Matt Watches 1989 AJPW/1986 NJPW on a Treadmill

[Matt D]

Catching up on WONs to figure out something else... Couple of notes.

• Maeda announced the launch of UWF 2.0 at this time. Takada and Yamazaki were the big names joining (Kido and Fujiwara were locked into contract). Their contracts ended at the end of March. Anjo, Nakano and Miyato are all coming with them.
• So the crazy Kobayahi tag from 3/19 actually, much like the Choshu vs Maeda situation, turned into a shoot. That's why it was so good. God if they could have just worked a match like this, they could have made the territory so hot. Ah well.
• Dave also called that amazing Hase vs Koshinaka match "so-so beginning but amazing last five minutes." He's such a moron.

4/10/88: Inoki vs Funaki/Inoki vs Yamada: This was a "Fan Appreciation Event" with all weird stuff. Here Inoki took on two different challenges one after the other. He tried to take it to the mat vs Funaki and got outwrestled vs another UWF guy, big surprise, though Funaki let the boss get out of some stuff. When Funaki tried to do more pro wrestling stuff against Inoki it didn't go as well and he missed his big charging dropkick and ate the enziguiri. Then Yamada came in and they had more of a pro wrestling romp with Yamada actually pinning Inoki after Funaki came back in and they hit a double kappo kick. Inoki was pissed (kayfabe, but who knows anymore, and tried to fight them off. Fun stuff.

4/10/88: Sakaguchi vs Arakawa: this was a judo jacket deal. they played it mostly straight and to a draw. I wanted something funnier. So did the fans. They were obviously skilled though.

4/10/88: Battle Royal: This wasn't quite as fun as the one from a couple of years prior. They all beat Hase early by pinning him en masse. He had won a sumo competition earlier. Oh, there was a guy with a devilman type mask and he squared off in sort of a sumo fight with Fujiwara to start. That was fun. Goto won this eventually and post match they all beat tossed the ref alley oop style onto the mat and they had to carry him out. So fun, but not as fun as the very funny one from a year or two earlier. It's still strange to see the usually serious guys goof around like this though.

 

[Matt D]

4/10/88: Fujinami vs Goto/Fujinami vs Koshinaka: Another top guy vs two people. I don't have a sense of Goto yet. He had a cool jumping driving headbutt thing though. Fujinami stayed mostly equal with him until he hit a dropkick. After that he hit the Robinson Backbreaker/Dragon Sleeper combo but weirdly Goto survived it. You could argue it was only four or five minutes in maybe? He fell to a crab soon after but I got the sense maybe they just wanted to give the fans a bit more action? Koshinaka came in for the second fight and he did a bit better overall as Fujinami was already one guy in and he's more of a fighter. But Fujinami still blocked suplex attempts. Again, Koshinaka survived the Backbreaker/dragon sleeper which is a weird way to put over the new killer combo... but then he lost to the Scorpion. These were fun I guess. Didn't have the shock value of Inoki chasing Yamada after a freak pin.

4/11/88: Inoki/Koshinaka vs Choshu/Hase: This felt like an opportunity to further build Koshianka with Takada gone maybe? The first half was just ok. Mostly even. Some good mat stuff with Hase clowning Inoki (of course). A tease of Inoki and Choshu. Koshinaka had to fight from underneath after a bit. And he did so in a big way catching Hase's foot, spinning him and hitting an awesome German that the announcers went nuts for. Then Chosu came in and Koshinaka slapped him right across the face. That didn't go well for him. Choshu picked him up in shin breaker position and just dropped him on his face. Then he took him outside and bloodied him big. Koshinaka kept trying to fire back against both guys but he was getting thrashed. Hase picked him up after a pile driver. He survived Choshu's lariat! The northern lights tossed him across the ring and then Hase went to finish him with Maeda's spin wheel kick. But he knocked him right into his own corner and Inoki came in and the crowd went nuts. Inoki put on the Octopus. Choshu broke it up. Inoki hit the belly to back for the win as Koshinaka, a bloody mess, charged Choshu. Felt like a big deal but the first third of the match didn't quite cut it. Here's the big Koshinaka moment:

https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:lb2j4sijdt7a2hvzw2l67lkw/post/3lgra3a2ffc2f

[Curt McGirt]

That is the most gorgeous bridged German I've ever seen. It looked like he was going headfirst himself too, like some sort of suicide attempt. 

[Matt D]

4/11/88: Sakaguchi vs Vader: Vader's entrance is great. He walks around with the mask on his shoulder and the smoke comes out. So great. Vader beat him down, but Sakaguchi was able to move out of the way a few times and hold an advantage. He did pretty well actually, maybe too well. One point when Vader charged him in the corner he stepped out to meet him and caught him in sort of a sumo bearhug deal and it was great. Rousing stuff. Eventually Vader hit a Rock style spinebuster slam for the 3. Post match. He attacked. Inoki made the save. Saito clocked him. And things seemed bad until Fujinami rushed in with a chair and the crowd went nuts. Also Saito had a cool Minnesota Twins shirt. What a guy.

4/11/88: Fujinami/Funaki vs Manny fernandez/Steve Casey: This is Scottish Steve Casey and he was really good here. Matched up well with Fujinami. He had a great drop toehold leading to Manny flying in with elbow drops and a sort of running samoan drop. Fujinami eventually made a huge comeback with a dropkick and then Funaki came in to hit his own killer dropkick and a koppu kick but when he went for the killer corner dropkick, Manny got out of the way. Then he hit the best looking move of 88, his top rope DDT.

Spoiler

 

4/22/88: Riki Choshu vs Manny Fernandez: They called Manny "Floriday's Runaway Convoy" here. He's a breathe of fresh air in 88 NJPW. Just a lot of fun. He leaned hard on Choshu here. Working the arm mainly. I came to a conclusion with Choshu. He let people take a lot of the match and sold, not to gain sympathy, but to build up anticipation for how pissed he'd be when he finally hit the lariat. Here, he was very pissed and he hit it after shoving Manny off when he went for the top rope DDT.

[Curt McGirt]

You didn't mention Funaki's corner spot being the precursor to the famous American Dragon one of same

[Matt D]

7 hours ago, Curt McGirt said:

You didn't mention Funaki's corner spot being the precursor to the famous American Dragon one of same

They feel different to me. Funak'si is like a bomb going off. Dragon's is more fluid, even before he changed the bump on it. It's more a smack to the face. Danielson means to keep doing damage. Funaki puts everything he has into his. 

[Curt McGirt]

Take in mind I didn't see a knee hitting, just the bump from a failed attempt, and it reminded me immediately of Danielson.

You know, actually, I can't remember seeing Danielson actually HIT the corner knee in forever. It's like Flair going up top. 

Edited January 31 by Curt McGirt

[Matt D]

4/22/88: Kobayashi/Hase vs Koshinaka/Yamada: Yamada has a ton of confidence for a guy who will end up under a mask. Maybe that's why they thought he could play a superhero but he didn't really need it. He could have been one of the biggest stars in Japan just like this. One thing I love about these guys is that they're prone to throw the flowers at each other before the bell. This was a little too back and forth but there was a lengthy beat down on Koshinaka. I actually think he really got the idea of a big moment comeback or creating a big meaningful moment but it's hard to sustain that or make it work in these back and forth 15+ minute matches. Inoki can do it because he has full control and because he's Inoki. I really feel like if they gave Koshinaka a creepy mask and sent him to the states with Muta in 89 that he could have really gotten over because it's a skillset better suited for the States. Ah well. This had a great finishing stretch I'll put below, but the main point is that Hase survived some Yamada stuff and hit one of the best Northern Lights I've ever seen, putting a twist on it. But then he leg Kobayashi in who took his head off with the first kick but on the second, Yamada was able to catch the foot and turn it into a cool roll up for the win. Some high highs but it didn't fully come together.

4/22/88: Inoki/Fujinami vs Vader/Saito: I love Vader's skull staff. I just do. Fujinami faced Vader for the first time and did ok but not great, as you'd imagine. The tone changes when Inoki comes in. Inoki had a great comeback at one point, just punching his way up and he sent Vader sailing over the top. They tried the double suplex on him (they had hit that in the post match) but couldn't get it. Finish was Saito just locking Fujinami in the prison lock FOREVER as Vader destroyed Inoki, hanging him upside down and doing the running charge and then the Vader attack. In the meantime, he tossed the ref and it all got tossed out. But they just thrashed Inoki post match. In the back they had this amazing angle where Fujinami proclaimed his own failure and weakness and demanded that Inoki let him battle Vader one on one and he cut some of his own hair and it was just the most New Japan thing ever. It was great.

Here's the finish of the first tag and a Funaki corner dropkick for Curt (and the Inoki/Fujinami bit above; I added that in later).

Spoiler

 

 

Edit: I added the post match after all.

 

 

Edited February 2 by Matt D

[Curt McGirt]

Yeah, Hase looked to be actually doing a Uranage into the Northern Lights, that's dope. And you're totally no-selling NJPW putting Goblin's music from the Dawn of the Dead soundtrack on the Inoki/Fujinami clip!!!

I'm pretty close to digging the '87-'89 disc(s) from the set that I never watched out of mothballs now.

[Curt McGirt]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gNA-TD3F6uQ&ab_channel=ZachariasArmstrong

Are they suggesting that Inoki challenging Vader means he's one of the walking dead?! That would be cool as fuck.

Edited February 2 by Curt McGirt

[Curt McGirt]

So, I actually did dig out ALL of my Goodhelmet discs, and organized them (only some of the Schneider discs seem to be missing, and only one or two, thankfully). I know where I'm at in my watching that I didn't watch pretty much, and it looks limited to about half of one disc! I can't believe it. Pretty sure I watched the last two because there are stuff I know I've seen on there, like Fujiwara versus the exoticos and the Russians, and I remember stopping on one of the gaijin tags, which is more than likely the Murdoch/Orton/Hall one. So I'm gonna nibble at some of it and kinda wait for where you're at Matt, because you are very close to that spot that I left off at, and we can watch some of the same stuff. 

Right now I'm gonna watch Aguayo/Canek vs. Yamada/Koshinaka which should be a blast.

[Matt D]

4/27/88: Fujinami vs Vader: Fujinami rushes right to the attack here. Dropkicks. Knocks Vader down. A big deal! Vader takes over on the outside press slamming him neck first onto the rail. Then he shows some real focus, working over that neck for most of the rest of the match. Fujinami comes back big including with a top rope neckbreaker drop that looks awesome, but Vader shrugs him off. They end up on the floor (vader takes great back/arms over the ropes bumps to the floor btw), and Vader's totally in control, just ready to kill him, but he misses the Vader attack and crashes into the post. Fujinami hits a dropkick and rolls in for a super dramatic win. Really fun stuff. Here's that neckbreaker drop:

Spoiler

 

4/27/88: 5x5 Jr Heavyweight Elimination: Choshu's Army (Hase/Kobayashi/Sasaki/H. Saito/Honaga) vs Team NJPW (Koshinaka/Yamada/T.Goto/Nogami/Hoshino): A lot to cover here. We only get 10-15 of it after all the entrances. It is a flex even after Takada left to show how strong the jr division was and could be in the future. There's a killer neckbreaker drop early (by Honaga who looked quite good n general). Sasaki (bandaged for some reason) hits his power slam. Goto has this amazing bridge after a butterfly suplex. Beautiful. Hase bleeds (beats me how but he came in bandaged too). Koshinaka hit like 3 butt butts. Koshinaka and Honaga (I think) eliminated one another. Hoshino sidestepped Hase and eliminated him which could set up a future match? He was a gnarly old dude here. Yamada came off as a total star both with the Rocky Theme entrance and the 2x1 ending where he dodged a double team and hits koppu kicks like a madman, but he couldn't quite put Kobasyahi away after a nice finishing stretch with a clutch bridge. Fun stuff.

Some of Yamada being a star:

Spoiler

 

 

Edited February 5 by Matt D

[worldcupfever]

On 1/30/2025 at 7:29 PM, Matt D said:

Also Saito had a cool Minnesota Twins shirt. What a guy.

That Twins shirt rules.

[Curt McGirt]

I remember REALLY liking that 5-on-5, the most underrated one of them all. IIRC, Yamada busts out all this chain wrestling at the start and it rules. I'll go rewatch that one. 

BTW, the luchador tag with Yamada and Koshinaka was super cool. Perro Aguayo was such an ugly, mean dick of a wrestler, raising his fist and yelling a grisly "YEAH!" and giving us evil laughter the whole match. He throws Yamada to the floor at one point and just batters him with an open chair, then receives a receipt on that from Shiro down the way. Solar works heel too! Probably the coolest part was Yamada busting out a super crazy through-the-ropes plancha where he blasts Aguayo in the face with his full body and spins flying off into the front rows like it was a stage dive. 

[Matt D]

3 minutes ago, Curt McGirt said:

I remember REALLY liking that 5-on-5, the most underrated one of them all. IIRC, Yamada busts out all this chain wrestling at the start and it rules. I'll go rewatch that one. 

BTW, the luchador tag with Yamada and Koshinaka was super cool. Perro Aguayo was such an ugly, mean dick of a wrestler, raising his fist and yelling a grisly "YEAH!" and giving us evil laughter the whole match. He throws Yamada to the floor at one point and just batters him with an open chair, then receives a receipt on that from Shiro down the way. Solar works heel too! Probably the coolest part was Yamada busting out a super crazy through-the-ropes plancha where he blasts Aguayo in the face with his full body and spins flying off into the front rows like it was a stage dive. 

What's the date on that? I assume I have it before me somewhere but my source is missing some HHs that showed up in the last few years too and almost no one is going to have them.

[Curt McGirt]

10/10/88. It's on the '80s set, pro-shot, the "Sky A" logo is in the top right corner. In fact it's on there right after that 5-on-5. 

[Mikeawesomemike]

17 hours ago, Matt D said:

Here's that neckbreaker drop:

  Hide contents

 

That whole sequence from this clip is so killer. I have to watch this match!

[No Point Stance]

On 2/5/2025 at 1:35 PM, Matt D said:

4/27/88: 5x5 Jr Heavyweight Elimination: Choshu's Army (Hase/Kobayashi/Sasaki/H. Saito/Honaga) vs Team NJPW (Koshinaka/Yamada/T.Goto/Nogami/Hoshino): A lot to cover here. We only get 10-15 of it after all the entrances. It is a flex even after Takada left to show how strong the jr division was and could be in the future. There's a killer neckbreaker drop early (by Honaga who looked quite good n general). Sasaki (bandaged for some reason) hits his power slam. Goto has this amazing bridge after a butterfly suplex. Beautiful. Hase bleeds (beats me how but he came in bandaged too). Koshinaka hit like 3 butt butts. Koshinaka and Honaga (I think) eliminated one another. Hoshino sidestepped Hase and eliminated him which could set up a future match? He was a gnarly old dude here. Yamada came off as a total star both with the Rocky Theme entrance and the 2x1 ending where he dodged a double team and hits koppu kicks like a madman, but he couldn't quite put Kobasyahi away after a nice finishing stretch with a clutch bridge. Fun stuff.

This sounds like a very cool glimpse at some guys who were soon to come into their own. I think the bridging butterfly supplex may have been Nogami and not Goto, since I seem to recall seeing Nogami do it at some point and I can't recall ever seeing Goto ever having anything in his repertoire that looked like much (unless you want to count the back supplex that legit almost broke Hase's neck once), but I could well be mistaken.

[Matt D]

2 hours ago, No Point Stance said:

This sounds like a very cool glimpse at some guys who were soon to come into their own. I think the bridging butterfly supplex may have been Nogami and not Goto, since I seem to recall seeing Nogami do it at some point and I can't recall ever seeing Goto ever having anything in his repertoire that looked like much (unless you want to count the back supplex that legit almost broke Hase's neck once), but I could well be mistaken.

Might be Nogami. I've got a great sense of Funaki, an increasingly good sense of Honaga, a solid sense of Sasaki, etc. But Nogami and Goto I don't have a great sense of yet. 1/4 of any project like this is just figuring who is who honestly. Oh, I clipped these, so you can see for yourself:

Spoiler

 

 

Edited February 6 by Matt D

[No Point Stance]

I think you were right. Hard to tell for sure but that does look like Goto. Holy shit; that's by far the most impressive I've ever seen him look (and The Blond Outlaws are a guilty pleasure of mine in early-90s NJPW). FWIW I'm pretty certain that Nogami is the guy taking that sweet neckbreaker drop from Honaga.

[Matt D]

We took the kids to an indoor water  park and I got laid out with norovirus for a couple of days. Back on my feet though. I am going to double back for the first UWF 2.0 show and I'll do those as I go, I think. I'm not going to be able to watch everything but this feels very associated. 

Let's see if I can remember the last few things I watched.

5/5/88: Fujinami vs Manny Fernandez: Pretty straightforward stuff. Manny is super credible and still a breath of fresh air. It's interesting they're not protecting him nearly as much as, let's say Orton (masked or not), because he is someone that's never going to get another major US run and does hang around a while I think, over multiple tours. Here though he loses clean to Fujinami's combination, which, I mean, good, it has to stay over and too many people in tags and elsewhere haven't lost to it, but still. They're building to the Vader rematch with him frustrated that Fujinami got the countout win on him.

5/5/88: Vader vs Hiro Saito/Kobayashi: These always go a little longer than I think they should, but they're fun why they last. Obviously Vader kills these guys and Kobayashi especially flies around for him well. They have a couple of moments of hope when they can double team him and do get him off his feet, but then he'll just shrug both of them off of him and isolate one. He's developing more and more with every month. For this one they had Inoki on commentary with a broken leg and he's no Baba on commentary, let me tell you. 

5/5/88: Saito/Choshu/Hase vs Fujiwara/Kimura/Koshinaka: This was fun. We get about ten minutes of it. Saito at one point just absolutely eats the Inazuma Leg Lariat. That stood out. Nice to see Fujiwara in with these guys, especially an exchange on the mat with Hase. I captured the finishing stretch here and it was very good with everyone hitting their stuff and Saito finally catching Koshinaka's second butt butt.

Spoiler

https://bsky.app/profile/mattd-sc.bsky.social/post/3lhw75zgpuk2n

 

[Matt D]

5/8/88: Don Nakaya Nelson vs Yamada (Different Style Fight): This is probably the best of these ever, no? Yamada carries himself like a star. he really does. He kept going for takedowns as Nelson went for strikes. He'd get Nelson in holds but usually in the ropes. It's hard to see the strings on this one in a cool way. Occasionally, Nelson would get a good kick in and Yamada would go down. Yamada went for the koppu kick and that just seemed to confuse Nelson. At one point, he got a German and the place went nuts.  Really, Yamada looked good. I think this was so good because Nelson was winning (He was supposed to face Takada here before he left, and this was to set up a bigger fight later, maybe?) so he was able to give a little more, but a lot of it was Yamada just being active and game. Late in the fight, Yamada went down and it seemed like a killing blow, especially after Nelson flew across the ring with another kick but he sort of overshot and Yamada got back into it. In the end though, he crushed Yamada's leg with a kick and Yamada went down and got up a couple of times only to go down again before Nelson hit again. Fun stuff for what it was. You don't want to watch these every day but once in a while can be neat.

5/8/88: Fujinami vs Vader II: So this was for the vacant IWGP title and it was pretty cool even if slight since we come in JIP and it's a non conclusive finish. Every duck and dropkick by Fujinami felt like a big deal and he DID seem elevated here. He hit an early German which was pretty crazy. Vader went way up for him. And he even got the dragon sleeper on. Vader survived it though. There was a cool moment when Fujinami went for the backbreaker out of a waistlock and hurt his leg and Vader really took over and there was a sense Fujinami was a dead man but he kind of shrugged it off and hit a dive (this could have been set up better with a little selling). Vader caught it, smashed him into the post and this time hit the vader attack into the post, then another to knock Fujinami off the apron. Fujinami went for a sunset flip however and Vader held the rope. Tigor Hattori (the ref) kicked the arm out and Vader press slammed him in fury and that was the match basically. Fujinami obviously was not happy with the win (he even smashed someone with the mic post match) but he had the belt.

UWF 2.0!

5/12/88: Maeda vs Yamazaki: This was very good. Yamazaki had lightning fast kicks, beesting-like, but Maeda was a beast who could do as much damage with one kick as Yamazaki could with many. There was a bit early on where Yamazaki got two kicks in, one right on the skull but Maeda then hit the single underhook suplex and shut him down. He always had an answer. The story over time is that Maeda would dominate, Yamazaki would get an opening and press, but Maeda would take it and take back over. He was just too much, like always. Yamazaki's best run of luck was with a half crab that he went back to multiple times because Maeda couldn't do much while in it. Yamazaki had grown. Down he stretch, Maeda had Yamazaki on the ropes, but he came back dominating in the corner, then in the ropes, and there was a real sense that maybe he could get him, but Maeda finally blocked a kick and hit the most legit looking spin wheelkick ever and that was basically that. Pretty gripping stuff overall though. It's on youtube.

Edited February 18 by Matt D

[Curt McGirt]

Don Nakaya Nielsen (sorry, I had to) only had fights with Maeda and Fujiwara on the '80s set. I remember being more impressed with the Fujiwara... but then, it IS Fujiwara. 

I'd be pissed if Tiger kicked my opponent's arm out too. That's some bullshit that you'd see the Tirantes boys or Nick Patrick doing, or nowadays Red Shoes.

[Matt D]

5/12/88 UWF: Takada vs Shigeo Miyato (exhibition): Miyato has experience, I guess but I've never seen much of him. He has the right training. But he really gets steamrolled here. Yakada had a few inches on him and a reach advantage and he made the most of it. At one point Miyato caught his foot but he pressed up on his hand and swept the leg out. Very cool. I think Takada took a couple of submissions here. This wasn't a lot all things considered.

5/27/88: Hase vs Owen: They do a bunch of stuff. Owen wipes out huge on a moonsault on to Hase's knees. Owen wins. NJPW Owen stinks. Best part about this was Adonis coming in to celebrate with him after the fact.

5/27/88: Fujinami(c) vs Choshu: This was a neat piece of business, let me tell you. This was Ace Fujinami getting back at Choshu for all the shit he did to him through the decade. This was his time, his era, his new start. Choshu tried to goad him early and he was having no part of it. Choshu kept trying for the belly to back out of a headlock early and Fujinami jammed him with the leg in the most Fujinami thing ever. He took over after a dropkick and worked the leg for a really great figure four. Neck straining goodness from Fujinami. Choshu pulling the ref over in pain and then using the mat for leverage to push the leg off. Great stuff. Then he pushed it even further, taking the pad off and slamming Choshu's head in and taking him outside (where he got color). Eventually Choshu did get a couple of belly to backs but Fujinami ducked the lariat! And as he was hitting the ropes you knew he was going to hit his own and this would be taken care of but the knee that Vader had destroyed in their match gave out. It was all downhill from there. Fujinami fought his way back into the ring after Choshu posted him and knocked him off the apron with a lariat. He fought out of the Scorpion. He managed to get the dragon sleeper on. He even managed a Robinson backbreaker which hurt his knee. But he just couldn't continue and it became an anticlimactic mess. I'm not 100% sure what happened in the title but it should have gone to Choshu but I think it gets vacated because Choshu refuses to win that way (though he sure liked to keep kicking Fujinami as they were checking on him). Pretty epic stuff in its own way.

[Curt McGirt]

That Fujinami/Choshu was #49 and the next one is gonna be #30 so look for a quality bump.