Owen Edwards

I think there are two Pete Roberts, both good workers, though one is better than the other. I don't mean The Technician and The Brawler; I mean the younger guy and the older guy. I need to watch more of the younger guy to really finalize my placement on him. That Fujinami/TM vs Roberts/Solitario match. It's fantastic. Is it fantastic because the natives are two of the best ever? No. It's fantastic because Pete Roberts decided that it's going to be a 4*+ match, and even without a functioning tag partner just makes the whole thing sing. Look at every moment that actually carries, everything that seems to matter - it's Roberts executing, selling, moving, reacting. At this point, through the first half of the '80s, he's a very complete and actively interesting worker. Old Man Roberts is certainly less charismatic, but there are some interesting things. He's effortlessly good in the "ITV Wrestling" era (I don't know if I've found any late Reslo of him, will check the cards; it'd be fun to see some 1992 Welsh match). He is incredibly in tune with the crowd and you will never see someone more intentional and thoughtful in terms of mapping a match - interestingly, it's pretty obvious that even as a blue eyes he is often leading the work. In AJPW, he has a distinctive persona that you would have picked up via AJ TV and if you regularly went to the Korakuen during his tours. He doesn't heel even if he's with a heel foreigner; he has this distinctive air of a purist, of a strong but technical guy who outworks his weight. He has a lot of solid Junior matches and "gaijiin tags" in AJ; he essentially is never bad, pace any comment above, but there is a problem that these matches are usually set up as good midcard fodder and not more. Fuchi is a grounded control worker, and so those matches depend much more on Roberts being energetic (which is a trait that fades out by 1990, say), Saito is basically not much good and not very excited by the idea of working with Roberts, etc. He always contributes a lot to the "gaijin tags", but again these are often afterthought matchups - DiBiase/Roberts vs TM2/Kabuki, for instance.

This is how I see it, for sure. Though, to be clear, MJ was great on the Wizards pre-injury...

The Irresistible Rise of Kyushu Pro Before starting the recaps proper, I saw stats gathered by F.G.C. (https://x.com/FGC648948974342/status/1940307839060426897) on puro company attendances through the first half of 2025. Kyushu Pro comes out very well: in terms of total attendance (30,434), it is the fifth-biggest men’s company (behind NJPW, Dragongate, NOAH, and AJPW) and eighth-biggest overall (adding in Stardom, Marigold, and TJPW). That’s respectable – but the average attendance is even better, where Kyushu Pro is third-highest overall (910 average attendees per show) only behind NJPW (2130 average attendees per show) and AJPW (1014 average attendees per show). Of course there are lies, damned lies, and even worse, statistics; there is a selectivity to this, because Kyushu Pro has also run the fewest shows out of 13 companies covered, with (therefore) more regular “big shows”, and with the added benefit of the big Mentai Kid retirement show this year. Additionally, as FGC notes in the thread, something like 8 events aren’t included due to no attendance being announced – but I think it’s fair to exclude these, as these tend to be one- or two-match “events” that are part of something larger (Boat Club celebrations, Avispa Wrestling Festival, etc) and aren’t normal public shows. Whatever the case, it is still a remarkable achievement. Also, during the break after the Mentai Kid show, Batten put up pictures of himself planting rice at his family farm. Nice. Kyushu Pro Ya O Genki Ni Suddo! 21/06/2025 Held at Kagoshima Hotel Satsukien 1st Floor Large Hall with an announced attendance of 462, a smallish attendance for the number of wrestlers working this one, but it looks moderately busy. More significantly, this is just patently a bad space for a wrestling show: it is a hotel function room, and the side of the room which holds the ring has a notably low ceiling, the sort with polystyrene ceiling tiles covering the electrics. Note this for later. Still, the crowd is good. We have two guests, both from PWS Korea, tag champion SHIHO’s company (yes, that’s your TRUE! KOREAN! IDOL!). Ha Da On (or Hadaon) is a former PWS champion, and was involved in a previous Korean company, PWF, which shut in 2021, basically due to the pandemic. Starlight Naru (Starlight Fortress in PWS) debuted in 2024. Hitamaru Sasaki vs Jet Wei Sasaki is getting singles matches because he’s the (temporary?) face of the company ahead of his title challenge against Shuji Ishikawa in August. It’s a chance to build credibility. Jet Wei is the sacrificial victim here. He’s been the junior of the whole company, and is usually in moderately decent tags. This is something different. I’ll say up front that it involves a wild botch: two-thirds through, Jet goes to the turnbuckle for a Missile Dropkick…and promptly hits his head on the ceiling, barely connects with Sasaki, and then is briefly out of action on the mat. Either side of that, he works comfortably his best match that I’ve seen to date, setting aside a few timing issues. Sasaki doesn’t steamroll him; in fact, Jet takes control and fights back multiple times, and hits new moves, notably a Northern Light Suplex. He looks good, crisp, aggressive, hard-hitting. He still has one or two odd moments of timing but this is a big step up in performance. He is obviously being pushed here, and the recovery from the botch is really impressive. Hitamaru Sasaki defeats Jet Wei in 10:50. Asosan vs Batten Blabla vs STAR LIGHT NARU An inferior entry in the Batten Files, though it’s perfectly pleasant time for the sub-eight minutes it takes. Asosan can’t really work anymore, most days, and NARU – a skinny energetic guy – doesn’t get given much to do. This follows a basic Batten triple threat match pattern, with alliances and betrayals and Batten running away, and he performs all this with verve and energy, but there’s just not much here. Asosan wins. Interesting that the guest doesn’t get the win, but that may be a function of seniority; NARU – who moves well and is entertaining enough – is a real rookie. Asosan defeats Batten Blabla and STAR LIGHT NARU in 7:51. Genkai & Ha Da On & TAJIRI vs Kodai Nozaki & Naoki Sakurajima & Shigeno Shima Ha Da On wears a one-shouldered singlet, which feels more than retro. This is a pretty energetic match, enabled by the six-man format. It takes just a little time to get going, but everyone seems to be in a hard-hitting mood. They brawl down on the floor early, which is always amusing in Kyushu Pro because you have the stewards desperately chasing them to move the spectators away. The heels build some good heat on Naoki – and Ha Da On does well at this, he’s naturally a bit unbearable. Naoki turns round a three-on-one by dodging Ha Da On in the corner and then dancing round Genkai and Tadgers before double-dropkicking them. His teammates return to complete the save, and we even see Shima do his Railgun Driver as a pin set-up – this is the first time he’s ever done a finisher in the Kyushu Pro I’ve watched! Naoki with the heavy Bridging German for the pin on Ha Da On. An interesting thing about the dangerous ceiling: it definitely helps the acoustics, as anyone who’s tried to chat to someone else in that sort of room knows. The background buzz is amplified massively. Here, we realize just how over Naoki is with the crowd (especially the children). Massive Naoki chants. He’s more over than Sasaki, so I wonder what things will look like in six months or a year. There are some Kyushu Pro house style habits on display which don’t always jive for me: big tag clearouts, or chasing the other team off, or whatever, often look super slow and choreographed. It’s strange, and may slightly be caused by the physical condition of some workers, but it’s on display here. Kodai Nozaki & Naoki Sakurajima & Shigeno Shima defeat Genkai & Ha Da On & TAJIRI in 15:47. Event Summary The Sasaki/Jet match, despite the botch, is very much match of the night. A new Jet Wei seems to have turned up for work, presumably slightly unleashed by the change in seniority. That felt like a legit “serious” match. The comedy match was an inferior edition of its kind, and the six-man was fun but nothing remarkable; the Jet match shows us that the company has another genuinely credible upper-midcarder, if they want one. Kyushu Pro Kagoshima O Genki Ni Suddo! Held at the Kagoshima Nishihara Shokai Arena Sub-Arena – a classic prefecture gymnasium-like space – with an announced attendance of 616. Decent but not enormous crowd. The most important matter this show: Ringboy is debuting! His ring name will be Koyo Ume. Hitamaru Sasaki vs Koyo Ume Ume’s skinny, with an expressive face. He’s young. He’s technically fodder for Sasaki – Sasaki getting singles matches against regular guests and low-ranking in-house juniors to build credibility – but this is obviously more about his debut. This hits the rookie match notes you’d expect. Ume gets stretched out a lot. He’s marvellously expressive when being worked over, and he sells consistently. In this regard, I’d say he’s a precocious rookie; he has a natural instinct for the crowd, who back him, and he knows how to put offence over. His own offence is, as you’d expect, limited. Strikes, dropkicks. The strikes look a bit weak, though he works up to some nice-sounding chops. He does get in a Camel Clutch, which is nice to show a bit of range. It’s rookie offence, and it’s all fine. He really is skinny, and that can cause credibility issues, but as he develops his offence, he will probably find options that fit. I genuinely really enjoyed this. Hitamaru Sasaki defeats Koyo Ume in 8:31. Batten Blabla & Shigeno Shima & STAR LIGHT NARU vs Genkai & Ha Da On & TAJIRI On paper, this looks like the easy-pace match which gets by on being a six-man. In reality, it slaps. Batten obviously doesn’t want to wrestle and forces Shima and NARU to do nearly all of the work. Shima actually doesn’t do much, relatively speaking; NARU, the Korean rookie, runs his side’s match. He takes pretty obvious cues at points, which may be partly a language barrier issue (I don’t know). But the thing he – he’s genuinely excellent. He flies around, he’s enormously charismatic, and people bump for him: Genkai goes flying off the apron! NARU will end up taking the pin – I’m surprised it’s not Batten, but NARU is junior – but he’s the star here. But everyone else works too! Tadgers hits a Vertical Suplex! Genkai bumps and runs around! Ha Da On continues to be obviously a solid hand! This is genuinely not the normal six-man, which is fun but chill; whether it’s NARU’s energy or everyone having decided beforehand that they’re going to put together something really energetic and fun, this one is a genuine success. Genkai & Ha Da On & TAJIRI defeat Batten Blabla & Shigeno Shima & STAR LIGHT NARU in 13:10. Asosan & Naoki Sakurajima vs Jet Wei & Kodai Nozaki The best tag match I’ve watched in Kyushu Pro. I actually watched this before the Jet Wei singles match from the previous night, due to their YouTube posting schedule, and was legitimately startled at how Jet was booked. Nozaki is the ace, and of course he gets to knock people around – but Jet gets big hits and nearfalls on both of his much senior opponents. This is REALLY well-paced, really good workrate, and Asosan HITS A DROPKICK. This is a man with no knees who normally walks around the ring waiting to hit his one remaining move, and he just explodes here (no pun intended). Nozaki and Jet should – as I’ve said before – be the ones to go for the tag titles. In a sense the booking here stymies that: the former tag champs beat two of the three young guns, one of whom just debuted. We know Nozaki is of quality, so we’re left (in booking terms) having to conclude that Jet just isn’t there yet, especially as he took the pin. Now, two very strong, very powerful performances over two days do shift our view of him, but he needs a pin on a senior name to make the step up. Anyway, very fun. Asosan & Naoki Sakurajima defeat Jet Wei & Kodai Nozaki in 18:44. Event Summary A much more consistently good event than the Mentai Kid Retirement Event, even if that included a real MOTYC. Koyo is really promising, with good athleticism matched with strong selling, and NARU and Jet both had standout performances. Asosan, Genkai, and TAJIRI all brought their working boots. I’ve seen most of their shows this year, and this is the best so far. Full matchguide and links here.

AJ Hour #94, available via Quebrada, has the whole with no video problems either. I watched the clipped/damaged version a while ago and liked it, thanks for the link, watched the whole match today and thought it was slightly better again. I'll get on to the Yoshida ARSION watch-through soon, though, I promise...

In my recent review of the '99 Burning vs Untouchables tag title match, I referred to Ogawa as "wrestling glue", and that title...sticks. Even early on, in Tsuruta-gun six-mans, he's always adding so many small things.

My impression is that the matches vs Asuka and other important title setups from Jd' are the most important ones.

Having watched a few Satanico matches recently, I'm very tempted to find more, because he does look like a longlist contender.

I actually have some affection for the latter part of Danielson's "cosplay" era in ROH. I mean, he was always impressive by some metrics - you watch some random TWA match of him with three months experience and he's so plainly a natural, athletically and performatively - but once he's polished and vibing he's just really fun to watch. The matches tend to run long, maybe they're still a little self-conscious, but he's basically in the zone and it's great. I'm thinking the third match vs Styles, the Samoa Joe match, that period.

I think people sleep on his Junior run - not that it's a Top 100 run in my view, but it's much better than the lukewarm reports you sometimes read. Partly this is explicitly due to an unwise comparison to Sayama - whereas the essence of a good match, imo, is connected to its moveset contents but is not determined by it. (I just watched a 1977 Bllington vs Breaks match where DK does no classic DK spots and there are in fact very few moves and it's still a great 4/5 because both men know game.) Onita vs Chavo (three of their four matches, one is poor)), Hector, Steamboat, and w/ Steamboat vs High Flyers and w/ Baba vs Flair/Slater are all legitimately good, and you can jaw about how they must all be carry-jobs but if you watch the actual work he's really good. He was still putting it together when he had his accident. I still have a few more of his major early matches to watch, and I expect at least one or two of those to join the rec list.

I tend to be generous over crap sections of a career whilst still valuing peak longevity, and Ozaki had peak longevity. Definite top 100 for me. Probably a decent ranking.

I've identified what looks like the fullest version of this via Quebrada, but just to check - what tape do you have this on? looks really, really fun

Kyushu Pro Mentai Kid Retirement Memorial Event – Kyushu Ba Genki Ni Goodbye 11/05/2025 Held at the Fukuoka Island City Forum, with an announced attendance of 1,430, good for the third biggest show of the year. The venue looks very full as far as these things go. They set this up as one of their “big events” – room lights off, full lighting rig. I actually usually perhaps prefer their more informal Gymnasium setups, but for this occasion it’s fitting. Fifteen wrestlers are slated to appear, too, which makes it a big show. We start out with our first video package, of how Mentai came to KPW. I didn’t know until watching this, and reading an English language article about his retirement, that he had actually left pro-wres due to not making the money he needed – that explains the gap in his career on Cagematch. In 2007, though, when Ryota Chikuzen decided to set up KPW, he recruited his old trainee, who was living locally. What a sliding door! His career was done-zo, and then he got hooked into some micro-indie which wasn’t even aimed at making money. Now we’re here, and he’s proportionally the most over worker in Puro, having built a career of real bangers and been the face of one of the most important regional promotions in Japan. We have an announced Super Special Guest, Ultimo Dragon, Mentai’s other trainer. We also have an unannounced special guest...JUSHIN THUNDER LIGER. He’s here to commentate on some of the matches. I do feel like this is a mark of the esteem Mentai is held in – you might not have heard of him, but Jushin Flipping Liger has and turned up for his retirement gig. Goerges Khoukaz & Hitamaru Sasaki vs Kodai Nozaki & Naoki Sakurajima Opening package shows each guy working with Mentai. We see Nozaki’s victories over Mentai and Mentai handing over the “ace baton”. Even though Khoukaz is here to job, what a privilege to have an extended tour and end up in Mentai’s retirement show. There’s a decent interview with him out there on YouTube, in English, talking about coming to Kyushu in 2024 and about wanting to go back to his native Syria when he can to start up a pro-wrestling federation. This is not a typical KPW tag at all. Everyone here can work, including Old Man Sasaki, and so they do, and they hit each other hard. Sasaki is a shoot kicker, and Nozaki and Khoukaz bomb each other. The touring family-style events tend to run a little slow and soft even in these “more serious” tags, with an eye to teaching the audience how to engage; no such considerations here. Just nice workrate, hard-hitting stuff. Nozaki takes out Khoukaz with a massive Spear. Nozaki needs the pin here, and Sasaki cannot give it up, given he’s challenging Ishikawa for the KPW Title in August; Sakurajima needs to build after his Tag Title loss, too. Kodai Nozaki & Naoki Sakurajima defeat Georges Khoukaz & Hitamaru Sasaki in 9:44. Asosan vs Batten Blabla vs Taifoo Video package shows these guys engaging with Mentai, most significantly that Asosan and Batten have been with Chikuzen and Mentai since the beginning. This is a somewhat poignant moment; time is passing for us all. Taifoo is more often Honoo Shuichi, who “mostly retired” in 2014, having worked chiefly – we see Mentai at his retirement ceremony in KPW. Last I checked, the Batten match at Dontaku 2025 sits at 4.06/10 on Cagematch. This is because smarks are easily-gulled morons. Batten is one of the smartest and most efficient workers around today. Asosan has no knees; Taifoo is a spot-monkey without many spots. Batten keeps this going and keeps stuff happening and also brings the best single move here, an absolutely brutal Eznuigiri on Asosan which is absolutely legit as a move to take the big guy down. This is not one of the best matches with Batten in it, but it is a match in which Batten is good. Batten takes the pin, naturally. His Elbow Drop hype chant is customised here, as it is for special events: “ARIGATO! SAYONARA! MENTAI KID-O!” Taifoo defeats Asosan and Batten Blabla in 9:27. Lady C & TAJIRi & Ultimo Dragon vs Ryota Chikuzen & Shigeno Shima & Taro Nohashi Via the video package I learn that Nohashi has worked with Mentai since very early on, as well as his later work as a KPW guest. He’s affiliated with Michinoku Pro nowadays, but started in Toryumo Mexico, trained by Ultimo Dragon, Jinsei Shinzaki, and Jorge Rivera. He’s a good clip younger than Mentai – he’s 42 – though he looks a bit more limited. Lady C is a midcarder in Stardom, mostly notable for being very tall (5’ 10”) and having worked as “Super Strong Stardom Giant Machine”, which I must presume is a costume gag role based on George Takano working as Giant Dos Caras and other such roles in Michinoku Pro. Lady C is decently athletic and has some ring presence. This is, basically, not a good match. Ultimo works some nice technical exchanges and is crisp enough, but he doesn’t fly anymore (no criticism here from me!). Tadgers is probably best used not being in the ring most of the time, and Shima picks up some workrate but is here just to be here. A lot of this is Chikuzen and Nohashi bullying Lady C, but that sort of joke never really lands with me. The cheap heat is they’re piling in on the lady; fair enough. Why is she there, then, in a gender-blind trios match? I liked seeing Ultimo, and in fairness there’s nostalgia for seeing him and Tajiri around together too. Very rare TAJIRI appearance as a face here, too. Lady C & TAJIRI & Ultimo Dragon vs Ryota Chikuzen & Shigeno Shima & Taro Nohashi in 11:20. Genkai vs Mentai Kid This match. Crikey. Turns out Genkai can still work and to a very high degree. He does not wear these working boots in his normal weekly appearances. We get a video package about these guys having a pretty cool rivalry, and see a few spots that will be repeated in the match. Younger Indie Band Singer Haired Genkai is always weird to see. This is a really, really good match, but first let’s note that this has over ten minutes of Mentai entering and receiving his Mentai-ko laurels…One. Last. Time. The noise is constant, the excitement high. So many people come froward to garland him – more than at the Anniversary show, which had a thousand more people. There are a lot of teenagers and fairly young adults coming to the barriers for photos and even to join in. I was struck: these are guys who have watched Mentai since they were kids. He’s a local legend, and this is their farewell. I watch every minute of every Mentai entrance; there is something frankly so much more wholesome and immediate and real here than most “cool entrances”. It’s just a guy giving time to every single person who wants it. He doubles back to make sure everyone gets their turn; he takes all their cardboard belts, their streamers, their letters and cards. He waits patiently for the smaller kids to fist bump him. He just has so much time for his people. The fact that this time is important is marked by the fact that it’s Sakurajima who comes to take cards and excess stuff – in fact, there are several seniors out by the apron. By the entrance ramp, now only two banners hang, where previously the whole roster was shown: just Genkai and Mentai Kid. This match is really, really good. Genkai can still work, like I said. Mentai always works, and he puts in just a tiny bit extra here. They work a half hour match, and it never really slows or stops, not in any serious way. They work up from what looks like a pretty ordinary “Mentai singles match”, with him being outmatched by his inevitably larger opponent, slowly working in his signature spots, and then the end coming. But here it just spins out, and something strange happens: even though the booking can only go one way, even though Genkai is the man staying and he’s the strongest-booked guy in the company – he never eats a pin, ever ever – you…you begin to believe. Mentai Kid is proportionally the most over wrestler in puro today. Everyone in a crowd of thousands loves him. At Dontaku, he was received with real love in front of the biggest crowd he’s ever worked in front of. Jushin Liger turned up to his retirement. His babyface aura is unmatched; he’s so charismatic, so gutsy, so good at acting out the “undersized underdog” role. It’s not the size of the dog, though. It’s the size of the heart in the dog, and Mentai is all heart. He turns the match round again and again. He kicks out of everything. He Hurricanranas Genkai OFF THE APRON. He is splatted and smashed and beheaded and he keeps getting up. He isn’t just a guy who works underdog babyface; he is the avatar of that old archetype, and here he offers a flawless realization of the role against an unstoppable, fast, strong, violent monster. It takes something like five Fisherman’s Busters to finish him. Before the last one, Genkai hugs him. ARIGATO! SAYONARA! MENTAI KID-O! Genkai defeats Mentai Kid in 29:22. The Retirement Ceremony Look, it was a retirement ceremony. Mentai lay in the ring alone for some moments; the light fell on Genkai’s banner as the “winner” left. Then everyone came to the ring, including all the guests, led by Ultimo and Liger. This was lovely, of course. But here is when my eyes watered: when Mentai’s wife, his aged mother, and his three children were welcomed into the ring. I don’t know if his wife was in the picture in 2007 – the kids are small – but his mother was. I’m sure she was proud of her son, but before Chikuzen called, he wasn’t a local legend. He was a guy who wrestled in Mexico for a bit, before reality struck home. Now all the kids in the arena are wearing his mask. And the kids – this probably sounds stupid, but I say this as someone with four kids. I was suddenly struck at a deep level, not that I doubted it before: this guy loves kids. All those minutes every week over the last many years, every moment spent patiently waiting for some toddler to fistbump him, every moment spent going back down the line making sure no-one misses out, every moment carrying around mountains of fish sauce packets (!) – it’s all real. It’s not a work. I think he’s going to continue as a trainer, and one of his trainees – “ring boy”, as I’ve been calling him – is debuting in June. He’ll be at events, I’m sure, and meet the kids. Nonetheless, one phase has ended, and – for now – we are poorer for it. Thankyou, and goodbye, Mentai Kid. Find full matchguide and other posts at Undercard Wonders.

Disagree this is a squash, even if it feels booking-wise that the result is very inevitable (Chikako and Cooga are Jd' midcard stalwarts, Jaguar is the boss and Shimoda is a successful uppercard outsider). Arguably the best run is when the underdogs go on a great little offensive run. This is decent. (2.5/5)

Introduction Jumbo Tsuruta is widely considered one of the best professional wrestlers ever. His physicality and athleticism, his subtle acting, his superlative match layouts and workrate – he is recognized as an all-time great for these, and rightly so. The period we think about when we consider those qualities is, let’s say, 1985-1992, between Riki Choshu’s arrival in All Japan and Jumbo’s time out for health reasons that marked the end of his “serious” wrestling career. In fact, for many people, the period that needs considering for Jumbo is even shorter – 1989-1992, from his match with Yatsu against Tenryu and Kawada through his unification of the Triple Crown to further battles against Tenryu and Hansen, and then the unmasking of Tiger Mask and the supersonic rise of Misawa as his chief rival, with the concurrent war against the rest of Misawa’s Super Generation Army. Jumbo can make an all-time case on four years. It’s really an indisputable case for a Top 100 worker. What if I told you that – if you want to see just how good Jumbo was, just what kind of work he was capable of – that you have to watch his 1970s work? What if I told you that in certain senses, this era is more representative of his skills than his absolutely gold-plated period later on? There are two reasons that his work in the ‘70s is relatively neglected: first, it’s not the bit that has historically mattered to connoisseur smarks, who as a movement were largely “made” on King’s Road wrestling – and to whom, therefore, the mid 80s to early 90s are all that matter for historical purposes; and second, it’s because ‘70s wrestling is largely judged as outdated and very limited, even where a given match may be good or “forward-looking”. The former reason is, as it were, strictly personal – to each his own. The latter reason can be confuted, and a new field of enjoyment opened up. The basic point is that – aside from a few specific endemic issues, which really were problems in ‘70s wrestling – we do not understand the idiom and form of the era, and so we think it is bad. Let me draw an analogy. WWF/E was always great at training its audience to recognize finishers. Some of these finishers, as I looked at them then and in retrospect now, don’t look very good. The People’s Elbow? The Pedigree? Both of them were often executed in incredibly soft ways. People bought them, though, and whole match layouts – for good matches – were laid out round getting to them, and kicking out of them if that was the direction of the match. Imagine you knew none of that, and watched a really good Rock or Trips match from the late 90s or early 00s. You might get some contextual clues from the layout, from the pacing, from the crowd noise – if we’re permitting you the audio, anyway – that a move is a big move. But you’re an alien to Attitude and Ruthless Aggression wrestling, and so this all looks a bit…well, weak? You’re used to crazy choreographed anime battles, and what are these guys doing? Or you see Kenta Kobashi hulking out with no context. You find it confusing, and laugh. If you don’t know a style or idiom of wrestling, it will struggle to get over with you. Underlying qualities will break through, but it’s like singing in a foreign language – emotion and certain points of technique might break through, but whole ranges of meaning are lost to you. So with 1970s “NWA style” wrestling. This is a world where the smudge finish is to be expected at the top of the card; a lot of big matches run really long and never have an explosive ending sequence; title matches are commonly paced and structured in ways that disappear by the early ‘80s, and many viewers have simply never seen before when they come upon them; the moveset is different and, yes, “simpler”; and what is over with the crowd or what communicates is just nothing like what you’re expecting, even if you’ve watched King’s Road classics. You have to begin a second childhood, really, and watch these as if this is what pro-wrestling is. You have to learn the language, learn what works, learn the rhythm of the dance. I do think some of the “language” of the style limits it. The smudgy finish was already, by the ‘70s, a hangover from a former age, and in about the most televised federation in the world – AJPW – it comes off even worse than elsewhere, especially when you watch it in bulk, as the modern fan can do. You can queue up title matches and find many creative smudges, but at best this palls with time, and you see how often a really dramatic match is just undercut by the booking requirement to keep everyone strong and perhaps to set up a new programme. Stories cannot finish, because the serialization of companies reliant on live tours require them to spin out forever. Even with this, though, you can learn to appreciate the cleverer and more dramatic smudges, and one thing you basically escape in AJPW is the true Dusty Finish. Equally, as countouts and DQs transfer titles in Japan, there is much less of the absurdity of the heel champion being allowed to perpetually scam a federation who nominally is awarding him a competitive belt. Some of the other barriers to our enjoyment are much easier to surpass. The Double Underhook (Butterfly) Suplex is a regular pinfall for Jumbo, as it is for his trainer Dory Funk Jr. Baba has a Running Neckbreaker (the “Northern Drop”) and the Big Boot among other big moves. These are executed well, and when you think about them, being kicked in the face or chucked over a 6’5” guy’s head after your shoulders have been wrenched…well, they could definitely take you down for a three count. And the audience know this and believe this, too. (Yes, the Iron Claw takes a bit more suspension of disbelief…) The basic story and drama do not rely on big movesets. Great stories in wrestling can be told with very limited movesets – Ric Flair had moves in the ‘80s but he was never a moveset merchant, and he might be the best ever; Kawada arguably pared his offence down through the ‘90s, and has many proponents as the Best Pillar. So the moveset thing isn’t a problem. That title matches are nearly always 2/3 Falls and regularly run long, and even not uncommonly to an hour’s draw, is a challenge of a different sort. The length itself is surely no big issue to most hardcore fans, but pacing and structure is alien to much of what we do watch. The arrival of first Stan Hansen and then Riki Choshu changed the way All Japan lay out main event matches all the way through to the NOAH split. The death of the 2/3 Falls, even for the NWA World title, meant pacing moved from a heavily punctuated affair with specific break spots to a more continuous escalation. But we can, again, attune ourselves to the rhythm. There are different ways 2/3 Falls in the era can be structured – and we see that Flair and Steamboat remember this in 1989, if we pay attention. You can have Long-Short-Long; you can have an even pace; you can even have quirky choices, not just two falls won by the same wrestler, but also matches with only one decisive fall (what is perhaps Baba’s best singles match is a 1-0 title retention in 1969). As you do not know the structure going in – and the same workers can work 1-1, 2-1, and 1-0, in all kinds of pacing – you can be genuinely surprised by what happens. The wider range of possible finishes, too – to retain freshness – means that the potential killer move can be a standard Big Move or submission, or it can be something unusual or smudgy; there is far greater variety than in most American wrestling in the 90s or 00s, and as to actual finishing move there is probably more variety than in the King’s Road itself. Single fall matches where a decisive result requires increasing and continuous escalation is limiting in its own way; the old title match formula, for all its haziness, was a more supple instrument. With some tolerance for shonky booking, especially against big name guests, we can learn to love virtually everything else that is different about the era. If we are willing to try, we will see that Jumbo was a truly great worker in the 1970s, and produced as varied and as impressive a body of work then as, really, any worker ever has in any single decade. Thus: ten Jumbo Tsuruta matches from the 1970s. Giant Baba & Tomomi Tsuruta vs Dory Funk Jr & Terry Funk – NWA International Tag Team Titles, 2/3 Falls, 09/10/1973 Jumbo’s first television appearance, and a vital coalescence of what is going to drive AJPW forward for the next decade: Baba, Jumbo, and the Funks. Dory trained Jumbo; Terry will train Onita in the future. Baba and Dory have already worked with each other in singles in the JWA, and Jumbo has been working in Amarillo before being called over to take his place. This is a comfortable matchup for everyone, and it’s a fantastic showcase for “Tomomi” Tsuruta (yes, he is going under his real name here). No-one, not even Brock Lesnar, has ever looked this complete a year into his career. This is one species of the case for Jumbo as Best Ever – from late 1973 to late 1992, nineteen whole years basically, he is just good, never bad. His whole “serious” career is good. He turns up in this and is smooth, organised, energetic, hitting great moves, and generally looking like the Crown Prince he was. He even gets his team’s only fall, over Terry (the junior brother), with a Bridging German Suplex. He is immediately put on a level with a Funk, and moreover a Funk who will be World Champion in a few years. One thing that we should observe, in our learning of the idiom of AJPW in the 1970s, is that this is, one, a Time Limit Draw, and two, is heavily cut down for broadcast. It ran 61 minutes; we have 37 minutes. I do not think this should stop us coming to a judgement. Partly, we must come to some judgement because this is the form in which many important and enjoyable matches survive. We can make a judgement, as long as some substance remains, because the general form, the general ability, remains; we can judge cardio, moveset, selling, and the rest. We can love the Venus de Milo though she lacks her arms, and we can love clipped classics though they lack build segments. However, in this case, we have a few reasons to judge this positively but with caution. The second fall is flabby, and relies a lot on Terry. At this stage the Funks are still working heel – this will change in 1974 – and Terry brings some of his most obnoxious hamming up to the party here. This is something that sold better then than now, so we should restrain our criticism with that knowledge, but it’s an odd contrast to the deadly serious Japanese and Dory, who works a great section with Baba which is very straight. A flabby second fall and the suspiciously long cuts to the other falls – what was cut, if the flab was kept in the segunda? – stop this being an all-time great for me, but it is very fun, and genuinely epochal in wrestling. Time Limit Draw in 61:00. Jack Brisco © vs Jumbo Tsuruta – NWA World Heavyweight Title, 2/3 Falls, 30/01/1974 Jumbo debuted three months before and now gets a World Title shot. That is the scale of ambition and trust Baba has here. It also uses an enjoyable version of the 2/3 Falls Title match format: three fairly equal-length falls (12:55, 7:32, 8:58), starting with the overdog slowly gaining advantage and taking the fall. This is strong booking, because it allows the underdog’s comeback to be all the more remarkable, without undercutting “wrestling realism”: Jumbo is outgunned here. Brisco and Jumbo are a natural match – until the rivalries with Tenryu and Misawa, Jumbo’s best match-ups are always guys who match Jumbo on the mat, like Brisco, Terry, Billy, Mil, Bock, and, yes, Flair – and here we see the fiery young gun trying to climb the mountain against a much superior opponent. Brisco and Jumbo work a “gaining advantage” matwork fall in the Primera; this is one of the “stranger” sorts of passage to the modern smark, because it’s not limbwork and it’s not some high-pace lucha-inspired move-counter-move section. “What’s the point of this?” Well, first, it’s beautiful and excellent and you must learn to appreciate the liquidity and the strength. The audience does; their zone hasn’t been flooded by other shinies and so the skill and “sports acting” on display is greatly appreciated. But this whole thing has another purpose, one also understood by the audience – this is about developing advantage so as to gain a decisive opportunity. Brisco does this eventually to take the fall with a Backbreaker. The Segunda gives Jumbo a quick comeback – he hits a Kneecrusher early, and then works the limb. Brisco sells magnificently, and we get to see fiery and determined Jumbo chase down the prize like an attack dog. Jumbo actually wins the fall with his big Overhead Belly-to-Belly Suplex, taking out the tired and pain-distracted Brisco; this was his massive finisher, and the very fact he has one from the off, as well as big-name borrowed moves, is again a sign of his raw skill and also of the status accorded to him. No Generic Rookie Offence for Jumbo. The Tercera has a coherent start – Jumbo trying to continue this momentum on the knee, Brisco looking to slow things down – but is the one downer in this match, as it ends up bitty. Brisco wins on a roll-up. This can be a clean win for Brisco because Jumbo is still a rookie, but it’s a 2-1 clean win, giving Jumbo a massive shine. Jack Brisco defeats Jumbo Tsuruta in 29:25. Abdullah the Butcher © vs Jumbo Tsuruta – PWF US Heavyweight Championship, 2/3 Falls, 1975 If you want to understand Jumbo as a wrestler, you can’t just watch the big hits. You have to watch how he carries one of the worst major wrestlers ever to a legitimately passable match. Abdullah has charisma pouring out from him, mixed in with the blood, and he has these weird agile moments where he’s suddenly sprinting around at an insane speed for such a big bloke, but he’s not got much else going for him. He’s a spectacle, not a wrestler. Jumbo has decided, however, that there must actually be a match and the audience must be able to engage with it as if it were a contest between two wrestlers, rather than simply a donation of the red stuff to the mat gods. The PWF US Heavyweight Championship was the belt created mostly for The Destroyer to defend during his 7 or so years with All Japan as their first full-time foreigner. He would intermittently drop it to someone else as a bit of a “thank you for your service”; the three so honoured were Peter Maivia, Abdullah the Butcher, and Mil Mascaras. I get Abby and Mil, two of Baba’s lynchpin foreigners in the ‘70s and ‘80s, but I’m not at all sure about Peter Maivia’s qualifications. Anyway, here we get Jumbo challenging for the belt. This is a good shot at a first singles title; he’s challenged for bigger belts before and performed well. His obstacle is that his opponent is a disgusting, cheating, maniacal slob. The way this match becomes passable is that Jumbo has learned from the Funks and from Baba how to brawl with a cheating outsider, and – more than that – is maybe the best ever at wrestling his opponent’s match. He’s better at Flair at this. Jumbo just morphs to do what his opponent needs. You see this with his willingness to slug with Hansen, bomb with Tenryu, and act like the slow old lion against Misawa. Abdullah is the extreme version of this, because Abby can only wrestle one match. So Jumbo just goes after Abdullah from the bell, meaning that he is driving the pace, entirely necessary in this matchup. He hits some MASSIVE running elbows, which are of course an excuse for Abdullah to bleed. I do not like Abdullah’s blade jobs; a bit of colour, intentional or not, can elevate a match, but for Abdullah it takes the place of, I don’t know, working a side headlock or reversing a Whip. It’s banal. Jumbo decides to bit the wound. WHAT ON EARTH. (Incidentally, if you actually want a “Benoit swandive” or “Misawa neckbump” moment for Jumbo, it’s this.) Jumbo hates this nasty freak so much he’s willing to cross the line of normality. You have this strange sense that this can’t be about the title, but about the whole offence Abdullah represents to the noble art; Jumbo is here to punish him. The crowd just goes for this, too, just as they will when the Funks decide to finally destroy the Butcher and the Sheik in a few years. There are down moments, of course, because Abdullah cannot actually work offence and gases after every single move. Jumbo fills these with his High Renaissance posing and roaring. He pumps his fist; he yells to the crowd; he dances round Abdullah, taunting him. There is always something going on. He never allows the void that is his opponent’s workrate to kill the match. And – because they keep it blessedly short – this works. We also have broader story and character beats developed here. Jumbo is still not quite up to his opponent’s levels of ruthlessness, though, and loses after being counted out in the third fall. There is long-term booking here, as well as protecting Abdullah’s ego; Jumbo must climb the mountain, and he has learned a lesson that it’s not all just about passion or even about skill. The bad guys are always going to try to outsmart you, and you have to outthink them, too. The post-match is good, too. I only have a certain tolerance for the “mad chaotic brawling” stuff in the ‘70s and ‘80s, but I do enjoy a good example. Here, we have a short exposition – Abdullah attacks Jumbo on the floor post-match, after Jumbo has been counted out. He proceeds to knock him about, only to be stopped by Kojika offering himself as a human shield – eat your heart out, Kobashi! Then Jumbo is recovered and just goes bananas on Abby, and the crowd eats it up before the two are finally separated. It’s nothing great, but it is incredibly illuminating as to how good Jumbo was. Abdullah the Butcher defeats Jumbo Tsuruta in 12:42. Giant Baba vs Jumbo Tsuruta – Open League, 15/12/1975 Baba and Jumbo had five singles matches, before booking requirements blocked them; Baba was handing over to Jumbo as ace but he had to stay strong, and the network didn’t want Jumbo being fuzzed nor Baba weakened through singles meetings. I suspect Jumbo would have been one of the best match-ups for Baba through the ‘80s, as the Giant’s body began to give up on him – Hansen’s charisma, athleticism, and aggression made for a good matchup, but many others struggled. Jumbo’s adaptability would have been a great aid. We see that here, too, in this precursor to the Champion Carnival. Jumbo does adapt, but Baba gives Jumbo an absolute ton of offence and sells like a king. There is a clear role dynamic, which is a typical one for Baba – he can just about hang on the mat, but Jumbo is really superior there; Giant wants to break out and hits big moves. Jumbo is happy to trade moves, too – it’s lovely seeing Dory look on as his student tries for the Butterfly Suplex and locks in the Spinning Toehold, and Jumbo unleashes murderous high-altitude dropkicks to take Baba down. Baba wins, of course, and Jumbo is only elevated thereby. Baba hits the whole suite of his finishers to finally take out the Crown Prince, and though he never looks truly on the back foot, Jumbo’s sheer energy and skill give him openings to beat the boss. The crowd is so hot for Jumbo here, too, for all their deep, abiding love for Baba. One is minded of the way that Jumbo never truly loses the crowd, even as a soft heel against Tenryu and Misawa; and I think of how beloved his comedy six-man appearances are. Whatever the occasional doubts about his ‘70s popularity, at least at the live events there is nobody more over than Jumbo. Giant Baba defeats Jumbo Tsuruta in 16:49. Terry Funk © vs Jumbo Tsuruta – NWA World Heavyweight Title, 2/3 Falls, 11/06/1976 Often spoke of as the match which “made Jumbo”, though some would as readily point to his televised debut or to his 1977 match against Mil Mascaras. Jumbo actually challenged for the NWA title in 1974, against Jack Brisco; that’s a good match. We’ve already mentioned his challenge for Abby’s US Heavyweight Title. Similarly, in 1976, he’ll also wrestle Brisco again, for the NWA United National Heavyweight Title, which becomes AJPW’s secondary singles belt beneath Baba’s PWF Heavyweight Title. Jumbo spends this period being established as a viable singles star, and that first (losing) challenge against Brisco, and their rematch for the junior belt, are important steps. But this match tells the story of how Jumbo can wrestle on parity with the World Champion. Of course, that’s booking, not Jumbo’s ability, but it’s worth dwelling on for a moment. It shows us Baba’s confidence in Jumbo, of course, but we might read that as desperation. More importantly, it shows a coherent development of “the character” of Jumbo. Baba had a plan, and whatever teething problems it may have faced along the way, it was executed successfully – and when wrestling changed, the plan developed, and Jumbo changed. It feels like a nearly unique partnership in wrestling because of this. Inoki did not really book Fujinami in the same way, other than his movement to the heavyweight division. Vince Sr and Bruno were close, of course, but Bruno’s long reign was about stability and consistent drawing, not a developing character and style. Baba building up Jumbo is maybe the greatest long-form booking ever; his building up Misawa is certainly the greatest emergency booking ever. Baba’s eye for real talent was also pretty indubitable. To the match. Terry wins clean, but it’s a wild battle to the end, and Terry puts Jumbo over enormously, just as Baba did in their Open League match. It utilises a common 2/3 Falls structure – though one not actually common on this list! – of Long-Short-Long(ish). The falls run at 15 minutes, 6 minutes, and 10 minutes, respectively. The purpose of the pattern is that you build up the story in the first fall, slowly and deliberately, before a significant escalation or a rapid reversal in the second fall. The final fall is then often a long exchange of everything big the guys have, though if the match runs long then this third fall may include a long mat-and-chain section to pace it out. This is a near-perfect exemplar of the format, and of the whole style. The third fall is a little bitty – they’re selling the wear and tear, so this is natural – but otherwise this is just such great value for money. Terry is always a high-workrate guy, and in his “technical” days, where he’s not overselling (yes, that’s what I think it is), he’s a Top 5 worker. Jumbo can go step-for-step, though. Jumbo isn’t led through these matches; you don’t see excessive signalling, you don’t see Jumbo as leading dull downtime, which is classic for a green guy who can’t quite work the pace yet. Everything here is exciting, contested, and well communicated. Jumbo is not yet a master of ring psychology, but he was always gifted, and his struggles here, and his attempts to finish off the champ, are beautiful. Jumbo hits a beautiful Sunset Flip to win the first fall, having gained position and advantage after a lovely mat section; the second fall is BOMB CITY, and eventually ends on a Funk Rolling Cradle, one of those moves we have to remind ourselves is actually quite difficult to execute well and which would be a pretty nasty experience in reality; the third fall is generous booking, with a wonderful finishing exchange, as Terry leapfrogs Jumbo, Jumbo recovers rapidly and executes the Thesz Press…only for Terry to hotshot him into the ropes for the win. There is nothing cheap, nothing slow, nothing dull here. It’s face-vs-face booking and it’s glorious. Terry Funk defeats Jumbo Tsuruta in 26:37. Giant Baba & Jumbo Tsuruta © vs Kim Duk & Kintaro Oki – NWA International Tag Team Titles, 2/3 Falls, 28/10/1976 The dynamics of early Showa puroresu meant that essentially all important matches were booked between a native hero and a foreign rival. Partly this was down to matters of hierarchy and ego; partly, and in some ways I suspect this was materially more relevant, down to a paucity of Japanese main eventers. I suppose you could have booked Baba vs Inoki, but they were literally the money men for the two TV networks involved in JWA. Why weaken either? Rikidozan had no native contemporaries. By the 1970s, and the end of the JWA, the problem is only exacerbated by the split. Inoki and Baba are no longer in the same company, and their proteges – Fujinami and Jumbo – have no real peers, though Fujinami is better off in that respect and will, especially, end up with Choshu. There were two sources of possible native rivalry, however. One was via the IWE, the small third company in Japanese wrestling at the time. Jumbo wrestled its ace, Rusher Kimura, three times in singles, and teamed with Baba against Kimura and former ace Great Kusatsu once. One of those singles matches (28/03/1976) is a particularly good time without being a classic. Kimura was limited but a smart worker and had real aura – he still has real aura 20 years later when he’ll start mocking Haruka Eigen at the end of a random midcard comedy six-man. The more important native rivalry, though, was with the “Koreans” Kintaro Oki and Kim Duk. Oki – Kim Ill – was born and bred a Korean, coming over to Japan at a relatively late age to seek training from fellow Korean Rikidozan. He was the third of Rikidozan’s big important trio of trainees, alongside Inoki and Baba. He was, nominally, the ace of the remnant JWA after Baba’s departure, and had certainly angled for that sort of status before – there had been flirtations with a serious set up the hierarchy for him in the 1960s which had never come through. After the JWA’s collapse, Oki went with the remnant roster to AJPW for 1973, but despite holding Baba’s old NWA International Heavyweight Title never defended it in All Japan – which should show something about the relationship between the men and the status of the JWA loyalists. Oki went off soon thereafter to run his own promotion in South Korea, which was probably the right call for him. Notwithstanding this, Oki came back to Japan to work a little in New Japan at first (including working a double countout for Inoki’s NWF title in 1975), but eventually as a regular guest in All Japan and occasionally IWE. In this role he served as a peer antagonist for Baba – though Baba presumably signed some checks and so got to win their singles match-ups – and, more importantly, partnered with a younger man to face off against Jumbo and Baba. That younger man was Kim Duk, aka Tiger Chung Lee of the WWF, aka Tiger Toguchi of NJPW. Duk/Toguchi was (is) a Zainichi Korean, that is, a Japanese of Korean descent whose family migrated during the period of Japanese imperial rule over Korea. He was a JWA trainee on excursion when the company finally died, and he worked solely in America through the period 1973-1975. In 1976, he returned and worked significant chunks of time in All Japan all the way through to 1981 (first as villainous Kim Duk, and then as upper-midcard babyface Tiger Toguchi, who has decent placement on the card and beats native schlubs before jobbing to foreign stars – but even in 1981 he will go to Double Countout against Abdullah and Jack Brisco). In 1981 he moved over to NJPW and later WWF and would only return as a 53-year-old in 2001 to fill out the very thin card before Mutoh bought the company. All this preamble to say that Duk – Jumbo’s elder by three years – was the nearest thing to a true native rival available in All Japan. Oki was pretty old in his matches with Baba, and they top out at acceptable, and at any rate are not really booked as two equals; Kimura was only occasionally available and couldn’t be booked “straight” as he had his only company to look good for; Duk was young, more athletic than either, and had a good look. He was fit enough to work Broadways challenging for the United National Title against Jumbo in 1978 and Dick Murdoch in 1980. He had a definite ceiling, and in honesty isn’t near Jumbo’s level, but then who is? This match – the first of five between the teams – is for Baba and Jumbo’s NWA International Tag Titles, at that point the only tag titles in All Japan. It’s in the upper tier of these matches, and it’s probably the most memorable of them. Other matches have different enjoyable characteristics – fat 49-year-old Kintaro Oki hitting Jumping Knee Drops off the second rope is a good time – but this one is some of the hottest any match in ‘70s All Japan will ever get. This is short, which covers Oki’s limits. In some similar-quality matches they do go longer. What the length does, though, is make it very clear to us what happens. The first fall is really genuinely good tag wrestling – there’s good groundwork, and Oki hits a Brainbuster on Jumbo! It’s intense, it keeps flowing, it’s mobile. That matches Baba, Oki, and Duk well – none are top-tier matworkers, and Jumbo adapts here to be the firecracker on his team. The faces win the first fall, and then as the second fall develops things go sideways (but in a good way). Duk saps Jumbo with a microphone behind the ref’s back, and Oki gets the pin. The crowd is angry. In the third fall, Baba goes to break up some interference and a mass brawl breaks out. Duk ends up in the ring with both Jumbo and Baba pounding on him. Punishment has come and the crowd love it. It’s exhilarating stuff. Joe Higuchi then DQs the faces, and tries to stop the beating. The crowd boos and throws enormous amounts of trash at the ring. Jumbo chucks Higuchi to the mat! Outrageous stuff, surely…except the crowd cheer! The heels have won the titles, but have to flee through a hostile crowd. Authentic, exciting drama Kintaro Oki & Kim Duk defeat Giant Baba & Jumbo Tsuruta by DQ in 12:10. Jumbo Tsuruta © vs Billy Robinson – NWA United National Heavyweight Championship, 2/3 Falls, 05/03/1977 This is the most Sliding Doors moment in 1970s All Japan. We see a sample of what can happen with a native rivalry with Kim Duk, but Duk/Toguchi is not quite good enough to make that soar, and anyway we have seen the full-flower version of that idea. Jumbo has perhaps the best native rivalries in the earlier period of puro: being part of the rivalry with Choshu and Yatsu, and then facing off against Tenryu for three years, and finally holding off Misawa until his own body gave in on him. What we never see is an All Japan not just influenced by Billy Robinson and catch wrestling, but a heavyweight scene defined by it. In the earlier period, AJPW heavyweight work is either bloody brawling or American heavyweight grappling, with just a leaven of playfulness from The Destroyer. The lucha influence will seep in more and more visibly as the ‘70s merge into the ‘80s, though this is a fact of the emergent Junior Heavyweight work rather than something you see with Baba and Jumbo. The decisive shift that starts in 1982 and speeds up in 1985 – that is, when Hansen and then Choshu join in earnest – is towards a high-impact, throws-and-blows style. But here we have the alternative. Billy Robinson came to Japan because the small third Japanese promotion, IWE, couldn’t book talent from the USA after losing a few USA-oriented booking agents in a row. They turned to Europe, and in Billy (sometimes Bill) they got the first foreign ace in Japanese wrestling. He worked outside of Britain from thereonin, though his base shifted to the USA in the 1970s. AJPW eventually became his Japanese home right up until his retirement. Robinson is a magical presence in the ring: charismatic, intense, even funny, able to work material at speed and to brawl, but best in long and contested matwork sections. He doesn’t do the Russ Abbott, but you’ll see Johnny Saint-esque escapes and breaks, as well as material more in the heavyweight mould. He once dragged a match out of Abdullah that reaches the limited but contextually impressive level that Jumbo did in 1975, but where Jumbo does it by going nuts, Billy does it by essentially wrestling himself. For all his more recent recognition, there’s a case that Robinson is one of the most underrated main eventers that we have significant tape for; Bockwinkel gets a lot of flowers online, but Robinson seems like more of a well-known trivia answer. What is AJPW wrestling when it’s informed by Robinson’s fairly pure style? Jumbo is the man for the mission, of course, and the result is stellar. It’s about the best AJ match of the 1970s. Billy is coming for Jumbo’s United National Title, and they have a natural age dynamic. This is excellently pacey, and follows a Shortish-Shortish-Short fall structure – what I mean is that everything goes by quite quickly! Robinson can work long matches, but – especially as this is going to a decision, they can afford to clip along. The match also inverts the most ordinary content pattern, with the second fall being the one most focussed on working holds, with the first fall much more fluid and testing out. (Of course, you can also run a short match by fuzzing the finish, but if you have entertaining workers with good cardio, you usually want them running a longer match to fill up the evening for the live audience; this evening, though, the semi-main was the future Great Kabuki and Baba against Dick Slater and Mil Mascaras, though a genuine big name affair.) The first two falls (11 minutes and 8 minutes) are evenly-contested, 50-50 stuff. It’s all catch work punctuated by strike exchanges, all seeking position and advantage rather than pressing for straight limbwork or anything like that. Robinson’s character work here is great – developing from a slightly arrogant older man to a watchful, careful competitor. Once he squares the match in the segunda with his Backbreaker, his attitude develops further: he’s predatory, aggressive, crouched. He wants to finish the deal. The fact that Robinson gets to win – well, one, it’s payment of a type. He’ll similarly get a short stint with the PWF Championship. He’s given the top belts in the company to show his importance, and possibly to give him points on the gate (I don’t know the Japanese system round that). But further, it’s a sign that Jumbo is a figure who can work as a challenger, he’s a wrestler who can still soak a loss. They will have two more matches in March, ending in the aforementioned Abby Interference Match. All are worth watching. The sliding door is that a fluid, pacey British style – perhaps combined with other influences as they came along – never happened on a wide scale in Japan. Robinson, though, due to a sort of accident, ended up with the opportunity to hold the top titles for two of the Japanese promotions, and was a credible main eventer for many years. One can see glimmerings of his influence in All Japan in the years following, and it does seem he provided some training, so this should be no surprise. Yet he was, in the numerical sense only, one of a kind; All Japan brought over no other significant British workers until 1985 and the introduction of Dynamite Kid, Davey Boy Smith, and “Judo” Pete Roberts”, who arrived in the wake of Ishin-Gundan and a change of agent arrangements. No All Japan workers went to excursion in Britain, unlike Satoru Sayama, Akira Maeda, and Keichi Yamada – and those are workers who went on to change both Junior and Heavyweight wrestling with what they learned. Instead, Baba sent first Momota and then, later, Onita and Misawa to Mexico, and seemed ready to chart another course – but that is a tale for another essay. “Catch puro” did, of course, end up existing, including via Maeda. In All Japan, it would have relied on an earlier introduction of more British technical workers, and probably a different treatment of the technically gifted “Three Crows” – Onita, Fuchi, and Sonoda. They were the sort of men who, with Mitsuo Momota, The Destroyer, and of course Jumbo, could have adapted to the fluid and playful style. Ultimately, perhaps that would have been as good a reason as any for Baba to avoid the experiment. “Catch puro”, in All Japan in the ‘70s and early ‘80s, would have required a full remodelling around smaller men, and that was never going to happen. Bill Robinson defeats Jumbo Tsuruta in 23:03. Jumbo Tsuruta © vs Mil Mascaras – NWA United National Heavyweight Championship, 2/3 Falls, 25/08/1977 The Battle of the Idols. This sometimes gets credited as “getting Jumbo over” – some of the Four Pillars fell in love with wrestling watching this match, and it did fantastic business at the time. There is an occasional suggestion that “salaryman Jumbo” was seen as not truly committed to the art. It’s hard to track down how seriously this idea was taken at the time, but our main exposure – the live crowds – suggests he was always incredibly popular. Undeniably, though, the period from his 1976 matches against Terry Funk and Jack Brisco though his rivalry with Billy Robinson and his first big matches against Harley Race and Nick Bockwinkel define him as a main eventer in singles, and you can already see the passing of the torch from Baba in this period – and the “Battle of the Idols” is a key moment in that transition. Here’s the thing: Mil Mascaras puts a guy over pretty much clean. That’s how big this match is. Like the Robinson match above, this is a bit of a dream Jumbo match. Jumbo enjoys the American heavyweight grappling style in this period, as in his matches with Brisco, Funk, Race, and Bockwinkel, but he’s such a smooth and liquid matworker that the catch and lucha styles perhaps suit him even better. This follows a Long-Short-Shorter fall structure, which works to give a sense of escalating pace and urgency. This is in some ways the “whole match layout” equivalent of an escalating finishing sequence in a One Fall match, with each guy desperately trying to get in another finisher or a surprise move; this “feels” very different to a “build up til one guy is able to hit the Five Moves of Doom” match. The Long-Short-Shorter match, because the pace palpably increases in the segunda and starts at full pelt in the tercera, signals to the viewer that things are only getting more exciting at each stage. This starts out with a long fall (22 minutes), as I say. It’s a matwork fall, it’s some of the most beautiful and supple work you’ll ever see. It’s different to the Robinson match included above because it’s less about intelligent work-arounds and more about balance and strength. Mil is allowed to be the slightly superior worker here; Jumbo can keep up, but it’s Mil’s yard. Jumbo works the match, functionally, from underneath, and with a hint of the Baba Technical Match Layout – except this time, Jumbo wants to break out and hit moves. In the primera, though, Mil eventually creates a dominant “board position” – this era of matwork is often very chess-like – and gets the submission win. The segunda can now rely on the story built up in the primera, and escalate accordingly. Many match layouts don’t do this, and switch storytelling mode; but if you’re escalating in the Long-Short-Shorter layout, you’re letting the audience remember the first fall. So here Jumbo speeds things up and looks to hit moves rather than work into a submission or even really to wear Mil down. He wants to break Mil’s stance, to use another analogy. So he eventually gets in an Airplane Spin and then a Missile Dropkick for the straight pinfall. When considering moveset, this is one that strikes me – the Airplane Spin isn’t a plausible high-tier move in major feds now, but have you seen a 6’5” guy spin another guy around and around and then dump him on the floor? It looks legit. The final fall is where Mil does the job, and clean, with just a handkerchief to retain strength. It’s a very short fall (3 minutes), and it’s really good fun, but ends really too suddenly, in a way that is a legitimate hit to what is a great, great hit. Mil drives Jumbo outside, and goes for a plancha, and crashes and burns. Jumbo rolls in, and Mil is counted out. This is clean – no smudge – and given titles can transfer on countouts, it’s a reasonably decisive result in defence as well. Of course it protects Mil, too; he lost because he risked doing something awesome. Nonetheless, it works for me. I look at the third in the 1977 Robinson trilogy, where Jumbo wins the title back. It’s in Florida, and Abdullah (groan) interferes, hits both guys, but then goes ham on Robinson, who he’s angry with. Jumbo recovers first and hits a Dropkick for the pin. The win is clean for Jumbo, but not clean in itself – Abdullah plainly tips the scales. That is a far more corrosive result to the match itself, even if it keeps both competitors strong and gives Robinson his next feud. The match itself has turned out to be of marginal importance, because the most important event – and the one which materially decided what happens with the title – is something beyond the match proper. But here, Mil crashes and burns doing something cool, and Jumbo wins. It’s two men, and one is strong and quick and smart enough to win two falls with no cheating. Great result. Jumbo Tsuruta defeats Mil Mascaras in 33:54. Harley Race © vs Jumbo Tsuruta – NWA World Heavyweight Championship, 20/01/1978, 2/3 Falls Curiously, though Jumbo and Harley had a long rivalry of which nearly every match is very good, I’m not sure they wrestled a classic together. Maybe this is my very slightly “style dissonance” with Harley showing; I think it’s the work, though, or rather the dynamic. They work very well together, it’s always competent, but Jumbo’s best matches always – and naturally – have a firecracker dynamic with his opponent. Against Billy Robinson and Mil Mascaras, he’s the incumbent fighting against canny veterans who can contest him on the mat. Against the Funks and Baba, he’s seeking accolades against his mentors. Harley is most like Bock and Flair in his matchup – heelish foreign champs out to keep the native hero down – but Harley’s focussed intensity and violence perhaps play off Jumbo less excitingly. Nevertheless, this is a very good match, and helps situate the time period. It’s an hour-long time limit draw, clipped to something like 32 minutes. Sometimes hour-long draws from this period survive in full due to special presentation, but it’s rare they survive in the normal archive (as they would do later – NTV’s various AJPW Classics shows show an enormous amount of previously clipped footage from the mid ‘80s onwards). The hour-long draw is, hopefully, value for money for the live punter, It also offers a booking option giving a clean result that doesn’t put anyone over – you might tendentiously argue that so does the double countout, but that is equivalent to a double DQ and is explicitly about not giving the match a result. A TLD IS a result – it’s a draw. There are a number of very fine and highly respected hour-long singles time limit draws out there. Inoki had big-name draws against Robinson and Fujinami, and Baba’s best singles match is probably his draw against The Destroyer. Jumbo also has a very big and highly-rated one against Flair from 1983. Later on, the Pillars will work a few of their own. It’s a very demanding art, because to keep it interesting you have to keep working, and for a long time. The tag draw is simpler, as is the long tag match: see Jumbo’s television debut, or the famous 1991 SGA vs Tsuruta-gun six-man. You tag out and in to maintain pace and variation. The singles draw basically requires highly technical workers, because though low-pace brawling can be maintained, it’s essentially dull even in small doses. But a Bockwinkel, a Jumbo, a Harley, a Billy, a Flair – they can do it because they can keep up workrate during up sections and they can work interesting down sections and they can engage the crowd continuously. For long non-draws to add to the list, see Bock’s first match against Jumbo discussed below, and Flair vs Steamboat at the Clash. Now, the clipping here is more troubling than in the other clipped match on this list. Losing half a match is always tough; in some ways a Broadway can afford to lose more and still retain shape, but we lose 17 of 28 minutes of the primera and 11 of the 16 minutes of the segunda, and that’s brutal. There is still a coherent tale told through the edit; it’s evenly-matched, back and forth stuff, alternating matwork with Harley, especially, trying to crush Jumbo’s skull with his knee. The match’s original creativity and sense of intensity is probably damaged by this choice; the crowd, whilst quiet when we JIP, is obviously very focussed, because their immediate reactions to control changes and big move teases are exceptionally strong. On the other hand, one flaw of the Broadway is that even the best workers will be drawn to pad out, especially in a 2/3 Falls with a Long-Medium-Medum structure. You establish roles in the first fall in such a layout, but then you have to take up the balance of the match’s time before you’re allowed to escalate through the back half. What is a nice touch here is that Harley is usually working from on top, and Jumbo has to sell this – and Jumbo is developing as a ring psychologist in each area in this period, rounding out his fiery hero act. Jumbo, however, gets to grind back at the end of the segunda – at this point over forty minutes have passed! – and even the score. Race is now still the champ, still technically the superior wrestler, but Jumbo is on a roll. Race is superior enough that he can disrupt this with bombs, but Jumbo just keeps coming, eventually returning again and again to toe-hold variations. Just as the bell is about to ring, we finally see Race’s desperation as he rakes Jumbo’s eyes to break the hold – he’s been contained throughout, not even throwing any potatoes, his heelisms restricted to chucking Jumbo out of the ring and to the street thug stylings of his violence. This third fall, though not as marvellously intense as some of the other escalation finishes on this list – and at fifteen minutes length, that’s not surprising – is a sign of what was possible at the time, and what was too often eschewed even in big matches. It’s a style Jumbo can keep up with, because he turned up to the sport able to work holds and to throw, and this is a great avenue for that. You get some surprising choices, but they balance out – Harley survives three Jumbo belly-to-belly suplexes, two of them the super-effective overhead version, whilst Jumbo survives a Swandive. There is a developed storyline here from their 1977 match (which is probably actually a slightly stronger match than this one), too. There, Jumbo wasn’t quite Race’s match; Race’s experience was too much for him, here he is able to press Race right to the limit and to survive everything the champ has to throw at him. He could also do that, and entertainingly, over an hour of work. Harley Race drew with Jumbo Tsuruta in 60:00. Giant Baba & Jumbo Tsuruta © vs Dos Caras & Mil Mascaras – NWA International Tag Team Championship, 2/3 Falls, 24/08/1978 Giant and Jumbo work a lot of great tags, and those tags all work differently. They wrestle the Funks with a mix of the American Heavyweight Grappling style and some straight-up brawling as things escalate, with the Funks cheating a little in the earlier matches. They work Duk and Oki with a more traditional face/heel dynamic, and with the standup grappling matchup of Jumbo and Duk as the centrepiece. In the 1980s, they will battle Stan Hansen and Bruiser Brody as heroes in the storm: their opponents are strong, they’re violent, they’re intense, they cheat. Mascaras and Caras bring smooth matwork, including against Baba, and they bring a continuous workflow. These teams worked together a year later, too, but I prefer this one, though both are good matches. They pick good roles: Jumbo is quick and his team’s grappler, Baba is big and comes in to wreck face, Mil is his team’s heavyweight and matworker, and Dos is smaller but very agile. Dos never really gets many flowers for his All Japan run – his brother is remembered, but he’s a footnote – but there aren’t many guys like him working All Japan at this point. The gradual lucha-ization of the company and the rise of a Junior Heavyweight Ace starts from, with the masked brothers and a few other Mexican guests, and it’s Dos who is most reliably springing around and doing funky things. Jumbo, naturally, adapts himself perfectly: for his team, Baba can’t go that quickly anymore, and though he can take heat segments off Mil, Jumbo is much the better choice for lengthy ground work. Jumbo is also just as quick as Dos, and nearly as agile despite the size discrepancy. This matchup perhaps more than many is a reminder of Jumbo’s natural gifts, channelled through a fine wrestling intellect. Baba when younger was a decent athlete, and his hard work and brains means he was still able to have a five star match in 1989 – but Jumbo was an Olympic athlete who was still able to hit big spots into his forties. He was an incredible natural specimen, basically. There are some fun decisions here, too. The fall endings are all pretty rare sights: Mil forces Jumbo to submit with a Butterfly Lock (!), Jumbo reverses things in the second with a Standing Backbreaker on Mil (yes, Mil shares the job here), and then finally Giant hits a massive Side Suplex on Dos for the win. One thing this should teach us about the supple, flexible format of the old 2/3 Falls Title match formula is that it’s not odd, it’s not overly dramatic, and it doesn’t weaken anyone to mix up fall finishes like this. The crowd understand that anything that “looks like a move” can win out if set up properly, and instead can enjoy the variation (and I certainly do, albeit 47 years late). Giant Baba & Jumbo Tsuruta defeat Dos Caras & Mil Mascaras in 24:20. Nick Bockwinkel © vs Jumbo Tsuruta – AWA World Heavyweight Championship, 2/3 Falls, 14/02/1979 One of Jumbo’s great series of matches, and the one which produced his one “traditional” World Heavyweight title (the Triple Crown is of course functionally a world title, but it’s complicated), was versus Nick Bockwinkel. Bock is such an interesting worker to study; he basically emerges into the spotlight in his mid-forties, which in the ‘70s was basically old age for a wrestler. He worked at a top level well into his fifties. He was a great American-style technician and a capable brawler, who worked well-loved matches against Jerry Lawler as well as against Jumbo, Curt Hennig, and many others. Jumbo is 27 here, Bock is 44. They’re in Hawaii, and the crowd buys Jumbo as the face straight away – partly, I guess, as he’s facing Bock, a classically subtle heel champ, and partly perhaps because this is Hawaii and its ethnic mix includes a lot of Japanese descent. Jumbo and Tenryu got booed elsewhere when working as faces in the USA – I think of a tag tournament in GCW in 1982 – so it’s interesting to see his positioning here. This is a great match, brilliantly worked and interestingly booked. Jumbo’s strength here mirrors his draw against Race for the NWA title – Jumbo is presented as pretty much the equal of the big name world title holders, even if he’s not quite at the stage of pushing things over the line. Though the big titles only went to Japan on cash payment back in the day, and though it’s hard to gauge Jumbo as a solo draw at any stage in his career, at the level of work he clearly deserves this status. When in the ring with Brisco, Race, Funk, Robinson, Bockwinkel, Mascaras and – later – Flair (*), Jumbo always looks like a match for aura and work. He’s credible at every level. They work a version of Long-Short-Shorter here, and this runs long – 55 minutes, of which we have 44 or so. The clipping comes nearly entirely from the first fall. The politics and art of clipping for TV is fascinating; in some cases, of course it’s just that the timeslot is an hour and you want to get five matches in and communicate key personalities and storylines, so a match gets cut. I think another reason, especially for big, long, relatively high quality matches, is that there is a difference between what is needed and enjoyed at a live event and what “sells” on TV. Sometimes this means you get strong matches worked in front of dead crowds, and our engagement with the match relies on the work; Hennig taking the title off Bockwinkel is one of those, with one of the most mutinous and unpleasant crowds I’ve seen, but it’s a good match. More often, in this era, it’s the other way around. If you have good workers, you can have a long main event, and a good crowd will enjoy it, follow it, and cope with any downtime because the atmosphere is very present to them. On tape, you’re more likely – even if you’re enjoying the crowd – to spot slow or repetitive sections. So I look at the first fall (31 minutes), which is great 50-50 work, neither man letting the other get the advantage, and I think: what’s clipped is more of the same, more really high grade work, but stuff that might look slower or repetitious on tape. I don’t feel like this knocks my rating on what we get; what we get feels complete, feels representative, feels coherent and communicates the story. It’s a hazard of watching material from the time, but sensitive clips may hide weakness – and there’s a fascinating discussion to have about whether that’s acceptable – but also may simply trim down material more suitable for the live audience than for the tape watcher. Bock mostly fights fair but takes a couple of shortcuts and then wins the fall with the Figure Four. Jumbo has learned a lesson from the first fall; in the segunda (17 minutes), he has to push back and hard, and instead of trying to work out of holds just starts striking Bock. He’s more aggressive in every other area, too, and finally gets off Dory’s Double Underhook (Butterfly) Suplex. This doesn’t get the pin – a Sleeper does. This is interesting; it’s trying to show that this is a war of attrition, that each man needs wearing down. I think, though, that a closing passage based on mobility was probably the better bet here, to cement the escalation in this fall. The final fall (5 minutes) is compelling and well-executed but ends with an annoying smudge. Jumbo has the advantage and presses it thrillingly. He hits a Piledriver…but his knee gives out on the pin! Bock’s Figure Four and later work have their effect. The idea of match-long storytelling is alive and well here in a near-hour match in 1979. Then Jumbo works into a Sleeper, and surely this is the decisive move, with 6 minutes left for Bock to survive…except Bock hits the ref, gets DQed, and keeps the title! Yeah, shocking match booking, and beneath both men. There is a laudable desire to vary the ending – this doesn’t go Broadway, when that is surely teased by a second fall happening at 49:00. The audience get a result, and they get emotion, and they get their expectations upset. Yet it is hard not to feel scammed, because of course titles shouldn’t work like this, and of course Bock should be serving a six month suspension jointly observed by the AWA and all NWA territories. The story here doesn’t pay off properly, and we can feel that. Nonetheless, this is a great match. Bock’s subtlety in heelisms, his technical excellence and focus on gymnastic storytelling, are one of the best foils for Jumbo. Jumbo only works Terry solo with Terry as a face, and as a heel Terry can be irritating; Flair is great but less subtle and less technical; Harley trades on a greater sense of the physical clash; Billy is a magician, and basically a good guy too. Wakadaisho Jumbo (to steal KinchStalker’s nickname) is a fiery hero and five-tool player, and the attritive, canny opposition Bock gives him allows him to shine. I think this is their best match. Jumbo Tsuruta defeats Nick Bockwinkel by DQ in 53:55. *: Jumbo actually first wrestled Flair in 1978, but this is still germinal Flair, and though their earlier work is good their rivalry really kicks off in 1982, with Flair as NWA World Champion. Find the match ratings and links at Undercard Wonders

I don't think he'll make my #100 but massively enjoying his Kyushu Pro run right now. A couple of very enjoyable matches with Kodai Nozaki. His speed, fitness, and strength for a guy in his late '40s are great, and his decision to spend time in a regional charity promotion is impressive in a different sense.

Good match, prefer Momota's earlier challenge to Fuchi and indeed Momota vs Nakano. re the booking, yes, I think Nakano was a younger guy who could be added to the mix more seriously by taking the belt off Fuchi in his second reign, but also lose to Momota without losing too much - Momota was getting a thankyou for your service run and his successful defences were against brand-new foreigner Johnny Smith and ancient IWE dude Isamu Teranishi. As Fuchi was the long-term lynchpin of the division, that wasn't a loss that was attractive for Baba, I think. Nakano was about the only Junior who left with Tenryu, but it's probably fair to say that - alongside the shift in booking priorities with SGA/Jumbo-gun - it was a serious dampener on the insanely good Junior and Junior Tag division of 1989. Kikuchi's rapid elevation into the title scene was almost certainly partly a response to Nakano leaving, and left very little in the farm system to build up a new division.

I discovered this project by seeing if SmarksChoice was still around and then finding Grimmas' summary of results. This was how I realized that I had taken part in the 2006 poll! It's interesting considering what I can work out from my list there to how I'll likely decide stuff now. 20 years apart - I was 17 then. A few entries are quixotic. Big Bruno Elrington I *think* was a Rob Edwards-related joke. Jody Fleisch i had seen in person a few times and just really enjoyed (and frankly I suspect that's a pretty defensible approach, though not my approach now). Many workers are there from me seeing a match plus some clips - I feel really dubious of this now. I was 17 with very limited access to matches, and I made my best call, but to some degree I probably listed "good wrestlers I've seen once" because I thought I needed to list them. Now I want to know what a worker actually does/"is" as a wrestler before putting them on the list. It definitely changes my priorities...and requires a lot more watching matches. I do think my ability to analyse matches - in an appreciative, enjoying fashion - is much better than it was then. I value workers who can turn up and just make the match work, even against slugs. Jumbo was my #1 then and probably will be again, but now with the added argument that he had a passable match with Abdullah. Billy Robinson is rgeat - though less great - and partly because he also could have a passable match with that particular gentleman. I value workers who don't necessarily have big runs on top, but who turn up every day and do valuable things. Mitsuo Momota will make my list because he adds so much value to all the stuff he's in, and it doesn't matter that for some people the Comedy Six-mans or Rookie Matches aren't big enough viewing to give credit for. I value workers who are just so, so competent. I actually think Flair's charisma and our sense of his "big matches" might underplay his case - have you ever seen a guy just turn up and be so competent so reliably? (This was a big takeaway for me of watching him against Jumbo. Two guys who don't even need to be working "classics" to put together a good match.) So I feel cautious about putting together a list, or least a 100 list, because I have the suspicion that it's too easy to rank people - positively or negatively - for some small sliver of work that becomes disproportionately big in our mind. I guess I'm a "whole career" guy in that sense - or maybe a WAR7 guy, to use sabermetrics. Great Kojika (who will not make my list) is probably better ranked on his scant, decent televised work in the 70s and 80s than the "ancient man does death matches" stuff.

Do you mean Debbie Malenko or Debra Miceli (Madusa)? Madusa says the same thing - they'd sometimes be given the result as they were meant to go into the finishing sequence. I agree, anyway, that it seems...unlikely that a 1983 title match was decided on a shoot pin. I like Jaguar, but do think she's someone who suffers from paucity of material. We probably have more Marty Jones than Jaguar, is sort of my point. I feel the same about Yukari Omori, though I think Jaguar is better and a genuine contender for a high spot...if I can scrape together more really good matches for her that make me understand her work at a deeper level.

Really appreciated this.

I appreciated this both in how I basically 100% agree with it but maybe subtly "disagree", or at least want to expand what you rightly say about why we care about limbwork. Big thing, big overview of the strength of your point: limbwork alone is often dull, consistent "selling" (as if something has been rendered useless) is both unnecessary and also sometimes when executed is weirdly lifeless, etc. My caveat is that I do remember, 20 years ago and more, why we started caring about limbwork. Partly it was the great examples - Kawada in '88, Kobashi in '95, that sort of thing - and partly it was that, as you say, it was a simple way to identify that a match was being built intentionally and that the performers cared about the story. If your background at that point was WWF/E and WCW, and if you were watching Ruthless Aggression stuff which was maybe marginally better on average then Attitude Era but still had whole PPVs void of serious psychology, consistent selling was an incredible contrast. Maybe the balanced position is that look, selling acknowledges the physical realness of the matches we're watching, the fact that the secondary reality we are believing in is one where people are battling and being hurt as they seek victory. When we watch a war film we expect the people who get shot but struggle on to the goal to "sell" their wound. But of course not all potential harm in a match is alike in seriousness, and if an element is overused in the same manner, it becomes stale or dull. "Selling" "limbwork" is an obvious victim there, because many great matches don't depend on it. Why it is brought up with Ospreay? (And many similar to him in high public regard right now.) Because though some people like - as I saw a guy put it on reddit - the "anime" style, the wrestlers going "super-saiyan", it simply does register as stale or silly to many of us, and, though "selling""limbwork" is a gross simplification, it's a simple code to point to the fact that it doesn't seem like a battle, and that's what many of us want. So I do think it's probably fair to raise in relation to Ospreay, it's just not going to influence people who DO like the style.

Three event recaps and digging into the Mentai Kid archives in light of his retirement. Kyushu Pro AEON Omura Shopping Center 30th Anniversary 03/05/2025 Held at AEON Omura Shopping Center in Omura, Nagasaki Prefecture. Not aired. KPW do a number of these “community-side” events, presumably as a result of sponsorships or where there is a charitable upside. No announced attendance, and it’d be hard to know because the ring (per photos) is literally in the mall forecourt next to the escalators. Batten Blabla vs Hitamaru Sasaki vs La Castella La Castella is this yellow panda or bear gimmick they do list on their website but I’ve never seen. The photos make this look fun. Sasaki is obviously being given the “serious guy who works with the comedy guys” job today. La Castella pins Batten. La Castella defeats Batten Blabla and Hitamaru Sasaki in 10:28. Genkai & Georges Khoukaz & Jet Wei vs Kodai Nozaki & Mentai Kid & Naoki Sakurajima The photos show the heels beat up Sakurajima, and the faces finish off Khoukaz with some sort of three-man mountain splash. Mentai with the pin on Khoukaz. Everyone in this matchup can work so this was probably fun. Kodai Nozaki & Mentai Kid & Naoki Sakurajima defeat Genkai & Georges Khoukaz & Jet Wei in 11:22. Kyushu Pro Kasuga Ba Genki Ni Suru Bai! 05/05/2025 Held at Kasuga City Sports Center. Kasuga is a big commuter belt city (110,000 people) in Fukuoka Prefecture not far outside of Fukuoka City itself. This is the typical gym setup for these shows, but with a lot of giant fish mobiles hanging from the ceiling. I am in favour. Announced attendance of 1,009, which I think is the fourth biggest show of the year so far. Hitamaru Sasaki vs Minoru Fujita Fujita is obviously a bigger name in wider puro than Sasaki, and he has had belt runs in KPW before. His outfit actually has the KPW branding on it which is nice. You immediately know why he’s here: put over Sasaki ahead of Sasaki putting in title challenges. Sasaki doesn’t work many singles matches, and really I’ve seen little of his offence over several months’ worth of material – he has great kicks, basically, and is very mobile for a 47-year-old. Fujita’s prominence and Sasaki’s basic ability make it all the more surprising, for me, that the first half of this is just dreadful. It’s comedy work, and that’s kinda okay except that the point of this is obviously about putting Sasaki over. The problem is the comedy isn’t very strong – in a fed where comedy is done pretty well – and it’s insanely slow and low-impact. Strikes don’t seem to connect, despite them having whole “Hit me!” challenge exchanges. This feels like, at least, time catching up: Fujita is a deathmatch guy, Sasaki is a shoot-style guy, they should be able to hit each other hard, but this just doesn’t work. We do slightly pace up in the back half, even though it’s still too long and slow – 20 minutes is one of the longest matches in KPW this year and you feel the length. Sasaki has some nice submissions, and once he gets going on a chain of kick offence, you’re reminded that actually he’s good at this stuff. Fujita gurns and stooges for the crowd, low-blows a couple times, tries to regain some control. Thankfully, eventually the match ends. What a disappointment. Hitamaru Sasaki defeats Minoru Fujita in 20:43. Asosan vs Batten Blabla vs Jesus Rodriguez This is Rodriguez’ first ever match in Japan and after thanking the ring announcer he does his own intro in MEXICAN~! style. I see he spent several years in and around WWE under a few gimmicks, notably Ricardo Rodriguez (his billed middle name). He’s a bit tubby but he can move. We get long intros for Batten and Rodriguez, and the match itself is pretty short, which is sensitive booking. Asosan doesn’t have to do much, and that’s good because his knees look worse than normal here. Virtually immobile except when pushing himself to hit one of his (very cool) athletic moves. But you get Batten allying first with one guy then the other, trying small packages to get the win, roping Rodriguez into holding Asosan down for his patented elbow/fist drop, etc. Batten hits a magnificent Enzuigiri at one point in a passage of high-speed and entertaining offence on Rodriguez. Rodriguez misses a Moonsault but it looks great anyway. And it’s all very short, which fits the matchup they want to layout. Batten betrays Rodriguez, Asosan gets pushed out of the ring, and Rodriguez beats up Batten before knocking him down with one finger. Fun. Jesus Rodriguez defeated Asosan and Batten Blabla in 6:40. Genkai & Georges Khoukaz & Jet Wei & TAJIRI vs Kodai Nozaki & Mentai Kid & Naoki Sakurajima & Shigeno Shima This hasn’t been uploaded at time of writing and I’m assuming it won’t be. Alas, this looks like it could be good fun. If they worked this with any pace, the eight-man format likely comfortably covered the limitations of some of the competitors (I mean TAJIRI). Khoukaz, Jet, Mentai, and Sakurajima can all offer real workrate, and Nozaki, Shima, and Genkai aren’t bad for that either. The faces win, presumably with a Mentai pin. Kodai Nozaki & Mentai Kid & Naoki Sakurajima & Shigeno Shima defeat Genkai & Georges Khoukaz & Jet Wei & TAJIRI in 12:24. Kyushu Pro 06/05/2025 This was held at the Chacha Town Kokura Special Ring in the city of Kitakyushu, a big conurbation in Fukuoka Prefecture. No announced attendance, no footage. This again looks like a mall or shopping district – the ring is set up outside in the “square” of the downtown/mall/whatever it is. It’s really lovely seeing at this subtype of event the crowd spilling into balconies or looking over an upper deck. Big community entertainment vibes, which is definitely one thing pro-wrestling should be sometimes. Asosan & Hitamaru Sasaki vs Batten Blabla & Shigeno Shima So this will be Asosan & Sasaki beating up Shima who wants Blabla to tag in but Batten refuses. Then Batten does tag in, gets some decent offence in, gets arrogant, gets smashed up and pinned. Asosan & Hitamaru Sasaki defeat Batten Blabla & Shigeno Shima in 12:52. Georges Khoukaz & Jesus Rodriguez & TAJIRI vs Kodai Nozaki & Mentai Kid & Naoki Sakurajima I can’t help but feel that in these smaller (in this case mid-sized) events, if you’re picking who goes on the card, you probably want Jet Wei over TAJIRI every time. Tadgers is the bigger name and I like seeing him, but his knees are totally gone, and Jet is a Mentai trainee and is, with Nozaki, the future of the company. Rodriguez gets triple-splashed this time. Mentai naturally is the kid on top of the dads’ shoulders! Nozaki also splashes Khoukaz, who hopefully has enjoyed his tour but mostly seems to have been beaten up by KPW heavyweights. This looks like Mentai takes the pin after a 450 on Rodriguez. Kodai Nozaki & Mentai Kid & Naoki Sakurajima defeat Georges Khoukaz & Jesus Rodriguez & TAJIRI in 13:50. BONUS: Four Classic Mentai Matches As we run up to Mentai’s retirement this coming weekend, KPW has been putting classic matches of his up on the YouTube channel. I’ve watched some of those, and I’ve watched a few of his older matches too. It’s striking that nowadays, he’s insanely over and very decent in the ring; “back then” (2009-2019, say), he was an elite lucharesudor. Time is unmerciful, except to Ricky Steamboat in 2009, and Mentai has obviously lost a step these days, despite his continued good speed, workrate, and execution. In his prime he is as good as any other Toryumon or Dragongate product you could name; he’s the best Junior Heavyweight you’ve never heard of. Mentai Kid vs Shiori Asahi – Okunchi Cup 2009 Final, 12/10/2009 Wait, I’ve seen this Asahi guy before! He wrestled Mentai this year in a good little bout. Perhaps that was a bit of a farewell tour booking for Mentai. Nowadays he does these hand strikes like his hand is a flamingo. That doesn’t seem to be the case here. The Okunchi Cup was a two-day affair over three rounds, this is the final. Weirdly we only have this clipped, where other matches from 2009 exist in full. The 4-minute clip we have is magnificent, though. Escalating lucharesu action, with some really unique little variations on moves, and nearly constant attempts to hit massive dives outside into the crowd. It also doesn’t come off as a spotfest – the men sell being worn down by the impact of the moves, they each look for an opportunity to finish stuff. Boo, hiss! Asahi gets control at the end and wins. This was fun. Shiori Asahi defeats Mentai Kid in 14:51. Kaijin Habu Otoko vs Mentai Kid – 16/05/2010 Kaijin Habu Otoko seems to be a serpent dude who his hair queue to whip Mentai at one point. He is much better known as HUB. This is solid; it has an obvious and natural structure, with Mentai working from underneath and trying to break out. He at one point does his Coast-to-Coast Diving Dropkick but it’s, uh, not diving, it’s from the floor to the apron. That’s worth a star on its own I think. This isn’t, alas, incredible, when you can see it could be; it’s fun, but the heat segments are pretty heatless, which means the comebacks and hope spots rely wholly on Mentai’s aura (which is not inconsiderable), and the eventual Bad Guy Win is a matter of surprising indifference. But look: if you can turn up and get a three star match out of a not-very-successful match, you’ve had a good day at the office. Kaijin Habu Otoko defeats Mentai Kid in 11:58. Menso-re Oyaji vs Mentai Kid – 27/03/2011 The future Black Menso-re, here merely a friendly fellow from Okinawa who embodies all the tropes about Okinawans. He’s wrestling with Okinawa Pro under his trainer Super Delfin at this point. He runs a light comedy gimmick – drinking cheap Okinawan beer during the match and at one point using it as a weapon shot. This really works for me. The comedy stuff is worked well, but it’s a light touch, because ultimately this is the grandkids of Gran Hamada working a match that wouldn’t feel out of place in Michinoku Pro in 1996, but with just a bit of a technical twist and advance fitting of the Dragongate/Toryumon era. It’s not even madly innovative – the 2009 Shiori Asahi match has in its own way more “original” spots and twists, in the sense of new to me – but this is delightful. The face-vs-face dynamic is quite interesting, too, because you get them showing off to the audience, setting up for some lovely move-counter-move at a nice speed, without worrying about heat segments and instead relying on the move escalation. Good stuff. Mentai Kid defeats Menso-re Oyaji in 14:52. El Lindaman & T-Hawk vs Mentai Kid & Naoki Sakurajima – 07/04/2019 Part of a Kitakyushu show in 2019, held on a theatre stage which looks weird. The invaders earn cheap heel heat, get chances working over both of the faces. Mentai is small so can be overpowered, Sakurajima gets isolated and the ref distracted and gets beaten up. The plucky faces work their way back and win! This was very, very by-the-numbers in a perfectly pleasant way. Mentai Kid & Naoki Sakurajima defeat El Lindaman & T-Hawk in 10:11. Full Matchguide and links at Undercard Wonders

Enjoyed this one. Really helpful guide.

Series Outline Part 1: The Noble Art of Jerking Curtains (You Are Here) Part 2: King of Comedy Part 3: The Heir to Rikidozan Introduction – Who On Earth Is Mitsuo Momota? On CageMatch, Mitsuo Momota has a fan rating of 4.71 out of 10. He mostly seems to turn up in six-man comedy matches with arthritic old men. For Mitsuo Momota’s official 30th Anniversary match, he wrestled a rookie in the first match on the card, and it was even clipped when shown on TV. He’d been wrestling 30 years and he was only worth a curtain-jerker that wouldn’t even be shown in full. The only reason he had a job was because of who his das was. This guy sucks, right? Right? WRONG. Wrestling fandom is hardly infallible in its judgements, and you see all kinds of revision go on over time for good or bad. Indeed, “the judgement of the fandom” is no such thing – it’s only an average, not a single judgement. But as that average is what we are working with, literally in the case of CageMatch, it’s right to press back in cases of manifest injustice, and to help fill the gaping holes in knowledge that cause such misjudgements. Mitsuo Momota is a victim of such a misjudgement. Frankly, he’s great. I have never him be really bad in a match, and I’ve often see him be really good. He was able to work palatable rookie matches, which is a difficult task when you realize what the job is there; he was a vital piece in the horribly underrated AJPW/NOAH comedy matches; and when it came time to really throw down, it turned out he could go as well as nearly anyone. (I note here that he is technically still going, or technically unretired, with his last recorded match in 2000 – but I won’t be considering the final leg of his career in this series.) In this opening essay I’ll consider the least glamorous part of his work, the underappreciated art of “curtain-jerking”, starting out the show for All-Japan and NOAH against a rookie whilst the crowd is still filing in. The first section below will cover the general topic, its problems, and how Momota addressed them; the second is a (partial) matchguide with reviews and video links. The Humble Art of Seating the Crowd In 1988, the year in which he turned 40, Mitsuo Momota wrestled 151 matches, as far as recorded cards go anyway. Of those, 3 were Battle Royals and 4 were tag matches. The Battle Royals were not the New Year Battle Royals, with everyone important in them; these were all in the middle of the card, with a bunch of old guys and rookies and occasionally a spare tag team member. Aside from the Battle Royals, one tag match came in the second spot on a card. Every single other match – 144 singles matches and 3 tag matches – came in the opening spot on the card. These are not, at first glance, very significant matches. Only half the audience is seated. If we consider his opponents, this feeling is only solidified: they are either against rookies (Yoshinari Ogawa at the start of the year, Tatsumi Kakihara, Tsuyoshi Kikuchi, and recent debutant Kenta Kobashi for a short series) or the smaller “old men” of the company (Masanobu Kurisu, Haruka Eigen, Isamu Teranishi). This had really been the story of his career thus far. Aside from a rookie year win against a certain Tatsumi Fujinami in JWA, his native record of success over its first 19 years consisted of a period of winning midcard Battle Royals and going 2-2 in the Lou Thesz Cup. There are some curiosities from his excursions – as “Rikidozan” in EMLL in 1974, he got his only title shot up to 1989 for the NWA World Welterweight Title against Mano Negra; in Amarillo in 1975 he wrestled El Santo (!) in a tag match – but you would be forgiven for thinking that this guy really was a lot of crap and was kept around for name value. This is to misunderstand the work he did in those opening matches. The veteran in a curtain-jerking rookie match has a position of trust – he’s giving a young guy, who maybe started training 9 months ago if he’s debuting, the opportunity to test out all those skills for real in front of a crowd. Is it a full, hot Budokan? No, and that’s all to the good; but the match also needs to be digestible enough for the audience finding their seats to settle in with. It’s a match there to prepare everyone for the serious business ahead, and it’s a vital training opportunity. This is a role Momota excelled at. Perhaps we should start, though, by considering the earliest of his work know to us, from 1978. At this point he was already a professional curtain-jerker, mostly wrestling in the 1 or 2 slots on the card against Baba’s Three Crows (Onita, Fuchi, and Sonoda) and relative peers Munenori Higo, Masao Ito, and Mr Hayashi. He also wrestled Kintaro Oki’s brother several times in the same slot. However, at this point he also sometimes got to wrestle higher up the card – if a foreigner needed a jobber. In 1978, he fulfilled this role five times: once each to Don Kent, Don Kernodle, and Dos Caras, and twice to El Halcon (later Halcon Ortiz). It is via a Halcon match that we have our first TV footage of Momota – and the only such footage for a decade, as far as I can tell. We have this so All Japan could show us one of their guest lucha stars. We have our first footage of the two most famous “Crows” – Onita and Fuchi – for the same reason in the same year, with Onita also wrestling Halcon and Fuchi working Dos Caras. We get three and a half minutes of Momota, and it’s really nothing special – the work itself is just a little slow and sloppy, we JIP into decent matwork and then move into a finishing run that is really nothing stellar, and the finish is an awkward but still interesting enough Crucifix Backslide after Momota avoids what looks like a Piledriver attempt. If this were all that existed of Momota’s work, you’d have to withhold your judgement – but your hopes would not be high. However, there are two moments even here which are visions of the future, and they’re both character moments. First, Momota protests to the ref after Halcon balling his fists, and looks genuinely affronted, that hangdog face and droopy moustache of his as ever being some of the most communicative gear in the business. Second, he briefly drives Halcon from the ring and then prepares to make the Suicida Run, but Halcon is out of position and Momota pulls up. The crowd laughs. This will be a stock bit in his comedy work through the 90s and 00s, and is an important tease and then reversal in his last serious title challenge, against Liger. He has a beautiful Somersault Suicida, but even in 1978 his inability to hit it is a gag. He’s over, we see; there is a natural engagement with his bits. The match itself isn’t much, but it’s interesting historically. Ten years on, Momota is an old man (He turned 40 in September! Virtually dead!). It’s at this point we start to get a mix of fancams and actual footage of the curtain-jerking matches. Japanese fancam is a massive blessing, because you have people making them even back in the ‘70s – early adoption has its bonus side effects. Our problem before 1988 is that of course All Japan weren’t shopping 2 minute clips to NTV of Momota against no-names like Toshiaki Kawada (who he?) and Kensuke Sasaki (sounds like the name of a man who would marry a noted psychopath). But in 1988, we get a fancam of a show opened by Momota facing off against Tatsumi Kakihara. Imagine you had never seen – well, either of these guys. You get told this is the show opener. You’re going to conclude: “This promotion must be great, because this random opener is…good?!” They have 7 minutes, and they open with a nice little section of what I call “AJPW lucharesu”. [Connected tangent: People are so used to All Japan in the ‘90s – the bombs, the superheroics, the long crazy finishing sequences – that the way in which first amateur wrestling and NWA-style matwork and then lucha libre influenced All Japan in the ‘70s and ‘80s. Momota, Onita, and Misawa all excursioned in Mexico, and the luchadors led by Mil Mascaras – and including legends such as Dr Wagner (Sr), La Fiera, Dos Caras, and Pirata Morgan – were a major fact on the cards into the late ‘80s. It was against Mascaras that Jumbo fought “The Battle of the Idols” in 1977, which along with Jumbo’s series against Billy Robinson and his work against Harley Race in the same year are both really foundational for Future Ace Jumbo and a real sliding doors moment: what if the crowds had still wanted this work by the mid ‘80s? What does the final form of this hybrid look like? Anyway, the point here is that you will see lucha-styled groundwork throughout the ‘80s, especially amongst the Juniors. This influence flows forwards for decades, too, through the influence of Yoshinari Ogawa as chief matwork trainer in AJPW and NOAH.] Momota gives Kakihara a lot – here he is working from underneath, giving the rookie a chance to hit stuff and practice leading heat segments. The highlight is surely when Momota steals Samoa Joe’s bit 12 years early, and Nopes out of a Kakihara moonsault attempt – only for Kakihara to spot him, and hit him with a dropkick instead! Momota, again, is working crowd-pleasing comedy segments – and that’s especially suitable for this sort of warm-up. Momota gets the win in a way matching the character work: he catches Kakihara with a backslide when the rookie overextends. Mark that backslide down for the future. These rookie matches are as much about giving the young guys the opportunity to work different parts of a match in a low-pressure but still “real” situation, and in 1990 we get a really helpful little fancam duology of Momota rookie matches, with the curtain-jerker facing off over two nights against Tsuyoshi Kikuchi. Kikuchi is about to ascend the ranks; by the end of the year, he’ll be in the upper-midcard and Super Generation Army for a brief but coruscating run as a rising star. On the first night, Momota works from underneath. Momota is a natural underdog; it’s his size, it’s his look. He’s sympathetic, and it’s not just the All Japan/NOAH crowd that loves him – a New Japan crowd will roar him on against Liger. His background, his dad, only work into this: he’s not sympathetic because of that fact, but the contrast between his heritage on the other and his stature and his levels of success on the other only add to his babyface heat. He’s also, obviously, a humble and dedicated worker – yes, he’ll job to some random Mexican dude (albeit one he’d wrestled in Mexico); yes, he’ll open the show 150 times a year; yes, he’ll let a rookie dominate him for a match so the youngster can learn, and yes, he’ll eventually let that rookie surpass him and go up the rankings past him. So we learn that working from underneath – against Kakihara, against Kikuchi, against other bigger names later – is Momota’s specialism. He can win, though, because he’s canny, he’s an expert matworker, he has a variety of tricks. He can’t outpower anyone, but he can outthink them. The next night against Kikuchi, though, he works on top. This match isn’t as good as the Kakihara match, perhaps because Momota just can’t pour as much heat on Kikuchi as, say, Fuchi will be able to. But what we do get is Momota giving Kikuchi a chance to shine; these matches aren’t about Momota, they’re about the men who are going to carry the company forward in the future. Kikuchi gets to work nearly 10 minutes of” “AJPW lucharesu” counters and some really beautiful escapes, whilst Momota carefully works the arm and then takes advantage of his experience and momentum to hit his Jumping DDT for the win. I actually don’t know of any Momota-rookie footage for over a decade from this point. This is at least in part because he doesn’t work anywhere near as much rookie stuff; he actually technically goes up the card in the ‘90s, the decade in which he will hit 50. In 1998, to give a demonstrative example, he works one singles match total, a New Year’s curtain-jerker against Satoru Asako, and then works a mid-card Battle Royal on the next date. After that, he only works comedy tags the whole year. In NOAH, though, his duties change. He still works comedy matches – he’s ever more central to this strand of work – and in some years this will be dominant. But in, say, 2004, he works 41 singles matches in NOAH plus 1 in NJPW. Many of those are against Eigen and Kikuchi, the two other “older juniors”. These are still in match slots 1 and 2, and they’re really all comedy matches, especially against Eigen. 6 matches, however, are losses to other undercarders, usually in the opening slot. None of these are “rookie matches” – the most junior man is Makoto Hashi, who debuted 6 years before. However, they are fulfilling many of the same functions as the earlier rookie matches, and in other years Momota will work more traditional rookie pieces. So back to that 30th Anniversary Match against the confusingly-named Kenta Kobayashi in 2000. We’ve put this into better context now, I think. This is the anniversary match Momota wanted: giving a young guy a chance to show his stuff and develop his craft. This is the first thing the audience get as they sit down – the emblem of their tradition of wrestling against the future of it. It’s hand-over-hand, generation-to-generation. The match against the future KENTA is a nice little thing. It’d be better if it were complete! The clip is enforced on us by this being from a TV cut, though perhaps one day G+ will do us the honour of releasing it complete. What we have shows both to advantage, without being any sort of all-timer. Young Kobayashi gets to fly around, and hits a flying cross body for the ages, and he gets to kick out of the DDT and Backdrop Suplex. He only debuted this year; he is being put over hardway. Of course, Momota is still too much for him at this stage, and a big Powerbomb does the job. But they will meet again in a few years, in different circumstances. A footnote to this is one of his 2005 losses to a “senior undercarder” which aired on TV (there is at least one more in this whole period, against Trevor Rhodes, which I haven’t seen). It’s against Kishin Kawabata (who he also wrestled once in 2004), and I’m afraid Kawabata was never good. Oddly, they work this exactly like a rookie match – the length, the slot, the way that they transition and work holds. Momota works some comedy spots, just like he did in 1978 and in 1988. This is, honestly, poor – but I confidently blame Kawabata, because Momota is putting on Four Star work in this period in his late 50s, whilst Kawabata never did that at any point in his career. The rookie match will always struggle to be great. The rookie is limited by their experience, and both men have a format to work to – the most impressive feats of strength are not performed in the gym, after all, even though the reps you put in at the gym allow the big lifts. Rookie matches are about repetition under light pressure. Momota still manages to get results in this format, from the tragically small sample we have. One imagines him geeing up young Kawada – Kawada reports that the only person to come and see him after his return from a dreadful excursion was Mitsuo’s brother Yoshihiro, and you generally hear just excellent things about the Momota brothers. But what we have does show a reliable pattern, even in fragments like the El Halcon match or squibs like the one against Kawabata: Momota is technically adroit, he’s funny and helps be a bit of a teacosy to the settling crowd who knows and loves him, he gives his opponent a lot, and he lets rookies shine. If this was all we knew about him, he’d be better than 4.71/10. Thankfully, we know a lot more. Full matchguide and links at Undercard Wonders.

This is such a good point, and not just about Kobashi. You get a lot of dismissal over people worrying about the industry being exposed or whatever, but it is simply not a coincidence that, outside of a few very popular NJPW/AEW darlings who dominate the CageMatch match rankings, people buy into and love older ereas best. The High Irony era of pro-wrestling doesn't serve it best, I think, and will not age very well. Sincere, hard-working guys who wanted to put across these great matches as if they were serious theatre will always have a legacy.

Kyushu Pro Super Genki Festival ~ 17th Anniversary 27/04/2025 The biggest show of the year so far, in Fukuoka City’s Fukuoka West Japan General Exhibition Hall’s New Hall. Declared attendance of 2,576. This is a pretty big show by modern standards. All Japan’s Champion Carnival 2025 opener at the Korakuen (9th April) drew 1,105, and their biggest show of the year so far was their 24th February date in Hachioji, with an attendance of 1,870; KPW has two bigger than that. NOAH had a big Budokan date on New Year’s, with over 5,000 in attendance; they get around 1,500 in the Korakuen, and hit 1,605 at Yokohama. I say this to make the point that KPW, partly due to its business model, can get big, hot crowds in a difficult market for puro. The hall is dark, and we have a full entrance ramp, some light pyro, and a “big event” feel. I actually secretly prefer the brightly-lit gyms and mall display areas – the personal nature of those crowds adds a lot. But this works in its own way too. Mentai Kid vs Ryota Chikuzen This was the match set up when Mentai announced his retirement. Chikuzen is the founder of the company, and he recruited Mentai to come join at the start (and become Mentai Kid, indeed – an avatar of Kyushu’s famous spicy fish roe paste!). This is a match marking the end of the era, even though it’s not Mentai’s retirement match. It’s a pleasant enough match – it’s nice to see Chikuzen wrestle, as I’ve not before, and he works the spots here he needs to well – he bullies Mentai, puts heat on him, hits a bunch of decent-looking moves, and then eats two 450s for Mentai’s win. It’s fluffy and throwaway, and the real juice here is the emotion between these two very old friends, and the enormous Mentai entrance – he goes round collecting every Mentaiko garland (yes, really) that the kids (and adults) are offering him, and bumps fists with everyone who wants to. His entrance takes ten minutes. This is time actually worth spending, unlike most Big Company Long Entrances. He’s beloved; you see it in the teenagers coming over, who I suspect have been watching him their whole lives now. Mentai Kid defeats Ryota Chikuzen in 9:30. Genkai & Georges Khoukaz & Jet Wei vs Gabai Ji-chan & Hitamaru Sasaki & Shigeno Shima This is the ordinary six-man comedy warmup, but with the ordinary sorts of twists: one of the guests is in the match (Georges Khoukaz, originally from Syria, now works Euro indies) and there is one of the occasional guest gimmicks (Gabai Ji-chan, who usually works as PSYCHO). This is a solid iteration at the lower tier of these. The appeal is that Khoukaz is a big guy (6’5”) and Gabai Ji-chan wears an old man mask and walks with a stick but then halfway through goes full Gandalf-at-Meduseld and hits a bunch of flying moves. This all works fine, though I suppose I want Gabai Ji-chan to be literally the best high-flyer ever to really make that sing. He’s solid, and his old man comedy is solid, too. At the end, after the heels win by pinning Shima (who has obviously come here as an old guy at the end of his career to help prop up the roster by eating pins), Sasaki goes to talk to Genkai, and it’s obviously communicated that he wants to team up to go after a belt – presumably the tag belts? It’s a respect moment, and simple solid communication to the crowd who will know the language. Genkai & Georges Khoukaz & Jet Wei defeat Gabai Ji-chan & Hitamaru Sasaki & Shigeno Shima in 12:31. Batten Blabla vs Dump Matsumoto Batten is a really good worker in ways that get ignored. I mean, he’s a good gag worker – the gimmick here is that, well, he’s Chigusa Nagayo circa 1985. He wears a leotard like hers, he changes his Finishing Move Chant to “Nagayo! Asuka! DUMP MATSUMOTO!”, he comes out in a beautiful and oversized robe, etc. The match is functionally a hair match with Dump wanting to cut it (and succeeding). But what is cleverer is a layout which lets the incredibly limited Dump to be fun and have fun and have the audience enjoy the show. One thing is not much to do with Batten, though he uses it – Dump has a second, Zap, who comes along and stooges for her. This means Batten can hit more moves, basically, which aren’t on a waddling lady in her sixties. Batten, though, manages to work his extreme cowardice and frailty well into making the ladies look threatening – of course the younger one can beat him up, he’s Batten! He bumps around, he invests everything with amazing energy, he hits his own moves with signature crispness. This is fun! Dump Matsumoto defeats Batten Blabla in 4:33. Asosan & Naoki Sakurajima © vs TAJIRI & SHIHO (Kyushu Pro Tag Title match) TAJIRI and SHIHO come out accompanied by Poison Rose, an American who works in Shiho’s Pro Wrestling Society promotion in South Korea (where he’s legitimately reviving wrestling!). Shiho wanted a tag title match with his pseudo-dad Tajiri, and here it is. It’s actually not great – and not because we get long Asosan vs Tajiri sections, which I have the suspicion would be dreadful at this point. Two men with one knee and three quarters of a cardio capacity between them are not best suited for long exchanges. The problem is actually that we rely on the most obvious heel heat, permitted by Idiot Ref Syndrome, to actually move the match. Shiho can fly around and Sakurajima is a legitimate worker, but the best stuff here are a few comedy spots and, in a mixed sense, the poison mist ending. Sakurajima blocks Tajiri’s spray – it’s how the heels won in the six-man in March – but turns into Poison Rose’s spray instead. Now, actually, the obviousness of the mist should be an auto-DQ – why are their mouths so green?! But it’s at least a nicely executed spot. This should have been better. SHIHO & TAJIRI defeat Asosan & Naoki Sakurajima in 11:05. Shuji Ishikawa © vs Kodai Nozaki (Kyushu Pro Title match) Nozaki’s rematch after the 24/02 loss of the big title. I don’t think it’s quite as good as that, but it is good. Ishikawa is an older guy and Nozaki is a bigger guy and they work round this through selected static spots, a few brawling exchanges outside, and big exchanges of bombs and strikes. We can see Nozaki has begun to learn his lesson after the loss; there’s a story here, and he’s facing a truly fearsome opponent, a former Triple Crown champion. He got his Spear blocked last time and messed up going up to, but this time he’s a bit savvier at a few key moments. But what’s bold and clever is that this isn’t enough – he gets a massive Brainbuster on Ishikawa, he counters at key moments including remembering to actually smack Ishikawa around more before going up top for the second-rope Superplex (Midiplex?), and so forth. He’s learning, but in the end Ishikawa is too strong and just too experienced. Nozaki’s advantage is power with a bit of speed, and Ishikawa is just better at that, and though it takes two Running Knees, it’s a retention for the champ. Ishikawa does give Nozaki a respectful speech after, though. Hitamaru Sasaki comes out, encouraged by Batten Blabla – who politely refuses Ishikawa’s renewed offer of a challenge. Sasaki obviously wanted this at the 20/04 event, and here steps up. He also may want the tag belts, as mentioned before – not clear to me. He’s tiny compared to the giant Ishikawa, but on the other hand he can kick very hard. That’ll be fun if, I think, predictable. Nozaki needs to go away and learn before coming back to cement his position. I wonder if he’ll do some work in the tag division and go after TAJIRI and SHIHO now – but with who? Jet Wei would maybe be a good match – smaller, faster, flying, and also young. Good balance, and a good way to elevate both homegrown talents. Shuji Ishikawa defeats Kodai Nozaki in 22:19. Event Review This was a big show, and that was quite fun, and it had a few big highlights. It’s a mixed bag, it should be said; Mentai gets a historically resonant singles match which is solid but just playing the hits, the six-man is an adequate iteration but nothing special, Batten has another Batten Banger which a lot of people won’t like but they’re wrong, the tag title match is disappointing, and the main event is strong. Not all of this was inevitable: the tag title match should have run a better structure round the two better workers, even though it was always likely to be booked to a cheating heel win; the six-man runs long compared to other, stronger iterations. Nonetheless, albeit with a strong apportionment of guests (4) and part-timers (2), this manages to be a mid-length show with a real variety of stuff on display and two legitimately good matches of totally opposite style. We have some very short-term booking out of this – Mentai vs Genkai for the retirement match – but the mid-term scene is more interesting to consider. Sasaki isn’t the highest-ranked senior in the company – he doesn’t wrestle loads of singles and he’s clearly below Genkai and Asosan in terms of protection – but he’s liked by the crowd, he can work, and if he works two challenges in the near future that’s for the product’s good. Nozaki has a mountain to climb. He comes closer to beating Ishikawa this time, but there is obviously a journey here – guest spots elsewhere, maybe some interesting freelance hire-in for him to beat in-house. As I say, though, a tag run seems most obvious as the backbone of an ascent of the mountain, combined with, I suppose, beating Genkai and some other outsiders. Kyushu Pro Nakagawa City Athletics Association 50th Anniversary Project ~ Nakagawa Ba Genki Ni Suru Bai! 29/04/2025 This hasn’t been streamed. This was held at the Nakagawa City Gymnasium in Fukuoka Prefecture for 668 attendees. It’s a “small to mid”-sized show, with ten workers on the night. It looks in most respects like a normal tour date – size of show, location, event title – but it’s also an anniversary show for the City’s Athletics Association, which may have been a funder here. Hitamaru Sasaki vs Jet Wei A chance for Sasaki and Jet to work some singles, and for Sasaki to build his singles standing in the company for his planned challenges. Not a surprising result, and a shame it wasn’t streamed – this was probably good. Hitamaru Sasaki defeats Jet Wei in 13:55. Asosan vs Batten Blabla I was worried about a triple threat with these two and Shima, but actually this one probably worked better, despite it looking a bit long given Asosan’s cardio. Basically, Batten can work a lot of time on his own, and he’s the perfect foil for a big slow guy. Asosan defeats Batten Blabla in 8:40. Genkai & Georges Khoukaz & TAJIRI vs Kodai Nozaki & Mentai Kid & Naoki Sakurajima An interesting matchup with five guys who can still work to decent degrees, plus TAJIRI who works well in six-mans. Nozaki will want blood, and this is a chance for smashing face with Genkai and Khoukaz. Sakurajima and TAJIRI have unfinished business. Mentai is on the retirement tour. I don’t know who got the pin here, but surely Khoukaz ate it, and probably in favour of Mentai (but maybe Nozaki). Kodai Nozaki & Mentai Kid & Naoki Sakurajima defeat Genkai & Georges Khoukaz & TAJIRI in 15:01. Mentai Kid at Dontaku 2025! So I only saw rather late in the day, via Kyushu Pro’s social media, that six Kyushu Pro wrestlers were “invading” NJPW’s Dontaku 2025, Day 2 (May 4th, 2025). Dontaku is an massive NJ event held annually in Fukuoka, but until now they hadn’t partnered with KPW as far as I can see. Batten Blabla, Ryota Chikuzen, Jet Wei, Hitamaru Sasaki, TAJIRI, and Mentai starred across two tags and a ten-man. Batten and Mentai teamed up in what I think was the first commentated match of Day 2. It’s interesting how the English commentators (Thingummy who sounds like Todd Kalas and Chris Charlton in this case) handle them. They get that Batten is a comedy gimmick but go and back and forth on being audibly puzzled against trying to get over his gimmick. The crowd love it, naturally. Mentai is “the local hero”, they mention his retirement – and plug his retirement match a couple of times – and they frame him as a Junior but not, uh, going to appear in BOSJ this year. (Due to retiring.) They’re under instructions to get across the collab with the local charity promotion, but it did seem to me that this wasn’t really something they were here to see, respectful as they were of Mentai. Batten Blabla & Mentai Kid vs Gedo & Taiji Ishimori This is short and sweet, and a strong warmup act. Batten is obviously wrestling comedy here, and the crowd love it, and I love it. He’s doing his pathetic judo chops/slaps to keep Gedo down for his fist drop, he fingerlocks Gedo into his patented “NO!” sign, and the rest. It’s glorious, and he’s doing it in front of 5,500 people on a show headlined by the title Inoki invented. Mentai gets to run two segments where he looks great in this, his first and only New Japan match. Imagine turning up at 47 with a week til retirement and hitting a Jumping Double Back Elbow on the War Dogs? 619ing a guy in front of the biggest crowd of your life? (…after Batten stinkfingers him lol) It’s a deserved honour, and though he’s not the seniormost KPW guy on the night – Chikuzen and TAJIRI are further up the card and get to win – he’s the star for six minutes. Of course the regulars get the win with Ishimori getting a Clutch pin on Batten, but that’s not the story here. Gedo & Taiji Ishimori defeat Batten Blabla & Mentai Kid in 6:01. Full matchguide and links at Undercard Wonders