dawho5

I'll never actively hide it, but I also won't advertise it overmuch. This one dude at work always asks me "Do you know what time it is?" when he gives me break. My common response is... *angry, deeper tone* "It's Vader Time!" But I very rarely bring it up in conversation. Not sure how I would respond if my kung fu teacher (who hates pro wres) asked me.

Misawa vs. Tsuruta 4/18/91 Triple Crown Misawa looks a bit bigger here, but we establish pretty quickly that he is still at a big power disadvantage. Jumbo is selling Misawa's elbows huge. Then he hits some of his own and some just-as-big knees and Misawa is in trouble early. Jumbo is beating Misawa down until Misawa hits his second rope lucha headbutt. Misawa works on Jumbo's back with weardown holds, smart move as Jumbo's strikes are really taking it out of him. Jumbo starts on the beatdown again, then just slaps Misawa over and over again before sending him outside. Misawa is whipped into the rail, but rebounds and hits a charging elbow. He translates that to some elbows in the ring, which seems to be working until he switches to slaps. They slap each other a bit, then Jumbo puts a small corner beatdown on Misawa, who tries slapping his way out only to get whipped into the ropes and eat a Jumbo jumping knee. Jumbo sends Misawa outside and hits a knee crusher on the announce table before working over Misawa's knee in the ring. Jumbo puts on a STF, Misawa gets the ropes. Misawa is sent to the ropes and hits a flying elbow. Misawa sells the leg and Jumbo is again making Misawa's elbows look like gold after the fact. Misawa has a short beatdown segment, selling the leg along the way. Misawa tries a crucifix, but Jumbo catches him and does a modified Samoan drop for a nearfall. Misawa counters a backdrop suplex with a crossbody, but next time Jumbo is ready and instead drops Misawa's face into the turnbuckle as he tries that. Misawa reverses a powerbomb to go into another beatdown of Jumbo, then goes up top for a huge flying elbow smash from the top! Misawa is in control a bit longer, but Jumbo catches him rope-running and drapes him throat-first across the top rope. From there we go to the absolutely brutal finish. Really good stuff, with Misawa gaining confidence as the match went on. He starts out not doing as well toe-to-toe with Jumbo, but as he wears the bigger man down, he gets longer sections of the match where he is just elbowing, kneeing and kicking Jumbo, who has no effective response. Jumbo's offense is, of course, big, mean and really hurty looking, as always. Misawa/Kawada/Kobashi vs. Jumbo/Fuchi/Taue 4/20/91 So two days later, this happens. Taue is chosen as the guy to start for his team and the fans want Kawada in there. Kobashi ends up starting, but Taue doesn't give a shit about that and cheapshots Kawada off the apron. Kawada is pissed and has to be restrained by the ref and Kobashi. Taue lariats Kobashi, then immediately lariats Kawada off the apron. God I love Taue. Kawada is down & out for a while afterwards. Misawa and Jumbo are tagged in and Jumbo again sells the elbows big. Jumbo takes over on offense and there are some quick tags with Fuchi. Misawa tags out and Kobashi has some nice offense on Jumbo before getting his left arm worked over by all three members of the opposing team. Kawada has recovered by the time Taue is in there and Taue gets the small beginnings of a receipt. Taue and Kawada brawl while the ref tries his best to separate them and keep the other 4 from getting into it. Kawada gets the advantage and starts headbutting Taue into the ground (for at least 30 seconds). The crowd is eating this shit up. Kawada finally stands up and starts stomping on Taue's face before the ref, Kobashi and Misawa drag him off. Some sort of break happens and Kawada and co. are beating the shit out of Taue for being a complete dick. Kawada is getting chants when he's not the guy in there, crowd must like that rivalry. Kawada gets a nice pop for giving Fuchi the finger when he looks like he's coming into the ring, then tags out to Kobashi. The crowd reverses itself and starts chanting for taue towards the end of his heel-in-peril routine. Fuchi makes shit happen with a low dropkick on Kobashi while he's got an abdominal stretch on. Team Experience starts working over Kobashi's leg with a few hope spots thrown in. Fuchi is so great at being a dick in these kinds of situations. At one point he has an STF on, then lets go of the neck to delay Kobashi's grabbing the ropes, then just tags as he has to break. At some point, Jumbo seems to be trying to stomp all the way through Kobashi's leg to cut off a tag. Kobashi takes two knee crushers onto tables and one onto a chair positioned on the apron (Fuchi) during the heat segment. Or is it the second heat segment, or the real heat segment? Either way, Taue has this awesome spot where he is tagged in and does a top rope elbow drop to Kobashi's leg right into a submission. I seriously love Taue. Fuchi grabs a leg and holds on during a Kobashi hope spot, then tags in Jumbo. Kawada kicks Jumbo off of Kobashi to set up a hot tag, but no dice. Taue and Fuchi both get to torture Kobashi a bit more, but Kobashi gets the HOT (if the crowd is any indication) tag to Kawada. He smacks Fuchi around before tagging to Misawa, who ends up getting decked by Fuchi and set up for Jumbo. Misawa displays spirit (kicks out of a Jumbo powerbomb) and intelligence (Taue comes off the top with a nodowa as Jumbo does a backdrop, Misawa gets a foot on the ropes). Taue kicks out of a tigerdriver and a Kobashi moonsault! Following the moonsault, the finishing sequence gets really chaotic with break-ups and interruptions and holding back tag partners from break-ups, etc. Something they really captured on camera this match was how much the Japanese girls really were WORRIED about face-in-peril Kobashi. The dismay on some of the faces is priceless. Kobashi again comes off big for his fighting spirit. Taue vs. Kawada is advanced again. Misawa vs. Kawada is not as distant in trailing these things here as several times it seems to really take the forefront. Taue really gets put over a lot more in this one than the last. Well-worked match with an odd double heat setup, one for each team. Misawa/Kawada vs. Williams/Gordy 7/24/91 World Tag Titles Gordy sells the left arm really early on after nothing has been done to it. Injury of some sort? The gaijin start out getting the better of it, giving Misawa a bloody nose and then going to work on Kawada's arm. Gordy gets kicked in the head before going to a reverse armbar so Kawada can't kick him. Williams doesn't learn from that and instead gets kicked in the head before finding a better place to be before Kawada's arm hurts enough to stop him from kicking. Misawa is scrappy here as he sends Williams to the floor after a few elbows and bounces his head off a table. Williams hits shoulders to the gut and tags back in the ring. Misawa and Gordy brawl back and forth before Gordy tags in Williams who hits a nice floatover suplex for 2. He tags Gordy in after a few big elbows to Misawa on the ground and Gordy hits a big legdrop. Misawa is in trouble, but comes back with elbows and tags in Kawada. They start working over that left arm of Gordy for a bit. Williams breaks up a submission by Kawada and gets tagged in, Kawada is on the defensive until he gets out of the way of a Williams corner shoulderblock. Misawa is tagged in and he brawls with Williams until Gordy comes in and hits him from behind. The crowd is unhappy, even moreso as Gordy sends Misawa to the floor just as he tags in Kawada. Kawada hits a nice lariat for a nearfall as Misawa is shown nursing his knee on the floor. Kawada takes some double teaming while Misawa gets back to the apron. Misawa gets tagged in and Williams immediately grabs a leg. Misawa elbows him off, then hits his flying lariat, then sells the leg. While Williams is working on the leg, Gordy drags Kawada off the pads and piledrives him. Misawa hits an enzuigiri on Williams and crawls to his corner, reaching for the tag. Too bad Kawada is still crawling on the floor after that piledriver. Williams goes back to work on the leg while Gordy throws Kawada into the crowd and hits him with a chair. Misawa finally gets the hot tag after countering a backdrop suplex with a crossbody. Kawada hits Gordy with a powerbomb, but only gets 2. That starts the finishing sequence, with a little bit of chaos thrown into the match by Williams/Gordy breaking the tag rules frequently. This was a really fun match, with Gordy/Williams getting the better of the young natives early on with a combination of power, technique and isolation. Misawa being scrappy and not backing down from either was fun, he's starting to really get confident. Misawa/Kawada turn it around for a short while, isolating Gordy and the (seemingly injured?) arm. The gaijin then step it up about 4 notches, especially Gordy. The floor piledriver was the kick into overdrive for this match. They try to keep Kawada or Misawa away from the action long enough to put the other away, but these are two tough people. In the end, it degenerates into a scramble for whatever advantage can be gained in order to get the 3. Really starting to enjoy this. The matches keep getting better and more intense as the confidence of Misawa/Kawada/Kobashi/Taue builds. They are not quite to a Jumbo level yet, but they are definitely finding their way.

I still see this tendency to make Triple H out to be the bad guy. Gotta say I don't get it and I will lay out my reasons why. I will admit, I am 99.9% in agreement that Trips is an asshole main eventer who refuses to put young talent over to the point of killing their push. His track record speaks very strongly to that. Having said that, IF Bryan gets put into a feud with Triple H and ends up getting his push killed as a result, it is only partially Hunter's fault. Going with the idea that there is a feud I'll go forward from there. IF Vince or anyone with the seniority in the company to have a say about it truly want Bryan to be a big deal, they would have already said something to Trips about the damaging promos and very likely told him to behave like a professional and put Bryan over. I would say this was especially true of Vince. Son-in-law or not, if Vince wants to see a guy pushed, he's not going to let anyone walk all over them whatever the reason. Also, Vince is a control freak. The WWE is so tightly controlled that it is hard to believe that nobody who makes booking decisions knows what happens to young guys who Triple H gets his hands on. I'd venture to say that it is common knowledge. Therefore, if they truly cared about any young wrestler breaking onto the main event scene and looking good, they would not put him up against Triple H until he was well-established enough that his credibility couldn't be damaged beyond all repair by the feud. So, by virtue of that, if Bryan is put into a feud with Triple H, Vince and the booking team in no way care if he does well. If I was feeling very generous I would call it a very strenuous test. They want to see if Bryan can come out of it at least as over as he was going in to determine his long-term ability to draw. Okay, I think I skimped on the amount of uses of the word "very" in front of generous. Look at some of the people that have already run into that buzzsaw. Jericho was never going to be a big WWE star. He didn't have the look they like in their "big names." Sure he could talk and was good enough in-ring. But they have a certain look they want from their main guys, and Jericho didn't make that cut. Punk was always just a way to draw in the indy/internet smark crowd. If I wanted to be overly cynical, I might say that Bryan is along those same lines. Booker T was getting pretty old by the time he got any heat in WWE. Add to that the fact that his wrestling style relied very heavily on his athleticism and it's pretty hard to see the WWE really seeing him being around for long. That seems like it may have just been a way to put Trips over without sacrificing anybody the front office cared about/had plans for. Sheamus I don't get. He's young, big, can pull off menacing and intense, as well as having some athleticism. Seems like a guy they could use as a big name heel/tweener or at the very least a "gatekeeper" type. Honestly, I can see Vince and the booking team actually using Hunter's natural tendencies to what they perceive as their advantage. Some guy they don't feel is main event material, for whatever reason, gets some momentum going, then they stick him in a program with Hunter. Problem solved, and you don't even have to ask the guy to be a dick about it and not put the other guy over. So in closing: Yes, HHH kills pushes. Is it his fault that a lot of people you or I would have liked to see get pushed more ended up getting thrown his way at just the right time? Very likely not. Just convenient for the WWE booking team they have a perfectly willing foil.

Why not do as a title: Crowds in Different Areas of the U.S. (or something along those lines) And then subtitle it: How They are Different (again, just a general theme)

So I finally read all the way through all the arguments for and against in this thread and there was a connection I Thought got missed. Vince McMahon was a great heel versus Steve Austin. He knew how to put Austin over really well while still threatening him in his promos. So I ask you this. Does Vince not watch his own product? Does he just sit back in his office collecting the money and not notice Triple H burying Bryan week after week? Seems to me Vince is way more hands on than that. Also, lets look at that whole issue of upper midcard or lower level main event guys having their pushes ruined by a program with Triple H. Again, does Vince not pay attention to these things and just continue to throw up-and-coming stars Triple H's way unsuspecting that they will get buried and come out confused as to why said up-and-comer is all of a sudden relegated back to midcard duty? I tend to doubt that. So at the very least, Vince is complicit in all of this happening by his apparent silence and lack of action. And depending on your willingness to throw crazy conspiracy theories out there, you could go a lot further in describing Vince's involvement in it. So as much as I'd like to just throw up my hands and say, "Damn that Triple H for being such a bastard and holding down all the young talent!" I can't. Vince is obviously at least okay with it, and it may be that idea that no one wrestler can be more important than "the brand." And maybe Triple H (this is stretching it right here, I'll admit that, but I have to considered the possibility) married into the role of push-killer.

Yeah, Kobashi looked like the obvious steroid guy in All Japan. Kawada just got thick, Misawa stayed lean and Taue always was tall and ungainly looking.

I went with Casas v. Blue Panther. Really liked the tease they did there.

Hansen vs. Misawa 7/27/90 A month and a half after his big Jumbo match, Misawa is rewarded by having to face Stan Hansen. Sounds like a pretty crappy reward. Misawa isn't taking any chances. He immediately lariats Hansen out of the ring and goes to work on him with the bullrope. He drops that and then starts in with a chair before heading back into the ring and really attacking Hansen's left arm. Misawa is so much better at limb work when he's not in the Tiger Mask costume, no idea why. He's working different holds, following Stan outside and not letting up for an instant on the arm even on the outside. Back in the ring, he's switching up holds and stomping, kicking, elbowing away at the arm. It's like a more focused-attack version of Jumbo vs. Hansen from '89. Hansen keeps trying to brawl his way out, but Misawa is tenacious. Hansen finally brawls his way out of the arm holds and starts punishing Misawa, but he eats a dropkick that ends him outside. Hansen is smart enough to avoid the dive, but Misawa sets him up for a frog splash nearfall inside the ring and hits an enzuigiri that has Stan bailing to the floor again. Misawa misses a dive completely, but Stan's chairshots whiff also as Misawa is smart enough to get the fuck out of Dodge and roll into the ring. Stan starts kicking the crap out of Misawa in the ring and gets a few near-falls, but Misawa ducks a lariat and hits a nice spinkick, following with a senton for a nearfall. Hansen tosses Misawa off the top, hits a mean shoulderblock and follows with the big lariat for the win. Really good match with Misawa showing a lot of presence of mind and fire all at the same time. He knows he's overmatched in a lot of ways, so he tries from the start to tilt things in his favor and keep them there. Hansen is just too much in the end, though, wily enough to avoid enough Misawa high risk stuff and with good enough offense to make up the difference. Misawa looked great in the loss, which, to me, was one of the purposes of the match. Edit: It later occurs to me that Hansen very much had the Misawa "extended comeback" offense going on in spades here. He would get in good shots between Misawa armwork, but Misawa would doggedly get back to it through strikes from Hansen. Hansen never panicked, just kept getting the shots he could in as he went. Misawa/Kawada/Kobashi vs. Tsuruta/Fuchi/Taue 10/19/90 Everybody has their familiar gear here, and Taue vs. Kobashi is heated and intense off the bat. Taue cheapshots Kawada off the apron in an eerily similar spot. The youngsters triple team Taue a bit, then we get the Misawa vs. Jumbo face-off you know the crowd was waiting for. Jumbo really puts over Misawa's elbows before going to work with body elbows of his own. Misawa is the first in a revolving door of mini young guy-in-peril segments that ends when they get a few shots in on Taue, tag, then start to get triple teamed by the more experienced team. Jumbo has a nice single leg crab on Kobashi, and younerg Fuchi has a pretty good dropkick. Taue vs. Kawada always gets a nice pop from the crowd. Taue reverses Kawada's slam on the un-padded floor spot and slams Kawada to start Kawada's mini turn as face in peril. Fuchi uses a nice single leg crab on Kawada. Kawada is animated in his comeback (of course on Taue), drags Taue out to the unpadded floor and suplexes him before kicking him in the back a few times. Kobashi saves Taue the trouble of noselling and rolls him back into the ring. Taue's back gets worked over by the young team, but he hits a nice DDT before selling his back and tagging to Jumbo. Jumbo lariats the crap out of Kobashi, but Kobashi kicks out with no help. Kobashi goes into the full FIP routine now (good casting, by the way) and there is one point where Fuchi is grabbing Kobashi's leg to keep him from crawling while casually tagging in Jumbo, very entertaining. Kobashi eats another lariat and kicks out. Kobashi comes back on...I bet you can't guess. Oh yeah, it's Taue. He tags to the best possible teammate in that situation, Kawada. Kawada and Taue beat the shit out of each other and I love it as much as the crowd does. Taue tags in Tsuruta, but Kawada is fired up and just starts elbowing him as if Taue had never left. Jumbo hits some knees, Kawada ducks a lariat and hits the sweetest running kneelkick of all time. Misawa is tagged in and immediately starts elbowing Jumbo. Jumbo fights back, but gets slammed and eats a Misawa elbow smash from the top as he stands. Jumbo again fights back and tags out, but Misawa DOES NOT CARE! He follows Jumbo out and starts brawling with him on the outside, but Taue (now the legal man) takes advantage of Misawa's distraction and hits a running plancha! Back in the ring, we start the short finishing sequence with Kobashi eating more big stuff from Jumbo and still kicking out! The finish is good and works with what came before it, but was in no way what the match was about. There were three main things going on here. Kawada and Taue have it out for one another. There's gonna be a lot of violence going down between those two. And the crowd loves every second of it. Kobashi will not stay down. He has the FIGHTING SPIRIT! In all reality, this match was his turn to shine taking on Jumbo's biggest bombs and surviving to reach the end of the match. And somehow relegated to third tier, Misawa vs. Jumbo. This match seemed to be about putting over the other 3 of the 4 Pillars, while Misawa and Jumbo teased the fans for their next singles match. Misawa vs. Kobashi 4/5/91 (handheld) First time seeing a Japanese handheld. Not bad quality. This starts out like a NJ juniors match, Kobashi quickly gets Misawa on the floor and does a splash from turnbuckle to a prone Misawa on the floor. Then they get back in the ring and trade armwork before Kobashi starts in on Misawa's neck and has control for a while. Misawa finally gets a few counters to work, hitting a backdrop and then a nice angled side slam that hit neck/shoulders first. Misawa misses a dive, lands on his feet, but is immediately DDTed on the floor by Kobashi. Kobashi hits an apron dropkick before we head back to the ring for a short finishing sequence that sees a Kobashi tiger suplex nearfall, and Kobashi kicking out of a tigerdriver. Misawa follows that with a more angled TD, not quite a '91, for the win. Kinda short, but it played almost like a NJ juniors match for most of it, minus the extended middle section and finishing run. Misawa again had the extended comeback, always finding ways to get a little offense in where he could so he was never out of it. Kobashi continued his display of fighting spirit in kicking out of the TD. So did these guys watch a lot of early NJ juniors stuff and incorporate it into their movesets early? I know Misawa was Tiger Mask, but Kobashi and Kawada really bring the juniors style offense when they are younger. They retain parts of it, but at least 75% of it disappears.

Tiger Mask 2/Kawada vs. Yatsu/Fuyuki 5/14/90 This is joined in progress with Yatsu headbutting TM2 in the corner. A lot. Kawada distracts Yatsu and TM2 kneelkicks him in the back of the head. Kawada unties the mask and, surprise of surprises, it's Misawa under there!! The crowd chants. Misawa hops to the floor and kicks the crap out of Yatsu and Fuyuki. Kawada joins in the fun. Kawada hits a nice missile dropkick back in the ring. Kawada hits a late 80s low lift powerbomb on Yatsu, who kicks out and sells it like death for 5 minutes or more. Fuyuki hits a nice spinkick on Miawa. Kawada and Misawa work decent together on teamwork stuff, Kawada with one of his sweet kneelkicks. Yatsu breaks up a nearfall, but he gets tagged in to eat a dropkick by misawa before...tagging right back out and never coming back into the match. Kawada hits a suplex to set up the frog splash for a nearfall. Misawa with the German for the win. Looked to me like Yatsu/Fuyuki were given the job of putting Misawa/Kawada over in the big reveal match and helping build Misawa up for the match that comes next. Neither Kawada nor Misawa was in any real danger of losing here. They both looked good coming out of the match, so it served it's purpose. Misawa vs. Tsuruta 6/8/90 Wow, the crowd is hot for this one. Misawa is in very familiar gear and has Kawada and Kobashi as seconds. Both Misawa and Jumbo get chants coming out. Jumbo has a very clear power advantage and is in no way bashful about showing it. Misawa has speed and elbows, but the speed is quickly shown as a double-edged sword as he runs into a big boot after a dropkick. Jumbo follows with a huge lariat for an early 2, making quite the statement in the process. Jumbo is in charge, but he tried the backdrop suplex too early and gets a Misawa crossbody as punishment for the mistake. Two count and Misawa is kicking Jumbo outside, hits an apron missile dropkick after faking him out. A running elbow sends Jumbo over the guard rail. Misawa elbows Jumbo off the apron and hits a running plancha. Misawa is really trying to press the advantage here, makes sense after eating that lariat. Misawa tries a front facelock to wear Jumbo down, but Jumbo is soon out and gets Misawa in a standing surfboard. Misawa reverses, then uses Jumbo's momentum to stop his reversal back into the original predicament. Jumbo reverses, Misawa hits a backwards dropkick and then puts on a hammerlock. Jumbo makes the ropes, but Misawa slaps him across the face on the break! Another slap and you can see Jumbo getting angry. Jumbo starts to beat Misawa down, puts on an abdominal stretch, but Misawa reverse. Jumbo powers out and tosses Misawa to the floor before whipping him into the rail. Misawa makes a comeback, hits a missile dropkick for 2 and follows with a gutwrench suplex. After a slam, Misawa goes up top for a frog splash nearfall. Jumbo catches Misawa mid cross-body and drops him throat-first across the ropes for a nearfall. The speed again proves to be a double-edged sword. Jumbo hits a series of nasty stuff for nearfalls. Jumbo takes off the kneepad after climbing the ropes! Misawa cuts him off, but Jumbo just knees him in the face as he's climbing, knees him again as he gets up and slams him before climbing again. Misawa gets to the top with Jumbo this time, but ends up back on the mat, and stans up into a padless top rope jump knee for a big nearfall! Jumbo hits a MASSIVE powerbomb for a nearfall that the crowd eats up. Misawa finesses out of a double arm suplex with a backslide for 2. Misawa hits a big elbow to keep Jumbo down, Jumbo rolls to the floor and eats a sweet top rope plancha halfway across the ring from Misawa! They extend this already good finishing rush with a series of counter sequences and big move teases, Jumbo hitting some seriously vicious lariats, and increasingly loud pops for a Misawa German and Tigerdriver attempt (which goes nowhere). This was an amazing match with incredible heat and really well-done all-around. Jumbo as the powerhouse who refuses to let the youngster get the better of him is great. Misawa as the upstart speedster who just won't stay down and capitalizes on every mistake as fully as he can is spot on. The ratcheting up of the intensity by both as the match went on works so well. Misawa and Jumbo both show disbelief after the finish, which makes perfect sense. I can see where Misawa was a made man after this match, as he endures a beating and a half from Jumbo to squeak out a win. Kobashi vs. Kawada 6/30/90 Kawada has kick pads now. And he has more of the later core Kawada style going on here. Both guys got streamers before the match, that was cool. Kobashi hits a lefty lariat early. Kawada misses a plancha and Kobashi kneelkicks him over the guardrail. Kobashi dropkicks Kawada off the apron and hits a big plancha. Kobashi is working over Kawada's neck back in the ring, Kawada tries different counters but none of them stick. Kawada starts slapping Kobashi in the corner and they brawl to the mat, where they brawl some more. It goes to the corner, where Kawada hits his second rope head kick on Kobashi. Kawada steps on Kobashi's head to get a sharpshooter, then kicks him outside off the rope break. He drags Kobashi over to the gym floor outside the railing and bodyslams him out there. They brawl a bit more in the ring and Kawada misses a second rope knee drop as Kobashi moves. Kobashi blocks a kneelkick and goes into his sweet cloverleaf. Kobashi again works over the leg, his single leg crabs are really nice. Kawada turns over a figure four, but Kobashi goes right back into the leg work with a stretch muffler after a rope break. Kawada hits an enzuigiri coming off the ground, then a nice abisegiri before selling the leg a bit. Then he forgets about it for a while, as he hits a nice lariat for 2. A little rope-running leads to Kobashi backdropping Kawada to the floor and kawada going facefirst into the rail. Ouch. Another Kobashi plancha follows, and Kobashi hits a gutwrench powerbomb in the ring for a near-fall. Kawada is back to selling the leg, floats over on a suplex and gets a bodyscissors sleeper that forces Kobashi to the ropes. Kobashi goes outside and Kawada hits a springboard tope con hilo. That was unexpected and nice. Kawada is moving a bit slow in the ring after that, may be leg selling. Kobashi counters out of powerbombs a few different ways. They do a nice run to the finish with a Kawada crucifix roll-up in there somewhere. Some good counters, especially in the intricate finish counter sequence. Again, it was kinda juniory, but less spotty than a year earlier. Kobashi's leg work was a treat in both matches.

Toshiaki Kawada vs. Kenta Kobashi 7/01/89 Kawada's gear is just weird pre-black and gold. Both these guys are pretty good on the juniors style rope-running and slick transtitions from standing to the mat. Kobashi starts picking apart Kawada's leg early. He has a really good legdrop from the start it looks like. Kawada gives the match a sense of struggle when working from below, always trying to find a way to kick at Kobashi during the submissions. Kobashi is really good at switching up submissions and stomping the leg in between transitions. Kawada gets to his feet and completely no-sells the leg, kicking Kobashi a few times with no visible effects before Kobashi grabs a kick and goes right back to work on the leg. Kawada gets back in control, in no way sells the leg again (having a hard time believing it myself), hits a nice plancha on Kobashi. They run a NJ juniors-esque finishing sequence featuring stuff that you almost have to see to believe. Kawada uses a bow & arrow hold, hits a massive standing senton, and a fisherman's suplex on Kobashi. Kobashi uses a blockbuster hold and German with seriously amazing bridges. Kawada rolls through a Kobashi second rope twisting cross-body that came off a Kawada corner whip somewhere in there. Kawada hits a nasty lariat and follows with a dragon suplex for the win. You can see that these two are very good at the in-ring stuff physically at this point. Almost everything is well-executed with a lot of things you don't see from them later on. They are missing some big elements of what made their later work great at this point though. A lot of what they did seemed to just be almost spot-fu towards the end. Tiger Mask 2 vs. Kenta Kobashi 3/6/90 Kobashi hits some seriously awesome armdrags early on. He is in control early, but Misawa hits this really sweet lucha-style second rope backwards jumping headbutt. Kobashi falls waaaay too early on a Misawa shoulder neckbreaker. Misawa works over the neck some, Kobashi hits some nice Kawada-esque corner kicks before Misawa hits a crossbody and works the neck some more. Misawa's matwork is really not that great. He just puts the hold on and...leaves it there. That is really highlighted by what happened in the previous match and later in this one. Kobashi has a nice kneelkick. Kobashi gets control and works over Misawa's leg on the mat with a variety of holds and kicks. Kobashi is really, really great and dynamic on the mat. It's a shame that the style moved away from mat stuff because Kobashi was awesome at it. Kobashi sends Misawa to the floor and hits a massive plancha from the top turnbuckle. Kobashi goes back to the legwork in the ring and puts on a cloverleaf that makes Dean Malenko's look second rate. They fight over a Kobashi figure four (Misawa holding the leg up0, but Kobashi gets it anyway. Misawa is even a little lacking working from below on the mat. He doesn't do enough once the hold is on. Misawa hits a nice running plancha off his over the ropes fake, then sells the leg outside and in the ring. Kobashi gets back in control and hits a sweet backdrop suplex for a nearfall. He follows with a Canadian backbreaker and drops Misawa down off of that to set up a big moonsault nearfall. Misawa hits a German with a nice bridge after some back switches for a nearfall. At this point the leg is forgotten. Kobashi backdrops a TD attempt, but is stifled by Misawa dropkicking him in the hamstring on a missile dropkick attempt (which looked nasty). Misawa counters a backdrop suplex with a crossbody for a near-fall, follows with a Tigerdriver for the 3. This was again, shades of things to come. Both had some really nice moments, but the match played away from Misawa's strengths by being so mat-based. The finishing sequence was nice, but Misawa needed a little more of it I thought. The methodical, never-say-die Misawa comeback was here in very early form. Both of these matches are examples, to me, of 3 great workers cutting their teeth. The quality of the work is really good, but it's not up to the huge standards they later set for themselves. I really enjoy getting to see some of the stuff (some of it really, really awesome stuff that any pro wrestler would be happy to have in their arsenal) that ended up on the cutting room floor in the long run.

Big thank you to fxnj for the tip. Loved the two Baba matches! Giant Baba vs. Bruno Sammartino 7/3/67 2/3 Falls First 20 minutes of the match or so is all weardown holds and none of it is boring or lacks meaning. Baba is clearly in charge from the get-go working his finesse armwork. Sammartino has some offense here, but baba's counters are more effective and he ends up really dominating the opening minutes. Bruno tends to have less graceful counters than a (surprisingly) agile and smooth Baba. Bruno starts to turn things around when he goes to the power wear-down submissions, holding onto a full nelson for a while before returning to the standing armbar/hammerlock, short arm scissors stuff Baba has been doing. This time, though, Bruno has him worn down enough to make a lot more stick and really starts pulling ahead. Baba gets a sudden rush of energy, and backdrops Bruno off of the ropes, with Bruno making a late grab at Baba's head and missing. Baba hits a big chop, drops a knee and takes fall 1. Baba has really surprising quickness for a guy his size, he's very entertaining to watch when he's younger. He goes right back to the arm, but Bruno turns that around and really starts grinding Baba down with some painful looking armwork. Baba looks to be in real trouble before he struggles to his feet and turns the armlock into a side headlock that gets a massive pop. They work the same sequence, but with Bruno putting him back on the ground, Baba coming back up and Bruno really fighting before baba can get the headlock. Great stuff there. Baba looks like he may be able to put it away with another rush on Bruno, but a second slam is countered with a nice cross-body. Baba is struggling to kick out, but it looks like all that arm work paid off as Bruno holds him down for the 3 and takes fall 2. We star fall 3 out with brawling, as Bruno is hitting closed fists and knees with baba backed against the ropes. Baba is all smiles when it breaks and starts brawling right back. Love how Baba does that. I really wish that at some point when those photographers are sticking their cameras right into the ring to get a shot, they would get it elbowed out of their hand and broken. Leave the ring to the wrestlers. There is a great double shoulderblock spot, standing 10 count with some kneeling strikes exchanged. Bruno starts stomping on baba's throat, standing on it and choking him with his knee on the ropes. Baba gets a little more vicious with his strikes in return. Bruno is working a bearhug, but Baba chops the top of his head out of it a few times. Sammartino switches it up and keeps his head under baba's arm, which has him eating knees instead. Then he goes back to the other way and baba goes right back to the chop. Meanwhile, they keep getting a little more chippy with the strikes, Bruno leading the way. Baba hits an open hand to the throat, which Bruno sells perfectly. Baba finally has to go to the ropes on a bearhug and Bruno is smelling blood. Baba is backed against the ropes and taking a beating again, but smiles and comes right back. Bruno tries a bearhug on the ground, Baba chops out and we have the bell as time expires. They shake hands after. So many things about this were awesome. The way it slowly builds up, always ramping up a little bit even if the same move/strike/hold is used is amazing and something that came into play in future matches for sure. The way they were using simple things, but went out of their way to make them look as mean and hurtful as possible was great. Baba starting out as the clear favorite and Sammartino finding a way to make himself a threat, then forcing Baba to bring his heavy hitting stuff to even things back up was incredible. The really good "sense of struggle" stuff from the 70s wrestling was here in spades too. I liked how it wasn't just "go to the ropes" when in trouble, but you were expected to try to work your way out of the hold into your offense for the most part. I am starting to think that some things got lost in the transition from young Baba to early Jumbo and had to be put back into the style. I've read about Hiroshi Hase coming over affecting Tenryu's style a lot, and I've seen the effect Hansen had on Jumbo's in-ring work. I'm starting to wonder if Baba didn't bring those two (and probably Gordy as well) in to teach his big name guys a little about the old school rugged brawling/matwork style (that Baba himself used to do so well) in order to book a match like Tenryu vs. Tsuruta. It wouldn't in any way surprise me. Giant Baba vs. Billy Robinson 7/24/76 2/3 Falls Baba is again working strong with his weardown holds in this one. Robinson settles for kicking Baba in the leg, knowing he's losing the battle on the mat. Robinson wants a gutwrench suplex, but Baba won't give it up. Robinson with some nice leg work before Baba hits a big boot and a backdrop suplex for fall 1. Baba's strikes look good, his open hand straight to the collarbone/throat is vicious looking. Robinson comes back with some big running elbows. Robinson starts working over Baba's leg again, then tries setting him up for a double-arm suplex, but Baba fights it off. Robinson isn't giving up on that suplex, but Baba just won't have it. Robinson goes back to the leg and takes fall 2 with a single leg crab. Robinson goes right back to the injured leg. Baba is threatening with overhead chops to keep Robinson off the leg, but Robinson is ready for them and tenacious on getting to the leg. Robinson is trying to go back to that single leg crab, but Baba won't let him have it and kicks him in the face, sending him to the floor. baba and Robinson brawl, Robinson for the first time with closed fists. Baba hits chops and those mean throat slaps. Robinson sets Baba's leg on the middle rope and runs into it, sending both outside. Baba tries another backdrop suplex, but Robinson kicks off the turnbuckle (I've seen that somewhere before, oh the Tenryu vs. Jumbo match) to counter. Robinson hits a sweet backdrop suplex pickup to backbreaker for a big near-fall. Robinson is looking in charge again, but Baba catches him off the ropes with a running neckbreaker drop for 3! Another awesome match, and you see some more aspects of the later AJPW style. Baba looks to be pretty in charge for 80% plus of this match, with Robinson doing great work from below. Even when Robinson is working on him, Baba always seems to be looking for his openings pretty calmly and finding them before he's in too much trouble. This is something Misawa really took and ran with. Where Jumbo was really more of a "get fired up" guy, who would have massive, impactful comebacks, Baba and Misawa worked them as gradual, never panicking or getting too excited. The sense of struggle was also a big part of this match, which I think is something that is missing from a lot of current wrestling. The way striking and rope-running was used as transitions and teases here was also a big part of later All Japan stuff.

Still have to watch Panther v. Casas and find the full WWE matches. The Mascara/Rush/Titan v. Terrible/Vangelis Virus stands out so far. I liked the "big man" stuff with Titan in caida 1 when the rudos had to double and triple team to keep him down. The sudden surge to finish caida 2 was nice, and then the Titan v. Terrible stuff in caida 3 was excellent. Some good dives, and the rudos did really good work I thought. Hoping Panther vs. Casas approaches this kind of goodness.

Hijo del Santo, Casas, Blue Panther, Felino, Mr. Niebla, Octagon were all major guys in the 90s. Haven't watched any current lucha besides these TV matches, so I can't say who is really big now. Black Warrior, Shocker, Guerreros del Infierno, Dr. Wagner, don't remember if I liked Psicosis after he lost the mask, those are who I can come up with off the top of my head as far as what I watched.

For one, in tag matches, whenever somebody ends up leaving the ring, another member of their team is "automatically" tagged in. So there doesn't have to be a tag for the legal man to change (and they are pretty lenient about double/triple teams). Also, each team has a captain, if you pin/submit the captain, you win the fall. If you pin/submit the other two in a trios, you win the fall. Lucha spots usually have a lot of cooperation. It's something you have to get used to or just not watch lucha really. The in between falls stuff is supposed to be recovery time, but the bad guys in lucha, much like the bad guys everywhere, cheat. Since it's not technically time that counts, I doubt the ref can do much besides yell at the rudos for their prickishness or physically pull them off. Lucha selling can be odd. Hell, everything about lucha has a chance of being just a little strange. They have dance spots where the heel is confused by the face dancing, sometimes multiple heels at once. Every style has idiosyncrasies that you have to get used to or get over or just not like watching the style. Try to keep in mind that lucha striking is (usually) very not stiff and in fact often stops short of hitting. There are lots of roll-ups and weird submissions it would be hard to do to somebody actively trying to stop you from doing it. But if you can suspend disbelief, the really good luchadores are a joy to watch. If you want to see more hard-hitting lucha, find a mask vs. mask/hair vs. hair/mask vs. hair match. Those usually become bloody brawls. The women are just a bonus, man. They are essentially like UFC ring girls who escort the wrestlers to the ring in addition to holding up cards. Find some Casas vs. Santo (the mask vs. hair match is awesome), or any work by either, some older Blue Panther, and if you want to see the goofier yet badass side of things Felino is good. Dr. Wagner, Jr. is an awesome ass-kicker rudo (heel) who can do comedy and make the tecnicos (faces) look awesome.

This is easily my favorite wrestling style of all, based on the maybe 20-25 matches I have seen between guys like Misawa, Kawada, Kobashi, Taue, Williams, Gordy and Hansen. I decided I would go back and watch, in chronological order, how this progressed from late 80s onward. Also, lately I've been noticing that when I take notes and write about the matches after, I tend to pick up on a lot more stuff. Not to mention that other people far more knowledgable than I can point out some things I miss. So here goes. Tenryu/Kawada vs. Hansen/Gordy 12/16/88 Kawada's tights are...zubaz, wow. Kawada is so far over his head here against the two big gaijin. Also, he's all junior-y and flippy. It's strange to watch but fun. Kawada has to work his way clear of a double gaijin beatdown, and Tenryu comes in feisty, throwing big, stiff chops. Kawada hits a nice lariat and Kawada/Tenryu hit a nifty enzuigiri/kneelkick combo. Kawada doesn't get a ton off offense, but it comes in flurries between the beatings. Hansen lariats Tenryu off the apron into the crowd and then Hansen/Gordy get to work. They take out Kawada's knee and start double teaming Tenryu for quite a few near-falls. Kawada keeps trying to grab whoever is on the apron, but gets kicked into the rail every time. And then the gaijin on the apron will get a "what are you still doing here?" look on his face before jumping down and shredding Kawada's knee again. Hansen tosses a chair at Kawada right as Gordy hits that late 80s really low lift powerbomb he used to finish. Kawada mans up and sprints into the ring for the save, which earns him more beating from Hansen. Gordy gets caught with a Tenryu inside cradle for 2, but Tenryu can't get any momentum going off of it. Tenryu puts a submission on Hansen in the ring just in time to keep Gordy from attacking Kawada outside, but this just means Tenryu is at the mercy of the 2 big gaijin for a bit more. Gordy finally really gets tired of Kawada's refusal to quit coming back and drapes his leg over the guard rail to finish it off. Tenryu hits some nice chops on Hansen, but Gordy hits a massive lariat to cover his partner. Tenryu catches fire and fights off both before landing his back elbow off the top turnbuckle, but Gordy breaks that cover up as well. Tenryu uses a very similar powerbomb to Gordy's on Hansen, but Gordy hits his own powerbomb after breaking it up, setting up the LARIATOOOOO for the win. This is an awesome match and I see where it had some influence on a later tag match. Hansen vs. Jumbo 4/16/89 Jumbo immediately starts brawling with Hansen and it seems like he surprises him with the willingness to brawl and the intensity. Much stiffer chops than Jumbo had been throwing even a month before. Jumbo takes it outside after Stan and grabs a chair, beating Hansen to that particular punch. Jumbo slams Stan, crouches down and starts hitting him. Jumbo is just mercilessly beating Hansen a la...Hansen. Hansen makes a small comeback and tries a piledriver, which sees him dumped on his back and eating more elbows from Jumbo in pseudo-mount. More brawling and Jumbo puts on an abdominal stretch, the 3rd wrestling move besides pinfalls in the match. Jumbo rolls to the floor following a lariat by Hansen and kicks out after being rolled back in. Stan with the 4th and final wrestling move of the match, a bodyslam, then gets in pseudo-mount and starts hammering away with punches. Hansen beats on jumbo a bit, they spill to the floor a few times, Hansen and Jumbo both use chairs. Jumbo gets booed a few times, once while choking a downed Hansen with a chair on the outside. Could have been "DOOOOOOOO" I guess, but it seemed like boos. Jumbo hits some Hansen-esque elbow drops and again they go to the floor. Hansen is up against the post and eating stiff elbows, Jumbo gives the Hansen lariat signal (but with his right) and lariats the post. They brawl into the crowd, nobody is bothering to listen to the ref at all, just punching and kicking each other over and over again. Draw is called but they keep throwing whatever will reach, Gordy and Yatsu have to come out and peel them off of each other. This to me had a lot of significance. Up to this point, Jumbo had tried to use a lot of technique and outwrestle Stan's brawling. Here, he had just had enough and was going to prove to Hansen that two could play that game. This is something I think became a big part of the AJPW style, the giving back what you get. Also, the stiffness was cranked up a few notches and there is a match that I think was heavily based off of this one later on. Jumbo vs. Tenryu 6/15/89 We start out brawling, Jumbo tries the jumping high knee, but Tenryu sidesteps and hits a German for a quick 2. Jumbo starts working in the weardown holds on Tenryu's neck, getting booed in the process. Tenryu turns things around with some chops, follows Jumbo to the floor with a cartwheel to the apron and a running apron dive!! Young, agile Tenryu is fun. Tenryu works a leg submission, alternately using Jumbo's other leg to roll him onto his shoulders and punching Jumboo right in the knee. Tenryu's chops and Jumbo's elbows are mean, and they both elbow the crap out of each other on the ground. Jumbo works a cobra clutch at least twice, I think 3 times as a weardown hold, once bending Tenryu over his knee to add to it. Tenryu powers out of a powerbomb attempt, but can't keep control as Jumbo continues beating the crap out of him. Jumbo puts on an abdominal stretch and gets booed...again. Jumbo working heel is odd, but it totally works. Jumbo starts laying a massive beatdown on Tenryu, building up the big near-falls (for the time). Tenryu gets a roll-up and reverses a backdrop by kicking off the turnbuckle and driving Jumbo down in this stretch, but it barely slows Jumbo down. Jumbo finally hits the backdrop for a massive near-fall the crowd eats up. This is partially because Tenryu kicked out at the very last possible moment. Tenryu gets another comeback attempt cut off, but it's not long before he hits the powerbomb after a short struggle for a nuclear crowd-reaction near-fall. Tenryu's not done yet, gets Jumbo up for a second powerbomb that gets the 3. Wow, yeah, so many things here that were built on for future singles matches. The strike exchanges, the fights over big moves, the way strikes became far more important to the story being told in relation to submissions, all of these things and the uses of them were really established here. The pacing of the match seemed pretty similar as well, if not the heavy use of submissions early. The buildup to the big moves and the way you could see that Jumbo was clearly in charge of things (a la Misawa in the 90s) through the way the match moved forward was good. Tenryu finding chinks in the armor in order to get to his offense (but just as often getting cut off) was something that seems pretty similar as well. Really amazing match that was far ahead of it's time.

We all have styles we don't get/care for. For me, I just try to mix those matches in with stuff I'll know I like if it comes down to watching them. And I try to see what the style is going for (as well as if the workers are accomplishing that). Doesn't always work. Hell, it only really works if I watch some stuff I know I am going to like beforehand.

Current WWE seems slightly different than 3-4 years ago. Maybe it's just that wrestlers in general are more athletic, but it seems like a lot more of the WWE guys have a good amount of athleticism than a lot of the people they had in the past. Or maybe Vince felt they needed to move in that direction, can't tell.

Liger is THE face junior, yes. But if you recall his early-mid 90s work, he had a fairly big vicious streak. Whenever Koji or Ohtani would start slapping Liger around, he would get all fired up and do heel shit right back at em, just maybe a little harder. So it's not hard at all to see him as a heel. 4 more down, having a lot of fun watching these. Tenryu/Fuchi vs. Kawada/Araya 6/30/01 Araya looks to be the guy in line for a serious ass-kicking here. Kawada and Fuchi have a brilliant exchange where Fuchi goes to work on an arm, so Kawada gets to the ropes then gives it right back to Fuchi by going to the arm. After the break, Kawada kicks Fuchi in the stomach, only to walk into a Fuchi kick to the stomach after a pause. Fuchi tags out to Tenryu on that (really well-done) note. Kawada starts to work an arm on Tenryu before they realize that this is Kawada vs. Tenryu and just start hitting each other. Kawada tags out to Araya, who hits a corner lariat then walks into a Tenryu right that busts him open. Tenryu and Fuchi work over Araya in awesome, dickish, grumpy 50-year old man TAG TEAM style. How these two didn't spend at least 5 years touring Japan as the Grumpy Old Ass-Beaters I don't know. Fuchi has some really nice Regal-esque matwork at some point in the match where he does a drop toe hold and just starts rubbing his elbow into the side of Araya's head, then back elbows him a few times. Glorious stuff. Kawada gets a pretty mild hot tag, due to Araya not being in jeopardy near long enough and Fuchi sells his ass off for Kawada. Fuchi finally gets a little offense in and tags out to Tenryu, and Kawada is not one to be slighted in the selling department. The winner in the Fuchi vs. Kawada sell-off: anyone watching. Later on, Araya does this nice spot where he runs into a massive Tenryu lariat after hitting some elbows and tries to "fighting spirit" his way up before...falling on his face. Well done there. This was on the way to a very good finish, with a bit of apron goading, followed by the payback. After the payback, we get a little table-setting action to bring the match home. This match will probably be in my top 30 or just outside. Loved what was here, but it was way too short. Give it ten more minutes to draw out the Araya beatings and let Tenryu and Fuchi alternate stretching and beating the shit out of him with some hope spots AND a few hot near-falls, and this is easily top 15. I can't stress enough how awesome Fuchi/Tenryu is. NJ vs. Osaka Pro 6 man We got some heat going on here, Liger is all fired up even before he hits the ring. He goes right at Murahama (whips him with his cape even) and talks some shit to Delfin before again menacing Murahama. Murahama takes a shot at Liger just after the opening bell while circling with Tanaka. Tanaka and Murahama have an awesome exchange, really need to watch their singles match now. I like how we went with less than full formula here. No meaningless NJ matwork, but we got the tags that showcase wrestler A vs. D, B vs. E, C vs. F to start off. I can live with that. This breaks down into some control segment stuff, with some weird pauses (I understand, cross promotional stuff has some unfamiliarity to it). Finally, a series of dives onto Liger (Murahama's is a must-see) leads us to the finishing sequence. Makabe's German's are freaking awesome. Nice spear, and his powerslam is good, but not DiBiase level good. needs more snap at the end. Some smart armwork by Murahama on Liger (left arm, kill the shotei) starts it off. They do some really smart break-ups on the near-falls (the wrestler breaking up the finish has similar finishers in a few cases), but the finishing sequence wasn't long enough for me. I liked it, probably the best juniors match I have seen on this list so far. Tamura vs. Ito U-Style This was really good, I always liked Tamura vs. Han and this actually came close to rivaling that for me. I liked the dueling submission focus, with Ito attacking an arm and Tamura going for a leg. There was one point where Ito started going after Tamura's leg, but Tamura was all over that shit and turned it around fast on him. All those fights with Volk made Tamura pretty good at countering legwork I guess. Finish was great with Tamura's persistence and focus (both on his attacks and submissions) paying off. I have this below the Tenryu/Fuchi match somewhere. Tanahashi vs. Nagata 4/13/07 Will start off by saying I really have a bias against New Japan Big Main Event (should I put a trademark here?) style matches. Nagata is a New Japan guy I can 3/4 like. I like his wrestling style minus the goofy pose before he kicks a guy in the chest on the ground. I like his fire and he seems like he's willing to sell even for weak Tanahashi strikes. Now to the match. Okay, early match Tanahashi is a mix of things I think are fine and things I hate. WHY the fuck does he always go collar-and-elbow or knuckle lock with guys who have a substantial weight advantage. Also, why does he do a hiptoss/headlock takedown on Nagata of all people? The last place Tanahashi wants to be with Nagata is the mat. But then, the other half of the time, he is scrambling his ass off to get off the mat when taken down and trying to use his speed to get ahead rather than playing to his obvious weakness. It's just such a crazy mix of back and forth smart and stupid wrestling. I can deal with that as the middle of the match is actually pretty damn solid. Nagata is beating the shit out of Tanahashi, Tanhashi tries some elbows and slaps to come back, but Nagata isn't having it. Tanahashi turns things around and his legwork makes a lot of sense here. Nagata has been kneeing and kicking Tanahashi's scrawny ass all over the ring for five minutes, so it's probably a good idea to at least take a little sting off of that. And he does it with a minimum of matwork, which also makes sense. Is it just me, or does he do a little Mutoh homage act with all the dragon screws and using the figure four? Add a low dropkick and he's got a big portion of Mutoh's leg work. We work our way into the hot finishing sequence wiith some of Tanahashi's smaller big moves, but Nagata has other ideas. Momentum swings back the other way and Tanahashi hits that weird spinning running neckbreaker drop deal he does a few times. I'm mixed on that move. It actually doesn't look as contrived as it ought to, which has a lot to do with how smooth Tanahashi does it. It also, unfortunately, looks pretty weak most of the time. Anyway, Tanahashi sets up his frog splash with a dragon suplex, which makes absolutely no sense when Nagata gets the knees up. I understand off of a bodyslam or something similar, but a Dragon suplex? Nagata has been off and on selling the leg, not terrible at all though. Finish is pretty good, and the leg work figures into more than a few things in the finishing run. That makes 2/3 of a really good wrestling match, and I can accept the last 2/3 of the match building nicely to the finish even if the first 1/3 was mostly miss. I'd rank this right about where the Tamura vs. Ito match is. Hoping some of the other Tanahashi matches avoid a lot of the pitfalls of Tanahashi vs. Nakamura 2006 (which in my mind should have had a similar mid-match run to this one).

I can't wait til the Blue Panther v. Casas singles match. I know that won't be on TV, but once it makes it's way to some kind of comp I'll be finding a seller.

Three more down. Hashimoto/Iizuka vs. Ogawa/Murakami was a fucking barnburner! The booking was spot on, as was the work. Hashimoto got a MASSIVE reaction coming out and didn't disappoint at all. Not gonna say too much on this one for those who haven't seen it, but it is well worth a watch. I rank this one pretty high, probably top 20 by the end. KENTA/Ishimori vs. Hulk/Shingo was a fun juniors tag. KENTA and Ishimori work over Hulk for quite a while after the opening sequence, with Hulk's lip busted open when he finally gets the tag. Shingo seems like a good powerhouse junior and has a sweet lariat. Ishimori seems hit and miss, he can be really slick, but some of his late match offense is really contrived. Hulk didn't do a whole lot besides bump around for the middle of the match, but I have a suspicion that may be his actual job description within that tag team. Hulk and Ishimori hit some awesome dives in this. One of my favorite spots early involves Shingo taking a swing at KENTA (who is rope-running over a downed Hulk) and KENTA giving Shingo the business end of his boot on the return trip. Shingo repaying KENTA later on the outside is pretty nice. The finishing run is mostly good, can't say I liked a few of Ishimori's big moves and his counter sequence with Hulk was way overdone. KENTA takes a bit too much of a beating to kick out of a few things to me, but overall a fun match. Kobashi vs. Taue. Yeah, that's my number one for right now. The bad: Kobashi needs to lose that stupid hood he can't see out of prematch. That's about it for me. Taue's chest has these sick welts by 10-15 minutes in that hurt me watching. Kobashi is pretty damn good at chaining holds together on the mat. Taue having to try multiple times to escape the abdominal stretch was nice, especially when he finally did and revisited old times with Kobashi for a while. Both blew me away with their dives. Taue was awesome here. Kobashi was almost as good. The head drops that were there were well-placed. Not one was wasted, even if I found it more than a little amusing and sad that the half nelson got a decent pop but nobody was counting along or surprised at all on the kickout. I guess that would be the other bad part, even if it isn't really a fault in this particular match. Finish was great, can't believe these two are still working at this level in 2004.

So while I was going over some unrelated stuff in my head, I recalled my biggest gripe with modern puro. There are too many damn strike exchanges. I love the majority of 90s All Japan I have seen. Maybe it's just that I've only been exposed to the better workers who knew how to keep their egos and their in-ring stuff in check so they didn't go way too long exchanging elbows and slaps. Anyway, most post-2000 puro I have seen, regardless of if the workers involved could pull off the strike exchanges well, involves at least one. Hell, KENTA vs. Sugiura from 2013 seemed like a 20+ minute strike exchange with a few wrestling moves thrown in for good measure. I always thought it functioned best as a transition or a tease of one. But this was in matches between workers who were known for their stiff strikes and smart use of them. I suppose once it ends up becoming a staple of the majority of Japanese wrestling styles, you get a lot of workers who just don't understand how to use the strike exchange to move the match forward, not just for the sake of having one.

After my first Tanahashi match I had to come see how others reacted to his work. I'm not too far off of OJ and Nintendo's basic idea. He's not as great as all the hype, but neither is he awful. The hot finishing sequence after uninspired early match work was one of the reasons I ended up going away from NJ juniors matches in the first place. It's not that I won't watch that kind of thing, I just find that after a while it all tends to run together for me. The argument that a lot of current puro is overdone on the no-selling of head drops and the overdone "fighting spirit" is one I totally agree with. I think it is almost a requirement now that there is at least one strike exchange in every match. To me that is overkill. Let the workers who are *good* at the stiff striking do that, and if you get a guy like Tanahashi who is clearly not, don't force him into that.

Hit 3 more today. Kawada vs. Vader in 2000 seemed kinda rushed, but I'm used to Kawada going quite a bit longer than 15 minutes. Good match, though. Kawada using the Vader hammers to beat Vader down early was awesome. Vader, of course, gets his revenge before we're done. Kawada's backdrop got way flatter on Vader, but I understand. Vader isn't moving great here, and he seems like he gets tired really fast. Brutal match nonetheless. Vader's powerbomb was lackluster, but the following backdrop made up for it. I liked the finish, good way to cap a match like that. The two Takayama vs. Kobashi matches were an interesting watch. The first one Takayama was either not as sharp as the second or he just wasn't as good, don't know which having only seen those matches he's been in. I did like the strategy he took in both, going after Kobashi's right arm to slow down his striking game and take away the lariat's effectiveness. I was really hoping that Takayama would have some kind of countermove or just deadweight himself or grab the railing or SOMETHING on the floor DDT in the second. Some way of building off of the fact that Kobashi was using the same spot at a pretty similar time in the match would have been really nice there. The crowd was clearly a lot more worried about Takayama beating Kobashi the second time around, which I did like a lot. Takayama's Irish whips seemed kinda lazy to me, like Kobashi had to visibly speed himself up to get any kind of momentum going into the ropes or the guard rail. I also thought that the second time around Kobashi could have taken a page from Takayama's book and worked over the right leg early. Would have made for an interesting duel of who could neutralize the other's big offensive weapons better. Still, I did enjoy the match a lot, even if I am not a huge fan of the way the wrestling style evolved in NOAH.

Cena v. Sandow was surprisingly good. Not the biggest Cena fan, but that match had a lot of good things stuffed into what seemed like less than 8 minutes of televised ring time. As much as I don't care for the current WWE style, I really like how this match was worked. Cena putting Sandow over like he did was pretty cool. The TCW juniors match was the first I've seen of that style. Seems like Japanese juniors mixed with some All Japan style head drops in an American counter-culture atmosphere. The match itself had it's interesting points and was definitely worth seeing. Americos needs to work on his elbows, that weird, looping windup is too damn goofy for me. A few spots actually looked like they came out more dangerous than they were supposed to. Fun match, but can't say I want to see a lot of that style. Had to go with the trios. Current lucha looks quite a bit different than circa 2000 lucha. The Puma/Tiger double teaming was not bad, but I have this feeling it would wear on me (a la CRAZY MAX in Toryumon if you watched multiple matches in too small a time frame). Casas & crew were fun after the second caida. The last fall was sweet with the double dives and the awesome (and completely sensible given who it was) finish.

I would guess so. So many things wrong with it that it gets hard to watch at points.