Matt D Posted February 13 Author Posted February 13 Just now, Curt McGirt said: That eyebrow raise from Sano when he was looking at Liger's football pads was hilarious. Kind of with disgust, like "seriously?" If you haven't seen Tamura vs. Kohsaka from RINGS then you are missing out BIG BIG BIG time. 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.
Curt McGirt Posted February 13 Posted February 13 I'm sure you'll get to it, but man it is like a top ten puro match and top three shootstyle match ever.
Matt D Posted February 19 Author Posted February 19 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.
Matt D Posted February 25 Author Posted February 25 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.
Matt D Posted February 27 Author Posted February 27 (edited) 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. Edited February 28 by Matt D
Matt D Posted March 5 Author Posted March 5 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).
Matt D Posted March 8 Author Posted March 8 (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. 1
Matt D Posted March 11 Author Posted March 11 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. 1
Matt D Posted March 13 Author Posted March 13 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. 2
Matt D Posted March 14 Author Posted March 14 (edited) 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. Edited March 15 by Matt D
Curt McGirt Posted March 18 Posted March 18 (edited) Putting this here just for fun. I'm gonna watch it again. It rules... if it's the one I've seen before. You're gonna wanna keep an eye on Kurisu the Chairman, he's a wildly violent wrestler, particularly in a tag that I'm personally proud of pulling from one of DEAN's collections and pimping and it going wildfire among your colleagues. I put it on Youtube and I still get Japanese comments in my account about it. Edited March 18 by Curt McGirt 1
Matt D Posted March 20 Author Posted March 20 Lost the plot on where I am so I have to do some catch up. UWF 2.0 10/25/89: Fujiwara vs Takada: Mastery here is off the charts. In some ways it's conservative because neither wants to make a mistake but they also go so hard at the same time. Fujiwara gets this great takedown earlier where he grapevines the leg and drives down. There some even leglocks and what not. Then Fujiwara is able to jam the arm and drive him down again. Really impossible to capitalize on Takada because he's just too good though. Takada keeps almost getting something but then Fujiwara either jams it or reverses it (like shifting around to get a nasty leglock and the first rope break). Takada gets some headway by kicking low, but Fujiwara jams in and flips him over his leg. Takada reverses it into a cross armbreaker for the first rope break on that side. Both guys try kicks and Fujiwara just headbutts him in the skull and puts him to sleep with a front facelock. Great stuff. That's a down. They're really going back and forth. Takada gets a down off a gut kick, but then Fujiwara does a great legscissors takedown. But instead of capitalizing on it, Takada locks in a nasty half crab and Fujiwara has to go to the ropes. That's a shift in the match as Takada follows it by kicking the knee out for another down followed by surviving Fujiwara reversing things in the corner. Fujiwara is able to reverse holds moving forward but Takada's kicks are just too much. He crushes him in the corner. Fujiwara comes back with another headbutt but the kicks keep coming and when Fujiwara is defending against them, Takada gets him with a slap. Fujiwara knows his back is against the wall and rushes in a couple of times; the first time drops him. The second time Takada is able to reverse but Fujiwara drops him with a headbutt. Then the third, Takada catches him and just barely knocks him down with a kick to the knee, but that's the TKO on Fujiwara. Pretty spirited stuff to end. Masterful all around. 11/3/89: Choshu/Chono vs Kengo Kimura/Shiro Koshinaka: Fun match up here. With these, I'm still getting a sense of Chono. Koshinaka is a great Choshu opponent because he's so fiery even if he's outmatched. He rushes right in here and they scrap. Kimura and Chono are more even (but that in and of itself elevates Chono to a degree). Lots of holds and takedowns leading to more scrapping between Koshinaka and Choshu. Kimura finally takes over with his boxing strikes in the corner and they control on Choshu for a bit til Chono comes off the top with a kneedrop during a hold to let Choshu come back. Chono faces off back and forth with them a bit (Kimura takes over with punches, Chono comes back with a headbutt) with Kimura/Koshinaka having superior teamwork. Eventually they go into a hot finishing stretch (Koshinaka hits the butt butt, but Chono gets his thudding "Blockbuster" Samoan drop (they also call a fall away slam a blockbuster, so....), Koshinaka gets a roll up on Choshu out of the Scorpion, Choshu hits a Saito Suplex, Kimura comes in with the leg lariat as the illegal guy, Chono comes in with his top rope shoulder block, Koshinaka gets a German, Ultimately Kimura gets taken out and Chono locks on the STF. Exciting stuff. 11/3/89: Sano/Kobayashi/Hase vs Wild Trio (H. Saito/Goto/Honaga): They call the Wild Trio "Saito's Evil Joker Gang." And they also mention the "Entire Batman Army of Justice" so who knows what's going on here. It's 1989! They swarm the good guys immediately and it is pure chaos. This feels so different from anything else we've seen in a while. Hase comes back against Honaga and hits a lariat and then pumps his fists, but the Trio cut him off and take over in the corner. Saito tosses Goto super hard at him in the corner. They're very credible just with clubbering. Honaga has a great Abby style "put foot on bottom rope and lift up doing a headbutt." Eventually Hase gets to his corner and Kobayashi comes in. He drags Goto to the corner and demands Saito. They were the two main juniors in Choshu's Army and he obviously does not agree with this. He tosses Saito immediately to the floor but then Goto comes back at him. Kobyashi gets some space and then hits a baseball slide on Saito. They lay in on him until Saito hits a mule kick low blow and starts on Kobayashi again. Everything devolves on the floor once or twice. Then Kobayashi finally rolls to his corner and Sano comes in hot. Finish has things totally out of control with Kobayashi and Hase putting Honaga in the tree of woe and pounding him, allowing Saito to crack Sano with a bat while he had Goto pinned. Goto was able to get on top and win. 11/3/89: Liger vs Iizuka: We come in JIP, so you know this is going to be all bombs. Liger hits a German and a bunch of other stuff, including a dive. Iizuka comes back with his cool rolling leg takeover leglocks. Liger sells the leg big... you know, when he doesn't need to hit offense. Maybe, maybe it lets Iizuka reverse a tombstone, and hit the blizzard suplex, but he couldn't put Liger away and Liger got the better of him on a superplex attempt. He then hit two Liger Bombs for the win. I would have liked to see the whole thing. 11/3/89: Hashimoto vs Vader: This felt liek a big deal. Chono's in the crowd watching. Vader does the helmet ritual. First quarter of this is the two of them trading blows (Vader gets an advantage with a Uraken but Hashimoto punches through him and has the kicks too), with Vader controlling on the arm. Eventually, he gets Hashimoto to the floor and beats him but Hash goes up and over on a suplex attempt back in and locks in chinlock, into headscissors, into armbar. Vader does a great low kick into a drop toehold out of a lock up but Hashimoto makes it up to duck a clothesline for a belly to back and slam. Vader comes back including a vertical suplex and grinds him down, eventually hitting the power slam and big man sunset flip but he can't put Hashimoto away. Hash comes back with a suplex reversal and kicks and they spill to the floor. He's bleeding out of the mouth now but cuts Vader off as he was going to use a chair and he hits the DDT on the floor for a countout win and the biggest win of his career as Chono walks off in disgust. 11/24/89: Chono vs Zalasov: The Russians aren't nearly as big a deal as they had been a few months earlier. Chono is a much bigger deal. This one was about Chono hanging on to things like headlocks or wristlocks early and then surviving and escaping some of Zalasov's more tricked out stuff later. At one point, when he's trying to pry off an arm, Zalasov picks him up into sideslam position out of it and just hefts him over with a suplex. Nutty stuff. Then he just sort of hugs him out of nowhere and suplexes him over and puts on a dragon sleeper. But Chono gets out, pries a leg off, and eventually, slowly, steadily, turns it into a half crab and then a standing half crab, and then finally the STF to win. 1
Matt D Posted March 21 Author Posted March 21 FMW 10/10/89: Onita vs Aoyagi: Doubling back for this. While Onita in some ways feels like a mortal who has inherited some of Inoki's godlike power, this also feels like it taps so much into Choshu vs Maeda. Here, Onita tags Aoyagi right at the start with a straight shot and drives him out. They go back and forth but it's all brutal. The ref gets battered around in the process. Onita grinds him on the mat with a full nelson after battering him the corner. Aoyagi comes back both with kicks and then just elbowing his skull from behind as he almost jumps on Onita's back. The fans are into all of it and chanting (I think for Onita but I can't tell; that would be a change). Aoyagi comes out strong with kicks in the second round but Onita takes him down and Aoyagi sells a dubious armhold huge before putting on an armbar of his own. At the start of the third, Onita thows his towel and screams at Aoyagi. Aoyagi then just takes him down three times with kicks, each set more brutal than the last. The third had Onita fall to his knees and just get pegged right in the face before stumbling out. The whole round is brutal. He hit a senton. He did a rolling kappo kick as Onita tried to get back in. He just stepped on him. Onita's a hot mess by this point but he survives to the bell. In the fourth, he needs something, anything. He gets a Heartpunch right at the start but Aoyagi fires back with kicks. The ref tries to hold him back in the corner and Onita uses that to hit a clothesline. His ear is a bleeding wreck but he gets on a rough belly to back and then a half crab and yanks back with all he has forcing a rope break. This really is compelling stuff even if it's rough around the edges. Very different than UWF too. It's dirtbag UWF. He follows up with a onerous waistlock suplex and another half crab but Aoyagi forces him off at the bell. Fifth round has Aoyagi winning with kicks but Onita just charges in like a madman with a clothesline and forces an over the shoulder driving down power bomb (I'm not sure anyone in the world was doing one quite like that). and Aoyagi beats the count. Fans now love Onita. Crazy how that shifted in a few matches once they realized what they were going to get from him. Place goes nuts for him here though. Wild stuff. Post-match Onita, having finally conquered the mountain, all but falls into Aoyagi embracing him. No wonder the fans loved him. 11/24/89: Wild Trio (Honaga/H.Saito/Goto) vs Kobayashi/Sano/Hoshino: We come in JIP with them working on Sano. He makes it to Kobayashi but Honaga makes it to his corner which sets up another Kobayashi vs Saito showdown. Fans are very into this for good reason. Kobayashi gets the better of him at first but then ends up swarmed in the corner. He takes over on Goto with a headbutt and Sano hits a missile dropkick on him. Then Hoshino beats up on Honaga with armdrags a bit. Sano, back in, wants Saito but that doesn't go so well for him and he gets double and triple teamed, including a pile driver, until Kobayashi breaks up a crab. Hoshino takes over on Saito and Sano and Kobayashi hit a slaughter cannon on him before Goto returns favor by crushing Kobayashi while he had a crab on. Things break down after that and they go back and forth. Hoshino is very entertaining in all of this but eventually he gets his foot grabbed from the outside and then when everyone's complaining, Saito hits his mule kick to the groin to win. Good chaotic stuff. 11/24/89: Choshu/Koshinaka vs Hashimoto/Super Strong Machine: There's a real sense that god is gone now and they're in a new dark age with barbarians and monsters at the gate with the Wild trio and Vader and the heroes (Choshu, Hashimoto) are warring with one another. Super Strong Machine and Hashimoto made for a hugely formidable team. Here Hash and Choshu went at it to start. Choshu got the advantage and Koshinaka hit twenty hip thrusts into Hashimoto's head. He was able to drive Choshu into the corner so SSM could come in. This was pretty back and forth. Koshinaka got dragged down for a while but he did a very nice reversal to a leglock attempt by Hashimoto to make it to the corner. Then Choshu bloodied up Hash a bit but he hulked up on him. Hash/SSM controlled for ab it including a spin wheel kick and headbutt on Koshinaka but he ducked a second one and hit the butt butt. Usual hot finish for a Koshinaka match. He hit the German and got a butt butt on Hash (again) after a Choshu lariat out of nowhere but then SSM came in to do the same to Koshinaka and Hash won with the DDT. 11/24/89: Hase vs Hashimikov: This went less than 6 mins. Clever wrestling by Hase for the first half. He hit an armdrag early and then just switched from one limb to another with holds and trips to keep Hashimikov off balance. Very much a sense that if he caught him once, he'd be in trouble. And he did with an armbar which Hase sold huge on the outside. Hase was able to reverse a leglock into a hammerlock though and even hit an exploder and lock in a crab. Hashimikov got to the ropes though and hit a belly to belly off of them for the win. Good effort by Hase with great fire but he was an underdog here.
Matt D Posted March 24 Author Posted March 24 UWF 2.0 U-COSMOS~! 11/29/89: This was the big swing by the UWF who sold a bazillion tickets in the Tokyo dome and shamed NJPW to try to do just as good in February (we shall see). The premise here were all the main UWF guys vs different kickboxers and wrestlers and fighters, etc. and I have no idea if these are shoots or not but my gut says yes for some and I'll talk about those as I go. Tatsuo Nakano vs. Shigeo Miyato: This was the dark match to the show, as best as I can tell, in as it shows up before the opening ceremony and it's the only fight without outsiders. It's very good though. I love this rivalry. This was worked like a normal UWF 2.0 match in my estimation. They went hard right from the start and Nakano got an early advantage with his heft hitting an early German. I like the idea that he's been leveling up/training so between that and the incentive to go harder than usual given the crowd, Miyato wasn't going to be able to rope-a-dope him like usual. Miyato went harder than usual himself and got an advantage chaining a few things (including a belly to belly and a brisk belly to back followed by a sharp punch for the second down and his spin kick for a third), but Nakano was able to survive a half crab. I get the sense Miyato was really feeling it here and for once he made a rare mistake allowing Nakano to capture him on a kick and hit a suplex, followed by a cross face chicken wing before finally winning with a rear naked choke. He'd come a long way. Great rivalry. Fun fight. Different Style Fight Yoji Anjo vs. Changpuek Kiatsongrit: I admit that I came in wanting to see this Thai kickboxer absolutely demolish Anjo's face, but that is not at all what happened. This, to me, felt like a shoot, in the worst, most boring ways. Basically, He'd do low kicks, Anjo would charge in, and he'd go right to the ropes, forcing a break. Anjo got more and more frustrated but didn't make mistakes. There were rounds of this. At one point, Anjo went to the middle of the ring and flexed his fingers to try to beckon him in and he got a huge pop for that. He was fearless, just charging in again and again, and would start to try to drag Kiatsongrit's face across the ropes, just anything he could to open this up. He got a front face lock in the ropes, even in a disadvanteous positon and tried to hang on just because it'd be something, but it was broken up and this went to a draw. I do think Anjo came out of it looking very good though. Different Style Fight Minoru Suzuki vs. Maurice Smith: Another one that looked like a shoot to me but in a far more brutal way. Smith hit very, very hard and he bloodied Suzuki early. Suzuki would try for double legs but he'd get squashed on the mat and have to retreat. He'd just get bloodier and bloodier as Smith got shots in, going down but fighting his way back up to a huge pop (though using up his downs). Eventually, he did get him over once or twice and it felt like a huge victory when he did, but he ultimately took one shot too many and couldn't beat the count. He did come off as brave and tough, but pretty ineffectual too. Different Style Fight Yoshiaki Fujiwara vs. Dick Leon Vrij: Another one that looked like a shoot. Fujiwara could do almost nothing against Vrij's reach advantage but he kept trying to catch the leg and take him down. He took a ton of shots in the process and looked pretty battered (and kind of old) but he kept on trying. Vrij would scramble away if he did get him down. But in the second round, he caught a foot and twisted and there was an instant tap, one that almost discredited the way leglocks usually worked in a way that could have been dangerous to UWF's credability actually. He then refused to let go and the corner guys had to shove him off, and things got heated for a minute. He looked shaken up after the fact but this was like the NWO losing for the first time. The Japanese really needed a win here and it felt like a big deal. Different Style Fight Kazuo Yamazaki vs. Chris Dolman: This was a judo jacket match, more or less. I'm less confident about this one, but I think by the end, I was convinced it was a shoot, I think. Dolman was an absolute beast here. Yamazaki would try kicks and he'd just close the distance and grab onto the gi and toss him around. Yamazaki's best stuff was a couple of times where he rode it down and got a choke with the gi itself but he couldn't put him away. It was a testament that he lasted a few rounds obviously. Dolman looked like the only person in the world who had a chance against him was Maeda. Even when Yamazaki shot in, Dolman's size was just too much. A few rounds in, he got in a triangle/armbar and that was it. Different Style Fight Nobuhiko Takada vs. Duane Koslowski: Koslowski was a 1988 US greco-roman olympian. THIS felt like a work to me. Things like the UWF style legbars (even from Koslowski!) and a half crab. Takada threw kicks and got a knockdown early with one to the gut but not nearly as many as he would have won with. While Koslowski could own him on the mat if he got his arms around him, I just don't think he'd have an answer for those kicks if Takada really went in on them. It was nice to hear the corner guy go on and on the whole time for him. If Koslowski had decided to go to NJPW and debut alongside Kitao he could have been huge for them. He had the look and obvious skills. Anyway, I just wasn't buying this the same way. The kicks did keep coming, even if I thought Takada could have won earlier with them. After 4 knockdowns, Koslowski got a great German, but Takada worked it arond into a cross armbreaker. This was interesting but it didn't have the same zing as the rest of the card. I think it would have been more gripping on another card though. Different Style Fight Akira Maeda vs. Willy Wilhelm: This actually felt a bit like the NJPW vs the World series and now it was 2-2-1 with this match being the tie breaker. Wilhelm was a dutch judoka who was an Olympian and world champ. I see Vrij and Barrett at ringside watching among the camera people. I'm leaning work on this one too, but it was fun. Just a scrappy round and a half where both guys were constantly cutting off one another as they tried things and working the mat. At one point, Wilhelm got up and put his hands up and grunted and it was time to start the striking (that's in part why I'm leaning work past just the whole feel of it). Second round had them scrapping again until Maeda started in on the legs, and then got one of those criss-cross leg scissors type takedowns into a legbar. Wilhelm screamed and tried to hold out but tapped. Interesting show and obviously a huge success.
Matt D Posted March 25 Author Posted March 25 Couple of notes. Saito is training Kitao which is why SSM is teaming with Hashimoto. Buzz Sawyer signed with WCW and Wayne Bloom is in instead. Not sure if he's in the tourney. Liger is in Mexico. Vader is in both Mexico and Germany. According to Snowden, the 11/29 UWF show is mostly considered shoots. At the time, Dave said there were two matches that were (the Anjo one and likely the Suzuki one). It got almost 60K people and was the third largest crowd of the modern era basically. 11/26/89: This was a handheld, and it's rough to be honest. Most of the HHs we have for NJPW in this period are filmed very clearly even if from a far vantage point. This one is in between people and you lose the action at times, especially when things go to the floor. That said, this was an excellent single show for the five matches we have and in some ways an important one, so what are you going to do? 11/26/89: Hashimoto vs Chono (Block B): Here's the big grudge match and we just have it on blurry obscured fancam. This goes pretty long and does feel weighty. To me the comparison point here remains 1991 Kawada vs Taue. They had a slap fest early. Hash got an advantage, but Chono caught the kick and got a very early dragon screw into STF. Hash made it to the ropes though. Big, big start. They reset to a double wristlock jousting and each person having advantage with holds, with them going even at times. Very methodical. You more or less bought Chono being technical enough (trained by Thesz after all) to hang even if it meant Hash didn't seem like quite a beast as usual. Chono ran into a super kick which let Hash take over. He had these powerslams he did where he'd run around the ring to it and then just push Chono off of him. Pretty brutal looking even if it was less of an impact than usual. Just showed control. Chono would come back but would mostly control Hash with chinlocks and what not. Hash pried off a leg to get free and hit a huge running forearm. Chono was able to catch him for the samoan drop (which looks more painful than any ever), followed by the shoulder block off the top and another STF. Hash made it to the ropes, but Chono hit an enziguiri and dropkick only to miss a spin wheel kick. Hash followed with that rolling arm whip and Chono seemed out. Hash kicked hi to the floor. He beat the count but seemed dead to the world as Hash slammed him and tossed him off the ropes for the spin wheel kick; Chono just fell out of the ring as he hit the ropes though. He was being heavily protected here. Hash put him against the ropes and hit the spin wheel kick off of them but Chono kicked out somehow. So Hash hefted him up to the second rope and hit a second rope DDT (for the first time). Chono kicked out of THAT too and this is getting a little ridiculous. Then Chono got right behind him and hit a shock belly to back for a banana peel win. Hashimoto was pissed. But it was a big elevation for Chono. 11/26/89: H.Saito/Honaga vs Kobyashi/Koshinaka: I love this Kobayashi vs Wild Trio mini feud as the juniors of Choshu's army explode. There are people keeping them apart to start but that just lets Honaga and Saito ambush. We roll into woundwork on a bloody Kobayashi almost instantly, and if we had this one proshot I think it'd be a big deal in our circles honestly. Maybe there's an object, maybe there's not. Mabye it's just Saito with these big hamhock overhand punches as Honaga holds him. But it's brutal nonetheless. Lots of hammering down and biting. Koshinaka gets in but gets swept under immediately. Honaga chokes him with wrist tape after a double team. He tries to fire back but gets taken out by a gut shot by Saito and then an eyerake by Honaga, but Koshinaka is finally able to drive Honaga into the corner and Kobayashi comes in furious. He hits the baseball slide and things become chaotic on the outside. Saito takes over with a slam but misses the senton and Kobayashi tags in Koshinaka who hits the butt butt on both guys, to set up the stretch. It gets wild as Goto tries to intervene but Kobayashi is able to avoid a double team; Honaga dropkicks Saito by accident and Kobayashi rolls him up. Feels like a huge win against the Trio even if it was not taped. 11/26/89: Hase vs Goto (Block C): In some ways, the least of the matches we have here, but at the same time the Wild Trio/Blonde Outlaws were so wild and this was Goto stretching as a singles. Chaotic to start as it Hase tosses him, but it calms down with Goto in charge, using eyerakes and headbutts to keep Hase from fighting back. Goto tries for a belly to back but Hase turns it into a headlock and then rolls with the arm to take over. He's very demonstrative as usual. Big shots. Big playing to the crowd. Goto comes back with a gut shot, but Hase wrestles his way back into it. He does a big wind up Lariat, hits a very nice German, and then the exploder but can't win. He slaps the mat afterwards which is way better than shocked face. Goto tries for a grab but Hase almost gets the Fujiwara reversal. Goto jams it however, and hits his back drop driver for the win. Feels like an upset but I guess we're just in a new world (plus guys have to lose in the Blocks). 11/26/89: Choshu/Kimura/Hashimikov vs Williams/Bloom/Rheingans: The last tour ended with Choshu and Hashimikov teaming as a new sort of Super Powers. Doc being back in is a shot in the arm as this immediately has an huge over the top feel. I feel like we haven't seen a ton of Doc and Choshu up against each other but they go right at it. Tons of intensity. Choshu hits a Lariat but doc eats it, falling out of the ring but coming right back in. He drives Choshu to the corner and Brad takes over until Choshu can get a back elbow. Then we get Hashimikov and he hits one suplex and a cross arm breaker before Doc breaks it up. That lets Brad hit a suplex of his own. and Doc to hit a power slam (Bloom hits a leg drop right after but who cares). Kimura makes it in and works Bloom for a bit before everything spills out. Choshu comes in hot before everything breaks down and becomes chaos. After Choshu/Hashimikov hit a double suplex on Bloom, the ref gets control and things settled down to Brad vs Choshu. Brad hits his cool gutwrench and Bloom comes in vs Kimura again. Kimura hits the leg lariat. Choshu gets the Scorpion on but its broken up. Hashimikov gets to hit the waterwheel drop however, and that's the match. Less than 9 minutes and basically a bombfest sprint. 11/26/89: Sano vs Hata: There's a stretch in the middle here which is just insane. Twenty years before its time insane, for good and bad. Before that, Hata controlled most of this with holds. He'd vary it, but did a camel clutch and inverted surfboard (Sano went out through the ropes to escape). He worked the back more than anything else, including a nice legdrop onto it and a bodyscissors. Sano took over by getting a leg out of that body scissors and hit a tombstone. Hata came back with a pile driver. Then things went nuts. Sano dropkicked Hata out. Sano missed a dive (tope) into the rail. Hata hit a flipping senton splash off the apron as Sano got up. He dropkicked Sano off the apron as he tried to come in but Sano came in the second time with a springboard dropkick. He went for a top rope move but Hata pushed him off and hit a missile dropkick, knocking him out. Hata then missed a plancha. Sano followed it up with a top rope dive to the floor. Just nuts. Hata tried to get on his Gory special finish but Sano escape. they went into a hot finishing stretch. Sano hit a sort of Jeff Hardy flipping reverse enziguiri which I haven't seen before chronologically, off a caught kick. And then the Tiger Suplex for the win. Wild match.
Matt D Posted March 28 Author Posted March 28 11/29/89: Blonde Outlaws (Honaga/H.Saito/Goto) vs Kobayashi/Hase/Koshinaka: I can't even begin to express how the Outlaws (now called that as well as the Wild Trio or "Saito's Joker Gang") have changed the midcard. Just an entirely different feel of out of control and underhanded violence. We get the entrances and they ambush to start but then the TV goes to commercial. When we come back, Hase is an absolute bloody mess. Dripping with blood. Hase is so good fighting back with fire (even if it fails), and with the wind up before the clotheslines before the stretch. He learned from Choshu and Hase. When things spill to the outside they take out Kobayashi and Koshinaka with chairs too. They cycle through the beatings until Kobayashi can come back big with the baseball slide. They all beat on Goto for a bit but Koshinaka gets swept back over until Saito misses a senton off the second rope and Hase comes in hot and things ultimately break down. They've almost been overexposed because already the low blow (this time Honaga) finish has to be tweaked and added on to. And they go a few more rotations after it due to people breaking pins before Honaga tries a wind up lariat on his own and gets rolled up by Hase. 11/29/89: Choshu/Chono vs Hashimoto/Super Strong Machine: Pre-match, the Outlaws come out (all wearing Batman movie logo shirts because it's 1989 of course) and give Choshu some sort of note of challenge. More about this when I hit the end of the year but Choshu is really getting it from every side. In some ways he's gotten what he's always wanted and is in the Inoki role, but at such a cost, and so much of it is the world he made. More later. Here, Chono and Hash went right at it. Hash got the best of it and he and SSM started in on him. When Chono started to fight back, Hash cut him off including with a big headbutt and sent him into the corner so that Choshu could come out. Fans popped big and Choshu immediately got one over on him. SSM came in and they stayed on him. He got some hope spots but they cut him off (including with Chono's top rope shoulder block). Eventually he got Choshu to the corner and they stomped him until Hash could take over. Lots of fight though. they beat on him a bit and then Chono once he got in. Lots of one holding their opponent down (they kept moving through Chono and Choshu) so the other could attack or cutting off hope spots with double teaming. Hash hit the DDT on Choshu but didn't go for a pin. Chono cycled in again and ate a belly to back and then a DDT for him too, followed by a Spike piledriver. Honestly, this match is a little off the rails at this point. But without the chaos of SSM/Takano matches. Eventually Choshu comes in hot and holds off Hashimoto long enough for Chono to recover and hit his samoan drop. After that both he and then Choshu try to choke him out only for SSM to come flying in with a top rope headbutt. This is a bit of a mess now. SSM holds Chono for the spin wheel kick. They shove the ref down as they try to beat on Choshu and this thing is over. Good animosity but a kind of dubious match. 11/29/89: Williams vs Kido: They show us a 1990 calendar here to start and the most interesting thing is that Muto is there. Doc's out to Born in the USA. Doc ambushed to start but Kido slipped out on a charge into the post on the floor and worked the arm a bit. They shot a bit on the mat with Kido containing him but it didn't quite have the zing I'd expect. Kido sidestepped on rope running to get a body block but then ran into a knee to the gut and Doc won with the stampede. Kind of subdued all things considered. 11/29/89: Takano vs Hashimikov: Fun ten minute match. It was basically your move/my move with no major transitions but the moves were so different that it worked. They tried to mat wrestle to start (Takano had no chance). He was able to pull Hashimikov out and toss him to the rail though. Back in the ring, Hashimikov took over with meaty shots that Takano sold like death. Then they cycled. Takano would hit a kick (spin wheel, enziguiri, spinning heelbutt), but then Hashimikov would come back with a brutish throw (fisherman's, gutwrench, etc.). And finally he just hefted him up for the waterwheel drop, just bruting him over. There was something raw and uncooperative to this that worked even if it's basically just a fun tv match. PIONEER SENSHI 10/26/89: I just wanted to take a quick look what Ryuma Go was up to. Very quick. We have two matches handheld from this show. There was a match between his trainees: Hiroshi Itakura and Hideki Kawauchi. They go for 20 with a ton of very fun matwork actually, where they go up to every suplex under the sun, some of which executed well and some of which just wild (like a butterfly suplex that's an atomic drop basically), and then back to matwork. No rhyme or reason. One guy with black boots and one with white but otherwise hard to tell the difference, with plenty of strikes. There's struggle. They do a lot of strikes to unlock suplexes and just wild kicks, but it's just ...stuff. But still neat I guess to see what two kids sent out there would do. And the main event was Go vs Fumihiro Niikura who was one of the Viet Cong with Hase. He suffered a heart attack in 86 when he was just around 30 and while he has a comeback here, he must have felt like the odd man out who was missing out on what everyone else was doing. He came in with a bandaged leg and this was fairly conservative for most of the match. Go would go after it but that let Niikura catch him with other holds. He did get at it a few times. You kind of kept waiting for this to open up and it did mid way with niikura having this weird demonstrative kind of over the top and dramatic offense. Big sweeping stuff, very theatrical and offputting. Like an uppercut that came at a weird angle or just kind of a weird looking pile driver or neckbreaker drop or later on a dropkick that sent Go out of the ring. Go did come back and constrain things again with holds and later on kicks. Later on Niikura hit a crazy powerbomb where the body just contracted in all sorts of weird ways but Go came back with a belly to back and then took the leg out, though things just kind of kept rolling. This felt kind of formless and experimental to me over all. Not quite exhibition-y, but more that it didn't know what it wanted to be. They did a lot of cool stuff as it went on but it didn't have the sort of weight or consequence I would have wanted. While still not being a bomb fest since they went back down to holds.Just... Indie wrestling, you know? even in 1989 Japan. Finish had Niikura get a Fujiwara off a belly to back attempt by Go. I'll check back in now and again but only now and again. Anyway, on to December.
Matt D Posted April 2 Author Posted April 2 I am not going to follow the results of the round robin tournament too closely, but it's important to know that the matches below are the quarterfinals, and here were the final standings (no idea if this will format ok). Block A Block B Block C Block D Riki Choshu 8 Masahiro Chono 8 Salman Hashimikov 8 Steve Williams 8 Victor Zangiev 6 Shinya Hashimoto 6 Brad Rheingans 6 Osamu Kido 6 Kengo Kimura 4 Manny Fernandez 4 Hiroshi Hase 0 Shiro Koshinaka 2 Wayne Bloom 2 Timur Zalasov 2 George Takano 4 Super Strong Machine 2 Buzz Sawyer 0 Andrei Sulsaev 0 Tatsutoshi Goto 2 Vladimir Berkovich 2 12/5/89: Hashimoto vs Hashimikov: Super heavyweight war. They were fairly even early. Hashimoto got the first takedown/armbar, but then Hashimikov hefted him over bigger for one of his own. It opened up when Hashimikov did a rolling legpick to get a head under his leg and just forcing him up and down. He followed it up with a few suplexes including an exploder power slam and beating him on the outside. Hashimoto got a hope spot by jamming a belly to belly on the ropes and getting a punch in but Hashimikov got him down with a spinning waterwheel front slam (only for 2 though). He went for the waterwheel drop again and Hashimoto punched out of it to get a DDT, the spin wheel kick and a strong small package for the win. Big win for Hashimoto. Another elevation. 12/5/89: Choshu vs Kido: Kind of crazy that Kido came second in his Block too. Blond Outlaws with batman shirts are out to challenge Choshu some more to start. This is a good TV Choshu match. Kido drives him down twice early with Fujiwara armbars. Choshu comes back by picking up the pace and putting on a headscissors of his own. Kido is able to fire back keeping things fairly even. Choshu is just too much though hits a suplex and goes for the Scorpion Deathlock but Kido turns it into a pretty swank leglock. He can't put Choshu away and Choshu drops him with a lariat (doesn't get the win with it) and a second to finally win. Kido looked good and that just made Choshu look better in the win. 12/5/89: Chono vs Rheingans: We get this JIP after a commercial. Rheingans came in second in his Block and was built up big and legitimate so for Chono to go so even on him was a big deal. This was half and half really. Chono got a dropkick early but they traded suplexes and holds for much of this. Chono hit a top rope kneedrop and later on the flying shoulder tackle. He chose to go for an octopus rather than the STF, but Rheingans came back with his tilt-a-whirl off the ropes and a German. Chono survived it to roll through a slam for a small package of his own to move on. Not quite the emotional oomph of the Hash vs Hash match but Chono came out of this looking credible. 12/5/89: Williams vs Zangiev: An awesome 8 minutes. Just really taking it to the mat. Pure wrestling. You have to figure they were shooting a bit. At one point, Doc actually rides him with his arms out which you never see in pro wrestling. Zangiev gets a leg in to try to jam a belly to belly and Doc muscles him over anyway. But Zangiev also gets a great armbar and lifts him up by one leg and spins him around before dropping him. So this was very even but they wrestle it as hard as possible. They fight over every inch. Later in the match, Doc locks in a great over the shoulder backbreaker, but Zangiev flips out and Doc misses a dropkick. Then they're right back into the scrapping. Things spill to the floor and Doc struggles and struglges but suplexes Zangiev over the rail from the outside in. Then, back in the ring. Zangiev slams him and goes to the top! What the hell was he doing up there. Regardless, he missed a flip senton and a minute later Doc survived a belly belly and hit a lariat and the stampede and that was it. I really enjoyed this. 12/6/89: Sano vs Nogami: Very rare handheld. We had three of the big matches but not the rest of the card, so no one's gone through this undercard. This didn't have the wild animosity of their last encounters from summer, but it was good with the sort of action-packed stretch you'd expect. They're a little hard to tell apart as both of them have red tights, but Nogami has a white stripe and Sano a black one. Good chain wrestling to start with a lot of the usual junior heavyweight stuff like bridges into monkey flips. They really traded holds. You'd get a Nogami camel clutch and half crab then Sano using a spin kick and a Boston Crab and going for the tapitia. He opened things up a bit with a pile driver. but eventually, Nogami foght back with another half crab. That led to the extended finishing stretch. Nogami charged in with an awesome running jumping knee, but sano did a backflip when he tried another whip. He went for a German but Nogami landed on him. Nogami went for a tombstone but Sano reversed it. Sano missile dropkicked him out and hit a plancha.Nogami was able to suplex him from the mat tot he floor and hit a dive of his own. Then he got a German. Sano got a nearfall on a victory roll. Then they both cut each other off in rope rnning with dropkicks to the gut before Sano cut nogami off when he went off the top rope with a dropkick to the gut and followed it up with a double stomp for the win. Crazy stretch like usual really. 12/6/89: Kimura vs Manny Fernandez: Kimura really feels like 89 Tito Santana, a solid midcard guy who will hit his flying forearm (Inazuma leg lariat) but not win the match with it and probably not win at all. Good rope running early with Kimura keeping advantage and Manny disengaging. That leg lariat comes quite early and drives Manny out. Manny comes back and takes over and controls most of the rest with a lot of brisk, stark attacks like a short back elbow and draping Kimura back over the top rope on the apron and whacking him. Eventually, Kimura floats over on a second suplex attempt and gets a backslide to win. Not a bad match but pretty much just a match. 2
Matt D Posted April 6 Author Posted April 6 More of the 12/6/89 card. We don't have the opener so I still don't get to see Hiroshi Dairi. Ah well. Hiroshi Hase & Kuniaki Kobayashi vs. George Takano & Super Strong Machine: We haven't seen Takano and SSM tag all that much in the back third of the year. SSM starts this out by just clocking Kobayashi for no reason. Hase and Kobayashi are feisty thought and fight back. SSM makes it hard with a headbutt out of the corner but he does get swept under for a bit. Just for a bit as he and Takano get Kobayashi in the corner. These SSM/Takano matches are always extremely back and forth, and it's not long before Hase is suplexing Takano. They do a deal where where Hase controls with a fireman's carry into different things. Here he hits Takano with a gutbuster using Kobayashi's knee from the apron and it looks great. Before he had done it to SSM with his throat over the top rope. It pays off down the line as Takano is able to turn a fireman's carry attempt into a roll up which lets him tag SSM and set up the hot finishing stretch. It's full of bombs as you'd expect before Takano jams a Kobayashi roll up to win. As far as SSM/Takano tags go, this one was pretty good. Kantaro Hoshino & Shiro Koshinaka vs. Blond Outlaws (Norio Honaga & Tatsutoshi Goto): First third of this was all Outlaws. Whenever Hoshino would scramble to make a tag or get a flurry in, the Outlaws would either double team from behind, drive him into the corner, or rake the eyes and then just grind down on Hoshino or Koshinaka. It looked like Shiro was going to take over with a grab but Goto walked right in and kicked him and then tossed things outside for more of a beating. They really milked the comeback. They tossed Shiro into the corner, Goto missed, but Shiro ran right into Honaga's knee to the gut. He made the tag but they still made Hoshino really fight to battle back. Then they got some solid revenge on Honaga including a spike pile driver and crotching him on the post at least. Everything went crazy with the stretch as you imagine and it ended with the ref distracted and an assisted foul atomic drop (which looked brutal) on Hoshino. Fun stuff, more of the same of the Outlaws run but Hoshino always adds aa lot. Brad Rheingans vs. Salman Hashimikov: Rheingans has looked very good in all of 89 to be honest, and comes off as credible. They announced the main event of the USSR show at the end of the month and It's Inoki/Shota Chochishvili vs Saito/Rheingans and Dave got pissy about it like Rheingans wasn't going to do his part in ring. They hit the mat hard here, going hold for hold, counter for counter, constantly getting little bits of leverage to escape. Midway through Brad opened things up with shots, but Hashimikov came back with a belly to belly. He followed it up with the waterwheel drop but Brad got a foot on the rope. Most people do not survive that even that way. Brad came back with a German and a small package, but Hashimikov was able to turn it over for the win. Osamu Kido vs. Victor Zangiev: Very scrappy on the mat. These two match up well. For a lot a match they teased the swivel Zangiev escape but Kido shut it down. Zangiev finally got it and escaped a headscissors but Kdio stayed on him. Eventually Zangiev got him off the rope with a belly to belly, but when he went for a gutwrench, Kido got his signature reversal pin on for 3. Remember, Kido was pushed enough in the midcard in Fall 89 that he was #2 in his block. Steve Williams vs. Shinya Hashimoto: This aired and was a semi-final match. Big clash of the titans as you'd expect. First third was pretty even with them trading holds on the mat. Then things opened up and got chippy. Doc started slapping but Hashimoto won the exchange with kicks. Doc was riled up and reset and then got a press slam and posed big. He posted Hashimoto on the outside and tried some weird sort of step over inverted crab on back on the inside. He was firmly in control here. He picked him up dropped him in a sort of spinebuster slam, used a rear chinlock and a bearhug. But then doc jawed with the ref and Hashimoto came back with a DDT and kicks and the spin wheel kick. Doc fought back, hitting a stampede but Hashimot got his feet on the ropes. Doc set things up to hit a football charge but knocked him out. He hit a sloppy German on the floor, just tossing him about. Then he missed a clothesline into the post, Hash missed the spin wheel kick into the post, and Hash avoided the running stampede into the post to sneak in for a countout win and to go on to the finals. Another big countout win for him.
Curt McGirt Posted April 8 Posted April 8 On 4/2/2026 at 3:40 PM, Matt D said: 12/5/89: Williams vs Zangiev: An awesome 8 minutes. Just really taking it to the mat. Pure wrestling. You have to figure they were shooting a bit. At one point, Doc actually rides him with his arms out which you never see in pro wrestling. Zangiev gets a leg in to try to jam a belly to belly and Doc muscles him over anyway. But Zangiev also gets a great armbar and lifts him up by one leg and spins him around before dropping him. So this was very even but they wrestle it as hard as possible. They fight over every inch. Later in the match, Doc locks in a great over the shoulder backbreaker, but Zangiev flips out and Doc misses a dropkick. Then they're right back into the scrapping. Things spill to the floor and Doc struggles and struglges but suplexes Zangiev over the rail from the outside in. Then, back in the ring. Zangiev slams him and goes to the top! What the hell was he doing up there. Regardless, he missed a flip senton and a minute later Doc survived a belly belly and hit a lariat and the stampede and that was it. I really enjoyed this. I like to think that the Hairy One does not truly understand the Rules of Wrestling and just kind of goes for it, which makes him a hell of a talent. You have to feel for his hamstrings in this. I imagine there was some unaired Solar match on this card, he's standing there with Williams, sees a Gory Special and excitedly says "We do, we do!" Then he sees a dive and YELLS "WE DO! WE DO!" 2
Matt D Posted April 10 Author Posted April 10 At this point, the card for the New Years Eve USSR show is... Inoki/Chochishvili vs Saito/Rheingans Berkovich vs Bigelow Liger vs Black Tiger Choshu vs Zangiev Hashimikov vs Manny Hashimoto vs Sulsaev Iizuka vs Kobayashi Chono vs Eveloev Hase vs Victashev in a Sambo match. 12/6/89: Riki Choshu vs Masahiro Chono: The other semi final. On the one hand, they've been allies. On the other, they're both spirited jerks. That means Chono slaps him on a break early and then Choshu makes him really pay for it. After getting beaten up a bit, Chono comes back in and pulls back the turnbuckle pad. That lets Chono beat the crap out of Choshu, honing in on the forehead until Chono gets under him for a Saito suplex. Choshu's bleeding so he takes Chono out and posts him head first. Now Chono's bleeding. He comes back with a back brain kick. He hits a neckbreaker, gets the flying shoulder tackle, an inverted atomic drop and the STF(!) but can't put Choshu away; he gets to the ropes. Chono presses including a dubious octopus but then messes up on a charge and goes tumbling through the ropes, hurting his leg. Choshu capitalizes including with this outside in walking suplex that's great, and finishes him off with a Scorpion for the tap. Hashimoto was watching from the crowd. Felt like a big bloody match that maybe needed a couple more minutes in the middle. 12/6/89: Iizuka vs Habeli Victashev: They're debuting Victashev here and he wears a sambo jacket even though Iizuka doesn't. We're coming in at the 3rd round here and I have to assume Victashev dominated the first two because Iizuka takes all of the rest. He's able to scramble away from things and use the jacket for leverage for some truly great takeovers and holds, and even drive Victashev out. In the fourth round he almost wins it with a choke, but Victashev is saved by the bell. In the fifth round he's hefted over and Victashev gets a cross arm breaker over for a tap. The suddenness of the win helped to put Victashev over but Iizuka looked like a killer here. 12/7/89: Chono vs Manny: Manny controlled a lot of this. He was a canny worker, a guy who was very good at going into business for himself though given his options in the business at this point, it's not like he wasn't going to play ball. That meant he lost after Chono finally came back with the Samoan drop, got cut off going for the shoulder, dodged a top rope move, hit the shoulder block, and then put on the STF. But before that, Manny ground him down and hit his back elbow and basically whatever else he wanted to do to Chono. For his training and his push, I do get the sense Chono was still a bit of smoke and mirrors in there, though he was coming along more and more every week. 12/7/89: Williams/Rheingans vs Hashimikov/Zangiev: On paper this looked amazing. They were hyping this as a big end of tour match and a clash of cultures, going on about Russian classical music vs Prince and different foods, etc. Doc works these guys on the mat differently than almost anyone I've seen him work. Really reveling in it and that's saying a lot given his usual energy. Here, though, we start with Brad and Zangiev and they do a great job scrambling, getting under one another for throws and takedowns, bridging out of things, really strong matwork. Doc comes in and they hit a double suplex on Zangiev but Hashimikov is able to reset things against Doc. They're like two bulls going head to head and pushing each other around. Again, great matwork that feels a bit different than Zangiev/Rheingans in its rawness. Doc almost breaks his back straining Hashimikov over with little gain and then he gets under him and just dumps him. It's gripping stuff. The struggle for holds continues as Rheingans comes in and tries (and fails) for a German, but Hashimikov gets ones and we get Zangiev. He really can't even do his bridging tricks here because they're going so hard. Eventually he and Hashimikov get a revenge double suplex on Brad. But Doc keeps breaking up pins which allows Brad to hit a german and get Doc in for top rope Hart Attack and the stampede. they stay chippy post match. 12/7/89: Hase vs Victashev: This time Hase has the jacket too. We come in JIP again and Hase is dogwalking Victashev, including using the coat to drag him down and putting on a figure four. Victashev comes back in pissed, loses the coat, and the fans go nuts for it. Hase eventually loses his too and they go at it. They trade suplexes (great ones) until Hase gets on a very nice Octopus for the win. Victashev can get his win back in the USSR.
Matt D Posted April 15 Author Posted April 15 12/7/89: Kobayashi/Sano vs Honaga/Goto: I hate saying it but this is already starting to get a little repetitive. Granted, I had access to handhelds that others don't and it's still heated. I think the problem was the tournament since it meant some guys were off the table to fight the Outlaws. I wanted to see them against guys like Kido and Kimura too. Etc. Anyway, here they ambush Kobyashi and Sano on the way out, which is a new start. The match starts in the back and comes down the ramp basically and that lets them control for a while. Whenever Kobayashi or Sano star to come back, they double team and get them from behind. This means a long control on Sano (including Goto's killer back drop driver).Sano finally bullies Honaga into the corner and Kobayashi comes in hot. Honaga gets pummelled for a while but Sano ends up swept back under. Goto goes for the back drop driver again but Sano lands on him, gets the tag, and we go into the stretch. It goes back and forth until Sano gets a rana out of nowhere to win it. They get beat on a bit post match though. 12/7/89: Choshu vs Hashimoto: This was the finals of the proto-G1 World Cup. It felt like a big deal. Post match they brought everyone out and the semifinalists got trophies. Pre-match they did the anthem and this is where that picture of Hashimoto, partially transparent, with the flag behind him comes from. That's someone's profile picture somewhere. I know I see it all the time. Weirdly, the tournament sort of calmed everything down and made it more sportsmanlike, even if things were still bloody and heated at times. The Blond Outlaws were more contained. It's a real testament to Hashimoto's growth in 89. Remember, he was in the 6 man tournament a year ago this time, holding his own but not a force or a presence like this. It starts like you'd expect, a Hashimoto headbutt, a Choshu slap, Hash winning a rope running exchange and grazing Choshu with the spin wheel kick. Choshu went to the floor and then they ground things back down with clash of the titans chain wrestling. they traded little advantages until Hashimoto opened things up with kicks. Choshu countered with the Saito Suplex and caught Hash coming back in the ring after he rolled out and pressed an advantage of his own, hitting a suplex and fighting for the Scorpion. He couldn't get it and his attempt to beat down Hash did not go well. Hash ate it and stood up and clobbered him. Hash went for a cross armbreaker but Choshu worked his way out an unloaded on him with kicks. His second suplex attempt was jammed though. Hash kept going back to the arm as the match went on, and finally softened Choshu enough to hit the DDT but only for 2. He went for the spin wheel kick but in a great, great moment, Choshu blocked it with his hands and that was the beginning of the end. He hit sort of a running face-first enziguiri and followed things up by unleashing Fujinami's dragon sleeper, which he'd never done before. Very significant and self-aware element here. It took a few tries but he put him out with it. Very cool, iconic stuff. The Moscow show: 12/31/89: Choshu vs Zangiev: Relatively short. Pretty simple and straightforward. I think these two would match up better in a different setting maybe. The crowd was over 10k they said, but so far back that it was tough to hear them. At one point when Zangiev stood up and faced off against Choshu they did seem to go nuts though. A lot of this was straightforward, Zangiev outwrestling Choshu, Choshu outroughing Zangiev. The headstand twisting escape looked great here as he took out Choshu's head with his knee as he rotated. Zangiev got a clear advantage down the stretch but then went up to the top again and wiped out which let Choshu lariat him and hit the brainbuster to win. I get why they couldn't give this to Zangiev, but it was endearing to see him go up. 12/31/89: Liger vs Black Tiger: It's Rocco and Liger. Too much to recount. Glad to have Liger back. He did an Asia Moonsault mid-match. First time I saw that in the NJPW footage. He must have picked it up in Mexico. This, at times, felt a little exhibition-y given the crowd, yet also was too bloated despite only going ten minutes or whatever. For some reason, Rocco hit his no hands Pedigree twice at different points. It's a cool move but that felt weird. He controlled early but Liger turned things around with a tapitia Maybe the coolest thing in the match was a calf branding from Rocco actually. It looked brutal because Liger rolled with it. Rocco took more than Liger which gave it some form but nothing ever had much consequence. Big finishing stretch (tombstone > Missed headbutt > huge superplex, mule kick, kappo kick, liger bomb) all set up pretty well with reversals and sliding through the legs and what not, but not my favorite sort of Liger match. I'm looking forward to he and Sano getting back to it. 12/31/89: Berkovich vs Bam Bam Bigelow: Bam Bam ended up winning this with an inverted atomic drop (taken as a cheapshot) and top rope diving headbutt. I think maybe they could have given it to Berkovich but they were apparently building to some other match here. A couple of times, Bigelow went up for him to big reaction and it reminded me a little of Bam Bam vs LT given the setting. The (Japanese) commentary actually played it up as a Rocky IV deal with Berkovich as Drago, I guess, which made little sense, but it was cool to hear nonetheless. They built things to this great German after Bigelow missed a corner charge. The German itself was just okay but the build as Berkovich struggled to get him over was great. I would have let him win after that but so it goes.
Matt D Posted April 16 Author Posted April 16 (edited) Sneaking in some FMW 12/1/89: Onita vs Matsunaga: Onita is so, so funny. Incredibly entertaining. He's such a jerk. Matsunaga is in his gi and looks composed and polite. The match starts with Onita just getting a cheapshot out of nowhere. Matsunaga kicks the crap out of him in return. The ref tries to break it. Onita dives over, using that as a feint and clobbers him and opens him with a chair. Matsunaga fights back and gets a kappo kick in the corner and beats him more. Onita gets cheap headbutts out of the corner and hits a belly to back. It just goes on like this until finally in the third round, after a break, he DIVES across the ring to get a flying punch in and then the kneeling power bomb and wins it. He's such a scoundrel and a dirty fighter but he's got pluck and heart and he's totally unmatched otherwise but there's nothing in Japanese wrestling like it at this point. 12/1/89: Murdoch vs Crusher Dennis Knight [chain match]: This was a fun 5 minutes or so. Knight (Mideon of course, who looked incredibly young), ambushed to start and was pretty credible in his beating of Murdoch and whipping him around the ring and ringside with the chain, but he said "Come on, old man!" and the old man came on, with a bunch of elbows and nasty shots. He looked credible. I have no idea why NJPW didn't think he'd fit in still. Imagine him against the Blond Outlaws or even with them. Ah well. Regardless, he made short work of Knight after his comeback so this lacked drama but was a nice piece of simple, simple wrestling nonetheless. 12/1/89: Kurisu vs Monkey Magic Wakita: Kurisu vs the future Delfin here. Kurisu paintbrushed him on a break early and kicked him about a bit. Wakita came back with four or five dropkicks and started in on the leg. He had some luck with it, a couple of different holds. That just infuriated Kurisu though and he smashed his head in with a chair, then kicked him over and over again. Just brutal stuff. He finally slammed him and got a double wristlock to mercifully end this. That sort of different style world of early FMW in focus. 12/4/89: Goto vs Matsunaga: I mean... FMW is like drunk (or rabid!) UWF. These two just go nuts on each other for three rounds. Goto is a little more traditional than Onita and this is super even, just kicks and momentum shifts. He's still a little dirty, a little barroom brawler and he gets a belly to back while Matsunaga is able to keep coming back. He hits his flip kick early, but really it's just two guys laying it into each other, momentum shift after momentum shift. That's until the third round. Matsunaga comes in with his shirt off and while Goto gets an early advantage, he's soon in complete control. Goto hits a low blow of sorts, just driving his headbutt into a turning Matsunata and then slams him repeatedly with headbutts for the next two minutes, tossing the ref away as blood starts to fly. The whole thing breaks down into glorious chaos. Hell of a thing. 12/4/89: LeDuc/Kurisu vs Onita/Murdoch: I had uploaded this ages ago but I never saw it in anything close to context. Here we are though. Kurisu is in flannel. It's going to be that sort of a fight! They attack each other with the flowers to start, with LeDuc shoving them in Onita's eyes and they're off to the races with a wild brawl. Murdoch fights for his life against both of them as Onita recovers. Kurisu starts to hammer Onita with his boot. LeDuc's stomach is out and he's as huge as he's ever been. LeDuc beats the crap out of Onita. He holds him for Kurisu to come off the top with the boot. They are holding to tag rules despite all this and Murdoch is back on the apron even as LeDuc chews on Onita's wounded head. Onita turns a whip into a leaping forearm and gets the tag. Murdoch comes in hot. LeDuc weebles and wobbles and falls to a Murdoch dropkick. LeDuc is bleeding and Murdoch is elbowing his skull as the fans chant. He holds him for Onita. He hits the elbow drop but Kurisu breaks it up. So then he beats the crap out of Kurisu and sets him up to get a chair around his head from Onita. Onita comes in and chokes LeDuc out with a belt. Kurisu has the chair. The fans chant. Murdoch gets him from behind. Onita has the chair. It is utter bedlam. Kurisu finally holds Murdoch. LeDuc hits him by accident. Onita rolls him up. He gets the 3. Everything breaks down anyway. Some beautiful pro wrestling right here. Lovely chaos. 12/10/89: Murdoch vs LeDuc [Chain]: We get five minutes clipped but it looks like one of the best matches of the year basically. Early on the chain just keeps them close together and Murdoch tries to get anything he can against LeDuc's superior mass. LeDuc gets the chain around his neck and takes over, bloodying him huge. Murdoch is finally able to get some distance and throw elbows, LeDuc bleeding as well. Murdoch is bleeding more though and LeDuc capitalizes, finally going up to the bottom rope to try to use the chain as a bludgeon. Murdoch gets him with a chain-covered punch as he's coming off and hits the elbow drop for the pin. Amazing facial expressions and milking of moments and everything looked as violent as possible. There's also a midget match and women's match on this show and... 12/10/89: Kurisu vs Shoji Akiyoshi, who is Jado: Everything Kurisu does against Jado looks like the worst thing anyone has ever done to another wrestler. My god. This is clipped, but with one clip we come in with a stomp onto the head, like a standing curb stomp, and it's just the foot coming down and argh. Jado has moments of defiance, a headbutt in the corner, a double leg into a crab, a backbreaker, a missile dropkick, but Kurisu just punishes him for his hubris with kicks and stomps and headbutts and it's grisly. The amount of dues Jado paid in this one match. It ends with him just kicking him in the head a few times, lifting his head to see if he's alive, deciding that no, he is not, and pinning him casually. Argh. 12/10/89: Jerry Blayman (Flynn)/Matsunaga vs Goto/Onita [Barbed Wire Death Match]. This was a tag with tag rules to start, though they didn't last, with the guys having to come in through the wire. Flynn is super young but lanky and game, I guess. Matsunaga and goto beat the crap out of each other until Onita ends up in the wire and they're able to use it to hurt Goto too. Lots of bleeding happens. Matsunaga and Flynn have gis on which protect them to a degree. They didn't really build to the wire in ways I'm used to later Onita doing but they did build to a huge moment of comeback as Onita gets a clothesline out of the corner. Then Goto heatbutts the hell out of Flynn, which is fun. Things break down into a real bloody mess but Onita gets the kneeling power bomb on Flynn for a ten count. Post match he's he's held up on shoulders and gives a crying promo backstage and it's all rousing stuff. This leans so heavily on the real but it's also larger than life and bombastic. Edited April 16 by Matt D 3
Curt McGirt Posted April 16 Posted April 16 (edited) Spoiler Ignore the spoiler below, I had to fix this and can't erase it. This is a bunch of the FMW reviewed above. It's a treat, for sure. The first file contains both the Murdoch/LeDuc match and the barbed wire match with "Jelly Grayman" haha Spoiler Edited April 16 by Curt McGirt
Zimbra Posted April 16 Posted April 16 Ooh, looks like fancams for all of these shows are on the archive 12/1 https://archive.org/details/fmw-osaka-12-01-89-handheld-fan-cam 12/1 (different angle) https://archive.org/details/fmw.1989.12.01 12/4 https://archive.org/details/fmw.1989.12.04 12/10 https://archive.org/details/fmw.1989.12.10.handheld I gotta watch at least all the Kurisu matches tonight. 1
Matt D Posted April 17 Author Posted April 17 Amazingly, let's finish up 1989: 12/31/89: Hashimoto vs Evloev: We lead off with a performance from, I think, Kombinaciya singing Russian Girls. Then we cut to the match JIP and right to a DDT and spin wheel kick from Hash. He can't put him away and they trade holds. It has to be hot there because most of these wrestlers really look like they've been through a ton. After Hashimoto survives a cross armbreaker, he gets stomping, but Evloev gets under him in the corner and hits a suplex. Hash kicks out and this goes to a 15 minute draw. 12/31/89: Hashimikov vs Fernandez: Manny is such a savvy wrestler. He knew exactly how much he wanted to give, what his job was, whether he wanted to actually do it or just put himself over. Here's he up against Hashimikov who is the top Soviet guy really, who held the title earlier this year, who is clearly legit, but never for a moment did I get a sense anything happened here that Manny didn't want to happen. Manny ate a couple of Belly to Belly suplexes right at the start but didn't really get too thrown by them. After that they really traded holds. Manny would get an abdominal stretch or a chinlock or a quasi STF. Hashimikov would get a cross armbreaker or a half crab or the full version. They'd posture and shove and get shots in. Finally, Hashimikov took him over again and then went up for the waterwheel slam but hit a front slam out of it. Manny kicked out, hit a mule kick, a corner clothesline, missed a charge and ate a full waterwheel drop for the loss. Just fun to watch Manny do his thing in an environment like this, even if the match wasn't necessarily better for it. 12/31/89: Inoki/Shota Chochishvili vs Saito/Rheingans: It was very nice to see Inoki again and there were iconic moments here, especially at the end when he was slugging it off against Saito and hitting his big moves on everyone to set Chocohshvili up to win. He also had a great scrambling mat exchange with Rheingans. in general though, this was a little too start and stop and didn't feel like a main event or like it came together as much as I would have liked. Almost exhibition-y at times. Those little flourishes were magical, and the crowd seemed into the big stuff, but because we get so little Inoki now, it was a little disappointing. CWA Germany: 12/22/89: Otto Wanz vs Bull Power (Big Van Vader): We have very little, if any, Liger/Vader on tour footage in Mexico or Germany, but we do have this. Vader came in as champ and for a couple of rounds he just beat the crap out of Wanz in the corner. It was great. There were some of the holds he'd use in 89 in Japan but everything was simple and primal, though he hit his sunset flip too and popped everyone. After a while, Wanz started firing back and beat him around the ring for a bit, including a big suplex. Then they went even. They went to the floor a couple of times. Vader finally missed a big charge and Wanz was able to open his ear up with blood. He focused on it heavily. And Vader started falling behind. He beat the count once, but Wanz started pounding him even when he was down (not legal), and he couldn't beat the count the second time. Big celebration. Huge hoss fight that really was mostly punches with a few holds and moves interspersed. Vader had come so far in a couple of years. I'll try to write something quick up as i get into 90. I actually know almost nothing about 1990 NJPW. I know the Liger/Sano bloodbath is coming. I know Muta comes back mid year. And that is IT. That's exciting honestly.
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