Superstar Sleeze Posted January 30, 2014 Report Share Posted January 30, 2014 I absolutely loved that Kobashi/Takayama 2000 thought it built and built to a hot finish with one-armed Kobashi mounting his comeback only to fight through the pain and hit a burning lariat. Lost my notes for these two matches so need to do them while they are fresh in my head. I was going to wait to do non-bold ones at the end, but I will have to make an exception for Hashimoto/Iizuka vs. Ogawa/Murakami. Dick Togo vs Tiger Mask IV - 08/25/02 Inaugural Tokugun Jr. Heavyweight Champion I didn't really care for this one at all I thought this was a badly executed 2002 US Indy match that focused way more spots (that didn't even look good) than trying to tell a compelling story. They piqued my interest from the outset when Togo started the mask ripping, chair throwing and dragging Tiger Mask around by the neck with a cord, but once Tiger Mask was able to crack Togo in the skull with the chair things went downhill fast. Tiger Mask's offense looked awful, his sweep the leg was shit and he just looked like he could beat himself out of a wet paper bag. I know Togo is revered and I have not seen much so I will keep an open mind, but those Pedigrees have got to go. He makes me long for Kojima's Ace Crusher. The top rope Pedigree was particularly bad. At least the senton he used decent. So I lost my notes for this match and only the negatives stick out, but I do remember thinking it was at least entertaining in regards to the early brawling and Togo's heel work. **3/4 Jushin Liger & Wataru Inoue vs Tsuyoshi Kikuchi & Yoshinobu Kanemaru - NOAH 2/17/02 It is one thing to lose your notes in a match you dont like (Togo vs Tiger Mask), but it annoys me that I don't have my notes for this match because I thought this was pretty good, not MOTDC, but solid resume padding for greatest Junior of all time, Liger and a HUGE performance from Wataru Inoue. Inoue knows how to light up a muthafucka with an elbow. NJPW bullrushes early and isolate Kikuchi. At one point the Budokan is rocking like it is 1992 and chanting for Kikuchi. I always think of Liger as one of the best babyfaces of all time, but he has not trouble heeling it up here as he shoves his boot in Kikuchi's face before dropkicking him in the face and then doing a one foot pin cover. Kanemaru tags in and he does not have much in the way in offense. At first, he is content with letting the heels run into each other and stuff of that nature, but occasionally he will slip into indy-riffic spots, but he is not horrible. Liger gives him an absolute shit kicking I remember at least three Ligerbombs and a fisherman buster. Liger was on point in this match. Kanemaru to escape the wrath of Liger floats over on a suplex attempt and back kicks him in the balls. Kikuchi is pretty good at selling, but has almost nothing in the way of offense. The New Japan heels are really carrying this by delivering an ass kicking. Inoue and Kanemaru are the final two with Inoue initially gaining the advantage because he is ALL MAN~! However, the number games catches up to him and Kanemaru is able to hit a frogsplash, moonsault and a brianbuster to win. Melee ensues. New Japan and NOAH brawls to the back, which was awesome and pumped me for the rematch. It is not a super classic tag match, but the effective, powerful offense of the New Japan contingent and a pretty good finish. ***1/2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ryan Faulconer Posted January 30, 2014 Report Share Posted January 30, 2014 Togo has been doing the pedigree since 2001. His sentons should look great. He has one of the best ever. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Superstar Sleeze Posted January 30, 2014 Report Share Posted January 30, 2014 I was underrating the senton it was a very good senton. The pedigree is all on the receiver of the move to look good and Tiger Mask was being a bitch. I will say the top rope one was awful and that was really on both of them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dawho5 Posted January 31, 2014 Report Share Posted January 31, 2014 Liger is THE face junior, yes. But if you recall his early-mid 90s work, he had a fairly big vicious streak. Whenever Koji or Ohtani would start slapping Liger around, he would get all fired up and do heel shit right back at em, just maybe a little harder. So it's not hard at all to see him as a heel. 4 more down, having a lot of fun watching these. Tenryu/Fuchi vs. Kawada/Araya 6/30/01 Araya looks to be the guy in line for a serious ass-kicking here. Kawada and Fuchi have a brilliant exchange where Fuchi goes to work on an arm, so Kawada gets to the ropes then gives it right back to Fuchi by going to the arm. After the break, Kawada kicks Fuchi in the stomach, only to walk into a Fuchi kick to the stomach after a pause. Fuchi tags out to Tenryu on that (really well-done) note. Kawada starts to work an arm on Tenryu before they realize that this is Kawada vs. Tenryu and just start hitting each other. Kawada tags out to Araya, who hits a corner lariat then walks into a Tenryu right that busts him open. Tenryu and Fuchi work over Araya in awesome, dickish, grumpy 50-year old man TAG TEAM style. How these two didn't spend at least 5 years touring Japan as the Grumpy Old Ass-Beaters I don't know. Fuchi has some really nice Regal-esque matwork at some point in the match where he does a drop toe hold and just starts rubbing his elbow into the side of Araya's head, then back elbows him a few times. Glorious stuff. Kawada gets a pretty mild hot tag, due to Araya not being in jeopardy near long enough and Fuchi sells his ass off for Kawada. Fuchi finally gets a little offense in and tags out to Tenryu, and Kawada is not one to be slighted in the selling department. The winner in the Fuchi vs. Kawada sell-off: anyone watching. Later on, Araya does this nice spot where he runs into a massive Tenryu lariat after hitting some elbows and tries to "fighting spirit" his way up before...falling on his face. Well done there. This was on the way to a very good finish, with a bit of apron goading, followed by the payback. After the payback, we get a little table-setting action to bring the match home. This match will probably be in my top 30 or just outside. Loved what was here, but it was way too short. Give it ten more minutes to draw out the Araya beatings and let Tenryu and Fuchi alternate stretching and beating the shit out of him with some hope spots AND a few hot near-falls, and this is easily top 15. I can't stress enough how awesome Fuchi/Tenryu is. NJ vs. Osaka Pro 6 man We got some heat going on here, Liger is all fired up even before he hits the ring. He goes right at Murahama (whips him with his cape even) and talks some shit to Delfin before again menacing Murahama. Murahama takes a shot at Liger just after the opening bell while circling with Tanaka. Tanaka and Murahama have an awesome exchange, really need to watch their singles match now. I like how we went with less than full formula here. No meaningless NJ matwork, but we got the tags that showcase wrestler A vs. D, B vs. E, C vs. F to start off. I can live with that. This breaks down into some control segment stuff, with some weird pauses (I understand, cross promotional stuff has some unfamiliarity to it). Finally, a series of dives onto Liger (Murahama's is a must-see) leads us to the finishing sequence. Makabe's German's are freaking awesome. Nice spear, and his powerslam is good, but not DiBiase level good. needs more snap at the end. Some smart armwork by Murahama on Liger (left arm, kill the shotei) starts it off. They do some really smart break-ups on the near-falls (the wrestler breaking up the finish has similar finishers in a few cases), but the finishing sequence wasn't long enough for me. I liked it, probably the best juniors match I have seen on this list so far. Tamura vs. Ito U-Style This was really good, I always liked Tamura vs. Han and this actually came close to rivaling that for me. I liked the dueling submission focus, with Ito attacking an arm and Tamura going for a leg. There was one point where Ito started going after Tamura's leg, but Tamura was all over that shit and turned it around fast on him. All those fights with Volk made Tamura pretty good at countering legwork I guess. Finish was great with Tamura's persistence and focus (both on his attacks and submissions) paying off. I have this below the Tenryu/Fuchi match somewhere. Tanahashi vs. Nagata 4/13/07 Will start off by saying I really have a bias against New Japan Big Main Event (should I put a trademark here?) style matches. Nagata is a New Japan guy I can 3/4 like. I like his wrestling style minus the goofy pose before he kicks a guy in the chest on the ground. I like his fire and he seems like he's willing to sell even for weak Tanahashi strikes. Now to the match. Okay, early match Tanahashi is a mix of things I think are fine and things I hate. WHY the fuck does he always go collar-and-elbow or knuckle lock with guys who have a substantial weight advantage. Also, why does he do a hiptoss/headlock takedown on Nagata of all people? The last place Tanahashi wants to be with Nagata is the mat. But then, the other half of the time, he is scrambling his ass off to get off the mat when taken down and trying to use his speed to get ahead rather than playing to his obvious weakness. It's just such a crazy mix of back and forth smart and stupid wrestling. I can deal with that as the middle of the match is actually pretty damn solid. Nagata is beating the shit out of Tanahashi, Tanhashi tries some elbows and slaps to come back, but Nagata isn't having it. Tanahashi turns things around and his legwork makes a lot of sense here. Nagata has been kneeing and kicking Tanahashi's scrawny ass all over the ring for five minutes, so it's probably a good idea to at least take a little sting off of that. And he does it with a minimum of matwork, which also makes sense. Is it just me, or does he do a little Mutoh homage act with all the dragon screws and using the figure four? Add a low dropkick and he's got a big portion of Mutoh's leg work. We work our way into the hot finishing sequence wiith some of Tanahashi's smaller big moves, but Nagata has other ideas. Momentum swings back the other way and Tanahashi hits that weird spinning running neckbreaker drop deal he does a few times. I'm mixed on that move. It actually doesn't look as contrived as it ought to, which has a lot to do with how smooth Tanahashi does it. It also, unfortunately, looks pretty weak most of the time. Anyway, Tanahashi sets up his frog splash with a dragon suplex, which makes absolutely no sense when Nagata gets the knees up. I understand off of a bodyslam or something similar, but a Dragon suplex? Nagata has been off and on selling the leg, not terrible at all though. Finish is pretty good, and the leg work figures into more than a few things in the finishing run. That makes 2/3 of a really good wrestling match, and I can accept the last 2/3 of the match building nicely to the finish even if the first 1/3 was mostly miss. I'd rank this right about where the Tamura vs. Ito match is. Hoping some of the other Tanahashi matches avoid a lot of the pitfalls of Tanahashi vs. Nakamura 2006 (which in my mind should have had a similar mid-match run to this one). 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Kevin Ridge Posted February 3, 2014 Report Share Posted February 3, 2014 Just watched both Kobashi/Akiyama matches from 2000. Both were not as good as I remember. The August version will have a tough fight to stick in the top 100. The December match will still rank very well but I was thinking this was a top 10 match based off my memory of seeing over a decade ago. There dome match off memory again seemed much better. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kevin Ridge Posted February 3, 2014 Report Share Posted February 3, 2014 Gave Liger, Tanaka & Makabe vs Delfin, Murahama & Tsubasa a second viewing and really enjoyed it this time around. But the big match from that show is the Kawada & Fuchi versus Nagata & Iizuka. First time I saw this I was really blown away by it. Still an awesome match. I love seeing Fuchi out there at his age putting on matches like this. Nagata only grazes Kawada back to back on the jumping roundhouse kicks. Kawada is liking I am not selling that fully! So Nagata hits him with a German. Did not feel like a 30 minute match. Will rank very high in the end. On to 2001 though I am wondering if I should jump around more from other years. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kevin Ridge Posted February 3, 2014 Report Share Posted February 3, 2014 Hey Ditch, I tried watching matches through your site/stream for the first three of 2001 and each of them would stop playing after two/three minutes. Would go right back to beginning of match and repeat. Do I have the most up to date excel sheet download? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ditch Posted February 3, 2014 Author Report Share Posted February 3, 2014 That is a strange error. Links are an all-or-nothing proposition, so try re-downloading. Also, if you're not using VLC player, you should download and install it. Besides that I dunno. Also, I'm a big fan of chronological order, and Japan has much stronger continuity than the US, so my recommendation is to generally watch things as they happened. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kevin Ridge Posted February 9, 2014 Report Share Posted February 9, 2014 I cannot figure out how to use VLC player. Not sure being on a Mac changes things up. I just cannot get video to work and audio just loops for 10 seconds. Just not tech savvy enough. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WingedEagle Posted February 9, 2014 Report Share Posted February 9, 2014 That's weird. I downloaded VLC on a mac ages ago and had no problems right away. This happening to you on all files or one in particular? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kevin Ridge Posted February 9, 2014 Report Share Posted February 9, 2014 I have tried multiple matches from 2001. I did not have issues with viewing stuff until I hit those January shows in 2001. I had been using Quicktime player on 2000 stuff and had no issues. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Superstar Sleeze Posted February 9, 2014 Report Share Posted February 9, 2014 Time for a Juniors dump IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Champions Shinjiro Ohtani & Tatsuhito Takiwa vs Koji Kanemoto & Minoru Tanaka - New Japan Summer Struggle 6/25/00The next time a hot chick asks me in a club the two guys I would least want to wrestle I have my answer "Shinjiro Ohtanu and Tatsuhito Takaiwa". Holy shit were their strikes gnarly. That is how you fuckin heel yourself with stiff offense. I was feeling bad for Kanemoto & Minoru just because these ornery hombres were trying to fuckin kill them. I very rarely root for wrestlers in puroresu, but I was pulling for Kanemoto & Minoru big time. Early on the game plan for Ohtani and Takaiwa was trap their opponent in a corner and just slap, claw and punch the shit out of them. It was a violent mugging in those corner.s When Ohtani first came in and he just started punching Kanemoto in the head, it just set the tone: Kanemoto and Minoru were going to have survive. Minoru & Kanemoto has faces these bad muthafuckas before they knew they had to use movement and submissions. When they got a chance, Kanemoto yanked their noses, but they just incited them further Takaiwa yanked on his. Takaiwa gives the biggest slap I have ever seen to Kanemoto. It has to be seen. Ohtani says you thought that was a slap and slaps him even harder. Kanemoto somehow fires up and hits a true axe kick on Ohtani to tag in Minoru. Minoru goes for his bread and butter: the cross armbreaker, but Ohtani makes the ropes. I love the part where Kanemoto has a slight advantage and tells Minoru to get his ass in because it shows how much in survival mode they are. Usually, tag rules are loose enough that people make saves at will, but rarely does a team double team when on offense just really puts over the story of this match. Minoru goes for a cross armbreaker again, but Takaiwa is NOT HUMAN and powerbombs him onto the ropes. It really felt like a scene out of a slasher flick. They can't keep these psychopaths down. Ohtani dropkicks Minoru in the head twice while hanging in the tree of woe and makes sure to taunt Kanemoto each time. Minoru & Kanemoto return the favor on Ohtani only they dropkick him in the balls while in the tree of woe. I friggin love this match. The finish stretch is one of the hottest I have ever seen. Ohtani regains controls with a wicked eyerake and then low and high facewashes in the corner on Kanemoto. Kanemoto no-sells hits his weird flippy move and goes for his moonsault, but no one home. Takaiwa hits a lariat and Ohtani with a springboard dropkick on Minoru. However, it is overhead belly to bellys for everyone courtesy of Kanemoto. Kanemoto goes for a top rope frankensteiner and Ohtani holds on and he takes a nasty spill. They tease the Doomsday Device, but Minoru breaks up with dropkick. Takaiwa hits his death valley driver, but Kanemoto hits a dragon leg screw and Ohtani saves his partner. Minoru is a little quicker than the older Ohtani and applies a heel hook. Kanemoto and Takaiwa eye each other while Ohtani is squirming for the ropes. After all the punishment Ohtani has dished out to see him doing his temper tantrum selling makes you want to see Minoru kick his bratty ass even more. Ohtani is on jelly legs, but hits his Dragon Suplex for two. Ohtani blocks Minoru's superkick and hits two massive powerbombs one of each of his opponents. He threw them down! Ohtani hits a massive palm strike and goes for it again, but Kanemoto pushed Minoru out of the way and hits an overhead belly to belly on Ohtani. Minoru hits a springboard dropkick to back of Ohtani's head then follows up with the Dragon suplex and the cross armbreaker for the immediate submission.This match is for stiffness marks everywhere. The beginning of the match is almost uncomfortable to watch with how badly they are kicking the shit out of each other. Then not to be outdone the last 5 minutes or so is absolutely crazy action with bodies flying everywhere. Ohtani & Takaiwa are trying to get the Doomsday Device going and stiffing the shit out of their opponents. Kanemoto and Minoru are trying to survive with movement and flash submissions. Beat juniors match of 2000-2002 ****1/4--------------------------------------------------------------------- IWGP Junior Tag Team Champions Koji Kanemoto & Minoru Tanaka vs Jushin Liger & Shinya Makabe - New Japan 9/12/00 Not to be outdone by the previous Junior Tag Title Defense this also had a great closing stretch, but the beginning of the match was pretty ho-hum. The story of the match was the development of Makabe into a man. At first, he was never able to press the advantage against his opponents even though Liger, the God King of Juniors, would set up with some great advantages like tilt-a-whirl backbreakers/surfboard on Kanemoto or powerbombing and piledriving Minoru. It is not that Makabe was so incompetent that he get his ass beat it was just he didn't do much. He threw a lot of lame dropkicks. Liger finally says fuck it and is going to take the match over and hits a big palm strike in the corner on Minoru. Minoru clings to the ropes for dear life. Liger gets cocky and Minoru quickly applies a heel hook. Kanemoto stomps Liger's leg and dares Makabe to try something. Makabe being the putz he is does nothing. Liger makes it to the ropes and Kanemoto & Minoru just kick the shit out of his leg. Where's Makabe? Liger gets a desperation palm strike, but Kanemoto from the ground applies the heel hook again. Minoru throws Makabe out. Makabe is friggin' useless. Liger needs to think about getting a new partner. Liger avoids Kanemoto's flip splash and tries to get the leg woken up, but eats an overhead belly to belly. Makabe breaks up a pin?!?!?!?!?!?!? He is learning! Kanemoto hits his moonsault for two and now has a standing anklelock. Makabe hits a nice German suplex on him. Liger palm strikes for everyone. Ligerbomb on Kanemoto only gets two. Liger tags in Makabe who runs in and spears Kanemoto. That was pretty cool. Minoru stymies Makabe with a dropkick and Kanemoto hits a bridging Tiger suplex, which Liger breaks up. Minoru applies the heel hook on the outside to Liger. Makabe hits another spear on Kanemoto and a bridging Germans get two. I have come to find out Makabe has two moves at this point: the spear and German suplex. Kanemoto grabs a heel hook out of the German, which allows him to tag Minoru who dropkicks Makabe's knee and applies his own heel hook. Liger saves Makabe from what should have been a submission. Minoru starts to kick Makabe, who starts to fire up with fighting spirit. I have become a pretty big Minoru fan and was actually worried this moron might beat him. I began to actively root for Minoru and the cross armbreaker, which may color why this ending was so exciting for me. Makabe spears Minoru and hits rolling bridging German suplexes for two. Minoru takes a wicked bump off of a lariat and Kanemoto saves. Liger detains him and tells Makabe to finish him off. Ruh roh. Makabe hits a Northern Lights 1-2-NO! MIN-OR-U! MIN-OR-U! MIN-OR-U! Ok so the crowd was not chanting it, but I sure was in my living room in Massacusetts 14 years after the fact. Makabe looks to be on fire, but the dumb oaf eats a kick to the head and Minoru applies the cross armbreaker to get the flash submission.What a great finish to get me so invested in the outcome. They have done so much to get Minoru's flash cross armbreaker (which is how Del Rio's move should be treated) that you knew it was going to be the finish, but it was smart to have Makabe make the fighting spirit comeback to have him show a good outing. They used the vets tastefully as Liger hit all his sweet offense and played a good FIP. The story was to really let the young lions shine and Minoru looked like he was ready for primetime. ***3/4-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------New Japan (Jushin Liger, Minoru Tanaka, Shinya Makabe) vs Osaka Pro (Super Delfin, Takehiro Murhama, Tsubasa) - NJ PPV 12/14/00 On the same show where All Japan invaded and had a classic, Osaka Pro invades to take on the best of New Japan's juniors division. Liger is rocking the EVIL~! all black outfit again and is ready to best some Osaka pro ass. Super Delfin has crew dressed up as ridiculously as usually as they are in matching rainbow outfits. I could not really get into this match. It was not a bad match. It was a match that was just there. I did not think it had that much heat, which is strange because it had an awfully chippy start. My interest piqued at the prospect of a Minoru/Murahama shoot-style match that was teased at the beginning. There were some nice spots, but I did not think it built too much. I liked the symmetry where Tsubasa showed off with some gymnastics after sending Liger to the floor so when Minoru clears the ring he does the same as an FU to the Osaka team. Minoru plays FIP early taking a Hart Attack dropkick-style and then being put in a Boston Crab. Murahama plays a great watchdog while this is going on. In the spot of the match, Minoru jumps over an Osaka guy, ducks under an Osaka leapfrog only to run into a Murahama palm strike. Minoru creates separation (Vintage Cole!) with a dropkick and tags Liger. Tilt-a-whirl backbreakers for everyone, but whiffs on a palm strike. The dive train onto Liger was my second favorite spot.Murahama works over Liger's arm, but he able to hit a desperation powerbomb and tag out to Makabe because he is too injured to follow up. Is Delfin mocking Liger by using the palm strike or is that one of his moves? I did not care for Tsubasa offense late in this match felt bush league and weak. The finish sees Minoru dropkick Tsubasa as he comes off the top to give Minoru command of the match. He hits a missile dropkick to the back of the head and a Northern Lights, but broken up by Delfin. Liger detains Delfin and Minoru hits another Northern Lights and gets the submission with his cross armbreaker. The massive push of Minoru Tanaka continues and I would say he was the star of the match. I am excited that him and Murahama ended up having a match in 2001. It is a serviceable match, but nothing to write home about. ***---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- New Japan (Jushin Liger & Minoru Tanaka) vs. NOAH (Tsuyoshi Kikuchi & Yoshinobu Kanemaru) - New Japan 8/29/02A big brawl erupts and looks like NOAH has smartened up to New Japan's tactics and meets them at the pass. A really good early spot sees Kikuchi having a figure-4 on Minoru's head so Liger bodyslams Kanemaru on Kikuchi three times before he releases the hold. NOAH beats the piss out of Minoru early as Kanemaru drops a boot on Minoru as he hands over the edge of the apron. Kanemaru is even puts his feet on the ropes during a pin. NOAH heeling it up that's what I like to see. Minoru is selling all the suplexes and splashes so well. How did this guy not become a junior's superstar on the level of Liger, but KENTA and Marufuji got all this press? Kikuchi taunts Liger by holding out Minoru's hand to have him tag in and when Liger gets chippy he boots him off the apron. This is some good stuff so far. Minoru grabs his flash cross armbreaker. WAHOO~! Kikuchi gets thrown to the outside and eats a Ligerbomb on exposed concrete. He is just deadweight now. I love the puro deadweight sell on the outside. Liger applies camel clutch on Kikcuhi and Minoru puts his foot on Kikuchi's face for more leverage and the crowd pops. So do I! Minoru covers Kikuchi with one foot. This is glorious! Kikuchi catches the Liger palm strike and tags in Kanemaru. Kanemaru does some flippy shit so Liger kappo kicks him. Sit down, bitch! Minoru and Kanemaru trade ballshots in a funny exchange, which is sold for comedy. Liger and Kikuchi in and guess who wins that strike exchange. Ligerbomb is broken up by Kanemaru. Liger goes to town on Kikuchi with palm strikes and brainbusters, but Kanemaru keeps saving. Kikuchi is sucking air, dude. Somehow he catches the Liger palm strike and reverses into a German for two. He keeps hitting Germans, but Minoru saves. Kanemaru hits a brainbuster on Minoru and tells Kikuchi to finish him. Kikuchi with a modified Protobomb wins the match. BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! This match was more heated than the Osaka match and was about at the level of the earlier NOAH/NJ match. I liked Wataru's performance for the stiffness and Minoru's for the cockiness. I did not think either NOAH/NJ matches transcended into all-time classic status mostly because I did not think the NOAH guys were on the same level as the NJ wrestlers in offense, selling or bumping. NOAH was pretty good at heeling it up early, but then lost that feel towards the end. It is a very good match, but not a classic. ***1/2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Superstar Sleeze Posted February 9, 2014 Report Share Posted February 9, 2014 I want to post these questions separately so it does not get lost in the shuffle of all those words above: How did Minoru not become a junior's superstar on the level of Liger, but KENTA and Marufuji get all this press? Was the business in general just so down? Am I the only Minoru Tanaka fan in the world and I am just an idiot for seeing all this potential? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ditch Posted February 9, 2014 Author Report Share Posted February 9, 2014 Keep in mind that the 'western puro fans' world is very different from Japan. NOAH got more attention in the west than NJ from 2002-2006, but NJ was the #1 company during that span and typically by a wide amount. Minoru Tanaka was as accomplished as any junior in NJ over that span. Also, KENTA and Marufuji benefitted from NOAH having a hard time developing heavyweights, which gave them a lot more spotlight than juniors normally receive (especially compared to NJ). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goodhelmet Posted February 9, 2014 Report Share Posted February 9, 2014 Ditch, I asked this before but I'll ask once again... Can you extend the deadline until the end of the year? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tim Posted February 9, 2014 Report Share Posted February 9, 2014 Can we also petition for some extra matches to be added to eligibility? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alan4L Posted February 10, 2014 Report Share Posted February 10, 2014 I want to post these questions separately so it does not get lost in the shuffle of all those words above: How did Minoru not become a junior's superstar on the level of Liger, but KENTA and Marufuji get all this press? Was the business in general just so down? Am I the only Minoru Tanaka fan in the world and I am just an idiot for seeing all this potential? I would argue that I'm the biggest Minoru Tanaka fan in the world (outisde of Yumi Fukawa). I think he's one of the most gifted wresters ever. He makes everything look so easy, it's ridiculous. I think what hurt him was that they put him under a mask as HEAT in late 2002 just as he was getting into his prime years. It was such a dumb move. When he became Minoru again in 2006 it revitalised him. His last few years in New Japan were really strong and he played a huge role in Devitt's rise. Since he joined All Japan, he's elevated his game again and he's had some of the best matches of his career against guys like Kaz, Kondo, Omega and Yamato. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alan4L Posted February 10, 2014 Report Share Posted February 10, 2014 Okay, so I'm picking up on a theme here. BJW was way better than I remember it being during these years. I raved about that Kanemura trios match from 2006 already but now I've just watched another one that shocked me, and will place VERY high.BJW 2008 - Sekimoto & Yoshihito vs. Miyamoto & SasakiWOW! So I did really like this at the time, I think I had it at ****1/2, but as I went to rewatch it yesterday a part of me was expecting it to not hold up at all (I thought maybe my original enjoyment was based mostly on dudes like Daisuke being new to me, and loads of nearfalls etc). Instead it went the other way. The nearfalls were even hotter, Daisuke was fucking amazing and in different ways to how he is now (which is really upping my opinion of his career as a whole), the action never stops and the crowd is with them the whole way through. In some situations the nearfalls in this match would be overkill but here it just works. It builds and builds and is just keeps getting bigger. It was like a game of Jenga, you just keep expecting it to be over but nope, it got bigger and more exciting. Miyamoto was soooo much better back then than how he is now. I wonder if it's a case of the Deathmatches taking a toll on him already. Sad but very likely.Where I'll have it: Top ten is not outside the realm of possibility! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Superstar Sleeze Posted February 10, 2014 Report Share Posted February 10, 2014 I want to post these questions separately so it does not get lost in the shuffle of all those words above: How did Minoru not become a junior's superstar on the level of Liger, but KENTA and Marufuji get all this press? Was the business in general just so down? Am I the only Minoru Tanaka fan in the world and I am just an idiot for seeing all this potential? I would argue that I'm the biggest Minoru Tanaka fan in the world (outisde of Yumi Fukawa). I think he's one of the most gifted wresters ever. He makes everything look so easy, it's ridiculous. I think what hurt him was that they put him under a mask as HEAT in late 2002 just as he was getting into his prime years. It was such a dumb move. When he became Minoru again in 2006 it revitalised him. His last few years in New Japan were really strong and he played a huge role in Devitt's rise. Since he joined All Japan, he's elevated his game again and he's had some of the best matches of his career against guys like Kaz, Kondo, Omega and Yamato. Make room for me, brutha! I had heard of HEAT, but did not know how that was received. Good to hear he upped his game again once he went backing to being Minoru Tanaka as he really felt like a world class performer in early 00s. IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion Minoru Tanaka vs Takehiro Murahama - NJPW 4/20/01 This match did not disappoint given my high expectations after seeing them square off in the December trios match between New Japan and Osaka Pro. I was very excited when I found out they had a match nominated for this project. The way this match builds is really why it stands out as one of the better matches I have seen so far. It begins fast and furious with each man trying to find a hold that will weaken the other man. It is not mindless grappling. It really feels like they are looking to pick something a leg, arm, anything they can get their hands on and then wrench it. Murahama went for the cross armbreaker early but Minoru powerbombed out of it. From there, they just ramped up their intensity on the mat. Minoru is able to pop off a quick back drop driver, but Murahama powders before he can press his advantage. Murahama comes in and hits a huge flash kick to the head, which was treated like a KO shot and got a big reaction, but only got two. I like how everything is so quick in this match. Blink and you miss something crucial. Murahama works over the arm and then applies the cross armbreaker this was the best presentation of the cross armbreaker I have ever seen. From the announcer, to the crowd to Minoru's wriggling and selling, it felt so frantic and I could actually feel myself becoming anxious given the confluences of all these reactions. Minoru makes the ropes and powders. So Murahama dives on top of him. Sweet! Great way to press the advantage and have a nice highspot. Now Muraham goes for the crossface chickenwing, but never quite gets his fingers locked and there is such a great struggle here. Murahama coming off the ropes eats a dropkick to the knee and crowd pops because they know the heel hook is coming. Minoru keeps pulling Murahama back on the heel hook, but cant wrangle the submission. I liked how they whiff on big kicks. It was very believable how they absorbed a kick and kept going on. I have seen enough MMA to know that not every kick or punch to the head is a knockout shot. Minoru finally catches Murahama with a kick to the head and heads to the top. Murahama follows and there is a great struggle atop the turnbuckle with Minoru throwing headbutts that actually bust himself open. Eventually, Minoru hits a missile dropkick and when he fires up you see the blood covering the right side of his face. What a war! Huge release German and a kick only get two. Minoru wastes no time and applies the cross armbreaker for the finish. This was a great blend of the en vogue MMA-styles at the time. Even the typical pro wrestling spots like the dive to outside or missile dropkick made total sense in the scheme of the match. Everything in this match was so quick they were looking for a flash KO or flash submission, but still everything built. I loved the frenetic feel during that cross-armbreaker attempt by Murahama just so perfectly executed. The finish stretch was great at putting over Minoru's fighting spirit and of course his deadly cross armbreaker. ****1/4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alan4L Posted February 10, 2014 Report Share Posted February 10, 2014 You've got me so stoked to rewatch that match now. Great write-up!! One of my must-haves as a wrestling fan is a better video quality version of that match. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ditch Posted February 11, 2014 Author Report Share Posted February 11, 2014 Tenryu vs Tenzan, New Japan February 15th 2004 Background: An impromptu final in a one-night title tournament. Tenzan gave Nagata a legit KO with a moonsault in the second round, which messed up the plan. Tenzan was already busted up in his first round match with Sasaki, while Tenryu has taken almost no punishment thusfar. Why I think it's underrated: This is a big show main event but isn't worked in an "epic" style, so it wasn't going to attract MOTYC attention when considered alongside what was happening in NOAH. Yet it's just the sort of second-tier bout that deserves attention in a vote like this. They do a great job of mixing things up in their strike exchanges. Tenryu chipping at a wounded Tenzan is a great use of the lumpy old man, and the finish is quite satisfying considering the length of the match. All the more impressive in the context of Tenzan having wrestled two physical matches already. What it deserves: Top 100. I think a similarly worked match in WWE would be raved over. . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Superstar Sleeze Posted February 13, 2014 Report Share Posted February 13, 2014 You've got me so stoked to rewatch that match now. Great write-up!! One of my must-haves as a wrestling fan is a better video quality version of that match. I would say Ohtani/Takaiwa vs Kanemoto/Minoru match is best Juniors match I have seen from the 2000-2002 stretch, but it is very close. Independent Junior Heavyweight Champion Naoki Sano vs Minoru Tanaka - Battlarts 01/30/2000 Almost ten years to the day of this match, Naoki Sano put on his most heralded performance against Jushin Liger for the IWGP Junior Heavyweight match. On this night, Sano looked like he was moving in slow-motion and just plain old. Minoru Tanaka did the best he possibly could, selling all of Sano's holds like he was in agonizing torture, but he could not carry this match far past average. I read another review of this from Puroresu.TV promoting this as a slow matwork masterpiece. I want to clarify it is not the pace of the match that bothered me it was the fact that Sano would take down or transition in and out of holds like a snail. There was no struggle. It was just a slow-motion exhibition of catch wrestling on the mat. Then you add the first time Sano goes for the leg lace he just kind of holds MInoru foot and he just starts screaming in pain. It would be great selling if he did not look like a total tool because of Sano was applying literally zero torque or pressure. When Sano lazily applies a rear naked choke, Minoru sells like he is about to pass out and just makes it to the ropes. Everytime, Sano would even touch Minoru's leg or foot, he would immediately scramble for the ropes and scream. There was a clear inequality in effort levels throughout the match. Eventually, they drop the shoot-style stuff and just go full bore into pro wrestling, Sano tombstones Minoru and missile dropkick, but gets kicked in gut on a plancha attempt that did not look too good. Minoru hits his own missile dropkick and applies the cross-armbreaker, but Sano makes the ropes. Minoru grabs the heel hook, but Sano touches Minoru's foot, which sends flying out of the ring. Minoru is sure as hell selling that leg. Sano follows him out with a suicide dive in his best spot. They tease the countout finish with Minoru making it in at 19, which I thought was the best part of the match. Sano hits a Tiger Suplex, but Minoru is too close to the ropes. Minoru goes for his bread and butter again, but Sano makes the ropes. They trade nice head kicks before Minoru lands a Dragon Suplex for 2, but the immediate cross-armbreaker gets a submission and the Independent Junior Heavyweight Championship. I had high hopes for this shoot-style affiar, but Sano just did not show up. I thought Minoru did the best he could given what was dealt to him. Very disappointing match **3/4 New Japan (Jushin Liger & Minoru Tanaka) vs. NOAH (Tsuyoshi Kikuchi & Yoshinobu Kanemaru) - NOAH 4/7/02 In my opinion, this is the best match of the trilogy with great intensity and payoffs. As always the match starts with a melee as Liger greets Kikuchi on the ramp with a PALM STRIKE~! In a great early spot, Liger shoots Kikuchi into the ropes on the ramp so he just walks right through into the ring. Crowd pops! I love it! Kikuchi grabs a double wristlock on Minoru is going for the early submission and is relentless on the arm. The NOAH ref actually has to pull him off, which affords Minoru the opportunity to tag Liger and for Liger to palm strike Kikuchi. Looks like the fix may be in and the ref has some Yakuza bookies to pay off. Liger applies a cross armbreaker to Kikuchi, who sells it well, but it was not sold like in other Minoru matches the urgency to get out it. They went for more of a dramatic, long-term sell. Jushin "Nature Boy" Liger and NOAH Official Tommy Young get into a heated argument. Then Minoru comes in hits a dropkick, kips up and flips off Kanemaru on the apron. Minoru does the one foot pinfall attempt. This is great heel work from the New Japan boys and everything is focused on the arm throwing it into the post and kneedropping it. Kikuchi back drops out of a Ligerbomb attempt to tag Kanemaru, which was a bit of unsatisfying transition. What happens next is some of my favorite stuff to ever happen in a wrestling ring. I have come to realize that Kanemaru' has a penchant to low blow with his leg when he being attacked from behind. You have to get up pretty early in the morning to get one over on Liger, who avoids Kanemaru's natural defense mechanism and then kicks Kanemaru in the balls. Kanemaru sells it like death. The NOAH young boys are red hot and take to the apron to protest. Liger taunts them and palm strikes one off the apron. LIGER RULES~! Minoru sets up Kanemaru in the corner for Shattered Dreams, but first he hits two dropkicks and then casually walks over and kicks him in the balls. Minoru hops around in the ring grabbing himself taunting the crowd. I love it! Minoru kneedrop and does the one foot cover again to no avail. Kanemaru hits a dropkick to tag Kikuchi, again kinda lame transition. Kikuchi is red hot and is just tackling everyone and forearming anyone he can get his hands on. He tags Kanemaru in and then in the payoffs to end all payoffs: Kanemaru knocks Minoru on the ground and drop toeholds Liger so that he headbutts Minoru in the nuts. TREMENDOUS!!!!! In turn out after having his manhood abused Kanemaru grew a fucking set because he rips Liger's mask and goes after Liger's eyes. Liger kicks out of his moonsault at one and just lets out what can only be described as a roar! Now you gone and done it, boy! Liger absorbs a palm strike and lets loose with one of his own for two. They trade brainbusters to level the playing field. Minoru flies all around Kikuchi making him look foolish. Minoru heel hook does not do it and Kikuchi rattles off a German, but on the second attempt Liger palm strikes him in the head. Liger tells Minoru to take care of his light work. Liger piledrives Kanemaru on exposed concrete. Minoru gets a two with a head kick and the immediate cross armbreaker gives New Japan the victory. I thought the first 3/4 of this match would give the Midnights/RnRs a run for their money in combining drama and comedy in a match. The New Japan heel work was awesome and the testicle psychology was off the charts great. Kanemaru taking it to Liger was awesome and really should have figured into the finish. Instead, the finish was the usual stuff with Minoru winning with the cross-armbreaker. There was definitely a lot more to explore in terms of Kanemaru going to town on Liger. In addition, the babyface transitions were not the strongest, but still overall a super fun and excellent match. **** Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ditch Posted February 13, 2014 Author Report Share Posted February 13, 2014 3 links updated in the file. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ditch Posted February 18, 2014 Author Report Share Posted February 18, 2014 Tamura vs Ito, U-Style August 18th 2004 Background: Semi-final in a tournament to crown the promotion's champion. As it turned out there was never a title defense, because the promotion essentially shut down at the end of the year. Thankfully their abortive championship produced this gem. Ito is a massive underdog, lacking the experience and crisp execution of the promotion's ace. Why I think it's underrated: Tamura/Kohsaka was somewhat overlooked at the time, and this was even less prominent initially. While it doesn't match the smoothness of the February submission-fest, it does have a solid story and much more drama in the final minutes. Ito delivers quite the effort. What it deserves: As with Tamura/Kohsaka, top 100 in general and top 50 if you're favorably inclined to the style. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Superstar Sleeze Posted February 24, 2014 Report Share Posted February 24, 2014 Shinya Hashimoto & Takashi Iizuka vs Naoya Ogawa & Kazunari Murkami - Tokyo Dome 01/04/00 The Dome sure was rocking for this one, baby! From Inoki's entrance through post-match pull apart, this may have the most extended heat ever from a Dome crowd I have seen. The crowd still loves them some Inoki, who came out and said some stuff in Japanese and then broke a big stick in half so he created two wicked sharp stakes. Inoki: Vampire Slayer, Book It, Sci Fi! Everybody is wearing MMA gloves and Hashimoto/Ogawa just has that big match feel that belongs in front of a Dome. It is no wonder Hash thought he could run pretty much an entire promotion with him on top and Ogawa as his number two given the sustained heat. The match delivered a wild, chaotic classic where you had no idea what the heel was going to happen next and any shot could be a KO or a submission. The crowd was really vibing off this chaos and was popping for pretty much every spot. There was pretty much no downtime in the match. Murkami bullrushed Iizuka with lefts and kicks at the outset to establish the feel of the match. He full mounts Iizuka, but he gets to the ref so Murkami shoves the ref off. As he breaks, he kicks Iizuka's head off so Hashimoto comes into check on IIzuka and Murkami grabs the mic to lay some badmouth as one would expect. This is fuckin crazy. Hash fucks up Murkami triggering the big Hashimoto/Ogawa confrontation and the Dome is just losing it. NJPW wrestler pour into the ring and here comes Inoki with his giant fuckin Stake to reestablish order and Iizuka is ok so LETS GET IT ON! Team Ogawa is in love with O Soto Gari/STO and that is their constant go to move to takedown the other team. Once on the mat they trade cross-armbreaker, triangles and a leg bar. There is a real sense of struggle in every movement and the Dome heat is just unreal. Murkami full mounts Iizuka and was so focused on kicking his ass that he did not see Hashimoto got tagged in, who promptly lights him up with kicks. Hashimoto tells Ogawa not to sing it, but just bring it. Dome is molten. Hashimoto ends their stand up exchange with a wicked headbutt against the ropes and starts beating the piss out of Ogawa and the gloves come off. Ogawa goes to his STO bread and butter, but Hash just throws him back. Ogawa gets on his bike and tries to turn this into a track meet. Hashimoto gets trapped in his guard and survives a triangle choke. Everyone gets hit with STOs as Ogawa begins to turn the tide. Iizuka dropkicks Ogawa to the floor off of Hashimoto. Hashimoto is on Ogawa on the floor and attempts to break his arm with a keylock. Iizuka grabs a rear naked choke on Murkami for the win. Ogawa is a sore sport and throws Iizuka and the NJPW wrestlers pull apart before anything else can happen. The entertainment from this is derived from the chaos and hatred between the two teams. The Dome is just so into match that makes everything electric. The finish was a little too abrupt and I wanted to see more Hashimoto and Ogawa. Still this was a super fun match that just flew right by. ****1/4 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ NWA World Heavyweight Champion Shinya Hashimoto vs Masato Tanaka - Zero-One 3/02/02 I did not understand the appeal of this match as a MOTYC. It was a really great extended squash that saw Hashimoto pretty much fuck up Tanaka's day, but outside of that this match really did not offer much. It was just a follow-up to the Zero-One inaugural tag that established Hashimoto as an unstoppable, invulnerable force of nature. I will say Masato Tanaka's screeching in Japanese was really disconcerting and I would almost say disturbing. I felt really bad for him as he was just getting wrecked by the emotionless Hashimoto. At the beginning of the match Tanaka kicks the NWA belt away and Hashimoto will not stand for such disrespect and sends Tanaka running for the hill after beating him up in the corner. Tanaka's new strategy is to try to get toe to toe with Hash, but that works about as well as you think it would. The story of the match is that Tanaka would occasionally find an opening (lariat, forearms, attacking the knee), but could never string together any offense because well he is facing Hashimoto. The most entertaining moment of the match for me was when Hashimoto wiped out from a double stomp from the apron to the floor. Thankfully, he was able to catch the railing so he did not take a header into it. It is only funny because he did not get hurt. Boy, did he take out his embarrassment on poor Masato Tanaka with those kicks. It finally looks like Tanaka make actually make a run at Hashimoto by getting to his knee, but he just cant resist slapping Hashimoto, who responds with a punch that floors Tanaka. Tanaka tries to take down Hashimoto, but eats knee lifts before taking a DDT for 2. One last gasp for Tanaka who hits a roaring elbow and applies a choke, but as soon as Hashimoto stands up he just melts into a pool of defeated humanity. Brainbuster is the mercy killing for Masato Tanaka. The transitions for all the offense shifts were pretty bad. It felt like Hashimoto would let Tanaka do things and then he would just swat him from the sky. There was no heat. When you have a guy like Hashimoto it is always semi-entertaining to watch him just squash someone, but not a MOTYC in any way. *** Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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