May 1998

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See, this is why you get grimy old tapes from forgotten 90s spin off feds: if this were NJPW, these two would get 8 minutes in the opening match and it would be forgettable. Here, they get 18 minutes to stretch out and do their thing. Nishimura continues to rule in 1998, he was a total wrestling machine here, as if to teach 2nd grade shootstylist Fukuda a lesson and prove his Gotch-style can totally fuck with any shooter. Fukuda is a great opponent for Nishimura as he can totally go in this kind of ultra-tight, mostly mat based contest, gives a nice contrast to Nish's old school style with his modern shoot grappling and sells exhaustion very well. I love that even after w…

More MUGA slick matwork. At times the exchanges here resembled intense IWRG maestro scraps. Ooya is perfectly good in this environment, and Ishikawa is just off the chain. This wasn't as psychologically sharp as the previous tag with Fujinami, but I especially liked the Ishikawa vs. Nakano sections, as it was really cool to see Ishikawa use his his skill against a bigger, beastly opponent, and the Fujinami/Oya finish, for two guys who are about as random a pairing as you can get, was really good.

There's something charming and comforting about watching Demolition Ax's indie matches. It feels like street fair wrestling in the most fun ways. I realized that his tag team partner was in WCW but, I wasn't sure what he was up too. I also really like his match with King Kong Bundy. Really enjoyed Bobby Fulton (one of the Fantastics) vs. Demolition Ax. It's so interesting to see Bobby Fulton as the stooging, mascot attacking heel. This match takes place on a baseball field! Water gets dumped on him, it's such a fun time. The Pez Whatley vs. Ricky Morton match on this show is super fun too. NDW is New Dimension Wrestling The promotions we…

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This match was given to me by SPS for the review trade. It's always interesting to see the early work of what one may call a legend. Despite the general opinion here being not particularly high, I've always been an Edge fan (he being the former Sexton Hardcastle). Though the term may arguably be applied quite liberally, Edge was one of THE top guys of his era and has an impressive resumé as both a tag and singles talent in WWE. To me, he's the Brendan Fraser of pro wrestling: a generically charming talent with enough charisma and ability to carry himself even if he's not a true superstar lead. Vanilla, but not offensively bland. This match, fine as it may be, su…

Got this one from Ditch, and it looks like classic stuff. Kanemoto portrays the perfect bully dick to fire Korakuen Hall, he lets Yasuraoka some offense only to break his momentum with one shot before it may become too dangerous. At one point Yasuraoka gets the upper hand but Kanemoto shows great timing at turning this into a bonafide extanded hope spot. Yasuraoka doesn't give up and ends up pushing Kanemoto quite far. Too bad we only got 11 of the 18min, I guess pretty much 7 min cut are just Kanemoto playing with his prey. But anyway, the finish stretch and Yasuraoka's celebration with the reserved new found respect for his opponent from Kanemoto makes it end on a brill…

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