-1hr 10min. Q=Original
NEW TAPES
JWP Nintei Junior Senshuken Shodai Oza Ketteisen: Candy Okutsu vs. Hiromi Yagi vs. Hiromi Sugo 7:08. You had to beat both opponents consecutively to capture the crown, and while the first two falls being so quick might not have helped the match quality if nothing else they made the near finishes in the third fall seem more legit. They put all they had into this match, not wasting any time and making the whole thing come off as frantic and desperate. Yagi was in top form, displaying really smooth and fluid work with lighting counters and transitions, and excellent body control. Candy was also good. Sugo was totally out of her depth, but wrestled so little it wasn't apparent. ***1/4
Hikari Fukuoka & KAORU vs. Devil Masami & Mayumi Ozaki 12:32 of 13:32. Everyone was kept involved, running or usually in the case of Fukuoka & KAORU flying all over the place. Hikari's team did a lot of double teaming, and except for a rare flub worked very well together. Devil & Ozaki did the spectacular style their opposition is known for, including Ozaki doing a diving footstomp off Devil's shoulders with Devil sitting on the top rope then Devil doing a diving leg drop to set up the finish. ***1/4
JWP-GAEA THE CLIMAX ONE: Dynamite Kansai vs. Chigusa Nagayo 22:10 of 23:35. As good a match as you could have hoped for. Chigusa could still wrestle in these days, and both went all out to deliver a memorable main event. Kansai was the monstrous aggressor, kicking the crap out of Chigusa, who was "injured" early. Chigusa made a quick recovery and injured Kansai with her kicks, to even things up in this brutally stiff match. Good drama with teases of the big holds and nice selling by both to put over the impact and accumulation of damage. ****
1/12/94
Mayumi Ozaki vs. Cuty Suzuki 5:46 of 20:21. Cuty was getting major heel heat pulling Ozaki's eyebrows out by hand (what a waste). She cut Ozaki on the forehead, and attacked the wound. Ozaki got beat on the whole time, but came back and put Cuty away with a few moves.
2 Fall Count Match: Dynamite Kansai & Candy Okutsu vs. Devil Masami & Plum Mariko 4:33 of 20:24
11/29/93
Dynamite Kansai & Hikari Fukuoka vs. Yumiko Hotta & Kaoru Ito 24:16. Hotta had her attitude going in a way that helped the match, looking intense and hateful. She added a lot of small things to the match that helped put over the rivalry between the two promotions. Hotta really carried this, with Fukuoka & Ito doing fine as workers. Kansai was disappointing in that she didn't add more to the story and atmosphere. She played along with Hotta better than younger and smaller Fukuoka or Ito could, but she was ultimately also a follower. ***1/2
Cuty Suzuki vs. Candy Okutsu 4:06 of 14:26
Mayumi Ozaki vs. Devil Masami 5:57 of 17:22. Looked like a very good match. Ozaki was really pushing Devil here. She was on offense most of what was shown and didn't seem at all the underdog. You felt like she would win, but of course if Devil is selling this much...
Mayumi Ozaki & Plum Mariko & Candy Okutsu vs. Devil Masami & Cuty Suzuki & Bolshoi Kid 5:50 of 19:29
#21 taped Tokyo Korakuen Hall
12/8/89 Captain Fall Battle Royal: Noriyo Tateno & Miori Kamiya & Mima Shimoda vs. Akira Hokuto & Etsuko Mita & Takako Inoue vs. Suzuka Minami & Mika Takahashi & Kaoru Maeda 18:44. Too many women to start, causing it to be more of a comedy match early because there was simply no room to wrestle. Got good about half way through because they cleared the ring. Hokuto was clearly the standout. Her execution was so crisp and precise, though the finish was blown. **1/2
Madusa sings Who's Madusa
Fire Jets (Yumiko Hotta & Mitsuko Nishiwaki) sing Fire Night
5/14/89 Itsuki Yamazaki Intai Jiai 5 Minute Exhibition Match: Itsuki Yamazaki vs. Noriyo Tateno 5:00. Yamazaki was still the better Bomb Angel, and could have wrestled much longer. They worked pretty hard and did a good little match, though they seem better together than opposing.
#57 taped 11/7/86 Osaka Jo Hall
Kanako Nagatomo & Mika Komatsu vs. Yumi Ogura & Kazue Nagahori 11:29 here. Missing the 1st 8 1/2 minutes due to satellite trouble. Red Typhoons looked good wrestling a fast paced exciting even if somewhat basic style. Ogura was clearly the best, followed by Nagahori. Pretty good.
Devil Masami & Lioness Asuka & Yukon Erika vs. Yukari Omori & Itsuki Yamazaki & Noriyo Tateno 3:13 here. Missing 9 1/2 minutes due to satellite trouble (part is ring intros). Looked like a good match for Bomb Angels.
12/6/86 Tokyo Korakuen Hall: Lioness Asuka vs. Hisako Uno 6:18 shown. Lioness had her way, beating Uno when she wanted. It was essentially a well executed squash. Lioness kept it simple stretching Uno early then did some better moves. Uno barely showed any offense, a dropkick was about it. Fair.
#58 taped 11/7/86 Osaka Jo Hall
Kamikiri Death Match: Chigusa Nagayo vs. Dump Matsumoto 16:49. The ref bladed before the match began due to Dump attacking him with a chain. Chigusa sold the rest of the way, bleeding heavily. Whenever Chigusa would attempt an offensive manuever, Dump would just block it. Finally Chigusa won out of nowhere with a schoolboy, though it was obvious she kicked out before the 3 count. **
4/27/87 Osaka Furitsu Taiikukaikan: Itsuki Yamazaki vs. Noriyo Tateno 8:04. Good action, but way too short with a lame screw job finish. Should have been a notable match, and looked like that was doable at 15 or 20 minutes. **
#61
8/21/86 Tokyo Korakuen Hall, All Pacific Senshuken: Chigusa Nagayo vs. Lei Lani Kai 22:59. Much too long. Started off poorly with methodical Kai plodding around without doing any sequences and lazy Chigusa laying around rather than trying to save it. Much better toward the end with effort put into struggling for the holds and putting them over. One near fall after another down the stretch. The near falls came from basic holds, but they did a great job of making them dramatic by looking so spent. **3/4
4/27/87 Osaka Furitsu Taiikukaikan, All Pacific Senshuken: Lei Lani Kai vs. Chigusa Nagayo 15:47.The shorter length was a plus in this case. Once again the early portion was largely biding time, but the finishing segment was better than on 8/21 and there was far less dead time. Double juice with the blood adding intensity and urgency. ***1/4
#62 taped 3/20/86 Osaka Jo Hall
Zen Nihon Junior Senshuken: Condor Saito vs. Hisako Uno 12:32. Condor was the bigger star here, and controlled the match working Uno's knee. Hokuto used basic offense, with Condor working down to her level. **
'86 Japan Grand Prix Koshiki Leaguesen: Yumi Ogura vs. Kazue Nagahori 30:00. Might not have been a great match, but it was a memorable battle of partners. They worked hard form bell to bell, wrestling like they were going half the length they did. You got the idea it could be a draw, but never because they were holding anything back. Nagahori's kicking game was in top form. ***1/2
#17 taped 5/12/85 Mexico El Toreo
2/3 Falls WWWA Sekai Single Senshuken: Jaguar Yokoto vs. Pantera Surena 13:39, 4:49, 13:41. Jaguar was able to wrestle technically, but not at the usual speed. Part of the problem was Surena, who was servicable at best, and part was that it was simply too long. They paced themselves early, but the third fall was very good. Dramatic action with strong selling putting over the toll of the match. Surena tried hard, but her execution was awkward. ***
4/27/89: Marine Wolves sing
#18 taped 4/27/89 Saitama Omiya Skate Center
Toshiyo Yamada & Etsuko Mita vs. Aja Kong & Erika Shishedo (Aja Kong)
Noriyo Tateno vs. Mitsuko Nishiwaki
2/25/81 Yokohama Bunka Taiikukan, All Pacific Senshuken: Yumi Ikeshita vs. Mimi Hagiwara 7:38 shown
11/9/81 Okinawa, WWWA Sekai Tag Senshuken: Nancy Kumi & Ayumi Hori vs. Mimi Hagiwara & Yukari Omori 1:48 shown
Wonderland #564
3/9/93 Akita Kenritsu Taiikukan: Takayuki Iizuka & Akira Nogami vs. The Great Kabuki & Akitoshi Saito 9:50 shown. Iizuka & Nogami were trying, but the opposition wasn't providing much help. Iizuka & Nogami weren't given much offense, and were basically jobbers given the tough task of trying to make Kabuki look good. *1/2
2/16/93 Tokyo Ryogoku Kokugikan, 2/3 Falls NJ vs. WAR 10 Man Tag Match: Tatsumi Fujinami & Riki Choshu & Osamu Kido & Hiroshi Hase & Takayuki Iizuka vs. Genichiru Tenryu & Ashura Hara & Takashi Ishikawa & Hiromichi Fuyuki & Koki Kitahara 18:25 & 14:17. This is the heavyweight match to get you excited about the NJ vs. WAR program. In many ways it's a superb early in the series interpromotional match that served the purpose of making you want to see the various NJ vs. WAR possibilities in addition to being an excellent match. However, it also shows the fault in Choshu's booking valuing destroying the other leagues credibility by having them lose two straight falls (and both to him!) over long term business. Given who was involved you probably couldn't have asked for a better match. Heated, intense, stiff, fast paced match with quick tags to get the most out of everyone. Hase & Iizuka were in top form, troopers who made it good no matter whom the opponent. Choshu wasn't in much, but it was a great example of how effective he can be at instigating, building rivalries, and generating heat. When he first came in he elbowed the legal man Fuyuki, but followed through with an elbow to Ishikawa on the apron. Later Tenryu saved Kitahara from Iizuka's submission with a soccer kick, so Choshu was right in there with a scowl kicking Kitahara in the back. Fujinami was the peer Tenryu targetting, selling more than you'd expect early on and turning in a good performance. They pounded on Hara's head in the 2nd fall, busting him open hardway then doing their best to open the cut up further. WAR was pretty much carried though Tenryu and Kitahara had their moments and Hara gave everything he had. Tenryu was injured by Kido's wakigatame, and his team held up their end for a while but eventually crumbled without him. ****
Animal Hamaguchi & Kengo Kimura & Osamu Kido & Kantaro Hoshino vs. Super Strong Machine & Hiro Saito & Tatsutoshi Goto & Norio Honaga
Scott Norton vs. Equalizer
Masahiro Chono & Masa Saito vs. Arn Anderson & Barry Windham
IWGP Tag Senshuken: Hiroshi Hase & Kensuke Sasaki vs. Scott Steiner & Rick Steiner
Crusher Bam Bam Bigelow & Big Van Vader vs. Ron Simmons & Butch Reed
Greatest 18 Club No Time Limit No Referee: Riki Choshu vs. Tiger Jeet Singh
*COOP available*
Takayuki Iizuka & Kuniaki Kobayashi & Shiro Koshinaka vs. Z Man & Brian Pillman & Tim Horner
IWGP Junior Heavykyu Senshuken: Jushin Thunder Liger vs. AKIRA
El Gigante vs. Big Cat Hughes
The Great Muta vs. Sting
NWA Heavyweight & IWGP Heavyweight Double Title Match: Tatsumi Fujinami vs. Ric Flair
#43
2/86 Hyogo: Yumi Ogura vs. Dump Matsumoto 16:56. A massacre. Dump's army conspired against Ogura. Ogura had a bad knee to begin with, so merciless Dump hit it with a pipe. Ogura got some flash pins, but that was about it. *1/2
1/5/86 Tokyo Korakuen Hall: Yumi Ogura vs. Devil Masami 17:00. Ogura was overmatched, but this wasn't one-sided in a manner that was detrimental to her. Everyone knew she wasn't going to win, but she showed a lot of fighting spirit and heart. Ogura didn't get many high spots in, but was in control some of the time. Solid wrestling. **1/4
#44 taped 4/1/84 Tokyo Korakuen Hall
Jaguar Yokota vs. Desiree Petersen 10:08. Jaguar let Petersen do her thing, which wasn't a positive for the match quality. To some extent Jaguar had no choice as Petersen couldn't work her match, but Jaguar usually finds a way to come up with something much better than this. She showed some of her explosive offense, the moves that didn't require much assistance from the opposition. Petersen's offense was so pathetic compared even to what Jaguar did use. She wasted a lot of time and basically stomped, eye raked, and distracted the ref so Judy Martin could help her out. **
Mimi Hagiwara & Tarantula Intai Jiai 5 Minute Exhibition Match: Mimi Hagiwara vs. Tarantula 5:00. Tarantula fought aggressively, showing some nice flying headscissors. A decent match, but the effort wasn't there to make it memorable (if that's even possible in 5 min). Tarantula unmasks for the retirement ceremony.
Jumbo Hori & Yukari Omori vs. Itsuki Yamazaki & Noriyo Tateno 10:11. Competent but uninspiring squash. Hori & Omori controlled the match, keeping it on the mat early then throwing the opposition around later. Angels had almost no offense, with Tateno being particularly dominated. **
#16
4/29/89 Saitama Omiya Skate Center: Yumiko Hotta & Reibun Amada & Manami Toyota vs. Kumiko Iwamoto & Nobuko Kimura & Sachiko Nakamura 13:30. No one was particularly impressive, though Hotta did have a few moments. Lots of dull brawling from the heels. Toyota didn't know how to use her athleticism yet, so with an offense consisting of dropkicks and the like her sloppiness wasn't so forgivable. *1/2
5/12/85 Mexico El Toreo, 2/3 Falls: Chigusa Nagayo & Lioness Asuka vs. Lola Gonzalez & Rosa Maria 8:22, 13:23. Gonzalez & Maria were fairly effective rudos that didn't show any great offense. Crush largely fought their style match, though with one or two exceptions from Lioness they didn't do any lucha offense. 1st fall was weak, but 2nd fall had a hot start with Lioness doing the lucha she knows. Rudo then started brawling, bloodying both Crush Gals. You'd think since it was in Mexico Crush could have at least dropped a fall, but all they lost was some blood. ***1/4
Wonderland #535 taped 8/12/92 Tokyo Ryogoku Kokugikan
Jushin Thunder Liger vs. Pegasus Kid 14:29. A bit short, but a hell of a match with two of the best wrestlers on the planet at the top of their game. Pegasus was better than Liger here, though both were great. This was Benoit at his peak, wrestling with the stiffness associated with his later career but without sacrificing his move set in the process. He subbed weardown for stiffness, but even early on he was doing some good moves. Liger was beat up early, allowing his offense to be mostly hot moves in the second half. Excellent sequences down the stretch. This was one of their move Tiger Mask vs. Dynamite Kid type matches, though it was very much their own work. Fans were totally into it. Great finish where Liger tried to set up a nadare shiki move, but got powerbombed off the top rope. Definitely superior to their '93 G1 match. ****1/2
Tatsumi Fujinami & Osamu Kido vs. Riki Choshu & Takayuki Iizuka 11:13. A pleasant surprise because all the veterans showed up. Iizuka was still the standout, but Kido was working on a higher level than expected and Fujinami & Choshu were smart at popping the crowd. Short, but good heated action. ***
Keiji Muto & Kensuke Sasaki vs. Rick Steiner & Scott Steiner 15:32. I never realized just how weak a seller Scott was, probably because who can remember him trying. He blew taking a backdrop and would overact that he was taking the blow before it even hit him. Turned into a good match with Steiners on offense. Muto made the match, bumping for Scott even though he was the big star of the match. This is the kind of match that shows what a great talent Muto was, and thus how far he went downhill. In the early 90's he'd make a match like this on his own when he didn't have to, later on he'd come closer to sabotaging it for no reason beyond not wanting to put in the effort. ***1/4
Wonderland #542
9/23/92 Kanagawa Yokohama Arena: SS Machine & Tatsutoshi Goto vs. Wild Samoan & Great Kokina 9:12. SS & Goto looked like jobbers most of the match. They put Kokina over when they weren't double teaming him, and Samoan didn't sell much for them either. Goto did most of the selling, which is scary. SS won with seemingly his teams first offense, predicated on Kokina accidentally splashing his own partner. *
10/21/92 Hamamatsu Arena
Hiroyoshi Yamamoto & Isamu Nishimura vs. Yuji Nagata & Tokimitsu Ishizawa 13:52. Good technical wrestling from Ishizawa, Nagata, & Nishimura. Simple but sound wrestling. Better than their singles matches in early 1993. **
IWGP Junior Heavykyu Senshuken: El Samurai vs. Jushin Thunder Liger 15:06. Liger's '92 program was Samurai was sometimes similar to his '89 program with Naoki Sano, even in match quality, though it never gets even a portion of the credit. This match brought the two together, as Sano was in the crowd. Liger challenged him before the match, but Sano just ignored him. The early portion had some explosive moments that popped the crowd and bought them time. Samurai totally dominated the match, often seeming a step ahead of Liger. Liger would keep the hope alive by countering into a near fall, but didn't take over until the last two minutes of the match popping the crowd with an Orihara moonsault. Ended a bit early, but you were thinking Liger was doing so much selling because he was bringing the title home when suddenly Samurai turns the nadare shiki no blockbuster into a sunset flip for the win. Liger managed to put Samurai over huge without looking weak, partially making you forget how bad he should have come off by going back to the potential Sano rematch after the match. Unfortunately that match didn't wind up coming off for another three years, and with Sano then in a dying UWF-I it couldn't be wrestled like their initial classics. ****
Highlights of Vader's big AJ matches
Sankan Heavykyu Senshuken: Vader vs. Kenta Kobashi
Rusher Kimura & Mitsuo Momota & Makoto Hashi vs. Masa Fuchi & Haruka Eigen & Jun Izumida
Champion Carnival Ikkaisen: Johnny Smith vs. Tamon Honda
Toshiaki Kawada & Akira Taue & Masao Inoue vs. Vader & Steve Williams & Wolf Hawkfield
Rusher Kimura & Jun Izumida & Tamon Honda vs. Masa Fuchi & Haruka Eigen & Tsuyoshi Kikuchi
Toshiaki Kawada & Akira Taue vs. Steve Williams & Wolf Hawkfield
Takao Omori & Yoshihiro Takayama & Daisuke Ikeda vs. Johnny Ace & Mike Barton & Scorpio
Jun Akiyama & Takeshi Morishima vs. Masao Inoue & Takeshi Rikio
Akira Taue & Makoto Hashi vs. Kenta Kobashi & Kentaro Shiga
Takao Omori & Yoshihiro Takayama vs. Stan Hansen & Eric Watts
Mitsuharu Misawa & Yoshinari Ogawa & Daisuke Ikeda vs. Steve Williams & Johnny Smith & George Hines
Yuka Shiina & Saya Endo vs. Misae Watanabe & Tanny Mouse of 9:32
Mima Shimoda & Toshiyo Yamada vs. Kyoko Inoue & Takako Inoue of 14:46
All Pacific Senshuken: Yumiko Hotta vs. Reggie Bennett of 6:52
Manami Toyota & Kaoru Ito vs. Aja Kong & Tomoko Watanabe of 19:22
Japan Grand Prix '94: Yumiko Hotta vs. Suzuka Minami of 16:18
Etsuko Mita & Mima Shimoda vs. Aja Kong & Bull Nakano of 18:02
2/3 Falls WWWA Tag Senshuken: Toshiyo Yamada & Manami Toyota vs. Sakie Hasegawa & Kaoru Ito of 10:34, 13:32, & 8:47
Japan Grand Prix '94: Sakie Hasegawa vs. Toshiyo Yamada of 19:47
Yumiko Hotta & Manami Toyota & Kyoko Inoue vs. Aja Kong & Bull Nakano & Suzuka Minami of 23:26
Mitsuya Nagai vs. Herman Renting
Chris Dolman vs. Tom Van Maurik
Willy Wilhelm vs. Pieter Smit
Akira Maeda vs. Dick Vrij
Adam Watt vs. Hanse Nyman
Volk Han vs. Genaji Gigando
Nobuaki Kakuta vs. Rudy Ewoldt
Willy Williams vs. Pieter Smit
Masaaki Satake vs. Fred Oestron
Akira Maeda vs. Buzariashivili Ramazi
Yoshihisa Yamamoto vs. Masayuki Naruse
Volk Han vs. Grom Zaza
Peter Aerts vs. Adam Watt
Mitsuya Nagai vs. Dick Vrij
Willy Williams vs. Bitsadze Ameran
Masaaki Satake vs. Bert Kops, Jr.
Akira Maeda vs. Hank Newman
Masayuki Naruse vs. Yoshihisa Yamamoto
Herman Renting vs. Nobuaki Kakuta
Willy Williams vs. Yukihiro Takenami
Dick Vrij vs. Hanse Nyman
Chris Dolman vs. Andrei Kopylov
Akira Maeda vs. Dimiter Petkov
Kyoko Kimura & Yuka Shiina & Natsuki * Head vs. Yuka Nakamura & Haruhi Moeka & Chiharu 7:28 of 11:06. Shiina was far superior to the others with slick transitions into submissions. No one else was impressive, and they tended to be somewhat sloppy. *
Etsuko Mita vs. Mirai 6:49 of 11:44. Passable but uninspiring match. Mirai was never a threat, and Mita didn't elevate the performance of the lesser opponent like LCO would in tag. Mita's mobility is limited due to her bad knees, and Mirai isn't exactly an opponent you get psyched for. Mirai bled. *1/4
Tanny Mouse & Yuki Miyazaki vs. Toshie Uematsu & Ran Yu-Yu 12:15 of 15:27. Uematsu & Lan have good teamwork and seemed willing to work, but Tokyo Machine Guns wanted to pose and goof. If TMG were more interested in wrestling and less in goofing this probably would have been a good match, even if Miyazaki is a far cry from what she was due to too many installments of My Dinner With Kyoko. *3/4
Kyoko Inoue & Manami Toyota vs. Yoshiko Tamura & Azumi Hyuga 26:33 of 30:00. Based on these couple new DVDs Azumi is looking like the best working in NEO. She's had the ability for a long time, but she's still showing the energy that other's are lacking due to some combination of age, health, stagnation, and disinterest. Toyota is still looking for a good match, and did some nice stuff with Azumi. She was also good with Tamura, but Tamura isn't as smooth or athletic as Azumi so in a workrate match she isn't going to be quite that good even if she's also at her best. Kyoko did her best, but her weight is an issue at her age and point in her career. She simply lacks the athleticism to make her opponent's offense look like it's capable of, which was her strong point in the early 90's. Luckily Toyota hada good attitude and was willing to be the one that worked most of the match and got beat up. ***1/4
Haruka Matsuo vs. Amazing Kong 7:06 of 12:33. Kong was very impressive here, not only executing well but working with intensity and explosiveness. They worked the obvious story of Matsuo being overmatched, but occassionally hitting an athletic counter. Her offense is something like Abe's, so that's okay for her. Kong did a good job of carrying the match and what they did looked good, but it wasn't competitive enough to be all that good. Kong put Matsuo through a table with a diving body press. **1/2
NWA Women's Pacific & NEO Nintei Joshi Single Double Title Match: Tsubasa Kuragaki vs. Misae Genki 19:44 of 22:05. Better on paper than in actuality. They barely blew any spots, but there were too many you felt should have looked better. They wrestled a power match, but the blows were kind of on the weak side. Tsubasa benefits from incorporating some flying moves into her power style, and didn't look as out of place as the champion as I expected. **1/2
Yuka Shiina vs. Tanny Mouse 5:17 of 10:07. Completely in Tanny's comedy style. Shiina basically did nothing, simply allowed Tanny to goof. DUD
Yuki Miyazaki & Emi Sakura vs. Mayumi Ozaki & Yuka Nakamura 11:58 of 18:48. Ozaki carried the early portion then let the younger wrestlers have the spotlight. It was hardly a top performance, but she worked hard and tried to get the crowd involved without a lot of shenanigans. Sakura seems to have come along pretty well; she was the 2nd best in the match. Started slow, but the intensity kicked in with the better more energetic offense. **
Takako Inoue vs. Mirai 9:41 of . Takako didn't insist on dominating, but that's about the only plus to this match. Just a lame effort consisting of one restmission after another. Lazy match with Takako content to lie in a submission. 1/2*
Manami Toyota vs. Yumi Oka 14:49. Routine match. Oka was outclassed and did little. Toyota didn't need to do that many high spots because her opponent was so weak. *1/2
Yoshiko Tamura & Azumi Hyuga vs. Mika Nishio & Haruka Matsuo 12:46 of 20:00. Better than it should have been, as Azumi did an excellent job of carrying this. She was a one-woman show making chump opponents look good. Tamura did a good job as well, but it wasn't exciting when she was in. Not super competitive, but Tamura & Hyuga couldn't finish the opposition off. **3/4
Kyoko Inoue vs. Amazing Kong 8:55 of 15:07. I'm surprised they cut so much, as it looked like a good high impact match. They weren't tossing each other around, but had no trouble lifting each other. Kong used all her big moves. Finish wasn't very convincing, but given the way they worked it and the end result it was about the only one that could work. **3/4
Misae Genki vs. Etsuko Mita 11:31 of 16:03. Slow power match. Built fairly well and became dramatic. Could have gone either way. ***
Eden Mabuchi Intai Jiai: Eden Mabuchi vs. Rumi Kazama 5:00. Mabuchi is one of the really attractive wrestlers few people know about. Match was pretty good for what it was. Kandori took over for Rumi 3 1/2 minutes, with Rumi selling for 30 seconds then getting back in the mix for double teaming. Eden dropkicked Kandori to the floor, ending her role in the match then had a final big run on Rumi but couldn't get the pin before time expired. Though Kandori only sold one move, her participation actually put even over more as she stood up to her and didn't succumb to the odds.
Mayumi Ozaki vs. Hikari Fukuoka 11:26. Good performance by Ozaki with the goal being to have a decent little match. Ozaki kept Fukuoka contained and within herself. She dominated early, but Fukuoka came back with dropkicks and was on offense for quite a while. She wasn't spectacular, but they did enough to keep it interesting. **1/2
Devil Masami & Utako Hozumi vs. Shinobu Kandori & Miki Handa 10:26. Short match. Some decent action, but nothing to give reason to it ending 10 minutes early. *3/4
UWA Nintei International Senshuken: Harley Saito vs. Miss A 14:51. Harley was riding high in the last year of JWP. She was a hell of a worker from '91-93 or '94; it's amazing how quickly LLPW managed to crush her star. A was also wrestling at a high level today, and both women gave it their all. Good back and forth match that could have gone either way. ***1/2
AJW TV 4/79 taped 4/6 Tokyo Korakuen Hall
2/3 Falls WWWA Sekai Tag Senshuken: Tomi Aoyama & Lucy Kayama (Queen Angels) vs. Mami Kumano & Yumi Ikeshita (Black Pair) 5:15, 1:22, 1:05. Good 1st fall, but the last two were non-existant. Good story and focus, but that shouldn't be to the detriment of the match quality. Angels showed impressive athleticism and Pair brawled. Kumano got a bloody nose. Key was Aoyama suffering a knee injury. Pair kept attacking it between falls so it took forever for the 3rd fall to start. When it finally started Aoyama was useless, leading to Kayama falling quickly. **
Chino Sato vs. Ayumi Hori 9:20. Pretty good glorified rookie match. *1/2
AJW TV 5/78
Tomi Aoyama & Mimi Hagiwara vs. Yumi Ikeshita & Noriko Kawagai 9:43. Aoyama was a great athlete before the women really figured out hot to utilize great athletes. Ikeshita is very underrated, there are very few heels in the 70's who had face offense, much less ones that were legitimately good brawlers. Some good moves in the last few minutes, but it ended around the time you felt like it was about to become really good. ***
Nancy Kumi vs. Mami Kumano 17:21 of 30:00. It's always disappointing when the lesser half of each team is selected for the singles match. Kumano was brawling almost exclusively. Match was okay when Kumi was on offense, but Kumano was like a miniature Dump minus the heat. **
Noahiro Hoshikawa & Yoshihito Sasaki vs. Waguta Kuroge & Fugofugo Yumeji 9:58 of 14:09. Hoshikawa was portrayed as by far the strongest, while Sasaki was easily the weakest. They played this situation for drama. Though Hoshikawa was the only good wrestler, he worked it smartly so it was an interesting match you cared about even if not a particularly good one. Kuroge & Yumeji were somewhat effective in a Morishima/Rikio kind of way, putting a good beating on Sasaki.
The Cobra vs. Ryoji Sai 4:37 of 6:45. Mainly serious 70's style match with basic offense from close quarters. Short and not too stressful, passable only because they didn't make mistakes and Sai does a few good things. He's got the physical tools and is already solid. Finish was very lame and Cobra isn't likely to have any good matches until he starts shedding fat rather than skin.
Samoa Joe vs. Gerard Gordeau 6:05 of 6:42. Wasn't exactly well worked, but had the urgency that worked shoots need. Their stamina was disappointing. I know Gordeau is ancient, but Joe shouldn't also be losing effectiveness by the 4-minute-mark. Gordeau's overly fake strikes at the end hurt the match. *1/4
Tatsuhito Takaiwa & Kohei Sato vs. Frankie & Nova (Evolution) 9:52 of 14:09. Evolution was more under control and the teams worked surprisingly well together. Pretty good.
Masato Tanaka vs. The Predator 10:29. Tanaka tried to work it like he was fighting Gladiator rather than some turkey who looks like Donald Gibb in a Bruiser Brody outfit. While Tanaka was obviously the one who made those matches, Awesome never got enough credit for his part. He is not an all around wrestler, but few big guys have his athleticism, moveset, and generally the ability to pull off a wide variety of impressive moves. Predator is maybe average at what Awesome is special at. He did a few good moves at the end, but the match was too one-sided. **1/4
Shinjiro Otani vs. Tom Howard 12:29. Otani came out with a sword, but luckily he didn't spend the entire match hitting Howard with the handle. That said, this was not very convincingly worked. Otani is so unenergetic and uninspiring as a heavyweight. For the most part it was slow and dull with neither party looking as good as their partner in the previous match. Toward the end it got good, turning into a junior style match with Howard trying moves off the top like the Frankensteiner and somersault. *3/4
Shinya Hashimoto & Yoshiaki Fujiwara vs. Steve Corino & C.W. Anderson 16:10. Very odd match. Basically a comedy match with Corino & C.W.'s style and over the top mannerisms seemingly very out of place, but this is what they chose to play up. Fujiwara conformed to their jokey style and played whipping boy. Hashimoto did his thing, but was basically on his own as Fujiwara wasn't any help or seeming any kind of threat. Onita came out and cut a promo until Hashimoto attacked after the match.
Mika Nishio vs. Mirai 4:41 of 8:15. They stepped it up for the big show. Competent wrestling with good energy. Lots of big chops, which Mirai did well.
Yukari Kitao vs. Bullfight Sora 4:55 of 7:08. Kitao's offense is different because she incorporates judo in some new ways. Unfortunately, she made several mistakes. Sora showed nothing.
Masked Women vs. Extreme: baby A & Ofune & Bolshoi Kid vs. GAMI & Rufisto & Sel Del Rey 3:44 of 13:24. Awful chaotic slop. GAMI's team dominated, but surprisingly she took the bump into the tacks and was pinned.
Sachie Abe vs. Rie Tamada 2:49 of 8:52. Not a boring match as Abe kept the moves coming, but probably pretty bad. Between the two of them it seemed someone would find a way to make the execution less than perfect.
Rena Takase vs. Azumi Hyuga 2:58 of 14:58. Looked good. Takase has finally added some junior style offense to complement her submissions.
Mima Shimoda Intai Jiai: Mima Shimoda vs. Ai Fujita 18:19. Run of the mill Shimoda singles match that was not memorable for her in any way, but her unselfishness at least theoretically helped her less experienced opponent. Typical Fujita match with hot moves, but the wrestlers not working together in a way that made either look better. Fujita never got any better when it came to taking or selling, and this was kind of sloppy with some pathetic punches. Shimoda did her typical good job brawling, bloodying Fujita early with a chair. She threw in a few hot moves like the Hokuto tope con hilo, but in general she doesn't excel in the spectacular and Fujita doesn'te excel in the brawl. I thought they'd incorporate that into the story, but after Fujita started succeeding in her own style for some reason she switched back to Shimoda's and Shimoda came right back. ASARI, Maekawa, Kazama, Tateno, Toyota, Yamada, etc. were there for the retirement ceremony. **3/4
Man vs. Women Handicap Match: Mima Shimoda & Etsuko Mita vs. Jinsei Shinzaki 6:15. Everyone wanted to see LCO one last time, but to have a highly successful hellraising heel duo go out by jobbing to a lazy no selling man? Even if they wanted a man for something different, a spotlight kid like Shinzaki is not the type you want when you are purportedly attempting to honor someone else. I just don't know what they were thinking, but then I've been saying that throughout the decline into oblivion. Why not LCO vs. Yamada & Toyota who were from the same rookie class and in attendance anyway? The unscheduled match started with Shimoda attacking Shinzaki after her ceremony. With Shinzaki poised to deliver his praying powerbomb, Mita's music played starting the not so extreme handicap match. Shinzaki looked very uncomfortable working with the women, and made it way too obvious he was allowing them to do their moves to him. Of course, he'd only take if he was double teamed, and thus would have his way with the other once he hurt one. DUD
A to Z The Best of Best: Yumiko Hotta & Mariko Yoshida vs. Momoe Nakanishi & AKINO 19:26. At least this show made an attempt to feature some younger and lesser name wrestlers. Momoe was flying all over the place and her team showed good teamwork and timing. As long as Yoshida was in just about everything looked good. Good start with her and AKINO on the mat, but quickly devolved into the usual mindless spectacle. Drastic pace changes (declines) when Hotta came in. She sold double teams and got countered once in a while, but always came right back. By 10:00 they were trying to make you believe it was over, so there was a bit of drama just from the fact the finishing sequence was so long. Shimoda came out with glasses and a sexy suit after the match and formed a group with Fujita, Nishio, Ofune, and baby A. The rest of the wrestlers on the show sided with Hotta or Momoe. ***1/4
#2
Obacchi Iizuka vs. Yumi Oka. A mockery. Oka posed for pictures, painted Obacchi's face in the middle of the match, and so on. She had to pose before doing her lame elbow drop, so perhaps we should call it the schoolgirl's elbow? There wasn't enough in Oka's head to break the daikon on the first try. 6:12 of 9:26. -**
Emi Tojo vs. Mizuho Ishikawa. Atrocious match with tons of mechanical poorly executed moves. Hilarious kakato otoshi by Ishikawa. 4:21 of 8:29
MARU vs. Mari Kuwada. 2:48 of 10:20
Sumie Sakai & Ariya vs. Fang Suzuki & Ranmaru. Sakai was in a class by herself. Normally Fang could go near her level, but she wasn't at her best today, partially because she was mostly stuck with Ariya. Seemed average. 4:42 of 15:36
Megumi Yabushita vs. Hiroyo Muto. They worked pretty well together with Yabushita's athleticism contrasting (and setting up) Muto's power. Muto isn't in Yabushita's class on the mat, but Yabushita doesn't really work to her submissions anyway so it didn't hurt the match like it might have if Yabushita was a more credible submission wrestler. 7:10 of 11:15. **
The Bloody vs. Sachie Abe. An all out match that was supposed to be a great match, but was incredibly unbelievable. Abe started off in Toyota like fashion with a springboard body attack while still in her ring robe, but it was that much more ridiculous because she had to climb from the middle to the top before doing the move to her unharmed opponent. Bloody quickly went hardcore, but since Abe is also influenced by poor woman's Toyota KAORU she uses a broken table half for flying moves. Abe is executing her flying a little better, but the main problem was how contrived it was because she has no other offense thus she goes to it when her opponent is fresh, when they aren't in prone positions, and so on. 13:29 of 18:25. *3/4
Chiaki Nishi retirement ceremony
#3
Emi Tojo & Mizuho Ishikawa vs. Obacchi Iizuka & Yumi Oka 6:36 of 9:27. Mostly serious match that was funny only because Tojo & Ishikawa found every possible way to poorly execute their offense. Rob Van Tojo has to do a forward roll to show off before her deadly dropkick, and by the time she's actually ready for the move her opponent is too close. Oka sold the whole time. -*
Chitose Yamamoto & Emi Tomimatsu vs. Maya Sakai & Apple Miyuki 3:24 of 5:19. Far more watchable than the previous match. The K-Dojo team stuck to basic moves and heel tactics, mainly executing them adequately. Each wrestler pulled off one big move.
Masked Heroine Dream Match: Ranmaru vs. noki-A 6:35 of 12:32. Some good flying. A played arrogant heel to get the fans to root for Maru. Nothing that would make you think Maru would win, but the work was pretty good.
Sachie Abe vs. KAZUKI 2:49 of 15:30. A mess of a brawl. They threw trash cans at each other then settled on one to use. Someone threw a board in for Abe, several feet over her head.
QOR Senshuken: Fang Suzuki vs. Nanae Takahashi 8:05 of 20:02. Good or better match that was probably one of the better Jd' matches of 2002. Awesomely professional compared to everything that came before with the exception of noki-A's match. Fang was in top form here, extracting a surprisingly dramatic match from Takahashi. They made you believe in the near falls, and were able to do several minutes of them without exhausting or killing all their moves.
TWF Sekai Tag Senshuken: Sumie Sakai & Megumi Yabushita vs. The Bloody & Tsunami 12:48 of 18:36. Lioness wouldn't sell much for the younger wrestlers, but she could get around one or two stiffs and use her routine to have a good match. These younger girls have good matches with each other, but the league lacks the depth to keep programming them against each other and they haven't figured out how to circumvent the stiffs. Tsunami is one amazing stiff. She mistimed ever step in her sequences with Sakai, insisted on kicking even though she seemingly can only lift her legs 8 inches off the ground, and is even hesitant just running. Tsunami is so slow the others could do 3 or 4 spots before she even ascended to the middle rope. Tsunami badly needed to be spotted. She should have come in after 5 minutes and used her size to clean house once or twice. One problem is Bloody is the star of the league, so it's hard to ask her to do the selling to protect a cow everyone knows has no business in the main event. With Tsunami starting, the match was in the toilet before Bloody even tagged in. It was spectacular when Bloody was in with either opponent, really fast action. TAKA doublecrossed the Jd' head after the match, so Abe came out to save the day. She looked to be getting squashed, but slipped out of the Michinoku drive II and dropkicked TAKA to the floor.
#6
Zen Nihon Junior Oza Kettei Leaguesen: Emi Tojo vs. Saki Maemura 3:29. Not the solid AJW junior style, and a mess for it. More like jump around style.
Chitose Yamamoto & Mizuho Ishikawa vs. Obacchi Iizuka & Yumi Oka 7:39 of 12:25. Asstresses making asses of themselves. Oka & Ishikawa put on a clinic in making everything look far worse than it should. Everyone worked at 1/4 speed, and still everything was blown.
Ranmaru vs. TSUNAMI 3:15 of 6:41. DJ Nira had to interfere to get TSUNAMI the win. That might have helped Ranmaru a little if she got more than token offense in first and lasted a little while.
KAZUKI vs. Hiroyo Muto 3:20 of 6:30. Muto is more effective against an athletic opponent than one like KAZUKI who has a similar body type. Still showed some promise before the premature finish.
The Bloody vs. Megumi Yabushita 11:10. Much shorter and far less complex than their earlier matches. Bloody gives as much effort on a small show as anyone and not surprisingly the moves were good, but it lacked drama and development. **
Sachie Abe vs. Fang Suzuki 14:51 of 15:01. Despite Jd's efforts to make this a key program I can't see this as the main event over Bloody vs. Yabushita. To their credit, they certainly exceeded the previous match, proving the faith the league put in them wasn't unfounded. Kind of like a very poor man's Toyota vs. Aja except the brawling was more garbage oriented. Laid out fairly well, and Abe was more under control because of the opportunities Fang gave her. The wrestling was better than in their cage match. First 12:00 was quite good , but Abe started to falter during some of the key spots and counters. A damn good effort that's probably their best match together even though Abe lost it toward the end and they overused their finishers. **3/4
#7
TWF Tag Oza Kettei 1 Day Tournament Ikkaisen
Hiroyo Muto & Ranmaru vs. Fang Suzuki & Chitose Yamamoto 5:48 of 9:03. Good action and surprisingly solid execution. Fang was good and Maru was allowed to do some moves again. Would have been better if Fang & Yamamoto developed some double teams rather than a pose, but Yamamoto was at her best here. For some reason it didn't hurt Yamamoto to be jackknifed into Ranmaru. **1/4
JYAGIE & Apple Miyuki vs. Sachie Abe & KAZUKI 5:43 of 10:32. Passable match that was mainly Abe vs. Miyuki. The only thing memorable about Miyuki is she has an apple on her ass. If it was candied, she might perhaps serve some purpose. Abe seems to be getting better at finishing segments, adding an element of drama and complex moves she was actually hitting.
Obacchi Iizuka & Yumi Oka vs. The Bloody & TSUNAMI 4:11 of 9:17. Bloody got stuck doing all the selling. She made it watchable, but overall it was just too corny. In the world of Obacchi, popping a plastic bag in front of someone's face makes them fall into a sunset flip.
Mima Shimoda & Mizuho Ishikawa vs. Megumi Yabushita & Sumie Sakai 8:16 of 18:05. Shimoda worked most of the match to keep it from sucking asstress, but Jd' looked really bad becase 2 of their 3 top stars "had to" double team Shimoda to gain the advantage. Tojo did interfere on Shimoda's behalf. Ishikawa was ridiculously out of her depth. Overall it was okay with some good stretches and some sloppiness.
Handicap Match: Fang Suzuki & Obacchi Iizuka & Maru & Chitose Yamamoto vs. Emi Tojo & Mizuho Ishikawa & Yumi Oka 5:54 of 14:43. Even when the sides are even it's "special" wrestling anytime the asstresses are involved. Fang was the only one that did anyting in this bad match.
TWF Tag Oza Kettei 1 Day Tournament Junkessho: Sachie Abe & KAZUKI vs. The Bloody & TSUNAMI 3:01 of 10:29. Pace was far too frantic for TSUNAMI. KAZUKI got the push because TSUNAMI can't take any of Abe's moves. Bad
TWF Tag Oza Kettei 1 Day Tournament Kesshosen: Sachie Abe & KAZUKI vs. Hiroyo Muto & Ranmaru 10:54 of 13:02. Nothing special about this match, in fact it was just there. Helter skelter mishmash. Just when I complement Abe she's back to her sloppy contrived finishes. Luckily Muto regained control and KAZUKI got involved before it actually ended. *1/2
Pre match activities - setting up ring, warming up, acting as ring girl for Tamada vs. Takada
7/14/01 Kyoto KBS Hall: Ayako Hamada & Azumi Hyuga vs. Michiko Omukai & Bionic J 18:28. Good efforts here. Didn't build, but good throughout and never dull. Ayako & Azumi worked well with Omukai, good sequences and counters. J looked plodding with Ayako, but they did a vicious exchange of chops and everything she did was high impact . ***1/4
post mach activities - signing at table, taking down ring, loading bus
4/21/01 QUEEN OF ARSION Title Match: Ayako Hamada vs. Mariko Yoshida 6:21 of 16:06. Seemed to be a back and forth match, unfortunately in Ayako's style. In this form it all seemed meaningless.
Ayako highlight reel
5/6/01 TWINSTAR OF ARSION Title Match: Etsuko Mita & Mima Shimoda vs. Ayako Hamada & Azumi Hyuga 5:20 of 19:03. Good chemistry and some drama. Seemed good if not better.
Beauty Pair battle Black Pair in a regular match, but since it's a movie they have to make it ridiculous with all the corny sound effects that sound like rejects from Kung Fu Theatre, dizzying handheld shots, freeze frames, and close-ups of little girls without front teeth screaming "Jackie! Jackie!" Black Pair are made to seem extra vicious, with Ikeshita's headbutts sounding like someone is slapping a bongo drum and slams sound like a cannon firing. Ikeshita repeatedly pummels Jackie's knee with a chair for the count out, breaking her leg and sending her to the hospital. Then they tell the story of the Beauty Pair with Sato being a basketball star who gets the idea to wrestle when an AJW wrestler saves her from a gang of goons. She has to run away to join the league because her mom doesn't approve. Sato is so powerful she accidentally kicks a whole through a wall during training. Meanwhile Ueda is a failed volleyball player who is weak, but Sato believes in her. She toughens her up and Ueda is loyal. Ueda fights singles while Sato does her rehab and Black Pair train in biting and eye gouging. All of this leads to the inevitable climactic big rematch. I thought Beauty Pair had more than one song, but instead it seems to be different sections or versions of the same thing littered throughout the film, a recipe that succeeds in topping Jesus Franco for groovy 70's cheesiness (but unfortunately doesn't come with Soledad Miranda). In Japanese with no subtitles.
Idol actress Yuma Nakamura is a motorcycle racer who defends her bike shop owning friends from punk biker chicks. She attends a JWP show with the girl from the bike shop, which features Mayumi Ozaki vs. Hikari Fukuoka. Refreshingly this is a whole match taken from a JWP release, they just show Nakamura in the crowd before and after to try to pass the illusion she was in the audience. Nakamura and the grotesque punks have words after the show, with Masatashi Yamamoto, Harley Saito, Utako Hozumi, Maki Kitamura, and Eagle Sawaii helping to prevent a fight then another argument breaking out involving Ozaki. The bikers kidnap the girl from the bike shop, so Nakamura has to go to their warehouse and drive around until the bikers all fall off their bikes or crash into something. It turns out Devil Masami is the leader of the bad gang. She bends a steel rod in half to intimidate Nakamura, but before she can take her apart Ozaki shows up to save the day. The climactic battle between Ozaki & Devil is basically a little match that includes Devil chokeslamming Ozaki into some boxes and Ozaki using the boxes in absence of a top rope. Making of footage follows. In Japanese with no subtitles.
*Special price $18 or $23.50 COOP*
Crane Yu vs. Noriyo Tateno 12:00 of ? (full time draw). Shiro Abe was in full heel ref form, doing quick counts on Tateno when she had Yu in a submission but her shoulders happened to touch the mat. Abe found a way to miss every foreign object and run in, even getting mysteriously "distracted" when Tateno would tell him it was coming. Yamazaki finally tired of this and jumped in for some double teaming, turning the tide and greatly improving the match quality since Yu is a willing bumper but offensively she's Dump minus all the heat. Pretty good match that seemed about the right length, getting better as it went on and peaking in the final minute.
Jumbo Hori & Itsuki Yamazaki vs. Dump Matsumoto & Keiko Nakano 7:27. Energetic match that was a bit out of control in the good sense. Short but action packed with Yamazaki and Nakano carrying the match, which kept it from being the usual bludgeoning. Abe was at it again, bothering Hori about straying too far down the apron while Dump's team was having their way with Yamazaki. He even held Yamazaki for Dump to attack, so Hori attacked him. ***
Yumi Ogura Hawaii Report. She goes to various restaurants and her fellow wrestlers give her some of their food or order the same for her. Odd see Jaguar in a dress.
Devil Masami vs. La Galactica 11:20. Galactica isn't the most graceful Luchadora, but she's a lot more exciting than the Japanese heels because she does all their cheating but also can fly. Devil wrestled her style, but didn't get much offense in. Abe and Rossy Moreno helped see to that, as it turned to brawling and cheating after a quick start. **3/4
2/3 Falls: Jaguar Yokota & Yukari Omori & Mika Komatsu vs. Lioness Asuka & Chigusa Nagayo & Yumi Ogura 11:18, 3:46, 2:38. Hyper action wrestled at double speed. Would not have been notable if wrestled at regular speed, but the pace helped mask the limitations of the lesser performers. Quick tags, usually changing once per minute, kept things fresh and the pace high. Jaguar & Lioness excelled in this style as usual, with Ogura holding her own and even getting a pin (granted on Komatsu). Komatsu didn't seem ready to work at this speed. ***3/4
AJW TV 1/84 taped Shizuoka-ken Sangyokan
Crush Gals sing
Yukari Omori & Itsuki Yamazaki & Mika Komatsu vs. Dump Matsumoto & La Galactica & Rossy Moreno 15:04. Pretty choppy sequences, particularly between the Mexicans and natives. Rossy, who stinks anyway, was worse than usual. Faces were pretty good. Komatsu was better here since she wasn't in with anyone who was too advanced for her. There was a nice spot where Dump tried to hit her with a weapon, but Komatsu took her down with a leg trip. Dump sold more since she wasn't the top heel yet, and though the heels were mediocre they did draw lots of heat. Still Nakano, who only interfered, gave a better performance than any of the heels actually in the match. **1/4
TV spoof where "Crack Gals" try to sing but are beat up by "Denfu Matsumoto" & "Crane Boo"
Crush Gals feature
ReMIX 3min 5rd: Ikuma Hoshino vs. Mako Ogawa
Takako Inoue & Miori Kamiya vs. Kaoru Ito & Tomoko Watanabe
Osaka Puroresu Battle Royal Senshuken: Osaka Royal Rumble
Chikako Shiratori Intai: Chikako Shiratori vs. Rie Tamada
5 Min Bonus 3 Way Dance: Chikako Shiratori vs. Rie Tamada vs. Kumiko Maekawa
*Special price $20 or $25.50 COOP (insert autographed)*
5 vs. 5 Jikan Museigen (unlimited time) Elimination Match: Akira Maeda & Yoshiaki Fujiwara & Osamu Kido & Nobuhiko Takada & Kazuo Yamazaki vs. Antonio Inoki & Tatsumi Fujinami & Kengo Kimura & Umanosuke Ueda & Kantaro Hoshino. Incredible atmosphere because the crowd reactions were unreal. ****1/4
3/27 Matsumoto Shi Sogo Taiikukan
Satoru Asako vs. Kentaro Shiga. Highlights
Yoshinari Ogawa & Masao Inoue vs. Jun Akiyama & Tsuyoshi Kikuchi. Highlights
Doug Furnas vs. Tamon Honda. Highlights
Rusher Kimura & Mighty Inoue & Mitsuo Momota vs. Masa Fuchi & Haruka Eigen & Jun Izumida. Highlights
'94 Champion Carnival League Match: Big John Nord vs. Johnny Smith. Highlights
'94 Champion Carnival League Match: Toshiaki Kawada vs. Johnny Ace
'94 Champion Carnival League Match: Kenta Kobashi vs. Akira Taue. ****
Steve Williams & Dan Kroffat & The Eagle vs. Stan Hansen & Giant Baba & Takao Omori
4/1 Okayama Budokan
Kentaro Shiga vs. Satoru Asako. Highlights
Masao Inoue vs. Tamon Honda. Highlights
Rusher Kimura & Mitsuo Momota vs. Masa Fuchi & Haruka Eigen. Highlights
Big John Nord & Johnny Smith vs. Doug Furnas & Dan Kroffat. Highlights
Akira Taue & Yoshinari Ogawa vs. Doug Furnas & Dan Kroffat
'94 Champion Carnival League Match: Toshiaki Kawada vs. Akira Taue
Stan Hansen & Giant Baba & Takao Omori vs. Steve Williams & Johnny Ace & The Eagle
4/10 Sendai Miyagi-ken Sports Center
Satoru Asako vs. Kentaro Shiga. Highlights
Mighty Inoue & Yoshinari Ogawa vs. Takao Omori & Tamon Honda. Highlights
Johnny Ace & The Eagle vs. Big John Nord & Dan Kroffat. Highlights
Jumbo Tsuruta & Rusher Kimura & Mitsuo Momota vs. Haruka Eigen & Masao Inoue & Ryukaku Izumida
'94 Champion Carnival League Match: Doug Furnas vs. Johnny Smith. Highlights
'94 Champion Carnival League Match: Jun Akiyama vs. Steve Williams
'94 Champion Carnival League Match: Kenta Kobashi vs. Stan Hansen
Mitsuharu Misawa & Giant Baba & Tsuyoshi Kikuchi vs. Toshiaki Kawada & Akira Taue & Masa Fuchi
4/11 Osaka Furitsu Taiikukaikan
Mighty Inoue vs. Kentaro Shiga. Highlights
Tsuyoshi Kikuchi & Satoru Asako vs. Doug Furnas & Dan Kroffat. Highlights
Yoshinari Ogawa & Takao Omori & Tamon Honda vs. Johhny Ace & The Eagle & Johnny Smith. Highlights
Giant Baba & Rusher Kimura & Mitsuo Momota vs. Masa Fuchi & Haruka Eigen & Masao Inoue. Highlights
'94 Champion Carnival League Match: Steve Williams vs. Big John Nord. Highlights
'94 Champion Carnival League Match: Kenta Kobashi vs. Jun Akiyama
'94 Champion Carnival League Match: Akira Taue vs. Stan Hansen
'94 Champion Carnival League Match: Mitsuharu Misawa vs. Toshiaki Kawada
4/14 Nagoya Aichi-ken Taiikukan
Yoshinari Ogawa & Kentaro Shiga vs. Tsuyoshi Kikuchi & Satoru Asako. Highlights
Mighty Inoue vs. The Eagle. Highlights
Rusher Kimura & Mitsuo Momota vs. Haruka Eigen & Masao Inoue. Highlights
Johnny Ace & Big John Nord vs. Doug Furnas & Dan Kroffat. Highlights
Giant Baba & Masa Fuchi & Takao Omori vs. Kenta Kobashi & Jun Akiyama & Tamon Honda
Mitsuharu Misawa vs. Johnny Smith
'94 Champion Carnival League Match: Stan Hansen vs. Steve Williams
'94 Champion Carnival League Match: Toshiaki Kawada vs. Akira Taue
4/15 Tokyo Korakuen Hall
Kentaro Shiga vs. Mitsuo Momota. Highlights
Satoru Asako vs. Yoshinari Ogawa. Highlights
Tamon Honda vs. Big John Nord. Highlights
Rusher Kimura & Mighty Inoue vs. Haruka Eigen & Masao Inoue
'94 Champion Carnival League Match: Johnny Ace vs. The Eagle
Mitsuharu Misawa & Jun Akiyama & Tsuyoshi Kikuchi vs. Doug Furnas & Dan Kroffat & Johnny Smith
Stan Hansen & Giant Baba & Takao Omori vs. Toshiaki Kawada & Akira Taue & Masa Fuchi
'94 Champion Carnival League Match: Kenta Kobashi vs. Steve Williams
Wonderland #236 taped 12/10/86 Osaka Jo Hall
IWGP Junior Heavykyu Senshuken: Shiro Koshinaka vs. Kazuo Yamazaki 21:50. Intense highly technical match with impressive movement on the mat largely due to Yamazaki. Koshinaka got off to a quick start with hip attacks then they took it to the mat and the match got progressively slower during the first 11 minutes. Yamazaki then teased a dive, one of many effective teases. Went back and forth with neither being able to sustain and advantage and both having legitimate chances to win. They weren't able to hurt each other either, so it seemed it would come down to whoever caught their opponent off guard or got lucky. In these days wrestlers still knew how to do a match to get over a finish, particularly one that wasn't with a finisher. This is a perfect example of how not winning with a finisher can be more exciting because by opening up other possibilities rather than the usual narrowing down to a few the intensity and drama can be increased and multiplied. When you can believe because they allow you to but you aren't sure because it's more based on being trapped or caught off guard than incapacitated there can be several edge of the seat moments. Fans were pro Shiro, but popped for all the near finishes. Yamazaki really brought a lot to this match, but Koshinaka also deserves a ton of credit for his ability to work the style of the UWF fighters. ****
Tatsumi Fujinami vs. Kengo Kimura 12:36. Big disappointment. Rather than develop the technical end they just sat in holds. Then it finally looked like it would get good with Kimura doing his big moves, but Fujinami flash pinned him out of nowhere. **
Wonderland #184
3/8/85 Kanagawa Yokohama Bunka Taiikukan: Keiji Muto vs. Masahiro Chono 14:22. 5 months into their career you could already see that at least Muto was going to be top notch. Solid well executed match. A bit dull, but they mixed things up pretty well and usually had something going on. Muto was such a great athlete that he was allowed to do some high spots, finishing Chono off with his space rolling elbow then moonsault. If they didn't have big plans for him he could already have been pushed in the junior division (granted it was at it's weakest). Chono was fine, but he didn't have an identity or a style yet, he seemed to be well trained but lack a direction. **
4/18/85 Tokyo Ryogoku Kokugikan: Antonio Inoki vs. Bruiser Brody 26:16. These two worked extremely well together, and the match was elevated by the fans eating everything they did up. Just amazing heat. Inoki wore an athletic supporter under a mass of tape on his bum left arm, which Brody went right after, damaging it with a powerslam of all things. Inoki's rare offense knocked Brody back, but not off his feat. Even the first enzuigiri only staggered him. The second knocked him briefly onto one knee, but finally the third knocked him down onto both knees. Unfortunately they failed to capitalize on what they set up early, with the arm totally forgotten and Inoki having blown his best move to minimal effect. The fans stayed highly involved though, and get particularly excited when Inoki applies the manjigatame. They get something going again when some big spots lead to a Brody knee injury. Brody is one of the few no sellers that is actually a good seller and utilizes no selling to make it meaningful when he does indeed sell. As Inoki continued to attack the appendage Brody actually got a bloody knee. Brody is so tough that even beating on him takes something from the opponent, with Inoki being too spent to cover immediately on his backdrop allowing Brody to just kick out. They kept teasing every form of screw job, which was supposed to add to the drama, and did get reactions, but the problem was this was what you dreaded. The beginning was excellent, but didn't set up the match they did. The ending was excellent, but the egos prevent them from providing closure. The middle was somewhat wasted, but had enough good (for them) moves to keep things interesting. ***1/2
Wonderland #126 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. *
Abdullah the Butcher & Ebedullah Buchan & Yaz Urano vs. Shigeo Okumura & Gran Hamada, & Taichi Ishikari 11:58
Ryuji Hijikata & Nobukazu Hirai vs. Nobutaka Araya & Hideki Hosaka 9:08
TAKA Michinoku, The Gladiator, & Bull Buchanan vs. Arashi, Hi69, & Masayuki Kono 12: 09
Hardcore Tag Match: Tomoaki Honma & Kazushi Miyamoto vs. NOSAWA & MAZADA 12:27
Genichiro Tenryu vs. Masa Fuchi 10:43
World Junior Title Match: Kaz Hayashi vs. BLUE-K (TAKA Michinoku) 14:31
Taiyo Kea vs. Satoshi Kojima 19:23
Keiji Mutoh & Bob Sapp vs. Jamal & D-Lo Brown 15:05
Sankan Heavykyu Senshuken: Toshiaki Kawada vs. Shinya Hashimoto 19:57
Hiroyuki Ito vs. Tomohiko Yoshida 7:23. Ito was far superior to his inexperienced opponent to the point it wasn't much of a match. He made some good moves, but everything came too easily and Yoshida's main defense was the rope escape. *
Ryu Echigo vs. Manabu Hara 15:00. Echigo is a suplex guy, while Hara seems to like the flying knee and high kick. They showed fire and intensity, particularly in the key moments when they had a flurry of action. It was too long given their inexperience so they weren't able to sustain things, but it had it's moments and was good enough to keep you interested. **1/2
Naoki Kimura vs. Katsuhisa Fujii 2:09. Fujii is very aggressive and shows potential. Kimura thinks he's all big and bad, but hits as gay as he looks.
Takehiro Murahama vs. Kyosuke Sasaki 8:49. They did something different here, staying away from the big moves through a kind of extended feeling out period where they always kept just far enough out of range. That sound boring but it was anything but. They managed to find credible ways to miss and then from time to time they'd perform an explosive sequence at lightning speed. They even credibly worked in a little story of Murahama trying to go for pro wrestling moves. Sasaki did enough, particularly early on to make himself credible, though like many a UWF-I match it was undermined by his standing not being nearly what Murahama's is. Sasaki looked very promising. ***1/4
Wataru Sakata vs. Kazuki Okubo 8:42. Okubo shows his inexperience, and Sakata was quite content with just beating him up. Okubo was never in the match, and his striking is pretty weak (not crisp or precise). Usually Sakata's one of the better guys at getting more out of less, but today he just looked sharp offensively. *1/2
Kiyoshi Tamura vs. Dokonjonosuke Mishima 10:06. Mishima is a world class shorter and an excellent athlete, but he's got no experience working. Of course it helps to be going against the best, but he certainly showed potential. He seemed unsure when to attack sometimes and oversold badly once, but with this opposition there was no problem putting him right in the main event. Tamura wasn't able to develop the match as much and went through the points a lot quicker than he likes, but the quality was consistently good. Mishima did a cool kick where he started to do a cartwheel so he could kick Tamura in the head. ***
Bat Yoshinaga & Tomoko Watanabe & Hirosuine Sonteitam vs. Miori Kamiya & Mika Takahashi & Kaoru Ito
Yumiko Hotta & Mima Shimoda & Sakie Hasegawa vs. Debbie Malenko & Esther Moreno & Cynthia Moreno
AJ Title: Takako Inoue vs. Mariko Yoshida
JGP '91: Toshiyo Yamada vs. Kyoko Inoue 13:14. Yamada & Kyoko had so much speed and energy in these days. Kyoko brought next to nothing to Yamada's UWF style, so it was better in the second half when Yamada used her athletic kicks. Exciting but somewhat sloppy match. Yamada was the better of the two. **1/2
JGP '91 Semifinal: Aja Kong vs. Bison Kimura 20:05. Psychological brawl. Bison knew her partner had an injured foot, so she beat on it mercilessly throughout the match. She mixed brawling and submission, using a chair and billy club on it and even bit the foot after removing Aja's shoe and sock. Bison was easily the better wrestler of the two at this point, but she didn't have the push so she needed every advantage to defeat her partner. Aja did a great job of making it seem like the pain was real, even throwing in a sloppy suplex where her foot couldn't take the pressure. She was hardly on offense, which wasn't a bad thing especially given how could she could sell when she had reason to. Fans didn't get into it much, probably because they're both heels, but this was probably the most focused match the promotion delivered all year. ***3/4
JGP '91 Semifinal: Manami Toyota vs. Kyoko Inoue 14:02. Not in the class with their later matches because they didn't possess the move sets. Their matches were always all about action, but after the hot start this actually had quite a few pointless submissions. Picked up toward the end, but the finish wasn't overly satisfying. Good action but not what would come to expect. ***
Suzuka Minami & Etsuko Mita vs. Bull Nakano & Akira Hokuto
JGP '91 Final: Kyoko Inoue vs. Bison Kimura 10:49. Their styles mesh well. Bison is quite a smart wrestler, who can carry Kyoko to a solid match. She's tough and a good brawler, but she's not overly exciting. That's Kyoko's strength, using her energy to pop the crowd. Bison would dominate portions, with Kyoko pulling out an exciting counter. Bison cut Kyoko right off the bat, but surprisingly didn't really follow up on it. Otherwise it was a pretty smart match. There were a few problems though, largely the length. It seemed like they worked too long earlier and were lacking a little toward the end of the final when they needed it most, and having the final be the shortest of the bunch was a bit of an odd idea to begin with. It's a little sloppy toward the end, but quite a good match if you can take it for what it is rather than holding it to a standard set by better, more experienced wrestlers. What they did here was elevate the #2's of Bull & Aja, with Bison getting one good upset win and Kyoko getting three wins over more experienced wrestlers. ***1/2
Kazushi Sakuraba vs. Kenichi Yamamoto
Vladmir Berkovich vs. Hiromitsu Kanehara 5:34. Kanehara plays striker because he supposedly can't wrestle with the amateur star. Berkovich allows Kanehara to kick him full force, taking several wicked kicks to make the match. Unfortuately, once Berkovich gets a hold of Kanehara it's over without too much resistance. Good for what it was. **1/2
Dan Severn vs. Yoshihiro Takayama
Tatsuo Nakano & Victor Zangiev vs. Yoji Anjo & Yuko Miyato
Masahito Kakihara & Steve Nelson vs. Kiyoshi Tamura & Jean Lydick 16:19. Tried so hard to be realistic that they never got around to making it interesting. They didn't do anything wrong and it was credible, but there was so little action. It was like credibility was defined by not trying anything. Tamura likes to start slowly, but this never moved forward from that mode. **
Nobuhiko Takada vs. Naoki Sano 17:24. The question isn't how good of a match they could do; Takada's superhuman standing doesn't allow such considerations. It's how much Takada will allow Sano to compete, and the results were better than expected. Sano played the resiliant role, getting in brief trouble several times but coming up with something before Takada could put a run on him. Though Takada did more damage and lost less points because he doesn't concede many rope breaks, the match remained pretty even time wise. You never believed Takada would lose, but Sano would get him in submissions. Takada even bled a little. The work was very solid, credible and impactful, with strong though not all out performances by both. ***1/4
Super Vader & Big John Tenta vs. Gary Albright & Kazuo Yamazaki 14:07. All about building up the Vader vs. Albright singles match in January. Vader attacked Gary before the bell, and they wound up on the floor where they had to be pulled apart. The match then took a few minutes to start because Vader was demanding Albright, but Yamazaki kept telling Albright to yet him start. This led to an excellent opening where Yamazaki got himself involved in the match, made Vader take notice, by kicking Vader when he was taunting Albright to get in and fight him. Crowd started chanting Yamazaki and was psyched when he'd lay in the low kicks, blocking Vader's clubbing blows and staying outside when he could. Soon enough Vader got toYamazaki, but Yamazaki did well enough that Vader was the first to tag. Yamazaki stayed in for what seemed like a long time because he was so dwarfed and eventually took some big punishment (actually only 5 min), then Albright was in for quite a while. Albright was able to suplex Vader no problem, but obviously the quality went way down when he was in, particularly with Tenta who there was no heat on. Yamazaki made the hot tag and looked good against Vader again for a very brief period; he actually had more heat (or at least excitement and enthusiasm) on himself than there was for Vader vs. Albright (though of course the bookers didn't pay attention). Yamazaki couldn't get the big men off their feet and had to stay out of range, so he was relegated to kicking the whole match. He'd done big damage with enzuigiri counters, but Vader got wise to it and pulled him up right into a powerbomb. Started great, but the finish was highly anticlimactic. Yamazaki was typically excellent, incorporating good story points that the crowd would react to as usual. Vader & Albright were fine, having their moments but showing some weaknesses in between. They did enough yelling and taunting to interest the crowd in their match, but it's hard for them to work together because they are both monsters, thus there weren't huge reactions do their segment outside of one or two signature spots. Tenta didn't hurt the match, but he was basically just taking up space. They would have been better off having a smaller guy with Vader if only because when building a battle of monsters it tends to make sense to have the hugest guy in the match involved in those plans. ***1/4
Action movie has Kakuta, Shiratori, and an older friend helping a man who is getting beaten up by thugs in the park. The man turns out to be the senpai of the older friend, and they rekindle their relationship briefly before the senpai is found dead in the park. The threesome try to get to the bottom of the murder, culminating with a battle with the gang of goons. Shiratori is an impetuous character, riding ahead of the others on her motorcycle and winding up taking the bad guys on by herself (as Kakuta gets detained). She beats up several men, fighting with her black bike gloves and often using a backblow. One of them no sells all he blows and puts her in the hospital, so he's the one Kakuta has the big fight with at the end. In Japanese with no subtitles.
3/24/00, 1st Round: Johnny Smith vs. Tamon Honda 1:40 of 15:12
3/26/00, 1st Round: Jun Akiyama vs. Takao Omori 0:07. Given the length it was not totally ridiculous. Akiyama ran the ropes, but was caught by surprise when Omori pushed the ref into him. Before he could recover Omori landed an axe bomber. Akiyama staggered up, but Omori got him with two more for the win.
3/26/00, 1st Round: Akira Taue vs. Steve Williams 17:15. These guys need a more active athletic type. It was only going to be good if they beat the hell out of each other, which didn't happen. One good segment was when they were outside the ring and Taue tried to nodowa Williams off the apron and Williams tried to backdrop driver Taue in the stands. Otherwise it adequately executed but dull. **
3/31/00, 1st Round: Toshiaki Kawada vs. Mitsuharu Misawa 16:05. They didn't bother with a beginning or middle, they more or less started with the finish. Misawa was in bad shape quickly and since they couldn't do their usual carny draw due to the tournament format they tried to make you believe it would be a short match. The near falls started before the five minute mark. There was some story as Kawada injured Misawa's eye with a back kick then went after it with punishing strikes. This led to a big spot where Misawa tried a diving elbow, but got caught with a jumping giri. A very good match, but so disappointing by their own standards. They did their famous spots, and more, but in taking out 15 minutes they removed the build, selling, and generally the significance. ***3/4
4/8/00, 2nd Round: Kenta Kobashi vs. Johnny Smith 2:41 of 17:43
4/9/00, Semifinal: Takao Omori vs. Steve Williams 10:33. Boring and messy. They booked Omori into the finals by giving him a few opponents he could possibly beat, but he was not exactly exciting anyone about those prospects with Williams leading him to restholds and a few awkward looking sequences. *3/4
4/11/00, Semifinal: Mitsuharu Misawa vs. Kenta Kobashi 7:35 of 26:08. Why show what's almost certainly the best match of the tournament in its entirety when you can show two Death matches instead?
4/15/00 Tokyo Nippon Budokan, Final: Kenta Kobashi vs. Takao Omori 25:12. Kobashi leisurely controls the first 8 minutes until Omori catches him in the badder knee with a dropkick. Omori stays on the knee, highlighted by a kneebreaker through a table. Omori's knee attack is hardly inspiring, but at least he's totally focused on it. Around 17 they just leave the knee and do all the big spots back and forth for the duration. Omori isn't much of a worker and his offense is uninspiring, but the fans reacted to him in his underdog role. Omori does his best and Kobashi keeps it together, but Kobashi is not the spectacular wrestler he used to be and could never carry a match very well. The execution is sharp, perhaps surprisingly so given Omori, but it all seems rather routine. Certainly a solid match, but it never pulled me in and I never believed Omori could win. ***1/4
11/19 Tokyo Korakuen Hall
Tag League: Yoshiaki Fujiwara & Danny Kroffat (Real Shooter) vs. Steve Williams & Mike Rotunda (Varsity Club) 1:07. At attempt to help rebuild Doc's image and once again have an imposing gaijin team.
Tag League: Masahito Kakihara & Mitsuya Nagai (Team Strongs) vs. Mike Barton & Jim Steele (Super Power) 11:08. Kakihara & Nagai should be a good team, but a shooter team only works if you put them over. This was some bad start putting them against supposed tough guys who are clueless in shoot style and only going to sell so much. The teams worked fairly well together and kept things moving to cover certain wrestlers faults, but starting Team Strongs in this manner made them dead on arrival. **1/2
Tag League: Genichiru Tenryu & Nobutaka Araya (New Revolution) vs. Barry Windham & Kendall Windham (Texas Red Necks) 9:59. Tenryu showed up and carried his team. Araya was just there to get beat on. Windham's just did some unskilled brawling, but were better as a team than individually. Effort was pretty good and match was passable since they kept it short.
Tag League: Toshiaki Kawada & Masa Fuchi (King's Road Racer) vs. Taiyo Kea & Johnny Smith (Future Stars) 10:27 of 30:00. With this name, I guess they are hoping Smith will become a star by his mid 40's. Must have been quite stiff because their bodies were showing the signs of getting smacked around. Appeared to be quite good, but good Kawada needs to be seen in its entirety.
11/27 Niigata: Shigeo Okumura & Mohammed Yone & Gran Naniwa vs. Mike Barton & Barry Windham & Kendall Windham 8:42 of 14:13. Style and pace was dictated by whomever was on offense. They tollerated each other and more than worked together. Barton vs. Naniwa was actually pretty good. Decent match.
12/9 Tokyo Nippon Budokan
Gran Naniwa vs. Ryuji Hijikata 4:30 of 9:28. The moves were nothing special, but they put together some pretty good sequences and counters.
Masahito Kakihara vs. Danny Kroffat 2:55. Kakihara's win meant something because Kroffat has a good history as a junior and is now a supposed shooter. Even in this short time it was obvious Kroffat is a shell of his former self though.
Genichiru Tenryu & Mitsuya Nagai vs. Yoshiaki Fujiwara & Mohammed Yone 12:09. Stiff match with everyone playing tough guy and just standing toe to toe trading shots. Simple match, but at least it was good within it's narrow focus. Yone took quite a beating. **1/2
12/6
Tag League: Masahito Kakihara & Mitsuya Nagai vs. Yoshiaki Fujiwara & Danny Kroffat 4:43 of 12:04. Despite all the shooters, it was not particularly realistic.
Tag League: Taiyo Kea & Johnny Smith vs. Steve Williams & Mike Rotunda 9:07 of 17:40. Simple but fairly effective match. Pretty one-sided though. Rotunda gave a better effort than usual, but the crowd was totally dead.
Tag League: Toshiaki Kawada & Masa Fuchi vs. Genichiru Tenryu & Nobutaka Araya 21:08. This is the kind of match we should get often, and it would still be an interesting promotion if they took the time to make it such. Fuchi is still effective when he's got a role and there's a story to tell. Araya was the "young" guy that didn't belong, so he was given a rude introduction to the main event. Kawada & Fuchi kept him in and stiffed him, going to the face repeatedly. Rather than bail him out, Tenryu rooted for Araya and let him try to prove his worth. At one point it looked like Araya was going to get by Fuchi and finally make the tag, but the crafty vet pulled out a leg trip from the ground. After Araya missed his moonsault, Tenryu "slapped the fighting spirit into him" ala Inoki. Finally Tenryu hurt Fuchi when Araya was legal and told Araya to get him. Fuchi looks really silly when he gets into his head bobbing selling, and there were a few spots in this one where the selling was so fake and exaggerated the crowd just laughed at them. Kawada & Fuchi made the match, with Tenryu hardly working but at least putting effort in when he was in. Fuchi's chest was beat red and Araya must have been in much worse shape but it doesn't show as much on his darker skin. ***1/2
12/9 Tokyo Nippon Budokan
Tournament Semifinal: Taiyo Kea & Johnny Smith vs. Steve Williams & Mike Rotunda 8:20. After these teams drew each other Williams lariated Kea and Rotunda took Smith out. Rotunda would hit smith anytime he started to get up, leaving Kea to fight the first 6 min on his own. Kea was very motivated and looked good. Smith, who eventually made the hot tag, also brought energy. The gaijins beat them up as good as could be expected and this would have been a good match if they didn't have to save something for later. **1/4
Tournament Semifinal: Toshiaki Kawada & Masa Fuchi vs. Mike Barton & Jim Steele. Nothing special. They went through their spots, but their styles don't mesh. Ironically it was far more heated than the previous match, which seemed better and to have a lot more going on. Fuchi looked pretty corny bumping for Steele. Some good near finishes at the end even if they were pretty basic moves.
2000 Sekai Saikyo Tag Kettei Leaguesen Yushosen (Final): Toshiaki Kawada & Masa Fuchi vs. Steve Williams & Mike Rotunda 21:27. Iizuka & Nagata were at ringside scouting Kawada & Fuchi for the upcoming NJ PPV (which turned out to be a memorable match). Not much talent, but they got the most out of their abilities. They kept 3 or 4 guys involved throughout the match, building little rivalries and keeping people in focus. In the later stages, you knew the status of both guys on the team that was losing. They put the big moves in the right spots, which was really important since they don't do flashy moves. A smart match that made the individuals look better than they are, and Varsity look better as a team than individually. Kawada was on top of his game, even putting some of his little touches in. This won't exactly go down as one of the great tag finals, but considering one of the teams is far below average and the other has a 46-year-old wrestler that was phased into the comedy match long before the split you could hardly ask for more. ***1/2
7/2/95
undercard digest
Jun Akiyama & Takao Omori & Satoru Asako vs. Akira Taue & Yoshinari Ogawa & Tsuyoshi Kikuchi
Kenta Kobashi & Ryukaku Izumida vs. Toshiaki Kawada & Masa Fuchi
Mitsuharu Misawa & Giant Baba & Tamon Honda vs. Stan Hansen & Patriot & Johnny Ace
7/21/95
undercard digest
Asia Tag Senshuken: Jun Akiyama & Takao Omori vs. Yoshinari Ogawa & Tsuyoshi Kikuchi
Kenta Kobashi & Kentaro Shiga vs. Toshiaki Kawada & Masa Fuchi
Sankan Heavykyu Senshuken Next Challenger Decision League: Akira Taue vs. Johnny Ace
Mitsuharu Misawa & Tamon Honda & Satoru Asako vs. Stan Hansen & Patriot & Johnny Smith
1/2 Tokyo Korakuen Hall: Heavyweight Battle Royal
1/3 Tokyo Korakuen Hall: Junior Heavyweight Battle Royal
1/10 Osaka, 4 vs. 4 Survival Tag Match: Toshiaki Kawada & Masa Fuchi & Nobutaka Araya & Shigeo Okumura vs. Taiyo Kea & Masahito Kakihara & Mitsuya Nagai & Mohammed Yone
1/14 Tokyo Korakuen Hall, Sekai Tag Senshuken: Toshiaki Kawada & Masa Fuchi vs. Taiyo Kea & Johnny Smith. No Cut
1/7: Masa Fuchi vs. Nobukazu Hirai
1/7: Shigeo Okumura vs. Kyoshiro Suizenji
1/8: Shigeo Okumura & Nobukazu Hirai vs. Yuto Aijima & Kyoshiro Suizenji
1/2 Tokyo Korakuen Hall: Hiroshi Hase vs. Masa Fuchi
1/10 Osaka: Genichiru Tenryu & Yuto Aijima vs. Hiroshi Hase & Johnny Smith
1/2 Tokyo Korakuen Hall: Genichiru Tenryu & Toshiaki Kawada & Shigeo Okumura vs. Mike Barton & Jim Steele & George Hines
1/14 Tokyo Korakuen Hall: Hiroshi Hase & George Hines vs. Masahito Kakihara & Mitsuya Nagai
1/14 Tokyo Korakuen Hall: Nobutaka Araya & Ryuji Hijikata & Nobukazu Hirai vs. Kim Duk & Jim Steele & The Cedman
10/19 Niigata
Sekai Junior Heavykyu Senshuken: Kendo Kashin vs. Jimmy Yang
Keiji Muto & Terry Funk & Masa Fuchi vs. Genichiru Tenryu & Abdullah The Butcher & Nobutaku Araya
MLW World Heavyweight Title: Satoshi Kojima vs. Mitsuya Nagai
10/20 Miyagi: Keiji Muto & Taiyo Kea & Terry Funk & Tomoaki Honma vs. Genichiru Tenryu & Abdullah The Butcher & Nobutaka Araya & Hideki Hosaka
10/21: Terry Funk & Masa Fuchi & Kaz Hayashi vs. Abdullah The Butcher & Kendo Kashin & Gran Naniwa
10/24: Keiji Muto & Satoshi Kojima & Taiyo Kea vs. Genichiru Tenryu & Nobutaku Araya & Nobukazu Hirai
10/25 Hamamatsu: Keiji Muto & Taiyo Kea & Tomoaki Honma vs. Genichiru Tenryu & Arashi & Nobutaku Araya
Super slow motion highlights of the Budokan main events from 6/3/94-3/4/95 to the theme song of one of the wrestlers involved. A good one to show your friends who say how fake wrestling is.
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
Wonderland #585 taped 7/13/93 Hokkaido Sapporo Nakajima Taiiku Center
Tiger Mask vs. Norio Honaga
Hiroshi Hase & Michiyoshi Ohara & Satoshi Kojima vs. Shiro Koshinaka & The Great Kabuki & Kengo Kimura
IWGP Tag Senshuken: Hawk Warrior & Power Warrior vs. Shinya Hashimoto & Keiji Muto
Wonderland #586 taped 7/14/93 Hokkaido Sapporo Nakajima Taiiku Center
Yuji Nagata vs. Tokimitsu Ishizawa
Hiroshi Hase & Osamu Nishimura & Satoshi Kojima vs. Akira Nogami & Takayuki Iizuka & Manabu Nakanishi
Shinya Hashimoto vs. The Great Kabuki
Keiji Muto vs. Brad Armstrong
Ryukaku Izumida vs. Masao Inoue
Kendall Windham & Pete Roberts vs. Mark Youngblood & Chris Youngblood
Rusher Kimura & Mighty Inoue vs. Joel Deaton & Haruka Eigen
Destroyer Intai Jiai: Giant Baba & Mitsuo Momota vs. The Destroyer & Curt Beyer
Satoru Asako & Takao Omori vs. Dynamite Kid & Johnny Smith
Stan Hansen & Big Bubba & Johnny Ace vs. Terry Gordy & Steve Williams & Richard Slinger
4 vs 4 Survival Tag Match: Toshiaki Kawada & Akira Taue & Masa Fuchi & Yoshinari Ogawa vs. Mitsuharu Misawa & Kenta Kobashi & Jun Akiyama & Tsuyoshi Kikuchi
9/19/93
Mitsuo Momota vs. Tsuyoshi Kikuchi
Yoshinari Ogawa vs. Ryukaku Izumida
Giant Baba & Rusher Kimura vs. Masa Fuchi & Haruka Eigen
Akira Taue vs. Satoru Asako
Mitsuharu Misawa vs. Masao Inoue
Toshiaki Kawada & Takao Omori vs. Kenta Kobashi & Jun Akiyama
9/24/93
Rusher Kimura vs. Haruka Eigen
Mighty Inoue & Satoru Asako vs. Yoshinari Ogawa & Masao Inoue
Toshiaki Kawada vs. Takao Omori
Kenta Kobashi vs. Jun Akiyama
Giant Baba & Mitsuharu Misawa & Tsuyoshi Kikuchi vs. Akira Taue & Masa Fuchi & Ryukaku Izumida
5/18/94 Kanagawa Yokohama Bunka Taiikukan
Kentaro Shiga vs. Bobby Fulton
Masao Inoue vs. Tommy Rogers
Tom Prichard & Jimmy Del Ray vs. Abdullah The Butcher & Giant Kimala
Giant Baba & Rusher Kimura vs. Haruka Eigen & Mighty Inoue
4 vs. 4 Survival Tag Match: Toshiaki Kawada & Akira Taue & Masa Fuchi & Yoshinari Ogawa vs. Jun Akiyama & Takao Omori & Tamon Honda & Satoru Asako
Mitsuharu Misawa & Kenta Kobashi & Tsuyoshi Kikuchi vs. Stan Hansen & Steve Williams & Johnny Ace
5/31/94 Niigata Shi Taiikukan
Kentaro Shiga vs. Bobby Fulton
Satoru Asako vs. Giant Kimala
Masao Inoue vs. Johnny Ace
Masa Fuchi & Yoshinari Ogawa vs. Tom Prichard & Jimmy Del Ray
Rusher Kimura & Mitsuo Momota vs. Haruka Eigen & Mighty Inoue
Jun Akiyama vs. Abdullah The Butcher
Tamon Honda vs. Stan Hansen
Takao Omori vs. Steve Williams
Giant Baba & Akira Taue & Toshiaki Kawada vs. Mitsuharu Misawa & Kenta Kobashi & Tsuyoshi Kikuchi
*Special price $23 or $28.50 COOP*
3/6 Tokyo Nippon Budokan
Sankan Heavykyu Oza Ketteisen: Akira Taue vs. Vader
Sekai Tag Senshuken: Kenta Kobashi & Jun Akiyama vs. Mitsuharu Misawa & Yoshinari Ogawa
Jumbo Tsuruta Intai Ceremony
2/13/99 Tokyo Korakuen Hall, Asia Tag Senshuken: Tamon Honda & Jun Izumida vs. Hayabusa & Jinsei Shinzaki
Tamon Honda & Masao Inoue vs. Yoshihiro Takayama & Masahito Kakihara
Battle Royal
Toshiaki Kawada vs. Jun Izumida
Mitsuharu Misawa & Kenta Kobashi & Jun Akiyama vs. Stan Hansen & Akira Taue & Takao Omori
2/5/85 Tokyo Taiikukan: Riki Choshu & Masa Saito vs. Jumbo Tsuruta & Genichiru Tenryu 16:35. Good solid match. Never outstanding, but they kept the effort and intensity up resulting in strong heat. Everyone was about equal, though Tenryu seemed particularly at home in this style, which was more or less Choshu's simple but effective because they hate each other. ***1/4
1/28/86 Tokyo Taiikukan, International Tag Title: Jumbo Tsuruta & Genichiru Tenryu vs. Riki Choshu & Yoshiaki Yatsu 22:21. One of the greatest matches of the decade. Nothing spectacular wrestling wise, but the perfect rivalry match. What these guys, mainly Jumbo & Choshu, were able to do is make it look meaningful. It was always about Jumbo vs. Choshu rather than the match, which perhaps isn't coming out right, but the point is they were able to make their rivalry transcend this particular match. They made you believe they wanted to kill each other, and the fans ate it up. The wrestlers who weren't legal would wind up going at it in or out of the ring as well, they weren't going to let the rules get in the way of their bloodlust. And Jumbo did bleed. Early on Choshu's team kept Tenryu in their corner and big double team moves. Jumbo tried to help Tenryu, but the ref would force him out. When they finally gained control Jumbo's team worked over Choshu's bad ribs. Strong performances from everyone, but the match was so excellently developed with tremendous heat and intensity. ****3/4
4/5/86 Kanagawa Yokohama Bunka Taiikukan, AWA & PWF Heavyweight Double Title Match: Stan Hansen vs. Riki Choshu 18:27. Slow dull match. Had it's moments, but lacked the intensity of Choshu vs. natives. Fans weren't that into it, at least considering how over Choshu was at the time and the fact it was a big double title match against the top gaijin. Hansen carried the match and utilized a few big moments to build the match around as usual, notably reversing a whip into the post and trying his lariat which Choshu ducked causing Hansen to injure his arm on the post, but something seemed missing and the lack of a finish didn't help. **1/2
7/31/86 Tokyo Ryogoku Kokugikan, Death Match Rules: Riki Choshu vs. Killer Khan 16:56. Shockingly good extremely dramatic match where they got a great deal out of a little talent. In these days a death match was about beating the crap out of your opponent rather than utilizing plunder, and matches like this show that interest comes from intensity rather than gimmick. Choshu had the best disdainful look in wrestling, and it was fully utilized in this tough brawl. The wrestling was basic and fairly well executed. What made the match stand out is the super job they did of passing off the illusion, of elevating ordinary moves to the extraordinary, of making it seem like a chop or a knee drop did a ton of damage. Khan bled heavily, which obviously is not uncommon in a death match, but what is uncommon is that it was made meaningful. He bled early and always seemed to be on his last leg. Khan had a great run late in the match after stopping the Riki lariat with a big boot and kneeing Choshu in the groin where he kept Choshu from making it to his feet for four minutes. ****
9/3/86 Osaka Jo Hall: Riki Choshu vs. Genichiru Tenryu 20:01. Good match, but I expected more. I was hoping for something memorable, but it was not to be found. Choshu is better in tag since he's so limited moves. You have to believe everything is intended to injure or something has to be done to make the moves meaningful, otherwise he's completely pedestrian. Tenryu worked his ribs, which seem to have heeled some considering they weren't taped. Tenryu bled. Finish made no sense to me. ***
Zen Nihon Senshuken: Sakie Hasegawa vs. Kauro Ito 11:24 of 18:00. Ito was the better of the two. She was incredibly intense, particularly during a rear naked choke that she made look so deadly though the crowd (granted they probably don't see it very well) didn't respond. Ito tries the simpler moves, but she executes them all very well. Sakie did one killer rolling savate off the 2nd, but half of her kicks missed their target. Early mat oriented portion was somewhat weak, but got quite good when Ito went on offense. **1/2
Akira Hokuto & Etsuko Mita & Mima Shimoda vs. Tomoko Watanabe & Saemi Numata & Cynthia Moreno 5:17. Well worked, but a complete mismatch. Watanabe got to do a few moves to Shimoda, but basically her team was completely destroyed. Mita & Shimoda showed some of the brawling they'd become known for, and executed their offense well.
Aja Kong & Terri Power vs. Kyoko Inoue & Takako Inoue 16:26. A good match in spite of Terri. She-Man was tripping over it's own muscles as always, which is too bad because it might have been a good wrestler if it's answer wasn't always going to the gym to improve. That said, Power actually pulled off a huracanrana. Inoues did an excellent job working around Power, but of course Takako had very little offense because Power can't bend to take a bump. Takako was better than usual and Aja and Kyoko were as good as expected. Quality was consistent in that they didn't start slow or turn it up a couple of notches for the finish (there were peaks and valleys directly linked to Power tagging out and in but they weren't planned). ***
Bull Nakano & Bat Yoshinaga vs. Toshiyo Yamada & Manami Toyota 20:03 of 22:09. Toyota got roughed up, a victim of both stiff striking and brawling. She even suffered a very small laceration on her forehead. Yamada was the bigger star of the two in these days and got to make the hot tag. Bat was better than usual, which helped since her team was on offense during much of the body. Got hot in the last 3-4 minutes with Toyota doing some of her better moves, and the duo showing good teamwork. Still not a particularly spectacular match because brutality overwhelmed finesse, but always very interesting and surprisingly well executed. ***1/2
12/11/77 Tokyo Kuramae Kokugikan: Dory Funk Jr. & Terry Funk vs. Abdullah The Butcher & The Sheik. Dory gave a typically strong performance, but couldn't save the match with such unskilled opposition. Butcher & Sheik bled, but that was all they could do. *1/4
12/13/81 Tokyo Kuramae Kokugikan: Dory Funk Jr. & Terry Funk vs. Bruiser Brody & Jimmy Snuka 21:41. Dory was typically excellent here, and brought the best out of Snuka. Their stuff was quite good, with Snuka utilizing his athleticism including a swandive body press and Dory making him really work to keep his headlock. Brody was on offense most of the time he was in, though he found a way to bleed. Terry was alright, but really pales compared to Dory. He did a plancha, but he did one of his completely ridiculous oversells, a 360 degree spin after Brody kicked him. Funks worked the knee setting up the key spot where they had spinning toe holds, but Brody shot Terry to the floor and whipped him at Hansen, who took him out with the western lariat. Dory continued on his own, persistent on the knee, but Snuka was able to tag while in a subsequent spinning toe hold. Dory attacked after the bell, but Hansen beat him up then Baba & Jumbo jumped in and fought Hansen, who juiced. ****
12/13/83 Tokyo Kuramae Kokugikan: Jumbo Tsuruta & Genichiru Tenryu vs. Stan Hansen & Bruiser Brody 17:43. Jumbo & Tenryu were good at having action oriented match with the gaijins, making up for their technical deficiencies by keeping things moving and doing a number of good well executed simple spots. Though Hansen & Brody aren't exactly limited and are capable of a deeper match, this is certainly the kind of match they can excel in, especially since their moves are so over. Even though I prefer the other style, it's nice seeing a double dropkick from Hansen and Brody every once in a while. Surprisingly Tenryu carried things for his side, allowing Jumbo to eventually make the hot tag. Once this occurred the match really picked up; great action in the final three minutes. ****
11/30/85 Kanagawa Yokohama Bunka Taiikukan: Jumbo Tsuruta & Genichiru Tenryu vs. Riki Choshu & Yoshiaki Yatsu 30:00. One of those matches where it was obvious they were going long. Started slow and the pace never seemed to pick up, continuing to be technical in the boring wear the opponent down with rest holds kind of way. The crowd didn't react that much until Jumbo tagged in at 27:30 and used some finishers. It was a solid match, but what makes Choshu good is fire and intensity and for the most part that was sorely lacking here. ***
11/24/89 Hokkaido Sapporo Nakajima Taiiku Center: Genichiru Tenryu & Stan Hansen vs. Giant Baba & Rusher Kimura. Well thought out match that told a good story. If Baba & Rusher weren't so disgraceful on offense it might have been a great match, but man their offense is just terrible! As Baba was about to enter the ring Tenryu caught him with a tope, causing the match to begin without ring announcements. Tenryu & Hansen were nasty, and the match was quality as long as they stayed on offense. They beat Rusher up for 8 minutes while Baba was selling on the floor, causing him to juice a gusher. Baba eventually came in and cleaned house, but he has about 2 minutes worth of stamina and Rusher was still on the floor recovering. Soon the tide turned when Hansen chaired Baba in the stomach. ***
12/9/95 Tokyo Nippon Budokan, '95 Sekai Saikyo Tag Kettei League Yushoketteisen: Mitsuharu Misawa & Kenta Kobashi vs. Toshiaki Kawada & Akira Taue 27:00. Overshadowed because they had so many great matches in such a short period of time. This may have been the worst, and a half dozen in one year is too much, but these are the two greatest teams ever and 1995 was a peak year for all. Everything that made the other matches great except for crowd heat was present here, the big difference to me is the best stuff came early. Kawada stalled the start to incite Kobashi then when Kobashi finally got him in a headlock Kawada exploded with a backdrop driver, high kick to Misawa, and jumping high kick. Taue worked on Misawa while Kawada and Kobashi were legal, with Kawada assisting every time Kobashi was down. This led to the dynamic duo taking Misawa out with an elevated nodowa otoshi on the floor at 5:00. Kobashi's left arm was injured when Taue pulled him off the apron into the security rail, and they worked it over for several minutes while Misawa was out of it on the floor. When Misawa would make it back to the apron they would knock him off, which elicited some boos. Eventually Misawa got back in the match when Kobashi blocked Kawada's udehishigigyakujujigatame so Taue came in and broke his clasp, turning it into a double. Misawa did enough damage that Kobashi was able to make the hot tag at 13. The first half was tremendous, but they either used up their story points too early or didn't capitalize on them quite enough during the second half. The final half contained most of their top moves, but the fans didn't react as they should. For instance, at one point Kawada turns Kobashi's lariat into an udehishigigyakujujigatame and even though they'd worked over Kobashi's arm for all that time, the fans didn't buy it. It would have helped if Kobashi didn't rope escape so quickly, but Kawada didn't even get too negative a reaction for refusing to release. The tide turned when Misawa blocked Kawada's powerbomb on the floor and took him out with a Tigerdriver. Taue was getting the better of Kobashi in the ring, but finally Misawa's team was able to do some double teaming. *spoilers* Given they were beaten on almost the entire match, it was not very credible that they were able to put Taue away within two minutes. ****1/2
12/5/98 Tokyo Nippon Budokan, '98 Sekai Saikyo Tag Kettei League Yushoketteisen: Kenta Kobashi & Jun Akiyama vs. Vader & Stan Hansen 18:58. They delivered all you could ask for. Vader gives an excellent performance carrying his team and Hansen doesn't screw it up. Obviously the problem with the match, with any match involving a monster team, is it's completely one-sided. Vader & Hansen really don't take any legitimate bumps, but you knew that coming in. The crowd was going nuts anytime Kobashi & Akiyama did anything, which granted wasn't too often but shows the monster gimmick worked. In particular, they were exploding when Vader's knee was injured. The '95 final was way better in every other regard, but this at least felt like a tag final due to the fans. Kobashi & Akiyama gave regular performances, both very good but I would not say either were that impressive. The gaijins stepped it up a lot more than the natives, though obviously they were still the weak link, Vader is the only one that really impressed me in all he did to carry his team. One wicked spot where Akiyama tries to use his northern lights suplex on Vader, but Vader uses his weight to drive Akiyama straight down into the canvas nose first with Vader coming down on top. Finish was improbably but basically all they could do given the result and the limitations of those involved. ***1/2
Yuka Shiina & Mina Taniyama vs. Nobue Endo & Misae Watanabe
Zen Nihon Junior Senshuken: Yoshiko Tamura vs. Mari Mogami
Reggie Bennett & Mima Shimoda vs. Yumiko Hotta & Etsuko Mita
Aja Kong vs. Toshiyo Yamada
Sakie Hasegawa Single Countdown 7-ban Shobu: Bison Kimura vs. Sakie Hasegawa
Captain Fall Survival War: Kyoko Inoue & Takako Inoue & Tomoko Watanabe & Kumiko Maekawa & Chaparrita ASARI vs. Manami Toyota & Mariko Yoshida & Kaoru Ito & Yumi Fukawa
Ryukaku Izumida vs. Curt Beyer
Mighty Inoue vs. Mitsuo Momota
Yoshinari Ogawa vs. Takao Omori
Giant Baba & Rusher Kimura vs. Joel Deaton & Haruka Eigen
Toshiaki Kawada vs. Tsuyoshi Kikuchi
Mitsuharu Misawa & Kenta Kobashi & Satoru Asako vs. Akira Taue & Masa Fuchi & Masao Inoue
Kentaro Shiga vs. Yoshinobu Kanemaru
Rusher Kimura & Mitsuo Momota vs. Masa Fuchi & Haruka Eigen
Yoshinari Ogawa & Tsuyoshi Kikuchi vs. Dory Funk, Jr. & Satoru Asako
Giant Kimala & Jun Izumida vs. Patriot & Rob Van Dam
Jun Akiyama & Takao Omori & Masao Inoue vs. Stan Hansen & Bobby Duncum, Jr. & Danny Kroffat
Steve Williams & Johnny Ace vs. Gary Albright & Maunakea Mossman
Giant Baba Debut 36th Anniversary: Mitsuharu Misawa & Kenta Kobashi & Tamon Honda vs. Toshiaki Kawada & Akira Taue & Giant Baba
6/11/77 Tokyo: Giant Baba & Genichiru Tenryu vs. Mario Milano & Medico Grande 12:09
3/1/83, Lumberjack Match: Genichiru Tenryu vs. Umanosuke Ueda
2/23/84 Tokyo Kuramae Kokugikan, UN Heavyweight Title Decision Match: Genichiru Tenryu vs. Ricky Steamboat 21:23
6/8/87 Fukuoka Kokusai Center: Genichiru Tenryu & Ashura Hara vs. Hiroshi Wajima & Takashi Ishikawa
7/30/87 Tokyo: Genichiru Tenryu & Ashura Hara vs. Giant Baba & Tiger Mask
6/5/89 Tokyo Nippon Budokan, Sankan Heavykyu Senshuken: Jumbo Tsuruta vs. Genichiru Tenryu
9/15/87 Tokyo Korakuen Hall, Sekai Junior Senshuken: Masa Fuchi vs. Toshiaki Kawada
9/15/88 Tokyo Korakuen Hall, Sekai Tag Senshuken: Shinichi Nakano & George Takano vs. Samson Fuyuki & Toshiaki Kawada 19:11
7/1/89 Omiya Shimin Taiikukan, Asunaru Hai Sodatsu Leaguesen: Toshiaki Kawada vs. Kenta Kobashi
4/16/94 Tokyo Nippon Budokan, '94 Champion Carnival Final: Toshiaki Kawada vs. Steve Williams
3/1/98 Tokyo Nippon Budokan, Sekai Tag Senshuken: Toshiaki Kawada & Akira Taue vs. Gary Albright & Yoshihiro Takayama
6/11/76 Tokyo Kuramae Kokugikan, 2/3 Falls NWA Heavyweight Title Match: Terry Funk vs. Jumbo Tsuruta
7/18/79 Kanezawa: Terry Funk vs. Abdullah The Butcher
12/9/80 Osaka Furitsu Taiikukaikan, '80 Sekai Saikyo Tag Kettei Leaguesen: Dory Funk, Jr. & Terry Funk vs. Nick Bockwinkle & Jim Brunzell
9/11/82 Tokyo Korakuen Hall: Terry Funk vs. Stan Hansen
8/31/83 Tokyo Kuramae Kokugikan, Terry Funk Intai Jiai: Dory Funk, Jr. & Terry Funk vs. Stan Hansen & Terry Gordy
8/25/77 Tokyo Daen Coliseum, 2/3 Falls UN Heavyweight Title: Jumbo Tsuruta vs. Mil Mascaras
8/24/78 Tokyo Daen Coliseum, International Tag Title: Giant Baba & Jumbo Tsuruta vs. Mil Mascaras & Dos Caras
8/22/79 Hokkaido Sapporo Nakajima Taiiku Center: Mil Mascaras vs. Abdullah The Butcher
12/3/79 Hokkaido Sapporo Nakajima Taiiku Center, '79 Sekai Saikyo Tag Kettei Leaguesen: Mil Mascaras & Dos Caras vs. Wahoo McDaniel & Frank Hill
1/28/86 Tokyo Taiikukan, IWA World Heavyweight Title: Mil Mascaras vs. Kuniaki Kobayashi
Selection #191 taped 10/11/89 Kanagawa Yokohama Bunka Taiikukan
Asia Tag Senshuken: Doug Furnas & Danny Kroffat vs. Joe Malenko & Kenta Kobashi
Sankan Heavykyu Senshuken: Genichiru Tenryu vs. Jumbo Tsuruta
Selection #192
10/22/89 Tokyo Korakuen Hall: Giant Baba & Kenta Kobashi vs. Rusher Kimura & Goro Tsurumi
10/1/89: Joe Malenko & Kenta Kobashi vs. Danny Kroffat & Ken Shamrock
10/14/89: Jumbo Tsuruta & Great Kabuki & Kenta Kobashi vs. Genichiru Tenryu & Toshiaki Kawada & Samson Fuyuki
Selection #193
10/20/89 Nagoya Aichi-ken Taiikukan, Sekai Junior Heavykyu Senshukenjiai: Joe Malenko vs. Masa Fuchi
10/14 Tsu Shi Taiikukan: Stan Hansen vs. Shunji Takano
10/20/89 Nagoya Aichi-ken Taiikukan, Asia Tag Senshukenjiai: Doug Furnas & Danny Kroffat vs. Toshiaki Kawada & Samson Fuyuki
Selection #194
7/11/89 Hokkaido Sapporo Nakajima Taiiku Center, Asanaro Hai Sodatsu Leaguesen: Samson Fuyuki vs. Kenta Kobashi
10/20/89 Nagoya Aichi-ken Taiikukan, Sekai Tag Senshukenjiai: Jumbo Tsuruta & Yoshiaki Yatsu vs. Genichiru Tenryu & Stan Hansen
Kaoru Ito & Misae Watanabe & Nobue Endo vs. Tomoko Watanabe & Yuka Shiina & Kaoru Kaneyama
Midget Puroresu: Tsunokake X vs. Buda Genjin
Junior League Match: Kumiko Maekawa vs. Hiromi Yagi (JWP)
Junior League Match: Rie Tamada vs. Fusayo Nouchi (JWP)
Junior League Match: Chaparita ASARI vs. Candy Okutsu (JWP)
Suzuka Minami vs. Sakie Hasegawa
Tag League Match: Manami Toyota & Takako Inoue vs. Etsuko Mita & Mima Shimoda
Mariko Yoshida Re-Challenge 7 Match 6: Mariko Yoshida vs. Kyoko Inoue
Tag League Match: Yumiko Hotta & Toshiyo Yamada vs. Aja Kong & Reggie Bennett
*Special price one T-180 for $23 or $28.50 COOP*
Wonderland #231 taped ?/?/86 Mexico El Toreo De Cuatro Caminos
2/3 Falls: Tatsumi Fujinami & Kengo Kimura vs. El Canek & Fishman 13:04, 5:32, 4:42. Typical 80s match starting weak but building to a strong albeit frustrating finish. Everyone paced themselves for a long match, but Fujinami was very intense still acted like he was putting effort into his holds, while Kimura did everything with the minimum energy required. These two are as good as they want to be, and Kimura was good when he picked it up but there was too much wasted time, especially between falls. Up until the 3rd fall Fujinami's team wrestled technically while the Luchadores kicked and punched. Fishman picked it up in the third fall with his tope and regular highspots, and the third fall continued to be excellent. He seemed more into it than Canek, but Canek vs. Fujinami was really good down the stretch, going back and forth for a surprising amount of near finishes. Fujinami & Canek had swapped falls, and Kimura & Fishman fought outside for minutes letting them tease the decisive fall in a manner usually reserved for title matches. ***1/4
Wonderland #232 taped 9/16/86 Osaka Jo Hall
Antonio Inoki vs. Bruiser Brody 44:29 of 60:00. Shockingly good match where they attempted to do a match of the year and effort overcame skill. The quantity was certainly there, but so was their best quality. One would think this would seem very long, but it didn't because the finish was always near moves wise, even if you figured neither would do the job. Lots of action, especially considering the length. Both men showed tremendous stamina, especially considering age and size. Both threw everything at their opponent, but neither would stay down long. Brody was highly motivated, putting thought, nuance, and timing into his performance. He did a good job of mixing his selling of his knee with his usual no selling, particularly when Inoki would strike him and he'd make it look like he was forced to sell the knee because it was just in such bad shape. Inoki was mediocre in the first half, trying a lot of jumping moves with suspect accuracy, but came on pretty strong in the 2nd half. He certainly put all he had into it, and though that often hasn't been enough, in this case the booking and the crowd elevated it to another level. If Brody's performance ever approached this level again, it's in a match I've yet to see. ****
NJ Wonderland #223
5/1/86 Tokyo Ryogoku Kokugikan: Antonio Inoki & Umanosuke Ueda vs. Andre The Giant & Shogun KY Wakamatsu
6/12/86 Osaka Jo Hall, 4th IWGP Koshikisen: Antonio Inoki vs. Yoshiaki Fujiwara
Wonderland #224 taped 6/12/86 Osaka Jo Hall
Seiji Sakaguchi & Umanosuke Ueda & Kengo Kimura vs. Andre The Giant & Dick Murdock & Masked Superstar
4th IWGP Koshikisen: Akira Maeda vs. Tatsumi Fujinami 22:02. They pulled out all the stops to make this intense highly dramatic match one of the top NJ heavyweight matches of the decade. Largely UWF style, which given Fujinami was Maeda's opponent isn't too much different than NJ style anyway. In any case they established UWF right off the bat, so when they did a brief sequence of jumping kicks the fans exploded. The progression was very smart, especially early on. Fujinami's knee was injured from a kneebar and he had trouble getting back to his feet, so Maeda attacked the knee. Fujinami rope escaped a later kneebar, but when he got up Maeda was waiting with a series of high kicks. From here on Maeda tried to exploit Fujinami's bad knee more for its immobility, making him an easier target for the kicks, than for submission. Fujinami wised up to Maeda's kicks, caught one, tripped him up, and tried for a submission. From here on Fujinami would use Maeda's proclivity to strike against him, attempting to win with the sasorigatame. Adding to the drama, Fujinami got a wicked cut near the eye from a Maeda's kneel kick, which Maeda followed by trying to defeat Fujinami with his own Dragon suplex. The one problem with this match was the finish, which though they went long and hard just did not feel earned. It felt very sudden, especially on Maeda's part because he seemed to be on a bit of a role. ****1/2
NJ Wonderland #229 taped 8/5/86 Tokyo Ryogoku Kokugikan
IWGP Junior Heavykyu Senshuken: Nobuhiko Takada vs. Shiro Koshinaka
IWGP Tag Senshuken: Tatsumi Fujinami & Kengo Kimura vs. Akira Maeda & Osamu Kido
Wonderland #230 taped 8/7/86 Nagoya Tsuyuhashi Sports Center
IWGP Junior Heavykyu Senshuken: Nobuhiko Takada vs. Kazuo Yamazaki 17:27. A junior title match that made no concessions to "junior" style. There was an attempt at a tombstone and a dropkick, the former blocked the later missed. So it was kick, submission, and suplex all the way. Yamazaki grew as a wrestler more than Takada did from this point, both were pretty equal workers here but Yamazaki didn't have the setup, timing, and transition of his peak. Thus in a way the match was a bit repetitive because they didn't get as much out of the limited offense as they could have, but on the other hand, and I feel more importantly, it's arguably the most unique IWGP Jr. match because it's strictly technical. The fans certainly didn't feel it was too long, the biggest "Yamazaki" chants were for him to escape the hold he ultimately submitted to. ****
Tatsumi Fujinami vs. Alexei Smirnoff 7:29. Disappointingly brief match. Fujinami comes in with a scab on his lower back, so Smirnoff works over the back. They didn't waste time and the work was solid. **1/4
Antonio Inoki & Kengo Kimura vs. Steve Williams & Badnews Allen
Wonderland #605 taped 11/24/93 Niigata Shi Taiikukan
12/10/93 Nagoya Aichi-ken Taiikukan: Satoshi Kojima vs. Michiyoshi Ohara
Takayuki Iizuka &