Jetlag

Oya is one of the funniest wrestlers ever. A gangly armed, balding dork who likes to play technical wrestler but is stuck in a garbage fed and somehow has the worlds deadliest backdrop. The face off with Ishikawa in the FMW vs. BattlARTS tag is pretty cool. I also quite enjoy his aging veteran work in the 2000s where he is shaven headed and mostly works tags stretching and smacking people and sometimes dropping them on their heads. I wonder what kind of work he did in his own promotion, Hokuto Pro Wrestling.

Tarzan Gotos work in his own promotion, Goto-Ippah, is absolutely insane. From the early 2000s onwards he was running shows at his restaurant - a concept itself that rules - in front of tiny crowds of maybe 70-100 people at most. And he is absolutely working his ass off on these shows. Not just "eh, he's being a cool guy doing some fun things in these matches", seriously, Goto-Ippah Tarzan Goto is arguably the most ambitious an aging fat guy wrestler has ever been. He's working honest to god 30+ minute epics with Kings Road style complex layout, and he's doing it all in those matches. Working the mat, throwing great worked punches, beating the fuck out of people, putting his opponents (usually tiny GUTS World-tier schmucks) over and always, ALWAYS cutting somebody up. God, has there ever been a more blood thirsty wrestler than Goto? Sometimes he'll bleed himself, and while he's usually working overdog (no shit, he's facing the lowest of the low), he always bumps for his opponents too and makes you respect them. Really fascinating stuff that only a handful of people have ever seen (the guy selling the discs to me made it sound as if somebody at Samurai TV is at risk of losing their job if they get in wider circulation). I know I may sound like I'm telling some carny tale here but it's true, and I wanna say Goto looks world class as late as 2009 and ruled at doing it all.

If Yagi had a Mariko Yoshida-style run of main events in a promotion built around her I'm sure she'd crush most of the competition. That said Yagi/Yoshida is better than any Bull match, and a heck of a lot of other very well respected matches too.

GENTARO One of the most unique juniors of the last 2 decades. An incredibly athletic wrestler, whose love for new generation era WWF and knack for technical moves makes him stand out. He can do it all, from Bret Hart worshipping technical wrestling, to garbage brawling, to highflying, to working hard hitting puro epics, to being an excellent Anderson bros style heel. Has some of the best broadways of the modern era under his belt, against a variety of unique opponents, and yet to disappoint in any setting. I think a deep dive of him is well worthwhile considering he has worked an incredible number of different places in the last 20 years. Matches: 2/3 Falls: GENTARO vs. Masamune, VKF 9/23/2008 GENTARO vs. Spark Aoki, Secret Base 1/10/2011 Tanomusaku Toba & MIKAMI vs. GENTARO & YOSHIYA (DDT 11/30/2001)

I am amused by Konan Big being nominated years before him.

I recently got my hands on some ultra-rare WYF handhelds, and of all people El Texano shows up on some of them. Seeing him work Z-tier Japanese indy scum and getting good matches out of the likes of Shinigami and Hirofumi Miura really puts into perspective what a great wrestler a guy like El Texano is. He and Silver King looked like one of the best tag teams going and it made me want to go back and go through their 90s catalogue. He still looked great as late as 2005, too.

The Villano III feud is awesome, and lasted well into the 2000s. What else has Rambo done, though? Somebody needs to do some pimping.

You know, I take offense to him being labelled "greatest comedy wrestler ever". Especially when Mokujin Ken has been nominated.

I've nominated plenty of wrestlers in the project so far I might throw up some more nominations given how things are turning out.

Overrated worker who had some really soul crushingly slow and long NEO title matches in the early 2000s. The 60 minute Hyuga match is almost unwatchable, too. I dig the stiff elbows and she has good chemistry with some workers once in a while.

Todays post was dedicated to Serena: https://reverseviperhold.blogspot.com/2021/06/gwe-watching-7-serena-deeb.html She looked quite great in the Riho match, although it still seems ridiculous to nominate her based on a handful of fun TV matches. Her style gives me Eddie Guerrero vibes. Surely, she's gotta have some pre-2020 matches worth checking out? She's been around almost 20 years.

A good worker, but it's a long way to a Top 100, especially when footage is scarce. I recall the Yokota match being a bit of a disappointment.

There's no 30s footage listed in the post, even though we used to have a Google Drive with a bunch of 1930s material. It seems that folder is gone now, does anyone have a backup?

There are quite a few quite great Sasukes 2000s performances. Singles matches against Hayato Fujita, Kenou, and even Ultimo Dragon come to mind. He's probably not as good in the 2000s as, say, Kikuchi, bit still damn good. And much of his matches are buried in random Michinoku Pro TV that could never be widely uploaded.

https://reverseviperhold.blogspot.com/2021/05/gwe-watching-6-tsuyoshi-kikuchi.html Todays post was about Kikuchi. He's really one of best juniors of all time, for completely different reasons than most junior wrestlers. The grittiness of his second career half is just something else and his early underdog work is just impeccable. Even a short houseshow match against Taue feels epic.

I did an Ikeda post today looking at some NOAH midcard matches: https://reverseviperhold.blogspot.com/2021/05/gwe-watching-5-daisuke-ikeda.html The biggest problem with Ikedas NOAH run is that he was almost never treated as someone important. You can tell they had him there to make their guys look strong. But he still makes even throwaway matches better. Always working stiff and selling well.

Abe vs. Toba was the best singles match I've seen Abe in: https://reverseviperhold.blogspot.com/2021/05/tanomusaku-toba-documentation-project-11.html A lot of that is due to Abe slipping into Tobas match formular, but if he has more matches like that I could see him having a chance at making a list in 5 years.

It seems a few of these candidates have been nominated, with names like Jim Londos and Megumi Fuji. Pro wrestlers who are clearly extremely talented, but cannot accurately be compared to wrestlers who have a lengthy career on tape either due to lack of footage or simply only wrestling a handful of times. Who are some guys who you consider to be great based on a small sample of performances? Obviously, the French and European footage has been ripe with these types: - Tony Oliver. Greatest two match wrestler ever? Just an incredible heel. - Le Big Chief. Menacing crowbar wrestler who I would like to see wrestle Hashimoto - Jaques Couderc. Another brilliant French technician. Only one match on tape. - Clayton Thomson. Only had a few matches air on TWC but has a legendary rep and looks like a great wrestler. - Naoyuki Taira. Only really wrestled for about 1 year, but he looked quite natural at shootstyle. - Marcel Parmentier. We didn't even get a full match of his, but is wily veteran brawler act looks awesome. - Tony Martino. Only appears in two tags and looks incredible doing both technical exchanges and heelwork. - Liano Pellacani. Only 3 matches. Another incredible heel. - Seichi Ikemoto. MMA guy who looked damn good in his U-Style appearances. - Mota dos Santos. Portuguese(?) grappler who could do straight catch and crazy spring matches. Has a nice German suplex. - Aquiles. Legendary brazilian brawler. An archive dropping a motherload of brazilian catch on us would be nice.

Yeah, that's the TV episode I have and which is woefully clipped down.

There was another Meiko/Hokuto singles in 1997, unfortunately only 5 minutes aired. If there's a full version on an obscure commercial release or something I'd kill to get it, because what was shown looked amazing.

Watched some Mochizuki today: https://reverseviperhold.blogspot.com/2021/05/gwe-watching-masaaki-mochizuki.html Pretty underwhelming. He lost a lot of energy compared to his 90s days. The worst thing is he comes across as an indy guy with a kicker gimmick rather than a karate dude. I was also super annoyed with the Toryumon matches all having pointless limb work and interferences. Doesn't help that Mochizuki doesn't have much charisma. They should've kept the role of evil karate guy for Okamura, who has much more sleazy charme.

Actually, Ishikawa and Ikeda had a pretty great match as early as 1994 in Michinoku Pro They matched up two more times in 1995. @Phil Schneider didn't you mention getting a tape of one of their PWFG matches?

There's a bit of Sanniez work on YouTube already: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cwzFqCFojMo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aXh2X0Cjkjk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9TMEIFxmj6A https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wsUd3TEHPjw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ySZ53rWYIVQ The rest of his stuff in the archive: PEDRO CABRERA & ALBERT SANNIEZ VS TONY MARTINO & BERNARD CACLARD (08/31/1968; 35:52) GUY CAVILLIER VS ALBERT SANNIEZ (02/01/1969; 19:11) BILLY CATANZARO & GILBERT LEMAGOUROU VS ALBERT SANNIEZ & BOB REMY (03/12/1971; 42:20) ALBERT SANNIEZ & KADER HASSOUNI VS BERNARD CACLARD & PIERRE BERNAERT (02/15/1973; 28:37) ANGELITO VS ALBERT SANNIEZ (02/19/1977; 10:17) LE PETIT PRINCE & GERARD BOUVET VS ANTON TEJERO & ALBERT SANNIEZ (01/01/1979; 31:38) JACKY RICHARD & ALBERT SANNIEZ VS JEAN CORNE & RENE CABELLEC (09/08/1980; 36:05) There's also him & some unknown vs. the Mercier Brothers somewhere in the rubble. Apparently, he fought Alan Sarjeant on British TV. I'd give a lot to see that match.

I'm not ignoring her Crush Gals run. I've said I consider it overrated, and something I could live without seeing again. But people should watch for themselves. Obviously, we have a different criteria when it comes to this. If someone is a great worker, they should be able to understand what they are doing enough to translate their greatness into different setting, in my view. I love variety, and when in doubt I will probably rank a guy with a long excellent career in a variety of settings over a guy who had a great run doing the same type of territory main event over and over for 10 years. Of course Sano in PWFG and UWFi is the best, but him being good in NOAH rather than bad is a decent push ahead.

It's 2021 and I'm still finding Honda matches I enjoy. Sadly he rarely unleashed his grappling side in undercard tags, but he is really fun as an ogreish guy throwing headbutts and bulldogs and sometimes stiff lariats. A NOAH deep dive will definitely be in order for Honda.