Control21

I just remember one of their matches from 1992 being quite good. Not a classic or anything, but it accomplished what it was aiming for. But apparently the two had some legit disagreements, which I did not know about.

Bump

Cactus Jack vs Ron Simmons, can't go wrong there. That's always a good matchup.

I like what you are doing with Orndorff. He was always a bit underrated I think and he has found a good home in AWA. He is showcasing his abilities and has established himself as a top guy in the promotion it seems. The build for Gordy/Hogan continues, and that will be quite explosive once it happens.

"The Crowning" should prove to be a very intriguing event with an opportunity for a lot of folks to establish themselves as a major player. Lord Humongous vs Luger is going to be a great match I bet, looking forward to that one. Speaking of chaos, it appears Ric Flair has a lot of people chasing him and they are all pretty hungry for the belt... Nice update, lots of interesting things happening in WCW.

Savage/Bossman/Dusty is a title build trio I did not see coming, but one I quite like! Pairing the Steiners with The Genius is a great move. He could be a great "advocate" for them.

Card Announcement: UWF Newborn - "Fighting Base Nagano" April 6th, 1989 Nagano, Japan Nagano Citizen Gymnasium Yasuto Sekishima vs Manabu Yamada Tatsuo Nakano & Shigeo Miyato vs Kiyoshi Tamura & Yoji Anjo Masakatsu Funaki & Naoki Sano vs Minoru Suzuki & Wayne Shamrock Masashi Aoyagi vs Andy Hug Maurice Smith vs Gerard Gordeau Don "Nakaya" Nielsen vs Dick Vrij Atsushi Onita vs Osamu Kido Yoshiaki Fujiwara vs Mark Fleming Nobuhiko Takada vs Marco Ruas

Only about four minutes long, which is shorter compared to their match earlier in March and the one they would later have in May. Just like the other two, there's some beautiful matwork here and Kazushi Sakuraba does a good job of keeping pace with Tamura. Also like the first match, Tamura thinks quicker than Sakuraba and this causes Sakuraba some trouble despite being able to get a dominant position on Tamura a few times. Unlike the first match, Sakuraba does a better job defending Tamura's kicks and seems more confident in throwing his own, but this doesn't deter Tamura. Sakuraba gets a full mount on Tamura towards the end, but Tamura sweeps him. Sakuraba turtles up and appears to think he is safe. He quickly realizes he is in trouble though as Tamura begins to search for his ankle, and he turns around to try and defend himself but the familiar feeling of panic sets in as he realizes Tamura has caught him once again and he taps quite quickly. He doesn't have time to panic like he did in the first match, which is a nice touch because anyone familiar with submission grappling will tell you that the feeling you are fucked can last milliseconds before your brain tells you your shit is getting fucked up. It's a nice setup for their match in May, which I think is the best out of the three. There is some discussion about whether this match is a shoot or a worked shoot. It could have been, but either way, I think it's notable for this board's purposes. ***3/4 or maybe a generous ****.

The first match in their 1996 trilogy which just demonstrated just how good these two were. The match opens with one of the best wrestling scrambles you will find, and Sakuraba and Tamura put on a clinic in grappling and counterwork. The two seem evenly matched at first, but Tamura begins to think quicker than Sakuraba and figures out openings before Sakuraba can read them. In comparison to their 5/27/96 match, there appear to be lulls where the two are trying to figure out where to go next but you don't notice it unless you watch very closely. Because of that, they convey a bit less emotion but the match is still mechanically very good. There is a point at the end where Tamura hooks Sakuraba, and Sakuraba has a moment of panic where he realizes he is fucked but can't figure out how to escape before his brain tells him to tap. Sakuraba screams out in disappointment afterward as Tamura celebrates. It's a nice moment to cap a beautiful match and a nice start to a great trilogy. ****1/4

Yeah, I just rewatched this and I think it's tremendous. It's very realistic matwork done almost perfectly in a pro-wrestling context. I am reminded of the Kanehara vs Tamura match later on in RINGS which was worked in a similar Pancrase-esque fashion. Maybe the island I am on is very small, but I firmly believe you can have a great pro-wrestling match while just doing the basics really well. Like KB8 said, you can see why Tamura was growing out of UWFi. He was just too good for them, and Sakuraba would leave soon after. Both are some of the best to ever do it, and both could execute this style to an exceptional degree. You have to watch intently to pick up the things that tie everything together here, like the counterwork, the positioning, and the sports psychology the two convey as they do all of this. You can argue it isn't there, but I firmly believe it is. ****1/2

Garvin vs Slater is going to be a big-time match. That's a great pairing. The 1989 Crockett Cup is looking to be the most memorable yet!

As it stands, he's in my top 40. I think people who want to rank him high shouldn't sweat it. We have limited footage, but he's a tremendous worker in what we have and it's clear why his legacy is what it is.

Very curious to see what the Triangle of Terror is about. They are picking some interesting targets.

WrestleMania V was awesome! Very well done and I enjoyed the detail you put into this. Steiners, Davey Boy, and Muta all getting huge wins sets up WWF for a very big year with some young stars coming up through the ranks. You are building up Muta quite well with Paul E. and the dynamic there easily comes alive when I read it. I loved Dusty and the Von Erichs getting huge wins as well. Andre the Giant getting another moment in the sun was nice to see as well. Of course, the main event absolutely delivered with Randy Savage and Ultimate Warrior putting on an 80s classic. Props for delivering another classic event to us!

Sounds like CMLL's lightning matches to an extent

One of the more underrated and under-discussed matches in RINGS. This was worked in the realistic house style that RINGS adopted during the late 1997-1999 period, and the result was a very fluid match with incredible grappling and counterwork by both. This match asks for some patience and attention to detail for a 14-minute match, but the award is a very good technical battle between a SAMBO specialist and one of the best shoot-style workers from UWFi and KINGDOM. Lots of nice reversals and a good finish where Ilyukhin catches Kanehara off-guard. This looked like a modern MMA contest in some ways. Ilyukhin was really good, and his name doesn't get mentioned enough in terms of great shoot-style workers. The same applies to Kanehara. ****3/4

Some names have been announced tonight: Rampage Jackson, Mike O'Hearn (???), and Davit Modzmanashvili, who was a medalist for the 2012 Olympics before getting stripped over doping allegations. Not sure where the Mike O'Hearn connection comes from. He's a 55-year-old bodybuilder with no previous wrestling experience. Davit seems like someone Maeda would book for a RINGS show, so I'll give him props for that. A bit random, and I think he'll probably need bigger names to draw a decent crowd.

I think this is almost as good as their 12/16/94 match, and I enjoyed some of the exchanges in this match. Tons of heat from the crowd as well. The post-match where Yamamoto is handed the Mega Battle victory crown by Akira Maeda is really interesting as well. Yamamoto clearly felt he didn't deserve it and kinda put it on reluctantly. A bit of foreshadowing there, unfortunately. But overall, this is probably one of my favorite RINGS matches. ****1/2

Another RINGS match that flies under the radar. This was a borderline classic with lots of fluid wrestling and counterwork from both men. Kohsaka pulls out some flashy moves here, including a flying omoplata of some sort. Kohsaka also has some slick reversals in his bag, giving the stronger Ilyukhin a run for his money. Ilyukhin was also very good here, and worked his realistic SAMBO style to near perfection here, including pulling out a kani-basami. Fantastic stuff all around. ****3/4

I remember loving this the first time I watched it a few years ago, and I just watched it again to make sure...yep, this was great. Yamamoto played the role of the young company favorite with Maeda out injured, and Kohsaka was the exciting new product from the RINGS dojo system. Very spirited grappling on the mat and great counterwork here, with some great exchanges and a bit of drama with the crowd invested. Nice set-up for the submission finish from Yamamoto as well. ****1/2

Since it doesn't seem like anyone had Taz on their roster, I will go ahead and add him under his real name, Peter Senerchia

Bas Rutten Bas Rutten’s fame comes from his days in Pancrase, where he became one of the best shootfighters in the world and had memorable bouts with the likes of Masakatsu Funaki and Ken Shamrock. Beyond that, Bas Rutten had a brief run as a professional wrestler appearing for promotions like BattlArts and New Japan. Bas was a solid worker for both promotions and added legitimacy to both when they were seeking it. He was a solid worker who understood the basics of wrestling and usually had quality bouts to pad the work-shoot spectrum of his resume. vs Osamu Nishimura (10/14/2022) vs Koji Kanemoto (10/26/2002) vs Yuji Nagata (7/20/2002) vs Carl Malenko (10/14/2001) w/ Amir vs Alexander Otsuka & Carl Malenko (10/26/2001) Yusuke Fuke Yusuke Fuke started his career towards the end of UWF Newborn’s run in 1990. He then made the jump to Fujiwara’s PWFG promotion for a brief time and then was a founding member of Pancrase. After his Pancrase days, he has worked for a variety of Japanese indie promotions with occasional stops at bigger names like AJPW, NOAH, and BJW along the way. He has had a relatively interesting career and his longevity might make him someone worth considering. w/Hitamaru Sasaki vs Minoru Suzuki & Takanori Ito (4/16/2022) vs Hikaru Sato (2/12/2022) vs GENTARO (3/12/2009) vs Yoshiaki Fujiwara (2/24/1992) Shinya Aoki Aoki is probably more of an outside-the-box nominee, but he has had a very solid run in the past couple of years as a former MMA guy who can work both solid shoot-style matches and entertaining comedy stuff. Like Daisuke Nakamura, he is an extremely talented grappler and his technical skills are easily translated inside a wrestling ring. He is quite consistent as well and usually avoids putting on bad matches just because his fundamentals are really good. vs Kazusada Higuchi (10/12/2022) vs Takanori Ito (12/30/2022) vs Tetsuya Izuchi (3/7/2023) vs Masakatsu Funaki (6/2/2017) vs HARASHIMA (2/17/2019) vs HARASHIMA (10/28/2018) Volador Jr Volador Jr has been one of CMLL’s mainstays since the 2000s, becoming one of the top wrestlers in the world with his athleticism and ability to convey great matches through pacing and psychology. In terms of Lucha Libre, Volador Jr grasps the nuances of in-ring storytelling with the best of them. He has had tremendous feuds with the likes of Barbaro Cavernario, Mistico, Ultimo Guerrero, and Rocky Romero. At 40 years old, he is still going strong and has become one of the standard bearers for CMLL. vs Barbaro Cavernario (10/7/2016) vs Ultimo Guerrero (7/14/2017) vs Angel de Oro (9/16/2023) vs Rocky Romero (6/30/2023) vs Rocky Romero (1/20/2023) vs Caristico (1/21/2019) Dragon Lee Dragon Lee was something of a prodigy when he got his start in CMLL, and quickly ascended the promotion’s ranks as a thrilling wrestler who could combine athleticism and skill. The feud with Hiromu Takahashi, then Kamaitachi, put him on the map internationally and he eventually became one of the icons of NJPW’s junior heavyweight division during the 2010s. He has had an endless amount of good-to-great matches with the likes of Will Ospreay, Shingo Takagi, Taiji Ishimori, Mistico, and Titan. While his WWE run hasn’t captured the same heights of his work in the 2010s, he has still shown he is a great wrestler in the confines of WWE’s style. vs Hiromu Takahashi (2/11/2017) vs Will Ospreay (6/9/2019) vs Hiromu Takahashi (2/9/2020) vs Shingo Takagi (5/23/2019) vs Taiji Ishimori (5/3/2019)

Is anyone using Taz/Tazmaniac right now? I double-checked the rosters and couldn't find him, and searched for his name in the Programming section. The last time he was used was in 2023 by LowBlow.

As we get into the middle of 1989, UWF starts picking up the pace quite a bit and the roster is coming together while the wrestlers continue to advance the UWF philosophy. This results in very good shows top to bottom. Two of my favorite shows in the promotion so far. UWF Fighting Square Nagoya (6/14/1989) Bart Vale vs Shigeo Miyato A bit underwhelming. Bart Vale wasn't a great worker and Miyato really seemed to struggle here to get something out of him. Vale's kicks were very soft and didn't add much to the match either. **3/4 Yoji Anjo vs Masakatsu Funaki One of the better UWF undercard matches I've seen so far. This was an excellent and spirited match between two young and hungry wrestlers at the time, and Funaki got the best out of Anjo here. Anjo was a great worker when he wanted to be, and really stepped up his game here. You had some good striking exchanges that got the crowd invested, and the grappling had a lot of commitment and purpose behind it. The 19+ minutes flew by, and it's understandable why Funaki was seen as the next big thing at the time. ****1/2 Yoshiaki Fujiwara vs Minoru Suzuki Fujiwara gives Suzuki the "grumpy old veteran" treatment that Suzuki would give to others 25 years later. The match is pretty solid, and Fujiwara shows off his tougher side while giving Suzuki a pounding. Suzuki can take the match to the canvas at certain points, but Fujiwara displays his superiority here as well. This didn't drag on too much. **** Kazuo Yamazaki vs Norman Smiley A decent outing from both. Smiley's grappling was probably the highlight here, and while Yamazaki isn't a slouch in that department either, he can't string together things like Smiley does. As a result, the match dragged a bit and it felt like Yamazaki slowed things down while Smiley wanted to keep things moving. It probably could have been better, but it wasn't a bad match. ***3/4 Akira Maeda vs Nobuhiko Takada Maeda and Takada clash again, and the result is as good as you would expect. It didn't have the dramatic finishing stretch as their November 1988 match did, or the energy of their Budokan match, but it found a way to match both in the quality department. Takada posed a threat to Maeda at times, and Maeda had to find a way to be more clever in the grappling department to catch his opponent off-guard. While Takada gets some momentum at the end, Maeda gets a painful-looking heel hook on his opponent for the victory. ****1/2 UWF Fighting Square Hakata (7/24/1989) Mark Rush vs Minoru Suzuki This goes for the full 30 minutes and is a bit slow at times. The work wasn't bad though. ***1/4 Masakatsu Funaki vs Tatsuo Nakano Perhaps the second-best UWF match up this point, behind Takada vs Maeda from November 1988. This was a thrilling clash between two energetic wrestlers who wanted to stake a place in the promotion. Funaki has the flash and the toughness to back it up, and Nakano is a relentless machine who fights through anything to exert his will on his opponent. This match represents the UWF philosophy, where violence and sport meet to create something very special in the ring. Funaki draws blood from Nakano's delicate nose, but Nakano just keeps coming and Funaki has to defend and get creative to win the match. The crowd eats it up, because everything feels real and the intensity behind this match is second to none. It's one of the best sub-10-minute matches you will find. ****3/4 Shigeo Miyato vs Nobuhiko Takada A fun match between a company's top star and a slightly younger upstart who wants to prove his worth. It's a simple yet effective setpiece for a match, and it works here as Miyato goes on the offense against Takada but soon finds out that Takada has a callous side. Takada throws some mean strikes and Miyato is forced to work from underneath as Takada gains momentum but doesn't relent. Not bad at all. **** Akira Maeda vs Yoji Anjo Similar to the Miyato vs Takada match, this time Anjo takes on the true company ace. Maeda, while dealing with a feisty opponent, demonstrates his strength in the ring again. Anjo gets some offense in, but this is all about Maeda controlling the match and getting Anjo where he wants him. ***3/4 Yoshiaki Fujiwara vs Kazuo Yamazaki This was a great display of wrestling and also a great display of psychology and storytelling in the context of shoot-style. Fujiwara doesn't take Yamazaki seriously at first, and sort of has a nonchalant approach to this match. Then Yamazaki catches Fujiwara with a sharp kick to the head and Fujiwara turns things up a notch. Fujiwara is a master at pacing in his matches, and there are moments of pure intensity followed by slower lulls, which makes sense if we look at real combat sports and MMA. While shoot-style wasn't trying to replicate MMA, it has its roots in catch wrestling, and catch wrestling contests were often games of chess between two chess masters. Fujiwara is the chess master, and Yamazaki is a man on the same path but is not quite there yet. The result is a compelling and exciting match that despite going nearly 30 minutes, draws you in as a viewer and keeps your eyes glued to the screen. The last five minutes see a pissed-off Fujiwara tasting his blood after a sharp headbutt from Yamazaki, and Fujiwara has no problem returning the favor to secure the victory via KO. Another great UWF classic and a match worth viewing. ****3/4