Superstar Sleeze

Akira Maeda vs Kazuo Yamazaki - UWF 10/22/84 They took a helluva long time to get going in this one. Just a lot of listless time on the mat in wristlocks. Everytime it looked like someone was going to make some in roads with some kicks they would grind it to a halt on the mat. There would be the occasional good snapmare or bridge by Yamazaki. Still, there was not much struggle. Maeda is too deliberate. He has no explosiveness to make this style work. Very little charisma from what I have seen. I liked Yamazaki from that one Hashimoto match. After about 15 minutes, they finally kick in the finish run which is a German by Yamazaki, missile dropkick then another German with a beautiful bridge, but too close to the ropes. Ab stretch, but once he goes for roll up, Maeda converts into a cross armbreaker. Meada hits a spinkick and then in a gnarly sitting neck crank, armbreaker submission wins match. Finish stretch was good, but too little too late. Just not a very interesting match as Maeda continues to disappoint.

Really, the result was never in doubt after he was blasted in the head at on three different occasions from three different angles and had four knockdowns against him. From a kayfabe standpoint, to say Han was in control just smacks of silliness. Volk Han vs Dick Vrij - RINGS 8/21/92 Amazing drama in this shoot-style masterpiece. Vrij is a dickish headthunting heel. Han is the clean cut maestro. The match is really the high head kick of Vrij vs the legbar/heel hook of Han. Han sets the tone immediately taking Vrij down and just never letting go of the ankle. Just a great visual of Han having his prey by the ankle and Vrij desperately lunging for the ropes. That would be a seen played over and over again. We find out what Vrij's strategy is, keep it standing up and go high. There is a couple times he is able to catch coming in when he is shooting for legscissors or a takedown for legbar. The scoring seemed off as Vrij used the ropes on at least four occasions but didn't always get counted on. As the match progressed, Vrij was landing bigger and bigger shots. He was growing more and more confident. He was a great dick heel signaling to the crowd. The Han takedown attempts became more desperate as Vrij was clearly too close to the ropes for Han to do anything. Vrij hit an awesome spinning back fist and then totally rocked Han with a high kick to the head. Han had four knockdowns against him and one more knockdown would cost him the match. In a miracle, Han catches Vrij's high kick takes him down and wrenches in a great stepover toehold (STF without front facelock) to pull out the win. Classic mat wizard vs bomb throwing standup fighter. Very entertaining, great pacing and I loved how the strategies played into the finish! ****1/4

IWGP Jr Heavyweight Champion Jushin Liger vs Norio Honaga - NJPW 3/14/91 Non-Title SOLD! I was skeptical about this run of Liger's career against Honaga and AKIRA because neither is famous. I have never even seen a Honaga match. I am totally sold on him and this feud after this match. What an amazing dick heel performance. You had everything you want from focused attack on body part (ribs), jumping from outset, hanging him out to dry on the railing, then the exposed turnbuckle, Liger gets chippy that means BALLSHOT, great gutbuster, chair attacks, choking with ropes! It was just the most flagrant heel work and I loved it. He could have had better facial expressions and body language, but actions were great. Liger firing by busting this asshole wide open with a turnbuckle shot was glorious. Liger just dismantles him with his badass offense while Honaga is bleeding a gusher. Then Honaga's buddy distracts him German 1..2..NO! Like Liger is going to job to this chump. Clothesline and then clothesline from top rope 1...2..3! WHAT!?1! The ref's reaction is priceless. He cant even believe he counted to three!!! Great babyface vs heel match. Simplest match to tell but so damn effective with Honaga committed to being a reprehensible heel and Liger is on top of his babyface game. All we needed was that super Liger comeback to make this classic. Loved this as a first match in the feud. ***3.4

IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Champion Jushin Thunder Liger vs AKIRA - NJPW 3/21/91 1991 is a strange year for Liger. He had big time feuds with Sano 89-90 then Pegasus Kid '90. His booking is hallmarked by trading the belt. In '91, he tries to elevate AKIRA & Honaga, which seemed to be the least successful elevations of his career as these are his least famous opponents. AKIRA & Honaga had been in NJPW for a while so it made sense to try to propel them up the card. I have never seen a Honaga match, looking forward to that. AKIRA has received his personality transplant and is rocking the badass Kabuki gear. Liger is wearing green & gold. Not my favorite Liger outfit, never really been a fan of green & gold. They are in the Dome so Liger starts off hot with palm strikes and does a big dive. Then drops into a sleeper. I know that it is customary to do matwork in the beginning of NJPW, but this was not very inspired chaining at all. Quickly moving in and out of holds. The turning point of the match is when Liger goes to dive on AKIRA, but AKIRA nails him with a ground-to-air dropkick. He nailed him good and Liger's knee is injured. AKIRA is all over the knee. Liger is really, really, really good at selling. I thought AKIRA was good on top with holds and stomps but Liger was making this. The finish run was fine; didn't think was anything too great. Liger really trying to get over the palm strikes. Liger's knee seems fine for a while and then acts up on tombstone attempt. He did drop the leg selling pretty swiftly. AKIRA also did not go back to the knee as he was going for quick falls and Germans. I think AKIRA should have been attacking the knee more. AKIRA missed two big splashes off the top. Liger hit a couple Ligerbombs nothing doing. So he needs the SUPER DDT to win! Pretty standard Liger. Big dive->matwork->turning point->great selling-> extended finish run with nearfalls and a big cresecendo. Besides the great selling, I really did not think this was particularly special Liger performance. He is a very selfless worker and allowed AKIRA to get in some big nearfalls before he hit a bunch of big bombs to win. It is Liger 101. ***1/4

IWGP Jr Heavyweight Champion Naoki Sano vs Akira Nogami - NJPW 8/31/89 Before AKIRA got a personality transplant he was just simply Akira Nogami in black trunks. Akira was a distant third all year to Liger & Sano, but the story is that he is out to prove himself. From the opening, he slaps Sano hard and never really lets up. He is constantly offensively minded. He makes up for his blandness with his relentless onslaught. Like anyone who passed through the NJPW dojo, he is a very sound worker. He was great on the mat and thought he had a really nice legdrop. The other story of the match was that Sano was the ultimate counter-wrestler always one step ahead of Akira and that's why he is champion. Akira is perched on top, dropkick. Akira goes for dropkick, he holds onto ropes. Akira goes for a kick, he catches it and turns it into an enziguiri. There are a lot of examples of Akira getting a quick advantage off a highspot but when he follows it up with another highspot he gets burned. He has not learned how to capitalize on a highspot and then maintain his advantage. Sano shows us that. After the enziguiri he goes for piledriver and then figure-4s the head. A sound, veteran mentality from a young lion. Sano puts on a great Boston Crab at one point and when Akira tries the same thing Sano breaks. I love how Sano is clearly the better wrestler from kayfabe perspective, but because Akira is so damn relentless he has a chance. On a superplex, Akira shifts his weight, this is his best chance, but gets two. There is a series of nearfalls including a German bridge by Akira that looks good. He is putting himself in position to win. He goes up top and Sano crushes him out of the sky with a dropkick. AWESOME! Plays right into the counterwrestler thread they had going. That gets two, but a fisherman suplex gets Sano the win. Tight match, with lots of energy and little down time. It is New Japan so the execution is great and the everything is snug. The narrative of hungry challenger constantly getting thwarted by smart champion was great. I loved the payoff with the dropkick by Sano with Akira coming off the top. Really played into Sano's counterwrestling and being one step ahead of Akira dynamic. Excellent, well thought out juniors match. Sano is on a roll, definitely want to see more from him. ****

IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Champion Jushin Liger vs Naoki Sano - NJPW 8/10/89 Jushin Liger's magnificent selling has been much discussed and raises this match to all time classic status. I loved the first match so much with Liger beating the shit out of Sano only for Sano to kick his head off then the double knockout finish. Here Sano rips off Liger's arm and beats him with it. The beginning of the match with them just kicking each other in the head during lock ups outta nowhere was bitchin. Sano reverse thrust kick gives him his first opportunity at the left arm and Liger selling the hell out of it. Liger makes ropes. Liger is wearing shoulder pads...was he injured in an intervening tag match? Liger hits a kappo kick but Sano makes it back to the arm. The heat segment is glorious. Love the fake out Irish whip into just snapping his arm down or Ligers prone selling with his dead arm limp by his side. The match changes complexion when Sano hurls his body to the outside but smacks his head against the concrete busting himself open. Sano abandoned strategy and paid for it. Young dude in a championship match got to leave it out on the table. Liger's broken wing selling is great his offense of kicking Sano straight in the Open wound. I don't think that gets discussed enough is that he matches violence with violence. Loved the pile drivers! Liger makes the cardinal mistake of putting his opponent On the top rope. Never let your opponent have the high ground. Sano hits a missile drop kick and hits that splash to outside. Great transition. Finish is double hot. The struggle over the German duplex ending in a Fujiwara armbar. Ligers hope spots were great. Loved the trio of armbar, German and super back duplex (play off the double KO spot). Great finish! Heated, energetic, violent, sublime selling blood from Sano and a raging climax. Maybe a hotter transition back to Sano is keeping this from the full Monty. Just doesn't feel that level but goddamn this is just insanely great pro wrestling. ****3/4

IWGP Jr Heavyweight Champion Hiroshi Hase vs Jushin Liger - NJPW 5/25/89 Jushin Liger takes his place in the sun nary a month after his redebut as Liger in the Dome. I have watched very little pre-93 Liger what a different worker. He throws his body with reckless abandon in these 89 matches. End of an era for Hase too who would graduate to Heavyweight division soon. Liked the hot start by Hase hitting a dropkick at the bell and throwing a suplex. Liger throwing kicks so well has been a revelation. Great way to start hot but once both guys get to stalemate we go to mat. Hase has a great heat segment working over Ligers abs in vicious fashion. Ligers finish run is hot hurling his body at Hase then that nasty snap Super plex. Ligers execution is so good. Oh my God! That fall away slam with bridge by Hase!!!!! Airplane spin no it is a barrage of Kappo Kicks and a crazy Human Capture Suplex for three! Fun match hot finish stretch! Great way to kick off the Liger era! ***1/2

IWGP Jr Heavyweight Champion Jushin Liger vs Naoki Sano - NJPW 7/13/89 Incredibly fun, insane 13 minute sprint. Great way to wake up on vacation. I thought Liger felt very inspired by the Stampede boys like Dynamite, Bret and Davey Boy. Like a ramped up version of those Harts/Bulldogs matches with more insane offense and a lot more urgency. The opening matwork is tight but definitely a lot quicker than Fujinami's from early 80s. Liger was just so offensive minded in this match. It was a full court press. However he would get sometimes on the mat. After the tilt a whirl backbreaker he opened an unholy can of whoop ass on Sano. Look how much he relied on Irish whip to create movement doesn't feel like early 80s Mew Japan. Even though he is hitting spots in rapid fire succession there is so much urgency you can help but feel infected with energy. The duplex to the floor was insane and then somersault splash off top to floor like shut the front door! Nice countout tease! Liger can't get powerbomb but almost caught in a pibfall see trying to make something nothing almost gets him. Loved Sano's transition to offense with Liger catching his foot and clobbering him with a kick to head. Liger did great job with disoriented selling. Sano then presses advantage with dropkick to head. After taking an asswhupping a head shot is what he needed. Sano has insane offense on outside too and great German for nearfalls. Wild Japanese women in front row >>> stoic yakuza. Loved the symmetry of FINISH run. That double dropkick was best ever Sano really destroyed Liger. Lots of hitting moves at same time. Super bank suplex that knocks both for a loop. Great finish! Sets up rematch well. Interesting finish being so even leading to double knockout. Insane high end offense mixed with good transition and tons of urgency means damn great time watching wrestling! ****

Great pick! He is a beast in that match!

Yeah but Sid in ECW was the shit!

AJ Styles vs Bobby Roode Final Resolution 2012. AJ deserves all the awards in the world for that performance. A match that would not win best picture but AJ deserves Best Actor!

Jushin Liger & El Samurai vs Ultimo Dragon & Masao Orihara - WAR 4/2/93 In the midst of the NJPW vs WAR feud dominated by Tenryu vs Hashimoto in Co. there was the junior analog to the feud with Jushin Liger facing off against Ultimo Dragon. Their big singles match happened at the 1/4 Dome show but was marred by a dead crowd and botches. Here the crowd was electric everytime these two men squared off the ring. Often, Liger is so head and shoulders more over than his opponents it was nice for him to be in there against an equal. Liger was on fire in this match. He just brought an insane energy to this match. He had so much pep in his step. He was kinda dick the whole time because he was the invader on WAR's turf, but people were eating up his hip swiveling, arm swirling taunting. When Liger & Dragon both went for the cup the ear taunts I marked out. Liger's kept up this energy throughout the match. The match did vacillate between chippy and meandering though. I thought Samurai had some good moves like a couple piledrivers, some awesome dives and a reverse suplex that gave Liger a hot tag, but he was not bringing the passion. It was just going through the motions. Orihara was your good little dick underling that's such a great Japanese trope. Dragon was way better against Liger than Sammy. He kinda slummed it with Samurai, which is weird because they apparently had a classic in WAR a couple weeks before this. Dragon was definitely up for wrestling Liger. The double team moves were great. I LOVED the dive train! The finish stretch was great with Liger nailing a Ligerbomb but Dragon making the save. Diving headbutt save and when Sammy finally takes out Dragon, Liger eats feet on diving headbutt so this creates some drama, but Liger wins with Frankensteiner. Take home message is this is where Liger vs Dragon the singles match should have taken place! Hot crowd and both men were on. Liger was oozing charisma. He was kicking ass. He showed enough vulnerability to make it interesting but you knew he was taking home the win. I thought as a tag match just too uneven. Samurai had some good offense, but lacking the fire. Dragon was carrying himself like a star, but oddly enough was not supplying the cool moves. This could really could have a heat segment or something to build drama. I wish this was better just because Liger looked awesome here. ***1/4

Jushin Liger & El Samurai vs Wild Pegasus & Dean Malenko - NJPW 3/9/93 This is clearly from NJPW, but it is presented by WSW with Craig DeGeorge & Sir Oliver Humeprdink on commentary and they are not that bad! They actually call the action pretty well. It seems like WSW just repackaged NJPW matches with English commentary for American consumption. Pretty ordinary matches from these four. I thought Liger/Benoit parts were clearly the best. Liger outsmarting Benoit with speed and then doing the Hogan ear cup and then Rude hip swivel was the definitely the only reason to go out of your way to watch. Sammy seemed to coast and Malenko besides busting out one great submission didn't add much. Benoit was a machine on offense in control of Sammy. Liger gets tag and so does Malenko. I figure Malenko is easy pickins' but Benoit saves on LigerBomb. They actually tease Benoit pinning Liger twice with German and Diving Headbutt but Sammy saves both times. Even Malenko gets some love with a nearfall from a Northern Lights. Sammy/Benoit brawl. Liger hits Frankensteiner out of nowhere. Perfectly good match. Fun antics from Liger and good intensity from Benoit. Exciting finish stretch. That seems like a real Liger hallmark is good wrestling then throw out 4-5 big spots at the end to send crowd home happy ***

Super Delphin vs Sato - M-Pro 12/10/93 Mask vs Mask Match Beautiful wrestling from Delphin & Sato here. Sato is just so fluid in the ring. The chain wrestling is really wonderful to watch in this. After the sort of mini-Delphin control with the single leg crab, Sato's armdrag is just wonderful and graceful. His mid-match high impact moves are breath-taking, DDT, backdrop driver and powerbomb. The first 2/3rds of this match really suffers from lack of structure and struggle. It feels very much an exhibition. Just two guys doing moves, very pretty moves. Delphin no sold a cross armbreaker, which is a big no-no in my book. The last 1/3rd of this is very dramatic and awesome. Once Delphin hits the dive to the outside, they both turn this on. I loved Delphin having to block Sato's punches and punch him to hit a DDT. Then Sato starts snapping off hope moves from Delphin's offense. Struggle, earning it! This is what I am talking about. Sato hits this amazing, sublime dive. Just watch it. I cant describe the beauty of this dive. The tension is off the charts with Sasuke holding back Delphin's manager as Sato's rattles off a bunch of awesome bombs down the stretch. His powerslam is awesome! Loved the senton. The missed senton was a great nearfall for Delphin! Delphin hitting a German Suplex into a back bridge rollup was impressive win! Sato is revealed to be DICK TOGO!!! Loved the finishing stretch of this, really turned up the drama and both guys felt like they wanted it. Definitely lacking hate and where was Delphin's heelishness could have been helpful in this match. An exhibition leads way to a hot, dramatic home stretch. ***1/2

UWA World Welterweight Champion Super Delfin vs Great Sasuke - M-Pro 7/24/93 Super Delfin won the title from a luchador, Celestial in Japan and for the rest of mid-90s the title would swap between Japan and Mexico. I have not watched much M-Pro, but am excited to get into it. I think Junior wrestling in 90s had the most prominent influence on today's in-ring style focusing on moves and less on transitions and storytelling. So I would like to see if that's true and how this evolves. Apparently, this is outdoors as there are fireworks before the match. Sasuke is wicked over throughout the entire match. That's definitely still one big difference compared to today is that the fans are still more invested in the wrestler rather than the moves. Delphin does get a chant going for himself, but as he is soaking in the adulation Sasuke dropkicks him and hits a massive dive. I loved this. Thought it was a great way to work in a highspot and make Delphin pay for his hubris. The match was basically a classic Japanese blowout. Where one guy controls so much of the match, you can just feel like he is going to lose. Super Delphin is the choke artist du jour. Delphin is a pretty good heel in this going after the mask and choking on the ropes. The enziguiri was a nice transition. My major malfunction was that Great Sasuke just kinda played ragdoll for him. He was not making him earn the moves. It was just too nice & neat. On top of that, there was not much in the way of hope spots. I thought the selling was good. Sasuke did a nice job selling more and more down the stretch as the moves got bigger and bigger. This cooperative wrestling and lack of struggle feels really remission of today's wrestling. I thought Delphin did a great job escalating his offense. Late in the match when Sasuke did start the hope spots they were great. The handspring back elbow was an excellently timed cutoff. The Asai Moonsault was a great hope spot that wiped out Delphin, but caused so much damage to Sasuke he couldn't follow it up. I thought Delphin's response to go even bigger with his moves: really high impact suplexes and finally going for top rope splashes was great. They did a nice job teasing the countout off a big dive by Delphin with Sasuke getting in at 19. The fact that Sasuke rollthrough on a crossbody was a transition was just weird. Like all of sudden he has energy to hit a dropkick was kinda lame. SPACE FLYING TIGER DROP~! I feel like the name is cooler than the move even the move is pretty bonkers. Quebradas and springbaord hurricanarana wins the day for the hero of M-Pro. The offense in this was pretty spectacular. Sasuke's highspots were all awesome and that's pretty much all he did. His selling was good, but there not enough struggle and hope spots. Delphin escalated his offense well and was a decent heel. Visually impressive but lacking that extra oomph. ***1/4

Nice job Brad!

You can! On the award-winning New Japan World for 999 Yen! But seriously not a Nak fan but I loved that match! I should rewatch it.

I thought the finish was really good. Am I alone in these matches leaving me feeling cold & empty? It is fun mindless entertainment but nothing matters. It feels disposable. Just for consumption in the moment. No staying power. Like I will not remember a single thing from this tomorrow. I'm not against these matches. I think they are fun and have their place. Just don't see them as all-timers

HOLY SHIT!!! Just watched this! MATCH OF THE FUCKING YEAR SO FAR!!! I put up with moonsault after moonsault on a standing opponent and 90% of the time it looks like shit! THAT WAS FUCKING AWESOME! One of those matches where you don't realize you are watching a classic until 3/4s in and they are taking you on that ride. I loved the beginning with Charlotte trying to psyche out BAyley but taking a wicked slap. The transition to the heat segment was fantastic seen it before but that was well executed. The stiffness in this match was insane! Charlotte was laying her SHIT in. Her chops usually look awkward here they were BRUTAL!!! The neck work was great. That kick on the outside and DAT MOONSAULT!!!! The collision on the cross body WOW! Both these girls FUCKING WANT IT! Up until this point, BAyley kinda felt along for the ride. When it counted the most, she turned it the Fuck on during her comeback. Most times she looks like she is going through the motions...here you saw the drive in those legs, just that extra bit of urgency that makes you believe this is the most important thing in the world right now. On that comeback no "THIS IS AWESOME", the crowd cared about the outcome & wrestlers! Because the match was built around consequence and momentum shifts! The best use of run-ins in forever! Total nuclear heat! The figure-4s down the stretch were great. I loved how the Sasha taking out Dana and then jabbing Charlotte hard led right to BAyley 2 Belly! The nearfalls BUILT and had heat! Moves had real consequence. There were sustained periods of momentum where people had to earn their way on top. That finish run was electric. AWESOME MATCH!!! ****3/4

THIS SOUNDS AWESOME!!! Two of my all-time favorites Ogawa and Sasaki! I know I have only watched like 3 Ogawa matches in my life, but I have never seen a bad Ogawa match. I need to see this.

I will try to check this out soon. I loved their 2002 match so, so much! Didn't know they had rematches.

Benoit's chinlock worn down Guerrero enough that he had a hard time stringing moves together. Anytime, Benoit was in danger he would just wrap him up in chinlock. I loved it. Is it really that clever? To me clever is winking at the audience. This is actually effective pro wrestling strategy that is not used enough. Black Tiger vs Wild Pegasus - NJPW Best of the Super Juniors 6/11/96 Once upon a time, I had this match as the best match either man has had. At this point, I would say it is in the Top 5 for each man. Such an interesting piece of pro wrestling storytelling. There is nothing I enjoy more than breaking down kayfabe strategies. I thought this match was exemplary in showcasing contrasting styles. On the mat the tough and gritty Benoit can gain the advantage, but there are times when he loses it like Tiger's nifty trip at one point or the headscissors takeover. The real straw that breaks the camel's back is Eddie's back splashes over the top rope. Benoit takes exception to those and starts applying the chinlock. This is what this match is famous for. Black Tiger would escape the chinlock snap off one explosive move and Pegasus would promptly smother him with a chinlock. By the fourth or fifth time, the crowd was pissed and chanting for Tiger. It was really the perfect use of the chinlock to wrap up Black Tiger prevent him from hitting his high flying offense, but also set up his own moves. Notice Benoit would hit a chop and then go for something and Black Tiger would counter so back to the chinlock until that would not happen. Benoit hits a MASSIVE POWERBOMB! HE THREW HIM DOWN! But he misses the diving headbutt! Tiger gets whipped into the guardrail and Pegasus comes flying out with a dive taking Guerrero over the top rope. He goes for the powerbomb again, but Tiger reverses into Brainbuster, weak transition. Black Tiger is a little foggy before he hits Frogsplash for two. Guerrero goes for the brainbuster, but Benoit drops down into sleeper! Excellent! I liked Benoit catching Eddie with the Dragon Suplex right after the break. Great struggle over the tombstone piledriver feels like the most important thing in the world. Benoit wins and sets him up top. Super Back Suplex! Great selling as always from Benoit on moves like that. He is one of the best as putting over the punishment his own body takes from his violent offense. SPLASH MOUNTAIN! Nice tease of Tombstone from top before Eddie reverses into Top Rope Frakensteiner and then SUPER BRAINBUSTER WINS THE MATCH! I would say the biggest complaint I have with this match is they don't do a great job establishing why Pegasus needs to use the chinlock. A really hot shin would have made this a five star match. Because it would have added a lot of excitement and established the narrative for the rest of the match. The use of the chinlock was perfect as a means of getting Eddie over as explosive and Benoit needing to sap his energy. The weakest part of the match was Black Tiger hitting a brainbuster out of nowhere when he had been taking offense. I even thought Splash Mountain was set up better because Benoit was selling the after effects of landing on his head by his own move. I will admit that transitions to Eddie's offense could have been better. I thought it was nice three move finish Splash Mountain->Top Rope Frankensteiner->Super Brainbuster for the win. ****1/2

Black Tiger vs Shinjiro Ohtani - NJPW Best of Super Juniors 6/5/96 This is right before Ohtani's big break as Kanemoto gets injured and has vacated the UWA Light Heavyweight Championship. That was the championship he challenged El Samurai in January. Ohtani defeats Sakuraba (before he becomes SAKURABA THE GRACIE HUNTER) for that championship and that's what qualifies him for the J-Crown where he goes onto have that breakout performance against Ultimo Dragon. I guess you could say he did win the inaugural WCW World Crusierweight Championship over Benoit and I would imagine if Kanemoto was healthy that could have switched one of the other titles onto Ohtani instead. Just a neat point that I don't know how much people discuss. Great match! Whats funny is I did not know this was the round robin portion so I assumed Eddie went over to set up the match with Benoit and lo and behold Ohtani wins. Whats funny was during the final five minutes, I was like this is really setting up for an Ohtani victory because it is classic puro for the guy who is pouring on the offense to lose. That is what happens! Thought Eddie was on fire in this match working the leg. I loved he saw that opening with Ohtani's leg dangling off the apron and just came crashing down on it with all his weight. That's who to effectively parlay opening matwork into a heat segment. Just absolutely great job by Eddie always going back to the leg, loved him using a chair on the leg to ratchet up the heat, great, liberal use of the figure-4! Of course, there is a downside to working the leg in the juniors match and that is it will be blown off. Love Ohtani and I thought that passion was there from him. Way too many uses of bridging pins on that bad leg, dude! I loved them setting up Eddy's bombs by Ohtani missing his springboard moves. Eddy really poured on the offense late and it looked great. I loved how he used the leg psychology to set up bombs and when Ohtani was making a comeback he always could fall back on the leg. Really great wrestling. Ohtani does manage to hit the springboard dropkick and Tiger Suplex with the bridge, for shame, for the win. Besides the victory over Benoit, this was definitely his biggest win to date as Eddy seemed to be getting pushed pretty hard by NJPW before WCW seemed to stop sending Eddie & Benoit over. I thought Eddie gave a great workmanslike performance. Ohtani had the passion, wish he was more creative with his offense to compensate for leg psychology. ***1/2

Ultimo Dragon vs Shinjiro Ohtani - J-Crown Semifinals Shinjiro Ohtani's individual masterpiece as he drags a classic out of the man bereft of psychology, Ultimo Dragon. Ultimo Dragon is one of my all-time favorite offensive wrestlers, but the reason why so many of his matches are stuck at the sub-**** mark is due to his insistence to get his shit in at the expense of logic, escalation and the narrative. Ohtani made Dragon earn every single inch of this match, which is made this a classic. So few challenge Dragon, even the great Jushin Thunder Liger allows Dragon to hit all his spots at the expense of psychology. From the outset, Ohtani is wrestling a full court press strategy. He is just suffocating Dragon with headlocks, chinlocks and always shortening the distance between him and Dragon. Dragon needs room to generate offense so this is an excellent strategy. You see Dragon forced to create takedowns. Twice he goes for La Magistral Cradle and both times he is thwarted by Ohtani. The second time, Ohtani even gives him the Dikembe Mutombo finger wag. Dragon is able to takedown Ohtani but he is having trouble holding Ohtani. Ohtani just seems to want it more. Dragon steps through on a hold and just stands on Ohtani's face. He is going to fight dirty too. I thought his leg work here complete with his hip swivel showed he was not going to be shown up by this punk. Ohtani gets an excellent knee lift when they stand up sends Dragon reeling. Ohtani is just so intense and explosive with his moves. Great dropkick and bodyslam. Basic, but in the hands of Ohtani powerful and impactful. You see Dragon is not even given a chance to think. Ohtani clamps on a chinlock and the transition into some really nasty armbreakers. Dragon's verbal selling is top notch. The way he is flailing in the hold really adds to the drama. Dragon is no slouch on the mat is able to counter into his own armbreaker. From there, Ohtani tries to avoid an attack in the corner but Dragon springboards off middle rope and nails him with dropkick. I am still not happy Dragon insists on doing his intricate outside the ring sequence which requires skinning the cat with his bad arm, but Ohtani does swat him away when he goes for the splash. Ohtani looks confident. Springboard spinhweel kick gets two. His father looks on and gives the signal for one more. Ohtani goes for his Dragon Suplex, but Dragon breaks out and hits a tight Tiger Suplex for two. Ohtani cant believe. Ruh roh! Is it happening again! Ohtani MISSES the springboard dropkick! This is opening Dragon needed. Give him an inch and he will take the mile. LA MAGISTRAL CRADLE...1...2...NO! Great way to build to that cradle as a nearfall as a play off the earlier work. Dragon does not rest on his laurels. TOMBSTONE...SNAP MOONSAULT GETS TWO! Ohtani is hanging on by a thread. Dragon goes for a hurricanarana, but powerbomb. Ohtani, who is wrestling the match of his life, is AMPED to hit his springboard dropkick. NAILS IT! Hooks the Full Nelson...DRAGON SUPLEX...BRIDGE! 1...2...NO!!! Ohtnai flops over on his stomach in disbelief! You had a good run, kid. Dragon wins the top rope battle with a Super Front Suplex, which looks better in your head than in practice. RUNNING LIGER BOMB!!! Ultimo Dragon vanquishes the upstart. Great Ace vs Upstart dynamic. The gulf between Dragon and Ohtani is not large at all, but this would have been the biggest win of Ohtani's career here. He wrestles like this is the biggest match of his life. He is just all over Dragon at the beginning and the way he shuts down La Magistral not once, but twice is great. The matwork was great. I loved how Dragon tried to turn into a flying contest and got bit. Nice run up by Ohtani and missing the Springboard dropkick was such a great "Oh shit not again" spot plus a great opening for Dragon and I loved that he pounced with LA MAGISTRAL! Dragon pouring it on in tight fashion only for Ohtani to have one last run, get his deadly combo and still come up short was fantastic, what a great reaction! I love that they are jockeying for position on the top rope and whoever wins this battle will win the match and Dragon is able to hit the front suplex enabling him to win with the Running Liger Bomb. I want to reward this match for being so damn tight and economical, but building such great drama and Ohtani giving one of the all-time character performances while Dragon provided his legendary status, big time offense and willingness to struggle to win. ****3/4

Ultimo Dragon vs Great Sasuke - J-Crown Tournament Finals I cant believe it has been five years since I have seen this. The two biggest non-New Japan Juniors take on one another for the biggest prize in junior heavyweight wrestling history. Unfortunately the match just does not live up to expectations. Of course, the biggest issue is that Sasuke basically powerbombs himself onto the concrete when he slips off the top turnbuckle and cracks his skull open. True to form, he no sells, hits a bodyslam and then misses a moonsault. See how can we expect people to sell worked moves when someone wont even sell their head being cracked open. So the finish is pretty abrupt, but before the finish it just felt like a big spotfest. It is Dragon and Sasuke without anyone to reign them in. I actually prefer their 2007 M-Pro match greatly to this because Sasuke wrestled his heart out in that one. In this one, there were so many resets with the Irish Whip and just felt very cooperative. There was some fun stuff with the dueling quebradas and then dueling Asai Moonsaults. Dragon's dive was great. Dragon's offense did look awesome. I know there were trying to go all out, but some semblance of struggle would have been nice. It is entertaining, but just does not have the gravitas a moment like this should. Of course, it sucks Sasuke seriously injured himself. I cant hate it too much because I like Ultimo Dragon's offense a lot. ***1/4