Matt D

Mox vs Takeshita (and a lot of talk about the general sense of morality with the Mox turn). https://segundacaida.blogspot.com/2026/03/aew-five-fingers-of-death-and-friends_16.html

Couldn't upload these two so train of thought going as I watch. 11/1/89: H.Saito/T.Goto vs Hase/Kobayashi: We might be into a tag tournament now. There's some news about guys not being in the main tournament but I'll hit that later. Big news was that Saito and Goto and Honaga have become the Wild Trio on 10/20 and now are using dirty, roughneck tactics saying they're sick of all the nice technical stuff going on. They caused havoc on the back half of October and here they are. Goto is blonde and it works for him. His head was weirder shaped with the bowl cut before. Honaga is at ringside and they definitely were wrestling different than anyone else. Lots of stomps and choking and illegal switches. Hase fought back valiantly, including swiping at Honaga on the floor. But they leaned on him until he could go through the legs and tag Kobayashi. Kobasyahi came in hot against Saito, including a spinkick and the Fisherman's (and a Slaughter cannon in the corner) but Goto broke it up and they got him out and took over. He hit a roll to tag a pissed off Hase. Fans were totally behind him as he hit a lariat and the exploder. When that got broken up they hit a spike piled river on Saito. Honaga interfered blatantly though and Kobayashi went after him allowing Goto to sneak in and hit a clothesline and belly to back. Fans were heated on the finish. It was so blatant and different than anything that had been happening. 11/1/89: Vader/Tom Prichard/Tony St. Clair vs Choshu/Chono/Liger: Fun to see Dr. Tom and his big hair with these guys. Very weird WAR team. Vader swiped at Chono before the match but things settled down. Even Chono/Liger/Choshu were a mix of body types and looks. Vader did the ceremony, getting the crowd riledand then Liger kicked it over! Vader ran after him but got clowned and fans chanted for Liger. Chono trie to suplex Vader in and did after Choshu helped him. But then Vader just punched him in the face. Ha. Chono kept coming at him, to his credit but got absolutely dropped again and again and again, until he finally came back with a flurry. Vader crushed him in the corner and he fired back. Baptism by fire for him. Then Liger came in hot and got crushed by a Vader attack. Dr. Tom vs Liger is a very cool pairing and they worked very well together. Fast exchanges with a hot crowd at the end of each one. It ended with Liger spin wheel kicking him out but him coming back with a low blow. Vader survived St. Clair and tagged in Choshu. Vader came in and they reset and the fans were hot for it. Vader dominated but then Choshu ducked a lariat, hit one of his own and slammed Vader. Then he and Chono knocked him out. This was doing a lot to get Chono over. He had good rope running with St. Clair too (this is the best I've seen Chono look chronologically), with Liger hitting a dive on St Clair in between Chono exchanges. they cycled around on him until Vader broke up a Scorpion attempt and then he got a lucky kick on Liger. That let St. Clair tag and they started getting heat on Liger, including Vader killing him with a hammerlock clothesline and splash and St. Clair with a tombstone. Eventually he rolled out and Vader dropped him with a brutal press slam on the floor. Liger reversed a Dr. Tom suplex and got the tag. Choshu came in pissed. He worked very well with Chono. They cycled through again closing in on the finish, with Vader getting to bully Liger again, including threatening him with a suplex to the floor. Chono broke it up but Vader caught his dive and tossed him back in and squashed him in the corner and wish a splash. Chono and Choshu broke itu p but they missed him rocket launching Dr. Tom. That let Chono take Vader out with a flying shoulder tackle off thet op and hitting his crunchy looking Samoan Drop and the STF (first time we've seen it) on Dr. Tom. Maybe just a little long in the tooth but in general some fun action here. UWF 2.0 10/25/89: Maeda vs Tamura: Tamura gave it a real good try, rushing in and throwing hands, but Maeda just lifted knees up again and again and broke his face. To his credit, he got up not once but twice and made it to the ropes twice on holds, but it was a mauling and a very quick mauling at that. He tried a dropkick and Maeda just jammed it and kneed him in the head and the ref called it off. Tamura would have his day but it wasn't this day.

10/6/89: Hey, it's the first FMW show. I am not going to religiously follow FMW. That's insane. I am going to track Onita however. And probably Dick Murdoch too. I have no idea why Murdoch is gone from NJPW. I thought he was a lot of fun over the summer in 89. Maybe not at quite high a level and maybe goofing a bit too much with the Soviets, MAYBE, but he also really got the whole international feel like Dusty would have. Big Super Powers energy. My guess is that with Inoki and Sakaguchi retiring, they thought he had to go too. But he's not on this card so it doesn't matter. They had everyone come out like in the UWF shows beforehand, but here it was a bunch of indie misfits and karate gi guys. Very odd. Monkey Magic Wakita (Delfin) vs Boat People Joe (Jado) was a fun, experimental juniors match (huge tombstone by Wakita towards the end but the masked Joe won it with a just as big top rope clothesline). Jimmy Backlund (Del Ray) had crazy pants and was big and lanky against a random karate guy. Billy Mack had a ton of energy and there was a clumsy excitement as he went three rounds with a very straightlaced karate gi Matsunaga. "Witch Woman" beat three other women and I have nothing to say about it. Kurisu beat Frankie Lancaster as the rather large Sambo Kid and he looked like a killer doing it, winning with a brutal corner clothesline and a rolling knee bar. That brings us to 10/6/89: Onita vs Aoyagi: In some ways this is the most fascinating wrestling going on in the world in 1989 because it takes the Choshu/Maeda incident and weaponizes it. That's the only way I can explain it. Onita is Choshu like in his build and stature and attitude. Aoyagi, in his gi, is credible as can be and physically imposing. First round has Onita cheapshotting him from behind and pressing hard, stomping him out of the ring. When Aoyagi makes it back in. He puts on an armbar. When he gets up again, he locks in a half crab as the round ends. Second round has them standing up to fight and Aoyagi just kicks the crap out of him. When he gets back up, he does it again. Crowd goes nuts for this. Then the ref holds him back and Onita rushes through with a clothesline. So the next time Aoyagi beats him so much he can't get back up again to cheapshot him. Third round has Onita walk right up and punch Aoyagi in the face in the ropes. He keeps going after him instead of breaking clean and the place is going nuts. it's unhinged. Even the corner guys are getting in on it. That lets Aoyagi fire back and drive a prone Onita to the corner and the place gets even more nuts. They take things back down with an Onita headlock takeover but it quickly leads an Onita belly to back and Aoyagi coming back with a rolling kappo kick. They reset. Aoyagi wins another striking exchange, just destroying Onita. Then he takes his gi top off and does it again and they go to the floor. The place is coming unglued again. Back in the ring Aoyagi just beats the crap out of Onita. The ref tries to hold him back and fails. He finally gets him back to his corner but Onita beats the count. Another such beating. Onita beats the count. Kappo kick. Onita does not beat the count. People flood the ring. Total riot scene in the best way as everyone is elated for Aoyagi and Ontia is swiping wildly and has to be held back. FMW, everyone. UWF 10/25/89: Miyato vs Mark Rush: This went the full thirty and I think it might be a little notorious. I thought it was okay. This didn't have too much of the cool, ridiculous Rush stuff we've seen other times, in part because Miyato can force a guy to be more conservative, but he did hit a shoot clothesline which is always fun. Maybe Rush was actually more fundamentally sound than he had been months prior? A lot of it was Miyato trying to wear him out and outlast him. Obviously it didn't work though on some level every Miyato draw is a moral victory given his size disadvantage. Rush clearly had the advantage early, but Miyato had flurries as the match went on. He tried his spinning back kick a couple of times and it got him in position for a rope break or knock down but he couldn't fully capitalize. Some great palm strikes by Miyato down the stretch (kind of unique for UWF 2.0 so far). I don't think they were really close to the 5 knock down limit by the end. Honestly, if I could have made one change to the UWF rules, it'd be this. 5 Rope breaks = 1 knock down, and that's fine, but after that, it resets the rope break meter and you need 5 more for another knock down. I'd have it so any rope break 5 or up would count as a knock down. It'd give everything more of a sense of drama. So if you build a time machine or want to do UWF 2.0 rules matches anywhere, keep that in mind. UWF 10/25/89: Suzuki vs Anjo: This ALSO went 30 and I think they just wanted to establish it was possible after doing some shows where one match went long and the next one looked like it might. Incredibly different match though. The personalities and intensity here were going to be off the charts because you had Suzuki who was an offensive maniac in 1989 and Anjo who was the world's most punchable little shit. Early on Anjo knew what he was getting into and he had a strategy, and it was to cling on to Suzuki like a monkey. It was pretty hilarious in practice but he got almost 7 minutes of control out of it, with Suzuki trying something and Anjo slipping out and just hanging on to his head or body. Eventually Suzuki started to hammer down upon him and got this nice double arm suplex where Anjo's face was being rushed. Whenever he had a chance to be on top he rained down blows. But Anjo was also quick to turn things over and just punch him in the skull. It was that sort of fight. Suzuki got admonished for a cheap headbutt in the corner which let Anjo take over with knees and a front chancery suplex. They really went back and forth with it though. Suzuki would outwrestle him and reverse a kneebar, but they'd end up in the ropes and would be back swiping at one another. Suzuki in general got bigger stuff. He hit a Water Wheel Drop and nailed Anjo with the corner dropkick. Nasty, nasty stuff. But Anjo kept getting smaller things and staying on him. He'd knock him down with a kick in the corner but when he tried to follow up, Suzuki would turn it into a fisherman's suplex. So on and so forth. They kept going hard as this went past twenty minutes, with Anjo increasingly desperate. He had been able to bully Tamura the month before but Suzuki was a force of nature. Case in point, he got on his shooty pile driver, but Anjo countered it with knees. Then both men tried dropkicks (both failed) and Anjo followed it up with a guillotine only for Suzuki to get out and put on a crab. It was that sort of fight. They traded suplexes down the stretch and Anjo went to four knockdowns which caused them to really scrap to the bell. Another two or three minutes and this one would have ended. Maybe even another one minute. But as it was, a draw.

Notes going into November/December: The Nov UWF show is one of the biggest ever in these parts but we'll get to that later on. I still have to watch the Oct one. Of note, Funaki injured himself in a training session. Instead of a tag or six-man tournament, NJPW is introducing a round robin tournament for 1989. Four Blocks: Dave says that the blocks are... Block A: Choshu, Kimura, Sawyer, R. Steiner, Zangiev (Dave thinks neither Sawyer nor Steiner will be allowed) Block B: Hashimoto, Chono, Manny, Zarasov, Sulsaev (Olympic medalist's pro debut) Block C: Takano, Hase, Goto, Rheingans, Hashimikov Block D: Kido, Koshinaka, Super Strong Machine, Doc, Berkovich Oh and Inoki got stabbed too. Because of course he did, but he's okay. 10/18/89: Kimura/Kido vs Daryl Peterson/Kokina: Kokina feels more like a Bigelow sort of big guy in NJPW than a vader one. More of a bumping monster than a foreboding one. Peterson asserts himself more, though he's still prone to miss elbow drops and get dropkicked over the top. He'd just land on his feet and scowl. Meanwhile Kimura, in his first exchange with Kokina ducks a clothesline and hits two Inazuma Leg Lariats. Then he tries to hip toss Kokina and gets clotheslined. He goes for a test of strength, Kokina puts the fingers down and Kimura dodges the stomp and stomps on his foot instead. It's that sort of house show mid-card match. After they cycle, Peterson starts in on Kimura. But almost as soon as Kokina gets in, Kimura fires back with shots and a spinning backkick. They do successfully lean on Kido though, but not for long The Japanse team keeps coming back and making a tag only to get swept back under. Peterson has a nice running power slam but then misses a big splash. They get control of Kimura again and Kokina whips Peterson into the corner for an Avalanche but Kimura moves and rolls him up for three. A match. 10/18/89: Liger/Koshinaka/Iizuka vs Kobayashi/H. Saito/Hoshino: Interesting to see Hoshino with the Choshu's Army Juniors, but he fits right in. They ambushed at the start, tossing Liger and Koshinaka out and double clotheslining Iizuka. That let Kobayashi hit a baseball slide on him and he and Saito to do a spike pile driver. NJPW Juniors matches are almost always better when they set a tone from the start. I love how Hoshino will just come in, lean down and punch a guy in the face. They beat the crap out of Iizuka for a while including crotching him on the post. He was finally able to get Koshinaka in but they drove him right to their corner and kept it up. Eventually they tried for the basball slide on him on the floor but he moved at the last second causing friendly fire and allowing Liger to come in. He still had to fight from a deficit though and ate a Kobayashi spin kick before finally vaulting over and under him to hit the kappo kick and the match reset more evenly. They got revenge on Hoshino for a bit but Saito was able to turn things back around (a great bit where Koshinaka dropped for a monkey flip and he stomped him in the face. Shiro ducked a Kobayashi spin wheel kick allowing for Liger to get in and really take over for the first time and do his stuff, including a wild tope. Things were pretty back and forth and exciting by this point with individual exchanges (Iizuka vs Hoshino) and quick momentum shifts. Koshianka got to buitt butt everyone. They swept Iizuka under again but he came back with a double dropkick allowing Liger to get another burst. It was just that sort of a match. He absolutely planted Saito with a tombstone but Saito was right back up to Superplex him. It was that sort of match. Finish had a ton of good nearfalls with break ups before Koshinaka dodged a corner charge and got a sunset flip style roll up on Hoshino for the win. A lot of noise but it was good, fun noise that's hard to fault too much in this setting. 10/18/89: Choshu/Super Strong Machine/Choshu vs M. Saito/Hashimoto/Goto: And lo, the return of Chono. He had been in the tournament in April and the 6 man tournament the previous year, but he's never been much of a focus in NJPW up til this point. Apparently he debuted the STF on October 15 vs Borne which we do not have. Here, he comes in hot with a grudge to pick with Hashimoto. Of course Hashimoto, while caring about that, has a grudge to pick with Choshu. Choshu held Chono back but then let him go. He immediately tossed Hashimoto out and threw him into the guardrail. He controlled and tagged in SSM who did get forced back into the other corner so Goto could come in but then they took over on Goto for an extended period. Eventually Choshu got tired of it and tossed him into his own corner so he could tag Hashimoto. Choshu got the best of him but Saito broke a headscissors up an got in. He had a great exchange with Choshu where they beat the crap out of each other and Saito absorbed it and was very theatrical. Then he did the same thing against Choshu and SSM. Saito hamming it up in New Japan is so great. It ended with Hashimoto and co. getting control of SSM and working over his legs. Hashimoto missed an elbow drop though and that let them spike pile drive him and Choshu beat him up some more. He came back with a spin kick and we were back to Saito vs Choshu. Things were more or less in the finishing stretch now as there were far quicker momentum shifts. They'd beat on Goto. Then he'd get free and Choshu would get beaten on (including behind held for the Hash spin wheel kick. What put things over the top for Choshu's side was Super Strong Machine's presence of mind. He broke up a key pin and then, as Goto was corner going for a waterfall corner charge on Choshu, he came flying off the top rope from behind Choshu to nail him. That let Choshu hit the lariat for the win. Post match, Chono and Hashimoto brawled. Past energy and a little more body mass, we didn't see a ton from Chono here but he fit in at least.

(Phew, the board managed to save all this after all; a relief since I didn't want to go back a third time to figure it out) 10/18/89: Hata vs Matsuda: This is a handheld. I think it's Matsuda. I do not think it's the mysterious Hiroshi Dairi. He's pretty polished for one. Also that's what cagematch says. Anyway, we come in a little JIP and the HH guy is working out the camera positioning for the first few minutes. Hata is mostly in control and when we can really see what's going on he hits a dropkick and a crab. He then puts on a leglock but Matsuda kicks his way out brutally following it up with a legdrop, rollback, kneedrop combo, and a neckbreaker. Matsuda goes for crabs but can't really get them on. He tosses Hata off the ropes and Hata just jams him with a knee. They got into the stretch with pin attempts until Hata wins it with a cool gory special type move. 10/18/89: Black Cat vs Matt Borne: Not a ton to say here. These two matched up well. Hard hitting early with some rope running Borne hit a nice belly to belly. It was a lot of mean holds on the mat though, including a long Black Cat Body scissors. Things picked up to some more hard shots at the end with a good finish of Black Cat going for a press off the second rope, getting caught and then power slammed by Borne. 10/18/89: Takano vs St. Clair: Post-intros, we end up JIP a bit. Matwork to start. St. Clair took over with uppercuts and kneelifts what not. Takano had a fun bit where he led St. Clair out past the barricades and left him for dead there. St. Clair got revenge later tossing him into the barricades and doing a bit of King of the Mountain. He hit a charging tombstone that was pretty nasty but couldn't keep Takano down. He hit the spin wheel kick out of nowhere and a slam and huge top rope splash to get the win. 10/18/89: Sano vs Honaga: Fresh match up. Lots of athletic escapes by Sano to start. Honaga really grinded on Sano's arm as it got going which was fitting after what he did to Liger (with Hoshino). Some of this was really good including the way he tossed him across the ring with it. As the match went on he maintained control but left the arm which let Sano come back with a corner dropkick and jumping spinning back kick and crab. Sano dropkicked Honaga out and hit a tope. Honaga was able to snatch his legs outside in and crotch him on the turnbuckle from the outside though. But then Sano returned the favor. Honaga then outright hit a low blow, so that's what this had devolved into. He followed it with the fireman's carry into the gutbuster. Sano flipped off of a ship and hit the arm trap suplex and a spin wheel kick. Honaga got a nearfall with a neckbreaker drop but got caught on the top and lost to a Superplex. Pretty good stuff even though the armwork went nowhere.

Hey, happy birthday Paul. Hope it’s been a good one.

9/20/89: Vader vs Bigelow: Inoki was the ref here. He was also the ref for the Hashimoto match the following night, which we don't have. He got in between them in the corner early and really that let Bigelow take over a bit, not because of anything untoward but because it didn't let Vader bully him like he normally might have. He hit an enziguiri after Vader caught his foot, then a slam, then a dropkick out. Vader was pissed. He came back but Bigelow suplexed him back in after a headbutt on the apron, followed by some holds. Vader came back with an avalanche and a lariat and then dropkicked Bigelow out. He followed that out with some nastier holds than Bigelow's. They went back even, both tried throwing dropkicks and Vader attacks onto each other. Both crashed down but Bigelow got the better of it and hit some low enziguiris. Vader survived, hit the power slam for a close 2 and a lariat for the win. Bigelow thought Inoki didn't see his shoulder up and slammed him post match. Inoki stormed out of the ring after him and the place went nuts. Fun clash of the titans. UWF 10/1/89: Minoru Suzuki vs Johnny Barrett: This went about 11 minutes. Barrett made a good foil for Suzuki. He's way bigger but has just enough technique to keep it interesting. They handfought at times, going to the point of even smacking each other. Suzuki would try to pry off a leg and would do damage but Barrett could get to the ropes. He had ways to shut him down. For instance, Suzuki went low and tried to heft him up or get a single leg, but got caught in a waistlock and Barrett just dropped his weight on him. The big spot of the match was Suzuki going for an arm trap belly to belly, Barrett fighting it, and Suzuki headbutting him to unlock it and hit it. At one point Suzuki missed a dropkick but Barrett overshot when he tried to leap across the ring upon him. Suzuki survived geting mounted a couple of times and hit a headcissors takeover and double wristlock to win. Spirited and interesting for the mismatch even if it wasn't as tight technique wise as other things. Given the mismatch fans went up big for the Suzuki win. Big energy. UWF 10/1/89: Kazuo Yamazaki vs Bart Vale: Vale has such a reach advantage and is dangerous with his kicks that when fighting top guys, it's less about whether or not they'll beat Vale and more about just how will they possibly beat him. Which makes for interesting fights. The WON had critized these shows as being lesser because the outcomes weren't in question, but people were interested in HOW everything would play out I think. Vale could only make so much use of those kickboxing skills. He got a flurry in early, but Yamazaki was just too good. When he tried later, Yamazaki went low and took his legs out. On the other hand, Yamazaki couldn't really press. He'd get half crabs on but Vale would just crawl to the ropes. Obviously, given the rope breaks that could only take him so far. But he was also able to use his reach to grab limbs and get a couple of armbars. Yamazaki's technique was just too good though, and he was able to work behind him for one of the first rear naked choke tap outs we've seen in these. UWF 10/1/89: Akira Maeda vs Shigeo Miyato: Miyato had no chance. None at all. He could fight conservatively, could rope-a-dope someone like Nakano, could outskill someone like Anjo or Tamura, could maybe be aggressive and punch up to get some stuff in on someone like Takada, even though he had very little chance there. Against Maeda? No chance. He just got rocked again and again. Finally, Maeda crushed him with headbutts and just hefted him over with the capture suplex and it looked like the end, but he managed his trademark spin kick and one wild flurry out of nowhere and got a half crab on while the place EXPLODED. Back on their feet, he went for a Belly to Belly. Maeda reversed it and locked in the cross arm breaker. It really was a great example how even against a star, the crowd will always love the underdog (save for against Inoki).

They should bring back Ryo Mizunami to be the third brawling bird.

Bret is the one I'd pick. But if you can get Arn, he's a great choice too. He's close friends with Darsow.

The WWE HOF is formless, shapeless, meaningless, PR bullshit. Just another way to control the history of wrestling on a corporate level (previously on a “Vince’s whims” level) and make a buck off of it. That said, I’m still glad Demolition is going in. I hope they get a good payday out of it and have a fun speech.

The stretch of Proto-kada vs Top Flight/Steel vs Toni Storm was really good. Very enjoyable TV wrestling. I got the sense that Steel really understood who she was in with and how to make the most of it for herself.

I still haven’t gotten to it. I watched some of fantasticamania instead and with Lucha and the Athena match from NJPW strong and the Action show and Collision this weekend, I don’t know if I’m going back for it.

I still need to watch 9/20/89 Vader vs Bigelow since I couldn't upload that as a draft to YT. I am moving forward with more UWF though. Before that, here's the deal with October 1989. We have no TV from the month. WON said in September that there were a lot of sports-based preemptions and I assume that carried through though I haven't made it that far yet. We have one handheld (10/18/89 - I'm working on getting it) and looking at the card that will cover a lot of what's going on. On 9/21, they ended the tour. Hashimikov teamed with Choshu which sounds cool. Sano retained against Owen. Vader retained against Hashimoto. Foreigners in October are Kokina, Borne, St. Clair, Prichard, Daryl Peterson. Chono is back. A lot of the main events are Choshu teaming with random partners (Chono, SSM, Takano, Kimura, Kido, etc), against Vader/Kokina and one of the foreigners. I looked through the results and nothing else stands out too much. Hashimoto and Saito have more matches to solidify their team. I don't get a sense of big feuds for Sano. Iizuka seems dropped down the card a bit. That one handheld should be indicative save for it doesn't have Hiroshi Dairi in the first match like a lot of the cards around it. I have no idea who he is so I wanted to see him, but nope. There are also the two FMW launch shows in 89 too and I'm not 100% sure what I want to do with them or how much we even have on tape. If you force me to decide right now, I will say I'll watch every Onita, Kurisu, Aoyagi, and Murdoch match we have on tape that I can easily find moving forward, but I just don't know. UWF 9/7/89: Fujiwara vs Funaki. This is the main event and it can't be considered anything but disappointing honestly. If this had hit, 9/7/89 might be one of the best cards of the entire 80s. But it was a slog. I do think it was an investment, both in the style, and in the match up and I know they have a far more explosive fight in 90 that likely builds off of this. The first few minutes were extremely conservative and cautious. A lot of swiping. Because Funaki usually charges in, it was telling, and it did mean something. The Fujiwara/Yamazaki match was very cautious at start too but that let it expand out later. Here, there were glimpses. Funaki finally rushed forward with a headbutt. Fujiwara returned favor a minute later and it was done well and got a big reaction. At one point, Funaki did hit with those swipes and dropped Fujiwara in the corner, but that didn't lead to Fujiwara getting revenge like he usually did. Eventually it went to the mat, a lot, and while the technique was excellent and they were constantly scrapping, it just didn't lead to any of those big character moments you got up and down the card and expect from these guys. It never shifted into a higher gear and while it was technically excellent, it lacked excitement. This wouldn't have been nearly as big a deal if it wasn't a main event and if the rest of the show hadn't been so dynamic. If this went on third, it would have not just been fine but would have been functionally good in providing a baseline. Fujiwara finally got the better of the holds and forced a tap. He was very spider-like here, and Funaki was more mature in a lot of ways. The match was more mature, but I'm not sure that's what this card needed for a main event. UWF 9/30/81: Tamura vs Anjo: This was in Korakuen. They were experimenting with a two day show where none of the results were really in question to sort of see how they could prolong things as they built to bigger shows. Very interesting, relatively short match. This is the one where Anjo finally feels like he's leveled up. These young brats were coming for his spot and it meant he had seniority and he was going to flex it. Very much a "bullying" performance, with Tamura on his back heel. When he did fire back, he could more than hold his own, but Anjo took 80% of this, and because he was constantly shooting on goal, he was bound to score. Anjo ended it by throwing kicks and knees until he dropped him, throwing headbutts until he dropped him again, and then winning with a rear naked choke which he turned into a nasty cross toehold (keeping the body contact between holds so he didn't have to break after he let go of the RNC). Definitive and sort of statement making for Anjo honestly. UWF 9/30/89: Fujiwara vs Smiley: In some ways, you need spider Fujiwara to make a match like this work, so it is complicated. Smiley got him down in a leg lock and he laid prone on the mat, just relaxing, finding his center, his zen. The crowd laughed uncomfortable but amused. Then he locked in a leglock of his own and Smiley tried to kick him in the head. His head is notoriously strong so he ate them. Smiley freaked out and made it to the ropes. The rest of the match, Smiley was super intimidated, fighting desperate when Fujiwara was relaxed. He had successes, like rolling through the Fujiwara armbar or putting on a grab that forced a rope break, and Fujiwara sold for low kicks to the legs for instance, but they were just moving at different speeds and it was just a matter of time. Eventually, though he could drive him back, he stammered, hesitated, and Fujiwara hit a headbutt out of nowhere. Smiley just barely couldn't make the count and that was that. Such unique art, this. UWF 9/30/89: Takada vs Nakano: Nakano knew he couldn't outlast Takano. The longer this went, the worse off he'd be, so he charged right in. Super desperate. Unlike Fujiwara vs Smiley though, Takada couldn't just relax through it. He was constantly on his back heels, constantly having to respond. But he was good at responding. He almost immediately got underneath Nakano and hefted him over. The thing was, Nakano just needed one chance. And eventually he got it, ending up on top of Takada and paintbrushing him. Takada was able to recover and maintain a slight advantage, but Nakano came back with a big suplex. The fans are so responsive in these matches. They just get it so well. Perfect crowd for possibly perfect sports-based/strategy-based pro wrestling full of beautiful implicit stories. Takada got his jumping back kick and Nakano barely beat the count. When he tried it again though, Nakano sidestepped and hit a brutal crushing German. That was just about the last bit of his wind though, and Takada, having survived the storm, dropped him with kicks and finished him with a cross arm breaker. A pocket rocket of a match certainly.

We all spent the whole “Swerve on the table” segment looking for you but he was right in front of you so I only saw you before hand. also, blaming you for this.

Have fun. I hope Mark Davis uses you as a melee object.

I should not have waited a week between these. I have been able to run twice and have watched some UWF and one match that slipped through the cracks since. AND some ones I finally found (had them all along!) 8/5/89: Black Cat vs Hirokazu Hata: This one surprised me. While I have seen Cat to have character, I was expecting a quiet opening match affair here. I don't have a sense of Hata at all. This did start out on the mat. Hata had one nice bridging flip over escape to a headcissors that stood out. It got chippy early with Cat slapping him and Hata driving him out with kicks. Hata took over with a DDT and leaned down hard on him though. Hata came back big and things and they both hit German suplexes, and I thought that'd be it, but it kept going. Things spilled to the floor and Hata hit a flip dive to the floor off the apron. They ended up with rope running where Hata dropped down and Cat just dropped a senton on him and then put on a Scorpion for the win. Surprisingly good maybe? 8/5/89: M. Saito/T. Goto vs Super Strong Machine/Takano: A very fun lost tag. Takano and Goto to begin, first on the mat and then getting chippy. They devolved into ridiculous no selling headbutts almost immediately, because that's just who they were together. Goto got the advantage and they controlled on Takano a bit. SSM came in vs Saito and they ran that pairing 3-4 times in this one and it was always good. SSM tried to bully Saito in the corner but he jammed it and shoved him down Eventually they did take over on Goto to the point that SSM shoved him into the corner so he could face Saito too. That went well for them until Saito just ate endless Takano kicks and hulked up and jammed him. Fun stuff. It went back and forth (a bit too much like any SSM/Takano match) until Goto was against SSM. He ate a clothesline in the corner but ducked under and went for a German. Takano came out of nowhere with a great spin wheel kick to the back of the head and SSM was able to win it after a roll up attempt (Saito broke it up but then was attacked by Takano) followed by a Neckbreaker drop. UWF 9/7/89: Maeda vs Johnny Barrett: Barrett is Jumbo Barretta and it's so weird to see him in this setting. What makes him work is that he's big, really big, bigger than Nakano and he has a lot of strength and just enough technique that he can sort of force his way in and out of holds early on. The thing is that he can't really keep them. And he can't avoid them. Because he's more strength than technique. Early on they both tried kicking but Maeda both kicked better and caught his kick and forced him down. The thing is, he just needed to do it once and he was able to after a few. So even though Maeda was getting a few shots in for every one, he stayed in it. Ironically, it's how Maeda is against someone like Yamazaki, but you can't really compare the skill vs strength in that scenario 100%. It's just interesting. There's one point where Barrett forces on a leglock and Maeda slips out of it like it is nothing, and that sums this up as well as anything. It was a matter of time. Against someone like Miyato, maybe Barrett could have won it early enough not to get worn down and winded but Maeda was a force of nature and within a matter of minutes, Barrett was slowing down, which just meant Maeda got him more and more. Eventually he was able to heft him up for a modified capture suplex that was more like a Northern Lights Bomb and lock in a chicken wing for the win. Inevitable. 8/31/89: Owen Hart vs Tatsutoshi Goto: They were calling Goto Mr. Backdrop and late in the match we sure as hell see why as he absolutely crushed Owen. CRUSHED him. That should have been the finish. It wasn't. Owen went up and over on a second one and hit a tombstone and then a diving headbutt to win. Anyway, the match started as Gogo walked right over and tagged Owen in the face, and really pissed him off and that was great. Owen pressed him into a corner and slapped him. Overall, this was a marked improvement from Owen's 88. I don't know if that was Goto anchoring things or if Owen had improved. The transitions and momentum shifts could have been better but it was still night and day from those other matches. I enjoyed it for the most part. 9/20/89: Hashimoto/Saito vs Choshu/Iizuka: There's always so much going on with these tags. Choshu and Hashimoto started (Choshu put an arm in front of Iizuka so he could). They went at it but Choshu got the advantage. Hashimoto was able to dominate Iizuka for a while though, cycling through Saito and back to him until Iizuka got a cool leglock takedown on Hashimoto. That let Choshu come in and crush him some more including the wild running power slam and wrestle even against Saito. He was able to get a Saito suplex on Saito get the advantage but after a cycle through Iizuka, Saito returned the favor on Choshu. They beat on Iizuka some more but Hashimoto shoved him towards Choshu since he wanted Choshu. Choshu took him out with the lariat though. Iizuka fought hard down the stretch including putting on an Octopus. He got crushed in the corner by Hashimoto but Hashimoto got crushed from behind from Choshu who illegally followed him in. Great visual. Iizuka got one last bit of glory with a huge billiard suplex on Hashimoto but Hashimoto came back and hit the DDT for the win. So this was a title change. It was also the main event, not Vader vs Bigelow which I still need to see. 9/20/89: Hashimikov vs Italian Stallion: About five minutes. Hashimikov controlled on the mat early but Stallion got him out. He whipped him into the rail, whacked him on the apron, did a suplex, a slam, a couple of kind of wonky corkscrew elbows. Hashimikov came back with a belly to belly and then his waterwheel drop off the ropes. He worked ok from underneath and took stuff well at least. 9/20/89: Liger vs Sano: I know Dave went 5 on the January 90 match between these two but I'm really surprised he didn't go 5 on this one. It was a hell of a spectacle with just enough underneath to give it substance. No shoulder pads this time. Lots of headspring escapes to start. Very athletic. Liger got a drop toehold first into a hold, then Sano returned the favor, tit for tat. Rope running had Sano get advantage with a spinning back kick but Liger going up and over and through the legs for kappo kick, then once Sano got back into the ring, a second one. Pretty brutal looking. He followed it up by pressing Sano into the corner with the hundred hand slap, but Sano absorbed and shoved him back off so he could hit a pile driver. He held the advantage for a bit with a gutwrench suplex, a lot of clubbering, and a crab. Liger came back with more hundred hand slaps and a tombstone. They'd work things down into holds. Then build them back up. Next it was by having Liger dropkick Sano off the top to the floor and following up with a baseball slide. After some rope running, Sano dodged a few moves and hit a dropkick out followed by a tope. He tossed Liger into the rail and back in the ring hit a Gangrel Suplex. Pin attempt, holds, clubbers, and then a brutal belly to back by Liger to turn it around. It was that sort of match. Sano went for a leapfrog after this but Liger dropkicked him in the stomach. Brutal looking. He couldn't get the Suplex to the floor though and slipped on a springboard attempt causing Sano to target the leg and use on a figure four instead. Honestly, this felt like a covered botch and the idea was good but since it had no weight in the overall match (save for maybe Sano hitting a springboard later), I think it was a net negative. Anyway, Liger dodged a dropkick, hit the suplex drop to the floor and then the top rope dive to the floor onto Sano. This is where Sano was able to springboard dropkcik back in as Liger was running at him though. He followed up with a bridging German for 2 and we're into the stretch. they do a lot of dragon suplex attempts oor dashes off the ropes into roll ups for near falls. They fight over a tombstone (liger wins) but Sano gets his feet up as Liger tries to go off the top. Again, looks brutal. Sano gets that tombstone for 2. We'd already seen a tombstone earlier so some of the relative weight is dodgy here. Liger turns a superplex into a body press off the top for 2 again. They do a great bit where Sano misses a moonsault because Liger is rushing forward to vault up to the top and hit a subsequent moonsault. Great finish as Sano knocks Liger off from super plex position but then dives almost around him. Instead of doing a sunset flip he hits a Tiger Suplex though and wins. It was a LOT. Some nitpicks definitely but still lots of good stuff too.

Getting over a cold so haven't been able to run. Trying to knock out some UWF though UWF 2.0 9/7/89: Miyato vs Tamura: After some feeling out (kicks), Tamura comes flying across the ring and hits a dropkick. Miyato is able to jam him over and over though. He tries a flurry and Miyato just rides out the storm and gets him down in a hold. There's a sense that they have to use a knee to unlock a headlock to unlock an armhold here which is kind of neat. That's for both of them. Later on Tamura uses a knee to unlock a suplex. This ends fairly quickly after Tamaura tries another dropkick, Miyato blocks it and kicks him in the face. He hits his spinning back kick after that and a belly to belly into a kimura to finish it. Tamura was aggressive but others have given Miyato way more trouble. Yamazaki vs Suzuki: Well, this is fun. Suzuki slaps Yamazaki instead of shaking his hand. The crowd goes "Ooooh." Then he tries to catch kicks and throw shots to the knee or take him down. Yamazaki mostly keeps his cool but Suzuki actually gets him over with a big throw. Then he gets him in a half crab and kicks him as he he's getting up which is not the sort of thing which is done generally. Yamazaki is bleeding at the nose here. He's gotten him with swiping shots a couple of times but the pressure is building as Suzuki keeps acting like a little shit. They end up in a double knucklelock and Suzuki tries some headbutts and Yamazaki no-sells them and floors him with some headbutts of his own. Suzuki then gets him in sort of an inner underhook and starts throwing knees before tossing him over with it. Yamazaki tries to come back with kicks but Suzuki keeps catching them though he can't fully capitalize. They fight for position but Yamazaki wins and gets him into this deep STF (with more of a chicken wing). One thing I love about the style is that when a hold is given up you really get the sense it's because the person doing it just can't put the pressure on any longer out of exhaustion. Yamazaki's in rough shape here and Suzuki flies right in with a dropkick. It doesn't work but Yamazaki can't counterpunch(kick) in time and Suzuki drives him back with palm strikes and a headbutt into the ropes/corner so he can do his rolling arm whip. Yamazaki's ready and immediately turns it into a cross arm breaker but they're in the ropes. This is very good. Suzuki goes for a punch, Yamazaki ducks it, hits a German and then lets him go to set him up for a kick and that's the ballgame. KO. All it took was one kick but Suzuki spent the whole fight avoiding it right until he didn't. Takada vs Anjo: This is not going to end well for Anjo. He knows it, of course, so he comes out all guns firing with a bunch of kicks. He does really well at first, even getting Takada off balance so he can hit his snap side slam trip deal, but then Takada gets behind him and turns it into a cross arm breaker and he's one rope break up. Takada then hit his kick flurry (ending with a spinning jumping back kick) for the first down. Anjo was able to get a clutch leglock and follow it up with a front chancery suplex (after a knee to soften Takada up) to get back in it though. Takada caught a foot and Anjo hilariously just kept trying to pepper kicks backwards but it just ended with him eating a spin wheel kick for another down. Very fun finishing stretch after that. Takada went for a belly to back but Anjo rolled to land face first. Takada went high on another spin wheel kick. Then when he went for another belly to back, Anjo landed on him but they play 6 dimensional chess here so Takada was able to turn it into a camel clutch of sorts for the tap. These are going a little shorter maybe but are full of character.

I am playing through the XII remake and it's so blatantly obvious that the demarcation point of these games is voice acting. It's a matter of pacing. Story is great, ideal, but it's so much better when you can read through it quickly in-between actually playing the game. The second they introduced voice acting, they slowed down the scenes to a crawl. Some of that is full animation of scenes. Every second you're stuck watching and not playing has a cost and that cost was balanced all the way through FFIX because you could mow through text quickly and get back to it. After that, you become a captive of the game in a very real way.

There are certain goals for this, over time. I'm not going to follow AJPW forever, but I am going to follow Tenryu, Tamura, and very likely Hashimoto forever. Probably Fujiwara. We'll see what I do with Onita. I will see every Tamura match certainly. It'll just take a while.

Very curious about the Castlevania game. Dead Cells was roguelike obviously. It looks to have almost souls like elements with some of the jumps/boss fights, though obviously it's hard to tell from the clip, but there's definitely more whip movement to get around than I'm used to. Symphony of the Night clones (with mild gameplay changes to keep it fresh) are basically my ideal sort of game, or one of my ideals, and every new one we get is a gift, so I'm hoping for another gift.

Hey, it’s a sign and I am pointing to it.

I'll be honest that it feels like Meltzer speculation, but it's not like people in AEW don't talk to him. I imagine more will come out by the end of the day and it's best not to jump too far too soon too publicly (edit: but when it comes time to jump, people should absolutely jump).

Just as an aside, the Jrs scene in July/August/September based around Liger, Sano, Nogami, and Hoshino has been excellent. Best things have been since the early days of Hase (maybe even better) 9/1/89: Hase vs Pat Tanaka: Fairly disappointing match. This was a house show but I was expecting more fireworks here. Tanaka is a guy who could bump and feed for Hase and Hase has a lot of stuff. It's not that I always want stuff, but here I did. Instead we had some pretty boring holds. Might have been better with close up camera work. They'd build to something but just go right back to it. I wasn't feeling it. When they did get moving, Hase won with a tricked out leglock takedown pretty quickly. 9/1/89: Saito vs Bigelow: This was sub-ten minutes but pretty much as good as you'd think it'd be up til the finish. They matched up extremely well. Bigelow controlled with headbutts to the back and elsewhere. Saito's comebacks were awesome as he'd start pumping his hands and acting like he was Dusty Rhodes or something. On the second comeback he hit the slam and milked it huge. Very fun stuff. Bigelow got a low blow out of nowhere really right in front of the ref and then blew the sunset flip that was supposed to win the match as he couldn't sit up with it. He won instead after some discussion with a big splash. But this was great for Saito being a super babyface and for how they matched up until the end. 9/1/89: Super Strong Machine/Takano vs Hashimikov/Zangiev: A little disjointed as the SSM/Takano matches usually were but fun individual exchanges. Takano didn't have a hope against these guys but SSM really asserted himself and dominated much more than you'd think. Not a lot of memorable transitions overall unfortunately. A few big suplxes though. Some fun stuff down the stretch as SSM held a Soviet for a missile dropkick from Takano but said Soviet moved so Takano hit his own partner with the spin wheel kick. Finish had Zangiev get on the Scorpion with SSM cutting him off. So he whipped SSM into the corner where Hashimikov choked him and he Germaned Takano for the win. Good moments but I wouldn't say it came together. Takano/SSM trademark.

Not much observer news to report. Dave thought the second Liger vs Sano match wasn't as good as the first because of Liger's injury. Dave was a moron who only appreciated pro wrestling on the most superficial level. He may still be. Liger's selling in that match was amazing. UWF 2.0: 8/13/89: Takada vs Funaki: Really interesting one. Funaki, showing that same sort of youthful aggression we're seeing out of Suzuki and Tamura, rushes right in and smacks the hell out of Takada, dropping him. Fans are shocked. Takada gets up totally out of it, punch drunk, and gets dropped twice more with slaps and knees. So he's down 3-0 on knockdowns (out of 5) almost immediately. His selling is excellent here. Just totally dazed and having a hard time moving around. He wasn't up until 8 on some of these either. Funaki's almost not sure what to do with it and as Takada comes out desperately swinging, he eats a shot to the gut and then Takada's able to down him again, so it's 3-2 and a totally different fight. Things sort of even out after that with Takada trying throw him, and Funaki unlocking a double arm suplex after a knee to the face, but neither guy can really press an advantage. Takada gets him down one more time making it 3 to 3 but then Funaki (who was pissed off and popped right back up) drops him with a rolling kappo kick out of nowhere making it 4-3. Takada, realizing his back is against the wall, comes out like a bat out of hell and they're really swiping at each other. It feels like a huge deal, Takada gets the advantage and Steiner Recliners him for the submission. First camel clutch submission I've seen in Newborn UWF but it was warranted. Spirited affair here. UWF 2.0: 8/13/89: Fujiwara vs Maeda: Fujiwara in the first ten minutes of this match is as good as any wrestler I've ever seen in my life. Maeda presses him towards a corner. Fujiwara turns it around and throws some nasty headbutts. He's the greatest defensive wrestler ever. Maeda tries some kicks and Fujiwara gets his legs up. Then he has the canniest smile in the world. It's amazing stuff and the crowd is totally eating it up. Maeda gets him in the corner again and tries to go for headbutts of his own but Fujiwara leans deep away from him and they graze. Then Fujiwara follows it up with this beautiful twisting leg-scissors takedown. This is the most "Gotten To" I've seen Maeda since the Choshu incident and it's amazing. Maeda tries to power him down but he can't lock in a hold and Fujiwara turns things around for a headbutt. Maeda tries for kicks in the corner but he's too wary now and Fujiwra takes him back down. Things settle down and they try to get an advantage with holds for a bit. Maeda is stronger and he can get Fujiwara over but he's got to get out of his own head first. Fujiwara reverses things into a headlock in the corner but Maeda kills him with a belly to back suplex and locks in a modified chicken wing choke. Now Maeda has his confidence back and he trucks Fujiwara with kicks in the corner. Fujiwara tries to charge him out of the corner a second time and Maeda underhooks the arm to take him over. Things have turned. But even then, Fujiwara turns a body scissors into a killer ankle hold and Maeda has to SCRAMBLE for the ropes like I've never seen him. Things have, it seems, turned back, and Fujiwara strikes Maeda all the way out of the ring, leaving him embarassed and dangled which is something you never see in UWF. Fujiwara presses with low kicks back in the ring. So Maeda STOPS THE MATCH and gets into a kneeling position inviting Fujiwara in to wrestle him. Fujiwara does not. It looks like Fujiwara is going to take him down with leg scissors again but Maeda survives it and starts kicking him to hell in the corner. Fujiwara gets knocked down a few times for the TKO basically done. But it was a hell of a ride while it lasted. 8/31/89: Sano vs Nogami: Gritty, very aggressive match. The early matwork had them just driving into one another. Nogami looked great bridging over out of holds and putting a ton of pressure on Sano. Eventually Sano had enough, picked him up out of a hold, put him on the top and knocked him off. We take this top rope to the floor bump for granted in these but at the time it was very novel. It's certainly effective as a transition. It seemed like after some rope running, Nogami would fight back into it but then he missed a dive (plancha not a tope this time). He reversed a suplex to the floor though and followed it up with killer top rope dive to the floor. They went back to holds with a Nogami advantage. but Sano fought out and hit a pile driver to take back over. Really good transitions in this one. They moved on to bombs and a hot finishing stretch. Finish had Sano come close with a victory roll after he mostly landed on his feet off a back body drop, Nogami almost winning with a German, but then eating a dropkick off of a flying body press and losing to a cradled fisherman's suplex. Great match. 8/31/89: Choshu/Kimura/Liger vs Bigelow/Owen/Pat Tanaka: These trios don't quite have the momentum shifts I'd like unfortunately. I thought this was going to be about heating Bigelow up to challenge Vader (since that was coming in Japan) but it was to get Liger's heat back a bit after the title loss too. He no longer had the shoulder pads. This is a weird foreigner team but not as weird as what would be coming the next day. With Inoki and Fujinami gone you'd figure that maybe Kimura would feel elevated but he really doesn't. Choshu and Bigelow always have great chemistry. They have a good exchange to start building to a Choshu slam. That hurts his back and he has to fight back against Tanaka (back elbow takes care of that). Tanaka doesn't show much early but Liger does. Second Owen is in they're on the outside and Liger's hitting a dive. But again things build right back to Choshu vs Bigelow as there just aren't great momentum shifts here. Kimura gets swept under the most, as does Tanaka. It has a hot finishing stretch though, where Liger (after surviving a nasty Owen tombstone) gets to dropkick Bigelow out of the ring and Tanaka takes the Choshu lariat with a flip bump that looks great (he also takes the Inazuma Leg Lariat right in the face when it's usually a chest strike). For the most part, AJPW trios in 89 are going to be weightier than these. 9/1/89: Liger/Nogami vs Sano/Hoshino: Liger, after everything, holds his hand out to start. Sano slaps it. Nogami worked the mat against Hoshino and Sano early but then got knocked off the top to the floor to Sano. It was early enough that he recovered well/landed well and was able to tag Liger who took right over on an overconfident Sano and they started to get revenge for the last month or two. Sano bumped all over the place for them. After long minutes of this, he was able to turn a hold around on Nogami, stretch him a bit, and after Liger intervened, got a tag to Hoshino. Hoshino did a better job of fighting back but couldn't really stay in it for long. Turning point towards the stretch was Nogami going for a superplex and Hoshino and Sano double teaming him to break it up. Some really scrappy stuff from Liger and Sano down the stretch. Hoshino finally hit the Liger Bomb on Nogami but Liger broke it up and as he and Sano were fighting, Nogami was able to escape a full nelson (dragon Suplex?) and get a roll up for 3 on Hoshino. This entire series has been good honestly. 9/1/89: Choshu/Hashimoto/Kimura vs Nagasaki/Hart/Haynes: Weirdest WAR team you'll ever see. Apparently this made "news" because Nagasaki didn't sell much for Hashimoto and he has Vader later in the month too so people were wondering how he could face Vader if he couldn't stand up to Nagasaki. Seems anecdotal to me. Nagasaki eats people up as a rule but he did stagger heavily for Hashimoto's kicks for instance. Match was still disjointed but it was fun to see Choshu rope run with Owen, for instance. Haynes looked better but he mostly took stuff and made people look fairly good. Finish had Hashimoto hit the DDT first and then as Haynes was getting up, then hit the spin wheel kick which is probably a better one-two punch than the alternative we've seen a bit.

I have become a huge Mami Kumano fan in the last year or two. She had this crazy intensity. I get people going for Yumi Ikeshita over her but there was something a little more primal to Kumano to me.