Ma Stump Puller

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....

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.