Jump to content
Pro Wrestling Only

G. Badger

Members
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    1190

  • Joined

  • Last visited

 Content Type 

Blog Entries posted by G. Badger

  1. 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!
  2. 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.

    -----
    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.

    -----
    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!

    -----
    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. 

    -----
    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.

    -----
    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
  3. 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
     
  4. 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.

    -----
    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.

    -----
    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. 

    -----
    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.

    ------
    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!
  5. G. Badger
    Here we are with Part #3 of the very best of GAEA. We are looking at '98 which features a lot of Meiko Satomura and not so much Chigusa Nagayo. Don't think that's intentional just Meiko along Sonoko Kato seem to be the featured in the best stuff. 
    Etsuko Mita & Mima Shimoda vs Meiko Satomura & Sonoko Kato (01/15/98): Great match with Satomura and Kato getting plugged into the LCO vs young team equation. So this is very much Mita and Shimoda's match with the youngster team hanging on for dear life. They do really well down the stretch and get a couple great near falls. 
    Mayumi Ozaki & Sugar Sato vs. Meiko Satomura & Sonoko Kato (01/19/98): Good to very good stuff but I only saw 10 of 20 minutes. I thought Ozaki was best here. Quebrada rated this higher than the LCO match but, I think I preferred the other one. Although Ozaki is the best overall performer in the 2 matches. Satomura and Kato have a good team going but in some ways they're a little too similar in size, speed and style. Maybe Chigusa wanted a new Crush Gals but I think I would prefer a little more variety from them. 
    Sugar Sato & Chikayo Nagashima vs. KAORU & Toshiyo Yamada (02/22/98): 13 of 16 minutes. This was a real good one with the girls having help from Oz and Hokuto on the outside. I like the teams because each one brings a little something different. Kaoru and Yamada both bled but had tons of fight in them. So the intensity was appreciated. One small complaint is that this didn't seem to have a ton of structure and that could be said of all of the tags so far. The brawling style seems to have taken over GAEA. But the first match was LCO and these other two were Ozaki and her crew so that's to be expected. Yamada was a badass here.
    Sugar Sato vs Meiko Satomura (03/15/98): Intense as all hell. No commentary so you can really hear how hard they're hitting. 10 1/2 minutes of Joshi WAR-style. Really dug this match. Shown in full. Nice to see a singles match again
    Sonoko Kato & Meiko Satomura vs Sugar Sato & Chikayo Nagashima (GAEA 3/29/98): 7 of 14 minutes. This was a good little tag match. I question their judgement on a couple spots because I really don't think they made sense. Sugar Sato had a couple moments where I had to rewind the video to see what happened and why. I'm going to have to disagree with this being a great match at least for what I saw. This is one where I'm like " they needed a veteran in there with them."
    KAORU & Meiko Satomura vs. Toshiyo Yamada & Sonoko Kato (06/21/98): Shown in full. Under the radar great match! The story of Kato vs Satomura is a good one and is at the heart of the match. They kept this simple but it kept building up incrementally that by the end they had something really special. The pairings work out much better as Kato and Satomura need a veteran to be anchored to even though they've become real stars in their own way. Yamada gets hit hard in the face by Meiko and just teaches her a lesson (without going too far)_the rest of the bout. And no brawling here, yay!
    Meiko Satomura vs Sonoko Kato (GAEA 08/23/98): We get a couple jumps ahead and are missing a little under a third of the match but this is awesome stuff. An intense and grueling fight between GAEA's two top homegrown stars. This is proof that these two should be in opposite corners. Absolutely wish we had the full thing as I'd be more confident calling this a classic but I'm going with that rating. As you've read, it's been the focus of the first half of the year, the tag above sets this up wonderfully and we get a excellent match with great action, fantastic exhaustion, selling and Chigusa at ringside has a smirk of reserved happiness at the end. Shit if she's happy then I'm happy too! No one liked it as much as I have but, I bought what the wrestlers were selling. Having focus on GAEA these past few weeks, the significance of a battle like this is not lost upon me. I think this is a good example of how GAEA is different than AJW. In some ways this feels more organic. This match especially. I think where this match loses people is that it doesn't tell the story the way they would have wanted it. This fight was more about a rite of passage and growth than "may the best woman win." This could have been that traditional classic empty the tanks match but the story they are telling is based around how young these two are and how they have fought against and alongside one another. It is more about their evolution. Or that's how I'm looking at it
    Aja Kong vs Toshiyo Yamada (11/23/98): They went absolutely all out for this and it paid off! They were pulling out moves I don't know if I've ever seen them do. And not in a cheesy way like you see nowadays Both wrestled this match with a purpose. I like that Kong did not take Yamada lightly while also not necessarily treating her as an equal. Similarly Yamada knew that Kong was dangerous but not someone she couldn't handle as long as she stayed ahead of. Mainly a traditional match but there's some fighting in the crowd but Aja does it right. She uses this to try and hurt her opponent and not do signature "brawling spots" like we see Mita & Shimoda do on occasion. Overall this was pretty special and Yamada and Kong feel like old friends to me so it was great to see them put on a battle. Near classic match. Definitely watch this AFTER the tag match.
    Aja Kong & Mayumi Ozaki vs. Toshiyo Yamada & Meiko Satomura (12/27/98): About 11 minutes of a 16 minute match. This was pretty good especially when it looked like Yamada and Satomura had a shot. This was dominated by Aja & Ozaki for the most part but it was just so entertaining. I watched this before the above Aja vs Yamada match as I felt like it sets that up but you watch it in what ever order you like! Big post match moment that sets the stage for 1999 and beyond.
    I don't think '98 had any big time match recommendations. If anything I think a lot of what I read had a middle of the road vibe. 1998 was excellent to me and more of what 1997 GAEA delivered. I really dug the Kato/Satomura stuff and their singles encounter was fantastic and an excellent bit of storytelling. I'm liking KAORU despite others opinions so that's been a nice surprise. She adds a bit of the high flying in a promotion that is more on the Chigusa-shoot-brawl side of things. 
     
    Thanks for reading folks!
  6. G. Badger
    Hi, not taking a break from 2013 AJPW but wanted to share something in the meantime. This is a review of ZERO1 07/31/08 & 08/03/08 from Samurai TV. Its the last 2 days of their Fire Festival which is their Champion Carnival or G1Climax. A side project that I'm working on is checking out Zero One, Zero1, Zero- One Max and every iteration of that company. Its not going to be a deep dive since there's no ready made compilation that I'm aware of. In fact there's not a ton out there in general...at least hype or talk save a few early matches or cross over matches. The dvds are out there but you're trusting your instincts on which shows to check out. I decided to go with a selection of mainly Fire Fests since it features the most well-known stars of the company as well as others from outside organizations. From there its a scavenger hunt on different comps and what's available online. Its nice though because it reminds me of my early days of hunting for puro and being happy with what I could find. Let's get going!

    Shinjiro Otani v Masaaki Mochizuki 7/31/08 - Dynamic all action match with some really fantastic sequences and exchanges. This was a blast to watch. Its been awhile since I've seen some Otani. Slight clipping but very good stuff.
    Manabu Nakanishi v Takao Omori 7/31/08 - Yeah here we go, two dudes just clubbing the heck outta each other. Manabu throws Omori through a door from the Torture Rack position. Lots a lariats - very good stuff. Slight clipping
    Kohei Sato v Togi Makabe 7/31/08 - Quick violent stuff and a fantastic finish. Manage is very underrated but he does take some getting used to. My 2010 NJ project CA couple years ago made me a believer.
    Masato Tanaka v Ryoji Sai 7/31/08 - This was a great match IF you gloss over the excellent leg work Tanaka did. I was on my way to saying Sai put on a Kawada worthy sell job but then he proceeded to blow it off at every chance he got including after a missed double stomp. So I can't say this was anything other than a good match that could have been great. When a guy just sells his ass off and then acts like nothing's wrong that's silly and I don't want silly wrestling. But maybe fast forward those bits and you'll really enjoy the hard hitting action. I don't know maybe I'll rewatch with lowered standards?
    Masato Tanaka v Takao Omori v Manabu Nakanishi 8/3/08 *3 Way Match* - A really fast paced and effectively built 3 man match to determine who was going to the finals. Nice sequences and spots...yeah I thought this was great stuff for 7+ minutes.
    -Spoiler alert for the Tournament Finals Matchup -
     
    Masato Tanaka v Togi Makabe 8/3/08 *Fire Festival Tournament Finals Match* - Makabe is the violent cheating outsider and Tanaka is the home promotion hero. Can he withstand the punishment the bigger and younger NJ villain can dish out? What about his trusty chain and flunky Honma? If anyone can Dangan can! Seriously, this was some classic shit if you're an ECW/FMW fan from way back like me. Brawling, blood, hard hits, table spots, fake outs, fighting spirit... But this wasn't just a bunch of those things thrown in a blender. No, it was built very well in an old school type of way and that made everything that much better and more meaningful. I loved this battle.

    -----
    This was a very good start. The finals were totally my cup of tea despite not being a traditional macho he-man slugfest like the Strong BJW guys do or a fireworks show. It was a more Southern brawl (with heel cheating) than a late 00's puro match. It had a couple hardcore spots but in the ways of later ECW/FMW plus it was intense and hard hitting as you wanted for 2008. Glad I took a chance on this one!
    Thanks for reading! I hope that you will enjoy this side project and we'll both find out more about Zero-One.
  7. G. Badger

    Quickie: TNA -Turning Point 2006

    By G. Badger,


    Quickie
    I received this from eBay instead of the Best of Abyss DVD. I'm not one to make a big stink especially since I wasn't dead set on the Abyss tape.  Plus this is a pretty damn good ppv...

    Jay Lethal vs. Alex Shelley vs. Senshi vs. Sonjay Dutt vs. Austin Starr (Paparazzi Championship Series Five Man Elimination Match) - Austin Starr is Austin Aries and Senshi is Low-Ki. Very good multi man match, the paparazzi stuff has something to do with Shelley &Aries' gimmick under the tutelage of Kevin Nash. Who cares but all that talent in one ring, that's worthwhile.

    Christopher Daniels (c) vs. Chris Sabin - Great match much like the previous match. Both guys in 2006, hard to go wrong.
    Rhino vs. AJ Styles - Not a giant Rhino fan but man this was great! Basically starts as an ECW brawl and you've got a big man and a guy who'll bump for him. Lots a of hate and great spots. Finish was pretty good given the story.
    America's Most Wanted (Chris Harris & James Storm) (w/Gail Kim) vs. LAX (Flag Ladder Tag Team Match): Very good, all spots really but it was entertaining and crazy at times but I thought the gimmick finish was typical TNA. It sets up one of the best TNA matches (Harris vs Storm) but still...

    Abyss (c) (w/James Mitchell) vs. Sting vs. Christian Cage - This was pretty good even though the finish was TNA at its worst putting an angle over match quality and happy fans at the end. I honestly don't know how the finish even made sense.

    Kurt Angle vs. Samoa Joe - The rematch and a re-watch. They cleverly tease another TNA finish but it isn't to be and we get a clean finish and a classic match. Kurt was pretty much in business for himself here but it works out in the end.
    This was a nice time capsule and totally was worth keeping. This type of stuff is what got me back into new wrestling after college. This is a stacked roster and they put on a really good show and the main event delivered.
     
    Thanks for reading!
     
  8. G. Badger
    I'm back with part #2 of the Very Best of GAEA. This time we're looking at 1997 which is a big year in Joshi. The whole landscape changes and you'll see that here with more familiar faces from AJW.
    Akira Hokuto & Toshie Uematsu vs KAORU & Kiyoko Ichiki (01/19/97): Wow! That was awesome! For a good portion there they had a classic match on their hands. Things got a little loose with the younger wrestlers towards the end (disruption to the flow and not so much unforgivable sloppiness) but I'd still say a near classic. Akira Hokuto was indeed the Dangerous Queen. It felt like a lost AJW upper midcard match from 1995 in all of the best ways. Thanks to Jetlag for adding it to the Match Discussion Archive! Shown in full.
    KAORU & Meiko Satomura vs Akira Hokuto & Sonoko Kato (03/15/97): The poster on YouTube has this as 04/29 but that's the date it aired and not the event date. 17 minutes long and shown in full. This was a,great tag match and another one for these four (12/13/96) and Hokuto & Jr. partner vs KAORU & Jr. Partner is a winning combination. This told a great story with Kato getting her arm injured and having to tough it out. KAORU and Satomura isolated her but there's no way either could fully handle Hokuto. But all it takes is one solid arm bar. Excellent timing and build again from these ladies. 
    Sugar Sato & Chikayo Nagashima & Rieko Amano (Oz Academy) vs. Yuka Shiina (AJW) & Kanako Motoya (JWP) & Yuko Kosugi (Jd')(07/19/97). What started out as just a fun up-and-coming 6 woman match turned into something really good. For a period it felt like one of those Dragon Gate 6 mans in ROH. Just so much stuff was happening! I think that also hurt it as I'm not familiar with everyone and wasn't necessarily rooting for any team of even remembering who is on each team at times. That said there were a couple clips and maybe only half was shown. So it's hard to say what this would be like in full.
    Toshie Uematsu vs Yoshiko Tamura (07/19/97): Great match for the WCW Women's Cruiserweight Title. Remember that title? Me neither. Doesn't matter because they wrestled like this was for something way more prestigious. Toshie Uematsu has grown on me and she is really good here just selling her ass off. She is an excellent spunky babyface. Tamura who is from AJW has some good submission moves and essentially is the a heel here if only because she's from another company.  The fact that they are wrestling at such a high level is quite surprising given their few years of experience.  That's what really drives this into great match territory. It reminded me of early JWP at times with its sense of urgency, turning one move into another on the mat, great selling, and great action. I do recommend watching a little Toshie Uematsu beforehand as it helps you understand her as a babyface. With that dynamic, her selling of the story excels and match really delivers.Thankfully shown in full. Folks doing the year book for '97 loved it and a few probably had this as a classic. Independently, Quebrada gave it ***1/2. I won't go that high or that low but if you're reading this then you probably should check it out!
    Chigusa Nagayo & Akira Hokuto vs KAORU & Toshiyo Yamada (08/30/97): Great under 10 minute match shown in full. KAORU & Toshiyo Yamada jump their opponents at the the bell and have an awesome offensive flurry. Chigusa and Hokuto weather the storm as they've been through ring wars. The mount their counter attack in equally exciting fashion. Yamada and KAORU have had her own battles so this is no walk in the park for either team. This is just a bomb throwing blast. 
    Meiko Satomura vs. Kyoko Inoue (09/20/97) : Here Kyoko has left AJW but isn't with NEO. Also her outfit is neon rainbow colored and I had to look away a couple times as it was giving me a headache! Anyhow this is joined in progress but we seem to get 9 of 16 minutes. It's good stuff too. Satomura does a great job going after Kyoko's arm. It's unfortunate that Kyoko doesn't really sell it as much as she could have and there's not much drama for me as a result. That said this isn't a battle of peers. Kyoko hits a killer lariat and the finishing couple of moves are brutal but I can't say this was a great match. Having the first 7 minutes skipped is probably what did that. There's no introduction to the story. It's like coming into a movie after missing nearly the first half. It did seem to have a great atmosphere and both wrestlers put in the work. Satomura definitely looked like she belonged in the ring with Kyoko due to her intensity and toughness. Inoue in turn helped sell that and took a lot of punishment to show Meiko is a young force to be reckoned with. 
    Chigusa Nagayo vs Aja Kong (09/20/97): Shown in full. This was an under 10 minute match. It was very good stuff as they did a heavyweight sprint with Aja opening with her spinning back fist. Everything was fought with intensity and heart. I really enjoyed their work together. They are very similar in size, ability and standing so it feels like a clash of titans. Had this gone on a minute or two longer, it would have been a great match. I felt the finish came too quickly but it is better business to leave'em wanting more, I suppose.
    Meiko Satomura & Sonoko Kato vs Aja Kong & Toshie Uematsu (11/18/97): Oh shit! That was great! One thing I appreciate about these GAEA matches is the intensity. Satomura and Kato have to straight up stiff Aja Kong to even get her to slow down. The seeds for the much praised Aja vs Satomura program may be laid here. Kong knocks Meiko silly at ring side but the youngster won't quit. In general that everything else felt very competitive and organic. I really dug how moves were cut off midstream but then became something completely different. If they were planned sequences then they were very subtle choices and well executed. Unfortunately only 9 of 17 minutes were shown but unlike the Meiko vs Kyoko match you don't NEED to see that first half to "get it." It's like never seeing Terminator 2 but then jumping in midway. You can pick up the vibe right away and enjoy it until the end. Just wish we had this in full. I'm not sure I've seen this recommended elsewhere.
    Hokuto & KAORU & Nagashima vs. Chigusa & Yamada & Sonoko Kato (12/27/97): What started out as just a fun match turned out to be a very good one! Nice interactions but Yamada vs KAORU felt like the focus. It was weird having the teams as they were since what I saw in 1997 had some of the folks in different corners. Something storyline wise must have gone down. Very nice end to the year! Shown in full.

    1997 is a really good year in my view. As I said in the previous post, I don't think it'll unseat AJW in terms of high end match quality but it sure as hell is an excellent promotion. I really dig the homegrown talent mixing it up with the veterans. And its just a lot of fun finding all of this "new" stuff.
  9. G. Badger
    I am really glad to be watching more Joshi this year. I got burntout/jaded a few years back when  watching some of the 1996 AJW tag matches with Double Inoue and my 1997 AJW DVD purchases weren't exactly as expected. See the previous post. So I just turned of the whole thing for years. I'd watch a match here and there but other than a couple odds & ends matches, I figured I'd seen what I wanted. Clearly this year, I've found out that I was wrong. 1997, 2000-01 AJW, Megumi Kudo, 1990-91 JWP have all produced excellent stuff and been absolutely worthwhile. These projects have turned me onto more vintage Joshi that I have overlooked. In a way each one has inspired me to go a little further out of my late 80s-1996 AJW comfort zone. The convenience of having this stuff on YouTube and a fast& reliable internet connection (finally) has helped immensely. That said, I am trying to cut down the amount of internet-only wrestling that I watch. I'm trying to supplement projects with these rather than base whole posts on them. However, this project is one that I've had in mind since January and this puppy is all online. 
    GAEA is a promotion that I totally bypassed in my joshi DVD buying phase. On paper the roster is there with many of the top AJW women being freelance or having their own promotions. Using Quebrada's reviews (and our opinions matched most of time back then), I felt it was kinda like late stage WCW. The roster looked good but in the ring, it was another thing - past their prime, disinterested, disregarded etc. Basically, it was nothing I wanted to spend my time and money on when I had very little of either. Now if I had a faster internet connection, I might have given it a shot I spent like an hour loading and watching Ozaki vs Kansai '95 street fight in chunks. Anyway, that was then and this is now. 
    I'm planning on watching the very best of GAEA over the next few weeks. I'm using Quebrada's reviews as well matches from the PWO yearbooks/Match Discussion Archives with emphasis given to Zenjo, Jetlag, Loss & PeteF3's lists/reviews. They all go way deeper in the Match Discussion Archives, so go check out their posts. Use the Gaea tab or search by date. I'm also doing a couple personal picks and am ultimately limited to what's available. I'm primarily using one account but it appears to be completely devoted to GAEA and most of the ones that were selected are available. I'm trying for full versions but if they're joined in progress, I'll note it. GAEA and other companies seemed to make this a practice in the late 90's. So this is my interpretation of what could be considered the cream of the crop.
    Mayumi Ozaki & Devil Masami vs. Dynamite Kansai & Chigusa Nagayo (04/15/95): This is the most ECW match I have ever seen... in all of the best ways. It's the greatest theorhetical ECW match. The energy is through the roof. The wrestling is there. The history & intensity is there. But where this excels is the old AJW Dump era sense of utter chaos. Chains, blood, chairs, the ring ropes are torn down, the audience is freaking out, the seconds for Chigusa are losing it, its fantastic if you're into that kind of stuff. An all time classic in my book. This is just about shown in full with a couple seconds cut out here and there early on for some reason.
    Mayumi Ozaki vs. Chigusa Nagayo - Street fight (09/17/95): 21 minutes of a 25 minute battle. I wish we could have seen the first few minutes as Ozaki is already bleeding. This is a pretty good hardcore match and is more in line with what you'd actually get with an ECW match on most occasions especially around this time. There was choking with the bull rope and the chain. There was some kinda uneventful brawling in the crowd, a couple neat spots with the tables. Honestly there rope and chain stuff didn't really do much for me since they never were attached to each other so you don't have the great dynamics of a dog collar or bull rope match. If you think I'll hype anything that is "ECW-like" then let this be an example against that belief. While the first match was the unintended accomplishment of the Platonic ideal of ECW hardcore wrestling by 4 Japanese women then this is the achievement of a real mid 90's ECW main event. It ain't bad and there's plenty to like but doesn't live up to the awesome set up match on 04/15.
    We're on to 1996!
    Sugar Sato & Chikayo Nagashima vs. Sonoko Kato & Toshie Uematsu (09/16/96): Ambitious yet rough around the edges. These 4 were main eventing and worked their asses off. Tons of potential. Good match at ***1/2 probably.
    Akira Hokuto vs. Meiko Satomura (11/16/96): Hell yes! That was a sweet match for an Akira Hokuto fan. But credit is due to both ladies. Hokuto gave Meiko a good portion of her high end offense making the junior wrestler look tough (she is) and Meiko sold it wonderfully without looking like a tough chick with absolutely zero chance of winning. She got in some of her best stuff and absolutely put Hokuto in peril a couple times. Good stuff indeed and a good intro to Meiko Satomura for me. 12 minute match shown in full.
    Chigusa Nagayo vs Sonoko Kato (GAEA 11/16/96): 10 minutes shown of a 15 minute match. This was awesome intense stuff. Great technical beginning and shoot style flavor throughout. Kato has got so much heart and toughness going against Chigusa. A David and Goliath match done right. Very good stuff and looking forward to more Sonoko Kato.
    Sonoko Kato & Meiko Satomura vs. Akira Hokuto & KAORU (12/13/96): Joined in progress and we get 10 minutes of great tag wrestling. The timing here was impeccable on the spots. Kato & Satomura wrestle beyond their years. I definitely want to see more KAORU. She really impressed me here. Akira Hokuto can still go. I definitely slept on this portion of her career.
    That said, I'm pretty darn happy with what I've seen so far with GAEA. Not everything has been a classic and perhaps in comparison to AJW for '95 & '96's top matches that means GAEA is not worth the time. I disagree and I'm glad to have some new and exciting old Joshi to watch. I love Chigusa, Oz and Hokuto. The young wrestlers are super talented. So I'm looking forward to things getting better.
  10. G. Badger

    Spotlight: AJW - Summer 1997

    By G. Badger,


    Spotlight
    All Japan Women's Wrestling in 1997 is something I've been interested in from a far. It features many matches that have been favorably reviewed but there's something very different than '92-'96 AJW. The roster is pretty similar but they're finally pushing some of their younger wrestlers to the top. Mima Shimoda and Etsuko Mita (Las Cachorras Orientales) go full heel and become the chair swinging baddies. Kaoru Ito and Tokoko Watanabe were always great in mid card tags and 6 mans are elevated as the baby faces along with the youngster Kumiko Maekawa...under the leadership of Yumiko Hotta who goes from sometime main eventer to champion. AJW needed some invigorating and this was how they did it. Aja Kong was retiring, Kyoko leaving and both starting their own promotions (Arsion & NEO). Their departures were the catalyst for a mini exodus (most notably Mariko Yoshida) and others including LCO would opt to become freelancers. Zenjo gives a great summary on the [1997-09-21-AJW-Wrestlemarinepiad IX] Etsuko Mita & Mima Shimoda vs Kaoru Ito & Tomoko Watanabe (Cage) entry in the Match Discussion Archive/Yearbook.
    So there's a little background and really the reason I was so hesitant to get into 1997 AJW. That's to say, hesitant to make the financial commitment to buy (and wait for) DVDs at the height of my Joshi interest. Unlike '92-'96 AJW, there weren't those blockbuster events with multiple great or classic matches. The last solid good-old-days chunk of AJW shows appeared to be the summer of 1997. With the magic of the internet and couple of the DVDs I did buy, I finally want to take a look.
    The first few matches are from the 06/17/97 show. In some ways I'm not sure why I bought this DVD based on the above. I think I confused it for a commercial DVD that featured 06/17 & 06/18...
    CMLL World Women's Title: Mariko Yoshida vs. Rie Tamada: Good match where the excitement really came from the near falls. It wasn't a long match or anything but they packed a good bit in.
    Aja Kong & Takako Inoue & Momoe Nakanishi vs. Yumiko Hotta & Tokoko Watanabe & Kumiko Maekawa: Pretty good match but the quality took a little drop when Takako was in there. Aja and Momoe was a pretty cool team.Tokoko Watanabe is pretty darn underrated and this match is a good example of that. She put in a ton of effort and put on the best performance overall.


    -----
    Mima Shimoda & Etsuko Mita vs. Manami Toyota & Toshiyo Yamada: A violent chaotic match. It started and stayed in top gear all match. This was good because it felt like a real fight with actual stakes. As a con this didn't maximize the drama. I believe this was a decision match to challenge for the tag titles so in that regard they needed to hold back a little and not empty their tanks like you know they can. Nevertheless this was a really good match between two of the best tag teams in AJW history. Their '95 match (iirc) is a classic and features less of the weapons/brawling that LCO are known for.

    -----
    Kyoko Inoue vs. Kaoru Ito: This is for the vacant red belt. And they definitely bring it for the big title. Ito is coming into her own and is not to be taken lightly which Kyoko does early on. Once Ito starts with her stomps Inoue is in real trouble. Her selling of the pain has got to be legitimate. This is what makes this great as the former champion is in danger wherever she goes. She has got to find a way to stop the upstart Ito. I'm not always high on Kyoko but this is a strong performance from her. As a Kaoru Ito fan, I dug this

    Toyota & Yoshida vs. Hotta & Ito (06/18/97): Whew doggy! This was a great tag match. They just had such a good pace going. They kept building and building with great action. I felt Toyota vs Hotta was the very best stuff though. They were just so nasty with each other! Ito certainly tried her best to match her mentor. Mariko got better as the match went on as she didn't seem to gel with Ito this evening. Things eventually meshed and they were doing great stuff at the end.

    Las Cachorras Orientales vs. Watanabe & Maekawa (06/18/97): What a first fall! 9 minutes of joshi perfection..just telling a brutal story. Everything was on the beat so to speak. 2nd and third falls keep it up. It looks like bedlam. The bottom rope is broken, the one corner padding is off, sections of the guardrail are missing, 3 of the 4 women are bleeding. It is just so competitive & intense. It is absolutely captivating. This Joshi tag title fight is classic that hasn't gotten the praise it deserves.
    Seeing 06/18, I'm pretty sure I thought both nights were on the DVD. That would have been one of awesome no-doubt DVD purchases. I think my disappointment that 06/18 wasn't on there is what motivated me to pack the 06/17 DVD away for 7 years.
    I'm not going to re-watch and review the following but, I highly recommend both as they are classics. The tag match is an all time classic to me. The singles match might be the best singles match of AJW '97. This was one of those must buy DVDs...
    Kaoru Ito vs Manami Toyota (08/09/97)
    Etsuko Mita & Mima Shimoda vs Aja Kong & Kyoko Inoue (08/09/97)

    Aja Kong vs Manami Toyota (08/20/97): This starts out as a very good match that in some ways is a bit light hearted and nostalgic. Don't get me wrong. They are still going at it but there's moments of humor and it's just fun to see two great rivals in the ring. They aren't trying to top their 11/94 classic. However, shit kicks into high gear and this isn't Aja & Toyota phoning it in. It's a great match with a super strong final 3rd. That final portion really kicks this into that near classic territory. We get some down right "Holy Shit!" moments. This looks like Aja's final match in AJW, it's a worthy swan song.

    LCO vs Maekawa & Watanabe (08/20/97): Super quick first fall. Fall #2 is the real start of the match. It's very good action. A good mix of LCO brawling/chair shots but mainly traditional joshi tag wrestling. Maekawa is off the hook with her kicks. And fall #3 has a similar vibe with some allusions to their awesome 06/18 bout. I've seen this rated in the classic ****1/2 range but it was a more tame version of the June match. I thought it was very good and if you've not seen 06/18 then I could see having a higher rating. Or maybe this is more your preference. 

    Kyoko Inoue vs Yumiko Hotta (08/20/97): This was a great match! They told an excellent story. Kyoko has her usual power & high energy moves where Hotta is all about her kicks and submissions. You' ve seen this match up but Kyoko really sells the hell outta everything. It may be her best sell job that I can remember. She is selling everything that hurts- arm, legs, back. And Hotta is just vicious but not in a sadistic way. Now she is focused and measured in her strikes. It reminded me of Hashimoto to an extent. Clocking in around 15 minutes, this was the perfect amount of time for Kyoko & Hotta. There's no filler - this is all quality wrestling. And all that put together, this is a great title fight. Shoot, it's probably a near classic. Maybe it was just a different style than the typical AJW title bout but I just really appreciated the storytelling and excellent action that went along with it. 
    08/20 was one DVD on my "maybe buy one day" list. 03/26/95 Aja vs Toyota was such a letdown for me, I think I was very wary of assuming it was a sure thing. And then you have Maekawa & Watanabe vs LCO which was an untested/unproven match up and finally Kyoko vs Hotta which on paper could be all wrong. I'm pretty darn happy that I finally saw these and my expectations were exceeded. 
    Manami Toyota & Kyoko Inoue vs Mima Shimoda & Etsuko Mita (08/22/1997): So from what I can tell this is Kyoko's final match as an AJW wrestler. And its a great one! Mima & Etsuko have their work cut out for them facing two former Red belt champions. They hold their own pretty damn well (those chairs seem to help!). As this is only one fall things do not get as crazy as it could (or its a non title match). It's a bit more of a match that Toyota would have... so no scissors or too much fighting in the crowd...but LCO still do their thing...I mean they have to try and put either Kyoko or Toyota down with something, right? The wrestlers don't go for broke and Toyota does kinda brush some stuff off a little too quickly, otherwise it could have been another classic. As it is though, it is a great match. 1997 Kyoko may renewed my good opinion of her. 
    Manami Toyota vs Yumiko Hotta (09/21/97): This is a great title fight that demands your patience and attention. It is slower paced, there are actual wrestling holds, and this is not just a long sprint or a few holds in the beginning then we run into fireworks. This reminded me almost of a shorter version of Inoki vs Fujinami 08/88..or maybe Inoki Strong Style. I think that's Hotta's style as champ. I can see not being down for that back in the late 90's when we all wanted the envelope to get pushed in terms of moves, stunts etc. But it's been 20+ years of that. Maybe because I am getting older but I appreciate these slower burning matches more. Here we have two with a history but not necessarily rivals fighting for the Red belt. It is sorta showing that the heart of AJW is still beating.

    -----
    The culmination of the summer (of LCO) is the cage match vs Kaoru Ito & Tomoko Watanabe (09/21/97). This is one you definitely need to check out if only the last 5 minutes. I have like 70% of the match on DVD which I watched but was super bummed when the video from the VHS just runs out...not that I didn't know how it ends. To be honest,I am not a fan of this match as a whole however I think it's a fantastic way to blow off the feud plus the last 5 minutes are absolutely wild and worth you seeing. Some folks consider it an all time classic and you may too so don't just listen to me
    I can't end it there though so we're going to dip into October '97. I believe this is the final LCO as AJW roster members.
    Mima Shimoda & Etsuko Mita vs Kumiko Maekawa & Momoe Nakanishi (WWWA Tag Titles) 10/18/1997: You've got a great story baked into this match. Momoe is an underdog just based on her size but in '97 she's not made any big waves just yet. But never ever count her out. Momoe's speed and body control adds a whole new dimension to the LCO match formula. Maekawa on the other hand is very familiar with LCO and she's got a pin on one of 'em. She doesn't offer a ton of variety in her attacks but her kicks are absolutely dangerous. Someone in the YouTube comments said that they're no match for Mita & Shimoda but I disagree. And this match is the fucking' proof. This 2/3 falls match is a sneak peek of the awesome stuff they would do in 2000 & '01. Near classic match.
    Here are my quick thoughts on some the wrestlers for the summer of 1997.
    Aja Kong: Awesome as ever. 3 matches, 2 are must see.
    Kaoru Ito: Absolutely agree with her getting pushed. 
    Kumiko Maekawa: Very surprised how good she was in 97. Maybe better in 97 than later?
    Kyoko Inoue: Redeemed herself w/ these matches. The excesses of '96 tag matches are gone.
    Momoe Nakanishi: Is already very exciting to watch. Surprisingly not squashed this early.
    Tomoko Watanabe: Sort of a poor man's Kyoko yet no ego as a result. Just a ton of fight.
    Yumiko Hotta: Perhaps Aja and Yamada had to leave to have the aura/match style she needed? Definitely feels like a champ.
     
    In terms of big match quality, AJW could still deliver. The under card I can't speak much about. That in mind, a big thanks to the folks that have posted these online for everyone to enjoy. It has been really fun to finally be able to watch this stuff I've been wanting to see for well over a decade. If you're like "WTF dude!? It's not that hard to come by." Then I say "Screw Off buddy! I got my own way of doing things. " Maybe you're the same if you're reading about 26 year old Japanese women's wrestling
    Thanks for reading!
  11. G. Badger

    Spotlight: KAI in Wrestle-1

    By G. Badger,


    Spotlight
    This post came about by accident but it's been a fun one. KAI is one of my favorite new guys from watching 2010's AJPW. So here we're going to take a look at some of his bigger matches while in W-1. His arc here probably reflects his booking had Muto & his loyal pals not left and formed Wrestle-1. Anyhow all but the last match are readily available on the 'tube. Let's take a look
     
    vs Seiya Sanada (09/08/13): I think this might be clipped a few minutes based on the time they give at the end...hmm couldn't see a clip in the match anywhere. Regardless a very good match between the junior heavyweight styled heavyweights. My preference is with KAI who is much more like Misawa in that he backs up his fancier moves with very hard strikes. Sanada & he are similar in that they rely upon their big moves and aren't very adroit at filling the time in between. Kuroda from FMW is like this. They are fantastic complimentary players... excellent tag teamers and if they have a good opponent they can have a quality singles match. Sometimes give the right circumstance, a great or even classic one. As it stands, this is a pretty good 'round 10 minute match (or what's shown) with 2 guys doing their thing. Nothing wrong there
    vs Masakatsu Funaki (02/15/14):  First 3-4 minutes Funaki blisters KAI with stiff as a starched shirt kicks to the legs and chest. Then absolutely blasts his arm and goes for the submission. KAI finds and opening, knocks the Pancrase legend to the floor and annihilates him with a fast as fuck tope! From there it is on like Donkey Kong. They just pound away at each other with hard slaps, elbows and kicks. They mix in the throws as well which all look fantastic. It's an under 10 minute match which plays to Funaki's style. KAI does a great job matching the stiffness and the intensity that the legend brings while still representing pro wrestling style. It reminds me a bit of late 80's NJPW UWF vs NJ...which Funaki was a part of :-) Anyhow Great match! If this were a TV match, you & your friends be super stoked to talk about it the next day at lunch!
    vs Manabu Soya (05/04/14): Hell yes, more Soya! This is pretty intense stuff. KAI who is clearly coming into his own is able to get the advantage on the muscular caveman. Eventually that caveman has got to eat and locks KAI into a vicious Boston crab...like Boston crab that is folding up KAI. Holy cow! Then things really get good as the two guys start laying into each other. That's Soya's strength as he's kinda W-1's version of Daisuke Sekimoto. KAI as I've mentioned is down to throw some strikes. It's what locks this in as a great 15 minute match. I mean those lariats...man, it's been awhile since I've seen some Kensuke style lariats. But KAI's kicks to the head are no joke either. It is absolutely what I wanted out of a KAI vs Manabu Soya match. 
    vs Yuji Hino (05/22/14): Man! KAI vs another gorilla and you know what? It's another great match! Hino is like Juggernaut or Rhino if you read comics. And that is what makes him a great character wrestler. He's got this full speed ahead unstoppable brute thing going for him. That really makes KAI shine as the babyface because he gets wrecked here. Chest scar opened up, bruised pecs, just looks demolished. He keeps fighting though. Like Soya or maybe even moreso he can't lift this human tank up without a struggle. So his high damage moves are not as easy to pull off. So we get the most unique match so far. That said its mainly macho he-man chops, elbows so if you're not interested then, you might not enjoy it. It's Yuji Hino so you know that going in though right? Under 15 minute match. 
    Masato Tanaka vs KAI (11/01/14): A good kinda by the book 2010's match that really turned up the heat for the last 3-4 minutes. The last 3 minutes are exactly what I wanted for the whole match. The match is only 12ish minutes so it's something that they could have done. Instead we get too many elbow or chop trading segments. This is disappointing considering Tanaka brings much more to the table than Hino for instance. He eventually gets there but I would have much rather see them exchange holds or done a more intense brawling type feeling out opening. If this had a more spirited beginning then settled down into a good middle and finally ramped up the great finish then this would have been a very good match maybe borderline great. The pedestrian start just set a dull tone unfortunately.
    KAI vs Masato Tanaka (02/13/15): I just happen to have the rematch on DVD so I watched this right afterwards. And Tanaka is a pro, a vet and a great wrestler...he fixed most of what didn't work and made this a very good match. Perhaps a great one at 12 minutes. There's a little bit of a story. They play off the previous match. The strike exchanges have a purpose or a direction and are kept to a minimum. Instead they focus on their spots that worked from the above fight, added a couple new ones and kept the length the same. It's a tuned up version of the November match. Perhaps a little too similar if you've watched them minutes apart like me. But if you've got to watch one, have it be this one!
    If you're interested then you got to check out a match or two. KAI definitely reminds me of a younger Tanaka in the sense of his big heart, his toughness and his ability to go from 0-60mph in 3 seconds. I know in his matches vs Tanaka were just a few years earlier they would have been **** great bouts. Check that last one might actually be a **** (It was kinda unfair of me to immediately watch the rematch). Anyhow, check out some KAI in W-1!
    Thanks for reading folks! I appreciate it!
  12. G. Badger
    I've had some solid themes for the past few months but June sort of ended up being a time that I am using to handle a bunch of single show projects. This is in an effort to actually work my way through my backlog of DVDs. Here we take a look at the AJPW show from 01/02/15. It's my lone DVD for AJ 2015. 
    Kotaro Suzuki & Ryuji Hijikata vs. Masanobu Fuchi & Yoshinobu Kanemaru - There's a couple matches before this but this is the real start of the show. Fast paced opening with Kanemaru & Kotaro. This is only a tease as most of the match focuses on old man Fuchi getting his bad back pummeled. As someone with a bad back, I can really feel those kicks and elbows. It's a real fun match though.

    -----
    Atsushi Aoki & Hikaru Sato vs. Keisuke Ishii & Soma Takao - This is more of your junior tag match with a bunch of action. It's under 8 minutes though and ends sooner than I thought. Fun nonetheless. We're off to a good start!
    SUSHI, Ultimo Dragon & Zeus vs. Akebono, Shigehiro Irie & Yutaka Yoshie: A fun match which wasn't a surprise. Zeus really took this seriously which helped especially at the end. We get the fat guy spots and if this was Irie vs Zeus this could have been pretty cool.


    -----
    (Battle Royal) Akebono vs. Atsushi Aoki vs. Hikaru Sato vs. Kotaro Suzuki vs. Masanobu Fuchi vs. Naoya Nomura vs. Ryujii Hijikata vs. Shigehiro Irie vs. Soma Takao vs. SUSHI vs. Takeshi Minamino vs. Ultimo Dragon vs. Yohei Nakajima vs. Yoshinobu Kanemaru vs. Yuma Aoyagi vs. Zeus - I skipped this. They're a bit of fun but seeing as everything has been fun, I want to get to the more serious stuff.
    Joe Doering & Suwama vs. Go Shiozaki & Kento Miyahara: Here we go! A very good match that just scrapes at the surface at what they can do. That said everyone brings it here and was pretty surprised at how stiff it got at times. 
    Jun Akiyama & Takao Omori vs. KENSO & Mitsuya Nagai: Oh man what a finish! I was nervous that this wouldn't top the previous match but man this was a great tag match. Dark Kingdom's heeling is just right without being cheap or annoying. Omori & Akiyama really put the effort in and it shows. Akiyama may have knocked KENSO out for a sec with one of his knee strikes but shoot everyone was on point frankly. KENSO and Omori chopped each other red..It was well paced and had the right amount of everything. 16 minute match and you might think that's too brief, it was just right. 

    KENSO vs Wada
    ------
    Now that's not going to be my main event as the next night features a rematch of my Best Match Watched of 2022...I had to go online for this one.
    Go Shiozaki vs Joe Doering (01/03/15): First off, K-Hall is way more packed for night#2. And for good reason! This is an intense battle. Joe just does not mind beating the hell outta Shiozaki..and of course he doesn't mind giving it back. He can't keep up due to the size difference and must use his kicks and other maneuvers to wear the champ down. Doering is like a tank and just takes a heap of punishment and keeps moving forward. Boyh guys did an amazing job selling the exhaustion and pain. It was probably real! I don't think it's at the same level as their 2014 bout but this is a near classic battle without a doubt. Excellent stuff and it's online on the 'tube so if you're looking for a heavyweight title fight, I recommend you don't skip this one.
    Very very good stuff for sure! I am a little bummed that this concludes my look into AJPW of the 2010's. Obviously there's more out there but it's be a trip going through stuff relatively blind. Many of the shows I bought had zero or maybe one recommendation and I just guided myself. You may laugh but based on the money spent and the wait for the DVDs, it was a commitment. Not like just popping on YouTube and watching shit risk free :-) When I bought most of these (which was *ahem* more a few years ago now) I wasn't watching as much online so my plan was to watch these a couple years later not 8 years later. Otherwise I bet I would have tried to get more...like the 2016 Champion Carnival is pretty sweet. I reviewed some of those in the Match Discussion Archives at the time. I'm rambling now. Summertime in my neighborhood sucks big time. And I'm just trying to talk about fun stuff rather than think how I can't wait for summer to be over. I can't be the only one, right?
    Anyhow, go watch Joe & Go beat each other up! Watch Akiyama & Omori do battle with KENSO & Nagai! You'll have a blast!
     
    Thanks for reading!
  13. G. Badger
    This is a small project that I've been pushing back for awhile. No big plans for June so let's take a look at the Briscoe Brothers in NOAH.
    Briscoes vs Yoshinobu Kanemaru & Takashi Sugiura (01/07/07): I'm not sure if the fans knew what to make of The Briscoes. This looks like it might be their first appearance in NOAH. They dominated the home team early on with their high energy offense and team work. Eventually the NOAH team has their chance for some payback. The fans are into this and on a spinning ddt, I think some believe the brothers are beaten. But you & I know that it's going to take more than that. We then get a really good final third and great ending. Overall it's a pretty good match. I think if the crowd was into this the entire time, I might put it around ***3/4. It definitely felt like 2 teams who never worked together BUT knew the spots and were technically proficient. I think there were some new Briscoe Brothers fans by the end of the match

    -----
    Briscoes vs. Kota Ibushi & Naomichi Marufuji (07/01/07): Ambitious as hell but it totally nails it. You've got a young Ibushi and a young Mark so there's a lot of places this could fall apart but it doesn't. If anything it puts you on the edge of your seat and really pop when they hit their spots. An absolute upgrade from the first match and although this is on a comp, I've never seen this get the love it deserves. Near classic junior tag match!

    -----
    Briscoes & Doug Williams vs. Misawa, Kanemaru & Suzuki (02/15/08): Really good 6 man match. All the interactions were fun. Obviously Misawa was limited but he still brought the goods during the team moves and once things started cooking. The Briscoe Brothers again were there to make a good impression. I got the vibe that fans were digging their athleticism and intensity. Doug Williams is always good to see as is Ogawa who I think would have been good in ROH vs Danielson '06-08. Anyhow, really enjoyed this!

    OK no Briscoes in this pic but c'mon its Doug Williams stretching Kotaro  with Misawa & Ogawa in the background.
    -----
    Briscoes & Chris Hero vs. KENTA, Akitoshi Saito & Taiji Ishimori (02/21/08): What a finish! Holy cow! Anyhow this was a great tag match. Everyone did just a little bit but it really amounted to a really enjoyable fight. This isn't my favorite period of Chris Hero but he really brings the goods here (no shenanigans). Although you think he'd match up with Saito based on his size but he pairs up with Ishimori and is an awesome base for the junior's flashy moves. Mark and Saito pair up and do some karate stuff that's a little comedy but eventually they gets some really good shots in. Then KENTA and Jay pair up but I never felt that they were in there as the legal man too long...KENTA especially. But his presence was definitely felt. Then a really awesome finish! 

    -----
    Briscoes vs. Marufuji & Suguira (03/02/08): Man, somehow they topped the finish from above. A true 'Holy Shit!' moment. This was more than just a finish for the ages. This was a classic match in the NOAH style. Junior style moves with a little bit slower pace...it reflected that this was NOT for the Jr. tag straps but the main GHC tag titles. That said there were all types of fireworks here. Only one slip as Mark nearly recreates Hayabusa's tragic lionsault. Thankfully he doesn't rotate and ends up doing a reverse flying headbutt instead. The red neck kung-fu master redeems himself and nails a beautiful top rope version that would make TAKA proud. So they were ambitious here but it all works. There's enough substance in between the big moves that this is more than just spots. And I think that is what makes this worthwhile. If you're a fan of the style then I think you ought to watch this. It may not have had the hype around it just like the Ibushi/Marufuji match above but its another feather in the Briscoes' cap.

    The Briscoe Brothers vs Katsu Nakajima & Kota Ibushi (09/06/08): Prematch worry: Let's see if Ibushi gets wacky. Match starts and they are pretty evenly matched. The Briscoes look fantastic with their rough house brawling. They do well in taking the Japanese team's offense...I say that considering the range in offense of their opponents. Really, both teams are leaving it all in the ring - I'm really impressed! This is 100% bananas. 16 minutes of insanity. If you're gonna do a Jr. sprint match, this is it! Classic, classic match in this style. As the kids say, OMFG! (this was back from a post in 2018 but its been so long its only right to include it here).
    And other than a couple singles matches with Jay and a couple tags I can't locate, that seems to be the entire Briscoe Brothers time in NOAH. Well...I thought that there would be more since NOAH and ROH had a pretty good relationship from 2006-2008. But I wonder what happened? Maybe it was all up to Misawa and once he died so did the relationship? Also you may have noticed I didn't include their bouts against Kotaro Suzuki & Ricky Marvin. I'm going to do those as part of a show review later Many of these are online so in honor of Jay, check 'em.  Its been about six months since Jay Briscoe died in a car wreck. In some ways it feels like it happened years ago. So much has happened since then. I just want to do a little bit to keep his memory alive and preserve his legacy.
     

    Thank you Jay!
     
    OK everyone, stay safe and thank you for reading!
     
  14. G. Badger

    Best Matches Watched of 2023...so far

    By G. Badger,


    From the Editor
    Here we are in June and it is time for the Best Matches Watched of 2023 so far. 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 as well. 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. 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
    -----
    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) +
    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
    Masato Tanaka vs. Tetsuhiro Kuroda (FMW 02/27/99)
    Hayabusa & Jinsei Shinzaki vs Masato Tanaka & Tetsuhiro Kuroda (FMW 03/19/99)
    +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
    +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)
    Toshiaki Kawada vs. Takao Omori (AJPW 07/18/04) HM
    Kaz Hayashi vs Shuji Kondo  (AJPW 08/30/09)

    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. I'm looking forward to the next few months of wrestling. 
    Thanks for reading! Stay cool!

     
  15. G. Badger

    Spotlight: Michinoku Pro - 1994

    By G. Badger,


    Spotlight
    I'll be looking at the breakout year for Michinoku Pro - 1994. This is the year where the Great Sasuke won over fans during the Super J Cup in NJPW. Many consider that to be one of the best shows of the 1990's. From 1994, we continue to see the wrestlers of Michinoku Pro featured in New Japan, AJW, WAR and FMW. Eventually many will make it over to the U.S. in ECW, WCW and WWF. That's pretty amazing when you consider M-Pro was a regional promotion with no big nationally known star to anchor the promotion. Sasuke had to become that star. All that said, I'm relatively ignorant about what was going on in the M-Pro ring in 1994. Let's take a look!
    Great Sasuke, Sato & Shiryu vs. Super Delphin, Jinsei Shinzaki & Gran Naniwa (02/04/1994): 25 minutes of lucharesu! Early on this was functioning at classic levels. The speed and intricacy was amazing. They settled things down and laid out a fuller match with comedy, tandem spots and solid action. A lot of focus was on punishing Shiryu (Kaz Hayashi) but I think this could have been a little more interesting. Also there was a little bit of "walking to my spot" when things got further along. My guess is that the rapid pace at the beginning tired some wrestlers out.  Eventually Shiryu makes his comeback and things kick back up into high gear for the finishing stretch. An absolute great match as long as you don't need your wrestling to be super serious all of the time.

    -----
    Super Delphin vs. Sato (03/04/1994): Much more serious here. This is fought more like a traditional junior match and it's just about a great one. The finish is the only thing that keeps it from that tier. It's a cheap cheaty-cheater finish. It works with the story but was necessarily clear what happened until afterwards. And the fans kinda reacted the wrong way to the booking. Screw that though it's a really good singles match with Sato (Dick Togo) vs Super Delphin.

    -----
    Great Sasuke vs. Jinsei Shinzaki (3/31/1994): I'm not going to fool you, I watched this after the match below. You can read the reasoning down there but essentially I watched these 2 a long time ago. I faintly recall one being great and one not being so great. I clearly didn't remember correctly. Everyone on the PWO 1994 yearbook liked 04/29 quite a bit. But this is the one that's great. In fact, I'm going to call it a classic Michinoku Pro match. I'm tempted to point out why its superior to the below match. But really it should stand up as a classic on its own. Two great foes going head to head, giving it all they got and all that corny shit! But I love it! Seek this out.



    -----
    Great Sasuke vs. Jinsei Shinzaki (4/29/1994): There are too many things wrong with this to make me enjoy it. I've seen this years ago and couldn't remember anything about it. I could excuse Sasuke under shooting the first dive at the start because the following wrestling segment is very great. The tone of this is great and honestly they had me right up until Sasuke taking back bumps for the monk's throat thrust. These get stiff as his career goes on but these are like light as a feather at this time. But whatever... no the real issue starts when the Great One whiffs on 2 spin kicks in a row. He hits a couple, and I believe whiffs on a couple other kicks. Sorry... I'm not one of those "You fucked up!" guys from ECW days but, you whiff once make damn sure you don't whiff again. Either hit the guy real stiff or scrap the hitting idea immediately. Some more stuff happens until Shinzaki does a great slam on his sloppy opponent. And it makes me wonder, " why didn't they just do that in the first place? It keeps the show rolling and punishes Sasuke for trying it again. There's more but I stopped after the Sasuke Special #2 kinda missed in the same way the very first dive did. Once a match...yeah that's OK. Can't be perfect all of the time. 2? OK but maybe be more conservative from here on out. But I felt bad for them at some point and I wasn't into this anymore. I almost feel it was the large crowd that effected them negatively...nerves or showing off when they didn't need to. There's some great moves like Shinzaki's praying quebrada (so sick!) but even the finish is kinda flat. 03/31 is the superior match, its wrestled smarter by keeping it simple. The pacing is consistent. The layout makes sense where everything feels like it means something. And honestly, it tells a better story.

    -----
    Jado vs TAKA Michinoku (7/30/1994): Excellent simple junior match. It was well paced and told a good story of the heel vs the home grown talent.  It pits technical/high flyer vs hard hitting rough houser. That was a really nice change of pace as Jado really whooped T.M.  To combat that TAKA repaid the favor with dealing some great looking springboard moves. Jado wasn't a slouch with his high risk moves though. I think that's one thing that elevated it. Jack really put in the effort to keep up with TAKA (which is a tall order).  One thing confused me though. Many fans were really rooting for Jado which was odd since he's always been a heel. I believe this show was a reunion show for Hamada UWF guys so they may have shown up to root for all of them regardless of being a good or bad guy.  The fans were digging this a bunch either way. Anyhow,  if you're keeping score, this was better than the 04/29 Shinzaki/Sasuke match in nearly every regard. Its a good-very good match most of the way but they really kick things up at the end. Had this been on one of the Super J Cup shows, I think it would be well regarded. Great match.

    Looks like Michinoku thought of the green canvas before Misawa & NOAH.
    -----
    Great Sasuke & Ultimo Dragon vs Jinsei Shinzaki & Gedo (7/30/1994): I didn't see this on the PWO 1994 yearbook which was surprising. It seems like there would have been some hype about this match. I remember Highspots actually had a DVD of this commercial tape. Anyhow, it a great, great tag match. Gedo is the glue here. He's like Gorilla Super Glue...in the gel formula. His heeling ways keep things grounded and gives some much needed heat/heel charisma to his team and the match as a whole. Ultimo and Sasuke are pretty much going all out here. It can be a love/hate thing when they're in the same ring. They have a tendency to go for flash and botch stuff like a surgery on a wooden roller coaster. Thankfully, thankfully that doesn't happen at all! Shinzaki can then just do his power moves and praying and it all works! Its 1994, its indie but it all works...even the Cancun tornado/spiral tap,which doesn't hit perfectly like Apple Jacks used to do back in TNA, works because it's 1994, its indie. Near classic? Maybe so...

    I'm now starting to think Jado & Gedo were trying to have hair cuts like the Nasty Boys...
    -----
    Sato, Terry Boy & Shiryu vs Gran Naniwa, Super Delphin & Shinzaki (12/15/94): The uploader has this as 12/17 but checked Quebrada and I'm pretty sure this is 12/15. I'm not 100% but Sato, Terry Boy and Shiryu are Kai En Tai at this point... at least the initial iteration and before they go heel and become Kai En Tai DX. Anyhow they got the tag team combos already - yes!! Anyhow this is similar to the 02/04/94 match but better in that there's a little less comedy which helps keeps the pace on track. Kai En Tai have their tag moves, and I think everything hits perfectly whereas there's a couple little flubs during 02/04. It's also about 25 minutes without any of the downsides.
    Great Sasuke vs TAKA Michinoku (12/15/94): A 17 minute long junior battle! I've heard nearly nothing about this match but definitely should be more well known. TAKA's aggression here is what makes this really special. He is just going after Sasuke with everything he has. This starts out shoot stylish then settles into a more traditional mid 1990's NJ Junior style. Obviously both are in that calibre but we really see TAKA surpass Sasuke, if I'm being honest. His athleticism & storytelling exceed what Sasuke brought. Not that the pajama wearing hero is a bum but, TAKA really shines here. Near classic junior match.
    Jinsei Shinzaki & TAKA Michinoku vs. Super Delfin & Gran Naniwa (12/17/1994): Joined in progress a little. Shinzaki is really getting his throat thrust attack hitting now. You can hear em! Very good start with twists to moves we may come accustomed to. I always like surprises in wrestling. He and TAKA make a great team... they have a British Bulldogs vibe with their tag moves. Delphin (or is it Delfin...I think both are correct...) and Naniwa do their routine that they have been doing all year while in control but there's a good counter that leads to the final third of the match. Very very good stuff that was probably made even better as this is all floor shot (ECW fancam) so you get a true sense of the action and energy. Nice way to close out the post and the project
    1994 was a pretty great year for Michinoku Pro. In many ways it reminds me of ECW...more than FMW. M-Pro in 1994 (through 97-98) has that great core cast of characters who are rough around the edges, who maybe too short or not big enough but don't let that stop them. And they have a loyal, vocal fan base who love it. Surprisingly the best matches were singles bouts (03/31, TAKA vs Jado & TAKA vs Sasuke) but the heart and soul is in the tag/6 man matches. If you want to dabble, watch one tag, one 6 man and the three singles mentioned and you'll be happy
    I'm quite happy that I got to revisit Michinoku Pro the month. Thanks for reading!
     
  16. G. Badger
    This installment covers Christopher Daniels/Curry Man in M-Pro or representing M-Pro. This is from the RF video DVD set but there's a Curry Man set out there that has many of the stuff.
    Christopher Daniels & Pablo Marquez vs Magnum Tokyo & Kendo - This one Daniels appears as The Fallen Angel instead of Curry Man. My guess is that this takes place early 1999 as Marquez was doing M-Pro then and Curry Man hadn't yet appeared. I can't find this on Quebrada or Cage Match though. Anyhow, this is a really fun match. Daniels and Magnum Tokyo work very well together. As expected there's some comedy early on but things pick up and there's lucharesu action until the end. Very good stuff

    -----
    Curry Man, Black Warrior & Chapinger vs Gran Hamada, White Bear & Dokko Chan (07/17/99): Dokko Chan the wrestler is Jody Fleisch with a mask and shorts on. His big pants hide his super skinny legs. Dude is athletic as heck though! I'm not sure on White Bear... the mask doesn't look legit... the wrestler looks like W*ing Kanemura with a polar bear mask on. He's not great but isn't in enough to bring things down at all and does a cool somersault off the apron. Chapinger is OK but really this could have been Black Warrior & Curry Man (who were really good) vs Gran Hamada & Dokko Chan and it would have been just as fun. Those guys really had a exciting if a little disorganized match. I've seen this get panned but its not bad at all. It's a fireworks match that's 14 minutes of fun.
    Curry Man, SUWA & Super Boy vs TAKA Michinoku, Magnum Tokyo & Minoru Fujita (08/22/99): We get the full intros for everyone. Magnum Tokyo is loved by the ladies. TAKA looks like a badass. A sort of random looking matchup again (which looks to be a theme). But I'm not complaining as these guys put on a great show. Super Boy actually was the standout from the heel team. His moves were hitting perfectly. Everyone was excellent though. It was at blast at 14 odd minutes. 

    -----
    vs Naoki Sano (10/17/99): BattlArts match. Always good to see Sano. I saw this get a pretty bad review but I liked it. It was a good match with an excellent finish. I actually like the chemistry they had despite their unfamiliarity. It was more a junior style than a shoot style match in case you were wondering.
    Curry Man & SUWA vs Men's Teioh & Gran Hamada (10/19/99): Under 10 minutes long...thought it could have been at least 10-12 minutes. It finished up rather quickly but Teioh and Hamada are pretty high up on the M-Pro food chain. Nonetheless this was a lot of fun. SUWA and Curry Man were allowed to shine despite being heels. Teioh and Hamada cruised through this on auto pilot a little bit but good to see them do their big moves.

    SUWA is such a nice guy that he shares his beverage with the announcer.

    Curry Man hits the brakes on a dive attempt.
    -----
    Curry Man, Sasuke the Great, Sumo Fuji & Fake Naniwa vs Great Sasuke, Gran Hamada, Minoru Fujita &  Masaaki Mochizuki (11/07/99): Sasuke the Great is Masao Orihara which is sweet! This was just about a great match although rough around the edges at times. What kept this from being great was at some point ANOTHER Sasuke Imposter with a silver mask comes in and I guess fills in for the Great Sasuke after we think he's been knocked out. The thing is the fans were as confused as I was. The guy's build was more of a heavyweight and he tried doing Sasuke's more agile moves so the guy looked like some muscle bound fan cos-playing. Ted the ref didn't do anything to get the guy out of the ring and only when Sasuke himself got in the ring did this segment end. And then the finishing segment which was good but felt rushed. This was a classic example of over booking a match unfortunately...but it doesn't ruin it by any means but I don't know why they did this plus the execution of it was sloppy. All I can think is its 1999 and American style influences are at work in the storylines. Minoru Fujita was awesome here as was Daniels.


    Sasuke the Great gets up in your face!
    -----
    Curry Man, CIMA & Super Boy vs Minoru Fujita, Shiryu II & Jody Fleisch (12/21/99): What an absolute fireworks display of a match! This was fun to the max If I'm being honest I think this is essential viewing for junior wrestling fans especially those who have a fondness for this time period of junior action. Think the 3 way dances in ECW with Tajiri, Super Crazy, Guido, Jerry Lynn, Nova etc as well as the better multi-man ROH or TNA matches. It's a classic if you keep that all in mind. 
    Curry Man & Naoki Sano vs Ikuto Hidaka & Minoru Fujita (02/13/00): Really good match in BattlARTS but it might as well be M-Pro. The fluidity of the indie leagues is pretty interesting at this time as you can see from all of the matches above. Toryumon was intermixed Michinoku..I've considered Minoru Fujita a BattlARTS guy but he's been the biggest young baby face of M-Pro this whole project. Anyway, this was a very good match. Curry Daniels seems to get hurt along the way and that does limit the crazy amount of moves he does later on (he goes for a 2nd rope elbow drop instead of a moonsault most likely). But he's a trooper and keeps everything moving and making Fujita and Hid aka look great. Sano brings his big moves here and yeah this is nothing to sneeze at despite Daniels hurting.

    If there's a more baby face tag pose, I don't know it.
    -----
    I can't end it there so I've got a few bonus matches. I'm not sure on the date on these. It's a part of a comp I found on YouTube but there's no match list let alone dates. I think they're post-2000 (99-03 is Daniels as Curry Man in Michinoku). He's not wearing the unitard but is wearing the half t shirt and shorts which I think he would wear in NJ and TNA. Anyhow most of the above matches are available for you. Search Curry Man Part 1. These below are from part 2.
    vs Jody Fleisch: This is a very good fireworks singles match as both guys are familiar with one another. So you get some really complex stuff that comes off well. Daniels is a very solid base for Jody's flying moves...which I don't think he gets credit for especially since he's not a big dude. And believe you me, there's some crazy stuff that very easily could have been fumbled if not for Daniels. 
    vs Ikuto Hidaka: clipped a bit but still plenty to enjoy. Wish we could have got the full match as these two are so evenly matched that the likely early feeling out portion was pretty cool. The last 5 minutes were great
    Curry Man/, Gedo & Dick Togo vs. Great Sasuke, Jinsei Shinzaki & Hideki Nishida: Oh yeah! Great match. It's a little punchy-stompy from the heels in control of Hideki Nishida (who impressed me) but when he made his comeback and hot tag to Shinzaki this was on like Donkey Kong This is absolutely worth your time. Glad I did a bit of digging and found this.
    Excellent end to this mini project within a project. Again, look for these YT posts and you should be able to see everything. Still glad I was able to get the RF DVD set from eBay as there's a bunch of other stuff like Daniels in ECW (his match vs Rhino is really good) as well as IWA Puerto Rico (he vs Pablo Marquez is recommended). If you want to see some Michinoku Pro either because it's been awhile or want to see some turn of the century junior action, check these out. I'm sure younger fans will dig this stuff as this style is the backbone modern day American wrestling. I mean Christopher Daniels probably doesn't get enough credit for that.
    Thanks for reading!
  17. G. Badger

    Spotlight: Michinoku Pro

    By G. Badger,


    Spotlight
    I'm going to be looking at Michinoku Pro Wrestling for the rest of May. Much like FMW, it's one of the first Japanese promotions I really was familiar with. In some part this has to do with Kai En Tai DX coming over to WWF around when I got back into wrestling as a teenager. Then from there its probably WCW vs The World on PS1 where they had TAKA, Shinzaki who I remembered as Hakushi (but also from clips of he & Hayabusa vs RVD & Sabu shown on ECW) and the Great Sasuke who I saw very briefly on a death match tape vs Onita. Come to think of it, I believe there was part of Shinzaki vs Gran Naniwa at the very end of that as well. And I'm sure I saw TAKA in ECW. It all seemed really interesting and mysterious to me because it was in bits and pieces. Anyhow Michinoku Pro especially the Kai En Tai DX golden era is some of my favorite stuff. I thought I would explore some M-Pro outside of that short time period. This first installment will be matches from the 2000's and early 2010's. Most is from a single YouTube account. If you're interested then you should be able to find it with the name and dates. Thanks to them for posting!
    Curry Man vs Onryo (04/01/00): First round match of the Super J Cup hosted by Michinoku Pro. Very short but all action match. Daniels was on an offensive roll here. At first it looked like they just needed a good opponent for Onryo but, once Curry Man got the upper hand it was a highlight reel of some of his best stuff. Good match and am going to be watching more Curry Man!

    Jado & Gedo vs The Great Sasuke & Tiger Mask IV (08/19/01): I'm going to call it a near classic junior tag match. I'm going to tell you Sasuke over shoots a Swanton Bomb to Jado lying prone across a table on the floor. "Bonus" is that this is outdoors and the "floor" looks to be an asphalt parking lot! That is so brutal! It's like he blew the spot but the bump he took was so sick that it makes you think of the WCW announce team saying, "Well that's why they call it a high risk move." So it actually doesn't wreck the flow of the match.  Tiger and Gedo are in the ring going at it simultaneously which helps as well. Sasuke is hurting but per usual he just powers through it and all 4 guys put on a helluva match. You don't really care about that early flub because everything before and after is so good.
    Jushin Liger & Koji Kanemoto vs Minoru Fujita & Ikuto Hidaka (09/23/03): A bit of clip job on this. 9 minutes of a 17 minute match shown. This was pretty good stuff from what I saw. Fujita was on point today so all was good as the other 3 are also exceptional.
    Dick Togo vs Tiger Mask IV (09/23/03): Tiger is wrestling for NJPW at this point. They really clipped this one We get highlights in essence but fun nonetheless.
    Great Sasuke vs Atsushi Onita (09/23/03): Oh this is why the other matches were clipped. Sasuke vs Onita in a explosion death match...sweet! As far as later Onita matches this was good stuff. There's a formula of course. Here Onita is the heel and spends 70% of the match beating Sasuke up. We don't get any great flying moves from Sasuke or really anything other than marvelling at how tough he is! That's kinda a waste of his talent but  if your going to wrestle Onita, you're going to do it his way I guess. Still a good Onita death match and like all good Onita death matches, the Onita theatre afterwards is just as important. These matches are from the TV broadcast of an even called 'The Live' in case you want to track it down online or elsewhere.
    Jushin Liger vs Billy Ken Kid (08/30/07): Very good match! I liked the veteran vs hungry young star dynamic. There were some pretty great spots and sequences. Not a ton of depth but for a Masked Man League match this was quality stuff!
    Kikutaro vs Tiger Mask IV (08/30/07): Another Masked Man League match. I was going to skip this but I was wanting some more Tiger Mask IV and it'd be wrong to skip a match with a bit of comedy. Even in the golden age of M-Pro, comedy was a key aspect to the style. Kikutaro is the absolute best and he doesn't disappoint. He's funny but not so much a clown that he doesn't want to win. And he's not a wimp who is going to back down from such as strong opponent. This was fun
    Ultimo Dragon vs The Great Sasuke (08/30/07): A great singles match for sure. This was rough around the edges at times but really in a way that worked with the match. Sasuke had to have been hurting. Shoot! so did Ultimo for that matter. If you're a fan of these guys then you really ought to set aside 20 minutes and watch this. Never heard any talk of this one at the time but I think it deserves to be included with their other great bouts. Again not a perfect match but if you look at it as two rivals past their prime meeting again, I think you'll dig it. They really put it all out there. This night of wrestling was pretty awesome if you look at the last 3 matches.
    Ultimo Dragon & FUNAKI vs TAKA Michinoku & Jinsei Shinzaki (12/16/10): Welp, that was a fantastic bit of lucharesu! This was fast as heck like it was 1996. I was really surprised. A bit of humor along with some great moves from these guys. If you've only seen them in WWE/F then go check this out! Very cool to see these guys in the same ring again. It's like they haven't missed a beat.
    Dick Togo vs Rui Hyugaji (12/16/10): Joined in Progress a little and I skipped ahead once Rui Hyugaji took control on offense early on. It's my first time seeing him and he wasn't really impressive. He's supposedly the upstart boss of the heel group but his heel offense was really boring (stomps, rest holds). Dick Togo was fantastic throughout though. He made it look like Rui Hyugaji was kicking his ass and was great on offense. Rui Hyugaji got better as the match went on but just didn't do it for me. This was just OK in my book. Just couldn't get any quality Dick Togo matches.
    K-ness vs El Solar (08/31/12): A fun 10 minute match for fans of El Solar. K-ness didn't really have much offense in the grand scheme of things so it really was more a display of El Solar's different submission moves.
    Heat vs Tigers Mask (08/31/12): Two more non Michinoku wrestlers but its the '12 Masked Men tournament. It's cool to see Heat...well Minoru Tanaka competing under his former masked alter ego. Tigers Mask is from Osaka Pro and is really good. So we get a good match but my favorite part is Heat going up to that next level like it's Dragon Ball Z at the end. Helluva tech finish!
    Ultimo Dragon, Tiger Mask IV & Super Delfin vs Nohashi, Syu & Kei Brahman (11/04/13): This is from M-Pro's 20th Anniversary show. Heel team taking on the returning stars. This was something that I thought would just be a bit of fun that turned into a pretty good match. You get the spots and nostalgia from the baby face team,  the heels made sure they stooged when they needed yet were also vicious.The bowling ball spot to Delfin was particularly impressive. I liked this 6 man match quite a bit.
    There were a couple more that I was going to watch:
    Great Sasuke & Jinsei Shinzaki vs Hayato "Jr." Fujita & Kenoh (11/04/13)
    Jinsei Shinzaki vs Fujita "Jr." Hayato (12/13/13)
    The thing is that stylistically these are closer to traditional puro in the 2010's. Perhaps a little too serious/shoot-style for my Michinoku Pro. And and around a half hour each. Honestly that's not really what I'm looking for BUT if you are, I recommend seeking them out. 
    All in all this was a really fun week of wrestling. A good mix of singles and tag matches from 2000 -2013 shows Michinoku still had a bunch going on after their golden age in the mid to late 90's. Again I was mostly going on the one person's stuff but there's not a ton out there from what I saw. I did also cherry pick stuff with guys that I associate with M-Pro. The account has more if you're interested. I also found someone has a slew of M-Pro half hour TV episodes from the late 2000's which has matches in highlighted form. Search using the keyword "Michipro" and should should find them. They're a lot of fun...Good Dick Togo matches... highlights but hey beggars can't be choosers. I just wish they were complete or at least joined in progress. 
     Next time I'm going to be looking at Christopher Daniels time in M-Pro as Curry Man. This also hits another blind spot for me - 1999.
    Thanks for reading! Thanks to Loss for technical assistance in getting my 300th post published.
     
  18. G. Badger

    AJPW You Might Have Missed - 1984 - FINAL

    By G. Badger,


    You Might Have Missed
    I'm just going to jump on in!
    Brody & Hansen vs Terry & Dory Funk Jr. (12/08): An absolute all time classic match in my book. The sense of chaos and animosity is as high as its been in all of 1984 All Japan. Terry and Dory Jr. against Brody and Hansen finally is the culmination of one of the main themes of the year. Dory and Baba have faced the absolutely dominant monsters on a few occasions. They have hung in there but never truly were able to match the intensity and ferocity of Brody & Hansen. Terry has been ringside (or guest ref'd in Jumbo vs Bock) so he's been witness or assisted but not been a direct participant. He's not retired anymore (which would have been booked as a "long-term injury" nowadays) so he is able to go to toe with his foes. And Terry is the one guy crazy and ferocious enough to knock the giants on their asses. Watch Brody & Hansen vs Baba & Dory Jr. (08/26) as well.

    -----
    The Funks vs Nick Bockwinkel & Harley Race (12/12, aired 12/22): This is a dream matchup. Unfortunately it is joined in progress about half way in but the second half is pretty great. Somewhere along the line Harley and Terry juice, Nick is selling his knee, Dory comes into the match with taped ribs or lower back...it just would have been nice to see the whole thing. Maybe it's out there now somewhere... but anyways this is just a joy to watch.
    Bruiser Brody & Stan Hansen vs Jumbo Tsuruta & Genichiro Tenryu (12/12 RWTL final match, aired 12/22): This is not on my AJ Classics set but I have a compilation of the RWTL finals of the 80's but its also on Lucier's '84 TV tapes. So the thing to get is how OVER Brody and Hansen are with the fans. People are psyched to see Jumbo and Tenryu but when the music plays for the monsters, it's evident how much they love them...even as they get shoved and whipped So this is kinda THE moment for AJPW in 1984. The two biggest forces coming head to head. This is just as an fast paced intense fight as you'd hope for. 2 of the 4 guys are bleeding, you can hear the blows falls even over the roaring crowd, great moves & moments - it is without a doubt classic match. Its the convergence of all of the big stories of 1984 All Japan and brilliantly executed. You know... from entrances to the exits I would call it an all time classic. I don't think it edges out Funks vs Brody & Hansen in terms of intensity and an overall emotional connection from me.

    So that's where I'm ending the year for 1984 All Japan. But I'm going to go back a couple matches I skipped over:
    Ric Flair vs Harley Race (05/22): I skipped this as I wanted to focus on matches that featured home AJPW wrestlers as one of the two opponents. Although Race was featured more prominently I still consider this more of an exhibition match than anything. Still, I wasn't going to skip it entirely. This is one that I don't remember a lot of talk about. It looks like it was the top Harley Race match according to the DVDVR Best of AJ of the 1980's. But it barely is in the top 50...Overshadowed by the Kerry vs Jumbo match on the same night? Regardless, this is a great match! It has a nice steady pace and plenty of surprises (I'm sure folks more familiar with their work at this time might disagree). This was a very good match that I thought was going to end one way but they kept going on. That was really more than I expected and made this something great and worth your time. Very happy to see this! These appearances by Harley have been a treat!

    -----
    Jumbo Tsuruta vs Kerry Von Erich (05/22): 2/3 falls match for the World Championship. The DVDVR best of the AJPW 80's list has it as the #6 match of the decade.And that's why I put if off to the end. It's reputation proceeds itself. However it's not the best match of '84 for me after watching everything. That said, it IS probably the best singles match of the year. Each fall feels unique and escalates beautifully. It is superior to the Jumbo vs Bockwinkel matches, as well as vs Brunzell & Gagne in Japan. It's a classic match. I think its closest match in singles is Dory Jr. vs Hansen on  04/26 and Baba vs Hansen. You know I think I'll rank them below. Anyway, this is something you'd want to see if you just want to see if any of this 39 year old wrestling is for you

    -----
    I was going to try for Flair vs Kerry which is considered a great match from 05/24/84 but I ran out of time. I'll come back to it and my review as a comment and add it to the ranking if applicable.
    Best Singles Matches
    Jumbo Tsuruta vs Kerry Von Erich (05/22) 
    Dory Funk Jr. vs Stan Hansen (04/26)
    Stan Hansen vs Giant Baba (03/24) - Giant Baba vs Stan Hansen (07/31)
    Ric Flair vs Harley Race (05/22)
    Nick Bockwinkel vs Jumbo Tsuruta (02/23) -Nick Bockwinkel vs Jumbo Tsuruta (02/26)
    Jumbo Tsuruta vs Greg Gagne (04/19) 
    Jumbo Tsuruta vs Jim Brunzell (04/26) 
    Honorable Mention: Tiger Mask II vs Pirata Morgan (12/08)
    (I'm clumping the Baba vs Hansen and Jumbo vs Bockwinkel's matches as I can't really pick one over another.)

    Best Tag Matches
    Brody & Hansen vs Terry & Dory Funk Jr. (12/08)
    Bruiser Brody & Stan Hansen vs Jumbo Tsuruta & Genichiro Tenryu (12/12)
    Brody & Hansen vs Baba & Dory Jr. (08/26)
    Jim Brunzell & Greg Gagne vs Dory Funk Jr. & Kerry Von Erich (04/24)
    Bruiser Brody & Stan Hansen vs Jumbo Tsuruta & Genichiro Tenryu (04/24)
    Atsushi Onita & Masa Fuchi vs Hector & Chavo Guerrero (09/03)
    Jumbo & Tenryu vs Brody & Jerry Blackwell (09/03)
    Honorable Mention: The Funks vs Nick Bockwinkel & Harley Race (12/12)

    Top 5 Matches
    Brody & Hansen vs Terry & Dory Funk Jr. (12/08)
    Bruiser Brody & Stan Hansen vs Jumbo Tsuruta & Genichiro Tenryu (12/12)
    Brody & Hansen vs Baba & Dory Jr. (08/26)
    Jumbo Tsuruta vs Kerry Von Erich (05/22) 
    Dory Funk Jr. vs Stan Hansen (04/26)

    1984 has been a fantastic year for wrestling in All Japan. The beginning of the project featured American talent from the AWA and other promotions as Jumbo was AWA champion. There's some great Junior action with Guerreros taking on the best AJPW had to offer. Misawa takes on the Tiger Mask role and adds another dimension to junior action...something that does get overlooked. Brody and Hansen are causing chaos everywhere they go. Tenryu is coming into his own. Mid year and on we get more excitement as Harley Race, Ric Flair and Kerry Von Erich put on some real high quality stuff. The Tag League was an awesome way to end the year and project for me.

    This has been the longest stretch of 80's AJPW that I've watched. I've been more familiar with New Japan in the 80's so this was fun to really go from January to December. The variety that is present due to the Americans cannot be understated. It is one thing I wish had stayed around during the 90's. It was something Misawa was smart to reintroduce with NOAH.
     I'm planning on watching 1985 All Japan which I'd like to try later this year (with some assistance from Roy's 1985 AJ TV regarding Riki Choshu matches). It's been a good thing for me to actually go through a good chunk of my DVD backlog and I'm want to keep it up. I've got 1 or 2 projects that are more dependent upon online videos coming soon. After that I'm going to try and get through another block of DVD's.
    Thanks for reading folks!
  19. G. Badger

    AJPW You Might Have Missed - 1984 - Part 5

    By G. Badger,


    You Might Have Missed
    Sorry for the delay! Busy week last week so I missed my self imposed Sunday deadline. But made my Wednesday deadline We're getting to the end of '84 and you know that means Real World Tag League stuff. Excited for that! Let's begin!

    Rick Martel vs Jumbo Tsuruta (10/11, aired 10/13): Joined in progress but we get the majority of the match (it seems). Very technically orientated match that stresses their equality. Eventually things get cooking and we get more high stakes action. We get a pretty great finish too! Another very good title match between these too. If they meet again I know that they have a genuinely great match in them.
    Jumbo & Tenryu vs Terry Gordy & Michael Hayes (10/16, aired 10/20): Good match with some fun moments. I would have loved to see more Tenryu vs Gordy. It did feel a bit small show tag main event (it was in Toyama, Japan). Hey I'm looking at it as a lead-in to the next match. And I think it accomplished what it set out to do.
    Jumbo Tsuruta vs Terry Gordy (10/29): Slow start to a longer match. This picks up when Jumbo starts bleeding and from there on out its a very good match. It's a smaller venue so I'm sure it wasn't their best work but we end up getting a double juice and a bunch of great moves. It's an 80's finish which is disappointing considering the length of the fight. If you do your own Joined In Progress skip ahead to Jumbo bleeding then I think that's the absolute best way to enjoy this. If you want to watch this in full then, there's no harm in that though


    -----
    Kabuki & Tiger Mask II vs Buzz Sawyer & La Fiera (aired 11/03): I'm not sure on the actual date on this so I'm going to use the TV broadcast date. The Gordy vs Jumbo match is on the same episode so let's tentatively say this is also from 10/29...Joined in progress but this is a bunch of fun! Great moves, Sawyer and Kabuki were excellent additions to the Tiger vs La Fiera program.
    Jumbo & Tenryu vs The Funks (11/28, aired 12/01): Joined in Progress about 10 minutes, this is as great as you'd hope for. Early RWTL match with your two baby face teams going toe-to-toe and setting the tone. Glad to see Terry back actually wrestling. That 1983 retirement WAS pretty short... much shorter than I thought! Anyhow, if you're a fan of these guys then you should know this doesn't disappoint-  hard hits, a bit of blood, well paced.
    Harley Race & Nick Bockwinkel vs Takashi Ishikawa & Mighty Inoue (12/08): Exciting all action match! I can't say the outcome was in doubt but this was a blast. Relatively short so there's no reason to skip this. If you wanted to see Race & Bock do a junior tag match, this may be as close as you can get!

    -----
    Tiger Mask II vs Pirata Morgan (12/08): Great junior match that still holds up all of these years later. Dazzling moves and for that you could call it a classic. I think I prefer it to the 08/26 La Fiera match. I didn't rate that match but these early Misawa-as-Tiger Mask matches are really different than most other stuff going on in AJPW. These tend to be more like Sayama's exhibition style matches he would do with luchadores and closer in style to the Dynamite Kid bouts than his more technical bouts with the other Japanese wrestlers or the British World of Sport style guys.  That said I think this is fantastic!
    -----
    Next time, we pick back up with RWTL stuff along with one or two big-time matches I skipped over. Thanks for reading!
  20. G. Badger

    AJPW You Might Have Missed - 1984 - Part 3

    By G. Badger,


    You Might Have Missed
    Let's take a look at more of 1984 AJPW. We've got a really good batch!
    Jim Brunzell & Greg Gagne vs Dory Funk Jr. & Kerry von Erich (04/24, aired 04/28): These next two are Roy Lucier's 1984 AJPW TV episodes and not the Retro Classics that were broadcast in the late 90's. These technically should be with Part #2 but I'm putting these here. I'll try to work new ones in chronologically as I go on. A big reason for expanding beyond just my DVD set was I noticed that there were a couple omissions that I was missing out on. A big omission was Tenryu footage. But there's a bunch of neat tags like this one as well. Cool fact, 3 second generation wrestlers all sons of promoters. All that said, this was a great tag match! Excellent control wrestling from the Highflyers on Dory. Kerry was a great bit of energy for his team (wish we got more of Kerry and Dory Jr.). There's some exciting spots here and excellent wrestling as well. Probably the best tag match that I've seen so far in '84. Not sure why this didn't make the Classics.
    Bruiser Brody & Stan Hansen vs Jumbo Tsuruta & Genichiro Tenryu (04/24, aired 04/28): Another where this should have made the late 90's Classics TV (and on my DVD set). Glad we got the original TV broadcast though. This is a great match! Two teams of titans tussling. It is as big and exciting as it gets so far in 1984. 80's finish? Sorta...but it's a excellent one and am excited to see them match up again...which is the point of these type of endings, I suppose.
    Jumbo Tsuruta vs Jim Brunzell (04/26): Another really good match! This one was just about a great one to be honest. I really enjoyed the pacing, the use of holds to structure the match as well as the simple but effective spots used. Probably better than their AWA match just because its wrestled at a puroresu pace. Definitely hope more Jim Brunzell shows up.

    -----
    Dory Funk Jr. vs Stan Hansen (04/26): A great match that felt authentic. It was a match where the little things were done right - stiffness, going for pins, wrenching holds, taking openings when they present themselves. 80's finish keeps this from being a near classic but that finish seems to press one of the big storylines of 1984 (or that's how it seems). 

    -----
    Jumbo Tsuruta vs Rick Martel (05/13): Back in the U.S. AWA. Very good to great match with Martel escaping many of Jumbo's early holds. Not something we see. Here we get a good sense that Rick Martel has the technical edge on Tsuruta while the champ has a size & strength advantage. Martel locks Jumbo in a fierce headlock. I get the impression that he needed to keep the bigger man under control. Eventually the champ gives Rick a knee breaker but the challenger holds on. We get a clean finish with a little bit of an asterisk to keep everyone looking strong. By the way Jumbo hits an awesome jumping knee where it looks like he really blasted Martel (think he actually got high enough and hit Rick in the face with his hip). No pictures on this one as the ring wasn't too well lit but I totally recommend this!
    Giant Baba vs Stan Hansen (07/31): I thought about skipping this but so glad that I didn't. This was a great match and excellent follow up to their 03/24 battle. Some real nice allusions to that one. This was fast paced and intense. They understand Baba basically shouldn't run the ropes so they stick to trading blows and attacking while the opponent is on the mat. As a result, like the 04/26 Dory match, it feels authentic. Hansen is just hammering away on Baba. Baba may not be much to look at but he's one tough S.O.B. Great match, awesome post match as well. 

    -----
    Tiger Mask II vs La Fiera (08/26): Well that was every bit as exciting as I remembered. This is actually pretty similar to modern wrestling and I think anyone who is curious should check it out! I'm not going to give it a score because the historical value overshadows anything I could say. If you're reading my reviews for recommendations, then yes! go see this. If you're interested in my take for entertainment then, I thought this was a lot of fun. It certainly blows everything else out of the water in terms of spots, sequences, dare-devilry etc. An excellent introduction to the new Tiger Mask. More La Fiera please!

    This was a great bit of wrestling as they have all been. This was the best though. You may have noticed I skipped Jumbo vs Kerry from 05/22. I'm going to cover that as well as a couple Ric Flair matches (Kerry vs Ric for instance) in the final installment. Those are well known matches and I don't want those to steal the thunder from the unsung great matches. 
    Stay safe! Thanks for reading!
     
  21. G. Badger

    AJPW You Might Have Missed - 1984 - Part 4

    By G. Badger,


    You Might Have Missed
    Let's keep going with 1984 All Japan!
    Brody & Hansen vs Baba & Dory Jr. (08/26): This was fought like a gang fight more than a wrestling match. Absolute furious pace with a stiffness you could hear. A near classic match but with the post match brawl this is a classic. There's a part of me wants to call this an all time classic if you're counting entrance to exit. Did I mention Terry is at ring side? 

    Team Grandpa!


    Rough necks is scared!
    -----
    Atsushi Onita & Masa Fuchi vs Hector & Chavo Guerrero (09/03, aired 09/15): Oh yeah! This was a great junior tag match. Absolutely as good as expected. Lots of great action, a bit of comedy, some tandem spots as well as some other spots that could have been in 1994 or 2004. I think it might be the lone Onita match for this project but it's a doozy!
    Jumbo & Tenryu vs Brody & Jerry Blackwell (09/03, aired 09/15): Another really awesome tag match! This was great! Blackwell is fantastic doing all kinds of big man spots but is much more than that. Jumbo goes off the top rope. Tenryu gets the crap beat out of him but gives it right back. Brody is in top form being a monster but not invulnerable. Excellent pacing and action and everything was in doubt. 
    Gran Hamada & Mighty Inoue vs Chavo & Hector Guerrero (09/12): Very good junior tag match! I think this is the sole Gran Hamada in 1984 AJPW match but it definitely delivered! I think this is exactly what I wanted and expected. It's not better than the Onita & Fuchi vs Guerreros but it is absolutely worth your time... especially if you're interested in this matchup. The Guerrero Bros. were able to do some fantastic lucha stuff with Hamada...and let's be honest that's what you want right? Really wish it was 2/3 falls...

    -----
    Jumbo & Takashi Ishikawa vs Brody & Moondog Moretti (09/12): Neat matchup that reminds me of the Jumbo vs Misawa feud with a heavyweight paired with a junior heavy on both sides. You had better believe the Hansen & Brody (along with their buddies) drama is THE story of '84. So it's Baba vs Hansen early on in the year but it is slowly becoming about Jumbo vs Brody and this is one more battle. It's a really good one too! Lotsa action and they never seemed to stand still long enough to get a good picture. 
    There were a. couple more that I was going to watch but the digital VQ is just too much for me to bear. Not sure if it's my internet or the quality that they were uploaded but, its some old school digital or satellite TV pixel blur at times. But they looked worthwhile if you're interested :
    Tiger Mask II & Magic Dragon vs La Fiera & Jerry Estrada (10/09, aired 11/17)
    Jumbo & Tenryu vs Rick Martel & Terry Gordy (10/09, aired 11/17)
     
    Excellent batch of pro wrestling this week! Like I said, I'm a tag team fan so bear that in mind if you're a singles wrestling ONLY type person. Very psyched to keep going!
    Thanks for reading!
     
  22. G. Badger

    AJPW You Might Have Missed - 1984 - Part 2

    By G. Badger,


    You Might Have Missed
    Here we are with week # 2 of AJPW from 1984. It's a pretty good one. Let's take a look!
    Billy Robinson & Brad Rheingans vs Steve Regal & Kevin Kelly (03/04): Wouldn't it be funny if it was the Steve Regal and Kevin Kelly you thought it was? Its not But it's 1984 AWA via AJPW Classics. I thought this might be a boring match but it was quite fun. Regal & Kelly bumped really well for Billy and Brad. I thought they had some good chicken shit moments as well. I don't know if you're going to go out of your way to watch it but if you're doing some kind of AWA/Billy Robinson project - it's fun.
    Billy Robinson vs Jumbo Tsuruta (03/11): Very good title fight. Technical like you'd want but Billy gets the crowd riled up pretty well teasing punches. A slower paced match that picks up at the end like the first Bockwinkel match. I would have liked a really strong finish but its clean and definitive which is really more than you can ask for in 1984. I would recommend this one... it's Billy vs Jumbo.

    -----
    Jerry Blackwell & Ken Patera vs Jim Brunzell & Greg Gagne (03/11): JIP. What started out as just a fun little match turned out to be a good one. Patera didn't wow me with anything but Blackwell, Brunzell and Greggie Boy had some good stuff going. Greg is kinda like Giant Baba with offense and athleticism. If you can buy what he's selling then you'll have a fun time. Note: 03-15-84 has Blackwell and Patera vs Gagne & The Crusher.This one is shorter and faster paced. One of the Vachons (Mad Dog I believe) comes out later for the post match donnybrook. Pretty fun shit!
    Jumbo Tsuruta vs Jim Brunzell (03/15):Beforehand Bobby Heenan chews out Jumbo and Bockwinkel has to escort him away This was a very good simple match. It honestly was getting up to somewhere like ***3/4 (being generous) because of how they were building things up...but it ended right as it really started getting somewhere. That said it was an emphatic win and made everyone look good. 


    Yeah that's right! Jumbo doing a headstand!

    God bless the AWA camera men...don't you want to attend an AWA event and sit shoulder to shoulder with these fine upstanding citizens? 

    I'm really not sure what is going on here. But why would they film this man specifically?
    -----
    Stan Hansen vs Giant Baba (03/24): Back to Japan. Age old feud here and this might be one of my favorite Hansen vs Baba battle and story-wise maybe the best. Stan nearly kills Baba at the outset. Baba fights back but he knows he can't go toe-to-toe with the Bad Man from Borger. Instead the Giant One employs his wrestling skill and goes on the warpath to destroy Stan's arm. Excellent stuff from bell to bell! If you had someone with a bit more athleticism than Baba (or this was Baba from 10 years before) this would be a no explanation needed great match.

    -----
    Jumbo Tsuruta vs Greg Gagne (04/19): Wow, didn't expect this but the title match was great! You could tell Jumbo was excited to work with Greg. This was wrestled as an athletic, almost Junior Heavyweight technical match for the majority of the bout. This got chippy and lead to the heated final portion. We get a finish but is a little 80's to protect Greg and/or give heat to Jumbo back in the States. This might be my favorite defense so far. Technical Junior Heavyweight Greg is way better than spunky baby face Greg Gagne that we see more often in AWA. 


    -----
    Brody & Hansen vs Baba & Dory Jr. (04/25): Very good tag title match. Joe Higuchi was sporting his Seattle Supersonics colored ref outfit. I think what held this back from being great is Brody & Hansen seemed on offense most of the time. I mean more than usual to where Baba and Dory never got more than a couple good runs. Also it seemed like Brody (perhaps) was bungling spots with Dory...there were more than a couple rough looking spots. It had it moments and the pace pretty fast in Brody & Stan's style. Plus the fans were digging it.

    Brody catching some air! 
    Another really enjoyable bit of wrestling. Any of the matches where I included super grainy/pixelated photos, I'd recommend you check them out!
    Thanks for reading! Watch some nearly 40 year old wrestling!
  23. G. Badger

    AJPW You Might Have Missed - 1984

    By G. Badger,


    You Might Have Missed
    I'm going to be looking at the AJPW Classics for 1984. I want to make an effort to put a sizable dent into my DVD collection this year. I was pulled a little off track with the JWP and Muto AJPW last month.  And I am planning on going back to Muto's All Japan perhaps in May. Anyhow we're looking at 1984 AJPW right now. It's interesting to me as it features quite a few Americans that weren't necessarily AJPW regulars. A big part of that is the inclusion of AWA talent since this is when Jumbo was AWA champ.
    Jumbo & Baba vs Terry Gordy & Michael Hayes (01/20): Haha! Oh man this is a lot of fun. The best part was the tag team power bomb the Freebirds did on Jumbo. The announcers called it a piledriver so I'm not sure if anyone (including Terry) was actually doing a power bomb (at that time). That gives you the idea of how close this was to being a ganso bomb. Gordy had to muscle Jumbo up.

    -----
    Jumbo & Kabuki vs Terry Gordy & Michael Hayes (01/22): Another real fun match and a good one at that. The familiarity the Freebirds and Kabuki have really helps make this a pretty solid match. Good sequences and spots with Jumbo playing a supportive role. No really... I feel like Jumbo was the active man maybe a few minutes. Cool finish!

    Kawada is Samurai clad Kabuki's second. That's awesome!
    -----
    Nick Bockwinkel vs Jumbo Tsuruta (02/23): Great slow burning title fight. Terry Funk was the ref. He was a little distracting at first but you get used to him. He is actually a pretty conservative ref despite being a bit of a wild man in the ring. Great teases and a great finish! This is the better known of the two February matches.

    Terry looking like he just left the wedding from 'Deer Hunter'
     

    -----
    Nick Bockwinkel vs Jumbo Tsuruta (02/26): Terry is back as referee. He's not as distracting as before This one was fast paced and featured quite a few moves early on. It slowed down as it continued but that actually makes sense when you look at boxing or MMA - you're tired, hurt and looking for an opening more than going for a big win KO. I think this was great and a wonderful compliment to their previous match. 

    Funker checking that the hold is legal... After leaving his shift at the casino...

    -----
    Chavo Guerrero vs Mighty Inoue (02/26): Really my cup of tea in terms of technical wrestling. Just 85% of the match is neat wrestling holds. I think this would be a great match if Mighty Inoue knew what to do for a couple later spots. He killed a rolling cradle (the move Funk & Kobashi do) and on another, Chavo put the knees up on a somersault splash or rolling senton (which not only would block it but should hurt Inoue's back) but he didn't sell it. Chavo sold it himself by kicking out at 1 instead of 2 since its one of the Mighty Inoue's signature moves. But Inoue shouldn't have gone for the cover. However it's 1984, they're unfamiliar and some of that is to be expected. I really like this nonetheless and Chavo was great. I'm pretty happy we have this footage.

    -----
    Jerry Blackwell & Ken Patera vs Blackjack Mulligan & Jerry Lawler (03/04): The neat thing about the Samurai Classics was that they had footage from the States that would be of interest to Japanese fans and usually involved a home wrestler on the card (Jumbo was wrestling). So here we get some of the first AWA-in-the-U.S. action. This was OK and was a change of pace. It was best with Lawler vs Blackwell but disappointing overall.
    Jumbo Tsuruta vs Blackjack Lanza (03/04): Bless Jumbo for irritating the xenophobic idiots while still wrestling a clean technical match. I'm guessing Lanza laid out the match as he's the vet and its his crowd. I think he did a great job of working with Jumbo - letting him get in good technical offense and timing his comebacks so the fans would get all excited for a bunch of punches and a noogie. That's a good job in an good match. I'm being generous though.
    Overall this looks to be pretty fun so far. There's a good mix of tags, Junior wrestling and title fights. Anything above with pics I would recommend!
    Thanks for reading!
  24. G. Badger

    Joshi You Might Have Missed: JWP 1991 - Final

    By G. Badger,


    You Might Have Missed
    Here we are for the final portion of my early JWP project. We'll be looking at the end of 1991. The dates are not evenly spread out but this is what I wanted to see based on others recommendations and my own preferences. There is more out there like the Cuty vs Scorpion stuff from the fall that I could do without. Anyhow, let's begin!
    Harley Saito vs. Rumi Kazama (05/12): Wow! I was impressed with what they were able to do in an under 10 minute match! Lots of stiff looking kicks, good bits of mat wrestling sprinkled in and a nice finishing segment. The early portion looked like Rumi stiffed Harley and Harley was looking for pay back. Good to very good match.
    Eagle Sawai & Mayumi Ozaki vs. Devil Masami & Miss A (5/12/91)
    Oh man you can't go wrong with these teams in '91. Much of what makes this great is Ozaki vs Devil. She is so much smaller than the veteran Masami but has tons of fight (and hate). Eagle is the big sister bailing Oz out and Kansai/Miss A is the serious partner looking to play a good teammate. Lots of great moves throughout some are even teases but that's what makes JWP so organic and great at this time. I rarely get a feel that spots are planned and the victories feel genuine. That's pretty special in my book.
    Mayumi Ozaki vs. Devil Masami (06/16/1991)
    A really good match with Devil having some fun with the smaller Ozaki. Oz is quick and takes short cuts so Devil would only go so far until she really punished her opponent. Its a simple match but two joshi greats in the same ring always produce something worthwhile. I viewed this before the above match and it actually makes more sense to do so.
    Itsuki Yamazaki & Rumi Kazama vs. Miss A & Harley Saito (06/30/91)
    Intense fucking battle. Miss A/Dynamite Kansai is actually the least stiff of all the wrestlers. Unfortunately the version I saw has a section missing (perhaps this is the official version) but what's shown is pretty sweet. Itsuki Yamazaki is awesome in this. If shown in full this would be great.
    Dynamite Kansai & The Scorpion vs. Shinobu Kandori & Harley Saito (08/04/91)
    First "Dynamite Kansai" match that I've seen. Her gear is different and she's somehow even more of a badass. This is a very good match and you want to watch it for Dynamite just blasting Harley. It seems very clear that she has pulled ahead since their meeting 02/11/91 meeting and as tag partners. This Dynamite Kansai is even handing Kandori her ass.
    Harley Saito & Itsuki Yamazaki vs Dynamite Kansai & Scorpion (08/08/91)
    I may have spoke too soon about Harley. She wasn't scared of Kansai. Itsuki Yamazaki seems to get better as we go. Scorpion upped her game too. This was a ferocious match. The Yamazaki & Harley team was one I wish I could see more of but we're almost to the end. This was a great match...seek this one out!
    Devil Masami vs. Itsuki Yamazaki (08/30/91)
    This starts out with Yamazaki jumping Devil kinda like Hayabusa would do to Liger Super J Cup. Then it settles down into the normal flow of the match which is pretty solid as Devil injures Yamazaki's arm. The former Jumping Bomb Angel gets an opening and hurts Devil's leg or ankle specifically. I don't know if this is legitimate as Devil sold it very well then too much if you know what I mean. Yamazaki didn't really have a great plan of attack other than a figure 4 and some weak stomps and kicks. It really seemed like she took a bad bump from the apron or to the floor on earlier the comeback spot. She may have twisted it and the remainder of the match was on the fly. I've rolled or bruised my ankle tons of times skateboarding. It's not a serious injury once you can get off your feet and ice but at the time walking normally isn't happening. Standing isn't too bad though. I think once Devil was able to get standing she was able to power bomb again and things picked up for the final few minutes. Good match but it's really something that could/should have been much better as these two are consistently the best workers.
    I can't end things like this though so one more...
    Harley Saito & Itsuki Yamazaki & Hikari Fukuoka vs. Dynamite Kansai & Eagle Sawai & Reiko Hoshino (12/07/91)
    I think this a very good to great six woman tag in Korakuen hall. Lots of energy and action with the styles and sizes of the wrestlers meshing well. I think it's also a fitting end as this is pretty much the end of the original JWP promotion. Saito & Sawai leave with Kandori to form LLPW. Reiko Hoshino who (as The Scorpion) lost a well received wager match vs Cuty Suzuki is gone after this (and perhaps wrestling in general?), Yamazaki retires and Kansai & Fukuoka go on in the restarted JWP that 90's Joshi fans know. All that aside, this is a fun match and the ending I was looking for
    To wrap up this along with JWP 1990 stuff, this has been a blast most of the time. I will admit that many of the matches do run together in the sense there's few giant moments and classic matches. Instead everything is super enjoyable to watch. You get a really good mix of technical wrestling, brawling, shoot style action. Sometimes that sameness was a little discouraging when I needed to keep up with my planned schedule. However once I got going I ended up watching 3 matches in a row. So I don't know if I would recommend trying to watch these in such a condensed manner. Spread them out and enjoy them at your leisure or maybe watch a few a week. You could easily get through (and enjoy) the best stuff of 90 & 91 over the course of a month while still watching your normal wrestling fix. If nothing else, the tag matches will never let you down. This has been a great project. I feel like I filled in a blank spot in my Joshi knowledge. I got to see some workers who I've seen very little of in the grand scheme of things. I have a greater appreciation for the non-AJW side of things and its encouraging me to check out more JWP, LLPW and others this year. I hope it works for you too! 
    Thanks for reading!
  25. G. Badger

    AJPW You Might Have Missed - Muto's AJPW - 2001-2004

    By G. Badger,


    You Might Have Missed
    I'm doing a mixed up March type thing so I'll be getting back to JWP 1991 next week. For this week, I wanted to follow up on another little project Muto's AJPW. This covers 2001-2011. As you may know, I did a look at AJPW in 2011 sometime ago and was really impressed. It's not the Baba era but has its charm and quality wrestling. That along with post Muto AJPW made me question my preconceived notions about the 2000's All Japan. Generally speaking, I think most people skip over it entirely except for a couple matches like Hashimoto vs Kawada in 2004. I guess I'm speaking for myself...until now. So I have a very cherry picked list to see if there's something there that I'm missing. Make no mistake, the majority of the under card matches are crappy looking... heck even upper card matches don't look great either. 2001-2004 which I'm glancing at this post is really asking for cherry picking. The company at this point really looked to be relying on the draws of Kawada, Muto and guys he brought with him like Kojima and Kaz Hayashi as well as Tenryu and the big beefy guys he brought with him (who we won't see any of here). Then of course inter promo stuff with Zero One (essentially Muto working with other NJ defectors Hashimoto & Otani). Other than that the rest of roster were journey men wrestlers from the US & Japan, friends of Muto like AKIRA, and guys past their prime like John Tenta, Mike Rotundo and in some ways Dr. Death Steve Williams. Anyhow, I'm trying to use the Gaora YouTube page as much as I can but not everything I am looking for is on there. I'll share the links for Gaora where I can so you can enjoy as well. Let's go!

    Toshiaki Kawada vs. Keiji Muto (04/14/2001): This was a great match that built off of Kawada attacking Muto's neck and Muto going after K's knees and arm. They didn't do anything earth-shattering but dammit it worked. This was a keep it simple stupid big match. If you're watching this in comparison to AJPW from a year earlier then I can see being let down. But in 2023, this stands on its own two feet. There's a great story, excellent selling, and explosive, meaningful action. Honestly, I really dug the neck out of this match. It was so easy to watch. A very good beginning!

    Genichiro Tenryu  vs. Keiji Mutoh (06/08/2001)
    Absolutely great match that played to both guys' strengths and weaknesses. Choice highspots, surprises and competitive spirit - it again was simple but effective heavyweight big match wrestling. I think this may have been better than the Kawada match above due to the familiarity between Tenryu & Muto. 

    Keiji Mutoh vs. Toshiaki Kawada (02/24/2002)
    What makes this match work as it goes on it Muto's legitimate knee problems. So we've got two guys with leg problems (and are getting older). That said, they are more familiar now and go for a more complex match and it works fantastically. They go for it and it is a classic! It's not as brutally stiff at every turn from Kawada but it shows that he's way more than stiff kicks and chops. Muto does his thing kinda like Flair but like Flair if given an excellent opponent, you get an excellent match. That's been the case so far but here they go that extra mile. Both put on an excellent performance.
     

    Genichiro Tenryu vs. Satoshi Kojima (07/17/2002) : This is one that's gotten talk in the past. A battle between youth and age. Fire vs experience. I loved it! I'm A fan of both guys so watching them go toe to toe for a half hour or so was a real treat. The fans were loving this as well. Nowadays or in the last decade you'd see stuff like this but it would be about machismo and/or hulking up but here they really sold the toll the fight was having on them. Again, Tenryu had his leg kicked in and can't bounce back from that. Kojima has been in some tough fights but these big time matches against living legends is how he's going to get him name in the record books. He's got to get chopped, punched, kicked, dropped on his head...and still get up and get angry. With all of that baked in along with WAR style that Tenryu brings and demands of his opponents, this is a classic match to me.

    Taiyo Kea & Satoshi Kojima vs Masato Tanaka & Shinjiro Otani (12/06/02): RWTL final match I believe. It's a really good match but I'm not too strong on the outcome. I think Kea got hurt legitimately during the early portions and it was almost a 2 on one fight. I don't think they were going for this as the story or as some homage to the 1988 RWTL final. Because the outcome didn't really make 100% sense however I do think the closing portion was extremely badass. I mean Kojima vs Tanaka is worth your time and its only about 20 minutes long as Gaora shows a bunch of pre and post match fluff.
     

    Toshiaki Kawada & Masanobu Fuchi vs Keiji Muto & Satoshi Kojima (04/12/03): Kawada's return match after the 02/2002 match above. His knee got injured again then. So you know that's fair game in this matchup. The fans even boo Muto when he goes after it. But this is not the story of the match as they don't really belabor that point. This is a nice change of pace. The knee is bugging him but not taking him out completely so you're rooting for him to stay in the fight. You're really rooting for Masa Fuchi too..don't ever count out Fuchi Dammit! Lots of great action with excellent timing and selling. This was a great match... near classic stuff to be honest. Slight joined in progress and perhaps one small clip in the Gaora footage below.
     

    Shinya Hashimoto VS Satoshi Kojima (06/13/2003): What an absolutely stiff match Hashimoto fought. You could hear his kesagiri chops! He even chopped Kojima's arm so hard you could hear it! Koji was no slouch either but man alive Hash was just laying it in. And it was a simple match that didn't have a big story within the match but was elevated by Shinya's intensity and Koji knowing he had to match it or get destroyed.  It is weird seeing basically two NJ wrestlers fighting for the AJPW Triple Crown. But these two really embody the physicality of AJPW. A great match! One I don't recall hearing about.
     

    Toshiaki Kawada vs. Takao Omori (07/18/04): A really neat story match as Kawada hurts his own knee on a knee drop. What's interesting beyond that is Omori doesn't make this a Muto match and go ape shit after the leg. He instead sees it as an opportunity to beat Kawada on his own terms. Omori knows (in a way) that Kawada's kicks are hurting him with each one he throws. If Takao can punish the leg and even force Kawada to use the kicks, it will give him time find an opportunity unload his Ax Bomber lariat and Ax Guillotine Driver. This was Kawada wanting to tell a story, Omori was eager to tell that as well. Kawada sold the story just about all of the way to the end even collapsing on a kenka kick doing a back & forth segment. In some ways you couldn't tell this was 2004 or that Omori was with Zero One. It was a real turn back the clock AJ fight that built wonderfully into a nearly classic match. I've heard its better than the more talked about Misawa vs Kojima match from the same show.
    This has been pretty awesome so far. I do understand why people may have been disappointed at the time. It is more like NJPW of the 90's than AJPW. But that makes sense doesn't it? I would maybe say it's a bit of a hybrid. Like every promotion in the early 2000's, it was a transitional period of time. That is apparent here but the known quantities, your stars can still be depended on. Kawada, Muto, Kojima, Tenryu still bring the goods. And I'm no Muto devotee. Probably should have opened up with that but if there's any skepticism in my reviews, I wanted to say that Next time, I'll be looking at 2005-2010.
×
×
  • Create New...