Jetlag

Well, there was a 4 way match between Black Terry, Dr. Cerebro and Gringos Locos VIP back in 2010 that was really good. It was basically worked like a 2 vs. 2 match, but I guess it still counts as a lucha multiman cage. And there was that DVDVR list barbedwire cagematch from Tijuana around 2000, never seen it though.

It's a slow paced AJPW undercard match with a lot of matwork. Pretty cool eh? Sano is a guy you don't know what to expect from here as he is in between UWFi, KINGDOM, BattlARTS and Michinoku Pro, but he rocks the shootstyle here. Some really cool matwork involving him and Smith which had that clash of styles feel. Smith isn't a guy who does a ton for me but to his credit he sold the fuck out of Sanos kicks and knees and looked like he was struggling with all his might here. Really good moment when Sano was destroying Smith in the corner with kicks and Smith goes for a front headlock only to be taken down easily. Tornado is Richard Slinger in a goofy mask and he looked good here grappling and throwing kicks, did not look so good trying to take a huracanrana. Fuchi is obviously still very good at this point but doesn't go full bore aside from a cool pin.

One of the less technical T2P matches, but there are still a handful of holds shown here that you won't see anywhere else. This was actually made fun by both guys having a ship on their shoulder and punting eachother hard between all the moves. Owashi is all sorts of fun her like a mini Taue with nifty power offense. I prefer this type of short match with a couple big moves over a drawn out 25 minute epic.

The constant clipping was really annoying, but you still get a pretty fun match here. Essentially Milano absolutely dominates Saito with his whacky holds and Saito has to find ways to fight back. Saito was a little on the bland side here, altough he sold fine and had a nice german suplex, while Milano looked like a star. Especially liked his big abisegiri right before finishing off his opponent which was a very japanese touch as opposed to the more hybrid style that T2P was using.

Whacky Dragon System name changes tricked me into writing another review for this, for posterity: Much of T2P was basically thrown together ideas for cool moves and sequences. That was felt strongly here, altough the match had a solid structure. You get the initial matwork sections, then a stretch of Yasshi and Yossino working heelishly and hitting a variety of double team moves before a hot ending run. Pretty simple formula but it works fine. My favourite section here was probably the Yossino/Mori hold exchanges which felt like the lucharesu equivalent of two fired up U-Style guys going at it on the mat. Really slick and fast movements. Double teams were cool and the finishing run had some cool, some slightly wonky stuff. It didn't help that this had a whole 7 minutes clipped from it. Still, a nice showing, and probably the most inspied brother YASSHI performance ever.

Jaguar had a match in Wrestle-1 earlier this year where she hit some sharp looking spin kicks. She's been working consistently the last couple years, but hasn't made tape much for such a legendary wrestler.

Pudgy mulleted japanese guys beat the fuck out of eachother for your entertainment. Tatsuo Nakano is just the master of this kind of brutal under 10 minutes brawl, and Kitahara is Kitahara. Starts out with a pretty intense scramble to the outside. Nakano of course gets a bloody nose, hard to see where, so he gets up and fucking breaks Kitaharas nose with a knee of his own. I was surprised he may have out-stiffed Kitahara in this one. Kitahara does throw one absolutely disgusting leg kick though which Nakano sold accordingly great. Short and intense but you already knew that.

Yamazaki at this point was honestly a kind of dull worker. That does not matter though because Tatsuo Nakano is here to kick his ass. Anytime Nakano gets close he is battering Yamazaki with headbutts. At some point during the early grappling Nakano gets a bloody nose and then blows the blood from his nose during a leglock. Yamazaki DOES kick Nakano like a dog at one point but largely looks overwhelmed. Nakano even slaps him like a bitch after hitting a suplex. Nakano nearfalls were awesome and the crowd went nuts for him, easy Yamazaki finish not so much.

This was fine. I'm not a huge fan of shootstyle matches with a ton of leglocks, altough Fujiwara is one of the few wrestlers who can make it somewhat interesting. He basically outclassed Yamazaki here with amazing fast submissions and counters left and right. When Yamazaki finally starts to unwind it's somewhat pedestrian as he's reluctantly beating on Fujiwara with elbows and knees in the ropes. Though I did love the little kick he belted Fujiwara with when he went down, a nice touch of taking out built up frustration. Fujiwara blasts him with those awesome body shots though a seemingly punch drunk Yamazaki hits a lucky suplex and quickly puts the old man away for great reaction. Parts of this were great but the overall structure and Yamazaki being Yamazaki didn't draw me in as much as it possibly could've had.

Big megastar vs. Pudgy short jobber. Nakano doesn't care though and uses Maeda as his punching bag with awesome kicks, punches and headbutts. The first minute or so is slow but this quickly picks up with brawling. Maeda looked pretty badass putting the little fucker away too.

This is one of my favourite UWF matchups. Even young Minoru Suzuki is best as a dickhead beating someone down, and Nakano is just a pitbull. And they maul eachother something fierce here. There is some intense grappling, with veteran Nakano mostly dominating early through sheer tenacity. Suzuki would hit a big fireman carry only for Nakano to keep controlling him. There is an awesome leglock battle leading to a really intense nearfall for a single leg crab. After he had bruised Suzukis face with kicks on the ground, Nakano would wrench his face further with a nasty facelock. Obviously the highlight here are Suzukis out of the this world brutal stomps and kneedrops. The shootstyle Gotch Piledriver was just amazing aswell as Nakano wasn't willing to take that at all and lowered his weight only for Suzuki to pick him up. Loved Suzuki getting fired up to a huge crowd pop after the low blow. Finish is something very rare for shootstyle but executed about as believably as you can. Just really intense brutal wrestling, great moment after great moment that the crowd loved.

Fujiwara gets a really good match out of Takada, Film at 11. Opening grappling was basic but really entertaining due to the sheer resistance. Anytime Takada would go for a throw Fujiwara would pull back hard. Plenty of neat Fujiwara moments. People know he's the master of the submission counter, but I also really dug his counter hip toss. There was also one really fast legsweep. The parts were they stand up and punish eachother are pretty great. Fujiwara bitch slapping Takada in the middle of uncooperative shootstyle exchanges is what pro wrestling is all about. Later Takada is unloading barrages of kicks and slaps only for Fujiwara to come charging through and clock him with his cranium. Very memorable finish. I actually would have liked this to stretch out and go a little longer though considering Takada has a tendency to blow up this was for the better.

Now this is it. Primitive shootstyle with no 10 counts, but everything that makes the style great is already here. Snug, tightly worked, uncooperative and unpredictable pro wrestling, everything counts, and when somebody gets you in a hold you better scramble like mad to get out of there. Sayama looks like the coolest man to ever live here with the lightning fast, credible spin kicks and athletic mat escapes and shootstyle sentons and whatnot. The match is rough around the edges in part, but it never drags and the crowd is absolute white hot for these two killing eachother. Maeda isn't overly expressive, but he keeps it moving on the mat and when he clocks you with a big spin kick it's extra cool because he is huge. I don't get the criticism, that crossarmbreaker can and will end the match so it makes sense to go for it at any chance. Formative work that holds up extremely well today.

I finally watched Backlund/Hart. Wow, WWF had matches like this? Backlund did all this awesome shit, twirling around Bret a bunch and getting cool pin attempts. Bret didn't do a ton and I thought the match ended prematurely but watching Backlund step up and be awesome randomly on TV is something else.

The INA has uploaded some wrestling on YouTube, giving some hope there is more to come. They labelled this video as "Inca Viracocha vs. Mr. Montreal" (a match where only 3 minutes are shown) and mispelt Caclards name, so I'm not sure they know what a mountain of greatness they are sitting on, but everytime a match like this gets uploaded is like finding 20 $ on the street. This goes about 35 minutes and is a total wresting clinic, just an absolutely bonkers match. Sanniez & Caclard I've loved before and they look like an all time great heel duo. Just really dedicated stooges who will take every bump in the book (Sanniez at one point just does this huge no water in the pool plunge into the ring, and Caclard flies into a ringside table), and when it's time to kick ass they will punt the shit out of their opponents. Aside from the crazy fast standing exchanges, awesome weird ranas, flips and european uppercuts, there was some brainy hold for hold work with really complex reversals/one upmanship sequences and a few smart spots. Highlights include an awesome Rocca deadlift suplex from the ground, Caclard making use of the proto-Powerbomb, Hassouni busting out these great Johnny Kidd spots and Sanniez using a flying kick that was like something Tamura would do. It made me think french guys may be the best sprint workers of all time, because they basically start fast and then just keep going and going without letting up, and even picking up the pace by the end with the heels flying everywhere and Roger Delaporte whacking Caclard for good measure. All the time there was never a filler half crab or sitting in a hold. It really makes you go Fuck a Manami Toyota and 90s AJPW, this stuff is the real athletic peak of wrestling.

The first 10 minutes are very stiff but also very bland. I'm just tired of seeing shit like Nomura just plain allowing Okabayashi to go back on offense. Okayabashi is such a simplistic wrestler and Nomura doesn't show any of his cool flashes until later. It gets good once Nomura counters a torture rack attempt by locking on a crucifix and then trying to push Okabayashis nose into his brain. The armwork actually becomes a little more hard fought and they deliver some sick strike exchanges, including Nomura just punching Okabayashi in the jaw. Nomura restores my faith in him by busting out an awesome Firemans Carry. The armwork felt slightly goofy.

@C.S.

Watched and reviewed the match I was given. Was pretty fun. When's the next round?

Really entertaining match which is made by NO FEAR stepping up and putting the boots to those BURNING pretty boys. No Fear were really coming into their own at this point and they did a good job here roughing up and cutting off BURNING in a lean match that was basically a sprint by All Japan standards. Takayama was starting to feel it in 1999 and he looked awesome running through everyone with massive knees and strikes. Dug the use of the AXE BOMBER~! Add a couple fun moments of Kobashi going angry bear and NO FEAR getting credible nearfalls and you have a really cool little match.

For nintendologic: Charles Lucero vs. Epydemius, 3/3/2019 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V578fVX0MrI

I am up for this.

Fun CAPTURE-esque spectacle. All the strikes were just brutal and the shootstyle floor brawling a suitably crazy moment. I wasn't sure how Toba would work in this kind of main event singles match but the whole thing comes out fine. He certainly knows how to throw that spinning backfist as an exclamation point. Sasaki muscling Toba around to drop him on his head was suitably gritty. Stiff as fuck brawl, DDT should go back to this stuff.