September 1997

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I remember reading about this back in the old DVDVRs. Like, fifteen years ago, not back as in all the way back IN THE DAY of 1997 as at that point I was merely a pup and the internet didn't reach Scotland until 2003 anyhow. I wasn't really hip to the lucha libre then, intent as I was in tracking down the New Japan juniors and the All Japan classics, but I knew Wagner from his stint in Japan and Dean gushing over this match made it seem impossibly cool. Those old DVDVRs were the best. I wish they didn't get ether'd when the board went down, because they probably shaped my tastes in wrestling as much as anything at a time when I was paying £40 for three tapes from fucking G…

The rematch. Not as good as last month's match but still a feisty one fought mostly on their feet. Sano definitely hits harder his go round and there are plenty of straight punches and head kicks. The groundwork takes second stage but plays into the finish, with Kanehara grabbing the full extension on the arm for the tap out revenge victory.

As we learned from UWFi, Billy Scott is one of the better Southern white dude shoot-stylists and he has a fun David vs. Goliath match-up with Takayama. Takayama got to show off a little more on the mat but still slugged it out. Loved Scott's shoot dragon screw into the single leg, with the fans rallying behind him. Takayama's rolling cradle was neat and he finishes Scott off with the double wristlock. Bingo bango.

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A great hidden gem of a match Kenta Kobashi was amazing in this, nobody was bad but he was really the best person in the match by some distance. From the start they established a strict hierarchy that all great AJPW Tags and six mans from the early 90s followed. The hierarchy here being Kobashi>Hayabusa & Shinzaki>Shiga. Kobashi could shrug off what the two FMW guys could throw at him and would easily take back over if ever found himself on the defense. Shiga on the other hand would never really be able to muster much of any sort of sustained offence against the FMW guys and that which he did would be handed to him after tagging in when Kobashi was in contr…

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We get about half of an 8:00 match but it's still a lot of fun, with Nakano being the pudgy shitkicker and Hase showing a lot of fire. Nakano's snap suplex rules and he manages to get quite a bit of offense against Hase, including a German and some big slaps. Really loved his face smack to stop Hase's headbutting dead in its tracks. Of course, we get a giant swing from Hase and a pretty brutal looking uranage to set up the finishing Northern Lights suplex hold.

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