ohtani's jacket

There was a lot of novelty value in this -- I mean it's Tenryu vs. Anjoh, think about that for a second -- but what really impressed me was how good the bout was. There was a point during the early Anjoh stalling where I thought, "okay this is pretty good when they're striking, but I'm not sure they have anywhere to go from here," but Tenryu really aced this by making his strikes look about as unpulled as they can be in a pro-wrestling contest. He didn't have any real shooting ability on the mat, so he made up for that by throwing the hardest looking lariats in his career, continuously going for the legal (and sometimes illegal) punch to the eye, and raising his chops up around the throat; though to be fair, UWF-i matwork was mostly about guys lying around in submission holds milking rope breaks, which is what happened here anyway. Those nasty strikes worked in the contest of Tenryu being pissed at Anjoh, but they also put him on a level pegging with Anjoh's killing game, and while Anjoh rolling through the powerbomb attempts was a bit questionable, it was undeniably dramatic. Really enjoyed the flurries of nasty strikes in this and he killer lariats. The crowd was super hot and it was hard to believe this ran less than 12 minutes as engrossing as it was. I'm not sure Tenryu is a good enough singles worker to rate as highly as he does for some people, but this was one of his better single matches of the 90s and an excellent performance from a guy not afraid to mix up his style.

Genichiro Tenryu vs. Yoji Anjoh (7/21/96) There was a lot of novelty value in this -- I mean it's Tenryu vs. Anjoh, think about that for a second -- but what really impressed me was how good the bout was. There was a point during the early Anjoh stalling where I thought, "okay this is pretty good when they're striking, but I'm not sure they have anywhere to go from here," but Tenryu really aced this by making his strikes look about as unpulled as they can be in a pro-wrestling contest. He didn't have any real shooting ability on the mat, so he made up for that by throwing the hardest looking lariats in his career, continuously going for the legal (and sometimes illegal) punch to the eye, and raising his chops up around the throat; though to be fair, UWF-i matwork was mostly about guys lying around in submission holds milking rope breaks, which is what happened here anyway. Those nasty strikes worked in the contest of Tenryu being pissed at Anjoh, but they also put him on a level pegging with Anjoh's killing game, and while Anjoh rolling through the powerbomb attempts was a bit questionable, it was undeniably dramatic. Really enjoyed the flurries of nasty strikes in this and he killer lariats. The crowd was super hot and it was hard to believe this ran less than 12 minutes as engrossing as it was. I'm not sure Tenryu is a good enough singles worker to rate as highly as he does for some people, but this was one of his better single matches of the 90s and an excellent performance from a guy not afraid to mix up his style.

I will add it in. I wonder if TY is still Hokuto's No.1 fan?

These may end up spinning off into a separate thread, but some other guys who did comedy well -- Fujiwara, The Destroyer, Fuerza Guerrera, Emilio Charles Jr., Negro Casas, Jim Breaks, Mick McManus.

Matches I would recommend for Hokuto: Hokuto vs. Chigusa, 3/19/89 Hokuto vs Bull Nakano, 1/4/91 Hokuto vs. Toyota, 1/11/91 Hokuto vs. Manami, 4/29/91 Hokuto vs. K Inoue, 11/26/92 Hokuto vs. Kandori, 4/2/93 Hokuto vs. Toyota, 8/21/93 Hokuto/Minami vs. Hotta/Inoue, 9/5/93 Hokuto/Toyota vs. Inoue/Yamada, 12/10/93 (X2) Kandori/Hokuto vs. Aja/Bull, 3/27/94 That doesn't tell the full Dangerous Queen story, but those are the matches i remember enjoying the most. I don't know how I'd feel about them if I watched them today, but it's a primer anyway.

If you watch any Beauty Pair tag against either foreign or Japanese heels, it's mostly brawling. The same when Monster Ripper was the top heel, and Devil Masami, and then Dump and her army. Weapon shots, outside brawling and loosely enforced rules were a staple of that era, and a lot of the Dump stuff revolved around a heel ref (Shiro Abe.) My memory's a bit foggy, but Mami Kumano from the Black Pair did a whole foreign object in the swimsuit deal, and Devil Masami used kendo sticks. Dump's gang was kind of based on all-girl Bosozuku biker gangs and the like and used chains and what not. I don't think any of it is particularly good brawling, but it's the predominant image I have of late 70s and early to mid 80s Joshi; and everything that people complain about when it comes to Joshi, whether it be the go-go style, the no-selling, the shrieking or brawling, was already in place by the end of the 70s. I don't think there was ever an era where it had a Funks/Robinson/Baba style. It sounds as though you've watched some of the title matches, which are obviously more mat based (though usually savaged by whoever was editing the TV for Fuji TV.) They worked a technical style for title matches, similar to lucha, though they were looser in the conventions and even in title matches there would be cheating and weapon shots, etc. It's been a while since I watched any Hokuto, but the sword was part of her kabuki influenced Dangerous Queen get-up and she had a past history with Nakano with the pair of them having feuded in 1992. Perhaps it's a call back to that feud. Bull herself used nunchuks. It kind of is what it is. Annoying at times, not so irritating at others. There are worse tropes, IMO, like the mat phase of each mat, which I used to be able to rationalise when I was really in the zone of watching Joshi, but can't really abide these days. Anyway, Kandori was a judoka who began doing pro-wrestling for the JWP promotion in the 80s and gained some notoriety when she shot on Jackie Sato during Sato's brief comeback to the ring. Later, when the JWP had a messy split, she left and joined Rumi Kazama's LLPW promotion where she more or less became the figurehead and was often confused as being the promoter or owner of the promotion. So, Hokuto vs. Kandori was interpromotional and part of the big Dreamslam spectacular where all the promotions got together and had matches in a sort of year long commemoration of All Japan's 25th anniversary. Hokuto vs. Kandori was the semi-main of the show (which went over time and caused a lot of problems, but I won't get into that because people can never get their head around how much it hurt AJW that the shows ended so late and left people stranded with no way to get home, especially BIg Egg, which was a clusterfuck from go to whoa.) The angle was that Hokuto claimed Kandori wasn't a real pro-wrestler and didn't have the heart to be a true pro-wrestler and the mic spot was her basically saying "is that all you've got, Kandori?" and goading her to get up and show her what she was really made of. I don't want to get into the story aspects too much, but the table spot is significant because Hokuto had suffered a well documented broken neck in the ring during her teenage years and injuries had been the bane of her career that had prevented her from reaching as far as she wanted to go. Her hard luck story is no doubt documented here or else where. Every time she was about to breakthrough she suffered a serious injury (usually related to her knee) and that was part of the narrative for both this match and the Dangerous Queen gimmick. The bladejob was also significant in that the ref allegedly cut her too deep and she wasn't meant to bleed that much. Anyway, I recommend reading Coey's review as that was the best take on the match during the prime Joshi viewing circle years. He explained the drama and the emotion extremely well. I can see Hokuto being viewed as melodramatic. I think she was over the top at times and her injury narrative grew repetitive after a while despite being based on real life, as I believe Pete often points out in the yearbooks (which are a great resource for following this stuff.) There was a cult of personality around Hokuto where people were really into her circa 2001 or so. She was built up into something probably bigger than she really was, but it was fun and there shouldn't be any regrets. I am kind of surprised that you are down on her execution, because her execution was one of her strongest points. It's always a thin line with these things. I don't like Nakamura's shtick that much either, but I think Ozaki is one of the best actors that wrestling has ever seen and one of the best sellers of all-time. I don't think you have to know everything about Hokuto's history to enjoy the bouts because they have to be engaging on a visceral level before you care about the context or the details. I don't really wanna get into a comparison with Cena vs. Owens, because it's comparing a recent feud with a match that has been considered five stars and one of the greatest bouts of all time for a good 22 years. But being an English speaker obviously it's easier to get more of a grasp on John Cena than it is Hokuto vs. Kandori. It wasn't really about context in that debate, but overstatement.

A negative take on Hokuto is interesting, but I don't really see how you can claim to like the 80s stuff then actively dislike the same elements in these 90s matches. A lot of the stuff like Kong using the trash cans and Nakano being held back so Hokuto can give her a weapon shot was directly lifted from 80s Joshi. I also think glossing over the context doesn't really help. I mean you can make assumptions like Shimoda was a babyface or Kandori was the Kawada to Hokuto's Misawa, but they're not true, which maybe hurts your criticisms a bit. The Hokuto mic spot is one of the best hooks in wrestling history and I actually think that match is one of the few matches I would say tells a proper story, but you obviously found it melodramatic. That's interesting, but wrestling by its very nature is melodramatic and the same critciism could be applied to just about any match with a big enough arc if not viewed in a favourable light.

Not really. I've never been that enamoured with Rey's lucha work. Bihari's four star lucha list would be the best place to start.

I've been watching a few of these when the mood takes me. I don't usually like big man/small man bouts, but Rey's selling was excellent in the Knox bout. The only thing I didn't like about it was that he won with his signature stuff. I realise that it had to do it from a marketing point of view to keep pushing the merchandise, but after taking such a beating it wasn't really credible for me that he could beat a less fatigued big man with a run of signature stuff. Rey vs. Noble was fun. It's always neat to see a rematch of a match-up you liked. Unfortunately, it was one of those bouts where an outside issue -- in this case Finlay at ringside -- takes precedence over what's happening in the ring even when the guy at ringside doesn't interfere.

Genichiro Tenryu vs. Naoki Sano (UWF-i 8/17/96) Backtracking a bit. This was okay in terms of the whole "shooter vs. non-shooter" element as Tenryu threw in a bit of matwork and his strikes were credible enough that he could compete. He also gave Sano much of the bout, presumably because he was going over (Tenryu was always a generous worker in that respect), but also to lend stylistic credibility to the bout. But the entire bout, I kept thinking about UWF-i's misuse of Sano -- potentially one of the most important shoot style artists of his generation -- and by the end I was pissed that Tenryu won with a powerbomb instead of modfiying the WAR special into a shoot style spot or something equally fitting. And it was just too short to be of any worth.

I remember Ditch saying if you've seen one Breaks match, you've seen them all, though I kind of doubt he'd seen them all. He was a fan of Breaks, though. The Wrestling Channel footage is only really half of the Breaks that's available but it's the most easily accessible.

The '76 bout was from the Royal Albert Hall. Their '81 bout is from Aylesbury. Walton mentions the Aylesbury Civic Sports Centre at the beginning of the bout. I don't think Breaks was wearing the bumble bee trunks in '76, either.

The Breaks/Cortez match you watched is from 2/2/81. Breaks vs. Grasshopper is 3/23/83.

Fujinami has looked okay in the Tenryu footage I've been watching, but he kept working the same style after he broke down, and like Flair and a bunch of other workers, it was never a style that was going to age well as he got older. I think modernising it would have been easier said than done, though.

I wouldn't put the '88 bout in the same league as the '86 mask match or the '92 title bout. Both matches are really high end Santo, though.

I just watched this. To my untrained philistine eyes it went something like this: Kick - kick - submission attempt - Commentator cums in his pants - Crowd pops. Rinse repeat for 14 minutes until one of them actually submits. Didn't seem to have any sort of psychology to it at all to me, felt like the last 10 minutes of your typical Cena match only trade the finishers and false finishes for submission attempts. To me this lacked a lot of elements that I associate with pro wrestling. Namely: - Rope running - Collar and elbow tieup - Throws of any kind - Standard strikes that aren't kicks, like the reverse knife edge, forearm smash, or similar I would like fans of this style to answer the following questions: - What specifically do you like about this match? - Tell me about the pyschology, why isn't it like your typical modern WWE style false finish fest? - When you watch these matches do you feel like you are watching pro wrestling? Can you flick from something like this to a normal US-style match or, say, an All Japan match without feeling jarred in any way? - Why would you watch this over UFC? Aside from the skill level and technique, I like the match because it's exciting. It's not really that mat heavy compared to what both men were capable of. Instead, they worked an all-action bout where both guys continuously went for the knockout or submission. Watching the two best guys go full throttle is a hell of a spectacle. They could have worked a slower, more methodical, more mat based contest, but Han liked to entertain folks and Tamura was a perfect foil because of his supreme conditioning and athleticism. As far as the psychology goes, it depends on which definition of psychology you use. People used to belief that psychology implied a logical progression to a match (what we might call the build or order of spots.) In that respect, there's more psychology than your average pro-wrestling match because it's built around clear patterns of attack/defence/counter attack and there's a clear framework to the rules. Loss mentioned the crowd; you can hear them pop every time the fighters attack because they know that a single correctly applied submission can end the fight. They also pop for a counter and even for a ropes break, which they know is a points victory for the aggressor. I don't believe those crowd reactions would occur without there being any psychology. It's simple a sports based psychology, or fight based psychology, rather than standard pro-wrestling psychology. Which isn't to say that you can't break it down in pro-wrestling terms, but clearly if your view of psychology is based on heel/face dynamics, character work, morality plays and human drama, you're not going to get too much out of a fight based psychology unless the match is suitably epic, which I don't think Han/Tamura is (maybe as a trilogy, but not the 1/97 fight by itself/) You can get to know Han and Tamura more by watching their fights, but all that really gives you is a bit more characterisation. It does help them to be more likeable, though. Han, in particular, is a likeable guy once you get a broader picture of how unique he was. I always thought the idea of a Russian Sambo master doing worked bouts in Japan was the equivalent of a martial arts master doing magic tricks at a party. And like I said, he was a showman and an entertainer despite being legit better than just about everybody in the promotion. So, the ending and the celebration, carries a bit more weight if you know and like the guy. Of course I feel like I'm watching pro-wrestling. I see it as an alternative to traditional pro-wrestling, and I think it's the highest form of Japanese pro-wrestling, but it's still pro-wrestling. It's simply another genre of pro-wrestling and I can switch between genres the same way I do with music, comics or films. I might not always be in the mood for shoot style, and like Graham Crackers there may sometimes be a flow on effect where it makes other styles of mat work seem weak, but I can switch pretty freely. I've watched K-1, PRIDE, shoot style, Shooto, Pancrase, UFC, boxing and sumo in the past. I don't see why you can't enjoy worked combat sports at the same time as real combat sports. I don't watch pro-wrestling as an alternative to real combat sports. I enjoy both. Besides, Tamura vs. Han doesn't look much like UFC.

UWF booking was like that too. Wins and losses mattered in the overall context of whether the fighters had a winning record, but they didn't matter as much on a fight to fight basis. The cards were never determined by the results of the previous show. Tamura did eventually go over Maeda and was positioned as the top star, but it wasn't a perfectly booked ascension. I think it's important to remember rhat Japanese fans often care more about how a guy fights in a loss than whether he's dominating, Maeda was still posirioned as the ace of sorts when Tamura jumped, and he was unlikely to be a made man from day one. If you're looking for a pro-wrestling narrative you're flat out of luck. I admit to being perplexed at times. But I think big picture Tamura rose to the top.

This wasn't a bad match by any means, but they really should have left this issue dead and buried in 1994. There was no point dragging it up again five years later. The dynamic worked well in '93-94 when Hashimoto was a rising star and Tenryu an established one, but Hashimoto as the Man vs. Tenryu the aging vet doesn't pack the same punch. Speaking of punches, was it just me or was Tenryu modeling himself after Terry Funk during this run? Every time he threw a punch it reminded me of Terry. The finish didn't really match my notion of Hashimoto being the Man. I guess post G-1 Climax 1998 he was never at that level again booking-wise. Physically, he had it all over Tenryu so it was hard to buy him jobbing.

Genichiro Tenryu vs. Shinya Hashimoto (6/8/99) This wasn't a bad match by any means, but they really should have left this issue dead and buried in 1994. There was no point dragging it up again five years later. The dynamic worked well in '93-94 when Hashimoto was a rising star and Tenryu an established one, but Hashimoto as the Man vs. Tenryu the aging vet doesn't pack the same punch. Speaking of punches, was it just me or was Tenryu modeling himself after Terry Funk during this run? Every time he threw a punch it reminded me of Terry. The finish didn't really match my notion of Hashimoto being the Man. I guess post G-1 Climax 1998 he was never at that level again booking-wise. Physically, he had it all over Tenryu so it was hard to buy him jobbing.

Genichiro Tenryu/Shiro Koshinaka vs. Satoshi Kojima/Hiroyoshi Tenzan (1/4/99) I've seen about as much of this Tenryu/Koshinaka team as I need to. For me this put to bed the idea that any and all Tenryu is worth watching. It's not that he was bad in this. He just couldn't stem the flow of late 90s shittiness. Tenzan and Kojima bludgeoned their way through the bout as you'd expect from two Japanese boofheads and there wasn't a single thing about them I'd consider interesting. The FIP segment on Tenzan was underwhelming from Tenryu and Koshinaka and poorly sold by the challenger. Kojima's hot tag lacked any heat and his no-sell of the diamond cutter led to a mini obsession where he hit the same move over and over again. (If it wasn't the diamond cutter, it was the lariat from behind.) Patchy finishing stretch, no real drama to the title switch, and Tenryu even did a ramp spot. C'mon, Tenryu. You're better than that.

THE ARTHUR PSYCHO HOUR Ep 14 Dave Finlay & Dave Duran vs. Orig Williams & Gary Clwyd (Denbigh, taped 1988) Man, I love Dave Duran. I dunno if he ever reached his potential because of the state the business in, but he's the kind of thickset asskicker I keep hoping Drew McDonald will be. Most of this bout was Duran beating the crap out of Gary Glywd and then Finlay tagged in and just brutalised the kid. Orig was only really involved in the finish. For some bizarre reason he decked the ref and Finlay was able to capitalise. The yokels were upset, but what was their man thinking? Finlay and Duran were a fun combination. Giant Haystacks vs. Jamaica George (Unknown location, taped 1989) Was there anybody more committed to jobbing to Haystacks than Jamaica George? He took it so seriously he almost made an art form out of it. Kung Fu vs. King Kendo (Unknown location, taped 1985) Kung Fu against the fake Kendo Nagasaki. This is kind of like watching, I dunno, Marty Jannetty against fake Diesel. I really hate bouts like these where a boring big man is beating down a smaller man. No matter how hard Kung Fu sold it was never gonna make up for the fact that Kendo's offence sucked. Dour way to pass the time. Terry Rudge vs. Takayuki Iizuka (Merthyr, taped 2/4/92) Rudge still looked pretty good here. Iizkua came across like generic Japanese guy, but Rudge looked good working from above and below. Generic Japanese guy, but that was Rudge's lot. Only worth watching if you wanna see every bit of Rudge there is, but not bad. Ritchie Brooks vs. Cool Cat Jackson (Cage Match, Merthyr, taped 3/29/90) Jamaica George had changed his name to Cool Cat Jackson here for whatever reason. If ever there was a cage match that didn't require a cage then this was it. I can only imagine the reason they were in the cage was because once the ring crew put it up all of the matches had to be cage matches. Brooks tried using the thing, but they didn't know how to thwart each other's escape attempts properly and the finish was the single weakest finish I have ever seen in a cage. Jackson headbutt Brooks and walked out the door... Imported gimmicks! Not a good idea. Orig Williams, Gary Clwyd & Boston Blackie vs. Shaun South, Terry Rudge & Tony Francis (Caernarfon, taped 1988) Reslo six man tags sucked just as much as the ITV ones. This had some bizarre Thunderqueen like rules and was a total waste of a pretty fun heel line-up.

Genichiro Tenryu/Shiro Koshinaka vs. Shinya Hashimoto/Tatsumi Fujinami (12/4/98) This looked promising on paper, but it began with a loose mat exchange between Koshinaka and Fujinami and was uneven after that. Koshinaka really sucked in this with his stupid jitterbug wrestling style. I don't know if it was intentional or just a nervous infection, but it made everything he did look tentative and amateurish. Unfortunately, they worked a riff between him and Hashimoto instead of giving us more of what we want -- Tenryu -- and they also allowed him to kill the finishing stretch dead after a pretty cool hot tag where Hashimoto cut loose and did some fat man cleaning house. Fujinami was sloppy with age and Tenryu was a passenger again. His return to New Japan has been underwhelming without the inter promotional element behind it. He comes across as just another player and it's been listless to say the least.

Genichiro Tenryu/Shiro Koshinaka vs. Keiji Mutoh/Hiroyoshi Tenzan (10/18/98) And things just got awful. From a personal point of view I should know better than to watch a match with both Mutoh and Koshinaka in it, but I can cherry pick Tenryu later. For now, I'm taking a look at everything, and man "Mutoh hates Tenzan~! Tenzan hates Mutoh~! Neither wants to tag with each other" was done a million times better in Joshi, as was the spotfest to finish with. Tenryu could do little more than go with the flow. I think the deal breaker for me was when Mutoh was squatting and posing on the ramp, and deliberating about whether he should head back to the ring or leave his partner to the wolves. When he finally screamed and charged toward the ring, he couldn't actually run... he literally duck arsed his way to the rescue.

This was a pretty divisive match back in the day. It's strange how unimportant it seems these days. I guess it's like watching a favourite band go in a different musical direction. Moment to moment, there are a lot of interesting details and the selling is good, but the big picture doesn't have much sting to it. There's a bit too much of the Johnny Valentine/Wahoo McDaniel chop exchanges, and some of the stagger selling from those chop exchanges, particularly when they're on their knees wobbling and staring at each other, is as forced as any of the modern day cinematic storytelling tropes. Hashimoto was a fan of those kind of spaghetti western standoffs, though, and used them to great effect at times such as in the '95 G-1 final with Mutoh. I liked Tenryu breathing on his hand before launching into another round of chops, and I loved the spot where Hashimoto caught him coming off the top. Tenryu's selling is something to draw attention to. When you think of Ternyu, the first thing you think of his the poker face, and the arrogance and maybe some of the shitty heel mannerisms, but he also excelled at selling pain. And in many respects, it's Tenryu's selling that holds this together because it's really only Hashimoto breaking through Tenryu's defences that leaves you with anything to chew on and a bout that isn't as epic a threepenny opera as their previous bouts.

Genichiro Tenryu vs. Shinya Hashimoto (NJPW G-1 Climax 08/01/98) This was a pretty divisive match back in the day. It's strange how unimportant it seems these days. I guess it's like watching a favourite band go in a different musical direction. Moment to moment, there are a lot of interesting details and the selling is good, but the big picture doesn't have much sting to it. There's a bit too much of the Johnny Valentine/Wahoo McDaniel chop exchanges, and some of the stagger selling from those chop exchanges, particularly when they're on their knees wobbling and staring at each other, is as forced as any of the modern day cinematic storytelling tropes. Hashimoto was a fan of those kind of spaghetti western standoffs, though, and used them to great effect at times such as in the '95 G-1 final with Mutoh. I liked Tenryu breathing on his hand before launching into another round of chops, and I loved the spot where Hashimoto caught him coming off the top. Tenryu's selling is something to draw attention to. When you think of Ternyu, the first thing you think of his the poker face, and the arrogance and maybe some of the shitty heel mannerisms, but he also excelled at selling pain. And in many respects, it's Tenryu's selling that holds this together because it's really only Hashimoto breaking through Tenryu's defences that leaves you with anything to chew on and a bout that isn't as epic a threepenny opera as their previous bouts.