Ma Stump Puller

Dope idea for a project, there's a ton of good matches hidden in seemingly nothing C/D shows, and some wrestlers have some of their most fun showings doing these kind of sprint TV tapings

I usually don't bump these but very very recently someone somehow found a intact pro-shot version of the Kawada and Takayama match after 20+ years! Pretty wild to see in action, there's a lot more to value out of the match when it isn't all, you know, green. Check it out. YT link Backup in case of removal (no sound)

Idk I can think of at least 50 guys who I'd rather see in a ring consistently more than Mox. His stuff is great at the high-end but everything else is just him juicing for diminishing gains in so-so matches, at least for me anyway

Behold, a match Nishimura cannot save with all of his talent. (well this and that one promo he had to cut in some dingy hotel room at midnight but I'm not counting that lol) Dory's last match (listed on Cagematch anyway, he's had matches after this, somehow) is predictively with one of his best known students in Osamu Nishimura for a 10 minute wrestling showcase. By this point Dory is basically part-cyborg, with padding all over himself including weird gloves/sleeves for his arms. The first few minutes of this were painful: they both either very gently grabbed the arm and patiently waited until the other person did something or very slowly moved to the ropes. They eventually go to forearm smashes but even those are fairly mediocre despite these typically being Dory's only consistently good feature for many years. They do start getting some better stuff out as Dory actually does moves, but at the same time he struggles to do much without Nishimura doing most of the motion and can't even get up without the guy helping, which felt a bit sad after a few times. Nishimura like a trooper works in his usual spots slowed to his opponent's pace and this mostly goes off without issues....relative to a match quality like this, anyway. We do get a Spinning Toe Hold reversed into Nishimura's own version before a near fall roll-up followed by Dory not being able to do a backslide and butterfly suplex so they have to awkwardly drop said spots out of the blue. The finish is complete booty as Nishimura is sent flying from a forearm shot as Dory keeps spamming slow pins over and over without doing anything else until the bell sounds. Post-match has Dory and co have a emotional hug before Nishimura is given the shitty ! Bang TV Title (which, btw, the poor lad is still holding to this day) and we get a short promo of Dory thanking the crowd and whatnot. It's a pretty sad affair given Dory was already given a good retirement back in 2008 (he was even supposed to be training people at AJPW afterwards, apparently) at this point it's painfully clear that this flopped for a final match of any kind, and the fact that the guy is still wrestling even to this day is mind-boggling. Nishimura tries his best but he just can't make this work: and I don't blame him one bit for that fact given what he was working with. It's the ultimate test of his carrying powers and he just can't do it. Watch him vs the Funks in 2013 if you want a good version of this match.

This is a bit of a treat to see a youngish Steve Williams go at it with Yatsu a few mere months before he leaves with Tenryu and co for SWS. In fact it's his last singles match in AJPW EVER, so big big deal. This started off hot as the two scrapped while Doc was doing his entrance and that scrappy pace never truly went away throughout the entire match. Yatsu is always on his ass with headbutts; even right after moves he's still getting up to do them and other strikes, the guy isn't selling much. Williams isn't quite the scary beast he'd be in a few years as well, so he can't just blast him away with his own shots for long: even after a big lariat he still manages to lose the advantage as Yatsu catches him out with headbutts. Doc doing stuff like Fujiwara armbars to counter shoulder charges, dropkicks and even a fucking middle-rope springboard axe-handle to the outside was wild to see in action, dude was just doing whatever he liked here and it was bizarre to see. The middle half is a bit slower as the two wrestle around a bit and exchange holds, namely Yatsu trying to apply the Prison Lock. Williams resists either with wrestling or by just slapping the guy or headbutts or all three sometimes. Williams in particular gets a bit miffed with a stiff one and throws a punch back with bloody lips, so yeah these two definitely weren't holding back much. He sells the leg post-leg work as Yatsu beats on it with whatever he can do before just ignoring it to go for a sick Enzuigiri, which I'm not complaining about because, well, it was sick. This doesn't stop Yatsu getting cosy with his legs though so Doc has to roll about to take Yatsu's legs instead for his own submission. Yatsu also spams suplexes and we get to see the two struggle to stop the other from doing anything major bar said suplexes. We get a bulldog out of Yatsu for a near fall, but a second is countered into a particularly mean Dangerous Backdrop by Williams, forcing his opponent to roll out to escape a pin: this apparently injured Yatsu enough for him to take a few months off afterwards. The finish is cool enough: Yatsu almost gets counted out, just manages to get back in and tries for a neat back headbutt + German suplex combo, but Williams keeps dropping elbows on his face and head so it's a bit tricky. He ends things with a corner lariat and a corner bump Stampede to boot. This was a fair bit of fun: seeing a early Williams do a lot that he normally doesn't alongside his usual mean attitude worked, and Yatsu was a relentless brawler who made things insanely back and forth with how everything was performed; it felt difficult, everything felt earned from transition to transition as they had to really bend and hurl weight around to do so, partly because Yatsu really wasn't giving much here at all so they had to really push and shove to get stuff applied. Helped that these two can do stiff striking well on top, which enhanced it a ton. Nothing great, but a solid enough brawl between two guys who could've probably had better with each other had the Tenryu exodus never happened.

Honma in Battlarts sounds like the weirdest combo never to be a thing, but it actually was a thing for a good while during his early career, and it's also surprisingly strong even though he was losing basically all of his matches...of which like less than 1% got taped. This is just a solid shoot (ish) match for about 6 minutes, and the two really make it work for what they have as Honma focuses on slick head and leg locks while Otsuka is able to get out of all of his attempts at submissions and make him pay with either his own or just slamming the guy, with the occasional burst of action with either strikes or whatnot. Honma is surprisingly good at working a more amateur wrestling style into things, finding ways to sprawl on the mat or keep Otsuka busy with transitions to the ground. There was a good feeling of minimalism here as the two kept mostly to the basics, with a wacky Otsuka-style head spike scoop slam and a brainbuster being used as dangerous moves that are treated as such, each getting knockdown attempts. The most spot-based move we got here was a second rope dropkick. Honma lands a awesome German suplex and rear naked choke combo, but Otsuka gets on a heel hook instead, forcing Honma to use one arm instead for the choke; this proves to be his undoing as Otsuka can simply turn his body to said arm and reverse the leverage, snapping on a nasty Chickenwing instead. The second one is converted into a Dragon Sleeper which Otsuka then does a Giant Swing out of while Honma is still in the hold, which was a pretty great bit. They give the underdog a hope spot as he turns a half Boston Crab/Achilles Tendon attempt into a sudden ankle lock and Otsuka crawls to the ropes like a fish out of water to really get over the danger he was in. Otsuka takes a Samoan Drop on his side in signature Otsuka fashion but they do a good job of showing Honma try to finish him off afterwards with a furry of strikes, only for Otsuka to wreck his shit with a terrifying head-drop Capture and Dragon Suplex combo for the finish. This was very robust for merely 6 minutes and got over a easy to follow shoot-style pace that made sure to add in some explosive bits whenever things felt slow. Honma is quite good at this kind of stuff, wish more of it made tape: shoot-style Honma is a lot of fun.

Clipped by about 5 minutes on the conventional TV broadcast, but I'll share a secret: the full version is available via the AJPW Omnibus (give or take, there's still about 2 or so minutes missing of downtime but trust me, that 2 minutes is probably worth not seeing) To say Vader and Hase have history with each other is a understatement: they had a incredible 1995 match in the tag scene while in NJPW which is widely regarded as a highlight of both men's career: but here we get a singles matchup that's more or less designed to get Vader over going into the 1999 Tag League, and, well, I think it's probably one of Vader's best AJPW showings if in general. It's a match that has a insanely loud crowd that immediately kick up for this as soon as the two start throwing meaty chops and big slams. Vader smacking the crap out of him with hammer blows with Hase going like a trooper and throwing himself around like it's no tomorrow with big knee shots and Uranages like Vader doesn't even weigh anything at all is a very surreal visual, but it all works to provide a unique Vader-style match that never dies down or gets especially boring. It's just the two hitting sick stuff to the other while making it make sense in the context of the match. The crowd explodes for him nailing Vader with a perfect Northern Lights Suplex as well, rightfully so because it was a awesome spot. Vader eventually takes over with his usual power moves, but Hase manages to kick out of a big middle rope splash with ease, even managing to walk off a hellacious Vader lariat. Hase's main tricks are submissions on the legs and arms (doing these as counters to try to make the guy tap out namely a great rolling cross armbreaker out of a chokeslam) and jumping knees, namely off the top rope and apron. Both of these are used as clutches that Vader slowly gets better and better at taking, to the point where they simply don't work anymore. You really get the feeling that Hase knows he's inevitably losing, but he still stubbornly takes as much as he can and then some to try to squeak something out. Of course the inevitable comes as Hase runs out of time and gas, with Vader overwhelming him with a big chokeslam and powerbomb. I would've loved to see more of these two because they've clearly got some incredible chemistry, but for a short sprint, this was incredible stuff, especially helped by the insanely hot crowd that were all over Hase's offence, or just kicking out of stuff. The feeling of Kings Road is definitely still here, but condensed into a smart and compact showing rather than a bloated 30+ bomb city match, which was becoming more and more rare as the years went by. I can still feel confident in placing it as high as this is, both men killed it for something that could've easily been as forgettable as other Vader undercard outings.

AJPW Oddities #4: 1998 Be warned folks, 1998 and above is all of the years where I went omega-nerd mode to find unconventional stuff during my extended watching Akira Taue & Kentaro Shiga vs. Jun Akiyama & Takao Omori (10.01.1998) Masao Inoue & Toshiaki Kawada vs. Mitsuharu Misawa & Satoru Asako (same day) Giant Baba, Maunakea Mossman & Mitsuharu Misawa vs. Kenta Kobashi, Masanobu Fuchi & Toshiaki Kawada (23.01.1998) Akira Taue & Toshiaki Kawada vs. Johnny Ace & Kenta Kobashi (25.01.1998) Gedo & Jado vs. Yoshinari Ogawa & Yoshinobu Kanemaru (14.02.1998) Jun Akiyama & Kenta Kobashi vs. Masahito Kakihara & Yoshihiro Takayama (28.02.1998) Johnny Ace vs. Kenta Kobashi (21.03.1998) Jun Akiyama vs. Toshiaki Kawada (26.03.1998) Stan Hansen vs. Steve Williams (29.03.1998) Headhunter A & Headhunter B vs. Shigeo Okumura & Tamon Honda (01.05.1998) Jun Akiyama vs. Steve Williams (05.06.1998) Akira Taue vs. Bobby Duncum Jr. (12.06.1998) Masao Inoue & Takao Omori vs. Steve Williams & Wolf Hawkfield (same day) Gary Albright, Masahito Kakihara & Yoshihiro Takayama vs. Hiroshi Hase, Johnny Ace & Kenta Kobashi (18.07.1998) Akira Taue & Jun Izumida vs. Gary Albright & Yoshihiro Takayama (24.07.1998) Akira Taue vs. Maunakea Mossman (22.08.1998) Akira Taue & Tamon Honda vs. Johnny Ace & Kenta Kobashi (23.08.1998) Maunakea Mossman vs. Mitsuharu Misawa (11.09.1998) Akira Taue & Tamon Honda vs. Mitsuharu Misawa & Yoshinari Ogawa (04.10.1998) Gedo, Jado & Yoshinobu Kanemaru vs. Giant Baba, Jinsei Shinzaki & Naomichi Marufuji (31.10.1998) Mitsuharu Misawa & Yoshinari Ogawa vs. Stan Hansen & Vader (14.11.1998) Gary Albright & Giant Kimala vs. Jun Izumida & Tamon Honda (05.12.1998) Bart Gunn & Johnny Ace vs. Jun Akiyama & Kenta Kobashi (same day)

AJPW Oddities #3: 1997 Akira Taue, Jun Izumida & Toshiaki Kawada vs. Bobby Duncum Jr., Johnny Ace & Steve Williams (02.01.1997) Mitsuharu Misawa vs. Tamon Honda (17.01.1997) Kenta Kobashi & Masao Inoue vs. Toshiaki Kawada & Tsuyoshi Kikuchi (16.02.1997) Akira Taue & Toshiaki Kawada vs. Gary Albright & Yoshihiro Takayama (01.03.1997) Gary Albright vs. Mitsuharu Misawa (22.03.1997) Johnny Ace vs. Stan Hansen (30.03.1997) Hayabusa & The Tornado vs. Kentaro Shiga & Maunakea Mossman (02.04.1997) Gary Albright vs. Toshiaki Kawada (same day) Hayabusa & Yoshinobu Kanemaru vs. Kentaro Shiga & Yoshinari Ogawa (19.04.1997) Daisuke Ikeda, Giant Baba & Rusher Kimura vs. Haruka Eigen, Masanobu Fuchi & Masao Inoue (18.05.1997) Hayabusa & Jun Akiyama vs. Kentaro Shiga & Takao Omori (06.06.1997) Daisuke Ikeda & Takeshi Ono vs. Tsuyoshi Kikuchi & Yoshinari Ogawa (29.06.1997) Gary Albright & Steve Williams vs. Johnny Ace & Kenta Kobashi (25.07.1997) Tamon Honda & Toshiaki Kawada vs. The Lacrosse & Yoshihiro Takayama (same day) Gary Albright & Steve Williams vs. Jun Akiyama & Mitsuharu Misawa (26.08.1997) Akira Taue, Jun Akiyama & Kenta Kobashi vs. Hiroshi Hase, Mitsuharu Misawa & Toshiaki Kawada (15.09.1997) Daisuke Ikeda, Satoru Asako & Tamon Honda vs. Giant Kimala, Rex King & Sean Morgan (27.09.1997) Jun Akiyama & Kentaro Shiga vs. Takao Omori & Yoshinobu Kanemaru (21.10.1997) Barry Windham & Justin Bradshaw vs. Johnny Ace & Kenta Kobashi (15.11.1997) Giant Kimala & Jun Izumida vs. Hayabusa & Jinsei Shinzaki (15.11.1997) Giant Kimala & Jun Izumida vs. Jun Akiyama & Mitsuharu Misawa (16.11.1997) Barry Windham, Gary Albright & Steve Williams vs. Bobby Duncum Jr., Stan Hansen & Takao Omori (05.12.1997)

Clipped by around about 6 to 7 minutes. This is the first real time that Akiyama has taken Misawa to a reasonable distance, and while it's still obvious that the Emerald Ace is going to win, that doesn't mean his opponent isn't going to lay down easily. We start from the middle of the match, which starts hard with Akiyama beating down on Misawa with a ton of big bombs: knee drops, a big Northern Lights Suplex, a pair of German suplexes, nothing does the trick but noticeably does get near falls. Misawa takes control with a big dive to the outside and top rope dropkick. Misawa teases the Tiger Driver but Akiyama braces, making Misawa have to do a Butterfly Suplex instead, of all things. Misawa gets a Tiger Suplex setup but again Akiyama has his number and walks to the ropes to escape, using the break to nail a backdrop for a equaliser. Misawa tries for his second rope back elbow but gets expertly countered into a Blue Thunder Bomb in a amazing spot. Akiyama secures his vicious back elbow to the head and pulls out a powerbomb and a Exploder. Misawa sells this like death, having to hold the ropes for dear life as Akiyama attacks him with a back elbow in the corner, follows it up with a big knee for a second Exploder for a insanely near 3 count that gets the crowd going hard for it. Akiyama tries for a top rope Exploder but Misawa counters, but his elbow is then countered into another near fall via roll-up. Akiyama tries to bring his striking but Misawa fucking wrecks the guy with a rolling elbow/back elbow combo into a Tiger Driver for a near fall, which then directly goes into a second one for the pin. This is a amazingly well kept hidden gem of a match, despite having the start cut. The whole thing is a intense ride of Misawa trying to handle someone who has counters and preparations for everything he has and can bomb him to death almost as well as he can, with a crowd that never dies down for the entire thing. There's no real flashy stuff or big fancy spots but this is super strong work by both men in how vicious Akiyama is, and how Misawa presents him as a true near-equal, barely escaping with the pin. Fantastic and heated. There's a few too many near falls but they work around this by having a lot of work be based around counters and momentum switches than just eating stuff all the time.

AJPW Oddities #2: 1996 Tamon Honda vs. Toshiaki Kawada (12.01.1996) Johnny Ace, Lacrosse, Patriot & The Eagle vs. Kenta Kobashi, Kentaro Shiga, Mitsuharu Misawa & Satoru Asako (22.01.1996) Gary Albright vs. Jun Akiyama (31.03.1996) Mitsuharu Misawa vs. Toshiaki Kawada (14.04.1996) Giant Baba, Kentaro Shiga & Satoru Asako vs. Masanobu Fuchi, Masao Inoue & Yoshinari Ogawa (20.04.1996) Gary Albright & Toshiaki Kawada vs. Giant Kimala & Kenta Kobashi (03.06.1996) Brian Dyette & Kenta Kobashi vs. Jun Akiyama & Mitsuharu Misawa (29.06.1996) Gary Albright vs. Masanobu Fuchi (22.08.1996) Gary Albright vs. Takao Omori (05.09.1996) Danny Kroffat, Johnny Ace & Steve Williams vs. Giant Kimala, Kenta Kobashi & Patriot (28.09.1996) Gary Albright vs. Toshiaki Kawada (12.10.1996) Johnny Ace & Steve Williams vs. Kenta Kobashi & Patriot (same day) Danny Kroffat & Rob Van Dam vs. Kimala II & Ryukaku Izumida (18.10.1996) Akira Taue, Dory Funk Jr. & Giant Baba vs. Jumbo Tsuruta, Jun Akiyama & Mitsuharu Misawa (same day) Gary Albright & Sabu vs. Stan Hansen & Takao Omori (22.11.1996) Masanobu Fuchi & Yoshiaki Fujiwara vs. Satoru Asako & Tamon Honda (29.11.1996) Giant Kimala & Sabu vs. Maunakea Mossman & Yoshinari Ogawa (06.12.1996)

Alright, you wanna skip all of that early 90's shtick? You looking for the real weird deep cuts from the later years and not merely Four Pillars and maybe some Hansen or Akiyama? Here's the cut. I'll be including my commentary with the recommendations. I'm not going to throw out a ton of matches, just ones that usually don't crop up: if we included every good match, we'd be here a little too long for my liking. 1995 also wasn't a year that particularly interested me but there's some stuff worth mentioning. AJPW Oddities #1: 1995 Johnny Ace & Steve Williams vs. Jun Akiyama & Takao Omori (24.01.1995) Giant Baba, Kenta Kobashi & Mitsuharu Misawa vs. Johnny Ace, Johnny Smith & Steve Williams (29.01.1995) Akira Taue & Toshiaki Kawada vs. Danny Kroffat & Stan Hansen (17.02.1995) Johnny Ace vs. Stan Hansen (30.03.1995) Jun Akiyama vs. Stan Hansen (13.04.1995) Akira Taue vs. Johnny Ace (13.04.1995) Johnny Ace vs. Patriot (24.07.1995 Danny Kroffat vs. Yoshinari Ogawa (10.09.1995) Jun Akiyama, Masao Inoue & Satoru Asako vs. Ryukaku Izumida, Tsuyoshi Kikuchi & Yoshinari Ogawa (25.10.1995) Abdullah The Butcher & Giant Kimala vs. Dory Funk Jr. & Mighty Inoue (25.10.1995) Johnny Smith & Rob Van Dam vs. Kenta Kobashi & Mitsuharu Misawa (18.11.1995) Gary Albright & Stan Hansen vs. Kenta Kobashi & Mitsuharu Misawa (29.11.1995)

Might as well throw a few out that I've talked (and not talked about) on here! プロレスダイジェスト M.2 This is one of my secret weapons when it comes to AJPW/Kings Road research, especially for 1998/2000 work. The guy stuck up the entire 6+ hour omnibus for those years, meaning some of the usual matches are there with clipping alongside a lot of matches that are either otherwise impossible to find or were only featured here. If you just like the usual highlight stuff then this'll not be essential, but if you want to REALLY dive into everything AJPW and get some essential matches for lesser known stars, this is your ticket. John Gjoni Mostly grungy indies. You can find a lot of his stuff elsewhere, but it helps to have a easy way to find it without searching the depths of the Earth. Pro Wrestling Gold Mine More indies, including very rare looks at Super Dragon, Hardy Bros and a lot more. hirochan60 Is mostly non-wrestling and random sumo stuff (alongside very, erm, questionable vids) but has a ton of camcorder Inoki/RJPW/Onita content that wasn't televised/is VERY difficult to find publicly, namely stuff like the UWF/FMW feud and whatnot. You take what you get. Andy Fitzgerald Lots of comps, useful for quick finding of rare matches. BotchStylePiledriver Lots of particularly rare NOAH matches that have been either lost to time or mostly not really uploaded. Hallo Riched Near full collection of HEAT/Velocity shows from 2002 to 2004. Real helpful for finding certain great short sprints for guys who usually didn't get good TV time. Indy Handshake More fun indies, especially from the late 1990's crowd. Japan Wrestling Classics For some reason this channel has randomly got full versions of AJPW matches I've seen nowhere else. Not sure why, not sure how, but it's there and I really appreciated it being there because I got some great late 90's AJPW found as a result.

Absolutely on the top 100, especially with his current WWE run of having great matches with guys who haven't had a great match in years. He was already a really solid pick for me based on his wealth of work already, the fact he's continued to do so for a long while shows a elite consistency that I think will only get better and better as he moves up the card and gets more chances to show his stuff. At this point he kinda can't be ignored when it comes to being somewhere in that 100.

Honestly just says more about the aura of Muto and/or NOAH's presentation that people were thinking Nakamura was a lot better than he actually was there, I didn't see anything particularly crazy in that match that warranted such a response. Nakamura hasn't been terrible in recent years either (his recent 2023 quality of work has actually been fairly alright, for what it was) but he's just never really applied himself. Same issue he had in NJPW was that he'd be on maybe a few times a year and the rest would be autopilot mode, which seemed to start being a thing after his early runs had him get some nasty injuries. His WWE stuff isn't a black mark on his career by that same metric but I wouldn't be lying in saying that it's not exactly something that makes his potential top 100 run any more solidified. It's understandable because he's apparently really bashed up these days.

Other Deep Dive stuff Introduction Ok so unless you are big big into small Japanese indies like 666 or NEO or whatever, chances are you haven't even heard of Yuiga: that's perfectly fine because her impact in any major indie is minimal, at best a undercard worker, at worst a random face in a rumble or big tag. Her more significant contributions come from her own promotion via Batos Cafe Entertainment, wherein she's basically done a crap-ton of main event matches there either being hardcore shtick or trying to work shoot-style against beefy heavyweights, with consistent matches throughout the year. These were lost footage until they started being released on a drip-feed via their YT account, which also includes some surprisingly good Minoru Tanaka shtick and other random showings that are probably decent enough to check out. As of now we have around about 13 Yuiga main events available, and I figured I'd go though them in the usual format because I wanted to document my curiosity and how that led to finding legitimately awesome matches from a no-budget indie, which you can follow along with at the same pace. W/ Drake Morimatsu vs. Shinigami & Tarzan Goto (????? Battle Sphere 30.10.2004) Wasn't even known to have been a thing until this was uploaded out of the blue last year after Goto passed. This is probably the best Yuiga hardcore match out of the bunch, and that's mainly because of Tarzan Goto, obviously. He's semi-retired, pretty out of shape and not particularly agile, but he gives so much socks for Yuiga here, bumping hard for her judo throw for the burst of action in the starting stages before firmly taking control with weapons and the like. Yuiga is a trooper as well, with her spending most of the match selling and eating some nasty offence from both of the rival team but especially Tarzan who just throws her around, throws Southern-style punches to the face and vicious headbutts, laughing all the while about it. Morimatsu just plain isn't very good bar the hardcore shtick but she does her job fine as a scummy indie act who kicks people in the balls and hits hard. Shinigami is mostly here in small dozes as Goto's goon sidekick who usually is the one doing the most selling for the comebacks, nothing offensive but nothing memorable either. There's some rough stuff here including a Yuiga top rope judo throw that turns into a head slam right onto a table essentially and there's some timing issues for sure, but the Yuiga/Goto interactions are super enjoyable and hard-hitting as hell, ending quick after a lariat and powerbomb into a not-so fancy barbed wire table gets the pin on her. Definitely not for everyone but I thought this was a fairly strongly put together match by mostly the beefy ex-AJPW lad, who makes the shaky Yuiga look a lot better than she actually is despite some spirited attempts. Watch if you want more Goto action after his big 90's boom. Vs. Aki Shizuki (07.06.2014) Ah yes, some for some IGF.....Indie Girls Fighting? I mean, I guess? This was alright. Yuiga's big passion bar the hardcore stuff was shoot-style, which she has pressed a couple of times like with this self-produced show. Shizuku is a Ishikawa trainee so she knows her way around the mat, but this for the most part was just a lot of "your turn/my turn" submission stuff that felt mostly like UWF cosplay, like I could just stick on a UWF 89' match and I'd probably get more depth and faster pace with those guys. Not to say it was bad given the two women clearly knew what they were doing, it just felt bit hollow. Then they go into generic forearm exchanges and Shizuku starts doing some shoddy day-1 wrestling school offence (elbow drop, corner lariat, scoop slam, chokeslam) and they lose me for a good while. Yuiga looks better with a mean Fisherman's Suplex into cross armbreaker using the arm Shizuku used to kick out, but she doesn't like.....defend the armbreaker at all, her defence is just sitting in the hold and crawling to the ropes slowly, which would've worked in the 80's but just looked weird here. Back to forearms, they tease a apron suplex but it never comes. Shizuku has some nifty arm manipulation shtick as she goes into a Fujiwara armbar, then modifies into a cradle, then back to the armbar again when her opponent kicks out. The two pick up the pace a bit as Yuiga slaps on quick rolls for flash pin attempts alongside stiff roundhouse kicks to the head and even her signature spinning Fisherman's suplex for a near fall. Yuiga's work is fairly strong and she definitely carries the impactful part of this match: not to say the opponent is completely off, but a lot of their stuff by comparison just doesn't look particularly clean, bar her lariats which are pretty great and probably the only thing that looks like it could actually knock someone out. The two spam submissions and some big bombs by Shizuku as she goes full Taue-mode with angry chokeslams and whatnot, nothing gets the job done. Bell rings before a proper pinfall can finish the job. This was fairly disjointed in places and not going to lie, it wasn't the cleanest by a mile. With that said I think Yuiga holds most of this together with her nifty mix of flips, submissions, and move-chaining to get the job done against the taller/more imposing opponent. Shizuku definitely wasn't the most seasoned as her offence flipped between looking solid or really shoddy: usually no real in-between. It's fine for a indie show of this.....calibre and definitely isn't bad, just a bit all over the place. I think they went a little bit too long as well as the two were really just repeating themselves by the 12 minute mark. The two have a better match next year in Marvelous so just watch that, I suppose. W/ Shinjiro Otani vs. GENTARO & Takashi Sasaki (15.03.2015) FREEDOMS vs the rag-tag Otani and co sounds like a good match for what it is. The starting sequences are fairly slow, especially with Otani in the ring as we mostly don't get any action. Sasaki tries getting cocky with Yuiga and ends up eating shit as he ends up getting hit with some nasty stiff kicks to the leg before he takes over with a eye rake and some outside brawling. This actually was kind of funny though as Yuiga kept hiding behind people in the crowd, so Sasaki had to chase them off or work some silly stuff to get around them in the first place. Sasaki tries throwing weak slaps at Yuiga and she just immediately has none of that light nonsense as she pulls out some angry slaps and even her signature gross shoot headbutt. A second one isn't so successful as Sasaki eats it and goes for a sudden spin kick to knock her down. GENTARO has more headbutts but thankfully these are the safe, pro-style worked ones. He's also a huge shit as he takes Yuiga trying to throw forearms seriously enough to immediately start working the throat (!!!) namely with a dirty 80's style sneaky choke alongside chokeslam to boot, as well as outright slapping it; all of this rules, obviously. The middle half of this is mostly the two doing solid old-school heel stuff like pulling the hair and face, GENTARO shoving himself between Yuiga and the ropes to stop her getting rope breaks. It's basic shtick but it works given the quality of the two doing it. Otani comes in for the face washes and usual drab B-show spots but GENTARO awesomely counters one attempted wash into a fancy rolling Scorpion Death Lock, which Yuiga has to break up via kicking his shoulder to death. Sasaki has some fun enough stuff with a ton of cheesy leg-slap strikes and Otani gets in a slick flying kick to crawl for a hot tag. Yuiga does her usual sequences, but then just slaps the shit out of Sasaki with a actual good backhand slap to the face alongside a roundhouse, slapping on her spinning Fisherman suplex for a near fall. We get a fairly generic burst of action for the finish as Otani tries to keep Yuiga out of trouble, eventually falls, and GENTARO grabs the win with a rough lariat and three big backdrops in succession. This was a enjoyable match for what it was; we get a fair chunk of just really simple, really effective ring-work. Otani is probably the least interesting as he's kinda settled into his usual tag shtick that you always see him doing for diminishing returns, just slower and not as impressive as prior years. Sasaki and co were real fun though, even with the abundance of crappy leg-slap stuff, being strong heels with mostly smooth stuff under the bag and alongside a very hard-hitting but competently solid Yuiga, this wasn't anything bad at all and definitely worth the watch if in the mood for some relatively harmless and at times impressive indie stuff. Vs. Takashi Sasaki (09.12.2015) Gross BJW-style deathmatch involving lots of tacks, but worked fairly minimalistic in comparison to that kind of style. They wrestle normally for about a minute before we get some outside brawling (can't see any of it in the venue itself so it's a waste of time for the viewer) and Sasaki bringing in chairs. We get some sloppy bits but also just some downright rough stuff as Sasaki slams Yuiga into chairs and she in turn gets to hit him in the head with one alongside her usual janky roundhouses. She pours the jacks over herself and Sasaki like a goof but ends up getting slammed into them herself as per tradition. The middle half is the usual Yuiga heat segment as Sasaki does some stuff with the tacks, namely sticking them into her head, a suplex, etc etc. They at least do well at building up Sasaki eventually having to bump himself as his opponent wears him down with forearms and the like. Eventually he falls to a really crisp judo throw and he then has to get cut up by said tacks. The two exchange dumb headbutts before we get a superplex set-up exchange with the two trying to battle the other for the right to do said superplex. Sasaki wins out by sticking more tacks into Yuiga by just taking them off his body, gross stuff. She eventually comes back with forearms and more headbutts, but Sasaki quickly takes back control with a big backdrop. We get more headbutts into a Fisherman's suplex onto the tacks themselves for a near fall. Yuiga puts a chair and tacks on Sasaki before doing her usual weird-looking leg first splash for another one. We get the first overt botch of the match as Sasaki is supposed to roll away from Yuiga's second rope senton, but he does it way too slowly and Yuiga falls Jeff Hardy-style with the senton anyway, so it's all of her back with little give, ouch indeed. I also think Yuiga fucked her foot on the splash because she hobbles from here on to the finish, but they manage to cope as Sasaki eats a nasty German suplex onto the end of a chair before he just takes over with bombs and some good-looking kicks. He lands the D-Geist to finally put this one to bed. This was very sloppy in places and while Sasaki generally is accepted as a great hardcore guy in some circles he didn't do a whole lot to convince me of it here: nearly everything was fairly basic for a hardcore match, just chairs and tacks for everything and even what was done was a bit tame by comparison to the "8075 Thumbtacks Death" stipulation. Yuiga was also noticeably not great here either; idk why but she gets a lot more sloppy when she's working these kind of matches. This had some mean stuff in it for sure, the match as a whole was unimpressive and lacked much of a edge. Vs. Shinobu (06.03.2016) Shinobu is some lanky lad who looks not particularly threatening before he starts doing really nasty snappy chops and dropkicks to the head. He also slams his opponent on the bare ass floor outside with absolutely not a care in the world alongside a suplex for shits and giggles. It's definitely one of those E-tier indie main events where they just go for the rough stuff right away for the big pops. I will say Shinobu isn't completely all that as he does have a nifty Misawa-style twisting neckcrank, and he loves doing dropkicks to the head all the time here. He's super indie-tier for sure but charming enough for a Yuiga showcase, so she spends most if not all of the first half selling and bumping until she gets her signature shine with a judo throw and then a random Kendo Kashin rolling cross armbreaker for no reason. Usual Fisherman suplexes mixed in with surprisingly good submission chaining. Shinobu gets in his goofy stuff but it isn't too overwhelming. Yuiga focuses in on the arm in the second half as her big break, so we get a lot of work based around it with not a lot of selling beyond said work, so while it looks good it doesn't really add to much. They build up the tension well with both wrestlers having to brave though some bombs before Yuiga throws stiff ass forearms and headbutts to get Shinobu shaken up enough for the spinning Fisherman's suplex and German suplex for separate near falls. Eventually Shinobu manages to run though Yuiga's tricks, landing two particularly mean lariats and a crisp Shooting Star Press for the victory. This is alright but not particularly great in any real way I can think of: while it builds logically, the match itself isn't particularly tension filled and Shinobu is a bit naff when it comes to actually bringing anything unique to the table here. While he had nice moves and shit felt stiff, he didn't really sell or create any urgency to take the win against his opponent. Yuiga as per usual brings good selling alongside her chunky offence, but I would definitely say she felt more....focused, if that makes any sense? Like you can tell she was trying to win here as opposed to her opponent kinda just being around. Not bad, certainly lacking. Vs. Kazuhiro Tamura (14.05.2016) Tamura is a strange STYLE-E lad who loves shoot-style, so of course he gets the chance to grapple with Yuiga. They work some comedy into the early exchanges as Tamura keeps getting slapped randomly for his troubles. Tamura throws some weird leg-locks here, like a legit shoot Figure-Four and Inoki-style Indian Deathlock. Yuiga does a little bit of cheating with some hair-pulls and good old fashioned kicks to the back. She also does some Fujiwara-style trolling as she pokes the ref in the eye so that she can rub the forearm into Tamura's face during a neck crank alongside just randomly slapping his face; alongside the equally as good dropkick to the head she does afterwards this was some solid starting work. Tamura gets caught into a Figure-Four but eventually escapes, with Yuiga doing a follow-up by going for a gnarly high-angle reverse-Cloverleaf. Tamura manages to get her down via leverage before escaping for a super quick cross armbreaker that Yuiga is completely exposed by, forcing her to quickly reach for the ropes in grand panic-selling, which damages her arm in the process of doing so. Tamura stomps the shit out of said arm afterwards, marking this as the big weakness he'll be working on for his section. Tamura is beastly on the mat as well, converting a reversed Fujiwara armbar into a nasty double wrist lock and really twisting for max effect. His shotgun sounding kicks on top of everything else are wonderful, really puts everything all together. The fact it lasts as long as it does (which is a fair while) is definitely daring but it works, and Yuiga's selling garners easy sympathy as she tries to mount multiple comebacks only to be met with hard kicks. Her eventual Wilkins-ish comeback rocks as well, just going nuts with Northern Lights suplexes, roundhouses and judo throws, finishing off with a tight head/arm side mount choke for a close submission win. Last few minutes are shaky in places but mostly kept strongly together as Yuiga throws everything she's got into beating her opponent with some risky dives and slaps but ultimately comes undone after Tamura weathers the storm and manages to get in a cross armbreaker: when Yuiga tries to arch out of it he adjusts for a seated Fujiwara armbar instead, forcing the tap-out. This was honestly pretty bloody great for a random 50-person indie show. It starts slow with some well-meaning comedy but really picks up steam after the Figure-Four spot as the two just bend and kick the crap out of the other. Super enjoyable Battlarts-style romp that never goes into overkill mode, with the pacing just long enough to appreciate what's on display here, clocking at about 17 minutes. Really great stuff, probably the match most worth watching out of this whole Mini-Dive. Vs. Tatsuhito Takaiwa (03.07.2016) Not satisfied with deathmatches and scary shoot-style matches, Yuiga does further by going 1 on 1 with Takaiwa. She tries for some grappling and takedowns but Takaiwa quickly takes control as he counters a particular takedown attempt into a rough side headscissors and double wrist lock before she hits the ropes to escape. Mean vet Takaiwa rules so much more than his generic spot-spamming self, and you really get to see why by how vicious he is despite the minimalistic style he brings to the table here. He's all about just mangling on the mat or hitting mean strikes whenever possible with the energy of someone who just got out of bed like ten minutes ago, it's great. Yuiga has good selling and she works strongly from underneath with whatever she can muster but as you can imagine Takaiwa just blasts everything with more stiff shots and/or lariats when he meets resistance. She's eventually able to get a suplex in after stomping on Takaiwa's feet to unsteady him in a goofy little bit as well as a Fisherman's Suplex. Top rope move is undone as Takaiwa headbutts her in the stomach to get in his signature superplex instead for a near fall. Takaiwa plays around a bit as he tries for some painful looking submissions, as well as a scoop slam on the concrete for no reason outside of just being a ass. He continues the beating with more lariats and a mean top rope elbow drop for a near fall. Yuiga is uber desperate and goes for a low blow and small package to try to get a flash pin before having to resort to her uber-dangerous gross stiff headbutts and a German suplex for a big near fall. The two scrap but Takaiwa just goes full murder-mode with a Driller, a lariat, vicious powerbomb and a Death Valley for the pinfall. This could've been a regular Takaiwa squash and to be fair it mostly was, I have to admit though that the 100-something crowd absolutely get so invested into this, which is helped by Yuiga taking big bumps and selling strongly. It helps that Yuiga can actually hit pretty hard and looks good with her own shine spots, so this isn't just a gross one-sided beating that you feel weird watching after a few minutes. Takaiwa takes over most of this though, so it's mostly a vicious heel performance which I thought was enjoyable enough to bump this up a peg or two. Real good action here despite the simple dynamic. Vs. Daisuke (02.10.2016) Daisuke was a GUTS vet who was decent for the time, sadly having to retire just as he was starting to get some exposure. He's not super great (in fact I'd say he's one of the weaker opponents here) but a reasonable worker for the Yuiga spotlight. They do some polite locking up before Yuiga just slaps the shit out of the guy, and from there we get a good little burst of violence as the two exchange strikes. They then go into some ho-hum mat-work that wasn't terrible: I did like the focus on foot-based submissions, and Daisuke has some goofy counters like trying to roll into a lucha-style cradle and whatnot. He also throws some really nasty forearms when Yuiga tries pushing her luck against the guy, and in response she goes for a low blow and her signature gross headbutt bit. We get some smart work as she focuses on Daisuke's arm to weaken his strikes, mainly with kicks and the usual shoot-style throws and submissions. Daisuke doesn't really sell any of this though as he just casually uses strikes anyway. I do like how him being cocky costs him the advantage though as he ends up eating way too much damage from eating forearms and other strikes, with the tide turning after a superplex. Yuiga goes though her usual Fisherman suplex spam until Daisuke lands a neat Tenryu-style Enzuigiri and then a suplex variation of a Michinoku Driver for a near fall. He tries for a lame Sliding D but is dodged and gets met with a gross roundhouse to the head. They go back to the arm work as Yuiga just spams out more submissions and kicks, she gets dropped by a lariat with the other arm instead. I thought the finish tease with Yuiga countering the top rope frog splash into a triangle armbar was particularly strong, as was the continuality of Daisuke trying to power out of this one like the first time only to fail because of arm fatigue and almost losing altogether when he does so. The finish is a bit weak as Yuiga throws a great German suplex however Daisuke puts her down with a lariat, frog splash, and Sliding D for the pin. This was decent enough for what it was, hampered by Daisuke's limitations and some sequences repeating themselves to pad this out slightly. Daisuke isn't bad or anything but he is a bit samey for a worker and he doesn't really add anything unique against Yuiga par generic stuff I've already seen better wrestlers do better than him. Yuiga was as solid as she usually is but this never quite got proper "good" if that makes any sense, never got to the next level. Vs. Kintaro Kanemura (12.12.2016) I came into this expecting to really hate it as I think Kanemura is at best a goofy guy who can do dumb bullshit hardcore fests competently, but he isn't a good wrestler whatsoever and he's a even worse person given his allegations. What I at least appreciate is that they cut the nonsense and went right into the hardcore sthick from the get-go, with Kanemura bringing out the barbed bat for a few shots and the usual raking spot. This was about 3 minutes of the match as Kanemura wandered around and occasionally did something. His stuff generally isn't great-looking and we get about a million barbed wire shots to the back on top of that to pad this out. Yuiga takes over with a low blow and sets up a table on the outside for a big top rope splash that admittedly she managed to pull off, in fact it looked better than almost all of her normal splashes lol. Kanemura runs in with a table chunk after Yuiga sets up some chairs and they battle over the chunk before Kanemura ends up going though the set of chairs with a Fisherman's Suplex, cool spot. The second half of this is where things kinda just settle for being meh as the two hit chair shots, Yuiga does her Fisherman Suplex onto them before Kanemura barely gets up for a slam into a stack of the things. Yuiga tries for a splash but gets countered into a superplex onto them for a near fall. Finish is a wet fart as Kanemura just hits two chair shots afterwards for the win. This wasn't bad, certainly wasn't very much good either, Kanemura by this point was just done physically and he can't do anything bar chair shots and weak offence. This is also if I recall his final on-screen match as this was his fourth last match altogether (although I'm not 100% sure about that) everything afterwards was on indies that weren't sold or filmed anywhere to my knowledge, so this is his final big appearance. There's SOME vintage value in that if you want to be optimistic but otherwise this is a really weak hardcore match that honestly didn't even feel that hardcore after the initial shock of the blood. Really meh and even Yuiga selling her ass off couldn't save this from dying a quick death. Vs. Masato Tanaka (06.12.2017) This is a pretty enjoyable Tanaka paced match: it helps that the structure turns it into his usual bomb-fest in a logical manner as Tanaka initially tries to work over the head with some surprisingly robust and aggressive mat-work, namely with headlocks and a couple front-face locks. Yuiga ends up punching Tanaka in the face to escape his holds, and that's how he snaps and goes into his usual angry elbows and chops. There's a good theme here where Tanaka will really make Yuiga earn her big comeback spots, like she wiffs a school boy transition slightly and rather than going down for a bad-looking move, he instead just kneels and tries choking her out with his knee while she's still trying to do said hold. There's a real feeling of uncooperation here and of Tanaka just really trying to wangle his stuff in as best as possible, especially with head work. His strikes are as always flush, and Yuiga in turn throws out some stiff judo throws and hard ass forearms in response in the right moments. Basically the entire match is just the two beating the crap out of the other in a big arms race to see who'll go down first, and I will say that kind of match tends to kick ass when Tanaka is involved so while it was samey, I can't really complain about it that much. Yuiga gets in some solid shoot-style submission attempts and as time goes on she gets more desperate, throwing out the last-ditch headbutts and then snapping for funky lucha roll-ups to try to clinch a win. The only real issue is that they botch the spinning Fisherman Suplex spot and have to reset, but other than that this was pretty smooth all things considered. Tanaka lands all of his really rough offence including a horrific brainbuster for a near fall: ultimately winning out with a lariat, frog splash, and then a big Sliding D for the pin. As I stated this was a usual Tanaka-paced match, you don't really get much else different bar some logical pacing on top of everything else. Yuiga is definitely not the smoothest but her hybrid work is really interesting and she has a natural charm that allows her to get audiences pumped for her comebacks fairly easily. Good stuff for what it was. W/ UTAMARO vs. Hideki Suzuki & MIKAMI (17.06.2018) This was rough shit to watch, but in a good, low-budget indie kind of way. Suzuki's better matches come when he's just allowed to be a giant monster and not just a Billy Robertson clone, and that's exactly what we get here as his main feud of the match is Yuiga, who despite being a female Joshi gets ZERO leeway from Suzuki as per her other intergender showings. I do like how Suzuki approaches this dynamic though, he kinda lets her play around for a minute or so on the mat for some lackadaisical rolling around and defence before just snapping with a nasty head stomp. His lack of agency at the start and subsequent explosion of violence feels real mean for what it is. MIKAMI by comparison is noticeably far more gentle and forgettable as a result, he's competent though. Suzuki eats a lot from Yuiga to play up the huge gap between them: he's kinda like a cat playing with his food, he lets her just explode with forearms and slaps, get the crowd get their hopes up a bit before just trying to snap the arm, doing Tenryu punts to the head, all the real nasty stuff. He's so lackadaisical about it as well, like he'd just do petty things for the sake of it despite this being a no-stakes match just because he can. UTAMARO is a real generic Jr heavyweight, does fancy convoluted spots that look fake as anything, like a top rope cutter that they spend like 5 seconds standing around in position waiting for and then a overdramatic kneeling DDT that I swear I seen the Miz doing better than this guy. Not a insult to the guy, but.....still, you know? MIKAMI counters eventually into a really silly spinning Codebreaker before landing a better looking middle rope West Coast Pop to knock the guy down before landing a weird jumping knee. Thankfully the last few minutes are dedicated to Suzuki and Yuiga kicking seven shades of shit out of the other because this part of the match just kinda shits on their spot-fest. Yuiga really sells the few moments where she actually has the advantage by just going as hard as possible to try to drag out things to the point where she could possibly win. Suzuki is a great bully as he goes for a rough heel-hook before getting cocky by allowing Yuiga to land forearms, slaps, and even a shoot headbutt. This almost puts him in danger as Yuiga takes his back after dodging his own slap to try for her German suplex but it's all for nothing as he manages to snap on a sleeper long enough to get a pinfall out of it. Very rough viewing at points with the Suzuki/Yuiga stuff but they at least work it well into the match as the critical theme: it's not just a cheap heat afterthought for shock value which I utterly detest in all forms, it's actually used as a driving force in the match and means something. Suzuki is great, Yuiga was also solid albeit a bit shaky in small places. The two Jr heavyweights were complete afterthoughts and didn't add anything apart from bad-looking indie flips. That said, they don't intrude on the main quality much and were competent in their role as filler. Vs. Jun Kasai (10.12.2018) Yuiga once again risks life and limb against Jun Kasai, of all people. The crowd for this are super into it by the get-go, even the locking up and generic exchanges get them going and yelling a good bit. Of course this is all about the light tube stuff, and they get to that quick after about 3 minutes or so of teasing it. Kasai plays the heel here, so he's doing lots of gross stuff to get the big heat. I will say that this isn't the most.....polished match, I know that's expected from something as crazy as this but there is a good bit of sloppiness here, mostly from Kasai as he'll just occasionally fluff a spot or miss something, like a goofy dropkick or missing the light tubes for a DDT, the latter happening a lot. Yuiga's kicks are also a bit so-so in places, though that might just be the sound quality as a good majority of the strikes have zero noise to them. Yuiga takes a bit to warm up to the match but soon she's doing knees though the tubes or just outright headbutting her way though them to get to Kasai's flesh. It's a standard Kasai match in that regard as he eats sick stuff before going for shit like a tube powerbomb or a angry lariat. The big spot involving Kasai getting his diving headbutt interrupted took WAY too long however and just looked sloppy, though Yuiga throwing headbutts for a superplex looked decent enough. The bad-looking Fisherman's suplex wasn't though, Kasai went for the rotation way too soon and as a result it looked particularly bad. The big spot near the end where Kasai did his skewer trick and lariat into tubes was solid, as was Yuiga kicking out of the finish to a huge reaction. Kasai then takes the win with a diving headbutt with the signature goggles. This was certainly a match with a ton of heat as shown very easily by the crowd reaction to everything, I felt it was lacking much beyond the usual Kasai formula: he's not a guy I'm particularly high on in the first place and he doesn't add a lot here beyond some token heel gestures, mostly just doing a generic performance outside of that. Yuiga has some solid fire and certainly adapted solid to the hardcore shtick, she didn't click particularly well with Kasai as they botched, missed timing or didn't pace well between spots; there's a expected level of sloppiness in hardcore stuff given the nature of such matches but this was way, way beyond the acceptable limit, something was definitely in the water there. With that said this was still a decent if a bit empty Kasai-B show performance with nothing much to stand it out. Vs. Akira Jo (16.06.2019) Akira Jo is mostly known for his scummy indie career, but interestingly enough he's also a Billy Robertson trainee who mostly used his legit mat-skills to job in the IGF for a while. He looks like a generic low-card hardcore guy that you'd see wandering around in Voodoo Murders or something, but he definitely proved otherwise though as he pulls out some fun stuff in the opening exchanges, namely a random Bulldog choke and a nifty rolling arm-wrench in side mount. Yuiga has some strong arm work as well which she uses to snap on multiple submissions and transitions whenever necessary. Middle part is Akira's heat segment so we get some listless outside brawling paired with some better strike exchanges, even if he's not really the best at doing that kind of stuff outside of the usual generic heel shtick you've seen a thousand times. Yuiga has to try to keep up, eventually doing so with a mean stiff headbutt to balance things out alongside nasty ground and pound. She also throws out the usual conventionally impressive range of judo throws and suplexes, including a great German suplex and whatnot. Eventually Akira manages to no sell one long enough to land a well-done leg slap knee to the head for a dub spot. The finishing stretch is simply really well put together as the two blast the other with stiff shots, Yuiga using her speed and endurance to get in some snappy roundhouse kicks and more suplexes to get the guy off-balance. Akira kicking her mid-roundhouse attempt to then do a horrific head-slap superkick to her afterwards cements his advantage, that and even a big brainbuster can't get the win as Yuiga refuses to go down and lands some stiff slaps to try to resist. Akira goes for another knee shot, with the finish being a rough Fujita-lite punt kick for the KO victory as the ref calls things off finally. I thought this was pretty robust for what it was, even if the outside brawling and beginning sections are listless and don't do a whole lot for the match as a whole. These two going back and forth could easily be stuck on a endlessly boring "big epic" style 30+ minute match with extended headlocks and limb work that is then ignored but they instead condense it down to a sub 15 minute match that also kicks much more ass than something like that would. Good watch alongside the other Yuiga matches in the Batos series, one of the better showings. Vs. Hanako Nakamori (15.12.2019) This was for Yuiga's 19th anniversary as was the general show. She apparently picked Nakamori for their tendencies to use Fisherman-style suplexes? I guess that's something to relate with. This starts with Yuiga knocking her around and some shticky outside shit that I didn't care a whole lot about, just some nonsense with trainees from PURE-J. The middle half is mostly the two exchanging some hard kicks for minutes on end, which was entertaining for what it was. Nakamori ultimately wins out with a top rope dropkick, and she goes though the signature stuff until Yuiga takes over with a superkick and Fisherman's suplex for a near fall. She also pulls off a decent second rope splash and a good spinning Fisherman's suplex for a near fall before snapping on this bizarre submission I've legit never seen ever pulled off: it's like a inverted kneeling Cattle Mutilation, and it rules, just I've ever actually seen someone use it before so it threw me off for a minute. When Nakamori tries to escape, Yuiga modifies it into a reverse shoulder crank instead while maintaining the arch from the prior submission in a awesome spot. There's some silly stuff with a bad Nakamori knee and a double KO roundhouse for a dub spot (legit every version of this looks bad, stop doing it) before they start spamming forearms and Yuiga starts banging out stiff shots to compensate for missing others. Nakamori sells bad for a headbutt but goes up perfectly for a German suplex near fall. Despite Yuiga's signature endurance spots against another Fisherman's suplex and whatnot, she goes down for a sitting roundhouse kick. This was enjoyable and downright good in places, but it does suffer from some random shtick, wiffed strikes and Nakamori's selling being pretty iffy for what it was. The stiffness is there and this is definitely great when it comes to the hard-hitting as Yuiga matches always bring, but I would be lying if I said this felt coherent. Conclusion It does kinda feel weird not talking exclusively about GWE wrestlers but I figured this helps for a change of pace, and does help shine a small light on a surprisingly gem-ridden promotion nobody has heard of lol. I definitely won't be putting Yuiga anywhere on a top 100 but she's also someone that has absolutely surprised me in how she's normally presented (random undercard fodder) and what she can actually do on the main stage, combining really clunky strikes with a great knowledge of submission wrestling. It does go to show just how it's important to go beyond your comfort zone of what you expect, and why that's so important sometimes.

Apparently NOAH tried to make Rock a offer to be Muto's final opponent, which while that would've been awesome purely for the crazy visual of such a matchup, It would've probably ended with both of them shattering into a million pieces in the first minute lol

I think the issue is that unlike Japan, there wasn't ever really a need for a pro-wrestling scene. It's the same thing with China: despite the theoretical very large and profitable success that could go along with wrestling there, there's just.....no interest, really, people just aren't interested in the prospect of native wrestling shows. IGF tried hard with talent exchanges (even the WWE got in on that as you'll notice from around about the mid-2010's) and fairly strong shows but no dice. The closest there's been a Korean scene like what you described was with NKPWA who also put on huge shows with big international stars (Angle, etc) got absolutely nowhere and now do sad events in warehouses in front of maybe 30 people while not even being in Korea.

Unsurprisingly really good action from two guys in one of their best years of activity collectively. The main factor here is the tension; Nishimura and Nagata are tied points-wise, but because Nagata lost to Nakanishi and Nishimura drew with him he would win in a tie-breaker, so Nagata HAS to win, he can't afford to do anything less than that. Nagata is actually able to take the initiative early and break out of Nishimura's usual old-school Catch sequences, using his more modernised mat-work to counter any approaches while pushing for his own; namely conventional holds like the side mount and some early arm work. Nagata starts hurling out committed strikes by the 10 minute mark, which Nishimura automatically gets weary of pretty quickly as he tends to get more defensive from now on. Nagata works over his opponent more with arm locks before more strike exchanges, with Nishimura baiting Nagata into massively overcommitting with a boot so he can counter with a Dragon Screw. The two try for Nishimura's signature leg drop on a outside table spot, but it doesn't get much height and they semi-botch it. Nishimura continues leg work with the ring post, as well as a good spot where Nagata keeps booting him in the face while laying down but can't get the man to budge. He tries this a few times but Nishimura eventually adapts and keeps him down by timing his kicks. Figure-four spot was a lot of fun as the two exchange leg locks, with Nishimura using leverage at one point with a head arch to reverse Nagata's reversal of the move, which was a really small but great feature that defined Nishimura's advantages here. Nagata gets a second wind with more strikes and a big top rope Exploder. The last five minutes of the match have Nishimura merely surviving as Nagata runs though him with big-match bombs. He gets in some awesome counters, but Nagata is typically one step ahead for him: there's a great bit where Nishimura goes for a German and Nagata just quickly slips out to grab on a Nagata Lock II out of the blue. The crowd at this point are pretty hot as Nagata's time for success keeps slipping away. We get more fast-paced stuff as the two exchange sleeper holds with Nagata once again coming out on top with a regular Nagata Lock. Him screaming and shouting, almost trying to convince himself at this point of his victory...isn't able to get the win as Nishimura is able to hold out against a sudden cross armbreaker before the bell sounds. Crowd loved this, and I feel like this was about the best match these two could've had under the conditions: it kept Nagata strong while getting over Nishimura, who was a massive fan favourite here. The two really got over the fatigue of such a physical bout, which them barely able to keep their respective holds on by the end without falling over and/or stumbling, which was used to explain how Nagata inevitably lost the match as he only got dragged down to the mat and forced to work against someone who could just drag him back to bad positions with raw endurance and skill. Nishimura was a perfect underdog, combining technical brilliance with good selling and lots of unsuspected counters and near fall sneaky pins to showcase his ring IQ alongside general crowd popping. Great showing, probably would've been a top contender for the best G1 match had we not also got Taka/Nishimura literally 2 days after this.

These two generally always have a good grove and I felt like this was no exception. Nagata is kinda tired of Nishimura's shit and tries kicking his head off early when he tries his handstand nonsense. Nishimura tries it again later on and Nagata just keeps pushing him over petty as anything, which causes Nishimura to just freak out and start hurling big forearm smashes alongside wild strikes and headbutts. This eventually goes into a more conventional pace as Nagata wears down the arm with hard kicks and holds while Nishimura generally has to eat the blunt of it and hope for a counter here and there. Nagata really excels in matches like these as he's just so overbearing with his stiff shots and attitude, while Nishimura tries to eat the shots and even goes for some fighting spirit, but that's not really something he's very good at so he quickly gets stomped out of it. Like he tries offering his arm to Nagata to kick like he's some Strong Style"™" badass when he clearly isn't, and it clearly doesn't do him any good as Nagata just keeps his beating up anyway despite said spot. The crowd admittedly wasn't super excited about Nagata essentially spamming kicks and Nagata Locks all over the place but at the same time we do get a faint Nishimura chant here so not all dead, and they pick up well for his comeback when he starts throwing out really deep Dragon Screws. We do go into more or less Nishimura's control segment as he pulls for leg work, but Nagata doesn't really acknowledge it much outside of selling in the moment and we quickly get back to the status-quo with more Nagata Locks and kicks. Things go back and forth more as the two start to fatigue, with Nagata stealing from his opponent in places and vice versa to mix things up. I thought the crowd bit hard into some of the later near falls; there's one where Nishimura counters a Nagata running knee into a cradle that has them go from 0 to 100 in a few seconds that was particularly fantastic and actually got the crowd pumped for a upset. Nishimura throws a ton of offence out but ultimately Nagata runs him down with a big backdrop, a sharp knee to the head in the corner before a second backdrop pin finishes things off. Not as good as their 2002 or 2003 outings, but still a good showing that got pretty solid near the end. This does suffer from a extended heatless Nagata control sequence that pads this out a bit too much: Nagata isn't the best at this sort of stuff generally: but the hot start and road to the finish made up for that. Both looked pretty smooth out there even if Nagata was opting more to just sit in holds than his counterpart, though that probably has to do with Nishimura being great than Nagata being bad. Enjoyable G1 romp.

From what I seen of her prime (or of what little exists of it, anyway) she was a good but noticeably kinda reliant on being a dance partner to bigger and better acts with the occasional awesome match. Don't know if that has changed with the slow drip-feed of new Joshi shows from the Dark Ages but still. I absolutely can't stick her on any top 100 list though because her post-prime stuff for me has been pretty.....not great, and I categorically detest the style that she's passed down to all of her trainees, just the really silly antics with the consistent wiffed strikes and sequences is a instant no-go. Not to say all of them are bad (because they aren't, obviously) but the stuff she's popularised has been detrimental to my viewing experience. No idea about AEW stuff, from what I've heard it's pretty par of the course. No chance of a top 100 anything. There's a lot more NEO stuff out now that I think we can pass judgement on her stuff. Not a ton mind you, but a fair chunk.

Ngl this would've absolutely slapped if we were in Japan and these guys had like 15/20 minutes to do a Michinoku-Pro style spot-fest. Sadly they get five minutes and it's mostly to get the relatively new World's Greatest over. That being said, the two lads do bump well for Funaki and co as Funaki lands a good Ghetto-Blaster, Ultimo gets in a nice pop-up Frankensteiner and the two land a assisted baseball slide to Haas that looked fairly convincing: this is a solid start for what I thought was a enjoyable sprint. Despite Funaki's great looking punches he gets caught out when Benjamin superkicks his leg while not the legal man, allowing him and Haas to get in and just beat up said leg for ages, even taking the kneepad off for more damage. Benjamin slaps on a nasty deep single leg Boston Crab before Funaki pulls out some Fujiwara-Gumi antics by slipping out of the hold. We get a awesome spot where Benjamin tries for a Samoan Drop, but Funaki counters right at the last second into a reverse DDT for the big comeback. Ultimo gets in for the hot tag afterwards and it is essentially what you would expect; some kicks, flip, Asai DDT tease into backslide, etc, like his typical shtick bottled down to a formula. He gets overwhelmed and World's Greatest try for their weird leapfrog rope-hung splash thing, but Funaki runs in mid-attempt to land a smooth dropkick to interrupt. This gives Ultimo enough time to land a perfectly timed springboard moonsault for a near fall. Funaki tries for a headscissors takedown off the corner, but Benjamin throws him right out of the ring in a nasty bump, leaving Ultimo to get tagged with a vicious superkick after a backflip counter and then slapped into a Haas of Pain for the submission win. This was actually pretty damn fun for what was about five minutes, with everyone getting the chance to show off even if World's Greatest were always going to go over. Ultimo obviously was in the twilight of his career in this WWE venture and it's not exactly well-regarded overall but I thought he did good enough here even if he was a blatant Tiger Mask rip-off with nearly all of his spots here lol, like bar the stuff I mentioned nearly everything else was just pulling from him completely, which was weird because he usually wasn't that blatant. Funaki is a good hand with the occasional solid moment and World's Greatest are very well put-together as a unit, even if Haas is way, way less impressive than Benjamin.

God bless Ishikawa for actually getting this match over. Not to say that Jacobs isn't the worst big guy working shoot-style I've seen, but he isn't exactly astounding quality-wise, what with his bad club/slaps to the back and lackluster mat-work. This is mostly a size/technique matchup, with Jacobs playing the stronger and taller guy who could literally squish Ishikawa with sheer physicality alone while his opponent was the more technically skilled kind who had to use smarts to create openings. He actually dominates for a few minutes here as Jacobs' pushes on the mat only lead to having to slap on a rope break when Ishikawa counters his stuff. Jacobs isn't amazing but he already knows how to use his size to good effect, looming over his smaller opponent, throwing him around with vicious judo throws and cranking in the holds good, in particular a nasty back mount Misawa-style forearm head crank. Ishikawa is already pretty damn good; he has a lot of bits where he makes you think what he's going to do next before just snapping right into something completely unexpected. Good example was him grabbing on a Guillotine when Jacobs tried to tackle him down, and when he was able to escape Ishikawa quickly went into a modified Fujiwara armbar instead, like that kind of misdirection Catch shit is so enjoyable, especially on a platform like this when you think you've seen it all. Things go well for Ishikawa until Jacobs breaks the rules by hitting him hard with his foot during a Achilles Tendon attempt at the back of the head for a near KO win. After this he does a lot worse as Jacobs is able to wear him down with his size, as well as nifty submissions like a inverse toe-hold and countering a takedown attempt into a pretty awesome gutwrench suplex. Things do go back and forth a bit though still as Ishikawa pulls tricks out of the hat to try to put the big guy down for good: with that said, you can definitely feel the match slipping away as fatigue starts to build and he starts going for more risky stuff, even trying to outright slam Jacobs: this works, but he can't maintain advantage before getting rolled around into side mount. Despite this potentially stinking the place out, the crowd actually pipes up pretty good for this as Ishikawa ramps up the pressure with more attempts at holds. Finish was a bit stinky as the two do these really phony slaps that looked less like two trained fighters scrapping out and more like some drunk lads on a Friday night slap-boxing, pretty shoddy stuff. Ishikawa hunts for the foot again for a potential kneebar but Jacobs gets his foot first for a toe-hold in what was essentially the finish to Bas/Jason Delucia years before it was a thing, cool stuff. Ishikawa is more or less done by this point so Jacobs just scoops him up and hooks the arms for a pretty brutal shoulder crank before rolling him over for maximum leverage for the submission win. This was a real great showing from a early Ishikawa: alongside his other early showings, he's pretty solid even for a 1/2 year rookie, both in the mat-wrestling and in how he's able to drag the crowd into really getting behind what was essentially a nothing undercard showing. The unique feature is, of course, Jacobs doing shoot-style, and for what it's worth this is definitely better than the Fujiwara debut match, but the Ikeda match was probably more interesting in terms of a styles clash; this was more of a conventional grapplefest. Enjoyable grapplefest, but still. Jacobs isn't as bad as a few American imports doing shoot-style; he has some good moments and his submissions look convincing; however he is a bit clunky, definitely a big stink of greenness off him for the most part, especially with the selling.

Part 5 ============ W/ Kantaro Hoshino vs. Pete Roberts & Isamu Teranishi (01.07.1983) This is a build-tag designed to get Teranishi over for a upcoming title shot. We also get the first look at Tiger Mask's new look as he sports bright red long pants instead of his usual garb. For what we get out of this (about 5 minutes or so) it's perfectly fine: we get to see more of the weird kickboxing striking that Sayama will sport going forward while Roberts and co mostly act like the typical befuddled heels who are outpaced by their faster foil. Teranishi is a competent but boring worker: he's very old-fashioned in the sense that while you have all of these big colorful characters bursting out during the 80's, he's just kinda.....there for the most part, his stuff is mostly basic rest holds, knee drops, slams, etc. Roberts is mostly the same albeit more-so to play up his role as a heel here, with some good aggression and European Uppercuts to boot. Sayama sells well for the two before eventually pulling for a random Savate kick and we get a Hoshino hot tag where he awkwardly tries to almost pull a hip-attack but Roberts just stands there and he falls over. More working over until we get a Tiger tag, but he also has to bump and sell for Teranishi's so-so offence, though he does pull out a nifty Gourdbuster. The heels keep control with rest holds, Teranishi pulls out a smooth dropkick and backbreaker: while he's in the hold Hoshino just socks him in the face with slaps out of nowhere lol. Despite this the heels keep at it with a slow pace until Sayama pulls out the backflip counter to yet another backdrop, allowing him to land a Savate on Roberts before quickly doing a Tombstone/moonsault for the quick pin. The crowd enjoyed this, but I wasn't too much of a fan. There's a lot of just....well, nothing going on here, either from the rest holds, the slow heel-driven pace, or the babyfaces not really doing a whole lot until the end. It definitely felt like a night-off even if the action picked up in places. This whole thing with Teranishi will also pick up steam eventually but at the moment it's just a really generic rivalry, as is this match. RANK: Forgettable Vs. Isamu Teranishi (07.07.1983) Slightly cut down with three minutes missing. Teranishi is more or less just a rather uninteresting filler opponent for Mask to face outside of his big threats as a ally of Kobayashi, but he will ironically be important for a completely different reason. He's a long-standing ex-sumo IWE talent who was mostly known for his mat-skills: keeping in mind this was by the standards of the 60's and 70's, meaning lots of sitting in holds, lots of Dory Funk-style repeating holds kinda work so more contemporary eyes wouldn't appreciate it as much. This also definitely feels like a typical stop/start match as the two will occasionally go into sequences before going to a dead stop to sit in holds afterwards, with not much exciting happening outside of a interesting botch where Mask tries for the usual lucha hand-hold bit into monkey flip, but they instead tumble over the ropes to the outside. Teranishi feels like in places like a bad stunt-double of Kobayashi as he goes for the same stuff as he does (the gut-buster, more brawling and kicks) as well as messing with the mask, which once again by this point felt overplayed as nearly every match had to at least throw that in for cheap heat. He occasionally will do some decent Jr-heavyweight style spots but by comparison to Sayama he's far from anything realistic in regards to a challenge. It picks up more near the end as Teranishi pulls out some decent working holds, including a rolling cradle that just....goes nowhere, he doesn't go for a pin or a submission, he just kinda....stops doing it. Mask gets the comeback with a good backdrop, top dropkick, and frantic dive to the outside. We get some Kobayashi BS as he interferes on the outside, Mask slaps him but ends up getting caught with a big dropkick from the apron and body press from top rope by his opponent. The finish is rather abrupt as Teranishi runs at Mask on the apron but gets countered into a sunset press for the pin. Kobayashi gets in to rip his mask again as per standard and Teranishi tries to steal the belt to no avail. I guess this is ok for a match as it's certainly not great, but manages to have decent exchanges. Teranishi is just not a very legit opponent though and you never buy him as the man to dethrone Tiger Mask whatsoever, even if he does have some alright chemistry with him, and the element of having this be essentially a 2 v 1 with Kobayashi adds some tension to things. Mask is noticeably more muted here than usual; his spots are mostly not here unlike other matches (especially for a title match) and he's noticeably more grounded, which might have something to do with his knee troubles that were ever problematic. I wouldn't say this is bad or anything but for a title match, it does feel a bit flat overall. RANK: Decent Vs. Kuniaki Kobayashi VII (14.07.1983) This is the final NJPW Tiger Mask/Kuniaki Kobayashi match before Sayama leaves the company: they'd have tag matches after this but for singles, this is all we have. As per the last few matches between these two, they work a really interesting proto-UWF style, with lots of stand-up strike exchanges, footwork, and gritty holds, with Sayama snapping on a particularly mean neck crank early on until his opponent counters with a arm drag. You can definitely tell the two wanted to do something different this time as they spent a lot of time getting the strikes over as the big clincher here, the thing that Mask uses consistently to get the edge as opposed to just doing wacky spots and holds. Kobayashi has a decent control segment where he's working over the legs and back with some snappy strikes and slams. Mask responds with some really mean stomps and knees to the head, legit nasty in places. Kobayashi even pulls out a really early Liontamer at one point. There's also, sadly, definitely a good bit of "hey let's sit in holds for a break" as Kobayashi drags out a headscissors way beyond reasonability (like seriously, it felt like 5 minutes of just that god-damn headscissors lol) and the match can drag in places when the two aren't hurling shots or moving around the ring. We get some more skirting of the rules with mask pulling and Sayama cutting the shit for a rear naked choke that the ref quickly calls him out for. We get the usual Sayama cross crop + piledriver and diving headbutt, Kobayashi dodges and gets in some near falls as he cuts Mask down with big bombs, including a great near fall Fisherman's Suplex that catches the crowd off. A lot of the latter end of this match is basically the two just doing moves into pins, and then Mask even pulls out a figure four out of desperation to clinch the win which fails due to the two rolling to the ropes. We get a dive to the outside and a nice bit as Teranishi holds Mask in place for Kobayashi's dive to the outside, inevitably he gets out of the way instead so Tera eats it instead. Sadly they don't get back in as Mask beats down on him with a backdrop to the mat, having Teranishi attack him for the DQ win....sigh. I get they didn't know at the time but for such a great rivalry to end in a BS non-finish once again just deflated this whole match for me, which is a shame because it did have some good qualities: the slower start and focus on strikes was good, the grappling was simple but effective, Kobayashi felt like a threat here in places. That being said, we get some obvious hold-waiting and the pace can be rather slow; this also devolved into a move fest near the end with not much selling. Shame they wouldn't be able to develop their more experimental style here but still a good enough romp, even if nowhere near their better showings. RANK: Good W/ Kantaro Hoshino vs. Isamu Teranishi & Kuniaki Kobayashi (20.07.1983) Teranishi and Kobayashi have officially joined Ishin Gundan as pretty much the Jr branch of the group, but they didn't need that to feud with Mask and co given their villainous acts in recent weeks. Hoshino just immediately starts with some closed fists so Kob has a moan at the ref to get them sorted, which was a good bit. Outside of that, a lot of this early section was just really basic working holds with the occasional transition. Hoshino and Teranishi aren't bad wrestlers by any means, but they feel really dry as a pairing and not at all interesting, especially in control spots where they just opt to go for really lax stuff to extend the runtime. Mask gets in and inevitably dominates with his more kickboxer strike-based style he's acquired but throws in the occasional spot here and there. Him and Kobayashi have a fleeting back and forth that's alright, but ends with Sayama seemingly fucking up his leg from a fancy spinning kick to the back of the head. Hoshino comes in and does some sloppy stuff while the camera noticeably doesn't focus in on Tiger Mask for a good few minutes: what you can see is that he's more or less kneeling on the ropes for the whole time. He eventually seems fine but it's still a weird look for someone with consistently bad knees. Hoshino/Teranishi have a few more minutes of just being around until things pace up with a Kobayashi/Mask exchange, ending with a really cool tilt-a-whirl backbreaker counter into a spinning inverse savate kick. Fake diving headbutt into the usual Tiger Feint bit, etc etc. Hoshino also gets his look in with a good fiery sequence and big dropkick. The second half of this turns into more of the same as the two hone in on Mask and co with double teaming and some usual cheating, but mostly based around Kobayashi getting beat down by the two babyfaces in some decent sequences. The finish has the babyfaces also beat down on Teranishi, but some last second moves (namely Mask diving to the outside to fight his Tiger Hunter rival) allows Teranishi to get the upset with a sunset flip counter to Hoshino. This was a competent B-show tag that wasn't wildly good or anything, but a fun outing for what it was, especially when the better wrestlers were doing their thing. Of course this feud will never reach the conclusion due to Sayama leaving next month, but it is interesting seeing the tease for Tiger Mask potentially graduating to a heavyweight, especially with his slower, more heavy-set style as opposed to his high flying the past few years. RANK: Decent Vs. Halcon 78 II (29.07.1983) Yeah this was a nothing tour squash match that had Halcon play the basic roadblock foil that doesn't really stand a chance at toppling Mask whatsoever. There's some good lucha-work between the two as they transition between holds and the sequences reminded me of the 1981 bouts where it was mostly them going back and forth with some fun spots, but they mostly just use these as go-betweens from the working holds and didn't really communicate any raising of the stakes or fatigue. Halcon's offence was very by the numbers and not particularly interesting bar a good handstand diving headbutt, mostly basic strikes or slams. The only interesting bit is Sayama's knees giving out again after he bangs them off the ring apron, forcing him to take a extended break: even when he does the "flip over opponent into x" bit from the apron and into the backbreaker, he's still favouring his bad knees and we then have a small cut, which was interesting; was it purely downtime or something else? When we cut back, Mask quickly runs though Halcon with his backdrop counter, a piledriver and then a successful diving headbutt for the win. Again, a nothing tour squash that just showed how little Halcon had changed in the last two years in regards to his role here with the same routines still in play. He's not bad, just didn't really challenge Sayama much, and as a result he just sticks to the usual B-show performance. Mostly filler. By the way, THIS was televised, but not the matches Sayama had with bloody Finlay, of all the people to omit; super unfortunate because a match between those two would be real interesting to see in action. RANK: Forgettable W/ Osamu Kido vs. Isamu Teranishi & Kuniaki Kobayashi (01.08.1983) This has about 7 minutes cut away from it. Of course the main current of this is built around Kobayashi and co snatching masks and being real dirty, so it's definitely a heat orientated match from the get-go, so they succeed in that aspect. Most of this plays itself off less as a straight forward wrestling bout and more of a brawl as everyone gets involved in the action regardless of the legal man. They also really exaggerate the danger that Mask is under against these two as we get some real close near falls to highlight his predicament, especially with a big German off Teranishi which is uber close. The crowd were right into this and the heels match that pace with a bit more fire and energy as opposed to their last outing. It also helps that them playing around with the mask in particular gets some huge heat and is actually used to keep Sayama grounded rather than being a random cheap heat thing that disappears as fast as it comes up. The only real "weak link" here is Kido, who while surely a good wrestler in his own right, isn't really much interest here as he mostly stays out of the match, and he isn't exactly the most exciting when running in to interrupt pins or whatnot as he sides to a afterthought in comparison to everyone else with his relatively tame offence and lack of fire. We get a extended bit with Kobayashi/Tiger for the finishing stretch as they really throw down for a good while until Kobayashi goes to the backdrop one too many times, allowing Mask to counter it and parry his goofy spinning kick into a leg-sweep School Boy for the upset/flash pin. Post-match has the heel duo brawl with trainees as they rip at Sayama some more until the babyfaces push back and scare them off. Teranishi especially gets his licks in as he'll be getting a rematch in a few days time. This again isn't amazing but the crowd definitely add a good bit of quality into this as they are loud and especially hot for this big Jr feud. It's another build-tag? Absolutely, but I think this is worked about as well as it could have been given the conditions. If we had someone a bit more interesting than Kido then this could've been real solid. RANK: Decent Vs. Isamu Teranishi II (04.08.1983) This is the final NJPW Tiger Mask match involving Sayama until the mid 90's, though nobody knew it at the time. Historically this is a big deal, but does the history compare to the quality of the match? I think this was remarkably experimental: the whole transition from lucha spots and British Catch to more of a stand-up kickboxing style has been drastic over the last year or so as I've documented and the effects of such are felt as the first two minutes of this is completely devoted to the two moving around on their feet, ending with Sayama wrecking his opponent with a big roundhouse to the back of the head. You can definitely tell that his MMA desire is starting to really leak though at this point, what with the surprisingly gritty shoot-style wangling between the two on the mat. There's of course still drips of his old Tiger Mask shtick thrown in like the occasional classic spot or pro-style bit but even these aren't as flashy as usual: his Tiger Spin has him grab the back heel to bring Teranishi slowly down rather than simply doing it the usual way like you would expect from such a thing. The first 10 minutes are almost completely dedicated to this gritty work as we see Mask pull off cross armbreakers, stomps to the head and body, and even a double wrist lock attempt. Teranishi also throws out some aggressive work after he is able to boot his opponent in the face before going into some headbutts and working holds. He isn't as conventional as Sayama is, but he has some nifty key-locks and even tries choking him out with his leg at one point while pulling for a cross armbreaker. He occasionally throws in something like a dropkick or a slam to balance things out and keep the pacing from slowing down completely. This leads to a fun if goofy bit where Teranishi keeps backing up from Savate kick teases until finally getting tagged after a third one. It is interesting how Teranishi plays mostly defensive here, eating knee shots to the head, fancy kicks, only being able to respond by clinging to the ropes and finding ways to wrestle his opponent down into holds. In a way, this is pretty much the exact same dynamic that we'll see out of Tiger and Fujiwara a year later in the UWF, just condensed and not quite as good. Teranishi hones in on the leg-cradle as his weapon of choice in the second half, using it once to transition into a figure-four and the second time into the Rusher Kimura-lite cradle submission; his stuff looks good, and Sayama sells well while stuck in said holds, even if the long-term selling is negligible. The last 4 minutes turn into more of what to expect as the two just spam bombs and high flying stuff: nowhere near as good as the first half, and sloppy in places as Teranishi is a bit shaky and definitely isn't a natural when it comes to the big spots of the time, culminating in a tremendously lame second rope dropkick that has them basically stand around waiting for the other so Mask can do his mid-air dropkick spot. Something is definitely in the water as Mask almost botches his backdrop counter before Teranishi lands a bad backbreaker in turn. They repeat the dropkick spot from before, only it looks far better this time. Good dive to the outside, apron suplex, Mask tries for a moonsault but misses (Teranishi makes it super obvious as well by just sitting up while the move was being set up so you always knew it wasn't happening). Teranishi gets in his own near falls with a gutbuster and a very clearly sandbagged German, and the crowd pick up well for the latter. He tries for a second but gets countered into a snappy Tiger Suplex for the 3.1 win, with Teranishi kicking out right afterwards. As a match, this started off quite well: I was expecting this to be like the more mat-orientated matches that I had covered already, but then they kinda just drop the whole theme in favour of doing moves mostly for the sake of doing them. Sayama felt slower in places, no longer quite as spritely as he was even at the start of the year, and while he can still move very well it's clear that injuries, wear and tear, and just general fatigue has slowed him down a fair bit; this really highlighted that fact as even his spots are slower than expected. Teranishi is a lot better here as he's far more suited for smart mat-work than Jr style showcases, even if he can pull the occasional trick out of the hat to keep the crowd guessing. The issue is that like the first match, there's not really any tension whatsoever; we all know Teranishi isn't winning, and the crowd knows that as well, only truly buying into things by the very end (literally the last minute) which makes a lot of this fun but not super interesting. I thought the style here was real interesting in comparison to that, but it would take a lot more refining and tweaking until the kind of stuff used here would be able to translate properly into matches, more-so than just salad-dressing at least lol. I would say that the first half was teasing Great status, but pro-style stuff just lost me, especially with the real sloppy stuff at points. RANK: Good ============ You all know what happened a week or so after: Sayama sensationally quits NJPW and wrestling as a whole, plainly states that wrestling is fake, etc etc. The real reason for leaving was never truly established; he states it was over how infested wrestling was with politics, but of course there's the underlining current of never having top billing, not really getting his due for how sensationally popular he was as a draw due to him being a Jr heavyweight, etc etc. There's a lot at play there. That ends his run in NJPW for more than a decade, with him only returning as his masked moniker in 1997, and never full-time due to his MMA interests. If you are curious about that then there's also a Deep Dive for that stint as well. As a whole, while the Tiger Mask experiment was a incredible success and insanely influential, the matches are a bit more mixed. I surely had fun going though them, but you do understand why he is so divisive: concepts like long-term selling, limb damage, or even at times just a relatively smooth pace are hard to come by. It's not like these concepts didn't exist or anything given we have examples of all of the above around about the same time, so it just seems pretty awkward. I guess you could say that was apart of the appeal of the "superhero" Tiger Mask was, the larger than life figure, but at the same time these were problems he'd carry into basically all of his career post-NJPW so they just seem to be stuff he doesn't bother with. Also: screwy finishes are expected with lucha-related stuff for a myriad of reasons, but it doesn't make them any easier to take here, especially when they seemingly happen with so many different matches over and over. With all of that being said, this is still a pretty great run! It's hard to put into words just how much this small 2 year run managed to do, so I won't bother. I will say though that I would definitely recommend going though the Tiger's Path for yourself, even only for bigger matches and not for everything. Let's give out some quick rewards to guys who looked especially good this run: Best Heel: Kuniaki Kobayashi This was expected, but Kobayashi was by far the best consistent foil for Sayama during their feud and beyond. Good at the spot-work, solid bumper, could really play a mean heel as well when it counted. Their trio series together is probably the best out of their work together, but their stuff afterwards is also solid despite feeling a bit stuck in third gear as they don't really progress or go for anything particularly outlandish bar the move into proto-Shoot Style. Runners up for this would also include Navarro, Villano, and Black Tiger. Best Tag Partner: Kantaro Hoshino Ok I know, Fujinami was here as well! But for me, Hoshino was such a trooper. He wasn't anything amazing workrate-wise but given he was nearly 40 already and arguably out of his prime, the dude really worked his butt off in the tags they had together and when needed, he could really go with his unique blend of sidekick-style bumping and just going full murder with his signature punches. Whatever role Hoshino had to play, he was always up to give it a good shot, even in B-tier tags. While Fujinami is obviously WAY better individually, Hoshino had the better share of matches. Most Underwhelming: Bret Hart Oxymoron title aside, Bret is surprisingly the weakest act in proportion to his known work. Not going to hold it against him given how insanely inexperienced he was, however he was, at best, Dynamite Jr here. His singles matches were weak, and while his tag stuff was a lot better, that generally was because he was in with experienced guys who could lead him or at least distract from his green-nature. He didn't look good in this Deep Dive, sorry to say. If it wasn't Bret, I'd probably put Les on here given all of his individual showings were shoddy and particularly boring in contrast to other grapplers. Best Sleeper Hit: Black Man/Pete Roberts Pete Roberts only has a few matches to his name but he is such a treat as this unique tweener who tags with heels, but isn't one himself and doesn't approve of their antics. He's a solid wrestler as well and gets one of the better mat-classics out of Sayama. He's not cheesy or flashy but he's damn good at slapping on holds and throwing Euro Uppercuts. He made a fan out of me for sure. Black Man was in the same boat as a guy I had zero knowledge on and now I think he's great. He's a weird guy to get into at first but his lucha stuff and spots are way, way ahead of their time and like Roberts he manages to tone down the Tiger-Isms enough to make the big spots feel, well, big. ....and that's it! My top 10 must-watches are below (not in order, of course) Villano III I Gran Hamada I Steve Wright Black Man Black Tiger II Pete Roberts W/ Kengo Kimura v Bret Hart & Dynamite Kid Kuniaki Kobayashi II Kuniaki Kobayashi III Kuniaki Kobayashi VI

While Black Tiger/Rocky Romero had to honestly fight though some of the hardest opponents in the Tournament (Shelley and Danielson respectfully) Kashin has had easy pickings and cheated, so he's in far better condition at this point. He's also changed into conventional Kashin gear, thus proving that this whole "Dragon Soldier" shtick and name change was just that, shtick: all done by Kashin to sneak him into this seemingly American-only Tournament. Now that he's in the gear we do get more work out of him as he pulls out the old Kashin dirtbag specials to try to nap the win. The extra long obnoxious rolling cradle at the start shows that at this point Kashin is taking the absolute piss out of the smarky crowd and is at least semi-self aware that he's the heel here. Black Tiger/Romero is pretty good, balancing some weird technical stuff alongside the flips; he's a solid foil to the more grounded style presented here. Kashin takes the piss more as he raises his hand to acknowledge his fans as the crowd angrily chants "USA" at him like a badly-dated 80's crowd. I did lol a bit at Romero stealing the signature Kashin front roll into cross armbreaker finish as well. Kashin eventually gets the advantage after throwing the ref in front of him when a springboard dropkick comes down on the guy, meaning that a Tiger Suplex afterwards doesn't get counted. Romero gets some good near falls with a West Coast Pop and a sick brainbuster, but Kashin kicks out at 2.9 for all for these because he's that strong, brother. His mistake comes when he goes for a jumping attack in the corner, allowing Kashin to reverse him into a really well done top rope armbreaker transition for the win. Kashin wins as his admiring fans chant "don't came back" loudly back at him. Ok, so this isn't amazing as a match but as a complete heel troll job as a whole, it's masterful. Kashin is so obviously winning this despite all of the big near falls that it pains the audience physically whenever he kicks out because they are reminded of that inevitability, because he's cruised though this with injured or weak opponents and as such has the stamina to survive longer. As such, he's able to pick his spots to pounce far more effectively. Romero/Tiger is also a awesome foil here and is mostly very smooth on his end; a bit generic mind you, but decent. The only real issue is that the wrong person won in the end; this dynamic only really works if the babyface overcomes the odds, otherwise no one really cares ultimately. That said, it definitely worked this smarky crowd up a storm so I can't really knock it either: as much as this was touted as a "disaster" for the relationship of both companies (and actually robbed us of a Samoa Joe NJPW run, including a singles with Nishimura!!!) by itself the entire show's angle of all of of these amazing talents getting side-lined from either prior injuries, eliminating each other and/or dirty antics in favour of Kashin was a incredible heel-stint and got him absolutely hated by this crowd. Had they milked that more, it could've been seen far more positively.