Jetlag

This was one of the more "experimental" WoS bouts with all kinds of weird positions and transitions that you don't see in any other match and a story largely about Boscik trying different ways to break Baron's neck bridge. I'd like to see how this kind of bout would go over in today's pro wrestling. It was basically carny jiu jitsu to the max and a little bit ballet here or there. Boscik is much shorter and some of they stuff they did had the feel of a big rudo vs. mini exchange in a lucha match. Not the most heated match but I dug all the different pin attempts and there was one especially nice submission attempt on an Octopus Hold. Not everything needs to be fast paced and molten heated, sometimes deliberate and slow is cool. Top 3 spots: 1. Baron's spinning body scissor thing 2. Him bowling Boscik right out of the ring to counter a leg split and 3. Boscik getting his hand stuck under Baron's head.

If you've seen one McManus match you've pretty much seen them all, but don't let that stop you from watching him. McManus is an expert heel but more importantly an expert on how to build interesting matches around the same formula; that he never lost on TV for 20 years straight while still keeping it fresh speaks volumes about him. His clinical holds and violent jabs in this were pretty great. St. Clair is about as good as any other babyface would be in this situation, playing it pretty basic for the most part, altough he did have this cool flipping arm snap move that should be steal worthy to today's flip-loving indy wrestlers and McManus did this cool noodle arm sell in response. They work some believable near finishes (including a DQ tease that had the crowd by the balls) and a pretty nice eventual conclusion. Bread and butter stuff but it's a threat to watch McManus do his thing as even 45 years later his stuff hasn't aged a bit.

Strong Kobayashi, a rather troll-like looking wrestler (to put it mildly). Dude looked like a DNA experiment between Inoki and Baba. This was a rare early match between top natives and a hell of a fight. Basically Inoki bullies Kobayashi some and then gets his shit pushed in repeatedly. What a weird way to work a match against an outsider, but they did succeed in garnering tremendous heat. Inoki dominates the early going with a bunch of quasi-amateur holds which I dug a lot. He scored a really nice toe hold riding takedown and would constantly do leg rides and toe holds. After getting grinded for a while Kobayashi finally scored a simple arm roll which felt like a nice victory, but dickhead Inoki won't break clean in the ropes. Inoki keeps taunting and slapping Kobayashi between the holds and this is building tremendous intensity. Kobayashi is reacting to all this in really amusing exaggerated ways too. Finally, Kobayashi grabs a bear hug and just manhandles Inoki like a ragdoll. Inoki had pretty great facial expressions here, as he went from looking pained to annoyed to filled with contempt. Later on, when he had regained the upper hand he would look really smug and self satisfied. There was also a great moment where Inoki went for another back ride, only for Kobayashi to use his indicated by name strength to muscle up and reverse him into an awesome Cobra Twist of his own. Shozo smells blood and starts laying stiff clubbing blows to Inoki's neck, but as we learned from the Great Antonio's example Inoki does not take kindly to this and nearly KO's him with a huge punch in another awesome moment. Inoki is looking to finish this now with his grapevine moves but they end up on the outside and Kobayashi makes him eat a posting. Inoki is bleeding huge now and Kobayashi smells his chance going to town on him with punches. Really liked how a bloody Inoki would pop up with a smug grin after catching Shozo with a supex. Man what a spectacular match. Molten heat, cool grappling, blood, punches, neat story, it's all there. Thought both guys did a great job here. Also, gotta give them credit for working a pretty long match that still leaves plenty on the table. I'm surprised this isn't mentioned more often among the best of the 70s bouts, I found it highly captivating.

This was before Inoki started doing the „World's Greatest Martial Artist“ thing, so this was all JWA style old school grappling. Johnny Powers was kind of a poor man's Johnny Valentine, guy with a crazy stare who will drop elbows and knees on you. His holds and elbows and knees looked vicious especially when he was dropping elbows and knees on Inoki's throat. His googly eyed selling was pretty goofy and he also blew some highspots. I liked the opening 10 minutes of this a lot with Powers locking in a mean armlock and really chopping away at Inoki's arm and Inoki looking like a slick grappler countering with some super tight headscissors. The following 10 minutes Powers starts kicking ass altough the match gets a little restholdy here and there. Inoki is using more chops than punches here. The 2nd fall continues with both guys beating on eachother before Powers is able to lock in the Figure 4. He continues working over Inoki's leg in vicious fashion in the 3rd but hits his head on the rope when he tries for the Figure 4 again allowing Inoki an easy victory with the Octopus Stretch. This would have been pretty good were it not for the mentioned goofs.

It's a wild, bloody Puerto Rican brawl; what's not to love? Miguelito looks so great here as the worlds most badass/hairiest Freddy Mercury. A guy with great punches, throwing lots of punches is probably the easiest match formula for a good match. He had some fucking crazy "fired up" selling too and I liked how he started bitch slapping his opponent as if he wanted more of a fight. Both guys get thrown over the announce table awkwardly, barfight style, and chairs thrown in their face while security guards anxiously watch for potential knife attackers. Castillo's transition to offense was a little weak but his offense looked plenty violent. I also liked his bloody 1000 yard stare. Some bullshit going on for the finish involving Carlos Colon and some other guy which actually ended up being cool aswell.

Damn, I didn't expect to like this so much. Any Fujinami big match is guaranteed to have a ton of wrestling, and there was a lot of that here, but there was also a ton of disdain right from the opening which has Chono spitting Fujinami in the face. Chono is far from a great matworker, but he was game here, busting out an awesome calf slicer and a flying clothesline that was like something Necro Butcher would do. He also wasn't afraid to get into stiff slap battles and I liked his headbutts and mafia kicks he would use to combat Fujinami's mat prowess. Fujinami on his side had one of the most brutal dropkicks I've ever seen and an epic dive. This was a very typical NJPW style match, there was no grand finishing run with a ton of big moves to be kicked out of or something, instead it was about avoiding the other guy's finisher when push came to shove. That and the fact both guys sold a ton of exhaustion made the second half of this pretty great. Little bit of a lucha title match influence here with some dramatic bumps for momentum shifts and that sick guardrail dive from Fujinami. Great stuff, glad that this was brought up as the 232nd best match of the 90s

The Thesz/Gotch team may be old school wrestling incarnated. You have Gotch, that gentleman european technician who is just a trip to watch, with his beautiful judo-esque throws, slick transitions and all kinds of funky moves, including a physics defying bridge. And then there's Thesz, who will cheap shot and stall incessantly and knee you in the face in the middle of a grappling exchange. Don't get me wrong, Thesz was gold here. In fact the whole match was gold. This was really long, but there was not a single dull moment. Just one cool exchange after another. Well, if you like grappling, that is. I really enjoyed Thesz' psychology as his strategy was basically about countering into a backdrop or Thesz press. He hits some great backdrops too. The whole match was built like, there would be hold exchanges, but occasionally one guy would attempt a move and then the other would try to counter into a potential finisher and then it was all about squirming out of that situation. And sometimes one guy would slap the other's shit too. That's how you keep a viewer on the edge of his seat. Well, it worked for me atleast. Also, Sakaguchi's reaction to Gotch lifting Inoki with one arm was priceless. I also really liked how he got fed up and almost choked Thesz out with a nasty front choke. The japanese team won't leave a huge impression on you but they are perfectly fine in their roles and the Thesz/Gotch duo was a delight to watch.

Probably the strangest and most wonderous grappling in a World of Sport match that there is. Not counting anything hypnosis related that may or may not have happened in certain Kendo Nagasaki matches. It's not just about the moves and escapes, but the sheer consequence this is wrestled with. Normally, in WoS you will see a lot of guys agreeing to a stalemate and giving up their position and holds. Here, that is reduced to a minimum and both guys are determined to wrestle to the limit. This leads to them pretzeling into and out of positions that would make Solar step back and say "Woah there" for a moment. They really explore the basic holds, like a toe hold and short arm scissor to the max. There's also lots of tripping the other guy in mid movement and struggle over escapes to make you appreciate the eventual succesful counters. The short arm scissor sequence seen here may be text book example of how to work a damn hold and escape sequence without much flash. Also, I dug the old lady giving advice.

3 rounds of high end slick WoS grappling. Thomson is a great guy, not only because he knows a million tricks, but because he always cranks up the intensity. It was a friendly, loosy goosy polite contest, but Thomson would constantly chuck Sarjeant to the mat really violently and try to force a submission. Sarjeant is like the british reverse-Volk Han and Thomson gave him plenty to work with. Too many great moves to name them all, but my favourite was probably Thomson's ultra fast arm takedown from the strangle hold, aswell as the proto-Omoplata escape. Also, him grabbing the chin and pushing his opponent further into the bridge is such an "oh shit" spot. I'll leave no comment on the finish.

This was pretty much a rehashed version of the match they had earlier in the year. Mostly Breaks torturing Saint and bumping and selling in hilarious exaggerated fashion and Saint looking impressive with some fast technical moves and great agility. Breaks is bitching about Saint the whole match but when attacks Saints nose he gets his own smashed and bloodied. Saint continues to attack the nose which in turn leads Breaks to start smashing his face into the canvas, bloodying Saint in return. There aren't many WoS matches where both guys bleed and the face bumps by Saint near the end were really intense. The finish wasn't clean but I thought it was really smart. You can never go wrong with Jimmy Breaks and him against Saint is some of his best work.

This is just a masterfully worked match between two wrestling masters. The early hold exchanges are textbook old school goodness - simple, tight, with both guys fighting in and out of them. At no point would one guy sit in a hold. Billy would put on a headlock, and the next thing was that Verne was pushing his knuckles into his face. Verne would get an armlock, and Billy would start maneuvering and shifting his weight. Because of Billy using his holds to set up impact moves and Gagne's dangerous sleeper hold, the hold for hold work never feels pointless. Billy is a wrestling machine, but Gagne looked really great too and at least as good. In the first fall, Billy would get the advantage in the grappling, so Gagne was forced to try and outsmart him. The shoulderblocks in this match were just awesome and Gagne's use of them so inspiring. Should also mention that Gagne's selling and bumping was worldclass. When he would get thrown into turnbuckles, he made it look like he was launched out of a car with his back to a steel post. The final shoulderblock bump looked like it would force a KO aswell. First two falls had brilliant finishes, each fall playing off the previous one, and the last fall had superb build with Robinson chasing his opponent down. That bearhug was one for the ages for sure. By the end of this the folks in the crowd are jumping up and down with excitement, smiling and going bonkers for ever false finish. Man I wish I had a bulk of matches from the 70s of Verne available.

Thanks. Your match is

I wrote up the Starr/Invader scaffold match. Good match, but it's def. not the kind of wrestling I love. Not to sound overly conservative, but it's a wrestling match. What the fuck is a scaffold doing there?

Scaffold Match. What a fucking stupid stipulation. Putting the utter absurdity of all things relating to two guys having a wrestling match on a scaffold aside (those being, how come anyone stay on the scaffold longer than 2 minutes when in a regular match dudes get bumped around the ring within seconds? how anyone who's halfway dangling off of a scaffold can hang on while another grown man is punching and kicking him? why didn't he just suplex him straight off of that thing? etc.) this was pretty good mostly due to Invader's excellent punches and the wobbly selling mentioned above. Chicky doesn't have punches as good or very interesting tactics but what do ya want, he was busy having a wrestling match while not falling to his death. Altough I gotta admit I do not take kindly to this kind of idiotic spectacle. Also, even while 30 feet in the air heels aren't safe from having trash flung at them, so that's great.

Match for dawho5: Tarzan Goto/Masashi Aoyagi/Azteca vs. Kai En Tai (Indy World 7/22/98) https://youtu.be/NbkZPy6JU8s

Cool list, I appreacite it. You are right on the money about Harley Saito & Eagle Sawai. Rumi Kazama, I'll see about her, altough she is underrated for sure. I will watch all of James Stone & Jumbo Hori I can find now.

Pretty much the UWF equivalent to the later RINGS grappling matches. Funaki in his shoes is hilarious. Really enjoyed the early amateur style work especially the toe holds. Then, after some slick but strugglesome grappling Suzuki goes on a tear against Funaki with tight submission attempts only to be caught by surprise. Little too short and sudden to amount to much but I always enjoy a fun undercard match like this.

2004.04.11 Fuke vs. Ishikawa GENTARO vs. Kondo [EAGLE All Eagle! Eagle Festival!] 1998-07-05 Asuka/The Bloody vs.Yokota/Kosugi 1994-07-29 Hart vs Flair 1992-12-05 Medvedev vs. Takahashi 2002.01.27 Tamura vs Genki I'll be checking out all these for sure. EDIT: Where was Fuke/Ishikawa? I thought U-Style but it doesn't seem to be in any matchlist. EDIT2: Okay, it's BattlARTS. Did you see that match live or do you have a video?

Rah's match is El Hijo Del Santo vs Negro Casas - 12/1/95

Reviewed Vader/Misawa: http://prowrestlingonly.com/index.php?/topic/28305-vader-vs-mitsuharu-misawa-ajpw-tokyo-dome-050299/&do=findComment&comment=5832680

When I first watched this, I thought this was a contender for the greatest match I'd ever seen. On rewatch, it's not quite at that level, but this is still one of the most memorable lucha bloodbaths. Everything about this match is ridiculously high end: of course the blood is great, but they remind you with every move that they are world class pro wrestlers. One of the greatest DDTs I've ever seen is casually thrown out, both guys throw great punches; Faraon has some cool Mr. Perfect-esque corner bumps (for a dude in his mid 40s). All the basic stuff, like a chest bump into the corner or a backdrop is executed perfectly. There are also some pin combos and dives executed past the capability of most wrestlers on the planet. The layout is strong with Pirata immediately getting the advantage, but Faraon is always fighting back. Pirata tries to grind it out with some holds but Faraon turns the tables on him. Pirata was a total bump freak here including flying over the top to the outside. After Pirata started gushing blood, it was something else to watch him refusing to quit even while close to passing out, and the doctor trying to hold him back. Faraon bashing Pirata's head into the post was such a sick moment and the punch exchange felt epic. You can debate on the ending, but I thought it nailed the story of the match. Near transcendent stuff and one of the finest on Pirata's resume.

I swear I already had a review of this somewhere. Ah well. It's Vader/Misawa, so you know what you are getting. Vader previously destroyed Misawa easily in a short match, now he immediately goes to town on the top guy and completely dominates him for the opening of the match, tagging him with fast combos and landing a massive powerbomb on the floor. Misawa comes back pounding Vader's head with his thrusty elbows and sending him over the rope and this is almost like a Vader/Wanz match. It gets back to AJPW soon enough as soon as Vader breaks out the first german suplex and they start running through big moves. I still have no idea how Misawa was able to take those suplex bumps and not die... well, atleast not die right then. Admittedly some of it feels a little dry, such as Misawa just casually setting up Vader on the top rope and hitting a DDT... well, Vader is more that willing to bump his ass off here aswell. Misawa pouncing on the big guy with Elbows on the ground and finishing him with a KO was great though. Just felt a little abrupt. It's Vader in AJPW so it's not exactly his greatest work. He does come across as a beast though, and Misawa sold great. I think if this were a little more strike focussed this could have been epic, but they still delivered what you want from a Dome main event.

Good to know I can STILL thrust myself from 6 years ago. This was awesome, bloody and ass-stomping indeed. The cool thing about these 80s main events from germany/austria is that you get to see guys like Slaughter stretch out and do these ultra simplistic carnage ladden main events with no fluff whatsoever. So, after some warm up stalling and heat mongering, this is largely Slaughter wasting Wanz with punches and awesome knees on the ground. We also get Slaughter throwing chairs and bashing a bloody Wanz's head into the glass barrier. The announcer was telling the fans to stay in their seats for their own safety at that point. Wanz didn't get a lot of offense which is not a huge problem, and when he did something Slaughter would bump like a motherfucker. Another strong finish. This type of super minimalist wrestling is not anything that will blow people's minds but still extremely enjoyable.