Ma Stump Puller

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....

Based Izumida is under fire here as he fights for the love of Mima Shimoda, who's in the crowd for the show. Trying to court a LCO member is definitely....a choice, but hey you can't knock the guy for trying. This is predictively a fairly low-workrate match as a result as it mostly revolves around Izu doing Izu things, like hitting people hard with his hands and head as per standard. Go gets some nasty chops and forearms done to him as punishment for his terrible budget-Kobashi impressions and the world is right once again. Rikio is pretty sturdy here with some impressive power spots alongside stealing the Nishimura Surfboard spot, which the crowd enjoy. Middle is mostly Izu taking the bumps as he gets beaten down by the Akiyama/Go combo. Shimoda gets into Izumida just fucking hurling his head into Go's for some disgusting Fugo-Fugo style headbutts and the dude gets some actual life out of rookie Go as they trade heavy shots. Akiyama seemed a little bit clunky here, surprisingly! He barely shows up for this outside of some small exchanges and those aren't fantastic, usually sticking to safe and conventional exchanges without much real effort thrown into them. Given this would be his last match until next month he might've been a bit bashed up, which would explain his slow pace. Rookie Go lands a decent Fisherman's Suplex, completely botches his moonsault attempt, missing Izu altogether. His punishment is getting wrecked with a sick lariat from Rikio and co. Go kicks out of a splash so Izu hits a great Meteorite headbutt off the top rope for the finish. Post-match has Izumida push his luck with Shimoda and ends up getting wrecked off a tiny pink chair shot to the head! Poor guy. Anyway match was actually unreasonably good for a random NOAH undercard. Go was generic as anything but Rikio and co are a solid duo who do most of the heavy-lifting, which is fine by me given those two are great for this kind of pace. Izumida is always a highlight, especially with his explosive stiff offence, really kicking Go's ass and getting some of that early babyface fire out of him that NOAH would've really killed to have in a few years...maybe the solution is just having big lumps beat the shit out of him? That could've worked.

I'm admittedly biased towards Hero due to being a way better heel so I guess him

Hot damn this was amazing for a few minutes of a sprint; had this happened in WAR people would've been raving about this. These two randomly decided to have a hard as fuck match after Izumida starts getting rough with his shots due to having a bloody mouth (from a blow we don't see due to clipping) so Slinger does the same and as a result we get stiff as hell lariats, back of the head backdrops, all of the gross stuff, these two just unloaded as much violence as you could possibly have in a mid 90's mainstream undercard. Izu does a crazy moonsault out of nowhere and Slinger is doing random huge bicycle kicks to top things off alongside just kicking the guy in the face with zero leeway lol. Obviously Izu is losing, but damn does this get him over well with the crowd with all of the near falls, dude is, as always, a trooper at what he does. Slinger ends things eventually with a top rope splash. But yeah, quick and easy sprint, would've loved to seen what these two could have done with more time with each other because Slinger's nerdy focus on Kings Road + the awesomeness of Izumida proved a indispensable formula here for fun matchups.

Greg Valentine in Battlarts Tiger Mask's one-off in WAR against Lance Storm and co Tadao Yasuda in Fu-Ten jobbing out Junji.com (still curious as to wtf he was doing there)

It's the Wall, brother! I'm not sure what's more shocking; that All-Japan in 2003 was actually pushing WCW's The Wall to be a actual threat to main event calibre talent, or that this match actually rules. Kojima comes into this with his lariat arm damaged (check out the prior 22.03.2003 tag he had for the lore behind that) so Wall goes to work on it with surprisingly solid holds, however he mostly uses outside brawling and chairs to damage it further. There's at least a explaination as to why this should be a worthwhile match so that's cool, I guess. Kojima has to fight through the pain and scrap with the guy bit for bit, even landing a decent dive to the outside. The brawling isn't anything you haven't seen but works to get the crowd invested as they are all in on Kojima and loud as anything: perhaps louder for him than anyone else on the card thus far, even getting a sustained chant during a regular sleeper rest hold spot. They pop loud when he kicks out of a rough powerbomb and manages to wake up to land a big superplex when Wall tries for the top rope. It's pretty by the numbers but Wall gets his role and manages to play the big brawling spoiler, working to interrupt Kojima's offence and land his own big bombs, of which many looked convincingly snug: selling wasn't too bad as well as he bumps strongly for all of Kojima's stuff when required. I thought the last few minutes were particularly fun as the two go back and forth with pretty impactful offence, with Kojima struggling to get the win off his weakened lariat of which can't even knock down the guy most of the time. Finish comes when Wall tries to cheat with a chair in-ring, Koji in a awesome bit just rams it into his face with a final lariat, winning the match but further damaging his arm, continuing that into his later matches as he enters the semi-final and beyond. I thought this was a really energetic matchup that, despite some inconsistent selling from Kojima when it comes to how bad his arm actually is (one minute he's holding on to it for dear life, the next he's just throwing chops like normal) turns into a fun brawl with a surprisingly strong performance from Wall as he goes bomb for bomb and mostly looks good out of it. Kojima works the best in that kind of format and as such, this quickly grinds up to a solid scrap with some surprisingly fast moments throughout. Definitely worth a watch if you want just big roughneck-style caveman brawling and action.

Terkay!!! What a throwback to those terrible ECW days. If he'd been a thing in the 90's he would've probably had a way better career all things considered, dude was a legitimate killer. WWE wasn't a good fit due to his real inability to, well, wrestle. Guy was in the infamous OVW superstar class with Orton/Lesnar/Benjamin/Cena and still didn't get anywhere, so I can imagine six years later probably didn't change a whole lot. If you're looking for weird MMA stuff then Coleman/Kawada is a cool little wacky showing, would say that's fun

Surprised this isn't even up yet given it's pretty infamous for being a great Kentaro Shiga match: a pretty rare sight! Most of the match has Shiga try to play Nishimura's game in the technical department, but he's grossly outmatched. Sure, he is at points able to grab on holds, but sustained offence is impossible when he's facing someone who's as experienced as his opponent, with Nishimura showing off a bit by doing a headlock into a Dory spin to transition to the ground. Shiga learns from this as the next time he's able to counter a headlock transition into a legscissors, however Nishimura escapes this rather easily. We get some nice bridge spots between the pair as they struggle for control, with Nishimura powering himself up and hitting a nice underhook suplex. There's a excellent sequence of Shiga trying to escape a surfboard, with each time getting big reactions from the crowd as Nishimura is able to continually counter him, and really lays it in by sticking his knees on his back for extra leverage. This is Nishimura 101 antics that I've seen a good few times already but god damn do the crowd always pick up loud for it without fail. Eventually Shiga counters it successfully and the crowd pops hard for it: it's a great example of how basic wrestling can be engaging if paced accordingly. Nishimura gets a bit pissy after this, almost offended that this kid is one-upping him, and lands some stiff elbow smashes in response, throwing him outside and damaging his knee on the railing for a near count-out victory, namely because Nishimura isn't stupid and doesn't give him any time to get back in. Latter half of match is focused around Shiga's legs being targeted with fairly robust work as per standard. Shiga has to claw through these attempts and manages to get the advantage after Nishimura gets overzealous and tries for a knee drop that gets dodged, allowing for him to take control with a headlock/cravat into a sleeper. There's a bit of back and forward as both men use swift counters to focus in on their strengths, namely Shiga using his speed to nail Nishimura with stuff like a running neckbreaker, while the latter attacks the damaged leg to establish more control. Nishimura counters a suplex into a Cobra Twist which is then turned into a upturned reverse cradle pin for a big near fall. Shiga counters a second attempt into a Shiga-STF into choke until the bell rings. 2002 Shiga was getting pretty damn good around this time and the fact he got to work a Nishimura match really shows that off in full force. Nishimura really carries this match in terms of pacing out the technical work and gets the crowd behind the hometown hero with strong mechanics (shutting down hope spots, etc) and heeling it up a bit by laying stuff in when it matters. Shiga to his credit keeps up as best as he can, albeit I felt like the leg work was a bit spotty in places. Maybe I'm just biased because this was overly technical but I felt like this told a solid, compelling story of Shiga trying to beat one of the masters of the mat at his own game and almost succeeding. A bit unrealistic? Sure. Great viewing? Absolutely. One wonders what Shiga could've been in the grand scheme of things if he didn't get the neck injury, because this was seriously good work for a guy who hadn't looked half as impressive in the prior years.

It's a beef party here as we get not only Sasaki and Yoshie, but also Yasuda to add to the lumpy mix! Tana is currently a immature midcarder who's starting to get big breaks against some major acts despite his relative youth. Him and Yasuda interestingly work a Inoki-Ism style into things as Tana shoots for smooth takedowns and the two have a little wrestle that's half-serious until Yasuda lands dirty knees in the side mount. Tana is remarkably shaky as he takes a big boot but awkwardly sells like he's doing a Yokozuna impression before holding onto the back of his opponent for dear life. Yoshie and Sasaki get tagged in and they work a headlock for 2 minutes before landing chops and whatnot: alright if a bit predictable for these two. Tana comes back in and gets a bit overzealous trying to copy his partner by trying to lift Yoshie, and so gets wrecked with a scoop slam and leg drop for his troubles. Their stuff is fine if a bit basic. The audience react strongly to Yasuda's heel antics here as he tries choking out the rookie while struggling for the ropes. The duo work over him for a few minutes with strikes and dual Boston Crabs, with Yasuda throwing out Sasaki when he tries to get involved to break things up. He tries choking Tana out with his signature front face lock Guillotine but Tana scrambles for the corner to escape and Yasuda taunts him to get back up. Tana lands shitty slaps that actually do faze his opponent but Yasuda uses a pretty good-looking illegal closed fist to get back control. Tana makes the hot tag after doing a Frankensteiner off a Tiger Driver attempt. Said hot tag also has Yasuda do a big roll off a bulldog that was probably one of the best sells of a bulldog I've ever seen. We also get some interference before Yasuda lands a big front dropkick to counter a Sasaki-lariat before teasing the audience by trying to choke Sasaki out, which fails because of Tana hurling in some angry stomps, as well as finally landing his big German suplex as Yasuda hurls himself around for the rookie. Yoshie does more work that no one bites for until Tana gets in the way once again, giving Sasaki enough time to land a Kashin-lite rolling cross armbreaker. Finish has Yasuda flying out out of the ring after a Tana dropkick and then Sasaki landing a lariat/Northern Lights for the win. Surprisingly fun as Tanahashi gets to show off his athleticism and selling, both key factors that will make him a must-see ace in the future. Yasuda bumps like crazy for the guy and really gets the crowd going with his heel work in the middle half, enhancing this from a so-so filler tag to a real strong showcase of his antics. Yoshie and Sasaki are a bit more middling as they do land some good moves but tend to be rather by the numbers, even if said numbers are still admittedly quite solid.

Nakanishi matches are at their peak when there's no filler for him to stink up and he's just allowed to go full-ham with beefy stuff until the end. Nakanishi at once shows his strength by lifting up Yasuda and carrying him to the corner, but Yasuda snaps on a dirty front-face Guillotine in the ropes. Yasuda keeps control with knees in side clinch and another attempt at the Guillotine. He thinks he's hot shit until his opponent wrecks him with a one-inch spear before going for bad full mount slaps. We get a good bit where Yasuda out of desperation tries for a dirty closed fist, but that only sets Nakanishi off with a bunch of crazy big slaps and a huge arching German Suplex. He tries for the Backbreaker right away but Yasuda goes right into a near naked choke, popped the crowd huge as it could've been the finish right then and there. We get a good build as Yasuda pulls out a Tiger Driver and second rear naked choke, also both pop the crowd huge despite Nakanishi escaping from these as well. He gets a great comeback with a huge backdrop and some real nasty stomps to hammer in the aggression. Basically all of the middle half is Yasuda getting beat on the floor with holds and some hard strikes, eventually the two exchange Guillotine attempts and we get some pretty bad-looking spears due to Nakanishi's lack of speed including one where he just runs into Yasuda but doesn't fall down with him, making it look like a weird headbutt attempt. The bit where Yasuda counters another one into a Guillotine was fairly decent for a spot though; as was Nakanishi deadlifting out of it with a huge belly to belly, insane strength there even with the assist. Nakanishi throws out some more stiff blows before Yasuda throws a closed fist and then slaps on yet another Guillotine, only this time is able to then wrench his head right down into a Grovit/front face lock position, which is enough leverage to force his opponent to tap at long last. This was a really explosive 7 minutes with a ton of action: Nakanishi is a pretty good hoss but Yasuda bumps great for the guy as well, and he really gets over just how strong he is with all of his signature big-man bumping. Not going to be for everyone but for a no-filler clash between MMA/wrestling, yeah this was pretty good.

otsuka did the broken arm thing better tbh

Honda v Yasuda/Murakami/Ogawa/Bas would've been the Mount Everest peak of wrestling ngl

One year later, and I'm updating this with a couple of dates I just didn't get to find the first time. Good times. I haven't found the Great Kabuki match though ======== Vs Kuniaki Kobayashi (Inoki Festival 30.12.1995) This is definitely a interesting match: it's just right after Sayama made his big return to NJPW, so he goes against his old Tiger Hunter buddy/enemy/both in a round-based showing. Now obviously for a late-stage Tiger Mask match, you get a lot of showy spots to get over his big return, and he does them REALLY quite well: this was when Sayama was in relatively good shape and hadn't slacked off like he'll do in later years due to a apparently very crippling sweet tooth, so he could still move around smoothly and he really gets to show off as a result to a very happy crowd. It's definitely linked with nostalgia for a format, having minutes back to back dedicated to "do you remember this spot?" material, which as someone who has got that bias due to watching all of their prior matches, I can say it worked in that regard. I'm kinda glad of that though because Kobayashi by this point was frankly rather washed, namely due to combination of age and his cancer having taken a fair bit out of his sails: he also just wasn't a very good heavyweight in general despite some decent showings here and there and a super good run in WAR. He didn't do a lot and mostly bumped and sold with occasional offence that didn't look great. This also has a weird blend between shoot-style and pro, so we get them flying off the ropes and then right into trying for takedowns for the next bit. Kobayashi is really ropey for the shoot-style stuff and he mostly stays out of any serious attempts at it bar a double wrist lock attempt. This was also almost Backlund-lite in how Sayama just....bitches out his opponent here, eats him up with occasional moments to sell for a bit before getting right back into knocking him around. Much like Backlund, the only thing that hurts Sayama here is his ego: he tries for a diving headbutt from one end of the ring to another, but Kobayashi dodges and lands his signature kick + Fisherman's Suplex for the big near fall. The finish is a bit weird as the Tiger Suplex is negated by running into the ropes, but then they just reset and Mask takes his opponent down, going into full mount for two slaps before he verbally submits. It's in that weird bubble of half UWF Super Tiger, half traditional NJPW Tiger Mask stuff that does hurt this immensely; it doesn't help that a lot of it is just Kobayashi bumping for signature spots over and over again. It's fine for a throwback match but it's uber-one sided and doesn't even pretend otherwise with a weird and stilted tempo that never really got the hang of itself. RANK: Forgettable Vs Kevin Rosier (UFO Take Off 24.10.1998) Rosier for those who don't know is a early MMA guy. Very talented kickboxer, but his ventures into UFC/boxing didn't go well, turning into more of a journeyman in need of a good paycheck. He's perfect as a guy with a so-so rep and a lack of ego for Sayama to run though here as he sports (probably for the only time since his Young Lion days) a buzzcut. Dude still looks in good shape here as we see him work the bag and throw kicks. Rosier states that he's going to try to pin down his opponent with his weight to negate that speed....though he doesn't do anything of the sort in the actual match so I'm pretty sure he's just chatting shit here. The match is as you'd expect for someone who has never done a shoot-style/kickboxer match. Rosier stumbles and fumbles, at times arms spread apart as Sayama dances around him and his very slow telegraphed jabs. His actual shots are typically just clubs with very little intent to hurt or convince someone of this match being legit. The match is kinda weird. Sayama being the typically strike-heavy character is instead attempting takedowns and doing the dumb Ziggler sleeper-spot, and there's a noticeable lack of striking from the man. He pulls off the classic leg catch-roll into kneebar bit fine and Rosier is admittedly more competent than you'd imagine, but there's no point where you actually think this is good action, especially for the time. The finish has Rosier stand in the corner and eat lax kicks until he literally flops for a toe-hold and taps out. Strange match that didn't really get any good. Rosier at least knew the basics even if he was more about eating the shots and getting the money than making this entertaining. This is probably the most grapple-heavy I've seen Sayama ever, doubly strange given his entire self-invented Seikendo-style is all about NOT being on the mat and fighting standup all the time. It speaks of perhaps his lack of confidence to commit to the usual big kick combos perhaps, or maybe he just wasn't in the best of shape. Either way, not great. OT: Forgettable Vs Alexander Otsuka II (UFO Battle In the Hama Ring 14.03.1999) Otsuka/Sayama was incredible the last time around, so we get it again here, only Sayama is focused and is in full First Tiger gimmick. That might be due to his fairly drastic weight gain; Sayama since returning had never been lean much however he was definitely looking larger and a bit more sluggish going from this and the last fight. Anyway, he's still in relatively solid shape, doing the stance and dancing around the ring early, despite some minor fuck-ups where he's stumbling over himself. Other than that he's throwing sick kicks or just rolling, which I'm fine with. Otsuka is a lot more outmatched here, needing to drag this down to the ground to survive. The mat-work isn't amazing, there's some good moments though. Otsuka turning a guillotine into a inverted figure-four: quite sick. He thinks he's safe when he has Mask down in a bodyscissors, but gives up the hold as soon as he's blasted with a sharp back elbow. More sick Sayama kick combos but Otsuka catches a body shot to go into a single leg Boston Crab before giving up and going for a giant swing! Silly sure, loved it though. It helps Otsuka goes right back to ground and pound and a quick cross armbreaker attempt when his opponent tries to block. Otsuka's ankle gets stuck with a knee in Fujiwara-style antics by his opponent and they break. Otsuka catches another, but gets wrecked with a crazy good spinning kick to counter. Last two minutes are heated enough as Mask pulls for the Chickenwing before the crowd go apeshit for the Tiger Suplex (which Otsuka despite a minor flub in jumping too early the first time took perfectly the second). As per the rules of shoot-style though slams and throws aren't that effective so this doesn't put Otsuka down, and he's able to snap on a Achilles Tendon into toe-hold before pulling back for a kneebar to tap him out. Not as impressive as the first match! That doesn't mean it's not terrible though, in fact this is still pretty quality for a matchup like this. Proto-PRIDE matches are always a bit weirdly paced and this definitely doesn't try for realism for the most part, which was the right choice given the more bombastic offence here. These two always hit it off with each other and could never not miss, kinda a shame we never got a match against them sooner. I really wish we got a proper Tiger Mask shoot-style run. The guy could still throw a mean kick and his Battlarts + other MMA material proved he could keep up with the younger guys, including Otsuka here. Like him in Battlarts in the 90's, him against Ishikawa, Murakami, Yone, Super Rider, legit just throw the whole roster at him lol. It's a big missed opportunity in my opinion because even this part-time work is better than a lot of what was going on at the time. Really lean match that managed to mostly keep to a good pace of dramatic holds and some impressive stand-up dynamics. Otsuka was cool as well whenever he got to do actual work as well with his freaky strength and wacky style. RANK: Great w/ Jinsei Shinzaki vs La Parka Original & Parka Guerrera (NOSAWA) (AJPW Real World Tag League 05.12.2003) I've been actually looking around for this for a while and FINALLY got to it after the recent GAORA Museum uploads were made, which gives us a invaluable look into this era of AJPW slowly yet surely. Sayama is still on his comeback tour in AJPW and I was hoping we'd get a better performance out of him than the pretty dire one he had with Hamada two months ago, especially seeing he's in a tag match where his limitations (cardio, poor conditioning) can be hidden better. Sadly this is also a match that includes NOSAWA so I didn't have my hopes up much. He starts off here, and throws out his usual sharp kicks and a good Tiger Feint spot, so we are off to a decent start. La Parka doing his awesome dances and mocking Tiger Mask by mimicking his stance was hilarious, but we also got some fairly decent stuff as Mask gets his Tiger Spin and even the cartwheel crossbody done fairly well despite some sloppiness, and despite putting on a lot of size (like this is probably the fattest Sayama has looked before he trimmed down for his RJPW stuff, dude was not looking good at all) he can still move and get around fairly strong in short bursts. Shinzaki comes in to basically do his usual shtick, with flips and a double rope walk spot to pop the crowd big, typical antics. The middle section is mostly a mildly boring Parka and NOSAWA/Parka control segment with one or two cool spots and a lot of just punch/kick shtick. Shinzaki bumps like a trooper while Sayama just stands around doing not a whole lot. I felt like Shinzaki and Parka didn't really click in the ring either, most likely due to the language barrier; we get some awkward bits where they just stumble a bit or miscommunicate in-between bits. Shinzaki's counter to the Irish Whip with a huge Enzuigiri was awesome though. Mask comes in for a minute of offence (mostly kicks) before tagging out again. We get a burst of spots as the lads just neglect selling for doing stuff: not all of it looked good but it was pretty energetic, including some big springboards and Mask doing his Tombstone/diving headbutt (which to be fair, he nails) before they no sell again so Sayama can hit his Tiger Suplex for the win. This was a fairly alright match but didn't really try to reinvent the wheel much. La Parka is fun, NOSAWA is a alright foil and Shinzaki and Mask do cool spots, even if it was obvious that he was being especially protected here after his injury with Hamada. Nothing groundbreaking but for what it was, it's functional. RANK: Decent

Greco's been put over massively by defeating numerous Jr wrestlers and winning that year's Carnival for the title shot over Kashin, meaning we get a epic encounter between two grapple-heavy dudes. As such, the sequences on the mat and the technical work are great between the two, with lots of sprawling and submission trading very early. There's no sitting in holds or careful applying of wear-down shit, this is all just right away into the armbreakers and instant death submissions that could very easily end the match if applied by either man, no messing around in that regard and right into the eye of the storm. Greco has some very smart counters to Kashin's tricks but finds himself also in trouble as these get worked around in response, leading to some funky chain-wrestling. Greco also pulls out some surprisingly decent strikes, including a snug jumping knee shot at one point. Kashin for his sake pulls out some unique heel antics, namely rubbing his knuckle onto Greco's nose to make him unsteady during a headlock and hanging off his body for additional leverage while choking him out with the ropes, throwing out all of the nifty tricks to get around Greco's immense technical knowledge. He also pulls out the traditional low blows and whatnot to keep control, as well as putting over Greco's suplexes by consistently finding ways to not take them or use the ropes, being terrified of getting dropped at any point here. Finish happens when Greco rolls into a grounded Butterfly Lock but his big cross armbreaker play is reversed into another one by his opponent, causing a early tap out as Kashin sneaks out yet another victory just barely. I would've liked to see this go at least 5 minutes longer given Greco is a incredibly solid worker and these two had some strong chemistry grappling on the mat. That said, this is still a strong burst of energy for a Jr match, with explosive sequences and some fairly good submission struggles that throw away the conventional epic-style for immediate action and rewards you for that attention span by continuing the action to the very end. I think Kashin struggles to be taken seriously as a actual character given he acts like a heel but gets big cheers; it's a weird juxtaposition. Not a classic or anything but if you like janky and unconventional matchups this is definitely it. I just wish Greco would've stayed in the company given he still looked more than capable of working a solid match.

Kojima gonna carry another fool to a good match in 2023, who knew

Bas would definitely be on a top 100 for me. Every one of his matches is a must-watch, even the dumb 2000 Inoki/Sano/Otsuka mess. Guy had IT when it came to wrestling; if only he'd have started a few years earlier, he might've not been as bashed up as he was. Some additional suggestions Don Nakaya Nielsen Johnny Barrett Greco (as mentioned) That one random UWFI guy who had five matches with Kanehara on repeat in 1992 and then disappeared (???) Kamen Shooter Super Rider (pre RJPW)