students vs Chigusa and GAEA. Early on LCO vs AJW specifically Kaoru Ito. I think the feud of the year is Riki & co. vs All Japan in 1985. You have the amazing early part of '85 which is very much Riki and his pals (Yatsu, Hamaguchi, Masa Saito, Killer Khan, Teranishi, Kobayashi) and a variety of tags. These might not have made the Best Matches Watched list BUT these are night in-night out great matches. And absolutely worth mentioning here as part of the BMW superlatives.
    Wrestler of the Year: Piggybacking off the feud of the year, Riki Choshu is a man worthy of best wrestler. I'd also say Stan Hansen for his work in '84 & '85 AJPW... same goes for Jumbo Tsuruta. I think Dory Funk Jr. & Genichiro Tenryu have a case to be made as well. For Joshi, I would definitely highlight Kaoru Ito who was an absolute beast. Mayumi Ozaki was a consummate talent throughout the year in early JWP and GAEA. Similarly Aja Kong was ubiquitous presence in my joshi watching (1997 AJW, Arsion and GAEA). Chigusa Nagayo and perhaps Devil Masami should be in consideration too. In January, Kaoru Ito was the clear front runner and deserves a big time nod. All that said, I think Jumbo and Aja Kong are the best wrestlers of 2023. The quality and consistency of their work as top talent earn them this distinction. With Jumbo, I think about his excellent matches with Greg Gagne and Jim Brunzell. With Aja Kong, I think about her matches with Meiko Satomura and KAORU. In both cases, they elevated their opponents and the matches through their work. This was the case in every match I saw.
    Surprise of the Year: I pushed myself this year by trying to post once a week. I also tried to have monthly themes to help keep things fresh as well as keep me on track watching stuff I've been meaning to watch and not get distracted. So in a way I could say there were no big surprises. That's not truly the case because I have been pleasantly surprised with how much I have enjoyed GAEA. Originally I had only 15 matches listed to watch. That's a two week project. So I've been surprised that I'm liking it so much despite dismissing it for a long time. Thank goodness it's available on YouTube! A negative surprise would be that I've not really loved the Satomura vs Kong matches as everyone else has. Those are sort of the sure thing of GAEA but both have done better work there. Perhaps if I had limited my GAEA watching to 15 matches then, those may have been classics to me. Aja's work is phenomenal in them but I feel that Satomura lacks variety in these matches... she's only debuted in 1995 so it's completely understandable. I think the matches were overrated in the past. In the context of GAEA they absolutely accomplish what they set out to do by elevating Satomura.
    Match of the Year/Best Match Watched: The most difficult choice to make. I've added plus signs (+) to the all time classic matches above. Let me separate those below to help:
    +Brody & Hansen vs Terry & Dory Funk Jr. (AJPW 12/08/84) +
    +Bruiser Brody & Stan Hansen vs Jumbo Tsuruta & Genichiro Tenryu (AJPW 12/12/84) +
    +Mayumi Ozaki & Devil Masami vs. Dynamite Kansai & Chigusa Nagayo (GAEA 04/15/95)+
    +Ayako Hamada & AKINO vs. Etsuko Mita & Mima Shimoda (ARSION 12/11/1999) +
    +Aja Kong vs KAORU (GAEA 02/13/00)+
    +Momoe Nakanishi & Nanae Takahashi & Kaoru Ito vs. Mima Shimoda & Etsuko Mita &     
        Kumiko Maekawa (AJW 12/09/00 - Cage Match) +
    That's helluva list! Kong vs KAORU is the only singles match so we can say it is the best singles match watched for 2023. But is it the best of them all? Shit...this is really hard to pick since they all have great wrestling and amazing storytelling. I'm going to take LCO vs Hamada & AKINO as well as Kong vs KAORU off the table for the fact that these bouts lack the historical depth that the others have. That's to say, the remaining matches have a history both within the year as well as amongst the wrestlers. So we have:
    +Brody & Hansen vs Terry & Dory Funk Jr. (AJPW 12/08/84) +
    +Bruiser Brody & Stan Hansen vs Jumbo Tsuruta & Genichiro Tenryu (AJPW 12/12/84) +
    +Mayumi Ozaki & Devil Masami vs. Dynamite Kansai & Chigusa Nagayo (GAEA 04/15/95)+
    +Momoe Nakanishi & Nanae Takahashi & Kaoru Ito vs. Mima Shimoda & Etsuko Mita &     
        Kumiko Maekawa (AJW 12/09/00 - Cage Match) +
    That's better. Now I'll pick top men's and top women's match based on which one "stuck with me more" throughout the year...those are:
    +Brody & Hansen vs Terry & Dory Funk Jr. (AJPW 12/08/84) +
    +Momoe Nakanishi & Nanae Takahashi & Kaoru Ito vs. Mima Shimoda & Etsuko Mita &     
        Kumiko Maekawa (AJW 12/09/00 - Cage Match) +
    Applying that same criteria, my Best Match Watched of 2023 is:
    +Momoe Nakanishi & Nanae Takahashi & Kaoru Ito vs. Mima Shimoda & Etsuko Mita &     
        Kumiko Maekawa (AJW 12/09/00 - Cage Match) +
    This was one of the earlier matches watched in 2023 but it has stuck with me all year. It's been that match that others are compared against this past year. In some ways I see the bias since it was put upon a pedestal early and perhaps the others were never allowed to stand on their own. On the other hand, it's been 300+ days since I've seen it and I've watched a good bit of wrestling in the meantime. I won't lie, there's a couple matches on the month by month list that I don't remember. Any of the All Time Classic matches are ones that you just don't forget. So all 6 get my highest recommendation and you really ought to give them a watch.
    Hopefully this helps you out if you're looking for something different to watch. Or maybe there's something here you've passed over in your wrestling journey because of a luke warm review in the past. Either way it has been a fantastic year for watching old wrestling and I recommend checking some of these out. 

    Thanks for reading!
  10. G. Badger
    I'm just jumping right in: 

    Sonoko Kato vs. Akira Hokuto (09/15): Waaayy too short of a match but it was fun. Seems like more of an angle than a match. I dig it though.
    Meiko Satomura vs. Devil Masami (09/15): I liked this pretty well. They did a good job telling the story that Satomura couldn't go toe to toe with Devil. So she uses her quickness and technique to weaken Devil's arms. Masami sells this pretty well and although she's able to power bomb Meiko, we can tell there's some effort. This is emphasized when Meiko is able to counter a couple bombs.**spoiler** They had me right up until the end where Satomura spams her Death Valley Driver...get another finishing move! This would have been the time to debut something new or a modified Death Valley Driver...A running one like Masato Tanaka or maybe one off the bottom rope. Instead she does it 3 times in a row and 5 times in the match. Those first two were a waste... and maybe the 3 in a row would have meant more if those earlier ones weren't done. The post match was interesting as Devil wouldn't respect Meiko despite just losing to her. Meiko tries to DVD her but Devil goes deadweight and hits her Steiner Screwdriver and cackles. I actually liked this because its almost like she let Satomura beat her...or at least Satomura just got lucky. Other than kinda killing off the impact of the DVD as a one maybe two hit finisher, showing us arm bars aren't going to win a big match, this was pretty good. 
    Chikayo Nagashima vs. Mayumi Ozaki (09/15): There's a theme here with these matches. See if you can spot it  But this has the most back story as Ozaki is Nagashima's mentor and she was a former member of their heel stable. This was very good stuff. For a minute I thought this might be a repeat of the previous match but this was fast and sometimes frenetic enough to be its own thing. Ozaki was as giving as ever and really let Nagashima shine here. I think if they had more time or teased more this could have been a great match. Still its probably the best out of the three. 
    Chigusa Nagayo & Lioness Asuka vs. Aja Kong & Dynamite Kansai (09/15/00): So this match is a result of the 07/22 Sonoko Kato return post match segment. And it's a dream match come true. Sure everyone is getting long in the tooth but GAEA is smart keeping things under 20 minutes. This way everyone can do their thing and still keep it intense. I thought this was a great tag match full of big moves, believable false finishes and spectacle. Because, this was a match about spectacle more than anything... Crush Gals continue their reunion tour taking on the baddest of the bad asses of the 90's. I think if Chigusa and Kansai were in better shape (health re: Kansai) then this could have been a classic. But that's taking nothing away from this match. This is just simple big time wrestling done right.
    Tag Tournament Semifinal: Dynamite Kansai & Toshiyo Yamada vs. Akira Hokuto & Mayumi Ozaki (11/23): Really fun stuff! No it's not 1993 level at all but they still excel at putting on an exciting tag match. Not everything was pretty but dammit they went for it here. I think at ten minutes and going pedal to the metal the whole time, I can say this was very good stuff. 
    Tag Tournament Semifinal: Devil Masami & KAORU vs. Chigusa Nagayo & Meiko Satomura (11/23): Another really fun match! KAORU's sequence heavy opening was best. I'm not usually a fan of this kind of stuff but it came off pretty well. Everything wasn't ultra clean so it seemed spontaneous. As the match went on it seemed to lose direction but kept up the pace. The kicks were really cool in this one. I really like Satomura as the underdog tag partner to Chigusa. The Devil/KAORU team had a great power/agility/heel dynamic. Yeah fun stuff.
    Akira Hokuto & Mayumi Ozaki vs. Chigusa Nagayo & Meiko Satomura (11/26/00): Sprint pace but Hokuto still sells! She is awesome. Also hits Satomura with a drop kick that looks like Meiko was shot out of a cannon. For an under 8 minute match, this was really packed full. They managed to throw a bit of drama in there as well. 
    Sonoko Kato & Saika Takeuchi vs. Toshie Uematsu & The Bloody (12/17): Wanted to see more Kato and its been a long while since I've seen Toshie Uematsu who is a talent. About 6 minutes shown on a 13 minute match but from what was shown it was as good or better then the big time tag matches above.
    KAORU vs Chigusa Nagayo (12/17): You will either love this or hate it. I loved it as it felt very Joshi does "attitude era" with all of the weapons (including a bat). What I liked was Chigusa's attitude to stick to her skills rather than rely upon weapons. There were lotsa neat spots and at ten minutes it was a lot of fun.
    Sugar Sato & Chikayo Nagashima vs. Akira Hokuto & Mayumi Ozaki (12/17/00) 21 minutes of a 24 minute match. And it was a great one too! They really gave everything for this one. One of the best Sugar Sato performances as she came with fire and didn't bungle anything.  The absolute highlight was Nagashima & Ozaki battling it out like their 09/15 match. This match was full of action (not always the prettiest) and exciting double teams and false finishes. The drama was there too as this was for the tag belts plus Sato & Nagashima were pupils of Oz and a big part of Hokuto and Ozaki's heel stable. The end of 2000 was all about the tag matches and this, the culmination of those bouts, was the best. A great way to end the year too!
    2000 was another excellent year for top shelf matches in GAEA. There was a variety of singles and tag matches that were absolutely awesome. Aja Kong vs KAORU is by far the best of the year and is definitely an all time classic for GAEA and Joshi in general. Sonoko Kato, who I like more than the more popular Meiko Satomura, has been relegated to the under card due to her injuries. Had this not have happened, I'm sure this year would have been even better. Her 12/17 match is proof. 
    I'm not done with GAEA but the best stuff looks to be less frequent as I look ahead to 2001 & beyond. But you know, I have found that I'm digging it way more than I thought. And I'm digging it more than others have in the past. Ohtani's Jacket makes a good point on the 11/23 Oz/Hokuto vs Kansai/Yamada match discussion archive/yearbook post, "if there's one thing I've learned about 2000 Joshi it's that the broken down 90s stars weren't as bad as we made out at the time." I think my GAEA viewing confirms that notion for me. GAEA was presented by some folks to be the Joshi retirement village but that is not true at all. In some ways it reminds me of when the guys from WCW (Jericho, Guerrero, Benoit, Saturn, Malenko, Misterio Jr.) and ECW (RVD,Tajiri, Super Crazy etc.) were in WWE together in the 2000's...their best work-rate matches were behind them BUT they were able to adapt with age & circumstances and continue to put on excellent matches.
    Anyway, next post will be my end of the Best Match Watched of 2023...which really is about the best matches watched. I never seem 100%  committed to a #1 and just off the top of my head, this year should be no different Then I'm feeling I'm going to go ahead with more GAEA for Joshi January.
  11. G. Badger
    We're almost at the end of the year and we're going to take a look at the first part of 2000 in the GAEA promotion. 1999 was great so let's hope that they keep it up!
    Lioness Asuka & Aja Kong vs. Akira Hokuto & Mayumi Ozaki (01/16): Great start to 2000! 10 minute sprint of chaos. Heel team has their gang, face team has there's, all kinds of crap is going on. This isn't what you would expect if they met in '95 but it is still super enjoyable and exciting wrestling. The fans were going crazy for this and for good reason. Oh Sonny Onoo was there as part of Hokuto and Ozaki's gang 'Nostradamus.'
    KAORU vs Mayumi Ozaki (01/30): We get almost all of the match here. It's a really good one too. Very much a hardcore match with your tables, chairs, weapons, some interference, double juice and eventually a little something more. I liked it quite a bit as K was in Ozaki's world and for her to win she would need to push herself. Ozaki was tremendously giving here. KAORU looks great, Ozaki is vicious and we get a very good match as a result. This is perhaps the most vicious match I've seen KAORU in.
    Sugar Sato & Chikayo Nagashima vs. Lioness Asuka & Sonoko Kato (02/13): Great match and absolutely loved the beginning. It was bananas FMW-style Korakuen hall brawling and in the ring table and chair spots. The flaw is that the last couple of minutes didn't need to happen. They repeated moves and spots... a flaw of youth perhaps? (Lioness wasn't involved) We basically already saw the finish two times beforehand so why does it work at the end? Additionally Sugar Sato brought the quality down a little as she flubbed a couple moves at key moments.. not absolute botched but the ECW fans of years past would have not been kind. And that's what holds this back from being a classic match. I think if the youngsters could have cut a couple minutes, Satomura gone for simplicity, this would have been a near classic. But it really is a great match nonetheless... there's so much good stuff that I have recommend it. Ah what could have been though...very good still.
    Aja Kong vs KAORU (02/13): Remember how the Ozaki match above was the most vicious KAORU match ever? Yeah... it's this match. This is an Aja Kong war...don't believe me? KAORU gets her fucking tooth knocked out. Kong gets beat to hell too..the first spot of match, KAORU does a awesome tope that sends Aja crashing backwards and hitting her head on the bottom cross piece of the guard rail. Later on both of her arms are cut up and bruised from KAORU. I haven't seen a brutal Aja Kong match like this in awhile. Big praise goes to KAORU for doing a match like this...they are wearing their pain on their faces for most of the match. I was not expecting this to be so violent and competitive of a match. It's really sticking with me as I write this. All time classic Kong match...again Kudos to KAORU for this as well.
    I'm pretty sure the YouTube channel is the official GAEA channel (due to the abundance and quality of the videos) so I'm going to link this here:
    https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=He_JguAdKKU&list=PL1H0xznHtMkx7283qLqT2zGS6MO1y7TSl&index=10&pp=iAQB
     
    Sugar Sato & Chikayo Nagashima vs. Lioness Asuka & Aja Kong (03/12): Finally a great Sato & Nagashima match!! I've enjoyed their matches but invariably someone screws something up but not here! So everything look really good plus they can't get too cute because of the size of Aja & Lioness. I am really stoked on their performance (there were a couple close calls from Sugar) and Lioness & Kong brought the goods as usual. Recommended stuff!
    Aja Kong & KAORU vs Toshiyo Yamada & Meiko Satomura (04/23): jip. This was some good stuff. Very neat spots that honestly looked very natural especially Yamada spin kicking the board back into KAORU's face. That was sick!! I watched this one a few weeks/months ago so this was all I had but, yeah I dug it. Re-watch: KAORU is wearing clothes more appropriate for a dance club than a wrestling match. Yamada has blonde hair and is wearing something more appropriate for a Master P music video circa 2000. But yeah this was pretty good stuff... the ending keeps it from being a great match as it devolves into Aja testing Satomura's mettle. Neither KAORU or Yamada intervene to either stop it or actually finish the match. It is definitely a helluva scene and a great lead in to their next encounter (below) but in all honesty they had a pretty great match going...much better this second time since I knew Meiko & KAORU better and such. I would have liked a more traditional end but this ending was probably better for business.
    Aja Kong vs. Meiko Satomura (05/14): The rematch from their '99 fight. I liked this one as it was shorter than that match BUT that one was still better than this. It's a good match perhaps a really good one but they didn't really tread any new ground here. Additionally the pacing was much slower than other GAEA matches. It's like an AJPW pace but I didn't really think any of the the stories they tried to tell went anywhere (Satomura hanging onto the head lock, Satomura going after Kong's arm). Some call this a great match but not to me. Both have had much more interesting & exciting matches.

    I'm copy/pasting this from my Crush Gals post earlier in the year. This was THE match that convinced me that I should give GAEA a chance (so very glad I did):
    Crush Gals vs Akira Hokuto & Devil Masami (GAEA 05/14/2000): Gaea 5th anniversary main event. Nostalgia? Yes, I'll take it. This was a great match even without it though. Devil & Akira are cheating heels, this is 2000's Joshi so from its pretty close to 80's Joshi...weapons are pretty much allowed in moderation As an ECW fan at heart, I can never say no to a couple chair shots thrown in for good measure. Crush Gals are bleeding but they won't go down without a fight. Tons of great moves, very chaotic in a good way... tons of charisma as well. I really liked this.
    Mayumi Ozaki & Akira Hokuto & KAORU vs. Chigusa Nagayo & Meiko Satomura & Chikayo Nagashima (06/13): Nagashima has gone baby face and turned her back on her mentor Ozaki. KAORU in the meantime has gone heel. And that's what they should be. KAORU doesn't bitchy very well and Nagashima is the physical equivalent of Momoe Nakanishi in AJW. So yeah this is a great frantic 6-woman tag match. Any sourness on Satomura went away here...this is where she shines as Chigusa's spunky protege. But she's much more than that now and imo works much better with competitors her size. Aja is twice as big as her...but that's not for here. Anyway, everyone shines. Akira Hokuto gets her arm attacked and sells it! That really helps at the end of match when she definitely looks in peril. Awesome finish too...wanted to take a pic for the blog but that'd spoil it.
    Lioness Asuka vs. KAORU (07/22): I took a chance on this one because it's gotten bad reviews. Well I disagree! If you're an FMW fan, then I think you'll really want to see this. It absolutely is the Joshi equivalent of 2000 FMW: Lots of fighting in the stands & ringside, tables & chairs, really exciting reversals, counter attack spots...stuff like that. A couple of the spots don't go off 100% but they absolutely work in the context of the match. I mention this because that's where some of other's criticism comes from. I just don't care about perfect levels of execution anymore but also I've seen worse looking moves every single match on Smackdown. There's no problem here. Sure you could say they didn't sell enough but I don't think that's what this was about... it was about being tough. And frankly they sol enough to get across that they were banged up. This is a great 2000 hard-core "garbage" match. If that's not what you like then skip it The fans loved it and so did I.
    Chigusa Nagayo & Sonoko Kato vs. Aja Kong & Dynamite Kansai (07/22): We haven't seen Kato in awhile (since Feb. here) as per her Wikipedia page she was out due to injuries. If you watch that February tag match, you'll know where she got a couple of them (Sato basically does a Phoenix-plex on Kato). The fans shower her with blue streamers in ring. A helluva team to face right away. Chigusa and Kato are ready for a fight. A it's a really good one too! Short (8-9 minutes) but there's plenty of action. Kato is awesome here as she shows no fear. Dynamite Kansai is great too by bringing the intensity... her facial expressions are priceless. There's a fun & exciting post match segment too...especially if you're a Crush Gals fan like me.
    Meiko Satomura vs. Sonoko Kato (08/20): Anyhow this is a really really good to great under 10 minute match. The only problem is that if Satomura can take a bunch of Kong's best shots then surely she can take Kato's. And I mean Kato hits a couple really good ones. That's the downside to booking the Kong- Satomura stuff that no one mentions. Perhaps storyline wise, Kato is not 100% etc. Also to note Kato has buzzed hair... not sure if its because she has a bandage on her head (stitches?) and they needed to shave it, if it was a wager, or a stylistic choice. She had a pixie cut in the above match but this is much shorter. Honestly I think I preferred this than the Kong match...as I was getting at in the 6-woman match...Satomura is a smaller wrestler and in a 1 on 1 she works better with folks her size.
    So all in all the first part of 2000 GAEA has been great! Clearly I'm disappointed in the Kong vs Satomura match but everything else was fantastic. And you know, you might like that match & hate the rest...this is just how I'm looking at it. Part #2 of 2000 is next and should probably be the last review post of 2023. The final one of the year will be my Best Matches Watched of 2023. 
     
  12. G. Badger
    Let's just jump right in!
    LCO vs Hokuto and Ozaki (09/15/99): This is one I hadn't seen recommended. It's a battle of badasses...it's worth a try, right? Oh yes, its so very worth it. Oz & Akira ambush LCO at the entrance way. And it is mayhem from that until the finish. Chairs, blood, guard rails, no actual tagging, 16+ minutes long...if you're a FMW, ECW fan then this exactly what you want. It isn't always pretty. Everyone looks legitimately beat up. It's '99 so if definitely is more reliant on spots than 1994. They don't go for "epic wrestling,"they go for fight.  They succeed and we get a near classic in my book. I have seen this get a poor rating from a reliable source but that rating seemed pretty severe so I gave this a shot. Really glad that I did.

    Aja Kong vs. Meiko Satomura (09/15/99): Aja Kong was amazing on offense and defense. There were times she reminded me of Stan Hansen - always fighting. Satomura was in the fight of her life. She's much smaller than Kong, less experienced and Aja is angry. Meiko is tough as any of the GAEA wrestlers and has a ton of heart too. So this is a punishing match with Aja beating the crud out of the youngster at seemingly every turn. But you're ecstatic once Satomura gets Kong reeling. The problem here is Satomura really only uses (or tries to use) the same 3-4 moves towards the end of the match. Her lack of variety is excusable because 1) she's young 2) Aja varies her offense/defense enough for both. I felt her mid-match stuff was excellent though. Some think this is a classic but I don't (although I think it's  a classic performance by Aja Kong who was giving off best Joshi of all time vibes here). This is a great match though and one you absolutely need to see if you want to watch GAEA. This is another chapter and step forward for Meiko Satomura.
    Lioness Asuka vs Chigusa Nagayo (09/15/99): There were some really great high spots with tables in the beginning. In fact they did some painful looking stuff on and off the ramp as well. I also liked the grappling here. I liked this match but it had a strange layout. Each of those parts were pretty much separate from each other. There's the high spot middle then the old school grappling and kicking and the final third returns back to the hard-core wrestling stuff. I guess there were no real nuanced transitions. Additionally I felt they went back to the old days of Chigusa getting beaten up most of the match. Or it seemed that way. This isn't a story in 1999 for Chigusa although I think it's the one that they were trying to tell. I liked this though and am a fan of both so this was fun. Their 07/18 was better if only because it was organized better... but it was probably just better overall if I remember correctly.
    Chigusa Nagayo & Toshiyo Yamada & KAORU & Meiko Satomura vs. Mima Shimoda & Etsuko Mita & Lioness Asuka & Sonoko Kato (09/22/99): jip 9 minutes or so (we've been lucky with a good streak of full matches until now). The was pretty good stuff. Lotsa action, some neat spots..Nice to KAORU and Yamada. As you can tell Sonoko Kato has aligned herself with the heels. Yeah this is fun stuff
    Mayumi Ozaki & Akira Hokuto vs. Lioness Asuka & Sonoko Kato (10/03/99): joined in progress and a little clipping (but maybe a minute is missing overall). This was a small show but a big time effort from Hokuto and Kato. This was pretty good stuff and looks to make Asuka & Kato babyface as Akira, Oz and her underlings the true heels. Chigusa even comes out to try and stop them. Kato bleeds...yeah this is enjoyable stuff.
    High Spurt 600 Tournament Final: Sonoko Kato vs. Meiko Satomura (10/11/99): Fuuuucckk...that was an awesome match! This is an absolute under the radar classic battle in my opinion. Two rivals meet...Satomura is Chigusa and Kato is Lioness in the story of GAEA. There's more there but that's what you need to now. And this is intense, competitive, dramatic stuff from bell to bell. It's only 11 minutes or so but everything is so fierce and stiff. It's been awhile since I watched Yoshida in Arsion but if you dig that you want to see this. This shorter match definitely benefits the youngsters while on their own. This is a classic. Also, I watched this after Kong vs Meiko and this is a better match to me because of the speed, intensity and story. 
    Mayumi Ozaki & Akira Hokuto vs. Chigusa Nagayo & Toshiyo Yamada (10/23/99): 7 minute match but a few minutes of scrapping afterwards. I'm really digging the heel team of Ozaki and Hokuto (and gang) since it's a bit of something different. Fun stuff!
    Mayumi Ozaki & Chikayo Nagashima vs. Lioness Asuka & Sonoko Kato (11/13/99): At this point I'm just tacking on matches I want to watch. The tag scene is super strong. This is jip a couple minutes but this is really good. I really dug Chikayo Nagashima with Ozaki. She's tempered by the veterans here. Kato is awesome as ever... I may like her more than Meiko..or at least I dig the Asuka/Kato a bunch. We get some outside interference here but that's Oz's thing and if you understand GAEA is like ECW/FMW type rules then you will have no problem
    Mayumi Ozaki & Akira Hokuto vs. Chigusa Nagayo & KAORU (12/12/99): Fun match...again more shenanigans from the heels. These last three matches I wouldn't say are the "very best of GAEA" but I'm enjoying them.
    Lioness Asuka & Sonoko Kato vs. Aja Kong & Chikayo Nagashima (12/12/99):
    Jip and only 8 minutes long. These matches are all pretty short and I feel like that's where they're going in terms of match length. I think shorter contests are beneficial to the younger girls who don't know how to fill a 20 minute match and for the veterans, its a bit easier on their bodies. Lioness is 40 years old here for instance... and they're not doing head locks & abdominal stretches... getting hit in the head, kicked etc. has got to wear on ya! Anyway, this was a very good all action match. There were some really cool spots with Nagashima . I definitely like her paired up with a vet like Kong or Ozaki. Asuka & Sonoko Kato continue to be a great pairing.
    So I have finally finished my GAEA goal for 2023 but, 1999 has been so good that I am going to keep going into 2000. 1999 was definitely a really strong year and did not disappoint. Again, at my core I'm a ECW/FMW/BJW/W*ING/Attitude Era etc. fan. That's the stuff that made me love wrestling as a teenager and GAEA in '99 definitely speaks to that. I mean this is contemporaneous with that. It is a product of the time (although in all fairness GAEA was always a brawling heavy company). If you're not looking for that then this might not be for you. If it is then all of these matches are available on YouTube so if you're interested, go check'em out. Mita/Shimoda vs Ozaki/Hokuto and Kong vs Satomura from 09/15 are worth your time as is Sonoko Kato vs Meiko Satomura (10/11). These matches exemplify the brawling & shoot style that is GAEA '99.
    Thanks for reading folks! Hang in there!
  13. G. Badger
    We're FINALLY on to 1999 which has some of the best matches in the company's history according to many fans. I've got access to all of those but there are a couple others that are right out of that top tier that I can't seem to locate. Therefore I'm going to do my best to find some reasonable replacements. It's been so long since I made my watch list that I'm not sure which these are though Also I'm at my busy season with work so I'm going to break it up into two parts.
    Lioness Asuka & Mayumi Ozaki vs. KAORU & Meiko Satomura (02/11/99): Oh man what a welcome back to GAEA! This was an awesome 15 minute tag match...never a dull moment. It's so badass that Lioness is working here now. Her & Ozaki make a really great heel team. KAORU was impressive offensively and Satomura is as tough as ever. Sonoko Kato even gets in the mix a little bit here. I definitely could rate this higher but I'll be conservative and just say this was a great match!
    Meiko Satomura & Sonoko Kato vs. Aja Kong & Mayumi Ozaki (04/04/99): Classic GAEA tag match right here. So brutal... Aja & Oz weren't pulling their shots. Kato & Meiko were in the fight of their lives. And keeping that glimmer of hope throughout the match was really what made this brilliant. For a time, it looked like Aja could beat both of the GAEA girls on her own. Red & blue were just so damn tough! I got to also say some of the moves/sequences were really interesting/surprising which is always a boon. Don't wanna say more. If you're interested in GAEA or are fans of the parties involved, go watch it!
    Lioness Asuka vs Chigusa Nagayo (04/04/99): Holy crap this was a crazy hardcore match. It mainly became spots as it went on but it had a really good beginning with stiff kicks and actual wrestling stuff. Asuka is a badass heel at this point in her career uses tables, chairs etc to punish her opponents. Chigusa doesn't need those things but she's not afraid of them either. So we get some blood and some nutso spots... or at least are nutso because they involved those indestructible Japanese tables. A couple of the set ups  are a little obvious and that is a complaint but I'm only thinking of two in particular. These are greatly overshadowed by a really enjoyable and punishing fight. Remember the Crush Gals were wrestling classic matches in the mid 80's and 15 or so years later they are having a ECW/FMW style bout...that's like an alternate history British Bulldogs doing this in '99 WCW (That would have been great and in the same way so was this!).
    Aja Kong & Mayumi Ozaki vs. Sugar Sato & Chikayo Nagashima (07/18/99): Kong and Oz were extremely giving here. Sato and Nagashima are very good wrestlers but are of the mid card variety in my opinion. They are not polished enough to be in this match as believable threats. They are doing some Rey Misterio Jr. shit but not as flawless as him.  That said this is a really good work rate match and some of spots are pretty darn cool (99 is the year for cool spots across Japan and the U.S.). I just don't agree with the finish for a variety of reasons. The first being the aforementioned but also this didn't really tell that good of a story to justify the conclusion. But it is exciting from an athletic standpoint so there's that to like about it... and Ozaki and Kong are solid as ever. So you might really enjoy this one more than me
    Akira Hokuto & Aja Kong & Mayumi Ozaki vs. Chigusa Nagayo & Toshiyo Yamada & Meiko Satomura (08/15/99): I'm watching this thinking, "OK this is a pretty good match..not great but pretty good." Then the last few minutes really elevated this to a great match (especially if you watched the 04/04 tag)...yeah the Kong/Satomura feud is palpable. If you're an Aja Kong fan, you've got to watch this! Also if you've mainly seen AJW 90's stuff (and liked it), this is a excellent place to dip your toe in with GAEA. It's essentially a continuation of what they were doing there

    Glad to be back watching GAEA! A big goal of mine for 2023 was to get back to Joshi. I think I did accomplish that and am glad that I'm ending the year how it began, watching women's pro wrestling. I'll be back next week with part #2 of 1999. 
    Thanks for reading! Also a shout out to anyone else who is working retail, customer service, in a warehouse pulling and packing orders, anyone working at USPS, FedEx, UPS, etc. etc. We're going to get through the bullshit soon enough!
     
     
  14. G. Badger
    I thought I would give myself some time and wait til after Thanksgiving to post this. So here we are at the end of 1985, we've got a bunch of tag matches. Let's get going!
    Dynamite Kid/Davey Boy Smith v. Yoshiaki Yatsu/Norio Honaga (12/04/85): Good match but not really anything special here. I'm sure you can guess the outcome. If this is on a . compilation for the Bulldogs then, its enjoyable enough.
    Jumbo Tsuruta v. Curt Hennig (12/04/85): Good match but boy was the crowd dead for this match. Oof! Jumbo and Curt did a nice clean match with some good action. I know no one thought Curt would win but man this was a lot better than their silence would indicate. This is one instance where the "quiet Japanese crowd" stereotype is true. Anyhow watched this after Smackdown on Friday. One thing is that I liked this simple match better than anything on there. One part is that everything was really snug and well executed. The other part is everything on Smackdown is so bright and obnoxious... tons of fucking colors, camera angle changes and absolute move overkill. One thing I'll give those wrestlers is they have a lot of athleticism. There's very little break in the action (it's a TV show after all) and they are in great shape. It's just worlds away from this stuff... but I guess that's what almost 40 years will do.
    Riki Choshu vs Nick Bockwinkel (12/04/85 aired 12/28): joined in progress. Pretty good match here with some good wrestling filling out the majority of the match. The final few minutes are Riki's high impact offense style. Nothing earth shattering but a good showing from both guys. I felt Bock is actually what made this worthwhile so if you're a fan of his then maybe give yourself 10 minutes and check this out.
    Shoehi Baba/Dory Jr. v. Stan Hansen/Ted Dibiase (12/04/85): Quiet crowd but they pop during this match at least This bout is great though because it is well paced. It is simple yet well executed and well Hansen beats on Dory Jr. like he owes him money. Holy cow, I can't believe he didn't induce a heart attack with those clubbing blows to the chest! One of the main reasons that I bought this DVD set was for the abundance of Hansen/DiBiase tag matches and they do not disappoint. 
    Stan Hansen/Ted Dibiase v. Nick Bockwinkle/Curt Hennig (12/07/85): Not a long match but a very fun one! I hesitate to say that its anything else because there was a possibility for Bockwinkel to be more involved especially with Stan Hansen. I could tell from the pacing (more Hansen's pace) that it was not going to be some sort of lost classic. That said this might be the best showing from Hennig. He really cuts loose during the closing couple of minutes. The fans were super excited. His athletics were comparable to Misawa Tiger Mask.
    Jumbo Tsuruta/Tenyru v. Dynamite Kid/Davey Boy Smith (12/07/85): Two big teams that have been on parallel courses throughout 1985 finally meet. And it's a blast! The Bulldogs are treated like equals and as a result we get a very good match where we see a lot of good stuff from both sides. I don't think it is meant to be more than a "what if?" main event draw so there's not a ton of substance. Still, it absolutely accomplished it's goal. This is kinda like the inverse of most/all Road Warriors matches...no one is their equal, they do a bunch of stuff regardless of their opponents' ranking/standing and many of the bouts are disappointing
    Harley Race/Jesse Barr v. Dynamite Kid/Davey Boy Smith (12/12/85): I wasn't expecting much from this match but I loved it! It told such a great little story with a one match rivalry. Kid tries to bully Harley at the get go but Race does one of the most seamless moves on Kid...like a fucking old lion who can be quick when it counts. From there Barr, who is big dude just not ultra jacked is showing of his power. Davey Boy is like hold my beer. Meanwhile you know Harley and Dynamite want to do the diving headbutts  off the top etc. It's a damn shame this wasn't a program but this was great! Perhaps the best Race match of '85 because he's basically Tenryu in the 2000's ... he doesn't have to be the best athlete, he just has to provide the heat & story of the match: younger guys try to upstage him and he just needs to be surly & hit hard while the younger guys do the moves. So you're getting the best of both worlds. This is a neat little match. Really does remind me of those early 2000's NOAH under card matches or B-show main events that mixed vets with younger guys to great results.

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    Shoehi Baba/Dory Funk Jr v. Jumbo Tsuruta/Tenyru (12/12/85): Holy cow! I wasn't expecting this to be as great as it was. But frankly it was a classic. The in-ring work was amazing. They didn't do the craziest moves of course but used what they had to take us through peaks and valleys. I think it's an excellent example of pacing and layout being more important than dazzling attacks. But don't get me wrong the offense is here as everyone takes some big bumps and in later AJPW fashion dusts some classic moves off the shelf to get the win. On top of that we have the stories of Dory being Jumbo and Tenryu's teacher, Baba being Jumbo's old partner and mentor, and the beginning (?) of something that becomes one of the best things going later in the decade Baba vs Tenryu. I wasn't expecting them to have that here but oh no...it's here and maybe starts here as by the end Baba & Tenryu are really going after each other. I don't recall seeing this in earlier matches. Anyhow, this felt like a quintessential AJPW tag match...maybe I'm crazy but if you like these guys it's at the very least a "great" match...but in my book it's a classic.
    Stan Hansen/Ted DiBiase vs Riki Choshu/Yoshiaki Yatsu (Real World Tag League Finals) (12/12/85 aired 12/14): jip by 14 minutes (I believe... so this is only a review of this point forward...I do believe the full match is available). This is really great stuff from the most aggressive teams in the company. I think this was a pretty bold choice for the final match but absolutely shows the confidence Baba had in his booking. It puts Riki & Yatsu (more importantly) as the native team to beat for 1986. It cements Ted DiBiase as Stan's #1 partner for the mid/late 80's (he was teaming with Ron Bass earlier in year which we didn't see any of here). What it also does is make sure there's more matches for 1986. We never get a blow off for the Riki vs Jumbo & Tenryu stuff. We don't really know if Stan & Ted can be beaten. I was close to calling this a classic because there were some absolutely great moments in this match but I only saw half. But I'm betting the first half of the bout was quality so I'm comfortable giving this a "great " rating. 12/12/85 was a great night for tag wrestling.

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    Rick Martel v. Stan Hansen (AWA Title, 12/29/85 in Meadowlands NJ): Technically an AWA match but glad to have this on DVD. Very good to great match here. What makes it special is the psychology of Hansen staying on Martel's back, Rick's selling, and Rick's attack on Hansen's arm. Honestly I'm pretty sure its one of the most psychologically strong matches of the year (not sure that's the right way to phrase that but you get what I'm saying). Only thing keeping it from a shoe-in great match is the finish. I don't 100% get what they were going for... or I think I get it but visually didn't do it for me. No way is it a match spoiler...and in fact plays off the story of the match. Maybe its one of those things that announcers would make sense of it. Watch it for yourself and see what you think! Couple the outcome this match along with Hansen & Ted being the points victors of the tag league and Stan is definitely the Man going into 1986.
    In summary, 1985 AJPW was excellent. It's an awesome year for tag wrestling without a doubt.I usually do a tl;dr list of my favorite matches of a long project like this. I'm going to skip that now since we're close to my end of the year Best Matches Watched list. So you're going to have to read or wait in the meantime.
    It's also a weird year as the first part of the year feels like an alternate history AJPW. I mean you've a sizable chunk of NJPW & British Bulldogs there. And are pushed right away. Bruiser Brody doesn't make the tapes (and then is in NJ), Hansen is working mid card and we don't see a Funk brother until late summer. Then the last 4 months, things look more like AJPW (but we (I) miss the lower ranking guys from the Riki vs Jumbo feud). As a result things don't get stale. 
    Historically 1985 All Japan hasn't gotten much more than middle-of-the-road hype. 8 out of the 10 '85 matches on the DVDVR Best of the 80's are in the middle of the list. The top match of the year is only #23 and the 2nd best match of '85 per their list is #37 for instance. And I don't recall anything from AJPW '85 making those old Best of the 80's lists (I think AJW/Crush Gals and NJPW did). So you can't blame a guy for skipping this. But I'm really glad that I finally listened to myself and took a chance on this year. And I did take a monetary chance buying this DVD set... like this could have been lame with only 10 matches being worth my time out of 7 discs (and not a single Choshu match remember!). But honestly, damn near everything felt worthwhile and there were plenty of great matches and a few classics that I feel confident considering "lost." It did help that the "missing" Choshu matches could be easily found the 'tube. Even had I went straight off my DVDs, 1985 genuinely feels like the first year in a new era of AJPW. I highly recommend checking some of this out...especially if you've never really dug the slower 70's/early 80's style. 
    Thanks for reading folks!
  15. G. Badger
    Here we are just a couple days past due but, finally November 1985 is ready to go. A couple of the matches were longer this week and therefore made my list a little slower to get through. It was worth it as you'll see. Let's dive in!
    Riki Choshu vs Jumbo Tsuruta (11/04 aired 11/09) Long time limit draw match...in my younger days I would have watched this. Anymore, I just don't want to devote this much time to one match especially knowing that it's a draw. But I did jump around (as does the TV episode...it actually jumps to the 23 minute mark after the first commercial break). I watched the last 10 minutes all the way through and this looked pretty great. So from what I saw here and the other bits I'd have to say this is pretty good to great stuff. I hesitate to go higher of course but it does have the potential to rate even higher. This just so physical throughout and a real testament to the high level of skill it takes to do do these long matches... not just the physical endurance but the presence of mind to tell a story.
    Stan Hansen/Ted Dibiase v. Dynamite Kid/Davey Boy Smith (11/23/85): The Bulldogs' muscles are nearly bursting out of their skin...holy cow boys...it's difficult to see how hard they were hitting the juice especially given the results down the road. That's all in the past now... so let's talk about the match. And what a match this was! Fast paced, all action wrestling right here. Hansen and Ted wrestle a Bulldogs match...and don't steam roll 'em either. It ends sooner than we'd all like but damn this was great. DiBiase was especially good with the lads. But Hansen going beast mode on Dynamite is noteworthy as well. Definitely put this on your watch-list
    Jumbo Tsuruta/Tenyru v. Nick Bockwinkle/Curt Hennig (11/23/85): Fuck yes, mid 80's AWA Curt Hennig. Bockwinkel back in AJPW... and versus Jumbo & Tenryu. This was great stuff for sure. All the little touches from Bock made this really special in my eyes. Things got a little loose at the finish but its an early Real World Tag match so really no gripes. This delivers.
    Shoehi Baba/Dory Funk Jr. v. Harley Race/Jesse Barr (11/27/85): Long match but a really good one. This was probably more paced & worked like it was 1975 at times but, after a few minutes I was digging it. You just have to get in that head space. Once you're there then, there's a lot to like here - Dory hitting hard, Baba doing big moves taking big bumps, Harley giving it his all and Jesse Barr does not look out of place either. It has been a minute since the last Baba match but this was a fine one to come back to.

    Now that's a fucking fancy ring jacket! The Bob Newhart of pro wrestling is going to kick some ass.

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    Tiger Mask v. Dynamite Kid (11/27/85): I started out watching this and comparing it to Sayama Tiger vs Dynamite based off the first little bit. It was not a fair or warranted comparison so, I waited an hour or so and started this again. I was glad that I did. This is very much young Misawa vs Dynamite Kid. And it's a really good match! And in fact its a near great match. Unfortunately this ended just as things were really starting to cook. In fact, I think this had the potential to be better overall than many of the original TM vs DK (and I'm not a hater, go back and read my Tiger Mask blogs from a couple years ago). I just think Dynamite was a little smarter now, Misawa has a different style, etc. My guess is this was perhaps the beginning of a program between the two and it was in the middle of the RWTL so Baba didn't want to risk their injury (but you wouldn't know that from this!).
    Jumbo Tsuruta/Tenyru v. Rusher Kimura/Goro Tsurumi (11/27/85): Good match with a really good final third. I'm going to put some little spoilers in here so you check it out.. at least skim through it... because they do a top rope back drop (back suplex is what I think its called in the States) and Tenryu finishes things up with a power bomb (it's not super smooth like we come to see but shit doesn't it look like it hurts... aka head bouncing off the mat potential). Anyhow both moves are super high end for '85.

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    Stan Hansen v. Ashura Hara (11/27/85): Shorter than I would have liked but hot damn! this is good shit. They are just beating the crap out of each other. They are laying in all of their shots. It's hard to tell but I think Hansen's eye is closing up on the way back to the locker room. If you're like me and disappointed from their match in the 70's from Hansen's AJPW Classics special (which many folks probably own or have seen) then THIS is the Ashura Hara vs Stan Hansen bout you were hoping for.
    Stan Hansen/Ted Dibiase v. Harley Race/Jesse Barr (11/30/85): Fast paced and surprisingly move heavy. We open up with Race & Hansen potato-ing each other in the best way. Then DiBiase & Barr are young and want to show the crowd what they can do. Stan and Harley get in on the action and we get a really, really good match. Had the thing gone on longer, I think it would have been a great one. Jesse Barr is Art Barr's older brother and Jimmy Jack Funk in the WWF...Terry and Dory Jr.'s kayfabe brother btw.
    Dynamite Kid/Davey Boy Smith v. Tiger Mask/Mighty Inoue (11/30/85): Great all action match that would be quality stuff in 1995, 2005 etc. I got serious 1988-92 AJPW all Asia tag title match vibes here. If you dig those Can Am/Footloose, Kobashi era matches, check this out this one. Again, 1985 Misawa doesn't get a lot of talk but as Tiger Mask he was pretty awesome. He's settled down from trying to do an homage to Sayama Tiger and really wrestles like you'd expect a young Mitsuharu Misawa to wrestle

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    Choshu/Yoshiaki Yatsu vs Jumbo Tsuruta/Genichiro Tenryu (11/30): This is from the 1985 TV episode and is joined in progress by like a minute. That makes no difference really. This is an amazing RWTL match...I was totally geeking out by the end! Maybe it's that we haven't seen a Riki & co. tag vs Jumbo & Tenryu in awhile but this near, if not at, the top of the list. Everything seemed right here. A precursor to the 01/28/86 match perhaps? More proof that Yoshiaki Yatsu is under rated for his AJPW work...excellent evidence for the Jumbo/Tenryu tag chemistry greatness, Riki Choshu is THE MAN for a hot tag-in. Yeah classic match in my book.
    An excellent week of wrestling. It did make me miss guys from earlier in 1985 that we haven't seen in awhile like: Animal Hamaguchi, Kuniaki Kobayashi & Takashi Ishikawa most notably.
    So we're almost done with 1985 All Japan. There's just one more post (Dec. '85) and then I'm thinking of using the rest of the year to tie up some loose blog ends...GAEA '99, a couple high end matches I skipped over earlier in the year, etc. 
     
    Thank you very much for reading!
     
  16. G. Badger
    And we're back with AJPW 1985. We're looking at October.
    Riki Choshu vs Ashura Hara (10/04 aired 10/12): I noticed I had no Riki Choshu this post. The booking has separated Riki/partner from Jumbo & Tenryu for a little bit. Presumably to build to another encounter for RWTL drama. Anyway this was blazing right out of the gate. Full speed ahead ass kicking. Unfortunately it didn't get too far in before a DQ was called but Damn! this was a blast while it lasted.

    Dory and Terry Funk v. Road Warriors (10/19/85): Not to be a bummer but, looking at these guys in 1985, it's a shock Dory Jr. is the only one still alive. Not the two muscle bound giants or the crazy bearded brawler but the guy who looks like an old Charlie Brown. I don't consider Road Warriors matches more than novelty outings at this point.

    ------
    Ric Flair v. Jumbo Tsuruta (Non-Title, 10/19/85): These two always have a great encounter and this was no different. Technical and hard hitting so I can't complain. Seeing as this is a non title fight it added a bit of drama (that we don't get in hindsight with big title matches). 

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    Shoehi Baba/Takashi Ishikawa/Mighty Inoue v. Ashura Hara/Rusher Kimura/Goro Tsurumi (10/21/85):  A really fun match. Although Baba is regularly an excellent 6-manner, it was best when he was out. Ishikawa & Inoue had a really fast paced match going on with the heel team.
    Kabuki v. Killer Khan (10/21/85): Good brawl but over before it had a chance to be better. Ref saw Kabuki spit the mist in Khan's eyes. 
    Dory and Terry Funk/Tiger Mask v. Billy Robinson/Terry Gordy/Chavo Guerrero (10/21/85): This is a fun match and something you'd dream up for a video game or fantasy booking. I've seen it a few times so I won't review it here. One of the more memorable times was watching this the night before my last day at work before getting laid off. I remember getting drunk that night and after I ran out of beer, I started drinking gin & Gatorade. Threw up. Big surprise! Was super hung over and late to work the next day... what were they going to do? Fire me? 
    Jumbo Tsuruta/Tenyru v. Road Warriors (10/21/85): Probably the best Warriors match thus far. Not a novelty as this was pretty damn good! They actually sold and wanted to do good wrestling with Tenryu and Jumbo. This was a heavyweight fireworks match for '85. If I'm going to recommend a RW in AJPW '85, it's this one.

    Holy Shit an actual wrestling hold from Animal!
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    Ric Flair v. Rick Martel (NWA Title v. AWA Title, 10/21/85): Fuck yes! This was awesome! This is the match that I was hoping it would be. The pacing and flow were perfect and I felt like I could have watched this go on all evening. Excellent teases, near falls (even though you probably know the outcome)/..but you really don't know how they are going to get there 38 years later. Classic match for me.
    Dory and Terry Funk v. Terry Gordy/Art Crews (10/22/85): Good little match here. Art Crews was a good hand it would seem. Everything he did looked crisp but without trying to upstage the stars. Don't think I'll see him again in '85 but this match is a good example of some of non-stars working AJPW at the time.
    Mil Mascaras v. Norio Honaga (10/22/85): Quick fun match. Cool to see Mascaras. This was a nice exhibition showing. He did a bunch of cool holds and although Honaga never had a chance, he got a 2 count
    Ric Flair/Rick Martel v. Jumbo Tsuruta/Tenyru (10/22/85): Dream match? Yeah absolutely... no idea this happened but glad it did! And its a great one. It's a terrific match for a Sunday night. Four hall of fame wrestlers in AJPW 1985...it's hard to go wrong here.

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    This was an excellent week of wrestling. Lotsa Rick Martel and I even skipped one, Martel vs Riki Choshu from 10/19/85. It's out there on the Roy 1985 tapes, take a look. We're going onto November '85.
    Thanks for reading!
  17. G. Badger
    I'm taking a week break from 1985 AJPW to celebrate Halloween by watching some spooky wrestling. I'm going to look at some stuff you might have missed in TNA and Japan because that's more my jam. But there's plenty of Halloween/horror wrestling in lucha libre and lord knows there's always a spooky character in the WWE/F 
    Raven vs Vampiro (TNA PPV #68 2003): This was fun but maybe for the wrong reasons. The execution of moves was pretty lazy. Like only of handful of things beyond the dog collar parts looked cool. TNA was pretty Indie still but man this felt like they were doing a VFW/church rec room match. The visuals were awesome though. I think that's what Raven really cared about here. His get-up, Vampiro's, the hanging from the collars, the blood, the two collars on either end of the ring attached to Vampiro's neck...that's probably why you should watch it. That and Raven really looked like he was choking Vampiro out. 
     
    Great Muta vs Great Muta (AJPW 12/05/04): The fake Muta is Johnny Stamboli and he would take the character and make it his own as Rellik in TNA. Muto has a crazy fucking dragon-demon looking mask on...absolutely worthy of being this Halloween post for that alone. Absolutely freaky! He even tries to scare little kids and chicks with it ...like a guy working a haunted house  This was 11 minutes long but frankly was kind of boring since Muto was on offense. Stamboli Muta seemed more interesting to me. But hey these are novelty matches for Halloween so it's all good.
     
    Abyss vs Black Reign (TNA Genesis 2007): This was Dustin Rhodes/Runnels/Gold Dust as Black Reign. Anyway, this was a really fun garbage match. Abyss matches usually deliver and this was no different. They are kinda the same but if you space them out, they are just mindless fun. With this match, Dustin was really good with the fundamentals. His punches looked good, he sold things and beyond that took a really crazy bump. Small world- Rellik/Stamboli makes his debut post match.
     
    If you're looking for more Halloween wrestling, I suggest you look up Leather face, Jason the Terrible in W*ING and IWA Japan. Leather Face is in FMW as well. They have matches against Freddy Crugar/Krueger, Boogey Man (Michael Myers mask guy) and others  Here's a a good one from the review graveyard:
    Shoji Nakamaki, Crash the Terminator, Fukumen Taro, Masayoshi Motegi & Nobutaka Araya vs Freddy Krueger, Jado, Gedo, Invader II & Invader III (W*ING Hollywood Nightmare 08/25/93, Captain's Fall Barbed Wire Bat Bunkhouse Deathmatch):First and foremost, watch Victor Quinones' promo for the heel team. Absolute gold ! On to the match: This is all out chaos and I loved it! 4 out of 10 people have masks, 6 out of 10 people are wearing red, Nakamaki isn't wearing jeans and a tee shirt, Crash legit looks like he could win the thing since *ahem* Freddie fucking Krueger is the heel team captain.All kinds of wackiness but, its the good early 90s Indy puro kind you want in this match. There's wrestling in the ring, brawling around the ring, Freddie in the stands chasing fans, Nakamaki laying somewhere in Korakuen bleeding...All the fans chanting his name despite being only visible to 5-10 of them due to the aforementioned bleeding, Indy juniors trying to shine, Crash no selling like a Road Warrior, a guardrail, seats popping off chairs, more Nakamaki chants...This is W*ING in the best way!
     
    Happy Halloween!!
  18. G. Badger
    Sorry for the delay! I'll get to that in a minute. It's nothing dramatic. So here we are in August & September of 1985 All Japan Pro Wrestling! The Funker...the late great Terry Funk is here. Lots of Stan Hansen and yeah this one is pretty star studded. Let's begin!
    Riki Choshu/Killer Khan vs Genichiro Tenryu/Jumbo Tsuruta (08/02 aired 08/03): A great match without a doubt! Things started out with Jumbo and Riki having a technical fight. Once Khan started slapping people in the face, the tone changed. This is one of more stiff hitting matches I've seen  from mid 80's Tenryu. I'm pretty sure he punched Khan in the face on a tag team double punch. They do something different every match and they don't need a ton of signature moves. Everything feels like a fight. This is probably the frontrunner for my feud of the year.
    Terry Funk v. Stan Hansen (08/23/85): Oh man, this was wild from the get-go! They were just beating each other up inside and out. Terry took some wild ass bumps. One would have been right at home in mid 2000's NOAH. Also to say this was stiff would be an understatement. We get an 80's finish but is probably my favorite type and Dory ends up coming out and hitting people with his cowboy boot (while wearing a shirt and tie). Great stuff! If you've never seen either guy, this is a excellent match as an introduction. If you're missing some Terry Funk, go watch this one. 
    Dory and Terry Funk v. Stan Hansen & Ted DiBiase (08/29/85): Really good match...I'm not sure if I'd call it great as it didn't seem to have much of a story or flow to it. My guess is that the encounter was meaningful enough. All 4 guys were really exciting and man Stan Hansen is so quick! But I'll level with you. I haven't gotten a good night's sleep for a couple days so this match may be better than I reckon. So if you're interested than you should check it out, don't just take my word for it with this review.

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    Stan Hansen/Ted DiBiase vs Jumbo Tsuruta/Genichiro Tenryu (08/31 aired 09/07): Aw man! They cut the finish out! This was a classic match or damn near and they ended the program :-( Talk about an 80's finish... The real same is this match was the last one to watch for this post and is kinda the reason I am late posting it. Like I said what was shown (assuming 90%) was near classic but I probably would have skipped this knowing the end wasn't shown. All that said, DiBiase was fan-fucking-tastic with Jumbo & Tenryu. I'm pumped to see more of him with Hansen.
    Tiger Mask vs Marty Jannetty (09/05 aired 09/14): Joined in progress. This is a bit of fun. Low stakes but well executed... reminds me of a WCW TV match. Just wanted to watch it because it happened. I mean Marty Jannetty vs Mitsuharu Misawa right? Gotta check it out
    Jumbo Tsuruta/Tenyru v. Yoshiaki Yatsu/Killer Khan (09/14/85): Man, Yatsu is a really exciting wrestler. He's like that in the 01/28/86 match. I remember him being more of a tough guy when he & Jumbo team in the late 80's. He really brings some different stuff here doing both a double under hook suplex and belly to belly suplex. He's also off the top rope a couple times. I think I'm learning to appreciate him even more than I did before. So all that aside this is a very good to great tag match. It's everything I was hoping it would be - fiery, stiff, good pace, simple yet smart wrestling. 

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    Jumbo Tsuruta v. Harley Race (Int'l Title, 09/19/85): Really good match. A bit more deliberate in pace than the Choshu/Jumbo stuff but still very hard hitting. Harley was letting Jumbo just blast him with chops (double handed chops later) as well as "no-sell" a couple beefy lariats. In my mind, Harley knew he wasn't as mobile as he used to be or quick like the younger guys but he was tougher. That's the story here. Both wrestlers bled and the last couple minutes are great. In the context of 1985, I'd say this was very good but if I was watching AJPW from a couple years earlier, I might call it great. Still very happy to watch Jumbo & Harley square off. Very entertaining stuff!
    For all of you folks that read my stuff on a regular basis - Thank you very much! I hope it gives you something fun to read. I hope it gets you excited or interested in wrestling that you may have missed, overlooked, or never thought of. I also hope it is a nice little pocket of the "old internet"
  19. G. Badger
    A shorter post this week but still going strong with All Japan 1985.
    Genichiro Tenryu & Takashi Ishikawa & Haru Sonada vs. Riki Choshu & Yoshiaki Yatsu & Animal Hamaguchi (07/08 aired 07/13): Oh man excellent finish! Yeah this was a really good match. It's not top of the line effort since Jumbo isn't in there but that's an observation and not a criticism. Ishikawa really thrives in these matches since he's functioning as Tenryu's #2 rather than Jumbo's #3.
    Ashura Hara vs Masanobu Kurisu (07/12 aired 07/20): Oh man this is too quick but I am so thankful it took place. For a few minutes they just stiff the hell outta each other. 1985 AJPW is the nexus of the Indies of the 90's.
    Jumbo Tsuruta/Genichiro Tenryu/Takashi Ishikawa vs Riki Choshu/Killer Khan/Animal Hamaguchi (07/12 aired 07/20): I'm going to sound like a broken record but this was great match! I'm glad that I was able to track these Choshu matches down... Pretty much all those with Jumbo, Tenryu and Riki Choshu. This was all action and I was frankly surprised it ended. In a way the classics of the 90's were these matches that were given the green light to go on 30+ minutes regularly. They don't empty their tanks here like you'd see 5 years later in the Jumbo vs Misawa program or Kawada vs Misawa. But the groundwork is here in these matches. And you truly appreciate those for the pacing, intensity, and smart simple work and not the crazy spots alone then I think you'll enjoy this feud.
    Takashi Ishikawa & Akio Sato vs. Animal Hamaguchi & Isamu Teranishi (07/18 aired 07/27): Haven't seen Isamu Teranishi in awhile so I'm throwing this in mix. Roy has Ishikawa's partner as Norio Honaga but it is Akio Sato. Its joined in progress but no matter. This is great wrestling for the All Asia tag titles. The last couple minutes felt like top shelf action for '85. I just happened to want to watch this one and it makes me wonder how many other quality matches I overlooked. Can't think about though or I'll never get through these all!
    Stan Hansen v. Shoehi Baba (PWF Title, 07/30/85): Absolutely satisfies the "at least one Baba & Hansen match" per post rule This is a longer one I thought but is pretty good throughout and it ends strongly. Hansen is without much doubt Baba's best singles opponent of the 80's. Baba has still got it here in the mid 80's...he's doing moves, taking bumps, etc.

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    Stay safe folks! 
  20. G. Badger
    Back with more 1985 AJPW goodness! Let's get going with April!
    Giant Baba & Jumbo Tsuruta vs. Stan Hansen & Ted DiBiase (04/21 - aired 04/27): This from the Roy tapes as well. I needed to get some Stan Hansen in my life. This is a fine way to introduce him and Ted DiBiase into 1985. They make an excellent team (not my first time seeing them together) that has a different dynamic than the Brody or Gordy teams. Ted is more technical and has a calmer more calculated approach that makes this team more well rounded. Baba and Jumbo still team so well together with Baba coming in and making saves & giving Tsuruta breaks. Baba's tag utility is not given enough love. A great well paced and hard fought match. The finishing section is so organic and flawlessly executed. This bout probably isn't on anyone's lists but this is an example of wrestling done right. 
    Riki Choshu/Animal Hamaguchi vs Genichiro Tenryu/Takashi Ishikawa (04/21 - aired 04/27) Here's one where I wanted to include a Riki match without Jumbo as my sample from April would be slim otherwise. Anyway super happy I watched this. It is some excellent tag wrestling. One thing I haven't mentioned is how Choshu and co. have some Steiner Bros. type tag moves off the turnbuckles. More great action here...the feud is chugging along without losing steam.

    Tenryu watching for a Riki sneak attack
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    Ric Flair v. Jumbo Tsuruta (NWA Title, 04/24/85): Long match like you'd expect but full of action. I am hesitant to watch Flair in Japan sometimes as there's a fear that there's going to be a lot of Figure Four work.  This match we get just the right amount and have plenty of great action to fill up the majority of the title bout. I think if you were watching this live in '85, you'd rate it pretty well as it was pretty darn dramatic. Jumbo was really whooping on Flair. Of course we know Jumbo doesn't win the belt and that does hurt this a little as that glimmer of hope (what they are working to create live for fans) is lost when looking back at these big name title defenses. There's a little bit of "do I want to watch a long match that I essentially know the outcome for?" This one keeps the pace up and is intense and competitive so I was compelled to finish. This really was a great fight between two of the very best.
    Now for a bit of storyline : On 04/24 Ashura Hara sneak attacks Tenryu before their tag match. Riki & Animal Hamaguchi start by attacking Hara. It's confusing but I think they maybe consider him a turn coat but he shows them that he's his own man by attacking Tenryu AND walking out on them. The match continues with Motoshi Okuma as Tenryu's partner. It's more of an angle than a match. This is a really crazy booking angle for AJ!
    Jumbo Tsuruta/Genichiro Tenryu vs Riki Choshu/Animal Hamaguchi (05/17 aired 05/18): Very good match but lacking the nuclear intensity but it's an enjoyable bout with a good finish which adds a new little wrinkle to the feud.
    Shoehi Baba/Jumbo Tsuruta/Tenryu v. Tiger Jeet Singh/Terry Gordy/Mario Milano (05/31/85): Fun match, Tenryu makes a hot tag to Baba if you can believe it Gordy is most impressive.
    Road Warriors v. Takashi Ishikawa & Tarzan Goto (05/31/85): Don't blink or you'll miss it!But Tarzan Goto & Ishikawa so... yay!
    Road Warriors v. Killer Khan/Masanobu Kurisu (06/02/85): Quick as hell...at least Khan was in for a few moments...Was going to skip these but they were so short it wasn't worth the fast forward!
    Dynamite Kid/Davey Boy Smith v. Tiger Mask/Magic Dragon (06/02/85): Excellent Bulldogs match! No flubs, everything was in rhythm and the moves were exciting. Tiger Mask Misawa and Magic Dragon were really good opponents for them.
    Riki Choshu/Yoshiaki Yatsu/Animal Hamaguchi vs Jumbo Tsuruta/Genichiro Tenryu/Motoshi Okuma (06/02 aired 06/22): Absolutely crazy match in K-hall. I wouldn't expect anything less. A battle with an unexpected finish plus brawling after the bell. Riki and Tenryu blasting each other in the head stuff. Great shit!
    Dynamite Kid/Davey Boy Smith v. Kuniaki Kobayashi/Shinichi Nakano (06/04/85): Another really good Bulldogs match! Nakano wasn't dominated like you might expect. Kuniaki's standing really made this an even match. He and Dynamite got in a flow that made me really want to see a singles match. I checked and there was one in '85 via handheld out there.
    Jumbo Tsuruta v. Terry Gordy (Int'l Title, 06/04/85): Great match around 20 minutes. Lots of good action. Gordy is so underrated as a AJPW wrestler. He and Jumbo are just so evenly matched in size, athleticism and style. He might be my favorite mid 80's Jumbo opponent.
    Dynamite Kid/Davey Boy Smith vs Tiger Mask/Toshiaki Kawada (06/05 - aired 06/15): jip but we get some replays at the end of the match showing what we missed. I wanted to find an early Kawada match and this'll do! Very fun stuff and has some really crazy Bulldog moves. You wanna see this one

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    Kuniaki Kobayashi vs. Magic Dragon (Mask vs Hair) (06/05 - aired 06/15): jip, good, good stuff. If shown in full I'd bump it up I bet. This was so smart and economical. They get so much out of a simple set of moves because they were so well timed. They did the right stuff (including the finish). 
    Giant Baba v. Rusher Kimura (PWF Title, 06/05/85): Gotta watch one or two Baba matches per post and I'm not going to pass up Baba vs Rusher. This was good stuff too! Slower paced than much of what we've seen. Some of that is age but 1985 seems to be the year in AJPW where they are more about running the ropes and quick action than the slower more technical style of old. The very distinct ups and downs of a match aren't really there in most of the wrestling. The pace is much quicker so something like this stands out. And in fact they wrestle at a quick pace with more moves than I would have thought. 
    Jumbo Tsuruta/Tenyru v. Road Warriors (06/05/85): Tempted to call this a very good match. The Warriors had their selling boots on. We get a cheap finish (to protect everyone) but everything beforehand was surprisingly great.
    Ashura Hara v. Haru Sonada (06/21/85): Quick match but wanted to see more Hara & Magic Dragon/Sonada. If you stumble upon this, check it out Magic Dragon wrestled as Haru Sonoda afterwards until his untimely death in 1987.
    Kuniaki Kobayashi v. Tiger Mask (06/21/85): Oh yeah! A really awesome match..the match I knew they could have. A classic AJPW Junior match and if that's not enough Atsushi Onita comes out post match and gets into a tussle. I see this on Misawa compilations and it absolutely belongs there as an early (earliest?) classic for him. But this should also clue you into Kuniaki Kobayashi if you're not yet hip to his greatness.
    Jumbo Tsuruta/Takashi Ishikawa v. Yoshiaki Yatsu/Higo Hamaguchi (06/21/85): Excellent pacing, excellent action and a really smart finish. There's very little to find fault with here. Worth noting, this is perhaps the first match in the AJPW Classics tapes/TV episodes to sorta indicate there's a feud with Riki & co. They did a good job avoiding the Choshu matches... very glad that we've got the original TV episodes.
    Riki Choshu vs Genichiro Tenryu (06/21/85): This one I found online elsewhere pretty easily. And boy I'm glad I did! The fight was intense as could be and the older style that focuses on grinding holds and storytelling. Tenryu was aiming to injure Choshu's lariat arm whereas Riki was wearing his opponent to lock in the Sasorigatame (Scorpion Death lock). This match absolutely lays the groundwork for the classic singles matches of the 90's. We don't get a classic match because of an 80's ending but man alive this was absolutely going to be a classic and it had the vibe of an all time classic. Patient in its storytelling, physical and believable, it was a helluva match. Near classic on a technicality but this was classic puro if you dig what I'm sayin'.

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    Half way through and 1985 is awesome! And I know I'm missing really cool stuff in the interest of time & energy. As you can tell I watched quite a bit but it wasn't too far off the my plan. There were some really important inclusions like the Kawada match, getting some Stan Hansen in there and heck a Baba vs Rusher match for well roundedness etc.. I will have to stick to the plan a little better as I'm posting a bit later in the day (the next day technically) than I'd wanted. That should be a good indicator of how engrossing the year is so far. Variety of wrestlers, matches, match length and so on. Now that the weather is more comfortable it is much easier to watch chunks of wrestling. July and parts of August were just the pits.
    Anyhow, thanks for reading folks! Until next time, stay safe!
  21. G. Badger
    Sorry for anyone who checks in regularly for posts! Got a little overwhelmed with stuff and wrestling wasn't a priority. However I have begun my look into 1985 All Japan as a result. I needed some low stakes stuff to watch and I figured I could chip away at some stuff. That led me to the more substantial stuff and I'm on the project now.  Everything Riki Choshu comes from Roy Lucier's '85 AJPW TV. For some reason all of his matches are omitted from the AJPW Samurai Classic tv episodes (although they did do a Choshu specific episode along with Jumbo, Hansen, Baba etc.). So just about everything without Riki comes from AJPW Samurai Classic tv episodes. There's tons of neat looking stuff from the '85 weekly TV and I do plan to include some in order to fills gaps (not enough matches per post or to include a key figure) but I have plenty to watch from the AJPW Classic DVDs and Riki feud matches. Oh and I'm mainly focusing on matches that feature Riki, Jumbo, and Tenryu all in the match. Again I just don't have the time to watch the Genichiro Tenryu & Takashi Ishikawa vs Riki and partner stuff... as much as I wanted to originally. One thing I learned from the GAEA stuff is variety is what's going to keep me going. Where I was at in GAEA at the time was just like the same 4 people having great matches. After a couple weeks, it starts to run together. So I'm limiting myself and not over indulging in Riki vs AJPW. P.S. I promise I will get GAEA 1999 done this year if you're looking forward to that (sorry about that!).
    Anyhow, that's enough explanation! Let's look at some wrestling!
    Jumbo Tsuruta & Genichiro Tenryu & Takeshi Ishikawa vs. Riki Choshu & Yoshiaki Yatsu & Isamu Teranishi (01/06 - 01/12 aired): All excitement 6 man match! Battle lines are drawn! Everyone is really good here...20+ minute match but never a dull moment. Teranishi was impressive and nice to see him again after wrapping my Tiger Mask project up a while back.
    Tiger Mask/Magic Dragon vs Kuniaki Kobayashi/Isao Takagi (01/26 - 02/02 aired): Joined in progress. Whoa I wasn't expecting much but this was really on point junior action. One flub on a tilt-a-whirl back breaker but everything else was great shit. 
    Choshu/Masa Saito/Killer Khan vs Jumbo Tsuruta/Genichiro Tenryu/Takashi Ishikawa (01/26 - 02/02 aired): Man Choshu's team is super badass looking. Perhaps one of the most big muscle bound & mean looking Japanese teams ever? Another 20+ of chaos... this one is even better. Violent, intense stuff - great match! Choshu's team is a force to be reckoned with.
    Jumbo Tsuruta & Genichiro Tenryu vs. Riki Choshu & Yoshiaki Yatsu (02/01, aired 02/09): Big matchup that totally delivers. Just 4 guys beating the shit out of each other. We get an 80's finish (that I sorta don't understand) but is an angle they are working (and leads to the next match). Great stuff
    Jumbo Tsuruta/Genichiro Tenryu vs Riki Choshu/Masa Saito (02/05 - aired 02/16): 16 minutes of awesomeness. This may be one of the shorter ones so far so they made it red hot right from the get go. The Tokyo crowd was vocal as hell...a great example of the Japanese fans not always being "quiet and respectful." That atmosphere really elevated this to something special. Tenryu starts to become the Tenryu fans know and love during this time. No one can get so much out of the Scorpion Death Lock like Choshu. He milks every stage of the hold for all its worth. He makes the part before he turns them over its own move in a way... a leg lock and pinning combination. Then when finally flips you over he's got the full figure four Boston Crab going and just powers it. This is a great match with four legends. This feud is dynamite!
    Giant Baba vs Tiger Jeet Singh (02/05) - skipped. It seemed like a longer technical Baba vs Tiger match from my fast forward watching. 
    British Bulldogs vs Animal Hamaguchi & Kuniaki Kobayashi (02/09) - Fun stuff, lots a cool moves but no rhyme or reason for anything. That's OK as it was neat. Excited to see more of the 'dogs.

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    Jumbo Tsuruta/Genichiro Tenryu/Takashi Ishikawa vs Riki Choshu/Masanobu Kurisu/Yoshiaki Yatsu (02/28 - aired 03/02): Very good stuff. The tag matches are red hot. This 6 mans are a bit more normal in pace and intensity. I mean it's still these 6 guys bashing each other so there's no complaints. Kurisu vs Tenryu was pretty great as the K man was hitting so hard you could hear the chops like Ric Flair. That fired up Tenryu. The whole thing was extremely enjoyable and another worthy match in this feud. Clean finish and a pretty awesome one (for '85). 
    Harley Race & Klaus Wallas vs Killer Khan & Mananobu Kurisu (03/09) -  Fun stuff. Harley vs Khan is the draw here. Klaus is not bad and would be interested in more of he & Harley.

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    Tiger Mask II vs Kuniaki Kobayashi (03/09) - I'm not sure they knew where they were going in the beginning but once they slowed down & found a rhythm this got really good. Like Misawa vs Kobayashi as I would play in Fire Pro good. It doesn't touch the awesome TM I vs Kobayashi stuff but super enjoyable. Hope they meet again!

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    Jumbo Tsuruta & Genichiro Tenryu vs Road Warriors (03/09): Pretty competitive match with the match being thrown out as the Warriors are mad they lost the 2nd fall. Watched this on Roy's channel.
    Road Warriors vs. Riki Choshu & Killer Khan (03/14 aired 03/23): So there's a commercial for Japanese hair mousse called Xanax Or at least the commercial looked like it was for mousse... maybe the dude just felt like rubbing shit through his hair after popping a few bars? I love these old commercials! Anyways they Gorilla press slamming Riki and Khan. That doesn't seem good for business though. Hansen and Brody wouldn't just toss a top team around just because they could which is a little bummer because the Warriors are capable of excellent matches (I'm thinking Arn & Tully Starrcade '87). Maybe later this year?
    This was an amazing start to the project. All Japan feels like a fresh and exciting promotion with Riki & co. and the Bulldogs and yes even the Road Warriors. Hansen and Brody are around but not in big time matches. Brody does eventually end up in NJPW this year. But we get the Hansen & DiBiase team so again we're blessed with a little bit more positive change. It should be fun
     
    Thanks for reading!
  22. G. Badger
    I'm going through my one-off DVDs trying to get some wrestling in while reducing my backlog of unwatched stuff. I've been meaning to watch Reborn Stage 2 for awhile after picking it up for cheap on eBay (longer than I can remember ago). As always with these things, I cherry pick. This is a pretty historically important show so let's begin!
    Austin Aries vs Nigel McGuinness vs Jimmy Rave vs Rocky Romero:  Aries' big show debut, Rocky Romero's 2nd night in ROH, Nigel's biggest match to date...that's amazing! And all 4 guys showed that they really were going to be the future of the company (even if for a short while). The technical ability exhibited was top tier and beyond the card position. And I think that was exciting about the match was it was mainly about arm bars, escapes, counters and reversals. Some of these we would get used to and take for granted but here they were fresh and revolutionary. And the crowd reacted accordingly. So it's unfair to measure this against what they were doing a couple years later. It is best to judge this own its own merits. It is really good technically oriented stuff with a great batch of spots towards the end. The fact that all four would become mainstays (Romero coming back with RPG Vice) is the cherry on top. These guys were damn good wrestlers. Great match.
    Bryan Danielson vs Homicide: Great slow build match. Nice technical but uneventful beginning. I am not complaining though. Eventually 'cide damages Danielson's neck. Dragon holds on and finds an opportunity when the 187 punches the steel barrier. Now we have a battle! What will give out first? Great selling by each guy. Smart action where there's consequences for mistakes. Some think its a classic so I recommend checking it out and you decide. Either way it's highly recommended. I might even re-watch as I'm a fan of both.
    Dunn & Marcos vs Carnage Crew vs Sydal & Jack Evans vs Shelley & Jacobs: Tag team scramble match so its kind of a free for all. And with that, this is mainly a series of cool spots. And it was a blast! It was very good for what it was. It reminded me of some of the gimmick matches in TNA. Crazier more athletic stuff was done here but when the crazy stuff is performed in TNA, it is more meaningful. So in some ways they balance out. This isn't as good as the opening match in terms of gimmick matches but,  it still well worth your time. You can see where Gabe got the idea for Generation Next with a match like this.
    Samoa Joe vs Matt Stryker: So yeah I always thought Matt Stryker was Matt Striker...uh that's not the case. Man, that's some damn name theft by Striker/WWE or maybe vice versa? Anyhow this was a good challenger vs champion match. Stryker even had a couple believable near falls. Joe did an excellent job looking vulnerable when he needed to while still being a badass. His strikes were fantastic and hits an absolutely brutal lariat. If this would have been shorter in duration, I could rate this a little higher. Kinda in the 15 minute range vs 18.It didn't drag but Stryker didn't have a ton of charisma or an electrifying moveset so it was like taking the long way around when they could have gone the quicker way. Makes sense booking wise with the main event... giving people a chance to be entertained but really pop for the tag title fight.
    The Briscoes vs Second City Saints (Punk/Cabana):The Saints come home to Chicago! They start this out really well with a good albeit schticky shine section. Kinda like in lucha or M-Pro where the baby faces are tying the heels up and making them look foolish. Very fun to ham it up. Dem Boys eventually isolate Punk and do excellent heel work beyond their years. You really can see where they would go as one of the best teams of the 2000-2010s. Punk makes the hot tag to Colt and we get one long finishing segment. I usually don't gripe too much about tag legality but the ref was being by-the-book with everything else. This is what made the middle so great and it just goes out the window. We even get guys trying to pin the wrong guys. Admittedly I lost track too so you just have to go with the flow, I guess. I think if this took place a year or more later this would be a classic. The rough edges, the early Marufuji-like complexity, etc. would have been minimized for sure. I think in the early & mid 2000's this was excused or viewed as innovative and some praise this latter part over the beginning and middle.  Still it's a great big tag match that delivers on the action and excitement especially since we're in Chicago (for the first time!). If you're a CM Punk fan this is an essential ROH match. If you're a Briscoe Brothers fan who wants to see some of best early stuff this is one to see.
    From what I watched, this was a great, super consistent show. Nothing was a classic but everything I watched was very good or great (well Joe vs Stryker was only "good" but it was brutal at times). Very good purchase and somewhat indicative of 2004. It is a transition year but as you can see shows like this help create the golden era of 2005-2007 ROH.
     
    I've asked this in the Ring of Honor thread in the Mega thread Archive but wanted to ask it here as well. I'm curious on what people think is the best and worse in ring years for pre-Tony ROH. Exclude the quarantine stuff if you want. Or if you want what were the best/worst of the Gabe years, post Gabe, Sinclair era etc.
    Any unpopular opinions are welcome because I'm always interested in revisiting /re-evaluating these types of things. Same with any under-rated or overrated matches/shows. I'm curious what folks views are in 2023 as we're pretty much looking in the rearview mirror with ROH. 
    Leave a comment or post on the thread
    Thanks for reading!
  23. G. Badger
    This is a continuation of my "get through some DVDs I bought a couple years ago" project. Ha! Who am I kidding? That's 90% of my reviews I just can't seem to keep up. I'm starting to put a dent in it this year. This week I'll be looking at some early battles of Bryan Danielson. These ones are lesser known for one reason or another. For folks that are only aware of his WWE or AEW stuff, this might be something you'd be interested in checking out. My guess is you may have seen some of his better known ROH stuff (05-09) but there's some real quality here. 
    vs Doug Williams (11/16/02 ROH - Scramble Madness): 30 minute Iron Man match and wow was this a technical clinic. The first 20 minutes or so was submission style wrestling with pinning predicaments sprinkled in. As the duel continued, it was more traditional pro wrestling style. It was a great match and a real treat to watch. Frankly I would have been happy if this was all mat wrestling. My only complaint is the booking of the outcome. I don't know really what it was trying to accomplish... Gabe wasn't hitting home runs early on like people may think. Instead of a homer, I say he hit a double. What makes this great is the Dragon & the Anarchist wrestling for 30 minutes. I think with sharper booking this could have been a classic.
    vs Paul London (12/07/02 ROH - Night of the Butcher): Well that was a battle! Paul London is one of Dragon's greatest opponents. He gets overlooked because Danielson would go on to have other rivalries or opponents that match the same level of technicality and intensity (Roderick, Aries, Nigel for instance) but London deserves to be in that list. Of course there's the Epic Encounter match but this one should be a part of the conversation too. A forgotten classic from perhaps one of the worst shows in ROH history (worst main event I've heard). And that's probably why it's been overlooked. Buzz drives DVD sales and if the loyal fans of ROH were saying this is a one match show then 'wait-and-see' fans skipped this purchase. Thankfully this is or was available on the RF Best of American Dragon vol. 2 (as are the first few matches). I haven't said too much of the match but that's because it felt like a near perfect singles encounter. London maybe the one guy who is more all around technically proficient than Danielson. Dragon has that mean streak but Paul is like the Ricky Steamboat of early ROH. There's nothing he can't do and everything he does, he does well. This is one where the action AND the booking were excellent.

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    vs John Walters (11/08/03 ECWA): Very good technical match. Walters didn't have a bunch of  high impact offense but he definitely could hang with Bryan on the mat. I'd actually probably only rate this as Good because it ended before it kicked into high gear. Definitely going to start watching Walters matches as I go through more ROH DVDs.

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    vs Jay Briscoe (12/27/03 ROH - Final Battle): Another good but not great match. The Briscoes were in development while they were wearing their unitards IMO (even though they were tag champs at the time). It was the opening match so a pretty good first match. Jay was starting to come into his own here but this was nowhere what they could do together in the years to come. I wish we would've gotten 2010's Jay vs Danielson.
    vs CM Punk (09/18/04 IWA-MS): Of the dozen or so IWA Mid-South matches I've seen, I like it. Admittedly, it's been stuff I cherry picked. Anyhow we have a second round match from the Ted Petty Invitational 2004. It is Punk vs Danielson in their prime and is exactly what I wanted - technical, hard hitting and well paced. They do a little injured neck story but do let go of it. Also a leg injury (perhaps real?) is brushed off. Both by Danielson! That's probably the weakness of this match. Still it's a two night tournament and maybe Dragon realized he'd have to keep selling the next match later that night. Very good match though... you can overlook this decision because neither injury was sold like it crippled him. I've taken some rough slams while skating but the adrenaline kicks in and am able to keep going for a good while afterwards so let's chalk it up to that. That's how I think about these situations in wrestling. Like, "this hurts but its going to hurt more if I slow down. I gotta keep going before things start to lock up." So yeah, really good match that could've been great but, no biggie...I had a blast!

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    vs Samoa Joe vs AJ Styles (09/18/04 IWA-MS): The finals of the Ted Petty 2004 and a pretty well regarded Indie match not in a ROH ring. And yes it lives up the hype in my book. It exceeds it as I thought it was a classic. I'm not sure if it was Danielson being in there that raised the stiffness bar but but man this was some hard hitting wrestling. On top of that you have a real sense of purpose. It's not only the finals but its after midnight at the end of a long weekend of wrestling. All 3 guys are pillars of post WCW/ECW wrestling in the US. They do not disappoint. Yes, this would be more polished if it was one match instead of a tournament final but that grit is what makes it a classic. 

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    vs Chris Hero (09/24/2005 IWA-MS): Ted Petty Invitational 2005 match. This is an awesome technical duel between Dragon and Hero. IWA-MS Hero is my favorite version. He and Danielson do an old school match trading holds, counters and escapes. There's some back history that the announcers clue us in on which only helps the in-ring story. I loved this match. It was so competitive and smart. The fans were super appreciative of it as well. I'd call it a near classic match.

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    This turned into a pretty great little project. It was all really easy to watch and felt low stakes as nothing aside for the Three Way match had any hype around it. This period of American Dragon is fantastic despite it not being his "peak" in ROH and others Indies. I'm going to be watching more ROH. So I'll have to see how this work compares with his ROH peak (the Hero match is right at the beginning).
    Stay cool! Thanks for reading
  24. G. Badger

    Quickie: Evolve 10

    By G. Badger,


    Quickie
    I'm going through more of my DVD library. I'm trying to knock out some odds & ends DVDs I got during the early years of the Covid pandemic. This one was part of a small lot of DVDs from eBay. I always wanted to get into Evolve but never did. So this wasn't the main draw of the lot but it was a nice bonus. As always, I pick & choose what I watched. I will say it is fun to watch Evolve/DGUSA after watching a fair amount of Full Impact Pro. It brings me back to that time
    Let's take a look at Evolve #10
    Jigsaw vs AR Fox - This was a good match that built up to a pretty great finish. You know they had more in the tank but this was pretty early in the card so they coasted comfortably until it was time to get to the finishing segment. Hey nothing wrong there...this is my opening match and I'm happy.
    Pinkie Sanchez vs Uhaa Nation - Quick fun stuff. Pinkie was scuzzy and Nation was super impressive.
    Super Smash Bros vs Rich Swann & Chuck Taylor - Well the fans were correct - that was awesome! Tons of high speed spots which is typical of PWG/Dragon Gate USA at this time. Taylor really impressed me here...he's goofy sometimes but brought his A-game. All 4 guys did their best...you'd think this was for a much more prestigious event based on the way they wrestled. Great match if you in the mood for something like this.
    Jon Davis vs Kyle Matthews - Nice little David vs Goliath match. Davis really should be wrestling in Japan where I think he could have a good spot. It looks like he's still active on the Indies. I liked this
    Sami Callihan vs Bobby Fish - Great intense match with a great bit of leg attack psychology. However, this was wasted upon this crowd which are probably predominantly CZW fans? So they were behind the heel Sami but Fish was too straight laced for them. You got a couple people even trying to start a "boring" chant. This was anything but boring. These guys did exactly what I expected an Evolve match to be...technical, hard hitting, and wrestling as combat sport. 
    Johnny Gargano vs Ricochet-  I had some expectations but man this was indie in the worst way. Everything was overly complicated and unnecessarily flashy. Their rudimentary stuff looked poor and  treated as filler. Instead of making this look like a struggle, they are thinking about their next dance steps. Its like a sub part kung fu movie fight... everything is just so obviously cooperative. I think they lost some fans who were just burnt out on all of it and saw this like I did. Booing as the match overstayed its welcome (That is the Philly fan but they were right). There was no pacing, no story, no build, just a bunch of shit thrown at the wall. And I liked Super Smash Bros vs Rich Swann & Chuck Taylor but oof...Gargano did get injured at some point but the problems with the match aren't due to injury.
    That is the last Evolve match but not the main event!
    What's neat is this also features a tribute to the ECW arena. That's pretty cool for me to own as an ECW fan. Bob Artese (iconic ring announcer), Joey Styles Pitbull #1 Gary Wolfe, JT Smith, Tod Gordon. CZW then comes out and claims its their arena and not ECW's. Balls Mahoney makes the save but he's only 1 man. And the the music hits and New Jack is out there! He's hitting folks then that s.o.b Justin Credible attacks Jack! But Sabu enters the fray. Credible vs Sabu is the main event and its very clear many of the fans are here for this. The pop for all of ECW stuff is the proof. This is a pretty good match too. For both guys being past their prime, they really did go for a great ECW match. It's a great conclusion.
    At the very end, there's some stuff to bring it back to Evolve. Remember its an Evolve show? It doesn't get the reaction that the ECW stuff got. It's just not that interesting and felt cheap when it was done at Sabu's & the fans' expense.
    So yeah this was an fun show. Jigsaw vs AR Fox, Super Smash Bros vs Rich Swann & Chuck Taylor and Fish vs Sami are all worthwhile. Fish vs Sami was excellent in fact. Maybe one of Fish's best singles matches?  As an old ECW dude, that end bit including Sabu vs Credible washed the bad taste of Gargano/Ricochet out of my mouth. Maybe this isn't a good example of early Evolve but it was enjoyable watch. I'm not going to track down anymore Evolve shows but I had fun. If you can snag this in a lot or under $10 total, go for it!
    Thanks for reading! Stay safe
     
  25. G. Badger
    My old friend TNA from the 2000's always helps ease me back into watching wrestling. Here I'll review their Best of the Bloodiest Brawls - Scars and Stitches DVD from 2008. In addition to my normal review, I'll give a scars rating for how bloody and extreme the match is. That doesn't always translate into a worthwhile match so be forewarned.
    Jeff Jarrett vs Rhyno (Turning Point 2005): This was a good to very good hardcore match. It was a lot fun as it was mainly a bunch of different spots around the arena. There were some different one like of a scaffolding and using the entrance tunnel. It was a Double J match so it was overbooked in the end but it was enjoyable. Also a couple folks I don't recall like A1 for Team Canada and Jackie Gayda (va va voom)... but got this odd feeling of nostalgia for something I didn't experience. This is right before I got back into wrestling and there's something very early 2000's about seeing those two but never knowing or hearing about them prior. Hahaha it's just they seem to perfectly represent the blind spot of American from the 2000's that I still have. Anyhow, as far as a Bloodiest Brawl, I give it  1 scar out of 5. Jarrett bled but it wasn't anything too gory, gruesome or extreme.
    Team Sting (Sting, AJ Styles, Ron Killings, Rhyno) vs Team Jarrett (Jeff Jarrett, America's Most Wanted, Scott Steiner) - Lethal Lockdown (2006): Well if it isn't Jackie Gayda again Ah but Gail Kim and Chris Harris are there too and now I have a touchstone to reality. Anyhow, this is part Wargames, part Hell in a Cell, and part hard-core weapons match. It's fun and obviously a spot match which suits most of the guys. AJ absolutely shines though he has two of the most memorable spots. One with James Storm and one with Storm and Gail Kim who I thought he eliminated from this plane of existence. Also Gail gets a T & A spot later on which good for her. She's in great shape but I'd rather see her wrestle rather than just be eye candy. I give it 2.5 scars out of 5. The AJ spots were badass, the early bits with AJ & Rhyno vs AMW were actually pretty cool and more in line with a bloody tag cage match, plus we got a couple good weapon shots (although that part wasn't really developed). So more Extreme than bloody though.
    LAX (Homicide and Hernandez) vs AJ Styles & Christopher Daniels (Bound for Glory 2006): Steel cage match for the tag titles. This was a big selling point for this DVD and it delivered! Non stop action, ghetto fork, coat hanger chokes, double teams, moves off and into the cage, and a helluva finisher. Classic TNA tag match without a doubt. 2.5 scars out of 5 as AJ and Daniels bled but this was more an action match than a brawl or garbage/extreme etc. style match.

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    Rhino vs Christian Cage (1st TNA Impact episode 2006): Rhino has got his original spelling back. Christian and the War Machine have some history and we get a nice feud that culminated in this barb wire cage match (plus extras). Of course it's more spots but damn they picked some good ones. Plus neither guy is afraid of taking a few big bumps. Everything looked really good here - reversals, sick bumps, a little bit of the wire, and finally some real time crimson mask. Plus a pretty awesome finish! Very much what everyone wanted and I was pretty happy with it too. 4 scars outta 5...Mr. Cage got a good one going and they had an exciting hardcore gimmick match.

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    Samoa Joe vs Kurt Angle (Genesis 2006): I swore I reviewed this earlier but ah well! I watched it again and it still holds up after 3 or 4 viewings over the years. I was a hard fought battle between... ah shoot you already know by now. It's a little quick in my opinion. I think they transition too quickly and its because they make Kurt too strong... he doesn't shake off Joe's offense but he doesn't really sell it either. The atmosphere they create is electric and they accomplish what they set out to do. I wish they slowed down a little but its a great start. Kurt cuts himself a gusher and is 3.5 out of 5 scars. 

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    Abyss vs Sting (Destination X 2007): We go from a crowd going crazy to one sitting on their hands. This is a casket match called a last rites match. The casket is lowered from the ceiling with WWF Undertaker smoke and lights which gets the crowd to chant "Fire Russo!" ... hahaha!. Sting has been busted open hard way so we're going to give it a shot...ok yeah that was not good. This was OK for the blood and one big spot but this was just slow clunky crap because the gimmick was so bad. Plus Tenay and West kept calling the casket a death bed...you could tell they were mandated to call it that instead of a casket, coffin etc. Maybe for censorship reasons? Or maybe it's Russo going say "death bed" because it sounds more dramatic. But a casket is not a death bed. A death bed is the bed you die in or are laying in while dying.  Not a coffin or casket I wouldn't say anything but both announcers say it like 10 times so it has to be Russo's dumb ass. Fire him indeed...oh they did 3.5 out of 5 scars for Sting just bleeding and taking a helluva bump onto the casket... I mean "death bed"...fucking knucklehead. They could have found something better but my guess is they wanted Sting on the DVD.
    Tomko vs Abyss (Slammiversary 2007): No DQ match but its a death match. And it's done right for a fairly mainstream audience. The thumb tacks and glass mean something. The BIG bumps mean something. It was a spectacle like an old Onita death match and they did it right (which he didn't always do). I am not 100% sure on the glass not being sugar glass but shoot it works either way. I thought this was great. Not as much visible blood as the past few matches but this is 4 outta 5 scars with the tacks, glass, barb wire bat and big bumps. 
    Abyss vs Judas Mesias (Against All Odds 2008): Barb wire death match. Good match but nowhere as good as it could have been. Maybe I'm spoiled by Japanese death matches but this was relatively tame by those standards. But we'll get to that in a minute. The match itself didn't have the intensity or dramatic build that it needed. One thing is no one got Irish whipped into the wire. That's a fucking baseline move for a barb wire match. They had boards to and no one got whipped into those in the corner. It really seemed they relied solely on the novelty of the barb wire to tell the story. Like the mere fact that they had a barb wire match was all the storytelling necessary. Instead it was rather predictable wrestling. To be fair,  they did have some good spots with the props but never took this into high gear either. Again I've seen some crazy stuff especially in more modern BJW but there's a couple old FMW/W*ing/IWA Japan spots they could have done like press the guy's head into the wire or just an arm, back body drop a guy into the board on the ground, whip into the wire, lay the board wire side down and the do a move, do a splash while one guy was laying in the wire or even just smash the board on a guy wire side down. I mean that's all death match 101. It would have filled in the time between the spots, fans would have popped for all of that and none are relatively dangerous but they look good. On top of that no one really sold the wire either. There was no drama frankly. As far as a scar rating this was bloody at all. Mesias had a scratch while Abyss' arms were bloody as was his face. 3 outta 5 scars...not ton of blood but the wire spots are pretty good. The Tomko match is a TNA death match done right.
    But wait! There's one more!
    James Storm vs Chris Harris (Sacrifice 2007): I've seen this before and was going to just find my old review. However that barb wire match was a disappointment (good but not great) and I can't end it like that. So I re-watched this right afterwards. And boy is this your main event or premiere match of the DVD. These guys just beat each other senseless from beginning to end. Stiff as you'll see in TNA, great spots that actually surprise you, intensity and buckets of blood. Harris gets a good one but Storm damn near Muta's himself (fantastic spot that "busts him open"). He's wearing the crimson mask, he's drizzling blood everywhere (you can see this best when setting up a table on the outside), and actually when at rest is leaving puddles of the sanguine substance on the floor and in the ring. 5 out of 5 scars...the intensity, the stiffness, the creative and high risk spots and absolute gusher Storm blades..this is a 5. Plus it's  classic TNA match especially if you know the history between these two in AMW and how things got to this point.

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    Overall this was a really exciting DVD and one you may want to pick up for no more than $10. Some of these are probably online so check there first. This is a fine collection of peak TNA matches and I'm happy to place it right beside the Samoa Joe, Kurt Angle, and Best of the X division vol. 1 DVDs as must have's for a TNA fan.
    Thanks for reading folks!
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