Matt D
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Posts posted by Matt D
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1 hour ago, The Green Meanie said:
Allegedly Tony put out at message that said the match was going to be shown in it's entirety on Max and for the West Coast feed; I haven't read about anyone that's actually gotten to see the rest of the show yet.
Tag was pretty good. CRU are starting to feel like Kaientai DX styled buzzing nuisances. I didn’t like the Hobbs match as much as I would have liked. Lots of focused legwork but Yuta wasn’t working the crowd enough. I think he was focusing too hard to make people buy that he was in control. Parts where Hobbs was killing him were good. End of show teased something fun between Willow and Yuta.
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On paper this might be the best AEW PPV card for me in ages.
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9 minutes ago, JLowe said:
He almost popped me and Greggulator with his chain during his entrance!
Gregg is a heel manager waiting to happen though.
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Busy week but I have a bunch of catch up here. I don't remember as much as I'd like unfortunately, so we'll see how I do.
10/27/89: Fujiwara vs Williams: This was a lot of fun. I don't know if they went quite as hard on the mat as I wanted but Doc was a beast and Fujiwara could meet him. What sticks to me was the extended headbutt bs in the middle. It was a lot of fun and Fujiwara really didn't do it all that often. But Doc kept getting goaded in to slam Fujiwara's head into the post only for Fujiwara to make a big deal out of no selling it and smashing Doc who bumped to the floor. Fit Doc's character perfectly. They eventually went spilling out since this wasn't going to end clean.
10/27/89: Inoki vs Bigelow: This was part of the Inoki series but it was a sub for something else and I'm not going back through the WONs to remember what. It was a big of a make good after the last very short Inoki vs Bigelow match. This time, Bigelow hit a top rope splash pretty early but Inoki's foot was under the ropes.Bigelow controlled for a bit. Inoki clapped up and fired back but missed a couple of Enzis as he was too cocky about all of it and Bigelow dropped him and goozled him. Bigelow tried to suplex him to the floor and I half thought they were going to do it for a second but Inoki dropped down for his sleeper choke. Bigelow was in the ropes. Inoki wouldn't break it. Bigelow passed out and was furious when he woke up. But he won it by DQ.
10/27/89: Choshu/Super Strong Machine vs St. Clair/Casey: The auto translation said a bunch about England as these guys came out, including that Casey and St. Clair could call upon the power of 007 or something. Weirdly, they really controlled SSM. More so than I've seen elsewhere as he was usually a wrecking ball. Maybe he just really respected them or something. Choshu came in for a bit but they took right back over on SSM including a Hart attack. SSM got hope but missed a top rope elbow. When Choshu flinally got in obviously he came in hot and just lariated Casey to hell.
10/27/89: Hiro Saito/Kobayashi/Koshinaka vs Biff Wellington/Canek/Perro: Weird to me to have Koshinaka with Choshu's jrs. Biff had shaved his head to look like Dynamite before this and he moved like a Calgary guy. Almost like Benoit without the baggage in this old footage.Perro matched up well with Hiro Saito as you'd expect. Just two cruiserweight bullies basically. Likewise Perro and Kobayashi as two firebrands. Perro had a great seated senton off the apron on him. It peaked with a crazy chair war between the two before ending up with rope running and Koshinaka and Kobayashi working well together to win it.
11/11/89: Inoki/Choshu/Hoshino vs Fujiwara/Kimura/Kido (Elimination): Apparently they were doing some sort of six man elimination tournament in November of 89 and we have almost none of it. Just two TVs. Big shame. This was a lot of fun. Inoki and Choshu had just teamed on a special Taiwan show so now they wanted to try it here. The announcing billed the three as "The Knowledge Army, the Lightning Fighter, and the Lawyer of Underhanded Technique." Kido charged right in and menaced Choshu but Choshu picked him up brought him to the ropes and put him over so Hoshino could knock him off. Very clever spot/elimination to start the match. That set the tone as it was 3-on-2 for a lot of this. Fujiwara was immediately furious and drove Hoshino down with the armbar but he survived. He started paintbrushing him but Hoshino turned it around and survived and it was 3 on 2 for a while. Fujiwara and Kimura hung in there and Inoki only came in sparingly but it was not easy going for them. The damage they were doing was over more people really. That was it. Some exciting bits as it went on with Kimura almost getting Inoki out and Fujiwara finally driving Hoshino down with another armbar to even it up. But Choshu was just there to support Inoki and vice versa and Fujiwara and Kimura had been too worn down. Fujiwara got cheapshotted with a running-across-the-apron outside in Lariat by Choshu as he was fighting Inoki (and winning with the headbutts). He fell to an Enzi right after that. Finish had Kimura get Inoki with the Inazuma but Choshu was there. He hit a knee on Choshu but Inoki got him from behind with the sleeper. Good stuff. A smaller, less epic version of these with some clever eliminations.
Biggest thing in the WON was the Russians getting licensed by the government to come in sooner than later.
Here are the six man teams, btw:
- Inoki/Choshu/Hoshino
- Fujinami/Hashimoto/Chono
- Kimura/Fujiwara/Kido
- Sakaguchi/Saito/T.Goto
- Koshinaka/Kobayashi/H.Saito
- SSM/"The Tiger"/"The Jaguar" (will figure out later or not)
- Murdoch/Orton/Hall
- Buzz/Manny/Lance Idol
- Smothers/Steve Armstrong/Takano
Originally Inoki was to team with Chono and Hashimoto but Fujinami with Kimura and Kido but Fujinami vetoed that.
It's got a real Lethal Lottery feel.
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Our old friend Victor was hit hard by everything and asked me to post this piece that he wrote in response.
QuoteSabu transcended wrestling. He would never say that. He never viewed it as a money thing. But more money allowed him to wrestle.
With Sabu, he could be wrestling Madman Pondo, La Parka, or John Cena, and all would feel like a one of a kind event.
I remember first seeing him wrestling magazines. They spoke of an insane wrestler who destroyed tables and all around him. I remember seeing pictures of him wrestling in fire.
He took a small Philadelphia indy and nearly single-handedly made it a player.
The best compliment I could give him is he was a throwback to a generation gone by. A traveling attraction like Haystacks Calhoun, Andre The Giant, and most importantly, the Original Sheik, his late uncle and inspiration.
He never needed title belts because he was the attraction.
When I finally saw him on television, he did not disappoint. He became my favorite wrestler along with the late Big Van Vader.
I looked forward to his matches. When he did well, I did well.
Ten years ago nearly to the day I met Sabu. Me, my very young baby nephew and baby sister drove thru Tennessee to find a town called Sparta.
It was Passover, and we went thru a town that resembled Mayberry, and they were reenacting the crucifixion of Christ.
We finally arrived in Sparta, and I could not find Sabu. I was on the verge of tears.
My sister had to use the bathroom. This was a building with a communal bathroom. Sabu walked out of it, and my sister flipped out. Sabu told her to be careful because of her papoose (my nephew). She then told him all about me. I think she told him more than I know.
I walk up to him, so scared. He shook my hand and hugged me, saying, "I love you, brother."
He, to his manager's dismay, would not take my money..
He signed my foam ECW belt and wrote over Jerry Lynn's name, which I found funny.
He had a dry sense of humor like mine, where he made you wonder if he was serious.
After that, I friended him on Facebook and talked to me whenever I had a question.
When I heard he died, I sobbed for an hour. While sad, I rarely let wrestler deaths hit me this hard.
My faith tells me Sabu is at peace, free of pain, and reunited with the uncle he loved and admired.
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2 hours ago, Casey said:
The reason reality TV blew up in the first place is that it's extremely cheap to produce.
Like wrestling in the 50s.
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21 minutes ago, Curt McGirt said:
I absolutely remember where I saw it; it was 103 out of 175 in the NJ '80s ballot. That was the particular disc I stuck in not long ago because of this thread. Fantastic match and Perro is maybe in my top three luchadors at this point.
I’ll post the Inoki vs Choshu match on drive later. That didn’t make the set and it’s iconic.
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11 hours ago, Curt McGirt said:
I'm about 99% I've seen this. I was wondering if they were working heels because of Canek and that was a real stupid question because it's Perro, he absolutely gonna heel on the Japanese guys. Perro is a complete ass-stomper in this. It was on Youtube, or so I thought.
Is now.
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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
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Who could possibly care about any of this at this point? Endless moving of furniture.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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6 minutes ago, Curt McGirt said:
Strangely I don't remember blood from this match, but rather Fujiwara just being a mean, pissed off bastard, and very disappointed when he got knocked out of the match. We needed more!
I just posted the pin there on bsky actually:
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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.
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That was a crowd that really wanted to cheer everyone in Boston, with some real specific exceptions, so good on Wayne to actually get some heat with them.
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I thought i had all my watching under control (including this lost Devil Masami vs Jaguar Yokota match) primarily by skipping Ospreay vs Takeshita which i'm only watching if I lose a bet. But then boom, random ROH episode out of nowhere on YouTube.
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Bowens would have come back minutes earlier if not for Johnson. That’s the missing piece here.
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UWF The Professional Bout
8/13/88: Katsumi Omura vs Ri Sogi: This and the next one were fairly brief kickboxing (shootboxing?) matches (with gloves) which may or may not have been worked. I lean towards yes. Omura destroyed Sogi with knees. He fell down. He got up. He got destroyed again.
8/13/88: Makoto Oe vs Hidekazu Mikake: Oe destroyed Mikake with punches. He fell down. He got up. He fell down again. It did set certain expectations for the night in a way that wasn't bad. You got a real sense of consequence. Anyway, these two are only in the German notes on Cagematch so I was very confused.8/13/88: Shigeo Miyato vs Tatsuo Nakano: Love seeing these two face off. Miyato remains pretty tiny. Nakano remains pretty bulky. This went ~19. The first ten or so had a lot of Nakano ALMOST getting a hold as he bullied Miyato around and Miyato just barely prevented it. Eventually, Nakano got frustrated and started to go for strikes and got taken down and tossed around by the little guy for his trouble. That worked just until Nakano caught him. From there, they went back and forth a bit until a killer finishing sequence where Nakano couldn't keep a chicken wing, but was able to headbutt THROUGH Miyato's skull once he started in on him, sweat going everywhere, in an incredible visual. That opened Miyato up huge but he was able to get a desperate half crab on for a pretty unexpected win. Maybe a bit long but I was into it the whole way personally.
8/13/88: Yoji Anjo vs Norman Smiley: Smiley had a nice little interview on the video before this about how UWF was the best style and he hoped the wrestle more in Japan. How old was he here... let me see. He was maybe... 23, wow. Anyway, he was clearly the aggressor here, but Anjo had answers. This didn't have the stark contrast as the previous match and was much more even. It was maybe a little more theatrical in some of the broad strokes that they were trying with holds. Just more to the back row instead of tight up. It's a matter of nuance with these UWF matches. Anjo tried more kicks but they didn't serve him well. Finish had Anjo finally get a Northern Lights out of the corner only to immediately get caught with a leg gravevine armhold for a submission as he tried to go in for the kill. Clever bit.
The two top matches are on disc/side two so I have to find those later.
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1 minute ago, Nice Guy Eddie said:
I remember many years ago, we had a tournament on here to determine the best short-term tag team. I think the winner may have been Manny Fernandez and Rick Rude. My vote went to Mikey Whipwreck and Tajiri.
I feel like that’s the other thread that Khan takes credit for starting btw.
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AEW TV - 5/14 - 5/20/2025 - Willow Rider Is A Little Higher
in ALL ELITE WRESTLING
Posted
Depends on how you feel about
Babe With The Power Bombs