Ma Stump Puller

This is a LONG ass match, going past 30 minutes if you can believe it. Hara, however, is a damn good guy to be working a match of this length and incredibly apt as a opponent given he faced and defeated Keita in his debut match. This is as you can imagine very mat-focused match as a whole. The matwork is really good but there is a ton of it, also doesn't attempt to make it anymore palpable either. Hara generally is the better grappler until Keita gets one of his tricked out leg-holds (think it was a inverted figure-four? ) to damage it, allowing him to get some leeway in by targeting said leg and forcing Hara to counter before grabbing something better instead like a arm or the head. This works until his opponent decides to start using strikes, which drastically changes things and adds in some good danger from any attempt to run in for takedowns. There's this awesome bit where Hara seemingly sprawls out a Keita takedown only for him to lead his foot in so he could stick his knee right on his ankle bone for a no-hand toe hold, absolutely great shit there. Keita keeps up the control with general limb work while Hara can still rely on just beating the piss out of him when it mattered and focusing on his own leg work which he could supplement with his vicious low kicks for knockdowns. The match at times becomes essentially the two in knots trying to batter the other person's limb without getting wasted on their own part, and really, is there anything better in wrestling? I also thought that Keita's leg selling in places was way better than it needed to be. The way he'd hop around and keep the bad leg out of striking range or even drop potentially winning submissions because the leg just wasn't good enough to support his weight is a novel concept that definitely has few applications in actual wrestling matches, let alone one without a ring or ropes. Most of the time you just see the person just sell in the holds before shaking their leg a bit and going right into full speed sequences; no such thing here, thankfully. Seeing the guy even pull out William Regal throwbacks out of pure frustration was a treat as well, trying to backfoot boot him on ref breaks and practically begging him to shake his hand so he could mangle him back down again. Hara definitely ruled here as well with his explosive kicks, basically pasting Keita whenever he'd get the chance with strike combos. The second half does have some erratic stuff thrown in by Keita especially (which did somehow take away from the intensity these two had done well to establish) but they brought things back to greatness in the closing moments as the two brawl with strikes, throwing out closed fists and whatnot. Keita manages to land a modified GTS where he drops the knee on Hara's back before following up with a stiff ass lariat. His hubris, however, becomes his undoing during the finishing stretch. He interrupts the ref count to try to finish him off with a head/arm choke into pin before Hara smoothly rolls around for a armbreaker. Keita ends up stuck in a triangle choke when he attempts to escape, throwing in some dramatics as he falls over trying to power out of it and ends up getting choked out for the submission loss to Hara....again. As a match it's really quite something with a unique styles clash between the more refined/strict Bati-Bati Hara vs the more Llave Keita resulting in a ton of really great engaging technical work between the two. They both respectfully bring their best here, though I think in terms of individual performances Keita did slightly better; his selling and sheer aggression at points to try to score the win felt real and absolutely fuelled by struggle to defeat someone who is in many ways the opposite of himself: a conventional clean-cut striker. Hara is a good foil for that unique dynamic and his strikes are mostly solid, yet he seemed a bit more generic by comparison. It works for the match though, making this a real easy watch despite the heavy amounts of grappling thrown in. Definitely watch this even if the prospect of watching a ringless match seems weird.

This was for the Openweight title that Kong held at this point and time. Historically Amano has always taken L's to Kong. Didn't matter the promotion or the stakes, she always got her ass kicked. She's gotten her ass...less kicked mind you (especially between their 2002/2005 matches where her stature as a rival to Kong becomes closer) as the years have went by but she's always lost anyway. To ratify this we have her meet Fujiwara for presumably more submission training. Amano's "training" with Fujiwara (seemed more like it was just getting her ass kicked over and over, but I guess that's how they did it back in the day) basically spells out that she's going to work on Aja's limbs to neutralise her strength advantage and maybe survive a potential Uraken. Of course the match is still her getting beat up for a good stint as per Aja matches go with some fairly brutal kicks to the head early on though she does get the advantage briefly with a nice dive to the outside, before course Aja quickly taking it back with a brainbuster and a safe (but brutal looking) sit-out elevated piledriver. I guess one issue with this is that the selling is a bit dodgy; it makes sense for the early match but there's a lot of doing moves right after the other person. It makes sense for Aja given her monster status, Amano less so. She covers for that by mostly trying to grapple or throwing epic headbutt combos as said moves so it at least feels more palpable as a immediate comeback as opposed to doing fancy spots. Eventually she catches her opponent out with a cool rolling Fujiwara armbar modification and this opens Aja up for more punishment as she struggles to pick up steam with only one proper good arm as she either gets countered trying to do stuff or can't hit nearly as well due to said arm. It's fairly basic work on the surface, Aja's just mastered it to the point where it feels a lot more natural than many give it credit for. She never feels like she's "acting" hurt with theatricals or Hogan-level facials, it's more like her battling with her own pain and very sparingly showing it as a result. Amano did a good job of still making this feel really desperate despite that fact with solid frantic selling and consistently trying to rip the arm off in holds, snapping on roll-ups or just ramming-speed headbutts that looked like murder; there was no real sophisticated stuff here, just loads of things that felt like they were trying to be killshots. The finishing stretch had some good drama around Aja finding her own counters to Amano's wacky headbutts, but struggling to finish due to her usually dominant Uraken arm being, well, crappy. It's the classic Aja Kong monster in peril structure and credit due, it's pretty solid, even if I think Amano surpasses her here in sheer intensity. The bit where she jumps on Kong's back to stomp her in sheer animalistic frustration after she got a rope break off a armbreaker just spelled out how desperate things seemed for her as her chances for success kept slipping away with every chance she missed to finish this as soon as possible. It gets better after watching their 2002 match where Amano tried the same arm-attack plan and got wrecked trying, so seeing her succeed but just stop right next to the finish line was understandably tense. Kong does slow near the end due to her smashing the back of her head (off a O'Connor Roll, if you can believe it) still pulls through for the numerous wacky Amano headbutt spots that ends with her going over clean. Not as perhaps good as prior versions of this match as the finish isn't really as tense or exciting (perhaps because it was overcooked with too much, I'd say) the match as a whole is still a real solid sprint (only clocking in at 13 minutes!) that never really had any downtime and kept pushing the action all the way to the end. Generally Amano matches tend to be better the shorter they are and this, I'd say, is a good indicator of that being factual.

Honestly, it all comes down to Tana having the frog splash for a finish more than anything else. Dude wrecked his knees with it, very ironic given his ties to Muto. NJPW dads also wrestled more like conventional heavyweights to boot (more strikes/slams) which might've been better for their bodies in the long run. Tana was a Shawn Michaels guy so he was never going to fit that kind of style

I think the issue is that 2001 Mutoh was 39 when he did his incredible reinvention. Not that crazy when you think of AJ having his huge WWE run in his 40's, still in a reasonable area where most guys can still go, especially guys who were as freakishly athletic like Muto was. Tana, by comparison, is 47. A lot older and most definitely a lot more banged up by comparison given he's mostly not had any major surgeries. I'd like to believe otherwise, but he just doesn't have it in him anymore nor the real savvy like his mentor to mix things up. Tana's been the same worker for the last 20 years more or less, just slower with time

more detailed diving here 30+ minutes of grappling on some random dirty mats? Must be a Keita Yano match! Not satisfied with beating each other up we instead get Yano and Yamada teaming up against some fellow indie goobers. For real though, this was fun if you can get into the grimy conditions. Yamada and Yano basically twist and bend their opponents up into some really nasty knots for a good portion of it and it's about as entertaining as you can imagine. Keita especially pulls a lot from WoS transitions here with how showy he is and to get over their whole stance as superior grapplers alongside occasionally pulling out some old-school dirty shit like jamming his foot into Baki's eye during a headlock struggle. Yamada is a quirky one here with some neat and fairly unique joint manipulation mostly on Shota's bad arm for the first half. The middle is weird in that it speeds up immensely with a snappy exchange between Tamura/Baki as they dodge around kicks from the other, but then it goes into a real long Dory-style headlock slog involving Shota and co dragging Keita into a uber long series of headlocks never-ending. I can at least say that they *tried* to make this work, Shota just isn't the guy for it though given his real lack of complexity working on the mat. I mean was it creative that they broke it by having all four blokes stuck in headlocks running into each other? Sure. Was it actually good, though? Not really. I did love the fact that this epic headlock leads to Keita getting his excuse to blade all over the place like the carny lad he is, turning the match from a technical exhibition to a mid-80's South bloodfest as things devolve into a lot of kicks and punches. We get a goofy cool spot where Keita flings himself off the window for a bootleg version of a rope-hung DDT before going into a big Brody-inspired comeback before randomly doing some cool kicks into a big running spear to even things out. They definitely got the memo for the last third as it starts right off with Yamada and Baki beating the shit out of each other with leg kicks and elbows respectfully before going into some wacky spots like Keita's signature leapfrog senton and Yamada just straight-up ripping off Super Dragon in places. Baki had some good intensity with his shots and they work in sturdy hope spots where Baki seemingly has the advantage before getting shutdown before he can do anything serious, like him throwing multiple leg kicks before Keita baits him into a ankle lock, etc etc. Really liked how it went mostly into the two basically punching Baki for pins rather than attempting fancy submissions; given they hadn't worked before it was logical that they'd instead just try to end things quickly. Shota gets in for a gloriously awful hot tag as he hits dainty offence like a Russian leg sweep, just awful shit in general. Thankfully they kept a good tempo going into the finish as Baki threw hard kicks at Yamada (including a real mean backdrop at one point) before Keita stuck in and managed to win with some uber contrived submission after a couple of backbreakers. All in all it's pretty much the exact kind of experimental match that Keita Yano was infamous for around this time, so I feel like it's going to be pretty much Marmite depending on who's having to watch it. What doesn't help is that Shota/Baki...aren't that good as opponents. Shota is a very basic wrestler who barely catches your attention in that everything he does is basic and not particularly given much flash to it, he can do everything decent but he has nothing to give against these two bar a body to move around with. Baki is better, though still suffers from not really getting a look in bar some decent moments. It really felt like Keita and co were steering the boat for the most part: given the structure of the match this was hardly surprising given they controlled most of it. I'd still say this was good though if only because it has a lot of charm and variety on the table despite the lack of a ring.

I'll only be truly happy once we get the long-awaited GENTARO/Yoshinari Ogawa clashes only then

A 30 minute draw that's NOT clipped to shit? Wow! Ran and Amano were two of the clear standout young talent at the time alongside the rest of the JWP Fab Four, so it makes sense that they'd be given the most room to stretch their legs and do work with the other. This was one of those matches where if you aren't a fan of grappling then this just isn't going to be up your alley because oh boy there's a ton of it here with so much time to burn through. Amano typically isn't very high on the pecking order but here she's supremely confident as her forte is all about mat-work and scrambling for submissions, something that is radically apparent here. She consistently forces Ran to grab for rope escapes and consistently is able to get her on the defensive; even when she's able to escape one hold she has another up her sleeve almost always to answer. They do the usual ways to make stuff like this more interesting with them slowly devolving into dirty shit to try to get the advantage (including a random stomach claw at one point? I dig it) and generally try to make things feel intense as the match goes forward and the two start to get tired of the other's antics. Around the 15 minute mark they start going into more expected work with signature spots and dives to the outside. It's not bad and the two certainly have good chemistry, but it does feel a bit sloppy in places despite the spirit going into this being a solid base, with a lot of it feeling just thrown out to pad out the time. I'd say after they tease the count-out is where the match starts to get tangibly better as they focus more on differing the two by Ran going for bombs and strikes while Amano hones in on the holds to try to eek out a win that way. There's no long-term limb selling (which can bug some) other than that I really liked how this escalated from holds and counters to big huge moments before settling back into said holds. Amano is relentless with the cross armbreaker and finds a good few fun opportunities to incorporate some tricky transitions whenever possible to get it over as the big kill-move to watch out for. Ran defends it surprisingly competently and builds it up great early on by having her grip broken and the hold extended, leading to her doing this terrific sell-job with a huge screech before barely getting to the ropes before the arm broke. With that established (x move = bad for Ran) the rest of their exchanges mostly come down to if Ran can defend against the armbreaker or if this time it'll will catch her short: simple but pretty effective I'd say. They forgo that only near the end when the 30 minute mark is ticking down to go into a couple of near fall suplexes purely out of desperation. Ran gets a couple of decent kneebars locked in before the bell sounds for the draw. As this is a single-elimination tournament however they simply can't have a draw so they restart. I thought this quick rush at the end was pretty well done. They balanced out the fatigue-selling from the end of the match with more of a roughness to how they worked in moves, generally feeling more scrappy and unclean. Ran desperately tried to finish things quick with kneebars and bombs, but Amano rode out the storm and managed to get in a big final armbreaker that simply couldn't be escaped. This is a drastic change from the usual kind of matches that JWP were throwing out at the time, and it really benefits from standing out like that; clearly intended to showcase these two future acts in a good light. I'd say this DOES achieve that goal, but the match itself does feel like a 30 minute match and definitely is not able to hide the more glaring limitations. The more scrappy parts feel a bit disjointed and there are a few too many armbreaker holds that are broken, really devaluing a move that's supposed to be hyped as being insta-death by this point and time (especially with MMA starting to get a foothold proper) The mat-work aside that is pretty sturdy despite Ran not being as complex/good on the mat as her opponent, though that's worked into the match itself bar near the end where she's able to wiggle out a few of her own. All in all still a quite fun outing, just a bit too constrained by the length. One of Amano's main strengths is her intensity and she simply can't carry that for something of this length despite her best attempts.

Incredible action-packed tag that had some standout performances from the Ozaki duo and Devil. Fukuoka isn't bad here per-se, but she definitely felt like the Jannetty of the four compared to everyone else; she's good, everyone else here just had way more work in the tank compared to her. This was a really great rush of action that came and went like it was barely 5 minutes despite going nearly 20 as everyone just hits big impactful stuff alongside really well done spots built around the dynamics of the tag itself. Amano for me stood out heavily in this match for her experience level; the bit right at the start where she gets pissed because Fukuoka and co are too busy staring daggers into Oz instead of paying attention to her and instantly goes into pitbull mode with headbutts and all sorts of scrappy shit was great aggression and really something many people with double her years couldn't really do authentically. Amano is a great emoter as well so she can flip on a dime and go into wounded rookie building a hot tag real easily despite all of the above still holding true. She takes some incredible bumps (especially one German suplex where she hurls herself so violently that she basically bangs off the middle rope in the process) and works her role as the weak link tremendously well, taking some absolutely disgusting bombs from the pair to get that over. Oz was the opposite: she could keep things under control and of course could throw out her usual crazy work when needed. She does noticeably hold back a bit both in-match and out to let Amano's terrific selling and struggle be extenuated more, only emerging to get hot tags or to stop a pin at the very last moment. Her apron work is stellar and she does a good job at getting convincingly close to outsmarting the opposing duo at points despite having to typically do so by herself. Devil was REALLY the star of the show here though. She's so economic when it comes to condensing her work down to get the maximum amount of impact; typically only needing to loom over people and do her crazy face to get good reactions. She also gets some insanely awesome power spots where she just gets to throw people around all over the place (and I do mean all over, even some far away rows of Korakuen chairs aren't safe from bodies flying at them) really seeming like a unstoppable threat that can just turn the match at any point if she gets her hands on someone. She's got some solid understated "big deal" selling as well where she sparingly takes huge bumps and instead focuses on conveying a lot through little subtle moments instead where it's more about wearing her down more than anything else. It makes the batshit crazy finish all the better of which I won't spoil because it's just that nuts. Solid match that has a lot about it to enjoy; my only real issues were the dodgy selling at points that got a bit much near the end with some questionable moments. I won't hammer that issue down too much though because it wasn't that much of a tangible issue and they were self-aware enough to finish well before it got too much.

With a bit of digging it actually isn't THAT tricky despite the censors. UWF Original didn't have a ton of foreign talent past the first few months before they started doing more Catch/shoot-work. -started working 15th of November -finished on the 5h of December (so anyone who started and ended on those exact dates would match) -seems to be American given the Miami/Japan transfer (so exclude any British workers) -original thread states he trained under Boris Malenko, mostly did dates in Florida All of this info confirms the identity as Scotty Williams, I believe (though the thread above also mentions Jim Savage, so that could also be the case lol)

can't wait for the main event to be suzuki doing forearms for 15 minutes, epic bloodsport is barely shoot-style anyway so it's gonna be more liberal than pure MMA/Inoki-Ism stuff, especially if they're trying to get tickets (worked UWF antics don't sell much there anymore)

Decent match that's built on the young pricks in Amano/Sato trying to overcome Dynamite's immense advantages over both of them. Dynamite hits like a truck and was very much still capable of hitting all of her best hits while Bolshoi handles the brunt of the working exchanges, using a lot of her lucha knowledge to keep things grounded. Most of the first half is taken up by Amano doing solid feeding/selling and really getting over her struggle to stay in the game despite being firmly outclassed. This match basically lives and dies by how much you like outside brawling because oh boy there's a decent chunk of it here. Lots of the typical hierarchy no-selling shtick, etc etc. Definitely feels like a Dynamite match all things considered. Pretty great spot where Sato keeps trying to knock Dynamite out of the SDL she's got on Amano with dropkicks to the head but keeps getting no sold. Dynamite takes all of them (and some of these look real nasty all things considered) before getting out of the hold herself and killing Sato with some awful stiff punts to the head, including one right to the back to finish off. Dynamite eventually starts to take bumps when she gets double teamed and has a couple of times where cracks start to show in her usually pretty tough stature before she can just snap back into things with another big kick or something of that sort so the usual business there. Bolshoi's stuff by comparison isn't as good as she's mostly there to do some generic work and sell for the other two, namely with leg work. She does get some Ogawa-like moments where she gets to be the sneaky technical master she will eventually become but it's mostly her not really doing a whole lot interesting and: even worse: it's by design. Sato is a perfectly fine GAEA-style worker who would find her niche as a mean hoss a few years down the line, as of now she's just really just hanging around here for the most part. There are some moments where you see bits of her throwing some aggression but no awesome tackles or huge power spots = instantly forgettable for me ngl. Loads of technically competent bits, strikes mostly bleh (Dynamite has to try to sell her weak ass backhand and it's rather depressing) just there for the most part. The match kinda just ends rather than building much. Amano lands a good few German suplexes for near falls before Dynamite marches in to control things again, Bolshoi and co go on the top rope and she hits a top rope Uranage to get the pin. No real tension built there apart from one or two near falls and there was no big burst of violence to really cement this as the turning point, just more or less a big spot into the end. Not bad, just hamstrung by this being built around Dynamite (who is still great, mind) taking up a lot of the time doing her usual routine against two people who positively don't threaten her at all. Bolshoi has to wrestle a featureless style as to not get in the way of this so no fancy lucha work, just loads of holds and slams that grind the pace down. Sato was fine and Amano was a bit iffy in places but mostly felt really good going up against the pair, especially Dynamite whom probably would've been a solid match for her at this point. All in all not BAD per-se but lacking in a real epic aspect to get it beyond just "fine" tier bar a good performance off Dynamite doing her usual formula.

Entrapped by the limitations of late-Toyota matches, but still pretty good. Shida/Kagetsu make a decent unit with their respective shtick and the vets do a good job conveying that all things considered, giving them enough time to cement themselves as threats despite their relative greeness. Toyota of course NEEDS to get all of her shit in so we have just a big chunk of her doing all of her usual wacky flips, once you get past that and you have Kage/Amano just beating the piss out of each other then this starts to pick up real well especially with that one spot where Kage tries doing Aja's escape out of a German suplex by falling down and throwing a kick only for Amano to hit a headbutt right when they flop down lol. There's some goofy comedy as Toyota tries to send Amano flying into Kage with a top rope dropkick but that naturally just causes her to flop over and get almost pinned instead, leading to the younger pair getting in a small bit of control work until the lead for the finish. That consisted mostly of Amano doing sick submission counters while Kage sold well and milked the drama of their struggle well all things considered. The finish being a combo of Toyota's heel kick + Amano pulling off some Bolshoi-tier tricked out reverse Fujiwara armbar to get the tap was especially nifty and played well on teamwork being a big factor here as a whole. All in all, surprisingly strong burst of action that played to everyone's strengths and a definite highlight of the Amano/Toyota duo as a unit.

would be funny if they do a wrestlemania 9 and have rock lose in 10 minutes due to nonsense then cody jumps in for the last 20 after rocky can't continue rock/roman is still pretty based though (I'll make up for NOAH not getting their Muto/Rock match they were asking for last year)

Cody knows better than to mess with Black Adam #hierarchyofpower

pretty good event despite the lack of surprises in the male rumble. Felt like the crowd were a bit weak as well around about the end (wasn't helped by the middle part being just full of mid-card dudes lol) but all in all I'd say was enjoyable stuff

Even when mercilessly cut (to 5 minutes, no less) this was pretty cool as a epilogue to their incredible 2011 tag match. Amano had to contend with getting kicked in the head a lot by a relentless Kana who ultimately felt more confident standing up than grappling, so she used that as a clutch to basically try to balance things out by turning this into a grapplefest whenever she could. It definitely feels like a Bati-Bati match by nature as most of this came down to just who could stand to throw the sickest strikes to counter the other with the suplexes being used as a big punctuation mark whenever a breakthrough was made and one of them wanted to try to settle things quick. There's no polite lame forearm exchanges or patient waiting for the next moment to strike, it's just these two basically finding different ways to mangle the other while not trying to die themselves in the process. Of course in the end this is fruitless as the two simply are too violent with each other and are incapable of meeting the count of 10 after a particularly nasty headbutt/kick exchange between the two leaves them incapable of standing, thus making this a draw. Annoying finish, yes, but given we've seen what a long match between the two essentially looks like I'm not complaining that much. Really awesome burst of nastiness that cut deep and quick for how little of this was left on the table. Fast-food violence I'd say describes this well. Further documentation here

Fujinami's longevity definitely has to be commended: even after 2006 he has occasionally good matches with game opponents (Funaki in 2015/Tamura in 2021) he has goofy spectacle showings (Mascaras in 2011/endless vet matches) and generally will always give out a competent performance even at his most phoned in. Of course he was gonna be in the top 100 regardless of the above, it's just a nice feature to put on top of everything else. I'm a sucker for wrestlers who have great volume of work and he most definitely qualifies.

A potential dream match between two of the best Joshi grapplers of the time turns out to be not what it could've potentially been, but still nevertheless a fun watch. It was not a shocker than this was a banger by any extent of the imagination even with the clipping taking about 4 minutes off the runtime. Yagi is a similarly awesome grappler that was chronically overlooked because of her being rather undersized even by Joshi standards, which is a shame because she's real smooth here. Loads of snug grappling transitions and sequences that even the Michinoku crowd had to woo and ahh at points because these two are just that damn good at getting submission wrestling over without needing to grind the match to a dead halt like a Shamrock/Funaki tend to do. Any match that incorporates a Electric Chair lift into a cross armbreaker is pretty much instantly going to be something worth watching in my mind. Some awkward bits with the faster moments as Amano isn't the most seasoned at this point but none that break the flow of the match completely. Yagi takes from a Fujiwara finish as she takes a vicious German suplex in order to snap on a lightning-fast Fujiwara armbar only to then hit the ropes just as things seemingly start to get real hairy. Amano like a goof tries for one herself immediately after only for Yagi to hit a awesome side-backdrop pin into cross armbreaker to finish this off conclusively with a another cool moment. Fun small outing that really makes you wish Amano dipped her toe into ARSION at some point: the whole shoot vibe that had would've worked wonders for something like this, especially with more time and a crowd conditioned to enjoy the grappling more so than anything else. Further documentation here

Sonoko Kato was a GAEA trainee who's had her fair share of solid matches; more of a shooty kind of wrestler than anything flashy, injuries dragging down her potential sadly long before she could've done anything substantial bar winning tag gold with a young Meiko (good company there.) She got her incredible second wind in OZ and wrestles to this day if you can believe it. Anyway, this was really good: Amano at this point had mastered the art of the sub-15 TV match and knew how to get a lot of quality out of relatively small portions of time. The starting sequences were established around cool basic grappling and Amano aping random Osamu Nishimura spots for the fun of it. Kato gets pissed off with the goofy ahh nonsense and turns this into a brawl where we got some nice scrappy moments and cool spots with Amano doing a DDT on the outside and Kato hitting a apron senton. Outside of a awkward botch where Amano seemingly can't get in position for her diving second rope headbutt the in-ring stuff ruled. Loads of stiff shots from Kato as she can do all of these floaty senton attacks in the corner or turtle kicks while Amano mostly had to rely on technical counters and using her durable head to get leverage here with savage headbutts. Kato seems unstoppable as she throws out multiple big kicks and a meaty top rope leg drop, but can't get a proper good 3-count despite her best attempts. I thought the tension was well-put together here as Amano had to chain up stuff like the snap Tiger Suplex or fake out running headbutt to try to equal things out, really got the match going with the sheer speed of it at points. Goofy finish through: having Amano basically no sell Kato's big finish and multiple headkicks so she could then win with a random small package out of nowhere felt a bit politick by nature. Bar that through this was pretty good! A bit shaky in places as I think the two try to get a bit too cute with how speedy this could get, mostly this was just really well constructed wrestling bits that never got to a truly great level but were still extremely enjoyable, especially with how they'd work in the striking portions into everything else. Another solid late-Amano outing.

TL:DR Version: Watched this and I will second that it was really well done in terms of layout and sheer violence despite some greenness on the account of Amano, but also balances that with a really good sense of mutual disrespect that the two understand and appreciate as things move further. Good watch. Longer review below that I stuck up elsewhere: A really good rite of passage for Amano as she battles against her own mentor in a fight she has clearly little to no chance of winning. Ozaki neutral starting off before Amano tries to go for a cheap flash pin with a German suplex while her back is turned so she immediately goes into full shit-heel mode with loads of gloating and taunting. There's a great sense of both student and master both knowing how to bend the rules and get ahead in their own respective ways and almost....respecting that, in a way? Like they know the other is going to be scrappy so it's a sense of "well get on with it then" rather than the usual indignation you would expect. Ozaki at times seems very proud of her student finding ways to endure her beatdowns and still manage to inflict pain despite the immense disadvantages Amano naturally has: she's nowhere near as good a brawler, has a rough time trying to push her weight here, and even on the technical front Oz is more than capable defending and blocking holds when she's aware. The only times Amano gets the advantage is when she's able to just outpace her mentor with raw speed and aggression more so than anything else, with some really good sequences displaying that in full view. Of course Ozaki can just walk back into this with a nasty dropkick or a stiff boot or slap to the face, but that isn't always the case. The match really kicks into high-gear in terms of emotive value when Amano manages to bait Ozaki into committing to a early pinning powerbomb to trap her in a inverted armbreaker; despite getting to the ropes Oz's arm is completely busted in the process and she essentially sells it like it's been broken for the most part. This definitely intensifies the drama given that fact and Ozaki's amazing sell-job to convey that unexpected weakness that she now has to somehow win with one good arm left. Amano in turn goes laser-focused for the shitty arm with boots and other submissions, really focusing in on what will be one of her best features in how she can do cool tricked out speedy submission work while keeping things frenetic and interesting. The moment where Ozaki tries for the half suplex and gets so pissed off at her opponent again exploiting her bad arm that she just fucking hammers in knees to her head until Amano dies before following up with equally stiff foot stomps and a powerbomb for a near fall was a great moment and really felt like things immediately went from a 5 to a 10 on the intensity scale. Amano gets blasted with a Uraken so badly that she starts bleeding from the nose just to hammer in that point that Oz is no longer messing around and wants to end this as soon as possible. That in turn opens her up to a bunch of signature Amano armbreaker transitions that do inch ever closer to a victory before Ozaki counters the third into this terrific one arm powerbomb to finish up shop in brutal fashion. The post-match of both of them tearing up and hugging was a emotional moment to cap this off and really bookended the mentor/student dynamic these two had going. So yeah, great match obviously. Between Amano's scrappy moments and Ozaki's incredible all-rounded talent at this time you really couldn't go that wrong. Loads of mutual pettiness shared with a equal sense of respect for said pettiness makes for a uniquely fun type of violence that is hard to find much at all.

I'd agree if his greatest hits were ever any good to be worthy doing again

Good in WAR as this unseasoned pitdog that just hurls stiff karate strikes at everyone who tries tangling with him, NJPW stuff was similarly the same if a bit less explosive as he mixed into the usual cooking pot of styles around at the time. Had a pretty great post-prime career as a NOAH loyalist with definite unrealised potential as a low-key threat to the main players. Kinda got complicit after a while and lost his edge as time and age crept up despite having a really entertaining underdog dynamic with him and Inoue. A lot of his 2010's material in particular just wasn't much to talk about ngl. That sours any prospect of a top 100 run for me.

Fuchi the GOAT for being 70 and having a 20 minute match with one of All Japan's brightest and youngest stars. It was also really cool to see 90's prick Fuchi return; cool uncle Fuchi is nice and all, but that was his peak years in terms of entertainment and even here with all of the natural wear and tear he's brought with him you still get that occasional moment of greatness out of the guy that brings you back to those times. Anzai humours the vet with some basic lockup exchanges until Fuchi pokes the bear a bit too much with a cheeky slap to the face and a flash backdrop to try to end the match early for the upset, inviting a big beatdown from Anzai as he essentially runs over the guy with his Jumbo knee and other finishes. I do like how the match doesn't try to pretend that Fuchi is on any big equal footing with his opponent: he's consistently struck down and having to really sell through a ton of work just to get maybe a couple of shots in, and even those aren't really that effective. Consistent great camera shots of Fuchi's struggle as he has to claw himself back up from his beatdowns conveys a naturally very compelling narrative that the crowd took easy to with numerous chants and big heat whenever Fuchi did actually manage to get something out. Was also cool seeing him hit some throwbacks like the Fuchi dropkick and Baba chops/boot. I thought this also really did a great job with how minimalistic it was at times; getting convincingly solid sequences out of exchanging and struggling out of surfboards, getting huge reactions for them struggling over who can bodyslam who, etc. It was a breath of fresh air to see someone throw actual good punches for once as Fuchi gets to do his dirty antics for old times sake. The last third being a battle for survival as Fuchi battles his own ailing body more than Anzai himself, taking consistent running knees and barely able to do anything but kick out. The big finish being around imparting his signature facelock to the younger talent by tapping out to it was especially cool to see. Obviously this is going to be limited by your tolerance for a 70 year old wrestling but in terms of guys his age Fuchi is WAY better than a lot of wrestlers both his age and younger, you can tell he's at least kept himself in relatively good shape all this time given he could still hit the beats here and whatnot. It's less about the workrate anyway, it's all about milking crowd reactions with a beloved talent with relatively little action, and guess what? It worked very well in that regard. Anzai did a solid job carrying Fuchi physically to something beyond what he would do normally, but as a consequence of that he seemed a bit muted by contrast, more as the wall for Fuchi to bounce off and work off than his own standalone personality.

To be fair that's always been the excuse used for him lol. I think the issue is less about him being a name-value (which let's be fair he IS a name-value hire that can at least work) and more about Ziggler being a horrible Shawn Michaels impersonator for the last 10 years

This was fine. Best Joshi of the 2000's? Absolutely not lol. This started off decently enough with a scrappy back and forth before slowing down with a long brawl on the outside. It had some cool bits (Amano enjoying a beer while Nishio was stuck in a chair, Nishio's running boot to Amano on a chair sitting on the apron) but it was mostly either weak chair shots or walking and/or the occasional strike or whatnot. Literally spend like 15 minutes on the outside just hitting each other with chairs over and over until Amano no-sold a chair to the head with a cool headbutt and took over with a sunset once on the inside. Both blade, Amano has a long entertaining control segment with head biting and dragging her around the place until Nishio bounces off after a move and no-sells. Now....we have to talk about the Tiger Suplex sequence here. Listen, I love big dumb movefests as much as the next person, but this was taking the piss. This was 3 WHOLE minutes of them exchanging Tiger Suplexes over and over and over, screaming after every near fall as the person taking them somehow had the energy to apply one back to the other right after. I get it, fighting spirit, blah blah. There's a limit to my suspension of disbelief when it comes to this kind of stuff. I can buy no-selling a big move to do one right after; you can explain it away as a mix of adrenaline and sheer will to continue. Multiple no-sells in a row is when you start losing me. Doing it for 3 minutes while some of the worst over dramatics and "ohhh I'm stumbling over" nonsense is going on? I've left the room lol. It definitely doesn't help that Amano just starts running the ropes at one point with absolutely no issues before going back to the fatigue selling after a simple kick to the chest. I will say, however, that the big conclusive push being Amano just goofily running into her opponent for a loud ass stiff headbutt was really cool and almost saved this entire bit if it wasn't for the one-count pinfall right after burying that and the last couple of minutes. The last third is basically all the usual "big match" isms of the last 20 years, lots of near falls, random no-selling and big bombs over and over on the other. Granted they were good bombs but still. This also has a really jank finish as Amano lands a epic second rope headbutt for another near fall, for some reason this is the killer notion that somehow prevents either woman from meeting the 10-count so it leads to a draw. Then we get a match reset and the two are immediately back on their feet and doing more moves, running the ropes, etc. It seemed like a completely different match given the two were near-death just a minute earlier yet now are hurling themselves for roll-ups and dives to the outside. It didn't really make much sense by the logic of the match (these two being so evenly matched that they simply just bash together until exhaustion) but fuck it we got some cool stuff out of it so I wasn't that bothered. This finish is significantly improved as Nishio lands a pop-up powerbomb before getting caught in a triangle choke that eventually managed to bring her down for the submission loss. What's great about this match is definitely the intensity; Amano is always fantastic when it comes to getting over these really high-stakes situations with plenty of screaming and big bumps when it matters. It doesn't feel contrived or put-on despite the extent of how much it happens here; you completely buy her both goofing off at the start with the brawling and her slowly realising, to her terror, that her opponent is much tougher than she thought going in. It's a good example of the snowball effect working here to get the intensity building despite the slowish start. Nishio I was significantly less sold on; her offence felt limited at points and she really felt like she was being dragged along by her opponent as opposed to pushing the pace herself. Given this whole match was a vehicle to get her over (the background being Amano essentially gatekeeping her opponent from the promotion because she felt they weren't good enough) it didn't sit well to basically see that be sorta realised. She's not bad by any means; just not at the point where I can imagine her no-selling minutes-worth of killer moves that have stumped and pinned Aja Kong, you know? That doesn't seem right lol. So yeah, I'd say this is definitely a polarising match for sure, there are elements that I just can't stand yet the actual core of the match (the wrestlers/general pace) is by itself sound and definitely worth checking out. If you can stomach some bad tendencies then this is definitely solid.