Ma Stump Puller

Having gone though a ludicrous amount of Nishimura content from all over his career as apart of his Deep Dive (but mostly his G1 showings) here are some observations: 1. Nishimura can be a bit.....predictable when it comes to match structure. He has a tendency to keep going back to the same spots over and over in a particularly constructed way with whoever he's with. While some individuals (Suwama, Kojima, Nagata) manage to break him out of these routines, more passive workers kinda just let him do his thing. Not that it's a bad thing, mind you, but it does show perhaps a need for safety. 2. Nishimura is GREAT at subtle stuff. The Super Rookie Nakamura match is a good example of that as Nakamura shows off with some of his (at the time) innovative and rather fancy technical work; Nishimura immediately gets a bit miffed and starts going for even more elaborate routines to show the youngster up. His Kenzo Suzuki G1 showing has him kinda be a bully in that he just torments the youngster with consistent badgering on the outside. The man is almost gleeful at that fact and it gets incorporated into the finish, which has Nishimura become compliant and lose the match after a surprise roll-up. 3. Nishimura is also pretty damn good at communicating aggression against certain people. While he's generally stoic and neutral in most of his matches, he kinda has that Dory Funk principle where there's just that one or two guys that really piss him off immensely. In this case guys like Minoru Suzuki and Suwama make Nishimura a lot more prone to go for brawling and/or dirty breaks, at times just exploding with headbutts or something super uncharactistic. He never goes 100% off the deep end but you know he's bubbling under the surface, especially in some of the more hard-hitting matches. 4. His history with getting lesser talent to his level is naturally one of his greatest features, BUT what's important to address here is who seems to get more out of their encounters. Guys like Tenzan and Nakanishi, for example, have multiple really good matches with the guy, namely because his defensive style lends well to their more powerhouse antics. His work in elevating older talent (Fujinami, St. Clair, Kengo Kimura, Fuchi) is also pretty well established, especially when he has the time to pace out the match and showcase good technical work alongside them. What's weird is that there are some people who just seem to not really work with his style; guys like Muto even in his sensational 2001 prime just don't really click; their matches are underwhelming bar a spot or two, and it feels like Nishimura tries too hard to make them work by going at Muto's more crazed pace than his own. This is also evident in some of his showings against Kensuke Sasaki, where the two seem to try for weird novel concepts, like Nishimura spamming dropkicks or using chairs in their 1998 title match, or stealing each other's style in their 2004 showing. It's a bit too creative for its own good in that case. 5. Nishimura's "prime" can be accurately scaled to the late 90's where he takes off in popularity, and he peaks in the early to mid 2000's quality-wise. He is still very good in his later AJPW work, but his relentless political campaigning meant that the latter end of the AJPW work caused him to be unable to really commit fully into wrestling. This isn't to say he became bad, just that AJPW tended to use him for years in nothing 6-man matches. Occasionally he gets to show off just how good he can be (in particular carrying Yoon Kang Chul, a nothing South Korean wrestler to some of his best matches ever) but he's mostly relented to being in limited vet matches. I haven't yet checked out his very recent VAMOSTAR matches yet, so the jury is still out on how good he tangibly can be at this point.

This match does require some background before going into it if you want the maximum experience: Yasuda won his match against Le Banner (one of the best kickboxers ever at the time by essentially overpowering him in half guard and applying a forearm choke (you get the "blade" of your forearm and push against the neck with your bodyweight while the other hand prevents the person from moving their head to the side to escape the pressure) and this is exactly what he uses here early on to scare Nagata into rope breaks throughout the match; it's not just a random hold, it's THE hold that put Yasuda on the map, and he's going to spam it out whenever he can or try setting it up by just clinching and pushing him down. He's consistently trying to get him into position by toppling him in stand-up and then laying on top of him; that kind of style shouldn't work here, but it's really effective, namely because Nagata sells the first attempt by rolling out of the ring and holding his throat in discomfort, so even non-MMA fans know almost immediately that it's a bad hold to be in. It's refreshing to have two guys with clear gameplans actually work towards them with simple, logical stuff. Nagata's frustrations do come through via sharp strikes, which Yasuda quickly shuts down with his sumo slaps and sheer size advantage. Nagata does also get some successful submissions off but Yasuda uses ground and pound to disrupt them and go into his own stuff, namely head and neck chokes; again establishing what these two are trying to pull off here. The crowd really gets into this as time goes on as Nagata has to struggle through a ton, using a mix of rope breaks and clever counters (namely countering a rear naked choke into a figure-four toehold via his legs) and the crowd REALLY pop when he manages to apply his Nagata Lock off the opportunity. Nagata pushes more with a great strike combo and a cross armbreaker but fails. Yasuda answers with a Tiger Driver, a head/arm choke on the mat before trying for a front face lock, but gets countered into a Crossface Nagata Lock, which while successful doesn't cause a tap-out and soon he tires out and has to go for a pin instead due to fatigue. Eventually Nagata shoots for takedowns once too many times and gets tapped out with the Guillotine. While Nagata is obviously the better man here workrate wise I think Yasuda is vastly overhated when it comes to how much he needs carried in general. Dude works his part of the match just fine and his selling was mostly solid, especially when struggling in submissions. His mat-work is inoffensive and is surprisingly robust in places as he mostly takes advantage of the weight difference in intelligent spots. Outside of the result and the following Yasuda experiment failing tremendously it's a pretty damn spotless match bar some of the false submission finishes getting tired at the end. Pretty much Inoki-Ism done right.

Not the greatest match between these two but I appreciated how different they worked this in comparison to their usual matchups. Between this and Nishimura/Kawada this card was really quite something impressive. We start off with filler Muto grappling but he also smartly breaks that tradition by nailing Koji with a surprise Shining Wizard for a early advantage when his opponent gets complacent sitting in holds. Koji tries again after recovering and again gets caught out with a surprise mule kick after trying for his leg. Knowing he can't really win on that end he attacks Muto with strikes, which he gets the edge over. The match only really picks up when the two brawl on the outside, with Muto eating a lariat to the back of the head and hitting the turnbuckle post. He blades afterwards; it's pretty gross as he seems to cut a minor artery, meaning he's just pissing blood from here. There's a amazing spot where Koji keeps beating on Muto so badly that he falls on his ass and spits out a faint mist of blood due to how much he has on his face, which popped the crowd good. But yeah, the entire second part of the match is based around Muto's wounds, and how Koji just refuses to let him recover for even a moment; he knows Muto is a tricky bugger, so stays on top consistently. His selling is....not going to fly with everyone but I did like how Muto would do the glassy eye stares and shaky legs; he's fairly good at showcasing just how unsteady the blood/beating has made him. Koji follows up that energy with more heelish antics like closed fists, rubbing his forearm in Muto's face during pins and really working the cut in places to ramp up sympathy. Muto's comebacks were also fairly modified here: he's almost working off muscular instinct in places as he can't really follow up on his typical leg work and almost seems confused afterwards, like he didn't even know what happened. Half of this is because, well, his face is leaking blood at a extremely fast rate, but still. Koji uses stiff headbutts and backdrops to hone in on the cut, as well as a rough piledriver that Muto groans afterwards at. I also loved how primal Muto becomes as his comebacks go from his usual standard leg work to wild strikes that barely hit the mark (he even stumbles over at points trying to fire them off) his selling turns into manic screaming, etc. He almost forgets about his gameplan, just wanting to make Koji suffer like he is, highlighted especially by a spot where he's just endlessly headbutting the shit out of him. Last few minutes becomes more typical from the two as Koji lands lariats while Muto tries to get around them, even pulling out a Frankensteiner that gets reversed into a nasty powerbomb. The finish is fairly controversial as Muto counters a third lariat into a flying knee, Koji powers out of a Wizard at one before eating two more for the conclusive pin. Some could see this as more proof of Koji getting short-changed in AJPW as he couldn't even beat Muto essentially bleeding out and barely conscious, but the pacing of this does make sense: Koji tries ending this early and goes for big bombs for big risks.....those risks costing him the match. This match will also be the catalyst to Kojima's "Loser Revival" gauntlet as he would intentionally start back on the undercard to get his mojo back. Muto is great in these kind of more character-based matches as he gets to show off his selling and snappy comebacks, playing a good underdog throughout. Muto's formula was admittedly getting a bit old at this point so matches like these were VERY much welcomed. If you fancy a more unconventional brawl between these two this'll definitely fit the bill.

Noted, I'll inevitably have to check out that and see how it stands up. That said he's someone who just couldn't not be on the list given the crazy amount of solid outings he has. I remember he even made the 60+ year old Funks look good in a 20 minute match a while back, which was bonkers. And yeah Awesome's one of those guys that you watch some minutes of highlights and think he's just great, but then you actually realise that's mostly because he was with people generous enough to take his dangerous shit and make it look golden. Watching him nervously work a leg with the lightest heel hook straight for about 3 minutes is the stuff that tends to get overlooked lol.

Might as well update this now than never. Up: John Tenta: I'm still not massively into him being a top 100 anything but my recent looks into his post-WWF career have been fairly fruitful. He's a great big-man, perfectly knows how to pace a match around that fact while throwing in big bumps and surprising agility when it matters. He's pretty damn good at carrying lesser talent as well when it matters as well. He's a rogue pick for sure but his chances definitely went way up after seeing what he was getting up to. Osamu Nishimura: Has he EVER had a bad match that was down to him? I've never seen one so far and generally the only actual bad match he had was with a 78-year old Dory Funk in a 10 minute match, so I don't really put that aside him. I'm a big sticker for consistency and Nishimura is the embodiment of that; the man can do no wrong, either with Sabu in the 90's or Bas in the 2000's to making Tenzan actually look good. I'm not even really close to watching a chunk of his showings and he's already up there for me. Satoshi Kojima: Going back to early 2000's AJPW has really made me appreciate how much of a talent Koji was in general. Sure he was always in that realm of "not as big as the top stars but also too big to be a reliable mid-card talent" but he's someone who always puts on a good performance week after week with whoever he is in the ring with. His incredible intensity alongside how easy his sequences flow together made him a MVP in those days, elevating any match he was in. I mean ffs, he got THE WALL to a good match by his lonesome, while Muto as the Great Muta couldn't, even with the added smoke and mirrors padding that crowds usually bite hard for. My criticisms for his structuring of matches and whatnot still apply, but I also believe that he typically is able to mix things up enough (at this in this era anyway) to get around that. Robbie Brookside: I have no idea why he's not even nominated yet. Brookside does have a footage-based issue where a lot of his prime work was simply unfilmed but he was doing the mid-2000's shit people were diving all over for a decade earlier, and even when he was outside of his prime he was still wrestling incredible matches with future top talent like Danielson and such. Great at technical stuff, can brawl well, good face/heel, virtually every aspect of his wrestling was solid. Should be a easy contender for a top 100 spot given he has a surprising amount of matches out there with how much footage is circulating. Down: Mike Awesome: The more I watch of his non-hardcore matches, the less I'm impressed. When he's not doing stupid bumps or making people do them he really struggles to stand out bar maybe one or two spots that look cool, usually stuck sitting in holds or throwing bad punches. Way too much reliance on certain things in place for his stuff to be good, very one-dimensional. Tiger Mask IV: Recently had a short reign with the AJPW Jr Championship and he was just really dull for the most part. It's a bit unfair to criticise someone who clearly isn't anywhere near his prime but at the same time I've seen Muto have far more engaging matches while far older. Just really dull generally and never wants to challenge himself or change things up, which you can basically define his entire career as such given he's the only Tiger Mask to have never unmasked or changed gimmick. KENTA: This one will be slightly controversial but despite perhaps getting a huge buzz off his hardcore match with Tana he's really gone down for me given his current work. Outside of when he's with a top-card guy he tends to really lack much flavour to his stuff, with a lot of weak padding and samey heel tactics. Even his G1 stint outside of the Tanahashi match felt by the numbers and the stream of mediocre NJPW tags are neverending. I like his NJPW stuff for the record, I just feel like he doesn't really bother much of the time and you can REALLY tell when that's the case.

From what scattered footage remains of his later career, there's definitely a lot worth mentioning, surprisingly. His VERY late AJPW matches (the last of his career, in fact) have him be a relatively solid hand in that he can work with virtually anyone in the ring and still give the goods: he'd even leaned out a bit at this point and as a result could move faster than you'd think in the ring. Guy bumps like a trooper as well: in one match in particular he has to eat a rough Doomsday Device from Muto and co and does so with no issues whatsoever. In the dregs of early Pro-Love AJPW, he might've have been one of the brighter spots in terms of being a consistently solid hand in tag matches, even if his age and impending physical issues did make him a fairly weak singles performer. I also recently did a mini Deep Dive into his WAR showings and he's actually pretty fun. He gets to work with a super versatile cast of ex-WWF guys and he shines in all of his outings, from getting a super green Renegade (yes, THAT Renegade lol) to a actually decent match to giving Warlord maybe his best match ever in a uber underrated big man showdown. Not a lot out there but enough to add to his case. I'll make a short list of suggestions (highlighted bold are the must-watches) Vs. Haku (WAR 14.02.1993) Vs. Rio of The Jungle (WAR 05.03.1993) W/ Haku vs. The Barbarian & Tony Halme (WAR 17.06.1993) W/ Stan Lane vs. Ultimo Dragon & Mil Mascaras (WAR 11.10.1993) Vs. Warlord (WAR 15.12.1993) W/ Gigantes vs. Arashi & Nobutaka Araya (AJPW 16.02.2003) W/ Gigantes & George Hines vs. Keiji Muto, Arashi & Nobutaka Araya (AJPW 06.07.2003) W/ Robbie Brookside & George Hines vs. Hiroshi Hase, Masayuki Kono & Shigeo Okumura (AJPW 19.07.2003) You could also easily add in his two UWF-I outings just for the visuals of him scrapping with Vader and Albright alone, but he makes those matches a ton of fun to watch alongside the sheer visuals of the whole thing.

For a year where AJPW was mostly in the pits, this was a surprisingly really good match....and it only needed 15 minutes. Starts with both men feeling each other out on the mat, with Muto eventually able to get a good hold of Kojima's leg and works it for a bit until he smartly reverses it into his own hold; this causes Muto to quickly get to the ropes with him laying down uneasy while Kojima gets right back up in the middle of the ring, super confident. Good starting spot that establishes how Kojima's prior experience with Muto gives him a edge. Both men explode into their signature spots, Muto going for a early Wizard that's blocked, Kojima going for a lariat that's blocked, which ends with both of them troubled by how well the other has defended themselves: Kojima calling Muto a bastard for even daring to sneak a win early is a great spot but it also showcases that Muto's leg-targeting gameplan despite being dominant against nearly everyone else in the Carnival wasn't going to fly here. Kojima is the one instead to work over Muto's legs: he spends a good portion here wearing them down so he can then just blast him away with stiff chops and strikes. Muto in turn opts for Kojima's lariat arm instead, which I thought was a lot more explosive than you'd think: despite the usual key locks and cross armbreakers we also get Muto just wrecking the arm with endless kneeling dropkicks. What I do like is how both guys sell fatigue here: Kojima obviously has his dramatic selling for the arm and whatnot where he's screaming and falling over but Muto has a more subdued style of selling where he's clearly not comfortable and having to pull out big risky moves to even the score before Kojima can run him over again. It's Misawa-lite almost how he doesn't go crazy with the emoting, but you can clearly tell he's hurting. That's the story of the match, and it plays out in the usual formula of the time as the two pursue their respective limbs while also getting in bombs whenever possible. There's a good pace here as both men take turns doing that exact thing while not stretching things out too much. Kojima mounts one final comeback using a Koji Cutter and Michinoku Driver for a 2. 9. He hits a proper Lariat at last but the arm work allows Muto to take the dampened impact just fine and answer with a Wizard. The finish is amazingly innovative as Muto smartly uses a modified Franksteiner to roll into a cross armbreaker mid-lariat attempt, getting the tap out victory. This is easily Muto's best match in the Carnival barring the Tenryu bout: intense, psychologically driven warfare between two guys who have each other's number by this point. The crowd was totally into this one and were massively behind Kojima to take it who played to this well with his babyface selling of Muto's offence; some could say it's a bit too exaggerated at points, but I think Kojima has a charm that allows him to get away with stuff like that. Muto really went into next gear here in getting over Kojima as his most dangerous threat yet as he needed to pull out everything to get over and even then he barely got the win. The shortened pace meant that both men cut the filler for more hard-hitting action, which was definitely the right choice given the conditions. Easy to watch but lots of fun.

Might have something of a recommend list for late showings 95/2000 given I binged pretty much every match from that timeframe lol. I was very fascinated with how the company morphed and changed leading to the NOAH exodus so it became a bit of a hobby to find a lot of that halfway house material.

I definitely do have to agree with the post above that Honma has been criminally underrated in his early years, especially his AJPW stuff. I've been recently just going through a lot of the material from that time and Honma shines already there with the underdog work he'll throw out in NJPW later on: there are a ton of matches where he just gets the piss beaten out of him and bumps like crazy. This man has to eat shots from guys like Kawada and Sasaki and has to try to earn their respect by essentially taking all of it and then some. He's a good hand that gets strong reactions and solid matches regularly, especially when he has the chance to emote and show off his agility. Of course his NJPW and deathmatch stuff has the more high-end/better quality runs, but I think his AJPW work does come a good way in showcasing how his week by week workrate looked like, as well as how early on he had a grasp on the stuff that would later make him a much more bigger deal.

I was pleasantly surprised how well-done this was for a barely 10 minute match. Both of these guys work a Jr-style pace of the time while combining that with a TON of submission wangling and smart mat-work while making sure nothing drags for too long. The start of this in particular sets that tone perfectly as the two just spam kneebars and cross armbreakers on each other over and over to try to catch the other guy out. Some could say this was unrealistic: I would say otherwise given these two didn't make this nonsensically fast-paced and made sure to sell the struggle of either man escaping and then applying said submissions. Kashin is naturally as hit-or-miss as ever but I do think even naysayers have to admit that this was a strong performance out of him: he really sells the desperation at points as he struggles to get a win while pulling all of his usual rule-bending shit to do so. Tanaka responds with some surprisingly brutal spots: him consistently dropkicking Kashin's trapped leg in the ropes endlessly and turning a Torture Rack into a nasty rear naked choke are good examples. The match gets real ugly after Tanaka tries for a dive and fails, with a frustrated Kashin throwing him over the guardrail and hitting him with a horrifically stiff chair throw to his back. Tanaka sells for a bit but quickly goes back into submission attempts. He throws a ton of offence at Kashin and tries to find the sweet spot, but his defence is just way too good for him to crack. Eventually he makes the mistake of trying for a standing cross armbreaker transition as a dig at Kashin which the latter counters and smoothly steps in and rolls over into his own for the sneaky win. Gotta say, this is somewhat all over the place; some might say spotty at times with the amount of submissions and flashy shit: but I loved it. Tanaka is so fast on the mat and Kashin provides that grit via his selling, but also his sharp strikes and effective mat-defence. Tanaka's strikes felt a bit too floaty at points and lacked impact but they weren't really the main focus of the match, so I tended to ignore them. The selling is spotty on Tanaka's side and I felt like he didn't quite sell the damage he was taking over the course of the match nearly as well as Kashin was but regardless both put on a top-notch performance here for a fast-paced tournament-format match. A very good match and a breeze to get through.

His 1989 Fujiwara match from U-Cosmos is probably the worst match he's ever had, through that wasn't really his fault given how shoddy the whole thing was set up as a fake fight. Vrij literally just lets the guy do whatever he wants by the end despite the guy landing some of the worst kicks I've ever seen. Anyway, Vrij kinda goes the same way as other shoot-style monsters like Albright in that he starts off pretty high on the card but eventually loses his allure after a while and gets jobbed out to every potential big act: after a while of watching you know that guys like Volk and Maeda aren't in any real danger from this guy, which while it doesn't make the technique and overall quality of their matches any worse, it does lessen the tension in those conditions. That said, a convincing striker with a ton of cockiness and dirty antics made him a natural juxtaposition to the honorable mat-workers he was usually paired up with, so good matches out of him are easy to find. Main issue is that that was kinda the only dynamic he ever felt fresh in; his lack of versatility is a natural issue that would probably exclude him out of my personal top 100.

Other Deep Dive stuff Introduction The Movement was started off by Johnny Ace in 1998: more specifically, his betrayal of Kobashi and the end of GET on 23.08.1998. Ace filled Kobashi's absence with mostly mid-card Gaijins: Johnny Smith, Wolf Hawkfield, etc, as well as bringing in Bart Gunn (going by Mike Barton) as a enforcer, namely boosted by his shoot knockdown of Steve Williams in the Brawl 4 All. Now Movement is a somewhat complicated faction to describe; while being built from a heel action (namely Ace attacking his weakened and exhausted partner after eating a loss) the actual motive of Movement was built around the premise of foreign talent being neglected. This is namely seen in the build-up to Ace and Kobashi breaking up wherein Kobashi (who was current Triple Crown Champ at the time) was unable to help out guys like Smith and Hawkfield due to his fatigue and injuries and as a result, they typically ended up taking the fall in their respective matches. Ace seen this as a lack of respect and eventually snapped on him after Kobashi accidently hit him with a lariat when he tried helping out for the finish of the match dated above. Ace did cut a promo a year later that outlined the motives for Movement a bit more clearly. Basically they were the Tweener, heel-ish "we are better than you and we'll keep proving that until you get it" kind of deal. Movement have a number of unique qualities that made me want to tot my thoughts down on them- they are during a time where as stated before, AJPW were cutting back on exhaustive King Road-style matches in favour of smaller more compact deals with bomb throwing, just not to the very long extremes of the early 90's. Movement were as such almost built to enforce that: their matches aren't as spotty as examples you might know better and they hone in on momentum-switching and extended slow heat segments. Not only that, but Movement has a unique dynamic in that the Barton/Ace duo are built in such a way where Barton is a clear inferior in a lot of his matches, needing Ace to come in a ton to support and keep him in control. Movement also master the function of isolating out people in tag matches as a lot of their examples generally have them hone in on one person for most of the match with occasional hot tags and switches not included. All of those factors combined make for a uniquely different experience of the AJPW tag-format, which it did admittedly need at the time given the wear and tear of the main players. I'm going to bring up a few highlights of the Movement in terms of matches that I feel like are best suited for first-time watchers. Akira Taue & Tamon Honda vs. Johnny Ace & Kenta Kobashi (Summer Action Series II 23.08.1998) Ok, so I'm clearly cheating here with this first one but it's kinda necessary to get the background of how Movement is set-up in the first place. Taue is hunting for Kobashi whom at this point was falling apart; the storyline itself brings that up as Akiyama tore his legs to shreds in their last defence and he still hasn't recovered, so Taue here just destroys him mostly with big throws, strikes, and even getting getting stuff on the exposed mat outside. Ace tries to help when he can but clearly isn't happy with how he's having to pick up all the slack. Naturally this ends with the two miscommunicating, leading to Honda and Taue to bomb the shit out of Kobashi until he's down for the pin. Ace post-match beats him up further and that's basically that. This was about 7 minutes clipped if I recall but it is a drama-filled match even left over, with solid performances from Taue and co as they just pick apart the rapidly declining GET until it shatters. Movement (Ace/Barton) W/ Maunakea Mossman vs. Jun Akiyama, Kenta Kobashi & Kentaro Shiga (Real World Tag League 14.11.1998) The debut of Barton in AJPW is a pretty decent showing, actually. Ace annoys Kobashi by doing nasty stiff chops in front of the man to piss him off in particular. Ace also has a really awesome fast paced exchange with Kobashi as they pull tons out of their playbook to fight the other, exchanging boots and kicks, chops and slaps, elbows and shoulder charges, etc. This match establishes that Ace isn't as strong as Kobashi but he's experienced enough to get around most of his offence, namely because he knows all by heart. Ace is great at really being a bully as he works over Akiyama and co with some painful looking holds and shuts down momentum whenever it pops up. Movement get over their signature double team bombs (namely the side slam/standing leg drop and military press into Ace Crusher) here as they manage to smartly isolate out Burning so that they can beat down Shiga into a easy pin for Barton after some surprisingly half-decent bombs from his part. This match establishes how Movement function mostly in that Ace mostly gets the lead with surprise Ace Crushers out of nowhere while Barton wears them down with his strikes and suplexes. They only use the bombs for big near falls and generally don't tend to spam them out. There's some nothing limb work in here involving Akiyama's torso but I think that's covered well by some solid selling by Akiyama, and even Shiga gets the chance to not completely suck here as Barton and co bump around for him. A pretty much perfect introduction to Movement-style tags. Movement (Ace/Barton) vs. Mitsuharu Misawa & Yoshinari Ogawa (Real World Tag League 21.11.1998) Misawa and Ogawa are the "better" tag team when it comes to pretty much throwing out offence, but Movement are able to get on top of this via their interference antics: Barton in particular despite getting bullied and beaten up by Misawa can't get pinned due to Ace consistently running in to disrupt the flow. Even Misawa can't take this for too long and ends up tiring, allowing the duo to slip in sneaky offence to balance the books. Eventually Misawa is just ganged up on consistently until he has to eat the pin. Ogawa is...fine here, nothing really special. He mostly just plays the backup guy and that's fine. Misawa actually bothers here and as a result Ace milks every interaction between them for everything he can, resulting in enjoyable exchanges. Barton plays the enforcer mostly here and sticks to his usual suplexes and punches, which while good enough as a gimmick don't really add up to much, especially given he's mostly playing the weaker link that Ace has to prop up with his antics. If you wanna see Movement have a conventionally AJPW-house style match with the Ace done fairly well, check this out. Movement (Ace/Barton) vs. Akira Taue & Toshiaki Kawada (Real World Tag League 27.11.1998) Movement just completely neutralise Taue and Kawada's dynamic here and it's fantastic shit to watch. Kawada, who typically softens up opponents for Taue to run over is instead consistently interrupted: I love how Ace consistently gets in shit to keep Kawada from doing any offence to Gunn while Gunn keeps to this and makes sure to hand him over to Ace on the outside whenever necessary. It's just effective tag team psychology and Kawada sells all of it amazingly, with his frumpy flat back bumps after elbow strikes and being so hurt that he can't even run for a Irish Whip, stopping in the middle. Ace even lands a Ace Crusher to a prone chair, which was a silly but cool spot to see. Taue, generally able to rest up for big hot tags is forced to run in multiple times to stop pins, meaning Movement just stick to him like butter for offence and wear him down as well whenever possible. Of course, the Demon Army are able to work through this despite some desperation selling (with Taue even crawling to save Kawada from a pin in a spot incredibly reminiscent of their famous 09.06.1995 match with Kobashi/Misawa) and both teams eventually build really well to a ending stretch, with Ace and Kawada in particular just getting into it with wild spots and sequences with the crowd right in their hands with every near fall. Movement did have a smart plan coming in, but plans tend to fall apart when kicked in the face; this match is more or less proof of that. It's also pretty damn solid as well. Movement (Ace/Barton) vs. Jun Akiyama & Kenta Kobashi (Real World Tag League 04.12.1998) Against Burning we just get a ton of really enjoyable spots where Ace and Barton are just taking the piss with Kobashi and subsequently pissing him off with everything they are doing. There's some astonishing heat here as explained above but it's done so cleverly throughout: Ace and Kobashi have stiff and nasty sequences between them but Ace noticeably has to use Gunn as reinforcement to sustain any lasting advantage, and they get a early lead with a Ace Crusher/military press bomb in on Kobashi. Akiyama spends most of this feeding the duo solo, leading them to just ground him down with some brawling and outside spots: namely a Snake Eyes on the guardrail and a follow-up Ace Crusher over it to damage his throat. Ace particularly is top notch here with his heel shit, little things like him painfully cranking the neck in a abdominal stretch by forcing Akiyama's neck down further or beating Akiyama down with forearm blows until he needs to be forced away, using GET's old back suplex/Ace Crusher combo on Kobashi himself.....just great work in general. There's a great spot where Akiyama gets stuck in a delayed suplex by Gunn right in front of Kobashi and he just has to stand there and watch, getting progressively more annoyed the longer it goes until he explodes on the apron. Honestly, it's simple stuff but it's super solid mind games by the pair to tick off Burning's lead player, which pays off when he tries to beat down Gunn excessively and overextends allowing them to get their extra shots in. This has a good flow to it and never feels slow despite it being one of the longer matches here as Burning's comebacks and hot tags are kept to a minimum and the crowd really stay on top of this from start to end, namely because of how Movement can keep this fresh without the need for a million near falls. Of course we get the usual Kobashi-isms and whatnot alongside the expected structures, but I think the natural heat and easy to follow format gives a ton of credence to how Movement could change that kind of style for the better here. A lot of fun and probably the best match Movement ever had. Their second match together next year is worth a watch as well. Movement (Ace/Barton) vs. New Triangle of Power (Masahito Kakihara & Yoshihiro Takayama) (New Year Giant Series 02.01.1999) I picked this one out in particular because it has a really unique format and structure. The UWF Triangle team turn this into a shoot-style exhibition for the first half, with Barton having to essentially just scrap it out to survive against the two. The crowd gets into this somewhat......and then Ace runs in to land cheap shots and a backdrop lol. He basically just plays the role of the spoiler here, focusing on outside attacks and the usage of chairs whenever Kakihara and co get too much of a lead. His antics aren't overused but just last long enough for the audience to get real sick of his nonsense, and they cheer massively when he gets demolished by Takayama's knees. Ultimately this is paced around Barton's trial by fire as he has to mostly contend for himself in the ring against two killers, which I think despite being the obvious weak link of the duo, he's actually not half-bad at all and manages to showcase some surprisingly good stuff on top of that when push comes to shove. This definitely isn't a big classic but for versatility-sake I do feel like Movement showcase a more subdued style that's less about the big shots and more about just slowly peeling back their opponents with isolation and plenty of shenanigans, making this a entertaining romp. Movement (Ace/Barton vs. Jun Akiyama & Maunakea Mossman (Champion Carnival 15.04.2000) Akiyama has been shoved out of Burning after his angry antics, so we get a more aggressive version of him here alongside Mossman against Movement in a nice burst of action. Both teams really just feel like they don't like each other as Akiyama and co destroy Barton's leg with some nasty limb work (in particular them sticking it in the guardrail and dropkicking it, which was just brutal). Ace is the key player here: he's experienced enough to get around the younger guys with his Ace Crusher counters and vicious strikes to stay in the game. Movement mostly on the defensive here as Akiyama and co bomb them well and keep control with said leg work paying off later on when Barton tries getting Ace out of stuff. Things tend to slow a bit during the middle half but this being about 15 minutes long means it's a breeze to go through and keeps up the counter-heavy antics all the way to the end to add a ton of unpredictability. There's definitely a feel of management trying to push Mossman/Kea over more at this point, which depending on your tendencies may rub you the wrong way given he wasn't exactly lighting the world on fire at this point. It's a lean package, but shows that Movement could have solid bouts without needing extended heat segments to do so, which can be seen as a misconception of what I've shown so far. Extra matches you may want to watch if you liked these: Vs. Akira Taue & Toshiaki Kawada (Super Power Series 09.06.2000) Vs. Takao Omori & Yoshihiro Takayama (Summer Action Series 23.07.1999) W/ Wolf Hawkfield vs. Takao Omori, Takeshi Morishima & Yoshihiro Takayama (Real World Tag League 03.12.1999) W/ Road Warriors vs. Hakushi, Jun Akiyama & Kenta Kobashi (AJPW Giant Baba Memorial Show 02.05.1999) Conclusion All in all, Movement were a pretty impressive addition to the AJPW tag scene, having numerous solid to great showings in the space of about two years despite the fact that AJPW TV time was massively waning so they had a lot less footage to work off than in earlier times. I think the fact that Barton was always the weak link in these matches makes Ace's performances that much stronger given how much he was juggling, but it never feels disorganised or "off" in any measurable way like he's openly carrying him. I would say that Movement (and by extension Ace's work) isn't going to be to everyone's tastes, but I would implore those that only know the more traditionally known Pillars matches to check these selected ones out and how they are able to work with different facets of their style. Surprisingly very good results despite the styles clash.

This was during a weird period where Dory was facing guys like Sabu, Samoa Joe, Kenso Suzuki: just a wild selection of talent all in all. Many of those aforementioned matches are lost to time sadly but this one during Jarrett's Reign of Terror over the NWA/TNA belt is intact, amazingly. I will say that Jarrett is a GREAT heel here as soon as he walks through the curtain him asking the crowd to stand up for him and he jawjacks with the crowd for the first few minutes. It's obviously stalling but it's pretty good stalling all things considered and Dory plays with it well as he almost at once gets in Jarrett's space and makes him uncomfortable. Dory gets Jarrett in a near fall school-boy and Jarrett starts having a moan at the ref to tell Dory to "slow down" so he can warm up and everyone just goes apeshit at him lol. Basic but very effective heel work from the get-go. Obviously the workrate here isn't going to be Omega/Okada levels of fast-pace but Jarrett works a good insecure champion as he keeps failing to get some control over the match, consistently getting countered or pushed back: Jarrett stooges a ton here with how he acts. Despite the obvious limitations Dory actually looks good: guy does a full flip bump off a arm wrench, which was wild to see. I wouldn't say it was era-defining but Dory can still get around fairly decently and his holds still have a good agency to them. Jarrett uses the small arena space to his advantage as he's able to audibly talk trash the entire match time and get the crowd even more worked up with his nonsense. Dory works in the arm in the middle half and it's basically what you'd expect from a Dory format at this point; lots of basic working holds, lots of waiting in them. It is mostly basic but he throws in some innovative key-locks alongside his infamously good forearm smashes to pop the crowd here and there. Jarrett and co do some decent sequences as Jarrett's cheating isn't able to even the score despite his best attempts to outclass the vet; he's not afraid to look stupid either given how much leeway he gives here, at times almost comedically bumping around. Was also wild to see Dory do catch-style stuff with the forearm over the face to force Jarrett into back mount when he tries working the legs. Dory is slightly gassed by the end but still throws out a Butterfly suplex and backdrop. Finish is somewhat clipped but interference and the ref missing Dory's foot on the ropes gives Jarrett the tainted victory. Outside of the weak ending (expected from Jarrett matches of this time) I thought this was actually fairly good, especially for the 64 year old Dory at this point: he's obviously slowed a fair bit but he can still work on the mat just fine and showcases some impressive technique. Jarrett works the crowd like a champ, sells well, and looks good despite being 70% on the defensive here; he quickly adapts to the smaller crowd in such a way that he changes up his stuff to almost be Destroyer-lite in how he involves the ref as a third party here for heat, stooging for not only Dory but also them at points as he keeps getting rumbled and loses his confidence over time against his opponent; he goes from trying to outwork Dory to show off to overtly cheating to stay in the game. This won't convince naysayers of either man that they are actually great or anything, but I thought it was a well-put together match that hones in on the two men's strengths as wrestlers, even if it does focus on the basics mostly.

Watched this recently and it's a load of fun by itself but also showcases Necro's amazing selling as he's thrown in with the native promotion guy on his own turf with a crowd chanting his name right from the get-go, and he slowly gets over with them as Masada just beats the dude down to the dirt with lots of colour, but also well-timed comeback spots. Necro stumbling around throwing big meaty punches, getting messed up with knees to the head and then shadowboxing when he's knocked on his ass and completely out of it was a really good spot in general and it didn't even require any insane brutality or flips. Of course you get the nasty stuff here alongside just the horrific back-breaking bumps (the side slam into the chairs and Death Valley onto the floor being obvious bits) but I feel like they balance the books well and get over Necro just having to survive from spot to spot as Masada keeps raising the stakes to try to put him down for good. In a way, it makes the plunder set-up a little bit more logical as Necro just won't stay down and Masada keeps getting snake-bit whenever there's breathing room. Finishes via roll-ups are always a bit cheap but it works here given Necro had nothing to give outside of the limpest attempts possible, and his talent at building fatigue and showcasing that are good enough that you buy him stooping to that level to survive. Masada puts in good work on offence with some surprisingly clean wrestling but I felt like this was ultimately the Necro show: proven by the insane pop he gets after kicking out of the apron Death Valley: which was arguably louder than the reaction to the spot itself. Good stuff.

Him being the bumbling sidekick to Akiyama's typically all-heel Sternness group was a lot of fun and he showed he had the chops to actually work when it mattered; a shame most of his best work is in a promotion where we don't even have 30% of it on tape. His AJPW early years are mostly unremarkable as he's overshadowed by Marufuji/Kanehara in terms of lanky Jr acts, even if he had the whole headbutt shtick done to a tee remarkably early. For me, I feel like a lot of his work is dominated by "what ifs" as he never quite anywhere got to the levels that his peers at the time did: Sort of like a modern day version of Satoru Asako in that he was clearly quite talented, had a lot of potential, but bad timing and injury meant he never got to show it off proper.

I love the match where his leg gets worked on for half of it and then he starts throwing out big flips in response, great psychology But yeah Ospreay's a great spot worker but his direction and ability to put a match together are dreadful: you end up having a mess of stuff all across the board and usually rather bloated as a result. His best matches come when he's forced to work with somebody who course-corrects his antics and makes them palpable. Other than that, you have a weird blend of traits that should realistically give a ton of great matches to work with but instead kinda just results in confusing matches most of the time. He's improved from his earlier years; I'll give him that. Top 100 wrestlers? Absolutely not.

Nigel being higher than Barrett is....a choice, to say the least. IIRC British can refer to any place in the UK: Scotland, Northern Ireland, Wales etc. The only wrestlers who wouldn't technically count here is Sheamus and Balor because they were both from Republic of Ireland (which isn't officially apart of the UK). No one mentioned would count as English (I.E. not from England exclusively)

Wellington Wilkins Jr. The self-described "Mr Squeeze" for his many showcases of just completely running over rookies and making them tap out endlessly, Wilkins starts off on the surface as a unimportant and immensely disliked American jobber and UWF undercard guy before getting thrown into very early Michinoku Pro and bizarrely blowing it out of the park most of the time. He's like Finlay, only if he did lucha sequences alongside stiff strikes and old-school catch. Also like Finlay he's harmed by mostly not being a top billing guy, but the man has some pretty great showings otherwise alongside a consistent stream of entertaining work with green talent and Great Sasuke trainees: on top of arguably pioneering the future Western/DDT hardcore divisions with his infamous feud with Yone Genjin, where the pair would go everywhere and anywhere in the arena and beyond to do all kinds of nonsense with whatever they could find. Massively underrated worker. Vs. Minoru Suzuki (UWF 16.01.1990) Vs. Naoki Sano (SWS 07.12.1990) Vs. Fujiwara (PWFG 16.05.1991) Vs. Lightning Kid (PWA 16.06.1991) Vs. Kazuhiko Matsuzaki (Oriental Pro 14.09.1992) Vs. Naohiro Hoshikawa: 1993 series (Michinoku Pro 24.07/24.08/21.10.1993) Vs. Yone Genjin (Michinoku Pro 29.04.1994) Vs. Masato Yakushiji (Michinoku Pro 30.10.1994) W/Naohiro Hoshiawa Vs. Masato Yakushiji & Yoshito Sugamoto (Michinoku Pro 14.01.1997)

Necro isn't particularly my cup of tea but he's had some pretty solid outings. I would particularly suggest his stint in IGF where he's getting thrown into random as fuck matches against Bob Sapp, Minowaman and random Inoki-Ism MMA goons. He turns what could've been just some quick paydays with minimal effort into some surprisingly fun outings as he has to adapt to a more shoot-style way of wrestling while keeping all of his usual antics intact. Lots of fun.

I wouldn't go that far but there's definitely a element to this that I do agree on. Jumbo has his moments but a lot of the time tends to drift if he hasn't got something to direct his focus on, especially when it came to watching the Tenryu feud stuff, which I felt was mostly dictated by Jumbo getting led into big heated brawls by him more than anything else; not surprising given Tenryu's record with that kind of stuff but still. It's not to say Jumbo was bad, but there are LOTS of matches in which it feels like he's content to just go with the flow of his opponent and not really try anything spectacular. He never innovates the slower work of the 70's, he goes with the flow of Choshu and co in the 80's, and then in the 90's you start to see him actually dictating the pace, but that's mostly because he was working with a bunch of guys below him who couldn't do so. You could maybe say the same for other potential GOAT contenders (Misawa, Fujiwara, Tenryu again etc) but I honestly find those names to be far less egregious when it comes to coasting: Fujiwara in particular will make nothing matches with literal jobbers into half-decent or even good showings by taking almost full control. Jumbo I feel doesn't have that quality, at least from what I watched.

Top eight (no particular order) Cobb/Okada (16.07.) KENTA/Sabre Jr (17.07.) YOSHI-HASHI/Shingo (23.07.) Tanahashi/Sabre Jr (30.07.) Great O'Khan/White (06.08.) JONAH/Okada (07.08.) Tonga/Okada (17.08.) Naito/Ospreay (17.08.)

Really interesting retrospective on the guy. I remember watching a lot of this stuff when I was going over the AJPW daily TV format matches and Smith was always a consistent figure in tag matches. It's a shame he would mostly just be a sidekick to bigger faces and stuck to the same few spots over and over, which is probably why most tended to think he was limited. His stuff here kinda reminds me of a better George Hines: pushed when necessary, technically very competent but ultimately rather dry. That said, it's a good type of dry that as you mentioned, you almost forget how on point his execution was. His 2000 Kobashi singles match shows he could've probably been a bigger deal if he hadn't spent most of his career behind more colorful faces.

Bonus matches ============ Vs. Yoshiki Takahashi (Hiromitsu Kanehara 20th Anniversary U-SPIRITS 16.11.2011) Extremely functional as a match. Takahashi is....fine, but far more known for his actual MMA work than his shoot-style stuff for a reason, mostly sticking to it with the very occasional match or two. Takahashi rushes in into a takedown and palm strikes, which legitimately do seem to rattle his opponent when he gets back up. Takayama tries to defend himself on the mat but gets stuck in numerous submissions by his far more experienced foe needing him to use a rope escape to get out of them eventually. Takahashi makes a mistake in trying to get in close, resulting in Taka throwing out some knees but ultimately getting taken down again. He wrestles into a cross armbreaker set-up but hits the ropes. Takayama teases out a palm strike from Takahashi, allowing him to catch the guy for a weird, half belly to belly throw as a takedown. It looks awkward but he gets some good height off it. He tries for a Full/Boston Crab (really?) but Takahashi hurls him away with his legs in a cartoonish bump. Lads exchange takedowns, with Takahashi even picking Takayama off his feet and dead-weight pressing him to the mat. The latter uses another rope escape to get out of a tricky Kimura attempt, and quickly loses patience, hurling Takahashi with a nasty belly to belly spike on his head before doing another one into his signature Everest German for the very quick KO win. As expected, Takayama is a lot older at this point: his natural rust and awkwardness he would have even in his prime is still very much there and present, with some sloppy throws and strikes. That said, he still can settle into that natural big man dynamic almost at a whim, and does so here pretty easily. His mat-work was basic but inoffensive. Takahashi is fine: he's not particularly great in any avenue but he knows how to grapple and fight for holds alongside some nice strength that you wouldn't expect out of someone who looks as dishevelled as he does. Nothing really spectacular from both men through and they tended to keep this very simplistic until the end, which is fine for tension building but results in a very plain match for the most part beyond the explosive finish. RANK: Decent Vs. Hikaru Sato (Hiromitsu Kanehara Produce U-SPIRITS Again 09.03.2013) The two start off with leg kicks which Taka mostly blocks until he rushes in. Sato flips around and manages to go for a low takedown against the ropes which slowly peels his opponent down to the mat. The first half essentially has Sato get moments of opportunity on the mat but either not pulling for anything or just letting the guy go to get back to more stand-up work. Eventually Takayama manages to clinch him up on the ropes, giving him enough breathing room to throw the dude around with some big suplexes. He tries for the Everest German but Sato rolls into a kneebar and essentially just keeps spamming out leg holds to keep control (including a very dramatic ankle lock) but he isn't able to get the tap-out and Taka gets to the ropes. We get more awkward stand-up as Taka just kinda stumbles around eating shots while Sato ends up falling over once or twice until he gets hit with some very light knees.....then Taka just lets him go and they awkwardly don't do much until Sato goes in for a very half-assed takedown which Taka answers with a club to the back and another light knee for a knockdown. The finish comes soon after as Taka lands more weak clubs to the back before hitting a big Everest German for the KO win. A weird one for sure: I've seen Hikaru Sato a few times and he's been quite good as a hybrid legit MMA guy who transitioned pretty easily into pro-wrestling. That said, he was undeniably very bland here and seemed more like he wasn't really putting much into this beyond pulling out some decent counters. His leg kicks were very light and didn't really feel like he was trying much with making them look legit all things considered. Takayama has some great throws/suplexes left in him but he's predictively rather slow and awkward, with his strikes also having no real impact to them and his stand-up being shockingly shoddy in places (like wtf was going on with the clubs to the back deal?). He just didn't look very polished here despite some effort on his part. Interestingly this is actually on Sato's legit MMA record but anyone with eyes can tell you this wasn't a legitimate shoot and the two don't even bother to hide that fact here; making that result doubly confusing. Definitely worth a skip. RANK: Forgettable W/ Golden Cups (Yoji Anjo/Kenichi Yamamoto) Vs. Sanae Kikuta, Minoru Suzuki & Masakatsu Funaki (Yoji Anjo Retirement Show ~ Y.A Is Dead 24.03.2015) As you can tell by the title this is Anjo's retirement bout and.....yeah he looks rough as hell here. I don't like talking about people's appearances but Masakatsu Funaki for reference is only two years younger yet putting the two next to each other you'd think decades separated them, it's that bad. The match is thankfully built around the fact that Anjo can't really go at all so he instead has to use his comedic chops and cheat to stand any sort of chance. Him and Suzuki have a good chemistry as they both dick around as well. It's fine for what it's worth but it does start to tire after a bit as Anjo keeps stalling and not engaging for minutes at a time. Yamamoto gets in some stuff and it's fine for someone who hasn't seriously wrestled in a good few years even if he's clearly not in shape and gasses up after a small back and forth exchange with Kikuta. Honestly, Takayama was the best of all three of them as he throws out some good power moves (powering out of a triangle armbar with a powerbomb and hitting a big backdrop, for one) until the middle portion where things get a bit chaotic after Suzuki lashes out at Kikuta (the only non-wrestler of the six) for not pulling his weight. Anjo mostly gets worked over for all the bits he's in to hide his inability to work: Suzuki can play up to this as well as he usually can with his chops in being a mean bastard heel but Funaki has a bit more trouble in that regard, botching some spots and not reading the room; he keeps trying to do legit stuff with Anjo when it's obvious that he's immensely limited, especially in the mobility department. He eventually smarts up and goes for simple strikes instead, namely sharp kicks. I will say that Anjo's selling gets pretty good after the first fall, especially when he's just pushing through the pain he's under after a extended kneebar caused him to tap-out for said first fall. More work over his crappy leg results in another tap-out a few minutes after and they tease that being the end of the match until Anjo talks enough shit to will the match to continue into a third fall. Takayama's big hot tag where he just runs through everyone was a lot of fun as he just wrecks the trio with knees, punches, huge ass Albright-inspired belly to belly and butterfly suplexes. Despite all of that and even a random Anjo top rope segment he eventually falls to Suzuki slapping on a RNC into Gotch piledriver for the third and final fall. Obviously very much a limited match but for the purposes of this retrospective, I thought Takayama was the most dynamic out of the three and definitely brought a lot of fire into this that was initially lacking a lot in the first half. Anjo obviously is the star of the show in terms of selling and importance, naturally. Funaki and Suzuki are fairly motivated for this and don't just default to generic routines (of which both can be heavily guilty of doing likewise) which results in a strong dynamic throughout even if the workrate for the most part was rather lacking and slow in places. It's a emotional performance from Anjo, especially in the post-match stuff where he's just struggling not to bawl his eyes out and eventually does lose that final match. RANK: Good W/ Hiromitsu Kanehara Vs. Ryo Kawamura & Takafumi Ito (Masahito Kakihara Support Show Kaki Aid ~ Moving On 18.05.2015) There's some minor clipping here to let anyone know, even on the official taping of the event. It's fine enough for a UWF old lads vs Pancrase guys bout as I wasn't exactly hyped up for this but it's just to let anyone know. The match itself is mostly good despite the age of everyone involved here. Takayama at this point can't obviously grapple at all so he opts just to go with his old-school rushing and striking approach instead. He eats some hard shots from the smaller guys as they duck around and just slap his face off at points. When Ito tries shooting him to the mat he instead gets overpowered into a front face lock and eats a really good-looking Butterfly Suplex for his troubles. The pacing here is pretty frantic and lacks any form of subtlety as the four just throw shit around for 11 minutes, so we get a lot of action where guys are going back and forth in holds and lots of knockdowns early, minimalistic long-term selling and more-so just going from bit to bit rapidly. Kanehara is really solid for someone who hasn't worked a proper match in a while, landing good kicks and doing essentially all of the heavy lifting when it comes to mat-work, which while obviously antiquated by.....a fair bit still shows a lot of that flair he had in his UWF-I prime. The best way I could describe the pacing here is a "shoot-style spotfest" as it's just tons of big work followed by a tag, followed by more frantic shit. The Pancrase guys do fine with what they are given and make the older guys look good with their fatigue selling and knockdowns. I did love some of their stuff here, namely when Ito rolls Taka into a cross armbreaker Kashin-style and Ryo's roundhouses to Kanehara, which were naturally still stiff as anything despite his age. Takayama eventually has enough of Ito's shit in the corner and hurls the guy around after countering a second cross armbreaker roll with a big side-slam, following up with a terrifying German suplex that ends the match. There's zero story and definitely nothing going for long-term effect, it's just a lot of stuff flying at you at a brisk pace. It works here given the older guys probably couldn't work a longer match and gives a good excuse to instead see lots of intense stand-up and stiff shots. I thought this was a good watch and definitely had everyone on the ball here: even a massively out of prime Takayama can deliver when the settings are right, and these were indeed those right settings. RANK: Good Vs. Ryo Kawamura (Hard Hit Yama Vs. Kama 28.02.2016) To my knowledge this is the last shoot-style match Takayama would have in his career. I think the main issue this has is that it's very slow and seems consistently stuck in third gear. There's some decent back and forth slaps and kicks; nothing omega stiff but fine enough for back and forth work. The main issue with this is the general setting: the sound quality makes everything feel light as anything, even the big throws that Taka manages to hit feel like a light mattress by comparison to the other showings above where they feel momentous: it comes across in this setting as unimpactful, awful when that's the only real thing Takayama is able to do well at this stage in his career. There's a surprisingly decent bit of mat-work in that Taka works on the top: nothing very good at all given his slowness but I think the two have a decent back and forward even if it is mostly just filler to pad this out a bit. They trade transitions and Kawamura manages to get a submission or two for rope breaks. Eventually the second half has Taka go back to his knee strikes, despite Kawamura's attempts to hold his legs down or block his stuff in clinches he still eats some knockdowns. The finish has Takayama just go to the knees consistently with Kawamura answering with slaps until he goes for a Everest German for the KO win. Not much to note here: this is about the same quality as a undercard UWF-I match minus the mat-work. Kawamura is fine enough as a opponent but his best qualities (his mat-work) aren't really able to be fully focused on here, meaning they mostly focus on slap-fights and somewhat stilted sequences when it came to the action. If you wanna see Taka just throw someone around, there's better to be watching. RANK: Forgettable ============ Well, that's it! I hope you've enjoyed reading. This Deep Dive has given me a newfound respect for Takayama's work as we see him progress from a rather iffy undercard act who struggled at the basics to a confident and impressive upper card foil. His shoot-style career is one with plenty of peaks and troughs but ultimately a progression through time as he gets better and better with time. This career by its lonesome would be pretty great: combine that with his pro-wrestling stuff and you have perhaps one of the top performers of his time. My top 10 in no particular order: Vs Kanehara III Vs. Matsui II Vs. Sakuraba Vs. Gene Lydick Vs. Masahito Kakihara III Vs. Kenichi Yamamoto II/III Vs. Billy Scott II Vs. Naoki Sano III Vs. Kawada Vs. Kanehara IV

From what I've seen he goes from a middling tag worker with surprisingly bad showings (like he gets a bad performance against Steamboat somehow???) but around about late 80's as OP says he starts to get it and pull out consistent fun showings. His PWC stint is just full of grungy brawling and whatnot, which is something he shines especially well in. Dude teams up with Great Sasuke dressed up as Batman, how can you not love that? Probably not top 100 given he lacks footage during his peak but I always enjoy finding random shows with him showing up.

1997 ========== Vs. Caribou Mandingo (Kingdom Birth Step 1 04.05.1997) The first event of Kingdom firmly establishes the new order by having Anjo and Takayama get top billing on the card, as well as winning their respective matches. While Anjo would beat Kakihara, Taka would be paired up against a obscure kickboxer that's so obscure that there's literally zero information on the guy apart from the fact that he showed up here. He's a tall dude as well, about 6'6, making this one of the few matches Taka has had where he's not the tallest man in the ring. This works like a regular kickboxer/wrestler match in that Mandingo sticks to purely stand-up with strikes and kicks (one major difference in Kingdom was that closed fists were allowed, so no more sloppy slap fights) while Takayama tries for his own while closing the distance whenever he can. This is firmly established early on as Taka manages to clinch and then trip over his opponent to very quickly get into full mount, of which Mandingo turtles up to escape. Taka tries for a cross armbreaker but instead settles for a nicely done triangle armbar, which gets broken up with some punches. Mandingo isn't a great striker but he pulls out some stuff to impress the crowd and he can convincingly dodge and check Taka's punches and kicks for this to work. The latter in question looks a lot better throwing punches than clumsy slaps and in general seems far more confident on the mat (probably because Mandingo has next to nothing on that front so they can just sit around and not do a whole lot). That said, he doesn't have much technique and settles to just throw random haymakers most of the time. There's some nonsense in the second half as Mandingo throws illegal punches to a grounded Taka while he's standing up, as well as holding onto the ropes when stuck in a clinch; not sure if he didn't know the rules or if this was done to try to get some heat for this. The last minute or so has Taka eat a knockdown to a good crowd reaction. He takes some body shots and sells well, setting up the finish which has him bait Mandingo into throwing one too many body kicks by catching his leg and going for a loose capture suplex before flopping into a kneebar for the win. I get what they were going for here given the K-1 was immensely popular at the time, but this really felt like a sloppy brawl between two guys who didn't really have much of a idea going in about how this was going to look like: the first half is fine enough but the second is dominated by endless clinches and some sloppy work, not helped by Takayama gassing up near the end. Mandingo is fine as a non-wrestling opponent but very one-dimensional. There's way better versions of this fight (Funaki/Maurice Smith) out there that you should be watching over this. RANK: Decent Vs. Masahito Kanehara II (Kingdom Birth Step 2 20.06.1997) Inoki and Ogawa show up during the start of this: not sure if this was going to lead to anything down the line with these two in particular but it's something to note. I really liked how this showcased Kingdom's stand-up as drastically different than most shoot-style promotions: the closed fists mean that guys like Taka get a great reach advantage that Kakihara can't just walk into like he would if they were only allowed to throw slaps, so he's forced to work on the outside and rush in sparingly. Taka completely controls Kakihara's back using his knee to block transitions alongside ground and pound to dislodge him into a cross armbreaker which is naturally blocked and rolled away from. It's interesting to see how Taka takes the lead on the mat mostly as Kakihara has to just brave through his punches alongside some nasty submissions, resulting in Taka just screaming in his face while trying for a dramatic toe-hold. It's a lot more engaging than you'd expect and I think that combined with solid defence by Kakihara gets some great drama out of things, especially the bit where Taka's side mount keeps getting pushed back by Kakihara throwing his legs up until he can unbalance the guy and snap on a very fast armbreaker for a false finish tease. Loved the crowd mimicking Taka's grunts and screams throughout as well as a goofy side-gig to everything else going on. Taka does fine mostly on top bar some stupid moments (like him trying for a German suplex and still attempting to do so despite Kakihara grabbing for a kneebar....he just sorta lets it happen despite having plenty of time to do something about it) and stand-up is immensely chaotic as Kakihara throws some mean hooks and kicks that do connect half the time. Finish comes after Taka throws some clinch knees into a belly to belly, going smoothly into a side mount head choke for the win. Good action with a strong performance from Taka on the mat as he dominates proceedings: this is partly a negative because Kakihara is so good and he gets a lot less to work with here as he's mostly sitting under his opponent, which I feel like wasn't the best utilization of his capabilities. Strong intensity alongside a pace that never really gets too slow or bogged down in details makes this a solid outing. RANK: Good Vs. Naoki Sano III (Kingdom Birth Step 3 29.07.1997) Be prepared to see these two face off a lot, because Sano becomes the go-to guy for Taka here. The early sections of this focus around Taka landing some great strikes to stun Sano early, including knees to the head and a thunderous jumping shot to knock him down and take a point away. Sano in response focuses in on mat-work, namely using it to control Taka and throw on some submissions. For the two it's as per standard and not really anything to be particularly interested in bar some smooth transitions and Taka throwing out some unconventional holds to keep on top of his smaller opponent. The stand-up stuff is a bit messy and not a lot of stuff lands clean but the crowd seemed to enjoy Sano land his signature Savate kicks alongside Taka trying to keep up but getting blasted for his troubles. They tease the German from Taka but Sano blocks it by giving up his back and going to the mat. We get a Sakuraba-lite moment as Sano uses the back mount as bait to catch Taka's arm for a double wrist lock attempt but he's able to roll around and defuse the hold before he can get a proper lock on it. Taka lands a tame knee to get a German suplex off for a knockdown, which looked fairly impressive. They build up the tension by having Sano run around a bit to recover while his opponent chases with strikes, getting him into a clinch in order to snap on a surprise Fujiwara armbar for a rope break by Taka. This turns out to be the critical point of the match as Taka's arm is hurt and he can't swing with it afterwards, allowing Sano to work on it with kicks until he lands a incredibly impressive delayed belly to belly into a cross armbreaker, forcing Taka to waste another break (given Kingdom only had a 5 point system for breaks and knockdowns, the tension is a lot more palpable than the UWF-I 20 point system) He tries to mount a big attack with the one arm and his knees, but Sano quickly gets a big judo throw and a second armbreaker on fully, getting the tap-out victory. This is probably the best out of the Sano/Takayama Kingdom series of matches, namely because it balances mat-work with a lot of decent stand-up stuff, mostly from Sano. Taka's strikes mostly don't look particularly convincing and he struggles to make them look good while not blasting the guy with actual stiff shots. The mat-work is engaging and definitely has some nuance with Sano confidently running through Taka's usual bag of tricks and consistently keeping on defence until he's able to slowly work him down with kicks and solid grappling counters. It's done well and I think the two definitely get over the David/Goliath dynamic here, especially given Taka is one of the best when it comes to using his looming size and physicality to make his stuff feel a lot more impactful. Good fun if you can block out the sloppy striking. RANK: Good Vs. Shunsuke Matsui (Kingdom Birth Tour '97 22.08.1997) Better known as Daijiro Matsui, immensely stubborn PRIDE jobber, Matsui also had a long history as a infrequent wrestler; mostly showing up in shoot-style promotions and whatnot. He still wrestles even today here and there. This is mostly just a squash match though as Matsui shoots early for a takedown and Takayama sprawls by laying on top of him until he's able to get him down on the mat. Despite Matsui's consistent attempts to get Taka into half guard and into a cross armbreaker Taka is consistently able to block and use his size to weigh down the smaller lad. Eventually he gives up his back to try to escape, which proves to be his undoing as his opponent manages to catch his arm to expose the guy for a easy rear naked choke attempt for the quick finish. Nothing much to note here: it's a quick mat-based squash that shows off Taka's skills. Matsui does fine for what little he actually does here but at the end of the day this is just a unremarkable quick match designed so that his opponent doesn't get gassed up for the longer match he has later on tonight. Not bad but I wouldn't be searching this out. RANK: Forgettable Vs. Hiromitsu Kanehara VII (Kingdom Birth Tour '97 22.08.1997) A rivalry that has been going on for 5 years finally comes to a head here as Taka and co face off in the semi-finals of this random one night tournament. I really liked the beginning sequences on the mat as the two square up and try to nab submissions: Kanehara spinning around to try to maintain a double wrist lock attempt especially was a highlight as Taka keeps using side-mount leverage to disengage with any big attempts at submissions and keep steady control over things while he works for his own stuff. Taka tries for some kneebars and toe-holds but those are also equally rolled out of or blocked. Eventually these two default to the typical formula of Taka being more dangerous in stand-up while his opponent is better on the floor: we get a lot of Taka throwing punches and knees alongside some rough throws while Kanehara tries toppling the bigger man with low takedowns and patiently waiting for the chance to snap on something solid. He eventually does after some more side mount control after taking Taka's back and going for a rear naked choke, which is somehow escaped. Regardless, Kanehara gets on full mount and basically hits some strikes to bait Taka into getting his arms out of the way so he's incapable of blocking his cross armbreaker which gets the submission win. Not particularly great: both men don't really bring the fire that their older matches have, mainly because Kanehara will have to work yet another match after this so they probably wanted to keep this short and sweet. The issue is that there's a lot of times here where the action is really lacking and it's more sitting around in neutral positions and wangling for holds: not terrible but it's not something either man can make incredibly interesting either, despite some good throws and natural aggression from two guys who know each other immensely well at this point. If you like smart mat-work you'll get something out of this, but I would still maintain that the match is by far one of the weaker Kanehara/Takayama matchups, especially given this is the last time they'll face off against the other. RANK: Decent Vs. Billy Scott II (Kingdom Prelude For The World 03.09.1997) Billy Scott is one of the better UWFI foreign talent and he's been given a fair push in Kingdom as someone matched up with some big deal talent, including here. The starting sequence is well done as Scott gets down to the mat almost at once and initially has trouble with Taka's side mount antics until he blocks around a cross armbreaker attempt and manages to slap on a solid kneebar, forcing a early rope escape. We get some frantic and stiff punches from the pair in stand-up until Taka takes over with a front headlock roll to the mat and back into side mount, putting all of his weight on Scott's head via a head/arm lock which forces a break from Scott in turn. We get more good scrappy stand-up as they pair just throw hands at each other and try for holds. I'm not the biggest fan of Scott's Joshi-lite selling where he's just screaming every time Taka slaps a hold on. It adds some tension when used right but when it's virtually every single time a hold is applied even half-properly it tends to be rather grating and almost melodramatic. Good bit near the end where Taka lands multiple knees to the gut but Scott manages to grab on to his leg and go for his signature deep Dragon Screw into Single Leg Boston Crab, which got the Korakuen crowd buzzing. While this finished Taka before, in true Kings Road style he manages to escape this time. The latter half has Scott's consistent (and one dimensional) need to shoot for takedowns be massively punished by his opponent, who manages to throw knees and sprawls to punish him with multiple holds. Despite his best attempts, eventually Taka gets a good gutwrench suplex out of one into a double wrist lock, which forces the tap out. A strong outing that has Billy Scott get the crowd behind him with his gutsy approach alongside some intense sequences on the mat. Taka takes the lead mostly when it comes to just sitting on top of him but I think Scott gets a good bit out of the large lad, especially in the stiff stand-up stuff where he kinda had to be stiff alongside his opponent or just look really bad in the process, resulting in some entertaining slugfests. It's not mindblowing or anything but I'd definitely say this is better than their last outing, namely because Taka has really improved in the years prior to this. These two work solid together and it results in a great example of how good Kingdom's shorter more mat-based focus could produce quality stuff. RANK: Great Vs. Naoki Sano IV (Kingdom New World 03.11.1997) I think this says a lot about how rough Kingdom (and shoot-style promotions in general) were at the time when this UWFI undercard rematch is one of the bigger deals here. I do like the greater focus on stand-up as it allows Taka to really hone in on the stuff that suits him; his punches and knees specifically. Taka tries bullying Sano early to stop him hurling out leg kicks by rushing into clinches for knee shots but he gets blasted with some hard punches of his own and has to back down. Sano does some fairly meh work on the mat using side control and working for arm and head locks until Taka rolls him over for a big pop, but they both also fumble around with missed submissions (Sano with a triangle armbar and Taka with a kneebar) but later on Taka works a really smart bit on the mat where Sano tries leaning his knee onto Taka's leg (which was a classic Fujiwara dirty trick) who manages to grab Sano's exposed foot for a potential toe-hold, but he fumbles and Sano grabs one instead for a rope break. Sano adds some of his badassery as he just no sells a Achilles Tendon hold: him merely shaking his head and staring at the guy is enough for the crowd to pop off. Sano doesn't quite escape quite as easily as he makes it out and showcases some rare frustration by landing a illegal heel shot while stuck. Eventually Taka gets out-leveraged after a roll and he has to drop another rope break. The finish is fairly explosive as Taka runs in for knees, Sano tries dropping down again to get on the mat but gets caught in a VERY loose triangle choke after his takedown, conceding the win to his opponent. A fairly good match once it gets going but this really doesn't play to Sano's strengths as a worker, instead making him sit around on the mat a ton which isn't too helpful. He's not bad there but he's certainly not someone who can guide someone like Taka to something amazing either (as much as he has improved, I wouldn't say he can make these kind of matches extraordinarily impressive) Sano adds some of his signature tough personality to this to really give it a boost in the latter half but you have to get through some fairly middling stuff first. That said, a decent showing that has Takayama throw some surprisingly half-decent mat IQ moves out. RANK: Decent Vs. Kenichi Yamamoto III (Kingdom Birth Tour '97 15.11.1997) Given the immense size and mass difference between the two, this was really only going to go the same way it has the last two times over. That doesn't mean Yamamoto's not gonna give it socks though, especially given the very fast paced starting work that has the two bounce from hold to hold as he tries working on the mat to neutralise his natural advantages. Taka isn't nearly as fast or as versatile as his opponent is but he can work the slower bruiser as great as usual and gets over that with some clubbing blows alongside some brute strength to escape some attempts at submissions. Vast majority of this takes place in one singular mat-exchange give or take: a unique format but one that works here given the context of both participants. Yamamoto works as the scrappy underdog as he consistently shoots for takedowns and keeps going forward while Taka tends to take a lot of offence while dishing it out when it matters as well. The mat work is generally quite well done as the two go back and forward from hold to hold, with Yamamoto getting some close clinchers here as he's able to move around a lot faster and get those snappy submissions a lot easier, which Taka having to be more reactive and defending against said attempts. They take a rope break off the other with a submission each and stay mostly evenly matched until the finish, which has Yamamoto try to end things with a rear naked choke out of back mount before getting dislodged and thrown over into a cross armbreaker: unlike the other ateempts where Yamamoto either used a break or managed to defend against it this one is fully extended, forcing him to tap fairly fast. A nice short match that manages to throw in a lot of nicely paced mat-work action. If you aren't a fan of that then you'll probably not get a lot out of this, but for a match that's barely above 5 minutes it squeezes in a ton, and Taka is a good sport who gets over his opponent massively as per the other showings. I don't think it's as sensationally heated and loud as it was for their sprint last year, but mechanically it's the best paced and with the most action to go around. Yamamoto shows a lot of that grappling skill (not just in the holds, but in getting over his attempts at applying them as well) that he'll bring into RINGS next year. RANK: Good Vs. Masao Orihara (Kingdom Birth Tour '97 19.11.1997) Orihara's whole gimmick in Kingdom is that he jobs out to everyone despite his best attempts, so this was never going to last long. I have a fondness for the guy given his interesting style and ability to really work aggression into his matches as shown by some of his greatest hits throughout his career. He tries to be a tough guy shaking Taka's hand but also looks like he really doesn't want to be in the ring whatsoever, which is fair enough. Orihara does some skipping around before Taka murders him with a body + roundhouse to the head for a knockdown. Orihara gets up but is clearly stunned. His opponent smelling blood in the water runs in and lands some big hooks to knock him down again, which he fails to meet the count for and loses via TKO. A obvious squash but entertaining enough given Takayama's stiff striking. Orihara sells well for the big lad and makes him look like a monster before the action even begins. That said, it's another match I really wouldn't encourage finding unless you are interested in Orihara's Kingdom stint in general. RANK: Forgettable Vs. Shunsuke Matsui II (Kingdom Birth Tour '97 02.12.1997) Matsui wants redemption after eating a quick loss the last time. Good news, he doesn't go down as fast! Bad news: he only lasts a minute longer. He lands some hard punches at the start as he sticks and moves until Taka has enough of that shit and gets him down with a nasty scoop slam and tries to take control in side mount before Matsui escapes out of it into the ropes. The crowd roar after Matsui manages to meet the count after Taka corners him in the corner and lands knees to the body and head, but it's a premature victory as he gets stuck in another Taka clinch and takes multiple stiff knee shots, though they do pop for him throwing a hard right hook at Taka despite the damage taken already. He eventually falls to a shot to the gut but once again gets up and then gets put down with a very hard shot to the stomach. They tease Matsui giving up at this point but he manages to meet the count again. Despite Matsui's crazy endurance and him screaming like a maniac, his body eventually gives out after more knees and a brutal boot to the head while he's falling down. Post-match has Matsui be taken out on a stretcher probably for the last shot which seemed 100% accidental. We get a zoom-in on his face as blooded gums and teeth can be shown. The match itself isn't particularly amazing workrate-wise outside of it being a good showing for Matsui as the underdog: his shaking hands and uncertain style of consistent movement alongside frenzied punching make him a natural climber who's clearly afraid but still capable of throwing shots until his soul leaves him. Takayama in response plays the perfect big man here, looming over and consistently finding ways to make the scrappy guy dig deep, especially in the second half when he's just spamming knees for what feels like forever: it's intentionally one-dimensional to fool the audience into finding Matsui will eventually pull off a miracle.....but it never happens. Brilliant stuff. It's not going to be for everyone but I thought it was a damn solid outing for a sub-3 minute match. RANK: Great Vs. Masahito Kakihara III (Kingdom Birth Tour '97 08.12.1997) Kakihara wants revenge after Taka beat him the first time. We get good starting work as both men land heavy stiff shots, with Taka in particular landing a nasty right hook that forces Kakihara down to the mat. The two go back and forward as Taka's aggressive style allows him to keep on top of his opponent, eventually forcing a rope escape after a sneaky kneebar. The bit after this is also really strong as the two blitz on the mat with numerous transitions involving with Taka slapping on a rear naked choke, Kakihara flipping himself over to try to dislodge him but Taka keeping his grip and turning it into a side-Bulldog choke instead, which looked great as a sequence. Taka exploits his size advantage to lean on the side mount and go for cross armbreakers and when that fails full mount punches, forcing another escape. Kakihara tries his luck with a big stiff straight punch to the jaw of Taka, who no sells and knocks him down with a shot of his own. Kakihara sells a potential back mount choke well as he chokes and tries to protect his neck as best as possible by laying it flat down on the mat. There's some back and forth that isn't mind-blowing for the time but work to get the dynamics of both men over as Taka goes for big impressive throws alongside relentless stand-up while Kakihara sticks to submission-wangling and fast punches and kicks. Said dynamics both work individually as Kakihara loses escapes through aggressive beatdowns while Taka loses his via smart mat counters and slick holds forcing his hand; pretty easy storytelling but done really well here. The finish is somewhat abrupt as Kakihara manages to tear down Taka with low kicks until he shoots for a leg takedown, allowing him to slap on a tight toe-hold that Taka fails to escape from, forcing him to tap. I honestly might say this is the best Kingdom match I've seen to date: the mat-work is never too much of a lull and the strikes are mostly sharp and kept to a means to a end rather than padding. The submissions are also REALLY good here as both men pull out some impressive stuff and keep it mostly realistic and not too contrived. While this has slightly less heat than their last match, it's a lot better formatted and Kakihara gets to do a lot more, which is always a highlight. Very solid and a big highlight. RANK: Great Vs. Naoki Sano V (Kingdom Ambition 14.12.1997) This is a shorter rethread of the duo's match together last month, only Taka is a lot more assertive on stand-up and really takes charge with some good looking shots. Sano just kinda stands around and takes it: bar him moving around he does next to nothing to defend himself, not even attempting a takedown or clinch or anything, really. Rather than him taking advantage of Taka failing to take him down and exposing his back, he just stands the guy back up and pushes him away. Sano continues to do virtually nothing for the next few minutes as he dodges shots, moves out of range and just moves his hands around a bit. Taka rushes in with some punches and knees and tries for a double wrist lock, but Sano finally does something and counters, holding side mount. Taka does his "roll out of side mount" spot again into a toe hold which causes a rope break. Sano finally does his signature Savate kick....which immediately gets blasted with punches, thrown into a impressive German suplex and tapped out with a classic UWF 1.0. leg headscissors after Taka teases the double wrist lock again. Despite the good action in places, this was a really boring bout that screamed "I'm doing the job and I'm not really bothered about it" as Sano spends most of this doing a Floyd Mayweather and ducking and dodging while clearly helping Taka up when he's stuck in bad positions. Zero agency, zero anything. It's not even defence most of the time, it's just him not engaging and consistently doing circles around the ring. I don't really get why this was worked as it was but it just doesn't work here despite Taka doing his best to make the action that happens look impressive. It's just marred by lots of nothing happening but two guys moving around the ring and doing....well, nothing. I can't say that formula is particularly engaging. A depressing end to what was a really good run. RANK: Forgettable =========== With Kingdom folding, nearly all of the roster moving onto legitimate MMA promotions like PRIDE and Takayama's AJPW pursuits massively working out for him (he was already part-time at the company and had done multiple dates) he chose to go full-time with the promotion instead of going with everyone else. He would be later joined by Kakihara, whom would form the new version of the Triangle of Power alongside Gary Albright. However, Takayama would return to shoot-style......on nostalgia and UWF reunion cards. With years of rust, how will he fare going back to what defined his hard-hitting style in the first place?