Gordi the former AEW fan

@Control That guy is from Finland! Boooo! Booooo! ? The white-hot Osaka Jo Hall crowd absolutely makes this one for me. That is a pure kaiju battle. I also love how Halme's Earthquake splash counter to the sunset flip is gentle as a lamb, but then Vader just crushes Halme's rib-cage with the same move later on... and then that actually plays into the (shocking) finish! Earthquake-splash-based psychology!! @GojiColin @Control Did you guys know that Halme and Norton fought each other in Japan? Unsurprisingly, it is an absolute walrus fight: Edit: I couldn't find the Halme vs Aoyagi boxer vs karateka fight, which I have heard is ridiculous in the best possible way, but I did find this, which - Good Lord, no fooling - might be my new favourite match:

Do you think that at some point during the HHH Celebration, that there might be a cake? If so, I have a totally original idea: Someone should get thrown... get this... OMG it would be so funny... someone should get thrown *into* the cake!! Could you imagine? That would be some hilarious and groundbreaking comedy that would shock everyone and never get old. I'm so excited about this idea that I am going to go and cross-post it everywhere.

Random? I haven't seen a ton of WAR and maybe these are too obvious, but I remember being really pleasantly surprised by the singles matches against Takada in '96 and just loving the Fujiwara match from '97. I've heard people saying that Mutoh vs Tenryu '96 was Mutoh's best ever. Within the promotion itself? Was Nobutaka Araya a WAR regular? Edit: this one strikes me as particularly random!

As Oyaji says, Tenryu was pretty consistently great throughout his long career, but I'd argue for '88 - '89 as his highest peak. You've got the all time classic singles match vs Jumbo, the tag with Kawada vs Gordy & Hansen, and his short-lived but incredible tag run with Hansen. I might extend it back to '86 so we can include the all time classic tag with Jumbo vs Choshu & Yatsu.

If you'd like to see face Andre vs heel Khan, this is their once-famous Mongolian Stretcher match. Khan (kayfabe) broke Andre's leg to set this up. I'd also recommend Khan vs Terry Gordy Texas Death match and Khan vs Riki Choshu from Japan

@NikoBaltimore Just to be clear, the like is for your review and not for you choosing to sit out of this project for a while. That was a good review, worth the wait. You might enjoy watching the Ken Patera vs Bob Backlund Texas Death Match that I recommended to The Man Known as Dan last week. That's some old school style epic clubbering! If I can find time in the next couple of days I am thinking of posting a short list of classic brawls in that clubbering thread (maybe with links to videos). I enjoy current NJPW and AEW quite a lot but I very much agree with your statement that "...less is more as long as it matters" and "...it would be nice if wrestling found its way back into doing less and making things mean more." I think, for example, that the recent Edge vs Orton and Gargano vs Chiampa matches could have been much better if they had both done (a lot) less but made it mean more.

@Zimbra What amazes me watching those matches is how much of a reaction they get out of the crowd with such basic offense. In all seriousness, Gordy draws more heat out of the crowd with a kneedrop than your average current-day maximalist worker gets out of a top-rope Spanish fly. It's great stuff. I love how Gordy and Murdoch start out the match with such minimalist punch exchanges, and how they sell the effect of each haymaker. I like to imagine Cody and Dustin are watching matches like these with the younger guys on their roster, to teach the value of timing, execution, selling, and character work. @AxB That is one stiff and nasty beat-down! Was that the same Mark Starr who formed Men at Work with Kanyon? @GojiColin w/r/t Frye vs Norton: It's amazing how often a match will seem on paper like its definitely going to be non-stop clubbering but then turn out to be something else. Like, say, John Tenta vs King Haku in WAR from Japan and you think "Oh, they are going to beat the crap out of each other!" but instead they mostly just bull each other around the ring... or Butch Reed vs Dusty Rhodes, but they primarily work holds. Nothing wrong with that, but it can be surprisingly difficult to come up with a really good brawl by searching likely names on youtube or dailymotion or wherever. That was actually a big part of my motivation in starting this thread: Figuring that the crazy wresting fans here would come up with stuff I might not have thought of on my own. It's definitely paid off! I don't know if I ever would have thought of searching Scott Norton matches, for example.

With the Prime Minister having declared a state of emergency in Japan, NJPW has cancelled events through May 6th (if I understood correctly).

Makes me proud to be Canadian ?

@GojiColin Oh, hell yeah! That is exactly what I am asking for!

@AxB Once again, that is a match that I really like but that I personally would not have chosen for this thread. It's definitely two big tough bastards throwing down, but it's quite a bit longer and fancier than the 5 to 15 minutes of straight up "1.5 to 3-star" level good old fashioned straight up clubberin that I was asking for. I think it's more along the lines of being an epic MOTYC... which, of course... I like those, too. Who doesn't like those? But there are a lot of threads for great matches. I was hoping this could be a thread for more bite-sized "just good" slugfests instead. I love the supremely extended chop exchange. Love it. If I remember correctly, this match took place not long after the great Shinya Hashimoto passed away, and I felt at the time and still feel that Kobashi and Kensuke were paying tribute to Hash's famous G-1 match vs Tenryu. I remember - and I know this sounds goofy - but I remember being genuinely moved the first time I watched it. However: Is that really "clubbering"? I'd argue that it's not. Maybe I have too narrow of a definition, but in my opinion not all striking is clubbering. To me, clubbering should feel like a bar fight. Like an out of control brawl. Precision shoot style striking, then, is not usually clubbering in my book. The (awesome) strike exchange in Kensuke vs Kobashi is, to me, an extended exhibition of both men's fighting spirit. It's collaborative. They are testing their own mettle and they are testing each other's mettle. That doesn't mean it's bad. It's another thing that I enjoy a lot when it's done well. I marked out like crazy sitting in the crowd at Osaka Jo Hall when Ryu Lee and Hiromu did their version of it this year. It's just that, to me... that isn't what I'd call clubbering. However, as I said, my definition of clubbering could certainly be a lot wider. It also might be fun to hear some other people's take on that opinion in this thread, if anyone feels like chiming in. Also, regardless of all that I am happy you posted that match and I'm looking forward to watching it again. I haven't seen it in years, and I have some time on my hands this week now that a state of emergency has been declared in Japan. So, thanks!

@Matt DI had not seen that. Great stuff! Belongs in my "clubbering" thread!

Now *that* is an interesting old school question!

Oh boy is this great! It's exactly what I have been most in the mood to watch the last few weeks: A violent, bloody, clubbering, hoss fight. It's also something close to the platonic ideal of a mid-1980s TV match. As we all know, back then the purpose of TV matches was to get the fans to go out and buy tickets to see the live shows. After watching this, I absolutely would have paid to see these guys fight again. They go straight into the clubbering, and just like with the Road Warriors (except way faster and more exciting) the AWA World Heavyweight Champion discovers that he can't simply overpower Blackwell. In fact, very early in the match, Blackwell rocks Hansen with stiff headbutts and hucks him straight into the ring post, busting him wide open. After a few more minutes of truly first-rate clubbering, and a great near-fall off of a Hansen slam attempt, Blackwell clamps on a nasty-looking bearhug. He really works the hold, and he and Hansen stumble and struggle around the ring. Bleeding like crazy, Hansen really looks to be in trouble. Blackwell drops Hansen to the mat and crushes him with a big splash. However, the ref is down, having been squashed in the corner by the two big struggling bulls. Blackwell goes to check on the ref while Hansen takes off one of his black cowboy boots. The champ waffles the challenger with his boot, busting Blackwell open. Hansen swings the boot at Blackwell's head again, and again. Another ref runs in to restore order, but Hansen attacks him. That allows Blackwell to grab the boot and chase Hansen from the ring. After the match, a bloody, sweaty Hansen cuts a great little heel promo. I am sure this match drew a lot of fans to the arena!

This is more what I think of, when I think of pure old-fashioned clubbering: However, if your idea of clubbering is different from mine, please go ahead and post a match anyway. Hopefully lots of people can find something to enjoy in this thread.

@Execproducer I have heard about that match (maybe on a Terry Funk shoot?) but this was my first time seeing it. What a world we live in, where footage like this is freely available! Thanks. @Zimbra Albright & Yamazaki vs Tenta & Vader is absolutely one of my very favourite (two-match) series of all time. Love it! However, I wouldn't have considered it for this thread, personally. It seems to me to be more of a character-based match. Yamazaki is a precision striker, not at all a brawler. Albright is almost purely a grappler. Tenta is the immovable object who overwhelms with sheer size (although his awesome knee lifts are nice and clubbery here) in my opinion it's really only Super Vader who delivers a lot on the straight-up clubbering front. That being said, Vader's clubbering is undeniably first rate and I really do love that match to death.

So, I was ready to use this week as an opportunity to review some of that French footage, but Curt beat me to it and did a great job of it. Then I thought about maybe catching up with some of those epic NJPW matches from 2012 through 2017, when I watched very little New Japan indeed. One of the guys I subscribe to on DailyMotion posted Styles vs Shinsuke, so that seemed like fate... except I just wasn't into watching that even though I enjoy both guys and I have learned to enjoy modern New Japan - I think my deal is that I simply get enough of the modern epic style with cutting edge moves by semi-keeping-up-with AEW. Then I started thinking about the AWA. When I was in high school and for a while after that, we used to get AWA TV in Vancouver. Of course, being a teenager, I loved the Road Warriors. I also remember liking Scott Hall and Curt Hennig. The guy I really wanted to see more of, though, was Jerry "Crusher" Blackwell - whom I remember as a morbidly obese guy who moved like lightning, could do cartwheels and throw dropkicks (it's possible I'm misremembering about the cartwheels), and who reminded me of ( a bigger, faster, better version of) my pro wrestling friend "The Burger King" "Mean" Mike "Stoney" Edwards. First: What is apparently some footage from Bizarro World. The crowd are 100 percent behind "Boom Boom" Bundy and Blackwell here. Hawk and Animal spend a huge chunk of the match stooging for their opponents and making sure Bundy and Blackwell look like real threats to take the tag titles. They establish right away that The Road Warriors cannot simply overpower these two behemoths. Bundy barely moves for their shoulder blocks and Animal strains his back trying to slam Blackwell. That being established, the Roadies go to work trying to wear down the big men. It's not exactly as exciting as Bryan trying to chop Morishima down... but it's a similar kind of psychology at work here. My gast is totally flabbered. They eventually drop Blackwell to his knees, but he Hulks up (!!!), starts no-selling, and makes the hot tag to Bundy. We get a bit of a pier 6 brawl going on, during which Bundy misses a charge in the corner leading to a flash pin by Animal. Precious Paul seemed to be trying to get up on the apron for that spot, but it didn't seem like he got there in time to interfere. A pretty amazing match, all things considered. Not at all what I was expecting. This is the JIP version. I understand the full match is out there somewhere but I couldn't find it. Still: No way I'm not going to review this! Both men have put up 5000 bucks if their opponent can bodyslam them. Andre looks every bit of 7'4" and 500 pounds here. It's astonishing how he utterly dwarfs the enormous Blackwell. They work really, really well together, moving with remarkable fluidity for such massive men. The match tells a nice little story, and throws in some great spots as a bonus: The near-legendary spot in this match is Andre taking a huge backdrop from Blackwell. There is also an all-time great comedy spot where Andre is getting up off the mat and Blackwell is bouncing off the ropes to charge at him, but Blackwell just bounces right off of Andre's gigantic ass without Andre even realizing what's happening. And, there is an excellent dramatic spot and a real feat of strength where Blackwell hoists Andre up for a slam, but topples over backward under the weight. The crowd pops when Andre succeeds in slamming Blackwell, and then the action picks up... but Andre gets overexcited and tosses Blackwell over the top rope - which is an automatic DQ. Pretty nice booking, with Andre coming out on the losing end but five grand richer. Very entertaining match. I'll do one more, a little later.

No fooling: The rumour at the time was that Akeem was Vince attempting to make fun of Dusty. Presumably the thought process was something along the lines of "Dusty is a big white guy getting hugely over by acting like a bad-movie-stereotype of a black man..."

I think that I would actually be fine with WWE pivoting to an all "cinematic" match format, at least until the curve gets flattened and we can have matches worked in front of live crowds again.

Oh boy, is this great!!

Oh, yeah! This is my WrestleMania! (Though I'll likely get around to watching a lot of the actual WM over the next couple of weeks).. @DEAN I had the privilege of meeting Dump Matsumoto a couple of times. Without her makeup and with her hair down, she looks like a chubby-cheeked grandmother, the kind who bakes fresh cookies when the grandkids come over. Even with her gimmick in place, when she is posing for Polaroids or selling autographed t-shirts, she can be very sweet and pleasant. But in the ring, she was still absolutely terrifying. I mean, it was a visceral, deep-rooted, primitive type of emotion that this sweet older lady evoked the moment she brandished that kendo stick. It was pretty amazing. @The Magnificent 7 Damn! Some of the strikes in that match. Harrowing. @Morganti the first words out of Dusty's mouth: This is a serious clubbering situation here! ? @Curt McGirt I love Valentine's selling in that match! When I first thought about making this thread, Regal vs Finlay was one of the first things that popped into my mind. Thank you, gentlemen!

Maybe a little above my *** threshold, and they throw a couple of suplexes... but this is some first-rate clubberin!

In these trying times, I need something quite specific to help get me through. In the hopes that I am not the only one, I ask for your suggestions, to help me and those like me. What we need a this, and only this: 5 to 15 minutes of two (or more) big tough bastards throwing down. Punches. Forearms. Elbows. Knees. Stomps. Chops. Headbutts. No fancy holds.No fancy moves. (Maybe an occasional arm-bar, slam or lariat). Please no legendary epic matches. No MOTYCs. Just straight up "1.5 to 3-star" level good old fashioned straight up clubbering. Something like this: Or even this: Thank you all, in advance.

Otsuka used to come in and work shows at Osaka Pro as Otoko Sakari. It's a sexually aggressive comedy gimmick where he wears a fundoshi - a kind of ass-exposing traditional Japanese underwear - and spends much of the match trying to either stick his ass in his opponents face or pull his opponent's face into his ass. I once went to an Osaka Pro Halloween party dressed as Otoko Sakari