August 1995

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Talk about it here.

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Save for the finish, this was a solid Akira Maeda exhibition match. Kopilov (back in the purple Nike shorts, thanfully) doesn't get a whole lot off on Maeda. They're usually too close to the ropes so there's not a lot of drama behind the holds. And anytime Kopilov tries to retaliate with strikes, Maeda ducks down into turtle defense mode, forcing Kopilov to try something on the mat. But Maeda looked good here. He gets a sick double arm takedown, spiking Kopilov on his head, and lays into him a bunch with kicks and knees and slaps. As witnessed before, these two like to entangle. Kopilov whiffs on his spinning heel kick (the worst shoot-style move because it has a 6% chanc…

Big Baby Petkov is back in a red singlet this time (not the neon green) and even though his matches feel the most 'worked', they're plenty fun and this was no exception. For as big as he is, Petkov can make some of these roll up submissions look great. TK gets him early on with the rolling necklock before Petkov belly-to-belly suplexes him in response. Tk gets in a lot of cool submission attempts and tries to take Petkov down with a barrage of strikes but Dimitri is able to grab him and...they kind of just fall down. Perfect opportunity for a Petkov suplex BLOWN. Petkov finally slams him down into the reverse necklock and TK taps. Didn't look very painful but whatever, TK…

Tariel's best match in RINGS up to this point? Probably but I also think that applies to a lot of guys who wrestled Han. The dynamic between these two, similar to Han's matches against Vrij, is great. Tariel is the big Georgian karateka wall and Han is trying to exploit the crack with tons of dope submission holds. Early on, he gets a beautiful leg trip into the trapped heel hook, and then he drags Tariel back to the middle of the ring. Han establishes that he's the man on the ground, attacking Tariel's leg with hooks and holds, but then Tariel whaps the shit out of Volk's leg with a kick and floors him. Striker established. He then proceeds to pummel Han with blows, knoc…

Hakushi vs 1-2-3 Kid - WWF Summerslam 1995 Have to say, I was disappointed by this match. I wanted to see what Kid could do against a non-superstar. So many of his high profile matches are against Bret, Shawn, Owen, Razor etc... This is a decidedly midcard match in a good spot with about 10 minutes against an opponent who is capable of having good match. I just thought this was there. They are sort of telegraphing a Hakushi babyface turn on commentary which I do think comes to fruition. The match is wrestled pretty straight for the most part from Hakushi. Pretty standard opening, headlocks, armdrags, the usual stuff. Hakushi gets a thrust to the throat with his…

Talk about it here.

Talk about it here.

Talk about it here.

Talk about it here.

Talk about it here.

Talk about it here.