Ma Stump Puller

For all the hype Shibata gets, you do forget sometimes that him pre-BIG MOUTH could be very hit and miss. Tana is in his weird punk-phase of his life as he sports a bizarre half-Mohawk/half-mullet with red and yellow dye just thrown in around to boot. Shibata's always looked the same pretty much. You'd think a match between the two even this early would be at least decent, but I don't think they clicked well at all. They do the "rolling out of the ring while in a submission" spot with dual Achilles Tendon holds applied to crickets, it's the least hype I've ever seen for that. Shibata's dickish heel antics are enjoyable, at least, but Tana is trying to be something he isn't: a mat-wizard. He's never been amazing at that, even if he has a couple of neat takedowns. He really just doesn't find a grove as he no-sells big boots...to just hold onto Shibata's leg a little longer. When he does the sensible thing and just rolls into a kneebar Tana immediately goes for the ropes because he doesn't want to engage with that. We drop the leg work to instead do chin locks instead while Shibata plays dead. The best spot was probably Tana doing his dumb elbow drop he used to do where he just recklessly throws himself up for it, Shibata no sells and socks him in the face with a punch instead lol. We get a brawl outside as Shibata throws more stiff shots as Tana looks a bit miffed and mostly awkwardly no-sells or moves away to stop getting hit. The pair exchange slaps to go into full on catfight as the two throw wild haymakers in a blatant rip from Takayama/Frye, only this looked mostly sloppy. Shibata catches with a right hook and Tana falls to his knees for a roundhouse to the back of the head. Tana no sells a backdrop near fall to go for a roll-up, and that's Shibata's cue to randomly spam STO's for the next minute or so. Shibata landing a cool Pele Kick to counter a potential German suplex was cool, Tana doing a weird wiffed kick to counter a rolling wheel kick was definitely not. Tana then lands a normal Inoki flying kick and tries for a German before Shibata runs to and then hits the ropes to try to escape, only to get caught with a O'Connor Roll with arch for the finish. This struggled for a theme or, well, anything, really. Shibata is the heel and he does some heel stuff, but other than that it was a awkward showcase of Tana not clicking with someone who basically embodied the style he detested; stiff striking, shoot-style grappling, both things he's not good at and never wanted to be. The crowd was mostly dead for this as they did moves yet failed to really work them into the match, it's just lots of stuff that doesn't really go or add anything to this. The only cohesion is them building up the suplexes with lots of counters, even then I feel like I'm cheating doing that though because then nearly every half-decent match would have something like that added in. Rough stuff.

This was a fairly solid match focused around showmanship, with the Super Rookie trying to prove he can work on Nishimura's ballgame of tricked-out technical work. I especially loved how extra Nishimura is here: while Nakamura at times will be showy Nishimura will almost intentionally throw out some brilliant counters to relatively simple moves, flying around at points to show off his funky WoS-lite technique. It's not necessary; Nakamura establishes by simply strolling to the ropes instead prior when in a similar situation; but Nishimura almost refuses to do so out of principle, he's not letting this kid outshine him. At the same time I think he gives a ton of room for Naka to stand his ground and get over with the audience as they go head to head, generally having Nishimura be on the backend when having to go strike to strike. This plays into the middle half with Nakamura's knees proving particularly painful for his opponent, who sells hard for them. Nishimura has to pull out some wacky stuff with a headscissors on the apron and a big knee drop to the head afterwards to change things up. He keeps his opponent on the outside with big dropkicks, as well as dropping his knee on the guardrail in a particularly nasty bit. The leg work inside and outside of the ring as the slower heat spot is fairly decent, despite Nakamura kinda botching his big comeback with the Shining Triangle with a sloppy transition. He makes up for that with a nice bomb in the form of a German Suplex alongside a gnarly kneeling Torture Rack. The finish has a second Shining Triangle get countered into a Spinning Toe Hold/figure four for the tap-out win. Nishimura sticking a towel on the guy afterwards was a cool spot, if a bit ruined by Nakamura not selling the leg work and getting right back up afterwards like nothing happened lol. That's a general issue here: his sustained selling is pretty shoddy, with him not really bothering to showcase the effects of Nishimura's leg work whatsoever, even just slight pauses. His pacing is also a bit iffy and seems stiff, there's not really a feeling anything he's doing feels spontaneous or off the cuff, which was needed given Nakamura's comebacks were the big moments of the match. That said, this was a fun technical showing designed to get him over which was half-successful judging by the crowd's positive reactions, even if he felt far from ready for a main event outing. Nishimura once again really shows his stuff as the calculating Catch-act who works this masterfully as the overbearing vet intent on dragging this down to the mat. It's a easy gameplan to understand and he pretty much follows it to the letter.

The only real thing I can suggest is to check out as much of his AJPW stuff as possible because that's basically where most of his best pro-style matches come from, namely due to a mix of motivation and great opponents. Otherwise it's just a rough gamble.

Time for a middle of 2023 update! Rising: Kawada: Rewatching AJPW in 2000, Kawada is the MVP both before and after the Exodus. You really get the feeling that he's just inching to actually work, and when he gets the chance to be the Ace he's always wanted to be his motivation and work goes right though the roof. Tenryu series? Fantastic. Random Sasaki crossover the DAY after going nearly 30 minutes with Steve Williams and Tenryu? Easy. Getting actual good matches out of a dire roster/ one of the worst RWTL's ever? Done and done. Fuchi as well, but Kawada was just dominating with all of this newfound freedom on his hands. Keita Yano: Still on his amazing run in Tenryu Project, in this case showing that he can work a more regular pace of matches with a wild assortment of characters. Dude was always great but this run has really hammered down just how strong his technical work can be outside of his crazy wheelhouse. I still think his greatest hits were in Wallabee Pro, that's far from a insult though. He'd honestly already have a GWE case without these last few years, at this point I think it's undeniable. Hikaru Sato: His Jr Heavyweight run has been all killer and no filler, every defence has been remarkable in one way or another. His AJPW stuff less so but that's par for the course for that company. You can click on nearly every match he's done in the last few years and find something worth mentioning with his performances, he's that good at what he does. Beastly on the mat and his strikes are still full of murderous intent. Command Bolshoi: it's such a shame she got into her prime during the major decline of Joshi because she was pretty stellar in nearly everything I've found of her. Comedy Bolshoi is hit and miss, Navarro-fan Bolshoi is one of the slickest lucha-mat wizards I've ever had the pleasure of seeing. Hoping as more time goes forward we get more and more of her 2000's work because she's super enjoyable when her matches aren't being clipped to shit. Akebono: Akebono's got a little bit of a resurgence in recent times as people have went back and actually looked at his wealth of work and hey, even I've been impressed....slightly. His matches generally are one-note but he's one of those guys who's basically had matches with every major Japanese talent of the last 20 years so there's a lot of entertaining matches out there to enjoy. I'm still not convinced he's great though. Down: I don't really like being negative on these bits and to be honest, there's not any that have massively fallen down on my viewing because I'm not really hunting for bad matches. Emi Sakura: by proxy because every match involving a trainee of hers I've seen in the last two months have had them be tangibly the worst element in them. It's weird because this was even when she was actually quite good, for some reason it just never rubbed off on anyone she tried training up. One wonders if her deal is the same as Dory Funk..... Masakatsu Funaki: mostly due to his later work where he's just taking paychecks, especially his W-1 stuff which is just garbage mostly. Watched him recently on a RJPW show and man he's just dull as anything. They gave him Bobby Roode, Takayama and Otani, all of these are stinkers. The worst part is that he can still go quite well. Johnny Smith: I expected him to really step up for my AJPW 2000 viewing and.....yeah he just didn't do a whole lot. Bar the Fujiwara match (it's a crime that's cut as badly as it is) nothing really stands out and despite tagging with Kea he just seems like a complete afterthought that didn't seem that keen on going out of his comfort zone in matches, sticking to the same song and dance like he'd done for the whole of the 90's.

Kea was supposed to be one of *the* big AJPW guys but it was obvious that was never happening lol. There's a interview out there where he credits Tenryu as his greatest ever opponent (alongside saying him and Muto taught him the most about wrestling) and I can't really disagree, he got more out of the guy than Muto and everyone else combined pretty much. He got a traumatic leg injury around about the end of 2002 and as you said he vanished for all of 2003 bar showing up as a RO&D goon with baggy long trousers to hide the injury. Dude always seemed to be plagued with injury trouble whenever they wanted him to run at the top, which is always a shame. He got great near the end of the 2000's though in a pretty stellar run of matches if that helps

I was thinking on what on earth a "Different Style Fight" between these two would tangibly look like. Josh was still pretty green and Norton isn't exactly known for his shoot-style antics. So what do you do? You cheat, of course; this is barely a shoot-style match. Barnett rocks Norton early with kicks and he in turn gets the guy in the corner for gut punches that Barnett DOES NOT sell for in the slightest, so they look like shit. Norton bullrushes Barnett with all of his power moves, including a super early powerbomb! That gets a near 10 count from the ref before he gets up. Norton stupidly trots in and tries for a chokeslam to finish things off, that goes about as well as you'd think as Barnett slips out and into a cross armbreaker in a good spot. He impressively carries Norton up and over for a spinebuster before snapping on the leg for a submission. He throws a few leg kicks before trying for a Capture Suplex...granted it's botched slightly due to Norton being obviously way too big to bump clean alongside Barnett being too close to the ropes when trying to do it, but hey, it's impressive as a attempt at least. Barnett slips on a tight ankle lock, Norton struggles for the ropes again. He makes the mistake of getting cocky: when he tries for a running rolling wheel kick Norton just wrecks him with a stiff lariat in turn. The pair try for bombs; Norton his powerbomb, Barnett the German suplex; but both manage to hold out long enough to escape. Barnett lands his wheel kick the second time fairly well and makes Norton bump for a meaty gutwrench. The dude is gassed after this bump and just hides outside, forcing Barnett to come after him after taking one glove off. Barnett has to manhandle him into the ring by going for a rope-hung DDT which almost went real bad, Norton is a pro and escapes death via his huge shoulders though. The finish is real cool as Barnett logically tries for a Guillotine, then decides he's got to throw Norton AGAIN so he goes for a one-arm suplex while still in the hold, which magically gets the tap-out win! This was all about pushing Barnett hard and hey, it went as well as I think this could've went. Norton bumps all over the place for sick dangerous suplexes, he gets in some of his own classic hoss shit in turn. It feels like a 90's Vader UWF-I match where his bombs can end things in a instant, but he's clueless about anything else that matters in these sort of matches so things are balanced out. Barnett is a bit awkward in places, you get why they wanted to push him though. He's got a great look, naturally quite athletic, and he loves his MMA, he's basically built for this era of NJPW. Surprisingly quite solid.

Tenta's thing in WAR seemed to be wrestling ex-WWF dudes lol. Warlord and him haven't actually wrestled each other in singles ever (yes, even in the WWF) so this is a surprising first. Obviously Warlord isn't remembered for his workrate classics but I think they really make this work for a 9 minute match for a number of reasons I'll get to while going though the match. Warlord and co shoulder barge before Tenta takes a bump off a good big boot and then eats a scoop slam, which got the crowd going great here; already they are super hyped to see these two hoss guys jumping around. Warlord gets in a good flying clothesline before his opponent takes over with a running dropkick. From then on in it's more or less by the numbers work by Tenta as he goes though his usual big man repertoire, followed up by Warlord occasionally taking control with big meaty suplexes and slams. if you aren't a fan of that style then I can see this getting grating but it's fairly decent action and the crowd enjoy every minute of it. Warlord tries for a cartoonish axe-handle off the apron and Tenta catches the guy mid-air to ram him into the turnbuckle post which was incredibly sick. We also get a nice false-finish as Tenta lands the powerslam + elbow drop and even a Earthquake Splash, but Warlord kicks out at 2.9! Big cheers from that. Warlord somehow gets a dumb Hogan spot over as he gets caught in a bearhug and literally throws his arms in the air when he's getting his second wind; it's stupid but again, the audience are into this as they chant for the guy. He Hulks up and lands a big jumping shoulder press and wild backdrop, teases the powerslam but gets countered into a crossbody for a near fall. Tenta lands a elbow AND a leg drop for yet another near fall. In true Kings Road style he then has to come up with a superfinisher to beat the guy: in this case a running neckbreaker Baba-style: which gets the win at last. Probably Warlord's best ever match apart from maybe the Bret showing. Tons of intensity, Tenta just landing crazy bumps while also getting over his own shit at the same time, Warlord's limited offence getting over because of who's he's doing it to, etc. Even loved the little touches like Tenta getting more and more grumpy after every near fall as he's just not really used to somebody this resilient, you really get the feeling that he's just pissed that this dude won't go down proper. I also feel like the two paced this well; despite it obviously not being the fastest match this never slowed down to a crawl, which was vital to keeping the crowd friendly and interested in what they were trying to do. Either way, a surprisingly solid outing that I think showcases how a limited worker like Warlord can be guided and paced up to a proper good match with the right hand. Seriously, this was top-notch stuff.

Suzuki has a smart starting bit as he keeps pining for the handshake and acting nice...until he cheap shots Nishimura when he lets his guard down and starts running around like a maniac. Thankfully we go away for that as Nishimura keeps hurling his opponent into numerous roll-up positions and he starts to not fuck around with constructive arm work and hard shots. Suzuki plays some good mind games with his opponent, consistently going from goofy joker to Pancrase demon seamlessly, making the tempo of the match very up and down workrate wise. Good bit of the early to middle half stuff is played like this, with Nishimura throwing out some smooth old-school work to counter Suzuki's more conventional MMA stuff. It's a interesting styles crash that I think the two work well into the action here, even if Nishimura doesn't click much with the more modern shoot-style approach. He mostly works defensively and manages to get the crowd behind him as Suzuki bullies the guy with stiff kicks and holds. Nishimura gets pissed as Suzuki keeps toying with him, so much so that when Suzuki slacks off too much when he misses a high kick and it gets trapped in the ropes, he relentlessly goes after it; even shoving the ref when he tries to stop him. Nishimura plays into this by slapping on a figure four and refusing to let Suzuki go when he hits the ropes as the ref is out. He moves into the middle of the ring afterwards like nothing happened, what a heel! Suzuki keeps goofing off, and that sets his opponent off more: we get wild angry swings out of Nishimura and him refusing to let go of a figure four on the outside, forcing Suzuki to punch the shit out of his leg to escape in a pretty good spot. We get a great transition as Suzuki throws out a backslide and then counters Nishimura's own to go into a smooth Gotch Piledriver. We get a similarly great bit as Nishimura's O'Connor Roll is reversed into a rear naked choke, blending in the MMA/catch style clash even more. I thought they really effectively got this over as a world-ender, especially when Suzuki snaps it on while Nishimura is literally hanging on the ropes, Suzuki BENDS his back all the way down to turn it into a Bulldog choke instead; really simple but really nasty work that makes the move from *just* a choke to something terrifying. The two brawl for a bit, Suzuki gets a nose bleed after some hard slaps as Nishimura hits some of the harder shots of his career. I thought the finish was a bit goofy with the 5 minute (yes, that long) long Cobra Twist exchange and double dropkick w/ random staredown, felt really unnecessary and put on to add some random drama. But yeah, this was a good match that didn't feel overtly like a draw until the very end when they basically start to run out of ideas. That said, it's a really strong showing from both men as they combine bits from each of their styles to make something unique and fresh. I'm glad Nishimura got to kinda get out of his comfort zone a bit here and to be fair, he does really well on both sides as does Suzuki who was pretty hit and miss around this point. This is, however, harmed by this being after yet another 30 minute draw: the match right before this was a Tanahashi/Toru Yano match.....as you can imagine this did kill the crowd off a little bit for this. Still solid, definitely worth searching out for more Nishimura gems.

Matsunaga was "good" at one point in terms of hardcore wrestling standards as W*ING's big draw but he's way, way past it now: he'd not even been working full-time for the last 8 years or so due to his knees blowing out Rey-style (again) being used mostly for novelty matches. Gone are the kicks, gone are the massive overkill matches. This was purely going to be good by his emoting and reputation rather than anything to do with fancy bumps. He gets in and is immediately hit with stiff punches by Mura, forcing him to leave again. He's annoyed enough that he immediately produces bladed weapons, of which Mura scoffs at him for using before beating his ass again lol. He does get hit by them though, which allows Matsu the time to recover and push him into the barbed wire. He also pulls out a fork and legitimately stabs his opponent with it, causing gross cuts. Mura sells the subsequent "stabbing" of the fork as Matsu very gently and lovingly brushes the fork on his head, making little attempt to make it look realistic. We get some outside brawling, with Matsu jabbing one of the trainees with the fork in a also very gross spot. He pulls out more shit from his knee brace (seriously, how much does he have in there?) before Mura smacks him with a chair. Doesn't stop him getting beat down with the blade though despite hurling out a judo throw and some shots. Otani (the ref for this one) tries to get them out of the corner and gets attacked for his troubles. Matsu pulls out ANOTHER blade from his brace and slowly stalks Mura to stab him with it, only for Otani to slap him up for his antics. This gives his opponent enough time to land another hard punch into a STO before choking the shit out of the guy: despite Matsu stabbing his hand while he's in the hold, Mura just rages though long enough to send him to sleep to finish this in a pretty desperate manner. This wasn't great workrate wise obviously, and the barbed wire stipulation was basically useless: outside of Mura going into it once at the very start it's never used again at any point, which feels like a waste given the setup. Mastsu is good as this crazy old weirdo who just attacks everyone and seems to hoard blades for a living, but obviously he can't do a whole lot bar shuffle and stab, so it's a more muted performance than what you might be used to seeing with his 90's material. This is mostly saved by Murakami putting on a pretty great performance, selling like crazy: at first he's cocky as anything in anticipation of beating up the old man, by the end he's throwing anything to just live though the match, it's super out of character for him. If you like grungy hardcore stuff filled with fair amount of violence, this might be up your avenue.

It's included alongside the full card on Internet Archive! What would your recommendations for Pogo be, simply asking?

That's perfectly acceptable as a viewpoint and to be honest, I'd probably agree if it wasn't for how strong Fujii looks in her three matches. You can't *really* see her as having stinkers, at least not without trying hard at least. Idk, I feel like for the material provided there's more than enough to be able to say "yes this person would've probably had some other good matches" at least from what I've seen. We don't have her 2008 kickboxing match with Mio Shirai. It's not like that would add anything anyway (it 99% wouldn't from what I'd imagine) but still.

This is cut to 19 minutes of the original 30, because fun editing is all about making cool matches less cool, idk. We get to see the opening grappling and it's pretty great? Yoshida is obviously just a master of this craft, Emoto doesn't look lost and keeps a good tempo. Then they cut and it's generic shit and I'm sad again. They do actually work stuff into the match, namely that Emoto works the back and Yoshida works the arm. Emoto uses the ropes aplenty, either throwing her opponent onto them or using them as weapons to work the back more. They do the classic Kings Road 90's spot of teasing apron moves, which ends with Yoshida eating a nasty Gourdbuster onto it. It was as safe as can be but damn it didn't look nice. A good positive is that both of them really seem like they're working under urgency to finish this as soon as possible, and their respective selling is good, especially Yoshida when she's just cranking on a nasty armbreaker for dear life or her numerous counters to try to snap the arm into pieces. There's a consistent grind to the pair as they both try to basically push the other to beyond the breaking point with whatever hurts the most. Emoto feels like Roderick Strong here as she has all of these sick backbreaker/suplex variations up her sleeves, making her a strikingly jarring force to Yoshida's mostly ground-based offence: she also actually has charisma, so there's that also to factor into things. Either way, it's a really good styles-clash. They built off top rope struggles well; early on Emoto lands a huge superplex that basically sets up the back work for later, so when she tries again Yoshida is NOT playing that and works in a Spider Twist while on said top rope! Pretty awesome. The match seems like it's going to finish at a point (namely after Yoshida boots the lariat arm) but then it goes for another six minutes. Some of this seems like filler (long hold struggles that sorta burn out rather than get more intense) other bits have Yoshida full on punching her opponent in the face, so yeah, I think it's justified. Yoshida also does the Fujiwara Sugar Foot to combo off a Small Package? Then she gets the other arm for a Rings of Saturn transition? Yeah, this is pretty up there, not even going to pretend now. Emoto's lariats aren't great, but her super slick roll-ups and counters definitely work for the pace this match is trying to go at, and you really get the feeling that she's just doing them out of habit at this point to just rush out a pin as things start to tick down. The finish has Emoto just spamming sick suplexes, but can't get a definitive pin off any of them. Draw sounds after another failed roll-up that seemed mistimed. This is somewhat harmed by the clipping but damn if this isn't just a brilliant little gem. Both women bring the best of their styles here and we get a super well-paced showing that balances fatigue selling with plenty of astonishingly brutal spots. Probably the best of Yoshida in IBUKI, though I've yet to go though all of her matches. This just clicked way, way more than others.

Watching her material back, I'm not sure.....the matches aren't obviously these incredible life-changing showings (be it the fairly shaky dance-partners and weird editing for the IBUKI dates) but she's still very good for what is pretty much the bare minimum of experience if even less given her other commitments at the time. Those three matches as you say showcase a fairly impressive range of versatility given each are slightly different in scope. If people give Bockwinkel slack for having entire decades of his career missing to the degree that he's a top 15/20, I think assuming a very high-end prodigy probably having a dozen or so good to great matches is fair. Just me though.

Absolutely criminal that this has no discussion. Fujii's three matches (not counting a weird shootish kickboxing bout she did for a wrestling show in 2008) are all pretty good showings. The 2005 IBUKI First to Three Falls match is probably one of the flashiest shoot-style squashes she's ever done and basically puts her over as this unstoppable force who just keeps relentlessly hunting for limbs to snap off. It's a fantastic visual and despite some obvious greeness off her you really get the feeling that she was *the* definitive package. Even with just three matches I'd say she deserves at least a nod to a top 100 spot, but also in acknowledgement that she would've probably easily been lower had she hit that peak a decade earlier.

This'll be the last version unless I can bother to watch lots of Muto-Era 2001 AJPW, and, erm, that's a tall order that I'm going to have to not be sober for. This only covers the first six months to the Ark-Exodus, I have something bigger planned for that. AJPW Oddities #6: 2000 Jun Akiyama vs. Yoshihiro Takayama (09.01.2000) Hiroshi Hase vs. Mitsuharu Misawa (same date) Masahito Kakihara & Yoshihiro Takayama vs. Masao Inoue & Tamon Honda (31.01.2000) Jun Izumida vs. Toshiaki Kawada (same day) Steve Williams & Vader vs. Takao Omori & Yoshihiro Takayama (12.02.2000) Akira Taue vs. Mitsuharu Misawa (17.02.2000) Giant Kimala & Jun Izumida vs. Takao Omori & Yoshihiro Takayama (20.02.2000) Jun Akiyama vs. Kentaro Shiga (11.03.2000) Jun Akiyama vs. Yoshinobu Kanemaru (24.03.2000) Akira Taue vs. Steve Williams (26.03.2000) Steve Williams vs. Takao Omori (09.04.2000) Daisuke Ikeda & Naomichi Marufuji vs. Kentaro Shiga & Yoshinobu Kanemaru (15.04.2000) Masao Inoue vs. Tamon Honda (same day) Johnny Ace & Mike Barton vs. Jun Akiyama & Maunakea Mossman (same day) Kenta Kobayashi vs. Makoto Hashi (31.05.2000) Jun Akiyama & Maunakea Mossman vs. Kenta Kobashi & Kentaro Shiga (09.06.2000) Kenta Kobayashi vs. Yoshinobu Kanemaru (same day)

We sadly only get about 10 minutes of this in terms of footage; Kawada was rather inconsistent at the time (this was around about the time his body was just outright failing him when it came to delivering most of the time) if anyone could get him to something really good, it would be Nishimura, plus we still get some good work so I figured there's something at least to discuss. We start off with some really aggressive stuff as Kawada's leg gets wrecked from the get-go, with even the ref having to run in and try to stop Nishimura bending it, Kawada spends virtually all of the first round on his ass as Nishimura bends the life out of the leg. We strongly clip to the later rounds as Dangerous K fires off some strikes and noticeably struggles to maintain momentum with said bad leg. They go to the outside to throw baby slaps at each other before the round ends. We skip to round 7: Kawada runs out and immediately lands a suplex and a kick to the back, taking advantage of the ambush, Nishimura dodges one to the front. He eats some more kicks before timing one into a great Dragon Screw and figure four, which Kawada barely escapes from. Round 9: Kawada is limping bad but Nishimura's attempt to just run in and grab him for a sleeper ends badly as he eats a backdrop for his troubles: he's just not as strong as the other guy. Nishimura tries to join in with one of his own: obviously again, he isn't as strong, he definitely isn't winning on a Kings Road bomb battle so he quickly falls to a second one and a Gamengiri shot. Kawada goes into his greatest hits but can't make Nishimura tap, even with a ridiculously long Stretch Plum that did drag things down a fair bit. By round 10 Nishimura is basically done physically yet he's able to squeeze out a last-ditch backslide attempt from a brainbuster and a few more roll-ups, with Kawada punishing these with stiff kicks to the head and even a cross armbreaker at one point. The two just go full cavemen mode with forearms to the head, a historically hated spot yet I was fine with it here because they actually worked a match around fatigue, so a spot like this was always going to come up at one point. I did really like the extended figure-four tease as well as Kawada keeps trying to reverse it but gets thrown back everytime. It's great to see Nishimura just bend and contort his entire body in a desperate attempt to keep the leverage maintained, however the bell sounds and this thus becomes a draw. It's a shame, because this looked pretty good: if we had the full thing on tape I think it would've been known much like many of the other MUGA showings to be impressively solid. As good as their 2004 Triple Crown match? Doubtful, but still. These two work well together and Kawada looked like he was actually motivated here. Nishimura is a master of selling and tension building: his ability to make a crowd explode for simple moves is a lost art these days. It's just a shame that a potential classic like this was cut in favour of a tag match involving the following four people: Hiro Saito Tatsutoshi Goto Mitsuya Nagai Yutaka Yoshie .....is there even a argument for these guys having more footage on them than these two? Like I think even their biggest fans would probably wanted one match over the other.

I'm usually quite iffy on Kensuke Sasaki's ring work and these two have had a real mixed range of matches in the past; some good, some real bad. Sasaki shows some good fundamentals but his real strength here is, well, his strength, and he uses that here to dictate the standing portions of the match with big meaty chops and bombs. Nishimura takes the advantage with smart positioning, working over Sasaki's leg with forearm smashes and Inoki-crab leg kicks, as well as locking in a nasty Muta Lock, excelling when Sasaki is off his feet and having to work on the mat, which is obviously not his bright spot. The pacing is solid and also rather realistic: Nishimura isn't going to be able to match Sasaki's strikes and knows this rather quickly himself after a failed exchange, instead getting him wrapped up on the ropes or on the ground where his striking is negligible, finding multiple ways of doing so despite getting chopped aplenty. Sasaki isn't the greatest seller but he knows how to get sympathy from the crowd and stay strong at the same time so it wasn't too bad this time, and it gets REALLY good when he's trying to get up from a ref count and Nishimura is hitting him with sick baseball slide kicks and stomps, eventually making a fiery comeback with a few power moves. Sasaki dominates for a bit using some submissions and big shots to rock Nishimura until he counters with a Cobra Twist. Sasaki gets to the ropes and literally throws him out of the ring in the process. Eventually the dude goes crazy and hits a big dive to the outside (that almost gets botched due to him catching one of his feet in the ropes mid-dive, still recovers well) Nishimura hits a Spinning Toe Hold, they tease the tap out victory after a particularly long Figure Four, however Sasaki gets the ropes again. The last few minutes are pretty frantic as both men exchange some roll ups and finishers, with Sasaki's bad leg preventing him from capitalising proper on most of them despite landing flush. As a result, the bell sounds for the time limit draw before a winner can be made. This gets quite slow at points but I thought it wasn't that bad. I always get a bit annoyed when limb work doesn't come into play in a match (even just for a cool novelty spot, at least?) Sasaki does at least try to sell the effects of it when it matters, and Nishimura is always incredibly solid as the calculating old-school scrapper. There's some big shots here and the selling is very solid, building up suspense for a potential upset by Nishimura: never becoming too dramatic as to do the opposite. All in all, a solid highlight from the 2008 Carny.

Cedric Alexander and Mustafa Ali doing the "Heart/Soul!" screeching at WM34 is peak melodrama bullocks in wrestling, nothing else comes close as of present

If a A.I. had to be programmed to make hoss matches that appeal to the beef-inclined side of myself, this would probably be their first pick lol. I mean with these four you aren't gonna get anything less than great, but let's see why this hits that mark in the first place. Izumida just runs in pre-match and starts throwing hands, allowing the pair to isolate out Rikio and get him on the outside. Awesome spot where Izumida and Takayama hurl rapid fire stiff elbows and headbutts before Takayama counts the three for his partner after a final headbutt, and they have a goofy little celebration afterwards. Morishima gets worked over for the start until he hits Izumida with a big stiff boot to the head, allowing Rikio in. Him and Izumida have a solid exchange where Rikio asks for Takayama but ends up getting ambushed, so he needs to push his way past Izumida. The two have some already existing tension which helps them a ton here, getting some actual emotion out of Rikio for once as he powers though Izu's brute force with his own. Takayama eventually gets in at last and him and Rikio also have some fairly good sequences, namely a test of strength and a strike exchange, which Rikio surprisingly wins? Takayama actually spends a good portion of this bumping for WILD, having to creep out of multiple lariats from Morishima before eventually escaping with a loose knee. Izumida gets the big tag, and Takayama takes advantage with a awesome bulldog assisted headbutt to a grounded Morishima thanks to his tag partner having a hard head. Izumida steps in to have a good brawl, with a brutal stiff-arm lariat to a running Morishima being a particular highlight. When Izumida can't get his opponent down for a STO, Takayama assists with a kick to knock him over into position. Rikio breaks up a Meteorite pin and the commotion gives Morishima enough time to power out of a bulldog attempt with a terrifying backdrop driver, dumping Izumida right on the top of his head. Takayama tries to bully him back to his pecking post, but Morishima's rage allows him to power through his knees and boots, landing a huge lariat of his own. Rikio gets the tag at last, lands a huge powerbomb on Takayama, who sells it like a legit KO. Izumida takes a Amaze Impact and two lariats from Morishima to put down for the win. Rikio poses with Takayama's limp body for the cameras before booting him out. All in all, a REALLY fun big man match with some big slams, stiff shots, and the usual stuff you'd expect from everyone involved. This is more of a build-up for later matches (namely in Rikio's case) but this is still a solid match that definitely gets good early and stays as such all the way to the explosive ending. It's just a shame that the build for a potential Rikio/Takayama or even a rematch between him and Morishima will never come due to impending injuries putting the giant away for a long while.

These two apparently went 60 minutes (this was a Iron Man match) but we only get around about 30. Windsor is a interesting case; a early darling of Dory Funk's wrestling school, pushed pretty hard, he didn't really do a lot with such a reputation though. I guess it was significant enough that Nishimura went the distance with the guy despite usually jobbing out trainees in less than a quarter of that time lol. We know going in that Nishimura is at 1 point after a German suplex, Windsor is at 0, so at least I could keep track. There was also apparently a follow-up no DQ Iron Man, but this to my knowledge wasn't televised. The match is....expected quality. Windsor isn't very good and Nishimura has to carry a good portion of this with his stellar work as per standard, though he's less on the technical side and more on his old Jr heavyweight leanings here given he throws out stuff like savate kicks and whatnot. There's lots of slow plodding stuff as they sit in holds, but we also get the 5-star Surfboard sequence from the pair so instantly redeemed. Nishimura throws out some hip tosses until Windsor counters one into a messy backslide to even things out. To note Nishimura was also being managed by Missy Hyatt because of course he was lol. Windsor tries for a figure-four but Nishimura does a good job building it up by consistently blocking the hold from being applied fully, grabbing onto the foot and trying to use it as leverage to escape. He rolls around in it before rolling up and over into a Indian Deathlock so he can do the Inoki-spot for a bit, that's cool. Dropkick, Windsor resets and does one of the slowest headlock takeovers I've ever seen and keeps it held on until Nishimura does a cool counter by quickly snapping on his Cobra Twist when they stand up. Second half goes omega goofy-mode with Windsor landing a rough back suplex that Nishimura gets his foot on the ropes for, but the ref doesn't see it until after the count. Nishimura is big mad and throws on a fancy O'Connor Roll before getting hit with the crappy !BANG TV belt. Multiple near falls as Nishimura won't give up, and when he's on the outside he bonks Windsor with a chair. This leads into a pretty solid top rope knee drop for a near fall. Nishimura actually provides some urgency relating to the stip as he throws on numerous holds to try to either snap the arm or choke his opponent out, throwing full on punches or roll-ups. He alone makes this feel like a actual race against time as opposed to Windsor just mostly gassing out and throwing shoddy stuff, which it ends on as he just weakly holds on to his opponent until the bell sounds for the draw. This is probably the longest out of the "Nishimura/random Funk trainee" series of matches and it's also probably one of the better ones despite Windsor being incredibly sub-par. Nishimura drags his ass to a actually decent performance, even if the tainted second half and oodles of cheating make it really rather cartoonish. Nevertheless we get Nishimura's experience making this a lot more varied than it should've been alongside some pretty good bumping as he struggled to make Windsor's very limp suplexes look devastating. Again, it's another example of his superhuman efforts around this time as he refused to have a bad match, even with the worst of performers. What a trooper.

He had a Triple Crown title match with Suwama that was so bad that Suwama post-match had to apologise to the crowd If that doesn't tell you everything you need to know then I'm not sure what will

Extra matches here and here off Kazushi Miyamoto YT.

I like this, but also understand that this comes from a place of hubris as a match. Hear me out. They pace this out smartly, going from a heated and fast-paced (ish) beginning with Muto firing off Dragon Screws and Figure-Fours, while Dangerous K lands a early Gamengiri to get Muto away to recover. Sadly we don't get more of that and then quickly drift into the abyss of "let's do weird half-MMA half-whatever mat-work" as the two stick on lots of holds for a long time to try to pad this one out a bit more. I say weird half-MMA because they do stuff like the importance of mount positions, like the two will take back or side mount and there's a clear importance about positioning and leverage, but then they'll just revert back to pro-wres mode and do something goofy instead. It's certainly not bad given the calibre of talent here, it does start to spell out D-R-A-W right in front of you from the get-go as soon as we start seeing Muto switch from arm to leg without any real gameplan; it just stinks of stalling. Muto works these real good though, and his ability to make these semi-important, like his agency to shove Kawada all the way back down to the mat when he hooks the body for a potential Dangerous Backdrop; smart little stuff like that to reward you for going though the filler. I was actually shocked how washed Kawada looked in certain sections here, gasping for air and landing horrendous strikes. He's not like that for most of the match however, so great! Muto gets a cool bit where he no sells a suplex into a Shining Wizard, Kawada blocks and he messes up his arm (kinda legitimately here, he seems to wave Kawada off slightly just to warn him when he tries kicking it) however they don't really work it in outside of a few stomps and a submission. K goes though his big bombs, including a backdrop and solid powerbomb on the outside. Kawada's work on the arm is fairly fun, he hits kicks, submissions on the outside and modifies his Stretch Plum to crank it more, typical expectations met. I thought the two legitimately sold their respective limbs really well, especially in the later half when both were fatigued, damaged, barely able to keep control and only doing so via hammering in the effected limb. Even if it was a excuse for the two to have a laydown, it still impressed for what it was. There's some no-selling near the end as the two try to ignore the pain long enough to win, but nothing sticks. Kawada's shit can't work, and Muto's Frankensteiner fails because his shoulder is done; both can't make any pushes here. Seeing the two botch over and over is rough; it's a good kind of rough, and it plays into the match surprisingly well. The finish is....well.....they fucked it up. Kawada lands a brainbuster and great running PK, he goes for the pin and the bell is SUPPOSED to ring before the three, but it doesn't so the ref has to very obviously not make the count and then the bell goes, ruining the match and making the crowd go sour. That absolutely sucks given the outing wasn't terrible. However when I watch this I just see two guys who are trying to work on a level that they simply can't reliably do at this point; they're trying to have a classic 90's Kings Road match in a era where both men aren't really at that physical level to justify such a extensive showing. There's lots of superficial work that looks fine, seems reasonable, yet it's all a cheap trick to get the match to that magic 30 minute mark. That does sting when you realise that's the final aim of this, given the focus on vulnerability and their failing bodies IS a great dynamic! They just don't go all-in on that idea, which is a shame. It's so close to being something actually great.

(source here, possible epilepsy warning given the lights for the match keep flickering) Looking at these four you KNOW you're going to get at least something entertaining, what with Miyamoto's hoss antics alongside Nagai's shoot-style, First Tiger's stiff kicks and tubby lucha work and Fudo's beat the shit out of you-style all blending nicely here for a really hidden gem of a x-list indie. Miya hasn't quite hit the juice hard yet, still being fairly beefy but not to the insanity that we know of him today, no. Him and Fudo do bring in some stiff shots but mostly play it safe for the opener, so shoulder presses and a chinlock will do. Nagai's scum-shooter gimmick is golden, immediately getting his ass kicked with stiff Tiger kicks before pratfalling out of the ring and getting scared by a Tiger Feint spot so badly he tries bringing in a chair lol. He cheap shots in the corner and slams Sayama down pretty damn hard before Fudo gets in. Fudo and Miya hit each other pretty hard, shocker. We get some great sleeze as Miya pulls out some closed-fist punches while Fudo does a leg drop while he's standing to "accidently" hit the guy in the balls, which is probably the weirdest version of that spot I've seen yet. Fun brawl with Nagai as they go around the tables and endless rows of empty chairs, Miya works the crowd more for the middle half as he eats stiff slaps and kicks. Knowing from his AJPW stint, he's pretty good at getting his ass kicked so this is fairly effective. Probably the highlight is Miya doing the Orton powerslam on Fudo, quite slick despite the size difference. First Tiger's hot tag is just a few kicks/cross chop/rolling senton, but these are done with some fair urgency: Sayama by this point had more or less mastered how to work his spots in without interrupting the flow of the match, so it went fine. Nagai gets goofy with some more shit-talking and pays for it with a Tiger DDT. The lead-in for the finish is all on Miya in danger again as Fudo beats him down with gloriously lumpy offence. The highlight is probably Mask landing a diving headbutt before Miya follows up with a lazy Kobashi lariat and Kawada brainbuster to finish things out. This match wasn't much to talk about, but I still think it was fairly good. I kinda wish we got more First Tiger because him with Fudo could've cooked something real good, even this late in the game, the interactions between the two seemed promising. Lots of typical indie stuff to expect though, lots of fairly low-impact work and Nagai focusing more on being a annoying heel than anything else. Miyamoto is a good talent! It's just a shame he wasted a lot of his career due to his AJPW defection though; he showed some good selling and he could've definitely been a asset to the company.

I was doing my usual wandering around on YT and I amazingly found a uber lost First Tiger Mask match out of literally nowhere: turns out Kazushi Miyamoto's super based and sticks up the occasional rare match here and there, including this. Cagematch and other resources to my recollection has no record of such a event happening, but it did! It's a fascinating matchup knowing the young opponents here go on to become crazy deathmatch guys, but here they are just mostly featureless guys jobbing to the vets right next to a lovely seaside view. This match is pretty basic. Hamada still moves well and Sayama still kicks hard, go figure. Takeda bumps like a god for Tiger Mask, just flinging himself around like he didn't weigh a thing. They ran though a typical late-stage Mask performance: running cross chop, roundhouse kicks, signature elbow drop, easy done. They keep things simple for the 1-year rookie as Takeda mostly just bumps and sells, mostly getting things right despite some awkward pauses and misplaced positions for spots: he puts himself way too far for a Hamada second rope spinning kick and it just completely wiffs. Shinobu comes in to do a hot tag but Hamada dodges his super light Shooting Star Press, getting him up instead for a super sick top rope Frankensteiner. Need I remind you that Hamada was 58 here? I sure needed it, even with his rep I still can't believe he was this good. Takeda comes in to bump for more stiff Sayama kicks, Tombstone, diving headbutt, and amazingly we DON'T get the shitty alt-version of the Tiger Suplex, though that's probably because Takeda was so light and great at bumping so he made the move look like it was absolutely lethal. Yep, this was barely 5 minutes long and essentially a name-value match, but surprisingly solid? Hamada's great in these sort of sprints and First Tiger wasn't shabby either. Miya has another First Tiger match with him against Nagai in a tag that I'll definitely also like to see....