May 1988

Let me begin by saying that I'm not certain of the proper spelling of Nielsen's last name. I've seen it spelled both Nielsen and Neilsen. His Japanese Wikipedia page has it as Nielsen, so I'll go with that. This is a Different Style Fight fought under a series of three-minute rounds. Nielsen has the size and reach advantage, and any clean hit from him is a potential knockout blow. But Yamada has the edge on the mat, even more so because of Nielsen's boxing gloves. Nielsen gets a few knockout teases, but for the most part, the first three rounds consist of Yamada taking him down virtually at will and forcing him to make the ropes. If this match were scored under a UWF/…

AWA World Heavyweight Champion Curt Hennig vs Jerry Lawler - Memphis 5/9/88 On this night, Jerry Lawler was not just King of Memphis, but King of the World! They all came out to pay homage to the King: The Fabulous Jackie Fargo was the special referee, Memphis athletes and even the Mayor of Memphis. They packed the Mid-South Coliseum to watch their hometown hero put his career on the line to win the World Championship that eluded him the best 14 years. He had faced them all Brisco, Race, Bockwinkel, Flair and Martel. Now standing across the ring was Curt Hennig. Not to take anything away from Hennig but how great it would it have been for Bock to be in this position.…

This was quite the shootstyle main event. A little long and directionless at times, but the matwork was good enough and when they threw kicks, they just sliced through eachother. A seemingly gassed Yamazaki nearly kicking Maeda's head off was such a spectacular moment. Yeah I don't have much to write about this. Solid in the first 20 minutes and pretty dope violent stuff in the last.

This is weird yet awesome, basically japanese wrestling in a nutshell, it's an exhibition match for some reason so it has a ten minute time limit and a fall doesn't end the match, it's mostly Takada kicking the shit out of Miyato, Miyato is really perfect as a guy who will sell vulnerability and struggle to win but also throw everything at someone higher than him in the pecking order, there was some neat grappling mixed in but this was mostly Takada kicking the shit out of Miyato and I will watch Takada kick the shit out of someone any time, especially when a guy can sell as great as Miyato, any time Takada would connect with a bigger combo I'd get flashbacks to Rambo bei…

The second match from UWFII's first show Starting Over is as intruiguing, ambitious and entertaining as you'd hope for. The structure of the match is simple-it starts out with them simply gauging the distance with leg kicks and some simple takedowns and mat exchanges and the match gradually heats up. The way the holds are used here is hard to compare to anything else-like a weird combo of U-style and classic NWA style. Essentially, there are plenty of submission attempts where the submission isn't fully locked in, and the true pay-off is more in the transition which comes after the hold than the hold itself. They managed to convincingly display their character gradually g…

This is for Nelson Royal's light heavy weight belt. Royal is the traveling champion here. Royal uses rough house tactics early. Everything Royal does resonates. Now Royal is on the bike. Royal is a pretty good heel here. Armstrong focusing on the arm. Royal back to the leg dead legging the fuck out of Scott. Physically Royal is past his prime, but damn is he so could at the little things to get heat. Fun finish to a time limit draw. This was well executed and a nice piece of business. 3* The Match Then we get a fun angle the next week. Clearly this isn't over.

Michael Hayes vs Buddy Roberts - WCCW 5/16/88 Holy shit! Was Michael Hayes over! I know he was coming off a house show run with Flair in Crockett in early 88, I think a lot more could have been done with him as a singles babyface. I think they had the right idea by turning Hayes face against the Birds to freshen things up. I would go one step further and I acknowledge that would NEVER happen, but they should have turned Kevin heel against Kerry. Kerry & Hayes vs Kevin, Bam Bam & Buddy Jack would have probably given them business for at least another year. Then they could have used Lawler like they used Flair before. This was an absolute blast. Hayes was aweso…

IWGP Heavyweight Champion Tatsumi Fujinami vs Riki Choshu - NJPW 5/27/88 How the fuck have I never seen these two wrestle? I know, I know I should have my pro wrestling fan license revoke! Better late than never! This was fucking awesome! If every match is as good or better than this then I am in for a treat. Background on the match, Inoki vacate the title due to injury (work or shoot? @KinchStalker?). Fujinami defeated Vader to win the vacant title. That match didnt make the DVDVR set nor is it on NJPW World. I will try to track it down separately. This is for the IWGP Championship. Choshu has vaulted into my top ten maybe even top five favorite wrestlers at t…

AWA World Heavyweight Champion Jerry Lawler vs Dutch Mantel - Memphis 5/29/88 If you ever wondered if Lance Russell is the best hear him analyze Dutch Mantel's short arm clothesline. He is the GOAT. Lawler had won the World Championship from Curt Hennig earlier in the month. This match pales in comparison in their 82 series. Dutch wants Lawler checked for foreign objects. Pretty routine Lawler match. Fun beginning with Mantel slapping Lawler and each time the ref hooks Lawler before he can haul off and smack him. Finally on third time Lawler sneaks in a left. Good pop from me! Dutch starts snapping off the Short Arm Clotheslines. Crowd brawling. Clip. Lawler is …