KB8

This was really good. The opening stretch is another strong Suzuki matwork segment, with everything being mean and nasty and fought for, then Ishikawa decides he can't hang like that and takes a powder. Suzuki opens the ropes as an invite for him to get back in, but instead Ishikawa sits on one of the ringside chairs and gestures for Suzuki to join him. So they sit in the crowd and take turns elbowing each other really hard in the ear, which is a wrinkle on that particular trope that I don't have any problem with. I've only seen a handful of Ishikawa matches, but in every one of those matches he would stiff the daylights out of someone and he did that again here. Suzuki hardly throws love taps in his own right, but while he has the advantage on the mat it's Ishikawa who has the advantage throwing strikes. Ishikawa will apparently also recklessly fling you into things as he drops Suzuki over the ring apron with a front suplex. Some of the strikes down the stretch were meaty as all get out, particularly Ishikawa's knees to the body. We also got another compact-yet-satisfying finishing run -- no overkill, no egregious fighting spirit no-selling, and a cool finish that I initially thought was a miscue/botch. I would very much be down for watching these two crack each other in the face some more.

I don't really know why, but I'm always a little surprised when I make my brief, annual forays into the current Japanese wrestling and see Masato Tanaka popping up. Feels like he's been around forever, but he still looks to be in great shape. He's not someone I ever really think of as being in that "grumpy old man" category despite the fact he's been wrestling about as long as, say, Akiyama. I wouldn't say he was showing his age as such here, but I did kind of get a vibe of him being out of his depth (kayfabe terms) against the younger ace (who's pushing 40 himself). When he went to his deathmatch roots and brought out the table, for example, you could probably buy it as a sort of desperation move. Match only went 16 minutes so it was fairly condensed, though the opening matwork section still managed to feel substantive rather than perfunctory. It was also probably my favourite part. Suzuki is a Billy Robinson trainee so you always get the grittiness to his matwork, pulling legs at nasty angles and really leaning on joints. They moved away from that with a rote forearm exchange, but I should probably just get used to that already. Finishing run was short, and while they might've moved on from a few big spots without letting them truly sink in, I'd rather they did that than keep going for another five/six minutes of bomb-throwing overkill.

I think I'd also take Tamura, and Tamura '96-'98/'99 would be one of my answers for this. Tenryu from '89-'93 would probably be my #1, even if the period in between the All Japan exodus and the WAR/New Japan feud was pretty low key. I mean, you still had things like the '91 Yatsu match where they leathered each other, but the SWS and early doors WAR roster was pretty sparse (in comparison to what he was working with in All Japan and then New Japan). His grumpy/grumpier old/older man run from '00-'02 is great as well, though. Starts with the Sasaki match at the Dome and then he goes on a tear after the All Japan return. In '02 he was the meanest old bastard walking and I could watch him be cantankerous all day.

For a seven minute match with a result that was never in question, this was fucking great. Tenryu is pretty much the best ever in this kind of setting and I could watch him wrestle scrubs all day. You know he's never gonna lose (unless it's a G-1 or a tournament of some sort, I guess), but he's as unselfish a top star as you'll see in the ring. Sometimes he might even give some guys more than he should, but more often than not he strikes a perfect balance between letting the opponent look good while reinforcing who the guy at the top really is. Doesn't hurt when the opponent is game as well. Takagi has an awesome shoulder tackle where he lunges at Tenryu like a linebacker, then Tenryu backs him into the ropes and offers up the clean break only for Takagi to slap him across the face. Tenryu fucking kills him. He kicks him in the eye, chops him in the throat, then throws him outside and beats on him with a chair. It's the dynamic you know and love. Tenryu going on a rager and trying to bend a guy in half with a Sharpshooter is something I wish we saw more of. Tenryu going on a rager and kicking the shit out of someone is something we saw plenty of and it never gets old.

I think "the vast majority is edited or short tv matches" is wildly overstating it as well.

I thought the early portion of this was fine enough, cruising along nicely, then Jeff took that insane powerbomb on the steps and things picked up quite a bit. I liked Lashley in control, with the big crossface clubs, standing on Jeff's throat and generally carrying himself like a pretty big deal. I thought Jeff's vocal selling was on point as well, and while I would've liked a couple more minutes at the end the somersault bump that transitioned to the finish was another nasty one. Good match, and I was honestly as impressed with Hardy in this as I was Lashley.

Well fuck my face. I'm already backlogged with potentially awesome stuff from this service, but I might need to push this to the front of the queue.

Man, how fucking good at the pro wrestling was El Satanico? Los Infernales were an awesome unit of thugs and at times you wondered how the tecnicos could possibly make a comeback, but Satanico was king. He had so many great moments, usually with Tarzan Boy, like kicking him in the kneecaps, dragging him all over the place by the hair (looking like he was really trying to rip it from his scalp), and there was this great bit where he kind of condescendingly dodged TB's shots while TB was being firmly held at bay by Guerrero. It was one of those "whoa there, big guy" moments, where he and everyone else knew TB's attempts were futile. The only thing missing was a sly wink to the camera. He also carried himself like a true badass. There were times where he would take a quick breather from beating on someone to soak in the scene, and even though his stablemates continued to go for blood you knew who the most dangerous man in the match really was. It made the moment in the tercera where he actually decided to bail from the altercation with TB feel huge for the tecnicos; TB in particular. They'd managed to weather the storm and now even Satanico, after bullying and beating them all over the place beforehand, was questioning whether a one on one was smart. Satanico getting his comeuppance at the end was pretty fitting for a finish, too. I liked this a ton.

Well this was great. It's the kind of chaotic brawl you'd expect out of Brody if you'd never seen him before and only heard a bunch of old-timers talk about him as an all time level brawler. If this was the only Brody match you'd ever watched, you'd probably believe it to be true. In terms of selling or how much he was willing to give his opponent, he never really did anything that was different from his usual. It's just that the Stomper seemed to realise this and decided to TAKE what he was going to get. He walked through Brody's punches as often as Brody walked through his and it made for a totally wild, uncooperative, hate-filled scrap. We got forehead biting, we got guys being thrown into rows of seats, we got a referee being launched across the ring for trying to involve himself, and of course we got the blood. Brody was swinging chairs like a damn psychopath, sometimes clusters of them at a time, and at one point he even dinged the ref' because why the hell not? There was another bit where he just went a wander with this blood-smeared chair like he wanted to break something - anything - and it was fucking awesome. I was thinking, "where is he even going?" and then I realised it didn't matter because I don't think even HE knew. He was too caught up in the moment. He'd lost himself in his madness. Just a wild, ridiculously fun ten minutes. Based on this I'd say Stomper knew exactly how to get the best out of Brody, but I think it would be unfair to say Brody never brought it. I just wish he brought it like that more often.

I haven't seen this, but I thought their Uncensored match later in the month was crazy fun. I don't remember how good it actually was and it might've been more funny than anything else, but I got a huge kick out of it. Funk came out wearing a frozen chicken (with 'DUSTY' written on it) like it was a boxing glove, then said he'd brought Dustin's brother with him before sending someone in a chicken suit to the ring. Then he punches Dustin in the head with his frozen chicken hand. I think it was a cowbell match and Funk tried to change the stip midway through, then dinged the ref' with the cowbell when he told him no.

This was fairly but-the-numbers, but a by-the-numbers lucha trios is something I can sit through pretty easily and I guess I liked it a bit more than others have. I would've liked to see more of the Shocker/Emilio pairing since I'm assuming they were feuding at the time, but Shocker brought plenty of energy and I'll never not get a kick out of seeing full caveman Emilio punch someone in the mouth. Salvaje looked pretty broken down at points - the slingshot bump was kinda rough - but he has serious asshole charisma so people will always pop for the parts where he's getting knocked around (and at one point he took a nasty flat back bump out on the floor, so you can't really blame him for struggling with the slingshot). Tinieblas was just drilling guys with those Invader #1 style thrusts to the throat and Scorpio Jr. really leaned into one of them like a madman. Things like the Satanico/Tarzan Boy feud and everything Villano III/Atlantis-related rightfully get most of the press, but I'm glad we got a taste of what was going on down the card a bit, even if it was sort of forgettable on the whole.

I liked this a good deal at points, while at others I think I liked it more in theory than in execution. Hase constantly going to the arm, refusing to let Misawa play his own game, to the point where Misawa finally has to use the left arm to throw his elbows to set up that one big right that could KO anyone -- I liked how they built to that payoff. Still, the groundwork in the first ten minutes or so never really grabbed me, though I get that it was necessary and it was all certainly part of the story they were going for. I think criticisms of Misawa's selling are valid, but he's probably built up enough cred to get away with it. There's always a sense of "this'll hurt me, but it'll hurt you more" when he goes to the elbows, and now and then he'll throw in these subtle little touches that remind you he's not quite 100%. I think soup's point about him looking more frustrated than hurt is pretty accurate as well; not that I never got the sense he was in any real danger, just that you knew it was only a matter of time before Hase took his eye off the ball and Misawa would be able to make him pay.

This was basically Tajiri being a nasty little bastard for eight minutes and having fun doing it, so of course I liked it a lot. I tend to agree with Loss on Lynn, but there wasn't anything too cutesy in this and he was mostly working from below anyway. Tajiri mocking him, laughing maniacally at fans, throwing chairs off the guardrail, plastering him with kicks...all of it was great. He was on a tear in 2000 and I'll take as much of it as I can get. Thought the finish was good, too.

Takayama looked like a wrecking ball in the early parts of this, especially with the big boot followed by the huge knee. Akiyama working a body part is always good stuff and I liked the leg work a lot. Also liked how Takayama responded by going after the taped up arm, which in true Takayama form often meant plain old big nasty boots to the elbow. Nice match, though like Childs I think it sticks out in part because of its un-All-Japan-ness.

Excellent match. All of Taira's strikes landed sweetly from the outset and Otsuka seemed to sell a sort of sluggishness as a result pretty much the whole match. Like he'd been caught flush early doors and struggled to fully shake the cobwebs from then out on. His kooky pro/shoot-style mishmash offence was lots of fun in this, particularly the bronco buster thing he did in the corer, and that deadlift tilt-a-whirl backbreaker looked really nasty. At a couple points he just grabbed Taira and planted him with a powerbomb, and I liked how he was determined to hit that one where Taira was trying desperately to cling to the corner. Towards the end Otsuka was absolutely hell bent on breaking Taira's back with any variation of a Boston crab, so you had Taira frantically trying to wriggle or kick his way free, and by kick his way free I mean kick Otsuka as hard as possible in the mouth. That run of near KO's culminating with the fucking backflip kick was legit one of the coolest spots I've ever seen and got a big old "holy shit!" out of me.

I've only just now realised he has full shows up and not individual matches. When I checked for 5/11/00 before, the thumbnail looked like a tag match, so I assumed that's all it was. It makes more sense now. So thanks!

Is this online anywhere?

The 7/2000 match with Taira was really good, a couple hokey rope-running bits aside (I think that's the first time I've seen a crossbody as a nearfall in Battlarts). Greco was a demon at points. It was like a football/soccer game where one team is just piling on pressure and you're wondering how long the other is going to be able to hold out. Not all of Taira's kicks landed flush, but when they did they did and I liked Greco's near-KO selling for a few of them. Still, Greco grabbing a guy and tying him up in a wicked submission is the prevalent theme of this match and if you're watching it in the first place then you're probably going to be happy about that.

This feels like something I probably watched on an early Schneider Comp. I didn't really have high expectations for it since CIMA is a guy I haven't cared about for around twelve years, and Fujita has never left much of an impression on me from the first time I saw him, but I wound up thinking this was rock solid. Thought CIMA sold the early work on his arm well, then dropped it when it felt appropriate. It's not like a ton of time was dedicated to working it over, so he wasn't going to leave it hanging by his side the whole match. The legwork on Fujita lasted long enough as well that by the time they moved into the finishing run, it felt like Fujita had mostly recovered from it. He sold enough in the immediate aftermath that CIMA's stretch of legwork didn't feel meaningless (I'll echo that neckbreaker into tree-of-woe being super nasty, btw). The match length probably helped that. I don't remember when it started, but at some point in the last ten years a ton of juniors matches seemed to go half an hour or longer, and it made things feel really wonky. You'd have someone getting their leg torn to bits for ten minutes straight, then a switch would flip and they'd move into the ten minute finishing run without the leg ever being a factor thereafter. That criticism might be old hat these, but certainly used to bug me. With this only going 17 minutes they got to stretch out and build to a hot finish, and the middle portion never felt bloated with limb work that wasn't going to factor into the finish, anyway. They used their time and laid things out really well, basically. And I don't even think they overdid it with the finishing run, either. It ended with the crowd at their hottest and none of the kickouts felt like they were too much. I'm glad I never skipped this.

I absolutely love this match. My thoughts on it haven't changed since my last watch, so I'll just c&p what I said then: Awesome, wild, chaotic spectacle. I know the Hash/Ogawa feud is generally considered to be a colossal fuck up, but holy shit did the crowd lose their mind for every interaction they had together. They're completely nuclear for this whole thing, and a big Dome crowd like that will always put a smile on my face. Even from the intros this feels huge. Match winds up getting thrown out after a few minutes because it's basically turned into a full blown riot, so Inoki gets in the ring wearing a white tracksuit and wielding a kendo stick (I think). He gets on the mic and hell if I know what he says but I'll assume it's something along the lines of "THE SHOW MUST GO FUCKING ON." And so it does. Everything in this is brutally stiff. I don't think Murakami ever properly learned how to throw a worked strike, but here he's just full force cracking Iizuka in the face with punches and knees like a reckless headcase. Hashimoto is utterly spectacular in this. After the restart he tags in for the first time, but Marakami continues fighting with Iizuka. He has the mount on Iizuka and isn't really paying attention to Hash. Maybe he doesn't care that Hash is the legal man. Hash kind of stands there at first, like a school teacher waiting for the kids at the back to be quiet. Then he loses patience and fucking smashes Murakami in the spleen. Crowd reaction to him telling Ogawa to get in the ring is amazing, and really, this match is a perfect example of why Hash is so great. His energy is just off the charts. It's impossible not to get invested in what he's doing, and his presence alone turns something that'd already be big into something that feels truly momentous. The Hash/Ogawa exchanges are what you want them to be, and Hash winning strike exchanges really feels like the moment in a movie where the hero is able to start cracking the Big Bad's armour. The crowd start believing as well, and the louder they get the more fired up Hash gets. Incredible moment where he rips off his boxing glove and starts laying into Ogawa with overhand chops. Incredible moment #2 when he can't be bothered with rope breaks and just headbutts Ogawa in the cheek. Honestly, it cannot be stresses enough how unbelievably fucking boss Shinya Hashimoto is in this match. Finish is totally sick as well. Hash is on the floor trying to snap Ogawa's arm (after Ogawa runs through folks with killer STOs), while in the ring it looks like Murakami is having his way with Iizuka. Iizuka has heart and has the entire Dome crowd behind him, but Murakami is a stone cold fucking psychopath and seems literally incapable of doing anything that doesn't hurt you. He takes Iizuka down and starts unloading fists, but Iizuka manages to escape and lock in a disgusting rear naked choke for the stoppage. Crowd goes utterly batshit insane, the ring fills up with people in tracksuits, and then Hashimoto tries to get at Ogawa some more. This was several thousand levels of great.

Yeah, this was really awesome. I was a bit worried they were going down a route I wasn't really interested in with the very first exchange, then approximately forty seconds in Ohmukai started kneeing Fukawa in the face and they never looked back. Who the fuck is Michiko Ohmukai, anyway? She was fantastic in this, like a more supple Takeshi Ono. She threw forty yarders to the gut, a couple Wanderlei punts, a brutal axe kick, and she hit one springboard wheel kick where she landed with practically her entire body weight on Fukawa's head. There was one bit where she'd gone for an armbar and Fukawa made it to the ropes, then as Fukawa was on all fours trying to get back to her feet Ohmukai just drilled her elbow with a kick. It was nasty as hell. Fukawa was her usual spunky self and all of her tricked out submission attempts had a hint of desperation about them. It felt like she actually HAD to get creative when going for submissions just to avoid being booted in the mouth. And that finish looked like it just about ripped out BOTH shoulders. What a cool find. I need to watch more Ohmukai.

Super nifty match. I think this is the first time I've seen Bennett and I thought she was perfectly fine at playing tank. She could also handle herself pretty well on the mat. Much of that was down to the weight advantage, but she was still snapping into cross arm-breakers and such. Yoshida was really fun as usual, trying to figure out ways in which to grab a limb or work around the size difference. The bull analogy is pretty apt. Stretch run with Bennett trying to slam Yoshida through the mat while Yoshida has to scramble and look for submission attempts was really good. I noticed it when I watched a bunch of her during the GWE project and I noticed it again here -- Yoshida is really outstanding at milking submissions for all they're worth, often past the point where most other wrestlers make it obvious there's going to be no tap out. There was one Bennett choke where I thought for sure Yoshida was going to tap, then I thought for sure she was going to pass out, and I popped for her finally making it to the ropes. The more of her I watch, the more she pulls ahead of every other joshi wrestler on my personal favourites list.

The October '97 minis match feels like as good a pick as any. I also remember thinking one of the May 1990 trios was maybe the best lucha trios I'd seen, but I couldn't tell you which one it was, either. The 11/26 trios that follows on from the Santo heel turn feels like it might be in the discussion. Honestly, I'd probably have the June 2013 Casas/Rush trios up there as well. I remember pretty much nothing about Brazos/Infernales. I know I've seen it, but I couldn't tell you what I thought about it.

If we're doing straight up favourite match ever, I think I'd probably go with Michaels/Mankind from Mind Games. It's been my go to for about fifteen years and it always holds up. If not that then Eddie/Rey from the 6/05 Smackdown! Or Rockers v Powers of Pain. Or the big 2/93 WAR V New Japan multi-man. Or maybe Damiancito el Guerrero v Cicloncito Ramirez. I'd have to think harder about this than "greatest." Was the version on those Memphis discs a bunch of us got in a bulk buy a few years ago any less clipped, or was it just a VQ upgrade? I moved a bunch of stuff around my house at some point and I don't even know where I've put them, so I can't even check this myself.

I'm actually leaning towards the '85 LLT. Either that or Chicana/MS-1.