Matt D

Paul (and the rest of you lot), don't share this around, but it's a Bret Hart match that I can't imagine 100 people in the world have seen on tape, from a recently discovered stash in Germany. @The Natural

@AxB @Casey ----- @RazorbladeKiss87 @onelegbrynn ------ @The Natural @Curt McGirt > @Matt D Ok, here's week 3. I think these are new pairings. I think we go one more after this if everyone's ok with that. Paul, you get Curt something. Curt gets me something. I get you something. I'll get it to you tomorrow.

I ended up going with Hall vs Owen/Tony which was a handicap match with tags needed. I’ve spent a decent amount of time with 88 Owen (to negative feelings) and 88, 90, and early 91 Hall (In NJPW and PR). Somewhere in 90, Hall finally seemed to get it and got very close to being a complete act that should be a star. What’s enjoyable about it is that he’s still Cowboy Scott and not so subsumed into the Studd/Ramon character though he has taken on some of the mannerisms like the outstretched arms pose and the “crucifix” Razor’s Edge finisher. Obviously this presented Hall as a guy who can face two people at once though maybe not well. They controlled on the arm early. Owen was less driven to get all of his stuff in and feeling like he had to look strong at all times by 90 so this worked pretty well. Hall would out strength him but he’d pop back and get a slick shot in. Hall was confident enough to look the fool at times as well. He finally did get over on Owen and isolated him for a bit but they would double team illegally to get back on top. The fans were pretty behind Owen and and Tony so they didn’t really care how they did it. Hall drew Owen out of the corner to hit a low blow on St. Clair when the ref was distracted, but Owen immediately got a blind tag after that so it really didn’t matter. Kind of a weird spot. When Owen came in, he hit a dropkick and tweaked his knee. One leapfrog later, and he was out of the match. That was a pretty good way to cover how one person could beat two as Hall shortly thereafter did a slick little leapfrog of his own and hit a DDT key out of nowhere to pin St. Clair. This had both its charms and its flaws and it was nice to see Hall in yet another place during this period. He really was coming along by this point even if it had taken him a while to get there.

Here's my write-up of Joe vs Eddie: http://segundacaida.blogspot.com/2025/12/aew-five-fingers-of-death-128-1214-part.html

UWF 2.0 6/19/89: Funaki vs Anjo: These UWF shows are very rewarding but they're also so much work and I'm glad I'm just doing small write-ups here. So much happens in the 22 minutes here. Anyway, I cannot wrap my head around Funaki yet (he's only 20!). On paper, he really should have stayed in NJPW as he matches their style much better. Obviously he grows into becoming the founder of Pancrase and whatever, but you watch him here and I just don't know. The comparison point for 89 Funaki, to me, is 86-7 Muto in the midst of the UWF vs NJPW battles, where he just stuck out like a sore thumb for being more "pro wrestling-y", but also brought something different to the table, something prettier and more sweeping. Some of it is aesthetics but a lot of it is how he moves. His expressiveness is a little more theatrical too, as is his attitude. Anjo always had a chip on his shoulder but Funaki inspired even more in him (and only in part because he was threatening Anjo's spot). He starts out by walking over and slapping Anjo in the face when Anjo tries to shake his hand. Anjo takes offense and they start scrapping with open hands. Funaki catches an Anjo kick but gets absolutely clocked by a spinning jumping kick. Great start. From there, they were very equal. I'd say that Anjo was better on points, but Funaki had a way of enduring and flowing through something or snatching a hold out of nowhere. Anjo was more dogged but Funaki didn't let someone be complacent. One of the biggest such moments of the fight had Anjo leaning over Funaki with a hold and Funaki just doing an upwards kick and flooring him from a prone position. Late in the match he kept throwing spin wheel kicks even when they weren't wise to throw anymore and he was finally able to tag Anjo in the corner. Some very good expressiveness from both wrestlers as they struggled to the ropes. On a half crab, Anjo couldn't believe that Funaki got there. At one point Funaki hit a very theatrical samoan drop and another a butterfly into a double underhook hold that he really worked for. Finish had them scrapping all over the place but Anjo jammed him on a German and dropped him right down into an armbar for the win. It's not the cleanest or crispest fight but it was full of heart and passion and it was very enjoyable. UWF 2.0 6/19/89: Fujiwara vs Suzuki: Adding Funaki, Suzuki and Fujiwara have really stacked these cards much more. They basically are able to add an extra match each card and freshen the pairings up. Fujiwara is absolutely fascinating to watch in these matches because he's generally quite passive and takes a lot right until someone transgresses too far or walks into a trap. Suzuki's attitude was wonderful in general. He walked right up and got into Fujiwara's face before the bell and got shoved for his trouble. This started great. They ended up on the ground and Fujiwara's ability to turn a leglock around in the most interesting way was amazing. It was almost like they were dancing or this was a martial arts movie but in the most credible way possible. It drove Suzuki nuts and he started paintbrushing Fujiwara, then kicking him, then hitting legdrops! You expected things to turn and turn hard once Fujiwara got up but he bided his time and they wrestled a bit more until Suzuki tried for the crab. Big mistake. After that Fujiwara started in on him in the corner. After that things stayed fairly even, but it really was just a matter of time. Suzuki hit a German but not clean. He went for the arm but Fujiwara turned it into a leglock. Fujiwara nailed him with a brutal headbutt. Suzuki stayed alive with kicks to the knee and a corner dropkick that was nasty. Fujiwara kicked him in the gut once. Suzuki caught the second and took him down. Then he got a twisting leglock which had Fujiwara selling with his face as much as I'd ever seen him, but he couldn't put him away with it and now it was Fujiwara's turn to go to the legs with kicks. He worked really hard for a Butterfly suplex, including kicking the leg right before he got him over, and got a kimura out of it for a tap. Post match they had the most heartfelt hug and Fujiwara seemed to have so, so much pride in him. Great stuff. UWF 2.0 6/19/89: Yamazaki vs Smiley: Interesting performance here. Yamazaki refused the shake at the start. The first few minutes felt almost avant garde or experimental, lots of flowing from one hold to the next and sweeping around. Yamazaki went from the leg to the arm quickly, Smiley rode him over, etc. Just a real sense of them playing with the form while having it still seem credible. There was a bit of that up and down the card and I wonder if they felt like they had the freedom to do that now that they were established or just saw a need to given the relative repetition so far. Things did get chippier as they went with bits like Smiley slamming his knee into Yamazaki's back repeatedly to get out of a hold or a real shoot looking knees dug in fisherman's suplex and wonky sort of dragon screw. Finish had Smiley catch a kick, drive a kick into the knee to set up a German but then immediately end up rolled over into a deep Fujiwara armbar that he had to tap on. The quality of everything from the finish of the first match to here has been very high. UWF 2.0 6/19/89: Maeda vs Takada: Here we go again. This was illuminating to me in some ways because it made me think about the structure of things. They wrestled clean early even with a bit of that flowing escape style (and a great Takada counter to the capture suplex where he just fell on him), but eventually, Maeda struck first with some kicks to a grounded Takada post break. Takada is Maeda's equal and he got up swiping at him. This led to him hitting a spin wheel kick of sorts, hitting clean. It was early in the fight so Maeda absorbed it and got the first real hold and eventually the first break of the fight. Shortly thereafter, however, Takada was able to get under Maeda with the first lifting slam (sort of a northern lights pick up then a spinebuster) and then the first suplex. But Maeda was able to get the first takedown and then another as he forced a third rope break. Takada was able to come back out of a feeling out reset by kicking Maeda right in the face and capitalizing. That's so much of how these matches go. Some of it is numerical, # of points on rope breaks or knockdowns (leading to the 5 and the TKO), mixed with capitalization on opportunities. Some of it is who gets X first and how is that responded to, but some of it is of the moment too. It's not momentum shifts really, so much as cumulative damage and qualitative and quantitative opportunities. It becomes Maeda's strength and reach against Takada's heart, but Maeda ultimately survived a knockdown and hit a German which let him lock in a half crab for the win. It was good but given the outcome feels a little old maybe. One problem is that as best as I can tell there's no belt they're fighting over. It's just pride and money I guess?

Timecoded. MPro in a Boston Area Indy Dick Togo/Terry Boy/TAKA Michinoku vs. Gran Hamada/Gran Naniwa/Great Sasuke 2/16/97

Sorry guys, crazy day! Here's week two. @AxB > @RazorbladeKiss87 > @Curt McGirt (which means Curt gives AxB) ---- @The Natural @onelegbrynn ---- @Casey Matt D We meet again, Casey. I'll let you give me something first and I will retaliate accordingly, old friend.

I had plenty of Kitao in this thread already and none positive. 6/22/89: Liger/Koshinaka vs Black Tiger/Biff Wellington: Start of this match was great as Tiger went to town on Liger with the flowers. But Liger and Koshinaka worked together to fire back. Liger knocked Biff out with a spin wheel kick and hit his crazy through the ropes dive. Koshinaka followed that up with a pile driver on the floor. So it was that kind of match. Tiger was good asserting himself, but it was fairly back and forth. It's Rocco so he'd eat a spike pile driver and would be back up getting atomic dropped or whatever twenty seconds later. Finish had Rocco holding Liger's foot on the top allowing Biff to superplex him, but then he missed a top rope knee drop. Koshinaka made it in, hit the butt butt and they went around for a hot stretch that ended with Rocco accidentally hitting Biff with the top rope kneedrop as he tried to break up a pin and then Liger hitting the Liger Bomb. Ok as a sprint but a little too out there. 6/27/89: Fujinami/Kimura vs Iizuma/Hase: This was pretty rough. Iizuma and Hase went to Russia to train. The good news is both of them came back with a sort of Urinage Exploder type suplex that they used late in the match. The bad news was everything else. Hase in 1988 was an incredibly dynamic wrestler, maybe too much so. He's super intense and full of a lot of interesting throws and strikes and takedowns and what not. Iizuma has one or two signature takedowns, but they're great and he could be fiery and work from underneath. This was as dull a grappling contest as I've seen in a few years of New Japan. There was just no life to any of it until the end. I get that they wanted to put forward the idea that Iizuma and Hase were newly skilled on the mat and pitting them against Fujinami/Kimura who had barely teamed in a while was a way to do it, but the results were way less compelling than this would have been two months prior. It didn't have any of the magic of UWF matches either. It felt more like what a match like this might look like in 1982 and the world had moved on. So Fujinami and Kimura won but Iizuma and Hase were shown to hang with the big flourishes at the end. I wasn't a fan overall though. 6/27/89: Choshu vs Vader: Vader took over quickly with a couple of lariats and bulling Choshu in the corner. Choshu came back in hot with strikes and tossed Vader out, doing real damage on the floor, tearing at the mask and posting him, really opening him up. Vader came right back in and they went back and forth like this a bit. Choshu would try to come back and get the Scorpion but Vader, pissed off and bloody, just took over and leaned hard on him. At one point he hit a bloody spectre of a top rope Vader Attack. But Choshu survived it, got his knee up on a splash and hit the belly to back, a slam, and a lariat. They both ended up outside but Vader hit the attack off the apron and got the count out. Pretty grisly match overall. 6/27/89: Liger/Nogami vs Sano/Sasazaki: First time we've seen this version of Yamada (being Liger) up against Sano. Sasazaki is a guy we've rarely seen in the footage, but he had a singlet that made him look like he was cosplaying as one of the Soviets and he even got pulled around by it. Nogami had black tights and really was no nonsense and credible though I can't say he stood out. It's tough to stand out in a world with Liger and Sano though. Sano was maybe the most athletic guy in Japan at this point. in another world, he would have been the great Juniors babyface of the 90s. He could have been Liger and it would have worked, even if would have been different. We came in with Liger suplexing someone off the apron and diving on them over the opening credits or whatever and it was pretty exciting stuff. Liger really bulled them early, especially Sano, which was interesting. They did come back and work Liger over later though. Finishing stretch was hot with a bit too much stuff (but this is normal). At one point Sasazaki tried to whip an opponent into a missile dropkick by Sano but the whip got reversed. He'd bounded up the ropes so quickly that they made it believable though. Liger won clean with the Liger Bomb which was starting to get over. UWF 6/19/89: Bart Vale vs Miyato: They upped the video effects on the way in with names on the screen. They also had trainees do an exhibition of what was legal and what wasn't with some strikes (elbows and toekicks to the face while someone was down). This was a little bit of a weird mismatch of a fight. Vale was almost solely a striker and Miyato could catch his kicks and take him down. But the size difference was so huge. Vale had such a reach advantage. So once Miyato got him down, he couldn't do much without getting kicked from the ground. When Vale got shots in they looked great, but it was a lot of both guys sort of stymied by one another in a less than compelling well. The finishing stretch was great with Miyato finally getting a half crab and screaming away after hitting a heel butt that he'd turned the tide on matches with. But Vale got out and as Miyato was trying to heft him over in a mare, he caught Miyato with a choke and dropped back at jarring speed to win.

Thanks to everyone that's participated so far. We're rerolling for week 2 tomorrow. We'll get at least a few weeks out of this. So finish up if you need to.

Will put together my thoughts for this on Monday but I loved Athena's selling and it was a really interesting story about Persephone, despite all of her strength and being able to take advantage of the situation, maybe not having the emotional maturity to get it done. Super happy for Velvet and her moment. It felt like a huge deal.

I thought Steel did a good job adapting on the way to the ring and riffing on her song not really playing though. That's the sort of thing that makes someone stand out. For all of her structural issues (and she has a few) and occasional sloppiness, I think Billie Starkz has great instincts on the fly for that sort of thing because she has been in front of so, so many crowds.

I definitely did not watch this previously. The structure is fascinating. They do a shine where the Bucks run in and out freely but then get comeuppance with a 69 position stooging bit that lasts forever so that Ospreay can bound off of Fletcher's back (or vice versa). It's a double commercial break match which guides it so much as anything else. This would be different on PPV. Here it's double heat with both heats on Fletcher. In between you get Ospreay cleaning house (Fletcher comes back before the hot tag with a simultaneous styles clash), then this weird little mini heat on Ospreay without too much rhyme or reason. There's a nearfall after an Oscutter where Knox screws it up and gets heat by not counting in time because he was out of position or confused or something. It really doesn't add much to the match. It's basically a 2.25 heat match. I'm not sure what I'd have preferred, if they did double heat without that little weird bit with Ospreay in the middle or if they did double heat with Ospreay taking the first or the second heat? It's really a match defined by formatting. There were things I liked. I thought the finish worked, though Fletcher didn't need to kick out after the belt shot. I liked the Bucks being jerks after they took over the first time, playing to the crowd. While it was a tonal shift from what had just happened, I bought them a little more than usual there. They gave the fans nothing to latch onto for a minute or two (before giving them a bunch again). I wish they had kept up that energy somehow for much of the rest of the match instead of just hitting a lot of stuff primarily. Ospreay was so over the match never quite got to this is awesome territory and that was a testament to the match and Ospreay's earnestness. I would have preferred a lot less pinfalls. Yes Ospreay/Fletcher wanted the belts, but there was room for them to do some more damage and have the Bucks get more comeuppance instead of going for pins that had to be kicked out of/broken up so that they could have saved some of that for the stretch because there were so, so many nearfalls. There also wasn't a huge sense of escalation to me. They hit huge moves mid match that didn't feel bigger or smaller than some of the moves down the stretch. There were about six different matches within this one I would have liked more if they had made different creative decisions. This would have been a better match with one less segment. And there's so little of today's Fletcher here. He was working more that way even before this and it has me a little worried about an eventual babyface turn. I think he's learned enough to do it successfully but this makes me less sure. But in the end, they accomplished what they set out to. I think that's undeniable. They just did so like this:

They called him "The Great Elephant of the Pacific" on his way to the ring here.

I'll get there in 2037. For now, June 1989. Urgh, I need to read the Observers on why Inoki's gone. Let me do that. All these things want to talk about is No Holds Barred. The 6/5 Observer is still talking about Inoki planning to run NJPW in the USSR and make tons of money. They signed two more Olympics level Soviets. Also Kitao is coming in. None of this is what I want to know. Inoki is screwing around in the USSR trying to get boxers to fight in Japan. Oh no, Dave caught up with the TV and he's reviewing things. This is terrible. He hated Hashimikov vs Vader "although Hashimikov did a belly to belly." He's hating all of this stuff. Ok finally on to Inoki in the 7/3 Observer. Notes: Inoki is retiring to run for office. Does not seem to be forced out. Inoki owns 47% of NJPW stock. (TV Asahi owns much of the rest). Sakaguchi is the new president. Sakaguchi is ALSO retiring. That I didn't know. Soviets have made NJPW boom again. "Inoki's last coup" Inoki will remain on the board. Board is Nagasato (rep of Asahi), Fujinami, Yamamoto (who commentates too), Hoshino, Choshu, Saito. Dave hears the future will be Choshu as champ, with Kitao, Muto, and Hash as the big stars. Great, I can move on now. 6/16/89: Kengo Kimura vs Timur Zasalov: Zasalov is such a weird wrestler. He would get hot about leg kicks or punches (more like exasperated) and he would just hang on and get Kimura over no matter what. Just absolutely convoluted slams and pumphandles and whatever, where he'd just grab limbs and heft Kimura up and twist him around and drop him. It's fascinating to watch. Someone said it was like bad AI generated video and that is very funny. I can't imagine any of this was good on his back but obviously he was very strong. Kimura held his own with some simple takedowns, survived the big hefts, and then won it by getting a kick to the gut out of nowhere, a belly to back, and a half crab. 6/16/89: Liger vs Biff Wellington: Wellington had such a unique look, like a mini Road Warrior. Liger's gear is adapting. He has side horns now for instance, though they're not huge or anything. This was fairly back and forth. They crashed into each other early and I wasn't sure what they were going for it. It looked impressive but I wasn't sure who was supposed to get the better of it. A lot of trading of holds with a move in the middle as they switched advantage. The finish got a little wild as Wellington went to suplex Liger in on the apron. I thought Liger was going to float over on the way in but he suplexed them both to the floor instead. Then he hit a reverse flying headbutt and the first sit down pinning powerbomb I've seen out of him. That should have ended it but they went around another time or two with Liger catching Wellington off the top with a defensive dropkick and then hitting a German for the win. They went hard certainly, but they should be putting Liger over stronger in my opinion. More on that later. 6/16/89: Vader/Brad Rheingans vs Choshu/Saito: This went about five minutes. Brad as Vader's coach still sort of works for me but it would have worked better if he was still champ. He and Choshu mat wrestled to start, with it getting chippy and Brad getting a belly to belly off the ropes, letting him take over. He controlled the ring and he and Vader hit a backbreaker/running elbow drop combo. Vader hit an avalanche and then they did a deal on the outside where Bard whipped him into a Vader lariat so pretty dominant first few minutes here. Choshu floated in on a suplex on the apron and hit a lariat so that Saito could come in and knock Vader around with a lariat of his own. Vader took back over and they did another double team (Second rope Hart attack shoulder block). But Saito got the Saito suplex on Brad and Choshu lariated him to death. He got vader too and a second one on Bard to win it. Pretty fun sprint here. 6/16/89: Fujinami vs Great Kokina: Yoko is welcome addition to this roster. They call him "The Great Elephant of Eastern Asia" on the way in. Fujinami took it right to him with a clothesline but Kokina would keep knocking him down and getting him into holds. Fujinami hit a great dropkick and tried to ground him. They matched up well but while Yoko was smaller and more agile than he would be a couple of years later he didn't quite have that same presence. He leaned on Fujinami but Fujnami contained him too. This was sub-ten minutes and built to a big Fujinami slam and a half crab for a fairly quick submission. Good match to put Fujinami over at least. 6/22/89: Fujinami vs Vader: Right back to it. With Inoki gone, it made sense to lean on Fujinami immediately. Vader owed him a win from the tournament too. This had a great Vader Mask opening where Vader did the ritual and rushed through the smoke but ate a dropkick and then a lariat. That sent him to the floor. When he came back he took over and he leaned on Fujinami for most of this (which made sense given the finish). Fujinami sold well on the floor (leaning on the apron which is a thing I tend to love in babyfaces) and then reversed a whip for a hope spot but Vader took back over in ring. Fujinami reversed a suplex but Vader leaned back in on him. He was much more formidable as a mat wrestler (or presented that way at least). Just brutish strength with just enough technique. They traded big bombs on the finishing stretch. Vader had an advantage. Fujinami got an enziguri in but Vader hit an attack, a slam, a power slam. he missed a corner charge though and Fujinami got in a fairly weak belly to back and a small package for the win. Post match he attacked but Liger(!) of all people made the save which had to be a decision to light a fire under him since he was only slowly getting over. 6/22/89: Choshu/Saito vs Rheingans/Kokina: The subtitling keeps calling Brad "Bloody Ray Guns" which is funny. He and Kokina made a fun team. A lot of tight mat stuff (eventually vs Saito) and then this wild over the top sensationalism. Choshu was apt to get swept under but he also made sure to hold his own just enough (like with a rear naked on Brad) to make sure people knew that while vulnerable, he was a star. He'd let himself end up in a Kokina hold but then would fight out. Saito had a deal where he kept pulling Kokina's hair to keep a headlock on that was fun. Later on Kokina did one corner side charge on Saito that shook the entire ring. But Saito slammed him after a comeback and Choshu lariated him in the back and then the front for the win. In a world without the Soviets, I could have seen them going in much more with Kokina but here he was credible fodder for the top guys in a post-Inoki world.

No worries. One week with me (it was the draw!) and then we'll loop you out and cycle Casey and Curt in. @Casey, @Curt McGirt just match up with each other this week if you want. For me, just give me something you want me to write about. So long as it's sub 20, anything you want my take on or thing would be healthy for me (or not). For you, nice and easy, Virus vs Valiente (I don't think I've given that to anyone) in a lightning match. Very accessible.

The random list generator was not in my favor apparently. @AxB @onelegbrynn ------ Matt D @HarryArchieGus ----- @The Natural @RazorbladeKiss87 Usual rules apply. Feel free to suggest what you want to watch/ask your partner. Try to get them something ASAP. I'll roll again next Monday. Try to keep it under 20-25 mins if possible. @HarryArchieGus, you've got something in mind obviously, but is there anything in particular you want in good faith?

Great. Dice will roll tomorrow.

That would be a fun sort of Wrestlemania X way of handling things, actually.

One more gets us to six which is an easier number than 5.

I'll go back for the 5/21/89 Main Event, because I now have 5/4/89 to watch. The opening video to this is awesome. It's to something called "Evolution 1" by Andy Quin and it meets the moment. They're in Osaka's baseball stadium with 23,000 people or something. Lots of warming up and guys walking down. These UWF shows must have been so cool to watch. I love watching the guys come out at the beginning. And the order they come out. (Suzuki, Miyato, Mark Rush, Anjo, Funaki (a pop, small chant), Fujiwara (a roar and chant, as it's his debut), Yamazaki, Takada (chant, small speech)). then they had Suzuki, Funaki, and Fujiwara all say things. Maeda and Dolman did not come out. Miyato vs Suzuki: So Minoru Suzuki was a bit of a demon when he was young, huh? Miyato is unflappable generally, but here? Suzuki got to him. Some of it was how aggressive he was. You figured Miyato was just going to absorb and wear him down and then take over like he so often does, but one too many grounded slaps seemed to get to him and he started firing back. From there, he started throwing kicks. But Suzuki started catching them. First he just hefted him over nastily, one of the nastiest versions i've seen. Then, when he went to kick again, Suzuki ducked under and took him down. I thought he should have won there or with the subsequent leglock. It was all pretty awesome, but Miyato survived it. He righted the ship somewhat by starting to go to the ropes every time that Suzuki caught a kick and got him in a belly to belly too. The double wristlock they do after the takedowns? Suzuki got his knee up to block it once which I'm not sure I've ever seen chronologically. Even with Miyato shifting techniques. Suzuki was able to aggressively drive him into the corner and lift him up and drop him down after a missed kick at least once more. He just couldn't put him away though, not with a nasty real choke and not with a half crab. Miyato weathered the storm and finally got a flurry of strikes, including his spinning heelbutt and then a second flurry to which Suzuki couldn't beat the count. Suzuki looked really exciting here though. Yoji Anjo vs Mark Rush: Anjo was a lot more confident than he had been as of late. He had some great floatovers and go behinds and just a sort of mastery of things. Rush was a tank though and he did pro wrestling offense in MMA in a way that always cracks me up. Here it was a body slam and a corner clothesline but both worked. They had a lot of takedowns between them, some blocked or reversed, but couldn't really capitalize with the holds. At one point Rush hit a big sweeping butterfly suplex and then Anjo went for it and I had my doubts but on his second try he whipped hm around with it. This maybe went a little long but it was also pretty loose and wild in a good way. Anjo had the better strikes and down the stretch he hit a DDT out of a bunch of knees from a front facelock position. Rush went for a pile driver or something but got back body dropped and the subsequent hold was almost it. He survived that but not the Northern Lights throw that Anjo hit him with not long after. He got him in choke after that and it was it. 19:55 was a lot of time for this though. Yoshiaki Fujiwara vs Masa/Yuji Funaki: Ok THIS is both Funaki's debut and Fujiwara's return. Funaki's an interesting contrast to everyone else. He has the bandana and the lime green tights/boots. They really hit the mat hard to start, lots of fast ins and outs and hold attempts. Fujiwara went for an early armbar only for Funaki to roll out. Funaki went for a chop first but ended up in a chickenwing for his trouble. He escaped with a knee that really rocked Fujiwara. Then back in stand-up, Funaki went for a lot of lowkicks but Fujiwara blocked and leaped over them and worked him into the corner and beat the crap out of him like only he could. Funaki answered it with a great rolling leg pick though. Then another sliding leg pick, with holds following both. Funaki did the rapid fire lowkicks again on the standup and got a double leg. He went for a crab and that didn't work for him (Fujiwara did his trademark escape). He was able to get behind him for a German sloon after but couldn't get the cross armbreaker to work fully. On the escape Fujiwara hit a dead on headbutt and the ref dq'd him for it. Fujiwara and Funaki both hated that and they restarted it. Fujiwara got him in a rare German of his own and then a kneebar for the quick win though. All of this was very good. Takada vs Yamazaki: They were going long here and worked it that way. Very cautious to start. An answer for every attempt at a takeover or a hold. At around the nine minute, Yamazaki opened things up with the first real hold of consequence. It drew Takada to the rope and let him follow up with the first meaningful strikes and a suplex and another hold, all in short order. Takada was able to at least bring things back to even and then he caught a kick, threw a headbutt of his own, and hit a legitimate power slam, not even the Maeda Exploder variant. But Yamazaki immediately came back with a rear naked. Takada was able to lock in a half crab but gave it up for a few kicks that didn't really land. Yamazaki looked like he was going to open things up with a superkick (it looked great) and did get a knockdown but Takada fought out of the corner and knocked him down with a kick of his own. They kept on trading advantages. Takada pressed with a half crab (to a big pop as he pulled Yamazaki back into the center of the ring) but after a rope break, Yamazaki took his knee out with a kick and dropped into a leglock and then a half crab of his own (burning another rope break for Takada). By this point they were balancing caution with bombs and Takada got the better of it scoring his kicks more and almost getting a KO (got to 9), but Yamazaki came right back tagging him in the back and opening up the front for a big kick to the skull an a 9 of his own. That led Takada to go underneath and heft him over for a cross armbreaker causing another Yamazaki rope break. Yamazaki then tried to get under him for a suplex, but Takada dropped down into a Fujiwara armbar. Yamazaki rolled through and nailed some awesome kicks and it was really the best thing. Another knockdown. He then pressed, only for Takada to catch the kick. When he tried to turn it into a submission, Takada got behind him for a choke. The fans were really behind Yamazaki here (some performance, some underdog) and he made it to the ropes. Yamazaki caught a kick and took out the knee, the best thing ever. Got a crab, and forced another rope break. Takada was right back up and got under him twice for a beach break, a belly to back, and a kick. Yamazaki got up and Takada went for the dragon supolex but he couldn't get it. Yamazaki got some kciks in, Takada caught one and dropped him into a leglock and this is all amazing really. He tried a half crab and a leglock. He got out by kicking Takada in the face. They ended up in a standup and just started firing off on each other, with Yamazaki getting the win after Takada's spinning heelbutt failed. This was the best UWF 2.0 match I've seen so far probably. Just exceptional stuff. I've seen some people comment that the slow stuff was too slow but it was all strategic and let things build to the higher points to me. Maeda vs Chris Dolman: In the pre-match sit down interviews, Maeda has on a Spuds McKenzie Bud Light t-shirt. Just saying. This was in rounds and amusingly, the first time the ring girl comes out between round 1 and round 2 the place goes nuts. The first round was fought pretty conservatively. In the second, Maeda got a headlock takeover, but when he tried to hit a bunch of standling knees, Dolman was able to suplex him over. Neither guy was able to capitalize with holds though. They really went at it in the third. Dolman caught a leg early and hit a sweep. Maeda got a takedown and kneebar. But again neither could capitalize. Maeda tried to kick in the corner but could only get low shots. By the end of the third, Dolman looked pretty harrowed though. Right at the start of the 4th Maeda hit his exploder and got a kneebar and that was it. Solid clash of the titans but it had a ceiling. And back to the main event of 5/21/89 Maeda vs Yamazaki: Pretty crazy fight to make up for the fact that last time these two fought it ended too early due to a blood stoppage. I imagine people like this more than the Yamazaki vs Takada one but i think it was just a little too over the top. Early on Maeda was the storm and Yamazaki had to weather it, and he did, sneaking in holds along the way, including forcing a rope break or two. Maeda did the shootiest snap suplex in history maybe. He was just too big and too strong. Midway through things just got insane as they traded crazy kicks knocking each other down one after the other. Yamazaki kicked the hell out of Maeda, then Maeda got up pissed and kicked the hell out of Yamazaki and then Yamazaki got up and hit a spin wheel kick, then Maeda got a German on Yamazaki. Just rapid fire knockdowns. Felt almost too "spotty" for me in a way that I'd never seen a shoot style match up til this point feel. But yes, it was exciting. Things ground down to Yamazaki getting a choke on. The fans popped every time he turned it back over to regain control and then again when Maeda got to the ropes (4 knockdowns, which had to make the crowd think that maybe Yamazaki could really take this). That set up Maeda catching the foot, kicking the knee out (three kicks!) and then locking in a nasty triangle choke for the win. You can't say Yamazaki wasn't elevated in 89.

Hey guys, didn't end up doing a summer one this year, but I'm happy to do a few weeks if people might want to do this. Get matched up. Figure out what your opponent might want. Pick a match, ideally no longer than 20-25 mins. Get your match from them. Watch it during the week. Write a review (doesn't need to be long). Get matched up again. Even if we get three people other than me, we can do two weeks. But if we get more we can do more. Just respond here if you're interested.

5/25/89: Antonio Inoki vs Shota Chochisvili: This was a rematch of the shock loss the previous month but more than that, it's it for Inoki. He'll be pushed out and go into politics after this. I don't have the full story yet but I will as I go through the rest of the year. He had so much left to offer. Maybe the Meltzers of the world didn't believe that and maybe he would have made it harder for the Musketeers to rise just from his presence but it didn't matter. They were waving flags before this match. When the bell rang, he rushed right at Chochisvili went for a flying kick, missed for the most part, and sized up, arms ready for a fight and the place went absolutely nuts. And he's about to be gone, just like that. Hell of a thing. This was fairly subdued and not nearly as interesting as the last match between them. Chochisvili had the advantage for a lot of it with Inoki getting sort of a fluke win a few rounds in to take his title back. But those first few seconds were the sort of magic only Inoki could create. EDIT: I missed a UWF show. There's one on 5/4. They've never done two in one month before. Going to have to go back! UWF 2.0 5/21/89: The best thing about the entrances was Fujiwara getting to join them. I wouldn't say he got a bigger reaction necessarily than Funaki, Maeda, Takada, etc, but he still got a big one and it felt a little different and a little more special. Minoru Suzuki vs. Kiyoshi Tamura: I think so much of following Hashimoto through his career but since I'm doing UWF, i get to follow Tamura too. The people whose opinions I respect think so highly of him and I've basically seen nothing, so now I get to start at the beginning. Hard to tell much from this. He was plucky and aggressive but Suzuki had his number. His kicks would get caught or Suzuki would just get under him and he'd get taken down. He kept on fighting including popping the crowd by working up into strikes out of a bodyscissors and he tried to do a rolling leglock but tended to get jammed one each attempt. Suzuki had a great takedown into a leglock but he survived it only to get hefted over and put into a half crab. Good first effort but I've got a long way to go. This was also a nice dominant Suzuki performance after his last appearance against Anjo which was much more even and where he lost. Yoshiaki Fujiwara vs. Yoji Anjo: Speaking of Anjo... the poor bastard was against Fujiwara (and one who was happy to be there, starting the match out with a belly to belly like it was nothing). And Anjo was sowing his wild oats or whatever, showing attitude, leading with his chin, getting Fujiwara down and slapping the hell out of him. That went about as well as to be expected. Fujiwara calmly made it back up and heabutted him into oblivion. He'd work Fujiwara into the corner and then quickly regret it. This was an enjoyable mauling where the master played with his food even as Anjo kept trying things and kept trying to show his defiance. Anjo was clearly the aggressor but there was never a sense he was actually in control, no matter how much of this he took. Finish wasn't even the armbar, but Fujiwara catching the foot, hugging Anjo in, taking him down and working around to the leglock. Bob Backlund vs. Masaharu Funaki: Insane fight, but people know that. I liked this much more than the Takada fight even though it was weird, weird stuff. This was Funaki's debut too! (EDIT: It's not. He fought Fujiwara earlier in the month) Again, this felt almost like a different styles fight. It's crazy to have this be Funaki's first match because he's not even established and here he is, wrestling someone who's clearly a "pro wrestler." Backlund came in with a black eye making this even more wild. He tried the basic greco roman stuff to start, but Funaki quickly started in on the leg kicks, which infuriated him. Funaki was better at picking legs and what not, and got behind him, slamming a kick down and that too infuriated him. Backlund could get up at almost any point and stomp about with his hands up and the fans would Ooooohhhhh big. They'd go from doing piledriver position/backdrop/hang on/bridge up type spots right into Funaki kicking him right in the face. Backlund's selling was punch drunk and staggering but it kind of worked. And then, out of nowhere, after taking a shot, he'd stagger around and hit the most killer forearm. All of this was just incredibly surreal. He was completely out of his element and depth but he was being so weird about it that he put Funaki on his back foot too. They had an awesome stand up strike exchange/slapfest and then just end up in awkward armholds for a bit. It was all over the place. Backlund reversed a gutwrench suplex attempt and hit one of his own but really he couldn't answer most of the holds. This ended in a clearly set up spot where Backlund finally got to do the shoot style gotch lift out of a short arm scissors and then put Funaki on the top rope. Funaki hit a missile dropkick! and got DQed. This worked a lot better than the Takada match just because it wasn't quite a contrast. Funaki was a bit more fluid with and Backlund, despite being totally overwhelmed, had a bit more sense of what was expected and what NOT to do. But really an absolutely bonkers thing. Nobuhiko Takada vs. Johnny Barrett: Barrett was a big dude who got it but despite having size didn't quite have the skill here. I have no idea where he came from but he does hang around for a while and I could see him be interesting as an obstacle to be overcome. He came off like someone with some technique that just watched a bunch of this stuff and had some sense of what to do. He was able to get a couple of double legs or even lift Takada up into a spinebuster slam of sorts and his one big strike he hit was a clothesline of all things! and it sort of worked because he was so big. Takada was able to outwrestle him though and then at a few key moments got underneath him like Hashimikov's beach break type move. Once he started doing that it was all but over. Apparently Barrett fights Nakano in 90 and that sounds like a lot of fun.

5/25/89: Hiro Saito/Kobayashi vs Koshinaka/Sano: Undercard juniors tag to keep things exciting for the crowd. Kobayashi and Koshinaka are volatile together. This started with Kobayashi slapping Koshinaka which is the best way for this sort of thing to start. Then he walked over when Sano was in the ring and slapped him again. That drew Koshinaka in with a tag and he was able to get one in on Kobayashi allowing Sano to start in on him. Fun stuff. They were agble to work Sano back into the corner and bully him for a while though, at least until Sano was able to lan on his feet on a back body drop and get the hot tag. Koshinaka came in with butt butts but ran into a Kobayashi spin kick. Kobayashi missed a baseball slide and Sano made it back in, doing his usual spectacular stuff like vaulting over people. and hitting dives (Saito caught; he's good at that.). They went back and forth, slowing thing down with holds, before they were able to hit a spike pile driver and lean down on Sano. He had a hot comeback attempt off rope running but Kobayashi caught hit in a gutbuster off of a back body press. Koshinaka was able to break up the fisherman's suplex and get in however. they cut him off and Saito hit a killer senton off the second rope on him to kick off the finishing stretch. the usual exciting stuff you'd expect from these guys here with Sano helping Koshinaka reverse a German (Kobayashi broke it up), and then hitting a huge neckbreaker drop off the top on Saito (for 2). He won it by leapfrogging Saito and immediately dropping down to get a clutch pin. This would have been rough at 20 minute but the contrast made it work at 15. 5/25/89: Bigelow vs Evloev: This was an extremely mature Bigelow performance, something you'd see out of him a few years later. He was constant motion and feeling out but he also ran into all of Evloev's stuff. Lots of takedowns into holds. He'd position himself to hit a drop toehold here or to roll back with an arm, but then he'd almost immediately get outwrestled and reversed into it. He gave Evloev most of this, right until he went up for a flying headscissors takeover and Bigelow jammed it, lifted him into a samoan drop, and then hit a splash for the win. He had come out with a USA Flag hat and celebrated with Coach Dr. Death. 5/25/89: Liger vs Hase: Jr. Title match. Hase ambushed right from the get go with a dropkick, a belly to belly, and then tossing Liger out. Liger came back and really dominated with a belly to belly throw off the ropes and a stretch plum type submission. Hase came back with this very cool capture flip out into an armbar that I hadn't seen him do before. Down the stretch he caught Liger coming back off the ropes to hit a blockbuster (fallway with a bridge) suplex too. Liger won this with multiple kappo kicks and then his half straighjacket belly to back suplex with a bridge to take the title. I liked this more than the Liger vs Koshinaka TV match because they left plenty for later. It felt appropriate for this phase of Liger's new chapter while still being fitting for the big show/big title match. 5/25/89: Tayayki Iizuma vs Habieli Vitachev [Different Styles Fight]: Vitachev was a judo guy, I think, with a gi and everything. He looked like a sitcom dad for the most part. Iizuma on the other hands, looked like a million bucks. He had a number of tricked out takedowns and holds throughout and really won this on points. They had Vitachev take most of the second round but other than that, Iizuma dominated and I imagine the fans had to notice. This felt like the sort of match that could make a guy and I know he has some good placing later in the year but he comes off as an Inoki discipline to me and I wonder if Inoki falling out of power affected him overall. Towards the end he kept putting on rear naked chokes but couldn't put him away, with Vitachev saved by the bell in the 4th. In the 5th, Vitachev got under Iizuka going for another choke and suplexed him over and then locked in a cross armbreaker to win it. Sort of came out of nowhere but that's the way of these things. Star-making performance for Iizuka in my eyes but maybe that didn't translate. 5/25/89: Super Strong Machine/Takano vs Kido/Kimura: Tag Title match. Story of this one was very much that Kido could out wrestle them and Kimura could outstrike them but SSM and Takano had superior teamwork and double teams. The match started with Takano wildly missing on a spin wheel kick (his foot crashed into the ropes) and then Kimura hitting one. Later on, the teamwork backfired as they missed a Total Elimination (lariat/spin wheel kick combo) and took each other out. But in general, it was as I said, and it worked pretty well even if there were a lot of momentum shifts and the match didn't "catch" quite as well as it could have because of that. Finish had Kimura not quite quick enough to finish off Takano after hitting the leg lariat (he had gone for a roll up immediately thereafter and not the power bomb which gave SSM time to recover and break it up). Then when Kido went for a second neckbreaker (he'd hit one earlier in the match) SSM turned it into a backslide to steal the win. 5/25/89: Big Van Vader vs Salmon Hashimikov: Past some of the Hashimoto matches earlier in the year, I'm not 100% sure I can think of other matches like this ever up until this point. You get things like Andre vs Hansen or Andre vs Don Leo Jonathan of course, or Big Daddy vs Giant Haystacks or whatever, but those aren't worked like this. Even Andre vs Hansen is a crazy brawl basically. Maybe some stuff like Gordy vs Doc in Mid-South but there's just not the weight involved that we have here, not really. These are two superheavyweights who wrestle a match where every move feels monumental but there's such weight and force behind everything. It's also sub ten minutes. It's the prototype for Brock vs Goldberg or whatever, but also so much better because they do a better job of showing restraint and building to things. After some shoving Hashimikov gets a headlock takeover and it's treated like this monumental thing. Vader hefting him up early for a power slam is such a huge deal. Or driving him down for an armbar. It's all massive. Vader gets a lariat, but Hashimikov is back up. Hashimikov slams into his gut three times and knocks him out of the ring. There's an element of sumo to this maybe. Or two bulls crashing into each other. And when Hashimikov gets under Vader with a single leg, putting his head underneath and toppling him, the place goes nuts. Hashimikov survives a flurry of offense and after a failed attempt, gets underneath Vader for his quasi-beach break type move and pins him to win the title. Just a very cool experience overall.

I’m kind of tempted to get it on steam in a year and just mod it, which I never do.

I really like turn base jRPGs, EXCEPT for the Super Mario RPG battle systems that I tend to not like much at all. Some of it is that the appeal of a turn-based system is that you don't have to constantly be hitting a button during battle to make the attack/defense work. I don't want to have to give that extra bit of reflex-based attention. Point being, would I therefore not like Expedition 33?