Wonderland Junior #2
3/20/78 NY, NY Madison Square Garden WWWF Junior Heavyweight Title: Tatsumi Fujinami vs. Gypsy Rodriguez. Rodriguez was an awkward, deliberate, overseller with terrible timing and no offense. In short, he showed no signs of skill. Fujinami couldn't come close to saving it. 1/2*
8/13/78 Mexico City Palacio de los Deportes, 2/3 Falls WWWF Junior Heavyweight Title Match: Tatsumi Fujinami vs. Rey Mendoza 8:59, 3:31, 5:22. It was weird seeing Fujinami doing moves such as the flying headscissors and enzuigiri. He worked a more Lucha oriented style, but ultimately it was more his match than Mendoza's. A good, highly technical match where both men did a good job of working in and out of the holds that was much more interesting to me than mid 90's and beyond Fujinami. They started out using a simple hold such as an armbar as the basis of a series, working some athleticism in through their counters. Fujinami took the first fall, but Mendoza’s persistent stretching began to break the champion down. Fujinami’s left leg was injured in the second, a hobbling title holder giving the crowd some real hope their boy could outlast him. Mendoza worked the injury, setting up his Mendoza special (kind of a standing figure 4 where he splits his legs and squats forward) to take the second fall. Mendoza continued his leg attack in the third, but they inexplicably scrapped the injury when Fujinami came back with his Dragon missile (tope). The action was quite good from this point forward, but the failure to transition from Mendoza’s legwork to Fujinami’s finishing sequence in a remotely believable manner was a glaring liability. Fujinami crashed the turnbuckle trying a jumping tackle when Mendoza reentered, but although Mendoza had dominated the last fall and a half, the suplex this set up was his final hope spot with Fujinami running around as though his leg were fine during the finishing segment. The moves were nothing special by today's standards, and I felt let them down during the fast-paced running segments though that’s more a product of the times than a specific liability of the particular wrestlers whose offense was certainly above average. More importantly, they got pretty good mileage out of the moves and the leg injury greatly added to the drama and fan interest before they dropped the ball in scrapping it. ***1/2
Wonderland Junior #3
7/27/78 Tokyo Nippon Budokan WWWF Junior Heavyweight Title Match: Tatsumi Fujinami vs. Ryuma Go. I didn't realize that Go could actually do some wrestling at one point. He had a surprising amount of support too given this was before his days as a Shah type of fan favorite. Good technical match that the fans were in to. It was pretty basic, but they made the holds interesting by wrenching them and struggling desperately. Go didn't show too much ability, but Fujinami was at the top of his game so Go's desire was enough. Go was overmatched, but his run of offense made it exciting. ***1/2
8/11/78 LA, CA Olympic Auditorium WWWF Junior Heavyweight Title Match: Tatsumi Fujinami vs. Mando Guerrero. This was one of the coolest matches I've ever seen that didn't go anywhere. Interesting takedowns and amateur wrestling. Lots of cool bridges and counters. Guerrero had great balance and body control. I liked how he got out of a headscissors by doing a headstand into a standing position. They basically did 21 interesting minutes without doing one "good wrestling move." I was all excited when they finally stood up expecting a segment that would live up to the high quality of the matwork, but all I got was a dropkick from each, a double dropkick, and a suplex from each to end it. Oh well. ***1/2
Wonderland #741 taped 6/12/95 Osaka Furitsu Taiikukaikan
Manabu Nakanishi vs. Mike Enos 9:14. Enos was among NJPW’s most tolerable heavyweight gaijins of the mid 1990’s because he was unselfish and a hard worker. He did his best to work with his robotic no-charisma bore of an opponent, making it passable. It wasn’t pretty, but considering the lack of flexibility it was well executed. *1/2
IWGP Junior Heavyweight Title Match: Sabu vs. Black Tiger 15:44. Liger breaking his ankle on 9/24/94 should have necessitated the much awaited second Wild Pegasus run as IWGP Junior Heavyweight champion, as none of the other veterans could carry the younger wrestlers the way he could. I don’t have a problem with their choice to give Koji Kanemoto his first reign because, even if he wasn’t quite ready, greatness was very clearly in his future. However, Benoit was the one who was really capable of bringing it out, as displayed by their excellent match on 3/13/95 and great one on 9/25/95. Instead, the transitional wrestlers to Kanemoto were Norio Honaga, a quality wrestler and good company man who was hardly the great a 3 time champion would imply, and Sabu, a US indie darling that wasn’t technically sound or proficient enough to even warrant consideration for the Best of the Super Junior tournament. These choices were simply making Koji look that much less ready, particularly Sabu, whose title win over Kanemoto on 5/3/95 is a top candidate for the worst IWGP Junior title change ever. Black Tiger would have been another good choice to hold the title. His great performance was enough to turn this into half a match, executing his offense that didn’t require much if anything from Sabu on a level Sabu could only imagine, and even doing a very good job in spite of Sabu on the stuff that required a decent amount of cooperate. This match really shows the difference between major and minor league wrestlers, as we can see that Sabu essentially works independently of his opponent. Either he’s on offense or they are, but there’s no real development, they just give or take, setting each other up for single moves but not really advancing beyond that into the realms of chaining holds or working back and forth counter laden sequences to get to the same point. This just wasn’t the junior heavyweight wrestling we have come to expect, and I don’t mean the tables and chairs, which like anything else can be a plus or a minus. I don’t mean that Sabu actually beat a fan up before the match, even if he was kind of asking for it by stealing Sabu’s turban as he was walking to the ring. Back and forth submission work is one of the elements that sets the New Japan juniors apart, but this matwork was an utter disgrace. Sabu actually had to take a rope break on a scorpion that wasn’t even turned over and his offensive contributions were a chinlock and front facelock! Sabu was so lacking in anything usable early on that they had to kill time, turning Sabu’s diving leg pick into a comedy spot where they’d try to distract each other to pull it off. In the end, all they could do was run around and hope Sabu didn’t miss his spots too badly. Sabu only debacled one spot beyond recognition, but it’s more that his offense isn’t performed to the level of credibility. For instance, he wins with his Arabian press, which is a really cool move except his knees so obviously took the entire impact of the moonsault it’s laughable that Guerrero was unable to kick out. **1/2
UWA World Junior Heavyweight Title Match: Koji Kanemoto vs. Gran Hamada 13:07. Wily veteran Hamada was a good opponent for Kanemoto even if it made for a shorter match since he’s more of a tag specialist than someone who has the offense for a 20 minute singles war. That’s not a bad thing with Kanemoto, who is a bit of a spot merchant anyway. Koji really brought the offense in this one, not only adding spectacular moves but displaying eye opening athleticism, body control, and crispness in his execution. Hamada always does everything well, he wouldn’t improperly execute the cross armbar finisher the way Koji did, but he’s simply incapable of reaching the heights Kanemoto can when he’s on like he otherwise was. Hamada is a bit old school and lucha oriented in the submission portion, too content to grab an appendage, but the lucha background also provides the benefit of making his running sequences better than most. They largely did Hamada’s match with Kanemoto instilling his dickishness wherever applicable. He was in Hamada’s face before the match began, and wound up dropkicking him before the bell. Though there was some decent interplay, I thought they could have done more with the idea that, belt or not belt, Hamada wasn’t going to let the young punk get away with disrespecting him. Generally, the match was better than expected with the somewhat low rating being a product of finishing about 5 minutes before expected without kicking into the final gear. ***1/4
Wonderland #45
8/13/78 Mexico City Palacio de los Deportes, 2/3 Falls WWWF Junior Heavyweight Title Match: Tatsumi Fujinami vs. Rey Mendoza 8:59, 3:31, 5:22. It was weird seeing Fujinami doing moves such as the flying headscissors and enzuigiri. He worked a more Lucha oriented style, but ultimately it was more his match than Mendoza's. A good, highly technical match where both men did a good job of working in and out of the holds that was much more interesting to me than mid 90's and beyond Fujinami. They started out using a simple hold such as an armbar as the basis of a series, working some athleticism in through their counters. Fujinami took the first fall, but Mendoza’s persistent stretching began to break the champion down. Fujinami’s left leg was injured in the second, a hobbling title holder giving the crowd some real hope their boy could outlast him. Mendoza worked the injury, setting up his Mendoza special (kind of a standing figure 4 where he splits his legs and squats forward) to take the second fall. Mendoza continued his leg attack in the third, but they inexplicably scrapped the injury when Fujinami came back with his Dragon missile (tope). The action was quite good from this point forward, but the failure to transition from Mendoza’s legwork to Fujinami’s finishing sequence in a remotely believable manner was a glaring liability. Fujinami crashed the turnbuckle trying a jumping tackle when Mendoza reentered, but although Mendoza had dominated the last fall and a half, the suplex this set up was his final hope spot with Fujinami running around as though his leg were fine during the finishing segment. The moves were nothing special by today's standards, and I felt let them down during the fast-paced running segments though that’s more a product of the times than a specific liability of the particular wrestlers whose offense was certainly above average. More importantly, they got pretty good mileage out of the moves and the leg injury greatly added to the drama and fan interest before they dropped the ball in scrapping it. ***1/2
10/6/78 Niigata Shi Taiikukan: Tatsumi Fujinami vs. Tony Rocco 13:02. This match aged pretty well because Rocco's offense was crisp and believable. Even if the moves themselves weren't that interesting, a side suplex was one of the big highlights from Rocco, he at least made me believe they did some damage. They played the leverage game early, but although Fujinami began hobbling after escaping the Romero special, they never really developed any sort of storyline or body. The hold and counter hold was solid, and the finish was energetic with several dropkicks from Fujinami, but the match didn't really build and wasn't very dramatic. ***
Wonderland Junior #4
6/9/78 LA, CA Olympic Auditorium WWWF Junior Heavyweight Title Match: Tatsumi Fujinami vs. Carlos Mata. The first match in the series that was a "true" junior style match. Much faster paced than typical Fujinami and Lucha oriented because of Mata. Still very technical, but more standing and transitions and little sitting in the holds. Fujinami did this wicked backdrop where he had such amazing arch that Mata went into the canvas at an angle somewhere between 6-7 o'clock. Had some dull moments that sometimes had focus and meandered some, but had a lot of peaks as well. The actual wrestling was the most exciting up to this point in the series, but the crowd wasn't overly interested. Great near fall where Mata looked done for being caught in Fujinami's highly effective German suplex, but was able to get his foot on the rope. A nice long match, but that makes the cheesy over the top rope finish that much more annoying. ***3/4
4/5/79 Tokyo Taiikukan WWF Junior Heavyweight Title Match: Tatsumi Fujinami vs. Perro Aguayo. Fujinami once again worked Lucha style to suit his opponent. Unfortunately, Perro did nothing to change my mind about him probably never being any good. His selling was comical, and offensively he relied totally on low impact and elevation sentons. All the quality came from Fujinami, who gave a really good performance that was different for him because he relied on his flying to keep it interesting. Fujinami was actually exciting, doing some nice sequences like a cartwheel to avoid Perro's monkey flip then 2 flying headscissors and a dropkick in rapid succession. Short match and Perro was still a dog though. **1/2
Wonderland Junior #5
6/7/79 Tokyo Kuramae Kokugikan WWF Junior Heavyweight Title Match: Tatsumi Fujinami vs. El Canek. I can see where Canek's style would work well against a big foreign stiff. I expected a lot more from him against a talented opponent though, certainly more than test of strengths, rest holds, and shoulderblocks. Canek showed no technical skill here, just strength and slow sloppy flying. Fujinami ripped Canek's mask so he could bleed, while Canek undid Fujinami's boot for reasons known only to them. **
10/2/79 Osaka Furitsu Taiikukaikan WWF Junior Heavyweight Title Match: Tatsumi Fujinami vs. Ryuma Go. Not as good or heated as their previous match, but it was once again a quality match where Go was more than carryable. Go does a cool swinging neckbreaker looking takedown from snapmare position. ***
Wonderland #49
10/30/78 Okayama Budokan 2/3 Falls NWA International Tag Title Match: Seiji Sakaguchi & Strong Kobayashi vs. Kill Karl Crupp & Brute Barnard. Really dull match between a bunch of old slow guys. Killer & Brute were really unskilled and unathletic to the point they didn't even fall well. Lots of exciting moves like the bear hug and ground claw, though the gaijins at least focused on Sakaguchi's knee. 17:32 & 3:27
4/5/79 Tokyo Taiikukan WWF Junior Heavyweight Title Match: Tatsumi Fujinami vs. Perro Aguayo. Fujinami once again worked Lucha style to suit his opponent. Unfortunately, Perro did nothing to change my mind about him probably never being any good. His selling was comical, and offensively he relied totally on low impact and elevation sentons. All the quality came from Fujinami, who gave a really good performance that was different for him because he relied on his flying to keep it interesting. Fujinami was actually exciting, doing some nice sequences like a cartwheel to avoid Perro's monkey flip then 2 flying headscissors and a dropkick in rapid succession. Short match and Perro was still a dog though. **1/2
Wonderland #775 taped 10/9/95 Tokyo Dome
9/25/95 Osaka Furitsu Taiikukaikan IWGP Junior Heavykyu Senshuken Jiai: Koji Kanemoto vs. Wild Pegasus. Smooth fluid match with impressive counters and transitions. Pegasus has serious impact on his moves, especially a jackknife that set up his diving headbutt. His top rope backdrop was awesome. In these days, his offense was really diverse though, and he pulled out spots like the Frankensteiner off the top. Kanemoto didn't use so much "shoot offense" at this time, so it was a very athletic match from both men. The offense was excellent, but they also worked the moves in so well. The fans were won over by the high quality of the match. 17:14. ****1/2
Yuji Nagata & Tokimitsu Ishizawa vs. Hiromitsu Kanehara & Kazushi Sakuraba. Match was alright, but it should have been better. They worked out a few key spots, but not much happened in between. 10:47. **
Shinjiro Otani vs. Kenichi Yamamoto. Otani was much better at exciting the crowd in the mid 90's. Yamamoto wasn't even a threat, but the crowd was into seeing Otani hit a dropkick against a "shooter" and they stayed with it throughout. Yamamoto did a really quick German suplex. 7:17. **1/4
Wonderland Junior #6
6/15/79 LA, CA Olympic Auditorium WWF Junior Heavyweight Title Match: Tatsumi Fujinami vs. Tony Rocco. Solid technical match. Fujinami was much quicker, smoother, and more advanced than Rocco. I was surprised that Rocco was going to do a Tiger suplex, but he just rolled back into a pin from that position. **1/2
2/1/80 Hokkaido Sapporo Nakajima Taiiku Center 2/3 falls WWF Junior Heavyweight & NWA World Junior Heavyweight International Double Title Match: Tatsumi Fujinami (WWF champ) vs. Steve Keirn (NWA champ). Keirn didn't fight junior style at all. The match was basically Keirn beating Fujinami up with uninteresting brawling. Keirn was DQ'd in the 1st fall for repeatedly punching Fujinami in his previously wounded forehead to keep him from reentering the ring. *1/2
Wonderland Junior #7
12/4/79 Osaka Furitsu Taiikukaikan WWF Junior Heavyweight Title Match: Tatsumi Fujinami vs. Greg Valentine. Fujinami worked much stiffer for Valentine. Fujinami showed his diversity here, while Valentine was just stiff. Fujinami displayed more fire here. Fujinami did a victory flip called a Dragon roll out of nowhere for the win. It was excellent while it lasted, but it could have been developed a lot more and went a lot longer. ***1/2
12/19/79 Mexico Palacio de los Deportes 2/3 Falls WWF Junior Heavyweight Title Match: Tatsumi Fujinami vs. Angel Blanco. Slow submission oriented match. Wasn't Lucha and wasn't Fujinami's mat style. Wasn't good either. It took 6 minutes into the third fall before it got interesting, and 2 minutes later there was a double pin so Fujinami retained without really winning. *1/2
taped 12/4/79 Osaka Furitsu Taiikukaikan
Bob Backlund vs. Tiger Jeet Singh
NWF World Heavyweight Title: Antonio Inoki vs. Pedro Morales
12/19/79 Mexico City Palacio de los Deportes: Riki Choshu vs. El Canek
Wonderland Junior #8
2/5/80 Nagoya Aichi-ken Taiikukan WWF Junior Heavyweight Title Match: Tatsumi Fujinami vs. Dynamite Kid. Fujinami was greeted like a big star, while Dynamite flipped off the crowd because he got hit with a roll of toilet paper as soon as he entered the ring. Dynamite brings such intensity to everything he does. He just pounded on Fujinami, focusing on the right side of his forehead where Fujinami had a bandaid over that cut that wasn't healing. Fujinami was busted open before long, but Dynamite also got a bloody nose. Not much technical wrestling here since Dynamite set the stiff brawling tone early, but this match didn't need technical wrestling. It should have been a great match, but like many Fujinami matches from this period, it looked like it was going another 5-10 minutes but just ended. This was worse though because Dynamite went down to a leg trip into a Dragon leg roll clutch hold after whooping Fujinami almost the whole match. Dynamite tended to lose his junior title matches here in that kind of fashion, but at least Tiger Mask's German suplex has some impact so it's not all the "element of surprise" or whatever the supposed justification is for this kind of finish. But anyway Dynamite was awesome and Fujinami ran with what Dynamite was doing so well, unlike many other greats that won't recognize their equal or superior and impose their will for the worse of the match. ****1/2
2/8/80 Tokyo Taiikukan 2/3 Falls NWA World Junior Heavyweight International Title Match: Tatsumi Fujinami vs. Steve Keirn. Unlike their previous double title debacle, Keirn actually wrestled here. His highlight was the 1st fall finish where he landed on his feet for Fujinami's vertical suplex and put him away with a German suplex hold. After 5 1/2 minutes that were totally technical, Fujinami screwed up the bump that Foley made famous where instead of going to the floor he gets his neck tied in between the top/middle rope. Keirn had to tie Fujinami up himself so he could "lose it" for no reason at all other than to avoid doing a real job in the 2nd fall. The third fall started with Keirn wrestling technically again. This was actually a good wrestling match, but the screw job in the middle made it kind of silly. Doing 3 falls in 11 minutes didn't help either, especially when the 2nd was illogical and the 3rd obviously coming too quickly. **3/4
Wonderland Junior #9
5/9/80 Fukuoka Sports Center WWF Junior Heavyweight Title Match: Tatsumi Fujinami vs. Chavo Guerrero. This match got off to such a slow boring start with Chavo dominating with unimpressive heavyweight style offense. Chave did do a backflip out of the corner, but it served no purpose and took him forever to set it up with the ref having to hold his butt like he was Choshu. Chavo did a shoulderbreaker from Death Valley bomb position, although it appeared to have little to no impact. Just when I'd given up hope, Chavo finally stopped punching and they did some athletic moves like the rolling senton and diving body attack. The last 3 minutes were exciting enough that, considering it was 1980, I don't have any problem saying it was an adequate match. It's just frustrating that they had to nearly put me to sleep first. **
9/26/80 Hiroshima Kenritsu Taiikukan NWA World Junior Heavyweight International Title Match: Kengo Kimura vs. Tatsumi Fujinami. This is one of those matches that's never all that great, but it's usually interesting and looks better than most as a whole. Long even match where both bled. It started off technical since that's their style, but also because its was a rare title match between natives. Tempers flared when Kimura released a failed scorpion because Fujinami was in the ropes, but Fujinami started giving Kimura low licks from his side ala Inoki. They calmed down and went back to mat, and unfortunately it was of the poorly aging variety with headscissors and the like. It was a match about parity, so when it picked up they were both missing the same moves. Kimura gave Fujinami a wicked jumping piledriver, which Fujinami didn't put over enough. Kimura actually did a pescado. What seperated this match from the others in the series is it had a long segment of action with many dramatic near falls. What killed the match is the cheesy finish where Fujinami dropkicked Kimura off the top to stop his flying move, with Kimura taking a flip bump into the ring even though that was the exact opposite direction the momentum would have knocked him. Fujinami wasn't that bad off in my opinion, but apparently the deadly impact of hitting the canvas after he hit this dropkick was enough that, like Kimura, he couldn't answer the 10 count. They went much longer than normal, almost 25 minutes, for that? ***1/4
Wonderland Junior #10
4/4/80 Kanagawa Kawasaki Shi Taiikukan NWA World Junior Heavyweight International Title Match: Mike Graham vs. Tatsumi Fujinami. Strictly technical wrestling, much of which doesn't age well like the long bodyscissors. The first 15 minutes were slow paced then Fujinami did a pescado and there was fast action until the finish. Graham didn't have any high spots, but the last 3 1/2 minutes were still really good even though they had almost nothing to do with the early portion. They did some smart spots like Graham avoiding a diving knee drop then going for his figure four. ***
8/9/80 Flushing, NY Shea Stadium WWF Junior Heavyweight Title Match: Tatsumi Fujinami vs. Chavo Guerrero. Much faster paced and more athletic than their title match in Fukuoka. Match not being as long was a plus because they didn't lie around. It slowed for a few minutes in the middle, but then they did a shortened and somewhat altered version of the same good finishing sequence. The moves at the end being good made up for the match somewhat losing it's way during the second half. ***1/4
12/29/80 NY, NY Madison Square Garden WWWF Junior Heavyweight Title: Tatsumi Fujinami vs. Don Diamond. Short technical match that didn't really pick up. Diamond showed no offense. *3/4
Wonderland Junior #11
9/11/80 Osaka Furitsu Taiikukaikan WWF Junior Heavyweight Title Match: Tatsumi Fujinami vs. Tony Rocco. Pretty even match that was split into a section of Fujinami controlled matwork, a shorter section of Rocco controlled matwork after they'd both go for the same move like a dropkick at the same time, and a section of highspots. Fujinami's matwork was very nice because he would have an answer for Rocco that would allow him to stay in control or quickly regain it. Rocco is more a guy that sets his opponent up for something impressive than does it himself, so this style match worked for him. He's certainly a solid worker, but even though he's not the most graceful he did do some nice moves like the missile kick. Actually, this match had the most moves off the top rope we've seen thusfar in the series. The final 4 minutes were certainly excellent with a high level of excitement and drama. ***3/4
9/30/80 Tokyo Nippon Budokan WWF Junior Heavyweight Title Match: Tatsumi Fujinami vs. Ron Starr. Starr didn't look or wrestle like a junior. Fujinami let Starr take it to him becuse he's kind of the rough and rugged type, but this killed the match since Starr has no good offense and Fujinami was hardly countering him. The match dragged on as the matwork was pretty dull with too many arm bars and headlocks. *1/2
Highlights of the junior title matches, and some other important matches/events in the division
NJ TV 6/13/80 taped 5/27/80 Osaka Furitsu Taiikukaikan
Tatsumi Fujinami vs. Seiji Sakaguchi
WWF Heavyweight Title: Dusty Rhodes vs. Bob Backlund
NJ TV 7/18/80 taped 7/17 Tokyo Kuramae Kokugikan (old Sumo Hall)
Umanosuke Ueda vs. Seiji Sakaguchi
UWA World Heavyweight Title: Antonio Inoki vs. Tiger Jeet Singh
NJ TV 8/22/80 taped 8/9 Flushing, New York Shea Stadium
WWF World Tag Titles: Pedro Morales & Bob Backlund vs. Samoan 1 & 2
WWF World Jr. Heavyweight Title: Tatsumi Fujinami vs. Chavo Guerrero
NWF World Heavyweight Title: Antonio Inoki vs. Larry Sharpe
Hulk Hogan vs. Andre The Giant
9/11/80 Osaka Furitsu Taiikukaikan, NWF World Heavyweight Title Match: Antonio Inoki vs. Stan Hansen
9/25/80 Hiroshima-kenfu Taiikukan, NWF World Heavyweight Title Match: Antonio Inoki vs. Stan Hansen
NJ Tadakai no Wonderland Shodai Tiger Mask Hen #1 10/24/99
5/1/81 taped 4/23 Tokyo Kuramae Kokugikan: Tiger Mask vs. Dynamite Kid. Sayama's debut as Tiger Mask
6/14/81 taped 6/4 Tokyo Kuramae Kokugikan: Tiger Mask & Tatsumi Fujinami vs. Chris Adams & Mike Masters
9/18/81 taped 9/18 Hiroshima Kenritsu Taiikukan: Tiger Mask & Tatsumi Fujinami vs. El Solar & El Solitario
Wonderland Shodai Tiger Mask #2
8/18/81 taped 8/14 Tokyo Korakuen Hall: Tiger Mask vs. Scorpio
11/13/81 taped 10/30 Anjo Shi Taiikukan: Tiger Mask & Kengo Kimura vs. Negro Navaro & El Signo
11/6/81 taped 11/5 Tokyo Kuramae Kokugikan: Tiger Mask vs. Gran Hamada
Wonderland Tiger #3
10/8/81 Tokyo Kuramae Kokugikan, Mascara Contra Mascara: Tiger Mask vs. Masked Halcon 7:07. **1/4
12/8/81 Tokyo Kuramae Kokugikan: Tiger Mask vs. El Canek 11:34. ***1/2
2/9/82 Osaka Furitsu Taiikukaikan, WWF Junior Heavyweight Title Match: Tiger Mask vs. Baby Face 12:43. **
Wonderland Tiger #4
12/1/81 Nagoya Aichi-ken Taiikukan: Tiger Mask & Tatsumi Fujinami vs. El Canek & Super Machina
1/1/82 Tokyo Korakuen Hall, WWF Junior Heavyweight Title Match: Tiger Mask vs. Dynamite Kid
1/28/82 Tokyo Taiikukan, WWF Junior Heavyweight Title Match: Tiger Mask vs. Dynamite Kid
9/23/81 Tokyo Ariake Coliseum: Tiger Mask vs. El Solar
3/19/82 Tiger Mask & Kantaro Hoshino vs. Blackman & Carlos Colosetti
5/26/82 Osaka Furitsu Taiikukaikan, WWF Junior Heavyweight Title Match: Tiger Mask vs. Black Tiger
Wonderland #95 taped 11/5/81 Tokyo Kuramae Kokugikan
Tiger Mask vs. Gran Hamada
Lumberjack Death Match: Antonio Inoki vs. Rusher Kimura
Wonderland #96 taped 11/5/81 Tokyo Kuramae Kokugikan
Dino Bravo vs. Abdullah The Butcher
Tatsumi Fujinami vs. Animal Hamaguchi
12/1/81 Nagoya Aichi-ken Taiikukan: Antonio Inoki vs. Hulk Hogan
Wonderland Junior #12
11/6/80 Mie Tsu Shi Taiikukan WWF Junior Heavyweight Title Match: Tatsumi Fujinami vs. Steve Keirn. They did a long feeling out process where it took 10 minutes for anyone to truly gain an advantage. Suddenly, Fujinami got fired up for a knee attack. Once they got into it they looked like they meaned it, but the match would have worked better if they weren't so laid back and conservative initially. 16:40. **3/4
7/3/81 Tokyo Korakuen Hall WWF Junior Heavyweight Title Match: Tatsumi Fujinami vs. Les Thornton. Thornton's NWA title wasn't on the line. As you'd expect, this was a highly technical match that was a strong example of the lost art of basic holds and counter holds. Very nice countering. They roughed it up too, with Thornton throwing his nice European uppercuts, but this was a secondary aspect that Thornton usually used to sneak an advantage and apply some more locks. The main problem was overexaggerated selling, which with them jumping to the floor set up the lame screw job finish. 15:48. ***1/4
Wonderland Junior #13
9/30/80 Tokyo Nippon Budokan NWA World Junior Heavyweight International Title Match: Kengo Kimura vs. Chavo Guerrero. This match also took a long time to get going, but featured more rough housing than Fujinami's matches. The fans got into it more and more, with good hard shots and a few nice suplexes and breakers. Even match throughout, unfortunately leading to no winner because of a screw job. 15:51. ***
9/23/81 Tokyo Ariake Coliseum WWF Junior Heavyweight Title Match: Tatsumi Fujinami vs. El Solitario. Probably as exciting as Fujinami gets. They traded rest holds for lucha and legitimate submissions, greatly improving the early portion. Solitario is a guy that can match Fujinami's athletic offense move for move, which doesn't sound like that great a feat since action Fujinami is dropkicks and headscissors, but it's only true of a few guys Fujinami's fought in this series (Dynamite, Mando, maybe Mendoza) and those are his best matches. Both men were very impressive, with Solitario being a good puncher/slapper as well as a guy that does a dive. They got tied up in positions I practically didn't even know existed. 11:58. ***3/4
1/1/82 Tokyo Korakuen Hall WWF Junior Heavyweight Crown Decision Match: Tiger Mask vs. Dynamite Kid. Dynamite was all over Tiger's knee, totally persistent with Tiger fighting him off for his life. He tied it in the ropes and stomped from the right side until the ref pushed him away. Instead of backing off he circled around, so when the ref turned his back and tried to pry Tiger loose, he came in from the left side and stomped it some more. Tiger did some of his best selling here. I like how Dynamite was the fiercest most aggressiev bastard yet he was still wary of his opponents impressive techniques. The match was mainly knee work, but that made the lightning fast counters that much more impressive. Moves keep getting better and better, but still no one has been able to match the speed of the counter sequences these guys did together, and they were very intricate ones done precisely. There was a particularly great sequences where Tiger tried to come back with kicks, but after some counters I could barely keep up with, Dynamite had Tiger beat with his tombstone and diving headbutt only to pull him up. The wrestling was exceptional and they wasted no time, but it was so short I'm not sure I can rate it a great match. 8:31. ****1/4
10/14/73 Tokyo Kuramae Kokugikan, 2/3 Falls World's Strongest Tag Match Part. 2: Karl Gotch & Lou Thesz vs. Antonio Inoki & Seiji Sakaguchi
1/1/82 Tokyo Korakuen Hall: Karl Gotch vs. Yoshiaki Fujiwara
10/9/75 Tokyo Kuramae Kokugikan, NWF World Heavyweight Title Match: Antonio Inoki vs. Lou Thesz
Wonderland #99
12/10/81 Osaka Furitsu Taiikukaikan, 2nd MSG Tag League Final: Antonio Inoki & Tatsumi Fujinami vs. Andre The Giant & Rene Goulet
taped 12/1/81 Nagoya Aichi-ken Taiikukan
Tatsumi Fujinami & Tiger Mask vs. El Canek & Super Maquina
Killer Khan vs. Stan Hansen
12/10/81 Osaka Furitsu Taiikukaikan: Andre The Giant vs. Tiger Toguchi
Wonderland #100 taped 1/1/82 Tokyo Korakuen Hall
Karl Gotch vs. Yoshiaki Fujiwara
WWF World Heavyweight Title Match: Bob Backlund vs. Tatsumi Fujinami
10min 5rd: Antonio Inoki vs. Roland Bock
2/9/82 Osaka Furitsu Taiikukaikan: Antonio Inoki vs. Rusher Kimura
2/14/82 Mexico El Toreo de Cuatro Caminos, UWA World Middleweight Title: Centurian Negro vs. Gran Hamada
Wonderland Junior #14
2/9/82 Osaka Furitsu Taiikukaikan WWF Junior Heavyweight Title Match: Tiger Mask vs. Baby Face. The thing you have to understand about Tiger is his athleticism and body control are unparalled. He could essentially find a way to land on his feet from any position, and this aspect was so spectacular that the traditional highspots (ie highspot=something that supposedly does a lot of damage) often took a back seat. The running portions were very impressive, especially a sweet segment where Tiger landed on his feet for a backdrop and did a jumping dropdown with Baby Face leaping over him with a somersault while Tiger was still in the air. The problem with the match is it just about stopped in between these highlights, with too many restmissions. Match lacked flow and direction. They should have essentially done a lucha match because that's the only aspect Baby showed proficiency in here, and Tiger made such an impression in Mexico that every Japanese guy that toured after was held to his standard. 12:43. ***
4/1/82 Tokyo Kuramae Kokugikan WWF Junior Heavyweight Title Match: Tiger Mask vs. Steve Wright. Wright is very flexible, but stylistically he's a better opponent for Fujinami. What I like about his technical game is how he uses leverage and his opponent's momentum. Wright grounded Tiger and had him selling for much of the match, so while Wright is proficient this was pretty dull by Tiger's standards. Even once it picked up it was more of a striking and submission match, but they mixed it up pretty well and it did have some nice athletic spots like Wright countering a headscissors with a cartwheel. 17:48. ***1/4
Wonderland Junior #15
1/28/82 Tokyo Taiikukan WWF Junior Heavyweight Title Match: Tiger Mask vs. Dynamite Kid. The opposite of their last match, as Dynamite was the one doing all the selling and Tiger was attacking his knee. Dynamite was taking some wild bumps where he'd jump/be propelled high and far, but even though Dynamite is the better seller, a Dynamite focused attack makes for a better match because his ferocity makes you buy into him wanting to hurt his opponent and Tiger has the better comeback offense plus is so over it'll surely get a big reaction. All that being said, what might have hurt this the most is that it was so much slower. Not that they can't have a high quality slow match, but their speed sequences are what separates them. Though this is probably their worst match available, it was still very good and had some serious highlights. Tiger did this wicked implant DDT where he lifted Dynamite so he was parallel to the mat then dropped down, with Dynamite's body being straight up and down when his head hit the mat. The finish was a crazy scramble with Dynamite landing on his feet (surprisingly sloppily) for a verticle suplex into the ring then 3 lightning go-behinds into a German suplex. The match really never took off though, and the added time was a negative if anything. 12:36. ***1/2
5/6/82 Fukuoka Sports Center WWF Junior Crown Decision Match: Black Tiger vs. Gran Hamada. This was similar to Tiger vs. Baby in that it was high quality when they were running, but bogged down by all kinds of unfocused restmissions (and in this case stomps) in between. Hamada was a very good athlete, but that didn't cut it when Tiger was around since the primary enjoyment of both was their athletic spots. This was kind of an odd match because it was picking up when they had a double count out. Though they restarted it because they needed to give someone the belt, these guys came closer to starting over than picking up where they left off. Hamada did a tope and missed a plancha, but probably the coolest spot was when Tiger tried to come off the top with an axe (probably), but Hamada fingertipped him over for a body slam. 11:30 & 6:34. **1/2
Wonderland #116
8/5/82 Tokyo Kuramae Kokugikan: Seiji Sakaguchi & Tiger Toguchi vs. Adrian Adonis & Greg Valentine
8/30/82 NY Madison Square Garden
Bob Backlund vs. Buddy Rose
WWF Junior Heavyweight Title Match: Tiger Mask vs. Dynamite Kid
NJ Tadakai no Wonderland Encore #125 7/14/99 originally aired 9/24/82 taped 9/21/82 Osaka Furitsu Taiikukaikan
Tiger Mask & Kantaro Hoshino vs. Black Tiger & Villano III. ***
Tatsumi Fujinami vs. Animal Hamaguchi. **
Sgt. Slaughter vs. Antonio Inoki. 1/2*
NJ Tadakai no Wonderland Encore #118 7/15/99 originally aired 5/28/82 taped 5/26/82 Osaka Furitsu Taiikukaikan
WWF World Junior Heavyweight Title Match: Black Tiger vs. Tiger Mask. Tiger Mask wins title. ****
Seiji Sakaguchi & Tatsumi Fujinami vs. Bad News Allen & Perro Aguayo. **1/4
Hulk Hogan vs. Abdullah The Butcher. DUD
NJ Tadakai no Wonderland Encore #119 7/21/99 Originally aired 6/18/82 taped 6/18 Tokyo Kuramae Kokugikan
Tatsumi Fujinami vs. El Canek. Really heated. 3:30 shown
WWF Sekai Junior Heavykyu Senshukenjiai: Tiger Mask vs. Ultraman. ***3/4
Andre The Giant vs. Hulk Hogan. -**
Antonio Inoki vs. Scott Maghee. DUD
Originall aired 7/9/82 taped 7/6 Osaka Furitsu Taiikukaikan
Antonio Inoki vs. El Canek. 1/2*
NJPW Wonderland #120 taped 7/6/82 Osaka Furitsu Taiikukaikan
WWF Junior Heavyweight Title Match: Tiger Mask vs. Ultraman
Tatsumi Fujinami vs. Dick Murdock
Andre The Giant vs. Hulk Hogan
NJ Tadakai No Wonderland Encore #124 7/8/99 originally aired 9/3/82 taped 8/30/82 New York Madison Square Garden
WWF World Junior Heavyweight Title Match: Tiger Mask vs. Dynamite Kid. Excellent
WWF World International Heavyweight Title Match: Gino Brito vs. Tatsumi Fujinami. Fujinami wins title. *1/2
WWF World Heavyweight Title Match: Bob Backlund vs. Playboy Buddy Rose. *3/4
AJ Selection #136 7/10/99
11/8/86 North Carolina Charlotte Coliseum
Ragin' Bull Manny Fernandez vs. Wahoo McDaniel. *3/4
Rock & Roll Express & Brad Armstrong vs. Midnight Express & Big Bubba (Bossman). ****
9/3/86 Osaka Jo Hall
International Heavykyu Senshuken: Stan Hansen vs. Jumbo Tsuruta. ***3/4
Wonderland Junior #16
5/12/82 Okinawa NWA World Junior Heavyweight Title Match: Les Thornton vs. Kantaro Hoshino. An incredible bore. Hoshino just wanted to hold a standing side headlock the whole match, though eventually he got real aggressive and took Thornton over so he could do it on the mat. Thornton was more than willing to lay around, and just let Hoshino hold his arm. The highlight would have been Hoshino trying a tope at the start of the match, except he didn't get through the ropes cleanly. 13:29. *
5/26/82 Osaka Furitsu Taiikukaikan WWF Junior Heavyweight Title Match: Black Tiger vs. Tiger Mask. Started off with all the impressive arm bar/drag/whip counters. Tiger entered the ring with the gymnastics move that Muto later used often where he slingshots over and lands on his feet. Tiger did similar if not the same spots he did in the title match against Hamada, but they were much more impressive here because of the difference in athleticism between Tiger & Hamada. Similarly, what kept it down was that instead of building momentum, Black would kill it with a rest hold or some mediocre brawling. The match had Mask's best finishing sequence so far in the series starting when he missed a pescado, but Black still couldn't pin him with the suplex back into the ring. 14:15. ****
8/30/82 New York, NY MSG WWF Junior Heavyweight Title Match: Tiger Mask vs. Dynamite Kid. This match really stood out to me when I first got into puroresu because many people that weren't overly into Japanese wrestling considered it a classic, perhaps the best ever in Madison Square Garden. The match was like a decade ahead of it's time in the U.S.; really not until the Liger vs. Pillman matches was there something so good and stylistically different than anything else that was being done here. What I really noticed about the match this time was the incredible reaction it got. The myth was always that no one wanted to see the little guys because they could never beat the big roiders. They certainly needed to win the fans over, it just didn't seem that way because the crowd was just in awe of the speed and the gymnastic style they'd never seen before, so they were reacting from the get go. The execution was extremely crisp execution and the moves had a lot of impact, but really the best part was the opening where they were just doing the amazing gymnatic counters. Match really flies by and is excellent at the very least. 6:35 of 9:36.
Wonderland Junior #17
8/5/82 Tokyo Kuramae Kokugikan WWF Junior Heavyweight Title Match: Tiger Mask vs. Dynamite Kid. One of the reasons this is one of the couple best series of all time is they'd always do a different match. Most series just fall into a groove - especially the ones like this where the same guy wins every match - but getting to the same place didn't stop these two from doing a different scenario and experimenting along the way. It would take much longer to describe the sequences than it did for them to do them. They extended the match by combining the speed with the substance, mixing bursts of action between Tiger's knee attack. The big difference was the way they used the floor to allow for new and innovative spots/sequences. Tiger knocked Dynamite over the top to the floor with his rolling savate then ran the ropes to get up a head of steam for his dive. Dynamite immediately re-entered to avoid it, so Tiger simply high cross bodied him when he stood up. Tiger suplexed Dynamite over the top to the floor, but Dynamite held on enough to take Tiger over with him. Dynamite realized that instead of guys always jumping to the floor to set up the next move, he should just throw the guy there and do the move, in this case a suplex. Tiger realized that instead of doing the pescado like several guys, he could just run and leap over the top onto his opponent. It looked like Tiger was going to side suplex Dynamite back into the ring, but instead he dropped him for a new version of the piledriver. 15:57. *****
9/21/82 Osaka Furitsu Taiikukaikan WWF Junior Heavyweight Title Match: Tiger Mask vs. Black Tiger. Unlike the previous match, the extra length wasn't beneficial. It seemed like they were holding back. The 1st 13 minutes were mainly submissions, strikes, and athletic counters. Those counters might have helped a lot, but Mask was off and couldn't land on his feet cleanly. Black was carrying the match as usual, and I think he might have reset Mask's comebacks after Mask didn't get the first counter right. In any case, this wasn't as exciting as usual. Black wound up attacking Mask's knee later in the match, which then gave Mask an excuse for not flying like usual. Black did a double axehandle to the floor like Savage made famous. After the match, he attacked Mask including a tombstone on the floor. 19:08. ***1/4
Wonderland #122 taped 9/17/82 Tokyo Korakuen Hall
Tiger Mask & Kantaro Hoshino vs. Black Tiger & Villano III 15:53. ***1/4. Good match, but one of Tiger's least memorable. Lots of good moves, but little that was spectacular. Both worked Lucha style with V3. They heated up the Tiger vs. Tiger fued with a post match fight on the outside.
Tatsumi Fujinami vs. Animal Hamaguchi 15:22. Hamaguchi didn't have to be a heel. In fact, he probably wasn't meant to be one because he was a pretty talented wrestler. The one thing he lacked was big moves. He was up for the task of enterting Fujinamit's world, and they delivered a good technical match. It kept getting better and better culminating with an impressive few minutes of junior style action. ***1/2
Antonio Inoki vs. Sgt. Slaughter 6:12. Slaughter couldn't do puroresu well, and wound up fighting like he was in the US with the ridiculous overexaggerated bumps, corny facials and goofy mannerisms. Match never got going much less hit any kind of stride. Slaughter was treated as though he was nothing special, never getting Inoki in trouble. *
Wonderland #118
10/21/82 Osaka Furitsu Taiikukaikan: Seiji Sakaguchi vs. Abdullah The Butcher
9/21/82 Osaka Furitsu Taiikukaikan:
Tatsumi Fujinami vs. Masked Superstar
Antonio Inoki vs. Rusher Kimura
Wonderland #119
9/21/82 Osaka Furitsu Taiikukaikan WWF Junior Heavyweight Title Match: Tiger Mask vs. Black Tiger. Unlike the previous match, the extra length wasn't beneficial. It seemed like they were holding back. The 1st 13 minutes were mainly submissions, strikes, and athletic counters. Those counters might have helped a lot, but Mask was off and couldn't land on his feet cleanly. Black was carrying the match as usual, and I think he might have reset Mask's comebacks after Mask didn't get the first counter right. In any case, this wasn't as exciting as usual. Black wound up attacking Mask's knee later in the match, which then gave Mask an excuse for not flying like usual. Black did a double axehandle to the floor like Savage made famous. After the match, he attacked Mask including a tombstone on the floor. 19:08. ***1/4
10/21/82 Osaka Furitsu Taiikukaikan WWF Junior Heavyweight Title Match: Tiger Mask vs. Kuniaki Kobayashi
NJPW Wonderland #128 taped 11/4/82 Tokyo Kuramae Kokugikan
WWF International Heavyweight Title Match: Tatsumi Fujinami vs. Riki Choshu
Handicap Tag Match: Antonio Inoki vs. Rusher Kimura & Animal Hamaguchi & Isamu Teranishi
NJ Tadakai no Wonderland Encore #130 7/30/99
12/10/82 taped 12/10 Tokyo Kuramae Kokugikan: Dick Murdock & Masked Superstar vs. Andre The Giant & Dino Bravo
12/24/82 taped 12/9 Osaka Furitsu Taiikukaikan
Tatsumi Fujinami vs. Dino Bravo
Hulk Hogan vs. Andre The Giant
Antonio Inoki vs. Adrian Adonis
Wonderland #126
1/6/83 Tokyo Korakuen Hall: Kengo Kimura vs. Jessie Ventura
2/3/83 Hokkaido Sapporo Nakajima Taiiku Center: Hulk Hogan & Seiji Sakaguchi vs. Killer Khan & Blackjack Mulligan
4/21/83 Tokyo Kuramae Kokugikan: Akira Maeda vs. Paul Orndorff
4/21/83 Tokyo Kuramae Kokugikan, WWF Internation Heavyweight Title: Riki Choshu vs. Tatsumi Fujinami
Wonderland Junior #18
10/26/82 Osaka Furitsu Taiikukaikan WWF Junior Heavyweight Title Match: Tiger Mask vs. Kuniaki Kobayashi. This quality of match was determined more by how they did it than by what they did, especially early on. What they did was somewhat typical, but they were intense and struggling for everything to the point you could almost believe they weren't cooperating. They gave it purpose. Unfortunately, as the match progressed, they reverted back to the more standard way of doing things. The match also had its share of down time. The athletic sequences were very graceful though, and it was a nice mix of styles. Tiger did 2 elbow drops and a somersault senton within 4 seconds. He also did an impressive All Japan style backdrop. The highlight was when Kobayashi stopped Tiger's rounding body press by punching him to the floor because Tiger took the bump off the top straight to the floor instead of the requisite landing on the apron and rolling off. Kobayashi followed with a pescado then back in the ring he got inexplicably aggressive tying Tiger in the tree of woe and stomping him until well after he was DQ'd, as well as trying to rip his mask. Oddly, the opening was the best wrestled portion. 16:56. ****
11/4/82 Tokyo Kuramae Kokugikan WWF Junior Heavyweight & NWA World Junior Heavyweight Double Title Match: Tiger Mask vs. Kuniaki Kobayashi. Tiger was extremely spectacular here, even by his own standards. His offense had evolved considerably, so now he was able to use his athleticism to sometimes do damage while gaining the advantage. He basically decided he was going to show off every chance he got. This wasn't an exhibition of spots though because Kobayashi was trying to ground Tiger, theoretically doing his best to keep it where he had the advantage and prevent Tiger from doing his thing. Also, Tiger used his aerial manuevers and suplexes to set up submissions. There were all kinds of highlights, many of which were well thought out. For instance, the great opening where Tiger jumped off the top as always, but this time he immediately jumped again, dropkicking a surprised Kobayashi to the floor then catching him with a suicida. It was one of the only times that it wasn't annoying that they didn't scrap the intros and keep fighting because the ref was holding Kobayashi back the whole time. Another smart spot saw Kobayashi retain the advantage even though Tiger landed on his feet for a back body drop because knowing what Tiger is capable of, Kobayashi immediately turned around and dropkicked him before Tiger could try a move. Tiger's backflip double kneedrop is one of the greatest athletic moves because you have to be a supreme athlete to do the backflip from the standing position and it's one of the rare aerial moves that would actually do noteworthy damage. This match continued where the 10/26 one left off with Kobayashi this time succeeding in ripping Tiger's mask, which changed the result from a probable Tiger count out to a Kobayashi DQ. Tiger was incensed at the mask ripping and "lost it, tying Kobayashi in the tree of woe and kicking him repeatedly. The post match was pretty amazing because one guy would kick the crap out of the other until he was restrained then the other would quickly recover and gain the advantage because he didn't have anyone in his way. Even though it was silly and not properly sold, it was very memorable and a major heat/hate generator. 13:38. ****3/4
Wonderland Junior #19
2/3/83 Hokkaido Sapporo Nakajima Taiiku Center NWA World Junior Heavyweight Title Match: Tiger Mask vs. Gran Hamada. Tiger's best matches come when the opponent is calling and setting him up, but Hamada is also a technico and not one to carry a match. Hamada still dictated more than Tiger, but he was going in dull direction rather than making it a battle of perhaps the two best athletes in the division. Poor development, a surprising amount of wear down locks, and Hamada not being that sharp resulted in one of Tiger's least memorable title matches. 17:19. **3/4
6/2/83 Tokyo Kuramae Kokugikan WWF Junior Heavyweight Crown Decision Match: Tiger Mask vs. Kuniaki Kobayashi. Kobayashi believed in a big start before getting into the body of the match. I agree with this mentality when there actually is a body because it grabs the crowds attention and buys you some time to develop the match without them getting impatient. Kobayashi made it work for him the way few have though because having already done some damage made his submissions more credible. Though the match started as a sprint, the way they came out fired up and intense and kept the success rate low showed the urgency and importance. I mean, these guys were just dead set on not letting the other get the advantage. At the same time, the match was extremely well choreographed. There were new sequences like Tiger landing on his feet for a back body drop, avoiding a 360 kick, then hitting a rounding high kick. They knew when to use the moves and how to incorporate them. Kobayashi stopped Tiger's reverse diving body attack by sticking his knee out for a stomach breaker then followed with a traditional stomachbreaker and a tilt-a-whirl backbreaker. This was one of the few matches where you believed Tiger could lose. The fans were going nuts toward the end, especially when it appeared Kobayashi was 1 move away from victory. Unfortunately, after so much brilliance the finisher was real lame and slow, not to mention probably a bad call by the ref. 18:03. ****3/4
Wonderland #132 taped 1/6/83 Tokyo Korakuen Hall
Kengo Kimura vs. Jesse Ventura
Tiger Mask vs. Kuniaki Kobayashi
2/3/83 Hokkaido Sapporo Nakajima Taiiku Center: Blackjack Mulligan & Killer Khan vs. Hulk Hogan & Seiji Sakaguchi
Wonderland #133
4/21/83 Tokyo Kuramae Kokugikan: Akira Maeda vs. Paul Orndorff. Karl Gotch was in Maeda's corner. Started typically with moves out of the lock up and arm bar, but then Maeda did a front suplex, a lame knee kick, and pinned Orndorff in a bridging suplex. 3:33
taped 2/3/83 Hokkaido Sapporo Nakajima Taiiku Center
NWA World Junior Heavyweight Title Match: Tiger Mask vs. Gran Hamada. Tiger's best matches come when the opponent is calling and setting him up, but Hamada is also a technico and not one to carry a match. Hamada still dictated more than Tiger, but he was going in dull direction rather than making it a battle of perhaps the two best athletes in the division. Poor development, a surprising amount of wear down locks, and Hamada not being that sharp resulted in one of Tiger's least memorable title matches. 17:19. **3/4
Riki Choshu & Masa Saito vs. Antonio Inoki & Tatsumi Fujinami. Choshu was really intense. He & Saito pretty much stomped and used dull lengthy submissions for the entire match. Inoki, who was actually the one beaten on here, finally came back without Fujinami's help and pinned Saito. 15:06. **1/4
Wonderland #134 taped 5/6/83 Fukuoka Shi Sports Center
IWGP Kessho League: Hulk Hogan vs. Killer Khan. Khan was not able to get anything out of Hogan, who was his typical deliberate and phony self. Aside from a few of Hogan's patented punchs of his own hand there was nothing embarrassing, but it was unskilled and dull. Hogan didn't Hulk up in these days, so he just stopped selling when he was finally successful in reentering the ring and put Khan away. 10:57. *1/2
IWGP Kessho League: Antonio Inoki vs. Andre The Giant. Inoki knocked Andre down withing 30 seconds with a missed enzuigiri. Inoki went full force when he had Andre down, but it quickly got slow and grew progressively slower. The coolest thing about Andre was how he'd kick out by heaving his opponent off him. I felt this really added to his aura as an unstoppable mass. Inoki did an enzuigiri style kick to Andre's arm and tried to start attacking that appendage, but Andre dumped him over the top for the typical screw job. Neither really got anywhere with one another. 11:54. 1/2*
4/21/83 Tokyo Kuramae Kokugikan, WWF International Heavyweight Title Match: Tatsumi Fujinami vs. Riki Choshu. Crowd was extremely loud. Fast started leading to an early figure 4 by Fujinami. He kept on the knee leading to a sasorigatame attempt. Fujiname had a taped up knee that Choshu went after. Choshu got frustrated when Fujinami escaped a few sasorigatames, so he hung Fujinami over the guard rail for the screw job. A pity because the early portion was very good. Choshu attacked a hobbling Fujinami after the match. Fujinami would try to get up and take revenge, but he could hardly stand. 13:58. ***1/4
NJPW Wonderland #135
5/20/83 Osaka Furitsu Taiikukaikan: Akira Maeda vs. Killer Khan
4/21/83 Tokyo Kuramae Kokugikan
NWA World Junior Heavyweight Title Decision Match: Dynamite Kid vs. Tiger Mask
Antonio Inoki vs. Masa Saito
NJPW Wonderland #136 taped 5/20/83 Osaka Furitsu Taiikukaikan
Andre The Giant vs. Big John Studd
Antonio Inoki vs. Hulk Hogan
5/27/83 Takamatsu Shimin Bunka Center: Antonio Inoki vs. Akira Maeda
6/2/83 Tokyo Kuramae Kokugikan: Andre The Giant vs. Killer Khan
NJPW Wonderland #131 taped 6/2/83 Tokyo Kuramae Kokugikan
Andre The Giant vs. Killer Khan
1st IWGP Deciding Match: Antonio Inoki vs. Hulk Hogan
NJPW Wonderland #137
5/27/83 Takamatsu Shimin Bunka Center: Hulk Hogan vs. Andre The Giant
5/30/83 Chiba Koen Taiikukan
Akira Maeda vs. Hulk Hogan
Antonio Inoki & Seiji Sakaguchi & Kengo Kimura vs. Andre The Giant & El Canek & Big John Studd
NJPW Wonderland #138
5/30/83 Chiba Koen Taiikukan: Rusher Kimura & Isamu Teranishi vs. Killer Khan & Kuniaki Kobayashi
6/2/83 Tokyo Kuramae Kokugikan, IWGP Championship Final: Antonio Inoki vs. Hulk Hogan
NJPW Wonderland Encore #139
6/3/83 taped 6/2 Tokyo Kuramae Kokugikan: Tiger Mask vs. Kuniaki Kobayashi
6/17/83 taped 6/1 Nagoya Aichi-ken Taiikukan
Rusher Kimura vs. Seiji Sakaguchi
Antonio Inoki & Akira Maeda vs. Hulk Hogan & Big John Studd
NJPW Wonderland #140
6/17/83 taped 6/1 Nagoya Aichi-ken Taiikukan: Killer Khan vs. Andre The Giant
6/24/83 taped 6/12 Mexico El Toreo De Cuatro Caminos WWF Nintei Junior Heavykyu Oza Ketteisen: Tiger Mask vs. Fishman
NJ Tadakai no Wonderland Encore #141
6/24/83 taped 6/12 Mexico El Torneo De Cuatro Caminos
UWA Nintei Heavykyu Senshukenjiai: Tatsumi Fujinami vs. El Canek
7/8/83 taped 7/7 Osaka Furitsu Taiikukaikan
Dick Murdock vs. Abdullah The Butcher
NWA Sekai Junior Heavykyu Senshuken: Tiger Mask vs. Osamu Teranishi
AJ Chogei (recorded earlier) Selection #145
6/9/87 Tokyo Nippon Budokan: The Great Kabuki & Takashi Ishikawa vs. Tiger Jeet Singh & Jason The Terrible
3/28/87 Tokyo Korakuen Hall: Jumbo Tsuruta & Tiger Mask vs. Tommy Rich & Jerry Oats
4/2/87 Osaka Furitsu Taiikukaikan: Stan Hansen & Ted DiBiase vs. Hiroshi Wajima & Takashi Ishikawa
3/12/87 Tokyo Nippon Budokan International Tag Senshukenjiai: Jumbo Tsuruta & Genichiro Tenryu vs. The Road Warriors
NJPW Wonderland #143
9/2/83 Fukuoka Sports Center: Animal Hamaguchi vs. Rusher Kimura
8/83 Calgary Victorial Pavillion: Kuniaki Kobayashi & The Cobra vs. Davey Boy Smith & Bruce Hart 16:52. ***1/2
8/4/83 Tokyo Kuramae Kokugikan, NWA World Junior Heavyweight Title Match: Tiger Mask vs. Isamu Teranishi
NJPW Wonderland #144 taped 9/2/83 Fukuoka Sports Center
Akira Maeda vs. Killer Khan
Dick Murdock vs. Antonio Inoki
8/4/83 Tokyo Kuramae Kokugikan, WWF International Heavyweight Title Match: Riki Choshu vs. Tatsumi Fujinami
Wonderland Junior #20
8/6/83 Tokyo Kuramae Kokugikan WWF Junior Heavyweight Title Match: Tatsumi Fujinami vs. Stanley Lane. Lane hadn't developed the Sweet Stan style or persona yet. He fought technically for the most part with a little brawling thrown in as the match progressed and his frustration increased. Fujinami did a good job of carrying this, but it wasn't good because Lane didn't add much and there was no build or finishing segment. 9:26 of roughly 15:30.
6/12/83 Mexico El Toreo de Cuatro Caminos 2/3 Falls WWF Junior Heavyweight Crown Decision Match: Tiger Mask vs. Fishman. The match was good when Fishman utilized Tiger's ability to roll out of moves to their advantage. It's always good when Tiger is on offense, but Fishman doesn't do much so it's hard for Tiger to have much of a match with him. Fishman did do one interesting move where he set Tiger on the second and threw him past the center of the ring, kind of like a press slam. The big mistake of the match was the fall Fishman won was the shortest. I'll write this (and it being much more contrived) off to it being Mexico, but Tiger always withstands tons more and never loses, so it was very hard to take. The pacing was very awkward with the match basically stopping then starting again, and Fishman stalled too much. Tiger sometimes found interesting ways out of Fishman's submissions, but as a whole they did more harm than good. Had it's moments though not as many as usual and wasn't as good in any other area to make up for that, but barring a series of miscues Tiger is entertaining enough that his presence guarantees a good match. 11:03, 4:37, & 6:53. ***
Wonderland Junior #21
6/18/82 Tokyo Kuramae Kokugikan WWF Junior Heavyweight Crown Decision Match: Tiger Mask vs. Ultraman. Lucha style match with some exceptional offense. What kept this from being an excellent match is that, due to their lack of familiarity and the two technico problem, their offense was way ahead of their ability to work with each other. Their sequences only had a couple of steps and then they'd kind of wait. Though the moves weren't particularly well utilized you still had to be impressed. Tiger did things like turn Ultraman's arm drag into one of his own in midair and land on his feet when Ultraman jumped off the top into an arm drag. Tiger did his space flying Tiger drop here. He also used the move originally known as the Tigerdriver, which was kind of a cross between a snap suplex and DDT. 12:37. ***1/2
1/6/83 Tokyo Korakuen Hall NWA World Junior Heavyweight Title Match: Tiger Mask vs. Kuniaki Kobayashi. This wasn't quite as good as their previous matches because Kobayashi was more successful in grounding Tiger. It was probably the closest pre-UWF Tiger Mask match to what he'd go on to do as Super Tiger in the UWF, but it wasn't as intense as their last couple of matches. In between Kobayashi's judo and Tiger's kicks and submissions they'd still do the Lucha segments, with Kobayashi being the workman who set Tiger up for several explosive comebacks. The fighting out of the ring was articularly notable. Tiger jumped so far on his dive over the top that he cleared Kobayashi's head and landed on the guard rail. There was a great segment where Kobayashi hit a pescado, but Tiger reversed his whip into the bars. Kobayashi stopped Tiger from reentering though and suplexed him, but Tiger just slid back in at 19. Another cool sequence on the outside saw Tiger run Kobayashi into the ring post then German suplex him when he bounced off. Match wasn't as consistently good as some of their others since it went so long, but Kobayashi had a better chance of winning since it was more his style and thus he was in control more. 23:09. ****1/4
Wonderland Junior #22
8/5/82 Tokyo Kuramae Kokugikan WWF Junior Heavyweight Title Match: Tiger Mask vs. Dynamite Kid. One of the reasons this is one of the couple best series of all time is they'd always do a different match. Most series just fall into a groove - especially the ones like this where the same guy wins every match - but getting to the same place didn't stop these two from doing a different scenario and experimenting along the way. It would take much longer to describe the sequences than it did for them to do them. They extended the match by combining the speed with the substance, mixing bursts of action between Tiger's knee attack. The big difference was the way they used the floor to allow for new and innovative spots/sequences. Tiger knocked Dynamite over the top to the floor with his rolling savate then ran the ropes to get up a head of steam for his dive. Dynamite immediately re-entered to avoid it, so Tiger simply high cross bodied him when he stood up. Tiger suplexed Dynamite over the top to the floor, but Dynamite held on enough to take Tiger over with him. Dynamite realized that instead of guys always jumping to the floor to set up the next move, he should just throw the guy there and do the move, in this case a suplex. Tiger realized that instead of doing the pescado like several guys, he could just run and leap over the top onto his opponent. It looked like Tiger was going to side suplex Dynamite back into the ring, but instead he dropped him for a new version of the piledriver. 15:57. *****
7/7/83 Osaka Furitsu Taiikukaikan NWA World Junior Heavyweight Title Match: Tiger Mask vs. Isamu Teranishi. What was Teranishi doing here? He's not athletic, has no offense, and was too clumsy and awkward for Tiger to do his thing with. He was killing the match with rest holds and incompetence, though that was an improvement over nearly killing Tiger early when he lost his balance near the ropes as Tiger was trying to monkey flip him, with Tiger's weight sending both over the top to the floor. Tiger needed to step up here, but he wasn't doing as much of interest as usual. What he did do didn't come off as well because Teranishi's positioning was suspect and selling so exaggerated. Kobayashi was in the front row, and he and Tiger got into it after Kobayashi gave Teranishi a boost to help him reenter following Tiger's suicida. Kobayashi attacked Tiger after the match, destroying Tiger's mask so we got a glimpse of his face before they went to the long shot, and running off with the title belt. 15:58. **1/4
Wonderland Junior #23
7/6/82 Osaka Furitsu Taiikukaikan WWF Junior Heavyweight Crown Decision Match: Tiger Mask vs. Ultraman. This was a little sloppy, but overall better than their previous match because they did longer sequences and utilized each other's athleticism more. The chemistry wasn't close to what Tiger has with Dynamite or Kobayashi, but the match boasted some spectacular new spots like Tiger doing a one-arm cartwheel to counter Ultraman jumping off the top into an arm drag. It probably would have been excellent if it went a few minutes longer, but I can understand why this was kept shorter. 12:42. ***3/4
4/21/83 Tokyo Kuramae Kokugikan NWA World Junior Heavyweight Crown Decision Match: Tiger Mask vs. Dynamite Kid. Dynamite was all jacked up, totally determined to finally beat Tiger. I loved the early sequence where he was preventing Tiger from a spectacular arm bar counter. Tiger finally does two quick rolls reverse only to have Dynamite do a beautiful head spring out of the arm bar. They were a little more hesitant here to show that they were leery of going to the risks to soon because their opponent was so adept at making them backfire. They were that much stiffer than they'd ever been, measuring each other than bringing it with the extra impact. Tiger even did the western lariat. What really set this match apart from their others was the screw jobs. Normally one is an automatic rating deduction in my book, and this match had 3! However, they amazingly worked, primarily by exploiting their own ridiculousness. This was a match about closing the gap between Tiger and Dynamite, and the finishes were more showing how equal they were and that they needed to keep going than anything else. Dynamite would keep petitioning for a restart in between attacking Tiger again. They set some of the spots up pretty well like how Dynamite couldn't do his tombstone during the first match, but then he kicked Tiger when they were petitioning for the second match, which gave him the opening. The one problem with this match was on the second screw job. They were out of the ring for 1:15 for the ref to give a 20 count, which would have been fine if the ref was finally close to 20 when Tiger reenter, but since he wasn't Dynamite had to stumble around out there for almost 30 seconds. The whole match was just a crazy out of control spectacle. Some of their lesser matches were better technically, but this is kind of like the 8/15/92 Toyota vs. Yamada where you not only have a great match but an entire scene that's wholly memorable. Finally, when they got tired of fighting after the third screw job Dynamite grabbed the ref's arm and raised it so it looked like the ref was declaring him the victor then got on the mic and said he'd just won the belt. 11:11, 3:32, & 1:52. *****
4/23/81 Tokyo Kuramae Kokugikan: Tiger Mask vs. Dynamite Kid. Tiger's debut
6/4/81 Tokyo Kuramae Kokugikan: Tiger Mask & Tatsumi Fujinami vs. Chris Adams & Mike Masters
8/2/81 Tokyo Korakuen Hall: Tiger Mask vs. Scorpion
9/18/81 Hiroshima: Tiger Mask & Tatsumi Fujinami vs. El Solar & El Solitario
9/23/81 Tokyo Den'en Coliseum: Tiger Mask vs. El Solar
10/30/81: Tiger Mask & Kengo Kimura vs. El Signo & Negro Navaro
11/5/81 Tokyo Kuramae Kokugikan: Tiger Mask vs. Gran Hamada
12/8/81 Tokyo Kuramae Kokugikan: Tiger Mask vs. El Canek
1/1/82 Tokyo Korakuen Hall: Tiger Mask vs. Dynamite Kid
1/28/82 Tokyo Taiikukan: Tiger Mask vs. Dynamite Kid
5/26/82 Osaka Furitsu Taiikukan WWF Jr. Title: Tiger Mask (Satoru Sayama) vs. Black Tiger (Marc Rocco). Solid match with a really hot finish. Very good.
3/30/82: Antonio Inoki & Tatsumi Fujinami & Tiger Mask vs. Masked Superstar & Don Muraco & Steve Wright. Only the portions Tiger worked are shown.
4/1/82 Ryogoku Kokugikan WWF Jr. Title: Tiger vs. Steve Wright. Definite style clash here. Slow paced for a Tiger match. Wright did some cool stuff that you don't see anymore, but after a while the match began to drag when he was on offense. Good.
7/6/82 Osaka Furitsu Taiikukan WWF Jr. Title: Tiger vs. Ultraman. Smooth work. Excellent when it wasn't on the mat. Very good.
7/23/82 Ishikawa: Tiger vs. Dynamite Kid. Awesome match with tremendous performances by both men. Great fluid work. Execution, timing, etc were all top notch. Cool athletic counters and some beautiful sequences. Interesting to see Tiger refusing to break when Dynamite gets the ropes, which leads to a young Bret Hart interfering on Dynamite's behalf. Normally I hate screw jobs, but this might be the most successful count out ever. ****3/4
7/30/82 Nagoya Aichi-ken Taiikukan WWF Jr. Title: Tiger vs. Bret Hart. Only about 4 minutes shown. Dynamite tries to lend Bret a hand, but it backfires.
8/30/82 NY Madison Square Garden WWF International Junior Heavyweight Title: Tiger vs. Dynamite. Off the charts work. Tremendous while it lasts, but too short and spot intensive. Great match.
11/4/82 Tokyo Kuramae Kokugikan NWA World & WWF Jr. Heavyweight Double Title Match: Tiger Mask vs. Kuniaki Kobayashi
1/6/83 Tokyo Korakuen Hall NWA World & WWF Jr. Heavyweight Double Title Match: Tiger Mask vs. Kuniaki Kobayashi
4/21/83 Tokyo Kuramae Kokugikan NWA World Jr. Heavyweight Title: Tiger Mask vs. Dynamite Kid
8/4/83 Tokyo Kuramae Kokugikan NWA World Jr. Heavyweight Title: Tiger Mask vs. Isamu Teranishi
11/4/82 Tokyo Kuramae Kokugikan NWA World & WWF Jr. Heavyweight Double Title Match: Tiger Mask vs. Kuniaki Kobayashi
1/6/83 Tokyo Korakuen Hall NWA World & WWF Jr. Heavyweight Double Title Match: Tiger Mask vs. Kuniaki Kobayashi
4/21/83 Tokyo Kuramae Kokugikan NWA World Jr. Heavyweight Title: Tiger Mask vs. Dynamite Kid
8/4/83 Tokyo Kuramae Kokugikan NWA World Jr. Heavyweight Title: Tiger Mask vs. Isamu Teranishi
10/26/82 Osaka Furitsu Taiikukaikan WWF Jr. Heavyweight Title: Tiger Mask vs. Kuniaki Kobayashi
TIGER 4-DIMENSION TECHNIQUES-Highlights of Tiger's favorite moves
Note : Some matches on this four volume set are edited, and some are shown in complete form.
2/5/82 Sapporo Nakajima Taiiku Center WWF Jr. Title: Tiger Mask vs. Bret Hart. Very good match. Tiger has tremendous flurries, chaining together spots with incredible speed. Bret is very solid, predominantly taking good bumps and providing a base for Tiger's tremendous spots.
3/12/82 Tokyo Korakuen Hall: Tiger Mask vs. Blackman. Very good Lucha style match. Blackman was really athletic in his day, but he didn't have high spots that were in the same stratosphere as Sayama's. Mat oriented early, picking up at the 10-minute mark for a great, albeit short, finishing sequence that was highlighted by Sayama exploding through the ropes with a suicida.
3/31/82 Nagoya Aichi-ken Taiikukan: Tiger Mask & Kengo Kimura vs. Steve Wright & Blackman. Good, but nothing special. Highlights were Wright's cool cartwheel counters and Tiger and Blackman working together at a super speed. Kimura's work was cut out.
2/9/82 Sapporo Nakajima Taiiku Center WWF Jr. Title: Tiger Mask vs. Baby Face. Good match, but Baby Face didn't have anything to offer. Work was solid, but had no heat and wasn't very exciting. After the match, Dynamite demands a title shot because he's the true champion.
4/21/82 Tokyo Sumo Hall WWF Jr. Title: Tiger Mask vs. Black Tiger. Great match with really good work. Peers throwing bombs. Sayama was forced to sell here. Tiger does a really cool slingshot plancha. Finish was kind of lame because Tiger "snapping" didn't make much sense to me.
7/31/82 Osaka Rinkai Sports Center 2/3 Falls: Tatsumi Fujinami & Tiger Mask & Kengo Kimura vs. Greg Valentine & Dynamite Kid & Bret Hart. Good, interesting match. Hart looked really sharp working with Sayama, who got destroyed in this match, as was Kimura. Valentine worked American style and looked totally out of place.
8/5/82 Tokyo Sumo Hall WWF Jr. Title: Tiger Mask vs. Dynamite Kid. Super ***** match. Tremendous work with great speed and fluidity. Really choice counters. The body was really strong and they took it up and down at the right time. Spots were off the chart for 1982, including Sayama using an incredible suicida over the top and even a moonsault. It's hard to believe this match took place 16 years ago.
5/25/82 Shizuoka NWA Jr. Title: Les Thorton vs. Tiger Mask. Merely good. This match was all wrong for Sayama. Sayama's style was light years ahead of his time, while Thorton was a throwback technician. So, it was kind of like the 1990's meeting the 1960's. The match didn't work and was too long, even though it was pretty short. Tiger wins the NWA World Jr. Title!
6/18/82 Tokyo Sumo Hall WWF Jr. Title: Tiger Mask vs. Ultraman. Good match. These two blew some spots, but generally worked really well together. Ultraman lacked offense and didn't really push Tiger at all. Sayama did his awesome invention, the space flying Tiger drop!
6/25/82 Sapporo Nakajima Taiiku Center: Tiger Mask & Tatsumi Fujinami vs. Ultraman & El Purago (sp). The 6 minutes were shown were good, but not really notable.
9/21/82 Osaka Furitsu Taiikukaikan WWF Jr. Title: Tiger Mask vs. Black Tiger. This one was edited down. It didn't seem as good as their match on 1st Dimension, but was definitely a quality battle of the comic book rivals.
9/17/82: Tiger Mask vs. Chris Adams. Adams was a weird opponent for Sayama because his style wasn't exactly juniorish. Not bad by any means, but Adams style wasn't right and his offense was too limited. Slow paced, with Sayama using mainly strikes and matwork. Crowd really pulls for Sayama's comeback.
10/8/82 Tokyo Korakuen Hall: Tiger Mask vs. Martin Jones. Very good match. Jones is like a poor man's Dynamite Kid here. His offense wasn't as spectacular, but it was a wrestled like a grudge match (though it lacked heat) with great work and execution. If the finish didn't come out of nowhere, it probably would have been great.
1/14/83 Yamaguchi: Tiger Mask & Gran Hamada & Kantaro Hoshino vs. Los Missioneros de la Muerte (El Signo, El Texano, & Negro Navaro). Very good to great fast-paced Lucha action. Animal Hamaguchi and Rusher Kimura, among others, destroy Sayama before the match. Highlight is Tiger against Texano, as they do some super counters.
2/3/83 Sapporo Nakajima Taiiku Center NWA Jr. Title: Tiger Mask vs. Gran Hamada. Very good match. Too much matwork, as it got a bit dull and lacked heat. Well booked and worked match that kept Hamada strong.
9/3/82 Fukuoka Sports Center WWF Jr. Title: Tiger Mask vs. Villano III. Hot crowd and beautiful Lucha action, but only 6:38 was shown.
9/10/82 Kumamoto: Tiger Mask vs. Pete Roberts. Worst match from Sayama's prime that I've seen. Roberts didn't want to do anything but rest holds, and he apparently had less no high spots. Dull. Only notable because Black Tiger attacked Sayama before the match, but Sayama kicked his butt then Roberts tossed Black Tiger to the floor.
10/26/82 Osaka Furitsu Taiikukaikan WWF Jr. Title: Tiger Mask vs. Kuniaki Kobayashi. Excellent match. Kobayashi got build and psychology out of Sayama. Matwork was strong and for a purpose, which was not usually the case in a Sayama match. Kobayashi used simple heel techniques, but they were new spots against Sayama and got big time heat. Kobayashi worked at a much higher level than most of Sayama's opposition, though it doesn't seem like most people give him credit for what he could do in his day.
1/28/83 Ibaraki: Tiger Mask & Kantaro Hoshino vs. Black Tiger & Jose Estrada. Very good when the Tigers were in together, but generally nothing special.
2/7/83 Tokyo Sumo Hall WWF Jr. Title: Tiger Mask vs. Black Tiger. 1/2 the match was shown and it was another **** or better match. Tiger looked better here than in their previous encounters as his arsenal was larger and his work seemed better.
1/20/83 Oita: Tiger Mask vs. Negro Navaro. Just ok. Navaro was unimpressive. Too much time wasting. Signo & Texano jump Sayama after the match, but Kobayashi makes the save.
2/10/83: Tiger Mask & Hoshino vs. Hamada & Kobayashi. Very good match. Like the NJ junior tag matches of 1997, it had nice work and told a story. Hamada & Kobayashi concentrate on trying to unmask Tiger.
6/2/83 Tokyo Sumo Hall NWA Jr. Title: Tiger Mask vs. Kuniaki Kobayashi. Great match. Excellent work and a hot crowd. Only problem was that the finish was flat.
6/12/83 El Toreo, Mexico WWF Jr. Title: Tiger Mask vs. Fishman. Interesting to see Tiger work Lucha in Mexico, but Fishman has never impressed me, so this was not one of Tiger's better title matches.
2/8/83 Osaka Furitsu Taiikukaikan WWF Jr. Title: Tiger Mask vs. Kuniaki Kobayashi. Another great match between these two. Kobayashi pushes matwork before the high spots. Heated match. Finish is along the same lines as their match on 3rd Dimension, but works a lot better here.
7/29/83 Toyama City Taiikukan: Tiger Mask vs. El Falcon. Average Lucha style match. Falcon didn't show much offensively and wasn't too competitive.
7/20/83 Asahikawa City: Tiger Mask & Hoshino vs. Kobayashi & Isamu Teranishi. Work was good, but the match itself is unspectacular. Mainly just Kobayashi & Teranishi using heel tactics on Tiger to get heat. Notable because Tiger's team actually loses.
8/1/83 Gifu: Tiger Mask & Osamu Kido vs. Kobayashi & Teranishi. More of the same as Kobayashi & Teranishi concentrate on unmasking Tiger.
7/7/83 Osaka Furitsu Taiikukaikan WWF & NWA Jr. Titles: Tiger Mask vs. Isamu Teranishi. Good match. Teranishi just doesn't strike me as a junior at all. There's really nothing juniorish about his look or style. Tiger supplied some highlights, but the match was dull in points. After the match, Kobayashi rips Tiger's mask off and runs away with the title belt.
7/14/83 Sapporo Nakajima Taiiku Center WWF Jr. Title: Tiger Mask vs. Kuniaki Kobayashi. Very good match.
NJ Tadakai no Wonderland ~Nobuhiko Takada Hen~ #1 7/18/99
8/19/83 taped 8/13 Canada Stampede Pavilion: Nobuhiko Takada vs. Anthole Foley
3/22/84 taped 3/22 Amagasaki Shi Taiikukan: Kantaro Hoshino & Nobuhiko Takada vs. Kuniaki Kobayashi & Isamu Teranishi
3/30/84 taped 3/30 Tokyo Korakuen Hall: Nobuhiko Takada & Norio Honaga vs. Kuniaki Kobayashi & Isamu Teranishi
NJPW Wonderland Takada #2
4/18/84: Nobuhiko Takada vs. Bruce Hart
1/3/86 Tokyo Korakuen Hall: Nobuhiko Takada vs. Akira Maeda
3/14/86 Kagashima Kenritsu Taiikukan: Nobuhiko Takada & Akira Maeda & Yoshiaki Fujiwara vs. Tatsumi Fujinami & Kengo Kimura & Kantaro Hoshino
NJ Tadakai no Wonderland #146
9/23/83 taped 9/21 Osaka Furitsu Taiikukaikan
Riki Choshu vs. Tatsumi Fujinami
10/14/83 taped 10/14 Osaka-fu Rinkai Sports Center
Big John Studd vs. Killer Kahn
Akira Maeda vs. Paul Orndorff
AJ Chogei Selection #147 9/25/99
4/5/87 Tokyo Korakuen Hall NWA Sekai Junior Heavykyu Senshukenjiai: Masa Fuchi vs. Pete Roberts
3/12/87 Tokyo Nippon Budokan NWA Sekai Heavykyu Senshukenjiai: Ric Flair vs. Hiroshi Wajima
4/23/87 Niigata Shi Taiikukan PWF Heavykyu Oiza Ketteisen: Stan Hansen vs. Hiroshi Wajima
NJPW Wonderland #147 taped 11/3/83 Tokyo Kuramae Kokugikan
NWA World Junior Heavyweight Title Decision Match: The Cobra vs. Davey Boy Smith
Animal Hamaguchi vs. Seiji Sakaguchi
Riki Choshu vs. Akira Maeda 12:58. ***1/2
NJPW Wonderland #148
10/14/83 taped 10/14 Osaka-fu Rinkai Sports Center: Antonio Inoki & Tatsumi Fujinami & Kengo Kimura vs. Riki Choshu & Animal Hamaguchi & Yoshiaki Yatsu
11/4/83 taped 11/3 Tokyo Kuramae Kokugikan
Killer Khan vs. Tatsumi Fujinami
Antonio Inoki vs. Yoshiaki Yatsu
11/3/83
Seiji Sakaguchi (Sekigun) vs. Animal Hamaguchi (Ishingun). Neither of these guys looked any good. Bad
Akira Maeda (Sekigun) vs. Riki Choshu (Ishingun). Great heat, although every match on these two tapes had great heat. Choshu's execution was really precise. Finish is similar to the vastly overrated Hart vs. Austin from WM 13, although there's no blood. Good match.
Tatsumi Fujinami (Sekigun) vs. Killer Kahn (Ishingun). Selling was really strong. Given the limitations of Kahn, this was probably a very good match, but overall just average.
Antonio Inoki vs. Yoshiaki Yatsu. This had the best heat due to Inoki being super over, but it was a pretty boring match with nothing beyond a couple of big spots by Inoki. Bad
4/19/84
*This is a series of singles matches with the winner staying on until one team has no more wrestlers left*
Fujinami vs. Kuniaki Kobayashi (Ishingun). Technically excellent, but much too short. Good match
Fujinami vs. Isamu Teranishi (Ishingun). Teranishi launched an all out attack on Fujinami's bad hand. Better than the Kobayashi match because of the storyline.
Fujinami vs. Yatsu (Ishingun). Yatsu immediately attacks the bad hand. Average
Nobuhiko Takada (Sekigun) vs. Yatsu. Takada was really over as the young junior punk pushing the established heavyweight star. Great near falls with the fans believing Takada could win. Takada was excellent here. Great match.
Kengo Kimura (Sekigun) vs. Yatsu. Kimura looked very good here and carried this to a good match. Lots of big spots for the time.
Kimura vs. Animal Hamaguchi (Ishingun). Hamaguchi wasn't very good and this was just average.
Yoshiaki Fujiwara (Ishingun) vs. Hamaguchi. Hamaguchi ripped the patch on Fujiwara's head off and Fujiwara bled. Fans were really into Fujiwara, but neither was that good. Average.
Antonio Inoki (Sekigun) vs. Riki Choshu (Ishingun). Mainly rest holds then Inoki did a few of his signature spots for the win. I expected them to do more for Choshu. Bad.
NJPW Wonderland #149 taped 11/25/83
Kengo Kimura & Seiji Sakaguchi vs. Animal Hamaguchi & Riki Choshu
Tatsumi Fujinami & Akira Maeda vs. Andre The Giant & Swede Hanson
Antonio Inoki & Hulk Hogan vs. Dick Murdock & Adrian Adonis
12/7/83 Takamatsu Shimin Bunka Center: Andre The Giant vs. Killer Khan
NJPW Wonderland #150
12/2/83 taped 12/2 Kagoshima Kenritsu Taiikukan: Riki Choshu & Animal Hamaguchi vs. Akira Maeda & Tatsumi Fujinami
12/23/83 taped 12/7 Takamatsu Shi Min Bunka Center
4th MSG Tag Leaguesen Yushosen Shinshutsu Team Ketteisen (team advance to final decision match): Adrian Adonis & Dick Murdock vs. Riki Choshu & Animal Hamaguchi
Wonderland #151 originally aired 12/2/83 taped 12/2 Kagoshima Kenritsu Taiikukan
Antonio Inoki vs. Andre The Giant. DUD
12/30/83 taped 12/7 Takamatsu Shi Min Bunka Center
Tatsumi Fujinami & Akira Maeda vs. Antonio Inoki & Hulk Hogan. 1/2*
taped Vancouver Agro Dome
Nobuhiko Takada vs. Hiro Saito. Takada's execution was sharp, but he was still developing his offense. **3/4
Antonio Inoki vs. Gary Brown. 1/2*
Wonderland #152 originally aired 12/30/83 taped Vancouver Agro Dome
The Cobra & Tatsumi Fujinami vs. Davey Boy Smith & Bret Hart. Solid 80's style match. **1/4
1/6/84 taped 1/6 Tokyo Korakuen Hall
Junior Heavykyu Oza Ketteileaguesen: Dynamite Kid vs. Isamu Teranishi. Match was above *** when Dynamite was on offense kicking Teranishi's ass, but no better than * when Teranishi was putting me to sleep with his restmissions. **
Junior Heavykyu Oza Ketteileaguesen: The Cobra vs. Kuniaki Kobayashi. Intense, heated match with very good drama. Kobayashi bleeds. At one point Cobra sidesteps a suicida, sending Kobayashi right into the security rail. ***1/2
AJ Chogei Selection #150 10/16/99
5/1/87 Tokyo Korakuen Hall: Giant Baba & John Tenta vs. Rusher Kimura & Goro Tsurumi
6/8/87 Fukuoka Kokusai Center: Jumbo Tsuruta & John Tenta vs. The Road Warriors
6/11/87 Osaka Furitsu Taiikukaikan
Giant Baba vs. Tiger Jeet Singh
Jumbo Tsuruta & Tiger Mask vs. Genichiro Tenryu & Ashura Hara
NJ Tadakai no Wonderland Showa Hen #153 10/20/99
1/6/84 taped 1/6 Tokyo Korakuen Hall: Bad News Allen & Abdullah The Butcher vs. Riki Choshu & Animal Hamaguchi
1/27/84 taped 1/27 Nagoya Aichi-ken Taiikukan
The Cobra vs. Dynamite Kid
Bad News Allen vs. Abdullah The Butcher
1/6/84 taped 1/6 Tokyo Korakuen Hall: Antonio Inoki & Tatsumi Fujinami vs. Dusty Rhodes & Buddy Rose
NJPW Wonderland #155
2/3/84 Hokkaido Sapporo Nakajima Taiiku Center, WWF International Heavyweight Title Match: Tatsumi Fujinami vs. Riki Choshu
3/16/84 Kagoshima Kenritsu Taiikukan: Adrian Adonis vs. Yoshiaki Yatsu
2/9/84 Osaka Furitsu Taiikukaikan
Hulk Hogan vs. Rusher Kimura
Riki Choshu & Animal Hamaguchi & Yoshiaki Yatsu vs. Antonio Inoki & Akira Maeda & Yoshiaki Fujiwara
NJPW Wonderland #156
2/24/84 taped 2/9/84 Osaka Furitsu Taiikukaikan, NWA Sekai Junior Heavykyu Senshukenjiai: The Cobra vs. Kuniaki Kobayashi. ***3/4
3/16/84 taped 3/6/84 Kagoshima Kenritsu Taiikukan
Dick Murdock & Ed Leslie vs. Seiji Sakaguchi & Kengo Kimura. *
Antonio Inoki & Tatsumi Fujinami vs. Riki Choshu & Animal Hamaguchi. *1/4
NJ Tadakai no Wonderland ~Showa Hen~ #157 11/3/99
3/23/84 taped 3/22 Amagasaki Shi Taiikukan
Nobuhiko Takada & Kantaro Hoshino vs. Kuniaki Kobayashi & Isamu Teranishi
Seiji Sakaguchi & Kengo Kimura vs. Dick Murdock & Adrian Adonis
Animal Hamaguchi & Riki Choshu & Yoshiaki Yatsu vs. Seiji Sakaguchi & Tatsumi Fujinami & Yoshiaki Fujiwara
NJ Tadakai no Wonderland ~Showa Hen~ #159 11/10/99
3/30/84 taped 3/30 Tokyo Korakuen Hall: Kengo Kimura vs. Iron Mike Sharpe
4/27/84 taped 4/?/84 Ogaki Shi Sports Center: Nobuhiko Takada vs. Bruce Hart
4/20/84 taped 4/?/84 Tokushima Shi Taiikukan
Riki Choshu & Animal Hamaguchi & Yoshiaki Yatsu vs. Elijiah Akeem & Muhammed Kareem & Hercules Ayala
Tatsumi Fujinami vs. Iron Mike Sharpe
S-ARENA SAMURAI NEWS 11/12/99 guest: Chaparrita ASARI
Big Japan 11/10/99 highlights
ASARI vs. Momoe Nakanishi 10/22/99 highlights
NJ Takakai no Wonderland Showa Hen #160
5/11/84 taped 5/11/84 Fukuoka Sports Center
Tatsumi Fujinami & Kengo Kimura vs. Riki Choshu & Masa Saito. **1/2
Andre The Giant vs. Ken Patera. DUD
4/27/84 taped 4/?/84 Odawara Shi Sports Center
Kengo Kimura & Yoshiaki Fujiwara vs. Riki Choshu & Animal Hamaguchi. *1/4
4/20/84 taped 4/?/84 Tokushima Shi Taiikukan
Antonio Inoki vs. Masked Superstar. *1/2
NJ Tadakai no Wonderland ~G1 Retsuden~ #3 11/16/99
8/17/91 taped 8/9 Tokyo Ryogoku Kokugikan
A Block Koshikisen: Tatsumi Fujinami vs. Keiji Muto
B Block Koshikisen: Masa Chono vs. Shinya Hashimoto
NJ Tadakai no Wonderland ~Showa Hen~ #161 11/17/99
4/27/84 taped 4/?/84 Ogaki Shi Sports Center: Antonio Inoki & Tatsumi Fujinami vs. Masked Superstar & Hercules Ayala
5/18/84 taped 5/18 Hiroshima Kenritsu Taiikukan
Hulk Hogan & Masked Superstar vs. Dick Murdock & Adrian Adonis
Tatsumi Fujinami vs. Andre The Giant
5/11/84 taped 5/11 Fukuoka Sports Center: Antonio Inoki vs. Hulk Hogan
Wonderland Junior #24
8/4/83 Tokyo Kuramae Kokugikan NWA World Junior Heavyweight Title Match: Tiger Mask vs. Isamu Teranishi. Tiger didn't have much confidence in Teranishi after the last debacle and was basically trying to figure out how he could have a good match without relying on his opponent to help him pull the spots off. He did a lot of kicking and knee dropping, but the submission stuff was totally dull without the movement and counters. The second half was action packed, though Tiger was still hardly Tiger, but had some problems because Teranishi reacts slowly and sometimes Tiger would clearly be waiting for him. Tiger was better here than in their first match, and I can't fault the adjustments he tried to make, but Teranishi is a hopeless wrestler that makes everything look worse than it should so they didn't really work. 14:35. *3/4
11/3/83 Tokyo Kuramae Kokugikan NWA World Junior Heavyweight Crown Decision Match: The Cobra vs. Davey Boy Smith. Cobra had a huge entrance where he sat like an emperor and was carried out by famous juniors from around the world plus a fake Tiger Mask. This was basically like a lesser version of the early Tiger Mask vs. Dynamite Kid matches, with both being positioned as proteges rather than wannabes. Davey should be the poster boy for bigger isn't better. He really powerful here, and he used his power in impressive ways so anyone with their eyes open could see this was one strong guy. However, he didn't have the ridiculous muscles that kept him from being able to move or bend and really just got in his way. At this point he was not only able to move fluidly, but able to do all the athletic and gymnastic stuff that's much more important than power when it comes to having good matches. This was chock full of excellent athletic counters to basic moves. It had it's share of imperfections and didn't have the spontaneity of Tiger vs. Dynamite, but the problem with this match was more that we'd seen it done better before. It was a nice model to use though, and I thought it was well recieved. I just don't know why Cobra couldn't build on this match. It wasn't the best style for him because he's hardly the smoothest and most fluid wrestler around and just isn't a natural, but when the guy pulls it off well when there are plenty of reasons they shouldn't you have to wonder why they don't succeed when there are reasons they should. 20:06. ***1/2
Wonderland Junior #25
2/9/84 Osaka Furitsu Taiikukaikan NWA World Junior Heavyweight Title Match: The Cobra vs. Kuniaki Kobayashi. Another excellent Kobayashi opening with Tiger entering with his backflip only to have Kobayashi knock him to the floor with a spinning high kick then follow with a suicida. He pulled Cobra's jacket off and tossed it into the crowd, but Cobra didn't react to any of this and just waited for the intros. Aside from the lack of fire, the other big difference was Cobra didn't react to/counter Kobayashi's stuff nearly as well as Tiger. He just kind of waited for his chance to go on offense, which really hurt Kobayashi's submissions since they didn't seem like anything to worry about. Kobayashi was Kobayashi, but Cobra didn't play off him and had some obvious flubs so it was nothing special. 14:29. ***
8/2/84 Tokyo Kuramae Kokugikan NWA World Junior Heavyweight Title Match: The Cobra vs. Kuniaki Kobayashi. Again, Cobra showed a lot of promise. He was much more aggressive here, attacking Kobayashi before the bell for revenge, including ripping his T-shirt up and choking him with it. Kobayashi didn't get into his submissions today, which was for the best given the opponent. Instead, they did a more out of control (in the good way) match, which made sense because the rivalry was escalating. I thought they really put a lot of heat on the program here, with the final minutes being very exciting and dramatic. The finish was totally stupid though. Why would the challenger suplex the champ into the crowd when he's so close to winning the title and knows they have the corniest of rules that the match ends when both guys are propelled into the crowd? I mean, how hard is it really to turn the guy 90 degrees and drop him on the floor, which does more damage anyway? 15:04. ***3/4
Wonderland #165 taped 6/11/84 Nagoya Aichi-ken Taiikukan
Tatsumi Fujinami vs. Adrian Adonis
Andre The Giant vs. Antonio Inoki
8/2/84 Tokyo Kuramae Kokugikan: Tatsumi Fujinami vs. David Schultz
Wonderland #166
6/11/84 Nagoya Aichi-ken Taiikukan: Riki Choshu & Masa Saito vs. Hulk Hogan & Masked Superstar
8/2/84 Tokyo Kuramae Kokugikan: Antonio Inoki vs. Riki Choshu
Wonderland #167
8/3/84 taped 8/2 Tokyo Kuramae Kokugikan
NWA Nintei Junior Heavykyu Senshukenjiai: The Cobra vs. Kuniaki Kobayashi
Tatsumi Fujinami & Seiji Sakaguchi vs. Roger Smith & Duke Myers
9/17/84 taped 9/7 Fukuoka Sports Center: Riki Choshu vs. Greg Valentine
Wonderland #168
8/24/84 Tokyo Korakuen Hall: Riki Choshu vs. Bob Backlund
9/7/84 Fukuoka Sports Center
Tatsumi Fujinami vs. Abdullah The Butcher
Antonio Inoki vs. Strong Machine
Wonderland #169
9/18/84: Antonio Inoki & Tatsumi Fujinami & Kengo Kimura vs. Riki Choshu & Yoshiaki Yatsu & Animal Hamaguchi
9/20/84 Osaka Furitsu Taiikukaikan:
Tatsumi Fujinami vs. Greg Valentine
Ishu Kakutogisen 3Min 10Rd: Antonio Inoki vs. Anoalo Atisano
NJPW Wonderland #170
9/20/84 Osaka Furitsu Taiikukaikan: Strong Machine 1 & 2 vs. Kantaro Hoshino & Cronic
9/18/84: Kuniaki Kobayashi & Isamu Teranishi vs. Tony St. Clair & Greg Valentine
10/19/84:
Tatsumi Fujinami vs. Cowboy Bob Orton
Antonio Inoki & Kengo Kimura & Kantaro Hoshino vs. Strong Machine 1 & 2 & Hiro Saito
8/5/82 Tokyo Kuramae Kokugikan, WWF World Heavyweight Title: Bob Backlund vs. Tatsumi Fujinami
9/7/84 Tokyo Korakuen Hall: Bob Backlund vs. Riki Choshu
NJPW Wonderland #171
9/18/84: Strong Machine 1 & 2 vs. Kantaro Hoshino & Norio Honaga
10/19/84 NWA World Junior Heavyweight Title Match: The Cobra vs. Black Tiger
11/1/84 Tokyo Taiikukan, WWF International Heavyweight Title Match: Tatsumi Fujinami vs. Cowboy Bob Orton
NJPW Wonderland #172
12/6/84 Hiroshima Kenritsu Taiikukan: Tatsumi Fujinami vs. Dick Murdock 11:08. ***
11/1/84 Tokyo Taiikukan:
NWA World Junior Heavyweight Title Match: The Cobra vs. Black Tiger
Antonio Inoki & Tatsumi Fujinami vs. Strong Machine 1 & 2 11:06. *
Wonderland #173
12/84 Okayama Budokan: Kantaro Hoshino vs. Hiro Saito
11/30/84 Nagoya Aichi-ken Taiikukan: Kengo Kimura vs. Adrian Adonis
12/6/84 Hiroshima Kenritsu Taiikukan: Super Heavyweight Battle Royal
11/1/84 Tokyo Taiikukan: Antonio Inoki vs. Strong Machine No. 2
Wonderland #174
12/6/84 Hiroshima Kenritsu Taiikukan: Antonio Inoki & Andre The Giant vs. Strong Machine No. 1 & Strong Machine No. 2
12/8/84 Phillipines Keson Alneta (?) Colisseum: Seiji Sakaguchi & Tiger Toguchi (Chung Lee) vs. Jerry Morrow & Kerry Brown
12/84 Okayama Budokan: Antonio Inoki & Tatsumi Fujinami & Tiger Toguchi vs. Andre The Giant & Dick Murdock & Adrian Adonis
Wonderland #175
12/84 Okayama Budokan: Seiji Sakaguchi & Kengo Kimura vs. Strong Machine No. 1 & Strong Machine No. 2
12/28/84 Phillipines, WWF World Tag Title: Adrian Adonis & Dick Murdock vs. Tatsumi Fujinami & Kengo Kimura 18:17. US plotting with heels controlling the bulk of the match, keeping the face cut off from his corner and double teaming in their own. Fujinami & Kimura tended to wait until the last few minutes to deliver the action, so this worked well for them because they'd get a minute of hot offense when they were finally able to tag, spreading the action across the match rather than withholding it. Adonis & Murdock, aside from being smart tag wrestlers, also have much better offense than most of the faces of their day, so in spite of being heels the duo dominating the match actually helped the quality. Murdock & Fujinami were both very impressive, clearly outshining their partners. Fujinami was particularly fiery in stretches, which showed how great he could have been. He was NJ's best heavyweight of the decade because of his technical skill and diversity, but he actually had some of Choshu's fire in him, he just didn't show it often enough or with any consistency. ***1/2
1/18/85: Seiji Sakaguchi vs. King Kong Bundy
Wonderland #176 taped 1/18/85 Kumamoto
Shunji Takano & The Cobra vs. Black Tiger & Hiro Saito 12:09. Hiro's brawler push continues in this mixed bag. Black Tiger does by far the best wrestling, with Cobra having a good day with sharp execution for once and good chemistry with Tiger. Shunji is much taller than everyone else and not a junior, nor much of a worker, but he had a bad knee that they beat on to make his time passable. Hiro didn't have any chemistry with anyone, but Ueda was at ringside and eventually jumped in, causing a wild postmatch brawl where Shunji was beaten bloody and Fujinami eventually made the save. **3/4
Antonio Inoki & Tatsumi Fujinami & Kengo Kimura vs. Strong Machines 15:41. Fans were into this, but I found it rather dull and run of the mill. Hard to get into the Machines when they are one in the same, they don't even bother giving them numbers or doing anything to distinguish one from the other. They did a lot of triple teaming. Fujinami was fired up and it went up several notches each time he came in. *3/4
1/25/85: Antonio Inoki vs. Abdullah The Butcher