We are DVD HOLLENDAISE and we are here to crush Eternal Internet Enhancement Talent- that august reviewing body called DVD FOGHAT- like a bug when we lay down the Death Valley Driver ‘91 on those spindly stacks of dimes they call their necks.

We’d like to welcome aboard young Pete Stein who should have been a Playboy long ago but we never got around to actually asking him.  Ray and I are tackling the two big Glenn tapes that have been laying around our houses for a couple of weeks and I’m all over the EMLL that Pete hoisted upon me.  Pete- (who we found out is INSANE)- is tackling RINGS and JWP right off the bat.  In the words of Robert Pollard, “Your name is Wild.”  Here’s the new man on DVD Foghat’s collective mom- takem home Pete ..

@#@#@#@@# RINGS 6-27-98, Tokyo Bay NK Hall (WOWOW)
(by POGO PETE STEIN!)
And WHY, may I ask, did it take 9 months for someone to review this WHOMP-ASS show?  This was my intro to RINGS and it's a cool mix of works and shoots, along with about the damnedest wrestling clinic I've ever seen in the main event.

YASUHITO NAMEKAWA vs. TROY ITTENSOHN:
Neat shoot match from two guys making their debut with RINGS.  Apparently, the key in separating the shoots from works here is the use of a round system (in this case, two 5-minute rounds).  Namekawa looks like he could be a real player with the company, as he can go on the mat as well as in a stand-up fight.  He never gets in any serious trouble here, polishing off Troy in the second round by knocking him down with a couple of shotays followed with a knee to Troy's gut after Troy had already lost too many points due to rope breaks- hence, Troy loses by TKO.

WILLIE PEETERS vs. WATARU SAKATA:
Another shoot, this one a rematch from 2/98 in Holland where the Dutch officials apparently screwed Sakata over so badly in giving the win to Peeters that the Japanese press called the match a no-contest instead.  And in grand RINGS sporting tradition, they proceed to screw Willie over right back, thankyouverymuch.  There's definitely HEAT BETWEEN THE BOYS for this one, as Sakata doesn't want anything to do with Willie when they come to the center for instructions. About 90 seconds in Sakata gets an achilles hold on Willie, who starts to complain that it's an illegal hold then screams for his life in mid-complaint and taps out for the loss.  Postmatch, and this may be the coldest thing I've ever seen in wrestling, Sakata walks up to Willie, smiles, and does the "I'm so smart!" bit by tapping his head.  Akira Maeda didn't screw Willie Peeters- Willie Peeters screwed Willie Peeters.

HIROMITSU KANEHARA vs. SANDER MAC KILJAN:
Third and final shoot of the night.  Sander is a BIG boy, almost like Semmy Schillt of Pancrase, and he uses his wingspan to land some nasty kicks while Kanehara tries to shoot in and take him down. Kanehara eventually scores a takedown and stays in the mount the rest of the match, finally getting a cross-armbreaker on Sander for the quick tap-out at 1R 3:26.  I wouldn't mind seeing Kanehara go longer in a worked match.

VLADIMIR KLEMENTIEV vs. HANS NYMAN:
Judging by Hans' ample waistline, he is NOT here to pump- *clap*- us up.  Vlad doesn't look like much but he's surprisingly agile, showing off some nice kicks early (the first of which backfires as he misses and lands ass-first, but it's OK since it's a work this time and Hans won't make him pay for it .  The give-and-go between the two is fun while it lasts, ending when Vlad misses an enzuigiri(!) and Hans rushes in.  Vlad then tries to monkey-flip (!!) Hans, but Hans scoots behind Vlad and gets on a choke sleeper for the tap-out at 4:44.

KENNICHI YAMAMOTO vs. MASAYUKI NARUSE:
This is for the RINGS under-210 pounds title held by Naruse.  Nice give-and-take at the beginning between the two, and even the ref gets into the act somewhat by actually using the ropes to "slingshot" them back into the center after they get tied up there.  Ken does this TOTALLY goofy move where he has Naruse on his back and it looks like he's going to go for a Sharpshooter, but instead he drops down into the mount.  The crowd laughs their asses off- I guess you can take the man away from Yoji Anjoh, but you can't take Yoji Anjoh away from the man.  That aside, it's tight on the mat and standing up until Naruse stretches Ken's arm out for the tap at 11:07.  Fun match, and even Ken's Golden Cup flashback was kinda cute.  It's like the crowd and announcers went "Oh, how cute- he thinks he's still a pro wrestler!"

KIYOSHI TAMURA vs. TSUYOSHI KOHSAKA:
For those of you who don't like awesome matwork, here's a half-hour of awesome matwork.  Yikes and away, this is some fun shit!  The first half of the match is basically an extended tease as Kohsaka gets an armbreaker on Tamura and Tamura has to work his way out of it- to a huge pop from the crowd.  Then each man gets a hold on, and the other man has to work HIS way out and reverse it into a hold of his own.  This repeats several times, and it's really intense and dramatic as neither man even scores a point.  Kohsaka FINALLY scores the first point of the match when he forces Tamura to take a rope-break off of an ankle-lock at the 13-minute mark, and the way the match has gone so far it looks like that could be the only point of the whole match, so the crowd is suitably hot.  Tamura then has to take a second rope-break off of another ankle-lock at 16:00, but he comes right back forcing Kohsaka to get a break off of an armbreaker at 18:15.  Kohsaka gets the point right back and goes up 3-1 when Tamura has to take a third rope-break at 20:00 after Kohsaka gets an armbreaker of his own, but Tamura IMMEDIATELY ties the score at 3 with a flurry of shotays on Kohsaka for a knockdown.  Tamura then takes his first lead at 4-3 when he forces Kohsaka to take a rope-break off a choke at 24:05.  After the stand-up Kohsaka goes for a kick only for Tamura to catch it, trip Kohsaka's leg out and get an ankle-lock on, and Kohsaka has to get another rope-break at 25:00.  We're in the shank o' the evening now and Tamura gets an armbreaker on, but Kohsaka reverses and so Tamura has to take the costly rope-break instead and his lead shrinks to 5-4.  Less than a minute later Kohsaka ties things up again with a choke that Tamura has to rope-break out of, and the last 3:00 is a fucking sprint with reversal after reversal as neither man wants to lose a point this late in the match.  Tamura gets a sleeper on with less than a minute left then turns it into an armbreaker at the "10 seconds left" call, with the announcer screaming "LAST CHANCE, LAST CHANCE" in English, but Kohsaka gets saved by the bell and Naimark's ready for a cigarette.  Tamura needed to get his heat back after getting mauled by Overeem and then dropping the RINGS heavyweight strap to Tariel the previous month.  Mission accomplished, Sparky.

Welcome to the 21st Century, folks- if you want to see what RINGS should be all about, now that old man Maeda's gotten his head handed to him by Aleksandr Drago and retired to boot, you want ALLLLLLL of this.  I could've gone for seeing Volk Han or the man with the greatest name in wrestling, GROM ZAZA, but the main event ain't exactly gonna have folks pining for those two.

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ EMLL 11/28/98
(by DEAN RASMUSSEN)
Since this is the DVDVR TIME OF HATE!! I’m gonna do all 18 hours of EMLL two shows at a time every two weeks until I’m all up to speed on THIS!- the most talented roster in the entire world.  You forget about EMLL since it’s kinda tricky to get the tapes sometimes, but then you get the EMLL and you realize that- overall- EMLL is the best promotion in the world when it comes to ratio of per match hits to strike outs and it’s good to see all them young fellas jumpin all ovah the ring again.

Fuerza Guerrera/ Pierroth/ Universo 2000 vs. Lizmark/ Atlantis/ Solomon Grundy
This was a mess and I couldn’t understand why.  I mean, Fuerza is one of the all-time greats, Lizmark is a LEGEND, Atlantis is one of the best workers in EMLL, and Universo 2000 is the saving grace of the Hermanos Dinamitas- so this should have been SOMETHING.  Instead it’s a whole lot of Solomon Grundy- who is a more agile, fatter version of the Mighty Wilbur, and a whole lot of Pierroth- who was never the Worker’s Worker to begin with- and he doesn’t even have the GREATEST MASK IN THE HISTORY OF OUR SPORT anymore to get superfluous coolness points that way so that may have been key to the STINKINESS of this match.  Atlantis does fearlessly hit a High-Angle Powerbomb on Pierroth for the lone highlight of the match.  Postmatch, Fuerza and Pierroth turn on Universo and thus Mascara Ano 2000 (the second crappiest of the three) makes the save.

Cien Caras/ Mascara Ano 2000/ Universo 2000 vs the Headhunters/ Tony Ribera:
God, welcome to EMHELL.  The problem is that Universo 2000 has only shown flashes of non-suckage in singles matches.  Whenever he is in concert with his sangre, he pretty much sticks to the super Old Style rudo tactics of punching, kicking, yelling at the crowd and pointing to his winky when feigning a foule.  So it’s REALLY one out of SIX in this mama- with the young and not afraid to die for your pleasure (and you find it pleasing) Tony Ribera (or is it Rivera?) supplying the actual work.  It must be weird being Universo 2000.  It would be like if Booker T had another brother as shitty as Stevie Ray- and they never got hurt- and the Harlem Heat Brothers had to stay together forever.  GOD! Think about it...  This was pretty hideous- as the first caida was all HH Bellybuck-Intensive with the Dinamitas doing a big batch of nothing and fucking up whatever they DID try (see the comically totally botched enziguiri spot when Cien Caras wants to get all tricky and vary from punching and kicking and succeeds in exposing the BIZ more than anyone since Lex Luger hit his last clothesline). The second caida was an exhibition on just how fat the Headhunters are (really, really) as they can’t seem to be knocked over by shoulder blocks!  BOY!  THAT’S REALLY FAT!  Hermanos Dynamitas foule Headhunter A or B and we call it a shitty match and go home.

Ultimo Guerrerro/ Rey Bucanero Jr/ Gladiador vs Blue Blazer/ Mr Aguila/ Mr Niebla:
This was a spirited little affair that starts with Ultimo Guerrerro beating the crap out of Aguila- which is always a plus.  I’m guessing this is Dan Kroffat as the Blue Blazer because he whips out the fullblown, right-on-the-top-of-the-head Cobra Clutch Suplex at the end of the first Caida- which is about as about as expected in Lucha as Toshiaki Kawada wrestling as an Exotico versus All Japan SuperTaue Jr. in the Tokyo Dome this May.  Ultimo and Bucanero battle for Bump Of The Caida Award that Ultimo wins by topping Rey’s one-handed Jerry bump with the as SWANK as SWANK can be Psicosis-cum-Violencia Knee-Into-The- Corner-Over -The-Top-Onto-The Floor bump.  Aguila does a Tope Con SOMETHING as he flies over the ringpost to kill the hell out of Ultimo.  Post Blue Blazer Cobra Clutch Suplex which kills Rey dead, Niebla gets Gladiador in his comical Niebla-LOCK! and I fell out!  The second Caida is weird because it’s your basic static rudo caida with Ultimo breaking up the kicking and slapping monotony by hitting a swanky tope and then the TRES SWANK Run-up-the-ropes Toprope Brainbuster that kills the living bejeebers out of Aguila.  Eventually, Aguila gets a fancy roll-up on Captian Ultimo for the two fall odd win.  This was good- as Ultimo Guerrerro is really starting to show me what the hype was all about- as he is a good knockoff of Black Warrior stylistically- though he isn’t NEARLY as dangerously insane as Black Warrior.  It should have gone three caidas with more man on man stuff in the middle of the ring in a third caida.

Apollo Dantes/ Dr Wagner/ Cien Caras vs Tienblas Jr/ Rayo de Jalisco Jr/ Brazo de Platta:
Dantes and Platta aren’t, like, worthless, but they are pretty inconsistent and mid-range workers at best.  Dr Wagner is the best luchadore in the world at times, so this has three workers to combat the POO.  Actually Tienblas isn’t gut-wrenchingly horrible, but he isn’t like the first time you saw Rey Misterio either- if you know what I mean.  This is pretty horrible though- as it all degenerates to crappy lucha random brawling pretty quickly and it’s topped off with some of the most comically inept wrestling you will ever see when Cien Caras and Rayo de Jaliscload take it the finish one-on-one. Mercifully joined in progress.  P-U.

Black Warrior/Bestia Savaje/Scorpio Jr vs. Felino/Negro Casas/El Hijo del Santo:
There’s a couple of reasons why this match is a Lucha Libre turning point in my short but fruitful Lucha-viewing experience.  When you first start getting into Lucha- and I pretty much went head first when I got Damian Lauley’s SEMINAL 1995 “Best of” and “Good of” compilations way back when- your first exposure will tilt you one way or another as to how you will view lucha for a great while.  I was first shown that REAL Lucha was AAA 1994-1995.  The thing is that EMLL was what AAA was rebelling against and since AAA’s roster of young superstars (Misterio, Guerrera, Psicosis, Heavy Metal) wanted to distance themselves from the traditional style and- since I was SO into the AAA circa 1995 guys when I was first exposed to Lucha- it slanted my view for a while.  This match is full circle. I’ve been getting WAAAY into EMLL for the last two years, but this was the match when I really started to realize that the highspots ain’t what make the Lucha, it’s the MATCHES that the Lucha.  Whereas I would have been down on Bestia as a journeyman one-dimensional rudo, I have since figured out that he is- in all actuallity- the Mexican Fit Finlay: stiff as hell, carries a match with flawless psychology and he just adds an element of legit toughness to the proceedings that you can’t get from most professional wrestlers.  Black Warrior is the next great extension of the EMLL line of great rudos- in that he bumps better than Pirata Morgan in his prime and can carry any technico in a trios match.  But there are two big differences that make him totally unique and King-sized in rudodom.  The first major difference is that Black Warrior is such a GREAT athlete that he can make ANY technico move look even more devastating.  In this match, in the first Caida, he gets a MOUNTAIN of air under his Quebrada-Hurricanrana attempt that- when Felino counters it into a Powerbomb- there is so much room for Felino to work with that he can make it a true Ligerbomb IN MID-AIR.  The fact that Felino and Black Warrior are working towards a feud at this point bodes well for the rest of the tapes because Black Warrior is great at making Felino’s freaked-out Puroresu-drenched offense look even greater.  I’m thinking the pinnacle of the Black Warrior singles feud will be against Dr Wagner- since Wagner is suddenly better at Lucharesu than Felino is these days.  The other major difference for Black Warrior is that he has synthesized the best of the AAA circa 1995 rudos- Psic, Juventud, Heavy Metal- whipping out the truly dynamic and spectacular offenses which was pretty unheard of at that point (to paraphrase some guy who wrote a really great article for the Torch back in 1996 about Tijuana AAA.  I can’t quite remember his Evil, Evil name.) - with the best of the Old Line EMLL rudos which is fantastic matwork and METRIC TONS of Old School rudo graceful hatefulness that showed you how to be a real dick, but not an annoying dick. Anyway, this match’s first caida jams a matches worth of stuff into three minutes: Black Warriors does the turnbuckle to the floor Violencia bump, Santo continues his legacy of being the current holder of the Ciclon Ramirez Totally Out of Control Tope by killing the holy crap out of Bestia; Bestia kicks Casas RIGHT IN THE FACE four times REALLY HARD and sets up the True Lariat from Casas. Felino also gets in Quebrada Hurricanrana that sets up the BW reciprocal attempt that sets up the finish of the fall.  I’m SPENT.... The rest of the match is Scorpio Jr and ElHijo del Santo ripping each other’s masks off as the build to a fued that is just now getting blown off (if I read Highspots correctly).  Scorpio isn’t very good.  No. Not at all.  He wrestles a whole lot like the present day Tony Atlas.  Yep.  Santo will make it work in the ring though.  He’s the best.  Felino and Black Warrior get in the last word for swanky moves as
they doe the COUNTER out of the RUN-UP-THE-ROPES HURRICANRANA by BLACK WARRIOR that FELINO counters into a toprope POWERBOMB.  It was hurty as all hell.  EMLL motherfucking RULES.

!@!@!@! NEW JAPAN TV - December ??
(by REV RAY!)

Jushin Thunder Lyger vs. Takaiwa:
This is perhaps the worst Jushin Lyger match I've ever seen... and I've seen the matches where they've teamed Lyger with Bill Kasmeier and Erik Watts in the battle bowls...  El  Hijo Del Meng is in control as we join the match, working over Lyger's leg with an achilles tendon hold.  Well I'll be damned... he does know something other than a powerbomb or a Death Valley Bomb.  Lyger stuns him with a shotay, whips him to the corner and hits the corner shotay.  Now, if Takaiwa was Ohtani, he'd have sold this like a crash dummy.  Takaiwa sells it like Lyger shot a spit ball at him.  Lyger hits him a few more times and knocks him out to the floor.  Lyger hits a baseball slide which Toyotaiwa... you guessed it... no sells.  Lyger with a pescado, Takaiwa catches him and drops him across the railing. This was at least a counter move, but it's still stinks.  Takaiwa with a lariat into the corner.  Lyger reverses a whip and goes for the rolling kappou kick with Takaiwa turns into an overhead face first powerbomb.  Endless Powerbomb into the Death Valley Bomb for a two.  Takaiwa goes for a top rope elbow and misses... HEY HE SOLD THAT!  Takaiwa  goes for a suplex, Lyger fights him off and hits a brainbuster and it is sold (you know it's a bad match when I have to say what gets sold and what
doesn't).  Lyger tries for a head scissors move out of a corner whip, but Takaiwa catches him and drops him face first to the mat.  Takaiwa with a knee clip and a top rope elbow drop to the leg to set up a figure four.  Lyger rolls to the ropes for a break.  Takaiwa works the leg over on the ropes before Lyger no sells and drops Takaiwa with a shotay (sold).  Corner whip, shotay to the back of the head (sold).  Top rope fisherman buster... NO SOLD... FUCK YOU TAKAIWA.  I refuse to comment on this anymore, but Lyger eventually wins with a bitch slap.  Takaiwa should team with Black Cat and feud with the Freedom Dogs in open matches so I never have to see him again.

Footage of Mutoh in Taiwan with I'm assuming a Chinese musician- where they swap "Natural Born Masters" t-shirts for CDs.  The good part about this was that it was in English so I knew what was going on.  The bad news is, I didn't care enough to write it down.

Keiji Mutoh/Satoshi Kojima vs Kensuke Hokuto/Kazou Yamazaki:
This is part of the Super Grade tag league.  Sasaki and Kojima are mixing it up with chops with Sasaki getting the advantage.  Sasaki hits a neat move where he lifts up Kojima by his leg in to a powerbomb. Sasaki drops some elbows and keeps Kojima down, Yamazaki tags in and uses an ax kick and a leg lariat and tags back out. Choshyu Jr. with the scorpion.  Kojima does a few push ups during this but it doesn't seem to be helping him.  Yamazaki tagged in, they lift up Kojima by his legs and drive his knees to the mat.  Yamazaki with a few roundhouse kicks but his leg lariat attempt is turned into a back suplex and Mutoh is the house of fire.  Mutoh goes for the handspring elbow but Yamazaki kicks away at his leg as he vaults in.  Yamazaki with a dragon screw and the figure four.  Kojima tries to save, Sasaki throws him out once, but Kojima slides right back in for the save.  RikiLariatoJr and a dragon screw by Sasake to set up the scorpion.  Kojima attempts another save but Yamazaki kuts him off and puts him in the wakigatame. Yamazaki tags in again, Mutoh catches him with a dragon screw.  He goes for another, but Yamazaki rolls and catches Mutoh in a reverse cross knee scissors before Kojima puts the boots to him.  Sasaki in, Yamazaki teases a German suplex with Sasaki throwing a lairat, but Mutoh ducks and Kazou eats it.  Kojima tags in, inverted atomic drop to set up a lariat for a two.  Corner forearm to the top rope elbow, but Sasaki breaks it up.  Kojima hits him as he leaves with a lariat, but Sasaki no sells it and drops him with a lariat.  Corner whip into the face crusher by Sasaki.  Strangle Hold Gamma is broken up by Mutoh.  Sasaki goes for another lariat but eats a Kojima Cutter. Mutoh and Yamazaki tagged back in Mutoh's jumping back kick is turned into a reverse ankle lock, Kojima breaks it up.  Kazou tries to kick Kojima who grabs his leg and holds it for a Mutoh drop kick to the knee.  Mutoh hits a dragon screw, a top rope drop kick, and a super dragon screw to set up the figure four which Yamazaki immediately taps out from.  This had some neat spots in it, so it gets a passing grade.  A post match first as Kojima does an interview where he doesn't yell at the top of his lungs.

Tatsumi Fujinami/Shinya Hashimoto vs. Shiro Koshinaka/Genichiro Tenryu:
Also from the tag league, Shiro controls on Gramps Fujinami.   Tenryu tags in and hits the elbow on Fujinami for a two.  He picks up Fujinami, but Fujinami hits a back suplex and tags to Hashimoto. Hash and Tenryu mix it up a bit with Tenryu getting the upperhand, he tries to whip Hash into a Shiro jumping hip attack but Hashimoto chops him out of the air and starts putting the hurt on Tenryu. Hashimoto even whips out the top rope drop kick.  Tenryu tags  out to Shiro after Fujinami tags back in.  Shiro hits a few hip attacks but Fujinami counters his top rope hip attack by slapping on the sleeper into the dragon sleeper as Hash cuts off Tenryu.  Really to short to hate, but it did have Hash and Tenryu beating up each other which you've got to love.

Scott Norton vs. Manabu Nakanishi:
Pre-match the announcers talk about the upcoming match.  In another first, Saito's not wearing a shirt he stole from WCW/nWo.  Norton's in full blown Takaiwa mode, not sell really anything.  I'm indiffernt to Nakanishi, he's not the Cat so Norton beating the shit out of him and not selling doesn't work for me.  Norton hits a lot of his power offense, working on Nakanishi's shoulder, hitting a few of his shoulder breakers before he ends up posting himself on the floor.  Nakanishi hits a diving lariat and puts Norton in the Argentine backbreaker, but Norton punches his way out.  Norton with a lariat or two and a powerbomb for the win.  How the hell did this end up being the "big" IWGP defense of the tour?

!@!@!@!@!@ JWP- Cutie Suzuki Retirement Show, 12-27-98 Korakuen (Samurai!)
(by POGO PETE STEIN!)
The show starts off with clips of the press conference and stills of Lioness Asuka killing Dynamite Kansai with the Towerhacker Bomb before we get the disappointingly normal Samurai! intro.  Why couldn't JWP have imported the kick-ass stop-motion montage they used to have on WOWOW?

JWP New Face Presents Tag Match: Erika Watanabe/Tomoko Sai vs. Kayuko Haruyama/Seiko Kuragaki:
The only girl I recognize here is Sai (baby blue two-piece outfit and Jerry Flynn mullet), and I see no point in placing the rest of the girls' names to faces when they're gonna turn around with entirely new names and gimmicks two months down the road.  ;)  Entirely competent rookie match save for the less than entirely competent rookie dropkicks; these girls are probably still a year or so away, but they've got the basics down.  Watanabe does this disturbing bit where she places Kuragaki(?) on the top rope and plays her butt like a set of bongos, but then redeems herself with a PHATASS Russian leg-sweep off the top.  Sai pulls off a neat little move, turning a Haruyama backslide attempt into a sort of 1/2-Toyota Roll for a near-fall.  Watanabe hits a top-rope splash on Kuragaki and Sai tries it too, but Kuragaki puts her legs up and poor li'l Sai gets IMPALED on Kuragaki's feet.  Sai basically gets destroyed for the rest of the match, finally eating a Haruyama spine bomb for the pin.  OK stuff for the young'uns, but at 18:11 this goes way, WAY too long.  Enjoy Sai while you can, 'till she comes back as Tanny Mouse Y2K or whatever cretin gimmick they decide to inflict upon her.

Cutie interviews and photos o'plenty follow.  With that yellow-and-black polka dots ensemble she used to wear, you'd think Dusty was grooming her to be SWEET SAPPHAAA or something.

Back to Korakuen, where Relay Shonen takes a quick lap around the ring and heads to the back.  The hell?

Super Delfin/Gran Naniwa vs. Flecha II/Seiichiro Nagame:
Flecha II is Yakushiji wearing a mask, and not the goofy ant mask either.  Nagame wears black trunks and an Invaderish mask; it's probably Yone Genjin since his shoulder is all wrapped up like Yone's. Only the last few minutes are shown, ending with Delfin hitting a pescado on Yonechiro while Naniwa hits two of the crappiest Doctor Bombs of all time on Yakuflecha.  The best part of the match is Delfin's mask which has "Cutie Forever" on it in Japanese.

More Cutie photos and retrospectives.  I take it she was having an off-night when she lost to Chigusa in 48 seconds back in '94.  And couldn't they have had actual video from the matches, or did their film room go up in flames at one point?

Cutie Suzuki Final Road 8-Man Tag Match: Cutie Suzuki /Hikari Fukuoka/ Devil Masami/ Commando Borishoi vs. Tomoko Kuzumi/ Tomoko Miyaguchi/ Reiko Amano/Kanako Motoya (Special referee: Dynamite Kansai):
WHAT ON EARTH DID FUKUOKA DO TO HER HAIR???  She's got this short haircut now that makes her look 10 years older!  Obviously it wasn't enough just to be teaming with Gramma Devil, now she wants to look the part as well.  And when did Borishoi suddenly become the Clown with Attitude?  She's whipping Amano all over the place, putting the boots to her, etc.  They do a neat sort of "Battle of The Beauty Idols" at the start as JWP's future beauty idol Motoya starts to use Cutie's own moves like the fisherman suplex on her.  Standard JWP main event, with lots of action all over the place.  It's Cutie's retirement and everyone wants in on the fun!  The youngster team does a cool sequence on Fukuoka as Amano rolls into an ankle-lock, Kuzumi snares the other ankle, Miyaguchi scissors her head and Motoya starts jogging on her stomach until Dynamite breaks it up.  Amano stays on Fukuoka until Devil gives Amano a rude kick, then when Amano starts to protest Devil gives her this glare of Super Heeldom and Amano immediately goes about her business again.  Everyone soon starts brawling on the floor, which allows Devil to press-slam all of her partners onto the other team on the floor.  Team New School starts to pull out all sorts of funky combos, as Kuzumi hits a WHOMP-ASS wheelbarrow suplex on Commando, who somehow gets the Kunze Armbar on Kuzumi, but Amano gets the armbreaker on Commando and Kuzumi follows up with a springboard footstomp (owie owie owie).  Miyaguchi and Amano then hit a Double Impact on Commando, and Amano gets a flying cross-armbreaker on Commando 'till her partners make the save.  Amano goes up top, but Commando hits her with a running shotay and follows up with a HUGE top-rope nodowa for a near-fall.  Devil gets the tag and hits a Jungle Suplex(?) on Motoya, then all of her partners give Motoya footstomps.  The youngsters all run in and start laying some STIFF shots on Cutie 'till her partners help even the odds, then Cutie hits the Dragon Suplex on Motoya for a near-fall.  Cutie sets Motoya on top, but Motoya pushes her down and immediately hits her diving senton, then hits La Magistral for 2.99.  Crowd pops huge and this could've been a symbolic passing of the torch for Motoya to win here, but I ain't booking things.  Cutie goes back up top, but Miyaguchi meets her there and hits her top-rope Samoan Drop, then Motoya hits the diving senton again and PLANTS Cutie with a fisherman buster for 2.  Devil comes in, powerbombs Motoya and climbs onto the middle rope so
Cutie can hit the Footstomp from Heaven from atop Devil's shoulders.  Cutie then hits Destiny Hammer on Motoya, and finally Dynamite (the ref, remember?) hoists Motoya into Splash Mountain position so Cutie can give her one last Destiny Hammer as a going-away present in tandem with Splash Mountain (after initially blowing the spot).  The other ref runs in and Cutie gets the pin at 23:44.

Cutie Suzuki Retirement Ceremony:  Takako Inoue comes out first, but she's kind enough not to reprise the catfight disguised as a match she had with Cutie back in '93.  Yukari Osawa, Candy Okutsu, Hiromi Yagi, Saburo, Sumiko Saito all follow, and Cutie's looking for the ladies' room by the time Mayumi Ozaki comes out to say goodbye.  10-count and the streamer motherlode follows, and we call it a career.

Other than Cutie's retirement match, not much else going on here.  If you're a Cutie completist (is there such a creature?) this one's for you, but some actual video of her older matches would've been nice.

!@!@!@!@!@!@ GAEA TV 1/4/99.
(by REV RAY!)
This is a big ol' special edition of GAORA TV as they've got Chigusa Nagoya, Ultimo Dragon and some guy from Pancrase in the studio.  This is actually about five and a half hours of back to back wrestling with each group getting a bit of time (GAEA gets 3 hours because IT RULES DADDY-O!) Throughout the show, there's something of a quiz show going on where someone dressed as a playboy bunny pulls a card off a board, everyone's asked a question and they write their answers down.  Of course, I don't speak or read Japanese yet, but I'm actually getting motivated to learn.  Of course, I just started so I'm lightyears away from knowing what they're writing and saying, but I have figured out a few of the kanji and some day I will hope to learn important phrases like "How old is your daughter?" and "Kyoko Inoue stole my lunch!"  So anyway, most of this is lost on me and since I don't recall the demi-god like Yatsuatari Steve posting the translations of the show (he'd be god-like if he posted the translation all the vulgarity laced Shima Nobunaga interviews), so this is pretty much lost on me.  At some point in the show, the playboy bunny is replaced by Sakura Hirota who wears her god awful ring outfit (which if she just got rid of the 2 year old at the pool tu-tu like thing around the middle, it wouldn't be so bad) and pink bunny ears.

Sonoko Kato vs. Meiko Satomura:
This wasn't as cool as their 30 minute draw which played a month or two back, but it was still pretty cool.  Meiko works on Kato's arm with serveral holds trying to get a submission.  Satomura misses a drop kick, Kato tries to convert it into a jacknife hold for a pin, but Satomura converts it into a sunset flip type pin for a two.  Kato locks in a sleeper with body scissors, but Satomura makes it to the ropes. Kato hits a nice German for a two, but Satomura turns it into an armbar.  Kato escapes a TKO attempt (the announcers even mention Marc Mero and the WWF when she tries it) with a face buster.  Kato hits her second rope somersault slam for a two, but again, Satomura turns a Kato hold into an arm
lock.  They go back and forth a bit, Kato uses a front facelock type submission hold but doesn't get the pin.  Satomura blocks Kato's new piledriver type move where she has her opponent over her shoulders and holds their legs and sits down, but gets Dragon Suplexed for two.  Satomura flips out of a German suplex attempt, but isn't strong enough to pull over the Death Valley Bomb.  She takes another Dragon suplex and a top rope leg drop both for two.  Kato goes for a lariat which Satomura turns  into a DVBfor a two when Kato this time turns the pin attempt into an armbar.  Satomura escapes, does the DVB again and gets the win.

Chikayo Nagashima vs. Sugar Sato:
The battle of Oz-ettes.  Nagashima has been winning me over lately.  I remember watching her earlier last year and not being all that thrilled about her offense as at times it looked a little sloppy and she wasn't really using too many "WOW!" type moves, so she was really just the whipping girl of the GAEA Oz squad to me.  However, she's been adding a few new moves and looked smoother, so I'm liking her a lot more.  Sugar looks... I dunno... a little thicker in this tape to me, I dunno, maybe my eyes are playing tricks on me.  Sato controls early with her power, but when she tries a top rope diamond cutter, Chikayo turns it into an Octopus Hold on top.  Chikayo hits a top rope drop kick and a sunset flip before going over Sugar's leg with a knee scissors.  She hits two top rope stomps which Sugar Kobashi's up out of before hitting a back fist (she doesn't spin around, so I don't think it fully qualifies as an uriken). For a two before she rolls outside selling the stomps, Chikayo attempts a fishermanbuster, but can't pick her up.  Sugar escapes with paint brush slaps/ back fists and attempts a German suplex which Chikayo uses the Juventud bulldog escape from.  Chikayo with a double arm lock which Sugar escapes by standing up and fallaway slamming out of.  Chikayo goes back after the arm, Sugar picks her up and drops her, but Chikayo won't let go.  Chikayo with a German into a bridge for two.  Sugar rolls through a Nagashima rana for a near fall and then starts unloading with powerbombs for near falls. Nagashima escapes the third or forth one back getting on the buckles, but Sugar starts whacking her with back firsts to the back of the head.  She tries to come up with another powerbomb out of the corner, but Chikayo turns it into an arm scissor into the cross armbreaker for the win.  Both girls shake hands post match and Oz leads them to the locker room.

KAORU/Toshiyo Yamada vs. Toshie Uematsu/Sonoko Kato:
Kato's back to the old kicker boots!  WHOO-HOO!  Does this means that the "Roman" wrestling experiment has passed?  KAORU is in the ring as we start and is being all bitchy with the youngsters, who start double teaming her a bit before Yamada kicks Toshie in the back of the head and tags in. She puts a few kicks on her, Toshi escapes a back drop attempt with knees but screws up by going after KAORU on the apron.  One thing that KAORU does a good job of is getting people pissed off at her- as Kato, Satomura and Yamada have all had issues with her in the past year.  Yamada's not afraid to drop Toshie right on her head with a few back drop suplexes.  KAORU and Yamada double kick Toshi, but Kato saves her from Yamada's Reverse Gory Special Bomb.  Kato tags in and exchanges kicks with Yamada (including a spot where both throw double round kicks at the same time and hit legs.  Toshi runs in to get a few licks on Yamada setting up a Kato German for a two.  KAORU with a drop kick to the leg from behind to block a Dragon suplex attempt.  Kato goes for her sleeper but Yamada rope saves.  Uematsu tags in and puts the boots to Yamada before running into an ezugiri. KAORU and Toshi mix it up with both fighting over moves back constantly countering each other. Kato runs in and German's KAORU to set up a Toshie top rope splash.  Yamada tries to save KAORU, but ends up kicking her by mistake twice.  Toshie keeps getting near falls with Kato holding off Yamada.  Toshie decides to take care of Yamada, but ends up pasting Kato which ultimately leads to her down fall as Kato's out of the picture, she falls victim to a brain buster, she escapes one Excalibur attempt, but ends up eating a thrust kick and a second Excalibur to lose.  Post match, KAORU is all bitchy since she hates youngsters and makes sure they know she won.  Toshi tries to go after her after the match is over.

Rina Ishii/Sakura Hirota/Maiko Matsumoto v. Toshi Uematsu/Chikayo Nagashima/ Sonoko Kato:
This is one of those rare matches where the Oz-ettes actually team with the GAEA gals... at least, rare ones that I've gotten on tape.  This is sort of a clash of the levels as the top Jr class takes on the Jr's below them.  Ishii hasn't shown up on many of my tapes until recently, but she's looked good in what I've seen.  Hirota's... well... weird.  She uses a lot of comedy in her matches and uses a lot of hip attacks (but so does Shiro, and we forgive him....).  At some point over the summer, they did an angle where she started emulating Mayumi Ozaki's offense in that now she uses the uraken and the Tequila Sunrise.  It seems to be working as now she has some legit offense to throw in with her whacky offense
and she seems to have come up with some interesting spins on the uraken.  Matsumoto uses a lot of atomic drops.... yup.  As we pick up the action, Ishii works over Chikayo with some rolling sentons before tagging to Hirota who dives into Nagashima's boots.  Chikayo goes for a superplex, but Hirota hits her with some slaps and attempts a sunset flip powerbomb but slips off as Chikayo holds the ropes... so Nagashima makes her pay by dishing out an evil second rope double stomp.  Kato tags in and works over Hirota with knees, but Hirota keeps blocking her bulldog attempt.  Hirota hits a few hip attacks after stomping on Kato's foot.  Kato catches her on the ropes and tries for a shoulder mount back suplex, but Hirota holds onto the top rope, Toshie tries to hit her hands off, but Hirota moves and Toshi hurts her hands.  Hirota slips into her weird submission hold where she's riding the person's back and has both their arms in a lock.  Uematsu runs in and Ishii puts her in the same hold before Chikayo frees both girls from the hold.  Kato and Uematsu double team Hirota including a chokeslam type move by Uematsu on Hirota who's on Kato's shoulders.  Hirota uses an uraken to escape trouble and tag out to Ishii.  Ishii ends up getting beat on after she ducks a high round kick by Kato who- without missing a beat- puts her foot down and hits a side kick.  Toshie tags in and hits a bunch of knees.  The younger girls start triple teaming her, including a weird spiked atomic drop.  Ishii gets caught on the top rope, but Matsumoto keeps saving her from everyone on the other team who runs in to attempt to hit her. Matsumoto and Chikayo mix it up a bit with Chikayo getting the upper hand and Hirota accidentally hitting Maiko with an uraken.  They do a spot where Chikayo has Matsumoto in a pinning move, but Hirota knocks her over so Matsumoto is on top, so Kato hits Matsumoto so Chikayo is back on top. The end comes after a Kato high roundhouse kick stuns Matsumoto for a Chikayo German suplex for the win.  Of the next of this group to be elevated, I think it's either going to be Hirota or Ishii.  Since Hirota seems to be Nagoya's goofy sidekick most of the time, I think she'll get the nod and since she seems to be stepping it up a bit, it's probably a good thing.

Chigusa Nagoya/Sakura Hirota vs. Sugar Sato/Chikayo Nagashima:
Hirota attacks the Ozettes at the start when they turn their back and then immediately runs and hides behind Nagoya who promptly loses it and has to roll outside the ring... so Hirota rolls outside and continues to hide behind her.  Nagoya gets back in, with Hirota still hiding behind her.  The Ozettes charge, Nagoya ducks and Hirota eats a double clothesline before Nagoya drops both of them with a clothesline.  Nagoya decides to take a seat in the crowd as Hirota faces off with both the Ozettes. Hirota gets in some offense before Nagoya comes back.  Nagoya faces off with Sugar, Hirota tries to lend a helping hand with a drop kick to the back of Sugar, which knocks down Nagoya with Sugar pinning her... so she tries to save with a double stomp, but Sugar gets out of the way so she stomps Nagoya.  Nagoya recovers and back drops Sugar.  They do a spot where Nagoya and Hirota sandwich lariat Sugar, but it knocks both Sugar and Hirota down.  Nagashima and Hirota mix it up a bit before Chigusa tags in.  She reverses a Nagashima roll up attempt into a face eraser and tries to kick Sugar who turns it into a Dragon screw.  Sugar and Chikayo then pull out their cool double team move. Chikayo climbs to the top and then stands on Sugar's shoulders.  Sugar walks out to the middle of the ring while holding Chikayo's hands.  Chikayo does a forward somersault into a double stomp... tres boss.  Nagashima hits a German on Nagoya for a two before Hirota saves and then she German's her too.  Nagashima with a rana for a two and a tag to Sugar.  They spike Lygerbomb Nagaoya for a two. Nagoya hits a wakigatame and tags out to Hirota who hits a diving hip attack.  Hirota goes for an uraken, but Sugar ducks down low... so Hirota ducks down low on her next spin to hit her, then follows up with about 4 more urakens for a two.  Nagoya comes in and powerbombs Sugar, setting up Hirota's diving uraken.  We then go into a ton of urakens by everyone with each person killing their partner.  Eventually, Sugar catches Hirota with the Lygerbomb for the win.  During their victory walk, the Ozettes make sure to step on Hirota.  Post match Nagoya has words with Hirota which cracks up the crowd.  They then do a bit where Hirota does a practice top rope splash with Nagoya holding her over her shoulder onto the ref.

They do a big bit of film about Nagoya's upcoming AAAW Title defense against the wrestler I'm not qualified enough or over enough to make jokes about.  It includes Nagoya's wins leading up to her title win and a visit to the GAEA garage/training center.  They show clips from the AJW Anniversary show. AJW of course always has top notch production values with boom cameras and everything... Jeez... WCW has a budget and is part of a media conglomerate... how come their TV doesn't look so good? This is pretty much clipped to hell.  Toyota hits her drop kick to the floor and her "Jumping the fountains at Caesar's Place" plancha onto Nagoya who's on a table (Gee... a table spot... who else does that... hmmm.. I dunno could it beeeeeee.... Saaaaaaaaaaa...)  Toyota hits the JOC Suplex, but Nagoya
Takaiwa's out of it and puts her in an Octopus hold for the win.  In most cases, this will be a total suck ass ending, but since I'm petty, I justify it by saying Nagoya said "This is for not selling for Satomura!" before slapping the hold on.  It RULES~! (After months of making fun of it, AJW has finally gotten a new ring cover (with the  10th anniversary logo on it).  I guess they got my letters.  No credibity, huh?)

Toshie Uematsu vs KAORU:
Toshie tries to attack at the bell, but KAORU is waiting for her, so they're at a stale mate.  They both attempt moves which each other counter.  KAORU gets the first control by winning a test of strength and turning it into a throw.  Both take it to the mat by putting each other in simultanious leg locks. Toshie tries for a Boston crab, but KAORU blocks it.  KAORU takes over and puts Toshie in a surf board type move and then hits the Jackhammer for a two.  Toshie takes over with a springboard bodypress off an Irish whip and follows it up with two face crushers and a facelock before moving to a Greco-roman hair pull lock.  Toshi deices to drop kick KAORU in the head a few times before removing the corner pad and running KAORU into it.  She hits some nasty top rope drop kicks from three of the corners before dropping her with a punch.  Tommy the ref won't count the pin though and KAORU rolls outside for a breather.  KAORU gets back on the apron and puts Toshi in a sleeper from the outside.  Toshie escapes a suplex attempt and then both women escape each other's sleeper attempts.  Toshie hits a powerbomb out of a KAORU rana attempts and then a top rope splash. KAORU gets back on the offense with high roundhouse kicks and then puts the boots to her.  Toshie escapes a moonsault by bringing her feet up.  She tries to go up top but KAORU German's her off. KAORU with five back drop suplexes for a two count.  KAORU's brainbuster is no sold and Uematsu knocks her down and gets in better than Bart Gunn mounted punches, taking out the referee while she's at it.  She runs into a brainbuster though for two.  Toshi hits a double wrist armsault which KAORU no sells into another brainbuster.  Uematsu hits a rana which KAORU rolls through.  KAORU with another brainbuster and a moonsault for a two.  Finally Uematsu is killed with a walking Excalibur.  A bit too much no selling for my tastes in the course of the match.  Post match, Toshi is carried off into the back.

During one of the breaks, they have an interview with Aja Kong.  Aja's wearing an Austin 3:16 hat. Personally, I think they should have Aja 3:16... I just caved in your face.

Aja Kong/Mayumi Ozaki vs. Toshiyo Yamada/Meiko Satomura:
Yamada rushes Oz at the bell and thrust kicks her.  Oz strikes back with a forearm smash before getting back dropped out to the apron where Yamada puts her in a sleeper and Satomura puts the boots to her.  Satomura tags in and goes Oz punting until Oz hits a jumping neckbreaker drop.  Oz tags in and goes Satomura punting.  Aja also busts out the Ohtani footscrapes.   Oz tags in and rams Satomura's head into the corner a bunch.  Meiko reverse a corner whip, but misses the windmillin' elbow and gets hit with a Aja lariat and gets her face stepped on some more by Oz.  Satomura hits a high kick and tags to Yamada.  Oz ducks a double roundhouse kick and hits a double neckbreaker drop.  Aja tags and misses a second rope splash.  She trades attacks with Yamada who tries to set up a double team, but Aja fights out of it.  Satomura gets in two cross armbreaker attempts, on which Oz saves and the other which gets rope saved.  Aja holds Satomura so Oz can kick her in the face before unloading the oilcan shots on Satomura, busting her open as Oz beats on Yamada and holds her at bay on the outside.  Yamada runs in to save Satomura from a brainbuster attempt, but Aja avoids their double team and double back fists them.  Oz tags and continues the beat down on Satomura, hitting a thunder fire powerbomb for a two.  Oz calls for the Tequila Sunrise, Yamada tries to save but kicks Satomura.  Lygerbomb for a two is saved by Yamada.  Oz tries for another move, but Satomura pulls off a desperation DVB.  She tries to tag but Yamada is out of position thanks to Aja.  Aja tags in and starts clapping to rally the crowd... and even walks up to do it intentionally in front of Chigusa.  Aja with the brainbuster, Yamada with the pin save.  Aja turns her attention to Yamada and Meiko pulls out a German suplex.  Yamada comes in, hits her flying 360 roundhouse kick.  Aja escapes the Gorry Special Bomb, but falls victim to a enzugiri and a top rope enzugiri.  Oz saves another GSB attempt and it goes out to the floor, with Oz burying Yamada under chairs and Aja killing Satomura with chairshots.  Aja nails both women with a guardrail.  They switch off with Oz working over Satomura and getting in a staredown with Chigusa.  Yamada ducks an Uraken, but gets hit with a back fist for two.  Oz comes in and she and Yamada counter each other's moves wth Yamada taking over with kicks.  Satomura tags in, Oz escapes the DVB attempt and allows Aja to can her.  Oz with a 2 following an uraken.  They set up Satomura.  Aja holds her up for a high angle powerbomb while Oz hits her with backfists while sitting on the top rope.  Aja superplexes Oz on top of her.  In the end, Aja takes out Yamada with a piledriver through a table allowing Oz to hit the Tequila Sunrise for the win. Post match Nagoya comes in to check on her protege.  The crowd starts reacting as Lioness Asaka comes to the ring.  Nagoya offers her a handshake and Asaka blows past her to join Oz and Aja.  Aja does some mic work.  Nagoya takes her time to collect the remains of Satomura and move her to a corner before totally flipping out and charging her ex-partner and Oz/Aja.  The GAEA girls have to hold back Nagoya as Oz gets on the mic probably to rub this in even more.  Nagoya heads to the back, only to charge the group as they leave the ring into their own locker room.  The chase is on as everyone's going at it in the halls.  They calm down Nagoya momentarily only to result in her charging the group again.

This is setting up a lot of the big cards in the future as the influx of people to the bad side is just beginning.  You've got to imagine the Crush Girls facing off is bound to pop a big house, even if it is about 10 years or so after they did their first retirement.

The GAEA section of the show closes out with clips from GAEA GIAIO '98 which is the GAEA workers doing stage singing/comedy bits.

As a side bar, the Toryumon bit at the end of the show which showed a lot of old clips on it... and DAMN if Tokyo Magnum didn't have the Men's Teioh look going when he was a blond.

!@!@!@!@!@!@! EMLL TV-12/12/98
(by DEAN RASMUSSEN)
Emilio Charles Jr vs. Villano V:
I was watching this with Tim Noel and Dave from Wrestling Power 99- as they had stopped by after eating fat-ass steaks at Tim’s mom’s- and Dave had all these really funny, pithy one-liners about how this match was pretty stinky, but I’m on medication for my Eternal sore throat and I haven’t been able to sleep so I can barely remember MY witty comments.  Trust me when I say that Dave was slayin me and there’s nothing else I can do about it.  The main problem with this match was that it had two of the best Old School luchadores around but it didn’t have a lot of Old School elements.  Charles takes THREE shots to the ringpost and a friggin DDT to the floor- the fact that Emilio Charles Jr does the
most pansy-assed bladejob in the rich illustious history of all Mexico illustrates the first of many flaws in this match.  El Dandy would have had ribbons of blood flowing down to his throat.  Any of the VILLANOS would have coated the ring in plasma.  The fact that Charles WASN’T an erupting Mt Vesuvius of sweet sweet blood takes a universe of stars off this baby.  The wrestling itself was just as tentative.  There was no real violence and hatred and all the stuff that makes Old School really cool.  I will forget this match ever happened and get on with my little life.

Fiera/ Mr Niebla/ Shocker!!! vs El Satanico/ Blue Panther/ Zumbido:
This was really frickin GREAT.  This goes straight to the mat early and stays there- as Blue Panther and Mr Niebla dole out a Lucha Matwork Clinic as it goes from freaky mirror sequences to the cool armdragsintoshortarmscissors to freaked out lucha spinning rides and assorted cool ass artistic interpretations of Scientific Wrestling and this IS Scientific as all fudge.  El Satanico and La Fiera go even OLDER school than Blue Panther and Niebla- as El Satanico does his best Dick Beyer impersonation and Fiera does his Sailor Art Barr on Classic Sports network schtickt as Satanico gets a weirdo Knee Claw on him while staking his legs apart.  Lucha matwork is a varied and beautiful and preposterous thing sometimes.  Zumbido is an up-and-coming young suicidal Bump Machine in the Rey Bucanero-Violencia vane- though he has a cooler high-flying offensive arsenal that the aforementioned rudos don’t have.  Zumbido also has a mullet that would make Jerry Flynn say, “Goddam, that’s some bad hair.”  I reminds me of Foghat Phil Rippa’s mullet except Zumbido doesn’t have the Freddy Mercury moustache or the Twisted Sister cassette blowing out of the windows of his primer gray Duster.  Zumbido and Shocker DON’T take it to the mat.  Shocker is many things- a great high-flyer, a cool arm-dragger, a swank head-scissoror- but he no mat-wrestler in anything I’ve ever seen.  I’m guessing Zumbido is no great shake on the mat either so they go all arm-drag-intensive en lieu and I’m just as happy.  By the second caida this degenerates into some listless rudo spots that kill time until El Satanico says, “Allright, let’s show’em how we take it home” and he and Fiera put the structure back in it as Fiera Enzuguiris Satanico out of the ring- for which El bumps like a true bastard. The stinkiness that permeates the middle of this match rears it’s ugly head again as Zumbido foules Shocker and we all go sit in our rooms and cry. First caida saves this baby though in the whole scheme of things.

BLACK WARRIOR/ El Scorpio/ Bestia Salvaje vs Negro Casas/ El Felino/ El Hijo del Santo:
Black Warrior, Bestia and Scorpio could possibly be the best rudo trio in all of Lucha Libre.  Bestia brings the nastiness, Black Warrior brings the new wave excitement. and El Scorpio brings...uh...well, he’s big...and he can... well...let’s just forget the whole thing.  They attack early before El Hijo del Santo comes to the ring for the sole purpose of having Scorpio and Bestia strangle Santo with his own FUNTABULOUS silver and maroon silk cape.  The first caida is real short and rudoriffic as Bestia, Scorpio, Santo and Casas beat each other up while Felino and Black Warrior bump and fly inbetween all the brawling and it pretty much stays that way all the way through to the end of the match.  Usually with that ratio in a Lucha match things would get shitty real quick but Casas is not afraid to get his boys to work superstiff by Lucha standards- so EMLL is able to stretch the lucha envelope more than most.  Bestia, Casas and Santo are REAL not afraid to beat the shit out of each other- so that dimension of the match actually carries the story of Santo and Scorpio hating each other’s guts and Bestia and Santo REALLY hate each other’s guts and Casas and Bestia RREEAALLYY hate each other’s guts so the hate is there.  The violence is there.  The spirit is in the ass-kicking, the prospect of blood and mask-ripping, and true wrestling drama is being fleshed out in the ring.  On the other end Felino and Black Warrior take care of the technical portion as they seem to be keeping it just as heated but expressing it through insane highposts.  Black Warrior takes an over the toprope hiptoss bump that would make you weep.   Felino hits a toprope Black Tigerbomb that would make you WEEP.  Fucking singles match already.

Universo Dos Mille/ Cien Caras/ Mascara Ano 2000 vs Pierroth Jr/ Gran Markus/ Fuerza Guerrera: HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!  EMLL!  THOSE KIDDERS!  What a turd this was. Universo 2000 seals his fate as the jewel in the poo by hitting the only redeeming thing in  this load of shit by hitting a nine alarm Tope Suicida on to the amazingly fat Gran Markus.  Fuerza mails it in and so would you.

$%$%$%$%$%$% MICHINOKU LUCHA TV #15- 12/19/99
(by REV RAY!)
Guitar Boy belts out a tune as SASUKE joins us in the studio.  It should be noted that  SASUKE doesn't have a totally boss rudo mask when just lounging so this isn't nearly as cool as it could have been.

CRAZY MAX vs. Gran Naniwa/Naohiro Hoshikawa/Seno:
CRAZY MAX now has a flag with their logo.  I must steal that for my house. The rudos start out with Fuji and Suwa doing a wishbone on Hoshikawa with Nobunaga doing a headbutt to the groin... well, it was supposed to be a headbutt to a groin, either that or Shima was trying to see how many push ups he could do without having his head hit Hoshikawa's area (The answer is... one...).  Suwa and Shima oversell a few of Naniwa's shots leaving Fuji to get beat up momentarily, setting up Seno for a headbutt where Naniwa repeatedly drives Seno's head repeatedly into Fuji.  Hoshikawa, who's sporting a big ol' shoulder brace puts out a nice tope.  Seno gets Judo in a Canadian backbreaker, but Shima breaks it up by drop kicking Seno in the knee.  Shima does a neat spot where he does a drop toe hold to set up what looks like the Japanese leg roll pin (where you pin the person down to the mat and bridge back over them for the pin), but just where Shima should bridge back, he just stops and UN FOULS! Seno with a punch to the nads.  Naniwa runs in to save Seno from the Iconoclasm and takes over with a swinging DDT, a lariat and a Doctor Bomb before Sumo trips him when attempting a running lariat. Shima his a corkscrew plancha.  Hoshikawa controls on Fuji after countering his chokeslam with an armdrag.  He controls with a few kicks, a Nothern Lights suplex and a German suplex before Sumo hits a move like a face first chokeslam.  Seno gets Judo in the Argentine back breaker.  Fuji tries to save, but Seno kicks him and puts him in the rack before Nobunaga saves.  Nobunaga attempts the Mad Splash, Naniwa catches him with a top rope rana, setting up Hoshikawa's top rope roundhouse  kick setting up a Seno lariat, but Judo saves the pin.  Seno attemtps to fly, but Shima does his Ultimate Warrior impression to crotch Seno on the ropes, setting up the Iconoclasm for a face first powerbomb. Crazy Max tie up Naniwa and Hoshikawa in the tree of woe, setting up a triple team move leading to the Mad Splash for the win.  Overall a so-so match.  I think CRAZY MAX was over selling a few moves (like a few kicks or elbow that sent them flying out to the floor.)

Relay Shonin-Blue vs SASUKE:
Relay Shonin is one of the goofy undercard gimmicks MPro has been running since the summer. Basically, it's a guy in a smiley face mask with a hat and a batton that runs around the ring for a long time.  Of course, given the condition of SASUKE's knees... forcing him to chase you around the arena is not a bad idea.  This is psychology at it's finest!  Unfortunatley, CRAZY MAX is milling around and they cut off Relay.  SASUKE attempts to prove the that the batton is not stronger than the sword as he attacks RElay with his fencing foil.  As cool as SASUKE's rudo mask is... SASUKE wrestling like Jerry Lawler in WCCW is not cool.  Relay cries at one point, so SASUKE does his impression of Tom Hanks in a League of Their Own "THERE'S NO CRYING IN WRESTLING" (ok, not really) before continuing the brawling.  SASUKE does the old tree of woe/stand on the groin spot Delfin used to do and gets a Delfin plastic mask and mugs for the crowd.  Relay did pull out a high turning kick and two good uranages but that was pretty much the end of his offense.  SASUKE hits a quebrada to the floor and mugs in the ring.  As the other Relay Shoinin, Red, shows up, so he hits the SASUKE special on him. Eventually, they have to play hide and go seek to find the Blue one- who hid under the ring- to throw him back in and pin him with the Delfin Clutch.  To review... Rudo Mask.  Cool.  Rudo SASUKE's wrestling... not cool.

SASUKE vs Gran Naniwa:
This match reminded me of a crappy ECW match.  They do a bunch of a bunch of object shots. SASUKE loads up a push cart with plundah to use in the match.  You know, if I want to watch garbage wrestling, I'll try to watch someone like W*ING Kanemura who'll do something stupid like let himself be powerbombed on fire.  If I'm watching MPro, I want to enjoy that high workrate lucharasu whackiness.  SASUKE uses his table and they use a ladder.  They go on for like 10 hours to finish with SASUKE ripping off Naniwa's mask after he had him beat for the DQ.  Big old waste of time. SASUKE blows the Sasuke Special at one point so he does the handspring, has to bounce off the ropes and do it again only to land mostly on the apron on the second pass.  See match 2 for details.

Gran Hamada/Tiger Mask IV vs Yone Genjin/Super Delfin:
At the start of the match, Yone does a bit where he starts doing a bunch of people's stances/mannerisms ala Damian 666.  He does Tiger Mask, Giant Baba (complete with BABA Chop action) and Antonio Inoki (complete with Inoki on his back kicking at Tiger Mask Ali's knees).  They do a jump cut further into the match; Delfin holds Tiger in a camel clutch and Yone says "I've got a match, my butt and your face" and then does repeated hip attacks to his head as Delfin keeps him in the hold.  Delfin and Yone work rudoish through out this.  They did a spot where Tiger was held out across the apron and Yone jumped up from the floor to drop a leg across the back of his head.  End comes with Tiger Mask IV hitting the Tiger Suplex on Genjin for the win.  I didn't hate this match, but I wasn't exactly really inspired by it either.  Post match, SASUKE shows up with a fish on his head to mock Delfin and company some more.  TMIV runs out and attacks him only to be held back.  We then get some verbal sparring as Gramps Hamada yells out SASUKE, probably challenging him to a match. I'm sure SASUKE said something like "How'd a fossil like you have such a hot daughter" or something... either that or I made it up so I could amuse myself.

CRAZY MAX vs. Hoshikawa/Yakushiji/Seno:
This is the equalent of Juvi v. Kidman on WCW tv as it's like the 9 millionth time these two teams have faced (usually ending with Nobunaga pinning Seno with the Mad Splash.).  Yakushiji does a spot wher he counters a wristlock with a rana.  Hoshikawa did a spot where he snap mared Judo down, ran the ropes and drop kicked him in the face while he was laying on the canvas which was pretty cool.  At one point, all 6 men end up out on the floor.  Seno, Hoshikawa and Nobunaga all do spots where they're whipped into rows of chairs (usually sent flying a few rows back.)  Shima plays the whipping boy for a while as the JYB boys beat him up for a while before Sumo does in to make the save.  Team MPro gets some revenge for their ealier meetings as they do the "hold 'em upside down and drop kick them in the face" triple team that the MAX does and put him in the surfer boy.  Yakushiji gets caught in the ring and gets put in the tree of woe and hit with the triple sliding drop kick to the face.  Nobunaga does the Japense Leg Roll Clutch into the low blow spot again, Hoshikawa saves Seno from a powerbomb with ihis top rope kick.  Shima pulls out a somersault roll into a leg lariat to set up his corkscrew plancha. Fuji hits Yakushiji with the chokeslam, but Seno saves.  There's a lot of similar spots to match 1 in this. Seno does do a cool move where he turns the Argentine backbreaker into a face first powerbomb.  He gets caught up top, Shima hits the Iconoclasm for two.  Shima gets the win after a face first powerbomb with the Mad Splash.  Better than match one.

The show ends with clips of the Magic Man doing tricks.  Magic Man's one of those real weird cases. He's from the the US, so they've gotta fly him in, yet the use him for 3 squashes... I think we've found one of the money problem causes for MPro....

Overall, not a banner show, but hey, they can't all be great....

#$#$#$#$#$#$#$ Jd' #32 from Osaka, aired 12/22/98
(by DEAN RASMUSSEN)
This starts off with a cool-ass battle royal where Jaguar and Obbachi the Angry Green-Grocer do all kinds of goofball comedy spots.  Jaguar starts off early by showing the young punks in TEAM FANG how to bump like an absolute motherfucker- as she hits a fabulous somersault senton and then sails into the chairs like she’s been there before.  Jaguar makes even a battle royal good- as she beats the hell out of the young Hechisera before putting her over in a Jaguaresque “graceful exit from the sport you pretty much created” type move.  Fang and Hechisera put green stuff on Jaguar’s face and I’m baffled. Jaguar looks like she could wrestle another seven years.  She’s fit and tough and fast and great.  I wish she hadn’t retired because she was bringing something to the Women’s scene that it needed in general in 1999 and she was bringing MOUNTAINS of all-around GREATNESS to this burgeoning Jd’ promotion.  She fucking rules and I’m gonna miss her.

Cooga/Sakai vs Yabushita /Yagi:
Golly!  All the Old time JWPheads were right in having all those sleepless nights pining over the loss of the newly wed Yagi- because she is SOOO the PYT.  She is also quite the MF of a wrestler- starting out hitting freaked-out roll-ups on the amazingly average Cooga- thus salvaging WHOLE SECTIONS of the match that Cooga would have screwed up otherwise.  Yabushita, who looks REALLY improved since last we saw her, hops in and goes all Judo-girl alongside Yagi as they hit the double Judo Throw Into Matching Cross Armbreakers on the Mediocre One... UNTIL the Divine n’ Spunky Sakai storms across and kicks Yagi in the head- as if to say, “III’M the other Judo Girl, Mrs Jerkypants.  Eat my
boot, Grandma.”  Yabushita continues in the “wrestling for Cooga cuz the sister sure as hell can’t do it for herself” motif by hitting ANOTHER in the series of Joshi Puroresu Cool-Ass Ways To Apply The Cross-Armbreaker as she does a UPSIDEDOWN Flying Body Scissors and spins around faster’n crap to get the hold applied.  It was TRES SWANK.  After comical attempts at offense by Cooga, Sakai tags in and Yagi greets her with immense sauciness, procuring the Most Vixenish toprope armdrag you’ll ever see.  Yabushita and Yagi continue to be an Incredibly Hot version of the Midnight Express until Sakai counters a Yabushita toprope something attempt into a Toprope Frankensteiner for the win. This was great for a few reasons.  The almost stunning improvement by Yabushita is a good sign since she was being totally overshadowed by the really good Sakai and they debutted at the same time.  With the same background.  The other nice surprise is that Yagi is back and she’s looking great.  I’ll withhold jokes about the condition of the plaid polyester pants of Women’s Puroresu fams all around the world with the prospect of the Superhot one back in tape circulation.  WOO-HOO!

Mayumi Ozaki/ Sugar Sato vs Bloody/Ryuna:
Sugar is blossoming into full womanhood and it’s making her powermoves look even more credible. Despite that exciting developement, this was kind of a wash- as OZ and Sugar kinda just go hogwild and start beating the hell out of everybody with chairs, including the referree- thus causing the DQ. They keep busting up all of the Jd’ underclass and Sugar carves up Ryuna until Lioness comes in and Chosyus the Oz Academy Wrecking Crew back whatever Tokyo biker bar they hang out in.  This was disappointing because Sugar and Bloody are two of the best of their age group and it would be cool to see something develop into a feud here that would make a good singles match down the road, but this
basically a heel HEAT SEGMENT! and we get a big bowl of nothing- wrestlewise.

Lioness Aska vs Kosugi:
Kosugi is probably the best of the Jd’ youngsters- though Sakai and Bloody give her a run for her money- and this is your basic Chigusa vs Kato match.  Lioness sells for her and it tells you where Kosugi stands in the promotion because the Head Ass-kicker In Charge is finally selling for her- so you know Kosugi isn’t going to win, but you know that she’s moved up.  It’s actually cool booking. Chigusa did it with Satomura and Kato (and Sugar indirectly) and they are now the second tier “Men”- so to speak.  Satomura and Kato can get wins over anybody but Chigusa (and Yamada for now) and it makes perfect sense.  Younger gals can be elevated slowly by giving them their first wins over Satomura or Kato (I’m guessing Hirota is getting one soon.)  The problem here is that Lioness doesn’t have KAORU and Yamada to make a good “Workers #2 and #3” to create good matches with Kosugi (and Sakai and Bloody next, then Hechisera and Yabushita after that)  She’s not gonna get the fascinating and VERY booker-friendly stratification that Chigusa gets to work from in GAEA.  Maybe if Yagi sticks around for a while, she would assume the Yamada roll.  Lioness had the absolute MOTHERFUCKER at Yamada #2 roll with Jaguar.  Yagi would fill the roll well now.  After that you got...COOGA?  SHARK?  Lioness needs to grab a Mita or Shimoda or HEY! Kyoko quickly.  Either way, it looks like Lioness is gonna book it Anti-Liger Style- which means she ain’t gonna be booking it all flat.  Hierarchy is good though and it opens up some problems for the Ass-kicking Jd’ promotion that they are gonna have to address quickly.  The match itself is another in a string of great fucking matches from Jd’.  The story is that Jaguar is gonna be Kosugi’s posse to counteract Aska’s young punk posse that is always interfering like some Bull and Crane Dos Milles.  It starts off early with Kosugi and Aska brawling like true motherfuckers around ringside.  Aska starts beatring the hell out of Kosugi with chairs until Kosugi hits an offensive transition that the Aska posse stifles by choking her out in the corner.  Jaguar freaks out and starts kicking young punk-ass until Jaguar gets a Tombstone on Aska to set up some truly hurty toprope stomps onto a table laid across Aska by Jaguar.  After Kosugi misses a plancha and kills Jaguar by mistake and Aska hits about the absolute NASTIEST powerbomb outside the ring and Kosugi is useless after that.  Team Aska has set up the table and Lioness hits a HIDEOUS Ligerbomb and SAKAI makes the save and gets kicked in the face for her trouble.  Kosugi finally succumbs to another Powerbomb and they take it home at 16 minutes.  The reason that this was so good was because Lioness made Kosugi look like pink clad True Ass-stomper that she is- as Kosugi is game for all kinds of hard-edge spots that is starting to separate the Jd’ promotion from the other big Women’s promotions.  The other reason is that Lioness is WAAY old and WAAY over and is still not afraid to take some horrible bumps in this to get the youngster over. Lioness remembers what worked when she and Chigusa were being carved up by Dump Matsumoto
and the crew and she (and especially Chigusa) has been finding great new spins on those things to make them translate to the new millenium and this HOT HOT string of matches from Jd’ is the proof.  IF YOU WANT TO SEE A REEEAAALL HARDCORE WRESTLER- LOOK AT LIONESS ASKA IN 1999.  She’s tough as motherfucking nails, is a master in the ring, and is the smartest wrestler in the ring in Japan.  Get ALLLL Jd’ from the last year.  It motherfucking RULES.

Cooga/ Sakai vs Bloody/ Ryuna:
This was pretty good for twenty minutes of Jd’ youngsters and older underachiever Cooga.  It had some cool table spots, built well to Sakai getting in her Fukuoka-esque offense to set up Cooga Move She Can Hit Number Three- the reverse Spinning DDT.  Ryuna is quite okay as a youngster though she takes a fat ass beating and sells it like a two certain wrestlers who participated in the Worst Five Star Match Of All Time.  It was a good little match and reminded of one of those hit-and-miss tag matches that Kato and Satomura would have with Sugar and Nagashima back before those matches involved wrestlers polished enough to make it a must see affair.  Three out of four are steadily improving and they are finding ways to cover up for the fourth participant.  Worth a look but not as vital as other Jd’ matches.

!@!@!@!@!@ ALL JAPAN TV SPECIAL 11-92
(by POGO PETE STEIN!)
Before there was Samurai!, there was the occasional AJ "greatest hits" show where fans would send in requests to NTV for certain matches to be run.  It's like SINGLES GOING STEADY wrapped into one neat little package, but methinks some of the people who sent in these requests should be made to eat improperly-cooked pufferfish.  Read and learn, young grasshoppers.

KINTARO OKI vs. ABDULLAH THE BUTCHER, 12-11-75, Budokan:
Video picks up with Harley Race in the ring, arm bandaged, apologizing for not being able to wrestle tonight.  Abby, bored already, comes out and shreds Harley's shirt as a way of saying that he should be leaving RIGHT NOW.  Oki runs out for the save and starts headbutting Abby.  While he's doing this let me just mention how different AJ was back then. <headbutt> Plain white mat and turnbuckle covers, <headbutt> Abby was still reasonably slim and trim compared to now <headbutt> (awright low 300s, 'kay?), <headbutt> Joe Higuchi <headbutt> had a moustache, <headbutt> Harley had the blond <headbutt> look and the "Handsome <headbutt> Harley" monicker almost could apply to him, <headbutt> Abby also had a <headbutt> moustache going for him.  <headbutt>  It's also weird <headbutt> seeing all of the no-<headbutt>names for AJ running around trying to keep <headbutt> order.  You know, Kojika <headbutt>, Onita <headbutt>, Sakurada <headbutt>.  Whatever happened to those losers, anyway?  BTW, add about 7 headbutts for every time I typed that and you have the gist of this match, and it gets even goofier when you realize that Abby sells each and every one of them like Oki shot him in the head with a cannon point-blank.  After seven minutes that I'll never get back they brawl 50 rows into the crowd for the DDQ, and you can see Kojika and 14-year-old Onita get these crazy gleams in their eyes as they try to pull them apart.  "Just think, Atsushi! We could be doing bad brawls where we walk all over the place and fans will EAT THAT SHIT UP!  No way I'm gonna let Jumbo drop ME on MY head when I can do THAT for the rest of my career!"  Abby does a lap around the crowd and toasts the ring announcer with the mic, but help soon arrives as Baba shows up and frightens Abby off with the POINTED FINGER OF STERN WARNING.  Like Baba could force Abby to submit to anything worse than that turd of a match itself.

BRITISH BULLDOGS VS. STAN HANSEN/TERRY GORDY, 6-5-89, Budokan:
Sweet Lord, the Bulldogs are over like MOTHERFUCKERS here!  Am I missing something here, or is this crowd just hot because they're waiting for Jumbo and Tenryu to have the match of the 80s?  This match is fun as hell, but it's also depressing as hell because you've got one guy who permanently fucked his life up due to his in-ring behavior (Dynamite Kid) and another who permanently fucked his life up due to his behavior out of the ring (Gordy).  Gordy bumps his ass off early for the Dogs and all I can think of is how he's a fucking zombie now.  Later on Dynamite does a splash and lands square on his knees, and all I can do is wince and think about how Dynamite's penniless and a paraplegic for all intents and purposes.  Drugs are bad, nnnnkay?  Anyway, this is a good American-style match that goes back and forth for 15 minutes until Hansen lariats DBS out of his boots for the pin.  Parents, show this match to your kids so they can see what a blast Gordy once was to watch before he jobbed hard to drugs and became pro wrestling's version of Muhammad Ali.

GIANT BABA vs. FRITZ VON ERICH, 12-3-66, Budokan:
So Fritz was actually a pretty good wrestler!  Ginchy!  He jumps Baba during the ref's instructions and works Baba over with some really stiff punches and kicks, then drags Baba back into the ring via the Iron Claw. He goes for it again, but Baba rolls out of harm's way and gives Fritz a thrashing.  One 16-Mon Kick (what's a mon, anyway?) and Northern Chop later Baba takes the first fall, but Fritz locks the Claw on as Baba starts to get up.  He keeps it locked in for a good minute or two before the ref finally breaks it up, and the way the timekeeper methodically rings the bell here makes it sound like there's a slow-moving train pulling into Budokan.

Hey, Japanese Formula 1 bikini babes!  Insert lecherous comment here!  =P~

Second fall starts with Fritz instantly going for the Claw again, and Budokan is going nuts as Baba tries to fight it off before getting a break in the ropes.  Baba juices at some point- it's hard to tell when since this is B/W and they're using 60's cameras so we're ain't talking HDTV yet.  They brawl all over the floor until Fritz drags Baba back in by the Claw again.  He whips Baba to the ropes and hits the Claw on the rebound, and the crowd goes DEAD SILENT as Baba submits to even the match.  Wow.  Baba rallies at the start of the final fall, and the crowd is rabid as they brawl all over the floor and the ring. They both go down from a shoulderblock, and Fritz gets up first only to miss a running splash.  They go back outside where Baba uses a chair to work over Fritz's Claw hand.  Fritz steals the chair and gives Baba one shot with it, at which point the evil Jap referee DQ's Fritz.  J-P-N!  J-P-N!  J-P-N! Fritz takes out the ref, and damn near the entire locker room empties out to keep Fritz from putting the Claw on all of Mother Japan's inhabitants.  Cool stuff... very basic, but Baba was awesome in bringing the psychology to the match, especially WRT fending off the Claw.

More bikini girls.  I could make a rude comment about the girl wearing a Nescafe bikini, but I'm a gentleman.

MITSUHARA MISAWA vs. JUMBO TSURUTA, 6-8-90, Budokan:
Was it a rule for AJ that all up-and-coming youngsters had to wear a Tower of Hair until they got established?  AJ has a much flashier entrance back then as both guys get colored spotlights, and it looks cool as hell when combined with the old half red/blue ring.  Misawa refuses Jumbo's handshake at the beginning, no doubt raising the Jumbo's ire to never-before-seen levels of grumpiness.  First several minutes controlled by Misawa, highlighted when he ejects Jumbo, fakes the mortal and then hits a dropkick off the apron which HAD to suck, then sends Jumbo into the crowd with the elbow. Misawa's going through his whole repertoire here and the crowd is eating it up, but he makes the mistake of getting cocky and slapping Jumbo around, at which point Jumbo takes over with the high
knee-into-OHHHHH! combination and goes in control.  He back-body drops Misawa onto his stomach (ala the 3D setup), but Misawa turns it into a dropkick on the second try and goes back in control. Crowd starts to react for Misawa's pin attempts now, and the match goes back and forth for the next several minutes.  At one point Jumbo drops Misawa with a kick and goes up top; Misawa revives and heads over there, so Jumbo stops what he's doing and nails Misawa with a knee while standing on the ropes.  He slams Misawa and goes back up top again; this time Misawa catches him and goes for a superplex, but Jumbo shoves him off and hits Destiny Hammer for 2.  He hits the powerbomb, but Misawa kicks out to a huge pop.  Misawa takes command, tosses Jumbo out and connects with a beautiful plancha.  Back in the ring Misawa clocks Jumbo with the roundhouse kick, but Jumbo gets his knees up when Misawa goes for the frog splash then DECAPITATES Misawa with a lariat trifecta.  He goes for the backdrop, but Misawa partially deflects it then hits a German suplex for 2.75.  Incredible reactions from the crowd, especially the younger fans who can sense the changing of the guard here. Jumbo comes back with the knee-OHHHHH! combo and whips Misawa to the buckles; Misawa comes back with a cross-body and Jumbo elbows him on the rebound but hurts his elbow in the process.  With Misawa dragging himself up by the ropes Jumbo goes for this HUGE leg lariat, but Misawa falls out of the way and Jumbo crotches himself.  Jumbo comes back with a vertical suplex try; Misawa falls behind Jumbo and goes for a backdrop, Jumbo falls on top of Misawa for 2, but Misawa rolls through for the 3-count to a  N  U  C  L  E  A  R  pop.  Orgasm Man goes suitably ballistic here, screaming "NEW HERO!" while the rest of the (not yet) Big Four lift him onto their shoulders.  Excellent match, although I can't help but think I'm missing something by not seeing the build-up to this or the rematch (which I will get to in due time).

GIANT BABA vs. RAJA LION, 6-9-87, Budokan:
Oh, YEESH.  Imagine if Little John was the world's clumsiest Hindu kickboxer: that's Raja Lion.  You know you're in for a treat when Raja falls down the first two times he tries to kick at Baba; the crowd senses this and apparently starts to chant the Japanese equivalent to "END IT NOW!"  Three minutes in it looks like everyone's prayers have been answered... what?  THEY'RE USING THE ROUND SYSTEM?!?!?! And to goose the evilness up even more, Tiger Jeet Singh is sitting ringside with Jason The Terrible (Moffat?).  Baba finally ends the suffering by putting the little-used Gianto Cross-Armbreaker on Raja, at which point TJ and Jason run in on Baba.  Ya know, I wouldn't hate TJ at all if he'd done this about 10 minutes sooner...like when Baba was coming out for the match.  Scott? Pogo Pete here... I have something special for your next comp.  The crowd seems to be sticking around afterwards, so thankfully AJ wasn't using this as the main draw or anything.

Tough call... there's no middle road here.  Either the matches are really, really great or really, REALLY suck.  Buyer beware.

DVD HOLLENDAISE.
three fists in the face of wrestling

"Dreaming of the time I can you hold you tight- Wishing that the time could be tonight."
- Buddy Holly.