KB8

Sloppy, reckless, violent, wonderful little mess. I don't know if Okamura had even offered to shake Kurisu's hand at the start or not but Kurisu just marched up to him and slapped the boy across the face. Okamura can't have been wrestling long at this point. He's green as goose shit but it adds to the chaos as he's just letting loose with wild spin kicks and axe kicks and landing all awkwardly on everything. Kurisu murders him severely. Once or twice it looked like Okamura caught him flush in the face with a high kick, but no, Kurisu wasn't interested and headbutted him repeatedly in the ear. There can't have been many things more hellish to be on the receiving end of than Kurisu's stomps. Fucking hell he was trying to give this kid brain damage. FUTEN stomps to the back of the head, stomps to the ear, the face, the throat, back of the neck. It didn't matter how Okamura tried to cover up, he was getting stood on and it was going to suck. The half crab at the end was about as nasty as you'll see as Kurisu applied it with zero regard for the angle Okamura's knee. Either he's turning onto his front or his ACL will never be the same again.

This is almost word for word where I'm at with Bryan, though I'd probably go Danielson/Nigel from 6th Anniversary as his best match. What would be your answer to the question of the poll? Most likely 'Yes.' I mean, I don't think Misawa/Kobashi/Kawada had a match three years into their career as good as Danielson/Ki's tapout match in JAPW, or a performance as good as Danielson's in that match (though one of the Kobashi/Hansen matches might've been close). There's obviously more to this than being good young, but yeah, I guess in terms of talent I'd say he's there with those three.

This is almost word for word where I'm at with Bryan, though I'd probably go Danielson/Nigel from 6th Anniversary as his best match.

Boss Loss is about to be a new thing for sure.

Yeah, poor man's Vader/Tamura is pretty apt. Poor man's Vader/Tamura still has a bit to live up to though and I thought it was a pretty damn cool seven minutes of shoot style. I don't think I've seen Ito before but he had some cool throws and those powerbombs mean enough that you could buy a TKO. Yamada threw a couple brutal wheel kicks and hung in there pretty well for a guy getting dropped on his neck eight times.

Truly awesome, unique match. The first time I watched it I thought it was about as close to RINGS as I'd ever seen in the US, but this time I thought it was equally derivative of Battlarts (whether it was intentional or not). It's a mash-up of the two and it sort of invites you to run wild with the comparisons. An American juniors version of Ishikawa v Ikeda with Dragon as Ishikawa and Ki as Ikeda? Danielson as Otsuka and Ki as Usuda? Sure, why not. Danielson was incredible in it and I think it's my all-time favourite performance of his. Some of the grappling might legitimately be the best I've ever seen in America; slick and fluid in parts then rugged and gritty in others. It was like Volk Han if Volk Han ever worked Battlarts, and I realise how preposterously hyperbolic that sounds but it's a pretty good indication of where I was at with Dragon here. Those crossface forearms were filthy as all get out and he was determined to take an arm or leg home with him as a trophy. There is absolutely no chance he'll get to stretch out and do anything like this now that WWE's cleared him to wrestle again, but I really wish it was the approach he took more often. Ditch the headbutts and crazy bumps, just twist people into pretzels. It's not like anybody in WWE hits like Low-Ki either, so he could probably manage to parley this sort of match into another five years' worth of work without having to worry about cauliflowering his brain. Ki wasn't simply a passenger in this, he held his own on the mat and his striking was obviously good, but it was hard not to look second best on the night. To say he was a poor man's Ikeda isn't an insult. Maybe he was actually a poor man's Takeshi Ono and that's not an insult either. But Danielson was the richest poor man's Ishikawa you could've asked for.

Title match Jerry Estrada is such a different animal from apuestas Jerry Estrada. It's sort of strange watching him run the ropes and not fall over because he's guttered. Maybe he goes on a detox in the lead up to a title match. Depending on the day you ask me he might be one of my ten favourite wrestlers ever so to me this match will always be about him, but I really did think he was excellent in it. Rudo starting out sportingly before losing his cool and embracing his true nature isn't a particularly complex or uncommon story for a wrestler to tell. Ric Flair stopped by every territory to wrestle every young babyface challenger there was and told that very story a hundred times. But it's not one I'd seen Jerry Estrada tell before. The primera doesn't have the sharpest or most interesting matwork. It certainly isn't flashy, but I enjoyed the struggle well enough. What it was most notable for was how Lizmark had the clear beating of Estrada. It didn't much matter what Jerry did, Lizmark was the champion for a reason and he had an answer for everything. I thought the segunda was a little abrupt even by the standards of short second falls in a lucha title match, but it did give us that moment where Estrada decided he was done playing nice. He started the match with a handshake and a round of applause for the champ, but it got him nowhere. His reaction after Lizmarkk submitted to the Media Cerrajera basically told you there'll be less respect and more aggression going forward. He even ditched the hairband, and if that's not a sign of what was to come then I don't know what is. The third caida was where they really ramped up the drama. Jerry had dropped the pretense of sportsmanship and roughed Lizmark up, much like Flair might have after he'd tired of breaking clean and started digging people in the ribs instead. He also knew the Media Cerrajera was his ticket and he kept going back to it. Both of the big dives looked great and by the end they'd managed to capture that sense that one mistake was all the other guy needed. And in the post-match, unlike Flair, Estrada even managed to show a little grace. Maybe he's not such a scumbag after all.

Well that is just tremendous news. I'll definitely need to hunt that down. EDIT: even better, it's on the yearbook.

What a delicious wee slice of indy sleaze. This had all the potato shots and grimy nastiness you want in an eight minute Kurisu/Tarzan Goto match. I remember reading the old DVDVRs and they'd refer to Goto as Tarzan Scroto and I guess I convinced myself he must be shit because he's a little fat guy working a deathmatch fed. Thankfully common sense has prevailed and general opinion on Goto has since improved. I mean he is a little fat guy working a deathmatch fed, but he's an awesome little fat guy working a deathmatch fed and at this point in my life as a fan I'd much rather watch him than most of the junior heavyweights I was hunting down tapes of back then. His ribs are all taped up in this and approximately thirty seconds into the match Kurisu leathers him repeatedly with a chair. Right across the ribs and midsection, just over and over. He took a quick break from hitting him with a chair so he could punch him in the kidneys and punt him in the side, then went and grabbed another chair and hit him with it a bunch more. Goto was super vocal with the selling and it was pretty great, trying to lift Kurisu for a slam before buckling over in pain, yelling in even greater pain as Kurisu headbutted his spleen and dug his elbow into the ribs. I loved all of the Kurisu offence as it was as simple and primal as you could get, and of course it was almost unnecessarily stiff. Why bother trying to get fancy? The guy has taped up ribs for a reason, just kick him and grind your fist into the general area. At some point they both start staring each other down while trading coconut headbutts. Headbutts to the ear, to the cheekbone, forehead to forehead like two bowling balls colliding. After the match Kurisu is either presented with a giant trophy or maybe steals one from somewhere and cracks it over Onita's head, which leads to Onita cutting one of his weepy promos about betrayal or whatever. I'm assuming it sets up a match and I'm assuming I'll want to watch it.

This was like 85% Bulldogs. You maybe expect them to run riot over Fuyuki, but Tenryu gave them a ton as well and that meant he never really got to stretch out on offence. When he did fire back he was pretty subdued. I don't think he threw any unnecessary chops to anybody's throat and nobody got kicked in the eye. Dynamite looked a little broken down at this point, but Davey's stuff mostly looked good and chucked Tenryu onto a table with a big gorilla press slam. The last five-six minutes took an interesting turn when Tenryu wound up with a split chin and the Bulldogs started working over the cut. It's a pretty unusual body part to work over, not like a cut on the forehead where you can bite and claw in obvious fashion, but Davey noticed it and went after it straight away. At one point he even started biting Tenryu's chin which was pretty awesome. Finish didn't come off too great as there was a bit of miscommunication, but Fuyuki bridging Davey Boy for about eight hours after hitting the German was sort of impressive.

Man this was awesome. Shibata is someone I love in the right setting and roll my eyes at when he indulges his New Japan main event side, but this was was almost exclusively what I like about him condensed into thirteen minutes. Sakuraba is in his mid-40s and looks it, graying at the sides, his scraggly facial hair and his J League superfan ring gear. Shibata kicks lumps out of him and there's a great bit where he's doing his running corner dropkicks as Sakuraba just lays hunched up like a man who's forgotten why he's still doing this. He can't strike with Shibata, he'll lose that battle every day, so he has to dig into his bag and use everything that made him the Gracie Hunter. I loved all of his quick throws and submissions, going for kneebars to set up armbars to set up chokes like a man younger than his years. At points he was literally crawling all over Shibata, tying up his legs and his arms at the same time forcing to Shibata to grab the ropes with his teeth. My favourite was the fight for the cross armbreaker that he managed to turn into a choke with his fucking ankles. Some of Shibata's selling was unbelievable, especially while in the chokes, and I about lost it when his eyes started rolling back like he was about drop (crowd picked up on it and popped huge too). Shibata getting back into it with the strikes was probably inevitable, but I thought it was great how he went to the choke to wear Sakuraba out for the penalty kick, knowing that it didn't work going for it off the bat earlier. I loved this.

I feel like I should watch more Real Japan from 2010. I've only seen a handful of RJ matches from that year but they were mostly fun, and Tenryu/Sayama was fucking awesome. 2010 FUTEN was about as strong a year as there's been this decade, though. IWRG was really damn good in 2010 as well, but I thought FUTEN was so good that the second place promotion would be a fair bit behind. Figured ARSION might've gotten a bit of love. No CMLL in 1990 is probably where I'd disagree most. Having gone through most of the TV for it out there, it's definitely one of the strongest years any promotion had in the 90s.

Sensational five minutes of pandemonium. Shibata is basically the prototype for your chest-puffed, dick-swinging tough guy and Tenryu is an old man who doesn't have time for his shit. Tenryu has no interest in bragging about how hard he can hit someone, his interest lies in the hitting itself. The opening exchange was truly wonderful and ended with maybe the best double punch spot I've ever seen, followed by Shibata grabbing a guillotine and refusing to let go. It pretty soon spills to the floor and Shibata is such a smug prick beating on this pensioner, kicking him up and down the place, throwing him into ring posts, even threatening him with a bottle until the ref' talks him down. Of course this just sends Tenryu off on one and he cannot be talked down. The old man is pissed and about ready to glass someone. Shibata just keeps pushing it, though. Slaps Tenryu, punches him in the face, goads him because he thinks Tenryu won't use the bottle. Tenryu punches him back, but he still won't drop that bottle and the ref' is pleading with him because he obviously knows Tenryu better than Shibata does. I don't know if it was brinkmanship or blind stupidity. Maybe he thought riling Tenryu up was the easiest path to victory, but either way he cracked him once too often. Tenryu jabbing him in the throat with the bottle and smashing it over his head was about the greatest payoff to ninety seconds of build that there's ever been.

What an insanely fun five minutes. In a lot of ways it probably went how you thought it would. Nakano is clearly in way over his head, but he's a capable striker, has a submission game, and perhaps most importantly he's willing to engage in any slugfest you put in front of him. Tenryu is one of the most giving top guys in history and he usually manages to do it without compromising his status, so if nothing else you figure this would work stylistically. And I mean, obviously he'll slugfest with anyone. Tenryu's selling for Nakano's strikes was pretty amazing, how he'd get rocked and make those knockdowns feel important. Nakano probably never had a chance of actually winning, but Tenryu at least made it look like the miracle could happen. He'd hit back with the sumo slaps and I'm utterly astounded that Nakano's nose never exploded across his face for a change. I'm not sure who Tenryu started shit talking in the crowd - maybe Takada? - but whoever it was gave Nakano enough of an opening to kick Tenryu in the head some more. Tenryu scoring the win with leg kicks and a half crab was a pretty great fuck you to them UWF boys, too.

Yeah, I don't think anybody's ever likely to argue that Savage/Steamboat was the money match on that card. The tag matches that really stood out for me when Grimmas was doing his Bret Hart project (and I was following along) were the Islanders matches. Face Islanders vs heel Hart Foundation was good stuff. Man, I love Islanders/Hart Foundation. The 11/86 match from Maple Leaf Gardens is a personal favourite of mine and I basically watch it once a year at this point. I know there are other matches between them out there (the Philly Spectrum match gets a decent amount of time too, I think), yet for some reason I haven't checked any of them out. Heel Islanders v babyface Rockers is a total dream match for me and I'm gutted that it never happened. The Islanders were awesome.

This is about as close to a joshi Ikeda/Ishikawa as you'll get, with the added wrinkle of the submission/KO only stip. It had Hotta playing crowbar Ikeda and Kandori playing tough as shoe leather Ishikawa; not quite pure sriker v pure grappler, but you knew what each woman's bread and butter was. They put across the uncooperative grittiness straight away with the rough scramble that lands them on the floor, then Hotta ratchets the violence all the way up by punting Kandori clean in the face. Many outrageous kicks to the face were thrown in this match and Hotta was responsible for basically every one of them. She also tried to break Kandori's guard by headbutting her a bunch of times and this led to her own forehead being split open. Kandori's selling was really tremendous at times, particularly when she was trying to beat the ten count after one of Hotta's kicks to the head or face or ear. She'd also yank Hotta into chokes and armbars, then reach that point where she got fed up being cracked in the face so she'd start throwing headbutts and palm thrusts in return. My favourite moment of the match might've been when she was repeatedly headbutting Hotta and her bleach blond hair wound up covered in Hotta's blood, which left her looking like Flair after he's had his face ground into a cage. Finish was pretty great as well. Hotta hits a mean high angle powerbomb, and maybe she's disoriented from the blood loss or whatever, but he tries to transition straight into a pin. Ref' tells her no, after a few seconds she comprehends, but Kandori snatches her and locks in a triangle for the stoppage. A supremely violent twelve minutes and a great find.

This was alright, though more like your red hot New Japan juniors fare than what you'd typically associate with Battlarts. Still, red hot is red hot and it had excellent heat. You'd think they'd hit a point of diminishing returns with the nearfalls considering literally every pin attempt from word one was a 2.999 count, but the crowd didn't seem to peak early. Tajiri was rolling out all sorts of lucha submissions like a nippy little Blue Panther and you're reminded that he worked Mexico for a minute there. I don't love Tanaka, but he's crisp and his stuff looks good so...that's a thing, I guess.

Yeah, I actually read something about Beaver being injured in that match. I feel like I should check out some Rougeaus babyface stuff from around this period. I remember nothing about their Wrestlemania match now, but they've gotten to bust out a bunch of cool offence on a couple other shows I've checked out. I should probably watch the Hart Foundation match(es).

I may finally create a Facebook account to participate in this.

I watched Wrestlemania 3 over the last few days. It wasn't an amazing show from a match quality standpoint, but I didn't think anything outright sucked (probably because the stuff that might've sucked was kept short), the guys you'd expect to look good looked good, and it had an all-timer of an IC title match. Plus I think it maybe did okay at the box office. Can-Am Express v Bob Orton & Don Muraco - Nice fun little opener. With more of a heat segment this could've been what the hipsters call "a ***1/4 affair," but as is we got plenty of neat babyface shine. The Can-Ams mostly work the arm with arm-wringers, a few quick tags and your hiptoss/armdrag takedowns. Orton thinks he's shaken Zenk, but Zenk keeps hold of the arm and drags him back to the mat face-first. The double monkey flip was cool, Orton's bump over the top looked good, and I liked the finish with Martel hitting the crossbody as Zenk crouches behind Muraco for the schoolboy trip. Doesn't top Rockers v Haku/Barbarian for under the radar Wrestlemania tag openers, but I wouldn't be surprised if it ended up being one of the three best matches on the show. Hercules v Billy Jack Haynes - Herc's HGH gut is wild. It's not quite at that point where it's super distended and blocky, but he is absolutely juiced to the gills and somehow makes Billy Jack look natural in comparison. This wasn't great or anything, but I expected it to be a bag of shit and it wasn't that either so...happy days? Hercules absolutely slabbered Haynes with a clothesline early and that set up a spell of back work, which Haynes sold pretty well for a minute there. He was hunched over and it gave him so much bother he couldn't even suplex Herc. Herc wasn't amazing on offence or anything, but he did hit one big vertical suplex that he really threw himself into, almost turning it into a brainbuster. The post-match beatdown was a touch nastier than I remembered and Billy Jack blading was something else I'd forgotten. You kind of grade these 7 minute matches between guys who aren't all that good on a curve, and for what it was I thought this was fine. King Kong Bundy, Little Tokyo & Lord Littlebrook v Hillbilly Jim, Haiti Kid & Little Beaver - Imagine being a midget wrestler. Yahoos like Hillbilly Jim picking you up like you're a literal child and condescendingly patting you on the head. You're either a goofy comedy act or a psychopath that bites people in the arse (Hornswoggle). Sometimes both (Hornswoggle). I'd have taken my shit to Mexico. That said, Little Beaver absolutely deserved to be squashed like a grape. If nothing else Bundy should be commended for treating him like an equal! What did he expect? You slap Bundy's keister and keep pushing his buttons you better believe he'll react. Raylan Givens said it best: "Y'all go poking the bear and it's his fault when you get bit." Harley Race v Junkyard Dog - King Harley and Queen Moolah. I could see Harley being an okay king. Hard but fair. Firm but not inflexible. Maybe not loved by the people, but in time I could see them coming to at least accept him. Moolah, though. Like Cersei Lannister with none of the good parts (...youthful exuberance?) and all of the worst dialed up to eleven. Call me a fool, but I thought this was pretty fun! Again, it only lasted a few minutes, but it was a highlight reel of old man Harley Race bumping. He faceplanted on a missed headbutt off the fucking apron to the floor, took an over the top rope bump where he hit his face on the apron, conked JYD with a falling headbutt that did more damage to himself (as a black man JYD has a four inch cranium, obviously), took his signature flip bump from the apron back in the ring, even gave us the slowest Flair Flip in the corner you've ever seen. He knew he had four minutes and he was going to make it count. I say this probably once a year, but I ought to do a mini-deep dive on Race. I'm pretty confident that his stuff in Japan does nothing for me at all, but his post-world champ run usually delivers the goods. Rougeau Brothers v Dream Team - I watched this three hours before writing about it and I didn't remember a thing that happened other than the Beefcake turn at the end. I actually forgot it even happened until I went to Wikipedia to check how long the next match lasted. The Rougeaus are a fun babyface unit, Valentine is great and Beefcake can be fine so I'll assume it was watchable, but that's honestly all I have. It was short. Things happened. Blanks must be filled. You can do it. Roddy Piper v Adrian Adonis - I've got a lot of time for Piper dropping Springsteen lines in his pre-match promo. "No retreat, baby, no surrender!" Tell'm, Hot Rod! I loved every second of this madness. The crowd are red hot for the whole thing and I loved Piper flinging Jimmy Hart all around the ring early on. He flung him into then onto then damn near through Adonis, whipped them both with a strap, people were going ballistic. Then Adonis took over and I'm a fan of him playing to the exotico gimmick by raking Piper's back and chest. Piper's punch drunk selling ruled and he managed to throw in his GOAT-level eye poke. Adonis and Hart celebrating prematurely after Goodnight Irene, Beefcake morphing into The Barber right before our very eyes (don't know why he was actually out there, don't really care), Adonis smashing himself in the face with a big fuck off pair of shears, the old carny trick of smacking a guy on the neck to wake him up from a sleeper hold, the post-match head shaving, Adonis audibly shouting "WHAT THE FUCK?!" when he sees his reaction in the mirror, I loved all of it. One of the most fun sub-ten minute spectacles in WWF history. British Bulldogs & Tito Santana v The Hart Foundation & Danny Davis - This was alright. Bret looked motivated to get his ten minutes on the card and took a couple big bumps, including his sternum-first turnbuckle bump. Dynamite also yanked him about five feet off the canvas by the hair and I always cringe when he does that. Danny Davis entered the match twice, threw two kicks, grinned, tagged back out, and got more heat than anyone all night. Davey Boy finally running rampant on him was sort of terrifying in one of those Steiner Brothers murdering enhancement talent ways. Perfectly solid six-man. Butch Reed v Koko B. Ware - This is an honest to god dream match of mine, but four minutes on a Wrestlemania midcard isn't the same as twenty minutes in the Sam Houston Coliseum. We got some great punches, TWO awesome Koko Ware dropkicks, a big bump over the top from Reed, and then a double dropkick from Tito and Koko as Reed STEALS one with a handful of tights. Reed was probably past his best in '87, but I still want to believe there's a Reed/Santana match on a Boston or MSG card that's as good as their Houston match. What are we if not dreamers? Randy Savage v Ricky Steamboat - I'd gone back and forth on this for years. I always wanted more hate, I wanted blood, I wanted Steamboat to throttle Savage. It had always left me underwhelmed until about a decade ago when I watched the entire feud. Context helped it and so did that interview that was an extra on the Wrestlemania 3 DVD or whatever, with Steamboat talking about this being his last chance at the belt, how he'd come back from injury and let his temper get out of control and how it never got him anywhere. It might've been a convenient way to get out of someone bleeding in the blowoff to the big blood feud, but if nothing else it worked and added the layer that made it all click. I'm not sure I'd still call it a top 10 match in WWE history, but it's a great match. The main takeaway I had this time was that they built the hell out of this thing. It wasn't like it started out with no heat. People were into it from the start, as you'd expect. But by the end, even with the phantom heel pinfall and the fact they never COMPLETELY pulled the trigger on that clean win, the place was molten hot. Hebnar was gassed out of his mind towards the end and people were just losing it for every roll up and nearfall. It had lots of cool little throwbacks to the major points of the feud. Some of them I wish they maybe did a bit more with, like Savage working the throat and Steamboat playing up those moments where he'd turn loose, but I thought things like the nearfall off the finish to the Toronto match and Savage going for the bell came off great. Even Savage coming out and moving Elizabeth as far away as possible from Steele touched on the history. I suppose they could've done more with that brief bit of arm work. I'd maybe have liked for them to do away with a bit of the back and forth so Savage could have a longer stretch on top. I'll never love that phantom pinfall. It didn't really matter, though. What they gave us was an exceptional bit of pro-wrestling and one of the more iconic matches the company's ever had. Jake Roberts v Honky Tonk Man - Pretty by the numbers, but Honky was effective as a heat magnet around this point so at least the crowd were into it. Jake threw some okay punches and took a nice bump into the guardrail, while Honky did the Terry Funk teeter-totter spot in the ropes and shook his hips to rile folk up. I don't know if Jimmy Hart is terrified of snakes or what, but he sure wanted no part of Damian post-match. If it came to a fist fight between him and Alice Cooper, my money would be on the Colonel (for some reason I totally forgot Gorilla would always refer to Jimmy as that. "The Colonel Jimmy Hart." Was that just a Gorilla thing or was it an actual moniker he used in the WWF?). Killer Bees v Iron Sheik & Nikolai Volkoff - Also by the numbers, but we got a Jim Brunzell dropkick so you take the five minutes of by the numbers. Compromises and whatnot. Volkoff singing the Soviet national anthem pre-match is always great because people will start flinging rubbish at the ring and it never gets anything but crazy heat. I also love how Slick came back out to the ring with his clothes all torn up after the Tito mauling from earlier. Hulk Hogan v Andre the Giant - I've always liked this. Hogan's had better matches built around bodyslamming a larger opponent, but he has every single person in that stadium on strings and if nothing else it's certainly a spectacle. I thought it was worked smartly as well. Andre is nearly immobile so he's mostly clubs, headbutts and a bearhug. He uses the clubs and the bearhug to work the back, which they establish as a story point early when Hogan fails to slam Andre the first time. The bearhug isn't riveting or anything, but they never lost the crowd and the reaction for Hogan fighting back from the brink is special. The headbutts were my favourite, because when they connect they're sold as being devastating. Then when they miss they're sold as being devastating. The first time he misses he headbutts the turnbuckle and it gives Hogan an opening. Andre cuts him off after a brief flurry, but they establish a way out for Hogan. Avoid the headbutt and maybe you can use it against him. The second time they escalate it as Andre headbutts the post, and that's really Hogan's inroad. I guess they backtrack on that idea when Andre backdrops Hogan on the concrete (well, that was the intention. It didn't come off great), but Andre was groggy from then on out. Everyone goes ballistic for Andre being taken off his feet, then more ballistic for the slam, then EVEN MORE BALLISTIC for the legdrop. It's one of the defining moments of Hulkamania and a cool way to cap off one of the most successful wrestling shows there's ever been.

This was pretty wild. The uncooperative aspect obviously stands out, with the hair grabbing and rough lock-ups and both of them always being on the cusp of dropping any pretense of competition and punching the other guy in the mouth. There were a couple moments where you could see Oki about ready to put a boot in as Inoki's on the mat. Like, you could buy that he was truly itching to. Inoki grinding his forearm across Oki's face might honestly be the nastiest version of that spot I've seen. Then Oki throws the first headbutt and Inoki's sell of it is wonderful. You can tell it hurt him, but he wasn't giving Oki the satisfaction of taking a back step. He sold it like the unexpectedness of it wasn't really enough to jolt him out of his state of adrenaline, like you'd expect in a real fight when someone peppers you with a dirty shot like that. The second one he expected but that only made it sting even worse. The moment where he finally had enough and cracked Oki in the jaw was tremendous. Really cool, unique match.

I fucking love Kurisu. Never has there been a grumpier potato-farming bastard in all of the pro-wrestling. What a highly unpleasant little man. This was basically ten minutes of two guys who will crowbar you stupid crowbarring each other stupid, so of course it was tremendous fun. Kurisu was headbutting Hash in the ear and cheekbone, really laying it in with the kicks, all to set him up for some steel chair mauling. He's determined to get Hash out the ring long enough to smash him with that chair, but Hash knows Kurisu's game and keeps scooting back in the ring. Kurisu is obviously vexed by this and starts throwing chairs around and then he just punts Hash in the balls. When he finally gets his chance to unload with the chairs you know he makes the most of it, breaking one over Hash's head and bringing it into the ring with him as a pet. Hash was buck wild with the kicks, just hammering Kurisu under the chin, walloping him in the ear with overhand chops. And the DDTs. Good grief. That first one was absolutely hellish and I thought he'd killed the wee fella. He'd have deserved it too, you know.