TheBean

Gaea 5th anniversary main event. Nostalgia? Yes, I'll take it. This was a great match even without it though. Devil & Akira are cheating heels, this is 2000's Joshi so from its pretty close to 80's Joshi...weapons are pretty much allowed in moderation As an ECW fan at heart, I can never say no to a couple chair shots thrown in for good measure. Crush Gals are bleeding but they won't go down without a fight. Tons of great moves, very chaotic in a good way... tons of charisma as well. I really liked this.

The rematch from their '99 fight. I liked this one as it was shorter than that match BUT that one was still better than this. It's a good match perhaps a very good one but they didn't really tread any new ground here. Additionally the pacing was much slower than other GAEA matches. It's like an AJPW pace but I didn't really think any of the the stories they tried to tell went anywhere (Satomura hanging onto the head lock, Satomura going after Kong's arm). Some call this a great match but not to me. Both have had much more interesting & exciting matches.

jip. This was some good stuff. Very neat spots that honestly looked very natural especially Yamada spin kicking the board back into KAORU's face. That was sick!! I watched this one a few weeks/months ago so this was all I had but, yeah I dug it. Re-watch: KAORU is wearing clothes more appropriate for a dance club than a wrestling match. Yamada has blonde hair and is wearing something more appropriate for a Master P music video circa 2000. But yeah this was pretty good stuff... the ending keeps it from being a great match as it devolves into Aja testing Satomura's mettle. Neither KAORU or Yamada intervene to either stop it or actually finish the match. It is definitely a helluva scene and a great lead in to their next encounter (May) but in all honesty they had a pretty great match going...much better this second time since I knew Meiko & KAORU better and such. I would have liked a more traditional end but this ending was probably better for business.

Finally a great Sato & Nagashima match!! I've enjoyed their matches but invariably someone screws something up but not here! So everything look really good plus they can't get too cute because of the size of Aja & Lioness. I am really stoked on their performance (there were a couple close calls from Sugar) and Lioness & Kong brought the goods as usual. Recommended stuff!

This is an Aja Kong war...don't believe me? KAORU gets her fucking tooth knocked out. Kong gets beat to hell too..the first spot of match, KAORU does a awesome tope that sends Aja crashing backwards and hitting her head on the bottom cross piece of the guard rail. Later on both of her arms are cut up and bruised from KAORU. I haven't seen a brutal Aja Kong match like this in awhile. Big praise goes to KAORU for doing a match like this...they are wearing their pain on their faces for most of the match. I was not expecting this to be so violent and competitive of a match. It's really sticking with me as I write this. All time classic Kong match...again Kudos to KAORU for this as well.

Great match and absolutely loved the beginning. It was bananas FMW-style Korakuen hall brawling and in the ring table and chair spots. The flaw is that the last couple of minutes didn't need to happen. They repeated moves and spots... a flaw of youth perhaps? (Lioness wasn't involved) We basically already saw the finish two times beforehand so why does it work at the end? Additionally Sugar Sato brought the quality down a little as she flubbed a couple moves at key moments.. not absolute botched but the ECW fans of years past would have not been kind. And that's what holds this back from being a classic match. I think if the youngsters could have cut a couple minutes, Satomura gone for simplicity, this would have been a near classic. But it really is a great match nonetheless... there's so much good stuff that I have to recommend it. Ah what could have been though...very good still.

10 minute sprint of chaos. Heel team has their gang, face team has there's, all kinds of crap is going on. This isn't what you would expect if they met in '95 but it is still super enjoyable and exciting wrestling. The fans were going crazy for this and for good reason. Oh Sonny Onoo was there as part of Hokuto and Ozaki's gang 'Nostradamus.'

AJW 1999 These are some highlights from 1999 All Japan Women's. For my full review and pics, see: https://wrestlingdreambattles.blogspot.com/2025/11/all-japan-womens-wrestling-1999.html Zenjo vs. Neo SCRAMBLE BOUTS 5 X 5: Manami Toyota & Momoe Nakanishi & Nanae Takahashi & Miyuki Fujii & ZAP Isozaki vs. Kyoko Inoue & Chaparrita ASARI & Misae Genki & Saya Endo & Yuka Nakamura (02/16) - This was great!!! Takes a minute to figure out but, its a team elimination match. An each pair has a 5 minute time limit. There's really clever booking here as Toyota starts for the AJW team. What's really fun is that the other women can intervene like any regular tag match so we get double team moves, dive trains and brawling. And this gets heated! Heck Kyoko even throws around her former teammate Takako Inoue (who's not actually in the match!). This match is so much fun and has great wrestling in a relatively short amount of time. Definitely recommend it! ZAP T vs. Eagle Sawai (03/13) - A chain, double blood, chairs, handcuffs, handcuffing to each other...this is awesome pro wrestling. Again, I have the Athena TV version which was sweet but I knew I needed to see the full version. Thankfully, the full version is online (with 700k views !?). Go see this if you are thinking you might like it...even just a little bit. ZAP T/Watanabe and Eagle put on a brutal classic here. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED Mima Shimoda & Etsuko Mita vs. Momoe Nakanishi & Nanae Takahashi (09/29) - Great LCO mayhem tag match per usual for this era. I can't say there's selling or structure but these definitely feel like chaos in the best way. After seeing a fair amount of Mita & Shimoda, I think the quality and variety of their matches truly depends on their opponents. Here Momoe is a great opponent because she brings speed and agility to the table. Nanae is a suitable teammate because she's got a bit more power to her move set. LCO stick to their routine with certain spots and weapons. The interesting thing here is how Momoe & Nanae fit into that puzzle. The take away greatness of this match is Momoe. This is worth your time. BJW 1999 Here's some highlights from early 1999 BJW. There's no blood & guts in any of this stuff. Just good Indie Wrestling. For the full review with pics, see the full blog post: https://wrestlingdreambattles.blogspot.com/2025/11/big-japan-wrestling-early-1999.html Ikuto Hidaka vs. Fantastik (01/07) - Hidaka, I know. Fantastik is new to me but, I like him. He did this dive that was super dangerous looking... and super cool!! Definitely want to see more of him. These two did a really fun fireworks action match. There were lots of awesome aerial moves and moves off the Irish whip. Fun bit of lucharesu. Ikuto Hidaka vs. Minoru Fujita (02/28) - Oh yes!!! They went for broke! This was a great junior battle. One that was way better than you'd think seeing as it was tucked away in the mid card of a BJW show. It was very exciting and very intense. There's plenty of action and great submission wrestling too. It's been awhile since I've seen them in BattlARTS but it definitely had that vibe. I'm a fan of both but seeing them this young and hungry was great RECOMMENDED! Katsumi Usuda & Ryuji Yamakawa vs. Abdullah Jr. Kobayashi & Daikokubo Benkei (02/28) - I liked how Usuda & Yamakawa weren't really getting along early on. Yamakawa sold this so well 😄 Eventually they got on the same page. Abby Jr. was going off today so, they had to get him under control. Benkei can be a big oaf sometimes but here he's a big oaf like he needed to be. He's like a tree trunk - able to withstand Katsumi & Ryuji's attacks. It's about 13 minutes long and a ton of fun.

Bull Nakano is in my top 3 favorite Joshi wrestlers. I've never seen enough of her stuff in the 80's. This fall I did just that. This is 15 minutes or Less post which means the matches watched are under 15 minutes. Pretty simple 😋 For the full blog and a ton of pics, visit: https://wrestlingdreambattles.blogspot.com/2025/10/bull-nakano-in-1980s.html Dump Matsumoto & Keiko Nakano vs Devil Masami & Lioness Asuka (10/27/1984) - This has 1/3rd of a million views online!? Is that because of that Dump Masumoto show awhile back? Transition match as Keiko isn't bull and she's got a regular haircut & outfit BUT is teaming with the dastardly Dump Matsumoto. Devil Masami is such a badass from the start. I loved when she denied Bull's drop toe hold and clocked her in the head! Homie don't play dat! This was a great match! I grew up with "garbage" or hard core wrestling so I might even be tempted to call this a near classic. I loved how it descend into a back alley street fight! 3 on 2 with everyone carrying weapons - you can't get better than that sometimes! And it's under 15 minutes too! Perfect length! Bull Nakano vs Dump Matsumoto (5/1986) - Crazy wild fight! Not sure of the story here. Maybe Bull was trying to take over the gang?It looked like some of the other members were on her side for a little bit. Bull is fighting from underneath most of the match but she finds her openings and lets Dump have it. A very good match...very intense and blood thirsty. This has almost 900k views online. Wow! Stick around for the post match when Dump goes wild in the stands! Bull & Iwamoto vs Fire Jets (07/19/88) - Great follow up to the above match. Bull & Grizzly slice & dice the Fire Jets early on. Hotta's got scars from the previous fight with Bull. This was best 2 out of 3 falls but was under 10 minutes. Everything feels very urgent and real as a result. I really liked that to this match. There were no holds applied or hot tags trying to be worked. This felt closer to a fight. It was really good stuff. Bull vs Lioness Asuka (05/14/89) - We have entered the heavy metal Bull Nakano era 🤘 During the proclamations at the beginning, Bull comes over an elbows Lioness right in the f-ing face! 30 seconds in Lioness elbows Bull in the head and busts her open. A little later, Bull disassembles the ring ropes to use as weapons. It's not a long match so I won't say anymore. If you're a fan of either, you want to see this! Being a Lioness Asuka fan, I get the feeling this match was her idea! I can see her telling Bull not to pull any punches. This was great pro wrestling. RECOMMENDED

The whole Savage vs Jake segment is absolutely masterful. Everyone above nails it so not much more I can add. This felt like the pinnacle of what this era of WWF could do. Made sense to my grade school self back in '91 and is even better now in my 40's. 18:58 is when it all begins on the video above.

I agree with El McKell a 100%. I found out about PWO when the yearbook projects were starting and while I wasn't a member, it was an amazing resource to have and to follow along with. The Match Discussion Archive/Yearbooks, Microscope, Puro History are all definitely great for anyone getting into older wrestling. It is like a curated cagematch. I think there's a lot of people that use the site as a resource. Then there's folks that use it as communication. I was looking at old posts I made as G. Badger (before the site locked me out of that profile), people actually wanted to talk about wrestling and didn't mind sharing opinions. But I know I stopped wanting to post anything on the main couple threads because folks wanted to either put words in people's mouths (make shit political when it wasn't) or essentially ignore people or openly being shitty. I know I had it happen a few times. Like high school clique type behavior. I think that killed the communication aspect of the board. Killed the vibe for new members wanting to post/keep the site alive. The funny thing is most of those members are gone now but the damage was done. Still, I enjoy reading peoples' posts and writing things and know who to avoid so I get a lot out of the site. I try to be friendly to new members to encourage them to keep posting. Sorry for writing a book.

Probably a bigger Awesome/Gladiator fan than most (see profile pic) but wouldn't make my top 100. He was the best of the B-level gaijin in Japan during the 90's and genuinely had the aura of champion in ECW. It's been awhile since I saw the ONS match but it's not better than stuff he did with Tanaka in 98-99. There's probably touring tag matches w/ Justin Credible vs Tanaka & Jerry Lynn that are fundamentally better than the ONS match. His stuff when he was in AJPW in the early 2000's was good and his Kobashi GHC match was pretty good-great iirc. But yeah, he might be a top 150 but there's others ahead of him.

I remember there used to be a section called Military Industrial Suplex where political wrestling talk could go on but the same type of stuff started happening and it got removed. It was ultimately no longer in the spirit of PWO was the rationale, iirc. I think there's a lot of members who don't post because they are afraid they are going to get shouted at or get hassled tbh. Longtime & new folks. Hope you stick around. Seeing as its the wild west here, I say you make a new topic anytime you feel like talking WWE or just here in the "Comments that don't... " thread. Your posts were some of the only ways I would stay in the loop with the current WWE.

Hiroyoshi Tenzan vs. Shinya Hashimoto (02/04) - Hashi-f-ing-moto! This was awesome. Tenzan, who's not yet a full baddie, is trying to test the champ. This is his chance to elevate himself one way or another. Hash shows him that being champ means more than just being able to dish out punishment. One has to endure it and push on. I think this was a near classic match...maybe low end classic. I think they did everything so well in terms of pacing, storytelling, a sense of realism, etc. Hiroshi Hase & Kensuke Sasaki vs. Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Masahiro Chono (03/07) - Impromptu tag match...no rules either perhap but they ring the bell..so it's official. This is the most ECW match in New Japan that I've seen! It's awesome! They are trying to maim each other in the crowd. Eventually things settle down but it still is intense, great stuff. Fellow Hase fans need to see this one! Shinya Hashimoto & Junji Hirata vs. Masahiro Chono & Hiroyoshi Tenzan (06/12) - Great tag match! Gutsy performance from Hirata & Hash! ChoTen are an excellent heel team...excellent heels but also a cohesive team. They seem to be on the same page all the time here. Good storytelling in this match as well. I'm only coming into this here but if you know the basics of this generation of NJPW then that's all you need to know to enjoy this. I've seen this rated ****1/4 and I can get with that. For my full run down of New Japan 1995 with more reviews & pics, see these: https://wrestlingdreambattles.blogspot.com/2025/10/yearbook-njpw-1995.html https://wrestlingdreambattles.blogspot.com/2025/10/yearbook-njpw-1995-part-2.html https://wrestlingdreambattles.blogspot.com/2025/10/yearbook-njpw-1995-part-3.html https://wrestlingdreambattles.blogspot.com/2025/11/yearbook-njpw-1995-part-4.html https://wrestlingdreambattles.blogspot.com/2025/11/yearbook-njpw-1995-final.html Keiji Muto vs. Hiroyoshi Tenzan (06/14) - Battle for the moonsault, Tenzan's busted wide open, Muto's pissed, Tenzan has an answer for Muto's moves. This absolutely is what Muto can deliver when he's motivated. No laying around on the mat or even messing around with dragon screws teasing figure four bores. This is about fighting. This could have been a true classic if it went on for maybe 30 seconds longer but honestly this was as long as it needed to be. I dug the heck out of it and definitely why I watch Muto matches when they come up. I don't know why or when but, he absolutely has excellent matches in him. And I'm not talking much about Tenzan because he's a solid player who can deliver very good to great matches just by being tough, hitting hard and showing attitude. Muto takes that, brings his A-game and deliver a low end classic. RECOMMENDED Hiroyoshi Tenzan vs. Shinya Hashimoto (08/13) - I watched the full version and damn! this was a really, really good match. It's simple. Two guys, one baby face & one heel, beat each other up to prove who's tougher. Sure there's a tournament but this is more about ego than a couple tournament points. Yoji Anjo & Yoshihiro Takayama vs. Masahiro Chono & Hiroyoshi Tenzan (11/25 UWFi) - Yes! Oh hells yes! Stiff as a wall ! A hate-fest fought at a machine gun pace. Anyone hesitant about shoot style needn't worry. This is pro-wrestling. It's a brawl more than anything else. It is fantastic! Just so much bad attitude from both sides. I loved this. It's a little over 10 minutes but I'm still going to call it a classic. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED. Masa Chono & Tenzan vs Hashimoto & Junji Hirata (12/11) - Hash is tired of Tenzan's shit! Let him have it!!! This was a great match. Hirata/Super Strong Machine was excellent in this match. Hashimoto let him handle himself in this match. It was two of the toughest teams of New Japan facing off again. The post match stuff is entertaining as well.

Ted DiBiase & Jim Duggan in Mid South. I only knew them from their WWF days and had no clue how awesome they were beforehand. I'd probably throw Rick Martel in there too. Only knew him as The Model...and man I had no idea how great of a wrestler he was from that gimmick.

Koji steps to Otani during introductions. Otani responds by slapping Koji. This was a heck of a tag match. A nice mix of lucha & puro along with a bit of nastiness too. Pegasus/Benoit & Hamada were more neutral but the animus between Koji & Otani was ever present. So it had the right tone that kept this from just being an exhibition of maneuvers. Well..that and the hard chops everyone was throwing. I thought this was a near classic junior tag match. With its flawless execution, move complexity and story, it could be on TV or PPV today...but the closest style is resembles was mid-late TNA tags with Daniels, Joe, AJ, Sabin, Shelley and others. I dug this one!

Great chain wrestling to begin with and an escalation of action until the end. 1995 is when Koji comes into his own I feel. I know these two have a classic in September '95 and this is a warm up to that match. So if you've seen & enjoy that one then, you should give this a try. What holds this back from being a classic is that Benoit and many others around this time employ the move-after-move offense. That's to say, they try one move and go for a pin, try another move go for a pin etc. And I thought, 'is there any move Benoit can't do?' And here, he does a couple too many neat moves. I prefer when Benoit uses strikes like elbows, chops and headbutts a bit more to make his suplexes more special. This is a preference so take that with a grain of salt. Great match nonetheless. Benoit & Koji work well together & I'm glad I saw this.

I had this as 02/03 but I must be mistaken. I don't think they would have worked two nights in a row together... Anyhow, Hashi-f-ing-moto! This was awesome. Tenzan, who's not yet a full baddie, is trying to test the champ. This is his chance to elevate himself one way or another. Hash shows him that being champ means more than just being able to dish out punishment. One has to endure it and push on. I think this was a near classic match...maybe low end classic. I think they did everything so well in terms of pacing, storytelling, a sense of realism, etc.

Yes! They just beat the crap out of each other and try to break limbs for 90% of the match. Koji & Nagata fans really want to see this. I wish the finish was different or better executed but for a exhibition type match like this, it doesn't matter. The ass kicking is what led you here. Very good to maybe great match.

So here's where the junior early portion typically goes wrong: guy works a body part and that guy getting beat on does nothing to escape, counter, reverse or defend himself. He just sells and goes to the ropes over and over. That's what starts to happen here. Sasuke, the most agile wrestler of this era could try to flip out, roll through, escape etc. but he slinks away or grabs the ropes. Thankfully, they sort it out and the rest of the match was a lot of fun! Thank goodness!! Nice moves from Sasuke & Honaga had great timing. A good pairing since it always seems like Sasuke vs Liger or Ultimo in NJPW.

GAORA has a wealth of Muto era All Japan that they're sitting on. They release one match a week for the last five years. I'm not sure if it had to do with COVID restrictions and the lack of live wrestling to broadcast. Anyhow, I'm very glad that they have kept up with it! It's really helped me get to see this period of All Japan. It's definitely different than the Four Pillars, King's Road era BUT is very similar to New Japan's style with a cozier feel. That's to say it doesn't have the big presence that NJPW has but there's quality wrestling. Keeping with the Video Daze format, I'll be collecting some matches that interest me but just aren't able to watch at the moment. This will help remind me as well as steer you in a direction you might not known about. This time GAORA has collected a series of matches from the summer of 2005. These feature the dastardly Voodoo Murders stable versus Kensuke Office. I had a best of 2005 comp DVD that features a VM match and man, was it different from the 90's AJPW that I had been watching. It turned me off of this era of the company. I was mistaken though. It wasn't what I wanted at the time. This period, especially VM stuff is closer to American wrestling angles & shenanigans than you'd see in AJPW or maybe even New Japan. I honestly love this type of stuff though. It's really melodramatic. What draws me about it in puro is that they can back it up in the ring. Now...that said the VM stable did have some muscle bound Western wrestlers that were fresh out of Stamford, CT and they aren't my cup of tea. In fact, they're a big reason why I stopped watching wrestling on TV in the early 2000's. What drew me to this angle was the inclusion of joshi queen & Mrs. Kensuke, Akira Hokuto! She's one of my all time faves & I recommend her matches in GAEA in case you think she ran out of juice in the 90's. Anyhow, this looks like a great angle where TARU and his crew go after Hokuto in order to get in the head of Kensuke & his protege Nakajima. Tomoaki Honma becomes an honorary member of Kensuke's clan in order to fight them. I'm becoming more of a fan of his from watching late 90's Big Japan so this was right up my alley. I did my best dating these using Quebrada & Cagematch. ---- 2005 The evil hand of VOODOO ... Kensuke Sasaki & Katsuhiko Nakajima vs Shuji Kondo/"brother" YASSHI (06/03) ---- Katsuhiko Nakajima & Tomoaki Honma (Kensuke Family) vs Shuji Kondo & "brother" YASSHI (06/19) ---- Akira Hokuto K.O. in front of Kensuke Sasaki... Kensuke Sasaki, Katsuhiko Nakajima & Tomoaki Honma vs Shuji Kondo, "brother" YASSHI & TARU (07/15) ---- Akira Hokuto rejoices!! Kensuke Sasaki & Katsuhiko Nakajima vs. Shuji Kondo & "brother" YASSHI (07/26) This looks like an easy four-pack of matches to watch. I'm looking forward to these! Thanks for reading!

I'd definitely recommend TA in Mid South & Houston in 1984. His tag team and feud with Mr. Wrestling II is worthwhile but I'd also suggest his matches versus DiBiase plus a great one versus Butch Reed as well.

Heck yeah, I picked the Howard the Duck one up recently. Memories of that movie tarnished a really good comic. Glad I did some research and found out how cool it was. I've looked at Showcase Presents but most of the ones I'm interested in are too pricey used.

Let's go with more 1995 shoot style wrestling! Also want to say a big thanks to superkix & KB8 for their work as it's been a big help in sorting & sifting through all of this wrestling goodness. The UWFi & RINGS threads in The Microscope section is the place to start. So now let's look at my sampling of 1995. Hiromitsu Kanehara vs Kenichi Yamamoto (01/16) - Quick one sided bout but very entertaining as Yamamoto not only refused a hand shake but had a couple rude gestures for Kanehara. So seeing Kanehara teach the young punk a lesson was fun. I LIKED IT Kazushi Sakuraba vs Yoji Anjo (02/18) - This was very mat scrambly as you would expect from Sakuraba. Anjo can do any discipline of fighting. He threw some very good knees to the bread basket for instance. Nothing earth shattering here but still fun to watch them work in & out of holds. I LIKED IT Masahito Kakihara vs. Kiyoshi Tamura (02/18) - Holy cow! Too short to say much about but cool while it lasted. Short & intense enough to be a shoot frankly. Worth a watch. James Stone vs Kazushi Sakuraba (06/18) - Fun match but Stone/Little Guido was enhancement talent for UWFI. Still he looked pretty good on the canvas. His selling/defense of the stand up fighting was too "pro wrestling" than I've become accustomed to. That said, his matches might be an excellent entry point for someone wanting to see what shoot style/UWFi was about. IT'S OK Yoshihiro Takayama vs Kazuo Yamazaki (06/18) - My favorite matches have a good sample of all tactics - strikes, suplexes and submissions. This was no different. There's actually an emphasis on striking here. That made this interesting since it felt more like a shoot style brawl. I also think this translates well to fans not used to shoot style. Anyhow, this was exciting and dramatic wrestling. I LOVED IT Naoki Sano vs James Stone (07/13) - Stone already has the Guido character figured out. He shoves Sano while the ref is checking his ring gear. I liked this more than the Sakuraba match as Sano kept things on the ground. He used choice strikes to either set up a takedown or to count as a knockdown. I wish they let Stone be more competitive because these really are squash matches. They are a novelty for ECW/WWE fans who want to see Little Guido/Nunzio. But hey, that's me & I'm glad I saw this 😋 Plus I'm a Sano fan. IT'S OK. I should note that it's a little closer to earlier UWFi style in they use a couple pro moves in good shoot style context. Not sure if they did this to make Stone more comfortable or more likely to ease people into the upcoming NJPW feud/gain wider appeal to draw bigger audiences. That's a general trend I've noticed for 1995. Yoshihiro Takayama vs Naoki Sano (08/18) - Oh wow, this was a neat one! Sano was targeting Takayama's bandaged thigh. Not super obvious but, it was giving him openings with the big man. This match definitely could have gone on a couple more minutes and I would have been happy. Terrific showing from Sano. He & Takayama had great chemistry. I think that they tagged together later on in NOAH. I LIKED IT *** If you like what you're reading then check out my other blog: wrestlingdreambattles.blogspot.com More stuff, less ads! *** OK I've got a few more RINGS matches this time. Mitsuya Nagai vs. Willie Peeters (RINGS, 4/28/95) - Pretty quick but pretty sweet. This was primarily about strikes. Peeters palm strikes were nasty. If he could connect with his kicks then he might have ended this sooner. Nagai was landing his though. Seems like he was going for the liver - nice! 😋 Short and sweet. I LIKED IT Volk Han vs. Masayuki Naruse (RINGS, 4/28/95) - It's neat to watch Naruse mature. Here he takes it to the master. Volk is like fly paper. He seems to turn every strike encounter into a hold/take down to the mat. Here Han's height advantage plays a part since it's tough for Naruse to land kicks to the head. He does just fine with palm strikes though. Han has much better strikes now too. In fact, he seems much more animated than in earlier years. This seemed much more like a true competition than an exhibition. Earlier RINGS seemed at half speed of UWFi for example. LOVED THIS Mitsuya Nagai vs. Andrei Kopilov (RINGS, 5/20/95) - Excellent intensity here. Striking when it's appropriate to open up a takedown. Great throws from Andrei. Competitive wrestling on the canvas. I really dug how Nagai pulled Andrei back into the middle of the ring on one attempt. And that reminds me! Andrei is strong as hell! He damn near dumped Nagai over the ropes a couple times! I think this could have developed more because they had great chemistry. I LIKED IT! Tsuyoshi Kohsaka vs. Grom Zaza (RINGS, 12/19/95) - Bullshit Zaza's 29 years old! More like 39. Holy crap...just saw his Wikipedia entry. He was 30 years old. The man aged like LeBron. Anyhow, WAY more aggressive than we were seeing a couple years ago with striking. RINGS is stepping up in '95. Or maybe TK brings out the best in people. This looked way more like a legit fight than much of the RINGS I've seen pre '95. I'm no expert but the intensity and speed of the strikes made this super exciting. On top of that, the mat wrestling was top notch AND they really played up the drama. I LOVED this one! Maybe the best RINGS match I've watched. Ishikawa vs Naruse excluded. I'm glad that I didn't quit on RINGS. Don't know if it's just me but, RINGS seems to get better as time goes on. Thanks for reading!!!