Ma Stump Puller

Just watched it, thanks for the upload! Kinda disappointing tbh. Felt like Lesnar didn't really bother here much at all and I don't have a good tolerance for early Nagata. Doesn't help this was basically Lesnar soaking up all of Nagata's generic strikes and finish before basically hitting his finisher and winning. Made the lad look like a complete goof in comparison. I dare say that the Nakanishi match got far more out of him

Part 2 Vs. Masaaki Mochizuki (01.12.1996: Inoki Festival in Yoyogi Here's a interesting match and a rather big oddity. Mochizuki will become a big Dragon Gate star, but at the moment he's a tough and wild WAR rookie with some reasonable showings, but nothing as of yet that's major beyond some small losses. He's playing his old karate bully role, coming into this match in his full garb and everything. Both him and Tiger Mask come out to Rocky themes, because of course they do. The match itself is worked as a typical UWF-style bout. While Mochizuki has some impressive work with his kicks, Tiger Mask is simply better at that front, and overcomes him in stand-up exchanges a lot, with Mochizuki only getting in advantages when Mask gets overzealous, namely nailing a heel kick when Tiger Mask goes for a Irish Whip or whatnot: when he tries for more fancy stuff, things usually go wrong. Mochizuki mostly sticks to a fairly basic style in comparison, lots of kicks with a mix of some vicious suplexes when he gets the chance. For what it's worth, this does have a absolutely awesome springboard kick by Mochizuki to a prone Mask on the apron that puts literally everyone else to shame by how great it looked, by far the move of the match. Eventually Tiger Mask hits his signature Tombstone Piledriver/diving headbutt combo but gets countered into a slick spinebuster into a weird top rope Pele Kick variation? No idea what it was, but it looked cool. Mochizuki at this point and time kinda just flings himself off the ropes a lot, sometimes he looks good, others he just looks like a mangled mess of limbs that seems to barely touch the other guy. Tiger Mask dodges his second attempt at a big top rope spinning kick and gets a Tiger Suplex for the win. I think this match mainly suffers from a lack of definitive tone: both guys will work mostly a shoot style-like bout with lots of stand-up work but then Tiger Mask will start doing piledrivers or just regular wrestling moves before going back to normal, Mochizuki will also just revert to doing pro-wrestling stuff out of the blue after a few kicks. Mochizuki even at this point was fairly solid, hitting some great shots, but that's really all he can pull out: selling is limited and he in general seems to lack a lot of the pacing and psychology he would figure out later, preferring to just hit big shots and then repeat said shots over and over. Tiger Mask gives a standard performance: outside of some nice big kicks, nothing really else to mention. He gets a good rate out of his opponent for what it's worth but I feel like had they just stuck to one format they would've had a better match. Pacing is all over the place. RANK: Decent W/Masaaki Mochizuki Vs. Lance Storm & Yuji Yasuraoka (WAR 13.12.1996: WAR RYOGOKU CRUSH NIGHT!) Only in WAR could you get such bizarre match conditions lol. First Tiger teams with a rookie Mochizuki against Lance Storm and Yasuraoka, whom I don't really have any idea about beyond the fact that he gets his ass kicked by Mochizuki a lot and he does nice flips. The action is as you would expect: smooth work by Storm (in particular a dropkick that gets amazing height and a beautiful Northern Lights Suplex) and Mochizuki landing huge springboard kicks to the head whenever he's able to get offence in: it's basically one of the few things he's learnt to do incredibly well outside of hitting gross brainbusters. Basically most of this is Mochizuki by himself trying to fight off the pair as they double team him with big shots and dives to the outside. First Tiger mostly has to break up near falls and whatnot. For what it's worth, Mozhizuki sells his beating good and the crowd rally behind him as he claws his way to a big hot tag. First Tiger shows up, in which he runs through Storm and co with big kicks. Him and Mochizuki have a awesome little combo where he hits Yasuraoka with a springboard spinning heel kick and First Tiger takes advantage with a Tiger Suplex that gets a near fall. Outside of that, First Tiger does little outside of that in terms of work (beyond some of his signature spots anyway) which was a bit disappointing given who was here. Mochizuki tries to take the fight to the duo but ends up getting rocked with a pretty dangerous powerbomb/top rope dropkick combo for a very close near fall. Mochizuki recovers and tries to keep going, with a top rope springboard spinning kick to Yasuraoka stunning him and a German getting another near fall broken up by Storm. Not everything Mochizuki does looks great: there's times where he just kinda does flips and they don't go anywhere or look impactful at all, he's basically falling over on the guy. I mentioned this in the last match review but it's especially noticeable here. Eventually Yasuraoka counters one of his top rope kicks and lands a stiff Lionsault where he lands mostly knees first on Mochizuki. With Storm guarding him, he's able to get the pin. This is pretty much just a spot show where the guys jump around for ten minutes, and the crowd were mostly receptive for it. First Tiger doesn't really do a lot here through, so most of it is up to a rookie Mochizuki, who is still pretty unpolished but he can hit big spots that look cool while also being able to sell fairly well for his early years. Storm was as smooth as butter in his own sequences and Yasuraoka wasn't too bad either as a competent hand that could get heat when beating down Mochizuki and teasing getting KO'd with one of his goofy flip kicks. Not much of a structured match but fun as anything. RANK: Decent vs. Shiryu (Michinoku Pro 26.12.1996) This is clipped slightly by about a few minutes, namely in the middle. We get Tiger Mask showing up against Shiryu, better known as very underrated late WCW talent Kaz Hayashi. He's fine on the mat but nothing really special in comparison to Mask, more or less here to give the guy a win. Speaking of him, he lands all of his usual ringwork super smooth here and manages sure to add some showmanship at points by adding in some flip transitions between elbow drops and whatnot, having some pretty fancy transitions between what are fairly regular wrestling moves. Shiryu takes the advantage with some chair shots and a low blow, but Mask kicks out of a messy top rope crossbody and manages to trap him in a front-facing triangle choke afterwards. He tries to escape, but Mask grabs his leg and manages to get him in a kneebar for the win. This is fine enough workrate wise but Hayashi is a pretty plain act that the crowd has absolutely no interest in, making this a pretty bare-bones match with a inevitable conclusion. Also, the half-time break where Sasuke and some other bloke are doing a dance number gets more of a reaction than this did, lol. Decent but forgettable despite Sayama getting in some nice work here. RANK: Forgettable Vs. TAKA Michinoku (Michinoku Pro 14.01.1997: Nakajima Park No. 1 5 '97) A good match against a young TAKA, who was putting in some of his best material at the time as a top notch Jr act. This first half is a lot more grounded as they take more of a shoot-style approach to things. TAKA tries shooting for Tiger Mask's legs after a minute or so of them having a stand-up affair, with him being able to get into full mount at one point, but a rope break stops him from taking advantage of that fact. Mask later gets the advantage with his big kicks and the pair have some pretty solid fast-paced sequences. TAKA sells well for his stuff and gets over the danger of his opponent beyond just bumping in how he cowers in the corner after being outsmarted during a starting spot, or him crawling for his life after Mask takes his back and starts choking him out are just general examples and he plays off this as a clearly outmatched opponent, but one that can take the initiative. TAKA takes control after turning things into more of a traditional pro-wrestling style and tries to steal the Tiger Suplex, but gets countered into a kneebar. He plays more defensively but picks his shots, with a smart little spot of him using the impact of Mask's big kicks to bounce himself off the ropes for a flying elbow. Elements like that really make this a lot more enjoyable: it's not like he just pops right up and hits big bombs, there's at least a sense of logic to how he's able to take advantage and squeeze in his shit in-between getting past Sayama's big shots. He also takes a horrific bump as he misses a dive outside to Tiger and ends up flying knee first into like, a concrete step or something? Looked ungodly painful and his face says it all afterwards. He just manages to get back in but almost at once gets smacked with kicks and a Tombstone/Diving Headbutt combo for a near fall. TAKA takes some more kicks, but reverses one into a last minute Michinoku Driver in a awesome sequence. TAKA could have perhaps won with that as his opponent seems down and out afterwards, but he's way too exhausted to cover. Despite a great springboard dropkick and second Driver for a near fall, Tiger Mask counters a top rope move with a stiff dropkick in mid-air (perfectly timed as well, which definitely isn't easy to do) and nails TAKA with the Tiger Suplex for the pin. This is a very good match between two solid wrestlers: Tiger Mask is on the ball in terms of varied offence mixed in with his signature spots, as well as spotless technical work while TAKA shows huge guts as he works a more underdog, "fish out of water" style albeit still getting in some terrific high-flying here and there that manages to showcase how he can very easily get back into control with some big risks. He never no-sells anything and it feels like a complete struggle every time he needs to get back into things, especially near the end. Absolutely check this out if you can as it's probably one of Sayama's best matches in the late 90's. RANK: Great Vs. Minoru Tanaka (Battlarts 21.01.1997: Project B-Earth ~Conquest Operation) Terrific little shoot-style bout against a truly fantastic act in Minoru Tanaka, who's still kicking ass even today. This is paced a lot like a old UWF Super Tiger bout for the most part. The main narrative is that Tanaka is a good striker: but he's not Tiger Mask, and his initial big roundhouse at the start that he has to quickly back away from establishes who's the better man in that regard rather easily. Tanaka plays it safe for a while, focusing on low kicks from a good space away to wear him down. Tanaka tries to take Mask down to mat and operates for some submissions, but he underestimates Mask's capabilities to escape his attempts: when he rolls over Mask from half mount and tries to take his foot for a ankle lock, Mask is able to apply a rear naked choke and he has to quickly roll back over again to get out before he's quickly put to sleep. There's some great tension as both men try to play both defensive as well as pushing for their own holds at the same time. Eventually Mask ends up caught in a kneebar and has to use the ropes to escape. Needless to say, Mask doesn't want to be on the mat again, so he fires a loud kick to Tanaka's leg that sounded like murder, and he sells it as such as well: when Mask tries to follow it up with more shots, he has to quickly hurl whatever he can in a pure panic spot and sprawls to the mat. Mask's kicks are vicious, half because well, they are pretty stiff, but also because Tanaka sells them as such, doing anything he can to stay away from continued shots to his weakened leg. He manages to counter a Tiger Suplex into a Chickenwing. We also get him going nuts with some of his throws, hitting a insane backdrop on Mask that looked painful as anything. Despite this, Mask patiently counters his submissions, as well as honing it on his leg and using it as a springboard into more painful holds. When Tanaka tries using his panicked strikes again to scare Mask off, he's able to easily dodge his slap and answer with a huge German that had the guy bounce on his HEAD. Jesus Christ. Tanaka aims for a final gambit by trying to transition to a cross armbreaker, but Mask is able to only just hit the rope with his leg. He tries again for a huge throw, but he's just too far in the hole as Mask counters into a Chickenwing that he has to finally tap out for. All in all, this starts slow with some steady technical work but just turns into a mean scrap after a while with both men throwing strikes and a ton of holds between the two men. Mask shows great awareness on the mat and looks like he belongs alongside Tanaka, but he also makes sure to sell his opponent's superiority when it comes to getting caught in his submissions, being able to contend, but not really dominate or take any major victories on the mat. Tanaka in turn makes Sayama look simply terrifying in stand-up, doing everything humanly possible to not get caught with more vicious kicks. Really solid work and more proof that Sayama could adapt beyond his 80's UWF days to more modern approaches to shoot-style, of which we'll see later on as well. RANK: Great Vs. Inoki (NJPW 12.04.1997: Battle Formation 1997) Obviously Inoki by this point was in his 50's and far beyond his prime, more operating as a Undertaker-type spectacle that would come in for a few big matches, get a big reaction, then disappear into the Inoki-Ism ether. He's way better than you think he is even at this stage, but this is one of his weaker showcases against Tiger Mask, who had returned to the promotion proper after a trial match with Liger a few years ago. He still wrestles mainly like his UWF-counterpart, albeit mixing in some of his old signature offence from his younger days to pop the crowd. He tries for his Tiger Spin at one point but Inoki is way too experienced for that and cuts him off before he could even start by grabbing his mid-section tight, which I felt was a smart little moment that not many people noticed. Both men do some pretty decent mat exchanges where Inoki seems to have the advantage, but Tiger Mask's kicks make him far better at stand-up, being able to knock down Inoki with a vicious spinning kick to the back of the head. Inoki really gets the crowd going with his fire, especially when he's got the advantage over Mask on the mat and going for it. Eventually he invokes his infamous Ali match strategy by sitting down into his spider position which leads Mask to try to leap over him Sakuraba-style into a cross armbreaker, which is also smartly countered by Inoki by using his legs to catch one of Mask's own legs midway, allowing him to roll over him into a hammerlock. Tiger Mask counters this with a jumping snapmare when he tries to get his back and tries to use this tactic again on Inoki after a spinning kick, but Inoki blocks him and transitions into a Cobra Twist: in the middle of the ring and nowhere to go, he's forced to tap out. As stated, this isn't anything really special as it's very short and not exactly bombastic or anything: for what it's worth I think both men work a solid enough pace, namely leaning into a mix of theatrical spots combined with legitimate shooting. This is more for the speciacle of having these two in a actual ring together and the crowd are naturally really heated for this throughout. Tiger Mask does his usual spots fine with some decent technical work, but I didn't think he was as good as Inoki, who conveys sharp fear at Mask's sharp kicks, but also determination and raw fury when he's on the offensive, even tanking some of King's kicks outright with fighting spirit while mixing in some great technical work and sharp counters: he's obviously nowhere near his best years or even his early 90's stuff but his charisma is still very much apparent throughout. It's definitely not a conventional match and not a must see for either man by a far mile, but it's worth watching as a curious extra slice of both men's long careers: like a bonus feature on a DVD, it's neat but not what you wanted. RANK: Decent W/ Inoki Vs. Liger and Fujiwara (NJPW 03.05.1997: Strong Style Evolution In Osaka Dome) Sensationally star-studded here: Inoki and Tiger King coming out like they're going to fight every single person in the entire stadium was incredibly badass. We also finally get the Liger vs Tiger Mask match that fans were anticipating (and NJPW unsuccessfully tried to cash in on before with Tiger III's feud) with Liger on the upend after countering King's speed with a rolling savate to counter a perfect backdrop counter. Despite him botching a tilt a whirl backbreaker (more Liger's fault due to him not jumping right but Sayama doesn't really give much margin for error either) he nails his Tiger Feint, as well as a extra moonsault off the second rope. There's some decent exchanges between the pair as well as King takes advantage with a Tiger Spin and works the legs, leading to a lucha arm wrench exchange which has both men smoothly countering the other, albeit there's some clunky motions between the pair at points as addressed above. Despite being similar styles, there's a clear disconnect between the pair that becomes apparent after a second viewing, and the pacing is very off and on here. Stuff looks good but they don't really know how to work with each other beyond that. The Inoki/Fujiwara exchanges are a lot more boring, with Inoki holding on a cavate and a headlock for minutes on end and sending this back to the 70's with boring, extended rest holds that don't go anywhere. Fujiwara counters his attempt to control his base on the ground with a hammerlock and they just sit some more until he powers out from Fujiwara trying to sit his body weight on him, but the latter takes him down regardless. Tiger King takes advantage against Liger when they tag in with some big kicks, as well as his Tombstone Piledriver, but misses a Diving Headbutt, leading Liger to hit a big brainbuster off it. Fuji follows Liger's lead by hitting a piledriver and a scoop slam, following all of that up with a Fujiwara Armbar that gets a rope break. Liger gets tagged in and does his lucha Dragon Sleeper variation and tries to work over him further with a abdominal stretch, but King reverses it into a weird arm wrench, throwing our some kicks before getting Inoki in. Liger and him exchange rolling savate kicks and Inoki goes on the downshift, leading to the finishing stretch that has Fujiwara attack him with headbutts before having to tag out, King countering his headbutts with a roundhouse, leading to a Tombstone, a loose Inoki knee drop, Enzuigiri, and sleeper to tap Fujiwara out. This is a pretty cool match in places when Tiger Mask and Liger are finally squaring off: there's some natural rust on Sayama's part still there but he's smooth when it counts, and Liger is more than happy to keep the pace going and bump around, even if they don't really click together as a pairing they can still at least throw out some visually interesting looking stuff. Inoki feels like he can still kinda go at his age (even him landing a top rope knee drop was no issue for him even if he missed by a fair bit lol) but him and Fujiwara sit around in holds a lot and take a backseat to the Jr guys, which is unfortunate considering they could've probably had a good match even at their respective ages. This is a alright match through, helped with a very brisk pace in the middle half that kinda just gets past all of the traditional formalities. It's undoubtfully more of a name-value showcase than anything else by a mile but it's a good example of these matches in action (believe me, that's not saying a whole lot) and I really wouldn't suggest searching this out unless you are really hungry for Tiger Mask interactions. RANK: Decent Vs. El Satanico (Michinoku Pro 10.10.1997: Pro Dioxine From Sasuke) This actually could've been a dream match had the conditions been better. Sayama was unfortunately in his crazed shooting phase at this moment and time and is far from his usual self, Satanico isn't in his peak condition but could still play a great heel: his shit eating grin as he tries to shake Sayama's hand and attack him afterwards before getting smacked with a head kick is a great overall spot, and he's a good foil to the far more flashy opponent, even despite the fact that he's a bit limited physically and bumps weird at points. Sayama takes some horrific bumps (like Satanico just slams him on the outside at one point just because) but they don't really add up or go anywhere, because most of this is mat-based. Sayama takes over in the second half with kicks and leg locks when Satanico tries to counter his existing offence. Despite his best attempts to escape and take advantage of Sayama's grounded state by trying to catch him in his El Nudo submission, he's able to reverse it into a triangle armbar for the win. Despite some miscommunication, this wasn't bad: not great like it could've been in better conditions, but not bad either. There's some value in the detailed ring work and I think the guys here could've put on a pretty reasonable showcase with more time together (reminder that this card had Chris Chandido on it for some reason, as well as some pretty underwhelming matches in general). But yeah: giving these two more than 6 minutes would've probably made this at least something worth mentioning, because the lads have to rush stuff in here a lot. It's frustrating because a uber heel like Satanico with a big babyface like Sayama could've been special. RANK: Decent W/ Tiger Mask IV vs. Tiger Mask III & Tiger Mask II (12.10.1997: 97 Martial Arts Festival SPECIAL) This was supposed to be all four Tiger Masks in a match together, but Misawa had to opt out due to apparent conflicts with his schedule, which I believe because this was just a day after he was facing Steve Williams, and he also had a hellacious match with Kobashi in a week and a bit later after this, so it's understandable that he couldn't commit. In his place, they send a young rookie Kanemaru in his own version of the Tiger II costume. In all fairness, he does somewhat work here, he's incredibly agile in his own right: but he isn't just isn't very good at this point and time namely because of a issue I had with his AJPW material: his moves lack much impact and he hasn't truly learned how to make his shit look feasible in a wrestling standpoint, not just a "this looks good" one. Outside of a running dropkick, that applies to most of his offence here. His moonsaults have like, zero weight to them: he doesn't know how to work his spots into actually looking painful. He's also pretty clumsy in terms of sequence building and consistently pauses or doesn't do anything, which was pretty awkward to watch. Tiger III wants First Tiger almost at once, and he uses his flashier speed to outclass him despite the experience disadvantage. For context, Kanemoto (Tiger III) had given up the mantle for a few years now because of a mix of wear and tear/the fans considering him being a failure for being incapable of wrestling Sayama's style, so this is him sticking it to them by showing that he could not only hang with First Tiger, but he could put him in trouble with his own unique style, not by copying another. Tiger IV is incredibly agile but knows how to slow down this with holds and strikes with him and First Tiger honing in on the far weaker Kanemaru during most of the middle half. I like how Tiger IV and III have big heat as well as they scrap and have some pretty stiff slaps for each other, almost at once abandoning the flashy stuff and just going for big old fisticuffs. III talking trash to First Tiger before hitting the Tiger Suplex was a great little bit as well. The lead to the finishing stretch has IV hit a huge German and dive to the outside. There's a awesome spot where First Tiger does his Tiger Feint to Kanemaru but Tiger III shows up right behind him and dropkicks him out of the ring with a big bump. Eventually this leads to Tiger II trying to pick up where III left off, but First Tiger gets tagged in and manages to roll him into a armbar, getting the tap out victory. There's some drama post-match as Tiger III gets pissed at Sasuke for his slow count and there's a bit of a scuffle, but this doesn't go anywhere. All in all, a fun outing that is hampered by Kanemaru's inexperience. There's some growing pains at times but this is mostly structured well, with everyone getting their chance to shine with big sensational flips and spots. Tiger III and IV prove to be solid opponents together, and First Tiger, while limited (Sayama had another match on this very night so he probably didn't want to do as much as he could have) hits his greatest hits alongside selling for the newer lads. All in all, a fun spectacle, but Misawa being here, even if he probably couldn't do most of the shit he used to be able to do (namely because he found it difficult even when he was in his youth doing said moves) would've made this a lot better. Even him and Sayama sharing a ring would've been incredible. Alas, we need to wait a decade or more for that to finally happen. RANK: Good Vs. Yoshiaki Fujiwara (Same Night!) Yes, Inoki had Sayama do double time. This is a rematch between two UWF guys: it's even libelled as such on the billing for this match. Naturally both guys aren't willing to let the other man get over, so they have a screwy finish to this that keeps them both strong. This is a expected dynamic in that Tiger is better at strikes and stand-up, while Fujiwara tries to time his shots to get in his signature leg work and work him down to the mat for submissions. There's some parts where I definitely think Sayama takes liberties (like he just sneaks a headbutt at one point while on the mat before landing more obvious ones later that are worked) and his holds at times are a bit too realistic looking to not be uncomfortable for Fujiwara. This does play into the narrative as Fujiwara actually has to rope break at times because he ends up in a sticky situation that he can't get out of despite his best attempts, and both men do sell the threat of the other well when they want to play ball. There's one part where Fujiwara attempts a Kimura Lock and Tiger just hammers his lower back with some hard shots that sound pretty stiff as well, which was pretty cool to see. Fujiwara eventually gets fed up with Tiger's shit and starts headbutting him directly in the face, which leads to Tiger in turn eventually countering and just throwing big closed fist shots at Fujiwara until the ref eventually relents and ends the match in a No Contest. Both men brawl after the fact until Inoki goes "fuck it" and restarts the match himself, which was pretty awesome. He becomes the ref at this point because....well it's his event, who's gonna tell him otherwise? Both men have a more proactive brawl, with Tiger Mask at one point just hammering fucking elbows to the face of Fujiwara after he tries to roll to the ropes, which was brutal to watch. Tiger and him fall to the floor but he refuses to break it up and they end up resetting again because neither trust the other. Fujiwara dodges a Enzuigiri after catching Tiger's leg and manages to mangle him down into full mount and throws shots. Tiger reaches the ropes but Fujiwara definitely isn't letting go this time, which gets his opponent pissed off, landing a loose kick at his face when he finally lets go and starts kicking the crap outta him in the corner, flooring him: even managing to fit a few stomps to his face. The match is finally thrown out at his point and they shake hands afterwards after Inoki provides a fighting spirit slap to Fujiwara's face. All in all, have these men had far better matches? Of course, their series in 80's UWF is fantastic. Is this lacking in technical work? Yes. Is this still enjoyable? Damn right it is. It's a great heated brawl between two guys who have a complex past, and there's some great intensity when things start to fall apart with some actual nasty shots in places. It's a shoot-style scuffle with plenty of theatrical melodrama to boot, but it's still brutal as hell and both men really give it socks here at points despite the lack of actual big fancy workrate spots. Lots of fun and a celebration of the kind of over the top antics that come with shoot-style as a whole. RANK: Good W/ Liger Vs. Koji Kanemoto & Tatsuhito Takaiwa (NJPW 02.11.1997: Final Power Hall In Fukuoka Dome) This is a interesting but at times very dry kind of match to follow. Takaiwa and Kanemoto are positioned as the heels here, getting cocky at the start with both Liger and Sayama respectfully before getting shown up when that inevitably goes the wrong way for them. Sayama is fairly good here, having some smooth technical work when he's countering the duo and throwing in his signature spots pretty well throughout, getting some good reliable pops. Liger spends a decent portion of this feeding for the other lads as they double team him multiple times over, Kanemoto namely relying on his kicks as a diss towards his former mentor. Eventually he manages to land a backdrop on Kanemoto and gets in Mask, who beats him down with a Tiger DDT, cross chop, and then a messy Kimura transition that Kanemoto doesn't really take properly. He pulls for a cross armbreaker, but his opponent is able to roll him over into a kneebar. Even when he gets to the ropes, he still wrenches on said hold. This leads to Mask being in danger as the pair work over him as well: Takaiwa has a killer brainbuster but nothing much else worth bringing up before Mask hits him with a cool-looking three strike combo, ending in a huge savate kick to the head. Liger tries to take control after a tag in but gets his own backdrop moment, leading to Kanemoto trying to show him up in some fairly fast paced exchanges, eventually winning out after Liger misses a rolling heel kick to the corner. Liger also has to sneakily shift position when Kanemoto tries doing his weird flipping senton as he would've missed it otherwise. Eventually he manages to hit a proper heel kick and goes into his big signature spots, ending with a big powerbomb. Mask tries following up with a Diving Headbutt but misses, leading him to bump all over the place for the guy before Liger breaks up a Tiger Suplex with a rolling heel kick to the back of the head: pretty cool spot in general. Probably the only bad botch of the match was Tiger Mask completely fucking up his Tiger Feint on the ropes, getting caught in them. Kanemoto saves this by hitting a big plancha afterwards. Sayama redeems himself afterwards by hitting his backdrop counter into a big savate kick to the gut. The road to the finish has Takaiwa and Liger go at it, with a fantastic multiple powerbomb moment where he just relentlessly drops Liger down with them. He would've got the pin if not for a nicely timed roundhouse by Mask. They take him out of the fight with a cool Electric Chair/top rope dropkick combo before focusing in on Liger with a moonsault/Death Valley Driver combo which ends in a huge near fall. He tries for a top rope powerbomb but Liger counters, hits a big palm strike before setting up a top rope brainbuster for the pin while Kanemoto gets knocked back with a cross chop. All in all, it's a pretty dry match that doesn't really get a lot of heat at all outside of the last few minutes where the lads actually start hitting big moves. Kanemoto does get some heat with his antics against the vets but this is short-lived and his interactions with Sayama leave a lot to be desired. The pacing is also very much up and down here, mixing in extended working segments alongside multiple hot tags and there's definitely some weird moments that don't really play into ring psychology here: individuals will at times do silly things or just look fairly sloppy when it comes to tagging other people in or interrupting other pins. There's no real internal logic at times and it can feel rather disjointed. Liger is a good sport but this is a average performance by him by his high standards, and Sayama was definitely having a off day here with some sloppy chemistry and just outright botches in places. Alright overall but not something I'll be watching again. RANK: Decent Vs. Tiger Mask IV II (01.01.1998: Umanosuke Ueda Benefit Show) This is a decent little sequel to their match last year (which was far better than this but I'm not complaining) of which the same narrative was played out: First Tiger and Tiger IV engage in some one-upmanship as the more experienced, war-wary student tries to prove he can hang with the living legend himself. You see this from how First Tiger is able to easily take advantage with a spinning kick at the start, but Tiger IV is able to counter a backdrop by landing on his feet, nailing a savate kick to the face. First Tiger tries the same thing but botches completely, stumbling over and falling to the ropes. They make up for that with dual dropkicks and high kicks to the head between each other. A lot of the working hold side of things is dedicated to Tiger IV working over the legs (a tactic he used in their first match together) while First Tiger tries to counter this with his own holds. What I like is how Tiger IV not only uses First Tiger's own signature offence against him, he also steals some of his counters while actively in the match: when he applies a cross armbreaker to counter a leg vice, Tiger IV also uses that same method later on to escape a similar hold. Tiger IV kinda sucks at strikes, and that does play into the overall narrative: he's trying to outclass his opponent in every avenue beforehand so it would make sense that he would also try to outstrike him as well. Outside of a rogue slap knocking down First Tiger, the latter is easily able to knock him around: in particular landing a nasty stiff closed fist of his own in response. Tiger IV sells the strike like death, having a extended period of him stumbling around and being incapable of mounting a counterattack. This allows First Tiger to take full domination with his huge kicks and signature offence, even his Tombstone/Diving Headbutt combo, but nothing gets the pin. The guy just resorts to hammering Tiger IV with body shots and slaps to try to topple him over but he's just able to recover enough to pull the top rope when First Tiger charges at him, sending him outside so he can land a impressive dive. When First Tiger tries to get back in he's met with a kick to the face, but he counters and hits his own. A perfect sunset flip allows him to get the close pin. As stated, this isn't as good as their last match, but it's a solid bout that has Tiger IV try desperately to outmatch his mentor, but ultimately just get caught out when he gets overzealous and tries to stamp in his mark a bit too much. The second part of this is just Sayama beating the hell out of his student, and it's a lot of fun to see how much he punishes him in that regard. It's a short but very fun late 90's showing from both men that does play to elements of their first encounter, showing how much IV has grown since then. RANK: Good Vs. Alexander Otsuka (UFO 30.10.1998: If you have any complaints, come on!) Yes, that's the actual title of the show. The narrative is simple: Otsuka wants to go to the ground, Tiger Mask (here unmasked with short hair) most definitely fucking doesn't with someone like him and wants to kick the guy in the face whenever he can. They establish that in the first 30 seconds by having Ootsuka shoot for a takedown, Mask lean onto the ropes, then hit some huge kicks on Otsuka's legs in the meantime. This leads to Otsuka focusing on the ground and dodging a roundhouse for his head by catching it, throwing the guy down with him. Sayama doesn't have the advantage there and has to time his transitions carefully to escape Otsuka's grasp before he can do his ground and pound or even worse. He can defend better on the top: well, mostly anyway, Otsuka nails a fantastic German Suplex on him after he tries to sprawl away from a takedown attempt, looked effortless on his part. Otsuka's subtle selling is great as well: he shakes off Sayama's big kicks but he's able to slowly sell him getting worse and worse for wear, as well as switching stances facing him from the side of his body that hurts. He's trying to hide the fact that they hurt like hell in the logic of the match but is also able to showcase how badly he doesn't want to get hit by them as well. There's a great example of this as Mask tries to take advantage of this slanted stance changing with his rollover kneebar, but Otsuka rolls through with the hold while blocking the hold and manages to take his back as a result. He tries to end things with a Kimura but his opponent escapes and goes nuts with kicks and stomps; even on the elevated apron he doesn't stop, and they end up falling off the whole thing as a result while stuck in a hold together. They get back in the ring and he continues with huge spinning kicks to the stomach, which rock Otsuka enough that he almost gets KO'd, but manages to roll through a third one to get Mask back on the mat, albeit Otsuka sells these shots afterwards like death, not even being able to apply any proper holds for a bit, only having the strength to hold his position. He gets Mask in for a modified Liontamer (looked painful as anything) but with a single leg. He tries using his punches to apply a leg submission with some ground and pound but gets his own punch in the face for his troubles. While Otsuka can't beat Mask in stand-up, he can still throw punches to establish distance, using them to get Mask positioned and backed up on the ropes for a spinebuster. Otsuka tries to pound his face in, but he rolls into a cross armbreaker after he leaves a hole in his defence. Otsuka escapes and tries to take down Mask as soon as possible, but he lands a great spinning kick to the face while he's charging for the takedown leaving him to go into his own ground and pound. However, Otsuka JUST has enough left to roll the guy onto his back for a Achilles Tendon lock, which he applies despite him trying to roll out of the ring again. Without the earlier stamina to do so, he's forced to tap out for a huge upset and big cheers. All in all, a fantastic shoot-style bout. Both men get over their respective styles but also show some great intensity with each other as they advance their respective goals. Otsuka is a wrestling beast with huge throws, and Sayama shows that he's not outdated even in the proto-PRIDE days, having a great mix of thunderous kicks and defensive strategy. There's a real threat of him losing throughout but it's never obvious as the fast tempo means both guys get their shots in. I'm 100% confident in saying this was one of Sayama's best shoot-style bouts I've seen, insane energy throughout and a real epic despite only being 8 minutes long. RANK: Great

The Nakanishi match is up on DailyMotion. I looked far and wide for the Nagata match because it sounds uber intriguing but it's literally been scrubbed from the internet: the only "link" I found to it was a Russian site that had it hosted before it was removed for whatever reason so there's that.

Yeah that's a bizarre match that I struggled to really get a grip on when I watched it. Mega starpower, built like a bare-bones match through. Fujiwara and Inoki basically sit in holds for almost the entire length of their work together. I'll get to that (eventually) but it's a weird one for sure.

Other Deep Dive stuff Woooo boy. I've been looking forward to getting this set up. A lot of people focus in on Sayama's prime days: either as the Jr heavyweight ace in New Japan or his UWF stuff. That's perfectly fine: a grand majority of his career highlights exist within those years: but I always noticed that his later stuff when he returns to pro wrestling proper in 1994 to fight Liger and beyond are kinda ignored and left by the wayside. I've heard some people have overlooked his work in that regard for a multitude of reasons, mainly his varying quality and/or style. I don't agree with this mostly and I believe there are not only good matches after his first major break from wrestling, but downright fantastic showings. The goal of this is to discuss these and try to draw a general idea of how good he was during this specific era. What will this entail? Basically, I've reviewed a pretty massive amount of Tiger Mask's matches since 1994, including his RJPW, his Battlarts, Michinoku Pro and UFO work, etc etc. Have I reviewed everything possible? Obviously not. There are some noticeable gaps in that some of his later RJPW, Tokyo Pro Wrestling, early 2000's AJPW, or general hard to find stuff like IGF shit aren't here, namely because these shows were put on incredibly obscure networks and/or distributed terribly, so even the vaguest of Russian websites don't have them (and that's a seriously big achievement) If anyone has reliable links to these I would appreciate it a ton. I will be also including some material that I managed to piece together with local fancam footage, including some unaired RJPW shows and general stuff that didn't get on air. This includes stuff like his Misawa tag bout, as well as some NOAH crossovers with a Saito and Marufuji match. A lot of these reviews have already been uploaded on Cagematch but the obvious limitations (I.E being not able to review shorter matches, matches with people with no profile, word limits, etc) mean that I can't always make the reviews I would like to do. Here, I'm free to just go ham. I'll be ranking these matches on a grade of four standards: 1. Great (MOTYC/highlight of project) 2. Good (worth watching) 3. Decent (average quality generally, not must-watch) 4. Forgettable (don't watch) This is more of a formality so anyone who's skimming these can get a quick synopsis of what to watch and not to watch without having to read through paragraphs. Obviously this will be a long project even with what is already done: I will not swamp the site with reviews because I want to take my time with this, so expect this to go at a fairly slowish pace even if most of the work is already completed. If you want links for any of these matches, feel free to ask, because some of them are REALLY hard to search out. Vs. Liger (NJPW 01.05.1994: Wrestling Dontaku In Fukuoka Dome) A weird match for sure. Liger faces against the past generational Jr talent that arguably made Liger both in style and in flashiness, but not as his masked moniker, but rather his real life self. This was during Sayama's 10 year retirement to go into actual mixed martial arts, namely developing the very first days of MMA with active promotion of Vale Judo to Japan, which would have major ramifications in the future (namely his influences on the development of MMA forward but that's another deal altogether) Outside of that, he hadn't even in a actual wrestling ring for nearly to a decade and would come back here essentially to get his foot back into the business before taking on Inoki later on, through not without getting over Tiger Mask IV on the indies first and having some middling matches. Given Sayama's extreme ring rust, this plays as a 10 minute exhibition that focuses far less on big Jr style high flying sequences or solid pacing like NJPW's 90's scene was known for, but rather a more shooty variation involving Battle Liger rather than his regular version. Liger and co play a lot of footsies: Liger is also most definitely not a shoot-style guy either so there's a natural awkwardness in how he acts here, even his takedown attempts are rather slow and rather clunky, which I think actually plays into the whole motif pretty well, even if not intentional. Liger's not a shoot-style guy and can't really get a lead over his far more experienced opponent, leading to him having to kinda pull out anything to get some sort of control over the situation. Sayama has to hold back immensely here but he's also quite clumsy at points when trying to work all the same: falling over from tripping over Liger's legs or just general sloppiness. As a result, we get a really stilted affair where Liger can't do much but takedowns and some basic ground transitions, and his opponent CAN do a lot but has to let Liger get in offence as not to make this immensely slanted. That's not to say there's some great moments: Liger breaking out of a clinch to hit a rolling wheel kick that legitimately clocks Sayama is a great spot and rightfully gets a big pop, Sayama hits a great transition into a triangle armbar and there's some solid strikes thrown throughout: but most of it is just plodding around and the crowd knows this. When it gets to the 10 minute draw, they boo. A lot. Which is particularly crazy considering Japanese crowds are usually incredibly respectful and boo usually at what they are supposed to boo at: heels and heel actions. It seemed like the guys out here thought of a few spots beforehand (like the wheel kick and some of the submission attempts) but improvised the rest of the length. This can work, but not when one person is incredibly rusty, and the other has next to no experience in this particular field. All in all, a interesting experiment, but this was still quite bad and felt a LOT longer than 10 minutes. Absolutely skip this one. RANK: Forgettable Vs. Tiger Mask IV (30.06.1996: Rikidozan Memorial) Despite the shitty card in general (seriously, this is super underwhelming despite the star power involved: everyone else throws in their big guns while AJPW have Inoue and Momota do their thing) this is probably the best match on there as it focuses on a clear narrative: Tiger IV trying to prove himself in the face of the man who taught him. He's still fairly untested as of this date, only a year into his wrestling career, so far incapable of defining himself in the same Jr style that his master dominated. It's also Sayama's first official match back in the Tiger Mask moniker. The match starts great when First Tiger hits a series of wild jumping spinning kicks before nailing a low rolling kick to IV's leg, knocking him down to the outside with the crowd rightfully giving the man a round of applause afterwards. IV tries to steal his thunder by doing his signature flip sequence to escape a arm wrench, but once again gets trumped when he uses a one hand front flip forward to escape expertly. IV tries to work over his legs for a minute or so as to remove his critical advantage (a tactic that Sayama himself used in matches) but he's still able to outsmart him using his speed, as well as nailing him with a perfect Tiger Spin into Indian Deathlock. First Tiger is able to take control from a spinning back kick to the gut far better than IV does, using a Tiger DDT and Tombstone afterwards but misses a Diving Headbutt. He tries to take advantage using momentum, namely using a huge running cross chop and a shoulder charge, but First Tiger is able to nail him with his Space Flying Tiger Drop for a near fall. The narrative is clear in that IV has the youth and agility to hit his mentor's moves.....but he can't use them as effectively as the guy who pioneered them in the first place, causing mounting frustration. IV starts to move away from his mentor's signature moves to try to find his own groove as time goes on. They both have a good sequence with a headscissors transition from lock-up, as well as IV trying to use First Tiger's signature flipping kneebar transition against him when he catches one of his kicks, but he's able to reverse out of it into his own leg work, namely his own figure four, once again establishing the difference in experience between them. First Tiger and IV hit the same Tiger Wall Flip respectfully, namely IV using it as a springboard into a Diving Headbutt. Both men get sent outside but IV chooses to keep hitting wild dives to keep First Tiger out, which in turn also prevents him from getting in, and they end up going to a count out. They decide to restart for three extra minutes and almost at once go for big kicks and wrestling on the mat for the win, but IV reaches the ropes before any hold can be established. IV tries to go for a leg sweep but gets telegraphed and has to give up his back, which results in First Tiger trying to choke him out. He drops it to go for a moonsault (that's nowhere near his location at all lol) but misses, allowing IV to keep trying for the figure four. First Tiger counters a third attempt with a heel kick as the bell once again sounds, resulting in a definitive draw. While some sections are slow, I really liked how this was built: IV tries to show his mentor up but struggles and has to go reckless in order to hold out, throwing a fair chunk of leg work while also throwing out offence to see what sticks, with his most effective weapon being his ability to hurl himself around and take huge risks. When he realises the figure four is effective, he relentlessly goes to it, which results in some of the later counters as his opponent has the experience to adapt, while IV is stuck having to try to keep going back to the same offence to wear him out. Sayama puts on probably his best performance in terms of flips and dives, hitting basically all of his old spots perfectly: he's silky smooth in the ring but also puts over IV as someone who might not be as well-rounded as him, but definitely a threat to be weary of, and one he can't definitively put down. His nuanced selling (even if he's a bit prone to ignoring moves to hit his own) is impressive and not at all something that shows up at once. The format of this match is built around that as a whole (I.E Sayama hitting big fancy signature moves) but it works as the main clutch of the match as both try to outpace the other. The double draw might annoy some but I think it works here: IV definitely wasn't winning but he's shown to have enough guts to hold out against someone who trumps him in almost everything. The result is a solidly paced match that helped to give IV some early legitimacy despite mostly playing a secondary role, which is far from a easy task. RANK: Good Vs. Gran Hamada (UWF-I 17.08.1996: Mid Summer in Jingu) This is from a compilation tape that skips about 5 minutes or so from the original recording, mostly with multiple small cuts to the middle portion while leaving the start and finish intact. It's also technically First Tiger's big return to the UWF after him quitting more than a decade before, and it's him facing off against a old rival from his past days. This starts off hot with Hamada getting nailed with a low/high kick combo before teasing the Tiger Feint, but actually going for a dive to the outside, which Hamada dodges and hits his own, which is successful. We get our first cut as it goes to them in the ring as Hamada works on the legs, with Tiger escaping with a handspring to his feet before a second cut in which Mask overpowers Hamada with a headlock before landing his backdrop counter and backbreaker before a third cut is made. Hamada takes the advantage with a lariat and a fantastic second rope Tornado DDT after Mask tries to attack him in the corner. He follows that with a equally as good top rope Frankensteiner which gets a near fall. Cut #5 leads to Mask landing his signature kick combos and a Tiger DDT. Cut #6 leads into a backdrop by Hamada seemingly when he tries to capitalise further. He tries hit a brainbuster but is countered mid move, leading into more big kicks. He tries for the Tiger Suplex but Hamada struggles for a extended amount of time, leading him to try for a Chickenwing before being able to wiggle out one eventually, which gets a near fall. He tries for a standing moonsault (knees first to Hamada's shoulder oof) which also gets a near fall. Mask tries to angle for a Americana but the time limit is reached, resulting in a draw. This was obviously never going to be as good as their original encounter, but for what is left on the cutting room floor, this was fairly solid. Hamada can still go and Sayama is the same, leading to some impressive high-flying spots and raw speed in places. This isn't really much of a UWF or even a post-rule change, post Choshu UWF style match but still a decent feature. Way better than their 2003 match anyway (we'll get to that.) This is just pretty cropped in general and it's hard to get any real narrative when it's consistently jumping around. Fine enough as a tune-up. RANK: Decent Vs. The Cobra (UWF-I 11.09.1996: Sudden Death) Cobra returns from a semi-retirement (well, more because he was a SWS guy that couldn't really get anywhere beyond the indie shows, some of which are so indie that even Cagematch doesn't list them) to face off against First Tiger in a series of matches, the first happening here and then the sequel being taped later on a random UWF touring event. I like Takano: he was never really incredible or anything but a solid Jr heavyweight in his prime. Here, he's wrestling in the UWF, but he's mostly wrestling his usual style with little adjustment. He spends most of the beginning getting knocked around by his opponent's big kicks, through we also get Cobra no selling a Tiger DDT for some reason. Cobra does use some fairly basic holds, like he can work a Key Lock and a armlock or whatever, but comparing him to any of Sayama's actual opponents from a decade ago is night and day. He's reliable enough to bump for all of First Tiger's signature spots and whatnot but he's not really engaging as a foil for him whatsoever, he has zero threat or menace to speak of, no real point where the crowd thinks Mask is ever in any true danger. He does add some nice transitions here and there, like when Cobra tries to escape from a back mount, Tiger Mask grabs onto his arm and attempts to roll him into a cross armbreaker until he rakes his face with his boot. When Mask tries to hold on to his back to keep control of him on the ground, Cobra manages to slip around until he uses his legs to pin down one of his arms and take him down to the mat instead. Simple but fairly cool little spots on the mat that showcase Cobra's more unconventional methods in comparison to the stoic Sayama. They eventually go to more high speed stuff, with Cobra botching a handspring senton to the outside by stumbling over after the handspring. Looked cool otherwise. They also manage to get a full Mexican Surfboard applied, through Mask counters by twisting his body forward in the hold into a Key Lock attempt. When Mask is in control things look a lot smoother as his offence is varied and agile, mixing in mat work with lots of speed. There's a funny spot where Mask slaps on a headscissors and Cobra tries to do the fancy handstand to get out of it, but Mask just ends up moving his legs so he gets DDT'd lol. There's some latter match exchanges and Mask lands his usual signature spots (including his kicks, Tombstone Piledriver, etc etc) until Cobra dodges a Diving Headbutt and dropkicks him out of the arena, hitting a dodgy plancha afterwards. Mask recovers, hits a second combo of the same moves to the outside (the headbutt looks terrible but I don't blame him at all for that, it's a shitty bump either way) and wins via count out. This isn't much of a serious match, being more of a throwback to older Jr heavyweight days with some technical work thrown alongside spots. Cobra plays more of a comedic foil here and gets some good reactions from the crowd but as stated, he isn't presented as legitimate challenge for Mask so there's no real tension at all. Fine enough as a light hearted undercard match in-between some serious hard hitting bouts: not essential unless you are really into super past prime Cobra bumping around a bit. RANK: Decent W/Mil Mascaras, Great Sasuke vs. Dos Caras, Dynamite Kid & Kuniaki Kobayashi (Michinoku Pro 10.10.1996: -These Days-) More or less a name value match but there's decent quality to be found here. Tiger Mask and Dynamite Kid have some exchanges (through "exchanges" is more so Mask doing all of the heavy lifting considering Kid's condition during this match, which isn't helped later when he doesn't bump well for a suplex and ends up getting legit DDT'd on his head in the process) and Sasuke blows out of the park with some big high flying stuff, throwing himself all over for this special occasion. Sayama and Dynamite had already met in the ring in a non-match setting for Michinoku Pro a few months earlier and needless to say, the guy looked a lot better then than he does now. Mascaras and Caras also have some nice work, with Mascaras actually selling offence for once against his own brother: it's nothing special from those two and exactly as you'd expect them to be for something like this, but they do push a little bit when facing each other as compared to what you might expect. Sasuke in turn gets his ass beat by the whole team for his troubles with a baseball slide and a suplex outside: he basically spends the majority of this flying around for the older guys. Sayama was solid with his usual spots but doesn't really add much else to things. Road to the finish has everyone land their signature offence before Mascaras wins with a powerbomb over Sasuke, because typical Mascaras wants to go over the top guy while no selling. As stated, this is basically just a "greatest hits" name value match where guys come out and do their usual spots, but it's quite well done in places and the crowd is very receptive to everything. Kobayashi wasn't exactly much to brag about through from my memory of this match. This is also more well known, sadly, for being Dynamite's last wrestling match, and his biography makes it well known that he had absolutely no desire (or ability, really) to even get in the ring at that point, let alone wrestle, something which is blatantly obvious by how little he does here. This would also result in him suffering from a seizure the next day, which would essentially start a very drastic snowball decline up to his death. Everyone else does a fairly good job in carrying him to a reasonable quality but even then I'd say this is rough viewing. I couldn't really recommend this very much, especially for late game Tiger Mask showings. RANK: Forgettable Vs. The Cobra II (UWF-I 20.11.1996: UWF ROAD) This is a shorter rematch between these two guys since their big stadium match before. This is mainly played completely straight as compared to their first fight, with Cobra being more of a tangible threat with his shooting capabilities. This is played a lot like more old-fashioned catch-shooting in particular as both men go for holds on the mat a lot, namely focusing on the arms or legs whenever they can and utilising a lot of hooks to get their advantage when on top. This actually feels like a UWF match as compared to their more wild showcase before. We get some crisp action on that front as they both exchange some solid counters between themselves, namely a lot of hold exchanges and very little submissions outside of some filler holds in the first half: usually both men just trying to stay in a dominant position while maintaining defence. First Tiger gets in his usual spots to pop the crowd during these long hold sessions to keep things fresh, namely his Tiger DDT, his Tiger Feint, etc. That being said, this is mainly pretty dry action that doesn't really get past third gear: everything done is competent and well done, just that there's not really any heat or actual story behind what they are doing or what they are working on in terms of holds. They just kinda shuffle around for a sub-10 format match before Tiger Mask teases a Tiger Suplex but manages to get Cobra to the ground with a Judo throw and gets in a Americana for the quick submission win. This is a good but noticeably dry bout as stated above: not much tension to this at all. Sayama puts in a good performance and Cobra can keep up fine but he's just not very well adapted for the UWF style despite some nice technical work in places, tending to repeat himself or just not really add any flavour to proceedings. He doesn't really try to well, use any proper submissions, preferring to just go for mat work and hooks. Sayama is a lot more competent in that field but he can only really add so much flavour to something as dry as this was. Again, this definitely wasn't a bad match, just one that kinda settles into a simmering pace that doesn't really excite the crowd a lot. The issues from last match (that is, Cobra being a pretty weak opponent that isn't going to be able to beat someone as dominant as Tiger Mask) carry over to here, even if I think this second match is a lot more conventional with the style. Check this out if you were disappointed with their first encounter. RANK: Decent Vs. Shoichi Funaki (UWF-I 23.11.1996: UWF ROAD) This is cut down to six minutes as apart of a UWF compilation tape: to my knowledge the full thing isn't publicly available so there you go. We also get some noticeable cuts in the middle half. Funaki is better known for his WWE work but he was also known as a solid hand before then with a underrated mean streak. First Tiger puts in a regular solid performance, mixing in more grounded work with his signature spots. Funaki for his credit clearly has some good experience working from the mat, even applying some lucha- inspired submissions in places as well as a Camel Clutch, tying his opponent up in places. Obviously he's threatened by his opponent's far greater striking and technical work so he refuses to break from a headlock and stomps the guy when he finally drops it, using the momentum to keep himself in control by focusing on his legs until First Tiger counters with a inverse Enzuigiri to the face. One thing I can say here is that Funaki is a great seller: he throws himself around for offence fairly convincingly and keeps in pace with First Tiger's regular spots perfectly. He sells the threat of his opponent and how outclassed he is by comparison. he is so good that you could go into this not knowing anything about Tiger Mask, yet you'd know that he's the superior guy here just by how both act. This isn't to say Sayama's spots are on point, because he was incredible here (he hits a picture perfect Tiger Flip from the turnbuckle corner into his signature savate kick) but Funaki is a good hand that makes these look a lot smoother. He tries for his Tiger Suplex but Funaki counters into a roll up before transitioning into a kneebar after Mask kicks out, needing a rope break. He tries for his own version but gets caught in a sleeper hold, causing the roles to be reversed, needing Funaki to then hit the ropes. Funaki gets nailed with a smooth back kick to head and a big German for a nearfall. Funaki does a Kawada sell in that despite kicking out, he's already done: his glazed, confused eyes say everything before the finish even happens. Mask lands a Tombstone and Tiger Suplex for the pin. Despite this being short, it's a really explosive sub-10 match with some nice bumping and general selling from Funaki, who makes Sayama look like a world ender here. There's some nice technical work mixed in with traditional wrestling spots, so it might not be a pure shoot style bout, but it's a fun one regardless. Definitely suggest checking this out if curious about Funaki as a performer, because he puts on a blinder here despite the runtime. RANK: Good This'll be the end of the reviews....for now. I'll have the next batch soonish.

Morrison's one of those guys that you look at and go "huh, how did this guy not be world champion?" on the surface evaluation. He's agile, incredible look and charm, isn't undersized and has some innovative offence on his part. It's when you peer closer that you realise that he's only really agile when it comes to setting up spots, his charm goes away when he starts trying to cut a promo by his lonesome, and he's always overshadowed by the actual main eventers. Like, I get it: he's a great foil with Miz (even if he didn't really need it the second time) and can have good matches with great workers. When not paired with someone like that, he's pretty bleh and less said about his IMPACT! run the better. Never felt like he hammered down a signature style beyond a few spots he'd keep pulling out and the guy can't do anything else but said spots with actual engagement. No one is talking about his brawling or technical stuff because it's either non-existent or quite boring. Psychology isn't really there as well. Like if you take out all of his big spotty moments, do you really have that much to go off of at all? Mixed as a singles but a lot more solid in a tag where his style comes over more fresh and he doesn't need to pad out things nearly as long otherwise.

Inokism Mabel > World's Largest Love Machine > Big Daddy Voodoo No dispute

Masao Inoue Alright, hear me out on this one. Inoue isn't really much of a hand in his AJPW stuff: I've had the unfortunate task of watching most of it in action: but he evolves into probably the best "fish out of water" wrestlers ever, a pure and true underdog that couldn't even be called that, because at least underdogs win big matches sometimes. Inoue wins nothing, but somehow manages to get the crowd to rally endlessly behind him in every endeavour he makes: either teaming up with the old guard to try to get a big win or staring down some of the meanest, nastiest wrestlers on the roster, he's a true master of getting the most out of a considerably limited moveset, using a mix of comedy alongside genuine selling to get a audience to laugh, cheer, or even boo him. He won't amaze you with Terry Funk tier selling or astonish with epic workrate, but he'll rake the eyes really good, and on the (very) rare occasion he gets that Backbreaker off, the roof almost always nearly falls with how much fanfare he gets. The best "I know I'm bad but that's my gimmick anyway" worker I've ever seen. He's more Rocky than Rocky ever was. Katsuhiko Nakajima vs. Masao Inoue (NOAH 14.06.2020) Akitoshi Saito & Masao Inoue vs. Go Shiozaki & Katsuhiko Nakajima (NOAH 04.08.2019) Kenta Kobashi & Masao Inoue vs Jun Akiyama & Akitoshi Saito (NOAH 14.2.2014) Jun Akiyama vs. Masao Inoue (NOAH 23.04.2006) Akitoshi Saito & Masao Inoue vs. Mitsuharu Misawa & Yoshinari Ogawa (NOAH 10.09.2004) Masao Inoue vs. Yuji Nagata (NOAH 14.05.2003) Masao Inoue & Tamon Honda vs. Mitsuharu Misawa & Yoshinari Ogawa (AJPW 27.11.1999) Kenta Kobashi & Yoshinobu Kanemaru vs. Masao Inoue & Toshiaki Kawada (AJPW 02.01.1998)

He gets DQ'd almost automatically for his rather bad post-prime performances from around about the mid 2000's onwards. Solid in his prime but I couldn't in good faith have him there when all of that is lingering underneath the surface.

He's gotten better since his mostly terrible "I'm trying to be Kobashi guys!" style that even NOAH had to poke fun at by having him get murdered by Sasaki when he tried to do the same dances. He's gotten a better grove of what he wants to be and his 2020 run is pretty solid beyond some eh title defences. He's very emotive and works best in not overly long matches, of which he seems to stumble greatly in terms of pacing. I've never watched a long Shiozaki match where I've been able to keep my attention because he kinda just reverts to the same habits over and over again. Give him 20 to 30 minutes with a competent opponent, he's great. Anything longer starts to drift. It's not a huge issue but because they have tried endlessly to make him a Kings Road style guy, it bites him in the ass more often than not. That being said outside of his AJPW stuff (which is mostly good because his habits were curbed with the change of scenery mostly) and said 2020 run, really not much to grade him on outside of the occasional good match now and then. Don't really care for his tag stuff and he struggles when his opponent isn't bothering. For me, there's not enough for him to be anywhere major on the list. He'll be on the higher spots for sure.

One match that I feel personally gets overlooked is his Champion Carnival match with Hansen in 2000. Hansen is a week or so away from retiring formally and barely managed to get past Shinzaki for the first round, and Tenryu knows that and goes into here aiming to kill his momentum early. There's some brilliant tension between the pair as Hansen's put on the backburner for once against someone who's equally as dangerous as him, and he has to use every trick possible to stay in the running. It's a great example of Tenryu playing that stiff bastard as he's so vicious with his shots here, debilitate in how he works over Hansen's shoddy back for leverage, and how he's able to show that malice in small stuff, like aiming his strikes exactly for that area beyond all else or just in how he delays his chops slightly so he can aim for Hansen's throat better. Small details and callbacks to older material together (like they outright steal the infamous Tenryu/Hansen v Baba/Kimura opening but somehow dial it up even more extreme than before) really add to the whole deal. Workrate wise it wouldn't be anything special, but the occasion, the history, and that extreme violence just come together to a great little bout. That's always something I noticed: the guy is great at the small little details that you wouldn't really notice first viewing, from his facial expressions to how he sells fatigue over time and whatnot. It's impossible to not put him in the top 10 for all of the reasons already above and more. A insanely intelligent wrestler.

I love Fujita as this Inoki-Ism caveman who isn't a very good striker, was a mediocre wrestler, had no real good work in submissions, but a dude who could just consistently run someone down by brawling with them or just kicking their head off: it's like a RPG character that put all of their experience into being a huge brickhouse that has one way of fighting. Want to have a slow, calculated match with rich nuance, maybe a Kings Road build? Fujita doesn't give a shit, he's gonna spit mouth sanitizer or throw you off the roof of Korakuen. Dude can only work Inoki-Ism shoot-style, take it or leave it, he's fucking wrestling you to the mat or hitting you with the stiffest shots possible. The way that he just almost intrudes on anyone and gives them a hard time because of that fact, because he doesn't try to wrestle a slow methodical "epic" or a million false finishes, he just beats your ass and wins or you do it to him even more violently and win: that's a special aura that I think gives him a unique status of menace regardless of where he is on the card. Despite him showing up randomly to stare down Nakajima the other night, I still got hyped up, because I know he's gonna be a huge problem for the champ. He can brawl with young-guns trying to make a name for themselves, go for slugfests against more equal opponents, or just run through people and get some really compelling performances and reactions from wrestlers who usually don't bother (Saito for one) as they struggle against this relic kicking their brains loose. Aces can face him and reliably place themselves at risk because Fujita has that dangerous reputation that'll never vanish properly. As a pure wrestler yeah, he's not focused at all, isn't smooth whatsoever, can't even bump correctly most of the time and his matches usually follow few narratives. Those narratives are all he needs, because he's Fujita, and he's always been this single-minded fighter that brute-forces any problem he encounters. You take it, or you leave it. I think I need to stick him on the top 100 just because he's so good when he's on the ball in that format. Guilty pleasure for sure.

These are interesting points that I definitely think provide some questions that can be discussed further. How important is something like matwork to overall ring quality? Many of the most lauded top quality Japan guys like Shingo, Okada, Kobashi, hell even some of the outside picks like Nagayo (all people you seem to enjoy a fair bit) all had really unconvincing mat work at all, really. Okada got shit on for a lot of his 2020 stuff because of his obsession with getting the Money Clip over and subsequent work around it and Kobashi's technical stuff is near non-existent bar some small examples, and even then he couldn't get a crowd over with just that alone. I would much rather see Misawa outsmarting Ogawa on the mat (of which they built a whole series of matches around the concept) or him trying not to die when Hase's twisting his arm around than basically all of these guys trying to do purely technical stuff. Not everyone can be a demon on the mat like a Fujiwara or whatnot. That being said, it's a definite low spot in Misawa's repertoire: you see him struggling especially in the later half of the 90's when the UWF lads come down and he's incapable of working their style to any real degree, leading to some weirdly disjointed matches. There was one 1998 six-man in particular where him and Masahito Kakihara have probably one of the most awkward exchanges ever because both men don't play ball with the other and scuffle a lot. As for the rest of your points, I do agree with them to a degree. His Shield matches are great (how much of that is the Shield being themselves is up to the viewer) but limited. I've never seen Danielson get over super mediocre talent in high-stakes tag bouts like Misawa had to do for years and years, as well as having to mix up his exchanges from stiff exchanges, brawls, spot fests, etc etc. Again, this is mostly because of the booking at the time, but it's still a issue. As for your point in versatility, I disagree about your point about Misawa not having the range to do brawls (or at least against guys like Butcher) because I've seen him have terrific matches sub-prime against Morishima where half of the match is him getting fucking wrecked with huge shots, lariats, thrown around the place, etc. He has a trash brawl with a near cancer-ridden Kodo Fuyuki in 2002 where he's put through a table, takes some horrific bumps as well and the crowd eat up everything. Like sure, Misawa The Ace never had the chance to do those kind of matches (as you address in your post-ish) but when he was allowed to let his hair down and become this outsider enforcer like he was in his ZERO-ONE matches, he's still fantastic. These kind of questions are always hard to tell because of how chemistry works in general: you'd never think that two greats like Misawa and Hansen wouldn't work at all well together from first hand exposure.

I think Edge deserves a rethread after his return to the ring. The guy's been out for years and years and is almost in his 50's, but has almost instantly returned to having solid TV or longform matches (ignoring his fucking dreadful Wrestlemania bout) including getting Orton to some of his most compelling work in years, a fun extended feud with Reigns, as well as a utterly amazing series of matches with Crazy Seth despite having to have their big blowoff feud as a opener on a Saudi show. If he isn't on a top 100 before, this probably won't change a lot for you, but it's definitely something to consider as he's really had a good stint so far.

Misawa might have some obvious lower points in his career but his highs are terrific and beyond Danielson's by a far bit. Danielson really only has his RoH title run in 06 as a truly all-inspiring run that should be regarded as well as it is, while Misawa has multiple years starting from the early 90's where he's just on the ball all the time. Even when he's horribly banged up and brought back early to fix up a declining Kobashi title stint, he's still having these tip top matches where he's putting it all on the line. Danielson has really only his RoH title run to compare and while it's still fantastic, it's not up to the mark of which Misawa was at those few years of dominance. Earth's Champion and The New Daniel Bryan was a fun character-driven reign but it wasn't breaking new ground either. I guess one thing to also mention is that Danielson never really cracked tag format matches as well. He has his fun comedic work with Hell No that I loved, but the matches were.....not very good. They face Rhodes Scholars like a billion times and they mostly are in undercard bouts with nothing tag teams or just random people paired together. I know booking was mostly why that was, but they weren't very engaging in the ring either apart from some comedy spots. The best tag stuff I can recall is his short stints in NOAH and some select matches in RoH where he's surrounded by other great talent. Compare that to Misawa who has legendary wars with the Demon Army, some super underrated runs with Ogawa as tag champions, hell even his early Super Gen work with Kawada is excellently done as well, not withstanding their hidden gems like the 30 minute draw with the Funks way back in 90. The NOAH runs in particular where him and Ogawa are ones to point out because they aren't always facing amazing talent: getting guys over like Bart Blaxson, Donovan Morgan, Sano and other less than stellar talent (cough Inoue and Saito cough) to these near main event big matches is FAR from easy as anyone can testify, but they manage to do it most of the time. That's one aspect where I think Misawa absolutely crushes it in terms of the versatility argument. If we go just by longevity: yes, Danielson takes it, namely because older Misawa was in a rough position where he couldn't be afforded the same chances to take care of himself. I think there's more to the tale than just that, through.

I feel bad for Mcintyre because his final big break and title reign was all in COVID-land, so he didn't get that crowd buzz that he should have gotten when he went over Lesnar and whatnot. For what it's worth, I feel like he's a solid upper-card guy that can do TV length matches, the more showmanship-orientated WWE style long bouts and then also go the workrate route. He's also really underrated when it comes to getting better showings from people than they would otherwise, taking Ziggler to a fantastic babyface performance in their feud together, as well as (somehow) getting a good match out of Carlito lol. He excels in beefy matches but also as a big man alongside smaller guys, having really fun showings against Ricochet and a whole host of smaller indie lads. He doesn't bump like a maniac for them but he also makes sure to feed them just enough to get crowds invested when they do finally get past him. That being said, I feel like there's some somewhat wide holes in his style: he can't really do slower matches and he's not particularly very good at pacing these kind of matches. His work benefits from having a hot start, interference, him dominating, something to kick it off, because him trying to do holds and stuff is very dull. He also struggles at times in trying to get fire out of guys that really can't be bothered: some of his Orton matches suffer from this immensely as his....well, "habits" really cause them to drag, and Mcintyre isn't dynamic enough to counterbalance that. He's good in a lot of areas, but I can say I've never watched a truly amazing match out of him: everything is either decent to quite good. Even the suggested matches above from my memory weren't ones I was super crazy about, just kinda there: you have fun with them, but you aren't exactly going off the walls either. He still feels like a workaround and not a true main event, "top of the company" guy like Roman is. For a top 100 based purely off consistency, he MIGHT get on, especially for him making the best out of being in the dire TNA at the time. Top 100 in general for now? I wouldn't say so. Give it a few more years and maybe a actual title run with crowds.

Porky is just one of those guys that I've found endless entertainment from: even watching a random Dragondoor Project undercard from 2005 where the guy is fairly well past it in terms of workrate but still manages to get some of the biggest pops of the match (despite sharing the ring with Tiger Mask and Gran Hamada) by having solid power sequences alongside him either smacking or accidently knocking over his brother a lot lol. I wouldn't say he's a fine technical master or whatnot but he's incredibly good at what he does and has great timing for how he blends both being a idiot, but being a STRONG idiot that can knock people around into a formula that somehow makes sense without looking unconvincing. If I want to have fun watching a match first and foremost, I check out him and his brothers in action. Definitely worth a spot on the top 100 easy.

What always bugged me was the "Fallen Angel" shit: he comes down in a cool robe, spooky music, cuts dark promos with fancy editing and then just wrestles like a regular indie-joe that you see around every corner. It's like if Undertaker did his whole deal and then just wrestled like Mean Mark. I know it's a silly thing to pick on, but I feel like it's relevant here in that I just felt like Daniels had no sense of showmanship or entertainment beyond his big moves for a long while. He does those big moves REALLY well, mind you, but there's no fire, no anything behind what he's doing. Rag on Michaels all you want, but when he did his big spots, they felt urgent, dramatic: when he was taking on big monsters and having to do big dives and high-risk stuff just to equalise, you knew he was in danger. Daniels just casually nailing his BME after 20 minutes of taking brutal offence bugs me out, and it happens nearly every match. I think the Kawada quote about a noob Akiyama sums it up: “You’ve got all these moves; now it’s time to learn to wrestle.” Daniels can do the moves, but it took him a while to actually get the hang of not needing to do so much and instead focusing in on what he was good at. For his credit, I felt like he got much better on the mic (him in Bad Influence was probably one of the most entertaining acts in the shipwreck of early 2010's TNA) and paced his matches slower. He had a Two out of Three Falls AJ encounter in 2015 that I think might be their best because both men aren't just doing moves, but creating a narrative, making sense. He has a RoH match with Adam Cole that I really like, because when Cole gets his arm bashed, Daniels focuses in on it, builds offence around working the bad arm, building to bigger and bigger spots. Earlier Daniels would've probably just kept to the same tune. It's that reason that I actually like his later material better than when he was in his prime, because he's a lot more watchable when he's being a smart vet than a over ambitious guy with way too much athleticism for his own good. Same deal with Mutoh to a degree. Does he stand out in a top 100? I think he actually has a shot at 90 to 100, especially for his later material. He gets really good for a couple of years before his age starts to creep up on him but for those years, he's definitely worth checking out. Vet Daniels having top matches in every random indie he can get his feet in the door is a lot better than his X-Division days for extended viewing in my opinion. He has dynamic matches with a wide, wide host of wrestlers, always being able to get more out of them than perhaps they could do otherwise while pacing the big spots he can still do fantastically.

Again, I can get why Chavo gets on a nomination ballot but erm, no, not at all. He coasted on being on Eddie's incredibly large back for a while before having no luck trying to branch off himself to no avail. I think the WCW story of Chavo doing a entrance with a toy horse that one time for the fun of it and then having to use that as a gimmick to get any cheers because everyone was used to it says a lot about how creatively he thought about really anything. His characters were always one-dimensional trite, even when he was out of the WWE. He's not bad or anything and you can trust him to have a decent TV match but that's really it. Guys like Miz completely outwork him in that branch as well and he's not even here, so I can't imagine him getting anywhere close to a top 400, let alone 100. Again, if you like fairly decent consistency from your wrestlers, there's a lot better to be picking from.

This relating to their 1996 singles match? Super agree with that, I was pretty high on that until that spot: just sucked the life out of the crowd and didn't look at all convincing. He's fine when it comes to shooty stand-up but grappling tends to be a weird avenue for him in general.

hirochan60 Is mostly non-wrestling and random sumo stuff, but has a ton of camcorder Inoki/RJPW/Onita content that wasn't televised/is VERY difficult to find publicly. TigerMask666 Has a huge amount of Joshi discs and tapes uploaded publicly including huge JWP/AJW dumps. Manjigatame Has a lot of hard to come by ZERO-One and general Puro content. Also has custom collections for some lesser NOAH wrestlers that might prove useful. FMWdojo I mean, it's kinda obvious, isn't it? A lot of FMW stuff, official tapes, etc. Al Balog Posts a ton of early 2000's AJPW. Found basically Muto's entire Champion Carnival stuff here. Matt D Is the man when it comes to camcorder/vintage wrestling clips. Pro Wrestling Gold Mine Has some solid Sabu collections alongside some very obscure indies. hkkaneWM2012 Has a lot of mid-2000's NOAH.

I've been watching a ton of 90's/2000's Tiger Mask (namely RJPW work) and while there's some stinkers within the batch, he's definitely got a improved case for this based on what I've seen. Considerably adaptable in tags or singles against a super wide variety of opponents from a good match series with Suzuki to 5-minute sprints with a noob Ibushi and Otani to a brutal Takayama match all the way to having probably the last great match with old man Tenryu, can still go surprisingly well for his age and size, good technical stuff etc. Somehow also had a decent feud with no-knees Onita that didn't completely stink up the place. I'll have a more detailed examination up soon but I would suggest searching around for some of his stuff there.

Yeah Miz was never a workrate darling or anything but he's incredibly good at the fundamentals and works around them excellently with his heel persona: when matched with someone who can equally perform on his level as a babyface, you get some actually really great matches at times. Never forget that it was Miz that got mid-card hell Ziggler to maybe his best match in years.

I can get why she's here to a certain extent considering we have Trish (who could be argued as having less big big matches to work with than Mickie despite her having more of a impact overall) on here as well, albeit that wasn't exactly taken very seriously. She's had some super nothing title runs (not her fault of course because booking and the divisions at the time being bare bones as shit until way later) and I always used to cringe when she was in TNA trying to work with people who mostly couldn't really work (at least 5+ matches anyway) albeit she did eventually start to get better opponents and brought some legitimacy to the division. For what it's worth, I feel like she's a fairly solid act that even in her very very early days showed a lot of promise and athleticism right off the bat, and did eventually mature to a good upper-card act that sorta became a expert in carrying less able acts to good matches. Top 100 is the issue through, because as other have said there's a LOT of acts that were more beneficial in that they got to work with great opponents right off the bat and have far far better high ends than her at the moment. I didn't feel anything for the Purrazzo matches (maybe that's because I just don't like her style at all lol) and James's high ends are few and far between to compare. Like she's had good matches, but the vast majority of them for me just equate to just being, well, decent. She's sound in the ring and showed she could work with some of the better wrestlers but I would need to really see some truly big performances for her to have a shot, even as a outsider pick. Give her a few more years with her current workrate, then I'll rethink this.

Never really got Ambrose/Moxley at all, he just seems like a overly obnoxious "tough guy" stereotype with some loose brawling behind him and surprisingly sloppy wrestling at times. He's good when he has to rely less on his rep and focuses on having fun matches that don't drag a lot. NJPW was the only place where I actively tolerated his antics because he didn't always turn his matches into trash brawls with crazy spots, which he always seems to devolve into when given too much leeway: it works in big blood feuds (Ishii match excluding) but I hated his KENTA match and whatnot. As noted above, he's also very noticeable when he's not really engaged and struggles to have B-show performances without looking like he'd rather be elsewhere, of which he has YEARS of WWE material where that's the case. He's got great energy when he's on, the opposite is sadly true as well. The guy needs a hot crowd, a fairly solid opponent, and the right conditions suiting him to have a properly great match. Not saying he hasn't had matches that I've enjoyed a ton, but way out of the top 100 zone by far. Maybe there's a X-Factor I'm not seeing.