elliott

Can't sleep, clowns will eat me. Watched the match. This starts with some shoot style inspired mat work. It isn’t the sort of mindblowing Tamura/Sakuraba super fast paced back and forth. It is slower paced. Gritty for sure and there is a struggle in everything they do. Each hold and counter makes sense and they are able to build to submissions well. Very cool to see in a US ring. There are moments that are a little awkward as they are still young workers trying something new. Their previous match ups have long sections of mat work very similar to this, but this still feels very different from their prior matches. There are a few moments that I’m not in love with. There’s a longish section in the middle of the match where Low-Ki just kinda lays there letting Bryan go from submission to submission. Dragon’s work is good and he keeps things interesting but Ki needed to show more struggle and I would have liked to have seen a desperate attempt for the ropes to break one of the submissions or something. Ki eventually got out but it took him a while and he could have done a better job selling coming out of that stretch. But these are some serious nitpicks. This is an incredibly ambitious match for 2 young workers to attempt in the US (especially in a cesspool like New Jersey). It is a damn shame these guys never had runs in BattlArts or one of the later off-shoots like Futen. They were both clearly big fans of the style and it would have served both of these guys well to work with masters like Yuki Ishikawa or Carl Greco who could help polish some of the rougher edges to this. But overall, this is an extraordinary match. There’s I think 3 suplexes in the whole match only one that would fall into the headdroppy variety. One rope running spot. There are stiff strikes sure, but it probably isn’t one of the 10,000 stiffest matches in history. This is primarily 20 minutes of hard back and forth counter mat wrestling. Minimal rope breaks. No shenanigans. Just an excellent match. On one hand I wouldn’t go as high Loss’s rating, but, on the other hand I understand it and don’t think it’s outrageous. It was an incredibly ambitious match, well executed, had great pacing and build, nothing really felt out of place. They were clearly trying to work a shoot style match and in comparison to the very best shoot style matches, I’m not sure it really does. I doubt it would be one of the 20 best Kiyoshi Tamura matches for example, though that’s admittedly an unfair standard for just about anyone. But that’s really why I wouldn’t go as high as Loss’s rating when thinking about the match in terms of a brilliant shoot style match. It wouldn’t hold up compared to Tamura vs Yamamoto, Fujiwara vs Sayama, Takada vs Maeda, Ikeda vs Ishikawa etc. But thinking about it in terms of two young guys taking a remarkably bold risk by working an incredibly niche style that no one was attempting in this country and crafting an absolutely terrific match that completely sucked the crowd into something they probably weren’t expecting to see, fuck yeah ****3/4. Who in the US scene could have possibly pulled this match off? I still think I like the match with Steamboat as the ref a smidgen better, but this is one of those “everyone should watch this” kind of matches.

Totally. Gordi has wisdom.

Actually I think we should keep the guys like Owen Hart, Brian Pillman, etc alive and Hayabusa not paralyzed. Its fantasy booking after all, I'd rather keep those guys alive/healthy and I'm not counting on everyone going until 1999 (if we keep this up in real time) anyway so it may not even be an issue. (Although I sort of hope we do and if people start dropping out I may have to change up and start posting a "monthly card" once a week to burn through some really long term plans). Where I'd prefer to stay closer to reality is things like age and injury. It doesn't necessarily have to match up perfectly to what happened in real life. But if we know someone is injury prone IRL or suffered a major/career altering injury or had to start taking time off due to injury, I'd like to see that sort of kept in mind. I'm keeping in line with the IRL Vader injury and Maeda's super limited schedule. Burning guys out isn't necessarily a problem when you run monthly, but I will at times have guys take a show off to recover from a long series of hard matches or a number of losses to "train & regroup." I will also try and keep age & injuries into consideration. There's an old joke I remember reading like 15 years ago on Classics or tOA: "Akira Maeda" is the Japanese phrase for "Out with a Knee Injury." I know Maeda is injury prone and his body is crumbling apart. Even if I pushed his retirement back and ran my UWFi 2010, Maeda would never ever work every show. But yeah. Lets keep everyone alive and not paralyzed.

Gordi's plan sounds good to me. I was planning on keeping things as close to real life as possible. Vader will be out for 3 months starting at the end of January. Dr Death won't be welcome to Japan until March. Maeda only worked 4 times IRL in 1996, but I've got him booked 6 times through May and then I'm going to shut him down for the rest of 96 and will only really use him sporadically as a special attraction going forward depending on how far we take this project. I also plan on writing in some injury angles too at certain points. I don't know what to do with something like Owen Hart. But I think Gordi's plan is a good one.

There is a parallel universe where Low-Ki beat HHH at WrestleMania 30 before winning the WWE title and finishing in the top 5 of GWE.

I can't wait to see what the future holds for La Parka in FMW. I said it before and I'll say it again, that is my favorite pick in the entire draft. Parka got screwed out of the Brass Knucks Tournament and I demand vengeance! I'm having visions of chairs and burning Hayabusa masks!

I really need to rewatch this. I've been watching a lot of early 00s Low Ki lately and I still need to rewatch this and the King of the Indies match. I thought the Super 8 Final & the match with Guest Ref Ricky Steamboat held up incredibly well. The Steamboat match in particular might honestly be my favorite Daniel Bryan match other than the Cena SummerSlam match. Rewatching a lot of this stuff though it really makes sense that Low-Ki had the online buzz that he did. He always comes across as a huge star to me on these indy shows. If WWE was actually serious about building a cruiserweight division in 2001-02, Low Ki was really the guy that could have built to co-anchor the division with Rey Jr. He was insanely charismatic as an ass kicking babyface, but also imagine him as an ass kicking heel stomping the bejesus out of Rey Jr. He also was incredibly versatile as well as he was doing stuff like the matches with Danielson which were totally different than stuff he'd do with Red. I realize from reading the post that you're (Loss) watching 2002, but if you haven't revisited it lately, check out the match with Eddy Guerrero from 2001. It is a spectacular match. Seriously I've been stunned at how well a lot of this stuff holds up. I'm not going to argue that Ki's 2001-2002 or whatever is "one of the best runs ever" or anything like that. There are definite flaws in his work, disappointing matches etc. But I honestly see once in a generation type potential in that guy watching matches from that era. Someone with the ability, versatility, and charisma to have a major impact in spite of his size and unconventional working style. Knowing how everything panned out in real life, it is stunning to go back and rewatch something like the Super 8 and think about how Danielson would one day become the biggest babyface in wrestling. If you didn't know what happened you'd guess it was going to be Ki 100 times out of 100. Anyway, I should shut up and watch this match!

Oh I agree. That's why I drafted guys like Tatsuo Nakano, Miyato, Osamu Kido, Yatsu instead of picking up Kohsaka & Yamamoto who are younger, could immediately be put in a drawing position against certain opponents and are great wrestlers. I mean, I have guys like Regal & Finlay and in 2016 we say "Oh shit, Regal & Finlay." But really, Regal & Finlay didn't mean jack shit in Japan in 1995. Casas is sort of a guy like that. He doesn't have much/if any value as a "draw" but is a veteran superworker so he can help younger guys along and can lose because he's not really a guy being counted on to draw. Unless someone was trying to turn him into a star of course. Casas is valuable precisely because he's not really a guy you could ever build a promotion around in the mid 90s in Japan or the United States so he doesn't have to be protected. His value is that he has good matches and there is always a place for good matches on a wrestling card. I also am running once a monthish won't have everyone work every card. And other than my light heavyweight tournament, the smallest building I'm running over the next 8 months is Sumo Hall. So while I agree I think it is possible to have too much of a good thing for sure, I'd rather have THAT problem than a not enough talent problem. Just wait till UWFi raids All Japan and steals Kawada. The perfect loser to put over everyone

Does anyone else buy Negro Casas: UWFi worker. Cuz...you know...maybe? I could see that working. He's one of the few luchadores that I could see working that style. Kinda. For the love of god someone pick up Negro Casas so I don't have to throw out the 8months of cards I've put together and rethink everything

Sneak preview of the upcoming "WON's" coverage of UWFi's major post talent draft press conference. This is Yoshiaki Fujiwara talking about the incident with drugs being found in Dr Death's bag at the airport and his subsequent banning from traveling to Japan...

Dex, these are incredible. Awesome job.

Thanks! Its fun trying to write like Dave. I have a real rambling way of explaining myself anyway so it sorta comes naturally once you read enough of his stuff. I'm especially proud of that Naoki Sano sentence in the analysis of the light heavyweight tournament. I was in the Meltzer Zone there. I'm going to try and stay as true to Dave as possible. But I'm going to tweak things here and there. I might start calling Kiyoshi Tamura the best wrestler in the world soonish and I don't think Dave ever did. Dave's never been a Fujiwara fan, but I think properly utilized, I can help "Dave" move past the "washed up" comments and into more of an "aging not quite legend but former star who is actually still pretty dang good." Same sort of thing with the young PWFG/BattlArts guys. I don't believe for a moment that Dave was watching PWFG in 1994 and 1995. That isn't a knock on him, there were SO many promotions back then and so much happening that I just can't imagine Dave had time to sit down and watch PWFG to the point that he would know Yuki Ishikawa or Carl Greco weren't "solid young wrestlers" but were already super workers. I have cards booked until April including 2 Dome Shows (Tokyo & Fukuoka) and I'm really looking forward to writing them all up. There are big things to come.

From the 8/25/95 Wrestling Observer Newsletter:

Gonna start by reposting my post in the hype thread because it really works better as a starting off point here... Before I dive in, I wanted to say I plan on covering my UWFi via Dave Meltzer style coverage of press conferences, card announcements/previews/reviews etc. So expect lots of snark, grammar errors and run on sentences like Dave. Anyway, moving on to Dave's coverage of UWFi's first press release....

I sorta changed gameplans towards the end of the draft/Grimmas blew it and looked at an older version of my draft hopes. So I need to drop Tsuyoshi Kohsaka, Yoshihisa Yamamoto & Wataru Sakata and pick up Free Agents: Kenichi Yamamoto (who is different from Yoshihsa Yamamoto), Osamu Kido & Shigeo "Yuko" Miyato. I fully plan on utilizing those RINGS guys in the very short future, but I got a couple of early plans I want to run through before picking them up as forever full timers. So for now, I need Kenichi Yamamoto, Osamu Kido & Shigeo "Yuko" Miyato.

OH SHIT gordi, this is amazing.

In terms of picking up free agents, since I'm only running around one show a month can I just say something like "UWFi picks up free agent x for 4 shows" and list the dates?

I'm trying to think if I've ever seen a Terry Funk vs Ray Traylor match and I really fucking want to, Mid 90s WCW maybe? Unless i'm forgetting something obvious.

Parv did you ever end up listening to any Towns van Zandt or Joni Mitchell? I've been on a weird Joni Mitchell/Iris Dement/Tom Waits/Aesop Rock kick lately which would probably explain why I am an insane person. edit: And only 4 women in the 100-26 seems basically impossible. I guess 5 if you wanna count the one White Stripe. Put Amy Winehouse #1 and all is forgiven. double edit: Not to totally be a dick and say some nice things, there are a ton of people I really love on here. Always excited to see Gang Starr get love. I totally popped for Girl Talk who I completely forgot about and takes me back to a very specific, hazy and possibly sticky time and place. Violent Femmes is another super cool pick. They gave me free tix to a show on their current tour because they liked the unnecessarily fancy cheese I gave them. Good stuff. Although Kanye over John Lennon makes me want to hit things in a Shawn Michaels over Ric Flair sort of way

edit nevermind for now double edit: ok now Before I dive in, I wanted to say I plan on covering my UWFi via Dave Meltzer style coverage of press conferences, card announcements/previews/reviews etc. So expect lots of grammar errors and run on sentences like Dave. Anyway, moving on to Dave's coverage of UWFi's first press release.... "UWFi, arguably the hottest promotion in the world after this month’s unprecedented worldwide talent draft, sent out a press release announcing 2 shows to be held in September. The first will take place Saturday September 9th at Tokyo’s Kourakuen Hall and will be a one night tournament to crown a new UWFi World Light Heavyweight Champion. According to the press release the light heavyweight title will be for wrestlers under 215lbs and as of now 7 participants have been named: Kazushi Sakuraba, Naoki Sano, Masahito Kakihara, Yuki Ishikawa, Takeshi Ono, Alexander Otsuka and Carl Greco. Even though this is another one night junior heavyweight tournament involving a lot of potential match-ups that have never happened before, this should be a very different junior heavyweight tournament from last year’s Super J-Cup that won this Newsletter’s “Best Major Show” award. There won’t be any of the spectacular high flying moves showed off by Great Sasuke and others in this tournament. But everyone entered so far is a good young worker so the matches should be fun if not spectacular. One big name missing from the tournament is Kiyoshi Tamura who usually fights at around 185 pounds, which would make him eligible for the division. Instead, Tamura will be headlining the 2nd show announced in the UWFi Press Release. The 2nd show will take place at the legendary Sumo Hall in Tokyo and will be headlined by the aforementioned Kiyoshi Tamura against former Sumo Legend Koji Kitao. While no other matches were officially announced, the press release said there will be singles matches involving Vader, Volk Han and Shinya Hashimoto. UWFi will hold a major press conference later this week to announce the full cards and officially address the Japanese wrestling media for the first time since the talent draft. Even though UWFi is most talked about promotion in the wrestling industry, it seems like a bit of a risk to run the first show with Tamura vs Kitao as the headliner. Kitao's name doesn't mean as much as it did 3 years ago and Tamura isn't the draw Takada was when he had his big match with Kitao. Although the size difference makes the match-up intriguing, this isn't the sexiest main event UWFi could put on with their first show. They are clearly planning on holding off on their big matches as Takada vs Hashimoto or Takada vs Maeda could sell out the Tokyo Dome or a big baseball stadium with little else on the card. But Akira Maeda wasn't mentioned at all in the press release and sources are saying that UWFi management has been unable to get in touch with him so far. We expect a lot of questions to be answered in the upcoming press conference and we'll have full coverage when it occurs."

UWFi is pretty sure they're up in the draft and would love to welcome former Japanese Olympian, Yoshiaki Yatsu, to the roster.

UWFi runs in to select Koji Kitao

I sent my theoretical last 9 picks into Grimmas assuming no one picks any of them (and I'd be shocked at this point). If I was a Bond villain, my henchman would just be my UWFi roster.

Glacier was the guy I was most excited for. That didn't turn out well Jerry Lawler showing up in ECW for the first time is my favorite ECW moment by far. Awesome debut.