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TheBean

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  1. TheBean
    Greatest Wrestler Ever is in the reveal stages. I was gonna put a list together but, it wasn't to be. I'm not a good person for lists. Do you know what I mean? I'm not a list kind of guy. Sure I'll have a shopping list or or a to-do list but I struggle with these kinds of lists. It starts out as fun but it eventually takes over my fucking mind. "Just Right" thinking is what it's known as in some circles 🙂 So there's no way I can get a list of 100 of my favorite wrestlers together in any fucking order at least. Yeah, ordinal lists are a problem.
    It's cool to see a bunch of other people did. It's also cool to see some youngbloods on the board. Hope you folks stick around! As I said elsewhere, it be cool to hear some different views on some old matches on the Match Discussion archives.
    Back on my original blog, I did a big list of my favorite projects from the first 350 posts. I'm going to share that here with you. It's really the best way I feel like a I can participate in the GWE experience/excitement. If you're looking to the GWE stuff for new people and matches to watch, I hope this helps. I'm pretty sure you're still going to watch wrestling afterwards, right?
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    Early-mid 80's AJPW is really awesome stuff. I think it's a fantastic way for someone to get into old school wrestling or Japanese wrestling. You've got lots of legends and it's got a even mix of U.S. & Japanese stars. Then when Terry "retires", Brody is in NJPW and Riki & co. join for a few years, it feels like a brand new organization. Similar to the early days of NOAH or when Akiyama & co. go to AJPW in 2013. Hansen, Tenryu & Terry Funk are my #1, 2 & 3 wrestlers of all time. Jumbo, Misawa and Riki up in the top quarter for sure. I would probably put Dory Jr. there as well. Seriouly, I see people ranking Baba but no Dory Jr.!? 😁Then personal favorites like Ted DiBiase, Yoshiaki Yatsu, Ashura Hara & Kuniaki Kobayashi are shining in this era too. Top 50 guys. This is prime stuff. Here's the best of what I saw:
    Bruiser Brody vs Jumbo Tsuruta (10/14/83) Dory Funk Jr. vs Stan Hansen (AJPW 11/28/83)  Baba & Dory Jr. vs Hansen & Brody (AJPW 12/10/83) Jumbo Tsuruta vs Kerry Von Erich (AJPW 05/22/84) Brody & Hansen vs Baba & Dory Jr. (AJPW 08/26/84) Tiger Mask II vs Pirata Morgan (AJPW 12/08/84) Brody & Hansen vs Terry & Dory Funk Jr. (AJPW 12/08/84)  Bruiser Brody & Stan Hansen vs Jumbo Tsuruta & Genichiro Tenryu (AJPW 12/12/84)  Kuniaki Kobayashi vs Tiger Mask (AJPW 06/21/85) Riki Choshu vs Genichiro Tenryu (AJPW 06/21/85) Kuniaki Kobayashi vs Tiger Mask (AJPW 08/31 aired 09/07/85) Stan Hansen/Ted DiBiase vs Jumbo Tsuruta/Genichiro Tenryu (AJPW 08/31 aired  09/07/85) Ric Flair v. Rick Martel (AJPW 10/21/85) Riki Choshu/Yoshiaki Yatsu vs Jumbo Tsuruta/Genichiro Tenryu (AJPW 11/30/85) Shoehi Baba/Dory Funk Jr v. Jumbo Tsuruta/Tenyru (AJPW 12/12/85) Stan Hansen/Ted DiBiase vs Riki Choshu/Yoshiaki Yatsu (12/12/85 aired 12/14) only 1/2  aired Tiger Mask vs Great Kabuki (01/28/86) Genichiro Tenryu vs Ashura Hara (04/12/86 AJPW) Tenryu & Giant Baba vs Stan Hansen & Ted DiBiase (07/05/86)  Stan Hansen vs Terry Gordy (09/11/86)  Tenryu & Tsuruta vs Giant Baba & Tiger Mask (11/28/86)  You'd be wise to check out 1985-86 for Animal Hamaguchi, Isamu Teranishi and Super Strong Machine (Junji Hirata) as well. No "classics" but really exciting wrestlers in great matches. These guys are fucking great! Definitely personal favorites that I watch for in New Japan and IWE as well. 
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    Tatsumi Fujinami became one of my favorites because of my 1988 New Japan project a few years ago. My admiration definitely increased when watching New Japan 1980. Fujinami is the quintessential technical pro wrestler. Top 10 wrestler. I highly recommend watching these:
    1980
    Tatsumi Fujinami & Kantaro Hoshino vs Dynamite Kid & Steve Keirn 01/18 Tatsumi Fujinami vs Dynamite Kid 02/05 Tatsumi Fujinami vs Ashura Hara 04/03 Tatsumi Fujinami vs Chavo Guerrero 05/09 Kengo Kimura vs Tatsumi Fujinami 09/25 1988
    Tatsumi Fujinami vs Big Van Vader (04/27/88) Tatsumi Fujinami vs Riki Choshu (05/27/88) Tatsumi Fujinami vs Riki Choshu (06/24/88) Tatsumi Fujinami vs Big Van Vader (06/26/88) Antonio Inoki vs Tatsumi Fujinami (08/08/88) Other pretty recent recommendations are:
    Genichiro Tenryu vs Tatsumi Fujinami - 04/29/96
    Hulk Hogan vs Tatsumi Fujinami - 03/12/82
    👆Click the links to go to Wrestling Dream Battles blog 👍
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    Tiger Mask I is absolutely worth checking out especially beyond his matches with Dynamite Kid. I think the hindsight "bad reputation" Tiger has gotten is from just how hard those matches were hyped. And don't get me wrong those are amazing matches at first but I've probably watched them all 5 times each. Only their final encounter holds up after multiple viewings. Tiger Mask/Sayama has one of the best runs ever. Some of my favorites from his New Japan tenure are:
    Tiger Mask vs Gran Hamada (11/05/81) Tiger Mask vs Steve Wright (04/01/82) Tiger Mask vs Black Tiger (05/26/82) Tiger Mask vs Bret Hart (07/30/82) Tiger Mask & Tatsumi Fujinami vs Black Tiger & Pete Roberts (08/27/82 NJPW) Tiger Mask vs Pete Roberts (09/10/82 NJPW) Tiger Mask vs Gran Hamada (02/03/83 NJPW) Tiger Mask vs Dynamite Kid (04/21/83 NJPW) Tiger Mask vs Kuniaki Kobayashi (06/02/83 NJPW) Tiger Mask vs Kuniaki Kobayashi (07/14/83 NJPW) Then you have his stuff in the original UWF and WoS. I don't know if he'd make my top 100 due to the brevity of his quality but certainly top 25 of the 1980's wrestlers.
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    I'm really glad that I've had the opportunity to dig into FMW. As an ECW fan in high school, FMW always seemed like the cooler cousin of ECW...if just for the Tanaka vs Awesome stuff. In my VHS days, I had BJW & IWA Japan stuff but not FMW. Eventually I got an Explosion Death Match comp tape. Then a few years later, I got the Highspots Hayabusa comp which was very good but not great as a taste of the true best of Hayabusa. So finally sinking my teeth into the meat of FMW has been fulfilling. As garbage/hard core wrestling has fallen out of mainstream favor for a long while, I think the memory of ECW and FMW is fading. So I'm glad to keep the flame burning. I need to watch more but my absolute favorites so far are:
    Atsushi Onita/Tarzan Goto vs M. Kurisu/Dragon Master [Kendo Nagasaki] (FMW 04/01/90) Masato Tanaka, Kuroda & Koji Nakagawa vs Kanemura, Hido & Hosaka (FMW - Exploding Barbwire match - 09/01/96) Masato Tanaka vs Mr. Gannosuke (01/06/98 FMW) Hayabusa vs Masato Tanaka (03/13/98 FMW) Hayabusa vs Mr. Gannosuke (04/30/98 FMW) Jado & Gedo vs Hayabusa & Masato Tanaka (05/05/98 FMW) HM Hayabusa & Tanaka vs W*ing Kanemura & Kodo Fuyuki (05/27/98 FMW) HM Tetushiro Kuroda vs Masato Tanaka (06/19/98 FMW) Hisakatsu Oya vs Tetsuhiro Kuroda (12/12/98 FMW) Masato Tanaka vs. Tetsuhiro Kuroda (FMW 02/27/99) Hayabusa & Jinsei Shinzaki vs Masato Tanaka & Tetsuhiro Kuroda (FMW 03/19/99) Masato Tanaka and Mr. Gannosuke are definitely top 100 guys. Tanaka's case gets stronger as he's awesome in the 2000's & early 2010's. I would say top 35. He is probably my favorite wrestler of all time BUT in my mind, that's not what the Greatest Wrestler Ever is. But maybe that's why I didn't put a list together 🤔😋
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    I'm very glad that I've been able to find and enjoy early ROH. I wasn't quite sure of what I was in store for as I wasn't sure just how developed some of guys were. And you can definitely see some chinks in their armor on some of the lesser known matches but, on the big recommended matches below, they delivered. As you can tell, there's a handful of guys working at that high level but the matches never seem repetitive. I threw in a couple other matches from IWA-MS may as have been in a ROH ring.
    The list below has some usual suspects but I bet there's a couple that you don't know:
    American Dragon vs Low-Ki vs Christopher Daniels - Era of Honor Begins (2002) American Dragon vs Christopher Daniels  - Round Robin Challenge (2002) Christopher Daniels vs Low-Ki - Round Robin Challenge (2002) American Dragon vs Low-Ki - Round Robin Challenge (2002) Jerry Lynn vs AJ Styles -  Road to the Title (2002) American Dragon vs AJ Styles -  All Star Extravaganza (2002) Low Ki vs American Dragon vs Steve Corino vs Samoa Joe - Final Battle (2002) Bryan Danielson vs Paul London  (ROH - Night of the Butcher 12/07/02) Samoa Joe vs Homicide (ROH Do Or Die – May 2003) Samoa Joe vs Christopher Daniels (ROH Glory by Honor II - September 2003) Samoa Joe vs AJ Styles (ROH War of the Wire - November 2003) AJ Styles vs Bryan Danielson (ROH Main Event Spectacles 2003) CM Punk vs AJ Styles (Tradition Continues 2003 ROH) Samoa Joe vs Homicide (ROH Death Before Dishonor 2, Night 1 07/23/04) Bryan Danielson vs Samoa Joe vs AJ Styles (TPI 2004 Finals 09/18/04 IWA-MS) Bryan Danielson vs Chris Hero (TPI 2005 09/24/2005 IWA-MS) HM Low Ki & Homicide vs Samoa Joe & Jay Lethal (Punk: The Final Chapter 2005) It looks very likely Danielson could end up winning the 2026 GWE. I can't rate him that high especially since I haven't seen much of his 2011-present work. I'd say top 50 and undoubtedly top 10 best wrestlers of the 2000's. AJ Styles is right up there with him...like I would probably put AJ ahead of Bryan because of his adaptability. He can wrestle American Dragon's style but also do the traditional high flyer style and more when he gets to TNA. Samoa Joe makes the top 100 but I'm not sure where. Top 75-85? CM Punk should be on the list. If we're talking total package then top 50 perhaps. Certainly top 25 of the 2000's.
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    I'm going to keep posting some of these match guides (battle guides) over on Wrestling Dream Battles. So if you're planning on watching more wrestling, you'll find some great recommendations there. Ones that are planned are: Joshi, Dragon Gate USA, AJPW 2010's, Ring of Honor 2009-2010's & Early 2000's Puro. Hope to see you there!
  2. TheBean

    Spotlight: Zero One Wrestling - 05/29/08

    By TheBean,


    Spotlight
    Hello fellow wrestling dorks! DVD viewing time and I'm watching more Zero One.
    •Yujiro & Tetsuya Naito v Osamu Namiguchi & Shito Ueda: Pretty fun little match. Simple but effective tag wrestling. Seriously, U.S. wrestling should just aim for this instead of over complicating everything.
    •Takao Omori v Kohei Sato: I'm not sure how this was edited time wise. Maybe half was shown of 10 minutes. What we got was enjoyable stuff. 
    •Daisuke Sekimoto v Kamikaze: 7 of 11 minutes. Holy cow! This was a hard hitting yet surprising little sprint. Kamikaze is an excellent mid card bruiser who pairs well with Sekimoto. This was a blast if you like lariats and suplexes!
    •Ikuto Hidaka & Munenori Sawa v Masaaki Mochizuki & Minoru Tanaka: Junior shoot-style brawl? That's a good way to describe this bout. They were haphazardly kicking each other all match. There's a lot of animosity here. This was really exciting and although a bit frenetic, it sold the hate. I definitely want to see more of these guys squaring off in '08. So it definitely did it's job 🙂 Great match
    •Masato Tanaka & Shinjiro Otani v Yuji Nagata & Manabu Nakanishi: Pretty damn captivating all out war! I actually watched this 2 nights in a row. The first time, I was pretty sleepy so I wanted to give it more attention. I'm so glad that I did. Any iffy feelings I had before could be attrition my need for sleep. This bout was the hard hitting, big bomb dropping match you want. Faces were smashed, brains were busted - yes if you like these wrestlers then, you will want to see this. And I'm going to say, give Manabu Nakanishi a little credit as a wrestler. This is the type of match he needs and thrives in. He might just be the best guy in here tonight. He had all kinds of little twists and cutoffs that added a bit of variety between the melee. This has a 9 on Cagematch and I can get behind that score. I'd say 8.5...it's a low end classic match. Clearly they have more inter-promotional fires to burn. I'm looking forward to seeing those!
  3. TheBean

    More May Madness! CMLL, MCMG, Michinoku & Rey vs Eddie

    By TheBean,


    You Might Have Missed
    Michinoku Pro Wrestling
    •Dick Togo vs Masato Yakushiji (03/07/97): Was going to watch this for March Mayhem but got it now! Yakushiji does a bunch of cool arm drags & ranas like you want him to. This is prime Togo so he makes all of that look great will still man handling the weenie Masato 😄 11 minutes of really fun stuff!
    •Shinzaki & Hamada vs Naniwa & Mochizuki (05/09/99): This match was about Jinsei being a heavyweight competing against juniors...and a FMW & All Japan level heavyweight at that. We get fun comedy with Mochi & Naniwa not wanting to face him. But they put their pea brains together and attack him as a team!  Hamada does some big moves but no other Gran Hamada awesomeness of note. This is a breezy action packed tag match. About 15 minutes.
    •Great Sasuke vs "Fake" Sasuke (Masao Orihara) (05/09/99): Big time singles matches. Much like lucha libre, there's more more brawling. Orihara & his valet were excellent heels. I mean Orihara was a real scum bag. But don't think there was great flying, counters & false finishes, this was a great match. Definitely cathartic.
    Rey Mysterio
    vs Eddie Guerrero (03/18/04 Smack Down!) A very good match for the belt. It was cool seeing them go so hard on a TV match when just a few years earlier they couldn't get 10 minutes on Nitro.
    vs Eddie Guerrero (09/09/05 Smack Down! Cage match): This is towards the end of the Dominik's Dad saga. Eddie looks like a disturbed individual. I really am appreciating his character work. This bout has excellent intensity along with  cool cage spots. They told a great story and sold how much they wanted to win. The finish was extremely clever given the storyline & personal animosity. A great cage match and seriously I am not a cage match fan.

    Motor City Machine Guns
    vs Kings of Wrestling (May 2010 ROH Super Card of Honor V): The Guns come out ready to fight. They do their synchronized attack but the Kings respond with a Storm of Boots to the face. The big guys use their size to their advantage. Chris damn near KO's Shelley with a back brain elbow - damn! This is as awesome as I hoped. I'm not going to spoil anything but we get a finish that serves the overall booking instead of serving the match. I can live with that especially since it's justified. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED Ring of Honor tag match. A classic to me.
    vs Matt Taven & Vinnie Marseglia (04/28/17 ROH Unauthorized): This takes me back watching ROH on Sinclair. I've got a clutch of these DVDs to watch and am pumped after this bout. It's a relaxed tag rules match. It features all sorts of tag switch a roo's, dives and other spots - High octane stuff! Taven & Vinnie were really good in keeping up with Shelley and Sabin. In fact, neither get any credit from what little I've seen. Taven was a great character & heel in late original ROH. In fact, he gets in some character work in this high speed bout. Respect is due! Great match - recommended!

    Lucha Libre Ladies
    •Cynthia Moreno, Lady Apache & Xochitl Hamada vs Martha Villalobos, La Tigresa, & La Diabolica (05/08/92 CMLL): Anyone familiar with early 90's joshi should be familiar with a few of these luchadoras. Like in AJW, they are amazing here. Just an amazing pace & dazzling skill from the technicas. A great team of rudas. I LOVED THIS ONE!
    •Cynthia Moreno, Lady Apache & Miss Janeth vs Dibolica, Tania & Maria del Angel (05/08/93 CMLL): Wow! What a first fall! Cynthia & Lady Apache are on some next level shit. They are so quick & graceful, making the rudas work like mad. Falls #2 & 3 are good and definitely have their moments but Fall #1 is where it's at. LIKED IT
    More good shit at wrestlingdreambattles.blogspot.com
  4. TheBean
    I pity the fool who thought I was taking a break! May Madness is here! A Video Daze entry as I'm posting video links where applicable. There's going to be more at Wrestling Dream Battles so click that link and join me. 
    Marufuji, Danielson & CIMA vs Davey Richards, Rocky Romero & Mochizuki (ROH Live in Osaka): Mochi is an honorary No Remorse Corps member & it totally makes sense. This is exactly the match you from these 6 dudes - plenty of stiff kicks & elbows, great team moves yet excellently paced. There's no rushing but no dragging things out either. A near classic? Low level classic? You decide! Strongly recommended 6 man.
     
     
    Rey Mysterio
    Rey Mysterio Jr. vs. Psychosis (WCW Bash at the Beach 1996): Fucking psychotic awesomeness! They wrestled this like it was their first, last & only match in WCW. They wrestled this like it was their last day on Earth. This was next level shit that is still ahead of its time because it is executed to perfection. As far as WCW Cruiserweight matches go, it a classic. Loved it! HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
     
    vs Dean Malenko (08/15/96 WCW Clash of the Champions): Rey was aggressive with his moves but Dean's had more effect. Malenko's Ice man persona was a great contrast to Rey's Mighty Mouse. This was a lot of fun opening match for the Clash. Cool finish too!
    vs Kaz Hayashi (05/01/99 WCW Sat. Night): 7 minutes but this was very good. It wasn't all rope running & high flying. Kaz was a good rudo & maskless Filthy Animal Rey was keeping hope alive. Very good TV match.
    Macho Man
    vs Bret Hart (Sat. Night Main Event 11/28/87): Only 15 minutes but they told a great story. There's great selling and constant action. Miss Elizabeth on the outside is fantastic! Bret and Savage are two of the very best going at it - classic match! HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
    vs Ted DiBiase (06/27/88 Cage Match): This is WAY better than their WM 4 match. This is a fight with urgency & desperation! Virgil is playing spoiler on the outside. Miss Elizabeth is beautiful yet helpless. The fans are electric! One kid is SO electric that his dumb ass climbs the cage trying to save Savage from Virgil's vicious assault. 😆 I love it! This is a great cage match. I recommend it to ya.
    Thank you for reading folks! More Madness to come!
  5. TheBean
    •Lex Luger vs Masahiro Chono: Color me surprised! This was very good stuff...maybe even great. Chono doesn't get the love he deserves. Just a great character especially in Japan. But here, I had no idea Luger was still wrestling. You know what I mean? This would have been pretty well received if it took place in the States, I think. Probably just because they actually wrestled with a good pace, good action and there wasn't a bunch of crap. Not gonna say I'm a Lex fan but...he's probably one of my favorite muscle bound meatheads.

    •Riki Choshu & Takashi Iizuka & Osamu Nishimura & Satoshi Kojima vs. Shiro Koshinaka & Akira Nogami & Michiyoshi Ohara & Akitoshi Saito: As I get older, I understand the punch & stomp-on-the-throat style of wrestling much more. I have always valued intensity in wrestling; a type of intensity that you don't get in 2020's wrestling (sorry it's true). It connects with me on a primal level. I'll be honest, I'm more interested in these bone eating, skull fuckers smashing their fat fists into each others' faces  than what Muto is doing too.  This is that type of match. I don't think it hits the same highs as the similar 04/05/96 bout in Korakuen Hall but it is very good stuff nonetheless!
    •Tatsumi Fujinami vs. Genichiro Tenryu: Two of the very best ever. Two guys that are in my personal top 10 ever. Early on the Dragon is breathing fire and Tenryu is getting burnt. Dragon Rocket topes until Genichiro puts an end to that. Tenryu busts Fujinami in the snout and is gushing blood! This is what he needs. Tenryu feeds on his opponents pain. Oh this is fucking beautiful - blood is spraying off Fujinami's chest with every chop from Tenryu! The Dragon WON'T QUIT. This is classic stuff. Emotionally speaking, this is an All Time Classic to me. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED. Must see!


    •Randy Savage vs Hiroyoshi Tenzan: Where did this come from?! This was great. They worked surprisingly well together. Savage took a couple insane bumps for his 1996. This was about 9 minutes of wrestling joy. Maybe I'm a Tenzan & Savage fan. Maybe I just love bright colorful pants? Either way RECOMMENDED stuff.
    •Shinya Hashimoto vs Nobuhiko Takada: That bastard Takada waltzes back into New Japan and wins the belt??? Hashimoto says 'Fuck that!" The mutton chopped big man is gonna get that title strap back. Takada isn't buying it. This is a very good to great big-time title fight. Both guys are laying in the kicks. Hashimoto is hitting his chops. Heck even the submission holds are pretty good too. A match like this makes me wish Takada had just stayed with NJPW for his own sake. He's a pro wrestler more than a shoot stylist. Seeing him here is a precursor to Yuji Nagata (Nagata trained under Takada) so, it definitely could have worked. Anyhow, this is a nice hybrid of both styles and definitely is worth your time. It's not a long match, like 12-13 minutes. Many people think this is a classic so there's no reason to skip it.
    Please check out my other blog Wrestling Dream Battles
    Thank you for reading!
  6. TheBean
    Funk Bros vs Road Warriors (10/20) - There are a number of Road Warrior matches in '86. This looked like the best one. I'm very glad I watched it. The Warriors at their best - Powerful but also vulnerable. Terry is great too. Comedy at the start but selling his fear but being tough SOB. That's a rarity in wrestling. Dory is the thing keeping them in the fight. They are selling for him and all is right in the wrestling world. Where this match turns great, is the finish. There's a great high spot that kicks it off. I loved this match! It's astounding that of the 4 wrestles in the ring, Dory Jr. is the one still alive. Keep on, keeping on Dory!! Terry Funk vs. Riki Choshu (10/21) - Terry gets slapped really hard by Riki. He rolls outside and has a coniption fit 😄 This is a good match and what one might call.A minimalist match. It mainly consists of Terry getting beat up by Choshu but finding a way to keep himself in the fight. I wish this was more competitive but I don't know who to pin that on. Did Baba not really want to push Terry as a threat? Did these two have a reason for doing this kind of match?  November Haru Sonada, Genichiro Tenryu & Jumbo Tsuruta vs Hiro Saito, Super Strong Machine & Ashura Hara (11/01) - It took me a minute to commit to watching this one. No reason why but I am glad that I did. It is great! It's a precursor to what All Japan would do with the 6-man match. It's hard hitting, intense stuff. Just look at those teams! They scream smash mouth wrestling to me. Hara & Strong Machine on the same team is something cool. This is just another example of why the '86 roster was pretty great.  Tiger Mask vs Norio Honaga (11/01) - This was a good match when they're not farting around trying to do wrestling holds. I'm not a "movez" guy but come on dudes...just do some moves! The wrestling you're doing is like saltine crackers and watered down Kool-Aid. They listened and ends up being a nice lil match. Tenryu & Tsuruta vs Giant Baba & Tiger Mask (11/28) - Holy cow! Baba comes alive! This is a precursor to the late 80's Baba tag/6 man resurgence. Not only that but Misawa Tiger goes off! He must have done a half dozen high risk moves. Tenryu and Jumbo just laid into their boss & didn't go easy on their junior partner either. Misawa definitely looks ready to play a bigger role in the organization. If you're OK with Baba then, this might be a near classic match.  December Stan Hansen vs Terry Funk (12/03) - These two can do this shit in their sleep. That said, this seemed to be the stiffest match of theirs that I've seen. Terry & Stan were beating the crap out each other. I mean Terry did an overhead elbow right into Stan's face right towards the start of this bout. Things never chilled out from their. This was a very good match overall & the post match was excellent also. Dory Funk Jr. vs Jumbo Tsuruta (12/03) - We only get a third of this but this is slow boiling old school technical match that I would have loved to see in full. Now don't get me wrong, I try to watch stuff under 15 minutes like this TV version especially when looking online. Again, I am trying to get thru my DVD backlog. That said, this was really good and they work a mean headlock match. They are knocking the sweat from each other with their elbows & chops. I dug this one! Rick Martel vs Riki Choshu (12/03) - This started out with a lightning pace. Then, they settled down into working over each others legs which was ferocious. I so wish they sold this after the fact since it appeared they were really going to town but, it was a 10 min. match. Evenly fought but ended a little to soon for me. Very good, intense match though. Totally worth watching! Just not the heavenly dream battle I hoped for. But the first few minutes had me believing it was real! Rick Martel & Tom Zenk vs Tiger Mask & Samson Fuyuki (12/06) We only get the last few minutes but this is the cool moves match of 1986. This was a blast!!! Funk Bros vs Stan Hansen & Ted Dibiase (12/06) - Much too short for the amount of talent the ring but, it's an excellent follow-up to the Terry vs Stan match above. More of a storyline/booking angle but enjoyable of course! Jumbo Tsuruta & Genichiro Tenryu vs Stan Hansen & Ted Dibiase (RWTL Playoff Match 12/12) - They just cut a great pace and whooped each other from bell to bell! Each blow was audible - whap! thud! It was like the Adam West Batman 😋 Awesome stuff...four of the best in the ring. Jumbo Tsuruta & Genichiro Tenryu vs Stan Hansen & Ted Dibiase (RWTL Final 12/12) - I gotta watch the finals...especially after their earlier match. This is for all the marbles and it's an excellent compliment to the prior bout. They pick up where they left off but Tenryu is hurt. Can Stan & Ted put him away? Can Jumbo save his partner? A heck of a finals especially given how it all played out. Great match!
  7. TheBean
    Contrary to the title, there's only 2 death matches. It just happens to feature the final match from the Death Match tournament. If you like traditional wrestling, there's still a lot for you to enjoy!
    •Brahman Brothers vs. Hoshito Takahashi & Kazuki Hashimoto: A really fun junior comedy match. Good bits of humor with some nice wrestling. Nice start!
    •Speed of Sound (Hercules Senga & Tsutomu Osugi) vs. Madoka & Shinya Ishikawa - A fun 10-11 match with a heel ref. Speed of Sound (who remind me of Cheech & Cloudy) are growing on me. They did a lot of good stuff. Unfortunately we didn't get much of note from Madoka & Ishikawa who are talented in their own right. They should have used lower ranking guys than them. So a tad disappointing but still a good time.
    •Yuko Miyamoto, Kankuro Hoshino & Masato Inaba vs. Shuji Ishikawa, Takashi Sasaki & Shadow WX: Badass 6 man match! Miyamoto is so damn cool! He really made this so exciting. He was taking it to all his opponents. I'm not taking anything away from others (and thank goodness Ishikawa & Sasaki were in this too). I guess this was a real team effort by all. Everyone added something and I thought it was great. Miyato is becoming a favorite of mine though 🙂
    •Strong BJ (Daisuke Sekimoto & Yuji Okabayashi) vs. The Non-Stops (Ryuichi Kawakami & Yoshihito Sasaki): Oh yeah this was 12-13 minutes of hard hitting action. It's not a tank emptying war but for where its at on the card, it's great. Yoshihito Sasaki might just have the best lariat in the business. It's a head eraser. I need to see more of these teams facing off!
    •Barbed Wire Boards Death Match: Abdullah Kobayashi & Takumi Tsukamoto vs. Jaki Numazawa & Masashi Takeda: Started slow but this got good. Tsukamoto really tasted the wire as his back was visibly chewed up from all the slams he took in the stuff. Abby Jr. is past his "prime" but brought a lot of charisma. Jaki never really had a prime but he was still more of a wrestler here than Abby Jr. today. Takeda was good but I need to see more of him before I form an opinion on him.
    •2 out of 3 Falls Death Match: Isami Kodaka vs. Ryuji Ito: If you're gonna be dumb, you better be tough. This was all about who's tougher because otherwise a lot of this could be called dumb. The psychology here is :"we're bound to be in pain & bleeding by the end of this - who can tolerate more?" So you get your turn-my turn spots. You get Side Russian leg sweeps onto objects - both guys are getting hurt. But again: who's tougher? Not who's smarter, more skilled, anything. That's not to say all match is like this because each guy really doesn't want to get destroyed. It's 2/3 falls and feels like an endurance match in a good way. There's no quick 2nd fall for instance. Again, tough not smart.  I'm not sure if I can rate it but it really is something to see. Not for the squeamish. Both guys were fucked up by the end. If you're interested, then I am going to Recommend it...Strong Recommendation actually. Thanks for reading folks!
  8. TheBean
    •Gran Hamada vs Perro Aguayo (NJPW 04/21/82): Woefully, we only get the last five minutes. Thankfully we got something at all! This was 5 minutes of excellent action from both guys. Hamada was flawless & quick in his execution. I definitely need to see even more Gran Hamada after watching this. Definitely worth your 5 minutes!
    •Akira Nogami & Takeshi Iizuka vs Hiro Saito & Tatsutoshi Goto (NJPW 04/16/92): Yes! 7 of 11 minutes of fun, fun tag wrestling. Neon pink and yellow trunk wearing baby faces versus two fat on muscle mask wearing heels (Saito & Goto were in their Raging Staff gear). This was a treat! These teams fit like a glove. Like WCW Saturday Night, this is simple quality pro wrestling. 3 guys on my top 85 favorite wrestlers list!
    •Kenta Kobashi, KENTA & Tamon Honda vs Yoshihiro Takayama, Naoki Sano & Go Shiozaki: A lot of the match story & action was Shiozaki challenging his mentor, Kobashi. They damaged each other's chests with vicious chops. Then there's the additional element of Go breaking away from 'Burning' so Honda & KENTA are glad to punish Shiozaki for. Sano & Takayama are a helluva team to have on your side though. Takayama has eternal beef with Kobashi and KENTA for instance. There's tons of hard hitting action like you'd expect. If you like this style then, I RECOMMEND this one - it's great! See the full 04/27/08 NOAH show review here!
    •Akira Tozawa & Kevin Steen vs Young Bucks (PWG - DDT4 2011 - 04/03/11): Wow, this told a story! This was a typical Bucks get their shit in match. Tozawa & Steen are fighting the Bucks in the crowd early on. Very much a battle! The Bros. injured Akira and Steen is left to fight on his own. 2 on 1 - can Steen survive? Can Tozawa do anything to help!? Haha you might be able to predict a little of what happens but you'll have to watch to find out 🙂 Great match from the first third of PWG's peak. RECOMMENDED
    •Athena vs. Ayako Hamada (Shimmer #53 04/06/13): This marks pretty well on my April Anarchy checklist. Two 'A' wrestlers and an April match. And this is actually a lot of fun! The crowd is a little sleepy since this was a Wrestlemania weekend show and I'm sure were overloaded. Anyhow, this was a good vet vs up-and-coming star match. Hamada was drilling Athena with kicks. She was taking some big risks too. I think this could have been more developed but by the three count, I had a big smile on my face. 
    •Angelico & Hijo del Fantasmo vs Masato Tanaka & Ikuto Hidaka (AAA - Star Battle Japan 10/26/16): OK now this isn't an April match BUT it's Triple A plus we've got an 'A' wrestler - good enough for me! 😄 Plus two more guys on my 85 favorite but not greatest 85 wrestlers list. Actually, Tanaka definitely is on my top 100 GWE. Anyway, this is a blast at 15 minutes. A load of fun fireworks wrestling. Angelico who I've seen maybe once was impressive in a modern wrestling sense. I definitely recommend this match if you're looking for something a lil different.

  9. TheBean
    I have been spending a lot of brain power and time thinking of Greatest Wrestler Ever. It's actually been taking away from my own projects. So I want to get back to that with a mix up of wrestling in the spirit of April Anarchy. Keep checking out wrestlingdreambattles.blogspot.com for more recommendations 👍
    •Adrian Adonis & Jesse Ventura vs Jim Brunzell & Greg Gagne (04/19/81 AWA): A really fun cage match! To be honest, the faces probably got too much offense in but Adrian and Jesse were calling it so it stayed competitive and kept everyone happy. Adrian even did a splash off the top of the cage! 
    •Devil Masami vs Chigusa Nagayo (04/15/87 AJW): This was a great match with high energy & high intensity. It begins with a technical orientation but escalates into a power battle as Devil takes over. This Crush Gal won't quit and rattles Devil with great duplexes and pinning holds. Masami gets frustrated and brings out the weapons and introduces a bit of anarchy into this April match. At under 15 minutes, I give this a Strong RECOMMENDATION as two of the best ever go at it. Click the link for pics & more April Anarchy!
    •Hijo Del Santo y Negro Casas vs. Bestia Salvaje y Scorpio Jr. (04/02/99 CMLL): The crowd was really amped for this one. I think that elevated excitement. This was fun seeing Negro and Santo on the same team. Good action, each fall was a little different and was a fun afternoon wrestling match 🙂
    •Blue Panther vs Hijo del Santo (04/09/00 Monterey): This was a ton of fun! Painful holds, flying head scissors, pinning predicaments - it was two masters going at it. This was allowed to breathe and by the 3rd fall, the outcome was in doubt. Folks that have seen WAY more lucha libre than me have called this a classic. I can't say since I'm tourist in Lucha libre land. I will definitely recommend this bout though. You will have fun too. Also I noticed that no one has commented on the PWO match discussion archive since 2018. I'm glad to give this a mention 👍
    •The Rock vs Triple H (04/30/00 WWF Backlash): Make no mistake, this isn't pro wrestling. This is Sports Entertainment®™. And it is great sports entertainment. Seeing as it's been awhile since I've watch a big time WWF/E match, it reminded me that the "match" is a device to get the audience to big moments, to the spectacle. We pop for everything else except the match. This is a shining example of that. There's a guest referee, run-ins, shenanigans, and bonus shenanigans. This additionally seems like a fantastic one match summary of this era of the McMahon-Helmsley regime. It's a classic Sports Entertainment®™ main event.
    •Rey Bucanero & Ultimo Guerrero vs Super Crazy & Ryusuke Taguchi (04/28/03 NJPW): This is a real treat for fans of these dudes. Bucanero & Ultimo are their usual great selves - a top 10 tag team of the 2000's. Super Crazy meshes well with them and is cool to see him in this setting. Taguchi is pretty under appreciated. Here he's still a young Lion on whatever 😋 He's in all black gear and his main offensive move is a killer drop kick. And from watching a lot of 80's wrestling, I've learned to really value a good drop kick! (Heck that seems to be what Okada thought too!). Anyway, this was one from my Video Daze post and am glad I made time for it. Solid Recommendation for fans of any of these guys.
    •Eddie Guerrero vs Kurt Angle (04/14/05 WWE Smackdown): 99% of this bout is fantastic! These two guys flowed. They never made this dull. Everything kept moving and they filled this with plenty of surprises. This was PPV level stuff and actually felt like they wanted to prove that they could do a ROH/Japan high work rate match on TV. It's only sullied by a WWE finish but I highly recommend this. It's on the Eddie Guerrero 'Viva La Raza' DVD.
    Thanks for reading!
  10. TheBean
    More April Anarchy! Cruising the 80's to 1986. I'm looking at the under card of this show...it looks great!
    •Kauze Nagahori vs Condor Saito: Intense, energetic joshi as a competition. Both were attacking and always looking to get the upper hand.. They cut a fantastic pace & nailed simple yet effective moves. Very good stuff!
    •Jumping Bomb Angels (Tateno & Yamazaki) vs Yukari Omori & Hisako Uno (Akira Hokuto): Rabid pace and an excellent dynamic with Omori as power house paired with the young but competent Uno. You might think she was a liability at this age but she was making Tateno & Yamazaki look great while pulling off her beginning offense in a believable, intense manner. The Angels were in top form today and that's all I need to say about that 🙂 Very good to great match.

    If you're digging this check out my other blog:
    April Anarchy: Devil Masami vs Chigusa Nagayo - 04/15/87
    March Mayhem: Toyota & Yamada vs Takahashi & KAORU - 03/20/88
    Bull Nakano in the 1980's
    •Bull Nakano vs Yumi Ogura: This is just as aggressive as the previous bouts but more traditional in structure. This has a good baby face vs heel vibe with Bull looking to brawl & cheat. This has a little bit of everything. I think it's a great match!

    I definitely recommend all of these matches. I'm about quicker, more urgently paced wrestling matches online anymore. If you're interested then these are for you. This show also has some longer matches like Chigusa vs Dump & Lioness vs Devil as well. If you've got the time & inclination, check those out too!
  11. TheBean
    If you've read my blog then you know I'm an ECW/FMW/BJW fan. Apache Pro is a post FMW promotion with W*ING Kanemura as it's big star. I've wanted to watch some of this stuff for awhile. April Anarchy "rules" work for this show - it's a promotion that begins with the letter "A" and this show takes place in April. This event is the relaunch of the company. The lead in video shows that Kanemura and other Apache guys invaded NJPW and caused a stir. New Japan isn't happy and have sent some guys to teach this indie a lesson.
    Welcome to Apache (04/14/06)
    •NOSAWA Rongai & Onryo vs MIYAWAKI & Naoshi Sano: Joined in progress but no matter. This a fun junior match to kick things off.
    •GENTARO vs Wataru Inoue: There's a good story here with GENTARO working over Inoue's leg. He uses leg locks, dragon screws and a cool sharpshooter. There's even a really cool spot from the apron too. I really dug this match but man, it needed one more minute. That finish came too quick. GENTARO was great here by the way. He's a guy that I try to catch when I can. Very good match.
    •Daisuke Sekimoto, Ryuji Ito & Katsumasa Inoue vs Mammoth Sasaki, Hi69 & Saburo Inematsu: Big Japan versus Apache Pro! Everyone showed great effort and heart here. It was only given about 10 minutes but they packed it was action and intensity. This was very good and definitely something I recommend checking out!
    •Jushin Liger, Gedo & Jado vs W*ING Kanemura, Bad boy Hido & Tetsuhiro Kuroda: This starts as Hido vs Liger. Liger dominated him but gets attacked post match and gets his hair cut. The rest of the guys, who are supposed to have a tag team main event, come out. We get an impromptu 6 man match! They're fighting in the crowd & bleeding. Apache Pro is getting beaten with Team NJPW (CTU) using old school tactics. This gets a little dry but, a molten hot tag is made to Kanemura! It's on like Donkey Kong!! This is very much laid out like a FMW 6 man...I was popping for the final minutes. This is for all FMW fans & gets a rock solid recommendation for me.
    Plus there's a Jun Kasai Vs Takashi Sasaki death match. It's 18 minutes long and while I like both guys, I'm not interested in spending 18 minutes on it. 
    This was a very good show and relaunch of Apache Pro. I'm looking forward to more of this stuff in the future!
     
  12. TheBean
    Tiger Mask vs Invader #3 (08/25) Nice to Misawa have a lucha-type match again. I wish they gave Invader #3 a lil more offense. It's short enough that you probably could call it a squash if it were on WCW Saturday Night. I was entertained and feel like I'm getting a better understanding of AJ '86 than just watching the big matches alone. Super Strong Machine & Hiro Saito vs Animal Hamaguchi & Kuniaki Kobayashi (08/25) Joined in progress so we only get 5-6 minutes. This is another battle in the war between these factions. I'm really digging these guys beating each other up! It's all about aggression, good pacing and timing. You see a match like this an it's so engaging because it feels like a fight. Stan Hansen & Medico vs Tsuruta & Ishikawa (08/30) - This is a fun match building to Stan vs Jumbo on 09/03 (which I'm going to skip). Medico was fun being an annoyance to Jumbo. He vs Ishikawa was enjoyable too. The big boys have great chemistry so they could sleep walk an exciting 10 minute tag like this.  September Riki Choshu vs. Genichiro Tenryu (09/03) I watched this a long time ago along with the Hansen match. I read my old review and I think I appreciate it more now. Its a very good to great match. They did a lot of great fighting here. Tenryu switched his offense up using older maneuvers to re-injure Choshu's ribs. Choshu was tough and pulled out a couple moves that were pretty cool. One that I felt was a decade ahead of its time. Personally, Tenryu seemed to have a better performance but Riki interestingly seemed to be doing better character work. That plays into the finish as well. Riki Choshu & Yoshiaki Yatsu vs Stan Hansen & Medico (09/06) This is a damn fine TV main event. Riki's ribs are taped up so that's Hansen & Medico's target. By the way, with a name like "Medico" you think he'd tried to help Riki Choshu out. Maybe he was late on his bills? Anyhow, this one is neat because your big star is vulnerable. Yatsu has to come through in a big way and take on the unsinkable battleship and his partner. This was good stuff. Also, I believe Medico is JosÊ Estrada Sr. who wrestled as Super Medico (I). Perhaps AJPW left off the "super" to avoid association with Super Strong Machine? 09/20 Masa Fuchi/Tiger Mask vs Hiro Saito/Shunji Takano - Fun stuff! Shunji's German suplex looks a lot like Takayama's because of his height. That was sick! Enjoyed Fuchi punch Saito in the head from the mount position. He look crazed. Tiger Misawa is really in his element here. He definitely seems to gaining confidence as a leader. Genichiro Tenryu/Jumbo Tsuruta vs Yoshiaki Yatsu/Animal Hamaguchi - Man, these four tear the house down! Damn that's how you do a mid 80's action packed tag match! I never knew what was going to end it and what a clever finish too. Animal might be my pick of top partner to Yatsu. He's got so much energy and has perfect running elbow drops, top rope elbow drops and running neck breakers. Yoshi Yatsu is always jazzed up too. They operate with an urgency that really pushes the pace. This compels Jumbo & Tenryu to do the same. Great match! Riki Choshu vs Super Strong Machine - Their first lockup looked like two bucks locking antlers. This was a great singles match between the heads of the rival factions. Things really kick off when, after going for a more technical route, Choshu rips Machine's mask. It's on like Donkey Kong now! Strong Machine targets Riki's ribs (which must be on the mend). You know he's got a whopper of a Riki Lariat waiting for him. Excellent main event to this Japan Pro/All Japan show (the last one ever per Cagematch).
  13. TheBean
    Hi folks! For more of my March Mayhem, check out this link: https://wrestlingdreambattles.blogspot.com/2026/03/
    I appreciate it! And without further ado, let's get to the wrestling!
    •Mike Awesome vs "Earthquake" John Tenta (AJPW 03/22/03): This was a fun match that put Awesome in an interesting situation. He wasn't the biggest man in the ring. Tenta, even a little bit older was still damn large. Awesome had to employ more brawling than raw power. Earthquake needs to slow the Gladiator down and uses a great looking sleeper hold to even the odds. This was fun and something different as there's a good story told instead of a slew of power bombs (not that I dislike those 🙂).

    •Mike Awesome, Johnny Smith & Gigantes (Jerry Tuite) vs. Earthquake, Genichiro Tenryu & Nobukazu Hirai (AJPW 03/28/03): 9 of 15 minutes. This was a barrel full of monkeys. There were callbacks to Awesome vs Tenta. Tenryu is chopping & punching. Tuite is the big foreigner who can sort of run roughshod over Tenta and Tenryu just because he's large. Hirai is that lumpy WAR dude that doesn't mind throwing elbows. Plus he's the right size of heavyweight that he can get thrown around. While the previous match is a soft recommendation for Mike Awesome fans, this one is a recommendation for all early 2000's wrestling weirdos. 
    •Matt Sydal vs PAC (ROH 5th Yr Fest: Finale 03/04/07): A very good junior action match. There's some great moves but we get a rare error from PAC. Steal covers for it (ala Liger vs Sasuke Super J Cup '94). I don't knock it for that but it feels beneath what they could do in '07. It is a under card match on a big show so, it's understandable. Still fans of both will get a kick outta this one.
    •Austin Aries & Roderick Strong vs Shingo & Naruki Doi (ROH 5th Yr Fest: Finale 03/04/07): This bout is stupid in the best way! This is a ballz to the wall movezzz match. It starts standard enough but somewhere along the way they opened a jar of bananas and made this straight bonkers. It's one of those matches where the "tag" stipulation gets lost in the action. It's not Dragon Gate rules...it's Young Bucks in PWG style. I think that is the "stupid" thing but eventually I said, "screw it" and went along for a good time. These dudes are 4 of the best at that type of wrestling so this was great stuff. Nearly a classic if you're in the generous mood. I mean if you're reading this then I gotta highly recommend it.
    •Masato Tanaka vs Hirooki Goto (NJPW 03/22/10): Hirooki Goto reminds me a lot of Tanaka. They both have that toughness and intensity about them. So, I dug this one. They blistered each other's chests with chops. They rattled jaws with elbows and battered brains with slams. This was 10 minutes of smash mouth wrestling. This felt like a puro WCW Saturday Night main event. Solid recommendation and if you dig this Tanaka is doing more of same in Zero One. Check out Tanaka in Zero One Wrestling 2007. In the meantime, New Japan has the match below:
    -------
    Neville vs Cesaro (NXT 03/05/15): Not gonna lie, I threw the horns a few times during this one 🤘 It was awesome. Cesaro was like Steven Regal in his precise brutality yet he did his own thing. He used his freakish strength in ways Regal could only dream of. He showed a mean streak that I really don't remember seeing as Claudio. Cesaro is a meaner, more aggressive, more calculated version of Castagnoli. Then, Neville, is a more grounded and focused version of PAC. When he tried his flying moves, they were done out of desperation rather than exhibition. It's wonderfully surprising when Cesaro stops those "hail mary" moves dead in their tracks. This is a wicked twist as Neville has been the man in my NXT viewing. Cesaro seems like the end to all of that. I LOVED THIS ONE. What's crazy is that this was a Dark Match and it only seems to be officially available on the first NXT DVD set (which I have). Find this anyway you can because I think it's an All Time Classic. Highest Recommendation.
    Thanks for reading folks! Again, click https://wrestlingdreambattles.blogspot.com/2026/03/ for more wrestling recommendations👍
  14. TheBean
    •Isamu Teranishi vs Goro Tsurumi (03/12/81 IWE): This is a fucking great jip 6 minute match. It's a crime that we only get 1/2 the bout...Teranishi is going to do a rope but Goro uses a folding chair like a shield. Isamu reconsiders...this was a fun spot. It shows a cleverness that I find rare. If you're unfamiliar Goro is going to beat his opponent down with punches and chops. Teranishi is doing monkey flips and other great fundamental junior moves. This is a lot of fun. 

    •Nick Bockwinkel vs Rick Martel (03/13/83 AWA): Martel comes in like a rocket, hitting the champ with a drop kick. The Canadian hero keeps hitting Nick with offense which keeps him rolling to the safety of the floor. But let's be honest, Bockwinkel is coming up with a plan. He gets his challenger in a test of strength and controls the match. Eventually, the Quebecois finds himself stuck on the floor with Nick playing king of the mountain. You can't keep Martel for long and he lets the champion have it! The crowd is hot for this match and seems to end at just the right time. Great heel performance from Bock & a great offensive baby face display from Rick. This is very good 15 match from two of my favorites. If you're needing to scratch an 80's wrestling itch, I recommend this one.

    •Yoshiaki Yatsu & Animal Hamaguchi vs. Terry Gordy & Art Crews (03/12/87 AJPW): A very good all action tag match! There's lots of rope running and simple but good looking moves. I'm unfamiliar with Art Crews but he keeps the party going so this is a winner of a tag match. Yatsu &Animal are awesome and if you didn't know...Then your ass better call somebody! 😄 
    •Yoshiaki Yatsu vs Pete Roberts (03/28/87 AJPW): This is one for the real wrestling fans in All Japan. 8 of 9 minutes of these two trading holds & fighting for leverage. Then we get about a minute of big moves to set up the finish. I'm glad that we get to see Pete work a technical match. I think Yatsu is the man to have it. I really am starting to really appreciate him. This is a fast, athletic and competitive bout. Very good stuff, an easy recommendation.

    • Akira Nogami vs Hiro Saito (03/11/92 NJPW): A simple yet fun heel vs baby face match. Saito, the brawler, is beating Akira up on the floor. He really smashes a table into our neon yellow trunk wearing hero. Very appropriate for '92 😁 Saito is full of hate and is grinding Nogami down. Can he overcome the stocky Saito? This was an easy match to watch. It's got great pacing, A simple story and just the right amount of stiffness and aggression. 
    • Eddie Guerrero & Black Tiger III vs Wataru Inoue & Shibata (03/22/02 NJPW): This was a lot of fun. Black Tiger III/Silver King & Eddie as a tag team - yes, please! Inoue and Shibata are the plucky youngsters. Their contribution is pretty basic but Eddie and BT Silver King bring all kinds of fun moves and moments. I actually don't know if people here knew Eddie was BT II or a mega star in WCW/WWE. This is one of types of matches that keeps me searching for stuff online as I want to truly cut back. It's under 15 minutes, it's got a neat mix of talent and it's a good time. Here's NJPW's link:
    •TAKA Michinoku & Gran Naniwa & Tiger Mask vs. The Great Sasuke & Gran Hamada & Pablo Marquez (03/06/99 Michinoku): M-Pro seems to reign supreme in pacing, emotion and knowing what to do when. I felt this was flawless... Not necessarily a classic per se but, 15 of 21 minutes of near classic lucharesu. Don't sleep on this one because it's not 1996 or Kai En Tai.
    •Kenny Omega vs Davey Richards (03/20/10 ROH Epic Encounter III): These guys worked their asses off ALL MATCH. I appreciate the aggressive Richards hunting Omega throughout. He kept lighting the Canadian up with kicks. He wanted the Cloverleaf hold early but switches to his arm. Kenny is fighting to stay in this one. He's got to use his big moves to even this up. And damn, Kenny's got plenty of those in his arsenal. This match had a great pace, providing top notch action for a little bit under 25 minutes. I think what hooked me were the surprises and counter moves. This absolutely is worthy of the 'Epic Encounter' title and is a classic in the full speed ahead junior style. If you're curious & reading this review then, I think you should check this out! For more ROH recommendations Check out: https://wrestlingdreambattles.blogspot.com/search/label/ROH
     
  15. TheBean
    What's up folks? I'm chugging along with March Mayhem. I'm only watching and reviewing matches from March. I thought I would share a few posts from my Blogger blog here as well as a couple new ones. If you're interested in getting more frequent wrestling recommendations then come over to Wrestling Dream Battles. More reviews, more recommendations, more pics 👍
    •Abdullah The Butcher vs Jack Brisco (AJPW 03/27/81):  This is not a match but a chaotic spectacle in the best way. I think every once in awhile, we should watch Abdullah the Butcher vs a star such as Jack Briscoe. It serves as a type of mental reset. We are just watching simple yet charismatic wrestling. There's no real maneuvers or complex story play out. It is just simple good guy versus bad guy. Additionally, we get to see the fans go absolutely bonkers in the venue. I think this is true fan engagement. No one is needing to bring a sign, chant names or songs...the people in attendance are watching the brawl but are also a part of it. Maybe the wrestlers bump into you, or use your chair as a weapon, maybe your entire row of seats gets knocked down and scattered around the ring floor...you're right there. I think there's a lot of imitation of this but Abdullah is one of the best. So I can't say if this is better than another Abby 'match' right now but I will say this is really fun stuff. If you're needing some true pro wrestling, this is a good choice.

    •Riki Choshu vs Yoshiaki Fujiwara (NJPW 03/02/84): March Mayhem indeed! A quick intense fight between two of the most intense wrestlers of the 80's. Fujiwara is like a mad man from the start. He's put on a choke and won't let go. Eventually Riki finds his way free. He then proceeds to smash the fuck out of Fujiwara's face against the unprotected top turn buckle! I'm really surprised there's no blood. Things break down and the wily Fuji' goes under the ring for a wrench. From here to the end of the footage, this resembles something you'd see in AJPW with the Funks. This was a blast!! It's about 8-9 minutes of wrestling goodness.

    •Manami Toyota & Toshiyo Yamada vs Mika Takahashi & Kaoru Maeda (AJW 03/20/88): Wow! This was a spirited sprint! This was a beginners style tag match and had plenty of scoop slams & drop kicks (not a bad thing). There were some great arm drags and rope running segments as well. There's one especially sick back breaker - keep an eye out for that one! Yeah, this was a lot of fun. These women brought the intensity and desire to win their novice level bout so the relatively simple moves were a perfect fit. It showed that their efforts were more impressive than their skill. Of course they would improve in that regard soon.

    •Gran Hamada, Masato Yakushiji & Naohiro Hoshikawa vs. MEN'S Teioh, Shoichi Funaki & Yoshihiro Tajiri (Michinoku 03/01/98) - 8 of 13 minutes shown. This was very good Michinoku action. It's not as crisp as the top shelf stuff but is still damn good especially once they start picking up the pace. Tajiri fits in wonderfully and wish we got more of him in this one. I'm looking forward to seeing more Hoshikawa.
    FMW  2000 (03/27)
    •Gedo, Jado & Koji Nakagawa vs. Hayabusa (H), Naohiko Yamazaki & Yoshinori Sasaki - Fun match with Hayabusa (H) guiding the youngsters up against Team No Respect. Yamazaki was a little clumsy like a baby giraffe but it worked well. H had to save the day a couple times in a bigger brother way. Gedo, Jado & Nakagawa were excellent as always... especially in these 6 man matches. Nice way to kick off the event.

    •Balls Mahoney, Chocoball Mukai, Crazy Boy & Tracy Smothers vs. Hideki Hosaka, Hido, Hisakatsu Oya & Kintaro Kanemura - This was fun like a bag of pop rocks & a Pepsi! Stuff was happening all over at the beginning! And the draw really is that everyone here is pretty solid worker (except Crazy Boy but he's doing the flying moves). The other bonus is that Balls, Tracy, Kanemura & Hido were working with each other in ECW around this time. So they really gelled. Very good stuff!

    •Hayabusa (H) vs Kyoko Inoue 03/27 - This was a good match and was looking to be a great one at the very beginning. I think this became too much "your turn, my turn" wrestling. Someone would do 5 moves and try to get a pin then when that doesn't work the person on defense gets an opening. Then they try 5 moves and try to get a pin then it switches back. It is kinda lazy from a layout standpoint. Hayabusa does do this sometimes... not very often but unfortunately this is one instance. It is also elsewhere in wrestling, of course but we have two dynamic wrestlers and it doesn't feel dynamic. Why is it good? It's good because it does tell a quality story. It does actually treat Kyoko as an equal... there's no bull shit pervert spots or brushing her off. It's treated like Hayabusa vs a mid carder...so we can't actually believe they were going to do a great match.. I just wish they did.

    I definitely would recommend the multi-man matches over the big match. I think you'll have a lot more fun with those! 
    •CM PUNK vs. EDDIE GUERRERO vs. REY MYSTERIO (IWA-MS 03/01/02): This has no reason to be this good in such a tiny venue with ropes as loose as an old rubber band. These greats went for it though. Eddie Guerrero had nothing to prove. Rey was maskless but a star that clearly was getting better each day. Punk was champ but let's be honest, had a lot to prove here. He had to keep up with two of the best workers. And the young Punk did it! These guys went for fun spots. They went for tricky spots. And they hit them all. It wasn't as crisp as you'd see because of the ropes but damn they didn't let anything stop them. Now I'll stop you, it's not a tank emptying battle for the ages but for an indie match less than 15 minutes, this puppy will put a smile on your face.

    •Dr. Wagner Jr., Mistico & Dos Caras Jr. vs. Ultimo Guerrero, Rey Bucanero & Hector Garza (CMLL 03/4/05): This was a blast!. Everyone did something impressive and cool. There was a decent sense of animosity between the teams. I thought the finish was rather brutal for lucha libre (at this time). It's sort of an 80's finish.
    •Dr. Wagner Jr. & Mistico vs. Ultimo Guerrero & Rey Bucanero (CMLL 03/11/05): This picks right up where the previous fight left off. There's so many cool moments and this is a breeze to watch. Plus this has a clean finish! 
    Thanks for reading folks!
  16. TheBean
    I'm taking a break from All Japan 1986 to visit Big Japan Wrestling 2013 for my March Mayhem project. I'm watching a little bit of everything from my DVDs and online watch list that took place in the month of March. I'm covering the 1980's, 90's, 2000's and 2010's. So far, I've got stuff from NJPW 1984, '96, IWE 1980, Michinoku Pro '98, ROH 2008 and more is being posted. Click those links 🙂.  Or check out: https://wrestlingdreambattles.blogspot.com/
    ~~OK let's look at Big Japan Wrestling in Hiroshima!~~
    Magnitude Kishiwada & Shoichi Uchida vs. Yoshihito Sasaki & Ryuichi Kawakami - Good to really good match. This had some really surprising moments for an under card match. Sasaki and Magnitude crushing wind pipes with lariats was totally unexpected for instance. All 4 guys put on a performance worth your time. Seeing as I skipped the official opener, this was a fine way to kick things off ! Chairs Match: Takashi Sasaki vs. Sakigake - I'll have to keep an eye out for Sakigaki. He's a decent mid card guy. Takashi Sasaki is a ton of fun here. He's just going for big moves and Sakigake is fighting him off. Sasaki doesn't quit and eventually gets his move. This is hard hitting and the chair spots send a twinge down my spine. There's one I'm glad that they don't hit perfectly because the one guy could have been really hurt. This is a fun, fun match...weird to say that right after the previous sentence but that's wrestling for you. Scramble Bunkhouse Death Match: Suicide Kings (Drake Younger and Danny Havoc) vs. Ryuji Ito & Takumi Tsukamoto - Haha! Oh shit Drake has some blood gelatin swinging off his forehead at the end of this one 😄😵 This was a very good match. They kept the pace up. They had their spots of course but there's good tease and reversals too. It felt competitive which is always a positive. The barb wire bat spots were especially cringe inducing. And I'm not talking about some socially awkward situation...I'm talking about watching a guy get suplexed on a baseball bat wrapped in barb wire and  imagining how painful that would be.  RIP Coffin Death Match: 045 Junkies (Jun Kasai & Jaki Numazawa) vs. Isami Kodaka & Masashi Takeda - This was a good standard death match. It took a little bit to get going, I thought. Isami Kodaka really kicked the match into 2nd or 3rd gear. He started getting everyone else to do wrestling instead of aimlessly doing pedestrian hard-core wrestling. It was rather low effort before he got tagged in. Once everyone started wanting to work, this was fun. It was a little 'tongue in cheek' death match wrestling however... like the fun is that the crowd is enjoying the wrestlers do stunts rather than have a competitive match. Or that's how Kasai & Jaki were acting. Eventually once Jun, who is a good wrestler, got serious this was worthwhile.  Shinjiro Otani vs. Kazuki Hashimoto - This was a pretty good "young punk vs old grump" match. Hashimoto lit Otani's chest up with stiff kicks but Shinjiro has had worse (I think!). So the veteran wrestler was able to mount a come back with some stiff kicks and slaps of his own. And that's the point of the game. Hit the other guy really, really good. I ended up getting into this match because of the simple story and the intensity they were displaying. This gets this show back on track in terms of high quality wrestling. Shinya Ishikawa & Amigo Suzuki vs. BJ Strong (Daisuke Sekimoto & Yuji Okabayashi) - Good tag team match. Amigo was out of his depth here being a junior wrestler vs two heavyweights (super heavies). Shinya was a great partner for him. This match told a good believable story so it never hit the height that it could have. Still it was well done and a fun bout. YMCA Death Match: Shuji Ishikawa vs. Yuko Miyamoto - This took a couple minutes to warm up but once they did, this was great! I cannot believe they did that superplex spot! What is best about these two is they want to do a wrestling match augmented by the props rather than make complicated arrangements. This was so much fun. Miyamoto had to give it his all to combat the titan Ishikawa. I definitely recommend this one! By the way, the props were barb wire, light tubes, chairs and two boards with sea shells attached to them (I think?).  This was a really good show/DVD. Everything was easy to watch and got me excited to see what was next. I was a little disappointed by the Big Japan Strong  tag match as that was a selling point of the DVD. I was hoping for a battle but instead got a really fun story match. The thing is I'm not an Amigo Suzuki "fan." It's my second time seeing him...but that's on me not the wrestlers. Death match & hard core wrestling fans will get a kick out of this show. Thanks for reading!
  17. TheBean
    Genichiro Tenryu vs Ashura Hara (07/04/86) - I needed a Hara fix so I went scanning through the Roy TV episodes and saw this one. Boy, it did the trick. It is not a long match but it's a very good one. These two are evenly matched. A worthy follow up to their match earlier. This felt big or innovative for '86. There's things, spots, that seemed ahead of their time. The pacing as well feels more like what we'd see in the 90's. It's not the Choshu/Hansen frenzy nor the "work a hold for 10 minutes" style either. Very good stuff here. Jumbo Tsuruta & Tiger Mask II vs Yoshiaki Yatsu & Isamu Teranishi (07/05) Fun match where Yatsu's aggressive wrestling (as in actual wrestling) was really cool. It felt like he was kinda-shooting in on Tiger & Jumbo. Those segments felt really good. Otherwise this was good 80's wrestling. Exciting ring action, a couple cool moves but I'm sure an appetizer to a bigger match. I liked it though. It's good to watch simple wrestling done right. Tenryu & Giant Baba vs Stan Hansen & Ted DiBiase (07/05) - An appetizer for the Stan vs Tenryu match later in July. This is one of those matches where Stan really lays in his shots on Baba. When that happens, it is on like Donkey Kong! And that is this match. Everyone is just excellent with their timing and urgency. And the spot that sets up the finish is wonderful! And the post match is a bonus treat...yeah this was a near classic tag match. It's not a long match, under 15 minutes but that is all they need. RECOMMENDED Takashi Ishikawa/Mighty Inoue vs Goro Tsurumi/Ashura Hara (07/10) - I had to watch this lineup. It's too good to resist. Only 5 minutes is shown but we get a taste of the action: Ishikawa and Hara slapping the taste from each others' mouths, Goro Tsurumi doing a couple really cool moves, Mighty Inoue being the spark plug of All Japan juniors... yeah this was fun. Tiger Mask II & Jumbo Tsuruta vs. Ted DiBiase & Pete Roberts (07/26) - Wow! What a sprint! 8 minutes of action. I was actually surprised Pete Roberts & Misawa didn't do anything slick. In fact, Ted was in quite a bit. This was just fast paced all action wrestling. Lots of rope running, quick roll-ups and organic sequences...I thought this was great! Stan Hansen vs Genichiro Tenryu (07/26) - Two of the best to ever wrestle put on a great match for the AWA belt (I think this was one of the defenses Stan made with the "stolen" belt!). In either case, they beat the HELL out of each other. Stan blasted Tenryu a few times including a sternum crushing elbow drop. That's OK because Genichiro Tenryu is no wimp & gets payback...I'm pretty sure he got Stan in the face on an enzuigiri. I guess that makes it a gamengiri. What's notable beyond that is Tenryu really does a great job going after the Texan's lariat arm. Stan sells the heck out of it and once weakened, gets bloodied.  Hiro Saito vs Brad Armstrong (07/31) - A good match that's really just neat to see Brad Armstrong working in All Japan. This could have been something special but it's more a novelty than anything. Don't feel bad if you miss it but it's nice if you watch it. Riki Choshu vs. Killer Khan (7/31) - A grudge match with Killer Khan's knee drops serving as the highspots. Other than that & the ringpost hits there were no spots or sequences of note. This did hurt the match but the intensity was there but, neither wrestler is dynamic or exciting  enough to elevate this to something overly memorable. Maybe if there were a couple spots of note this would have been more than just a very entertaining match. I'm really not sure how this is a top 100 match of the 1980s when many matches listed above were better than this. Watch for yourself and decide 🙂
  18. TheBean
    Baba & Ishikawa vs Killer Khan/Masanobu Kurisu (05/10) - This is only OK as Baba really weighs this down. It's noticeable here where it wasn't in the 04/06 match. It's pretty much filler but not a long match. Tenyru vs Yoshiaki Yatsu (05/10) -An excellent, aggressive & technical singles match. This felt closer to something we'd see in 1988-89. It's not the brawling style seen at this time in All Japan. It's Tenryu's style that helps define late 80's AJ and the King's Road era. Here we see it for the first time in my viewings. We see it from Yatsu too. Yatsu is pretty underrated. So good technical start, hard strikes which build into stronger moves working towards a clean finish. That's not the cleanest explanation but it's not the methodical technical work of the early 80's nor the high energy excitement of Choshu & Hansen's style that you see in big singles matches. I thought this was great.  05/17 Tiger Mask/Masa Fuchi vs Kuniaki Kobayashi/Masanobu Kurisu - Yes! Action packed angry junior AJ wrestling! Kobayashi attacks the faces before the bell and folks get whipped into the guardrail and it blows apart. Then someone else gets whipped into it before its reassembled and crushes a the front row of fans. This is the Kurisu match I wanted. He and Kuniaki are great. So is Fuchi...pairing him with Misawa/Tiger II is a good choice. It brings out his mean streak.  Rusher Kimura/Ashura Hara vs Shoehi Baba/Haru Sonoda - A Baba vs Rusher tag match that's actually worth your time! I thought it would be good only because of Hara & Sonoda (AJ's version of Tatsuo Nakano... chubby, mustache dude but really good). But Baba & Rusher were inspired to work tonight. This was fun stuff. Shunji Takano/Hiro Saito/Strong Machine vs Killer Khan/Shinichi Nakano/Teranishi - This had the same energy as the junior tag. It made the simple stuff so much more exciting. Guardrail gives out a few times during this one too!  You have to be a wrestling dork to get excited about this lineup. If this is the stuff you're looking for then, I think you'll have a fun time with this one. I wish it was a couple minutes longer truthfully.   Jumbo Tsuruta & Tenyru vs Yoshiaki Yatsu & Animal Hamaguchi - This was a fantastic tag match. Yatsu & Hamaguchi were just pressing Jumbo & Genichiro the whole time. Yatsu vs Tenryu is a sure thing. I really liked their 09/89 match together and they had that rough & tumble chemistry in '86. Their earlier singles match was not a fluke. Animal is becoming one of my new favorites. He is high energy & impact. His attacks look great especially against the larger Tsuruta. He needs to lay everything in. Jumbo in turn has to keep his head on a swivel...Choshu might not be here but this team is no joke. LOVED THIS ONE! June Choshu & Animal Hamaguchi vs Super Strong Machine & Hiro Saito (6/07) - Fierce fight! 10+ minutes of pro wrestling mayhem. This is how you do simple but effective tag team wrestling. Watching this I get the vibe that '86 is way more about Strong Machine vs Choshu than anything Jumbo has got going on. This feels very alive compared to seeing more Tsuruta vs Hansen. Animal is a madman here. Great match! Masa Fuchi vs Kuniaki Kobayashi (06/07) - Hard way blood from a top rope fist drop? I think so! This match-up delivers again. If you're interested in Masa Fuchi then he's got great opponents in '86. If you know these two then, you'll want to see this. Great! Tenyru vs. Strong Machine (UN Title, 06/12/86) - A great match and something different. Tenryu tries to bowl Machine over at the start. Hirata/Machine counters him and gets the advantage for most of the bout. He neutralizes Tenryu with a variety of arm locks. This keeps the former sumo at a disadvantage. Here's a great example of Machine having a great singles match (I always think of him as a tag teamer) plus Tenryu working from underneath. I really dug this one. Masanobu Fuchi vs Hiro Saito (6/12 jip) Oh man, this was really good! I just wish we got more of it. Somehow Fuchi is bleeding from the side of his head. We get excellent action here nonetheless. It's gritty junior style wrestling. Matchups like this has be considering 1986 to be the most interesting, if not the best, roster in All Japan history. *There's a full version out there, if you're interested!
  19. TheBean

    Spotlight: AJPW 1986 - April

    By TheBean,


    Spotlight
    Tenyru vs Ole Anderson (04/05/86) - Ole & Tenryu deserve more time than this. They are a great pairing in terms of physicality. Here Ole goes berserk on Tenryu's arm. And Tenryu eventually finds some breathing room. Then there's a flurry of offense and the match is over. Weird...it makes some sense given the moves that ended it. But I was left wanting more. It reminds me of a tournament match or a fall in a 2/3 falls match. But it is a single fall. This has been recommended by some and it is definitely memorable. It is over too soon for my liking. Still it's fun. It is intense... man I just wish there was more. Hahaha have I said that yet? Stan Hansen vs. Riki Choshu (4/5/86) This is an older review: This match could have been better & could have been much worse. The best way I can make it sound good is by saying it would be a good match for the near end of a T.V. show. The ending was awkward though...there were two lame looking lariats from Hansen and a third Riki ducked & hit Joe Higuchi. Joe obviously didn't get hit with the real deal & this now explains why the earlier ones thrown were so weak. If Hansen had thrown 2 monster lariats and the third was pathetic, it would have look tremendously odd. All in all this match put the PWF belt on Riki for his DQ victory over Hansen. Very little drama or overt excitement in this match but was a transition match. The best parts were Riki trying for the deathlock, the Riki Lariat & Backdrop. Hansen was rough on his offense but was nothing great. Ted Dibiase/Ron Bass vs Motoshi Okuma/Rocky Hata (04/06/86) - Heck I think it's neat that a match with Motoshi Okuma & Rocky Hata made it to Samurai Classics. I see these guys at ringside and never knew their names. It's a fun, if forgettable match. But sometimes you need something like this to raise your spirits. Kuniaki Kobayashi vs Masa Fuchi (04/06/86) - Kobayashi has jumped Fuchi at the start! Fuchi doesn't stand for that an ups the ante and pulverized Kuniaki with chairs. He rams his head into the ring posts and Double K is bleeding. Masa Fuchi dominates for awhile but Kobayashi isn't a push over. This is really good stuff and really comes together in the final third. This is more brawling than the typical athletic junior style. If you're a fan of either guy, you'll enjoy this! Jumbo Tsuruta, Genichiro Tenyru & Tiger Mask vs. Shunji Takano, Hiro Saito & Strong Machine (04/06/86) - Oh boy! This is what I'm talking about!! An action packed 6 man match that is as good on paper as in the ring. The Takano, Saito, Machine team makes up for the lack of star power with superior tag team tactics. They're getting in quick tags, double teams, and dynamic offensive moves. Tsuruta, Tenryu & Tiger are fighting to keep their shoulders off the mat. Great match & a great post match too! Shohei Baba, Ricky Fuyuki & Takashi Ishikawa vs Rusher Kimura, Ashura Hara & Goro Tsurumi (04/06/86) - AJPW vs IWE. Really good 6-man match. This was bordering on great when Baba & Rusher weren't in the ring. Actually Rusher was still halfway decent. Baba was still trying to be technical and it just doesn't fit the style or times. Thankfully he wasn't in that much. OK that's pretty much the ONLY downside to the match. This is mainly Hara & Goro vs Ishikawa & Fuyuki... and that's absolutely what you want! Genichiro Tenyru vs Ashura Hara (04/12/86) - That was great!! This was way better than I thought it would be. It's probably the best singles match so far. These two were doing stuff ahead of their time in my opinion. There's an emphasis on the head lock and sleeper hold that I appreciated. It's not boring but definitely controls the flow of match. These two guys know how to work holds. And heaven knows they know how to hit each other! I can definitely see the influence Hara had on Tenryu's style. Tenryu still wrestles closer to Jumbo's style. He focuses on his technical ability. 1986 is a good transition year for Tenryu because he's slowly incorporating a little bit more attitude. I loved the Tenryu/Hara tag team. Ashura Hara is becoming one of my faves. This is a classic match! Ole Anderson vs. Haru Sonoda (04/19/86) - Good match especially when Ole & Sonoda were trading blows. Sonoda's sleeper hold control section was kinda making me sleepy actually. But they worked out of it and got things going again. So, a good match but not something that you need to make an effort to see. This is the last appearance of Ole Anderson for '85 so I've appreciated his inclusion by the Samurai TV folks back in '99 🙂 Genichiro Tenyru & Takashi Ishikawa vs. Ted Dibiase & Ron Bass (04/19/86) - A really good showing from both teams. I thought it was best when it was Ted vs Tenryu. I'm looking ahead and it seems like that was on purpose. They have a big match later in April. I think they teased it well. Ron Bass is always fun as a hulking figure. I like when he fills in for Stan Hansen. Ishikawa was enjoyable although I think I like him better later in his career. He doesn't seem to have the fire in him quite yet.  Stan Hansen vs Jumbo Tsuruta (04/19/86) - This was a great big time match! Jumbo came out using Stan's fast start assault plan. Things never really let up. They were wrestling on the mat. Jumbo controlling Hansen's head & neck. Stan was working Jumbo's arm later on. I think the pacing was really good throughout. It felt like they were fighting for something meaningful. I think this was a rated highly by the DVDVR Best of the 80's All Japan project. I totally agree with that. Samurai Classics did a good job including this one. Genichiro Tenyru vs Ted Dibiase (UN Title, 04/26/86) - Great fierce title fight! Two of the best go at it. They really bring everything here. They're technical, they're off the ropes & the turn buckles, heck! Tenryu does a dive. This was fantastic stuff. Tenryu & Ted really gel. This lived up to expectations. This absolutely is one I'm glad was on this Samurai Classics set.
  20. TheBean
    Tenryu & Tsuruta vs Choshu & Yatsu  (02/05) - Great, hard fought match! Choshu & Yatsu assault Jumbo at the outset. Tenryu is the guy you want to make a hot tag to! At one point I thought he & Yatsu were going to go at it for real. They get back in the groove. Damn near everyone gets worked over at some point. It's a real physical affair - the stuff you typically associate with Hansen...just violence at every opportunity. All that said, it doesn't seem to have big peaks and valleys in the story or excitement level. It's peak actually is at the beginning. Just straight upwards and then keeps that level until the finish. It's a heck of a neat finish too! Great match Tiger Mask & Mighty Inoue vs Ashura Hara & Great Kabuki (02/22) - This was a very good tag match! Wow, this was really enjoyable. There was plenty of action in the beginning. They slowed it down in the middle with some leg locks. Finally, the brought it back up for an exciting final third. The finish was great too. I think what I enjoyed was the contrast of the junior style (Tiger & Inoue) with the more rough & tumble style. March Jumbo Tsuruta vs Animal Hamaguchi (03/13/86) - This was a sick match! 😋 Animal jumps Jumbo at the bell...he's crazy! There's a lil down time where Animal works the arm but after that this cooks. Animal is out ranked big time but dammit, he's fierce. He pisses the All Japan ace off. Jumbo pulls Hamaguchi up a couple times from his own pin in order to punish his foe some more. This backfires as Animal doesn't know the meaning of quit. And he's got moves and takes some crazy bumps...which makes this quite exciting. This was a very good match. If you've wanted to see an Animal Hamaguchi match, this is one to try! Harley Race & Jerry Blackwell vs. Tiger Jeet Singh & One Man Gang (03/13/86) - This is one I'm watching because it's part of my AJPW Samurai Classics DVD collection. I would have skipped it otherwise. It's fun though 🙂 We get Blackwell vs O.M.G executing fat guy moves on each other. Both dudes are pretty fantastic for their size. Then Harley & Tiger Jeet take over. It's typical stuff from Tiger trying to attack with the spike and we get a DQ. Still, you're not watching these to see who wins. These are meant as pure fun and it accomplished that goal. Stan Hansen vs Jumbo Tsuruta (03/29) - You're always going to get a quality match with these two. They will lay in some meaty shots and get physical at the very least. And that's really what most of the match was - Stan & Jumbo rough & tumble wrestling. Stan locks on a chin lock here and there but his main weapon is dropping knees on Jumbo's head. Tsuruta is a little more technical going for arm breakers in between clubbing blows & jumping knees. It's not beyond their standard match except the rather hazardous finish. That was quite memorable. So if you're going through 1985 AJPW then it's definitely worth your time. It's very good because it's Jumbo & Hansen in their prime. +Plus+ There's some really fun matches from the 03/15 TV show that are edited down. Fuyuki vs Kurisu & Kobayashi vs Ishikawa get the most time. Both were excellent from what was shown. Glad I found these even if in edited format. Mighty Inoue vs Killer Khan is there but doesn't get as much time. The full matches (or fuller) are Jumbo vs Animal Hamaguchi and Choshu vs Tiger Mask. Jumbo vs Animal is above. Riki vs Tiger sounds cool. 
     
  21. TheBean

    Spotlight: AJPW 1986 - January

    By TheBean,


    Spotlight
    Nikita Koloff/Krusher Kruschev vs Yoshiaki Yatsu/Isamu Teranishi (01/01/86) - A squash match which is kinda a waste of Yatsu & Teranishi. Koloff & Krusher had some nice offensive moves. Tiger Mask vs Mil Mascaras (01/02) - Good on paper but bad in reality. That badness is due to Mil. If Misawa had a tell-all book, he would have a story about this match. It reminded me of Mick Foley's recounting of his match with Mil. No it's not the worst thing but it ambles, Mil doesn't seem to know what's up, and he couldn't care less. Jumbo Tsuruta & Genichiro Tenryu vs Nikita Koloff & Krusher Khrushchev (01/02) - Yeah, Krusher Khrushchev is Barry Darsow. I thought so 😁  Good tag match in the sense that they worked smart and told a nice story by working Jumbo's back. The "Russian" team wrestled more like how I wish the Roid Warriors worked. The looked strong but Jumbo & Tenryu were competitive. This was enjoyable stuff & put a smile on my face. Mil Mascaras vs Takashi Ishikawa (01/11/86) - A little slower version of the Kobayashi match. Still it sucked me in. It was technical and competitive but very old school for '86. Most of the match consisted of stretches leveraged into pin attempts. Hey! I'm a fan. You might not be. Then the finishing segment was a play on the finishes of the previous Mil matches but with surprises. I liked this. I'm not going to overdo it. I thought it was a good match. Jumbo Tsuruta & Samson Fuyuki vs Barry Windham & Mike Rotunda (01/11) - These four guys in '86? Yes please. This is a really fun all action match. Nothing fancy or complex but they keep the energy up. And that's what you want in a tag match like this. I don't think I'll see anymore Windham or Rotunda here but this is a good match for a project like this. Mil Mascaras vs Kuniaki Kobayashi (01/28) - Now this is what I'm talking about! Mil came to wrestle. Really good junior technical wrestling punctuated by Kobayashi & his temper. He turns this into a brawl and The Man of a Thousand Masks is down to fight. Personally I'd prefer the technical wrestling from Mil but it keeps the intensity up and isn't much of the match (*cough it sets up the finish *cough). Skip the Tiger Mask match and watch this one. Tiger Mask vs Great Kabuki (01/28/86) - Kabuki wrestled a technical match. He kept Tiger under control with arm bars for much of the early portion of the bout. Thankfully, they knew how to keep wrestling while working the arm. This would have been pretty bland otherwise. Eventually, our masked hero snaps and attacks Kabuki with a chair! Whoa!! The Great One is bleeding buckets. Everyone is fully invested now. This is beyond what folks saw coming. Before you know it, things get out of hand...and then they get really out of hand! This is wild actually! The match itself is really smart and a great one overall. The whole segment is a near classic. I'm not sure if we get an explanation in the booking later on in the year. I'm not sure a non Japanese speaker can exactly make 100% sense but, dang it! That's pro wrestling for ya! 😄
  22. TheBean
    You're really missing out if you're not checking out this stuff. This has been an absolute revelation to me. And hey! I get it, I didn't watch Zero One for like 15+ years. A big reason is that no one talked about it. Or the internet wrestling taste makers didn't like it at the time. Screw that 😀 This is some fun smash mouth wrestling. Now that there's a wealth of wrestling posted online, this really is worth watching especially if you're into 2000's wrestling.
    •Masato Tanaka vs Yoshihito Sasaki (05/27) -This is precisely what I wanted with this matchup. These two guys who have the energy, intensity and toughness to break bricks with their bare hands. They gave no quarter and expected none in return. Korakuen Hall brings out the best in people and this was no different. Hard chops, harder elbows and lariats so stiff it knock a T-800 down. Yeah Masato Tanaka is a known great but Yoshihito Sasaki doesn't get enough love. If you're a Tanaka fan then you NEED to see this match and you'll probably be a new Sasaki fan by the end. Classic match.
    •Steve Corino & CW Anderson vs Tajiri & Masato Tanaka (06/20) - Flashback to ECW & early Zero One! I had to watch this one. And it was worthy of being associated with ECW. All the guys were still in very good shape so they showed great energy as they fought around Korakuen. Chairs were used, mist was sprayed and tables were broken. This was a lot of fun. Some matches that remind us of ECW don't really embody that energy & excitement of the promotion. I think this match did and would recommend it for any fan of that lil promotion outta Philly.
    For more the full Zero One 2007 project, check out: https://wrestlingdreambattles.blogspot.com/search/label/2007
    Bunch more match recommendations & cool pics! Also will be looking at a bunch of 1980's wrestling with Cruising the 80's & AJPW 1986 projects.
    •Masato Tanaka v Dick Togo (09/30) Good gawd! 90's indie dream match fulfilled. This was was so good. It got going with a bang and never quit. Lil ECW at times and both guys may have been bleeding the hard way. This was representative of the intensity. They brought it back into the ring and really surprised me. There was legitimate near falls in this match. It was part of a Jr. tournament so anything "big" felt like it could end the bout That fact added on top of their great work made this a near classic match...if you're interested in seeing this then you should watch it. 
    •Takao Omori v Masato Tanaka (10/26) Well that was awesome! These Zero One cats don't play around! This was fantastic stuff and all under 15 minutes. They had one high spot that I absolutely popped for but the rest was just hard hitting no nonsense puro. Omori was a nice change from Sekimoto or Sasaki as he has more variety to his moves. I felt this mixed things up. I don't have much more to say. Zero One Wrestling in 2007 has been pretty amazing with these dream match ups. I'm going to say this was a near classic but I'm being conservative. I really dug this!
    •Masato Tanaka & Ryouji Sai vs. Shinjiro Otani & Yuji Nagata (11/13) Lots of animosity in this match. Every pin or submission was broken up with nastiness. Sai was a very good pupil for Tanaka. They were right in there with Otani and super star Nagata. Those two were especially vicious with their kicks - tandem kenka kicks in the corner and a fierce sandwich enzuigiri. 
    •Masato Tanaka v Yoshihito Sasaki (12/24) This was called Best of 2007 because these two were the best Zero One Wrestling had to offer. They did not disappoint me. There was good wrestling on the mat. Tanaka tries to weaken Sasaki's arm seeing as the lariat is a big weapon of his. But let's be honest, this is not the point of the match. No, there was fighting on the floor, there are big moves and very hard strikes were there too. Sasaki got busted open the hard way from a table thrown by Tanaka. So he was bleeding most of the match. What really put this above just another great match was the counter moves. There were a few choice moves that really surprised me. It made this really feel like two of the best that Zero One had to offer. By the end both men were loopy and although only one man got his hand raised, both were winners in my eyes. I would call this a classic and highly recommend it. Couldn't ask for a better way to close out this brief look at 2007 Zero One Wrestling. 
    For Part #3 of 2007 Zero One Wrestling, come over to: https://wrestlingdreambattles.blogspot.com/2026/01/zero-one-wrestling-2007-final.html
     
  23. TheBean
    Greetings from the internet! This time we're looking at Zero One Wrestling from 2004 & 2005. It's a grab bag though. There's a few stand alone matches from 2004. I was able to find a full show but only three matches interest me. Also please check out my new blog Wrestling Dream Battles. Just posted New Japan 1995 part #3 up there. 
    OK let's look at Zero One Wrestling!
    2004
    Leonardo Spanky vs. Josh Daniels (01/30) - Good back & forth juniors match. Simple stuff and although it didn't build to the big finish, it felt like the right time & move to end it. I LIKED IT
    Frankie Kazarian & Low Ki vs. Emblem (Masato Tanaka & Shinjiro Otani) (01/30) - Really, really good action match! Kaz & Low Ki were an excellent team to take on Emblem. Kaz kept things pretty simple (a reviewer on Cage match mentioned he botched stuff... I saw zero botches). Low Ki was more in heel junior mode than strong style warrior or whatever he does when he kicks people really hard. Tanaka and Otani were their normal good selves. Nothing mind blowing but they allowed the American team to shine. The final few minutes was an excellent bomb exchange and was very exciting! I LIKED IT ALOT
    Jun Kasai & Shinya Hashimoto vs. Riki Choshu & Tomohiro Ishii (01/30) - Oh yeah! 12 minutes of what you wanted. Ishii is forced to lay everything in on Hashimoto. Hash ignores him to call out Riki. Jun reminds you he wrestles. When we finally get Hash vs Riki, it's great. Years worth of history and they give you what you want. I LIKED IT ALOT
    Frankie Kazarian vs Leonardo Spanky vs Low Ki (01/31) - A good time, smile on your face fireworks junior 3 way dance. Way too many moves to remember them all but everything they did was in their wheelhouse. They never got too complicated or too cute with what they were attempting. They used the ramp to good effect which makes me wish the US Indies could have afforded a ring ramp 😋 Hard to rate this honestly so I'll just say I LOVED IT. Definitely one to watch if you're interested!
    Ikuto Hidaka & Minoru Fujita vs. Tetsuhiro Kuroda & Yoshihito Sasaki (08/31/04) - Starting out mildly, this kept building to something more exciting. Oh thought, "oh this is just a small show. they'll do some signature stuff and wrestle by numbers and do a couple moves to finish." Whoa, they went beyond that and delivered a really good tag match! Like FMW tags, they shifted into a higher gear and the last third was truly exciting stuff. In truth, the first third was forgettable but those other 2/3rds made up for it. Hidaka's execution was great, Fujita was on point and Kuroda & Sasaki were excellent counterparts with their elbows, spears & lariats. ...you know this is a re-watch...went through my old notes but yup I had the same rating "very good" so glad to see that it holds up.

    2005
    I have had trouble finding an Zero One Wrestling or Zero One Max from 2005. I think I'd just find what I had uncovered awhile back when doing a Ikuto Hidaka spotlight. So I had to get creative and look at other promotions that featured Zero One talent. 
    Pro Wrestling NOAH
    Shinjiro Otani & Tatsuhito Takaiwa vs Mitsuharu Misawa & Kotaro Suzuki (03/05/05) - Great match! Thought it was just going to be a fun one but ultimately nothing too wild. I was fooled! They were treating Misawa like he was invincible. This was a great ploy. Once team Zero One was able to weaken him then things got very interesting.  Otani was in full dick head mode and Takaiwa was his enforcer. Kotaro's Rey Misterio Jr inspired moves were great as he used them in desperation rather than to show off. Jaw cracking elbow strikes, thrilling rope rope moves and some genuinely exciting near falls - LOVED IT!


    Differ cup 2005
    05/07
    Ikuto Hidaka & Minoru Fujita vs. PSYCHO & TAKA Michinoku - This was a total blast! It got really good when it was TAKA vs Hidaka and didn't quit after that. Excellent high spots, a little bit of comedy and an interesting finish. This put a smile on my face!
    05/08
    Takaiwa Tatsuhito & Tomohiro Ishii & Yoshihito Sasaki vs. TAKA Michinoku & PSYCHO & Sonjay Dutt - Hahaha! Yes!! This is fucking sweet! They actually told a story with TAKA's team being out matched in strength. PSYCHO (new to me this show) just couldn't get a break. Eventually he made the hot tag to TAKA who went straight violent with his kicks! Gawd that one combo was great. It never calmed down after that. Fireworks display with great surprises. The randomness of this put me on the edge of my seat. This could be a cluster fuck at any second. But these dudes pulled it off in my book. Let's here it for the Differ Cup shows 
    Riki Pro 
    Ikuto Hidaka vs. Takashi Sasaki (06/05) - It was a pretty enjoyable junior bout. I think of Takashi Sasaki as a death match wrestler. He is a remarkable junior singles and tag worker though. He's got a solid move set and has great execution. I really dig his super kicks. I always like Ikuto Hidaka. His leg work here added a little variety. This was a fun 10 minute curtain jerker.
    Yoshito Sasaki & Tatsuhito Takaiwa vs. Dick Togo & GENTARO (06/05) - This was wrestled at a quick pace. I would have wanted them to slow down at the beginning to get me acclimated. I don't mind a quick start but I wasn't sure of the direction. Small complaint as they found their groove. It was one move after another and was quite the fireworks tag match. I think they wrestled this way because it was an indie show and just needed to add some razzle dazzle in the middle of the card. This was a very fun tag match and although isn't a hidden gem, it's cool to see these kind of match ups on the indie shows at this time.
    Shiro Koshinaka & TAKA Michinoku vs. Daisuke Sekimoto & Tatsuhito Takaiwa (08/14/05) - Fun match but only 10 minutes. This could have gone a few more as they never hit their stride. Still we get beefy lariats, flying hip attacks, a couple dives and just enjoyable wrestling. 
    Ikuto Hidaka & Minoru Fujita vs Jody Fleisch & Jonny Storm (10/09/05) - This is actually the only Zero One Wrestling match but I couldn't get into it. There's some crazy ass spots though!! It just reminds me of an early 2000's ROH/indie style. I think by 2005 in ROH at least, had become antiquated. Anyway, I just think this would have worked for a crazy 12 minute match but this was nearly 20 minutes. Not my thing but you might dig it. Jonny Storm has it up on his YouTube page so I'll share it below:
     
     
    Zero One Wrestling has been a lot of fun. I'm definitely interested in going forward with it. I've got a few DVDs that I'm going to use to center a project or two.
    Thanks for reading! 
     
  24. TheBean

    You Might Have Missed: Sabu in Japan!

    By TheBean,


    You Might Have Missed
    Good day, wrestling fans! 
    RVD has posted or re-posted Sabu matches in honor of his late friend. There's plenty of stuff that I'd never seen before or was hard to find or only on compilations etc. I'm going to focus on stuff from Japan since it's been awhile since I've seen Sabu in Japan. Let's do a triple jump dive right in!
    Atsushi Onita & Sambo Asako vs. Sabu & Horace Boulder (FMW 04/23/92) - I saw this back in 2018 but decided to watch the full handheld. I think my original take holds up: Sambo is a roley-poley (rollie-pollie??) or let's say dumpy fat guy. He's not the type of guy you want to go out to the bar with if you're intent on chatting up some birds. He's not much of a wrestler either but, damn he gets the job done No rope barb wire match here and we start seeing some the the death match staples but, remember this is 1992. Hot shotting Sabu on the wire, choking him with it & eventually tossing his ass into it- he gets tangled in it much like his Funker match from '97. If you're an ECW fan, this is the era when 'Bu got all the scars. Not to be outdone, Onita gets wrapped in the loose wire which is another innovation...of sorts. This is all pretty crazy. Mad Onita theatre at the end of this too!
    Terry Funk & Tarzan Goto vs The Sheik & Sabu (FMW  08/22/93) - Absolutely bananas fun match! It's really great match if you're a fan of these guys and this style. It is very chaotic yet Sabu & Goto did pro wrestling so its a wonderful mix of brawling, hard core spots, blood, a few moves...and it's a fantastic length even with the post match fighting. Definitely recommend it!

    Uncle Sheik
    -----
    Sabu vs Hayabusa (FMW 08/28/94) - RVD has the edited down version but there's a full version out there. I watched that. Thanks to the super fan who spliced the commercial footage with the handheld footage! It's pretty fun stuff...basically both guys just doing really crazy spots. It's not much more than that to be frank. I think if they had a match in '97-98 then you might have had a very good to even great match. Here they were really trying to wow the crowd with crazy stuff. Reminds me of stuff Jack Evans, Ricochet and others would want to do. 

    -----
    Sabu vs Eddie Guerrero - Black Tiger II (NJPW 06/12/95) This was a great match! Eddie was just as crazy as Sabu and both guys bring the excitement here. Sabu doesn't get enough credit for his selling because most people don't know that he's not always hurt. Certainly there's times where he is but most of the times he's putting things over. This match, he does a great job selling his back after the culmination of moves. He starts selling it right after flipping out of a back body drop. Normally a wrestler will shoot back onto offense but he shows that the move took it's toll. He forces Eddie to slow down and let the match breathe between maneuvers (Eddie & Chris were moves, moves & more moves at their worst). Here by slowing down, we get denied the flurry until the final third & we are pumped for the excitement. Highly Recommended for fans of Sabu & Eddie especially.

    For more great reviews and pics check out my other blog Wrestling Dream Battles:
    wrestlingdreambattles.blogspot.com
    I'll be covering my longer year in review projects like New Japan '95 as well as wrestler & rivalry watch guides and more. Going through my watch list, there should be more Sabu in New Japan in the 1995 posts up now. Go check it out 😁 Back to the action!
    Abdullah The Butcher vs Sabu (Tokyo Pro 06/26/96) -They stab each other in the head with nails and they bleed.......and it was great! Just a blast to watch them stumble around Korakuen Hall. The fans are eating it up. Abby has his goons come out and start beating on Sabu then Ishikawa (with a heavenly mullet) saves the day. 

    ------
    Sabu vs 2 Cold Scorpio (10/18/96) Tokyo Pro. Holy crap! It was great. At about half their Cyberslam match this was pure gold...great punches, chair stuff, and the aerial moves. Sabu hit everything perfectly (in a Sabu kinda way) and Too Cold was on point. Plus he does the Macarena...what's not to love!?
    Sabu & Gary Albright vs Stan Hansen & Takao Omori (AJPW 11/24/96) - Whoa, didn't know about Gary & Sabu teaming. Actually didn't know about Sabu in All Japan. This was fun. Gary is suplexing everyone. Sabu & Gary are a fun team. I wonder if they worked any spots where he suplexed Sabu on someone. This is joined in progress but we get most of it. You're going to enjoy this. *Note Sabu does a botch but re-does it in his hurried, animal - energy way (making it twice as dangerous) and nails the move perfectly. 
    Sabu & Rob Van Dam vs Stan Hansen & Takao Omori (AJPW 01/20/97) - A little clunky start with a young Omori in there but, this shaped up. Hansen got it back on track and sold for Sabu and this puppy was as right as rain. Fun action moves from RVD & Sabu. They were there to razzle dazzle. Omori was with the program and bumped. Post-1995 Stan the Man is great. He's not fully out of commission but he's not as limber. I just get that he's in pain and cranky in '95 and onwards. That translates well here. He can't keep up with the ECW guys kicks but he can hit hard still dammit! Really fun stuff, good under card match.
    Sabu & RVD vs Yoshinari Ogawa & Kintaro Shiga (AJPW 05/13/1997) - joined in progress..we get half but this is excellent stuff. Shiga & Ogawa work really, really well with Sabu and Rob. They are quick and athletic. They have a lower risk offense but still have their moves. Shiga, who I became a fan of when looking at NOAH 2001-02, impressed me here. This would have been a cool match to see in ECW...totally would have worked!
    Sabu & Rob Van Dam vs Tsuyoshi Kikuchi & Yoshinari Ogawa (AJPW 06/06/97) - Oh this was pretty sweet! I wish it was a little bit longer. These two teams worked great together. I thought Ogawa was especially good again. I definitely would recommend it if you're at all interested. It's not going to blow your mind but, it's fun! I think the above match is better but then again that's got Shiga. But I'm taking anything away from this one. Watch both.
    Sabu & Rob Van Dam vs Hayabusa & Tommy Dreamer (ECW/FMW 12/12/98) (jip) - Um did Tommy Dreamer just do an Emerald Flowsion!? Innovator of violence indeed. Or at least right on the heels of Misawa here 😋 This was joined in progress and was clipped. We only get have but it is a ton of fun. Just a spot cornucopia from Sabu & RVD. I think Dreamer gets like 5 offensive moves. I'm not sure Hayabusa gets more. I wonder what we missed. I'm guessing there was either some botching or something. I'm not sure actually... this was for a commercial tape and this seems like a match you'd want most of. They jam packed those FMW tapes though. So 9 minutes was a lot when some matches would get like 3 minutes.
    Sabu vs Rob Van Dam (AJPW 03/03/01) - 12 out of 15 minutes were shown - man, I wish they had the full version. I have watched enough AJPW from this time to know better. I'm glad that we got 80% or so. Anyhow, this was very good stuff! This was what I envisioned Sabu vs Hayabusa to be. Tons of flashy, crazy moves BUT surprises too! Those surprises are what made the match. The video quality isn't awesome... very old school underwater early 2000's style 🙂 But if you're a fan of either guy then, you'll dig this one!
    BONUS!!!
    Sabu vs Too Cold Scorpio (ECW Hardcore Heaven 1994) - Oh yes, this is great. Both guys are in good shape and are doing all kinds of dangerous shit. All in all it's probably a spot fest but it does feel competitive and like they are trying to win a damn wrestling match. Additionally, I never felt like that they were just "showing off." I actually prefer this to their 1996 match (Cyberslam again?) since this was shorter than that & I felt the pace was better. 
    Thank you Sabu!! and thanks for reading folks!
  25. TheBean
    I've been making my way through Zero One Wrestling. Man, I have been missing out!The following are from the DVD: ZERO1 Fire Festival 2007 Part 1 Samurai TV. So I watched the full episode/DVD. For more great Zero One Wrestling in 2007, including awesome matches with Yoshihiro Takayama, Masato Tanaka and more, check out:
    https://wrestlingdreambattles.blogspot.com/2026/01/zero-one-wrestling-2007-part-1.html
    https://wrestlingdreambattles.blogspot.com/2026/01/zero-one-wrestling-2007-part-2.html
    07/16
    •Shinjiro Otani v Kazunari Murakami - This was a brawl which was setup nicely by the video package. These two hate each other. Murakami makes it seem like its going to be a squash at the start. Otani makes his comeback by good old chair swinging. He busts out a chair seat over Murakami's head like it's IWA Japan. This opens Kaz up the hard way. Blood for blood, he retaliates and turns on the crimson faucet by socking Otani in the nose. 14 minutes of mayhem - this was a great match!
    •Takao Omori v Yoshihito Sasaki - This was one of the best under 10 minute matches in recent memory. Both guys dialed up the impact and intensity for this sprint. Sasaki seems emboldened from his fight with Masato Tanaka and has no hesitation in attacking the veteran Omori. 
    •Ryoji Sai v Yutaka Yoshie - This was a hard fought match. Sai had excellent strikes as he tried to chop down the big man Yoshie. And Yoshie was a fantastic big man with a variety of moves and a lot of muscle under his fat.
    •Masato Tanaka v Daisuke Sekimoto - Smart stuff at the outset. Tanaka goes after Daisuke's arm. There's a couple brilliant sequences here too. Then, they start pummeling each other. Sekimoto has his chin split open from an elbow strike. That fires him up and this looks like Awesome vs Tanaka at times. These are two of my favorite wrestlers for a reason. Classic dream battle!
    •Yutaka Yoshie v Ikuto Hidaka 7/22/07 - Really fun big vs little guy match. Good psychology throughout with Hidaka trying to take out the bigger man logically.
    07/28
    •Ryoji Sai v Ikuto Hidaka - Pretty fun stuff again. This is more evenly matched. I thought Hidaka made this special by taking spirited bumps & and adding a bit of psychology. Sai was smart in letting him tell the story and supplying the kicks & double stomps 🙂
    •Daisuke Sekimoto v Yoshihito Sasaki - Holy cow! They put a lot of hard hitting action into 15 minutes! This was at a smaller venue so it lacks a "middle" section. They just ramp up the excitement. If you dig Kobashi era NOAH, you're going to want to see this. Also a good match to show a friend who's curious about "older" Japanese wrestling. 
    •Shinjiro Otani v Akitoshi Saito - Edited to roughly 10 minutes. It's great to see this match up. Very good match that's not clever but two tough guys kicking & suplexing each other. Otani is definitely one of the best wrestlers watched in 2025.
    This was a great DVD/TV episode! A great overview of the Fire Festival. I feel like the more Zero One Wrestling I watch, the more I like it. This has been a very rewarding project thus far.
    Thanks for reading! For more including the Final post for 2007 which will coming out soon, visit: wrestlingdreambattles.blogspot.com
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