Matt D

Our old friend Victor was hit hard by everything and asked me to post this piece that he wrote in response.

Like wrestling in the 50s.

Here's the match: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1uYpaKOPExxrL7hZPCYDnxwT0D8qXQotX/view?usp=sharing

I’ll post the Inoki vs Choshu match on drive later. That didn’t make the set and it’s iconic.

Is now. https://youtu.be/E1qgLFIEgac?si=Ikhy-CYLVQ1vGvnd

Will put it here instead of the weekly thread, but here was my take on Page vs Fletcher which does tackle the length/structure: http://segundacaida.blogspot.com/2025/05/aew-five-fingers-of-death-and-friends.html

10/10/88: Inoki vs Bigelow: Here's the deal with this Inoki run. He was back from vacation or touring or whatever and making a bit of a power play (just like Fujinami) and was going to headline all these shows while Fujinami was gone. So lots of Inoki singles matches. Unfortunately, we don't have some since the Emperor was sick and there was news coverage on that and there was a golf tournament too, but we have this. Remember, Bigelow was protected heavily through three Vader matches. Well guess what. Inoki knocks him out of the ring to start. Bigelow comes back in with a hammer or pliers or something. Inoki gets his arm after the ref tries to grab it and about a minute later Inoki hits a kneedrop off the top and beats him. Two minute win. Bigelow said it was just a two count but it really wasn't. Pretty ridiculous stuff and I tend to defend Inoki's positioning. If you were going to do this, at least let Vader beat him once! 10/19/88: Kimura/Koshinaka vs Canek/Perro: This was JIP and I don't think these guys matched up as well as Yamada and Perro did. We did have Canek press slams but the biggest thing here is that Kimura has taken as his finisher the Power Bomb. This is the first time I think I've ever seen it in New Japan. So that's exciting. 10/19/88: Saito vs Bigelow. Unique match up here. Some great Saito faces and selling in bearhugs in what not. There was a really nice bit where he got both arms up almost flexing while in a bear hug before smashing down. Really working for it. You don't usually see a back focus like this in a NJPW match. It built to Saito slamming him though and getting real pumped up. Bigelow powered out of the Scorpion though but Saito got a huge Saito Suplex on him. Bigelow kept taking over, surviving all of Saito's stuff including a lariat that only staggered him but they ultimately went tumbling out and both went over the rail 10/19/88: Inoki vs Choshu: Honestly? This was amazing, and as iconic as can be. They started by fighting over every inch on holds like you'd expect. Choshu slapped Inoki on a lock up. Then he stomped him repeatedly on a break. That pissed Inoki off so he pulled down one of the corner guards on the posts. So Choshu pulled down one on the opposite of the ring. Just pure Inoki and Choshu alpha male bs. You love to see it. They worked the corner like it was Onita working an exploding cage, just really pressing up and putting off the first shot to it but Inoki got Choshu twice. Choshu was able to recover and hit Inoki with the hugest Saito suplex though. Little problem. Inoki had his blade in his tights and Saito cut his arm huge on it. He was able to smack Inoki's head in and Inoki managed to blade after all and we ended up with a grisly bloody spectacle. Inoki sort of went mad with his own blood and locked on a sleeper, refusing to break it even as Choshu got to the ropes. Just amazing images of a bloody Inoki basically hulking up while Choshu bled from the head and the arm. Inoki got DQed and then destroyed the ref and anyone else that got in his way as Choshu escaped to get medical attention. Just pure NJPW. Right into the veins.

It's really striking watching Ricochet next to the Bucks. One's willing to make himself the butt of the jokes and the other comes off as needing to make sure everyone knows they're in on the joke and laughing with you. Huge difference.

Superhero comics can be a lot of things. One thing that it can be is a shared history with deep lore and connections. A tapestry crafted over decades with ideas created at the time and some retconned together in interesting and meaningful ways, something bigger than almost any other sort of fiction you can delve into. A way to lose yourself and immerse yourself. And they killed that dead to the point that it can never be revived. They broke it in a way that can never be fixed. Honestly, it was probably going to collapse under its own weight eventually. Marvel did a better job with it but after so many decades it fell into a model of "thought experiments" where they change something for a couple of years and revert back to the norm. I actually think these shared universes could last for 30 or 40 years (which is remarkable when you think about it) but once you hit 50-60 it just all became too much.

Who could possibly care about any of this at this point? Endless moving of furniture.

UWF 9/24/88: Funaki vs Tsunehito Naito: A squash. Apparently this is Naito's only appearance. The fans are into him though, because they're into every plucky underdog. he gets a few shots in and gets a ropebreak or two, but this is basically a two minute mauling with Funaki having his way with him. It ends with the meanest half crab you'll ever see. They get out the cold spray after. Good to see Funaki really get to crush someone because it makes those first few minutes before his opponent can start to fight back all the more potent in other fights. UWF 9/24/88: Takada vs Smiley: Fairly even fight (also sub ten minutes which was a surprise). Smiley had been unstoppable so far but Takada was higher in the hierarchy than his previous opponents. Cautious to start. Takada targeted the arm. Smiley got him over and worked a half crab for a while(a theme for this show). Then hit a suplex and used a chickenwing, but Takada got in a lucky spinning back heel kick and the legbar. Pretty good stuff though it felt like it could have gone even longer based on what we've seen so far. they could have built it even more since Smiley was formidable so far. UWF 9/25/88: Maeda vs Yamazaki: Another fairly short fight, around ten-twelve minutes long. I don't know if they were trying something different here or just educating fans that the big matches didn't need to all go 20. Yamazaki tried with his kicks but Maeda manhandled him early, including catching kicks and driving him down into that folding ankle lock he'd won recently with. Yamazaki finally got some lucky knees in because he kept pressing but Maeda was able to recover and drop him down into a legbar. That's when they really paid off that half crab work through the night. Yamazaki turned a legbar into one with a reversal and grinded and grinded it out as the fans went nuts. But Maeda survived and you could see the disappointment in Yamazaki's face. Yamazaki tried a kick. Maeda caught it and then instead of hitting the capture suplex he just threw a headbutt and floored him with a kick. Yamazaki fought his way back up but it was basically over at that point. Valiant loss but a loss nonetheless. 10/10/88: Yamada/Koshinaka vs PERRO AGUAYO/El Canek: This was awesome but it's kind of hard to keep track of Yamada and Aguayo were made for each other. Just two guys with a chip on their shoulders with red tights. Yamada had an amazing dive into the crowd through Perro's face and a killer dropkick through the ropes. Perro just beat the crap out of both of them. Canek did a bunch of stuff with a press slam (pressing perro onto them, or them onto the top rope neck first, or just a press slam so Perro could hit a senton off the top). It was just wild back and forth stuff. Maybe it fell apart a little now and again but it was great fun while it lasted with both Yamada and Shiro really scrapping to keep up. 10/10/88: Fujiwara vs St. Clair: This was also great fun and I'm not sure it came together either but it was a bunch of great little vignettes of tight work and big counters and Fujiwara driving himd own into the armbar. In the middle, Fujiwara did his headbutt stuff to the post which he rarely did on televised shows in this era and St. Clair's reactions were lovely. This feels like the best I've ever seen St. Clair look maybe. He was just working on a different level than usual that almost made me imagine a Fujiwara vs Bockwinkel match in some ways. At one point you did get the sense that Fujiwara could win it whenever he wanted but at other points, St. Clair totally held his own. There was a great moment where Fujiwara went for a crab and then a folding press pin, St. Clair clapped the legs to break it up, and Fujiwara dropped right down into a legbar. It ended with a roll up out of nowhere but St. Clair begrudgingly accepted a handshake after the fact.

Long week. ANYWAY, 9/22/88: Vader/Saito vs Gaspars: Gasparas now have different colored shirts with 13 at the back due to the scary American movie, though they're not sure how the number 13 will scare opponents (this is what the commentary told me). Theoretically this makes them easier to tell apart but Moffat is just good enough that he's harder to tell apart from Orton than the previous Gaspar was. Honestly, this feud (3 + matches now) went a long way in getting Vader over and is forgotten. It gave them other heels to fight (and the crowd naturally liked Saito) so they had a reason to get behind Vader. Here, Vader missed the post charge and they took over on his arm a bit til he press slammed one. They tried the numbers game on Saito but he kept fighting back. One finally missed a top rope flip senton and Vader came in to end it. Saito held him up for the meteorite Vader Attack. 9/22/88: Kuniaki Kobayashi vs Black Tiger: Rocco is going to Rocco. He looked better here than before but this was a lot of hard hitting fluff. Nothing really mattered. the transitions were more or less nonexistant. Kobayashi was fiery as always but it was just stuff. Mean stuff but stuff. I love Rocco's no arm pedigree. I hate his figure four which is the wrong way to do a figure four. Leg over instead of in. Very weird. He has a great scoop tombstone though. See, I'm just listing moves. I bet Dave loved this. Anyway, Kobayashi won it with the fisherman's. UWF 9/24/88 Yoji Anjo vs Shigeo Miyato: Anjo's fiery. Miyato is smaller but with incredible endurance. Anjo tries to slap him early but eats a tricked out takedown. They have some close up knees and kicks but are pretty even. Midfight Miyato gets a gutshot in, maybe a bit low, and Anjo comes out of it pissed, finally using his size to power Miyato around. He finally opens things up and goes from limb to limb just really dominating him, to the point where I think it's going on too long, but Miyato just has that endurance and is able to start firing back with kicks. He finally gets another gutshot and Anjo gets counted out. That's the second Miyato win i really didn't expect.

9/12/88: Vader vs Bigelow: This was their third match in the series and it ended as inconclusively as the others. Vader keeps playing around with his pre-match ritual in ways that are very promising and show his development. Here, he did it on the second rope and made the smoke go from there. He dominated early but Bigelow fought back on the floor. Vader got him good with a corner avalanche and the second rope vader attack but everything led to a ref bump. Here a second ref came in as Vader was going after the eyes and using a claw. Vader ended up tossing him over the rail for the DQ. Then Vader leaped over the rail towards him and they had the "adults" (that's what the commentary said) being Hall/Starr/Black Tiger/Kokina break them up. Inconclusive. 9/22/88: Fujinami/Koshinaka vs Choshu/Hase: Pretty good stuff here. Koshinaka stood tall for a bit against Choshu until he got swept under (by a Hase Northern lights where he got his foot on the rope; it was used as a transition). this was less holds and more big moves (Spike pile driver/assisted belly to back, etc). He had a few moments of slapping back in strike exchanges because the crowd loves that. Hase charged in one too many times and got kicked in the leg. Then Fujinami and Koshinaka took over, including Koshinaka going for the ring bell at one point (the ref took it back out) and pulling the knee guard down, and just stepping on the ankle. He's come a long way in 88 honestly. He was my least favorite junior and now I think he's been a big beneficiary of the UWF guys leaving. Choshu interfered until he got back in though and he took Koshinaka's head off with a lariat. Fujinami was there to drag Choshu out and Hase, damaged leg, couldn't capitalize allowing Koshinaka to win with a German. Another good tag.

I just posted the pin there on bsky actually:

UWF The Professional Bout 8/13/88: Takada vs Yamazaki: This was really good. Yamazaki was punching (kicking) up, but just a little bit really because he'd come so far. A lot of early rope breaks got Takada frustrated and he finally broke with a kick and Yamazaki called him out. Shortly thereafter, Yamazaki returned the favor. The big turning point was Yamazaki's kick getting caught and Takada taking out the knee in Fujiwara fashion. From there, it felt academic, as Takada really honed in. Yamazaki survived and survived and started getting a lucky shot here or there in. He finally beasted his way back to hit a German and then a killer KO kick for a surprise win. This was a starmaking for him. It wasn't online so I put it on: 8/13/88: Maeda vs Gerard Gordeau: Gordeau was a Dutch kickboxer and a pretty dubious character. And he absolutely crushed Maeda here. This was a different styles fight but he really dominated with knees and close up shots. Whenever Maeda really did suplex him over, he just no sold it and kicked Maeda's head in. I've never actually seen Maeda dominated like this. But he was paying the guy so... He was able to get a couple of leg folded anklelocks in and got a tap. It was pretty gripping stuff just for the trainwreck element. 9/5/88 (hh): Fujinami/Koshinaka vs Choshu/Saito: I'm writing this up for FFF tonight at SC as this was an uncovered classic so let me post that writeup for once: After some opening title match feeling out between Saito and Fujinami (two of the most credible guys ever so it was good like you'd expect), Shiro wants to tag in against Choshu and we're off to the races. Koshinaka is a guy that I like a lot more in tags than singles. He (and Takano/Cobra) were really expected to be the heirs to Tiger Mask in having exciting, over the top Jr. Title matches and you really end up with a lot of noise. But he was a plucky underdog with a special connection with the crowd and a real sense of theatricality. Earlier in 88, he started being the only guy in the promotion (not even Inoki) who would sometimes "Hulk Up" and the fans couldn't get enough of it. Here he quickly got outgunned by the superior hierarchical forces and what we ended up with was a tale of survival as he tried to punch his way out of first Saito's Prison Lock and then Choshu's Scorpion. There's probably nothing the fans in 88 New Japan would eat up more than someone fighting valiantly against holds like that and at one point they were clapping along to each valiant Koshinaka punch in a way that I'm not sure I've seen them do before. They cycled through this twice until, fighting a Scorpion attempt, Koshinaka was able to crawl over and make the tag. I thought things would go home shortly hereafter (once Koshinaka recovered enough to make it back in of course) and there was a bit of that, with Fujinami having to survive some of the holds Koshinaka fought out of as they targeted his knee. Shiro did come back in and they had the advantage for a while, but they were fighting from a deficit. It was Fujinami that got overwhelmed instead, posted on the outside by Saito and opened up to create a dramatic (and surprising) next act to the match as Saito bit the wound and Fujinami fought for his life. Koshinaka tries to intervene and got trapped in the ropes just as Fujinami turned the tide, fighting off both Saito and Choshu until Choshu's lariat finally prevailed. Super dramatic stuff, the sort of which you can only get out of New Japan at its best. 9/12/88: Fujinami Army (Tatsumi Fujinami/Kengo Kimura/Yoshiaki Fujiwara/Shiro Koshinaka/Keiichi Yamada) vs Choshu Army (Riki Choshu/Masa Saito/Super Strong Machine/Kuniaki Kobayashi/Hiro Saito) MD: Number 3 on the DVDVR set and i don't put it over NOW vs NEW or UWF vs NJPW I think. But it's still really great. I think Saito's blood down the stretch is why people rated it so highly honestly. That's a DVDVR thing to do. This was elimination rules, of course, and it had some great exchanges (after starting hot with Fujinami and Choshu) including the usual Fujiwara scrapping with SSM and Saito and fighting out of the corner. Hiro Saito got to look like a cruiserweight bully with a killer senton before Koshinaka took him out with a crab. Yamada looked like a world beater but Kobayashi got to roll him up. Fujiwara and SSM had a great bit with the crab escape where SSM tried to counter the counter only to get caught and pinned himself. Fujiwara gets knocked out of the ring after headbutting Saito in the gut (recoil). Fujinami survives an amazing Choshu Scorpion and Saito crab in order to hit his finishing combo (Robinson Backbreaker/Dragon Sleeper) on the remaining weakest link in Kobayashi. Kimura comes in for the first time we see and hits the Inazuma Leg Lariat on Choshu only to try it again in the ropes and get momentum tossed out. That leaves it as 2x2 with Shiro and Fujinami vs Choshu and Saito. Shiro comes back from getting beaten on and has Choshu rocked but instead of tagging he goes for the top rope knee, misses it, eats a lariat, kicks out! and then eats another. Now it's 2 on 1. And Saito, to make it even worse, hits a rare, rare mule kick in the corner to nail Fujinami in the groin. After some beatings, Choshu gets him on the apron. Fujinami messes up the headscissors takeover that probably was supposed to take him over but that just helps things beacuse it makes it seem more of a struggle as he finally dropkicks him high and low to get him out. Saito vs Fujinami now, and Fujinami opens him up HUGE with an exposed turnbuckle. Bloody mess, but he survies and survives. They tease a suplex to the floor. There's a ref bump. Fujinami gets a phantom pin on the backbreaker. The ref recovers and Saito sidesteps him for a crash into the corner out to the floor. Just a little too much BS and not quite as much drama as some of the others for me. But like I said, still very good, with some great specific moments.