Ma Stump Puller

Other Deep Dive stuff Introduction Ok, so you are probably wondering how, of all things, did this come to be in the first place? Simply put, I wanted to see if Tadao Yasuda was ACTUALLY the worst IWGP champion in history, and I was left so impressed after watching what's available of his title stint that I changed into a Deep Dive: was those three Nagata matches outliers, Nagata carrying him to greatness, or did Yasuda actually have a GWE case that hadn't yet been discovered? My findings are....complicated. I outlined some basic thoughts midway though on another thread, but here like with Nishimura I really wanted to put all of the cards on the table, and see what you think of what's there. My agenda is as follows: I think Tadao Yasuda is NOT simply a Inoki-ist guy (as in not just known for his big push in the 2000s, MMA-antics etc). I think Tadao Yasuda is NOT a "bad" wrestler by how we usually understand it as. I think Tadao Yasuda is also NOT simply a one-trick pony. I think Tadado Yasuda IS worthy of being a 100 pick. I think Tadao Yasuda IS viable argument-wise of being argued within that position. Now that we understand the terms, I will give you my reasoning. 1. What kind of candidate is this wrestler (Peak vs Longevity,Peak+ Longevity, Big Match Wrestler, Week to Week Performer etc) and what range would you consider ranking them? Yasuda is complicated here because his "longevity" is decent enough: he wrestles the same style from the mid to late 90's up to the mid 2000's. I would say his mutation as a worker starts early on as he functions more as a tag guy with some nice big-man spots to then go into MMA, and then return with a Inoki-Ism style. He then transitions into the Coward Shooter persona, where he's a cowardly heel with the same MMA shtick, which is surprisingly unique for the time. After his NJPW stint Yasuda still mostly retains the tendencies from this time, but he can change them to be a babyface or a heel depending on where or who he's facing off with. By the end of his career (2011) Yasuda is mostly done due to sumo and wrestling + age catching up with him, but he's not terrible and his final matches are solid for what they were. Yasuda doesn't have a big peak but he's consistent, if that makes any sense. 2. What is your elevator pitch for this wrestler to be a Top 100 Wrestler? (Sum up their case in a short paragraph). Ok so Yasuda isn't a workrate god or someone with a thousand flips, but what he has is a general understanding of his role in the ring, and how to play it: he can be a underdog baby-faced goof, a lesser half of a big tag team, a henchman heel, a cowardly heel, a bully heel, a old vet with some smart tricks left in the bag, etc etc. Yasuda has a great knowledge of how wrestling works and he's great at playing up babyface/heel stuff with whoever he's with, either getting over guys like Tanahashi or Nakamura as the best to ever do it or getting himself hated (or loved) by a multitude of different crowds. He's not a master of wrestling per-se but a master of wrestling dynamics: whatever role he plays, he plays it to great effect. 3. Were they ever the best wrestler in the world? Were they ever the best wrestler in their country? Were they ever the best wrestler in their promotion? Who were some of their competitors for the best wrestler in the world, country, and promotion? No. Yasuda was never ever the best wrestler in the world by any metric. He was at best top 15 in NJPW's heavyweight division in 2001 and 2002 before he turned into a badly overpushed ace babyface but that's really it. For me though, that doesn't impact his GWE case, but it instead strengthens it: we have somebody who was never the best around, but consistently got huge reactions regardless of his positioning on the card or the booking. He understood his role almost universally, never steering from it. 4. How many years were they a top worker (top worker being a candidate for top 10 wrestler in the world)? Yasuda's "peak" comes between 2001 and 2003, his full mainline push. His babyface stuff isn't great because he's being pushed above Nagata (which was a obvious doomed project before even starting off) but everything before and after is mostly great, either his role as G1 spoiler or dickhead Makai Club boss, he excels in both. I say "peak" because his late 90's work basically had him wrestle some fairly solid matches, but more as a underdog babyface working under big mainstream acts or a fun midcard tag option. His peak comes when he's pushed and has more chances to showcase what he could actually do, simply put, not necessarily down to experience or something of that sort. 5. Were they a great worker before their prime? Were they a great worker after their prime? How great were they (were they a best in the world, country, promotion candidate while before their prime/after their prime) Yasuda was a bit generic for a while but grew a big following due to his big pushes in G1 cards as basically the 90's version of Honma: someone who never really won a whole lot, but always had the crowd right behind them in terms of fighting and scratching for a win. He arguably got some of the more hotter matches out of Tenzan and Kojima at the time due to said dynamic. Yasuda after his prime is iffy: his HUSTLE stuff isn't terrible but he was mostly going for a paycheck there. His IGF is interesting with some good matches I'll mention in a moment but he was mostly used as squash fodder. His ZERO-1 stuff is limited but he does good work there. Nothing on the quality of the NJPW stuff, but decent additions that help his case in terms of being able to keep delivering the same Yasuda-style performance while not losing a whole lot of quality. 6. Did they have the opportunities to produce a large body of excellent matches? IF YES 6a Do they have a large body of excellent matches? I have mentioned this before but he has a good selection of matches: not all of them are excellent, 4 star+ showings but a lot of them showcase his ability to stand out, to get big reactions, and also to showcase his ability to work heel/face styles super effectively. He definitely has a large body of work to be impressed by, especially when you dig around for content and whatnot. 6b Do they have a large body of excellent matches against a variety of opponents? I mean Nagata, Fujinami, Nakamura, Tanahashi, Kojima, Tenzan, Nakanishi, Tanaka, Muto, Ogawa....I'd say so, and that isn't even everyone involved. 6c Do they have a large body of excellent matches in a variety of settings? (for example singles, tags, gimmicks, no gimmicks, brawls, technical, short matches, long matches etc) Definitely. His Nagata series is mostly worked-MMA shtick and he's shockingly good for a lumpy ex-sumo with not a lot of incredible agility, being a viable threat with his grappling gimmick. His 2001 G1 stuff is based around short showings where he gets to be a spoiler with his clinch-work and dangerous submissions that can get him easy upsets, his IGF match with Naoya Ogawa is mostly him getting kicked hard in the fucking chest for about 5+ minutes and it's great just because of the fact that Yasuda is able to convey so much with so little to work with but facials, his Makai Club tags involve solid brawls, good classical heel in peril/control performances, as well as some of his later stuff where he's jobbing to youngsters and getting them over with big-man bumping and excellent stodging, and on the flip-side he has a endearing partnership with Hashimoto in a lop-sided tag where he has to try to hold his own with a ace, and he....can't, but still pushes on as much as he possibly can despite taking some bad beatings. Yasuda has literally done it all and then some. 6d How much of those excellent matches were a direct result of their performance?" I mean the Nagata stuff is either/or but I think Yasuda definitely wasn't carried in those matches: he holds his own, gets his own dynamic over, and definitely isn't a pushover. Sure one can argue that his involvement with big stars would enhance his image, but he's had so many good to great outings with a wide range of different wrestlers that at some point, you do have to acknowledge that Yasuda is definitely pulling his weight in a lot of them, either emotive or otherwise. "7. Do they have a large body of excellent performances in a variety of roles (heel/face, undercard/midcard/main event, champion/challenger, underdog/favorite, younger/older etc)" This was basically answered above but I'll act like it wasn't. Yasuda is not a amazing main ace babyface, but that's with a unwarranted push (basically he goes from tweener heel in 2001 to suddently being treated like the Next Best Thing because he beat Le Banner in a MMA contest in a insane upset) and he has no chance against Nagata in terms of popularity. Everything else? Yasuda consistently makes a presence regardless of the position on the card; he can work a underdog role great as a down-on-his-luck gentle giant, but then can also flip a switch and go into full bully mode with a Jr heavyweight. He can be a dangerous heel upset challenger or a comedic heel tag specialist who uses his dirty antics to entertain a crowd rather than to simply make them boo as he fumbles his way through things. He can be a old vet on his last legs with nothing in the tank, really dragging a crowd into getting super invested in his stuff. One of his greatest strengths as mentioned already is his ability to play a multitude of roles and focus on dynamics. "8. Do they work in a way that is consistent with the way they're booked & presented?" Absolutely: even though the failed Inoki-Ism push wasn't successful, Yasuda still wrestles fairly solid for the role provided, going into a more MMA-focused babyface ace position who focuses on his strength and sumo-spots (which are always over) to topple his opponents before tapping them out. He also uses more fantastical stuff for the comebacks, like his dropkicks or rare stiff-arm lariat. He's actually solid in the role, but compared to a prime Nagata, being "solid" isn't enough, especially with so much goodwill on his side already. Coward Shooter Yasuda is fantastic: he's so good at working a crowd while doing so little, stalling for time, going for cheap shots, low-blows, trash talking, etc. Just his general look, this bald-lumpy dude who has a consistent scowl on his face...like it takes no time at all for anyone to tell that he's a heel, and he lets EVERYONE know as soon as he shows up that he's the biggest scumbag in the building. The same focus on clinches appears here as well, only Yasuda adjusts it to be used as heat spots (cheating with low blows, holding them in place for chokes on the ropes, etc) and to allow the babyfaces to rally the crowd to their side which is extremely effective. Simple changes like that are the forefront of Yasuda's style. "9. What are their standout traits? (For example, selling, psychology, offense, character work etc)" Yasuda is amazing at character work in-ring, either emoting as a babyface underdog in how he's a really big dude who usually dwarfs his opponents, but in the sense of being more of a big lump who eats a lot of offence before finally getting that big comeback to pop crowds huge. That's NOT easy to do (especially when you are 6'5 and again, really big) but Yasuda has tons of those moments because he's also a really solid big-man bumper, able to take backdrops, German suplexes, powerbombs, brainbusters and other really big moves on a whim. One of his signature spots is doing a RVD-lite head spike off a DDT, which makes the move look terrifying. This turns from a sympathetic thing to the opposite when Yasuda becomes a heel, as he's basically eating his comeuppance, so the bumps are the same but used in a different context for a different reason, mainly to get the faces over. Yasuda compensates for not having a big move-pool with intelligent ring-psychology, able to play his role great while not overusing his big bumps or spots, always keeping them in the back pocket for the right moment for them to really pop out. It also helps that Yasuda as Coward Shooter typically always eats shit when he doesn't have his goons to help him out, so the dynamic is fresh and typically quite effective. He's a great seller and has a good mind for knowing how to get a crowd invested in what he's doing. 10. Did they make the people and workers around them better? Not the easiest question but let's try to provide a good answer. Controversial opinion, but I think Yasuda's work with Nagata really made him stand out when he won the championship. Why? Because Nagata's run afterwards would basically be a super dominant "Giant Killer" run, fighting guys like Fujita, Sasaki, Takayama, etc, established heavyweights that would run through people. Yasuda provides the basis for this big run, as well as his first win unintentionally adding to the drama as Nagata has to chase a guy who stole his first big chance at a title. Nagata's chase and subsequent match is what develops his endearment to the crowd and you can really track that progression as we go though the duo of matches. If he had just won it the first time, I'd argue it wouldn't be AS effective than it would have the second time, especially with the added dynamic of Yasuda being a dickhead spoiler heel who is desperate to stamp out Nagata for good. He doesn't necessarily "make" Nagata, but his loss to him stamps his mark as someone who can do Big Match formats while also getting his challenger more over. His stature is invaluable towards that endeavour. On top of that we also have good heat-seeking performances against a number of babyfaces, in multi-tags where he can really drag out his heel stuff to get the biggest impact and whatnot. He arguably gets a lot of that mileage out of bullying a young Tana alongside Murakami; despite being a bit-player in their overall feud, he works his role well as the larger bully, and bumps huge when Tana does get his big second wind, even eating a loss to him at one point. 11. Is there any reason to believe that this wrestler was better or worse than they appeared? Yasuda definitely looks worse than you think, especially if you go off the occasional match or whatnot: he just seems like a big lump with a limited moveset and not a lot else to him beyond that. He doesn't look particularly the part and his looks especially in this case are very deceiving given you'd just write him off as another ex-sumo looking for paychecks, even though Yasuda clearly put in the work and was a lot more talented than on the surface. 12. If you had to pick 5-10 matches (Or more) to sell someone on this wrestler what would they be? (Not necessarily the best matches but ones that are best representative of the wrestlers’ GWE case) Alright so I already stuck on a big list elsewhere but I'll modify it slightly here to provide a more detailed case. Being a Underdog vs Hiroshi Hase 06/11/1994 vs Hiroyoshi Tenzan 01/08/1997 w/ Shinya Hashimoto vs Manabu Nakanishi & Satoshi Kojima 17/09/1997 w/ Manabu Nakanishi, Satoshi Kojima vs Hiroyoshi Tenzan, Michiyoshi Ohara & Scott Norton 02/11/1997 w/ Shinya Hashimoto vs Genichiro Tenryu & Shiro Koshinaka 14/07/1998 vs Satoshi Kojima 01/08/1998 w/Takashi Iizuka vs Kazuo Yamazaki & Osamu Nishimura 08/08/1998 vs Naoya Ogawa 20/12/2007 W/Shinjiro Otani vs. Minoru Suzuki & Yoshihiro Takayama 04/02/2011 Being a Spoiler Heel/Mat-Work All of his 2001 G1 showings (ESPECIALLY the Nagata and Tanaka matches) vs Yuji Nagata 16/02/2002 vs Yuji Nagata 05/04/2002 vs. Kensuke Sasaki 05/06/2002 vs Yuji Nagata 12/08/2003 Best of Coward Shooter w/ Yutaka Yoshie vs. Manabu Nakanishi & Shiro Koshinaka 20/07/2002 w/ Makai #1, Ryushi Yanagisawa vs Hiroyoshi Tenzan, Masahiro Chono & Tatsumi Fujinami 23/11/2002 w/ Ryushi Yanagisawa vs Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Masahiro Chono 10/12/2002 w/Makai #1, Makai #5, Ryushi Yanagisawa vs. Hiro Saito, Michiyoshi Ohara, Takashi Iizuka & Tatsutoshi Goto 21/07/2003 vs. Shinsuke Nakamura 14/08/2003 w/Makai #1, Ryota Chikuzen vs Jinsei Shinzaki, Jushin Thunder Liger & Osamu Nishimura 03/11/2003 w/ Kazunari Murakami vs Hiroshi Tanahashi & Yutaka Yoshie 12/03/2004 vs. Takao Omori 10/10/2005 vs. Josh Barnett 29/06/2007 14. Any final thoughts you’d like to share? Not a whole lot, just that I feel like the early 2000's of NJPW has been kinda shrouded in this Inoki-Ism revisionist idea that the entire era was a mess and it didn't get good until Tanahashi and Gedo took the reigns: that's maybe true from a business standpoint but it also means that guys like Yasuda get buried in every obscure trivia as Inoki's Failed Ace, routinely billed as the "worst IWGP champion ever" and as essentially a joke to poke fun at, a punchline of sorts. This is a massive shame because Tadao Yasuda was genuinely a bloody solid act that is sadly only historically known for being a bad ace. I hope that this has at least tried to remove that stigma and allowed you to check out his work, because it doesn't deserve to be buried alongside everything else. I'd say anyone who braves the Yasuda matches recommend above will find out much like I did that the big lad had a lot more talent than people cared to admit (or notice, really).

Actually a fairly solid match given the conditions. Jay is a Young Lion here, so he's restricted to what he can and can't get away with: Young Lions are kept to a fairly basic move set and not really allowed to do much of anything else, even if Jay could (and had) done a lot more. That being said, Jay's still able to show that his fundamentals are very much solid. We see this with a strong starting pace as Ogawa and him exchange smooth technical work as they both battle for control. This bit is done really well as both men manage to balance coordination as they flow between White using his athleticism to take Ogawa down, as well as the latter's experience to eventually take over from his initial advantages: they make it look clean, but also not something that makes it look like they are coordinating, if that makes any sense: things still feel like a struggle and no transition is easily performed. Jay has a awesome spot where he manages to counter a tight headscissors by Ogawa and flip him over to his back, rolling over to get the guy in a front headlock. He relentlessly aims at Ogawa's arm, even pulling back his hand at points for extra leverage. Eventually Ogawa counters with his signature nifty "spin around the wrist" sequence to take back control. Ogawa tries to turn this into a more traditional affair by going for a Irish Whip and then countering Jay's dropdown for a side headlock, only to be countered himself into a weird Indian Deathlock/arm wrench combination. He even tries to pin his arms for a pin but that doesn't work obviously. Ogawa works over the leg of his opponent awesomely, leading to him using the turnbuckle post to smack it around. Jay sells this great, with some very convincing yells of pain, but he never goes overboard with it, with him holding on some submissions to carry up the drama as well as good timing with his comebacks when he's able to eventually battle though the pain enough to even things out. What I also love is that he doesn't stop selling the leg even on offence: when he's leaping around, he drags his bad leg and delays what he's doing to sell more. It's a small but very well done detail that many don't seem to get quite as well, especially on a consistent basis. Ogawa also makes his basic offence look killer: even a Boston Crab, as basic as you can imagine, Ogawa sells like it could be a world-ender with the crowd getting surprisingly into this despite the obvious outcome. The finish comes when Ogawa tries for a superplex, gets countered into a top rope dropkick but he dodges at the last second, leading to Jay damaging his bad leg even more. Ogawa then finishes things with a Figure-Four. He really holds on to it afterwards like the biggest of trolls, not even letting him have the dignity of a ice pack for his leg by throwing it away. It's rude, yes, but it gets over Jay hugely as he got under Rat Boy's skin: something that few can testify to doing. All in all, a early sighting of Jay White's greatness (as a underdog babyface, of all things) but Ogawa gives him a ton of leeway for a Young Lion and manages to work with the limitations of said match standards to really elevate this to something way better than it had any right to be in the first place, Ogawa really made the guy look great.

The Yasuda Deep Dive has (almost) finished! I'll have a write-up to stick up soon, in the meantime enjoy this extended recommendation list: vs Hiroshi Hase 06/11/1994 vs Hiroyoshi Tenzan 01/08/1997 w/ Shinya Hashimoto vs Manabu Nakanishi & Satoshi Kojima 17/09/1997 vs Satoshi Kojima 01/08/1998 W/ Takashi Iizuka vs Kazuo Yamazaki & Osamu Nishimura 08/08/1998 vs Hiroyoshi Tenzan 09/08/2000 Basically all of his G1 2001 run, awesome stuff vs Yuji Nagata 16/02/2002 W/ Yutaka Yoshie vs Hiroshi Tanahashi & Kensuke Sasaki 24/03/2002 vs Yuji Nagata 05/04/2002 vs Tatsumi Fujinami 19/07/2002 W/ Yutaka Yoshie vs. Manabu Nakanishi & Shiro Koshinaka 20/07/2002 W/ Makai #1, Makai #2, Ryushi Yanagisawa vs. Hiroyoshi Tenzan, Manabu Nakanishi, Yuji Nagata & Yutaka Yoshie 17/09/2002 W/Kazunari Murakami vs Michiyoshi Ohara & Shinsuke Nakamura 04/01/2003 vs Yuji Nagata 12/08/2003 vs Shinsuke Nakamura 14/08/2003 W/ Makai #1, Ryota Chikuzen vs Jinsei Shinzaki, Jushin Thunder Liger & Osamu Nishimura 03/11/2003 W/ Kazunari Murakami vs Hiroshi Tanahashi & Yutaka Yoshie 12/03/2004 vs Tadao Omori 10/10/2005 vs Naoya Ogawa 20/12/2007 vs Josh Barrett 29/06/2007 W/ Masahiro Chono vs. Shinjiro Otani & Takao Omori 29/04/2008 W/Shinjiro Otani vs. Minoru Suzuki & Yoshihiro Takayama 04/02/2011

This is a awesome late PWFG/Michinoku Pro hybrid match, though that's kinda obvious given Wilkins and Ishikawa are both here so it was expected. We start off with Hoshikawa and Wilkins: both of these guys have already had a great trio series together, so naturally this part is a lot of scrappy mat-work with Wilkins just being a beast with slams and aggressive play. Ishikawa also comes in to roll about, namely snapping on a nasty Achilles Tendon before Hoshi can do the same, and baiting the guy with a toe-hold before snatching a tight Bulldog choke when he tries running away. Hoshi tries to fight back against a returning Wilkins with strikes but gets headbutted and slammed back to the mat. Wilkins gets to show off with a rear naked choke and Sayama-style forward roll into kneebar. Nakajima comes in and you expect him to not be great at this kind of stuff given he's dressed as a fancy ninja (and his career didn't exactly light much on fire performance-wise) but he's actually solid at adding in a more showy element while knowing the gritty mat stuff, albeit a bit sloppy in places. Ishikawa gets over his more cocky nature as he smiles when he has Naka's knee trapped for a potential kneebar and refuses to take a Irish Whip because this is shoot style brother, that doesn't work. Naka also has some cool kicks on top of that when push comes to shove and Ninja spots like kip-ups and balancing head-first on the turnbuckle. Naturally Wilkins doesn't give two shits about this shindie Tiger Mask and beats the piss out of him with his own kicks, takedowns, even viciously headbutting the back of his head in back mount with the two M-Pro guys having to double-team him to get any leeway. Ishikawa and Noshi just start also beating the piss out of each other with super stiff slaps to the face to get the heat flowing. Outside of that, we get a few minutes of real solid Ishikawa mat-work and him being a bit of a petty prick with his strikes to the pair. Wilkins gets in to wreck Naka with headbutts and a brutal knee to the head that seems to legitimately rattle him a bit. Hoshi also eats shit as Wilkins smiles off his strikes and answers with a stiff head-spike backdrop, following up with a equally rough Capture Suplex. Ishikawa tags in just to stare over him during the 10 count like a complete asshole, so the two go to blows again with Ishikawa winning out with a head crank. The M-Pro duo eventually turn this into a pro-wrestling match with spots and whatnot to turn the tide; this part of the match is good in places but not nearly as good as the first half, even though Wilkins and Hoshi exchanging big scary Tombstones and German suplexes was rad even if rough and scrappy. We get some goofy double team spots that are a bit sloppy in places (like the double suplex was mistimed and the double Fujiwara armbar felt a bit too quaint for my liking) albeit the top rope dropkick into German combo was amazing, as was Wilkins just bumping huge for it. Lots of spots, even Ishikawa gets to dive to the outside after the M-Pro duo have their turn. Finish has Wilkins land his superplex into a terrifying looking side shoulder crank for the win. Ok, so the spotfest at the end comes out of nowhere and doesn't really add to much else but to allow the M-Pro guys to show their stuff in their element but it's a fun showing as is the rest of this: if you want to see Wilkins and Ishikawa just destroy Jr heavyweights for 15+ you'll love this, but this also had good selling in places when it was required, and it really meant something given the Wilkins/Ishikawa duo make sure to sandbag, act like pseudo-heels and then subsequently sell hard to really get over the momentum shift. Nakajima was fine enough for his role as the odd one out, Hoshikawa played a good fiery underdog that had a good balance of mat technique and big spots when the time came for it. Really solid if a bit disappointing they didn't stick with the (far superior) gritty theme of the first half.

Did watch this recently, amazing Inoki-Ism sprint, probably one of the best Inoki-Ism type matches I've seen anyway. Between this, the Nishimura bout and the Tana/Kanemoto stuff, Bas legit has a bunch of solid matches to easily draw back on, which makes it doubly disappointing he didn't stick with wrestling and instead we had to have Bob Sapp (who I still maintain ISN'T bad, for the record, just not world champion material) basically take his push, because he's such a natural when it comes to even the little stuff, like selling the fear of Nakanishi's slams and bombs.

....ok so I'm not counting this as a part, but silly me forgot some fancam matches to include on here so I'm adding them now retroactively: just pretend these were there all along =========== W/ George Takano Vs. Brazo de Oro & Brazo de Plata (06.09.1981) I really like the outdoor setting here: it's just in some random part of a rural town, people watching from balconies, scaffolding just casually laying around, etc. Mask's hand is still bothering him from the injury seemingly had at the time, so he tends to slow down a bit due to it. More early Brazo footage is always a treat though, even if they are mostly just here to bump around for the babyfaces as the foreign heels of the week shtick. There's a weird bit early where Sayama does his usual Tiger Spin spot but then he's like not moving on the mat afterwards and there's a awkward wait by Plata as he limply tags in Takano and then lays fairly still on the apron; I'm not sure if he was just a bit rattled (he wasn't injured afterwards either?) or he was testing out actually selling for once, either way it was pretty strange. As you might expect from a random house show this was mostly low-impact lucha grappling and some comedy, mostly by the Brazo brothers as they do a prototype version of their 90's shtick and bumble around each other trying to catch up with the babyfaces. All fairly by the numbers, but real enjoyable given who was involved. Young Takano pre-Cobra gimmick is fairly decent, working well with Plata and having some good agility up his sleeve when the match gets going a bit. He works about 80% of this with Mask coming it for the occasional big spot and then tagging out. The Brazo guys take up a few minutes to get over their own stuff with a good control sequence as they use some nice top rope moves alongside heel antics to beatdown on Takano until he makes the "hot" (I say that in quotations because this crowd did not care) tag to Mask, who runs over the two with his usual speedy sequences. The finish is pretty abrupt as Mask pulls the Mighty Inoue special with two flying senton splashes before getting the pin on Oro. This was a pretty average showing that was bar for the course for everyone involved, definitely not bad by any means but also not exactly something I'd be searching around for anytime soon. The Brazo lads are fine for their role and Takano and co are solid babyfaces, even if Mask barely shows up to do much at all here. RANK: Decent Vs. Gran Hamada: The Lost Match (06.03.1982) I was SERIOUSLY shocked when I discovered that Hamada and Sayama had actually faced off around this time but it wasn't televised (for a reason we'll see later on) so all we get is a decent quality fancam. The crowd loves Tiger Mask before they even lock up as he gets big chants. Being honest, I thought this was at times even better than their 1981 match, with some great back and forth action between the two as they seamlessly went though lucha/catch sequences following into each other. Hamada's mat-based style is intelligent enough to force Sayama to rely less on his big spots and more on focusing in on impressive counters instead, which is definitely something I would've liked to seen more out of him given the bulk of his 1981/83 stuff is not quite that most of the time. They've worked on their chemistry since the 1981 outing and it shows in how they interact. We still get those spots here, but Hamada isn't going to be made a fool of and subsequently does his own flippy shit to even the score. Hamada's holds are generally more balanced and interesting given he tries to really wear down his opponent on the mat, with the occasional big counter or escape. Hamada gets some chants here but they are just drowned out in insanely loud Tiger Mask counter-chants; it's clear even here who is the bigger deal. That said, I feel like the match itself is fairly balanced between the two: there's never really a instance where one dominates for ages, Hamada slaps on the occasional hold or two but he's always countered and forced back onto the defensive. As per the 1981 match we get escalation as Hamada tries for more strikes, but there's also a LOT of just hold-hugging here as Hamada drags things out with multiple headscissors and holds. Eventually he starts unloading with punches and whatnot, but Sayama counters with a nice Savate kick and we get a fast-paced sequence with some mild botching as Hamada misses his cue to counter a Irish whip into a corner crossbody, so they have to repeat the spot right after. Hamada takes a crazy bump up and over the ropes when he misses a follow-up splash, leading to a pretty nifty plancha by Mask in turn. Hamada tries to get back in, but he eats more blows on the apron. Now the finish....I have zero idea what happened. Sayama does a stiff dropkick and Hamada falls down, the ref looks at him and calls the match off (for some reason?) Hamada looks legit pissed off, Karl Gotch of all people comes out to calm things down, Sayama's just standing around confused, people running in, Hamada snatches the mic to say a few angry words....like the whole thing is just a clusterfuck and goes on for ages. Looking at it closely it seemed like the dropkick caused a fairly nasty looking nosebleed and the ref panicked, called it off early; everyone was just confused afterwards. That finish ruins the build of the match pretty badly, but if you can ignore that then this is a weird little hidden gem that isn't as spot-heavy like their other matches, but does have its own little things to enjoy: if only they had a proper ending to tie things up, this would be actually worth the watch. As it is, check it out only if you want to see some chaos. RANK: Bordering on Good, but the botched finish makes it a Decent ===========

Ok so I've sat down and watched a fair chunk of his stuff, mostly from his 2000's stint given that's where he gets most coverage (as opposed to his 90's days where he was a lot more occasional for televised appearances, and not many were worth really checking out) much like with Nishimura, I wanna record my thoughts on here just to see how a GWE case could potentially look like. 1. Yasuda most definitely is not someone who can go out and have a great match with everyone: he's not the wrestler for that, partly because he's not really someone who ever became "great" when it came to working against the norm, getting better than expected showings, etc. His workrate is steady for pretty much all of his career bar post-2007 where a alleged suicide attempt and general wear and tear really take a lot out of him to the point where he's barely working afterwards outside of obscure indies that weren't taped. You have to accept early on that there's a lot of matches that just aren't good or are flat-out bad because of the conditions, the work involved, or just general screwy stuff going on. 2. While the above is the case, Yasuda is also very good when it comes to the entertainment factor of putting on matches: he's solid at working either a undercard babyface battling the odds and getting the crowd hugely behind him, or as a cowardly heel who has to cheat with shtick to get his own way. In both roles he is good at emoting himself in the ring, and you always know how he's feeling, if that makes any sense. Whatever role he needs to put on Yasuda can do so fairly effectively, even more complex stuff like a comedic face/heel struggling to make ends meet (HUSTLE) or a tweener role where he does heelish stuff but never goes overtly over the top and still has fan support (G1 2001). He's pretty versatile when it comes to that end. 3. Heel Yasuda kinda has that Triple H quality in that he can dominate a match in a lot of places, but if you look back it never really feels as such because he's also very good at feeding for the babyface and just making them look great, either be his bug-eyed facial expressions or his really awesome big guy bumps for German suplexes and the like. Examples like his mini-series with a young Tanahashi or his upset against Nakamura show a distinct quality when it comes to really making the babyfaces look like killers, especially when it comes to the big momentum swings of a match. 4. Yasuda does have a number of great singles showings, but for me his tags are also a lot of fun, debatably even better in places. Early Yasuda excels as a lumpy ex-sumo who can move surprisingly well, can shift a match dynamic with big bumping on his side or just taking over with his big-man style, and throw in some crowd-popping moments to really get them loud for any finishing stretch. Heel Makai Club era Yasuda changes up to be this annoying dickhead who relies on his goons to do the dirty work, usually picking up their scraps or interfering to turn the tide. Not only does he get amazing heat, but he's also awesome when the tides turn and his antics finally catch up with him. Much like Triple H again, he stacks the deck so high that everyone is begging for it to get knocked over, and he's super solid when it comes to putting over that "oh shit I'm losing" side of things. Small stuff like eating shit from Nagata or trying to bully Liger with his size only to stooge and sell hard really sell that aspect. I would say overall that I definitely think Yasuda could fit on a top 100. Not from a "workrate" (whatever that means these days) aspect, but from a overall package, versatility and just knowing how to play roles super solid aspect of wrestling, he is fit for purpose. Maybe that'll change as I go though more Makai Club stuff but so far, pretty confident in what I'm thinking.

Good hidden gem that I found while I was doing Yasuda's Deep Dive. This was a fairly hot Korakuen huge brawl that had the Makai Club use their antics to stay on top of the big babyface troop: as you might imagine this was messy, but you can't really help that when there's so many lads in the ring. Yoshie was surprisingly on point here as he has good, super scrappy stuff with Yasuda and the gang, throwing some hard forearm shots and having a really stiff brawl with Yanagisawa despite everything else going on, honestly was probably the best I've ever seen him in terms of outright performance and looking like a world-ender in his own right. Makai Club afterwards isolate out Tenzan with a dive from Makai #2/Ryota Chikuzen as well as utilising unfair team-ups and cutting him off from the other side of the ring. Outside of a slight botch where Makai #2 goes for a double wristlock and then randomly drops it to land a awkward knee, this bit is solid, as is Nagata's great hot tag when Tenzan is eventually able to recover and send Yasuda flying with his signature jumping wheel kick. He has a good back and forth with Yanagisawa with kicks before he springs for a cross armbreaker attempt, also wrecks Yasuda with a big belly to belly throw when he creeps in like a vulture to beat him down after he'd been softened up, was a great spot. The crowd also loves Nakanishi coming in like a brickhouse and just wrecking everyone with shoulder tackles and whatnot, especially a awesome double spear to the two Makai guys. Yoshie come in for his own stuff, but Yasuda uses his Makai Club goons to beat him down and they all hit him in the turnbuckle corner with different moves, including a lariat, belly splash, and a nasty jumping knee from Yanagisawa. The crowd thinks the match is over when Yasuda goes for the Butterfly Suplex but pop huge when it is instead a near fall. Yoshie lands a big German suplex and snaps on a Camel Clutch, but gets a brutal Maeda/Choshu-lite kick to the back of the head by Yanagisawa to break it up. With everyone brawling with the Makai Club, it's easy pickings for Yasuda to snap in and get the pin off said kick for the scummy victory. This was a really good sprint of a match that was designed to take advantage of the big crowd with lots of easy to get, digestible action, and it definitely paid off given the reactions. I think it also did a really good job of getting Yoshie of all people over as he remarkably leads the charge against the Makai bullies and takes it to them with some beefy slams and strikes. Guys like Yasuda, Yanagisawa, Nagata etc all play their parts great when they need to do so, and even the more limited guys do get to do their thing without it seeming much of a issue. Super good brawl that supremely took advantage of team dynamics between the two teams and did a considerably impressive job of getting everyone involved. I know the consensus was that early 2000's NJPW was the pits most of the time but this really didn't reflect that as this was a all action and no filler contest that didn't drag and had something for everyone.

Part 4 Given 1983 (spoilers!) only lasts until mid-August, the next part will be slightly shorter than usual. =========== Vs. Kuniaki Kobayashi III (06.01.1983) This is the (unofficial) big ending for the trio of matches these two have had so far: after this they have a few more matches together but mostly just out of obligation to draw more tickets than anything else. Pre-match brawl with the two scrapping but don't be fooled: this is by far the most neutral and least chaotic match between the two as we start off with simple grappling rather than flailing strikes or whatnot. This part is however quite good: I did remark with the last match that the UWF-style is being clearly refined here with a mix of lucha transitions and shoot-style submissions and that's what we basically get here, with even a Crossface Chickenwing being used as a dangerous submission alongside double wrist locks and headscissors. Outside of the occasional spot sequences, you honestly could slot this into a really early UWF 1.0 card and barely tell the difference bar the final third stretch. Outside of Kobayashi's kinda meh strikes at points, the first 15 of this was solid and never really stalled too much in one style, always flowing between the more flashy spots and the grappling, even mixing them by having Mask go for a small package to counter a suplex only to hold after the pin and transition into a cross armbreaker, which was a pretty out-there bit to see out of the usually conventional by the numbers Tiger Mask formula. They get a bit too ambitious in places: there's a simultaneous "high kick/low kick" bit they try for that looks a bit dodgy: but they save it by having Sayama quickly take it down to the mat. Same with a weird lucha double leg lock that looks awkward at first but then they start throwing stiff slaps while stuck in a double handstand and that saved the whole thing for me, looked awesome. We get progressively meaner as the finish comes as the two start going for nasty slams, including Mask having his dive to the outside countered (ish) by getting smashing into the guardrail. The match plays with the audience as they tease count-out victories and near falls, but none of them are the true big ending until Mask lands a pretty rough German suplex on the outside, which allows him to just get out with a count-out victory. I felt like this lacked the insane heat of the second match, which I would put slightly above this one: while this was longer and had a conclusive finish, it also did get a bit messy in places and there's way too much no-selling and ignoring of the other person's stuff, which gets a bit overkill by the end when finishers are being thrown and they just ignore fatigue all together. The two still work really well and this is by far one of the better showings for this year in retrospect; while I sound very harsh about this match, it was still way ahead of its time in a good few ways and a stellar performance by both men, even if I think Sayama personally outworks Kobayashi once again here. RANK: Good W/ Gran Hamada, Kantaro Hoshino Vs. Los Misioneros de la Muerte (El Signo, El Texano & Negro Navarro) (14.01.1983) The pre-match for this lasts FOREVER as Los Misioneros de la Muerte and other goons beat down on the native trio for a few minutes before the match starts. Tiger Mask is especially a target given his champ status.....then we get another brawl as soon as the match starts just as things start to calm down lol. It does lead to some pretty good exchanges as Mask eventually outsmarts the rudos with some solid speedy exchanges, as well as Hamada getting the better of a pre-bald Navarro. We also get some comedic stuff as the Muerte trio can't get on the same page and knock into each other a fair bit here despite best attempts. No one really sells for long though; this is just one continuous stream of moves with occasional control bits when the heel lads get in charge, even then it's just a non-stop showcase of moves. Which is fine and all, however I tend to lose interest when a match is all just that and nothing else. Near the end we get Hoshino get beat down for a bit before the bigger names take the bombs (namely a nice spinning Tombstone from Texano) before him and Hamada go back and forth, with the latter having to use a quick roll-up for the win. It's a nothing match purely there to get over the later Muerte stuff over, and that's fine, it's just that this doesn't really do a whole lot for me besides that. If you are a fan of this kind of chaotic style then you'll probably enjoy it for what it was. RANK: Decent Vs. Negro Navarro (20.01.1983) Navarro is a good foil for Mask, even if he's nowhere near his (surprising) peak and reinvention in the 2000's. He's more of a power-based rudo here, throwing around and slamming his smaller opponent with ease, then smirking about it like a complete jackass. He's got some real old-fashioned cowardly bits as well, hiding behind trainees when Mask threatens a dive from the top rope or scampering away from a Tiger Feint with near-perfect timing. He also sells a inverse savate kick to the head like he's just died, it's great. Here's some occasional messy bit or botched (probably from the ever-present language barrier) but it never gets overbearingly bad and is usually covered well. Navarro has some nifty offence as well, including a reverse Torture Rack stretch and biting the boot when working it in a Stump Puller purely just to get extra heel points. Sayama's comeback is a bit weird as we get a stiff kick to the stomach before Navarro takes a suplex bump without him actually doing one. He goes for a surprising number of just slams and/or suplexes as opposed to fancy spots before the finish has him do a fake-out diving headbutt, entering into a forward roll before snapping into a nasty German suplex for the win, with post-match being him beat down once again by Los Misioneros de la Muerte before Kobayashi of all people chases them out! He's still not a babyface though as he stares down Mask and shoves him, but this shows that the two at least have a measure of respect for the other despite the vicious matches. Either way, this was a pretty fun filler singles for the two, with Navarro being a unique challenge with his more powerhouse offence though inevitably having to eat the loss to the ace. Mask looked about as good as he usually does albeit with some stilted moments as addressed above, however I don't think they were major enough to detract from the quality of the match. RANK: Good W/ Kantaro Hoshino Vs. Black Tiger & Jose Estrada (28.01.1983) Jose Estrada once again somehow manages to show up in a match! This is a mostly nothing filler tag to establish Black Tiger for his title match in a little while, so he tags with the heel jobber for the two to mostly bumble around. Hoshino is fine as the face sidekick that gets in his usual spots, nothing great about him but he's a competent hand that knows his role in these tags as per standard. The usual structure has Sayama show off, get in danger as the heels gang up on him for a bit, including some decent interactions with Black Tiger. Sayama doesn't obviously sell for any extended amount of time, eventually just quickly taking the advantage and tags in Hoshino for his stuff, mainly him throwing some knee drops before Estrada uses some dirty eye rakes but fails to get a big lead. There's a goofy bit where Hoshino tries for a running sunset flip but fails to get the legs, so it looks like a weird back bump. They repeat the spot uber shamelessly after a quick pin and it goes off successfully this time. The finish has Estrada get pinned after a Tombstone/diving headbutt combo by Mask, with Black Tiger's foot being held by Hoshino to keep him from breaking it up. This is a real nothing filler match that pretty much just randomly happened to get televised, very by the numbers and not particularly interesting. Unless you want to see more Estrada bumbling (for some reason?) this is 100% skippable, the definition of filler. RANK: Forgettable Vs. Gran Hamada II (03.02.1983) This is a pretty solid match: the main issue is that it's babyface vs babyface, so there's not really that crowd heat you would get from a Black Tiger or Kobayashi showing. This is somewhat resolved by having Hamada be tactfully not 100% a face here as he's a bit more snappy, aggressive and at times perplexed at what he has to do to shut down Mask for good on the mat, which is where a good bit of this happens on: much like the last match with the two, Hamada flirts with heelish antics but never fully commits; this is a important story bit for later down the line. There's occasional spots and sequences but these are more of a fix to the slower parts than a means to a end, smartly done so as these two work a lot better with a slower pace. As a result, this is one of the more mixed major matches of Sayama's tenure: I definitely see people looking at this very long, drawn out leg and arm work (that's then not really worked much or sold, like at all, nor adds to the finish or match progression) and turning off from that, which is fine but I feel like you are missing some critical development as a mat-worker as a result of that. Hamada also has some great bits here where he's able to neutralise Mask from doing his fancy shit and force him back into escaping his tricky holds. Of course he gets his time in the sun but still, these bits were solid additions. Hamada gets more desperate over time as he throws out a near fall rolling reverse cradle and even a Triangle Choke (ish) to wear the guy down before we get a dive out of him to mix up his hold-wangling. The two go back and forth when inside the ring and Hamada throws Mask again to try for another dive, but gets met with a nice mid-air dropkick. The two have a dynamic finishing stretch, with Hamada going for a bunch of tricky pins in a last ditch attempt to grab a win before he gets countered when trying for another reverse cradle (something he'd done a few times already in the match for near falls as a clutch) with Sayama pulling down his arms to get a three count. Hamada is shocked and a bit annoyed afterwards but eventually accepts the loss, even if this doesn't answer the question of who was REALLY the better wrestler given Sayama never beat him conclusively. If their rivalry had continued, it would've been interesting to see how this dynamic would've developed. Either way this is one of the more nuanced Tiger Mask matches, more about mat-work than dazzling heat or crazy spots. Hamada is pretty damn good at this point and time; though he's not as athletic or flashy as his opponent he's still got lots of stuff in the tank to impress, mostly being super-fast counters or refined mat-work. His opponent is more or less the same in that regard, Sayama wasn't super spot-crazy here but showed off a more slower side with bursts of speed when needed, which I definitely do enjoy a good bit more than his more superhero spot-show approach. Either way, a uniquely fun matchup. RANK: Good Vs. Black Tiger V (07.02.1983) The last Tiger v Tiger singles matchup and it's....alright despite the conditions. The crowd are still somewhat into this matchup but the heat has obviously died down from their very loud and profitable first few outings; by this point this was old-news, especially with the more popular (and let's just face it, outright better) Kobayashi feud also orbiting around. Not to say the match itself was bad or anything, that was what I felt hearing the somewhat died-down reactions to this. The two pull off the same dynamic as expected, with some good callbacks to their earlier matches with each other (Sayama doing a fake-out moonsault as opposed to crashing and burning a few matches back, a low blow after a German suplex attempt) and a more scrappy aura as the two fire off a lot of strikes and Black Tiger tries to weaken his opponent with his usual roughhousing but of course can never keep his opponent contained for long. They get the crowd going near the end with Sayama doing a diving headbutt to the outside....that misses lol. Black Tiger tries to counter a apron suplex counter into German with low blows, but Sayama keeps blocking and shifting away from it until he just SMASHES the shit out of him with a great inverse Savate kick to the back of the head (which will be used more and more as Tiger Mask starts to lean into a kickboxing style) and a nasty German suplex for the win. This felt like the definitive end to their long-standing feud: even if Black Tiger had lost countless times before; having the clean win and his dirty antics finally be defeated was a really solid bit and kinda marked the end of their work together even if Rocco would continue to do the Black Tiger shtick for 7 more years, mostly as a reliable act to get ran over by bigger prospects. This wasn't a great match, was pretty solid all in all, even if it does lack the intensity from their earlier work until the very end where they tease Sayama actually losing. He doesn't obviously, but it's still effective, and as much as Black Tiger can bug people out in regards to the very scrappy style used by Rocco to communicate his differences to Sayama, I think he definitely stands out regardless which is never truly a bad thing unless it's the "uniquely bad" category. That said, big shame we never see Rocco/Sayama in Japan without the Black Tiger shtick being a thing. RANK: Decent Vs. Kuniaki Kobayashi IV (08.02.1983) Just a day after his Black Tiger match, Tiger Mask is immediately having to defend his title again from Kobayashi, which is super screwy if you think about it. This match is also a cut one, namely 11 minutes out of the original 16 runtime; my sources don't have these missing minutes so I imagine they weren't available. In my opinion this is also the weakest of the Kobayashi matches because it really doesn't try anything new with the formula but rather just repeats old stuff between the two with some small tweaks like Mask pulling for a really tight Muta Lock a decade before the aforementioned would actually coin the move for himself. Other than that it's just usual fun antics between the two with a lot of working-holds to pad this out, isn't anything you haven't seen done better before. The only really interesting bit to address is Kobayashi legitimately getting socked in the face with a savate kick from Sayama and him getting KO'd as a result for a few seconds until the ref wakes him up. He gets up immediately for his backdrop counter, which Sayama is nice enough to put his hand deliberately behind Kobayashi's head to make sure his landing is softer and to not make his head issues worse. He's obviously a bit shaken up by this and takes a lot longer to do stuff, they work off it slightly by having Mask do his inverse savate kick to his head as well for more head targeting. He lands a big dive to the outside and the two milk a potential count out but it never happens. We get the usual kicks and Fisherman's Suplex out of Kobayashi, with Mask kicking out at a 1 count if you can believe it. He lands his own dive and a backdrop on the floor, another tease at a count out loss by Mask but he gets back in anyway. Kobayashi tries for a second Fish Suplex, Mask gets out and counters into a rolling Prawn-style pin for a near fall, Kobayashi tries for a sunset but gets rolled up himself for the big win: yet another one of these screwy finishes to keep his opponent strong. Sayama gets a bit emotional post-match as he's rewarded the belt. There's definitely some good bits throughout here but the reduced time and real lack of creativity did make this weaker workrate-wise than prior showings, even if it still had some solid tension and built well to the frantic finish. Not necessary viewing but if you want to see more of these two then this'll definitely help with that despite the hollow structure. RANK: Decent W/ Kantaro Hoshino Vs. Gran Hamada & Kuniaki Kobayashi (10.02.1983) Wait, isn't Hamada a face? Why is he tagging with the obvious scrappy heel then? Well Hamada had actually been tagging with Kobayashi for a good while and it seems to come to a head here as his true colours come out. This is a pretty good outing for being essentially a filler tag to build Mask/Kobayashi up more after their fourth singles just two days prior, namely because this had no foreign jobbers or goofy heels to distract from the action. Hamada is again really good here; if it wasn't for Sayama being a superstar and if he was just a few inches taller he'd be easily a big prospect for a heavyweight push, but we all know how his career really goes. Hoshino is...fine, but he's clearly the weaker man out of these four by a fair bit and does basically all of the sustained bumping for his partner, minus getting a spot or two to show off his skills a bit against the younger lads for the most part. The underlining story is that Mask and Kobayashi go tit for tat here so they interrupt each other's spots but never really tag in with each other to smartly build to their important outings. I do like how when Kobayashi is in he immediately goes for the mask, and Hamada (who had been noticeably scorned just a week or so earlier) actually helps the guy! Hamada even manages to slip the mask off his opponent a bit too fast so Sayama has to hold it in front of his face for dear life. He eventually recovers and him and Kob have a surprisingly meh back and forth, including a really bad botch where Tiger Mask did a Pele kick, completely missed, gets sold anyway. Mask goes though all of his signature stuff before Hamada jumps in to interrupt a pin off a diving headbutt, as well as removing his mask again. It's pretty entertaining to see Hamada and Hoshino just throw hands at each other, including a Roddy Piper-lite series of jabs and a hook by Hoshino that looked mega goofy. Dude just unravels on these two with full on punches out of the blue. I thought the crowd actually picked up well for his stuff, but he gets shut down with a brainbuster anyway. Mask gets in and lands his great inverse savate kick on Kobayashi, the heels gang up on him again and the match is thrown out after a amazing plancha to the outside by him to the latter onto a table on the outside which results in both being unable to answer the call for a double count out. The babyfaces still celebrate, but it's a hollow one given the beating and result. Now one would think this would lead to a heated rematch between Hamada and Sayama down the line for revenge, a series of big tags or a definitive winner between the two....nope. Hamada leaves for a extended UWA stint and Sayama is gone by the time he comes back, so this heated rivalry stops dead here, sadly. Shame as well because the two have the better exchanges here with some good back and forth work. Kobayashi does his usual shit and it's fine, I still think his kicks are weird and he can't really be taken seriously after all of these losses. Hoshino was actually a big hand in terms of the match as a whole and I loved him going full murder-mode with the punches, loads of fun there. Solid tag bout with some great heat in the second half. RANK: Good W/ Kantaro Hoshino Vs. Abdullah Tamba & Mile Zrno (04.03.1983) This "Abdullah Tamba" lad is a oddity: virtually identical to the OG Abdullah bar the face and being slightly smaller, but throws high-flying stuff on occasion? Bizarre to say the least. Zrno I've never heard of but he has some nifty technical stuff in his pocket and works well with Hoshino doing old-fashioned hold to hold work, kinda reminds me of a 80's Alex Wright if that makes any sense, he's a lanky lad with surprising agility. Tamba is....well he's not exactly great offense-wise (outside of a half-decent leaping headscissors and dropkick) but he can bump quite well for his size and plays a good stooge to Sayama's amazing spots and antics, getting annoyed at chants and hiding in the ropes. One part in particular has him be so scared to fight Mask that he tries tagging Zrno from the outside, and the ref immediately makes him get back in and do it properly, which was a good little heel act. We do get some Zrno/Mask but it's a bit stilted in places and the two mostly don't really sell anything beyond some big bumps. Tamba and Hoshino work a decent big man/little man dynamic as he tries to topple the big lad, but Tamba takes over with some slams and a bottom rope splash, needing the babyfaces to team up to land a big backdrop to chase him away. Zrno gets hit with a Tombstone and slapped into the Cobra Stretch but Tamba breaks it up. Lead to the finish has Hoshino mostly bump around until he can get the tag to Mask, who is also beat down by Tamba until he dodges his terrible knee-first top rope splash and lands a scoop slam. Now the finish is interesting: Sayama does his moonsault, but mostly misses his target and hits Tamba's legs. Rather than go for the pin and look stupid, he instead smartly goes for a figure four instead for the tap-out given the fact, which I thought was remarkably intelligent for a finish adjustment. You can tell this isn't the original finish as well as both Hoshino and Zrno kinda stop brawling for a second to look over at the two and are noticeably confused. As a match this was mostly by the numbers and not amazingly well done by even NJPW undercard standards, but I thought this was enjoyable and Zrno and Tamba add some well-needed colour to the usual Jr acts Tiger Mask has to face, in particular Tamba being a lot of fun with his antics and Zrno impressed on occasion. Hoshino is a smooth sidekick as he always is and Sayama pulls out the usual tricks with the crowd are as expected loving every second of it. It's nothing ground-breaking at this point but definitely one I'd check out. RANK: Decent Vs. Chris Adams III (11.03.1983) Adams again and this time he's playing a overt heel, shouting at the crowd and doing dirty shit right off the bat. Unfortunately that means we see less of his fun Catch work and more him in the role of the usual "Tiger Mask against foreign stooge" act, meaning lots of bumping and selling on both sides without much real action. Adams takes over in the early stages with punches and basic offence, and then Mask will counter into his own stuff and vice versa. It's rather...aimless, and doesn't really try to do much than run the clock down, so it's a lot of "I'll just do a knee drop randomly and try for a pin" and shit like that, just complete filler. Adams goes for his superkick (which Sayama bumps great for) and misses his diving headbutt. There's no real hint of psychology: Mask lands a brainbuster, a piledriver AND a Cobra Stretch, but then Adams just wiggles out and takes over with no issues with a punch to the gut without even bothering to add any desperation or selling what just happened, even a Misawa head-shake would suffice. I think a general issue this match suffers from as well is that post-Kobayashi feud, there's been more "sweep the leg" spots, as well as messing around with the mask, and it does tire when nearly every match has some element of one or both in it. No longer is it a cool feature exclusively shown off now and then by nasty rudo brawlers or big acts, now virtually every match has someone trying to grab onto it for cheap heat, not even really trying to work it proper into the match or anything. The crowd chants for Mask as he gets beatdown by Adams, he makes a comeback with a big Savate kick and some suplexes. Adams escapes a Butterfly attempt and gets back on top again, so more punches and slow work. There's some holds in the second half but the pacing doesn't get any better regardless of that, and we even get some bad pacing botches as Adams kinda just sits in position while Mask tries to do something and they have to awkwardly reset. They finally get the crowd engaged with a step-up Enzuigiri by Adams, which Mask sells like a KO for about 20 seconds until he needs to do his comeback spot, ending in a leg sweep. Tombstone + Diving Headbutt for the easy win. This was a rough filler match, with the two mostly just doing shit to each other intertwined with hints of something with Adams heel work, but we never get much beyond that. Nothing to this at all, barely any holds and a real feeling of this just being on the spot, especially with the pacing here. This is everything people who don't like the guy think Tiger Mask matches look like, just a mishmash of moves with no pacing, selling, or psychology, super stripped down. RANK: Forgettable W/ Kantaro Hoshino Vs. Chris Adams & Abdullah Tamba (18.03.1983) After their bad singles, I was somewhat dreading this tag given who was involved. We start off with some sloppy shit between Hoshino and Tamba as they generally aren't clicking and don't work well with each other, with some obvious timing issues and bad bumps. Things get better when Mask gets in and the heels double team him with a lot of strikes and whatnot. We also get a awesome spot where Sayama does his signature Wall Run off the turnbuckle corner, only doing it off Tamba's back after he missed a shoulder press and into his Savate kick, ending with a big dive though the ropes. More or less the entire match is just the above repeating itself a few times bar the occasional change or whatnot. Tamba also squishes Sayama with a nasty senton splash: unless the usual version where the person jumps slightly to elevate the actual impact of the move (as well as making sure the full mass isn't right on them) Tamba just goes flat on them full-force and it looks disgustingly stiff, doesn't help he was off slightly so he ended up mostly on his head on top of that. It's pretty crazy he eats that and just 20 seconds later is doing top rope moonsaults and flipping all over the place. Him and Adams are good enough as a pair and we definitely get some of the higher-quality stuff out of those two. Tamba gets to show off a bit here as well with a dropkick and floppy headscissors as per standard. We get a surprisingly good bit with Hoshino playing the underdog; great bumping on his part, especially with a slingshot spot where he flings himself head-first into the second rope turnbuckle. Of course he eventually dodges a Adams diving headbutt for a quick burst of Tiger Mask spots before he inevitably also gets brought down, and we reset back to Hoshino being on the backend after a superkick from Adams to even things out. It sounds fairly by the numbers but when Sayama gets in for the big climatic showdown with the heels the crowd explode in a chant, especially when he manages to scoop slam Tamba after a few kicks. The heels manage to maintain control with some cheating on Adams' part, but eventually Tamba falls after a big backdrop and brainbuster, ending with a standing moonsault onto Tamba's legs and a repeat of the finish from their last televised match: a figure four for a submission win. This is obviously not something era-defining and DEFINITELY feels B-show, however this had a good charm to it and there were no real bad weak links here, even if Hoshino did have some sloppy moments on his end. Tamba is a unique feature with his mix of big-man brawling and doing massive crazy big-man spots like dropkicks and flying headscissors, Adams is as always a good hand even if his shtick is a bit limited in his role. Sayama brings this up a few levels with his agility and spots from being tame to something actually fairly watchable bar the bad start. RANK: Decent Vs. Kuniaki Kobayashi V (15.04.1983) This is joined in progress with about 2 minutes shaved off. Mask is overtly using more of his UWF kickboxing here, aiming with a nasty head kick early on. This establishes him working with some good aggression, more aiming to hurt his rival than show off as normal. He even lands a lariat of all things, which is the first time I've seen him do such a move since forever. Kobayashi is ever the opportunist, having to fight and struggle for his moments to shine with rule-bending and his usual kicks. There's the usual stuff between the two like long cross armbreaker attempts and occasional stop/start pacing, with the two going from big sequence to then sitting in holds. Thankfully it's done fairly well and not insanely noticeable on a first watch. Sadly the gap between these two is quite noticeable workrate wise: Sayama's stuff just generally overshadows Kobayashi's more grounded style, and his kicks are immensely better than his, so we get a fairly lopsided match that doesn't really feel like two equal rivals at this point. Weirdly both men almost become their opposites as Kobayashi is the one being cheered on though the beatings while Mask is the dominant force keeping him in his place, it's rather bizarre especially with Kobayashi deliberately playing this up by consistently selling his groggy nature by stumbling over, tying himself up in the ropes Andre-style and throwing himself around. Eventually the match starts to pick up in the last few minutes, then it all goes downhill as Kobayashi is knocked out of the ring when trying for a Butterfly suplex; we get a awkward dive catch/half sell by the two before the match ends in a DQ after Kobayashi scoop-slams Mask onto a stack of chairs in the crowd. The two have a post-match brawl but the crowd is noticeably deflated, nowhere near as loud or as hot as they were for the first three matches they had together. This is pretty much the house-show equivalent of a showing between these two, and I'm seriously debating if this is weaker than their 08/02 bout: while that one had zero creativity and not a lot else to it beyond that fact, this one struggles from just having no real shtick to hook you in here, especially with the bizarre Kobayashi acting like a underdog deal that doesn't really get communicated well here. This does have some solid strikes though and Sayama puts on a more aggressive act to get over their bitter rivalry. That said, this most assuredly feels like the awkward Missing Link between their more conventional first three matches and their more proto shoot-style showings to come. RANK: Decent W/ Osamu Kido Vs. Caswell Martin & Kuniaki Kobayashi (19.04.1983) It's interesting seeing Cas here given his overall nature of being a brilliant WoS worker, but kinda fading in and out of stuff he actually did. This was his only NJPW stint and it was mostly jobbing to the bigger Jr heavyweight stars at the time, though he would also appear in UWF 1.0. It's a shame this is clipped, because what we see of him vs Kido is fairly interesting mat-work. Instead Kobayashi gets to beat him up mostly with his usual wonky kicks, Cas only comes in at the end for a generic scoop slam and missed leg drop. Sayama gets in to beat him up with strikes, even a piledriver (???) out of the blue. Despite Kobayashi interference and the two squaring up, it only takes a Butterfly Suplex and subsequent Tiger Suplex to easily get the three. This is way too clipped to really judge it fully but it mostly feels like run of the mill stuff with nothing much else to really acknowledge. RANK: Forgettable Vs. Kuniaki Kobayashi VI (15.04.1983) The start of this is super fun as Kobayashi forgoes the usual nonsense and immediately goes into bombs, including a spinning heel kick and big backdrop. Of course the two settle down after this and go into the usual formula of duelling cross armbreaker attempts. That said, they mix it up here with some great back and forth action with stand-up as the pair try to read the other to hammer in their shit, so we get some cool bits where it's just them battling it out with strikes to catch the other or dodging a shot to try to answer with another in response, it feels like a martial arts movie in places. You really get to see Sayama's kickboxing background in full effect as he just smacks the guy with sharp head and body shots. Much like some of their bouts already, this definitely flirts with a sort of proto shoot-style in places; we get the cross armbreakers as expected but now we get some stand-up kickboxing as mentioned above as well as the proper application of a sleeper hold by Mask when his Butterfly Suplex is unsuccessful. Even a backfist is used, albeit it doesn't look great. As with any repeat match there's definitely some moments which are just pulled wholesale from their earlier matches, and Mask gets a lot of his usual stuff in on top of that. However, there's also some great additions to their routine; Sayama blocks the Kobayashi step-up Enzuigiri this time when he catches his leg and Kobayashi in turn expertly counters the turnbuckle springboard crossbody by sticking his knee out for a gutbuster, which was paced to perfection. We get more escalation as Mask hurls out dropkicks, but Kobayashi dodges basically all of them, especially a nasty crash and burn bump off the ropes when he tries taking him off the apron with one in a Misawa/Tsuruta-like fashion. Kobayashi also pulls out a pretty nifty backwards crossbody to follow up as well. Even the extended armbreaker rest hold afterwards I'm fine with because Kobayashi sells like death for the thing and consistently struggles to slowly escape out of it. Mask beats him down with multiple big spots, including even pulling out the deep Inoki-style Octopus Stretch. The crowd gets super excited in the last few minutes as we get a good few near falls from Kobayashi, Mask stealing the Fisherman's Suplex and some drama with the two having massive fatigue, struggling for the big conclusive bomb. Finish has Kobayashi dodge a diving headbutt after eating a piledriver, but him desperately trying to stay in the game by grabbing the mask is his downfall as Sayama wiggles him into a Victory Roll for the three count. This is a great return to form for the two, and the crowd again is massively spilt with them siding with Kobayashi near the end in a kind of Misawa/Kawada dynamic. Sadly unlike other one-sided rivalries like the aforementioned he'd never get a major win until WAY after it meant anything, however it doesn't reduce the quality of this match and how well done it is overall; tons of tense stand-off bits and a real feeling of progression as the two step out of their box a bit to mix things up. Mask is on the ball but Kobayashi really steps things up to where you might just think he'll win this time. RANK: Great Vs. Fishman (12.06.1983) Ok I'm cheating a bit with this one because it happens in the UWA but I figured this would be worth adding on. This exists as clipped for many versions including the official Tiger Mask collection by NJPW and some terrible 240p quality YT videos, the full version can be found with some searching. Fishman and co have a pretty eh start, mostly focused around Sayama being grounded with mat-work. Fishman is mostly basic, fairly clever in how he approaches things, hooking legs and arms for whatever advantage he can get, and countering any attempts to push back with swift stuff; him pulling back while in a bodyscissors to try to force Sayama's shoulders to the mat for a pin was basic but surprisingly cool for a spot showcasing that technical knowledge. This has that classic stop/start pacing to it as Sayama will break free and throw out maybe a dropkick or two before getting caught back into more holds. I'm sure it would've been more endearing to this crowd (and it was, to be fair) but for me this style just feels very much like padding, especially when it doesn't really build to anything; Sayama eventually just gets out all of his (obviously amazing) spots and a Diving Headbutt for the first fall. Fishman feigns injury afterwards as he refuses to leave his corner until eventually he runs out. We get a LONG extended headlock spot with the pair before Fishman just recovers and lands a weird floaty suplex before missing a leg drop. We get a really wacky piledriver spot and Sayama missing a diving headbutt. Fishman lands some more floaty scoop slams and a pop-up spinebuster before a diving splash gets his fall. Sayama flings himself like crazy for some big throws around the ring by his opponent before some more offence, including a very lax cradle near fall. Fishman just at once after the kickout goes into a big lumpy senton splash. The two go back and forth with moves with not a ton of selling before we get more fancy stuff, including a surfboard stretch that almost ends in the two pinning each other at the same time to add some tension. Outside dive from Mask, Fishman just casually dodges a big springboard splash afterwards by just standing still. He's super confident after a tope and a dropkick on the apron stun Sayama, ends up caught after his apron suplex is countered into a insanely arched German suplex for the win. This got good, that being said the mat-work at the start didn't really define or do anything, it was just classic 80's "sit in holds" stuff to pad this out more; which is a shame because both guys here aren't bad at it and a more proactive pace could've made this a lot smoother. Sayama lands all of his offence as great as you could imagine and makes Fishman look equally great for all of his offence with some huge bumps even if his long-term selling is negligible. Fishman.....wasn't feeling him much at all here. He has some nice stuff however overall he feels very basic for a worker and didn't really do a whole lot that was actually entertaining until the very end; his pacing was logical, sure, as was the gameplan, at the same time after watching dozens of these roadblock-formatted matches it does start to tire a lot when you've seen the same stuff done way better and it most definitely doesn't help that Sayama just no-sells all of the leg work anyway lol. RANK: Decent =========== Part 5 will finish this off with some big changes.....and the inevitable biggest one of them all.

Yeah it's a really fascinating case of someone who just showed up out of the blue, basically showed up on a bunch of shows (including a 30 minute draw with him and Kobashi vs Taue and Honda that sadly was never filmed) and then vanished. This is to my knowledge his ONLY TV appearance as most if not all of his showings weren't filmed. Even the AJPW TV tapings at the time (which were usually fairly generous with heavyweight showings) were mostly occupied with the bigger shows, hell this only got shown because it was a Korakuen main event, if you could believe it. Maybe something will show up down the line with more and more rare footage showing up like with the GAORA archive series and the like.

Recorded via fancam of the event as Young Lion matches were almost universally not filmed outside of some here and there. This in particular is a great showing as it involves two guys who will go on to have strong careers: Ishizawa as the devious Kendo Kashin and Ishikawa as a straight laced ace shooter. Even this early in his career (not even a year) he's pretty great on the mat, and Ishizawa pre Kashin can't coast off his reputation and goofy antics as per standard so he has to do the same. The result is a pretty heated match that starts off with both men hurling out slaps and other strikes in a game of one-upmanship between them while occasionally losing their cool. This also makes the match a bit more interesting beyond it just being two guys aggressively rolling about on the mat, which is still solid, don't get me wrong, but versatility helps a lot here. The match itself is as you can imagine fairly heatless as the crowd only really pick up for the striking portions as they don't really care about these two much at all, so there's a lot of very silent grappling, but this in itself is pretty awesome as the two move at a brisk pace and are as smooth as butter moving from hold to hold. Ishizawa pulls for his signature cross armbreaker at one point from back mount but this is for a majority just them going for takedowns, passing guard and sitting in holds: the pace is what especially is great here as both don't hang around for long in any position, only pulling for submissions when they are 100% sure it could work: Ishikawa uses maybe three actual submissions here and all of them are close calls with the last one being the finish, so they feel threatening. It's really refreshing to see submissions used as tangible match-ending moves than just things to sit around in, with even the hint of a double wrist lock being immediately escaped from. There's some good heat bits as well given Ishikawa acts like a shit with random slaps and even punches in places: Ishizawa responds in kind with his own petty stuff. The middle half has a good bit where Ishizawa manages to force his opponent to break to the ropes due to countering a Achilles Tendon hold: his pettiness makes him immediately jump back to the same leg to work it over again only for Ishikawa to knock him down and use the tease of a toe-hold to snap on a kneebar instead which got the crowd super loud. Ishizawa second submission (a Grovit/front face lock) causes his opponent almost at once to sprint to the ropes to escape, but he doesn't break the hold afterwards and tries to choke him out; hits the ropes again. He tries for it a third time and succeeds, but Ishikawa is more than ready for it this time by catching him in a painful toe hold for the surprise submission win. This is probably my bias talking but this was a really good, short technical wrestling match that felt legit while not completely boring at the same time. Kashin shows off a lot of that technical wrestling excellence that's overshadowed by his trolly persona and Ishikawa is already extremely competent on the mat, balancing good takedowns with some surprising submissions at points. If this is your thing, it's absolutely worth checking out despite the trappings of Young Lion formats given the two push it as far as possible in terms of technical work, because for what could've been just a regular 7-minute rookie match, it was LEAGUES above the standard for these sort of things.

Clipped entrances, but shown in full beyond that. The obvious factor here, as you can obviously tell, is this Brian Dyette character: he's a really green talent, comes from American football, and was fairly hyped up given his size and youth at the time as well as being personally scouted and trained by Steve Williams; apparently according to Meltzer he was also in contention to be Kobashi's brand new tag-partner as the young gun Gaijin rookie (which would've made them essentially GET 2.0, or even the original Burning?) This unfortunately wouldn't come to much as he'd basically stop working after two months (apparently due to health issues/not liking the constant travel) so it's a bit awkward seeing him with guys who are clearly far beyond his capabilities, feels really ham-fisted. Kobashi and Misawa obviously have some solid exchanges here and turn up the workrate right at the start: each have their number already and dodge multiple attempts at offence in a surprisingly fast sequence between the two for such a match. Dyette is the odd one out and quite green by his basic offence and clunky notions at times but I think he looked alright here, especially for a guy who'd done maybe a month of actual practical ring work at this point. Akiyama is great: he pulls out the fire from Kobashi in fierce strike exchanges but he also sells some leg work and has a good dynamic with Dyette, which they work into the match rather nicely; despite Akiyama himself not being a vet, he really looks after Dyette like one. There's some good moments here like a reverse lariat into a Half Nelson Suplex which Misawa super-sells for, basically does a full blown rotation in the air lol. Dyette also hits a really sharp lariat of his own that's rather stiff and looked convincingly rough with these three. The finish is pretty badly botched however as Dyette is too gassed to get Akiyama up for basically a Razor's Edge-like powerbomb and they fall down flat on their ass mid move. He gets it off the second time with some help from Akiyama but that doesn't get the pin. Akiyama eventually recovers and nails two Exploder Suplexes to win the match. This slows down a LOT when Dyette is in the ring but never gets bad: he holds his own (or maybe that's just everyone else taking care of him) and it's obvious why they were so high on him given his performance and look, he had good atheticism and had clearly something that could've been drawn out with some more development. Everyone else is great and there's some excellent action between Akiyama/Kobashi as well as Misawa; basically Kobashi is the GOAT, we kinda know that though. Underrated overall, definitely worth checking out if you want something a bit exotic and out there for a Misawa/Kobashi pairing.

I was equally gutted to see NJPW kinda pass by such a brilliant act like Villano in favour of just rotating out talent, so instead you mostly get guys who couldn't get nearly as good results (with the occasional outlier like Black Man or whatnot). I'll also say that the "quasi-shoot style" that you do sorta see emerge definitely becomes more and more apparent as time goes on: in fact his later 1983 matches as I'll cover soon (ish) almost feel like really early Super Tiger showings as most of it is just scrappy stand-up kickboxing, mat-work, and the occasional one or two spots, though this might have something to do with his bad knees than anything else. The Kobayashi matches really showcase that change in tempo as time goes on, really fascinating going though them and seeing that slow mutation of styles.

I was fairly hyped for this given Yasuda and Nagata historically have pretty good chemistry and will have a great trio of matches in the next year or so. This kinda sparked that pairing given this is their first major showing against the other, and it starts great with Nagata rushing in for a surprise rolling kick and German suplex combo in the first 10 seconds! The crowd pick up for a full-mount beatdown and a cross armbreaker; Yasuda just about escapes to the ropes. This shakes Yasuda up enough that when he manages to get in his clinch in the turnbuckle he really lets rip with some good-looking knees, as well as just choking Nagata out with his boot. Crowd reacts strongly to him shoving the ref out of the way and threatening the guy; while Yasuda had been a heel in his earlier G1 showings, he wasn't THIS much of a overt heel and this was pre Coward Shooter gimmick so he wasn't full on cartoony villain yet. They brawl on the outside and we get a great spot where Nagata slaps on the Nagata Lock on the apron to really bend back Yasuda's arm. The middle part of this is a bit slower as the two work on the mat: Yasuda isn't amazing but he can hold his own, as shown by him pushing with clinch work and defending against a rear naked choke and triangle armbar respectfully. We get a good spot where Nagata tries for a dropdown Guillotine choke, Yasuda is able to pop his head out mid-fall, beating him up for a pair of rear naked choke attempts. Nagata impressively counters the second with a figure-four no-hands heel hook, which gives him the leverage to go into a full-on Achilles Tendon lock. This is followed up with real sharp kicks from Nagata to work over the leg as well. Nagata sells the shit out of Yasuda snapping up his arms in a clinch before doing the usual sumo chops followed up with a Guillotine and Butterfly Suplex and the crowd really shit themselves when Yasuda tries for another Guillotine, Nagata is just about able to spring his leg up onto the ropes. The finish is excellently done as Yasuda gets a near fall with a sit-out Tiger Driver however Nagata counters a final push for a Guillotine with a Fujiwara Armbar set-up before just pounding the guy with knees to the head to set up Crossface variation of the Nagata Lock, which gets the big win. This was really strongly built throughout with some great scrappy stuff at the beginning before settling down into a good pace between the two as they scramble on the mat. Yasuda is a menace with his clinches and dangerous submissions, and Nagata shines under pressure to deliver a solid babyface performance with tons of teases and fire to get the crowd right into this. Super fun for what it was and definitely worth watching if a fan of their existing trilogy of matches, maybe wanting something a bit less gimmicky than Yasuda's usual Coward Shooter stuff.

I'm horribly biased and don't watch a ton of modern stuff but quick list for the lads Kaito Kiyomiya vs. Yoshinari Ogawa (12.02.2022) Have more detailed review in the usual places but this was just 40 minutes of really good, really minimalistic wrestling. Ogawa is in his mid-50's and is arguably even better than he was in AJPW 20+ years ago and Kaito is a fun act with lots of babyface fire when it matters. This went by in a flash despite the heavy reliance on holds and transitions. Kaito Kiyomiya vs. Keiji Muto (16.07.2022) Limited by Muto's wear and tear, but a pretty great match that took advantage of that fact and built on their prior matches beautifully; Kaito just completely shutting down Muto and blasting him to death was really something to see and Muto for everything you can say negative about him really made the guy look like a world-ender. For the last truly solid big Muto performance, it definitely paid off. Hideki Suzuki vs. Kenoh (19.08.2022) Suzuki when motivated can do really amazing stuff and this in particular was a ton of fun to go though: usually 30 minute draws are really badly telegraphed and overblown but this was paced smartly and never felt like a draw would be a big deal until the last 2 minutes. Really smooth mat-work paired with brutal strikes when it mattered. Naoya Nomura & Hayato Mashita vs. Super Tiger II & Shingo Suzuki (16.10.2022) Stole this off Jetlag's blog and gave it a watch: I'm generally pretty sceptical about modern shoot-style because it either looks like UWF cosplay or really boring attempts to look as legitimately like MMA as possible, but instead this was a really nailed-down sub-10 match that removed the filler in favour of some great action and genuine unpredictability I hadn't really seen since the days of wacky Inoki-Ism. Definitely sleeper hit. Hideki Suzuki vs. Kazuyuki Fujita (17.08.2022) Fujita is in his prime element....doing a 70's Dory Funk match? This should be GOAT'd just for that, but I thought this was actually pretty great given the stakes; Fujita is fairly good doing his more aggressive amateur-style mat-work and Suzuki being stuck on the mat more means he can't just bounce off with Billy Robertson spots the whole match, so what we get is a slow but very measured technical match, even if it does border into grapplefuck tier at moments. Akitoshi Saito & Mohammed Yone vs. Satoshi Kojima & Takashi Sugiura (10.11.2022) Funky Express in a actual competitive match sounds like a bad idea, but it actually isn't, because Yone and Saito are still real great at playing their underdog roles respectfully, and of course Sugiura and Kojima turn this into a real stiff beating despite Express's stubbornness. Saito's still got it, which is impressive given I'm not his biggest fan. Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Tomohiro Ishii (01.05.2022) Now this could've been just another Ishii match which I'd be fine with anyway, but Tana and co really flipped the formula around, especially given Tana isn't much of a strike-heavy wrestler at this point and time so things were a bit more...unpredictable. Also Ishii does a Slingblade so 5+ stars Shingo Takagi vs. Taichi (25.04.2022) Most KoPWC matches are bad, was fully expecting this to be a bad gimmick-laden match with Taichi goofing off a good chunk and then ripping off Kawada for the other half. It wasn't, thankfully, and they actually do some great job selling and getting over the 30-count stipulation, like regular moves getting 1 or 2 counts and finishers getting 3+. Shingo is super on the ball here getting this really stupid championship over despite being capable of a lot more. Sheamo vs Gunther is better than Paul/Reigns ngl. One revitalised a near-dead belt with a super sharp focus back to just hard-hitting shots and a great redemsion story for Sheamus while the other was a fun athletic spectacle that never really got to "oh shit Logan might actually win this" tier, which was the whole point of the match really. I will say Reigns sold the fear of losing when it got sticky, but for me I was never convinced of the same. One accomplished the mission at hand, the other didn't: for me that drags it down given it reflects massively on the quality.

These two definitely have their detractors but this for me personally was a great showing. This was the kind of match that you would inevitably expect from both men as they mostly go into Koji's bombs and strikes vs Nishimura's old school limb work, namely to the legs where he can snipe Koji off his feet and wear the man down due to having one leg taped up at this point and time. Koji's selling is also pretty good; he's always been pretty solid at emoting pain and frustration, and he does so a ton here to really showcase Nishimura's control segments well while never going massively into the usual screaming and shouting shit that he can just default to doing in any hold. At one point Kojima lariats Nishimura's leg in a gloriously goofy spot. This match is also helped a lot by a very hot crowd who are firmly behind Nishimura: again making the claim that he "lacks charisma" immensely silly. The guy gets frenzied chants off getting stuck and then struggling in a single leg Boston Crab, you really can't get more over than that unless you want prime Hogan levels. We get some nice bombs here and there with a top rope Koji Cutter; the spot where Nishimura finally drops the gameplan and goes for a big top rope dropkick and Koji no sells and just has his sinister expression on his face like "you fucked up" was amazing, as was the crowd exploding when Koji missed the following lariat and got caught in a Cobra Twist. Nishimura gets wrecked near the end with a number of bombs including a rough rebound lariat, but his bad leg stops him from making the pin fast enough so he gets a 2.9. Crowd AGAIN goes ape-shit and finally bursts as Nishimura dodges a second lariat into a Cobra Twist cradle for the pin. This is a pretty good match that helped a ton by the crowd just eating every little bit up and going crazy for Nishimura's antics. Kojima lands some solid bombs and works great as the straight-laced antagonist to shut down hope spots and keep this firmly under control with his usual explosive style. It's a fairly shortish match for Nishimura standards as well (sub-20) so it feels immensely fresh as a result and not too muddled in Nishimura getting his shtick over with numerous extended sequences. Big highlight out of binge-watching Nishimura's G1 outings.

Idk I watched most of his AJPW New Blackjacks RWTL run and it was....fine? Like it wasn't amazing or top 100 whatever unless getting Bobby Duncum Jr to a half decent match is that standard. Giant Kimala II has more of a case in AJPW than him lol. They have a few ok showings against the likes of GET and Triangle of Power, but having "ok" quality matches with two great teams like that is definitely not a metric of much success.

Holy shit this match was LONG as anything, like 30 minutes long from me just eyeballing it. This is basically NOSAWA's big last singles match before he seemingly retires in the new year, we'll see if that actually is the case when it happens. As you might imagine this was basically a Ogawa carryjob (given NOSAWA sucked even when he wasn't 45 years old and carrying lots of wear and tear) so he dominates things with headlocks and the like while his opponent just kind of struggles to plod along with shitty punches or selling for the other guy. Most of the middle section is just Ogawa leading with arm work, which is as per standard pretty varied and probably the best part of this match as he finds a ton of ways to either bend or crank the arm in ways that you just don't see usually. Naturally this is all superfluous: NOSAWA just shakes it off after a few low blows to go into a ho-hum comedy spot with the ref: but in isolation, naturally it is quite good. We get some real meh offence as NOSAWA goes for his own arm work; it isn't nearly as good or as interesting as before so it just feels weak all together. There's some more limb work in the form of leg work from Ogawa, which like before is really fun and unique, with him using the very structure of the arena alongside submissions to wear it down, alongside just booting it in places. As per the arm work before it's as good as it can be in these conditions. Doesn't help we get a long figure four spot that basically dragged the pace down even further. NOSAWA sells the leg like he's basically drunk: he can put weight on it but then shambles around like he's Giant Gonzalez when said leg is kicked, doing these cartoony punches on top of it so it just looks like he's had a few too many than anything to do with his leg fatigue. He eventually gets the advantage with some throat chops and a decent leg-slap kick after a pin attempt, but then goes for a limp kick to a kneeling Ogawa before somehow doing a worse one for a near fall. I would get them looking bad if this was in part due to selling the leg (so the execution looks dodgy, or at least has a excuse for it as he can't do the move 100%) but at the same time these are used for near falls, so if that is the case, it really isn't communicated that way. NOSAWA falls though with a decent Shining Wizard and a cradle, but Ogawa holds the ref's hand to stop him from counting the three; this is a common spot out of him but it never fails to look cool. Ogawa then counters a second Wizard attempt into a figure four for the submission win. This wasn't great! Ogawa really tries all of his usual tricks to make this a watchable experience, but he can only do so much good if his opponent can't do a whole lot, and NOSAWA, well, can't. His selling isn't terrible when he's on the mat but his selling of the leg is dreadful and borders on cartoony at points. His actual offence throughout this entire thing was some strikes, a cradle spot he spammed four times over, and a Shining Wizard. That's it. That's all you get out of him. The rest is just him laying on the mat or bickering with the ref. It's just a really poor performance out of someone I've never really liked as a worker anyway, but this was especially egregious. The long post-match standoff between the two maybe suggests this was a Michaels/Flair (stay with me) kind of deal, maybe NOSAWA acting like the old vet who just can't go anymore and can only drag this out with his endurance; even if that was the case, it doesn't save it from just being a poor outing that does nothing for either man besides just showing how much raw effort Ogawa did on his side to make this at least watchable.

It's sad that it's been a full year since this was stated and it's still the case right now, only Kaito instead of being a good wrestler is now a good wrestler doing a bad Muto impression. Every title defence since winning the GHC has felt like his opponent was more prominent than him. Keeping with the NOAH theme and trying to add something new, I'll say Yoshiki Inamura with five years of the quality of matches he's been having over the year or so definitely is a contender, awesomely energised hoss with a lot of potential.

Short and to the point Mura squash, but quite enjoyable. Ashino will become a decently awesome talent, but at this point he's a generic Muto-trainee with not much else to give. Mura beats him down on the outside and inside. He walks with a violent swagger as he kicks and beats down both his opponent and the ref for good measure. Ashino lands generic forearms to the chest, Mura does his crazy face and hits him with a stiff slap to knock him down into shape. Him going for multiple pins, letting them go, clapping with the audience as they try to motivate Ashino's comeback, it's all peak dickhead antics. Ashino inevitably makes his comeback after Mura goes for a overtly lax kick, allowing him to catch it and go into a decent belly to belly. He also lands some TERRIBLE full mount forearms, Christ they were bad even for rookie standards. Mura takes over with punches and his corner stomp, Ashino tries for more shitty forearms before Mura socks him mid-run for the pin. This was a funny case in that it was essentially Ashino with all of his bad-puro teachings (sustained bad forearm strikes, limp "fighting spirit" sections, no flexibility) failing to help him against a asskicker who doesn't give a shit about any of that and just wants to make the dude suffer, and he can't do anything about it because his offence is so bad. Ashino learns a painful lesson here about imitating the greats and how just copying them move for move doesn't make you great as a result. Loads of fun for squash even if it wasn't much in terms of action, Murakami kinda carried this to something way better than it should've been.

Technically very solid but I get why this is so divisive. Funaki can still go when he wants (like seriously, the dude looks pretty good for someone in their 50's when he's bothering to actually wrestle and do stuff that isn't just weaker material from his AJPW days) but Sakuraba was never a amazing wrestler, just a very gifted technical worker; even back in UWFI and Kingdom this was the case more or less. At this point he's just kind of there, a lot of good mat-work but with none of the showmanship or psychology that Muto had to make that grounded style click (obviously he doesn't wrestle shoot-style, but you get the point, his work feels more impactful despite it functioning mostly as filler with limited importance) lots of just hold wangling and shoot-style fundamentals with the occasional Sakuraba goofy moment. But yeah, the crowd were IN to this as soon as the bell sounded and they started going back and forth, definitely one of the hotter matches in terms of just people shouting and stuff. The mat-work was intelligent but nothing that made me go " wow" it just felt like these two having a exhibition more or less than a battle for one of the biggest titles in NOAH, which has felt like that a ton with Funaki matches generally, it's just a prop that Funaki has before and after the match. Saku was a bit all over the place here but if you've actually watched his PRIDE stuff then you know it's par for the course for that lad. There wasn't much build-up for the end, it just had Saku get mauled in stand-up by Funaki's sharp kicks and palm strikes before he slapped on a side-Darce for the quick win. It's definitely a bit weird but I didn't think this was that bad, just lacking in tension. Saku as much as I love the mad lad for everything he's done in MMA and beyond is admittedly kinda washed these days and felt lethargic here (gassed up pretty quick, which wouldn't matter that much if this wasn't a three minute sprint) as opposed to Funaki who was very much on point, loved the front Grovit he randomly threw out near the end for a submission attempt. I wish we at least got a few more minutes of these two mat-working but I get what they were going for here, it just felt lacking in actual content: the general rule is that if you are going for a super short sprint/early finish, you need to make the actual sprint be at least interesting or with some undercurrent of tension, like it could end at any point like a Fujita match or whatnot. Maybe don't structure big title bouts like early PRIDE undercard matches lol. This is definitely one of those matches that I can get people liking in a specific context, but it just doesn't translate well at all for me.

I definitely think Bret's case is hurt by how little he has to work with in comparison with Cena, who practically had a boatload of talented acts to work with (with the occasional carry-job like with Khali or old-man Kane) on big stages and feuds as opposed to Bret who still obviously had good work, but his range of guys who didn't need a overt carry was much smaller and of course post-WWF Bret wasn't always in the mood to actually go.

This is insanely short and only really built around Ogawa jobbing out to Butcher to build up his rep for the tag with him and Kimala. That said, it's a surprisingly good 5 minute bloodfest as Ogawa makes the mistake of attacking Abdullah before he even gets to the ring and ends up gushing with blood. I'm dead serious, he's just pouring with the stuff and it quickly makes his entire face look like a tomato, nasty stuff. Ogawa hurls and bumps all over for the bigger guy to get the crowd behind him, selling a table being dumped on his prone body like he'd just been burnt with hot coals. Abby plays well with the cameras and the crowd throughout by stabbing and poking at his bloody face, making sure everyone gets a good view of the whole thing in his trademark manner. Ogawa tries for some big comebacks with punches and even raking the face himself in a proto-Ratboy move, but ultimately gets overpowered and pinned with a running elbow. I really liked how they milked that elbow for everything it was worth, with Abby taking a especially long pause to tease the audience that Ogawa (might) dodge or escape, but that obviously doesn't happen and he eats the job. The long staredown he gives Baba in the audience afterwards was really well done and tense: Abby just kneels there for nearly a minute just staring at the guy without blinking, so even if you don't know the history between the two, you definitely get their general vibe just off this interaction. Afterwards he attacks the ref and answers with extra elbow drops. This should be pretty samey as a Abdullah squash match but Ogawa even as early on as this adds a lot to this with his bumping and selling, absolutely getting over the threat of his opponent while making sure to squeeze in some hope spots at just the right points to get the crowd reengaged. It's a solid example of a basic match with a lot of small, smart elements that make it much better than it has any right to be in the first place, something Ogawa naturally will excel at.

Yeah from what I seen of him and Rocco without the Black Tiger shtick (even the match with him and Sayama way back in WoS) the two of them seemed pretty good and certainly could've done a lot more if they were presented with the same opportunities as Dynamite was. That's definitely one thing that I learned from going though this run: Dynamite was certainly great, but you do wonder how much of that was his own brilliance and how much was the fact he was pushed a lot harder and given a lot more leeway than other equally great wrestlers. Same with seeing guys like Villano III and Negro Navarro (who even from my admittedly limited experience were far bigger deals than presented).

Sounds reasonable, I don't think they were too interested in giving him much to work with in the first place given how this is the only time he shows up on tape. Thanks! I would highly suggest checking out the Villano match if you can find it, very solid. Glad you are enjoying it.