ORIGINAL TAPES VHS DVD - K-1 THROUGH NOAH
Karate Semi-contact Special Rule: Yoshinori Nishi vs. Greg Douglas 3R. Cautious fight. Nishi kept coming forward, but Douglas backed away from his attacks rather than engaging. Douglas mainly threw a quick low impact counter after getting hit with one or two strikes. Nishi landed more often, but never really connected with any solid blows. Douglas may have been the better fighter, but I'm not sure he knew the rules too well. He cut Nishi with a left hook in the 2nd round, the first good shot he landed, but punches to the face are illegal. He caught Nishi's leg and took him down, but failed to score due to an illegal punch. Douglas was getting the hang of taking Nishi down by the end of the fight. Fair but relatively uneventful.
Seido Karate Rule: Andy Hug vs. Toshiyuki Yanagisawa 5R. I give Yanagisawa credit for going the distance with Hug in this fast-paced bout. Andy was putting on a clinic at his expense, but there was no quit in Yanagisawa. No punches to the face is probably to Hug's advantage, as his kicking is so good he can be extremely effective essentially without throwing any punches. Hug's flexibility is tremendous, for instance he landed a left axe kick and kept his leg extended in midair, coming right back with a left high kick (which I believe missed). That kind of technique also requires super one foot balance, which Hug regularly displayed, even changing pivot feet so quickly the right leg would be up with a strike the second the left leg was down. Hug cut Yanagisawa's left eye with a right high kick. At one point he landed a left axe kick followed by a left high kick then put Yanagisawa down with a right leg sweep. Later he put him down with a spinning leg sweep. Good albeit onesided bout.
Karate Glove Rule: Yoshihisa Tagami vs. Andrei Artamonov 3R 1:58. Tagami is a very aggressive fighter who keeps the pressure on. Unfortunately, Artamonov could run all night. Tagami got off to a quick start then Artamonov was in retreat mode. Artamonov tried being the aggressor at the start of R2, but resorted to running after taking a few kicks. Artamonov's big problem is he'd eat a left low or middle kick just about every time he tried to punch. Tagami eventually tired of Artamonov's hiding, chasing after him and landing kicks. Even a swift kick in the Jimmy couldn't slow Tagami down. In fact, it may just have made him more determined, as he knocking Artamonov out with a left high kick not long after. Pretty good despite Artamonov's best efforts to avoid contact.
Karate Glove & Semi-contact Rule: Manson Gibson vs. Taiei Kin 4R. Gibson is light on his feet and has excellent footwork. He utilized a side stance, regularly looking for spinning kicks, to keep Kin off balance and on the defensive. Gibson would actually come in by repeatedly spinning, with Kin not even throwing as he was so baffled. Kin, who is normally one of the best counter strikers, backed away as usual but was never able to go on the offensive out of his opponents miss, barely landed anything in the first two rounds. However, in the third he avoided a spinning kick and put Gibson down with a head punch, which was legal because he wore gloves. Gibson put Kin down twice in round 4, but unfortunately for him they were both with an illegal punch (he didn't wear gloves) at the end of the combination, resulting in a DQ. Kin was hurt fairly badly the second time, his eye almost immediately closed. Disappointing finish, but the expected high level of fighting from two of the best. Good fight, though more for people who enjoy quality defense as not much actually connected despite the aggressive fighting.
Karate Glove & Semi-contact Rule: Dale "Apollo" Cook vs. Toshiyuki Atokawa 4R. Atokawa is one of those natives who seems to always fight a name foreigner who is more talented than him, but always gives his all and that translates into a tough action packed fight. Atokawa was largely the aggressor, keeping the pressure on Cook. Cook put him down early with a straight left counter, and had some good takedowns including an STO, but overall it was a pretty close fight. Good match.
Karate Glove Rule: Masaaki Satake vs. Ahmad Muhammad 1R 1:57. I realize Satake was good in these days, but this slaughter seemed more due to Muhammad being a stiff. I don't actually know anything about the guy, but his footwork stunk, and seemed to cost him the first knockdown. Satake then hurt him with a low kick for the second knockdown, resulting in Muhammad gimping around the rest of the bout. Satake kept the pressure on, and why not as he was hitting Muhammad at will.
Junji Kageishi vs. Yoshihisa Tagami. Tagami was so active and effective that Kageishi could hardly get a blow in. 1:46
Taiei Kin vs. Haruo Wada. Same deal as the first fight except the two knockdowns were in the first minute. 0:59
Adam Watt vs. Shinjiro Aoki. Even quicker than the first two, as this time it only took one knockdown. 0:40
Sogo Kakutogi Rule: Nobuaki Kakuta vs. Yoshinori Nishi. Bare knuckle shootfight, though a pretty boring one that may have been worked. Full time.
Chizumi Yoshida vs. Peko Chan Yuri. A lot of dancing around. Very few good shots landed, partially because neither guy threw that many blows. Full time.
Sogo Kakutogi Rule: Katsumi Usuda vs. Naoyuki Taira. Taira definitely had the advantage in standup. Usuda wanted to take it to the mat, but when it got there we found out that he was no match there either. Usuda was badly outclassed and Taira wasn't able to connect with the entertaining strikes, so it wasn't a particularly entertaining blowout. 14:03
Stan The Man vs. Toshiyuki Atokawa. I thought Stan would handle Atokawa, but that wasn't the case at all. He was really pressing, which didn't help. Atokawa didn't get a lot of offense in, but until the later rounds Stan was either missing or not doing any damage with punch after punch. Pretty good. 5R 2:22
Masaaki Satake vs. Chris Brannel. This should be one of those cult matches like Takada vs. Berbick. It was absolutely hilarious because Brannel was so scared. He went down once because he thought Satake was ready to hit him! Brannel was always backing away and kept going down, whether from a blow or because he had no balance. The fans kept laughing at him. It was so embarrassing I think the ref may have stopped it to save face for the league. 2R 1:39
Highlights of major Satake matches & 5/6/93 undercard plus Satake vs. Nishi
Sogo Kakutogi Rule: Naoyuki Taira vs. Atsushi Tamaki
Spirit Karate Rule: Sam Greco vs. Keisuke Nakagawa. Greco's K-1 debut. The fighters don't wear gloves under karate rules, so there's a lot of fighting on the inside because they don't want to break their hands. Nakagawa tried to call time out because he was injured, but the ref didn't do anything so Greco kicked Nakagawa when he turned his back on him. This further injured Nakagawa.
Spirit Karate Rule: Michael Thompson vs. Nobuaki Kakuda
Spirit Karate Rule: Andy Hug vs. Minoru Fujita (not the pro wrestler). Pretty good action, but Fujita never had a chance.
Bobby "The Bruiser" Colinson vs. Yoshiaki Miyoshi
UKF World Super Welterweight Title Match: Carrell "The Heat" Eckles vs. Yoshihisa Tagami. Takagi was the aggressor. He was quicker than Eckles and his knees are a weapon. Pretty good.
UKF World Cruiserweight Title Match: Lavelle Robinson vs. Adam Watt. Watt had the height and reach advantage. Not a great fight, but it was competitive.
UKF World Light Heavyweight Title Decision Match: Changpuek Kiatsongrit vs. Taiei Kin. These two didn't waste any strikes. They measured their opponent then unleashed one or a combination of their hardest. Brutal and effective offense. These two have great chins because they took a lot of high impact blows. Kiatsongrit controlled, but Kin was never ready to lose. Very good fight.
UKF World Heavyweight Title Decision Match: Masaaki Satake vs. Don Nakaya Nielsen. This was the most dominant performance I've seen from Satake. Nielsen was simply embarrassed. He was a step or two too slow, and it's not like Satake has any speed. Satake's big shots were landing cleanly, so he was putting a beating on Don from the get go. Nielsen seemed like the old champion whose heart tells him yes, but body fails him.
Andy Hug vs. Ryuji Murakami 1R 0:39. Fantastic KO by Hug, faking te spinning savate then dropping Murakami with his patented kakato otoshi.
Lucia Rijker vs. Kyoko Kamikaze 2R 0:44. Kamikaze was never able to get going. Rijker kept the pressure on, striking whenver Kamikaze wasn't blocking. The final knockdown seemed more toward a slip as Kamikaze was trying an uraken, but it was academic by that point anyway. Shinobu Kandori presented Rijker with a trophy.
Phothai Chorwaikool vs. Taiek Kin 5R. Kin is one of the most deceptive fighters, which is why he has more success with the uraken than any real fighter I can think of. He seems to be backing off then launches a quick attack if his opponent doesn't step forward. He's neither a stalker nor a counterpuncher, just kind of hovering at the end of his range and looking of an opening. His Thai opponent Chorwaikool is more similar to Kiatsongrit though not as fierce and intimidating, as he's not real active but strikes with accuracy and authority. Good, close fight. Kin has superb stamina, and when he gets deep into a fight that makes it seem as if he wants it more. Good fight.
Adam Watt vs. Gerard Gordeau 2R 2:07. Watt did almost all the attacking, and it wasn't as if Gordeau was looking to counter. Gordeau seemed to have no confidence in his abilities, just laying back and trying to defend. His only offense, if one can call it that, was trying to tie Watt up and muscle him into an advantageous position, though apparently he never succeeded as he didn't get to the point where he actually threw some strikes. Gordeau took a few wicked urakens. Fair.
K-1 Network Ranking Match: Changpuek Kiatsongrit vs. Toshiyuki Atokawa 5R. Slow start as Atokawa defended first, doing a good enough job of it to largely nulify the action. Initially Atokawa would block then occasionally land a weak counter. Kiatsongrit had the bad habit of throwing middle kicks right into Atokawa's block rather than low kicks which would have been more likely to land, and certainly would have helped open up other quadrants. Kiatsongrit got himself into trouble early in R4, slipping then getting hit when he got back up. He tried to turn it up at this point, but wound up landing his usual assortment of low blows that hurt him on the scorecards. Kiatsongrit finally got a hold of Atokawa and started kneeing him on the inside then throwing him down. Atokawa opened up, landing a few good punches, but was generally pretty wild. Kiatsongrit hurt himself by starting so slowly, but when he finally showed up in the final two rounds he was able to control the fight with his clinch. Pretty good.
Peter Aerts vs. Dino Homesy 1R 1:36. Aerts landed a left high kick to the right side of Homesy's neck for the spectacular early KO.
WMTA & WKA World Lightweight Double Title Match: Ernesto Hoost vs. Tass "Toska" Petros 3R 0:45. Toska seemed off balance early, lunging and reaching. His footwork wasn't very good, and he presented a stationary target. Hoost didn't seem to feel threatened by Petros, countering while figuring out how to time Toska's attacks. Petros was the aggressor, but he came straight in time after time. Hoost's knock down of Petros was extremely impressive; a knee to the chin out of nowhere while leaning against the ropes.
UKF World Heavyweight & WKA World Super Heavyweight Double Title Unification Match: Masaaki Satake vs. Stan The Man 5R. As good a performance as I've seen from Satake; his combinations were sharp, going from high to low so he'd probably at least land one. Stan had a good left jab, but that was about all he was landing. He was more active, but Satake was by far the more powerful striker, and he simply wore The Man down. Satake had good success with quick low kicks as part of a combinations. Stan was cut on the top of the head and his left leg was welted from inside leg kicks. Fans were psyched in the 5th round, as they could see their hero was nearing victory. Good fight.
Highlights of Yoshinori Arata vs. Keisuke Nakagawa & Atsushi Tamaki vs. Eiji Matsumoto qualifying matches
'93 Karate World Cup 1st Round
Andy Hug vs. Yoshinori Arata. Arata walked right into a spinning savate at the bell. Hug forced Arata to defend the body with a combination of straight punches thenb put him out with a left high kick.
Shin Ushikoshi vs. Changpuek Kiatsongrit. Kiatsongrit is an intimidating fighter with an intense no nonsense demeanor that turns to a disdainful "I'm gonna put a hole right through you" expression as he uncoils a powerful high speed strike. Kiatsongrit grabbed Ushikoshi and knocked him off his feat repeatedly.
Toshiyuki Atokawa vs. Gerard Gordeau. Gordeau showed improvement over his 9/4/93 bout, actually throwing some strikes this time. Too bad most of them were illegal! Atokawa didn't do that much, but Gordeau lost points for cheating.
Sam Greco vs. Minoru Fujita. Greco had a big height advantage and was a also a much better fighter on the inside. When Fujita was at a distance Greco would just back away from his blows, still within his own striking distance. When Fujita came inside, Greco would unload body combos.
Masaaki Satake vs. Patrick Smith. Satake hurt Smith badly with a short right to the body, though perhaps he caught Smith's hand as he was shaking it repeatedly.
Adam Watt vs. David Pickthall. Watt put a hurting on Pickthall, particularly with big knees that bloodies his mouth.
Michael Thompson vs. Nobuaki Kakuda. Rematch from 6/25/93 when Thompson KO'd Kakuda with a spinning savate followed by a high kick. Kakuda didn't fair any better this time, falling pray to an amazing spinning high kick KO. Kakuda was nearly stretched out, but called it off and made it to the back on his own. Kakuda retired later in the show.
Taiei Kin vs. Atsushi Tamaki. Kin had his way simply by holding Tamaki's gi and kneeing him.
Quarterfinals
Andy Hug vs. Changpuek Kiatsongrit. Arguably the two best fighters, certainly the best match. Kiatsongrit is great at catching his opponent's leg and knocking them down by kicking the other leg out. Hug also caught several of Kiatsongrit's kicks. Kiatsongrit did his best damage with two punches to the face, unfortunately for him they are illegal in karate rules. Hug returned the favor with an illegal knee when Kiatsongrit was down. Intense back and forth match that could have gone either way. Very good.
Sam Greco vs. Toshiyuki Atokawa. Both picked their spots and defended well. Greco threw a spinning high kick that just missed Atokawa's head. His best shot was a spinning savate that propelled Atokawa back. Still, neither were overly successful, so it went two overtimes.
Masaaki Satake vs. Adam Watt. Close 2OT match. Neither were overly successful, but Watt was certainly more active. Watt was particularly aggressive in the second OT, which normally gets you the decision in a close fight. I can't say he beat Satake, but Satake certainly didn't do anything to warrant that round.
Taiei Kin vs. Michael Thompson. Kin is a very good defensive fighter. Thompson kept trying to set him up, but Kin would avoid the eventual strike. Thompson didn't connect with his spinning high kick, but took Kin down with the follow through. Very close two overtime match. Thompson had some success toward the end by fighting inside, including a headlock takedown. I thought Thompson won, as though Kin didn't get hurt he lacked any actual offense.
Semifinals
Andy Hug vs. Toshiyuki Atokawa. Hug caught Atokawa in the nose with a thrust kick and put him down with a spinning leg sweep. Atokawa wasn't overwhelmed, he was only caught with a few good shots, but had very little offense.
Masaaki Satake vs. Taiei Kin. Good showing by Satake repeatedly blocking Kin then landing his counter attack.
Final: Andy Hug vs. Masaaki Satake. Hug had an excellent combination of flexibility and agility that allowed him to kick on the move. He could come up high for a front or axe kick and follow with something else. Match was as close as it gets. When there was no winner after 2 OT's they switched to a glove match. Hug landed his patented kakato otoshi, but couldn't take Satake out with it. When it was still even after two gloved rounds they broke bricks to decide the winner. I'm certainly no purist, but this is even worse than deciding a hockey game by a shootout, as at least there you still have to beat the other teams goalie.
K-2 GRAND PRIX '93 1st Round
Ernesto Hoost vs. Manson Gibson. Gibson gave Hoost a tough fight. The scoring was really weird because Hoost dictated the fight in regulation, although Gibson's defense was such that Hoost didn't do much damage. I couldn't really say Hoost beat Gibson, but I think he controlled the fight enough to get the decision. The judges called it even and sent it to overtime where Gibson had his best round yet 2/3 judges now gave the round to Hoost. Really good.
Bob Zenqifo vs. Adam Watt
Changpuek Kiatsongrit vs. Rob Kaman. Both guys threw nothing but power blows. Round 2 had some excellent exchanges. Definite quality.
Tass "Tosca" Petridis vs. Toshiyuki Atokawa
Special Match Women's Fight: Lucia Rijker vs. Yoriko Okamoto. Okamoto made these evil stares, but that was about it for her "offense." Rijker pummelled her continually. To Okamoto's credit, there was no quit in her, but she was totally outclassed. After a while you were hoping the ref would just stop it before she really hurt herself.
K-2 Semifinals
Ernesto Hoost vs. Adam Watt. Hoost was sharper here and his opponent wasn't as tough. It appeared that Watt lost because he didn't know you had to be up by 4 in the first two rounds on a knockdown, but Hoost would have won sooner or later anyway.
Tass "Tosca" Petridis vs. Changpuek Kiatsongrit. Good close fight.
Special Match: Andy Hug vs. Eric Albert
K.I.C.K. Super Heavyweight & I.S.K.A. Heavyweight Double World Title Decision Match: Masaaki Satake vs. Jeff Hollins. Satake looked good here, particularly with his punches.
K-2 Final: Ernesto Hoost vs. Changpuek Kiatsongrit. These were the two best fighters in the tournament, and they had a good technical fight. Hoost was more accurate here, which made a big difference since he definitely has the power advantage. He was able to fight his style. Kiatsongrit was good, but Hoost fought a great fight.
Kotei Yamada vs. Kintaro Sugimoto 3R. Close fight. Both were better at boxing, fighting inside with quick short punches, the crisper of which coming from Sugimoto.
Michael Thompson vs. Gary Sandland 4R 1:10. Sandland is the bigger, more powerful fighter. He isn't very skilled, but he did a good job of muscling Thompson, charging in and trying to overwhelm him. Thompson was at his best when he had distance, but wasn't dancing enough to keep Sandland away. Sandland's stamina was questionable, but Thompson wasn't active enough, allowing Sandland to rest by clinching after throwing a punch or two, the big body leaning on him seeming to wear Thompson down some. Thompson came on in the later stages, pushing off the clinch and landing. He knocked Sandland through the ropes with a knee, though it was more Sandland losing his balance than anything else. Thompson was trying to set up a spinning kick all fight, but kept going high. Finally, he nailed Sandland in the bread basket with a spinning savate for the KO. Good bout.
Yan Wessel vs. Rabel Robinson 5R. Wessel was taller, but Robinson was the better inside fighter. He was accurate, but not aggressive enough. Robinson would either land multiple blows or sit back and wait, which was annoying but successful. Neither were dominant, but Robinson had more on his blows and consistently landed when he threw. He also put Wessel down with a low kick just before the end of R1. Fair.
Yoshihisa Tagami vs. Funaki 1R 1:23. Excellent performance by Tagami showing hard speedy punches and a killer instinct. Tagami had an early knockdown with a right straight and put the heat on, overwhelming Funaki for a seonc knockdown. Tagami landed a nice left/right hook combo that Funaki withstood then put him down with a high kick that Funaki actually blocked. Funaki said it was a slip, and clearly it didn't land, but that was enough for the 3 KD rule. Funaki might have gotten a tough break, but he would have been knocked down again by the end of the round anyway.
WKA Intercontinental Super Light Heavyweight Title Match: Andre Manaart vs. Toshiyuki Atokawa 5R. Though he landed to the legs at will, Manaart still mixed his kicks up well. When Atokawa tried guarding the body, Manaart would go low or high and low. his combinations were sharp, and the best overmatched Atokawa was able to do was block a punch then get low kick. Atokawa barely landed anything, but showed a lot of heart as Manaart tired from hitting him so often. Atokawa walked right into a streaight left for a knockdown when he was coming in to kick. Despite all he withstood, Atokawa's best rounds were the final ones as he went on offense, even if his worn down opponent largely blocked him. Pretty good.
UKF World Light Heavyweight Title Match: Changpuek Kiatsongrit vs. Taiei Kin 5R. Close, tough exciting fight. Kin basically stayed away unless he was going to attack, backing away from Kiatsongrit's strikes but then coming in with a counter, for instance landing several spinning backfists. Kiatsongrit's strategy was to force Kin against the ropes and bring te knee up to the gut. He was getting frustrated because Kin, who is smart enough to know he can't fight inside with Thai clinch master Kiatsongrit, was keeping him out of his game by maintaining a safe distance. Kiatsongrit is like a cobra waiting to strike. Once in a while he doesn't wait long enough, for instance the beginning for R2 where he front kicked Kin low before the bell. Kiatsongrit eventually got his knees going, and some of them were wicked, but half of them didn't count because they landed low. Kiatsongrit clearly knocked the win out of Kin with a knee to the midsection, but Kin got fired up and became more aggressive, landing yet another uraken. Very good.
Ernesto Hoost vs. Masaaki Satake 2R 2:48. Hoost pecked away for a while then countered a left straight with a left high kick for the KO. Hoost didn't land big blows other than the finish, which was actually more fast than powerful, but he was accurate and efficient.
Andy Hug vs. Branco Cikatic 5R. Cikatic was very good punching on the inside, in fact he knocked Hug down at the outset with such a combination. Hug was adequate on the inside, but much better when he used his kicks to keep Cikatic away, as he couldn't use most of his best weapons from the distance Cikatic wanted to fight at. Hug turned the match early, but Cikatic refused to wild despite a pace that wasn't conducive to the large old man. Cikatic is lumbering and flatfooted. Hug pressured him, knocking him down in R2 with a series of punches. Hug fought with determination, keeping the heat on Cikatic, who was quickly running out of steam due to Hug's fever pace. Cikatic tried to turn it into a brawl so he could use his size to lean on Hug. He landed some heavy punches and managed to give Hug a mouse under the left eye. Very good.
Exhibition Match: Naoyuki Taira vs. Koji Yamazaki. Submissions were legal here.
GRAND PRIX '94 Ikkaisen
Peter Aerts vs. Rob Van Esdonk. Esdonk won the first round, even putting Aerts down. The second round was more wide open with both men having their moments, but overall Aerts won it convincingly. Aerts was doing most of his damage after backing Esdonk into the ropes, but Esdonk did fairly well on the occassions when he opened up and fought his way back to the center of the ring. 3rd round wasn't particularly eventful, with the knockout being one big high kick out of nowhere.
Andy Hug vs. Patrick Smith. This was hard to believe. One would have thought that Hug would destroy Smith, but he never even got started. Smith had him down within 10 seconds, although Hug had one leg up to kick when he was hit so it was probably more of a case of him not having a strong base when he was hit. Smith caught Hug with a big uppercut a few seconds after he got up, and this time he definitely fell because he was hurt. Hug was up before the ref steped in front of Smith to get him to back up, so Smith decked Hug and that was it.
Masaaki Satake vs. Michael Thompson. Typical Satake fight. The most interesting thing was the scoring of the second round where one judge had it 10-10, but another scored it 10-7 Satake. 10-9 Satake was probably fair.
Andre Manaart vs. Branco Cikatic
Special One Match: Lucia Riker vs. Sandra Michelle Muua
GRAND PRIX '94 Junkessho
Patrick Smith vs. Peter Aerts. Smith was really aggressive here, but in an out of control roll the dice kind of way. Aerts isn't the type you are going to beat this way, although I suppose the same could be said about Hug.
Branco Cikatic vs. Masaaki Satake
Special One Match: Hiro Yoshitaka vs. Ewan Hiporitt. Small quick guys who were very active. They tired in the later rounds, but the 5th round was really exciting because it was close enough that both men put everything they had into winning the final round.
GRAND PRIX '94 Kesshosen: Peter Aerts vs. Masaaki Satake. Aerts consistently had the most interesting fights of the tournament, while Satake consistently had the least interesting fights in the tournament. Unfortunately, Satake was the one that kept his streak alive. He went about business like he always does and was able to hang in there, but there were very few highlights and you never got the idea that Satake could win.
Jeff Roufus vs. Takeshi Tanaka. Exciting, but one-sided.
Orlando Wiet vs. Taiei Kin. Pretty good fight.
Yoshihisa Tagami vs. Hector Pena. Slaughter.
Changpuek Kiatsongrit vs. Michael Thompson. Kiatsongrit landed the more damaging blows, but Thompson was more active. Finish was kind of fishy if you ask me, as it ended on a Miyato spinning savate kick 2 seconds into a round.
Ernesto Hoost vs. Mark Russell. Russell was able to get up from a killer high kick in the third round, but he was still on dream street and Hoost was pummelling him. Russell showed good heart here, but that only goes so far when your opponent is the best.
Toshiyuki Atokawa vs. Tasis "Tosca" Petridis. Atokawa was unable to stop Tosca's punches. Tosca couldn't really get his kicks and knees going, but eventually his hooks and straight punches did so much damage that he was able to use his legs on his wobbly foe. Atokawa was basically a punching bag in round 5.
Branco Cikatic vs. Stan The Man. Slow, deliberate fight. Neither man was very active, and it was rather dull.
Andy Hug vs. Patrick Smith. Smith came out with all guns blazing again, but this time Hug was ready for him. Flashy, all action fight. May have been a work as there were so many big swings in the short time it lasted, but one knee from Hug was really the only good blow that landed.
WKA World Muay Thai Super Heavyweight Title: Dennis "Hurricane" Lane vs. Masaaki Satake. Typical dull Satake match. Highlight was Lane hitting a nice uraken, but he looked a little silly doing it since he wound up falling down.
Reserve Match: Toshiyuki Atokawa vs. Okchon Kim
Grand Prix '95 1st Round
Kirkwood "Fire" Walker vs. Peter Aerts
Sam Greco vs. Ujatcheslav Sovkhanov
John Kleijn vs. Sergio Augusto Machado. Kleijn put Machado down twice within 30 seconds.
Ernesto Hoost vs. Hubert Numrich. Numrich seems to be a tough guy, but he had no defense for Hoost's low kicks and Hoost is also too quick for him.
Andy Hug vs. Mike Bernardo. Best match on the show. Hug put Bernardo down toward the end of the first round and put the heat on him, but he couldn't connect with a big blow to finish him off. Bernardo battled back, and wound up having a huge third round. The difference in the fight was when Bernardo went in for the kill, he was able to get a 2nd knockdown and then he got even more aggresive throwing punch after punch with great power and speed at his groggy opponent.
Patrick Smith vs. Stan The Man. Smith is not that good, but his fights are fun to watch because he takes a lot of chances and isn't very good at preventing his opponents from connecting with heavy blows. Stan actually knocked him down with a big left hook two seconds into the fight. Either Smith suffered a few legit injuries in this match or he was selling as an excuse to take a dive. I don't see why Stan couldn't beat him without any help, but all the knockdowns in this match were at least somewhat questionable.
Nokveed Devy vs. Jerome Le Banner. This was the most surprising match. Le Banner is way bigger and stronger, but somehow Devy didn't succumb to his power like most everyone else. Devy hung in there due to his defense and quickness. He wasn't just trying to hang in there though, he would stand toe to toe with Le Banner and answer his heavy blows. Devy even gave Le Banner a bloody nose.
Masaaki Satake vs. Kimo. Kimo had no technique and either didn't know the rules or just didn't care about them. Satake isn't the guy you want to try to rough up though. It was a pretty sad performance by Satake when you consider it took him almost two whole rounds to beat a guy that was totally out of his element and didn't know what he was doing. Kimo is a tough guy, but on this day he was mainly an embarrassment.
Note: early rounds may be skipped
Changpuek Kiatsongrit vs. Takashi Sugiyama
Ichiro Ishii vs. Kenichiro Yamaki
Hideaki Yone vs. Akira Yamamoto
Martial Arts Japan Featherweight Title Match: Wonderman Muroto vs. Eiji Matsuo
Young Fight Highlights
Gilbert Valentini vs. Satoshi Niijima
Nogway Davey (sp?) vs. Taro Minato
Taiei Kin vs. Belam Korak (sp?)
Tournament Quarterfinals
Jerome Le Banner vs. Masaaki Satake. Satake did a good job in defense and counter punching. He was fighting one of his best fights, but one big Le Banner punch and it was over.
Mike Bernardo vs. Stan The Man. Stan's strategy was to stick and move so he woudln't be caught in front of Bernardo, where he'd be prone to Bernardo's punches. Even though Stan is much quicker, since he's pretty short it's hard for him to pull this off because he has to get inside for his strikes to land with optimum force, then get right back out before Bernardo can hit him. Bernardo became the aggressor after putting Stan down with a high kick. Stan was doing a pretty good job of hitting him as he was coming in, but Bernardo eventually caught him with a left high kick and that was it.
Ernesto Hoost vs. John Kleijn. Kleijn threw a looping left hook and Hoost just came inside of it with a right to the side of the jaw for the KO.
Peter Aerts vs. Toshiyuki Atokawa
K-3 Match: Yoshihisa Tagami vs. Akbar Talei
K-1 Match: Andy Hug vs. Peter Kramer. Kramer hitting his head hard on the canvas may have caused the KO rather than Hug's blow, which wasn't clean.
Semifinals
Jerome Le Banner vs. Mike Bernardo. Both of these guys want to stand toe to toe and beat their opponent with their punching power. Le Banner got a bloody nose again, but he still won because he has more kicking skill than Bernardo.
Peter Aerts vs. Ernesto Hoost. It's too bad this wasn't the final because these were the two best fighters, and this was one of the closest K-1 fights I've ever seen. It's great watching these guys fight because both are capable of doing damage from any position, and it takes this kind of matchup to really bring that out because, for the most part, they have their way with the rest of their opposition. Hoost was cut from an Aerts high kick. I thought Aerts won two of the three rounds, but one judge had it for each and the other had it a tie, so it went overtime.
Final: Jerome Le Banner vs. Peter Aerts. Le Banner didn't seem to have anything left. Aerts was beating him to the punch. He opened the cut on Le Banner's nose up right away.
Spirit Karate Rule: Michael Thompson vs. Rene Papais 3R
Taiei Kin vs. Andre Mewis 5R
Swiss Thai Boxing Rule: Alain Koch vs. Marino Deflorin R2 1:45
Toshiyuki Atokawa vs. Marcus Jund R2 1:56
Gilbert Ballentine vs. Osuman Yagin R4 2:24
Orlando Weit vs. Azem Muksutaj R2 2:45
Andy Hug vs. Dennis Lane 2R
Vander Merve vs. Lee Hasdell R1 0:30
RINGS Rule: Satoshi Honma vs. Masayuki Naruse
Brazilian Vale Tudo: Naoyuki Taira vs. Jan Lomulder
Karate vs. Kick 7 vs. 7 Match:
Patrick Smith vs. Musashi R2 0:43
Stan The Man vs. Nobuaki Kakuda R2 3:05
Jerome Le Banner vs. Johnny Kleijn R2 1:10
Ernesto Hoost vs. Michael Thompson R2 2:45
Andy Hug vs. Mike Bernardo R2 2:43
Sam Greco vs. Peter Aerts 5R
Ultimate Special Rule: Rene Rooze vs. Satoshi Honma
Ultimate Special Rule: Kiyoshi Tamura vs. Patrick Smith
Nobuaki Kakuda vs. Bruce "Dragon" Joe R1 1:28
Takeru vs. Zane Frasier R2 0:45
Pedro Rizzo vs. Michael Thomson R3 1:19
Ernesto Hoost vs. Maurice Travis R1 2:13
Sam Greco vs. Vander Merwe R1 1:24
Taiei Kin vs. Peter Teysser 2R
Stan The Man vs. Musashi 5R
Andy Hug vs. Jerome Le Banner 5R
Peter Aerts vs. Mike Bernardo R1 0:40
Hug vs. Bernardo, Aerts vs. Greco, more
Peter Mystrowitch (sp?) vs.
WKA Super Welterweight Title Match: Marino Deflorin vs. Ewart Liburd R2 1:50
Adam Watt vs. Perry Telgt R3 1:05
Orlando Weit vs. Toshiyuki Atokawa R2 0:30
Taiei Kin vs. Azem Maksutaj 5R
WKA Cruiserweight Title Match: Michael Thompson vs. Attila Fusko R3 1:50
UKF World Super Heavyweight Title Match: Andy Hug vs. Sadou Kiatsongrit R2 3:02
Jean Riviere vs. Fred Floyd. Fred Floyd looks like an offensive lineman, and is about as exciting. Horrible.
Jerome Le Banner vs. Takeru. Le Banner was seemingly twice as thick as Takeru. He rocked Takeru and put him down over and over, but Takeru kept getting up for more punishment.
Ivan Hippolyte vs. Jason Nobunaga. So edited that you couldn't tell much.
Ernesto Hoost vs. Carl Bernardo. Hoost really put on a technical dismantling exhibition in round one then got a quick KO in round 2.
Nobuaki Kakuda vs. Zane Frazier. They joined this in round 4, but even what they showed was boring. They were totally blown up in round 5.
WMTC World Middleweight Title Match: Marino Deflorin vs. Sak Mongkol. This looked like non K-1 kickboxing. It wasn't real exciting, but mainly because the defense was actually good. Defnitely a good fight if you can appreciate this style.
WMTC World Junior Middleweight Title Match: Taiei Kin vs. Wanlop Sor Sarthaphan. Two fights in a row with defense. Amazing. More of a strategic fight, but the action picked up in the 4th round. Not real exciting, but a good even fight.
Musashi vs. Sam Greco. Greco is too powerful for Musashi. Musashi may hit him, but when they exchange Greco is almost always going to do more damage because of this.
Peter Aerts vs. Mike Bernardo. Aerts kicked Bernardo low early on and he couldn't continue.
WMTC World Super Heavyweight Title Match: Stan The Man vs. Andy Hug. The most exciting match on the show, which is not surprising given Hug. These two fought kind of dirty and roughed each other up. At one point, Hug hurt Stan's back by holding him against the ropes and then leaning over, which turned Stan into a teeter totter. Hug wasn't even penalized for this. Stan seemed to be okay once he was up for a few seconds, but Hug ran over him for the rest of the fight.
Musashi vs. Jean Riviere. Riviere appeared to have about 75 pounds on Musashi, but his conditioning was horrible so he slowed in the later rounds. The last two rounds were pretty good, but the first three were dull.
Ernesto Hoost vs. Jerome Le Banner. I've never seen Hoost down so many times. Granted several were slips, but still. Good fight.
Peter Aerts vs. Mike Bernardo. Bernardo took it to Aerts, doing damage with his fists as usual. Bernardo won all three rounds, but it didn't matter because he scored a KO with a killer left hook then right hook combination just before the third round ended. Bernardo was very impressive here. Very good fight.
Masaaki Miyamoto vs. Stan The Man. Miyamoto was overmatched. He kept fighting, but he wasn't doing any damage, while Stan was connecting with lots of good blows.
Sam Greco vs. Gerry Harris
Karate demonstration
WKA World Muay Thai Super Heavyweight Title Match: Masaaki Satake vs. Andy Hug. Disappointing fight. Satake was losing every round, as you'd expect, but it wasn't very entertaining since he was concentrating on avoiding all of Hug's blows, mainly by backing away. Satake was never in any trouble, but he really never did anything offensively.
Vander Merwe vs. Ernesto Hoost
Ray Sefo vs. Petar Majstoro
Branko Cikatic vs. Musashi
Mike Bernardo vs. Masaaki Satake
Stephane Reveillon vs. Jean Claude
Andy Hug vs. Peter Aerts
Peter Aerts vs. Jean Claude
Stan The Man vs. Takeru
Stefan leko vs. Sadau Kiatsongrit
Kirkwood Walker vs. Musashi
Changpuek Kiatsongrit vs. Nobuaki Kakuda
Sam Greco vs. Andy Hug
Jerome Le Banner vs. Ray Sefo
Ernesto Hoost vs. Mike Bernardo
Ernesto Hoost vs. Shaun Johnson
Perry Ubeda vs. Stephan Nigema
Musashi vs. Michael Thompson
Taiei Kin vs. Orlando Weit
Hideki Boku vs. Mariano DeFlorin
Masaaki Satake vs. Kirkwood Walker
Andy Hug vs. Mike Bernardo. As usual, Hug had the most exciting fight on the show. Hug being in his home country made it more exciting because the fans were really into everything he did. Bernardo got off to a good start against him, but he's so one-dimensional. Bernardo, as usual, didn't establish any kind of kicking offense and doesn't really work the body with punches, so in the later rounds Hug was able to avoid most of the punch to the head offense a more tired Bernardo's was throwing at him.
Jerome Le Banner vs. Peter Aerts
Ray Sefo vs. Jean Claude
Stan The Man vs. Vander Merve
Branko Cikatic vs. Sam Greco
Andy Hug vs. Francisco Fihlo
Francisco Fihlo vs. Vander Merve
Jean Claude vs. Sam Greco
Rick Roufus vs. Jerome Le Banner
Stephan Leko vs. Ernesto Hoost
Branko Cikatic vs. Mike Bernardo
Peter Aerts vs. James Warring
Jean Riviere vs. Masaaki Satake. Match was so close it was ruled a draw after 5 rounds and again after the first extra round, so it went 7 rounds total before a winner could be declared.
Andy Hug vs. Pierre Guenette
Tournament Quarterfinals
Francisco Filho vs. Sam Greco. Filho put Greco down in 10 seconds with a lame combination. Greco got up, but the ref waved it off. Supposedly the right got Greco in the right spot.
Jerome Le Banner vs. Ernesto Hoost. Hoost surprised me by fighting such a fast 1st round. Of course, Le Banner being so aggressive had something to do with it, but Hoost's strategy was to cover up, back away, and wait for Le Banner to make a mistake.
Mike Bernardo vs. Peter Aerts. Bernardo forced Aerts into the role of counter puncher. Aerts never found his rhythm, but he hits so damn hard that all it takes is a small opening and one good shot. Bernardo did a good job defensively in R2, but surprisingly throwing low kicks early in R3 may have got him more out of his game than Aerts.
Masaaki Satake vs. Andy Hug. Satake tried to come out slugging, but Hug put him out with a high kick in 10 seconds.
Tournament Semifinals
Francisco Filho vs. Ernesto Hoost. One of Hoost's most patient fights. Disciplined defensive struggle that was tough to score. Hoost didn't want to let Filho lay back, so he edged in and made him throw. Hoost didn't have much luck countering Filho's kicks.
Peter Aerts vs. Andy Hug. Hug had the much easier 1st round fight and was in top form, while Aerts wasn't at his best and was worse the second time out. Hug did well in the 2nd round except Aerts made him pay for missing a kakato otoshi. Hug pressured Aerts and Aerts wasn't successful counter punching.
Tournament Final: Andy Hug vs. Ernesto Hoost. Good competitive high stakes fight. Hug was kicked low almost as soon as the match started. Otherwise, the 1st round was about setting each other up. Hug's left foot was messed up, but he had to kick with it anyway since that's his main striking foot. Hug jumped at Hoost at the start of round 3 only to take a left hook to the face. Hug is not the better fighter, but he grinded it out and kept R1 & R3 close enough that the fight could have gone either way. Although Hug weathered Hoost's typically flurry at the start of R2, that round was still the key to Hoost's victory.
Francisco Filho vs. Ray Sefo
Jan "The Giant" Nortje vs. Matt Skelton
Curtis Schuster vs. Andy Hug
Mike Bernardo vs. Gordon Myers
Masaaki Satake vs. Maurice Smith
Peter Aerts vs. Ernesto Hoost
Marino Deflorin vs. Peter Crooke
8 Man Tournament with Xhavit Bajrami vs. Matteo Minnonzio, Achille Roger vs. Rob Van Esdonk, Attilla Fusko vs. Ray Hoffman, Stefan Leko vs. Peter Majstorovic
Andy Hug vs. Peter Aerts
Nicholas Pettas vs. Stefan Leko
Xhavit Bajrami vs. Kirkwood Walker
Sam Greco vs. Jerome Le Banner
Matt Skelton vs. Masaaki Satake
Glaube Feitosa vs. Mike Bernardo
Musashi vs. Ernesto Hoost
Peter Aerts vs. Francisco Filho
K-1 U.S.A. GP Tournament Quarterfinals:
Rick Roufus vs. Pedro Fernandez R2 1:15
Jerome Turcan vs. Espedito Da Silva 3R
Tomasz Kucharzewski vs. Jean Claude Leuyer R1 3:00
Curtis Schuster vs. Jean Riviere R2 2:52
K-1 U.S.A. GP Tournament Semifinals:
Rick Roufus vs. Jerome Turcan R2 0:59
Jean Claude Leuyer vs. Curtis Schuster R2 2:29
Super Fight: Andy Hug vs. Mike LaBree R1 2:11
K-1 U.S.A. GP Tournament Final: Rick Roufus vs. Curtis Schuster
Super Fight: Ernesto Hoost vs. Maurice Smith 5R
Nobuaki Kakuda vs. Bart Vale
Mitsuya Nagai vs. Jan "The Giant" Nortje
Masaaki Miyamoto vs. Andy Hug
Sadou Kesonrit vs. Mike Bernardo
Musashi vs. Michael Thompson
Tsuyoshi Nakasako vs. Stan The Man
Vale Tudo Exhibition Match: Naoyuki Taira vs. Alexander Otsuka
Michael McDonald vs. Peter Aerts
Masaaki Miyamoto vs. Wrath White
Takeru vs. Andrew Thomson
Mitsuya Nagai vs. Andre Manaart
Musashi vs. Duncan James
Tsuyoshi Nakasako vs. Andy Hug
Freshman Fight: ? Mori vs. ? Tanaka
Sam Greco vs. Smir Benazzouz
Hiromi Amada vs. John Wyatt
Takeru vs. Peter Kramer
Yoji Anjo vs. Duncan James
Tsuyoshi Nakasako vs. Dewey Cooper
Musashi vs. Greg Voyticek
Jim Mullen vs. Peter Aerts
Freshman Fight: ? Mori vs. Daichi Yamazaki
Peter Aerts vs. Matt Skelton
Mirko "Cro Cop" Filipovic vs. Jan "The Giant" Nortje
Gary Goodridge vs. Musashi
Mike Bernardo vs. Masaaki Satake
Andy Hug vs. Ray Sefo
Ernesto Hoost vs. Francisco Filho
Ray Sefo vs. Jim Mullen
Tommy Gramble vs. Yoji Anjo
Wayne Tanner vs. Satoshi Honma
Mitsuya Nagai vs. Tofan Pirani
Hiromi Amada vs. Simon Dole
Duncan James vs. Nobuaki Kakuta
Peter Aerts vs. Maurice Smith
Masaaki Satake vs. Jokki Oberholtzer
Musashi vs. Kirkwood Walker
Sam Greco vs. Mike Bernardo
1st & 2nd round highlights of 8 Man Tournament for K-1 Grand Prix 1st '99
Semifinal: Lloyd Van Dams vs. Matt Skelton
Semifinal: Xhavit Bajrami vs. Mirko "Cro Cop" Filipovic
Tournament Final: Xhavit Bajrami vs. Lloyd Van Dams
Tsuyoshi Nakasako vs. Tofan Pirani
K-1 Grand Prix '99 Qualifying Tournament B Block First Round
Phillippe Gomis vs. Stefan Leko
Kirkwood Walker vs. Cyril Abidi
Michael McDonald vs. Combat Zijo
Alexander Semenovich vs. Samir Benazzouz
Semifinals
Stefan Leko vs. Cyril Abidi. Excellent fight. Both are very quick and active, and were more than willing to trade blows. The defense could have been better, but weak defense kind of makes for a better fight in cases like this.
Combat Zijo vs. Samir Benazzouz
Final: Stefan Leko vs. Samir Benazzouz
Super Bouts
Ernesto Hoost vs. Igor Vovchanchin. I give Igor credit for being willing to take on a fighter the quality of Hoost, who has way may talent and way better technique. I tend to doubt Igor could have hung with him before he got into shooting, but it was obvious that all the shoots have screwed up Igor's instincts as he was going for takedowns when he knew Hoost was going to kick even though that kind of thing is illegal under these rules. Hoost kept attacking Igor's left leg right above the knee until Igor was in such bad shape that he'd fall everytime Hoost hit the area.
Peter Aerts vs. Sam Greco. A good fight while it lasted, but the finish looked awfully fishy.
Tsuyoshi Nakasako vs. Tofan Pirani
K-1 Grand Prix '99 Qualifying Tournament B Block First Round
Phillippe Gomis vs. Stefan Leko
Kirkwood Walker vs. Cyril Abidi
Michael McDonald vs. Combat Zijo
Alexander Semenovich vs. Samir Benazzouz
Semifinals
Stefan Leko vs. Cyril Abidi. Excellent fight. Both are very quick and active, and were more than willing to trade blows. The defense could have been better, but weak defense kind of makes for a better fight in cases like this.
Combat Zijo vs. Samir Benazzouz
Final: Stefan Leko vs. Samir Benazzouz
Super Bouts
Ernesto Hoost vs. Igor Vovchanchin. I give Igor credit for being willing to take on a fighter the quality of Hoost, who has way may talent and way better technique. I tend to doubt Igor could have hung with him before he got into shooting, but it was obvious that all the shoots have screwed up Igor's instincts as he was going for takedowns when he knew Hoost was going to kick even though that kind of thing is illegal under these rules. Hoost kept attacking Igor's left leg right above the knee until Igor was in such bad shape that he'd fall everytime Hoost hit the area.
Peter Aerts vs. Sam Greco. A good fight while it lasted, but the finish looked awfully fishy.
Mike Bernardo vs. Ronny Sefo
Andy Hug vs. Maurice Smith
Masaaki Satake vs. Gary Goodridge
Kensaku Maeda vs. Karim Naja
K-1 Spirits '99 Tournament with Musashi, Mitsuya Nagai, Hiromi Amada, Takeru, Nobu Hayashi, etc.
*Note: all matches are 1st Round matches in the GRAND PRIX tournament*
Mirko Filipovic vs. Mike Bernardo
Samir Benaszzoul vs. Ray Sefo
Matt Skelton vs. Jerome Le Banner
Xhavit Bajrami vs. Ernesto Hoost
Stefan Leko vs. Sam Greco
Hiromi Amada vs. Andy Hug
Musashi vs. Masaaki Satake
Lloyd Van Dams vs. Peter Aerts
Quarterfinal
Sam Greco vs. Ray Sefo
Musashi vs. Mirko "Cro Cop" Filipovic. Good fight with a lot of action. Musashi had some bad luck like getting hurt by an accidental headbutt, but overall he wasn't that impressive.
Ernesto Hoost vs. Andy Hug. Both men fought really hard and were always working. They threw a lot of blows, and they had a lot of them. Hug bloodied Hoost's nose. However, it was Hoost who was picking Hug apart. His low kicks are so nasty.
Jerome Le Banner vs. Peter Aerts. Le Banner couldn't seem to get going, but he was really pushing the action. I was expecting Aerts to kill him because he was aggressive to the point of sloppiness, leaning and such. Aerts did put him down twice in the first minute, but Le Banner bullied Aerts into the corner and KO'd him with a killer left.
Semifinal
Sam Greco vs. Mirko Filipovic. Greco hurt his foot kicking Mirko in the knee and was never the same the rest of the fight. It seemed more like he was beat by his own injuries than by Mirko, not that Mirko didn't get the job done.
Ernesto Hoost vs. Jerome Le Banner. Round 1 & round 2 were like totally different fights. In round one Hoost couldn't get going and Le Banner was overpowering him and nailing him with some nasty punches. In round 2 Hoost hurt Le Banner almost immediately with one punch and then had a big flurry for the KO.
K-1 Super Fight: Harry Hooft vs. Stefan Leko
Final: Ernesto Hoost vs. Mirko Filipovic. I think everyone knew that Hoost was going to win this, but they still went totally nuts for the third round as Filipovic was clearly on his last leg.
Quarterfinal
Sam Greco vs. Ray Sefo
Musashi vs. Mirko "Cro Cop" Filipovic. Good fight with a lot of action. Musashi had some bad luck like getting hurt by an accidental headbutt, but overall he wasn't that impressive.
Ernesto Hoost vs. Andy Hug. Both men fought really hard and were always working. They threw a lot of blows, and they had a lot of them. Hug bloodied Hoost's nose. However, it was Hoost who was picking Hug apart. His low kicks are so nasty.
Jerome Le Banner vs. Peter Aerts. Le Banner couldn't seem to get going, but he was really pushing the action. I was expecting Aerts to kill him because he was aggressive to the point of sloppiness, leaning and such. Aerts did put him down twice in the first minute, but Le Banner bullied Aerts into the corner and KO'd him with a killer left.
Semifinal
Sam Greco vs. Mirko Filipovic. Greco hurt his foot kicking Mirko in the knee and was never the same the rest of the fight. It seemed more like he was beat by his own injuries than by Mirko, not that Mirko didn't get the job done.
Ernesto Hoost vs. Jerome Le Banner. Round 1 & round 2 were like totally different fights. In round one Hoost couldn't get going and Le Banner was overpowering him and nailing him with some nasty punches. In round 2 Hoost hurt Le Banner almost immediately with one punch and then had a big flurry for the KO.
K-1 Super Fight: Harry Hooft vs. Stefan Leko
Final: Ernesto Hoost vs. Mirko Filipovic. I think everyone knew that Hoost was going to win this, but they still went totally nuts for the third round as Filipovic was clearly on his last leg.
Nobuaki Kakuda vs. Ryushi Yanagisawa 3R
Tsuyoshi Nakasako vs. Toru Oishi 5R
Great Kusatsu vs. Nobu Hayashi 5R
Hiroki Kurosawa vs. Ryuji Murakami 3R
Mike Bernardo vs. Hiromi Amada R4 1:32
Mirko Cro Cop vs. Tatsufumi Tomihira R2 2:55
Prestige Fight: Hiraku Hori vs. Ryuma R3 1:17
JAPAN Tournament Challenge Match:
Yusuke Fujimoto vs. Yasuhiro Anbe 3R
Issei Nakai vs. Tsuyoshi R1 2:47
K-1 J-MAX Special Match: Masato vs. Patrik Eriksson 5R
Japan vs. The World 5 vs. 5 Match:
Tatsufumi Tomihira vs. Muhammed Azzoui R2 1:50
Toro Oishi vs. Lloyd van Dams 5R
Shingo Koyasu vs. Gurkan Ozkan 5R
Nobu Hayashi vs. Peter Aerts 5R 0:36
Musashi vs. Ernesto Hoost 5R
Note: K-1 JAPAN GP 1st Round matches unless otherwise noted
Super Fight: Musashi vs. Ebenezer Fontes Braga 5R
Great Kusatsu vs. Tatsunori Momose 3R
Tsuyoshi Nakasako vs. Shingo Koyasu 3R
Nobu Hayashi vs. Tsuyoshi 3R
Super Fight: Jerome Le Banner vs. Stefan Leko 5R
Tooru Oishi vs. Masashi Suzuki 3R
Noboru Uchida vs. Yusuke Fujimoto R5 1:15
Tatsufumi Tomihira vs. Ryushi Yanagisawa R5
Super Fight: Remy Bonjasky vs. Ray Sefo
Repechage Tournament A Block Semifinals:
Sergei Ivanovich vs. Francisco Filho 3R
Matt Skelton vs. Lloyd Van Dams 3R
Repechage Tournament B Block Semifinals:
Mike Bernardo vs. Adam Watt R1 2:27
Ray Sefo vs. Mark Hunt 3R
Super Fight: Cyril Abidi vs. Tatsufumi Tomihira R4 2:30
Repechage Tournament A Block Final: Francisco Filho vs. Lloyd Van Dams 4R
Repechage Tournament B Block Final: Mark Hunt vs. Adam Watt
Cyril Abidi vs. Hiraku Hori R3 2:58
Jerrel Venetiaan vs. Sergei Gur 3R
Mike Bernardo vs. Jan "The Giant" Nortje R1 2:32
Francois Botha vs. Aziz Khattou 3R
Shannon Briggs vs. Tom Erikson R1 1:02
Bob Sapp vs. Seth Petruzelli R1 0:57
Alexey Ignashov vs. Carter Williams R2 2:42
Ernesto Hoost vs. Xhavit Bajrami 3R
Musashi vs. Akebono 3R
K-1 ASIA GP Tournament 1st Round:
Akebono vs. Zhang Qing Jun 3R
Dolgosuren Sumiyabazar vs. Shingo Koyasu R2 1:08
Tsuyoshi Nakasako vs. Lee Myeon Ju 3R
Denis Kang vs. Kaoklai Kaennorsing R1 1:48
Super Fight: Remy Bonjasky vs. Aziz Khattou R2 1:59
K-1 ASIA GP Tournament Semifinals:
Seo Chal vs. Shingo Koyasu 4R
Tsuyoshi Nakasako vs. Kaoklai Kaennorsing 3R
Super Fight: Glaube Feitosa vs. TOA R1 1:49
Super Fight: Jerome Le Banner vs. Terence Reasby R1 0:53
K-1 ASIA GP Tournament Final: Kaoklai Kaennorsing vs. Shingo Koyasu 5R
Utako Hozumi & Mizuki Endo vs. Noriyo Tateno & Yukari Osawa
Rumi Kazama & Eagle Sawai vs. Midori Saito & Rumi Yasuda
Shinobu Kandori in 5 consecutive singles matches vs. Harley Saito, Michiko Nagashima, Mikiko Futagami, Leo Kitamura & Miki Handa
Michiko Nagashima vs. Mizuki Endo. 12:47 of 16:48. Real basic. Endo became a good wrestler, but she didn't show a thing at this point. I was amazed she won, as Nagashima was far more advanced. 1/2*
Yukari Osawa & Mikiko Futagami vs. Utako Hozumi & Leo Kitamura. 16:42 of 22:50. More action than the previous match, but also not particularly well worked. Hozumi was pretty good, but she was the only one. *1/4
Yasha Kurenai vs. Midori Saito. 14:46. Some decent moments, but too much in the way of time killing manuevers. *1/2
Rumi Kazama & Noriyo Tateno vs. Eagle Sawai & Miki Handa. 13:15. Pretty well worked match. They kept it going, but never took it up a notch so the ending came as a surprise and the match wound up seeming on the short side. Eagle was far better here than in later yers. **
Shinobu Kandori & Harley Saito vs. Suzuka Minami & Etsuko Mita. Superior interpromotional match. Super intensity with the women making you believe they wanted to hurt each other. As with the Dreamslams, you felt like everyone wanted to show each other up in a good way, their competitive nature driving them to excellence. The crowd was dead all night, but were jacked up for this. Fast paced AJW style match, but not a spot fest because they played on the rivalry and told a story. Kandori worked as hard as she ever did in LLPW, actually both of the LLPW women probably never worked this hard against anyone from their own league. They had to prove to their fans and everyone else they were in the league with the AJW wrestlers. Harley certainly did that, in fact she proved many times in '93 she could hand with anyone. Though a far inferior worker, it was the right setting for Kandori, who thrives on heat and generally the grudge setting. A perfect example of what an interpromotional match should be. 21:22. ****1/4
*Special price $18 or $23.50 COOP*
Michiku Omukai LLPW Mat Debut Match: Michiku Omukai vs. Mizuki Endo 1:11 of 8:07. You’d think LLPW would want to promote their new wrestler in some way, but they simply showed the finish. Thus, Omukai had no real offense, just two counters into pin attempts.
LLPW Nintei Single Oja Kettei (Recognized Single Crown Decision) Tournament B Block 1st Round: Yukari Osawa vs. Michiko Nagashima 1:10 of 19:02
Harley Saito & Utako Hozumi vs. Yasha Kurenai & Midori Saito 9:01 of 13:48. In 1993 there were very few experienced women who weren’t solid very competent workers. This was a very ordinary match for the period, with consistent quality action but lacking anything to make it notable or memorable. No one outshined the others, which in a sense is a bad thing given Harley was at least an excellent worker at this point. They didn’t bother with a finishing segment, and the end came off that much worse as Midori kicked out of what was called the finisher.
LLPW Nintei Single Oja Kettei Tournament A Block 1st Round: Mikiko Futagami vs. Noriyo Tateno 5:33 of 13:39. Good story match. Tateno had a giant brace on her right knee to go along with an ankle injury. She was either in really bad shape or doing the worlds best selling job as she wasn’t even moving at all. Futagami took the action to her, immediately attacking the bad knee, which prompted Tateno to ditch her right boot. This didn’t prove helpful, as Gami quickly put the boots to her foot and worked an ankle lock. Tateno’s only offense was countering Futagami’s la magistral for the win. I wish they showed more, as it appeared quite well thought out and executed.
Dantai Taikosen LLPW vs. Zenjo: Eagle Sawai & Leo Kitamura vs. Aja Kong & Kyoko Inoue 18:09 of 22:54. In these days leagues used to understand how to get mileage out of a matchup people cared about seeing. There was major heat for Aja vs. Eagle, so they had them do enough together to keep the audience from feeling cheated while saving everything of note for their future singles match on the 11/28/93 AJW show. Aja attacked her fiercely and mercilessly early on, putting quite a beating on Eagle for such a brief period. Eagle quicky came back when Kyoko tagged in. To even things out, Eagle controlled the second segment against Aja, and that was pretty much the extent of their involvement. This rendered Kyoko the crucial performer, as the lack of Aja vs. Eagle could have been a big disappointment. As Aja & Eagle weren’t going to sell much, and LLPW would be given most of the offense since they were losing, that meant Kyoko had to bear the brunt of it. Doing everything with urgency, Kyoko even dashed into the ropes to get crushed on the rebound. She delivered a peak performance to make the match, elevating both Eagle & Leo’s games a few notches. Leo was the obvious bump girl and jobber, but she made a good showing, using her quickness and athleticism to sneak a pretty good flying move in before succumbing to the latest pounding. Even when you knew she was about to be pinned, she made it difficult, countering Aja’s nadare shiki no suisha otoshi and Kyoko’s Niagara driver with sunset flips. ***3/4
Dantai Taikosen LLPW vs. Zenjo: Shinobu Kandori & Rumi Kazama & Miki Handa vs. Suzuka Minami & Etsuko Mita & Mima Shimoda 11:24 of 18:05. A series of quick exchanges, rotating everyone in and out to keep the pace high. Though they weren’t overly familiar with each other, they worked a complex match built around repeated counters. Kandori was turning the opposition’s offense into a variety of submissions, including a few wakigatames that she put over as though she was trying to rip the enemy’s arm off. Kandori is a better seller than she’s given credit for, as she has an awkwardness to her reactions and falls that lend a less choreographed feel. Rumi got the push her, pinning the top AJW wrestler she was facing, and more importantly Akira Hokuto’s longtime partner, Suzuka Minami as part of her push to their hair vs. hair match on the 11/9/93 LLPW show. It’s hard to figure why they’d cut so much from a high quality interpromotional main event. ***1/2
6/29/93 Tokyo Korakuen Hall
Michiko Omukai vs. Midori Saito 0:44 of 7:52
Harley Saito & Yukari Osawa vs. Mizuki Endo & Michiko Nagashima 2:18 of 15:30
LLPW Nintei Single Oja Kettei Tournament B Block 1st Round: Utako Hozumi vs. Miki Handa 6:44 of 24:55. Hozumi is one of the marketable talents LLPW managed to completely squander. One would think a league where none of the stars had any sex appeal might do someone with one of the best looking women ever to compete, especially since she was also a good wrestler. Hozumi was a better worker than Cuty Suzuki, who was so crucial to JWP becoming the more watched promotion once the original league splintered into two. She kept herself in great shape to the point her strength and endurance were apparent, which not only bode well for this long match, but also would have against the larger headliners, as Hozumi could do her suplexes to them without them having to do the big exaggerated jump. Though Handa had yet to find her calling as an infuriating heel, she was already quite a capable wrestler in her own right. They did a good athletic match mixing flying with nice bridging suplexes.
LLPW Nintei Single Oja Kettei Tournament A Block 2nd Round: Shinobu Kandori vs. Yasha Kurenai 3:44 of 4:27. Yasha stood on the turnbuckle posing as Kandori came out, so Kandori threw her shirt at her and darted into the ring only to have Kurenai pounce on top, blinding her by covering her head with her red robe. Yasha had an early run to get over, but as they typically did with her early in her push since she wasn’t much good, she lost as soon as the star opponent went on offense.
Eagle Sawai & Mikiko Futagami vs. Noriyo Tateno & Yoshika Maedomari 2:35 of 14:53. Shark Tsuchiya did a run in when Futagami had Tateno in trouble, breaking up a pin and delivering her powerbomb. Later, Shark took Eagle out so Tateno and her buddy Crusher could double team Futagami for the finish.
Yukari Osawa & Michiko Omukai vs. Leo Kitamura & Michiko Nagashima
Mikiko Futagami vs. Mizuki Endo
Harley Saito & Carol Midori vs. Eagle Sawai & Miki Handa
Shinobu Kandori vs. Utako Hozumi
LLPW vs. FMW: Noriyo Tateno & Yasha Kurenai vs. Megumi Kudo & Miwa Sato
Michiko Omukai vs. Yukari Osawa
Rumi Kazama vs. Mizuki Endo
Eagle Sawai & Utako Hozumi vs. Mikiko Futagami & Carol Midori
Bull Nakano vs. Yasha Kurenai
Shinobu Kandori & Harley Saito vs. Miki Handa & Mizuki Endo
Sakie Hasegawa & Chaparrita ASARI vs. Leo Kitamura & Michiko Nagashima 5:19 of 9:28. Exciting fast-paced match. Though LLPW was hosting the show, the crowd was largely behind the AJW team, giving them good pops. Young ASARI was treated well since she was getting pinned. ASARI displayed some of her hot moves, but also looked green.
~Sky Flower Rock~: Manami Toyota vs. Carol Midori 2:50. Literally half the match was the rolling cradle. Toyota just kept it going and going until pinning Midori in it after 1:25. A shame since Midori is a capable wrestler who could have had a good match with Toyota had that been the goal.
~Technical Flash~: Kyoko Inoue vs. Mikiko Futagami 4:01. As with the previous match, this should have been a chance for the LLPW wrestler to step up and allow the great AJW wrestler to carry them to a good match. Unfortunately, the LLPW wrestler was never taken seriously. Kyoko did nothing to help Futagami look good; it was simply AJW flexing their muscles.
~Dream Kickoff~: Toshiyo Yamada vs. Yukari Osawa 1:41. Yamada was fired up, wrestling with the passion we were always hoping to see from her post 1995. Osawa isn't in the league with Futagami or even Midori work wise, but at least this was an exciting squash as Yamada chose to make it more than simply quick.
Aja Kong vs. Miki Handa 4:16 of 6:38. As with her predecessors, Handa had little offense and was just a jobber. Aja was playing cocky heel and showing Handa up.
~Elimination Battle Field~: Yumiko Hotta & Suzuka Minami & Etsuko Mita & Mima Shimoda & Numacchi vs. Eagle Sawai & Harley Saito & Noriyo Tateno & Yasha Kurenai & Mizuki Endo 17:34 of 26:49. Finally, another real match! Exciting fast-paced action with enough tags that even the weaker wrestlers, who wisely weren't leaned on, looked fine. If you know anything about how LLPW books you can guess this was going to be The Day of the Eagle as they typically allowed all their lesser stars be jobbed out in exchange for pushing their two major wrestlers, Sawai & Kandori. The bottom three LLPW women were quickly dismissed, so Big Bird Sawai could be the hero, propelling her league to an amazing comeback from 4 vs. 2 odds. Eagle actually did a diving body attack, taking out 4 AJW women on the floor before pinning the entire AJW team sans Suzuka in a 2 minute span. Again, this was all to make Eagle look that much more impressive, as it would have been far more dramatic to spread these last falls out, not to mention not saving Numacchi for last. Harley survived, working circles around Sawai as always, but getting none of the glory she deserved. ***1/2
Bull Nakano & Takako Inoue vs. Shinobu Kandori & Utako Hozumi 14:30 of 14:38. Very heated and intense match. Daring match that risked pissing fans off today to build to the pay off when Bull finally had her singles match with Kandori on 7/14/94. What was rather unique is despite the match going almost 15 minutes, they kept Bull & Kandori apart to built anticipation for their meeting to the point they never officially squared off. At 5, Bull lariated Kandori off the apron in between beating on Hozumi. A bit later, Kandori returned the favor, elbowing Bull off the apron, leading to them brawling on the floor. Takako & Hozumi stepped up, so the wrestling was good when they were in even if no one cared as they were minor names who weren't involved in the storyline. Kandori's matches against AJW were by far her best, which isn't surprising given the quality of their wrestlers compared to LLPW's, but that's not the reason. AJW understood Kandori's gimmick worked when she maintained the aura of the dangerous threat who could take someone out at any time, more a mythical tough woman than someone who worked for long stretches (except against the best of the best) or sold. Kandori, of course took Takako out for the win. She also reapplied the wakigatame after the match to garner extra heel heat. ***3/4
Waisha Kamikiri Death Match: Akira Hokuto vs. Rumi Kazama 13:47. Those who want to argue Hokuto as the greatest ever can point to a match like this where she was strapped with an average opponent, but not only made the match live up to its main event billing, she managed to make it at least somewhat memorable. Considering Kazama wasn't allowed to be seen as even a near equal, the match was about as dramatic as it could possibly have been. Hokuto injured Rumi's back right away with a backbreaker and slame on the table. Every subsequent offensive move focused on Rumi's back. Kazama came back attacking Hokuto's bad knee, wrestling a smart and effective match by sticking to her game plan throughout. Sure, Kazama can't work on Hokuto's level, but she can kick an injured knee about as well as anyone. As Hokuto could put injury storylines over with the best of them, by the 12-minute mark you started believing Rumi could take her out at any time. Unfortunately, the match really was nearly over, and to make things worse the knee and back injuries played a dramatically reduced role in the final few minutes. As per the stips, Kazama was sheared after the match. ***3/4
Note: All matches are edited
2/7
Michiko Omukai vs. Leo Kitamura. Clip
Michiko Nagashima vs. Mikiko Futagami
Harley Saito & Noriyo Tateno vs. Miki Handa & Mizuki Endo
Yasha Kurenai vs. Jenn Yukari
Megumi Kudo & Nurse Nakamura vs. Rumi Kazama & Utako Hozumi
Shinobu Kandori & Eagle Sawai & Carol Midori vs. Combat Toyoda & Shark Tsuchiya & Tsuppari Mack
2/20
Noriyo Tateno & Mikiko Futagami vs. Yasha Kurenai & Mikiko Nagashima
LLPW Nintei Single Senshukenjiai: Shinobu Kandori vs. Eagle Sawai
Highlights of the undercard matches
Michiko Omukai vs. Leo Kitamura
Jenn Yukari vs. Michiko Nagashima
Carol Midori & Mizuki Endo vs. Miki Handa & Yasha Kurenai
Rumi Kazama & Noriyo Tateno vs. Eagle Sawai & Harley Saito
Man & Woman Mixed Tag Match, Utako Hozumi Retirement Match: Koji Ishinriki & Utako Hozumi vs. Yoshiaki Fujiwara & Shinobu Kandori
Michiko Omukai vs. Chaparita ASARI (AJW). Less than 1/3 aired, but what they showed was good action with lots of big spots.
Mikiko Futagami & Mizuki Endo vs. Tomoko Watanabe & Rie Tamada (AJW team). Good fast-paced match with non-stop action.
Rumi Kazama & Carol Midori & Michiko Nagashima vs. Nurse Nakamura & Miwa Sato & Yukie Nabeno (FMW team). This tried to be a good match, but the FMW team and Rumi are just bad. All action including everyone doing a plancha. Average.
Jenn Yukari & Miki Handa vs. Etsuko Mita & Mima Shimoda (AJW team) 22:21 (16 or so shown). LLPW picked up the pace big time. Handa was largely up to the task, but Jenn was a bit sloppy. Still, the action more than made up for a few problems. LCO did a very nice job, elevating the quality of the opposition and delivering a fast-paced match with a lot of big spots. ***/12
Yasha Kurenai vs. Megumi Kudo (FMW). Yasha tries to work fast-paced, but she doesn't have the spots for that style. Then again, she's not good in any style. Average.
Harley Saito & Noriyo Tateno vs. Kyoko Inoue & Takako Inoue (AJW team). Workrate match. Kyoko & Harley are really good. Takako & Tateno don't take it down to much. Very good.
Eagle Sawai vs. Combat Toyoda (FMW). Slow and plodding. Decent.
Chain Death Match: Shinobu Kandori vs. Bull Nakano (AJW) 22:11. Brutal bloody brawl. Selling is actually quite good. The pacing is very slow because of the length, but the amount of blood lost (and Bull's lack of stamina) makes that logical. They could have done more actual wrestling and been more creative with the chain, it was very much an 80's chain match where the weapon was a novelty so they felt they didn't have to do too much beyond use it repeatedly. Bull, of course, used it for the guillotine leg drop, which Kandori sold magnificently acting like it destroyed her eye. Bull carried this and she was still good, but at this point was better with a more energetic opponent. Kandori provided some intensity, but disappointingly the rivalry stuff was largely at the outset. ***
Mizuki Endo vs. Jiyun Yamashita 2:45 of 6:07. Endo squashed the rookie, though judging by the plethora of bruises that fill her legs it was nothing compared to the beating Yamashita takes in the dojo.
Jenn Yukari vs. Miki Handa 12:00 of 20:18. They built the match up pretty well, doing enough early to maintain interest while saving everything of note for later. Keeping it even throughout, their best stuff was counters from and into suplexes. **3/4
Yasha Kurenai & Michiko Nagashima vs. Rumi Kazama & Carol Midori 20:00. A very active and energetic worker, Midori is something of a much lesser version of Kyoko Inoue at this point, even utilizing some of the same postures and mannerisms. Yasha is a character by necessity as she’s the worst wrestler in the league excluding the rookies. She takes adequately, but has almost no worthwhile offense. Luckily Nagashima works the majority of the match, but as she does the majority of the selling the match is more or less only as interesting as the opposition. Rumi cracked Kurenai with some nice kicks early, but her contributions were sparse. Midori was good, but not to the level she could make the match on her own. Nagashima helped, but could really use some better offense. **1/4
Harley Saito & Mikiko Futagami vs. Eagle Sawai & Michiko Omukai 11:32 of 15:54. Omukai had yet to figure out her strengths, and was rather aimless running around and trying some deliberately set up flying moves. Futagami was quite opposite, very sure of everything she wanted to do. She’s very technical, following the proper steps to execute each move rather than performing them in the half ass manner you see from wrestlers who see something they like and kind of fake their way through it. Omukai had a rib injury that Harley aggravated early on with stomps. She did a good job of putting it over, which garnered her some sympathy as she as the wrestler who didn’t belong in the semifinal even if she was at 120%. The pleasant surprise was Eagle, who was actually quite impressive. Much of this was due to the opposition, particularly a strong sequence from Harley, but Sawai did a good job every time she was in. ***
LLPW Nintei Single Senshuken: Shinobu Kandori vs. Noriyo Tateno 15:47. Tateno is somewhat similar to Tatsumi Fujinami in that she still uses most of the same moves she did in her 1980’s peak, but lacks the energy of her youth, and thus is rather uninspiring these days. What’s more pertinent is she’s not an opponent whose style plays into Kandori’s hands, much as Manami Toyota isn’t the most suitable opponent for Yumiko Hotta even if in their youth they did have some top notch matches together. Tateno used her athletic moves when she was on offense, while Kandori used her submissions when she had the advantage, which would have been great if they made an attempt to counter from one style to the other. The match started well with Kandori sidestepping Tateno’s jumping knee, catching her ankle in midair and applying an ankle lock, which she quickly released, preferring to scold her opponent. Unfortunately, this was one of the only times they used one style to set up the other. The wrestling was fine, it just didn’t fluidly mesh. Tateno actually pinned Kandori with a rolling cradle of all moves to capture the title. **1/2
9/27/94 Osaka Furitsu Taiikukaikan 2
Noriyo Tateno vs. Eagle Sawai 1:28 of 16:38. This match decided LLPW’s representative in the V*TOP tournament at AJW’s 11/20/94 Tokyo Dome supershow. Eagle scored a victory over the new champ, though Tateno kicked out so far before the 3 count one wondered how much she paid the ref.
Shinobu Kandori vs. Jenn Yukari 1:22 of 14:15. Kandori went from champion straight down to the opening match. She was in a foul mood, and when Yukari took her to the floor and rammed her face into a chair she snapped. Kandori proceeded to hang Yukari upside down from the ropes and use a table on her. When the ref tried to stop it Kandori put the boots to her then threw a chair on her for the DQ.
Michiko Nagashima vs. Hasumi Tawada 0:34 of 8:23.
Zen Nihon Tag Senshuken: Miki Handa & Yasha Kurenai vs. Carol Midori & Michiko Omukai 1:28 of 28:15. Omukai was cut on the forehead. Midori pinned Kurenai following a moonsault press to capture AJW’s titles.
Rumi Kazama & Mikiko Futagami vs. Harley Saito & Mizuki Endo 0:28 of 10:57
Jenn Yukari & Mikiko Futagami vs. Michiko Omukai & Keiko Aono. Futagami looked good, and raised Omukai's level. Young Aono was overmatched by the veterans, and it was basically a given that she'd do the job given LLPW booking. The effort was above average, but otherwise it was pretty typical. in a variation of what would become the standard ARSION post match, Futagami tried to shake Omukai's hand after the match, but Omukai hit it away and attacked. 8:08 of 19:18.
7/18/95 Saitama: Miki Handa vs. Noriyo Tateno. Handa would have been a great heel. Anyone can use weapons, but Handa had that ability to get under people's skin. She kept using objects including an umbrella. Tateno got on the mic and complained, but to no avail. Finally, she threw Tommy Ran and used one of Handa's objects on her. Ran was down when she wanted to pin Handa in her German suplex hold though, so Tateno lost it, attacking Ran again for the DQ. Interesting, maybe good stuff. 3:09 of 19:30.
7/18/95: Michiko Nagashima vs. Yasha Kurenai. Some kind of no DQ weapons match. They used chains, handcuffs, a Dump can, Yasha even loosened the turnbuckle (one pad covers all style) and tossed it at Nagashima. With the handcuffs, they actually had officials cut Yasha free rather than that found the key stupidity (why would you even bring it?). Yasha bled. These two have had some surprisingly good brawls, but ths was so edited you got little more than the gimmick spots. The desk bomb queen took the brunt of the table action in this one, with Yasha piledriving her on it and injuring her knee with a forward suplex from Tigerdriver position. Nagashima gained a measure of revenge by cutting Yasha's robe after the match. 4:49 of 23:58
Yasha Kurenai & Mizuki Endo vs. Miki Handa & Michiko Nagashima. Brawl. Good gimmicks spots, but they didn't set them up or perform them that well. The best was when Handa, who wasn't legal, choked Endo from the floor causing her to step on the first rope. That made her easy prey for Nagashima, who dropkicked her over the top to floor. Typical LLPW where it's pretty decent but would be good if not for the execution problems and faults. Kurenai beat on Nagashima, but Nagashima & Handa beat on Endo. Endo was much younger plus she isn't a brawler, but actually she wound up faring well and even scoring the victory. 16:32 of 20:09. **1/4
Noriyo Tateno Puroresu 15th Anniversary Memorial Match: Noriyo Tateno vs. Rumi Kazama. Tateno got flowers from a few retired AJW wrestlers, with Lioness & Dump beating on her a little in good fun. They tried to have a good match, but lack the physical capabilities. Tateno has slowed down so much, and Rumi is so out of shape. Moves were good, but they didn't do them as well as they used to. It was too telegraphed because they don't have the athleticism and reaction time of their youth. Too many miscues, but at least they did try.15:50 of 17:25. **
Karula vs. Carol Midori. It figures the one match that is delivering winds up being the one that's inexplicably short. I guess they wanted to see how the Karula gimmick would go over or something, as I figured Midori would fare better than this. Harley wrestled just as well despite her ridiculous costume. There was one comedy spot where she came back by throwing "feathers" (her costume is some kind of demented chicken). They did some brawling too with the chair coming into play. This stuff didn't interfere with the good junior style wrestling though, and might have added to the match. 7:02 of 10:21. ***
Eagle Sawai vs. Shinobu Kandori. These two aren't a good match for one another. Eagle doesn't do the submission style, so Kandori has to brawl. Kandori can be more effective brawling if she does the stiff type, but Eagle doesn't like stiffness and neither go out of their way to make the other look good. They have a hard time setting the moves up with Eagle being huge and Kandori not being very flexible. Below average match that never got interesting for me or the crowd. 12:42 of 18:06.
Mikiko Futagami vs. Jenn Yukari
Michiko Omukai vs. Yasha Kurenai
Noriyo Tateno vs. Mizuki Endo
Eagle Sawai vs. Carol Midori
LL Cup '95 Tag Tournament Nikaisen: Karula & Rumi Kazama vs. Shinobu Kandori & Michiko Nagashima
Mizuki Endo vs. Miho Watabe
Michiko Omukai vs. Keiko Aono
Triangle Match: Yasha Kurenai vs. Carol Midori vs. Mikiko Futagami
Elimination Match: Shinobu Kandori & Rumi Kazama & Harley Saito & Noriyo Tateno vs. Eagle Sawai & Lioness Asuka & Michiko Nagashima & Sayori Okino. ***1/4
Special price $18 or $23.50 COOP*
Terry Boy & Shiryu vs. Hanzo Nakajima & Masato Yakushiji. Terry & Shiryu carried this. It's very good to have a flying offensive junior like Shiryu on the rudo side. As long as the guy can take, having him as a rudo can allow him to show more all around ability. Certainly, it improves the chances of having an interesting match with a guy like Hanzo that isn't exactly known for his plethora of moves. The problem with this match is Terry & Shiryu pretty much squashed the opposition. Good wrestling, but no drama. What they did was well done, but they could have done a much better match if they laid it out so there was at least some thought that Hanzo's team had a chance. 7:53 shown.
Infernal KAORU vs. Chaparrita ASARI. KAORU carried this sloppy Lucha style match that had a lot of problems but still wasn't a bad watch. ASARI was still really green. She was trying to do a senior match because she had superior athleticism to almost all the women and a few spots that top them, but that put her in positions where her lack of experience showed, and her hesitation hurt the match. 5:06 shown
TAKA Michinoku vs. Jado. They worked well together and showed a lot of impressive offense. Back and forth match with a lot of effort put into making it dramatic. Jado carried the match, which was built around their standing on the top rope moves. The first try for each backfired, with Jado turning TAKA's into a front layout suplex. Finally Jado hit a nadare shiki no Frankensteiner for the win. Good, probably better. 9:09 shown.
Sato & Kendo & Pilota Suicida vs. Super Delfin & Super Boy & Gran Naniwa. Michinoku had the Lucha comedy matches down pat in these days. Fun wrestling with impressive flying and good moves. It was light hearted extremely choregraphed stuff with much of the comedy revolving around hitting the wrong man. Sometimes it was kind of corny, but the fans were cracking up and since they were into it and they were actually wrestling the fans cared about who won. The problem with the current comic wrestlers is not only don't they put together any wrestling, they just develop a few gags, throw them in anywhere, and that's their match. More important than any joke you can do in the ring is the timing of it. Look at how this match was laid out, they knew what the crowd would react to and how they would react to it, so they did a match that got them involved and kept them involved. Since these guys actually can wrestle, they could do more than one thing at once and go between styles effectively so the lucha set up the comedy and vice versa. They could also do a finish that had some drama because it wasn't reliant on silliness. 21:23. ***1/2
The Great Sasuke & Ultimo Dragon vs. Jinsei Shinzaki & Gedo. A very good match predominantly because the offense was superior. This was one of the first Sasuke matches I saw, and I was pretty impressed with it at the time because there wasn't much more spectacular than the highspots of him and Dragon. Looking back on it, it seems like a match that should have been as great as I remembered but wasn't due to some goofiness. One of the key spots was Sasuke arguing with the ref Ted Tanabe that there should be a 10 count after Gedo missed a moonsault. This makes no sense, if you think you can beat the guy you are much better going for the 3 count pin than waiting on the 10 count, and if he somehow kicks out but can't get up, there would be a 10 count anyway. This silliness was just to set up a stop where Gedo dropkicked Sasuke into Tanabe then Shinzaki shoulderblocked Dragon and came off the top with a chair to Sasuke. A more annoying portion was when Sasuke had an opening to tag after avoiding Shinzaki's diving headbutt. Shinzaki got to the corner first, which I expected would mean his teams domination of Sasuke was to continue. Dragon quickly stopped Gedo's moonsault though, leading to Sasuke's comeback. This could have been a decent swerve, but Dragon actually tagged Sasuke bck in less than a minute after Sasuke finally made the tag. Sasuke & Dragon did some spectacular flying, but Sasuke's selling in particular left someting to be desired. I was disappointed they had Shinzaki in the main event of a Universal reunion show, you'd think they could get someone that actually wrestled in the league. Shinzaki was at his best here though, stepping up in a big way and giving something of an overall performance rather than his usual give only crap. It was cool seeing a rudo turn a powerbomb into a huracanrana, and his diving shoulderblock is maybe the best ever because he comes at his opponent like a torpedo and really knocks them back. Long, well done, exciting, well executed (Dragon was shaky on a couple of spots), junior spectacle. Delfin got on the mic after the match and wound up in a fight with Jado & Gedo. 22:28. ***3/4
Note: Part of every (or at least close) match is shown, but I'm only listing the complete matches here
7/27 Iwate
The Great Sasuke vs. Gran Naniwa
Super Delfin vs. Gorgota Cross (Jerry Lynn)
8/12 Yamagata Shi: The Great Sasuke vs. Super Delfin
8/13
The Great Sasuke vs. The Convict (Sergio "Super Boy" Torres)
Super Delfin vs. Gran Naniwa
8/18 Yamagata: Dos Caras vs. Super Delfin
8/23 Aomori-ken Mutsu Shi: The Great Sasuke vs. Dos Caras
8/24 Aomori-ken: Super Delfin vs. Mongolian
8/25 Aomori-ken Aomori Shi
Mascara Contra Mascara: Gran Naniwa vs. Gorgota Cross. Excellent match. Naniwa's mask ripped
Fukumen World League Yushosen: The Great Sasuke vs. Dos Caras. Sasuke cracks his skull the 1st time.
*Special price two T-160's for $40 or $51 COOP (two unique)*
11/23/95 Morioka Iwate-ken'ei Taiikukan: TAKA Michinoku vs. Tiger Mask. Excellent junior match. Exciting and stiff, with all the big spots, but also kicks and submissions like a U.W.F. match. TAKA was on top of his game here, and made the near falls really dramatic. ****1/4
12/11/95 Aichi Nagoya Shi Nakamura Sports Center: TAKA Michinoku vs. Tiger Mask. This match was not that similar to their 11/23 match. This match started with TAKA working Tiger's knee,. but later Tiger used that same strategy on TAKA. The finishing hold was goofy, but the match had excellent work and up to that point a focused storyline. It was pretty much what a junior match should be. They did a lot of nice moves, but that was hardly the match. ****1/4
12/14/95 Hakata Starlane: Tiger Mask & Naohiro Hoshikawa vs. TAKA Michinoku & Shoichi Funaki. Hoshikawa probably gave his best performance up to that point in time, which really made the match because we knew TAKA vs. Tiger was going to be excellent, but the expected sizable dropoff when Hoshikawa tagged in wasn't there. Hoshikawa was doing all his moves really fast, and was a key to the macth being stiff. TAKA, of course, was the man though. The last 5 1/2 minutes were really what made the match. I've certainly seen better in Michinoku, but rarely in a regular four person tag match. ****
12/17/95 Osaka Takaishi Rinkai Sports Center
TAKA Michinoku vs. Tiger Mask. This wasn't that great of an effort, as the work and drama were way down. It was still a good match because they work that well together, it's just that it was disappointing coming after two matches that were so choice. ***1/4
Super Delfin & Gran Naniwa & Sakie Hasegawa vs. The Great Sasuke & Kendo & Mima Shimoda. These mixed matches don't do anything for me because I want to see serious wrestling between quality wrestlers, but instead I get a bunch of comedy between the genders. The Michinoku fans were as vocal as ever, so it worked for them. I wanted more big moves and less comedy and stalling though.
1/10/96 Hokkaido Sapporo Nakajima Taiiku Center
Sato & Terry Boy vs. Naohiro Hoshikawa & Masato Yakushiji. This match would be a lot better today than it was then because Hoshikawa & Yakushiji had no standing and were still developing. Some good wrestling, but there was no drama at all because it was a glorified squash. **
The Great Sasuke & Great Zebra vs. Mr. Pogo & Gran Naniwa. Pogo destroyed Sasuke like he did on Onita. The main exceptions were that Sasuke took a bumb off the balcony (which hehe barely even sold) and Sasuke didn't make the big comeback at the end for the win or even get Pogo to take one bump for him. Zebra is terrible and mainly punched and kicked. Highlight is Pogo breaking up the pin on Sasuke's thunder fire powerbomb by blowing a giant fireball on Sasuke and his own partner Naniwa. Sasuke proved he could take a lot of punishment, but I'm not sure what else he gained from letting Pogo massacre him. *
This tape also has highlights of about 13 other matches interspersed.
7/21/96 Yahaba Shi Min Sogo Taiikukan
IWGP Junior Heavykyu Senshukenjiai: The Great Sasuke vs. Shiryu. ***
7/26/96 Aizu Wakamatsu
WWA Sekai Junior Light Heavykyu Senshukenjiai: Gran Hamada vs. MEN'S Teioh. ***3/4
7/27/96 Sakata
WWA Sekai Middlekyu Senshukenjiai: Pilota Suidica vs. The Great Sasuke. 1/3 shown. Sasuke wins title
8/3/96 Koriyama Central Hall
Chubei (Central America) Middlekyu Senshukenjiai: Gran Naniwa vs. Shiryu. ***1/2
8/16/96 Mitsu Shi Min Taiikukan
Independent World Sekai Junior Heavykyu Senshukenjiai: TAKA Michinoku vs. Shiryu. ***1/2
8/18/96 Aomori-ken Min Taiikukan
WWA Super Welterkyu Senshukenjiai: Super Delfin vs. El Pantera. Delfin wins title. *
Gran Hamada & Jushin Thunder Liger & Gran Naniwa vs. Dick Togo & TAKA Michinoku & Shoichi Funaki. Full Match Review 13:23. ****1/4
8/25/96 New World Sendai
Tiger Mask vs. MEN'S Teioh. **
Dick Togo vs. Super Delfin. ***
*I have a very limited quantity of additional 1st Gen SP copies available for $20. I also have a very limited quantity of Xeroxes of the video's cover*
Naohiro Hoshikawa vs. Johnny Saint
PWA Heavykyu Senshukenjiai: Wellington Wilkins, Jr. vs. Lenny Lane
Yuki Ishikawa & Alexander Otsuka vs. Daisuke Ikeda & Satoshi Yoneyama
The Great Sasuke & Shodai Tiger Mask & Mil Mascaras vs. Dynamite Kid & Kuniaki Kobayashi & Dos Caras
Gran Hamada & Super Delfin & Tiger Mask & Gran Naniwa & Masato Yakushiji vs. Dick Togo & MEN'S Teio & Shiryu & TAKA Michinoku & Shoichi Funaki. *****
Jinsei Shinzaki vs. Hayabusa
9/23/96: Hamada & Delfin & Astro & Otsuka vs. Togo & Shiryu & Funaki & Collins ****1/4
11/12/96: Sasuke & Hamada & Delfin vs. Togo & Men's & Shiryu-super stretch run ****1/2
12/9/96: Sekigun vs. DX Elimination Match: Sasuke & Hamada & Delfin & Naniwa & Tiger Mask IV vs. Togo & Men's & TAKA & Shiryu & Funaki-Some of the eliminations come too quick, but other than that it's awesome. Naniwa is the man here. ****1/4
12/16/96: Sasuke & Hamada & Delfin & Naniwa & Yakushiji vs. Togo & Men's & TAKA & Shiryu & Funaki-there's about 500 people in the crowd, but these guys have an incredible match that's not as good as 10/10/96 but it's on that level and it's the best match these guys have done since 10/10. 25 minutes of one great spot after another with perfect execution. An incredible display of athleticism. *****
12/17/96: TAKA vs. Shinzaki-TAKA probably should have just packed it in since he was doing the job to the lazy stiff, but instead he caries Shinzaki to his best match in a long time.
12/20/96: TAKA vs. Delfin-TAKA's selling is phenomenal. First half is fine, but 2nd half, particularly the finishing sequence, is great. ****
More!
5/5/97 Nakayama: Super Delfin vs. MEN'S Teio. Good.
6/22/97 Namie: Super Delfin vs. Dick Togo. Delfin crawls through Togo's legs. Good.
10/10/97 Tokyo Ryogoku Kokugikan: Super Delfin & Naohiro Hoshikawa & Masato Yakushiji vs. Dick Togo & MEN'S Teio & Shoichi Funaki. ****1/4
*2 tapes*
Match list coming soon
*I have a limited supply of additional 1st gen SP tapes available on T-120's for $36 or $47 COOP (one unique)*
LLPW Special Tag Match: Shinobu Kandori & Michiko Omukai vs. Eagle Sawai & Michiko Nagashima
GAEA & JWP Special Tag Match: Chigusa Nagayo & Hikari Fukuoka & Hiromi Yagi vs. Dynamite Kansai & Bomber Hikari & Toshie Uematsu
FMW Special Tag Match: Masato Tanaka & Koji Nakagawa vs. Hisakatsu Oya & The Gladiator
IWA Japan Special Single Match: Tarzan Goto vs. Takashi Okamura
Fujiwara Gumi vs. UWF-I Golden Cups: Yoshiaki Fujiwara vs. Yoji Anjo
NJ vs. WAR Special Tag Match: Riki Choshu & Koki Kitahara vs. Genichiru Tenryu & Tatsumi Fujinami
Liger is the dominant junior in New Japan here, but finally may have met his match as the evil gaijin Bounty Viper is brought in for a Super Triangle Match that also involves Liondo Wolf (Shinjiro Otani). Both Liger and Viper have special powers, but Viper abuses his. He faces Wolf in the first part of the Super Triangle, and mames him on purpose. This sets up Liger vs. Viper for the championship, but they wind up leaving the ring and fighting in some deserted street so they can transform into their monster selves without anyone seeing them. At this point it turns into a special effects movie with the two awesome looking monsters battling to the death. Yuji Nagata, Tatsuhito Takaiwa, Satoshi Kojima, Manabu Nakanishi, and ring announcer Tanaka are the other New Japan employees that appear in the movie. Liger plays himself when he's in full costume (so he does all the wrestling and such), but to protect Keiichi Yamada's identity (and probably have a better dramatic movie) they have an actor play Liger when he's not wearing the mask.
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*
This is one bizarre movie. There are really only two characters (there's a bunch of other wrestlers and some people walk by Sasuke, but no one else has a speaking role) yet the movie starts off with Sasuke shooting the other main star, PWC's Kenji Takano, at point blank range. We have no idea why Sasuke would do this, and from there it goes to wrestling footage of a Michinoku show where Takano wrestles under a hood as Great Zebra and saves Sasuke & Pilota Suicida from Super Delfin & Gran Naniwa's post match beating. From here it goes to a dream sequence, I guess, of Sasuke wearing only his mask but with his body painted white, pretending to be a sculpture as people walk by. There's some more in ring footage of Sasuke & Takano from actual Michinoku & PWC shows, and finally the tape ends with the revelation that Takano didn't really die after all, apparently because it's a movie so Sasuke & Tanako's guns were only loaded with blanks. Sasuke does some great moves in the ring, as always, but he's not exactly giving Kurosawa a run for his money.
*Special price $16 or $21.50 COOP*
Sci-fi special effects battle action short where Hikari Fukuoka is a bounty hunter who travels in her space ship to a remote island to exterminate some bizarre looking monsters.
*Special price $16 or $21.50 COOP*
Sci-fi special effects battle action short where Mayumi Ozaki is a bounty hunter who travels in her space ship to a remote island to exterminate some bizarre looking monsters.
*Special price $16 or $21.50 COOP*
Sci-fi special effects battle action short where Cuty Suzuki is a bounty hunter who travels in her space ship to a remote island to exterminate some bizarre looking monsters.
*Special price $16 or $21.50 COOP*
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.
An action movie staring Hiroshi Hase and Yoshiaki Fujiwara. Yuki Ishikawa co stars. This movie has a good deal of movie style wrestling in it, including Tadao Yasuda putting over Fujiwara, Hase vs. Ishikawa, and the big final match between Hase & Fujiwara. Fujiwara runs a gumi in this movie and Ishikawa is his top student. That must have been hard to think up. Yuji Shimada (PWFG ref), Shoichi Funaki, Minoru Tanaka, Katsumi Usuda, Daisuke Ikeda, Takeshi Ono, Satoshi Yoneyama, Satoshi Kojima, Yuji Nagata, and Shinjiro Otani all supposedly make cameos. In between the wrestling, there's murders involving the Yakuza (actually, this even goes on in the stands during a match), rapes, and a bunch of guys attacking Hase everywhere he goes.
*Neo's debut show. Reviewed in Quebrada #38*
Triangle Match: Yuka Shiina vs. Saya Endo vs. Tanny Mouse.
A) Shiina vs. Saya. Very bland match between women who weren't over. Very slow paced, short, and had little build. Saya's heel tactics didn't get heat. *
B) Shiina vs. Tanny. Even worse than the part because Tanny is bad as they come. Shiina is too old to be having these kind of turds back to back, especially when Tanny actually didn't ruin the match by using nothing but Tanny butts. 3/4*
Chaparita ASARI vs. Yoshiko Tamura. Tamura's ring work is better and she's added some nice new spots. ASARI's has a new look, but her ring work remains stagnant. The new holds by Tamura were nice and made for a good match, but ASARI didn't put them over enough and they weren't the finish, so they were relegated pedestrian way too soon. Good work, but the match lacked direction or focus. **1/2
Kyoko Inoue vs. Misae Genki. Surprisingly good match, that turned out to be the best on the first two Neo shows. Genki got a lot better. Her offense isn't even arcane anymore. Mainly Genki pushing Kyoko to get credibility. Traditional style bout with Kyoko making sure they both worked to get their holds off. Instead of doing transitions thought countering a spot, Kyoko often brought it to a stalemate and then whoever got the hold off took the advantage. Smart match because it increased Genki's credibility without being tolling on Kyoko, who still had two more matches to work. Genki pushed Kyoko enough that you would want to see a rematch, and there is still plenty of room for her to gain with a loss. ***1/4
Mima Shimoda & Etsuko & Mita vs. Kyoko & Tanny. Basically ruined by Tanny's bad work, bad selling, stupid antics, and non-existent move set. Kyoko also didn't work as well with Cachorras as she used to. **1/4
Mima Shimoda & Etsuko Mita & Saya Endo vs. Kyoko & ASARI & Tamura. AJW style ring work match. ***
*I have a limited amount of additional 1st generation SP tapes available for $18 or $23.50 COOP*
*Reviewed in Quebrada #38*
Saya Endo vs. The Goddess Chikako Shiratori. Mainly a backdrop for the Lioness, Shark, and co. run in that set up the main event of the 3/8 Jd' show. Saya looked good carrying the match, but The Goddess seemed to be working at ½ speed and her execution was sub par. *1/2
Neo Ladies vs. JWP Singles 3 x 3: Yuka Shiina vs. Tomoko Kuzumi. Pretty good match, but not close to the level of what Kuzumi does in JWP because Shiina isn't very good. Kuzumi had to tone her style down to Shiina's level, but she was as solid as ever. Kuzumi attacks Shiina's bad knee on two occasions, and both times Shiina makes a terrible comeback doing her spots like she is in perfect condition. **1/2
Neo Ladies vs. JWP Singles 3 x 3: Tanny Mouse vs. Kanako Motoya. Motoya is hampered considerably by a bad back, and Tanny is just plain awful. Tanny just does a bunch of Tanny butts then pins Motoya with a hideously executed double arm suplex. DUD
Neo Ladies vs. JWP Singles 3 x 3: Misae Genki vs. Tomoko Miyaguchi. This was a good solid match, and the only one on this tape that was better than it should have been. Miyaguchi had a strong performance carrying Genki, but Genki deserves credit for finally becoming carryable. Neo takes the series 2-1. ***
Chaparita ASARI vs. Jaguar Yokota . Good match, but it was just an exhibition of spots with no real substance to them. The work was good, but the match really lacked heat. ASARI didn't gain anything because she didn't really push Jaguar. Disappointing match, with bad AJW-esque booking. ***
Handicap Elimination Match: Las Cachorras Orientales (Shimoda & Mita) vs. ASARI & Shiina & Genki & Tanny. This match was absolutely pointless. This was the perfect opportunity to elevate a youngster by having Shimoda or Mita lay down for one of them. Instead, Cachorras win 4-0 and relegate the opposition to inconsequential jobbers. At least the work was good and Cachorras did a very good job of carrying the opposition. *1/2
Kyoko Inoue vs. Hikari Fukuoka (JWP). Solid match, but not that spectacular, especially for a Hikari match. The heat, drama, and selling were the best on the show, but nothing tremendous. Kyoko held the match down. ***
Tanny Mouse vs. Chihiro Nakano. I was all set to hate this match, but it wasn't that bad. Tanny wrestles serious, not doing a zillion Tannybutts or her bad comedy. Nakano looks pretty good here. She should have stayed in GAEA. *1/2
Yuka Shiina vs. Kyoko Ichiki. This match wasn't that long, but, even though they did some cool things, it dragged. These two don't really understand how to wrestle or have enough spots to do a spot oriented match. 1/4
Cooga vs. Chaparita ASARI. First 10 minutes were dull, but final four were good with all the high spots. The fact that these two have nothing to bridge to the high spots was really evident here. *3/4
Bloody & Ryuna vs. Saya Endo & The Goddess Chikako Shiratori. Saya & Bloody worked well together. Shiratori was alright, but Fang added nothing. This was predominantly a brawl, with even Shiratori swinging a chair. Unfortunately, The Goddess juiced. **1/4
Mima Shimoda & Etsuko Mita vs. Kyoko Inoue & Misae Genki. Very good work and the typical Cachorras brawling. Pretty much just a spot match. Tons of action and near falls, but it would have been nice if they could have developed a storyline given they were out there almost a half an hour. ***3/4
4/24 Nagoya
Yuka Shiina vs. Chiharu (SPWF). Even worse than a rookie style match. Short and bad. 1/2*
Neo & JWP Special Tag Match: Yoshiko Tamura & Rieko Amano (JWP) vs. Tanny Mouse & Kanako Motoya (JWP). Match had a lot of action, but it had no substance as nothing went anywhere. Disappointing because everyone but Tanny has the talent, but no one stepped up. *1/2
Road to Neo vs. Las Cachorras 4/22 Korakuen Hall
2/3 Falls: Shimoda & Mita vs. Kyoko & Misae Genki. Highlights
4/23 Osaka
Shimoda & Mita vs. The Bloody & Fang Suzuki (Jd' team)
Shimoda & Mita & Saya Endo vs. Kyoko & Genki & Shiina. Highlights
Neo Ladies vs. Las Cachorras Singles 3 vs. 3
Chaparita ASARI vs. Saya Endo. Mediocre match that was basically spots back and forth with no build or psychology. Spots looked good, but basic stuff wasn't done all that well. *1/2
Mita vs. Genki. There were about 30 people in the building, so they didn't do all that much. The execution was good, but the match had a slow even pace and was rather dull. *3/4
Kyoko vs. Shimoda. Maybe under better circumstances, Shimoda could carry Kyoko to a very good or better match, but a match of this caliber doesn't come off well when no one shows up to see it. 1st half was pretty useless with a bunch of rest holds. 2nd half was quite good with all the big spots. Match was good, but it was lacking a lot of things. **3/4
This was basically the history of Neo volume 1. They showed highlights of all their "important" matches from the debut show through 2/20/99. I'd recommend this tape for those who are interested in trying Neo (although 5/6/98 would be a better choice), because it will give you a good idea of what the league and their wrestlers are like. On the other hand, if you've seen all the Neo tapes then the tape is a waste because everything on this has been released on commercial tape or shown on Samurai, or both. In addition to clips from of over 40 matches, the tape has the following match from 1/10/99 Tokyo Korakuen Hall
Kyoko Inoue & Misae Genki vs. Yumiko Hotta & Nanae Takahashi. This wasn't a great match. However, it served it's purpose, which was to make you want to see more Neo vs. Zenjo matches. It had the intensity that needed to be there to show the fans this feud was more than a series of friendly matches, that it was important and there was a lot of pride on the line. Takahashi showed nothing, as always. To her credit, she did understand what needed to be done, she's just incapable of executing. Luckily, Kyoko & Genki did a good job of working with Hotta. Genki looked like a star here because she has the ability and she wasn't afraid to take it to Hotta. This match wasn't glamourous, but it was fast-paced with pretty good stiffness and a lot of spots. The intensity and action were enough to get something almost never seen in women's wrestling these days, sustained heat. The post match got everyone involved and set up the next series of matches, particularly Hotta vs. Kyoko and Genki vs. Nanae. ***
Note: the other tournament matches are edited down to 50 second clips or just a few stills are shown
4/1/01 Fukuoka Kokusai Center Tournament Ikkaisen: Jun Akiyama vs. Takao Omori. Akiyama's strengths and weaknesses were the same as they've been the past several years, particularly with his attack of Omori's axe bomber arm. Given that, Akiyama was excellent except for the closing segment and made it a good match on his own. It didn't seem like they could make up their mind how they wanted to pace the match, so instead of psychology points it just seemed muddled. Omori brought little to the table and was basically just along for the ride. He never got going or all that into it. The final minutes were disappointing and anticlimactic. 22:49. ***
4/8 Tokyo Differ Ariake Tournament Nikaisen: Jun Akiyama vs. Takeshi Rikio. Brief all action match. Rikio lost easily, but at least it wasn't one of those one move and done bits. 4:02. *3/4
4/11 Hiroshima Shi Higashiku Sports Center Tournament Junkessho: Jun Akiyama vs. Mitsuharu Misawa. This was the best match of the tournament, but easily worse than any match these two had against one another in All Japan. At this point there's little story with all the emphasis on the spots, which get pops but alone kill the chance of sustained heat. Cool but not so intelligent segments like Misawa doing a running elbow then Akiyama turning one into an exploder before Misawa put him down with a running elbow and both sold a bit are the sign of the times. Misawa Tigerdrivered Akiyama on the floor, so Akiyama explodered h