ohtani's jacket

This was all right, but I kind of wanted it to be cooler than it was. Realistically, it was a few years too late as Fujiwara had lost a lot of muscle mass since that run he had in New Japan in '93-94. In the beginning I thought he was a bit frail looking and was worried for him when Tenryu laid in his shots; then he pummeled him back twice as hard and I felt a little foolish. Even at this age he was still a pretty dangerous man. The match was a tournament bout, which put a cap on how special it could be. Fujiwara toyed with Tenryu on the mat while still having one eye on a legit submission chance. He played a sort of bastard heel role and threw in some carny shit and even an audible "fuck" at one point. Tenryu bled from his favourite spot, and used his strikes and sumo technique to fight his way out of trouble as usual. Fujiwara backed off a lot of the strikes, showing glimpses of why he was such a great defensive wrestler, but he was a lot slower than in years gone by and his counters didn't really have the same snap to them. Tenryu sold pretty well and hit pretty hard, but Tenryu sells pretty well and hits pretty hard in every match. The mat work was okay, but it's not one of Tenryu's strong points and all he can really do down low is sell well. The finish would have worked better if Tenryu had hit a power bomb or enziguri after dazing Fujiwara instead of going straight for a cover, but i guess it was meant to be a flash pin. Would have liked to have seen this match in '93 or '94.

Genichiro Tenryu vs. Yoshiaki Fujiwara (11/27/97) This was all right, but I kind of wanted it to be cooler than it was. Realistically, it was a few years too late as Fujiwara had lost a lot of muscle mass since that run he had in New Japan in '93-94. In the beginning I thought he was a bit frail looking and was worried for him when Tenryu laid in his shots; then he pummeled him back twice as hard and I felt a little foolish. Even at this age he was still a pretty dangerous man. The match was a tournament bout, which put a cap on how special it could be. Fujiwara toyed with Tenryu on the mat while still having one eye on a legit submission chance. He played a sort of bastard heel role and threw in some carny shit and even an audible "fuck" at one point. Tenryu bled from his favourite spot, and used his strikes and sumo technique to fight his way out of trouble as usual. Fujiwara backed off a lot of the strikes, showing glimpses of why he was such a great defensive wrestler, but he was a lot slower than in years gone by and his counters didn't really have the same snap to them. Tenryu sold pretty well and hit pretty hard, but Tenryu sells pretty well and hits pretty hard in every match. The mat work was okay, but it's not one of Tenryu's strong points and all he can really do down low is sell well. The finish would have worked better if Tenryu had hit a power bomb or enziguri after dazing Fujiwara instead of going straight for a cover, but i guess it was meant to be a flash pin. Would have liked to have seen this match in '93 or '94.

Well, Atlantis was a masked luchador and idol to the kids. I think you have to compare him with other masked stars.

It seems one of the great shames of Tenryu's career that he spent two years of his 90s prime working feuds like this. I guess if you want to put a positive spin on it, you can truly say he visited everywhere and fought everyone, but I can think of a ton of Tenryu I'd rather see than an exploding death match. I don't get the appeal of Onita. There are times when he comes across as convincing such as in his mic performances or when he's dishing out a beating, but for the most part his stuff is like watching an Asian B film. I thought I was back on an 80s film project watching old Hong Kong action flicks the way he his hair was blowing about in the night breeze. I didn't think much of his selling in this. Offensively he was physically broken down, but selling is supposed to be his calling card. I really hated each and every one of his close-ups after a count of two. I know he was trying to sell how close it was to three, but that sort of wide eyed gaze makes it seem like you're not that out of it to begin with. I've really come to appreciate the subtlety to a lot of Tenryu's selling, particularly his grimacing, so I felt like Onita was overacting a bit much like a B film actor. The backdrop for this was really pretty with the sun setting behind the baseball stadium (which is probably the prettiest Kawasaki gets, as it's kind of an ugly city.) I'm not all that familiar with FMW so I found the ring announcer odd. He sounded like a character from GeGeGe no Kitaro. The ref wearing googles was goofy. I don't know why Tenryu was wearing a belt. It didn't seem to play into the belt and his back wasn't highlighted in the pre-match video (unlike that goofy net he wore over his injured forehead or the oh so 90s angle of ripping up a VHS tape at the press conference.) I guess he had some sort of legitimate back strain going into the bout. Another thing I strongly disliked was Onita's theme music. That's a terrible cover of Wild Thing. The match itself was divided into two halves: the first half where they were avoiding being whipped or thrown into the barbed wire, and the second half where they'd taken a few explosions and were much the worse for wear. The first half made sense from a psychological standpoint, but got old pretty fast. The second half was full of those close-ups I hated and too many power bomb attempts from Tenryu. I can't find the tag match that set this up online, but from the pre-match highlights the power bomb was a theme in the match with Goto and Hara, but four power bombs is overkill. Tenryu's extreme reluctance to take a bump into the wire, while understandable, also hurt the bout as it felt like they were running away from the gimmick at times. Even the bump he did take was pretty soft compared to the ones Onita took. A regular match without the cage would have been better. Tenryu bleeding didn't have much effect and watching him spread the blood with his sweaty wristband was a business exposing close-up from the video director. For some reason, the bout was really long and Tenryu won. I don't get why Tenryu won unless Onita often suffered losses like these where he looked honorable in defeat. I watched this twice and was indifferent to it both times.

Genichiro Tenryu vs. Atsushi Onita (Exploding whatever, 5/5/94) It seems one of the great shames of Tenryu's career that he spent two years of his 90s prime working feuds like this. I guess if you want to put a positive spin on it, you can truly say he visited everywhere and fought everyone, but I can think of a ton of Tenryu I'd rather see than an exploding death match. I don't get the appeal of Onita. There are times when he comes across as convincing such as in his mic performances or when he's dishing out a beating, but for the most part his stuff is like watching an Asian B film. I thought I was back on an 80s film project watching old Hong Kong action flicks the way he his hair was blowing about in the night breeze. I didn't think much of his selling in this. Offensively he was physically broken down, but selling is supposed to be his calling card. I really hated each and every one of his close-ups after a count of two. I know he was trying to sell how close it was to three, but that sort of wide eyed gaze makes it seem like you're not that out of it to begin with. I've really come to appreciate the subtlety to a lot of Tenryu's selling, particularly his grimacing, so I felt like Onita was overacting a bit much like a B film actor. The backdrop for this was really pretty with the sun setting behind the baseball stadium (which is probably the prettiest Kawasaki gets, as it's kind of an ugly city.) I'm not all that familiar with FMW so I found the ring announcer odd. He sounded like a character from GeGeGe no Kitaro. The ref wearing googles was goofy. I don't know why Tenryu was wearing a belt. It didn't seem to play into the belt and his back wasn't highlighted in the pre-match video (unlike that goofy net he wore over his injured forehead or the oh so 90s angle of ripping up a VHS tape at the press conference.) I guess he had some sort of legitimate back strain going into the bout. Another thing I strongly disliked was Onita's theme music. That's a terrible cover of Wild Thing. The match itself was divided into two halves: the first half where they were avoiding being whipped or thrown into the barbed wire, and the second half where they'd taken a few explosions and were much the worse for wear. The first half made sense from a psychological standpoint, but got old pretty fast. The second half was full of those close-ups I hated and too many power bomb attempts from Tenryu. I can't find the tag match that set this up online, but from the pre-match highlights the power bomb was a theme in the match with Goto and Hara, but four power bombs is overkill. Tenryu's extreme reluctance to take a bump into the wire, while understandable, also hurt the bout as it felt like they were running away from the gimmick at times. Even the bump he did take was pretty soft compared to the ones Onita took. A regular match without the cage would have been better. Tenryu bleeding didn't have much effect and watching him spread the blood with his sweaty wristband was a business exposing close-up from the video director. For some reason, the bout was really long and Tenryu won. I don't get why Tenryu won unless Onita often suffered losses like these where he looked honorable in defeat. I watched this twice and was indifferent to it both times.

I'm not sure what's more remarkable here: John responding to a post that's over three years old or Parv's odd disappointment with PWO. Anyway, analyzing 6/3/94 hardly seems paramount unless somehow has something new to add.

Genichiro Tenryu, Nobutaku Araya & Tatsumi Fujinami vs. Nobuhiko Takada, Masahito Kakihara & Naoki Sano (7/20/96) This was a decent six man. It won't make you forget those All Japan six-mans and it was part of a one night six-man tournament so it didn't build to any amazing crescendo, but it featured a lot of workers that folks around here like and it was an important match in terms of teasing Tenryu vs. Takada without really delivering on it if you know what I mean. Tenryu delivered a bit of a cheap shot on Takada by punching him when he was blindsided. Takada knocked Tenryu down with a flurry of kicks similar to their singles matches. And they both broke up each other's pin or submission attempts. Meanwhile, the others worked pretty hard to make sure they weren't just accessories to the angle. There wasn't really anything outstanding from the other players, but everything they did was good. Ultimately, it was a tournament match and bouts like that have a glass ceiling, but it was consistently good the whole way through without ever really blowing you away.

I was under the impression that this would be more of a worked shoot than it really was. Tenryu, for his part, worked it as a pro-wrestling match under UWF rules, while Takada, to his credit, worked each of the matches differently and did his best here to remain true to the shoot style credo. I don't like seeing pro-wrestlers do shoot style anymore than I like seeing pro-wrestlers decimated in PRIDE fights, but watching Tenryu bouts has become a hobby of mine in recent weeks and I kind of had to swallow my disbelief that Takada wouldn't destroy Tenryu under UWF rules if this were a realistic worked shoot. Tenryu fighting through the guard to deliver forearm smashes was cool. Tenryu bleeding from Takada's knees to the head was awesome. He also ate Takada's kicks extremely well. Tenryu doing pro-wrestling moves... not so cool... Tenryu chasing Takada outside the ring and back in... not so cool... The matwork was slightly better than the WAR bout to the extent that Takada varied the bout of attack, but it was still weaker than the stand-up. I guess if they'd worked stand-up only it would have made for a pretty short bout, however. The final submission was poorly worked and tough to buy as a legit finisher, but again I wouldn't peg this as anything less than good. The WAR bout was better because it was clearly a pro-wrestling bout without any expectations of what should happen in a UWF bout, and it was also the more dramatic of the two. Tenryu wasn't bad in this, but he was a little weaker than he was on his home turf. If you're into star ratings, I'd go *** on this and *** 1/2 on the rematch.

I suspect it's online. I'm certain there are torrents of it. Ditch may also have it. I found the Bushido version of it on YouTube. Genichiro Tenryu vs. Nobuhiko Takada (9/11/96) I was under the impression that this would be more of a worked shoot than it really was. Tenryu, for his part, worked it as a pro-wrestling match under UWF rules, while Takada, to his credit, worked each of the matches differently and did his best here to remain true to the shoot style credo. I don't like seeing pro-wrestlers do shoot style anymore than I like seeing pro-wrestlers decimated in PRIDE fights, but watching Tenryu bouts has become a hobby of mine in recent weeks and I kind of had to swallow my disbelief that Takada wouldn't destroy Tenryu under UWF rules if this were a realistic worked shoot. Tenryu fighting through the guard to deliver forearm smashes was cool. Tenryu bleeding from Takada's knees to the head was awesome. He also ate Takada's kicks extremely well. Tenryu doing pro-wrestling moves... not so cool... Tenryu chasing Takada outside the ring and back in... not so cool... The matwork was slightly better than the WAR bout to the extent that Takada varied the bout of attack, but it was still weaker than the stand-up. I guess if they'd worked stand-up only it would have made for a pretty short bout, however. The final submission was poorly worked and tough to buy as a legit finisher, but again I wouldn't peg this as anything less than good. The WAR bout was better because it was clearly a pro-wrestling bout without any expectations of what should happen in a UWF bout, and it was also the more dramatic of the two. Tenryu wasn't bad in this, but he was a little weaker than he was on his home turf. If you're into star ratings, I'd go *** on this and *** 1/2 on the rematch.

It's funny you mention the style is dead because the last time I watched a significant amount of modern Joshi, which was from the '06-08 period, it seemed like they hadn't moved on a lot from 1993. If the 1993 style is dead perhaps it's because there's no audience. Workrate Joshi was a thrilling live product but you can't do much with it without an audience. I think 1993 is being unfairly singled out here, though, as Joshi grew much worse from '94-96 in terms of excess.

Kandori, yes. Hokuto, no.

I probably didn't express that very well since it's the early hours of the morning over here. There's a way that Joshi puroresu has always been worked, a way these girls were trained to work, and a way the audience wanted to see and the girls wanted to work. People may or may not like it, but it's a style that developed and evolved over time and has certain tropes and conventions and in-built expectations. If you don't like the style, or you only enjoy it when it's reeled in, I can understand that, but I think there's a philosophical debate here about whether workers who work in a non-traditional way are objectively better than the standard bearers for the more traditional style. I mean saying you like this girl or that girl because they wrestle more like other workers you like is fine, but claiming Satomura is better than some of the biggest names in the game in one of the best years of its history is a pretty big claim and I'm not sure how it stacks up from an objective stand point of what Joshi workers set out to do. The degree to which Satomura is a non-traditional worker is something that would have to be fleshed out if the discussion is to continue because I have to get ready for work, but the reason I highlighted that comment as the crux of the argument is that we all know restraint isn't a hallmark of Joshi puroresu. So if Satomura is a more restrained worker then she's slightly less traditional.

Unfortunately, I'm restricted by whether the footage is online or not. Genichiro Tenryu vs. Tatsumi Fujinami (12/15/93) I'm glad I went back and watched this as the Tenryu vs. Fujinami dynamic was a fun subplot in the WAR vs. NJPW feud and this felt like a more complete match in lieu of their failed '96 bout. It also followed on chronologically from that electric 10/93 tag where Fujinami bled a lot. It wasn't quite as spirited as the opening to the '96 bout, but the sparks were there. The main problem was the length as they ran through enough stuff to fill a 20 minute match in only 12 minutes or so. They weren't really on the same page to start with either. Tenryu wanted to move straight into striking and punting away at Fujinami's eye, and Fujinami was trying to work from the typical NJPW base of stationary headlocks and leglocks that go nowhere. As usual, Tenryu sold well, and did a lot of cool detail work like pounding away on Fujinami's foot to try to break the hold, but in a semi-sprint like this those sort of holds ought to be scrapped. You add those to a longer bout, IMO, to flesh it out and give you more breathing space. By the time they started trading strikes, they'd entered into the home stretch and were mixing in a lot of counters and reversals that were a bit awkward for these workers. They were kind of tripping over themselves down the straight and the execution was hard to ignore on this occasion. Not really the bout I was looking for from these guys, but at only 12 mins it didn't take long to watch.

I think that's the crux of the argument. Meiko wrestles a style you like, but that doesn't necessarily mean she's the best at working Joshi puroresu the way it's traditionally been worked. It's like those people who don't like lucha, but think that 55 year-old Negro Casas is one of the best in the world. Kansai was the ace of JWP. JWP was a promotion that some of us followed closely because it had a "little promotion that could" vibe about it. She had some annoying tendencies like most Joshi workers, but she was also in some great matches both in JWP and AJW.

Misawa, Hashimoto, Tenryu, Akira Maeda, Chigusa Nagayo and Akira Hokuto spring to mind. Ric Flair as well. Perro Aguayo. Jumbo Tsuruta. Liger in his weight class. Riki Choshu.

If you're talking about a TV studio setting then Tully Blanchard is my favourite. If it's matches filmed for TV then Steve Grey is my pick.

Shinya Hashimoto vs. Masahiro Chono (8/11/91) This was pretty good, though it was only really exciting whenever Hashimoto threatened to knock Chono out and again during the red hot finishing stretch, but if a match finishes better than it started it's trending in the right direction I guess. Hashimoto's scruffy ronin look was interesting, though at times he looked more like an avant-garde artist or 70s musician than Toshiro Mifune. I don't think he'd come into his own yet in terms of presence and command over a bout. His kicks were fantastic and had a lot of force to them, but he wasn't really the Man yet. Chono's breathing noise made his control segments hard to sit through and my attention was only perked by Hashimoto kicking the shit out of him, but New Japan matwork is like that a lot of the time. Things clicked into gear for the finishing stretch and I liked both of the counters into the STF, which frankly made Cena's transitions into the hold seem even worse. But boy there wasn't much to Chono even pre-injury. A couple of clever transitions, a finisher that was over, and a bunch of mediocre crap. It was a bit hard watching the better worker take less of the match, and I would have liked to have seen a longer control segment from Hashimoto since the high point of the match was Chono's selling of the near knockout before the counter where he clipped the back of Hashimoto's leg. But I guess they had to make Chono look stronger and Hashimoto more opportunistic because of who was going over. Better viewed as part of Hashimoto's rise than an early great match, imo, but I'm glad I watched it as it helps fill in the blanks on a guy who doesn't have a well worn recommended matches list.

What I wouldn't give to hear Parv actually rap that.

They had better matches than Satomura for starters. I'm not going to hang on the Hojo match too much because the Hojo girl really didn't look that good, but if that's the best carry job that Meiko can do then she isn't that great. Kansai carried an entire indy promotion on her shoulders for five or six years and took it up against one of the biggest, most established promotions in Japan (men or women) and made her minor league promotion look credible. Satomura doesn't have the opportunity to do that sort of thing with Sendai Girls just like she hasn't had many of the opportunities that girls who debut in the 80s had, but that's the bar and it's a pretty high one. Kansai strikes me as having more passion, more presence, more fire and being more important. Kyoko was one of the most charismatic workers of all-time during her peak years and was more dynamic as she could do pretty much anything that can be done in the ring from the mat to the top rope. She was insanely great until the weight came. Meiko really would need to have matches comparable to Kansai and Kyoko's best, or even performances in the same ballpark, for me to consider her better. Otherwise she's second tier. I should probably watch her a bit more though. I saw her live and she was really disappointing working against Hamada after the Crush Girls had just left the audience thrilled. So that may be souring my memory of her.

Genichiro Tenryu vs. Tatsumi Fujinami (4/29/96) I thought this was ruined by the broken nose. It was a pretty spirited bout up to that point, but afterwards Tenryu didn't really know what to do, Fujinami couldn't continue properly, the ref was constantly worried about him and the entire thing was a disjointed mess. I'm surprised that people think this is one of the best short matches ever. It's just so flat after the accident like all the air let out of a balloon. Genichiro Tenryu/Nobutaka Araya vs. Kazuo Yamazaki/Takashi Iizuka (WAR 11/09/96) This was pretty good. If you're a fan of the WAR vs. New Japan feud from '93 then I recommend checking this out as it's the best reprise of those matches in the years that followed. It was hurt a bit by Yamazaki's strikes looking more pulled than any of the shoot style guys Tenryu went up against in '96, but he made up for it by showing plenty of contempt and animosity toward Tenryu, and his selling was such that I kind of wish they'd programmed him with Tenryu more often during the '96-99 period as I can imagine there being more value in a Yamazaki vs. Tenryu feud than there was in the reprised Hashimoto feud or the Tenryu/Koshinaka team. Araya is a guy I'm not all that familiar with and Iizuka was a bit part who played his part. This was all about Tenryu being a niggly instigator (yet again) and was fun to watch.

Satomura being better than anyone in 1993 is a pretty wild claim, so I decided to watch a match of hers against Hojo since I've never seen that girl work before. It was their Fortune Dream match from last year and not the one that's been acclaimed, but it was the most recent Satomura I've watched since the earliest Sendai Girls shows. She was good, but the match itself wouldn't make the top 30 from 1993. I don't have a point of reference for how Hojo looks in other bouts, but she didn't look overly special here and therefore I can't see how Satomura carried their bout beyond something like Saito vs. Inoue in 1993. Meiko was good, but not blow away good and I don't think she was better than Mariko Yoshida post-99 in that short lived fed of hers.

Going through the '93-95 stuff is invaluable. I strongly considered picking up all of the 1994 CMLL at one point, but now somebody else can wade their way through it. Please keep it up. Oh, and btw, there are two Negro Casas' listed in the third match review from your first post.

THE ARTHUR PSYCHO HOUR Ep 15 Tony St Clair vs. Steve Adonis (Merthyr, taped 3/29/90) St. Clair does an excellent job of carrying North American bodybuilder type, Steve Adonis, to a credible match. I've said it before, but St. Clair was one of the biggest losses for Dale Martin during wrestling's decline on ITV. It's not as though he would have kept wrestling on the air for a few extra years or anything like that, but it's amazing how much he continued to adapt and improve his wrestling style despite the fact he was aging and the business around him was struggling. St. Clair vs. Tyrone would have been great. St. Clair vs. McHoy. St. Clair vs. Roberts/Rudge/Steele/Singh/Roach. So many possibilities. Still, I've been super impressed with his Reslo work even in the late 80s to early 90s period where the product no longer looked like the unique grappling style that drew me to European wrestling in the first place. He's a guy I often skimmed past when looking through match lists, so I wonder how good his German bouts are during this time frame. That could be worth investigating. Danny Collins & Shaun South vs. Dave Finlay & Skull Murphy (Corwen, taped 4/5/89) Wildly disappointing. South was a perpetual heel in Reslo, but for some reason he was wrestling on the blue eye side here. Knowing Reslo, there was probably an angle behind it, but if you were expecting some awesome rudo contra rudo action you came to the wrong place. The heel vs. heel (or former heel) action was lame, and this probably ranks as the worst of the Riot Squad bouts we have on tape. Another dud Finlay bout. Rollerball Rocco vs. Danny Boy Collins (Denbigh, taped 1988) Y'know, this really wasn't that bad. It was about as generic a Danny Boy Collins vs. Rocco bout as you could imagine, but it still wasn't bad. Rocco wasn't the force that he was in the late 70s and it was clear looking back that his career was winding down from a physical standpoint, but his passion hadn't wavered and he was still a ball of energy. I'm starting to soften on Collins a bit through the sheer force of repetition. It's interesting how tolerable a guy can become if you watch them enough. Skull Murphy vs. Jamaica George (8/19/87) Knockout tournament match for the coveted Southport Shield. The Dale Martin promotion and ITV wrestling producers were behind the times at this point. I love this stuff and even I think wrestling for a community shield is embarrassing. The match was pretty much what you'd expect with George getting in a bit of offence but never really looking like winning, and Murphy dishing out a beating and winning with the gator submission. If you were watching WWF every other week at this point, or however frequently it was on, this would have looked so cheap. Ringo Rigby vs. Lucky Gordon (10/28/81) This is probably the best I've seen Lucky Gordon look, which isn't really saying much but it's something. It amuses me how Walton treats a heel like Gordon as a regular bloke who just happens to have a short temper. He does his usual "he could be such a good wrestler if he'd just stick to the rules" shtick and tells us about the truck company he owns and how he lives in Birmingham and is married to a local girl there. It's a million miles away from the pantomime and morality plays of American pro-wrestling. Rigby is an interesting one in that he didn't really work a traditional British style because of his globetrotting and never really stayed in England long enough to show how good he could have been at freestyle wrestling, Match was the usual heel/face shenanigans.

Genichiro Tenryu vs. Tatsuo Nakano (5/26/96) This was a fun little bout. It was kind of a mix of Tenryu struggling with the fighting style and underestimating his opponent and then drawing heavily on his sumo background to cockily put away the lower rung guy. If I'd been watching this chronologically (instead of back and forward), my main takeaway would have been that Tenryu needed to work on his technique if he was going to survive these shoot guys.

This was good when they stuck to strikes as there was a nice contrast between Takada's polished kicking technique and Tenryu bulldozing tactics, but the matwork was awful, and a reminder of just how useless Takada was on the mat. Tenryu did his best to sell the double leglock spot they did, but they laid around in that thing forever and even when Takada got the crowd back by working his way into a standing base there was no payoff. When Tenryu went for a leglock of his own, I thought "here we go again," but he at least tried to fight through Takada's guard to punch him in the face. They also lost the crowd on the armbar counter to Tenryu's lariat. A crowd as hot as that should have lost their shit over that, but Tenryu blocking it and Takada having to slowly break his grasp sapped all of the tension from the spot. Ordinarily, that sort of detail would be praiseworthy, but it was clear from the molten finish with the goofy but awesome punch drunk selling that the crowd just wanted to bombs and nearfalls. I did like Takada's counter to the WAR Special, however. Overall, it wasn't a bad match. Takada's selling sucked throughout as did his taunts and mannerisms, but in a way that added to the dynamic of him being an outsider and another UWF guy who thinks his shit doesn't stink. Tenryu had a great 1996.