Ma Stump Puller

Battlarts 2.0 did have some questionable elements about it, but including talents like these certainly wasn't one of them; this was pretty incredible for a undercard match. This started off with some grappling and then they pushed up the pace rather early with a pair of dropkicks before settling back down to more mat-work. As I've said about Kimura before she's not exactly one to really be the person pushing for holds here; she's more around just to essentially carry the pacing behind someone more competent like Amano rather than doing her own thing, so this meant that she was basically just jousting around rather than making any actual aim to working any real mechanisms of shoot-style. The real appeal comes from these two hitting each other ridiculously hard (especially early on with those stiff forearms that were making loud "THUD" noises with every shot) and that's what they did as Amano went for her gross headbutts while Kimura goes for her equally strong boots, both getting some good damage on the other in the process. Amano does a crazy Fatu-lite spinning bump for the first big boot which was especially awesome. There's some focus on the legs by Amano, this is swiftly dropped purely so the two could stiff each other up more. Later on we get some nice scrambles by Kimura as she reverses bombs into arm-work (including a lovely reversal of a German suplex attempt with a Sakuraba transition double wrist lock) and Amano milks the hold with some screams and prolonged wiggling for the ropes as the crowd gets into this more. Really simple stuff to the finish as Kimura goes for her typical mean big bombs and really cranks up a single-leg Boston Crab as a potential world-ender here. Amano certainly sold like it, anyway. She ended up winning with her signature cross armbreaker transitions and we got a sweet finish where Kimura tried powerbombing out of the triangle choke, did it, then got her arm exposed for a armbar instead and ended up losing. I'd say this is REALLY great; it's mostly just the appeal of seeing two legit hard strikers (some of the stiffest of this specific generation of talent, anyway) hitting each other legit hard. There's not much depth to it outside of that (and some weird bits like Kimura not really selling the limb-work and even throwing on her own in response from said bad limb without much of a base to really suggest it mattered a whole lot) it really didn't need to be much else through. Scrappy Bati-Bati is a great cure for insomnia, I'd say: it's kinda impossible to not pay attention to every earth-shattering shot thrown here. I suppose there could've been room for a potentially more complex match (especially since Kimura around this time was a REALLY good talent who was having great matches with nearly everyone) but for what it is? I'm more than fine with it.

Hanako Nakamori (JWP/Pure-J mainstay) much in the same vein as Bolshoi has started uploading matches from mostly around about the 2010's of JWP; especially handy given the rarity of footage from the era.

When doing these sort of random watches from around about this time it's inevitable that you will eventually come across a match with Kaori Yoneyama (better known as Fukigen Death by more contemporary fans) given she's been literally everywhere and done all you can imagine and then some. This focused around Yone clearly not being in the same league as Amano; she's a crafty Jr heavyweight who lacks the height/weight/experience/skill to properly defeat her opponent in a straight-forward match. She instead decides to basically turn the pace up to 11 and make this into a High Speed outing where she can blindside and possibly win off sheer agility alone. Now with a lot of the heavyweights this would be a bit janky (the weird stop/start nature due to the differences in speed between the two, the general apathy for the heavyweight to really put over the other all that much at all) but Amano can not only bump like a saint for all of Yone's incredible lucha sequences, she can also occasionally land some pretty fast-paced stuff of her own. This combined that with some pretty heated outside brawling as the pair got pissed and started slamming each other's heads all over the place. Amano doing Jun Izumida spots as she no-sells chairs to the head and hits stiff shit will never not get old, especially when she has someone who is more than fine to bump and throw themselves around. I'd say the two were pretty giving here despite all of the violence. Another issue with hierarchy-based matches is that they tend to get a bit too cutesy with themselves and drag immensely with near falls and consistent never-ending will they/won't they hope spots. This kept itself really tight in terms of pacing, barely hitting 10 minutes and having only a couple of truly big momentum shifts between the two. They made sense; Yone using her speed to get reversals or simply just to hit a move quicker than her opponent, but inevitably getting caught out when she would try for her bigger bombs eating some mean shots in response. The triple O'Connor Roll/Chaos Theory spot that ended with Amano deadlifting her out of the pin and into a headbutt to the back of the head was just plain vicious stuff, we get another later that looks even more nasty when it gets attempted again. Solid finishing stretch as we get Yone just spamming German suplexes, Amano milking big heat with her strikes and submissions getting good reactions etc etc. Right near the end Yone just starts resorting to Tenryu punts to the skull and super sick tricky pins; seriously, this was some amazing stuff. She ends up losing eventually to a couple of mean running clunks to the head and that's the match basically. Tremendously good for a sprint, Amano wasn't afraid to actually make her smaller opponent actually look threatening (unlike some certain talents) but always tied everything back together into her being in control and needing to be outpaced to lose that. Yone's pretty great as well as a more fleshed out talent of the time that relies less on big GIF-worthy spots and more on having just really good fundamentals and the speed to use them competently...though she still has the cool moments anyway because they're cool, obviously. Very much a must-watch, good cooking ngl

It's really depressing watching 2000's Joshi because there are so many talented workers who should and could be absolutely be on the same level of reverence as the 90's generation prior, it's just that there was so little actually floating around that many of them (Ray/Bloody/Nagashima/Kimura/Bolshoi/Hamada/Kurihara, the list is endless) were lost to the sands of random tape traders and the occasional random Youtube listing that never got took down. Amano absolutely qualifies despite her being one of the luckier ones that got a lot more taped time. As Jetlag says above she's a terrific mix of insanely cool grappler and deliverer of epic headbutts in ways I've never really seen one try to do a headbutt before, which is already a winning combination in my eyes. Not only is her peak showings pretty great (from what I've seen, anyway) her consistency in regards to floor is stellar. She stays great all the way to the very end of her performing career (starting about 1999 and ending in 2014) and even at the very end she's still having a blast working really good TV-style sub 15 minute matches; impressive given she spent most of her years doing wacky headbutts and not exactly going easy on them. I'm not qualified enough yet to say how truly good she'd be on a potential 100 list, but she definitely has earned a spot for me just by what I've watched and reviewed so far. Real crime how little attention she gets despite having so many high-quality stuff looming in the distance.

This was pretty great and a good example of Amano making a relatively basic rookie/vet squash look tangibly fun with her cocky attitude and beatdowns before inevitably paying for it with some heated counters back at her. Mizunami isn't the most seasoned (shown very easily by the pair struggling to set up a superplex, of all things) but she gets the standard fiery upstart formula pretty easily helped by Amano directing the action with awesome grappling and some stiff shots being thrown out; knees to the head, headbutts to the back of the head, mean suplexes, all that and some more. The offence here is generally convincingly stiff enough despite being relatively low-risk. The crowd heat is palpable in this one and gets better as they work through the match and keep building up to Mizunami's big breaks when they come. Her stuff is incredibly basic: scoop slams, leg drops, all that stuff, but her energy while doing them is frantic enough that you do buy her offence a lot more than you really should in a situation like this. She goes at about 100 miles per hour doing almost everything. It helps that she does on occasion do something unexpectedly sick like a shoulderbreaker transition into a head/arm choke that catches you properly off-guard when stuff like that happens. With the added background of Team OZ having won all of the other matches on this event by running through the rest of the native talent and the fact that Amano wasn't exactly the most protected out of the four (especially compared to someone like Ozaki or Kong) it does provide just that extra layer of suspense to the outcome despite it being rather obvious: there's that small part of doubt as to if Amano really will actually just win this or if there'll be a last second upset. Miz near the end even gets *really* close to a 3-count (especially for the stakes of such a match like this) but her need to try to beat Amano in headbutts opens her wide open for a really nasty running one to the face. The last sequence where Mizunami is throwing all of these super slick rollups to avoid the equally sick huge nail-in-the-coffin bombs was the icing on a really good barnburner that cooked even better when they were doing submission counters instead. Miz gets the crowd incredibly loud with a cross armbreaker/triangle armbar transition bit, Amano responds with a sliding Fujiwara that she then kicks Miz in the face after she manages to escape. The finish is also really simple; Amano going for this really unique rope-hung transition into her cross armbreaker where she basically slingshots off it after grabbing her opponent's shoulder. The kicker comes from how they tease it almost being broken by the leverage being peeled away....before Amano springs back into the full thing and that conclusively ends it. It's kinda weird how great Mizunami was as a youngster compared to her later years when she's been nowhere near as energetic/mat-focused like she was here. Maybe that's just due to her wanting to slow down or focusing more on longevity with her shtick, it's just a real shame we don't see this version of her going forward because you really got the notion that she was one of the next big things from how she worked here. Super energised throughout, bumped and sold super well, robust fundamentals and mat-work, etc etc. She had essentially most of it figured out for someone who was still relatively inexperienced. Amano is the guiding force of the match and is as great as always: big bombs, lots of little character bits to get the most of the crowd heat with her outrageous taunting, using some bait and switching to get their expectations flipped around, etc. She also really gave a lot given how relatively low on the totem pole her opponent was by comparison. She could've easily big-leagued and made this into a pure squash match, thankfully that wasn't the case though.

I'm glad you're liking it! Was a ton of fun going through all of them and seeing cool little gems from members of the roster who otherwise would've never showed up in their usual TV slot. I would also like to add in some additional resources for anyone reading: RedLeaf Retrocast Tons of rare Dark Age (2000-2015) Joshi puro here. Very helpful given the general problems trying to find good sources for these kind of matches. I may be cheating with the next two because they aren't from YT/Dailymotion but that's life, I suppose. King Kaz Hayashi AJPW Collection 9 HOURS of Kaz Hayashi matches. If you're a madly dedicated person and you really want to see one of the most unsung Jr heavyweights of all time do his thing for longer than multiple feature-length movies combined then this is absolutely for you. Especially good given 2000's AJPW is very rare. Puromall Solid comps

Kido spends his time pre-match lifting heavy ass weight, Fujiwara spends it trying to break the hand of I think was a very young Tatsuo Nakano (?) though I could be easily wrong given his face was obscured: perfect (if purely accidental) distinction between two made right there between the physically refined professional in Osamu Kido and the torturous demon in Yoshiaki Fujiwara. This is definitely one of those matchups that people are going to be hit or miss on because it's mostly two middle aged uncles rolling around for pretty much the entire match. Sure, it's two of arguably the most refined and knowledgeable mat-workers in living history, sure Fujiwara is one of the greatest wrestlers ever, but again, it's a lot of rolling about for a good while. If you're a grappling nerd like me then this is going to be good, for anyone else possibly interested in something aside that it's not going to really pander to you much. I guess they were kinda conscious of that given Fujiwara does add in some explosive spots to mix things up (alongside a lot of his signature tricks that keen eyes will particularly notice, like him rubbing his elbow into Kido's back to expose his head for a facelock) and to make this a bit more fresh. It was also cool to see a rather early prototype Sugar Foot attempted by Fuji despite it being unsuccessful as he tries to bait Kido into trying to take his leg in the same manner as such. We get a solid Achilles Tendon exchange as the two try to outmanoeuvre each other on leverage, ultimately having to get back up to their feet after hitting a brick wall in terms of either man getting a lead. Kido follows up with a particularly slick Sakuraba-style double wrist lock off Fujiwara taking his back, getting a loud yell from the guy in response to really establish how dangerously close he is to losing this whole thing. Good scuffle with Fuji trying to get past Kido's seemingly unbreakable submission (and with a heated crowd following along nicely) but only ends up stuck in side mount, really getting the crowd amped up for the potential of a Fujiwara loss. Builds well to Kido trying for the classic Robertson headscissors when Fuji tries to escape, only for him to go up and over for a Achilles Tendon. The two finally try for strikes, Kido landing a low kick and Fuji trying for some jabs before relenting for more mat stuff. The finish was simple but effective, running around Fuji feigning effort for a double wrist to bait Kido away from defending against his actual play: a cross armbreaker, which forces the submission victory when the deception is revealed. As I said, if you love this stuff it'll be pretty good all things considered; these two put on a fairly low-impact mat clinic focused around a limited yet surprisingly compelling range of submissions and suplexes. It's definitely a match that plays into the the philosophy regarding the debate of "the struggle of the move being applied" being superior to "the struggle within the move applied" stance because this was mostly just the two jousting for said moves and submissions rather than sitting in them and working from that base. I'm not going to go into that in detail here but needless to say I was way more interested in this than typically these sort of matches tend to turn out. Is it as good as their late 1985 match? I'd say no, but that's hardly a bad thing given these two have plenty of great work regardless: including this match, of course.

Very sad to hear: guy was a phenomenal Gotch-trainee and probably one of the closest resembling his intended style of wrestling, always was a treat to watch one of his matches wherever he was. RIP.

Was randomly going through Youtube and I curiously found this lad here with a alternative camcorder rip of the Misawa/Tiger Mask match that shows slightly more of it and perhaps more..... I went to his site and while I thought it was dodgy, he claims to have footage of a lot of First Tiger Mask matches; many I've seen and documented, some I've never even heard of before. Could be a good lead for this kind of stuff ngl

I do wish I could put him on a top 100 if only for the sheer scale of longevity he has at this point; guy has been through it all and he still keeps trucking. I think the issue is that Tanaka's really been someone who was exposed a long time ago for having really bit for bit formulas for his matches. As Jetlag said he's had essentially the same two/three matches (hardcore mess/super stiff/combination of both) for a good majority of his career. Not to say he's not had REALLY good matches with that in mind, far from it, it's just that it gets pretty old pretty fast when you're going through them all at once. He's one of those guys that wows you if you see a watch now and then but just doesn't hold up once you're having to measure up his matches next to each other. Not a lot to really spread them apart outside of who he's wrestling and that in turn kinda shows a lack of agency (or creativity, really) to change things up much

KENTA is in his rebellious teen phase and I guess Ogawa is next on his big list of established guys he wants to put on notice. He blasts him mid-entrance with the usual stiff kicks and from there the match pretty much goes how you'd expect: KENTA is by far the superior striker alongside clearly has the advantage of youth on his side with his speed and agility but Ogawa's been the punching bag way too many times to get tripped up by this point. His experience directs him to trying to work on KENTA's legs to try to slow him down and get the match under control. The match itself in terms of macro elements is unspectacular but I feel like the little things this provides are where it gets really great. There's a solidified feeling of malice around this match: KENTA wants to prove in his heavyweight Trial Series (of which this is apart of) that he can belong with the big dogs of the company, that he can not only challenge them in terms of hierarchy (despite his relative size difference) but actually win matches to boot: his attitude shows that he's inching to be respected as someone on their level. Ogawa clearly would know what that's like, given he spent years and years jobbing it up in AJPW as the pin-eater for numerous different factions. Ogawa had to go the LONG way to even get a inch of the kind of thing his opponent wants right now. Even then in NOAH he's been one of those guys who has really respected the old Kings Road hierarchy, having to steal most of his victories against the likes of Taue or Akiyama with dirty tricks and roll-ups, never feeling like a equal to them in terms of stature. Despite being a heavyweight, Ogawa in almost all of his big matches never actually feels like one. Then KENTA shows up and does the same thing without needing to cheat his ass off? You really get the feeling here that Ogawa just wants to squash the dreams of this little shit trying to jump the queue so he can sleep better at night knowing there isn't a easier way of doing what he did. Now despite the epic premise or the potential of these two to have a properly great heated outing with each other, this sadly never truly meets that dream all things considered. KENTA is still a bit shaky here and there and hasn't quite ironed out that killer persona that we'll see in later years. He's a bit unfounded, with him doing moves that, at times, felt rather by the numbers, more-so when he's trying to add in some obligatory Jr heavyweight spots of the time. I mean they aren't bad or anything; just not suited for what this started off as more of a heated brawl than a conventional Jr vs heavyweight back and forth. Regardless of the above there was still a lot of natural heat that stemmed from this, helped by KENTA pulling from the opponent's playbook of rollups at points: this further playing into him surpassing the guy who was formally known as the undersized giant-slayer, something that would ring true later on. Ogawa in turn really helped get this over as well as he really threw in some spiteful stuff to try to squeeze out as much as possible from this small encounter. Despite some incredibly stiff strikes and near falls, eventually the inevitable comes as Ogawa gives his opponent a truly nasty counter-powerbomb off a top rope Frankensteiner attempt and completely stomped on his dreams of heavyweight glory with a sequence of big backdrops (including a rather elaborate one off the second rope) for the pin, despite some last-second counters and attempts by KENTA to stay in the fight. This was solid for sure but it just felt like it was missing something truly special to it. KENTA surely hits hard and has some already amazing offence. He also hasn't quite paced out his M.O. yet, so feels a bit green still despite all of his early success. As mentioned above, he didn't feel ironed out as much as he'd get even by the next year in terms of feeling like a tangible big deal, so a lot of his work seems a bit lackluster compared to then. Ogawa was, however, considerably great and really got a lot out of this despite the lack of big spots for most of the duration: a tough task when Jr-era KENTA essentially made his early career out of having bonkers spot sequences and GIF-heavy moments that were instantly copied across the world. instead his aim was focusing on easy and malleable mat-work and counters to ground this down and give a relatively different angle of his opponent than what we'd usually see while also making sure he looks pretty great with some big sells here and there. Is there better matchups between the two? Absolutely, this is still pretty solid tho

This was solid as anything. Misawa coming out with sunglasses on like some struggling uncle battling through a midlife crisis, Ikeda being the usual goofy killer that he is, Ogawa running a trial by fire to keep the titles retained, just so much great moments to watch. The start was the typical Ogawa/Misawa dynamics, Ogawa has to be bailed out a good few times by his typically far more impressive counterpart in Misawa, some double teaming, etc. Yone comes in and starts throwing forearms, and any casual viewer of Misawa matches (even someone who's just watched a couple bits of his best work) will tell you that this is the moment when Yone should get wrecked for even trying to outscrap Misawa, especially with elbows; it's just a universal truth at this point that no one has sharper elbows than Misawa, even with a pad on. Yet....that's not the case. Yone knocks Misawa hard to the outside with a rather stiff forearm shot, and while Misawa gets his shots in later on, this is definitely here to showcase that he's not going to be able to carry this solely by himself. this is further showcased by Misawa being beat up by the two shooty lads for a good while with a pretty confident control segment. Even when Ogawa gets in and tries for his signature scrappy Japanese Memphis punches he's flattened by Ikeda and nullified as well. It's really great how Ogawa sells basic stuff in the context of the match at hand, like how he clings onto the ropes for dear life when Yone tries for a backdrop or a tight headlock: he's terrified of these two because they completely outgun him. He knows IMMEDIATELY that simple fact just by how he's seen his mentor take some beatings. Ogawa is, try as he might, not a man with much to give in this matchup: strong strikers simply run over him, so Bati-Bati guys are, essentially, his Kryptonite. That's shown excellently by Misawa needing to get involved to stop the control segment by beating up Ikeda on the outside and abusing double team moves to get the advantage alongside a face crank, pulling out all of the stops just to balance this out. Despite this and a dirty punch to the back of the head by Ogawa afterwards Ikeda still has his number and so he quickly tags out again, completely defeated. The Misawa/Yone interactions are probably some of the best of Yone I've ever seen barring probably his Battlarts stint, even if it's mostly him trying to beat Misawa's ass and getting elbowed to death and back for his antics. He has so much fire that you'd almost be fooled into thinking he doesn't turn out to be a massive disappointment so it pairs well with Misawa really pushing him here on a big stage with his domineering bombs setting the pace well. Ogawa gets back in and Yone seems toast after a backdrop, but then Ogawa takes a stiff kick to the head and again has to tag out quick to Misawa: he's still the weak link here, not pulling his weight. Misawa takes a rough backdrop on the ramp, a Axe Bomber, and a whole assortment of good double team stuff from Ikeda and co as he just gets chopped down. This leaves him out of most of the third half in terms of substantial plays, forcing his partner to finally somehow conquer the two by himself. The last 10 minutes in particular were just a lot of smart work, Ogawa in particular with a ton of nifty little moments where he's trying to push though these two with everything, eye pokes, fun ref involvement spots, you name it. Even Yone looks like a big threat here with Ogawa hurling himself around here. Stuff like the top rope double Kinniku Buster or the top rope Flowsion were bonkers spots to see in action. A bit too long? Sure, definitely; this was nearly 30 minutes long, just way too much for something like this. The crowd still loved it though, especially the desperation near the end as Ogawa struggles to survive against the bombs/strikes but eventually wins the match out of a wacky Small Package, just barely pushing through the finish line for the duo. Cut five minutes off this and it could've been great: the four had a pretty solid grove on what they wanted the match to be outside of huge spots. It was designed to be this big showing of Ikeda/Yone as a threatening duo and in that aspect it conclusively works to show that in action. You can tell also that this was a match paced around Ogawa basically proving himself as a valuable act all of his own, starting from being knocked around the place and basically having to crawl and sneak every big advantage back with all of the dirty tricks he knows so far. It's a good look at how his role in the team isn't just the guy who gets knocked around for the big comeback, he's a tangible threat that every now and often reminds you why he has that reputation in the first place. Too long, sure. It makes the point well enough to make up for that.

Suzuki is still a up and coming "star" for the promotion; despite the fact he's only been wrestling for two years he already is the prime Young Lion as per management, having beaten Tanahashi and consistently having a slot in the G1 since debuting; rather unheard of these days. He's got everything they'd really want; he's tall, has a good look and a sports background, crowds seem to take to him well for the level of experience he has. He's not much in the actual wrestling department, but that can change, right? The promotion certainly had big plans for him, of course we know how that ends. Nishimura is of course having to hold his hand here and carry: a relatively easy task given how good the guy was around this time. As expected we go though typical Nishimura starting routines (I did like him stopping Suzuki from trying his fancy handstand when given the chance as a cheeky little spot) but it's mostly pretty dry. Suzuki has some nice tricks on the mat but he's pretty lacking in the actual details so we get a lot of basic wrestling out of him without much real purpose behind it. He's always been one of those guys who never was able to put the pieces fully together and seeing him just really fumble around the ring really hammers that in. Nishimura lands in some intelligent counters alongside solid holds: at one point he goes into a Muta Lock and then into a Bulldog choke in the same position for more leverage in a surprisingly convincing bit. He also goes for his "knee drop on a outside table" spot that he loved doing around the time which has Suzuki take a tumble. Suzuki also takes a more nasty bump off the railing after a apron dropkick comes his way. Nishimura was such a prick during this specific sequence lol. He'd get the audience to clap for his opponent to get back in the ring and get them all rallied up before landing a dropkick and sending the poor guy flying again when he actually had a chance of getting back in. Just dickish stuff that doesn't bend the rules or anything, it's just a bit mean. Eventually he just loses patience with all of this and lands a apron knee drop to a big round of applause. I did like how Nishimura mixed up the leg work this time, going for more unconventional holds than the usual Figure Four/Spinning Toe Hold shit, so you had him stretching and pulling at the leg alongside occasionally elbow smashing when the chance came up to do so. Suzuki manages to survive for a bit despite some sturdy work but eventually we get the finish: which has Nishimura apply the Spinning Toe Hold only for Suzuki to slap on a small package and steal the win out of essentially nothing but a couple of moves. Suzuki isn't very good here but Nishimura dominating allows the crowd to mostly ignore that in favour of Nishimura's stuff instead, which is obviously far better and can carry the two to something more interesting than just a movez fest. This is also paced well; not too long but also just enough to get over how deep in the hole Suzuki is here as soon as Nishimura starts getting momentum and doing his thing. I did really like how this played on the typical "vet vs rookie" formula with how Nishimura torments Suzuki, but never goes overtly heel with what he does. He skirts the line here and there yet it still feels more like a cold mentor putting the rookie through some hurtful lessons than him being an actual heel. It got the crowd into the match, so I can't complain too much. It's a Bret/Magee situation again, only Kenzo will eventually evolve into a weird attraction wrestler who slaps the shit out of people as opposed to.....well being this badly green forever, so that's a positive.

What do you get when you pair up two super technically talented wrestlers stuck with a unique stipulation on a random house show? Really great work, that's what. Basically the match functions on the simple rule that the match ends on a 2-count rather than the typical 3 required. This brings in itself elevated sense of tension from the usual holds and submissions because any of them, realistically, could get a quick pinfall: that aforementioned tension is cheap and easy here given this simple stip makes the match super unpredictable: something these two can very easily work with as a base. Bolshoi walks into this with some sensationally awesome Rey-style innovative roll-ups alongside nifty lucha transitions while occasionally getting to show off her mat-work when it comes down to it. Amano plays more of the fumbling shooter here as she's consistently trying to get in submissions and/or openings for them but either keeps forgetting the rules or they get exploited in turn to try for more cheap flash pins. There's some brilliant comedy around Amano struggling to escape holds without sticking her shoulders down and the struggle that in turn causes between the two when they're throwing themselves all over the place. Typically this more technically inclined comedy doesn't always click: didn't think that was the case here. The two really explored the concept beyond just barfing up spots and sequences endlessly without much care. They could have done that given this had no stakes towards anything in particular and the match would probably also been quite good, yet they didn't, and I'm so much more happy because of that. Despite the potential for this to be a really nothing match with a couple of interesting moments (which this did threaten at points with some of the stalling going on here and there) it turned out to be WAY better than expected; for a 10 minute sprint this is borderline revolutionary, being this high-speed/grappling showcase with a lot of different influences from lucha, catch, shoot-style, etc, just a super fun blend of styles going on here. This finishes up with some hard-hitting shots and bombs between the two (which is funny if only due to it meaning they have to keep kicking out from big suplexes at 1, lol) before Bolshoi goes over with a top rope Uranage for a relatively simple ending. Not their best outing by a long shot but absolutely worth the watch; it's a great use of 10 minutes all things considered.

The culmination of Amano's rookie struggles against Bolshoi and her first major win is.....well it's clipped for one, so we only get about 8 minutes out of this. I imagine the length was close to the first two matches they had together (so the 10/15 mark) but who knows. The match is also kinda iffy. Bolshoi just spams 5 Uranage throws in the first showcased minute + a top rope dropkick, and Amano no sells to go into terrible forearms and a weird botched sequence that Bolshoi just flat-out refuses to try again so she does yet another Uranage for a near fall. The above pretty much spells out the sheer roughness of the match. It's not pretty at a lot of points. Even when stuff comes out good (like Amano builds on the O'Connor Roll shtick from before with a cool middle rope version of the move to catch Bolshoi out after the two throw some stiff slaps to each other) it feels very herky-jerky and not at all smooth. This honestly makes the match better as a whole, especially given Amano's tourney has had her get wrecked two times over now by Bolshoi; she feels more desperate to finish things off as opposed to the first match where she was simply in the position of the rookie squashed without much thought put into it. Now that she knows Bolshoi can be taken to the brink, there's more of a confidence behind her big pushes and kickouts. Bolshoi is equally as eager to get this over and done with, mind you. After a few minutes she's immediately into big moonsaults and top rope Uranage slams, extremely confident that she has her opponent completely scouted. She taunts both her and Ozaki at ringside, does multiple Jericho-style cocky pins, etc etc. She just doesn't really give a damn about potentially losing this, perfectly illustrated by throwing four big powerbombs in a row on Amano, getting a near fall with each, then letting go at the fourth one before she could've maybe finished this whole thing. At this point it's more of a lesson being taught than a match wrestled. She doesn't want to just win, she wants to win without any doubt. I guess you could put this up to the second pairing wherein Bolshoi basically won off a fluke submission counter.....knowing better that probably wasn't intended, yet it's still a great story beat to add in. Finish is super simple and plays off the second match again by having Amano counter a top rope Uranage with a Fujiwara armbar like before and Bolshoi similarly countering it with ease, only to get firmly trapped in a flash cross armbreaker out of nowhere. Bolshoi has zero warning of this happening and as such she has to abruptly tap-out much to her annoyance. There's some goofy ahh melodrama at Ozaki showing up and giving Amano a big hug that's a bit sappy however it's a nice bit to finish off Amano's struggles as a random rookie alongside this match. I'd probably say the second one is better purely off it having more footage and a more substantial formula (this sorta cuts to the chase, though that's by design). This has more action in turn while the second outing had that pretty bloody solid blade-job and a far more conditioned audience to really dig their nails into it. Is this still quite good? Definitely so, just not as much as I think it could've been.

This was a long watch (nearly 30 minutes!) but a very solid match so it evens out. The first half felt very similar to a Mutoha grappling showcase: no strikes, lots of minimalistic wrestling and a slow pace. It still had incredible attention to detail (Keita trying for a Sugar Foot mid-transition was pretty epic) and the two focused on respective limbs to try to feel around for a weakness of some sort. Kengo throws the first strikes when he's able to snap on a kneeling shoulder crank with some actually good elbows to the head. This sets Keita off and he immediately follows up with some awesome lucha stretching alongside similarly heelish antics like stomping on Kengo's hand and doing weird unconventional stuff to try to hurt his neck (at one point he goes for I think is a 80's Andre spot for no real reason? I love it) and keep him on the floor. Was also great to see that their potentially groan-worthy generic strike exchange amounted to Kengo doing two chops and Keita immediately shutting it down by driving his head to the floor with a neat Cravat takedown; they do a second one later on that also just amounts to Keita again eating a stiff elbow shot to then go off the ropes for a middle rope lariat, further highlighting his strategy to keep this on the floor as much as humanly possible even if it means taking a shot or two to do so. Middle half is a bit more by the numbers barring Kengo being batshit crazy and throwing himself on the middle of the apron during a backdrop to start off. Most of it was his opponent being a goofy troll/doing good work on Kengo's taped shoulder. He does get in some nice offence and generally carries himself well on the bottom as he has to use more speed to try to catch Keita out, leading to some enjoyable back and forth bits between the two. It was good to see that this was mostly unsuccessful though because he definitely felt like the weaker act here compared to Keita's maestro hold-work, so he gets to work in the background while Keita does cool stuff and drags the match forward bit by bit. There's a great bit here where Kengo has enough of his dirty antics while in a surfboard chickenwing and ends up biting him lol. Things slow down again to illustrate Kengo's mounting struggle to escape from the mountain of holds he's stuck under, building to a really solid spin on a signature Riki Choshu spot as Keita slaps on the aforementioned headlock and Kengo slowly drags himself up into countering with this spectacular delayed backdrop: the amount of articulation they got out of this in terms of showcasing the steps involved and how they communicate Keita stubbornly keeping it applied even mid-move was phenomenal (to the point where you think he might just be able to pull it off...) helped by the backdrop itself looking super smooth right afterwards. Kengo hits a equally nasty one right after and throws himself on for multiple near fall pins which leads to probably one of the more showy sequences of the match as Keita keeps trying to arch out of the pins with fancy bridges a-la Kendo Kashin style but keeps getting smashed back down for his troubles. Eventually this leads into a particularly Robertson-lite moment as Keita snaps on a Cravat to trap the shoulders and slowly goes into a really tricked out pinning position with the hold still applied. The last few minutes are simple: yet incredibly solid, focusing on the simple concept of Kengo trying to bomb Keita to death with elbows and backdrops while mostly battling his own fatigue in the process. It still throws in some spots to pop the crowd but they aren't exhaustive and actually have some impact to them especially when the entire match has been as grounded as this has been so you don't suffer from the usual NJPW-isms of a 15 minute overkill finishing stretch. The actual finish being Kengo hammering sharp elbows to Keita's face in pure frustration when he kicks out of the brainbuster until he simply stays down for a frog splash is simple yet effective to get over the two and bookends the match itself rather nicely. Is it slow in places? Sure. Is it low on big fancy move sequences? Yeah. It's still absolutely a great match by itself though. Super grounded and incredibly well-paced with loads of attention to detail thrown in to boot, absolutely worth checking out if you're remotely a fan of particularly sizable chunks of mat-wrestling in general. It cooks good

part 5 =========== Gran Naniwa v Ryuji Hijikata (09.12.2000) This is a perfectly fine opener that was hampered by Hijikata's apparent shoulder injury; he had it extensively bandaged up and didn't use the affected arm much. He can still kick hard but Naniwa is no-selling like he's the big final boss or something for some bizarre reason. I liked the stiff exchanges here with some violent slaps and kicks however they didn't really go anywhere, they just stopped doing them to then go into spamming regular moves without much of a logical progression behind them. Naniwa's selling sucks as he just takes lots of kicks over and over to then win off a Falcon Arrow and Michinoku Driver for the snappy three count without much of a struggle being shown out of him. Nothing really that interesting here, there's hints of this being properly great but with Naniwa's weird no-selling and general lack of energy this never reached anything worth talking about for me. RANK: Forgettable Masahito Kakihara v Danny Kroffat (same day) Revenge!!! Kroffat wasn't happy about Kakihara going over him and Fuji during the Tag League so he's getting the rematch here tonight in what is essentially a weird UWF throwback. Now this isn't completely out of the blue for Dan Kroffat; he has a extensive background in kickboxing, trained in the Hart Dungeon and some of his earliest televised performances were legitimately him working matches in UWF Original so there's at least something here. That something wasn't really much though. Dude comes out with baggy pants and bandaged hands like he's a bootleg Tommy Dreamer. It gets worse as Kroffat starts pulling from the Kendo Kashin book of heel stalling as he offers a handshake before attacking his opponent with clubs to the back and really weird, floaty suplexes where Kakihara is doing nearly all of the motion. We get some Yasuda-style pummelling as Kroff tries to trap Kakihara's arm so he can throw punches to the gut freely, but then ends up getting countered when he pushes for a throw and Kaki ends up catching his leg for a nifty kneebar takedown. Kroffat runs to the outside in a funny bit before Kakihara is a nice lad and lets him back in....only to get ambushed again! Shocker. He is shaken with light knees to the body and a terrible punch to the head before Kroffat tries for a Irish Whip, but of course Kakihara being a UWF guy means he's immune to those, so he just blasts him with admittedly good strikes before snapping on a inverted kneebar for the quick win. ....so yeah, this was a lot of nothing. I guess it's cool to see Kakihara in his element (even if shoot-matches by this point were more or less just nostalgia bait at best) but as a match it doesn't really serve any purpose. Kroffat just isn't good at all and he certainly wasn't going to be any better doing stuff like this. RANK: Forgettable Johnny Smith & Taiyo Kea v Mike Rotundo & Steve Williams II (same day) This was fine enough as a progression from the first match together. Varsity Club don't want the AJPW loyalists to take the win again, so they change tact and go for a pre-match brawl to try to finish this quick. This had some sloppy moments including a badly botched Frankensteiner bump by Williams early on and general moments that reminded you that these two were getting on by this point with a fair bit of fumbling, so this didn't really have that energy that you would typically expect from a Dr Death match from the last decade or so. Kea looked great out here especially given Smith was out of this for a good portion after the outside brawling, so he had to really pick up the slack with big bumps alongside some fairly flush strikes; as a match it felt more of a vehicle to get him over more than anything. It all seems hopeless as Kea goes down for an assisted Doctor Bomb, but then Smith shows up for the big pop and comeback bit. He runs though his usual spots as per standard to a relatively good reaction (which was impressive given this match wasn't exactly the hottest going in) also selling his bad back/mid-section. This turns out to be his undoing as his consistent delays to tend to them allow the Varsity Club lads to take back control with a Williams spinebuster/Rotundo Samoan Drop and they snap up the upset after Smith goes down for a decent Dangerous Backdrop. I didn't feel this was that interesting as a match, but as a showcase for Kea's competence, he's really stepped up since his 90's stuff because I'd never imagine him doing anything close to this from my prior viewing of him in action. He looked flush, motivated, and bumped well for the two bigger heavyweights while not completely losing face. Varsity Club is always going to be a limited act (especially Rotunda, who is kinda the pits by this point) but they do their roles fine as a formidable powerhouse duo so I can't REALLY complain a whole lot about them, they're doing about as well as they realistically can for what this was. All in all entertaining sure, there's just not much stock to be put here given how short this was alongside the lack of depth. Then again given Varsity would be working again on the same event....maybe that's for the best. RANK: Decent Jim Steele & Mike Barton v Masanobu Fuchi & Toshiaki Kawada (same day) This was cut by about 3/4 minutes, nothing noticeable though. I think the main issue is that Barton/Steele are the most vanilla dudes ever and them being paired with each other doesn't change that fact; they just aren't that compelling. It's like if both guys were competing to be the Jannetty of the two, just stinks of that kind of dynamic where neither guy really wants to do much to rock the boat and just coast with the same routines they're used to doing. The Kawada/Fuchi duo are solid, but I can't also deny that they've really only had one formula since the beginning of my Deep Diving; Kawada and Fuchi start off on a tear, Fuchi gets worked over for the middle portions, Kawada gets in for the hot tags and shine, etc etc. It's two typically very sturdy tag workers being essentially trapped into having the same match over and over. I don't really blame them for this because the roster is just so depleted that it's hard to really see any other way of them being presented without it seeming jarring, like are you really gonna convince people that Giant Kimala or Danny Kroffat are threats? Of course not, so why bother? I will say that Fuchi's sympathetic selling at least helped to get this over to the crowd, though that isn't hard given him and K were the last big Baba-era guys left. This match mostly shows a lot of Barton/Steele in control, so lots of slams and throws. Nothing amazing (bar the relatively cool splash/elbow combo by the two late into proceedings) though there is some good interaction around Kawada getting progressively closer and closer to getting into play despite being cut-off numerous times; first he's knocked off the apron, then he's showing up in the ring and thrown out, etc etc. Fuchi's dramatic hot tag with Funk-lite stumbling and him hurling his body forward just enough to tag in was a nice touch, and Kawada's big push was done about as competently as you'd imagine. The crowd almost believes that the pair could lose as K is dragged down and almost loses to a Turbo Drop before Fuchi fumbles back in for his old tricks. He gets the tights for the roll-up, he hustles for the facelock over and over with a couple of breakups, finally tapping out Steele after Kawada shoos Barton away for a unexpected finish. I am glad we didn't see the whole thing (this went 21 minutes, tad too long for a match like this in my mind) and the finish could've been cut a bit as it was dragging with the consistent wangling for holds. Bar that, this was competently done, just never really got much interesting. There's no real big interactions, just a standard formula with Steele/Barton not really doing a whole lot to stand out bar their usual spots. If you didn't know this was the semi-finals of a big tournament you'd probably think this was a standard main event match for a house show card.....it probably was in the mid-90's, here it's presented as a lot more than that and this absolutely didn't deserve that mantle. RANK: Decent Genichiro Tenryu & Mitsuya Nagai v Mohammed Yone & Yoshiaki Fujiwara (same day) Shown in full. Now THIS is something I can at least get behind. They build off the last match Nagai and Fujiwara had together by having him do the same shoot into Sugar Foot counter real early on but in classic Kings Road style Nagai is able to hold out and reach the ropes. Yone works some decent Bati-ish work with Nagai as they exchange strikes and submissions, with Tenryu he's getting his ass kicked with stiff shots as per standard. Both dynamics are solid and it's impressive to see him actually do work as opposed to showing up as a lumpy useless big dude later in his career. Fujiwara rules obviously, dude just comes out swinging with punches and doing old man shtick, cheating his ass off, very super grumpy. Him and Tenryu have some solid interactions that get you itching for more, but for what we get? Pretty well-organised. The two know how to bounce off each other tremendously easily, so it's mostly a grumpy uncle fest of angry facials and the two laying it in. Nagai stuff is more or less generic shoot-ish offence and not that exciting bar when he's working with Tenryu who gets some actual emotion out of the guy. Last few minutes were alright, though Yone still feels particularly unseasoned compared to everyone else here. Fujiwara tries his luck and Tenryu slaps the piss out of him, however headbutts save the day for Yone this time. He also does Tsuruta-tributes until Nagai roundhouse kicks his lariat mid-swing (great timing on it as well! ) and hits him with a German that Yone overextends for and almost brains himself on the mat. Tenryu tags in and quickly brushes off the guy by landing all of his signature offence, dodging a spinning kick and landing two stiff lariats to finish things up. This was really weird PWFG/Bati/WAR hybrid mixing here as we had some Fuji-style nonsense, some stiff strikes and shoot-style, as well as lots of interpersonal drama between the four men that at times devolved into tons of awesome strikes thrown. One wonders what AJPW would've became had Tenryu gotten the chairman role instead of Muto. If it was matches like these every show? I'd be way happier. Anyway it's Fujiwara/Tenryu, can't go wrong, great watch, easy stuff. It's about as conclusive to a match between the two as you can get barring their WAR encounter. RANK: Good Masanobu Fuchi & Toshiaki Kawada vs. Mike Rotundo & Steve Williams This was...alright, I guess. I'm not a fan of Varsity Club's 2000 run in general and despite Fuchi and Kawada kicking it as much as possible for two guys who have already worked a 20+ minute match in the same event, we don't really get any big moments until the end. A lot of the first half is slow unimpactful work, not helped by the washed Williams and co who do struggle to keep pace in places. If you want that amazing IRS/Kawada exchange that's always been on the back of your mind within your darkest thoughts then I GUESS this is worth something. Kawada likes working these pseudo-shoot style sequences but he really lacks any agency to his hold-wangling; it never feels like he's actually trying to finish with every submission/transition he's applying here, it just feels ho-hum, match filler. It's like Muto just doing amateur wrestling for most of his matches for a bit before devolving into his usual shtick, it doesn't have any real sting to it to make you care. Things get a bit better with some outside brawling and some 80's style cheesy heel antics as Rotundo uses Williams as leverage on the apron to get extra pain on the abdominal stretch! Another issue however is that this is mainly focused around a Fuchi hot tag as Kawada works the middle mostly. While the crowd DO get some chants for the guy, his actual hot tag pretty much dies after about 30 seconds, namely because as much as Fuchi is a cool dude, he's, you know, Fuchi. This isn't really his avenue + they did burn out that angle the last match on this event. Long facelock spot has Fuchi communicate a lot of intensity, but the crowd don't really follow and aren't convinced despite the Steele tap-out. Double submission gets a decent reaction but Varsity are able to survive and take back control. Fuchi trying to survive with Nishimura-style roll-ups and counters ruled for the road for the finish as Kawada ran in for the big save, ended up getting punched out by Williams and finished with a Dangerous Backdrop/cutter combo. All hope seems lost as Kawada is out and Fuchi eats a second-rope Stampede, Kawada manages to run interference to delay the pinfall before paying the price with a piledriver on the outside. Crowd finally seems properly heated as Fuchi refuses to give up with near fall after near fall despite the seemingly impossible conditions. Fuchi eventually falls to a Dangerous backdrop as Kawada gets Samoan dropped for the millionth time. Varsity Club win the RWTL to get them over as the big threats for the new AJPW. This will....mostly be the case in the future, albeit Muto coming in meant they never quite hit these highs again in subsequent years and will inevitably be swallowed up by the better foreign talent coming in when the company starts getting money flowing in. They'll be around occasionally for future matches, but their time as a tag team on this level is conclusively over. This match HAS something good going for it with the natural drama between the natives and co to battle for the soul of the RWTL, but at the same time it's dragged down by a glacial pace and a lot of just downright bad filler. Fuchi is a trooper and Kawada is still great, Varsity just aren't on that level anymore to deliver Williams is not the main event threat he was in the 90s, no longer the guy you could stick with whoever you wanted in a tag team and get great results. That's not his fault. Rotunda just drags him down enough to where you really can't get into his performances, and that's a real shame because Dr Death would still have awesome matches...albeit they'd be singles matches, I can't judge tho. RANK: Decent And with that, we're done! That was the last show of 2000 and as such, this Deep Dive is finally concluded. I'd like to say thanks to anyone reading this far down, much appreciated. Do we have a answer for the question posed at the very beginning of this thread? Well I'd say so. 2000's AJPW is a mess. It's a compete cluster of freelancers and bottom of the barrel signings showing up randomly and the company's direction can best be described as "all over the place" at this point. Even with Tenryu and his WAR squad settling things a bit, the cards are still pretty much chaotic for the most part. With that said.....it's still very much a enjoyable watch. When I watched 90's All Japan I was definitely super into their product, but there was a feeling close to the end of the 90's and into 2000 that the product was becoming a bit stale and dragging its feet in terms of trying to catch up with the more modern products around the same time. It felt very much like stagnation, not helped by the same rotation of the Four Pillars still on top. NOAH existing and the drama around it essentially forced that change all at once. Of course it was messy, yet one that's surprisingly endearing to go through given it feels like those who stayed wanted to prove a point; that point being that the company wasn't dead and they were still relevant enough to keep the boat afloat. Those two things are debatable, but it still resulted in some solid programming in the meantime. I'd seriously give some thought into also checking out this era of the company because while it does have their shaky moments, it's also massively entertaining to the point where I'm debating making similar Projects into the years after in the future. All in all, I'd say while it's not a pleasant watch at points it's not the lowest point for the company as a whole. It helped kickstart it to go along with the times and would, eventually, result in a uniquely entertaining approach that endured all of the noughties and then some. In that way, I suppose, this existing as it is can't really be seen as a bad thing.

Really fun feature bout between all of the great old-school grapplers....and a bored Suzuki, I guess. Fujiwara/Nishimura is a dream match that would've probably been one of my personal GOAT-tier pairings had they ever faced off, this is unfortunately as close as we get to that happening and it's hardly much to really appreciate given the undercard state this is plopped in. Their stuff is, however, still pretty sturdy. Fuji at his age isn't much of a workrate guy but he's a master of the small things; him getting flustered after being caught out by a sneaky Nishimura elbow smash going along with his usual fancy knuckle-lock/handstand spot just to get his arm exposed for a sneaky armbar; just great little moments to really get over his experience and craftiness over the younger talent, really felt like I was watching UWF Fuji for a moment at points. Suzuki put on a pretty average performance and Fuchi is mostly here just to get beat up by the other two and/or do comedy, he's fine doing that so I won't judge the guy. Match mostly goes as per expected, Nishimura/Fuji easily have the most intense showings with stiff shots exchanged and actual heat felt with the two with every little bit between them mounting to a explosive finish. Everything else was just Fuchi being goofy or Suzuki working the very minimum. Him and Nishimura have a fun stiff striking battle near the end that's decent (a lot better than Suzuki's shitty touring extravaganza version we suffer through these days) but everything else was bleh and not a touch on their prior NJPW encounters. Finish has some move-stealing from both duos as Fujiwara and Suzuki do mirror spots, Fuchi tries for some Nishimura-style roll-ups but gets wrecked after a failed fighting spirit bit right into a Gotch Piledriver for the quick and easy win. All in all a pretty average affair that only gets truly great when Nishimura is allowed to cook with Fuji, it's basically just a extended tease for a matchup that never happens....pretty sad thinking about that still. Fuchi's usual goofy uncle comedy is fine as it always is but I do wish he was given a moment to at least try to look competent here. Suzuki does basically the average late 2000's and beyond lazy performance bar some moments when he cares a tad more than usual.

Definitely agree that her peak was late 90's to the beginning of the rebranding of ARSION to AtoZ (though it's astounding that was even the case afterwards given Rossy's erm, questionable booking of the company + shitty 90's clipping) but I feel like she has a pretty solid case as a longevity candidate as well. She transitions nicely from her peak as rugged ace to reliable freelancer and basically has the same level of quality (especially when pushed) all the way to the end of her career and her consistency during those 10/15 years is next to none on her part. It's a good bow on top to go with everything else, especially given there are many peak-based selections here that take a massive dive in quality right after (would give examples but there's a few too many to just throw out here lol)

This repeats some of the bits from their first match together but also recontextualizes them in cool ways, like Amano's hit and run antics from the last match getting swiftly shut down quickly while Bolshoi changes focus from the arm to instead the head for this outing, going for really mean-looking sleeper holds while wangling on the mat. Watching the first match to this, you can really see the tangible improvments from the two in terms of how they're stringing things together, even if there's still occasional sloppiness. Amano in turn decides "hey that's pretty cool" and decides to also spam them out herself via using Bolshoi's mask for leverage. They go from that to Bolshoi trying for her fancy springboard spots like crossbodies and whatnot; those are fairly solid even if Amano can't really match that with her own significantly limited offence. It's nice that they do build off the last match more by having Bolshoi try to catch Amano out with her Tiger Feint spot (which worked perfectly the first time) only for Amano to just run in mid-bit to shove her to the outside lol. I also loved how this went from generic rear-naked chokes/spots for the first few minutes before turning into Bolshoi pulling out a pipe and just swinging on Amano's head a bunch, which for obvious reasons was quite awesome. Bolshoi's uncharacteristically hardcore antics are all to rattle both her opponent and Ozaki in the audience, culminating in Amano getting slammed into a table multiple times right in front of her. The bladejob right after is surprisingly effective, as is Bolshoi mixing in the occasional working of the colour alongside stiff dropkicks to the face. There is, admittedly, some jank in places. One instance that comes to mind has Amano going way over when catching Bolshoi off a crossbody to the point of almost DDT'ing herself on the canvas as a result due to the overextension. Thankfully this mostly comes through via small bits and pieces rather than potentially super dangerous bits like that. Amano does do a pretty sweet O'Connor Roll into a armbreaker that legitimately got me hype but of course the trappings of this being a established act/rookie match means she has to go back to random top rope stuff, shame. The last couple of minutes are probably the best work out of the two yet as they focus more on the drama of mat-work as the rookie Amano manages to get a couple of flash submissions, including one off a top rope Uranage that was especially nifty. This translates well into the finish as we get some solid bombs leading up to Amano's goofy fighting spirit letting her shake off every one of them for submissions, forcing Bolshoi to go for a particularly impressive headscissors using the arm as a lever for more leverage, allowing for the submission victory. Better than the first match by a good mile and the two seemed to have a better idea of what they wanted to do. The no-selling is pretty bad in places (Like any spots off the top-rope that are shrugged off just never sits well with me given it kinda trivialises the risk/reward of typically going up there) but it makes sense for the drama of Amano trying to push through enough to finally get a proper win to show she's not a lightweight. It's also fun seeing Bolshoi go for more of a rudo-brawler style, with her doing a good job at conducting the match with plenty of control spots while gracefully letting Amano throw her around when required. You'd never think someone as relatively small as her would tangibly work as a bully, yet she rolls with it with relative ease.

Hotta match is a good example of Yoshida laying it in good. As fantastic as she was as a grappler she was undersold when it came to doing more scrappy Bati-Bati lite matches, because she was VERY good at doing that kind of stuff when needed and had someone willing to go to those same levels (I.E. Kimura) Makes me even more sad we don't have the Toba/Yoshida tag match documented ngl

Yeah this was a entertaining goofy match that had probably some of the most random pairings in AJPW history lol. Want to see De-Von Dudley grapple with Muto on the mat? Want to see a green Akebono be big and do big-man stuff? This is absolutely the peak for those lads who just love weird freakshow matches. Team 3-D definitely aren't workrate darlings by ANY extent of the imagination but they know how to put a match together and drag things out with fun character work and interactions, even if it definitely does feel like them padding for time at times because they don't have a whole lot in their tank that isn't brawling/hardcore spots. Was surprised that Ake was the one who had to sell and bump for the two given how naturally jarring a 6'8 giant bumping for two guys far smaller always looks; then again he barely bumped for them in the first place lol. Most of it happened while Ake leaned on the ropes or laying on the floor. It was cool seeing Bubba just shout things, be they random shit, taunting, or outright calling the match, like telling De-Von to work on a specific leg or reminding people to sell the leg afterwards: this was the case for both him and D-Von, I guess they're just used to wrestling in acoustically loud crowds like ECW/WWE where that can be masked a lot easier. Otherwise the match isn't that great; Muto and Ake trading sleepers wasn't the most compelling shit in the world and it was quite obvious that the 3-D guys were gassing out by the halfway mark so we got a lot more sitting in holds rather than interesting/goofy antics, which is unfortunate. Muto does most of the selling in the second half and bar his usual roll into dropkick sthick, he's shockingly doing very little here in terms of action. At least the finishing stretch with Ake's hot tag and 3-D bumping like troopers for the guy was fun. Despite a figure-four/splash combo by the two, eventually the 3-D lads are able to double team on both to get the win with their usual big moments, getting a surprising win to finish up the Tag League. The illusion of the sheer bizarreness of what this was only lasts for so long until you're just staring at a big green sumo guy and a coasting Muto vs two guys who had already been well past their best days.

The first and least interesting of the Amano/Bolshoi matches....probably due to the fact that Amano is insanely green here, like we're talking sub-10 actual matches here overall. Bolshoi isn't exactly Terry Funk by comparison, but she's obviously very competent and does a good job working mostly from top with some typical bully antics to get this a bit more interest than it would otherwise despite the size difference, working the arm and grinding the match down into lots of holds. This is a pretty much a bog-standard rookie match yet it does stand as a testament of how Carlos Amano would get as solid as she did; she was already sorta good in the first place? Like she's still pretty iffy on the execution of certain moves and generally has a issue of looking awkward when moving around, don't get me wrong she's just as wonky as a typical rookie of the time is, she by this point had already a solid grounding on intensity and knowing how to drag certain moves out for the max amount of effect despite the limitations in actually doing them. Her selling is pretty sturdy and she helps get over Bolshoi's nasty lucha-lite stretching and general lack of care, throwing out lots of tricky arm work alongside just booting Amano in the face at points lol. She does do a pretty fancy rope work arm drag though and does throw in a couple of neat bits to remind you that she's still good at doing those. It's not exactly very complex for a formula but regardless does show the two starting to get a chemistry that will get better and better through the years from here. You kinda see that from the last third where they have more even back and forth exchanges; the Achilles Tendon bit where Amano first tries to escape with raw technique before having to relent to stomps and even going for Bolshoi's goofy clown nose on her mask for leverage. Even all of that rule bending barely inconveniences Bolshoi and just causes her to crank in the hold more, forcing Amano to barely get to the ropes. Really well paced and was rather logical for a hierarchy-based match like this. Amano tries to spam out moves to keep momentum with running back elbows and clotheslines over and over, however the high pace can only carry her so far as Bolshoi is just way too slippery and lands some significantly beefy bombs to finish up, ending with a arching German suplex. So yeah this is more or less a generic joshi puroresu rookie squash of the time, but it's still pretty enjoyable despite the roughness given how creative these two were even at this point. Bolshoi's hybrid shoot/lucha style still remains to this day as one of the coolest examples of that in practise, rather crazy that she was already this well-rounded from such a young age.

My answer to this is a resounding "maybe". There's a lot less comprehensive footage for 2001 than there is in 2000 last I checked, so I'm not sure if that would be worthwhile.

Idk, I do like his better (read: shorter) material but top 100? I don't even think he's ever been the best wrestler in any one company. A lot of his matches blend together because he's just not that varied of a performer to be going 30/40+ minutes with "big epic" timewasting pacing and typically turns to him repeating himself way too often in order to justify the at times ridiculous length. He just does not have the goods at present to be touching anything close to that list and "accidently KO'ing people occasionally" probably won't fix that all things considered unless his AJPW stint changes things up.