December 1992

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The best worked rounds match in RINGS thus far, with Yamamoto showing off future Yamamoto on the mat, dominating the first three rounds by grabbing the shit out of limbs with armbars, kneebars, face...bars...locks. Kakuta can't do much to counter it either. He has zero chance on the ground so in the fourth round, he starts whipping out the hard kicks to take Yamamoto out at the knees. Into the fifth, he really starts rocking him with shots to the head while still targeting the knees. After some confusion, they give them a final round and it's mostly Yamamoto on the run from Kakuta's leg kicks.

This was little more than a Volk Han exhibition but it was a fun one, and while Gotchev isn't near Han's level on the ground, he does throw in a few surprises here and there, including a few cool suplex slams. But he's mostly trying to avoid getting snagged. When Han takes over on the mat, he gets to show off why he’s Volk Han. He snags him with a beautiful leg-trap armbar, an inverted facelock, and then wrings the arm and blasts him with that rear facelock>elbow combo. At one point, Gotchev is able to catch him in a choke sleeper off a missed attempt but Han works his way out of the hold and transitions into like a stump puller hold. The back end of the match isn't as…

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Miyato thankfully brings his usual feisty energy to the match, cracking Allen with kicks, but B.N. Allen sucks. He can't take a suplex. He doesn't really get the style. He does his one judo throw into the armbar because that's all he's got. Shitty.

Anjoh's such a chickenshit in this match, hanging onto the ropes as as he can, which is understandable, I guess -- considering Severn wants to throw his ass around the ring with suplexes. Right out of the gate, Anjoh fires off kicks but when Severn tries to grab him for a throw, Anjoh smarly retreats to the ropes. I like how Severn pushes Anjoh's hand off the mat when he's trying to escape a choke hold. There was one point when Severn had control of the ankle and Anjoh's squirming and dropping knees and trying to get out but Severn holds on.Severn looked really strong here with all his throws and slams, and unfortunately, Anjoh wasn't as his best here so it really was a S…

Kakihara looking slick as hell with his baby blue trunks and satin jacket. A short and sweet squash from Albright but Kaki's such a good babyfaced underdog that this sub-three minute match is worth your time. Albright immediately hits his rolling belly-to-belly suplexes and lays back with the full nelson as Kaki fights his way out. The crowd's behind Kaki, I'm always behind Kaki, but Albright bulldozes through him with a German suplex into the dragon suplex for the KO finish. Kaki's final attempt to get back to his feet kept the hope alive.

Never gets anywhere because Silver fucks his knee up and the ref calls it. Hard to tell what exactly happened, or if it was a previous injury, but Burton's excited he got the technical win.

This was pretty fun and I thought Dennis Koslowski looked strong against Takada. He's got a little PWFG experience at this point and looks a bit like Lex Luger sans THE JUICE. He delivered some nice belly-to-belly suplexes, one of which, Takada was able to slickly roll through with into a double wristlock. But Takada is Takada is Takada, and he kicks out the legs and taps Koslowski with the armbar. A good way to get the crowd hyped for Double Takada action.

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Don't know what I was expecting. Was intrigued by this, a rare matchup between Backlund and Keirn, former Florida tag partners 16 years before this. This is about 3 minutes long with Keirn fully immersed into the Skinner role and Backlund, a very bland babyface. The back and forth is surprisingly full of hiccups, with very little chemistry. Weird spots like heel Skinner blocking Backlund's atomic drop (used as a transition, rather than a finisher) and going for a roll up but being unable to hold it, leading directly into Backlund doing the same move w/ a bridge and getting the win. Keirn looks like a complete WWF character, but Backlund feels very stale e…

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