July 1998

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This Satanico vs Lizmark match magically appeared yesterday. This was quite the match for a lot of reasons. The first of which is Satanico. He is amazing in this. Classic facial expressions as always but he also does one of the best jobs selling the effect of a chinlock/sleeper better than anyone other than Benoit vs Guerrero from the 96 Super Juniors tournament. Lots of fun classic Satanico trickery as well. Love the subtle low blow he used as a kickout. The other reason this match was amazing is that I'm more convinced than ever that Lizmark fucking sucks. He just cannot have consistently good performances against Satanico who is probably the easiest guy …

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A really well done punishment match. I think Kea's Swinging DDT might be the greatest counter spot ever, based just solely on the fact I buy into it over and over again despite having seen it a million times. Kea really takes it to Akiyama, firing away at him with awesome kicking combinations. The violence doesn't disappoint-you get an awesome slap battle, Akiyama doing all the standard stuff you'd expect him to in this type of match like a Bodyslam to the outside, a wicked Torture Crab etc., but the transitions are really the what holds this together so match. It's the key aspect of All Japan I point to over and over again, because it's what makes it work more than anyth…

Cool trios match which had some matwork and for once, ended without a gazillion bajillion nearfalls. The highlight was obviously Hase working the mat against he shooter cats. Though, the goal of the match was to put the UWFi crew over strong, I thought that considering AJPW always gets praised for it's psychological brilliance, they could've done a better job. I'm not sure I by Hase easily taking down and dominating Albright on the mat. It made him look like a fat dude with nice suplexes rather than an unstoppable beast. And Kobashi was taking some really stiff knees from Takayama, but was fine a minute later. Johnny Ace was fired up but kind of threated everyone like a j…

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Very good tag leading up to Jun's shot against Kobashi. He and Hase have a calm, cocky, confident vibe as a team that works really well. The dynamic between Kobashi and young Kea is good too, this match has a very natural flow and rooting interest. They target Kobashi's knee throughout. In the pantheon of AJPW tags this isn't particularly noteworthy but it is a quality story building and character driven tag regardless.

Kakihara pissing off Kawada is something that needs to be witnessed. He immediately pops Kawada with a slap and Kawada’s selling is fantastic here as he quickly tags out to Taue, who gets popped a few good times himself! Oh boy, when Kawada gets back in there, he takes it to Kaki with slaps, knocks him down, picks him back up, and then smacks the shit out of him. Kawada and Taue work Kaki over for a while, Taue piledriving Kaki at one point, and each time Kaki tries to fight back, Kawada usually shuts him down with a boot to the face or kicks. But he keeps fighting until he gets the jujigatame on Kawada and the tag to Takayama. He eats some Kawada kicks, Kawada eats some …

The spot-a-ton! Match contains half a dozen leg drop variants and half a dozen tope atomicos! They hit ALL the spots. Match is actually fairly competitive. Palomino, the masked Ikuto Hidaka, looks ultra polished working pseudo lucha exchanges. Tsukioka lands an Asai Moonsault into nowhere! Swank moves and dives are rolled out. An almost unrecognizable Mikami hits the neat-o Victory Roll into Kneebar because that was en vogue in 1998. Tsukioka does another insane thing which the camera misses completely! They go BROADWAY (but we will never get the full experience, because they clipped a few minutes from the bout.) This match was praised in an old DVDVR and is still fun to…

The crusty main event! Kabuki train 98 continues! Everyone in this match gets WALLOPED and it rules. Yamada & Okumura get all uppity and Nagasaki fucking wastes them both with chairs. Kabuki & Nagasaki turn into the worlds lumpiest Anderson brothers and procure some brutal armwork and stomps, with Nagasaki rocking the shoulder dislocating Armbars. It's improbable and strange and great. Kabuki hits his awesome fist drop and starts working the ARMPIT CLAW and it's fucking gross. Okumura & Yamada are not technically great but they are willing to smack the shit out of the crusty old bastards and in return get punched in the face, elbowed in the chin and kicked in…

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This was pretty dope. The match is, more or less, contained to the mat, with Tamura primarily in the driver’s seat. Sakata isn’t as skilled as Tamura but he’s stubborn, which makes for a fun match-up. When they do engage in striking, it can turn ugly. Sakata catches Tamura with a spinning backhand and tries to continue the barrage but Tamura decides…no way, and destroys Sakata with some gnarly high kicks to the head. Tamura shines with the waterwheel drop into the kneebar and I loved the leg scissors choke as a transition into the jujigatame. Toward the end, Sakata hits a cool Exploder suplex to set up the follow-up armbar but Tamura rolls through into his own, and when …