KB8

Yoshihisa Yamamoto v Masayuki Naruse (11/13/92) This kind of went on forever. I love Yamamoto and I like Naruse fine, but 20+ minutes might've still been a bit beyond them at this point (felt way longer than Han/Maeda from the last show and that was the longer bout). Still, maybe it stood them in good stead going forward. Smooth waters never made for skilled sailors and all that. Neither were shy about smashing the other in the face at least, and it gave us some nice stand up exchanges where they were really swinging. Yamamoto was deliberate in going for the choke at the end and I liked how he eventually set it up. And Naruse snatching the desperation leglock was a really cool - and welcome, it must be said - finish. Naruse with three draws and a victory in his first four fights is a record Tony Pulis would be proud of. Herman Renting v Nobuaki Kakuta (11/13/92) I was about to question why this was a second round fight when only one of them actually won their first round fight (and Kakuta got beat so badly he probably dropped out of NEXT year's Mega Battle), but then I think it was actually a shoot and so...who knows? Renting looked decent at points and Kakuta was mostly outmatched again, especially on the ground. Once Renting went for the choke the first time I think he realised Kakuta couldn't defend against it, so it's no surprise he went back to it. This was largely nothing.

I love that Tenryu/Araya tag. Thought it was a bit of an underrated classic the last time I watched it.

I can't speak for the rest of the UK or Ireland, but in Scotland right now, it's almost certainly Conor if you're asking non-fans who they're more likely to be aware of. My barometer for this sort of thing (it may be a flawed system, admittedly) is my retired uncle, who basically does nothing but fix cars, watch fishing programmes and drink beer, and even he knows who Conor McGregor is. Conor is more recognised by non-MMA/wrestling fans here than pretty much anyone I can think of in my lifetime (beyond the obvious like Hogan, Rock, etc). Or maybe I just associate with too many people who spend their time drinking beer and watching fishing programmes.

How about that for a rudo mugging? That first caida wasn't long, but good grief did the Infernales do a number of the tecnicos or what? The way they lawn darted Olimpico into the fixed seats was unbelievable, especially on the slow-mo replay. Satanico has been outrageous throughout the month and I can't think of a wrestler more suited to gang warfare. He's in his element and Ultimo/Bucanero seem to up their game even higher every time out. Bucanero was absolutely drilling Tony Rivera with body shots at one point and all Rivera could do was meekly curl up on the floor. It's a bummer that we lost the dive train and the tecnico comeback (I'd also like to see how Tarzan Boy extricated himself from whatever the Infernales had tied him to), but Satanico bottling TB was incredible. I never expected him to do him like that. Awesome scrap. I'm glad I held off on watching the Satanico/TB apuestas for so long because the build has been sensational.

It's been said, but the build to Atlantis Villano III has been great and this was more of the same. Of course the Villano family gang beating was on the cards from the jump, but I loved Atlantis, probably knowing full well what was coming, going for the throat straight out the gate. He wasn't messing around and he wouldn't be satisfied until he'd broken at least one chair with Villano's head. Echoing the wishes for a Casas/Fuerza singles match. They weren't matched up for long, but that brief little tussle was certainly a nice appetizer.

Dimitri Petkov v Vladimir Kravchuk (10/29/92) This was alright. Certainly a different sort of opener to the young lion-ish series from the previous few shows. I'd never seen nor heard of either guy before and I didn't have sky high hopes based on the early stand-up, but it got decent enough once they took it to the mat. It was pretty ragged and a far cry from your top tier stuff, but it's interesting seeing how a guy who looks like Hodor will go about submitting someone. Petkov had a few big throws as well -- impressive considering Kravchuk is by no means a slight individual. Petkov is absolutely made up afterwards and high-fives with enough force to leave mere mortals limp-wristed. Han Nyman v Georgi Keandelaki (10/29/92) I've seen several different spelling variations for Keandelaki's name. I don't know which one is correct. This was another rounds contest, fought mostly standing up. Nyman is limited and has almost no ground game, but he has fast feet and some of those kicks are real pretty. Keandelaki threw some nice punch combos to the body but he had even less to offer on the ground than Nyman, to the point Nyman was actively trying to take it there to finish him. Nasty knockout finish, but otherwise this wasn't much of anything. Willie Peeters v Herman Renting (10/29/92) This was a little weird. It went twelve minutes and I guess it was spirited enough. They were active - Peeters especially - and there was no "downtime" in the shoot style sense of lying around in half crabs or the likes (the half crab being very much a staple of the RINGS, obviously). But not a lot of what they did felt like it was of consequence. None of the strikes landed with any real authority. Nobody seemed in danger of being submitted (until the finish when, you know, someone was submitted, though even then it happened so quickly you never had a chance to properly register the danger). Peeters was the aggressor and for large parts Renting absorbed body shots, but he's not very compelling. It's not like Fujiwara getting battered while trying to lure a guy into a mistake. It's just...guy getting popped in the gut while semi-successfully protecting himself. Peeters had a couple nice takedowns, at least. Still a treasure, Peeters. The music accompanying the post-fight highlight package is simply sublime, like something from the opening montage of a mid-90s JRPG. Andrei Kopylov v Sotir Gotchev (10/29/92) This is the kind of thing I started this project for. I haven't a clue who Gotchev is, but straight away he grabs Kopylov and chucks him and you're thinking the Bulgarian Christian Laettner might have something about himself. Then Kopylov forces a few rope breaks and scores a knockdown. It starts looking like a neat wee competitive squash, where Kopylov gets to stretch out a bit (always welcome) against a complete unknown who it turns out can handle himself. Then Gotchev gathers some steam and the score starts to even out a bit. It feels less competitive squash and more flat out competitive. Gotchev is clearly no scrub and the crowd were all in on them rolling around on the mat. It wasn't a lost classic or anything, but it was a really nice, low-key bout between two unassuming guys who could twist your arm off. Which is why we watch the RINGS. Dick Vrij v Nobuaki Kakuta (10/29/92) I think part of me has wanted this fight from the first time I saw Kakuta. I mean, nothing against the guy, but he's not terribly interesting and his other bouts haven't set the world on fire. They tend to follow a similar pattern and he tops out at "okay, he was better in that than I figured." The crowd love him, though, especially when he's up against it. Vrij is about a foot and a half taller than him so that constitutes up against it. It went about how you thought/hoped it would. Vrij's coming off the loss to Han so I guess the slaughtering of some wee fella was just what the doctor ordered. While Kakuta can't do anything on the ground his stand-up is at least competent, and that usually keeps him in his fights. Here he has no chance because Vrij annihilates him whenever he tries to get in close enough to actually connect. At one point Vrij appears to punch Kakuta with a closed fist, probably out of annoyance. The ref' admonishes him and Vrij responds with this "oh I'm sorry, I didn't know that wasn't allowed." He'd only been there for every single show, of course. Kakuta sort of takes Vrij down, or Vrij falls over as Kakuta happens to be clinging to his leg, and Vrij uses up a rope break almost entirely out of pity. He literally points to the rope and smiles like "see, I was in trouble there" *wink wink*. This was like six minutes of what we'd soon, one and all, come to love about PRIDE. Grom Zaza v Chris Dolman (10/29/92) I can't help but think this was kind of a waste of our magnificent Grom Zaza. Dolman has that lovable vet thing going and I find the old lug endearing, but he can't really do much as he inches ever closer to 50 (though, looking back, I apparently liked his last fight). Zaza was fun letting loose with combos, moving in and out, finding ways to take Dolman over. Dolman really just bided his time until he could grab a limb and twist. He's wily and been around the block a time or two. Fine enough for five minutes, but you want Zaza against someone with a bit more to offer. Masaaki Satake v Mitsuya Nagai (10/29/92) This went a minute and a half and I'm not really sure what the deal was. You maybe wonder if it's a shoot, but then you watch the finish where Nagai kind of stands there for a couple seconds before going down for the ten and it's like...well, that happened. What we got was actually okay and probably the only time I can say I'd have been fine with a Satake fight going longer. Mitsuya Nagai: Miracle Worker? Akira Maeda v Volk Han (10/29/92) The rubber match. It probably went too long and it wasn't without its lulls, but of their three bouts this one might've had the coolest individual threads running through it. A lot of elements that had been played up in previous fights came together in this, sometimes in ways we hadn't seen before. We got Han's spinning back fist, but this time he did it before the bell had even rung (which got the crowd on his case for doing it, and the referee's case for counting it as a knockdown). Maeda is still the superior striker and Han is STILL and FOREVER (apparently) susceptible to getting smashed in the gut for a nine count. You can tell guys are always wary of grappling with Han, especially on the ground. They'll roll towards the ropes even if they're the ones with the advantage, just because they know how quickly Han can flip that script. There was one bit where Han casually grabbed a wrist and before you knew it Maeda was on his back, then just as casually he let go of the wrist in favour of an ankle and Maeda was left scrambling for the ropes. Han did all this standing up. Hadn't gone to ground at any point. Eventually Maeda started absolutely drilling Han with leg kicks and any time he so much as grimaced the crowd were right on it. Forcing this mild-mannered Russian to show weakness is a victory unto itself. The longer it went the more visibly gassed Han became, then he'd start favouring the left leg (which had been kicked to smithereens), but then you wonder if it was all a ploy because Maeda would come in close and Han would just leap at him and do something preposterous. That happened like four times, where he'd literally leap into a rolling kneebar or cross armbreaker. At one point he managed to apply an STF and it was unbelievable. Finish was pretty great, too. You could've probably shaved ten minutes off this and it wouldn't have hurt, but at 24 minutes I didn't think it was a slog and would still call it one of the better RINGS fights so far.

I'd be in that boat. If I'm being honest with myself, the stink of TNA probably hurt him in my eyes, at least to some degree. It's unfair, but it is what it is. I'm not an AJ megafan, but he's been exceptional most times I've watched him since he got to WWE and bits of that New Japan run really impressed me (the Suzuki match is tremendous and I liked him a lot against Naito, who I couldn't be bothered with at all). I like a handful of his TNA run fine, but he was never really a guy I cared much about from around 2003-2014. Wouldn't have called him bad, wouldn't have called him great -- he was a guy I just didn't have interest in. I'm certainly higher on him now and I think if I were to go back and watch chunks of the ROH/TNA run I'd be way more into it. I guess back then TNA was so bad I assumed everybody associated with it probably was, too.

Most of these have been mentioned already, and they're more favourite than best, but: Genichiro Tenryu - 1993 Stan Hansen - 1993 Eddie Guerrero - 2004 Virus - 2013 El Dandy - 1990 Yoshiaki Fujiwara - 1990 Rick Rude - 1992 Kiyoshi Tamura - 1998 Mariko Yoshida - 1999 Steve Austin - 2001 Negro Casas - 1996 Toshiaki Kawada - 2000 Buddy Rose - 1979 Takeshi Ono - 2010

I think the first time I saw Hogan work Japan was on the DVDVR New Japan set and I was sort of blown away by him working the mat with Inoki and Fujinami. He was really fun and I'd definitely be up for seeing him do more of that. I've been holding off on watching those Tenryu/Savage matches for ages, because I guess I'm a weirdo and want to save them for something or other, but I love both those guys and the fact they matched up at all just tickles me. Watching some of those early SWS shows I always dug the WWF guys coming in and seeing what they'd bring to things. I'm not saying Warlord working Japan was noticeably different or better compared to Warlord working any US-based WWF show, but it was certainly interesting seeing him opposite a guy like Sano, when Sano would do a reckless plancha and Warlord would take it with Sano's entire torso across his forehead because he absolutely was not expecting to be plancha'd (because, I mean, when would he ever really need to bother taking a plancha under normal circumstances?). You'd get Barbarian working Kendo Nagasaki and they'd just potato the face off each other like Barbarian never really got to do with anyone in 1991 WWF (other than maybe Haku, who was his partner). There was a novelty factor at worst, and at best you had situations like you described with Hogan working the mat or Bret flexing his heel muscles. I miss Tenryu feds is what I'm saying, basically.

Elliot's roster is wild as fuck. I like to think someone would've given it the 32 disc Best Of treatment. Big fan of where superkix is going with the Maeda/Fujiwara/Tamura roster as well. Fujiwara v young chip on his shoulder Tamura would've been spectacular.

Kawada is probably the boring pick, but I would've said it was him even before PWO2K and his case has only been bolstered since. Who's second that year is the interesting question to me at this point. Tajiri was unbelievable as this wild little crackpot kicking guys to death and skimming chairs across tables with no regard for spectators' safety, so if nothing else he's my US WOTY. I'm working my way through 2000 so slowly I'm almost going backwards, but from Mexico I think Satanico had been amazing and I haven't even seen the Tarzan Boy cage match yet. Haven't really dived too deeply into the Battlarts yet either, but Ishikawa looks as good as he ever has and Ono feels like a left field pick on the surface, but then you watch him absolutely slaughter folks in ten minute massacres and it's like, why was this guy not the biggest star in Japan? I'll come up with a proper list later. Takeshi Ono - biggest star in Japan - will be there for at least one of the years.

Tenryu of the Year 1981: Genichiro Tenryu & Giant Baba v The Sheik & Bugsy McGraw (All Japan, 5/29/81) 1982: Genichiro Tenryu v Mil Mascaras (All Japan, 2/4/82) 1983: Genichiro Tenryu v Ted DiBiase (All Japan, 10/23/83) 1984: Genichiro Tenryu v Ricky Steamboat (All Japan, 2/23/84) 1985: Genichiro Tenryu & Jumbo Tsuruta v Riki Choshu & Killer Khan (All Japan, 8/2/85) 1986: Genichiro Tenryu & Jumbo Tsuruta v Riki Choshu & Yoshiaki Yatsu (All Japan, 1/28/86) 1987: Genichiro Tenryu v Jumbo Tsuruta (All Japan, 8/31/87) 1988: Genichiro Tenryu & Toshiaki Kawada v Stan Hansen & Terry Gordy (All Japan, 12/16/88) 1989: Genichiro Tenryu v Jumbo Tsuruta (All Japan, 6/5/89) 1990: Genichiro Tenryu & Tiger Mask II v Riki Choshu & George Takano (New Japan, 2/14/90) 1991: Genichiro Tenryu v Yoshiaki Yatsu (SWS, 10/29/91) 1992: Genichiro Tenryu v Ric Flair (SWS, 9/15/92) 1993: Genichiro Tenryu, Takashi Ishikawa, Ashura Hara, Koki Kitahara & Ricky Fuyuki v Riki Choshu, Tatsumi Fujinami, Hiroshi Hase, Osamu Kido & Takayuki Iizuka (New Japan, 2/16/93) 1994: Genichiro Tenryu & Ashura Hara v Atsushi Onita & Tarzan Goto (WAR, 3/2/94) 1995: Genichiro Tenryu & Ultimo Dragon v Shinobu Kandori & Kodo Fuyuki (WAR, 12/8/95) 1996: Genichiro Tenryu & Nobutaka Araya v Kazuo Yamazaki & Takashi Iizuka (WAR, 11/9/96) 1997: Genichiro Tenryu v Tarzan Goto (WAR, 7/6/97) 1998: Genichiro Tenryu v Shinya Hashimoto (New Japan, 8/1/98) 1999: Genichiro Tenryu, Hiroshi Ono, Ichiro Yaguchi & Shoji Nakamaki v Atsushi Onita, Mitsunobu Kikuzawa, Sambo Asako & Shigeo Okumura (Onita Pro, 6/27/99) 2000: Genichiro Tenryu v Toshiaki Kawada (All Japan, 10/28/00) 2001: Genichiro Tenryu & Masa Fuchi v Toshiaki Kawada & Nobutaka Araya (All Japan, 6/30/01) 2002: Genichiro Tenryu v Satoshi Kojima (All Japan, 7/17/02) 2003: Genichiro Tenryu & Masa Fuchi v Nobutaka Araya & Arashi (All Japan, 1/3/03) 2004: Genichiro Tenryu v Hiroshi Tanahashi (New Japan, 8/15/04) 2005: Genichiro Tenryu & Jun Akiyama v Kenta Kobashi & Akira Taue (NOAH, 9/18/05) 2006: Genichiro Tenryu v Don Fuji (Dragon Gate, 10/20/06) 2007: --- 2008: --- 2009: --- 2010: Genichiro Tenryu v Super Tiger (Real Japan Pro Wrestling, 3/18/10) I'll stop at 2010.

Man, it's even better than I remembered.

My favourite announcer ever. One of my favourite segments they ever ran in Memphis was when Curt Hennig had - I think - just lost the AWA belt to Lawler and came down to the studio demanding Lawler come out and face him. The longer it went without Lawler showing up the more aggressive Hennig got, and it reached the point where he even put his hands on Lance. The way Lance played his part in it was the perfect straight man performance and when he loses his own composure and calls Hennig a hoodlum I lose it every time. He was the very best. And I agree with Childs that he was as big a part of what made Memphis Memphis as Lawler or Dundee or anybody else.

I haven't seen that six-man, but there's an eight-man tag from the 4/2/93 WAR show that has the same sort of midcard potatofest vibe and it's awesome. It's Koshinaka, Kimura, Saito and Kobayashi v SSM, Hara, Fuyuki and Kitahara. It's WAR v New Japan and it rules.

1995 is sort of a lost year for CMLL. I could probably count on one hand the amount of 1995 CMLL matches I've seen, I don't recall even reading about anything from that year, and it's not like anybody's jumping to take deep dive on it. I'm not saying I'm going to be the guy to do that, but if this was anything to go by then there might be a few things worth unearthing. El Dandy and Ray Gonzalez are clearly feuding at this point, though going by Dandy's apuestas record this didn't lead to a hair match. Which is sort of astounding because they sure fought like an apuestas match wasn't far away. They bleed truly gruesome amounts of blood. Dandy was cut open about a minute in and he bled EVERYWHERE. Like, I'm not sure enough people were even watching CMLL in 1995 to warrant a gusher like that. Gonzalez is a Puerto Rico guy so he knows how to bleed, but when the tecnicos made their initial comeback he just ran away. Again and again, when Dandy tried to grab him, Gonzalez ran. This went on for a while and I wondered if they were going to hold off on Dandy's revenge for another time, but no, eventually he was caught and he did indeed let the blood flow. Wagner wasn't featured a ton in this, but he was my favourite guy in it. He didn't have to do much, sometimes it was just his mannerisms and charisma that grabbed me, but whenever he was on the screen I paid attention. He threw his hands up on the match and threatened to walk out with Gonzalez, but Dandy followed them up the ramp, clocked Wagner with a hook, and Wagner took a pratfall into the crowd. Later he fell backwards out the ring as Ultimo held the ropes open, tumbling to the floor as he hopelessly tried to grab onto something. It was more of a comedy performance than anything, but it made for a fun counterpoint to Dandy and Gonzalez mutilating each other.

CMLL really was brilliant in 2013. Between Porky/Escorpion and Rush/Casas/Shocker we got tonnes of awesome brawling. If they allowed blood in Arena Mexico then this would've been twelve stars. I actually thought at several points they were trying to open Porky up hardway as Escorpion was just punching the absolute dogshit out of him, biting him like he was trying to siphon the gravy out of his forehead. It was sort of harrowing because Porky could barely defend himself. He looked like the fat kid being set upon by a gang of thugs and no wonder the ref' tossed out the primera. Porky eventually snapping was incredible and man oh man was he potatoing Escorpion something fierce. There was one bit where Escorpion was lying in a heap in the corner and Porky was just drilling him with left hands. It was as WAR-esque as you'll ever see in lucha. Everyone else played their parts fine as well. Dragon Rojo Jr. and Polvora were capable lieutenants when it came to holding Porky's partners at bay, Maximo's diva shtick was fun once he started making his comeback and Stuka's no-hands reverse plancha is astonishing. Seriously, it never ceases to be breathtaking, and the camera angle made it look completely insane. Awesome ten minute scrap.

This was pretty much everything you'd ask for in a lead-in trios. The early Casas/Ultimo exchange wasn't particularly flashy or grand in scale, but it gave you a taste of what to expect and that thirty second stretch where Ultimo continually dragged Casas back into the armbar was beautiful. It really set the tone for everything they did throughout the match -- Casas was Casas and arguably at the very peak of his powers, but Ultimo was rapid fast and getting better by the day. Plus he had those kicks, and Casas didn't seem to have a proper answer to them. I've shit on Ultimo Dragon plenty of times in the past, but I thought he was pretty excellent here and Mexico is by far my favourite setting for him. The Felino/Ramirez and Bestia/Oro exchanges ended up going a similar route, with Bestia eating Oro's dust and Felino getting pissed that his partners allowed him to be humiliated so. At that point the rudos teased dissension and suckered the tecnicos into a gang beating. Casas took out his frustrations by seemingly tying Ultimo's leg to a fixed seat, and the beatdown continued into the segunda with Oro playing punchbag. Fittingly it was Ultimo clipping Casas' legs from outside that was the catalyst for the tecnico comeback, leading to an awesome revenge spot with Ultimo repeatedly kicking Casas into rows of seats. Oro's moonsault to pick up the fall on Bestia was gorgeous and of course Ultimo would pin Casas with another one of his kicks (this time it was an enziguri). That issue ate at Casas into the tercera and I loved that he just drove his shoulder into Ultimo's balls. I mean, what better equaliser? Ultimo repaying the favour with a dropkick was another awesome moment. Did he mean to go low? Did it actually CONNECT low or was Casas trying to pull the con job? Maybe it was accidental, maybe it wasn't, but either way it made you wonder if even the subtle low blow was something Casas couldn't beat Ultimo at. The short end run between them was great and Casas once more trying and failing to outdo Ultimo made for a great finish, but it was the Ciclon Ramirez tope leading into it that was the moment of the match. It was truly spectacular; he absolutely fucking torpedoed Bestia with that thing. Great match.

I remember reading OJ's review of this months ago and being disappointed that it sounded...well, disappointing. I wasn't hugely fussed about watching it, but I'm going to watch the Casas/Fiera apuestas soon and wanted to see at least a little of the build. As a lead in trios this wasn't as strong as those Dandy/Fiera or Dandy/Llanes trios, but maybe my lowish expectations helped matters because I still enjoyed it. I don't disagree with the criticism that it felt like three separate issues playing out with no real thread to tie them together. I didn't really mind everyone mostly sticking to the one dance partner, though. If the brawling was pedestrian then I might've, but I didn't think this was that. It captured a pretty nice sense of chaos and it wasn't like there weren't moments where one guy would stop beating on their rival to take a swing at someone else. They may not have been brothers in arms, but for this night at least they were makeshift comrades and they had a common goal. Casas/Fiera showed flashes of greatness, I thought. Black Magic/Vampiro and Atlantis/Mano Negra had their moments as well, but it's Casas v Fiera at the Anniversary show and that was the most spotlighted match up. When they turned it loose we got a few cracking moments, like Casas trampling over fans as Fiera chased him into the crowd, Fiera repeatedly ramming Casas' head into a seat and later slamming him into the second row. Casas got himself some nice colour after being lawn darted into the post as well, and on the whole it whet the appetite for the hair match. I can't complain.

By-the-numbers is about right for this, but I didn't regret spending fourteen minutes watching it. It's a title match and a chance to check out more Arkangel de la Muerte, so I'll take what I can get. That said I don't remember a thing about the primera. I liked the leg work and Arkangel's sell of it in the segunda, though, even if it was brief. I guess there's only so much drama you can create with four minutes, but I thought they picked things up nicely in the tercera and it made for an okay stretch run. Fine enough detour from the blood and guts of what the Villano/Atlantis and Satanico/Tarzan Boy feuds were bringing, even if it never came close to reaching the same heights.

I thought this kind of hinted at greatness without ever quite getting there. Akiyama's early start ruled, the way he'd go for the German suplex, dropkicking the knee as a set up of sorts. Vader coming back with the chokeslam on the table and powerbomb on the floor was certainly emphatic, but then I thought they meandered for a little while after that. Akiyama taking shots at body parts towards the end was a cool touch; how he'd missile dropkick the knee or reverse the pin into the desperation cross armbreaker. It never felt like he deliberately worked over a specific body part as opposed to grabbing what was there and trying to take advantage of the situation. Enjoyable match. Vader in All Japan is a bit of a blindspot for me and so far I've liked what I've seen.

There's always the danger that watching a match you've seen pimped for months on end as an all-timer will fail to live up to the hype. I mean, I thought the first two falls had some nice ideas and set the table well enough for the massacre that was the tercera, but I wouldn't really say they were a particularly strong pair of falls for an apuesa match. I liked Lupus' tope coming in the first fifteen seconds, he had some nice jab combos and his riling up of front row Trauma fans was entertaining, even if I'd rather he spent less time posing and more time punching a guy in the face. It was a solid enough rudo beatdown, but a beatdown more along the lines of something you'd see in the mano a mano rather than the blowoff. Lupus stealing Trauma's Lo Negro del Negro for the finish was great, though, and it begged for a follow up later on. Trauma's selling of the leg heading into the segunda was a nice touch and I bought that first fall beatdown having taken its toll on him. I don't necessarily think his comeback was too easily come by or anything, and I liked him going to the tope quickly as well, but I couldn't help heading into the third caida feeling that the whole thing lacked some bite. Then they started blasting each other with chairs and it became everything I could've wanted. I can't really articulate it, but there are points when I'm watching lucha and it'll suddenly hit me that I'm watching something verging on the transcendent. It just kind of sneaks up on me and I don't get that feeling watching wrestling from America or Japan or Europe. I don't know the exact point I got that feeling during this, but it was somewhere between Canis Lupus curling up in the corner with blood streaming out of his forehead and Trauma headbutting him clean in the nose. The selling of exhaustion down the stretch was phenomenal, the way they'd take that little extra second or two to compose themselves, how they'd throw slaps that had nothing behind them. At one point Lupus just grabbed Trauma by the horns on his mask and repeatedly headbutted him, partly because it was about all he had left, partly because fuck this guy who won't stay down. By the end the ring mat looked like a tarp from a blood splatter reenactment, both guys were covered in gore and the drama for every nearfall was absolutely through the roof. I'd somehow managed to avoid major spoilers as well, and with Trauma I being my favourite wrestler in the world a few years back I was right there with those people under their Los Traumas masks. I got worried for a second after they bumped the ref', thinking we were about to get some schmozz finish to put a damper on things, but they went the opposite direction and that along with the tombstone only turned the heat up even more. I loved that Trauma was too fried to even kick out properly so he just grabbed the ref's arm to stop him from counting. Lupus' hands were stained completely red and he could barely push himself to his knees without slipping on the blood. And the finish. Truly the perfect payoff and a fitting way to cap any mask match. The immediate aftermath with Lupus lying face down in a literal puddle of his own blood is the sort of visual you don't soon forget.

Aja Kong/Michiko Ohmukai/Yumi Fukawa v Rie Tamada/Candy Okutsu/Mikiko Futagami, 2/18/98 - This was alright, albeit pretty sloppy. Sometimes that meant you got Fukawa hitting crazy moonsaults where she almost lands on her head or crushes Candy Okutsu's ribs, then at other points you got ropey powerslams and double teams where someone had to stand around waiting for others to get into position properly. If everyone was pulling double duty on the show then I guess it's understandable. Tamada was a lot of fun and probably my favourite girl in this. She'd often smack someone in the face as a cut off and the best spot was her punching an onrushing Aja right in the mouth. Mostly a go-go-go sprint, but the early cutting off of Fukawa gave us something to sink our teeth into and it's no surprise she looked satisfied picking up the victory. Her majistral cradle looked air tight. Mariko Yoshida v Rie Tamada, 4/17/98 - Yoshida's first match in ARSION and fittingly it's a doozy. Some of her matwork in this was breathtaking, how she'd just yank Tamada into a hold and give her no peace whatsoever. One of my favourite things about her as a worker is how nothing against her comes easy, even if it's trying to gain side control or apply a routine hold, she makes you work for every little thing and we saw it in abundance here. Her dominance on the ground sort of created a story of Tamada being forced to try every other strategy possible in response, from taking to the air to attempting a bunch of DDT and suplex variations to straight elbowing Yoshida in the mouth. Not that she was a slouch on the mat, but if she was stubborn enough to keep the match there then it wouldn't be long before Yoshida hooked her in something she couldn't get out of. We saw this when she started going after Yoshida's leg, grabbing a few kneebars that forced her to scramble to the ropes, but then she got ahead of herself shooting in for the single leg and Yoshida tied her up in two seconds flat. I can't even describe how she did it, but man was it gorgeous. Classy match.

I liked the dynamic of this, with Omori and Takayama being the young bruisers stepping to the old guard, not by using what made the old guard top dogs in the first place, but by just clawing their faces. Each time Takayama went to Kawada's eyes to break something the heat would go up a notch, and I liked Taue trying to give them some of it back only to be decisively thrown to the floor. No Fear really felt like a unit in this; one that didn't care for etiquette, fighting dirty when they needed to cut off Kawada or Taue's momentum. In contrast Kawada and Taue approached it like they normally would, except nothing clicked and they ultimately paid for it. I wouldn't have minded another few minutes, but I suppose the brevity added to the eventual payoff. Cool match.