Jetlag

Very similiar to their 1998 bout altough I thought not close to as good. Norton once again played the dominant force in convincing fashion, but Nagata wasn't so plucky anymore. Basically Norton goes on this huge offensive tear to start, really beating Nagata up with fat powerbombs and shoulderbreakers, and then Nagata essentially no sells his way back to control, and then he keeps dropping bombs until Norton is done. So it's basically Norton hitting a bunch of moves while cutting Nagata off, then Nagata hitting a bunch of moves and then Nagata wins. Nagata has some fun offense as he really lays into Nortons barrel chest with kicks and does fun things like kneeing him in the back off the head to set up a submission. But in total Nagata didn't come across as plucky underdog but largely as a guy running through his moves.

Well, U-Style 8 (4/28/2004) was a weird and wonderful card. And it was fun to watch. Ito vs. Tattooed Kimura was a punishing match as both guys took turns grinding fists and forearms in the other guys face. Nothing great but mean dudes stiffing eachother in fun undercard matches is why I watch japanese pro wrestling. Space Monster Kimura vs Tanaka is another matchup that just plain works. You are never going to get well rounded pro wrestling from Koichiro Kimura, but he WILL bend the absolute fuck out of whoever he is facing with his awesome SAW style and I will always enjoy watching. Tanaka in U-Style is pretty unlikely and he doesn't show up again but he looks capable and pulls of some unlikely moves while looking outmatched making this a fun squash. Next debut wrestler is MAX Miyazawa who is Capture boy Nihao. He's been fighting in DEEP and actually doing decent so I guess he gets to be in U-Style, why the hell not. And he has a quite good match with Ueyama here which was slower and more methodical than your average U-Style match but good. Miyazawa looked good hanging with Ueyama and because he is from Capture he has no problem leaning his face right into a big Ueyama kick for the brutal finish. Hara/Crafter is another fine match with Crafter looking almost unstoppable no selling Haras throws until Hara lands the big german. Loved Hara celebrating that win. THEN Ichimiya shows up in his mock Shawn Michaels gear with kickpads and Namekawa looks like he is going to kill this joker. And well he does pretty much just that. Ichimiya makes a decent sumo rush and then pretty much gets outclassed. Faithful followers of my musings know Ichimiya actually can handle himself as he is also CAPTURE tested but getting destroyed like this was a nice way to make Namekawa look like a badass. Tamura/Okubo was basically a glorified squash making this the 3rd extremely one sided match on the show. Okubo is brave to stand and trade with Tamura but he just gets outclassed and has no chance on the mat. It looks like he either gassed or oversold about 5 minutes before the finish which took the heat out of the ending as all his attacks looked weak. Some interesting grappling from Tamura and his bully mannerisms where fun but this was Tamura in U-Style is Unbeatable to the max and this could've been a much better match. As far as the main event goes I've never been a big fan of Kakihara as I associate him with the mostly dull UWFi grappling and well this was largely mediocre shootstyle with only Kyosuke Sasaki adding some spice before an underwhelming finish. Not really a proper main event. Seems U-Style is on a downward curve.

This has a rep for being a 70s/80s throwback match involving two renowned japanese technicians. But it's really all about the close quarter fighting and Fujinami kicking the living hell out of his student. The psychology is great and Grade A material to demonstrate how top level workers would condition their audience. Exactly like you'd see in Fujinami/Inoki etc. Every move can lead to a finish or a deciding momentum swing, damage that you take is important, pin combos are finishers, positioning is important, etc. There is not a ton of matwork here, but they had a cool vibe going, as both guys would use the short arm scissor to weaken an arm and then go for an armbar and really crank back, there's also those great Nishimura bridges. Note how violent something like Nishimuras armbreakers feel. The core story comes in when Fujinami just dashes after a retreating Nishimura with low kicks in the corner. Fujinami going out of his way to sell a minuscule low kick in a big way is another example of great psychology. Some great close quarter fighting over Nishimura getting in the ring ensues, with his attempts to regain the advantage backfiring and him being forced to survive several Figure 4 attempts (with the pushing the leg back defense becoming IMPORTANT). The super basic finish may seem random and weird but I actually liked it if you consider Fujinami was a brittle old man at this point (as indicated by his selling and easy defeat earlier). The 2006 MOTY?

Super simple, intense affair between two of the greatest workers New Japan ever had. This works because New Japan booking conditions you that heavyweight matches can be fickle. Either of these guys can snap an arm or leg at anytime to decide the match. Fujinami is wary of Hashimoto early on, and prevents his assault for a moment by pushing him into the corner and decking him with lefts and rights, but soon Hashimoto goes after him like a demon. Fujinami just takes a monumental assbeating in this, as Hashimoto kicks him in the eye, in the face, in the back of the head, kicks him in the corner and then throws him back in the middle so he can kick him some more while he's down. In NJPW there's not always a „big comeback“ after a beatdown so fans buy the possibility that Hash may just beat Fujinami to death right there and win. Fujinami is a supreme seller when he wents to and you really buy the potential ref stoppage from his „holy shit I can't move“ state. Brutal stuff that draws you in, exactly the type of bout these two are so good at.

Super gritty match built around selling as is Hashimotos trademark. The layout was similiar to Hashimoto/Kawada, with Hashimoto having a bad leg and Chono having a bad shoulder. We get a hot opening exchange and this is really brutal from the get go. Hashimotos selling is so great that a simple kick from Chono to his leg immediately lets you know his vulnerability. Chono countering the DDT was pretty nice, other than that he was really average here and the main thing preventing the match from being GREAT. Hashimoto rules though, anytime he chops Chono he hits his shoulder with a thud. He also does the Fujiwara armbar with his legs counter which is double gritty because Hashimoto also flattens Chono with his weight doing that. Hashimoto judo throwing Chono on his injured shoulder was another highlight. It's all unusual, and really hurty looking. Hashimoto hitting the brainbuster with his leg giving out was top notch.

This was pretty much a BattlARTS style match. Saito represents karate but he is a pretty versatile worker, he can do stuff on the mat and he hits a huge suplex on Ishikawa. This was mostly Ishikawa outclassing his opponent on the mat and getting brutalized in return which is a match formula that works perfectly fine. And this was a nice showing from Saito too who was pretty underutilized in the 90s, he could've made a great addition to the BattlARTS roster or secondary guy in some big WAR/NJ tags.

This was an opening round match from some tag tournament and much better than you'd expect from an odd matchup placed like this on the card. Pretty much shootstyle throughout with the PWFG boys wearing wrestling shoes and representing PWFG. Dean looks very good rolling with Ishikawa, him showing that he trained with Joe and Carl is much better than 2 count rollup fest Dean Malenko. Ishizawa looks a total stud super explosive like he should've been the next Minoru Suzuki and not... well you know. Really intense exchanges when he decides to stomp on Funakis head and trade shotais with Ishikawa. Malenko and some awesome slick dropkicks, but he also didn't seem to know how to sell a kneebar. I also blame him for the underwhelming finish.

U-Style 7 (3/13/2004) was another decent card with no bad matches, altough lacking in a real standout like previous shows. Hara/Ueyama was a fine opener that could've made a great semi main event. It's all about those huge suplexes in the last 2 minutes or so. Ikemoto makes his debut and he looks like an MMA guy made for pro wrestling as he just loves trying all kinds of weird tricks and guard passes on Crafter. Mishima gets some good fire out of Okubo and Ito punishes the veteran Fuke good. Sakata/Kimura was good aswell, Kimura isn't the kind of worker to stand out in a big way against someone as dominant as Sakata, but the action is decent and the finishing run is really fun with Kimura pulling out some unlikely cool moves and Sakata just beating on him. The main event was probably the best match on the show with Sasaki being spunky and actually getting the better of Tamura on the ground early on. So Tamura picks him apart in methodical fashion using strikes and some grinding holds etc. all while keeping unbreakable posture. This was a Tamura match that really felt like the other guy was being knocked down a peg and couldn't do anything which hurt it a little. Sasakis bravado feels out of place in a shootstyle match and he got punished for it rightfully.

Pretty much a shootstyle lucha title match. They would mostly struggle over basic holds and really squeeze their headscissors, toeholds etc. I love the nice crowd ovations for basic moves like a single leg takedown in the 1st fall. The pacing was like an UWF main event with lots of struggling, grinding holds, and the occasional explosion with a slick move. Casas doesn't play nice at all and would repeatedly brutalize Santito with stomps, dropkicks, kicking in the ropes etc. Not to mention that knee to the balls. The repeated headscissor spots are GREAT and they build to that classic beautiful sequence. Casas is really entertaining to watch at coming up with various escapes and holds on the spot but Hijo del Santo is the better technician, so Casas ends up forced to bail to the floor again and again, which eventually comes back to bite him when Santito connects a dropkick and wipes him out with a huge dive. Anytime Santo attempts the Camel Clutch or Surfboard Hold Casas would fight desperately to escape, which culminates in one of the most natural inventive spots I've ever seen when they do a rolling Tapatia. There is some rope running, but they keep going back to the mat and emphasize the importance of the mat stuff. When Casas foolishly tries to ground Santito again he ends up almost getting tapped with the Camel Clutch, he even hits a deadlift german suplex in the middle of a mat exchange. I loved the tenacious sleeper attempts in the 3rd fall altough the finish itself left me slightly underwhelmed. Wonderful match regardless.

cad:

The 6th U-Style (2/14/2004) had 3 very good undercard matches. Crafter-M is such a nice breath of fresh air in U-Style, a promotion which has entirely too many kickpadded shooters. His grappling-only approach makes things a lot more interesting. Kyosuke Sasaki hangs fine with him and we get a ton of super slick, polished shootstyle matwork. Sasaki is undersized but he has a good standing in U-Style and him doing battle with the masked grappler was a nice even matchup though a little lacking in fire as neither guy is super expressive. Hara/Mishima was much richer in that department while still having great technique. Mishima gets to look like a badass stretching out Hara with all his crazy moves sending him running for the ropes. Really good shootstyle grappling in that bout and some great desperation moves from Hara who goes balls out with the suplexes. Pretty much the perfect undercard U-Style bout. Ueyama/Okubo is mainly Ueyama demolishing the young boy with palms and fists. Ueyama is a spectular worker and he gets the impossibly bland Okubo to show some fire and fight back, culminating in some really nice nearfalls and reversals and a cool finish. The opener had Ito brutalizing Moriyama in a not super impressive match and the semi main event was unfortunately nothing much at all. The main event is of course a classic and holds up on rewatch. Go watch that now.

I'm in.

Show #5 (12/9/2003) came out with a watchable undercard that was more about the curious rather than the actively good. The mysterious CRAFTER M comes out and engages in some very good exchanges with the befuddled Manabu Hara but ends up winning quite decisively. No less befuddling is the random appearance of future Kings Road imitator Kazushi Miyamoto in an amusing match. Namekawa/Ito was quite scrappy and stiff but ends rather abruptly. Especially liked the nasty leg kicks. The same goes for Ueyama/Mishima which hints at a really great match but ends in about 5 minutes with Mishima targetting Ueyamas bad leg. Sakata/Sasaki was going for a similiar vibe as Sakata/Ito from June. Methodical shootstyle matwork with building intensity that mostly came from Sakata punishing Sasaki with those heavy hands. Lots of knuckle grinding too. Would've been a very good match with a slightly more exciting finish. The main event was just a great match with tremendous intensity and sense of danger. Fujii had destroyed everyone up to this point and Tamura sold him as a legit threat, fighting like mad to escape his German Suplex of doom. Some great standup from Tamura and Fujii came across as a bull rushing through with his power. Loved him just picking up a clearly resistant Tamura for the waterwheel drop. About as good as a fully developed 7 minute epic as you can have.

Do yourself a favour and make it a priority to watch this match asap. Literally one of the most awesome brutal spectacles I've ever seen. It starts out with Tenryu chopping Kabuki in the throat in the middle of an exchange, leaving him suffocating on his back, which sets the tone nicely. The early Orihara sections were pretty fun, as every couple minutes he would try something stupid and get punished swiftly. Kabuki & Kitahara end up putting a massive assbeating on him. Kitahara looks like such a killer in this match, just walloping everyone with kicks left and right and dealing them kicks to the eye and the skull, and Kabuki looks great aswell, dishing out extra mean punches and kicks. It also helps that you can really whip Orihara around, he would eat a neckbreaker and his head would just bounce off the mat. Oriharas initial comeback was pretty much perfect as he ditches his junior offense and just tees off with reckless kicks. Later he would hit these great looking dives. His springboard crossbody is an example of a perfectly timed highspot. Tenryu wasn't in the match a ton but he would occasionally walk in and remind you who he his. Earlier Kabuki had blindsided him so, after he Orihara hit a dive and left Kabuki prone outside Tenryu would casually stroll over and clock him with a chair. It's these kind of moments that help make this sort of match so much more intense. Tenryu going mad with the pre-PRIDE soccer kicks, not letting off and leaving Kitahara bloodied is why he's Top 5 all time. Note how he would also put over his opponents, with Kitahara almost KO'ing him and Kabuki pretty much beating him silly with the punches and super kicks. What a fucking match, I wouldn't be shocked if this ends up in my All Time Top 10 as far as tags go.

Absolutely brutal, blood drenched spectacle. The early going sees Kitahara establishing himself as a dangerous striker by chasing Ishikawa around some with his kicks. Ishikawa makes the mistake of running the ropes and gets brained with a high kick. To add insult to injury, Kitahara puts him in the Scorpion Deathlock (something Ishikawa used to do to piss off Choshu himself). Pretty stiff opening, but it's tame compared to what's to come. Ishikawa gets the advantage when he hits his great sumo charging shoulderblock. Soon Ishikawa goes to town on Kitaharas bandaged eye, hitting some punches that felt like they were intended to draw hardway blood. Ishikawa proceeds to just demolish Kitahara with some of the most brutal stomps, punches and kicks ever filmed. Kitahara is someone who can both dish out a beating and sell very well, and soon he is limping around with his vision clearly impaired like a beaten dog. The ending run is actually pretty hot with Kitahara making a big comeback kicking Ishikawa in the face repeatedly and hitting a huge moonsault aswell as narrowly avoiding a dangerous piledriver. However he soon falls to Ishikawas swatting lariats and gets brutalized even worse with PRIDE level stomps and knees. The finish felt like something that should happen in more matches. Brutal brutal match.

Slow paced match, but I'd say there's enough of two tubby guys cracking eachother hard to keep this entertaining. The early exchanges here are pretty fun as obviously these two work really snug, and Ishikawa also hits the worlds greatest plancha early on. There were also some nasty suplex bumps from these big guys. The submission stuff was filler, but it lead to a transition. Both guys would use these nasty short kicks, very pro wrestling style, looks hurty and nobody really does those anymore. By the end this gets pretty epic with Ashura Hara selling the beating he took huge. He would hit a suplex, but be unable to continue because he was too beaten up. So he would just rely on Ishikawa coming too close and then brutally clock him with lariats and headbutts. Obviously there are lots of great lariats in this bout. Hara launching himself around ruled including just flying out of the ring, totally unexpected and looked great. This largely worked because it was built around Ishikawa being really great at brutalizing someone and Hara being really great at putting over a beating. Credible finish. This kind of „bloated guys stiffing eachother“ has become en vogue again recently with the BJW roidheads and WALTER so forth but I'd say this was better than 99% of those matches.

Only a 6 minute match where the ref blows the finish, but I'd still say this is must watch due to a sick bladejob and it's basically two big bellied stocky guys slapping the shit out of eachother. There really needs to be more Black Cat footage as his strap drop and punch comeback was quite epic. Kurisus chair shots, headbutts, punches etc. are up there with the most violent in history. Kurisu making his way to the ropes doing pushups while in the Scorpion Hold looked rough for a semi in shape middle aged guy.

Show #5 (12/9/2003) came out with a watchable undercard that was more about the curious rather than the actively good. The mysterious CRAFTER M comes out and engages in some very good exchanges with the befuddled Manabu Hara but ends up winning quite decisively. No less befuddling is the random appearance of future Kings Road imitator Kazushi Miyamoto in an amusing match. Namekawa/Ito was quite scrappy and stiff but ends rather abruptly. Especially liked the nasty leg kicks. The same goes for Ueyama/Mishima which hints at a really great match but ends in about 5 minutes with Mishima targetting Ueyamas bad leg. Sakata/Sasaki was going for a similiar vibe as Sakata/Ito from June. Methodical shootstyle matwork with building intensity that mostly came from Sakata punishing Sasaki with those heavy hands. Lots of knuckle grinding too. Would've been a very good match with a slightly more exciting finish. The main event was just a great match with tremendous intensity and sense of danger. Fujii had destroyed everyone up to this point and Tamura sold him as a legit threat, fighting like mad to escape his German Suplex of doom. Some great standup from Tamura and Fujii came across as a bull rushing through with his power. Loved him just picking up a clearly resistant Tamura for the waterwheel drop. About as good as a fully developed 7 minute epic as you can have.

Weird and wonderful spectacle. They start out wrestling straight, with lots of cool amateur style grappling. Saito gets the advantage when he looks in his awesome Prison Lock. He continues focussing on Inokis legs, with Inoki resisting against the Scorpion Deathlock with all his might. Saito proceeds to take a few pages out of Choshus playbook and destroys Inoki with lariats, backdrops and Scorpion holds. Inoki looks badly beaten up and is seemingly done, so Saito proceeds to punish him some more by dropping him crotch first on the ropes. This humiliation wakes up Inoki again, he catches Saito with the abisegiri. Now things get really whack as Inoki has the ropes removed (he is the boss after all) and starts beating down Saito. A brutal posting later and Saito is gushing blood and eating punches and Ezugiris left and right. Sneaky Hiroshi Hase who is seconding Saito hands hima pair of handcuffs and he and Inoki are chained together. The good times don't last long for Masa Saito though as Inoki is soon back to brutally beating him down with punches, headbutts and elbows. Both guys are coated in blood by now and Inoki is pounding away at a motionless Masa Saito until Hase throws in the towel. Quite the epic spectacle as this was a mix of quality wrestling and a violent bloodbath, altough the handcuff/rope removal stuff felt a little forced.

Insanely tight matwork in this contest. While there's not a lot of spectacular moves, they really make up for it by working every exchange with maximum resistance and caution. Really sinking into hammerlocks or yanking at the leg. I liked how Fujinami didn't lose his cool in this one when he got slapped. The rope running and strike exchanges feel really frantic and dangerous. A double dropkick spot actually comes across as cool!! It builds to an epic last third with awesome blood, dives, one of the most brutal piledrivers ever, great momentum swings etc. I know a long grappling heavy between two guys in black tights is tough to get into but this is potentially the greatest junior match of the 80s.

The 3rd show (6/29/2003) comes with the usual decent undercard action with nothing in particular standing out but the last 3 matches are the good stuff. Sasaki/Mishima is pretty much your workrate shootstyle done right, innovative athlete vs. Decent little guy is guaranteed to be something and this was slick and smooth with plenty of cool moments while feeling thoroughly competitive. Mishima feels way ahead of the curve but Sasaki manages to be actually competitive with him and lasts up until the last point. Last couple exchanges were pretty intense. Probably would have been a great match if Kyosuke Sasaki was a little better at selling his near defeat. Then Ito/Sakata is just something else as Sakata had found his personality when beating Okubo with his fists on the last show. Starts out intense from the get go with some hard shotais. They then move through some methodical matwork and soon the hands start flying again cranking up the intensity. Knuckles grinding in the face, kidney punches, Sakata just slapping Ito silly with palms and Ito getting really fired up. Really great nearfalls near the end which are all made by Itos body language, I also liked how Sakata almost seemed flustered when Ito would start gaining the advantage or prevent a move. Great stuff. The main event was a really great quasi-squash with Fuke coming out swinging wildly only to get outclassed and destroyed by calm superior Tamura. This is how an ace behaves. Show Nr. 4 in the U-Style catalogue (10/6/2003) was really fun even without the established guys. You had squash machine Fujii getting in troube for the first time, with Echigo showing lots of spunk and rushing him to actually put him in peril here and there, and everyone else showing lots of promise. Hara/Okubo was a really cool, lengthy match that never dragged. Hara seemed to be leading the dance early on, teasing his german suplex, but Okubo got fired up and the crowd got behind him big time throughout the bout. Probably the most color he has shown in U-Style so far. Slick grappling throughout and they deliver a hot finish with the time running out as Okubo tries for an armbar. They do a restart and go for broke. Ito/Ueyama was a really interesting match. You had Ueyama, who is a really explosive worker, dominating early on, landing this awesome shotai/body shot combo in the corner and getting the advantage on the mat. So Ito stomps on his face and gets a yellow card and thinks „well might as well“ and starts kicking the hell out of Ueyamas bandaged leg. He even punches at the leg on the ground. Ueyama starts limping and getting more cautious while fighting back valiantly resulting in some tense moments with the finish being a standout. Pretty unique stuff for a shootstyle bout that worked extremely well. The other matches were fun too with the finals being a frantic scramble that felt like it had a lot at stake and could work anytime. Really cool show which elevates everyone involved. Actually, Ueyama was out of points, so grabbing the ropes would have done nothing. He simply refused to tap and the referee stopped the bout. Very good finish.

Kitahara/Kawauchi was basically just a gritty uncooperative streetfight. Kawauchi was more aggressive and overzealous here so Kitahara just absolutely beat his ass in between taunting him. Short but good stuff that the fans got really into and I hope this isn't the last I see of Capture International. 

Kitahara/Kurashima was a nifty little battle. Kurashima is naturally at home on the mat and Kitahara is actually willing to work the mat against him. However Kitahara has the advantage because he is a bastard. Kitahara brutally kicks him in the jaw while exchanging leglocks and follows with more boots to the face. Kurashima makes some desperation takedown attempts until Kitahara catches (captures) him for the tap.

Johta/Mineno was another rounds match only this time they had MMA gloves. Why the rounds? Hey, look these ring girls (mat girls?) are totally HOT! They got Capture International style bikinis!!! The match was really good as these two just kick the hell out of eachother and also have good grappling and throws. Basically the worlds greatest worked Shooto. It works because there's no back and forth strike trading, just two guys throwing and evading really fast and aggressively. Little premature ending as this was only half as long as their boxing gloves match, but the finish was pretty damn brutal so what the hell.

Oh but this match is a goodie. You have Tomohiro Ishii pre-Choshuism and CAPTURE boy since the beginning, aswell as the unseen should-have-been-a-star DAISAKU (Shimoda) and his twin brother YUSAKU (Shimoda and half a dozen other names) rocking the gloves and ready to throw down. I'll never understand what motivates these indy guys to get punched in the face in a basement in front of 70 people but I'll always enjoy watching. This goes about 6 minutes and it's basically all 4 guys kicking the crap out of eachother. Really liked the lumpy boys who like to kick hard sections between Ishii and YUSAKU and the attempted fraticide between YUSAKU and DAISAKU was pretty brutal aswell. Daisaku has some huge kicks and thai knees while Yusaku sticks to more traditional pro wrestling stuff punches and knees stuff executed with a CAPTURE sized vicious streak. Also really liked Ishii in his Kawada wannabe tights flying at Kitahara with huge kicks. By no means is this intelligent or well rounded pro wrestling, it's arguably shootstyle in it's most primitive form, and that's why I love it and want to see every single match in this style ever done. So Kitahara if you're reading this there's someone who cares, and Kitahara's neighbours if you are reading this please break into his garage and steal all his VHS tapes for us and don't get spin kicked in the face doing that.