Jetlag

This was an evenly matched 6 man tag sprint, so naturally it was good. Each team had a kickpadded vixen (Saito/Kazama), a somewhat nondescript young talent (Handa/Kitamura) and a heavyweight monster (Devil/Kansai). Altough they switched the pairings up constantly. The matchups weren't quite stretched out and there wasn't a big conclusion so it's below your higher tier of JWP tags, altough you had your usual goodness, stiff kicks and occasional clever spots. The highlight was easily the Masami/Kansai pairing. Devil had one of her better days and went the full mile here. She has the kind of commanding presence a 3 vs 3 tag needs and her performance here made me think she would kill it in Arena Mexico. Engaging the crowd through her mannerisms, bumping big and dishing out the big blows when it counts. There were also some brief Saito/Kazama exchanges and while Saito looked good it felt like a rehash from their previous matches and very brief. This was the kind of solid cruise control tag they could have in their sleep worth watching for Devil Masami giving the kind of performance that proves she still had some left in the tank by 1991.

A chance to see the lesser featured Osawa & Koganei stretch out and do stuff. Match wasn't bad at all and had it's moments but was more than a hair below the upper tier of JWP tags. Osawa wears the kickpads but aside from a hard kick or two looked noticably less polished than her peers. Koganei was fun and spunky. Osawa & Koganei did some heel tactics – biting, cut play etc but they didn't run it into the ground. Match was worked like your usual JWP tag – constant back and forth with the moves getting bigger and the occasional half crab. Nothing super compelling especially with all 4 being limited on offense (lots of flying clotheslines and crossbodies) and the match needed someone to really push it. I did really like the flying legbars from Plum. I imagine this kind of match would've gotten more play back then. The opening exchange was quite flippy and you had your usual barrage of great looking suplexes and the occasional cool double team.

Borderline excellent character driven tag. This matchup really tells the story by itself, but I give them credit for going the extra mile and really emphasizing the dynamic constantly. You had Fukuoka, the non descript little mouse teaming with the juggernaut that is Devil Masami. So Yamazaki & Cuty are basically pushing Fukuoka, but when Masami comes in she dominates. Yamazaki & Cuty trying to outwrestle Devil and bouncing off of her is all kinds of fun (including Yamazaki hitting maybe the most logical sunset flip in history on Devil) and because Fukuoka is dependant on her partner to survive you get that constant intensity and nifty help spots. Yamazaki really shines in JWP because not only can she wrestle she adds a ton of character without being overly theatric. I've talked about Cuty resembling Arn Anderson and I was getting some dismissive Anderson Bros vibes from her team in how they threated Fukuoka, there was also some really nice armwringer work from Cuty altough she didn't go full bore like in her Scorpion matches. At one point Yamazaki just kicks Fukuoka in the mouth. When Fukuoka puts her in the Boston Crab it feels like a big moment and I love a match that makes me care about a Boston Crab. There was also an ultra gnarly piledriver which is sold like a fucking piledriver so that ruled too. Match didn't have a grand finishing run but there was absolutely no reason for this to go all epic. We do get the absolutely devastating Gorilla Press from Masami aswell as some fat powerbombs and another nasty dropkick finish. Cool character work and cool wrestling, this is what makes old JWP so worthwhile.

It's been a while gentlemen. But old JWP STILL rules! " JWP '91 First Half Best Match Collection Tag Match Volume " Miss A & Harley Saito vs. Rumi Kazama & Mayumi Ozaki (JWP 4/23/1991) Fun, fun showcase tag between the kickpadded JWP asskickers and the catsuited Ozaki/Kazama pair. This was structured and paced like a BattlARTS match into a joshi match. You would get thudding kicks and big suplexes interspersed with brief matwork and then a big 2,99999 run full of exciting twists and turns. There were little antics with the exception of Ozaki & Kazama running in to kick someone in the head once or twice to break up a submission, which is what I guess their idea of a title match was. I'm really curious to know what joshi purists think of this stuff. It's not typical joshi sprint work, but it's far from US/japanese mens style tag wrestling aswell. The body of the match was back and forth exchanges until the nearfalls got closer and the moves bigger and the action a little more frantic. Some might call it mindless but I thought the action delivered and the finishing run had some cutoffs and tricks that were right on the money proving they were using their brains. There was also one sequence between Kazama and Harley that was cooler than anything you think Kazama can pull off. Saito looked great as usual brutalizing her opponents with kicks, knees and elbows and Kansai is of course a juggernaut. Even Ozaki was laying it in, hitting possibly the most gritty dropkick ever aswell as taking a hideous lariat. At this point maybe I actually prefer this more subtle version of Ozaki. Pink Cadillac & Mayumi Ozaki & Yukari Osawa vs. Cuty Suzuki & Miki Handa & Utako Hozumi (JWP 6/20/1991) Ooof. There's no reason to work hard in a Pink Cadillac match and the only thing you need to know about this match is that they understood this too. I guess some of the 3 on 1 spots would be sort of amusing for some. Mami Kitamura & Rumi Kazama & Devil Masami vs. Miki Handa & Miss A & Harley Saito (JWP 6/21/1991) This was an evenly matched 6 man tag sprint, so naturally it was good. Each team had a kickpadded vixen (Saito/Kazama), a somewhat nondescript young talent (Handa/Kitamura) and a heavyweight monster (Devil/Kansai). Altough they switched the pairings up constantly. The matchups weren't quite stretched out and there wasn't a big conclusion so it's below your higher tier of JWP tags, altough you had your usual goodness, stiff kicks and occasional clever spots. The highlight was easily the Masami/Kansai pairing. Devil had one of her better days and went the full mile here. She has the kind of commanding presence a 3 vs 3 tag needs and her performance here made me think she would kill it in Arena Mexico. Engaging the crowd through her mannerisms, bumping big and dishing out the big blows when it counts. There were also some brief Saito/Kazama exchanges and while Saito looked good it felt like a rehash from their previous matches and very brief. This was the kind of solid cruise control tag they could have in their sleep worth watching for Devil Masami giving the kind of performance that proves she still had some left in the tank by 1991. Devil Masami & Hikari Fukuoka vs. Itsuki Yamazaki & Cuty Suzuki (JWP 5/25/1991) Borderline excellent character driven tag. This matchup really tells the story by itself, but I give them credit for going the extra mile and really emphasizing the dynamic constantly. You had Fukuoka, the non descript little mouse teaming with the juggernaut that is Devil Masami. So Yamazaki & Cuty are basically pushing Fukuoka, but when Masami comes in she dominates. Yamazaki & Cuty trying to outwrestle Devil and bouncing off of her is all kinds of fun (including Yamazaki hitting maybe the most logical sunset flip in history on Devil) and because Fukuoka is dependant on her partner to survive you get that constant intensity and nifty help spots. Yamazaki really shines in JWP because not only can she wrestle she adds a ton of character without being overly theatric. I've talked about Cuty resembling Arn Anderson and I was getting some dismissive Anderson Bros vibes from her team in how they threated Fukuoka, there was also some really nice armwringer work from Cuty altough she didn't go full bore like in her Scorpion matches. At one point Yamazaki just kicks Fukuoka in the mouth. When Fukuoka puts her in the Boston Crab it feels like a big moment and I love a match that makes me care about a Boston Crab. There was also an ultra gnarly piledriver which is sold like a fucking piledriver so that ruled too. Match didn't have a grand finishing run but there was absolutely no reason for this to go all epic. We do get the absolutely devastating Gorilla Press from Masami aswell as some fat powerbombs and another nasty dropkick finish. Cool character work and cool wrestling, this is what makes old JWP so worthwhile. Cuty Suzuki & Plum Mariko vs. Yukari Osawa & Sachiko Koganei (JWP 6/30/1991) A chance to see the lesser featured Osawa & Koganei stretch out and do stuff. Match wasn't bad at all and had it's moments but was more than a hair below the upper tier of JWP tags. Osawa wears the kickpads but aside from a hard kick or two looked noticably less polished than her peers. Koganei was fun and spunky. Osawa & Koganei did some heel tactics – biting, cut play etc but they didn't run it into the ground. Match was worked like your usual JWP tag – constant back and forth with the moves getting bigger and the occasional half crab. Nothing super compelling especially with all 4 being limited on offense (lots of flying clotheslines and crossbodies) and the match needed someone to really push it. I did really like the flying legbars from Plum. I imagine this kind of match would've gotten more play back then. The opening exchange was quite flippy and you had your usual barrage of great looking suplexes and the occasional cool double team. There you go, 4 good matches on this tape. Now I wonder where is the Best Match Collection for the SECOND half of 1991??

The matches in this feud are total bullshit, but they all rule. Heat mongering, some filler work, couple high spots in between, tease a finish, and repeat. It's timelessly simple and it WORKS! Because this is the mid 80s you get all kinds of solid offense from everyone, big firemans carry, snug back elbows, huge back body drops and so on. Ishikawa deliberately pisses off Choshu and is rewarded with a lariat that has his body growing stiff! Tenryu gets knocked down a couple pegs! The lariat that ends the match is pretty much the most brutal thing. Not the tightest match you'll ever see, but it just plain works.

What the hell are all those guys that Goldberg comes to the ring with good for, anyways? The Outsiders assault Goldberg before the match and Sid comes after him, but he ends up busted open himself soon anyways. Sid tries to make a rally but Goldberg makes minced meat out of him pounding the cut with punches and elbows. Sid looks pretty great selling the blood and trying to make a comeback by pounding Goldberg with big boots and punches. Eventually Sid is done for though and the ref stops the match. The ref stop is not a common US finish but with Goldberg looking at the ref and being reluctant to beat Sid further it felt this was building to a ref stop. Sort of NJPW type match but with WCW going off the rails it was merely a hint at what kind of epics they could have produced.

JIP to the HOT DEAFENINGLY HEATED ACTION! This ain't your Granddaddys AJPW anymore as Choshus decision to stick to his 2 moves brings the constant threat of a finish. No more restholds, just 4 lumpy guys getting in and throwing eachother around hard! Surely old Okuma hits some great looking headbutts! Tenryu kicks Choshu in the eye! Hamaguchi is such a tank, and also he FLIES over the top rope like a madman. Hamaguchi comes up bloodied and suddenly you don't know who's the loss post anymore. Tenryu looks almost offended when Choshu clocks him with the dreaded lariat! Losing man gets totally destroyed for the finish! This was a bag of fun and a great introduction to the Choshuism that would sweep All Japan that year.

When you see this matchup, happening in IWRG in 2010, filmed by Black Terry Jr, you know what you're getting. Tons of matwork and fun character dynamics. You get Navarro/Solar in their eternal struggle, Zatura, a really good guy who got lost in the shuffle looking really good, and Cerebro stalking Suicida and acting like a dickhead. Terry and Zatura get to stretch out in a pretty great mat section and Zatura shows off all his wonky cross heel hooks and what not, then Cerebro starts superkicking and punching people before Suicida hits a crazy tope. Things get more intense in the last two falls but they keep to hitting the mat, which is what you want. Cerebro looks great with his crazy holds too, but that's nothing new. For any other 6 workers of the current independent scene a trios like this would be a great achievement, but for these guys it was Thursday.

I've noticed it in Motegi matches, and it was also the case here: 90s junior wrestling was far more unpredictable and fun. Basically any exchange could lead into a crazy dive out of nowhere. When they work the mat, they work almost quasi-shootstyle. Sasuke nearly dislocates TAKA's ankle, and TAKA kicks him in the face for good measure. Later, Sasuke catches a flying TAKA with a kick and then pummels his kidney with punches. Obviously TAKAs athleticism is blowaway great, but I also loved how tightly this was worked. Check out how tight Sasuke cradled him following a moonsault. This is how you make your wrestling look competitive. Obviously the Sasuke spin kicks were great and his selling was flawless. Apparently TAKA was in his 2nd year of pro wrestling here

This is Lawlers wifes hair vs. Dundees Southern Title. It's 80s territory wrestling baby! I love coming home late at night and discovering a previously unseen match in what is arguably the greatest matchup in US wrestling ever has been uploaded. And this is another fucking classic in the pantheon. And it's a great showcase for Bill Dundee as he is basically an unstoppable killing machine here as he beats the shit out of Lawler and Calhoun for +20 minutes. Dundee has about a dozen great punch variations and he makes Lawler his punching bag. Nearly the entire match is Dundee kicking ass and while it can be hard to make a 10 minute control section compelling it is no problem for a wrestling master like Bill Dundee. His demeanor along with Lance Russell commentary made you believe that this short australian psycho would damn well beat the shit out of every single person in that arena. He beats Lawler so bad Lawler can't even make a strap drop comeback. I can't remember that happening in any other match. Arena environment comes into play with Dundee using those chain bareers and steel posts in painful ways. It's Lawler/Dundee so you get some big Lawler bumps (including Lawler getting launched into the ringside announce table), a great hope spot, clever transition and the greatest damn punches you've ever seen. The finish worked as a perfect payoff too and considering these two would produce another super classic a week later there's nothing to grief over.

It did not make the 80s Memphis set. It may have been on one of 70s TV guys DVD sets. It is a fucking awesome match though.

The Satomura/Amano sections were pretty kickass. The rest of this was largely a harmless, mindless sprint starring plenty of convoluted ways to get armbars. The finish run was between Satomura and Nagashima and had some funny spots. Something like Satomura spinning Nagashima around in the fireman's carry position to hit her Death Valley Driver anyways can only really make sense in a joshi match.

A really fun slice of pro wrestling between two all time great wrestlers. This was 1 fall and in front of a silent japanese crowd, and the transitions weren't exactly hard fought, so the match felt a little like an exhibition. Still, there was plenty of excellent hold for hold work and some vicious brawling with Santito hitting especially stiff kicks. He even elbowed Panther in the face when he tried to block the Camel Clutch. That and him trying to prevent the Sharpshooter may have been my favourite moments of the match. Santito really had his working boots on and hit every spectacular dive he knows. I also liked how hard his flying headbutts connected.

I LOVE PRO WRESTLING! Pretty much what you want from your wrestler vs. martial artist spectacle. Short wild match with no downtime or filler, just Onita and Asako absorbing crazy Hong Kong movie flying kicks from the Kung Fu boys, occasionally you get a fat guy suplex or forearm smash to the face before the other Kung Fu boy will run in and jump on somebodys face to make a safe. You also get Onita killing the skinny koreans with powerbombs, and you can't tell what the finish going to be. Also loved the Jackie Chan spot where Sambo pulls the other guys Kung Fu jacket over his head and helps set up the powerbomb. A MILLION STARS!!

Actually may be one of the best car crash sprints I've ever seen. This is my first time seeing Allin and he looks like someone out of the WCW/nWo Revenge roster, so exactly my kind of pro wrestler. He clearly understands how to work like his gimmick dictates, looking like a high on meth gutter punk running around clocking neonazis before getting pepper sprayed at a Trump rally. He was fighting WALTER like a mad dog and getting absolutely manhandled. Needless to say WALTER was a juggernaut and Allins ragdolling bumping was perfect. That splat on the floor felt more visceral than anything from the Almas/Gargano match. Agree about the desperation of the handwork. I actually thought Allin was in control a little much toward the end, altough everything was kept believable and his selling was spot on. It just made the crazy bumps earlier feel a little inconsequential, particularily those knees that he ate. I should add that the strike exchanges near the end felt like actual strike exchanges.

Ishikawa/Otsuka may be one of the matchups in wrestling history when it comes to shootstyle work. Them rolling is just beautiful while never looking overly rehearsed. Otsuka is such a motherfucker and for some reason he gets extra inventive when rolling with Ishikawa. This was shaping up to be a classic complete with some brutal headbutts and amazing looking Otsuka suplexes before a very sudden finish. Great little showcase for what they would do a year later.

Nice to see one of the best matchups in wrestling making tape twice in a year. This was some very good shootstyle pro wrestling between two guys who obviously know eachother extremely well. Obviously not an epic war like the Young Generation Battle final, but a good look at a spot show type match. Actually liked how they integrated the attempted diving moves into the match. Great finish.

Welp, here's two matches I didn't even know existed on tape until last week. They didn't make the Best of BattlARTS comp – which is some serious bollocks if you ask me, because both these were excellent and immediately skyrocketed towards the top of my list of favourite Greco matches. (...)The second match also had a cool atmosphere as it took place in a hotel with folks watching from fancy dining tables. The tag had a cool layout too, as Ishikawa and Ikeda avoided eachother for the first half of the match, allowing for lots of good matwork involving Greco early on, before all hell broke lose in the second half. Even after watching so much Greco footage, I was surprised with all the cool shit Greco came up with in these two matches. I've said it before that Greco brings the best out of his opponents, but it was striking that Usuda and Ishikawa never looked better on the mat in 1996 than opposite Greco here. Another thing was how brutal Carl could get: the Ishikawa singles obviously had a lot of pride involved, and maybe Ishikawa's cockiness is what lead Carl to angrily waffle him with shotais and eventually rattle his brain with a series of kicks to the skull, but he did it the next night aswell when the beef was between Ishikawa and Ikeda... maybe it's cause he was fighting Ishikawa, maybe he toned down the striking later on to focus on his submission work, maybe April of 1996 just wasn't Ishikawa's month... one thing wasn't out of the ordinary: both matches had Carl ensnaring people like a python. Regardless, 4/13 was an intense contest with a crazy finish, and 4/14 another top notch BattlARTS tag that told an excellent story, and both matches delivered both brutality and crazy mat stuff in spades as you want. Highly recommended stuff

Welp, here's two matches I didn't even know existed on tape until last week. They didn't make the Best of BattlARTS comp – which is some serious bollocks if you ask me, because both these were excellent and immediately skyrocketed towards the top of my list of favourite Greco matches. The first match was a full shootstyle main event and as cool as you imagine it to be. They had the BattlARTS roster (and even Dieseul Berto) watching from ringside. (...) Even after watching so much Greco footage, I was surprised with all the cool shit Greco came up with in these two matches. I've said it before that Greco brings the best out of his opponents, but it was striking that Usuda and Ishikawa never looked better on the mat in 1996 than opposite Greco here. Another thing was how brutal Carl could get: the Ishikawa singles obviously had a lot of pride involved, and maybe Ishikawa's cockiness is what lead Carl to angrily waffle him with shotais and eventually rattle his brain with a series of kicks to the skull, but he did it the next night aswell when the beef was between Ishikawa and Ikeda... maybe it's cause he was fighting Ishikawa, maybe he toned down the striking later on to focus on his submission work, maybe April of 1996 just wasn't Ishikawa's month... one thing wasn't out of the ordinary: both matches had Carl ensnaring people like a python. Regardless, 4/13 was an intense contest with a crazy finish, and 4/14 another top notch BattlARTS tag that told an excellent story, and both matches delivered both brutality and crazy mat stuff in spades as you want. Highly recommended stuff

This was their 2nd match that year as Zrno tries to get back the WWU Jr. title. This was much less heated and intense than the first encounter but may have had even better grappling before the somewhat disappointing finish. Hara continues to look really good grappling with Zrno, being right there with the bridge spots and tricky wrist takedowns and what not. Something funny is how Zrno works the exact same as if it were a european match always waiting for his opponent to get up even though there's no 10 count. Match didn't have much direction and the ending wasn't super exciting as it looked like Hara was gonna defend his title anyways. Still, I get a kick out of watching these two grapple for 15 minutes.

JIP 20 minutes into a 30 minute time limit draw. There was still plenty of action with flying headscissors and snappy armdrags and stiff european uppercuts and dropkicks and what not. Verhulst doesn't do a ton here but I still enjoyed seeing him come in and do stuff as his technique is ridiculously good. Zrno was pretty „stiff“ here e.g. blocking opponents moves by stiffening up. It may not result in picture perfect execution of certain spots but I still thought it was cool and they did the usual time limit draw spiel where both guys were working for pinfalls equally before the end.

JIP. Kroffat is wearing goofy martial arts fraud artist pants! And he kind of wrestles like a goofy martial artist too, throwing stiff punches and kicks and working some neato submissions. He also absolutely murderizes Kawada with a Crucifix Bomb that dumps him on his neck. This match is weird and thrown together but really fun. Another great finish where Kawada has HAD IT and lariats Kroffat's brains out before folding him up. A MILLION STARS.