William Bologna

Elgin is terrible at every single aspect of pro wrestling other than being strong (and look, he's got barbells on his gear!). I sincerely believe that he is the worst guy on the NJPW roster.

I tracked this down because I wanted to see Tenryu pin Baba, and I'm glad I did. This was a masterclass in working with limited opponents. What do you do when half the participants in a match are old men who can't do anything convincingly? You stiff the hell out of them. You get blood on the face in peril. You bump like crazy during the comebacks. Great, intense match.

Tatsumi Fujinami vs Takahashi Ishikawa 1/4/1993 After one whole match, we set aside the feud with the fake outsiders for a feud with real ones: This year's January 4th Tokyo Dome show is headlined by back-to-back NJPW vs. WAR clashes! (Heisei Ishingun is all the way down in the second match, behind a bunch of WCW guys.) A rivalry with WAR is a difficult thing to book. At the top, you have Genichiro Tenryu. He's won the triple crown. He's pinned Baba. He's got a pedigree, credibility. So you match him up with Riki Choshu at the top of the card (it wasn't any good, but that's not the point). If Choshu's #1, then Fujinami's #2, and he gets . . . Takahashi Ishikawa. That's the problem when you're dealing with Tenryu's vanity promotion. The talent thins out real fast after you get past Tenryu. I knew nothing about Ishikawa, but he looks like Tenryu and Arashi had a kid. Hell, I read his Wikipedia article and I still don't know much about him, which makes me think that there's just not that much to know. But here he is the semi-main of a sold out Tokyo Dome show, so let's see what happens. Fujinami comes out hot with the boxing. A dropkick sends Ishikawa outside, and he follows up with a tope. At this point the crowd is going apeshit. Then Ishikawa takes over, and we sit in a headlock for most of the rest of the match. Whew! I was getting a little overexcited there. Eventually Ishikawa escapes two dragon sleeper attempts by kicking Fujinami in the face (that was cool). He hits two powerbombs and goes to the top after Fujinami kicks out, but our hero follows him and suplexes him. He hits three Inoki-style enzuigiris and locks in the dragon sleeper for the win. This was OK. The body of the match was dull, but not so dull that I'm mad or anything. Ishikawa did not appear to be on Fujinami's level, either as a worker or as a believable competitor. I think some of the subtext of the work was lost on me - in addition to Fujinami's alluding to Inoki with the kicks, Ishikawa tried a dragon sleeper of his own and a scorpion deathlock. I guess they were doing a thing?

Tatsumi Fujinami & Riki Choshu & Osamu Kido vs Kengo Kimura & Shiro Koshinaka & Masashi Aoyagi 8/15/1992 Here we have the debut of Heisei Ishingun, a faux outsider faction that kicked around for most of the 90s and never accomplished much. You've got Kimura trying to get out from under Fujinami's modest shadow; Koshinaka (now in black pants!) using his ass attacks for evil; and Aoyagi, who likes to kick it. He's a karate guy. It's funny Aoyagi showed up here - I just started listening to Bahu's magisterial history of FMW, the early part of which is all Onita vs. Aoyagi and various other karate guys. Never heard of the guy in my life, and here is showing up twice in a week. The idea here is to get the HI faction over as a threat even though no one in it was previously perceived as such, so everyone's selling like crazy for these guys. In particular, Kimura's spamming these leg lariats and the boys in black trunks are acting like they're devastating. There's some good heat here. Before the match begins, Fujinami strolls over to have a word with Kimura, but Koshinaka steps in and slaps him across the face. There's also a yelling match with one of HI's corner men (I think it's Akitoshi Saito, but he doesn't have completely terrible hair so I can't be sure). After ten minutes or so of fast-paced action, Kimura pins Fujinami after one of those leg lariats. Then everyone runs in and we have a brawl. This was cool. I went back and looked up the Heisei Ishingun stuff after the match - while I was watching it, I had no idea why these people were teaming or what, in general, was the beef, but I liked it anyway.

The interview with Juice was fun. He just seems like a good dude. Jay White was dull. Cody was a pretty interesting overview of the business and WWE's writer problems. The Tanahashi one was a little painful since the guy doesn't speak English and Dave absolutely refuses to stop asking paragraph-long multi-part questions in those situations. He confirmed that Kenta Kobashi is a nice guy. It was interesting that both Juice and Tanahashi expressed some reservations about the current style ("Too much moves"), and then Takahashi goes out and breaks his neck the next day.

The two best heavyweights in New Japan having a title match in England. Not only a fascinating example of professional wrestling in our time, but also evidence that Rev Pro's booking is better than New Japan's.

I had a blast at the ROH show last night, and there weren't any pederasts in the ring as far as I could tell.

"TATSUNJI FUJINAMI" TATSUJIFUJINAMI & POETRY ECHANAKA VS YOSHIHIRO & MUTO KEIJI 2/8/1992 I copy and paste the titles of these matches straight from NJPW World, and sometimes it goes crazy. I don't know if it's the site or my browser, but this is Fujinami and Shiro Koshinaka vs. Keiji Muto and Hiroshi Hase. I was really looking forward to this match, and it was a letdown. A letdown big enough that it threw the future of this Fujinami Project into question. More on that later. Interesting lineup here. Koshinaka and Hase helped me get past judging workers by their movesets. When I first got into Japanese wrestling, I was in awe of all the hot moves. Obviously a match with a half nelson suplex is better than one without, right? But that kind of thinking leads to enjoying Michael Elgin matches (and putting out a widely-read wrestling newsletter) (and being a dick on Twitter all the time for no reason), so I'm glad Hiroshi Hase came along. He's got his giant swing and his corny pro wrestling submissions, but I've never seen a Hase match I didn't like. Koshinaka's no Hase, but he looks like a chimp and has good enough matches built around hitting people with his ass. Same lesson. Muto's OK in small doses as long as he's wearing trunks and not running the promotion. So this should be pretty good! It's not. They do some matwork, and then there's a lot of rope-running. There's no story, no structure. Everyone takes turns being the face in peril, and none of the tags are hot. The high spots are all boring pro wrestling submissions (dragon sleeper, scorpion deathlock). Finally Hase hits Koshinaka with a Northern Lights suplex holdo and Muto stands in front of Fujinami long enough for a three count. I'm shocked that this wasn't better. We know Fujinami can go. Hase's one of my favorite wrestlers, and Koshinaka and Muto are fine too. Put the four of them together, and you get this dispirited mess. I wondered what All Japan was doing at the same time. Thanks to this very site's match discussion archive, I found a match from February of 1992: Furnas & Kroffat vs. Kawada & Kikuchi. Not only did I enjoy this match more than Fujinami & Koshinaka vs. Muto & Hase, I enjoyed it more than any Fujinami match I've reviewed. It was, in fact, better than anything I've seen in the year-plus I've subscribed to New Japan World. This led to some soul-searching. Why am I watching Fujinami decay year by year when 1990s All Japan deep cuts are so much more fun? There are Furnas & Kroffat matches I've never seen - how do I justify sitting through the annual "just get him on the card" old man Fujinami tag match at the Tokyo Dome? I don't know what star rating you should give a match so bad that it makes you want to give up on a wrestler and just watch Doug Furnas forever.

Watching the Fujinami matches, it really struck how fast he got good. He wasn't terrible when he showed up in New Japan in 1987, but he was obviously green. By the time he won the IWGP belt in the tournament in 1989, though, he was damn good, and he'd only started in 85. He was still effective, diminished but dangerous, in his All Japan run, and that gives him 20 years of solid work. Remarkable longevity for a man that size working a rough style. Update: I'm so stricken by grief that I got mixed up about the difference between 10 and 20. Let's just all pretend it was 20 years.

IWGP Heavy & Gray test 18 club certification both championship game Tatsumi Fujinami vs Riki Choshu 1/4/1992 It's a special occasion here in the Tokyo Dome. The announcers are wearing tuxedos, and the capacity crowd is electric for this, the last Fujinami vs. Choshu singles match I have to review! It's a big one, as Fujinami's putting his IWGP heavyweight championship on the line, while Choshu is risking his bullshit, made-up-ass Greatest 18 Club title. They pick up where they left off in the 80s with some deliberate matwork. Too much for a twelve minute match. Fujinami tries to get things heated up with an unsportsmanlike slap off a rope break, but Choshu's not quite ready, so we do some more matwork. And even though I was a little bored, it seems that Riki was correct. Based on the reaction of the crowd, the pacing here cannot be faulted. The spectators were never uninterested and became downright ecstatic as things reached their end. That end comes when Choshu hits three consecutive lariats - two to the front of Fujinami and one to the back - to win one title and retain another. If it weren't for the finish, which was not only clean and definitive but also an example of the escalation of punishment required to win a match, this could have come right out of 1983.

There was a Three Stooges where Curly had to replace a wrestler who looked like Action Bronson. I don't know if it was good, but it was something.

When you hear him talk about good matches - "Well, they'll have a good match" - it's almost a mechanical thing. Number of hot moves plus number of nearfalls equals good match. Serious question: Has there ever been a PWG-style Meltzerbait match that he didn't fall for? Has he ever been bored by lots of moves and nearfalls?

I saw that Always Sunny episode three or four times before I realized that the guy Da Maniac is wrestling at the beginning is Don Frye.

"TATSUNJI FUJINAMI" TATSUJIFUJINAMI VS GREAT · MUTA 9/23/1991 I was excited to watch a Fujinami vs. Muto singles match until I discovered that I was getting Muto's self-indulgent, Chris Gaines-esque alter ego. Why wrestle when you can wander around and hit people with stuff? Muta shows off during the introductions, but Fujinami's motto is "Spit mist get kicked," and he takes the early advantage. He beats up on Muta, sends him outside, hits a tope . . . and then strolls back in the ring. But this makes perfect sense and highlights the only thing I liked about this match. There was a pronounced difference between our competitors: Fujinami is a wrestler. Muta is (a guy pretending to be) an out of control demon from Hell. Fujinami realizes that Muta's in his element outside the ring where anything goes, so he avoids it. Muta, meanwhile, shows how comfortable he is out there by disappearing under the ring for a while in search of stuff to hit Fujinami with. Once he rejoins us, he remains out of control and unties a turnbuckle cover. The turnbuckle becomes his own petard, however, and Fujinami hoists him upon it. The hoisting is short-lived as Fujinami goes into it, which kicks off the lame portion of the match. Muta strolls around the ring and every so often finds a foreign object to hit Fujinami with (the Japanese word for case is "case-u"). Fujinami bleeds, Muta bites him, the fans boo, and I eventually stop paying attention. I had to go back in there to figure out where the ref bump came from. I should have guessed, but it was mist. So the ref's out for a while because Keiji Muto decided that he wanted everyone to pretend that he had mystical powers but only when he puts on long pants, and we get the traditional spot where the good guy totally would have pinned the bad guy if only there were someone to count. Then Muta hits Fujinami with a bottle, moonsaults him, and wins. They're really going to the "champion loses a non-title match" crutch a lot here. This was bad. Fujinami was very good - he showed great babyface fire for once, particularly when he had Muta in the corner and slapped him repeatedly. The bulk of the match - Muta doing heel stuff - was listless and seemed never to end. I really did stop paying attention. I wonder if the structure, which was unusual if not experimental, was effective. We had an actual heel/face dynamic here, and the crowd responded appropriately. They booed Muta rather than merely not cheering him, and they were very hot for Fujinami's comebacks. However, they were quiet during the cruddy brawling and noticeably flat for the finish. Perhaps the cheating leading directly to the finish was too much for them.

"TATSUNJI FUJINAMI" TATSUJIFUJINAMI VS MASAHIRO BUTOHNO 5/31/1991 Maybe it's Chrome's fault, but NJPW World has actually gotten harder to decipher. Mr. Butohno is Chono. It's Fujinami's 20th anniversary, and his wife and child are in attendance to see him take on the Jumbo Tsuruta role as the old guy holding down the young up and comers. Here he defends the IWGP title against young Masahiro "But Oh No" Chono, whom I've never liked. They say that he was a good worker before a back injury reduced him to wearing cool outfits and gesturing with a baseball bat, but until now I've had to take their word for it. These are the same people who never warned me about Osamu Kido being cool, so we'll see. We start off hot with a slap leading to a brawl leading to some headlocks. Fujinami's back to his matwork, but it's OK because this is the good matwork. Chono throws some yakuza kicks, but they're not called that yet. I was surprised to see what a daredevil he was. He hits a diving body press from the top rope to the apron and a shoulder block off the top. Eventually after some shenanigans (ref bump, tope from Fujinami), the champion starts working on the dragon sleeper. His third procurement of the hold is decisive as Fujinami shows that he's no keener than Jumbo on letting the youngsters take his spot. Good stuff. Fujinami worked well in his role, and Chono was as good as advertised. The 90s puroresu cognoscenti is forgiven for not telling me about Super Strong Machine.

11TH GAME NWA WORLD & IWGP BOTH HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIPS FIGHT FUJINAMI TATSUJI VS RICK FLAIR 3/21/1991 A disassembled portmanteau is always amusing, so I'm pleased that NJPW World calls this show "Star Arcade in Tokyo Dome." I'm having a brother romance with that. I might take a stay vacation and watch Slam Jamboree. This match is the forerunner of the Superbrawl contest, and it's more of the same. Flair does Flair stuff with Fujinami in the broom position. He's just not good at this kind of thing. Flair does all the comeback-feeding tricks - he bleeds all over the place, he begs off, he goes to the top with no intention of jumping on anyone - but Fujinami is simply incapable of responding with the kind of babyface fire that his role requires. Sometimes he claps and says "yeah" or something. That's him showing personality. Flair resorts to working with trouble-shooting referee Bill Alphonso. He shoves him when Alphonso wants Flair to get back in the ring; he manhandles him a bit when he's trying to stop Flair from pouncing on Fujinami; he even lets out a "You keep your mouth shut!" when Alphonso objects to some rule-bending. Alphonso, in fact, takes the best move of the match. In order to set up the dumb ending, Flair charges Fujinami, who gets out of the way and lets Alphonso take a huge shot from Flair. He's knocked silly, and it's great. But then Fujinami pins Flair a couple times with no ref. Tiger Hattori comes in and finally counts three on the same abdominal stretch pin that beat Kido last time. Fujinami's a double champ! Momentarily! Everyone's very excited, and he's hoisted on shoulders. Their rematch was better - Fujinami is really pretty bad in this. He doesn't work well with Flair, and he whiffs on all his dropkicks. He's no Jushin "Thunder" Lion Tiger.

TATSUMI FUJINAMI VS OSAMU KIDO 2/5/1991 One of the pleasant surprises in this project is how good some of these New Japan mid-carders were. I'd never seen a Kido match, and no one ever told me to. But the dude was pretty good! Ditto for Kantaro Hoshino, Super Strong "Junji Hirata" Machine, Kuniaki Kobayashi, and Kengo Kimura. These fellows are not widely discussed, but they haven't let me down yet. Kido by this point no longer looks like a wrestler; he looks like management. He's got an efficient mustache and a bottom line-oriented haircut. He gives Fujinami a firm handshake, and I was half expecting him to hand over a business card along with it. Kido and Fujinami lock up and take the crowd back to 1981. We got matwork! It's really good matwork, and the crowd is into it. They build to some dropkicks and uppercuts, Fujinami hits a backdrop backbreaker and a dragon sleeper, and he wins with an abdominal stretch into a pin. This was a nifty exhibition, and it showcased Fujinami in his element (this is in contrast to the next match, where we'll see him struggle to work with Ric Flair). It's an odd thing to include on NJPW World, but I stopped trying to make sense of that months ago.

THE BIG BANG VADER VS TATSUMI FUJINAMI 2/9/1989 We're back in the early days of Vader - he has his steaming headgear and his Brad Rheingans, and he's not very good. This is a solid enough match, but all I can see is the missed opportunities. They repeatedly almost build to a big heated babyface comeback, and then they just stall out. For example, there's a brawl outside the ring. This is pretty far into the match, so everyone (including me) thinks the countout is coming, and Fujinami gets a big pop when he rolls Vader back in. He lets out a fighting spirit yell and heads in to really take it to his opponent! Except he doesn't. He climbs through the ropes like it's his first time, half-heartedly clubs Vader on the back, and calls a spot. Crowd (including me) deflated. That’s not the only example. Fujinami’s comebacks throughout the match just don’t land owing to poor execution and timing. It’s clear that he’s leading Vader by the hand through this, but even dealing with the rookie, I’m surprised he can’t build to much. I went back through the Vader matches I’d watched before this, and I was pleased to see that this confirmed my prior thoughts. Vader became good at some point between February 9 and April 24 1989. His April match with Fujinami is super rad; in everything before that, he’s OK and has decent matches, but there’s always something he screws up. In this one, it’s a spot where he whips Fujinami into the corner and charges after him. Fujinami gets his boots up, but Vader just charges through it and whomps him anyway. That’s actually pretty cool, but the problem is that after their sojourn to the outside, they come in and redo it. This time, Vader makes damn sure he eats the kick by tiptoeing up to Fujinami like a ballerina and then flinging himself backwards. In general, he lacks any kind of flow on offense. It all feels very abrupt. That’s not to say that there’s not good stuff. I love his clubbing punches, and Fujinami is really good at taking Vader’s clotheslines. We get a near finish as Vader hoists Fujinami for a vertical suplex, but the smaller man drops behind, procures a sleeper and then upgrades it into a dragon sleeper. Vader’s in trouble, but he gets out of it by punching Fujinami in the damn face. He even goes to the top and proves he’s a better man than Bigelow by not falling off but instead throwing his bulk into a standing Fujinami and landing on his feet. This gets less of a pop than I would have expected – the crowd in general is subdued, and the herky-jerkiness of the pacing doesn’t improve matters. Vader wins after a clothesline and then bellows into the mic about wanting a title shot (Fujinami was the champ, but this was non-title).

McIntyre's face is too small for his head.

Tatsumi Fujinami on the WWE Network Gaiden concludes with... Ric Flair vs. Tatsumi Fujinami (WCW SuperBrawl 5/19/1991) This follows some kind of disputed finish between these two in Japan, which we'll get to pretty soon once we return to our regularly-scheduled NJPW World programming. Fujinami enters preceded by some uncomfortable-looking women in geisha robes sprinkling flowers in front of him to thunderous applause from . . . some dudes with signs in Japanese yelling his name? Dusty or somebody must have given them those signs and told them to cheer for the Japanese guy, right? Unless St. Petersburg has a bunch of white wrestling fans who pretend to be Japanese. That'd just be pathetic. Flair's entrance is possibly even dumber, as a chef and a butler and a maid and someone else come out (and stand around for a while since they mistimed it) and wait for Flair to hand off his watch. WCW in 1991 is looking pretty low-rent. So what we get here is a good Ric Flair match with Fujinami as a mildly involved bystander. I can see how people get tired of Flair's formula, and if I watched three of these in a row I probably would be too. But it's been a nice long time since I'd seen a Flair match, so this was a lot of fun. The chops, the theatrical selling, the kneedrop . . . meanwhile, I couldn't tell you anything Fujinami did except screw up a couple times. Speaking of screw ups, I'm going to give an extra shout-out to the Nature Boy here. Having bladed, he goes for an Oklahoma roll and misses. Instead of trying it again, he acts like the blood in his eyes caused the misfire. Very clever. Also worth a shout is Dusty Rhodes on color commentary. I'm familiar with his work later in the decade when he'd continually ignore what was going on in the ring to babble about whatever terrible main event WCW was going to subject us to. He was just great here, his trademark Dustyisms mixed in with good strategic insights. Most of it was about how much everyone's back hurts, but it gave the match a real sports feel. The finish comes when Flair kicks out of a sloppy rollup attempt, sending Fujinami noggin-first into Tiger Hattori. Flair then grabs the tights and trouble-shooting referee Bill Alphonso makes the count. It is certainly bizarre to have Tatsumi Fujinami main event an American pay-per-view in 1991, but the match was pretty good. It dragged a bit, and once again Fujinami was overhadowed by his opponent, but it could have been worse. The next WWF PPV had Hogan and Warrior vs. Iraqis as a main event.

Tatsumi Fujinami on the WWE Network Gaiden continues. Tatsumi Fujinami and Takayuki Iizuka vs. Rick Steiner and Scott Steiner (WCW WrestleWar 5/17/1992) This match is apparently infamous for the Steiners being incompetent, unprofessional, violent pricks. Scott Steiner's main problem, other than rage issues and a reliance on horse steroids, is that his reach exceeds his grasp. He's convinced that he can do these really nifty moves, and when he fucks them it must be someone else's fault. And that someone else needs to get potatoed in order to teach him a lesson about how you shouldn't let a juiced-up halfwit fuck up moves on you. Case in point: Steiner tries a blockbuster suplex on Fujinami and messes it up because it's a stupid move and Steiner's worse at pro wrestling than he thinks he is. He responds to this setback by cuffing Fujinami right in the jaw with a clothesline. Maybe I'm defensive because I've been reviewing the guy's matches for what feels like forever, but who in the hell is Scott Steiner to be stiffing Tatsumi fucking Fujinami? I know his name has a lot of syllables, but he's not some jobber you toss around, you chemical monstrosity. The Steiners are absolutely terrible pro wrestlers. Let's add up all the factors. They can't get over without ingesting their own body weight in steroids. They can't get over without doing a bunch of complicated hot moves that they can't pull off. They can't get over without hurting people. It makes you appreciate people who are really good at pro wrestling, like Hulk Hogan. Sure, Hogan needed the roids, but he didn't injure anyone, and he knew exactly what he was capable of. He didn't fuck up the hulk-up, you know? It also makes you appreciate shit-talking crippled Scott Steiner. Not only is listening to him do quick maths as good as wrestling gets, his dimished physical state leads to fewer near-manslaughters via ill-conceived suplex. So anyway, this is at a WCW show with Jesse Ventura and Jim Ross on commentary. That's a plus, because Ventura really is the best ever. He's an honest broker: he'll point out that we should be rooting for the Steiners because of the state of Detroit's auto industry, but he'll also point out when the Steiners are cheating. A man you can trust. Gary Cappetta in introducing the match uses what an old professor of mine called the lilies of the field construction, which is poetic if not strictly grammatical: "The following tag team event, it is set for one fall." Iizuka, wearing hot pink, is really good in this. I feel like he gets it a little more than Fujinami. This is a match with no issue (the winning team is #1 contender for the IWGP tag titles! Obviously the fans in Jacksonville are going to be on the edge of their seats for those stakes); the people don't know the Japanese guys. So Iizuka goes out there and does all the hottest stuff he can think of, and he gets some good reactions. I liked one part where he had Scott in a Boston crab. Steiner was about to reverse it, and rather than let him get out, Iizuka rolled him over and tried to pin him. Just a nifty piece of logical wrestling. I feel sorry for the guy - it seems like every time I see him he's getting stiffed by some crowbar. In this one, Rick Steiner crushes his face, and I have a VHS tape on which Mitsuya Nagai kicks him right in his damn throat. It's the hard knock life for Iizuka. So anyway, they beat each other up for a while and Scott fucks up suplexes, and finally Rick hits a belly to belly off the top and pins Iizuka. I hated this. I hated the Steiners. I hated Jim Ross for turning the Steiners' fumbling brutality into a WCW selling point. I liked Iizuka and Jesse Ventura.

I cashed in my free month of the WWE Network (I feel just like Carmella!). It's nice enough, but the only way I'm going to pay for it is if I forget to cancel after a month. So while I still have access, here's Tatsumi Fujinami on the WWE Network Gaiden. Johnny Rivera vs. Tatsumi "Dragon" Fujinami WWF Junior Heavyweight Championship 12/17/1979 Coming to you from Madison Square Garden, home of the biggest damn wrestling ring I've ever seen. In awe of the size of this ring. Absolute unit. The top rope is up by their ears. Fujinami isn't a towering behemoth or anything, but the ring makes him look like Sky Low Low. Vince is doing commentary all by his lonely. He doesn't know what any of the moves are called. Johnny Rivera is from Puerto Rico and is apparently better known as Invader #3. He and Fujinami have what Vince calls (often) a scientific match - lots of hiptosses and pinning combinations and handshakes. Fujinami wins with a German suplex (Vince: "Look at this!"). This fits nicely into the earliest part of the Fujinami story. His WWF junior matches are always fun, but this is more interesting for the setting than for anything that happens in the match.

TATSUMI FUJINAMI VS KURASSSHA, BAM BAM BIGELOW 1/16/1989 As a result of his humiliating, fall-off-the-ropes-like-a-dumbass loss six days ago, Crusher Bam Bam Dr. Death the Lariat Bigelow . . . gets a title shot! Against the guy who just beat him! I don't know what kind of crooked Great White Hype-style commission decides who fights for the IWGP heavyweight championship, but this is awfully fishy. The Diet should look into this. Bigelow tries to show some intensity. I like his demeanor before the match starts - he comes off as intense but nervous, which is appropriate for a title fight. The problem is that he can look all tough and mean, but his work is neither. His stuff is just too loose. Fujinami tries for a sunset flip but is countered by Bigelow sitting on him. But it looks lousy, because Bam Bam barely makes contact. We get an unfortunate closeup of Bigelow throwing strikes at a grounded Fujinami, and he misses by a mile. If I were a wrestler, I'm sure I'd much rather work with Bigelow than Vader. But as a spectator with a sociopathically low level of concern for the physical well-being of others... Bigelow is famous for his agility, but that's not always good. He throws a nifty dropkick, but he also takes a goofy, forced flip bump on an enzuigiri that got an actual chortle out of me. Not the reaction you want in a title match. This is a typical Fujinami vs. large man match. Big guy slams Fujinami; Fujinami writhes amid comebacks. He gets the win on a Thesz press of all things, and the booking has not been doing Fujinami any favors ever since he became a heavyweight. He seldom really beats anyone - you know, KOs them with a dragon suplex or whatever. Back in his junior days, he looked like a killer, but at heavyweight, he's always just barely getting out of there with a sunset flip or a cradle or a countout or something. Meanwhile, Bigelow continues to be out of his element. He looks kind of like Vader; he's shaped like Vader; he does everything worse than Vader. I feel sorry for him having to tag with a much better version of himself.

Owen vs. Bret cage match. I hate that match.

TATSUMI FUJINAMI VS KURASSSHA, BAM BAM BIGELOW 1/10/1989 Let's see if Fujinami can keep up his hot streak against giant, spherical Americans. They're calling Bigelow "Crusher Bam Bam Bigelow," which is just too many nicknames. Is "Bam Bam" supposed to be his real name, and "Crusher" is his nickname? Regardless, Fujinami doesn't wait to start kicking Crusher Bam Bam Bigelow the Bruiser in his legs. Sadly, this can't go on forever, and eventually they have to let Crusher Bam Bam "The American Dream" Bigelow the Bruiser retaliate. His generic, big-man-killing-time-until-the-Hulkster-makes-his-comeback-brother offense really makes you appreciate Vader. Even worse is a brief attempt at martial arts. Bam Bam "The Dragon" Bigelow switched up his stance, and I winced before I even saw his awful karate kick. The only memorable thing about this match comes as Ultimo Bam Bam Bigelow goes to the top rope . . . and falls off. Fujinami here shows his poise and experience, as he does not miss a beat. No standing around in a stupor, no trying to repeat the spot - he pounces on Bigelow, smirks at the crowd, and goes right on offense. It's so smooth, in fact, that I think this was supposed to be a transition. Bam Bam J.T. Smith Bigelow was supposed to screw up his move, just not quite like that. There's a new contender for worst Fujinami finish. Bigelow hoists his opponent into a vertical suplex position but places him gently on the ropes so he can land on the apron (why would he do that?). He then tries vertically to suplex Fujinami back into the ring, but Fujinami lands on him for what turns out after some soul-searching by the referee to be a three count. Both competitors look confused, and they stand around for a bit until Fujinami leaves. Five minutes, felt longer, huge botch, bad finish. The main event on this show, by the way, was Choshu vs. Vader. It went seven minutes before Vader got himself disqualified. Just a real solid pro wrestling show right here. It's amazing this company is still in business.