Phil Schneider

I might put Monsta over Maff, I liked the Heavy Hitters tag stuff more then Maff's JAPW title reign.

Here is a review of an awesome Fujiwara/Hash v. Sato/Yokoi match which you should track down Yoshiaki Fujiwara/Shinya Hashimoto v. Kohei Sato/Hirotaka Yokoi Zero-One 8/15/04-EPIC Here is the first really spectacular 21st century Fujiwara match I have found. This had the feel of a classic BattlArts match,yuy nothing fancy just all four guys trying to beat the ever living shit out of each other. Fujiwara gets isolated for a part of this match and eats a pretty big beating from the young guys. Yokoi wears MMA gloves and unloads with nasty full strength punches to the face and body. There is this awesome section where he is unloading on Fujiwara and Fujiwara fires back with his jumping shoot headbutt. They also have a great early mat wrestling section, with Fujiwara showing the kind of slick counters that are his forte. Of course Hashimoto is a fucking tank, when he gets tagged in he just murders people, axe like chops to the neck, thudding kicks, big suplexes. There are several points in the match where Sato tries to stand toe to toe with Hashimoto and it is like trying to brawl with late 80s Tyson. I love this kind of gritty violent stuff and this match totally put a smile on my face.

Here is my review of that match from my C+A Fujiwara Yoshiaki Fujiwara/Shinya Hashimoto v. Predator/Tom Howard Zero One 7/30/02-GREAT Man this was a ton of fun, your gaijin team are two guys with some amusing signature spots who work stiff. That is totally enough for legends like Hashimoto and Fujiwara to have a great match with. Hashimoto blisters these two guys, I have to give Predator some credit, he may not be very good, but I bet Brody wouldn't be willing to stand in there and exchange shots with Hashimoto. Howard has a spot where he puts his hands behind his back and dares his opponents to hit him, and Hash and Fujiwara are a pair of guys up for that challenge. Fujiwara wasn't in the match a ton, but he did have a couple of nice exchanges with each opponent. I really liked how he used his speed and guile to maneuver Predator into the armbar, you don't see a lot of Fujiwara working as Rey Jr. v. Undertaker but he is really good at it.

How did shootstyle endanger lives? When you think of wrestlers injuring themselves or suffering horrible consequences I don't think of shoot guys. Hell Fujiwara is still kicking around in his 60s.

I only think you need to ban one person

I have been doing a C+A of Super Dragon over at Segunda Caida http://segundacaida.blogspot.com/2015/09/complete-and-accurate-super-dragon.html Not as many reviews as some other C+A's but it has some other gems

Yeah the minus points is what would punish luchadores

This came up in the Super Dragon thread, both guys are similar. Pretty unique style, great brawlers, one of kind aura. How do folks see placing them?

Do you have Necro in the same neighborhood or well above? Probably in the same neighborhood. I think best Necro is better, but he also has bigger lows. My draft list is still pretty drafty. I would be interested in what others think of that comparison.

That weighted method would really hurt great luchadores just because dummies don't "Get" lucha

I think he is going on and Sabu isn't. I think that is probably because his career ended early and we didn't see his shtick get run to the ground in TNA or something. He has total control of his atmosphere and still comes off huge, hell he showed up again after 4 years off and was in one of my favorite matches of 2015, just to disappear again. He could go a bit long, but after revisiting his best stuff he just has such a great insane presence.

We have been slowing down to about an update a week, I hope it starts picking up again.

I loved all of the Buck stuff, and the bits and pieces of Jimmy Golden we have seen, but how many full Golden matches exist on tape. He is still good in 2010s stuff I have seen too and he is super old

INDIAN STRAP MATCH - WAHOO vs. TULLY MOTHERFUCKER!!!

It bugs me how much better a writer you are

That was great stuff, loved how they used the broken ring. Duggan's flying headbutt was awesome

Is that match online? Looks pretty intriguing

His Regal TV title matches were pretty great

I like scaffold matches, I imagine they come off way better live then on tape because they danger is really palatable. Dundee v. Dutch, Chicky Starr v. Invader 3, Dundee v. Koko and Greene v. Jarrett are all epic matches, and I like the R+R v. MX matches a lot. There have probably been more great scaffold matches then bad ones.

You realize that you are working from this tiny subset of available wrestlers right? You aren't ranking anyone from this century, anyone from Mexico or any shootstyle wrestlers, so from you little corner DiBiase is a no brainer, but most people aren't so myopic. You are like the guy who never left his home town who insists that Mario's down the street has the best pizza in the world.

http://segundacaida.blogspot.com/2010/08/my-name-is-black-terry-i-hate-you-one.html

There are some of the great 2009 stuff still online Segunda Caida review here http://segundacaida.blogspot.com/2010/07/black-terry-aint-got-no-ills-black_05.html

He also had two great Hara singles Reviews 7/14/92 Man alive did this rule, Ishikawa has been the total discovery of this WAR project, I honestly had zero memory of his existence before this and he has been a total superstar. Both guys come off as total bad asses, they both level epic beatings on each other to start up the match, but Ishikawa gets the upper hand. The finish run of the match was so great, Ishikawa is relentless, crushing with suplexes and kicks to back, Hara keeps getting up but Ishikawa keeps knocking him down. Finally Ishikawa just starts punting him in the kidneys until the ref just calls the match. Ishikawa then just chucks Hara out of the ring throws him into a table and slaps the fuck out of Fuyuki for no reason. Totally awesome, Ishikawa comes off as a wrecking machine and Hara comes off as a tough motherfucker for being able to withstand the beating. 2/10/93 Ashura Hara vs. Takashi Ishikawa These guys had an awesome brutal battle on the debut show, and their rematch lives up to it. This starts a little slower, as both guys work holds for a bit at the beginning. These are guys who can put on a headlock, as they look like they are fresh squeezing grapefruit juice. When they start pounding each other it is as violent and awesome as you expect. Ishikawa's stomps to the head and Hara's headbutts were the highlights, and both guys threw cringing lariats. Ishikawa has some pretty impressive agility for a tubby dude, he gets wasted off the apron by a Hara lariat and takes a big bump to the floor. In addition he hits a really pretty pescada. 2010 Puro has a bunch of really stiff wrestling, the thing that makes this so much better is that these guys are really great at selling fatigue and brutality. This isn't two guys exchanging shots with no long term impact, every shot takes the kind of toll you would expect it to, and at the end they look like they crawled through land mines.

He was totally awesome in the WAR feud, rewatch those tags, he was as important as Tenryu in their team, here is my review of the 4/23/93 match Riki Choshu/Shinya Hashimoto vs Genichiro Tenryu/Takashi Ishikawa Tremendous, tremendous match. Three of the all time great asskickers in professional wrestling history kicking major ass, and Ishikawa desperately trying to hold up his end. Really spectacular performance by Ishikawa, he was excellent as the burly, lumpy overmatched guy who was going to jump right into the fray. He was constantly cheap shotting the NJPW team from the apron, running in a stomping then in pin, clubbering them for behind. He both absorbed and delivered a beating worthy of the other three guys in the match. We get an awesome opening Tenryu v. Hashimoto scramble with both guys working crazy fast to grab and arm or leg. The match hits another gear when Choshu gets posted and starts bleeding, Tenryu may be the greatest "blood in the water" wrestler of all time, he just lasers in on the cut, punching and kicking Choshu right in his bloody head. Then we get a spectacular Hashimoto hot tag where he just splits guys in half with kicks, ending in a super hot finish run. I honestly though this was par with your high end All Japan tags of this period. Same level of heat and drama, just replacing the headrops with lariats and kicks to the eye and throat. Highest recommendation, WAR MOTHERFUCKER WAR!!!

I said in 2014 Callihan would have to get released or make WWE TV to make my list, and he has gotten released and has been pretty great on the indies so far. His pair of EVOLVE tags are my two favorite matches of 2016 and I liked his Hero AAW singles a fair amount as well, this is going to be a pretty short run of stuff before the deadline, but I imagine it will get him on my list somewhere