Matt D

UWF 2.0 4/14/89 MD: First and foremost, the pre-show celebration is very cool. They have everyone out like usual but then they bring out Minoru Suzuki and Masakatsu Funaki. Remember, Suzuki was a super undercard NJPW guy never on TV. Funaki was in the UK getting seasoned though we had seen him a few times in 88. But he was considered internally as the next Fujinami. Suzuki jumping matters but Funaki was a big deal and he was treated like a huge get. But even Suzuki moved the needle. He might have been young but the small roster was beginning to feel like an issue for UWF when it came to sustainability. With Funaki, Suzuki, and Fujiwara jumping, it felt like they had enough fresh matchups to take them another year. That's my outsider view from decades later at least. Yoji Anjo vs Minoru Suzuki: Anjo fought this one like he was afraid his spot on the card was going to get gobbled up by Suzuki. It made for a pretty compelling fight. Anjo had more flourishes maybe, but a few minutes in, Suzuki just hefted him up, dropped him down and locked in a leglock when he couldn't get the half crab. Anjo made the craziest faces like only he could and the crowd went nuts. They'd trade advantages with Anjo more aggressive and Suzuki picking his moments. This really was made to showcase and present Suzuki as a dangerous young lion. Anjo got a late advantage after hitting his snap side slam but Suzuki came back and I really thought he might take this one to give him a shot in the arm as a new fighter, before Anjo hung on with it. Very Japanese way of building up a new guy where he has a great showing but still lose. Shigeo Miyato vs Tatsuo Nakano: Yes, they've run this a lot and yes they had a roster issue before this show, but honestly, this is a really great rivalry given the inherent physical and stylistic differences. It's great we get to see it so many times. It, like always, had Nakano rushing in early because he knew the longer this went the more it favored Miyato. Whereas Miyato had to wrestle defensively given Nakano's size advantage. It was a little scrappier than previous outings though. For one thing, you got the sense Nakano was developing. He was a smarter, better fighter as these went on and was able to control more. There was more of a sense Miyato was fighting from a deficit and not just because Nakano got in some big, sharp throws. Still, he had the superior stamina and even after getting rocked and being unsteady on his feet, he could turn the tide down the stretch at any moment. That's exactly what he did with two spinning heel butts deep into the match and he was able to barely get a win shortly thereafter. Akira Maeda vs Kazuo Yamazaki: What's interesting here is how Maeda fought defensively. He never did that. He was almost always the aggressor. You can even look at something like the Vale fight where he leaned in so as to catch the kicks and hit throws. But Yamazaki wasn't the same sort of outsider. He was as pro as pro got and as dangerous as could be with his kicks, so Maeda fought him with great respect. It was fairly even overall. Occasionally Maeda would take a big swing but it generally didn't work for him. The finish was wild though. Maeda missed a spin wheel kick. He caught a subsequent Yamazaki kick though, but Yamazaki just headbutted him straight on to prevent the capture suplex. Yamazaki followed up with a slew of offense but the refs all rushed in at that point as that headbutt had opened him up huge. He had to forfeit and it was a shame as it was looking like a very good fight.

We need BEEF/Priest/Workhorsemen vs LFI now.

I’m the second biggest modern ROH fan here. I love wrestling for the sake of wrestling and squashes and what not but a Frat House squash followed by Lethal vs Solo was a tough one two punch. I’m excited for a Rush/Sammy vs Workhorsemsn title match though.

Thanks Paul. I'm not sure I've ever actually seen that specific picture. Appreciate the well wishes. Hang in there!

I always get a little behind during AEW PPV weeks. The 4/24/89 show at the Tokyo Dome is one of the biggest I've seen since starting this project. It just felt huge. Apparently there's also Benny Urquidez vs. Shinya Asuka and Masa Saito vs. Wahka Eveloe on the card that we don't have too. 4/24/89: Vader vs Fujinami (semi-finals): When you see these in context, you get different things out of different moments. Here it was the pre-match handshake. It really feels like a culmination of something for both Vader and Fujinami. You couldn't have imagined it a year or six months before but it just felt right and monumental and it's something that people dropping in on this match probably wouldn't give a second thought. There's a Choshu or Saito match or two and the Inoki match of course, but to me, this is the most and clearest Fujinami has appeared as the successor of Inoki, a real top top card star. And that's in losing too. It was very equal, almost 50-50. Vader hit a belly to back out of a headlock to start, but the Fujnami was able to get one. Vader went for the arm early but then Fujinami went most of the match working for it and when he did pry it off to try one lock or another or when he hit an armdrag to set one up, the fans popped big for it. It was even though with Vader getting the bigger advantages but then Fujinami fighting back. One of the best examples was a huge Vader clothesline where he flexed after and Fujinami crumpled in the ropes. Vader went for another one and Fujinami hung onto the ropes and back body dropped him over. It really did feel like it could go either way and that Fujinami's arm work was going to win the day, but then Vader dropped down on him on a sunset flip and hit a splash for a pretty surprising win. Excellent match. 4/24/89: Hashimoto vs Zangiev (semifinals): In context, I can't imagine most fans thought that Hashimoto was going over here. This really was a coming out party for him but you didn't know it coming in. I should read the WON on this. But at the same time he was proven against the UWF guys (and the trainees who went off to UWF like Anjo) to a degree already and we knew he could hang. And hang he did. This had some great struggle. The story was that Zangiev could get him over but he couldn't press the matter and Hashimoto could keep up with him better than you'd think. So Zangiev hit a great Belly to Belly and caught a kick for a Fisherman's but Hashimoto kept pressing. He jammed him in the corner after a second belly to belly, using his size to do so, and hit a spin wheel kick out of nowhere and snapped on a leglock for the win. 4/24/89: Vader vs Hashimoto (finals): Thesz was the ref. Just Hashimoto standing toe to toe with Vader like this was a huge deal, and they were even early, but then Vader hit a spinning backfist, which I've never seen him do to this point, and that opened up the match. Vader ground down on him and forced him out but Hashimoto came back by working the arm. That went well for a while until Vader hit him so hard with a punch that his head crunched against the turnbuckle pad. Just an awesome bump off a punch. Vader kept the advantage, but Hashimoto would come back in key moments. He'd dodge a corner charge. He'd hit the Spin Wheel Kick when Vader went to the top. When he did, he went back to the arm. When he tried to press with kicks, Vader just hit a haymaker and KOed him. He followed up with a clothesline that Hashimoto kicked out of and a second that he didn't. Post match, Vader went nuts threatening announcers and celebrating with Rheinghans with the title and trophy. All of this was great in putting both Vader and Hashimoto over while still keeping the Russians and Fujinami strong. 4/24/89: Super Strong Machine/Takano vs Koshinaka/Hase: Thesz was the ref here too. It takes the right team to ground SSM and Takano and this was not it. Not at all. Plus Takano was headbutt crazy lately. There's one point where he and Koshinaka just start headbutting each other and not reacting and Thesz had to be watching thinking they were two idiots. Just the prototype for the worst, least effective fighting spirit stuff unfortunately. What was good was seeing Super Strong Machine and Hase face off and go to the mat against each other as they were stablemates so it was rare. Things went back and forth for a while, but whenever it went back to Hase vs SSM it was really good. Eventually Hase threw SSM into the wrong corner with a belly to belly and they were able to tag and start in on him. He did this deal where he split his legs while getting pile driven for a great visual. SSM missed the diving headbutt and Koshinaka got the tag and started in on him. He and Hase hit their tandem missile dropkick but couldn't put him away. And really this just kept going. Lots of cool stuff but it was all just noise to me after a while. It had none of the drama of the Choshu/Saito match or the structure of the Fujinami/Kimura one. Hase hit a sort of air raid crash out of a back body drop attempt but couldn't get the Northern Lights and SSM hit his single underhook suplex for the win. Just too much. 4/24/89: Hiro Saito vs Sano: This was the Young Lions Cup final and that's pushing it for Saito. It's obviously to get Sano over as a new big Jr. He gets a flurry to start ending with a big tope suicida which they call as such excitedly. They move into holds and Saito has an advantage until Sano can string together three big moves (a reverse enziguiri with the foot caught, a Gangrel arm trap suplex, and a tombstone). Saito comes back (huge missile dropkcik) but misses a dive and Sano hits a huge one. Then they go to the finish where Saito blocks the victory roll attempt by falling backwards and catches him with a power bomb but Sano flips him over for the pin. This was probably overall stronger and more coherent and purposeful than the Liger match, but they're close.

Kingston vs Bill/Darby vs Mox: http://segundacaida.blogspot.com/2025/09/aew-five-fingers-of-death-915-921-part-1.html Max vs Mistico/Max vs Briscoe: http://segundacaida.blogspot.com/2025/09/aew-five-fingers-of-death-and-friends_24.html Apparently I had some things to say?

I have some pretty strong feelings about listmaking, actually. You have to figure out criteria first. If it's about in ring skill, then it's going to be based on footage and not second hand accounts. In that case, your personal preferences will be front and center; be open and honest about it. You have to control for "opportunity" by watching wrestlers in as many different settings as possible and not just flock to "great matches." Creating lists based on drawing are actually very difficult given there are numbers of different factors. THAT said, Here's the top 17 of the PWI 500\ Cody Mox Gunther Page Goto Jey Swerve Rollins Mistico Ospreay Okada Hendry Sabre Femi Punk Bandido Takeshita People are complaining about Takeshita, but the first thing on the list is kayfabe accomplishments, and given their criteria, and the dates at play, the G-1 doesn't finish until weeks after the cutoff of July 31, sooooooo.... criteria is everything.

There was something a little wry about his reactions on Saturday which makes me think this could work as an evolution.

I can’t imagine anything else this weekend even half as good as MJF/Mistico.

This was tremendous.

3/16/89: Minoru Suzuki vs Tayayki Iizuka: Handheld. Most interesting thing here to me was the fact that they didn't both have black trunks. Maybe this was to differentiate from UWF. Maybe it was to be better on TV. Maybe it was to match AJPW where guys were obviously color coded, but it was surprising. It made it easier to keep track of them tough as it was mostly just scrappy matwork. Suzuki won it with a nice rolling takeover armbar. 4/19/89: Super Strong Machine/Takano vs Goto/Sano: This let the new champs flex a bit. First half was primarily just mat/chain wrestling, with some overlap but mostly Takano vs Sano and SSM vs Goto with a slight advantage for the champs. Match opened up in the middle with Takano and Goto just headbutting the hell out of each other. Goto got the advantage and they were able to press a bit but never for long. Takano got revenge with headbutts of his own later. Takano and SSM just had size and experience. That's not to say that Goto/Sano didn't have a nice late flurry including a Sano dive and top rope sunset flip but they had to wrestle a perfect match and they had one miscommunication where they crashed into each other. Finish had Takano jamming Sano on a victory roll for three. Maybe a little unfocused at times but lots of energy and a fresh pairing with clear hierarchy. 4/19/89: Inoki/Choshu/Fujinami vs Vader/Rheingans/Sawyer: This time Inoki and co attacked to start, double suplexing Vader, who ended up on the outside and threw a fit. We come back to Choshu vs Buzz and Choshu refuses to get outwrestled. Fujinami comes in and refuses to get suplexed, but Rheingans demolishes him anyway. They really, truly were treating him like Robinson or even Rick Steiner/Brock just the way he was owning the mat with even a guy like Fujinami. They worked him over with a while with Vader squishing him in the corner and dropping him on the rail on the outside out of a press slam on the floor. But he ran into an armdrag and things sort of went back and forth from there for a bit. Inoki held off Vader until he hit a headbutt. Choshu was able to push him back with a dropkick but ate a lariat. They leaned on Fujinami more. But he finally got out of Rheinghans' submissions. It was very back and forth. Vader got lariated by Choshu and enziguried by Inoki but he caught Fujinami's body press off the top. Rheinghans ate a Fujinami dropkick and Inoki got him in a cobra twist into a roll up. Lots of finishers by Inoki this year. Again I'm appreciating the Power Elite matches while we still have them. Rheinghans and Sawyer were a refreshing change to Bam Bam and Morgan. News: It was Arakawa's retirement match so that makes sense. UWF scooped up Funaki (who had been wrestling in the UK and that Inoki hoped would be the next Fujinami) and Suzuki. Glad he got that Inoki match I guess. Fujiwara shocked everyone by not signing back with NJPW so people don't know what will happen there. Dave was insufferable in all of his write-ups of the matches in the last few posts. Fujinami gives up the title since Vader beat him in a non title match and it'll be decided in a tournament on the big Dome show where they debut all the russians, and Inoki will be facing a judo guy (that's below) who was a Soviet olympic medalist. 4/24/89: Fujinami vs Vladimir Berkovich: I was really worried about these tournament matches because they are all short, basically five minutes tops for the first round. And I thought it'd screw with the crowd since very few NJPW matches go this short and for all of them to go this short has a feeling of "fake." But they're actually all kind of great in their own way and end up as tangible, believable sprints. This had a US vs USSR vs Japan theme with Brad and some 84 US medalist (not looking it up) out with the Americans. The Soviets had some other guy with crazy eyebrows too. This was a bomb fest. Berkovich would hit a crazy suplex. Fujinami would hit a conventional one. That was the match really. But the fans totally bought into it. Fujinami had amazing pro wrestling credibility. He made pro wrestling feel like a legitimate fighting form in ways few others were able to. And he won this by getting the last of the suplexes and then locking in a headscissors with the arm barred (I think) which Berkovich just couldn't escape from. 4/24/89: Buzz Sawyer vs Victor Zangiev: This was all Zangiev. He's super theatrical and dramatic and plays to the crowd and is excited when things go his way. Total star. They had matching blue singlets which was kind of funny especially as both were more or less bald. Buzz was great in reacting but he really didn't get month. He was protected on the finish though. After getting schooled, he rolled out to talk to Brad and the olympian. Then he immediately came back with a bridging German. Zangiev kicked out but Buzz thought he'd won and was distracted so that Zangiev could hit the German on him. Post match Brad got in everyone's face. 4/24/89: Choshu vs Hashimoto: This was awesome. Just a great five minute match. Super chippy. Obviously Hash (who we haven't seen. He's been in Memphis teaming with Hickerson. Feels totally unnecessary for him to take another trip given his skill/size, but whatever) carried himself with an attitude and obviously Choshu was going to meet him more than half way. They had just a really nasty exchange in the corner with Choshu elbows and Hash headbutts. Crowd popped huge as Hash hit a spin wheel kick on the first lariat and survived the second. Choshu survived the DDT as well. Finish was shocking as Choshu went for the Scorpion and Hash rolled him up, really using his size to keep him down. Big upset. I had been spoiled on it which is a shame, but I was trying to figure out what was round 1 and what was round 2 in the footage. 4/24/89: Chono vs Vader: Chono tried but this really didn't go well for him. He got pounded around the ring, press slammed. When he tried something like floating over a suplex, it didn't quite work. He went for a German and Vader landed on him with a squish. Then Vader came off the top with a splash and really squished him. I wouldn't say he made an impact (but Vader made an impact on him). 4/24/89: Bam Bam Bigelow vs Salman Hashimikov: This was NOT a tournament match (to protect Hashimikov overall) but it was still very short. It was a cool match though as Bam Bam hit stuff steadily for a few minutes, as if Hashimokov couldn't figure out how to deal with a giant, agile pro wrestler doing dropkicks and what not. But then he was able to heft him up and plant him and hold him down for three. It was all built to extremely well and put over Hashimikov huge because he was able to defeat Bigelow by absorbing a few things and hitting one huge power move out of nowhere. 4/24/89: Inoki vs Shota Chocohishvili [Different Styles]: One of my favorite Different Styles fights I've seen. Part of it was that Shota was a judo guy and not a kickboxer so it gave them more options. Some of it was just the drama though. Of course Inoki's weirdo Martial Arts title was on the line here. There were no ropes here but no moves seemed off limits. Inoki did quite well the first round, hitting a belly to back and defending himself. But things really opened up with the second round as Shota hit a urinage type move, that started as a Saito Suplex but landed with just one arm controlling him. You'd recognize it if you saw it but it's a move that was almost never done in NJPW at this time. And Inoki came out of it with only one arm (worked to give the finish cover but effective). He got tossed around with just one arm for a round or two until he stared using the leg kicks and all of his other tricks and that had Shota rocked. But Shota, unlike others, didn't back down. He pressed his advantage and started tossing him on the mat and Inoki couldn't make the count. Pretty shocking stuff and Shota left with the title. 4/24/89: Jushin Liger vs Kobayashi: Liger's debut. They actually namedropped Yamada a few times though they seemed unsure if it was him. But noted that instead of just winning a junior title, he wanted to give young people dreams or something like that. It still came as a surprise to me, but it shouldn't have because Yamada was such a well known entity and he was the only guy doing shooting star presses, etc. This went double most of the tournament matches I've seen so far and frankly, while Kobayashi is a great opponent in general, he was TOO good, and he took too much of this. All of his stuff is credible and he's dogged, but this was just too 50-50 and had a lot of Liger working from underneath. Every time he did hit something, it was big and explosive and over the top and he was great at working the crowd and projecting like a star. But for a debut like this, he probably should have had Sano or Goto or someone. Kobayahi and even Hiro Saito were going to wrestle too even. The look was obviously still developing too and I kind of miss Eye of the Tiger or the Rocky Theme or whatever he was coming out to before. But it all worked out anyway I suppose.

Once I beat Silksong (ha) and go back to my playthrough of FFIX, I'll probably snag either the Suikoden I+II (which if you asked me I'd tell you Suikoden II is my favorite RPG of all time but I haven't played it in years) rerelease or Tales of Graces from the library since they have both now. Hopefully they'll get the Dragon Quest remake when that comes out too. I had started Sea of Stars but I hate timed attacks in RPGs (including the Mario RPG games) because I'm usually playing more jRPGs casually and would rather input commands and not worry about specific timing, especially for random battles.

Reviews starting daily. Maestros: http://segundacaida.blogspot.com/2025/09/d3an-day-1-maestros.html Matthews vs Starkz: http://segundacaida.blogspot.com/2025/09/d3an-day-2-matthews-starkz.html

So you make it through a usually very tough new area to get to a boss. Sometimes you have warning you're about to reach one, sometimes you don't. The boss thrashes you because bosses are very hard in this game and at the least you have to learn the patterns through trial and error and that involves dying a few times until you know what to expect. Sometimes it involves dying a LOT of times. You end up back at your last save bench. Great. You're used to that. Problem is, the bench is generally a number of screens away, through some of that very difficult area. In general, you get fairly good at rushing through it. Sometimes, it gives you a chance to fight a few enemies, and build up silk. But it still takes 3-5 minutes at least before you can face the boss again. Sometimes, just due to fatigue and human error, you then hit the boss with less than full health. And sometimes, even worse, you actually die on the way back between enemies and bouncing off spikes in the air. And when that happens, you lose all of your money since you didn't make it back to the place you previously died. It also means that you can't capitalize on that last attempt at the boss and the reflexes you've been building up immediately. You have to instead do a bunch of other things before you get there. Things that you've already done. Multiple times. I will say that it means when you actually beat a boss, there probably is a greater sense of accomplishment, but I'm too old for this shit.

I wouldn't say that, but there are definitely bosses and other fights here which became much easier once I shifted my strategy, but by that point, I'd done them so many times that I was very close anyway just from learning them. The runbacks are what really get you. I'd never even heard of a runback before this game. It's been refreshing to lose to a boss (or a platforming/enemy bit) 20 times and then to go online and see other people complaining about it, which is why I'm sad none of you are slamming your head against this wall too.

To me, the first one was a pretty straight up Metroidvania. I'd put it very close to Ori. Maybe it was a little harder, but it didn't really stick with me over the years as something particularly hard. This one is pure pain relatively. It's much more "souls like" and I'm not sure I've ever actually played anything "souls like." but there are things like runbacks before boss fights and tricks and traps on save points just meant to screw with you that weren't at all in the first game.

Is no one else suffering through Silksong?

3/16/89: Black Cat vs Don Arakawa: This one I couldn't post even as a draft so it's a bit of a blur how I went through it. But it was so great to see another Arakawa match and one that got some fanfare. This felt like a big celebration match as he came out on shoulders. Like it was his anniversary in wrestling or something. Black Cat would beat on him and he'd use his goofy throat strikes and other attacks to come back. What I love about the few glimpses we see of him is that it shows there were actual comedy matches on so many of these NJPW shows (not just comedy in a Fujiwara match for instance). This happened on the same card as UWF guys and Inoki standing tall. It was a bigger tent promotion than we readily understand. 3/16/89: Riki Choshu/Masa Saito vs Super Strong Machine/George Takano: All of those SSM/Takano matches that have frustrated me were more than worth it for this match. This is what everything was building to, the entire push, and it really is one of the best tags I've seen from NJPW in this project. What makes these tags work are control segments and transitions that make sense and have struggle. It's not the moves. It's not the action. It's the drama. This began with Takano wrestling even against Choshu but getting swept under and leaned on, especially by Saito. After a big back elbow by Choshu, Takano recovered enough to drive to the corner and make the tag. Saito and SSM wrestled evenly for a little bit but they were able to isolate him and Takano came back in to get revenge. Underpinning all of this was that SSM was Choshu and Saito's guy even if Takano wasn't. It didn't necessarily directly impact the match but you knew. They beat on Saito with double teams like their back of the head clothesline/spin wheel kick total elimination, until Saito could get his suplex on Takano. Then Saito and Choshu started on their double teams on Takano (the belly to back/knee off the top and double suplex). Saito held him for a Choshu lariat (illegal man) and he beat him on the turnbuckle and chopped and punched him until he was a bloody mess. This, as you can imagine, added a lot. Choshu would just run off teh ropes and stomp and kick him over and over. Saito would pull back the turnbickle pad and just crush him on the ring connector. Brutal stuff. They'd throw double headbutts on him. At one point, Choshu goaded SSM in so that he'd not be in position for a tag. They were really leaning into this in a way that they don't often in NJPW. Meanwhile, Takano was leaking all over. Finally, Choshu put on the scorpion but SSM dashed across the ring to hit a huge lariat and Takano was able to make the tag. One of the better NJPW hot tags ot the decade too. SSM cleaned house including hitting a great single underhook suplex. He went for a lariat but Choshu did the coolest thing, dropping to his back so that he'd dodge it. Then he popped up and hit one of his own. Koshinka broke that up and a Saito Suplex pin and then when Saito went for a second one, SSM rolled him up so he could make the tag. Things became chaos after that as Takano got Saito out but missed a dive but then SSM hit one to the floor and a bloody Takano made it back in at the last second to beat the count and win the belts. Incredibly exciting stuff. Just a great match. Post match, Saito and Choshu put the belts on them. 4/13/89: Inoki vs Koshinaka: Start of this was awesome. For absolutely no reason Inoki just charged him like he was some sort of mad god and he beat the crap out of Koshinaka. Since Shiro is the most punchable guy, I loved this. In short order, Shiro got a belly to back after jamming a russian leg sweep and started firing back. He definitely "got it" and Inoki "got it" so this pairing worked despite the hierarchy difference. In the states, the dissonance of Inoki charging at him would have led to a heel reaction for Inoki. Here, it was just an angry god doing angry god things and you were to be properly awed by it. They went back and forth after that pretty evenly, at least until Inoki knocked him off the top to block a superplex and hit the craziest missile dropkick right in Shiro's face. Shiro blocked a subsequent punch and hit the butt butt but then Inoki caught him on the second and hit a belly to back for the win. Very close pin and Shiro was pissed after. Pretty good sub ten minute match right here. 4/13/89: Choshu/Fujinami/Kimura vs Vader/Brad Rheingans/Buzz Sawyer: Nice to see Kimura in with Choshu and Fujinami. Brad is treated almost like a lesser NJPW version of Billy Robinson just in how he moves and controls on the mat and powers people around. This feels like a real lucky break for him to land in this spot as Vader's player/coach mentor. They asked how the Japanese team could possibly face the "American beef steak hordes" as the came out so that's good stuff. Vader charged in to start and hit a lariat on Choshu but Choshu fired back. Vader beat on Fujinami for a bit until he finally slammed him, but Brad was able to power him around. More beating on Fujinami ensued, but Vader missed the corner post charge on the outside and they actually worked him over for a bit including a Scorpion attempt. Finish had Brad hit a pretty cool tilt a whirl slam off the ropes and Vader hit a splash for the pin. This needed more Buzz but Brad immediately made an impact. 4/13/89: Super Strong Machine/George Takano vs Southern Boys: Southern Boys really took the fight to SSM and Takano for the first two thirds of this. Takano was in for a while before SSM could even get in and they bore down on him, cutting off any comeback. Even when SSM came in they just grinded down on him in a way you wouldn't expect. I'd liken this a little to how the Fantastics overcompensated and took too much of their matches in AJPW during a similar time period. Complicating matters was that SSM and Takano, who are usually quite good at execution, just weren't hitting anything clean, whether it was a singles move or tandem. The top rope spin wheel kick whiffed big. That idea over and over. Southern Boys finally hit the bearhug/missile dropkick combo but there's always an issue pinning due to two guys being in the ring at once here. Then SSM/Takano hit the tandem spin wheel kick/back of head clothesline but SSM missed it big. They got the pin anyway but this didn't work too well overall. 4/17/89: Inoki vs Tracy Smothers: This file was 3.3 MB big. It was an .asf. It was like watching on real player. But you still had a sense of what was going on. We're lucky to have it I suppose because Inoki footage is going to be coming to an end soon. Smothers was spirited and aggressive. He put Inoki in the tree of woe early and he just kept on him as much as possible even taking Inoki's punches and other things by bumping big. The performance of someone who wanted a steady job touring really. One thing I like about Inoki vs undercard guys is that he wins different ways with moves that rarely get him a win otherwise. Here he used the rolling Kappo kick to win. 4/19/89: Koshinaka/Hase(?) vs Southern Boys: I'm wasn't 100% convinced this is Hase, but I guess it is. Definitely a mustache, but the hair's off. The aggression wasn't. Both teams went hard. They'd go to the mat, get up, do some wild rope running, and go back down. Momentum shifts tended to be based on double teaming. Southern Boys hit the bearhug/missile dropkick again but couldn't get the pin off of it due to both guys being in the ring. Then they had a couple of mishaps and one hit a missile dropkick on the other and Koshinaka/Hase hit a double missile dropkick from adjacent corners and then the Shiro german for the win. Good action but nothing to really sink your teeth into. There's a Minoru Suzuki vs Tayayki Iizuka match I have to go back for too.

Some things I can post unlisted. Some things YouTube won't even let me. But that one it is letting me post. If you want to know in general, I'll drop you a line later.

Not exactly epic but I really enjoyed The Blacktongued Thief by Christopher Buehlman. Sort of Locke Lamora vibes that strikes the right tone and has solid world building. People who see this will probably like it.

The stuff from this Rucka interview about how toxic DC was for years and years feels very plausible. https://bleedingcool.com/comics/greg-rucka-on-dark-times-at-dc-comics-with-dan-didio-geoff-johns/

I don't think we're going to bridge this gap. I don't see things in the Bucks that I do see in others. You think it's because they're the Bucks and I don't like them that I don't see them. I think that I don't see it in them and that's why I don't like the Bucks. If you're questioning my good faith or saying my bias is so much that it can't be overcome, and you're allowed to do that, I'm not sure we have much more to say on this specific matter. Chicken/Egg here. Happy to share my write up of Mox vs Garcia though. http://segundacaida.blogspot.com/2025/09/aew-five-fingers-of-death-and-friends.html

Fletcher Johnson/Christian (they're trying to get it right) Lio Rush (especially in CMLL but not just) Okada Ricochet Mox Yuta Nick Wayne Red Velvet Cash (more than Dax who can't always get out of his own way) Bryan Keith I'm higher than most on MxM and MJF doing it too but they do it in a more stylized way. There are a lot of lanes, but I think a lot of the times they do fully commit. MJF in Arena Mexico has been absolutely wonderful. In the states he compromises the vision out of what he feels is necessary a lot of the times. MxM tend to fully commit to the gimmick and Mansoor especially will really look the fool in a less winking way.

Speaking of Dark Order, the Yuta vs Silver match on ROH was surprisingly complete. Felt like something out of late 2021.

Not quite sure you understood what I was saying there. There are about ten guys (and girls, or at least Red Velvet) on the roster I'd praise right now that are doing things that weren't really being done a year ago and I think what the Bucks tend to do (and more importantly HOW they do it) undermines it tonally.