ohtani's jacket

Devil Masami was a good worker from the late 70s through to the late 90s and even her 2000 stuff hasn't been as bad as I expected. I'm sure she passes the 25-year benchmark. Jaguar, Chigusa, Lioness, and Aja would also be contenders. Apparently, I need to watch Chihiro Hashimoto matches. The one that I strongly agreed with was Fujinami.

There are entire seasons of TV available but the matches are clipped. The Classes matches are in full but they didn't release them in any sort of linear fashion like they did with All Japan Classics and New Japan Classics. And they didn't air many episodes. Perhaps you can pick up the shows and do a deep dive if you really like the era. They have some good stuff on them like the Chigusa vs. Leilani Kai matches that never get talked about.

Don't jump into the 90's, jump into the 80's first. The Gokuaku Domei vs. Crush Gals feud is must watch. Are the AJW Classics discs worth getting for the 80s content? The AJW Classics episodes jump around a lot. They feature the biggest matches of the Crush Girls era but don't cover the transition period from the 70s Beauty Pair boom to the Crush Girls boom -- the era where Jackie Sato was ace, Jaguar Yokota was the young challenger, Monster Ripper the monster heel, Black Pair the main native heels, and Devil Masami terrorised Mimi Hagiwara. The benefit of All Japan Classics is that the matches air in full whereas on TV they were clipped. I think you should start at a transition point -- either post Jackie Sato or post Crush Girls. If you want to watch the 90s inter-promotional stuff it's a good idea to start with the early 90s shows to see how the young AJW stars grew into their roles (Hokuto, Aja, Toyota, Kyoko, etc.) If you track the growth of each star it gives you more of a feel for the emotional context instead of concentrating only on the in-ring style which people get hung up about at times. Just watch wrestler X or Y is the worst way to watch Joshi. Joshi is a bit like lucha in that it is not one style. There is a certain style that people associate with it but it isn't the only working style. When you see a flaw or something you think is wrong with the style, try to remember that flaw is 100% deliberate. It's not as though dozens upon dozens of Joshi workers went out there and made the same basic mistakes. The girls chose to wrestle the way they did just like other styles evolved in different ways. It's not wrong per se, it's just different. You need to try to adjust to the rhythm of what they're doing. It helps to think about it as a live experience and what you would pop for if you were in the crowd. Good luck. Not sure if I'd even call joshi a style. Joshi really just means Japanese women's wrestling and there's just as much diversity in it as there is in Japanese men's wrestling. AJW seemed to allow their top workers to determine the house style and wasn't much like CMLL in terms of forcing everyone to wrestle a specific way. The handful of Beauty Pair matched I've seen seemed to have been almost entirely old-school mat wrestling. The Crush Girls stuff was still mat-dominated but added in technical striking and high flying elements. Dump, Bull and Aja introduced weapons brawling. It's not until Toyota that the workrate sprint style most people think of as "joshi style" starts to be en vogue. Then you go into the late 90's and you get the aforementioned shooty ARSION stuff. After AJW loses its grip, you see even more diversity with stuff like Yoshiko Tamura wrestling NWA champ hybrid, Meiko Satomura wrestling shoot-style hybrid, and inter-gender matches becoming a thing. The style that people think is synonymous with Toyota began in the 70s and continued through the 80s until Toyota and weapons brawling existed in the early 80s with Black Pair and Devil Masami using weapons before Dump's Army. In Japan, the trainers have a lot to say about the promotion's wrestling style as well as the promoters.

Don't jump into the 90's, jump into the 80's first. The Gokuaku Domei vs. Crush Gals feud is must watch. Are the AJW Classics discs worth getting for the 80s content? The AJW Classics episodes jump around a lot. They feature the biggest matches of the Crush Girls era but don't cover the transition period from the 70s Beauty Pair boom to the Crush Girls boom -- the era where Jackie Sato was ace, Jaguar Yokota was the young challenger, Monster Ripper the monster heel, Black Pair the main native heels, and Devil Masami terrorised Mimi Hagiwara. The benefit of All Japan Classics is that the matches air in full whereas on TV they were clipped. I think you should start at a transition point -- either post Jackie Sato or post Crush Girls. If you want to watch the 90s inter-promotional stuff it's a good idea to start with the early 90s shows to see how the young AJW stars grew into their roles (Hokuto, Aja, Toyota, Kyoko, etc.) If you track the growth of each star it gives you more of a feel for the emotional context instead of concentrating only on the in-ring style which people get hung up about at times. Just watch wrestler X or Y is the worst way to watch Joshi. Joshi is a bit like lucha in that it is not one style. There is a certain style that people associate with it but it isn't the only working style. When you see a flaw or something you think is wrong with the style, try to remember that flaw is 100% deliberate. It's not as though dozens upon dozens of Joshi workers went out there and made the same basic mistakes. The girls chose to wrestle the way they did just like other styles evolved in different ways. It's not wrong per se, it's just different. You need to try to adjust to the rhythm of what they're doing. It helps to think about it as a live experience and what you would pop for if you were in the crowd. Good luck.

This was a great final that could have gone either way. I was never much of a Hamada fan but she won me over here ｗith a relentless and honest performance. She could have easily been eclipsed by the talent of Yoshida but she more than held her own. I've seen better matches in October but no two wrestlers have fought like the result mattered as much. Yoshida had better matches in '99 but her '00 matches still pack a wallop.

This was awesome while it lasted. It's a shame they never had the classic they were capable of during their careers. In a sense, this feels like the high spots from a longer match, but another way of looking at it is that they were too hellbent on beating each other to have a slower bout. The problem is that Yoshida beating Kong should feel like something earth shattering but it doesn't. The submission hold is amazing since frankly, it would have to be... but the bout doesn't have say half the drama that Hokuto beating Aja at Big Egg did despite being a superior bout. Still, if you concentrate on the work then this is two of the best going at it.

This was a decent match as M2K appear to have settled into a groove but it was mainly about M2K vs. Stalker and Taru. The CIMA vs. Mochizuki rivalry wasn't featured as prominently as in other matches although they did have one fling toward the end. Not as good as the past few Crazy Max vs. M2K trios matches but then again it was a house show in Chiba so you can't expect too much. For what it's worth, this match took place on 9/29/00.

Backlund wasn't exactly Tiger Jeet Singh but I watched the 6/79 Inoki match the other day and he was throwing tantrums at the crowd.

Murakami vs. Ishikawa is the greatest shit ever. Those highlights of the September match were so great. Murakami is such a punk it's unreal. And on the other side, you have a wrestling god In Ishikawa who looks like a guy in a Japanese beer commercial whenever he cracks a joke. In fact, I wish I had more of an effort to go to one of the drinking parties he used to organize after BattleARTS shows. He looks like a fun guy. But he's also a wrestling god so behind the smiles is a serious motherfucker. Nagai looks like he couldn't give a fuck about what's going on until he kicks the shit out of Malenko. And man, Malenko's frenzied counter struggle against the beatdown was intense. It struck me at the time that you could make a case for Malenko being the third best American worker in the world behind Triple H and Benoit albeit with limited footage. This threatened to settle into a normal bout until Nagai fought back and tagged in Murakami who went batshit insane and knocked out Malenko. Then he attacked Ishikawa and they had another off the chain post-match brawl. I think it's fair to say that Murakami wasn't invited to the post-match drinking party. I need to see Murakami vs. Ishikawa yesterday. October has been a great month for wrestling so far.

Excellent long-form BattlARTS tag. Just what the doctor ordered in terms of what I want to see from BattlARTS as it was predominantly mat-based aside from a few Sano spots (and they were cool spots.) Sano was outstanding here. It was easily the best he's looked in BattlARTS and to be perfectly honest I don't think it's an exaggeration to say it was one of his better career performances. He looked fantastic working with Usuda and also with Ken. The commentators were marking out for him and I can't say I blame him as his timing was exquisite in this match. As they mentioned, the throws that he did looked incredibly powerful. And I found myself digging his throwback juniors spots as well, which is something I don't always appreciate about Sano in the shoot style feds. Even though this match was veteran and junior vs. veteran and junior, I thought Taira and Ken did a good job of working against each other. When you have two juniors scrapping like that the match becomes far more dynamic than simply waiting for the seniors to square off. Really good work by all four men. BattlARTS has picked up the past couple of months, which I'm pleased about.

Oh man, another outstanding match from Osaka Pro. Was there at better wrestler in Japan in 2000 than Super Delfin? The way he used his in-ring smarts and wrestling ability to counter the bigger, stronger Hoshikawa was amazing to watch. Hes been an excellent performer throughout the year. This probably went on for too long and had a few too many nearfalla but there were at least three of them that I bit on and the crowd was hot throughout. I dont know who that female fan was of Hoshi (one of gordis friends perhaps?) but she was losing her shit. Im surprised she didnt pass out when he won. These guys proofed that its possible to have an epic in a tiny arena of the intensity is there and the crowd are up for it. The other thing that makes it special is that you know they couldnt sustain this promotional run so every bit of greatness they squeeze from it is a thing to be treasured. It definitely ranks up there now with my love of mid-90s JWP and other small promotions. And Delfin is now a worker I consider on a whole different level from how I viewed him previously. So far its been Shocker and Delfin who have risen the most in my eyes during this project.

Super Delfin!

TWC aired GAEA. Peak output feels like a different question to greatest ever. New Japan and the WWE wouldnt make my list of favourite promotions ever but I can safely say that they're greater than boutique promotions. Greater doesnt mean better in this conversation. CMLL isnt really a void from 2000-2010. I dont think the post-Mistico years were great but there was a ton of good content from 2000-2007 and they were doing good business.

Osaka Pro has been one of the best promotions in the world in 2000 and Togo has been one of the best workers in Japan but this still managed to defy my expectations. What a great match. I love how Hoshikawa responded to Togo roughing him up by delivering some ass-kicking of his own. And the stretch run was fantastic. The whole time I kept wondering what it would possibly take to put Togo away. The crowd was hooked and so I was. This really was a triumph of Japanese indy wrestling for 2000. Usually, a match like this wouldn't work for me because you have Hoshikawa as a quasi-shoot style guy and Togo as a pure pro-style guy and those two things tend to mesh in annoying ways but they avoided any pitfalls by focusing on effort and sheer physicality. And that type of thing always leaves an impression. Great post-match as well with Togo breaking character to put over how much he enjoyed the fight and his respect for his opponent. Osaka Pro is something else in 2000. None of the Japanese majors can touch it as far as I'm concerned.

Watched this again. It was a bit slow in parts but the stand-up portions were awesome. Loved Hashimoto taking out his frustrations on the New Japan president by busting his mouth open. Fujinami had shoulder much of the blame for Hashimoto's loss to Ogawa for booking the match in the first place and that is partly the reason why Hashimoto is so aggressive with him. Fujinami supposedly lifted his ban on the Dragon Suplex for this match but he didn't come close to applying it. I like Fujinami's strikes in this and I thought he looked pretty spry. The match could have been a bit better but I guess they were being deliberately uncooperative,

Oops, used to typing that in the search bar.

This was Hashimoto's comeback match after he retired following his loss to Ogawa. Initially, he was supposed to wrestle in black trunks with no entrance music but I guess that went by the wayside. It's speculation but I think the original idea behind Zero-1 was that it was a supposed to be a Hashimoto led faction/promotion that invaded New Japan, but for whatever reason Hashimoto was fired and Zero-1 became an indy instead.

I wonder if Kawada, in his wildest dreams, ever thought he'd be wrestling against the IWGP champion in a Dome show match? Surely not at the beginning of the year. When you think about it, it's surreal how this match came about. There's actually a part of this match where Kawada smiles. I don't think I've seen him smile in a wrestling match ever. It's right before a nearfall but who knows what the real reason was. The point is that the match feels different. It's special and it's worthy of an interpromotional bout. Personally, I thought it was one of the best matches of the year. I would put it alongside Villano II vs. Atlantis, Satomura vs. Aja and Cactus Jack vs. Triple H as far as MOTYs go. What I realised when I watched this was that it didn't matter how much I knew about the bout or if I knew the outcome, I was hooked as though the bout were happening in real time and the crowd's reaction fueled my own interest in the match. The crowd is pro-Sasaki but there are Kawada fans as well and the Sasaki fans respect Kawada the same way that Rafa fans respect Federer. This isn't Federer/Nadal but it was important at the time since AJPW vs. NJPW was that one inter-promotional feud the fans had been starved of. Work-wise, Kawada was the better worker but Sasaki was having the better year. I thought they were even for the most part. Sasaki was no slouch at this point even if he wasn't as naturally talented as Kawada. There was dumb, dopey shit in the match and the finish wasn't epic by any stretch of the imagination but it wasn't meant to be the conclusion of the feud. The finish was the first act turning point in what ideally was a three-act story. But it sure was good for a NJPW inter-promotional feud. NJPW could have easily buried Kawada as was their wont but they made the right call here. A very memorable bout.

This was really good. You've got to give the Devil his due and acknowledge that 2000 was Triple H's year. I know people who don't like him try to claim that even his 2000 isn't that good but I haven't seen any evidence of that. He works hard in every match, is constantly selling on offense and defense and pays attention to detail with his transitions and set-up moves. He's an excellent performer. The problem is that he's not a beloved one. But then I suppose he doesn't deserve to be. I thought it was noticeable that he brought some extra offense to this going up against a great offensive wrestler like Benoit. Ross is always going on about Triple H the strategist and this was one match where he definitely worked smart. The crowd was lost in the beginning either because it was too cerebral for them or they were confused because Triple H wasn't a legit face but they grew louder during the finishing stretch. Usually, I'd hate the shit with Stephanie and the low blow but it kind of worked here. I liked the Crossface vs. Pedigree battle at the end and the low blow was in keeping with Triple H's character. And the Stephanie interference worked because of the headbutt angle. On the other hand, something about the bout lacked true main event quality (if you're thinking of it as a semi-main event) and the lack of a video package was also odd. But from my own point of view, this was a very good bout.

Franz Schumann vs. Karsten Kretschmer (VDB 1/31/1998) This was nice stuff. It was arguably the best I've seen Schumann look as a worker. I can't really recall him grappling this much in other bouts, I wonder if there is other footage of Schumman working like this. With an exhibition of this sort, there's always a possibility that it was a departure from the norm. But I think this is from the promotion that had some great grappling from Jones, Wright, and Zrno so it may have been that Franz was finally getting to show his ability after all those years working for confused promotions like Reslo, CWA, and EWF that were trying to find some way to stay relevant in the early 90s during a period of downturn for European wrestling. In any event, I liked this Schumann much better than the younger version.

It's been a while since I've watched any 50s stuff. The VQ on Paul Anderson vs. Bozo Brown is just about unwatchable but Anderson is an interesting worker as he was an Olympic gold medalist powerlifter and recognized at the time as the strongest man in the world. Not much of a match but Anderson is quick on his feet for a fat dude. Bronko Lubich vs. Jack Allen was a neat little bout. Lubich was a good worker. One of my favourite things about 50s wrestling is seeing the actual wrestling careers of guys like Lubich. He was a junior heavyweight heel with some nice in-ring tricks that drew plenty of heat from the crowd. Like most of his contemporaries, he knew his way around a hold. And he had a great look with that mustache of his. I hope we get some footage of his tag team with Aldo Bogni as he looked like a promising worker. Billy Darnell vs. The Great Yamato was what you'd expect from those two. Darnell wanted a good clean bout but Yamato kept using illegal moves to gain the advantage. The majority of the fight was cat and mouse stuff until Darnell got pissed after one inside move too many. You know the formula. The last few minutes had some heated action as the bout broke down and Darnell began to cut loose. This was an early Yamato TV match and he didn't have quite as forceful an impact on offense as in later matches. But even without the stiffness, it was decent stuff for a Japanese heel bout. Davis is at his worst whenever foreign heels are involved, though, so you have to live with that for 30 minutes. Pretty good match even if there was a lot of time killing to start with.

So we finally get to the hair vs. mask match. This has been an underwhelming feud and the apuesta match is no different. Dandy isn't a charismatic enough rudo and Antifaz isn't a good enough tecnico to make you care about what's happening in the ring. Zumbido is ten times more charismatic than Dandy on the outside and has better hair to boot. In hindsight, it would have been a better bet to have had Zumbido feud with Antifaz. One thing that keeps bugging me about the feud is why do they use the same piece of plunder in every match? I can't understand why that sheet of metal is always at ringside. This had some decent nearfalls in the final fall but nothing that made me change my opinion on the feud in general. The best thing about it was Dandy accepting his haircut with honor and dignity (after he'd claimed his shoulders were up, that is.) I liked the way he let Antifaz cut off his locks. Antifaz's mask was so wrecked you could pretty much see what he looked like even though he'd won. He had a tough time keeping the middle part on the bridge of his nose during the post-match interview. Watching the post-match it felt like the feud achieved its goal in terms of pushing Antifaz but I wish Dandy's work had been more memorable.

It's been a long time since i watched these guys. Have they produced anything good in the past few years?

A lot of those examples don't apply to CMLL specifically. Don't forget that during the 70s and 80s, New Japan had a working relationship with the UWA. So most of the lucha influence in Japan comes from a different Mexican promotion. Hamada was predominantly a UWA worker and sent his MPro guys to work in the UWA as well. If you're talking about modern day lucha influence then CMLL obviously leads the way.